Babylonia

Babylonia was a city state in  central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and Syria) over 3000 years ago. At that time the region also included the city states of Assyria to the north, and Elam to the south-east. 

Its capital city was Babylon, which meant The Gate of the Gods. Babylon was sited on the bank of the lower Euphrates River in modern day Iraq, 55 miles south of Baghdad and 5 miles north of Hillah.

Babylon is first mentioned as a small town by Sargon (c 2300 BC), the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire. According to tradition it was he who built it. 

A tablet describes the Akkadian king Šar-kali-šarri laying the foundations in Babylon of new temples for Annūnı̄tum and Ilaba. 

A tunnel was built under the Euphrates River to connect the two halves of Babylon between 2180 and 2160 BC. It was the biggest underwater tunnel until one was built beneath the Thames in 1824.

The empire was built out of the lands of the former Akkadian empire. An Amorite dynasties founded a small kingdom of Kazallu which included the then still minor town of Babylon circa 1894 BC. It  ultimately took over the others and formed the first Babylonian empire, also called the First Babylonian dynasty.

Babylonia first rose to importance under Hammurabi (c. 1810 – c. 1750 BC), the sixth king of the First Babylonian dynasty. It was called at the time "the country of Akkad", a deliberate archaism in reference to the previous glory of the Akkadian Empire.

By MapMaster - Own work,

Babylonia was sacked by the Hittites after which it was ruled by Kassites for 576 years. Next it was ruled by Elam, before regaining its independence.

Babylon became a magnificent city under Nebuchadnezzar I(c. 1125–1104 BC), the fourth king of the  Fourth Dynasty of Babylon. He fought and defeated the Elamites and drove them from Babylonian territory, invading Elam itself, sacking the Elamite capital Susa. 

Babylonia kept its independence for about three centuries. They were then conquered by the Neo-Assyrians. A century later they again became free, to form the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire.

Nebuchadnezzar II was the greatest king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 605 BC to 562 BC. Nebuchadnezzar remains famous for his military campaigns, construction projects in Babylon, and for the important part he played in Jewish history. At the time of his death, Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful ruler in the known world.

Nebuchadnezzar constructed some magnificent hanging gardens to please and console his favorite wife, Amytis.

The walls of Babylon were among the wonders of Babylon. Built by Nebuchadnezzar, they were faced with glazed tile and pierced by openings fitted with magnificent brass gates. 

In Babylonia, the homes looked much like those of Egypt. Babylonia's soil was marshy, however, so houses were built on brick platforms to raise them above street level. Ventilation was not as advanced as in Egypt.

When sick the Babylonians preferred to leave the treatment of their sickness to the general public rather than relying on the wisdom of physicians. When somebody fell ill, he was taken to the city square, where nobody was allowed to walk past without asking the sick individual what he was suffering from and whether he could help. If previously the pedestrian had suffered from the same ailment, or seen it treated before, then he could recommend the best cure.

The Ancient Babylonians did math in base 60 instead of base 10. That's why we have 60 seconds in a minute and 360 degrees in a circle.

The Babylonian cult of Ishtar required every woman to sleep with a stranger at least once in her life at the local temple. This was felt to reflect the dual nature of womankind as mother and prostitute.

The punishment for serving bad beer in Babylon was drowning.

Ancient Babylon had suburbs. A 539 B.C cuneiform clay tablet stating: "Our property seems to me the most beautiful in the world. It is so close to Babylon that we enjoy all the advantages of the city, and yet when we come home we are away from the noise and dust."

On October 29, 539 BC, Cyrus the Great of Persia entered Babylon, and detained the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Nabonidus. To accomplish this feat, the Persian army, using a basin dug earlier by the Babylonian Queen Nitokris to protect Babylon against Median attacks, diverted the Euphrates river into a canal so that the water level dropped to thigh level, which allowed the invading forces to march directly through the river bed to enter at night.

Cyrus the Great liberated the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, allowing them to resettle and rebuild Jerusalem, earning him an honored place in Judaism.

