The End of the Malaria Wars

A team of researchers have found probably the cure for the deadliest disease on the planet: Malaria. The study that occupies the portrait of the Nature magazine, was made by the GlaxoSmithKline laboratories in Madrid. They discovered a way to stop the parasite in the Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, from acting and killing the blood cells we have in our bodies. They also have seen a way to make the red blood cells to act and stop the parasite from penetrating them.

With this we can stop the deadliest disease on Earth from killing a children in Africa every thirty seconds. The Malaria originates from a infected mosquito in the tropical rainforest's that needs blood to reproduce. The mosquito bites on a human, and as it sucks blood the malaria enters to the body. This disease caused by the insignificantly small mosquito makes more than a million people die each year. With this new discovery, the world could be saved from a fatal disease.

The 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World

In a little bit more than a year, the Walt Disney Company, one of the most famous film companies in film history will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Walt Disney World Resort. The world's largest theme park was opened on October 1rst, 1971. This theme park, was created by the Walt Disney Company whom also created Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The founder of the theme parks, the films and Mickey Mouse as many of you might know, was Walt Disney.

Walt Disney is probably on of the most famous filmmakers in film history. Walt won 26 Academy Awards out of 59 nominations, more than any other filmmaker or actor. He created along with his brother Roy O. Disney the Walt Disney Company, the world's largest entertainment and media conglomerate in the world. Walt Disney, after creating Disneyland, wanted to create a second park to supplement the first. He discovered that only 2% of the visitors in Disneyland came east of the Mississippi River, and knew that 75% of the population in the US lived in the East at the time. So, after searching for a long time, he bought a large piece of land in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Sadly, Walt died in 1966, 4 years before the park opened. His brother died 3 months after Walt Disney World opened.

The Walt Disney World Resort currently has 4 theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom.

Stories of the World Cups

In the past, their have been 18 World Cups, the worlds most seen and famous sport tournament in history. The 19th World Cup will be held in South Africa, and it's first game will start on June 11th, 2010 in the Soccer City Stadium,Johannesburg, South Africa. The Colombian magazine Semana, released a guide and history to the past world cups. These are the best and worst Wor;d Cups according to the magazine:

1. The best World Cup ever: Mexico 1970. In this World Cup, Brasil won the championship to Italy 4-1 in what is regarded as the best soccer team that ever existed: Pele,Gerson,Tostao,Jairzinho and Rivelinho. Edson Arantes DoNacimento (Pele) was crowned as the best player of all-time and still conserves this title. Many goals were scoared.

2. The worst World Cup ever: Korea-Japan 2002. Brasil won this title against Germany 2-0 in a very insipid game. Here, many coaches showed very little interest in the game and many unfair refferies. France was elliminated without even scoring a goal (beated by Senegal), and the United States won against Portugal staying in Quarter Finals. Even more surprisingly, South Korea got to Semifinals, according to some with help from the refferies. Howcome Senegal after this, didn't even classify to Germany 2006, and both Korea and US were elliminated in the first round? The team that most suffered was Italy, with 5 valid goals not valid by the refferies.

What kind of World Cup will we see in South Africa?

Comparing Apples and Oranges

Many people commonly repher to the phrase ''That's like apples and oranges''. Many say they are completely diffrent, but really how different are they? According to an article of the National Geographic, they compare both fruits to see their difference

57 Calories 85

2.6 grams Fiber 4.3 grams

5 milligrams Vitamin C 96 milligrams

11.3 grams Total sugars 16.8 grams

Thin, with natural wax layer Skin Thick, with oil glands

Embedded in the core Seed location In the edible regions

Warm summer, Cold winter Prime growing locations Subtropical

Decidious Tree type Evergreen

Apple Orange

The Cereal Story

Many of us don't know the story behind what numerous people eat during breakfast, and that is cereal. Cereals became popular to eat for breakfast in the 1900's because it was promoted specifically for vegetarians. At the time, most humans would eat for breakfast eggs, bacon, sausage and beef. Cereals gave the advantage of a breakfast without that much protein and fat, a good alternative for the vegetarians. As you may have imagined, the ones behind the idea of this cold breakfast started with a vegetetarian moovement that took place in the ending of the nineteenth century. Most of the people from the movement were humans that belonged to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, including the founder of Kellogg's , William Keith Kellogg. In 1863, James Caleb Jackson created the first breakfast cereal named Granula which had very little success.

