Trivia

The correct answer is... Frog

Gung Hay Fat Choy! = "Happy New Year"

The Chinese Lunar New Year is the longest chronological record in history, dating from 2600 BC, when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the zodiac. Like the Western calendar, The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a yearly one, with the start of the lunar year being based on the cycles of the moon. Therefore, because of this cyclical dating, the beginning of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. This year it falls on January 28. A complete cycle takes 60 years and is made up of five cycles of 12 years each.

The Chinese Lunar Calendar names each of the twelve years after an animal. Legend has it that the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals to come to him before he departed from earth. Only twelve came to bid him farewell and as a reward he named a year after each one in the order they arrived. The Chinese believe the animal ruling the year in which a person is born has a profound influence on personality, saying: "This is the animal that hides in your heart."

Rat 1924 1936 1948 1960 1972 1984 1996

Ox 1925 1937 1949 1961 1973 1985 1997

Tiger 1926 1938 1950 1962 1974 1986 1998

Rabbit 1927 1939 1951 1963 1975 1987 1999

Dragon 1928 1940 1952 1964 1976 1988 2000

Snake 1929 1941 1953 1965 1977 1989 2001

Horse 1930 1942 1954 1966 1978 1990 2002

Sheep 1931 1943 1955 1967 1979 1991 2003

Monkey 1932 1944 1956 1968 1980 1992 2004

Rooster 1933 1945 1957 1969 1981 1993 2005

Dog 1934 1946 1958 1970 1982 1994 2006

Boar 1935 1947 1959 1971 1983 1995 2007

The correct answer is... Skull Island

This original version was released four times between 1933 and 1952, and each release saw the cutting of additional scenes.

Though many of the outtakes - including the censored sequence in which Kong peels off Fay Wray's clothes - were restored in 1971, one cut scene has never been found. It is the clip in which Kong shakes four sailors off a log bridge, causing them to fall into a ravine where they are eaten alive by giant spiders.

When the movie - with spider sequence intact - was previewed in San Bernardino, Calif., in late January, 1933, members of the audience screamed and either left the theatre or talked about the grisly sequence throughout the remainder of the film. Said the film's producer, Merian C. Cooper, "It stopped the picture cold, so the next day back at the studio, I took it out myself".

Did you know? The models of King Kong were only 18 inches high.

Jungle scenes were filmed on the same set as the jungle scenes in Most Dangerous Game, The (1932).

The correct answer is...

Greta Garbo

(b. Greta Louisa Gustafson) 1905 - 1990

Film actress; born in Stockholm. A shop-girl who won a bathing beauty contest at age 16, she made some publicity shorts and studied acting before gaining international recognition in Mauritz Stiller's Swedish film, The Story of Gosta Berling (1924). She came to Hollywood (1924) with Stiller, her mentor and companion, and they worked together on The Torrent (1926) but he soon returned to Sweden while she stayed on to become known as "The Swedish Sphinx," a nickname that reflected both her aloofness and cool beauty.

Promoted by the resources of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, she became an international star, especially after her first talkie, Anna Christie (1930). Although she made only 13 more films and retired abruptly in 1941, she came to personify all that was most alluring yet unattainable about movie stars.

She became an American citizen in 1951, and in 1954 was awarded a special Oscar. Although linked with several men, she never married and became almost a recluse in her final decades.

In January of 1948, an enterprising young man named Ed Lowe, the heir apparent to his family's coal, ice, and sawdust supply company, gave the name "Kitty Litter" to a product manufactured by his family, known as Fuller's Earth.

The product consisted of kiln dried clay, and its intended use was as a non-flammable, industrial absorbent. Ed aspired to expand his family's business by marketing the tiny nuggets of clay to chicken farmers as nesting material for their chickens, but failed in his attempts to do so.

At the same time, Kay Draper, of Cassopolis, Michigan, sought sand for her cats' litter box, as the pile she drew from had frozen solid in the cold, Midwest winter, and the ashes she used from her fireplace, out of sheer desperation, proved to create quite a mess. The sawdust she tried, though much tidier, did not work much better.

A frazzled Kay opted to visit the Lowe factory, in hopes of obtaining some sand, where she encountered the eager and youthful Ed Lowe. Sensing an opening, Ed gave his pest sales pitch on the merits of using Fuller's Earth as an absorbent for cat waste instead of using sand. Kay bit, loved the product, gave Ed free word-of-mouth advertising, and came back for more. She also sent Ed a faithful following of feline owners requesting Fuller's Earth for their cats.

