Zebra

A zebra is the name given to striped memories of the horse family. They live in Africa, south of the Sahara desert.

Pixiebay

ANATOMY 

There is three species of zebras: the plains zebra, the mountain zebra and the Grévy's zebra. The plains zebra is about 47–51 inches (1.2–1.3 m) at the shoulder with a body ranging from 6.6–8.5 feet (2–2.6 m) long with a 20 inch (0.5 m) tail. It can weigh up to 770 lbs (350), males being slightly bigger than females. Grévy's zebra is considerably larger, while the mountain zebra is somewhat smaller.

All zebras have very short fur because they live in hot areas. Their fur has black and white stripes.

The "background" color of each zebra is black, and the white stripes are on top.

Just like human fingerprints, a zebra's stripe pattern is unique to the individual.

Zebras have black and white stripes to battle against the parasites. Apparently, the horse flies are not able to land properly on zebras due to their stripes. They also act as camouflage against the desert and mountainous background.

The zebra's  black and white stripes also create confusion when the animal moves - known as 'motion dazzle' - making it difficult for predators to focus on them.

Scientists have built a device that can scan the pattern of stripes on zebras, as if it were a bar code, in order to differentiate between them.

BEHAVIOR 

Zebras mainly eat grass, but they also eat fruit, leaves and some vegetables.

Pixiebay 

If a zebra is attacked, its family will come to its defense, circling the wounded zebra and attempting to drive off predators.

Zebra stallions that win a harem from another male may have to wait three years before the mares in his herd will accept him as the new stud.

ZEBRAS IN HISTORY 

Zebras were trained by the Romans to pull chariots around the circuses. They even gave the stripy animal the name “hippotigris”, meaning “Horse-tiger.”

Zebra” is the only common English word that comes from Congolese. It dates back to 1600.

The Grévy's Zebra species was named after Jules Grévy, President of France from 1879-1887.   In 1882, Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia gave Grévy a zebra and “Grévy's Zebra” stuck.

Walter Rothschild, who once housed one of the largest natural history collections in the world, had a famed zebra carriage. He once he drove it to Buckingham Palace to demonstrate the tame character of zebras to the public.

Rothschild with his famed zebra carriage

Zebras were never domesticated because they have a ducking reflex and bite and kick more than horses.

FUN ZEBRA FACTS

A group of zebras is called a "dazzle."

The zebra is the national animal of Botswana. The black band with the white frame in the country's flag represents the stripes of the zebra. Also the coat of arms of Botswana is based on a shield supported by two zebras.

Each year, zebras are responsible for more injuries to American zookeepers than any other animal.

Source Daily Express

Zambia

HISTORY

The area where Zambia is now was first visited by Portuguese in the late 18th century and by David Livingstone in 1851.

The British colonised the region into the British protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. These were merged in 1911 to form Northern Rhodesia.

As Northern Rhodesia it became a British Protectorate in 1924, together with the former kingdom of Barotziland (now Western Province).

From 1953 the country, with Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (now Malawi), was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was dissolved in 1963.

Map of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. By Mangwanani 

In 1953, the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland grouped together Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland as a single semi-autonomous region.

By the early 1960s a sizeable minority of the population were demonstrating against the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Initially, Harry Nkumbula's African National Congress (ANC) led the campaign before Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence Party (UNIP) subsequently took it up. In January 1964, UNIP won the next election, securing Kaunda's position as prime minister.

Zambia achieved full independence when Northern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zambia on October 24, 1964. It became a member of the Commonwealth, with Kenneth Kaunda as president.

The flag of Zambia was hoisted for the first time at midnight on October 23, 1964, symbolising patriotism and the nation's natural resources.

Zambia flag

Zambia is the only country to have entered an Olympics as one country (Northern Rhodesia) and left the games as another. Zambia declared independence on the last day of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

At first Zambia was troubled with frequent outbreaks of violence because of disputes within the governing party and conflicts between the country's 73 tribes.

Zambia was economically dependent on neighbouring white-ruled Rhodesia (formerly White Rhodesia) but tolerated liberation groups operating on the border and relations between the two countries deteriorated. The border was closed in 1973 and 1976.

Kenneth Kaunda (born April 28. 1924) ruled Zambia for 30 years with his party UNIP. From 1973 UNIP was the only legal party and all other parties were banned.

Kaunda during an official visit to the United States in 1983

After protests, democratic elections were held in 1991. Kenneth Kaunda lost the elections and gave away his power to his successor Frederick Chiluba, a former trade union leader.

