I will confess to being a bit of a nerd when it comes to General Knowledge, facts and the like. Find me a good pub quiz and you can keep me entertained for hours. But it seems that some "well known facts" might not be completely true if you look at them from a slightly different angle.
My favourite example of this is the question of the tallest mountain on Earth? I would surmise that a significant number of people would say Mount Everest, which is indeed the mountain on which the highest point above sea level on Earth is registered (some 29,029 ft).
But did you know that if we are talking about the actual "tallest" mountain on Earth then we actually have a different answer? Mauna Kea in Hawaii has a base-to-peak height of 33,100ft, comfortably higher than Everest.
It becomes increasingly obvious as we move through life that our perception of things is greatly influenced by our position. This can mean physical position but also our social, economic, cultural and political (to name a few) positions and standpoints.
It may be a sweeping generalisation (but I'm still going to make it) to say that a significant number of problems on this planet come from a seemingly inbuilt human inability to see things from someone else's point of view. Often our bias and prejudices get in the way and make things worse for all concerned.
I'm as guilty as anyone of letting my personal perspective influence my life and my behaviour, and it is by no means a bad thing all the time. Sometimes allowing our personal position on things to dictate our thoughts and actions can lead to positive results, there is nothing wrong with a bit of passion and fire if it is channelled in the right way.
The danger becomes when we become blinkered and unable to see past our own perceptions to the detriment of others and, ultimately, ourselves. It won't solve the myriad problems of the world but it might just help a little bit if we can just challenge our own perspectives sometimes and see things in a slightly different light.
Today's #randomfactoftheday - The deepest point below sea level on earth is Challenger Deep. At 35,814ft it is deep enough that if you put Mauna Kea on the bottom, the volcano would still be submerged at is peak.
Today's #badjokeoftheday - Q: How does NASA organise their annual company party? A: They planet
Today's #websiteoftheday - It's just fun (http://www.howstuffworks.com/)
On this day: 1954, the world's first nuclear powered submarine (USS Nautilus) is launched
Till tomorrow,
DT
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