Ed took the initiative, packaged the dried clay in ten 5 pound paper bags, which he labeled "Kitty Litter." Even at the bargain basement price of $.65 per bag, Ed could not sell his bags, so he decided to give them away for free to a local pet shop. The shop owner's customers so liked their free samples of Kitty Litter that they were willing to open their change purses to pay for it.

Enterprising Ed took his feline phenomenon on the road, targeting pet shops and cat shows in hopes of promoting his pet project. Eventually, the seed that he planted in Cassopolis, Michigan took root, and Kitty Litter sparked a feline frenzy. Sales boomed, and a private investment group by the name of Golden Cat made Ed an offer he could not refuse…$200 million dollars plus stock options. Naturally, Ed accepted the offer, retired, and generously established a foundation bearing his name to help other entrepreneurs achieve the same fame and fortune he did with his granules of clay.

Ed died in 1995, leaving behind a legacy of cat litter that dominates the market at 55%, and sparking an industry of cat foods, toys, and other paraphernalia catering to the cat lover. His persistence, ingenuity, and flexibility should serve as a lesson to all that even nuggets of clay can be transformed into nuggets of gold with perseverance, patience, and a positive attitude.

Jackrabbits are powerful jumpers.

A twenty inch adult can leap twenty feet in a single bound.

Jackrabbits are actually hares, not rabbits. The black-tailed jackrabbit is long-legged and lean, about 17-31 inches, and weighs 3-7 pounds. Its fur is buff-colored to blend in with the arid environment. Its relatively long tail has a black stripe, and its long brown ears have black tips. The white-tailed jackrabbit is 18-22 inches long and weighs 5-10 pounds. It is a brownish gray color in the summer and white or pale gray in the winter. Its tail is nearly always white.

Jackrabbits are primarily nocturnal and come alive as night falls. During the day, they use shrubs and/or shallow burrows for cover. They may lie crouched in “forms” they’ve made in the grass by using the same spot many times. On warm days they relax in the shade of a small bush or fence post and spend the day snoozing and grooming themselves. They feed mostly on needle-and-threadgrass, yarrow, turpentine springparsley, and tumblemustard. They depend heavily on shrubs such as sagebrush for protective cover. Jackrabbits are a sagebrush obligate species, meaning they need sagebrush to survive. Black-tailed jackrabbits are the principal prey of golden eagles and are an important food source for coyotes, common ravens, the great horned owl, long-eared owl, barn owl, ferruginous hawk, Swainson’s hawk, and red-tailed hawk. Humans also are a predator of jackrabbits. White-tailed jackrabbits occur in sagebrush/bunchgrass habitats, generally at higher elevations than black-tailed jackrabbits. Their diet consists primarily of forbs during summer months and shrubs in the winter.

America's official national Christmas tree is located in King's Canyon National Park in California. The tree, a giant sequoia called the "General Grant Tree," is over 90 meters (300 feet) high. It was made the official Christmas tree in 1925.

This tree has inspired thousands of people including the late Charles E. Lee of Sanger, California. In 1924 he visited what was then General Grant National Park, and found himself standing by the Grant Tree with a little girl. As they admired the huge tree, the girl exclaimed, "what a wonderful Christmas tree it would be!"

The idea stayed with Mr. Lee, and in 1925 he organized the first Christmas program, held at the Grant Tree at noon on Christmas Day. Mr. Lee, then secretary of the Sanger Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. R.J. Senior, president of the Chamber, conceived the idea of an annual ceremony. Mr. Lee wrote to President Calvin Coolidge, who designated the General Grant as the Nation's Christmas Tree on April 28, 1926.

At one of the early gatherings, Colonel John White, longtime Park Superintendent, expressed the feeling that brings people here year after year. "We are gathered here around a tree that is worthy of representing the spirit of America on Christmas Day. That spirit is best expressed in the plain things of life, the love of the family circle, the simple life of the out-of-doors. The tree is a pillar that is a testimony that things of the spirit transcend those of the flesh."

Robert Mitchum's part-Native-American father died in a train accident when "Mitch" was two. He and his brother John (also an actor) and their siblings were raised by his mother and stepfather, a British soldier, in various places on the East Coast. He was tough kid, and spent much of his teen years out on the road. At 14 he was charged with vagrancy and ended up on a chain gang in Georgia. Like one of his movie characters, he eventually escaped.

