A Welsh View

Top 10 Coolest Designer Gadgets

The top 10 coolest designer gadgets including this fabulous looking glass toaster which unfortunately doesn't work.

Video: Irate Customer

An irate customer decides that the car he paid too much for is going back to the dealership...thru the door...and is going to be set on fire.

Ants use pedometers to find home

Scientists have worked out that desert ants have their own internal system that works like a pedometer to figure out how many steps they have taken whilst away from their nest. They use this information to figure out how many steps it takes to get back to their nest.

To test this, scientists trimmed the legs of some ants and added stilts to others. The ants with shorter and longer legs either travelled 50% less on their way back to their nests or travelled 50% further compared to legs with regular legs.

It is likely that the ants cannot count how many steps they have taken rather there is an automatic counter that is attached to their nervous system and gets reset on every journey.

Video: 16,000 Firecrackers

Watch 16,000 firecrackers being set off in one go. [via]

Canadian Tool Can Re-Grow Teeth Say Inventors

Canadian scientists have created a machine that can stimulate the regrowth of teeth using low-intensity pulsed ultrasoud.

"Right now, we plan to use it to fix fractured or diseased teeth, as well as asymmetric jawbones, but it may also help hockey players or children who had their tooth knocked out," Jie Chen, an engineering professor and nano-circuit design expert, told AFP.

Chen helped create the tiny ultrasound machine that gently massages gums and stimulates tooth growth from the root once inserted into a person's mouth, mounted on braces or a removable plastic crown.

The wireless device, smaller than a pea, must be activated for 20 minutes each day for four months to stimulate growth, he said.

It can also stimulate jawbone growth to fix a person's crooked smile and may eventually allow people to grow taller by stimulating bone growth. [via]

Funny Football Clips

A large collection of football players, and referees, falling over and hitting the ball at each other.

IE7 Beta 3

A new beta of IE7 has been publicly released. The new version contains bug fixes as well as a few new features. Here's a list of the main changes.

* All security updates for IE7 released through June.
* The ability to drag-and-drop reorder browser tabs in the tabbed-browsing bar.
* The reappearance of the optional read e-mail button for the customizable "Command" bar, or main toolbar.
* The Web page zoom-in scaling feature adds a horizontal scroll bar automatically.
* A global RSS feed settings dialog.
* A global RSS "refresh now" function.
* Additional work carried out since the Beta 2 release aimed at improving Web-site compatibility.

Go here to download it.

Britain's 'Value For Money' Monarchy

Analysis of Buckingham Palace accounts has revealed that the Queen and the Royal Family cost the British taxpayer £37.4m, or 62p per person, an increase of 4.2% on the previous year, or 1p per person. This is probably still way too much for some people. I think it's a reasonable cost.

Mercedes Benz Concept Car

Check out this new Mercedes Benz concept car with a bizarre 'steering wheel'. [via]

Prisoner Wakes Up With Lightbulb In His Butt

Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass lightbulb in his anus.

Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn't know the bulb was there. [via]

Boys Have Fun

Imagine finding your room in this state. [via]

South African Train Surfing

Train surfing is becoming a big phenomenon in South Africa with many young people risking their lives doing dangerous stunts.

The most dangerous is train surfing proper, standing on top and dodging bridges and high-power cables.

Then there's a trick that involves swinging out of a door as the train travels through a tunnel and running along the sides.

The mildest, and most common, move involves jumping off the train as it begins moving, and jumping back on board again.

When asked if they worried about falling off or dying, they don't seem to worry.

"Yes, I can fall, but I can phone my mom, she can take me to the doctor," [says Thabo Thedise]

"[If I die] they will cry and they will bury me. I will be a born again. You know anytime you are going to be born again. I might be a white boy."

Read more. [via]

How To Open A Bottle Of Beer The Scandinavian Way

How to open a bottle of beer using another bootle of beer. [via]

Video: Horse Crash

Two horses crash head-on at 35mph resulting in the deaths of the two horses and possibly the jockey. [via]

Insects Close-Up

Amazing macro photography of insects and frogs. [via]

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

The top 10 ways to destroy the Earth. Each way is a possibility but most are extremely unlikely to happen. The most likely way the Earth will be destroyed is to just sit back and wait an unimaginable amount of time for it to decay. [Thanks Steven]

World's Ugliest Dog Crowned

A 10-year-old Chinese Crested from Arizona with a ratty mohawk, four teeth and long tongue has been named the world's ugliest dog.

