Number Seven

I may be a day late, but seven is still a special number. The world was formed in seven days, there are seven wonders of the world, seven deadly sins, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, seven hills of Rome, seventh heaven, etc.

•     Shabbat is the seventh day of the week. Shabbat connects the six days of the week. All of the other days revolve around it. It serves as the center for the three days before it and the three days after it.
•     Number 7 is the number of perfection, security, safety, and rest.
•     Number Seven contains the number three of the heavens and soul with the number four of the earth and body.
•     The Pythagoreans called the number 7 “the Septad”.
•     Seven colors of the rainbow. Isaac Newton identified the seven colors of the rainbow as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
•     There are seven days in a week.
•     Each airplane in Boeing's line of passenger jets is named with a 3-digit number beginning and ending in 7.
•     There are seven dwarfs.
•     As You Like It by William Shakespeare's contains Shakespeare's 7 Ages of Man theory.
•     There are seven notes to the diatonic scale.
•     Music has seven notes in an octave (the eighth is a repeat of the first): Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La Ti, Do.
•     There are seven letters in the Roman numeral system.
•     Seven circles form the symbol called “The Seed of Life”. The Seed of Life symbolizes the six days of creation. The central circle symbolizes the day of rest.
•     Number seven is the number of Neptune.
•     In the Harry Potter series of novels by J.K. Rowling, seven is said to be the most powerfully magical number.
•     Number seven is lucky for Cancer and Pisces.
•     In the Tarot, seven is the card of the Chariot. The Chariot is symbolic of the need to focus.
•     September means “the seventh month” in Latin.
•     The British fifty pence coin is a heptagon (seven sided).
•     Nitrogen (N) has the atomic number 7.
•     Number 7 is the international country calling code for Russia.
•     Lotus Seven was an open top, two-seater sports car.
•     The opposite sides of a dice always equal the number seven when added.
•     In Japan there are Seven Lucky Gods. They have a ship called Takarabune, the Treasure Ship. They arrive in town every New Year and give gifts to all worthy people.
•     In Hindu weddings the bride and groom walk around the holy fire seven times during the wedding ceremony.
•     Seven people have been beheaded privately on Tower Green within the walls of the Tower of London.
•     There are seven continents – Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

I could go on, but it is already the eighth.

What's in a Name, Frisbie

William Russell Frisbie bought a bakery in Connecticut in the late 19th century, which he called the Frisbie Pie Company. After Frisbie's death, his company continued to flourish and it 1956 reached a peak production of 80,000 pies per day. Pies and cookies made by the company came with plate-shaped tin bearing the name 'Frisbee Pies'.

Yale students discovered a second use for the tins, and began to hurl them around the university campus. As the flying disk approached its target, the thrower would shout "Frisbie" as a warning. The slightly different spelling "frisbee" is now used for the toy.

Internet and Web

The Associated Press announced that the next edition of its stylebook will endorse 'internet' over 'Internet' and 'web' over 'Web'.

The change is the latest in a long-running debate over whether 'the internet' is a proper noun,  no different than a television or a hair roller. AP Standards Editor Thomas Kent said, “The changes reflect a growing trend toward lowercasing both words, which have become generic terms.” Hopefully the automated spell checkers will be updated by then.

Amazing Facts III Trivia Treasures

Amazing Facts III Trivia Treasures is now available on Amazon (my 52nd book). If you liked the first two Amazing Facts, you will love this one. If you have not read the others. Try this one and you can always go back to buy the others. LINK

Thousands more amazing facts about things you don’t know, but want to know, and facts you think you know but don’t. Hundreds of facts about food, laughter, health, medicine, technology, etc. Origins of words and sayings. Popular myths debunked and so much more. If you are interested, disinterested, lazy, or sharp of wit, this book will keep you amazed, interested, entertained, and anxious to share your new-found knowledge to impress friends and family. All organized and fully indexed for your inner geek to find specific information.

Happy Friday

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” ~ Lucius Seneca

There is always an opportunity for kindness, especially on a Happy Friday!

Cheese Weasel Day

On April 4, 2016 give your favorite tech person a Thank You using #cheeseweaselday on Twitter. Send someone you know in the tech sector a Cheese Weasel Day Greeting card. Arrange secretly for a slice of cheese to be placed under the mouse pad of a tech person you know. They will understand.

National Tartan Day

On April 6, 2016 the US celebrates National Tartan Day, established by Congress in 1997 as a way to recognize Scottish-American citizens. Thirty four states have their own official tartan. Like official flowers and birds, the patterns in have been adopted by legislators as legitimate state symbols.

Blonde Myth Debunked

No, this is not an April fool's joke. The 'dumb blonde' stereotype is wrong, according to a new national study of young baby boomers. The Ohio State University study of 10,878 Americans found that white women who said their natural hair color was blonde had an average IQ score within 3 points of brunettes and those with red or black hair. The resulting findings showed that blonde-haired white women had an average IQ of 103.2, compared to 102.7 for those with brown hair, 101.2 for those with red hair and 100.5 for those with black hair. None of the differences are statistically significant.

