Interesting Facts About Red Color

• Red also means "Beautiful" in Russian.

• The word "ruby" comes from the Latin word rubens, meaning "red".

• The color red doesn't really make bulls angry; They are color-blind.

• There are at least 23 different shades of red crayons.

• The red stripes on the United States Flag stand for courage.

• Chinese brides traditionally wear red wedding dresses for good luck.

• Seeing the color red can make your heart beat faster.

• As few as two percent of people in the United States have red hair.

• The color red is most often associated with power and passion. It is a fierce and emotionally intense color. Red symbolizes speed, sexuality, and style. Fast cars are red. Beautiful women wear red clothes and red lipstick. Red is also the color of romance and love. If you want to express your love for a woman with flowers, the flowers must be red. In all cases, whether red is worn by a woman, or used in home décor, it will always attract attention.

• Red often gives conflicting messages. Red means "stop" when used on a street light, but it means "go" when worn as lipstick or given as flowers. Red means danger when used on signs and fire extinguishers. Red means both romantic love and sexual lust. Red is the color of Communism, but it also symbolizes Christmas when mixed with the colors green, white, and gold.

• There are many variations of red: scarlet and vermilion are the shocking and extreme reds, while pink, maroon, and crimson are subtler reds.

• Fashion experts always recommend at least a splash of red when dressing for a job interview or any other important meeting, because red symbolizes power, decisiveness and leadership. In home décor, red is rarely used as a base color but often as highlights. One wall of a room may be painted red to create a feature wall that attracts attention. A sofa may be splashed with red cushions. A centerpiece of red flowers may be used for a special dinner event.

• Red is so intense a color that it doesn't suit everyone. A rule of thumb: drive a red car, but wear black. Red clothing has the effect of making a person look fuller than they really are. In all instances, red is an extreme color and should be chosen with caution.

• Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love.

• Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.

• Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.

• Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.

Interesting Facts About J.K.Rowling

• Joanne "Jo" Rowling (born 31 July 1965), who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author, best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived whilst on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold more than 400 million copies

• Joanne Kathleen (Kathleen is her favorite Grandma's name and is not actually her middle name) Rowling, brain behind the world famous "Harry Potter" lived in Chipping Sodbury from an early age and was born on July 31st 1965.

• JK Rowling wrote her first story at the age of six it was about a rabbit who gets the measles.

• From an early age all she ever wanted to do was write. She wrote her first book when she was 6 years old, called Rabbit but never finished anything.

• At present, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with her daughter Jessica, now age seven.

• She moved twice while growing up. The first move was from Yate to Winterbourne, just outside Bristol. In Winterbourne she was friends with a brother and sister whose surname was Potter. She says she always liked the name, and preferred it to her own because the children always made annoying jokes about rolling pins!

• The second move was when she was nine years old. Her family moved to Tutshill near Chepstow in the Forest of Dean. After attending Tutshill Primary School, she went to Wyedean Comprehensive School.. She describes herself as having been 'quite freckly, short-sighted and rubbish at sports'. Her favorite subject was English and foreign languages. At her school in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, she passed all her exams and was made head-girl. Her parents wanted her to be involved with foreign languages. She studied languages, more notably French, and Classics at Exeter university and became a French teacher. She still pursued her writing though in her spare time.

• In 1990, at the age of 26, she moved to Portugal to teach English. She says that she loved teaching English. She taught in the afternoons and evenings, leaving the mornings free for writing. At this time she was starting work on her third novel (the first two were never finished because she says they were 'very bad'). The new book was about a boy who found out he was a wizard and was sent off to wizard school.

• While in Portugal she met and married Portuguese journalist, Jorge Artantes. Their daughter, Jessica, was born in 1993. After her marriage ended in divorce, Rowling and her daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to be close to her younger sister, Di.

• She began the first Harry Potter book in 1990, it was finished in 1995 and it was finally published in 1997. Some publishing companies would not accept it until Bloomsbury took her on. Before she tried to get the first book published she mapped out the first seven books to get an idea of the events to come. J.K Rowling has made around millions from the series and they are her only published works.

• The Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to finish the book and, after a number of rejections, she eventually sold Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone $4,000 to Bloomsbury Publishing Company.

• The book was published in the UK by Bloomsbury Children's Books in June 1997 (at the time of writing 1st editions of this book are on the market for upwards of 12,000 UK pounds/ USA $20,000!). Thereafter the accolades began to pile up. Harry Potter won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Smarties Prize.

• In the USA, the title of the book was changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The book was published in the USA in September 1998 by Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Press.

