A doppelganger, also spelled doppelgaenger, can be the ghost of a living person or any other sort of physical double. The idea of a doppelganger is sometimes similar to that of an “evil twin.” The word doppelganger comes from the German Doppelgaenger, literally meaning “double-goer.”

There are many different types of doppelganger, as the definition of the term has become somewhat loose, encompassing any sort of double. The doppelganger may be ghostly or appear in the flesh. It may be an “evil twin” unknown to the original person who causes mischief by confusing friends and relatives, or it may be the result of the original person being in two places at once through an act of sorcery. Scientists at the University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland discovered that electrical stimulation of the brain, used to treat epilepsy, can produce the sensation of a doppelganger’s presence in the patient.

In folklore, the doppelganger is said to have no shadow or reflection, much like vampires in some traditions. Doppelgangers are often malicious or a bad omen, and they can haunt their earthly counterparts. They may also give bad advice or put thoughts in their victim’s heads. Seeing one’s own doppelganger or the doppelganger of a friend or relative is considered very bad luck, often heralding death or serious illness of the doppelganger’s original.

Doppelgangers appear often in various types of fiction, from mistaken identity plots in novels and plays to more supernatural doppelganger phenomena in works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. There are many famous accounts of doppelgangers in history as well. Guy de Maupassant’s short story Lui (Him) tells of the writer’s own experience with a doppelganger. English poet John Donne claimed to have met his wife’s doppelganger in Paris shortly before his daughter was stillborn. Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and President Abraham Lincoln both saw doppelgangers that presaged their death; Shelley in a dream and Lincoln in his mirror.

You have­ probably seen black lights at amusement parts, science museums and Halloween displays. Black lights may look just like normal fluorescent lamps or incandescent light bulbs, but they do something completely different. Switch one on, and white clothes, teeth and various other things glow in the dark.

­For example, if you have a fluorescent poster and shine a black light on it in a dark room, the poster will glow brightly. You may have also seen pieces of paper that look blank in regular light but spell out a glowing message under a black light. Many amusement parks­ use hand stamps that are invisible until you view them under black light.

In this article, we’ll find out exactly what’s going on here. We’ll also see why black lights make some objects glow but not others, and we’ll look at some interesting black light applications.

What Is “Black Light”?
If you turn on a black light bulb in a dark room, what you can see from the bulb is a purplish glow. What you cannot see is the ultraviolet light that the bulb is also producing.

Our eyes can see visible light in a spectrum ranging from red through orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Above violet is ultraviolet light, which we cannot see. How Sunburns and Sun Tans Work discusses ultraviolet light and its effects on our skin. A black light bulb produces UVA light (as opposed to UVB light, which is much more harmful).

Visible light frequencies
Ultraviolet light frequencies are above violet on the spectrum and are invisible to the human eye.

What you see glowing under a black light, whether on a fluorescent poster or an invisible hand stamp or a newly washed white T-shirt, are phosphors.

A phosphor is any substance that emits visible light in response to some sort of radiation. A phosphor converts the energy in the UV radiation from a black light into visible light.

Why Is My Shirt Glowing?
White T-shirts and socks normally glow under a black light because modern detergents contain phosphors that convert UV light into white light. This makes whites look “whiter than white” in normal sunlight. What you are seeing in sunlight is the normal reflection of visible white light from the cloth, as well as the emission of white light that the phosphors create from UV light in sunlight. The T-shirt really is whiter than white!

OSLO, Norway – Two years after receiving its first deposits, a “doomsday” seed vault on an Arctic island has amassed half a million seed samples, making it the world’s most diverse repository of crop seeds, the vault’s operators announced Thursday.

Cary Fowler — who heads the trust that oversees the seed collection, which is 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the North Pole, said the facility now houses at least one-third of the world’s crop seeds.

“In my lifetime, I don’t think we’ll go over 1.5 million. I’d be rather surprised if we go over a million,” Fowler told The Associated Press. “At that point, we’d have all the diversity in the world … and the most secure samples.”

Located in Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a safeguard against wars or natural disasters wiping out food crops around the globe. It was opened in 2008 as a master backup to the world’s other 1,400 seed banks, in case their deposits are lost.

War wiped out seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another bank in the Philippines was flooded in the wake of a typhoon in 2006. The Svalbard bank is designed to withstand global warming, earthquakes and even nuclear strikes.

Despite the rapid progress, Fowler said the bank still has significant holes in its collection.

“There are a few unique collections that we don’t have up there yet — Ethiopia and some of the Indian materials and some of the Chinese materials,” he said.

The most recent additions include a mold-resistant bean from Colombia and a collection of nearly every agricultural soybean species developed in the U.S. in the last century.

Toilet

While Thomas Crapper is commonly given credit for inventing the first flushing toilet in the late 1800s, the first version can actually be traced back to 1596. At this time, a British nobleman, Sir John Harrington, first engineered and invented a valve that could release water from the water closet (WC) when pulled. Sir Harrington, who was also the godson of Queen Elizabeth I, recommended pulling the valve (“flushing” the toilet) once a day for sanitary purposes.

So if Thomas Crapper didn’t invent the toilet, why is he given credit?
Three centuries after Sir Harrington’s invention, Crapper had a successful career in the plumbing industry and did earn nine patents for plumbing products in England. Unfortunately, none of those nine patents granted between 1861-1904 were for the flushing toilet.

