The dog world records infographic shows 14 amazing feats performed by dogs from all over the world. Whether it’s winding down windows (seriously), having the longest ears, or being the most expensive pooch in the world, all of these dogs have achieved canine greatness! Our personal favourite Augie – a Golden Retriever who somehow manage to hold 5 full-size tennis balls in his mouth at the same time. Amazing isn’t it ?

Created by Matt Beswick for his company, Pet365. Matt is a dog lover and SEO consultant based on the UK. Don’t forget to check his site and follow him on Twitter.

Humankind’s ability to move faster has progressed and we pride ourselves on the rate of this progression. The train for example is one of the most popular forms of transport; with continuous alterations and modernizations over the years; this really has been a success story, giving us the fastest way of travelling on land.

Of course this is a form of transport that has been revolutionised over many years, but they had to start from somewhere? Here I will take a look at the very first trains, where it all began, what went right and of course; what went wrong.

Richard Trevithick, a British inventor and a mining engineer persued the idea of steam engines, thus creating the first steam tramway locomotive. The Steam engine only possessed one cylinder which saved weight and space, the engine was also so small that it was able to work successfully even with a carriage attached to the back. An excellent revolution for transport! However this form of transport could only go 5mph; and it caused the death of 4 men when the engine exploded! The cause of this disaster was blamed on the high pressure and the condensing of the steam.

A few years on in 1925, George and Robert Stephenson created the ‘Locomotion 1′ or known as the ‘active’. This steam train had been adapted with two cylinder engines and coupling rods, this made the train run smoother and move faster increasing to 15mph.

Quite clearly the yearning for the faster and better was showing up; and it was the Americans, obviously, that produced the very first authentic steam train. This was the first train managing to reach 60mph back in 1848.

 The steam powered engine ruled the 19th Century until the rising power of electric and diesel took over. The first electric train became apparent in Germany in the year 1879. The electric engines were more efficient and obviously benefits for the environment; these facts were not yet notified, but the train could travel considerably faster to over 150 mph!

The progression of mankind’s knowledge has increased our ability to get to places much faster; 300km/h is now the fastest train in the world. ‘The Japanese Bullet Train’ first used to carry goods right across Japan, yet seeing the speed and efficiency of the train; it is now one of the most popular forms of transport across the country. High speed trains have fled now into Europe and America, however they do not even compare to the Bullet.

The evolution of speed is not merely about being beneficial and aiding our planet it is in fact saving us money and simply getting us places more easily.

Image Courtesy: 1, 2, 3 (In the order of appearance from top to bottom)

There are great comic book characters; legends and archetypal heroes that represent some indefinable quality to last through the ages. Then, there are poor comic book characters; fads and one-shots that may be embraced at the time but inevitably fade from the public consciousness. These characters fit in neither category. With the lamest powers, stories, and artwork imaginable, these characters have lasted for ages, only by virtue of how stupid they are.

Matter Eater Lad

Matter Eater Lad, aka. Tenzil Kem, is principally famous for having a terrible, terrible power. I mean, eating stuff? Don’t blame the power, though. Think about how creepy a villain who simply ate their way through anything would be, or the potential ramifications of somebody simply removing substances from the universe, defying everything we know about how physics works As the lame name “Matter Eater Lad” should have suggested, it was the lack of imagination on the part of the writers that led to this kid becoming the piteous pin-up he is today. No cool stories, no exploration of the problems or perils of his powers, not even any cool fights, just slap a name on him and away we go.

For me, the best thing about Matter Eater Lad isn’t his irredeemable lameness, though. It’s the fact that he was born on the planet Bismoll. Yep, as in Pepto-Bismol, the cure for an upset stomach.

The Red Bee

The Red Bee had no powers, no special training, nothing much except a puffy shirt and an ally. One dude that he could count on to pull himself from the most dangerous of situations, from the evil clutches of super villains was a bee.

In a world where even the invincible things happen, this so-called superhero relied on a bumblebee called Michael. Sometimes, the words, they just fail me.

Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man

Without the name, this guy would have faded into obscurity as another forgettable villain. His power, of changing parts of his body into anything (animal, vegetable or mineral), was respectable enough. His adversaries were worthy. Sometimes, though, I think that comic book writers want to fail. They welcome failure with open arms. Sometimes their failures are so glorious they resound through the ages. Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man was one such failures.

