Curiosities about Wales

Sunday 31 July 2011

In Wales there is a village called -
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (58 letters), which in English means "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio near the red cave." The locals call it Llanfairpwll. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com is the longest single word .com domain name in the world. 


The smallest house in wales. It is really weird, but I've seen it and was amazed how it was possible for someone to live in it.

India, chess and the value of "pi"

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Did you know that the game of chess originated in India?

It originated before the 6th century AD. From India, the game spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Southern Europe. In Europe, chess evolved into its current form in the 15th century.


Where does the name India come from?

It is derived from the river Indus.


The decimal code along with the place value system was an original Indian development.

Budhayana an Indian mathematician was the first to calculate the value of "pi" mathematically and explained the concept of Pythagorean Theorem in the 6th century.

The Indian railway is the largest employer in the world, over a million people work for it.

Paris, the beach and the bad weather

Friday 22 July 2011

Ups! It´s not only in Miramar that the weather is not helping the holiday makers. In Paris there is no ocean, but there is an artificial beach, similar to the one in Mangualde,Portugal.



Would you like to have a beach in Canelas?

Mendel, peas and genetics

Gregor Johann Mendel (1822 – 1884) was born in Austria. He was a scientist and Augustinian friar who gained fame only after his death as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance. Although the significance of Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century, the independent rediscovery of these laws formed the foundation of the modern science of genetics.
Nevertheless, it was William Bateson, born in Robin Woods Bay, in England, who coined the term genetics (1905) to describe the study of heredity and biological inheritance, and he was the main populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel.

Nelson Mandela's birthday

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Yesterday Nelson Mandela celebrated his 93rd birthday. He is pictured here surrounded by family at his home in Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
Nelson Mandela has spent 67 years making the world a better place, so he is asking everybody for 67 minutes by acting on the idea that each person has the power to change the world.

The call by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and its sister organisations for the creation of an official global Mandela Day, to be celebrated annually on 18 July, Mandela's birthday, is gaining momentum.

The celebration of Mandela Day aims to serve as a global call to action for people to "recognise their individual power to make an imprint and help change the world around them for the better", the Nelson Mandela Foundation said at the launch of the campaign in April.

"Nelson Mandela has been making an imprint on the world for 67 years, beginning in 1942 when he first started to campaign for the human rights of every South African. His life has been an inspiration to the world."

Now, the Mandela Day campaign is calling on people around the world to commit 67 minutes of their time "to make an imprint and help change the world around them."