Cyrus the Great liberated the Jews from the Babylonian captivity

Throughout 1898 and the early part of 1899 architect and archaeologist Robert Koldewey reconnoitered the ancient city of Babylon. He uncovered the enormous walls of the city, so wide four span of horses could drive abreast. Babylon had been enormous, larger than any other citadel known to history. Koldewey unearthed the base of a tower on which King Nabopolassar claimed "At that time Marduk [the god] commanded me to build the Tower of Babel which had become weakened by time and fallen into disrepair..." Wherever Koldewey turned his spade, he turned up verification of things the Bible had to say about the great kings and empires that once existed in the Mideast.

Sources Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc
RM 2012. Helicon Publishing is division of RM

Baby

HISTORY

In Bible times, new born babies were bound up tightly in strips of cloth as this was meant to keep the baby strong. If the limbs were tightly bound Jewish mothers believed that their babies would grow straight. These strips of cloth were four or five inches wide and 15 to 18 feet long. Hence, Mary wrapped Jesus in cloths before placing him in a manger. (Luke 2 v 7)

The word ‘infant’ comes from the Latin ‘infans’ which means ‘unable to speak’

The ancients Spartans bathed their newborn baby boys in wine to test their strength.

Soranus (1st/2nd century) was a Greek Physician from Ephesus who practiced medicine in Alexandria and Rome. He was recognized as the foremost expert on childbirth and child care in his day and taught that breast-feeding should not begin until the third day; a baby, he said, should first be fed on diluted and boiled honey.

In medieval China, it was not unusual for a mother to breast-feed a child until the child was seven years old.

Virginia Dare, born on  August 18, 1587 on Roanoke Island, was the first child born of English parents in the New World. She was born to English parents Ananias Dare and Eleanor Whit and named after the Virginia Colony. Her grandfather was Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke. 

Baptism of Virginia Dare

The first baby born on the Mayflower during its voyage to the New World was named Oceanus Hopkins. The second child born after the ship set anchor was christened Peregrine White.

James Madison Randolph, grandson of President Thomas Jefferson, was the first child born in the White House.

Martin Couney ran infant incubator exhibits in the early 20th century, in which premature babies were displayed to the public. He maintained his facility for 40 years at Coney Island, and set up a similar one at Atlantic City in 1905, which he also ran until 1943. Couney didn’t charge the parents a penny, instead visitors paid 25 Cents to get in. This covered all the costs to run the facility. Many babies with no chances to survive were saved.

In 1946 the pediatrician Dr Benjamin Spock wrote a best-selling book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care whose message to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do." It has been translated into 39 languages and has sold over 50 million copies, more copies than any other work of non-fiction apart from the Bible. It is the 7th best selling book of all time.

At least one piece of advice from Baby and Child Care was discredited decades after it was first published. Spock recommended putting babies to sleep on their stomachs in order to reduce the risk of infants choking on their own vomit; by the 1990s, that practice was linked to sudden infant death syndrome.

One in 2,000 babies is born with teeth: Julius Caesar, Richard III, Napoleon Bonaparte and Louis XIV all shared that distinction.

BABY FUN FACTS

All babies are color blind when they are born.

A newborn baby has around 300 bones. Many of these fuse together to leave an adult’s 206

Human babies are 75% water at birth, a slightly higher water content than bananas and slightly less than fresh potatoes.

Newborns urinate approximately every 20 minutes.

In newborn babies, 87% of the energy they burn is used to operate their brains.

Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

Babies whose moms speak a tonal language—like Mandarin or Thai—have higher melodic variation in their cries than other babies.

Deaf babies or ones born to deaf parents babble with their hands instead of vocalized babbling. Thus indicating that babbling is not nonsense, but instead an important part of language acquisition.

Up to the age of about six months babies can breathe and swallow at same time.

If you blow gently into a baby's face, she takes a big gulp of air and holds her breath for a second. This is called the bradycardic reflex and is useful for swimming lessons, washing babies face in the tub, and a brief quick crying interruption. 

A one-year-old baby is 30 per cent fat.

An average girl reaches half her adult height at 18 months. For a boy it is 24 months.

In a baby’s first year, parents lose around 350 hours of sleep at night.

Every second, somewhere in the world, 4.45 babies are born and 1.8 people die.

