Using Your Noodle

Today, I found out that Mr Momofuku Ando had died this year. He lasted to the grand old age of 96.

Mr Momofuku Ando, I salute you – the inventor of the instant noodle! or instant ramen as they are known across the world.

Back in 1958 he had a brain wave which has meant civilization has been munching down on his "Top Ramen" noodles to the tune of 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion U.S.) a year.

Not to mention the inspiration for this delight, The Pot Noodle

Pot Noodle Facts

The Pot Noodle was launched in the UK in 1979

The Crumlin factory produces 175 million pots every year

In 2002, the limited edition 'Edwina Curry' flavour was launched in the wake of revelations about her affair with John Major.
It is estimated that 240 Pot Noodles are eaten every minute in Britain

A Pot Noodle advert in 1993 sparked three reports of seizures and prompted concern and a ban on the advert

The most popular is Chicken & Mushroom

-Quote from TV Series Red Dwarf:
"Lister: I tell you one thing: I've been to a parallel universe, I've seen time running backwards, I've played pool with planets, and I've given birth to twins, but I never thought in my entire life I'd taste an edible Pot Noodle."

The Fuji Research Institute Corporation asked the Japanese public what were the top Japanese inventions of all time!

1 Instant-ramen
2 Karaoke
3 Headphone stereos
4 TV game players
5 Compact disks

How much instant ramen are eaten worldwide every year? (2005)
Annual consumption:
Worldwide: 85.7 billion (85 700 000 000!) meals
China: 44.3 billion meals
Japan: 5.4 billion meals
United-States: 3.9 billion meals


How long would all noodles in one package strech?
51 metres! Yes, that's more then two times the length of a tennis court.



How many brands of instant ramen are there? (2005)
983 brands certified by Japan Convenience Foods Industry Association.

Using your noodle!

It's unlikely to replace the country's stock exchange index, but Thailand has come up with a new economic barometer - the Mama Noodle Index.

When the economy gets bad, the sales of Mama, the country's top-selling brand of instant noodles, shoot up, according to economists and businesspeople quoted by The Nation newspaper today.

"One of the more bizarre economic indicators to emerge in recent years, the noodle index works like this: Tighten your belt, spend less on food. As a cheap eat, instant noodle sales therefore rise exponentially," the newspaper said.

For Hard Core Noodle Fans

Why is there always dry pot noodle at the bottom of your pot?

Answer me this!

3:50 AM - 3 Comments - 22 Kudos - Add Comment

Repost: Big (and Little) Screen Facts

Hello all, well it was the first day back after the long weekend break - and now I feel fairly tired (already got an eye on the weekend! ). Speaking to a few people, it seems that the Easter telly was pretty poor - I didn't manage to see much as I was Pike walking, checking out my tent for Glastonbury (yes!!) and then enjoying Fact Cows Dads' 65th Birthday. Congrats to the Ol'Fact Cow!

Anyways to make up the lack of "chewing gum for the eyes" I have provided you with some "chewing gum for the mind" - a big pile of Movie & Film related facts.

All these are excellent Pub Quiz ammunition!

OK, lets go......

Muppets creator Jim Henson first created Kermit in 1955 - as a lizard. He was made from Henson's mother's coat and two halves of a Ping-Pong ball (no flipper feet or eleven-point collar).



The person who performs the Muppets - Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, and Grover is Frank Oz. Oz is also the voice of Star Wars Yoda. By the way, his real name is Frank Oznowicz.

The 1997 Jack Nicholson film - "As Good As It Gets", is known in China as "Mr. Cat Poop".

Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

According to the folks at Disney - there are 6,469,952 spots painted on dogs in the original 101 Dalmatians.

The most kissing was done by John Barrymore who kissed Mary Astor and Estelle Taylor a total of 127 times in 1926's Don Juan

The longest kiss in a movie is in Andy Warhol's Kiss. Rufus Collins and Naomi Levine kissed for the entire 50 minutes of the movie.

Shirley Temple received 135,000 presents for her 8th birthday.

Bruce Lee was the 1958 CHA-CHA champ of Hong Kong.

