Oct 13, 2009
Quotable
I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House. Barack Obama
Google Faces
If you need to find some images for various occasions and find searching for images is too difficult. Google has a parameter in place for images, in situations where you might need an image which describes a face.
Suppose I search for the term “happy” then the Google results page displays smileys, but I would like to use images of happy people. Even if I choose the term as “happy face” the results don’t show images which contain people. For this there is a parameter “imgtype” which you can use with the URL. For this put in the URL as follows:
http://images.google.co.in/images?q=happy&imgtype=face
Suppose I search for the term “happy” then the Google results page displays smileys, but I would like to use images of happy people. Even if I choose the term as “happy face” the results don’t show images which contain people. For this there is a parameter “imgtype” which you can use with the URL. For this put in the URL as follows:
http://images.google.co.in/images?q=happy&imgtype=face
Oct 9, 2009
Columbus Day
Don't forget Columbus Day, or Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) as they call it in many countries in Latin America, is observed on Oct 12.
OK - Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria - The Pinta and Nina were nicknames and their real names were Santa Barbara and Santa Clara. The other one was nicknamed La Gallega. If Chris really looked like that, can you imagine what Queen Isabella looked like?
Left is the emblem of the Knights of Columbus. You probably didn't know it, but this organization began a movement in 1953 to recommend the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. It changed in 1954.
Don't forget also that it is also Canadian Thanksgiving (second Monday of October) is celebrated on the same day this year.
OK - Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria - The Pinta and Nina were nicknames and their real names were Santa Barbara and Santa Clara. The other one was nicknamed La Gallega. If Chris really looked like that, can you imagine what Queen Isabella looked like?
Left is the emblem of the Knights of Columbus. You probably didn't know it, but this organization began a movement in 1953 to recommend the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. It changed in 1954.
Don't forget also that it is also Canadian Thanksgiving (second Monday of October) is celebrated on the same day this year.
Wife Carrying
This is a sport in which male competitors race while each carrying a female teammate. The objective is for the male to carry the female through a special obstacle track in the fastest time. The sport was first introduced at Sonkajärvi, Finland.
Several types of carry may be practiced: piggyback, fireman's carry (over the shoulder), or Estonian-style (the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist).
Major wife-carrying competitions are held in Sonkajärvi, Finland (where the prize depends on the wife's weight in beer); Monona and Minocqua, Wisconsin; and Marquette, Michigan.
The North American Wife Carrying Championships take place every year on Columbus Day Weekend at Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry, Maine. The 10th Annual event will take place this year. Many North American Champions go on to compete in the Finnish World Championship. I am sure they hold it on Columbus Day so it does not interfere with the Super Bowl.
Several types of carry may be practiced: piggyback, fireman's carry (over the shoulder), or Estonian-style (the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist).
Major wife-carrying competitions are held in Sonkajärvi, Finland (where the prize depends on the wife's weight in beer); Monona and Minocqua, Wisconsin; and Marquette, Michigan.
The North American Wife Carrying Championships take place every year on Columbus Day Weekend at Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry, Maine. The 10th Annual event will take place this year. Many North American Champions go on to compete in the Finnish World Championship. I am sure they hold it on Columbus Day so it does not interfere with the Super Bowl.
Hunky Dory
The term meaning, everything is OK, was coined from a street named "Honki-Dori" in Yokohama, Japan. Since the inhabitants of this street catered to the pleasures of sailors, it is easy to understand why the street's name became synonymous for anything that is enjoyable, or at least satisfactory.
Green Checkmark
You will soon see them on food and cereal boxes in your local supermarket and in future commercials touting that these green checkmarks are designed to "to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices.” 
It is part of a new 'Smart Choices campaign' and the types of foods that have been approved are Fruit Loops and Cocoa Krispies.
Ten companies have signed up for the Smart Choices program including Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo and Tyson Foods. Companies that participate pay up to $100,000 a year to the program, with the fee based on total sales of its products that bear the seal.
Members of these companies have people on the Smart Choices board. Hmmm! Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, was part of a panel that helped devise the Smart Choices nutritional criteria, until he quit last September. He said the panel was dominated by members of the food industry, which skewed its decisions.
So we have an industry creating a self-serving ranking system, with a Board of their own members to make decisions, for companies who all stand to gain a big profit from this. Sounds like green checks are the new green stamps, but with no value.
It is part of a new 'Smart Choices campaign' and the types of foods that have been approved are Fruit Loops and Cocoa Krispies.
Ten companies have signed up for the Smart Choices program including Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo and Tyson Foods. Companies that participate pay up to $100,000 a year to the program, with the fee based on total sales of its products that bear the seal.
Members of these companies have people on the Smart Choices board. Hmmm! Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, was part of a panel that helped devise the Smart Choices nutritional criteria, until he quit last September. He said the panel was dominated by members of the food industry, which skewed its decisions.
So we have an industry creating a self-serving ranking system, with a Board of their own members to make decisions, for companies who all stand to gain a big profit from this. Sounds like green checks are the new green stamps, but with no value.
Oct 8, 2009
Honda or Segway
Here is the U-3X, Honda's personal mobility device. I think it is a little too odd for mass appeal, but like all things Honda, it is cute in a different sort of way.
Honda developed the new personal mobility technology, a compact experimental device to provide free movement in all directions just like human walking - forward, backward, side-to-side, and diagonally. It acts like a sittable Segway, with no handle bars. The seat is in two pieces and folds down flat for carrying.
Honda took some of the technology from Asimo. It runs for about an hour per charge. Honda is planning to showcase the U3-X at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show, which will begin on 24th October 2009.
