Miniature parks

The International Association of Miniature Parks (IAMP) "is a trade body, which was developed in the 1990s in Europe to bring together the many theme parks across the world, large and small, which have a specialist theme of miniature model landscapes." Here are some statistics on miniature parks provided on the IAMP's website here

- There are more than 40 miniature parks open to the public across the world. Some are small and in private gardens or public areas, but most of the largest ones with commercial activities are members of IAMP.

- A new miniature park opens approx every 3 years.

- The oldest miniature park in its original form is Bekonscot, UK (built for the public between 1927-1929 with buildings in private location in 1920)

- The miniature park with the smallest scale is Miniature World, Canada (1:72 scale)

- Madurodam has the world’s biggest model railway – it is 4km long

Kinds of trapeze

For more details, see the Wikipedia article here

Static trapeze
Swinging trapeze (or Swinging Single trapeze)
Flying trapeze
Washington trapeze (also known as Heavy Trapeze)
Dance trapeze (also known as Single-point trapeze)
Doubles trapeze
Multiple trapeze

The Museum of Lost Interactions

Here is a list of exhibits on display at The Museum of Lost Interactions (at the University of Dundee): "Nine exhibits ranging from 1900 to 1979, comprising audio recording machines, wireless morse communicators, portable video to the precurser behind iTunes." For more info visit the webpage here

the richophone (1900)
the prat sampler (1918)
the acoustograph (1920)
the social communicator (1932)
the case communicator (1936)
the chordmaster (1950)
the zenith radio hat (1952)
pester (1970)
the video case (1979)

Rare Hummingbirds of the United States

A list of sightings from the Hummingbird World webpage here

The Green Violet-Ear has been recorded in Texas, Wisconsin and several other states.

The Bahama Woodstar and the Cuban Emerald have occurred in Florida.

In early March 1998 a Violet-Crowned Hummingbird appeared at a feeder in the Lake Jackson area on the North Texas coast.

In November 1997 a Green-Breasted Mango appeared at a feeder in Corpus Christi, Texas. A bird of this species was also seen in Texas in 1992.

The Xantus' Hummingbird has occurred in California and British Columbia.

A Cinnamon Hummingbird has been seen in Arizona.

Arizona also gets annual records of Berylline Hummingbird and White-eared Hummingbird. In many years there is a record or two of Plain-Capped Starthroat.

Oldest currently registered .com domains

Jottings.com contains a list of the 100 oldest currently registered .com domains. Here are the first 15. To view the rest of the .coms visit the website here

Rank Create date Domain name

1. 15-Mar-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
2. 24-Apr-1985 BBN.COM
3. 24-May-1985 THINK.COM
4. 11-Jul-1985 MCC.COM
5. 30-Sep-1985 DEC.COM
6. 07-Nov-1985 NORTHROP.COM
7. 09-Jan-1986 XEROX.COM
8. 17-Jan-1986 SRI.COM
9. 03-Mar-1986 HP.COM
10. 05-Mar-1986 BELLCORE.COM
11= 19-Mar-1986 IBM.COM
11= 19-Mar-1986 SUN.COM
13= 25-Mar-1986 INTEL.COM
13= 25-Mar-1986 TI.COM
15. 25-Apr-1986 ATT.COM