Italy Facts | Interesting Facts about Italy

Interesting Facts about Italy:

• Italy is ranked as the world’s 6th largest industrial economy. According to the OECD, Italy's Gross Domestic Product (GDP at PPP values) is the sixth largest in the world.

• Italy is home to the greatest number of sites on UNESCO’s world heritage list; many exhibits in America and throughout the world originated in Italy.

• Italy has been and is a major player, along with the United States and other European allies, in peacekeeping, stabilization, and reconstruction in the Balkans and the Broader Middle East, including Afghanistan and Iraq.

• The city of Torino hosted the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, which were a great success in terms of organizational efficiency and security as well as an intense celebration of sport and friendship.

Latvia Facts | Interesting Facts about Latvia

Interesting Facts about Latvia:

• Latvia has the highest GDP growth in the EU: 10.2 percent in 2005.

• The Latvian Lats to U.S. dollar exchange rate is approximately 1:2--$2=1 Lats.

• A high number of women are represented in Latvia’s political leadership, including the Latvian President, Speaker of Parliament, and Minister of Defense.

• Cell phone coverage is available over 99 percent of Latvia’s territory.

Lithuania Facts | Interesting Facts about Lithuania

Interesting Facts about Lithuania:

• In March 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare its independence from Moscow.

• The inflation rate in Lithuania is the lowest in Europe.

• The productivity growth of Lithuanian companies exceeds the rapidly rising average productivity growth of Central European companies.

• Lithuania is the largest EU contributor to the NBA: 6 players this year.

Luxembourg Facts | Interesting Facts about Luxembourg

Interesting Facts about Luxembourg:

• Residents of Luxembourg rank No. 2 in the world in their standard of living and per capita income.

• Luxembourg leads the world in mobile telephone access. In 2003, Luxembourg had more cell phones than total inhabitants.

• Luxembourg ranks as the world’s top city for personal safety and security.

• Luxembourg has the highest GDP per capita ($58,900) in the world.

Malta Facts | Interesting Facts about Facts

Interesting Facts about Facts:

• Malta is home to seven Megalithic structures that are designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with the oldest structures dating from the 6th Millenium BCE, making it 1,000 years older than the Pyramids of Egypt. Very little is known about the mysterious yet highly complex civilization that built them over a span of thousands of years. Valletta, a walled, 16th century gem of baroque architecture and the capital city is yet another World Heritage site.

• Malta welcomes 1.2 million tourists a year (triple its population of 400,000), who flock to the island not only to experience its natural beauty, climate, and clean seas, but also its ancient heritage—the island’s 7,000 year old history and pre-history. Tourism accounts for 24.3 percent of Gross National Product and over 25 percent of exports of goods and services. Malta has also become a center for Conferences and Learning of English as a Foreign Language.

• In 1967, Arvid Pardo, the Maltese Ambassador to the UN, proposed that the UN declare the seabed and ocean floor "underlying the seas beyond the limits of present national jurisdiction" to be "the common heritage of mankind." The UN General Assembly convened the 1973 Third UN Conference of the Law of the Sea to write a new treaty. The convention came into force on November 14, 1994.

• There are two main political parties in Malta and elections generate a widespread voter turnout exceeding 96 percent. The margin between the two parties is so narrow that a 52 percent share of the votes can still be considered a "landslide" for the winning party.

Interesting facts about Fingers

Interesting facts about Fingers: 

• Fingernails grow about one-tenth of an inch a month. Toenails grow at a quarter of that speed.

• Divination by looking at a person’s fingernails is called ‘onychomancy’.

• The index fingers on the Statue of Liberty are 8ft long.

• The medical term for such an abnormality(six fingers) is ‘polydactylism’.

• Research has shown that top sprinters have long ring fingers. 

• A study in the City of London has also shown that male traders with the longest ring fingers earned up to six times as much as their colleagues.

• The Oxford Dictionary lists seven names for the second finger: it is the demonstrator, forefinger, insignitur, lickpot, index, teacher or weft finger...

• While the middle finger is your middling, your midsfinger or your nameless finger...

