Graffiti

The term graffiti referred to the inscriptions and figure drawings found on the walls of ancient sepulchers or ruins, as in the catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Use of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism.

Graffiti are writing or drawings that have been scribbled, scratched, or painted illicitly on a wall or other surface, often within public view. Graffiti range from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and they have existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.

Both "graffiti" and its occasional singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched").

Happy Friday

Even mediocre happiness is eternally better than none.

My happiness knows no bounds, especially on a Happy Friday!

Pinch Bum Day

I always chuckle when I add this holiday. May 29, also known as Pinch-Bum Day, to commemorate the return of Charles II to London on that date in 1660. Those who did not wear oak leaves could be pinched. Our ancestors were clearly over-fond of this form of retribution, but at least women could do it to men, too.

Electronic Spam

Spam is shoulder pork and ham and is also unsolicited junk email. Eighty six percent of the world's email traffic is spam. That amounts to more than 400 billion messages sent a day, according to a report by Cisco Systems.

One way to eliminate spam might be for all of us to reply to the spammer with a copy of the email. When they get 400 billion messages back, they may just understand what we deal with every day. Oh, delete your signature line, but do not worry that they will get your email address. Obviously they already have it.

Words

Your lips do not touch when you say "touch," but they do when you say "apart."

Saint Pierre and Miquelon

It is part of Appalachian Mountains, Canada, and France.

The Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (French: Collectivité Territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon) is an overseas collectivity of France located in the North Atlantic Ocean about 30 kilometers (19 mi) south of the Canadian Island of Newfoundland. It comprises a group of small islands, the main ones being Saint Pierre and Miquelon located in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the center of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic, 25 kilometers (16 mi) southwest of Newfoundland.


The archipelago is composed of eight islands, totaling 242 square kilometers (93 sq mi), and of which only two are inhabited. The islands are bare and rocky, with steep coasts, and only a thin layer of peat to soften the hard landscape. It is geologically part of the northeastern end of the Appalachian Mountains along with Newfoundland.

Saint Pierre Island, whose area is smaller, 26 square kilometers (10 sq mi), is the most populous and the commercial and administrative center of the archipelago. A new airport, Saint-Pierre Airport, has been in operation since 1999 and is capable of accommodating long-haul flights from France.
Miquelon-Langlade, the largest island, is composed of two islands, Miquelon Island (also called Grande Miquelon), 110 square kilometers (42 sq mi), connected to Langlade Island (Petite Miquelon), 91 square kilometres (35 sq mi), by the Dune de Langlade, a 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) long sandy split. A storm had severed them in the 18th century, separating the two islands for several decades, before currents reconstructed the isthmus. The waters between Langlade and Saint-Pierre were called "the Mouth of Hell" until about 1900, as more than 600 shipwrecks have been recorded in that point.

The official currency is the Euro, but the Canadian dollar is also widely accepted. The islands issue their own stamps. The inhabitants have French citizenship, speak French and their customs and traditions are similar to the ones found in metropolitan France.

The total population of the islands at the January 2011 census was 6,080, of which 5,456 lived in Saint-Pierre and 624 in Miquelon-Langlade.

French overseas collectivities like the French regions, are first-order administrative divisions of France. Other collectivities of France include, the Islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthélemy, (Atlantic Ocean) Reunion island, Mayotte, the French Southern, and Antarctic Lands (Indian Ocean) French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna (Pacific Ocean).

Chocolate Diamonds

Another way jewelers have found to separate people from their money. Chocolate diamonds are brown diamonds. These are the most common diamonds, and up until the ad campaign, they were almost worthless. However, with a bit of rebranding, they are now being sold for the same price as other diamonds.

For every carat of diamond that is mined, 1,750 tons of rock needs to be mined and discarded.

Night Vision

The first practical night vision devices were developed in Germany in the mid-1930s. Night vision goggles are usually green, because people can see more shades of green than other colors. Because the eye is most sensitive to light wavelengths nearer green, the display can be a little dimmer, which conserves battery power.

Photons that hit the lens at the front of night vision goggles are carrying light of all colors, but when they are converted to electrons, there is no way to preserve that information. Effectively, the incoming, colored light is turned into black and white. It is also easier to look at green screens for long periods than to look at black and white ones. That is also why early computer screens were mostly green.

YouTube Facts

During 2012, YouTube was watched 700 billion times, and 99% of the views were of only 30% of the videos.

During 2017 - Amount of content YouTube users watch annually:
46,000 years worth of content are watched annually,
One billion hours are watched per day,
400 hours of video are loaded each minute.