Facts about Sports

Fishing is the biggest participant sports in the world.

Football (soccer) is the most attended or watched sport in the world.

Boxing became a legal sport in 1901.

More than 100 million people hold hunting licenses.

Jean Genevieve Garnerin was the first female parachutists, jumping from a hot air balloon in 1799.

In 1975 Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to reach the top of Everest.

The record for the most Olympic medals ever won is held by Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina. Competing in three Olympics, between 1956 and 1964, she won 18 medals.

The record for the most major league baseball career innings is held by Cy Young, with 7,356 innings.
Improve your skills at playing baseball with catcher’s gear and equipment from top brands like Easton, Mizuno, and more.

The first instance of global electronic communications took place in 1871 when news of the Derby winner was telegraphed from London to Calcutta in under 5 minutes.

In 1898, one of the first programs to be broadcasted on radio was a yacht race that took place in British waters.

Sports command the biggest television audiences, led by the summer Olympics, World Cup Football and Formula One racing.

Gymnasiums were introduced in 900BC and Greek athletes practiced in the nude to the accompaniment of music. They also performed naked at the Olympic Games.

The very first Olympic race, held in 776 BC, was won by Corubus, a chef.

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 311 male but no female competitors.

In his time, Michael Schumacher was the highest paid sportsman, ahead of Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer. (Not including sponsorship endorsements).

The high jump method of jumping head first and landing on the back is called the Fosbury Flop.

The Major League Baseball teams use about 850,000 balls per season.

About 42,000 tennis balls are used in the plus-minus 650 matches in the Wimbledon Championship.

The longest tennis match took place at Wimbledon 2010 when John Isner of the United States beat Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68 in a match that lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes, played over 3 days, June 22, 23 and 24.

A baseball ball has exactly 108 stitches, a cricket ball has between 65 and 70 stitches.

A soccer ball is made up of 32 leather panels, held together by 642 stitches.

Basketball and rugby balls are made from synthetic material. Earlier, pigs’ bladders were used as rugby balls.

The baseball home plate is 17 inches wide.

The very first motor car land speed record was set by Ferdinand Verbiest.

The record for the most NASCAR wins is held by Richard Petty: 200 wins (and 7 championships).

Golf the only sport played on the moon – on 6 February 1971 Alan Shepard hit a golf ball.

Bill Klem served the most seasons as major league umpire – 37 years, starting in 1905. He also officiated 18 World Series.

The oldest continuous trophy in sports is the America’s Cup. It started in 1851, with Americans winning for a straight 132 years until Australia took the Cup in 1983.

Volleyball was invented by William George Morgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1895.

A badminton shuttle easily travels 180 km/h (112 mph).

Ferenc Szisz from Romania, driving a Renault, won the first Formula One Grand Prix held at Le Mans, France in 1906.

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Facts about Technology

160 billion emails are sent daily, 97% of which are spam.

Spam generates 33bn KWt-hours of energy every year, enough to power 2.4 million homes, producing 17 million tons of CO2.

9 out of every 1,000 computers are infected with spam.

Spammer get 1 response to every 12 million emails they send (yet it still makes them a small profit).

A twillionaire is a twitterer with a million or more followers.

There are some 1 billion computers in use.

There are some 2 billion TV sets in use.

There are more than 4 billion cell phones in use. About 3 million cell phones are sold every day.

The first known cell phone virus, Cabir.A, appeared in 2004.

Since 2008, video games have outsold movie DVDs.

Amazon sells more e-books than printed books.

Facebook has 500 million registered users… about 100 million less than QQ.

About 1.8 billion people connect to the Internet, 450 million of them speak English. See list of Internet languages.

Google indexed it’s 1 trillionth unique URL on July 25, 2008. That is thought to be about 20% of all the pages on the Internet but a high percentage of the World Wide Web (the public Internet).

One google search produces about 0.2g of CO2. But since you hardly get an answer from one search, a typical search session produces about the same amount of CO2 as does boiling a kettle.

Google handles about 1 billion search queries per day, releasing some 200 tons of CO2 per day.

The average US household uses 10.6 megawatt-hours (MWh) electricity per year.

Google uses an estimated 15 billion kWh of electricity per year, more than most countries. However, google generates a lot of their own power with their solar panels.

The first public cell phone call was made on April 3, 1973 by Martin Cooper.

The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first cell phone sold in the US; launched on April 11, 1984, it was designed by Rudy Krolopp and weighed 2 pounds.

About 20% of the videos on YouTube are music related.

24 hours of video viewing is uploaded every minute on YouTube.

People view 15 billion videos online every month.

On average, US onliners view 100 videos per month each.

Flickr hosts some 5 billion photographs, Facebook hosts more than 15 billion.

1 Bit = Binary Digit
8 Bits = 1 Byte
1000 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
1000 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
1000 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
1000 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte
Technically speaking, the sum is 1024 bytes.

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Facts about earth and space

The order of the planets, starting closest to the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

The one place where a flag flies all day, never goes up or comes down, and does not get saluted, is the moon.
Earth is not round; it is slightly pear-shaped. The North Pole radius is 44mm longer than the South Pole radius.

The ozone layer averages about 3 millimeters (1/8 inch) thick.

The crawler, the machine that takes the Space Shuttle to the launching pad moves at 3km/h (2 mph).
Summer on Uranus lasts for 21 years – but so does winter.

The Sahara desert expands at about 1km per month.

Oceanography, the study of oceans, is a mixture of biology, physics, geology and chemistry.

More than 70% of earth’s dryland is affected by desertification.

The US has one of the highest fire death rates in the industrialized world, with more than 2 million fires reported each year.

The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth. See the size of the sun in comparison.

The largest iceberg ever recorded was 335km (208 miles) long and 97km (60 miles) wide.

