Did You Know; Interesting facts, helpful hints and useful information.

Did you know, The number of the beast is 616 and not 666, so the next time you're in room 616 at your hotel, check under the bed or the next time you catch the no. 616 bus, check the driver hasn't got cloven hoofs for feet. Stay safe.

Bumper sticker spotted yesterday:

667
Neighbor of the Beast

Car wont start on a cold morning, batteries ok, just wont fire, could be your plugs. A little trick a mechanic showed me was spray WD40 on the spark plug caps, not the plugs themselves, on the caps and leads back to the distributor, soak em. Worked for me.

Out of date bumper sticker. The devils moved to 616.

You can tell the temperature by the length of a sleeping cat. Each kitty needs to be individually calibrated, but after that, the longer the cat - the higher the temperature.

How do you calibrate a kitty? Wait, Don't tell me.

Did You Know, Between 1860 and 1880, the illustrator Thomas Nast introduced Santa Claus as a jolly old man with a white beard and red outfit. He also invented the idea of Santa’s home-workshop, and Santa’s naughty-and-nice list. Being a talented caricaturist, Thomas Nast (1840 – 1902) also destroyed the Tweed Ring, a group of corrupt New York City politicians, through his newspaper and magazine cartoons. The ring was led by William Tweed, called Boss Tweed, who with his associates (including Mayor A. Oakey Hall) defrauded New York City of millions of dollars. Tweed also tried to bribe Nast to stop his relentless cartoon campaigns.
Tweed was convicted in 1873, served only one year in prison, was re-arrested in 1875 but escaped to Spain where he worked as a seaman. Someone recognized him from the famous cartoons and he was returned to the United States in 1876. He died in jail in 1878.
Nast’s Santa survived, and so did his other famous symbols: the elephant of the Republican Party (GOP or Grand Old Party) and the donkey of the Democratic Party.

Did You Know, 1910 to 2010.How times have changed! 100 years ago there were less than 20,000 motorcars in the whole world, a lot of them being electric cars. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph (16km/h). The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world, at 1063 ft (324 metres).Most women washed their hair only once a month using egg yolks for shampoo. Eggs cost about 10 cents per dozen. Cannabis and heroin were available over the counter at corner drugstores. And pneumonia and influenza were the leading causes of death.
In 1910, the population of the United States was 92 million and the world population was 1.7 billion people.

Today, there are more cars manufactured than their is demand for it. There are about 1 billion cars and light trucks on the road, half of them in the United States. The maximum speed limit in most cities is 30 mph, yet the traffic is so congested that the average speed is just over 10 mph. The tallest building is the Burj Dubai, at 2,640 ft (800 metres).
Women wash their hair on average once a week – using any of thousands of products. Eggs cost $2 per dozen on average. Cannabis is not available over the counter – bar a few countries – and is very expensive. And the leading causes of death are heart attacks, cancers, strokes, and motorcar accidents.
Today, the population of the United States numbers 300 million and almost 7 billion roam the earth.

Did You Know. All the planets in the solar system rotate anticlockwise, except one. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. Venus (radius 3,760.4 miles) is similar to Earth (radius 3,963.19 miles) in size and structure but spins very slowly; a day on Venus is 243 Earth days long.
Earth is the densest (5.515 g/cm3) planet in the solar system and the only one not named after a god. Earth orbits the sun at an average speed of 66,629 mph (107 229 km/h). One year on earth is 365.24 days long. One day is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4,06 seconds long. The extra day in a leap year was introduced to compensate for the discrepancy in the Georgian calendar.
It’s easy to remember the order of the eight planets with this line: My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos. The capital letters stand for the order of the planets, starting closest to the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
And remember too, that earth is not completely round; it is slightly pear-shaped. The North Pole radius is 44mm longer than the South Pole radius.

Did You Know, Bananas are the world’s most popular fruit after tomatoes. In western countries, they could account for 3% of a grocer’s total sales. Bananas consistently are the number one compliant of grocery shoppers. Most people complain when bananas are overripe or even freckled. The fact is that spotted bananas are sweeter, with a sugar content of more than 20%, compared with 3% in a green banana.

XMAS.
The word “Christmas” means “Mass of Christ,” later shortened to “Christ-Mass.” The even shorter form “Xmas” – first used in Europe in the 1500s – is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first letter of Christ’s name: Xristos, therefore “X-Mass.”

