10 More Reasons Why The Beatles Are The Greatest Band Ever

   11.   One may not like songs such as "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude," but they are unrivaled in their popularity, and the melodies are unforgettable.

   12.   Paul McCartney actually dreamed the tune to "Yesterday."

   13.   "Helter Skelter" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" are considered two of the first heavy metal songs.

   14.   They have 23 of the Top 500 songs of all time, again according to Rolling Stone-the most of any artist.

   15.   Their iconic No. 1 singles notwithstanding ("Love Me Do", "From Me To You", "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "I Feel Fine","Eight Days A Week", "Ticket To Ride", "Help!", "Yesterday", "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out", "Paperback Writer", "Yellow Submarine", "Eleanor Rigby", "Penny Lane", "All You Need Is Love", "Hello, Goodbye", "Lady Madonna", "Hey Jude", "Get Back", "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", "Something", "Come Together", "Let It Be", "The Long And Winding Road"), some of their best songs weren't even on any singles or B-sides: "I Should Have Known Better", "You Won't See Me", "For No One", "Across The Universe", "Two Of Us", "Dear Prudence", and "Because" are all just album filler.

   16.   They revolutionized the science of recording, using multiple tracks instead of playing live. Producer George Martin used varying tape speeds to make Lennon's voice sound high ("Tomorrow Never Knows") and slow ("Strawberry fields Forever"); he also brought in string musicians to accompany certain songs ("Yesterday"). In another session, McCartney utilized bass drums halfway down a corridor to achieve a staccato sound in "Mother Nature's Son).

   17.   In an age where other people wrote songs for the flavor of the day-think the Brill Building songwriters doing all the work for the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups- The Beatles surprised everyone by penning their own hits from the beginning. As a result, they helped usher the singer-songwriter movement that popularized the late 1960s.

   18.   Their ability to cross over from media and teen idols to musical innovators is one-of-a-kind. Their chart success and initial popularity are unparalleled; but despite their initial fame, they managed to continue to improve throughout their career.

   19.   Their place in popular culture is unrivaled-their movies, their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (in which they played to 74 million people), the "bigger than Jesus" comment, the refusal to play in concert after 1966, the Maharishi, the painstaking production work, the beginnings of the drug culture and LSD fad, "Helter Skelter" and Charles Manson, the "Paul Is Dead" phenomenon, Yoko Ono, the rooftop concert, the cover of "Abbey Road", the subsequent solo years, and the hit singles created from rough demos of the late Lennon.

   20.   They accomplished all this in just seven years.

10 Reasons The Beatles Are The Greatest Band Ever

   Every once in  awhile, I meet someone who just doesn't get The Beatles, or who doesn't even like them.
   I try to keep an open mind about this, since there are some groups that I simply don't get, either. Bob Dylan? Sure. His voice itself can turn some people away. But The Beatles? Come on!
20 accomplishments, achievements and innovations that may change your mind:

   1.   During the week of April 4 1964, The Beatles occupied the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (12 in the 100), the top 2 positions on the albums chart, the no. 1 position in the British singles chart, the first two positions in the British albums chart and the no. 1 position in the British EP chart,-the most complete domination of the British and American charts in history. Today, you're lucky to have one top 10 album and single at the same time.

   2.   To date, The Beatles have sold over 1billion records. That's billion, with a B.

   3.   They have the most no. 1 albums in the British album charts (15), and 17 no. 1 hits.

   4.   They hold the record for the group with the longest span between no. 1 albums in the Billboard albums chart (39 years and 51 weeks, 1964 to 2001). In 2000-20 years after John Lennon was killed and 30 years after they broke up, their second major greatest hits compilation, 1, spent eight weeks at no.1 and sold 13 million copies in it's first month of release.

   5.   They boast 20 no. 1 hits in the United States, (19 no. 1 albums), with 24 consecutive Top 10 hits from 1964 to 1976 (six years after they broke up), a record for a group. They also have 12 no. 1 hits in Germany, 23 in Australia, 21 in the Netherlands, 22 in Canada, 13 in Malaysia.

   6.   According to the United World Chart, The Beatles have 16 of the 100 most successful tracks of all time, and also seven of the 100 most successful albums in history.

   7.   The Beatles recorded four of the Top 10 Greatest Albums of All Time, according to Rolling Stone magazine, and three of the Top Five. (I'll ignore the fact that Abbey Road was only no. 14).

   8.   They were ground-breaking pioneers almost from the beginning, being the first group ever to employ feedback in 1964's "I Feel Fine." One of their hits, "A Hard Day's Night," features an opening chord so revolutionary that people are still trying to figure out. 1965's Rubber Soul and the follow-up, Revolver, saw more innovation, from the use of a sitar in "Norwegian Wood" to tape loops in "Tomorrow Never Knows." Then there are the backwards vocals in "Rain" (a first) and a Moog synthesizer on several songs on 1969's  Abbey Road.

