Interesting Facts: June 2011

Pictures of Wimbledon 2011

Take a look at some of the pictures of Wimbledon 2011:

Russia's Maria Sharapova in action during the first round match against Russia's Anna Chakvetadze at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, Tuesday, June 21, 2011.

A380 - The World’s First Super-jumbo Aircraft:

The Airbus A380 first took to the skies in April 2005. The test flight was a success but the aircraft needed many more tests before being cleared for commercial use.

The Airbus A380 came about as the result of thousands of people working together. It involved a network of more than 100 international suppliers as well as partners in more than 20 countries. This matches the industrial scale involved in a space program.

Fast Facts about A380:

Cost: $375.3 million
Passengers: 525 people in three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all-economy class
Space: 5,146 square feet of floor space; 49% more than the current next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400 with 3,453 square feet
The Airbus A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines

The Bottom Line: Lightning and Mater mix it up with Formula 1 and spies in yet another Pixar winner.

Opens: June 24 (Disney)

Voice cast: Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer

Director: John Lasseter

Co-director: Brad Lewis

Screenwriter: Ben Queen

Cooler cars and more action follow Lightning and Mater as they mix it up with spies and Formula 1 racers in yet another Pixar winner, writes Todd McCarthy.

Pixar's 2006 release Cars is widely regarded as among the less dazzling of the animation house's dozen sterling titles, so it's fair to imagine that John Lasseter and his pit crew felt motivated to use a little extra elbow grease in order to deliver an improved new model. On the whole, they have, as Lightning McQueen and the loyal pick-up truck Mater quickly vamoose from sleepy Radiator Springs to join the Grand Prix circuit in a succession of world capitals, where they become entangled in some related international spy intrigue. Featuring cooler cars and more action than Fast Five, Cars 2 is notably less refined and more rambunctious than Pixar's recent run of artistic gems. But commercially, it'll be off to the races this summer, with even bigger international prospects assured on this lap than on the first spin.

Stupas at Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple, overlook Java's jungles.

Interesting Facts about Indonesia: If you planning to visit Indonesia or wanted to know really Interesting Facts about Indonesia, here you are at the right place. Check out:

Boasting the world's largest Muslim population, this vast archipelago between Asia and Australia harbors a highly diverse people speaking more than 300 languages.
From glittering beaches to isolated jungle villages, it offers endless studies in extremes.
The influence of the Dutch, who united the island chain in 1900, may be felt everywhere
Japan's wartime occupation, happily, is a distant memory.
Located at the intersection of two tectonic plates, the islands are prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

A job and search spikes? Not bad for the co-stars in Katy Perry's latest John Hughes-inspired music video "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)," some whom have faded away more than others. Since the video debuted on Sunday, her credited cast members--including '80s teen icon Debbie Gibson, sax man Kenny G, boy band Hanson, and "Glee" actors Darren Criss and Kevin McHale--have experienced huge Internet search spikes as a result.

Interesting Facts about IBM: 100 Years of Innovation

It’s rare to last 100 years in a business, but to last 100 years in the technology business is next to impossible. Well, IBM will officially pull off the impossible in mid-June when the company celebrates 100 years in business.

When the company was formed as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R) in 1911, its founders probably never dreamed that it would last 100 years. Yet, when the company was merely 13 years old, its leadership sought a name that signaled a global presence, so C-T-R became International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924.

And IBM has done more than survive—it has thrived. As IBM Senior Vice President and Group Executive for Software and Systems Steve Mills told eWEEK, IBM is still standing while former industry darlings—including Digital Equipment Corp., Wang, Prime and Data General—have vanished.

IBM has managed this seemingly impossible feat by adapting to the demands of the times and adopting new technologies and new approaches to the marketplace. Even more important, IBM has focused on its customers, Mills said.