In the 1960s, Zambia was making a lot of money because of the copper deposits that were mined in Copperbelt province. However, by the mid-1970s, the price of copper suffered a severe decline worldwide. Zambia turned to foreign and international lenders for relief, but as copper prices remained depressed, it became increasingly difficult to service its growing debt.

In the 2000s, Zambia's economy stabilized, attaining single-digit inflation in 2006–2007, real GDP growth, decreasing interest rates, and increasing levels of trade. Much of its growth was due to foreign investment in mining and to higher world copper prices.

FUN ZAMBIA FACTS

Zambia is named after the Zambezi River, which arises in the country and flows into the Indian Ocean.

Zambia is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west.

The border between Botswana and Zambia is at 700m (2,300 ft) known as the shortest border between two fully independent countries.

Lusaka is the capital of Zambia with a population of about 1.7 million. Approximately 80% of residents of Lusaka, Zambia, live in kombonis, a type of compound or informal housing area characterized by a low income and a high population density. These areas typically have limited access to water, poor sanitation, few healthcare facilities, and limited access to employment.

Lusaka is home to the Freedom Statue that commemorates Zambia's struggle for independence and the zoo and botanical gardens of the Munda Wanga Environmental Park.

Freedom statue

Zambia's floriculture industry is vastly dominated by the production of roses, which comprise nearly 95% of the country's flower exports.

18 members of the Zambia national football team and the coching staff lost their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon on April 27, 1993. They were en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match.

Just three years later, the new Zambian team reached the final of the African Cup of Nations, a remarkable achievement that was widely celebrated in Zambia and beyond.

Chikanda is a popular savory snack in Zambia that is made by combining orchid tubers, ground peanuts and chillies.

Zambia's national bird is the fish eagle.

Zambia boasts Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world. It emits a water spray that can be seen 30 miles (48 km) away. Victoria Falls is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Victoria Falls Pixiebay

The local currency is kwacha.

Source Iol

Yo-yo

The yo-yo is a toy that falls and rises on an adroitly manipulated string. It is the second oldest known toy in the world (only the doll is older), and has been around fo 3,000 years.

Playing with the yo-yo was one of the favourite pastimes of ancient Greek children. A Greek vase painting from 440 BC shows a boy playing with a yo-yo.

Boy playing with a terracotta yo-yo, Attic kylix, c. 440 BC,

Yo-yos were used as a weapon by hunters during the sixteenth century in the Philippine Islands. They hid in trees with a rock tied to a cord to throw at wild animals beneath them. The cord meant they could get the rock back without having to come down from the tree. These yo-yos weighed 4 pounds and had a 20-foot cord.

Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette were yo-yo enthusiasts. Later, during the French Revolution the dangling toy was associated with aristocratic French families fleeing the guillotine. It was known in those days as a "bandalore".

A 1791 illustration of a woman playing with an early version of the yo-yo, 

They were first introduced to America in 1866 by James L. Haven and Charles Hettrick of Cincinnati but remained in relative obscurity until 1928 when a Filipino American named Pedro Flores opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California.

By November 1929, Flores was operating two additional factories in Los Angeles and Hollywood, which altogether employed 600 workers and produced 300,000 units daily.

An entrepreneur named Donald F. Duncan recognized the potential of this new fad and purchased the Flores yo-yo Corporation and all its assets, including the Flores name, which was transferred to the new company in 1932.

The word yo-yo was registered as a trade name in Canada in 1932, and it was then that a sudden craze for the toy spread through the Western world.

The hands of 1932 World Yo-Yo Champion, Harvey Lowe, were insured for $150,000. He travelled through Europe and while in London taught the Prince of Wales how to play the Yo-Yo.

Yo-yos were banned in Syria in 1933, because many locals superstitiously blamed the use of them for a severe drought.

More than half a billion yo-yos have been sold in the United States since Donald F. Duncan introduced the toy in 1930.

There was a female rapper named Yo-Yo (Yolanda Whitaker) who was a protégé of Ice Cube. She cracked the US Top-40 in 1991 with her song "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo."

Cheap yo-yos can spin approximately 10-20 seconds, with a record of nearly 4 minutes, while professional ball bearing yo-yos can spin for 1-4 minutes, with a record of just over 21 minutes.

Yo-yos can spin around 6,000 revolutions per minute, about as fast as most car engines can turn over.

