Interesting Facts About Soap

• Soap has been made for at least the last 2000 years in some form or another.

• The first soaps were formed by boiling animal fat (or olive oil around the Mediterranean) to dryness with ashes from a wood fire, which contain potassium hydroxide. The earliest users were either the Celts (who called it saipo), or the Phoenicians. According to Pliny the Elder, the Phoenicians were using soap as early as 600 B.C.

• These early soaps were generally used for cleaning clothes and for curing animal hides. The Romans used soap on their bodies as part of bathing, and they spread their soap making skills throughout Europe.

• In Europe, medieval soap production centered around Marseilles and spread to Genoa and Venice. In England, there was soap production in Bristol as early as the 12th century. In the 13th and 14th Centuries, it started in Cheapside in London. Soap was seen as a great source of revenue by the government and it was taxed. During the Napoleonic wars this tax was as much as 3d per pound, and the tax inspectors would lock up the soap boiling pans to stop illegal production at night.

• This tax was not repealed until 1835, by which time the exchequer was making £1m a year from the industry.

• The process remained more or less unchanged until a method of producing large quantities of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) was discovered in the late 18th century. This opened up the manufacture of good quality soap on a large scale. By the time of the industrial revolution in the late 18th century, soap was more widely available. In fact, Pears Soap dates from 1789.

• Apparently, Justus von Liebig, a German chemist, said that the amount of soap that a nation used was a measure of its wealth and civilisation. If only that were true now.What's special about our soap Droyt's Clear Glycerine Soap is an all-in, semi-boiled frame soap, cut by hand from a large block and stamped to shape in a box die.

• With the addition of a few other ingredients, this method can be used to make a genuine transparent soap, i.e. a soap which is clear like glass. It is not possible to make a true transparent soap by mechanical means.

• Extra vegetable derived glycerine is added to bring the glycerine content to a level of between 10 and 11%.

• Fully boiled soap -- In this case the glycerine is removed by adding a brine solution (salt water) to the soap. The glycerine dissolves in the water and is drained off leaving only the soap which is then dried into little flakes or ``noodles''.

• Cold process soap -- This is an all in soap, but there is no external heating as all the heat comes form the saponification reaction which is exothermic (i.e. an excess of heat is produced by the chemical changes in the components of the reaction. An example would be the dissolving of sodium hydroxide in water). These soaps are normally made with pure coconut oil.

• The soaps produced are called hard or soft depending on what sort of fats and oils are used, and whether sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide is the alkaliProcessing The soaps are then processed. If the soap was made into noodles, it is milled. If it was poured into a frame while hot it is cut.

• During milling the soap chips are pushed through a machine called a plodder which mixes in colour and perfume and produces a continuous extruded bar of soap. This is then cut into billets by machine.

• With cut soap, the soap is cut by hand or machine from a large block down to a soap sized billet.

• After the soap has been made into a billet, it is stamped. There are two kinds of die. One is a capacity die where excess soap squeezes out around the middle and cut off later. This method produces a very regular weight and size and is the way that most domestic soaps are made. The other kind is a box die (or collar die). This contains all the soap which was placed in the mould. This methods produces a less deformed (and therefore more transparent) tablet and also requires less finishing.

• Opaque milled soap -- This group represents the vast majority of soap produced in the world today. These soaps are made using a fully boiled process and utilise some of the most advanced soap making techniques, usually on a very large scale. After manufacture the soaps are then milled as above.

• Translucent soap -- This is a relatively modern technique which simulates the old frame method and can produce glycerine soaps which a reasonable level of glycerine (up to 4%). The benefit of this method is that it produces a glycerine soap using a large scale, automatic machine process, which is therefore more commercially attractive.

• Transparent soap -- There are three ways to make transparent soaps. The first is to pour the whole making into a frame and cut up the soap from a large block. This is very labour intensive.

• The second way is to pour the soap into individual tubes which produces long bars of soap which then can be processed automatically.

• The third method is to pour soap into individual moulds, which are then cooled, and the individual soaps released. This can be a completely automatic process.

