The Ultimate Dream House

Waterproof mirror TV

At first sight our new idea may not look so revolutionary. It’s a simple mirror, slim profile, choice of frame, the sort of thing which would look good anywhere. But then you hit the remote control. Behind that perfect mirror is a Hitachi plasma screen, as well as a range of 20-46” LCD panels with in-built tuners and a range of external connectors. So it can give you a pin sharp picture from TV, satellite, cable, DVD, and AV system or PC. Sound can come from integrated stereo speakers or pre-amplified connectors to external sound. Everything you’d expect from the very best wall-mounted thin screen TV. Except when you switch it off it’s a mirror again!


Revolving cupboard kitchen

The “CleverKitchen” offers intelligent kitchen comfort compressed into the smallest space but with a storage capacity equivalent to 12 cupboards and a bench top length of approx. 3000 mm, equipped with refrigerator, dishwasher, ceramic hob, oven with microwave, range hood, sink and waste bin as a conventional kitchen.


Holographic TV

The Holoscreen is a revolutionary holographic film which displays any image fed through a projector at a specific angle on to a transparent display. All other light is ignored. The result is a remarkably bright and sharp image quality - even in brightly lit environments. The screen is a 1.5m x 1.0m rectangle of 10mm glass with a 610mm x 814mm sheet of translucent attached to it. Any type of projector can be used to cast the image. To complete the futuristic setup, a pair of optional Ferguson Hill FH001 speakers can be positioned either side of the screen.


Self adjusting bed

This futuristic bed has sensors that detect a user’s weight and shape. The mattress then adjusts accordingly, pushing up on certain body parts, to ensure the user’s body is flat—for ideal sleeping conditions. it can even be set to wake you up in the morning by gently vibrating you awake and can even push you out of bed after a certain amount of snooze pushes!

Computer controlled whirlpool bath

Imagine having a bath controlled by your computer…well now it is possible! This “whirlpool bath” has a built in TV with 7″ display, 16:9 standard screen, FM radio, CT type control panel and Multimedia interface controlled by a Dual CPU control system. The whirlpool itself is powered by a 2 HP low noise water pump (less than 50db) and 4 turbo & 8 mini hydro massage jets. The onboard computer can “listen” to the music you are playing or the film you are watching and change the built in Chromatherapy lighting and whirlpool settings accordingly!


Picture Frame Speakers.

Artcoustic loudspeakers employ high-quality Scandinavian speaker drivers, hand-built crossovers, and low-resonance cabinet material as well as flat speaker wire that is so thin it disappears when taped to the wall and painted Unlike other so-called “flat” speakers, they are true dynamic loudspeakers, delivering the full range and high output levels associated with studio-quality loudspeakers.

The innovative DF-MULTI deserves special focus. It is a long, narrow speaker designed to mount on the wall beneath a flat-screen plasma TV. It contains all three front-channel speakers for a home theater: left, center, and right. (It can also be used strictly as a center channel, matched with other Artcoustic speakers to the left and right of the plasma TV.)


Finger print reader door lock

Imagine securing your home with the latest in technology and at the same time eliminating the headache of shared or lost keys. Now you can with the F006 Biometric Door Lock. The F005 fingerprint door lock runs exclusively on battery power it can be operated for up to a year without changing the batteries. Fingerprint enrollment is quick and easy. Up to 30 users can be enrolled directly on the fingerprint lock at the door.

Key cutting is a thing of the past with this new system. In rented accommodation you can enable or disable up to 30 different users, making it impossible for a previous tenant to gain access to the property with a key.

Robot Lawn Mower

The mowbot is the ultimate mower to be introduced for 2008. Now Completely weatherproof and with a docking station system for true automation. Simply select the day and times you want the lawn mowed and the RL1000 will do it automatically for you, day after day and week after week, truly the most efficient way to keep your lawn maintained. The RL1000 still includes manual trim mowing and the ability to drive it anywhere and even use it in other smaller areas without the docking station.


Sauna Shower House

This 1700×1200x2150mm Shower room also doubles up as a sauna, with built in TV, telephone, Radio/CD player and Digitally controlled control center. The ultimate pimp bathroom accessory!

The sauna components are all imported specially from Finland to create the finest wood sauna room money can buy. Relax in your sauna and then walk straight into your shower to cool off. Luxury!




Smart refrigerator

This refrigerator by LG Electronics has a built-in computer and barcode scanner keeps track of your grocery needs by working out the expiry date of every item. It can also keep track of your average purchases and suggest a weekly shopping list for you and will even automatically e-mail you when you’re out of milk! Additional shopping list ideas can be downloaded from the internet and suggested to you based on the type of food you like to eat.


Lava Stone hob

The latest innovation is cooking with an Induction unit - directly upon the worktop - no cut-outs or dirt traps just a continuous working & cooking surface. Any magnetic pot or pan is placed within the cooking ring. The induction unit senses the pan & reaches temperature rapidly at the twist of a dial. The heat passes through the stone to the pan giving absolute control to boil, fry or simmer sauces. Its un-believable, its magical & its unique.

Color of Tires

The first car tires were white! One tire manufacturer wanted his tires to look more distinguished than other tires. He asked the Peekskill Chemical Company in Peekskill, New York, to see what they could do to make a tire that was a silver gray color.

Joseph Binney had founded the Peekskill Chemical Company in 1864 and specialized in producing black and red colors and paints. The red he created was used on barns all across the American countryside and was made with the same red iron oxide that the cavemen had used to make their red paint.

The Peekskill chemists succeeded in creating a darker color for the tire manufacturer. More importantly, they discovered that by adding carbon black as an ingredient to the rubber they not only got a darker tire, but one that lasted four to five times longer than white ones!

And from there you know how this story ends, except for one little detail. The Peekskill Chemical Company later became known as Binney & Smith, the makers of Crayola Crayons!

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

An old, tired-looking dog wandered into the yard. I could tell from his collar (though no tags) and well-fed belly and clean that he had a home.

