Apr 21, 2017

Russia and US Border

The news media usually fails to mention that Russia and the US share a border. There is no wall and not much traffic of refugees trying to pass illegally.

The Russia / United States maritime boundary follows the June 1, 1990 USA/USSR Maritime Boundary Agreement, but it has yet to be approved by the Russian parliament. The United States Senate gave its consent to ratification on September 16, 1991.

Two islands, Little Diomede, US and Big Diomede, Russia lie between Russia and the United States. The islands are only 35 km away from both Chukotka, Russia and Alaska, US. Because the international Date Line runs between them, the time difference between them is about 21 hours.

Incidentally, Russia's Eastern border is with China.

International Space Station Facts

The International Space Station if reduced to two dimensions is roughly the size of a soccer pitch, at about 73 meters (239 feet) in length and 109 meters (356 feet) in width. It orbits the Earth at an altitude of 330 to 435 km (205 to 270 miles).

Incidentally, In 2001, Pizza Hut paid the Russian space agency $1 million to send a pizza to the ISS, Including a Pizza Hut logo on a Soyuz rocket and a video of a cosmonaut Yuri Usachov​ giving a thumbs up after eating some of the pizza. The space pizza, per the BBC, “spending a long time in space has the effect of deadening the taste buds, so extra salt and spices were added to the pizza and salami had to be used as pepperoni lacked the necessary shelf life, growing moldy.​”

WiFi vs. Plugged In Speeds

Each Wi-Fi standard is rated according to its maximum theoretical network bandwidth. The newest, 802.11ac offers up to 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps). However, the performance of Wi-Fi networks practically never approach these theoretical maximums, usually performing at about half of peak speed. If you compare 300 Mbps WiFi to wired Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps, the Ethernet connection most often outperforms in real world usage.
Wi-Fi networks have a range that is limited by the transmission power, antenna type, the location, physical obstacles, such as walls, number of other devices sharing the signal, and the environment. A typical indoor wireless router might have a solid range of about 32 meters (105 ft). Distance from the source also degrades performance. The fastest theoretical WiFi 802.11 ac is maximum speed of 866.7 Mb/s.

Plugged in (Ethernet) offers advantages, such as faster speeds, lower latency, and no wireless interference problems.  A wired Ethernet connection can theoretically offer up to 10 Gb/s.

Bottom line, when it comes to speed necessary for streaming movies and TV WiFi may be more convenient, but is much slower and may cause delays and hesitations. Also, when looking at your speed, consider 10Mbs as the absolute minimum for streaming - and more is better.


Incidentally, no matter how fast your WiFi is within your house, it does not increase the speed of the connection between your house and the Internet.

Apr 14, 2017

Happy Friday

A smile is like a push-up bra for your face.

I always get a lift when I smile, especially on a Happy Friday and even more on a Happy Good Friday!

Happy Easter

Easter is celebrated on April 16 2017. Put on your Easter bonnet and read some of the traditions around the world.

The Ukrainian Easter tradition of Pysanka Eggs is a special craft. These highly-decorated eggs have been made during Holy Week for generations. While people once made eggs to ensure fertility and avoid fires and nasty spirits, today they take to the art form for the aesthetic allure.

After designing a pattern on an uncooked or empty egg, it is then dipped in a colored dye. Between the dyeing stages, the craftsman draws patterns on the egg with wax, so as to seal the color currently on the egg and create the intricate patterns you see on the final product.

Passion Plays - Villagers take part in an Easter Passion Play re-enacting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday at Gantang Village near Magelang, in the province of Central Java.

One of the longest running traditions of Easter is the Passion Play. Because a lot of people in medieval times could not read, plays were a great way to educate the masses about the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. There are passion plays held all over the world, but one of the most famous is the Oberammergau Passion Play. Its roots began during the black plague, when the residents of Oberammergau were on high alert to keep the disease out. A farmer coming home from a nearby village brought the plague back with him, which killed one-fifth of the town. With the disease ravaging the town, the elders declared that the church would hold a passion play every 10 years in exchange for God’s blessing and protection. The play has been performed every 10 years since 1633, with only a ban in 1770, World War I, and World War II stopping three shows.