Sources Wikipedia, The Bible Made Simple, Daily Express

Baboon

The Ancient Egyptians trained baboons to wait at tables.

A chacma baboon named Jack attained a measure of fame in the late 19th century for acting as an assistant to a disabled railroad signalman in South Africa. Jack was paid twenty cents a day, and a half-bottle of beer each week. In his nine years of employment with the railroad, Jack never made a mistake.

A Baboon called "Jackie" became a private in the South African army in World War I.

A baboon gang roamed around Cape Town, led by Fred the baboon (died 25 March 2011) and were pursued for three years by police after they became notorious for raiding cars, assaulting and interfering with tourists.

Fred eating in a car. Wikipedia 

During the 2014 Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, a large baboon ran on to the green as former World Number One Golfer Luke Donald was setting up a shot — sending him scurrying for cover.

Males, with head and body up to 1.1 m/3.5 ft long, are larger than females.

Baboons have strong, elongated jaws, large cheek pouches in which they store food, and eyes close together. 

They have large, often brightly colored, hairless areas on their buttocks and thick, sturdy legs. 

The baboon's tail is short and is carried high in an arch. 

The largest of the baboons is the chacma baboon (Papio ursinus), also known as the Cape baboon of South Africa. The adult male may weigh up to 68 kg (150 lb) and is a formidable fighter against the troop’s enemies, including the South African farmers whose crops it may ravage. 

By Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE - Chacma Baboon 

They inhabit Africa and southwestern Arabia.

Baboons live in large herds, called troops, inhabiting rocky, open lands and wooded areas. Their troops are often composed of 200 or 300 members

The most wide-ranging of all baboons, the olive baboon inhabits savannas, steppes, and forests in 25 countries throughout Africa.

Olive baboon with juvenile. By Charlesjsharp - Own work,

Baboons can distinguish colors and have a keen sense of smell. 

They eat various eggs, worms, insects, reptiles, fruits, and young shoots.

After a gestation period of about six months, a female usually bears a single offspring, which clings to its mother’s underside. 

Baboons have several different calls, each of which has a meaning. 

Baboons cannot throw overhand.

A troop of pet-keeping Hamadryas baboons living in a garbage dump outside of Ta'if, Saudi Arabia are known to kidnap puppies of wild dogs. They then raise them as guard dogs to protect the baboon clan.

Sources Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2011, Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage was born at 44 Crosby Row, Walworth Road, London on December 26, 1791.

Babbage's father, Benjamin Babbage, was a London banker who owned the Bitton Estate in Teignmouth. His mother was Betsy Plumleigh Babbage.

Babbage was sent aged 8 to a country school in Alphington near Exeter to recover from a life-threatening fever. For a short time he attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Totnes, South Devon, but he was taken out of school and taught by private tutors because of his frail health.

Babbage attended at the University of Cambridge arriving at Trinity College in October 1810. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1816 and was active in the founding of the Analytical, the Royal Astronomical, and the Statistical societies. 

Charles Babbage c1850

Charles Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore at St. Michael's Church in Teignmouth, Devon on July 25, 1814.

They made a home in Marylebone in London, and had eight children, but only four survived childhood. 

Georgiana died in Worcester on September 1, 1827, the same year as his father, their second son (also named Charles) and their newborn son Alexander.

On his father's death in 1827, Babbage inherited a large estate (value around £100,000, equivalent to £8.72 million or $11.1 million today), making him independently wealthy

Knowing that there were many errors in the calculation of mathematical tables, Babbage wanted to find a way to calculate them mechanically, removing errors made by humans. He first talked about the principles of a calculating engine in a letter to Sir Humphrey Davy in 1822

Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine, an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. The proposal was made in a paper presented to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1822, titled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". His proposed machine used the decimal number system and was powered by cranking a handle.

An operational difference engine at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. By Canticle

Babbage's Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by him as the successor to his difference engine . It was supposed to be able to perform complex calculations using punched cards.

His book Economy of Machines and Manufactures (1832) initiated the field of study known today as operational research. 

In 1842, the Italian mathematician Luigi Federico Menabrea published a description of the engine based on a lecture by Babbage in French. The following year, the description was translated into English and extensively annotated by Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Milbanke. In recognition of her additions to Menabrea's paper, which included a way to calculate Bernoulli numbers using the machine (widely considered to be the first complete computer program), she has been described as the first computer programmer.

