Internet safety and facts

August 2009 Fact: 86 % of the girls polled said they could chat online without their parents' knowledge, 57% could read their parents email, and 54% could conduct a cyber relationship (Girl Scout Research Institute 2002) Tip:  Parents need to discuss internet safety with their children, indicating possible hazards.  June 2009 Fact:  Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information such as your name, Social Security number, credit card number or other identifying information, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes.(consumerreporting.org)    Tip:  Don't give out any financial information, such as checking account and credit card numbers; and especially your social Security number; on the phone or online, unless you initiate the call and know the person or organization you're dealing with. Don't give that information to any stranger. In general, it is only required for medical providers, banks, mortgages and credit card companies. (consumerreporting.org) May 2009 Fact:   Many crimes that are committed in the real world also occur on the Net. These include fraud and embezzlement, harassment, "stealing" an identity, or stalking. A lot of information is available about you on the Net, and an enterprising criminal can find out a lot about you and use this information to his/her disadvantage. A criminal could use basic information about you (discovered on the Net), and then engage in "social engineering"--contacting your friends, co-workers, relatives, etc.--to learn even more.(Cyberstalking and Internet Safety FAQ by Rachel R. Hartman) Tip:  Be VERY careful to whom you give personal information and where you post information. Use a "nonsense" password that has no relation to you as a person; use a combination of numbers, symbols, and letters and make sure it is at least 6 characters long. Change your password frequently and NEVER give it out. Try not to keep it written down. Avoid using the same password for multiple accounts.(Cyberstalking and Internet Safety FAQ by Rachel R. Hartman) April 2009 Fact:  Four percent of children received aggressive solicitations from adultswho attempted to meet the children in person, compared to 3 percent in 2000.(Love to Know website:  2007 Internet Safety Statistics for Children) Tip:  Discuss Internet safety with your children, starting when they are very young so they learn how to identify predators and cyberbullies. March 2009 Fact:  Nearly half of teens (47%) aren't worried about others us ing their personal info in ways they don't want (Teen Research Unlimited. "Cox Communications Teen Internet Safety Survey Wave II, " March 2007). Tip:  Think about keeping some control over the information you post. Consider restricting access to your page to a select group of people, for example, your firends from school, your club, your team, your community groups, or your family. February 2009 Fact:  23% of children have had an encounter with a stranger on the Internet, including 7% of children who reported having met someone in the real world from the Internet. (Harris Interactive, "Kids Outsmart Parents When it comes to the Internet," August 2007) Tip:  Be wary if a new online friend wants to meet you in person.  Before you decide to meet someone, do your research:  Ask whether any of your friends know the person, and see what background you can dig up through online search engines.  If you decide to meet them, be smart about it:  Meet in a public place, during the day, with friends you trust. Tell an adult or a responsible sibling where you're going, and when you expect to be back.  January 2009 Fact:  69% of teens regularly receive personal messages online from people they don't know and most of them don't tell a trusted adult about it (Teen Research Unlimited, "Cox Communications Teen Internet saftety Survey Wave It," March 2007) Tip:  Flirting with strangers online could have serious consequences.  Because some people lie about who they really are, you never know who you are dealing with. December 2008 Fact:  64% of teens post photos or videos of themselves online, while mroe than half (58%) post info about where they live.  Females are far more likely than male teens to post personal photos or videos of themselves (70% vs. 58%) (Teen Research Unlimited. "Cox Communications Teen Internet Safety Wave II." March 2007) Tip:  Consider not posting your photo.  It can be altered and broadcast in ways you may not be happy about.  If you do post one, ask yourself whether it's one your mom would display in the living room. November  2008 Fact:  About half (49%) are unconcerned that posting personal info online might negatively affect their future (Teen Research Unlimited.  "Cox Communications Teen Internet safety Survey Wave II, " March 2007) Tip:  Post only information that you are comfortable with others seeing -- and knowing -- about you.  Many people can see your page, including your parents, your teachers, the police, the college you might want to apply to next year, or the job you might want to apply for in five years. October  2008 F act:   A mong teens active in social networking sites (like MySpace,Facebook), 61% post the name of their city or town, 49% post their school's name, 29% post their email address, and 29% post their last name (Lenhart, Amanda and Maddox, Mary. "Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks - How Teens Manage their Online Identities and Personal Information in the Age of MySpace." April 18, 2007) Tip:   M ake sure your screen name doesn't say too much about you.  Don't use your name, your age, or your hometown.  Even if you think your screen name makes you anonymous, it doesn't take a genius to combine clues to figure out who you are and where you can be found. September 2009 Fact:  Four percent of children received aggressive solicitations from adultswho attempted to meet the children in person, compared to 3 percent in 2000. (Love to Know website:  2007 Internet Safety Statistics for Children) Tip:  Discuss Internet safety with your children, starting when they are very young so they learn how to identify predators and cyberbullies.

