Unbelievable Facts: Man's best friend not necessarily a dog

Short Unbelievable Facts - Did you know?

A Water Strider can stand on water surface and its legs are designed to support up to 15 times its body weight. But a single mosquito leg alone can support 23 times the mosquito's body weight.

You can actually send mail to Santa Claus. Just write it to Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0 CANADA. H0H 0H0 is a reserved postal code for Santa. Every year, approximately 13,000 volunteers known as Postal Elves helped Santa to reply to these letters in 16 languages and Braille. Santa can also receive email through a special website at www.canadapost.ca/santascorner

The adult stage of a dragonfly can last up to 4 months, but at larval stage they spent as long as 5 years beneath the water's surface, using internal gills to breathe. Around the world, they possessed unique names like mosquito hawks, devil's needle, devil's horse, horse killer, ear cutter, snake doctor.

On June 6, 2007, Persil, the first self-acting laundry detergent, celebrated its 100th anniversary. The detergent was launched on June 6, 1907, and was given the name Persil. The name derived from the two most important chemical raw materials in the product, PERborate and SILicate.

Frogs cannot vomit. If they swallow something toxic or indigestible, some species actually chuck up their entire stomach, wipe it clean with their front legs and then swallow it again.

The King of Hearts appeared to be stabbing himself, but originally the king is wielding an axe. Due to poor copying by blockmakers the axe lost its head over the centuries and the shaft was turned into a sword which appears to be driven into his head, hence the nickname "Suicide King".

The largest animal ever lived is the blue whale. The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car and it's tongue is as long as an elephant and weight as much as a small one. Its mouth is large enough to hold up to 90 tonnes of food and water but despite that, it cannot swallow an object wider than a beach ball due to the dimension of its throat.

Ducks are never male. The males of the species are called drakes.

Burma are the only country where the cars are right hand-driven and driven on the right side of the road. As a former British colony, now named Myanmar drove on the left until 1970, when the military regime of Ne Win decreed that traffic would drive on the right. In spite of the change, most passenger cars mainly from Japan are right hand driven.

The oldest breed of domesticated dog is the Saluki, member of the sighthound family. They are found in the Egyptian tombs of 2100 B.C.

The first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria around 215 BC. When the coin was dropped into a slot, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened up a valve which dispense a fix amount of holy water. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counter-weight would snap the lever back up and turn off the valve.

An Octopus has 3 hearts. It抯 got two smaller hearts to force blood through the two gills and then a main heart called the systemic heart to force the blood everywhere else.

FALSE rumors claimed that the number 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had. Not true, in fact in 1896, Henry John Heinz noticed an advertisement for '21 styles of shoes.' He decided to add the numbers '5' and '7' since the number held a special significance for him and his wife, he adopted the slogan '57 Varieties'.

Contrary to what schools have taught for years, Thomas Edison neither invented the light bulb nor held the first patent to the modern design of the light bulb. Joseph Swan from England, invented and obtained the first patent for the same light bulb in Britain one year earlier, in 1878.

A young coconut can be used as a substitute for blood plasma. It was done during World War II when blood supplies were low. Coconut water is identical to human blood plasma which makes it the universal donor. By drinking coconuts we give ourselves an instant blood transfusion.

Walt Disney was afraid of mice. In the book The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, Steven Watts says Disney was afraid of mice but found them Sympathetic.

Hummingbirds are the only bird that can fly backwards.

Babies have 300 bones, but adults only have 206 bones due to some bones fused together during their growth.

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

Coca-cola used to contain cocaine because in it's early years, it's a tonic drink and not a soft drink.

Canned food was patented and introduced in 1810 by a British merchand Peter Durand. However, can opener was invented only 48 years later. Before that, canned food includes instruction "Cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer."

Tea was accidentally invented in 2737 BC when Chinese Emperor Shen Nung spotted some tea leaves blew into a pot of boiling water and produced a pleasing aroma.

In 1314, the mayor of London banned football (soccer) and the law remained for centuries, but failed to slow the popularity of the game and now it became the most attended or watched sport in the world.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Man's best friend not necessarily a dog

Man's best friend is often referred to dog. Gary Rosheisen from Columbus, Ohio found out that not only dogs can be man's best friend, but cat can do equally well too.

In 2006, officer responded to a non-responsive call to 911. And when they arrived in the apartment, they spotted Gary Rosheisen was on the ground near his bed after he was fallen out of his wheelchair. And on the other corner in the living room they saw an orange striped cat was lying nearby the phone.

Gary said his cat named Tommy must have hit the right button to call 911. He added he couldn't get up because of pain from osteoporosis and ministrokes that disrupt his balance. He also wasn't wearing his medical-alert necklace and couldn't reach a cord above his pillow that alerts paramedics that he needs help.

Responding officer, Patrick Daugherty said police received a 911 call from Gary's apartment, but there was no one on the phone. Police called back to make sure everything was OK, and when no one answered, they decided to check things out.

That's when Daugherty found Tommy next to the phone. Officer Patrick Daugherty said "I know it sounds kind of weird" after failing to find an explanation.

Gary got the cat three years ago to help lower his blood pressure. He tried to train Tommy to call 911 but so far he's not sure if the training is a success or a failure.

The phone in the living room is always on the floor, and there are 12 small buttons, including a speed dial for 911 right above the button for the speaker phone. "He's my hero," Gary said.

Source : www.msnbc.msn.com

1 comment:

Ritu said...: Thats true! Dog cant always be referred to as a man's best friend and this article clearly shows it.

I am amazed how you find all these stories and articles. Its always nice to come back to this blog and find new and relevant contents which are updated regularly.

Ritu
www.worknplay.net; September 16, 2007 at 4:34 AM

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