Hotel for Chicken Opens Up in Cornwall

I’ve read and written about a some pretty unusual hotels, in the past, but this is the first chicken hotel I’ve ever heard of.

The Chicken Hotel created by 31-year-old David Roberts, from Boskenwyn, Helston, is almost just like any other hotel out there, with one big difference – instead of people, it offers accommodations for chicken. I know it sounds like a joke, but this place is for real, and apparently it’s also very successful.

“With more people looking to escape the rat race and move out in the country with a little bit of land, keeping chickens is becoming more and more popular. But what do you do if you go away on holiday? Who looks after the chicken?” asks Mr. Roberts, who opened his unusual establishment to encourage people to raise their own chicken. A former cabinet-maker, David Roberts built the chicken coops himself and now rents them for 2 pounds each, plus 75 pence per chicken.

Each coop in the Chicken Hotel holds up to eight chicken and the current offer includes buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner of local produce, served in open-air. Guests are allowed to roam around the hotel grounds all day, before being gathered to roost at night. According to Mr. Roberts, the hotel was fully booked over Christmas time, and he hopes half term and Easter will be just as successful.

Source :- Oddity Central

World's First Tram Sauna | Infrared Steam Spa Bath Massage Club

The world's first tram sauna unveiled in Milan. Unfortunately this real tram is no longer in operation and sits in one place at the spa resort in northern Italy.

But, created by public transport designers QC Termemilano, it has all the features of the original carriage - except now it's a bit more wooden inside, a bit hotter, and a bit stuffier.

It comes complete with hot coals and benches - as well as the tram's trademark pitched roof and open window views of its surroundings.

A sauna session can be a social affair in which the participants disrobe and sit or recline in temperatures typically between 60°C (140 °F) and 100°C (212 °F). This induces relaxation and promotes sweating.

The designers claim the idea is to show commuters that public transport needn't always be stressful.

A spokesman said: 'People can get very stressed travelling through a city centre.

'This innovative design is to show that not all public transport is frustrating. It can be somewhere to relax.'

The historical Carelli tram sits in the middle of a spa complex on a real track, all of its own.

And models frequently turn up to pose by it too, apparently.

Former Milkman Builds Milk 10K Bottle Mini-Museum By Paul Luke

A former milkman has been forced to build a museum in his back garden after his home became too small to hold his collection - of more than 10,000 milk bottles.

Dedicated Paul Luke, 33, saved his first milk bottle when he was just nine years old while earning pocket money as a 'milkman's mate'.

But his collection has swelled to more than 10,000 bottles over the years - with some of the rarest dating back to the 1890s.

Paul's collection grew so large that it wouldn't fit inside his home so he was forced to build a museum in his back garden.

Father-of-one Mr Luke, who edits Milk Bottle News website for fellow fans, admitted that his hobby has 'got a bit out of hand'.

He said: 'My parents liked it that I had a hobby. They thought it kept me out of trouble.

'The ones with a Kelloggs cornflakes advert caught my eye first. I used to pick these ones out when I helped the milk man while I was at school.

'I thought it would be interesting to start collecting the different ones but it started to get a bit out of hand.

'Some of my bottles are the only ones left in existence, to put a price on the collection is difficult but I don't do it for the monetary value, they're a record of history.'

Mr Luke, who lives in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, with his wife and daughter, collected his first milk bottle in 1987 when he was earning pocket money working as a milkman's mate.

He noticed that different bottles featured various adverts and began a collection on his parent's window sill - before going on to work as a milkman.

Over the years his obsession grew and he was forced to buy a 'miniature museum' in his back garden in order to display them.

Every single one of his prized milk bottles are embossed or pyroglazed by a dairy company and feature an advert.

He now owns a collection of over 10,000 different milk bottles and is still actively collecting more.

Mr Luke, who now works as a sales rep for a Hertfordshire dairy firm, also owns three old-fashioned milk floats, milk churns and milk measures which preceded bottles.

He added: 'I have milk bottles dating from the 1890s when they were first introduced. The glass was is green because they weren't progressed in making glass.

'Milk used to be ladled into customers jugs out of heavy churns. It was seen to be unhygienic and it was an entrepreneurial move by the dairies to introduce bottles.

'My favourites are the bottles from the 1950s when they had adverts using three or four colours, usually for eggs and butter.

'The adverts by each local dairy are individual, compared say, to the Kellogg's adverts.

'Most of these dairies have disappeared and some of them will have been built on. My collection is a record of the milk industry.

'I'm always looking for bottles from local farms which have the dairies name on them and would be glad to hear from anyone who has information or photo's of local dairies.'

The first British milk bottles were produced by the Express Dairy Company in 1880, they used a porcelain stopper and were delivered by horse-drawn carts four times a day.

A new pasteurisation process which allowed milk to be sterilised and stored for longer was developed in 1894 and deliveries were reduced to once a day.

Advertisements began to appear on milk bottles in 1920 when a sand-blasting technique was used to etch them on the glass.

The advertising largely disappeared in the early 1990s with the introduction of infrared bottle scanners designed to check cleanliness.

Dark White Chocolate Design | Art Sculpture Around The World

White chocolate is a confection of sugar, cocoa butter, and milk solids with a pale yellow or ivory appearance. The melting point of cocoa butter is high enough to keep white chocolate solid at room temperature, yet low enough to allow white chocolate to melt in the mouth.

As one of Italy's most famous famous chocolatiers, Mirco Della Vecchia knew he had to come up with a pretty sweet idea for his next project.

And he's had audiences licking their lips with anticipation with his latest set of white chocolate sculptures.

A tasty Triomphe: Mirco Della Vecchia poses with his chocolate sculpture of Paris' famous Arc de Triomphe

The artist went around the world with white chocolate, whipping up the tasty treats to form Paris' Arc de Triomphe, Greece's Parthenon, Italy's leaning Tower of Pisa and Colosseum, the Egyptian temples Abu Simbel and England's famous Stonehenge.

The iconic landmarks were crafted as part of his 'Chocolate World Heritage' currently being exhibited in Hong Kong.

Painstaking patience - not to mention admirable self-restraint - were used to create the milky white wonders, which might tempt chocolaholics to skip visiting the real thing in favour of a close-up of Vecchia's work.

He carved Rome's ancient amphitheatre from a huge chunk of chocolate, even capturing the crumbling facade of the monument.

The replica of Nubia's Abu Smibel, which was originally built during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, as a monument to himself and his queen Nefertari, have been created with incredible detail, even carving out the lines in the pharoah's beards.

His sturdy Parthenon and its columns have been intricately carved, with a poster showing the intense look of concentration on the artist's face as he shaves off chocolate curls from his work.

He has captured Stonehenge's worn look with no stone left untouched and his Arc de Triomphe is so big he can peek through its delectable arch.

His towering Pisa is perhaps the most impressive, as the model defies gravity by precariously leaning, just like its real life inspiration.

Vecchia showed that he had a sweet tooth from the age of 13, when he says he started working as a confectioner and says he 'knew his future would lay in the cafe' business.

In 1996 he started entering a series of regional competitions dedicated to the gentle art, quickly gaining numerous awards for his chocolate pistachio, praline, pastry and icecream.

He currently holds the Guinness World Record title for making the largest chocolate sculpture in the world.

Together with a team of artists, Vecchia created a white chocolate replica of the Dome of Milan which is 1.5 meters tall, 2.5 meters long and weighed and impressive 5.37 tons - setting the new world record for the largest chocolate sculpture.

Even their feet look good enough to eat: An incredible amount of attention went into this sculpture of Egypt's Abu Simbel, with even the Pharaohs' toes and beards being carved out of chocolate

Stone me: Stonehenge inspired the sweet-toothed chocolatier to replicate it with white chocolate

A colossal Colosseum: The chocolatier even captured the crumbling state of the Roman building... or did he just end up nibbling on his work?

