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Social Networking Google Plus 8 Quick Tips and Tricks

 Google Plus (aka Google+), Google's new social network, might offer the right mix of sharing and privacy to woo you away from your Facebook account. If you don't know how to use it, though, it's just a confusing mess of circles and contacts. So we've assembled a few tips to help you get started.

Tweak your email notification options. By default, Google Plus will spam your Gmail account with notifications for practically anything involving your new account. You can go to the Google Account options to uncheck all of the ones you don't want to get, thereby reducing your Gmail traffic considerably.


Change your profile's field-sharing settings. Your Google Account has certain basic fields that it can share with anyone -- but you don't have to go along with maximum sharing. Open your Google Account Profile and privacy settings, click Edit visibility on profile, and then click the individual profile fields and determine how public you want to make them.

Disable resharing. Google Plus may make it easy for you to segregate who you share your information with, but your connections have no such limitations, meaning that something you share with a select few can still spread like wildfire across your networks. Nevertheless, you can disable resharing of a certain post after
 posting it: Just click the arrow in the upper-right-hand corner of the post and then click Disable resharing.

Check your Incoming feed. Unlike Facebook, Google Plus lets people share things with you even if you're not following them. Thus, you'll want to check your Incoming feed now and then to see whether you're missing out on anything interesting from someone you don't follow. Think of it as a spam folder that occasionally contains something interesting.

Use the Your Circles option while sharing. Google Plus's Circles system is great for letting you use your Plus account to set barriers between the various groups of people you want to share things with. If most of what you share on Google Plus isn't especially privacy-sensitive, however, use the Your Circles sharing option to automatically share items with all of your circles and avoid the trouble of clicking each individual circle.

Start some Sparks. In addition to following people, you can search for interesting stuff to share about particular topics in the Sparks section on the side menu of the main page. Click Sparks, and search for things that you're interested in or browse through the featured topics; if you want to pin a search on your sidebar for easy future access, click the Add Interest button under the search field.

Click through profile pictures. You can easily cycle through other people's profile pics by clicking on them.

Add some basic formatting. As with Google Talk and Google Buzz, you can add basic text styles to some of your Google Plus text. Paired asterisks (*text*) make bold text, paired underscores (_text_) make italics, and paired hyphens (-text-) make strikethroughs.

Top information about Smiley

Invention

 

The smiley face, a yellow button with a smile and two dots representing eyes was invented by Harvey Ball in 1963 for Worcester, Massachusetts based insurance firm State Mutual Life Assurance. Though there was an attempt to trademark the image, it fell into the public domain before that could be accomplished.
The graphic was popularized in the early 1970s by a pair of brothers, Murray and Bernard Spain, who seized upon it in a campaign to sell novelty items. The two produced buttons as well as coffee mugs, t-shirts, bumper stickers and many other items emblazoned with the symbol and the phrase "Have a happy day" (devised by Murray). By 1972 there were an estimated 50 million happy face buttons throughout the U.S., at which point the fad began to subside.
The symbol has been satirized with a smile and three dots (a mutant), and has been reborn as the image of the Microsoft Bob software and Walmart's price cutting ads.

Smileys on the Internet

Image:Smilface.gif

In the context of the Internet, "smiley" sometimes means the same as "emoticon" (a short string of characters representing a human face) but more frequently means an emoticon that represents a smiling human face. Smileys are usually used in email messages or in chat. To more easily recognise them, put your head on your left shoulder. The first known recorded instance of an ASCII smiley occurred on September 19, 1982 on an online bulletin board, when Scott Fahlman, a researcher at IBM, suggested the emoticon after an online joke caused a false alarm and a discussion ensued in response, about the need for markers for humorous comments. (Other suggestions included +, %, &, (#) and --/.)

Some basic examples:

:-)             is a smile
 ;-)             is winking
 :'-(            is crying
 :-9             is whistling
 B-) or 8-)      has (sun)glasses
 @@@@@@@:-)      Marge Simpson
 :D or :>        Open mouthed smiley
 :-O             Surprised smiley
 :P              Smiley with tongue
 :@              Angry smiley
 :S              Confused smiley
 :$              Embarassed Smiley
 8-|             Nerd smiley
 ^o)             Sarcastic smiley
 *-)             Thinking Smiley
 :-x             Don't tell anyone smiley

In Japan, smilies are read vertically as opposed to the horizontally read smilies of the west, the most common one being (^_^) . They sometimes contain visual imagery that is common is Japanese manga and anime.

