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Napoleon Bonaparte

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Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte is among the best military leaders.

  • Napoleon Bonaparte was an Emperor of the French, and King of Italy, from 1804 and 1805 respectively, until 1814, and was also a leader in the French military.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte was born into a noble family on the 15 August, 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica, an island that is part of Europe’s France, and was given the Italian name ‘Napoleone di Buonaparte’.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte married Joséphine de Beauharnais on 9 March, 1796, but later divorced her and officially married Marie Louise of Austria on 11 March, 1810 by proxy, with later civil and religious ceremonies on the 1st and 2nd of April 1810, for the purpose of bearing an heir.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte is often depicted as a man of power and intellect in politics and military respectively.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte died in Longwood, on Saint Helena Island, where he had been living in exile for more than five years, on 5 May, 1821, aged 51 years, probably due to gastric cancer and peptic ulcer.

Napoleon I, Horse, Arrival, The Arrival of Napoleon at Amsterdam, 1812-13, by Mattheus Ignatius van Bree (1773-1839), Ten Random Facts, Flickr

Painting: The Arrival of Napoleon at Amsterdam
Image courtesy of Dennis Jarvis/Flickr
  • Napoleon Bonaparte is sometimes referred to as ‘Napoleon I’, or simply as ‘Napoleon’, and he began using the French spelling of his name ‘Napoléon Bonaparte’ early in his adulthood.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte is known as a military expert, an initiator of reforms, and the creator of the still used Napoleonic Code which forms the basis for law in France, a number of other European countries, as well as Latin America.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte sold the previously French owned territory, Louisiana, to the United States in 1803, and as a result it doubled the size of the US at the time, and it funded Napoleon’s future military needs.
  • The decline of Napoleon Bonaparte’s power occurred between 1810 and 1814, after an unsuccessful attack on the Russians that came about because Russia refused to comply with Bonaparte’s requests, and further attacks by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, as well as Portugal, Spain and Britain, resulted in the eventual capture of Paris, and led to Bonaparte abdicating his position as emperor.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, Marie Louise bore him a son a year after they were married, and he became known as ‘Napoleon II’ and ‘King of Rome’.
Bibliography:
Napoleon, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte, 2014, History, http://www.history.com/topics/napoleon
The Symbols of Empire, 2008, Napoleon.org, http://www.napoleon.org:81/en/essential_napoleon/symbols/

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Whisk

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Whisk

A whisk, a handle and wire, is an effective, simple invention.

  • Whisks are utensils used primarily to beat, blend or whip food liquids during preparation or the cooking process.
  • A whisk typically has a looped wire top and a long and slim handle.
  • Historically, twigs or small branches of trees have been used to beat, whip or blend food items like a whisk, and often fruit tree twigs were used to add flavour to the mixture.
  • Whisk handles and/or wires can be made of plastic, metal, wood or bamboo.
  • The wire tops of whisks are usually either round shaped, or flat, although they can vary in shape and size, depending on their recommended use, and include ‘flat’, ‘gravy’, ‘French’, ‘coil’, and ‘ball’, as well as the most popular shape, ‘balloon’, which has a rounded top.

Whisk, Black, Silicone, Metal, Wire, Balloon, Tear, Ten Random Facts,

  • The more wires a whisk has, the more air can be whipped into the liquid more quickly, and round shaped tops are better for this purpose, while flat ones are more suited for mixing and smoothing thick liquids.
  • It is believed that wire whisks were first invented during the 1800s, and a number of patents were issued in that era for whisks that look similar to those used today.
  • French whisks are an all purpose long balloon shaped utensil, and coil, or ‘twirl’ whisks as they are also known, have a spring like top designed to be twirled or pushed up and down in the one spot, and are good for frothing milk.
  • Whisks became popular from 1963, due to the American chef, Julia Child, who used the item to ‘magically’ create meringue on a television show.
  • ‘Whisk’ most likely comes from the Scandinavian word ‘visk’, that means ‘rapid sweeping movement’ or ‘quick stroke’, and the word first referred to a tool or utensil in the 1660s.
Bibliography:
Kennedy J, Who Made That Whisk?, 2012, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/who-made-that-whisk.html?_r=0
Whisk, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisk
Whisks – History, Types, Video, 2012, The Reluctant Gourmet, http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/whisks-history-types-video

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Pineapple

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Pineapple

Pineapples are not apples from pine trees.