Today we know that Christ was not born on the 25th of December. The date was chosen to coincide with the pagan Roman celebrations honoring Saturnus (the harvest god) and Mithras (the ancient god of light), a form of sun worship. These celebrations came on or just after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, to announce that winter is not forever, that life continues, and an invitation to stay in good spirit.

XMAS.
December 26 was traditionally known as St. Stephen’s Day, after the first Christian martyr. It is now more commonly known as Boxing Day. This expression came about because money was collected in alms-boxes placed in churches during the festive season. This money was then distributed to the poor and needy after Christmas.

It is thought the Boxing Day was first observed in the Middle Ages. It found renewed popularity in the 19th Century when the lords and ladies of England presented gifts in boxes to their servants on December, 26 in appreciation of the work they had done over the Christmas celebrations.

If December 26 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, Boxing Day takes place on the Monday

His name was Christ? I didn't know that.

XMAS.
History of the Christmas tree
It is told that Saint Boniface, a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, England who established Christian churches in France and Germany in the 7th Century, one day came upon a group of pagans gathered around a big oak tree about to sacrifice a child to the god Thor. To stop the sacrifice and save the child’s life Boniface felled the tree with one mighty blow of his fist. In its place grew a small fir tree. The saint told the pagan worshipers that the tiny fir was the Tree of Life and stood for the eternal life of Christ.

It is also told that Saint Boniface used the triangular shape of the fir tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. By the 12th Century, Christmas trees were hung from ceilings as a symbol of Christianity. However, in that time, for a reason no one could yet explain, the trees were hung upside down.

Trees as symbols.
Trees were a symbol of life long before Christianity. Ancient Egyptians brought green palm branches into their homes on the shortest day of the year in December as a symbol of life’s triumph over death. Ancient Finns used sacred groves instead of temples. Romans adorned their homes with evergreens during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honour of Saturnus, their god of agriculture. Druid priests decorated oak trees with golden apples for their winter solstice festivities. During December in the Middle Ages, trees were hung with red apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve, and called the Paradise Tree.

The first Christmas trees.
The first reference of a fir tree decorated for Christmas is at Riga in Latvia in 1510. In 1521, the Princess Hlne de Mecklembourg introduced the Christmas tree to Paris after marrying the Duke of Orleans. There also is a printed reference to Christmas trees in Germany, dated 1531. Another famous reference, to 1601, is about a visitor to Strasbourg, Germany (now part of France) who noticed a family decorating a tree with “wafers and golden sugar-twists (barley sugar) and paper flowers of all colors.”

The Christmas tree was introduced to the United States by German settlers and by Hessian mercenaries paid to fight in the Revolutionary War. In 1804, US soldiers stationed at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) hauled trees from surrounding woods to their barracks.

Britain was introduced to the Christmas tree in 1841, when Queen Victoria’s German husband, Prince Albert brought a Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal family. The custom of of the Christmas tree spread quickly to the middle class, to working people, and throughout the colonies (where the Empire’s flag would sometimes top the tree).

Christmas tree decorations.
Trees were decorated with apples, cakes and candies for many centuries. Martin Luther was the first to use candles on trees in the late 16th Century. In 1842, Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees to the US in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) is said to be the first to have decorated a Christmas tree with candles to show children how the stars twinkled through the dark night.

In 1850s, German company Lauscha, based in Thuringia, began to produce shaped glass bead garlands for Christmas trees. They also introduced the Rauschgoldengel, the Tingled-angel’, dressed in pure gilded tin. The glass ornaments reached Britain in the 1870s, and North America around 1880. In 1882, ornaments were complimented by electric Christmas lights. Edward Johnson, a colleague of Thomas Edison, lit a Christmas tree with a string of 80 small electric light bulbs which he had made himself. By 1890, the Christmas light strings were mass-produced. By 1900, stores put up large illuminated trees to lure the customers.

When to put up the Christmas tree.
Traditionally, Christmas trees are put up 12 days before Christmas day, thus on the December 13th, and taken down 12 days after Christmas. But some put up the Christmas tree on December 6th in honor of the day Saint Nicholas died and take it down on Epiphany, January 6th. In Catholic tradition, Christmas trees are put up after noon on Christmas eve. Modern tradition is to put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving (which is the fourth Thursday in November), thus on Black Friday, one of the world’s busiest shopping days.