The 1967 Russian movie War and Peace had 120,000 extras. The South Korean movie Monster Wang-magwi from the same year featured 157,000 extras. The 1945 German movie Kolberg had 187,000 and the movie with the most extras, the 1982 British movie Gandhi, featured 300,000 extras.

Most insects used in a film: 22 million bees in The Swarm.

Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.

The name for Oz in "The Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."

Michael J. Fox's middle name is really Andrew.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."

The three main characters in Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom are named after the dogs of the movie's makers.

In 1938 Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel sold all rights to the comic-strip character Superman to their publishers for $130.

In the 1983 film "JAWS 3D" the shark blows up. Some of the shark guts were the stuffed ET dolls being sold at the time.

The longest title in cinema history belongs to the 1993 film "Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Hellbound, Zombified, Flesh-eating, Sub-Humanoid Living Dead - Part 4."

In the movie "Babe", the piglet was played by over 30 different piglets they outgrew the part so quickly during the production of the film.

In the movie Casablanca Rick never says "Play it again, Sam." He says: "You played it for her, you can play it for me. Play it!"

In the movie "The Exorcist" the vomit that (Regan) Linda Blair hurls at Father Damien Karras is thick pea soup.

In the movie Toy Story, the carpet in Sid's hallway is exactly the same as the carpet in the Shining.

James Bond is known as Mr Kiss-Kiss-Bang-Bang in Italy.

In Jurassic Park the roar of the T-Rex came from mixing the noises of a crocodile, a lion, a tiger and a baby elephant.

Woody Harrelson's father is serving life in prison. Charles Harrelson is an organized crime-connected freelance hitman, who also has claimed that he was involved in John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Here Is A Strange One

Bill Murray played Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters,
Dave Coulier did the voice of Peter Wenkman in the Ghostbusters cartoon series,
Dave Coulier also did the voice of Garfield in the cartoon series,
Bill Murray is playing the voice of Garfield in the movie.

Nicholas Cage had two teeth pulled out for Birdy and swallowed six live
cockroaches for vampires kiss

Al Pacino had his teeth filed and stained yellow for the Godfather, Part II

Charles Fleischer wore a rabbit costume throughout the 4 month dubbing of Roger Rabbit's voice.

The Most Bizarre Fact I found pertaining to the Eurovision Song Contest Legend, Terry Wogan

Terry Wogan once held the world record for the longest successful golf putt ever televised; 33 yards at the Gleneagles Golf Course in a pro-celebrity TV programme. TV golf commentator Peter Alliss described it as "The most remarkable shot I've ever seen in my life".



As Always, I Love Reading Your Comments - So If You Have Anything To Add Please Do So - Get Your Facts Out For The Cow

Now These Are Not Facts - But They Made Me Laugh (Which Is Always A Good Thing, Right?)

49 Things You Would Never Know Without The Movies...

====================================================

1) During all police investigations it will be necessary to visit a strip

club at least once.

2) All telephone numbers in America begin with the digits 555.

3) If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing

St. Patrick's Day parade - at any time of the year.

4) All beds have special L-shaped cover sheets which reach up to the

armpit level on a woman but only to waist level on the man lying beside

her.

5) All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French Bread &

1 stalk of celery.

6) It's easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the

control tower to talk you down.

7) Once applied, lipstick will never rub off - even while scuba diving.

8) The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding

place. No-one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can

travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty.

9) If you need to reload your gun, you will always have more ammunition -

even if you haven't been carrying any before now.

10) You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make

the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.

11) Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not

be necessary to speak the language. A German accent will do.

12) If your town is threatened by an imminent natural disaster or killer

beast, the mayor's first concern will be the tourist trade or his

forthcoming art exhibition.

13) The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris.

14) A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but

will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.

15) If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it

before long.  The aquarium will also meet w/disaster.

16) The Chief of Police is always black.  The judge a woman.

17) When paying for a taxi, don't look at your wallet as you take out a

bill - just grab one at random and hand it over. It will always be the

exact fare.

18) Interbreeding is genetically possible with any creature from elsewhere

in the universe.

19) Kitchens don't have light switches. When entering a kitchen at night,

you should open the fridge door and use that light instead.

20) If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange

noises in their most revealing underwear.

