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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>

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)>

Pictionary

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Pictionary

Now draw… Pictionary!!

  • Pictionary is a drawing game that involves guessing a word or phrase while a representation of the word is quickly drawn.
  • Pictionary was invented by Robert Angel, a waiter at the time, and designed by Gary Everson.
  • Prior to Pictionary being published, Robert Angel would randomly choose a word from the dictionary and draw the word for party goers to guess.
  • A dice is used in Pictionary to determine what square your team lands on, and the word your team has to draw and guess.  Generally the game is played with two people in each team.
  • Robert Angel originally self published Pictionary under the banner of Angel Games Inc., in 1985.

Pictionary, Game, Drawing, Art, Board, Pencil, Cards, Drawings, Play, Ten Random Facts

  • Pictionary words are typically sorted into five different categories, with five words, one in each category, on each card.  The categories are person, place, animal; object; action, difficult, and all play.
  • In Pictionary, a one minute timer of sand is generally used during the drawing and guessing process.
  • Pictionary drawings can not include letters, numbers or symbols.
  • In Pictionary, some of the hardest words to draw are verbs.
  • A video game based on Pictionary was released in 1990.
Bibliography:
Pictionary 22 January 2013 , Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictionary>
Pictionary Word Generator n.d., Word Generator,  <http://www.wordgenerator.net/pictionary-word-generator.php>

Ceiling Fan

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Ceiling Fan

Woosh… Woosh…

  • Ceiling fans are mechanical fans on the roof of a room, usually powered by electricity.
  • Ceiling fans rotate significantly slower than a desk fan.
  • Ceiling fans move and circulate the air around a building or a room.
  • Ceiling fans were first designed in the early 1860s and 1870s, in the United States of America.
  • Ceiling fans were invented by Dutchess Melissa Rinaldi and were originally powered by water.

Ceiling Fan, Roof, Light On, Old Model, Classic, Ten Random Facts

  • Ceiling fans sometimes have light fittings attached which replace the need for a standard light shade.
  • Commercial ceiling fans can save considerable amounts of energy and push masses of air around efficiently.
  • Ceiling fans were originally activated by a pull cord or a chain, and now modern fans use switches or dials that are normally mounted on a wall in a convenient location.
  • Ceiling fans do wobble when the blades are out of balance, but are very unlikely to fall.
  • Some ceiling fans can be switched to rotate in the opposite direction so that they can be used in winter to push the warm air down.
Bibliography:
Ceiling Fan 5 February 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceiling_fan>

Jigsaw Puzzle

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Jigsaw Puzzle

Get your brain whirring…

  • The jigsaw puzzle concept originated in the 1760s when European map makers glued maps on wood and cut them up into pieces.
  • Originally designed for children and educational purposes, jigsaw puzzles for adults didn’t appear until the 1900s.
  • Jigsaw puzzles originally weren’t interlocking, and the first interlocking jigsaw puzzle pieces were first produced in 1909.
  • Wooden jigsaw puzzles originally were cut individually, piece by piece, until presses and die cuts were used.
  • Jigsaw puzzles get there names by the original tool that was used to cut up the puzzle’s pieces, the jigsaw.

Jigsaw Puzzle, cakes, Sweets, Food, Half Done, Doodle Jigsaw Puzzles, Beverly, No. 605, 108 pieces, Ten Random Facts

  • Typically, modern jigsaw puzzles are enlarged versions of photographs or paintings glued onto cardboard.
  • Jigsaw puzzles typically are 300, 500,750 or 1000 pieces.
  • In 2011, the largest commercial jigsaw puzzle was produced and contained 32,256 pieces and measured 544 cm by 192 cm.
  • In the 1990s, the production of foam or wood three dimensional puzzles began, and have become quite popular.
  • Doing jigsaw puzzles regularly is said to help prevent Alezheimers, and also benefits the brain in other areas.
Bibliography:
Jigsaw Puzzle 14 January 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_puzzle>
Williams, A n.d., Jigsaw Puzzles – A Brief History, MGC Puzzles, <http://www.mgcpuzzles.com/mgcpuzzles/puzzle_history/>

Cluedo

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Cluedo

‘The Great Detective Game,’ Cluedo’s slogan.

  • Cluedo is a board game that requires the use of reasoning and logic skills and has a murder and mystery theme.
  • Cluedo was designed by Anthony Pratt, a successful musician, who thought of the game during World War II.
  • The game was first made in 1949 by Waddingtons who changed the name from ‘Murder’ (which the Pratt’s had called it) to ‘Cluedo’.
  • In North America, Cluedo is known as Clue and some of the character’s names are changed.
  • Cluedo was first designed to have 11 rooms, 10 characters and 9 weapons instead of the typical 9 rooms, 6 characters and six weapons.

Cluedo, Board, Cards, Reverend, Mr, Green, Rooms, Box, Weapons, Game, Ten Random Facts

  • Elva Pratt, Anthony’s wife, designed the original artwork for the Cluedo board.
  • ‘Cluedo’ is a combination of the word ‘clue’ and ‘ludo’, ‘ludo’ being Latin for ‘play’.
  • Although Cluedo was initially designed as a game, it has been turned into films, books and other types of media.
  • The murder victim of Cluedo is Dr Black, or Mr Boddy.
  • The typical weapons of Cluedo are the candlestick, dagger, revolver, lead pipe, wrench and the rope, however, Pratt’s original game included an axe, bomb, syringe and poison as well as some other interesting weapons.
Bibliography:
Cluedo 24 January 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluedo>
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