Mar 30, 2018
Wordology, FOMO
According to the Urban Dictionary,
fomo is "fear of missing out". The fear that if you miss a
party or event you will miss out on something great. Anxiety
that an exciting or interesting event may currently be
happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social
media website.
Happy Friday
Happiness
cannot hide from a broad smile.
Wake up with a smile every day, especially on a Happy Friday!
Wake up with a smile every day, especially on a Happy Friday!
US Behind in Broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide
bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals
and data traffic types. The medium can be coaxial cable, optical
fiber, radio or twisted pair. In the context of internet access,
broadband is used to mean any high-speed internet access that is
always on and faster than dial-up access. In other words,
broadband is cable and internet.
According to a recent study, the five leading countries for broadband communications infrastructure are South Korea, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, and the Netherlands. The U.S. is #18.
In addition, US is #18 for broadband access and affordability. The top five are South Korea, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, and Norway.
The US is #13 for average fixed broadband connection speed. The top five are South Korea, Norway, Sweden, China and Switzerland.
According to a recent study, the five leading countries for broadband communications infrastructure are South Korea, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, and the Netherlands. The U.S. is #18.
In addition, US is #18 for broadband access and affordability. The top five are South Korea, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, and Norway.
The US is #13 for average fixed broadband connection speed. The top five are South Korea, Norway, Sweden, China and Switzerland.
World's Most Popular Fruit
Over 100 billion bananas are consumed worldwide
each year. India, China, Brazil, and Indonesia account for half
of that consumption.
Bananas make up approximately 75% of the annual tropical fruit trade. In fact, they are the world's most exported fruit. The world's top banana exporter is Ecuador, while the United States imports the most bananas.
Bananas grow in tropical and subtropical areas around the world. Classified botanically as a berry, bananas grow on large plants that look like big bushes. The name "banana" comes from the Arabic word "banan," which means finger.
Bananas make up approximately 75% of the annual tropical fruit trade. In fact, they are the world's most exported fruit. The world's top banana exporter is Ecuador, while the United States imports the most bananas.
Bananas grow in tropical and subtropical areas around the world. Classified botanically as a berry, bananas grow on large plants that look like big bushes. The name "banana" comes from the Arabic word "banan," which means finger.
Cement, Concrete, Gunite, and Mortar
Although the terms cement and
concrete often are used interchangeably, cement is actually an
ingredient of concrete. Concrete is basically a mixture of
aggregates and paste. The aggregates are sand and gravel or
crushed stone; the paste is water and Portland cement.
Cement is a fine binding powder, which is never used alone. It is made most commonly of limestone, clay, shells, and silica sand. These materials are crushed and then combined with other ingredients (including iron ore), and then heated to about 2,700 F. This material, called Clinker, is ground into a fine powder. It is used to make both concrete and mortar.
Both mortar and concrete are widely used building materials. They cannot be substituted for each other without compromising the integrity of a build.
Concrete is much stronger and more durable than mortar. Because it needs a low water to cement ratio, it is much thinner when mixed, making it difficult to use as a bonding element. Concrete is used in structural projects and is often reinforced with steel rebar to maintain its structural integrity. It is best used for support, such as beams, walls, or other building foundations. Its unique characteristic is that it starts out as a simple, dry mixture, becomes a liquid flexible material capable of forming into any mold or shape, and ends up as a hard-as-rock material.
Gunite is a very durable mixture of cement, sand, and water that is sprayed on a surface under pneumatic pressure. It is used for tunnels, underground structures, slope stabilization, structural repairs, and swimming pools. Gunite or shotcrete material is mortar or small-aggregate concrete applied using a wet or dry process.
Mortar is used to hold building materials such as brick or stone together. It is composed of a thick mixture of water, sand, and cement. The water is used to hydrate the cement and hold the mix together. The water to cement ratio is higher in mortar than in concrete in order to form its bonding element. When mixed, it is a much thicker substance than concrete, making it ideal as a glue for building materials like brick.
Bottom line, a hydrated cement mixture forms the base of all three materials, the rock chipping in cement makes it much stronger for use in structural projects, and mortar is thicker, which makes it a better bonding element.
Incidentally, the name Portland cement comes from Joseph Aspdin, who first produced cement during the 1800s in England. He thought its color was like the color of stone from quarries on the island of Portland off the coast of England.
Cement is a fine binding powder, which is never used alone. It is made most commonly of limestone, clay, shells, and silica sand. These materials are crushed and then combined with other ingredients (including iron ore), and then heated to about 2,700 F. This material, called Clinker, is ground into a fine powder. It is used to make both concrete and mortar.
Both mortar and concrete are widely used building materials. They cannot be substituted for each other without compromising the integrity of a build.
Concrete is much stronger and more durable than mortar. Because it needs a low water to cement ratio, it is much thinner when mixed, making it difficult to use as a bonding element. Concrete is used in structural projects and is often reinforced with steel rebar to maintain its structural integrity. It is best used for support, such as beams, walls, or other building foundations. Its unique characteristic is that it starts out as a simple, dry mixture, becomes a liquid flexible material capable of forming into any mold or shape, and ends up as a hard-as-rock material.