While he did not invent the toilet, Crapper still has a close connection to the first patent for the toilet. Albert Gilblin, an employee of Crapper, holds the 1819 British Patent for a “Silent Valveless Water Waste Preventer”. This device was a system which allowed a toilet to flush effectively. Crapper later purchased the rights for this patent from his employee and marketed the device.

So even though he didn’t invent the toilet himself, we still owe a big thank you to Crapper for helping bring the product to the masses.

Toilet Paper

The first mention recorded from toilet paper dates back to the year 589 AD in Korea. During the later Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) a Muslim Arab traveler to China in the year 851 AD remarked:

“They (the Chinese) are not careful about cleanliness, and they do not wash themselves with water when they have done their necessities; but they only wipe themselves with paper.

Between 875 and 1317 AD, paper was produced in large sheets for the Emperor’s hygiene. The introduction of modern toilet paper in the US is traced to Joseph Gayetty, who unsuccessfully marketed single flat sheets in 1857. By 1867, the Scott brothers (Thomas, Edward and Clarence) began producing perforated paper rolls, as did Seth Wheeler (the patent holder) in 1871.

Unlike pottery, arrow heads and metal tools, traces of ancient ice creams are not really something that archaeologists can unravel. The ice cream history is therefore elusive and not very well known. People living in climates where ice and snow formed naturally are believed to have enjoyed a form of sorbet since prehistoric time by flavouring snow with fruit, berries and honey. This was probably especially popular in warm regions with high mountains, since snow could be gathered from the high altitudes and brought down to regions where it provided much sought after relief from the heat.

Even though ice cream itself leaves no visible mark in ancient history, items and buildings used for its creation can. Icehouses are for instance known to have existed as early as 2,000 years B.C. in Mesopotamia. Wealthy Mesopotamians had them built along the River Euphrates and used them to store food. We also know from historical sources that several Egyptian pharaohs ordered ice to be shipped to them in the hot and sunny regions in which they lived.

Once of the earliest known instances of true sorbet – not only ice and ice houses – are the honey and fruit flavoured snow cones that you could buy in Athenian markets during the 5th century BC. Later on, the Romans adopted a lot of Greek traditions, ice cream eating included. The Roman emperor Nero who reigned from 54 to 68 AD did for instance have ice transported to Rome from the mountains and mixed with fruit and toppings.

In 400 B.C. the Persians invented a cool pudding made from vermicelli and rosewater. This chilled treat tastes a bit like a blend of sorbet and rice pudding, and was often mixed with fruits and saffron. Ice was quite readily available to wealthy Persians since they owned so called yakhchals; naturally cooled refrigerators in which ice collected from the mountains could be stored for longer periods of time.

The Arabs play an important role in the history of ice cream since they began using sugar and syrup instead of honey. In the 10th century B.C., sweet ice cream flavoured with fruits and nuts could be purchased in all major Arab cities. The Arabs also began adding milk to the ice-cream, making it more similar to the type of diary based ice-cream that is most widespread today.

It has been hard to determine when the Chinese began enjoy Chinese ice cream, but the first type of Chinese ice cream is believed to have been flavoured with sugar and sold during the warm summer season. Most historians agree that the upper class enjoyed ice-creamed flavoured with fruit juices during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 B.C.) According to “History of food” by Toussaint-Samat the Chinese may even have created a special ice-cream creation method earlier than the Song Dynasty. This method involved pouring snow and saltpetre over containers filled with syrup. Salt will lower the freezing point of water to subzero. Diary products are still rare in Chinese food, but according to legend Mongols introduced the custom of drinking milk to the Chinese during the Yuan Dynasty and this eventually led to the invention of milky ice-cream.

Source: Ezine Articles

In the world of income and taxation, corporations, small businesses, and other employers use a variety of forms to record the income earned by an employee or an independent contractor. Typically, employees of a business receive a W-2 form that lists the income they received during the year. This form also contains deductions taken from that income in the form of federal and state taxes, deferred compensation and social security contributions, to name a few. 1099 forms are used for a number of reasons, though, typically, they are given to independent contractors–also known as “freelancers”–as a record of the income they received from a particular business.

On a 1099 MISC Form, the income earned will be noted, but there will not be any deductions for federal and state income taxes, nor will any deferred compensation, social security, or medical deductions be taken. Since the 1099 recipient is not an employee of the business, the business is obligated only to tender the income to the contractor sans any deductions. This 1099 income is also reported to the Internal Revenue Service so it has the opportunity to track income from freelance workers. The freelancer will be obligated to make his or her own tax deductions and forward such payments to the IRS.

Those who receive 1099 income come from a wide spectrum. Actors, artists, novelists, freelance writers and similar creative artists are generally compensated on a “per job” basis, and are not treated as employees. More and more businesses are bringing in independent contractors to work on a similar “per job” basis, as this helps keep the employer costs down since the employer does not have to pay for such things as health and life insurance, as well as make contributions to retirement plans. After the job is completed, the employer can cut the cord and simply issue the independent contractor a 1099 Form.

Though the 1099 MISC Form is the most popular, 1099 forms are also issued to denote the interest (1099 INT) the government may have paid in a particular tax year, and 1099 G Form denotes any tax refund you may have received from the government.