Luke Howard used Latin words to categorize clouds in 1803.

Hurricanes, tornadoes and bigger bodies of water always go clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. This directional spinning has to do with the rotation of the earth and is called the Coriolis force.

Winds that blow toward the equator curve west.

Organist William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 with the first reflecting telescope that he built.

He named it Georgium Sidium in honour of King George III of England but in 1850 it was renamed Uranus in accordance with the tradition of naming planets for Roman gods.

Planets, meaning wanderers, are named after Roman deities: Mercury, messenger of the gods; Venus, the god of love and beauty; Mars, the god of war; Jupiter, king of the gods; and Saturn, father of Jupiter and god of agriculture; Neptune, god of the sea.

During a total solar eclipse the temperature can drop by 6 degrees Celsius (about 20 degrees Fahrenheit).

The tallest waterfalls in the world are Angel Falls in Venezuela. At 979 m (3,212 ft), they are 19 times taller than the Niagara Falls, or 3 times taller than the Empire State Building.

Although the Angel Falls are much taller than the Niagara Falls, the latter are much wider, and they both pour about the same amount of water over their edges – about 2,8 billion litres (748 million gallons) per second.

There are 1040 islands around Britain, one of which is the smallest island in the world: Bishop’s Rock.

All the planets in the solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus. It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

Earth is the densest planet in the solar system and the only one not named after a god.

Earth orbits the sun at an average speed of 29.79 km/s (18.51 miles/sec), or about 107 000 km/h (about 67,000 miles/hour).

One year on earth is 365.26 days long. One day is 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds long. The extra day in a leap year was introduced to compensate for the discrepancy in the Georgian calendar.

Plates carrying the continents migrate over the earth’s surface a few centimetres (inches) per year, about the same speed that a fingernail grows.

On average, 20,000 earthquakes are located each year.

The magnetic north pole is near Ellef Ringes Island in northern Canada.

The magnetic south pole was discovered off the coast of Wilkes Land in Antarctica.

There is zero gravity at the center of earth.

The deepest mine in the world is Western Deep Levels near Carltonville, South Africa. It is 4,2km (2.6 miles) deep.

The deepest point in the sea: the Mariana Trench off Guam in the Pacific Ocean; it is 10,9 km (6.77 miles) below sea level.

The tallest mountain on earth is under the ocean: Mauna Kea in Hawaii is 10,200 metres (33,465 ft) high. Mount Everest is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) high.

Earth is slowing down – in a few million years there won’t be a leap year.

The tail of the Great Comet of 1843 was 330 million km long. (It will return in 2356.)

There are more than 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth.

About 500 small meteorites fall to earth every year but most fall in the sea and in unpopulated areas.

There is no record of a person being killed by a meteorite but animals are occasionally hit.

The Dead Sea is 365 m (1,200 ft) below sea level.

A storm officially becomes a hurricane when cyclone winds reach 119 km/h (74 mph).

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Facts About Animals

Mammals are the only animals with flaps around the ears.

African elephants only have four teeth to chew their food with.

There are about one billion cattle in the world of which 200 million are in India.

A house fly lives only 14 days.

A dog was the first in space and a sheep, a duck and a rooster the first to fly in a hot air balloon.

The Big Five is a group of animals of Africa: cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino.

The oldest breed of dog is the Saluki.

The bee hummingbird of Cuba is the smallest bird in the world.

An ostrich can run up to 43mph (70 km/h).

An annoyed camel will spit at a person.

The world’s smallest dog is the Chihuahua, which means “tiny dog in the sky.”

Pea crabs (the size of a pea) are the smallest crabs in the world.

75% of wild birds die before they are 6 months old.

Pork is the world’s most widely-eaten meat.

In Denmark there are twice as many pigs as people.

Dinosaurs did not eat grass: there weren’t any at that time.

The coyote is a member of the dog family and its scientific name, “canis latrans” means barking dog.

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 50cm (20 in) tongue.

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle – a group of geese in the air is a skein.

More animal collective nouns

The South American giant anteater eats more than 30,000 ants a day.

It is impossible to out-swim a shark – sharks reach speeds of 44 mph (70 km/h). Humans can run about 21 mph (35 km/h).

The sailfish is the fastest swimmer, reaching 68 mph (109 km/h), although a black marlin has been clocked at 80 mph (128 km/h).

The slowest fish is the Sea Horse, which moves along at about 0.01 mph (0.016 km/h).
Dolphins can reach 37 mph (60 km/h).

Of the 650 types of leeches, only the Hirudo medicinalis is used for medical treatments.
The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car.

The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant.

A blue whale weighs as much as 40 rhinos.

The eel is the only fish in the world that spawns in the middle of an ocean but spends its adult lives in rivers.

The scales of a crocodile are made of ceratin, the same substance that hooves and fingernails are made of.

A crocodile’s tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth and cannot move it.

A snail has two pairs of tentacles on its head. One pair is longer than the other and houses the eyes. The shorter pair is used for smelling and feeling its way around. (Some snail species have only one pair of tentacles, thus they have just one eye).

The heaviest crustacean ever found was a lobster weighing 42 lb (19 kg), caught in 1934.

The largest jellyfish ever caught measured 7’6″ (2,3 m) across the bell with a tentacle of 120 ft (36 m) long.

The largest giant squid ever recorded was captured in the North Atlantic in 1878. It weighed 4 tons. Its tentacles measured 10 m (35 ft) long.

The giant squid has the biggest eyes of any animal: its eyes measure 16 inches (40 cm) in diameter.

Domestic cats purr at about 26 cycles per second, the same frequency as an idling diesel engine.

Sharks are immune to almost all known diseases.

Sharks and rays also share the same kind of skin: instead of scales, they have small tooth-like spikes called denticles. The spikes are so sharp that shark skin has long been used as sandpaper.