Gunite is a very durable mixture of cement, sand, and water that is sprayed on a surface under pneumatic pressure. It is used for tunnels, underground structures, slope stabilization, structural repairs, and swimming pools. Gunite or shotcrete material is mortar or small-aggregate concrete applied using a wet or dry process.
Mortar is used to hold building materials such as brick or stone together. It is composed of a thick mixture of water, sand, and cement. The water is used to hydrate the cement and hold the mix together. The water to cement ratio is higher in mortar than in concrete in order to form its bonding element. When mixed, it is a much thicker substance than concrete, making it ideal as a glue for building materials like brick.
Bottom line, a hydrated cement mixture forms the base of all three materials, the rock chipping in cement makes it much stronger for use in structural projects, and mortar is thicker, which makes it a better bonding element.
Incidentally, the name Portland cement comes from Joseph Aspdin, who first produced cement during the 1800s in England. He thought its color was like the color of stone from quarries on the island of Portland off the coast of England.
Two Cool Tips
To correct misspelled words, press the Ctrl key and hit
backspace to eliminate the whole word. Beats backspacing to
delete each letter individually.
Finding shiny objects. If you drop something shiny, like an earring, or change, turn off the lights and use a flashlight. It should shine and stand out from its surroundings.
Finding shiny objects. If you drop something shiny, like an earring, or change, turn off the lights and use a flashlight. It should shine and stand out from its surroundings.
Essential Oils
Essential
oils are not essential to our lives, but they are essential.
The name means 'essential' in the sense of 'containing the
essence' or as in pure essence. Essential oils are made from
pure extracts of the plant, which makes them healthier to burn
in an oil burner and generally non-toxic as opposed to fragrance
oil which is only scented with the plant's essence.
Poo Paper
Researchers presented their results at the 255th National
Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
The idea for the project germinated on Crete, where Alexander Bismarck, Ph.D., noticed goats munching on summer-dry grass in the small village where he was vacationing. "I realized what comes out in the end is partially digested plant matter, so there must be cellulose in there," he recalls.
After working with goat manure, Bismarck, who is at the University of Vienna, Austria, his postdoc Andreas Mautner, Ph.D., and graduate students Nurul Ain Kamal and Kathrin Weiland moved on to dung from horses, cows and eventually elephants.
The supply of raw material is substantial: Parks in Africa that are home to hundreds of elephants produce tons of dung every day, and enormous cattle farms in the U.S. and Europe yield mountains of manure, according to Mautner.
The researchers treat the manure with a sodium hydroxide solution. This partially removes lignin, which can be used later as a fertilizer or fuel, as well as other impurities, including proteins and dead cells. To fully remove lignin and to produce white pulp for making paper, the material has to be bleached with sodium hypochlorite. The purified cellulose requires little if any grinding to break it down into nanofibers in preparation for use in paper, in contrast to conventional methods.
"You need a lot of energy to grind wood down to make nanocellulose," Mautner says. But with manure as a starting material, "you can reduce the number of steps you need to perform, simply because the animal already chewed the plant and attacked it with acid and enzymes. You inexpensively produce a nanocellulose that has the same or even better properties than nanocellulose from wood, with lower energy and chemical consumption," he says.
The dung-derived nanopaper could be used in many applications, including as reinforcement for polymer composites or filters that can clean wastewater before it is discharged into the environment.
The idea for the project germinated on Crete, where Alexander Bismarck, Ph.D., noticed goats munching on summer-dry grass in the small village where he was vacationing. "I realized what comes out in the end is partially digested plant matter, so there must be cellulose in there," he recalls.
After working with goat manure, Bismarck, who is at the University of Vienna, Austria, his postdoc Andreas Mautner, Ph.D., and graduate students Nurul Ain Kamal and Kathrin Weiland moved on to dung from horses, cows and eventually elephants.
The supply of raw material is substantial: Parks in Africa that are home to hundreds of elephants produce tons of dung every day, and enormous cattle farms in the U.S. and Europe yield mountains of manure, according to Mautner.
The researchers treat the manure with a sodium hydroxide solution. This partially removes lignin, which can be used later as a fertilizer or fuel, as well as other impurities, including proteins and dead cells. To fully remove lignin and to produce white pulp for making paper, the material has to be bleached with sodium hypochlorite. The purified cellulose requires little if any grinding to break it down into nanofibers in preparation for use in paper, in contrast to conventional methods.
"You need a lot of energy to grind wood down to make nanocellulose," Mautner says. But with manure as a starting material, "you can reduce the number of steps you need to perform, simply because the animal already chewed the plant and attacked it with acid and enzymes. You inexpensively produce a nanocellulose that has the same or even better properties than nanocellulose from wood, with lower energy and chemical consumption," he says.
The dung-derived nanopaper could be used in many applications, including as reinforcement for polymer composites or filters that can clean wastewater before it is discharged into the environment.
