Archive for December, 2011


A fake Paris to confuse the Germans


Thursday, December 29th, 2011

As a defensive plan today, it seems very naïve but in the context of its time it could have proved useful. According to Slate Magazine a fake Paris complete with replica Champs-Elysees was built at the end of the First World War in a bid to trick German bombers.

In 1917, airmen flew without radar and bombed at a glance of the white. They could therefore be deceived, especially at night, with false illuminations. Therefore, the French authorities thought to build a fictitious city destined to be destroyed by the Germans.

The expected decoys to take the Germans off the scent were a replica of the plaza de l’Étoile, where a dozen avenues converge and in whose centre stands the Arc de Triomphe and Opera with its large boulevards. and even a copy of the Gare du Nord railway station.

However, the fantasy Paris – 15 miles from the centre of the original – was not quite finished before the last air raid in Paris in September 1918 – which meant  it was never tested.



What does your sandwich say about you?


Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Next time you guys are on a dinner date, pay special attention to what kind of sandwich she orders, as it might reveal a hidden insight into her personality, new research has claimed.

Food psychologist Dr Elizabeth Jones, of Mindlab, who conducted the correlation analysis study for Warburtons, said: “Personality traits tend to go hand-in-hand with personal habits and routines, which allows us to match the type of bread and filling a woman chooses to have at lunch with a personality group.”

Here are the eight key sandwich personalities:

The Tuna and Sweetcorn on White Bread: “High Flyers”

The Prawn on Brown Bread: “Sensitive Souls”

The Ham Salad on White Bread: “Forward Thinkers”

The Chicken Salad Wrap: “Extroverts”

The Egg Mayo on Wholemeal Bread: “Home Bodies”

The BLT on Seeded Bread: “Opportunists”

The Cheese and Pickle as it comes: “Brainiacs”

The Beef Roll: “Impulsives”

The common sandwich has been part of our diet and heritage for centuries, so it’s little wonder that the choice of a sarnie can reveal what type of person a woman is.

And here’s a sandwich related joke:

There were three men working on the top of a cliff. The first man said, “If I have cheese in my sandwich tomorrow, I’ll jump off this cliff.” The second said, “If I have jam in my sandwich tomorrow, I’ll jump off the cliff.” The third said, “If I have ham tomorrow, I’ll jump off the cliff.”

The next day, the first man had cheese, the second had jam, and the third had ham. So they all jumped. At the funerals, the wives of the first two men said, “Why didn’t they just tell us they didn’t like their sandwiches?”

The wife of the third said, “I don’t know why my husband jumped off the cliff. He made his own sandwiches.”



Internet dating lies


Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

For those internet daters out there, we have found a small survey which details the top lies told by men and women. We are not fans of liars (even little white ones), and so in an effort to alert people to these porkies pulling the wool over people’s eyes, we thought we would give the top three lies told by men and women on their dating sites.

Men:

1) Job (saying it is better than it is) - so if his profile states that he is Warren Buffet’s ‘right hand man’, odds are that he’s lying.

2) Height (taller) - now this is a must if he’s taking you to a theme park for a date: you need to make sure that he’ll be able to get on all of the rides!!

3) Weight (losing or gaining a few pounds) - but remember muscle weighs more than fat.

Women:

1) Weight (losing a few pounds) - no matter what, you shouldn’t ask!!

2) Age (losing a few years) - always have a sneak peek at the birth certificate/drivers licence.

3) Physique (toned) - it seems that ‘toned’ is a buzzword that spans quite a large range of somatotypes.

So there we have it, the top three lies told by men and women … you have been warned! Happy internet dating everybody!!



Leading mathematician creates apple-bobbing formula


Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

With Halloween around the corner children will be looking for the perfect technique in order to bob for that elusive apple. Professor Frank Smith, a professor of Applied Mathematics at UCL, has developed a formula using mouth size and texture to identify the ideal circumference, diameter and weight of an apple used in the Halloween party game.

The equation in question is: D = 3 x (2 + T ^2) x M / (10 x T), where D is diameter, T is typical texture of an apple, and M is average mouth size - and the result is the British Zari apple!! It was found that Zari had the optimum buoyancy in water, combined with the perfect texture and density. The apple has the perfect amount of exposed surface area when bobbing, enabling players to snatch the apple with “maximum speed and efficiency”.

There’s your insider’s tip – go for the Zari’s and bob away!



An unidentified flying object


Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Police in Hertfordshire received an urgent 999 call from a caller claiming that a bright UFO was “coming towards him”. The recordings of the male caller have been released, alerting the police to a UFO hovering in his back garden.

The operator can be heard logging the bizarre information, asking the caller if the object was making any “engine noise”. The caller replied that it was not, stating “I thought it was an aeroplane at first and then its just hovering with all these lights on.”

Minutes later, the caller rang back, to confess an embarrassing mistake about his claim. When asked by the operator what he had seen, the man coyly replied: “You’re not going to believe this, you’re not going to believe it… it’s the moon.”



Meerkats recognise each other’s voices


Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

What did one meerkat say to the other? Potentially quite a lot, according to a study published in the Royal Society journal. These animals, which belong to the mongoose family and have recently increased their notoriety in popular culture through television adverts, are known for being noisy and communicative animals.

However, recent studies believe that meerkats may be able to recognise individual voices. The University of Zurich tested whether meerkats can recognise each other without seeing the individual by playing back calls. When the call of two separate individuals was played back from different areas, the meerkats did not pay much attention. But when the same individual’s call was played from two separate areas at the same time, the meerkats became agitated, as this would be impossible, proving the mammals are able to recognise a voice … Simples!



California draws up legal definition for a hot dog


Thursday, December 1st, 2011

They’re some of the age old debates: “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”, “are we alone in the universe?”, “is time travel humanly possible?”…”what exactly is a hot dog!!??”. Well, thankfully the state of California has been working on it, and managed to answer one of these quizzical questions.

According to new legislation, a hot dog is defined as “a whole, cured, cooked sausage that is skinless or stuffed in a casing, may be served on a bun or roll”. The definition has been introduced in order to distinguish between pre-cooked hot dogs and uncooked meat sausages. So the next time you’re wolfing down a weiner (which on average, is consumed in 6.1 bites) you’ll know exactly what you’re eating.