Things You Should Know - Episode XX

• Google has a pet T-rex, named Stan, which lives at their California headquarters. Founders bought it to remind the employees to not let Google go extinct.

• Tuvalu is the world's smallest national economy with a GDP of about U.S.$33 million because of its very small population, a lack of natural resources, reliance on foreign aid, negligible capital investment, demographic problems, and low average incomes.
  
• Saudi Arabia is the world's only country to forbid women from driving. While it is not technically illegal for women to drive, only men are awarded driving licences - and women who drive in public risk being fined and arrested by the police.
  
  
• At U.S.$2.46 trillion in GDP, California is now the sixth-largest economy in the world, surpassing France, thanks to a robust state economy and strong U.S. dollar. California was the world’s eighth-largest economy in 2014. France is the world’s seventh-largest economy with a growth domestic product of U.S.$2.42 trillion, and India is the eighth-largest with U.S.$2.09 trillion, according to the latest International Monetary Fund data. Read more here.
  
  
• ABBA is a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by members Agnetha Fältskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1982. 

  

  (from left) Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog, & Bjorn Ulvaeus 

  
  

  
  During the band's active years, Fältskog & Ulvaeus and Lyngstad & Andersson were married. At the height of their popularity, both relationships were suffering strain which ultimately resulted in the collapse of the Ulvaeus–Fältskog marriage in 1979 and the Andersson–Lyngstad marriage in 1981. These relationship changes were reflected in the group's music, with later compositions featuring more introspective and dark lyrics in contrast to their usual pure-pop sound. (Source for text & picture: Wikipedia) 

Things You Should Know - Episode XIX

This installment comes after several weeks.

• This day, i.e., June 25, 32 years ago, India, led by Kapil Dev, won the Cricket World Cup for the first time. In the final of the third World Cup, India defeated two-time champion West Indies. 

• The Parliament of India comprises the President, the Rajya Sabha (Upper House, or House of Elders), and the Lok Sabha (Lower House, or House of Representatives).

• The term ‘Green Revolution’ was first used in 1968 by former United States Agency for International Development (USAID) director William Gaud.

A. S. Kiran Kumar, Chairman, ISRO

• Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar is the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He obtained his Physics (Honours) degree in 1971 and Master’s degree in Electronics in 1973 from Bangalore University. Two years later, he received M. Tech degree in Physical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He began working for ISRO by joining Space Applications Centre (SAC) in 1975.  Later, he became its Associate Director and in March 2012 took over as the Director of SAC.

• With 610,577 inhabitants as of the 2011 census, Sikkim is the least populous state in India and the second-smallest state after Goa in total area, covering approximately 7,096 km. It also has the only open land border between India and China.

Things You Should Know - Episode XVIII

• N. M. Ghatate, a senior lawyer at the Supreme Court and a close friend of Atal
  
  Bihari Vajpayee (right), recalled that after the BJP-led NDA’s defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, one of the private secretaries came to Vajpayee to say he was trying to check on the protocol for vacating the Prime Minister’s official residence at 7, Race Course Road. “Vajpayee simply said 'pata kya karna hai, bistar bandho aur niklo' (What is there to find out? Let’s pack our bags and move out),” he said. Read the short piece here. 

• Hitachi was founded by Namihei Odaira as an electrical repair shop in 1910. Hitachi means 'rising sun': hi meaning 'sun' and tachi meaning 'rise'. The young company's national aspirations were conveyed by its original brand mark, which evoked Japan's imperial rising sun flag.

• VIAO is a brand of technology products owned by Sony. Viao stands for Video Audio Integration Operation. 

• The Philippines was named in honour of King Philip II of Spain. 

• The European Union flag was adopted by the Council of Europe in 1986. It consists of a circle of twelve gold stars on a blue background. The number twelve represents perfection and completeness. 

Things You Should Know - Episode XVII

• In 1966, Sharmila Tagore became the first Indian actress to appear in a bikini. She appeared on the cover of Filmfare, a magazine owned by Bennett, Coleman & Co. (better known as Times of India Group), snapped by photographer Dhiraj Chawda.

• Belly Up company is one which is facing severe financial trouble or is on the verge of bankruptcy. In  the current context, Spicejet is a Belly Up company!

• Radcliffe Line is the name of the boundary line between India and Pakistan. And yes, the same name is used to describe the boundary between India and Bangladesh. It is named after Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer.