Shipping Someone
The Urban Dictionary's definition of shipping is a term used
to describe fan fictions that take previously created characters
and put them as a pair. It usually refers to romantic
relationships, but it can refer platonic ones as well. Think of
“shipping” as short for “relationSHIP”.
JPG vs. HEIF
Have you noticed some pictures on i devices and in Windows 10
now have an extension of HEIF (High Efficiency Image File
Format), instead of JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)?
It is a new designation for pictures and supports bonus features, such as it can accommodate live photos, bursts of photos, 3D scene data useful for special effects, audio, and more. As a container, HEIF can actually accommodate multiple compression technologies. When used with HEVC video compression, the resulting files are called HEIC images.
It compresses the file size to roughly half the size of JPG files to save space. The quality is reported to be identical.
Apple is using is also using it as a new standard, so you will be seeing more of these picture file types. Incidentally, it is usually pronounced heef.
It is a new designation for pictures and supports bonus features, such as it can accommodate live photos, bursts of photos, 3D scene data useful for special effects, audio, and more. As a container, HEIF can actually accommodate multiple compression technologies. When used with HEVC video compression, the resulting files are called HEIC images.
It compresses the file size to roughly half the size of JPG files to save space. The quality is reported to be identical.
Apple is using is also using it as a new standard, so you will be seeing more of these picture file types. Incidentally, it is usually pronounced heef.
Mar 16, 2018
Happy Friday
Smiles are like music to soothe a happy soul.
I love a good tune, especially on a Happy Friday!
I love a good tune, especially on a Happy Friday!
Happiness is Contagious
A joint venture study by Harvard University
and the University of California at San Diego, followed 5,000
people over a 20-year period. The family, coworkers, and
neighbors of these individuals were also followed, involving at
least 50,000 people in the process. The researchers determined
how happy the participants were by administering standard
happiness assessments, where subjects responded to statements,
such as "I feel hopeful about the future," "I feel I am just as
good as other people," and "I am happy."
According to the results, if a friend who lives within a mile of you gets happy, your chances of happiness increase by 25 percent. If that happy friend lives closer to you, you have a 42 percent chance of being happy yourself, showing that proximity to happy people makes a difference. In fact, neighbors of happy people feel the effect more than family members do. Siblings who live close to a happy sibling increase their likelihood of happiness by 14 percent, while next-door neighbors of the happy individual have a 34 percent benefit, even if the neighbors are not friends. The happiness effect lasts up to a year. "We know it's not a 'birds of a feather flock together' effect," said one of the study authors, Nicholas A. Christakis of Harvard University.
Your happiness can affect the happiness of someone you have never met. However, work colleagues seem immune to the benefit. Partners and spouses are less receptive than friends, with only an eight percent benefit from a happy spouse. Good news the researchers found was that while happiness spreads, unhappiness does not spread as much.
"You would think that your emotional state would depend on your own choices and actions and experience," said Dr. Christakis. "But it also depends on the choices, and actions, and experiences of other people, including people to whom you are not directly connected. Happiness is contagious."
Happiness has a significant impact on health. All of which means that it pays to live next to healthy, happy individuals. This study indicates that when you do something right for yourself, the ripples of that positive choice extend farther out into the world than you might have thought.
According to the results, if a friend who lives within a mile of you gets happy, your chances of happiness increase by 25 percent. If that happy friend lives closer to you, you have a 42 percent chance of being happy yourself, showing that proximity to happy people makes a difference. In fact, neighbors of happy people feel the effect more than family members do. Siblings who live close to a happy sibling increase their likelihood of happiness by 14 percent, while next-door neighbors of the happy individual have a 34 percent benefit, even if the neighbors are not friends. The happiness effect lasts up to a year. "We know it's not a 'birds of a feather flock together' effect," said one of the study authors, Nicholas A. Christakis of Harvard University.
Your happiness can affect the happiness of someone you have never met. However, work colleagues seem immune to the benefit. Partners and spouses are less receptive than friends, with only an eight percent benefit from a happy spouse. Good news the researchers found was that while happiness spreads, unhappiness does not spread as much.
"You would think that your emotional state would depend on your own choices and actions and experience," said Dr. Christakis. "But it also depends on the choices, and actions, and experiences of other people, including people to whom you are not directly connected. Happiness is contagious."
Happiness has a significant impact on health. All of which means that it pays to live next to healthy, happy individuals. This study indicates that when you do something right for yourself, the ripples of that positive choice extend farther out into the world than you might have thought.
World Happiness Report
The United States has dropped four spots in the latest World
Happiness Report ranking. It has now dropped to 18th spot (from
14th) in the annual ranking, which is published by the
Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a United Nations
initiative.
The new report lists 156 countries by their happiness levels. The rankings are based on results from Gallup World Poll surveys. Researchers used factors including income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust, and generosity to measure happiness.
Finland was ranked number one, with Norway second, and Denmark third. Rounding out the top ten are Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Australia.
The new report lists 156 countries by their happiness levels. The rankings are based on results from Gallup World Poll surveys. Researchers used factors including income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust, and generosity to measure happiness.
Finland was ranked number one, with Norway second, and Denmark third. Rounding out the top ten are Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Australia.
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