If you have paid any attention to the news, you have probably heard Greece being mentioned fairly frequently during the past few months. Unfortunately, the Mediterranean country is not in the limelight for its idyllic beaches, towering mountains, or historic sites, but for the financial crisis it has been trying to overcome since 2010....
Read news articleJuly 4, 2015 was America's 239th birthday. To celebrate the occasion, residents hosted barbecues, sought out the closest fireworks shows and . . . watched in emotions ranging from total awe to horror, as the contestants of Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest tried to outdo each other by devouring copious amounts of hot dogs in ten short minutes....
Read news articleLove ice cream? Then you are going to be pleased to hear that July is National Ice Cream month. The month-long homage to everyone's favorite dessert is not a ploy by corporations to sell more ice cream, but one put into effect by President Ronald Reagan....
Read news articleOn June 21st, the 30,000 visitors that attended the , a six-month-long Universal Exhibition that is currently going on in Italy, were in for a special treat - a slice of the world's longest pizza! Measuring 1.59545 kilometers, or just under a mile, the delicious pie that extended across 800 tables handily surpassed the previous record holder - a 1.1415-kilometer-long pizza made by Spanish chefs in 2011....
Read news articleMost people think about donating blood. However, very few actually do it. According to experts, though almost 50% of the US population can be counted as potential blood donors less than 10% ever give. What's worse is that even the most consistent ones donate an average of just three to four times during their lifetime. Though these statistics pertain to the US, the situation is similar worldwide. Now the officials in Swedenare trying to to reverse the trend with the help of modern-day technology....
Read news articleIf you happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere, you may want to plan extensive activities to keep dad entertained this Father's Day. That's because June 21st happens to be the start of summer and the longest day of the year. Also known as summer 'solstice' - a Latin word for 'sun stands still', it is the day when the tilt of the Earth's semi-axis, in the northern hemisphere, is most inclined toward the sun....
Read news articleTo amateurs, the 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp that measures a mere 2.5 cm by 3.2 cm may appear to be like any other ancient postage stamp. However, for philatelists this octagonal scrap of paper that bears an illustration of a three-masted ship is a one-of-a-kind treasure, for which an avid collector recently paid $9.5 million. According to Sotheby's, the One-Cent Magenta is not just the world's most expensive stamp sold at an auction but also its most valuable object by weight and size!...
Read news articleThe Wapichan or Wapishana tribe of Guyana is an isolated community of fewer than 6,000 people that live on the edge of the rainforest around South America's Rupununi Savannah, one of the world's largest open ranges of savannah lands. Located in Guyana between the Rupununi River and the Brazilian border, the 5,000 square mile area of pristine grasslands, swamplands, and rain-forested mountains has been the source of food and water for the tribe for centuries. Unfortunately, their means of subsistence is now being threatened by illegal logging and gold mining activities....
Read news articleIn 2014, Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe made history when they were declared the first co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 52 years, and only the fifth since the contest began in 1925. On May 28th, 2015, 13-year-old Vanya Shivashankar and 14-year-old Gokul Venkatachalam repeated the feat, after zipping through the final list of 25 difficult words with ease....
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