Beautiful and Magical Earth "skin"

Polish photographer Marcin Sacha is not just a scenery photographer, but is also an impressionist painting doctrine photographer.
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This set of works was called "Earth’s skin" and I hope that you like it as much as I did.
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For me it was interesting to see how he takes a composition, which any of us could have seen and shows it to us through his own interpretation. 
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What did he add to the photos he took?
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What gives us the feeling we have when we look at his work?
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Have a look at the link below.


Beautiful and Magical Earth "skin" | Photography ES

Monsanto and its Seed mission

He who controls the seed controls the food supply.
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And he who controls the food supply controls the world. 
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There is no question that Monsanto is on a mission to monopolize the conventional seed market. 
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In fact, they are steadfastly working towards the goal of creating a world where 100% of all commercial seeds are genetically modified and patented - basically a world where natural seeds are extinct.
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Unfortunately for the global community Monsanto is accomplishing their purpose. 
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They currently own 90% of the world's patents for GMO seed including cotton, soybeans, corn, sugar beets and canola. 
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Yep, the creators of chemicals that will go down in history for their toxicity and horrific side effects, is attempting to take over the world's seed supply.
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Ask yourself- do you really want companies such as BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Syngenta, and Dow involved with your food? 
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Sadly, to a large extent they already are. 
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These Monsanto chemical and GMO cronies all share genetically engineered traits and create the patented herbicides and pesticides that GMO crops require to thrive.
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Monsanto is infamous for taking advantage of small farmers, and with the advent of MoU's they are doing so with governmental license. 
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Countries like India, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand have all executed MoU's with Monsanto. 
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MoU's or memorandum's of understanding permit Monsanto to use publicly owned lands to create so called demonstration farms (GMO breeding camps) which in turn - at least in the case of Rajasthan - are subsidized by the government.
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Monsanto literally takes farmer seeds, creates genetically engineered copycat versions, and then retains all intellectual property rights. 
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Dr. Vandana Shiva, Executive Director of the Navdanya Trust, an Indian organization committed to organic biodiversity, states that "the MoU's will in effect, facilitate bio-piracy of Rajasthan's rich biodiversity of draught - resilient crops .... 
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By failing to have any clauses that respect the Biodiversity Act and the Farmers' Rights Act, the MoU's promote bio-piracy and legalize the great seed robbery.
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It is common knowledge that GMO seeds are much worse than conventional ones. 
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As with all of their agreements, Monsanto shields itself from any liability- so when the Monsanto's promises of higher yields with less work ring hollow.
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When farmers crops fail, or when mass suicides are committed because of crop failure and spirit crushing debt - Monsanto presses on with no worries. 
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Farmers that sign up for Monsanto's seeds of destruction find themselves hooked. 
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Year after year, no matter what prices are being charged, they are dependent on GMO seeds for new crops because GMO seeds - the bastardized versions they are - don't regenerate. 
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Monsanto has no qualms about robbing farmers that don't play poker with them. 
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As a mater of fact; it makes a business of it.
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Conventional and organic farmers in both Canada and the U.S., who have the misfortune of having lands that border GMO farms, often end up with trace contamination in their crops, making them (if organic), unsuitable for sale. 
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Monsanto actually uses this situation against farmers and files patent infringement claims that they often win.
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The result farm owners are left with exorbitant legal bills and fines often forcing them to shut down: clearing away Monsanto competition. 
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In a savvy move for survival, a preemptive suit on behalf of almost 300,000 plaintiffs seeking legal safe harbor, has been filed in New York. 
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Monsanto's product has changed from poison to food, but it has held true to its history of violating the rights and health of people around the globe. 
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Monsanto is a 100% committed to the sale of their seeds of destruction no matter what it takes: bullying, infiltration of high government offices with company friendly individuals, or intimidation. 
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The organic movement has taken up the standard against Monsanto's machinations in court as well as through grass-roots education and activist efforts. 
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The organic revolution is Monsanto's Achilles heel, and its goal is a world without Monsanto.
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Natural News

