Wednesday 7 May 2014

                      

                         facts about australia


Australia 




1) It is the 6th largest country in the world, occupying an entire continent of some 7.6 million square kilometres.

2) It has the world's 3rd largest ocean territory, spanning three oceans and covering around 12 million square kilometres.

3) Vegetation covers nearly 7 million square kilometres or 91 percent of Australia. 

4) The largest Greek population in the world beside Athens in Greece can be found in Melbourne Victoria.
Koala

5) Most of Australia's exotic flora and fauna cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

6) The Indigenous 'Dream Time' is the foundation for tens of thousands of years of spiritual aboriginal art, traditions, legends, myths, folklore and culture.

7) The only nation-continent of 20 million people in the world.

8) The wattle was adopted as the national floral emblem in 1912.

9) The first Australian Friendly Society with the motto of 'Advance Australia' was the Australian Natives' Association (ANA) formed in Victoria in 1871.

10) More than 80 percent of Australians live within 100 kilometres of the coast making Australia one of the world's most urbanised coastal dwelling populations.

City of Sydney

11) Over 200 different languages and dialects are spoken in Australia including 45 Indigenous languages. The most common non-English spoken languages are Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Mandarin.

12) The world's highest proportion of migrant settlers in a developed nation with over 25% of Australians born in another country.

Multiculturalism in Australia

13) Today's Australia is very multicultural with Indigenous peoples and migrants from some 200 countries.

14) Australia's first small step to a fully multicultural Australia was the result of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean after 1945.


15) It contains an amazing ecosystem with unique flora and fauna including pristine rainforest, ancient rock formations and beautiful beaches.

16) The first Australian of the Year award was awarded to Professor Macfarlane Burnet who had won the Nobel Prize in the same year of 1960 for his groundbreaking physiology research.

17) Debate continues today on the calls to change the Australian flag because of the prominence of the British Union Jack, which does not reflect contemporary Australian society.

World Heritage Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne

18) It has 16 world heritage listed sites including historic townships, cities and landscapes.

19) While 1988 was named a 'Year of Mourning' for Aboriginals, it was also regarded as a celebration of survival where the Aboriginal community staged a 5 kilometre march for "Freedom, Justice and Hope" in Sydney.

20) Australia used to be a beer-drinking nation but its quaffing plunged to a 65-year low in 2010-2011 with only 4.23 litres consumed per person.

21) Aboriginal leader, Lowitja O'Donoghue, a recipient of the Order of Australia in 1976 and Australian of the Year in 1984 delivered the first milestone national Australia Day address on 26 January 2000. 

22) It is believe that the Aboriginal game of Mangrook inspired the rules for Australian Football, while invented in Sydney became popular in Victoria.

23) Australia was the second country in the world to give women the right to vote in 1902.

24) The largest cattle station in the world is Anna Creek Station in South Australia at over 34,000 square kilometres is the world's largest cattle station. It is even larger than Belgium.

25) It has the highest rate of gambling in the world with over 80 percent of Australian adults engaging in gambling of some kind and 20 percent of the pokie machines in the world are found in Australia.

26) Australia Day today is a celebration of diversity and tolerance in Australian society, embracing all ethnic backgrounds, racial differences and political viewpoints. 

27) Kangaroo meat can be purchased from the supermarket, butcher and available on restaurant menus as a leaner and healthier alternative to beef or lamb with a 1-2 percent fat content.

28) Surprisingly Australia is the most obese country in the world as of 2012 with a 26 percent obesity rate despite being a sport loving nation.


29) Approximately 1.35 trillion bottles of wine are produced by Australia.

30) Former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd's national apology to Indigenous Australians in 2007 is viewed by many as 
a major milestone in reconciliation.

31) The hold of the old White Australia Policy was broken by Gough Whitlam's Labor Government which adopted a broader approach to citizenship and opening migration to Asia and the Middle East. 

32) Australian TV networks love cooking shows, airing one after another upon viewership success of My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef.

33) Canberra was selected as the capital because Sydney and Melbourne could not stop arguing which city should be the capital of Australia.

34) Australians refer to English people as Pome, which is actually the acronym for Prisoners of Mother England.

35) Ugg boots or as local call them 'very ugly boots' are an Australian design where a sheepskin has been turned inside out and made into a boot.
Iconic Flinders Station in Melbourne

36) Melbourne topped 140 rivals to be crowned the world's most liveable city 2 years in a row since 2011.

37) The only place in the world where you can still find the lung fish which is a living fossil from the Triassic period 350 million years ago.

38) The sports capital of the world has 70 percent of its total population participating at least once a week in a particular recreational activity or sport.

39) Despite having a convict colony history, Australia's homicide rate is 1.2 per 100,000 population compared to the 6.3 per 100,000 in the United States. 

