Automysophobia is the fear of getting dirty. Most people could probably tolerate an amount of dirt in their body, thinking that they can wash that away later. However, automysophobic people don’t feel that way: they get sick, dizzy, nauseated, breathless and even feel get that feeling that they’d rather die than get dirt in their bodies.
People suffering this extreme fear definitely seek psychological help. It surely gets in the way of living a normal healthy life.
His inspiring experience prompted me to update this blog.
He was just 14 when he built his first windmill.
William Kamkwamba lived in a small Malawian village where there was no electricity. People in his village depended on tobacco farming.
His family of 20 did not have much. He even had to drop out of school because his parents could not afford to pay his yearly $80 worth of tuition fees.
There was much wind in his place, so he thought of putting that into good use for his community. He borrowed a book about windmills from the local library, then he set out to built a small windmill bicycle wheels, tractor fans, car batteries and other junk that he could fit in. He was able to generate electricity for his small community to power up light bulbs, pump water and even charge cellphones and power up the radio.
He was only able to construct his first working windmill in just two months.
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Some people wanted to know whether this strange word exist: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanocon is supposed to be the longest word in the English dictionary. I ventured out on my own to for some little research to see if this is listed in known online dictionaries. No, this word is NOT listed in any of those dictionaries.
This word looks like something that is coined out in the medicine-related professions, which may be why those general-purpose dictionaries did not list down this word. I tried looking into the some well-established medical dictionaries online and got the same results – their search engines turned up nothing.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanocon is noun that’s supposed to mean a lung disease that was caused by breathing in fine particles of siliceous volcanic dust. The same word is also spelled as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. I am unable to find out further if this is indeed true, as there are no reliable online resources that back up this definition. Someone mentioned that this was featured on a TV show, but this isn’t listed even in some news sites.
I heard that this was coined by someone named Everett Smith in 1935 just for the fun of investing a new longest word in his time.
If anybody had found an established online dictionary that lists down this word with its formal definition, let me know.
Is LimeWire really illegal?
This isn’t a new question that’s been asked around. LimeWire is definitely 100% legal; however, putting copyright protected material without the permission of the copyright holder is entirely illegal. Thus, downloading and uploading copyrighted materieals should not be done by the users.
LimeWire is no different to other peer to peer software such as BitTorrent and Bearshare. These peer to peer clients simply make it possible for users to share their files over the web. Since these are called peer to peer, there is no centralized server where downloadable content are stored. Instead, content can be downloaded from other LimeWire users.
As you download a song or a video using this client, you may be downloading several bits and pieces of that media from several LimeWire users like yourself.
I had been using LimeWire myself and I had seen all sorts of downloadable stuff – yes, even copyright protected work and offending material can be found indiscriminately within that little piece of software. Since this software isn’t illegal, I have the impression that the user should be the one responsible in sharing content over these networks.
If you want to try out LimeWire for yourself, visit LimeWire website.
If you are interested in the legalities of LimeWire then it is best to take a peek on their copyright and safety pages:
The image below of a glass frog is actually one of the interesting species discovered in a recent Ecuador expedition in the forests. Glass frogs are not new to science, but this particular one is among the endangered species list. These frogs are endangered not because of the humans: the chytrid fungus that inhabits their home kills these amphibians.
As you can see, this particular see through frog has a translucent skin and you can easily see its internal organs. Its scientific name is Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum.
This glass frog is among the twelve new species which were found in the expedition. The salamander which looked like an E.T. was also another one of the expedition’s interesting discovery.
see images of the animals discovered in the expedition here
