WORDS WORTH READING

God and You 

☆ When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses them, and sometimes, when you are safe and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you. 

☆ Prayer is not a "spare wheel" that you pull out when in trouble, but it is a "steering wheel" that directs the right path throughout. 

☆ Just as car's windshield is large and the rear view mirror is small, our past is not as important as our future. Look head and move on.

☆ Friendship is like a book. It takes few seconds to burn but it takes years to write.

☆ All things in life are temporary. If going well, enjoy them; they will not last forever. If going wrong, don’t worry; they can't last either. 

☆Old friends are gold! New friends are diamonds! If you get the diamond, don't forget the gold! Because to hold a diamond, you always need a base of gold!

☆ Often when we lose hope and think this is the  end, God smiles from above and says, "Relax dear, it’s just a bend, not the end!

☆ When God solves your problems, you have faith in his abilities; when God doesn't solve your problems, He has faith in your abilities. 

☆ Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles; it takes away today's peace. 

VACCINATION

The First Vaccine

In the 1790s, English doctor Edward Jenner was looking for a cure for a terrible disease called smallpox. Back then, no one knew about viruses. But many people had noticed that dairy workers, who milked the cows, almost never got smallpox. They did often catch a mild disease, called cowpox, from the cows. Jenner wondered, could the cowpox somehow be protecting them? 

To test his idea, Jenner collected some cowpox pus from a cow. He rubbed a tiny bit into a scratch on the hand of his gardener’s 8-year-old son. The boy got a slight fever, but that was all. Then came the real test. Jenner injected the boy with live smallpox germs. The boy did not get sick at all. It worked!

The idea of protecting patients by letting them catch a (hopefully) mild case of a disease had been around since ancient times. It was risky—some patients got very sick. But Jenner had found a new twist. A de-activated germ could protect just as well, and with less danger. He called this technique “vaccination,” from the Latin word for cow, vacca. Today, with the help of Jenner’s vaccine and others, smallpox has vanished from the world.

DO YOU KNOW

 Why should you change engine oil?

Engines are designed to allow oil to enter into areas around the piston and valves. As you continue driving your vehicle, the oil in your engine eventually wears out, breaks down and becomes contaminated. As this happens it becomes less and less effective at absorbing heat and lubricating the important parts in your engine. Running your vehicle with dirty oil causes its parts to begin to grind together. This causes damage, creates noise and allows heat to build up. When you begin to notice the colour of the oil getting darker, freshen it up. General recommendation for an oil change is every 5,000-8,000 kilometres.

MYSTERIES OF THE WORLD

 Giant stone balls of Costa Rica 

They vary in size from as small as a tennis ball up to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons. Almost all of them are made of a hard, igneous stone not local to the region.

Deep in the jungles of Costa Rica, back in the 1940s, workmen clearing dense jungle for a United Fruit Company banana plantation were amazed to find dozens of large stone ball-shaped objects, many of them perfectly spherical.

The stones are believed to have been carved between 200 BC and 1500 A.D. Most stones are no longer in their original locations. The culture of the people who made them, disappeared after the Spanish conquest.

Numerous myths surround the stones, such as they came from Atlantis, or that they were made as such by nature. Some local legends state that the native inhabitants had access to a potion able to soften the rock.The spheres are perfect, or very near perfect in roundness. How did primitive people with crude tools manage to sculpt huge artifacts like these with such great precision, and why? The giant stone balls of Costa Rica remain a mystery.

THE GREATEST FIGHTER

 Muhammad Ali

He won and defended the heavyweight championship in epic fights in exotic locations. He spoke loudly on behalf of the blacks. He refused to be drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War. Despite his debilitating illness, he travelled around the world to receive rapturous reception. Discover how Ali became a modern icon.

17 January 1942 - A star is born

Marcellus Clay Jr. (original name of Muhammad Ali) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. His father was a sign painter and his mother a part-time cook and cleaner for wealthy families. 

17 January 1954 - A stolen gift

When Clay was 12 years old, his bike was stolen. Furious, Clay went to report the theft to a local policeman named Joe Martin. Martin was a boxing instructor. As Clay threatened to find and beat up the thief, Martin suggested he learnt how to fight before dishing out threats. Martin became Clay's first trainer. Clay soon won an array of titles under Martin's guidance.

5 September 1960 - Clay wins gold

At 18, Clay qualified for the Olympics in Rome. He charmed the world media and proved popular among his fellow athletes. He proved himself in the ring too, winning gold as a light-heavyweight. 

