25 Things You Wouldn’t Believe About These Countries
Depending upon your definition, and whether or not you count Taiwan, there are “approximately” 196 countries in the world as of this writing. So while you may consider yourself to be a knowledgeable global citizen, and we’re sure you are, given the dynamic and complex nature of our planet there are certain to be at least a couple facts on this list that you will find surprising. Here are 25 things that you wouldn’t believe about these countries.
25 Covers the most time zones – France
If you count everything, including overseas territories, then France claims the title by covering 12 time zones. The United States would be the runner-up with 11 and then Russia with 9.
24 Most likely to disappear beneath the waves – Maldives
With all the talks of global warming and rising sea levels, it is the residents of the Maldives that have the greatest reason to fear. With an average height of around 1.8 meters above sea level their nation is the lowest on Earth.
23 Most overweight population – Nauru
With over 95% of its population being overweight, the small island nation of Nauru is by far the fattest country on Earth. Its obesity epidemic is primarily attributed to the importation of western fast food that coincided with an increased standard of living in the 20th century due to the global popularity of its phosphate exports. It’s almost non sequitur.almost.
22 Roads made of coral – Guam
photo – theworldgeography.com Because Guam doesn’t have any natural sand, but rather coral, the island nation makes its asphalt using a mix of ground coral and oil rather than importing sand from abroad.
21 Has 350 sheep for every person – Falkland Islands (UK)
With only about 3,000 people the Falkland Islands are home to approximately half-a million-sheep. Not surprisingly wool is a major export.
20 Oldest sovereign state – Egypt
This largely depends upon your definition of a sovereign state but if you are going by first acquisition of sovereignty then Egypt would be the first country in the world to achieve sovereignty based upon the formation of the first dynasty in 3100 BC.
19 Most lakes in the world – Canada
With over 3 million lakes 9% of Canadian territory is actually fresh water and over 60% of all the lakes in the world are found within its borders.
18 Least likely place to meet your neighbour – Mongolia
photo – theatlantic.comAt 4 people per square mile Mongolia is the least densely populated country on Earth. Compare this to the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong that has the highest population density in the world with 340,000 people per square mile.
17 Largest number of tanks – Russia
It is a strange title to hold, but Russia has by far the most tanks of any army in the world (21,000). Unfortunately for the motherland most of these out-dated machines are tributes to its past, and although outnumbered (16,000), the United States has a much more advanced tank inventory.
16 The land of no rivers – Saudi Arabia
photo – americanbedu.comSounds a bit strange doesn’t it? For a country as big as Saudi Arabia there has to be at least some sort of flowing water. Well, there isn’t. Most of their fresh water comes from desalinization plants or underground reservoirs.
15 Youngest population of any country – Niger
Generally the world’s youngest country is determined by calculating the portion of the population that is younger than 15. Presently it is Niger that holds this distinction with roughly half of its population having barely reached puberty (49%).
14 Most diverse country in the world – India
In almost every category – culturally, economically, climatically, racially, linguistically, ethnically, and religiously India is either the most diverse countries in the world, or the runner-up.
13 Fastest disappearing nation – Ukraine
With a natural decrease in population of .8% annually, between now and 2050 Ukraine is expected to lose around 30% of its people.
12 Most of its citizens live abroad – Malta
After some rough economic times coupled with an increased birth rate, Malta experienced significant immigration. It was so significant that there are now more Maltese living abroad than within the country itself.
11 Smaller than Central Park in New York City – Monaco
Although Vatican City is smaller (.17 sq. mi) than Monaco (.8 sq. mi), unlike Monaco it doesn’t have any permanent residents which leaves Monaco as the smallest permanently inhabited nation in the world.s smaller than Central Park.
10 Almost entirely covered in jungle – Suriname
With 91% of its land covered in jungle Suriname‘s half-a-million residents live primarily along the coast near the capital. Only 5% of the population (mainly indigenous people) live inland.
