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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Happy Friday

Happiness is the best habit to cultivate.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Super Blue, Blood, Snow Moon

We will be able to view a super moon, blue moon, and a total lunar eclipse (blood moon) all on the same night.

The blue moon is the second full moon in a month and the first full moon showed up on January 1. The full moon (blue moon) will occur at 8:37 a.m. ET Jan. 31. It is the first blue moon total lunar eclipse in the US since March 1866.

The lunar eclipse on January 31 will last about 3½ hours from the beginning of the partial phase at 3:48 a.m. PT until it ends at 7:12 a.m. PT, from western North America across the Pacific to eastern Asia. In the United States, the best view of the eclipse will be along the West Coast. For skywatchers in the central and eastern US, only a partial eclipse will be visible.

The full moon will take on a dark, reddish appearance during the eclipse and is described as a blood moon. This full moon was also known as the "snow moon" by some Native American tribes.

A super moon occurs when the full moon is at the closest point of its orbit to the Earth.

Bigger MicroSD

Many are familiar with those little cards in smartphones, and used by many laptop computers. They are called microSD cards. Micro due to physical size and SD means Secure Digital.

Interesting to think that anything called micro could be considered large. However, there is now a microSD card capable of holding over half a terabyte of data. Integral Memory’s new 512 gigabyte card. It should hold about 24 or more hours of 4K video, depending on compression rate.

To give a perspective, 64GB is often the standard for high-end casual users and is capable of holding hundreds to thousands of high-quality photos. However, HD movies take up much more space.

Incidentally, just a few years ago, 32GB card was thought to be all you would ever need for storage. Before that, computers were sufficient at 32k. My how quickly times change.

Sizes Explained

Using the metric system 1,000 bytes would be a k, or kilobyte, but in the computer industry a k is equal to 1024 bytes. That means each of the below metric designations are approximate for computer terminology. Some medical computers currently have storage measured in petabytes. Even as devices have shrunk in size, demand for storage has increased in inverse proportion.


kilo = thousand
mega = million
giga = billion (There are 1,024 GB in 1 TB.)
tera = trillion (There are 1,498 CD discs in 1 TB)
peta = quadrillion (A human brain can store about 2.5 PB of data)
exa = quintillion (Almost 11 million 4K movies can fit in 1 EB)
zetta = sextillion (1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424)
yotta = septillion

Happy Friday

Tomorrow, as with climate cannot be accurately predicted.

Do not worry about tomorrow, be happy today and celebrate a Happy Friday!

January 23 - National Rhubarb Pie Day

I love rhubarb, whether in pie, stewed, poached, or baked. It is a seasonal thing, so grab some when you can.

New Layoff Terms

Here are a few politically correct terms from IBM, 'productively redeployed' and RA or 'Redundancy Action'. IBM is doing this to 30% (30,900 people) of one of its groups during 2018. Up to 9,000 may be 'redeployed' or 'reskilled' and another 10,100 not refilled. IBM wants 20 per cent of GTS 'on-shore' at a country level, 20 per cent in 'near-shore' locations and 60 per cent 'off-shore'. Seems it is living up to its old moniker "I've Been Moved."

Hurricanes

Hurricanes are not caused by global warming according to the insurance industry, which insists they are "Acts of God."

Shade Antenna

RCA is showcasing an antenna built into a roller shade. Now not only can your roller shade keep the sun out, but it can also pick up free over-the-air TV.
This new antenna is not yet available for sale, but RCA won a CES 2018 Innovation Award for new products. We should see these antennas hitting stores sometime later this year.

Roller shade antennas from RCA are one more step in a rush to sell antennas that will seamlessly blend into your home surroundings. No longer is the TV antenna something that stands out, it is now something that can vanish into the backdrop of your decor.

Autonomous Cars

This is also known as a driverless car, self-driving car, robotic car, and unmanned ground vehicle. There are six levels from zero, which is where we currently are, to five, which is self driving.

Level 0: This level is where we mostly are. The human driver controls everything: steering, brakes, throttle, power.

