The World Shortest Man Finally Meets The World Tallest Man

In a huge event hosted by Guinness World Records two weeks ago on January 14th, 2009,  the world’s tallest man shacked hand with the world’s shortest man.

The event was hosted in Istanbul, Turkey where He Pingping, 21 years old from China met Sultan Kosen, 27, from Turkey.

He Pingping is officially the world’s shortest man with a height of 73 cm (2 feet 5 inch).

Turk, Kosen, is the tallest man walking the planet with a height of 246.5 cm ( 8 feet 1 inch).

The Science:

In the case of He Pingping, his condition is called “Dwarfism”. A dwarf is a person of short stature – under 4’ 10” as an adult. More than 200 different conditions can cause dwarfism. A single type, called achondroplasia, causes about 70 percent of all dwarfism. Achondroplasia is a genetic condition that affects about 1 in 25,000 people. It makes your arms and legs short in comparison to your head and trunk. Other genetic conditions, kidney disease and problems with metabolism or hormones can also cause short stature.

Kosen Turk condition is called Gigantism. Gigantism is abnormally large growth due to an excess of growth hormone during childhood, before the bone growth plates have closed. The most common cause of too much growth hormone release is a noncancerous (benign) tumor of the pituitary gland.

Sources – Medline Plus – Yahoo News

Foods Contain Magnesium Boost Your Brain Power

Scientists discovered recently that foods contain magnesium, enhance your memory and boost your brain power.

Foods such as spinach and broccoli, are  rich of Magnesium which is perfect for the brain to grow and learn even for the older people.

This research was published in the journal Neuron this week by Professor Guosong Liu, at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

“We found that increased brain magnesium enhanced many different forms of learning and memory in both young and aged rats.” Professor Guosong Lie said.

Via – Telegraph

Apple Unveils The New Apply iPad

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, Unveils the New Apple Tablet or Apple Ipad to millions of people who have been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Steve said “this is truly a magical product”, the device could browse the Web, let users send e-mail, share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games and read e-Books.

Much like an iPhone, the iPad has a touch screen that zooms in and out of Web sites and a virtual keyboard. It also orients to portrait or landscape viewing, depending on how you hold it.

Jobs said it will be half-an-inch thick and weigh in at 1.5 pounds. It will have a 9.7-inch display and include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. ABC News.

The iPad specifications:

• 1GHz Apple A4 processor (custom)
• 0.5″ thick
• 1.5 pounds
• 9.7″ Capacitive touchscreen
• 16-64GB of SSD storage
• 3G available but not in all iPads
• $14.99 for 250MB, $29.99 for unlimited data on AT&T (no contract)
• 3G iPads are unlocked, have GSM micro SIMs
• Accelerometer, Compass
• 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1
• Runs iPhone apps in window or pixel doubling
• Hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics
• SDK out today
• $499 for 16GB base model, $830 for all maxed out

iPad limitations:

• 64GB only. What if you have lots of videos and music?
• No Video chat because there is no camera.

This the first video released on Youtube showing the Apple iPad.

Via – Crunchgear – ABC news

Mona Lisa Might Be Leonardo da Vinci’s Self-Portrait

Mona Lisa is considered one of the most famous portraits in the world by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo de Vinci. According to Leonardo this painting “the Mona Lisa” is for a wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. But, is this true according to modern scientists and artists?

Historians and anthropologists are saying that this painting is not for a a woman, its actually a self-portrait for Leonardo de Vinci himself. Artist Lillian Schwartz has used computer programs to identify similarities between the features of the Mona Lisa and those of one of da Vinci’s true self-portraits. Now, he along with other historians asked for a permission from the French cultural officials and the owners of the chateau to examine Leonardo’s remains “especially his skull if found” to verify their theory.

“If we manage to find his skull, we could rebuild Leonardo’s face and compare it with the Mona Lisa,” said anthropologist Giorgio Gruppioni, who is part of a team from Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage, a leading association of scientists and art historians, which is undertaking the investigation.

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