Brick

Bricks are commonly used construction materials made from clay, concrete, or other materials. They are typically rectangular in shape and used for building walls, paths, and other structures.

Brick from the chimney at Whitehead Plantation. Lookandlearn.com

The first sun-dried bricks were made by the people of Jericho, in 8000 BC. In their simplest form (still familiar today in many hot regions), these early bricks were shaped by pressing mud or clay into a mould. The damp blocks were then left to bake hard in the sun.

The ancient Egyptians had a limitless supply of the clay that forms the bed of the River Nile. They sun-dried this clay, often first mixing it with a straw binder, to make bricks. Nearly all their homes were built from sun-dried clay bricks.

The Romans, in building their massive structures, used fired bricks, often decorated with colored glazes.

3.8 billion bricks were used to build the Great Wall of China.

Containing four million bricks and weighing 37,000 tonnes, the dome of Florence's Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral is a spectacular feat of renaissance engineering.

After the thin tile bricks of the Roman era, for a thousand years in Britain no bricks were made or used. However, by the 16th century they were being imported from France and were beginning to be manufactured in England of local clay.

In 1694 with money given to him by his patron King William III of Orange, the author Daniel Defoe set up a brick and pantile works in Tilbury, Essex.

In 1784, Great Britain imposed a tax on bricks to pay for the war in American Colonies. In response, people starting using larger bricks. The government responded by limiting the dimensions of a brick and doubling the tax on larger bricks. Buildings can be dated based on the brick size.  

Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the United States since 1916 when a man mailed a 40,000-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates.

Winston Churchill was a fine bricklayer. He created with his own hands the garden walls, rockery and waterworks at Chartwell.

Pink Floyd was inducted into the National Association of Brick Distributors' Hall of Fame on October 10, 1991 for their services to the brick industry through their 1979 album, The Wall. According to the National Association of Brick Distributors, Pink Floyd was inducted into the Hall of Fame "for their contributions to the promotion of brick as a building material."

The largest brick ever created, according to the Guinness World Records, was crafted by ACME Brick in Denton, Texas. Completed in July 2007, this behemoth is 3000 times bigger than the standard brick. It measured:

Length: 2.94 meters (9 ft 8 in)

Width: 0.99 meters (3 ft 3 in)

Height: 0.99 meters (3 ft 3 in)

Weight: 9,300 pounds (4,218 kg)

This giant brick, affectionately nicknamed "Baby Clay," was made from a special blend of clays sourced from multiple locations. It took a team of skilled workers several weeks to mold and fire the brick in a custom-built kiln. While originally created as a publicity stunt, it now resides at the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum in Texas, serving as a testament to human ingenuity and brick-making history.

The surface area of an average-sized brick is 79 cm squared (12.245 square inches).

The indentation in a brick is called a frog, no one is really sure why.

Colombian architect Oscar Mendez started a company to turn waste plastics into Lego style bricks for low cost homes. Using the bricks, it takes four people about five days to construct a 430 square foot house. The concept is to reduce plastic waste and give homes to those most in need.

There are ten million bricks in the Empire State Building.

Bribery

Bribery is the act of offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting something of value (such as money, gifts, favors, or benefits) with the intention of influencing the actions, decisions, or behavior of an individual in a position of trust or authority. 

The purpose of bribery is often to gain an unfair advantage, favorable treatment, or to secure a specific outcome. 

Bribery is generally considered unethical and, in many jurisdictions, illegal. It undermines the principles of fairness, impartiality, and integrity in various sectors, including government, business, and other organizations. 

By Kiwiev - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Anti-bribery laws exist in many countries, and international organizations, such as the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), work to combat bribery through initiatives and agreements. Companies and individuals found guilty of engaging in bribery may face legal consequences, including fines, imprisonment, and damage to their reputation. 

HISTORY

Bribery has a long history, and instances of bribery can be found in various ancient civilizations. In ancient Greece, for instance, there are historical references to bribery and corruption in both literature and historical accounts. Similarly, ancient Roman society witnessed instances of bribery and corruption, with some well-known cases documented in texts such as the "Satyricon" by Petronius.

