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Monday, April 30, 2007
How To Insult Someone Using British Sign Language
A handy tutorial on how to insult somebody using British sign language. Also, how to flirt, swear and how to make sexual references in British sign language. [via]
Blind Pilot Flies From London To Sydney
A British pilot has become the first blind aviator to make the 13,500-mile trip from London to Sydney in a microlight.
Miles Hilton-Barber, who uses a specially adapted craft, ended the last stage of his trip with sighted co-pilot Richard Meredith-Hardy.
He said: "I wasn't frightened but having said that, we were in some life-threatening situations.
"We flew through a tropical storm. It was like flying through a waterfall.
"We also flew through a snow storm. My flying suit was covered in lumps of ice." Link
Video: Wobbly Truck
Judging by the stopped car and the crash barriers, there must be something wrong with that corner.
Two Herons Fly Into A Plane's Engine
This is the moment that a plane came close to disaster when two herons flew into one of the engines.
The pilot sent out a May Day call minutes after the Thomson Fly Boeing 757 took off from Manchester Airport at 9.15am, on its way to Arrecife, Lanzarote, and was forced to make an emergency landing.
The birds had become caught in the starboard engine, causing flames to fly out the back.
A Manchester Airport spokesman emphasised that the engine itself did not catch fire, but the debris had burnt and given off smoke.
"The aircraft's engines are designed to cope with bird strikes but because this case involved two very large birds being sucked in at once there were problems."
The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
Fascinating images of weird deep sea creatures taken from a new book called The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss.
The Penny Mini
This penny covered Mini was created as part of a promotion for the launch of The Beatle's Penny Lane single in 1967. It is covered in 14,000 pennies and is one of least two. It was put on auction at Bonham's today and had an estimate of £6,000-£8,000.
London Recreated In Food
A variant form of street theatre, Eat London has been created by international food artist Alicia Rios and architect Barbara Ortiz.
The project involves scaling down a map of the city centre from Hyde Park to Tower Bridge and Oxford Street to Elephant and Castle, complete with major buildings and landmarks.
Gingerbread was used for the roads, red peppers for the buses and Westminster Abbey was represented by chapatis stuffed with rice and okra.
The project was displayed in Trafalgar Square on the weekend and visitors were invited to eat it on a first-come first-served basis. Link. [via]
You Couldn't Bake It Up
A baker has been ordered to rename her novelty pig tarts - because they don't contain any pork.
She has also been told her popular Paradise Slice has to be reclassified as it does not come from paradise and because her robin tarts do not contain the red-breasted birds, they must also be renamed.
She must now rename them all “novelty cakes” in case customers are “confused”. Link
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Video: Gigantic Bacon Cheeseburger
That's one big bacon cheeseburger.
Posters
I wonder how old the poster at the bottom is?
The Sea Organ
The Sea Organ in Zadar, Croatia, is the world’s first pipe organ that is played by the sea. Carved in the stone quayside, the movement of the sea pushes air through, and – depending on the size and velocity of the wave – musical chords are played. The waves create random harmonic sounds. Along with more pictures, this site has a sound file of the organ in action and it sounds surprisingly good.
Video: Promotional Windows 95 Video Starring Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston star in a cheesy promotional video for Windows 95. [via]
Baby Crying Contest
Babies, held by amateur sumo wrestlers, cry loudly during a baby-crying contest at Sensoji temple in Tokyo April 28, 2007. Eighty-four babies born in 2006 took part in the event, which is held to pray for the babies' health and growth. The winner of the contest is the baby who cries the loudest. More pics here.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
The World's Slowest Police Car
They're not going to catch many joyriders on that thing. [via]
Friday, April 27, 2007
Video: Tiniest Tired Kitten
As a blog owner, it's my duty to post cat related items from time to time, so here's a very cute video of a kitten.
SF Gate Uses Photoshopped Images
Whilst look at the pictures associated with an article in SF Gate about living in a 96 sq/ft house I noticed that either the person who the house belongs to likes buying two copies of books or has been doing a little Photoshopping image enhancement using Adobe® Photoshop® software. If you look at the picture above you will notice that in two different locations of the house there are exactly the same books on the shelves but in reverse order. Here are the originals.
Video: Motorbike Crash
Take a ride on a motorbike as it crashes into a car. [via]
Video: Who Can Tow A Plane Faster? An Elephant Or Midgets?
