The Linkster Blog

Stay Safe From Scammers On Your Vacation

2011-08-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

I found this site for scamming tips interesting. As someone who traveled many times, I think this could be useful especially for those of you who are first time tourists. There are great tips that I find could benefit me as well. Check it out.

Tips For Carrying Money And Documents While Traveling
http://www.kevincoffee.com/money/guide_to_security_belt_and_pouches.htm

Norway: Norwegian Culture & Etiquette

2011-07-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here is another nice and useful link for those who are planning to visit Norway.

* Note: I have absolutely no idea how updated the info is.I once bought two books about culture and gesture in other countries. When I showed the books to friends who were natives to those countries, they laughed. They said the book is so bad and so outdated that I should throw it away. For obvious reasons, I am not going to name the books. But I strongly suggest talking to a native about their country before visiting their country. For example, did you know that the "okay" gesture is considered offensive in some countries? I'd recommend not to make any gesture that may have good intention in the US, but represents the opposite in a foreign country. Just to be safe. Last thing you need is to offend your host or your waiter.

Norwegian Culture & Etiquette
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/norway-country-profile.html

The Vikings

2011-07-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Sadly, Norway has been in the news lately in a tragic way. I was thinking how many people know anything at all about Norway or should I say, how many don't? I was there many years ago as a child. I remember visiting Oslo but don't have a lot of memories of the visit itself. I only remember visiting a Viking museum. One memory in particular was one of the earliest Viking ship. It was a good experience. As a child I am sure that my recollection of the museum was that it was a big place, but now as an adult there is a good chance that it was a much smaller museum or a smaller room. Last thing I do remember is how beautiful is Norway.

Viking: Who Were The Vikings?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/who_were_the_vikings

I'm Back!

2011-07-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

It has been a year already. I hadn't expected myself to be absent for this long but now I am ready to post again. Since I was gone for a long time, I don't remember every post that I've posted here. It could take me a while to check the data every time I see a new link. My apologies if I do end up posting the same link twice. I'll do my best not to repeat the same link. I am also aware that some links have expired since I posted them. I noticed that some of my earliest links no longer function.

The Linkster

Taking a Break

2010-04-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

I am going to temporarily stop blogging until further notice.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Snoopy The Flying Ace Visits The Intrepid

2010-04-21T00:45:00.000-07:00

If you are in NYC and love Snoopy, hurry up and go to the Intrepid Museum in NYC to see the "Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace” exhibition. I so wish I could fly over to see the exhibition but I can't afford a coast to coast trip. The exhibition is only until April 30th, so you have 9 days left if you want to see it. It is a traveling exhibition.

Snoopy As The World War I Flying Ace - Interpid Museum
http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/CuratorsCorner/December-2009-%281%29/Snoopy-and-Intrepid.aspx

I just found additional information about the traveling Snoopy tour at:

MAAA -"Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace"
http://www.eusa.org/SiteResources/Data/Templates/t2.asp?docid=657&DocName=Snoopy%20as%20the%20World%20War%20I%20Flying%20Ace

If the link doesn't work for you, try this:

MAAA -"Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace"
http://tinyurl.com/y5r8wz4

A Wacky Backpack!

2010-04-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

I totally love Wacky Packages. I was browsing for the new Wacky Packages books in Amazon, and came across a Wacky Packages back pack. I wish there were more pictures and better description. It looks fairly small to me.

Wacky Packages Backpack
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HGLJE8/ref=pd_luc_gc_rec_03_03

What Are You Drinking Now?

2010-04-18T01:48:00.000-07:00

The Knowledge For Thirst is a blog about all kind of beverages. Their statement simply states that "The Knowledge For Thirst is where Kevin Fanning and Joshua Allen sit around and jaw about beverages." A few post examples are "Monster M-80 Mixxd Khaos Assault", "Russian Variation of the Pepsi New Logo", "Pictures & commentary on failed sodas."

At first, it appeared to be a small site, because I was looking for those "next post" text. It actually took me about a minute or two to realize that it's not the arrows on the top that I need to click, in order to keep moving, but the title next to them. Each page is dedicated to one topic. But when I looked at the archives, I saw a list of all the posts! There are many. I strongly recommend using the archives because you can see them all at once and choose the ones you are interested in reading. They have a few interesting titles.

So go check it out at:

Knowledge For Thirst
http://www.knowledgeforthirst.com

YouTube - A cat stands on 2 feet (original)

2010-04-13T01:18:00.000-07:00

How does this cat stand on two feet for so long?! ;-P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI3WBamlxio

More But Bizarre Bottle Openers

2010-04-12T02:35:00.000-07:00

I forgot to add this bizarre set of bottle corkscrews to my previous post. The post of that site, appeared in 2007, so its a bit old. But you gotta check it out if you have not seen this yet. Some of them made me chuckle. These are truly weird! Some I didn't like though.

35 Coolest Bottle Openers
http://bizarrearea.com/index.php/gadgets/35-coolest-bottle-openers.html

A Visit To The Virtual Corkscrew Museum

2010-04-12T02:04:00.000-07:00

The virtual corkscrew museum contains both old and unusual corkscrews. I don't really know what to say at this point, because my brain is so fried right now at 2AM. Besides, they have so many categories that it takes a while to see everything. There are so many different types and styles of corkscrews. These aren't your typical corkscrews that are made these days. But I liked what I saw. It has been fun so far. Maybe some of them weren't so unusual back in the 19th century, but to now they are.

The Virtual Corkscrew Museum
http://www.bullworks.net/virtual.htm

Blog - munequitosrusos

2010-04-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

This blog is in Spanish (the blogger is from Spain), I viewed it using the Yahoo Babelfish translator. From what I gathered, the posts in this blog are related to pop culture and nostalgia mostly from Europe and Russia. I didn't really read much but I liked the posts about the Russian cartoons. By the way, I don't know what the word "munequitosrusos" means. I think it's a Russian word.

http://munequitosrusos.blogspot.com/

Yahoo Babelfish translator
http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt

What Are These Service Dogs For?

2010-04-02T01:19:00.000-07:00

There is a nice thread about the background and history of the different types of assistance and service dogs under a topic called "paws and claws", in a forum site called Building Foundations. I am not familiar with this site, but I like it. I have not been able to find a specific statement as to what this site is about, maybe I missed it. But it appears that it provides emotional support for people who are going through difficult times emotionally and mentally.

I can't guarantee though, that all the information in this thread is entirely accurate. Most likely it is. Either way, it has valuable information.

As I have mentioned in the past, I have a hearing dog. So, this is why sites about service and assistance dogs intrigue me. I keep learning about different type of service dogs that I never heard of before. I've even heard of donkeys, ponies and guinea pigs as service animals. Also, about monkeys for deaf people in another country. Personally, I can't imagine walking around places with a monkey on your shoulder. I like monkeys, but no thanks. I'll stick to the dog ;-)

Building Foundations - Paws & Claws
http://www.buildingfoundations.net/chat/index.php?showtopic=26875

Lock a Lock

2010-03-28T00:59:00.000-07:00

I never really thought about their history. It's one of those things that you just don't think about. Besides, I always assumed it was possibly just a few hundreds years old invention. It didn't occurred to me that there is such a rich history for this little thing. But, I discovered that locks have been around long before the birth of Christ. They are often mentioned both in the old testaments and in the mythology. Once I read that, it made sense to me. I've also learned that there are many types of locks with different shapes, purposes and origins. There is even a lock museum in Terryville, Connecticut. I had no idea there is such a museum. It wouldn't even crossed in my mind.

Also. I saw several other good links that I liked. Below are links for three sites that I enjoyed viewing. The first link is focused on the history, the second one is the museum, and the last two links are from the American Lock Collectors Association. There are a truly many amazing pictures of unique shaped locks. There are even locks that are shaped like animals. They are called Figural Locks.

Schlage's History of Locks
http://www.locks.ru/eng/informat/schlagehistory.htm

Lock Museum Of America
http://www.lockmuseum.com/

The ALCA's site has a photo gallery of all kind of locks including historical locks

The American Lock Collectors Association (ALCA)
http://alca.us/PHOTO_GALLERY.html

The ALCA even has a page for fake locks!

ALCA - Fakes
http://alca.us/FAKES.html

A Road To Nostalgiaville Of Soda and Beer

2010-03-27T03:31:00.000-07:00

This is great. The site is a museum that mainly focused on the beer and soda's historical background. I have never seen so many ads for old beer and soda cans which is what I liked the best. You can view them in the first link. In the second link you can see big collections of soda bottles, soda glasses, con top soda cans, and soda cans. There is a link within the second link that will lead you another page called "A Pop-A-Can Soda Story". The third page is the home page as you can see.

Soda Pad Home Page
http://www.gono.com/collectorhomepage.htm

The Museum of Beverage Containers & Advertising's Soda Collection
http://www.gono.com/tb/soda/1sodacollection.htm

Home Page - Welcome To Nostagiaville
http://www.gono.com/

The collection is part the Nostalgiaville farm in Springfield, Tennessee. There are pictures of the location of the farm as well interior pictures of the museum. There is a virtual tour as well, where you can see the collections and everything. If you wish to see it in person, you can make an Personal tour to visit the farm.

There are other pages that are not collection. There are photographs of other cities.

