Thung Pære

So lemme tell ya`ll about my new good friend. I found him on my post route the other day.

Its a sheep. Yep. a real SHEEP. I was putting post in the box and then suddenly an old wise sheep came over. He was really nice, since that day he kept coming to me when i was there.

The Bob`s series Part 3: Dan.

Once up on a time there was a man named Dan. Dan was a normal guy,
he owned a large store which was on a tall hill called "Norway-Land".

One Sunday morning he was at work. One of hes standard
costumers was his good friend Jill. She came in today, she told Dan that she was going
to buy some lakris for her friend Bob, Dan`s brother. Dan looked strange at
her and said that she shouldnt do that on a Sunday, without telling him first.
But Jill still wanted to. She bought the lakris and left. Dan got anxious
for hes brother. Dan knew Bob would get very scared. Dan told hes friend to
watch the store while he was going to look after Bob. When Dan got to the
apartment building where bob lived, he saw Bob looking out the window.
Suddenly Dan heard some loud Swedish country music from one of the apartments.
He liked it a lot, as he got very interested, he went to the apartment where
the music came from.

There was a swedish country party.A lot of people was there with cowboy
costumes. He loved it. He danced with some nice girls. After a while he had
to go to Bobs apartment wich was in the floor above. He took the elevator.
When he got there he saw that the door was open, when he looked inside, there
was a super heel laying on the floor and a lot of blood around it. Dan got
anxious. There was no one in the apartment. He looked in the kitchen, he saw
even more blood and this time a knife on the floor too. Dan was scared. He took
hes cellphone and rang to Jill. She answered and said that Bob had an accident
and is now in the hospital. Dan ran in hes car and drove over. When he got to
the hospital Jill told Dan she drove Bob home for a while ago. Dan drove back
to bobs place. Took the elevator to the floor, he went over and
slowly rang on the door...

-Ursula Walthemath

Top 10 worst jobs for men.

Okay - so your job is AWFUL. Your pay is CRAP. And your boss is a LOUSE. But take a look at some of the worst jobs in history and maybe Monday morning won't be so bad.

1 Flatulence Analyst

2 Barnyard Masturbator

3 Mosquito Researcher

4 Sensory Deprivation Research Subject

5 Carcass Cleaner

6 Lab Technician

7 Roofer

8 Recycling plant worker

9 Janitor, Porno Theatre

10 Exorcist

11 Embalmer

12 Security Officer, Tower of London

13 Crime Scene Investigator

14 Hermit

15 Zoo keeper

16 Bomb Expert

17 Sanitation Consultant

18 British Soldier, Iraq

19 Plumber

20 Boxer

R.I.P JAMES FLEW.

I`m very sorry to have to share this tragic episode of my life, finding my dearest friend: James Flew dead in the fridge this evening.

to be continued..

Thondrè Reveleas: Real names of famous people!

Alicia Keys (Alicia Augello Cook)

André 3000 from Outcast (André Benjamin)

Billy Idol (William Michael Albert Broad)

Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman)

Bonnie Tyler (Gaynor Hopkins)

Bono (Paul Hewson)

Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian)

D'Angelo (Michael Archer, Sr.)

David Bowie (David Robert Jones)

Dean Martin (Dino Crocetti)

Donna Summer (LaDonna Andrea Gaines)

Elton John (Reginald Kenneth Dwight)

Elvis Costello (Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus)

Eminem (Marshall Mathers III)

Eric Clapton (Eric Clapp)

Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholemew)

Fatboy Slim (Quentin Cook, later Norman Cook)

LL Cool J (James Todd Smith)

Louis Armstrong (Daniel Louis Armstrong)

Lulu (singer) (Marie Lawrie)

Mariah Carey (Maria Nuñez)

Marilyn Manson (Brian Warner))

Nelly (Cornell Haynes Jr.)

Ozzy Osbourne (John Osbourne)

Paul McCartney (James Paul McCartney)

Pink (Alecia Moore)

Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson)

Ray Charles (Ray Charles Robinson)

Seal (Sealhenry Samuel)

Shania Twain (Eileen Regina Edwards, later Eileen Regina Twain)

Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus)

Stevie Wonder (Steveland Morris)

Sting (Gordon Sumner)

Tina Turner (Anna Mae Bullock)

2Pac (Tupac Shakur - born Lesane Crooks)

50 Cent (Curtis Jackson)

Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Mortenson, later Norma Jean Baker)

Tori Amos (Myra Ellen Amos)

Black Eyed Peas [apl.de.ap] Allen Pineda
Black Eyed Peas [Fergie] Stacy Ann Ferguson
Black Eyed Peas [Taboo] Jaime Gomez
Black Eyed Peas [Will.I.Am] William Adams

Did You Know? About China.

Sometimes size does matter.. If you`re one in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you. In India there are 1,100 people just like you. China will soon become the number one English- speaking country in the world.

During the next 6 minutes will: 60 babies be born in U.S.

244 babies be born in China.

351 babies be born in India.

