Funny Words

Professor Chris Westbury's newest psychology study is about farts. It is also about snots, chortles, wienies, heinies and bozos; things that are wriggly, jiggly, flappy, and slaphappy. That is because Westbury studies funny words and, more specifically, what makes some words funny and others not.

"As schoolboys of a certain age rediscover repeatedly, there is a sense in which simply uttering the word fart is a one-word joke," Westbury and Geoff Hollis, both professors at the University of Alberta in Canada, wrote in a study published Oct. 18 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General [Does It Fart? 10 Fascinating Facts About Animal Toots].

Westbury wondered, makes the word "fart" so funny? He already knew from a 2016 study he co-authored that part of a word's funniness could be explained by the popular theory of humor known as incongruity theory; the idea that something becomes funnier the more it subverts your expectations. In that study, students rated the funniness of several thousand meaningless, computer-generated words, or nonwords. The nonwords with surprising letter combinations that looked least like known English words, such as "snunkoople," "hablump" and "jumemo" were consistently rated funniest.

Dirty-sounding nonwords like "whong," "dongl," and "focky" also performed very well, suggesting that a word's perceived connotation played a role in humor, even for words that had no real meaning.

In their new study, Westbury and Hollis delved further into the relationship between word sounds, meanings and humor, this time, they started with a list of 4,997 common words previously compiled by a team of psychologists at the University of Warwick in the U.K. and scored with funniness ratings by a panel of 800 online participants. The Warwick psychologists found that words like "booty," "tinkle" and "nitwit" were consistently ranked as being very funny, while words like "pain," "torture" and "deathbed" were ranked as being decidedly unfunny.

They categorized words based on 20 different factors, including how long the word itself was, how positive or negative the word's meaning was, how common each letter or combination of letters was in English, and whether the word contained a crude or profane-sounding string of characters within it.

With these factors and the pre-existing humor scores for the words in the entire list, the researchers devised several different equations that could, theoretically, predict the humorousness of any given word. They tested two of their humor equations on a list of more than 45,000 words, then ranked the results in their new paper. One algorithm decided the top five funniest words on the list were:

1. Upchuck

2. Bubby

3. Boff

4. Wriggly

5. Yaps

The second equation, which was written with the help of a special data-modeling program Hollis and Westbury co-created in 2006, predicted the funniest words were:

1. Slobbering

2. Puking

3. Fuzz

4. Floozy

5. Cackling

The perfect funny word, the authors concluded, is "a short, infrequent word composed of uncommon letters," and has a meaning that is "human and insulting, profane, diminutive and/or related to good times."

MiFi vs. WiFi vs. Mobile Hotspot

MiFi is actually a brand name used for a portable broadband device that allows multiple end users and mobile devices to share a 3G or 4G mobile broadband internet connection and create an ad hoc network (mobile hotspot). Novatel Wireless owns a registered trademark on the “MiFi” brand name in many countries, but the term is used generically, like Kleenex. It is a bit expensive, but you can think of it as carrying around an internet connection in your pocket. Many think these will be used to connect non-5G devices to the coming 5G network.

A MiFi box is great to have if you are in an area with no internet access. Most devices are about two by four inches. Depending on carrier, there may be an additional monthly fee to your phone bill. Some devices have their own connection that you can pay for by the day. MiFi boxes prices range from about thirty to a few hundred US dollars onetime cost.

WiFi is a wireless networking standard that various devices, such as smartphones, TVs, computers, etc., use to communicate with each other or the internet without actual wires connecting them. Smart TVs use WiFi to connect to the internet to provide streaming, like Netflix, Amazon Video, and more.
A mobile hotspot is created by a portable device, such as a smartphone, tablet, or MiFi box that provide wireless or Ethernet internet access for many devices including laptops, other smartphones, computers, etc. One way to think of it is as a compact, battery powered WiFi station that taps into cellular networks like a smartphone does and then wirelessly shares its data connection with other WiFi enabled devices.
Mobile hotspots eliminate the worry of conducting business or personal work over an unsecured public Wi-Fi connection, and mobile hotspots often have faster connection speeds than public Wi-Fi. I have a friend who uses his phone to create a hotspot so he can watch streaming TV on his laptop while riding (not driving) in his car.

Bottom line, MiFi and Hotspot are devices with a wireless connection that other devices can connect to using WiFi. WiFi is a standard of communication.

Windy City

Chicago’s nickname did not come from the weather, it was coined by 19th-century journalists who were referring to the fact that its residents were “windbags” and “full of hot air.”