Level 1: This level means that most functions are still controlled by the driver, but a specific function, like steering or accelerating can be done automatically by the car.
Level 2: At least one driver assistance system of "both steering and acceleration/deceleration using information about the driving environment" is automated, like cruise control and lane-centering. It means that the "driver is disengaged from physically operating the vehicle by having his or her hands off the steering wheel and foot off pedal at the same time." The driver must still always be ready to take control of the vehicle.
Level 3: Drivers are able to completely shift safety-critical functions to the vehicle, under certain traffic or environmental conditions. It means the driver is still present and will intervene if necessary, but is not required to monitor the situation in the same way it does for the previous levels.

Level 4: Level 4 vehicles are "designed to perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip." However, it is important to note that this is limited to the "operational design domain" of the vehicle, meaning it does not cover every driving scenario.

Level 5: This level refers to a fully-autonomous system that expects the vehicle's performance to equal that of a human driver, in every driving scenario, including extreme environments. It can operate without a driver or passengers.

It is important to distinguish between "autonomous" and "driverless." Driverless is a more advanced stage of autonomous.

Other considerations - car insurance business will be affected, since the number of accidents is predicted to go down 80% by 2040. The different levels are important, because they change the risk profile of the car. Other costs are more likely to go up as new technology is added to the cars.

Interesting to know the things auto manufacturers are dealing with, such as avoidance of large animals requires recognition and tracking. Volvo found that software suited to caribou, deer, and elk was ineffective with kangaroos.

Clothes Scraps

I am sure you have noticed the little scrap of material, usually with a button or two sewn on it that is comes with new many clothes. The reason for that material is to wash it before you wash that shirt or sweater, or whatever, to test how the material holds up so that you do not ruin the whole outfit. The buttons are replacement, in case you lose one.

What's in a Name

In the UK many names seem unfamiliar to us, but have logical beginnings. For instance, the East Midlands were ruled by the Danes during the ninth century. This resulted in the creation of place names ending in "by" (a suffix thought to originate from the Danish word for "town"), such as Thoresby and Derby. Others end in "thorpe" (meaning "settlement"), such as Ullesthorpe.

Water vs. Soda

Bottled water took over carbonated soft drinks as Americans' favorite drink during 2016 for the first time ever, according to Beverage Marketing, a research and consulting company. US consumers bought 12.8 billion gallons of bottled water versus 12.4 billion gallons of carbonated soft drinks. This once again shows the power of advertising.


Marketers have convinced people to purchase something that is natural, almost universally available, and mostly free vs. something that is artificially created in a lab. In some places water has a higher price than soft drinks. I have this pet rock. . .

Happy Friday

Impossible is just a word. What matters is if you pronounce it with a short I or a long I.

It is not impossible that Impossibly happiest on a Happy Friday!

Agatha Christie

 On January 12, 1976, Agatha Christie died at age 85 at her home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England. At her death, she was one of the most popular writers of all time, the author of more than 100 novels, including a legendary collection of murder mysteries that featured the fictional detectives Miss Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. Her books have been translated into more languages than any other author in literary history, including Shakespeare.

Christie also wrote nineteen stage plays, including The Mousetrap, a 1952 play that premiered at London's West End Theatre and is still currently being performed elsewhere. It is the longest continuously-running stage play in history, with more than 27,000 performances during 65 years. The play has such a surprising ending that, after the final curtain goes down, patrons are asked not to reveal it.

Interesting Tidbits

Eliminate static buildup in the dryer by crumbling up aluminum foil into a ball, about the size of a tennis ball and toss in with the clothes. When it wears out, add another layer of foil.

Tear sticky notes off the pack from left to right or right to left. This will reduce the curl that happens when you pull of the paper from bottom to top.

Echo is the name of the device, but Alexa is the name for the artificial intelligence assistant that listens and speaks back to you. Amazon controls 75 percent of the AI smart speaker market.

Slowing a Windows Update

There will be no limit on the number of times you can delay a Windows Update. Each time you hit the Snooze button, you'll be able to push it out three more days, until 35 days have passed. After that, you will still be able to press a new "Remind Me Tomorrow" button to push it out again and again, one day at a time.

Restart now, pick a time, and snooze can be accessed through the Settings > Update and Security menu to display how your device will encounter and install future updates.

