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.

LINK

Dominika Cibulkova

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

Yaroslava Shvedova Golden Set

Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova made history at Wimbledon by becoming the first player to win a set in a grand slam without conceding a point.

Full story HERE.

Rachel Brookes

Sky Sports Formula 1 reporter Rachel Brookes.

Caption Competition

What's being said here? Any ideas? Just for fun. Come on!

Did it hurt???

Prettiest Girl In Walmart by Roy Jay

My Own Worst Enemy

I just finished watching the series My Own Worst Enemy. The series followed the life of American secret agent Edward Albright and his cover alias, Henry Spivey, who had no knowledge of his double life. Albright, played by Christian Slater, was implanted with a chip that allowed his handlers to physically switch Albright's personality to that of his alias. However, in the pilot episode, there was a malfunction which caused Albright's personalities to switch at random, revealing his secret life to his alias. Henry is then thrown into the highly dangerous life of Edward, with no real way for the two to communicate except through short cell phone video messages.

The series finale ends with so many unanswered questions that a second series is suggested, however sources reveal that the show has been dropped after just the one season. This is so frustrating. The two characters, Henry and Edward, both played by Slater, are polar opposites. Henry is the meek family man and Edward is mean with a bad attitude and a womaniser. Edward may be on a dangerous assignment in a foreign land when he suddenly transforms into Henry, and vice versa Henry might be in the bedroom with his wife when he changes into Edward.

Incidentally, the first names match those of the two dueling spirits that shared a body in Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Caption Competition

Captions please, use your imagination, your sense of humour, your word skills.

No prizes, just fun.

Come on!

Sex Advice From Strippers

Why are strippers better in bed?
It is a stripper’s job to be sexy and seduce people — we are pretty damn good at it. Also, we have phenomenal wardrobes.

That's from Heather, 23. Read in full here.

Don't forget to click for the options. Avoid Kat, 26 though... she has a bit of an attitude.

Girl Arrested For Doodling On Desk

Alexa Gonzalez, a 12-year-old student at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, New York, was handcuffed and detained at police precinct for doodling on her desk with erasable marker.

Full story here.

Pay Phone by Brandon Ford

Pay Phone, the brand new horror/suspense novel by Brandon Ford, is NOW AVAILABLE!!! A chilling and violent story that’s sure to keep you up nights! What’s it about? Check out the official synopsis below:

January 1998.While a fierce winter falls upon the streets of New York City, a vicious killer is on the hunt for new blood. From his third floor apartment window, he watches, waits, using the pay phone across the street as the key to finding his victims. With his voice and his charms, he lures them to his door… …and one by one they meet their fate.

On a gray morning, he spies someone new. Someone different. Someone who reminds him of someone he knows. Someone very, very special. And he’ll stop at nothing to be sure that special someone… is next.

What ever you do, don’t answer the phone. It just might be for you.

“Compelling, intelligent, and altogether chilling, Pay Phone solidifies Brandon Ford as a classic, distinctive voice in a world flooded with menial dark fiction!” –Andrew Wolter, author of Nightfall

Pick your copy of PAY PHONE at the following links:

Amazon

Amazon Canada

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Tower Books

Coward of the County

I was listening to the radio yesterday when that old Kenny Rogers classic Coward of the County came over the airwaves. I've heard it loads of times over the years and yet each time I find myself listening eagerly to the lyrics. Most popular songs are about love, and this is no exception, but this has something extra, the coward referred to in the title. It is also one of the few songs that actually has a story to it. They don't seem to produce this kind of song any more. And at the end when the Gatlin boys get their comeuppance I find myself thinking how wonderful that is. It is also the only song that includes a gang rape. Or can anyone think of any others? Alex Harvey's Gang Bang springs to mind but there's consent in that one. Maybe the death metal world is filled with tunes about gang rape. Or is 'tunes' the wrong word here?

Oh, and yet when I do hear Coward of the County I can't help thinking of You're My Son by Kenny Rogered...

Kick-Ass and the C-Word

So it seems that actress Chloe Moretz has caused uproar in the movie world by saying the dreaded C-word in the new Kick-Ass movie. Follow the link for the full story.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/apr/02/kick-ass-bad-language

Should we be outraged by this? Or merely disappointed? The F-word was once considered taboo in the film and television world, now it appears regularly and we don't bat an eyelid, well hardly anyway. Will the C-word follow suit? Only time will tell.

I suppose what makes this so shocking is that it is uttered by an 11-year-old character to a room full of adults in a 15 certificate movie. Now we will have schoolkids walking into classrooms and calling everyone by the forbidden C-word. Is this likely? Or am I too much out of touch with kids that age nowadays? I know I ought to be.

I have no desire to go and see this teen film at the cinema. I will most likely watch it when it appears on the Sky movie channels, purely out of interest. I don't want to be in a cinema listening to teenagers shouting and laughing, and chatting into mobile phones, because it'a annoying, and I don't want a face full of bleach either.

Incidentally, Chloe Moretz is lined up as one of the main characters in the new film Let Me In, the movie of John Ajvide Lindqvist's book Let The Right One In. In the USA the book is simply known as Let Me In. Trust the yanks...