Archie the dog was once an abandoned animal scheduled for euthanasia before being rescued by Heather Peoples.

Peoples then decided to enter Archie in the Ugly Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, Calif.

She said she did not think the dog had a chance of winning. However, Archie's look quickly became a fan favorite.

Click to view video.

Dog Born With 5 Paws

A dog in Madison County, Ala., is being called a medical oddity for being born with five paws, according to a Local 6 News report.

A dog in Madison County, Ala., is being called a medical oddity for being born with five paws, according to a Local 6 News report.

Charlie's surrogate parents are hoping for surgery before he's adopted, but the surgery is going to cost at least $1,400. [via]

Video: Guy Wanted For Murder Walks Onto Live Broadcast

A man wanted for murder walks onto a live broadcast of the manhunt. The man is so calm and when asked where he had been replied, "Where have I been? I was in Jack in the Box. Getting a soda. A Sprite." [via]

Dust Art

Amazing art made from the dust on the rear windscreens of cars.

Video: George Bush Screw Ups

A short collection of some of George W. Bush's funniest moments. [via]

Snakes On A Plane Auditions

If you've seen teh Snakes On A Plane trailers you will find this amusing and if you haven't you'll probably still like the impressions. (Language NSFW)

Video: Pickle Phobia

This woman is so afraid of pickles that she falls to pieces when she sees one. And just to make sure that she's not lying, the chat show she's appearing on makes her go to a pickle factory! [via]

Frasier's Dog Eddie Dies Aged 16

Moose the dog, better known as Eddie in US sitcom Frasier, has died aged 16 in Los Angeles, his trainer has said.

Eddie appeared in 192 episodes over a period of 10 years and shared the part of Eddie with his son Enzo.

He was so loved that during the height of the show he received more fanmail than the other stars of the show.

Subway Art

Amazin perspective art in a Toronto subway station. Lots more pics here. [via]

Tree Featured On $20 Bill Falls Over

The US$20 bill will now have to be redesigned after a 140-year-old elm tree outside the White House has fallen over. [via]

Availabot

The Availabot stand ups when someone comes online and lays back down when they go offline. [via]

Optimize Your Bittorrent Download Speed

Handy tips on how to boost your BitTorrent download speed. [via]

Video: Quick Stripper

Watch how quickly this guy can take off his clothes. [via]

Video: Woman vs Pitbull

A woman gets viciously attakced by a pitbull. Luckily there is a big fat woman to save her. [via]

My New Nokia N80

Apologies for the lack of updates today but I've been playing around with my new gadget (and visiting the pub too ;o). After a waiting for a couple of months and seeing the phone become available on other networks, the Nokia N80 has finally become available on the 3 network. I managed to get a good deal on the phone (free phone plus 6 months 'less-than-half-price') so I'm glad I waited. I'll make sure that I drag myself away from the phone later on so that I can post something.

World's Most Expensive Whiskies

Forbes' guide to the world's most expensive whiskies including the £38,000 including a 60-year-old Macallan which costs £3,300 per dram!

Top 10 Strangest Japanese Gadgets and Accessories

The top 10 strangest Japanese gadgets and accessories including this ear wax cleaner that lets you look inside your ear whilst cleaning it. I think I'll give that one a miss, I don't particularly want to see what it looks like inside my ear. [via]

Video: C2C @ The 2005 DMC World DJ Championships

French DJ's C2C performing at the DMC World DJ Championships 2005. These guys are really good. [via]

Huggable Urns

Huggable Urns allow you to keep your loved ones' ashes inside a pouch in the teddy bear so that when you are feeling lonely you can snuggle up them. Freaky! [via]

KC-135 Caught Refueling C-5 Galaxy in Mid-Air in Google Earth

Someone just discovered this satellite photo of a KC-135 refueling a C-5 in flight. The plane can be seen on both Google Earth and Google Maps. I can't believe that there are people out there who actually spend time hunting down planes on Google Earth. [via]

NY Keeping Up With Welsh Joneses

The story of Welsh immigration to the United States is being told in a three-month exhibition in New York. More than 1m people are expected to visit the display, called Keeping up with the Joneses, at Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

Keeping up with the Joneses aims to tell the story of Welsh immigration from the early settlements in what is now Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

It continues through the War of Independence and the American Civil War to mass immigration through Ellis Island in New York City, ending with modern-day "settlers" such as Sir Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta Jones and Sir Tom Jones.

