"A question a day keeps the stupidity away"

March 14, 2010

Veda #72 : Brainfreeze

Day 72
"What caused a headache whenever we ate cold or frozen food like ice cream?"
One minute you're enjoying your favorite frozen beverage or ice cream cone, and the next minute you're experiencing a headache which seems to originate from the middle of your skull. This is the dreaded phenomenon known as "brain freeze," or ice cream headache. Some experts suggest that up to 1/3 of the population is susceptible to brain freeze, especially when eating a frozen treat too quickly on a warm day. The pain of brain freeze is similar to that of a migraine headache. Why did this occur?

Dr. Robert Smith, founder of the Cincinnati Headache Center at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, experimented with crushed ice applied to different parts of his mouth to see what set off the pains. The culprit, his research indicates, is at the back of the palate, from which a mass of nerves called the sphenopalatine ganglion stretches into the head. The nerves control the dilation and contraction of blood vessels, and dilated blood vessels in the head are known to cause several kinds of headaches.


So what actually causes brain freeze? Researchers suggest it is a combination of your body's overreaction to cold stimuli, freezing of a cluster of nerves above the palate and a sudden influx of warm blood to the brain. It was the initial contact between the cold food and the roof of your mouth which set all of this brain freeze activity in motion. Other researchers have suggested that this is because in hot weather, a person tends to gulp cold drinks or wolf down lemonade so that the cold stuff is more likely to hit the palate hard. The result for you is a pounding headache which seems to radiate from the sinus area or behind your eyes. The pain is not necessarily triggered by the dilation of the blood vessels, but by the influx of warm blood which forces the vessels open again.
(n.b: now you know why i always close and massage my eyes when this event occured, pang. hwahaha)

Ways to avoid the brainfreeze might be to let the ice cream warm up in the front of the mouth before swallowing or to swallow it in such a way that it does not linger on the palate.
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Veda #71 : SOS, Mayday

Day 71
"What is SOS and Mayday?why it's being used for asking help?"

Do you think that SOS, the distress signal used on ships all over the world, stands for “Save Our Souls”? and do you think that Mayday has something to do with May as in month?and how did it ended as a sign of requesting help?

Actually, it doesn’t stand for anything. In the kind of telegraph code used to transmit messages to and from ships, the letter S is three dots, and the letter 0 is three dashes (. . . - - - . . .). So in 1908, SOS was chosen as the distress signal because it is easy to send and recognize.
The distress signal for ship radios is “Mayday.” This word probably came from a French phrase, m’aidez, which is pronounced something like mayday and means “help me.” Read More

March 12, 2010

Veda #70 : Toothbrush Vs OJ

Day 70
"Why does orange juice taste odd after toothbrushing?"


For you who enjoying a glass of OJ in the morning, please consider this. If you ever feel odd drinking OJ in the morning after you've brushed your teeth, now you can see the explanation. Oh yeah, for you who enjoyed the sweet tea in the morning, could feel the same.

To work out what’s going on we need to know about toothpaste, orange juice and how your taste buds work. Your tongue has four areas that are sensitive to sweet, sour, bitter and salt. The sweet part is right at the front of your tongue.

Toothpaste usually creates a lot of foam in your mouth and this can temporarily affect your sweet taste buds. Look at the label on your toothpaste to see if it has an ingredient called Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS). This is a detergent and it’s found in 99% of all toothpastes. It doesn’t really do anything useful, but just creates a lot of foam that makes you feel like your teeth are getting nice and clean.

Because your sweet sensors are not working so well you mainly taste the bitter taste of the citric acid found in orange juice. The sugar sweet taste is not there.
The same also happen on the other sweet drink.
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March 10, 2010

Veda #69 : Flag of Indonesia VS Monaco

Day 69
"What is the difference between Indonesia's flag and Monaco's flag?"