Postponing the Windows 10 Creators Update requires the activation of a ‘Defer feature updates’ service. The download can then be delayed for up to 60 days, or you can pick a specific date to continue. To postpone Windows 10 Creators Update, access the Update and Security menu, then under "Update settings,” click Advanced options, then select the ‘Defer feature updates’ option.

New Winter Olympic Sports

Next month we will be treated to the Olympics with four new events during this Winter Olympics: big air snowboarding and freestyle skiing on the slopes, and mass start speed skating and mixed doubles curling on the ice.

Artificial Sweeteners Compared

All sugar substitutes are not created equal. Here are a few facts about the most widely known sweeteners.

Equal (Aspartame) was discovered in 1965 and first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1981. It is the only FDA approved nutritive sweetener, meaning it adds caloric value to a meal. It loses its sweetness when heated and therefore is not used in baked goods. It is a mixture of aspartic acid and phenylalanine) that is 200 times sweeter than sugar.

Newtame - (Neotame) It was approved by the FDA during 2002 and is 7,000 to 13,000 times as sweet as table sugar.

Splenda (Sucralose) was discovered in 1976 and first approved by the FDA IN 1998. It is molecularly bonded sucrose molecules with chlorine and is 600 times as sweet as sugar by gram. It is chemically modified to have zero calories. It keeps its sweetness when heated and therefore is used in baked goods.

Sweet’N Low (saccharin) was discovered in 1879. It was removed from the FDA’s caution list in 2000. It is made from benzoic sulfimide, a coal tar derivative that is approximately 300 times sweeter than sugar and also contains dextrose and cream of tartar. It contains 4 calories per packet, but the body cannot metabolize it, so it adds no caloric or nutritional value to a meal. Cyclamate was the original ingredient in Sweet’N Low. It is a chemical 30 to 50 times sweeter than sugar. By 1963, cyclamate was America’s favorite artificial sweetener, then the sweetener was proven to cause bladder cancer in rats, resulting in an immediate ban by the FDA that is still in effect. In response, Sweet’N Low swiftly became a saccharin-based product.

Stevia is a sweetener and sugar substitute marketed most familiarly as PureVia and Truvia, extracted from the leaves of the plant species Stevia rebaudiana. The active compounds of Stevia are steviol glycosides, which have up to 150 times the sweetness of sugar. It is  heat-stable, pH-stable, and not fermentable. The legal status of Stevia as a food additive or dietary supplement varies from country to country. In the United States, high-purity stevia glycoside extracts are generally recognized as safe and allowed as ingredients in food products, but stevia leaf and crude extracts do not have FDA approval for use in food. The European Union approved Stevia additives in 2011, and in Japan, Stevia has been widely used as a sweetener for decades.

Sweet One - (Sunett) was discovered during 1967 and approved in 1988. It contains Dextrose, Acesulfame-K, Cream of Tartar, Calcium Silicate (an anti-caking agent), and natural flavors and is 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is soluble in hot and cold beverages and remains stable when heated, so it can also be used in cooking and baking. It adds no caloric or nutritional value to a meal.

According to the FDA, high-intensity sweeteners add few or no calories to the foods they flavor and they generally do not raise blood sugar levels.

The FDA during 2014 approved a new high-intensity sweetener called advantame, which does not yet have a brand name. It has been approved as a new food additive for use as a sweetener and flavor enhancer in foods, except meat and poultry.

Incidentally, notice how many months/years it takes for FDA to approve.

Improbable Research

YouTube shows a fun look at the world around us, including the Ig Nobel awards. It is even more entertaining if you watch it on your TV.  LINK

Size Envy

For those who like things bigger, this week Samsung announced  (with a demo screen) an enormous 4K TV it is calling The Wall. The Wall measures 146 inches and uses MicroLED technology to produce its picture. The set compares to regular size TVs in quality and color. Luckily it is not available in stores yet, or I might need to consider re-mortgaging my house.

Alexa, Flush My Toilet

The annual CES show is in full swing with new technology that will surprise many. Filed under the "I never knew I needed that" is new Kohler and Moeller lines of bathroom appliances that include smart shower heads, toilets, faucets, and a smart mirror powered by Alexa.

You can monitor your water usage, set a certain lighting profile on the mirror, fill the bathtub to a specific level, warm the toilet seat, and ask the toilet to flush itself. All this 'must have' stuff will be available this year. Cost is estimated in the thousands of dollars.

