Close Buttons

Did you know most elevators built or installed since the early 1990s don’t have close buttons that actually work, unless you use a fireman or repair key? People push them, because the fact that the door eventually closes reinforces their belief that the button works. Doors are set on a delay timer to close. Older ones do work as advertised.

Coffee's Hot

A little shameless self promotion here. This blog, Shubsthoughts, is featured on Coffee's Hot site this week. LINK

Why not take a break and go check it out and see what some of the other authors, bloggers, and readers are doing. As always, thanks for stopping by.

Penny for Your Thoughts

The government spends 1.8 cents to make one penny and 9 cents to produce a nickel. Because metal prices have shot up lately, the cost to make these two coins is more than what they are worth as coins. This costs us an additional $100 million a year.

The government is loosening up its rules for what metals can be used to used to make coins. Using cheaper metal should help bring the cost of making one penny closer to one penny. Seems we should have respected the old axiom of 'take care of your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves'. Now we spend trillions of dollars and the pennies do not take care of themselves. Maybe we should change the politicians instead of changing the metals.

Intel Newest Computer Chip

Intel announced on Feb 8 its newest Intel announced its Itanium 9300 series microprocessor, a high-end supercomputing chip with 2 billion transistors on a single chip. The number of transistors, or basic on-off switches that control the flow of electrical signals in a chip, is about twice as much as what Intel and other big companies normally put in a chip.

Marriage and TV

Ages of Marriage:
Twenty is when you watch TV after.
Forty is when you watch TV during.
Sixty is when you watch TV instead.

Fly Paper

You have heard of fly paper, but have you seen a paper fly?

Alzheimer's Drink

Rush University Medical Center is leading a nationwide clinical trial of a nutritional drink to determine whether it can improve cognitive performance in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's. The study follows recently released results from an earlier trial conducted in Europe showing that the drink, called Souvenaid, improved verbal recall in people with mild disease who were followed for three months.

Results of the first European study were released recently, following publication in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia. In that study, 225 patients with mild Alzheimer's were divided into two groups. Some drank Souvenaid and the others sipped a non-medical drink every day for 12 weeks.

Researchers found that the patients who drank Souvenaid improved in a delayed verbal recall task.

A total of 500 individuals who are taking medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the symptomatic treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease will be enrolled in the present study at 40 sites across the U.S. In the double-blinded study, half of the participants will drink about four ounces of Souvenaid once a day for 24 weeks. The other half will drink a control product that is similar in flavor, appearance, and composition, but without the Souvenaid nutrients. Neither group will know whether they are drinking Souvenaid or the other beverage.

Treasury Paper Pay Stubs

The Treasury Department currently mails paper pay stubs to its employees, which will cost $1.5 million in 2011 and will cost $2 million per year after that. By using electronic pay stubs the department will join the 21st century and switch to electronic stubs. Isn't this the same 'green' government that asks us to eliminate paper to save the environment? Reminds me of another axiom, 'penny wise and pound foolish'. This will really help reduce the multi-trillion dollar deficit.

Find Feature

Did you know that most web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Crazy Browser, etc have a great, but little used feature. It is the "find" feature, usually located under the "view' button on the top of the page next to "file."

Click on "view" then click on "find" or " find on this page" and type in the word or phrase you are looking for. It moves to that part of the web page you are on and highlights the text for you.

This is great when looking for a person's name or other specific word in long web pages and it saves a bunch of extra reading when you are looking for something specific.

Bubble Wrap

Did you know bubble wrap is 50 years old this year? Now you do. Of course we missed bubble wrap appreciation day, which was Jan 25 (started in 2001 in Bloomington, Indiana).  

Here is a site that lets you pop the stuff online. A total waste of time, but you know you want to pop just a few. LINK

Airborne Snake Oil

Airborne (those little packages you see at the end of store aisles), first claimed to prevent colds, then claimed to boost your immune system. People who travel a lot think it is going to prevent them from catching diseases while on planes, trains, etc.

Last year, 2009, Airborne settled a lawsuit in which it agreed to pay over $23 million in fines for false advertising. The suit said there is no factual evidence to back the company claims, and said it is like a placebo. Caveat Emptor!

Fashion

Fashion is something that goes in one year and out the other.

Laurel and Hardy?

I have always been a huge fan of the boys and I didn't didn't make this one up. Laurel and Hardy delivered 50 bags of cocaine to a home in Kingston, Pennsylvania, where police arrested them. Hardy was also found to have ten bags of marijuana in his possession. 31-year-old Carlos Laurel and 39-year-old Andre Hardy were held at the Luzerne County Jail on several felony drug charges. Do you think they understand the irony of their partnership?

Spare Ribs

The term originally came from the German Rippenspeer which literally translates to "spear ribs," as this cut was traditionally roasted on a spit or spear. In English, it became ribspare and eventually sparerib or spare ribs. The name did not come from the Bible, as at least one of you was thinking.

Spareribs are cut from the bottom section of the ribs and breastbone of the pig, just above the belly and include 11 to 13 long bones. Baby back ribs are from the top of the rib area along the back. Spareribs are considered to be more meaty and succulent than pork baby back ribs.

In Western cooking spare ribs are generally cooked on a barbecue or on an open fire, and are served as a slab (bones and all) with a thick barbecue type sauce. St. Louis style ribs are trimmed and have the brisket bone removed, while Kansas City-style ribs are trimmed even further, and have the hard bone removed.