Page 62 - Best of the Month

An Arabic scholar theorized evolution and natural selection 1000 years before Darwin!

Most of the world knows Charles Darwin as the father of the theory of evolution. There was, however, someone who thought about it long before him. Al-Jahiz was an Arabic scholar. He was born in Basra in 776 and later, frequently traveled to Samarra and Baghdad to study literary and scientific works.

After extensive work with animals, Al-Jahiz put forward a theory on biological evolution. He recognized the environmental effects on animal life and also the way species changed under different factors.

Al-Jahiz also identified natural selection, or the evolution of a species according to which members actually survive to reproduce. Sounds like he would have given Darwin a run for his money.

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Mannequins are being equipped with cameras to study shopping habits!

Sounds like something out of Minority Report or 1984, but it's true. An Italian company called Almax SpA is selling a new type of mannequin called the EyeSee. It costs about $5000.

The EyeSee looks ordinary on the outside. However, inside one of it's eyes, there is a camera and software that can detect your age, gender and race. The data is being used to change store displays and sales.

The EyeSee is making retailers change their strategies. For example, using data from the EyeSee, a store realized that men who shopped in the first two days of a sale spent more than women. As a result, they've changed their displays to better suit men in the first days of a sale.

What do you think? Clever marketing idea or creepy invasion of privacy? Let us know in the comments.

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The first Native to make contact with the pilgrims spoke to them in English!

The pilgrims had been studying for a few months, some of which were stationed at a settlement known as Plymouth. The pilgrims were under the belief that the Native Americans, or rather 'Indians' as they were so wrongly named for so many years, were a savage tribe - because they assumed that they were unintelligent people because of their culture.

Well, Samoset, the first Native American to make contact with the pilgrims shocked them entirely by speaking in English! It was broken English, albeit, but he was able to communicate with the pilgrims from what he learned listening to the fishermen in a near by region. He knew people by their names, how to ask for food, and he later went on to describe the land to the pilgrims!

This detailed description of the land would not only include landmarks, but where Native Settlements were, and how many people were staying in that Settlement!

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Mexican Drug cartels have their own private cell phone network!

In 2011, the Mexican military broke up several secret telecommunications networks that were built and controlled by drug cartels so they could coordinate drug shipments, monitor their rivals and orchestrate attacks on the security forces. A network that was dismantled just last week provided cartel members with cellphone and radio communications across four northeastern states.

The network had coverage along almost 500 miles of the Texas border and extended nearly another 500 miles into Mexico's interior. Soldiers seized 167 antennas, more than 150 repeaters and thousands of cellphones and radios that operated on the system. Some of the remote antennas and relay stations were powered with solar panels. The system allowed organized criminals to communicate throughout all of northeast Mexico. It is thought to be from the Zetas cartel.

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The 1st woman to break the sound barrier was American. She borrowed a Canadian plane because the US wouldn't lend her one!

Jacqueline Cochran was considered one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation. She helped form the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps and Women Airforce Service Pilots. In 1952, when she was 47 years old, she decided she wanted to challenge the current speed record held by a woman.

However, she tried to borrow a F-86 from the U.S. Air Force, they would not let her. So she went to the Canadians. The Canadian Minister of Defense arranged for her to borrow a Sabre 3. Canadair also sent a 16-person team to California to help with the attempt.

On May 18, 1943 Cochran set a new 100 km. Speed record at 1,050.15 km/hr. During her time flying in California, she exceeded 1270 km/hr and became the first woman to break the sound barrier.

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