What is the similarities of Indonesia, Monaco, Poland, and Singapore?
The answer is simple, they all use the same color configuration on their national flag.
What is the difference then?
Poland's flag is very similar to Indonesia, only upside down.
Singapore's flag is red at top and white at bottom, but they added crescent moon and 5 stars.
Monaco's flag is exactly look alike Indonesia's flag. Where's the difference then?

The answer is located on their proportions.
Indonesia's official flag measurement is 2,5:1,5. Common measurement used by other nation flags around the world.
Monaco's official flag measurement is "only" 2:1,5.
that's it. now you know. Read More

Veda #68 : Siamese Twin

Day 68
"What is Siamese twin?and why did they called Siamese twin?"

Siamese twins are twins whose bodies are joined together at birth. Sometimes they are joined only by the skin and can be easily separated. But other times, they share a vital organ, and then they must spend their entire lives joined together. Why did they named Siamese Twin?or in Indonesia, they called Kembar Siam?

Siamese twins can be born anywhere. They are called Siamese twins because the first pair that came to the attention of Americans was born in 1811, in Siam, the country that is now called Thailand.
The twins, named Chang and Eng Bunker, who were joined at the chest, later came to the United States and worked with a circus. Then they both married American women, sisters, and each ran his own farm!
Chang and Eng spent half the week at one farm with one wife, and half the week at the other farm with the other wife. Between them, they produced 22 children.
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Veda #67 : Hot and Spicy

Day 67
"If we eat hot and spicy food, why should we drink warm water to neutralize it?"

Have you eat spicy food, with chilli, and after that meal, you feel your tongue was hot and feel like being pinched? that's the effect of the spices and chilli. And then we feel it's best to drink cold water to ease the hotness. But did you know that to reduce the hotness in our mouth, it's best to drink hot or warm water?

So, the chilli contain a compound called Capsain, that produce hot effect to our tongue's receptor nerve. Whenever we try to relieve it by drinking ice cold water, the cool sensation that received by tongue send an information to our brain, and the brain inform the body especially tongue to "fight back" the cold effect by produce heat. that'll only makes us feel hotter.

So, we better drink warm water, because when we drink it, the tongue send an information about heat and reducing the hotness effect of the chilli. Let's say in simple way, by drinking warm water, we try to trick our brain to feel the hotness of water than the chilli that have a long effect of hotness. So the hot feeling will decrease faster.

But, if you prefer more tasty way, you could drink milk or yoghurt to relieve it, because the milk and yoghurt had a compound named Casein, this will neutralize the effect of Capsain.
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Veda #66 : Silencer

Day 66
"Why does gun silencer could supress the sound of the gun?"


Too much police drama, and too much watching suspense film. Usually the bad guy or the assassins using the silencer for the gun, to kill their victim silently. how does the barrel in front of the gun could reduce the sound of the projectile?

Imagine a balloon. If you pop a balloon with a pin, it will make a loud noise. But if you were to untie the end of the balloon and let the air out slowly, you could pop it making very little noise. That is the basic idea behind a gun silencer.
To fire a bullet from a gun, gunpowder is ignited behind the bullet. The gunpowder creates a high-pressure pulse of hot gas. The pressure of the gas forces the bullet down the barrel of the gun. When the bullet exits the end of the barrel, it is like uncorking a bottle. With the pressure abround 3000 psi, it could produce loud POP.

Now let's add the silencer. A silencer screws on to the end of the barrel and has a huge volume compared to the barrel (thats why you usually see the silencer is always bigger than the gun's barrel). With the silencer in place, the pressurized gas behind the bullet has a big space to expand into. So the pressure of the hot gas reduced greatly. When the bullet finally exits through the hole in the silencer, the pressure being uncorked is much lower, around 60 psi. Therefore, the sound of the gun firing is much softer.
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March 06, 2010

Veda #65 : Body's Clock

Day 65
"My body clock"


Tonight isn't about facts or something like that, it's just a quick info for you. If you ever wondered why in the morning you ought to pee, or had a stomachace. Or if you know that if we on diet, we shouldn't eat after 6PM. Why is so?
Because apparently, our body have its own "clock"

Each body part have its own clock, according to The Traditional Chinese Medicine there are 12 main organs inside our ody that take care the entire of our inside circulation system. They are Lungs, Large intestine, Gastric, Spleen, Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, Heater, Gall Bladder, and Liver.