Peterbilt All The Way

2010-03-23T01:28:00.000-07:00

An interesting history of Peterbilt, a heavy duty truck history from 1900 to 2000. The company itself was established in 1939.

According to the site, the goal was for the industry was to concentrate on delivering high performance and low maintenance, as well very strong and durable vehicles. The focused to paying off a low operating cost with the driver productivity and high resale value. That was basically what the focus of Peterbilt when it was established. If you will keep reading, you'll find that there is quite a rich history for this company, that actually does begin in 1900 before the trucks even existed yet. There were motor wagons that were motor driven commercial. There was a big competition at the time. But when the steam power was fully in use in the early 1900's those wagon were no longer in a higher demand. People now turned to the railroad system which was much faster and thus a faster service. The rivers and the canals also became highly useful as another mean for transportation. This early technology paved the way to a company called Peterbilt which gradually become a top trucking company since its birth 1939. If you do the math, it is a 71 years old company. I don't know of many companies that still exist after so many decades.

Much more information at:

Peterbilt
http://www.peterbilt.com/history.aspx

Soviet Pressed Steel Vehicles At Tri Ang

2010-03-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

I admit, I don't really understand much what this page is all about. This page is just an addition to the tri - ang site. These are are Soviet and Chinese pressed steel models of vehicles. The page mentions Tippers, special trucks, excavators, fire engines, ZIS/ZIL, Zavod, AZLK and Camocean trucks.

Tri - Ang: Soviet Models
http://www.triang.nl/russian.htm

Blog - Hearing Dog Training

2010-03-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

My friend, Martha, has just started a new blog.

Martha Hoffman has been a trainer with the Hearing Dog Program (HDP) for many many years, and is one of the trainers who helped established the new HDP that was established when the SFSPCA cut off its old program. She now is the Training Director for the new independent HDP. She has now started a new training blog.

Blog - Hearing Dog Training
http://marthahoffman.info/blogs/blog6.php

In her new blog, Martha will be describing all of her HDP training visits that are interesting and how to train. If you are in another dog training list or sites, could you please pass this information along. So since she just started the blog, it's very fresh.

I volunteered to help promote her blog. Hopefully, it'll bring more awareness about these service dogs. Many people don't know what hearing dogs are. They are not widely known like dogs for the blind. I've been in situations where people didn't want me to go inside the store with my previous hearing dog, Bodie, but explaining that he is a service dog helped most of the times.

You know, I've had people asking me what kind of things does the hearing dog perform for me. But when they ask me for more information about the training, it becomes harder for me to explain because it's not that simple. There is more than just training a dog to do basic commands like sit, stay and come. This blog has answers to all those questions with details and descriptions.

I've known Martha for many years now. She has a lot of experience and can vouch for her as a good trainer. She helped me a lot when I was dealing with Bodie's mischiefs.

Above is Shelby, my new hearing dog. She is a Black Lab who just turned 2 years old early March. Thanks to Martha she is now a part of my life.

What Is Your Local Airport Code?

2010-03-19T12:56:00.001-07:00

I don't know how many airport codes exist in the worlds. Probably in the hundreds if not thousands, I haven't got the information although I could probably try to count them. I'm sure it'll take me a while if I included military and small airport codes. Their codes are different.

Ever wonder how the airports even got their codes in first place? Here a bit of history. I haven't seen many good sites with more history of the codes. But if I'll find one I'll post it. This site has pretty good information though. I like it quite a bit. I did see many nice sites with tremendous airport codes on Google. Some have four letter codes. Most of these sites have no history though.

History of Airport Codes
http://www.air-ticket.us/airport_code_lookup.php

YouTube - Epic Slow Motion Dog Food Commercial

2010-03-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

It's one of the best pet food ads that I've seen in a long time. I thought it was an amazing footage. It is hilarious and funny. It actually relaxed me a little bit too. I love it!

It was posted on YouTube on March 15. There are other ones from Feb, but not as big as this one. The footage quality is good. I won't spoil it for you with the details, if you haven't seen it yet. These dogs are just so adorable! They are so expressive. click on the link to see the actual size of the clip on YouTube. Or click twice on the clip. It doesn't show the whole size on my blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSl0D1eZ-nU

A Kitchen In Tokyo

2010-03-16T03:13:00.001-07:00

An interesting article that let us peek (unfortunately no photos) into Japanese household kitchens. Their kitchens is the one place that visiting family members and friends are unwanted. It's practically a taboo. This article is regarding a popular Japanese show called "Totsugeki! Tonari No Ban Gohan (surprise attack)" that shows shows up unannounced in people's houses to show their kitchen during mealtime. The meals themselves have a ritual. It was a good article to learn about the Japanese kitchens and how the meals are served.

Bento - Home Kitchens: Cluttered with Convenience
http://www.bento.com/taste/tc-kit.html

Main Page

Bento - Tokyo Food Page
http://www.bento.com/tokyofood.html

2010-03-15T01:12:00.000-07:00

Are you a big fan of the original Twilight Zone show? I am. I loved the show except for the creepy episodes. Like when William Shatner sees a beast on the airplane's wing. And the one where a young woman who lives in a world that everybody look like pigs with third eyes, has a face surgery. She has bandages on her face, so we never see what she looks like until the end of the show. Once the bandages are removed, she looks at the mirror and screams. Her surgery was a disaster. She is in a sharp contrast to these scary pig like being. She is beautiful with two eyes. She would be beautiful on earth, but on this planet, where a beauty would someone who a pig like creature with three eyes she is an outcast.

But a big favorites of mine, is the one where the Robert Redford plays the Angel of Death which was actually a nice angel. I can see why he was such a heart throb at the those days. As the angel of death, he helps an old woman to face the reality that it's her time to go and not to be afraid. He plays and an injured man whom she nurses back to health, or so she thinks. In the process of getting healed, he slowly charms her, and shows her there is nothing to be afraid of. He helps her not to afraid of death. At the end he finally convinces her, and she lets her fear go. There is more to that. Her house is being demolished, but she refused to go. I think it's a symbolism for her fear of death. Do you think?

The Paley Center For Media which is located both in NY and LA has a lot of information about the show from all kinds of aspects including Rod Serling's early career. It's a wonderful reading and if you read about it, you will learn about the show's premier, the show influence on Stephen King, Star Trek, Cindy Sherman, and more, Surrealism, distinct graphic look at the TZ, legacy, panoply of stars, and the collection at the Paley Center For Media. Besides the Twilight Zone, there are other topics that are not related to the Twilight Zone that are features on this site that also includes fun.

Make sure you know where you are though. I still haven't quite mastered the way of the navigation yet. But, maybe it's just me. I was a bit lost trying to view other interesting subjects. Overall, I love this site very much and enjoyed it. the Paley Center would be a place that I'd like to see in person.

I also liked the "perspectives on media" page. Its pretty cool. They have good topic for practically anyone. I think it's a good page to focus on at if you are at lost, because it includes most or all of the topics in this site, besides, it's fun too.

The Twilight Zone Forever
http://www.paleycenter.org/the-twilight-zone-forever

Perspectives-On-Media
http://www.paleycenter.org/perspectives

Fantastic Lego Art

2010-03-14T00:42:00.001-08:00

It's amazing what people can do with Lego, isn't it? It never ceased to amazed me to see new Lego artwork. One of the most impressive that I've seen was a few years ago. it was a full size Volvo.

The Brothers Brick is all about Lego art.

The Brothers Brick
http://www.brothers-brick.com

Little Marie & Her Brothers On YouTube

2010-03-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

When I was little I used to watch Donny and Marie Osmond variety show on TV back in mid-70's. I loved their show and the pearly smile ;-) Presently, I'm no longer their fan, but I still enjoy watching their old clips. The first clip I actually saw on a TV biography. It is a clip from the Andy Williams show in 1964, with the Osmonds kids. Donny was 6 in this clip. I used to love Andy Williams specials as well. He was very charming, wasn't he?

The big reason that I like this clip, because it also features little Marie who is adorable as a shy 4 years old. If I remember correctly, this was her first "performance" in public.

Unfortunately,the ebbing is disabled, so just follow the link.

YouTube - Lida Rose - Andy Williams & The Osmonds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MLtzKJQevI

Below is another link that I liked. It features Donny Osmond and Michael Jackson as teens (I don't know how old they are actually) with two little boys dressed up like them.

Michael jackson and Donny Osmond

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGIgpcuUkHE

Blog - On Motivation and Chocolate

2010-03-12T01:42:00.000-08:00

I am beginning to have a crave for these chocolates. My stomach is practically chiming in now. But I am gonna say "no thanks" to the Jalapeno Chocolate and the Tamales chocolate. They are way too HOT, I'm sure. I can't even imagine what they taste like. There are some "attractive" chocolate photos, but the image above was my favorite. Pretty neat!

Blog - On Motivation and Chocolate
http://motivationbychocolate.blogspot.com

The Many Faces Of Ugly Betty (an international tv show).

2010-03-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

I am not an Ugly Betty fan. I only saw maybe 2 episodes. But a friend of mine who is big fan of the show, just told me there are only five episodes left. She was upset about it. I googled the show. I already knew it was based on a popular show in Spanish. That's all I knew. Did you know that the show originally started as a show called "Yo soy Betty, la fea", and that it was filmed in Colombia? It was produced from 1999 through 2001 by RCN (Radio Cadena Nacional) in Colombia. Since then, there have been many versions of this show all over the world. At the bottom of the link's page, you'll see a list from all those countries. I was actually at awe when I saw list. I had no idea how popular it was, and how many versions existed. I counted 19 versions! Even from countries like India, China, Poland and Russia have their own Betties.