• The best method is the first. Pouring into individual moulds requires the soap to be very liquid and thus the water content is very high. This in turn means that the soap is prone to melting, even more than normal glycerine soaps. Glycerine is attractive to water and there is a tendency for such soaps to absorb moisture unless kept dry.

• Synthetic detergent bars -- There are an increasing number of these cleansing bars on the market. They are made using a different chemical process to normal soap making. They were originally developed to attempt to achieve a product which is closer to pH neutral than normal soap. The first of these was Neutrogena, but there are now others available such as Dove.

• Soap is famed. It has a magazine named for it and has limericks written about it,*but until this week no one apparently had ever fully investigated world soap statistics. This week Soap, a monthly magazine, publishes what it claims is the first such survey. Among its findings:

• World production: 10,000,000,000 Ib. per year (of which the U. S. makes and uses about one-third).

• Per capita consumption: U. S. 25 Ib.; The Netherlands 24 Ib.; United Kingdom 20 Ib.; Japan 7 Ib.; Brazil 6.8 Ib.; world average 6.6 Ib.; Russia 5.7 Ib. (compared to less than 2 Ib. 20 years ago); British India, 4 oz.; China, 2 oz.

• Uses classified: World. 92% laundry soap; U. S. 85% laundry soap, 12% toilet soap, 3% miscellaneous.

Interesting Facts About Nelson Mandela

• Nelson Mandela’s original name was Rolihlahla Mandela. (Nelson was added later.) He was born in “Black” Transkei, Africa on July 18, 1918.

• Mandela is the world's most celebrated man who has held a political office while being jailed for nearly 30 years. Despite the fact that his freedom was stripped from him, he continued to stand up for his beliefs for his South African Brothers and Sisters who are still struggling with the affects of Apartheid.

• Nelson’s peaceful boyhood was spent cattle herding and other rural pursuits. When his father died, Nelson’s rich and powerful relative took custody of him. Nelson Mandela was influenced by his African heritage of ritual and taboo. His values and attitudes were shaped by traditions and his royal privileges.

• He was sent to boarding school and later to Fort Hare Missionary College. He was expelled from college for helping to organize a strike against the white colonial rule of the institution. He then became involved in other protests against the white colonial rule. In doing so he set out for personal and national liberation. He ran away from home to avoid an arranged marriage. Later, he graduated from the University of South Africa with a degree in law. He joined a law firm as an apprentice.

• Nelson MandelaIn 1942,Nelson joined the African National Congress (ANC), which, at the time, was polite to the government. Soon Nelson Mandela had persuaded the ANC to use boycotts and strikes against the government instead of being polite. He was arrested for civil disobedience, and was not allowed to attend gatherings.

• In his spare time, Nelson Mandela studied to become a lawyer so that he could protect blacks. Work as a lawyer strengthened his feelings against apartheid (which segregated and discriminated against blacks in South Africa). Nelson was particularly active during the 1950’s.

• After the Shapesville massacre in which many blacks were killed, the white rule banned the ANC. Nelson went underground. He created the MK, which was the military portion of the ANC. Nelson arranged military training in Algeria for the MK members. He launched a sabotage campaign. On his return from Algeria he was arrested for going between countries without a passport, and was tried for sabotage and Africa attempting to overthrow the government. He spent the next 28 years in prison. Before going to prison he said, “Make every home, every shack or rickety structure into a learning center.”

• When he got to Robben Island where he was to be imprisoned Nelson was told to jog to the prison gate. He refused. He and the other prisoners started a hunger strike to get better living conditions. The prisoners won. They also found ways to communicate with other prisoners. A few methods were: writing messages on toilet paper, hiding messages in the bottom of food buckets, slipping notes in the dirty dishes (they made the dishes extra dirty for this) so the cook prisoners could read them, and taping notes to the inside rim of toilet seats.

• While Nelson was in prison he was offered freedom if he would stop his violent actions. He refused this offer.

• During Nelson Mandela’s jail time he had secret talks with South Africa’s president, P.W. Botha, and his successor, F.W. de Klerk. As a result, in 1990 he was freed.

• He was appointed Deputy President of the ANC. The ANC decided to suspend its 30-year armed struggle. In July of 1991, Nelson Mandela was appointed President of the ANC. Nelson decided to join the government and other parties to negotiate South Africa’s future. Finally everyone came to agree on a majority rule constitution. This constitution states that racial discrimination it is against the law.

