Am sure all of us must have played riddles with at sometime are the other. The most common and interesting ones i've enjoyed hearing often include:
Name the longest English word?
A headless man had a letter to write; It was read by a man who had lost his sight. The dumb repeated it word for word; And deaf was he who listened and heard.
I learnt about a new one that was interesting in many ways... Here it goes...
What common English word is 9 letters long, and each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word; from nine letters all the way down to a single remaining letter?
To find the answer for this latest one, watch the video below.
Just in case you were not able to get the answers for the two questions above...
Smiles... There's a mile between two 'S'
The letter in question is the letter "O".It is zero. The man had nothing to write. The blind could read nothing. The person who was dumb could repeat nothing. The deaf man listened and heard nothing.
You must all have heard of the story of the rabbit and the tortoise, but the following story, is about an unusual bonding between a baby Hippo and a Centenarian Tortoise. (I learnt, the story has been in circulation on the Internet, since January, 2005). It is a different, and very touching true story, which sends a strong message, to all of us. I only yearn, that if only all humankind can live together like this, without any prejudice of status in life, religion or colour, it will be heaven on earth!
~ ramjee
A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.
Bereaved by the forces of nature the baby hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down SabakiRiver into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him. The wildlife officials were alerted to the imperilled hippo before Christmas, when hoteliers in Malindi spotted the little fellow, in the company of a number of adults of his kind, foundering in the surf off the coast. By the time wildlife officials arrived, Owen was alone, having become separated from his herd. Had he not been rescued, the ocean's waters would have done in the youngster because long immersion in salt water would have led to fatal dehydration.
As soon as the Hippo was placed in HallerPark, a wildlife sanctuary in the coastal city of Mombassa, Kenya, the orphaned youngster immediately ran to the giant tortoise also housed in that space. The tortoise, named Mzee (Swahili for "old man") and estimated to be between 100 and 130 years old, was not immediately taken with the brashnewcomer he turned and hissed, forcing the hippo to back away. Yet Owen persisted in following the tortoise around the park (and even into a pool), and within days the pair had forged a friendship, eating and sleeping together. Owen has even been seen to lick the tortoise, whom he regards as his new mother.(Wildlife workers speculated that Owen may have been attracted to Mzee as a parental figure because the tortoise's shape and color are similar to those of an adult hippopotamus.)
'It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother',' ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP. 'After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother.
Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together,' the ecologist added. 'The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother,' Kahumbu added. 'The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years,' he explained.
'Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.' This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God, 'Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.'
As ofDecember 2005, a year after their initial meeting, Owen and Mzee are still together.Conservation workers are planning sometime in 2006 to introduce Owen to Cleo, a 13-year-old female hippo who has gone without the companionship of her own species for over ten years.
Update:
In March 2006, the Hollywood Reporter announced that Walden Media were planning to produce "Tortoise and Hippo," a film inspired by the photograph of Owen and Mzee displayed above:
Oscar-winning special-effects maven John Dykstra is set to make his directing debut on "Tortoise and Hippo," a film inspired by a photo that circulated following the Asian tsunami.
The snapshot documented a baby hippo and 100-year-old tortoise comforting each other at a wildlife sanctuary after being rescued from the Indian Ocean.
"The actual event that inspired the movie captured the imagination of the world," said Alex Schwartz, executive VP production at Walden Media, one of the producers of the film.
"We're going to create a movie inspired by it that we hope can tell a story everyone can relate to, which is that you can be different but still belong to the same family."
Watch the Al Gore's cartoon explaining the process of Global Warming...
Polar bears live only in the arctic and as the sea ice continues to melt due to global warming, the polar bears' primary habitat becomes more threatened. They are incredibly specialized hunters that have adapted to life in the Arctic environment. They depend on the sea ice for survival - it is their hunting grounds; it is their lifeblood. The polar bears featured in this movie are calling us to action as their habitat is threatened. Scientists are calling us to action as they study the current data and make concerning predictions for our future. Future generations are calling us to action as they hope to inherit a better world.