Charles Babbage lost two games of chess to the Mechanical Turk, an automaton with a chess player hidden inside that fooled people that a machine could play chess. He knew it was a hoax but it inspired his work on the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine.

Neither Babbage's difference engine or his Analytical Engine were ever constructed in his lifetime, as the technology of their time was not capable of translating his sound concepts into practice; but the ideas formed the basis of modern computing.

Babbage also came up with a system of ‘speaking-tubes’ linking London and Liverpool

Babbage, once baked himself in an oven at 265⁰F for 4 minutes just to see what would happen. He followed this up by asking to be lowered in to Mount Vesuvius.

Charles Babbage hated all forms of street music, especially organ-grinders and in the 1860s ran a campaign to ban them.

Babbage lived and worked for over 40 years at 1 Dorset Street, Marylebone, where he died, at the age of 79, on October 18, 1871; he was buried in London's Kensal Green Cemetery. 

Diet of the Aztecs

Maize was the staple food of the poor Aztecs so much so it was inter-linked with their religion in which they worshiped Cinteotl, a maize god and Chicomecoatl, a maize goddess. They made popcorn by roasting dried maize kernels of a particular variety, which they not only ate but also used for ornaments on statues of their gods.

Tortilla pancakes made with maize were eaten with every meal. The kernels were boiled to remove the husks, crushed to form a paste then cooked on a pottery plate over an open fire. Then they were filled with beans or spicy turkey or dog meat and eaten with a hot sauce made from chili peppers and tomatoes. Chili was available in many guises.

Aztec men sharing a meal as depicted in the Florentine Codex.

Also included in their diet were avocados, onions, peanuts, papaya, pineapple, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. They used avocados, onions and chopped tomatoes to make a sauce called “ahuaca-mulli”, a sort of guacamole.

Source Food For Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce

Aztecs

The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican culture comprising different ethnic groups of central Mexico who built an extensive Central American empire in the 14th century. 

According to legend, Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, was founded on March 18, 1325.

The wild tomato originated in the Andes mountains of Peru, but the Aztecs subsequently cultivated them. The word tomato comes from the Aztec “tomatl”.

The Aztecs loved turkey. They domesticated it about 1,500 years ago and are said to have staged turkey festivals.

Apart from turkey, the only other animals Aztecs bred were dogs and on a much smaller scale, bees.

Wealthy Aztecs liked to drink a beverage of cocoa beans and water. It stained their teeth red, which gave the invading Europeans the idea that the Aztecs’ favorite tipple was human blood.

They called the drink "xocalatl" meaning warm or bitter liquid, the chili they added to the concoction gave the drink its bitter taste.

The Aztecs used many different flavorings, apart from chili these included annatto (which turns the mouth a shade of red), pepper and honey. In adding honey they developed a sweetened chocolate.

The custom was to serve chocolate after a feast, in a special cup called “xicalli” made out of a fruit from a calabash tree.

Chocolate was also considered beneficial to warriors and cacao wafers, intended to be dissolved as needed, were issued to soldiers, in order to fortify them during marches and in battle.

The cocoa plant was considered to be so precious that the Aztecs sometimes used it as money.

Water was the usual drink for the commoners but older Aztecs drunk a powerful alcoholic drink called “pulque”, made from the sap of the the cactus-like agave plant. However the beverage would only keep for a day or so.

The Aztecs had never seen a horse before the Spanish conquistadors arrived, and rode on deer.

The Aztecs believed that their ancestors returned as butterflies.

It was forbidden for the feet of Aztec rulers to touch the ground. Their courtiers would lay out pieces of clothes for them to step on and they were carried around in litters for ceremonial occasions.

It is estimated that the Aztec civilization each year sacrificed to their gods one percent of the population, or about a quarter of a million people.

During the grand opening of the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487 the Aztecs sacrificed 84,000 people in four days.