Due to a yo-yo's gyroscopic stability and the string's friction, the string doesn't even need to be tied to the yo-yo to make it work.

One of the most famous tricks on the yoyo is "walk the dog". This is done by throwing a fast Sleeper and allowing the yoyo to roll across the floor.

Yo-yo balloons are a common type of water balloon found at festivals in Japan. The balloon is tied shut and hung from an elastic string with a finger loop tied at the end. This gives them enough weight and bounce to function as a yo-yo, earning their name.

Source Songfacts

YouTube

Three former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim launched the popular website YouTube, where individuals and companies can upload, view and share videos.

From left to right: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. By Composite image by user:Ianmacm,

Steve Chen had worked at Facebook for a few months before quitting to set up YouTube in 2005 with Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim.

YouTube's first headquarters sat above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California.

YouTube's early headquarters in San Mateo By Coolcaesar 

Three key experiences inspired the YouTube founders. Karim had had trouble finding footage online of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction and, later, of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. And Hurley and Chen had difficulty sharing a video shot at a dinner party in San Francisco in 2005.

The domain name YouTube.com was activated on February 14, 2005 and the site was developed months after.

The site as it appeared a few months after its launch By Source (WP:NFCC#4), 

Jawed Karim was the first person to upload a video onto the YouTube. The film entitled Me At The Zoo was uploaded on April 23, 2005 at 20:31. The 19-second video was shot by Karim's high school fiend Yakov Lapitsky and shows the YouTube co-founder at the San Diego Zoo. It has racked up over 70 million views as of June 2019.

During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest growing sites on the World Wide Web, hosting over 65,000 new video uploads.

Google bought the YouTube site on November 13, 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries. It was a bold move for Google at the time, as YouTube was still a relatively new and unproven company.

Google has invested heavily in YouTube since the acquisition, and the platform has grown significantly as a result. Today, YouTube is the world's largest video-sharing website, with over 2 billion active users. It is also a major source of revenue for Google, generating over $28 billion in advertising revenue in 2022.

Peter Oakley, known as Geriatric1927 on YouTube, was the most subscribed YouTube account in 2006. In his channel he talked about his life experiences, such as growing up in the United Kingdom during World War II and experiencing the British interwar school system. Oakley passed away in 2014 at 86 years old.

Justin Bieber was discovered by chance when he was 12. His mom uploaded a video to YouTube of him singing in a talent contest, intending it just for his family. However, when music executive Scooter Braun clicked on it he was immediately impressed and signed him up.

The music video for PSY's "Gangnam Style" forced YouTube into an upgrade after it broke the video-sharing website's hit counter. Once PSY's tune reached 2,147,483,647 views, the maximum positive value for a 32-bit signed binary integer in computing, the view-counter could no longer work.

For three years, the music video for Luis Fonsi's "Despacito" was the most-watched clip of all time on YouTube. It became the first on YouTube to receive three billion, four billion, five billion and six billion views on August 4, 2017; October 11, 2017; April 5, 2018; February 24, 2019, respectively. Pinkfong's children's song "Baby Shark Dance" overtook "Despacito" as the most viewed video on YouTube on November 2, 2020, when the clip hit 7,042,967,886 views. 

Kenyan javelin thrower Julius Yego, who won silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics, learned how to throw properly by watching YouTube videos.

The word "YouTuber" was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016.

As of 2018, China and North Korea both were permanently blocking accessing YouTube.

As of August 2018, the YouTube website was ranked as the second-most popular site in the world, according to Alexa Internet.

Yoga

Yoga is a practice of Hindu philosophy, involving the withdrawal of the physical senses from eternal objects. Its origins are unclear, but it is known it was practiced in India at least 5000 years ago.

Pixabay

The word “yoga” is derived from the Sanskrit root "yuj" meaning "devotion" or "union" and uses physical, mental and spiritual elements.

The practice of yoga is taught in ancient Indian texts, and three major religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism) stemmed from those texts.

When Alexander the Great reached India in the 4th century BC he encountered "Yogins." One of Alexander's companions, Onesicritus, claimed in Strabo's Geography that these Indian yogins practiced aloofness and "different postures – standing or sitting or lying naked – and motionless".

The discipline of yoga was first laid out in writing in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, The author, who lived about 150 BC at Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, India, preached mystical union with a personal deity by the practise of hypnosis. In addition, Patanjali espoused a rising above the senses by abstract meditation, adoption of special postures and ascetic practices.

A statue of Patañjali,  By User:Alokprasad 

From a Hindu perspective, yoga consists of four types, translated to: devotion, knowledge, action, or concentration. These types of yoga is an important part of achieving their ultimate goal, moksha, which is unity with God and freedom from the cycle of birth and death.

A Yogi is a person who has mastered yoga or has achieved great success in the practice.

While Yoga in Indian traditions has a meditative and spiritual core, outside India, it has developed into a posture-based relaxation technique. The history of Yoga in the western world is widely thought to begin with the Parliament of Religions, which opened on September 11, 1893 at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the World's Columbian Exposition. It was at that congress that the young Swami Vivekananda made a big and lasting impression on the American public when he gave a brief speech representing India and Hinduism. Vivekananda spent the following two years lecturing in the eastern and central United States before changing his mission to the establishment of Vedanta centers in the West.

Vivekananda in Chicago, September 1893.

An important element in Vivekananda's adaptation of Hindu religiosity was the introduction of his "four yogas" model. This includes Raja yoga, his interpretation of Patanjali's Yoga sutras, which offered a practical means to realise the divine force within which is central to modern western esotericism.

Vivekananda's 1896 book Raja Yoga was his interpretation of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali adapted for a Western audience. It became an instant success and was highly influential in the Western understanding of yoga.

Until modern times, the overwhelming majority of Yoga practitioners have been men, yogins. But there have also always been female adepts, yoginis. Hatha-Yoga, a system of physical techniques supplementary to a broad conception of yoga, entered mainstream America with Indra Devi. The Russian-born yogini, who has been called the “First Lady of Yoga,” opened her Yoga studio in Hollywood in 1947.

Today many people just enjoy yoga's unique stretches. Hatha-Yoga is the most widely practised in the West. Slow paced classes combine physical exercises and postures, with meditation. Some Christians even meditate on spiritual matters while  doing these stretches. The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) explains that this practice is not truly yoga; it is asana where one person simply moves from one posture to another. Modern Americans have turned the ancient Indian philosophy into an exercise ritual, a means of focusing attention, and an avenue to longer life and greater health.

Pixabay

Bikram Yoga is a system of yoga that Bikram Choudhury synthesized from traditional hatha yoga techniques, was popularized beginning in the early 1970s. Popular with male celebrities such as George Clooney and David Beckham as well as females including Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Gaga and Madonna, Bikram Yoga is done in 40°C (104°F) heat to cleanse the body of toxins and loosen muscles.

Ashtanga Yoga is fast paced and physically demanding. It involves constantly moving from the set sequence of poses while synchronising breathing.

In 2008, there were 818 registered yoga schools in the U.S. By 2012, the number grew to 2,500, and by late 2015 there were 3,900.

15 million Americans practice yoga; 72% of them are female.

Around half a million Britons spend more than £750 million a year on pilates and yoga studio fees.

The actress Emma Watson is a certified yoga instructor as is Doria Loyce Ragland the mother of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

Sources Daily Mail, Crosswalk, Healthyconscience

YMCA

The London draper, temperance advocate and devout Christian George Williams was appalled at the degradation of workingmen in London and began a work among his fellow drapery employees. A go-getter in business, too, he rapidly advanced to partnership in his firm (a drapery house) and used his own substantial wealth to support evangelical causes.

Si George Williams

Williams was motivated to form the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) by the terrible conditions and the consequent temptations for sin he perceived in London for young men. The first YMCA meeting was held in Williams’ drapery shop in St Paul’s Churchyard on June 6, 1844 and included 12 young men in total. Their objective was the “improvement of the spiritual condition of the young men engaged in houses of business, by the formation of Bible classes, family and social prayer meetings, mutual improvement societies, or any other spiritual agency.”

George Williams wasted no time in organising YMCA branches throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. Over the next 10 years, YMCA movements also began to develop across Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India and North America.

The first YMCA in North America was established in Montreal, Quebec in 1851. Later that year, the first YMCA in the United States opened in Boston on December 29, 1851. It was founded by Captain Thomas Valentine Sullivan (1800–59), an American seaman and missionary. By 1853, the Boston YMCA had 1,500 members, most of whom were merchants and artisans.

First YMCA in Montreal By Denis Jacquerye

The idea of creating a truly global movement with an international headquarters was pioneered by Henry Dunant, Secretary of YMCA Geneva, who would later go on to found the International Committee of the Red Cross and win the first Nobel Peace Prize.