He followed me into the house, down the hall, and promptly fell asleep on the couch.

My dogs didn't seem to mind him. He seemed like a good dog and I was OK with him, so I let him nap. An hour later he ambled to the door and I let him out.

The next day he was back, resumed his position on the couch, and slept for an hour.

This continued for days. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: "Every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap. I don't mind but want to be sure it's OK with you."

The next day he arrived with a different note pinned to his collar.

"He lives in a home with six children -- all boys. I'm sure he's just trying to catch up on his sleep. May I come with him tomorrow?"

Facts of Human World

• The women of the Tiwi tribe in the South Pacific are married at birth.
• When Albert Einstein died, his final words died with him. The nurse at his side didn't understand German.
• St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was not Irish.
• The lance ceased to be an official battle weapon in the British Army in 1927.
• St. John was the only one of the 12 Apostles to die a natural death.
• Many sailors used to wear gold earrings so that they could afford a proper burial when they died.
• Some very Orthodox Jew refuse to speak Hebrew, believing it to be a language reserved only for the Prophets.
• A South African monkey was once awarded a medal and promoted to the rank of corporal during World War I.
• Born 4 January 1838, General Tom Thumb's growth slowed at the age of 6 months, at 5 years he was signed to the circus by P.T. Barnum, and at adulthood reached a height of only 1 metre.
• Because they had no proper rubbish disposal system, the streets of ancient Mesopotamia became literally knee-deep in rubbish.
• The Toltecs, Seventh-century native Mexicans, went into battle with wooden swords so as not to kill their enemies.
• China banned the pigtail in 1911 as it was seen as a symbol of feudalism.
• The Amayra guides of Bolivia are said to be able to keep pace with a trotting horse for a distance of 100 kilometres.
• Sliced bread was patented by a jeweller, Otto Rohwedder, in 1928. He had been working on it for 16 years, having started in 1912.
• Before it was stopped by the British, it was the not uncommon for women in some areas of India to choose to be burnt alive on their husband's funeral pyre.
• Ivan the terrible claimed to have 'deflowered thousands of virgins and butchered a similar number of resulting offspring'.
• Before the Second World War, it was considered a sacrilege to even touch an Emperor of Japan.
• An American aircraft in Vietnam shot itself down with one of its own missiles.
• The Anglo-Saxons believed Friday to be such an unlucky day that they ritually slaughtered any child unfortunate enough to be born on that day.
• During the eighteenth century, laws had to be brought in to curb the seemingly insatiable appetite for gin amongst the poor. Their annual intake was as much as five million gallons.
• Ancient drinkers warded off the devil by clinking their cups
• The Nobel Prize resulted form a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence - he invented dynamite.
• The cost of the first pay-toilets installed in England was tuppence.
• Pogonophobia is the fear of beards.
• In 1647 the English Parliament abolished Christmas.
• Mao Rse-Tang, the first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, was born 26 December 1893. Before his rise to power, he occupied the humble position of Assistant Librarian at the University of Peking.
• Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is petrol.
• King George III was declared violently insane in 1811, 9 years before he died.
• In Ancient Peru, when a woman found an 'ugly' potato, it was the custom for her to push it into the face of the nearest man.
• For Roman Catholics, 5 January is St Simeon Stylites' Day. He was a fifth-century hermit who showed his devotion to God by spending literally years sitting on top of a huge flagpole.
• When George I became King of England in 1714, his wife did not become Queen. He placed her under house arrest for 32 years.
• The richest 10 per cent of the French people are approximately fifty times better off than the poorest 10 per cent.
• Henry VII was the only British King to be crowned on the field of battle
• During World War One, the future Pope John XXIII was a sergeant in the Italian Army.
• Richard II died aged 33 in 1400. A hole was left in the side of his tomb so people could touch his royal head, but 376 years later some took advantage of this and stole his jawbone.
• The magic word "Abracadabra" was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.
• The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas Carols, judging them to be out of keeping with the true spirit of Christmas.
• Albert Einstein was once offered the Presidency of Israel. He declined saying he had no head for problems.
• Uri Geller, the professional psychic was born on December 20 1946. As to the origin of his alleged powers, Mr Geller maintains that they come from the distant planet of Hoova.
• Ralph and Carolyn Cummins had 5 children between 1952 and 1966, all were born on the 20 February.
• John D. Rockefeller gave away over US$ 500,000,000 during his lifetime.
• Only 1 child in 20 are born on the day predicted by the doctor.
• In the 1970's, the Rhode Island Legislature in the US entertained a proposal that there be a $2 tax on every act of sexual intercourse in the State.
• Widows in equatorial Africa actually wear sackcloth and ashes when attending a funeral.
• The 'Hundred Years War' lasted 116 years.
• The British did not release the body of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French until twenty days after his death.
• Admiral Lord Nelson was less than 1.6 metres tall.
• John Glenn, the American who first orbited the Earth, was showered with 3,529 tonnes of ticker tape when he got back.
• Native American Indians used to name their children after the first thing they saw as they left their tepees subsequent to the birth. Hence such strange names as Sitting Bull and Running Water.
• Catherine the First of Russia, made a rule that no man was allowed to get drunk at one of her parties before nine o'clock.
• Queen Elizabeth I passed a law which forced everyone except for the rich to wear a flat cap on Sundays.
• In 1969 the shares of the Australian company 'Poseidon' were worth $1, one year later they were worth $280 each.
• Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath to cover the onset of baldness.
• Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour during World War II, left school at the age of eleven.
• At the age of 12, Martin Luther King became so depressed he tried committing suicide twice, by jumping out of his bedroom window.
• It is illegal to be a prostitute in Siena, Italy, if your name is Mary.
• The Turk's consider it considered unlucky to step on a piece of bread.
• The authorities do not allow tourists to take pictures of Pygmies in Zambia.
• The Dutch in general prefer their french fries with mayonnaise.
• Upon the death of F.D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman became the President of America on 12 April 1945. The initial S in the middle of his name doesn't in fact mean anything. Both his grandfathers had names beginning with 'S', and so Truman's mother didn't want to disappoint either of them.
• Sir Isaac Newton was obsessed with the occult and the supernatural.
• One of Queen Victoria's wedding gifts was a 3 metre diameter, half tonne cheese.
• Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never phoned his wife or his mother, they were both deaf.
• It was considered unfashionable for Venetian women, during the Renaissance to have anything but silvery-blonde hair.
• Queen Victoria was one of the first women ever to use chloroform to combat pain during childbirth.
• Peter the Great had the head of his wife's lover cut off and put into a jar of preserving alcohol, which he then ordered to be placed by her bed.
• The car manufacturer Henry Ford was awarded Hitler's Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle. Henry Ford was the inventor of the assembly line, and Hitler used this knowledge of the assembly line to speed up production, and to create better and interchangeable products.
• Atilla the Hun is thought to have been a dwarf.
• The warriors tribes of Ethiopia used to hang the testicles of those they killed in battle on the ends of their spears.
• On 15 April 1912 the SS Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage and over 1,500 people died. Fourteen years earlier a novel was published by Morgan Robertson which seemed to foretell the disaster. The book described a ship the same size as the Titanic which crashes into an iceberg on its maiden voyage on a misty April night. The name of Robertson's fictional ship was the Titan.
• There are over 200 religious denominations in the United States.
• Eau de Cologne was originally marketed as a way of protecting yourself against the plague.
• Charles the Simple was the grandson of Charles the Bald, both were rulers of France.
• Theodor Herzi, the Zionist leader who was born on May 2 1860, once had the astonishing idea of converting Jews to Christianity as a way of combating anti-Semitism.
• The women of an African tribe make themselves more attractive by permanently scaring their faces.
• Augustus II, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland seemed to have a prodigious sexual appetite, and fathered hundreds of illegitimate children during his lifetime.
