ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15272, 23 June 1923, Page 11 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

FROM THE WORLD’S PRESS. j ; One-tenth of the world fa still un-' explored. The average person wears nearly 141 b of clothing. A man should weigh 261 b for everyfoot of his height. There are at least 10,000,000 nerves fibres in the human body. Frogs and toads possess a remarks able keen sense of hearing. Ghent, in Belgium, is buSt -on 26 islands which are connected, by 80 bridges, i -i Jordan is the erookedest river known, winding 213 miles -in a distance of 60. 1 1 • Thousands of gas-meters between fifty and sixty-five years-of age are still in use in London, A large tuning-fork is now being, used by some doctors in diagnosing diseases of the nerves. Afghanistan, is the last of the Mohammedan countries to preserve its isolation from the infidel. Hospital statistics prove that amputation is four times as dangerous after the age of 50 as before. The truffle is a most wonderful vegetable, having neither roots, stem leaves, flowers, nor seeds. Ears seldom change in shape after childhood, although they enlarge slightly after middle-life. The highest village in Great Britain is that of Leadhills, between the counties of Lanark and Dumfries. Perpetual hot baths, in which restless patients sleep, is one form of treatment for certain mental diseases. A pike weighing eighteen pounds, recently caught in an Essex lake, had inside it an unopened bottle of lemonade. The birth-rate in England and Wales for the year 1922 was the lowest on record, save for the war years, 1915 to 1919. Nine travelling gardening parties covered 11,450 miles in aE last year, tending British military cemeteries abroad. A church built in 1566, at Horningsham, near Warminster, is claimed to be the oldest Congregational Church in England. Incandescent eleetric lamps increase in effectiveness during the first 80 or 100 hours of use, after which they slowly fade. A new type of aeroplane being built for the British Na.vy can attain a maximum speed of between 130 and 140 mhes an hour. The oboe, or hautbols, which was common in Egypt thousands of years 8.C., is one of the earliest of musical instruments.

The term “bosh,” which became common in England about the time of the Crimean War, is simply the Turkish word for nothing. American “specialist” musicians receive as much as £4O a week for playing in the most popular London dance orchestras.

Among the Eskimos of Baffin Land if there is a shortage of food, the old people of both sexes will willingly face death by starvation. The average number of eggs produced by a halibut is three millions j and a half, but a large cod will have as many as nine millions. Sturgeons are the weakest of Ml fish in proportion to their size. Even j the sturgeon is perfectly helpless if attacked by a smaH swordfish. Burglar alarms which not only give loud warning of the intruder, but also take a snapshop photograph of him, are being tested in Paris. • Such deformities as bow-legs and knock-knees are becoming much less frequent, owing to the spread of knowledge of hygiene among parents. Travelling by air from London to New York in twelve hours is prophesied by Major-General Sir W. S. Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation. Britain can speak by telephone to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland. In America the range of the long-distance phone is over 4000 miles.

After drifting for twelve months, a whistling buoy which broke loose from its moorings in American waters has been washed ashore on the Stilly Islands.

Rubber vulcanised by a patent process in Lincoln, and said to be the lightest solid substance known, will make the building of robber houses possible. It takes at least six years to produce sufficient seeds of any new type of wheat to test it for mining purposes. If it fails then, the variety is discarded.

Eton is, in point of numbers, the largest of English public sehools. There is accommodation for ■ 1000 boys. Harrow takes 600, Marlborough 500, and Rugby 580. The first colliery to be operated entirely by electricity, so that it will need no chimneys or furnaces ,artd will cause no smoke, is planned for Sherwood Forest, (Eng.). A change for the better in the habits of the people is stated by Preston’s Chief Constable to be responsible for the decrease in convictions for drunkenness. Mosaic floors, laid with small pieces of different colored stones set in regular patterns, were known to" the Egyptians 2000 B.C. In Babylon floors of this kind dated from'lloo B.C. The kitchen range belonging to Landru, the French “Bluebeard,” in which he disposed of the bodies of his victims, was sold by auction for £6O, and resold again for a much higher figure.

An amazing sight was seen in Hamburg when a tiger attacked a Polar bear at the Hagenbeclc Zoo. Other bears anil tigers joined in, and were only separated when a hose was turned on them. There is nothing peculiar about the policeman’s whistle. It is merely a metal whistle —without a pea inside it. The policemen, however, has a code by which he can not only call a colleague, but can indicate for what particular purpose he requires assistance.

The world's record for speed among passenger vessels is held by the White Star liner Olympic. On a recent passage from New York to Cherbourg, she maintained, for several hours, a speed of 27.81 knots. The best previous performance was 2X£ jHsotth, -