Tuesday 4 August 2009

Befriending dinner

Oh, I have a soft spot for funny stories and this one really made my day!

It is about an unlikely friendship developed between a snake and his evening snack Gohan, the hamster.
Instead of gulping it down Aochan (the snake) took a liking in this unusual friend
They now share a cage and apparently some night Gohan falls asleep on top of his friend snake.

Now I suppose this is a very good way mother nature has to teach us about friendship, how it can conquer even the highest barriers, how it transcends background and species...
It really made me think... if animals can why is it so difficult for humans?!

Though as much as I appreciate the beauty of the story don't ever expect me to befriend my chocolate cake slice! :-)



Sunday 2 August 2009

A historic date...

I found this application on Facebook which can tell you what important historic events happened on the date of your birth on different years.

Even if I wasn't expecting to find anything interesting I decided that it was worth a try and went ahead to input 26th October 1973 (yes, I am that old!)
Here is a selection of the most relevant of the 149 events the application brought up...

Some of the events are more important than others but I have picked these specific ones because they all seemed interesting to me... so I added a little comment on the side

1994 - Jordan and Israel sign peace accord - There should be hope for everyone than...
1988 - U.S. - Soviet effort free 2 grey whales from frozen Arctic, Barrow, AK - Awesome!
1984 - "Baby Fae" gets baboon heart transplant, lives 21 days - Beginning of something big.
1973 - Dona Braghieri's Birthday! - Best reason to like this date???
1973 - President Nixon released 1st White House tapes on Watergate scandal - A mess...
1972 - Guided tours of Alcatraz (by Park Service) begin - I've taken one... they're scary...
1966 - 1st Pacific communications satellite launched, Intelsat 2 - Maybe should blame this for my high phone bills...
1958 - PanAm flies 1st transatlantic jet trip - New York to Paris - And the real holidays began!
1954 - Chevrolet unveils V-8 engine - My engine!
1950 - Mother Teresa found her Mission of Charity in Calcutta, India - Inspiring!
1938 - Du Pont named its new synthetic fiber "nylon" - Such a cool fabric!
1922 - Italian government resigns under pressure from fascists and Benito Mussolini - Oh well... we all have our dark spots
1916 - Margaret Sanger arrested for obscenity (advocating birth control) - She should see the world nowadays!
1912 - Woolwich Tunnel under Thames opens - No more need to swim
1900 - After 4 years of work, 1st section of New York subway opens - And now it's a labyrinth!
1863 - Soccer rules standardized; rugby starts as a separate game - The day the male population started to go downhill..
1863 - Worldwide Red Cross organized in Geneva - Had to put this one in for obvious reasons!
1861 - Pony Express ends - But I did love the idea of the Pony Express service...
1858 - Hamilton Smith patents rotary washing machine - A saint to housewives!
1749 - Georgia Colony reverses itself and rules slavery is legal - Hurray!
1524 - Spanish troops give Milan to France - Luckily we were only French for a short while! :-p
1492 - Lead pencils 1st used - where would the world be without lead pencils?