Strange but Fun Facts & Laws to Read

I was reading this post – Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast from my friend Jill London and in order to send her some more weired facts in addition to the one in her post, I stumbled upon few really strange facts that I felt I can share with you all. Hope you find something new in these may be not so strange facts 🙂

• Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating!
• Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!
• Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia!
• When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second!
• There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos!
• All polar bears are left handed.
• No word in the English language rhymes with “MONTH.”
• “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”
• In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons!
• Slugs have 4 noses!
• About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30!
• In space, astronauts cannot cry properly, because there is no gravity, so the tears can’t flow down their faces!
• In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals!
• The elephant is one of the few mammals that can’t jump!
• America once issued a 5-cent bill
• A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years! Wow!
• Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
• Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!
• Honolulu is the only place in the United States that has a royal palace!
• More money is spent on gardening than on any other hobby!
• The fear of vegetables is called Lachanophobia!..
• A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans
• Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women!
• Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin!
• Bulls are colour blind, therefore will usually charge at a matador’s waving cape no matter what colour it is — be it red or neon yellow! – Now that makes me think twice as I always thought that Red colour does make a difference and if I stand wearing may be white then I might hide from his eyes.  Good to know this fact I think
• Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings – Wow I might carry an apple now as two coffee a day is something that is needed at the moment to keep me going otherwise which is not so good for health really
• Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can help you lose weight – Everyone trying to reduce weight, read this as it might be of some help in reducing those ounces
• The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people!
• The original name for the butterfly was ‘flutterby’!

There are some really strange laws also in place around the world that made me think for a while.

•  In Virginia, chickens cannot lay eggs before 8:00 a.m., and must be done before 4:00 p.m. – wow how do we control that now
• In North Carolina, it is against the law for dogs and cats to fight. – We are making laws for animals as well now
• In New Jersey, cabbage can’t be sold on Sunday. – What’s wrong with that ?
• In the State of Kansas, you’re not allowed to drive a buffalo through a street. – Yes that makes it safe now
• In Kentucky, it’s the law that a person must take a bath once a year. – That makes a state less stinkier
• In Louisiana, a bill was introduced years ago in the State House of Representatives that fixed a ceiling on haircuts for bald men of 25 cents. – Do they even need it?
• In Tennessee, it is against the law to drive a car while sleeping. – Do people do that all the time otherwise?
• California law prohibits a woman from driving a car while dressed in a housecoat. – Man that’s not fair now
• In Illinois, the law is that a car must be driven with the steering wheel. – Really??
• In Miami, it is forbidden to imitate an animal. – I need to be more careful now, not that I have ever done that
• The law states that more than 3000 sheep cannot be herded down Hollywood Blvd. at any one time.
• In Missouri, a man must have a permit to shave. – really??
• In Michigan, it is against the law for a lady to lift her skirt more than 6 inches while walking through a mud puddle. – Man I am not going there wearing a skirt now 🙂

Future of Knowledge – How do we want to use it?

Knowledge is out there and blogging is one of the best way to capture there. Record what’s in your mind and whats in your brain. Writing it and sharing it is a start and it will not take long to have abundance of knowledge. Now we need to start managing it as well. And think how we are going to manage this knowledge efficiently to be able to use it effectively. 

But what should be the next step as we know how to capture the knowledge very well now. Time is to connect all the dots and extract the information and set the future trend through it. Data analysis is a known field and helps in setting the trends and base the decision on that. But we need to step ahead and start using techniques to change the future and start predicting future rather than adhering to the predicted future. As we not always want to follow but rather lead. And that we can do only if we predict the future way in advance with the help of available knowledge and use strategic ways to change it. 

Every organization has their knowledge base and then they their systems also sometimes talk to other systems. Centralization of the control of all these systems is being done in silos at times due to various reasons like: security, privacy etc. I am giving some thoughts in this direction and will produce some posts regarding the knowledge management soon. As I am working in the same field so it helps with the previous experience. But I am looking more from the perspective of using all the available options to manage the knowledge to produce useful outcome. And how it can make every days life more easier as at the end of the day its people we need to manage and deal with. Knowledge is important but people are the key.

Feel free to discuss any thing regarding Knowledge Management (products, trend etc). I will be happy to answer any query or discuss related topics.