General Knowledge
World War I
(1914 - 1918) European World War, Allies v. Central Powers 16 million deaths The League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict
km vs miles and meters vs feet
1 kilometre = 0,621 mile 1 metre = 3 feet 3,37 inches
memory consolidation
1. Impression 2. Repetition 3. Association 1. get a deep, vivid and lasting impression of the thing you wish to retain (read aloud to remember ) (practice 15 minutes (this is also valid for languages) at a time, after that the brain loses its freshness) 2. Repeat, repeat, repeat 3. (see dates below) NB: we forget more during the first eight hours than during the next thirty days Names get people to talk about their name especially if you can't associate it with anything it helps you remember it and say his/her name once out loud it helps remembering it Dates Tie them with a story and the memorizing can be done with a fraction of the time and effort Any group of ideas can be linked together in some such fashion, and the more ridiculous the sentence used for the linking, the easier it will be to recall ........ Take a subject or information you want to understand Write an explanation as if you were teaching it When stuck re-read ans re-learn Simplify Recall Spaced repetition over a long period of time The brain functions like a muscle, exercise it Select information you want to learn over a period of time. Learning everything at once won't work.
Species
1.8 million
skeleton
10% of the skeleton is broken down and rebuilt every year
World War II
1939-1945 involving more than 30 countries and more than 50 million deaths the empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937 holocaust victory of the Allies The UN was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts
Pangeae
250 million years ago, Earth's continents all joined together.
muscles
40% of your weight is muscle
body composition
60% of water / 65% oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, 2% calcium, 2% others
Languages in the world
6909 languages. About 6% of them have more than a million speakers each, and collectively account for 94% of the world population.
Volcanoes
75% of the world's active volcanoes are underwater
urine contents
95% water and excess ions: phosphate and potassium...
Chernobyl
A city in Ukraine that was the site of a 1986 meltdown at a Soviet nuclear power plant.
Richter scale
A logarithmic scale of 1 to 10 used to express the energy released by an earthquake 3-4 moderate 5-6 strong 7-8 major 9-10 extremely dangerous
Hippocampus
A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.
Health WHO definition
A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Newton's Third Law (of physics)
According to Newton, whenever objects A and B interact with each other, they exert forces upon each other. When you sit in your chair, your body exerts a downward force on the chair and the chair exerts an upward force on your body. There are two forces resulting from this interaction - a force on the chair and a force on your body. These two forces are called action and reaction forces and are the subject of Newton's third law of motion. Formally stated, Newton's third law is: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
List of active separatist movements in Europe
Albania : northern Epirus Azerbaijan: Artsakh Belgium: FLanders or Flemish community... Bosnia and Herzegovina: Republika Sprpska and Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia Czech Republic : Moravia and Czech Silesia Denmark : Bornholm and Faroe Islands Finland : Åland France : Corsica... Georgia : Abkhazia and South Ossetia Germany : Bavaria... Italy : Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Sardinia, Sicily, South Tyrol, Veneto, Liguria Kosovo: North Kosovo Macedonia : Albanian community in Macedonia Moldova : Transnistria... Netherlands: Frisia... Poland: Upper Silesia and Kashubia Romania : Partium... Russia: Karelia... Serbia : Vojvodina... Slovakia: Southern Slovakia Spain : Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Catalonia... Switzerland : Canton of Jura (Ticino?) Ukraine UK: Scotland...
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
Allows open trade between the US, Mexico, and Canada. Will lead to loss of jobs
Octopus and cows
An octopus has 3 hearts and a cow has 4 stomachs
The Six Kingdoms
Archae, Bacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants, Animals
Tropical rainforest plants and animals
At least half of all plant and animal species on earth live in tropical rainforests Tropical rainforest lie on and near the equator in south and central America, central Africa, southeast Asia, New Guinea and northeast Australia
Stains on clothes
Biological washing powders use digestive enzymes to break down stains on clothes
Biotechnology, genetic engeneering, seed and drug design etc.
