Infinitely CRAZY: December 2007

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Thirteen Closest Star Systems to the Earth

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 1:11 PM 10 comments

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Whaddaya see??? #2 - Wordless Wednesday

What do you see??

---------/ ;;;; \ ____----- .;;.
--------|;(;;;-""-------`'-.,';;;;;\
---------\;'-------------------';;);/
--------/------------------------\;'
-------/------.;.-------.;.--------\
------|------;;o;;----;;o;;------|
------ ;----- '"-'`----`'-"'----- /
------/\-----------._. ---------/
-----;;;;;;_-----,_Y_,---- _.'
----/;;;;;;;\-`---.___.--- ';.
---/|;;;;;;;;;.__.;;;.-------\\
--; -\ ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;\------;\__--.;.
--|-----';;;;;;;;;;=;;;;'-------|-__;;;;/
--|-------`""`- .------._-----/;/;;\;;/
-/ ;------------/;;;;;;;-;/;;;;;;;/--|;/
-\_,\----------|;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;|-|

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 5:36 AM 16 comments

Thursday, December 20, 2007

TT - Sigh...Even More Alcohol Trivia

Alcohol consumption decreases during the time of the full moon.
Drinking lowers rather than raises the body temperature. There is an illusion of increased heat because alcohol causes the capillaries to dilate and fill with more warm blood.
Rhode Island never ratified the 18 Amendment establishing Prohibition.
"Whiskey" is the international aviation word used to represent the letter "w."
Most vegetable, and virtually all fruit juices, contain alcohol.
There are 83 dry towns and villages in Alaska.
In West Virginia, bars can advertise alcohol beverage prices, but not brand names.
There is a cloud of alcohol in outer space with enough alcohol to make four trillion-trillion drinks. It's free for the taking. . . but it's 10,000 light years away from Earth.
The Mayflower, well-known for bringing the Pilgrims to the New World, ordinarily transported alcohol beverage between Spain and England.
Wine has about the same number of calories as an equal amount of grape juice.
Johnny Appleseed probably distributed apple seeds across the American frontier so that people could make fermented apple juice ("hard" cider) rather than eat apples.

White wine gets darker as it ages while red wine gets lighter.
"There's no free lunch." Pennsylvania outlawed free lunches in 1917 to prevent taverns from giving free sandwiches to customers who bought beer to drink with them. This led some shop keepers to sell sandwiches and give away the beer.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 4:34 AM 10 comments

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

WW - Cool Magazine Illusions II

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 4:42 AM 3 comments

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Thursday Thirteen - Yet More China Facts

In 550 AD, two Chinese monks smuggled silkworms out of China and started the western world's silk boom.

Shi Huang-Ti was the first emperor of China and founder of the Qin dynasty. Had he been a European ruler, he would likely be considered great today. The Chinese, on the other hand, have given him a black reputation for his ruthlessness, his massive conscription of labour, his wars, his harsh laws, and his burning of books in 213 B.C. [ China | Royalty ]

Chinese Emperor Shi Huang-Ti built a network of 270 palaces, linked by tunnels, and was ao afraid of assassination that he slept in a different palace each night.

In 213 B.C., the Chinese emperor Shi Huang-ti ordered the burning of all of China's books, except for a select few on subjects such as agriculture and medicine. He ordered the burning because people used several of those writings to criticise the emperor, and also because Shi Huang-Ti styled himself as the "First Emperor". Vast numbers of valuable works were lost and it was only through the efforts of a few brave teachers and scholars that any of the earlier literature of China survived. It was nearly 150 years before it was safe to bring the surviving books from their hiding place. [ China | Royalty ]

The Ch'in Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) buried alive many scholars in its programme to suppress learning and Confucianism.

A terracotta army of six thousand men and horses was buried with Shi Huang-Ti, China's first emperor, at Xianyang.

The purpose of the Great Wall of China, the monumental fortification separating China from Mongolia, was not especially to keep out the Huns from the north. The Huns could easily find places along the stretch that they could scale with ladders. But they couldn't get their horses across. Without their horses, they weren't very effective warriors.

The Chinese physician Hua T'o, born sometime between 140 and 150 A.D., was the first doctor known to perform surgery under general anaesthetic. The potion used to render his patients unconscious was a mixture of hemp and strong wine called ma fei san. Prior to the communist revolution, a national holiday commemorated his birth. [ China | Medicine ]

The Sui, who ruled China briefly around 600 A.D., devoted much of their reign to constructing the Grand Canal, a waterway 100 feet wide, lined with roads and trees, and stretching for 1,000 miles. The canal was completed in less than 25 years, at a terrible cost in human life. Almost 5.5 million people were involved in the construction, and it has been estimated that 2.5 million died due to the harshness of the working conditions. The canal, extending from Peking to Hangchow, is as navigable today as when it was built almost 1,400 years ago.

Fingerprinting was used in China as early as 700 A.D.

Liu Ch'ing, who became the governor of China's Shansi province in 955 A.D., was born with two pupils in each eye.

The brightest astronomical event in historic times was the supernova of 1054, which produced the Crab Nebula. The supernova was far brighter than Venus. It was bright enough to be visible in daylight and to cast a shadow at night. We know of it through the astronomical records of China, Japan, and the Middle East.

In Kublai Khan's China, anyone who had crops struck by lightning was excused taxes for three years. This was not selfless charity, as the Chinese believed that lightning was a sign of God's disapproval. So, if the Khan had accepted money from someone who had incurred God's wrath, he could have brought ill fortune upon himself.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 4:18 AM 12 comments

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

WW - High Speed Photography - 3

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 6:40 PM 19 comments

Thursday, December 6, 2007

TT - MORE Alcohol Trivia

During World War II, a group of alpine soldiers who were stranded in mountain snows survived for an entire month on nothing but a cask of sherry.
White lightning is a name for illegally-distilled spirits. All spirits are clear or "white" until aged in charred oak barrels. Moonshiners skip the aging process to reduce risk of arrest, hence the name of their product. Moonshining is profitable because the taxes on legally-produced spirits are so high.
It is estimated that the federal government takes in 14 times more in taxes on distilled spirits than producers of the products earn making them. That does not include what states and localities additionally take in taxes on the same products.
President Jimmy Carter's mother said "I'm a Christian, but that doesn't mean I'm a long-faced square. I like a little bourbon."
President Thomas Jefferson was the new U.S nation's first wine expert.
It's impossible to create a beverage of over 18% alcohol by fermentation alone.
Temperance activists, who strongly opposed the consumption of alcohol, typically consumed patent medicines that, just like whiskey, generally contained 40% alcohol!
In Malaysia, drunk drivers are jailed and so are their spouses.
Spectators at Indy car races consume more blush wine than the average American, according to interviews of 200,000 adults in the top 75 markets. The inteviews also found that golfers drink domestic beer 64% more often than imported beer and that attendees of R&B, rap or hip-hop concerts are 94% more likely than the average person to drink champagne.
The word "liquor" is prohibited on storefronts in some states of the U.S.
Letters from “drink to your health” can be used to spell “ideal heart diet.” Drinking alcohol in moderation reduces the risk of heart disease by an average of about 40%.
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the US, stated that "It has long been recognized that the problems with alcohol relate not to the use of a bad thing, but to the abuse of a good thing."
Beer and Bras. British men have been found twice as likely to know the price of their beer as their partner's bra size. A poll reported in Britain's Prima magazine found that 77% of males knew how much their beer costs but only 38% knew the correct size of ther mate's bra.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 4:35 AM 21 comments