How England's Royals Pick Their Names

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Now if all this naming business becomes a bit confusing 'The Official Website of The British Monarch' explains it this way."Members of the Royal Family can be known both by the name of the Royal house, and by a surname, which are not always the same. And often they do not use a surname at all.

Before 1917, members of the British Royal Family had no surname, but only the name of the house or dynasty to which they belonged.

Kings and princes were historically known by the names of the countries over which they and their families ruled. Kings and queens therefore signed themselves by their first names only, a tradition in the United Kingdom which has continued to the present day."In other words. Surnames can come from their various 'dynasties', but can also sometimes change due to their 'line of succession'. That is, if they choose to use them at all. Hey, when your royalty you get to make the rules, right? :-)


How The Game Is Played
The line of succession goes from the first born eldest male heir to the throne (Prince Charles). The next in line would be his first born male child (not his brothers). In this case Prince William. Now that William has had a son, that son becomes 3rd in line (knocking Harry out of 3rd place pushing him back to 4th).

Let's mucky this up a bit more. If Prince Charles never had a son his younger brother (Prince Andrew Duke Of York) was 2nd in line to the thrown. However since he has had two sons, Prince William and Prince Henry Charles Albert David (Prince Harry), that pushed Andrew back to 4th place.

Prince Harry was in 3rd in line but now that William & Kate had their baby that pushes him back to 4th and leaving Prince Andrew now 5th in line for the throne. Prince Andrew's 2 kids along with Prince Charles's other brother (Prince Edward Earl of Wessex) are pretty much out of the running as they are now in 6th thru 9th heirs to the throne. They could be pushed back even further if Prince Harry were to have a son sometime in the future. Clear as mud, eh?

Fret not. If your still confused (and who wouldn't be) check out the royal site for the whole scoop on 'succession' and 'precedence' for the royal events. There's also a listing of the current sixteen royal families. In addition check out the currently occupied royal castles and palaces along with the 23 others which are no longer occupied and a whole bunch of other goodies.

Why the Dutch Wait Less at Traffic Lights

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This more efficient flow not only creates improved  safety but so too benefits a city's economy. More deliveries can be made in a certain span of time. Less accidents means less costs for emergency services. Less stress for pedestrians, riders and drivers. Greater fuel efficiency. Less traffic of all kinds within a certain time span because many arrive at their destinations before things become backed up.

Every year the United States falls further behind other nations newest innovations.

Why is that?

Never Lie To Your Rabbi

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At Friday night services, Morris goes to his friend Irving and says, "I need a favor. I'm sleeping with the Rabbi's wife. Can you hold him in the synagogue for an hour after services for me?"

Irving is not very fond of the idea, but being Morris' is his very best lifelong friend, he reluctantly agrees.

After services, he strikes up a conversation with the Rabbi, asking him all sorts of stupid questions - just to keep him occupied.

After some time the wise Rabbi becomes suspicious and asks, "Irving what are you really up to?"

Irving, filled with feelings of guilt and remorse confesses to the Rabbi, "I'm sorry, Rabbi. My friend is sleeping with your wife right now, so he asked me to keep you occupied."

The Rabbi smiles, puts a brotherly hand on Irving's shoulder and says, "You better hurry home, Irving. My wife died two years ago!"

Rite Of Passage Didn't Go Right (Irish Humor)

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Paddy had long heard the stories of an amazing family tradition. It seems that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been able to walk on water on their 18th birthday. On that special day, they'd each walked across the lake to the pub on the far side for their first legal drink.



So when Paddy's 18th birthday came around he and his pal Mick took a boat out to the middle of the lake. Paddy stepped out of the boat ....and nearly drowned!

Mick just barely managed to pull him to safety. Furious and confused, Paddy went to see his grandmother. "Grandma," he asked, "Tis me 18th birthday, so why can't I walk across the lake like me father, his father and his father before him?"

Granny looked deeply into Paddy's, troubled blue eyes and said, "Because ye father, ye grandfather and ye great-grandfather were all born in December, when the lake is frozen, and ye were born in August, ya fookin idiot!"

It's Impossible To Date The Age Of The Universe

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Presently scientists assume our universe began with a big bang around 13.8 billion years ago. This assumption can be quite easily disproven in several ways.

First we need to understand this figure is entirely based on the "observable universe". This is where questions begin to arise. Whichever direction we on Earth look the farthest light and packets of energy reaching us today are no older then 13.8 billion light years away. This is how long it took for them to get here.



Discarding the big bang "theory" for purposes of this discussion, just what if we on Earth existed several billion years earlier. This would have allowed light and energy the time necessary for it to reach us from far greater distances. Thus the "observable universe" would be far larger and older then what is presently assumed.

There some rather peculiar scientific evidence which supports this. The oldest quasar we can observe in the universe dates back to nearly 13.5 billion years ago. Observations determined it contains many times the amount of iron then that in our own solar system. Here's the rub. It's takes quasars many generations of supernovas over billions of years to form iron. Meaning it had to be around a whole lot longer then 13.5 billion years.

One must also take into account another proven scientific fact. The universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. Assuming some undiscovered super clusters emitting light were born far earlier then 13.8 billion years ago their continued acceleration would place them near the speed of light. Thus it would take a much greater time to reach here. Quite possibly billions and billions more then 13.8 billion light years. Indeed close to never for some.

The way we express time in the physical universe is the comparison of two "things" in relation to one another. Science has proven the states of physical matter and energy can transform into one or the other and does so all the time. No one need look no further then experiments with these supercolliders to accept this as fact. Energy itself functions beyond physical matter therefore outside of how we measure time. Because of the universe's continuous transmutations between energy and matter it's therefore impossible to express the universe's true age or if it even has one.

4TH OF JULY - IF WE DON'T WHO WILL? (Music Video)

Created from a short section of a commencement speech given by Tom Hanks at Harvard on May 25, 2023. Adapted to lyrics by Don Caron Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender