Genetics vs. Genomics

Gene refers to a specific sequence of DNA on a single chromosome that encodes a particular product.

Genome encompasses the entire set of genetic information across all 23 chromosome pairs, including all genes, as well as gene-modifying sequences, and everything in-between.

LED, Lumen, CFL, and CRI

We are now faced with many choices for light bulbs. Prices vary widely for not much difference in light. Here a few things to know about the choices.

First, lumens are the new watts. Watts are power and lumens are light. An old incandescent 60 watts is about 800 lumens of light. The wattage does not matter and most of the comparisons regarding electricity costs are measured over years, so not very consequential in a monthly or annual budget. A 60W incandescent lamp may push 800 lumens, while a CFL only needs 15W and an LED only needs 10W to produce the same lumens. (A 10W incandescent is a night light.) The thing to remember is how bright you want your light to be. Look at lumens below to get the correct amount of light from your new bulbs.

incandescent bulb
watts - lumens
60 - 800
75 - 1,100
100 - 1,600
150 - 2,600

Heat might not seem important, but with a number of lights burning, it adds up, especially during the summer. One heat test - halogen bulb, a type of incandescent bulb, measured 327 degrees. A Cree LED downlight was measured 107 degrees and a Philips Par38 CFL measured 167 degrees. LEDs produce 3.4 btu's/hour, compared to 85 for incandescent bulbs.

Bugs don't fly toward many LEDs, because bugs are attracted to ultraviolet light and most LEDs do not give off this type of light.

LED are rated to last 50,000 hours, while CFLs are rated for 10,000 hours and incandescents are rated for about 1,000 hours.

LED bulbs turn on as quickly as incandescent bulbs and faster than CFLs. LEDs produce roughly the same amount of useful light, but much of that light is focused in one direction. LEDs typically shine up, rather than in all directions like incandescent bulbs. Newer LEDs can be omnidirectional, look for that word on the package.

Some LEDs do not dim well and tend to buzz or sputter when the dimming is at half. Check the package to make sure the bulb will work with a dimmer.

A new term to further confuse us is CRI, because of the number of different light types. It did not make any difference in the past as all lights were the same. CRI is color rendering index. The higher the CRI, the better the color rendering ability. Light sources with a CRI of 90 or higher are excellent at color rendering and should be used for tasks requiring the most accurate color discrimination. CRI is independent of color temperature, but I won't even go there. Too much information.

When considering lighting, I usually think of CFL as meaning 'crap for light'. They take longer to turn on (it typically takes 30 seconds to 3 minutes to complete), need more energy to turn on, contain mercury, may leak UV radiation, do not work well in cold conditions, produce artificial fluorescent color, and are less efficient than LEDs.

Although initial price is still much higher, the price of LEDs is coming down quickly. LEDs are down to $4.97 at Home Depot, a far cry from the old $20 they used to cost. Bottom Line, let your old bulbs burn out before you rush out to buy new "energy savers" the price will likely be cheaper when you are ready to replace. Also, higher lumens are brighter and higher CRI provides better color discrimination.

Short Shrift

A shrift is a penance (a prescribed penalty) imposed by a priest in a confession in order to provide absolution. During the 17th century, criminals were sent to the scaffold immediately after sentencing and only had time for a 'short shrift' before being hanged.

The first known use of short shrift was in 1594. Shakespeare was the first to write it down, in Richard III. RATCLIFF:  Dispatch, my lord; the duke would be at dinner: Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head.

It does not appear again in print until 1814, Scott's Lord of the Isles: Short were his shrift in that debate. If Lorn encounter'd Bruce!

The original meaning has little relation to the modern sense of short shrift, which usually has negative connotations. One usually does not want to be given short shrift or little consideration in dealing with a person or matter.

Theologians and confessors viewed the sacrament of penance as a prescription that cured a moral illness. In early medieval times penances were long and arduous and had to be performed before absolution. Lengthy pilgrimages and even lifelong exile were not uncommon. However, less demanding penances could be given in extreme situations; short shrift was a brief penance given to a person condemned to death so that absolution could be granted before execution.

Stonewall Jackson

Thomas Jonathan 'Stonewall' Jackson was buried in a Lexington, Virginia, cemetery that now bears his name, but he was so famous at the time of his death that his amputated left arm was taken away to its own separate grave.

Just after dark on May 2, 1863, Jackson launched a devastating attack against Union forces at Chancellorsville. Returning to his own lines with several staff officers, Jackson decided to conduct more reconnaissance in the area. As he and his staff rode through the woods near Confederate lines, a North Carolina regiment opened fire. Jackson was struck by three bullets, two of them shattering his left arm. He was evacuated from the area and given medical treatment, but his arm could not be saved and was amputated. Pneumonia set in, and on May 10, 1863, he died. Jackson's body was sent to Lexington without the arm.

Thinking that the limb of so great a soldier was too precious to simply throw on the regular body part pile, Jackson's unofficial company chaplain wrapped the arm in a blanket and took it his family cemetery. The reverend gave the limb a standard Christian burial and placed a marker above the site.

Supposedly Stonewall Jackson's arm was dug up and reburied numerous times in the ensuing years and there is no evidence that it still resides in its original burial space. The simple gravestone remains to remember one of the oddest instances of hero worship in the history of battle.

History of CDs

Compact discs, or CDs, were one of the defining technologies of the 1990′s and 2000′s. They successfully killed cassette tapes, and are likely the last physical audio technology that we will ever have, as digital formats now dominate the music industry.

CD’s were actually invented during 1974, nearly a decade before they even became available to the public market.

The inventors were the Dutch company Philips and the Japanese company Sony. In the mid 70′s, both companies independently began working on technologies that could imprint digital sound onto a small plastic disc. The two companies joined forces to develop the technology as fast as possible. The first album ever recorded on CD was ABBA’s The Visitors in 1981 LINK.

