Inventors & Inventions

Jenga

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Jenga is a game of physical and mental skill, marketed

by Hasbro, in which players remove blocks from a tower

and put them on top. The word Jenga is derived from

kujenga, the Swahili verb "to build".

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The game in its current form was invented in 1974 by

Leslie Scott. It was initially called 'Takaradi Bricks'.

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Leslie Scott brought the game to England in the 1980s

and calling it 'Jenga', she started selling the game and

took out copyright on the rules.

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Jenga was first manufactured in the US by Milton

Bradley (now part of Hasbro) in 1987.

Toaster

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Toasting bread began as a method of prolonging the life of bread. It was very common

activity in Roman times. 'Tostum' is the Latin word for scorching or burning.

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The first electric toaster was invented in 1893 in Great Britain by Crompton and Co

(UK). It only toasted one side of the bread at a time and it required a person to stand by

and turn it off manually when the toast looked done.

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Charles Strite invented the modern timer, pop-up toaster in 1919.

Sliced Bread

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Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the bread slicer in 1912.

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In 1928, he designed a machine that sliced and wrapped the bread to prevent the sliced

bread from going stale.

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Pre-sliced bread was popularized by Wonder Bread in 1930.

Sandwich

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John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718 -1792) was the originator of the name

sandwich. John Montagu loved to eat beef between slices of toast.

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Eating his "sandwich" allowed the Earl to have one hand free for card playing.

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The Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands were named after him by Capt. James Cook.

 

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Peanut Butter

Dr. John Harvey Kelloggs' patent for the "Process of

Preparing Nut Meal" in 1895 described "a pasty adhesive

substance that is for convenience of distinction termed nut

butter." He developed this as a protein source for his vegetarian

patients.

Tootsie Rolls

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Tootsie Rolls are chewy chocolate-flavoured candies

manufactured by Chicago, Illinois based Tootsie Roll

Industries since 1896.

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In 1896 its founder Leo Hirshfield came to the United States

and started his candy business in a small shop in New York

City.

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He named the candy after his daughter's nickname, Tootsie.

Condensed soup

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The Campbell's company developed condensed soup in 1897. In 1900 Campbell's soups

won the Gold Medallion for excellence at the Paris Exposition. This medallion has been

featured on its labels ever since.

Triscuit

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Triscuit is a brand of Nabisco snack crackers which take the form of square baked whole

wheat wafers. It was invented in 1900, a patent was granted in 1902, and the Shredded

Wheat Company, in Niagara Falls, New York began production the next year.

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Henry D. Perky of Nebraska is credited with the invention of Triscuit.

Hollywood

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Harvey Henderson Wilcox (1832-1891) owned a ranch to the west of

the city of Los Angeles, which his wife Daeida named their ranch

Hollywood, and where the center of the American cinema industry

developed in the early 1900s.

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Hobart Johnstone Whitley, also known as H.J. Whitley (1847–

1931), also nicknamed "The Father of Hollywood," named and developed the area today

known as Hollywood, California.

 

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News in Brief-India

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Noted Hindustani classical vocalist Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (87) was presented with

Bharat Ratna, country's highest civilian award, at his residence in Pune. The award

comprises a certificate signed by the President of India and a medallion.

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The Bharat Ratna award, announced after a gap of seven years, was last given to

playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan. Bhimsen is

the sixth person from the field of art and culture to get Bharat Ratna after Satyajit Ray,

M.S. Subbulakshmi, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Lata Mangeshkar and Ustad Bismillah

Khan.

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Prashant Prakash and Kalki Koechlin are the winners of the MetroPlus Playwright

Award 2009 for their co-authored entry 'Skeleton Woman.' Instituted by The Hindu for

the best original, unpublished and unperformed English script, the Award carries a prize

of Rs. 1 lakh.

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Dada Saheb Phalke award winner and music maestro Bhupen Hazarika unveiled his

life-size statue installed by the All-Assam Students' Union (AASU) on the banks of the

Dighaliphukuhuri in Guwahati.

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Nikkitasha Marhawa, an Indian-American from Chicago, has won the 18th Miss India

Worldwide crown in Durban, South Africa.

