A Welsh View

Video: The FIrst Video To Be Uploaded To YouTube

It's not very interesting, but this was the first video to be uploaded to YouTube when it was launched back in 2005.

The Baby Cage

The Telegraph has posted some old photos of London including this 'baby cage' that attaches to the side of a house to allow babies to get some fresh air and sunshine. Unsurprisingly, it didn't get past the idea stage.

10 Best Prison Breaks

The 10 Best Prison Breaks starting with John Gerard who escaped from the Tower of London in 1597 despite having mangled hands from being tortured. Perhaps Ranulf Flambard, the Bishop of Durham should have been listed instead. He was the first state prisoner in the Tower in 1100 and also the first person to escape.

40 Useful and Creative Infographics

Six Revisions has a collection of 40 useful and very creative infographics.

Who Have You Outlived?

At 30 years and 178 days old, I've outlived Patsy Cline by 1 day and Emperor Nero by 2 days. See who you have outlived. [via]

Scottish Police Issue New Guide On How To Be Politically Correct

Police officers in Scotland have been given a "diversity handbook" that instructs them on how to be politically correct. According to the guide, officers must not:-

• Move people's walking sticks
• Finish a stutterer's sentence
• Ask a disfigured person 'what happened?'

Officers are also reminded that it's perfectly legal for a bloke to dress as a chick providing his todger is not showing. [via]

Video: Very Old Iranian Windmill

A very different type of windmill compared to what you would find in the UK or the Netherlands.

The Decline Of Strange Names In Britain

An article about a study of the decline of odd/funny British names in the UK.

A study found the number of people with the name Cock shrank to 785 last year from 3,211 in 1881, those called Balls fell to 1,299 from 2,904 and the number of Deaths were reduced to 605 from 1,133.

People named Smellie decreased by 70 percent, Dafts by 51 percent, Gotobeds by 42 percent, Shufflebottoms by 40 percent, and Cockshotts by 34 percent, said Richard Webber, visiting professor of geography at King's College, London.

The 15 Strangest College Courses In America

Sign me up for Simpsons and Philosophy and Far Side Entomology.

Kim Jong Il At The Candy Factory

Photo: REUTERS/KCNA

In this undated photo, the illusive, sometimes dead, sometime not, Kim Jong Il tours a bubble gum factory. As photos of him are rarely released it's an odd choice.

Reuters has a great summary of the things he has achieved in his lifetime including getting 11 holes-in-one the first time he ever played golf, making pear and apricot trees mysteriously and spontaneously come into bloom across the country when he took control of the country and learning to become a crack fighter even though he avoids travelling on airplanes for his rare trips overseas.

Photo via

Video: A Day in the Life of Abbey Road

Look out for the guy dropping his trousers at 1:34. [via]

Twitter Chatter During the Super Bowl

An interactive map showing the location and frequency of commonly used words in Super Bowl related tweets.

I've never been able to get into Twitter. I guess I haven't got anything interesting to say. And what's strange is that over the past week or so, quite a few people have started following me even though I don't post anything.

An Interview With Issei Sagawa, Cannibal

Viceland has an interview with Issey Sagawa, the Japanese cannibal 'who got away with it'. Here's an excerpt:-

The first thing I did was cut into her buttock. No matter how deep I cut, all I saw was the fat beneath the skin. It looked like corn, and it took awhile to actually reach the red meat. The moment I saw the meat, I tore a chunk off with my fingers and threw it into my mouth. It was truly a historical moment for me. That said, it wasn’t like I was lusting over the fact that I was cutting up her dead body, so it’s difficult for me to revisit the incident and talk about it, even now...

The United Statements of America

Strange Maps has posted a map of the United States showing the motto of each State. They've also gone into detail for most of the mottos describing the history and meaning of it. [via]

Virtual Tour of Air Force One

Take a look inside Air Force One with this virtual tour from the National Geographic.

You Know It's Cold When...

[via]

The 13 Most Famous Numbers And Their Stories

The stories of 13 famous numbers including Graham's Number - the biggest number ever used in a mathematic proof. [via]

The Science Of Shopping

The Economist has published an interesting article about how supermarkets analyse its customers and the ways in which they try to make you buy more goods. And if you think the CCTV cameras are there to just catch thieves, think again.

Technology is making the process of monitoring shopper behaviour easier—which is why the security cameras in a store may be doing a lot more than simply watching out for theft. Rajeev Sharma, of Pennsylvania State University, founded a company called VideoMining to automate the process. It uses image-recognition software to scan the pictures from security cameras of shoppers while they are making their selections. It is capable of looking at the actions of hundreds of thousands of people. It can measure how many went straight to one brand, the number that dithered and those that compared several, at the same time as sorting shoppers by age, gender and ethnicity.

Here's a video of the system in action.

95-Year-Old Christmas Recording

The Daily Mail has posted a recording of a family celebrating Christmas together during the First World War. It is the first time that they have been heard in nearly a century.