In 1877, John Harvey Kellogg, operator of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan accidentally created corn flakes by leaving a batch of boiled wheat soaking overnight and rolling it out. He gived this product to his patients at the hospital, and later his brother Will Keith Kellogg, took the corn flakes to sell as a cereal for the Kellogg Company, founded in 1906. Today both Kellogg and their competitor Post, have their headquarters in Battle Creek, for which the city is nicknamed ''cereal city''. Since then, many other brands entered into the competition including General Mills, Quaker, Alpen and others.

In recent years, many of these companies have sold their products targeted to specific groups of people. Special K has been aimed for women who want to loose weight. Oat Bran, Muesli, All-Bran, Frosted Mini-Wheats and others are sold for people who need an aid to digestive health. Most obviously, cereal is sold mostly for children, with products like Captain Crunch, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Fruit Pebbles, etc.

General Mills started selling cereals in 1924 (sold in South America as Nestle), and from then, the cereal companies made their commercials and products targeted for children. To help promote this, Kellogg's and General Mills, created several animal mascots for each cereal. Tony the Tiger was made for Frosted Flakes, Sam the Toucan was made for Froot Loops, the Trix Rabbit, Lucky the Leprechaun, Captain Crunch etc. Today the cereal industry has created more than 30 mascots throughout the last 50 years. We can see now, that the cereal industry is one of the most important food businesses today.

The Most Used Social Network's Today

According to an article in the March 2010 National Geographic magazine, 830 million internet users entered the Social Networks on October 2009. Out of those 830, 430 visited Facebook, the majority coming from the United States. Even though you can't see very well the diagram, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan and France are the other countries that mostly use Facebook. Curiously, countries apart from the United States and Canada use mostly national social networks. For example, China uses Baidu Space, QQ Alumni and Kaixin001. India uses Bharatstudent, Germany uses Wer-Kennt-Wen, Japan Hatena Bookmark, Russia Vkontakte, etc.

The first social network was launched 13 years ago and was called SixDegrees. You could send messages to one another, but the site wasn't as advanced as today many are. The site went offline in 2000, and sinced then, many different social networks have rised.

The Mighty Charolais Bull

Most recently in Great Britain, the six year old bull Field Marshall broke the records as the heaviest bull in the country. With a weight of 3,500 pounds (1,750 kilograms) and a height of six ft and five inches, (1.95 meters) he weighs more than a Mini Cooper and is as tall as a basketball player. Since bulls can live up to 10 years, or even 20 if they don't do any work, can you imagine how big the Field Marshall might get?

Curiously, the breed from which Field Marshall originated, the bulls average weight is a total of 2,585 pounds. He is deafineatly one in a million. The Charolais is a beef cattle breed that originated near the city of Charolles, France. They gained a very good reputation for the quality of their beef as early as 1786, since it was a breed that would mature fast and would feed very efficiently. According to his owner, Arthur Duckett, he would have been sold and still can be sold for a very high price, but he likes very much his bull.

The Most Famous Cows

According to the book A Field Guide to Cows by John Pukite, These are probably the most famous record holding cows today.

The Fattest Cow:

Durham Ox, a Shorthorn cow in born in the 19th century.

The Tallest Cow:

Chianina measuring about 6 ft.

The Smallest Cow:

The Dexter, of Ireland. This cow could live in a house!

The Fastest Cow:

Corriente, from Mexico. This cow is used in rodeo's in Southwestern US.

The Cow with the Most Milk

Holstein, The # 1 dairy cow in the world today.

The Cow with the Best-Tasting Milk

The Jersey good for making Cheese, Butter and Ice Cream.

Two Prehistoric Blackholes Could Unravel the Mysteries Of the Universe

Most recently the NASA, discovered two prehistoric blackholes with the telescope Spitzer. This will provide a way to unravel the mysteries of the universe, such as the creation of galaxies, and even more primitive stars. These blackholes are remains of ancient stars that existed before, in a primitive galaxy. Both of these blackholes were baptized J0005-0006 and J0303-0019. Both of these blackholes are said to weigh each 100 million suns, and are found 13 million light years away from the Earth.

Since the blackhole doesn't seem to obtain any dust particles, it is predicted that the blackhole was created less than 1 billion years after the creation of the Big Bang. Could this lead us to a major scientific discovery?

