Enjoyed this one? Please check out: 20 Random Facts About Animals

The CL (cluster stitch) in this pattern is as follows:
YO, insert hook, yo, draw loop through, yo, draw through 2 loops – over the number of stitches indicated.  Then YO and pull it through all the loops on your hook.  You should usually have 1 more loop on the hook than the number of stitches you used in the cluster- for example, if you did a cluster over 3 stitches, you should have 4 loops on your hook.

Ch 37.

Row 1 – Sc into 2nd ch from hook.  Sc in next ch.  *Skip 3 ch and dc 7 times in next ch.  Skip 3 ch and sc in each of the next 3 ch.  Repeat from * across until you come to the last 4 ch.  Skip 3 ch and dc 4 times into the last ch.

Row 2 – Ch 1.  Sc into first st and into next st.  *Ch 3.  CL over next 7 st.  Ch 3.  Sc into each of next 3 st.  Repeat from * to the last 4 st.  Ch 3.  CL over next 4 st.  Skip the turning ch.

Row 3 – Ch 3 (counts as first dc.)  3 dc in the first st.  *Skip 3 ch and sc in next 3 st.  Skip 3 ch and dc 7 times into the loop that closed the CL.  Repeat from * across.  End finishing with a “skip 3 ch”.  Sc into each of the last 2 st, skip the turning ch.

Row 4 – Ch 3 (counts as first dc.)  1 CL over next 3 st.  *Ch 3.  Sc into each of next 3 st.  Ch 3.  CL over next 7 st.  Repeat from * across.  You will finish with 3 ch; sc into next st, sc into top of turning ch.

Row 5 – Ch 1.  Sc into each of first 2 st.  *Skip 3 ch.  Dc 7 times into loop that closed the CL.  Skip 3 ch.  Sc into each of next 3 sc.  Repeat from * across.  You will end with a “skip 3 ch”; dc 4 times into top of turning ch.

Repeat rows 2, 3, 4, and 5 until the washcloth is the length that you want.  Ch 2 and sc around the edges; make sure you do 3 sc in corners.  This makes the washcloth look neat and gives it a good ending touch.

By: wallyir

It’s bad enough tracking your wife down in a women’s department store at the mall, carefully avoiding the plus-size section so as not to give the impression that you’re actually shopping for yourself. Therefore,  finding her in a panty and bra store presents all kinds of additional logistical problems.

By: wallyir

Yes, by most individuals a panty and bra store is known as a women’s lingerie store, but it’s decorated like Hugh Hefner’s motorcycle room. Part of you wants to just find your wife and leave, but another part wants to appreciate the fabulous talent on display. Let me guess which part will win out.

So you want to get some quality time in this  lingerie store, but you’d rather not get maced or slapped upside of the head. Here are a few simple suggestions to help you enjoy the scenery.

By: wallyir

Do…

… actually walk into the store. Try to avoid standing out front, fogging up the window display with your nose pressed against the glass.

… pretend to look around for your wife as soon as you walk in, bringing your left hand to your face to flash your wedding band. This will emit matrimonial vibes to the other shoppers and give you ample opportunity to check out the giant posters that adorn the walls.

… ask a salesperson if your wife is in a dressing room, rather than squatting down in front of each door to see if you can recognize her by her naked ankles.

… sit perfectly still in the chair by the dressing room and wait for your wife to emerge. Keep your glance downward and your hands a safe distance from your lap.

By: wallyir

Don’t…

… touch, fondle, sniff  or. … giggle like a schoolgirl.

… use the word “panty” under any circumstances.

… ask if they sell anything edible.

By: wallyir

By following these simple suggestions will ensure you qualify as the perfect husband.  

Revise as you go along

When I was at school, I learnt that the more work you do at the time of first learning it, the less you generally need to do later. If there is ever anything that you don’t understand, it is important that you ask. If you don’t understand it at the beginning, you’re certainly not going to understand it when it comes to revising for the actual exam.

Everyday when you get home from school, you should take half an hour to read over everything you have done that day. You should do this before your homework, while the work is still fairly fresh in your mind. The way you mind works means that the more times you read through something, the more you will remember when you have to go back to it. The more that you remember at the beginning, the less stressful revision will be when you come to it at the end of the year.