Biotechnology, genetic engeneering, seed and drug design (even designing animal species), etc. is expected to be a huge growth industry with enormous profits. It is potentially vastly more important than electronics
digestive system
Breaks down food into absorbable units that enter the blood for distribution to body cells.
Chloroform
Chloroform has been reputed to be used by criminals to knock out, daze or even murder their victims. It has anaesthetic qualities.
Enzymes
Digestive organs produce chemicals called enzymes, which break the bonds in food molecules to turn the long chain molecules into smaller units.
Where might one see giant stone heads?
Easter Island (chilean Island)
E=mc2
Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared the distinction between mass and energy is superfluous, mass and energy are but two aspects of the same thing
Vitamin D
Exposure to sunlight helps a person improve their health because the ultraviolet rays convert skin oil into Vitamin D
8 planets
From the closest to the Sun to the furthest: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune All 8 planets orbit the Sun. The inner planets orbit faster than the outer planets. Earth take 365 days to complete 1 orbit.
Lights
From the least to the most energetic, the lights that surround us are : radio waves, microwaves, infrared light, visible light, X-rays and gamma rays
Tissues
Groups of cells with a common structure and function. Tissues include muscle, skin, fat and bone
Indonesia
Has the largest Muslim population in the world
Korean Peninsula
In 1910 the Korean Peninsula was formally annexed into the Japanese empire (forced labour and prostitution of Korean people). Around 1945 Soviets set up a Communist dictatorship with Kim II Sung in power followed by his son Kim Jong II What is now south Korea was under the influence of the US
Elementary my dear Watson
In fact the line doesn't appear in the Conan Doyle books, only later in Sherlock Holmes' films.
In which country were banana first grown?
India
Nervous system
It allows your body to react with speed
The human body
It has 206 bones, 650 muscles and 75 trillion parts called cells
DARPA-Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
It is responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Its creation was authorized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958 for the purpose of forming and executing research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, and able to reach far beyond immediate military requirements, the two relevant acts being the Supplemental Military Construction Authorization (Air Force) (Public Law 85-325) and Department of Defense Directive 5105.15, in February 1958. Its creation was directly attributed to the launching of Sputnikand to U.S. realization that the Soviet Union had developed the capacity to rapidly exploit military technology. Initial funding of ARPA was $520 million.
Genes
It is the father's gene that decideds whether the baby is a boy or a girl
L'autisme
L'autisme peut avoir des causes génétiques mais aussi environmental
Glaciers
Large areas of slow moving ice - 70% of Earth's fresh water is stored as glacial ice.
Salaire brut et net (gross and net wages)
Le salaire brut correspond à l'intégralité des sommes perçues par le salarié au titre de son contrat de travail, avant toute déduction de cotisations obligatoires. Le salaire net(de prélèvements sociaux) est le salaire que perçoit effectivement le salarié.
Mai 68
Les événements de mai-juin 1968, ou plus brièvement Mai 68, désignent une période durant laquelle se déroulent, en France, des manifestations étudiantes, ainsi que des grèves générales et sauvages. Ces événements, enclenchés par une révolte de la jeunesse étudiante parisienne, puis gagnant le monde ouvrier et la plupart des catégories de population sur l'ensemble du territoire, constituent le plus important mouvement social de l'histoire de France du xxe siècle. Il est caractérisé par une vaste révolte spontanée antiautoritaire (« ici et maintenant »), de nature à la fois culturelle, sociale et politique, dirigée contre le capitalisme, le consumérisme, l'impérialisme américain et, plus immédiatement, contre le pouvoir gaulliste en place.
Scale of language proficiency
Low to high A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2
Senses
Modern scientists claim there are between 9 and 22 of them
Radioactivity
Natural radiation is everywhere, especially in space. Small amounts are present in soil, water, and vegetation. Even a portion of the potassium found in bananas is radioactive
Loch Ness
Scotland
The record for the most languages spoken by one person (may belong to him)
Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong from 1854 to 1859, who was said to know 200 languages, and capable of speaking 100.