• Some moral purists in the Middle Ages believed that women's ears ought to be covered up because the Virgin May had conceived a child through them.
• Hindus don't like dying in bed, they prefer to die beside a river.
• While at Havard University, Edward Kennedy was suspended for cheating on a Spanish exam.
• It is a criminal offence to drive around in a dirty car in Russia.
• The Emperor Caligula once decided to go to war with the Roman God of the sea, Poseidon, and ordered his soldiers to throw their spears into the water at random.
• The Ecuadorian poet, José Olmedo, has a statue in his honour in his home country. But, unable to commission a sculptor, due to limited funds, the government brought a second-hand statue .. Of the English poet Lord Byron.
• In 1726, at only 7 years old, Charles Sauson inherited the post of official executioner.
• Sir Winston Churchill rationed himself to 15 cigars a day.
• On 7 January 1904 the distress call 'CQD' was introduced. 'CQ' stood for 'Seek You' and 'D' for 'Danger'. This lasted only until 1906 when it was replaced with 'SOS'.
• Though it is forbidden by the Government, many Indians still adhere to the caste system which says that it is a defilement for even the shadow of a person from a lowly caste to fall on a Brahman ( a member of the highest priestly caste).
• In parts of Malaya, the women keep harems of men.
• The childrens' nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses' actually refers to the Black Death which killed about 30 million people in the fourteenth-century.
• The word 'denim' comes from 'de Nimes', Nimes being the town the fabric was originally produced.
• During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax put on men's beards.
• Idi Amin, one of the most ruthless tyrants in the world, before coming to power, served in the British Army.
• Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.
• It is illegal to play tennis in the streets of Cambridge.
• Custer was the youngest General in US history, he was promoted at the age of 23.
• It costs more to send someone to reform school than it does to send them to Eton.
• The American pilot Charles Lindbergh received the Service Cross of the German Eagle form Hermann Goering in 1938.
• The active ingredient in Chinese Bird's nest soup is saliva.
• Marie Currie, who twice won the Nobel Prize, and discovered radium, was not allowed to become a member of the prestigious French Academy because she was a woman.
• It was quite common for the men of Ancient Greece to exercise in public .. naked.
• John Paul Getty, once the richest man in the world, had a payphone in his mansion.
• Iceland is the world's oldest functioning democracy.
• Adolf Eichmann (responsible for countless Jewish deaths during World war II), was originally a travelling salesman for the Vacuum Oil Co. of Austria.
• The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon Bonaparte.
• The Matami Tribe of West Africa play a version of football, the only difference being that they use a human skull instead of a more normal ball.
• John Winthrop introduced the fork to the American dinner table for the first time on 25 June 1630.
• Elizabeth Blackwell, born in Bristol, England on 3 February 1821, was the first woman in America to gain an M.D. degree.
• Abraham Lincoln was shot with a Derringer.
• The great Russian leader, Lenin died 21 January 1924, suffering from a degenerative brain disorder. At the time of his death his brain was a quarter of its normal size.
• When shipped to the US, the London bridge ( thought by the new owner to be the more famous Tower Bridge ) was classified by US customs to be a 'large antique'.
• Sir Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' cloakroom after his mother went into labour during a dance at Blenheim Palace.
• In 1849, David Atchison became President of the United States for just one day, and he spent most of the day sleeping.
• Between the two World War's, France was controlled by forty different governments.
• The 'Crystal Palace' at the Great Exhibition of 1851, contained 92 900 square metres of glass.
• It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on their testicles when taking an oath. The modern term 'testimony' is derived from this tradition.
• Sir Winston Churchill's mother was descended from a Red Indian.
• The study of stupidity is called 'monology'.
• Hindu men believe(d) it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marring a tree first. The tree ( his third wife ) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again.
• More money is spent each year on alcohol and cigarettes than on Life insurance.
• In 1911 3 men were hung for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry at Greenbury Hill, their last names were Green, Berry , and Hill.
• A firm in Britain sold fall-out shelters for pets.
• During the seventeen century , the Sultan of Turkey ordered his entire harem of women drowned, and replace with a new one.
• Lady Astor once told Winston Churchill 'if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee'. His reply …' if you were my wife, I would drink it ! '.
• There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.
• The Great Pyramid of Giza consists of 2,300,000 blocks each weighing 2.5 tons.
• On 9 February 1942, soap rationing began in Britain.
• Paul Revere was a dentist.
• The Budget speech on April 17 1956 saw the introduction of Premium Savings Bonds into Britain. The machine which picks the winning numbers is called "Ernie", an abbreviation, which stands for' electronic random number indicator equipment'.
• Chop-suey is not a native Chinese dish, it was created in California by Chinese immigrants.
• The Russian mystic, Rasputin, was the victim of a series of murder attempts on this day in 1916. The assassins poisoned, shot and stabbed him in quick succession, but they found they were unable to finish him off. Rasputin finally succumbed to the ice-cold waters of a river.
• Bonnie Prince Charlie, the leader of the Jacobite rebellion to depose of George II of England, was born 31 December 1720. Considered a great Scottish hero, he spent his final years as a drunkard in Rome.
• The Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone, was born of the 29th December 1809. Apparently, as a result of his strong Puritan impulses, Gladstone kept a selection of whips in his cellar with which he regularly chastised himself.
• A parthenophobic has a fear of virgins.
• South American gauchos were known to put raw steak under their saddles before starting a day's riding, in order to tenderise the meat.
• There are 240 white dots in a Pacman arcade game.
• In 1939 the US political party 'The American Nazi Party' had 200,000 members.
• King Solomon of Israel had about 700 wives as well as hundreds of mistresses.
• Urine was once used to wash clothes.
• North American Indian, Sitting Bull, died on 15 December 1890. His bones were laid to rest in North Dakota, but a business group wanted him moved to a 'more natural' site in South Dakota. Their campaign was rejected so they stole the bones, and they now reside in Sitting Bull Park, South Dakota.
• St Nicholas, the original Father Christmas, is the patron saint of thieves, virgins and communist Russia.
• Dublin is home of the Fairy Investigation Society.
• Fourteen million people were killed in World War I, twenty million died in a flu epidemic in the years that followed.
• People in Siberia often buy milk frozen on a stick.
• Princess Ann was the only competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics that did not have to undergo a sex test.
• Ethelred the Unready, King of England in the Tenth-century, spent his wedding night in bed with his wife and his mother-in-law.
• Coffins which are due for cremation are usually made with plastic handles.
• Blackbird, who was the chief of Omaha Indians, was buried sitting on his favourite horse.
• The two highest IQ's ever recorded (on a standard test) both belong to women.
• The Tory Prime Minister, Benjamin Disreali, was born 21 December 1804. He was noted for his oratory and had a number of memorable exchanges in the House with his great rival William Gladstone. Asked what the difference between a calamity and a misfortune was Disreali replied: 'If Gladstone fell into the Thames it would be a misfortune, but if someone pulled him out again, it would be a calamity'.
• The Imperial Throne of Japan has been occupied by the same family for the last thirteen hundred years.
• In the seventeenth-century a Boston man was sentenced to two hours in the stocks for obscene behaviour, his crime, kissing his wife in a public place on a Sunday.
• President Kaunda of Zambia once threatened to resign if his fellow countrymen didn't stop drinking so much alcohol.
• Due to staggering inflation in the 1920's, 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 German marks were worth 1 US dollar.
• Gorgias of Epirus was born during preparation of his mothers funeral.
• The city of New York contains a district called 'Hell's Kitchen'.
• The city of Hiroshima left the Industrial Promotion Centre standing as a monument the atomic bombing.
• During the Medieval Crusades, transporting bodies off the battlefield for burial was a major problem, this was solved by carrying a huge cauldron into the Holy wars, boiling down the bodies, and taking only the bones with them.
• A ten-gallon hat holds three-quarters of a gallon.
• George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.

