J.D. Salinger Facts

J.D. Salinger, short for Jerome David Salinger, a famous American novelist and short story writer, was born in 1919 in a prosperous Jewish family. Salinger completed his early schools and was then sent to Valley Forge Military Academy from 1934-1936. While he was attending NYU and Columbia University, he started submitting short stories for publication. His stories were usually published in various periodicals like Saturday Evening Post and Story. However, after being rejected many times, Salinger got the first chance to get his story published with the New Yorker in 1948 and he wrote for the publication till 1965. Salinger has written numerous interesting and popular stories, the most popular one being his novel 'The Catcher in the Rye (1951)'.

Some interesting facts from Salinger's life:

- Salinger's book 'The Cather in the Rye' talks about troubled teenager after he has been expelled from school. 'The Catcher in the Rye' was a censored book and also, on the contrary, among the most taught books of the 20th century.

- John Lennon's killer Mark Chapman had copy with him when he assassinated John Lennon.

- When book became bestseller Salinger retired to his cabin in the woods separated from the rest of the world. There he spent most of his life. He died January 27, 2010 at the age of 91. He never published another book, but he continued writing for his own pleasure.

- Salinger had left Austria just one month prior to when the country fell under Hitler's rule. However, his father had always wanted to join him as a meat importer for which he had sent Salinger to Austria.

- Salinger had also served the country army during World War II and was one of the first American soldiers who had entered a liberated concentration camp.

- Salinger has been, many a times, changing to a Zen Buddhist, to a Christian Scientist, and to a Scientologist.

- Was married, but extremely controlling forcing his wife and kids to live in solitude, separated from humanity and civilization.

Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

View the original article here

Interesting Facts about Tornado

Tornado is a violent storm commonly known as a twister that brings destruction to people and property. Tornadoes mostly hit the United States of America although they might come anytime and anywhere. Tornadoes are high speed winds that hit the place generally in the months of March to May. The speed and size of the tornado can vary to any extent. Tornadoes are generally accompanied with thunderstorms. Some common signs of tornadoes are dark, blackish green sky, hailstorm and loud sounds like that of a yelling train etc.

The main reason of occurrence of a tornado is the meeting of warm air that rises up the ground with the cool air that rushes down to descend. A tornado may rotate either in clockwise or anticlockwise direction. The speed of rotation of this funnel shaped tornado is so high that it destroys everything that comes in its way. The strength of a tornado is so high that it can uproot trees, blow the roofs of the buildings or even crumple down buildings to ashes. The color of a tornado depends upon two factors the surroundings and the time of the day. The tornado is a noisy wind; the sound of which can be either high or low depending upon the obstructions in the way.

It has been recorded that almost eight hundred to one thousand tornadoes hit America every year killing 80 people and injuring around fifteen hundred. Other tornado prone areas are south of Canada, south of Africa, some regions of Australia, New Zealand and Asia. "Tri-state" tornado that hit United States of America in March 18, 1925 was the deadliest tornado and tornado in Oklahoma in 1999 was the most destructive tornado known to men. Interesting fact about tornado is that some people survived being in the middle of tornado.

Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

Comment this fact. We value your opinion! Your e–mail address won’t be published. Comments will be deleted if they are offensive and make no sense. You can register your own profile avatar photo at Gravatar.com.

View the original article here

Oldest Tree Facts

Oldest Tree Facts

Trees are something that can staggeringly grow to old ages. They can live much longer than any other animal or plant. As a matter of fact, many trees attain implausible longevity for a number of exclusive potentials. Some of these capabilities include the potential to replace lost or damaged organs, a sectored vascular system that helps some portions of the tree to stay alive irrespective of the fact that whether the rest of the tree is alive or not. Another reason for the long life of some trees is their potential to produce a clone shoot whereby an accessible shoot can generate a heritable indistinguishable offshoot. In Sweeden there is a Christmas tree, also known as a Yule tree which has root system that has been growing for 9,550 years (sometime around the end of the Ice Age). The actual offshoot of the tree is only 600 years old.

