Feb 23, 2018

Happy Friday

The joy of happiness is immeasurable.

I count on staying happy, especially on a Happy Friday!

Wordology, Mnemonic

Mnemonics make it easy to remember facts. There are many examples that have been around for years, such as this mnemonic sentence, "Super Heroes Must Eat Oats."   For instance, the names of the five Great Lakes spell the word HOMES. If you want to remember them them in order of size from largest to smallest surface area, try “Super Heroes Must Eat Oats” - Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, Ontario. If you want to remember them from left to right on a map, change Super Heroes to “Super Man Helps Every One.”

Famous Olympians After Olympics

Some Olympians become famous for other accomplishments long after the medal glory wears off. Here are a few folks you might not remember for participating in the Olympics.
Dr. Benjamin Spock, author of the bestselling Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), was the authority on child rearing in Baby Boomer America. Spock rowed with Yale's crew team and made the men's eights team for the 1924 Paris Olympics. He won a gold medal at age 21. He also  placed third in a 4-mile rowing contest at age 84.

General George S. Patton, World War II officer who led the U.S. Third Army on the Western Front, was famous for his foul mouth, rousing speeches, and tenacious leadership. He placed fifth in the inaugural modern pentathlon (swimming, riding, fencing, running, shooting) at the 1912 Olympics.

Bruce Dern was second in 1500 meters and 800 meters events in the Senior Olympics.

Geena Davis picked up archery as a hobby, but almost made the 2000 USA Olympic Team, where she placed 24th out of 300 at the tryouts. She had only been shooting for two years prior to trying out.

Jason Statham developed an interest in diving at age 11, joined Britain’s National Diving Team and competed in the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
Dolph Lundgren was asked to serve as the Team Leader for the 1996 US Olympic Modern Pentathlon team.

Strother Martin, from Cool Hand Luke movie,  "What we've got here is failure to communicate." He entered the adult National Springboard Diving competition in hopes of gaining a berth on the US Olympic team, but finished third in the competition.

Talk to a Human Help

These days it seems like companies deliberately hide the phone number to speak to a real human being. Even if a company provides a number, the computer leads us through a seemingly random set of questions to keep punching in numbers until we want to scream.

There is a way to bypass much of this hassle. A website https://gethuman.com/ provides real numbers and real techniques to get to a live human being. It even offers to help (for a fee) if you are completely exasperated.

Longest Gestation

In humans, the period of time it takes for a baby to grow in the womb to the point when it's ready to be born is called the gestation period and it averages about 40 weeks or nine months. Relative to many animals, that is a short period of time

When it comes to mammals, no one has to wait as long to give birth as the elephant. weighs approximately 230 pounds when born, to develop. The average gestation period for an elephant is about  95 weeks or 23 months.

Black alpine salamanders have gestation periods that can last two to three years. The higher they live in the Alps, the colder it is and the longer their gestation period lasts.

Certain species of sharks also have long gestation periods, such as a basking shark carries its young almost three years, while the frilled shark has a gestation period of three and a half years.

Deeper beneath the sea is another marine animal the a deep-sea octopus at over 4,500 feet deep in the ocean waters off California. Babies were born after a gestation period of 53 months. That is more than twice as long as most that live in more shallow waters.

TV is Watching Us

Your smart TV is watching you. Some may not mind being tracked as it allows more personal ads sent to you. Others may not like being tracked for any reason. Saw this in USA Today and thought I would share how to turn off smart TV tracking.
LG - In the menu, click to Settings, which brings you to All Settings, and find your way to General. The feature to look for here is LivePlus, which is what LG calls the ACR technology. This is the one you want to turn off.
Samsung - On newer sets, go for Settings in the menu, then Support, then Terms & Policies. From there, Consumer Reports suggests pulling Viewing Information Services to opt out of. On older models, Consumer Reports says to click on Support and then select Terms & Policy and then SyncPlus and Marketing to turn off ACR.
Sony - Consumer Reports notes that ACR is turned on during setup of the TV, via agreements with Sony, which makes the TV; Google, which provides the AndroidTV operating system; and Samba TV, a company that gathers analytics on viewers' habits that advertisers can use for targeted ad campaigns. On Sony TVs, you need to get go back to the setup, available within Settings, to turn off ACR. If you want some of the Web connectivity, but not everything, you can agree to Sony and Google policies, and then when you come to Samba TV, opt out of ACR by clicking 'disable'.
TCL/Roku - TCL, Hisense, Hitachi, Insignia, Philips, RCA and Sharp.
Turn off ACR by going to Settings, then Privacy, and "Smart TV Experience." Consumer Reports says you can uncheck "Use Information for TV Inputs" to disable ACR.