Some basic Japanese smilies:

^_^             Basic smilie (Japanese symbol)
 ;_;             Crying smilie (Japanese symbol) 
 *^_^*           Cute little girl / Blushing smilie (Japanese symbol)
 ^_^;;;          Embarassed smilie; cold sweat (Japanese symbol)
 (^o^)           User is joyously singing (sideways)
 (-.-)Zzz...     Sleeping (sideways)
 (^.^)/          User is waving hello (sideways, Japanese style)

There are a lot of possibilities, people are very good at interpreting pictures as smiles. See ASCII art and emoticon.

Smileys in Club Culture

The smiley was one of the main icons adopted by the dance music culture that emerged in the early 1990s. Especially in the UK, the logo was especially associated in the dance culture underground with the drug Ecstasy.

Smiley Bomber

Luke Helder, midwestern pipe-bomber in May 2002 tried to replicate a smiley face in his pattern of pipe bombs. His first 16 bombs formed circles, the first in Nebraska and the second on the border between Illinois and Iowa. Those bombs completed the eyes. Two other bombs in Texas and Colorado were apparently the beginnings of the smile. However, he was captured before he completed the smile itself.

Smileys in Cinematography

• The film Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994) remembered the Smiley with a humorous reference.
• The film Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) has a brief "smiley bombing" scene on the side of an office building.

Other Smileys

• George Smiley is the protagonist of a series of novels by John Le Carre, including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and TV series adapted from them.
• Guy Smiley was a 1970s Muppet game show host on Sesame Street.

Top 10 Excellent Free WordPress Themes

WordPress is one of the best platform to make your website or blog. But while choosing a theme for your wordpress blog you often get confused. There are thousands of themes available for wordpress which are both free and paid. Today I will tell you about 15 excellent free wordpress themes. Following are some of the best wordpress themes which are available for free.


1. Frezhnyer : This two column theme provides a clean interface for your website. The theme is social media ready along with a RSS Feed button. Moreover you can have multiple JavaScript and Jquery widgets into the theme itself. This theme is tested across all major web browsers and is compatible with older versions of WordPress.




2. Dream Sky : This is another business oriented and marketing theme. The features include Google Adsense, AJAX widgets and forms, Content sliders and many more. The theme is also social media ready.




3. SoulVision: This theme is best suited for blogs and publishing websites. The features include an RSS Feed button along with the listing of earlier posts in the form of ordered and unordered lists.




4. Recipy: Recipy is best suited for cutlery blogs and websites. The theme has some nice combination of colors which are very soothing to eyes. The paper table looks gives a nice presentation to the webpage.




5. SimpleFolio: This professional looking theme can be used for a portfolio and designer website. The features include W3C compliant CSS and HTML, two-column layout, widget support and multiple browser capability.




6. Maparaan : The theme features Content Gallery, Multiple Color Schemes, featuring of popular posts and social media gateways. Now spread your articles and posts via Social Bookmarking feature.




7. Decayed 1.0 : This is another beautiful theme for your blog. It features search box, archive list, RSS Feeds, XFN and valid CSS and xHTML that complies to W3C standards.




8. Conceditor WP Platinum: The theme is suitable for those business establishments who want to segregate their pages according to some departments. The theme features JavaScript widgets, cross browser compatibility, but IE users may experience some problems with its viewing.




9. Tribune Magazine: This theme is best suited for magazine or news blogs. Theme is set in black and white layout and has some of the other features like Content Sliders, Cross Browser compatibility, Admin panel and collapsible column.




10. Brave Zeenat: The theme is suitable for personal website or blog. The theme is extensively used by designers and photographers to showcase their talent. The theme is Widget ready and social media ready. It is cross browser compatible also.

Vitamin B17 Prevents Cancer

Vitamin B17 Prevents Cancer

 Imagine the world without cancer. It has been proven that cancer is a deficiency disease caused by the lack of Vitamin B17 (Laetrile). Today there are more people making money from cancer than dying from it. That is the one of the main reasons why Vitamin B17 is disapproved by FDA and cancer associations. You can do research and find that pharmaceuticals companies pushed FDA to disallow sales of raw apricot seeds in the United States. Raw apricot seeds are known to have abundance of B17 vitamin. There is lots of money to make from patented drugs and if we all start eating raw apricot seeds than there will be no profit. This information is not a new breaking research, but we are trying to spread the truth about Vitamin B17 through the Internet. This fact has been proven as FICTION. Please see the comments and draw conclusions on your own research.

