The first ever Klingon opera is under way in The Hague, Netherlands. The production is at the Zeebelt Theatre and is being performed entirely in Klingon by the Terran Research Ensemble. There are more people in the world who speak Klingon than Esperanto, the hotch-potch language which never really took off, not that that says a lot.
Sneaky
Customers of budget airline bmibaby are routinely asked at departure gates to put their hand luggage in a metal cage to ensure it met size restrictions. Fair enough. But the dimensions of the cages at their departure gates (at all airports) were smaller than those on the main concourse, meaning a £30 each way surcharge as the bags then had …
The numbers game
Wednesday, if you hadn’t noticed, was what is known (except in America where they switch month and day) as a Sequential Day, the precise time of the occurrence being at 12.34pm and 56.7 seconds, the date completed the pattern with 8.9.10. The phenomenon is rare, the last ‘pure’ sequence having fallen at 01.23.45am on 6.7.89 and the next one will …
Instant Google
After all sorts of new ideas, some good and some bad, and talk of Google Music, Google TV and a host of other applications, the company has just announced an enhancement to the area in which it excels and for which it is most widely known, namely ‘searching for things’. Google has just launched Google Instant, a speedy new search …
Fire up the furniture
Perry Watkins, from Buckinghamshire, is awaiting confirmation of a new world record for the fastest piece of furniture after driving his Queen Anne dining table down a racetrack at an average speed of 113 mph. Watkins drove the Queen Anne table, nicknamed ‘Fast Food’ and set for a silver service dinner, twice down a 500m track at Santa Pod, Nottinghamshire, …
I’m a celebrity airhead, get me out of here
Senior Las Vegas police officers have been defending the rapid release from prison of socialite Paris Hilton after she was arrested on August 27th for suspected cocaine possession. Miss Hilton was in and out of the Clark County Detention Centre in under three hours, roughly half the average time it takes to process crime suspects. Many take a lot, lot …
Previously unseen Blitz footage
Some previously unseen colour film of London during the Blitz has been uncovered after lying untouched in an attic for the past 70 years. The films have been digitised and will form part of a 70th anniversary site called West End at War. You can see one of the films here.
Parasite paradise
Surely someone is having a larf, not least the family who have apparently so far trashed eight or nine houses, have their breakfast delivered to them each morning and complain that they are not getting enough financial support. £95,000-a-year benefits family of 12 re-homed in a £1,000-a-week house… ‘after they trashed the last one’ OK, so the story comes from …
Impact of the internet
The next full edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the world’s most definitive work on the English language, will never actually be printed due to the impact of the internet on book sales The last printed edition of the OED, in twenty volumes, was published in 1989 and since that time, 80 lexographers have been working on OED3. However, after …
Biggest spud
Peter Glazebrook is no stranger when it comes to record breaking vegetables, having held the record for the longest carrot (17 feet!!), heaviest parsnip (13 pounds) and the longest beetroot (21 feet). Now, he has grown a huge 8lbs 4oz (3.76kg) potato and is awaiting confirmation of yet another Guinness World Record….STORY…