Animals also are either right-handed or left-handed. Polar bears are left-handed – and so is Kermit the Frog.

There are 701 types of pure breed dogs. There are about 54 million dogs in the US, and Paris is said to have more dogs than people.

Some bird species, usually flightless birds, have only a lower eyelid, whereas pigeons use upper and lower lids to blink.

Fish and insects do not have eyelids – their eyes are protected by a hardened lens.

Flatfish (halibut, flounder, turbot, and sole) hatch like any other “normal” fish. As they grow, they turn sideways and one eye moves around so they have two eyes on the side that faces up.

Measured in straight flight, the spine-tailed swift is the fastest bird. It flies 106 mph (170 km/h). Second fastest is the Frigate, which reaches 94 mph (150 km/h).

Millions of trees are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them.

There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, a nation of 21 million people.

New Zealand is home to 4 million people and 70 million sheep.

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Facts about your body

The length from your wrist to your elbow is the same as the length of your foot.

Your heart beats 101,000 times a day. During your lifetime it will beat about 3 billion times and pump about 400 million litres (800 million pints) of blood.

It is impossible to lick your elbow. Well, for almost everyone… but a few can.
Your mouth produces 1 litre (1.8 pints) of saliva a day.

The human head contains 22 bones. More on the head and brains

On average, you breathe 23,000 times a day.

Breathing generates about 0.6g of CO2 every minute.

On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 21 minutes 29 seconds, 
On average, you speak almost 5,000 words a day – although almost 80% of speaking is self-talk (talking to yourself).

Over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations increased by 10 cm (4 in).

In the 19th century, American men were the tallest in the world, averaging 1,71 metres (5’6″). Today, the average height for American men is 1,763 m (5 feet 9-and-half inches), compared to 1,815 m (5’10″) for Swedes, and 1,843 m (5’11″) for the Dutch, the tallest Caucasians.

The tallest nation in the world is the Watusis of Burundi: 1.98 m (6 feet 6 inches) tall.

If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you’ll feel thirsty.

It is impossible to sneeze and keep one’s eyes open at the same time.

55% of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn.

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, suggested that a woman could enlarge her bust line by singing loudly and often.

A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.

You’ll drink about 75,000 litres (20,000 gallons) of water in your lifetime.

Hair on the head grows for between two and six years before being replaced. In the case of baldness, the dormant hair was not replaced with new hair.

Men loose about 40 hairs a day. Women loose about 70 hairs a day.

In the Middle Ages the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow was called an ell.

A person remains conscious for eight seconds after being decapitated.

The first successful human sex change took place in 1950 when Danish doctor Christian Hamburger operated on New Yorker George Jorgensen, who became Christine Jorgensen.

The muscle that lets your eye blink is the fastest muscle in your body. It allows you to blink 5 times a second.
On average, you blink 15 000 times a day. Women blink twice as much as men.

A typical athlete’s heart churns out 25 to 30 litres (up to 8 gallons) of blood per minute.

We have four basic tastes. The salt and sweet taste buds are at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the base, and sour along the sides.

Not all our taste buds are on our tongue; about 10% are on the palette and the cheeks.
Unless food is mixed with saliva you cannot taste it.

The liver is the largest of the body’s internal organs. The skin is the body’s largest organ.
On average a hiccup lasts 5 minutes.

Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.

Your middle fingernail grows the fastest.

Your finger nails grow at 1 nanometre per second (0.000 000 001 m/s). Your hair grows at 4 nanometres per second (0.000 000 004 m/s).

It takes about 3 months for the transplanted hair to start growing again.

About 13% of people are left-handed. Up from 11% in the past.

In 1900, a person could expect to live to be 47. Today, the average life expectancy for men and women in developed countries is longer than 70 years.

A newborn baby’s head accounts for one-quarter of its weight.

King Henry I, who ruled in the England in the 12th century, standardised the yard as the distance from the thumb of his outstretched arm to his nose.

The bones in your body are not white – they range in colour from beige to light brown. The bones you see in museums are white because they have been boiled and cleaned.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth.

Every person has a unique tongue print.

If all your DNA is stretched out, it would reach to the moon 6,000 times.

Approximately two-thirds of a person’s body weight is water. Blood is 92% water. The brain is 75% water and muscles are 75% water.

The colored part of the eye is called the iris. Behind the iris is the soft, rubbery lens which focuses the light on to a layer, called the retina, in the back of the eye. The retina contains about 125 million rods and 7 million cones. The rods pick up shades of grey and help us see in dim light. The cones work best in bright light to pick up colors.

We actually do not see with our eyes – we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain.

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The size of the sun in comparison

 

It is the fire of life. It can be kind but it can get angry. But it never throws its weight around. It is the sun. And although it is 330,000 more massive than earth and contains 99.8% of the mass in our solar system, it is small in comparison with some other stars.
The sun never cease to amaze us with its theatrics, its lava flares dancing across its surface in a ballet of nuclear fusion, sometimes leaping millions of miles into the air. And although the sun is big, its intense heat and light makes it difficult to capture good images with normal instruments. So NASA scientists use an Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager and an Atmospheric Imaging Assembly detector to view the ultra-violet (UV) and extreme ultra-violet lithography (EUV) wavelengths released by the sun. The resulting images are spectacular.

Earth in comparison to the sun
Earth’s distance from the sun varies between 91.4 million miles – in January – and 94.4 million miles – in July. The average distance of 92,955,887.6 miles (149, 597, 870.7 kilometers) is called 1 astronomical unit (AU), a measurement that is used to report distances to other planets and stars as well. In short, it’s not a weekend drive.
NASA puts the size of earth to the sun in perspective like this: Suppose the radius of Earth were the width of an ordinary paper clip. The radius of the sun would be roughly the height of a desk, and the sun would be about 100 paces from earth.