29 October 1960 - Turning professional

Eight weeks after his victory in Rome, Clay won his first professional bout. He faced tough opponents, including popular Englishman Henry Cooper and proved his supremacy. 

6 March 1964- Muhammad Ali is born

In 1964, Clay publicly acknowledged he was a member of the religious movement. In March, he was given the name Muhammad Ali by his spiritual mentor. Ali was criticized in some circles. For many, he was a symbol of black pride, refusing to play the role of the 'compliant negro' in order to gain acceptance from the white establishment.

28 April 1967 - Ali vs US government

As war unfolded in Vietnam, Ali received a notice drafting him into the US Army. Ali objected to serving in the military because of his religious beliefs. He also protested the mistreatment of the black Americans. He was stripped off his championship, indicted for draft evasion, fined $10,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. Three years later, his conviction was overturned. 

10 December 1974 - A global superstar

He fought in three different decades, finished with a record of 56-5 with 37 knockouts. He was the first man to win heavyweight titles three times. His famous fans included Elvis, Bertrand Russell and Nelson Mandela. In an effort to heal the rifts caused by the war in Vietnam and racial divisions, President Gerald Ford invited him to the White House in December 1974. 

1 October 1975 - Thrilla in Manilla 

The Thrilla in Manila was the third and final boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. It was contested in 1975 for the Heavyweight Championship of the World at the Araneta Coliseum in Manila, Philippines. Ali won by technical knockout (TKO). The name of the contest is derived from the frequent rhyming boast made by Ali that the fight would be a "killa and a thrilla and a chilla, when I get that gorilla in Manila."

1984 - A new fight

In the early 1980s, Ali developed noticeable tremors and slurs in his speech. In 1984, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. 

Ali's physicians linked his condition to the repeated blows to the head sustained during his boxing career. Ali, however, had stated that he did not believe his condition was caused by boxing. 

In the ensuing years, Ali became a visible symbol of courage in the face of physical disability and helped raise millions of dollars for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson's Center. 

29 June 1990 - Fighter turned philanthropist

Throughout his retirement, Ali has devoted himself to humanitarian work and charitable causes.

In 1990, Ali met Nelson Mandela in Los Angeles, paying his respects to a fellow advocate of civil rights and political freedom.

9 July 1996 - An emotional return

In the summer of 1996, a trembling Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta.

His appearance generated a worldwide outpouring of love, reaffirming his status as an iconic symbol of tolerance, understanding and courage. 

14 Nov 2005 - The champion honoured

In 2005, Ali was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honour that can be bestowed on a civilian in America. Although he did not speak, Ali's sense of humour was still on full display. When President Bush threw a mock punch at the former champion, Ali twirled a finger round his head to indicate he would be crazy to take him on in a fight.

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali - one of the world's greatest sporting figures died at the age of 74 on 3rd June 2016. No athlete has been more written about, talked about, eulogized, defined and redefined than Muhammad Ali in the field of boxing. 

NEVER GIVE UP

Blessings come in disguise

The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small uninhabited island. 

He prayed feverishly to God to rescue him, and everyday he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. 

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood. He felt relatively safe that this hut would protect him from wild animals and wind. 

But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with the smoke rolling up to the sky. 

The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and anger. 

"God, how could you do this to me!" He cried. 

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. 

"How did you know I was here?" Asked the weary man to his rescuers. 

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied. 

NEVER FORGET THAT BLESSINGS COME IN DISGUISE. 

STRANGE BUT TRUE

 Fascinating Facts:

1. Cucumbers are 96 per cent water, which can help toddlers stay hydrated. 🥒 

2. Bananas are slightly radioactive because the potassium in them releases radioactive electrons when the banana decays. However, you would need to eat almost 300 bananas every day for several years to be concerned about it being harmful. 🍌 

3. Birds need gravity to swallow food. When a bird eats, it lifts its head and uses its tongue to direct food towards its throat. The gravitational force of the earth then helps slide the food into a pouch called a crop. 🐦 

4. It is impossible for most people to lick their own elbow. 

5. Wearing headphones for just an hour could increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. 🎧 

6. In the course of an average lifetime, while sleeping you might eat around 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders, or more. 

7. Declared the “Banana Republic of Africa,” Uganda consumes more bananas per capita (600 pounds) per year than any other country.🍌 

8. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. 🐊 

9. A shrimp’s heart is in its head. 🍤 

10. Some lipsticks contain fish scales. 🐟 

11. Cat urine glows under a black-light. 🐈 

12. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different. 👅 

13. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. 🐈 

14. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. 

15. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. 

16. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world. 🐙