Rare Napoleon Bonaparte letter in English sold in French auction for around $410,000

  

 

A rare Napoleon Bonaparte letter, written in English, was sold at Osenat auction in Fontainebleau, Paris for 325,000 euros (around $410,000), which fetched more than five times its estimated selling price. Napoleon Bonaparte wrote the one-page letter on March 9, 1816 while he was on exile in Saint Helena after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and was then trying to learn English.

Bonaparte‘s letter, which has some grammatical errors, was a homework exercise and was addressed to his companion in exile, Emmanuel, the Comte de las Cases, who had been teaching him English that time.

“It’s two o’clock after midnight, I have enow sleep, I go then finish the night with you.” Napoleon Bonaparte wrote in the first part of the letter, asking later his English teacher to correct his mistakes.

“He shall land above seven day a ship from Europe that we shall give account from anything who this shall have been even to day of first January thousand eight hundred sixteen.” Napoleon Bonaparte, who passed away in May 5, 1821, wrote in the latter part.

Apparently, he also mentioned “Four o’clock in the morning” meaning it took him around 2 hours to finish the letter; with auction house president Jean-Pierre Osenat noting that Bonaparte had a great admiration for England.

Rare Napoleon Bonaparte letter

Strangest Car Dashboards

1972 Maserati Boomerang concept

 All instruments inside the steering wheel is the idea behind the Maserati Boomerang. It was first displayed as a non-functional model at the Turin Motor Show in 1971. By the Geneva Salon in March 1972, it transformed into a fully operational vehicle. The mechanics were from Maserati, the engine being the race-bred V8 of 4.7 liters, developing no less than 310 hp and good for an indicated top speed of 300 km/h. It was then, until 1974, successively shown at the Paris, London and Barcelona motor shows and was unanimously praised for its audacity.

1981 Citroen Xenia concept

The Citroen Xenia Concept was introduced in 1981 and was a scale model design that never went past the concept stage. The interior was just as futuristic as the exterior, with a slew of lights and buttons in-and-around the steering wheel. The concept was envisioned as having an automatic gearbox and plenty of glass on all four corners, offering an open-air feeling for the occupants.

1988 Pontiac Banshee

The 1988 Pontiac Banshee concept car interior was a blend of 1988 and 2008: high-tech gadgetry and conveniences, but using technology that existed when the car was built. Gauges were electronic and included a 3-D head-up display.

1982 Lancia Orca

A digital dashboard way before its time. 

2012 Pagani Huayra

Some people love it, others hate it, but you can't deny this million-dollar car has a crazy dashboard full of details. 

2002 Fiat Multipla

If you think the dashboard is ugly, you should see the exterior. It had, however, an interesting range of family-friendly features. It was voted Top Gear Magazine's "Family Car of the Year" for four years in a row (2001–2004).

2003 Honda Civic (customized)

Alpine spent over a quarter million dollars on this 2003 Honda Civic. This car is full of electronics and could be described as unprecedented. 

K.I.T.T. replica

It's a talking, computerized car from the old 80's TV hit, Knight Rider? Built by a dedicated fan in Toronto, the replica took over 4 years and $40k (CAD) to build. The modified 1984 Pontiac Trans Am features all of the meaningless flashing lights and buttons from TV's one-and-only talking car, along with a handful of updates like LCD screens and a DVD/CD/MP3 player to keep up with the times. 

1983 Citroen GSA Pallas

The GSA Pallas had the mad rotating drums for speed and revs which you had look at through magnifying glasses.

1984 Aston Martin Lagonda

Boxiest dashboard ever. Its exterior was also one of the longest, strangest ever seen.

The 1957 Edsel...Strange dashboard or ahead of its time?

The Edsel Ranger interior, showing the Teletouch system and Rolling Dome speedometer.

Crystal Console by Swedes

Its only a concept. 

SmartKey TV HDMI dongle gives ICS brains to any boob tube video

Whatever you want say about the latest developments, here's another one, this time up the SmartKey TV from Italian firm LiquidTv. Inside its tiny housing are a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor, Mali 400MP GPU, 512MB RAM and 4GB flash storage. There's a USB host port, and one for power, along with a microSD (up to 32GB) card slot, plus wireless in b, g and n flavors. 

Unlike other products that leave the input solution up to you, this has accessories and a smartphone app purpose-built for that. If you want a slice, it'll cost you €99 (about $125,) or €119 ($150) with a motion sensor remote control. 

Baby Elephants Christened en Masse in Sri Lanka

 Fifteen baby elephants born in captivity on a preserve were christened on Sunday. Visitors to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage suggested names for the elephants, based on "lucky letters." The babies are fed milk, then taken to a nearby river for the christening.

Elephants drink water at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage staged its biggest mass christening Sunday by naming 15 baby elephants born in captivity, an official said. Thirteen babies born last year and two in 2010 were given names chosen from among thousands suggested by visitors to the Pinnawala orphanage, director Nihal Senaratne said.

"An astrologer looked at the time of birth of each elephant. He then decided on the first letter of each baby's name according to its horoscope," Senaratne said. "The lucky letters were published and visitors were asked to suggest names accordingly," he said, adding that Sunday's ceremony was the biggest ever at the facility since it opened in 1975.

Foreign visitors to the orphanage named two of the babies Trinky and Elvina, while the others were given popular Sinhalese names including Mangala (meaning ceremonial), Singithi (small) and Ahinsa (innocent). The orphanage, in a coconut grove about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Colombo, is a major tourist attraction and large crowds were present for Sunday's ceremony. Babies are fed gallons of milk in public and the entire herd is taken across a main road to a nearby river at bathtime in a ritual that has become hugely popular with visitors. 

Formally established in 1975, the orphanage shelters 83 elephants, most of whom were abandoned or separated from their herds when they were babies. Many have also been born at the orphanage. Elephants are considered sacred animals and a number of the babies born at Pinnawala have been gifted to Buddhist temples to be paraded during annual pageants.

Sri Lanka's elephant population remains healthy. The survey conducted last year showed that the country had 7,379 elephants living in the wild, despite fears that the population had dwindled to an estimated 5,350. The country boasted 12,000 elephants in 1900. The survey carried out in August last year counted 1,107 baby elephants in the wild, officials said.

The 15 babies were named: Singithi, Ahinsa, Themiya, Wanamali, Trinky, Elvina, Nandi, Mangala, Annuththara, Jeevaka, Kadol, Isira, Bimuthi, Aithi and Gagana.

Nexus 7 tablet expected to arrive at the end of June

There was a rumour that ASUS is building a 7-inch Nexus tablet, but that rumor just jumped a notch with an unnamed rep confirming to Android Authority that it is indeed working with Google on a quad-core tab. 

Though the specifics were not given, however, previous speculation points to the Tegra-based MeMO 3270T with Jelly Bean, the next iteration of Android. The source also confirmed the device would be coming at the end of June -- putting it within reach of Google's upcoming big event.

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