Reason for Rainbows

My home is located at the lowermost of a huge mountain – the past few weeks, the weather’s been rather gloomy, raining most of the time. However, this morning, when I woke up, I saw a big rainbow starting near my house, and ending somewhere hidden at the back of the mountain. I was fascinated by the colours; but, I had forgotten how rainbows were made – I recalled something about crystals and reflections, but I couldn’t remember the entire explanation. Hence, I decided to search for the answer, and write an entry explaining the process.

Rainbows are formed after rain has poured through the sky, and many water droplets remain in the air. Sunlight is able to enter the water droplet, which causes the light to bend. As light reflects off from the inside of the droplet, it exits back out to your eyes. As the light is bended inside the water droplets, it is broken down into seven colours. An entire rainbow is many water droplets and the sunlight working together to make seven wonderful colours in the following order – red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, purple.

Picture from climate.met.psu.edu

There are two types of rainbows: primary rainbows and secondary rainbows. Primary rainbows are the most common – they are the rainbows you usually see in the sky after it rains. A secondary rainbow is the second, fainter, and higher up rainbow you sometimes see; they are caused due to the light being reflected twice within a raindrop. These rainbows are very rare.

To finish off – here is a youtube link of a man finding a double rainbow and crying over the intensity of it. The video is hilarious – especially considering that this was not a joke, the man did cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

Hope you enjoyed this mini lesson on rainbows! J

Izzie 

Unusual Facts About Animals

Greetings fellow bloggers!

These past few days I’ve realized that it’s been a LONG time since I’ve last gone to the zoo. I can’t even remember when was the last time I’ve seen elephants, giraffes, monkeys, hippopotamus, (and the list goes on and on). I’ve almost forgotten how they look in real life – I still remember their general shape and look, I’ve just forgotten little details which make each animal special and unique, such as their height, the feel of their skin, and all these minor but meaningful features. I remember how much I loved going to see these animals, and how curious I used to become, carefully observing every movement the strange creatures in front of me made. In honor of these great memories, I decided to write an entry regarding unusual facts about different kinds of animals.

While searching for facts, I reached a website with the following url: http://www.talladam.com. The creator of this site is called Adam Whitehead; he is a wonderful artist/illustrator who creates pictures which are based on facts regarding many themes. From his large collection, I’ve chosen a few of my favorites images (about animals) which I will add to this blog post. However, the credit is all his.

Penguins are the only birds that can 

                                SWIM 

                                      but can't 

                                              FLY 

Cows produce more milk when

                                    LISTENING 

                                      to 

                                              MUSIC

Elephants are the ONLY mammals that 

          cannot 

                 JuMp

A duck's quack doesn't

                       echo

                           (echo)

                                (echo)

                                     (echo) 

                                           ...

The ONLY animal that can get a suntan is the....... PIG

Sheep can 

         RECOGNIZE

                   other sheep from 

                             PHOTOS             

There you have it - the funnest and most unknown info about animals. 

Hope you enjoyed! :) 

Izzie

Useless Products to Promote - Slippers

Hello fellow bloggers!

While watching commercials on TV, I’ve realized that there are SO many useless products out there which people desperately try to promote. Sometimes I wonder who would even buy them. Some are so pointless, and seem to be so plainly stupid. There’s where the idea for this entry surged up. This entry will be about one of the products that annoy me the most – tacky and pointless slippers.

Cockroach squatting slippers – what a ridiculous product! Who would walk around in slippers which have actual handles in case one sees a cockroach? If you notice on the small picture on the top right corner, there actually is a version of these slippers with a handle which looks awfully long. Wouldn’t people fall over by hitting a table or something when walking around? I find it extremely uncomfortable and disturbing, and I also believe that they could’ve done a better job in choosing a better material or nicer colors –

 hemmy.net

Ok so – USB heated slippers. Firstly, by what I read on the product description at myownspunk.com , the wire is extremely short. The slippers are also stuck together as one. I imagine it would be incredibly hard to move with these on – you would have a hard time plunging for something around the computer. Plus, it takes two USB slots (one for every slipper) which means you would be left with barely any left. You wouldn’t be able to move around with these slippers.  

myownspunk.com

Magnetic slippers – this I find super annoying since when you walk, your slippers might come together and cause you to fall. I find it extremely useless – I’m not that sure for what precisely these slippers could be used, but inventorspot.com states that magnets are placed so that when you put them away in your closet, they look straight. I don’t know what is the point of having slippers which look good on your closet? Aren’t slippers made for you to walk and feel comfortable in? I think this invention is useless because it forgot the point of slippers – plus, I believe it is very ugly.

Inventorspot.com

Someone extremely lazy must’ve invented these slippers – just look at them! Dust mop slippers – pick up dirt and dust as you are walking around. Their slogan is Dust While You Walk – I don’t know why but they simply don’t convince me – apart from the awful presentation, I don’t think it must work that well.

socialmarketplace.com.edu

Lighted slippers – who knows, maybe it will save you from falling when you need a glass of water in the middle of the night. What concerns me is the height of the light – it seems to be extremely low to actually illuminate the way. And I also don’t think the light is very potent. It also seems as if the slippers are very uncomfortable seeing that they have a block of plastic underneath so that the light can be stored there. 

damncoolpics.blogspot.com

These are it for today – useless and rather failed slipper inventions. Hope you enjoyed!