Henry Dunant successfully convinced YMCA Paris to organise the first YMCA World Conference. The Conference took place in August 1855, bringing together 99 young delegates from Europe and North America. They met just before the 1855 Paris World Exposition of the same year. The delegates discussed joining together in a federation to enhance cooperation amongst individual YMCA societies. This marked the beginning of the World Alliance of YMCAs.

Emblem of 1881

The similar Young Women's Christian Association or YWCA was founded in 1870.

Long before Williams' death in 1905, the YMCA had achieved a membership of 150,000 in Britain and half a million in America with thousands of branches worldwide.

One of George Williams aims for the YMCA was to promote a muscular Christianity. He wanted to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind, and spirit". The organisation was very influential during the 1870s and the 1930s in promoting good sportsmanship in athletic contests in gymnasiums and swimming pools. Three sports: basketball, volleyball and racquetball were invented in YMCA facilities.

YMCA Association Men cover, June 1919

Basketball was invented at the YMCA International Training School (later named Springfield College) in Massachusetts in 1891. Its inventor was Canadian YMCA trainer James Naismith.

Volleyball was invented in a Holyoke, Massachusetts YMCA in 1895. Its inventor was a YMCA physical education instructor William George Morgan.

Racquetball was invented in the Greenwich, Connecticut, YMCA in 1950. Its inventor was Joe Sobek a tennis, handball and squash player who worked in a rubber manufacturing factory,

Late 19th century Baseball star Billy Sunday started his evangelist career touring YMCAs. Sunday drew enormous crowds at YMCAs across the USA, who clamored to hear the famous baseball player recall his faith journey.

On January 13, 1979 The YMCA filed a libel suit against the Village People for their "YMCA" hit. It considered the song defamatory. The two sides settled out of court and the YMCA later expressed pride towards the band for their song as a salute to their organization.

Today the YMCA is a worldwide organisation with its headquarters based in Geneva, Switzerland. it now operates in 120 countries and reaches 58 million people.

In its early years, the YMCA organization provided beds and shelter to young men leaving the countryside for work in the cities. Many YMCAs throughout the world still maintain residences as an integral part of the programming. YMCAs in the United Kingdom are known now predominantly as organizations that provide accommodation for vulnerable and homeless young people. Across the UK the YMCA provides over 8,000 bed spaces, and is thus one of the largest providers of safe supported accommodation for young people.

Source YMCA

Yemen

Yemen is a country in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea. It lies south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman.

Wikipedia

HISTORY

Yemen was a kingdom in the second Millennium BC before it came under successfully Egyptian, Roman and Ethiopian rule.

Yemen was known to the ancient Romans as Arabia Felix ("Happy Arabia" in Latin). They called it Happy Arabia because the area was so beautiful and powerful.

It adopted Islam in 628 AD. Since then, Yemenis have been staunch Muslims.

The historic town of Zabid was a centre of learning for the whole Arab and Islamic world. Algebra is said to have been invented there in the early 9th century by the little-known scholar Al-Jazari.

Ali al-Sulayhi, originally an Ismaili missionary, brought all of Yemen under the control of his Sulayhid dynasty before capturing Mecca in 1063.

Jibla became the capital of the Sulayhid dynasty By Waleed uuw 

Yemen formed part of the Ottoman Empire between 1538 and 1630 and it was occupied by Turkey in the 19th century.

The country was divided between The Ottoman Empire ( North Yemen) and the British Empire (South Yemen) in the early twentieth century.

The last king of Yemen, Iman Muhammad was killed in a military coup in 1962. The declaration of the new Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) provoked a civil war between royalist forces, assisted by Saudi Arabia, and Republicans, helped by Egypt. By 1967 the republicans, under Marshal Abdullah al-Sallal had won.

Later in 1967 Sallal was deposed while on a foreign visit and a republican council took over. 

Despite having been united for centuries, modern Yemen was actually divided into two countries – South Yemen and North Yemen – until 1990. 

The First Yemenite War of 1972 and Second Yemenite War of 1979 were short military conflicts between the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen). Both lasted three weeks and two days, had no winners or territorial changes, and both resulted in the two Yemens pledging to unify.

On May 22, 1990 North Yemen and South Yemen merged to create the Republic of Yemen. Thousands of people took to the streets, chanting "Unity is power."

