Jan 9, 2015
Jan 2, 2015
Happy Friday
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your
smile can be the source of your joy.”
Both my smiles and joy always show up for a Happy Friday!
Both my smiles and joy always show up for a Happy Friday!
Time
Ah, we are at the beginning of another New Year and
the world awaits what wonderful things we can accomplish this year.
Time is such an important part of our lives and is so personal to
each of us that there are hundreds of ways to describe it. Each of
us has our own specious present. This year, do not bide your time.
Use this window of time to spend some face time with family and
friends and keep them close for all time.
Words from the Rolling Stones (I like the second version) title come to mind LINK. In the nick of time we look at the fresh calendar, sit a spell, adjust our circadian clock, and ponder the current epoch. This is the kairos to begin before we reach our first poronkusema.
Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment).
The Finnish word poronkusema describes the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without taking a comfort break.
The Malaysian word for the time it takes to eat a banana is pisan zapra. To say that someone would arrive in pisan zapra means they could be expected in a few minutes.
The Turkish phrase 'zaman dilimi' means time period as does the Haitian Creole phrase 'peryòd tan'.
A jubilee is 50 years.
A vigil is a period of time, especially at night, when you stay in a place to wait for something or to give your support.
In medieval time, a moment was defined as being 90 seconds.
In the Old Testament, Yom is translated as period of time, such as year, always, and more.
A sidereal time is the measurement of time relative to a distant star. It is used in astronomy to predict when a star will be overhead. A sidereal day is 4 minutes less than a solar day.
Scientist Gilbert Newton Lewis defined a jiffy in the early 1900s as the amount of time it takes light to travel 1 centimeter (0.4 in), which is about one-hundredth of a second.
A Planck is the duration light takes to travel one (Max) Planck length, theorized to be the smallest duration measurement that will ever be possible, roughly 10 to the 43rd seconds.
Words from the Rolling Stones (I like the second version) title come to mind LINK. In the nick of time we look at the fresh calendar, sit a spell, adjust our circadian clock, and ponder the current epoch. This is the kairos to begin before we reach our first poronkusema.
Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment).
The Finnish word poronkusema describes the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without taking a comfort break.
The Malaysian word for the time it takes to eat a banana is pisan zapra. To say that someone would arrive in pisan zapra means they could be expected in a few minutes.
The Turkish phrase 'zaman dilimi' means time period as does the Haitian Creole phrase 'peryòd tan'.
A jubilee is 50 years.
A vigil is a period of time, especially at night, when you stay in a place to wait for something or to give your support.
In medieval time, a moment was defined as being 90 seconds.
In the Old Testament, Yom is translated as period of time, such as year, always, and more.
A sidereal time is the measurement of time relative to a distant star. It is used in astronomy to predict when a star will be overhead. A sidereal day is 4 minutes less than a solar day.
Scientist Gilbert Newton Lewis defined a jiffy in the early 1900s as the amount of time it takes light to travel 1 centimeter (0.4 in), which is about one-hundredth of a second.
A Planck is the duration light takes to travel one (Max) Planck length, theorized to be the smallest duration measurement that will ever be possible, roughly 10 to the 43rd seconds.
Aging and Time
Time obviously affects our age, but how we
feel about our age can make a difference between just getting old
and aging gracefully.
JAMA Internal Medicine online recently published a study that looked at data from 6,489 people with an average age of 65.8 years who reported that they felt a little less than 10 years younger. Most said they felt about three years younger and 4.8%, felt at least a year older than their actual age.
During the next eight years, scientists found just over 14% of those who felt younger than their years had died, while more than 24% of the people who reported feeling older or feeling their age died.
The study concluded that self-perceived age has the potential to change us. This and other research shows that personality can affect our destiny. New research into the link between personality and aging finds that there are two main traits that seem to help people live longer: conscientiousness and optimism. Happiness and a positive attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. These results certainly make me happy.
JAMA Internal Medicine online recently published a study that looked at data from 6,489 people with an average age of 65.8 years who reported that they felt a little less than 10 years younger. Most said they felt about three years younger and 4.8%, felt at least a year older than their actual age.
During the next eight years, scientists found just over 14% of those who felt younger than their years had died, while more than 24% of the people who reported feeling older or feeling their age died.
The study concluded that self-perceived age has the potential to change us. This and other research shows that personality can affect our destiny. New research into the link between personality and aging finds that there are two main traits that seem to help people live longer: conscientiousness and optimism. Happiness and a positive attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. These results certainly make me happy.
New Year Census
The US population is at 320.09 million
people as of January 1. It is an increase of 11.35 million since the
last census. During January 2015, the US is expected to have one
birth every eight seconds and one death every 12 seconds. Net
migration is expected to add one person to the US population every
33 seconds, according to the Census Bureau.
The combination of births, deaths, and net migration will add at least one person to the US population every 16 seconds.
The combination of births, deaths, and net migration will add at least one person to the US population every 16 seconds.
Wordology, Hogmanay
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the
last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the
New Year in the Scottish style. The celebrating begins on the last
day of the year and lasts through the night until the morning of New
Year's Day or 2 January, a Scottish Bank Holiday.
Windows Number Tip
Those little icons along the bottom of
your screen that you use for everyday program shortcuts are handy.
Normally you use the mouse to click on the icon to open the program.
There is an easier way to open them without using a mouse. Each
program to the right of the Start button is assigned its own
numerical shortcut, with the first program being "1," the second
being "2," and so on up to the 10th shortcut, which is "0."
Press the Windows key, plus the number of the program you want to open and it will launch. For example, if the first icon is for email, hold down the windows key (on the lower left of most keyboards) and press the number 1. Your email will open.
You can rearrange the icons and move the most used to the left position to make it easier to remember. I have more than ten, so I moved the least used to the right and kept the top ten as the first ten.
Press the Windows key, plus the number of the program you want to open and it will launch. For example, if the first icon is for email, hold down the windows key (on the lower left of most keyboards) and press the number 1. Your email will open.
You can rearrange the icons and move the most used to the left position to make it easier to remember. I have more than ten, so I moved the least used to the right and kept the top ten as the first ten.
Holiday Boozing
Many equate the holidays with drinking, so
I looked up some of the common terms we use, beginning with
'crapulous' (a substitute for hangover), from the 18th century Greek
kraipale (drunken headache or nausea). I love that word.
Booze first appeared in Middle Dutch as bûsen, which meant 'to drink to excess.' There was also the Old High German word bausen, which meant 'to bulge or billow.'" It took 200 years for English speakers to start using it as both a verb (to booze) and a noun (give me some booze). It is a common misconception that the word was borrowed from a brand of whiskey sold by E.S. Booz in the 1800s, but the word much older. The 1529 Oxford dictionary defined it as “affected by drinking.”
Booze first appeared in Middle Dutch as bûsen, which meant 'to drink to excess.' There was also the Old High German word bausen, which meant 'to bulge or billow.'" It took 200 years for English speakers to start using it as both a verb (to booze) and a noun (give me some booze). It is a common misconception that the word was borrowed from a brand of whiskey sold by E.S. Booz in the 1800s, but the word much older. The 1529 Oxford dictionary defined it as “affected by drinking.”
Hooch
comes from Alaska. There was a native tribe there called the
Hoochinoo that distilled rum made primarily from molasses and
introduced it to soldiers from the lower 48.
Alcohol
began as an Arabic word describing a fine metallic powder used as
eye shadow (al-kuhul). The word was broadened to mean 'the pure
spirit of anything'. Later it was expanded to include a distilled
spirit or liquor. Alcoholic meaning 'caused by
drunkenness' is attested by the 1800s and meaning 'habitually
drunk' by 1910.
Liquor
dates back to at least 1200, likur
"any matter in a liquid state," and the Latin verb liquere,
meaning "to be fluid", from Latin liquorem.
The definition including a fermented or distilled drink followed
about a hundred years later. In North America, the term hard
liquor is used to distinguish distilled beverages from
undistilled ones and does not include beverages such as beer,
wine, and cider, which are fermented, but not distilled.
Spirits
refers to a distilled beverage that contains no added sugar and
has at least 20% alcohol by volume. It probably originated with
ancient alchemists, who referred to the vapor given off and
collected during an alchemical process (like the distillation of
alcohol) as the 'spirit' of the original material. Early European
Monks believed that the spirit was removed from the mash during
the distilling process.