Monsanto

Monsanto attacks labelling, local democracy, and news coverage
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On July 3, 2003, Monsanto sued Oakhurst dairy because their labels stated, "Our Farmers' Pledge: No Artificial Growth Hormones." 
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Oakhurst eventually settled with Monsanto, agreeing to include a sentence on their cartons saying that according to the FDA no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbGH-treated and non-rbGH-treated cows. 
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The statement is not true.
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FDA scientists had acknowledged the increase of IGF-1, bovine growth hormone, antibiotics, and pus, in milk from treated cows. 
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Nonetheless, the misleading sentence had been written years earlier by the FDA's deputy commissioner of policy, Michael Taylor, the one who was formerly Monsanto's outside attorney and later their vice president.
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Monsanto's public relations firm created a group called the Dairy Coalition, which pressured editors of the USA Today,Boston Globe,New York Times and others, to limit negative coverage of rbGH.
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A Monsanto attorney wrote a letter to Fox TV, promising dire consequences if the station aired a four-part exposé on rbGH. 
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The show was ultimately cancelled.
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A book critical of Monsanto's GM foods was three days away from being published. 
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A threatening letter from Monsanto's attorney forced the small publisher to cancel publication.
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14,000 copies of Ecologist magazine dedicated to exposing Monsanto were shredded by the printer due to fears of a lawsuit
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After a ballot initiative in California established Mendocino County as a GM-free zone -- where planting GMOs is illegal. 
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Monsanto and others organized to push through laws in 14 states that make it illegal for cities and counties to declare similar zones.
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Monsanto's promises of riches come up short
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Biotech advocates have wooed politicians, claiming that their new technology is the path to riches for their city, state, or nation. 
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This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable, said Joseph Cortright, an Oregon economist who co-wrote a report on the subject. 
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This is a bad-idea virus  that has swept through governors, mayors and economic development officials.
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Indeed,The Wall Street Journal observed, Not only has the biotech industry yielded negative financial returns for decades, it generally digs its hole deeper every year. 
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The Associated Press says it "remains a money-losing, niche industry."
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Nowhere in the biotech world is the bad-idea virus more toxic than in its application to GM plants.
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Not only does the technology under-deliver, it consistently burdens governments and entire sectors with losses and problems.
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Under the first Bush administration, for example, the White House's elite Council on Competitiveness chose to fast track GM food in hopes that it would strengthen the economy and make American products more competitive overseas. 
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The opposite ensued. 
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US corn exports to Europe were virtually eliminated, down by 99.4 percent. 
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The American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) calculated that the introduction of GM corn caused a drop in corn prices by 13 to 20 percent.
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Their CEO said, The ACGA believes an explanation is owed to the thousands of American farmers who were told to trust this technology, yet now see their prices fall to historically low levels while other countries exploit US vulnerability and pick off our export customers one by one. 
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US soy sales also plummeted due to GM content.
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According to Charles Benbrook, PhD, former executive director of the National Academy of Sciences' Board on Agriculture, the closed markets and slashed prices forced the federal government to pay an additional $3 to $5 billion every year. 
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He says growers have only been kept afloat by the huge jump in subsidies.
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Instead of withdrawing support for failed GM crops, the US government has been convinced by Monsanto and others that the key to success is to force open foreign markets to GMOs. 
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But many nations are also reeling under the false promise of GMOs.
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Canola crashes on GM
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When Canada became the only major producer to adopt GM canola in 1996, it led to a disaster. 
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The premium-paying EU market, which took about one-third of Canada's canola exports in 1994 and one-fourth in 1995, stopped all imports from Canada by 1998. 
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The GM canola was diverted to the low-priced Chinese market. 
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Not only did Canadian canola prices fall to a record low.
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Canada even lost their EU honey exports due to the GM pollen contamination.