Do crash test dummies use their head????

They’ve saved your life more than once, but they don’t require thanks. They weigh the same as you and move the way you do, but they don’t breathe. They get in car crashes over and over again and they don’t seem to mind. What could we possibly be talking about? Crash test dummies!

Crash test dummies first arrived on the scene in 1949 for the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force needed a way to test ejection seats from airplanes, but the technology was getting so sophisticated that it became dangerous to continue using human volunteers. They needed something that would simulate human reactions without using live human beings. The name of their first test dummy was Sierra Sam.

Between the time of Sierra Sam’s invention in 1949 and 1966, there was no set standard in dummies that were being produced. They were all different which made it very difficult to collect reliable data. They were also only being used to test airplane ejection seats and airplane seatbelts. In 1966 a new dummy was produced that was specifically made to test automobiles. This revolutionized the car manufacturing industry because they could now begin to test the effects of crashes on the human body. General Motors became the leader in crash test dummy technology by producing Hybrid I, Hybrid II and in 1997 Hybrid III. With each new model, the data has gotten consistently better. All dummies take on the human form in weight, size and proportion. There are many different sizes as there are many different sized people. They have spines made out of metal discs and rubber padding, necks that move, a steel rib cage and knees that respond to impact like a human knee would. On top of these traits, the Hybrid III also has vinyl skin with electronic sensors which measure the forces that different body parts can experience during a crash.

Before a dummy is placed in a car, they are given outfits to wear. This is no fashion statement though. Wearing clothes allows them to slide on the car seat as a human might. When a dummy is placed in a car, researchers apply paint to various body parts. Different colors are used for different areas of the body. This way, when the researcher crashes the car, they can then look at the amount of paint that transfers from the dummy’s body to parts of the car. If, for instance, red paint is placed on the dummy’s knee and after the crash there is a lot of red paint on the steering wheel, the researcher knows that the placement of the steering wheel should be adjusted in order to prevent knee injuries.