The results for blond white men were similar. They also had IQs roughly equal to men with other hair colors. The study was published during March, 2016 in the journal Economics Bulletin.

Data from the study came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, a national survey of people who were between 14 and 21 years old when they were first interviewed in 1979. The NLSY79 was conducted for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not sure why it took over thirty years to analyze the data or who paid for this wildly useless bit of old information. Further reading showed this article in close proximity to "Do unions reduce the wage penalty experienced by obese women?" Answer, yes.

US National Flower

In 1985, as the U.S. Senate signed a bill declare the rose America’s national flower. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law during 1986.

Third Leading Cause of Death in US

Research estimates up to 440,000 Americans die annually from preventable hospital errors. This puts medical errors as the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Leapfrog, an independent, national nonprofit organization that administers the Score, is an advocate for patient safety nationwide.
“We are burying a population the size of Miami every year from medical errors that can be prevented. A number of hospitals have improved by one or even two grades, indicating hospitals are taking steps toward safer practices, but these efforts aren’t enough,” says Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog.

Key Findings:
On average, there was no improvement in hospitals’ reported performance on the measures included in the score. Of the 2,539 general hospitals issued a Hospital Safety Score, 813 earned an “A,” 661 earned a “B,” 893 earned a “C,” 150 earned a “D” and 22 earned an “F.”

The states with the smallest percentage of “A” hospitals include New Hampshire, Arkansas, and Nebraska. No hospitals in New Mexico or the District of Columbia received an “A” grade.

Maine claimed the number-one spot for the state with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals.

Kaiser and Sentara were among the hospital systems where 100 percent of their hospitals received an “A.”

2013 (latest causes of death available) -
Heart disease: 611,105
Cancer (all types): 584,881
Hospital preventable  error deaths: 440,000
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 149,205
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 130,557
Stroke (brain diseases): 128,978
Alzheimer's disease: 84,767
Diabetes: 75,578
Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,979
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis (kidney related): 47,112
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 41,149.

Price of Stamps

So, the agreement to raise the price of stamps by 3 cents for two years is complete and the Post Office is crying that the price of stamps set to drop by 2 cents, beginning April 10 will cost it money. It is still a penny ahead and Congress, true to style cannot let any tax end, no matter how little it is.

Traffic Cones

This sounds like another April Fool's Day joke, but it is not. Scotland spends $15,000 per year removing traffic cones from a statue's head.

The government is having a problem with revelers messing up a historic statue in the most hilarious way possible. In Glasgow, there is a statue of the Duke of Wellington. For the last several decades, this statue has been at the center of a bloodless battle between Glasgow City Council and the local drunkards, the latter of whom love nothing more than climbing the statue and placing a traffic cone on its head.

After years of being climbed, the statue has lost its sword and spurs. The cost of removing these cones is running up an annual bill of 10,000 GBP of taxpayer's money and, embarrassingly, the defaced statue is becoming a tourist attraction in itself.

As a result, Glasgow City Council planned to raise the statue's plinth (base) to such a height that the inebriated would not be able to reach anymore. However, thanks to a petition from local residents, the proposal was shot down.

Dutch Doors

There is a Dutch senior facility that attached life size pictures of previous home front doors to the resident's room doors. It helps patients with dementia have a familiar look and assist them to find their room.

That is a truly caring facility.

Zika Virus Facts

Much fear-mongering has recently been spread about the Zika virus, but here are a few facts to keep things in perspective. It is not all that bad, certainly is not life threatening, and most people will not even know if they get it.

Zika virus was first discovered in 1947 and is named after the Zika forest in Uganda. In 1952, the first human cases of Zika were detected. Since then, outbreaks of Zika have been reported in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Brazil.

Eighty percent of Zika cases will not be diagnosed. Most people infected with Zika virus will not even know they have the disease, because they will not have symptoms. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eyes). Other common symptoms include muscle pain and headache. The incubation period, from exposure to symptoms for Zika virus disease is not known, but is likely to be a few days to a week.

There is no vaccine to treat or prevent Zika virus.

Zika in the U.S. as of March 23, 2016:
Locally acquired vector-borne cases reported: 0
Travel-associated Zika virus disease cases reported: 273 (of the 273 travel-associated infections, 19 are in pregnant women and 6 were sexually transmitted.)

It may be "on occasion" spread through sexual contact or blood transfusions. The CDC has received 15 reports of possible spread of Zika through sex, meaning a person traveled to an area where Zika has broken out, acquired the virus, and gave the virus to a sexual partner who did not travel. Brazilian scientists have found the virus in saliva and urine of infected people.

The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for about a week, but it can be found longer in some people.

Once a person has been infected, he or she is likely to be protected from future infections.

There have been reports of congenital microcephaly in babies of mothers who were infected with Zika virus while pregnant. Zika virus infections have been confirmed in several infants with microcephaly. It is not known how many of the microcephaly cases are associated with Zika virus infection. A pregnant woman can pass Zika virus to her fetus during pregnancy. There is no evidence that prior Zika virus infection poses a risk of birth defects in future pregnancies.