Do You Know What is the CIA World Factbook?

The CIA World Factbook is a book published by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) of the United States of America and this book provides a multitude of information about every country in the world.

Information of a certain country is usually categorised into the following categories: introduction, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military and transnational issues. A map of the country and its flag is provided as well.

The CIA publishes the World Factbook in printed and Internet versions. You can find the Internet version at this URL: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/. This is the front and back covers of the printed version of the 2008 World Factbook. You can see the covers for all the previous issues at this gallery of covers at their website.

The World Factbook is published in the public domain. This means that all the information provided by the book may be used by anyone at anytime without the permissions from the CIA. Only the official seal of the CIA may not be used without permission.

At the time of writing, The World Factbook is updated every two weeks. It was previously only updated once a year. This makes it one of the best resources on the Internet for current geographic information.

Here is some information about my country, Malaysia from the CIA World Factbook.

Do You Know 'Up' Has SO Many Meanings?

I did not realize that the word 'up' has so many ways of being used and so many meanings until I received the following e-mail recently:

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There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is UP.

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or toward the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. We use something to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers, and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP . When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

We could go on, but let's wrap it UP, for now this time is UP, so: Time to shut UP!

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Amazing, huh? Well, Dictionary.com listed up to 90+ meanings for the word 'up', and that list is definitely not exhaustive. Check it out here:

up. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved April 15,
2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/up

Now, who wants the lowdown on the word 'down'?

Do You Know How to Reduce Vehicle Fuel Consumption?

2008 has been a year of many record highs for the price of petroleum. Look at the graph below. It looks like it has only gone up and up and up!! For more details about the trend of oil prices, you can check out this article about oil price increases since 1993 at Wikipedia.org or get the latest energy statistics from the U.S. government at the Energy Information Administration website.

Anyway, if you drive a vehicle, this situation must be causing you a lot of pain. It sure is hurting me, so I decided to find some ways to reduce the fuel consumption of my vehicle. Here is a short list I compiled to share with you:

1. Check your tire pressure regularly. Apart from being dangerous, under-inflated tyres will make your engine work harder and also causes uneven tyre wear.
2. Avoid sharp acceleration and braking. You may thing you look cool when you make "jackrabbit starts" and speed off at the traffic light, but it's sure gonna cost you more fuel! Abrupt and hard braking also wastes fuel, not to mention increasing tyre wear.
3. Don't be idle. Do not start your car unless you mean to drive it. If you're waiting for someone for more than 5 minutes, turn the car off. As long as the engine is running, fuel is getting burned!
4. Don't bother warming up your car. Most cars today do not need to be warmed up anymore. It's a waste of fuel. The best way to warm up your car's engine is to drive it gently. It will reach it's normal operating temperature very soon that way.
5. Lighten your car. Do not store stuff in your car. The extra weight just makes it burn more fuel.
6. Watch that speed limit! Driving at 80 km/h uses up to 15% less fuel than driving at 110 km/h.
7. Use your air-conditioning wisely. Try to park your car in the shade when it's hot so that your air-conditioner doesn't need to work so hard to cool your car. And if you're in the cool mountain tops, turn it off! The harder you work your air-conditioner, the more fuel you'll burn.
8. Plan your driving trips. Stop and go traffic will definitely cause more fuel to be used. So, avoid roads with lots of traffic lights. Also, avoid the rush hour if you can.
9. Drive a hybrid car. Hybrid cars are powered by both electricity and fuel. If you drive at sensible speeds, this car should be able to reduce the amount of fuel that you'll need to pump.
10. Car pool. Not only will you get a companion to talk to, you can share the fuel costs as well as reduce fuel emissions.

That's the only 10 that I can think of. If you have any other tips on how to reduce vehicle fuel consumption, please do not hesitate to share it with us.

Do You Know How to Blog?

Ok, first things first - what is a blog? The term "blog" was actually derived from two words - "web" and "log". Put those two words together and you get "weblog", or blog in short! Bloggers (these are people who write blogs, in case you didn't know!!) usually create blogs to share experiences and information with their readers. The blog posts are usually created in a reverse-chronological order, much like a diary or journal. This blog post here at ProBlogger can probably give you a better insight into what a blog really is.

So, how can you create a blog? Nowadays, publishing blogs can be as simple as pushing a button! Blogger.com and Wordpress.com are two good places to start. Both these websites will allow you to create your own blog(s) for free! Generally, all you'll need to do is:

1. Register an account with them.
2. Using that account, choose a name and URL for your blog.
3. Choose a template and setup the layout for your blog.
4. Go nuts blogging!

The following are a couple of links to good articles from website/blogs that provide hints and tips for new bloggers:

• ProBlogger - Blogging Tips for Beginners
  
• PCStats - Beginner's Guide: How to Blog/Weblog
  
• Blogger Help
• Mahalo - How to Setup a Blog for Beginners
• WikiBooks - Weblogs: An Introduction
• Robin Good - How to Blog: A Beginner's Blog Publishing Guide
  

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.