Not only there are many versions, but the original show from Columbia is also dubbed in many other countries like Malaysia, Romania and Japan.

Wikipedia - Yo soy Betty, la fea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_soy_Betty,_la_fea

Blog - Aero Philately

2010-03-07T00:09:00.000-08:00

As a child in the late 1970's I was an avid stamp collector. I loved peeling the stamps of the envelopes then lay them down on the towel for them to dry. I think my favorite part was when they'd get dry and ready for placing them in my stamp books. My favorite type of stamps were cartoon and fancy stamps from other countries that I've never heard of. The African countries and South America in particular. I loved very old stamps too. It was so much fun. I still have my stamp albums. Even though I no longer collect stamps, I still enjoy the stamp books.

A few years ago, I went to a stamp store in downtown San Francisco. I was looking for a specific series. While browsing through the stamps, I ask the store owner if there are less collectors now since very few people write anymore. Many people have replaced the snail mail with email. He said that there are actually more collectors now. I was very surprised. It might have been my imagination, but the stamps at his store seemed to be rather expensive. I don't remember stamps being so expensive before.

As for the blog, it identifies itself as "the study of the development of aviation through the medium of philately."

The Aero Philately site is specifically about the aviation industry. There are some beautiful stamped envelops. When I collected stamps I didn't really have specific categories. I would just categorized my collection according to the origin of the stamp. I wish I had thought of concentrating on a particular subject. This is one category that it would have been nice to have. But I am glad with what I have. I think this is a great subject to focus on. When I was looking for cartoon stamps, I didn't see many at all. The ones I saw were mainly too expensive.

Blog - Aero Philately
http://aerophilatelist.blogspot.com/

More Playbills From Flickr

2010-03-06T12:37:00.000-08:00

Flickr - Whistling in the Dark
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yaffamedia/sets/72157594555950791

Fun With A Playbill

2010-03-06T01:41:00.000-08:00

In ioffer.com you can see many playbills for sale.I like ioffer.com because you can browse different topics. Earlier on, I was browsing for Snoopy items and found some that I liked. The items that you see in ioffer.com will actually lead you to another site where you can buy them, such as Amazon.

Playbills Items For Sale
http://www.ioffer.com/c/Playbills-1009649

Blog - Breeds Of Small Dogs : Best Small Dog Breeds

2010-03-05T01:51:00.000-08:00

I was glad to see this site, because I recently adopted a stray or an abandoned dog that was found about two blocks from my house. I took it to the vet to find out if he was chipped. Unfortunately, he was not. He didn't have a collar either and wasn't fixed. He wasn't even trained. I taught him how to "sit" in a few days and "stay". He still needs alot of training to do.

I have the feelings that he was abandoned at the park which is a block away. A lots of Chihuahuas have been abandoned in SF Bay Area and the East Bay (Oakland and north). I know someone who tried to catch three stray Chihuahuas without any luck. I don't know about other areas. He was not in a terrible condition. He just needs to gain about 3 lbs. I went to the SPCA and the Humane Society but no one reported him. I did leave my information. According to the law here, I cannot adopt a stray dog unless no one claims him or her 30 days after he was found. I didn't have the heart to leave him at the Humane Society. He could get sick there. So I fostered him instead. When no one claimed him after 30 days, I adopted him and took care of all his needs. So now he is living with me.

I don't know what type of dog he is, but he is obviously a Chihuahua mix. He has bonded with my black lab who is a service dog. She is fine with him. She likes cats since she was raised around cats. So she is fine with little dogs too. So I think she kinda treats him like he is a cat. She has no problem if he sleeps against her body or on her legs or something. He is not a perfect dog. He barks and I am hoping she isn't going to bark every time someone approach my house. He likes to get a hold of food any change he gets. I can't turn my head for a second without him grabbing food behind my back. Shelby isn't like that. I can leave food on the coffee table and she will never touch it. But with him now, I can't. So I am hoping she won't learn bad things from him, like stealing and barking. But she does love to play with him. Sometimes she licks him and once a while he'll lick her too.

What makes me chuckle is watching the little guy walking right under beneath her without any problem. The only other time that I've seen anything like that, was with a Great Dane

Anyway, I'm a bit off point. The reason I like this blog is because it's about small dogs and the new dog that adopted is small dogs. I am not used to dogs his size. He is actually bigger than a pure Chihuahua. He is clearly a Chihuahua mix. I am thinking of doing a DNA test. There is a hospital around here that only charges $48 for a DNA test!! That's the lowest fee I've ever heard of.

Hope you'll enjoy this blog and learn new thing as well. This blog is focused on breeds only. But I think it can be still useful for any little dog pure or not. One thing I noticed about this blog, that it doesn't list all small breed. So for I have not seen a Papillon nor the Yorkshire which surprised me because they aren't that rare.

The dog breed above is called Coton de Tulear. Isn't he a handsome fella?

Blog - Breeds Of Small Dogs : Best Small Dog Breeds
http://breedsofsmalldogs.blogspot.com

Blog - Signs Never Sleep

2010-03-03T00:45:00.000-08:00

This site is great if you enjoy making, creating, building and collecting custom signs of all sort. The title under the blog's name, Signs Never Sleep, describes the content:"The Best in Custom Signs: Carved, Sandblasted, Dimensional, Wooden, Painted, Vintage, Neon, Historical, Etc: The Sign Buyers Guide". These signs include both old and modern signs. The blog's name certainly got my attention once I saw it. I enjoyed seeing the variety of the signs display. It seems a bit different from other sites that I have been. Lots of sites seem to focus a lot on Neon signs and old motel signs. I wanted to see a site that focus on more variety like Signs Never Sleep blog. Some of the signs were quite interesting and fun as well. The photo of the lamp pink shop above was my favorite. I am crazy about bears, so had to add it to my post too ;-)

Signs Never Sleep
http://signsneversleep.typepad.com

Blog - The INFOMERCANTILE

2010-02-24T02:07:00.000-08:00

An interesting material from a blog called "The INFOMERCANTILE". I don't know how to describe this blog. It's about the past, but not like my blog which focuses more on popular culture. It focused on it a little differently. You'd have to visit it to figure it out.

There is a post called "Fallout Protection For Homes With Basements" that I like. It's the name of a booklet that was produced during the cold war. You can read each page from this booklet, or order a reprint. In the booklet's pages there are also illustrations of the shelter and specifications. The booklet is mostly technical. But it's interesting to see these type of booklets from those days.

There is an excerpt from the book (under the heading "HOW MUCH PROTECTION DOES YOUR BASEMENT PROVIDE AGAINST RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT?") that does say that "In homes, basement areas provide the best shelter against fallout because they are mostly below ground. This gives them a natural shield. This booklets tells you the amount of protection your basement offers and what you can do to increase this protection to provide your family's safety. Keep in mind that fallout shelter provides only limited protection against blast." I thought it was kinda interesting considering the paranoia at the time.

It's amazing that people believed that they were going to be really protected by those shelters.

In short, the post describes the booklet: "Fallout Protection For Homes With Basements is a 28-page pamphlet produced by the U.S Government during the Cold War, providing tips and instructions on how to harden an existing basement against radiation and fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion."

Fallout Protection For Homes With Basements
http://www.infomercantile.com/-/Fallout_Protection_For_Homes_With_Basements

Another post that I liked is called "Camera for the Year 2000, 1968." It does look kinda 'star treky'. Star Trek is one of my favorite shows. Maybe that's why I love the look of this gadget.

Camera for the Year 2000, 1968
http://www.infomercantile.com/blog/2009/10/camera-for-year-2000-1968.html

The First Airlines In The World Is...

2010-02-23T00:12:00.000-08:00

The top airplane is an aeroflot Tupolev154m
The buttom airplane is an aeroflot Boeing767-300ER

Did you know that Aeroflot, the Russian airlines, are the world oldest scompany!? I never knew that! I always thought it was Braniff Airways. But Braniff Airways started in 1928. Five years after Aeroflot became operational in 1923. Braniff Airways ceased to exist in 1982 while Aeroflot Airline continued their services.

I am not even sure if I ever heard of Aeroflot. I've been in international airports many times, and can't even remember seeing their airplanes. There are always so many airplanes that I don't even know what country they came from. I am not very familiar with Russian airliners. When I came across this information by chance, I knew I wanted to post this. I don't know how well known this fact is in general, but I bet that lots of people that I know, don't know this fact, except for a couple of pilots that I know. I wonder if they have to learn that in flight school. I'll have to ask them. On the other hand maybe I knew and forgot. I always tell people my memory is like a Swiss cheese full of holes.

I know one thing for sure. It's easy. I saw the French and British Concorde five times. Two of them flew over my head when I was in college. I saw them while walking to class. I was so awesome! There was a golf competition nearby and the airport was about 10 minutes away. You just can't miss a Concorde!