Broadcast Auction for Antenna TV

During 2016 the US FCC decided to sell some of the airwave spectrum to align the use of broadcast airwaves with 21st century consumer demands for video and broadband services. The idea was to ease congestion and open up spectrum for the upcoming 5G wireless service. Bidding closed during March 2017.
Since that time over the air (OTA) stations have begun transitions to new station numbers. It continues through 2019.

Dallas, for instance has a number of stations transitioning between April 2019 and June 2019. Dallas is also transitioning some stations to the new ATSC3 format. The way it is making the transition is grouping some stations together as sub numbers. No need to worry as any station that converts must still be available for five years as is (although the station number may change) after the change. Next year when you get your new whizbang ATSC3 converter box you will be able to see better live free TV with some 4K promised and interactive programming, plus many more features.


The bottom line is that if you are using an antenna for watching TV, it is a good idea to re-scan for stations every few months. It only takes a few minutes and you may find new stations. You may also discover why a few stations seemed to stop working, but are now working again.

Happy Friday

Being a glutton for happiness is not a disease, but a state of mind.

You cannot overdose on happy, especially on a Happy Friday!

Twelve YouTube Facts

The YouTube.com domain was bought on Valentine’s Day, 2005.
2. The three YouTube founders - Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim used their money from eBay’s buyout of PayPal to fund YouTube’s Launch
2. Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in October 2006.
3. YouTube's first ad was broadcast in August 2007, just nine months after Google bought the site.
4. During June 2007; YouTube started rolling out localized versions of its site. People in different places would get different recommendations and features, as well as a localized top-level domain (for example, .com, .co .uk, .fr, etc.).
The first 10 countries to get their own YouTube site were the US, UK, Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain.
5. There Are 98 Versions of YouTube
6. YouTube has been censored by more than 25 countries, including Germany, Finland, and Brazil.
7. YouTube’s annual revenue is about $22 billion. This has led Wall Street analysts to give the brand a value of more than $160 billion.
8. In any given month, 80 percent of North American adults aged between 18 and 49 watch at least one video on YouTube.
9. In the United States, YouTube reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than any broadcast or cable TV network.
10. For many soccer fans, Brazilian forward Ronaldinho is one of the greatest players to have ever played the game. Thanks to his worldwide popularity, his tricks video (produced by Nike) was the first video to hit one million views in October 2005.
11. Avril Lavigne’s hit Girlfriend was the first song to break 100 million views after its release in 2008.
12. During 2012, Gangnam Style was first to get 1 billion views.

Four Trademark Names

People continue to use X-Acto knife as a generic term. However, it is a trademark term owned by Elmer’s Products, Inc. It was intended to be used as a scalpel, but it could not be cleaned well enough, so it became a hobby kit tool.

Inventor Caleb Bradham originally wanted to be a doctor, but started working in a pharmacy in North Carolina. In 1893, he concocted what he first called “Brad’s Drink,” a mix of water, sugar, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg, and other flavors. Five years later, he renamed it Pepsi-Cola. He claimed the drink could help with digestion, or dyspepsia, the term from which Bradham adapted the name Pepsi.

When the fried chicken restaurant Chicken on the Run struggled after its grand opening in 1972, the founder reopened it as Popeye's. The name was not in reference to a spinach-loving sailor but to detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle from The French Connection.

Originally a crop-dusting service, Huff Dusters was renamed Delta after the Mississippi delta region it originally served. In 1929, the airline began operating passenger flights that could carry five passengers and a pilot.

Six Popcorn Myths Debunked

Myth: Popcorn is junk food.
Fact: Popcorn is a whole grain, which makes it a good carb choice. Whole grains contain fiber, providing the roughage needed in a daily diet. Popcorn has no artificial additives or preservatives and is sugar-free.