   9.   Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band is arguably the greatest album ever made (indeed, it topped Rolling Stone's list). While it doesn't have the strongest material, the album was a landmark in recording. It popularized the concept album-something that would serve as inspiration to the Who and Pink Floyd.
 
   10.   "A Day In The Life" from Sgt. Pepper may have been the crowning achievement of the group-a five and a half minute song composed of two suites-one by Lennon, one by McCartney-that are totally different in song and texture, yet complement each other perfectly. The song features two cacophonous crescendos from an orchestra, the final one climaxing in a single E major chord that lasts 42 seconds.

LSD Has Been Used Successfully In Psychiatric Therapy

   Given the demonization of the psychedelic drug LSD, it may seem inconceivable that mainstream psychiatrists were giving it to patients during sessions. Yet for at least 20 years, that's exactly what happened.
   Created in 1938, LSD was first suggested as a tool in psychotherapy in 1949. The following year saw the studies in medical/psychiatric journals. By 1970, hundreds of articles on the uses of LSD in therapy had appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Journal of Psychology, the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Quarterly Journal of Studies of Alcoholism, many non-English-language journals, and elsewhere.
   Psychiatric and psychotherapeutic conferences had segments devoted to LSD, and two professional organizations were formed for this specialty, one in Europe and the other in North America. International symposia were held in Princeton, London, Amsterdam, and other locations. From 1950 to 1965, LSD was given in conjunction with therapy to an estimated 40,000 people worldwide.
   In his definitive book on the subject, LSD Psychotherapy, transpersonal psychotherapist Stanislav Grof, MD, explains what makes LSD such a good aid to headshrinking:
...LSD and other psychedelics function more or less nonspecific catalysts and amplifiers of the psyche... in the dosages used in human experimentation, the classical psychedelics, such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline, do not have any specific pharmacological effects. They increase the energetic niveau in the psyche and the body which leads to manifestation of otherwise latent psychological processes.
   The content and nature of the experiences that these substances induce are thus not artificial products of their pharmacological interaction with the brain ("toxic psychoses"), but authentic expressions of the psyche revealing its functioning on levels not ordinarily available for observation and study. A person a who has taken LSD does not have an "LSD experience," but takes a journey into deep recesses of his or her own psyche.
   When used as a tool during full-scale therapy, Grof says, "the potential of LSD seems to be extraordinary and unique. The ability of LSD to deepen, intensify and accelerate the psychotherapeutic process is incomparably greater than that of any other drug used as an adjunct to psychotherapy, with the exception perhaps of some other members of the psychedelic group."
   Due to bad trips experienced by casual users, not to mention anti-drug hysteria in general, LSD was outlawed in the US in 1970. The Drug Enforcement Agency declares: "Scientific study of LSD ceased circa 1980 as research funding declined."
   What the DEA fails to mention is that medical and psychiatric research is currently happening, albeit quietly. Few researchers have the resources and patience to jump through the umpteen hoops required to test psychedelics on people, but a few using LSD, ecstasy, DMT, ketamine, peyote, and other such substances are happening in North America and Europe. Universities engaged in this research include Harvard, Duke, Johns Hopkins, University College London, and the University of Zurich.
   We're presently in the dark ages of such research, but at least the light hasn't gone out entirely.
  

The Auschwitz Tattoo Was Originally An IBM Code Number

   The tattooed numbers on the forearms of people held and killed in Nazi concentration camps have become a chilling symbol of hatred. Victims were stamped with the indelible number in a dehumanizing effort to keep track of them like widgets in the supply chain.
   These numbers weren't chosen at random. They were part of a coded system , with each number tracked as the unlucky person who bore it was moved through the system.
   Edwin Black made headlines in 2001 when his painstakingly researched book, IBM and the jackbooted takeover of Europe. Worse, he showed that the top levels of the company either knew or willfully turned a blind eye.
   A year and a half after that book gave Big Blue a black eye, the author made more startling discoveries. IBM equipment was on-site at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Furthermore:
Thanks to the discoveries, researchers can now trace how Hollerith numbers assigned to inmates evolved into the horrific tattooed numbers so symbolic of the Nazi era. (Herman Hollerith was the German American who first automated US census information in the late 19th century and founded the company that became IBM. Hollerith's name became synonymous with the machines and the Nazi "departments" that operated them.) In one case, records show, a timber merchant from Bendzin, Poland, arrived at Auschwitz in August 1943 and was assigned a characteristic five-digit IBM Hollerith number, 44673. The number was part of a custom punch-card system devised by IBM to track prisoners in all Nazi concentration camps, including the slave labor at Auschwitz. Later in the summer of 1943, the Polish timber merchant's same five-digit Hollerith number, 44673, was tattooed on his forearm. Eventually during the summer of 1943, all non-Germans at Auschwitz were similarly tattooed.
   The Hollerith numbering system was soon scrapped at Auschwitz because so many inmates died. Eventually, the Nazis developed their own haphazard system.

