Christmas Post Office Offer

The following is taken directly from the Post Office web site and  thought I would share.
"Camcorder. Check. Toy train. Check. Cuckoo clock. Check. No matter what’s on your holiday wish list, if it fits, it ships, with Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes, only from the U.S. Postal Service. Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes let you ship nearly any gift for a low flat rate,” said Robert F. Bernstock, president, Mailing and Shipping Services.

Four box sizes are available to fit holiday gifts:

    * Small Flat Rate box, 8 5/8" x 5 3/8" x 1 5/8", shipping starts at $4.95
    * Medium Flat Rate box, 11" x 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", shipping starts at $10.35
    * Large Flat Rate box, 12" x 12" x 5 1/2", shipping starts at $13.95 ($10.95 when shipping to military personnel at APO/FPO addresses overseas)
    * Medium Flat Rate box, 13 5/8" x 11 7/8" x 3 3/8", shipping starts at $10.35.

Prices are even lower when you pay online at usps.com. “Order Flat Rate boxes now, and we’ll deliver them to you at no charge in time to ship for the holidays,” said Bernstock. “We’ll even pick up your packages for free, saving you a trip to the Post Office.” I think they are really interested in some business this year.

Mircrosoft Maps

Microsoft is trying to get in on the Google action of taking pictures of streets, so you can actually see store fronts on the map as you move down the street. Just tried it at LINK and it has a ways to go before catching up with Google.

If you have not tried the Streetview when using the Google map, just click on the outline of a man on the view bar on the left side of the map and drag him the the street you are looking at. You will see a photograph of the buildings. Google has also done many neighborhoods and I tried my own house and the pictures are reasonable.

To try it, look up your own address on Google maps LINK
Type in your address and zoom in to your house. Then hold down the left mouse button and drag the little man to your street. It will turn the map into a photo. Click on the left or right arrows to move up and down your street.

Singularity

I haven't written much about this lately, but recently IBM scientists built the biggest artificial brain of all time, (now as smart as a house cat), using a supercomputer powered by 147,456 processors and 150,000 gigabytes of memory.

It appears we are on the way to realizing Ray Kurzweil’s prediction made in 1999 that by the year 2020, the power of a $1,000 PC will match the computing speed and capacity of the human brain. He had a follow-up 2005 work, 'The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology', in which he talked more about how the exponential growth of computing will enhance human intelligence far beyond anything imaginable today.

Many scholars believe that because of this rapidly accelerating convergence, a technological event called the SINGULARITY will occur. The amount and rate of change resulting from it, will cause such vast difference in how we work, live, and play that we can't possibly conceive of the changes that will come about after that time. Think of it as the  new industrial revolution on steroids, Viagra, and hallucinogens all at the same time. These scholars are talking about positive, not negative affects of technology.

Kurzweil says that computers are rapidly gaining intelligence, are acquiring humanlike intelligence, and will eventually, collectively exceed human intelligence. Computers will be able to gather knowledge on their own. On the human side, new technologies will be increasing our health and mental capabilities, thanks to nanotechnologies and knowledge systems. By the 2020s, “it will become increasingly difficult to draw any clear distinction between the capabilities of human and machine intelligence,” he wrote.

Kurzweil also went on to predict that by 2029, the power of a $1,000 PC will grow to approximately 1,000 human brains. By that time, “automated agents are now learning on their own, and significant knowledge is now being created by machines on their own.” Several decades later, by the end of the 21st century, there will be more software-based “humans” than carbon-based humans.

The world is already different than what it was just five years ago. Think iPod and the touch screens they use on news programs. I love technology and I know I can always pull out the plug or hit the off switch. Wish I could do that with some. . . Oh, that's a different story.

Alcohol Protects Men's Hearts

Just in time for the holidays. Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests and the type of drink did not appear to change the results

The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men. Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease. The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

The researchers, led by the Basque Public Health Department, placed the participants into six categories - from never having drunk to drinking more than 90g (3 oz.) of alcohol each day. This would be equivalent to consuming eight bottles of wine a week, or 28 pints of beer.

For those drinking less than a shot of vodka a day, the risk was reduced by 35%, and for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less risk of heart disease.

The exact mechanisms are as yet unclear, but it is known that alcohol helps to raise high-density lipoproteins (HDL), sometimes known as good cholesterol, which helps stop so-called bad cholesterol from building up in the arteries.

The Stroke Association meanwhile noted that overall, evidence indicated that people who regularly consumed a large amount of alcohol had a three-fold increased risk of stroke.

In the UK, the recommendation is no more than two to three units of alcohol a day for women - the equivalent of one standard glass of wine - and three to four units for men. So, drink lots and save your heart, but ruin your brain and liver. Drink less and save your liver and brain, but risk a heart attack.  Hmmm. Decisions, decisions. . .

Speaking of Drinking

A friend of mine, Joe Dougherty sent me this one and I couldn't resist sharing. LINK It is about how to make bacon infused vodka. The Allston Yacht Club bar serves a bacon and egg martini. It shows how to infuse vodka with bacon, then serve with a quail egg. Oh, yes, the site also shows 1,001 things to do with bacon. Yumm!

Founding Fathers Papers

LINK  thousands of unpublished documents from our nation’s founders in a free online resource. Collected over many years by the Founders Documentary Editions, these letters and other papers penned by important figures such as James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson offer Americans of all ages and interests, a unique view of the early Republic.

College Football

Unlike the original Founding Fathers, our current batch of politicians have more important stuff to discuss. The link below shows what they have been up to while debating the wars, National Health Care, the waning economy, etc. Cars and banks are not enough, now they get into football. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5isQ1DkWtlreF6Tk2_...