Dazzler

I have a personal soft spot for Dazzler. As an attempt to cash in on the disco was actually cool, she was always doomed – and besides, I suspect there was very little cross-over between disco-goers and the comic book-buying public.

Her power, unfortunately, was just as poorly thought-through as her concept, being able to turn sound waves into light. I mean, yes, it made for some cool light shows – but it sort of degraded the whole concept of being a superhero.

It’s impressive that she’s had as many stories about her as she has. To be honest – I think that these stories are enough to speak for the dedication and inventiveness of her particular writers, and the joy that comic book fans take in lame characters overcoming the odds and kicking ass.

Since its debut in 1917, BMW has been characterized by opulence, elegance, exquisiteness and amazing quality. This German brand, known for its superbly handling and unique design, has been the manufacturer of the most famous sports cars in the world. Here are three of the most popular BMW sports cars.

1. 3200 CS

Introduced for the first time at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show, the BMW 3200 CS was actually designed by Bertone. Its production, between January 1962 and September 1965, put on the market more than five hundred pieces. This coupe model has a 3.2 L V8 engine, offering 160 horsepower.

The 3200 CS BMW became a point of reference, a template, for the later coupe models. The tall greenhouse, low beltline and thin pillars inspired the design of 2000 C, the New Class sedan and the E9 coupe BMW cars.

2. M1

A fatastic conglomerate between BMW and Lamborghini launched on the inspecting and frankly tired and uninspiring motor market the M1 model, number 10 on the list of Official Motor Trade Top Sports Cars of the 1970s. Traded from 1978 to 1981, this super sports car was the only mid-engine model mass produced at that time to make it more reachable for the motor enthusiast. With a real commanding engine, a twin-cam M88 3.5 Litre 6 cylinder power horse petrol engine, using the ‘Kugelfischer’ mechanical fuel injection, would roar you up to 160 miles per hour, and the turbocharged exemplars gave a very powerful 850 horsepower.

Around 450 pieces were manufactured and sold to the public. In 2008, at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, BMW revealed the M1 Homage Concept, to celebrate the 30th birthday of the M1 concept. Great BMW used cars can be found and this is a classic sports car to pick up and show off to todays boxes being driven around.

 3. M5 Sport Sedan

The very first M5 model was available from 1988 and since then its performance, utility and design have only improved. With a powerful engine, aerodynamics enhancing bodywork, a sport tunned suspension, special brakes, wheels and tires, the M5 BMW is the definition of a luxury sport sedan.
The most recent model, debuted in 2006, has a real treasure hiding under the hood: a 5.0-liter V10 engine, offering 500 horsepower. The first model also had an amazing engine, capable of 256 horsepower, very valuable for colectioners.

With a laudable heritage to back it up, BMW started and continued to be a superior car, with impressive engines and stunning designs. The older models look superb in contrast to some very box shaped sports cars of the 80′s and the latest BMWs effortably combine luxury and sports. Hope to see you out on the open road.

Video games have become more and more sophisticated since they were first developed over fifty years ago. Now, we have a myriad of worlds to choose from, from platforms to RPG worlds to Space, Crime and War, all with amazing parallel universes full of beautiful landscapes, crazy characters and levels as far as your skills and imagination will take you.

With magical worlds which can transport you away from todays dull and drab every day goings on, video games are more popular than ever. The escapism they provide has become as important to many people as eating and drinking and supplies an exciting lifeline to help forget troubles and worries that today’s lives can be full of.

The gaming experience is now something that you can share with people across the world, not only opening you up to new virtual worlds but also the world around you. The infographic embedded below shows the true extent of the virtual world and the huge million dollar market they have created:

Infographic Credit: HotelClub; the place to find fantastic hotels for your trip.

Online visibility is of great help to the professionals who wish to widen their reach in the market and thus attract a number of customers and clients towards their business. Thus, with the introduction of online photo sharing, gaining online visibility has become easier and simpler. You can share the pictures of your business and working with the potential clients and customers and thus gain high visibility in the online world.

How to be visible?

Tagging the pictures that you have uploaded to the photo sharing website leads to images enjoying better visibility and will thus generating more comments from the people. The search engines also like putting and sharing of pictures and thus make the site or business visible in the online world.