The Aztecs regarded vanilla beans as sacred and of divine making. Vanilla beans were so valued that they were one of the ways in which common people paid tribute to the Aztec emperors. According to their legend, their origin goes back to the early days of the world when the gods still walked the earth. One god, Xanat was in love with a human youth and she transformed herself to look like a vanilla vine so she could remain on earth with him and his people.

The Aztecs believed turquoise would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used these green and blue stones to decorate their battle shields.

Among Aztec warriors a ridge of hair indicated that he had taken many prisoners.

The Aztecs shaved with razors made from the volcanic glass obsidian.

The Aztec Empire was one of the first societies to have mandatory education for all children regardless of gender or rank.

On August 13, 1521 after four months of siege, Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés captured the flower-covered Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan which was five times larger than London at the time. Cortés replaced it with Mexico City.

Source Food For Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce

Azerbaijan

The name of Azerbaijan derives from that of Atropates who ruled ruled over the region of Atropane (present-day Iranian Azerbajan) around the time of Alexander the Great. The name "Atropates" itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old-Iranian compounded name with the meaning "Protected by the (Holy) Fire" or "The Land of the (Holy) Fire".

Azerbaijan shares a common language and culture with Turkey.

Before its conquest by tsarist Russia in the early 19th century, Azerbaijan was a province of Persia.

Azerbaijan became an independent republic in 1918: the first democratic, parliamentary republic in the Islamic world. But the country was invaded and this republic overthrown in 1920 by communist Russia's Red Army, which established a Soviet socialist republic.

The Azerbaijan flag was first used from November 9, 1918 to 1920, when Azerbaijan was independent, and it was revived with slight variations on February 5, 1991. The blue symbolizes Azerbaijan's Turkic heritage, the red stands for progress, and the green represents Islam.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was created as an autonomous oblast by carving out the mountainous districts of Azerbaijan which constituted historic Karabakh within Azerbaijan SSR from July 7, 1923.

The first Azerbaijani parliamentary election was held in late 1990 when the Supreme Soviet already held discussions on independence of Azerbaijan from the Soviet Union. On November 26, 1991, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan abolished the autonomous status of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan and renamed several cities back to their original names.

As of 2019, Azerbaijan had a estimated population of 10,127,874 people. An estimated 3 million Azerbaijanis, many of them guest workers, live in Russia and Azerbaijan has the highest per capita internally displaced population population in the world.

Out of 11 climate zones known in the world, the Azerbaijani climate has nine.

An Azeri pop duo, Eldar & Nigar, won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Running Scared."

Eric Clapton’s classic rock song "Layla" was inspired by the Azeri epic poem Layla and Majnun about a man in love with a woman who cannot have her because her parents object.

Azerbaijan was among the first countries involved in cinematography. The country's film industry dates back to 1898.

Saffron-rice plov, served with various herbs and greens, is the flagship food in Azerbaijan and black tea. is the national beverage.

Black tea in pear shaped glass. By azerbaijani photographer - pap.az,

Afghanistan and Azerbaijan are only nations whose names begin with an “A”, but doesn’t end in an “A”

Sources © RM 2011. Helicon Publishing is division of RM., Wikipedia

Gladys Aylward

Gladys Aylward was born of a working-class family in Edmonton, London on February 24, 1902. Although forced into domestic service at an early age, she always had an ambition to go overseas as a missionary, and studied with great determination in order to be fitted for the role, only to be turned down by the China Inland Mission because her academic background was inadequate.

She spent her entire savings on a railway ticket to Tientsin in north China in order to fulfil her dream. With a Scottish missionary, Mrs Jeannie Lawson, the pair founded The Inn Of The Eight Happinesses, in a remote outpost at Yangcheng.

Gladys Aylward achieved much in China having become a foot inspector in the official campaign against the binding of female feet. She became a revered figure, taking in orphans and adopting several herself, intervening in a volatile prison riot and advocating for prison reform, risking her life many times to help those in need.

In 1938 Gladys Aylward led around 100 orphans to safety over the Chinese mountains after the Japanese invasion, despite being wounded herself.

By 1949 her life in China was thought to be in great danger from the Communists – the army was actively seeking out missionaries - so Gladys Aylward returned to Britain.  

Her story was told in the book The Small Woman by Alan Burgess, published in 1957. In 1958, the story was made into the Hollywood film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.