Researchers also collect data from sensors that are placed inside the dummy. There are three different kinds of sensors; accelerometers, load sensors and motion sensors. Accelerometers measure how fast a body part moves upon impact. For instance, if you hit something hard, like a brick wall, your head will move very quickly, but if you hit something soft like a pillow, it will move more slowly because the impact is absorbed. Accelerometers are placed inside the dummy’s head, chest, pelvis, legs and feet. Load sensors measure how much force is being placed on the body of the dummy upon impact. This measure of force can be used to determine how much load a bone can take before it breaks. The movement sensors are placed in a dummy’s chest. This measures how much the chest can deflect. In other words, it can tell the researcher how much the chest can be pushed in without causing life-threatening injuries.

By analyzing the collected data after a crash, researchers can scientifically determine what parts of the car can be considered safe and what parts need improvement. Because of these highly sophisticated tests, the automobiles we drive are much safer than they used to be.

So, think twice the next time you decide to call someone a dummy, you will actually be giving them a compliment!

Facts of Human Body

• North American Indians ate Watercress to dissolve gravel and stones in the bladder.
• In Russia, suppositories cut from fresh potatoes were used for quick relief of haemorrhoids.
• A salt enema used to be given to children to rid them of threadworms.
• Powdered Tea was once used as a snuff to stop bleeding noses.
• A decoction of dandelion roots and leaves is an old remedy for dissolving urinary stones and gravel.
• Comfrey (herb) baths were popular before the wedding night to attempt to repair the hymen and thereby apparently restore virginity.
• The thyroid cartilage is more commonly known as the Adam's Apple.
• Stroking the sole of the foot is used by doctor's to produce the Babinski effect.
• Insulin is produced in the pancreas.
• Acute hasopharyngitis is more commonly known as a cold.
• Keratitis is an inflammation of the cornea which may lead to blindness.
• Oophorectomy is the surgical removal of the ovaries.
• Sexually transmitted diseases are the major cause of preventable sterility in American men and women.
• Sperm is the smallest single cell in a mans body.
• Estragon protects against heart disease.
• Hair, prompted by testosterone, grows faster in men in anticipation of sex.
• An average, in America, three sex change operations are performed every day.
• Artificial forms of birth control are condemned by the catholic church. The 'Rythem' [Rhythm] method is recommended by the church, as is abstinence
• In 1977, Napoleon's penis was sold in Paris for about US $3 800 to an American urologist.
• The most sensitive cluster of nerves is at the base of the spine.
• In 1855, dentist Robert Arthur was the first to use gold to fill cavities.
• The fleshy muscular organ joined to the hyoid bone is the tongue.
• Quinine is an alkaloid extract of the bark of the Cinchona tree.
• By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.
• An Eskimo would be ingesting toxic doses of Vitamin A if he ate a polar bears liver.
• Smallpox is also known as variola.
• The disease Tuberculosis, is best known as consumption.
• Victorian women tried to enlarge their breasts by bathing in strawberries.
• The fissure of Rolando, would be found in the human brain.
• Iron deficiency causes the most common form of anaemia.
• Red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow.
• The smallest bone in the body is the stirrup bone.
• The Mount of Jupiter and the Girdle of Venus are found on the palm of your hand.
• The Auricularis muscles are used to move the ears.
• The vaccine for smallpox was developed in 1798.
• In the United States, 1982, the painkiller 'Tylenol' was spiked with cyanide.
• The normal body temperature in 37° Celsius.
• In 1982, Englishman William Hall committed suicide by drilling holes into his head with a power drill . . . it took 8 holes.
• The leading cause of death in the late 19th century was tuberculosis.
• The rate of Quadruplets are 1 (set) in every 490 000 births.
• A person suffering from polythelia has 3 nipples.
• Clinophobia is a fear of beds.
• A human sheds a complete layer of skin every 4 weeks.
• The human brain is 80% water.
• The brain uses more than 25% of the oxygen used by the human body.
• The nose continues to grow throughout your life.
• Everyone's tongue print is different.
• 15 million blood cells are produced and destroyed in the human body every second.
• Blonde beards grow faster than darker beards.
• The most prescribed drug in the United Kingdom in 1985 was Valium.
• The left side of the brain is usually responsible for the control of speech.
• The space between two adjacent neurones is called the 'synapse'.
• The crystalline quartz, Amethyst was once believed to prevent drunkenness.
• Sigmund Freud bought his first sample of cocaine for $1.27 per gram.
• The septum linguae is found on the tongue.
• Stroking the sole of the foot produces the Babinski reflex.
• During a orchidectomy, a man has a testicle removed.
• The medical term for a black eye is circumorbital haematoma.
• Medical experts say you should sleep on your right side to improve digestion.
• There are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being that there are human beings on the surface of the earth.
• The largest cell in the human body is the female reproductive cell, the ovum. The smallest is the male sperm.
• There are over 100 million light sensitive cells in the retina.
• The opposite of 'cross-eyed' is 'wall-eyed'.
• From the age of thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size.
• Laudanum, a tincture of opium, was a common sedative in Victorian times.
• Dr. W.S. Halstead was the first to use rubber gloves during surgery in 1890.
• The human body contains enough iron to make a spike strong enough to hold your weight.
• In the early Twentieth century, rattlesnake venom was used to treat epilepsy.
• The human body contains about sixthy thousand miles of blood vessels.
• Narcolepsy is the uncontrollable need to sleep.
• The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court.
• The human body transmits nerve impulses at about 90 metres a second
• Spread out, the walls of the human intestines would cover an area of about one hundred square feet.
• The hydrochloric acid in the human stomach is strong enough to dissolve a nail.
• There are 14 phalanges (finger bones) in a human hand.
• In 1979 Dr. Christian Barnard was offered $250 000 by the American National Enquirer to perform a human head transplant.
• Most people have lost fifty per cent of their taste buds by the time they reach the age of sixty.
• The amount of carbon in the human body is enough to fill about 9 000 'lead' pencils.
• Cancer claims forty victims an hour in America.
• In the English hospitals of the seventeenth century, children were entitled to two gallons of beer as part of their weekly diet.
• Podobromhidrosis is more commonly known as 'smelly feet'.
• If a surgeon in Ancient Egypt lost a patient while performing an operation, his hands were cut off.
• Opium was used widely as a painkiller during the American Civil War. As a result, over one hundred thousand soldiers had become drug addicts by the end of the war.
• Men have on average 10% more red blood cells than women
• New Zealand's first hospital was opened in 1843.
• One square inch of human skin contains 625 sweat glands.
• The symptoms of haemophilia are never displayed by women, but can only pass it on. With men is the opposite.
• If your mouth was completely dry, you would not be able to distinguish the taste of anything.
• When you blush, your stomach lining also reddens.
• The largest muscle in the human body is the buttock muscle.
• The Islands of Langerhans won't be found on a map, they're a group of cells located in the pancreas.
• Every time you step forward, you use fifty four muscles.
• A Rhinologist specialises in the human nose.
• If you could remove all the space from the atoms that make up your body, you could walk through the eye of a needle.
• A chromosome is larger than a gene.
• The average human brain weighs 1.3 kg
• During the fifteenth century, sick people were often dressed in red and surrounded by red objects because it was though to help them get better.
• Eighty per cent of all body heat escapes through the head.
• The Black Death claimed roughly forty million lives in the thirteenth century.
• The human wrist contains more bones than the ankle.
• Someone who grinds their teeth is a bruxomaniac.
• In 1562 a man was dug up six hours after his burial, after he had been seen breathing by someone at the funeral - he lived for another 75 years.
• Doctors 'bled' Louis XIII of France forty-seven times in one month in an attempt to cure his illness.
• Human hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after death.
• Physcrophilia is the sexual arousal by cold.
• If 80% of the human liver was removed, it could still function and would eventually restore itself to its original size.
• There is more pigment in brown eyes than blue.
• Nearly a quarter of all human bones can be found in the feet.
• The ' funny bone' is not a bone but a nerve.
• Most people blink about 25 000 times a day.
• The human body has enough fat to produce 7 bars of soap.
• The human head is a quarter of our total length at birth, but only an eighth of our total length by the time we reach adulthood.
• There is no single word given to describe the back of the knee.
• From fertilisation to birth, a baby's weigh increase 5 000 million times.
• The woman of the Brazilin Apinaly Tribe bite their mates eyebrows during intercourse.
• Thomas Wedders, the English circus freak, had a nose which was seven and a half inches long.
• The ancient Greeks believed that boys developed in the right hand side of the womb and girls in the left.
• The average height of a man in the Middle Ages was five feet six inches.
• The human body has fewer muscles in it than a caterpillar.
• Medieval recipe for the cure of acne 'the rout of dragon's made clean and cut into thin roundels and steeped for nine days in white wine and applied '.
• Men are ten times more likely to be colour-blind than women.
• An eighteenth century woman used only lard to 'wash' her face and hands and lived to the age of 116.
• The liver is the largest internal organ weighing about 10.5 kilograms.
• Human adults breathe about 23 000 time a day.
• It requires 30 muscles to raise your eyebrows.
• Nutmeg, if injected intravenously, is fatal.
• The most common form of cancer is Skin cancer.
• The Middle ear and the Pharynx are joined with the Eustachian tube.
• The Extensor digiti minimi manus is used to extend the little finger.
• If you are a universal donor your blood group is type O.
• When recognising someone's face, you use the right side of your brain.

