1. CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Fans of royal pomp and splendour will be surprised at how much there is to do and see, without dipping into your own coffers. One key bit of pageantry that takes place regularly is the Changing of the Guard. Watch this traditional ceremony outside Buckingham Palace, where guards swap places wearing red tunics and bearskin hats. 11am outside Buckingham Palace, but check beforehand as it only takes place on certain days, www.royal.gov.uk

2. CEREMONY OF THE KEYS

Entry to the Tower of London usually costs £17 for an adult, £9.50 for a child, but there is a way to get inside for free. The Ceremony of the Keys takes place every evening at the Tower of London, home to the Crown Jewels. Dressed in his red tunic, the Chief Yeoman locks the gates - important when you know what treasure lies within - before delivering them to the Resident Governor of the Tower, a ritual that has gone on for 700 years. Tickets are free, but need to be booked two months in advance by written application. More details: www.hrp.org.uk

3. CLIMB BIG BEN

With the elections over, keep your MP busy with the task of helping organise your free tour of St Stephen's Tower, home to the Big Ben bell. Said to be the most accurate clock in the world, the tour guide will outline the history of the tower and bell and how it all works. Space is limited and so early booking is advised (usually three to six months in advance). Further information at www.parliament.co.uk

4. VISIT THE OLYMPICS

Anyone interested in the 2012 Olympics can tour the Stratford Olympic stadium for free - just book in advance and take photographic ID (over eight-year-olds only). Tours take place on Saturdays and Sundays, last an hour and go by bus from Stratford station. www.walthamforest.gov.uk or call 0300 2012 001.

5. HOP ON A BUS

Before you jump on an expensive organised sightseeing tour, consider a DIY tour which comes with an added bonus. Some of the buses are vintage Routemaster models and go past some of London's most iconic landmarks. There are two key routes: the number 9, which takes in neon-clad Piccadilly, Hyde Park, the Albert Hall and Kensington Palace. Number 15 includes Trafalgar Square, the Tower of London and St Paul's Cathedral. The routes will take you through the West End, West London and the City to the East End. Using an Oystercard would cost an adult £3.90 to travel all day by bus. More information: www.tfl.gov.uk

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6. GO CYCLING

The new Barclays Cycle Hire scheme means you can see the capital for under a fiver - a day's hire, plus the activation key comes to £4. As long as you ensure that no journey lasts more than 30 minutes, the bicycles won't cost you anything. www.tfl.gov.uk/BarclaysCycleHire

7. SEE SOME ART

London's major museums - including the British Museum, the V&A and the Tate Modern - are free, but for something a bit more unusual, head to the Gagosian Gallery in Kings Cross. Currently, it has an exhibition of some rarely-seen Picassos and looking at them won't cost you a penny. More details: www.gagosian.com

8. FESTIVALS

The Mayor's Thames Festival takes place from 11-12 September and is one of the best free events in the capital. This year there will be performances as well as archaelogical walks along the foreshore, while the weekend will be rounded off with a huge firework display. Following the current fashion for all things vintage, classic sailing boats will be on show at St Katherine's Dock. For further information: www.thamesfestival.org

9. THE THEATRE FOR LESS

Enjoy some of the West End's biggest hits during Kids Week, when children go free if accompanied by adults. This promotion, which includes Mamma Mia!, Oliver! and the Railway Children lasts until 3 September.

More information: www.kidsweek.co.uk, but you can also buy half-price theatre tickets year-round from the Tkts booth in Leicester Square. See www.tkts.co.uk

10. OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND

See inside buildings never usually open to the public over the weekend of September 18-19. The Open House event includes tours of the Bank of England, the BT Tower and City Hall, as well as private houses and historic buildings. And all tours are free. See www.londonopenhouse.org

A cow whose tiny stature saved her from the abattoir has entered the record books as the world's smallest.

Swallow, a Dexter cow from Cheshire, stands 33.5in (0.8m) tall from hind to foot - shorter than most sheep.

The 11-year-old, who is currently pregnant, has produced nine calves and is described by owner Caroline Ryder as the "nanny of the herd".

Swallow secured a slot with the tallest dog, longest snake and oldest gorilla in the 2011 Guinness World Records.

The tiny cow was born in Newbury, Berkshire in 1999 and bought by the Ryder family at a rare breed auction in 2006.

'Genetic anomaly'

Brought up in Rishworth, West Yorkshire, her small size means she is used for breeding, explained Mrs Ryder, who recently moved to Crossley Hall Farm, near Congleton.

"She was quite small when she was born and she has grown proportionately," she told the BBC.

"She is really sweet - an asset to the herd. For a small cow with short legs she can't half move fast."

The family approached Guinness after noticing a posting on a Dexter cattle forum from someone looking for the smallest cow.