• The ring finger may also be called the leech finger, physician finger or wedding finger.

• The little finger is the ear finger, mercurial finger or pinkie.

The Netherlands Facts | Interesting Facts about Netherlands

Interesting Facts about Netherlands:

• Although often called ‘Holland’, our official name is ‘The Netherlands’ – which means lowlands. One-third of the Netherlands is below sea level. The Netherlands' highest point is about 1000 feet high and they call it a ‘mountain.’

• While the Netherlands comprises only 0.008% of the world's area, it is the world's third largest agricultural exporter. Rotterdam’s seaport is the world’s largest port in size and tonnage.

• The Dutch are strong inventors and developed the compact disc, the microscope, and the artificial heart.

• 800 Dutch companies in the U.S. employ over 350,000 Americans. Skippy Peanut Butter, Ponds, Ben & Jerry’s, Hellman’s, Slim Fast, and Close-up are Dutch products.

Interesting Facts about Portugal

Interesting Facts about Portugal:

• Portugal could become the world's 10th largest tourism market by 2020, attracting almost quadruple the current number of tourists, according to the World Tourism Organization. Wine tourism is growing at a strong 7 to 12 per cent a year in Europe, and Portugal is one of the main destinations. Portugal’s annual income from the golf industry represents 1.25 per cent of national income and 14 per cent of all income from tourism.

• In relative terms, Portugal invests more than the EU average in education; the average ratio of one teacher to every nine students is one of the highest in the world. Portugal ranks as number one among the advanced industrialized nations in the number of Internet subscribers per capita.

• Portugal had the second highest GDP growth rates in Europe over the last 40 years.

Remove Navigation Bar on Blogger

Learn how to remove navigation bar on Blogger.

Note: Take template backup on before making changes to template

1.Login to your blogger account

2.Goto Layout option from Dashboard menu

3. Now choose Edit Html

4.You will see your template code there.

5.In that template code find using Ctrl+f button.

]]></b:skin>

and replace it with

#navbar-iframe,#navbar { display: none !important; }
]]></b:skin>

6. Save your Template.

Interesting Facts about Slovakia

Interesting Facts about Slovakia:

• Eugen Andrew Cernan, Apollo 17 captain, and the second American who walked on the Moon, was of the Slovak origin.

• Among Slovakia’s reknowned native sons are: Jozef Murgas, inventor of radiotelegraphy; stefan Banic, constructed the first parachute based on the principle of the umbrella; Maximilián Hell (1720 – 1792), a mathematician and astronomer, was the first to measure the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

• The hill known as Krahule near the town Kremnica, Slovakia, is the geographical center of Europe.

• In 2007, the Slovakian automotive industry will produce 950,000-1,000,000 cars per year, giving the country the highest per capita car production in the world.

Interesting Facts about Slovenia

Interesting Facts about Slovenia:

• Slovenia is one of the best economic performers in Central and Eastern Europe with GDP per capita at $17,008 in 2005 and receives the highest credit rating of all transition economies.

• Slovenia's Port of Koper on the Adriatic Sea provides a 7-10 day shorter route for shipments arriving from Asia than do Europe's northern ports.

• Slovenians in their first state, Carinthia, practiced the unique custom of the Installation of the Dukes of Carinthia (7th –14th century). According to some scholars, the ritual of installing Carinthian dukes carried out in the Slovenian language and the democratic arrangement between people and ruler is said to have influenced Thomas Jefferson's drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

• Several exceptional sportsmen of this nation of two million have made it into the halls of fame of extreme sports achievements. Among them are ultra-marathon swimmer Martin Strel, the first to swim the Mississippi River, and Jure Robic, the two time winner of RAAM - the endurance bicycle race from the west to the east coast of the United States.

Add Star Ratings to Blogger Posts

Learn how to add star ratings to blogger posts:

• Login your blogger account.

• Go to the Edit HTML page in your blog's dashboard, and ensure you have checked the "expand widget templates" box.

