Top 20 Things You Didn't Know About ... Genius

How do the Nobel Prize winners get so damn smart?

1. The latest winners of the Nobel Prizes -- the big kahuna of genius awards -- will be announced October 5 this year. Were you nominated? To find out, you’ll have to either win or wait 50 years, which is how long the Nobel committee keeps secret the list of also-rans.

2. Nyah, nyah. William Shockley, who won the 1956 Nobel in physics for inventing the transistor, was excluded as a child from a long-term study of genius because his IQ score wasn’t high enough.

3. History repeated itself in 1968 when Luis Alvarez won a Nobel for his work on elementary particles. He had been excluded from the same research program as Shockley. Who set up that study, anyway?

4. The genius study was created in 1928 by Louis Terman at Stanford University, who pioneered the use of IQ tests to identify geniuses, defined by him as those with an IQ greater than 140.

5. None of the children (known as “Termites”) in the study has won a Nobel.

6. Still smart, though: Termite Jess Oppenheimer invented the TelePrompTer, and Norris Bradbury headed the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

7. Many 19th- and 20th-century creative geniuses acquired a reputation for promiscuity. Examples include Richard Feynman, Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell.

8. One theory suggests that male geniuses are unusually endowed with enthusiasm for risk-taking, which is notoriously testosterone-linked.

9. In 1981 Shockley and eugenicist Robert Klark Graham cofounded the Repository for Germinal Choice in Southern California, a sperm bank dedicated to selling the seed of Nobel Prize winners and other men with a high I.Q.

10. Graham died in 1997. The Repository for Germinal Choice closed in 1999.

11. Being a genius is no guarantee of financial security. A recent study at the Ohio State University Center for Human Resource Research showed that baby boomers with average and low IQs were just as good at saving money as those with high IQs.

12. Albert Einstein is said to have lost most of his Nobel money in bad investments. Anyone can do that.

13. Hans Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician, identified what is now called Asperger’s syndrome: a form of autism marked by intense absorption in a very narrow range of special interests.

14. Asperger believed that there is a link between mathematical and scientific genius and his syndrome, claiming that "for success in science and art, a dash of autism is essential."

15. Sometimes stereotypes are accurate. Norbert Wiener, who invented the field of cybernetics, was the prototype of the absent-minded genius.

16. Once, Weiner forgot he’d driven to a conference, took the bus home, and then reported his car stolen when he didn’t see it in his driveway.

17. In the 1990s Bell Labs found that its most valued and productive electrical engineers were not those endowed with genius but those who excelled in rapport, empathy, cooperation, persuasion and the ability to build consensus.

18. Too much partying? In 2007 researchers at Kyoto University pitted chimpanzees against college students in three memory-based intelligence tests. The highest-scoring chimp beat all the students in the first test, tied with a few in the second test and reigned again in the third.

19. Try pitting him against the chimp. Alex, a gray parrot who died last September at age 31, has been widely billed as the smartest bird ever. Alex could identify 50 objects, seven colors and shapes and quantities of up to six.

20. You, too, can be a genius (maybe). Scientists at the University of Sydney and Macquarie University in Australia say intelligence can be boosted, at least in the short term, by a daily dose of 5 milligrams of creatine, a compound found in muscle tissue.

Source : 1. encarta.msn.com , 2. Wikipedia.org

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Well, after looking these you must be feeling creepy to your feets...lol. Wanna bet once... :)
So far, the question arises that is this the most Freakiest Bridge In World ?..what you think?.. don't know who the damn built this and where is it situated.. hoping to get some info's from you guys and likes to complete this journey....

Also, If you peoples have any good experience to cross that kind of bridges, please do share with us.

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Introduction : We’ve had recently an abandoned railway in Abkhazia, abandoned as a result of USSR collapse when new “independent” republics couldn’t maintain the complicated and high-cost USSR legacy objects. But this one was abandoned long before the USSR collapse, it was doomed to be abandoned from the beginning. It was built by a personal Stalin’s order in the middle of nowhere - deep inside Northern Siberia between Salekhard city and Igarka town. It was not connected with any other Russian Federal Railway System and the purpose of it still is not very clear, so as a senseless toy it way abandoned pretty soon and now rusts accessible only with a helicopter.

It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Stalin era, known as the "railway of bones". At least 10 people a day died during the four years of its construction, but unlike most of Uncle Joe's grand designs it was never completed and now sits unfinished in the tundra, an icy road to nowhere.

Yet today officials are considering restarting work on the vast railway that Stalin hoped would run inside the Arctic Circle, initially from the north Siberian town of Salekhard to the port of Igarka. Work was abandoned in 1953, shortly after the dictator's death, yet its usefulness appeals to Moscow today.

The Kremlin, which sees its global influence resting on its abundance of natural resources, may have the railway finished to link the bountiful gas fields and metal mines of Arctic Siberia with Europe. Sergei Ivanov, deputy head of Russia's massive state rail company, said recently they were considering extending the railway to the nickel-rich town of Norilsk, responsible for 2% of Russia's GDP. A local engineer told the Guardian last week that he has been instructed to revisit the plans for the railway, considered to be technically excellent.

Renewed interest in the project comes as an exhibition in its memory opens in Moscow, at the Sakharov Museum, named after the Soviet-era dissident. Ludmila Vesilovskaya, curator of the exhibition, said it was designed to show that prison labour was a vital part of the Soviet economy and that its purpose was often not as "senseless as the many myths about the Stalin era try to show".

The decision to begin work on "Projects 503 and 501" was announced in January 1949. Stalin wanted to improve access to the Bering Strait, then the easiest route to the Soviet Union's new main adversary, the US. "We must take the north in hand", he is reported to have said, adding that "labour power and resources will be no problem".

In fact, work on the 750-mile railway had already begun in April 1947, heading in two directions, project 503 west from Igarka, and project 501 east from the town of Salekhard. "At the peak of activity in 1951, 85,000 prisoners were working on it," said Oleg Prikhodko, a researcher in Salekhard. "The climate was awful, the winters terribly severe." The walls of the barracks in which the prisoners lived were "very thin" and it was "difficult to understand how they survived in 50 below zero".

Ms Vesilovskaya said there were no exact figures available for the number of prisoners who died making the 435 miles of railway that was completed. A report from one of the directorates for January 1951 showed they lost about 1% of their prisoners, she said. "Each had 30,000 to 50,000 workers, so that's at least 300 dead a month."

Among the survivors was Lazar Shereshevsky, 79, arrested in the army in 1944. He was part of a troupe of 200 entertainers who travelled along the railway construction site, staging operas for the labourers. "The main causes of death were working accidents, disease and illness," he said, adding that scurvy was a major killer, as were disputes between criminal groups in the camps that the guards did little to prevent.

"The main thing was to build quickly and effectively," he said, adding that work was impossible during winter.

Actual labour was confined to the six warmer months of the year. "The work was hard, but the hardest thing were the mosquitoes - myriads of them that covered everything", he said. He added that in the 24-hour daylight of the polar zone they "ate us all day long".

Ms Vesilovskaya said she hopes her Moscow exhibition will explain to the younger generation that a vital part of Russian history is disappearing. "There is a danger we will lose, with these last buildings and camps, part of our historical memory," she said.

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Not all vacations are about lying on a beach drinking a Corona or touring old European villages. Some stress you physically and mentally. These are those vacations. Check out the list by scrolling down !

BOSS 28-Day Standard Field Course : The Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) 28-Day Standard Field Course is a program that places you out in the desert and canyons of southern Utah, with only minimal supplies (only a knife, poncho, and blanket). Over the next four weeks, you and your group hike and learn the skills needed to survive. Without tents, you learn to forage for shelter. Without food, you learn to find edible plants and ensnare small game. In fact, near the beginning of the course, students are introduced to a live sheep and instructed to cut its throat. Then, instructors teach the students the best way to harvest and store the meat. As you can imagine, when the 28 days are over, you're ready to give Survivorman a run for his money.