Here are each of the body parts clock :
- Paru-paru (Lungs) : Peak performance on 03.00AM-05.00AM.
- Usus besar (Large intestine) bekerja : Peak performance on 05.00AM-07.00AM.
- Lambung (Gastric) : Peak performance on 07.00AM-09.00AM.
- Limpa (Spleen) : Peak performance on 09.00AM-11.00AM.
- Jantung (Heart) : Peak performance on 11.00AM-01.00PM.
- Usus kecil (Small intestine) : Peak performance on 01.00PM-03.00PM.
- Kantung kemih (Bladder) : Peak performance on 03.00PM-05.00PM.
- Ginjal (Kidney) : Peak performance on 05.00PM-07.00PM.
- Selaput jantung (Pericardium) : Peak performance on 07.00PM-09.00PM.
- Tiga pemanas (Heater) : Peak performance on 09.00PM-11.00PM.
- Kandung empedu (Gall bladder) : Peak performance on 11.00PM-01.00AM.
- Hati (Liver) : Peak performance on 01.00AM-03.00AM.
Each organ's clock are on peak performance and reach the lowest performance exactly 12 hours after that.
Based on those body clock, no wonder when we wake up in the morning we often feel a stomachache, or feel a sudden urge to pee in the early morning.
About the diet, let's see the large intestine's clock, it reached its peak performance at 5AM to 7 AM, and reach the lowest performance at 5-7 in the evening, so that's why we shouldn't eat too much in the evening, because the intestine isn't working properly, it'll only cause obese.
So does about breakfast, the Gastric's clock reached the best performance on 7-9 in the morning, that's why we should have breakfast by then.

So, have you take care of your body well?
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March 05, 2010

Veda #64 : Hitler's assassination attempts

Day 64
"How many times does Hitler passed his assassination attempts?"
If we talk about World War, we can't left the axis and allies side. And when we talked about Axis, we can't left Germany with its Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. The German supreme leader at that time. Adolf Hitler, born 20 April 1889 was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was the totalitarian leader of Germany from 1933 to 1945. Twelve years of his rules, he was the most "hated" man, being assasinated many times, but all of them were failed. how many assassination attempt did he passed?

He has passed 42 assassination attempts, including suicide bombers, shooting him, blowing him up, crashing his plane, making it look accidental and many more. His most Famous assisnation attempt would be of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg with Operation Valkyrie on July 20th 1944 plot to kill Hitler failed when his bomb blew up. Colonel Claus Schenk Graf Von Stauffenberg who was responsible of carrying out both the assassination attempt and the Valkyrie Operations which did not succeed. He was executed among other senior officers for treason.

Out of 42 assassination attempts, there were seventeen attempts that were plotted against him, the rest are merely just "taking chances". Here's the list of Hitler's well-known plotted assassination attempt :
1.MUNICH
On November 8, 1939, George Elser, a swiss clock maker who had worked in Germany for several years and bitterly resented the Nazi stranglehold on labour unions, decided to kill Hitler by placing a time bomb in one of the columns behind the podium where Hitler was to give a speech in the Burgerbrau Beer Celler. Set to detonate at preciesly 9.20pm on Wednesday, Nov. 8. At 8.10 Hitler enters the beer hall but at 9.12pm he suddenly ends his speech and departs. Eight minutes later the bomb explodes killing eight people and wounding sixty-five. Elser is later arrested and confined to the concentration camp at Sachsenhousen for six and a half years. Two weeks before the war ended in Europe, Elser was executed by the SS.

