Jul 19, 2011
Illusioneering
Here is a fun site that teaches science by way of magic tricks. LINK The site is a brainchild of Peter McOwan and Matt Parker from Queen Mary, University of London. It just hit the web this month and the purpose is to help teachers and students to better understand science by making fun tricks using scientific principles. It also shows some common magic tricks and explains how they work. The site has downloadable explanations, videos, and more, including Penn and Teller's world's most expensive card trick. Great for children, grandchildren, teachers, and the curious child in all of us.
Jul 15, 2011
Happy Friday
Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you die, live.
I think I have earned the right to live for a Happy Friday!
I think I have earned the right to live for a Happy Friday!
St. Swithin's Day
Happy St. Swithin's (or Swithun's) Day, July 15. Legend says that if it rains today, it will rain for the next forty days. If it is dry, it will be dry for the next forty days.
A Rose by Any Other Name
Apples, apricots, blackberries, cherries, loquats, peaches, pears, plums, quinces, raspberries, and strawberries, wild or cultivated, are all relatives of roses.
Typically, they have showy flowers with five equal petals arranged around a central cup bearing one or more fruit-forming pistils and a large number of pollen-bearing stamens. Their leaves are placed alternately on the twigs or stalks. Some of them simple leaves and some of them compound leaves divided into three, five or more leaflets like the rose itself. Some are trees, some are shrubs, and some are vining herbs. All are roses and all taste good and are good for us.
Typically, they have showy flowers with five equal petals arranged around a central cup bearing one or more fruit-forming pistils and a large number of pollen-bearing stamens. Their leaves are placed alternately on the twigs or stalks. Some of them simple leaves and some of them compound leaves divided into three, five or more leaflets like the rose itself. Some are trees, some are shrubs, and some are vining herbs. All are roses and all taste good and are good for us.
Older is Better
A new poll looking at American attitudes, health, and behavior concludes that people over age 65 consistently have a higher degree of well being than any other age group.
The findings are based on more than 1 million surveys done since 2008. Healthways works with health care professionals to help people thrive and to allow officials to track health and wellness by congressional districts.
Multiple behaviors, from smiling and laughing to having access to learn new things, eating well, and getting plenty of exercise Even when aches and pains set in and health begins to decline, the older group also is less sad and depressed than any other group, according to the Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing index.
If younger people don't adopt healthier ways, they are not likely to do as well as these seniors. Those at the bottom end of the well being scale are those aged 45 to 64.
The findings are based on more than 1 million surveys done since 2008. Healthways works with health care professionals to help people thrive and to allow officials to track health and wellness by congressional districts.
Multiple behaviors, from smiling and laughing to having access to learn new things, eating well, and getting plenty of exercise Even when aches and pains set in and health begins to decline, the older group also is less sad and depressed than any other group, according to the Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing index.
If younger people don't adopt healthier ways, they are not likely to do as well as these seniors. Those at the bottom end of the well being scale are those aged 45 to 64.
What is a Donkra
It's in the Bag
Margaret Knight fought a sexist employee to claim her rightful title as the inventor of the flat-bottomed paper bag in 1858. She was working in paper bag factory when she noticed how difficult it was to pack things into the flimsy, shapeless sacks. So, she decided to invent a machine that folded and glued paper to make a flat-bottomed bag.
Knight spent many late nights drawing up plans before creating a wooden prototype. She couldn't, however, obtain a patent until she made one out of iron.
While it was being produced at machine shop, an employee named Charles Annan copied her idea and got a patent for it. Knight sued Annan for copyright infringement. Annan argued that, because she was a woman, she couldn't have been the true inventor. However, Knight's sketches and detailed plans helped her win the case. She ended up establishing her own paper bag company and received large royalties for her invention.
Knight spent many late nights drawing up plans before creating a wooden prototype. She couldn't, however, obtain a patent until she made one out of iron.
