The DPRK (North Korea) is home to the
biggest stadium in the world in terms of seating capacity. May
Day Stadium, is a massive structure built in 1989 and remodeled
in 2014. The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium (also known as May Day
Stadium) has a total capacity of 150,000 people. It dwarfs the next largest stadium, which
is Ann Arbor's Michigan Stadium, which accommodates 107,600
people.
It hosts some soccer matches and general athletic competitions.
May Day's grandest and most elaborate events are the annual Mass
Games (known in Korean as Arirang). They pay tribute to the
country's history, founders, and current leaders through
gymnastics and dance performances put on by thousands of
participants. The Arirang Festival is held each August and
September and celebrates North Korean history, culture, and
achievements.
Superman ice cream is
believed to have originated in the Michigan-based ice cream shop
Stroh's, though the exact origin remains elusive. Another
Michigan dairy, House of Flavors in Ludington, MI makes its
Superman ice cream with Blue Moon, cherry, and lemon ice creams.
The flavor has been spotted in other Midwest locales, such as
Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream Company in Madison, Wisconsin.
The exact combination varies from location to location,
typically with vanilla, Blue Moon, and some other variety of ice
cream included. The Stroh's Ice Cream version has Blue Moon, red
pop, and lemon ice creams, while other versions such as those by
the Meijer store brand "Scooperman" and the Hudsonville Creamery
& Ice Cream Company "SuperScoop" versions of Superman ice
cream are a mixture of vanilla, Blue Moon, and black cherry ice
creams.
Scooper's Ice Cream Treats in Stratford, Ontario, Canada sells a
similar blue, red, and yellow variety but calls it "Super Hero"
ice cream. Laura Secord Chocolates also sells a similar variety
of ice cream, called "SuperKid," made with banana, blueberry,
and strawberry flavors. They all taste super.
During 1886 the first woman to appear
on U.S. currency, was Martha Washington (first president
George's wife). She was featured on the $1 silver certificate. A
slightly re-designed Martha also was produced in 1891. Her
likeness appeared on the face of the $1 Silver Certificate of
1886 and 1891, and the back of the $1 Silver Certificate of
1896.
Her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis died in 1757. She married
George two years later and raised her two children from Custis
as their own. Her inheritance from first husband made her
extremely wealthy.
Newly redesigned bills with a woman on the front were to be
unveiled in 2020 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the right
of women to vote. However, the release dates for all the new notes could be
pushed back further due to redesign to fight counterfeiting.
Incidentally, the
only portrait required by law is that of George Washington
on the $1 bill. A $1 bill lasts about 18 months; $5
bill, two years; $10 bill, four years; $20 bill, four years;
and $50 and $100 bills, nine years.
A writer for SB
Nation named Natalie Weiner posted a screenshot of a rejection
form she received when she tried to sign up for a website. Her
submission was rejected because a spam algorithm considered her
last name "offensive." After she posted about this, hundreds of
other people with similarly "offensive" last names sounded off
about how they had experienced similar issues.
This phenomenon is so widespread that it has a name among
computer scientists. It is called the Scunthorpe problem and it
has been a scourge of the internet since the beginning. The name
began after an
incident in 1996 when AOL's dirty-word filter prevented
residents of several English towns and counties, among them
Scunthorpe, Penistone, Lightwater and Middlesex — from creating
accounts with AOL because it matched strings within the town
names to "banned" words. If you look close, you will find the
letters that seemingly make up the words.
One reason the problem has yet to be solved is because creating
effective obscenity filters depends on the filter's ability to
understand a word in context. Despite advances in artificial
intelligence, this is something that even the most advanced
machine-learning algorithms still struggle with. Ah, English
is an amazing language that computers still cannot decipher.
Orville Wright was still alive when
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed during 1945.
The Wright brothers are credited with inventing what we know as
airplanes, and it must have been tremendously difficult for
Orville Wright, whose brother Wilbur died in 1912, to see his
life's great achievement be responsible for the greatest single
act of destruction man had ever seen. During 1945, US Air Force
planes dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, killing at least 129,000 people.
Orville died in 1948 and expressed sadness in an interview about
the death and destruction brought about by the bombers of World
War II. He said, "We dared to hope we had invented something
that would bring lasting peace to the earth. But we were wrong
... No, I don't have any regrets about my part in the invention
of the airplane, though no one could deplore more than I do the
destruction it has caused. I feel about the airplane much the
same as I do in regard to fire. That is, I regret all the
terrible damage caused by fire, but I think it is good for the
human race that someone discovered how to start fires and that
we have learned how to put fire to thousands of important uses."
Not smiling is like
keeping the combination to a safe locked inside it.
I try to always smile, especially on a Happy Friday!
Almost all of us have heard of Roget's Thesaurus
(a dictionary of synonyms). Roget was a British physician,
natural theologian and lexicographer, best known for publishing,
the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, a classified
collection of related words in 1852, twelve years after he
retired. He is also responsible for the invention of the slide
rule, which allows a person to perform exponential and root
calculations. In addition, he was a founder of the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It published information to
people who were unable to obtain formal teaching or who
preferred self-education. The Thesaurus is continually updated
and still in print.