• The PakistanI city of Peshawar gets its name from ‘Purushapura’, a major trade centre in ancient India. Purushapura in Sanskrit means ‘city of men’. Today, Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly North-West Frontier Province and one of the four major provinces in Pakistan.

• Larsen & Toubro is India’s largest engineering firm. It was founded by Henning Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro, of Denmark, in 1938. Headquartered in Mumbai, the current Group Executive Chairman is Anil Manibhai Naik. The bridge that was featured in the seven-Oscar winning 1957 American film, ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’, was built by L&T. 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' is my most favourite English movie.

Things You Should Know - Episode XVI

• The name ‘Accenture’ comes from ‘accent on the future’. Prior to 2001, the company was called Andersen Consulting.

• Scarlet Collar Worker is a term often used to refer to people who work in the pornography industry, especially women entrepreneurs in the field of internet pornography.

• Launched in October 1992, Zee TV was India’s first Hindi satellite channel. The channel is owned by Essel Group, owned by Subhash Chandra.

Dr Guy Scott

• Dr Guy Lindsay Scott (born 1 June 1944) is the Acting President of Zambia. He served as Vice President of Zambia from 2011 to 2014, and became acting president on the death of Michael Sata on 28 October 2014. He is the first white African head of state since South Africa’s F. W. de Klerk in 1994.

• It is interesting to know that in 1958 that Bank of America (BofA) launched its BankAmericard credit card programme, which later became Visa. The history of Bank of America dates back to 1904, when Amadeo Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco. The Bank of Italy served the needs of many immigrants settling in the United States at that time, a service denied to them by the existing American banks who were typically discriminatory and often denied service to all but the wealthiest. In 1922, Giannini established Bank of America and Italy in Italy by buying Banca dell’Italia Meridionale, the latter established in 1918.  In 1928, Giannini merged his bank with Bank of America, Los Angeles, and consolidated it with his other bank holdings to create what would become the largest banking institution in the country. He renamed the Bank of Italy on November 3, 1930, calling it Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association.

Things You Should Know - Episode XV

• Datsun was first called DAT from the initials of its financiers – Den, Aoyama, and Takeuchi. Soon, the name was changed to DATSON to imply a smaller version of their original car; later it was changed to DATSUN when the company was acquired by Nissan.

Ajit Balakrishnan

• The company name ‘Parle’ is sourced from the name of a Mumbai suburb – Vile-Parle. Parle Group was founded by Mohanlal Dayal Chauhan in 1929.

• Here’s a story about snapdeal.com. In June 2011, Snapdeal adopted Shivnagar, a small village in Uttar Pradesh with no potable water. The Indian e-commerce company installed 15 hand pumps, so villagers no longer have to walk for miles to get water that would help them meet basic needs. To show their gratitude, the villagers changed their village’s name to snapdeal.com Nagar. Click here to read more.

• Ajit Balakrishnan is the founder and current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rediff.com. He is also the current Chairman of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM Calcutta). In fact, he holds a PGDM from IIM Calcutta (Class of 1971).

• Significance of today in history? On 3 December 1971, Pakistan launched a pre-emptive strike against India; this led to a full-fledged war between the two nations, which, just 13 days later, led to the birth of Bangladesh as an independent country.

Things You Should Know - Episode XIV

Source: World Atlas

• Which is the only country in the world to be established as a result of a successful slave revolt? Haiti. Gaining its independence in 1804, Haiti was the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the second republic in the Americas, and the only nation in the world established as a result of a successful slave revolt. Its successful revolution by slaves and free people of colour lasted nearly a decade; all the first leaders of government were former slaves.

• Honduras literally means ‘depths’ in Spanish. 

• Indonesia’s national motto, ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’ (‘Unity in Diversity’ literally, ‘many, yet one’), articulates the diversity that shapes the country.

• The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area. The country is also nicknamed ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’.

• The parliament of Finland is called Eduskunta.

10 Things You Should Know - Episode XIII

• Santosh Trophy, started in 1941, is probably the oldest football tournament in India. It is named after the late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh, a place located in today’s Bangladesh. The Maharaja, who donated the trophy, was once the President of the Indian Football Association. The runners-up trophy is called the Kamla Gupta Trophy. The third placed team receives the Sampangi Cup; it is named so in the memory of Sampangi, a renowned footballer from Mysore. 

• You must have seen Hindu sadhus smoking narcotic substances, like charas. Do you know why? Sadhus do it to suppress and eventually destroy their sexual desire and just concentrate on meditation. 

