Gummi Bear Trick

An Australian high school has installed "secure" fingerprint scanners for roll call for senior students, which savvy kids may be able to circumvent with sweets from their lunch box. The system replaces the school's traditional sign-in system with biometric readers that require senior students to have their fingerprints read to verify attendance. The school principal says the system is better than swipe cards because it stops truant kids getting their mates to sign-in for them.

Students can make replicas of their own fingerprints from gelatine, the ingredient in Gummi Bears, to forge a replica finger. The attack worked against a bunch of scanners that detect electrical charges within the human body, since gelatine has virtually the same capacitance as a finger's skin."

Religion Survey

Based on a Gallup survey of more than 550,000 people, the most religious Americans also have the highest rates of well-being.

Overall, the very religious received a score on Gallup's well-being index of 68.7 percent, while both the moderately religious and the nonreligious received a score of 64.2 percent. The very religious were defined as those who said religion is an important part of their daily lives and they attend worship services at least every week or almost every week.

Taxi Facts

After being charged an exorbitant rate by a horse-drawn hansom cab in NYC in 1907, Harry Allen decided to start his own service and charge per mile. Partnering with businessmen from France, England, and New York, he brought in a fleet of 65 brand new red cabs and started the New York Taxicab Company. Two years later, the W. C. P. Taxicab Company introduced the yellow cab to compete with him.

A yellow cab driver on average makes $100 - $150 per 12 hour shift. Over 80% of cab drivers are foreign born.

Male Drivers Lost

English car insurance company Sheila's Wheels calculated that 30 percent of male drivers will pull over and ask for directions immediately. Another 26 percent of lost male drivers will wait more than a half-hour before asking for directions, whereas 12 percent refuse to ask at all. The average man drives an extra 276 miles in his car each year because he cannot find his way.

Among female drivers, 37 percent will pull over immediately, when lost. (The average woman drives 256 miles a year while lost.)

The proliferation of GPS devices may soon change all the statistics. Women will still make everyone late by taking way too long to get ready.

Plumbing

The word comes from the Latin word for lead, which is plumbum. Plumbing by definition is a utility that we use in our buildings consisting of: the pipes, which were mostly lead in US households, and fixtures for the distribution of water or gas, and for the disposal of sewage. The word sewer comes from the French word essouier, meaning "to drain".

Toilets and sewers were invented in several parts of the world, and Mohenjo-Daro circa 2800 B.C. had some of the most advanced, with lavatories built into the outer walls of houses. These were "Western-style" toilets made from bricks with wooden seats on top. They had vertical chutes, through which waste fell into street drains or cesspits.

The word "toilet" came to be used in English along with other French fashions. It originally referred to the toile, French for "cloth", draped over a lady or gentleman's shoulders while their hair was being dressed, and then,  by extension, to the various elements, and the complex of operations of hairdressing and body care that centered at a dressing table. The room became the toilet room. For those so inclined, there is the Toilet Museum website.

Friday Thought

The dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.

I dream and hope and plan to experience the reality of a Happy Friday!

Life of Kitchen Appliances

The National Association of Home Builders and Bank of America, did research entitled the Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components.
Here is a list of their findings.

    * Cabinets: 50 years
    * Compactor: 6 years
    * Countertop (natural stone): Lifetime
    * Countertop (marble): 20 years
    * Dishwasher:  9 years
    * Faucet:  15 years
    * Microwave Oven: 9 years
    * Range, Electric: 13 years
    * Range, Gas: 15 years
    * Refrigerator: 13 years
    * Sink (enamel steel): 5-10 years

What's in a Name - Mentor

A mentor is described as a teacher or trusted counselor. Mentoring is very common, both on an informally and as a part of formal education programs. In Homer’s Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, asks Mentor to look after his son, Telemachus, when Odysseus departs for the Trojan War. The two develop a near-paternal relationship, as Mentor (and the Goddess Athena, in disguise as Mentor) helps Telemachus to overcome the difficulties he faces.

Ten Halloween Facts

It is actually supposed to be spelled Hallowe'en.

It has been celebrated for over 2000 years as pagan traditions.

Wearing masks comes from the Welsh and Celtic traditions that the dead visit the living on that day.

During the 1800s in America, the end of harvest was celebrated by wearing costumes, eating sweets, and playing tricks on each other.

Jack O' Lanterns started out in Ireland as hollowed out turnips with candles in them to ward off evil spirits.

Ninety nine percent of pumpkins are sold for Halloween for carving.

Orange and black are the traditional colors, because they represent the harvest and evil.

If you see a spider on Halloween, it is said to be the spirit of a loved one watching over you.

Eighty six percent of Americans decorate their house for Halloween, but the number is dwindling.

Halloween costume sales reached six billion dollars in 2009. Adults were 62% of that number.

About two billion dollars is spent on Halloween candy, annually.