All of the images featured in this movie have been provided by Howard Ruby, Chairman of Oakwood Worldwide, the temporary housing specialist and a supporter of the Global Warming Crusade Fund, LLC. A passionate photographer, his adventures have taken him on numerous trips to the Arctic to photograph this dramatic area and the amazing polar bears and cubs that live there. After witnessing the effects of global warming first-hand and seeing the polar bears' plight, he was moved to assist Oakwood Worldwide in creating the Global Warming Crusade Fund to raise public awareness and to support various research programs and charitable organizations.
Although developed for a Thai commercial for Halls Lite drops, the following video has a hard hitting message presented in a hilarious manner. After laughing if you think a little while, you feel like saying like the famous villain Gabbar "Hamara Kya Hoga Kaaliya..."
The video shows a Polar bear shaving it's fur off to adapt to the increasing global warming. The Arctic grooming leaves polar quite embarassed and puts us to shame. Tears rolled up my eyes when i watched it the first time...
If you were a wildlife biologists, you may question, but polar bears have a black skin below their fur...!
Perhaps all the governments around the world have a similar view to global warming.
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed.
The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
The Modern Indian Version
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers. Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter. M. Karunanidhi urges the central government to expedite the clearance for the special bridge between the Grasshopper and Ants. Says, it would bring about equanimity amongst all in the Dravidian world!
Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services. The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV. Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'. Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '. CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden ' Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly. Many years later... The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley, 100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India, . . . AND As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers, . . . . . . . . . . India is still a developing country…!!!
P.S
If you are interested, you may want to show this old video, with a two minutue introduction by Walt Disney, based on the classic Aesop fable, the grasshopper plays his fiddle and lives for the moment, thinking "The world owes me a living". The industrious ants squirrel away massive amounts of food for the winter. The grasshoppers convinces one small ant to accompany his music with a dance, until the queen arrives and scares him back to work. The queen warns the grasshopper of the trouble he'll be in, come winter. Winter comes, and the grasshopper, near starvation, stumbles across the ants, who are having a full-on feast in their snug little tree. They take him in and warm him up. The queen tells him only those who work can eat so he must play for them, where he finally realizes he "owe(s) the world a living"
Here's an interesting video that is taken from the movie, “In the Navy (1941)”. Watch the characters performed by Abbott and Costello proving 7 x 13 = 28!
We can use this film for various purposes. If you're a HR person, you may want to show that there are many ways to find an answer and that not all answers are right, but the thought process tells us that we think and that is more important! You can also use it to show you can prove anything right, if you work at it.
Math teachers can use this as an example for teaching place value.
This is a musical based loosely on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which was, in turn, based on a narrative poem by Arthur Brooke entitled The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562).Set on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the musical explores the rivalry between two teenage gangs of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The young protagonist, Anton, who belongs to the white gang, falls in love with Maria, the sister of the leader of the rival Puerto Rican gang. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theater. Bernstein's score for the musical has become extremely popular; it includes several interesting songs. One of them which I like a lot is, "I Feel Pretty" embedded below! I like this a lot more than the other ones in the movie, probably because it reminds me of the act that one my sisters performed a day before her wedding in one of her "high" moods in Alahabad!
The original 1957 Broadway production, was a skit directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, marked Stephen Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances (a successful run for the time), before going on tour. The production garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical in 1957, but the award ultimately went to Meredith Willson's The Music Man. The show has enjoyed an even longer-running London production, a number of revivals and international success, and spawned an innovative, award-winning 1961 musical film of the same name. West Side Story is produced frequently by local theaters and, occasionally, by opera companies. Clike on the image on the right and you'd be taken to the official website of the company that continues to run the sho! MARIA
I feel pretty Oh so pretty I feel pretty and witty and gay And I pity Any girl who isn't me today
I feel charming Oh so charming It's alarming how charming I feel And so pretty That I hardly can believe I'm real
See the pretty girl in that mirror there? Who can that attractive girl be? Such a pretty face Such a pretty dress Such a pretty smile Such a pretty me!