Did you know?

well.. Now you do :)

The Bob`s series Part 2: The return of Bob.

once upon a time there was a girl named Jill. She was a very social
girl and always wanted to meet new people and do new things.
She never liked to stay at home. One day on a Sunday morning
she decided to go visit her friend Bob. She went all the way to his
house a million miles away. First, before going, she bought some
Lakris on a tall tall tall hill called " Norway-land"

..She knew that Bob was addicted to this Lakris drug. When Jill
got to Bob's house she heard some music playing from one
of the apartments, it was very weird music sounded
something like Swedish country music! Eww. She was so
excited to be there, so she rang the doorbell. No one
answered but she heard someone go into the kitchen and
open a drawer. she also heard someone drop something
on the floor. then it got silent. she rang the door bell again..
then, all of a sudden she sees Blood coming out from
under the door!!!!!!!!!!!! uh oh!! Then she heard a person
fall on the floor.

She got her super heel shoes off and hit the door. The door
then fell on the floor and she saw something TERRIBLE!!!
BOB WAS ON THE FLOOR AND HIS ARM WAS BLEEDING
ALL OVER!!!!!!!!! Since she wanted to become a doctor,
she decided to help him. She wrapped his arm with a
cloth and got out her super duper first aid kit!! He had fainted
but not died . She picked him up and carried him to the hospital
with her super duper muscles. When she got there the doctor said
that he would have some brain damage and would only remember
things thats happened until he fainted. but, he would live!
from that day on... Bob thinks he is in heaven and doesn't believe
that he lived. Jill still takes care of Bob.

Stay tuned for more of the Bob`s Series!!

-Ursula Waltemath

My Dreamjob (?) Part 2: Elevator Driver.

Could I ever become an elevator driver? Let’s see-

I don’t think this work exists anywhere in Europe anymore. But it does in Brazil.. So what does an elevator driver do? Well.. he drives the elevator, like pushes the button. I mean how boring can a job get??? And why wasting money on having a person pushing the button when the passengers can push the buttons for free. I never understood that.

When I went to school in Brazil there was two ladies driving the elevators in the school. Every day from 8.30-15-00 . They sat on a chair pushing the buttons, so when we got in the elevator we simply had to say an number instead of pushing it. So maybe it is a little easier, saving a few calories. Wonder if they need a driver’s licence for it. Maybe the reason for the driver is if someone in a wheelchair or a little dwarf comes that isn’t tall enough to reach the buttons? Who knows.. If you know, please leave an comment

Conclusion: I probably would be able to do it.. Who wouldn’t? :P Its after all a very easy job, and if there was NO other job and I HAD to take it..sure, at least for a while.

Thondrè the elevator driver. :-)

Bob`s series: Part 1

Once up on a time, there was a man called Bob...

yeah.. the man above is BOB.

..Once up on a time, there was a man called Bob. 
Bob was only a nickname. Nobody knew his real name though.
Bob was a shy, curious man. Very anxious about everything. 
One Sunday morning sat as usual Bob in his chair
and watched television, 
without no further notice the door bell rang. Bob got very anxious, 
who could it be, coming to Bob on a Sunday morning?. That never 
happened before. Bob didn't really want to open the door
, he was too scared, but he was also too curious to just 
let it go.

No one used to visit Bob, and at least not on a Sunday 
without telling him first!! Bob just had to open the door,
but as he has experienced very many scary things through his life he 
had to be prepared for everything. He took his pocketknife and 
pushed it into the sleeve of his sweater, so it was hidden.
He walked towards the door. Suddenly the doorbell rang again. 
He got more anxious. He looked at the doorknob. Bob began sweating, 
he slowly took his hand on the knob.
He said: "Hello?" Nobody answered. Suddenly he felt some liquid
on his arm. 
He pulled back his arm from the doorknob, he saw that he had blood all 
over his arm!! Bob got so scared. The pocketknife had
cut his vain when he pushed the knife under the sleeve. He felt weak.
A lot of blood ran out of his body

he walked in the kitchen. Looking out the window, he drooped his knife. 
The doorbell rang again. Bob fell on the floor and died of blood lost. 
Bob never got to knew who or what was hiding behind that door....

....or did he?

Find out in the next part of the Bob`s Stories.

To be continued...


-Thondrè

My Dreamjob (?) Part 1: Dentist

Could I ever become an DENTIST? Let`s see:

A dentist is a doctor, qualified to practice dentistry after graduating with a degree of either DDS, DMD , Bachelor of Dentistry (BDent), or Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS). In most western countries to become a qualified dentist you must usually complete at least 8 years of study; an undergraduate degree (usually in the sciences) and 4 years dental training. At least 2 years of practical experience working with patients in the educational setting during the last two years of training are required. ugh..


Conclution: Nooo way. Forget it. Too much studying. :P

And besides I would only make ya face look like this:

yuck..

Job for me...

Did You Know: Why we get "Butterflies in the stomach" ?

Butterflies in the stomach is a medical condition characterized by the physical sensation of an unpleasant "fluttery" or "tickling" feeling in the stomach. Some believe that this is caused by the release of adrenaline, when one is nervous, pulling blood away from the stomach and sending it to the muscles. This in turn causes the stomach to temporarily shut down, possibly the reason for loss of appetite when one is "love sick". Butterflies in the stomach is most often experienced prior to important events, when stress is induced, but can be experienced in situations of impending danger.


Did you know?!

