I read about these alternatives to static
cling sheets and other items you can put into the dryer to help
eliminate static cling, so I went to Amazon and purchased set of
six. Hardly necessary as they seem to almost last forever. In fact
some estimates are that they will last a few years depending on
how many loads you do, and they are rated for up to a thousand
loads (more than I will do in the next 15 years). As a bonus, the
description says you can add essential oils to the ball for making
clothes smell a bit better.
In order to boost the overall effectiveness of dryers, wool dryer
balls reduce drying time, fluff and soften fabrics, reduce
wrinkles, reduce static cling, are better for your skin, and the
environment. A set of 3 is a good start and they will save you
between 40% in a small load to 25% in a large load. It increases
with the more dryer balls you use. They get in-between the towels
and clothing to keep items from sticking together while damp. Some
people use tennis balls for the same effect, but they do not last
as long.
Consumer reports says that liquids in the wash cycle do better at
reducing cling than fabric softener sheets in the dryer. It also
debunked the idea that fabric softeners, especially liquids, leave
towels far less absorbent.
Incidentally, I tried the plastic dryer balls, but they snagged
a few items, so I promptly ditched them. Also, plastic dryer
balls will eventually soften and lose their ability to soften
and dry clothes. Aluminum balls also reduce static, but are bit
rougher on delicate clothes.
Feb 9, 2018
Feb 2, 2018
Happy Friday
Be Happy is number one on my ToDo list.
Complete number one and enjoy every day, especially a Happy Friday!
Complete number one and enjoy every day, especially a Happy Friday!
Groundhog Day
Today
is groundhog day and it is pundit predicted that Punxsutawney
Phil, Pennsylvania’s weather-forecasting groundhog, will see his
shadow, signaling six more weeks of winter weather for the
United States. Watch your local news for updates
after the sun rises.
How Many Breaths
None of us will be holding our breath to find out about the
end of winter, but the following is still interesting. An infant
breathes 40 to 60 times a minute; a five-year-old, 24 to 26
times; an adolescent, 20 to 22 times; an adult (beginning at age
25) 16 times. An average person at rest breathes about
17,000-30,000 per day. A person who lives to 80 will take more
than 670 million breaths. Of course it may be less when
fascinating facts like this take away our breath.
Football Facts
The big game is coming this Sunday, so I decided to look up a
few facts about football.
The NFL League Office, is tax exempt and is classified as a trade organization whose primary purpose is to “further the industry or profession it represents.” This began in 1942 when the NFL filed an application for tax-exempt, non-profit status with the IRS. The application was accepted and it has been tax-exempt ever since.
In recent years, about 110 million people watch the Super Bowl. An estimated 98% of those viewers are from North America, mostly from the United States.
Since 1955, the official NFL footballs have been made at the Wilson factory in Ada, Ohio. Each football is handmade from cowhide sourced from Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. The hides are tanned in Ada with a “top secret football-weather-optimizing tanning recipe.” An average 130 people working at the factory produce nearly 4,000 footballs every day. Each football is made up of four pieces and a synthetic bladder, and each cowhide can usually make up to ten footballs (or hand eggs).
During 1951, the first year of night Football, footballs were white with two black stripes so that players and spectators could easily see the ball in the dark. Advancements in stadium lighting were made, making the white ball unnecessary, and by 1956 they were officially replaced with the standard brown football we have today.
The official nickname of the football used by the NFL is “The Duke,” after Wellington Mara. Mara, who was named after the Duke of Wellington, was the co-owner of the New York Giants and the son of the founder of the Giants. The nickname was used between 1941 and 1969. It fell out of use in 1970 when the AFL and NFL merged, but bounced back into play in 2006, a year after Mara’s death.
The NFL League Office, is tax exempt and is classified as a trade organization whose primary purpose is to “further the industry or profession it represents.” This began in 1942 when the NFL filed an application for tax-exempt, non-profit status with the IRS. The application was accepted and it has been tax-exempt ever since.