• Type following code in search box or Press Ctrl + F to find following code,

<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>

• If you cannot locate this, search for the following instead:

<p><data:post.body /></p>

Immediately after this line (either the post-footer or post.body), add the following section of code:

    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
    <span class='star-ratings'>
    <b:if cond='data:top.showStars'>
    <div expr:g:background-color='data:backgroundColor' expr:g:text-color='data:textColor' expr:g:url='data:post.absoluteUrl' g:height='42' g:type='RatingPanel' g:width='180'/>
    </b:if>
    </span>
    </b:if>

Next, find this line in your Blogger template (this should be a little further down):

    <b:include name='nextprev'/>

Just after this line, paste the following section of code:

    <b:if cond='data:top.showStars'>
    <script src='http://www.google.com/jsapi' type='text/javascript'/>
    <script type='text/javascript'>
    google.load("annotations", "1");
    function initialize() {
    google.annotations.createAll();
    google.annotations.fetch();
    }
    google.setOnLoadCallback(initialize);
    </script>
    </b:if>

Then save your template.

Now when you view a post page on your blog, you will see the star ratings in your posts! Happy Blogging!

Interesting Facts about Spain

Interesting Facts about Spain:

• Thirteen of the 15 major North American oil and gas companies have Spanish management, control, and information systems installed.

• The Tampa Bay Water Authority has selected a Spanish firm to repair, redesign, and operate the Apollo Beachplant, the largest desalination facility in the U.S.

• Six Spanish companies were among the top 10 private infrastructure-management companies of 2004, according to Public Works Financing, the leading industry magazine.

• A Spanish company, Abengoa Bioenergy, is the second largest biofuels producer in the world.

Interesting Facts about Sweden

Interesting Facts about Sweden:

• Sweden has the second highest proportion of women in its national parliament, 45.3 per cent, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

• Sweden’s Ericsson is a world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and related services to mobile and fixed network operators globally. Over 1,000 networks in 140 countries utilize network equipment from Ericsson and 40 percent of all mobile calls are made through Ericsson’s systems.

• Sweden is the third largest music exporter in the world, after the U.S. and Britain.

• Sweden is the number one nation in environmental protection and sustainability policies and aims to be the first country in the world to become oil independent by the year 2020.

Interesting Facts about Bulgaria

Interesting Facts about Bulgaria:

Bulgaria occupies a strategic location between Europe and Asia, and is a center of political and economic stability in South-Eastern Europe. Historically, Bulgaria has been a nation of proven ethnic and religious tolerance.

Bulgaria is second in the world in international IQ tests and SAT scores and fourth in the world in per capita university education after the U.S., Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Bulgaria boasts a highly skilled labor force that is cost-competitive, with 5,000 computer science graduates annually and more that 20,000 professionals employed in the IT sector (from a population of 7.9 million). Intensive foreign language training is part of the curriculum - e.g. 429,000 secondary school students follow the English only language program every year.

Bulgaria has established itself as a preferred tourist destination, with almost 5 million tourists in 2005 (more than half of the country's population and an increase of 16 percent over 2004), visiting its spa, mountain.

Interesting Facts about Romania

Interesting Facts about Romania:

Romania has been one of the five fastest growing economies in Europe during the last five years. Romania is number four in the top of 10 countries with highest growth rate in tourism development, with an estimated potential of 8 percent from 2007 – 2016 (The World Travel and Tourism Council).

Constanta Port, located on the Romanian Black Sea Coast, is the 2nd largest port in Europe.

Romania is one of the largest wine producers in Europe with a vineyard surface of 243,000 hectares and an annual production of 5 to 6 million hectoliters. Archaeological finds and historical documents place the beginnings of wine culture on the present territory of Romania some 4000 years ago.

Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci was the the first Olympic gymnast ever to score a perfect 10, at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

List of countries in the World

List of countries around the world. Read the alphabetical list of all countries in the world with capitals.