• Why are apples polished or wiped before eating? This is done to wipe away the devil’s finger-marks on the fruit skin to avoid misfortune. This originates from the belief that Satan gave Eve an apple to eat. 

  

  Ian Cook, Chairman, President & CEO of Colgate-Palmolive

• Colgate-Palmolive was formed from a merger of soap manufacturers, Colgate & Company and Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. Colgate was named after William Colgate, an English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap, and candle business in New York City in 1806. Palmolive was named for the two oils (Palm and Olive) used in its manufacture. 

• A little note on Dhyan Chand, India’s greatest Hockey player

India’s National Sports Day is observed on the birthday of Dhyan Chand,

Dhyan Chand

nicknamed the ‘Wizard of Hockey’. He was born Dhyan Singh.  He joined the Indian Army at the age of 16. The Hindi word Chand literally means the moon. Since Dhyan Singh used to practice a lot during night after his duty hours, he invariably used to wait for the moon to come out so that the visibility in the field (during his era there were no flood lights) improved. Hence he was called “Chand” by his fellow players, as his practice sessions at night invariably coincided with the coming out from the moon.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Dhyan Chand, who was the captain of the Indian Hockey team, had the distinction of scoring 11 out of 38 goals scored by his side. Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer, was very impressed by Dhyan Chand’s performance in the final, where India whipped Germany 8-1 in front of 40,000 peoples. At a dinner party after the final, Hitler offered to elevate Dhyan Chand to the rank of a Colonel if he migrated to Germany. Ever the patriot, Dhyan Chand turned down the offer.

In 1956, at the age of 51, he retired from the army with the rank of Major. After he retired he coached for a while and later settled in Jhansi. However, the last days of Dhyan Chand were not very happy, as he was short of money and was badly ignored by the nation. Once he went to a tournament in Ahmedabad and they turned him away not knowing who he was. He developed liver cancer, and was sent to a general ward at the AIIMS, New Delhi, where he died on 3 December 1979.

India’s highest award for lifetime achievement in sports is the Dhyan Chand Award, which has been awarded annually from 2002. Residents of Vienna (capital of Austria), honoured him by setting up a statue of him with four hands and four sticks, depicting his control and mastery over the ball. (I could not find any image on the Web for the statue; hence, I am deleting this idea.) ‘Goal’ is the autobiography of Hockey wizard Dhyan Chand. (Please note that this note on Dhyan Chand has been taken from Wikipedia.)

Want to know the backgrounder to the Syrian Crisis? Visit The Explainer: The Syrian Crisis Part I and  The Explainer: The Syrian Crisis Part II

10 Things You Should Know - Episode XII

IBM was previously called C-T-R (Computing-Tabulating-Recording) Company. Thomas Watson, Sr., joined the company after leaving National Cash Register (NCR). To upstage his former employer, he renamed C-T-R to International Business Machines (IBM) (in contrast to National, he used International!).

The term ‘dog days’ has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July 3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans called the period dies caniculares, or “days of the dog”.

Doug Fregin & Mike Lazaridis

BlackBerry was founded in 1984 by a pair of engineering students, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. Paradigm Research was the first choice to be registered, but that name was taken. Lazaridis tried submitting different variations of words combined with "Research", but each was rejected. As the registration application had to be accompanied by a U.S.$160 fee, the company was fast losing money before it even had a name. One evening, as Lazaridis was channel-surfing, he happened upon a bit of serendipity: A news story about football players taking ballet lessons, accompanied the words on screen: "Poetry in Motion". Lazaridis submitted the name, and Research In Motion was officially incorporated on March 7, 1984.

Dr Martin Cooper

Dr Martin Cooper, a former general manager at communications giant Motorola, is said to be the inventor of the first portable mobile handset and the first person to make an analogue mobile phone call on a portable mobile phone, in April 1973. The first call he made was to his rival, Joel Engel, head of research at Bell Laboratories  AT&T’s research arm, Bell Laboratories, introduced the idea of cellular communications in 1947 but Motorola upstaged it with the development of the first mobile phone.

Silicon Wadi is an area with a high concentration of high-tech industries in the coastal plain in Israel, similar to Silicon Valley in California, in the United States. Wadi is an Arabic word meaning ‘valley’. 

10 Things You Should Know - Episode XI

In one of the previous editions Things You Should Know series, I had mentioned that some editions of this series will feature five such facts. Here is one such edition.