Honda developed the new personal mobility technology, a compact experimental device to provide free movement in all directions just like human walking - forward, backward, side-to-side, and diagonally. It acts like a sittable Segway, with no handle bars. The seat is in two pieces and folds down flat for carrying.
Honda took some of the technology from Asimo. It runs for about an hour per charge. Honda is planning to showcase the U3-X at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show, which will begin on 24th October 2009.
Bacon Air Freshener
It smells like, well, you know, cooking bacon. For those times when you don't have time to cook up a batch. It costs only $2.95 on the web.
Aren't you glad I shared this one.
Aren't you glad I shared this one.
Captain Kangaroo
It was the longest-running children’s program in the history of commercial network television. It ran from 1955 to 1992, first on CBS, then PBS.
Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo, died at 76 in 2004. He started his career as Clarabelle the Clown on the Howdy Doody show. He then created the low-keyed children's host that shows television need not be a wasteland. It was entertaining and educational, and ran for over 30 years.
Keeshan taught his young viewers two "magic phrases": please and thank you. Captain Kangaroo provided a safe place for children to start their day in a warm television Treasure House where bears danced, clocks read poems, and rabbits apologized for stealing carrots.
From the day the Captain made his debut on CBS in 1955, Keeshan took a different approach. There was no audience of screaming kids clamoring for prizes, no attempt to produce a kiddie version of vaudeville. Instead, there was just Keeshan, made up to look like everyone's ideal grandfather, interacting with a few TV friends: Mr. Green Jeans (the late Hugh Brannum), Grandfather Clock, Bunny Rabbit, and Mr. Moose.
The format changed over the years, but simplicity was always the watchword. The Captain would introduce a Tom Terrific cartoon or read a story. Mr. Moose would tell a joke as Ping-Pong balls dropped from the ceiling. Mr. Green Jeans would bring in a baby animal.
Rather than feed off children's nervous energy, as shows do today, Keeshan calmed his audience. He asked kids to slow down, sit for a moment and listen to a story. The effort earned him many awards and many more fans, even though he made no attempt to appeal to adults or older children.
The Captain was even mentioned in a song by the Statler Brothers a few years ago, "Counting Flowers on the Wall."
CBS dumped Kangaroo in 1984 to make more room for a morning news show that could compete with NBC's Today. Captain Kangaroo moved to PBS for a while and then disappeared.
Don't forget to say please and thank you, because I share all this stuff with you.
Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo, died at 76 in 2004. He started his career as Clarabelle the Clown on the Howdy Doody show. He then created the low-keyed children's host that shows television need not be a wasteland. It was entertaining and educational, and ran for over 30 years.
Keeshan taught his young viewers two "magic phrases": please and thank you. Captain Kangaroo provided a safe place for children to start their day in a warm television Treasure House where bears danced, clocks read poems, and rabbits apologized for stealing carrots.
From the day the Captain made his debut on CBS in 1955, Keeshan took a different approach. There was no audience of screaming kids clamoring for prizes, no attempt to produce a kiddie version of vaudeville. Instead, there was just Keeshan, made up to look like everyone's ideal grandfather, interacting with a few TV friends: Mr. Green Jeans (the late Hugh Brannum), Grandfather Clock, Bunny Rabbit, and Mr. Moose.
The format changed over the years, but simplicity was always the watchword. The Captain would introduce a Tom Terrific cartoon or read a story. Mr. Moose would tell a joke as Ping-Pong balls dropped from the ceiling. Mr. Green Jeans would bring in a baby animal.
Rather than feed off children's nervous energy, as shows do today, Keeshan calmed his audience. He asked kids to slow down, sit for a moment and listen to a story. The effort earned him many awards and many more fans, even though he made no attempt to appeal to adults or older children.
The Captain was even mentioned in a song by the Statler Brothers a few years ago, "Counting Flowers on the Wall."
CBS dumped Kangaroo in 1984 to make more room for a morning news show that could compete with NBC's Today. Captain Kangaroo moved to PBS for a while and then disappeared.
Don't forget to say please and thank you, because I share all this stuff with you.
Blogs
Did you know that there are over 112 million weblogs (blogs), not including the 72.82 million Chinese blogs tracked by Technorati as of 2007. Chinese media Xinhua reported that its blog received more than 50 million page views, claiming it to be the most popular blog in the world.
The book based on Julie Powell's blog 'The Julie/Julia Project' was made into the film 'Julie & Julia'.
The book based on Julie Powell's blog 'The Julie/Julia Project' was made into the film 'Julie & Julia'.
Politically Speaking
TRUE - Last month, Sept, 2009, Obama said, "I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void, but not a lot of mutual understanding."
He said he would be happy to look a bills that could give newspapers tax-breaks if they were to restructure as 501 (c) (3) corporations (most hospitals are 501 c 3). One of the bills is that of Senator Ben Cardin, who has introduced the 'Newspaper Revitalization Act'.
Yeh, the newspapers put things in context and are not one sided. Right!
He said he would be happy to look a bills that could give newspapers tax-breaks if they were to restructure as 501 (c) (3) corporations (most hospitals are 501 c 3). One of the bills is that of Senator Ben Cardin, who has introduced the 'Newspaper Revitalization Act'.
Yeh, the newspapers put things in context and are not one sided. Right!
Quotable
A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his coat pocket.
Speaking of Blogs
Now I have seen it all. There is a web site doyourf...ingdishes that shows nothing but pictures of filthy, messy sinks and counters overflowing with dirty dishes. I did not provide the link, because it is so useless. However, I felt the need to share, so you know how the net is still filling up with useless bloginalia. Not mine, of course.
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