• In 1993, Nelson Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk forAfrican Flag dismantling apartheid, and in 1994 he became the first democratically elected South African president.

• In June of 1999, Nelson Mandela retired from the presidency, and returned to live in the town of Qunu, Transkei, in which was born.

• Restful retirement was not on the cards as Mandela shifted his energies to battling South Africa's AIDS crisis raising millions of dollars to fight the disease.

• His struggle against AIDS became starkly personal in early 2005 when he lost his only surviving son to the disease.

• The country also shared the pain of Mandela's humiliating divorce in 1996 from Winnie Mandela, his second wife, and watched his courtship of Graca Machel, widow of Mozambican President Samora Machel, whom he married on his 80th birthday in 1998.

• In 2007 Mandela celebrated his 89th birthday by launching an international group of elder statesmen, including fellow Nobel peace laureates Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter, to tackle world problems including climate change, HIV/AIDS and poverty.

Interesting Facts About Slumdog Millionaire

• Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.

• Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati, mentioned in the Hindi version) and exceeds people's expectations, arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials.

• Slumdog Millionaire initially had a limited North American release on 12 November 2008 by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, to critical acclaim and awards success. It later had a nationwide grand release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009 and in the United States on 23 January 2009. It premiered in Mumbai on 22 January 2009.

• Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight, the most for any film of 2008, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

• It also won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, and seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Film. Slumdog Millionaire has stirred controversy concerning language use, its portrayals of Indians and Hinduism, and the welfare of its child actors.

Budget $15 million
Gross revenue $326,895,516

Academy Awards record
1. Best Picture
2. Best Director, Danny Boyle
3. Best Adapted Screenplay, Simon Beaufoy
4. Best Cinematography, Anthony Dod Mantle
5. Best Original Score, A. R. Rahman
6. Best Original Song - "Jai Ho", A. R. Rahman and Gulzar
7. Best Film Editing, Chris Dickens
8. Best Sound Mixing, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pyke, and Ian Tapp

BAFTA Awards record
1. Best Film, Christian Colson
2. Best Director, Danny Boyle
3. Best Adapted Screenplay, Simon Beaufoy
4. Best Cinematography, Anthony Dod Mantle
5. Best Film Music, A. R. Rahman
6. Best Editing, Chris Dickens
7. Best Sound, Glenn Freemantle, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pyke, Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp

Golden Globe Awards record
1. Best Picture - Drama
2. Best Director, Danny Boyle
3. Best Screenplay, Simon Beaufoy
4. Best Original Score, A. R. Rahman

Interesting Facts About Indonesia

• Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago consisting of many thousands of islands. Around six thousand of the islands are inhabited.

• The Indonesian name for Indonesia is "Tanah Air Kita" - Our Land and Water.

• Indonesia's national motto is Unity in Diversity.

• The highest point in Indonesia is Puncak Jaya (5,030 m) in the highlands of Papua.

• Indonesia's region of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea.

• The Indonesian administrative divisions of Kalimantan share Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei.

• The islands of New Guinea and Borneo are two of the largest islands in the world.

• The eruption of Mount Tambora, on Sumbawa Island, in 1815 was the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history. 1816 was known as the "Year Without Summer" because of the global climatic effects of the eruption.

• In 1883 the volcanic island of Krakatoa (part of the Indonesian archipelago) was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. This caused a tidal wave that killed over thirty thousand people.

• Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions sometimes cause a tsunami, a giant wave which can swamp islands and coastal settlements. A tsunami can travel as fast as 800 kph.

• Indonesia is part of the Ring of Fire which includes about seventy-five percent of all the world's volcanoes. (The rim of the Pacific Basin is ringed with volcanoes, from Alaska through the USA, Mexico and South America, then on to New Zealand and up to Japan and Russia.).

• In the early 1890s Eugene Dubois discovered a skull and thigh bone of Homo erectus in East Java. Dubois published his findings of "Java Man" in 1894, claiming that Homo erectus was an ancestor of modern humans.

• The Sangiran Early Man Site, on the World Heritage List, is estimated to have been inhabited one and a half million years ago. Half of the world's hominid fossils have been found at Sangiran in Java.

• Marco Polo was one of the first Europeans to visit Indonesia.

• Europeans went to Indonesia in search of spices. Spices were a very valuable commodity in Europe.

• Indonesia is one the world's largest producers of nutmeg.

• Thousands of statues regard Java's jungles from the heights of Borobudur—the world's largest Buddhist temple. The ancient pilgrimage site was built in the 8th and 9th centuries A.D.

• By the late eighteenth century "Indonesia" was part of the Dutch colonial empire and known as the Netherlands East Indies.

• Indonesia's island of Bali did not come under the control of the Netherlands until 1906. During the Dutch capture of the island many thousands of Balinese were killed. Puputan Square in Denpasar is named after the suicidal battle of the Balinese aristocracy in their struggle against the Dutch.

• Between 1811 and 1816 (during the Napoleonic Wars), "Indonesia" came under British rule but was returned to the Dutch.

• After the War (1939-1945) Indonesia declared independence. Sukarno, the independence leader, became the country's first president.

• Following independence, the Dutch remained in control of the western part of New Guinea (now Papua). This territory was eventually passed to Indonesia under a United Nations agreement (1963).

• In 1975 East Timor gained independence from the Portuguese but was annexed by Indonesia in 1976. East Timor voted for independence in 1999 but did not regain independence until 2002.

• In October 2002 a terrorist bomb in Bali (Kuta town) killed over 180 people. Three years later, suicide bombings in Bali killed over twenty people.

• In 2003 a car bomb outside the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta killed fourteen people. A year later, another car bomb in Jakarta outside the Australian embassy killed nine people.

• On 26 December 2004, a quake occurred under the sea near Aceh in north Indonesia (8.9 on the Richter scale); this produced tsunamis causing flooding and destruction in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Thailand, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and the east coast of Africa (Kenya and Somalia).

• An earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, off the coast of Sumatra, killed between one and two thousand people in March 2005. Many of the victims lived on the small island of Nias.

• Towards the end of May 2006 an earthquake measuring 6.2 struck the Indonesian island of Java killing over three thousand people.

• A tsunami, caused by an undersea earthquake (magnitude 7.7), struck the island of Java on 17 July 2006 killing over 500 people.

• In November 2008 an earthquake near the island of Sulawesi, magnitude 7.5, killed at least six people.

• An earthquake with a of magnitude 7.6 occurred near the north coast of Papua in January 2009.

• Indonesia is a vast equatorial archipelago of 17,000 islands extending 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) east to west, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans in Southeast Asia. The largest islands are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Sulawesi, and the Indonesian part of New Guinea (known as Papua or Irian Jaya). Islands are mountainous with dense rain forests, and some have active volcanoes. Most of the smaller islands belong to larger groups, like the Moluccas (Spice Islands).

• Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is 86 percent Muslim—and the largest Islamic country, though it is a secular state. Indonesians are separated by seas and clustered on islands. The largest cluster is on Java, with some 130 million inhabitants (60 percent of the country's population) on an island the size of New York State. Sumatra, much larger than Java, has less than a third of its people. Ethnically the country is highly diverse, with over 580 languages and dialects—but only 13 have more

Interesting Facts About Ginger

• Ginger, a knobby, fibrous root, has smooth light brown skin with a sheen to it. The flesh of the root is white. Ginger root is a seasoning and flavors sweets, including cakes, cookies, breads, and beverages. It is also good in sauces, and fruit dishes, and is often used heavily in Asian cooking. When buying, look for ginger root with the least amount of knots and/or branching.

• Ginger is said to stimulate gastric juices, and provide warming and soothing effects for colds and coughs.

• Ginger root should be kept in a cool, dry place, usually at 40 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit. After purchasing, ginger may be refrigerated in plastic wrap for up to one week. For longer storage, peel ginger root and cover it with sherry wine before refrigeration. Freezing for up to three months is also an option.

• Fresh ginger can be found in the produce section of most grocery stores. Look for smooth skin with a fresh, spicy fragrance. Tubers should be firm and feel heavy. Length is a sign of maturity, and mature rhizomes will be hotter and more fibrous. Avoid those with wrinkled flesh, as this is an indication of aged ginger past its prime.