Do You Want Blue Skin?

Do You Want Blue Skin?

If you would prefer bluish skin then your diet should include silver. An over exposure to the chemical form of silver causes an acute discoloration of the skin from normal to blue or bluish-gray in human beings or animals. This condition is called as Argyria. The word is a derivative of the Greek word 'argyros' which implies 'silver'. It is due to the deposition of the silver salts on one's eyes, skin and other internal organs. In the pre-antibiotic times, this skin disease was more prevalent due to the use of silver in the nasal drops. This disease has now been recognized as a permanent skin disease that is slowly becoming common. 58-year-old Paul Karason suffered a shocking side effect from the drug "colloidal silver," which he used to treat a skin condition; his skin turned blue. Paul Karason looked like an ordinary man until about a decade ago, when he began treating himself with silver. Patients develop argyria, which is the permanent collection of silver under the skin. Karason is blue for the rest of his life!

2012 Interesting Facts

2012 Interesting Facts

2012 is expected to be year of great positive change. It is not the end of the world! Back in 1899 something was identified called Schumann Cavity Resonance. It is the heart beat or frequency of the Earth. Since its discovery till 1986 this heart beat frequency was constant 7.8 Hertz per second. From 1986 it started to raise dramatically and in 1998 it was reported to be 10 hertz per second. On other hand magnetics of the earth are dropping dramatically and it is expected they will reach zero point in 2012. Maya calendar and other calendars end in 2012, but it is not the end of the world just beginning of the new one since every 26000 years Earth goes through grand cycle of evolution.

What Is Yahoo!

What Is Yahoo!?


Yahoo the complex internet organism has complicated name. Word "Yahoo" is shortcut for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". It was coined by PhD candidates at Stanford University: David Filo and Jerry Yang.

Google Pagerank Facts

Google Pagerank Facts

Here are some facts about page ranks that a webmaster should keep in mind. The sites do not have a page rank, pages have. PageRank to some level is link referral program. The page "A" ranks higher when it gets referred by another page "B", however just the number of referrals or links is not enough for a page to rank high. The rank of "B" site which refers user to site "A", is also important in determining the rank of site "A". To check the PR of a page, download Google toolbar or use Firefox plugin. PageRank is bit outdated Google technology. Today Google uses advanced algorithms in order to produce search results. Formula calculates many variables such: Keyword Usage Score, Domain Strength, Content Quality Score, User Data and Inbound Links. However, webmasters around the world still compete for good PageRank since it represents popularity of your page. PageRank is trademark of Google, but true patent owner of PageRank is Stanford University. Google has exclusive license rights to use PageRank. The cost of this right was 1.8 million shares of Google ($336 million in 2005).

The Pyramids Were White

The Pyramids Were White

The stereotypical vision of the Egyptian Pyramids are large mountain like brown piles of stone uprooting from the desert having a rough contour. Though when first constructed around 2500 BC. The pyramids were paper white and as smooth as glass, toping the pyramid was a golden capstone that gleamed in the desert sun. It was an amazing spectacle. The pyramids somewhat stayed in this state until the Arab invasion of Egypt around AD 500. The Arab invaders stripped the pyramid of it's smooth limestone and built a huge section of Cairo. Many of the Mosques and Palaces of Cairo consist of the Ancient stones of the pyramids. Quite sad actually.

TOP Interesting Bible Facts

Did you know that Bible was written over a period of 1600 years? 40 men were given inspiration by God to continue writing the Bible and it has 66 books which are related. There is an Old and New Testament and they are divided by the life of Jesus Christ. The Bible has been successfully translated to more than twelve hundred languages and dialects in part or whole. The Bible is still bestselling book of all time. Translation into English was first started by John Wycliffe and completed by John Purvey in 1388. This highest selling book is much revered and was first divided into chapter's paragraph in the Geneva Bible of 1560. Lots of data in Bible are prophecies and some of them have come true. Some theories say that Bible wasn't even written by its original authors. Some things sound like a child storytelling: "It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested. (From the NIV Bible, Exodus 31:17)." Our opinion is that Bible is like everything else on our planet with its good and bad sides. Usually bad things are the ones that are written by human hand.


The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc - the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.

