Opt Out

I was out checking one of my free credit reports the other day and found a tip at the bottom of the page. You can opt out of those annoying credit card and insurance offers for five years by calling 1 888 567-8688. I called and it took about three minutes. BTW, I get one credit report about every six months, because if you get all three together, you have to wait for a full year to get them again for free.

Quotable

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill

Seeing Molecules

Scientists at IBM Research in Zurich have, for the first time, made an atomic-scale resolution image of a single molecule, the hydrocarbon pentacene.

Atomic-force microscopy works by scanning a surface with a tiny cantilever whose tip comes to a sharp nanoscale point. As it scans, the cantilever bounces up and down, and data from these movements is compiled to generate a picture of that surface. These microscopes can be used to "see" features much smaller than those visible under light microscopes, whose resolution is limited by the properties of light itself. Atomic-force microscopy literally has atom-scale resolution.

Until now it hasn't been possible to use it to look with atomic resolution at single molecules. Researchers overcame this problem by first using the microscope tip to pick up a single molecule of carbon monoxide, which they used to make an image of pentacene. They hope that looking this closely at single molecules will give them a better understanding of chemical reactions and catalysis at an unprecedented level of detail.

Cup of Joe

Josephus Daniels, 1862-1948, was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his reforms of the Navy were inaugurating the practice of making 100 Sailors from the Fleet eligible for entrance into the Naval Academy, the introduction of women into the service, and the abolishment of the officers' wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard Navy ships could only be coffee and over the years, a cup of coffee became known as 'a cup of Joe'.

Mickey Rooney

September birthdays include Mickey Rooney, who was born Joseph Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920, He started acting at 17 months old. The five foot three inch star has a way with the ladies and ran up a total of eight wives. His latest wife, Jan Chamberlin, and him have been married since 1978.

He has 320 movies to his credit. In 1944, Rooney Rooney entered military service for 21 months during World War II as a radio personality on the American Forces Network.

Name	Years	Children
Ava Gardner	1942-1943
Betty Jane Rase	1944-1949	Mickey Rooney, Jr. (born 1945)
		Tim Rooney (1947 - 2006)
Martha Vickers	1949-1951	Theodore Michael Rooney (born 1950)
Elaine Devry	1952-1958
Barbara Ann Thomason (Carolyn Mitchell)	1958-1966	Kelly Ann Rooney (born 1959)
		Kerry Rooney (born 1960)
		Michael Joseph Rooney (born 1962)
		Kimmy Sue Rooney (born 1963)
Marge Lane	1966-1967
Carolyn Hockett	1969-1974	Jimmy Rooney (adopted from Carolyn's previous marriage) (born 1966)
		Jonelle Rooney (born 1970)
Jan Chamberlin	1978-present

What is he up to these days? Mickey and Jan brought their off Broadway musical: Let's Put On A Show! to the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois on August 30, 2009, to be followed with a 13 performance tour of Ontario, Canada from September 21 through October 6, 2009. Wow, not bad for his age.

Quotable

"You always pass failure on the way to success." - Mickey Rooney

Breathalyzer Test

A new use for breathalyzers has been developed to detect lung cancer with eighty six percent accuracy.

The device could provide an early warning system before tumors become visible in X-rays. The sensor uses gold nanoparticles to detect levels of so-called volatile organic compounds, measured in a few parts per billion, that become more elevated in cancer patients. Currently, only 15 percent of cases are discovered before the disease has begun to spread.

A team of researchers took breath samples from 56 healthy people and 40 lung cancer patients. They found 33 compounds that appeared in at least 83 percent of the cancer group, but in fewer than 83 percent of the control group.

Then they designed an assembly of chemical sensors using gold nanoparticles measuring five nanometers across. (An average strand of human hair is about 100,000 nanometers in width.)

The devices were able to "distinguish between the breath of lung cancer patients and healthy controls.

"Given the impact of the rising incidence of cancer on health budgets worldwide, the proposed technology will be a significant saving for both private and public health expenditure," they say.

Lung cancer claims some 1.3 million lives worldwide each year, accounting for nearly 18 percent of all deaths from cancer, according to the World Health Organization.

Three Little Pigs

This one is just plain fun. No redeeming features. A guy builds an air gun to see if he can blow down the houses of straw, wood, and bricks. Here is the link.

Tanqueray

Charles Tanqueray’s path through life seemed pretty clear while growing up. He followed three straight generations of Bedfordshire clergymen, so it seemed natural that he would grow up and be a man of the cloth himself.

Instead, he started distilling gin in 1830 in a tiny plant in London’s Bloomsbury district. Fifteen years later, he was shipping his gin to colonies around the British Empire, where many plantation owners and troops had developed a taste for Tanqueray and tonic.

Quotable

The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity,
and tolerates shoddiness in government because government is an exalted activity,
will have neither good plumbing nor good government.
Neither its pipes nor its promises will hold water.

Did You Know?

Spider silk is very light weight. 25,000 miles – the circumference of Earth – of a single fiber would weigh about 16 ounces.

Boston Butt

Don’t be too grossed out when you hear this name; it doesn’t mean “butt” as in “rear end” - the cut actually comes from the front shoulder of the pig.

During colonial days New England butchers tended to take less prized cuts of pork like these and pack them into barrels for storage and transport. The barrels the pork went into were called butts. This particular shoulder cut became known around the country as a New England specialty, and hence it became the “Boston butt.” Interesting that this name is not used in Boston. A hogshead is 64.8 US gallons and butt it equal to two US hogsheads or 126 US gallons.

Nanodiamonds

These little gems deliver insulin for wound healing. Bacterial infection is a major health threat to patients with severe burns and other kinds of serious wounds such as traumatic bone fractures. Recent studies have identified another use for insulin as a weapon for fighting infection and healing wounds. These can also be used for chemotherapy and other local drug deliveries.

Using tiny nanodiamonds, researchers have demonstrated a method for delivering and releasing insulin to a specific location over a period of time. The nanodiamond-insulin clusters hold promise for wound-healing applications and could be integrated into gels, ointments, bandages or suture materials.

A wound site skin pH levels can reach very basic levels during the repair and healing process and researchers found that the insulin bound to nanodiamonds is released when it encounters basic pH levels.

A substantial amount of insulin can be loaded onto the nanodiamonds, which have a high surface area and can accelerate the healing process and decrease the incidence of infection. The results of the study were published in July by the journal Biomaterials.

Barbie

Diamonds may be a girls best friend, but the company that manufactures the greatest number of women's dresses each year is Mattel, maker of Barbie.