Well.. NOW you do ;)

Inventors And Wrong Predictions

Predictions that missed the mark

In 1894, the president of the Royal Societ Lord Kelvin, predicted that radio had no future. The first radio factory was opened five years later. He also predicted that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible. Today, there are more than one billion radio sets in the world, tuned to more than 33 000 radio stations around the world. The Wright Brother's first flight covered a distance equal to only half the length of the wingspan of a Boeing 747.

In the 6th century BC Greek mathematician Pythagoras said that earth is round - but few agreed with him. Greek astronomer Aristarchos said in the 3rd century BC that earth revolves around the sun - but the idea was not accepted. In the 2nd century BC Greek astronomer Erastosthenes accurately measured the distance around the earth at about 40,000 km (24,860 miles) - but nobody believed him. In the 2nd century AD Greek astronomer Ptolemy stated that earth was the centre of the universe - most people believed him for the next 1,400 years.

In the early 20th century a world market for only 4 million automobiles was made because "the world would run out of chauffeurs." Shortly after the end of World War II (1945), the whole of Volkswagen, factory and patents, was offered free to Henry Ford II. He dismissed the Volkswagen Beetle as a bad design. Today, more than 70 million motorcars are produced every year. The Beetle became one of the best-selling vehicles of all time.

The telephone was not widely appreciated for the first 15 years because people did not see a use for it. In fact, in the British parliament it was mentioned there was no need for telephones because "we have enough messengers here." Western Union believed that it could never replace the telegraph. In 1876, an internal memo read: "This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication." Even Mark Twain, upon being invited by Alexander Graham Bell to invest $5 000 in the new invention, could not see a future in the telephone.

Irish scientist, Dr. Dionysius Lardner (1793 - 1859) didn't believe that trains could contribute much in speedy transport. He wrote: "Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers ' would die of asphyxia' [suffocation]." Today, trains reach speed of 500 km/h.

In 1943, Thomas Watson, the chairman of IBM forecast a world market for "maybe only five computers." Years before IBM launched the personal computer in 1981, Xerox had already successfully designed and used PCs internally... but decided to concentrate on the production of photocopiers.

After the invention of the transistor in 1947, several US electronics companies rejected the idea of a portable radio. Apparently it was thought nobody would want to carry a radio around. When Bell put the transistor on the market in 1952 they had few takers apart from a small japanese start-up called Sony. They introduced the transistor radio in 1954.

In 1894, A.A. Michelson, who with E.W. Morley seven years earlier experimentally demonstrated the constancy of the speed of light, said that the future of science would consist of "adding a few decimal places to the results already obtained."

Perhaps the guy who got it wrong most was the commissioner of the US Office of Patents: in 1899, Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, assured President McKinley that "everything that can be invented has been invented."

Grillfest

Hege ø, zlatko, bee, henning and lippzy :-) great friday party! :-D

Facts about sleeping.

We spend one-third of our lives sleeping.
A newborn results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year.
The current world record for the longest period without sleep is 11 days, set by 17-year-old San Diego student Randy Gardner in 1965.
Studies have shown that there is generally less sexual activity if one of the partners is a heavy snorer.

Most of what we know about sleep we've learned in the past 25 years.
Rats deprived of sleep die sooner than rats deprived of food.
In humans, the earliest occurrence of a yawn happens at about 11 weeks after conception.
Pythons require about 18 hours of sleep per day.

The Global Warming`s biggest problem: The Cow..

Meet the world’s top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane,or even George Bush: it is the cow.

A United Nations report has identified the world’s rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.





With all its grazing and many stomachs, it is no wonder that cows are one of the main contributors to the hole in the ozone layer. Apart from CFC, the biggest culprit is hydrocarbon emissions from cars and cows. Yes, cows! Cows release some 100 million tons of hydrocarbon annually - by releasing gas. To give you an idea of how much gas a cow emits: if the gas of 10 cows could be captured, it would provide heating for a small house for a year.

More About The Cow.

Cows don't have upper front teeth

Although a cow has no upper front teeth, it grazes up to 8 hours a day, taking in about 45 kg (100 lb) of feed and the equivalent of a bath tub full of water. A healthy cow gives about 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

A cow has four stomachs: the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. The rumen is the largest stomach and acts as a fermentation chamber. The abomasum is last of the four and is comparable in both structure and function to the human stomach.

But unlike what you think, cows release hydrocarbon mostly by burping.
Cow factoids

The average lifespan of a cow is 7 years. The oldest cow ever recorded was Big Bertha. She reached 48 in 1993. She also holds the record for producing 39 calves.
There are more than a billion cattle in the world, about 200 million in India.
Twelve cows are known as a "flink."

Happy Birthday To My Angel Uschi!! :)

Uschi or Ursula Waltemath if u like turns 17 years old today!!!!! Yey! And I want to share it with all you guys!!

Ursula must be the wierdest, funniest, cutest and moast lovely girl I`ve ever held in my hand. We`ve had our ups and downs, but everyone does. I Guess the main reason for our downs has been the distance. Yes. I live in Norway and she lives in Brasil... kinda long huh? WHY does the ****** Atlantic sea have to be SO big.!! ARG. I dont know how many times I`ve screamed that in my room while I was missing her here in Norway.