As a young man, Mitchum held many different jobs, including a professional boxer (27 fights) and a stint as a ghostwriter for the popular astrologer, Carroll Righter. His first try at acting came with a Long Beach, California amateur theater group. While working at Lockheed Aircraft, he became temporarily blind because of job stress. It was at this time that he accepted the first of what would become dozens of small roles in films.

In 1945, he received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for the role of Lt. Walker in "The Story of G.I. Joe." He quickly became a fixture in the film noir genre, also appearing in Westerns and dramas.

His lethargic style and world-weary attitude were attractive to both men and women. By the 1950s he had become a superstar -- in spite of the fact that he served time in prison in 1949 for possession of marijuana. ("Just like Palm Springs," he said, "but without the riff-raff.") This only appeared to strengthen his appeal. (Ahead of his time?)

While he didn't seem to care much for film as "art," he still contributed to projects such as "The Night of the Hunter," by Charles Laughton. He also co-wrote and composed an oratorio which was presented at the Hollywood Bowl by Orson Welles. He was good at doing accents and didn't appear to care much about his "image," which led him to appear in films which ran the gamut from classic to barely watchable. In the Eighties, when film roles began to dry up, he moved into TV, appearing in "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance."

Finland has the greatest number of islands in the world -- 179,584

Total area: 338,000 square kilometres, of which 10% is water and 69% forest; 187,888 lakes, 5,100 rapids and 179,584 islands; Europe's largest archipelago, including the semi-autonomous province of Åland

Distances: 1,160 km north to south, 540 km west to east Finland's land border with Russia (1,269 km) is the eastern border of the European Union.

Climate: The climate of Finland is marked by cold winters and fairly warm summers. In the far north of the country the sun does not set for about 73 days, producing the white nights of summer. In winter the sun remains below the horizon for 51 days in the far north. In summer the temperature quite often rises to +20 Celsius or more and occasionally goes close to +30 in southern and eastern parts of the country. In winter, temperatures of -20 Celsius are not uncommon in many areas. Finnish Lapland invariably has the lowest winter temperatures. The mean temperature in Helsinki in July is +17 Celsius and in February -5.7 Celsius.

Designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel introduced her first perfume in 1921. She gave it the name "Chanel No. 5." According to Chanel, she jumped straight to number five because it was her lucky number. To add luck to the fragrance, she introduced it on the fifth day of May, the fifth month. Chanel No. 5 became the world's best selling perfume.

Now that we're into December, the annual frenzy of consumerism that is Christmas is in full flow, and with it those shopping decisions that will determine whether you spend the festive season in the fun-house, or the dog-house.

Here's my tip for the guys. if you can afford it, buy her chanel no 5. It's expensive, but it will tell her you think she's worth every penny! (which of course she is). It’s probably the most famous brand of perfume in the world, one that everyone has heard of, and she'll know you think she's special.

Chanel is French (there's a surprise), the French are well known for producing the best fragrances. Coco chanel revolutionized the fashion world in the 1920’s, and when she introduced chanel no.5 in 1923, she was onto a winner with that as well.

One of the good things about chanel is that it is timeless. This isn't one of your trendy, pretentious, jump-on-the-bandwagon perfumes. You know the ones, aimed mainly at a younger market, they come in silly shaped bottles and last a few years before being re-branded.

Chanel is a classic and will suit a woman of any age.

The history of the light bulb reads like a story straight out of a tabloid magazine. Contrary to what schools have taught for years, the American icon, Thomas Edison, neither invented the light bulb, nor held the first patent to the modern design of the light bulb.

Apparently, the we gave the esteemed Mr. Edison credit for the invention solely because he owned a power company, later known as General Electric, and a light bulb is just a bulb without a source of electricity to light it. In reality, light bulbs used as electric lights existed 50 years prior to Thomas Edison's 1879 patent date in the U.S.

Additionally, Joseph Swan, a British inventor, obtained the first patent for the same light bulb in Britain one year prior to Edison's patent date. Swan even publicly unveiled his carbon filament light bulb in New Castle, England a minimum of 10 years before Edison shocked the world with the announcement that he invented the first light bulb. Edison's light bulb, in fact, was a carbon copy of Swan's light bulb.

How do two inventors, from two different countries the invent exact same thing? Very easily, if one follows in the others footsteps. Swan's initial findings from tinkering with carbon filament electric lighting, and his preliminary designs, appeared in an article published by Scientific American. Without a doubt, Edison had access to, and eagerly read this article. Giving Mr. Edison the benefit of the doubt, and stopping short of calling him a plagiarist, we can say that he invented the light bulb by making vast improvements to Swan's published, yet unperfected designs.