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President Pratibha Patil inaugurated The Global Vipassana Pagoda, the largest stone

dome in the world built without supporting pillars in Mumbai.

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The armed forces on conducted the largest-ever amphibious exercise "Exercise Tropex

2009" on the Madhavpur beach in Gujarat in February.

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Prime minister, Manmohan Singh, was said to be making a speedy recovery after

undergoing heart-bypass surgery. Congress party said he would still lead it into a general

election due by May.

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Media personality and NDTV head Prannoy Roy has been selected for the Thoppil

Gopalakrishnan memorial award instituted by the Thiruvananthapuram based Media

Trust for excellence in journalism. The award, instituted in memory of Thoppil

Gopalakrishnan, former editor of the Malayalam daily Janayugam, carries Rs. 25,000

and a citation.

 

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Parvathi Menon of The Hindu and Sebastian D'souza of Mumbai Mirror have been

chosen for Special Jury awards at the Thoppil Gopalakrishnan memorial awards. They

will be presented Rs. 15,000 each and citations.

􀂙
Prabuddha Bharat, the journal started by Swami Vivekananda, entered its 114th year

recently. Published without interruption since 1896, it is the oldest of its kind in the

subcontinent.

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Veteran journalist and chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, R.K. Mishra,

who was a key player in India's Track-II diplomacy, passed away at the age of 76. He

was associated with publications such as Hindi dailies Navbharat Times and Lokamaya,

English dailies Patriot and Business and Political Observer.

􀂙
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, leading economist Jagdish Bhagwati, diplomat Kishore

Mahbubani, technocrat Sam Pitroda and industrialist L.N. Mittal are among the 20

prominent persons who have accepted the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

to be members of his Global Advisory Council.

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Manmohan Singh's Global Advisory Council is based on the idea that the highly

skilled overseas Indian community represents a vast untapped resource that can be

harnessed as an input into national development processes in India. The council will be

chaired by the Prime Minister.

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January 24 was observed as the National Girl Child Day by the Ministry of Women

and Child Development to create awareness of issues related to girls.

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The University of Cambridge has announced the Manmohan Singh Undergraduate

Scholarship Programme–a new scholarship programme for Indian students in honour of

the Indian Prime Minister.

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Danseuse Sitara Devi and music composer Bhupen Hazarika have been declared by the

National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama as 'Akademi Ratnas.'

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The Sangeet Natak Akademi has elected pioneer of Bengali theatre Khaled Choudhry

and well-known vocalist of the Kirana Gharana style R.C. Mehta as 'Akademi fellows',

an honour restricted to 30 living personalities at any given point of time.

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The Union government has launched 'Project Snow Leopard' for strengthening wildlife

conservation in the Himalayan high altitudes, covering Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal

Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

 

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Radha Vinod Raju has taken over as the first Director-General of the National

Investigation Agency (NIA).

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Indian photographer Dayanita Singh was awarded the Prince Claus award by the

Netherlands Ambassador recently. She had been named one of the three Prince Claus

laureates for personalities working in the fields of photography and film this year and

received €25,000 as a part of the award.

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The government has banned import of toys from China for six months to protect the

domestic industry from cheap imports and dumping.

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The Delhi High Court has struck down the ban on smoking scenes in films and

carrying of news items displaying cigarettes and other tobacco products by newspapers.

The court said that the ban was beyond the purview of the anti-smoking Act and against

the mandate of Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution.

􀂙
Defence Minister A.K. Antony performed the duties of the Prime Minister during the

Republic Day and functions associated with the occasion as

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recuperated from his

surgery.

􀂙
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev was the Chief

Guest at the parade on the occasion of Republic Day on

January 26 in New Delhi.

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Dehra Dun-based NGO, Rural Litigation and Entitlement

Kendra (RLEK), has won the SKOCH Challengers'

Award-2009 for excellence in the field of education.

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The Union Government has decided to roll back one per cent of the profit from major

projects for development and welfare of the project area so that the locals also benefit

from it.