The Very First National Geographic

Today I decided to install in my computer The Complete National Geographic, a program that contains 6 CDs with every issue of the National Geographic: from October 1888 to December 2008. 120 years of discoveries and knowledge. It is surprising how much have we changed in 120 years. Back then, the magazine had no advertisements, and no pictures. The magazine also talked about very different topics of the ones you may find today. The first article talked about how the magazine was originally intended to ''increase and diffuse geographic knowledge''. Today the magazine is not only about Geography, but also has History,Biology,Environmentalism,Pre-history,Economy,Geology,Astronomy and other topics related to Natural History. Today the National Geographic has become one of the most recognized and important non-profit scientific and educational institution in the world.

Who Got First to the America's?

Many have regarded as Christopher Columbus, to be the first explorer that discovered the American continent by sea. We already know that humans got to the America's about 25,000 years ago, and were the first to habit this continent. Many people have denied the fact that Columbus was the first explorer to go across the Atlantic Ocean.Some say the Chinese, with the fleet of Zheng He got to the America's in 1421, others say the Vikings reached New Foundland, a region in Eastern Canada in the early 1000's. The Irish would tell you that St. Brendan the Navigator reached North America about 1,000 years before Columbus. Some say it is just a Christian Myth, but others regard this as true.

When, Columbus traveled to the America's many say he was looking for the Island of Brendan in the West Indies. This island, is supposed to be somwhere in the coast of North America. On the eve of his great voyage in 1492 he (supposedly) wrote: “I am convinced that the terrestrial paradise is in he Island of Saint Brendan, which none can reach save by the Will of God.'' We don't know if this is true and we might never find out. We know for sure, that Christopher Columbus was not the only European to have reached American land.

For more info. follow the link.

The Rise of the Ecological Cars

By the end of 2010, the Japanese motor company, Nissan will release the Nissan Leaf, the first zero-emissions car to be released in the mass market. According to Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, the battery-powered Leaf will compete against the hybrids. The price of the car is estimated to be $25,000 which isn't very expensive, but the Battery Price costs an estimate of $10,000. Besides, This car would have a range of 100 miles while gasoline cars have a range of 150 miles. An advantage of the Leaf car, its that the charging of the car would only cost $150 a year, while in gasoline you spend thousands of dollars every year. Other companies like GM, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda dedicated to releasing hybrid cars, while Nissan decided to release the electric car before their competition instead of releasing several hybrids.

According to the prediction of Carlos Gohsn, Electric vehicles will make up 10% of the market by 2020. Hydrogen cars may be released in 5 years, and many expect that gasoline cars might end in a range from 20-30 years. Is this enough to save our planet from catastrophic climate change? We only know for sure, that the rise of the zero-emissions car is just beggining.

The Academy Awards: Recurring Event Twice?

This year in the 82nd Academy Awards which took place on March 7th, 2010, we saw something similar that was seen previously on another Oscar.This was the 50th Academy Awards that took place on April 3rd, 1978. On this years Oscar's, the movie Avatar whom became the highest-grossing film of all time, did not win the best picture: this was won by The Hurt Locker. 32 years ago, Star Wars which at the time became the highest-grossing film of all time did not win best picture: thus was won by Woody Allen's Annie Hall. Is this a coincidence or something done on purpose? Notice that both are science-fiction films and both surpassed expectations with their special effects. Star Wars after it's release made 2 sequels and 3 prequels. It is estimated that Star Wars has produced a total of 20 billion dollars in merchandise, films and other types of media. Let's see how far Avatar can get.

The Cows Sold Higher Than Any Sports Car

Most recently in the Parade of Perfection Sale, that took place on February the 27th, 2010 on Elkhorn, Wisconsin, Jeff Butler sold 2 Holstein cows for 1.5 million dollars. Both of these cows cost more than any sports car in the market today. These cows were Ms. Atlees Goldwyn Ariel VG-88 and Regancrest Brasilia VG-88, both one of the most popular registered holsteins in the world today. Ariel's father, the Canadian Bull Braedale Goldwyn owned by the artificial insemination company Semex, is one of the most prestiged bulls today. The father of Brasilia, the British superstar Picston Shottle, has been the # 1 Bull in the US for type and production for 2 consecutive years. The mothers of both cows, MD-Delight Durham Atlee EX-92 (mother of Ariel) and Regancrest PR-Barbie EX-92 (mother of Brasilia) have the same father which is Regancrest Elton Durham. Durham is another bull regarded as one of the most impacting in the breed, with Goldwyn and Shottle following his footsteps.

