Drain the Mediterranean

During the 1920s, Herman Sorgel, a German architect, proposed creating a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, turning the area into a massive hydroelectric plant, creating enormous amounts of renewable energy. A natural byproduct of the dam would be to drain much of the Mediterranean Sea by restricting the flow of water into it. The idea was to create much new land for Germany to grow into. They called the project Alantropa.

During the early 1900s, many German leaders were espousing a political science theory called Lebensraum, literally “space of life.” Lebensraum advocates argued that overpopulation required a solution, and that solution should simply be to acquire more space. While the easiest and most straightforward way to spread is to take over the land of others, there could be another way, to create new land. Doing so would require a public works project larger than anything the world has ever seen, like draining the Mediterranean Sea.

Sorgel’s top objective was to stem the flow of water into the Mediterranean and over time, the water level would drop, creating more inhabitable land in both Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Low-lying lands would emerge basically everywhere, as hundreds of square miles of habitable space would be reclaimed from the sea. Europe and Northern Africa would, effectively, merge.

The Atlantropa Project’s support was strongest toward the end of the 1920s and into the 1930s, but waned as Hitler rose to power and in 1942, the Nazis banned Sorgel from publishing his plans further. Atlantropa was dead.

Wordology, Piggyback

Back in the 16th century, goods were transported in packs that people carried on theirs or animals backs. The term used to describe this was “pick pack” because you would pick up a pack in order to carry it on your back.

“Pick pack” eventually became “pick-a-pack” as in pick a pack and carry it on your back. Eventually, because an individual was picking a pack to carry on his back, the term “pick-a-pack” became “pick-a-back”.

Turns out, though, that the insertion of the “a” caused a problem and ultimately paved the way for the original phrase “pick pack” to become “piggyback”. Due to the pronunciation of the term as a whole, “pick-a-pack” often sounded like “pick -i-back” which sounded like “picky back”. This ultimately gave rise to the term “piggyback” around this time for people carrying a pack on their back and by the 1930s, the definition further progressed to describe riding on someone’s back and shoulders.

The pig was the only animal that sounded like “picky” and “pickyback” became piggyback.

Saccharin

The artificial sweetener in "Sweet'N Low," is somewhere around 400 times sweeter than sugar. It was discovered in 1879 by Constantine Fahlberg who was actually working on substitution products of coal tar.

After a long day in the lab, he forgot to wash his hands before eating dinner. When the bread and everything he touched tasted sweet, he remembered he spilled a chemical on his hands earlier.
Fahlberg patented saccharin in 1884 and began mass production.

The artificial sweetener became widespread when sugar was rationed during World War I. In 1907 diabetics started using the sweetener as a replacement for sugar and it was soon labeled as a noncaloric sweetener for dieters. Because the body can not break it down, we do not get any calories.

Ten Interesting Facts About Humans

1. The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court.
2. Sneeze outputs usually exceed 100 mph.
3. Approximately 75% of human waste is made of water.
4. The average person expels flatulence 14 times each day.
5. Earwax production is necessary for good ear health. It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.
6. Babies are always born with blue eyes. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time after birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later revealing the baby’s true eye color.
7. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
8. After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.
9. Women can smell better than men. (which is different than women do smell better than men.)
10. Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents.

Electronic Bubbles

Here is one of those captivating, but useless devices to have fun with and annoy your friends at the same time.

Pressing any key produces the sound of bubble wrap popping. When sitting with someone who constantly is playing with their smartphone, it is the perfect foil. Let them know why what they are doing is the same as what you are doing - mildly satisfying for them, but irritating their companions.

Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender

He invented of  one of the most popular electric guitar brands in the world, Fender Guitars, but never learned how to play guitar.  He was an accountant before losing his job during the Great Depression. When he lost his job, he decided to turn his hobby of tinkering with electronics, radios, amplifiers,etc., into a business, “Fender Radio and Record Shop”. This eventually led to what is now known as the “Fender Musical Instruments Corporation” and the creation of his famous guitars and amplifiers.

Despite designing the first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar, the Telecaster, and the most influential of all electric guitars, the Stratocaster, and inventing the solid-body electric bass guitar, the Precision bass, Leo Fender was an engineer, not a musician. He had to bring in musicians to properly test the prototypes of his guitars.

Fender’s fascination with electronics started when he was 14 years old. His uncle built a radio from spare parts and the loud music coming from the speaker impressed Leo. Later, repairing radios became a hobby for Fender.

He convinced Clayton Orr “Doc” Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel guitar player, to start “K & F Manufacturing Corporation”, which would design and build electric Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. Fender began to design steel guitars that rested in the musician’s lap while being played with a metal slide. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar that had a special electric pickup also patented by Fender. Fender’s guitar “Broadcaster” was steadily improved over several years to become a Telecaster, which in turn led to “The Esquire Model” in 1950, the first six string one pickup Fender guitar.

Fenders designs helped turn electric guitars, which weren't very popular at the time, into the dominate type of guitar used by performing artists. His Telecaster design particularly has seen minor changes during the decades that followed. The ultimate goal for Fender was to create an electric guitar which would have no feed-back, even in small settings, and which would be easy to play and to tune. The Fender Stratocaster is still the most popular and copied electric guitar in the world.

Happy Friday

He who thinks he knows doesn't know. He who knows that he doesn't know, knows.

I think I know that I don't know how I could not have a Happy Friday!