The Flag of Yemen was adopted on May 22, 1990. It is essentially the Arab Liberation Flag of 1952, introduced after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 in which Arab nationalism was a dominant theme.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh was the first president of the new republic until his resignation in 2012.

After President Saleh stepped down, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi was formally elected president on February 21, 2012 in a one-candidate election in September 2014, the Houthis took over Yemen's capital Sana'a, later declaring themselves the national government after a coup d'état; This resulted in a new civil war and a Saudi-led military intervention aimed at restoring Hadi's government.

In 2019, the United Nations reported that Yemen is the country with the most people in need of humanitarian aid with 24.1 million.

FUN YEMEN FACTS

Yemen is the second-largest Arab sovereign state in the Arabian Peninsula (after Saudi Arabia), occupying 527,970 square kilometres (203,850 square miles).

If all the world's countries swapped land masses according to their population sizes, the Yemen is one of four that wouldn't move. The other three countries are the United States, Brazil, and Ireland.

Sana'a is one of five capital cities with an apostrophe in its names. The others are N'Djamena (the capital of Chad), St John's (Antigua and Barbuda), St George's (Grenada) and Nuku'alofa (Tonga).

In Yemen, 85.1 per cent of adult males are literate but only 55 per cent of females. This is the world’s highest male-female discrepancy rate.

The old walled city of Shibam, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city, which has been inhabited at least since the 3rd century is one of the oldest examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction, containing ten storey buildings made of earth, mud and unbaked bricks. Today, Shibam has a population of 7000 living on 0.03 square km (three times as dense as the most crowded Wards of London), with houses clustered around the five public squares.

Shibham By Jialiang Gao www.peace-on-earth.org

Modern Standard Arabic is the official language of Yemen, while Yemeni Arabic is used as the vernacular.

About 65% of the Muslim population is Sunni and 35% is Shia, according to the International Religious Freedom Report.

A trip to the barbers in Yemen can provide more than a haircut. Circumcisions to order can also be supplied on the premises.

The country's main export commodities are crude oil, coffee, dried and salted fish, liquefied natural gas.

Mocha is a drink in which coffee and chocolate are mixed. The word mocha is actually derived from Mocha, a port in Yemen on the Red Sea.

Coffee plantation in Yemen. By Mufaddalqn

Yemen's biggest ever sports event was hosting the 2010 football Gulf Cup of Nations.

93.9% of all cars in Yemen are Toyotas.

Boris Yeltsin

EARLY LIFE  

Boris Yeltsin was born in Butka, a small village near the Ural Mountains on February 1, 1931.

Official portrait of Boris Yeltsin

The priest at young Boris Yeltsin’s christening was so drunk that he dropped baby Boris into the font then forgot he was there.

When he was 11 Yeltsin blew off the thumb and forefinger of his left hand while taking apart a grenade he and some of his chums had stolen from an army store.

EARLY CAREER 

Yeltsin worked as a builder, then joined the Communist Party in 1961.

He was the leader of the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) during the 1970s. One of the things he did was demolish the building where Nicholas II and his family were shot.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev made Yeltsin the leader of the city of Moscow. Yeltsin became one of the more liberal members of Gorbachev's government.

Yeltsin later criticised Gorbachev's perestroika reforms as being too moderate and he called for a transition to a multi-party representative democracy. In 1987 he was the first person to resign from the party's governing Politburo, establishing his popularity as an anti-establishment figure.

After Russia's elections in 1989, Yeltsin became leader of the Russian Parliament.

Boris Yeltsin abandoned communism partly due to a visit on September 16, 1989, to a medium-sized grocery store (Randall's) in Clear Lake, Houston, Texas. Leon Aron, quoting a Yeltsin associate, wrote in his 2000 biography, Yeltsin, A Revolutionary Life. "On his return to Moscow, Yeltsin would confess the pain he had felt after the Houston excursion: the 'pain for all of us, for our country so rich, so talented and so exhausted by incessant experiments'."

PRESIDENCY 

In a nationally televised speech on the night Christmas Day, 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union. He declared the office extinct and handed over its functions to Boris Yeltsin.

Yeltsin became the first President of the Russian Federation on July 10, 1991. He won 57% of the vote.

Yeltsin on 22 August 1991. By Kremlin.ru

Later in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed as Russia and all 14 other divisions made themselves independent. Yeltsin won support from the United States and Europe when he promised to bring capitalism and democracy to Russia. However Yeltsin proved to be an unpopular leader as his tenure was marked by widespread corruption, inflation, and economic hardships for his country.