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah (pictured right) is seen as the major force behind the partition of India. But do you know that he was once called by Sarojini Naidu as the ‘Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity’. Jinnah died on September 11, 1948, from tuberculosis. On Jinnah's death, Nehru said this: "How shall we judge him? I have been very angry with him often during the past years. But now there is no bitterness in my thought of him, only a great sadness for all that has been ... he succeeded in his quest and gained his objective, but at what a cost and with what a difference from what he had imagined."

• Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean. In 1492, Christopher Columbus colonised it for Spain; the island remained a Spanish colony till 1898. Spain had to cede the island to the United States after losing the 1898 Spanish-American War. Though a developing country, it has high life expectancy, with average life expectancy at birth at 78 years while literacy rate is 99.8%, with free education at all levels.

• Silicon Alley is a nickname for an area with a concentration of Internet and new media companies in Manhattan, New York City. The name derives from Silicon Valley in California. The name is ironic; New York City contains no alleys since the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, which removed all remaining serviceable alleys.

• Mozambique was named Moçambique by the Portuguese after the Island of Mozambique, derived from Musa Al Big or Mossa Al Bique or Mussa Ben Mbiki, an Arab trader who first visited the island and later lived there. 

• The first Apple logo featured Isaac Newton sitting under the famous Apple tree (see right). It was designed by Ron Wayne, a co-founder of Apple; Steve Jobs requested another logo design because he considered the Newton logo as too intellectual. 

Read The Explainer: The Syrian Crisis - Part I and The Explainer: The Syrian Crisis - Part II

Keep learning!

10 Things You Should Know - Episode X

After a long hiatus, the 10 Things You Should Know series is back. I will try to bring it to you in this space once every week.

• Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence in 1921. Today it is ranked as the third most valuable brand in the world (after Louis Vuitton and Hermes), according to the 2013 Brandz Top 100, a ranking of the global most valuable brands. Gucci is owned by the French luxury goods firm, Kering, previously called PPR. 

• MP3 is the short form of Motion Picture Experts Group Audio Player 3.

• No woman has ever won the Nobel Prize for Economics. Elinor Ostrom (U.S.) is the only woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics. She won the prestigious prize in 2009. (Thanks to Anudeep for the pointer.)

• Domino’s Pizza was founded by Tom Monaghan (in 1960) whose original goal was to open three pizza delivery stores. That’s why there are three dots on the logo.

• Peter Carey, J. M. Coetzee (both Australians) and Hilary Mantel are the only three authors to have won the Booker Prize twice. Carey won it for Oscar and Lucinda (1988) and True History of Kelly Gang (2001); Coetzee for Life and Times of Michael K (1983) and Disgrace (1999), and Mantel for Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012).

• The Dominican Republic has the only national flag with a Bible in it. 

• Canada, the second largest country in the world by area, derives its name from the St Lawrence Iroquoian language word, Kanata, which means ‘village’ or ‘settlement’. 

• Human ashes are called cremains. 

• The party symbol of the Republican Party in the U.S. is the same as that of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in India: Elephant. 

• Email is an inseparable part of life. It was in 1973 that the first email was created by Ray Tomlinson (pictured right), called the father of the electronic mail (email). But back in those days, the term electronic mail was used generically for any electronic document transmission, including the FAX. 

Things You Should Know - Episode IX

• Facebook was originally founded as 'thefacebook.com'. Before the homepage was redesigned in 2007, FB's homepage featured Al Pacino's face, hidden behind 1s and 0s (ONEs and ZEROs), the basis of binary code.

• Recently I found this about the Virgin Group: In an interview, the flamboyant founder Richard Branson revealed that when he started a business to sell music records by (postal) mail, one of the saleswomen proposed a name for the new business: "What about 'Virgin'? We are complete virgins at business."

• An Open Collar worker is one who works from home, through the medium of the Internet.

• Only Vimal is a brand owned by Reliance Industries. Dhirajlal Heerachand Ambani (yes, that's the full name of Dhirubhai Ambani!) named the business after the name of his nephew - his elder brother's son. 

• The original copy of the 7X formula (seven unknown ingredients) for Coca-Cola is stored in a safe vault in a branch of the SunTrust Bank in Atlanta, Georgia.

Things You Should Know - Episode VIII

This is my first blog post after more than a month! I was away doing nothing and more!

In the past, I used to run a series titled '10 Things You Should Know'. I am resuming the series with this entry, albeit with an undecided number of items; however, it will continue to be labelled '10 Things'.

• Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone operator by revenue, was founded as Racal Communications. Vodafone was chosen to stand for voice and data services carried over phone (phonetically 'fone').

