William James Sidis was a wonder child; at eighteen months he could read The New York Times, at two he taught himself Latin, at three he learned Greek. By the time he was eight he had taught himself eight languages (Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish, and Armenian). He also invented another, which he called Vendergood.
Youngest student at Harvard
William James Sidis gained entrance to Harvard at eleven, and gave a lecture on four-dimensional bodies to the Harvard Mathematical Club his first year. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, on June 18, 1914, at age 16.
Shortly after graduation, he told reporters that he wanted to live the perfect life, which to him meant living in seclusion. He granted an interview to a reporter from the Boston Herald, which published his vows to remain celibate and never to marry, and a statement that women did not appeal to him (however, he later developed a strong affection for a young woman named Martha Foley). He later enrolled at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Source:
http://www.prometheussociety.org/articles/Outsiders.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_Sidis
Coca-Cola is invented by John Pemberton in the late 19th century. It was originally intended as a medicine against fatigue and headaches. The idea to call it Coca-Cola came from his business partner Frank Robinson in 1885. The name is made up from the two ‘medical’ ingredients; extract of coca leaves and kola nuts.
Cocaine
How much cocaine there was exactly in the cola is hard to determine, but that is was in there is certain. Frederich Allen even thought it had to remain an ingredient of the cola, despite all the heavy critique;
“But neither could Candler take the simple step of eliminating the fluid extract of coca leaves from the formula. Candler believed that his product’s name had to be descriptive, and that he must have at least some by-product of the coca leaf in the syrup (along with some kola) to protect his right to the name Coca-Cola. Protecting the name was critical. Candler had no patent on the syrup itself. Anyone could make an imitation. But no one could put the label “Coca-Cola” on an imitation so long as Candler owned the name. The name was the thing of real value, and the registered trademark was its only safeguard. Coca leaves had to stay in the syrup.”
It was not before 1929 that Coca-Cola became cocaine free.
The name is;
‘Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphop-
nopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavatarnsathitsak-
kattiyavisanukamprasit‘.
Wales
Very often the town with the name
‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch‘
is mentioned as the longest of the world, but it only comes in third on the list of longest place names.
The second place is hold by New Zealand who have a name for a hill that consists of 92 letters:
Tetaumatawhakatangihangakoauaotamateaurehaeaturipukapihimaungahoronuku pokaiwhenuaakitanarahu.
This one is actually entered in the Guiness Book of Records and is said to mean:
“The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as land eater, played his flute to his loved one.”
More people have drowned in the Sahara than died of dehydration.
It hardly ever rains in the desert, but if it does it rains really heavy rains. The water flows then through valleys where no one expects it even to be possible that water is flowing there.
These water flows are very dangerous as they surprise the people who are there at that given moment. There is no time to escape from water flows like this and the people drown.
In 1995 more than 300 people drowned like this in only one weekend in the Sahara.
Source: Krämer & Trenkler, Nieuw lexicon van hardnekkige misverstanden
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