9 Almost entirely treeless – Haiti
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Haiti, a country that has been so badly deforested that you can tell where it borders the Dominican Republic by looking at a satellite image (Haiti is on the left in the photo above).
Although there are a number of small nations in the world that show no hint of having an agriculture based economy, (take Vatican City for example) Singapore is the largest of these urban city-states.
Although English is its official language, only 1-2% of the population actually speak it.
As the most linguistically diverse country in the world, over 820 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea or 12% of the world’s total.
6 Most educated people – Canada
With 50% of its population having been educated at the post-secondary level, Canada easily has the most educated populace in the world. It is followed by Israel at 45% and Japan at 44%.
5 The “country desert” – Libya
With 99% of the country covered in desert Libya is one of the most arid places in the world and in some regions decades may go by without a single drop of rain.
4 Least peaceful nation in the world – Somalia
photo – latimes.comAlthough for the last three years Iraq has been ranked as the least peaceful country in the world, according to the Global Peace Index Somalia overtook it this year for the top spot.
3 Produces most of the world’s oxygen – Russia
Siberia is home to approximately 25% of the world’s forests that span an area larger than the continental United States, making Russia the largest converter of CO2 into breathable compounds.
2 World’s largest opium producer – Afghanistan
photo – Wikimedia Producing a whopping 95 per cent of the world’s opium, not even 10 years of occupation by American forces have slowed down the industry.
1 Most people behind bars – United States
When it comes to incarcerating its population, the United States is the world’s uncontested leader. With 2.2 million people behind bars it has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. China comes in second place at 1.5 million and Russia comes third at 870,000.
Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept away at least six(6) feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush..
Father Frias says mass in Lolo’s house regularly, in the Rustan’s stores, he blesses some Starbucks stores and recently blessed the first FamilyMart store in the Philippines 🙂 And in the blessing, my cousin Crickette told me that he is a “Ghostbuster.” Which confirmed what my Mom told me. She said that Fr. Frias can go to your house or to any place and he can send away the spirits and ghosts. That is if you believe in ghosts 🙂 Mom said that Fr. says they like hiding in spaces that are messy, in cabinets that are cluttered and not being opened, enclosed spaces that have no air circulation and in dark areas. But Father said that when he goes there and does his ghostbuster stunts, they all leave with him when he leaves. He told me that some religious people are against what he is doing but he said that God may has given him this gift and he is just using what gift he has – in fact he said he has been getting many calls that he wants to do this full time 🙂
How Famous Names (mostly connected to internet) came about…
BIRTH OF THE FAMOUS NAMES
STRANGE & NATURAL CIRCUMSTANCES CREATED THE FAMOUS NAMES
MERCEDES
This was actually the financier’s daughter’s name.
ADOBE
This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.
APPLE COMPUTERS
It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if his other colleagues didn’t suggest a better name by 5 O’clock that evening.
CISCO
It is not an acronym as popularly believed. It is short for San Francisco .
COMPAQThis name was formed by using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a small integral object.
COREL
The name was derived from the founder’s name Dr. Michael Cowpland.
It stands for COwpland Research Laboratory.
GOOGLE
The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search.
It was originally named ‘Googol’, a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros.
After founders- Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor,
they received a cheque made out to ‘Google’…thus the name.
HOTMAIL
Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world.
When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service,
he tried all kinds of names ending in ‘mail’ and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters “html” –
the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective uppercasing.
HEWLETT PACKARD
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded
would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
INTEL
Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company ” Moore Noyce”
but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
LOTUS (Notes)
Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from ‘The Lotus Position’ or ‘Padmasana’.
Kapoor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
MICROSOFT
Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware.
Originally christened Micro-Soft, the ‘-‘ was removed later on.
MOTOROLA
Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars.
The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.
ORACLE
Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).
The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such).
The project was designed to help use the newly written SQL code by IBM.
The project eventually was terminated but Larry and Bob decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world.