Roman emperor Caligula was notorious for accepting bribes, even selling important government positions to the highest bidder.

In ancient China, bribery was considered a common practice and even regulated by law, albeit with varying degrees of severity depending on the context.

In 1919, the World Series wasn't a battle on the field, but a betrayal off it. Eight Chicago White Sox stars, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, conspired with gamblers to throw the Series for cash. Greed fueled their actions, but low salaries and a stingy owner likely played a part. Their scheme, though, couldn't hide forever. Exposed by journalists, the scandal erupted, rocking baseball to its core. Players were banned, trust shattered. It led to the creation of the commissioner position, safeguarding the sport's integrity.

A member of Al Capone's gang promised federal agent Eliot Ness that $2000 (around $38,000 in today's money) would be on his desk every Monday morning if he turned a blind eye to their bootlegging. Ness refused the bribe and in later years struggled with money; he died almost broke at the age of 54.

On February 6, 1976, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admitted paying out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka during a testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee. Kotchian testified that the money was paid to help secure the sale of TriStar jets to All Nippon Airways (ANA), a Japanese airline.

The scandal became known as the Lockheed bribery scandal and had significant political and economic repercussions in both the United States and Japan. In Japan, Tanaka was eventually found guilty of accepting bribes and resigned as Prime Minister. n the United States, there were investigations and indictments against several Lockheed officials, but the company itself was not penalized.

Abscam was an FBI sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980 where the FBI formed a fake company and attempted to bribe members of congress. More than 30 political figures were investigated, and six members of the House of Representatives and one senator were convicted.

R. Budd Dwyer, the Pennsylvania state treasurer, committed suicide during a live press conference on January 22, 1987. He had been convicted of bribery and was about to be sentenced. In front of reporters and cameras, he pulled out a gun, shot himself in the mouth, and died instantly.

BRIBERY FUN FACTS

Bribery doesn't always involve money. Gifts, favors, and even sexual services can be used as bribes.

Some companies have created elaborate schemes to disguise bribes, such as hiring relatives of officials as consultants or setting up shell companies to funnel money.

In some cultures, bribery is seen as a necessary part of doing business, while in others it's considered a serious crime.

According to the World Bank, an estimated $1 trillion is paid in bribes each year globally.

Bribery is most prevalent in developing countries, often due to weak institutions and lack of transparency.

In 2023, the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index ranked Denmark and Finland as the least corrupt countries, while Venezuela and Somalia topped the list of most corrupt.

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev was born on December 19, 1906 in Kamenskoe (now Dniprodzerzhynsk in Ukraine), to metalworker Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev and his wife, Natalia Denisovna.

Like many youths in the years after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he received a technical education, at first in land management where he started as a land surveyor and then in metallurgy. He graduated from the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum in 1935 and became a metallurgical engineer in the iron and steel industries of eastern Ukraine.

Young Brezhnev with his wife Viktoria

At different times during his life, Brezhnev specified his ethnic origin alternately as either Ukrainian or Russian, opting for the latter as he rose within the Communist Party.

Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), presiding over the country from October 14, 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in duration.

An assassination attempt was made upon Leonid Brezhnev on January 22, 1969, when a deserter from the Soviet Army, Viktor Ilyin, fired shots at a motorcade carrying the Soviet leader through Moscow. Though Brezhnev was unhurt, the shots killed a driver. Brezhnev's attacker was captured and the incident that was not revealed to the public until after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Brezhnev suffered terribly with his teeth because of a slight deformity in his mouth and, despite frequent attempts to correct the problem using Soviet and German specialists, he couldn't get rid of the pain. The Russian communist leader was unable to ask the Americans for help due to the Cold War but the KGB covertly arranged for a British professor of dentistry and his colleague to come to Moscow to treat him. The British experts were watched 24 hours of the day by the KGB who feared they might poison him or even plant a bug in his teeth.

