Chinese Glass Suspension Bridge

China's first high-altitude suspension bridge made of GLASS opened in Hunan.

The 984 foot (300-meter) long bridge spans the gap between two cliffs at the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park in Pingjiang County. It's 590 feet (180 meters) to the ground below. The glass floor panels are 24mm (about .9 inch) thick and 25 times stronger than normal glass. Click the link to see pictures.  LINK

Moms and Dads

A word extremely similar to “mom” occurs in almost every language on Earth and they are surprisingly similar across nearly all of the most commonly spoken languages. For example, if you wanted to address your mother in Dutch you would say “moeder”, in Germany “mutter”, in Italy “madre”. Here are a few more:
Chinese: Mãma
Hindi: Mam
Afrikaans: Ma
Swahili: Mama
French: Mère, Maman
Irish: Máthair
Italian: Madre, Mamma
Norwegian: Madre
Spanish: Madre, Mamá, Mami
Ukrainian: Mati
Romanian: Mama, Maica
Russian: Mat'
Welsh: Mam
Yiddish: Muter

The word “Papa” is present in several languages including Russian, Hindi, Spanish and English, while slight variations appear in German (Papi), Icelandic (Pabbi), Swedish (Pappa) and a number of other languages. In Turkish, Greek, Swahili, Malay and several other languages the word for dad is “Baba” or a variation of it.

It has been observed that babies, regardless of where in the world they are born, naturally learn to make the same few sounds as they begin to learn to speak. It has also been noted that during the babbling stage, babies will create what is known as “protowords” by combining combinations of consonants and vowels. These protowords are consistent across different cultures. The words babies make in this early babbling stage tend to use the softer contestants like B, P and M, often leading to the creation of otherwise non-words like baba, papa, and mama by the children.

It is theorized that since these are often the first sounds babies are able to make consistently, parents tended to use them to refer to themselves, which explains why words like “mama”, “papa,” “dada”, “tata” and “baba” are present in so many languages as a way of addressing parents.

These sounds are usually less complex to say than parent’s real names. Popular belief among many is the gibberish phrase da-da may have transposed to the use of the word Dad. Aroana tadi, Aztec tahtil, ta, Basque aita (father) and aitatxo (dad) and  aitaita  (grandfather),  Czech, Irish and Latin daid, German Vati, Greek tata, Inca tayta, Inuit ataatak, Hungarian atya, Polish tatus, Quechua tayta, Rumanian tata,  Russian dyadya, Sanskrit Tatah, Sumerian ada, Tagalog tatay, Turkish ata, Welsh tad.

Old English fæder, Proto-Germanic fader, Old Saxon fadar, Old Frisian feder, Dutch vader, Old Norse faðir, Old High German fatar, German vater, Greek pater, Latin pater, Old Persian pita. Seems children are very intelligent. They teach us to use the names they give us.

Free Friday Thought

Happy Friday

Listen hard, speak soft, and laugh with reckless abandon.

This is always my motto, especially for enjoying a Happy Friday!

Johnny Appleseed Day

On Saturday Sep 26 we celebrate the guy who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia. He became an American legend while still alive, due to his kind, generous ways, his leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples.

National Drink Beer Day

It is celebrated on Monday, September 28, 2015. Not to be confused with National Beer Day an unofficial holiday in the United States celebrated every year on April 7, celebrating the day in 1933, the first day in 13 years, that people could legally buy, sell, and drink beer.

The best way to celebrate Drink Beer Day is to gather a group of friends for a beer tasting at home or at your favorite pub. Be sure to check for promotions and giveaways that might be going on in your area.

What's in a Name, Starbucks

Seems appropriate when talking about coffee to add this tidbit from Starbucks. “The name, inspired by Moby Dick evoked the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders. Our mission to inspire and nurture the human spirit.”

During 1971, when Starbucks was first coming to be, it was searching for a way to capture the seafaring history of coffee and Seattle’s strong seaport roots. The owners read old marine books. They found a 16th century Norse woodcut of a twin-tailed mermaid, or Siren. There was something about her – a seductive mystery mixed with a nautical theme that was exactly what the founders were looking for. The logo was designed around her, and their long relationship with the Siren began. Lofty goals, a mermaid, and coffee are all good ways to start a Friday.

Stumptown

Stumptown is one of several nicknames for Portland, Oregon. In the mid-19th century, the city's growth led residents to clear much land of trees quickly, but the tree stumps were not immediately removed. In some areas, there were so many stumps that people would jump from stump to stump in order to avoid the muddy, unpaved roads.

The nickname is used in the names of several local businesses, including Stumptown Coffee Roasters, an independent coffee roaster and retailer located in Portland; StumpTown Kilts, a maker of men's and women's modern kilts; Stumptown (comics), a creator-owned detective fiction comic book series set in Portland.

Portland-based Stumptown Coffee offers its cold-brew coffee on nitro at Stumptown Cafes and wholesale to businesses that it distributes to. It looks like a beer, has the creamy mouth feel of a stout, and is available at the bar.

Austin, Texas-based Cuvee Coffee Roastery’s Black and Blue has a cold-brewed coffee that mimics the frothiness of a Guinness the same way they do it in Dublin: with nitrogen. It is the first to make the coffee available in widget cans. When opened, these cans agitate their contents and produce a creamy texture in much the same way a can of Guinness does.