Facts about Politics

Bolivia holds the highest turnover of governments. Since their independence from Spain in 1825, Bolivia has had almost 200 governments. Since 1945, Italy saw more than 50 governments and more than 20 Prime Ministers.

India is the world’s largest democracy with more than 700 million registered voters.

The system of democracy was introduced 2 500 years ago in Athens, Greece.

The youngest active system of governance is communism, which was introduced in 1848 by Friedrich Engels and Karl
Marx.

The oldest existing governing body operates in Althing in Iceland. It was established in 930 AD.

David “Screaming Lord Sutch”, as leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, was Britain’s longest serving party leader until he hung himself in June 1999.

Although the United States of America was established in 1776 the first American president ever to visited Europe while in office was Woodrow Wilson in 1918.

Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927) was the first woman to run for office of US President. She and her sister were the first
women to run a Wall Street brokerage (1870).

The United Nations organization (UN) was founded in 1945.

The Organization of American States (OAS) was founded in 1948 to promote peace, security and the economical development of the western hemisphere.

The European Union was founded in 1957 as the European Economic Community. It then became the EC (European Community) and in 1993 the EU (European Union).

Fast facts on US Presidents and Vice Presidents

In 1975, Emil Matalik put himself forward as US Presidential candidate. He advocated a maximum of one animal and
one tree per family because he believed that there were too many animals and plant life on earth. Louis Abalofia also put himself forward: his campaign poster featured a photo of him in the nude, with the slogan “I have nothing to hide.” In the 1860s, financier George Francis Train ran for office with one item: the introduction of a new calender based
on his birth date.

George Washington was inaugurated for his first term, on 30 April 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City. His second inauguration took place in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson was the first to be inaugurated in Washington DC. Jefferson also was the only one to walk to and from his inauguration.

William Henry Harrison had the shortest term of office as president. He served from for 32 days, from 4 March to 4 April 1841.

Franklin D. Roosevelt had the longest term of office: 12 years. Roosevelt had three vice presidents serve during his four terms: John Nance Garner (1933-1941), Henry Wallace (1941-1945), Harry Truman (1945).

14 of the 45 vice presidents have become president:

5 vice presidents have been elected to the presidency: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, Richard Nixon, and George Herbert Bush.

4 vice presidents assumed the presidency after the president was assassinated: Andrew Johnson, Chester Authur, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson.

4 vice presidents assumed the presidency after the president died of natural causes: John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Calvin Coolidge, and Harry Truman.

Gerald Ford assumed the presidency following the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Only Richard Nixon served two terms as Vice President and also was elected to two terms as President.

The US presidential candidate with the highest popular vote ever was Ronald Reagan. In 1984 he secured 54,455,075 votes. Reagan was also the candidate with the highest electoral vote: 525, in 1984. In that year he equaled the 49 states that Nixon carried in 1972.

US Presidents are not elected by popular vote but by an electoral college representing the states. John Quincy Adams (1824), Rutherford Hayes (1876), Benjamin Harrison (1888) and George W. Bush (2000) lost the overall vote but won the presidency.

The candidate who ran the most times for office of the President of the United States was Norman Thomas. He ran six times from 1928 and didn’t win any. Thomas ran for presidency in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944 and 1948.

Barack Obama is the 43rd person to become United States President – he became the 44th President because the office was held twice by Grover Cleveland (terms 1885-1889 and 1893 – 1897), being the 22nd and 24th President.

