Burger Sandwich

A burger is not called a sandwich because it is not sandwich. A sandwich is made by putting a filling between two slices of cut bread. Sandwiches can be hot or cold.

Only bread slices can make a sandwich, anything placed in a bun, roll, sub, cob, or whatever not a sandwich. A patty melt is a sandwich that has a burger between two slices of, usually Rye bread.

Palindrome Dates

This is the last full week of palindrome dates in this century. However, there are still plenty of single palindrome days to celebrate. If you are willing to add a zero to the beginning of the date, you can look forward to February 11, 2020 (02-11-20) and February 22, 2020 (02-22-20).
9-13-19 (91319)
9-14-19 (91419)
9-15-19 (91519)
9-16-19 (91619)
9-17-19 (91719)
9-18-19 (91819)
9-19-19 (91919)
A palindrome is a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as forward.

Steering Controls Trivia

In dual-control airplanes, the captain always sits on the left side of the plane. In helicopters, the captain sits on the right side.

Many early American motorized vehicles placed the steering wheel on the right hand side of the car, even though America used the keep-right driving rule.  This practice was ended largely due to Henry Ford. He preferred the left side steering wheel.  Ford cars adopted the left hand side steering wheel and, due to their popularity squashed right hand steering wheel cars in America.

Typing Emojis Tip

If you are a Windows user, there is a quick keyboard shortcut to add emojis to whatever you are typing. Hold down the Windows-key and tap the period (.) key. A new box will pop up from which you can select an emoji. Tap on one to add it to your document, email, etc. You can scroll down for more to use. The bottom row allows you to change categories, such as objects, people, food, etc.

After you open the emoji box with Windows-key/Period, you start typing and the box will search for a match.

Overpaying for Fast Broadband

Recently, 53 reporters worked with Stanford and another major University to develop custom software and high end routers to monitor speed at the router level as opposed to most speed tests that are done at the device level (such as your TV or PC).

They found that even trying to stream video to more than 7 devices at the same time, most people were never able to use more than on average 18 Mbps. Startup times for Netflix and other streaming services were within .6 seconds regardless of if you had a 15 mbps connection or a 500mbps connection. Ironically one of the few ways you are able to fill your full bandwidth is running a speed test. The test sends a large file and tests how long it takes to transmit it.

One of the few times having a super fast connection is useful is if you are downloading really big files, like movies. Most often, we just watch movies and do not download them.

For one or two TVs, 25mbps up and down is good, including Netflix, Prime and any other service. For families with many devices, children playing online games and multiple TVs being used at the same time, 50mbps up and down is more than sufficient. For most people, any speeds past these provide no benefit and are a waste of money.

I and Me

Here is a quick test for using I and me. Take the other person out of the sentence to see if it still makes sense.
"Draw this picture of my husband and me." "Draw this picture of me." Me is correct.

"Hanging out with my girlfriend and I." "Hanging out with I." It does not make sense, so I is incorrect.
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Optimists May Live Longer

According to a US study, optimists are more likely to live longer than those who have a more negative approach to life. The theory is that optimists may find it easier to control emotions and so be protected from the effects of stress.

A recent study spanning thousands of people and three decades, confirmed optimists live longer. Optimistic people live as much as 15% longer than pessimists. Scientists combined data from two large, long-term studies: one including 69,744 women and another of 1,429 men, all of whom completed questionnaires that assessed their feelings about the future. After controlling for health conditions, behaviors, like diet and exercise and other demographic information, the scientists showed that the most optimistic women (top 25%) lived an average of 14.9% longer than their more pessimistic peers.
For the men, the most optimistic of the bunch lived 10.9% longer than their peers, on average. Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The most optimistic women were also 1.5 times more likely to reach 85 years old than the least optimistic women, whereas the most optimistic men were 1.7 times more likely to make it to that age.

Prof Bruce Hood, chair of developmental psychology in society at the University of Bristol runs a course called "the science of happiness". He said the study supported existing evidence of the benefits of positive thinking. He added: "I think that one causal mechanism could be that optimists cope better with stress, and this could be by avoiding rumination about negative life events.

Happy Friday

Happiness is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of what you already have.

I am always fulfilled, especially on a Happy Friday!

Conception Day, Russia

September 12 is Conception Day, also called Procreation Day in Russia and couples get the day off specifically to have sex. Couples who “give birth to a patriot” during the June 12 festivities win money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.

