A Welsh View

Video: What's The Melody?

Someone in this song (you don't have to listen for long) is a very well known melody. Can you identify it? Here's a clue. [via]

How China Gets Its Troops To Stand To Attention

Image via The Daily Mail

In preparation for the Olympics in China, officers of the People Paramilitary Police are drilled on the parade ground with pins in their collars and crosses on their backs to ensure perfect posture.

Image via The Daily Mail

[via]

How To Protect The World's Longest Desert Road From Being Buried

Fogonazos has posted some photos showing the Tarim Desert Highway in China (view Google map). The total length of the highway is 552km with approximately 446km of the highway cross uninhabited areas covered by shifting sand dunes.

Built in 1995 to move oil from the Tarim Basin, China's largest inland basin, the highway has been lined with a 60-metre-wide tree belt along the route provided with a massive irrigation system which pump water for the vegetation.

The aim of the tree belt is to prevent the sand from covering the highway. It is maintained by workers who living in blue houses every 4km. Between them they plant 2 million rose willows, sacsaoul and buckthorn. It's a very lonely job that requires workers to live in the houses for at least 2 years.

There is more information as well as more photos here.

Worldometers - Real-Time World Statistics

Worldometers has a ton of statistics updated in real time. Stats cover world population, the environment, food and water and the number of spam emails sent today. [via]

Vint Cerf On The Internet

Vint Cerf, creator of the Internet, talks to Esquire about the Internet (and other things). He 'was disappointed that pornography got to the Net', was annoyed when he first saw spam in '79 and 'won't go on a safari in a three-piece suit'.

Video: Last Flight From Da Nang

"This CBS report was in March 1975. Edward J.Daly,owner of World Airways, sent a Boeing 727 aircraft to Da Nang Vietnam to pick up stranded woman and children. Instead the aircraft was swamped by military personnel climbing on the aircraft. There were 260 people aboard a plane which is designed to carry 105. The plane was overloaded by 20,000 pounds. The baggage compartments were loaded with people. Some of the problems during the flight included, the rear stairway remained partially extended for the entire flight, the main wheels would not retract, a hand grenade damage to one of the wings causing fuel loss, and the lower cargo doors were open. The plane had to fly at 10,000 feet because of lack of pressurization thus fuel consumption was three times greater than normal."

[via]

Greenland's Giant Waterfall

Back in July 2006, Greenland had its own waterfall that flowed at three times the volume of Niagara. The waterfall occurred as the result of a glacier lake suddenly emptying into the sea.

The lake covered 2.2 square miles near the western edge of the ice sheet and took about 24 hours to drain.

During the most rapid 90 minutes, water was flowing out of the lake at 2.3 million gallons per second, according to researchers led by Sarah Das of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass.

Under international convention, the minimum flow of Niagara Falls in summer is about 750,000 gallons per second.

Link

Video: Trapped

A timelapse video of a man who got stuck in an elevator for 41 hours. [via]

Odds Of Dying

Judging by some of the entries on the diagram this is probably American but I'm sure most of the odds still apply around the world. [via]

Royal Mint Unveils New British Coins

New coin designs are not normally something I'd post about but these new designs from the Royal Mint bring a change to coins that have remained largely unchanged since 1968.

The new design by 26-year-old graphic designer was chosen from 4,000 entries in a competition that the Royal Mint started in August 2005. The design is both radical and clever and splits the Royal Arms across six of the coins with the full coat of arms being displayed on the £1 coin.

Personally I don't like the new design. It's clever but each coin, apart from the £1 coin, looks strange with just a segment of the coat of arms. Also, as Wales was not part of the Royal Arms, it's not represented on any of the coins (even though the designer was from Wales).

The Guardian has more about the designer's other ideas and contains many comments from people who don't care that Wales is not represented on the coins.

Interactive Mad Magazine Fold-Ins

I've only ever come across Mad Magazine, and in particular the Fold-Ins, in The Simpsons (episode: Marge in Chains). The New York Times has a selection of 15 of them that you can fold using your mouse.

Moonwalk Map

A map showing Buzz Aldrin's and Neil Armstrong's moonwalk. [via]

Bow And Arrow Battles In Kenya

You would be forgiven for thinking that this photo is a scene from a movie. It's actually a photo from Kenya where battles involving bows and arrows are a daily occurrence. This forum has a ton of photos and here's a related news story. [via]

Internet Country Codes Map

A map from Strange Maps that has been recreated from the 245 ccTLDs (country code top-level domains) that cover every country and territory in the world. [via]

A Collection Of Bizarre British Contests

There are hundreds of bizarre and wacky around the world and rather than trying to list them all, here's a selection of the strange contests that take part in Britain. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

How It's Made

How well do you know how things are made? Take the quiz.

Nike Logo Cost Just $35

A useless piece of information - the Nike 'Swoosh' logo cost just $35 (equivalent to $184 today #).

It was designed by graphic design student Carolyn Davidson in 1971 and for her services she charged $35 at a rate of $2/hour.

Phil Knight, the company's co-founder, repaid her in 1982 with a gold Swoosh ring and an unknown amount of Nike stock.

Video: Can Two Interwoven Phone Books Be Separated?

I've never heard of this experiment before. [via]

Building Demolished In Reverse

On a post about how to stack building blocks, BLDGBLOG posted this very cool photo of the P&O Building in London being demolished in reverse. According to the Daily Mail (where the photo is from), it is possible to demolish it that way because each floor is hung from a huge beam at the top of the tower and supported by the central core.

Queen Reaches Oldest Monarch Mark

The Queen has become the oldest British monarch after she overtook Queen Victoria, her great-great grandmother, at 1700 GMT.

Queen Victoria, who was born on 24 May 1819, lived for 81 years, seven months and 29 days.

The Queen still has a way to go before becoming the longest reigning British monarch. She will claim that record on 9 September 2015, when she would have been on the throne for almost 64 years. Providing she lives that long of course. Link

Related: The Onion News Network: "England Celebrates 5 Decades of Queen Elizabeth Waving" [via]

Transit Map of the World’s Transit Systems

This interesting map showing cities around the world with urban rail systems is from Strange Maps blog (click on the image above for more info about the map). The site has tons more weird maps.

Amazing and Record-Setting City Roads and Streets

Record-setting streets and roads including the steepest, oldest, widest, longest, crookedest, craziest and (above) narrowest.

Cemetery Houses More Warm Bodies Than Cold Corpses

An interesting article from Vice magazine about 10,000 Filipino families living in a graveyard in Manila. [via]

The World`s 10 Most Famous Uncracked Codes

10 famous uncracked codes including Kryptos, a sculpture installed at the CIA in Langley, Virgina that has been unsolved since it was installed in 1990.

Since its dedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation about the meaning of the encrypted messages it bears. It continues to provide a diversion for employees of the CIA and other cryptanalysts attempting to decrypt the messages. The ciphertext on one half of the main sculpture contains 869 characters in total, however Sanborn released information in April of 2006 stating that an intended letter on the main half of Kryptos was missing. This would bring the total number of characters to 870 on the main portion. The other half of the sculpture comprises a Vigenère encryption tableau, comprised of 869 characters, if spaces are counted.

Video: Fan Breaks Off On Jet Engine

What happens when a fan breaks off on a jet engine.

Old Michigan Jail

Take a tour around a derelict jail in Michigan, USA. The jail still contains evidence and mugshots along with weapons, bullets, knives and evidence panties!

The Worst Job In The World?

"Rakesh sits in a low crouch at the bottom of a seven-foot-deep manhole, sloshing away in a swirl of human waste and sediment. Equipped with a hoe and a steel bar, and wearing only a pair of loose purple underpants, Rakesh (who uses only one name) empties the thick black sludge from a clogged sewer into a bucket that his fellow crew members hoist up and dump in the middle of a narrow road."

Does he have the worst job in the world? Read more.

What If Everybody In The US Flushed The Toilet At The Same Time?

Today is World Toilet Day and How Stuff Works answers the question - 'what if everybody in the United States flushed the toilet at the same time?'