Free Friday Smile

Happy Friday

In the music of life there are no sour notes.

I always enjoy the sweet melody of a Happy Friday!

National Pretzel Day

April 26 was declared as National Pretzel Day by then-Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell in 2003.

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day

The last Saturday of April each year (April 25, 2015 - 10 am local time) in hundreds of cities, spanning 80 nations, people come together to provide a healing vision for our world.

Tai chi (tie chee) and Qigong (chee gung) combine deep breathing techniques, gentle body movement, and visualization techniques. Tai chi is a form of Qigong and is an ancient Chinese tradition that is practiced as a graceful form of exercise. It involves a series of movements performed in a slow, focused manner and accompanied by deep breathing.

Tai chi is a noncompetitive, self-paced system of physical exercise and stretching. Each posture flows into the next without pause, ensuring that the body is in constant motion. It has many different styles. Each style may have its own subtle emphasis on various principles and methods. There are also variations within each style. Some may focus on health maintenance, while others focus on the martial arts aspect of tai chi. I have been learning tai chi locally for the past six months and, although some call it gentle, it is still a workout.

One World ... One Breath. Here are some interesting tai chi day videos. LINK

Eye Color, Green

Just two percent of people in the world have green eyes, making it the least common eye color. The color green is generally associated with jealousy, which is a common character trait amongst people with this eye color. However, they are also passionate people who have a zest for life and enjoy living life to the fullest. Others see people with green eyes as being mysterious and curious, but also highly intelligent.

Green eyes originate from Siberia and now can mostly be found in Europe. Interestingly, in Iceland the number of females with green eyes is greater than the number of males with green eyes! Ireland is also a hotspot for green eyes as they are believed to have Celtic ancestry, making green eyes and red hair a typical combination. Elsewhere around the world green eyes are very uncommon, but individuals can be found in all corners of the globe, including the USA, Europe, Asia, South America and Northern Africa.

Sometimes green eyes can bear a striking resemblance to cat's eyes, resulting in the myth that people with green eyes were evil. History is full of stories of women being condemned as witches, simply because of their green eyes. My cousin tells me she and her brother were born with brown eyes, but they are now most often hazel, and sometimes green.

Frogs and Toads

Toads have dry and pebbly skin, and frogs have moist and smooth skin. Frogs like water and toads prefer land.

Toads and frogs lay their eggs in water, because their babies start off as tadpoles. The difference is that frog eggs are laid in bunches or clusters, and they have a jelly-like substance around them. Toads lay their eggs in lines or strands, on leaves of plants that live in the water. A baby toad is a tadpole or toadlet

Frogs have slim bodies and long legs, and jump to get around. Toads have short forelimbs and hop or walk. Toads have big glands behind their eyes, called paratoid glands, which produce poison.

There are three names for baby frogs, depending on which segment of the life cycle they are in. After 21 days of being an embryo, a baby frog is called a polliwog and at this point, has a long tail and lives in the water. It becomes a tadpole when it sprouts legs. As a froglet, it has almost matured into a full-grown adult that breathes with lungs, but still has a bit of a tail. The sequence is polliwog, tadpole, froglet.

Frogs don’t actually drink water with their mouths; they drink it through their skin. A frog’s skin absorbs water when it is in the water so its body gets all of the hydration that it needs that way.

True toads do not have teeth and the skin on the head is typically ossified to the skull. Toad’s skin lets out a bitter taste and smell that burns the eyes and nostrils of its predators, much like a skunk does. True toads belong to the family Bufonidae, which consists of 50 genera and nearly 600 species, native to all continents except Antarctica and Australia. Toads belong to the order Anura, and are actually a subset of frogs. In popular use, toad seems to be used to refer to any frog that has a dry warty skin and short legs.

Frogs:
 Need to live near water
 Have smooth, moist skin that makes them look “slimy”.
 Have a narrow body
 Have higher, rounder, bulgier eyes
 Have longer hind legs
 Take long high jumps
 Have many predators
 Hibernate in the winter.

Toads:
 Do not need to live near water to survive
 Have rough, dry, bumpy skin
 Have a wider body
 Have lower, football shaped eyes
 Have shorter, less powerful hind legs
 Do not have many predators
 Will run or take small hops rather than jump.

Bottom line, all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads and neither frogs nor toads will give you warts.

Bangers and Mash

The British meal of sausage and mashed potatoes goes back a long way. Sausages can be traced back to ancient times. Victorians were skeptical of what was in a sausage, suspected horse meat, and nicknamed them ‘Little Bags of Mystery’. After the outbreak of the World War, food shortages led to a dramatic reduction of meat in sausages, so producers packed them out with scraps, cereal, and water, which caused them to pop when cooked over hot fires. That is how the name bangers came to be. The mash comes from the way potatoes are cooked - mashed.

Crap Email Hack

We all get way too much marketing stuff in our inbox. One way to reduce it is to filter for the word unsubscribe and send the mail straight to trash. If you want to keep some of the materials, set up a folder for marketing and send the emails there. That way you can keep the info, but it is not mixed with important emails.

Origin of Credit Cards

In 1949, Frank McNamara, an executive at the Hamilton Credit Corporation, was embarrassed to find himself short of cash when it came time to pay for a dinner with clients at a New York restaurant. Charge accounts were already common, allowing customers to add up a tab at certain establishments and pay it later, but those accounts were only for each specific business. McNamara had the idea of making a card which could be used at multiple unconnected upscale New York restaurants. Diners Club would pay the restaurant, and the diner would pay Diners Club, plus interest. Diners Club's had 20,000 members in its first year, who could use it to pay for services at 28 restaurants and two hotels.