They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine. Later they kept the same name for the company.
SONY
It originated from the Latin word ‘sonus’ meaning sound, and ‘sonny’ a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.
YAHOO!
The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book ‘Gulliver’s Travels’.
It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human.
Yahoo! Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.
25 Things You Wouldn’t Believe About These Countries
Depending upon your definition, and whether or not you count Taiwan, there are “approximately” 196 countries in the world as of this writing.
So while you may consider yourself to be a knowledgeable global citizen, and we’re sure you are, given the dynamic and complex nature of our planet there are certain to be at least a couple facts on this list that you will find surprising. Here are 25 things that you wouldn’t believe about these countries
#25. Covers The Most Time Zones – France
If you count everything, including overseas territories, then France claims the title by covering 12 time zones. The United States would be the runner-up with 11 and then Russia with 9.
#24. Most Likely to Disappear Beneath The Waves – Maldives
With all the talks of global warming and rising sea levels, it is the residents of the Maldives that have the greatest reason to fear. With an average height of around 1.8 meters above sea level their nation is the lowest on Earth.
#23. Most Overweight Population – Nauru
With over 95% of its population being overweight, the small island nation of Nauru is by far the fattest country on Earth. Its obesity epidemic is primarily attributed to the importation of western fast food that coincided with an increased standard of living in the 20th century due to the global popularity of its phosphate exports. It’s almost non sequitur…almost.
#22. Roads Made Of Coral – Guam
Because Guam doesn’t have any natural sand, but rather coral, the island nation makes its asphalt using a mix of ground coral and oil rather than importing sand from abroad.
#21. Has 350 Sheep for Every Person – Falkand Islands (UK)
With only about 3,000 people the Falkland Islands are home to approximately half-a million-sheep. Not surprisingly wool is a major export.
#20. Oldest Sovereign State – Egypt
This largely depends upon your definition of a sovereign state but if you are going by first acquisition of sovereignty then Egypt would be the first country in the world to achieve sovereignty based upon the formation of the first dynasty in 3100 BC.
#19. Most Lakes In The World – Canada
With over 3 million lakes 9% of Canadian territory is actually fresh water and over 60% of all the lakes in the world are found within its borders.
#18. Least Likely Place To Meet Your Neighbour – Mongolia
At 4 people per square mile Mongolia is the least densely populated country on Earth. Compare this to the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong that has the highest population density in the world with 340,000 people per square mile.
#17. Largest Number of Tanks – Russia
It is a strange title to hold, but Russia has by far the most tanks of any army in the world (21,000). Unfortunately for the motherland most of these outdated machines are tributes to its past, and although outnumbered (16,000), the United States has a much more advanced tank inventory.
#16. The Land of No Rivers – Saudi Arabia
Sounds a bit strange doesn’t it? For a country as big as Saudi Arabia there has to be at least some sort of flowing water. Well, there isn’t. Most of their fresh water comes from desalinization plants or underground reservoirs.
#15. Youngest Population of Any Country – Niger
Generally the worlds youngest country is determined by calculating the portion of the population that is younger than 15. Presently it is Niger that holds this distinction with roughly half of its population having barely reached puberty (49%).
#14. Most Diverse Country In The World – India
In almost every category – culturally, economically, climatically, racially, linguistically, ethnically, and religiously India is either the most diverse country in the world, or the runner-up.
#13. Fastest Disappearing Nation – Ukraine
With a natural decrease in population of .8% annually, between now and 2050 Ukraine is expected to lose around 30% of its people.
#12. Most Of Its Citizens Live Abroad – Malta
After some rough economic times coupled with an increased birth rate, Malta experienced significant immigration. It was so significant that there are now more Maltese living abroad than within the country itself.
#11. Smaller Than Central Park in New York City – Monaco
Although Vatican City is smaller (.17 sq mi) than Monaco (.8 sq mi), unlike Monaco it doesn’t have any permanent residents which leaves Monaco as the smallest permanently inhabited nation in the world…smaller than Central Park.
