A Welsh View

Video: It's A Pity Nobody Listened

7 Billion People and You: What's Your Number?

According to this tool on the BBC, I was the 4,320,991,763rd person to be born.

How Big Was The World's Population When You Were Born?

If you were born after 1951, enter your date of birth into this tool from the Guardian to see how big the world's population was when you were born.

Video: Shotgun Survival Story

Video: How Does A Slinky Fall?

How does a slinky fall when extended by its own weight and then released?

Video: The Difference Between he United Kingdom, Great Britain and England

C. G. P. Gre, an American living in London, has created an excellent video explaining the difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England.

If States Were Countries

Interesting Economist infographic showing how the GDP of the 50 US states compare to other countries.

UNDERCITY: A guerrilla exploration of NYC

UNDERCITY from Andrew Wonder on Vimeo.

An interesting 27 minute tour of underground NYC. You can read more about the documentary on the NYTimes and NPR. [via]

Walls of Fat Removed From London's Sewers

Enough fat to fill nine double-decker buses is being removed from sewers under London's Leicester Square.

A team of "flushers" equipped with full breathing apparatus has been drafted in with shovels to dig out an estimated 1,000 tonnes of putrid fat. It is claimed to be the largest-ever sewer clean-up of its kind.

If you look at the photo you'll notice the lack of facial protection. When I've watch programmes about cleaning London's sewers, the workers, most of whom seem to love their jobs, say that there's no point wearing any protection as the smell still gets through. [via]

US Policitical System Infographic

The Mayor of Missassauga

Every city needs a mayor likes this ol' lady. [via]

Video: 306-Degree Video Of The Streets of Haiti

Click the image to view the video shot by CNN on January 18th.

Video: Liberia: West Point, The Worst Slum in the World?

Some NSFW content.

How Did They Make Zeppelins?

With the aid of some very long ladders. [via]

Oddly Specific Signs

"Oddly Specific - the strangely particular website about particularly exacting signs."

Video: Miss Muslim Moral Beauty Pageant

The Saudi equivalent of a beauty contest.

How To Hide An Aeroplane Factory

How do you hide an aeroplane factory? These photos show you how.

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.