Vizio - Select System, click on Reset & Admin and opt for Viewing Data to opt out of ACR.

Before TV Interviews

This site has a compilation of interviews on film that date back to the 1920s and 1930s. If you want to be fascinated, have a watch. No big revelations, but interesting conversations with real people. Caution, you could spend way too much time on the site. LINK

Where is Starman Now

Elon Musk made history again with his sending a Tesla and Starman into space. Here is a website that is tracking the car in real time along its journey. Fun short term diversion. LINK

Windows 10 Windows Key Tips

We have all likely become used to seeing the Windows key on the keyboard. Down on the left side of keyboard between the CTRL and ALT keys. It is very handy for a number of functions to make your life easier if you know which key combos to use.

Just pushing on the Windows key will bring up the start menu quicker than moving the mouse to the start bar.
A few combinations the might be of interest.


Windows key and e  - opens the file explorer window to find files.
Windows key and x  - opens up the computer settings bar
Windows key and m - sends you back to the desktop
Windows key and k - brings up the connection bar.

Feb 16, 2018

Happy Friday

You can never outspend happiness.

I bank on being happy, especially on a Happy Friday!

Soapy Fish Bait

Ivory soap can be used as catfish bait by boiling it and letting it re-harden so that it does not crumble. Melt it in a double boiler, then pour into an ice cube tray. Once poured, push a treble hook into each cube with the points of the hook sticking out and let it harden. Incidentally, hot dogs also make good catfish bait.

Cord Cutters

Would be cord cutters might stick with cable TV, because they find it difficult to make a decision or find it difficult to change. There are so many options that it can seem overwhelming, so it seems easier to overpay than make the change. Many are finding that regular cable, in addition to high cost, offers the worst picture quality due to compression the signals to get so many channels on the wire. Even antenna TV offers substantially better picture quality and it is free after the purchase of an antenna.

Considerations for cutting the cord include the 4 C's - Cost, Channels, Commercials, and Complexity. I'll go through each with some questions. Cost is obvious. Can you afford what you are paying? Do you want to pay less? How much less is worth your while? Are you considering a life change that might make you move and break your contract (and pay a termination fee)? Is a long term contract a good idea?
Which channels do you consider 'must have', because your favorite shows are on them? Out of the hundreds of channels most people regularly watch less than 18.
How complex or complicated will it be to change? Can I do it myself? Will I need to hire an expert and how much will it cost?
Do I mind watching commercials? Do I hate commercials? Many cable TV alternatives offer premium packages that offer programs without commercials.
There is a website that can help answer many of those and more questions. It has the latest offerings and you answer a few questions, then it narrows down the offerings for you. https://www.suppose.tv/tv
Incidentally, Spectrum has decided to offer ala cart selection, where the subscriber can select up to ten additional channels (from a list) in addition to the standard set of channels. Sounds like the ultimate, have it your way TV. For an additional fee, there are even more premium channels that can be added individually.

Winter Olympic Tidbits

This year there are 92 countries participating in the Winter Olympics. The opening show used a record-setting 1,218 drones, four times as many as Lady Gaga in her Super Bowl half time show. The plastic and foam drones are about a foot-long, weigh eight ounces and are all synchronized to fly in formation. Here is a link to one of the formations. LINK
Here are some stats:
2,500 athletes participating

242 from US - most of any country

102 events
222 medals
80,000 foreign tourists
Members of Team USA who win a medal receive:
$37,500 for Gold, $22,500 for Silver, $15,000 for Bronze.

New Olympic Events

Four new events were added to this Olympics: Men’s and Women’s Snowboard Big Air, which sees competitors performing their best spins and tricks after launching off a large (about 160 feet) ramp.

For the first time, the Alpine skiing Nations Team Event will make its debut; the event features mixed teams of two men and two women going head-to-head in a series of downhill slalom races in a best-of-four competition.

Men’s and Women’s Speed Skating Mass Start features a maximum of 28 athletes in a 16-lap race, where all participants start at the same time with winner-takes-all stakes.

Curling Mixed Doubles. The new event consists of teams of two, a man and a woman, competing in a curling match

For the 2020 Summer Olympics five new events will be added: baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding.