WIND

Things you never knew about... WIND

A gale is officially defined as a wind of between 32 and 63 miles per hour. A wind blowing from 4 to 31 miles per hour is a breeze.

The strongest winds in the solar system are on Saturn where they reach speeds of over 1100 miles per hour.

The first house in the world to have its electricity supplied by wind power was in Kincardineshire in Scotland in 1887.

The tips of the blades of wind turbines move at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour.

Early wind turbines all turned anti-clockwise as viewed from the front. Since 1978 changes in design mean they all turn clockwise.

The doldrums is a wind free area around the equator where sailing ships used to get stuck for weeks, hence the phrase 'in the doldrums'.

Fabian Cowdrey

Fabian Cowdrey (born 30 January 1993 in Canterbury, Kent) is an English cricketer, who made history by becoming the first third generation player to play for Kent County Cricket Club.

Cowdrey was awarded a first-team contract in October 2011, before his May 2012 debut. His father is former England national cricket team captain Chris Cowdrey, and his grandfather Lord Colin Cowdrey played 114 Test matches for England,before being honoured for his services to cricket. His uncle, Graham Cowdrey, also played for Kent.

As a schoolboy, Cowdrey also set a record: the youngest person ever to play at Lord's, when playing for Tonbridge School..

First Electric Traffic Lights

The first electric traffic light was developed in 1912 by Lester Wire, an American policeman of Salt Lake City, Utah, who used red-green lights. On 5 August 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. It had two colours, red and green, and a buzzer, based on the design of James Hoge, to provide a warning for colour changes. The design by James Hoge allowed police and fire stations to control the signals in case of emergency.

First Driving Test

Voluntary testing was introduced on 16 March, 1935 by the Road Traffic Act to prevent a rush of candidates when the test became compulsory. A Mr J Beene was the first person to pass his driving test, at a cost of seven shillings and sixpence – that’s £22 in today’s money. Compulsory testing began in June for all new drivers. Around 246,000 candidates applied, with a pass rate of 63 per cent.

Theresa May's Optical Illusion Dress

Theresa May's optical illusion dress raises eyebrows in the House of Commons as she appears to show more than she intended to.

• Home Secretary wore quirky flesh-toned dress and caused an optical illusion as she made speech in Parliament.

She was in the House of Commons to insist that emergency legislation is needed to allow Britain’s spies to access data about the public’s phone calls, texts and emails.

But Theresa May, along with David Cameron, was seemingly unaware of her small fashion faux pas in Parliament today.

The optical illusion flesh-toned dress she wore may have left viewers confused - as it appeared that she was revealing more than she bargained on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2687397/Theresa-Mays-optical-illusion-dress-raises-eyebrows-House-Commons.html#v-3667816557001

AMAZING FACT:  Luis Suarez is undefeated on all three occasions that he has bitten an opponent.

There was a 0-0 draw between PSV Eindhoven and Ajax Amsterdam in 2010 after he bit Otman Bakkal, last year’s 2-2 draw between Liverpool and Chelsea when he bit Branislav Ivanovic and yesterday’s win against Italy, with the victim being Giorgio Chiellini.

Dude, where's my van?

Never mind parking the bus – someone has taken the Dutch team’s van.

With captain Robin van Persie suspended for Monday’s decisive Group B game with Chile in San Paolo, for the first time in nearly 20 years, the Netherlands started without a single played named ‘van’ on the pitch.

The last time this happened was a 1996 European Championships warm-up friendly against China, which they won 2-0.

Holland have reached the World Cup final three times – 1974, 1978 and 2010 – and all three teams have featured at least one Van (Willem van Hanegem in 1974, Rene and Willy van der Kerkhof in 1978 and Gregory van der Wiel and van Persie in 2010).

Their only major tournament win was the 1988 European Championships, where Marco van Basten scored one of the most memorable volleys in history as they beat the Soviet Union.

Other vans who have played a major role for the Dutch in recent years include goalkeeper Edwin van der Saar, midfielder Giovanni van Bronckhorst and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.

But vans are thin on the ground in the 2014 Dutch squad, and that break in continuity is down to one man. Coach Louis, er, van Gaal.

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Dominika Cibulkova

Dominika Cibulkova just lost to Li Na in the final of the Australian tennis open. She looks like a winner to me!