Red Hair Trivia

Lucille Ball was born a brunette, but dyed her hair blond for her early days in Hollywood. When she was about to make her first film for MGM in 1942 (“Du Barry Was a Lady”), Sydney Guilaroff, the studio’s chief hair stylist, made a discovery that would change her for the rest of her life. “The hair is brown,” he said after looking at the 31-year-old rising star, “but the soul is on fire.” So he dyed Ball’s hair Tango Red (a shade between carrot and strawberry), which it remained until she died.

Incidentally, Betty Boop's original hair color was red.

New Best Friends

Here are the countries that visited my blog last month. Welcome to all my new BFFs around the world.

United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Seychelles, Russia, Norway, Israel, India, Hong Kong, Australia, Brazil, Ukraine, Spain, Philippines, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Romania, Netherlands, Indonesia, Turkey, Tanzania, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Lebanon, Japan, Iceland, Finland, Belarus, Bahrain, Austria

Happy Friday

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

It is always good to share your joy and smile, especially on a Happy Friday!

Happy New Year

So we begin a new year, full of anticipation and hope. It is my desire to have everything good come to you this year. 

A Month by any other Name

Historical names for January include its original Roman designation, Ianuarius, the Saxon term Wulf-monath (meaning wolf month), and Charlemagne's designation Wintarmanoth (winter / cold month). In Finnish, the month is called tammikuu, meaning month of the oak, but the original meaning was the month of the heart of winter, as tammi has initially meant axis or core. In Czech this month is called leden, meaning ice month. In Ukrainian it is січень meaning cutting or slicing, perhaps referring to the wind.

Purse Light Hack

For those of you who have large purses and cannot find things at the bottom, add one of those small battery button lights that you just tap to turn on.

Now you can reach in, turn on the light and find whatever you are looking for without dumping the contents.

Free Football Viewing

This year, you will not need Verizon Wireless service to watch free NFL games on your phone. Instead, you can watch in-market coverage, playoff games, and the Super Bowl for free, regardless of carrier.
The live games this season will stream on the NFL Mobile app, Verizon's Go90 video app, and Yahoo. Starting next season, Verizon will no longer provide a free stream of the NFL Network or an optional $2-per-month stream of NFL Redzone on mobile devices. If you want to keep watching Redzone without cable, even on your phone, you will have to subscribe to an entire streaming bundle such as Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, or FuboTV, as NFL and Verizon greed kick more fans to the sidelines.

Naturally, there is a catch. As with Verizon's existing NFL streams, you will be forbidden from watching live games on your antenna-less television. The carrier will not offer full games on streaming TV devices, and will continue to block screen mirroring from your phone through Chromecast and Apple TV's AirPlay.

If you have DirecTV Now with bundled AT&T wireless service, you no longer have to miss any NFL Network games. If you have strong TV antenna coverage, you will also be able to watch many games free.

Wooden Spoon Myth Debunked

Wooden spoons do not stop pots of water from boiling over. Placing a wooden spoon across a pot of water to prevent the water from spilling over may help some with a simmering pot, but not boiling.

How Wireless Charging Works

Wireless charging, inductive charging, or cordless charging, are all the same thing. It uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects through electromagnetic induction, so it will work with any wireless charger carrying the same standards of technology. The Qi wireless charging standard from the Wireless Power Consortium has been around for over five years. The basic technology has been used for consumer products like razors and toothbrushes, plus a variety of non-consumer tools for a while.

Many smart phone companies use wireless charging for high end devices. In addition, a growing number of restaurants, airports, hotels, etc. now provide wired and wireless charging.

Electromagnetic fields are created and allow the current to pass between the charging and the surface of the charging pad. The charging base station needs to be connected to a power outlet. There is a transmitting coil in the charger circuit and power from the source is supplied to the coil. Phones and other devices have a receiver coil attached to the battery, which picks up the magnetic field.
Productive coupling between the coils requires accurate positional alignment. This can be accomplished in different ways. The charging pad or base station can have visual or tactile signifiers of the optimal position for the phone; this is cheap and easy, but it presents challenges when dealing with phones of different sizes and configurations. Alternatively, a charging station might have a coil that moves to align with the coil in the device, allowing you to place it wherever you want. Another way is using an array of coils, where specific coils are activated in proximity to the device’s placement.

The base station does not activate unless a compatible device has been placed on it. The station determines this by sending an intermittent test signal to check if a compliant device is present. The mobile device responds to this ping by communicating the received signal strength. When the device’s charge is complete, it tells the transmitter to go inactive.

One ongoing problem to widespread adoption is competing standards that fracture the market and make adoption less attractive for both consumers and manufacturers.

Wireless charging may be fun and whiz-bang, but it is slower than the traditional form of charging due to less energy transfer.

New technology may let you charge your devices from a distance of three feet or more without any pad involved. The Federal Communications Commission, during December 2017 approved technology from Energous using radio frequency energy to recharge multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets, smart watches, headphones, speakers, keyboards and fitness trackers from up to three feet away.

Mattress Myth Debunked

Many have heard that a normal mattress doubles in weight each eight to ten years, due to accumulation of mites, dead skin, etc. It is totally false and the story was made up long ago by a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Robo Calls Getting Worse

Does it seem like we are getting more unwanted calls on smart phones? We are, and they are more and more difficult to stop. We are now in the phase where bad technology leapfrogs good technology and until that changes again, it is something to deal with.

US Federal Trade Commission data released during December 2017 shows a massive 4.5 million consumer complaints about robocalls in 2017, up from 2016's 3.4 million. For every single month of the year, robocalls topped the list of "Do Not Call" violations.
The six most common ones in no particular order include:
Reducing your debt (credit cards, mortgage, student loans)
Dropped call or no message
Vacation and timeshares
Warranties and protection plans
Calls pretending to be government, IRS, businesses, or family and friends
Medical and prescriptions.
In addition to all the complaints, use of the "Do Not Call" registry hosts 226 million active registrations.
The reason for the increase is the cheap new telephony equipment, ease of placing millions of calls without a person needed to do the dialing, and  digital calling systems that make it simple to automatically spoof caller ID numbers. Robo calls are becoming the 'Nigerian Prince' scam for phones.

Incidentally, the worst thing you can do is respond. The bad guys have no do not call list to put you on and no reason to stop calling. Also, once you respond, your number goes into the bank of live persons and your number will be sold to other scammers. Robo call apps help blocking, but cannot keep up with the ever shifting use of numbers used, including what appear to be local numbers.

Tongue and Taste Myth

Your tongue does not have independent zones for different types of flavor, sweetness, or saltiness. The confusion comes from the mis-translation of a German study. Actually all of the tongue is more or less equally capable of detecting different flavors, although there are different patterns of strength.

What is generally categorized as “taste” is basically a bundle of different sensations. It is not only the qualities of taste perceived by the tongue, but also the smell, texture, and temperature of food.

Incidentally, “hot” or “spicy” is often described as a taste. Technically, this is just a pain signal sent by the nerves that transmit touch and temperature sensations. The substance “capsaicin” in foods seasoned with chili causes a sensation of pain and heat.

Do Not Recycle These

Ribbons, bows, Styrofoam and the glue that sticks them to the gift are not to go in the recycling bin.

You cannot recycle wrapping paper that has metallic, glossy, glitter, or velvety flocking on it.

Plastic bags, twine, and anything else that is long and stringy cannot be recycled.

Shiny Christmas cards printed on photo paper, have metallic embossing, or glitter cannot be recycled.

Disposable plates, cups, plastic tableware, napkins, and paper towels should not be recycled. Some plastic cups may be recyclable, but read the bottom for recycle symbol. (Many people think that rounded arrow symbol means it is recyclable, but that is the resin code. Different municipalities can recycle different resins, but only number one and two plastics are recyclable in most places.)

Do not recycle candy wrappers or the bags that coffee comes in.

Pizza boxes and fast food carryout bags may include the additional message, “Recycle if Clean & Dry,” since pizza boxes and bags dirtied by a significant amount of grease or food residue are often not accepted for recycling.

Chip bags cannot go into the recycle bin, since most chip bags are made from aluminum laminated with polypropylene.

The popular K-Cup® pod as a whole cannot be recycled.