History Of AEROFLOT
http://www.aeroflot.no/side2.html

If you wish to learn more about Aeroflot's background, you can watch their corporate video in English. There is one in Russian too, unfortunately, there are no closed captioning or subtitles. However, I was glad to see that there is an English for the same video. I wish that both were also closed captioned or subtitled. I rely on them. So, I can only tell you from a visual point of view that the early scenes of this video were a little boring for me, but it became interesting later on once they started to focus on the airplane services for the passengers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYLaxFaFo1I

I also saw a few commercials on YouTube, but thought they were a bit lame. But that's just me. They were all in Russian except one that was also subtitled. It went so fast I wasn't able to follow the subs all the way through. The font was difficult to follow. i watched it a few time, and still had trouble following the text. It seemed like an odd commercial or something like that.

UPDATE!

I was just informed that Aeroflot is NOT the oldest airline. The oldest airlines is KLM.

Wikipedia - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLM

It is confusing though, if you look at this link:

Wikipedia - List of airlines by foundation date
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airlines_by_foundation

If I get further information, I will post it.

Blog - American Airlines 707 Jet Stewardess

2010-02-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

I just love anything about airplanes and flight attendants. This blog's title of the blog is pretty much self explanatory. ;-)

Blog - American Airline 707 Jet Stewardess
http://americanairlinesstewardess.blogspot.com

..And Your Destination Is?

2010-02-21T00:38:00.000-08:00

Rate to go travel blog is a bit different from the common tourist sites. There are useful information, like tips and advises. But there are also fun posts about the world travel, and it also include the "10 best of.." type of posts, and other type of information you might not see in a regular tourism sites. They even have a post for coffee tourism destinations. I enjoyed best these three old posts down below, about weird signs from 2008. I know that some of these photos have been around the internet, like on Flickr, but it's still fun to see some of these again. As for myself, there are some that I've not seen before and this is from someone who thought she had pretty much seen nearly of those signs on the internet. But I was wrong.

Rates To Go
http://blog.ratestogo.com/

My favorite are the weird and wacky signs around the world series even though they are almost two years old posts.

Weird and Wacky Signs Around the World Part I
http://blog.ratestogo.com/12-weird-and-wacky-signs-around-the-world

Weird and Wacky Signs Around the World Part II
http://blog.ratestogo.com/12-more-weird-and-wacky-signs-around-the-world

Weird and Wacky Signs Around the World Part III
http://blog.ratestogo.com/weird-and-wacky-signs-around-the-world-part-iii

Weird and Wacky Signs Around the World Part IV
http://blog.ratestogo.com/weird-and-wacky-signs-around-the-world-part-iv

Fun With A Design Magazine

2010-02-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

I love this site. I'm sure lots of designers know about this site. If you have never seen it, it's worth a shot. They have posts with images for graphic design, typography, best book covers, web designers, widgets, mistakes in logo design, good articles, etc.

Smashing Magazine
http://www.smashingmagazine.com

Flickr - Christian Montone's Vintage Sets

2010-02-17T02:43:00.000-08:00

Another great Flickr collection of vintage sets. A few examples of sets are, advertising albums, vinyl vault, book covers, food & drink, crayons and paints, stickers, cinerama & television, toys, game, cans, bottles and more.

Flickr - Christian Montone
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianmontone/sets

Dear Maid, Please Do Not Disturb

2010-02-17T00:40:00.000-08:00

It seems that I missed the train again. This is a blog run by a person named Michael Lebowitz. There is a post from Aug 2008 about his grandfather who passed away the year before. His grandfather was in the foreign service. During his travels around the world, he collected hotel door hangers. He had a nice old vintage collection. I envy some of these awesome door hangers. There are 55 of them! Few are creative and funny.

Michael Lebowitz - "Hotel Door Hangers Collected By My Grandfather"
http://lebowitz.net/hotel-door-hangers-collected-b-1

The Black Knights Of The Middle Ages.

2010-02-15T01:42:00.000-08:00

I never knew that there were black knights during the middle ages. I was very surprised. They were actually called Moors. The most famous Moor was a knight named Sir Morien who was refer to as"the Moor". He was one of the best and finest knight.

Sir Morien Black Knight Of The European Middle Ages
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/morien.html

I am having a very difficult time finding more information about Sir Morien, and other black knights. I wish I could find more information because I think it's important to learn about them. This isn't a subject that I learned in grade school or college. I think it would be good to add it to history classes. It intrigued me since I had never been aware of this great knight who was one of the best knights ever in the fictional Arthurian era.

I came upon this site called "Blackpresence" which I am not familiar with. But it looks pretty good and I do like it a lot. It has more information about the black knights of the middle ages. There is a page titled "Black knights in Europe". This is really the most that I could find about these knights besides Sir Morien.

The statue above is of St. Maurice.

Blackpresence - Black Knights In Europe
http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/2009/03/black-knights-in-europe

The Most Grandest Medieval Castles In The World!

2010-02-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

It's a good place to check out castle, if you wish to know more about castles or visit them. There is a list of the top 100 medieval castles in the world. The castles have general statistics. I'd say that the most important statistics are the country, era, founder of the castle, region, castle type and condition. There are a lot of pictures and postcards of beautiful and marvelous castles. I have visited some of them myself, and they definitely look different in person. Some of them are much grander than in the pictures. To tell you the truth, some of the castles that I've visited weren't easy to tour inside, because of the steep steps, but it was worth it.

The castles above from bottom to top are:

1) Krak des Chevaliers (Kalat el Hösn), Homs, Syria
2) Kasteel Medemblik (Radboud), Medemblik, Netherlands
3) Slot Loevestein, Woudrichem, Netherlands
4) Muiderslot, Muiden, Netherlands

Top Castles
http://www.topcastles.com

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle and... Re.. cyc...le......

2010-02-11T02:40:00.001-08:00

We, in California, are very aware of recycling. We recycle almost everything. We have different symbols for recycling, but they all are similar. They mostly resemble the green recycle icon above. I was surprised to see that there a many different recycle symbols both in the first page and the second link. Some of them are simple, and some are more elaborated. You can see them in this website:

Planet Pals - The Recycle Symbol Dictionary
http://www.planetpals.com/recyclesymbols.html

Check this page also from the same site. It shows the official symbols with the numbers that indicate what type of recycle fit for certain areas. Some numbers may indicated paper only, other will be glass and aluminum, etc.

Planet Pals - Trade Recycle Symbol Dictionary
http://www.planetpals.com/recyclesymbols2.html

Impress Your Friends With Your Amusement Parks Physics Knowledge

2010-02-11T01:26:00.000-08:00

This is a site for kids, but I find equally good for adults who aren't very good in science and like fun. It's an entertaining way to learn about the "Amusement Park Physics" on your own. You will learn how the rides work and their background. The first ride you'll learn about is the Roller Coaster. Next in the list are the carousel, bumper cars, free fall, pendulum, ride safety, and related sources.

There are a whole other great scientific things for kids and adults to learn about. It's a fun way to learn without reading having to read a boring essay with formulas and no imagery. So when I saw this I wanted to post it right away.

Annenberg Media Lender - Interactive
http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/index.html

Dog Cards In Peril

2010-02-09T01:32:00.000-08:00

I have posted about cigarette cards before. This one is different. It focus on dogs only and are quite rare. According to the site, These specific cards include rare dog breed cards that are hard to find from the 1920's and the 1930's. Lots of breeds that are features on these cards are unknown now. On the other hand there are breeds that are common today but were not widely known before WWII, so they may not mentioned in the cards. In this site they have nearly 350 dog cards all illustrated that are divided by breed and series. They include 7 whole sets. These cards are very nice.But I wish the was a way to enlarge the images, I would have love to see the details of the art.

Dog Card Art
http://www.dogcardart.com/

Blog - iPhone Savior

2010-02-04T00:54:00.000-08:00

A site with iPhone news and satire called "iPhone Savior". Have fun!

iPhone Savior
http://www.iphonesavior.com/

Have You Had Your Own Hellish Flight?

2010-02-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

Ha, some of these stories are funny and wild. I just had a chuckle from one of the stories. ;-) The stories are from the readers. I had some bad flights that I rather forget about.

Flights From Hell
http://www.flightsfromhell.com

Flickr -Gatochy's Sets

2010-02-02T01:07:00.000-08:00

Gatochy has several awesome sets. I liked them a lot. Many related to advertising from different decades and different topics, vintage cinema sets, painting, magazine covers, Portuguese illustration, fashion, food, children books, book covers and other sets that I have no idea what their titles mean. I don't read or speak Portuguese. But whatever the titles means they are still interesting. Note that the "sexy" set may not be proper for your workplace.

Gatochy's Sets
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatochy/sets

A Time Before Your Favorite Celeb Was Famous

2010-02-01T01:20:00.000-08:00

What did famous celebrities do before they became famous? Curious? Maybe you already know or maybe you don't. The person who complied all this info did quite a great job!

Before you visit "Hardly Famous", see a few examples:

Amy Adams - worked at hooters two months after high school.
Burt Lancaster - a circus acrobat until he was injured.
Coolio - a fire fighter for a short time.
Danny DeVito - a trained hair stylist (!!!).
Tina Turner - a day time maternity ward nurse, and a night singer at bar clubs in St. Louis.

What They Did Before They Were Famous!
http://www.hardlyfamous.com

Honestly, some of the answers (Danny DeVito for example) really surprised me. I can't visualize Danny DeVito cutting my hair.

YouTube - HIPPIE FASHION

2010-01-31T23:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry, for not posting for a while. I was preoccupied with a lost dog and other things.

A hippie nostalgia from YouTube. If you were a hippie you'll probably enjoy the trip to the past

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGLVJ1FN74o

A Plea From Me

2010-01-22T00:13:00.000-08:00

So, I was given bad news about the new HDP (Hearing Dog Program). They have little money to last only till April. As a non-profit organization they survive on donations only. They haven't been around for very long. It has been very difficult since the original program at the SPCA facility was suddenly shut down by the SFSPCA. It took several months before the people who worked at the former defunct program were able to establish their own non-profit independent program. They have worked very hard to make it happen.

As far as I know, the new HDP is the only program that services and focus solely on the deaf community anywhere in SF Bay Area and nearby towns. Actually, I believe (but could be wrong) that they are even the only one ( that serve the deaf) in North and Central California. I don't know anything about South California. The HDP have had deaf owners coming from places such as Reno, Las Vegas, Santa Cruz, and even Hawaii. If the program won't be able to survive, it will affect many potential deaf owners, who will be left without a hearing dog. This is just what happened when the original program was eliminated a few days short from celebrating its 30 years at the SPCA.

The newly established HDP recently had their first graduation ceremony class for the dogs that finished their training. My new dog was among them. Shelby is now officially a Hearing Dog.

See, these special dogs are life savers since they can alert the deaf person to smoke alarm and fire. They can do other things too to assist their new deaf owners. That what makes these dogs special, and that's why it's important that keep the program running.

From what I've heard there are even very few programs specifically for hearing dogs in the US. I saw a list somewhere a few years ago. Truth is, not many people are even aware that there are such dogs. I've encountered people who didn't want me to go into their stores or the mall because of their lack of awareness about these dogs. I ended up explaining to them what a hearing dog is. In one case, I had a server in a restaurant refusing to let me in with the dog. I had her boss coming by. He knew exactly what a hearing dog is and told her to let me in. I was actually surprised that he knew. He explained it all to her.

You know, I don't like to solicit. It's not my thing but this is a special cause for me. I have known the dog trainers for a long time, and very much want them to survive. They contribute to the deaf community greatly even though they don't have a lot of money and I appreciate what they do. It makes me sad to see them struggling and trying so hard to stay alive in order to help the people who need the special dogs. If it wasn't for them, I would have never met my past and present service dogs.

If you do wish to help them, just either send them a check or use Paypal. Thank you so much for reading this even if you can't help. After all, good thoughts always count too. Always!

http://www.hearingdogprogram.org/donate.php

Haiti - A Donation Stats, FBI, BBB and 2 Articles

2010-01-21T02:43:00.000-08:00

The links are obviously not pleasant, but I'm glad to see that so many people are enthusiastic about helping Haiti. The links also include Donation stats, a list of BBB approved charities, warnings from the FBI, and 2 articles.

*US Donation Stats

Survey: Two-thirds of Americans to donate to aid Haiti
http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2010/01/18/daily7.html

http://tinyurl.com/ydngukn

*I recommend reading the warnings and approvals from the BBB and FBI before donating

HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FRAUD ALERT (FBI)
http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm

http://tinyurl.com/atvon

National Charity Report Index approved by BBB
http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/

http://tinyurl.com/yatjjoo

* Articles

Hard Times at Home Don’t Crimp American Generosity for Haiti Ordinary Americans Donate Multiple Millions of Dollars for Relief Efforts
http://www.america.gov/st/develop-english/2010/January/20100119130139ajesrom0.2671124.html

http://tinyurl.com/ybua49t

Haiti Earthquake May Have Killed More Americans Than 9/11, Iraq or Afghanistan
http://washingtonindependent.com/74227/haiti-earthquake-may-have-killed-more-americans-than-911-iraq-or-afghanistan

http://tinyurl.com/y8mlof3

YouTube - Phenomenal Sullenberger Flight Simulation

2010-01-18T14:22:00.001-08:00

I got this link from a retired pilot himself. It shows a 3-D animation stimulation of the "Miracle on the Hudson" flight that took place in January 13, 2009. Its a beautiful animation that was done last year. You can hear the conversation between Captain Sullenberger and the tower control. At the same time you can see the view as seen from the cockpit. It doesn't show the birds in details. You can barely see them, besides they appear as tiny dots. I didn't even notice them the first time I viewed this video. The first two links are of the same YouTube video. The only difference is their size.

YouTube:

Phenomenal Sullenberger Flight Simulation (full screen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tE_5eiYn0D0#t=109

Phenomenal Sullenberger Flight Simulation (regular screen above)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE_5eiYn0D0

Wikipedia

Wikipedia - Captain Sullenberger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley_Sullenberger

Wikipedia - US Airways Flight 1549
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549

Experiment With Your Hands

2010-01-17T00:03:00.000-08:00

This site is for kids. Personally, I think it's great for anyone who enjoys doing science experiments for fun, or want to learn new things. There are 16 categories for experiments. Some of them are electricity, energy, food science, forces & motion, magnetism and density.

Steve Spangler Science
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments

YouTube - Pepsi Ad

2010-01-16T23:07:00.000-08:00

It's not new, but I absolutely love this commercial!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE9sgw_Ux4o

A Time Travel Through Michigan In Pictures

2010-01-15T02:13:00.001-08:00

This is great. Lots of nostalgic pictures of places in Michigan. For example, bowling allies, movie palaces, motels, gas station, drive ins, tourists traps, Googie, etc. This site is different than other similar sites that I have seen. It's relatively easy to browse through using the categories. You can sense the nostalgia (actually not all are old. For example, the boat racing are from 2004) in the pictures. There are also links, but I have not checked them out.

The titles of the images above are capitalized. The Category in which you can find them are in lower cases. From top to bottom:

1) "TELEGRAPH AND SHERIDAN IN DEARBORN FROM GENE SLAYTON" - gas stations

2) "TAWAS" - tourist cabins

3) "ST. IGNACE" - Downtown Views

Water Winter Wonderland
http://waterwinterwonderland.com/default.asp

Blog - My Owl Barn

2010-01-14T01:49:00.000-08:00

This is neat, especially if you are hooked on owls. I have not seen many owls in the wild but I have always been fascinated with their ability turn their head. You can see them when you hike in SF Bay Area mountains and the Foothills. Even if you can't see them, you might at least hear them. Maybe it was the owl from Winnie the Pooh that made me like them. I especially like the Snowy Owl. Also called Arctic Owl or the Great White Owl. I think they are beautiful. You can read more about ths species in Wikipedia.

Anyway, for owl lovers here is a good owl blog for ya. There are posts all kind of stuff including owl items like couch pillows, books, and owl themes objects that you can by at Amazon and more.

My Owl Barn
http://www.myowlbarn.com

Grammar School Alumni Memories From England

2010-01-12T02:38:00.000-08:00

I have no particular reason as to why chose to post about the English school "Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School Alumni". It just seems fun to look at the pictures of students from so long ago. It's like a time machine. You see pictures of them in drama and music classes and performances. Then you wonder who these people are or were. Perhaps you wonder if they became parents or grandparents.

As for the images above from top to bottom they are titled with the year included:

"You Never Can Tell" 1950 (the name of the play?)
"Make-up c.1950
"School Orchestra 1933"

Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School Alumni
http://www.brgs.org.uk/alumni/archive_drama-music.asp

The school is still active. I have not read much about it, but I did find that out that it's located at Waterfoot, Rossendale. Lancashire, UK. I hope I typed it correctly. I'm not very good with the UK addresses.

Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School
http://www.brgs.org.uk/

All About Aprons

2010-01-12T02:01:00.000-08:00

A site all about aprons. An excerpt from the blogger explains the goal of the site: "make aprons to show and tell! every few months there is a different theme. you make the apron, e-mail me the photo (a jpeg) with your info (like a blog link), and then I will add it to the gallery at the end of the month."

I am not an apron person, but I enjoyed the site. It was fun. I liked the images that had aprons in it. They were entertaining. There are also two apron links at Flickr.

Tie One On
http://angrychicken.typepad.com/tieoneon/

£2.3 million in for a nickel!!!

2010-01-09T02:43:00.000-08:00

Amazing! An article about a very rare US nickel (5 cents) from 1913 that just fetched $3.7 million in an auction in Florida.

Rare coin fetches over £2.3 million in auction
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100108/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_usa_coin

British Comics

2010-01-09T01:58:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from the main page at the British Cartoon Archive site: "The British Cartoon Archive is located in Canterbury at the University of Kent’s Templeman Library. It has a library, archive, gallery, and is a registered museum dedicated to the history of British cartooning over the last two hundred years. It holds more than 130,000 original editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons, supported by large collections of comic strips, newspaper cuttings, books and magazines. The collection of original artwork dates back to 1904..."

By the way, the British Cartoon Archive at Canterbury was previously called "Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature".

The British Cartoon Archive
http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/

Video - The Orangutan and the Hound

2010-01-08T23:22:00.001-08:00

Watch a friendship between an orangutan and a hound. A segment from the National Geographic.

Watch more National Geographic Channel videos on AOL Video

The Orangutan and the Hound
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/the-orangutan-and-the-hound/1234581161/?icid=VIDLRVNAT07

Top 2009

2010-01-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

The top 10 everything 2009 and the banished word list. Interesting words that are banished. A bit of a strange list. The first list from TIME.com. The second one is from Lake Superior State university.