Hermaphrodite Dolls Puzzle Russian Children

Chinese-made dolls have appeared in Russian shops recently and have been confusing children. When you undress one of the dolls you discover something that girls aren't supposed to have. Without being able to see underneath the doll I would say they appear to be more like 'he-she dolls' rather than 'hermaphrodite dolls'. [via]

Video: Cop Uses Car As Shield

A cop uses her car as a shiled whilst being shot at. It works as she manages to shot the suspect without being shot herself. [via]

Tiny USB Drive

This has to be one of the smallest USB drives available. If it was any smaller it wouldn't fit inside a USB port. The iDisk Diamond comes in 128MB and 256MB sizes.

Video: Rubik’s Cube Solving Robot

Students at the University of Michigan have constructed a Rubik's Cube solving robot that can complete the puzzle in 54 seconds. Not quite as fast as a human. Watch the robot in action.

Ice Cream That Won't Make You Fat

Good news for ice cream lovers. Scientists are creating an ice cream that won't pile on the pounds.

Using GM technology, the blood of the ocean pout, an eel-like fish, has been used to create a protein that will cut the fat and calories in some leading brands of ice-cream.

Unilever, which owns Wall’s, Magnum, Carte D’Or and Ben & Jerry’s, has applied to the Food Standards Agency for permission to use the protein in a range of ice-creams and frozen fruit-ices. It may be 2008, however, before lovers of ice-cream can devour the food without piling on the pounds.

[via]

Lobzilla

16-year-old Louie Smith caught this giant lobster whilst fishing off a pier in Kent. The lobster weighed 11lbs 3oz and may be 100 years old. After posing for a photograph the lobster was thrown back into the sea. [via]

Mercedes SLR Factory

Take a look inside a factory producing Mercedes SLK SLR cars. [via]

Operating Systems In Action

View videos of operating systems in action. Includes Vista but has a heavy slant towards the wide variety of Linux distros. Useful for seeing one of them in action before deciding on one. [via]

10 Things You Never Knew About Mongolia

10 things you never knew about Mongolia but I'm sure you really wanted to know.

1 In one Ulaanbaatar nightclub you can dance with Stalin - at least with his statue. A 12ft-high monument of the Soviet dictator disappeared from the national library, only to appear on the dance floor four years later.

2 Mongolia, which is the size of Britain, Germany, Italy and France put together, has the lowest population density of any country in the world.

3 Foreign diplomats are banned from taking domestic flights with MIAT, the national carrier, because its planes are considered too dangerous.

4 Before taking the first sip from your glass of vodka, it is polite to dip the knuckle of your ring finger into the drink.

5 Passengers find the step up on to the public buses donated by the Japanese too high. The joke is that the donors were confused by a mistranslated document that said Mongolians had high steppes.

6 Throat singing, in which the performer is able to activate two parts of the voice box simultaneously, is popular.

7 Yak polo is becoming one of the nation's favourite sports.

8 Everyone has heard of the Gobi Desert. But "gobi" just means "desert", and Mongolians say the country has 33 kinds of gobi.

9 Roy Chapman Andrews, a maverick archaeologist who found fossilised dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert in 1933, is the model for Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

10 Mongolia is the only place where true wild horses still live.

[via]

Disabled Space Painted Around Car

A woman left her car near her house — and bungling workmen painted a “Disabled” bay around it.

Then a warden came along while the paint was still drying — and booked Shirley Hatcher for being illegally parked. - The Sun

[via]

Video: Bat-Eating Centipede

Imagine meeting one of these. This giant poisonous centipede can be found in caves in Venezuela where it hunts for bats. [via & via]

Video: George W. Bush Gets A Bear Hug

I love this expression on George W. Bush's face. The picture shows a stunned president just after Gabriel Whitney gave him a bear hug during a graduation ceremony U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. Click here for video.

Man Lived With 1,000 Rats

Petaluma animal control workers expected to find a horde of cats when they knocked on the door of a 67-year-old man whose neighbor complained of a stench. Instead, they stumbled onto a scene straight out of the movie "Willard."

About 1,000 pet rats -- ranging from 3-year-old adults to little pink newborns -- shared the one-room house with Roger Dier.

Dier kept nearly all of his small furry friends in about 20 huge cages that he lined up around the room. About 20 of his rats were running around loose, said Nancee Tavares, Petaluma Animal Services manager.

He also shared the place with seven cats. - SFGate