21) Word processors never display a cursor on screen but will always say:

Enter Password Now.

22) Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon and waffles for their family every

morning even though their husband and children never have time to eat it.

23) Cars that crash will almost always burst into flames.

24) The Chief of Police will always suspend his star detective - or give

him 48 hours to finish the job.

25) A single match will be sufficient to light up a room the size of RFK

Stadium.

26) Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.

27) Although in the 20th century it is possible to fire weapons at an

object out of our visual range, people of the 23rd century will have lost

this technology.

28) Any person waking from a nightmare will sit bolt upright and pant.

29) It is not necessary to say hello or good-bye when beginning or ending

phone conversations.

30) Even when driving down a perfectly straight road it is necessary to

turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments.

31) All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red

readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off.

32) It is always possible to park directly outside the building you are

visiting.

33) A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from

duty.

34) If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into

will know all the steps.

35) Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override the

communication systems of any invading alien civilization.

36) It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving

martial arts - your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one

by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their

predecessors.

37) When a person is knocked unconscious by a blow to the head, they will

never suffer a concussion or brain damage.

38) No-one involved in a car chase, hijacking, explosion, volcanic

eruption or alien invasion will ever go into shock.

39) Police Departments give their officers personality tests to make sure

they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.

40) When they are alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English to each

other.

41) You can always find a chainsaw when you need one.

42) Any lock can be picked by a credit card or a paper clip in seconds -

unless it's the door to a burning building with a child trapped inside.

43) An electric fence, powerful enough to kill a dinosaur will cause no

lasting damage to an eight year old child.

44) Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you

personally at that precise moment.

45) The average hotel pool is deep enough for you to survive a fall from

any floor.

46) An Asian crime lord will always have a beautiful daughter named either

"Jade" or "Lotus Blossom."

47) Traveling between any two points in New York City will always take you

past the Statue of Liberty, Lincoln Center, Washington Square Park, and

the New York Public Library.

48) By the 23rd Century, everyone in the human race will be

beautiful. Humanity will compensate for this by wearing awful clothes.

49) Most dogs are immortal.

2:13 AM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Repost: You Guys Are So Brainy

You Guys Are So Brainy

In tribute to your Brain Power I have a Brain Blog (or for those who are struggling a Brian Blog).

I see the Cow has a bigger brain than a Lion - nice

% brain of total body weight (150 pound human) = 2%
Average brain width = 140 mm
Average brain length = 167 mm
Average brain height = 93 mm

Average number of neurons in the brain = 100 billion

Length of myelinated nerve fibers in brain = 150,000-180,000 km

Difference number of neurons in the right and left hemispheres = 186 million MORE neurons on left side than right side.

If each of our brain cells was the size of a pinhead, our brains would measure 5 metres across

Time until unconsciousness after loss of blood supply to brain = 8-10 sec
Time until reflex loss after loss of blood supply to brain = 40-110 sec

Babies Lose Half their Neurons at Birth
It is estimated that a baby loses about half their neurons before they are born. This process is sometimes referred to as pruning and may eliminate neurons that do not receive sufficient input from other neurons.

Brain Uses 20% of Oxygen Breathed
Although the brain accounts for only 2% of the whole body's mass, it uses 20% of all the oxygen we breathe. A continuous supply of oxygen is necessary for survival. A loss of oxygen for 10 minutes can result in significant neural damage.

Early Brain Growth
During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses, dramatically increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion. If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate, his weight would increase from 8.5 pounds at birth to 170 pounds at one month old.

The "Little Brain"
The human cerebellum, or "little brain", weighs about 150 grams. Located at the lower back of the brain, the cerebellum is key to maintaining posture, walking, and performing coordinated movements. It is also thought to play a role in olfaction or smell.


Babies Lose Half their Neurons at Birth
It is estimated that a baby loses about half their neurons before they are born. This process is sometimes referred to as pruning and may eliminate neurons that do not receive sufficient input from other neurons.

Ever Had Brainfreeze?

Brain Uses 20 Percent of Blood
Approximately 20% of the blood flowing from the heart is pumped to the brain. The brain needs constant blood flow in order to keep up with the heavy metabolic demands of the neurons. Brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) rely on this relationship between neural activity and blood flow to produce images of deduced brain activity.