A House subcommittee has approved legislation aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine a national champion.

The bill would ban the promotion of a post season NCAA Division 1 football game as a national championship unless that title contest is the result of a playoff.  The measure passed by a voice vote Wednesday by a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee. That should solve the current economic crisis.

Garlic and the Flu

If you want to get stinking rich in China today forget real estate, gold, or silver, because garlic has outperformed all of them. As fears of swine flu grow, traders are hoarding garlic and watching the price of the pungent vegetable go through the roof. Prices have risen sharply since unscrupulous investors began buying up all the garlic available.

According to China's Ministry of Commerce the average price for a kilogram of garlic has risen from 14p in March to 54p and in some markets the price has reportedly risen 40-fold.

Jerry Lou, an analyst for Morgan Stanley, said dealers can make millions. "You need a warehouse, a lot of cash and a few trucks," he told the Washington Post. Basically, you buy as much supply as possible, then bid up the price.

The reason for this is many people believe garlic can protect against the H1N1 virus.

In one high school in Hangzhou, staff bought 200kg of garlic and fed it to their luckless pupils every lunchtime for the good of their health.

China produces three times more garlic then the rest of the world combined, but anticipating falling prices during the world recession, its farmers planted less garlic last year. Speculators made fortunes by moving in and buying up the harvest before it was ripe.

Inspiration

To many, the holidays are a time of loneliness instead of joy and celebration. If this helps one person feel better, it is worth it. When you are feeling down, don't give away your frowns. They will only beget more frowns.

Give away a smile and see what you get back. It is impossible to give away a smile without getting one back.

Saint Nicholas Day

St Nicholas died on December 6, 343 and is remembered every year on the 6th of December. It continues in many places, and some cultures still use this occasion to give gifts to children. There are still celebrations in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Milwaukee also has a strong tradition of celebrating "St Nick’s Day," due to its large immigrant German community.

The Dutch celebrate the 'Feast of Sinterklaas', (Santa Claus is a variation of the name), as we celebrate Christmas. Some celebrate on December 5 (like Christmas eve). The myth  involving Sinterklaas is that he rides on his white horse across the roofs of houses, and that his small helpers, who are entirely black and called Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), climb down the chimneys and put presents in people's shoes. Children leave a carrot in the shoes for his horse.

St Nicholas (or St Nickolas) was Bishop of Myra (Turkey) and remains the Patron Saint of sailors, fishermen, the falsely accused, pawnbrokers, thieves and a number of cities.

You can see from the picture why old pictures of Santa Claus show the bishop's miter (hat) and staff.

Many miracles and good deeds are attributed to St Nicholas. One relates how a father, who could not afford a dowry for his three daughters (which would mean they were unable to marry, and might have been sold), would find little bags of gold coins thrown through his window, under cover of night. The bags landed on stockings left to dry before the fire. This is why people hang stockings on the fireplace at Christmas, hoping for them to be filled with goodies.

Growing up, we celebrated St. Nicholas day by throwing small bags of candy on neighbor's porches at dusk, then running away. We were always home in time to enjoy the candy treats thrown on our porch.

Frogs

The name frog comes from the Old-English 'frogga', which means, to jump. There are over 5,000 varieties of frogs.

* From a taxonomic perspective, all members of Anura are frogs, but only members of the family Bufonidae are considered toads. Frog usually refers to species that are aquatic or semi-aquatic with smooth and/or moist skins, and the term 'toad' generally refers to species that tend to be terrestrial with dry, warty skin. 

*  A group of adult frogs is referred to as an Army of frogs and also a colony or a knot.

* Frogs legs are considered a delicacy in China, Greece, New Orleans, and France. 

* Frogs will only eat something that moves; in nature that would be insects or spiders. Tadpoles are vegetarian.

* Amphibians, such as frogs, always return to water to breed.     However, there is a midwife frog where the male carries the frogspawn around on his body.  When he senses the time is ripe, he swims out into the water and the tiny tadpoles emerge from their egg-jelly and swim away.

* Frogs, can change their color to suit their background; not as spectacularly as chameleons, but enough to save them from a casual predator.

* Ranidaphobia means fear of frogs. Touching frogs will not give you warts, that's just a myth.

Farming

37.5% of the US population was involved in agriculture in 1900 and today less than half of one percent are in that business. We still have all the food we need, as well as supply other parts of the world.

There are 2.2 million farms and 50.4% of farms are less than 99 acres in size, with the average age of a farmer at 57.1 years old.

We export $115.5 billion of farm products a year. The top five farming counties in the US are in California. All data taken from the census.

Escape for iPhone

With this handy program you can have an excuse to get off the phone every time and no one needs to know about it. Just set it to anyone in your contacts list, select a delay time (up to two hours) and press the sleep button on the top of your phone. Escape Call Free for iPhone will sit silently until the timer has run out, at which point you will get an urgent call and you can decide if it is time to leave.

Chipotle

A chipotle (chi-POET-lee) is a smoked, dried jalapeño chili used primarily in Mexican, Mexican-American, Tex-Mex, and Mexican-inspired cuisine. The deep red jalapenos are smoked for days until completely dry. It takes about 10 pounds of jalapenos to make a pound of chipotle.

Until recently, chipotles were almost exclusively found in the markets of central and southern Mexico. As Mexican food became more popular, it expanded into Northern Mexico and eventually the United States and other places, such as China.

Most chipotle chiles are produced in the Northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. This variety of chipotle is known as a morita (Spanish for blackberry or black raspberry; literally "little purple one"). This is a description of how the chipotle looks.