Some say that his peculiar pronunciation was connected with a jaw wound which he received during the war. However, according to other sources, he'd never been wounded.

Brezhnev had a collection of Western cars, including a Rolls Royce, which he drove at breakneck speed around his estate or the empty Soviet roads. One, a 1973 Lincoln Town Cars, was a gift from President Nixon.

His other hobbies included hunting, fishing and playing dominoes.

He supported the football club Spartak Moscow and often attended their games.

Leonid Brezhnev is the only person in the USSR who was honored with the Gold Star medal five times.

He is also the only one whose Order of Victory has been revoked. The order was awarded only to Generals and Marshals for successfully conducting combat operations involving one or more army groups and resulting in a ‘successful operation within the framework of one or several fronts resulting in a radical change of the situation in favor of the Red Army’. Brezhnev received the award in 1978, but later it was revoked for not meeting the requirements for the award.

Brezhnev died at 75 on November 10, 1982, three days after his last appearance in public.

During the funerals of Soviet leaders there was a custom of displaying their decorations on velvet cushions, which were carried in the procession behind the coffin. However, as Brezhnev had more than two hundred of them, several were placed on each cushion.

Source Englishrussia.com

Brewery

A brewery is a facility where beer is produced through the brewing process. The brewing process involves the fermentation of ingredients such as malted barley, water, hops, and yeast to produce beer. Breweries come in various sizes, from small craft breweries to large industrial facilities.

Eldridge Pope brewery, Dorchester. Copyright Nigel Mykura 

The basic steps in the brewing process typically include malting (where barley is germinated and dried), mashing (where malted barley is mixed with water to convert starches into sugars), boiling (hops are added for flavor and aroma, and the liquid is sterilized), fermenting (yeast is added to the cooled liquid to convert sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide), conditioning (allowing the beer to mature and develop flavors), and packaging (bottling or kegging the finished beer).

Breweries can vary in the types of beer they produce, the scale of production, and the level of automation. Some breweries focus on traditional or specialty beers, while others may produce a wide range of styles to cater to different tastes. The craft beer movement has also led to the emergence of numerous small and independent breweries, each with its unique approach to brewing and beer styles.

HISTORY

A recipe for brewing beer from loaves of multigrain bread mixed with honey dates to approximately 4,000 years ago from ancient Mesopotamia, and is the oldest surviving beer recipe in the world.

The use of hops was unknown to Ancient Egyptians as was the process of carbonation. To a modern-day beer drinker, an Egyptian brew would taste more like a fruit drink.

The Weihenstephan brewery in Freising, Bavaria has been brewing beer since 1040. It is thought to be the world’s oldest brewery. The brewery claims to have been the first to use hops to flavor beer.

The origins of InBev, the world’s biggest brewer date back to 1366 at the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium.

Heinrich Knaust wrote the first extensive book on brewing in Germany in 1573. He described in detail about 150 different beers and called the “noble Hamburg beer the queen of all other wheat beers.”

The first commercial brewery in the New World opened in New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island in 1612 after colonists advertised in London newspapers for experienced brewers.

Harvard University, founded in 1636, ran its own brewery in colonial times and doled out cider and beer to students at every meal.

Shepherd Neame is believed to be the oldest brewery in Britain. It was founded in 1698 by the mayor of Faversham, Captain Richard Marsh. It remains a family business with a Neame still on the board.

In 1708, Sébastien Artois became head brewer at the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven. Artois purchased the brewery and gave his name to it in 1717, as Brouwerij Artois. Stella Artois was first brewed by the Artois Brewery in 1926.

When Arthur Guinness founded his brewery in 1759, he signed a 9000 year lease at an unused brewery in Dublin. By 1886 it became the largest brewery in the world.

Samuel Whitbread (1720-1796) created the first purpose-built mass-production brewery in the United Kingdom — quickly becoming a household name across the country. He used his wealth to become an MP for Bedford, going on to campaign for the abolition of slavery and the introduction of a minimum wage. When he died on June 11, 1796, the Gentleman's Magazine claimed that he was "worth over a million pounds".