Use photo sharing sites

At first, Facebook started offering the services as the photo sharing site. But with time, a large number of sites such as snapfish and mixbook were introduced where one can easily share the photos with others. In fact, an image can tell a story and even create connection with the prospects and clients. So, you can let the customers and clients know your business through the images that you post. You can even post the pictures to the social media sites and other platforms to gain high visibility.

Benefits of photo sharing

The facility of photo sharing offers the opportunity to viewers with representation of the way ‘wish’ to be perceived. A logo, pictures or images are all the examples of content that is used for photo sharing. Offering illustration makes the everlasting effect which may be truly beneficial for one in the future. Placing proper content is really crucial as a not-so-impressive picture can prove to be the downfall for one’s business.

With advancement in technology, the chances to market your business have now become limitless. Gaining the required exposure is now just a single click away. These days, the image sharing sites are thus lending the helping hand to the marketers in form of online photo sharing.

Enjoy high visibility

Sharing the images on the net further increases the total amount of visibility. And so, your business can get the attention of unlimited number of customers and clients who surf the web every day. The individuals and businesses should indeed take benefit of free photo sharing websites. Some of these sites include Picasa Web Albums, Facebook, Flickr and Photobucket.

As far as building a relationship is concerned, the pictures help the network see more of what you deal in, who you are and the products and services that you offer. You can thus include pictures of working with the clients, conducting some seminar, meeting customers in person and taking their feedback or doing some other things relating to the professional field.

Photo sharing is an artful blend to connect with people as well as maintain visibility. By using the pictures, you speak to the contacts in visual language which may be suitable for them. So, what are you waiting for? When you wish to gain visibility on the net, it is best to do so with the help of photo sharing facility.

Today, when you need something for your house, your children, or for yourself, the trend is to shop online. Thus, many people invest on putting up an online store because there is money on the online business. The challenge now is how to attract buyers of your product. Ecommerce is an effective way to boost your online sales. With an engaging design and exciting content, you’re sure many will visit and stay in your website thus increasing your sales. Customers today are very intelligent and they are more scrutinising than the previous centuries. When customers shop online, they prefer functional, informative, and websites with attractive designs.

 Designing your own website is really complicated thus, you’ll need professional web developers and web designers to make your site appealing. But ecommerce is always ready to help you carry out your plan in making your website a better one. Here are some advantages of creating an online store with ecommerce.

 1. Available 24/7

With your own website, you can sell and shop online anytime of the day and anywhere. Even if you stay at home, your online store can stay open. Even during holidays, you can still do business with your customers. This is the prime reason why it is advantageous to put up an online store than a physical store.

 2. Geographical reach is broadened

An online store can be accessed by anyone who has internet connection. This means anyone around the globe can view your products. This also implies that you have more prospective buyers as compared to a physical store. Unlimited number of people across the globe can purchase your product easily and conveniently.

 3. You own your time and you save more money

Saving time and money are some of the advantages of creating an online store with ecommerce. The development of online stores allowed people to do business anytime of the day. If you own a store, you don’t have to be there early in the morning to prepare your store for early customers. You can check your store anytime and anywhere. Unlike the physical store where you need more staffs like cashier and merchandiser, an online store only requires one person to manage it. You save more money since you don’t need to build a building or pay for its maintenance. An online store is also advantageous for customers since they can enjoy greater visibility of the products and purchase information.

 4. Increases Brand Awareness

Your online store will not only provide you income but you will also increase your brand awareness. Since you can reach people across the globe, you’ll gain more information about several products and what are the other existing brands of a particular product.

 5. Enhances the relationship with the customer

The online store makes it easy for the customers to find and buy what they need. Thus if they are satisfied they’ll be back to purchase again. If your web design is effective and your products are reliable, customers will be back and will become loyal to your store. This way, your relationship with the customer is enhanced.

If you would like to gain more information regarding e-commerce go to ecommerce.about.com where Ajeet Khurana presents you with fresh ideas. It has many articles, like ecommerce fulfillment.

“Where did all the time go?” It might be a question you ask yourself when leaving your cubicle after a busy day at work. But more importantly, it might be a question you ask yourself when you reflect back on your family, perhaps wondering if you could have done a better job balancing your family life and your professional life.