• In 1997 she got her big break with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which won the 1997 Smarties Gold Award. It immediately topped the British and American charts and J.K. Rowling earned enough money to quit teaching and write full-time. She then had success with the second installment of Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This won the 1998 Smarties Gold Award. The 3rd book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was also a huge success for J.K. Rowling. The 4th book was released on July 8th 2000, and has been one of the eagerly anticipated books of the year. Records have been broke for the number of books printed and sold on the first day of release.

• The sequel, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets was published in the UK in July 1998 and in the USA in June 1999. The third book Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban was published in the UK in July 1999 and in the USA in September 1999.

• By Summer 2000, the first three books had sold over 35 million copies in 45 languages and earned approximately $480 million.

• In July 2000, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire had a first printing of 5.3 million copies with advance orders of over 1.8 million.

• This book of course is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She is to produce 2 more books in the Harry Potter series, one for each of the years Harry has remaining at Hogwarts. The fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was released on June 21st 2003 and was even more anticipated than the last. Over 200 million copies have now been sold of all the books in over 200 countries and in 55 languages. There is no release day at the moment for the sixth book.

• Rowling was first writer to become billionaire.
  

• One joy of Rowling is not the originality of her ideas -- there are plenty of other novels with boy wizards and boarding schools -- but what she does with them. This is the story of an ethnic community in which everyone knows everyone else and where enmities formed at school are still there years later. The adult characters are every bit as interesting as the young protagonists and she constantly reminds you that they, too, were once children. Apart from a few over-the-top caricatures, such as the Dursleys, most of the characters, adult and child alike, are three-dimensional. In this one, even Aunt Petunia is presented more sympathetically than usual.

• Another delight is that in the midst of Wizard World War II, there is normal teen angst -- exams, friendships, the opposite sex (Harry gets his first kiss), who's on the team, who's going out with whom.

• She will be 39 years old this July and married Dr Neil Murray on Boxing Day 2001 at their home in Killiechassie House, Aberfeldy. Seven-bed roomed Killiechasse House has an estimated value of £1.5 million, it's own library (understandably) and a self-contained house in it's west wing. Jo also owns a London property in trendy Kensignton. She has one younger sister, Di, who is her biggest fan along with her daughter, Jessica, aged 10. She previously lived with Jessica in Edinburgh, having first moved there in 1993. Jo and Neil celebrated an addition to their family, when on March 23rd 2003, Jo gave birth to David Gordon Rowling-Murray at an Edinburgh hospital.

• JK Rowling reveals that Her favorite passage from the books is the chapter on the Mirror of Erised in Philosopher's Stone and the ending of Goblet of Fire is the part that she is most proud of. Her favorite book though is Chamber of Secrets but she thought Prisoner of Azkaban was the most fun to write.

• Though the seeds of Harry had been sown as early as 1990, Rowling didn't put all of the pieces together and start writing in earnest until the mid-1990s when she was living in Edinburgh, Scotland, raising her daughter, Jessica, alone. Not able to afford even a used typewriter -- let alone a computer -- Rowling wrote the earliest drafts of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in longhand. "I knew I wanted to get published. And, in truth, writing novels is something you have to believe in to keep going. It's a fairly thankless job when no one is paying you to do it. And you don't really know if it's ever going to get into the bookshops so I really did believe in it. But I was also very realistic. I knew the odds were not on my side because, an unknown author, you know? It's tough. It's tough the first time to get published, so I persevered. I loved writing it and I felt that I just had to try."

• The author has encouragement for others who would follow her path. "My feeling is, if you really want to do it, you will do it. You will find the time. And it might not be much time, but you'll make it. Obviously if you have homework or other activities, you're not going to have huge amounts of time but if you really want to, you'll do it."

• About her own writing, Rowling says that, in some ways, she just writes what she sees in her mind. "I have a very visual imagination. I see a situation and then I try to describe it as vividly as I can. And I do love writing dialog. Dialog comes to me as though I'm just overhearing a conversation."

• In 2007, J.K. was named 'Entertainer of the Year' by Entertainment Weekly on their 'Entertainers of the Year: 25 Top Stars of 2007' list.

• In 2006, J.K. was ranked 2nd on Forbes magazine's 'Top 20 Richest Women in Entertainment' list.

• J.K. was ranked #83 on the "Greatest Briton" list in a BBC poll.

Interesting Facts About Tsunami

• A tsunami (pronounced soo-nah-mee) is a series of waves that is very long and occurs over a long period of time.