Atoms, Particles and Molecules

Atoms are the smallest pieces of matter; they are made of particles (protons and electrons). When atoms are grouped together, the groups are called molecules, which are the smallest bits of compounds.

By way of example, within the element copper, a copper atom is the smallest piece of copper that exists. Hydrogen is an element; two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combine to form a molecule of water, which is a compound.

Element - a basic substance that can't be simplified, such as copper
Atom - the smallest amount of an element, such as copper atom
Molecule - two or more atoms that are chemically joined together, such as hydrogen or oxygen
Compound - a molecule that contains more than one element, such as water

Socks and Sox

The Red Sox and White Sox baseball teams have the “Sox” spelled that way, because they were named during the time when there was a movement to simplify the spelling of many English words. Socks became sox, but tradition won and the spelling of sox did not catch on as part of the language.

Four Most Crowded Islands

Santa Cruz del Islote, located off the Caribbean coast of Colombia, is one of the most densely populated islands on Earth. The 2.4-acre island, home to about 1,200 people or population density of 103,917 people per sq km, was first settled in the late 19th century as temporary housing for fishermen and coconut plantation workers. It sits on a shallow reef and has since grown in landmass to accommodate a growing population. Residents expand the island by adding to the shoreline, using coral, shells, rocks and other fillers to provide a foundation for another home. The only unoccupied space on Islote is a public square about half the size of a tennis court.

Ap Lei Chau or Aberdeen Island, an island of Hong Kong, was a fishing village before the First Opium War. It shelters Aberdeen Harbor, providing excellent protection for fishing boats during a typhoon. The population was 86,782 as of 2007, and its area is 1.30 square kilometers, giving it a population density of 66,755 people per sq km.

Male in the Maldives is one of the most low-lying islands in the world and locals say this is one of the most idyllic places to live. The capital of the Republic of Maldives covers an area of 1.77 square kilometers and is home to about 100,000 people, or 47,415 per sq km. It serves as the political, economic and cultural center of Maldives.

Manhattan island has 2012 population of 1,619,090 that live on a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.5 sq km). This makes 69,464 residents per square mile, or 26,924 per sq km, more dense than any other American city.

Iodized Salt is Good

The "iodized" emblazoned on the vast majority of salt sold in the US might go by largely unnoticed, but it turns out that it may have had such a profound effect on public health that it raised the national IQ.

Iodine deficiency is the number one cause of preventable mental retardation, and a new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that after iodized salt was introduced in 1924, the most deficient quarter of the US population saw its IQs rise by a full 15 points, or one standard deviation. Averaged over the entire country, that equates to a 3.5 point bump per person — the equivalent of a whole decade’s worth of IQ growth according to the Flynn effect, which holds that IQ tends to increase over time. While salt has virtually extinguished iodine deficiency in the US, it remains a problem in much of the developing world, where some 30 percent of citizens do not have access to it.

Chemotherapy and Hair Loss

Chemotherapy, sometimes referred to as chemo is the use of medicines or drugs to treat cancer. There are more than 100 chemo drugs. Chemo may be used to: Keep the cancer from spreading, slow the cancer’s growth, kill cancer cells that may have spread to other parts of the body, relieve symptoms such as pain or blockages caused by cancer and, in some cases, cure cancer. Different types of chemotherapy work in different ways and have different side effects. It can be administered as a pill, liquid, shot, IV, or rubbed on the skin.

Most cells in the human body divide using a process called mitosis. When a cell reaches the end of its lifespan, it gets destroyed in a pre-programmed process called apoptosis.

There are over 200 many types of cancer. All types are a result of unregulated cell growth. Cells that divide more rapidly than apoptosis can regulate is simply too much mitosis. The result is excessive tissue, known as tumors. Tumors can be localized or spread through the lymphatic system or blood stream.

Many chemotherapy drugs are administered in combinations and work by interrupting mitosis and most cannot differentiate between abnormal cancer cells and normal healthy cells. Because of this, any cells that multiply rapidly can also be affected by chemotherapy.

Fast growing cells are found in hair follicles, lining of the mouth, stomach, and bone marrow. Since these fast growing sites are also affected by chemo, the result can be hair loss, decrease in production of white blood cells, and inflammation of the digestive tract, etc. Luckily, healthy cells, like hair follicles and the others usually repair themselves, so hair loss temporary. Radiation can cause some of the same symptoms, but that story is for another day.

Wordology, Jail and Prison

These two words do not mean the same thing. In the US, jails are run by county sheriff’s office and prisons are run by the state. In Canada, jails are run by the provincial government and prisons are run by the federal government.

Battery Facts

A major site compared 40 batteries using fast drain and slow drain technology. Its findings mimicked other findings from a number of other tests. 

The resulting data yielded some interesting results. First, highest price is not highest value, and second, zinc batteries, although usually the cheapest are poor value as they drain faster than alkaline and lithium batteries. Brand name has no relation to quality, but are usually higher priced.

Bottom line is that buying the cheapest non-brand-name alkaline battery is almost always the best value. Lithium batteries last the longest, but are almost always not the cheapest. In the tests, Ikea alkaline batteries blew away the competition for best value.

Think about how often you change batteries for every day use items, such as TV remote, computer mouse, clock, smoke detectors, flashlights, etc., it is usually once every year or two, or even longer.

My advice - if you need long stable battery life (such as for a good camera), pay more and buy lithium. If you want the best value and do not mind changing batteries a bit more often, buy the cheapest alkaline you can find.