The milk chocolate kid: Italian chocolatier Mirco Della Vecchia with his chocolate sculpture of the Parthenon for the exhibition

Mealworms Insects Eat In Future | Tasty Delicous Food

Easy Recipes - It seems that live Mealworms are becoming real “meal” worms as everyone from farmers to chefs begin to use these insects as a tasty treat. They are also using grasshoppers in new and inventive foods. Are you enough of a foodie to try these insect treats?

Mealworm quiche, grasshopper springrolls and cuisine made from other creepy crawlies is the answer to the global food crisis, shrinking land and water resources and climate-changing carbon emissions, Dutch scientist Arnold van Huis says.

The professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands said insects have more protein than cattle per bite, cost less to raise, consume less water and don't have much of a carbon footprint. He even has plans for a cookbook to make bug food a more appetising prospect for mature palates.

"Children don't have a problem with eating insects, but adults with developed eating habits do, and only tasting and experience can make them change their minds," Van Huis said.

"The problem is psychological."

Van Huis has organized lectures, food tastings, and cookery classes with a master chef who demonstrates how to prepare a range of recipes using bugs, worms and grasshoppers, all bred -- or raised -- at a Dutch insect farm for consumption.

To attract more insect-eaters, Van Huis and his team of scientists at Wageningen have worked with a local cooking school to produce a cookbook and suitable recipes.

Chef Henk van Gurp, who created recipes for mealworm quiche and chocolate pralines with buffalo worms, sees no reason to disguise the ingredients, and sprinkles mealworms on top of the quiche filling and onto the chocolate buffalo worms as protein.

"I try to make my food in a way that people can see what they eat," he told Reuters. "Once international leading chefs begin preparing this food, others will follow."

Grasshoppers are considered a tasty snack in Asian countries including Thailand and Vietnam, but are not a feature on the Dutch menu. Van Huis says Europeans should consider insects an alternative source of protein because they can contain up 90 percent protein, compared with 40-70 percent for beef.

"Meat consumption is expected to double from 2000 to 2050. We are already using 70 percent of our agricultural land for livestock and we cannot afford to spare more," he said.

Plus raising cattle is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gases emissions.

Insects are already bred as food for birds, lizards and monkeys at the Callis family's farm near the university, and now the owners see a chance to sell bugs for human consumption.

"It is good food, of high nutritional value, and very healthy for elderly people," said Margot Callis. Though she cannot eat insects herself because she is allergic to them.

Duyugu Tatar, a 24-year old IT consultant who attended a recent lecture and food-tasting at the university, was less effusive about the mealworm quiche.

The taste was not that awful, but the idea of eating them horrified me. It was crispy. The taste was not like normal food. Not like meat, vegetable, or fruit. Maybe something like cornflakes," she said.

"It took a lot of courage to eat it, I usually smash them (insects) when I see them. I am not used to eating them. I don't know if I would eat it again."

Top iPhone Video Game Free App Downloaded 2m Times in Store

Robert Nay Puzzle Game - A simple Bubble Ball but hugely addictive video game netflix and android is taking the world by storm.

Bubble Ball is a physics-based puzzle game that has been Free downloaded as an app by more than two million iPhone users.

It became the top free application on the Apple store.

But it hasn't been designed by a team of highly paid experts, it is the work of a 14-year-old boy.

Robert Nav's game even outsold the adventure game Angry Birds.

Since its release on December 29, Bubble Ball's success has become astounding.

Adding to Robert's glory is the David versus Goliath nature of his victory.

While he designed Bubble Ball in his bedroom in Spanish Fork, Utah, Angry Birds was developed by 17 professionals in Finland.

The rules of Bubble Ball are simple - players must move a small blue ball from one side of the screen to the other by steering it around various obstacles.

Robert was encouraged to try his hand at programming by a friend who noticed how much he liked his iPod touch.

He firstly tired the standard Objective-C programming tools, but found the software a bit difficult, so switched to GameSalad, which he didn't like.

After decided Corona tools from Ansca Mobile best suited him - and let him write and publish for both Aplpe and Android devices - Robert set about writing his game.