In recent years, about 110 million people watch the Super Bowl. An estimated 98% of those viewers are from North America, mostly from the United States.
Since 1955, the official NFL footballs have been made at the Wilson factory in Ada, Ohio. Each football is handmade from cowhide sourced from Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. The hides are tanned in Ada with a “top secret football-weather-optimizing tanning recipe.” An average 130 people working at the factory produce nearly 4,000 footballs every day. Each football is made up of four pieces and a synthetic bladder, and each cowhide can usually make up to ten footballs (or hand eggs).
During 1951, the first year of night Football, footballs were white with two black stripes so that players and spectators could easily see the ball in the dark. Advancements in stadium lighting were made, making the white ball unnecessary, and by 1956 they were officially replaced with the standard brown football we have today.
The official nickname of the football used by the NFL is “The Duke,” after Wellington Mara. Mara, who was named after the Duke of Wellington, was the co-owner of the New York Giants and the son of the founder of the Giants. The nickname was used between 1941 and 1969. It fell out of use in 1970 when the AFL and NFL merged, but bounced back into play in 2006, a year after Mara’s death.
Scotch, Bourbon, Rye
For those sipping during the big game, this
should provide a conversation starter. "If you are a cognac, you
have to be made in the Cognac region. If you are a champagne,
you have to be made in the Champagne region. It is the same for
scotch. Single-malt scotch whisky
is made at a single distillery, exclusively from malted
barley, and must be aged for at least three years in oak
casks.
Bourbon and rye are native American spirits. Aside from the point of origin, what differentiates variants of whiskey (Irish and Americans), or whisky (Scots) is the 'mash bill', or list of ingredients used to make it.
Bourbon in the US must have 51% or more corn, and the rest of the mash bill is traditionally rye and malted barley. All bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon.
Rye whiskey must have 51% or more rye, and the rest is usually corn and malted barley.
In addition, both must be aged in brand new American oak barrels.
Bourbon and rye are native American spirits. Aside from the point of origin, what differentiates variants of whiskey (Irish and Americans), or whisky (Scots) is the 'mash bill', or list of ingredients used to make it.
Bourbon in the US must have 51% or more corn, and the rest of the mash bill is traditionally rye and malted barley. All bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon.
Rye whiskey must have 51% or more rye, and the rest is usually corn and malted barley.
In addition, both must be aged in brand new American oak barrels.
DFW Airport Facts
Dallas-Fort Worth Airport has 17,207 acres (6,963 hectares; 27
square miles) and is larger than the island of Manhattan. It is
also the second largest airport by land area in the United
States.
It is the third busiest airport in the world by aircraft movements and the eleventh busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic as of 2016.
With nearly 900 daily flights, American Airlines at DFW is the second largest airline hub in the world and the United States, behind Delta's Atlanta hub.
DFW has its own police, fire protection, and emergency medical services.
Airports Council International named DFW Airport the best large airport with more than 40 million passengers in North America for passenger satisfaction during 2016
It is the third busiest airport in the world by aircraft movements and the eleventh busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic as of 2016.
With nearly 900 daily flights, American Airlines at DFW is the second largest airline hub in the world and the United States, behind Delta's Atlanta hub.
DFW has its own police, fire protection, and emergency medical services.
Airports Council International named DFW Airport the best large airport with more than 40 million passengers in North America for passenger satisfaction during 2016
Wordology, Doohickey
The word first appeared in the November 12, 1914 edition of
Our Navy magazine, where it states, “We were compelled to
christen articles beyond our ken with such names as
‘do-hickeys’, ‘gadgets’ and ‘gilguys’.”
A Sailor Boy’s Log by Robert Brown in 1886, where he also notes one of the first known instances of “gadget”- “Then the names of all the other things on board a ship! I don’t know half of them yet; even the sailors forget at times, and if the exact name of anything they want happens to slip from their memory, they call it a chicken⁓fixing, or a gadjet, or a gill-guy, or a timmey-noggy, or a wim-wom.”