Swan, however, felt quite differently, as he watched Edison line his pockets with money made from his invention, and took Edison to Court for patent infringement. The British Courts stood by their patent award for the light bulb to Swan, and Edison lost the suit. The British Courts forced Edison, as part of the settlement, to name Swan a partner in his British electric company. Eventually, Edison managed to acquire all of Swans' interest in the newly renamed Edison and Swan United Electric Company.

Edison fared no better back home in the U.S., where the U.S. Patent Office already ruled, on October 8, 1883, that Edison's patents were invalid, because he based them upon the earlier art of a gentleman named William Sawyer. To make matters worse, Swan sold his U.S. patent rights, in June 1882, to Brush Electric Company. This chain of events stripped Edison of all patent rights to the light bulb, and left him with no hope of purchasing any.

Edison dusted himself off, and went into business setting up a direct current (DC) system of power distribution in New York City, and selling the light bulbs that used this electricity. The light bulb business only flickered between 1879 and 1889, until word-of-mouth advertising of lower electricity costs fanned the flame, and business boomed. Edison's client base rapidly expanded to three million customers over the span of 10 years.

Always at the center of controversy, Edison next found himself in competition with Westinghouse for the sale of the first electric chair to execute criminals to New York. Edison's chair used the DC system of electricity, while Westinghouse used the AC (alternating current) system, designed especially for it by Nickola Tesla. Both Edison and Westinghouse emphasized the humanity of electrocution and the safety of their electrical system as selling points when pitching their chairs to New York.

Edison's bid for the sale of his chair was a mere formality and a ploy to have the Westinghouse system of electricity chosen by New York for the electric chair. He endorsed the Westinghouse AC system of electricity as the system of choice to be used for the electric chair, reasoning that the public would associate the Westinghouse AC system with the killing power of the electric chair, and would see the system as unsafe for household use.

Edison made this strategic move in anticipation that the public and would flock to the safety of his DC system, as he needed increased sales of the system, because of the great monetary investment he had made in the system. Edison's plan succeeded, in part, as New York did select the Westinghouse electric chair over his model.

What he could not take into account, was the fact that, unbelievably, Westinghouse never tested the chair, and the chair failed on its "Maiden Voyage." Though Edison's carefully laid plan went up in smoke, he did get the last laugh, as for years people referred to being electrocuted as being "Westinghoused," even though its chair was no longer in use.

It only took a matter of years before the public realized that the benefits of the AC system far outweighed those of the DC system. Edison's DC system took back seat, and the AC system took center stage. People in the U.S. and worldwide chose the AC system over the DC system, because AC currents deliver electricity to power lines with greater efficiency. The DC system is no longer in use today.

DID YOU KNOW? The first light bulbs lasted a mere 150 hours, and that ten years later, Edison introduced one that lasted 1,200 hours? The average light bulb today lasts approximately 1,500 hours.

The correct answer is...

Claude Monet (1840 - 1926)

Claude Oscar Monet was born on November 14, 1840 in Paris. Five years after Monet’s birth, his father (Adolphe Monet) moved the family to a seaport near the Normandy Coast called Le Havre. Monet described later in life that in his childhood years he always had an interest in the ocean and the landscapes he saw in Le Havre.

As an adolescent, Monet enjoyed painting funny and amusing caricatures of his teachers and classmates, and Monet was able to sell his collection for 2000 francs. After this, his father and aunt probably realized that Monet had enough talent to make a living at painting. Unlike many fathers who had aspiring artists for sons, Monet’s father did not interfere with his efforts to become an artist, although it’s probably true that he wanted his son to finish school even more.

Early in his life, Monet seemed destined to seek inspiration from other artists and teachers. Through his schooling in the arts, he met other famous names like Renoir and Manet. By his 20’s, Monet had no financial or social support from any of his family members. Throughout his younger years, Monet had to borrow money from Bazille in order to have money for daily necessities. And for at least his younger years, constant outside financial support was always a constant.

The road to success was long and hard for Claude Monet. Like all the Impressionists of his time, Monet had trouble selling his paintings because the Salons always rejected his paintings. In 1874, Monet and other artists decided to open an independent exhibition in order to survive the rejection of the Salons. At this time, Monet began to achieve more and more success. He received work through commissions, and was able to afford new homes and farms, where he also made more paintings. In the 1900’s, a simple picture of a haystack (seen above) could draw enormous money into Monet’s pocket.