While it was being produced at machine shop, an employee named Charles Annan copied her idea and got a patent for it. Knight sued Annan for copyright infringement. Annan argued that, because she was a woman, she couldn't have been the true inventor. However, Knight's sketches and detailed plans helped her win the case. She ended up establishing her own paper bag company and received large royalties for her invention.
Yakety Yak
During this week in 1958 Yakety Yak, by the Coasters hit number one and was the first stereo song son to do so. Don't talk back.
Jul 13, 2011
Ponzi Scheme
Most of us heard of Ponzi schemes and there is an interesting story of how the name began.
Charles Ponzi was an Italian immigrant to the US in 1903. He was a con man and was in trouble with the law many times for his cons. His greatest scam, and the one that begat the name 'Ponzi scheme' is the scam he created with international reply coupons. At the time, it was common for letters abroad to include an international reply coupon (a voucher that could be exchanged for minimum postage back to the country from which the letter was sent). If you sent a letter to a friend in Italy, you could include a coupon so he could respond. This is the equivalent of a self addressed stamped envelope.
As exchange and postal rates fluctuated, there was an opportunity to make a profit. You could purchase postal reply coupons cheaply in some foreign country, send them back to the U.S. to swap them out for American stamps of a higher value, then sell the stamps, and it was legal. Ponzi started buying and selling postal reply coupons using agents from his native Italy, and he began making a comfortable living doing it. Then he became greedy.
He started to recruit investors into his system with the promise of 50% returns in just a few days. Investors would pay their cash in and Ponzi would get them the promised return. Everyone was happy with the results, and word started to spread about this Italian financial wizard. Within two years, he had employees all over the country recruiting new takers for his 'investment strategy'.
Ponzi was pocketing millions. At his peak, was taking in $250,000 a day. Many investors wanted to reinvest, so he didn't even have to continue to pay them the profits.
Eventually, in 1920, the Wall Street Journal ran an article debunking the scam. This was followed by a book written by a PR man Ponzi hired, but who also discovered the scam. Eventually the government came down on him for using the mail system to perpetuate his con. He pleaded guilty, spent a few years in jail, followed by another few years from another scam, and was eventually deported back to Italy. He died in 1949 in Rio de Janeiro, where he is buried in a pauper’s grave.
Charles Ponzi was an Italian immigrant to the US in 1903. He was a con man and was in trouble with the law many times for his cons. His greatest scam, and the one that begat the name 'Ponzi scheme' is the scam he created with international reply coupons. At the time, it was common for letters abroad to include an international reply coupon (a voucher that could be exchanged for minimum postage back to the country from which the letter was sent). If you sent a letter to a friend in Italy, you could include a coupon so he could respond. This is the equivalent of a self addressed stamped envelope.
As exchange and postal rates fluctuated, there was an opportunity to make a profit. You could purchase postal reply coupons cheaply in some foreign country, send them back to the U.S. to swap them out for American stamps of a higher value, then sell the stamps, and it was legal. Ponzi started buying and selling postal reply coupons using agents from his native Italy, and he began making a comfortable living doing it. Then he became greedy.
He started to recruit investors into his system with the promise of 50% returns in just a few days. Investors would pay their cash in and Ponzi would get them the promised return. Everyone was happy with the results, and word started to spread about this Italian financial wizard. Within two years, he had employees all over the country recruiting new takers for his 'investment strategy'.
Ponzi was pocketing millions. At his peak, was taking in $250,000 a day. Many investors wanted to reinvest, so he didn't even have to continue to pay them the profits.
Eventually, in 1920, the Wall Street Journal ran an article debunking the scam. This was followed by a book written by a PR man Ponzi hired, but who also discovered the scam. Eventually the government came down on him for using the mail system to perpetuate his con. He pleaded guilty, spent a few years in jail, followed by another few years from another scam, and was eventually deported back to Italy. He died in 1949 in Rio de Janeiro, where he is buried in a pauper’s grave.
What's in a Name, Ballpeen
Laughing Cures
Laughing helps get blood flowing round the body.
A good old belly laugh can help heal leg ulcers, according to experts. The Leeds University team said good nursing and the occasional laugh was a better way to get the body healing than using the latest technology.
