Knowledge Reef

30/07/2023

Israeli engineers constructed the building before Islamic Revolution; Iranian officials incensed called for the Jewish symbol's removal.

The six-pointed star was discovered by an eagle-eyed Google Earth user recently, over three decades after the building that houses the national airline of the Islamic Republic was constructed by Israeli engineers.

Israel and the Shah's Iran maintained good ties until the Islamic Revolution of 1979 ended the relationship. Before 1979, Israel brokered arms deals with Iran, and there were regular flights between Teheran and Tel Aviv.

Once the existence of the Star of David was reported in Iranian media, government officials called for the immediate removal of the apparently offensive Jewish symbol.

The symbol's discovery came three months after the Iranian public learned of the existence of a Star of David on the roof of a building in Teheran's Revolution Square.

11/07/2023

The highway has a length of 4860 miles in Canada. This path begins on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and across the Continental Divide, ten provinces, a five-time zone, and ends in St. John's, Newfoundland. This road was built in 1962 and completed in 1970. The world's longest national road across North America is from St. John's, NL, to Victoria, British Columbia.

11/07/2023

Between 1940 and 1945, U.S. and British air forces dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe, half of that amount on Germany. By the time the N**i government surrendered, in May 1945, the industrial infrastructure of the Third Reich "railheads, arms factories and oil refineries" had been crippled, and dozens of cities across Germany had been reduced to moonscapes of cinder and ash.

Even now, 70 years later, more than 2,000 tons of unexploded munitions are uncovered on German soil every year. Before any construction project begins in Germany, from the extension of a home to track-laying by the national railroad authority, the ground must be certified as cleared of unexploded ordnance. Still, last May, some 20,000 people were cleared from an area of Cologne while authorities removed a one-ton bomb that had been discovered during construction work.

In November 2013, another 20,000 people in Dortmund were evacuated while experts defused a 4,000-pound "Blockbuster" bomb that could destroy most of a city block. In 2011, 45,000 people, "the largest evacuation in Germany since World War II," were forced to leave their homes when a drought revealed a similar device lying on the bed of the Rhine in the middle of Koblenz.

Although the country has been at peace for three generations, German bomb-disposal squads are among the busiest in the world. Eleven bomb technicians have been killed in Germany since 2000, including three who died in a single explosion while trying to defuse a 1,000-pound bomb on the site of a popular flea market in Göttingen in 2010.

07/07/2023

Antarctica is governed internationally through the Antarctic Treaty system.

The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by the 12 countries whose scientists had been active in and around Antarctica at the time. The Treaty's negotiation stemmed from the very successful 1957–58 International Geophysical Year.

Among the original signatories of the Antarctic Treaty were the seven countries, Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom, with territorial claims to parts of Antarctica, some overlapping.

Some Treaty Parties do not recognize territorial claims, and others maintain that they reserve the right to make a claim. All positions are explicitly protected in Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty, which preserves the status quo:

No acts or activities while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting, or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or creating any sovereignty rights in Antarctica. No new claim or enlargement of an existing claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in force.

The Antarctic Treaty puts aside the potential for conflict over sovereignty. It entered into force in 1961 and has since been acceded to by many other nations.

06/07/2023

Around 840 million people speak English around the world, according to Ethnologue. (335 million people speak it as a first language, and 505 million speak it as a second language.) That's a lot of people, but where do they all live? Read on to find out which countries have the most English speakers and the highest English proficiency.

United States: 268M

No surprise here: Those arrogant former colonists may not speak the Queen's English correctly, but they do have the world's largest English-speaking country. Approximately 225 million Americans speak English as a first language, while 43 million speak it as a second language.

India: 125M

India is next on the list, with 125 million English speakers. But only 226, 449 of those speak it as a first language. For the rest, it's a second language.

However, as BBC reporter Zareer Masani noted in a 2012 article, the patchwork state of English education means that many Indians speak "not so much English as Hinglish, or what my parents' generation called Babu English – the language of clerks."

Pakistan : 94,321,604

Surprised? English is one of Pakistan's official languages, along with Urdu. Although virtually nobody in Pakistan speaks English as a first language, around 49% of the population do speak it as a second language.

The Philippines: 90M

The Philippines has two official languages: Filipino and English. Only around 37,000 Filipinos speak it as a first language. However, a little over 92% of the population can speak it as a second language.

Nigeria: 79M

Ever wonder why so many well-known email scams originally came from Nigeria, as opposed to another country? There are a lot of reasons, but the relatively high percentage of English speakers is probably one of them. Around 53% of the population in Nigeria can speak English, which means that a small percentage of those people (by no means representative of all Nigerians) can use their English skills to claim royal descent and a big fat inheritance. With a hefty payout for you, dear blessed one, if only you'll kindly wire them the transfer fee.