Top 10 Everything 2009
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1945379,00.html

A similar article is also on TIME.com. But this one version is much more detailed.

Lake Superior State University - Banished Words list
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php

Updating Time

2010-01-03T03:00:00.000-08:00

I am updating my blog starting from the very beginning. The total of my posts, not including this one is 866 posts. I already found a few expired links. As of now, I am still in "2007". I hope it won't take more than a few days to finish checking all the links. Lots of work but it's time for me to update again. I have not updated it in about 2 years.

YouTube - How it's Made - Postage Stamps

2010-01-03T01:00:00.001-08:00

Wow, I had no idea how delicate and complicated it is to produce stamps! The designer of the stamp has to be very accurate when designing the stamps. When the image (illustration, photo or whatever) of the stamp is done on the computer, the designer has to print it and test it by using a magnifying glass for a deep inspection of the stamp layout before it goes into procession. The publishing process ain't that easy either. It goes through several steps before the final product is out. I don't think I'd want to be a stamp designer. It seems like a huge responsibility with millions of people depending on you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KETwb4MLKVI

The Real Kiwi

2009-12-30T01:57:00.000-08:00

You know, if you don't know what a Kiwi is. It's a bird from New Zealnd who can't fly. I think I've posted it before when. It demonstrates how this Kiwi desperately attempts to fly despite all the obstacles. His desire is very strong.

Under the user's "info" there are links for more information, and for answering people's questions about the Kiwi that people have been asking the animator. This clip is actually a fave of mine since it was posted 2 years ago. The clip was posted by the original animator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs

Aha! A Catalog For The Kiwi Pacific Records!

2009-12-30T00:42:00.000-08:00

Ouch! I should have checked this site earlier. I went straight to Kiwi Pacific Records and saw that there is a catalog of their old records.

Kiwi Pacific Record Catalog
http://www.kiwipacific.com/index.php?cPath=27

The Sounds Of New Zealand

2009-12-30T00:20:00.000-08:00

The history of New Zealand includes a record company called Kiwi Records. Kiwi Records was established in 1957. Kiwi Records' purpose was as the first paragraph tells us to "provide support to the "Maori language, physical education and folk-dancing school text". The link Also, additional reading include the record company's historical background of the Maori & Pacific discs, folk songs and ballads, children's choirs & records, tweets and twains.

As you go on reading the about the background, you'll read that besides producing songs and music there was another unique music style. In the 1960's when the hi-fi was new, people were doing experiments by recording anything. Like the sound of birds and the stream trains. There was even a record package from a company called Musicolour Products. The package was called "The sounds of Antarctica" (1965). This package came with colour books. There is also an interesting history about the sales of the sounds. You could even hear the bird calls at the Radio New Zealand National.

On the right hand side navigation area, go to "Related galleries" and click on the "New Zealand Music Month" to related images. This site is an excellent place to learn about the history of New Zealand which includes those crazy decades of the 60's and the 70's. There is really plenty to learn about the musical background such as the Beatles visit to New Zealand. I enjoyed the reading about the music but wish there were a lot more pictures of their vintage records covers. It would have been nice to see them visually not just reading about them.

Kiwi Records
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/kiwi-records

The New Zealand History Media Library has many other great topics at the media page. I may be wrong but you probably could learn almost anything about the historical background of New Zealand here. At least to me, there is much to learn about NZ, I hardly know anything about this country except (from what I've been told) that the people in NZ are very friendly. ;-)

The New Zealand History Media Library
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/library/media

Papers & Crafty Crows

2009-12-29T00:45:00.000-08:00

The Crafty Crow blog is basically about children's craft and books. There are all kinds of entertaining posts. There are many posts about books as well crafts, paper toys, history, music, experiments and just about anything that you can share with children. Among all these categories there are four categories that aim at four specific age groups. 12+, 18 months to 2 years old, 3-5 years old and 6 to 12 years old. There are way too many categories for me to list here. This is a good place though, to find out about children books. The posts contain the link of the featured subjects. I find these other sites equally interesting. At one point I indirectly went to nice blog called Custom Paper Toys. Check it out. I've seen a few of these paper toys somewhere else, but I'm not sure if it was the same artist. Anyhow, these creations are truly amazing, creative and imaginative. Looking at the image above you can see the talent coming through. The link to his site is the second url below.

http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow

Custom Paper Toys
http://www.custompapertoys.com

Blog - Groovy Vegetarian

2009-12-28T02:56:00.000-08:00

As a vegetarian I enjoyed this stuff. This isn't a PETA sort of things. It's fun and there are all kind of posts, like funny vegetarian shirts, vegan vanilla cupcakes, Coasters Made From Recycled PC Motherboards and Why Isn’t There A Dog Whisperer For Cats?

Believe it or not, but the woman above, Mimi Kirk, is 71 years old vegetarian who became a vegetarian 30 years ago and eats raw food! That post is from August 30th, 2009. Many years ago I met this elderly lady. I was curious about her age. She told me to guess it and I said maybe early 60's. She said no, that she was 75 or 80 (I can't remember her exact age, but she sure didn't look anywhere close to her real age). I was in shock! She was in a fantastic shape just like the woman above, Mimi Kirk. Truly amazing. In that post, there is also a small video clip in which you can see how old she looked. It was hard for me to believe she was much older than she looked.

So as you can see there are some interesting posts displayed on Groovy Vegetarian.

Groovy Vegetarian - Compassion Lifestyle Blog (with eco fun mixed in)
http://www.groovyvegetarian.com

Another Mullet Junky

2009-12-25T20:51:00.001-08:00

This Mullet site has photos for different mullet styles. They even have children with mullet pictures. I've at times wondered if these children wanted the mullet, or if it was their parents' choice. The styles that you'll see here are albino, child, femullets, mullatinos, rat tails, skullets and random. There is also a category called Mullet hunters.

Mullet Junky
http://www.mulletjunky.com

Please Be Careful With My Mullet!

2009-12-25T20:34:00.000-08:00

This is a one page site, but it will be enough once you'll see it. ;-p And no, I don't have a mullet and never did. Whew! But I remember them. It was quite a fad back then. Once a while, I's come across a person who has a mullet. Did you know that there were several styles? There are 12 of them. I never knew that.

Mullet Joe - Got Mullet?
http://www.mulletjoe.com/index_QY7R.html

Snow, snow.... and snow

2009-12-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

Now with all the snow storms that have been plaguing the East coast and Midwest I remembered that many years ago, I read in some book that the Eskimos (Inuit, Aivilik and Igloolik) have 31 specific terms for snow! Incredible isn't it!

Elements
http://www.elements.nb.ca/kids/snow/snoword.htm

If you want to learn about the Inuit language, there is a link below for that. To tell you the truth, I have seen several sites about their language and I am still clueless. I admit that I've never seen an Inuit text before and certainly never heard it spoken. So from my point of view it seems too complicated for me to try to understand the basics of this language.

Wapedia - Inuktitut syllabics
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Inuktitut_syllabics

Any Idea?

2009-12-23T18:14:00.000-08:00

NOTCOUTURE is a site for "your ideas, aesthetics and amusement."

NOTCOUTURE
http://www.notcot.org

YouTube - I'm Yours(ukulele)

2009-12-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

This boy is so cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErMWX--UJZ4

Best Of YouTube!

2009-12-20T12:47:00.000-08:00

The title of my post says it all. Now just hit the url. Even though I like the site, overall have no idea how often or when they were originally posted on YouTube. It would take some searching try to calculate all videos' date. So I'll skip that. Just enjoy the site, but, I do know that the Let's Enchance was uploaded to YouTube about on Dec 13, and that The Known Universe is from Dec 15. So they are very recent. But you can use the title of the video to search for its actual date. But, if you want to find out, you can always search it on the YouTube's site.

Best Of YouTube
http://www.bestofyoutube.com

A USB World

2009-12-17T03:03:00.000-08:00

Looking for posts about novelty USB flash drives for your computer? Perhaps you want to buy one or create one for yourself? Or maybe you are looking for the technical side of the USB? Looking for USB tutorials? Want to read the latest USB news? You'll find them all and more at GetUSB.Info. I liked looking at the different USB flash drives. They have some neat, silly and funny ones. You don't need to be a geek for this.

GetUSB.info Main Page
http://www.getusb.info

If you want to look at the novelty items click here. If you want to see more posts at that category, see "previous/next entries" at the bottom inside a box on the right hand side, or at the right hand side just above the first post.I missed them at first.

GetUSB.Info - Useless Novelty
http://www.getusb.info/category/usb-novelty-gadget

The Birth Of The Shopping Cart

2009-12-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

This is quite interesting. The history of the shopping cart begun in 1937 where it was invented by a resident of Oklahoma City, OK, called Sylvan N. Goldman. The history goes all the way to the online shopping carts. Like the early shopping cart back in 1937, the online shopping cart had it own imperfections in the beginning. It has been an intriguing trip since the shopping cart was born.

RealCart - History Of The Shopping Cart
http://www.realcart.com/history

Pictures of the early shopping carts:

Smithsonian - Telescoping Shopping Cart
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8739.htm

Contemporary and old shopping carts with images:

Design Boom - The (All American) History Of Shopping (Carts)
http://www.designboom.com/history/cart.html

Design Boom - 'Cartrider' By Jaebeom Jeong
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/4190/cartrider-by-jaebeom-jeong.html

Gesundheit!

