The news media usually fails to mention that Russia and the US
share a border. There is no wall and not much traffic of
refugees trying to pass illegally.
The Russia / United
States maritime boundary follows the June 1, 1990 USA/USSR
Maritime Boundary Agreement, but it has yet to be approved by
the Russian parliament. The United States Senate gave its
consent to ratification on September 16, 1991.
Two islands, Little
Diomede, US and Big Diomede, Russia lie between Russia and the
United States. The islands are only 35 km away from both
Chukotka, Russia and Alaska, US. Because the international Date
Line runs between them, the time difference between them is
about 21 hours.
Incidentally, Russia's
Eastern border is with China.
The International Space Station if reduced
to two dimensions is roughly the size of a soccer pitch, at
about 73 meters (239 feet) in length and 109 meters (356 feet)
in width. It orbits the Earth at an altitude of 330 to 435 km
(205 to 270 miles).
Incidentally,
In 2001, Pizza Hut paid the Russian space agency $1 million to
send a pizza to the ISS, Including a Pizza Hut logo on a Soyuz
rocket and a video of a cosmonaut Yuri Usachov giving a
thumbs up after eating some of the pizza. The space pizza, per
the BBC, “spending a long time in space has the effect of
deadening the taste buds, so extra salt and spices were added
to the pizza and salami had to be used as pepperoni lacked the
necessary shelf life, growing moldy.”
Each Wi-Fi standard is rated according to its
maximum theoretical network bandwidth. The newest, 802.11ac
offers up to 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps). However, the performance of
Wi-Fi networks practically never approach these theoretical
maximums, usually performing at about half of peak speed. If you
compare 300 Mbps WiFi to wired Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps, the
Ethernet connection most often outperforms in real world usage.
Wi-Fi networks have a
range that is limited by the transmission power, antenna type,
the location, physical obstacles, such as walls, number of other
devices sharing the signal, and the environment. A typical
indoor wireless router might have a solid range of about 32
meters (105 ft). Distance from the source also degrades
performance. The fastest theoretical WiFi 802.11 ac is maximum
speed of 866.7 Mb/s.
Plugged in (Ethernet)
offers advantages, such as faster speeds, lower latency, and no
wireless interference problems. A wired Ethernet connection can
theoretically offer up to 10 Gb/s.
Bottom line, when it
comes to speed necessary for streaming movies and TV WiFi may be
more convenient, but is much slower and may cause delays and
hesitations. Also, when looking at your speed, consider 10Mbs as
the absolute minimum for streaming - and more is better.
Incidentally, no
matter how fast your WiFi is within your house,
it does not increase the speed of the connection between your
house and the Internet.
A smile is like a push-up bra for your
face.
I always get a lift when I smile, especially on a
Happy Friday and even more on a Happy Good Friday!
Easter is celebrated on April 16 2017. Put on your Easter bonnet
and read some of the traditions around the world.
The Ukrainian Easter
tradition of Pysanka Eggs is a special craft. These
highly-decorated eggs have been made during Holy Week for
generations. While people once made eggs to ensure fertility and
avoid fires and nasty spirits, today they take to the art form
for the aesthetic allure.
After designing a
pattern on an uncooked or empty egg, it is then dipped in a
colored dye. Between the dyeing stages, the craftsman draws
patterns on the egg with wax, so as to seal the color currently
on the egg and create the intricate patterns you see on the
final product.
Passion Plays - Villagers take part in an Easter Passion Play
re-enacting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday at
Gantang Village near Magelang, in the province of Central Java.
One of the longest running traditions of Easter is the Passion
Play. Because a lot of people in medieval times could not read,
plays were a great way to educate the masses about the story of
Jesus’ death and resurrection. There are passion plays held all
over the world, but one of the most famous is the Oberammergau
Passion Play. Its roots began during the black plague, when the
residents of Oberammergau were on high alert to keep the disease
out. A farmer coming home from a nearby village brought the
plague back with him, which killed one-fifth of the town. With
the disease ravaging the town, the elders declared that the
church would hold a passion play every 10 years in exchange for
God’s blessing and protection. The play has been performed every
10 years since 1633, with only a ban in 1770, World War I, and
World War II stopping three shows.
