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Did You Know? Blog Post Series

Did You Know? (Part 6 – Technology)

By Technology, The WebNo Comments
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Did You Know?

 This is the sixth and final in a series of Did You Know? blog posts. Each blog post gives fascinating facts on a particular topic. In part 1 the topic was science. In part 2 the topic was history. In part 3 the topic was geography. In part 4 the topics were art & music. In part 5 the topic was animals.

Today, I give you ten facts about Technology:

1. The first mobile phone call was made by Martin Cooper in 1973.

2. The first iPhone was released in the UK in 2007. Today there are more than 682m iPhones in the world.

3. Alan Turing is most well-known for being an excellent code-breaker in World War 2. He happened to be gay and was castrated by the UK state for his sexuality. But he also proposed founding theories about how to make computers work and computer science.

4. The World Wide Web (WWW) was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. Today £1.7trillion is spent online in a year, 3m emails are sent every second (mostly SPAM) and there is countless amounts of data on the internet.

5. The X-ray was invented by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1895. The idea for the CT (Computed Tomography) scanner was first imagined by Godfrey Hounsfield in 1969. Hounsfield presented his idea to Dr. James Ambrose and they worked together to make his idea a reality. The MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner was developed by a number of people. The X-ray, CT scanner and MRI scanner have all revolutionised medicine, by allowing doctors insight to what it going on in a patient’s body, without the need for invasive surgery.

6. Google deals with 1 billion searches a day.

7. Someone using a computer will blink 7 times a minute, rather than the normal 20 times a minute. This is because they are concentrating more on the screen.

8. Technology of Sci-Fi TV shows and films is now becoming a reality. For example, in Star Trek computers respond to verbal commands and its responses were relatively intelligent. Today we have Siri (Apple), Alexa (Amazon), Contina (Windows) and Android Voice Commands (Google/Android).

9. The operating system Linux is huge across servers, computers, tablets and smartphones. The chances are you use it without even realising. Linux is on every Android device, along with being on most serves (computers that host websites) in the world. Facebook, Google and Pinterest all run on Linux servers.

10. The people at Wired.com were the first to come up with banner advertisements, which are now used on most commercial websites.

Write soon,

Antony

References
Know Your Mobile – The History of Mobile Phones From 1973 To 2008: The Handsets That Made It ALL Happen
BBC News – Apple iPhone debuts in UK stores
{Life} Buzz – 25 Things You Didn’t Know About Technology… Almost No One Knows About #7.
Alan Turing: The Enigma
The Daily Beast – The Castration of Alan Turing, Britain’s Code-Breaking WWII Hero
Computer Hope – When was the first computer invented?
World Wide Web Foundation – History of the Web
Sunday Express – Top ten facts about…the internet
How Stuff Works – Science – Who invented the X-ray?
Eureka – When Hounsfield Met Ambrose, The Invention of Computed Tomography
Thought Co. – Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI
Did you know? Technology fast facts
Techlila – 32 Computer Facts and Interesting Facts About Technology
The Guardian – Technology – Voice Recognition
WIRED – Linux Took Over The Web. Now, It’s Taking Over The World

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Monday 21 August 2017

Did You Know? (Part 5 – Animals)

By The WebNo Comments
did-you-know

Did You Know?

 This is the fifth in a series of Did You Know? blog posts. Each blog post will gives fascinating facts on a particular topic. In part 1 the topic was science. In part 2 the topic was history. In part 3 the topic was geography. In part 4 the topics were art & music.

Today, I give you ten facts about Animals:

1. Cats domesticated themselves around 10,000 years ago. Dogs are thought to be the first animal domesticated by humans also around 10,000 years ago.

2. Elephants have the longest gestation period among mammals lasting nearly 2 years. However the spiny dogfish shark gestation period tops the elephant at 3.5 years, as does the black alpine salamander with a gestation period of 2-3 years.

3. Animals with the shortest gestation period include: koala (34-36 days), squirrel (about 40 days) and a number of animals that have a 60-62 day gestation period.

4. The largest bat colony is believed to have 20m bats and is in Bracken Cave, Texas, USA.

5. Bees taste with their feet.

6. Octopi each have 9 brains, 3 hearts, blue blood and are about 90% muscle.

7. Dolphins can sleep half a brain at a time, meaning they can be active for 15 or more days.

8. Seahorse males carry fertilised eggs and give birth to hundreds of baby seahorses per time.

9. Ants never sleep and don’t have lungs. There are 1 million ants for every 1 human in the world.

10. Flamingos can only eat when their head is upside down.

Write soon,

Antony

References
The Nest – How Long Have Dogs & Cats Been Domesticated?
Mother Nature Network – 12 animals with the longest gestation period
Info.com – Which mammals have the shortest and longest gestation periods?
BuzzFeed – 47 Surprising Facts About Animals
The Daily Catch – An Octopus has 3 Hearts, 9 Brains & Blue Blood
List 25 – 25 Amazing Facts You Didn’t Know About Animals
The Fact Site – 300 Random Animal Facts

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Monday 14 August 2017

Did You Know? (Part 4 – Art & Music)

By The WebNo Comments
did-you-know

Did You Know?