Cocktail
refers to any beverage that contains two or more ingredients with
at least one of them being alcohol. When a cocktail contains only
a distilled spirit and a mixer, it is a highball. The Oxford English dictionary cites the word as originating in the
US. The first recorded use of the word cocktail as a beverage was
during the early 1800s. Of the many origins, two stand out: an old
French recipe for mixed wines, called a coquetel, brought to
America by General Lafayette’s soldiers in 1777; and New Orleans
brandy drink in an egg-cup called a coquetier in French. The
latter was a morning drink served at the time the tail of the
evening met with the morning cock-a-doodle-do of a rooster.
Bar
is an abbreviation of barrier, the counter that separates drinks
from the drinkers. Toward the end of the 16th century it expanded
to mean the building that housed the barrier. Barmaid
didn’t appear in print until the mid 1700s and bartender
arrived about fifty years later and barfly came about
during the early 1900s. Bottom line, beer, wine, cider, hooch,
and alcohol are booze, but only hooch, and alcohol are liquors.
Spirits are alcohol and both are liquor. All highballs are
cocktails, but not all cocktails are highballs.
Wordology, Prosopagnosia
Now that the holidays are about
over and we met many new friends, it seems this disease might fit
the discussion. People with prosopagnosia, about two percent of the
population, find it difficult or impossible to remember faces, even
their own. Some contort their own face when standing in front of a
mirror in a crowded restroom so they can determine which is theirs.
They are not technically face blind, but their brains cannot
memorize what they see. Many prosopagnosics are ostracized by people
who are offended that they are not recognized. There is no therapy
or cure, so most learn to cope with prosopagnosia by using secondary
clues such as clothing, gait, hair color, body shape, and voice to
recognize friends, family, and co-workers.
Healthcare Tidbit
I thought this was enlightening
information regarding comparative healthcare costs. There seems to
be a delicate balance of spending too little or spending too much to
achieve greater life expectancy.
ABBA Happy New Year
Decided to toss in this Happy New Year
song by ABBA in their own style. LINK
Enjoy!
New Year Voice Resolution
Artificial voices have been
around since the 1700s and have made much progress, but have been
very limited until now. There is a new service hoping to help some
of the millions of voice impaired people. A company, VocaliD has
been set up to allow volunteers to donate their voice to help
someone speak.
To create a voice, the company takes the shape of the vocal tract from a voice donor, and the source from a recipient, who has given something as limited as a vowel. After taking that short recording from the recipient the team selects a donor with a similar 'filter' and uses a computer algorithm to layer one over the other. The process takes about ten to fifteen hours after recordings from both donor and recipient have been completed.
It provides unique voices for those who rely on computerized devices because they are unable to speak. The technology builds on speech science theory and creates a hybrid voice that preserves the clarity of the donor’s recordings while conveying as much of the recipient’s vocal identity as possible.
Some things from the FAQ on the site - A banked voice would make it possible to re-create your voice should you ever lose it in the future. Your voice may also spark new discoveries and innovations in speech technologies, biometrics, and health diagnostics. Becoming a speech donor is simple, rewarding and even educational. All you need to record is an Internet connection, a microphone, a quiet place, and a computer or smartphone running the Chrome browser. You will be asked to read or repeat short sentences that, together, cover all the combinations of sounds that occur in the language. It takes a few hours, but you can record at your leisure and do not need to complete all at one sitting. LINK This year I plan to be a donor and have my voice recorded to help the cause.
To create a voice, the company takes the shape of the vocal tract from a voice donor, and the source from a recipient, who has given something as limited as a vowel. After taking that short recording from the recipient the team selects a donor with a similar 'filter' and uses a computer algorithm to layer one over the other. The process takes about ten to fifteen hours after recordings from both donor and recipient have been completed.
It provides unique voices for those who rely on computerized devices because they are unable to speak. The technology builds on speech science theory and creates a hybrid voice that preserves the clarity of the donor’s recordings while conveying as much of the recipient’s vocal identity as possible.
Some things from the FAQ on the site - A banked voice would make it possible to re-create your voice should you ever lose it in the future. Your voice may also spark new discoveries and innovations in speech technologies, biometrics, and health diagnostics. Becoming a speech donor is simple, rewarding and even educational. All you need to record is an Internet connection, a microphone, a quiet place, and a computer or smartphone running the Chrome browser. You will be asked to read or repeat short sentences that, together, cover all the combinations of sounds that occur in the language. It takes a few hours, but you can record at your leisure and do not need to complete all at one sitting. LINK This year I plan to be a donor and have my voice recorded to help the cause.
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