Did You Know.....

[Warph]

A four-year-old has her own art exhibition in New York City!  This will definitely reignite the debate about what art really is.... does the product of a kid playing with paint really constitute fine art?  I don't think so.... but the parents of 4-year-old Aelita Andre definitely think so.  The precocious Australian artist has reportedly been toddling around on canvases since she was 9 months old!  Now that she's all grown up at the age of four... FOUR for %#%@*! sakes.  Three of her paintings have sold for $27,000!

She also has her own art show, "The Prodigy of Color", at the Agora Gallery in NYC.  The twenty-four works on display are priced anywhere from $4,400 to $10,000 a piece.  The gallery's director, Angela Di Bello, actually chose her artwork before she knew the painter's age!  She thought the pieces displayed "great colors, great movement, great composition, and were very playful," then she found out they had been produced by a child! 

Lord, I think I have a headache!

Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/momentsofmotherhood/4-year-old-aelita-andre-gets-her-own-ny-art-show-sells-paintings-for-27k-2494801/

[Wilma]

Me, too.  I want my art to be recognizable as to what it represents.  If it is a barn, it should look like a barn.  If it looks like a toddler playing with paint, that is probably what it is.

[Diane Amberg]

Now that's funny!

[Warph]

A 92-year-old woman was pregnant for sixty years.  In 2009, a 92-year-old Chinese woman named Huang Yijun delivered a child that she had been carrying for over half a century!  The woman went to the hospital complaining of a stomachache, but doctors soon realized that she was carrying what is called a lithopedion, or stone pregnancy.

This phenomenon begins as an ectopic pregnancy, or one in which the fertilized egg gets stuck and begins developing somewhere before its intended place in the uterus!  The unborn fetus eventually calcifies and remains in its mother's womb.  Lithopedions typically remain in their mother's womb for an average of 22 years.  Huang Yijun carried her child for almost triple that length of time!

Source: http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2009/03/04/4380061-the-curious-case-of-the-stone-baby?pc=25&sp=175

[Warph]

A Japanese company has invented a portable toilet that is carried around in a briefcase.  The "Gotta Go Briefcase," manufactured by Niban Too Corporation, contains stainless steel toilet bowl surrounded by mahogany leather.  It contains everything you could possibly need while going about your 'business': a pop-out toilet paper roll, hand sanitizer dispenser, cup holder, and even a mirror!  In today's competitive world, the "Gotta Go" may allow for increased efficiency, but I would recommend bringing along a spare briefcase for the sake of your customers.

Source:  http://inventorspot.com/gotta_go

Excuse me now, but.... I gotta go!

[Warph]

The recently discovered "Goldilocks Planet" is so named because its conditions are "just right" for life to exist there.  The Goldilocks Planet (scientific name: Gliese 581-g) is a planet 20 light-years away that scientists say has the right conditions for life.  It's the perfect distance from its sun for liquid water to exist.

This is still purely speculative though, since there's no evidence that there actually is any water on the planet.  They also don't know whether there is any oxygen on the planet.  Interestingly enough, the planet's solar system appears to be a miniature version of our own, with the equivalent of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, etc.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130215192

[Warph]

World's Oldest Light Bulb Still Burning After 110 Years

It may not glow brightly, but it sure glows consistently.

A light bulb hanging in the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department has been burning steadily for exactly 110 years, according the Centennial Bulb website. Since the "Centennial Bulb" was first turned on, the stock market crashed and was reborn, the nuclear age began, two World Wars were fought, cars and planes were developed ... and through it all the bulb kept burning.

How exactly it stays lit remains something of a mystery, Lynn Owens, who is in charge of the light bulb centennial committee, told Time magazine. "Nobody knows how it's possible. It's a 60-watt bulb and it's only turned on for about four watts, but nobody knows why it keeps burning ... We've had scientists from all over the country look at this light bulb," Owens said.

On June 18, the bulb celebrates its 110th year of illumination -- a fact documented extensively by  Guinness World Records. But even beyond its staggering powers of endurance, it's hardly an ordinary bulb.

Source: http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm
http://www.centennialbulb.org/
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/18/worlds-oldest-light-bulb-still-burning-after-110-years/#ixzz1PfPi9X3i

[sixdogsmom]

I have been enjoying this thread Warph, thanks! 

[Ms Bear]

I have enjoyed it also.  Waiting to see you next post.

[flintauqua]

There's also a bulb that has been burning since 1908, currently at the museum at the Ft. Worth Stockyards:

http://stockyardsmuseum.org/index_files/PalaceBulb.htm

Flint