We have apps and websites to help us with virtually every other aspect of modern life, certainly there must be something out there to help the busy professional balance work and home life, right? There is. Restore sanity in your life: check out these 5 (mostly free) apps and websites to help you balance office and home life:

1. Work Life Balance Monitor

There’s a truism that all quality assurance professionals know—if you can’t measure it, you can’t control it. This free online app, which is available through Facebook, allows you to track how you spend your time and set goals for yourself. You enter basic information, set some goals and then log your hours. Although there’s nothing fancy here, it should help you get a picture of what kinds of changes you need to make to hit the balance between office life and family life that you’re after.

2. Cozi Family Organizer

This is a free online family calendar and there are also mobile phone and tablet versions for the iPhone, Blackberries and Android systems. As you would expect there’s a calendar, reminders, messages and to-do lists. The features that make it more family friendly are shopping lists, a meal planner and a family journal. With the family journal you can make and keep memories that will brighten everyone’s day. If your spouse has ever said to you, “Sometimes it’s like we aren’t working off the same list,” Cozi Family Organizer might help.

3. LogMeIn

If you can simply spend more time with your children, they’ll truly appreciate it. With this family of products you can access your work computers from your iPad, iPhone and Android devices. It allows you to save files to your device and transfer files between computers. It also integrates with popular cloud computing services like Google Docs and Dropbox. The apps work with both Wi-Fi and 3G connections so you can catch your son’s Little League game even if there is a situation back at the office and you need to stay connected. The free downloads will handle most of your needs, but there are other low-cost apps with additional features.

4. Salesforce Mobile

You can break free of the office and still collaborate with your sales team and have access to all your vital information. If you’re the kind of person who has trouble “letting go,” Salesforce Mobile will keep you well enough connected so you can spend more time with the family or attend social events without breaking out in a cold sweat. With the Sales Cloud component you can log calls, access information and respond to leads from any location. It lets you to perform customer service from anywhere. Confession time. This one isn’t free, in fact for all the bells and whistles and a large salesforce, it can be expensive. However, there are free trials.

5. Yoga Free for iPad

An important part of your family life is your “me” time, and those special moments can get lost in the work-a-day world as well. With Yoga Free for iPad, you can find relief from office stress virtually anytime or anywhere. Under the tutelage of this this free iPad app you can find inner peace and serenity, attain a healthy mind and a healthy body. Hey, did I mention that it’s free? I don’t know about you, but in my book “inner peace” at any price would be the bargain of the century.

These digital helpers will help get you down the road of balancing your office responsibilities with your family life. Do you have any tips that have worked for you?

There are many reasons why private tuition can help your kids get the most out of their studies and beyond that, out of their life. Finding a good private tutor is not easy (or cheap!) but it is definitely a worthwhile investment in the long term.

1. Private Tuition Increases Your Kid’s Confidence and Your Kid’s Academic Results

It’s a well-known fact that many problems in education stem from a lack of confidence. An unpleasant teacher, illness or a learning difficulty (or even just dealing with the pressures of growing up) can reduce your kid’s confidence so much that school becomes a horrible place to be and studying is just difficult and frustrating (ask Rebecca Black). Private tuition gets to the root of the problem quickly and effectively. Working with your kid’s tutor, you can re-build his or her self esteem and restore their will to try again. In short, a good private tutor will unlock your kid’s academic potential!

Of course, if your kid is already doing well at school and want to do even better, private tuition is an effective way to boost his or her grades.

So why does private tuition work? Thing is, all of us respond positively to attention from someone we look up to – like a tutor. As soon as you realize that you are able to understand your work, your fear crumbles and you discover that you really want to learn. Then it becomes much easier to generate your own motivation.

2. Private Tuition Saves Your Kid’s Precious Time

A good private tutor knows how to restore your kid’s self-belief and quickly gets your kid back on the track to academic success. Lessons are prepared in advance by the tutor and no time is wasted covering unnecessary topics. Generally, tuition is focused around past papers for the exams you are studying for – it’s no good learning all about a subject if your kids aren’t able to reproduce this in the way the examiners want to see.

Unfortunately, there are no short cuts to learning – your kid still has to do the work! However, your kid’s tutor will be able to show you a range of techniques that will help you to lean quickly and effectively.

Your kid’s tutor will also help you get more out of his or her time at school. They will show your kid how to assert itself in class: to ask questions when he/she is interested and to seek help when he/she don’t know the answers. They will remind your kid that they already know much more than think they do – and they’ll show your kids how to apply that knowledge for maximum effect.