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Australia benefited significantly from Canada's folly. 
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By 2006, the EU was buying 38 percent of Australia's canola exports. 
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Nonetheless, Monsanto's people in Australia claimed that GM canola was the way to get more competitive.
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They told farmers that Roundup Ready canola would yield up to 30 percent more.
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But when an investigator looked at the best trial yields on Monsanto's web site, it was 17 percent below the national average canola yield. 
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When that was publicized, the figures quickly disappeared from the Monsanto's site. 
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Two Aussie states did allow GM canola and sure enough, they are suffering from loss of foreign markets
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In Australia and elsewhere, the non-GMO farmers also suffer. 
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Market prices drop, and farmers spend more to set up segregation systems, GMO testing, buffer zones, and separate storage and shipping channels to try to hold onto non-GMO markets. 
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Even then, they risk contamination and lost premiums.
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GM farmers don't earn or produce more
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Monsanto has been quite successful in convincing farmers that GM crops are the ticket to greater yields and higher profits. 
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You still hear that rhetoric at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 
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But a 2006 USDA report "could not find positive financial impacts in either the field-level nor the whole-farm analysis" for adoption of Bt corn and Roundup Ready soybeans. 
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They said, Perhaps the biggest issue raised by these results is how to explain the rapid adoption of [GM] crops when farm financial impacts appear to be mixed or even negative.
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Similarly, the Canadian National Farmers Union (NFU) flatly states, 
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The claim that GM seeds make our farms more profitable is false. 
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Net farm incomes in Canada plummeted since the introduction of GM canola, with the last five years being the worst in Canada's history.
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In spite of numerous advertising claims that GM crops increase yield, the average GM crop from Monsanto reduces yield. 
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This was confirmed by the most comprehensive evaluation on the subject, conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2009. 
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Called Failure to Yield, the report demonstrated that in spite of years of trying, GM crops return fewer bushels than their non-GM counterparts. 
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Even the 2006 USDA report stated that "currently available GM crops do not increase the yield potential of a hybrid variety. . . . 
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In fact, yield may even decrease if the varieties used to carry the herbicide tolerant or insect-resistant genes are not the highest yielding cultivars.
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US farmers had expected higher yields with Roundup Ready soybeans, but independent studies confirm a yield loss of 4 to 11percent. 
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Brazilian soybean yields are also down since Roundup Ready varieties were introduced. 
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In Canada, a study showed a 7.5 percent lower yield with Roundup Ready canola.
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The Canadian National Farmers Union (NFU) observed, Corporate and government managers have spent millions trying to convince farmers and other citizens of the benefits of genetically-modified (GM) crops. 
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But this huge public relations effort has failed to obscure the truth:
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GM crops do not deliver the promised benefits; they create numerous problems, costs, and risks. . . . 
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It would be too generous even to call GM crops a solution in search of a problem: 
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These crops have failed to provide significant solutions.
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Herbicide use rising due to GMOs
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Monsanto bragged that their Roundup Ready technology would reduce herbicide, but at the same time they were building new Roundup factories to meet their anticipated increase in demand. 
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They got it.
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According to USDA data, the amount of herbicide used in the US increased by 382.6 million pounds over 13 years. 
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Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans accounted for 92 percent of the total increase. 
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Due to the proliferation of Roundup resistant weeds, herbicide use is accelerating rapidly. 
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From 2007 to 2008, herbicide used on GM herbicide tolerant crops skyrocketed by 31.4 percent.
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Furthermore, as weeds fail to respond to Roundup, farmers also rely on more toxic pesticides such as the highly poisonous 2,4-D.
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Contamination happens