Me and Uschi met kinda random... Me and my friend Mario was going to a free concert of Lenny Kravitz on Copacabana beach in Rio De Janeiro. Mario told me he was going to meet a friend if he was able to. Because there were millions of people. SOOO crowdy, we could bearly move. Anywayz we doubt that we could be able to find him. But we found the spot were they decided to fin eachother.. And we were waiting and waiting... and waiting. Then a black car pulled up beside us, and out came Marios friend from america, and (lucky me) he brought with him a beautiful girl called Ursula.

I said "hello" to the both of them, and we started walking towards the concert, it was so many people that we had to hold eachother`s hads to not loose anyone. WhIch was very hard with that many crazy drunk people. So i was holding very carefully on her shoulder, I was shy and scared but it went smoothely. And after a while we reached a spot on the beach where we could relax withouth all the people. I went closer so we could see Lenny. I stood there for a while and little Uschi came carefully up to me. DOnt remember exact what we said, or If we said anything. But what I rememberd was she said: " I dont really like Lenny Kravitz.. but I like one song "Calling on angels" " It was very fun, but we didnt talk much..

After some days Mario told me that Ursula wanted to meet me again.. she liked me!! I was so happy, and offcourse I wanted to meet her again. Some weeks after did she and Mario stop by so Ursula could get to know me better. I was so nervous, me and my aunt tryied to find the best outfit and the best smelling deo. They came after a while, and we sat trying to talk.. was very difficult. We both was very shy. Before I knew it my friends and my aunt got us married:S So I had to kneal in front of her and propose.. ahh!! Was soooo embarrassing.

Some more weeks after decided we to go out in Ipanema, on a english pub called Lord Jims. I went there and met them all. we were drinking and having fun. And that was the place were I gave her my first and best kiss ever.. and from that day on we stayed together some years. And now she is the best friend anyone could beg for.

Love you so much Ursula. You are a big part of my heart.. I hope u NEVER leave me.

Te amo para sempre!!

Uschi 4ever..:)

SWITCH NOW!!

I woke up early this morning. I ate some breakfast and watched MTV. There they had this brilliant campaign called SWITCH. It`s basicly an campaign that`s suppose to remember us that we have to change things we do everyday to make the climate better, cus the animals are dying of hunger and the ice is melting..

And its just simple and few changes we need to do, so the poor hungry animals can live on their lifes. Like pluging out you`re phone-charger after you`ve used it, turning off the light when u leave the room, taking quick showers, dont let the spring spoil water and stop the engine on you`re car whenever it`s not moving.

There are about ten years before the effect of our CO2 emissions are irreversible, which sounds like a lifetime, but in fact is it only 3650 days. When you acknowledge this you realize we have to act, NOW.

Help saving our self and our nature by switching.

Go to http://www.mtvswitch.org/

Its worth it...

Traffic lights in use before there were motorcars

Traffic lights were used before the advent of the motorcar. In 1868, British railroad signal engineer J P Knight invented the first traffic light, a lantern with red and green signals. It was installed at the intersection of George and Bridge Streets in front of the the British House of Commons to control the flow of horse buggies and pedestrians.

Motorcars were introduced to the US in the late 1890s and the need for traffic control soon became obvious. A number of people came up with ideas for traffic control. In 1910, Earnest Sirrine of Chicago, Illinois filed for a patent (no 976,939) for what is considered the first automatic street traffic system, using non illuminated words STOP and PROCEED.

In 1912, Lester Wire of Salt Lake City, Utah invented an electric traffic light that used red and green lights. However, he did not apply for a patent. The next year, James Hoge received patent no 1,251,666 for a manually controlled traffic light system using electric lights. It was installed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914, displaying the words STOP and MOVE.

The first traffic light system to use red and green lights were patented by William Ghiglieri of San Francisco, California in 1917 (patented no 1,224,632). His design could be operated manually or in automatic.

The amber light was added in 1920 by William Potts, a Detroit policeman. He actually invented several traffic light systems, indlucing the overhang four-way system, but did not apply for patents. The first person to apply for a patent to produce inexpensive traffic lights was Garrett Morgan, who received his patent in 1923.

Parking Meter

The credit for taking all your parking credits goes to Carlton Cole Magee who invented the first parking meter in 1932, receiving a patent (no 2,118,318) for it in 1935. His Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company installed the first meter in Oklahoma City in 1935 and still produces most of the parking meters in the United States.

Don't Walk

The first "Don't Walk"' signs were installed in New York City on 5 February 1952.

THE COW

 MoO moO MoO mOo MOO OOM MMM moO moO MMM mOo mOo moO MMM mOo MMM moO moO
MOO MOo mOo MoO moO moo mOo mOo moo..

Yeah! That`s right. Its the cows
national day today!! HURRAY!

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat (called beef and veal), dairy products (milk), leather and as draught animals (pulling carts, plows and the like). In some countries, such as India, they are honored in religious ceremonies and revered. It is estimated that there are 1.4 billion head of cattle in the world today.^[1]

Cattle were originally identified by Carolus Linnaeus as three separate species. These were Bos taurus, the European cattle, including similar types from Africa and Asia; Bos indicus, the zebu; and the extinct Bos primigenius, the aurochs. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and European cattle. More recently these three have increasingly been grouped as one species, sometimes using the names Bos primigenius taurus, Bos primigenius indicus and Bos primigenius primigenius. Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other closely related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between European cattle and zebu but also with yaks, banteng, gaur, and bison, a cross-genera hybrid. For example, genetic testing of the Dwarf Lulu breed, the only humpless "Bos taurus-type" cattle in Nepal, found them to be a mix of European cattle, zebu and yak.^[2] Cattle cannot successfully be bred with water buffalo or African buffalo.