The size of the sun in comparison
Our sun is one of billions in the entire universe. It also is fairly small in comparison with other big stars. In fact, our sun is classified as a G2 dwarf star. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is twice as massive as the sun and 25 times more luminous. And Sirius is dwarfed by Pollux, which is eight times the radius of the sun. And Pollux is dwarfed by Arcturus, which is almost 26 times the size of the sun.

It’s a big, big universe
But there are bigger stars yet. When compared to Antares, our handsome sun is a mere pixel on a map. And Antares is not even the biggest star. That title is thought to belong to a star called VY Canus Majoris. It is about 2,000 times the size of the sun, or more than twice the size of Antares.

How big is the universe?
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe calculated the age of the known universe at 13.7 billion years old, based on its radius of 13.7 billion light years. And it is growing bigger every day, at a speed of 71 km/s/Mpc. The size of the whole universe is estimated to be 78 billion light years. If you start traveling today at 60 miles per hour (100km/h) you’ll get to the end of your first coffee stop, the end of one light year, in nine trillion years. Then you just keep going for another 77.999 999 billion light years. Or you could stay here, look after our beautiful planet… and enjoy the sun !!

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Human head and brain size

The human head contains 22 bones, consisting the cranium and the facial bones. The cranium is formed by 8 bones: the frontal bone, two parietal bones, two temporal bones, the occipital bone in the back, the ethmoid bone behind the nose, and the sphenoid bone. The face consists of 14 bones including the maxilla (upper jaw) and mandible (lower jaw). (The skull has many little holes in its base which allow the cranial nerves to travel to their destinations.)
The cranium protects the brain, which, for an average adult male weighs about 1400 gram (49 oz). The brain of Russian novelist Turgenev, weighed 2021g (71 oz), Bismarck’s brain weighed 1807g (64 oz), while that of famous French statesman Gambetta was 1294g (46 oz). Female average brain mass is slightly less than that of males. The largest woman’s brain recorded weighed 1742g (61 oz). Einstein’s brain weighed 1230 gram (43.39 ounces), meaning Einstein’s brain was smaller than average.
An elephant’s brain weighs 5000g (176oz or 11 lb), a whale’s 10000g (352oz or 22lb). In proportion to the body, the whale has a much smaller brain than man. This seem to give man the edge, until it was discovered that the dwarf monkey has 1g of brain per 27g (0.95oz) of body, and the capuchin monkey has 1g of brain per 17,5g body, whereas man has 1 gram of brain to 44g of body.

Photographic memory
Most scientists believe that “photographic memory” is a myth. Clever people train their brains to remember well. In fact, as humans we simply do not remember things well. Of the three beings known to be able to recognize themselves in the mirror, the orangutan, the dolphin and the human, only the latter turns around and instantly cannot remember what his/her own face looks like. (Try drawing a picture of yourself without looking in the mirror:)

Brain power
The human brains consists of more than 100 billion neurons (nerve cells) through which the brain’s commands are sent in the form of electric pulses. These pulses travel at more than 400 km/h (250 mph), creating enough electricity to power a light bulb. The brain consumes more energy than any other organ, burning up a whopping 20% of the food we take in.
The left side of your brain controls the right side of your body and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body.
It is estimated that the mental capacity of a 100-year old human with perfect memory could be represented by computer with 10 to the power of 15 bits (one petabit). At the current rate of computer chip development, that figure can be reached in about 35 years. However, that represents just memory capacity, not the extremely complex processes of thought creation and emotions.

The seeing brain
One-quarter of the brains in used to control the eye. We actually see with our brains, with the eyes basically being cameras.
You’re born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206.

But consider this: for all the complexity of the brain, you still have only one thought at a time. Make it a positive thought.

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EPL: Most Substituted Players since 2000

These are the most substituted players in the Premier League since the 2000/2001 season. (Minimum of 20 substitutions in a season or the league leader if less than that).


MOST TIMES SUBSTITUTED OUT OF THE GAME AFTER STARTING

09/10
26 - Steed Malbranque (Sunderland)

08/09
22 - Steed Malbranque (Sunderland)
20 - Albert Riera (Liverpool)

07/08
23 - Elano (Manchester City)

06/07
22 - Kanu (Portsmouth)

05/06
19 - Peter Crouch (Liverpool)

04/05
21 - Eidur Gudjohnsen (Chelsea)
21 - Marcus Bent (Everton)

03/04
21 - Freddie Ljungberg (Arsenal)

02/03
22 - Nolberto Solano (Newcastle United)

01/02
19 - Eidur Gudjohnsen (Chelsea)

00/01
19 - Stefano Eranio (Derby County)



MOST TIMES SUBSTITUTED INTO A GAME FROM THE BENCH

09/10
19 - Stephen Thompson (Burnley)
19 - Boudewijn Zenden (Sunderland)

08/09
21 - Ryan Babel (Liverpool)

07/08
22 - Marlon Harewood (Aston Villa)
22 - Shane Long (Reading)
20 - Antoine Sibierski (Wigan Athletic)
20 - Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal)

06/07
22 - Ricardo Vaz Te (Bolton Wanderers)
20 - Georgios Samaras (Manchester City)

05/06
20 - Duncan Ferguson (Everton)

04/05
29 - Duncan Ferguson (Everton)
20 - Luke Moore (Aston Villa)

03/04
22 - Stern John (Birmingham City)

02/03
21 - Jonatan Johansson (Charlton Athletic)
21 - Scott Dobie (West Bromwich Albion)

01/02
22 - Dean Holdsworth (Bolton Wanderers)
21 - Jermain Defoe (West Ham United)
21 - Serhiy Rebrov (Tottenham Hotspur)
20 - Mikael Forssell (Chelsea)

00/01
18 - Darius Vassell (Aston Villa)
18 - Lomano LuaLua (Newcastle United)

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Premier League: Tallest and Shortest Players - 2010/2011

The tallest and shortest players currently in the English Premier League (10/11 season).