3. Private Tuition Helps Your Kids to Really Understand Their Subject and Enjoy it

Private tuition isn’t about spoon-feeding. Rather, your hired tutor will make it so easy to learn the specific subjects that your kids will really begin to enjoy them again. In contrast, there is nothing worse than sitting in class, falling further and further behind, with a teacher who is not able to give your kids the attention they need and deserve.

Remember, we all learn in different ways, at different paces and your kids desire to genuinely understand something – rather than just accept it at face value – often conflicts with an overloaded teacher’s need to keep to syllabus targets.

4. Private Tuition Can Help Your Kids Plans and Take Control of Their Future

Learning how to do well at school is a stepping-stone to learning to do well in life. Working with a private tutor helps your kid get used to being successful. Over time, the story that your kid’s brain tells it changes from, ‘I can’t do this’ to, ‘ I think I know the answer – I’ll have a go’. Your kid realizes that it knows things it never thought it knew and that he/she is likely to be able to do more or less anything in life that it wants to (within reason – not everybody can be Bill Gates!)

Private tuition can also be used to help with your younger kid’s SAT’s and university UCAS applications. Cambridge and Oxford and other international Ivy League entrance tests and interviews are much easier when are guided by someone who has passed these tests and has studied at the universities.

5. Private Tuition Encourages to ‘Think Big’

Private tuition introduces some of the most successful and inspiring people your kids will ever meet in their life, at a time when they are reaching the highpoint of their own academic potential.

Private tutors are bright, young, confident and highly qualified – most with a degree or postgraduate degree in their subject. Many are specialists in their field. Above all they have the ability to teach in a way that is inspiring and creative and adapts to your child’s needs. The fact that they have recently felt the pressures of their own exams gives them the humility and empathy that is so often missing with school teachers who have been entrenched in their positions for many years.

People who work in private tuition have chosen to teach because they have a natural flair for it and because they are following a passion outside of the traditional working world (i.e. they are a writer, or actor), or they are following a vocational route to for example, become a doctor. They all have one thing in common, which is they are ambitious high achievers who want to help you.

This article has been produced on behalf of Simply Learning Tuition (www.simplylearningtuition.co.uk); experts in London Private Tuition and International Private Tuition.

Hollywood movies are known for going over the top with special effects and many times have large budgets with money dedicated specifically to the purchasing and destruction of cars. Some of the stunts and chase scenes in blockbuster movies are downright outrageous, featuring violations of the laws of physics and monetary damage totals in the millions.

Here are some of the most ludicrously over-the-top Hollywood car crashes:

1. The Fast and the Furious

For a film that’s all about fast cars and action-packed chases, it is no surprise that the Fast and the Furious tops the list. In the movie, a Dodge Charger makes a truly epic jump followed swiftly by a full-body makeover by an 18 wheeler.

2. Twister

Tornados are powerful forces of nature that are scary enough to turn the manliest men wimpy. You can’t intimidate wind. This movie is partly a story of man versus nature; aka car versus tornado (hint: put your money on the latter). With flying cows, trucks, and 18 wheelers, Twister definitely has one of the most outrageous car crash scenes.

3. Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers is a movie with exaggerated scene after exaggerated scene and the famous car chase is no different. It even held the record for the most cars wrecked in the production of a movie for a long time.

4. Final Destination 2

While the spooky crash scene involving an 18 wheeler carrying lumber is not the most expensive or surreal car crash scene ever, it makes the list because of how realistic it seems. Horror movies are much scarier when the horror could actually exist in the real world. Driving behind a lumber truck will never feel the same.

5. Transformers Series

You can’t have a conversation about outrageousness and car crashes without discussing the Transformers movies. What is cooler than thrilling car crashes? Thrilling car-that-transforms-into-giant-robot crashes.

6. G.I. Joe

As the breaker of the record for most cars wrecked in one movie (formerly held by the Blues Brothers), GI Joe makes a spectacular show with over 112 cars that were destroyed in the production of the movie.

Television and movies will continue to outdo previous generations by spending more money or becoming more outrageous. As more movie records are broken, it will be interesting to see the boundaries pushed by future films. Share some of your favorite Hollywood car crashes in the comments.

This article was produced on behalf of the team at Vroomvroomvroom.co.uk, providing car hire in the UK.