Young cattle are called calves. A young female before she has calved is called a 'heifer' . A young female that has had only one calf is sometimes called a "first-calf heifer." A young male is a "bullock." The term "bullock," or "steer," is also used to denote a castrated male, unless kept for draft purposes, in which case it is called an "ox" (plural "oxen"), not to be confused with the related wild musk ox. If castrated as an adult, it is called a "stag." An intact is called a "bull." An adult female who has had more than two calves is called a "cow." The adjective applying to cattle is "bovine."

LET THE COWs LIVE <3

Mountain trip to Vallhornet 30th of May.

Me, Hege and Henning decided to go on a trip to a mountain called Vallahornet (830 m above sea level) in Ørsta. The sun was shining and the sky was as blue as it could be. Temperature was around 20 which is hot here (:p).

10 am, I packed my things: one sweater, my camera, some food and a bottle of water. I was kind of worried for my fitness and I knew that Henning had a good one. So I held a hand on Hege ( no offence!!:P) Must be years since I've reached a mountain top. Anyway, the beginning was easy. We walked an talked, while the sun was melting us slowly down. We took a small brake after some minutes. We sat down in the middle of the beautiful forest and drank a bit. I started to realize that one bottle of water wouldn't be enough. And Henning came with scary news, that there's no rivers on this trip! But we saw that there was snow on the top, so i figured out that I could use that.

With many stops and conversations did we get higher on the mountain and the view started to get nicer and nicer. Me and Hege took a break at the first piece of snow, I was diving in it. Henning started the turbo and he reached the top before we knew it. After a while did we too, with almost no breath left. We sat on the top a while and looked at the beautiful view and ate some food. Back down did everything go smoothley without any stops :p

FAST FACTS ABOUT FOOD..

Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter, who sold the concept to his neighbour Henri Nestlé.

An ounce of chocolate contains about 20 mg of caffeine.

Forks, mostly being two-tined, used to known as "split spoons."

TIP is the acronym for "To Insure Promptness."

The world's oldest existing eatery opened in Kai-Feng, China in 1153.

Coffee is the seed of a cherry from the tree genus Coffea

Melba toast is named after Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931).

Three quarters of fish caught are eaten - the rest is used to make things such as glue, soap, margarine and fertilizer.

FAST FACTS ABOUT YOUR BODY..

The length from your wrist to your elbow is the same as the length of your foot.

Your heart beats 101,000 times a day. During your lifetime it will beat about 3 billion times and pump about 400 million litres (800 million pints) of blood.

Your mouth produces 1 litre (1.8 pints) of saliva a day.

On average, people can hold their breath for one minute. The world record is seven-and-a-half minutes.

The human head contains 22 bones.

On average, you breathe 23,000 times a day.

On average, you speak almost 5,000 words a day - although almost 80% of speaking is self-talk (talking to yourself).

DID YOU KNOW..

...That there are more than 600 million telephone lines, yet almost half the world's population has never made a phone call on a land line. However, more than half the world's population has made a cell phone call. There are more than 2 billion cell phones in use.

DID YOU KNOW..

...That hiccups happen when the diaphragm, the muscle that controls our breathing, becomes irritated and start to spasm and contract uncontrollably. With each contraction, air is pulled into the lungs very quickly, passes through the voice box, and then the epiglottis closes behind the rush of air, shaking the vocal chords, causing the "hic" sound. The irritation can be caused by rapid eating, emotional stress and even some diseases. The best cure? Breathing into a paper bag. This calms the diaphragm by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.


Did you know?

Well.. now you do! :)

DID YOU KNOW..

..That absolutely nothing happened between 3 and 13 September 1752?

In September 1752 the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian calendar in Great Britain and its American colonies. The Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian calendar, so 14 September got to follow 2 September on the day of the change. The result was that between 3 and 13 September, absolutely nothing happened!

The calendar switch also influenced the way George Washington's birthday is celebrated. He was born on 11 February 1731, but the anniversary of his birth is on 22 February because of the 11 days eliminated from the calendar switch. At the same time, New Year's Day was changed from 25 March to 1 January, thus according to the new calendar, Washington was born in 1732.

The first Roman Calendar (introduced in 535BC) had 10 months, with 304 days in a year that began in March. January and February were added only later. In 46BC, Julius Caesar created "The Year of Confusion" by adding 80 days to the year making it 445 days long to bring the calendar back in step with the seasons. The solar year - with the value of 365 days and 6 hours - was made the basis of the calendar. To take care of the 6 hours, every 4th year was made a 366-day year. It was then that Caesar decreed that the year begins with the 1st of January.

In 325AD Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Sunday as a holy day in a new 7-day week. He also introduced movable (Easter) and immovable feasts (Christmas).

In 1545 the Council of Trent authorised Pope Paul III to reform the calendar once more. Advised by astronomer Father Christopher Clavius and physician Aloysius Lilius, Pope Gregory XIII ordered that Thursday, 4 October 1582 was to be the last day of the Julian calendar. The next day was Friday, 15 October. For long-term accuracy, every 4th year was made a leap year unless it is a century year like 1700 or 1800. Century years can be leap years only when they are divisible by 400 (e.g. 1600). This rule eliminates three leap years in four centuries, making the calendar sufficiently correct for all ordinary purposes.