Interesting Facts about Fast and the Furious Series:

"The Fast and the Furious" roared onto movie screens in 2001, and it made Vin Diesel a household name (even though it's not the name he was born with). Eight years later, Vin has returned for another spin in "Fast and Furious" along with the original's stars Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster. So here's a look under the hood of the four films with some inside facts you might not know about how they were put together. Plus, we have an exclusive racing scene from the movie introduced by Vin Diesel himself.

"The Fast and the Furious" shares its title but not its story with a low-budget movie from 1954. It was one of the first films produced by B-movie legend Roger Corman, who also drove a car in one of the movie's race scenes. He got so into it he forgot his car was supposed to lose, and afterward the notoriously stingy producer had to pay up the money to reshoot the scene.

Check Out Some of the Interesting Facts about Brad Pitt You might not know:

Interesting Facts about Brad Pitt #1: Middle Name

Brad Pitt actually goes by his middle name. His formal name is William Bradley Pitt.

Interesting Facts about Brad Pitt #2: Labeled a Wimp

There is rumor that Brad Pitt is not as muscular as the pictures had him on the Troy posters. Val Kilmer is reported to claim that Brad Pitt's muscles on the Troy posters was air brushed.

Interesting Facts about Brad Pitt #3: Walked Out on Troy

It has been reported that Brad Pitt walked out on the movie, Troy, during the official screening. His actions caused outrage at the Cannes Film Festival .

Most Famous Places to visit in Kathmandu, Nepal

Take a Look at some of the Most Famous Places to visit in Kathmandu, Nepal:

Basantapur Palace, Basantapur, Kathmandu

Check out the Interesting Facts about Ballet Dance and history:

Ballet [Ital. ballare =to dance], classic, formalized solo or ensemble dancing of a highly controlled, dramatic nature performed to music.

The Development of Ballet in Western Europe

Foreshadowed in earlier mummeries and lavish masquerades, ballet emerged as a distinctive form in Italy before the 16th cent. The first ballet that combined movement, music, decor, and special effects was presented in France at the court of Catherine de' Medici in 1581. Organized by the violinist Balthasar de Beaujoyeux, it was entitled Le Ballet comique de la Reine. This production was the first ballet de cour, the ancestor of the modern ballet, which influenced the English court masque, a 16th-century entertainment with dance interludes. The first treatise on ballet dancing was the Orchésographie of Thoinot Arbeau (1588).

World’s Most Expensive Cell Phones

Most people enjoy having a quality cell phone, but they also recognize that cellular phones are a consumable good and will have to be replaced within in a few years. For this reason, people often do not purchase the most expensive cell phone when they purchase their mobile. Some, though, must have a costly mobile phone. The world’s most expensive cell phones were made to satisfy just that type of person.

Ulysse Nardin’s The Chairman – up to $49,500

The Chairman by Ulysse Nardin is the world’s most expensive Android smartphone, and includes both a touch screen and a physical number pad. The Ulysse Nardin name is most often associated with luxury watches and that fact shows in the Chairman’s sophisticated design. The volume controls look like watch buttons and the crown between them can actually be wound to generate power for the device. In fact, the phone features a kinetic rotor power system visible through the backplate.

Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow

Legend has it that St. Basil’s Cathedral’s beauty cost its architect his eyes. The Moscow monument was built between 1555 and 1561 by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate a victory over the Mongols, and he’s said to have blinded the architect so that he couldn’t create a rival masterpiece. The Russian St. Basil the Blessed lies interred within the church.

Interesting Facts about Russia:

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country that extends over a large part of northern Eurasia. Its government is a semi-presidential republic, and it comprises of 83 federal subjects. The Russian Federation, in fact, was established after the termination of the Soviet Union, which occurred in 1991; however, it continues to be recognized as the legal personality of the Soviet Union. Here are some more interesting facts about Russia.

Lets take a look at the Interesting Facts about Cristiano Ronaldo that You might not know:

1 Ronaldo was nicknamed "cry-baby" as a child. His mother Dolores Aveiro said: "When he got home from school I'd tell him to do homework but he'd say he didn't have any. I'd be making dinner and he would jump out of the window and run off until late. He used to cry when he passed and his friends didn't score. People called him 'cry-baby' and 'little bee' because nobody could catch him."