Toward the later end of his life, Monet began work on his water lilies, perhaps his more famous works. He even painted a huge set of canvases that were made specifically for a space in Paris’ Orangerie. His work toward the end of his life represented a tireless painter continuing to express the freest possible art through an impression.

Claude Monet was always a character who did what he wanted to. Often times, the artists would disobey his father, his aunt, and even those vital to his prosperity. Monet always looked to his art, and the amount of money his art could earn. Monet never allowed himself to be shortchanged. He often put a sold sign on his work to make it appear that his work was in high demand.

Monet was always a person that never had enough of anything. He could never appreciated the light way he portrayed light in his paintings. He also felt he never had enough money. Monet always had to borrow money from his friends. To be a friend of Monet not only meant to give oneself socially and freely, but to give oneself financially. Monet often wrote to his wealthy friend Bazille stating that he and his wife were out of money and needed assistance as soon as possible.

Claude Monet had lived a productive life for an artist when he died in 1926. Most of his works are in museums around the world. He had remained a loyal member of Impressionism well over forty years, and you can see how evident this is when you read a statement he wrote only six months before his death. "In the end the only merit I have is to have painted directly from nature." Today, Claude Monet has become a household name and a cherished commodity for everyone who enjoys art and of course, Impressionism.

In Saudi Arabia, a woman reportedly may divorce her husband if he does not keep her supplied with coffee.

Coffee continues to be the most popular and traditional hot drink in Saudi Arabia. It was the largest and most dynamic area of the market, accounting for 51% of total market volume in 2002 and 57% of market value. This is a direct result of the popularity and long-existence of Arabic coffee in the Saudi Arabian drinks market. Fresh coffee accounted for 93% of total retail coffee sales in 2002, very marginally down on 1997.

Coffee beans were first roasted in Saudi Arabia around 1000 BCE. By the 13th century CE, the Muslims had already become confirmed coffee-drinkers, the beverage having proved its worth by keeping the devout alert during prayers. Wherever Islam spread, coffee was not long in following: to North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and India.

Saudi Arabia rendered the beans sterile by means of a drying process or by boiling. Thus no fertile coffee seeds departed the borders of Africa or Saudi Arabia until 1600 CE, when the pilgrim cum smuggler Baba Budan departed Mecca with fertile coffee seeds stuck onto his belly. These seeds eventually bore fruit, leading to the rapid spread of coffee cultivation as far away as Europe.

All recipes for chewing gum manufactured today share the same main ingredients: a gum base, sweeteners, primarily sugar and corn syrup, and flavorings. Some also contain softeners, such as glycerin and vegetable oil. The amount of each added to the mix varies as to which type of gum is being manufactured. For example, bubble gum contains more of the gum base, so that your bubbles don't burst…especially during class!

Though gum manufacturers carefully guard their recipes, they all share the same basic process to reach the finished product. Preparation of the gum base at the factory, by far the lengthiest step, requires that the raw gum materials be melted down in sterilized in a steam cooker, and then pumped to a high-powered centrifuge to rid the gum base of undesirable dirt and bark.

Once the factory workers clean the melted gum base, they combine approximately 20% of the base with 63% sugar, 16% corn syrup, and 1% flavoring oils, such as spearmint, peppermint, and cinnamon. While still warm, they run the mixture between pairs of rollers, which are coated on both sides with powdered sugar, to prevent the resulting ribbon of gum from sticking. The final pair of rollers comes fully equipped with knives, which snip the ribbon into sticks, which yet another machine individually wraps.

The gum base used in these recipes is, for the most part, manufactured, due to economic constraints. In the good old days, the entire gum base came directly from the milky white sap, or chicle, of the sapodilla tree found in Mexico and in Guatemala. There, natives collect the chicle by the bucketful, boil it down, mold it into 25-pound blocks, and ship it directly to chewing gum factories. Those with little or no self-restraint, chew their chicle directly from the tree, as did New England settlers, after watching Indians do the same.

The concept of chewing gum stuck, and continues to play a vital role in our economy, largely due to the many benefits associated with its use. Sales of chewing gum first began in the early 1800s. Later, in the 1860s, chicle was imported as a substitute for rubber, and finally, in approximately the 1890s, for use in chewing gum.