  • Pineapples are tropical fruit native to Paraguay and Brazil in South America, and are grown on plants with the scientific name Ananas comosus, that grow to be 1 to 1.5 metres (3.3 to 4.9 feet) in height.
  • Pineapples are from the family Bromeliaceae, a family of monocot (one ‘seed leaf’) flowering plants.
  • ‘Pineapple’ was the original name for a ‘pine cone’, and pineapples were named so, because of their similar look to conifer tree pine cones.
  • Pineapples have a sweet flavour and are commonly eaten raw, particularly in fruit salads; cooked, often on pizza or in other dishes; used crushed in baked goods; and can be juiced to make different beverages.
  • The major producers of pineapples in 2009 were the Philippines and Thailand, producing approximately 2 and 1.7 million tonnes (2.2 and 1.9 million tons) respectively, with a world production of 12.9 million tonnes (14.2 million tons).

Pineapple, Yellow, Green, Halves, Ten Random Facts, Fruit, Tropical, Skin, Australia

  • Pineapples have either smooth or rough green leaves protruding from the top of the fruit, depending on the variety, and typically yellow coloured spiky skin when ripe, although there are less common red skinned varieties, and the fruit may be harvested green.
  • Pineapples have a light yellow or rich yellow juicy flesh, and do not generally ripen after harvesting, nor do they keep well, although they can be kept in the refrigerator to extend their life, and are often preserved by commercial canning methods, making the fruit available for purchase in supermarkets all year round in tinned form.
  • Pineapples have a very high content of vitamin C and manganese, and grow to be 20 to 30 centimetres (8 to 12 inches) in height and have a diameter of 10 to 15 centimetres (4 to 6 inches).
  • Pineapples have a central hard core running through the middle of the fruit, that contain bromelain enzymes that are commonly used to tenderise meat, and have also been historically used for medicinal purposes, and the enzymes also exist in the flesh of the fruit, although they are destroyed by heat.
  • A pineapple is commonly believed to be a single fruit, however it is a combination of many fruits that develop from 150-200 flowers, that merge together and are joined by the core.

 

Bibliography:
Pineapple, 2012, Fresh for Kids, http://www.freshforkids.com.au/fruit_pages/pineapple/pineapple.html
Pineapple, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple

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Three-toed Sloth

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Three-toed Sloth

Lazy, slow moving three-toed sloths have fascinating habits.

  • Three-toed sloths are mammals that live in trees and are native to Central and northern areas of South America.
  • Three-toed sloths are from the Bradypodidae family and are the sole members, and their scientific name is Bradypus, of which there are four species.
  • The average movement speed of three-toed sloths is 0.24 kilometres per hour (0.15 miles per hour) and they are deemed the slowest moving mammal on earth.
  • Three-toed sloths have a typical lifespan of 25 to 30 years, and grow to be 45 to 58 centimetres (18 to 23 inches) in length, and 3.5 to 4.5 kilograms (8 to 10 pounds) in weight.
  • Although similar, three-toed sloths are in a different family to the two-toed sloths, both of which are distantly related to anteaters, and the differences include three-toed having three fingered hands and a short tail, while the quantity of toes is the same.

Three-toed Sloth, Grab, Tree, Wild, Leaves, Eating, Ten Random Facts, Animal, South America, Flickr

Three-toed Sloth
Image courtesy of D Culbert/Flickr
  • Three-toed sloths are generally more active during daylight, unlike two-toed sloths, spending most of their time in trees, and they do not move efficiently on the ground and therefore only visit the ground approximately once a week, mostly for toileting purposes, to avoid predators like large members of the cat family.
  • Three-toed sloths have a brown, black or white variegated fur colour, often mottled with green algae that grows on their fur, and their colourings provide camouflage among trees.
  • Three-toed sloths can sleep up to 20 hours a day, communicate with long ‘ah-ee’ sounds, and are able to rotate their head up to 270 degrees due to their additional neck vertebrae.
  • Three-toed sloths’ legs lack significant muscle and therefore use front claws to drag themselves along or to cling to branches, but they are efficient swimmers.
  • Individual three-toed sloths are typically dedicated to a single tree species, moving up to four times from tree to tree during the day, and their diet consists primarily of leaves, fruit and sprouting twigs, though digestion is a slow process, and a meal can take as long as a month to fully digest.
Bibliography:
Sen N, Fun Facts about Sloths, 2013,Living Science, http://www.livescience.com/27612-sloths.html
Three-toed Sloth, 2014, National Geographic, http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/mammals/three-toed-sloth/
Three-toed Sloth, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-toed_sloth

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Rainbow Eucalyptus

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Rainbow Eucalyptus

The rainbow eucalyptus is like an abstract painting that keeps on changing.