2 He was an amazing player even at 11 years old. Paulo Cardoso, his first coach at Sporting Lisbon, said: "When he got the ball he went past two or three players. At the end of the game the players gathered around him, they knew he was a special kid."

Wow! If there was ever a reason to attend cricket games that lasts a couple of days, here it is. The only question I have is “are they real”?

This was the remarkable sight many took in at a cricket game in Panama. As for the game? Well who really cares. I’m more interested in what type of paint was used to put their pants on. As for the authenticity? We like to think they are real, but we aren’t particularly convinced that there was no use of PED’s involved.

Check Out The Interesting Facts about the History of Cricket:

The origins of cricket lie somewhere in the Dark Ages - probably after the Roman Empire, almost certainly before the Normans invaded England, and almost certainly somewhere in Northern Europe. All research concedes that the game derived from a very old, widespread and uncomplicated pastime by which one player served up an object, be it a small piece of wood or a ball, and another hit it with a suitably fashioned club.

How and when this club-ball game developed into one where the hitter defended a target against the thrower is simply not known. Nor is there any evidence as to when points were awarded dependent upon how far the hitter was able to despatch the missile; nor when helpers joined the two-player contest, thus beginning the evolution into a team game; nor when the defining concept of placing wickets at either end of the pitch was adopted.

X-Men: First Class, the fifth film in the comic book franchise, has topped the North American box office in its opening weekend, taking $56m (£34.1m).

The prequel stars James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Professor X and Magneto in roles previously played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.

Debuts for the last three films ranged from $85.1m-$102.8m (£51.8m-£62.5m).

Top 10 best Golf Course in the World

Lets check the Top 10 best Golf Course in the World:

No.10 Canadian Rockies - Banff Springs Golf Club

Under the gaze of the grand Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel -- which makes Batman's stately Wayne Manor look like a starter home -- the Banff Springs Golf Course is marvelous. Framed by striking snow-capped peaks, the Stanley Thompson design, which was built for a record sum of $1 million in 1927, is a gem.

With stalwart courses like Silvertip, Stewart Creek, Kananaskis, Canmore, and Jasper Park in the vicinity, the Canadian Rockies is golf glorious. The Fairmont hotels in Banff and Jasper are worth a visit in and of themselves.

Timothy Ray Brown, a resident of San Francisco Bay Area, is possibly the first ever person to be fully cured of the incurable HIV-AIDS disease, according to scientific journal Blood. Timothy Ray Brown was tested positive for HIV around 15 years ago when he was around the age of 30. He later found out that he was also diagnosed with Leukemia. When he was still in Germany in 2007, doctors used bone marrow stem cell transplant as a method of curing his Leukemia and neither HIV nor Leukemia has been traced on him since 2008.

"I quit taking my HIV medication the day that I got the transplant and haven’t had to take any since," said Brown, who is known as 'The Berlin Patient' in medical circles.

Interesting Fun Facts about Presidents of United States of America that you might not know:

Before he became president, Lyndon Johnson was a teacher at a small school in South Texas.
Before he became president, Woodrow Wilson was president of Princeton University.
Only one president was a preacher -- James Garfield.
Did you know that William Howard Taft is the only President who served as both President and Chief Justice of the United States?
President John F. Kennedy won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for his collection of essays, Profiles in Courage.

A matador stands with cape at the ready in a bullfighting ring in Spain. The ancient sport draws crowds across the country, and bullfighters attain celebrity status.

The official nomenclature of Spain is the Kingdom of Spain. Spain is located in Southern Europe and has two enclaves, territories surrounded by other countries in North Africa. The origin of the names Espania and Spain is said to be rooted in the Roman name 'Hispania'. Here are some interesting facts about Spain.