Hospitals and health clinics are increasingly using low-dose ultrasound for leg ulcers, but the five-year study of 337 patients found it did nothing to speed up recovery, the British Medical Journal reported.
Instead, lead researcher Professor Andrea Nelson said, "They key to care with this group of patients is to stimulate blood flow back up the legs to the heart. The best way to do that is with compression bandages and support stocking coupled with advice on diet and exercise. Believe it or not, having a really hearty chuckle can help too. This is because laughing gets the diaphragm moving and this plays a vital part in moving blood around the body."
During the study, the team concentrated on patients with hard-to-heal ulcers that had not cleared up after six months or longer. They found that adding ultrasound to the standard approach to care - dressings and compression therapy - made no difference to the speed of healing or the chance of ulcers coming back. And that's no laughing matter.
A good old belly laugh can help heal leg ulcers, according to experts. The Leeds University team said good nursing and the occasional laugh was a better way to get the body healing than using the latest technology.
Hospitals and health clinics are increasingly using low-dose ultrasound for leg ulcers, but the five-year study of 337 patients found it did nothing to speed up recovery, the British Medical Journal reported.
Instead, lead researcher Professor Andrea Nelson said, "They key to care with this group of patients is to stimulate blood flow back up the legs to the heart. The best way to do that is with compression bandages and support stocking coupled with advice on diet and exercise. Believe it or not, having a really hearty chuckle can help too. This is because laughing gets the diaphragm moving and this plays a vital part in moving blood around the body."
During the study, the team concentrated on patients with hard-to-heal ulcers that had not cleared up after six months or longer. They found that adding ultrasound to the standard approach to care - dressings and compression therapy - made no difference to the speed of healing or the chance of ulcers coming back. And that's no laughing matter.
Death Valley
In July 1913, the highest temperature ever recorded in the continental United States was 134 degrees which melted thermometers that day in Death Valley, California. I thought it was cooler before global warming started.
Jul 8, 2011
Happy Friday
Your attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards you.
My attitude makes me determined to have a Happy Friday!
My attitude makes me determined to have a Happy Friday!
Spit Your Age
Dr. Eric Vilain, a professor of human genetics, pediatrics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "With just a saliva sample, we can accurately predict a person's age without knowing anything else about them." Vilain and his colleagues looked at a process called methylation – a chemical modification of one of the four building blocks that make up our DNA.
"While genes partly shape how our body ages, environmental influences also can change our DNA as we age," explained Vilain. "Methylation patterns shift as we grow older and contribute to aging-related disease."
Using saliva samples contributed by 34 pairs of identical male twins ages 21 to 55, UCLA researchers scoured the genomes and identified 88 sites on the DNA that strongly correlated methylation to age. They replicated their findings in a general population of 31 men and 29 women aged 18 to 70.
Next, the scientists built a predictive model using two of the three genes with the strongest age-related linkage to methylation. When they plugged in the data from the twins' and the other group's saliva samples, they were able to correctly predict a person's age within five years – an unprecedented level of accuracy. "Methylation's relationship with age is so strong that we can identify how old someone is by examining just two of the 3 billion building blocks that make up our genome," said first author Sven Bocklandt.
"While genes partly shape how our body ages, environmental influences also can change our DNA as we age," explained Vilain. "Methylation patterns shift as we grow older and contribute to aging-related disease."
Using saliva samples contributed by 34 pairs of identical male twins ages 21 to 55, UCLA researchers scoured the genomes and identified 88 sites on the DNA that strongly correlated methylation to age. They replicated their findings in a general population of 31 men and 29 women aged 18 to 70.
Next, the scientists built a predictive model using two of the three genes with the strongest age-related linkage to methylation. When they plugged in the data from the twins' and the other group's saliva samples, they were able to correctly predict a person's age within five years – an unprecedented level of accuracy. "Methylation's relationship with age is so strong that we can identify how old someone is by examining just two of the 3 billion building blocks that make up our genome," said first author Sven Bocklandt.
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