Outstanding mistakes of all time

After a string of newsworthy errors, a stumble through the annals of time to choose a few favourites from history.

It has been a hectic few days for news of mistakes. Well, yes, I know that to be human is to err, but we experienced connoisseurs of the bish and the blunder look out for the ones exemplifying that to be human is also often splendidly absurd. If I might quote Puck, from the Bard's timely A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

5 Facts You Didn't Know About Chocolate

Image source: Spill

If you're like most women, you're totally smitten with chocolate. People have been obsessing over this comfort food for thousands of years (the Mayans considered cocao a cure-all and the Aztecs used it as money). And all that obsessing has yielded some pretty surprising studies--and findings. Here, five things you need to know about your favorite indulgence. 

1. It Can Boost Your Workout 

Skip the expensive sports drinks and protein shakes. Research shows chocolate milk is just as effective a recovery aid. 

A study published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolismcompared the effects of a recovery drink and chocolate milk on endurance athletes' ability to recover after a series of bike sprints followed by an endurance ride the next day. They found that chocolate milk was just as effective at relieving muscle soreness after the sprints, and preparing the athletes to perform in the endurance test the next day. Better yet, everyone preferred the taste of chocolate milk. 

First Ever Synthetic Windpipe Transplant

Surgeons in Sweden have carried out the world's first synthetic organ transplant.

Scientists in London created an artificial windpipe which was then coated in stem cells from the patient.

Crucially, the technique does not need a donor, and there is no risk of the organ being rejected. The surgeons stress a windpipe can also be made within days.

The 36-year-old cancer patient is doing well a month after the operation.

Professor Paolo Macchiarini from Spain led the pioneering surgery, which took place at the Karolinska University Hospital.

In an interview with the BBC, he said he now hopes to use the technique to treat a nine-month-old child in Korea who was born with a malformed windpipe or trachea.

Professor Macchiarini already has 10 other windpipe transplants under his belt - most notably the world's first tissue-engineered tracheal transplant in 2008 on 30-year-old Spanish woman Claudia Costillo - but all required a donor.

Interesting Facts about Smiling

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.

Interesting Facts about Dragon Boat Festival

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.

Interesting Facts about FIFA and its Governing Body

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.

Interesting Facts About Mt Everest

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.

There will soon be seven billion people on the planet

England: Glowing furnace bright at night, London became the world's largest city during the coal-powered industrial revolution, a tipping point for the steep rise of Earth's population. Wealthy countries use many times more resources per capita than poorer nations, but as global incomes rise, increased consumption may stress the planet more than population growth.

Population 7 Billion

There will soon be seven billion people on the planet. By 2045 global population is projected to reach nine billion. Can the planet take the strain?

The BMXer made history by completing the first triple back flip

Take any bike rides this holiday weekend?

Jed Mildon did, but he didn't exactly have a basket and a bell. The BMXer made history by completing the first triple back flip on a BMX bike in his native New Zealand. The Guinness Book of World Records was on hand to document the feat. So were video cameras, including one on Mildon's helmet. Check The Video Out (if you dare):

Interesting facts about the Hanging Gardens

This Probably the most romantic and poetic wonder of the world is not only long gone, but its existence is also up for dispute. The lack of documentation of its subsistence in the chronicles of Babylonian history makes many doubts if the wonderful gardens ever pleased the eye of a human or were just a figment of ancient poets and novelists. Here we have some Interesting facts about the Hanging Gardens:

Another Great Victory For FC Barcelona - UEFA Champions League Trophy 2011

FC Barcelona have secured their fourth European Champion Clubs' Cup – and a third in the last six years – while making Spain the competition's most successful country.

FC Barcelona's victory at Wembley was their fourth European Champion Clubs' Cup triumph – bettered only by Real Madrid CF, AC Milan and Liverpool FC – and made Spain the most successful country in the competition's history.

Interesting Facts About Heart Health and Heart Disease

From the size of the heart to the timing of heart attacks, here are five facts about the human heart everyone should know.

You can feel your heart thudding away every time you put your hand to your chest, but do you have any idea what’s really going on in there or what keeps your heart ticking as it should? WebMD the Magazine asked Richard Krasuski, MD, director of Adult Congenital Heart Disease Services and a staff cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, to help explain some amazing and little-known facts about the human heart.

