Author Archives: Cris

Queen Elizabeth II

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Queen Elizabeth II

Her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Also known as the Queen.

  • The Queen’s full name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, and she was born in 1926.
  • The Queen’s real birthday is on the 21st of April, even though her official birthday is celebrated in June.
  • The Queen is married to Prince Philip; her father was King George VI, formerly known as ‘Prince Albert’; and her mother was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, well known as the ‘Queen Mother’.
  • The Queen’s reign began on the 6th of February, 1952, and her silver jubilee year was 1977, her golden jubilee year was 2002 and her diamond jubilee year, a celebration of 60 years reign, was 2012.
  • The Queen and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, were educated at home by her father, tutors and governesses.

Queen Elizabeth II, England, Australia, Perth, Her Majesty, Duke of Edinburgh, CHOGM, Plane, Andrew Taylor, Commonwealth Secretariat, Flickr, Ten Random Facts

The Queen
Image courtesy of the Commonwealth Secretariat/Flickr
  • Although London was bombed in World War II, the Queen stayed at home with her mother, father and sister.
  • Even though it was her 40th year on the throne, the Queen announced 1992 her annus horribilis, meaning horrible year, or year of horrors, due to a series of disturbing family events that occurred throughout the year.
  • The Queen has been bitten by one of her pet corgis dogs on more than one occasion.
  • In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II, exceeded the age at death of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, and as such became the longest living monarch the United Kingdom has had, while in September 2015, she became the longest reigning monarch of the UK.
  • Queen Elizabeth was patron to more than 600 charities and organisations in 2013.
Updated September 2015
Bibliography:
Elizabeth II 19 February 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

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Mount Rushmore National Memorial

A sculpture in a mountain!

  • Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota, United States of America, and is controlled by the United States National Park Service.
  • Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved in the side of the granite mountain, Mount Rushmore.
  • The Mount Rushmore sculpture depicts four US president heads – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
  • Mount Rushmore National Memorial was carved in 1927-1941 by Gutzon Borglum, a notable sculptor, and a team of 400 workers.
  • Mount Rushmore’s carved heads are 18 meters (60 feet) high and make up the  largest sculpture ever carved.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South, Sculpture, Record, Carving, four, Presidents, Faces, Stock.Xching, Ten Random Facts, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln,

Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Image courtesy of Stock.Xching
  • The Mount Rushmore sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, made plaster models that were one twelfth the size of the finished sculpture so that the workers had a guide to follow.
  • Dynamite was used to carve 90% of the Mount Rushmore heads.
  • Around 3 million people visit Mount Rushmore every year.
  • After approximately two year’s work on the sculpted Thomas Jefferson, bad cracking was found in the granite, so Jefferson was removed and restarted on the other side of Washington.
  • Each day during construction, the Mount Rushmore workers had to climb 700 stairs before they could start work.
Bibliography:
Mount Rushmore 19 February 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore>
Grant, N 1994, People and Places, RD Press, Australia

Assault Amphibious Vehicle

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Assault Amphibious Vehicle

Lets shorten Assault Amphibious Vehicle to AAV.

  • AAVs are used for land and sea military operations, generally around the beach.
  • The marines call AAVs “amtracks”, which is short for amphibious tractor.
  • An AAV was originally known as a “Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Personnel-7” or LVTP-7.
  • AAVs are generally equipped with a grenade launcher, a heavy machine gun, crew radios, and an intercom system.
  • AAVs have the capacity to hold 21 equipped troops, and four crewman – the driver,  commander, gunner, and a rear crewman.