Myth: Popcorn is high in fat and calories.
Fact: Popcorn is naturally low in fat and calories. Air-popped popcorn has only 30 calories per cup; oil-popped popcorn has only 35 calories per cup.
Myth: Popcorn is GMO.
Fact: There has never been, nor is there currently, any Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) popcorn or popcorn seed for sale in the world.
Myth: Popcorn contains gluten.
Fact: Popcorn does not contain wheat, rye, or barley gluten—the types of gluten most associated with gluten disorders. Note: Other ingredients in ready-to-eat or microwave popcorn may contain gluten, so consumers should read labels carefully if they are concerned; however, the popcorn kernel itself does not contain gluten.
Myth: Microwave popcorn contains diacetyl.
Fact: The flavoring additive diacetyl has not been used in microwave products since 2007. Diacetyl is a manufactured ingredient that also is found naturally at low concentrations in a wide variety of foods such as dairy, beer, coffee, honey and fruits. In food manufacturing, diacetyl is added to a wide range of foods: butter, cheese, milk, flour mixes, cookies, crackers, candy and confectionery products, chocolate and cocoa products, shortening, food oils, margarines, flavored syrups, potato chips, corn chips, ready-to-mix desserts, prepared frosting, and gelatin desert preparations.

Myth: Microwave popcorn contains PFOA.
Fact: PFOA, or perflourooctanoic acid, is sometimes used in grease-resistant coatings for paper, such as fast food wrappers, candy wrappers, and pizza box liners. Bag manufacturers have been addressing the issue of removing PFOAs since 2006, and confirm that the grease resistant coating in the majority of microwave popping bags is not produced with PFOA.

What's in a Name, Tom and Jerry

The Tom and Jerry drink has been a Christmas party staple in the American Midwest for many years. The drink begins with a frothy batter of separately beaten egg whites and yolks folded together and mixed with sugar, vanilla, and warm spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Cream of tartar is occasionally added to ensure the beaten egg whites maintain their stiff peaks. Drinkers add hot milk and rum or brandy (or both) into cocktail mugs and drop the creamy batter on top.

The Tom and Jerry origins are frequently traced back to a clever publicity stunt orchestrated by the British journalist Pierce Egan. The story goes that Egan added brandy to eggnog to create a signature cocktail to promote his 1821 book, Life in London, or The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn Esq. and His Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom.


No definitive records exist about the drink’s first appearance in the US, but in 1862, New York bartender Jerry Thomas published a recipe for a Tom and Jerry in his book, How to Mix Drinks Or The Bon-vivant’s Companion.

More Items Named After Real People

The Bowler hat (also Derby hat) was created by Thomas and William Bowler. This was so the high top hats of the Earl of Derby’s gamekeepers would not be hit by branches while on horseback. This was also said to be a compromise between social classes’ top hat and flat cap. Incidentally, Dick Van Dyke inherited Stan Laurel’s bowler hat in 1965.

The term ‘Gerrymandering’ was derived from Gerry Elbridge, the governor of Massachusetts and salamander from an outline of a newly-defined district map. The outlined shape of a dragon in the form of a map pertains to a cartoon in the Boston Gazette in 1812. This awkward location that creates unusual shapes is suitable for voters in certain districts for political advancement.

Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1840; unfortunately, he was unsuccessful with the instrument. Luckily, a century later, the sax became popular with jazz musicians.
Jean Nicot de Villemain, a French ambassador who learned about tobacco on his trip Portugal. When he went home, he brought snuff, leaves, and seed with him and presented it to the royal court of France in the 1560s. The plant became a hit and so Jean was commemorated by having the plant named after him - nicotine. Only in succeeding centuries did nicotine come to mean chemical inside the tobacco plant.

Bloomers were named after Amelia Bloomer, a women’s rights supporter. She did not make the garments, but her efforts embodied her appearance of women.

Google Tip

Most of us usually look for one search term at a time; first, we look for "ohio," then we look for "history of aviation."

If you are not quite sure what you are looking for, Google can combine searches. Just add your search terms and separate them by "and or", such as ohio and or history of aviation.

Interesting Body Facts

The adult body is made up of 100 trillion cells, 206 bones, 600 muscles, and 22 internal organs. Every square inch of the human body has about 19 million skin cells. Every hour about 1 billion cells in the human body must be replaced.

The cornea is the only part of the body with no blood supply – it gets its oxygen directly from the air.

The largest bone in the human body is the femur. It can support 30 times the weight of a person's body.

Embryos develop fingerprints three months after conception.

The average adult has five million pores on their body with approximately 20,000 on their face alone. Pores are critical in allowing skin to breathe and helping the body get rid of oils and toxins.

Seven Simple Ways to Stay Happy

Many books have been written about how to be happy, but life is not that difficult.

Keep good company.

Shut up and listen.

Be kind to people.

Be curious.

Keep moving.

Do not keep score.

Do not make it harder than it needs to be.

Happy Friday

Each day is not an occurrence, it is an opportunity.

Take advantage of the opportunity to celebrate a Happy Friday!