While his mother, Kari Nay, drew some of the levels of the game and submitted the apps to the App Store and Android marketplaces, the teenager did all the coding.

Robert released Bubble Ball through his own company, Nay Games.

Mitzi - The Bionic Dog - World's First Artificial Paw

A German Shepherd called Mitzi has become the first dog in the world to be fitted with a pioneering prosthetic ankle.

The three-year-old had her rear right foot amputated after she was trampled by a horse.

But the lively dog is back to enjoying walks with her owner after being fitted with an artificial foot and ankle by pioneering vet Dr Noel Fitzpatrick.

The prosthesis is the first in the world to have been inserted into a fully moving bone and allows Mitzi to walk with a normal gait and no limp.

Mitzi's owner Viv Davis, from Dorchester, Dorset, and her daughter Zoe Randle were desperate to find a way to give her a better quality of life after she lost her hind foot.

Ms Davis said: 'The options were three legs, euthanasia, or give her a chance to walk. We had to give her a chance to walk.'

Dr Fitzpatrick, from Godalming, Surrey, added that the implant proved a success when Mitzi was taken off her lead for the first time on Thursday.

'There was always a risk that the exoprosthesis could actually break when Mitzi ran off her lead so this truly was a nail biting moment for me and for the design team as it could have failed spectacularly,' he explained.

Mitzi is walking with an entirely normal gait, with her foot moving exactly the way it should and today marks day one of Mitzi's return to living life like a normal dog.'

Dr Fitzpatrick was the first vet in the world to offer prosthetic limbs to pets using Intraosseous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthesis (ITAP) technology

'It's a permanent fixture, it is part of the dog's body. The dog just gets on with life. Before ITAP came into being there was no way to give an animal a prosthesis.

'This has implications not only for animals but for human amputees in the future.

'If what I do helping patients in their needs, helps other patients that are animals, or human, excellent. I think it is the future.'

Dr Fitzpatrick operated on Mitzi to insert a titanium rod into her leg leaving her with a peg to which a prosthesis could be attached.

Her new titanium foot screws onto the peg and allows her to walk and run once again - something her owner never thought possible.

Mitzi's new foot was designed using computer modelling based on her gait so that it would absorb shock and to prevent it from snapping off.

The implant attaches to bone at the site of the amputation and protrudes through the skin like deer antlers so that a prosthesis can be attached.

The technology, which is now being used for humans, allows the skin to integrate with the implant and create a barrier to infection.

It has already been used to create a prosthetic for a woman who lost her arm in the July 2005 London bombings.

Dog Helper Sandie Aids Disabled Owner Doing Household Chores

Four-year-old Sandie has proved she really is a girl's best friend - by learning to do all of her owner's housework.

The four-year-old pooch does all of owner Sue Line's shopping and washing - and can even pay for her groceries.

The Terrier-cross accompanies Ms Line, who is paralysed from the waist down, to the supermarket - putting all of her shopping in a bag, which she then carries around in her mouth.

When they come to the checkout Sandie can even take money from her owner's purse and hand it over to the shop assistant.

Sandie also loads the washing machine - separating her dirty clothes into dark and light loads and locking the machine door before the cycle begins.

She has also mastered how to unlock the kitchen door to let herself out to the toilet - and always remembers to close it behind her on her way back.

Ms Line, a retired NHS health trust manager, was paralysed 40 years ago after she was thrown from a car in a New Year's Eve smash.

The 61-year-old from Coventry, said: 'My life has become so much easier since I've had Sandie helping me. She's such a clever dog and has given me a sense of independence that I never had before.

'I have lost some of the use of my hands, so Sandie's help with fetching and carrying things is invaluable to me.

'The list of things she can do is endless. She does everything from bring me the post first thing in the morning, to fetching my phone if it starts to ring.'

Lee Armstrong, deputy manager of Sue's local Tesco store in Bedworth, said: 'Sandie has become something of a celebrity with other shoppers and staff as well as she goes about the store dutifully picking up groceries for her owner.'