• Tsunami are often caused by earthquakes orunder water landslides. The word ‘tsunami’ is a Japaneseword that means ‘harbour wave’.

• A tsunami can travel great distances - 17,000km or more - a tsunami can be more than 100km in length. It can also travel very fast, atabout 400 km an hour in some cases.

• Everything about the tsunami is big, fast andwide. Tsunami are not normal waves and are not tidalwaves either; they are giant waves that move separatelyfrom the tides. Tsunami can occur at any time, day ornight.

• An earthquake began in the ocean. Two parts of the earth moved and ground against each other. This caused part of the earth to drop down and all the water dropped as well. The movement caused a big wave to start. The wave as so-o-o-o big that it traveled thousands of kilometers and got bigger and bigger and wider and wider until it began to hit countries and coastlines.

• There is usually more than one wave in a tsunami. Sometimes after the first wave has hit, people think it is allover and head back to the beach; this is a dangerous thing to do. More waves will keep on a coming for a few hours.

• All low lying coastal areas can be affected by tsunami.

• A tsunami is recorded on average in Australia every two years but they are usually too small to be noticed by people.

• Tsunamis occur frequently in Japan and over the centuries, many thousands of Japanese have been killed by them. Tsunamis are sometimes incorrectly called tidal waves but have nothing to do with tides.

• A tsunami can also be generated by an enormous meteor impact with the ocean. Scientists have found traces of an asteroid-collision event that they say would have created a giant tsunami that swept around the Earth several times, inundating everything except the mountains 3.5 billion years ago. The coastline of the continents was changed drastically and almost all life on land was exterminated.

• A tsunami is not a single wave but a series of waves, also known as a wave train. The first wave in a tsunami is not necessarily the most destructive.

• When the ocean is deep tsunamis can travel unnoticed on the surface at speeds up to 500 miles per hour (800 kilometers per hour), crossing the entire ocean in a day or less. Scientists are able to calculate arrival times of tsunamis in different parts of the world based on their knowledge of when the event that generated them occurred, water depths, and distances.

• Flooding can extend inland by a thousand feet (300 meters) or more. The enormous energy of a tsunami can lift giant boulders, flip vehicles, and demolish houses.

• While a tsunami cannot be prevented; it can be anticipated by being wary about the signs. Earthquakes are the main cause of this surge, so if you are near a body of water and a strong earthquake has occurred, chances are a tsunami is already building up.

• It is a common occurrence that if a tsunami does occur, a trough, or a draw back occurs first, then a dramatic receding of the water happens in the shoreline exposing even those parts not normally seen during low tides. After this event expect a dramatic surge in the form of fast climbing of the tides to maximum heights, this is the main wave and the best way to avoid it is, to get to a higher ground.

• Today, tsunami warning devices are already in use and are constantly worked on, for improvement. The most common device in use now is the bottom pressure sensors. These are attached to buoys and measure the pressure of the water. This is an accurate device that conveys if a tsunami is really on the way or if the earthquake did not do any shift in the water to produce a tsunami.

• A number of national and international organizations cooperate to provide tsunami information and early warnings of tsunamis, including the United Nations and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

• Many communities on the Pacific Coast of the United States participate in early warning systems like the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.

Interesting Facts About Coal

• Coal was formed about 300 million years ago.

• Coal is a combustible mostly black sedimentary rock composed mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons.

• Coal takes a million years to create and therefore it belongs to non-renewable energy sources.

• Coal mining uses two methods: surface or underground mining where surface mining is more dominant method because it is less expensive than the underground mining.

• Coal is mostly transported by train.

• Coal as the other fossil fuels as well isn't ecologically acceptable because of CO2 and global warming.

• Coal is classified into four main types: lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, anthracite and the coal value is determined by the amount of the carbon it contains.

• Coal is mined in 27 US states.

• Coal is mainly used for generating electricity (more than 90 % of US coal).

• Coal usually has a negative impact on environment, mining can damage ground and surface waters and when coal burns as the fuel it releases CO2 which is the main greenhouse gas that causes global warming.

• Coal is so called "dirty" energy source because of its negative effect on environment.

• Coal could be the world's most attractive fuel in years to come thanks to the methods of coal purification which are resulting in more cleaner coal, removing sulfur and other dangerous elements.

• Coal is used on the large scale in China and USA.

• Coal can be answer for future only if technology will enable "ultra-clean" coal.

• Coal must be relatively dry before it can be burned successfully.

• World coal consumption is more than 5.3 billion tons annually of which three quarters are used for generating electricity.