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In spite of Monsanto's assurances that it wouldn't be a problem, contamination has been a consistent and often overwhelming hardship for seed dealers, farmers, manufacturers, even entire food sectors. 
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The biotech industry recommends buffer zones between fields, but these have not been competent to protect non-GM, organic, or wild plants from GMOs.
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A UK study showed canola cross-pollination occurring as far as 26 km away
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But pollination is just one of several ways that contamination happens. 
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There is also seed movement by weather and insects, crop mixing during harvest, transport, and storage, and very often, human error. 
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The contamination is North America is so great, it is difficult for farmers to secure pure non-GM seed. 
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In Canada, a study found 32 of 33 certified non-GM canola seeds were contaminated
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Most of the non-GM soy, corn, and canola seeds tested in the US also contained GMOs.
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Contamination can be very expensive. 
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StarLink corn -- unapproved for human consumption-- ended up the US food supply in 2000 and resulted in an estimated price tag of $1 billion. 
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The final cost of GM rice contamination in the US in 2006 could be even higher.
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Deadly deception in India
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Monsanto ran a poster series called, "True stories of farmers who have sown Bt cotton." 
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One featured a farmer who claimed great benefits, but when investigators tracked him down, he turned out to be a cigarette salesman, not a farmer. 
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Another poster claimed yields by the pictured farmer that were four times what he actually achieved. 
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One poster showed a farmer standing next to a tractor, suggesting that sales of Bt cotton allowed him to buy it. 
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But the farmer was never told what the photo was to be used for, and said that with the yields from Bt, "I would not be able to buy even two tractor tires."
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In addition to posters, Monsanto's cotton marketers used dancing girls, famous Bollywood actors, even religious leaders to pitch their products. 
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Some newspaper ads looked like a news stories and featured relatives of seed salesmen claiming to be happy with Bt. 
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Sometimes free pesticides were given away with the seeds, and some farmers who helped with publicity got free seeds.
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Scientists published a study claiming that Monsanto's cotton increased yields in India by 70 to 80 percent. 
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But they used only field trial data provided to them by Monsanto. 
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Actual yields turn out to be quite different:
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India News reported studies showing a loss of about 18 percent.
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An independent study in Andhra Pradesh "done on [a] season-long basis continuously for three years in 87 villages" showed that growing Bt cotton cost 12 percent more, yielded 8.3 percent less, and the returns over three years were 60 percent less
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Another report identified a yield loss in the Warangal district of 30 to 60 percent. 
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The official report, however, was tampered with. 
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The local Deputy Director of Agriculture confirmed on Feb. 1, 2005 that the yield figures had been secretly increased to 2.7 times higher than what farms reported. 
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Once the state of Andhra Pradesh tallied all the actual yields, they demanded approximately $10 million US$ from Monsanto to compensate farmers for losses. 
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Monsanto refused.
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In sharp contrast to the independent research done by agronomists, Monsanto commissioned studies to be done by market research agencies. 
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One, for example, claimed four times the actual reduction in pesticide use, 12 times the actual yield, and 100 times the actual profit.
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In Andhra Pradesh, where 71 percent of farmers who used Bt cotton ended up with financial losses, farmers attacked the seed dealer's office and even "tied up Mahyco Monsanto representatives in their villages," until the police rescued them.
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In spite of great losses and unreliable yields, Monsanto has skilfully eliminated the availability of non-GM cotton seeds in many regions throughout India, forcing farmers to buy their varieties.
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Farmers borrow heavily and at high interest rates to pay four times the price for the GM varieties, along with the chemicals needed to grow them. 
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When Bt cotton performs poorly and can't even pay back the debt, desperate farmers resort to suicide often drinking unused pesticides. 
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In one region, more than three Bt cotton farmers take their own lives each day. 
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The UK Daily Mail estimates that the total number of Bt cotton-related suicides in India is a staggering 125,000.
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Natural News