(A)

•     Afghanistan (Kabul)
•     Albania (Tirane)
•     Algeria (Algiers)
•     Andorra (Andorra la Vella)
•     Angola (Luanda)
•     Antigua and Barbuda (St. John's)
•     Argentina (Buenos Aires)
•     Armenia (Yerevan)
•     Australia (Canberra)
•     Austria (Vienna)
•     Azerbaijan (Baku)

(B)

•     Bahamas (Nassau)
•     Bahrain (Manama)
•     Bangladesh (Dhaka)
•     Barbados (Bridgetown)
•     Belarus (Minsk)
•     Belgium (Brussels)
•     Belize (Belmopan)
•     Benin (Porto-Novo)
•     Bhutan (Thimphu)
•     Bolivia (Sucre)
•     Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo)
•     Botswana (Gaborone)
•     Brazil (Brasilia)
•     Brunei (Bandar Seri Begawan)
•     Bulgaria (Sofia)
•     Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou)
•     Burma/Myanmar (Nay Pyi Taw)
•     Burundi (Bujumbura)

(C)

•     Cambodia (Phnom Penh)
•     Cameroon (Yaounde)
•     Canada (Ottawa)
•     Cape Verde (Praia) (EU - Portugal)
•     Central African Republic (Bangui)
•     Chad (N'Djamena)
•     Chile (Santiago)
•     China (Beijing)
•     Colombia (Bogota)
•     Comoros (Moroni)
•     Congo (Brazzaville)
•     Congo, Democratic Republic of (Kinshasa)
•     Costa Rica (San Jose)
•     Cote d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast (Yamoussoukro)
•     Croatia (Zagreb)
•     Cuba (Havana)
•     Cyprus (Nicosia) and/or
•     Czech Republic (Prague)

(D)

•     Denmark (Copenhagen)
•     Djibouti (Djibouti)
•     Dominica (Roseau)
•     Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo)

(E)

•     East Timor (Dili)
•     Ecuador (Quito)
•     Egypt (Cairo)
•     El Salvador (San Salvador)
•     Equatorial Guinea (Malabo)
•     Eritrea (Asmara)
•     Estonia (Tallinn)
•     Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)

(F)

•     Fiji (Suva) (AU - Oceania)
•     Finland (Helsinki)
•     France (Paris)

(G)

•     Gabon (Libreville)
•     Gambia (Banjul)
•     Georgia (Tbilisi)
•     Germany (Berlin)
•     Ghana (Accra)
•     Greece (Athens)
•     Grenada (St. George's)
•     Guatemala (Guatemala City)
•     Guinea (Conakry)
•     Guinea-Bissau (Bissau)
•     Guyana (Georgetown)

(H)

•     Haiti (Port-au-Prince)
•     Honduras (Tegucigalpa)
•     Hungary (Budapest)

(I)

•     Iceland (Reykjavik)
•     India (New Delhi)
•     Indonesia (Jakarta)
•     Iran (Tehran)
•     Iraq (Baghdad)
•     Ireland (Dublin)
•     Israel (Jerusalem)
•     Italy (Rome)

(J)

•     Jamaica (Kingston)
•     Japan (Tokyo)
•     Jordan (Amman)

(K)

•     Kazakhstan (Astana)
•     Kenya (Nairobi)
•     Kiribati (South Tarawa) (AU - Oceania)
•     Korea, North (Pyongyang)
•     Korea, South (Seoul)
•     Kuwait (Kuwait City)
•     Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek)

(L)

•     Laos (Vientiane)
•     Latvia (Riga)
•     Lebanon (Beirut)
•     Lesotho (Maseru)
•     Liberia (Monrovia)
•     Libya (Tripoli)
•     Liechtenstein (Vaduz)
•     Lithuania (Vilnius)
•     Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

(M)

•     Macedonia (Skopje)
•     Madagascar (Antananarivo)
•     Malawi (Lilongwe)
•     Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)
•     Maldives (Male)
•     Mali (Bamako)
•     Malta (Valletta)
•     Marshall Islands (Majuro) (AU - Oceania)
•     Mauritania (Nouakchott)
•     Mauritius (Port Louis)
•     Mexico (Mexico City)
•     Micronesia (Palikir) (AU - Oceania)
•     Moldova (Chisinau)
•     Monaco (Monaco)
•     Mongolia (Ulan Bator)
•     Montenegro (Podgorica)
•     Morocco (Rabat) (including Western Sahara)
•     Mozambique (Maputo)