Trees are really intriguing and very interesting organisms. The oldest living-standing tree on earth is a bristlecone pine that is found in California, North America, and is believed to be over 4600 years old. Exact location of the tree is hidden since its old buddy "Prometheus" was cut down for "research" purposes. The age of the tree can be counted by counting the rings in its trunk.

Some more trees that possess a long life are mentioned below:

Prometheus
This tree, when cut, was approximately 4862-5000 years old. The tree was situated on the Wheeler Peak and was cut by a graduate student for the sheer purpose of his research.

Methuselah
This tree is believed to belong to Pinus longaeva species of trees. This species is known for its enduring life.

Sarv-e-Abarqu
This tree belongs to the Cypress species of trees and is generally found in different countries of Asia, America, Australia, and Europe.

Llangernyw Yew
This tree belongs to the Common yew specifies of trees and is found in Western, central, and southern Europe along with Asia and Africa

Roots of this tree in Sweden date back to Ice Age.

Bristlecove tree 4600 years old.

Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

View the original article here

Solved a Century Old Problem

Solved a Century Old Problem

Poincare conjecture is one of the mathematical theorems that has been demonstrated recently passably to the point that it can be taken as a full theorem. You can find various definitions for Poincare Conjecture on different websites. For example, according to Wikipedia "In mathematics, the Poincare conjecture (French, ) is a theorem about the characterization of the three-dimensional sphere among three-dimensional manifolds."
Poincare conjecture has been one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems and above all, this is the first ever and only Millennium Prize Problem that has been solved. The Poincare Conjecture states that if a compact 3-D manifold has no boundary and is simply connected, then it is said to be homeomorphic to a 3-D sphere. This conjecture is believed to have been formulated in 1904 by Henri Poincare, a French mathematician, as an elemental for achieving a perceptive of three dimensional shapes, 3-D sphere being the simplest one.

This conjecture was recently provided with a breakthrough proof by numerous new elements introduced by Perelman. He gained complete perceptive of singularity formation in Ricci flow, in addition to the manner of collapsing of the parts of a shape onto lower-dimensional spaces. He solved the problem by introducing entropy as a new quantity. This entropy measures the disorder in the space's global geometry instead of measuring the disarray at the atomic level. Besides, he also pioneered a related local quantity, the L-functional, which was used that proved that the time between the configuration of singularities could not become smaller and smaller.
Perelman has enriched mathematics by deploy his new ideas and methods with utmost technicalities and describing the obtained results with elegant succinctness.

The interesting fact is that Grigory Perelman declined the prize of one million dollars which comes with the Fields medal which is equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics. Perelman is currently unemployed living with his mom in a small apartment near St. Petersburg. Interfax, a Russian news agency, quoted him as saying. "To put it short," he said, "the main reason is my disagreement with the organized mathematical community. I don't like their decisions; I consider them unjust."

Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

View the original article here

Sputnik 1 Facts

Sputnik 1 Facts

The Sputnik Program, more commonly known as ‘companion’, is known to be a group of numerous robotic spacecraft operations launched by the Soviet Union. Sputnik 1, the first of these, is the first known human made object to enter the space. Sputnik 1 was launched into the space on October 4, 1957. The launch laid bare the expediency of the usage of artificial sites for the exploration of upper atmosphere.

The word ‘sputnik’ is said to have Russian origin with the literal meaning ‘co-traveler’, ‘satellite’, or ‘travelling companion’. Sputnik 1, when launched, featured a diameter measuring 58cm (23”) and a weight of 83.6 kg (183 lb.). It took about 96 minutes to complete each of the 1440 elliptical orbits.

The launch of Sputnik 1 had surprised the US as this launch was coupled with the magnificent failure of the USA’s first two attempts for the launch of Project Vanguard. The launch of Sputnik 1 had had a very positive impact in the space research world. Firstly, it led to the up come of Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, and NASA. Besides, it had also inspired various youngsters to form a generation of engineers and scientists. Moreover, the launch of Sputnik 1 also inspired Herb Caen, a U.S. writer to lay claim to the term “beatnik” in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Beat Generation.

To conclude with, it would not be wrong to say that Sputnik 1 has proved to be not only a landmark in human space flight but has also been the inaugurating achievement in the “Space Race”. Besides, it has also given birth to a cohort of scientists and engineers.

Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

View the original article here

Temporary Marriage in Iran

Temporary Marriage in Iran

Anonymous in the West, temporary marriage is, basically, a contractual deal between a man and a woman who decide to be married for an agreed period of time varying from one hour to 99 years. This custom is practiced among the Shiites of Iran and Iraq, although not a part of Quranic teachings. In Iran, a man - bachelor or married, and a woman - virgin, divorced, or widowed, can, at any time enter into a temporary marriage contract, commonly known as sigheh or nekah-e-monghate'e.

In a temporary marriage contract, no registration or witness is required. As per the proponents of this arrangement, it is considered as a means of curbing free sex and control prostitution. Also, the arrangement allows a man to have 'sigheh' wives to an extent that is affordable by him. But a woman, on the other hand, is allowed to enter only one such relationship at a point of time. Moreover, the woman is also paid the compensation amount before entering the contract.

However, no couple can enter another contract before completing a waiting period of three months or an elapse of two menstrual cycles. This waiting period is referred as 'edda'. The trend of temporary marriage is, conversely, not liked by the educated middle class families. Also, some women are predisposed to think it as legal prostitution and, therefore, oppose the trend. This trend is, therefore, practiced more commonly by women who are either divorced or widowed. Additionally, the trend is also popular among theological seminaries and the clergy.

Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

View the original article here

Toucan Facts

Toucan Facts Toucan is a brightly colored bird commonly found in the rain forests of the Central and South America. Toucans are birds with variety in color as well as the size. Bright in color having red, blue, yellow, orange etc. and the size varies from 14 to 30 inches. These birds have a distinguished feature by having a long bill that is approximately half the size of their body. This bill is not very sharp or strong but is made of a tough material and helps the bird in getting food from inside the holes of the trees and help them protect themselves. The birds live on trees in a group of six to seven birds. They have big claws that help them balance on the trees, the two claws are in the front and two at the back. There colorful wings help them ambush with the leaves and the fruits. They are quite lazy birds and do not fly high or far away, they stay in the jungles and enjoy the fruits of the trees on which they live.

Toucans are forgivers as well as omnivores. Though they mainly eat fruits but also feed upon insects, rodents, reptiles, eggs and chicks of the other birds. Toucans are mostly hunted by the humans, big birds, jaguars and wild cats. There are almost 37 species of toucans. They generally stay alone or with a mate. The female gives 3 to 4 eggs at a time and both together incubate the eggs. The young ones have very small bill which takes few months to develop properly. They are very noisy and make loud sounds. When it comes to rest they roll themselves and sleep in the holes of the trees. The facts show that Toco Toucan with orange yellowish colored bill about 7.5 inches is the largest toucan and the smallest species is the Aracar Toucanet. Toucans are related to woodpeckers.

Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

View the original article here

Worm Penis Fight

Worm Penis Fight

Penis fight, also referred as penis fencing, is basically a mating activity performed by certain species of flatworm, for example Pseudobiceros hancockanus. These flatworms are mainly hermaphrodites, i.e. a species not having a specific sex. Each individual flatworm features two penises which are white and pointed. Being hermaphrodites, each individual possesses both - ovaries to produce eggs and testes to produce sperms.

To perform the act of mating through penis fencing, each of the two flatworms attacks the other with its pair of sharp penises that feature the shape of a two-headed dagger. The process involves an aggressive battle during which both the flatworms try to pierce the other one's skin with one of their penises. The defeated one is inseminated by the winner organism, which moves away from the brutal one night stand scotch free. The skin of the loser organism absorbs the sperm through pores of skin, thereby resulting in fertilization and then child bearing.

The act of Penis Fencing is the strangest feature surrounding flatworms. Just because these are born as hermaphrodites that feature both male and female parts, certain genus of flatworms must get involved in an activity to decide on roles as male and female. The act of penis fencing is necessary for child bearing so as to continue with the species. However, the process demands a substantial amount of time and energy from both the organisms involved, more commonly the mother. None of the organism, therefore, desires to play the female part just for the reason that pregnancy is very strenuous on their body.

Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

View the original article here