• Cisco Systems takes its name from the name of the city of San Francisco. The logo of the company is the digital representation of the Golden Gate bridge, located in San Francisco.

• Ratan Tata holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture with Structural Engineering from the prestigious Cornell University (1962). In 1974-75, he pursued the Advanced Management Program (AMP) from the Harvard Business School. He is a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award.

• Australian William Ramsay founded and named the show polish brand, Kiwi, because his wife was from New Zealand. As you know, kiwi is the demonym for New Zealanders.

• Unilever is the world's largest maker of ice-creams. It owns brands like 'Kwality Wall's', Ben & Jerry's, Heartbrand, Breyers, and a few more brand listed in the photo featured here. 

10 Things You Should Know - Episode VII

• Hrithik Roshan has two thumbs on his right hand. This is known as hyperdactyly or polydactyly. It is generally hidden in his films. However, it was not hidden in ‘Koi… Mil Gaya’ where it was even used as a minor plot point, as the alien was also designed to have two thumbs!

• In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant the ‘right to vote’ to women.

• On December 5, 2011, the King of Belgium named a coalition government, which was sworn in a day later. This seemingly unimportant fact assumes great significance when you know that for this government to be place, Belgium had held a general election on 13 June 2010! But political parties could not agree on the modalities and terms of the coalition. Only after 541 days of intense negotiations, the King could finally broker an agreement to put a coalition government in place. With this, Belgium has created a dubious world record, in modern history, of a country going the longest time without a government in place.

• The tiny island nation of Maldives is the smallest country in Asia, both in terms of area (298 km²) and population (3.5 lakh). Also, with an average ground level of 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) above sea level, it is the world’s lowest country.

• General Motors Company was founded by William Durant in 1908. In 2010, it was the world’s second largest automobile maker. It owns brands like Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Opel, Vauxhall and Holden. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan (U.S.), it current Chairman and CEO is Daniel Akerson.

• Maria Montessori (August 1870 – May 1952) is the founder of the Montessori system of education. It is generally accepted that she was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Europe. 
  
  
• Former England captain and opener, Mike Atherton was nicknamed ‘the Cockroach’, because he was ‘hard to stamp out’. 
  
  
• Fakir Chand Kohli was the first General Manager of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). He is regarded as the ‘Father of India’s Software Industry’. A Padma Bhushan recipient, he was bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Economic Times in 2002.

• Osmania University, established in 1918, is named after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan.

• The 1970 Hollywood film Love Story had an interesting tagline: ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry’. The film was based on Erich Segal’s novel with the same title.

10 Things You Should Know - Episode VI

• ‘The Wicked Bible’ of 1631 is so called because it dropped a ‘not’ from one of the prohibitions of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt commit adultery (instead of ‘thou shalt not commit adultery’).

• During the Second World War, Russian strongman Stalin was code-named GLYPTIC, meaning ‘an image carved out of stone’. The name Stalin means ‘man of steel’.

• The Vatican City has no armed force of its own, the (Pontifical) Swiss Guard being a corps responsible for the security of the Pope. The Pontifical Swiss Guard was founded by Pope Julius II in 1506 as the personal bodyguard of the Pope and continues to fulfill that function. All recruits must be Catholic, unmarried males with Swiss citizenship who have completed their basic training with the Swiss Army with certificates of good conduct, be between the ages of 19 and 30, and be at least 175 cm (68.90 in) in height. Members are armed with small arms and the traditional halberd (a kind of pole weapon) and trained in bodyguarding tactics.

• In a speech broadcast by the Azad Hind Radio from Singapore in July 1944, Subhash Chandra Bose addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the ‘Father of the Nation’ and asked for his blessings and good wishes for the war he was fighting. This was the first time that Mahatma Gandhi was referred to by this title.

• Goldman Sachs was founded by Marcus Goldman in New York in 1869. Thirteen years later, his son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined him. In 1885, the firm adopted the name, Goldman Sachs & Co.

• The population of Uttar Pradesh is a little over 20 crore (Census 2011). This means that if UP were a separate country, it would have been the fifth most populous nation in the world. To put this in perspective, UP’s population would put it ahead of Brazil, which with its area of over 85 lakh sq km, is 35 times larger than UP in area.

• The Aztecs used to describe gold as ‘the excrement of the gods’.