Garry O'Connor(left) - Nikola Zigic(right)

Tallest Field Players
6'7½" - 202cm - Nikola Zigic (Birmingham City)
6'6"    - 198cm - Peter Crouch (Tottenham)
6'6"    - 198cm - Zat Knight (Bolton)
6'4½" - 194cm - Marouane Fellaini (Everton)
6'4½" - 194cm - Brede Hangeland (Fulham)
6'4½" - 194cm - Chris Smalling (Manchester United)
6'4"    - 193cm - John Carew (Aston Villa)
6'4"    - 193cm - James Collins (Aston Villa)
6'4"    - 193cm - Franco Di Santo (Wigan Athletic)
6'4"    - 193cm - Sylvain Distin (Everton)
6'4"    - 193cm - Greg Halford (Wolves)
6'4"    - 193cm - Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Liverpool)
6'4"    - 193cm - Jonas Olsson (West Bromwich Albion)
6'4"    - 193cm - Christopher Samba (Blackburn)
6'4"    - 193cm - Mamady Sidibe (Stoke City)
6'4"    - 193cm - Michael Turner (Sunderland)
6'4"    - 193cm - Jelle Van Damme (Wolves)
6'4"    - 193cm - Mike Williamson (Newcastle United)

Tallest Goalkeepers
6'5½" - 197cm - Edwin Van der Sar (Manchester United)
6'5½" - 197cm - Pascal Zuberbuhler (Fulham)
6'5"    - 196cm - Asmir Begovic (Stoke City)
6'5"    - 196cm - Petr Cech (Chelsea)
6'5"    - 196cm - Wayne Hennessey (Wolves)
6'5"    - 196cm - Thomas Sorensen (Stoke City)
6'5"    - 196cm - Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal)
6'4½" - 194cm - Ali Al Habsi (Wigan Athletic)
6'4½" - 194cm - Adam Bogdan (Bolton)
6'4½" - 194cm - Mark Schwarzer (Fulham)

Aaron Lennon(left) - John Terry(right)

Shortest Players
5'5"    - 165cm - Aaron Lennon (Tottenham)
5'5½" - 166cm - Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City)
5'6"    - 168cm - Steed Malbranque (Sunderland)
5'6"    - 168cm - Daniel Pacheco (Liverpool)
5'6"    - 168cm - Paul Scholes (Manchester United)
5'6"    - 168cm - Jay Spearing (Liverpool)
5'6"    - 168cm - Carlos Tevez (Manchester City)
5'6½" - 169cm - Jermain Defoe (Tottenham)
5'7"    - 170cm - Leighton Baines (Everton)
5'7"    - 170cm - Barry Bannan (Aston Villa)
5'7"    - 170cm - Matthew Jarvis (Wolves)
5'7"    - 170cm - Alan Judge (Blackburn)
5'7"    - 170cm - Martin Olsson (Blackburn)
5'7"    - 170cm - Kevin Phillips (Birmingham)
5'7"    - 170cm - Andy Reid (Sunderland)
5'7"    - 170cm - Wayne Routledge (Newcastle)
5'7"    - 170cm - Freddie Sears (West Ham United)
5'7"    - 170cm - David Silva (Manchester City)
5'7"    - 170cm - David Vaughan (Blackpool)
5'7"    - 170cm - Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)

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2011 will see biggest hard drive change in decades!

There hasn’t been a great deal of news about it so far but soon our hard drives will never be the same again.

At the moment, our hard disc drives are formatted into 512 byte size blocks and have been that way for years but as from the first quarter of next year hard drive suppliers will start shipping hard drives with 4 K disc sizes.

All hard drive suppliers have agreed to adopt the 4 K size by the end of January next year through the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA).

IDEMA has set up BigSector dot org which is a “consortium of leading storage industry software and hardware companies formed to provide the industry with guidance and support for implementing larger physical sector sizes” says the site.

“Disk drives with larger physical sectors allow enhanced data protection and correction algorithms, which provide increased data reliability.

“Larger physical sectors also enable greater format efficiencies, thereby freeing up space for additional user data. These improvements will result in better user experiences” BigSector explains.

Basically the larger size means we will be able to have bigger hard drives that are more secure, more efficient and more reliable.

Although 512 bytes has been perfectly ok up till now, this size is no longer appropriate when hard drives can hold so much more data than they could before.

“The technology has changed but that fundamental building block of formatting has not” said David Burks, a product marketing manager for storage firm Seagate reported the BBC.

Ok so the larger size sounds great and yes there will be a few teething problems, there always are with new technology. However, one in particular is how the larger hard drive sizes might affect Windows XP users.

Windows XP was released before it was decided to up the block size of hard drives to 4 K so technically isn’t “4 K aware” whereas Windows Vista, Windows 7, X Tiger, Snow Leopard and the Linux kernel released after September 2009 are all 4 K compliant according to the BBC report.

“All other things being equal you will have a noticeable hard drive reduction in performance” said Mr Burks who reckoned it could slow it down by as much as 10 percent.

Those who are building their own computers or swapping a hard drive for one with the new format are apparently the users who are most likely to experience problems.

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What's Google Doing With All That Dark Fiber?

The Official Story

Google head of special initiatives Eric Sacca has said the fiber helps Google avoid long-haul transport costs for traffic that needs to get to, say, peering points that connect to the AT&T network. Google also uses formerly dark fiber to interconnect its massive data centers and perform mundane tasks like replicating its search index to Google sites worldwide.

One Google observer who has also worked with the company thinks the Official Story is also the most likely, since Google historically tries to build and operate its own, self-contained infrastructure.