Gladys Aylward strongly disapproved of the movie as she was played by a divorcee, Ingrid Bergman.

After her mother died, she settled in Taiwan in 1958. There, she founded the Gladys Aylward Orphanage, where she worked until her death.

Gladys Aylward died on January 3, 1970, just short of her 68th birthday, and is buried in a small cemetery on the campus of Christ's College in Guandu, New Taipei, Taiwan. She was known to the Chinese as "Ài Wěi Dé" - a Chinese approximation to 'Aylward' – meaning 'Virtuous One'.  

Avon

The California Perfume Company, the forerunner of Avon. was founded in 1886 by David H McConnell, an American, who spent his school vacations selling Bibles. He realized that the small samples of rose oil perfume, which he gave out with God's Word, were received with greater enthusiasm than the Bibles themselves.

McConnell realized that women would rather buy from women, so he set about building up a team of housewives selling to friends and relatives.

The California Perfume Company, Inc. of New York filed their first trademark application for Avon on June 3, 1932 with the USPTO. The change of the name of the business to Avon came after McConnell was impressed by a visit to Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon in England.

The UK branch was launched in the 1950s and became famous for its 'Ding-dong, Avon calling' advertising campaign.

In 1989, Avon became the first major cosmetics manufacturer to permanently stop using animals in safety testing.

Avon started off selling cosmetics but now also offers fragrance, jewellery, clothes and home accessories.

An Avon training center in the Bronx

With 6.4 million representatives, operating in over 100 countries, Avon is the second largest direct-selling enterprise in the world (after Amway).

Brazil is Avon's largest market, passing the United States in 2010. 

The company launched a new marketing campaign in September 2020, entitled "Watch Me Now"

Someone buys an Avon lipstick every three seconds.

Source Daily Mail

Avocado

The avocado, is believed to have originated in the state of Puebla, Mexico.

The word “avocado” comes from the Spanish word aguacate, which is from the Aztec “ahuacatl” and referred to their shape: the word meant “testicle”.

Avocados once depended on megafaunas including mammoths, horses and giant ground sloths
to disperse its seeds. However, when the megafaunas became extinct, the fruit had no method of seed dispersal. This would have lead to their extinction without early human farmers.

European sailors on their way to the New World used avocados in place of butter.

It was originally called an "alligator pear" after Irishman Sir Hans Sloane named the avocado tree the “alligator pear tree” in a 1696 index of Jamaican plants. This was because of its pear-like shape and it's bumpy green skin.

The plant was introduced to Indonesia in 1750, Brazil in 1809, South Africa and Australia in the late 1800s, and the the eastern Mediterranean in 1908.

When Marks & Spencer introduced avocados to the United Kingdom in 1968 they had to sell them with a leaflet explaining they were a salad item as customers had tried to stew them.

The Hass Avocado Board says 71.4 million pounds of avocados - that's 142 million avocados - were consumed during the 2012 Super Bowl.

Hass avocado

Mexico produces most of the world's avocados. The states that produce the most are México, Morelos, Nayarit, Puebla, and Michoacan, which accounts for 86% of the total.

The avocado industry in Mexico grew so big that the Mexican cartel for years took over farms through extortion. At its peak, it was estimated that the Mexico drug cartels made $152 million per year from growing and selling avocados. But the city of Tancítaro, the world capital of avocado production, took back their farms back by arming their citizens, building their own police, and bulletproofing their trucks.

The main US producer of the avocado is California, with more than 6,000 groves accounting for about 90% of the fruit's crops.

Avocados are harvested by using a 16-foot pole to reach the high-hanging fruit. Avocados tend to be more expensive than other fruits because of the high cost of labor.

Eighty per cent per cent of all avocados in shops worldwide are descended from one tree grown by a postman and amateur horticulturist Rudolph Hass in 1926. The tree eventually died of root rot and was cut down on September 11, 2002 at the ripe old age of 76.

Rudolph Hass didn't make very much money despite his tree's success as most people bought one single tree and then grew vast orchards from cuttings. He only made $5,000 from his patent, and remained a postman his entire life.

