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.

Interesting Facts About Snails

• Snails' bodies produce a thick slime. Because of this slime, they can crawl across the edge of a razor and not get hurt.

• Some snails have been known to live up to 15 years.

• Snails are hermaphrodites which means that they have both male and female reproductive organs.
  

• Snails usually travel in irregular paths, often traveling in a circle.

• Snails reply mainly on their sense of touch and smell when finding food because they have very poor eyesight.

• Snails cannot hear.

• Snails can retract one or both of their tentacles at a time.

• Because of the suction created by their slime, a snail can crawl upside down.

• Snails are nocturnal animals which means they are more active at night.

• Garden Snails mainly eat garden plants and vegetables, but they will also eat decaying plants and soil.
  

• The fastest snails are the speckled garden snails which can move up to 55 yards per hour compared 23 inches per hour of most other land snails.

• Garden snails hibernate during the winter and live on their stored fat.

• Garden snails breathe with lungs.

• Garden snails evolved from sea snails about 600 million years ago.

• The garden snail is cooked and eaten as a delicacy called escargot

• May 24th is National Escargot Day

• World's largest snail is the Australian trumpet (Syrinx aruanus), a sea species from the shores of northern and western Australia which can grow up to 77.2 cm (30 inches) in shell length, while the flesh

• weighs up to 18 kg (40lbs).

• The longest snail is Parenteroxenos doglieli, a parasite in the body cavity of the sea cucumber.

• Cymbium proboscidalis, from the shores of West Africa, grows up to 7-8 kg (15-17 pounds) and the body is so large that the shell remains like a beanie. Brought on ground, the snail's weight decreases to a quarter. Locals make from this snail a dish called tibuden, adding rice and fish. Some sea rabbits (which are sea snails lacking a shell) can be 30 cm (1 ft) long and weigh 6.5 kg (14 pounds).

• The largest snail you could see in your garden is the Giant African Snail or Tiger Snail (Achatina achatina), which can be 30 cm (1 ft) long. Giant Apple Snail (Pomacea maculata) is the largest freshwater snail, with a shell 15 cm (0.5 ft) and weighing 600 g (1.5 pounds).

• Garden snails have up to 14,175 teeth! They are all located on their tongue (radula).

• The snails Littoraria irrorata on the eastern shores of US farm! They bite the stems of sea grass to weaken them, and then they fertilize the place with their feces. This way they favor the development of a fungus on which they feed.

• French researchers discovered that the digestive secretions of the garden snail are effective against stomach ulcer. 10 mg of this powder led to a decrease by 42 % of the human stomach acidity. The product was also effective against chronic bronchitis.

• The snail slime was found by American researchers to be an excellent scaring factor. Snail slime is also used in some beauty products...

• Most ground snails are peaceful veggies (well, not exactly all), but the marine species can be top predators of the sea. They are armed with a harpoon like weapon (named toxoglossan radula, snails modified "tongue") injecting a deadly venom into their victims.

• This way, they can catch in a fraction of a second fish "for dinner". Some of these venoms are the most potent on the planet, like in the case of the predatory marine snail Conus magus, from coral reefs. They can grow up to 23 cm in length and eat from marine worms, small fish, mollusks (clams and other marine snails, including other cone snails.

• Its poison has a greater power than morphine, but it acts in an entirely different way. Some cone snails can kill a human being with their venom.

• The snail venom impairs a particular type known as N-type calcium channels, crucial in determining some kinds of pain sensations. A pharmaceutical company has developed synthetic chemicals that also inhibit N-type calcium channels, decreasing pain. These new drugs could be employed to shut off persistent acute pain where other painkillers have not succeeded, or are not recommended, like in the case of patients with cancer or other very severe conditions.

• In some areas, like New Guinea, the shells of sea snails were used for long as currency!

• Some sea snail produce sulfuric acid which they use for dissolving the shells of the clams on which they feed... No need the mentions this is the most potent acid of all.

• Because of their moist skin, common snails are most active in damp weather and at night.

• Common snails have pale grey moist skin. At the front end are four tentacles, the shorter two are for feeling and the longer pair are eye stalks. The shell of these snails is light brown with darker brown bands following the spiral of the shell. The shell colouration varies in its intensity from pale yellow to almost black.

• They are common and widespread in Britain and Europe.

• Common snails live in varied habitats. They are often found in gardens, parks, forests and dunes.

• They are herbivores and feed on decaying vegetation, algae, fungi, lichens and plant leaves. As a part of their herbivorous diet they often feed on garden plants and are considered by some to be pests. Common snails have a symbiotic bacteria in their crop that enables them to digest cellulose - they have been known to feed on damp paper and cardboard.

• Because of their moist skin, common snails are most active in damp weather and at night. When conditions become too dry, the snail will retreat into its shell and seal the entrance with a parchment-like barrier known as an epiphragm. Snails can often be found in this state under rocks in gardens or on a wall in a sheltered corner. When sealed away like this the snail goes into a state of suspended animation and can survive for several months without water.

• Common snails feed by scraping a ribbon-like tongue covered in horny teeth called a radula, over their food. This allows them to scrape algae and lichen from the surface of rocks and walls. You can sometimes see the trails they leave behind as they eat their way through the algae on a damp wall.

• Common snails, like all land snails, are hermaphrodites. This means that they possess both male and female reproductive organs. Despite this they still need to find another snail to mate with. When two snails meet during the breeding season (late spring or early summer), mating is initiated by one snail piercing the skin of the other snail with a calcified 'love dart'. The exact purpose of the 'love dart' is not fully understood but it seems to stimulate the other snail into exchanging small packets of sperm. After mating is complete the snails will produce eggs internally, which are fertilised by the sperm that has been exchanged.

• Up to about a month after mating the snail lays about a hundred small white eggs in a nest underground in damp soil. If the conditions remain suitable for the eggs, snails will begin to hatch after about 14 days. Newly hatched snails have a small fragile shell and it takes two years for them to reach maturity.

• Garden snails evolved from sea snails about 600 million years ago.

• The largest land snail ever found was 15 inches long and weighed 2 pounds!

• Snails' bodies produce a thick slime. Because of this slime, they can crawl across the edge of a razor and not get hurt.

• The largest land snail ever found was 15 inches long and weighed 2 pounds!