INTERESTING TRIVIA

QUESTION: Did you ever wonder why dimes, quarters and half dollars have notches, while pennies and nickels do not?
ANSWER: The US Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals. Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren't notched because the metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave.

QUESTION: Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes have buttons on the left?
ANSWER: When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid's right. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push the left. And that's where women's buttons have remained since.

QUESTION: Why do X's at the end of a letter signify kisses?
ANSWER: In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.

QUESTION: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called "passing the buck"?
ANSWER: In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal did not wish to assume the responsibility; he would "pass the buck" to the next player.

QUESTION: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?
ANSWER: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would then just touch or clink the host's glass with his own.

QUESTION: Why are people in the public eye said to be "in the limelight"?
ANSWER: Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and stage lighting by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theater, performers on stage "in the limelight" were seen by the audience to be the center of attention.

QUESTION: Why do ships and aircraft in trouble use "mayday" as their call for help?
ANSWER: This comes from the French word m'aidez -meaning "help me" -- and is pronounced "mayday,"

QUESTION: Why is someone who is feeling great "on cloud nine"?
ANSWER: Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.

QUESTION: Why are Zero scores in tennis called "love"?
ANSWER: In France, where tennis first became popular, a big, round zero on a scoreboard looked like an egg and was called "l'oeuf," which is French for "egg." When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans pronounced it "love."

QUESTION: Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs?
ANSWER: Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of a dense, orange clay called "pygg". When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became known as "pygg banks." When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a bank that resembled a pig. And it caught on.

INDIA'S FIRST FAB!!!!!!!!!!!

FAB City in Hyderabad, says Maran

IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that the semiconductor fabrication facility, FAB City, would come up at Hyderabad with an upfront investment of about $3 billion.

Indicating that Karnataka and Tamil Nadu lost out to Andhra Pradesh in bagging the country's first chip-manufacturing facility, Maran told reporters here the proposed FAB City, to be located in 1,200 acres, would generate about 1.5 million jobs by 2015.

"The Andhra Pradesh government had come forward to provide subsidy, land, power, water and even accommodation in Hyderabad to key officials of the project's promoters, US-based SemIndia Inc and Advance Micro Devices (AMD)," Maran said.

The US-based SemIndia is a consortium of NRI entrepreneurs, technocrats and angel investors.

Top Karnataka officials, who were involved in negotiating with SemIndia and AMD to locate the FAB City at Nanjungud near Mysore, declined to confirm whether the project had slipped out of the state.

"We have not heard from the promoters yet. We are not in a position to comment unless they (promoters) inform us about their decision to locate the project in Karnataka or elsewhere," a top official of the state commerce and industry department told IANS.

SemIndia CEO Vinod Agarwal was also not available to comment since he was travelling.

Following its decision to set up a FAB facility in India in partnership with AMD, SemIndia officials made a reconnaissance trip in December to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for a suitable location for the multibillion dollar project, which will be the first of its kind in the subcontinent.

Of the $3-billion proposed investment, $1.5 billion will be debt, raised against capital equipment and the balance ($1.5 billion) will be invested by SemiIndia founders, partners like AMD, strategic customers, venture capitalists, state and central governments.

The proposed FAB facility will have a capacity to produce about 30,000 wafers a month. Each wafer will consist of 100-1,000 chips. It can also produce a range of wafer chips.

The FAB is projected to generate about 5,000 direct/indirect jobs in the next two-three years. FAB City, in turn, will create hundreds of thousands of jobs over a period of time when chip-design centres, processing and ancillary units are set up in clusters.

The market size of the semiconductor industry is about $250 billion annually and has been growing at around seven percent per annum over the years. (IANS)