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide also known as the Armenian Holocaust was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly citizens within the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey. The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders from Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the region of Ankara, the majority of whom were eventually murdered. The genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases—the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian Desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre. Other ethnic groups were similarly targeted for extermination in the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide, and their treatment is considered by some historians to be part of the same genocidal policy. Most Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a direct result of the genocide.
Camp David Accords
The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David. The two framework agreements were signed at the White House, and were witnessed by United States President Jimmy Carter. The second of these frameworks (A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel) led directly to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. Due to the agreement, Sadat and Begin received the shared 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. The first framework (A Framework for Peace in the Middle East), which dealt with the Palestinian territories, was written without participation of the Palestinians and was condemned by the United Nations.
Moon effect on water
The Moon own bending of spacetime makes the water that lies here on the surface of Earth fall Moonward. That is why the water follow the Moon as it orbits our world, creating the tides. The Moon also pulls everything else, of course, including our planet's solid crust, and ourselves, and teacups and spoons, but these are solids and/or smaller so it shows less.
NATO / OTAN
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European countries based on the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
Vietnam war
The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 1954-1975. Usually it refers to the period when the United States and other members of the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) joined the forces with the Republic of South Vietnam to contest communist forces, comprised of South Vietnamese guerrillas and regular-force units Viet Cong (VC), and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The U.S., possessing the largest foreign military presence, essentially directed the war from 1965 to 1968. For this reason, in Vietnam today it is known as the American War. It was a direct result of the First Indochina War (1946-1954) between France, which claimed Vietnam as a colony, and the communist forces then known as Viet Minh. In 1973 a "third" Vietnam war began—a continuation, actually—between North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement. It ended with communist victory in April 1975. The Vietnam War was the longest in U.S. history until the Afghanistan War (2002-2014). The war was extremely divisive in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and elsewhere. Because the U.S. failed to achieve a military victory and the Republic of South Vietnam was ultimately taken over by North Vietnam, the Vietnam experience became known as "the only war America ever lost." It remains a very controversial topic that continues to affect political and military decisions today.
Geneva inhabitants
The canton of Geneva has a population 638,782 in 2024.
Immune system
The cells and tissues that recognize and attack foreign substances in the body
Dinosaurs
The dinosaurs ruled the surface of our planet for about 200 million years, whereas we have done so a few hundred thousand.
Vitruvian man (Leonardo da vinci)
The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius
How the moon formed
The giant-impact hypothesis, sometimes called the Big Splash, or the Theia Impact suggests that the Moon formed out of the debris left over from a collision between Earth and an astronomical body the size of Mars, approximately 4.5 billion years ago
Writing
The invention of writing took place in ancient Sumer around 3200 BC
Crime: in the suites vs. in the streets
The media pays a lot of attention to crime in the streets, which the FBI estimates costs about $4 billion a year. The Multinational Monitor estimates that white-collar crime - what Ralph Nader calls " crime in the suites"- costs about $200 billion a year. That generally gets ignored. ( Noam Chomsky - how the world works)
Quantum
The minimum amount of energy that can be gained or lost by an atom
The Great Barrier Reef
The world's largest coral reef. This reef lies off the northeast coast of Queensland, Australia.
Countries in the world
There are 195 countries in the world
oceans and seas
There are 5 oceans and over 50 seas - both contain saltwater but seas are smaller and partly surrounded by land.
Terrorist groups
There are approximately 210 terrorist groups in the list of designated terrorist groups by national governments. Here are some of them: Daech Jabhat al-Nosra (filiale syrienne d'Al-Quaïda) Al-Qaeda Army of Islam Hamas Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant Muslim brotherhood Korean people's army Kurdistan communities union Irish republican army
cells
There are more than 200 different types of cells in the human body, each type is specialized to do a particular job. ( skin cells, blood cells...)