“The less external dependencies, the better. Fiber reduces some of the dependencies, but you still need peering, points of presence, etc. ... Google invests heavily in long-term capital expenditures ... [and] has a good record getting these things to pay off.”

But it can’t just want to make its own operations slightly cheaper and smoother, right? Hasn’t Google taken Microsoft’s place as the company that’s Trying to Take Over the World? It’s easy to find alternate theories about Mountain View’s intentions.

Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) Theory

First floated by Robert Cringely with a nod to Brewster Kahle, this theory works off the Official Story: Google has paid people to design the most powerful, robust data center that could fit into a standard shipping container—the plain steel boxes you see on oceangoing freighters or tractor-trailers. Google can then move these data centers next to the 300-odd peering points around the world. Creating and using these data-centers-in-a-box increases Google’s redundancy, reduces users’ latency, and generally makes the Google network less crashable, for $3 billion or perhaps less.

While one analyst called this scheme an over-romanticization by someone who had read too much Neal Stephenson, the resulting characteristics of such a system—fast, always-on IP performance—would also make the emerging Google Desktop behave as much like software residing on your PC as possible. It could herald the long-awaited arrival of software-as-a-service (SaaS), where most of your day-to-day software becomes a medium for displaying Mountain View’s ads (not just your Web browser).

SaaS Theory, World Domination Edition

Google using fiber to strengthen its grip on your desktop might not be enough for the more wide-eyed Google conspiracy theorists. Robert Cringely gave them welcome ammunition when he posited that Google also plans a “Google cube” that’s essentially a cheap, universal electronic connecting device: a simple box with jacks and connections for “USB, RJ-45, RJ-11, analog and digital video, S-video, analog and optical sound, etc. Additional [input/output includes] Wifi and Bluetooth.” Overnight, Google becomes “a major phone company, a major video entertainment provider, a major player in home automation and even medical telemetry.” For example, there’s a lot of video content lying around not making any money, and if Google can bring distribution costs down to a penny or two an hour, it can rule online video and even make money in the process . Excelling in these fields would require a lot of bandwidth, although it’s unlikely that Mountain View would enter any of them without its usual thorough planning and preparation.

A Google-Branded Telecom Network

A job posting on Google supports this theory . But some observers wonder whether Google wants to pay to light up all that dark fiber on the way to creating such a network; there’s supposedly plenty of wholesale, high-speed telecom capacity lying around that’s already “lit,” reducing the economic incentives for Google to enter what is already a highly competitive business. Besides, telecom is subject to regulation and taxation, which Google historically avoids where it can. One analyst sees a continuing need to increase U.S. broadband capacity, however, given that the country has fallen to number 37 in broadband deployment—behind Turkey. So perhaps a Google Bell isn’t as far-fetched as it seems.

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Barn Owl

The barn owl has a white, heart-shaped facial disk, no ear tufts and long legs. The bird appears white from below and golden-brown from above, with black specks all over. The long wings fold beyond the tail and the legs are feathered. The sexes can be distinguished by differences in coloration and weight. Males usually have whiter breasts with fewer and smaller dark specks. Females are typically heavier and have more and larger dark specks. Chicks are covered with down when born, but 8 to 10 weeks later they acquire adult-like plumage.

Barn owls are monogamous (one mate). They are not aggressive toward other barn owls and can nest within a half mile of other pairs. Barn owls are sexually mature at 1 year of age and, because they have a short lifespan, they breed only once or twice. Both natural and human-made sites are used for nesting and they are generally used repeatedly by other barn owls throughout the years. Nest sites include tree cavities, barns, abandoned and occupied buildings, and chimneys. Males use a courtship call to show the female the nest site. Barn owls do not construct a nest; the eggs are laid in a dark space surrounded by pellets. These brownish-black pellets, which are the regurgitated fur and bone fragments of each meal, average about 2 inches in size and are produced twice a day.

The 5-11 eggs (average 4-6) are laid every other day. The female incubates the eggs for 30-34 days, starting when the first egg is laid. Hatching occurs in the same order as the eggs were laid, so a gradation of ages and sizes can be observed in a brood. In times of scarce food, the older and stronger young have a better chance of survival. Stronger, first-hatched nestlings have been observed eating and trampling younger, later-hatched owls. The young are fed by both adults for approximately 2 months. The adult male does most of the hunting and feeding.

The barn owl has exceptionally keen hearing and eyesight, making it a very effective hunter. It can see during the day, but its relatively small eyes (for an owl) are directed forward and are better adapted for night vision. The ears are asymmetrical; one is level with the nostril and the other is higher, nearer the forehead. They are covered with feathered flaps that close for loud noises and open for soft sounds. The barn owl's hearing is so sharp that it can easily hunt for voles and shrews, which are often concealed from view as they travel in runways beneath the grass. A family of 2 adults and 6 young may consume over 1,000 rodents during the 3-month nesting period.

Barn owls make a wide variety of sounds. The most common adult sounds are alarm shrieks, conversational calls (shorter, less intense shrieks), and a rapid squeaking or ticking, which is associated with the pair. The rasping, food-begging call of the young can be heard almost continuously from soon after sunset until just before sunrise. The young also hiss and bill-click when disturbed.

While perched, the barn owl has a habit of lowering its head and swaying from side to side. The bird sleeps so soundly during the day that it is difficult to wake it up until darkness arrives.

Other names for the barn owl are golden owl, white owl, monkey-faced owl and white-breasted barn owl. 