• Coal was already used in the Bronze age (Britain).

• Coal's share in the total world electricity production is about 40 %.

• Coal deposits could be enough to satisfy current world energy needs for the next 300 years.

• Coal is getting more attention because of the increased prices of oil and natural gas.

• Coal can be converted like to gasoline or diesel by couple of different processes like for instance the Fischer-Tropsch process, Bergius process and Karrick process.

• Coal is the official state mineral of the Kentucky and official and the official state rock of Utah.

• Coal total reserves are approximately about 1 × 1015 kg or 998 billion tons.

• Coal is mined in more than 100 countries.

• Coal is the main reason for China's economic boost as for China's environmental problems.

• Coal is a combustible mineral formed from the remains of trees, ferns and other decayed plants that existed and died up to 400 million years ago in some cases.

• Coal has been used as an energy source for hundreds of years and was part of international trade in as long ago as the Roman Empire.

• Coal provided the energy which fueled the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century and also launched the electric era in the 20th Century.

• 37% of the electricity generated worldwide is produced from coal.

• Coal is by far the cheapest source of power fuel per million Btu, averaging less than half the price of petroleum and natural gas.

• The world's iron and steel industry depends on the use of coal.

• The value of coal produced in the United States each year is nearly $20 billion.

• Coal is directly responsible for the existence of more than 90,000 U.S. jobs and nearly one million jobs directly and indirectly.

• Coal mining has a combined direct and indirect impact of $161 billion annually on the U.S. economy. This is $596 for every U.S. citizen.

• The federal government receives more than $11 billion annually in taxes and fees from the coal industry.

• State and local governments receive nearly $9 billion each year in revenues.

• Developing countries' demand for coal will double through 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

• Coal reserves are spread over almost 100 countries. Proven coal reserves are estimated to last over 200 years with current production rates. In contrast, proven oil and gas reserves are equivalent to around 40 and 60 years.

• America's coal is used primarily for the production of electricity.

• There were 315,000 Megawatts (net) of coal-based electrical generating capacity in the United States.

• Some 965 million tons of coal were consumed for the generation of electricity. This amounted to 86% of total U.S. coal production.

• Many large countries contain significant proven reserves of coal. While data quality varies widely, the countries with the greatest estimated recoverable reserves of coal are --

• United States 273 billion tons
• Russia 173 billion tons
• China 126 billion tons
• India 93 billion tons

• Australia 90 billion tons

• Coal was first discovered in what is now West Virginia in 1742 by John Peter Salley in what is now Boone County.

• McDowell County has produced more coal than any other county in West Virginia.

• The coal industry pays approximately $70 million in property taxes annually.

• The Coal Severance Tax adds approximately $214 million into West Virginia's economy.

• Twenty-four million dollars of coal severance taxes collected each year goes directly into the Infrastructure Bond Fund.

• All 55 counties, even the non-coal producing counties receive Coal Severance Tax funds.

• The coal industry payroll is nearly $2 billion per year.

• Coal is responsible for more than $3.5 billion annually in the gross state product.

• The United States produces about 20%, or 1.1 billion tons, of the world's coal supply—second only to China.

• The United States has about a 245-year supply of coal, if it continues using coal at the same rate at which it uses coal today.

• Montana is the state with the most coal reserves (119 billion tons). But Wyoming is the top coal-producing state—it produced about 400 million tons in 2004.

• Texas is the top coal-consuming state. It uses about 100 million tons each year.

• Coal ash, a byproduct of coal combustion, is used as filler for tennis rackets, golf balls, and linoleum.

• U.S. coal deposits contain more energy than that of all the world's oil reserves.

• Each person in the United States uses 3.8 tons of coal each year.

• Coal is the world's most abundant fossil fuel - more plentiful than oil and natural gas. It is second only to oil as a source of energy that we use. Coal is widely used because it's easily obtained, there's lots of it, it's well distributed throughout the world, and it has a high energy content.

• Coal has many important uses, but most significantly in electricity generation, steel and cement manufacture, and industrial process heating.

• Coal provides over 23% of global primary energy needs. It generates around 39% of the world's electricity. Almost 70% of total global steel production is dependent on coal.

• There are four main types of coal and all are found in Canada: anthracite, bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite.

• There is more stored energy in Canadian coal than all the country's oil, natural gas, and oil sands combined.

• Canada exports about 28 million tonnes of coal annually to more than 20 countries.

• Canada ranks tenth in the world in total coal reserves with 4 billion tonnes of bituminous coal. That's coal covering a football field to a height of about 4,500 kilometers!