• The word cyberspace is a portmanteau of cybernetics and space. It was coined by William Gibson, the Canadian science fiction writer, in 1982 in his novelette ‘Burning Chrome’ in Omni magazine and was subsequently popularized in his novel Neuromancer. Cyberspace relates to virtual reality.

• ‘Meatspace’ is the opposite of ‘cyberspace’. In other words, meatspace relates to anything that is physical in nature.

• We all know that Rahul Dravid is nicknamed ‘The Wall’. There is another nickname he has got: Jammy. That is what his school teammates called him, because Rahul’s father worked for Kissan jams (a Unilever brand). 

Check out 10 Things - Episode I, Episode II, Episode III, Episode IV, and Episode V.

10 Things You Should Know - Episode V

Here’s Episode V of 10 Things You Should Know; I wrote this instalment at Delhi airport, waiting for my flight to Jaipur.

• What do you call an older man having a much younger girlfriend? Cradle-snatcher.

• The motto of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is ‘Nation shall speak peace unto nation’.


• John Lennon, one of the greatest song writers and member of the Beatles, used the pseudonym ‘Kaptain Kundalini’ in his musical works. I suggest you listen to John Lennon’s Imagine; it is divine.
  
  
• The small enclosed area used in the sport of Cock-fighting called Cockpit.
  
  
• ‘In-q-tel’ is the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
  
  
• Jesus Wept is the shortest verse in the Bible. In tennis, Jesus Wept refers to mini tennis skirts.
  
  
• Marilyn Monroe was the first pin-up in Playboy magazine, launched by Hugh Hefner in 1953.

• When Netaji Subhash Bose reorganised the Indian National Army (INA), he placed his soldiers under three commands: Gandhi, Nehru and Maulana Azad.
• 
  
• Barbecue, a type of cooking, is named after a Spanish word meaning ‘framework of sticks’.

• It is general practice, especially among the religious Christians, to polish or wipe apples before eating. Do you know why? To wipe away the devil’s finger-marks on the skin, to avoid misfortune. This originates from the belief that Satan gave Eve an apple to eat.

  Check out 10 Things You Should Know: Episode I, Episode II, Episode III, and Episode IV.

10 Things You Should Know - Episode IV

Presenting the Fourth Episode of 10 Things You Should Know.

1. Nike is the world’s largest supplier of sports gear. It was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight. Later in 1978 the company’s name was changed to Nike, being named after the Greek goddess of victory. The logo (tick or right mark) is called Swoosh. It also owns brands like Umbro and Converse. 

2. Operation Polo was the name of the military operation launched by the Indian Army to liberate Hyderabad in 1948. The name Polo was chosen because of the presence of a large number of polo grounds in Hyderabad.

3. Greece is called by the Greeks as Hellas or Ellada and its official name is Hellenic Republic. It is only in English that the country is called Greece, a word which is rooted in the Latin Graecia (a name used by the Romans and which literally means 'the land of the Greeks'.)

4. Ferrari is a brand owned by FIAT. Ferrari’s logo of Prancing Horse was designed by a Turin-based company Cerrato and was engraved by Incerti for Ferrari Scaglietti models.

5. Kirti Mandir in Porbandar is a memorial temple built in honour of Mahatma Gandhiji. 

6. A former song writer and singer, Silvio Berlusconi is the colourful former prime minister of Italy. He is the owner of AC Milan football club. He is also a major shareholder of Fininvest, one of Italy’s biggest private companies, and Mediolanum, a massive banking and insurance group. 

7. An economy which neither exports nor imports is called ‘closed economy’.

8. Jonathan Ive is the chief designer of the iPod, iMac and the other major products of Apple. He is currently the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple. 

9. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy. The current monarch is Bhumibol Adulyadej. He is officially named King Rama IX, who has reigned since 1946, making him the world's longest-serving current head of state. The king is officially titled Head of State, the Head of the Armed Forces, an Upholder of the Buddhist religion, and the Defender of all Faiths. 

10. Idi Amin was the president of Uganda between 1971 and 1979. He captured power in a military coup and was eventually thrown out in a military intervention by neighbouring Tanzania. Toward the end of his reign, many believed that he had gone mad; he declared he had defeated the British and conferred on himself the decoration of CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire)! Wish to know his full self-bestowed title? Here it is: ‘“His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”, in addition to his officially stated claim of being the uncrowned King of Scotland.’ Now you know why Hollywood made an Oscar-winning film on Amin’s life with the title of ‘The Last King of Scotland’.

Check out Episode I, Episode II, and Episode III of 10 Things You Should Know.