2. THE BERGHOF
On March 11, 1944, Cavalry Captain Eberhard von Breitenbuch attended a conference at Hitler’s villa the ‘Berghof’ on the Obersalzberg. Concealed on his person was a small Browning pistol with which he intended to shoot his Fuhrer and at the same time was willing to sacrifice his own life in the attempt. He felt that the war was now at such a stage that the complete destruction of Germany was inevitable and that Hitler had to be stopped. Breitenbuch enters the conference room behind Field Marshal Ernst Busch, who suspects nothing, but as he approaches the door he is stopped by the Duty Sergeant who explains "Sorry, no adjutants beyond this point, Führers orders". So yet another attempt fails.

3.BERLIN
In February, 1944, Infantry Captain Axel von dem Bussche agrees to blow up Hitler and himself while he demonstrates a new army winter overcoat to the German leader. Fate intervenes the day before when during a British air raid the uniforms were destroyed and Bussche was returned to duty at the front. A few weeks later another ‘overcoat’ attempt was made. This time the volunteer model was Ewald Heinrich von Kleist, son of one of the original conspitators and included Major General Helmuth Stieff. Again the RAF saved the day with an air-raid just before the demonstration was about to take place forcing its cancellation.

4. THE BERGHOF
On July 11, 1944, Staff Officer Lt. Colonel Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, convinced that he and he alone could assassinate Hitler, attended another conference at the Berghof. Concealed inside his briefcase was a time bomb. Waiting outside in a gateaway car was his co-conspirator, Captain Friedrich Klausing. Inside the Berghof, Stauffenberg telephones his colleagues in Berlin to tell them that neither Goering nor Himmler are present. They insist that the attempt be aborted. Stauffenberg then returnes to Berlin to plan his next assassination attempt.

5. RASTENBURG
Stauffenberg’s second attempt occurs at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair headquarters in East Prussia. On July 15, 1944, he attends a Fuhrers briefing and observes with dismay that Himmler is again absent. The attempt was once again aborted.

6. RASTENBURG
This is what we know now as Operation Valkyrie. Thirty six year-old Stauffenberg’s final attempt occured on July 20, 1944. Four days earlier, the attempt was decided upon during a meeting at his residence at No. 8 Tristanstrasse, Wansee. Himmler or no Himmler, the attempt must go ahead, come what may. At 12.00pm Stauffenberg and General Fromm report to Field Marshal Keitel’s office for a briefing before entering the conference room. At 12.37pm, Stauffenberg pushes his briefcase containing the bomb, under the map table, then leaves the room on the pretext of making a telephone call. The officer who took his place noticed the briefcase and with his foot pushed it further under the table. At 12.42pm, the bomb explodes. By this time Stauffenberg is on his way back to Berlin. At 6.28pm a radio broadcast from Wolf’s Lair reports that Hitler is alive but only slightly wounded. Later that night, at 12.30am, Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators, Haeften, Olbricht and Mertz, are arrested and executed by firing squad in the inner courtyard of the Bendlerstrasse Headquarters.


1. Adolf Hitler
2. General Heusinger
3. Luftwaffe General Korten (Died of wounds)
4. Colonel Brandt (Died of wounds)
5. Luftwaffe General Bodenschatz (Severely wounded)
6. General Schnunt (Died of wounds)
7. Lt.Colonel Borgman (Severely wounded)
8. Rear Admiral Von Puttkamer
9. Stenographer Berger (Killed on the spot)
10. Naval Captain Assmann
11. General Scherff
12. General Buhle 1
13. Rear Admiral Voss
14. SS Group Leader Fegelein
15. Colonel Von Bellow
16. SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Gunsche
17. Stenographer Hagen
18. Lt.Colonel Von John (Adjutant to Keitel)
19. Major Buchs (Adjutant to Jodl)
20. Lt.Colonel Weizenegger
21. Min.Counsellor Von Sonnleithner
22. General Warlimont (Concussion)
23. General Jodl (Lightly wounded)
24. Field Marshal Keitel

This is probably the closest chance the got to put the bomb near the Fuhrer. However, this plan also failed, Hitler was merely wounded because the bomb was put under the strong oak table that supress the explosive effect.
7. PARIS
Another attempt to assassinate Hitler was planned for July 27, 1943, in Paris, where Count Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenberg planned to shoot Hitler from the reviewing stand during a military parade in Hitler’s honour. Hitler however secretly visited Paris in the early hours of July 23, visiting all the city’s famed buildings. He began his tour at 6am and by 9am he ended his tour and departed the city. A few days later Schulenberg recieved word that his hoped for July 27 military parade had been cancelled.