  • The rainbow eucalyptus is a very tall perennial tree native to some South East Asia islands, including some parts of Indonesia, Philippines and New Guinea, and it is the only eucalyptus tree native to the Northern Hemisphere.
  • The ‘rainbow eucalyptus’ is also known as ‘rainbow gum’, ‘Bagras eucalyptus’ and ‘Mindanao gum’, and its common name refers to its rainbow coloured trunk.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus trees have the scientific name Eucalyptus deglupta and are from the family Myrtaceae, the family of myrtles.
  • The bark of a rainbow eucalyptus will shed at different rates throughout the year, generally in strips that reveal a green trunk that changes colour the longer it is exposed, causing the tree trunk to become beautifully multicoloured, with colours of brown, green, maroon, blue, orange and purple.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus trees are often used for decoration or landscaping among recreational facilities and gardens.

Rainbow Eucalyptus, Bark, Colourful, Trunk, Red, Green, Blue, Orange, Purple, Vegetation, Flickr, Ten Random Facts

The Trunk of a Rainbow Eucalyptus Image courtesy of Cogito Ergo Imago/Flickr
  • Rainbow eucalyptus trees are commonly grown in plantations to be a source of pulpwood, which is used to make paper in some countries, and they are also used as a hardwood timber for furniture and other purposes.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus trees grow to be 30 to 75 metres (100 to 246 feet) in height.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus trees are not frost resistant, and they grow best in full sun, in warm tropical climates, and prefer moist soil conditions.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus flowers are small white coloured blossoms with numerous stamens, that are typical of eucalyptus species.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus trees are commonly grown in Hawaii, where they were introduced in 1929.
Bibliography: Eucalyptus Deglupta (Rainbow Eucalyptus), 2014, Austin Botany,
Eucalyptus Deglupta, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_deglupta

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Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site

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Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site

Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site is a site of wonder and awe.

  • The Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site is a rock plateau and forest located in western Madagascar, a large island, off the coast of Africa.
  • The Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site covers an area of around 1520 square kilometres (587 square miles), with approximately half of which is rock formations and the other forest.
  • The Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990.
  • The Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site is broken up into a national park in the south, containing mostly rock formations, and a strict nature reserve in the north, featuring forests, lakes and other landforms.
  • The Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site is famously home to an abundance of pointy limestone rock formations, known as ‘tsingys’, that have been formed by the erosion of water, and tower up to 100 metres (328 feet).

Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site, Brown, Rocks, Forest, Madagascar, Large, Miles, Ten Random Facts, limestone

Part of Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site
Image courtesy of Marco Zanferrari/Flickr
  • Parts of the Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site are also known as ‘Tsingy’, ‘Tinsgy de Bemaraha’, ‘Tsingy de Bemaraha Nature Reserve’, ‘Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve’, and ‘Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park’.
  • The Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site is home to many unique or endangered animals, including lemurs, chameleons, iguanas and frogs, as well as 140 different bird species and 650 plant species.
  • The Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site, first welcomed visitors in 1998, when part of the site was designated as a national park, and the area takes 2 to 3 days to explore and is only accessible from April to November due to wet weather conditions during the rest of the year.
  • The ‘Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site’ gets its name from the word ‘tsingy’, which comes from Madagascar’s Malagasy language, meaning ‘where one cannot walk barefoot’ or ‘to walk on tiptoes’.
  • Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site is quite isolated and difficult to explore, and it can take a few days to reach by car on rough roads, or it can be accessed by the Manambolo river or by aircraft.
Bibliography:
Bemaraha, 2008, Wild Madagascar.org, http://www.wildmadagascar.org/conservation/parks/Bemaraha.html
Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, 2010, Travel Madagascar, http://www.travelmadagascar.org/PARKS/Tsingy-Bemaraha-National-Park.html
Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsingy_de_Bemaraha_National_Park
Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve, 2014, UNESCO World Heritage Convention, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/494

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