BASE Jump Across Europe : BASE jumping refers to parachuting off either a Building (B), Antenna (A), Span (S), or Earth (E). With its towering bridges and impressive cliffs, Europe is full of amazing locations to jump. Typically, most BASE jumpers start with skydiving. BASE jumpers recommend you have at least 150 skydives logged (some say you should have as many as 1000) before your first BASE jump. Though many aspects of skydiving differ from BASE jumping, this will allow you to gain familiarity with freefalling, the equipment, and tracking. Most skydiving schools will get you started with an AFF (Accelerated Freefall) course, typically beginning with a tandem jump. But be warned, BASE jumping is probably one of the most dangerous sports around.

Climb Denali : If you ever want to climb Mt. Everest, then Denali will probably be one of the climbs on your way to that summit. But be warned, 98 people have died trying to climb Denali. Many of those Asian climbers, spurring the its morbid nickname, the "Orient Express." As for difficulty, only 1 out of every 2 climbers reach its peak.

Denali is reached via Anchorage to Talkeetna, a small climbing town at the edge of Denali National Park. Unlike many other climbs, Denali is more of an expedition. Crews trek from camp to camp hauling heavy supplies-laden sleds. Along with fatigue, climbers are faced with edema, crevasses, frost bite, avalanches, and climbing injuries throughout the 3-4 week push.



Fight Mixed Martial Arts : By now, everyone knows about Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Mostly through the UFC, people have seen the broken legs and arms, cut up and bruised faces, and knock outs of its fighters. Well, guess what? That could be you. Most major cities have schools that teach the disciplines used in MMA: grappling, striking, jiu-jitsu, and wrestling. In class, you'll learn the basics of each of these techniques.

When you're ready, talk to your instructor and he'll probably be able to set up a match with another student. Once the fight is set, you're training will find a new level of intensity, as your very survival could be at stake.


Cross The North Pole : This is really a no bullshit vacation. Adventure Consultants offer expeditions that cross the North Pole. From northern Canada you travel 440 miles, navigating across drifting ice fields to the North Pole. Then you have to turn around and do it all over again. This takes 60 days, at least. The trek requires you to ski for 8-10 hours a day in minus 40 degree temperatures, all while hauling a 220 pound sled. And don't even think about getting injured (why would you?), because rescue is unlikely because you're at the friggin' North Pole.

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A worker tidies up in front of a castle made from lemons and oranges during the lemon festival in Menton, southern France ..

A fruit sculptor puts the finishing touches on the Zulu mask display.

The festival, which is themed The Musics of the World, runs from this Month ..


A sculptor adds the last few oranges to a Russian doll display that stands over 3 metres tall..

Around 145 metric tons of fruit are used to make the displays during the festival..

The finished display of a 1930's car stands proudly on its orange wheels..

A crane is necessary to fine tune the strings on this violin ..

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A TASMANIAN winery has launched a new range of wines with labels featuring terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

Another label reproduces an image that surfaced from the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, of a hooded prisoner with electric wires attached to his hands.

The wines are being produced by the Moorilla winery, owned by millionaire gambler David Walsh, in Hobart's northern suburbs.

The images are taken from political graffiti from the streets of Hobart and Melbourne.

The stencil image of bin Laden goes next to a graffiti message reading "all you need is love".

Beneath the torture image are the words "Iraqi liberation".

Moorilla has previously produced an erotic sex-and-death themed "Muse" wine series.

Moorilla winemaker Conor Van der Reest said, the temporary and contemporary nature of street art suited the drink-now ethos of the new "Praxis" wines.

"It's not a question of us trying to confront people," Mr van der Reest said. "It's more a chronicling of stuff that's current, either in art or world events."

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Johan Lorbeer is a German street performer. He became famous in the past few years because of his "Still-Life" Performances, which took place in the public area. His installations includes "Proletarian Mural" and "Tarzan", which are famous in Germany. Several of these performances feature Lorbeer in an apparently impossible position.


On May 14, 2008, an Azande high court accused Lorbeer of practicing witchcraft. The basis of this accusation is a recently published metareview, which compiled and analyzed the data concerning rates of impotence among his male (and German female) audiences. Thus, he has cancelled his plans to perform his "Thinker" pose while perched atop a pregnant white rhino.







Although this trick seems genuine, it is not magic. He manages these positions by hiding his actual arm under his clothing and the 'arm' that is seen sticking to the wall is a support bar.

Here’s a little clue on the trick; His arm is the supporting bar, and his real arm is hide inside his cloth.

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