Sixty Facts About A Royal Marriage

To celebrate the Queen's 60th wedding anniversary, the BBC has compiled 60 facts about her marriage.

25 Methods for Killing With Your Bare Hands

Don't try these at home.

The Village People - Who Is Straight, Who Is Gay?

Find out who in the Village People is gay and who is straight. [via]

12 Products From Hell

12 'products from hell'. Well 10. There's nothing wrong with Mr Brain's Faggots and Spotted Dick.

Brainscannr - Free Brain Scans For Everyone

Brainscannr is an odd site that I don't fully understand. You type in your name and it constructs a brain from symbols such as smiley faces. When I type my name in I get a head full of happy smiley faces. The site does appear to be case sensitive. When I type my name all in lowercase I get drastically different results.

After having a go yourself, try typing george bush/george w bush and adolf hitler.

I found Brainscannr on Japan Probe which gave this explanation of the site.

Ken Y-N of What Japan Thinks has just launched the website BrainScannr.com, which translates the wildly popular Japanese nounai me-ka website, using smileys to represent brain contents instead of kanji.

How Does It Feel To Die?

New Scientist analyses what it feels like to die. Is it best to drown, bleed to death or fall from a height?

What Does 40,000lbs Of Cocaine Look Like?

Chinese Superstition

A '25 floor' Chinese building. I didn't realise that the Chinese had so many unlucky numbers. [via]

The Cost Of The Iraq War

Apparently, the Iraq war is costing the US $500,000 a minute or $720 million a day which is enough to "buy homes for 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children".

:-) Turns 25

Tomorrow, the smiley face emoticon turns 25. Carnegie Mellon professor Scott E. Fahlman was the first to use the :-) in a computer message on an online electronic bulletin board

Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on September 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.

"I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)," wrote Fahlman. "Read it sideways."

The suggestion gave computer users a way to convey humor or positive feelings with a smile -- or the opposite sentiments by reversing the parenthesis to form a frown.

Carnegie Mellon said Fahlman's smileys spread from its campus to other universities, then businesses and eventually around the world as the Internet gained popularity.

List Of Artificial Objects On The Moon

Wikipedia's list of artificial objects that can be found on the moon.

World's Top 10 Most Polluted Places

Scientific American lists the 10 most polluted places in the world.

Who Has Oil And Who Uses It

Click the image for a larger version.

Posh Norwegian Prison

This Norwegian prison looks very cushy (except for the dodgy looking phone boxes). I wonder if prisons like this help reduce crime rates in Norway or encourage people to commit crime so that they can get a better life in prison.

Why Superheroes Always Win

A physicist has studied Marvel comics and discovered a social network that looks almost like a real social network. At the centre are the heroes whilst the villains are banished to the edges of the network.

Physicist Pablo Gleiser of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studied the social web within the fictional universe of Marvel comics, comprising 6486 characters in 12,942 issues. Taking two characters to be linked if they appeared in the same issue, he found a superficially realistic social network. A small fraction of characters - notably the superheroes themselves - had far more links than most others, acting as key social hubs. "The Marvel universe looks almost like a real social network," says Gleiser.

Link

Gypsy Funeral

According to this site, the picture above shows a gypsy funeral in which it appears the person is buried with their entire bedroom. [via]

What's Special About This Number?

Facts about thousands of numbers.

Video: Crane 'Building Itself'

So that's how they build those tall cranes.

Ten Friday the 13th Facts and Theories

10 facts and theories about Friday 13th.

Disney Rejection Letter

A Disney rejection letter from 1938 in which it states that "women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing cartoons for the screen". Instead that work is performed by young men. The letter originates from somebody's grandmother who applied for a job at the studio. She eventually became an animator during WWII for the war effort.

Boing Boing has more information.

Petrol Prices Around The World

Another post from the great travel blog, Gadling. This chart shows petrol (gas) prices around the world and show just how much we have to pay here in the UK to fill our cars.

Prisons Of The World

The largest, smallest, most secure and most bizarre prisons in the world.