The pure pleasure derived from enraging a schoolteacher by blowing bubbles in class, or from annoying a co-worker by snapping it, is only one of the attractions of chewing gum. Chewing gum actually helps to clean the teeth, and to moisturize the mouth, by stimulating saliva production, which helps to neutralize tooth-decay-forming acids left behind after eating fermented food.

The muscular action of chewing gum also helps to curb a person's appetite for a snack or for a cigarette, to concentrate, to stay alert, to ease tension, and to relax one's nerves and muscles. For these very reasons, the armed forces supplied soldiers with chewing gum in World War I, World War II, in Korea, and in Vietnam. Today, chewing gum is still included in field and combat rations. In fact, the Wrigley Company, following the Department of Defense specifications supplied to government contractors, supplied chewing gum for the distribution to troops stationed in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War. It is safe to say that chewing gum has served our country well.

The term "happy-go-lucky" has been in existence since 1665.

Love, all my love was yours,
Of this I was so sure,
I guess I never saw it coming baby,
But now I'm over the surprise,
I'm wearing this disguise,
So everyone can think I'm having fun baby,
The world only sees me smiling,
My pillow knows the truth at night,
'cause that's where I hide my sorrow,

And they call me happy go lucky,
They don't know my heart is dying inside,
A smile's a frown turned upside down,
I do my happy go lucky so well,
I'm even fooling myself

But now I've put it to the test,
I know it's for the best,
In fact it's good you walked out on me baby,
I, I've learned how to survive,
Without you in my life,
So why am I still talking 'bout you baby,
The world only sees me smiling,
My pillow knows the truth every night,
'Cause that's where I hide my sorrow,

And they call me happy go lucky,
They don't know my heart is dying inside,
A smile's a frown turned upside down,
I do my happy go lucky so well,
I'm even fooling myself

All my love yours,
I guess I was so sure,

When I see the morning light,
I put on this facade,
It's all I have to protect my pride,
It's all I've got, this smile is all I've got,

And they call me happy go lucky,
They don't know my heart is dying inside,
A smile's a frown turned upside down,
I do my happy go lucky so well,
I'm even fooling myself

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was incorporated in 1937, and the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, as it was then known, was established two years later. The museum—which assumed temporary residence in a former automobile showroom on East 54th Street in New York—took as its basis the radical new forms of art being developed by such artists as Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Piet Mondrian.

The insistence of philanthropist Solomon Guggenheim and artist-adviser Hilla Rebay on a wholly new kind of art seen in a wholly new kind of space set the institution on its unique path. The first permanent home for the museum was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He envisioned a building that not only broke the rectilinear grid of Manhattan but also shattered existing notions of what a museum could be. He conceived of its curving, continuous space as a "temple of spirit" where viewers could foster a new way of looking. Named the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in honor of its founder, the building opened in 1959, drawing huge crowds and stirring considerable controversy. It has never lost its power to excite and provoke, standing today as one of the great works of architecture produced in the twentieth century.

Peggy Guggenheim, a niece of Solomon, donated her Venetian home, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, and the art collection housed in it to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in the mid-1970s. After her death, in 1979, the foundation took over full responsibility for the palazzo and the artworks, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection—with its masterpieces ranging in style from Cubism and Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism—has become one of the most respected and visited cultural attractions in Venice. The Venice and New York museums together formed the basis for the institution's international orientation.

Under the leadership of Thomas Krens, its director since 1988, the Guggenheim has increased the scope of its operations. In 1992, the Frank Lloyd Wright building was restored and supplemented by a new tower, adding considerable overall exhibition space while allowing Wright's great rotunda and the monitor building to be seen in all their splendor. At the same time, the Guggenheim Museum SoHo was opened in downtown Manhattan. In 1997, the institution expanded its international presence with the opening of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin. Built by the Basque government and managed by the Guggenheim, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is part of a far-reaching plan to transform Bilbao into a major metropolitan center. The building, designed by Frank Gehry, has been hailed by critics worldwide as an architectural masterpiece. The result of a partnership between the Guggenheim and Deutsche Bank, the Deutsche Guggenheim is an intimate exhibition space on the historic Unter den Linden.

In 2001, a site designed by Rem Koolhas opened in Las Vegas: the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, conceived as a "jewel box" for the presentation of exhibitions based on the collections of the Guggenheim and Hermitage museums. In autumn of the same year, the Sackler Center for Arts Education opened to the public. A 8,200 square-feet education facility, the center comprises Studio-Art, Computer, and Multimedia Labs, the New Media Theater, an exhibition gallery, the Resource Center, the Conference Room, and education offices. It also includes the existing Peter B. Lewis Theater, part of Frank Lloyd Wright's original architectural design for the building.