When you reach the end of a topic, you should make a poster including all the information from that topic. You can use different colours and pictures, or just write in words; whichever you think may work best for you. Once you’ve made the poster, you should file it away for you to look at nearer exam time.

Don’t leave it until the last minute

As much as you think you might be okay if you just read over your notes the night before, chances are you won’t be. I would recommend that you start revision three months before the exam. If you can’t put in the amount of time that I recommend, just do as much as you can. I would warn you to be careful however, as it’s easy to be lazy about revision and end up having to cram in the very last week. I will break down the time for you below to show how much you should be doing:

3 months before the exam:

-Spend half an hour per week revising each subject (or if you are doing A Levels, each module.)

-Begin by going through your notes and summarising them into shorter notes. Make sure that you understand what you’re writing as you go along, and go and see a teacher if you have any questions. It is a lot easier to revise from shorter notes, so if you spend a little time doing this now, you won’t have endless sheets of paper when you finally get to the exam.

-While you’re revising for each subject, you should display the posters that you made (at the end of each topic, as described above) in your bedroom, and read through them each night before you go to bed. It might only take you five minutes, but will make a big difference in the long term, as you will remember the information a lot more easily.

2 months before the exam:

-At this point, you should be increasing your revision to about 45 minutes for each subject/module per week. Even though this might not seem like a lot, you will get everything done, as you started revision very early.

-If you are still at the stage of summarising your notes, you should use the time to complete this before moving onto the next stage.

-When you’ve summarised all of your notes, you are ready to begin the next stage of revision. For this stage, you will need a way of recording your voice. You can either use a dictophone or just your mobile phone to do this. You should start recording the notes that you have written onto the dictophone. You can either just read the notes, or read the point that you have made and then say a few things about that point. Once you’ve done this for all of your notes, you will be able to listen to it whenever you want to, meaning that you can revise on the bus, while you’re shopping or even while you’re in the bath! Because you have used your voice to read the notes, it allows your brain to process the information in a different way, so more of the information has been stored.

4 weeks before the exam:

-At this point, you should be trying out some sample exam questions. If you go onto the website of your exam board (ask your school/college if you’re not sure what this is) there will be all of the past questions from the past few years. You should print as many of these off as you can, and do one paper per subject/module during this week. You do not need to time yourself doing them- the point of doing this is to see what you do and don’t know. If there is a question that you don’t know, use your notes to answer it, and this will help the information to stay in your brain. You should find that you know quite a lot, as you will have revised in detail by this time.

-You should still be listening to the voice recordings that you made in the previous month whenever you have a bit of spare time, and you should be reading over your topic posters before you go to bed every night.

3 weeks before the exam:

-This week, you should be doing more exam questions, but this time giving yourself the amount of time actually allowed by the exam board. If you need to, you can still use your notes to answer the questions, but you shouldn’t have to do this very much by this point.

-Get together with some of your friends and test each other. By this, I mean that you should pick a topic, and have a debate about that topic. You should do this in the style of a television show, or just as a debate. This will help you to get facts into your head, as it will be a fun activity.

2 weeks before the exam:

-During this week, you should try to have a go at every single paper that you will have to attempt during exam time. You should do these under timed conditions with no distractions, and you should no longer have to use your notes. If you can’t answer a question by now, you should leave it out, and find the answer to it when you’ve completed the exam paper.

-You should download the mark schemes from the exam board websites and use them to see what grades you would have got. You should aim to get a grade above your predicted grades in all exams that you attempt, then you know that you have a little bit of breathing space should something go wrong in the actual exam.

1 week before the exam:

-This week, you should gather all of your notes together and simply read over and over them as much as you can. You should read a couple of points and cover them up, then try to repeat them to yourself and see how many you can remember. If you don’t remember one, you should repeat the process until you can remember everything.

The day before the exam:

-Today, you should read through your notes, but not panic. What you don’t know now, you most likely won’t know in the actual exam either. If you’ve followed my tips, you should have learned pretty much everything that you need to, meaning that by this point you should be feeling confident about what you will be able to do in the exam.