40) 80 percent of Australians believe Australia has a strong culture and identity characterised by being down to earth, mateship, honesty, sports and multiculturalism based on research organised by the Australia Day 


               FACTS         ABOUT        INDIA 


India

  1. India is about 1/3 the size of the United States, yet it is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of 1,166,079,217. India is the seventh largest country in the world, at 1.27 million square miles.g
  2. India is the largest democracy in the world.i
  3. The Kumbh Mela (or Grand Pitcher Festival) is a huge Hindu religious festival that takes place in India every 12 years. In 2001, 60 million people attended, breaking the record for the world’s biggest gathering. The mass of people was photographed from space by a satellite.c
  4. Many Indians find toilet paper repellent and consider it cleaner to splash water with the left hand in the appropriate direction. Consequently, the left hand is considered unclean and is never used for eating.f
  5. To avoid polluting the elements (fire, earth, water, air), followers of Zoroastrianism in India don’t bury their dead, but instead leave bodies in buildings called “Towers of Silence” for the vultures to pick clean. After the bones dry, they are swept into a central well.f
  6. rupee
    It is illegal for foreigners to import or export Indian currency (rupees)
  7. It is illegal to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.f
  8. India leads the world with the most murders (32,719), with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.j
  9. India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion.e
  10. More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.l
  11. Cows can be found freely wandering the streets of India’s cities. They are considered sacred and will often wear a tilak, a Hindu symbol of good fortune. Cows are considered one of humankind’s seven mothers because they offer milk as does one’s natural mother.k
  12. Dancing is one of India’s most highly developed arts and was an integral part of worship in the inner shrines of every temple. It is notable for its expressive hand movements.f
  13. Rabies is endemic in India. Additionally, “Delhi Belly” or diarrhea is commonplace due to contaminated drinking water.f
  14. Many Indian wives will never say their husband’s name aloud, as it is a sign of disrespect. When addressing him, the wife will use several indirect references, such as “ji” or “look here” or “hello,” or even refer to him as the father of her child.f
  15. A widow is considered bad luck—otherwise, her husband wouldn’t have died. Elderly women in the village might call a widow “the one who ate her husband.” In some orthodox families, widows are not allowed near newlyweds or welcomed at social gatherings.b
  16. India is the birthplace of chess.l The original word for “chess” is the Sanskritchaturanga, meaning “four members of an army”—which were mostly likely elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers.d
  17. The Indian flag has three horizontal bands of color: saffron for courage and sacrifice, white for truth and peace, and green for faith, fertility, and chivalry. An emblem of a wheel spinning used to be in the center of the white band, but when India gained independence, a Buddhist dharma chakra, or wheel of life, replaced the spinning wheel.m
  18. Khajuraho erotic sculptures
    Khajuraho’s exotic art may suggest that sex was a step for attaining ultimate liberation or moksha
  19. The temples of Khajuraho are famous for their erotic sculptures and are one of the most popular tourist attractions in India. Scholars still debate the purpose of such explicit portrayals of sexual intercourse, which sometimes involve animals.a
  20. The earliest cotton in the world was spun and woven in India. Roman emperors would wear delicate cotton from India that they would call “woven winds.” Mogul emperors called the fabrics “morning dew” and “cloth of running water.”i
  21. In ancient and medieval India, suttees, in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, were common.b
  22. The Himalayas—from the Sanskrit hima, meaning “snow,” and alaya, meaning “abode”—are found in the north of India. They extend 1,500 miles and are slowly growing taller, by almost an inch (2.5 cm) a year. Several ancient Indian monasteries are found nestled in the grandeur of these mountains.m
  23. India is the world’s largest producer of dried beans, such as kidney beans and chickpeas. It also leads the world in banana exports; Brazil is second.l
  24. In India, the fold and color of clothing are viewed as important markers of social classification. Additionally, a woman will be viewed as either a prostitute or a holy person depending on the manner in which she parts her hair.k
  25. With 150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles.f
  26. In India, grasping one’s ears signifies repentance or sincerity.f
  27. The Bengal tiger is India’s national animal. It was once ubiquitous throughout the country, but now there are fewer than 4,000 wild tigers left.m
  28. Indians hold prominent places both internationally and in the United States. For example, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla), the creator of the Pentium chip (Vinod Dahm), the founder/creator of Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia), and the GM of Hewlett-Packard (Rajiv Gupta) are all Indian.h
  29. Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 B.C.) was one of the first important figures to bring India into contact with the West. After his death, a link between Europe and the East would not be restored until Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) landed in Calicut, India, in 1498.l
  30. The British Raj, or British rule, lasted from 1858 to 1947 (although they had a strong presence in India since the 1700s). British influence is still seen in Indian architecture, education system, transportation, and politics. Many of India’s worst famines are associated with British rule in India.i
  31. Every major world religion is represented in India. Additionally, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India.f
  32. About 80% of Indians are Hindu. Muslims are the largest minority in India and form approximately 13% of the country’s population. In fact, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia and Pakistan.i