I feel stunning And entrancing Feel like running And dancing for joy For I'm loved By a pretty wonderful boy
GIRLS
Have you met my good friend Maria The craziest girl on the block? You'll know her the minute you see her She's the one who is in an advanced state of shock
She thinks she's in love She thinks she's in Spain Lallala
She isn't in love She's merely insane It must be the heat Or some rare disease Lallala
Or too much to eat Or maybe it's fleas Keep away from her Send for Chino This is not the Maria we know Modest and pure Lallala
Polite and refined Well-bred and mature And out of her mind!
Miss America, Miss America, speech! Miss America, bravo, speech!
MARIA
I feel pretty Oh so pretty That the city should give me its key A committee Should be organized to honour me Lallalalallalalla
I feel dizzy I feel sunny I feel fizzy and funny and fine And so pretty Miss America can just resign Lallalalallalalla
See the pretty girl in that mirror there (What mirror, where?) Who can that attractive girl be? (Which, what, where, whom?) Such a pretty face Such a pretty dress Such a pretty smile Such a pretty me!
MARIA & GIRLS I feel stunning And entrancing Feel like running and dancing for joy For I'm loved By a pretty wonderful boy!
Is there a possibility of ingesting (and becoming infected with) enteric bacteria from a nearby fart?
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (the noted Australian author and science commentator on Australian radio and television) and his microbiologist friend have put this to the test! They took a agar plate (bacterial growth medium) home and had a eight year old boy fart on the plate, pants down, from a distance of five centimetres. Overnight, the second Petri dish sprouted visible lumps of two types of bacteria that are usually found only in the gut and on the skin. But the flatus which had passed through clothing caused no bacteria to sprout, which suggests that clothing acted as a filter!
Most notable is the concentration of enteric bacteria in the "initial blast zone" at the centre of the plate, surrounded by the mixed skin and enteric bacteria located in the "splatter ring" around the "initial blast zone".
Finding
Don't situate an unprotected face within 5 cm of an unsheathed flatulent anus. Also, don't fart naked near food. “Our deduction is that the enteric zone in the second Petri dish was caused by the flatus itself, and the splatter ring around that was caused by the sheer velocity of the fart, which blew skin bacteria from the cheeks and blasted it onto the dish. It seems, therefore, that flatus can cause infection if the emitter is naked, but not if he or she is clothed. But the results of the experiment should not be considered alarming, because neither type of bacterium is harmful. In fact, they're similar to the ‘friendly’ bacteria found in yoghurt.
All right, it's not rocket science. But then again, maybe it is?”
Now, Just for fun... Do you know how or why Dinoasaurs disappeared from Earth... A Jursaic Fart!
Oh my God! I got this video link, and I’d have watched it about 20 times since this morning, trying to hear everything she says. Even though I am way behind on finding it... it is still hilarious! And then, I found a video with the lyrics.This is part of a comment from one of the YouTube videos about the author of the song: "This lady is a wonder and yes she wrote it.....I met her in August in Dallas, Tx. where she lives near. She is a member of Women of Faith and this is part of her ministry." I just got an email from my friend Dianne, and here's what she had to say: "That is SO hysterical! Anita Renfroe is very funny. We got the very humorous pleasure of seeing her perform here at the end of November. She was just a scream. I got a couple more books of hers (already had a couple) and a CD. If you ever have a chance to read The Purse Driven Life or The Purse Driven Christmas, they are a riot!!We even got pix and autographs with her. You can also watch her on Bananas if you get that show - or probably even rent a Bananas video."
Here are the lyrics, in case you think you really don't need to listen to the video... I'm sure you will want to take a few minutes to listen to her sing it after reading them anyway.