(N)

•     Namibia (Windhoek)
•     Nauru (no official capital) (AU - Oceania)
•     Nepal (Kathmandu)
•     Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague)
•     New Zealand (Wellington)
•     Nicaragua (Managua)
•     Niger (Niamey)
•     Nigeria (Abuja)
•     Norway (Oslo)

(O)

•     Oman (Muscat)

(P)

•     Pakistan (Islamabad)
•     Palau (Koror) (AU - Oceania)
•     Panama (Panama City)
•     Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby)
•     Paraguay (Asuncion)
•     Peru (Lima)
•     Philippines (Manila)
•     Poland (Warsaw)
•     Portugal (Lisbon)

(Q)

•     Qatar (Doha)

(R)

•     Romania (Bucharest)
•     Russian Federation (Moscow)
•     Rwanda (Kigali)

(S)

•     Saint Kitts and Nevis (Basseterre)
•     Saint Lucia (Castries)
•     Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Kingstown)
•     Samoa (Apia) (AU - Oceania)
•     San Marino (San Marino)
•     Sao Tome and Principe (Sao Tome)
•     Saudi Arabia (Riyadh)
•     Senegal (Dakar)
•     Serbia (Belgrade)
•     Seychelles (Victoria)
•     Sierra Leone (Freetown)
•     Singapore (Singapore City)
•     Slovakia (Bratislava)
•     Slovenia (Ljubljana)
•     Solomon Islands (Honiara) (AU - Oceania)
•     Somalia (Mogadishu)
•     South Africa (Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein)
•     South Sudan (Juba)
•     Spain (Madrid)
•     Sri Lanka (Colombo)
•     Sudan (Khartoum)
•     Suriname (Paramaribo)
•     Swaziland (Mbabane)
•     Sweden (Stockholm)
•     Switzerland (Bern)
•     Syria (Damascus)

(T)

•     Tajikistan (Dushanbe)
•     Tanzania (Dodoma)
•     Thailand (Bangkok)
•     Togo (Lome)
•     Tonga (Nuku'alofa) (AU - Oceania)
•     Trinidad and Tobago (Port-of-Spain)
•     Tunisia (Tunis)
•     Turkey (Ankara)
•     Turkmenistan (Ashgabat)
•     Tuvalu (Funafuti) (AU - Oceania)

(U)

•     Uganda (Kampala)
•     Ukraine (Kiev)
•     United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi)
•     United Kingdom (London)
•     United States (Washington D.C.)
•     Uruguay (Montevideo)
•     Uzbekistan (Tashkent)

(V)

•     Vanuatu (Port-Vila) (AU - Oceania)
•     Vatican City
•     Venezuela (Caracas)
•     Vietnam (Hanoi)

(Y)

•     Yemen (Sana)

(Z)

•     Zambia (Lusaka)
•     Zimbabwe (Harare)

Estonia Facts | Interesting Facts about Estonia

Interesting Facts about Estonia:

• Estonia was the first country to adopt a flat tax. It has no hidden taxes and corporate investment is exempt from corporate income tax.

• Estonia has had an average growth rate of about 6 percent over the past five years. It is so wired that it is nicknamed E-stonia. Bars and cafes are universally equipped with wireless connections.

• Skype, designed by Estonian developers, offers free calls over the Internet to millions of people.

Germany Facts | Interesting Facts about Germany

Interesting Facts about Germany:

• Germany has the world’s third largest and Europe’s largest economy.

• Germany leads the world in exports; 10.1 percent of world exports come from Germany.

• Germany was ranked by the World Competitiveness Yearbook as No. 1 in patent and copyright protection.

• Germany plays the largest role next to that of the United States in the campaign to bring stability and development to Afghanistan and other countries.

Poland Facts | Interesting Fun Facts about Poland

Interesting Facts about Poland:

• Poland gave birth to one of the largest citizens’ movements in modern history, led by Nobel laureate, Lech Walesa, which led to the fall of Communism in Europe.

• Polish glass makers built and operated the first factory in the New World, in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608.