Capital: Madrid

Area: 505,988 square kilometers (195,363 square miles)

Language: Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Basque

Religion: Roman Catholic

Currency: Euro

Life Expectancy: 79

GDP per Capita: U.S. $21,200

Literacy Percent: 98

Spain is bound by the Meditarranean Sea on the south and the east. It shares it borders with the Bay of Biscay on the north and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It's terrestrial borders are shared with Morocco, Gibraltar, Andorra, Portugal and France. Spain is the largest of all the sovereign states making up the Iberian Peninsula.

The Iberians, Basques and the Celts were the original inhabitants of Spain. It became a part of the Roman Empire in 206 B.C. It was later ruled by Visigothic rulers, Muslims, the Franks and the Christians.

Take a look at some of the really Interesting facts about Queen Elizabeth II

1. Queen Elizabeth II is the fortieth monarch since William the Conqueror obtained the crown of England.

2. In 2002, at 76 years of age, The Queen was the oldest monarch to celebrate a Golden Jubilee. The youngest was James I (James VI of Scotland) at 51 years.

3. Since 1952, The Queen has conferred over 387,700 honours and awards.

4. The Queen has personally held over 540 Investitures.

5. The Queen speaks fluent French and often uses the language for Audiences and State Visits. Her Majesty does not require an interpreter.

6. The Queen has received over 3 million items of correspondence during her reign.

7. Over the course of the reign, around 1.1 million people have attended Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Holyroodhouse (The Queen ended Presentation Parties in 1958).

Here are some of Interesting Facts about Lionel Messi:

Full name: Lionel Andres Messi
Date of Birth: 24 June 1987
Birth place: Rosario (Argentina)
Height: 5'6 and a half" (1.69 metres)
Club: FC Barcelona
National team: Argentina
Shirt number: 19
Position: Attacking midfielder (right/centre)

Lionel Messi is the heir apparent to the throne left vacant by Diego Armando Maradona. The waters are divided between those who consider him to be far from being close to "The 10", and those who believe that Messi will be even better than Maradona.

Born in Rosario on June 24th, 1987, he cut his teeth in the youth ranks of Newell's Old Boys, until a hormonal problem that affected his growth changed the plans of his family and, of course, his personal future.

Here are you Really Interesting Facts about Smiling, Check this Out:

Forcing yourself to smile can boost your mood: Psychologists have found that even if you’re in bad mood, you can instantly lift your spirits by forcing yourself to smile.

It boosts your immune system: Smiling really can improve your physical health, too. Your body is more relaxed when you smile, which contributes to good health and a stronger immune system.

Smiles are contagious: It’s not just a saying: smiling really is contagious, scientists say. In a study conducted in Sweden, people had difficulty frowning when they looked at other subjects who were smiling, and their muscles twitched into smiles all on their own.

Check Out the List of 15 Most Photographed City & Places on Earth:

After huge analysis by the Cornell researchers over 35 million Flicker Photos, They Discovered that these 15 Places in different cities are the most photographed Ones, Check this Out:

15th Most Photographed City: Las Vegas

Cerro Torre Los Glaciares National Park Patagonia Argentina

Coastal treasures, ancient forests, dazzling glaciers and incredible wildlife – Patagonia has captured your imagination, but where do you start? We have cherrypicked a few Patagonian delights from the latest Lonely Planet Argentina guidebook to get you started:

1. Whale-watch in Puerto Madryn

Patagonia offers some of the world's best whale-watching and Puerto Madryn is the place to glimpse them. The warm, enclosed waters along the Golfo Nuevo, Golfo San José and the coastline near Caleta Valdés are prime breeding zones for southern right whales between June and mid-December. A standard whale-watching trip lasts an hour and a half, but longer excursions are available too.

Some of The Facts about Dragon Boat Festival

In China, the Dragon Boat Festival is popularly known as the "Duanwu" Festival (in Mandarin Chinese pronunciation) or Tuen Ng Festival (in Cantonese Chinese pronunciation) is a Chinese traditional and statutory holiday.

"Duan Wu" was celebrated in mainland China as a public holiday for the first time in 2008.

