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Monday, March 16, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Man Builds His Own 747 Simulator
Flight enthusiast Matthew Sheil has built a 747-400 flight simulator in his Sydney warehouse that the Guinness Book of Records has called 'world's most expensive home flight simulator'. The simulator is powered by 14 different computers and requires 45 different software programs. It cost US$200,000 and allows Sheil to fly to and from 27,000 different airports around the world. [via]
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Periodic Table of Video Game Characters
I'm so out of touch with video games. There are so many that I don't recognise.
Ski Jump Toilet
Georgia Max Coffee, a Japanese coffee company, has redesigned toilets in a number of ski resorts in Japan. The cubicles have been completed covered with views from the top of a ski jump. When sat on the toilet they would get the same view as a ski jumper. [via]
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tinyarro.ws - The Shortest URLs on Earth
Using Unicode symbols, Tinyarro.ws creates probably the shortest URLs on the Internet. As an example, here's my URL www.➡.ws/鐞
Sandstorm vs Riyadh
The storm won with it reducing visibility to a few metres causing widrespread disruption. More photos here.
'Tetris HD'
The most pointless Tetris clone ever? Apparently it takes around 15 minutes to complete a single line. [via]
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
St Bernard Rescued After Tail Freezes To Pond
St Bernards have become famous for leading daring Alpine rescues but one 16-month-old dog needed rescuers of its own after its tail was frozen to the ice on a golf course pond.
Rescuers believe the dog fell through the ice on a pond at a local golf course. While the animal was able to pull itself out of the freezing water, its tail got stuck, stranding it in the middle of the pond.
Firefighters managed to get the dog free and was reported to be in good condition after being de-iced and warmed under a hair dryer at a local veterinarian's office. Link
World's Oldest Conjoined Twins
At 57, Ronnie and Donnie are the world’s oldest conjoined twins.
When they were born in 1951, doctors didn't think that they would survive the night, but they have managed to live extraordinary lives together.
The Sun has the full story and if you are in the UK you can watch a documentary about them on Channel 5 on March 18th.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Video: Take a Tour of the Body Farm
VBS.TV has a three part documentary about the Body Farm field laboratory in Knoxville, TN.
A body farm is a research facility where human decomposition after death can be scientifically studied in a variety of settings. The body farm in Knoxville has been in operation since 1981 and over 700 bodies have entered the facility (Wikipedia entry).
The creator of the body farm, William Bass, wrote a book back in 2004 which I've read and is very interesting (if you're into that kind of thing).
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Scratch Card Billboard
A new competition being run by the The Outdoor Media Association of Australia has a rather unconventional prize. the winner of the Outdoor Awards will receive a billboard containing $10,000 worth of scratchcards.
The 12 metre by 6 metre billboard is located on Parramatta Road in Sydney and is guarded 24 hours a day by security.
The organisers estimate that it will 20 days to scracth them all at a rate of 1 per minute for 8 hours a day. [via]
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
A Century of Motoring in America
Although this graphic contains a lot of American related entries, there are a lot of interesting facts such as when the first car radio went on sale and when the first car phone was installed.
Group Rope Jumping
A collection of photos showing some a group of crazy people in Russia jumping from a railway bridge at the same time.
Is This The Ugliest Cat In The World?
Is Ugly Bat Boy the world's ugliest cat? The cat is bald all over - apart from one patch of shaggy, unkempt fur around his neck. More photos.
Related: £1,000 Swarovski crystal cat flap
Monday, March 02, 2009
Monk Leaves Footprints Ingrained In Floor
These footprints belong to Hua Chi, a monk who has been praying in the same spot for almost 20 years.
In his early days he was praying 2,000 to 3,000 times a day but now can only manage 1,000 a day (or 500 in winter). Link
Extremely Rare Bird Photographed for First Time - Then Eaten
A species of bird so rare it was thought perhaps to be extinct was captured on video and still images in the Phillipines province of Nueva Vizcaya.
Unfortunately for the Worcester’s buttonquail (Turnix worcesteri), the local film crew nor the bird-trappers knew the rarity of the bird and it sold to a poultry market for 20 American cents.
The extremely rare quail is listed on the IUCN Red List of threatened species as ‘data deficient’, which means there is not enough data available to determine an animal’s conservation status. Link
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Traditional Welsh Outfits
For the benefit of those living outside of Wales, here's a photo of two girls wearing traditional Welsh outfits. At least that's they had decided to wear for St David's Day.
Roasted Baby Squid and Rolled Cuttlefish
Today I had the pleasure of trying some weird food from Hong Kong. My brother had just returned and these two delights are the first of many weird foods that I have to try.
The packet on the left contains Dried Roasted Baby Squid that's been seasoned with chilli. There's only one word for how the contents tasted - disgusting! It tasted like the sea!
The second packet contained 'Seasoned Roller Cuttlefish'. I presumed they meant rolled and like the baby squid this had been dried and seasoned with chilli. You could taste more chilli on this than on the squid and didn't taste as 'fishy'. You still wouldn't eat it though.
I have no idea how anybody could work in a factory that produces these culinary delights as the smell that they emit is so disgusting. They are currently residing in the shed until I find somebody else who's brave enough to try them.
Next to try - Octopus crisps, duck tongue, chicken feet and squid and cheese.