AAV, Amphibious Assualt Vehicle, USA, Three Men, Army, Miltary, Water, Land, Beach, Official US Navy Imagery, Flickr, Ten Random Facts

AAV
Image courtesy of the Official U.S. Navy Imagery/Flickr
  • AAVs were originally LVTD-7s which were first made in 1972 and converted to AAV-7A1s in the 1980s.
  • An AAV-7A1 weighs 29.1 tons (26.4 tonnes), and is 7.94 meters (26 feet) in length, 3.27 meters (10.7 feet) in width and 3.26 meters (10.7 feet) in length.
  • The AAV-7A1 can travel over speeds of 24.32 km per hour (15 mph) off road, 72 km/h (45 mph) on road and 13.2 km/h (8.2 mph) in water.
  • The replacement cost of an AAV is over two million dollars.
  • The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) was due to replace AAVs in 2015, but the plans have been cancelled.
Bibliography:
Assault Amphibious Vehicle 7 February 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_Amphibious_Vehicle>
LVTP7 Landing Vehicle, Tracked AAVP7A1 Assault Amphibian Vehicle Personnel April 14, 2000 , FAS, <http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/aavp7a1.htm>

Duranta

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Duranta

Do you call it a weed?

  • Duranta is also known as Golden Dewdrop, Pigeon Berry and Skyflower.
  • Duranta is from the family Verbenaceae which is the verbena family and there are 17 different species.
  • Duranta is native to the Americas and the Caribbean.
  • Duranta can grow up to 6 meters (20 feet) in height depending on the species.
  • Mature duranta have thorns and bloom light blue, violet or white coloured flowers.

Duranta, Purple Violet Flowers, Small, Tree, Bush, Bloom, Pretty, Australia, Ten Random Facts

  • Duranta have yellow or orange coloured berry fruit.
  • The berries and leaves of duranta are poisonous, and have killed children, cats and dogs.
  • Duranta was named in honour of a 16th century Italian botanist and physician, Castor Durantes.
  • Butterflies and hummingbirds are attracted to duranta’s brightly coloured flowers.
  • Duranta is known as a weed in Australia, South Africa and China.
Bibliography:
Duranta erecta 5 December 2012, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duranta_erecta>

Sky Diving

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Sky Diving

Freefalling…

  • Sky diving is also known as parachuting.
  • Sky diving is the practice of parachuting down to earth from an aircraft.
  • Sky diving jumps are generally performed from aircraft, from 1,000 – 4,000 meters (3,000 – 13,000 feet) in altitude.
  • First time sky divers jump with an experienced trainer, and this is called a tandem jump.
  • Approximately 21 sky divers die every year in the United States of America, which is equal to 1 in every 150,000 jumps.
Sky Diving, Parachuting, Close Up, Two, People, No parachute, Women, Flickr, Alwaysmnky, Ten Random Facts
Sky Diving
Image courtesy of Alwaysmnky/Flickr
  • As a safety precaution, most sky divers must have two parachutes on him or her, one parachute being a reserve.
  • If you sky dive, you shouldn’t jump in bad weather like thunderstorms or big winds as there is a high risk of danger.
  • Vertical wind tunnels and virtual reality simulators help sky divers train for jumps.
  • On the 8th of February, 2006, in Thailand, a world record was set when 400 people jumped from an aircraft and free-fell whilst linked.
  • In 2011, on his 40,000th jump, Don Kellner set the world record for the most sky diving jumps by one person.
Bibliography:
Parachuting 16 February 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachuting>

Clothing Belt

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Clothing Belt

Flippy floppy, flippy floppy.

  • Belts are special straps that generally go around your waist and are normally used for holding trousers or skirts up on a person’s body, although sometimes they are used for decorative purposes.
  • Belts are generally made from leather or heavy cloth fabric.
  • Belts include a buckle and a band or strap in its design, and often a series of holes for the prong of the buckle to insert into, making it adjustable in length.
  • Men have been using belts as part of their clothing since 1000 BC or earlier.
  • In the modern era, it wasn’t until around the 1920s that belts were used to hold trousers up, as trousers had lower waistlines around that time.

Belt, Black, two, Curled, Straight, School, Gold, Silver buckle, Ten Random Facts

  • Before the 1920s, belts were generally used for decoration.
  • Some belts, utility belts, are used to carry items or tools around the waist for quick and easy access.
  • In the early Middle Ages, and in the 1900s- 1910s, it became fashionable for women to wear belts.
  • Some belts have been produced to be worn on legs.
  • The section of the belt strap that hangs loose, or is tucked into a belt loop is said to be called the lattiilus.
Bibliography:
Belt (Clothing) 11 February 2013 , Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_(clothing)>
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