After putting her name forward last year, Guinness confirmed the record a few months ago.

The other new entries in Guinness World Records 2011:

• Widest tongue: Jay Stoot from Australia measuring 7.9cm

• Longest beard: Sarwan Singh measuring 7ft 9in

• Greatest weight lifted by nipples: Sage Werbock, aka, The Great Nippulini, who lifted 31.9kg

• Furthest distance a double-decker bud has been pulled with hair: Manjit Singh - 21 metres

• Most gurning wins: Tommy Mattinson - 11 wins

• Longest dog tongue: Puggy measuring 11.43cm

• Longest snake: Fluffy the Anaconda measuring 24ft

• Oldest Gorilla: Colo aged 51

• Fastest time a dog can pop 100 balloons: Anastacia in 44.49 secs

watch the video of the Guinness World Records

Retail giant Wal-Mart is the world’s largest public company, and whether or not you’re a fan of shopping at the House that Sam Walton Built, you’ve got to admit that the store stocks just about everything. But not quite, though. There are a number of things that Wal-Mart has banned from its stores at some point. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

1. Barbie’s Pregnant Pal

In 2002 Wal-Mart cleared its shelves of Barbie’s pregnant friend, Midge. The doll, which featured a removable stomach complete with deliverable baby, was part of Mattel’s “Happy Family” set that also included her husband and son. However, customers complained about seeing pregnancy enter into Barbie’s universe, and Wal-Mart pulled all of the Happy Family sets from its stores.

2. This Underwear:

That’s right: panties that say, “Who needs credit cards…” on the front and “When you have Santa” on the rear. The undergarments started showing up in Wal-Mart’s juniors departments in December 2007 and quickly started an Internet firestorm over the perceived message of using Kris Kringle as a sugar daddy. While the same joke would be fairly harmless on, say, a t-shirt, many women felt that its placement on underwear added a sinister sexual undertone aimed at adolescent girls. In response to the public outcry, Wal-Mart pulled the offending underthings from its shelves.

3. Confederate-Themed Barbecue Sauce

You may remember the raucous debate about whether the Confederate flag should be flown over the South Carolina State House in 2000, but you probably didn’t know the battle spilled over into Wal-Mart’s grocery aisles. At the time, 90 Southern Wal-Marts were marketing a mustard-based sauce created by Maurice Bessinger, an outspoken advocate of flying the Rebel flag over the State House and owner of eight Piggie Park restaurants. During the flag debate, Bessinger replaced all American flags at his eateries with Confederate flags, a move that Wal-Mart saw as objectionable and needlessly provocative, so the company yanked his sauces from its stores. (Don’t feel too bad for Bessinger, though; it took nothing less than a 1976 Supreme Court intervention to force him to serve African Americans in his restaurants.)


4. A Shirt That Read “Someday a Woman Will Be President”

In 1995 a Miami-area Wal-Mart pulled this shirt from its racks after consumer complaints. The shirt, which featured the character Margaret from Dennis the Menace, ran afoul of “the company’s family values,” so it went back to the stock rooms. Eventually more reasonable, non-Stone-Age heads prevailed, and the shirt made it back onto the shelves after three months in limbo.

5. Workplace Romance

In November 2005, German courts ruled that Wal-Mart could not ban all workplace romance at its German stores. The retailer had unsuccessfully tried to force all employees to sign off on a 28-page code of ethics that included prohibitions on “lustful glances and ambiguous jokes” and “sexually meaningful communication of any type.”

6. An Al Snow Action Figure

In 1999 Wal-Mart put the brakes on selling an action figure featuring WWE hardcore wrestler Al Snow. Snow’s wrestling gimmick at the time involved walking to the ring while carrying and talking to a mannequin head. Naturally, his action figure came with the head as an accessory, but two professors at Georgia’s Kennesaw State University saw the inclusion of the head as a problem. They told the press that by selling the action figure society was “normalizing violent treatment of women. We are telling little boys that this is acceptable behavior.” (Please, parents: don’t ever give your sons the impression that carrying and talking to part of a mannequin is acceptable.) Following this high-profile outcry, Wal-Mart quit stocking the Al Snow action figure.

7. Megan Fox

The Wal-Mart in the starlet’s hometown supposedly banned her for life following a teenage shoplifting bust. A 2008 report on contactmusic.com alleged that Fox got the heave-ho after being caught swiping a $7 tube of lip gloss during a rebellious shoplifting spree, which earned her the lifetime ban.

8. Lad Mags

If you’re a frisky 17-year-old looking for the latest Maxim, Stuff, or FHM, don’t head to Wal-Mart. Since 2003 the store has banned the so-called “lad mags” due to their racy photo spreads and bawdy editorial content. It’s actually not all the uncommon for Wal-Mart to give a single issue of a magazine an ax, too. In the past, the store has refused to stock issues of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition and a 2001 issue of InStyle that featured an artistic nude shot of Kate Hudson.