Protestant rulers ignored the new calendar that the Pope ordered. It was not until 1698 that Germany and the Netherlands changed to the Gregorian calendar. As mentioned, Britain made the change only in 1752. Russia adopted the new calendar in 1918, China in 1949.

In spite of the leap year, the Gregorian year is about 26 seconds longer than the earth's orbital period. Thus the beginning of the third millennium should have been celebrated at 9:01pm on 31 December 1999. But considering that the Gregorian calendar starts with Year 1, and not Year 0, adding 2000 years means that the third millennium started at 21h00:34s on 31 December 2000. However, because Dionysis Exeguus - the 6th Century monk whose task it was to pivot the calendar around the birth of Jesus Christ - miscalculated the founding of Rome by about 4 years (and left out the year 0), the true third millennium actually started on 31 December 1995.

The calendars
The first day of the year in the Gregorian calendar is 1 January.
The first month in the Hindu calendar is Chait'r (March/April in the Gregorian calendar).
The Chinese New Year occurs at the second new moon after the beginning of the Northern Hemisphere winter, thus between 20 January and 20 February.
The Jewish calendar begun 3760 years before the beginning of the Christian era. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is celebrated during September or October of the Gregorian calendar.

George Washington, born 11 February 1731 and 22 February 1732.

The 24-hour division of the day was introduced in the 4th Century BC by the Sumero-Babylonians.

In 1905 Einstein showed in his theory of relativity that time is effected by motion so that the faster one goes the slower time does.

In 1972, Atomic time became the world's official time standard, as Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC)

In the 6th Century, the Roman monk and astronomer named Dionysis Exeguus (Dionysis the Little) reformed the calendar to pivot around the birth of Christ. He dated the Nativity 753 years from the founding of Rome, calculated to the date King Herod died. But Dionysis miscalculated, because Herod died only 749 years after the founding of Rome, thus 4BC. Dionysis also left out the Year 0. He used the Julian calendar.

17th of May.

The Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai (meaning May Seventeenth), Nasjonaldagen (National Day) or Grunnlovsdagen (Constitution Day), although the latter is less frequent.

Historical background

The Constitution of Norway was signed at Eidsvoll on May 17 in the year 1814. The constitution declared Norway to be an independent nation.

The celebration of this day begun spontaneously among students and others from early on, and for some years the king was reluctant to allow the celebrations. For a couple of years in the 1820s, king Carl Johan actually forbade it, as he thought the celebrations a kind of protest and disregard - even revolt. The king's attitude changed slightly after the Battle of the Square in 1829, an incident which resulted in such a commotion that the King had to allow it. It was, however, not until 1833, that anyone ventured to hold a public address on behalf of the day. That year, official celebration was initiated by the monument of the late politician Christian Krogh, known to have stopped the King from gaining too much personal power. The address was held by Henrik Wergeland, thoroughly witnessed and accounted for by a Swedish spy, sent by the King himself.

After 1864, the day became more established, and the first children's promenade was launched in Christiania, in a parade consisting only of boys. The girls had their own promenade by a different route. This initiative was taken by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, although Wergeland made the first known children's promenade at Eidsvoll around 1820.

By historical coincidence, the Second World War ended in Norway just nine days before that year's Constitution Day, on May 8, 1945, when the occupying German forces surrendered. Even if The Liberation Day is an official flag day in Norway, the day is not an official holiday and is not broadly celebrated. Instead a new and broader meaning has been added to the celebration of Norwegian independence on May 17.

The day focused originally on the Norwegian constitution, but after 1905, the focus has been directed also towards the royal family.

[edit] Children's parades

Children's parade in front of the Royal Palace, Oslo

The kindergarten part of a Children's parade

All over Norway, children's parades with an abundance of flags form the central elements of the celebration. Each elementary school district arranges its own parade^[1] with marching bands between schools. The parade takes the children through the community, often making stops at homes of senior citizens, war memorials, etc. The longest parade is in Oslo, where some 100,000 people travel to the city centre to participate in the main festivities. This is broadcast on TV every year, with comments on costumes, banners etc, together with local reports from celebrations around the country. The massive Oslo parade includes some 100 schools, marching bands, and passes the royal palace where the royal family greet the people from the main balcony.

Typically a school’s children parade will consist of some senior school children carrying the schools official banner, followed by a handful of other older children carrying full size Norwegian flags, and the school’s marching band. After the band the rest of the school children follow with hand sized flags, often with the junior forms first, and often behind self made banners for each form or even individual class. Nearby kindergartens may also have been invited to join in. As the parade passes, bystanders often join in behind the official parade, and follow the parade back to the school. Depending on the community, the parade may make stops at particular sites along the route, such as a nursing home or war memorial. In Oslo the parade stops at the Royal Palace, Oslo while Skaugum has been a traditional waypoint for parades in Asker.

During the parade a marching band will play and the children will sing lyrics about the celebration of the National Day. The parade concludes with the stationary singing of the the national anthem "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" (typically verses 1, 2 and 8), and the royal anthem "Kongesangen".