Top 10 Health Tips for Kids

1. Food is Fun… Enjoy your food

Sharing a meal with family and friends at home or at school is a great way to enjoy food. It is fun to see other people’s choice of food - what sandwich fillings do others have? Have you tried having a different filling every day? Check out your lunch box or dinner plate. How many different kinds of fruit and vegetables can you spot?

2. Breakfast is a very important meal

Our bodies always need energy, and after a night’s sleep, energy levels are low. Cars, buses and trains cannot run without fuel. So, whether you are off to school, or out and about at the weekend, start the day with breakfast. Plenty of carbohydrates is just the ticket: try cereal with semi-skimmed milk, fruit or yoghurt, toast or bread, perhaps with lean meats.
 

3. Eat lots of different foods every day, variety is the recipe for health

You need over 40 different kinds of vitamins and minerals every day for good health. Since there is no single food that contains them all, it is important to balance your daily choices. In fact there are no good or bad foods, so you do not need to miss out on the foods you enjoy. The best way to make sure you get the right balance is to eat a wide variety of foods each day.

4. Which group would you tip for the top? Base your food on carbohydrates

Many people don’t eat enough carbohydrate foods, such as cereals, rice, pasta, potatoes and bread. At least half the calories in your diet should come from these foods, so it is a good idea to include at least one of these at every meal. Try whole-grain bread, pasta and other cereals to give you extra fibre. Have you tried baking your own bread? It’s good fun and smells wonderful!

5. Gimme five! Eat fruits and vegetables with each meal and as tasty snacks!

Fruits and vegetables are among the most important foods for giving us enough vitamins, minerals and fibre. We should all try to eat 5 servings a day. For example, a glass of fruit juice at breakfast, perhaps an apple and banana as snacks and two vegetables at meal times then you have already reached your total. How many different kinds can you spot in the supermarket? Why not try some new ones?

6. Fat facts. Too much saturated fat is not good for your health

Eating too many of those tasty, fatty foods (such as butter, spreads, fried meats and sausages, pies and pastries) might not always be so good for your body. So remember, a big helping of potatoes, but go easy on the butter. Although we need some fats to get all the nutrients we need, it is better for our health if we don’t eat too much of these foods and get knocked off balance. So, if you have a high-fat lunch, choose a low-fat dinner.

7. Snack attack! Eat regularly and choose a variety of snacks

Even if you eat regular meals during the day, there will still be times in between that you feel hungry, especially if you have been very physically active. Snacks can fill the gap, but should not be eaten in place of meals, only as an extra. There are lots of different snacks available. Your choice may be crisps, nuts and other packet snacks, chocolate bars, cakes and biscuits. On other occasions, you may prefer a sandwich, some fresh or dried fruits, or perhaps sticks of vegetables like carrots and celery. Whichever snack you enjoy, remember it is always good to include a variety of different types to keep things in balance.

8. Quench your thirst. Drink plenty of liquids

Did you know that more than half of your weight is just water? So as well as giving your body all the food it needs each day to keep healthy, you need at least 5 glasses of liquids a day. It is particulary important if the weather is very hot or if you have done lots of exercise, to have plenty to drink to prevent dehydration. Usually – but not always – your body will tell you this, by making you feel thirsty. Plain tap water is great of course, but bottled water, fruit juices, tea, soft drinks, milk and so on, can all be okay too.

9. Care for those teeth! Brush your teeth at least twice a day

Brush your teeth at least twice a day. Eating foods high in sugar or starches too often during the day can play a part in tooth decay. So don’t nibble foods and sip drinks all day long! However, the best way to keep a nice smile is to brush your teeth twice a day with a fluoride toothepaste. Also, after brushing your teeth at bedtime, don’t eat any food, or drink anything but water!

10. Get moving! Be active every day

Just like a bike may become rusty if it is not used for some time, our muscles and bones need to be kept moving too. Activity is needed to keep your heart healthy and your bones strong. It can also be good fun. Try to include some form of activity every day: it may be just walking to school and running up the stairs. However, games like skipping and football at break times are good fot giving the body a workout. Swimming is a particularly good sport for keeping you healthy.

Top 10 Inventors Killed By Their Inventions

10.Henry Winstanley

 

Henry Winstanley was the a famous English lighthouse architect and engineer who constructed the first Eddystone lighthouse. Winstanley wished to test the lighthouse’s strength and so demanded to be inside it during a storm. The lighthouse collapsed, killing Winstanley and five other people.