America's dark history
There is a dark -- seldom acknowledged -- thread that runs through U.S. military doctrine, dating back to the early days of the Republic. This military tradition has explicitly defended the selective use of terror, whether in suppressing Native American resistance on the frontiers in the 19th Century or in protecting U.S. interests abroad in the 20th Century or fighting the "war on terror" over the last decade. The American people are largely oblivious to this hidden tradition because most of the literature advocating state-sponsored terror is carefully confined to national security circles and rarely spills out into the public debate, which is instead dominated by feel-good messages about well-intentioned U.S. interventions abroad.
The Himalayas
These mountains form a natural barrier between the subcontinent and the rest of Asia.
Thirty Years War
This war began as a conflict between Catholics and Protestants, developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers. 1618 - 1648 eight million fatalities
organs
Tissues join together to form organs
Threats from the universe
Today there are no stray planet menacing our world, just loose asteroids and comets - and the Moon partly protects and shields us from such hazards. Danger: the sun (in a loooong time)
The Printing Press
Was most responsible for the rapid spread of new ideas in Renaissance Europe. around 1440
WHO Offices
Washington DC, Geneva, Copenhagen, Cairo, Brazzaville, New Dehli, Manila
Major sport events
World cup soccer UEFA Champions League Ironman triathlon (includes swimming, cycling and running) - widely considered one of the most difficult one day sporting events in the world Triathlon ( An athletic contest that is a long distance race consisting of 3 phases such as swimming, bycicling and running) Marathon ( running) The olympic games commonwealth games paralympic games The 24 hours of Le Mans: (Automobile race) NBA (basketball) The Masters (golf) Polo at Palermo (Argentina) Wimbledon (tennis) World series ( Baseball) The Grand National ( horse race)
Big bang
about 14 billion years ago, the universe materialized
Esperanto
an artificial language based as far as possible on words common to all the European languages
Hanukkah
an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem in 165 BC
League of Nations
an international organization formed in 1920 to promote cooperation and peace among nations.
Satellites
approx. 1000 operational satellites
Nobel Prize
award (gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money) given for outstanding achievement in various fields, including science
DNA
discovered in 1953
4 major chemicals determining our happiness
endorphins, oxytocin, dopamine is another happiness hormone & serotonin
Earth
formed 4.56 billion years ago The Earth goes around the sun Earth's core: The extremely hot and dense center of the Earth, which is believed to be composed of iron and nickel is more than 10,000 degrees Farenheit -nearly the temperature found on the surface of the Sun Earth's water: About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth's water
skeletal system
gives our bodies structure and protects major organs like the heart, lungs, and brain
Patagonia
is a sparsely populated region located at the southern end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile.
Which animal can go without water longer than others?
kangaroo rat
Oceans
less than 10% of the oceans have been explored
Antimatter
matter consisting of particles with charges opposite that of ordinary matter
Flemish
one of two official languages of Belgium
What is the largest organ the human body has?
skin
Moon
the Moon keeps the same face towards Earth all the time but it rotate.
Milky Way
the galaxy that contains the solar system in which we live, it contains 300 billion stars including the Sun.
The Atlas Mountains
the mountain range in North Africa.
circulatory system
the organs and tissues involved in circulating blood and lymph through the body
quantum physics
the physical theory of the microscopic behavior of matter and radiation
Atoms and molecules
tiny particles that make up matter. The DNA molecule stores the instructions needed to build and maintain the body.
The Cold War
was a political war between USSR and its communist allies against the United States and other according to Chomsky, it was a kind of tacit agreement between the USSR and the US under which the US conducted its war against the Third World and controlled its allies in Europe, while the USSR rulers kept an iron grip on their own internal empire and their satellites in Eastern Europe-each side using the other to justify repression and violence in its own domains.
Daily energy needs (calories)
woman ( inactive) 1,917 calories woman (active) 2,150 calories man (inactive) 2,515 calories man (active) 3000 calories