Christmas tree angels were introduced in the 1850s.

In 1851, Mark Carr hauled two sleds loaded with trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York and opened the first retail tree lot in the US.

The popular Goose Feather Tree was invented in the 1880s in Germany to combat the damage being done to fir trees at Christmas time. The first brush trees were created in the US by the Addis Brush Company. The Tom Smith Cracker Company – named after the inventor of Christmas crackers – also produced artificial Christmas trees for a while.

Every year since 1947 the people in Oslo have given a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster. The gift is an expression of goodwill and gratitude for Britain’s help to Norway during WWII.

The US tradition of National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn was started in 1923 by President Calvin Coolidge.

The legend of the tinsel on the Christmas tree tells about a woman who had to care for a large family of children after her husband died. One Christmas, she prepared a tree to surprise the children. But because she worked alone to bring food to the table, she often had to work late into the night. When she wanted to bring the Christmas tree out, she saw that spiders had made webs all over it, from branch to branch. The Christ Child saw it and to spare her from sorrow, He changed the spiders’ webs into shining silver

God loves a smart arse.

XMAS.
Mistletoe and Christmas holly.
When Balder, the son of the Norse goddess Frigga, was killed by an arrow made of mistletoe by Loki, and evil spirit, she wept tears of white berries which brought him back to life. Overjoyed, Frigga blessed the plant and bestowed to kiss all who passed beneath it.

Mistletoe was held sacred by the Norse, the Celtic Druids and the North American Indians. The Druid priests would cut mistletoe from an oak tree with a golden sickle. The branches had to be caught before they touched the ground. They then divided the branches into many sprigs and distributed them to the people, who hung them over doorways as protection against thunder, lightning and other evils. The folklore continued over the centuries. It was believed that a sprig placed in a baby’s cradle would protect the child from goblins. Giving a sprig to the first cow calving after New Year would protect the entire herd.

Holly was the sacred plant of Saturn and was used at the Roman Saturnalia festival to honor him. Romans gave one another holly wreaths and carried them about decorating images of Saturn with it. It was used as folk medicine for toothache, measles and dog bites.

Mistletoe and holly at Christmas.
To avoid persecution during the Roman pagan festival of Saturnalis, the early Christians decked their homes with Saturnalia holly. As Christian numbers increased and their customs prevailed, holly and mistletoe lost their pagan associations and became symbols of Christmas.

Peace and joy… and kisses.
Mistletoe is a symbol for peace and joy. The idea originated in the ancient times of the Druids: whenever enemies met under the mistletoe in the forest, they had to lay down their arms and observe a truce until the next day. From this comes the custom of hanging a ball of mistletoe from the ceiling and exchanging kisses under it as a sign of friendship and goodwill.
In the 18th Century, the exchanging of kisses between a man and a woman was adopted as a promise to marry. At Christmas a young lady standing under a ball of mistletoe cannot refuse to be kissed. The kiss could mean deep romance, lasting friendship and goodwill. It was believed that if the girl remained unkissed, she cannot expect to marry the following year.

About the mistletoe plant.
Mistletoe is a partial parasite, a “hemiparasite.” As a parasitic plant, it grows on the branches or trunk of a tree and actually sends out roots that penetrate into the tree and take up nutrients. It is also capable for growing on its own, producing its own food by photosynthesis.
There are two types of mistletoe. The European mistletoe (Viscum album) is a green shrub with small, yellow flowers and white, sticky berries which are considered poisonous. It commonly seen on apple trees, and sometimes on oak trees. The rarer oak mistletoe was greatly venerated by the ancient Celts and Germans and used as a ceremonial plant by early Europeans. The mistletoe found in North America (Phoradendron flavescens) grows as a parasite on trees from New Jersey to Florida.