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Owl Photos

Great Grey owl

Burrowing owl 

Barn owl 

 

Barred owl

 

Spotted owl

 

Elf owl 

 

Saw-whet owl 

 

Screech owl

Boreal Owl

Flammulated Owl

 

Ferruginous Pygmy Owl

Great Horned Owl

 

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Arctic Fox

The lush white coat of the arctic fox provides both warmth and camouflage in winter

The arctic fox is an incredibly hardy animal that can survive frigid Arctic temperatures as low as –58°F (-50°C) in the treeless lands where it makes its home. It has furry soles, short ears, and a short muzzle—all-important adaptations to the chilly clime. Arctic foxes live in burrows, and in a blizzard they may tunnel into the snow to create shelter.
Arctic foxes have beautiful white (sometimes blue-gray) coats that act as very effective winter camouflage. The natural hues allow the animal to blend into the tundra's ubiquitous snow and ice. When the seasons change, the fox's coat turns as well, adopting a brown or gray appearance that provides cover among the summer tundra's rocks and plants.
These colorings help foxes to effectively hunt rodents, birds, and even fish. But in winter prey can be scarce on the ground. At such times, arctic foxes will follow the region's premier predator—a polar bear—to eat the leftover scraps from its kills. Foxes will also eat vegetables when they are available.
Like a cat's, this fox's thick tail aids its balance. But for an arctic fox the tail (or "brush") is especially useful as warm cover in cold weather.
Female arctic foxes give birth each spring to a large litter of up to 14 pups.

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Komodo Dragon

With its sheer strength and deadly, bacteria-ridden saliva, the Komodo dragon is the top predator in its range

Komodo dragons have thrived in the harsh climate of Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Islands for millions of years, although amazingly, their existence was unknown to humans until about 100 years ago.
Reaching 10 feet (3 meters) in length and more than 300 pounds (136 kilograms), Komodo dragons are the heaviest lizards on Earth. They have long, flat heads with rounded snouts, scaly skin, bowed legs, and huge, muscular tails.
As the dominant predators on the handful of islands they inhabit, they will eat almost anything, including carrion, deer, pigs, smaller dragons, and even large water buffalo and humans. When hunting, Komodo dragons rely on camouflage and patience, lying in wait for passing prey. When a victim ambles by, the dragon springs, using its powerful legs, sharp claws and serrated, shark-like teeth to eviscerate its prey.
Animals that escape the jaws of a Komodo will only feel lucky briefly. Dragon saliva teems with over 50 strains of bacteria, and within 24 hours, the stricken creature usually dies of blood poisoning. Dragons calmly follow an escapee for miles as the bacteria takes effect, using their keen sense of smell to hone in on the corpse. A dragon can eat a whopping 80 percent of its body weight in a single feeding.
There is a stable population of about 3,000 to 5,000 Komodo dragons on the islands of Komodo, Gila Motang, Rinca, and Flores. However, a dearth of egg-laying females, poaching, human encroachment, and natural disasters has driven the species to endangered status.

Komodo dragons can run up to 11 mph (18 kph) in short bursts.

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Great Horned Owl

The most common owl in North and South America, the great horned owl has adapted to a wide variety of habitats and climates.

The great horned owl is the most common owl of the Americas, easily recognizable because of the feather tufts on its head. These "plumicorns" resemble horns or, to some, catlike ears.
Great horned owls are adaptable birds and live from the Arctic to South America. They are at home in suburbia as well as in woods and farmlands. Northern populations migrate in winter, but most live permanently in more temperate climes.
The birds nest in tree holes, stumps, caves, or in the abandoned nests of other large birds. Monogamous pairs have one to five eggs (two is typical), both the male and female incubate, and the male also hunts for food. Owls are powerful birds and fiercely protective parents. They have even been known to attack humans who wander too close to their young.
Like other owls, these birds have an incredible digestive system. They sometimes swallow their prey whole and later regurgitate pellets composed of bone, fur, and the other unwanted parts of their meal. Owls are efficient nighttime hunters that strike from above, and use their powerful talons to kill and carry animals several times heavier than themselves. Owls prey on a huge variety of creatures, including raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, domestic birds, falcons, and other owls. They regularly eat skunks, and may be the only animal with such an appetite. They sometimes hunt for smaller game by standing or walking along the ground. Owls have even been known to prey upon unlucky cats and dogs.
Great horned owls are largely nocturnal so they can be difficult to spot. But in the dark after sunset, or just before dawn, they can often be heard vocalizing with their well known series of "Hoo H'hoos!"

The male great horned owl is smaller than the female and has a much lower-pitched call.

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Komodo Dragon's Bite Is "Weaker Than a House Cat's"

 

The world's largest living lizard, the fearsome Komodo dragon, has a bite weaker than a house cat's, researchers say. Though known for killing prey much larger than itself, the Komodo relies on its razor-sharp teeth, strong neck muscles, and "space frame" skull to subdue its prey, according to a new study.

Using computer models, researchers from Australia's University of New South Wales analyzed a Komodo specimen from the Australian Museum in Sydney.
Measuring the forces and composition of the lizard's skull, the researchers found that its jaw is not designed for crushing.
"The bite is really quite incredibly weak for such a big lizard—less than you'd expect from the average house cat," said Stephen Wroe, an author of the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Anatomy.
If a Komodo actually tried to crush prey with its jaws, like crocodiles do, "it would break its own skull," he said.
The Komodo dragon, a type of monitor lizard, can grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and is native to the Indonesian islands that include Komodo and Flores
Listed as a vulnerable species by the World Conservation Union, about 4,000 to 5,000 Komodos remain in the wild.

Still a Precision Killing Machine
Despite its flimsy bite, the researchers said, the Komodo has other physical traits in its favor that make it an able predator.
"What's really interesting is that it has a lightweight skull and weak jaw, but it has optimized the way the skull structure and material is arranged," Wroe said.
Likening the lizard's skull to the design of a bridge, Wroe said its "space frame" structure "uses minimal amounts of material to resist forces."

 

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Giant Shrimplike Predator Was a Weakling After All

 Anomalocaris canadensis trolls the seafloor in an illustration.