George Washington was the first president under the US constitution of 1789. However, the US was an independent nation for 13 years before the Constitution was signed. For one year during this time John Hanson served as “President of the US in Congress assembled.” Technically, John Hanson was the first president of the United States.

Info About vagitables

• Bell peppers are usually sold green, but they can also be red, purple or yellow.
• Tomatoes are very high in the carotenoid Lycopene; eating foods with carotenoids can lower your risk of cancer.
• Other vegetables high in carotenoids are carrots, spinach, sweet potatoes, and collard greens.
• Most of the nutrients in a potato reside just below the skin layer.
• A horn worm can eat an entire tomato plant by itself in one day!
• In the United States, more tomatoes are consumed than any other single fruit or vegetable!
• California produces almost all of the broccoli sold in the United States.
• White potatoes were first cultivated by local Indians in the Andes Mountains of South America.
• Yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing!
• A baked potato (with skin) is a good source of dietary fiber (4 grams).
• Actually a fruit, it took a ruling by the Supreme Court in 1893 to make the tomato a vegetable.
• Potatoes first appeared in Europe in 1586; they made it to North America in 1719.
• The potato disease “Late Blight” was the principal cause of the Irish Potato Famine, which killed a half million people.
• It is recommended that you eat five servings of fruit or vegetables a day. A serving equals one-half cup.

• The Potato

  (Solanum tuberosum)

  The potato has been an essential part of the world's diet for centuries. Originally cultivated in South America's Andean Mountains, potatoes found their way to Europe during the 16th century. By the end of 17th century the potato had become an important crop in Ireland. Today potatoes are grown in over 100 countries and in all 50 of the United States. According to the USDA, the average American eats 140 pounds of potatoes each year, including over 50 pounds of French fries!
  

  Nutritional Information for a Medium-Sized Potato

  Calories	110
  Protein	3 grams
  Carbohydrate	23 grams
  Fat	0 grams
  Dietary fiber	2710 milligrams
  Sodium	10 milligrams
  Potassium	750 milligrams

  Potato Facts

  • Thomas Jefferson is given credit for introducing French fries to America.
  • Germans eat twice as many potatoes as Americans.
  • 35 % of an adult's daily requirement of vitamin C can be found in a medium-sized potato.
  • Mr. Potato Head was introduced by the Hasbro company in 1952.
  • Potatoes do not have to be stored in a refrigerator, but they should be kept dark and dry.
  • Potatoes are only 20% solids…and 80% water.

  The Tomato

  (Lycopersicon esculentum)

  Originally cultivated by the Aztecs and Incas as early as 700 A.D., the tomato is native to the Americas. Europeans were first made aware of the tomato when explorers brought back seed from Mexico and Central America in the 16th century. Tomatoes quickly became popular in the Mediterranean countries but received resistance as they spread north. The British in particular considered the fruit to be beautiful but poisonous. This fear was shared in the American colonies and it was years before the tomato gained widespread acceptance. By the middle of the 19th century, tomatoes were in use across America. Today the tomato is generally considered to be the favorite vegetable of the American public.
  

  Nutritional Information

  (average-sized tomato, 5 oz.)

  Calories	35
  Protein	1 gram
  Carbohydrate	6 grams
  Fat	1 gram
  Dietary fiber	1 gram
  Sodium	15 milligrams
  Potassium	360 milligrams

  Tomato Facts

  • The tomato is in the same family as the potato, pepper, eggplant, and petunia.
  • There are thousands of different tomato varieties.
  • The French used to refer to the tomato as the “apple of love.”
  • Scientists at Cornell University have identified two cancer-fighting substances in the tomato: P-courmaric and chlorogenic acids.
  • Tomatoes are a good source of vitamins A and C.
  • A versatile vegetable for cooking, tomatoes can be prepared stuffed, baked, boiled, stewed, pickled, and fried, and are the base for many sauces.
  • Florida is the number one producer of fresh market tomatoes.