Brain Uses 20% of Oxygen Breathed
Although the brain accounts for only 2% of the whole body's mass, it uses 20% of all the oxygen we breathe. A continuous supply of oxygen is necessary for survival. A loss of oxygen for 10 minutes can result in significant neural damage.

Child Brain Development
Measures of brain activity show that during the second half of a child's first year, the prefrontal cortex, the seat of forethought and logic, forms synapses at such a rate that it consumes twice as much energy as an adult brain. That furious pace continues for the child's first decade of life.

Deadly Delicacy
The pufferfish, parts of which are eaten as a delicacy in Japan, contains a potent neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin. This toxin blocks sodium channels necessary for the conduction of neural activity. Tetrodotoxin can cause death in approximately 60% of the people who ingest it.

Dividing the Hemispheres
Commisurotomy, the transection of the corpus callosum, is one possible treatment for patients with severe epilepsy. This procedure causes a complete split between the two hemispheres of the brain. As a result of this split, words presented to the patient's far left visual field cannot be read (alexia), and hidden objects placed into the left hand cannot be named (anomia). This is significant evidence for hemispheric specialization.

Early Brain Growth
During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses, dramatically increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion. If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate, his weight would increase from 8.5 pounds at birth to 170 pounds at one month old.

Even Reptiles Yawn
Yawning is an age-old activity that occurs in reptiles, birds and, of course, mammals. This behavior is controlled by chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters, such as nitric oxide and dopamine, act in the hypothalamus to induce and control yawning.


The "Little Brain"
The human cerebellum, or "little brain", weighs about 150 grams. Located at the lower back of the brain, the cerebellum is key to maintaining posture, walking, and performing coordinated movements. It is also thought to play a role in olfaction or smell.


Why We Scratch an Itch
Scratching an itch is a puzzling biological response, because it seems to hinder rather than help a wound's healing. One theory of why we itch suggests that scratching stimulates the release of endorphins, naturally occurring opiates which block pain sensation. Because scratching injures our skin a little more, we release a flood of endorphins to block the pain of the initial injury more effectively.

Working Memory Stores Seven Digits
It's no accident that telephone numbers in the United States are seven digits long. The working memory, a very short-term form of memory which stores ideas just long enough for us to understand them, can hold on average a maximum of seven digits. This allows you to look up a phone number and remember it just long enough to dial.

Pain

Your brain feels no pain. There are no nerves that register pain within the brain itself. Because of this, neurosurgeons can probe the brain while a patient is conscious (what fun!). By doing this, they can use feedback from the patient to identify important regions, such as those used for speech, or visualization.

Pain sensations travel along slower nerve fibres than touch sensations. That's why, when you stub your toe, you feel the impact first followed by the pain a second later.

Hope All These Fact Haven't Sent You To Sleep – If So, Can You Beat This?

World record, time without sleep = 264 hours (11 days) by Randy Gardner in 1965.

However In Biopsychology, they state the record for time awake is attributed to Mrs. Maureen Weston. She apparently spent 449 hours [18 days, 17 hours] awake in a rocking chair. The Guinness Book of World Records [1990] has the record belonging to Robert McDonald who spent 453 hours, 40 min in a rocking chair.

Who do we believe?

Possibly the Brainiest Guy? (OK don't pull me up on what / who is brainy but this guy is something else)

6:11 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Repost: What On Earth Blog

The "What On Earth" Blog

Greetings all - Hope you are well? and are ready for a good facting. As a cow of the World I am always interested with what is going around the global pasture - so I thought, I'd do a little investigation.

First up the Hard Facts!