• Poland’s labor force is among the strongest in the world and is ranked 3rd for labor utilization, above the U.S. and Japan.

• Poland holds the world's fifth-largest proven reserves of hard and brown coal in addition to deposits of copper, sulfur, zinc, lead, and silver, as well as magnesium and rock salt.

Eagle Waiting for Child to Die | Kevin Carter Pulitzer Prize Photograph

Eagle Waiting for Child to Die | Kevin Carter Pulitzer Prize Photograph

This photo was taken by Kevin Carter in 1994 during the Sudan Famine and it got "Pulitzer Award".

The picture represents a famine stricken child crawling towards a United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away. 

The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat. This picture shocked the whole world. 

No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken. 

Three months later he committed suicide due to depression.

Interesting Facts about Denmark

Amazing Facts about Denmark:

• Denmark is an advanced society with a high level of education, state of the art infrastructure, and high tech industry.

• Denmark has one of the strongest economies in Europe with a public expenditure surplus, trade surplus, and the lowest unemployment rate in Europe. More than 50 per cent of its GDP derives from foreign trade.

• Denmark is a world leader in energy efficiency and conservation. Today, Denmark is favored by a flexible and diverse energy supply structure marked by a high percentage of renewable's. Wind energy alone accounts for 20 per cent of the total power generation in Denmark.

• Denmark leads the world in public and private investment in educational institutions as a share of GDP, according to the World Competitiveness Yearbook.

Interesting Facts about Czech Republic

Amazing Facts about Czech Republic:

• The Czech Republic is No. 2 in investment incentives and No. 3 in investment in telecommunications among 60 leading economies.

• The Czech Republic boasts an extraordinarily high number of cultural monuments. Over 2,000 preserved castles and chateaux are open to the public (more per square mile than any other country in the world) and represent an important part of national cultural heritage, in terms of their number and their historical and artistic value. The Czech Republic is the birthplace of many well-known people, notably Antonin Dvorak and Madeleine Albright.

• The Czech Republic has the largest number of incoming tourists per capita, with Prague being the most visited city. Many popular spas exist in the Czech Republic, which have been frequented by numerous renowned personalities, including such European cultural giants as Goethe, Schiller, Chopin, Beethoven, and Wagner.

• The Czech Republic is the number one beer-brewing nation in the world and can lay claim to many “beer firsts”: first in per capita beer consumption, first beer museum in the world, first beer brewing textbook, first Pilsener, first Budweiser, and first president to have written an absurdist play based on his experiences working in a Czech beer brewery in 1974 (Vaclav Havel – Audience).

Interesting Facts about Cyprus

Amazing Facts about Cyprus:

• Cypriot culture is among the oldest in the Mediterranean. By 3700 BC, the island was well inhabited, a crossroads between East and West.

• Since 1974, Cyprus has been divided. While the entire territory of the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, full application of EU laws and policies is suspended in the areas not controlled by the government of Cyprus.

• In the past 20 years, the economy has shifted from agriculture to light manufacturing and services. The service sector, including tourism, contributes roughly 76 percent to the GDP and employs 72 percent of the labor force.

Interesting Facts about Belgium

Amazing facts about Belgium:

• Belgium has the highest density of roads and the highest density of railroads in the world.

• Belgium is the world’s largest diamond center and second largest petrochemical center.

• Belgium has the 2nd highest concentration of diplomatic missions (159 Embassies) after Washington, D.C.

• One third of all dredging work in the world is done by Belgian companies.

• According to the UN Human Development Index 2005, Belgium was the 9th most ‘liveable’ country in the world. (one place ahead of the U.S.)

Interesting Facts about Austria

Interesting Facts about Austria:

• The World Competitiveness Yearbook ranked Austria No. 2 in quality of life, surpassing the U.S. and Japan.

• Between 1994 and 2004, productivity in Austria grew by 52 percent, far faster than in the U.S. (38 percent) and Japan (30 percent).

• The company that makes Red Bull, the world’s No. 1 energy drink, is headquartered in Fuschl, Austria.

• Austrian firms lead the world market for encapsulated photovoltaic cell technology.