Looking to the future, the foundation has proposed the Guggenheim Museum New York, a new facility to be located in Lower Manhattan. Designed by Frank Gehry, it would feature galleries for special exhibitions and for works from the permanent collection as well as centers for arts and technology, architecture and design, and education. Also on the horizon, the foundation has announced plans for a new Guggenheim Museum in Rio de Janeiro. Designed by celebrated French architect Jean Nouvel, the museum will be built on the site of the Mauá Pier on Guanabara Bay.

Grizzly black bears, hummingbirds and squirrels hibernate in the winter because a long, chilly season of little food and warmth is no picnic for these animals.

Unlike the warm seasons of spring and summer that provide an unlimited amount of food for these critters, the winter season only provides a cold, frozen ground where food is extremely scarce.

In addition, the wintery days are frigid and short while the hours in the dark night seem to drag on for a chilly eternity. Searching for grub often leaves the stomachs of these animals empty because by the end of their search their bodies end up burning more calories than the animals get back from the food when and if any is found. So instead of starving or freezing to death, these animals decide to pack in all in for the long haul and hibernate during the winter months.

Hibernation helps these animals survive in the roughest and toughest conditions. By hibernating, an animal decreases its body's energy needs to a bare minimum. Hibernation is a process of lowering an animals body temperature and slowing down its heartbeat into order to conserve energy during times of scarcity and stress.

Every animal hibernates in different ways. While squirrels can wake up every four days to grab a bite to eat and take a trip to the bathroom, black bears can stay dormant, or inactive, for up to seven months with no food, water, or visits to the bathroom.

Brazil shares a common border with all South American countries, except Ecuador and Chile.

For hundreds of years, Brazil has symbolized the great escape into a primordial, tropical paradise, igniting the Western imagination like no other South American country. From the mad passion of Carnaval to the immensity of the dark Amazon, it is a country of mythic proportions.

Perhaps it's not quite the Eden of popular imagination, but it's still a land of staggering beauty. There are stretches of unexplored rainforest, islands with pristine tropical beaches, and endless rivers. And there are the people themselves, who delight the visitor with their energy and joy.

Roughly the size of the USA (excluding Alaska), Brazil is a vast country encompassing nearly half of South America, and bordering most of the continent's other nations - Ecuador and Chile are the exceptions. After 40 years of internal migration and population growth, Brazil is also an urban country; more than two out of every three Brazilians live in a city. São Paulo is the world's second most populous city.

Full country name: República Federativa do Brasil
Area: 8.51 million sq km
Population: 175 million
Capital City: Brasília
People: 55% European descent, 38% mulatto, 6% African descent (according to the 1980 census). In reality, these figures are skewed by whiteness being equated with social stature in Brazil.
Language: Portuguese Religion: 70% Roman Catholic; also a significant proportion who either belong to various cults or practice Indian animism

"Because lefties do it right!"

"Because left handed people are the only people in their right minds?"

This question is definitely not a no-brainer.

Two theories predominate in the debates that rage on as to why a mere 4% o the population is left-handed. Most authorities agree, to the relief of many a mother of a left-handed child, that if the child prefers using the left hand, and functions well with it, there is no need to correct this "condition."

One theory centers on the two halves of the brain, i.e. the left half and the right half, each of which functions differently. Medical science believes that the left half of the brain predominates over the right half. The stem of this theory is the fact that nerves from the brain cross over at neck-level to the opposite side of the body, and nerves from the other side of the brain reciprocate. The end result is that the opposite sides of the body are supplied by the opposite sides of the brain.

The predominant left half of the brain, which graciously supplies the right half of the body, theoretically renders it more skillful in reading, writing, speaking, and working, and makes most people right-handed. "Lefties," however, are the product of an inversion, whereas the right half of the brain predominates, and they work best with the left side of their bodies.

Theory number two trickles down to the asymmetrical nature of the body. Examples of the asymmetry, which flows from head to toe, are that the right side of our faces differs slightly from the left, that our legs differ in strength, or that our feet vary in size. One aspect of this asymmetry is that for most people the right hand is stronger than the left.

There is no doubt that all exist in a "right-handed society," which manufactures most basics, including scissors, doorknobs, locks, screwdrivers, automobiles, buttons on clothing, and musical instruments for the 96%. Left-handed people compensate for this snobbery of sorts, by being members of an elite society, which includes many of the greatest geniuses, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and The Useless-Infomaster.