Don't forget to decorate your Osterbaum - Easter tree with colorful decorated eggs.

Spring Cleaning with Beer

Wash wooden furniture to get the winter grime off, then pour a bit of flat beer onto a microfiber or soft cloth and rub it onto the surface of your favorite outdoor wood furniture. It works like a traditional furniture polish product, removing the dullness of years of wear and tear and instilling a shining, rich color. Works indoors. also.

Block My Name

If you do not want someone to know you are calling them. Just type *67 or #31# before the ten-digit mobile number of the person you are calling. Some providers will provide a confirmation beep or tone after you dial *67, so wait for the regular dial tone to return before dialing the 10-digit number you wish to call. Some countries have different codes, such as 141 in the United Kingdom or 1831 in Australia.

Drive C

Early PCs did not come with internal storage devices due to the expense. Instead, they generally had some form of a floppy disk reader, such as those used to read 5 1/4″ floppy disks, initially labeled as “A” in MS-DOS and certain other operating systems.

Some systems came with two such floppy disk drives necessitating the need for a “B”. When the 3.5″ floppy disk was commonly added, using both “A” and “B” for floppy drives was firmly entrenched.

When hard disk drives became standard in most PCs during the 1980s, since the first two letters were already commonly used for these floppy drives, they logically labeled the third storage device “C”, even though it now tended to be the main storage for the computer.

Even though no longer used, the drive designation remains, with A and B not used. Now you can easily change, remove or add drive letters for both physical and logical drives.

Freddie Mercury

Was just discussing Zoroastrianism with friends a few nights ago and it reminded me of this. The late Farrokh Bulsara (Freddie Mercury) was proud of his Zoroastrian heritage. “I’ll always walk around like a Persian popinjay and no one’s gonna stop me, honey,”  he once said. His sister Karishma Cooke also talked about the role of Zoroastrianism in the family. “We as a family were very proud of being Zoroastrian. I think what [Freddie’s] Zoroastrian faith gave him was to work hard, to persevere, and to follow your dreams.”

Texas Rangers Food

It is baseball season again and the Texas Rangers are changing their famous “Boomstick” and taking it up a notch for the 2017 season.

Here is the “Most Valuable Tamale”, a 2-foot tamale filled with the Rangers’ 24-inch “Boomstick” hot dog and covered with all sorts of foodie goodies.

Hottest Planet

Even though it is not closest to the sun (Mercury is), the hottest planet in our Solar system is Venus, second closest. The average temperature on the Venus does not go below 462 degrees while that of Mercury reaches only up to 420 degrees.

Taxi Medallion Value

New York taxi medallions that are tightly regulated by the city and allow yellow cabs to legally pick up fares on the streets have drastically come down in value during the past three years. The tags sunk from about $1.05 million in 2014 to $241,000 for one sold during March 2017. The main cause is rivals Uber, Lyft, Via, and Gett.

Also, during March, Philadelphia Parking Authority, which regulates the city's taxi industry, sold new medallions for $80,000  falling from last year with an initial asking price of $475,000, but received no bids. The value of taxi medallions in other cities, such as Boston and Chicago have also fallen sharply.

Good Neighbors

The Canada–United States border officially known as the International Boundary, is the longest international border in the world between two countries. Eight Canadian provinces and territories and thirteen US states are located along the border.

At one point the border between Canada on the north and the US runs through the villages of Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec - and though the middle of the town library.


It physically snakes through side streets, in and out of houses, through the public library, and straight down the middle of a main road that residents affectionately call “Canusa Avenue." An apartment building in town has two addresses, one for each country.

Incidentally, Canada borders are east, west, north, and south of the US. In Alaska, Canada is directly East. In many northern US continental states, Canada is directly North. In Maine, it is directly West and North. In Detroit, Michigan, Canada is directly South. Part of Washington State is both North and South of Canada. See my blog 
LINK

Apr 8, 2017

Happy Friday

“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I always try to be kind, especially on a Happy Friday!