#10. Almost Entirely Covered in Jungle – Suriname
With 91% of its land covered in jungle Suriname’s half-a-million residents live primarily along the coast near the capital. Only 5% of the population (mainly indigenous people) live inland.
#9. Almost Entirely Treeless – Haiti
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Haiti, a country that has been so badly deforested that you can tell where it borders the Dominican Republic by looking at a satellite image
(Haiti is on the left in the photo above).
#8. Largest Country With No Farms – Singapore
Although there are a number of small nations in the world that show no hint of having an agriculture based economy, (take Vatican City for example) Singapore is the largest of these urban city-states.
#7. Most Languages Spoken – Papua New Guinea
Although English is its official language, only 1-2% of the population actually speak it. As the most linguistically diverse country in the world, over 820 languages are spoken
in Papua New Guinea or 12% of the world’s total.
#6. Most Educated People – Canada
With 50% of its population having been educated at the post secondary level, Canada easily has the most educated populace in the world. It is followed by Israel at 45% and Japan at 44%.
#5. The “Country Desert” – Libya
With 99% of the country covered in desert Libya is one of the most arid places in the world and in some regions decades may go by without a single drop of rain.
#4. Least Peaceful Nation In The World – Somalia
Although for the last three years Iraq has been ranked as the least peaceful country in the world, according to the Global Peace Index Somalia overtook it this year for the top spot.
#3. Produces Most Of The World’s Oxygen – Russia
Siberia is home to approximately 25% of the world’s forests that span an area larger than the continental United States, making Russia the largest converter of CO2 into breathable compounds.
#2. World’s Largest Opium Producer – Afghanistan
Producing a whopping 95 percent of the world’s opium, not even 10 years of occupation by American forces have slowed down the industry.
#1. Most People Behind Bars – United States
When it comes to incarcerating its population, the United States is the world’s uncontested leader. With 2.2 million people behind bars it has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. China comes in second place at 1.5 million and Russia comes third at 870,000.
Specially those employ domestics, please take a moment to read this new law which takes effect next week. DOLE (Department of Labor) now has jurisdiction over the employer-employee relationship between you and your domestic. DOLE labor arbiters are notoriously pro-labor so it would be prudent for neighbors to be familiar with this new law.
Note that the usual 20% first month salary deduction which is paid to the employment agency and is more or less standard in all contracts for domestics is now prohibited by Section 13 of this law.
The Philippines’ pioneering progressive school for women, Assumption College invites female senior high school students to the Assumption College Open House Part 2, on January 26, 2013, Saturday, from 7am to 2pm.
This annual event allows interested enrollees to learn more about the institution, and its academic programs and facilities. Participants will also be given the chance to take the Assumption College Admissions Test (ACAT) for free, with test results to be released on the same day.
The school will also offer campus tours and exhibits for the applicants, and their family and friends. Students will share how their AC education has helped them shape their success. An orientation session with school administrators and members of faculty will be held simultaneously for parents.
To keep guests entertained while waiting for the release of admissions test results, Assumption College will treat them to a free concert featuring Silent Sanctuary and other guest performers.
Last year’s Open House event successfully gathered a crowd of over 900 female high school seniors from nearly 300 high schools nationwide, as well as their families and friends.
Assumption College provides pre-schoolto graduate level education and is ranked by CHED to be among the top 10 colleges/universities in the country. A charter member of the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities, it has earned Level III accreditation on all of its respective departments and schools.
Register for the Assumption College Open House now by calling the mobile number 0927-9662341, or getting in touch with the Admissions Office at 817-7773 ; 810-5083 ; 817-0757 loc 2050. Interested students may also send an email reserving their slot to admissions@assumption.edu.ph or ac_admissions@yahoo.com.
For more information about Assumption College, visit its website at www.assumption.edu.ph.
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