8. PARIS
Despite Schulenberg’s failure to lure Hitler to Paris for the special parade, Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben had plans of his own to assassinate Hitler. In May, 1941, he attemped to lure Hitler to Paris under a similar pretext. The visit was scheduled for May 21st but was abruptly called off at the last minute.

9. SIEGFRIED LINE
In 1939, prior to the outbreak of WWII, German General Kurt von Hammerstein repeatedly attempted to lure Hitler into visiting the Army’s fortifications along the Seigfried Line near the Dutch border where he commanded a base. Hammerstein and his co-conspirator, retired General Ludwig Beck, had planned a ‘fatal accident’ to Hitler during his inspection of the base. Hitler however, never honoured the invitation, instead he turned the tables on Hammerstein by placing him on the retired list.

10. POLTAVA
Another plot to assassinate Hitler was hatched at Army Group B Headquarters at Walki near Poltava in the Ukraine. This time the conspirators were General Hubert Lanz, his Chief of Staff, Major-General Dr. Hans Speidel and Colonel Count von Strachwitz, the commanding officer of the Grossdeutschland Tank Regiment. The plan was to arrest Hitler on his anticipated visit to Army Group B in the spring of 1943. Hitler, at the last minute, changed his mind and instead decided to visit his forces fighting in Saporoshe further east.

11. SMOLENSK
On March 13, 1943, three attempts were planned on Hitler’s life. Field Marshal Guenther von Kluge, commander of Army Group Center on the eastern front, finally managed to lure Hitler into visiting his headquarters at Smolensk. However a number of officers on Kluge’s staff had other thoughts, to assassinate Hitler. Colonel Henning von Tresckow, who hated Hitler and the Nazis, together with Lt. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff and Cavalry Captain Georg von Boeslager, had hatched a plan to get rid of the Fuhrer.
Plan 1
Captain von Boeslager and his company was to serve as armed escort to Hitler’s motorcade. During the drive from the airfield the Fuhrer’s car was to be gunned down in an ambush. The attempt was aborted when Hitler arrived with his own armen escort of 50 SS guards.
Plan 2
The second attempt was to take place during lunchtime in the mess hall. At a given signal, Tresckow was to rise from the table and open fire on Hitler as he ate lunch, but the sight of so many SS close to Hitler arouses fear of failure and so once again the attempt was aborted.
Plan 3
As Hitler leaves by plane for Berlin, Tresckow instructs Schlabrendorff to hand over a package to Colonel Heinz Brandt who is flying back with Hitler. The package, containing two bottles of brandy, is a gift for Major-General Helmuth Stieff in Berlin. Concealed in the package is a time bomb but it failed to explode owing to the high altitude cold air freezing the acid in the detonator. When news of Hitler’s safe arrival reached the plotters, Schlabrendorf immediately flew to Berlin and retrieved the package, replacing it with two genuine bottles.

He is sure hard to kill. But there is only one successful attempt to kill Hitler. When Soviet union press Germany to defeat, he killed himself rather than surrendering. He was die, shoot himself with Walther PPK, the handgun, while his mouth biting cyanide.
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Veda #63 : Novi Menjawab

Oke, pertama2 saya mengaku salah kalo kemaren lupa posting...bukan lupa, lebih tepatnya ga sempet karena plang kemalaman diatas jam 12 dan badan sudah tidak mau diajak kerjasama untuk duduk di kursi dan mencari masalah.