Eight phonograph cyclinders, made of beeswax and soap, feature the Smith family from Salisbury in Wiltshire singing carols and dicussing 'daddy being away at war.'

The recording was found by Russell Barnes who also found other recordings that were made between 1913 and 1917.

It's interesting to learn that children were getting bikes for Christmas almost 100 years ago.

Some Things About Traffic That May Surprise You

Some interesting facts about traffic from the book Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt.

Google Zeitgeist 2008

Google has released it's annual Zeitgeist sorted by 35 countries and then sorted by categories such as politics, sports and showbiz.

Atlas of True Names

The Atlas of True Names reveals the etymological roots, or original meanings, of the familiar terms on today's maps of the World and Europe.

The 'True Names' of 1500 cities, countries, rivers, oceans and mountain ranges are displayed on these two fascinating maps - Europe and the Wolrd

Using the map above, I'm located just down the road from the Dark Water Fort in the Land of Strangers, a principality in the Great Land of the Tattooed. That sounds so much better than Newport, Wales, UK.

The 'True Names' site has information on how to purchase the maps and also have large images of the Great Land of the Tattooed (Britain) and the United States of the Home Ruler (US). Spiegel also has images from other regions of the world. [via]

Why Time Stands Still for Watchmakers

You've probably noticed that when watch and clock manufacturers advertise their products they set them to 10:10. This appears to make the watch 'happier' and also with some watches frames the manufacturer's name.

But did you know that Timex has an official time, 10:09:36, at which every watch — even digital models — is photographed for marketing purposes? They even ship many watches turned off at 10:09:36, so that all watches have the same time in store windows.

You can read more in this NY Times article which also discusses why the time on the iPhone in adverts is always 9:42am. [via]

Rockets Help Build Bridge Higher Than Empire State Building

Deputy Dog has posted some photos showing the construction of a bridge in China which, when completed, will be the world's highest. It's so high that the Empire State Building can fit underneath it with 360ft to spare!

One problem that engineers have faced during the construction of the bridge is how to get the 3,200ft long cables across the giant gorge. After considering different options, they settled for firing them across using rockets. There are photos, but unfortunately no video, over on the Deputy Dog site.

Four Philosophical Questions To Make Your Brain Hurt

To celebrate World Philosophy Day, here are four philosophical questions to make your brain hurt.

2008 Election Maps

Jason Kottke has compiled a large collection of maps used by websites during the US elections from the techie to the simplistic.

How Astronauts Vote From Space

Since 1997, US astronauts have been able to cast a vote during an election whilst not on the planet. This is how they do it:-

The process of voting from space actually begins on the ground. According to the 1997 bill, astronauts in space can cast an absentee ballot from their spacecraft with the help of the County Clerk of Harris and Brazoria counties, which contain Houston and its surrounding area.

The County Clerk's office prepares a secure electronic ballot that is then relayed to the International Space Station via NASA's Mission Control room at the Johnson Space Center. Meanwhile, the Clerk's Office sends a separate e-mail to the astronaut with login information to access the ballot and vote.

The completed ballot is then beamed back to Mission Control and sent back to the County Clerk's office to be tallied.

[via]

Video: Inside An Amazon Warehouse

The BBC has posted a short video showing operations Amazon's fourth UK warehouse in Swansea, Wales. As someone who makes the most of his Amazon Prime membership, it was interesting to see how orders are received and picked.

327 Mobile Phones, 53 Shoes, 10 Items of Underwear and a False Leg

That's what was found underneath a rollercoaster in the UK. They were all found underneath the corkscrew in Alton Towers. It was the first time in 28 years that the area surrounding the roller coaster has been cleared.

Britain's Oldest Toy Found Buried with Stonehenge Baby?

This may look a common or garden rock but it could be Britain's oldest toy.Archaeologists from the University of Bristol found it close to Stonehenge last month in the grave of a young child. The rock is believed to be around 2,000 years old and bares a resemblance to a pig. Link [via]

How To Ride A London Bus

A handy 1950's guide to riding a London bus - a time when people were kindlier. [via]

The House That Survived Hurricane Ike

Apparently this photo is real. It shows a lone house that managed to survive hurricane Ike which hit the town of Gilchrist, Texas. Roughly 200 houses were destroyed by the hurricane.

The reason why the house survived was because 3 years previously, their old house was destroyed by hurricane Rita. This time around they made sure they built their house to withstand the force of hurricane by placing it on 14 foot high stilts (about 22 feet above sea level).

However, even though the house survived, the interior had been battered by the storm making it uninhabitable and destroying many belongings. Link [via]

Deletionpedia - All The Articles Wikipedia Doesn't Want

Deletionpedia - 63,552 (and growing) pages that have been deleted from Wikipedia.

10 Twisted Torture Techniques

AskMen.com's guide to 10 twisted torture techniques.

Giant Equation

Show off! [via]

Making Sense Of Statistics

The BBC has a great 6-part series on statistics and how to make sense of them. The lessons cover surveys, counting, percentages, averages, causation and how statistics are used in health.