2009-12-11T00:17:00.000-08:00

My favorite tissue's brand is the Kleenex. I did some research on the internet looking for a background information about Kleenex. In a nutshell, what I learned was that it started in 1924 as a disposable cleansing tissue to remove cold face cream. It was a substitute for the towel, and was seen as a healthier alternative. But many people also used it as disposable handkerchiefs before Kleenex started promoting it as a "sneezing tool". It was in 1930 when it finally took off as the disposable handkerchief product that we know of today. It became very popular with the public and was a big success for the company.

About Kleenex
http://www.kleenex.co.uk/UK/About/Default.aspx

The link below has many ads-comics featuring Little LuLu with the Kleenex (You'll need to keep scrolling to the right to see them all).

Gallery of Kleenex Ads
http://graphic-design.tjs-labs.com/gallery-view?product=KLEENEX

A short summary about the history of the Kleenex

History Of The Kleenex Tissue
http://inventors.about.com/od/kstartinventions/a/Kleenex.htm

A Kleenex TV Commercial From Italy 1988 (there are no words).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLuO_bFGY-A

A TV In Your Pocket

2009-12-10T02:58:00.001-08:00

Do you remember those old portable pocket tvs? I remember those, but have not seen one of those in ages. I actually was not aware they went that far back to the 60's. I always thought they were invented in early 70's. This site has a short history of pocket television with an image of each model attached to it. There is also an ad for most of these tvs.

The image above is from 1963 I think (I am not positive about that part).

The Short "History" Of Pocket TV
http://www.taschenfernseher.de/e-history.htm

*I forgot to mention that you may want to start reading from the main page as well. There are additional short chapters related to hand held tv.

Frank's Handheld - TV Pages
http://www.taschenfernseher.de/index-e.htm

YouTube - New Boy

2009-12-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

I love this Irish short called "New Boy". It was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008. The person who posted this on YouTube describes: "A young African boy with a haunting back story starts school in Ireland, and finds out quickly exactly what it means to be the new kid. Winner of Best Narrative Short at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar." I saw this about a week ago, but when I went back to YouTube, the video was taken off due to copy rights. Much to my surprise, I was just able to find this one here and in an excellent quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdeioVndUhs

Those Old Dealerships

2009-12-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

I love these old dealership photos from the motive magazine - the car lounge's forum. The image at the very top really fascinated me. It practically looks like a living room. The pictures from mid-70's and the early 80's brought me a few memories. I'll never forget the day the family went to the dealership in mid-70's to buy this horrible used Mercury station wagon. I didn't like it, but I liked how you can open the back door in two different ways. It was fun. I remember there was this big "OK" sign in red letters at the dealership. Actually, every once a while I spot a Mercury station wagon.

motive - the car lounge
http://forums.motivemag.com/zerothread?id=4330627

Shhh.. The Silent Is On!

2009-12-06T00:30:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I enjoyed watching silent movies very much, especially the Charlie Chaplin's movies. Those were the 70's before cable become common and the VCR didn't exist yet). Those movies were always on the PBS channel. At the same time I also enjoyed watching Zorro ;-) So when I saw this site I thought that it was quite a nice site. It has information about movies and the actors. Some other categories are sheet music featuring performers, and unidentified film stills, old articles and more.

One of the reasons that I like this site, is because I can view background and actor pictures. The pictures of the music sheets were interesting.

I can't vouch for the links' page. I checked only several and some of them were expired or had been modified since they were posted. I did recognize a few good sites though.

Silent Film Still Archive
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com

YouTube - Surprised Kitty Cat cutest ever :))

2009-12-05T01:03:00.000-08:00

I have watched this video several times since it was posted on YouTube not too long ago. The kitten makes me smile each time I watch it. It sure can make you smile when you have a bad day. Now, it's about time for me to post it already!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww9_RUWw9ms

Learn And Travel With The United States Maps

2009-12-03T12:34:00.001-08:00

Another post that is related to United States. This site is very good. It has all kind of maps. Such as terrain, roads, highways, state maps, atlas, Washington D.C, political (which wasn't what I expected though), state abbreviations. Some of these maps will lead you to subcategories maps-information, like the "maps and directions" and a whole lots more. It'll also show you links to websites that contain info to sites such as Mapquest and via Michelin (that one is new to me), Microsfot Macpoint.

United State Map
http://www.united-states-map.com

What's The Origin Of Your State's Name?

2009-12-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

Do you know how your state got its name? My state, California, existed it European literature before the California's region discovered! Another fact, Colorado is a Spanish name for 'ruggy' or 'red'. From the Alpha Dictionary - Dr Goodword's Office.

Origins of US State Names
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/state_name_origin.html

What Do The Abacus & The Computer Have in Common?

2009-11-30T00:08:00.000-08:00

Do you like learning about the computer history? This site takes you through out the history of computer starting with the original Abacus like counting board in 300 BC It was a counting board which was the primitive Abacus in 399 BC. Later in 500 BC The counting board Abacus was transformed to the Abacus that we know today.

I have seen other great on-line computer museums and sites about the computer history. They are all over the internet, like the "old computer museum" and the like. It's interesting the way this site leads us all the way to 2009 starting with a simple device as the Abacus. Personally, I find it interesting that the Abacus mentioned here, because I always thought of it as a math first "calculator". But I can certainly see why the Abacus is used in the history of the computer. It makes sense.

Computer History
http://www.computerhope.com/history/bc.htm

Interesting though, this site states that the Abacus was invented by the Chinese in 3,000 BC. That's 5,000 years ago. But it wasn't the Abacus that we know of today. It was completely different. The methods were different. It does states that in "c300 The Chinese begin development of the abacus as a mathematical device c500 The abacus is used in Europe." There are several on-line link, but I want to let you know that the one called "The History Of The Cranmer Abacus For The Blind" didn't work for me. I got an error message. Bummer.

Abacus By The Chinese in 3,000 BC
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/abacus.htm

If you want to learn about the different type of Abacus through out the world, check Wikipedia. There are many type of the Abacus.

Wikipedia - Abacus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus

YouTube - The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

2009-11-26T02:53:00.000-08:00

I love Queen and their Bohemian Rhapsody video. Check out the Muppet version. It's quite creative. Hilarious! I first saw this video via likecool.com. If you like the Muppets, I think you'll have fun watching it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

Down below is the real segement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irp8CNj9qBI

A Ticket Inside My Retro Airline Bag

2009-11-26T01:40:00.001-08:00

I absolutely love this British site. The have retro reproductions items that you can buy from England. Today I was given a gift of a retro Pan AM bag which is how I ended up looking at this site. The airline retro bags are my favorite products in this site. I miss those bags. I remember when they were very popular during the 1970's. Inretro sells airline flight bags, hostess bags, retro print bags, cool mod bags, retro sport bags, retro travel bags, retro shopping bags, funky sensations, purses & wallets. Check the "info" button for more groovy stuff. They are also supposed to have new items coming in the near future.

Inretro
http://www.inretro.net/

Generations Of Soccer

2009-11-25T02:22:00.000-08:00

The Soccer Ball World gives information about the history of balls for the baseball. It has information about the ball construction and design, history, physics, how to take care of the soccer ball and explanations about the BAR, PSI and LBS and more. This site also sells soccer balls and custom balls.

Also, presentws in this site is the first soccer ball. In 1936 Charles Goodyear's patented the vulcanized rubber. In 1855 he designed and built the first vulcanized rubber soccer ball. Its shape was similar to today's basketball. It is the oldest soccer ball.You can see pictures of it. Later a man named, James Naismith patented the game of basketball. The first basket ball game was played with the soccer ball!! How about that?!

Regarding the soccer balls above. The modern ball is a 2006 blue/gray star ball. The grey ball that with the laces is from 1910. The orange ball that looks like a basketball is from 1950. The last one at the bottom that doesn't look much like a ball is from 1950. Those white balls were made for the spectators to see the ball during floodlight. But it was already used back in 1892 but not officially.

You can find more specific information about the early balls under the history category.If you don't know what vulcanized is, I looked up at dictionary.com:

1. to treat (rubber) with sulfur and heat, thereby imparting strength, greater elasticity, durability, etc.

2. to subject (a substance other than rubber) to some analogous process, as to harden it.

The Soccer Ball World
http://www.soccerballworld.com/

Blog - Pass Your Driving Test

2009-11-24T00:06:00.001-08:00

The Pass Your Driving Test blog is about topics that are related to driving such as the California DUI punishment, first time driving stories, cleaning the car, police, driving test stories, weather, driving in the rain, how to get a Dutch driver's license and much more.

Blog - Pass Your Driving Test
http://pass-your-driving-test.blogspot.com/

Aerial History In Connecticut

2009-11-19T01:38:00.000-08:00

If you want to learn more about Aerial history, I recommend checking out the Connecticut University Library. This one is focused on the aerial history in Connecticut. They have impressive photographs. There are also many great links in Google.

Connecticut University Library - History of Aerial Photography in Connecticut
http://www.cslib.org/AERIALS/Aerialshist.htm

What Do Hot-Air Balloons, Kites, Rockets & Pigeons Have In Common?