In addition to flags, people typically wear red, white and blue ribbons. Although a long-standing tradition, it has lately become more popular for men, women, and children to wear traditional outfits, called bunad. The children also make a lot of noise shouting "Hurra!", singing, blowing whistles and shaking rattles.

In addition to children's parades, there are parades for the public, where every citizen is welcome to join in. These are led by marching bands and often local boy scouts and girl guides, local choirs, etc. This takes place in the early morning or in the afternoon, before or after the school's parade.

All parades begin or end with speeches. Both grown-ups and older children are invited to speak. After the parades, there are games for the children, and often a lot of icecream, pop, sweets and pølse (hotdogs) are consumed.

[edit] Russ

The graduating class from the Norwegian equivalent of high school - known as russ - has its own celebration on May 17, staying up all night and making the rounds through the community. The russ also have their own parades, in which they parody various local and political aspects, although recently this has become less frequent.

[edit] Celebration across the country

• In Oslo, children from all the city's schools gather to parade past the Royal Palace, where they and the Royal Family exchange waves and greetings.

• In the municipality of Asker, outside Oslo, the children gather outside the residence of the throne heir at Skaugum Estate in the morning (giving the Prince and his family time to attend the parade in Oslo later in the day).

• Bergen has its own traditions for the parade, including comic troupes, various local organizations, a children's parade, and the buekorps.

• In Trondheim, children from all the city's schools parade the streets of Trondheim in the morning. At noon, "borgertoget" starts. This is a parade where firefighters, sports teams, students associations and other associations are represented.

In addition to the children's parades the streets are filled with young and old, turning out in festive attire, and vendors selling ice cream, hot dogs, and lately, kebabs.

[edit] Celebration abroad

17 May dinner in the United States.

The National Day is also celebrated in many Norwegian immigrant communities throughout the world, with traditional foods, sometimes including lutefisk. In the United States and Canada, the local lodges of the Sons of Norway organization often play a central part in organizing the festivities.

[edit] Henrik Wergeland

The poet Henrik Wergeland is credited with making Syttende mai a celebratory day for the children rather than a day of patriotic pride. Actually, the day demonstrates that the children, i.e. the country's future, are the patriotic pride, if we follow Wergeland's thought. Flags and music dominate the day, and there are few military parades. To commemorate his contribution, the russ in Oslo place an oversized hat on his statue near the Norwegian parliament; the Jewish community place a wreath on his grave in the morning as a tribute to his efforts on their behalf.

[edit] Military parades

The only military parade is performed by the Royal Guard on the main street of the capital city, Oslo. During the parade, the Guard display their drill and music skills, rather than showing off military force. An example of an exercise performed by the Guard includes throwing their rifles over their shoulders, with bayonets attached, to another Guardsman who walks behind and catches it. The most impressive aspect about the Guard's parade is that they have learned their skills during the course of nine months, and during that time they also go through normal infantry training.

The marching band of the Royal Guard also attend the children's parade in central Oslo together with the schools' own marching bands.

[edit] An inclusive holiday

The former Norwegian president of parliament Jo Benkow noted that the day has increasingly become a celebration of Norway's growing ethnic diversity.

Several factors have probably contributed to the inclusive nature of the celebration:

• The central position of the children’s parade, including all lower level school children, and therefore also their parents in the celebration.
• The celebration is focused around local schools and their children’s parade.
• The children’s parade reaches outwards, trying to cover as many roads as possible in the local community.
• The low focus on elected government during the celebration. In the capital, for example, the children’s parade passes the left side of the parliament building, and the president of parliament is allowed to wave to the passing parade from a small balcony,^[2] but the main focus of the parade is the Royal Castle and the Royal Family. In must also be noted that the office of president of parliament is mainly ceremonial and administrative, often awarded in the later part of a political career. The prime minister and the rest of the ruling government on the other hand have no official duties during the celebrations.
• The virtual lack of any military-centred celebration.

One can add, that the day should be regarded as an expression of thankfulness, on behalf of the old values freedom, equality and brotherhood, the ideological basis for the constitution, and also on behalf of the circumstances that led up to the constitution. The aspect of "thanksgiving" in the national celebrations of Norway, are easily forgotten in the long span of years from 1814.

The fact that children parading and waving Norwegian flags is such a central part of an inclusive celebration has to a certain extent protected the Norwegian flag against being misused by fascist groups.

- Wikipedia.

DID YOU KNOW..

That the can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced?
Cans were opened with a hammer and chisel before the advent of can openers. The tin cannister, or can, was invented in 1810 by a Londoner, Peter Durand. The year before, French confectioner, Nicolas Appert, had introduced the method of canning food (as it became known) by sealing the food tightly inside a glass bottle or jar and then heating it. He could not explain why the food stayed fresh but his bright idea won him the 12,000-francs prize that Napoleon offered in 1795 for preserving food.

Tin canning was not widely adopted until 1846, when a method was invented to increase can production from 6 in an hour to 60. Still, there were no can openers yet and the products labels would read: "cut around on the top near to outer edge with a chisel and hammer."

The can opener was invented in 1858 by American Ezra Warnet. There also is a claim that Englishman Robert Yeates invented the can opener in 1855. But the can opener did not become popular until, ten years later, it was given away for free with canned beef.


Did you know?

Well..know you do:D

Back in Norway.