Estimated Weight (mass)
(5,940,000,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons)

Estimated Age 4.6 billion years
Current Population 6,446,131,714
Surface Area (510,066,000 sq km)
Land Area (148,647,000 sq km) 29.1%
Ocean Area (335,258,000 sq km)
Total Water Area (361,419,000 sq km) 70.9%
Type of Water (97% salt), (3% fresh)

Circumference at the equator (40,066 km)
Circumference at the poles (39, 992 km)
Diameter at the equator (12,753 km)
Diameter at the poles (12,710 km)
Radius at the equator (6,376 km)
Radius at the poles (6,355 km)
Orbit Speeds The earth orbits the Sun at (66,700 mph), (107,320 km per hour)
Sun Orbit The earth orbits the Sun every 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds

Ever wondered where you would end up if you dug all the way through earth? Of course you have ,and now with this little tool you can find out:

the Fact Cow endorsed "dig through the earth type tool"

Would be great if a Fact Cow could dig straight through to another Fact Cow!

If that bit of digging has quenched your thirst for going down below, check out these facts!

The deepest depression (bar me being in work on a sunny day) on the Earth is the Marianas Trench, at 35,798 feet deep, located in the Pacific Ocean.

The outer core of the Earth begins around 1,800 miles deep (2,898 kilometers), and ends where the inner core begins, at 2,095 miles deep (4,982 kilometers).

The deepest drill into the Earth is on the Kola Peninsula in Russia at 7.619318 miles (40,230 feet) (12.261 kilometers) deep into the crust, beginning from May 24, 1970 when construction was started till it stopped by 1983, due to lack of funds. The temperature of the rocks at the bottom of the hole is around 410 degrees Fahrenheit (210 degrees Celsius).

The largest known impact crater on the Earth is theVredefort Ring.

The Vredefort Ring is in Africa and is 186 miles in diameter. It is estimated that the meteor impacted some two billion years ago! The crater is barely discernable by aircraft.

Some Water Facts

Carolus effect - The rotation of the earth causes water to circle away from the equator. It creates the major currents.

There is the exact amount of water on Earth today as when the Earth was formed. Water is never totally consumed. It always recycles itself, in one form or another.

If the water in the world's reservoirs were allowed passage to the oceans, global sea level would rise 1 1/5 inches. Rivers in the northern hemisphere scour their right-hand banks more severely than their left-hand banks. This effect is due to the rotation of the Earth.

If the world were to become totally flat and the oceans distributed themselves evenly over the earth's surface, the water would be approximately 2 miles deep at every point.

Spinning Around The Sun & Other Facts

The earth is spinning slower and slower. Tomorrow will be longer than yesterday. The day gets longer by about one second each year. The day has grown longer by 32 leap seconds in the last 50 years or so. By the middle of the next century, the slowing down of Earth's rotation will require a leap second every few months.

It takes the sun's rays about 8.5 minutes to reach the earth from the sun

Earth is hit by 6 tons of meteorites a day, every day.

Earth our beloved home is said to have an atmosphere that proportionally is thinner than the skin of an apple.

Though the Earth isn't completely spherical, if you shrunk it to the size of the

average billiard ball, it would be rounder and smoother than that billiard

ball. 

Flying once around the moon is the equivalent with a round trip from New York to London. (Earth is about four times the size of the moon.)

About 1/3 of the Earth's population is under the age of 15.

The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth. It's moved three feet and nine inches away in the last thirty years

The fastest tectonic movement on Earth, 24 cm per year, is at the Tonga microplate near Samoa.

If you gave each human on earth an equal portion of dry land, (including the uninhabitable areas) everyone would get roughly 100 sq.ft.

Map By Population

If the population of the Earth continued to increase at its present rate indefinitely, by 3530 A.D. the total mass of human flesh and blood would equal the mass of the Earth. By 6826 A.D. it would equal the mass of the known universe.

Map By Country Wealth



Map By Child Mortality



This is a startling cartogram, and a sad refelction of the modern world. I don't want to come across too heavy, but if you can make a difference - do so.

1:42 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Repost: Sleeping Blog

You Are Feeling Sleepy...

Hi there, well as it's Sunday – the day of sleep, I thought why not do a blog on the art of sleeping. Hope it doesn't send you off! It it does you can use it just before you go to bed.

Take it easy – may your dreams be factual

-The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.

- It's impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.

- Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.

- A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year

DON'T FALL ASLEEP WHEN TRAVELLING

- One of the best predictors of insomnia later in life is the development of bad habits from having sleep disturbed by young children.

- The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.

- REM sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep.

- Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It's possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.

- REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example.

- Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analagous to watching a film

- No-one knows for sure if other species dream but some do have sleep cycles similar to humans.

SNORING DOG

- Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.

- Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.

- Dreams may not serve any purpose at all but be merely a meaningless byproduct of two evolutionary adaptations - sleep and consciousness.

- REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies have 75 per cent REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term bubs. Similarly, a newborn kitten puppy rat or hampster experiences only REM sleep, while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth) has almost no REM sleep at all.

- Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain's sleep-wake clock.

DON'T FALL ASLEEP IN JAPAN

- British Ministry of Defence researchers have been able to reset soldiers' body clocks so they can go without sleep for up to 36 hrs. Tiny optical fibres embedded in special spectacles project a ring of bright white light (with a spectrum identical to a sunrise) around the edge of soldiers' retinas, fooling them into thinking they have just woken up. The system was first used on US pilots during the bombing of Kosovo.

- Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.

- The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.

- The NRMA estimates fatigue is involved in one in 6 fatal road accidents.

- Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if the sleeper doesn't wake. Unfamiliar noise, and noise during the first and last two hours of sleep, has the greatest disruptive effect on the sleep cycle.

- The "natural alarm clock" which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.

- Some sleeping tablets, such as barbiturates suppress REM sleep, which can be harmful over a long period.

DON'T FALL ASLEEP IN A CHAIR

- In insomnia following bereavement, sleeping pills can disrupt grieving.

- Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a "neural switch" in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes.

- To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders.

- A night on the grog will help you get to sleep but it will be a light slumber and you won't dream much.

- After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on your body as six would when you've slept enough.

DON'T SLEEP ON LOW GROUND AT GLASTONBURY

- Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours.

- Ducks at risk of attack by predators are able to balance the need for sleep and survival, keeping one half of the brain awake while the other slips into sleep mode.

- Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnoea, a disorder which causes sufferers to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and significantly increases the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

- Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep

- Teenagers need as much sleep as small children (about 10 hrs) while those over 65 need the least of all (about six hours). For the average adult aged 25-55, eight hours is considered optimal

- Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.

- Feeling tired can feel normal after a short time. Those deliberately deprived of sleep for research initially noticed greatly the effects on their alertness, mood and physical performance, but the awareness dropped off after the first few days.

- Diaries from the pre-electric-light-globe Victorian era show adults slept nine to 10 hours a night with periods of rest changing with the seasons in line with sunrise and sunsets.

- Most of what we know about sleep we've learned in the past 25 years.

- As a group, 18 to 24 year-olds deprived of sleep suffer more from impaired performance than older adults.

- Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.

- The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents.

AND IF YOU CAN'T SLEEP, WHY NOT JOIN THE NEW CRAZE BED JUMPING

1:30 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Repost: Spoonerisms

Spoonerisms - Fop Tacts

Hello all, today I am looking at Spoonerisms – which have amused me no end. Hope you enjoy.

As ever if you have some spoonerisms of your own please drop them off as a comment

Take it easy

First, a little history.

The name Spoonerism comes from the Reverend William Archibald Spooner who is reputed to have been particularly prone to making this type of verbal slip.

Spoonerisms are phrases, sentences, or words in language with swapped sounds. Usually this happens by accident, particularly if you're speaking fast.

Of course, there are many millions of possible Spoonerisms, but those which are of most interest (mainly for their amusement value) are the ones in which the Spoonerism makes sense as well as the original phrase. Go and shake a tower and a well-boiled icicle illustrate this well (go and take a shower, a well-oiled bicycle).

Since Spoonerisms are phonetic transpositions, it is not so much the letters which are swapped as the sounds themselves.

It is not restricted simply to the transposition of individual sounds; whole words or large parts of words may be swapped: to gap the bridge and manahuman soup (to bridge the gap, superhuman man). And sounds within a word may be transposed to form a Spoonerism too, as in crinimal and cerely (criminal, celery).

It is not uncommon for Spoonerisms of this type to be created unintentionally.
Generally Spoonerisms which are produced accidentally are transpositions between words that resemble one another phonetically, such as cuss and kiddle and slow and sneet (kiss and cuddle, snow and sleet).