• Ginger was used in ancient times as a food preservative and to help treat digestive problems. To treat digestive problems, Greeks would eat ginger wrapped in bread. Eventually ginger was added to the bread dough creating that wonderful treat many around the globe love today gingerbread

• Ginger ale eventually stemmed from a ginger beer made by the English and Colonial America as a remedy for diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.

• Ginger thrives in the tropics and warmer regions and is therefore currently grown in parts of West Africa, the West Indies, India and China with the best quality ginger coming from Jamaica where it is most abundant. In the United States, ginger is grown in Florida, Hawaii, and along the eastern coast of Texas.

• Gingerroot is characterized by it’s strong sweet, yet woodsy smell. It is tan in color with white to creamy-yellow flesh that can be coarse yet stringy.

• Ginger is an excellent natural remedy for nausea, motion sickness, morning sickness and general stomach upset due to its carminative effect that helps break up and expel intestinal gas. Ginger tea has been recommended to alleviate nausea in chemotherapy patients primarily because its natural properties do not interact in a negative way with other medications. It is a safe remedy for morning sickness, since it will not harm the fetus. Some studies show ginger may also help prevent certain forms of cancer.

• To make ginger tea, slice some ginger root, put it in a tea ball and place in a teapot. Pour boiling water over the tea ball and let it sit for ten minutes. Sweeten with honey or drink it straight.

• In spite of it being a natural remedy, it's important that any medicinal use of ginger be discussed with a physician, as it must be taken in moderation to avoid gastric irritation.

• Ginger is available year-round. When selecting gingerroot, choose robust firm roots with a spicy fragrance and smooth skin. Gingerroot should not be cracked or withered. It can be stored tightly wrapped in a paper towel or plastic wrap (or put into a plastic bag) in the refrigerator for 2–3 weeks and like galangal, gingerroot can also be placed in a jar of sherry and refrigerated for 3–6 months.

• The aromatic rhizome of this 30 – 60 cm tall tropical plant is used in food preparation and as medicine for centuries in southeastern Asia. There, pharmacists recommend it for any ailment with which people may be afflicted.

• After ginger was first introduced in Europe (approximately 800 AD) it ranked second to pepper as a spice for centuries.

• Ginger grows in southern China, Japan, West Africa, and many other tropical countries including the Caribbean islands. Jamaican ginger is considered to be the best of all.

• Chinese cooks use ginger with beef successfully, whereas European chefs prefer to use it as an exotic flavouring for fresh fruit salads, or to give cream of carrot soup and extra kick.

• English make candied ginger, ginger jam, and dry it to be ground and use as a condiment.

• Chinese dry ginger and sell it as green ginger. Black ginger is first scalded and then dried.

• Fresh ginger is best. Its thin skin can be scraped with the back of a spoon and then cut, grated or pounded to mix into soups, sauces and stews.

• Ginger possesses an intriguing; sweet, spicy and pungent flavour rendering it suitable for use in a range of dishes from stir-fried beef to ginger tea.

• Ginger ale, ginger beer and ginger wine are only vaguely flavoured with ginger.

• The ginger root is not actually a root, but a rhizome.

• The major producers of Ginger today are China and tropical/subtropical places in Asia, Brazil, Jamaica, Nigeria.

• The health benefits of honey and ginger in treating respiratory problems are unmatched by any other concoction.

• The ginger plant is approximately 30 - 60 cm tall and is extremely rare to find in the wild.

Interesting Facts About Skype

• Founded in August 2003, Skype is the leading global Internet communications company.

• Skype is headquartered in Luxembourg with offices in Europe, United States and Asia.

• Skype was acquired by eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) in October 2005.

• In Q3 2008, Skype posted total revenue of $143 million, representing 46 percent year-over-year growth and delivered the seventh consecutive quarter of profitability.

• Every day millions of people use Skype software to communicate with others through free voice and video calls, as well as instant messages. Many people also use SkypeOut or one of our global subscriptions to save money when calling landlines and mobiles across the world.