 

9.Alexander Bogdanov

 

Alexander Bogdanov was a noted Russian physician, philosopher, economist, science fiction writer, and revolutionary. One of his many scientific experiments involved ideas of possible rejuvenation through blood transfusion. Having given blood transfusions to many notable people, including Lenin’s sister, Bogdanov decided to give himself a transfusion of blood from one of his patients who suffered from malaria and tuberculosis. He died from the infections shortly after.

 

8.Cowper Phipps Coles

 

Cowper Phipps Coles was a distinguished Royal Navy Captain who invented a rotating turret for ships during the Crimean War. After the war, Coles patented his invention and set about building his own ship using this revolutionary design, having seen it adapted for other Royal Navy ships. His ship, the HMS Captain, required several unusual and dangerous modifications however, including a so called “hurricane deck” which raised the ship’s centre of gravity. On the 6th September 1870, the HMS Captain capsized, killing Coles and most of its 500 person crew.

 

7.Karel Soucek

 

Karel Soucek was a Canadian stuntman famous for inventing a “capsule” (really just a modified barrel) and riding down the Niagara Falls in it. He survived, although suffered some injuries. In 1985, he convinced a company to finance a barrel drop from the top of the Houston Astrodome in Texas. A special waterfall was created from the top of the 180 ft structure, with a plunge pit at the bottom. However, the stunt went wrong, and Soucek hit the rim of the pool instead of the centre, causing the capsule to splinter and severely injure him. He died the next day. Evel Knievel called it the most dangerous stunt he had ever seen. His capsule is on display at the New York State Museum.

 

6.Franz Reichelt

 

Franz Reichelt was an Austrian tailor who was famous for creating a strange overcoat/parachute hybrid that he claimed could sail its wearer gently to the ground or even to fly. He conducted his experiment from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower, and in front of a group of spectators and a camera crew, proceeded to fall straight down. He died immediately from the impact.

5.Otto Lilienthal

 

Otto Lilienthal was a pioneer of human aviation who became known as the Glider King. He was the first person to make repeated successful gliding flights. Newspapers and magazines in many countries published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favorably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical reality after ages of idle fantasy and unscientific tinkering. On a flight on the 9th August 1896, Lilienthal fell 17 meters, breaking his spine. He died the next day. His final words were, “Small sacrifices must be made!”

 

4.William Bullock

 

William Bullock was an American inventor whose 1863 invention of the rotary printing press helped revolutionize the printing industry due to its great speed and efficiency. Bullock died while trying to repair one of his printing presses, by getting his foot crushed under one of the machines while trying to kick a pulley into place. His foot later became gangrenous, and Bullock died during an operation to amputate his foot.

 

3.J. G. Parry-Thomas

 

John Godfrey Parry-Thomas was a Welsh motor-racing driver and engineer. He had always dreamed of breaking the land speed record set by Malcolm Campbell, and set about creating a car to do it. He developed a car, named Babs, which had many modifications, such as an exposed chains connecting the wheels to the engines. On the 27th of April 1926, Parry-Thomas broke the existing record, before raising it to above 170 mph the next day. The record stood for a year, before Malcolm Campbell broke it in 1927. On trying to reclaim his record, one of the chains snapped and flew into his neck, partially decapitating him. He died instantly.

 

2.Thomas Midgley Jr

 

Thomas Midgley was an American chemist who invented both leaded petrol and CFCs. Though lauded during his time, he has come to be known as having “had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth history” and “the one human responsible for more deaths than any other in history” due to his inventions. He eventually contracted Polio and lead poisoning and was left disabled in his bed. This caused him to create an elaborate system of pulleys and ropes in order to lift himself from bed. He died at the age of 55 after being strangled by one of his pulleys and is notable for the fact that both his inventions, leaded petrol and his pulley operated bed, contributed to his death.

 

1.Marie Curie

 

Marie Curie was a French-Polish physicist and chemist who is famous for discovering a host of new elements, including radium and polonium, as well as the theory of radioactivity and the isolation of radioactive isotopes. She was the joint winner of the Nobel Prize in 1903 (along with her husband Pierre). She died on July 4, 1934, from aplastic anaemia, almost certainly contracted from exposure to radiation. The damaging effects of ionizing radiation were then not yet known, and much of her work had been carried out in a shed without any safety measures. She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket and stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on the pretty blue-green light that the substances gave off in the dark.