• U.S. coal deposits contain more energy than that of all the world’s oil reserves.

• Coal ash is used as filler for tennis rackets, golf balls, and linoleum.

Interesting Facts About Nile River

• The Nile is famous as the longest river in the world. The river got its name from the Greek word Neilos, which means valley. The Nile floods the lands in Egypt, leaving behind black sediment. That's why the ancient Egyptians named the river Ar, meaning black and "Rivers of Life".

• The River Nile is about 6,670 km (4,160 miles) in length and is the longest river in Africa and in the world. Although it is generally associated with Egypt, only 22% of the Nile’s course runs through that country.

• The River Nile runs through Egypt, creating a fertile green valley across the dessert.

• It was by the banks that one of the oldest civilizations in the world began. The ancient Egyptians lived and farmed along the Nile, using the soil to produce food for themselves and their animals.

• The Nile and its tributaries flow through 10 distinct African nations: Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Eritrea and Burundi.

• The vast river system of the Nile includes two main tributaries: the White Nile (so named for its milky, silt-filled appearance), and the Blue Nile, which joins the White Nile in Sudan on its way to the sea.

• The source of the White Nile is the springs of Mount Bigugu in Rwanda. The source of the Blue Nile is Sakala Springs above Lake Tana in Ethiopia, which contributes to more than 50 percent of the river’s flow. The water’s volume from the Blue Nile increases tremendously in the monsoon season, from July to September.

• The Nile flows south to north, beginning in the highlands of Ethiopia and Rwanda heading toward the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria, Egypt.

• Around 5000 B.C., the first great Egyptian civilization was founded in the northern Nile Valley. The Egyptians came to rely heavily on the Nile and its annual summer floods for irrigation, agriculture and transportation.

• The ancient Egyptians worshiped the Nile as one of their gods (the god Hapi) and made sacrifices solely for the Nile’s sake.

• The first dams were built on the Nile in 1861 in order to raise the river levels for easier navigation and increased irrigation. Major dams on the Nile today include Aswan Dam, Roseries Dam, Sennar Dam and Owen Falls Dam.

• Today the Nile remains a vital pathway that is essential to millions of African farmers. Egypt still imports 40 percent of its grain by means of the Nile.

• The entire Nile River Delta is estimated to drain an area of 1,293,000 square miles. This area is so vast that is has a number of different climate areas. North, in Egypt and Sudan, rainfall is sparse. More to the south, in and around Ethiopia, rainfall is heavy, contributing to the floodwaters that rush downstream and eventually create the wonderfully fertile soil that supports so much of life in Egypt and Sudan. Dams, the most notable being the Aswan High Dam, have been built along the route to prevent massive flooding of populated areas.

• The Nile River Delta is home to many species of animals, including crocodiles, turtles, baboons, wildebeest, and more than 300 species of birds, including fishing eagles, ibis, and the Nile Valley Sunbird.

• The people who lived along the Nile in ancient times used the river for agriculture and transportation. That hasn't changed, although the methods of agriculture and transportation have. Steam ships are still used in Egypt and Sudan, to transport goods.

• Only 22% of the river passes through Egypt, the other countries through which Nile passes are Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia, Zaire, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

• The cities that Nile flows past are Cairo, Khartoum, Gondokoro, Aswan, Karnak, Thebes and the town of Alexandria.

• The source of the river is debatable since it is commonly known that the source of the river is Lake Victoria, which is the biggest lake in Africa, but it is observed that on the northern side of the lake there is a waterfall called Ripon Falls, which has a small opening and seemingly that is where the water in the River Nile comes from but then this cannot be held as the ultimate truth since there are many rivers that flow into Lake Victoria therefore which one of these or if all of them are the sources of The Nile. Presently River Kagera and its tributary, which is called Ruvubu whose headwaters are in Burundi, are considered to be the source of the River Nile.

• Nile also played an important in the building if the famous Pyramids since the blocks of stone, which were used to make these pyramids, were actually transported from the source to the site with the help of Nile.

• Its average discharge is 3.1 million litres (680,000 gallons) per second.

Interesting Facts About Michael Phelps

• Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer and 14-time Olympic gold medalist (the most by any Olympian), who currently holds seven world records in swimming.

• Michael Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics; a total of eight, surpassing Mark Spitz

• Michael Phelps comes from a broken home in Baltimore. His policeman father Fred and school teacher mother Debbie separated when he was only seven. Elder sister Whitney, also a swimmer, has written that she used the swimming pool as a refuge from the yelling.