• Skype is a global phenomenon - in Q3 2008, Skype added 32 million users - ending the quarter with more than 370 million users, representing an increase of 51 percent from a year ago.

• In Q3 2008, Skype-to-Skype minutes reached nearly 16 billion, a 63 percent increase year over year, and SkypeOut minutes increased 54 percent versus last year to 2.2 billion.

• Skype's 370 million registered users have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls.

• Skype software is extremely secure, sustainable, and scalable. At peak times, there are over 14 million concurrent users and over 300,000 simultaneous calls. There are more than 100,000 information queries on the network each second.

• Skype accounted for 6% of the world's international calling minutes in 2007, according to preliminary data released by TeleGeography Research.

• Skype is available in over 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world.

• 30% of Skype users use Skype for business purposes.

• More than 25% of Skype-to-Skype calls include video.

• Downloads of the Skype application surpassed 1 billion copies in 2008, making Skype one of the most popular free software applications of all time.

• Skype's popularity is being fueled by an active ecosystem that includes 15,000 developers and over 50 partners. Today, there are more than 190 Skype Certified hardware products and there are over 227 software Extras for Windows, Mac and Linux users.

• Skype for Windows Mobile has been downloaded more than 11 million times.

• In the UK specifically, 3 has announced that over 100 million Skype minutes have been sent across its network since it launched the 3 Skypephone last year. In addition, more than 150 thousand handsets have been sold since the launch last year.

• Skype adapts its bandwidth usage in order to always guarantee the best possible audio and video quality at any given time. The bandwidth Skype uses ranges from 8-50 kilobits per second for a voice call and 250-500 kilobits per second for a video call.

• The worldwide communications services market opportunity is $1.7 trillion, growing at 5.5% annually (Sources: World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), Datamonitor, Credit Suisse, Informa, Ovum).

• Online conferencing revenue in the U.S. in 2008, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association's (TIA) Market Review and Forecast:

o Video conferencing - $2.2 billion
o Web conferencing - $1.5 billion
o Audio conferencing - $2.7 billion
o TOTAL - $6.05 billion online conferencing revenue in the U.S. in 2008

• The predicted CAGR for Web conferencing revenue in the U.S. is 14.1% from 2008-2011 (Source: Telecommunications Industry Association's (TIA) Market Review and Forecast).

• The telecom spend by consumers was 100% wireline in 1991; now, it is 50% wireless and growing (Sources: Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Trends in Telephony Service (June 2005), Primetrica's U.S. VoIP Research Service (2008)).

• Telecom has remained 2% of household expenditures for 40+ years - people have always and will always pay for communications services (Sources: Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Trends in Telephony Service (June 2005), Primetrica's U.S. VoIP Research Service (2008)).

• The global size of profit pools from communications services, according to Ovum, IDC and Bain:

o International calling - $70 billion
o Premium calling - $2 billion
o Conferencing services - $1.3 billion
o Mobile voice - $500 billion

• IDC predicts there will be almost half a billion worldwide personal IP communications subscribers by 2012 (Source: IDC's "Worldwide Personal IP Communications Services 2008-2012 Forecast: A New Kind of Telephony Service," released in May 2008).

• Personal IP communications is the future of real-time communications for the individual user. This market segment is categorized into three areas including Web-based services, portals, and mobile thin-clients. Together, IDC forecasts these categories will represent more than $5 billion in annual spending in 2012 (Source: IDC's "Worldwide Personal IP Communications Services 2008-2012 Forecast: A New Kind of Telephony Service," released in May 2008).

Interesting Facts About Singapore

• Singapore consists only of one main island and 63 other tiny islands. Most of these islands are uninhabited.

• Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometres. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger.

• Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world, with 6,430 people per square kilometre.

• Singapore became the 117th member of the United Nations on 21 September 1965.

• Symbolism of the National Flag: Red symbolises universal brotherhood and equality of man while white signifies purity and virtue. The crescent moon represents a young nation on the rise and the five stars signify the ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

• The national flower of Singapore, Vanda Miss Joaquim, was first discovered in 1893 by Agnes Joaquim, an Armenian. The orchid is a natural hybrid between V. teres and V. hookeriana.