1. How the human heart functions

Every day, your heart beats about 100,000 times, sending 2,000 gallons of blood surging through your body. Although it’s no bigger than your fist, your heart has the mighty job of keeping blood flowing through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels that feed your organs and tissues. Any damage to the heart or its valves can reduce that pumping power, forcing the heart to work harder just to keep up with the body’s demand for blood.

Race Car Drivers' Everyday Cars

 Racers’ Personal Rides

No one likes to take their work home, but race car drivers might be an exception. From Talladega to Monaco, the world’s best-compensated drivers tend to fill their garages with collections of prized automobiles. In the slides ahead, you’ll discover which pro driver can’t drive 45 in a Mercedes SUV (and got ticketed and a trip to driving school), and which famed racer has a thing for vintage Camaros, including the 1967 model pictured here. 

Where Holiday Traditions Come From

Check out Where Holiday Traditions Come From:

There's a Strange Man Under Our Tree!

Believe it or not, there was once a time when there was no Santa, no Christmas gifts, no menorah, no Valentine's Day, and no New Year's Eve ball drop. So where did they come from? Well, in the case of Christmas, the holiday we know now is believed to be a melding of both a celebration of the birth of Christ and earlier, pagan winter celebrations like Saturnalia, the Roman sun-god holiday of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, and the Germanic Yule.

What Will NASA Name Its New Spaceship?

NASA has unveiled the design of its Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the next-generation spaceship that will carry astronauts to an asteroid and then, later, to Mars. But don't get too attached to that clunky name; we'll be calling it something else soon enough.

MPCV is jargony NASA-speak for the new deep space vehicle, just as "Space Transportation System" refers to the space shuttle program (that's why shuttle Endeavour's last mission is STS-134, for example) and "Crew Exploration Vehicle" denotes the spaceship we know as Orion.

Interesting Facts about Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein once said, "The important thing is to not stop questioning".  It was this curiosity and questioning attitude that perhaps earned him the ultimate recognition in the form of a Nobel Prize. Albert Einstein is credited with the development of the theory of relativity and physical theory of gravity among other things.

Interesting Facts about Albert Einstein

• Albert Einstein was born on 14th March, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. When Albert Einstein was a child his mother actually thought he was deformed because he had rather large head. As a child Einstein spoke very little till the age of nine. Albert Einstein had a younger sister named Maja  who he became good friends with in the later years of his life.

Interesting Facts About Kurt Cobain that You Might not know

Here are the Interesting Facts About Kurt Cobain that You Might not know:

Close to 17 years ago, Kurt Cobain died. Conspiracy theories about his death abound — as they tend to do with people of note — but most agree it was Cobain’s own decision to end his life. Since today would have been his 44th birthday, we bring you 44 facts about the man who struggled with drug addiction, being misunderstood, and those record industry types willing to defang the music from Cobain’s Pacific Northwest for the sake of money, power, and instant, yet fleeting success.

1. Before Nirvana, Cobain had auditioned to be in the Melvins, but was rejected.

2. While still a teenager, for eight months Cobain lived at a friend’s house and slept on the sofa.

3. When Nirvana was on the rise, Metallica sent them a fax that read: “We really dig Nirvana.Nevermind is the best album of the year. Let’s get together soon, Metallica. PS, Lars hates the band.”

Global Warming — Fact or Myth?

Global Warming — Fact or Myth?
6 common misunderstandings about global warming. Or is that climate change?

Myth or fact? There are a lot of misconceptions about global warming that have cropped up in recent months. Here's a look at some of them:

Fact or Myth? "Snowmageddon" and all those other weird U.S. snowstorms this winter prove that global warming isn't real.

Interesting Facts about Iceland's Volcano

Iceland's volcano: 9 Interesting facts

As the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull continues to cause travel chaos around the world, a look at some of the weirder stories to come out of the disaster

Interesting Facts about The Great Pyramid of Giza that You Might Not Know

Interesting Facts About The Great Pyramid of Gaza

The Great Pyramid is the most remarkable building in existence on the face of our planet today. It was built with such precision that our current technology cannot replicate it.  This pyramid is so precisely constructed that until recently (with the advent of laser measuring equipment) scientists were not able to discover some of its subtle symmetries (not to mention duplicate them).  Among other aspects, there are also very exact geometric relationships between all the structures in the pyramid complex at Giza.