William Bass founded the Bass brewery in Burton-upon-Trent, England in 1777. In the 19th century the company developed a thriving export trade with its India Pale Ale; there are even two bottles on the bar of the Folies Bergère in Manet's famous painting.

D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc., located in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, is widely recognized as the oldest operating brewery in the United States. Founded in 1829, the brewery has been continuously brewing beer for nearly two centuries and is currently operated by the 5th generation of the Yuengling family.

The founder of Heineken, Gerard Heineken, was 22 years old when he took over De Hooiberg, a brewery that had been around since the 17th century, on February 16, 1864. Gerard Heineken didn’t let his lack of knowledge about the brewing industry, dissuade him from showing interest in purchasing it. Despite his lack of industry knowledge, Gerard went on to create a very successful business. The first Heineken brand beer was brewed in 1873.

After working in a Denver brewery, the German immigrant Adolph Coors founded the Adolph Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado in 1873. He claimed the lager he was brewing took its flavor from the pure water of the Rocky Mountains.

American beer is generally bland because 19th-century brewers were trying to convince Prohibition supporters that beer was a healthier and cleaner drink than whiskey and other liquors.

The Australian Foster's Group Limited was founded in Melbourne in 1888 by American brothers William and Ralph Foster, who happened to own a refrigeration plant. Their new beer, Foster’s Lager, was produced in an American style with refrigeration, a lagering process and bottling.

In 1890, the Polish-born British entrepreneur Henry Lowenfeld (1859–1931) built the Kops Brewery, the United Kingdom's first brewer of non-alcoholic beer on an eight-acre site in Townmead Road, Fulham, London. A blue plaque on the building reads, "Kops brewed non-alcoholic ales and stouts on an eight-acre site and exported its products throughout the British Empire".

For many years the world’s second largest brewer, SABMiller started in 1895 as South African Breweries The firm operates today in 80 countries and sells 73.5 billion bottles a year. Top brands include Fosters and Miller. On October 10, 2016 SABMiller was acquired by AB InBev.

During Prohibition, Pabst Brewing Company stopped making beer and switched to cheese production, selling more than 8 million pounds of Pabst-ett Cheese. When Prohibition ended, the company went back to selling beer, and the cheese line was sold to Kraft.

The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whose namesake beer, Schlitz was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous." Schlitz first became the largest beer producer in the US in 1902 and enjoyed that status at several points during the first half of the 20th century, exchanging the title with Anheuser-Busch multiple times during the 1950s. However, they started messing with the ingredients to cut costs and the plant was closed less than 30 years later.

Home-brewing beer or wine with an ABV greater than 0.5% was illegal in the US until 1978 when President Jimmy Carter deregulated home-brewing. This led to the craft beer industry the country knows today.

In 2004, Belgian brewer Interbrew and Brazilian rival Ambev merged in a deal valued at $11.2 billion, forming InBev, which became the world's largest brewer at the time. This merger had a significant impact on the global brewing industry, consolidating power and reshaping the landscape.

In 2008, InBev further expanded its empire by acquiring Anheuser-Busch, forming the current brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev).

During a world-wide hop shortage in 2008, Sam Adams brewing company sold craft brewers their hops at cost to keep them in business.

FUN BREWERY FACTS

InBev sells 174 billion bottles a year, including Stella Artois, Budweiser, Corona and Bass.

Stella Artois brewery in Leuven

Vermont has the most craft breweries of all the states in the United States with approximately 15.5 breweries per 100,000 adults over 21, according to a 2022 report by Statista.

Great Leap Brewing, Beijing's first microbrewery, makes beers with distinctly Chinese flavoring adjuncts such as Sichuan pepper and tiěguānyīn oolong tea.

A herd of forty-five thirsty, rambunctious elephants stampeded into a brewery in Midnapore, India, where they smashed vats and slurped up beer in a bender that went on for two days.

