Oct 3, 2014

Fatfingers

Smaller and smaller keyboards have caused many to mistype words. This is commonly called fat fingering the keyboard. Now there is a site that can help, Fatfingers. The main purpose of Fatfingers is to help people find items on Ebay that have not sold, because the owner mistyped the word. Fun to try. I typed in bicycle and found 1,643 results. LINK

Wordology, Schmoo

The origin of the word comes from Al Capp and his cartoon Lil Abner. A Shmoo is a cuddly creature that desires nothing more than to be a boon to mankind.

Shmoos are the world's most amiable creatures, supplying all man's needs. However, they reproduce so prodigiously they threaten to wreck the economy.
They require no sustenance other than air, have no bones, and reproduce asexually and prolifically. Shmoon (plural) are delicious to eat, are eager to be eaten, and taste like chicken. Nogoodniks are anti-Shmoo. They are Shmoo-shaped, but colored sickly green with yellow teeth, red eyes, and often had five-o’clock shadow, chomp stogies, and devour their friendly Shmoo cousins.

Since then, the word schmoo now has taken on other meanings. In socioeconomics, a shmoo refers to any generic kind of good that reproduces itself.

In microbiology, the cellular bulge produced by a haploid yeast cell towards a cell of the opposite mating type during the mating of yeast is referred to as a shmoo, due to its structural resemblance to the cartoon character.

In the field of particle physics, shmoo refers to a high energy survey instrument. Over one hundred white shmoo detectors were at one time sprinkled around the accelerator beamstop area and adjacent mesa to capture subatomic cosmic ray particles emitted from the Cygnus constellation. The detectors housed scintillators and photomultipliers in an array that gave the detector its distinctive shmoo shape.

In electrical engineering, a shmoo plot is the technical term used for the graphic pattern of test circuits. The term 'to shmoo means to run the test. Incidentally, there is no relationship between schmoo and schmooze.

Coupons Site

Do you use coupons? This is a site that has many coupons that you cannot find in the paper. Go ahead; get some money off of your next purchase. LINK

What's in a Name, Viagra

The official name is Sildenafil Citrate. Pharmaceutical chemists at Pfizer's research facility in Kent, England originally conceived it as a treatment for hypertension, angina, and other symptoms of heart disease. Clinical trials during 1991 and 1992 revealed the drug was not great at treating what it was supposed to treat, but eighty percent of male test subjects were experiencing a side effect of erections.

It was finally approved by the US FDA in 1998 and the drug took US markets by storm as a treatment for penile dysfunction and became an overnight success. It and female Viagra now raise over two billion dollars a year.

Five Interesting Baseball Facts

Two brother pitchers win every World Series game for the winning team: In the 1934 World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 3. Jerome “Dizzy” Dean and his kid brother Paul “Daffy” Dean won two games each, accounting for all four Cardinal wins.

Pitching a no-hitter and homering twice: On June 23, 1971, Phillies Pitcher Rick Wise pitched a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium and hit two home runs in the same game.

Making the final out in two no-hitters against the same pitcher: Harvey Kuenn made the final out of two no-hitters, both against Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax. On May 11, 1963, Kuenn made the final out of Koufax’s no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants. On September 9, 1965, Kuenn struck out to end Koufax’s perfect game against the Chicago Cubs.


Eddie Gaedel was 26 year old, 3 feet, 7 inch tall. He was signed by Bill Veeck to a Major League contract of $15,400 ($100 per game), which was the set minimum one could pay a little person performance act, per event. During his first (and last) game he walked. Eddie took his base, stopping to take a bow twice on his way, and was lifted for a pinch runner, Jim Delsing. Two days later, American League President Will Harridge voided Gaedel’s contract and he was out of a job. Further, Harridge officially banned midgets from being able to play in the American League. Although he only made $100 for the one game, it’s estimated he earned over $17,000 ($140,000 today) in the few weeks following his lone Major League at bat. Gaedel’s uniform had the number 1/8 on the back and it now sits in the MLB Hall of Fame.

Four more people in the history of Major League Baseball had only one plate appearance and drew a walk. The others were Dutch Schirick on September 17, 1914, with the Browns; Bill Batsch on September 9, 1916, with Pittsburgh; Joe Cobb on April 25, 1918, with Detroit; and Kevin Melillo on June 24, 2007, with the Oakland A’s. 

Pork Powered Protein

The protein found in bacon is extremely valuable to maintaining our energy levels and a fully functioning, healthy body, with a minimum nasty, waist, thigh, and butt expanding, fat building carbohydrates.

Free Friday Caveman Smile


Sep 26, 2014

Happy Friday

A smile is a light in the window to your soul.

With Autumn's diminishing daylight, it is time to smile and light up a Happy Friday!

Acronyms and Initialisms

Although many believe both are acronyms, there is a difference. An acronym is a pronounceable word that is formed using the first letters of the words in a phrase (sometimes, other parts of the words are also used). Some common acronyms include NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration), scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), and laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get  RAM - Random Access Memory  NAFTA - North American Free Trade Agreement WASP - White Anglo Saxon Protestant.

An initialism is formed using the first letters of the words in a phrase -- it is pronounced like a series of letters, not like a word. Some common initialisms include UFO )Unidentified Flying Object) and LOL (Laugh Out Loud).  IMHO - In My Humble Opinion.

ROTC - Reserve Officers Training Corps is used both as an acronym and initialism.