Charlie...

Finally getting some of his feathers back!

Isn't he handsome?

His tail is getting longer and some feathers are growing in on his neck. His spurs are going to need a trimming soon, too.

The Sultan's Elephant

Now this looks like fun!

The Sultan's Elephant was a show created by the Royal de Luxe theatre company, involving a huge moving mechanical elephant, a giant marionette of a girl and other associated public art installations. In French it was called La visite du sultan des Indes sur son éléphant à voyager dans le temps (literally, "Visit From The Sultan Of The Indies On His Time-Travelling Elephant"). The show was commissioned to celebrate the centenary of Jules Verne's death, by the two French cities of Nantes and Amiens, funded by a special grant from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. The show was performed at various locations around the world between 2005 and 2006.

The Sultan's Elephant show was performed in London from 4–7 May 2006. The show started with a rocket "crashing" in Waterloo Place on Thursday May 4, smashing up the tarmac, with smoke coming out from the bottom.

The giant girl chills out on a deck chair in St James Park, London

The giant girl takes a shower 

The elephant was designed by François Delarozière. It was made mostly of wood, and was operated by 22 'manipulateurs' using a mixture of hydraulics and motors. It weighed 50 tons, as much as 7 African elephants.[With] hundreds of moving parts and scores of pumping pistons (22 in the trunk alone), the elephant appealed to the same part of the British psyche that admires Heath-Robinson contraptions and reveres eccentric inventors. More than 56 square metres of reclaimed poplar was combined with steel ribs to create the elephant's sturdy skeleton. The attention to detail was extraordinary, from the flapping leather ears and deep wrinkles around the eyes to the puffs of dust sent up by its plodding feet, and the snaking, reticulated trunk.The elephant no longer exists: Helen Marriage of Artichoke, the company that produced the London performance, said "Royal de Luxe were so fed up with being invited all over the world to perform The Sultan's Elephant, they just destroyed it."A replica of the elephant was built in Nantes (France) in 2007, as part of the Machines of the Isle of Nantes permanent exhibition.

All pictures taken by GCF

Today's funny :0)

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy white dog!

Yes, they do!

Do Chickens Have Tongues?

by Scott Byers

 
Contrary to what some may believe, it is true that chickens like most living creatures do have tongues.  In fact a chicken’s tongue is oddly shaped like an elongated arrowhead, with the pointy bit located at the front, this is quite unique.  A chicken’s tongue like many animals, and also including humans, is the same color as the rest of the inside of their mouth.
Despite what many used to believe before the 1950’s, chickens do have a sense of taste and even have been found to have thirty to seventy different taste buds.  These taste buds are found on the base of their tongue and floor of the pharynx, however whether or not these taste buds are their only form of taste receptors is still up for debate.  Little is known about a chicken’s taste buds and receptors even though we have been doing research about it and arguing about it for decades.
One thing that has been found is that chickens have been known to avoid saccharine and sweet flavors such as honey and strawberry, though nobody really knows why.  They have also been found to only prefer sucrose and butter type flavors such as those found in popcorn.  Since most research on the subject of a chicken’s tongue and their tastes have been conducted by adding flavoring to their drinking water, some have argued and considered the findings of these research experiments to be of little to no value.  Humans have 9,000 taste receptors, and cows have 25,000.  Due to this astounding fact, the chicken’s ability to taste would still be considered to be limited while others argue that some chickens lack the sense of taste at all and have often been referred to by people as being “chickens who are taste blind”.
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Chickens' tongues are usually a light pink-ish color. If the chicken's tongue turns an unnatural color, such as white or purple, something may be seriously wrong. Take a look at the chicken's tongue when they are happy, healthy, and active. If that color changes, there could be something wrong.

Now aren't you glad you stopped by this morning?  :0)

Band-Aids!

Earle Dickon

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1. Kitchen Klutz

   • According to the BAND-AID website, Earle Dickson invented BAND-AID adhesive bandages in 1920. Dickson was a cotton buyer at Johnson & Johnson who lived with his wife, Josephine, in New Jersey. The website says she always had dinner on the table for Dickson when he came home from work. But she also apparently was a klutz in the kitchen frequently cutting and burning her fingers.

   Homemade Bandages

   • Earle Dickson would bandage his wife with pieces of adhesive tape and cotton. Eventually, according to BAND-AID history, Dickson decided to make the bandages ahead of time. He put squares of cotton gauze at intervals along an adhesive strip and covered them with crinoline, a fabric, so it would not stick together. Then, after Josephine sliced or burned her fingers, she could cut off a strip and put on the bandage herself.

   The Company

   • Dickson told his boss at Johnson & Johnson about his invention, and soon the first adhesive bandages were being sold under the BAND-AID trademark. Dickson rose to a position as vice president with the company, where he stayed until he retired.

   Slow Start

   • The product first hit the market in 1920. Back then, BAND-AID bandages were large---3 inches wide and 18 inches long. They were not a big success right away. The company sold $3,000 the first year.
     A profile by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says BAND-AID bandages finally took off after the company distributed an unlimited number of free bandages to Boy Scout troops across the United States.

   Other Important Developments

   • According to the BAND-AID website, in 1938 the company introduced sterile bandages. Then, in 1942 they sent millions of adhesive bandages overseas to help in World War Two. In 1951, Johnson & Johnson started using plastic strips; and about five years after that, they started putting designs on BAND-AID bandages. In 1958, they began making the bandages out of sheer vinyl.
     
     

     Earle later became Vice President of the company. He retired from the company in 1957. "Band-Aid" becoming the trade name.

     
     
     Earle Dickson died in 1961. At the time, Johnson & Johnson was selling more than $30 million worth of BAND-AID products a year.

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this picture was removed by someone

                                         

                                                   

And for all the good guys out there:

Today' funny :0)

It's that time again! 

Lucy

Had all the chickens out in the yard for some exercise time the other day. The first thing they ALWAYS do is check the poop cart. Why? I have no idea. There is nothing in there except hay and well, poop. Next they run under the deck and out the other side to go out front. They just LOVE to scratch in my flower beds. (but they look so cute - Hubby is livid). That's ok, I fix everything after they are done. I usually shoo them to the back yard again after a while. Lucy is always last. But she is the lucky one this time! She found a half frozen mole by the c/a compressor. She pecked that poor thing until it was dead! Not wanting to share her prize she took off for the front of the house again and up the driveway.

 Ethel saw her and tried to take it away. Lucy wouldn't let go, so the Evil One bit her and took Lucy's meal when she dropped it. Now Lucy is chasing Ethel. Ethel is trying to find a place to eat the mole. Charlie sees it and he wants it too. All three are running around in circles after one another!

Lucy finally gabs it back and makes a dash for the coop. I distract Charlie and Ethel with some Cheerios. Lucy waltzes out a few minutes later.
Her crop is full.

And I had a really good laugh!