Doohickey soon spread to being used by airman as well, with it noted in Edward Fraser & John Gibbons’ 1925 Soldier & Sailor Words, that “doo hickey” was an airman’s term for small, detachable fittings. Within a couple decades, the word was being used widely throughout America as a placeholder name for anything one could not remember the name of.
Doohickey probably derives from “doodad,” which has uncertain origin, but first popped up in documented form about a decade before “doohickey,” with doodad meaning “a superfluous ornament.” The sailors simply meshed this term with “hickey,” which meant “a device for bending a conduit or a small fitting used in wiring for electric lights, a fixture piped for gas."
Who first used the term “doohickey” has been lost to history. Other names used around the time were doodad, hickey, doojigger, thingamawhatsit, watchamacallit, thingummy, gadget, widget, gilguy, etc.
Incidentally, during the late 1920s or early 1930s, hickey mostly referred to pimples, then other marks on teenager necks, and later began being used by printers to refer to various blemishes in engravings.
A Sailor Boy’s Log by Robert Brown in 1886, where he also notes one of the first known instances of “gadget”- “Then the names of all the other things on board a ship! I don’t know half of them yet; even the sailors forget at times, and if the exact name of anything they want happens to slip from their memory, they call it a chicken⁓fixing, or a gadjet, or a gill-guy, or a timmey-noggy, or a wim-wom.”
Doohickey soon spread to being used by airman as well, with it noted in Edward Fraser & John Gibbons’ 1925 Soldier & Sailor Words, that “doo hickey” was an airman’s term for small, detachable fittings. Within a couple decades, the word was being used widely throughout America as a placeholder name for anything one could not remember the name of.
Doohickey probably derives from “doodad,” which has uncertain origin, but first popped up in documented form about a decade before “doohickey,” with doodad meaning “a superfluous ornament.” The sailors simply meshed this term with “hickey,” which meant “a device for bending a conduit or a small fitting used in wiring for electric lights, a fixture piped for gas."
Who first used the term “doohickey” has been lost to history. Other names used around the time were doodad, hickey, doojigger, thingamawhatsit, watchamacallit, thingummy, gadget, widget, gilguy, etc.
Incidentally, during the late 1920s or early 1930s, hickey mostly referred to pimples, then other marks on teenager necks, and later began being used by printers to refer to various blemishes in engravings.
Whats in a Name, CliffsNotes
If you attended any organized school, you
likely have heard of CliffsNotes. You maybe even used them.
Cliff Keith Hillegass dropped out of a Master’s program studying
physics and geology at the University of Nebraska in 1939, got
married, and took a job working for the Nebraska Book Company.
During 1958, Cliff met Jack Cole, the co-owner of Coles Toronto book business which published a series of Canadian study guides called Coles Notes. Jack agreed to sell Hillegass the US rights to the guides.
Catherine MacDonald, was a co-founder of Cliff'sNotes (original spelling) with her first husband, Cliff Hillegass. She typed an initial mailing to college stores of about 1,000 letters. Catherine operated the fledgling publishing company out of the basement of the family home and during the first few years shipped over a million Cliff'sNotes with a tiny staff including the couple’s children. They divorced in 1967.
He designed the first yellow and black cover himself, with a visual pun of an outline of mountain cliffs. He used graduate students to write the guides. Cliff never wrote any of the guides. He paid modest fees to its writers and no royalties, sold printed booklets for pennies a copy.
The first run published in 1958 comprised 16 of Cole’s Notes’ Shakespeare study guides, funded with a $4,000 loan. The study guides were a hit, selling a reported 58,000 copies in the early going allowing Cliff to expand his enterprise. From his first Cliff's Notes, a summary of Hamlet, in 1958. He eventually published more than 220 titles and sold more than 50 million CliffsNotes worldwide.