9. Music

Wal-Mart has long declined to stock any music bearing a parental advisory warning for explicit lyrical content, but the company’s fastidiousness with regards to music doesn’t stop there. When the store carried Nirvana’s album In Utero, it changed the song title “Rape Me” to the less offensive (and less coherent) “Waif Me.” Similarly, the store declined to carry Prince’s 1988 album Lovesexy because of a fairly tame cover that featured a nude photo of the artist.

10. Superbad DVDs

When the comedy Superbad hit store shelves in 2007, it came with a little extra: a replica of the fake Hawaii driver’s license used by the self-dubbed “McLovin’.” Most movie fans would simply see this freebie as a little reminder of one of the movie’s funniest scenes, but Hawaiian authorities simply felt it was a fake ID. Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann requested that Wal-Mart pull the DVD from store shelves across the state, and the retailer quickly complied.

11. Cuban Pajamas

Wal-Mart’s Canadian stores found themselves in a pickle in 1997. The Canadian subsidiary had begun selling Cuban-made pajamas at eight bucks a pop across our neighbor to the North, which enraged both the company’s home office and the U.S. Treasury Department. The stores quickly pulled the offending PJ’s, which led to a second problem: this action may have violated a Canadian law that forbids abiding by the American embargo of Cuba. After the Ottawa government pointed out that Wal-Mart could face a million-dollar fine for pulling the sleepwear from its shelves, the Canadian Wal-Marts reversed the ban after one week. [Underwear & T-shirt images courtesy of Feministing.com.]

1) New York City has 11 letters.
2) Afghanistan has 11 letters.
3) Ramsin Yuseb (The terrorist who threatened to destroy the Twin Towers in 1993) has 11 letters.
4) George W. Bush has 11 letters.
5) The two twin towers make an "11".

This could be a mere coincidence, but this gets more interesting:

1) New York is the 11th state.
2) The first plane crashing against the Twin Towers was flight number 11.
3) Flight 11 was carrying 92 passengers. 9 + 2 = 11
4) Flight 77 which also hit Twin Towers, was carrying 65 passengers. 6+5 = 11
5) The tragedy was on September 11, or 9/11 as it is now known. 9 + 1+ 1 = 11
6) The date is equal to the US emergency services telephone number 911. 9 + 1 + 1 = 11.

Sheer coincidence..?! Read on and make up your own mind:

1) The total number of victims inside all the hi-jacked planes was 254. 2 + 5 + 4 = 11.
2) September 11 is day number 254 of the calendar year. Again 2 + 5 + 4 = 11.
3) The Madrid bombing took place on 3/11/2004. 3 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 4 = 11.
4) The tragedy of Madrid happened 911 days after the Twin Towers incident.

Now this is where things get totally eerie:

The most recognized symbol for the US, after the Stars & Stripes, is the Eagle.
The following verse is taken from the Quran, the Islamic holy book:

"For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle.
The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo,
while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced:
for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah and there was peace."

That verse is number 9.11 of the Quran.

Still unconvinced about all of this..?!
Try this and see how you feel afterwards, it made my hair stand on end:

Open Microsoft Word and do the following
(TRY THIS FOR REAL)

1. Type in capitals Q33 NY. This is the flight number of the first plane to hit one of the Twin Towers.
2. Highlight the Q33 NY
3. Change the font size to 48.
4. Change the actual font to the WINGDINGS 1

note: May God bless the families who have lost their family members on 9/11 tragedy. N' for the victims, R.I.P n may God keep ur souls. :,)

Learning how to use the space shuttle's toilet? That's tricky.

The fence-like enclosures are designed for cars to drive in and conceal prostitutes and customers as they conduct their business.

Psychologists at Wayne State University looked at the life spans of 10,000 doctors, lawyers and athletes born between 1870 and 1930 and found those people whose names began with the letter “D” lived, on average, the shortest lives. At the other extreme, those who had the first initial “A” lived the longest, out-stretching “D”-people’s longevity by nearly 10 years.

The researchers speculate that having a name beginning with “D” contributes to poor self-esteem — which other studies suggest lowers a person’s defense against disease. The self-confidence knock is due to a link with the standard American school grading systems, where Ds constitute poor achievement. “Throughout life, we are constantly reminded that ‘A’ symbolizes the best, whereas ‘D’ is regarded as almost a failure,” the professors write in the journal “Death Studies.”

The latest study follows other research which found that names can influence major life decisions. For example, people with the name Lawrence are more likely to be lawyers while Dennises are over-represented among dentists.

Read more on Dailymail.