So I`m back in Norway.

DID YOU KNOW..

That tomato is the world's most popular fruit?

The tomato is the world's most popular fruit. And yes, just like the brinjal and the pumpkin, botanically speaking it is a fruit, not a vegetable. More than 60 million tons of tomatoes are produced per year, 16 million tons more than the second most popular fruit, the banana. Apples are the third most popular (36 million tons), then oranges (34 million tons) and watermelons (22 million tons).

DID YOU KNOW..

Eating with a fork considered scandalous!

Forks were first used in the Middle Ages, but eating with one was considered scandalous. In the 11th sentury, when a Greek princess died shortly after introducing forks at her wedding with a Venetian Doge (chief magistrate) Domenico Selvo, it was perceived as divine punishment.

While forks were a regular feature on the tables of nobles in Italy since the 11th Century, and used in France in the 14th Century, it was introduced in England only in 1611 by Thomas Coryat through his book "Coryat's Curdities Hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Savoy, Italy, &c." Even then, he was mocked about promoting the use of forks and called "Furcifer," meaning fork-bearer.

The upper classes of Spain were using forks in the 16th Century, as could be told from a large assortment of forks that were recovered from the wreck of La Girona, which sank off the coast of Ireland in 1588. In 1630, Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts had the first and only fork in colonial America.

So what did people eat with before using forks? They used wooden spoons, knifes and, of course, their hands.

Forks, mostly being two-tined, were known as "split spoons". Although there are examples of four- and five-tined forks from the before the 1600s, the four-tined fork became popular only in the late 1800s.

In Thailand, It is still considered scandalous to bring the food to your mouth with a fork; you only use the fork to bring the food in your spoon to eat it.

Witty Quotes.

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

- Will Rogers

DID YOU KNOW..

Why is a hamburger called a hamburger although it contains no ham?

During a trip to Asia in the early 1800s, a German merchant - it is said - noticed that the nomadic Tartars softened their meat by keeping it under their saddles. The motion of the horse pounded the meat to bits. The Tartars would then scrape it together and season it for eating. The idea of pounded beef found its way back to the merchant's home town of Hamburg where cooks broiled the meat and referred to it as it as Hamburg meat.

German immigrants introduced the recipe to the US. The term "hamburger" is believed to have appeared in 1834 on the menu from Delmonico's restaurant in New York but there is no surviving recipe for the meal. The first mention in print of "Hamburg steak" was made in 1884 in the Boston Evening Journal.

The honour of producing the first proper hamburger goes to Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, WI. In 1885 Nagreen introduced the American hamburger at the Outgamie County Fair in Seymour. (Seymour is recognised as the hamburger capital of the world.)

However, there is another claim to that throne. There is an account of Frank and Charles Menches who, also in 1885, went to the Hamburg, New York county fair to prepare their famous pork sausage sandwiches. But since the local meat market was out of pork sausage, they used ground beef instead. Alas, another hamburger.

The first account of serving ground meat patties on buns - taking on the look of the hamburger as we know it today - took place in 1904 at the St. Louis World Fair. But it was many years later, in 1921, that an enterprising cook from Wichita, Kansas, Walt Anderson, introduced the concept of the hamburger restaurant. He convinced financier Billy Ingram to invest $700 to create The White Castle hamburger chain. It was an instant success. The rest of the history, we might say, belongs to McDonald's.

And, no, a hamburger does not have any ham in it. Well, it's not supposed to. Hamburger meat usually is made of 70-80% beef, and fat and spices.

Why is a hotdog called a hotdog?

In 1987, Frankfurt, Germany celebrated the 500th birthday of the frankfurter, the hot dog sausage. Although, the people of Vienna (Wien), Austria will point out that their wiener sausages are proof of origin for the hot dog. (By the way, ham, being pork meat, is found in hotdogs.) According to Douglas B. Smith in his book "Every wonder why?" the hotdog was given its name by a cartoonist.

A butcher from Frankfurt who owned a dachshund named the long frankfurter sausage a "dachshund sausage," the dachshund being a slim dog with a long body. ("Dachshund" is German for "badger dog." They were originally bred for hunting badgers.) German immigrants introduced the dachshund sausage (and Hamburg meat) to the United States. In 1871, German butcher Charles Feltman opened the first "hotdog" stand in Coney Island in 1871, selling 3,684 dachshund sausages, most wrapped in a milk bread roll, during his first year in business.

In the meantime, frankfurters - and wieners - were sold as hot food by sausage sellers. In 1901, New York Times cartoonist T.A. Dargan noticed that one sausage seller used bread buns to handle the hot sausages after he burnt his fingers and decided to illustrate the incident. He wasn't sure of the spelling of dachshund and simply called it "hot dog."

Eating
Recipes for placing meat between slices of bread date back to Roman times. However, that was for steak, not minced meat. Thus, the steak burger is older than the hamburger!

Sausage is one of the oldest forms of processed food, having been mentioned in Homer's Odyssey in the 9th century BC.

The tongue is a muscle with glands, sensory cells, and fatty tissue that helps to moisten food with saliva. You cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For instance, if salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to identify it. As soon as saliva is added, the salt dissolves and the taste sensation takes place.

There are 4 basic tastes. The salt and sweet taste buds are at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the base, and sour along the sides.