History of First Cars

Lambert and Duryea are not your average household names. But most likely you’ve heard the names Ford and Benz (as in Mercedes-Benz). All of these names are related to one of the most important inventions of all time, the automobile.

Though Henry Ford is well known in American history for making the automobile affordable to the average person in the early 1900’s, he was not the first producer of the automobile. By 1860, the gasoline engine had been invented in Europe and in 1885, Karl Benz had introduced the first gasoline powered automobile. His car ran on 3 wheels and looked like a very big tricycle that had no pedals and could hold two people. In America, the first gasoline-powered auto to grace the rough horse and buggy roads was in 1891. The man to build this car was John W. Lambert. When one man saw this contraption coming down the road for the first time, he thought to himself “where in heaven’s name is the horse?”

The idea of the “horseless carriage” caught on quickly. By 1893, two brothers, Charles and Frank Duryea built their own gasoline powered car. It had a one-cylinder engine with a three-speed transmission. The first run of their car went about 7.5 miles per hour and they were able to get it to go 200 feet until a mound of dirt in the road got in its way and stopped it! This was a far cry from the distance that Benz was able to get his car to go (about 65 miles).

The Duryea brothers did not give up. In fact, they considered their 200 feet ride a huge success. Frank Duryea built the next car by himself. After two years of fine-tuning the car, the Duryea brothers gathered enough interest from investors to start the Duryea Motor Wagon Company. In 1896, they built 13 almost identical models of the Duryea Motor Wagon. Although this sounds like a very small number of cars to produce, it was actually a significant number because it was the first time anyone ever tried to mass produce automobiles. Unfortunately, this mass production company didn’t last long. At a cost of $1,000 to $2,000 a car, the average American couldn’t afford a Duryea Motor Wagon. After 13 were built, the brothers sold their company.

The Duryea brothers paved the way for men like Henry Ford to mass produce and sell automobiles at a price that everyone could afford. Let’s give them the credit they deserve for a job well done!