The day of the exam:

-No matter how tempting it might seem at the time, you shouldn’t revise before an exam. The important thing is to relax and not overload your brain before you actually go in. If you spend the couple of hours before an exam relaxing, you will feel a lot better when you get in there.

Get enough sleep

You might think that you’re being a good student by staying up for hours on end at night doing revision, but sometimes it’s more important that you’re awake and alert during the day, so there’s really no point in staying up for too long. You should get at least 8 hours sleep per night, and ensure that you have at least a couple of extra hours at the weekends, leaving you refreshed and able to cope with the week ahead of you.

Improve your diet

If you don’t have your 5 a day at the moment, then around exam time is the best time that you could pick. A lot of people eat whilst revising, so you should try to eat fruit rather than chocolate. While chocolate might make you feel awake and alert, it might actually slow your brain down and prevent it from storing information as effectively. If you eat healthily, your brain will keep hold of more information.

Lets start simple, the best car you can get. Well the most expensive at any rate, the Bugatti Type 41 Royale for a mere 15million$ is a nice start.

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You’ll also need a house, how about this one for around 700million$

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Now to stock your house with the worlds best food and drink.

A 2million$ bottle of Cognac

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Some caviar that runs for 800$ and ounce

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And why not top it off with a 1000$ sundae

What good dinner wouldn’t be complete without some elegant music, and what better to play said music than on a 40,000$ iPod.

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Of course if you have an iPod that costs as much as a luxury car you might as well get a 1,000,000$ laptop to hook it up too.

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And say after dinner you want to go out somewhere. Why not take your 49million$ executive jet.

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While you’re waiting to arrive at what ever exotic destination you’re travelling too you could pass the time trying to figure out your 1.5million$ Rubiks cube.

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And when your hard days work is done, why not sail off into the sunset aboard your 1.2billion$ yacht

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While munching on a few 2000$ chocolate bars.

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You will need:

10-12 long stalks of wheat, rye, barley, or oats with heads

White thread

(For those without access to grain stalks, these can be woven from plastic drinking straws as well.)

In days gone by, farmers used to take the last few stalks of the grain harvest and weave them into beautiful designs in hopes of capturing the spirit of the grain to ensure a bountiful harvest the following year. These weavings were kept inside all winter. In the spring the weavings were unraveled and the heads were the first seeds sown in the fields, as it was believed they would bring good luck for the growing season. Today most people wheat weave for aesthetic pleasure as opposed to good luck for harvest, but the designs are just as beautiful now as they were hundred of years ago.

To begin, soak the straws in warm water for 20 minutes. Tie four straws together just below the heads. With the heads at the bottom, gently pull down the stalks so they splay in four different directions. Leave one gap wider than the others.

Start weaving by holding the gap away from you. Bend the straw across from the gap (second from the right) into the open space. A new gap will form where that straw was. Turn the weaving so the new gap faces away from you. Bend the straw across from the new gap (now second from the right) into the open space. Continue “filling the gap” until the weaving is about 5 inches long.

Do the same with another set of four straws, making a weaving that is 5 inches long. If you break a straw, just insert one of the extras in its place and continue weaving as though nothing happened.

Tie the two weaving together at the heads. Bend the weavings up into a heart shape. Allow the unwoven ends to drape down into the center. Secure the ends to the heads with thread. To finish, tie the bottom of the heart with a festive ribbon. As grain dries naturally on its own, these will last for many years.

Image by warrenski via Flickr

Subliminal advertising originated in 1956 with the American researcher, Jim Vicary. He collaborated with a New Jersey cinema owner to install a special projector to transpose images over the films already playing. These images were flashed so quickly, or printed so faintly, they were consciously in-perceivable to viewers. They first experimented with the words “Hungry? Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coca Cola” which, incredibly (especially to Vicary, who had never believed the idea would work), produced an approximate 50% increase in sales of popcorn, and an 18% increase in soft drink sales. This was tested by alternating the films they showed, half with subliminal messages, and half without. A storm of protest ensued in America, and was later repeated in the UK.

Here, a film producer, seeking to scare rather than sell, installed a similar device which projected the image of a skull and the work ‘Blood’ over horror films. Later, in 1974, pictures of a death mask were flashed onto the screen in the horror film The Exorcist.