• The Merlion, a half-fish, half-lion beast, is a fitting symbol of Singapore. The "Singa" or lion represents the animal that a Sumatran prince saw which resembled a lion, and the fish is a tribute to Singapore's history as "Temasek", the ancient sea town.

• Singlish, a Singaporean patois mixing English with the odd phrase of Chinese, Malay and even Tamil, has two entries - lah and sinseh - in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.

• Although English is the official working language and the most widely used language in Singapore, the national anthem 'Majulah Singapura' is actually sung in Malay.

• The flying fox, the world's largest bat with a wingspan of up to 1.5 metres, can be found on Pulau Ubin, one of the islands off mainland Singapore.

• Singapore is a stopover point for thousands of migratory birds travelling the East Asian Flyway.

• The world's first night zoo, The Night Safari, is located in Singapore.

• Despite being largely urbanised, Singapore is the largest exporter of ornamental fish (25% of the world market).

• The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent.

• The highest natural point in Singapore is Bukit Timah Hill, which is only 164 metres high (Singapore has a very flat terrain).

• Buildings in Singapore cannot be higher than 280 metres. There are presently three buildings of that height: OUB Centre, UOB Plaza and Republic Plaza.

• The world's highest man-made waterfall, standing at 30 metres, is located at the Jurong BirdPark.

• The largest fountain in the world is located in Singapore at Suntec City. Made of cast bronze, it cost an estimated US$6 million to build in 1997.

• The buildings of Suntec City have been built in the shape of a palm of a hand symbolising good "feng shui".

• In 2003, Singapore's Changi Airport won the award for "Best Airport Worldwide" for the 16th consecutive year from the UK/Europe edition of the Business Traveller magazine.

• The Guinness book record for the longest human domino chain was set in Singapore on 30th September 2000. Formed by 9,234 students, it measured 4.2km.

• The world domino topple record (303,621 men) was set in Singapore on 18th August 2003 by a 24-year-old woman from China.

• The record for the biggest ever game of pass-the-parcel was set in Singapore on 28 February 1998. It involved 3,918 students removing 2,200 wrappers from a 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 m parcel.

• The record for the most number of people participating in line dancing was set in Singapore in May 2002 with 11,967 dancers.

• The Great Singapore Duck Race, an annual event that raises funds for charity, set a new world record in 2002 when more than 123,000 toy ducks took to the Singapore River.

• Russell Lee, a pseudonym for a team of ghost-writers, is the hottest-selling local author in Singapore. His 11 volumes of True Singapore Ghost Stories have sold more than 600,000 copies to date.

• The fastest selling book of all time in Singapore is Hello Chok Tong, Goodbye Kuan Yew: The Untold Story. Written and drawn by political cartoonist George Nonis, it sold 40,000 copies in two months.

• The highest grossing movie of all time in Singapore is Titanic, raking in S$6.65 million in 1997.

• The highest grossing locally made movie of all time is Money No Enough, raking in S$6.02 million in 1998.

• The first Singaporean film to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival was director Eric Khoo's 12 Storeys in 1997.

• British pop violinist Vanessa Mae Nicholson was born in Singapore and moved to England when she was four.

• More Singaporeans are born in the month of October than any other month of the year.

• The first population census taken in 1824 revealed that the total population was 10,683.

• The 2000 census showed that the population of Singapore is 4.2 million.

• Nearly 9 out of 10 Singaporeans live in public housing flats.

• The most common Chinese surnames in Singapore are Tan, Lim and Lee.

• Singapore has more than 3,000 kilometres of roads. Stretched end to end, they can cover the distance from Singapore to Hong Kong.

• 8 in 10 people in Singapore own cell phones. In fact, telecom companies issue new numbers at the rate of 30,000 to 40,000 per month.

• Singapore's best showing in the Olympic Games: Silver medal won by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang in Rome (1960) followed by a Silver Medal won by the women’s table tennis team in Beijing (2008).

• Swimmer Ang Peng Siong was ranked world number one in the 50m Freestyle in 1982.

• The Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. The ingredients are gin, Cointreau, cherry brandy, Dom Benedictine, pineapple juice, Grenadine, Angoustura bitters and limes.