The age old question of who can pull a plane quicker, an elephant or a bunch of midgets has finally been answered.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Extreme Cycling
I wouldn't walk along that path let along do wheelies along it! [via]
Video: Rare Borneo Rhino Caught On Camera
The Borneo rhino is one of the most rarest species on Earth with maybe as few as 25 left in the wild and until last year hadn't been caught on camera. A video camera installed by the WWF has now recorded one moving through the Borneo jungle. One of the biggest threats to the species is both disturbance to their habitat and poaching but another problem is that due to their lack of numbers, they may not come across other rhinos in order to mate. [via]
Very Messy Room
I bet they haven't seen their carpet in years! [via]
Video: PC Dominoes
86 PCs in a row! [via]
Drew Barrymore World’s Most Beautiful Woman
According to People magazine, Drew Barrymore is the world’s most beautiful woman of 2007. Readers of AWV will probably know that I have a soft spot for Drew so I agree with People's choice. The readers of FHM don't share the same opinion. In their annual 100 Sexiest Women in the World list, readers have voted Jessica Alba as the the top totty for this year.
In an interview with People, Drew said...
"I just think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period," she tells the magazine. "Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness."
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Typesetter
Typesetter is a great tool for web designers. The feature-packed tool allows you to compare three different fonts and allows you to either compare standard fonts or fonts that are installed on your system. [via]
BMW Designed 787 VIP Business Jet
It'll never fly but this BMW designed Boeing 787 is easily the ultimate aeroplane.
It was unveiled at the Hamburg Aircraft Interior Expo 2007 and Boeing had approached BMW to design a plane for an affluent Russian client in his mid-thirties.
BMW says it designed it's interior to "cater for an owner who spends a significant amount of time travelling across the globe and needs an aircraft that can function as a second home with luxuries providing “for the enjoyment of life”." [via]
Fast Food Oil To Be Converted Into Fuel
A company in West Wales wants to build a factory that will convert oil from fast food restaurants such as Burger King and McDonald's into bio-diesel and electricity.
Robert Behan, chief executive of Agri-Energy, a subsidiary of Irish Food Processors, said it wanted to meet with anyone who had concerns to try to allay their fears
"It effectively involves the conversion of environmentally sustainable feed stocks such as tallow and used cooking oil, along with virgin oil crops such as rapeseed, into bio-diesel and power," he explained.
"We source directly from restaurants and various partners that we have in our meat processing division such as McDonalds and Burger King," he added.
He said the used cooking oil would be refined before arriving at Milford where it would be used to fuel the 35 mega-watt power plant, which would produce enough energy to power the equivalent of 60,000 homes.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Drunk Man Parks Horse In German Bank
A photo released by police shows a horse standing next to a sleeping man in the foyer of a bank in the east German village of Wiesenburg. The drunken man tried to rest with his horse in the bank's entrance, when passers-by called the police who could convince the man and horse to leave the bank. Link
Postcards From 1900 Depict The World In 2000
A few days ago I posted a link to an article from 1900 that tried to predict what life in the year 2000 would be like. Here are some postcards from around the same period that depict what a German chocolate manufacturer thinks how the world will be in the year 2000. Sadly we can't move our houses on trains, control the weather or move around on 'slidewalks'. [via]
The Power Behind LucasFilm Magic
The BBC takes a look inside Industrial Light & Magic's mammoth Letterman Digital Arts Center, in San Francisco. Interesting facts from the article include...
# A capactiy of 11.38 terabits per second
# All servers are called Death Stars and have an imperial logo silk screened onto them
# Currently there are 250 terabytes of storage
# 10 terabytes of data is generated each day
# The data centre uses 2.4 megawatts of power
Video: Nazi Robot Attack
This animation is featuring a Nazi robot in WWII is of better quality than some Hollywood movies and I bet it didn't cost $350m to make. [Thanks Russ]
Underwater Post Offices and Mailboxes Around the World
I didn't realise that there are 5 underwater post offices and mailboxes around the world. The island of Vanuatu created the first underwater post office and there are others in Japan, Malaysia, St Thomas and the Bahamas.
Fat Porsche
This very fat Porsche Carrera looks like something 'Mr Soft' would drive. [via]
24 Hours Of Flickr
On 5/5/07, Flickr wants to capture what happens around the world in a day. To join in, simply submit your best images from the day to the 24 Hours Of Flickr group. The best images will then be published in a book and used at Flickr events over the summer.