Mistletoe was held sacred by ancient peoples. It was forbidden to fight in the presence of mistletoe. Eventually the tradition carried through as the Christmas slogan “Peace and Joy unto all men.’
In the Celtic language mistletoe means “all-heal.”
British bee farmers used to put sprigs of mistletoe on their beehives. They believed the bees hummed in honour of the Christ Child.
In France, the custom linked to mistletoe was reserved for New Year’s Day. Today, kisses can be exchanged under the mistletoe any time during the holiday season.
To avoid persecution during Roman pagan festivals, early Christians decked their homes with holly.
Druids wore sprigs of holly in their hair when they went into the forest to watch their priests cut their sacred mistletoe.
The English had the “he holly and the she holly” as being the determining factor in who will rule the household in the following year. The “she holly” have smooth leaves and the “he holly” prickly ones.
The common name of the mistletoe is derived from bird droppings. “Mistel” is the Anglo-Saxon word for “dung,” and “tan” is the word for “twig.” So, mistletoe means “dung-on-a-twig.” (!)

XMAS.
Afrikaans- Geseënde Kersfees
Albanian- Gezur Krislinjden
Arabic- Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Armenian- Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri- Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Bahasa Malaysia- Selamat Hari Natal
Basque- Zorionak eta Urte Berri On
Bengali- Shuvo Naba Barsha
Bohemian- Vesele Vanoce
Breton- Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian- Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Catalan- Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou
Chinese (Cantonese)- Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun
Chinese (Mandarin)- Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
Choctaw- Yukpa, Nitak Hollo Chito
Comish- Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Corsian- Pace e salute
Crazanian- Rot Yikji Dol La Roo
Cree- Mitho Makosi Kesikansi
Croatian- Sretan Bozic
Czech- Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish- Glredelig Jul
Duri- Christmas-e- Shoma Mobarak
Dutch- Vrolijk Kerstfeest
English- Merry Christmas
Eritfean/ Tigrinja- Rehus- Beal- Ledeats
Eskimo (Inupik)- Jutdlime pivdluarit ukiortame pivdluaritlo
Esperanto- Gajan Kristnaskon
Estonian- Ruumsaid juuluplhi
Faeroese- Gledhiligjol og eydnurikt nyggjar
Farsi:- Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Finnish- Hyvaajoulua
Flemish- Zalig Kerstfeest
French- Joyeux Noel
Frisian- Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
Galician- Bo Nada
Gaelic- Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ur!
German- Froehliche Weihnachten
Greek- Kala Christouyenna
Hausa- Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara
Hawaiian- Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew- Mo’adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi- Shub Naya Baras
Hawaian- Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou
Hungarian- Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic- Gledileg Jol
Indonesian (Bahasa)- Selamat Hari Natal
Irish- Nollaig Shona Dhuit or Nodlaig mhaith chugnat
Iroquois- Ojenyunyat Sungwiyadeson honungradon nagwutut or Ojenyunyat osrasay
Italian- Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese- Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Korean- Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latin- Natale hilare et Annum Faustum
Latvian- Prieci’gus Ziemsve’tkus un Laimi’gu Jauno Gadu
Lausitzian- Wjesole hody a strowe nowe leto
Lettish- Priecigus Ziemassvetkus
Lithuanian- Linksmu Kaledu
Macedonian- Sreken Bozhik
Maltese- LL Milied Lt-tajjeb
Manx- Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Maori- Meri Kirihimete
Marathi- Shub Naya Varsh
Navajo- Merry Keshmish
Norwegian- God Jul, or Gledelig Jul
Occitan- Pulit nadal e bona annado
Papiamento- Bon Pasco
Philipines- Maligayan Pasko
Polish- Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie
Portuguese- Feliz Natal or Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo
Pushto- Christmas Aao Ne-way Kaal Mo Mobarak Sha
Rapa-Nui (Easter Island)- Mata-Ki- Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O- Te-Henua
Rhetian- Bellas festas da nadal e bun onn
Romanche (sursilvan dialect)- Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn
Romanian- Sarbatori vesele
Russian- Srozhdestvom Kristovym
Sami- Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan- La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Sardinian- Bonu nadale e prosperu annu nou
Serbian- Hristos se rodi
Slovakian- Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Samoan- La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Scots Gaelic- Nollaig chridheil huibh
Singhalese- Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak- Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene- Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto
Spanish- Feliz Navidad
Swedish- God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt Ar
Tagalog- Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
Tami- Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
Trukeese (Micronesian)- Neekiriisimas annim 00 iyer seefe feyiyeech
Thai- Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish- Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian- Srozhdestvom Kristovym
Urdu- Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese- Chung Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh- Nadolig Llawen


TO YOU ALL.