Sue bought Sandie when she was just a few weeks old, from a friend - and hoped that her new pet would provide her with some companionship.

But it was only after getting in touch with a dog charity - Dog AID (Assistance in Disability), that she realised Sandie's full potential.

Ms Line added: 'Sandie's mother was a very intelligent dog, and that's obviously a trait that's been passed on.

'None of us ever imagined just how clever Sandie would turn out to be, though.

'I'm lucky to have a caring and supportive family around me, but it's great for me to have Sandie so they can have a bit of a break.

'It's lovely to have such a wonderful companion, and for me to regain a bit of independence.

People we meet out in the street are always amazed by her. My local shopkeeper has got used to her doing the shopping for me and handing over the cash, but it's always funny to see other people's faces when they watch her do it for the first time.

'Sandie and I were out shopping a few weeks ago when a woman in front of us dropped some change.

'She couldn't believe her eyes when Sandie picked up the coins in her mouth and gave them back to her. It took about two years to train Sandie to do all the things she can do now.

'The hardest bit was getting her to ignore food when we go into restaurants - she'd always be drooling when she smelt something delicious - but she's an absolute star now.

'I'm incredibly lucky to have her.'

Sandie is one of 24 dogs that have been successfully trained by Dog AID - and has recently been awarded their highest award.

Sandra Fraser, the charity's co-ordinator, said: 'Sandie is absolutely brilliant. She's a real success story.

'Most people don't think of a Terrier cross breed when they picture a support dog - but Sandie does just as well as any Labrador.

'She has made a huge difference to Sue's life.

'We are always looking for qualified dog trainers to help us train animals to help their owners, like Sue and Sandie.'

Fluorescent Luminous Green River is Blamed on Pranksters

Canada's Goldstream River failed to live up to its name when its waters bizarrely started flowing a fluorescent Luminous green.

The river, which runs through the city of Langford in British Columbia, looked like the result of a radioactive disaster and an investigation was launched immediately.

What caused the river to change colour was a mystery at first, but investigators swiftly discovered an organic compound used as a dye to test water systems was to blame.

Colourful: The Goldstream River started flowing fluorescent green after hoaxers added an organic dye to the water

But as no tests were being conducted on the day the Goldstream River turned green, officials immediately pointed the finger at pranksters.

Tyson Elder was hiking along the river with friends photographing Bald Eagles when he saw the fluorescent green water on December 29.

Tyson, 24, from Victoria, British Columbia, said: 'In the distance all I could see was bright neon green - it looked like coolant.

'To see something so bright and unexpected was kind of unnerving, especially because it is a popular tourist destination.

'In the winter the Bald Eagles mate and nest there so we were worried about what it would do to the animals. Luckily tests showed it was not toxic.'

News of the neon-green waters spread fast after Tyson posted images on his Twitter site.

'Everyone was shocked by what they saw,' he said. 'It was big news. It was picked up by radio stations and people were flooding to the park.

'No-one seemed to know what was going on. It was quite an interesting day.'

Tyson, a photographer who also works in mediation, said the water ran green over a stretch of 400 metres for about three hours.

His friend had a camcorder and the video on YouTube has been viewed around 550,000 times.

Langford Fire Chief Bob Beckett blamed the greening of the river on unidentified pranksters.

'In all likelihood it's a hoax, but it's unfortunate we had to utilise all sorts of resources to investigate this,' he said.

Fluorescein, which is also used as a tracer in medical procedures, can cause allergic reactions, according to Vancouver Island Health Authority officials.

'It does not have a high toxicity, but it can cause allergic reactions,' said medical health officer Murray Fyfe.

Local resident Bruce Bradley, 27, said: 'It looked like the result of a radioactive disaster. I was half expecting to see two headed fish swimming about.

'It was quite incredible to see, it was really bright. A few guys were spooked by it all at first. It was bizarre.'

The substance is not believed to have affected fish populations, and according to the Montreal Gazette, the river turned back to its regular colour within an hour.

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