Facts of Sports

• The first recorded reference to cricket dates back to 1272.
• The highjump method of jumping head first and landing on their back is called the Fosbury Flop.
• Clay pigeon shooting was once known as Inanimate bird shooting.
• The American dart game 'Cricket' is known in Britain as 'Mickey Mouse'.
• Australian Ron Clarke set 18 World Records as a long distance runner but never won an Olympic title.
• The motto for the Olympic Games is Citius - Altius - Fortius (Faster - Higher - Stronger).
• The 180m sprint of the776 BC Olympics (the earliest recorded) was won by Coroebus .
• Cricketer Dennis Lillee once tried to use an Aluminium bat of his own design called 'The Combat'.
• The large disk used in Tiddlywinks is called a Squidger.
• A racehorse which has never won a race is refereed to as a Maiden.
• Orienteering originated in Sweden.
• Snooker originated in India.
• The first reference to a money prise in a horse race is a prise offered by Richard I in 1195.
• Darts is the most popular sport played in Britain.
• The word 'love' meaning 'no score' comes from the word ' L`oeuf ' which means 'egg'.
• A soccer ball has 32 panels.
• Draughts is older than chess.
• To a yachtsman, a fresh breeze is about 20 knots.
• The first automobile racetrack in America was the 'Indianapolis Motor Speedway', which consisted of 3 million cobblestones.
• There are only 7 possible opening moves in draughts.
• The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology.
• When driven from a tee, a golf ball travels at over 270 km/h.
• Harry Drake fired an arrow 1871.8 metres, from a crossbow, on 30 July 1988
• In August 1985, Thelma Pitt-Turner set a womens record by completing a marathon at Hastings, New Zealand, in 7 hours 58 minutes. She was 82 at the time.
• The first perfect nine innings baseball game (pitcher pitches 27 out, no hits, no runs) was achieved by John Lee Richmond on 12 June 1880.
• The largest crowd for a basketball game was 800,000 people at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece on 4 April 1968.
• The odds on dealing 13 cards of one suit are 158,753,389,899 to 1. The odds on dealing the perfect hand (13 cards of one suit) to a particular player is 635,013,559,559 to 1 and the odds on dealing a perfect game (4 players receiving a perfect hand) are 2,235,197,406,895,366,368,301,599,999 to 1.
• Garry Chapman scored 17 runs off a single delivery (all run with no overthrow) in a game of cricket on 13 October 1990. (he hit the ball into a patch of 10 inch high grass)
• The most expensive commercial boardgame is the Deluxe version of Outrage!, which retails at £3995.
• The world's largest gambling win was US $111,240,463.10 in the Powerball lottery on 7 July 1993
• Grabatology is the collecting of ties.
• The highest paid odds on a horserace are 3,072,887 to 1. For a 5p accumulator bet on 5 horses, an unnamed woman won £153,644.40 (which was paid out by Ladbrokes, the world's largest bookmaker).
• On the 24 April 1993, Charles Servizio completed 46,001 push-ups (press-ups) in 24 hours, at Fontana, California, USA.
• When new, a regulation cricket ball weighs 5.5 ounces.
• Trevor Francis was the first soccer player to be transferred for £1 000 000 ( Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest 1979 )
• The flights on a dart are made from turkey feathers.
• The first major car rally won by a woman was in Rome, 1960. (Pat Moss)
• The minimum number of darts required to finish a single in, double out game of 501 is 9.
• The Roman Emperor Nero killed his wife after she 'scalded' him for going to the races.
• The Australian term for extras in cricket are 'sundries'.
• In the 1950's the hula hoop was banned in Tokyo due to the large number of traffic accidents it caused.
• Max Baer once shouted out in the middle of a world title boxing fight 'Ma, he's killing me!'.
• The yo-yo originated in the Philippines, where it was used as a weapon in hunting.
• Boules, or Petanque, is France's second most played sport.
• In 1935 Jesse Owens broke 4 world records in 45 minutes.
• On 15th May 1948, the Australian touring team scored a world record total of runs in one day. In just under six hours they made 721 all out against Essex, at Southchurch Park, Southend.
• The most common injury in ten pin bowling is a sore thumb.
• Mick Jaggers favourite game is cricket.
• Round arm bowling in cricket was invented by Christina Wells.
• Baseball star Babe Ruth was born George Herman Ruth. During his sporting career he played in 2503 games and had a lifetime batting average of .342.
• English batsman, Arthur Shrewbury, shot himself believing he was afflicted with an incurable disease.
• Shrove Tuesday is the day the Pancake races are run on.
• The first rugby club was formed in 1843.
• In charades, pushing away means you're cold.
• The Ancient Greek name for a racecourse is the Hippodrome.
• What is black, frozen and measures 3 inches by 1 inches? An ice-hockey puck.
• When kicked in the groin, a soccer player has been 'banjoed'.
• US President, Richard Nixon, tried to offer tactics to an American Football team.
• Johnny Weissmuller, the Hollywood Tarzan won swimming gold medals in the Olympics in 1924.
• Marcellus, is the middle name of Cassius Clay.
• The 1970 World cup football match between El Savador and Honduras was so highly charged that it resulted in the two countries embarking on a 3 day war.
• Karate, often considered Japan's national sport, didn't come to Japan until 1916.
• The nickname of the New Zealand Rugby team is 'The All Blacks',which came about through a newspaper printing error.
• Joe Davis, former world Snooker champion, only had one good eye.
• In Thailand, kite-flying is a major sport with teams of up to twenty people competing against each other.
• John L. Sullivan, a famous bareknuckle boxer, once took 75 rounds to knock out his opponent, Jake Kilrain
• Pistols were first used in the Olympic games shooting events in 1984.
• There are over 10 000 golf courses in the United States.
• Australian meteorologist Nils Lied, while in Antartica, drove a golf ball 2414 metres.
• Cystallite is the material snooker balls are made from.
• At Darts, a score of 26 is called 'bed and breakfast'.
• If you were at the Brickyard you would be playing Motor racing (it’s the nickname for the Indianapolis circuit).
• Ferdie Adoboe set a world record on 28 July 1983 by running 100 yards in 12.8 seconds … backwards.
• The average age of a female Olympic competitor is 20.
• A golf green hole in a minimum of 4 inches.
• The bar used for weightlifting weighs 20 kilograms.
• It is forbidden for an Olympic wrestler to twist his opponents toes.
• The board game Monopoly was originally rejected by Parker Brothers, who claimed it had 52 fundamental errors.
• Formula One Driver, Jackie Stewart, who won three motor racing world championships, also has been the British clay pigeon shooter five times.
• Rugby was discovered by accident. A student during a game of football decided to pick up the ball and run to the opposition goal - thus the formation of rugby.
• Ray Ewry, the American athlete, won three gold medals at the 1900 Olympic Games had been paralysed and confined to a wheelchair as a child.
• The first man to swim the English Channel without a life jacket was Captain Matthew Webb, who died trying to swim the rapids above Niagara Falls.
• Football was played in the twelfth century, though without any rules.