• When he was 10, Phelps attended the 1996 Olympic Trials to support sister Whitney. She finished sixth in the 200m butterfly final and failed to make the team. The family cried in the stands. Whitney's career was cut short by four herniated discs.

• In November 2004, at the age of 19, Michael Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Salisbury, Maryland. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired the following month and was granted probation before judgment and ordered to serve 18 months probation, fined $250, obligated to speak to high school students about drinking and driving and had to attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) meeting.

• Michael Phelps started swimming at the age of five. As a kid, Michael was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). At the age seven, he started swimming partly because he could release all that extra energy in the pool. At first, Michael was scared to even put his face in the water but before long he was swimming competitively. When he was 11,Michael Phelps met his long-time swimming coach, Bob Bowman, who knew right away that Phelps had what it took to be an exceptional athlete.

• Michael Phelps made history by qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, when he was just 15-years-old. By qualifying for the 2000 Olympics, Michael Phelps became the youngest member of the US Olympic team since 1932. Phelps finished fifth in the 200 meter butterfly and shattered the 15-16 National Age Group record. Five months after the Olympics,Phelps became the youngest world record holder in history by setting a new record in the 200 meter butterfly at the World Championships in Japan.

• When Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe said he did not think anyone could win eight races at a single Olympics, Phelps memorized the quote to motivate him for Beijing. He hung a poster of Ian Crocker above his bed after his team mate beat him at the 2003 world championships, to help motivate him for Athens.

• Overall, Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals: six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In winning these medals, he has twice equaled Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin's record of eight medals (of any type) at a single Olympics (Dityatin: Moscow 1980; Phelps: Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008). Out of his eight gold medals from Beijing, five were won in individual events, tying the record for individual gold medals at a single Games originally set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps ranks second in total career Olympic medals, after Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who won a total of 18 medals (nine gold) spanning three Olympic Games.

• Michael Phelps received the 2004 Sullivan Award.

• Michael Phelps is the proud holder of 27 U.S. National Titles.

• Michael Phelps is the first male swimmer to break two world record in separate events in the same day.

• Michael Phelps is 6'4" tall and weighs 200 pounds.

• Michael Phelps' nicknames are "MP" and "Gomer".

• Michael Phelps needs to wolf down a lot of calories to have the energy for all his swimming. For breakfast, he often eats two egg-and-cheese sandwiches, a bowl of grits, a large omelet and a tall stack of chocolate chip pancakes.

• Michael Phelps comes from a family of swimmers. His sister, Hilary, swam for the University of Richmond and his sister, Whitney, swam at the 1996 Olympic Swimming Trials.

• Michael Phelps is sponsored by Visa, Speedo, PowerBar, At&T Wireless, Omega and Kellogg's.

• Micahel Phelps listens to hip hop and rap to help him get focused before a race, downloading tracks on his MP3 player. Among his favourites is American rapper Young Jeezy.

• Michael Phelps attends the University of Michigan, studying sports marketing and management.

• Phelps' international titles, along with his various world records, have resulted in him being awarded the World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007 and American Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007. Phelps has won a total of 48 career medals thus far: 40 gold, six silvers and two bronze. This includes all of theChampionships in which he has competed: The Olympics, the World Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships.

Interesting Facts About Pencils

• A pencil will write in zero gravity, upside down, and under water!

• More than 14 billion pencils are produced in the world every year - enough to circle the globe 62 times.

• One pencil will draw a line 70 miles long.

• Pencils don't really contain lead.That gray matter is graphite and clay.

• Two billion pencils are made in the United States each year.

• The pencil was invented more than 400 years ago, in 1565.

• Famous novelists Ernest Hemingway and JohnSteinbeck used pencils to write their books.

• Pencils didn't have erasers on them until 100 years ago because teachers felt they would encourage children to make mistakes.

• It would cost $50 in labor and materials for a person to make a 10-cent pencil.

• One million pencils are used annually on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

• The average pencil can be sharpened 17 times, write 45,000 words or draw a line 35 miles long.

• A good-size tree will make about 300,000 pencils.

• In 1908 A.C. Steward developed a press that could imprint round pencils.

• Seeing a pencil in your dream indicates that you are making a temporary impact in a situation. It may also suggest that a relationship may not last long.

• Dreaming that you are sharpening a pencil, suggests that you need to be more flexible in your way of thinking.

• More than 2 billion pencils are used in the United States every year, and most of them have erasers! However, most pencils sold in Europe do not have erasers!