2009-11-19T01:05:00.000-08:00

The Professional Aerial Photographers Association has an excellent page for the history of aerial photography. It all started in 1855 when the French photographer and balloonist, Gaspar Felix Tournachon, also known as Nadar, patented his idea for using the aerial photographs in map making and surveying. Three years later he took an aerial shot of a French village called Petit-Becetre. He took the shot from a tethered hot air balloon that was 80 meters above the ground. However, this photograph among other early photographs from Nadar didn't survive. Today the only earliest photograph that is still in existence is a James Wallace Black's 1860 image of Boston from a hot-air balloon. When it wasn't necessary to carry heavy equipment anymore, due to advancement of the dry plate process, Triboulet took the first photo from a free flight balloon in 1879 of Paris.

As you continue reading more about the history of aerial photography, you'll read about further methods of the aerial history from the 19th century throughout the 20th century. The other methods were kites, pigeons, rockets and at last the airplanes. The aerial photography was used first for military purposes. After the war, for a successful business purposes and for private use.

The images above were taken by a pigeon. As a matter of fact, you can see the wings on the top left image. The pigeon carry a tiny breast-mounted camera that was developed by Julius Neubranner in 1903. These Bavarian Pigeons use the camera largely for the military use. The birds were introduce at the 1909 Dresden International Photographic Exhibition that also had the birds' popular aerial photos postcards that depicted the aerial shots of the exhibition.

PAPA - History of Aerial Photography
http://www.papainternational.org/history.html

More Skooters At Historical Glen Echo Park

2009-11-17T02:14:00.000-08:00

Here is another one. A site called Glen Echo Park - The Bumper Car Pavilion. The historical Echo Park is located in Washington DC by the Potomac. What we are seeing here in this url are photos of the bumper cars and the exterior of the Pavilion from the park's heydays. Most of the pictures are from the first half of the 20th century starting in the 1920s. It doesn't show every decade nor every single year (there are no photos from the 50's and the 70's). The last photos are from the early 1980's. It's not an extensive collection and not all photos show the cars. Some show the exteriors outside the Pavilion. Originally it had a different name. The original name for the pavilion was "The Skooter" to "Dodgem" and Finally to the Bumper Car Pavilion.

Glen Echo Park - The Bumper Car Pavilion
http://www.nps.gov/archive/glec/bcar/index.html

The Dodgems & The Skooters

2009-11-17T01:55:00.000-08:00

So far this is the best site that I've been able to find so far about the bumper cars. They are also called skooters (no typo here) and dodgems. Those are the little mini cars that you see in amusement parks. You drive in a small arena where you bump into other cars.

I did see a few other sites, but they usually had one or two old photos and not much information. So this site has the most info and most [old] photos that I could find so far.

Lusse Auto Scooters
http://www.lusseautoscooters.com/

The Way Nurses Used To Be

2009-11-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

This site belongs to the Mount Saint Vincent University. They present their online project called "Nursing History Digitization Project - Nursing Education in Nova Scotia".

A short excerpt from the introduction (see Home page) explains the purpose of this project: "This site, which was developed by the Mount Saint Vincent University Archives, explores the history of nursing education in Nova Scotia from 1890, when the Victoria General Hospital established the first nursing school in Nova Scotia, to the late twentieth century. "

If you look at the left column, you'll see that the nursing history project is divided into 8 sub categories. Personally, I liked them all, but mostly the Male Nurses, Racial Exclusion, and the Hospital Based Nursing Programs. A well site.

The images above are called "Graduation Class 1899" (with two male nurses), and "Student Nurses Attending a Class" from the 1940s.

Nursing History Digitization Project
http://www.msvu.ca/library/archives/nhdp/history.htm

YouTube - You Scream I Scream - Dog

2009-11-14T11:25:00.001-08:00

When I saw this video about a month ago, I thought it was hilarious. I should have posted it back then. At first it seems like it's gonna be one of those 'cute' videos, but as I kept watching I saw it was not. It was a parody that kept me chuckling. In a way it was so true. I enjoyed watching it again and again. It's one of the best videos that I have seen in a long time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6C6YCTNqVo

YouTube - M&M's - Which Hand (1950's)

2009-11-12T21:42:00.000-08:00

According to "MandMsCommercial", 1950's M&M's commercial might be the brand's first ad. Unfortunately, the quality is bad and there is enough contrast. but if you darken your screen a little bit you might see better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gtM_mmvDww

The Early Evolution Of The Treadmill In Prison

2009-11-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

After I was done writing this post, I realized that I strayed from my original purpose. I intended to write about the history of the treadmill. Instead, I found myself focusing more on the use of treadwheel at the prison system centuries ago. It was new to me. The Hubpage site states that the history of the treadmill started during the Roman and Greek eras. It was more focused on the treadmill from a health perspective and as a cardio invention. This was the type of information that I looked for. But as soon as I read that it started in prison, I became curious.

Origins & History of the Treadmill
http://hubpages.com/hub/Origins--History-of-the-Treadmill

Did you know that a few centuries ago the treadmill, which was referred to as the treadwheel those days, was very popular? However, it wasn't for personal achievements at all. It was rather a form of punishment in prisons early in the 1800's. This is where the treadwheel spewed out. As you may have figured out already, these early treadmills, or treadwheels as I should call them, looked nothing like the modern treadmills which are still evolving. The prisoners were forced to use it and had to walk for miles on it. It was clearly a form cruelty and torture and served no purpose and without any benefits.

If you are interested to learn about prisons and the punishments during the early 1800's. There are many other good sites about punishment in prisons in the early 1800's in Europe and the US. Most of them are about prison's punishment and the atrocious system, but of them have a brief mention about the treadwheels.

I have seen only very few images of the treadwheels that were used in prisons. It was hard to find them. I've seen the photograph in several sites though. You can also learned more from some of the sites where I got the images from, except the science site which is a picture library site. The category on this site is about the punishment and very depressing. So just be aware that if you go there, you might be disturbed by other images (which are not related to the treadwheel). You can find lighter subjects from the main page (click the icon on the top left).

As for the National Archive site, you may want to check out this page as well:

National Archive -Why were Victorian Prisons so tough?
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/lessons/lesson24.htm

The images from bottom to top are from:

Gravel Roots
http://www.gravelroots.net/petworth/prison.html

** I lost the information for the original site for this illustration. But there is another site with the same image, just a smaller one from the Lancaster Castle movie site. There is also a trailer for the movie. By The Way, it is an interesting site.

Lancaster Castle - Crime and punishment
http://www.lancastercastle.com/html/history/crime_and_punishment.php

The National Archives Learning Curve - Prisoners on a treadwheel at Pentonville Prison 1895
http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/snapshots/snapshot24/B95E1338181E4E6C89A0DA004675F763.htm

*Problem with the link above? Use the link below:
*Learning Curve - Prisoners on a treadwheel at Pentonville Prison 1895
http://tinyurl.com/ykgcszl

Science & Society - Image Preview
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10315808

It's A Bigfoot!!

2009-11-10T00:06:00.001-08:00

Learn about the history of the Monster Truck and Bigfoot. It was in 1974, when Bob Chandler drove the his monster truck in a field over cars to crash them and test the truck. This truck was the early Bigfoot version (the second version came in 1982). The reason he did it was for his four wheel drive performance shop's promotion. Chandler's video was seen by an event promoter who then asked Chandler to do it in front of a crowd. Chandler initially hesitated but eventually agreed to do so. The rest is history. An interesting one too, as you'll also learn the origin behind the phrase "Monster Truck" in Wikipedia (at the end of the second paragraph).

Wikipedia - Monster Trucks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_truck

Below is the original Bigfoot in action It's a 5:35 minutes clip. By the way, when I typed "bigfoot monster truck" in the search box, I got 2,240 results. But after watching some, I saw that lots of them are about the monster trucks in general. I really liked the early trucks clips. Those are classics.

YouTube Bigfoot the Monster Truck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY8VFWfxdZA

Catch A Lesson About The 19th Century Baseball

2009-11-09T22:30:00.001-08:00

This is a really nice looking site about baseball in the 19th century. Baseball fans and experts will probably notice the differences.

19th Century Baseball
http://www.19cbaseball.com/

How Many Time Did You Take Your Driving Written Exam?

2009-11-07T03:19:00.000-08:00

Well, this lady took it many times for four years and finally succeed at her 950th try!! I don't understand how anyone can fail to take a driving exam test after 950 tries?! You'd end up memorizing it. After 950 tries I wouldn't even need to read it. I'd do it with in my sleep.

This lady is sure a determined person. She said she needs the license for her vegetable business. She is a 68 years Korean old woman from Seoul, Korea. She spent $ 4,200 on the application fees. You could buy a big HD tv with that money here in the US. Wow! (that's more than 5 million won in Korean money)I wonder if it's harder to pass the test in Korea. It took me only one exam which I did when i was in high school many years ago here in California. Had only one mistake on the driving part. I can't imagine taking that test every day, for 4 and half years, and always failing it. Something ain't right here. Her first effort was in April 2005 and finally passed it now. She still has one more exam to pass though. There is no explanation as to why she has failed so many time. So that remains a mystery.

Now I am curious to see what kind of questions the Korean driving exams have.

Article: SKorean woman passes driver's exam on 950th try
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091106/ap_on_fe_st/as_odd_skorea_aspiring_driver