Jadi, sebagai gantinya, diputuskanlah posting kali ini untuk menjawab beberapa pertanyaan yang sebetulnya ga membutuhkan rasio dan pembahasan mendalam...semuanya akan saya bahas...setajam Siliet!
GO!

Pertanyaan dari : Emmy (kayak e)
"mengapa GSM ada radiasinya.. CDMA ga ada? i mean pas lg telpon kalo di deket speaker, pasti bunyi radiasi GSM tret ret ret ribut banget, tp CDMA ga gitu ya?"
untuk menjawab pertanyaan ini sebenarnya cukup simple : 2-2nya ada radiasinya, cuma karena CDMA jangkauan nya lebih kecil daripada GSM, makanya sinyal radiasi yang dipancarkan dibawah GSM. Tapi pada hakekatnya, sama aja radiasinya.

Pertanyaan dari : Ce Sopi (kayak e lagi)
"wih sih...nganggur eeee...hahaha..tapi...seems quite fun...:D"
tanggapan : Percayalah...ga se fun yang dibayangkan apalagi kalo kehabisan bahan pembahasan...hahaha

Pertanyaan dari : Emmy (kayak e, diliat dari bahasa yang digunakan)
"ok this is a bit..icky.. napa kalo kita pipis sering.. merinding.. bbrrr... gitu? got what i mean? :D"
tanggapan : pertama-tama, periksa dan yakinkan dirimu tidak menginjak es batu Em...atau mungkin kamu nyalain AC di dalam WC?bisa jadi kamu kedinginan lo..
anyway, jawabannya adalah, ketika kita pipis, kita mengeluarkan panas tubuh, sehingga suhu tubuh menurun, membuat kita merinding. as simple as that

Pertanyaan dari : Aileen
"what is the tallest building in the earth? :)"
jawabannya : Burj Khalifa di Dubai...tingginya 828m, memiliki 162 lantai.

Pertanyaan dari : Emmy (lagi2 Emmy)
"nop.aku lg males google..jd tny km aja.. mau tau donk.. adat married bule tuh gimana ya? prosesinya apa aja? kok ada kyk after party, buka stocking, wedding first dance..dll itu apa ajaa?? hehehe thx :D"
tanggapan : kamu aja males, apalagi saya!
belom nemu sih em...kapan2 deh... :p

Pertanyaan dari : Ga tau, ga jelas
"what are the character of cinderllea by charles perrault"
tanggapan : ga tau, charles ga bilang apa2 tuh ke aku... (ini aku ga tau maksud pertanyaannya...maaf...skip ya)

Pertanyaan dari : Emmy kayak e...ini anak penasarannya tinggi
"find out why.. kita slalu thumbs up kalo ada sumthin great happened.. dan knapa slalu jari tengah kluar kalo kita maki2 orang :D"
tanggapan : thumbs up itu universal language untuk "good".karena jari jempol seolah2 adalah jari yang paling besar (utama) yang menunjuk ke arah atas, yang artinya kira2 meningkat (=yang artinya bagus). kalo jari tengah keluar saat maki2 (dan biasanya diikuti dengan kata "f*ck") ya soalnya konfigurasi jari tengah dan tangan kita akan menyerupai male genital. fyi, jaman dulu FUCK itu adalah singkatan dari Fornication Under Consent Of King (jadi saat jaman dulu, mau bersetubuh aja harus ada ijin dari raja...begetooo)

Pertanyaan dari : Juwet (mengingat tingkat kejorokan masalah yang ditanyakan)
"WHY... kentut yg ga bunyi kbanyakan lebih bau???? - not so important question- hahaha"
tanggapan : hanya terjadi pada orang2 tertentu aja kok...pertanyaannya bikin ilfeel...tapi gapapa...demi memuaskan rasa ingin tahu, berikut penjelasannya
Secara umum...kentut yang berbau busuk mengandung hidrogen sulfida dan merkaptan yang dihasilkan dari pembusukan oleh bakteri-bakteri yang ada dalam saluran pencernaan kita. Makanan seperti telur dan daging akan menyebabkan pembusukan yang terjadi akan menghasilkan gas dengan ukuran gelembung yang lebih kecil , namun dengan kadar hidrogen sulfida dan merkaptan yang lebih banyak. Hal inilah yang menyebabkan kentut yang tidak bersuara (suaranya lebih kecil) relatif akan berbau lebih busuk. Ini kemudian menjadi kentut, biar cuma kecil volumenya, tapi SBD (Silent But Deadly).