Their have been a total of 6 million dollar cows sold in History. Notice that most of them have somewhere in their pedigree the bulls Durham, Shottle or Goldwyn. (father x maternal grand-father).

Lylehaven Lyla Z EX-94 (Durham x Formation)

KHW Regiment Apple-Red Ex-92 (Regiment-Red x Durham)

Regancrest S Chassity VG-88 (Shottle x Champion)

Eastside Lewisdale Gold Missy VG-89 (Goldwyn x Outside)
Ms Atlees Gold Ariel VG-88 (Goldwyn x Durham) photo on the left
Regancrest Brasilia VG-88 (Shottle x Durham) photo on the center and bottom

The Best Places To Travel

From the National Geographic books, 10 Best in Everything, Journeys of A Lifetime and Sacred Places of a Lifetime.

Where is the most watery place on Earth?.......Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe

The Most Filmed place?..........................New York City, USA

The Best Beach in the World?....................Seychelles

The Most Sacred Cave?..........................Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize

The Most Beautiful Garden?..........................Chateau de Versailles, France

The Best Hotel?...........................................Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford, California

The Best Shopping Avenue?...........................Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich, Switzerland.

So, if you ever stop by in any of these places, remember that they are part of the most sought-after in the world.

The Mandarin and the Pekin Duck: A Chinese Story

The photo in the left was taken by the National Geographic, on the National Zoo of Washington, D.C. The photo shows 3 Mandarin Ducks in a row standing in a handrail. The Mandarin Ducks originated from Asia, and are specifically a national symbol for China. The picture on the right is a picture of the Peking Duck, which is a domesticated duck breed from China. It is used to make the Peking Roast Duck which is a typical dish from China. This dish has been used by the Chinese restaurant Quanjude since its foundation in 1864. Many people have thought that the Mandarin Duck was used as the duck for the Peking Roast Duck, but the Chinese actually use a domesticated breed. Here is the story of both ducks.

The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) is a medium-sized perching duck that originates from Eastern Asia. A feral population of about 1,000 established in Great Britain in the 20th century. It is known in China as a symbol for the Chinese wedding and are among the native national Chinese species including the Giant Panda and Red Panda.

The Peking Duck, (Anas platyrhynchos domestica) is a domesticated breed of duck that originates from the Mallard and came originally from the city of Nanjing. They originally had black feathers but once these ducks were moved to Beijing, the food they ate changed, making them have white feathers. The Peking Duck was domesticated for they're eggs and especially for their meat to create the famous Peking Roasted Duck. This dish is most famous on the chinese restaurant Quanjude, which has been famous since 1864. To this day the restaurant has sold a total of 115245577 ducks.

The Tallest Buildings in the World

A new record was set on this same year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Here lies the tallest building in the world called the Burj Khalifa. It has a total of 828 meters (2,17 ft.) in height and has a total of 160 floors. The building was inaugurated on January 4rth, 2010. In Second place stands the Taipei 101 and in third place stands the Shanghai World Financial Center. The top seven buildings as you can notice are all in the Asian continent. This are the top 10 tallest buildings in the world. You can see a full list of the top 200 by following the hyperlink.

1. Burj Khalifa 828 mt. United Arab Emirates

2. Taipei 101 509 mt. Taiwan (ROC)

3. Shanghai WFC 492 mt. China (PROC)

4. International Commerce Center 483 mt. Hong Kong, China

5. Petronas Tower 1 452 mt. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

6. Petronas Tower 2 452 mt. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

7. Nanjing Greenland Financial Center 450 mt. China

8. Willis Tower 442 mt. Chicago USA

9. Guangzhou West Tower 440 mt. China

10. Trump International Hotel and Tower 423 mt. Chicago, USA

A Look Back From South Africa 2010.