􀂙
K.C. Verma, the Internal Security Adviser to Home Minister P. Chidambaram, will be

the next chief of country's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing

(RAW).

􀂙
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested an Indian Police Service (IPS)

officer Shajji Mohan, Deputy Director of Enforcement in Kochi, for possession of 12 kg

of heroin.

 

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According to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, when Shajji Mohan was Zonal

Director of Narcotics Control Bureau in Chandigarh, he had seized a huge consignment of

drugs but manipulated the quantity to show a lesser amount had been seized.

􀂙
Chandrayaan II will be launched on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle

(GSLV) as opposed to the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) used to launch

Chandrayaan I, informed Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Indian Space Research

Organisation (ISRO).

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Price Waterhouse has suspended two of its partners — S. Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas

Talluri — who worked on the accounts of the scam-hit Satyam Computer Services.

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The Union government has decided to revise the cost of a dwelling unit provided under

the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) under the

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to Rs.1 lakh from Rs.80,000.

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Lakshmi Vijayakumar, founder of suicide prevention centre Sneha, was conferred the

"Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists" (FRCPsych) by the Royal

College of Psychiatrists, United Kingdom recently.

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Danny Boyle, director of "Slumdog Millionaire," has said that profits from the film

would be ploughed back into the Mumbai slums where it was made.

􀂙
Telugu actress Vijayasanthi merged her Talli

Telangana Party with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

􀂙
Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has been

honoured with the World Economic Forum's Crystal

Award in Davos for his contribution to the world of

cinema along with another Indian artist — Mallika

Sarabhai — a Kuchipudi and Bharatnatyam danseuse.

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The Union government has asked all mobile operators

to snap connections of subscribers who are using

cellphones without the 'international mobile equipment identity' (IMEI) number, a

unique 14-digit number assigned to each handset that helps in tracking its user.

􀂙
Shilpa Shetty, who hit the limelight after winning the popular UK show Big Brother,

turned entrepreneur when she launched her own company S2 Global Productions that is

producing films and has launched Shetty's own perfume — S2 — and her DVD on yoga

and fitness.

 

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The Union government is setting up generic drug stores under the brand name 'Jan

Aushadhi Generic Drug Store' (JADS) in all districts across the country to provide

quality medicines at affordable prices. The Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the

aegis of the Chemical and Fertiliser Ministry, has been entrusted with the task of setting

up the stores.

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Dr Anil Kakodkar, ISRO chairman G. Madhavan

Nair, social activists Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and

Shankar Singh, IIM-Calcutta Director Shekhar

Chaudhari and Shiv Sena MP Bhavna Gavali were

honoured with the Bharat Asmita National Awards,

instituted by the MIT Group of Institutions.

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The Union government has issued orders placing officers

of the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and their equivalents

in the other two Services. Lt. Colonels will now be

upgraded to the pay bracket of Rs. 37,400-67,000 (PB-4) with a grade pay of Rs. 8,000

from the earlier scale of Rs. 15,600-39,100 (PB-3) with a grade pay of Rs. 7,600.

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Tulsi, known for its medicinal qualities, will now help protect the Taj Mahal from

environmental pollution. The Uttar Pradesh Forest Department and the Lucknowbased

Organic India will plant a million tulsi saplings near the marble mausoleum.

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The Governor of West Bengal, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, laid the foundation stone for the

Currency and Coins Museum at the Old Mint Complex, declared a prime heritage

structure by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

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The Indian Navy commissioned INS Shikra, its first helicopter base in the country, in

south Mumbai recently. The base, commissioned by chief of naval staff Admiral

Sureesh Mehta, operates the Sea King, Kamov-28, Kamov-31 and Chetak helicopters

and also provides air traffic control to civil and military helicopters operating in the south

Mumbai region.

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CPI (M)'s Lok Sabha member from Kannur, AP Abdullakutty, was suspended by his

party for praising Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's development model.

􀂙
Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty and the Dubai-based businessman Raj Kundra have

picked up a 12% stake worth over $11.6 million in the Rajasthan Royals–the winner of

the inaugural 2008 season of the Indian Premier League.