The original iPod model contained a version of the bat-n ball game Breakout entitled Brick. It was included as an Easter egg and the only way to access the game was to visit the About menu and hold down Select for five seconds. In subsequent models, Brick was added to the Extras menu. It was fitting that Brick should be the first iPod game as Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were involved with the design of the original Breakout arcade game in 1976. Continue reading →

The first full-time internet only radio station was Radio HK (USA) which began broadcasting music by independent bands in February 1995. The station, created by Norman Hajjar of Hajjar/Kaufman New Media Lab of Marina del Rey, California, USA. used a CU-SeeMe web conferencing reflector connected to a custom created audio CD in endless loop.

The earliest person to unlock their force-sensitive character was Monika T´Sarn on the Intrepid server. She unlocked her Jedi, Akinom T´Sarn , on 8 November 2003. In the first incarnation of SWG, gamers who wished to be a Jedi had to unlock their force-sensitive character by completing tasks in the game.

On 26 September 2008 Yves Rossy, a Swiss pilot and inventor, known as Jet Man or Fusionman, became the first person to fly across the English Channel using a jet powered fixed wing strapped to his back. He took 9 minutes 7 seconds and attained a speed of 186 mph. The jet wing weighed about 55kg and four kerosene burning jet turbines are attached for propulsion.

Released on 18 November 2008, the first karaoke game to support wireless microphones was Lips on the Xbox 360. The game comes bundled with two microphones as standard, which are not only wireless but also motion-sensing. This feature allows players to join in by shaking their mic, as well as to perform gestures in the various mini games included.

A jaw-bone with three molars found in the Otavi Hills, Namibia on 4 June 1991, has been dated to 12-13 million years and named Otavipithecus namibiensis.

The first person to end his life by legally sanctioned euthanasia was Ben Dent of Darwin, Australia, on 22 Sep 1996. He had been suffering from cancer for five years and died with the aid of a computerised death machine.

Formally known as Phreatobius walkeri and not brought to scientific attention until the mid-1980s, this small red worm-like species of trichomycterid catfish from Brazil lives a fully terrestrial existence among leaf litter on river banks. When placed in water, it will swiftly jump back out again.

The ability to articulate is believed to be dependent upon physiological changes in the height of the larynx between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens which occurred c. 45,000 BC. The discovery of a hyoid bone (from the base of the tongue) from a cave site on Mt Carmel, Israel shows that Neanderthal man may have been capable of speech 60,000 years ago, but the usual dating is 50,000-30,000 BC.

The earliest known stigmatic was St Francis of Assisi. On the 14 September 1224, it is said that he saw a fiery-winged seraph descending from heaven in the form of a crucified man, believed to be Jesus and there after began to develop bleeding wounds in his hands, feet and side that corresponded to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. Such wounds, which seem to develop of their own accord and do not become sceptic, have been regularly documented and frequently affecting women, usually of the Continue reading →