OCEAN PLANET" MARINE LIFE FACTS

• The oceans contain 99 percent of the living space on the planet.
• The blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, is the largest known animal ever to have lived on sea or land. Individuals can reach more than 110 feet and weigh nearly 200 tons_more than the weight of 50 adult elephants. The blue whale's blood vessels are so broad that a full-grown trout could swim through them, and the vessels serve a heart the size of a small car.
• Hydrothermal vents, fractures in the sea floor that spew sulphur compounds, support the only complex ecosystem known to run on chemicals, rather than energy from the sun. Gigantic tubeworms and mussels thrive in densities of up to 65 pounds per square foot around vents.
• The oarfish, Regalecus glesne, is the longest bony fish in the world. With its snakelike body_sporting a magnificent red fin along its 50-foot length_horselike face and blue gills, it accounts for many sea-serpent sightings.
• Green turtles can migrate more than 1,400 miles to lay their eggs.
• A group of herring is called a seige. A group of jelly fish is called a smack.
• Many fish can change sex during the course of their lives. Others, especially rare deep-sea fish, have both male and female sex organs.
• Oils from the orange roughy, Hoplostethus atlanticus, a deep-sea fish from New Zealand, are used in making shampoo.
• Bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, are among the largest and fastest marine fish. An adult may weigh 1,500 pounds and swim up to 55 miles per hour. Prized as sushi in Japan, bluefins are also among the most valuable fish: individual bluefins can bring as much as $20,000 at U.S. docks.
• Penguins "fly" underwater at up to 25 miles per hour.
• Since the architecture and chemistry of coral are very close to human bone, coral has been used to replace bone grafts in helping human bones to heal quickly and cleanly.
• Horseshoe crabs have existed in essentially the same form for the past 135 million years. Their blood provides a valuable test for the toxins that cause septic shock, which previously led to half of all hospital-acquired infections and one-fifth of all hospital deaths.
• Alginates, derived from the cell walls of brown algae, are used in beer, frozen desserts, pickles, adhesives, boiler compounds, ceramics, explosives, paper and toys.
• The remains of diatoms, algae with hard shells, are used in making pet litter, cosmetics, pool filters and tooth polish.
• One study of a deep-sea community revealed 898 species from more than 100 families and a dozen phyla in an area about half the size of a tennis court. More than half of these were new to science.
• Life began in the seas 3.1 billion to 3.4 billion years ago. Land dwellers appeared 400 million years ago_a relatively recent point in the geologic time line

Info About Bones

Bones give our wonderful body its structure. Without them, our motion, actions would just cease to exist. Let’s look at some fun facts about bones.

1. The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately .11 inches (.28 cm) long. We may owe all our hearing to this little bone shaped like a stirrup, because it transmits sound vibrations through our hearing system!

2. Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete, the Femur bone as it’s called – the biggest and strongest bone in our body. It is easily capable of lifting or supporting 30 times its own volume and weight!

3. There are about 206 bones in a grown-up’s body. But more than half of them are located just in our hands and feet!

4. We have somewhere around 300 to 350 bones that we are born with. As we grow up, the number reduces to 206. Well, they don’t go anywhere, except that sometime around the age between 12 and 14, some of our smaller bones, fuse into larger, big and stronger bones!

5. Apart from having more bones, another interesting baby fact is that they don’t have kneecaps! Well, actually they do but their kneecaps have not yet turned into hard bones, and are still soft cartilage, that gradually hardens into bones. This process is called ossification.

6. By the age of 20, the average young person has acquired roughly 98% of his/her skeletal mass.

7. There are around 14 bones are in the face, 8 bones are in each wrist, 27 bones in each hand, 23 bones are in each foot including the ankle and 30 bones in the skull.

8. Adult human bones account for 14% of the body’s total weight.

9. Bones consist of 50% water and 50% solid matter. They are hard, strong and very much alive like muscle tissue. They also have tons of living cells which help them grow and repair themselves. If bones weren’t made of living cells, things like broken toes or arms would never mend.

10. Bone marrow is found in the hollow bones, that produces new red and white blood cells. Consider it the factory for the blood constituents.

11. Our ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time we breathe!

12. When there’s not enough calcium in the bloodstream, the body attempts to pull calcium from the bones, which thins and weakens them. This causes osteoporosis, which leads to breaks and fractures.

13. Did you know that humans and giraffes have the same number of bones in their necks i.e. 8? Giraffe neck vertebrae are just much, much longer!
14. We have over 230 moveable and semi-moveable joints in our body.