Even more recently, American department stores also discovered a way to employ the technique, using auditory messages transposed over the piped music always playing in such shops. Messages such as ‘I am honest. I will not steal.’ were whispered rapidly, or so quietly they were consciously inaudible, yet were reportedly responsible for a dramatic decrease in shop-lifting.

Image via Wikipedia

The most sensational use of subliminal messaging was in 1990, when heavy-metal band Judas Priest were prosecuted for causing the suicide of two young fans, after allegedly transposing a subliminal message saying ‘Do it’ over a track. They were acquitted due to lack of scientific evidence the technique is effective.

The idea is that you only perceive whatever message is being projected or played on an unconscious level: you are entirely unaware of whatever you heard or saw on a conscious level, and if you respond to it will be unaware you’ve done so. Experts believe visual messages to be far more effective than sounds, and some psychologists even claim subliminal self-help CDs are useless. It is agreed, whether subliminal messaging works or not, it is unethical – hence it’s ban.

Image via Wikipedia

A fact widely unknown is that the first windmills actually were mounted on top of a single pivoting base, so that the entire building was moving around in order to ensure that the windmill blades were properly aligned with the wind. Windmills, where only the top section was used to turn the blades in the direction of the wind, were only invented in Europe in the 15. century. There were different types of windmills in use. The first models went back to the Persian idea (which probably built the oldest windmills at all, but no proof of how the complete design looked are left today) are of using a vertical shaft with blades or sails attached. Although this type of mill was easy to construct, it had one major disadvantage. With vertical windmills, a big part of it has to be shielded, so that the wind can catch properly (aerodynamic drag force). That means on the other hand, that a large part of the available power is actually lost.

Image via Wikipedia

The design of windmills using the horizontal axis was geared up to the water mill or water wheel design. The power of the rotating blades was transferred from the horizontal to the vertical axis by using cog wheels from wood or stone, and the power of vertical rotation was directly used to move grind stones, which were milling the grains. Apart from grain mills, the second most important application was water transport driven by wind energy. Today, you can still find some of these small-scale wind mills used for pumping water into garden and field irrigation systems on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea.

Starting in 1390, the Dutch set out to enhance the windmill design by using a tower as the main building, to which a horizontal axis windmill with four blades was attached to the top section. They also incorporated floors in the building, so that different sections were created for grinding, for storing raw and ground grain, and in order to accommodate the people who worked there; in most cases this was the miller and his family.

Image via Wikipedia – image credit

These windmills were improved over a period of about 500 years. Aerodynamic lift was added and the shapes of the rotor blades were improved in order to get the most out of wind power and to ensure a stable running. Improvements to the leading edge and to the gravitational centre were also made and finally lead to ever increasing efficiency. 

These mills were the driving force of economic development before the industrial revolution. The range of applications became as versatile as it gets. In the saw mill, for instance the entire sawing process was driven by the mill. Other examples were complete processing lines for tobacco and spices.

There was only one important application missing until the 20th century. This was the century in which wind was put to the generation of electric power.

Image by SarahDeer via Flickr

With the declining reserves of fossil fuels worldwide came the challenge of finding alternative sources of energy and of putting them to use in economically reasonable ways. The conversion of solar energy was one of the easiest options, since solar cells were already widely developed in the eighties and nineties, and only had to be optimised and incorporated into bigger but manageable systems. With other forms of energy, like with wind energy, there were issues in terms of efficiency right from the beginning, and a single wind mill for energy generation put out there in the landscape would at most have caused a smile on most peoples faces.

 But the wind generator principle was known and an intensive process of optimisation and trials followed. The materials for the blades were refined and the size of components was reduced, until the wind mill as we know it today was finally ready for the market. The idea of wind farms hugely improved efficiency of wind generating systems, since costs were reduced. A multitude of wind mills lined up in certain patterns can optimise the impact of wind, and thus the energy produced from it, where strong and mostly steady wind is present, the building and development costs for the site per generator were minimised, and the cable routing became more a task that could be handled like any other cable routing project – systematically.