TATA nano

The people’s car is super-cheap, super-tiny, and super-efficient.

Nestled among the fast and luxurious debuts at the 2008 Geneva auto show is the $2500 Nano show car from India’s Tata Motors.

This so-called people’s car caused quite a stir when it was unveiled in India in January as a car for its domestic market. Although it seats four, the Nano is a paltry 122 inches long—three feet shorter than a Honda Fit and six inches narrower. To maximize space, the wheels are located at the far corners of the car, and the engine is mounted under the rear seat.

Despite its small size, Tata says the car is safe—based on Indian crash-testing results—with crumple zones, anti-intrusion door beams, and seatbelts. But there are no airbags in the first-generation Nano, and some reports say there are only front seatbelts.

Initially, the Nano will be offered to Indian buyers in three trims. The base trim is basic transportation—lacking such luxuries as air conditioning, fog lights, power windows, power steering, and power locks.

The Nano’s powertrain is geared more toward fuel saving than drag racing. The two-cylinder, 600cc engine produces just 33 horsepower but should be frugal enough to manage 50 mpg. Power is routed through a continuously variable automatic to the rear wheels.

Keeping the cost down for buyers in emerging markets was a challenge partly solved with several unique touches. The Nano’s instrument cluster is centrally mounted, for example, so the car can easily be adapted for right- or left-hand-drive countries. The door handles are identical on both sides to further trim costs.

As India industrializes, the Nano is designed to provide affordable transportation for families. Chairman Ratan Tata wanted to produce a vehicle that was safer and more convenient than rickshaws or scooters. Aside from the tiny Nano, Tata sells a variety of vehicles in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and several other countries.

Initially, the small car is for sale in India only, with exports to begin within four years. Tata officials have said they plan to offer a second-generation Nano in Europe in 2012 that meets European safety and emissions standards. There are no plans to sell the entry-level car in North America.

What Roads are Made of

In the year 1900 there were only ten miles of paved road in the United States. Today, there are two million miles of paved roads and streets!

Unlike early drivers, you don’t have to consider whether or not a road exists to your destination. You just get out the map, plot your course and take off. You can make a quick trip downtown, head out to the seashore or up to the mountains. Hit the interstate and you can visit your uncle in Kalamazoo, Michigan, see Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, or visit Disney World in Orlando, Florida. You never run out of road!

Did you ever stop to wonder what all those miles of road are made of? Wherever you go in the world, and as far back as 4,000 BC, stone is the common ingredient in roads. Simple stone roads were often rough, uneven, and pitted with ruts and holes that filled up with rain and mud in the winter. It wasn’t until the 1700s that the smooth, even roads we know today became possible. We have three Scottish engineers and their improved road building techniques to thank.

Although he was blind, John Metcalfe was able to design and build firm, three-layer roads. First he placed large stones on the bottom layer, then he took the materials excavated from the roadbed such as smaller rocks and earth and used them for the middle layer, and finally he spread a layer of gravel on top.

A second Scottish gentleman by the name of Thomas Telford designed a way to raise the center of the road so that rainwater would drain down the sides. He also devised a method to analyze how thick the road stones had to be to withstand the weight and volume of the horses and carriages that were common in his day.

The last of the three, John McAdam, mixed the necessary road stones with tar. The tar “glued” all the stone together and created a harder and smoother surface for the carriage wheels to roll on. “Tarmacadam roads” became the standard used everywhere until the 1870s. “Tarmacadam” was a mouthful, so eventually people shortened the word to “tarmac.”

A natural rock known as asphalt had been used to construct buildings for many years. In 1824 large blocks of natural asphalt rock were placed on the wide boulevard in Paris known as the Champs-Élysées. This was the first time this type of rock was used for a road.

In the United States during the 1870s, a Belgian immigrant by the name of Edward de Smedt created a man-made asphalt that was of a higher density and quality than the natural stone. And like the tar that McAdam used, asphalt could harden and smoothe the road. Smedt’s new product was soon put to the test on Fifth Avenue in New York City and on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

Today almost all the roads in the U.S. are surfaced with this man-made asphalt. Asphalt comes from the processing of crude oils. Everything that is valuable in crude oil is first removed and put to good use. Then what remains (hydrogen and carbon compounds with minor amounts of nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen) is made into asphalt cement for pavement.

Ribbons of firm, well-drained, smoothly paved roads and highways are ready to take you and your family anywhere you want to go this summer, thanks to the construction methods pioneered by three Scottish engineers and the invention of man-made asphalt.

Tofu

A lot of people have been asking me what food I am craving for these days (that's eversince they found out I was pregnant) and I always say "it's varies quickly". That's because it does, one minute I like pizza and the next I like strawberries dipped in whipped cream... But one thing is constant for the past 4 or 5 days... Tofu! It's my favorite "veg out" food these days. I watch TV and I eat tofu, I watch a DVD and there it is... tofu again! I particularly like it deep fried into a golden brown so it's crispy outside yet still a little white inside and dipped in soy sauce mixed with vinegar, a little sugar, chopped onions and a dash of pepper.