Origin of Cardboard Box

Few inventions have blended as seamlessly into our daily living routines as the humble cardboard box. During the 1st and 2nd century, the Han Dynasty of China was pioneering the use of paper. During the same era, sheets of bark from the Mulberry tree were used to wrap and protect food, one of the earliest examples of a sturdy, wood-based product being re-purposed for packaging.
The earliest form of the cardboard box as we know it today did not appear until the 1817 German board game The Game of Besieging. Throughout the 19th century, companies began using the boxes as a means of storage and transport for cereals and even for moth eggs used by silk manufacturers.
A pleat was needed in order to turn these carriers into something more durable. During 1856, top hat peddlers Edward Allen and Edward Healey used a stiffer paper made with a fluted sheet in the middle of two layers to provide stability and warmth to the lining. It was a precursor to corrugated cardboard.
The breakthrough came during 1879, when Robert Gair, owner of a Brooklyn paper factory, figured out he could both score a single sheet of cardboard and then have his printing press cut it at the same time, eliminating hand-cutting.
Gair sold consumer product companies on this handy new form of storage, eventually receiving a 2-million-piece order from Nabisco. Snack foods could now travel without the danger of being crushed, and soon the cardboard box was migrating from kitchen cupboards to anywhere a cheap, effective form of packaging was needed.

During the 1930s, the Finnish government adopted the boxes as part of a take-home maternity package for new mothers who may not have been able to afford cribs. Babies took their first naps in the mattress-lined box.

Blog Visitors

An interesting change this past month as the top twelve countries reading my blog were, in order: United States, Vietnam, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and South Africa. Welcome to my new BFFs. Am delighted by the diversity of readers.

More Phone Scams

Scammers are offering “free” genetic tests and claiming Medicare will cover it, so they can get your Medicare Number and use it to commit fraud and identity theft. They are targeting people through telemarketing calls, health fairs, and even knocking on doors.
Only a doctor you know and trust should order and approve any requests for genetic testing. If Medicare is billed for a test or screening that was not medically necessary and/or was not ordered by your doctor, the claim could be denied. That means you could be responsible for the entire cost of the test, which could be thousands of dollars.
To protect yourself, do not share your Medicare Number, Social Security Number, or other personal information with anyone who offers to give you a "free" in-person genetic screening or cheek swab, or a DNA testing kit in the mail. If you get a genetic testing kit in the mail, refuse the delivery or discard unless your doctor ordered it.
 - A scammer will call someone and inform them that due to "suspicious activity," their SSN has been "suspended," and in order to reactivate it, they need to either pay a small fee or "confirm" their SSN by reading it over the phone. During 2017, the Social Security Administration reported that 3,200 people had fallen victim to this scam, for a total cost of $210,000. In 2018, that figure rocketed to 35,000 victims and a total cost of $10 million. During 2019, from February and March alone, over 36,000 people were successfully scammed out of $6.7 million.

  - First a scammer will call your phone, being sure to only ring once, and then hang up. They do this again and again, in the hope that you are so flustered by the volume of missed calls that you do not notice you're about to call a premium-rate toll number based in some far-off country. You then get hit with a variety of charges, none of which you will find out about until your next phone bill, while the scammers walk away with a cut of the proceeds. Caveat Emptor.

World Wide Web Turns Thirty

The World Wide Web turns 30 during 2019. It took 16 years to add the first billion users, six more years to add the second billion and is now adding a billion users every 2.7 years.
During 2014, 26% of users connected to the web using a cellular phone. Today that has grown to 48%.
There are 11 new users on the web every second. The most considerable growth of internet users is in India, which had almost 100 million new internet users during 2018, a 21% increase. That represents 25% of all new internet users in the world for last year.
About 40% of internet users now interface with the web using voice. In China and India, over half of users interface the web with voice.


GlobalWebIndex reports that 92% of Internet users (about 4 billion) now watch video each month. Incidentally, there are an estimated 6 billion people around the world have access to a television.

Live Sports Delays

Have you noticed some sports channels seem to be a bit late? Here is the reason:

Live sports delays - At the game, no delay,
Over the air live 5 to 10 seconds behind real live so network bleep out bad content/language,
Cable/satellite 20 to 40 seconds behind live,
Streaming anywhere between 30 and 100 seconds behind live based on app and how you watch, such as roku fire tv, phone, etc.,

Just enough time to make a sure thing bet. You are welcome.