Bread Bag Tags

They aren't good for much, but you can recycle them. Make it easy to tell what devices cords belong to by writing on the tag then clipping it to the cord.

You can also use a tag to mark spare keys before putting them away in the junk drawer. one other idea is to use one on the end of tape before you throw the tape in the drawer. That way you won't have to pry the edge of the roll the next time you need it.

Minced Oath

Minced oaths are a sub-group of euphemisms used to avoid swearing when expressing surprise or annoyance. 'For Pete's sake' and 'for pity's sake' originally meant 'for St. Peter's sake'. Other common ones include By gosh - By God, By gum - By God, By Jove - By God, Gee whizz - Jesus, Sam Hill - Hell, Tarnation - Damnation, Good grief - Good God, Cripes - Christ, Begorrah - By God, Dagnabbit - God damn it.
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Decades of Fun

How about a trip back to your favorite decade? Check this LINK. This site takes you from the fifties to the eighties. You can find Music, Television, Movies, Books, Gadgets, Sports, and Cars all neatly packaged. Great for feeding the nostalgia bug, or just loading up on more trivia, like Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. Did you know that in 1950 the average cost of a new house was $8,450, a new car was $1,510, a gallon of gas was 18 cents, and a postage stamp cost three cents. Now you do.

Ear Rings

Reserve Your spot in Heaven

This site has been around for a few years and I just stumbled on it again, so it must be making money. Still only $12.97 and it comes with a money back guarantee. Now it has a sister site that allows you to send someone to hell. LINK  A complete waste of time, but humorous enough for a quick look.

Five More Famous Name Origns

DHL - In the late 1960s, Larry Hillblom finished law school and recruited his pals Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn to help him with making delivery trips. The company quickly took off, and they named it after their respective last initials.

3M - The conglomerate behind Post-It Notes gets its name from its roots as a company that mined stone to make grinding wheels. The company was known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, which was shortened to 3M.

A&W Root Beer - Roy Allen opened his first root beer stand in Lodi, CA, in the summer of 1919, and quickly began expanding. Within a year he had partnered with Frank Wright, and the pair christened their product from their last initials, 'A&W Root Beer'.

P.F. Chang’s  - The Asian dining chain’s name is a composite of the founding restaurateur Paul Fleming’s initials and founding chef Philip Chiang’s last name.

ING  - Jeff knows the banking giant’s name is an abbreviation of Internationale Nederlanden Groep, or 'International Netherlands Group'. The company’s use of orange in its buildings and promotion is the color of the Dutch royal family dating way back to William of Orange.

Speaking of Orange

Below is the spectrum carrot colors and in some regions of the world you can still find white, yellow, red and purple carrots, but most countries grow the orange variety.

In the 17th century, Dutch growers cultivated orange carrots as a tribute to William of Orange, who lead the the struggle for Dutch independence.

Newest Countries and Political Independence Dates

We usually do not think of new countries being formed, but some are not as old as you might think.

Bahrain - 15 August 1971 (from UK)
United Arab Emirates - 2 December 1971 (from UK)
Bangladesh -16 December 1971 (from West Pakistan)
Bahamas - 10 July 1973 (from UK)
Iran -1 April 1979 (Islamic Republic of Iran proclaimed)
Belize - 21 September 1981 (from UK)
Antigua and Barbuda - 1 November 1981 (from UK)
Brunei -1 January 1984 (from UK)
Marshall Islands - 21 October 1986 (from the US-administered UN trusteeship)
Federated States of Micronesia - 3 November 1986 (from the US-administered UN Trusteeship)
Lithuania - 11 March 1990 (from Soviet Union)
Namibia - 21 March 1990 (from South African mandate)
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan - 1991 (from Soviet Union)
Croatia and Slovenia - 25 June 1991 (from Yugoslavia)
Macedonia  -17 September 1991 (from Yugoslavia)
Bosnia and Herzegovina -1 March 1992 (from Yugoslavia)
Czech Republic and Slovakia -1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split)
Palau - 1 October 1994 (from the US-administered UN Trusteeship)
East Timor - 20 May 2002 (from Indonesia)
Serbia - May 2006 (after Montenegro declared independence from Yugoslavia)
Also, Cuba became independent from US on 20 May 1902.
Interesting to note that the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau are included and covered in the new US healthcare bill, even though they are independent countries and no longer under US Trusteeship.