A shrimplike creature thought to be Earth's first great predator was actually more of a worm-eating wuss, scientists say.
Anomalocaris canadensis glided along the seafloor about 500 million years ago, during Earth's Cambrian period. Nearly three feet (one meter) long, the shelled, bulging-eyed animal was giant compared to the other organisms living at the time.
Its unusual, O-shaped mouth was composed of 32 overlapping plates and protected by two spiky prongs that hung down from its face.
Scientists had assumed the well-armored mouth could crush and feed on other hard-shelled organisms. For instance, the ancient beast was thought to feast on organisms such as trilobites, segmented invertebrates that also lived on the seafloor.
But paleontologist James "Whitey" Hagadorn, of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and his team may have quashed this theory using a 3-D computer model of the creature's mouth.
"We're basically saying that Anomalocaris may not have been the king of the jungle," Hagadorn said.
"That doesn't mean it's not a really cool fossil ... but all the popular animations and videos that show it ferociously swimming through the oceans and ripping apart hapless trilobites may need to be reevaluated."
Weak Jaws Couldn't Crack a Shrimp
The computer model of Anomalocaris' mouth showed it was not capable of cracking the soft shell of a modern shrimp—let alone the harder shells of most trilobite species.
In fact, it couldn't even fully close its mouth, according to the new research, which Hagadorn presented this week at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver.
So while Anomalocaris may have been able to suck up very small or freshly molted— and thus soft—trilobites, "it had no chance in heck of biting through about 95 percent of trilobite shells. Its mouth would have broken first," Hagadorn said.
(Related: "Komodo Dragon's Bite Is 'Weaker Than a House Cat's.'")
He added that supporting evidence for the model's results can be seen in the fossils themselves. For example, the team also studied more than 400 fossilized Anomalocaris mouth parts and could not find any signs of chips or scratches, which would be expected if the creatures had been continually pulverizing hard shells.
Furthermore, there is no evidence from fossilized stomach contents or feces that Anomalocaris ate anything hard.
Instead of trilobites, Anomalocaris likely fed on something soft, Hagadorn said.
"One hypothesis is that it was eating soft worms, or maybe plankt

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Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)

The platypus is found in eastern Australia. They live aside freshwater rivers or lakes, and create burrows for shelter and protection. They are active mainly at nighttime hours, and use their webbed feet for swimming. When swimming the platypus has its eyes shut. They swim underwater for 2 minutes, before returning to the surface for oxygen. They can however stay underwater for up to 10 minutes, and due to their natural buoyancy, they need to be underneath another object to do this.

The Platypus has a wooly furred coat and range from 30cm to 45cms in length and the tail about 10 to 15 cms. The wooly furred coat actually has three different layers. The first layer keeps the animal warm, by trapping air, the second layer which provides an insulating coat for the animal, and lastly the third layer of long flat hairs to detect objects close by. These creatures weight on average between 1 to 2.4 kilograms. They have an average lifespan of 12 years.

This lifespan may be shortly diminished, as the platypuses biggest threats are snakes, goannas, rats and foxes. Another big threat to the platypus is man, via waterway pollution or land clearing.

Platypuses feed on insect larvae, worms or other freshwater insects. They do so mainly at night, by the use of their bill. They turn up mud on the bottom of the lake or river, and with the help of their electroreceptors located on the bill, find many insects and freshwater insects. They store their findings in special pouches behind their bill, and are consumed upon returning to the surface.

Amazing Fact: Platypuses can consume their own body weight in food in a 24 hour period!

Male platypus are larger than the female. They reproduct by mating which occurs once a year, between June - October. The female lays between 2 - 4 eggs and incubates these for a two week period. When a young platypus is born, they feed from milk from the mother. The mother secretes this milk from large glands under the skin, the young platypus feed from this milk which ends up on the mothers fur.

If you thought this was a cute and cuddly Australian animal, well, you are only half correct. The male platypi have a hollow spur about 15 milimetres in length on the inside of both hind legs. This in turn is connected to a venom gland, and the platypus uses this spur to defend itself against predators. 

Amazing Fact: The male platypus has venom strong enough to can kill a small dog, or cause excruciating pain among humans.

Since only the male platypus has this venomous spur, and the gland peaks during mating season, many suggest it is normally used in aggressive encounters between other male platypus.

A baby platypus is not called a puggle, which seems to be a common misconception. There is no official name for a baby platypus, but a common suggested name is "platypup".

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The Amazing Ants (with video)

Ants eat almost anything, but prefer sweet foods. When ants find food, they lay down a chemical trail, called a pheromone, so that other ants can find their way from the nest to the food source. The Dalmatie ant cooks its food by chewing it into patties and baking them in the sun.
Ants can carry 5 to 20 times their body weight, and will work together in small or large groups to move heavier things. When they come across potholes, they smooth out the track by filling the holes with their bodies, accellerating the delivery of their goodies back to the nest.
It is estimated that there are about one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) ants in the world. The biggest ant colony was found on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido: 306 million ants and 1 million queens lived in 45,000 interconnected nests over an area of 2.7 square kilometres (1,7 square miles).
Most of the 11,000 ant species are ferocious, except for the Messor Aciculatus ant, which rarely fights. The Formica yessensis ant attacks other insects, but does not fight with ants of the same species, even if they come from a different ant nest.
Ant lifespan
The study of ants is called myrmecology. In a book based on two decades of revolutionary research, a Stanford professor maintains that the ant queen is not in charge: there are no leaders in an ant colony. Worker ants live for only a few weeks but some ant species workers live up to 5 years. Ant queens live for about 6 years with some species of ant queens living for 25 years and more.
Gakken’s ant pages explains that ants are found all over the world except on Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, some parts of Polynesia, and a few other remote islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans

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