The company was selling more than 5 million pamphlets annually and reaping multimillion-dollar profits. Cliff retired from CliffsNotes, selling the company to IDG Books for $14 million. He died at age 83 on 5 May, 2001.
During 1958, Cliff met Jack Cole, the co-owner of Coles Toronto book business which published a series of Canadian study guides called Coles Notes. Jack agreed to sell Hillegass the US rights to the guides.
Catherine MacDonald, was a co-founder of Cliff'sNotes (original spelling) with her first husband, Cliff Hillegass. She typed an initial mailing to college stores of about 1,000 letters. Catherine operated the fledgling publishing company out of the basement of the family home and during the first few years shipped over a million Cliff'sNotes with a tiny staff including the couple’s children. They divorced in 1967.
He designed the first yellow and black cover himself, with a visual pun of an outline of mountain cliffs. He used graduate students to write the guides. Cliff never wrote any of the guides. He paid modest fees to its writers and no royalties, sold printed booklets for pennies a copy.
The first run published in 1958 comprised 16 of Cole’s Notes’ Shakespeare study guides, funded with a $4,000 loan. The study guides were a hit, selling a reported 58,000 copies in the early going allowing Cliff to expand his enterprise. From his first Cliff's Notes, a summary of Hamlet, in 1958. He eventually published more than 220 titles and sold more than 50 million CliffsNotes worldwide.
The company was selling more than 5 million pamphlets annually and reaping multimillion-dollar profits. Cliff retired from CliffsNotes, selling the company to IDG Books for $14 million. He died at age 83 on 5 May, 2001.
Jan 26, 2018
Happy Friday
Happiness is the
best habit to cultivate.
Happiness always blooms, especially on a Happy Friday!
Happiness always blooms, especially on a Happy Friday!
Australia Day
On January 26, Australia Day
a National Holiday of Australia is celebrated.
Australia Day, celebrated annually on 26 January, is the official national day of Australia, commemorating the establishment of the first British settlement on the continent of Australia. The date is that of the foundation of a British penal colony at Sydney Cove on Port Jackson, New South Wales in 1788, by Captain Arthur Phillip, in his capacity as the first Governor of New South Wales. Australia Day is an official public holiday in all states and territories of Australia, and has also been known as Anniversary Day and Foundation Day.
Australia Day, celebrated annually on 26 January, is the official national day of Australia, commemorating the establishment of the first British settlement on the continent of Australia. The date is that of the foundation of a British penal colony at Sydney Cove on Port Jackson, New South Wales in 1788, by Captain Arthur Phillip, in his capacity as the first Governor of New South Wales. Australia Day is an official public holiday in all states and territories of Australia, and has also been known as Anniversary Day and Foundation Day.
Thomas Crapper Day
Squeezed in between Australia Day and Auckland Anniversary
is Thomas Crapper Day on January 27th. Thomas Crapper Day is a
holiday devoted to the man who purportedly invented the flush
toilet, although he actually did not.
As with many inventions, the flush toilet did not suddenly spring into existence, but was the result of a long chain of minor improvements. Thomas Crapper's plumbing company built flush toilets of Giblin's design.
He was not the original inventor, but popularized the siphon system for emptying the tank, replacing the earlier floating valve system which was prone to leaks. The similarity between Crapper's name and the much older word 'crap' is merely a coincidence.
As with many inventions, the flush toilet did not suddenly spring into existence, but was the result of a long chain of minor improvements. Thomas Crapper's plumbing company built flush toilets of Giblin's design.
He was not the original inventor, but popularized the siphon system for emptying the tank, replacing the earlier floating valve system which was prone to leaks. The similarity between Crapper's name and the much older word 'crap' is merely a coincidence.
Auckland Anniversary
On the Monday closest to January 29
Auckland Anniversary Day is celebrated.