Get up... Get up now Get up out of bed Wash your face Brush your teeth Comb your sleepyhead Here's your clothes and your shoes Hear the words I said Get up now! Get up and make your bed Are you hot? Are you cold? Are you wearing that? Where's your books and your lunch and your homework at? Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat Don't forget, you gotta feed the cat
Eat your breakfast, The experts tell us it's the most important meal of all Take your vitamins, So you'd grow up one day to be big and tall Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today Don't forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play Don't shovel Chew slowly But hurry The bus is here Be careful Come back here Did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside Don't play rough, will you just play fair? Be polite Make a friend Don't forget to share Work it out Wait your turn Never take a dare Get along! Don't make me come down there Clean your room Fold your clothes Put your stuff away Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day? Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay? Can you even hear a word I say? Answer the phone! Get off the phone! Don't sit so close Turn TV down No texting at the table No more computer time tonight! Your iPod's my iPod if you don't listen up
Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home? Saying "thank you", "please", "excuse me" would make you welcome everywhere you roam You'll appreciate my wisdom someday when you're older and you're grown Can't wait till you have a couple of little children of your own You'll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me
Close your mouth when you chew Take a bite may be two of the stuff you hate Use your fork Do not burp or I'll set you straight Eat the food I put upon your plate Get an A Get the door Don't get smart with me Get a grip Get in here I'll count to three Get a job Get a life Get a PHD Get some sleep
"I don't care who started it! You're grounded until you're 36" Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven's sake! And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too?
If I've said it once, I've said at least a thousand times before That you're too old to act this way It must be your father's DNA Look at me when I am talking Stand up straighter when you walk
A place for everything and everything must be in place Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about, Oh! Brush your teeth Wash your face Put your PJs on Get in bed Get up here Say a prayer with mom Don't forget, I love you (kiss)
And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's work never ends You don't need the reason why Because, because, because, because I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so I'm the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!! Ta da!!!
Just in case you decided to hear it yourself.... watch the video below...
Back in the eighteenth century, the word is said to have been invented as an erudite joke by students of the Eton College, who, upon consulting their Latin Grammar Textbook, found four ways of saying "don't care". In order, those were flocci facere, nauci facere, nihili facere, and pili facere (which sound like four of the seven dwarves, Roman version, but I digress). As a learned joke, somebody put all four of these together and then stuck –fication on the end to make a noun for the act of deciding that something is totally and absolutely valueless. It's one of the longest words in the English language. A quick Latin lesson:
Flocci facere (is from floccus, literally a tuft of wool and the source of English words like "fleece" and is related to the verb floccipendo which means, literally, "to give the value of a bit of fleece" or "to take lightly.")
Nauci facere (is from naucum, meaning "few" or "almost nothing.")
Nihili facere (is from ni+hilum, "not even a thread" or nothing; as in words like nihilism and annihilate)
Pili facere (is from pilus, a small hair, which we have inherited in words like depilatory, but which in Latin mean a trifle.)
Facere is from the verb facio meaning "to do" or "to make."
Tion" is a standard English nominalization form.
When put together, we get "the making light of a few trifles of nothing." Thus, the meaning of floccinaucinihilipilification becomes "the act of estimating something as worthless." flɒksəˌnɔsəˌnaɪhɪləˌpɪləfɪˈkeɪʃən/ [flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-key-shuhn]
Of course, the word is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations floccinaucical (inconsiderable or trifling) and floccinaucity (the essence or quality of being of small importance). These can then be edited to form verbs, like floccinaucinihilipilificate, and adjectives, like floccinaucinihilipilificatious, or even other nouns, like floccinaucinihilipilificatism. When the common English nominal suffix -ness is then added to the above adjective, a thirty-four letter noun floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness is formed, which means "smallness" or "insignificance."
The next most commonly referred to long word, antidisestablishmentarianism, the ideology of being against the dissolution of the Church of England.
With 29 letters, it is the longest non-technical word. The word’s main function is to be trotted out as an example of a long word that can be used in everyday speech. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, the actual longest word is highly scientific and specific. The first recorded use is by William Shenstone in a letter in 1741: “I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money”.
It had a rare public airing in 1999 when Senator Jesse Helms used it in commenting on the demise of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty: “I note your distress at my floccinaucinihilipilification of the CTBT”.
Is the officially longest word, the name of a fictional dish mentioned in Aristophanes' comedy Assemblywomen. The original Greek spelling had 171 characters.
In the video below you could see a youngster twisting his tongue, trying to pronounce some of the longest words in English Language... He's trying the following words. Repeat after him if you may please...
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapoka iwhenuakitanatahu (See the photo on top, the name of a place in Newzealand!)