Cows produce human milk

Genetically modified cows produce 'human' milk.
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Scientists have created genetically modified cattle that produce "human" milk in a bid to make cows' milk more nutritious.
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Researchers say they are able to create cows that produce milk containing a human protein called lysozyme 
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The scientists have successfully introduced human genes into 300 dairy cows to produce milk with the same properties as human breast milk.
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Human milk contains high quantities of key nutrients that can help to boost the immune system of babies and reduce the risk of infections.
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The scientists behind the research believe milk from herds of genetically modified cows could provide an alternative to human breast milk and formula milk for babies, which is often criticised as being an inferior substitute.
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They hope genetically modified dairy products from herds of similar cows could be sold in supermarkets. 
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The research has the backing of a major biotechnology company.
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The work is likely to inflame opposition to GM foods. 
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Critics of the technology and animal welfare groups reacted angrily to the research, questioning the safety of milk from genetically modified animals and its effect on the cattle's health.
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But Professor Ning Li, the scientist who led the research and director of the State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at the China Agricultural University insisted that the GM milk would be as safe to drink as milk from ordinary dairy cows.
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The milk tastes stronger than normal milk.
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We aim to commercialize some research in this area in coming three years. 
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For the “human-like milk”, 10 years or maybe more time will be required to finally pour this enhanced milk into the consumer’s cup.”
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China is now leading the way in research on genetically modified food and the rules on the technology are more relaxed than those in place in Europe.
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The researchers used cloning technology to introduce human genes into the DNA of Holstein dairy cows before the genetically modified embryos were implanted into surrogate cows.
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Writing in the scientific peer-reviewed journal Public Library of Science One, the researchers said they were able to create cows that produced milk containing a human protein called lysozyme,
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Lysozyme is an antimicrobial protein naturally found in large quantities in human breast milk. 
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It helps to protect infants from bacterial infections during their early days of life.
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They created cows that produce another protein from human milk called lactoferrin, which helps to boost the numbers of immune cells in babies. 
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A third human milk protein called alpha-lactalbumin was also produced by the cows.
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The scientists also revealed at an exhibition at the China Agricultural University that they have boosted milk fat content by around 20 per cent and have also changed the levels of milk solids, making it closer to the composition of human milk as well as having the same immune-boosting properties.
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Professor Li and his colleagues, who have been working with the Beijing GenProtein Biotechnology Company, said their work has shown it was possible to "humanise" cows milk.
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In all, the scientists said they have produced a herd of around 300 cows that are able to produce human-like milk.
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The transgenic animals are physically identical to ordinary cows.
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Writing in the journal, Professor Li said: "Our study describes transgenic cattle whose milk offers the similar nutritional benefits as human milk.
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The modified bovine milk is a possible substitute for human milk. 
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It fulfilled the conception of humanising the bovine milk.
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The “human-like milk” would provide “much higher nutritional content”. 
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He said they had managed to produce three generations of GM cows but for commercial production there would need to be large numbers of cows produced.
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He said: “Human milk contains the ‘just right’ proportions of protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins for an infant’s optimal growth and development.
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As our daily food, the cow’s milk provided us the basic source of nutrition. 
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But the digestion and absorption problems made it not the perfect food for human being.
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The researchers also insist having antimicrobial proteins in the cows milk can also be good for the animals by helping to reduce infections of their udders.
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Genetically modified food has become a highly controversial subject and currently they can only be sold in the UK and Europe if they have passed extensive safety testing.
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The consumer response to GM food has also been highly negative, resulting in many supermarkets seeking to source products that are GM free.
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Campaigners claim GM technology poses a threat to the environment as genes from modified plants can get into wild plant populations and weeds.
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While they also believe there are doubts about the safety of such foods.
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Scientists insist genetically modified foods are unlikely to pose a threat to food safety and in the United States consumers have been eating genetically modified foods for more decades.
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However, during two experiments by the Chinese researchers, which resulted in 42 transgenic calves being born, just 26 of the animals survived after ten died shortly after birth, most with gastrointestinal disease, and a further six died within six months of birth.
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Researchers accept that the cloning technology used in genetic modification can affect the development and survival of cloned animals, although the reason why is not well understood.
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A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals said the organisation was "extremely concerned" about how the GM cows had been produced.
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She said: "Offspring of cloned animals often suffer health and welfare problems, so this would be a grave concern.
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Why do we need this milk – what is it giving us that we haven't already got.
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Helen Wallace, director of biotechnology monitoring group GeneWatch UK, said: "We have major concerns about this research to genetically modify cows with human genes.
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There are major welfare issues with genetically modified animals as you get high numbers of still births.
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There is a question about whether milk from these cows is going to be safe from humans and it is really hard to tell that unless you do large clinical trials like you would a drug, so there will be uncertainty about whether it could be harmful to some people.
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Ethically there are issues about mass producing animals in this way.
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Professor Keith Campbell, a biologist at the University of Nottingham works with transgenic animals, said: "Genetically modified animals and plants are not going to be harmful unless you deliberately put in a gene that is going to be poisonous. 
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Why would anyone do that in a food?
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Genetically modified food, if done correctly, can provide huge benefit for consumers in terms of producing better products.
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Richard Gray.
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The last three sentences are for myself simply not true.
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We do not know all the effects of any GM modified plant or animal yet.......... over time.
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Simply stated for myself no GM modified anything should be on the commercial market until years of testing have been done.
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This is simply irresponsible.
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Unless this is only about making money.
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Why would any responsible scientist put fellow humans at risk?
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Scientists in this area are taking unreasonable risks with us and our planet.
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Unfortunately as is so often the case we will only know after disaster has struck..
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Then all the spin in the world won't help those it affects.