Most Nigerians despise scammers and deplore the damage they've done to the country's reputation. However, every country has a few bad apples, and in Nigeria, some of those bad apples used their English skills to become famous for a specific type of email scam called "advance fee fraud." Other countries have their specialties, and when it comes to Internet fraud as a whole, most of it comes from countries other than Nigeria, and continents other than Africa. For example, Russians are known for hacking restaurants and stealing customers' data, and Estonia is a hotbed of clickbait fraud.

05/07/2023

Edward VIII was a popular member of the British royal family and heir to the throne. In 1931, then known as the Prince of Wales, Edward met and fell in love with American socialite Wallis Simpson. After George V's death, the prince became King Edward VIII. However, Edward abdicated the throne after ruling for less than a year because his marriage to Simpson, an American divorcee, was forbidden. After that, he took the title Duke of Windsor and embarked on a jet-setting life with his new wife.

Edward VIII, who ruled the United Kingdom from January to December 1936, was born on June 23, 1894, in Richmond, London, England. The eldest son of George V, Edward studied at Osborne Naval College, the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, and the University of Oxford's Magdalen College.

In 1911, after his father's ascension, Edward became the Prince of Wales. He joined the Royal Navy and then enlisted in the army following the start of World War I. His assignments to safe positions on the Italian front troubled him, causing him to announce, "What difference does it make if I am killed? The king has three other sons!"

Upon his return to England, the young Prince Edward took up his official duties and traveled throughout Britain and other parts of the world. Dashing and charming, he became known in the American press as the "arbiter of men's fashions, a fearless horseman, tireless dancer, idol of bachelors, dream of spinsters."

Prince Edward met the woman who would completely change his life in June 1931. At a party hosted by Lady Furness, the prince was introduced to Wallis Simpson, a sophisticated, charming, and charismatic American woman who had recently moved to London with her husband. She immediately captured the king's interest and later captured his heart. By 1934, the two had undoubtedly become lovers. However, the monarchy was not pleased with the pairing and refused to allow a marriage between the future king and an American divorcee.

05/07/2023

Leicester, England (CNN)Richard III, the King found beneath a car parking lot, was reburied in solemn but celebratory service, 530 years after his death in battle.

The remains of the medieval monarch were sensationally rediscovered beneath a blanket of tarmac in the center of Leicester in August 2012.

They were pored over by scientists at the city's university ever since, but after more than two years of legal wranglings, the bones were finally laid to rest in a coffin built by Richard III's distant relative, Michael Ibsen, whose DNA helped prove their identity.

Queen Elizabeth, represented at the ceremony by the Countess of Wessex, sent a special message to mark the reinterment, which she hailed as "an event of great national and international significance."

04/07/2023

Gelatin or gelatine is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and gummy when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, collagen hydrolysate, gelatine hydrolysate, hydrolyzed gelatine, and collagen peptides after it has undergone hydrolysis. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, medications, drug and vitamin capsules, photographic films and papers, and cosmetics.

Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar way are called gelatinous substances. Gelatin is an irreversibly hydrolyzed form of collagen, wherein the hydrolysis reduces protein fibrils into smaller peptides; depending on the physical and chemical methods of denaturation, the molecular weight of the peptides falls within a broad range. Gelatin is in gelatin desserts; most gummy candy and marshmallows; and ice creams, dips, and yogurts. Gelatin for cooking comes as powder, granules, and sheets. Instant types can be added to the food as they are; others must soak in water beforehand.

The worldwide production amount of gelatin is about 375,000–400,000 tonnes per year. On a commercial scale, gelatin is made from by-products of the meat and leather industries. Most gelatin is derived from pork skins, pork and cattle bones, or split cattle hides. Gelatin made from fish by-products avoids some of the religious objections to gelatin consumption. The raw materials are prepared by different curing, acid, and alkali processes that are employed to extract the dried collagen hydrolysate. These processes may take several weeks, and differences in such processes have great effects on the properties of the final gelatin products.

04/07/2023

Dozens of polar bears have been making themselves at home in abandoned buildings on an Arctic island, and a Russian photographer captured remarkable photos of the bears peering through windows and standing on porches.

When photographer Dmitry Kokh traveled to the remote Russian region of northern Chukotka in late summer 2021, he was hoping to find polar bears to photograph on Wrangel Island, a natural reserve and World Heritage site that's protected by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization and is located above the Arctic Circle.

What he found instead was a strange and unexpected sight: On the smaller Kolyuchin Island to the south of Wrangel Island, more than 20 polar bears had taken up residence in buildings that were once part of a Soviet weather station.

To capture the photos, Kokh used a camera mounted on an aerial drone that had been modified with low-noise propellers, making it quiet enough to slowly approach the bears without disturbing them. In the photos, the bears appear unconcerned about the camera and photographer — but when it comes to polar bears, looks can be deceiving, Kokh warned.

"Polar bears are very clever — and sometimes tricky — hunters," he said. "Sometimes they pretend they are not looking at you, and they are relaxed; at this moment, they are ready to attack."

A nature reserve employee was with the group at all times, carrying a rifle and flares as precautionary measures to ensure the team's protection. Polar bears weigh up to 1,700 pounds (770 kilograms), but for all that bulk, they are surprisingly quick, capable of galloping up to 24 mph (40 km/h), according to McGill University.

Polar bears usually inhabit remote parts of the Arctic that are far from humans, but climate change is reshaping their habitat and has even driven bears to invade towns in the Russian Arctic in search of food. Since 1979, the sea ice that the bears depend on for hunting has shrunk and grown thinner, and researchers predict th

04/07/2023

04/07/2023

We see identification codes everywhere. From barcodes on boxes of crackers to the QR code on advertisements, everything has a scannable ID. Where did this all begin? Well, friends, this story begins with a drawing in the sand and ends with a 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gum.

In 1949, Joe Woodland drew the world's first bar code in the sand of Miami's beaches. According to Smithsonian, Woodland was inspired by his Boy Scouts days when he learned Morse code: "I remember I was thinking about dots and dashes when I poked my four fingers into the sand and, for whatever reason—I didn't know—I pulled my hand toward me and I had four lines. I said 'Golly! Now I have four lines and they could be wide lines and narrow lines, instead of dots and dashes.'"

His goal was to create something that could be printed on groceries to streamline the checkout process, thereby shortening supermarket queues. Woodland realized that by varying the thickness of black and white lines, different numbers could be "read" with a light. Woodland's original barcodes were created as circular bullseye shapes, but the WWI-era printers tended to smear the ink. When IBM bought Woodland's patent, an engineer named George Laurer fixed this issue by switching to the vertical lines we see today, which are organized in three sections. The first part of a barcode tells you the country where it was issued, the next part reveals the manufacturer of the product, and the final part of the barcode identifies the product itself. His team originally used a 500-watt incandescent bulb to read his code, before one of their research scientists, Theodore Maiman, created a super bright light called a "laser."

The first real-life scan of a barcode happened at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio on a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum. Why gum? Because it's small: no one was sure a bar code would fit on something so tiny, and Wrigley earned a place in history by making it happen.

We've come a long way from Woodland's drawing in t

04/07/2023

Borgund Stave Church is a former parish church of the Church of Norway in Lærdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The old stave church is located in the village of Borgund. It was the church for the Lærdal parish until 1868 when it was closed and turned into a museum. The brown, wooden church was built in a stave church style around the year 1200. It is classified as a triple-nave stave church of the Sogn-type. No longer regularly used for church functions, it is now a museum run by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments. It was replaced by the "new" Borgund Church in 1868.

Borgund Stave Church was built sometime between 1180 and 1250 AD with later additions and restorations. Its walls are formed by vertical wooden boards, or staves, hence the name "stave church." The four corner posts are connected to one another by ground sills, resting on a stone foundation. The intervening staves rise from the ground sills; each is tongued and grooved, to interlock with its neighbors and form a sturdy wall.

Borgund is built on a basilica plan, with reduced side aisles, and an added chancel and apse. It has a raised central nave demarcated on four sides by an arcade. Structurally, the building has been described as a "cube within a cube", each independent of the other. The inner "cube" is formed by continuous columns that rise from ground level to support the roof.

04/07/2023

Uranus, the seventh planet of the Solar System, has 27 known moons, most of which are named after characters that appear in, or are mentioned in, the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

Although the first two Uranian moons were discovered in 1787, they were not named until 1852, a year after two more moons had been discovered. The responsibility for naming was taken by John Herschel, son of the discoverer of Uranus. Herschel, instead of assigning names from Greek mythology, named the moons after magical spirits in English literature: the fairies Oberon and Titania from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the sylph Ariel and gnome Umbriel from Alexander Pope's The R**e of the Lock (Ariel is also a sprite in Shakespeare's The Tempest). The reasoning was presumably that Uranus, as the god of the sky and air, would be attended by spirits of the air.

Rather than continuing the airy spirits theme (only Puck and Mab continued the trend), subsequent names have focused on Herschel's source material. In 1949, its discoverer Gerard Kuiper named the fifth moon Miranda, after a thoroughly mortal character in Shakespeare's The Tempest. The current IAU practice is to name moons after characters from Shakespeare's plays and The R**e of the Lock (although, at present, only Ariel, Umbriel, and Belinda have names drawn from the latter; all the rest are from Shakespeare). At first, the outermost moons were all named after characters from one play, The Tempest; but with Margaret being named from Much Ado About Nothing, that trend has ended.

03/07/2023

Men's hearts are 20-25% larger than women's, particularly in the left ventricle. This increases the ability to pump oxygenated blood around the body to be used in the muscles, making it easier for males to run faster for longer.

The primary male hormone is testosterone, which stimulates mass muscle development. The primary female hormone is estrogen, which stimulates fat accumulation. Testosterone also increases the concentration of red blood cells and hemoglobin, both critical for transporting oxygen around the body.

This means that, on average male blood can carry around 11% more oxygen than female blood to increase efficiency to run faster.

03/07/2023

A rainbow can only form under the following conditions:

The Sun must be above the horizon and not be obscured by clouds, mountains, or other obstacles.

The Sun has to be quite low in the sky. If you are at the same elevation as your horizon, the Sun's altitude must be below 42° to create a rainbow that can be seen from your perspective.

As seen from your position, the air opposite the Sun must be filled with many water droplets.

Rainbows always appear in the sky opposite the Sun. So, if you have your back to the Sun, the rainbow will arch across the sky in front of you.

03/07/2023

In the late ’60s and ‘70s, anticipating the devastation of a Cold War-nuclear fallout, Chairman Mao directed Chinese cities to construct apartments with bomb shelters capable of withstanding the blast of a nuclear bomb. In Beijing alone, roughly 10,000 bunkers were promptly constructed.

But when China opened its door to the broader world in the early ’80s, Beijing’s defense department seized the opportunity to lease the shelters to private landlords, eager to profit from converting the erstwhile fallout hideaways into tiny residential units.

Now when night falls, more than a million people, mostly migrant workers and students from rural areas vanish from Beijing’s bustling streets into the underground universe, little known to the world above.

The living conditions in the bunkers are indeed harsh. Although they were built with electricity, plumbing, a sewage system in order to shelter people for months in wartime or fallout, the lack of proper ventilation makes the air stagnant and moldy. Residents share kitchens and restrooms that are often cramped and unsanitary.

03/07/2023

Google has enacted new death benefits for its employees, reports Forbes.

If an employee dies, that employee's spouse receives half the employee's salary for ten years.

There's no tenure requirement on this benefit either. Every one of Google's 34,000 employees is immediately eligible regardless of how long they've worked there.

On top of the half-salary, the spouse will also receive stock benefits, and children will receive $1,000 per month until they turn 19.

One interesting question that's not clear from the reports: Does the policy cover same-sex spouses? A Google spokesman confirms with us that gay couples receive this same benefit, which makes this one of Google's many gay-friendly policies.

It makes the free lunch pale by comparison.

03/07/2023

The Pearl of Lao Tzu (also referred to as Pearl of Lao Tze and Pearl of Allah) was once considered the largest known pearl.

The pearl was found in the Palawan sea, which surrounds the island of Palawan in the Philippines, and was found by a Filipino diver. It is not considered a gemstone pearl but is instead known as a "clam pearl" or "Tridacna pearl" from a giant clam. It measures 24 centimeters in diameter (9.45 inches) and weighs 6.4 kilograms (14.2 lb).

While biologists would regard this object as a kind of pearl, gemologists regard it as a non-nacreous pearl, lacking the iridescence of the pearls that come from saltwater pearl oysters and freshwater pearl mussels. Because of its great size, a giant clam can create a very large pearl, but not an iridescent, gemlike one. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and CIBJO now simply use the term "pearl" (or, where appropriate, the more descriptive term "non-nacreous pearl") when referring to such items, rather than the term "calcareous concretion" and under U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules, various mollusk pearls may be referred to as "pearls" without qualification.

Gemologist Michael Steenrod in Colorado Springs has appraised the pearl at $60,000,000 (1982) and $93,000,000 (2007). Another 1982 appraisal by Lee Sparrow, who owned a gem laboratory and appraisal business in the Phelan Building in San Francisco, put the pearl at $42,000,000.

In America, the pearl was exhibited at Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium in New York, valued at $35,000,000.

The Palawan Princess, a five-pound non-nacreous pearl then considered the second largest, was offered at auction by Bonhams and Butterfields of Los Angeles on December 6, 2009. Estimated to fetch between $300,000 to $400,000, it passed unsold.