A young Hass avocado sprout By Ingvar-fed - wikipedia Commons

The world's first avocado restaurant, where every dish contains avocado, opened at 254 36th Street, Brooklyn, New York. in April 2017.  It ran out of avocados on its first day.

The world’s heaviest avocado weighing 5.6 pounds (2.54 kilograms) was found in Hawaii. The Pokini family from the island of Maui received the Guinness certificate in October 2019 for the avocado weighing 5.6 pounds (2.54 kilograms). To put its size into perspective, the average avocado weighs about 170 g (6 oz).

Americans eat almost 80 million pounds of avocados during the Super Bowl, enough to cover the field 30 feet deep.

The avocado is a climacteric fruit, which matures on the tree, but ripens off the tree. As long as the climate is agreeable, farmers can leave the avocados on the tree for months at a time, using the trees themselves as a sort of storage facility to keep the crop rotating and perpetually in season.

Avocado trees do not self-pollinate; they need another avocado tree close by to bear fruit.

An avocado serving size is 50 calories, which works out to be three thin slices or two tablespoons mashed.

About three-quarters of the edible calories in an avocado are pure fat.

Avocados contain an agent that can help treat acute myeloid leukemia, a rare and deadly form of cancer.

Eating at least two servings of avocado a week can reduce your risk of having a heart attack.

Avocado leaves, bark, and fruit contain Persin, which is toxic to cats, dogs, rabbits, horses and basically all pets. Birds and rodents are especially sensitive to avocado poisoning,

About 75% of an avocado's energy comes from fat, most of which is mostly heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. The avocado contains more fat-per-unit than any other fruit. The closest competitor to the avocado is the olive.

The avocado stands so far above other fruits in terms of fat-per-fruit that it really should stand in a class all its own.

Avocados are particularly filling because they are very high in fiber. Its fat is slowly digested, which helps your meal stay with you longer.

Avocados are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan and cholesterol-free.

Avocados are the fruit with the highest protein content, on average four grams per fruit.

In eastern China, the avocado is known as è lí ("alligator pear") or huángyóu guǒ ("butter fruit"). In Taiwan, it is known as luò lí or "cheese pear."

Chipotle uses about 97,000 pounds of avocado every day.

82 percent of avocado oil sold in the United States is either rancid or mixed with other oils. While it is a great source of vitamins and minerals when fresh and pure, the vast majority of avocado oil in the United States is of extremely poor quality.

UK retailer Marks & Spencer began lasering bar-codes into its avocados in 2017 to save ten tonnes of paper and five tonnes of glue a year.

The French word "avocat" means both "lawyer" and "avocado."

Source www.mindbodygreen.com

Ave Maria

The original words of Ave Maria (Hail Mary) were in English, being part of a poem called The Lady of the Lake, written in 1810 by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). The poem drew on the romance of the legend regarding the 5th century British leader King Arthur, but transferred it to Scott's native Scotland. 

In 1825 during a holiday in Upper Austria, the composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) set to music a prayer from the poem using a German translation by Adam Storck. Scored for piano and voice, it was first published in 1826 as "D839 Op 52 no 6." Schubert called his piece "Ellens dritter Gesang" (Ellen's third song) and it was written as a prayer to the Virgin Mary from a frightened girl, Ellen Douglas, who had been forced into hiding.

Portrait of Franz Schubert by Franz Eybl (1827)

The song cycle proved to be one of Schubert's most financially successful works, the Austrian composer being paid by his publisher 20 pounds sterling, a sizable sum for a musical work in the 1820s. Though not written for liturgical services, the music proved to be inspirational to listeners, particularly Roman Catholics, and a Latin text was substituted to make it suitable for use in church. It is today most widely known in its Latin "Ave Maria" form.

In a letter from Schubert to his father and step-mother he writes about "Ave Maria" and the other songs in his "Lady of the Lake" cycle: "My new songs from Scott's Lady of the Lake especially had much success. They also wondered greatly at my piety, which I expressed in a hymn to the Holy Virgin and which, it appears, grips every soul and turns it to devotion."

This piece is not to be confused with the traditional Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox prayer "Hail Mary" or "Ave Maria" even though it is often sung to the melody of this piece.