Another Five great Google Tips

Google is more helpful than many know. Here are a few more tips to make your life on the web easier. Quotes are used for examples only.
Need a map, type "map tampa fl".
Need a definition, "define beauty".
Lost your calculator and need to do some quick math, "15+15".
Shopping for a new PC, give it a price range, "PC $500..$700".
Looking for a zip code, "75214". This query also offers a map.

Going Green

How is your carbon footprint? Here are a few things that might surprise you and are certainly counter to the hype.

Plastic bags are only about 1,000th of the carbon footprint of what is in the bags - 10g carbon dioxide equivalent.

Electric hand driers only use 20g CO2e.

Watching TV for an hour in front of a 42-inch plasma screen is about equal to a one-mile drive in a very efficient car - 220g CO2e.

Keeping your old car is better than buying a new one, because making a car creates about half the footprint of the fuel it burns. It takes a long time to recover the fifty percent CO2e cost of building the new car.

>From a woman's point of view - she can go shopping for an hour and take home 22 bags of goodies to equal one hour of her mate watching TV.

>From a man's point of view - he needs to drive his sleek new car fast and far to quickly make up for the carbon wasted in building it.

Red Light Photos

California's three-judge appellate panel unanimously found a total lack of evidence from Santa Ana, California red light camera program and are becoming increasingly upset at the conduct of cities and photo enforcement vendors.

The decision calls into question the legitimacy of the way red light camera trials are conducted and setting a precedent that applies to the county's three million residents and others around the country.

The attorney objected to the admission of the red light camera photographs because the city had failed to lay a proper foundation for the evidence and the photos contained hearsay evidence.

The court said the photographic records were created by a for-profit  company, not a state or local government agency and the document that they created cannot be and is not an 'official record' under Evidence Code section 1280."

Bottom line - All charges were dismissed. This may go a long way to eliminating those pesky cameras atop the lights around the country. More proof that if you get a ticket, go fight it in person, the odds are in your favor.

Semaphore

Duane used his handy phone to come up with the answer to the question, what do you call it when those sailors talk to each other with flags. Below are the letters A and B

Semaphore telegraph, optical telegraph, shutter telegraph are all names used to describe the passing of information visually. The lights, with shutters that are open and shut in a specific sequence, are also called semaphore telegraph.

In 1792, France set up a network of 556 optical telegraph stations stretching almost 3,000 miles. It used large movable wooden boards and was used for military and national communications until the 1850s.

Semaphore is still used today at sea and is acceptable for emergency communication in daylight or using lighted wands instead of flags, at night.

'Telegraph Hill' in San Francisco is named after the semaphore telegraph which was established there in 1849 to signal the arrival of ships into San Francisco Bay.

Man vs. Horse

Each year, for the past thirty years there is a race in Wales that pits men vs. horses. About 50 horses with riders compete against hundreds of runners for the $1,450 prize (£1,000).

The event began in June 1980 following a chat over a pint in the Neuadd Arms Hotel. The landlord overheard two men discussing the relative merits of men and horses. He decided it would improve business at his hotel and decided to put it to the test.

The 22 mile long race starts in the town center and is run over hilly farm tracks, footpaths, forestry roads, and open moorland on the edge of the Brecon Beacons in Wales.

This year's race was held June 12 and Sly Dai, ridden by Llinos Jones, completed the course in two hours and seven minutes. The nearest human came in 10 minutes later. Men have won the race two times. Can a man run faster than a horse? Of course, I can prove it. Ha.

In God We Trust

Although many people thought E pluribus unum was the motto, there was no official US national motto before 1956.

“In God We Trust” had been on coins since the 1800s, but it was not officially the motto of the United States of America until the congressional act designating it so in 1956. Coincidentally, it is also the official motto of Nicaragua.