ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14776, 15 October 1921, Page 9 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS. 0 An eagle can lffve 20 days without food, and a condor 40 days. The weight of an ordinary human heart 5s 9 1-3 oz. The record weight is 40oz. 12dr.

The average strength of a woman as compared with that of a man is as 07 to 100.

The latest calculation points to the existence in the world of 3064 separate languages.

While crossing the strait between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia a woman's hair changed from black to white. She was in a small boat, ana a terrible storm arose that terridcd her.

The first aerial voyage was made on September 18, 1873, by a sheep, a cock, and a duck, to a height of 1500 feel. The first human traveller through the air was M. Francois Pilatre de Rozier, who mounted the following month in a free balloon.

Laws against' kissing in public si'll exist in some American States. The cnly measure of the kind ever enforced in England was of a temporary nature. In 1439 an Act of Parliament was passed prohibiting kissing, owing to the pestiilence raging over England and France.

A cook at the City Ath-.nians Club, London, was sharpening a long meat knife on a steel. He held the steel straight up before his face, and sliced off a large piece of his nose. The doctor washed the piece, whiich was found in the sawdust of the kitchen, and sewed 'it on again. It grew into place, leaving very little scar.

By running its own plant, Lindsay, California, cuts its ice-bill in half. The Chamber of Commerce bought a local plant, sold stock to 300 citizens, and the secrelary of the chamber took charge. In its first season the plant manufactured 1000 tons of ice, at a saving of thousands of dollars. A natural river of ink has been discovered in Algiers. This is the result of two streams uniting. One of the streams contains iron, and the other, in draining through a great swamp, becomes charged with gallic acid; these chcmiicals become mixed, and form a black fluid as good as the best of inks.

The metal diet of a girl recently admitted to Harrogate Hospital (England) consisted of about 200 gramophone needles, two strips of tin, 1 Jin. and Jfin. long, and a pen-nib, which were extracted from her stomach. There seems to have been very little perforation of the lining of the stomach. The girl lis now apparently cured. A new garden \iillagc, erected by the British Oil and Cake Mills, Limited, at Hull (England) for the comfort ral general welfare of their workers, has been opened. The purpose of the village, which is to comprise 400 houses, lis to ensure improved housing " for the firm's employees, many of whom live in congested area.

An expert, eliminating the first JO years of life, has worked out that the average person who lives to the age of 70 will find that he has spent: In work, 16 years; in pleasure, 9 years; in dressing and undressing, 11 months; in toothbrushing, 8 months; in churchgoing, 7 months; in shaving, 6 months; in bathing, 4 months; in eating, 5 years 5 month.;.

A novel engine 'is operated by sunpower at Mead, near Cairo, Egypt. It consists of live 205 ft boilers placed on edge, and in Hie focus of five channelshaped mirrors. The engine's best run for an hour yielded 1442 pounds of steam at a pressure of nearly sixteen pounds a square inch—equivalent to sixty-three horse-power. An acre of land is occupied by the plant. After 33 days on the Atlantic, Mr and Mrs J. B. Kelly and Mr Egmont Arens, of New York, with a Danish, navigator, Mr Oppfcr, have arrived at Cowes in a 21-ton yacht, the Diablesse. The Diablesse, schooner-rigged, and only 39ft long on the water-line, is said to have behaved wonderfully on her 4000-mile voyage, especially during the first ten days, when gaues were encountered.

American women now have their own secret society. The members seem to aim at rivalling Freemasonan r . "The Daughters of the Nile" is the name of the Order. The membership is limited strictly to women, and Mrs Harding, the wife of the President, is claimed as one of the latest 'initiates. 'l'lie organisation is really the counterpart for women of the Order of the Mystic Shrine, known only in America, of which President Harding is a member.

While some tropical plants frcez-3 at a temperature of about 39 or 40 deg. F., ether plants can endure the terrific cold of the Arctic, winter night without injury. Alptlne flowers thrive in the region of snow and ice, developing blossoms, although I hey are frozen during the night and the greater part of the day, and thaw out only for a few hours in the middle of the day.

The blue of the sea is not, as is generally supposed, due to the relleotion from the sky, but to the salines? of the water. But, blue and green are by no means Hie only hues observable at sea. The Ked Sea gets its name from a liny weed-like growth, dull red in colour, which covers Us surface. The Yellow Sea of China is popularly supposed to be so called because of its muddiness, but scientists have proved thai it derives iils colour from a multitude of minute living organisms, in ttie Bay of Leango Ihc water is bloodred, due to reflection of the red bottom soil.

The name Palmer nas a most interesting origin. A palmer was a pilgrim who spent all litis time visiting Ihc holy places of Ihe East. Tins was to distinguish him from an ordinary pilgrim who returned home after his journey was finished. The palmer carried a pirtm in bis hand when he occasionally came back from Ihe Holy Land. The name is met with as a last name in the early fifteenth century in its Latin form, when Thomas Palmenius gained fame as a religious writer.

We have only |o I urn back Ihc pages of a history to discover that the ancients had some very modern notions. Mr E. W. Hulmc potntcd out before Ihe N'ewcomen Society, recently organised in England to study the history of engineering and technology, that in Ihe great Palace of the Two Axes, in Crete, there was a system of water-carried sewage and terra enlU socketed drain-pipes that could not b-3 paralleled in Europe prior to tha eighteenth century.