In the United Kingdom two versions of "Ave Maria" have reached the Top 40, Shirley Bassey peaking at #31 in 1962 and Lesley Garrett and Amanda Thompson reached #16 in 1993.

(Originally written by myself for the Songfacts website)

Avalanche

An avalanche is a fall of a mass of snow and ice down a deep slope. Avalanches occur because of the unstable nature of snow masses in mountain areas.

The Saint Bernard dog is often depicted wearing a small brandy keg around its neck for reviving avalanche and frostbite victims. The quaint symbol is merely a myth perpetuated by the 19th century artist Edwin Landseer in his famous portrait of the breed reviving a traveler.

England's worst ever avalanche occurred at Lewes, Sussex on December 27, 1836, when a huge build-up of snow on a chalk cliff overlooking the town collapsed into the settlement 325 feet (100 metres) below. It destroyed a row of cottages killing eight people.

The worst avalanche in United States history happened on March 1, 1910. It buried a Great Northern Railway train in northeastern King County, Washington, killing 96 people.

Train wreckage caused by the avalanche

A sudden blizzard in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan on February 8, 2010 triggered a series of at least 36 avalanches, that struck the southern approach to the Salang tunnel, north of Kabul. Over two miles of road was buried, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travelers.

An avalanche can pack 36,000 pounds of force as 1 million or more cubic feet of snow slides down a mountain at 90 mph.

100 tonnes per square meter is the pressure that can be in the reached middle of an avalanche equivalent — to the weight of 50 cars on a manhole cover.

70 percent of fatal avalanches take place within four days of another avalanche.

The chance of surviving an avalanche is :
92% if found within 15 minutes
30% if found within 35 minutes (victims die of suffocation)
Nearly zero after two hours (victims die of injuries and hypothermia).

Gene Autry

He was born Orvon Grover Autry on September 29, 1907, near Tioga in Grayson County in north Texas.

Gene's grandfather was a Methodist preacher and his parents were named Delbert and Einora. 

His parents moved in the 1920s to Ravia in Johnston County in southern Oklahoma. Gene worked on his father's ranch there while at school. 

Autry was educated at Ravia (Oklahoma) High School. After high school, Gene Autry worked as a telegrapher for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad in Oklahoma and performed as a singer and a guitarist at local dances.

Autry was discovered singing in a telegraph office in Oklahoma by humorist Will Rogers. Rogers told him that he had a pretty good voice, and suggested that he should sing professionally. Autry followed Rogers' advice and became "The Singing Cowboy." 

When Gene Autry went to Hollywood in 1934, he couldn't act, he couldn't ride, he couldn't rope, and he couldn't shoot. But that didn't prevent him from becoming the screen's most popular cowboy star within just a few years.

Gene Autry in 1942

He made his movie debut in 1934 in Ken Maynard's In Old Santa Fe and starred in a 13-part serial the following year for Mascot Pictures, The Phantom Empire. The next year Autry signed a contract with Republic Pictures and began making westerns.

Autry's best known song, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," was created in 1939, in Chicago, for the Montgomery Ward department stores for a Christmas promotion. The lyrics were written as a poem by Robert May, but weren't set to music until 1947. Gene Autry recorded the hit song in 1949.

He owned a chain of radio and television stations throughout the western United States, including KMPC and KTLA in Los Angeles and KSFO in San Francisco. His other business interests included the Gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs, and several other properties.

He ranked for many years on the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans.

Gene Autry owned the Los Angeles Angels American League baseball club from 1961 to 1997. (They subsequently were renamed the California Angels when the team was relocated to Anaheim in 1966.) When he sold part of his interest to Disney in 1997, they became the Anaheim Angels.

Sadly, Autry never got to see his beloved Angels win the World Series. The team even retired Gene's number "26".

Autry was Vice President of The American League until his death in 1998.

Autry died of lymphoma in Studio City, Los Angeles, on October 2, 1998, three days after his 91st birthday. 

Autry is the only entertainer to have been honored in all five categories by the Hollywood Walk of Fame, having been awarded stars for his performances in films, music recording, radio, television, and live theater.

Here is some trivia on Gene Autry's songs