Making A Difference

Snapshots 2012

“There is nothing, sir, too little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.”

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Snapshots 2012
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“There is nothing, sir, too little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.”

Samuel Johnson

  • In And so, in the year of the Lord 2011, we learnt that Asmaa Mahfouz’s five-word message on Facebook which read "I am going to Tahrir" started the Egyptian revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak. That a 12-letter word, cymotrichous, meaning having wavy hair, helped Indian-American Sukanya Roy win the Spelling Bee. That a dog can remember 1,022 words. And that Siri’s voice on the iPhone 4S is of Jon Briggs.
  • In In 2011, we learnt that "Lazy white donkey" was the piano tune that Yale law professor Amy Chua drilled into her 7-year-old daughter's head, earning herself the title "tiger mom". And that Canada briefly banned the Dire Straits number, Money for Nothing, for the anti-gay slur—“that little faggot”—in its second verse before Mark Knopfler had his way.
  • In In 2011, we learnt that the Russian republic of Yakutia recorded a daytime temperature of -61.2°C that rose later to -53.9°C, all in January. And that, at 17 million on the Scoville scale, Margaret Thatcher's hometown Grantham produced the world's hottest chilli, Infinity, beating the Bhootjholokia from Assam.
  • In In 2011, we learnt that Superman renounced American citizenship. That Tintin is known as Dingding in Chinese (and Tincjo in Esperanto). That Jamaica's new airport is named after Ian Fleming who wrote the James Bond novels on the Caribbean island. And that California scientist John Kubiatowicz calculated, using Einstein's e=mc2 formula, that a digital book weighs an attogram: 10 to the power of minus 18.
  • In In 2011, we learnt that 39 is the Afghani bad number, like 13 for the Brits or 87 for the Aussies but not for the same reason. That 'Baby Gaga Ice-cream' made of breast milk was served at 14 pounds a serving. That the European explorer David Livingstone ate an elephant in Africa. And that a snake died after biting the silicone-laden breasts of a model during a photo shoot.
  • In In 2011, we learnt that men think of sex 380 times a day, yes, and women 10 times. That 47% of Indian women marry before 18. That the human sperm leaves you know what and enters you know where at an average speed of 28 miles per hour. And that, at 157.7 kmph, Australian paceman Shaun Tait bowled the fastest ball on Indian soil, in IPL4.
  • In In 2011, we learnt that doctors at a Kerala government hospital did 21 Caesarean sections in two days so that they could celebrate Easter unhindered. And that in Chhattisgarh, police dog trainers were suspended for “dereliction of duty” because two bitches got pregnant under their watch—Seema gave birth to seven and Liza to 10 pups. And that Vladimir Nabokov was right in 1945: polyommatus blue butterflies migrated from Asia, flew over the Bering Strait, and landed up in Chile.
  • In In 2011, we were told by Facebook and the University of Milan to forget six degrees of
    separation; the average number of people who separate any two individuals is 4.74. That Padma Lakshmi screamed, "I don’t care if I was impregnated by Hitler" in the middle of her custody battle. And that being born in August can result in low confidence and self-esteem.
  • In In 2011, we learnt that the most valuable player of the 2011 cricket World Cup, Yuvraj Singh, made it to the cover of Banqiujichujiaocheng, the first official Chinese book on cricket. That on 11/11/11, at 11.11 am, South Africa chasing Australia’s target, required 111 runs to win. And that Rahul Dravid's speech in Australia was 6,403 words long.
  • In And finally, in 2011, we learnt that more than 85% Gujarati men have waistlines above 36 (women: 32 inches). That an Ahmedabadi sought to know Mahatma Gandhi's IQ by filing an application under RTI. And that a 3:1 ratio of Bagpiper and Signature whiskies is the ratio adopted by bootleggers to make scotch.

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