French leave primarily means taking leave without permission from work. Some believe it is meant to convey the act of leisurely desertion from a military unit. Being away on leave from one’s post or duties has its roots in the 17th century and does not so much have its origins in cowardice but in a French custom of leaving a …

The first word used to answer the phone was the nautical greeting “ahoy” because the first regular phone system was in the maritime state of Connecticut. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor, answered with the Gaelic “hoy”. But it was Thomas Edison’s greeting of “hello,” an exclamation of surprise dating back to the Middle Ages, that caught on, and so we …

Jane Austen completed her first novel in 1797 when she was 22 years old. It was published 16 years later when it appeared as Pride and Prejudice. First Impressions was not her first book to be published for that was Sense and Sensibility, Published in 1811. Jane Austen was born December 15, 1775, at Steventon rectory in Hampshire, the seventh …

Yes, He was Robert MacGregor, the leader of a band of Scottish outlaws. Sir Walter Scott featured him in a heroic role in his popular novel Rob Roy. MacGregor called himself Rob Roy, roy meaning red. Rob Roy had red hair. He was born 1671, in Buchanan parish, Stirlingshire. As a cattle farmer at Balquhidder, he raised a band of …

Surprisingly, the answere is no. There is one breed of dog, the Basenji, which cannot bark. This strange little dog with wrinkles on its cheeks and forehead, perky ears, and a tightly curled tail can make other sounds common to dogs like whines or cries or growls, but it cannot bark. Instead, it can make a sound that other dogs …

The name under which the he wrote his many sea-faring novels was Joseph Conrad. He was born in the Ukraine in Russia on December 6, 1857. His boyhood was passed in Caracow in Poland. There he learned to speak and write French fluently and first began to take a great interest in the sea. At the age of 17 he …

Cows are very valuable animals to human beings. They give us milk, from which we make butter and cheese. The commonest dairy (milk-giving) cows are Friesians. Europeans drink an average of nearly 31 (5pt) of milk per week each.

Jarnail Singh (Jarnail Singh Dhillon) was an Indian Football player who was known for his outstanding capabilities as a defender. Jarnail Singh was a member of the Indian squad during the golden era of Indian Football in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and was one of the most important players that had contributed towards the charismatic achievements the team had made in …

Jaspal Rana (born June 28, 1976) is an Indian shooter. He contested mainly in the 25 m Centre Fire Pistol category. He was a gold medallist at the 1994 Asian Games, 2006 Commonwealth Games, and 2006 Asian Games. At present, Rana coaches at the Jaspal Rana Institute of Education and Technology in Dehradun. Early Life Rana was born in Uttarakhand. He …

Jared Mason Diamond is an American evolutionary biologist, physiologist, bio-geographer, lecturer, and nonfiction author. Diamond works as a professor of geography and physiology at UCLA. He is best known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel, which also won the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science. The preeminent scholar of the relationship between the environment and civilisational success …