New Mini Computers

The drive is on for TVs to get larger and computers to get smaller. Last year Intel introduced Edison, a computer the size of a postage stamp. This year it introduced a new model called Curie, which is so small that it could be built into a button on a shirt.

Curie is based on the Quark SE core, Key Features:
• A low-power, 32-bit Intel® Quark™ SE SoC
• 384kB Flash memory, 80kB SRAM
• A low-power integrated DSP sensor hub with a proprietary pattern matching accelerator
• Bluetooth* Low Energy
• 6-axis combo sensor with accelerometer and gyroscope
• Battery charging circuitry.
It is for both the wearable fitness market and biometric and security applications, with additional tie ins to other brands like Fossil (watches) and Oakley (glasses). Unlike TVs, when it comes to computers, smaller is better.

January Tidbits

Using a baby to signify the New Year began in ancient Greece around 600 B.C.

January is named for the Roman god Janus, who had two faces, one looking back, the other
forward.

The original New Year's Eve Ball in Times Square was a 700 pound ball of iron and wood covered with 25 watt bulbs.

The modern ball weighs 11,875 pounds, is 12 feet in diameter and is covered with 2,668 Waterford crystals.

Don’t eat lobster or chicken in January. Lobsters can move backward and chickens can scratch in reverse, so these foods could bring a reversal of fortune.

By the second week of January, twenty five percent of people have abandoned their resolutions.

Forbes magazine reports that only eight percent of people actually achieve their New Year's resolution.

January 19 is National Popcorn Day. January 20 is National Cheese Lover's Day. January 21 is National Hug Day. In my house, I celebrate them all together and have 'hug some cheese popcorn day'. It is much easier.

Free Friday Smile

Happy Friday

You cannot own happiness, but you can share it.

Every week I am happy to share a Happy Friday!

2015 Pantone Color

Marsala is the new color and, according to Pantone, Marsala enriches our mind, body, and soul, exuding confidence and stability. The color is a dusky burgundy that draws its name and its shade from the earthy Marsala wines of Italy. Its deep, reddish tones are reminiscent of cranberries, cackling fires, and comfortable sweaters of the winter season.

Color Names

Am sure many of you woke up this morning with the same burning question on your mind, where did the common colors get their names.

Pink - In English, pink used to refer exclusively to a flower called a pink, a dianthus which has pale red petals with fringed edges. Pink, as a verb means to cut or tear jaggedly and has been in use in the English language since the early 14th century.

Orange - When oranges (the fruit) were exported from India, the word for them was exported too. Sanskrit narangah, or "orange tree," was borrowed into Persian as narang, "orange (fruit)," which was borrowed into Arabic as naranj, into Italian as arancia, into French as orange, and eventually into English as orange. The color of the fruit was so striking that English speakers eventually began referring to the color by this word as well. Before oranges were imported in the 1500s, the English word for the color orange was geoluhread (yellow-red).

Fog, Smog, Vog, Haze, and Mist

This time of year we see many of these weather conditions and some people can get a bit foggy about the definitions.

Mist and fog are caused by water droplets in the air, and the only difference is how far you can see. The airline industry’s definition of fog uses the guideline of not being able to see more than 1,000 meters (3,280 ft), although the civilian definition of fog is when visibility is less than 200 meters (650 ft). If you can see farther than that, it is considered mist. Different types of fog include Valley fog, Upslope fog, and coastal fog. Also, evaporation fog causes freezing fog.

Haze is the reflection of sunlight off air pollution. Some naturally occurring sources of haze include smoke particles from fires. Most haze is air pollution, carried by the wind often hundreds of miles from where it originated.

Smog was first used in London during the early 1900's to describe the combination of smoke and fog. It occurs when pollution causes low-lying ozone. When certain pollutants enter the air, such as nitrogen oxides, they react with the sunlight to form ozone. Major smog occurrences often are linked to heavy motor vehicle traffic, high temperatures, sunshine, and calm winds. During 1952, weather conditions led to massive smog descending on and gathering over London. Visibility was less than 30 centimeters (12 in), the air was black with coal and pollution, and the usually bustling city came to a standstill. By the time the smog cleared, 4,000 people died from exposure to the pollution, and another 8,000 died during the following weeks.

Vog only happens when a nearby volcano is releasing sulfur dioxide into the air to react with what is already there. When a volcano erupts, or begins to erupt, it releases sulfur dioxide, which then reacts with other gases already in the air. When lava reaches the sea, it also reacts with the water to produce other chemicals like hydrogen sulfide. The resulting “fog” is called vog and can mean anything from severely reduced visibility to adding a mild, blue-grey tint to the landscape.

Wordology, Vinculum

It is the line between two numbers in a fraction.

Internet Time

This is what happens every sixty seconds on the internet.
2,635,217 Google searches
204,709,030 emails sent
1,865 new mobile web users
51,763 app downloads
847 new websites created
200,743 people watching porn
$238,651 is spent on web shopping
$89,300 revenues from products sold on Amazon
778,520,485 Gb of global data transferred
1,875,734 new Facebook likes
159,745 new photos uploaded on Facebook
243,040 new tweets
104 hours of video uploaded on YouTube
2,780,653 YouTube video views
About a million Google searches happened while you were reading this tidbit.

Pork Powered Protein

The protein found in bacon is extremely valuable to maintaining our energy levels and a fully functioning, healthy body, with a minimum of those nasty, waist, thigh and butt expanding, fat building carbohydrates.

Razor Differences

Men and women use different razors, but there is no difference between men’s and women’s razors. There are differences between brand names. Gillette issued a press release in which it stated that the blades used in its gendered products both use the same 'blade technology'.

Women’s razors are generally more expensive than men’s, but cost to manufacture different shapes are negligible. The razors for women are usually larger to cut more hair. The heads of men’s razors are designed to facilitate more accurate facial grooming with smaller heads around the blades, as well as having the blades more tightly packed. This serves to better cut thicker hair commonly found on men’s faces vs. women’s legs, and to cut hair closer to the skin.

The blades of men’s razors are often put at more of an oblique angle than women’s razors, along with a different contour of handle. The difference in angle and handle shape allows women to see better what they are shaving when looking down at their legs vs. men looking straight into a mirror.

Shaving creams are also identical, except for aroma, because women prefer different fragrances than men.

So, the price for women is much higher, because of perception and because women are more inclined to pay more - for any number of non-tangible reasons. Men see shaving as a chore and women tend to think of it as beauty enhancing. Save some money and use the less expensive alternative razors, creams, and gels, just do not share the same razor.

Seven Interesting Facts

Coke would be green if coloring was not added.
An average hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
The total weight of ants on earth is greater than the total weight of humans.
The average person is one percent shorter in the evening.
Half of all people in history aged 65 or older are still living.
Frozen lobsters can come back to life when thawed (they do not squeal when being boiled).
Eyes remain the same size from birth, but the nose and ears never stop growing.

What's in a Name, Ouija Board

The Ouija board was created as a parlor game around 1890 by designer Elijah Bond, who patented it in 1891, then sold the patent to William Fuld in 1901. Fuld popularized the game and promoted it as a novelty. He sold the business in 1966 to Parker Brothers, which was acquired by Hasbro, which now owns it, along with Monopoly, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, etc.  Ouija is a combination of two words: 'oui' and 'ja' which mean 'yes' in French and German respectively.

One of the first mentions of the automatic writing method used in the Ouija board is found in China around 1100 AD. The method was known as fuji, spirit writing or automatic writing using a suspended sieve or tray to guide a stick which writes Chinese characters in sand or incense ashes.

Despite being a trademark, “Ouija” is also used to refer to any kind of 'talking' board that uses automatic writing. Shortly after it was introduced, Pearl Curran, a popular 20th-century spiritualist began using the Ouija board during WWI as a tool for her divination. Some people thought it was kind of ancient mystical device used to communicate with the dead. It has also been associated with devil worship or spirituality, despite Hasbro’s insistence that it is just a board game. The 'automatic' writing is simply done by the ideomotor effect, people moving the indicator unconsciously.

Paranormal and supernatural beliefs associated with Ouija have been harshly criticized by the scientific community, since they are characterized as pseudoscience. There is a 'museum' of talking boards on the web at LINK.

Free Friday Happy Dance