Do We Really Use Only 10 Percent Of Our Brains?

   Psychologists in the early twentieth century commented that humans use only 10 percent of their brains, Albert Einstein also indicated that humans use only a small portion of the brain. It's a theory that has been propounded in television documentaries, magazines, advertisements and books over the past century. Psychics have also latched on to it as a possible explanation for paranormal behavior, attributing unusual incidents to the workings of the unused portion of the brain. They profess that 90 percent of the brain consists of untapped potential that is capable of remarkable feats.
   Nearly all scientists now agree that the theory that we use only 10 percent of our total brain function is completely unfounded. In fact, they question how this figure was arrived at in the first place and what areas of the brain are supposed to be redundant. The theory supposes that if 90 percent of the brain were removed, a person would still be able to function normally, whereas in reality it is known that damage to even a small area of the brain can result in physical devastation.
   In addition, most significant disorders of the brain involve only a small and very specific area of the brain. If the 10 percent argument was true, it's unlikely that so many problems would persistently occur in that area. And if we use only 10 percent of our nerves and neurons in the brain, how would this be measured? Indeed, imaging of the brain in scans shows that all parts of the brain are used for different activities and that many areas of the brain are used for some complex activities or thought processes. Throughout the course of one day, most areas of the brain are active at some time, even during sleep. The 10 percent theory suggests that a discrete area of the brain is not used, whereas scans reveal activity throughout the entire brain and not in any isolated segment. The final nail in the 10 percent theory is the fact that neurosurgeons carefully map the brain before removing tumors so that they don't compromise other essential areas. In fact, there is absolutely no evidence to support the 10 percent theory.

Is Suicide Illegal?

   The word "suicide" is a Latin-derived word meaning "to kill oneself" and refers to the act of intentionally ending one's life. In order to be considered suicide, the death must be the main reason for the act and not simply a consequence. For this reason, so-called suicide bombers and kamikaze pilots are not technically committing suicide.
   Attitudes toward suicide vary from culture to culture and religion to religion. Many philosophers in ancient Greece and ancient Rome considered it honorable to kill oneself in certain circumstances, while Islamic law is a sin.
   Western civilization has traditionally looked unfavorably upon suicide, and for many years it was a crime in many jurisdictions. In England, by the tenth century it was considered a crime, and by the seventeenth century anyone who committed suicide forfeited his or her personal property. It wasn't until 1961 that suicide and attempted suicide were decriminalized in England, while in Ireland suicide was decriminalized as late as 1993. Strangely, when suicide was still considered a crime, it was considered punishable by death.
   As of 1963, six states in the U.S. still considered attempted suicide a crime, but by the 1990s this number was reduced to two states and today suicide is legal everywhere in the U.S. For this reason, the word "commit" is often avoided in connection with suicide, as it implies that the act is a crime.
   While the act of suicide isn't a crime, it can have negative consequences. Most insurance companies, for instance, won't pay out to the beneficiary of a person holding a life-insurance policy who has committed suicide. In addition, many jurisdictions still consider assisting someone in the act-such as a medical professional performing euthanasia-as a criminal offense. Euthanasia consequently remains a hotly debated topic.

Strange Species & Hump Day

   A Geep is a cross between a goat and a sheep.
   The only purple animal is the South African Blesbok.
   The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
   There have been more than fifteen hundred documented sightings of Bigfoot since 1958.
   Thr largest known egg ever laid by a creature was that of the extinct Aepyornis of Madagascar. The egg was nine and a half inches long.
   The pichiciego is a little-known burrowing South American animal that is related to the armadillo but is smaller in size. The ending of the animal's name is derived from the Spanish word ciego, meaning "blind."
   Unrelated to the chicken, the male cock-of-the-rock bird earned the name "cock" because of its roosterlike appearance and combative behavior . The female of the species influenced the word rock being added to the name because of her habit of nesting and rearing the young in sheltered rock niches.

   The world camel population is approximately twenty million.
   The longest recorded life span of a camel was thirty-five years, five months.
   A camel's backbone is just as straight as a horse's.
   Camel's milk does not curdle.
   Camels have three eyelids to protect their eyes from blowing sand.
   Traveling at a rate of two to three miles per hour, camels can carry five hundred to one thousand pounds on their backs. They are able to keep up this pace for six or seven hours a day. Camels will refuse to carry loads that are not properly balanced.
   There are fewer than one thousand Bactrian camels left in the wild. They have survived in a land with no water in an area used for nuclear testing. Their numbers, however, are falling dramatically as humans encroach farther and farther into China's Gobi Desert.
   The fur of the vicuna, a small member of the camel family that lives in the Andes Mountains of Peru, is so fine that each hair is less than two-thousandths of an inch thick. The animal was considered sacred by the Incas, and only royalty could wear its fleece.