Brain Storm » Did you know…

The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Prashant Jadhav — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:03:33 +0000

Kuroshio Sea @ Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium,
originally uploaded by anzyAprico.

The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, located in Okinawa, Japan, is the world’s second largest aquarium. The aquarium is a part of the Ocean Expo Commemorative National Government Park located in Motobu, Okinawa. The main tank called the ‘Kuroshio Sea’ holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world’s largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

On 16 June 2007 at 10:25 PM a manta ray was born at the aquarium after a gestation of 374 days. The manta ray was soon after killed by its father.

The aquarium is one of very few that keep whale sharks in captivity, and is currently trying to breed them.

Pentagon

Prashant Jadhav — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:33:13 +0000

Built in only 16 months between 1941 and 1942, the Pentagon is only 71 feet tall, yet it has 5 floors, 17.5 miles of corridors, 150 stairways, 280 restrooms, 685 drinking fountains, 7,748 windows and workers replace more than 250 light bulbs each day.

A “clue”…

Prashant Jadhav — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:05:08 +0000

A “clue” originally meant a ball of thread. This is why one is said to “unravel” the clues of a mystery.

Titanic…

Prashant Jadhav — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:37:45 +0000

The 1997 blockbuster movie Titanic lasts 3 hours and 14 minutes. The actual ship took 2 hours and 40 minutes to sink after hitting an iceberg.

Space Shuttle Program Of Nasa

Prashant Jadhav — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:33:09 +0000

Officially, the space shuttle program of NASA is known as the Space Transportation System (STS). The first shuttle was actually the Space Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise, named after the famous star ship in the Star Trek television series. It was a drop-test vehicle released from a Boeing 747 in midflight. Enterprise made five successful free-flight tests prior to Columbia‘s history-making maiden flight into space.

Inspiration behind the movie “The Sting”

Prashant Jadhav — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:15:35 +0000

Joseph Weill, who inspired the movie “The Sting” release in 1973, rented abandoned banks and convinced businessmen that he had set up a genuine bank. He waited for them to deposit large sums of money before shutting down and moving on to the next town. This, plus some of his other scams, earned him over $6,000,000.

New Year in Scotland

Prashant Jadhav — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:29:32 +0000

In Scotland, New Year’s Eve is called hogmanay, and is an occasion when young people go about singing and seeking gifts.

Caddys?

Prashant Jadhav — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:18:14 +0000

The word caddy (or caddie, as its sometimes spelled) comes from France, via Scotland, and is a corruption of “cadet.”

In France a cadet was a rich man’s younger son. Since the eldest son inherited the whole estate, any males born after him often joined the army, which gives us the military sense of cadet.

Eventually cadet came to mean someone who did lowly work, a “go-for” or errand boy – just the kind of person to serve another person who wants only to putter around.

Antarctica – The Iceberg Lagoon

Prashant Jadhav — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 19:37:24 +0000

Antarctica is 98% ice, 2% barren rock.

The average thickness of the ice sheet is 7,200 feet; this amounts to 90% of all the ice and 70% of all the fresh water in the world. If the ice cap were to melt, the sea level would rise by an average of 230 feet.

House of newspapers…

Prashant Jadhav — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 08:12:38 +0000

There is a house in Rockport Massachusetts, built entirely of newspapers. The Paper House at Pigeon Cove, as it is called, is made of 215 thicknesses of newspapers.

Read the full story…