Auckland Anniversary Day is actually the 29th of January, but it is observed on the Monday closest to that date. Auckland Anniversary applies to the Auckland Province which includes Northland, Auckland, Waikato, King Country, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, and Gisborne and East Coast Regions. The date 29 January itself is not the actual day on which Auckland was founded, but the day on which explorer and first governor of New Zealand William Hobson first sighted North Island at the Bay of Islands.
In 1840, Hobson arrived in New Zealand and quickly signed a treaty with the Maori, the Treaty of Waitangi, which led to New Zealand becoming a new British colony. It was on 18 September of 1840 that Hobson founded Auckland and made it the capital city of New Zealand.
Auckland Anniversary Day is actually the 29th of January, but it is observed on the Monday closest to that date. Auckland Anniversary applies to the Auckland Province which includes Northland, Auckland, Waikato, King Country, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, and Gisborne and East Coast Regions. The date 29 January itself is not the actual day on which Auckland was founded, but the day on which explorer and first governor of New Zealand William Hobson first sighted North Island at the Bay of Islands.
In 1840, Hobson arrived in New Zealand and quickly signed a treaty with the Maori, the Treaty of Waitangi, which led to New Zealand becoming a new British colony. It was on 18 September of 1840 that Hobson founded Auckland and made it the capital city of New Zealand.
Super Bowl and Olympic Cameras
Even though we will not be seeing the
Super bowl in 4K in the US, it will be filmed in 4K. The same
is true for the Winter Olympics, which will be filmed in 4K
and 8K HDR, but will not be shown on cable in 4K in the US,
except by Xfinity. Unfortunate that the rest of the world gets
to enjoy 4K, while we do not. Seems many countries have more
advanced distribution systems than the US. The good news is
that regardless of the game play, the Super Bowl commercials
are always worth watching.
Olympic feeds will all be distributed in 4K, then locally distributed by country. South Korea will be broadcasting the Winter Olympics in 4K HDR throughout the country. It utilizes the ATSC 3.0 broadcasting that will be tested in the US beginning this Spring. This standard will replace the current antenna (OTA) signals in the US and allow us to receive 4K TV with an antenna.
For the Super Bowl, NBC Sports will deploy 36 cameras with a mix of Canon and Fujinon lenses. Among them will be:
Four Sony HDC-4800’s operating in 4K,
Seven Sony HDC-4300 hard cameras configured for 6X super-slo-mo
One Sony HDC-4300 operating in 4K,
Two Sony HDC-4300 handhelds configured for 6X.
Eight Sony HDC-2500 hard cameras,
Eight Sony HDC-2500 handheld cameras,
Two SkyCams and a few robos.
The four Sony HDC-4800 4K cameras, outfitted with Fujinon PL 85-300mm Cabrio lenses, will be positioned in the left and right end zone and the near-left and far-left sideline. The Sony HDC-4300 4K camera, with a Canon 95X lens, will be positioned in the high-left end zone.
Olympic feeds will all be distributed in 4K, then locally distributed by country. South Korea will be broadcasting the Winter Olympics in 4K HDR throughout the country. It utilizes the ATSC 3.0 broadcasting that will be tested in the US beginning this Spring. This standard will replace the current antenna (OTA) signals in the US and allow us to receive 4K TV with an antenna.
For the Super Bowl, NBC Sports will deploy 36 cameras with a mix of Canon and Fujinon lenses. Among them will be:
Four Sony HDC-4800’s operating in 4K,
Seven Sony HDC-4300 hard cameras configured for 6X super-slo-mo
One Sony HDC-4300 operating in 4K,
Two Sony HDC-4300 handhelds configured for 6X.
Eight Sony HDC-2500 hard cameras,
Eight Sony HDC-2500 handheld cameras,
Two SkyCams and a few robos.
The four Sony HDC-4800 4K cameras, outfitted with Fujinon PL 85-300mm Cabrio lenses, will be positioned in the left and right end zone and the near-left and far-left sideline. The Sony HDC-4300 4K camera, with a Canon 95X lens, will be positioned in the high-left end zone.
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