Wakamatsu wind farm in Kitakyushu, Japan – image credit

 Despite all euphoria, a few problems remain: In some areas people strongly oppose the erection of wind farms because they seem to dwarf famous buildings or ruin the views in otherwise beautiful landscapes. There is also the issue of noise generated from the blades turning in the wind, which is why they need to be placed in some distance to urban areas. Because of their height, they are also not suited near airports and low altitude flight paths. But all in all, wind farms become more and more wide spread and will help human society to progress in the process of substituting fossil with renewable energy sources.

Try to save up a little before you get to university. If you can even save up a couple of hundred pounds, it will help towards food and things while you’re there. The whole of your loan will be taken up with your rent, so don’t be under any illusion that you’ll be ‘rich’ while you’re at university.

You will get homesick, but it won’t be for long.

If this is the first time that you’ve ever lived away from your home, then it’s inevitable that you will get a little homesick. Don’t worry if you do, but until you start to feel better, avoid home visits, as they will make you feel worse when you get back after them. You should throw yourself into all of the activities that are available to you, and you will find that the homesickness will wear off as soon as you realise just how amazing your next three years are going to be!

Your first week of lectures will be a complete let down.

You have to be prepared for this one. They will all be the same, and make the course sound much less interesting than you ever thought it would be. You may feel as though you want to drop out and not waste your money, as it wasn’t what you thought it would be, but hold on for a couple of weeks and you’ll find that things do get a lot more interesting.

The first time you go out with your flatmates, there will be a lot of awkward silences.

When I first started, I found that a lot of the time, there wasn’t really that much to say, as we didn’t know each other that well. You might feel as though you want to leave the halls as you don’t feel like you’re having as much fun as everyone else, but I promise you that things will get better. You should make a list in your head about possible conversations that you could have with people in case things get a little awkward while you’re trying to talk to them. Not many people think of doing this, but it’s the ones who do who get on better at the beginning. You will only have to act like this for a day or two, and then you’ll feel as though you’ve known each other for years.

All of your assignments will be due in on the same day.

The thing is with university, they want to have the assignments in to mark during the holidays, and it’s the same for all modules, so every single one will be due in at the same time. It doesn’t really matter though, as you have a lot of time to complete them. You just have to make sure that you do actually do the work that you need to do as you go along, and then you won’t have to waste very much time cramming for assessments, as you will have learnt it already, leaving you able to concentrate on assignments and essays at crucial times in the term.

You don’t get taught.

In your lectures, which are normally one per module per week, you will get given a lot of information on which you have to make notes. Apart from this, you will be expected to do a lot of reading around the subject to do your assignments, with very little help from your tutors. As soon as you get used to this approach, you will find everything a lot easier. The problem is just that it is a lot different to school and college, so some people will panic when they realise that they have to do a lot for themselves. You will get used to this.

Your old friends will change.

If you’re all going to different places in the country, it stands to reason that you’re going to pick up different accents, attitudes and interests than the ones you had when you were back home. It’s often the people who move the least distance who are hit hardest by this, as they feel that their friends have all changed, and they haven’t changed at all. You will have made a lot of new friends at university though, so you shouldn’t worry too much about this. It’s unlikely that they will have changed to the extent of you no longer having anything in common at all, so you should be able to meet up with them during the holiday times and still have a fair bit of fun in their company!

Your relationships will need a lot more effort.

If you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, going to university can put your relationship under a lot of strain. They may get jealous if you’re moving and they’re not, leading to them behaving a little differently, and maybe even talking about ending the relationship. It may be hard to accept this now, but if your relationship can’t stand the distance, then you might as well end it, as you will no doubt encounter larger problems than this. If you can stand the distance then you have to trust your partner, as it is vital that you know they’re not going to betray you whilst you’re away at university. For some people, the distance can strengthen the relationship, and everyone is different, so just be prepared for whatever may happen.

People will steal your food

No matter how many times you write your name on your food in permanent marker and capital letters, people will still steal your food. Usually, it will be things like milk, bread and cereal, and they can often go missing without you even noticing it, which is how they get away with doing it. To help stop this from happening, you should try to keep cereal, crisps, biscuits and teabags (basically anything that doesn’t absolutely have to be in the fridge) in your room where only you can get hold of them. Even if you become close friends with those in your flat, there will still be someone who is stealing your food sometimes without you even knowing it.