Boris Yeltsin's first words to President Bill Clinton upon meeting in 1995 were, "Do you think O.J. did it?"

During a visit to London, Boris Yeltsin nearly caused a diplomatic row by trying to hug the Queen. Afterwards, it was suggested that the Russian should in the future be advised that apart from handshakes, people do not 'handle' the Queen.

On one occasion when he failed to get of a plane in Shannon, Ireland, it was assumed Yeltsin was drunk, only for the later realization that he had suffered a heart attack.

In November 1996, Yeltsin had a quintuple heart bypass. His failing health and further spells in hospital received a great deal of speculation in the press but he succeeded on clinging on as president despite becoming an increasingly unstable leader.

By late 1999, Yeltsin was so unpopular, that his approval rating was believed to be just 2%.

On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin went on television and, in a surprise announcement, resigned from office and apologized to the Russian people for the mistakes he had made. He nominated Vladimir Putin as his successor.

PERSONAL LIFE 

He married Naina Yeltsina, whom he met at the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk in 1956, They have two daughters, Yelena and Tatyana, born in 1957 and 1960, respectively.

Yeltsin suffered from cyclothymia, a chronic disorder consisting of short periods of mild depression followed by bursts of frenzied activity. It was the same chronic depressive disorder Winston Churchill suffered from.

Throughout his office Boris Yeltsin treated his mood swings with large doses of vodka. Bill Clinton only phoned Yeltsin early in the day, before he became too drunk.

Yeltsin and Bill Clinton share a laugh in October 1995. By Kremlin.ru,

On a 1995 visit to Washington D.C., Boris Yeltsin was found on Pennsylvania Avenue, drunk, in his underwear and trying to hail a cab in order to find pizza. After being escorted back to the Blair House and getting his pizza, Yeltsin tried to do the same again the next night.

Yeltsin had a party trick of playing the spoons like castanets — and, in 1992, did so on the bald head of the President of Kyrgyzstan.

He enjoyed boxing, gymnastics and skiing.

DEATH 

Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure on April 23, 2007, aged 76.

Yeltsin with his wife Naina on his 75th birthday, 2006 By Kremlin.ru

Boris Yeltsin's funeral was held on April 25, 2007. His funeral was held at the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow and was attended by many world leaders, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. It was notable that the Russian Orthodox Church sanctioned Yeltsin's funeral, making it the first time since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894 that the church had allowed a state funeral for a head of state. 

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is the largest US nature reserve. Located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, it spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), bigger than Rhode Island or Delaware.

About 96 percent of the park is in Wyoming. Three percent is in Montana and one percent in Idaho.

The park comprises canyons, lakes, rivers, and mountain ranges. It is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features.

Yellowstone, widely held to be the first national park in the world, was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.

The name was taken from the Yellowstone River, which flows through the park.

Although Yellowstone was not officially termed a "national park" in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world.

The US Army ran Yellowstone Park until 1917 when the National Park Service was created.

Detailed pictorial map from 1904

Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years, but experts say there is no immediate danger of eruption. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism.

The park is the center of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which is the largest remaining nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone. It includes many types of ecosystems, but the biggest is the subalpine forest.

The vast forests and grasslands include unique species of plants. It is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the continental United States.

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been documented in the park, including several that are either endangered or threatened.

The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. It is descended from a remnant population of 23 individual bison that survived a mass slaughter in the 19th century by hiding out in the Pelican Valley of Yellowstone Park.

About 600 grizzly bears live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with more than half living within Yellowstone.

There are over 30,000 elk—the largest number of any large mammal species in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone has more than 3,000 geysers and hot springs, including Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular features in the park. Old Faithful erupts approximately every 90 minutes.

Old Faithful. By Grahampurse 

It's possible for a human to dissolve in Yellowstone's hot springs. On June 7, 2016, Colin Scott slipped and tumbled into the acidic boiling waters of the Norris Geyser while looking for a hot spot to soak in. Scott had illegally ventured off the boardwalk and within 24hrs he dissolved.

There was a record of 4,257,177 recreational visitors to Yellowstone in 2016.

July is the busiest month for tourism at Yellowstone National Park.

At peak summer levels, 3,700 employees work for Yellowstone National Park concessionaires.

Hollywood legend Gary Cooper worked as a Yellowstone Park guide for several seasons before becoming an actor.