In mainland China and Taiwan, the Dragon Boat Festival is a public holiday and known as the "Duanwu Jie".

Dragon boat racing was listed into the Chinese state sports competition programs for the first time in
1980.

Movie Review: X-Man – First Class:

The Bottom Line: A first-class production that excitingly reenergizes a flagging franchise.

Opens: Friday, June 3 (20th Century Fox)

Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult

Director: Matthew Vaughn

A first-class production that excitingly reenergizes a flagging franchise

Much as Casino Royale rebooted the James Bond franchise in a fresh and dynamic way, X-Men: First Class injects new blood into a franchise that, for all its profitability, had become blandly anemic. In fact, roughly the first half of this massive and very well cast origins extravaganza is arguably the best hour of Marvel Comics-derived filmmaking among the torrent of it that's cascaded across screens in recent years. Audacious, confident and fueled by youthful energy, this is a surefire summer winner for a wide global audience.

Here are some of the Interesting Facts about Britney Spears including fun facts:

Early Years

Britney Spears was born Dec. 2, 1981 and is a Sagittarius.
Her middle name is Jean.
She has one brother, Bryan, and one sister, Jamie Lynn.
Spears appeared on Star Search in 1992, but lost the competition.
She studied for three summers at the famous Professional Performing Arts School in New York.
Spears landed a spot on The New Mickey Mouse Club at age 11 and appeared on the show for 2 years.

Fifa started out as a tiny voluntary organisation, and grew and grew into a global behemoth with more member nations than the UN. Here are six unusual facts about the secretive organisation that governs world football.

1. It is a registered charity. Fifa pays little tax in its home country of Switzerland. It also requires tax exemption in countries wishing to host a World Cup competition. "Any host country requires a comprehensive tax exemption to be given to Fifa and further parties involved in the hosting and staging of an event," a Fifa spokesman told the BBC last year. The 2010 tournament - the most expensive yet - cost South Africa 33bn rand (£3bn; $4.86bn). But a "tax-free bubble" was established around the event at Fifa's request, relieving Fifa, its subsidiaries, and foreign football associations of any obligation to pay income tax, customs duties or VAT.

Elevation: 29,035 feet (8,850 meters)
Location: Nepal/Tibet, Asia
First Ascent: Sir Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal), May 29, 1953

Interesting Facts About Mt Everest:

Mount Everest is also called Chomolangma, meaning “Goddess Mother of Snows” in Tibetan and Sagarmatha, meaning "Mother of the Universe" in Nepalese. The mountain is sacred to the native people.

British surveyors named the peak for George Everest (properly pronounced “I-ver-ist”) a Surveyor General of India in the mid-nineteenth century.

Age: approximately 60 million years old.

Interesting Facts about Top 10 Evil Animals

Cute animal clips have taken over the Internet. But not every creature deserves a video montage. TIME takes a look at some animals that are troublesome to mankind. Check out Interesting Facts about Top 10 Evil Animals:

10. Asian Carp

Measuring three ft. long and weighing up to 100 lbs., Asian carp are hardly your average fish. Originally from China, Asian carp are an invasive collection of fish that take over and destroy ecosystems by devouring plankton and disrupting their habitat's existing food chain. They're ravenous (often eating half of their body weight in one day), reproduce often and are difficult to capture. One particular species, the silver carp, can pose an even more immediate threat. Easily startled, they're known to jump into the air and knock out fishermen, causing injuries such as black eyes, broken bones and concussions. In February 2010, the White House even convened an Asian carp summit after the dangerous fish were found closing in on the Great Lakes.

It Fell from the Sky

It Fell from the Sky:

The Tunguska Event

Though it flattened all the trees in every direction for 30 miles, the airburst that took place over Siberia's Tunguska River left no crater behind. Scientists theorize that the blast, caused probably by a meteor or comet fragment that exploded a few miles over the surface of the Earth, was 1000 times as powerful as the bomb that fell on Hiroshima, Japan.