Izzie 

The Story Behind the Heart Shape

When we think about a heart, automatically a sort-of-apple-shaped image pops into our head. This somewhat strange shape has become the universal symbol for love and affection.

Which leads me to my primary question: why? How has this completely funny-looking shape become the worldwide emblem for love? How can some amorphous shape be a heart when, in no way, shape, or form, can it even be remotely compared to a human heart?

There are two main theories telling about the emergence of the heart-form.

A handful of ancient and modern believe that the heart contains all human passion. Thus, for centuries, the heart has been given the connotation of feelings and emotions, overall encompassing love.



Cattle's Heart



First theory – surprisingly, a cattle heart is very similar to the hand-drawn heart shape we see today. In the past centuries, cattle hearts were more readily available in sight than actual human ones. Thus, the image of a heart might have arisen from a model of a cattle’s heart.  

Second theory – this theory tells that the heart-shape might’ve derived from a seed of the Silphium plant. Despite being extinct for 2 millennia, it was very important to the people of the ancient city of Cyrene seven-hundred years before the birth of Christ. The plant was widely used for seasoning, yet its most common use in Ancient Egypt was as a contraceptive. This seed was very important to their economy – thus, the image of the seed was depicted on their coins, the shape being the one as our current heart image. It is also said that due to the seed’s use as a contraceptive, the seed became closely associated with sexuality, which eventually became romantic love.

These are the two most widely accepted theories of why we see a heart the way we do. Hope you enjoyed it!

Izzie

Chinese Fortune Cookies

Chinese fortune cookies are globally famous for their messages predicting the future – some messages are incredibly touching, while others are of absolute no use. This entry focuses on those pointless Chinese fortune cookie messages which reveal absolutely nothing.

Matter-of-factly written – makes Chinese food seem better health-wise then what it actually is – it is more of an advertisement than a fortune

Rather dramatic – though I can’t quite understand what a German proverb does in a Chinese fortune cookie

Straight-forward and, I must say, rather insulting

Utterly disappointing and pointless  

Too mysterious for my taste

Completely hermetic and meaningless

This fortune message states the obvious – why would you ever listen with your eyes in the first place?

  

Rather useless – why would one want to smell the inside of a hat? 

Emm… random and slightly off topic

I hope you enjoyed reading these failed fortune cookie messages – should you want to read more messages, here is the link to a fortune cookie game, which tells you your luck after you click on the cookie – you can try it out as many times as you desire - http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/chinese/games/fortune_cookie/cookie.htm

To rap up, here is a fortune cookie which particularly fits in with this entry

Eh… What’s Up, Doc?

Cartoons – we can find them for all tastes – they’ve made us laugh and, more important, they’ve widened our imagination. Today’s entry is a homage to all those memorable cartoons .

• Mickey Mouse’s name was originally Mortimer
• Donald Duck’s twin sister’s name is Della Thelma Duck
• The irony of Mickey Mouse’s creation is that Walt Disney was in fact afraid of mice

      Over the door at Pooh’s house there is a sign which says “Mr. Sanders” , which is the name of the person who resided at this very address before Pooh moved in

         The first non-human to win an Oscar was Mickey Mouse

• Donald Duck’s middle name is Fauntleroy
• 
  Donald Duck’s father’s name is Quackmore Duck, and his mother’s name is Hortense McDuck 

• Every food Shaggy (from Scooby Doo) has ever eaten on the show is meatless
• Shaggy’s real name is Norville Rogers
• Velma is only 15 years old and, hence, cannot drive the Mystery Machine
• The Flintstones, originally supposed to be called the Flagstones, wasn’t always a family friendly show – it was created in 1960 for a more adult audience for its portrayal of marriage (you see, this is the first animated program to show two characters of the opposite sex sleeping together in one bed)
• 
  

  

  The furniture in the Flintstones’ house changes almost every episode, and Dino, the family’s pet dinosaur, changes colors throughout the show’s history

Hoped you enjoyed these rarely known facts about these great cartoons –

I’ll try to find more info on cartoons and post them up in following entries.

Izzie

Pictures from - indycarnation.indycar.com, ultimatedisney.com, procultura10.blogspot.com, cartooncharacters.onsugar.com

Happy New Year

Greetings fellow bloggers!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and a relaxing vacation! I still can’t believe we’re in 2011 – it seems as if the past year flew away!

The Chinese, as most of you already know, name each year after an animal according to their legend of the animal race. This year, the chosen animal is…

THE RABBIT!

In honor of 2011, this entry will comprise utterly useless information about rabbits:

·         Rabbits love licorice.

·         Rabbits digest their food twice because they don’t acquire enough nutrients the first time. This is due to their need of a high bacterial count in their stomach – which, if you haven’t yet guessed, they get from eating their excrements. (If you’ve ever eaten rabbit meat, I’m sorry to reveal this piece of information).

·         Rabbits cannot vomit.

·         Rabbits have 14 toenails – 4 on each of their back feet, and 5 on each of their front feet. 

·         Rabbits can look behind without turning their heads.

·         Rabbits can suffer from heat strokes.

·         Rabbits can’t sweat.

I hope you find these useless facts compelling – Happy 2011, and a blissful year of the Rabbit to all!

Izzie