Kim Jong Il Is Dead

At least that's what Japanese professor Toshimitsu Shigemura thinks. According to him the North Korean leader died in 2003 and has been replaced with a looklike.

In other North Korean news, scientist in the country have developed a new kind of noodle that delays feelings of hunger.

Executed Today

ExecutedToday.com is a daily chronicle of historical executions with each execution being researched in detail.

$10,000,000,000 Now $1 in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe will knock 10 zeros off the country's hyper-inflated currency next month, making 10 billion dollars one dollar.

Computers, electronic calculators and automated teller machines at banks have not been able to handle basic transactions in billions and trillions of dollars.

A $500 billion dollar bill was due to be released in circulation on Friday but I'm not sure if this announcement will change that. [via]

Biggest Guns Ever Built

Dark Roasted Blend has posted a large collection of some of the largest guns ever made.

Zimbabwe Preparing To Release $500 Billion Note

Last week I posted about Zimbabwe introducing a $100 billion note. Just a week later the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe are preparing to issue a $500 billion note which is equal to less than 4 U.S. dollars.

But due to cash shortages, Zimbabweans are finding it difficult to get hold of currency to purchase essential goods. At present people are limited to withdrawing $100 billion a day which isn't enough to buy a loaf of bread.

Zimbabwe Introduces $100 Billion Banknotes

With inflation spiralling out of control, Zimbabwe has introduced a $100 billion note (CNN has a photo of a $500 million note). $100 billion is the equivalent to one U.S. dollar and is enough to buy four oranges.

The official inflation rate is currently at official inflation rate now at 2.2 million percent although it is likely to be a lot higher.

According to Wikipedia, Hungary suffered the highest rate of hyperinflation ever recorded shortly after the Second World War. The value of the Pengő was doubling every 15 hours and in mid-1946 the 100,000,000,000,000,000,000* (100 quintillion) Pengő banknote was issued - the highest denomination banknote ever issued. a one sextillion Pengő was also printed but was never issued.

100,000,000,000,000,000,000 (100 quintillion) Pengő

By the end of July 1946 one U.S. dollar was worth 460 octillion Pengő (460 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000)! To stabilise the economy a new currency was introduced - the Forint. One Forint was worth 400 octillion Pengő.

Related: Other examples of hyperinflation.

* - This is a quintillion as defined by the US (also used by the UN). A British quintillion would be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Two Villagers Discover Their Great-Great-Great-Great-Great...

Image via The Times

Two villagers in the Söse valley of Germany have discovered their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents — give or take a generation or two.

Using DNA testing of well-preserved Bronze Age bones, Manfred Hucht-hausen, 58, a teacher, and 48-year-old surveyor Uwe Lang can claim to have the longest proven family tree in the world. Mr Lange can already trace his family name to 1550 and can now go back 120 generations.

They have also discovered that their long-lost ancestors may have grilled and eaten other members of their clan. Link

Vintage Fitness Equipment

I wouldn't be surprised if the people featured using this vintage fitness equipment actually exercised in their suits.

World's Most Worthless Money

Unsurprisingly, the Zimbabwean dollar is the most worthless and since the article was written it's even more worthless.

World Now Has 10 Million Millionaires

A new report says that the number of people around the world with at least $1 million in assets passed 10 million for the first time last year. Their total combined wealth is $41 trillion! Link

The World's Most Northerly...

Mainly located in a few countries such as Canada, Greenland and Norway, here is a selection of the world's most northerly...

Permanent settlement of any size: Alert, Nunavut, Canada.

Image via

Alert, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut Canada, is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world.

Alert was reported to have five permanent inhabitants according to 2006 census. It also has many temporary inhabitants as it hosts a military signals intelligence radio receiving facility at Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert), as well as a co-located Environment Canada weather station, a Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) atmosphere monitoring laboratory, and the Alert Airport.

Alert is located on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island, on the shore of ice-covered Lincoln Sea. Lying just 840 km (520 mi) from the North Pole, the nearest Canadian city is Iqaluit, 2,092 km (1,300 mi) away.

'Lost' LIghthouse Found Over 3,000 Miles Away

A Massachusetts lighthouse that was thought to have been taken down and destroyed in 1925 has appeared on the otherside of the USA in California.

The fate of the cast-iron tower was uncovered last year by lighthouse researchers and reported by Colleen MacNeney in this month's edition of Lighthouse Digest.

Wellfleet historian Helen Purcell says the discovery of the lighthouse at Point Montara at the southern end of San Francisco Bay was a genuine shock.

MacNeney says she discovered correspondence that proved the lighthouse, first erected in 1881, had been moved by the Coast Guard from Wellfleet to Yerba Buena, California, and eventually to Point Montara.

There is no known documentation explaining how it was moved across the country, MacNeney said.

Link

Video: Initiation With Ants

If you want to see just how painful bullet ants are, take a look at this pain index.

Africa In Perspective

At 30.3m sq/km, Africa is bigger than the USA, China, Europe, Argentina and India combined! [via]