Don't forget to
decorate your Osterbaum - Easter tree with colorful decorated
eggs.
Wash wooden furniture
to get the winter grime off, then pour a bit of flat beer onto a
microfiber or soft cloth and rub it onto the surface of your
favorite outdoor wood furniture. It works like a traditional
furniture polish product, removing the dullness of years of wear
and tear and instilling a shining, rich color. Works indoors.
also.
If you do not want someone to
know you are calling them. Just type *67 or #31# before the
ten-digit mobile number of the person you are calling. Some
providers will provide a confirmation beep or tone after you
dial *67, so wait for the regular dial tone to return before
dialing the 10-digit number you wish to call. Some countries
have different codes, such as 141 in the United Kingdom or 1831
in Australia.
Early PCs did not come with internal storage
devices due to the expense. Instead, they generally had some
form of a floppy disk reader, such as those used to read 5 1/4″
floppy disks, initially labeled as “A” in MS-DOS and certain
other operating systems.
Some systems came with two such floppy disk drives necessitating
the need for a “B”. When the 3.5″ floppy disk was commonly
added, using both “A” and “B” for floppy drives was firmly
entrenched.
When hard disk drives became standard in most PCs during the
1980s, since the first two letters were already commonly used
for these floppy drives, they logically labeled the third
storage device “C”, even though it now tended to be the main
storage for the computer.
Even though no longer used, the drive designation remains, with
A and B not used. Now you can easily change, remove or add drive
letters for both physical and logical drives.
Was just discussing Zoroastrianism with
friends a few nights ago and it reminded me of this. The late Farrokh Bulsara
(Freddie Mercury) was proud of his Zoroastrian heritage. “I’ll
always walk around like a Persian popinjay and no one’s gonna
stop me, honey,” he once
said. His sister Karishma Cooke also talked about the
role of Zoroastrianism in the family. “We as a family were very
proud of being Zoroastrian. I think what [Freddie’s] Zoroastrian
faith gave him was to work hard, to persevere, and to follow
your dreams.”
It is baseball season
again and the Texas Rangers are changing their famous
“Boomstick” and taking it up a notch for the 2017 season.
Here is the “Most Valuable Tamale”, a 2-foot tamale filled with
the Rangers’ 24-inch “Boomstick” hot dog and covered with all
sorts of foodie goodies.
Even though it is not closest to the sun
(Mercury is), the hottest planet in our Solar system is Venus,
second closest. The average temperature on the Venus does not go
below 462 degrees while that of Mercury reaches only up to 420
degrees.
New York taxi medallions that are
tightly regulated by the city and allow yellow cabs to legally
pick up fares on the streets have drastically come down in value
during the past three years. The tags sunk from about $1.05
million in 2014 to $241,000 for one sold during March 2017. The
main cause is rivals Uber, Lyft, Via, and Gett.
Also, during March, Philadelphia Parking Authority, which
regulates the city's taxi industry, sold new medallions for
$80,000 falling from last year with an initial asking price of
$475,000, but received no bids. The value of taxi medallions in
other cities, such as Boston and Chicago have also fallen
sharply.
The Canada–United States border
officially known as the International Boundary, is the longest
international border in the world between two countries. Eight
Canadian provinces and territories and thirteen US states are
located along the border.
At one point the border between
Canada on the north and the US runs through the villages of
Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec - and though the
middle of the town library.
It physically snakes through side streets, in and out of houses,
through the public library, and straight down the middle of a
main road that residents affectionately call “Canusa Avenue." An
apartment building in town has two addresses, one for each
country.
Incidentally, Canada borders are east, west, north, and south
of the US. In Alaska, Canada is directly East. In many
northern US continental states, Canada is directly North. In
Maine, it is directly West and North. In Detroit, Michigan,
Canada is directly South. Part of Washington State is both
North and South of Canada. See my blog LINK
“You cannot do a
kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too
late.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I always try to be
kind, especially on a Happy Friday!