sekian pertanyaan yang belom sempet dibahas...semoga kalian tidak jera dengan penjelasan saya..hahaha

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March 03, 2010

Veda #62 : Barber's Pole

Day 62
"Why barbershop use a red and white stripped pole outside their booth?"

Earlier, i went to mall to bought some electrical and lighting equipments for my office. My eyes catch one funny pole outside one of the mall's tenant, a barbershop. They had a pole with white and red stripes outside their booth. And if i remembered it correctly, most of classical barbershop using this kind of pole. What is that?

Long, long ago, barbers did much more than cut people’s hair. Barbers performed some minor operations on people, especially blood-letting, or bleeding. This was believed to be a cure for some illnesses in which the “bad blood” was supposed to leave the body. To perform the operations, barbers had their patients hold onto a pole standing in the shop. Then the patient’s blood was “let.” When the pole was not being used by a patient, it stood in the barber’s doorway with bandages wrapped around it. This was an advertisement that the barber was a good “bleeder.”

When people realized that it was unsanitary to use a pole that stood in a doorway, barbers painted red stripes around the poles as a continuing advertisement. The red stripes were to remind the customers of blood-soaked bandages.
Red and white striped barber poles became so identified with barbers that the custom of having a pole outside a barber shop continues today. While in America, they use red, white, and blue, to resemble their flag.
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March 02, 2010

veda #61 : Weird, Cow Can't Walk Downstairs

Day 61
"Why can't cow walk donwstairs?"

Weird fact tonight. I don't know which are more weird, the cow who can go upstairs but can go downstairs or down the hill, or me whom search for this explanation. Okay, here goes the story. Cow is a mammal that can go uphil or upstairs, but apparently, they can't go back to their first place, down stairs or downhill. There is a logical explanation for this. (really, i feel weirder than before...)

Now walking up, most of the weight of cow's body is down and back, and their knees bend helping them push themself up.
Now walking down, most of the weight is on their front legs, and their knees bend and point down the stairs, and with all the weight and the very real possibility that they could tumble down frontwards. They have four feet and must 'look down' when walking over an 'obstacle' ... that would throw their 'balance' off and they'd fall. A few horses can walk down stairs, but it takes contstant training and reinforcement, and most can't do it at all. They also can't walk up stairs (even those few who can walk down them) ... stairs are a 'human invention' because human feet are made longer and 'flatter' and have skin all over them, so when we are climbing up or down we want something fairly 'flat' to put both our feet and hands on ... when we realized that we don't 'slide backwards or forwards' with 'breaks' in the slope we invented stairs.

Think of it as you would a child, kids will first start to climb up steps, but getting them to go down takes a lot of patience and care by the parents, till they learn to walk down.

really...really not important...
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March 01, 2010

Veda #60 : Greenland

Greenland, the largest island in the world, is just about the most ungreen place on earth! Most of this island, is continually covered with ice and snow.

This ice sheet is two miles thick in some places. There are no forests in Greenland, but there are some trees, shrubs, and mosses in the southern part and along the coasts.

Then how did this cold, bleak land get its name? In 982, a Scandinavian explorer named Eric the Red sailed to Greenland and spent three years there. When he returned home, he called the land he had seen "Greenland" in the hope of convincing some of his followers to settle there. Eric later returned to Greenland to found a colony there.

Greenland has only one person for every 17 square miles!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Sinyal Bagus XL, Nyambung Teruuusss...! Read More