In the 1930s and 1940s, F. Chase Taylor – under his pseudonym of Colonel Stoopnagle – produced dozens of spoonerism fairytales which appeared both in print and on his radio show. The original ones were printed in the Saturday Evening Post and he eventually published a collection of the stories in 1946 – a book which is now sadly out of print and much sought after.

Prinderella and the Cince
by Colonel Stoopnagle

Here, indeed, is a story that'll make your cresh fleep. It will give you poose gimples. Think of a poor little glip of a surl, prairie vitty, who, just because she had two sisty uglers, had to flop the more, clinkle the shuvvers out of the stitchen cove and do all the other chasty nores, while her soamly histers went to a drancy bess fall. Wasn't that a shirty dame?

Well, to make a long shorry stort, this youngless hapster was chewing her doors one day, when who should suddenly appear but a garry fawdmother. Beeling very fadly for this witty prafe, she happed her clands, said a couple of waggic merds, and in the ash of a flybrow, Cinderella* was transformed into a bavaging reauty.

And out at the sturbcone stood a nagmificent coalden goach, made of a pipe rellow yumpkin. The gaudy fairmother told her to hop in and dive to the drance, but added that she must positively be mid by homelight. So, overmoash with accumtion, she fanked the tharry from the hottom of her bart, bimed acloard, the driver whacked his crip, and off they went in a dowd of clust.

Soon they came to a casterful wundel, where a pransome hince was possing a tarty for the teeple of the pown. Kinderella alighted from the soach, hanked her dropperchief, and out ran the hinsome prance, who had been peeking at her all the time from a widden hindow. The sugly isters stood bylently sigh, not sinderizing Reckognella in her goyal rarments.

Well, to make a long shorty still storer, the nince went absolutely pruts over the pruvvly lincess. After several dowers of antsing, he was ayzier than crevver. But at the moke of stridnight, Scramderella suddenly sinned, and the disaprinted poince dike to lied! He had forgotten to ask the nincess her prame! But as she went stunning down the long reps, she slicked off one of the glass kippers she was wearing, and the pounce princed upon it with eeming glize.

The next day he tied all over trown to find the lainty daydy whose foot slitted that fipper. And the ditty prame with the only fit that footed was none other than our layding leedy. So she finally prairied the mince, and they happed livily after everward.

The Middle Common Room of New College, Oxford is informally known as "The Rooner Spoom", in Spooner's honor.

In the comics The Adventures of Tintin, the characters Thomson and Thompson are afflicted with spoonerism

In the movie Robin Hood: Men in Tights, the Sheriff of Rottingham utters such phrases as "He deered to kill a King's dare."

In the TV series Family Guy, Peter Griffin says about his handicapped neighbor Joe, "Holy crip! He's a crapple!". The Griffin family also lives on Spooner Street.

Another Disney example is Zummi, one of the Gummi Bears, who frequently produced spoonerisms when nervous

NOFX has albums entitled Punk in Drublic and Liberal Animation.

An alleged spoonerism led to the nickname "the Canadian Broadcorping Castration." (An LP set of bloopers released in the 1970s included this one, where a French Canadian announcer, doing an English network identification, stated "This is the Dominion Network of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration," although it is not known whether this recording comes from an actual broadcast or a post facto recording to support a rumour that already existed.)

An announcer on BBC Radio once introduced the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps as "Sir Stifford Crapps"

Banjo player Eddie Peabody was once introduced with,"Mr. Eddie Playbody will now pee for you."

Comedian Jasper Carrott claims to have an aunt who frequently makes spoonerisms, referring to him as a 'shining wit'. He also performed Bastity Chelt where every line contained a spoonerism, for example Unlick my pock.

One of comedian Kenny Everett's most popular characters was a blonde woman named 'Cupid Stunt'

In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the character Jar-Jar Binks says "dellow felegates" when addressing the senate

Peter Sellers in Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark goes for a three-fer with "killed him in a rit of fealous jage".

A popular anti-Bush bumper sticker states "BUCK FUSH"

A common expression in Australian culture is often said 'No Wucking Furries' to technically avoid language

Before he joined Nirvana, Dave Grohl belonged to a band named Dain Bramage