Including the amount needed to grow the ingredients, it takes around 20 gallons of water to make one pint of beer.

Source Daily Mail

Brethren Church

The term "Brethren Church" can refer to several different Christian denominations and movements that share a common heritage rooted in the 18th-century Pietist and Anabaptist traditions.

The Church of the Brethren, often simply called the Brethren Church, was officially organized in 1708 in Schwarzenau, a town, in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, by Alexander Mack and other Pietist leaders. They emphasized adult baptism, nonviolence, simplicity of life, and the practice of love and service.

In the early 18th century, many members of the Brethren Church migrated to the United States, particularly to Pennsylvania. Over time, the denomination spread across the country and has since established congregations in various states.

In 1832, a young Church of Ireland curate John Nelson Darby and a former Roman Catholic Edward Cronin, founded The Plymouth Brethren denomination. Dissatisfied by the lack of spirituality in their own churches and opposed to church government and official ministry, they met together in Dublin each Sunday with several others for the breaking of bread. Soon the movement spread and finally settled in Plymouth, England.

A Plymouth Brethren meeting hall and congregation By Gabimld - Own work, Wikipedia

George Müller, a leader of the Plymouth Brethren movement, opened his famous orphanage on Wilson Street in Bristol in 1836. By 1875, Mueller's orphanage provided care for over 2,000 children, a work sustained not by regular fundraising but by thousands of "answers to prayer."

By the time of his death in 1898, George Müller had established five orphanages, seven day schools, twelve Sunday schools and distributed five million Bibles, books and tracts. He was able to finance all this by totally relying on God and never publicly appealing for money.

 
In the early 1880s, a major schism occurred in The Brethren movement, resulting in three distinct branches:

The Church of the Brethren: The largest branch, known for social justice activism, peacemaking efforts, and a commitment to simplicity.

The Old German Baptist Brethren: A conservative group maintaining traditional practices like plain dress and separation from the world.

The German Baptist Brethren (later renamed Church of the Brethren in 1908): A progressive group, later merged with another Brethren denomination.

During the 1920s in Britain there was a debate among members of the Evangelical Alliance on whether the Salvation Army and Brethren Church are sects.

 
Both Dwight Eisenhower and his parents belonged to the Church of Brethren in Christ, which opposed war and any kind of violence. Ironically, Eisenhower became a professional soldier despite his denomination's philosophy. Although his parents disapproved of his entering the military but none the less allowed him to choose his own career.

 
With over 100,000 members in the U.S., the Church of Brethren is the most prominent branch, active in service work, peacebuilding, and disaster relief. Various other groups like the Plymouth Brethren, Dunkard Brethren, and Open Brethren exist with varying sizes and theological nuances.

Breeches

The term "breeches" refers to a style of trousers or pants that extend to the knee or just below the knee and then fasten tightly around the lower leg. Breeches were a common element of historical clothing, especially in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries.

European; Breeches circa 1710 Wikipedia

Until the early 19th century, breeches, which extended to just below the knee, were the standard garment for gentlemen.

In 17th century Geneva, John Calvin forbid the wearing of slashed breeches. 

The man's fly was introduced into the breeches in the days of King Charles I.

In 1670, breeches with built-in pockets came into fashion and men dispensed with their handbags. But they did continue to carry a little netted "purse" for money inside the pocket.

Edward Gibbon suffered from a malady now believed to be hydrocele, according to the Merck Manual. This condition caused his testicles to swell with fluid to extraordinary proportions. This chronic inflammation caused Gibbon great physical discomfort in a time when men wore close-fitting breeches.

Beau Brummell promoted tailored trousers, which were to replace breeches-and-hose combinations. Breeches were replaced by long, wide trousers by 1815.

The fashion for longer trousers was not welcomed by all. Trinity College, Cambridge, said that any student wearing them would be regarded as absent, while the clergy of Sheffield were warned that any preacher who wore trousers would not be allowed to occupy a pulpit.

