Gumball machine
The first known vending machine was invented by the Greek engineer and mathematician Hero of Alexandria around 215 BC. These first vending machines were located in Egyptian temples and dispensed holy water in exchange for coins.
The Swimming Hole
The Swimming Hole painting by the American artist Thomas Eakins. He was the first American artist to portray one of the few occasions in 19th-century life when nudity was on display.
Plein Soleil
Alain Delon was at his most impossibly beautiful when Purple Noon was released and made him an instant star. This ripe, colorful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s vicious novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by the versatile René Clément, stars Delon as Tom Ripley, a duplicitous American charmer in Rome on a mission to bring his privileged, devil-may-care acquaintance Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) back to the United States. What initially seems a carefree tale of friendship soon morphs into a thrilling saga of seduction, identity theft, and murder.
BUtterfield 8
BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 drama film starring Elizabeth Taylor, who won her first Academy Award for her performance in a leading role. It chronicles the romantic life of a fashionable Manhattan beauty who's part model, part call-girl — and all man-trap.
Royal Warrant Holders Association
Royal Warrants are a mark of recognition to individuals or companies who have supplied goods or services for at least five years to HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh or HRH The Prince of Wales. Warrants have always been regarded as demonstrating excellence and quality, and are highly prized. There are around 850 Royal Warrant Holders representing a huge cross-section of trade and industry. They range from traditional craftspeople to global and multinational firms operating at the cutting edge of technology.
Lawn bowls
Bowls historians believe that the game developed from the Egyptians. One of their pastimes was to play skittles with round stones. This has been determined based on artefacts found in tombs dating circa 5,000 B.C. The sport spread across the world and took on a variety of forms, Bocce (Italian), Bolla (Saxon), Bolle (Danish), Boules (French) and Ula Maika (Polynesian). The oldest Bowls green still played on is in Southampton, England where records show that the green has been in operation since 1299 A.D. There are other claims of greens being in use before that time, but these are, as yet, unsubstantiated.
Stämpfli Express
The Stampfli Express is a rowing boat for 24 rowers and coxswain made by Swiss manufacturer Stampfli Racing Boats. The boat can be rigged for either 24 scullers or for 16 scullers and 8 sweep rowers.
Giorgio Morandi
Giorgio Morandi was an Italian painter who specialized in still life. Federico Fellini paid tribute to him in his film La Dolce Vita, which featured Morandi's paintings.
Lun-class ekranoplan
The Lun-class ekranoplan is a ground effect vehicle used by the Soviet and Russian navies from 1987 until sometime in the late 1990s. It flew using the lift generated by the ground effect of its large wings when close to the surface of the water—about 4 metres or less. Although they might look similar and have related technical characteristics, ekranoplans like the Lun are not aircraft, seaplanes, hovercraft, nor hydrofoils – rather, "ground effect" is a separate technology altogether. Equipped for anti-surface warfare, it carried the P-270 Moskit (Mosquito) guided missile. Six missile launchers were mounted in pairs on the dorsal surface of its fuselage with advanced tracking systems mounted in its nose and tail.
Undulatus asperatus
Undulatus asperatus is a rare, newly recognized cloud formation, that was proposed in 2009 as the first cloud formation added since cirrus intortus in 1951 to the International Cloud Atlas.