G'DAY. The kangaroo is an animal from Australia that is truly one of the most unique animals in the world. This is a type of animal that is noted for living in dry places and is noted for how it hops around the land with its long feet and large back legs.
The kangaroo received its name from the Aboriginal word "gungurru." English settlers in the area used that word but had been pronouncing it as "kangaroo." Many settlers thought they were originally deer who hopped like frogs, had no antlers and could stand up. They were also confused about how females had their children in their pouches.
A number of names are used for the kangaroo to this day. A male can be referred to as a jack, boomer, buck or old man. A female can be called a jill, flyer or doe. A younger kangaroo is called a joey regardless of its gender. Also, when multiple kangaroos move around with each other the group is referred to as a mob or court.
Kangaroos are marsupials that are also known as macropods who have large feet. Their large feet work alongside their long legs. When a kangaroo moves it will hop on its back legs with its large and strong tail working to balance the animal's body. This method of travel is valuable for long distances.
The front legs are several times smaller than that of the back legs. Because of this the motions that a kangaroo will make when moving slowly or when grazing for grass will work differently. The front legs and the tail will keep the kangaroo propped up while the back legs slowly go forward. This works in a process known as crawl walking.
Another interesting kangaroo fact is that it is a strong swimmer. If a kangaroo feels threatened it will move into a body of water for protection. Its front legs can work in self defense to hold predators down to drown them in the event of an attack. In some cases the kangaroo can grab the predator and destroy the predator with its hind legs.
The diet that a kangaroo has works mostly with grass and other plants. Water is also common but a kangaroo can go for days without it. However, in the event of a drought it can get to where a kangaroo can clash into various parks and farming areas for water, thus putting it at risk of being culled. This is where the kangaroo is killed off in a population control measure.
Kangaroos have a unique eating habit. Kangaroos eat early in the morning and late in the afternoon. They also rest in shady areas during the day. In many cases a kangaroo can use its front legs to scrape an area of the ground and use the newly revealed cool spot as a place to lie down in. This is especially critical because of how a kangaroo will not sweat. A kangaroo can cool itself off by licking its paws and rubbing them onto its chest.
Many of these animals can travel in mobs. Tens of them can be found in a single mob. This is critical because having more kangaroos in a mob will ensure that all members can be protected. This is especially in the event that a dingo, fox or feral cat or dog is present in the area.
One of the most unique facts of kangaroos is the birthing process. During the gestation process the joey can develop but then stop and be "in suspense" before it can develop again. When a female gives birth the joey will be less than two grams in weight. The joey will climb into the mother's pouch for protection. The joey will stay in the area for about nine months. The mother cannot touch it so she will have to lick a path in her fur along for the joey to move in.
The milk from the mother will move to the joey and after nine months the joey will move out for an extended amount of time. After a while it can get to the point where the joey no longer needs the mother's milk.
In many cases the female can delay the development of a baby. This is if there is a drought condition. This is done to ensure that the mother has enough milk and that water conditions will improve.
A unique part about a kangaroo is that it can come in one of three different forms. The first is the red kangaroo. This is the larger type of kangaroo that features a red color for a male and a grey color for a female. A male can be 1.5m long and have a 1m tail while weighing 85kg. A female will be slightly smaller than this. These animals can be found in central parts of Australia in areas that are flat and hot with a small amount of rainfall.
The second type of kangaroo is the grey kangaroo. This animal is not as large as a red kangaroo and it has a grayish brown appearance. Most of these animals can be found around the eastern part of the country.
The third kangaroo to see is the tree kangaroo. This type of kangaroo can be found in tropical parts of Australia and Papua New Guinea. This kangaroo is different in that it lives in trees. The tail of a tree kangaroo will work to keep the animal properly balanced as it hops between branches. Also, the tails of these kangaroos are floppy and will hang down. They are not stiff like what regular kangaroos have.
The front paws of a tree kangaroo can be raised above the animal's head unlike with a normal kangaroo. This is used to ensure that the tree kangaroo can navigate around trees. These paws are also very flexible. They are flexible enough to where they can be used to move food to one's mouth in order to be fed properly. These features make this type of animal one of the most unique animals to see in the world.

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

W.B. Yeats