Over time, men's fashion evolved, and breeches gradually gave way to longer trousers. Full-length trousers became more common during the 19th century, and by the 20th century, they had become the standard form of lower-body clothing for men.

There are specific contexts where breeches are still worn:

Horse riding: Certain types of breeches, like jodhpurs and full seat breeches, are preferred attire for horseback riding, offering comfort, flexibility, and grip in the saddle.

Fencing: Fencing breeches are specially designed for fencing, allowing for optimal leg movement and protection.

Formal attire: In some specific formal situations, like certain European court ceremonies, breeches might be part of the traditional livery.

Breathing

BREATHING (HUMANS)

We lose half a litre of water a day through breathing. This is the water vapour we see when we breathe onto glass.

When Thomas Edison died in 1941, Henry Ford captured his last dying breath in a bottle.

In one breath, an adult inhales one pint of air, although the actual capacity of a lung is ten pints.

An average adult breathes in about 13 pints of air every minute.

The average person takes between 17,280 and 23,040 breaths a day.

The average person breathes about 7.5 million times a year.

About 80% of people breathe through only one nostril. Which nostril, left or right, can alternate on average every two-and-a-half hours. This is controlled via turbinates - small structures inside the nose which consist of bony projections covered by erectile tissue - filling one side with blood, while shunting blood away in the other.

Since the nose is smaller than the mouth, nasal breathing is naturally slower than mouth breathing and is better for reducing stress.

If you hold your breath and put your face in cold water, your heart will immediately slow down by 25%.

You can not kill yourself by holding your breath.

A newborn baby is triggered into its first breathe by contractions that reducing oxygen flow through the umbilical, which increases carbon dioxide. The increase of carbon dioxide causes acidosis which triggers the respiratory center of the brain, causing the baby to start using it's lungs.

Circular breathing is a technique used to continuously sustain embouchure on wind instruments without interruption. It is achieved by breathing in through the nose while simultaneously pushing air out through the mouth using air stored in the cheeks. 

On May 14, 2017, 55-year-old Nigerian saxophonist Femi Kuti used circular breathing to break the Guinness World Record for single note held on a saxophone by playing for 51 minutes, 38 seconds. In 2023, citing potential health risks associated with pushing the limits of circular breathing for such extended durations, Guinness World Records officially retired the "longest continuous note on a saxophone" category.

Even when all the molecules in a single breath of air have been dispersed evenly in the earth's atmosphere, there will still be one or two of the same ones taken into the lungs with every subsequent breath. Every time you breathe in, you inhale one or two of the same molecules that you inhaled with the first breath you took as a baby.

At -90 degrees Fahrenheit the moisture in your breath will freeze in midair and fall to the ground.

By Derzsi Elekes Andor - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, $3

Dieting can cause bad breath since less saliva is produced which leads to dry mouth.

When you yawn, you take in three times more oxygen than you do in a normal breath.

BREATHING ANIMALS

Frogs and salamanders can breathe through their skin. 

Beavers can hold their breath for 45 minutes.

Horses cannot breathe through their mouth. If their nostrils become obstructed, they could suffocate.

It has been calculated that a single breath from a mature blue whale can inflate up to 2000 balloons.

Bats breathe 200 times a minute when flying but only ten times an hour when hibernating.

FUN BREATHING FACTS

The phrase "bated breath," referring to a state of breathing almost halted by an emotion such as terror or awe, was first used by Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice.

The sound of Darth Vader mask's respirator function is trademarked in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under Trademark #77419252 and is officially described in the documentation as "The sound of rhythmic mechanical human breathing created by breathing through a scuba tank regulator."

The world record for holding your breath underwater belongs to  Vitomir Maričić from Croatia. On June 14, 2025, he managed to hold his breath for 29 minutes and 3 seconds laying belly down in a tank, holding on to the sides with his face submerged. It's important to note that Šobat breathed pure oxygen before his attempt, which helps freedivers hold their breath for longer periods.

Source Greatfacts.com, Daily Express