The very first recorded photograph was made in 1814 by Jospeh Nicephore Niepce. He used a wooden box camera which was made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier in Paris. Unfortunately, the photograph was not permanent and the picture eventually faded. This process was built on a discovery by Johann Heinrich Schultz in 1724 which involved a silver and chalk mixture which darkened when exposed to light.

Cameras however, date back even further. A device dated in 1021 used a pinhole or lens to project an image of a scene outside the viewing surface. Early photographs were not preserved. he Kodak Company would eventually invent film that would allow permanent pictures. Kodak cameras, as well as other models, such as a Canon camera would all use the same film process in the early years of photography.

A small hand held camera was actually built by Johann Zahn in 1685, but it would take 150 years before a hand held camera would be fully functional like they are today.

Whenever I need to clean the inside of my car, I use cleaning wipes and a vacuum. Now, I know a better way – pressure washers! At a local car wash, a woman was caught using a power washer to not only clean the outside of her car, but the inside as well. Not sure if this is the recommended use of a power washer, but it sure is funny to watch!

Bill Cosby often uses characters in his comedy routines that are based on actual people from his old neighborhood. The first animated special based on the characters – “Hey, Hey, Hey – It’s Fat Albert” – looked very different from the series it would become. Cosby was not happy with the way the characters were drawn (they were too rough looking) and started taking an active role in the process. Cosby even showed the animators they way the characters should walk.

Cosby recruited Herbie Hancock to right the music and gathered a group of kids for the voices. Cosby played the key parts of Fat Albert and Bill.

The show was first aired on September 9, 1972 and ran for 12 years before entering the syndication market.

Before there were thousand of diet fads and online information about the best diet pills, there was TOPS – Take Off Pounds Sensibly.

TOPS was founded in 1948 by Esther Manz of Wilwaukee, Wiconsin. America was just coming out of the Depression in the 40s, so the ideal American woman was not the thin waifs that you see today, but a founder, fuller more curvaceous woman.

Esther wanted to set up a support system for overweight and obese people that could help them lose weight. TOPS expanded its program over the years to include helping those with bulimia and anorexia, as well as other weight related programs.

TOPS has over 10,000 chapters in the United States. Club members who maintain their goal weight get extra recognition. Meetins emphasize nutrition and exercise and published materials are given to members. Membership fees are only $25 per year.

I just ordered some digital memory from the flash memory store to use on my digital camera. I have been recording a lot of events lately (concerts, sports, etc) and I need the extra room on my memory cards.

Using my digital camera to record events is so much better than those old 8mm video cameras that produced the film on reels. Did you ever have to sit through an old home movie production? If you did, you will remember that the video was often washed out and jumpy. If you have any old home movies, you might want to have them converted to DVD since the film is likely to get ruined after years of use or from improper storage.

This old home movie, shot in color, is an example of the classic home movies. I love the old TV trays. Priceless!

I can’t believe it! They are actually thinking about making a film about the popular toy Stretch Armstrong. The release date for the movie has been set for April, 2011.

Steve Oedekerk is developing the screen adaptation of the toy and Ron Howard may be directing the film. It seems that there aren’t many original ideas roaming around Hollywood these days and producers and writers are turning to vintage toys that weren’t that interesting in the first place, for movie ideas.

According to producer Brian Grazer “Stretch Armstrong is a character I have wanted to see on screen for a long time. He’s an unconventional kind of super hero with a power that no one would want. It’s a story about a guy stretching – if you will – the limits of what is possible to become all that he can be.”

If you can’t remember Stretch, here is an old commercial:

Ma Huang is a herbal remedy used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 5,000 years fr the treatment of asthma, hav fever and the common cold. It comes from the plat Ephedra sinica and has been marketed in the United States and other countries as the diet supplement ephedra.

Ephedra constricts blood vessels and increases blood pressure and heart rate. There are also several other species that belong to the genus Ephedra which have been used for medicinal purposes. Both Native Americans and Mormon pioneers drank a tea brewed from an ephedra species often referred to as Mormon tea. This specie, however, lacks the alkaloids found in Ephreda sinica.

Dietary supplements containing ephedra were banned by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2004 due to reports of adverse effects and deaths. This ban was upheld by an appeal court in 2006.

Lesley Hornsby, aka Twiggy, was born September 19, 1949 in England. She was discovered in 1966 at the age of 16 by Nigel Davies. She weighed 90 pounds (she obviously wasn’t taking a weight boosting diet supplement!). Davies advised her to go by her childhood nickname – Twiggy.

She hit England by storm and became of “The Face of ‘66″ in the modeling circle. The next year, she traveled to New York where she became a fashion icon. Her short-haired, boyish looked changed the fashion industry standards. She was also famous for wearing long, fake eyelashes on her bottom lashes.

After retiring from modeling in the 70s, Twiggy embarked on an acting career and appeared in a number of films. She also recorded several albums. Her most famous song was Here I Go Again.

She married Michael Witney, an American Actor, in 1977 and they had one daughter, Carly. Witney died of a heart attack in 1983. In 1988, she married Leigh Lawson.

In 2005, Twiggy joined the cast of the reality TV show America’s Next Top Model as a judge. She also decided to resume modeling.

Twiggy has been a pop culture reference for decades, the word often refers to a young skinny girl. A Twiggy Barbie doll was released in 1966 featuring smaller breast and hips

Every once in a while, someone decides to ban books. I decided to discover which banned books I have read. Here is my list:

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), Mark Twain

Often banned for its perceived racist tone. This book was recently banned in 1984 at a high school in Illinois.

American Heritage Dictionary (1969)

Banned at various times because the dictionary contains objectionable words.

Catcher in the Rye (1951), J. D. Salinger

Although hailed as a great book, I found this book to be rather stupid. It has been banned for language and themes at various times. This book is on my daughter’s required reading list for next year.

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Funny how this book is about censorship and book banning. It has been banned for offensive language.

Grapes of Wrath (1939), John Steinbeck

Several months after the book’s publication, a St. Louis, MO library ordered 3 copies to be burned for the vulgar words used by its characters. It was also banned in Kansas City and in Oklahoma.

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Banned for racist words, this author won a Nobel Prize in literature.

Would you ever ban a book?

The first video cameras were designed for television. These cameras were large and had to be mounted on trolleys. The recorders were actually located in a separate room. However, we love to make things smaller and eventually these cameras were turned into portable video cameras.

At first, the video camera was two separate units. One unit was the video camera and one was a VCR. JVC introduced the VHS-C format in 1982 which was a reduced-size cassette for portable VCRs. At the same time, Sony released the first professional camcorder called the Betacam.

Panasonic, RCA and Hitachi started releasing full-sized VHS camcorders in 1985 with three hours of record time. Many consumers jumped on the chance to record their own videos.

Finally, in the mid-1990s, digital camcorders were introduced. The digital camcorders introduced a smaller cassette media thus reducing the size of the camcorder even further. These camcorders are much easier to carry and use then the old bulky camcorders.