Top 10 Untranslatable Words

10.Toska

 

Language: Russian

Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases, it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”

 

9.Litost

 

Language: Czech

Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, remarked that “As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.” The closest definition is a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.

 

8.Prozvonit

 

Language: Czech

This word means to call a mobile phone and let it ring once, so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money. In Spanish, the phrase for this is “Dar un toque,” or, “To give a touch.” Intriguingly, this word can be translated into languages other than English.

 

7.Torschlusspanik

 

Language: German

Translated literally, this word means “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.” This partly explains why so many older people wish to ‘recapture their youth’ – in order to try re-establish their, perhaps, passed opportunities.

 

6.Wabi-Sabi

 

Language: Japanese

Much has been written on this Japanese concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.”

5.L’appel du vide

 

Language: French

“The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.

 

4.Ya’aburnee

 

Language: Arabic

Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person, because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

 

3.Duende

 

Language: Spanish

While originally used to describe a mythical, sprite like entity that possesses humans and creates the feeling of awe of one’s surroundings in nature, its meaning has transitioned into referring to “the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person.”

 

2.Saudade

 

Language: Portuguese

One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love, and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade.

 

 

1.Mamihlapinatapai

 

Language: Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the coast of South America)
“The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.” This explains so much for my failures with women.

Top 10 Differences Between the North and South Poles

10.Metamorphoses

 

The arctic area is located in the North Pole region and has a natural melting cycle during which almost half of the ice shelf melts away in summer, only to freeze again in winter and come back to its original size. During winter, the arctic ice shelf has a surface almost equal to that of the US. However, an unsettling study has recently revealed that the 3.5 km thick ice shelf from Greenland is melting away so fast that half of it could disappear by the end of the century. Other studies suggest that the whole Arctic region could become iceless during summer, in less than a century.
On the other hand, the Antarctic region, or the South Pole, does not show the same regular melting cycle because its ice shelf has almost the same size and shape throughout the twelve months. Recent studies have also shown that the Antarctic region is melting away as well, not because of natural processes, but because of the global warming effects. Should all the ice from the South Pole melt in one day (which won’t happen in the near future), the seas and oceans would rise by 60 meters, specialists say. Interestingly enough, the Arctic region melts faster because it is submerged and the ocean currents accelerate the process, whereas the Antarctic region is made of stony bedrock which is less, or not at all, influenced by such phenomena.

 

9.Hole in the Ozone Layer

 

There is a hole in the ozone layer just above the Antarctic region which, now, is almost three times bigger than the US continental surface. The ozone layer above the Arctic region is getting thinner and thinner, as well, and there is no hole in the North Pole’s ozone layer just yet. Of course, a hole in the ozone layer does not mean that a physical breach actually exists there. The term is used to describe the phenomenon by which the chemical substance, the ozone, which wraps the Earth and protects it against solar radiation, has been severely damaged, and in some places, is even gone.
The ozone losses from the northern hemisphere are lower compared to those from the southern hemisphere because the higher Arctic temperatures prevent the forming of the polar stratospheric clouds which destroy the ozone. Nevertheless, the temperatures from the North Pole’s stratosphere have gradually dropped in recent years, leading to significant losses in the ozone layer.

 

8.Cold and Freezing Cold

 

The South Pole is much cooler than the North Pole. Actually the Antarctic temperatures are so low that snow never melts in some parts of this continent. The average yearlong temperature of this region is -49˚ Celsius, which makes it the coldest place on Earth. In contrast, the average winter temperature in the Arctic region is -34˚ Celsius, and goes up by a few degrees during summer.
The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.6 ˚Celsius and was reported at the Vostok Base, near the geomagnetic South Pole. The Arctic region is an ice shelf and this is what makes it more vulnerable to climate changes.

 

7.Polar Bears and Penguins

 

Most people think that polar bears and penguins share the same habitat. However, this is a false idea rooted in commercials and post cards. Penguins actually live in the southern hemisphere only, this means in the Antarctic region, where they have no natural continental predators. If penguins and polar bears lived in the same region, then polar bears wouldn’t have to worry about their food source.
But they don’t, therefore penguins have evolved into flightless birds and adapted their wings into flippers, which come in very handy when performing various nautical maneuvers. On the other hand, polar bears are the largest land predators and an endemic species of the northern hemisphere. They rule over the icy northern area of the Arctic Ocean and feed on seals, sea cows and sometimes even on stranded whales.