Don’t agree to share food.

Sharing milk, bread and cereal may seem like a good idea at the time, but it might actually not be. The thing is, if you share them, the same person or couple of people will buy them every time, and some will never have to buy anything. And, believe it or not, they will actually get away with it for the whole year! I will admit that it makes sense to share milk, as it goes sour quickly, but certainly for every other food I would advise that you kept to buying your own.

There will be one person in your flat that makes things awkward for everyone else.

If you’re lucky enough to get on with even a couple of your flatmates then it’s really good. If you think about it, the likelihood of you getting on with them is very slim, as you are put into flats with people doing different subjects with very different interests to yourself. Often, there will one person who is very different to the rest and will cause a lot of problems and maybe even make things awkward. What you should do in this situation is basically grin and bear it. You only have to put up with them for one year, so it isn’t really that much of a problem. Plus, you’ll be at lectures at different times, and you’ll only have to put up with them during the evenings anyway. You could always make your excuses and go to visit a friend in another flat.

University will be the best time of your life

I know that I have pointed out all of the negative aspects of university life above, but it will be the best time of your life. You will enjoy going out partying, quiet nights in, a lot of shopping, independence, your new friends and your course. If you manage your time and money, university can really be amazing, and you can get an awful lot from it.

This sunset is from high on top of a Mountain. The sun is set half way in the sky, shinning down on a vast sea of clouds, creating and effect of ocean waves constantly breaking at the surface.

The sun in this photo is in it’s last moments before setting, blacking out the foreground and causing an Erie yellow and orange reflection on the waters of this canal.

The sky reflects on the surface of a clear blue lake in Yellowstone National park as the sun sets in the background. As the sun sets the temperature drops causing, water vapor to form on the top of the lake and rise into the sky.

The day is coming to and end over this beautiful lake, as the water ripples the bright orange sun sits a top the tree line in the background.

A beautiful hawaiian sunset from the island of Maui. The sunset glistens on the surface of the water and creates and orange glow as the peaks the horizon.

This ocean inlet doesn’t look like much in the full light of day. But as the sunsets it creates a surreal landscape of glowing rivers, that are bright orange in color as the sun reflects of the calm ocean water.

A thick bed of water plants cover the surface of this swampy pond. As the water mists into the sky, forming fog as it rises from the surface of water, the sun beats down turning the fog into a burning cloud.

Small waves break on the beach. As the day turns into night, the sky is lite up in a bright reddish orange. Sailors take heed this beautiful omen is a sign of a big storm brewing.

This extraordinary scene is set on a wooden dock with amazing mountains in the background, just before dusk. The sun is setting and a brilliant reflection of oranges, yellows and blues unfold on the surface of the lake.

The sun perfectly aligns it’s self on the end of the beach. Almost as if it was a beacon, warning ships as they sail by.

This wonderfully shaped bonsai tree hangs over the sea, as a brilliant orange sun, sets in the west.

A desert and mountain landscape with tall prickly cactus, with the bright orange sun just about ready to hide it self, behind a vast mountain landscape.

High tide has just gone out as the rays of the setting sun, shines on the black sands of this rocky beach.

The sun plays with sky creating rich hues of color with in every cloud. As a lonely tree stands tall among the beautiful scene unfolding in the sky.

Fog rises from this marsh land, creating a thick and flowing cloud, that creeps low to the ground and as the sunsets it’s brilliant color reflects off the many ponds.

Beautiful grass filled plains seam to run right into the ocean as they cut through the sand dunes. The sun is setting and the blue, cloud filled sky is starting to turn a brilliant yellow.

It’s almost dusk and the dark night is starting to take over the rainbow colored sky as the sunsets in the distance.

The sun is setting on this tropical landscape, as the clouds hide the sun, it creates and amazingly colorful effect on the nights sky.

A beautiful sunset on a not so good looking glacier. As the thick and icey glacier has melted, it revealed a giant stunning mountain. That used to only have a small portion of the mountains peak showing.

A rocky beach sets the foreground, as the sun is just starting to break the surface of this clear blue lake. The sky is set a blaze and the blue is replaced by a stunning yellow, that expands across the horizon.