A thermometer measures temperature through a glass tube sealed with mercury that expands or contracts as the temperature rises or falls.

The tiny size of the bulb and micro-fine size of the tube help the mercury reach the temperature of what it is measuring very rapidly.

Bulb thermometers follow the simple principle that liquids change their volumes relative to their temperature. As temperatures rise, the mercury-filled bulb expands into the capillary tube. Its rate of expansion is calibrated on the glass scale. Two different scales can be found on thermometers--the Fahrenheit scale and the Celsius scale.

With the Fahrenheit scale, Daniel Fahrenheit decided that the freezing and boiling points of water would be separated by 180 degrees and he pegged freezing water at 32 degrees. So he made a thermometer, stuck it in freezing water, and marked the level of the mercury on the glass as 32 degrees. Then he stuck the same thermometer in boiling water and marked it 212 degrees. He then put 180 evenly spaced marks between those two points.

In Celsius scale, Anders Celsius decided that the freezing and boiling points of water would be separated by 100 degrees and he made the freezing point of water at 100 degrees. (His scale was later inverted, so the boiling point of water became 100 degrees and the freezing point became 0 degrees.)

Bulb thermometers are most commonly found in two places--outside on our porches measuring the temperatures outside or under our tongues measuring our bodily temperatures.

With the age the technology came the invention of other types of thermometers. Each different type of thermometer has their own distinctive means of measuring or controlling temperature. For instance, bimetallic strip thermometers are extremely effective for controlling temperatures. Although bulb thermometers are good for measuring temperature accurately, they are harder to maintain set temperatures.

While bulb thermometers measure our changing temperatures when we feel feverish, bimetallic strip thermometers help us bake our favorite cakes by maintaining a set temperature in ovens. The bimetallic strip thermometer, because it is made of metal, is good at maintaining the same temperature for a long period of time.

Recent technology has created new ways to measure temperatures with electronics. The most common device is known as a thermoresistor (or thermistor). This sensor changes its resistance with changes in temperature. A computer or other electronic circuit measures the resistance and converts it to a temperature, either to display it or to make decisions about turning something on or off.

The heat is on…

The first attempt to make a standard temperature scale was done by Galen in AD 170. In his medical writings, Galen created a standard "neutral" temperature consisting of equal quantities of boiling water and ice. On each side of this "neutral" temperature were four degrees of heat and four degrees of cold.

The earliest devices that were used to measure temperature were referred to as thermoscopes. A thermoscope was a glass bulb with a long tube extending downward into a container of colored water.

Did you know?

In 1610 Galileo supposedly used wine instead of water in thermoscopes. In 1641, the first sealed thermometer that used liquid rather than air as the thermometric medium was invented for Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. His thermometer used a sealed alcohol-in-glass device, with 50 "degree" marks on its stem but no "fixed point" was used to zero the scale. These were referred to as "spirit" thermometers. Robert Hook, Curator of the Royal Society, created in 1664 the thermometer that eventually became the standard temperature-measuring instrument of Gresham College and was used by the Royal Society until 1709. (The first intelligible meteorological records used this scale). Mercury's unique characteristics are perfect for measuring temperatures for the following reasons: It has large and uniform expansion abilities, Its silvery appearance allows for easy reading, Its ability to remain a liquid over a wide range of temperatures.

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,
The Japanese don't care to, the Chinese wouldn't dare to
Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one
But Englishmen detest-a siesta

So wrote Noel Coward in 1930. He was only 31 at the time and had already appeared in over a dozen plays in London as well as writing 5 plays and a semi-Viennese operetta entitled "Bitter Sweet." Of the five plays "Private Lives" would be regarded as one of the greatest comedies in the English language rivaling anything by any of his contemporaries, even Oscar Wilde. Coward was the the first true theatrical renaissance man -- actor, writer, director, lyricist, composer, producer and painter. His reign over London's West End and New York's Broadway lasted through the war and into the fifties by which time a new wave of gritty realistic playwrights had seized control from Coward. Not to be phased out, Coward changed his life entirely, living in Jamaica, painting surprisingly well, and becoming a huge cabaret star in Las Vegas rivaling the Rat Pack and preceding Elvis Presley, Wayne Newton, and the new generation of acrobats and magicians.

Of the nearly 500 songs he wrote during his life, "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" remains his most famous comic number -- on concert tours during World War II both Churchill and Roosevelt would specifically request Coward to sing it.