Human things - 2

Though it is forbidden by the Government, many Indians still adhere to the caste system which says that it is a defilement for even the shadow of a person from a lowly caste to fall on a Brahman ( a member of the highest priestly caste).

In parts of Malaya, until very recently, and who knows even now the women keep harems of men.

The childrens' nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses' actually refers to the Black Death which killed about 30 million people in the fourteenth-century.

The word 'denim' comes from 'de Nimes', Nimes being the town the fabric was originally produced.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax put on men's beards.

Idi Amin, one of the most ruthless tyrants in the world, before coming to power, served in the British Army.

Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.

It is illegal to play tennis in the streets of Cambridge.

Custer was the youngest General in US history, he was promoted at the age of 23.

It costs more to send someone to reform school than it does to send them to Eton.

The American pilot Charles Lindbergh received the Service Cross of the German Eagle form Hermann Goering in 1938.

The active ingredient in Chinese Bird's nest soup is saliva.

Marie Currie, who twice won the Nobel Prize, and discovered radium, was not allowed to become a member of the prestigious French Academy because she was a woman.

It was quite common for the men of Ancient Greece to exercise in public .. naked.

John Paul Getty, once the richest man in the world, had a payphone in his mansion.

Iceland is the world's oldest functioning democracy.

Adolf Eichmann (responsible for countless Jewish deaths during World war II), was originally a travelling salesman for the Vacuum Oil Co. of Austria.

The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Matami Tribe of West Africa play a version of football, the only difference being that they use a human skull instead of a more normal ball.

John Winthrop introduced the fork to the American dinner table for the first time on 25 June 1630.

Elizabeth Blackwell, born in Bristol, England on 3 February 1821, was the first woman in America to gain an M.D. degree.

Abraham Lincoln was shot with a Derringer.

The great Russian leader, Lenin died 21 January 1924, suffering from a degenerative brain disorder. At the time of his death his brain was a quarter of its normal size.

When shipped to the US, the London bridge ( thought by the new owner to be the more famous Tower Bridge ) was classified by US customs to be a 'large antique'.

Sir Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' cloakroom after his mother went into labour during a dance at Blenheim Palace.

In 1849, David Atchison became President of the United States for just one day, and he spent most of the day sleeping.

Between the two World War's, France was controlled by forty different governments.

The 'Crystal Palace' at the Great Exhibition of 1851, contained 92 900 square metres of glass.

It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on their testicles when taking an oath. 

The modern term 'testimony' is derived from this tradition.

Sir Winston Churchill's mother was descended from a Red Indian.

The study of stupidity is called 'monology'.

Hindu men believe(d) it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marring a tree first. The tree ( his third wife ) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again.

More money is spent each year on alcohol and cigarettes than on Life insurance.

In 1911 3 men were hung for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry at Greenbury Hill, their last names were Green, Berry , and Hill.