 This is the fourth in a series of Did You Know? blog posts. Each blog post will gives fascinating facts on a particular topic. In part 1 the topic was science. In part 2 the topic was history. In part 3 the topic was geography.

Today, I give you ten facts about Music & Art:

1. Vincent van Gogh produced his masterpiece Starry Night while admitted in a mental hospital.

2. Leonardo da Vinci completed the world’s most famous painting Mona Lisa from 1503 or 1504 to 1519. It is thought that Leonardo da Vinci could have been gay. He was 24 years old when he, along with several other men, were charged with sodomy. But the charges were dropped when no witnesses came forward.

3. Michelangelo is most famous for The Sistine Chapel ceiling, which it took him around 4 years to complete. But he was also a wordsmith. He created several hundred sonnets and madrigals in his lifetime.

4. Picasso was perhaps the most prolific creator of all time. During his 91 years of life he created: 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints, 34,000 book illustrations and 300 sculptures/ceramics.

5. The top three best selling singles of all time are White Christmas by Bing Crosby, Candle in the Wind by Sir Elton John and Silent night, holy night by Bing Crosby.

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6. Mozart was a musical genius. He wrote half of his total symphonies between 8 years old and 19 years old. Mozart could listen to a piece of music once and write it down from memory without any mistakes. He died aged 36, successful in the creation of music, but without any money.

7. Beethoven performed for Mozart when he was 17 years old in Vienna. Mozart was notoriously unimpressed by other musicians, but apparently was impressed with Beethoven. No one really knows what happened at that meeting, but the myth says that Mozart left the room stating: “Keep your eyes on him—someday he’ll give the world something to talk about.”

8. Around 26 years old Beethoven began losing his hearing. He tried to keep the fact that he was loosing his hearing a secret. He was totally deaf by 44 years old. Beethoven used his memory of sound and imagination of how music could sound to continue producing music after becoming totally deaf.

9. Classical music helps plants grow faster, according to a 2007 study.

10. Art and music, along with eating and sex all increase serotonin (the happiness chemical) and dopamine (the motivation chemical) in the brain.

Write soon,

Antony

References
Degreed – Top 10 Facts About Vincent van Gogh
MostToday – 10 Most Famous Paintings In The World
Live Science – 5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Leonardo da Vinci
Italian Renaissance – Michelangelo’s Painting of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling
History Stories – 9 Things You May Not Know About Michelangelo
Biography – Pablo Picasso
Picasso Mio – Picasso – How many artworks did Picasso create in his life time?
Express – TOP 20 best selling singles of all time
FactRetriever – 69 Interesting Facts about Mozart
Mental Floss – 19 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Beethoven
Classic FM – So if Beethoven was completely deaf, how did he compose?
Knowable – 27 Rarely Known Facts About Music And The Music Industry.

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Tuesday 8 August 2017

Did You Know? (Part 3 – Geography)

By The Web2 Comments
did-you-know

Did You Know?

 This is the third in a series of Did You Know? blog posts. Each blog post gives ten fascinating facts on a particular topic. In part 1 the topic was science. In part 2 the topic was history.

Today, I give you ten facts about Geography:

1. Africa is the only continent that is in all 4 hemispheres: North, South, East and West.

2. Canada has half of all natural lakes in the world.

3. At 8, 848 metres (29, 029 feet), Mount Everest is the world’s highest mountain.

4. Out of the highest 25 peaks in the world, 19 are in the Himalayas.

5. Every continent has a city called Rome, apart from Antartica.

6. The Antartica ice cap has 29m cubic kilometres of ice and represents 90% of all the ice on the planet.

7. Australia is wider than the moon.

8. The UK has over 100 small islands around it.

9. The Dead Sea is made up of 33.7% salt, an unusually high concentration, and it is this that allows people to easily float due to natural buoyancy.

10. Russia is the largest country in the world covering an area of 17,075,400 square kilometres.

Write soon,

Antony

References
Mental Floss – 11 Weird and Wacky Geography Facts
Scoop Whoop – 18 Interesting Geographical Facts You Probably Had No Idea About
Live Science – Mount Everest: World’s Highest Mountain
Cool Antarctica – Antarctica Facts
Fun Facts About the Antarctic
Travel + Leisure – 12 geography facts that will blow your mind
ThoughtCo. – Geography of England
Twisted Sifter – 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Dead Sea
Friendly Local Guides – 17 Interesting Facts about Russian Geography

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Tuesday 1 August 2017
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