 

6.Black Gold

 

Almost half of the world’s remaining oil deposits lie under the ice from the northern part of the Arctic Circle, according to estimates published by the US Geological Survey. For this reason, Russia is already claiming a monopoly over a large part of the Arctic region, thus hoping to exploit the deposits from the Lomonosov ridge, an aquatic protuberance from under the Arctic Ocean. It stretches over more than 1,800 km and allegedly hosts up to 10 billion tons of crude oil.
The US is also claiming its part, and is sending ice breakers to mark the US territory near Alaska. It is thought that oil deposits exist under the continental crust of the Antarctic region as well, such as the Ross Sea, but the Treaty of the Antarctic strictly forbids any oil exploitation activities in the region, for the time being.

5.No Man’s Land

 

Despite symbolic images featuring daring explorers triumphantly digging flags in the ice of the South Pole, the Antarctic continent is the only place on Earth that belongs to nobody. No traces of indigenous people have been discovered yet, and the region is governed by the Treaty of the Antarctic, which stipulates that the territory itself, and its resources, should be used solely for peaceful and scientific purposes.
In contrast, more than four million people live inside the Arctic circle, both in small villages and in towns, such as: Barrow, Alaska; Tromso, Norway; Murmansk and Salekhard, Russia. People rarely set foot on the Antarctic territory and they do so only on research and scientific grounds.

 

4.Ice, Ice Everywhere

 

The southernmost continent of the planet hosts 90% of all the ice on Earth, which makes up for 3/4 of the global freshwater reserves. Due to this fact, some have even considered the idea of cutting large chunks of ice and using them for quenching the thirst of arid areas. In fact, Prince Mohammed-al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia even planned to dislodge a 100 million ton iceberg from the Antarctic region, and take it to the Arabic Peninsula. In comparison, the North Pole has far less ice then the South Pole.

 

3.Continent vs. Ocean

 

The Arctic region is basically a frozen ocean. In contrast, Antarctica is a continent in itself, based on bedrock and various landforms, such as mountains, valleys and lakes, all surrounded by the ocean. In fact, Antarctica is home to the famous active volcano Mount Erebus (pictured above).
Ironically enough, from a social and political standpoint, the Arctic region, which is made up of ice only, is the place where the interests of many countries converge: Canada, Greenland (part of Denmark), Russia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the United States. As stated before, the South Pole belongs to no country, and it has never been colonized nor populated by Eskimos.

 

2.Polar Vortex

 

An interesting phenomenon occurs near the geographic poles of the Earth, namely the polar vortex, which is a massive cyclone forming near the vertical edges of the planet. Polar vortexes are located in the middle and upper parts of the troposphere and the stratosphere.
They surround the polar areas and are part of the so-called “polar front” – the climate boundary between the polar area air masses and the neighboring warmer areas from both hemispheres. The Antarctic polar vortex is stronger and lasts longer than the Arctic one. This is due to the large land regions concentrated in the high latitude areas of the northern hemisphere, which create the Rossby atmospheric waves, thus diminishing the intensity of the vortex. In contrast, there are not too many factors able to influence the vortex from the South Pole.

 

1.Magnetic Field and Mineral Deposits

 

Since the Antarctic is a landmass, a lot of minerals can be found in the bedrock: nickel, gold, silver, platinum, iron. Obviously, there are no such minerals in the Arctic ice.
Speaking of the magnetic poles of the Earth, one is near the north and the other near the south. When we talk about the magnetic north pole, we refer to the geographic area with the same name, although the north pole of the Earth’s magnetic field is actually in the south, and the south pole of the magnetic field is located in the north. For this reason, compasses do not show the magnetic north, but the geographic north of the planet. However, it has been established by convention that the magnetic north is near the geographic north and the magnetic south is near the geographic south.
The planet’s magnetic poles do not coincide with its geographic poles because the magnetic field of the Earth is changing. Unlike the geographic poles, the magnetic ones actually move, and this could be considered a common feature of the two poles. The difference is that the magnetic north pole (the south of the magnetic field) is no longer located right in the Arctic region but is moving towards the East at a rate of 55-60 km every year. The magnetic south pole (the north of the magnetic field) still overlaps Antarctica, but is also moving westwards at a rate of 10-15 km per year.