National Pork Board is here to change those hearts and minds.
During the 1930s and 1940s, trichinosis was a food safety
factor, but that has been long gone from the food system.
The Board recommends
cooking pork loins and chops to an internal temperature of 145
degrees Fahrenheit. That is a pink-centered medium rare,
followed by a 3-minute rest before serving. This was not always
the case: Prior to 2011, the typical recommendation was 15
degrees higher. (Ground pork should still be cooked to 160.)
“Meat generally continues to cook even after it’s removed from a
heat source so this just acknowledges that,” Kevin Waetke, vice
president of strategic communication for the National Pork
Board. The food service industry has been following this new
pork cooking standard for almost ten years.
Quick translate is good for menus or short phrases
Type: “translate [words] [language]”. Examples:
translate read
carefully french
translate coq au vin english
translate good afternoon spanish
Another tip, great if you are not sure of your company and want
to be disturbed.
Type: “set timer to [time]”. Example: “set timer to 5 minutes”
Type: “set timer for [time]”. Example: “set timer for 19:00”
Lobster Pain Followup - As a followup to a post of mine LINK
to my blog. It seems there is some disagreement about Lobsters
feeling pain.
A Switzerland law went into effect March 1, 2018 that bans the
common cooking method of tossing a live lobster into a big pot
of boiling water, quickly killing the tasty crustacean. That
practice is outlawed because the Swiss say it is cruel and
lobsters can sense pain.
The first national legislation of its kind in the world calls
for a more humane death for lobsters, by “rendering them
unconscious” before plunging them into scalding water. Two
methods are recommended: Electrocution or sedating the lobster
by dipping it into salt water and then thrusting a knife into
its brain.
The new lobster legislation that boils down to a pain-free death
was driven by research, including a study by Queen’s University
in Belfast that found crustaceans are sentient creatures. “These
studies show that lobsters, like other animals, experience pain
and distress,” said Stefan Kunfermann, a spokesman for the
Federal Office of Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs.
Wind power constituted 25 percent of all US generation capacity
additions during 2017. Wind energy contributed 6.3 percent of
the nation's electricity supply, more than 10 percent of total
electricity generation in 14 states, and more than 30 percent in
four of those states (Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota).
Lower installed project costs, along with improvements in
capacity factors, are enabling aggressive wind power pricing
from 7 cents per kWh in 2009 to around 2 cents per kWh during
2017.
Blunts and joints only contain cannabis, but
blunts are rolled with tobacco paper whereas joints are rolled
with lighter, partially translucent papers. Blunts are generally
considered to be the heaviest hitters due to the interaction
between the tobacco paper and cannabis. Joints often include a
paper filter known as a crutch, which adds stability to the roll
and allows you to enjoy your joint without burning your
fingertips.
Spliffs are essentially hybrids, part tobacco and part cannabis.
They are rolled in the same paper spectrum as joints and also
often include a crutch. Tobacco provides an initial head rush
and energetic physical buzz similar to coffee, which precedes
the effects of cannabis. This sensation is most notable in
spliffs because of the loose tobacco presence.
Paper choice is important, impacting the product’s size, flavor,
and burn rate. You can use loose papers to roll joints and can
use both loose papers and pre-rolls to make spliffs.
In Europe the names are reversed: a joint refers to a roll with
cannabis and tobacco and a spliff refers to rolled cannabis
exclusively. This is because a “joint” is a combination of two
items instead of just one. Puff well my friends.
It is the fear of getting peanut
butter thuck to the roof of your mouth.
Last week the IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin or
International radio exhibition Berlin), Europe's largest
technology show opened. It ran Aug 31 to September 5, 2018. Some
of the new stuff included the usual tech items, including ear
buds, speakers, smart watches, smart phones and smart phone
watches, laptops, new computer chips, etc.
Lenovo introduced a
laptop convertible that has a speaker built in to its hinge, so
the sound comes out directly at you vs. on the bottom or back as
current PCs have them placed.
There were some smart
appliances, including a fridge with a built-in vacuum sealer and
another with built in lazy Susan. Also shown were smart
dishwashers, cook tops, and smart vacuums. Difficult to go
through the entire list as there were a few thousand exhibitors
showing their wares to a few hundred thousand attendees.
If you have yet to buy a 4K TV, you may pass a whole generation
in technology as 8K TVs were everywhere at the show and here are
a few - LG 88 inch, Samsung 4 - 65 inch smallest, one is 88
inch, Sharp 60, 70, and 80 inch, TCL from 65, 70 and 75 inch,
Toshiba 65 inch. Many are already or will be available as soon
as this month.
Many experts say the smallest TV for 4K should be 65 inches to
get the best appreciation for being able to notice the picture
quality. Interesting to note that Japan starts 8K broadcasts in
December 2018. No word from Netflix or Amazon about when 8K
movies or shows will be produced.
Best of show winner was the LG 8K OLED TV (price about $25,000
US). Best smartphone: Sony Xperia XZ3 smartphone, best TV:
Samsung 8K TV, best in home theater: Harman Kardon Citation
speakers, best smart speaker: Huawei AI Cube, best headphones:
Sony WH-1000XM3, best wearable tech: Garmin Vivosmart 4.