A firm in Britain sold fall-out shelters for pets.

During the seventeen century , the Sultan of Turkey ordered his entire harem of women drowned, and replace with a new one.

Lady Astor once told Winston Churchill 'if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee'. His reply …' if you were my wife, I would drink it ! '.

There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.

The Great Pyramid of Giza consists of 2,300,000 blocks each weighing 2.5 tons.

On 9 February 1942, soap rationing began in Britain.

Paul Revere was a dentist.

The Budget speech on April 17 1956 saw the introduction of Premium Savings Bonds into Britain. The machine which picks the winning numbers is called "Ernie", an abbreviation, which stands for' electronic random number indicator equipment'.

Chop-suey is not a native Chinese dish, it was created in California by Chinese immigrants.

The Russian mystic, Rasputin, was the victim of a series of murder attempts on this day in 1916. The assassins poisoned, shot and stabbed him in quick succession, but they found they were unable to finish him off. Rasputin finally succumbed to the ice-cold waters of a river.

Bonnie Prince Charlie, the leader of the Jacobite rebellion to depose of George II of England, was born 31 December 1720. Considered a great Scottish hero, he spent his final years as a drunkard in Rome.

The Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone, was born of the 29th December 1809. Apparently, as a result of his strong Puritan impulses, Gladstone kept a selection of whips in his cellar with which he regularly chastised himself.

A parthenophobic has a fear of virgins.

South American gauchos were known to put raw steak under their saddles before starting a day's riding, in order to tenderise the meat.

There are 240 white dots in a Pacman arcade game.

In 1939 the US political party 'The American Nazi Party' had 200,000 members.

King Solomon of Israel had about 700 wives as well as hundreds of mistresses.

Urine was once used to wash clothes.

North American Indian, Sitting Bull, died on 15 December 1890. His bones were laid to rest in North Dakota, but a business group wanted him moved to a 'more natural' site in South Dakota. Their campaign was rejected so they stole the bones, and they now reside in Sitting Bull Park, South Dakota.

St Nicholas, the original Father Christmas, is the patron saint of thieves, virgins and communist Russia.

Dublin is home of the Fairy Investigation Society.

Fourteen million people were killed in World War I, twenty million died in a flu epidemic in the years that followed.

People in Siberia often buy milk frozen on a stick.

Princess Ann was the only competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics that did not have to undergo a sex test.

Ethelred the Unready, King of England in the Tenth-century, spent his wedding night in bed with his wife and his mother-in-law.

Coffins which are due for cremation are usually made with plastic handles.

Blackbird, who was the chief of Omaha Indians, was buried sitting on his favourite horse.

The two highest IQ's ever recorded (on a standard test) both belong to women.

The Tory Prime Minister, Benjamin Disreali, was born 21 December 1804. He was noted for his oratory and had a number of memorable exchanges in the House with his great rival William Gladstone. Asked what the difference between a calamity and a misfortune was Disreali replied: 'If Gladstone fell into the Thames it would be a misfortune, but if someone pulled him out again, it would be a calamity'.

The Imperial Throne of Japan has been occupied by the same family for the last thirteen hundred years.

In the seventeenth-century a Boston man was sentenced to two hours in the stocks for obscene behaviour, his crime, kissing his wife in a public place on a Sunday.

President Kaunda of Zambia once threatened to resign if his fellow countrymen didn't stop drinking so much alcohol.

Due to staggering inflation in the 1920's, 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 German marks were worth 1 US dollar.

Gorgias of Epirus was born during preparation of  his mothers funeral.

The city of New York contains a district called 'Hell's Kitchen'.

The city of Hiroshima left the Industrial Promotion Centre standing as a monument the atomic bombing.

During the Medieval Crusades, transporting bodies off the battlefield for burial was a major problem, this was solved by carrying a huge cauldron into the Holy wars, boiling down the bodies, and taking only the bones with them.

A ten-gallon hat holds three-quarters of a gallon.

George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.