As many of us know, the next FIFA World Cup will be held in South Africa on the 11th of June of 2010 to the 11th of July of 2010. It is the world's most sought after sports tournament in which 36 countries will play. South Africa is the first African nation to host the World Cup. These are the countries that have won the world cups :

1930: Uruguay

1934: Italy
1938: Italy

1950: Uruguay

1954: West Germany

1958: Brasil

1962: Brasil

1966: England

1970: Brasil

1974: West Germany

1978: Argentina

1982: Italy

1986: Argentina

1990: West Germany
1994: Brasil

1998: France

2002: Brasil

2006: Italy

These is the total number of cups won by each country:

5 by Brasil

4 by Italy
3 by West Germany

2 by Argentina

2 by Uruguay

1 by England

1 by France

Guiness: An Irish Beer and Book

I discovered this short ago about how the Guiness World Records was made. This story began in the 4rth of May of 1951 in the city of Dublin, Ireland. Sir Hugh Beaver was the managing director of Guiness Breweries when he went to a shooting party in a county in Ireland. He started to fight in an argument which was debating whether which game bird was the fastest in Europe. The golden plover or the grouse. He investigated in many reference books throughout Ireland and the UK and found no answer. Beaver knew their were many records which were heavily disputed throughout the UK and Ireland and many of them did'nt have an answer.

He then hired hired the fact-finding agency in London to make a book about world records. Beaver named the book the Guiness Book of Records in August 1954 in name of the brewery founded by Arthur Guiness. Since then, these books have been printed year after year and in dozens of languages.

Microsoft Moves to the Competition

Microsoft releases now a phone to compete against the Android Phone of Google and against the iPhone from Apple: the Windows Phone which is said to be released on the end of 2010. I think this phone may or may not be succesful, since it has a very tough competition. It tries to do many of the functions the other phones have, plus it has a Xbox application for the people that play the assasin games of the Xbox. Watch this YouTube video which goes more in depth of the functions of the phone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IOTrqlz4jo

Ice Cream's Origins

Many of us don't know the origin of Ice Cream. According to a post in Paleontology News, Ice Cream orginiated approximately in the 3rd Millenium BC when the Chinese emperor would eat concoctions of fruit juices mixed with ice.

The recipe lasted unknown to most of the world, untill Marco Polo came to the Court of Kublai Khan, Mongolian emperor of the Yuan dynasty, and brought the famous dessert to Italy. From their, the Italians modified the Ice Cream, to make the famous Gellato. Probably the Italians were the ones to add milk as a primarial ingredient to the dessert. The dessert became famous throughout Europe, and the French made eventually the ice cream cups in the 19th century.

Today, Ice Cream is a famous dessert, probably one of the most well known throughout the world. In almost every country their is a different style of Ice Cream such as Gelato for Italy and Philadelphia style in the States. So, the next time you eat Ice Cream you can know where it comes from, or at least know what kind of ice cream you are eating.



For more blogs, visit this one:
http://blogs.sundaymercury.net/weirdscience/2010/02/china-gave-ice-cream-to-the-wo.html

The Greatest Milk Machine's

Even though this record was set in 2006, few people knew this untill the Holstein International magazine of August 2009 published this record. The cow that has the highest record for total prodcution (Milk, Fat and Protein) is the cow Tacoma Mark My-Word VG-88 from Tacoma Dairy in the American state of Michigan. Curiously this cow like another past milk machine Raim Mark Jinx have both the same father: Walkway Chief Mark. Another famous cow record breaker, Beecher Arlinda Ellen, was half-sister to Mark since their father was Pawnee-Farm Arlinda Chief. Most of the famous milk producters com from the family of Chief!

The top 2 total production records:

Tacoma Mark My-Word (2006)

Maciel # 289 (1984)

Past records:

Raim Mark Jinx

Beeccher Arlinda Ellen

Top: Chief, father of Mark and Ellen.

Bottom: Mark, father of Jinx and My-Word.

The Worlds Most Dangerous Snakes

This is the list of the 10 most dangerous snakes according to Animal Planet's Most Extreme:
1. King Cobra
2. Inland Taipan
3. Black Mamba
4. Sea Snake
5. Tiger Snake
6. Burmese Python
7. Death Viper
8. Rattlesnake
9. Rhinoceros Viper
10. Anaconda
Other snake blogs:
http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2008/07/worlds-top-10-most-poisonous-venomous.html#comment-form

Swallowing 18 Swords

This man, Chayne Hultgren, 31 years old and from Australia, broke the Guiness World Record by swallowing 18 swords each of 72 cm of length. He is known as the ''space cowboy'', ad according to him the swords will not make any damage since he has trained hours to complete this achievement.
For more blogs, see the following:
http://comicbooks.about.com/b/2010/02/07/world-record-in-sight-for-heritage-auctions.htm

http://1freeadvertising.com/modern-world-records-coj216704/comment-page-1#comment-105