All is not lost as cardboard boxes are great to recycle, even with some tape on them.

Pantone

Pantone is the self-proclaimed global color authority. It has released its 2018 color of the year. The color is Ultra Violet 18-3838, a dark blue violet, halfway between cobalt and periwinkle. I do not understand why they cannot just call it purple.

2017 Word of the Year

The field is crowded, and the fight for Word of the Year will be fierce. The American Dialect Society will chose the winner during January 2018. For 2016, the word was 'dumpster fire'. Here are some contenders for 2017:
    Fake news
    Alternative facts
    Collusion
    Nothingburger
    Normalize
    Antifa
    Resistance
    Persisterhood
    Dotard
    Reclaiming my time
    Taking a knee
     Covfefe

According to the Oxford University Press, use of the word "Trump" has increased 839 percent. It analyzed over 100,000 short stories written by British children for a competition, and has already declared "Trump" to be the Children's Word of the Year 2017.

Feminism ranks as Merriam-Webster’s 2017 word of the year. It is defined by Merriam-Webster as: “the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes” and “organized activity in support of women’s rights and interests.”

'Complicit' is Dictionary.com's word of the year - "Choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act, especially with others; having complicity."

Recent past Words of the Year were not so overtly political: The American Dialect Society gave us "Dumpster fire" for 2016, An emoji was used during 2015, and 2012 brought us "hashtag." Back in 2009, "tweet" was word of the year.

During 2016 snollygoster was voted the first Haggard Hawks Word of the Year. It is a word for an unscrupulous politician

'Whatever' was voted the most annoying word of the year for the ninth year in a row.

Six Benefits of Parsley

Parsley is full of vitamin C, an essential nutrient and best known for giving the immune system a boost.

Parsley can actually improve kidney functionality by helping the human body do away with excess fluids. It is a diuretic and according to Livestrong.com, it plays an important role in the process of removing unnecessary fluids from the body.

Parsley contains ample amounts of folic acid and research from Harvard Medical School shows that foods high in folic acid can help the body regulate blood pressure and produce and maintain new cells.

Parsley Contains Vitamin K an important nutrient in helping the body respond to injuries. It helps in the clotting process, giving the body a chance to stop the damage and begin the healing process. Vitamin K has also been shown to help reduce the risk of bone damage and build bone durability.

Parsley contains compounds that can aid in digestion, according to research from WebMD,

Parsley contains anti-inflammatory properties that can reduce inflammation around the joints and ease the pain associated with conditions like osteoarthritis.

Wordology, Obdormition

It is pronounced ob-dor-MISH-uhn. It means numbness in a limb, usually caused by pressure on a nerve. Also known as falling asleep. From Latin obdormire (to fall asleep), from dormire (to sleep). Earliest documented use: 1634.

Incidentally, there is a good word that comes after obdormition: paresthesia, known as pins and needles.

Cord Cutters

Cord cutters are people who have decided to give up cable TV and find another way to watch TV and movies. The main alternatives have been streaming TV over the internet (OTT) and subscribing to services, such as NETFLIX, YouTube, Amazon Video, etc.

Another alternative gaining a growing following is using a TV antenna. The antenna technology is much better than the traditional antenna service and is extremely cheap, with no monthly fees. Recent studies have shown that over 90% of the US population is within range to stream free over-the-air HD television. Antennas do not lose stations like satellite subscribers suffer from during bad weather. In addition the signal is not compressed, so there is a noticeable improvement in picture quality vs. cable and satellite. In addition, usually there are 30 to 60 free channels available. Many find that an indoor antenna is sufficient, so no need to climb up on the roof for installation.

As of November, the latest analysis by Kagan indicates that another 1.2 million Americans cut the TV cord during the past quarter, lured away from expensive traditional cable TV bundles and by the rising availability of cheaper, more flexible streaming alternatives. The losses once again broke records for the industry, contributing to a net loss of 2.9 million traditional pay TV subscribers so far during 2017, after a loss of another 2 million during 2016.

Since 2015, TV watching growth has been in the number of antenna-equipped homes with broadband access. These increased 36 percent.

Quick Food Tip

It is safe to eat the stickers on fruit, both the paper and glue are food grade.