Great clips

Paul Blanchard has produced a series of video clips, mostly based on his kid's elementary school.

Explore Paul's web site

You can also subscribe to his YouTube collection.

Labels: General

Thoughts and Tick Tocks

Brad McCormick has the kind of web site that is built to be thumbed through. There are some serious linkage pages:

What Time Does Your Computer Think It Is?

And also a collection of his thoughts and others. I found it worthwhile to just surf from spot to spot.

There is good stuff at almost every click.

"Happy the person who can find genuine interest and satisfaction in something nobody else wants -- for then (s)he has a better chance of being allowed to have it. "

"Big problem: How to avoid wasting one's life to earn one's living. "

"When will we advance to a level where not just owning persons (slavery) but also renting them (wage labor) is outlawed and abolished? "

"Some persons can judge [many] books by their covers. Other persons can't judge a book even by its contents. "

"Why not speak, conciliatorily, of the complementary sex (gender), rather than, oppositionally: 'the opposite sex'?"

Labels: General, Humor

and other cool stuff

Also:
Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

Timber Kits


And:
the Paper Airplane Museum



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Labels: General, Products

How a computer tells time

"Karen is the author of the popular Power Tools, free programs that make life with Windows a lot easier.

Karen also writes a free e-mail newsletter. In it, she discusses her new programs, answers reader questions, and explains technical details in a way that anyone can understand."

"Computers running Windows 95 or later can take advantage of a third circuit to measure time even more accurately. The frequency of this high- speed oscillator varies from one computer to another. But it usually produces a few million pulses each second.

Because this timer ticks so furiously, Windows allocates more space to store its current value. This counter can continue to increase until it's recorded a total of 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 ticks! This should take at least 21,350,398 seconds (assuming a fast 10 MHz oscillator), or a little over 58,454 years, before the counter reaches its limit. They tell me at that point the count is reset to zero and begins again."

BTW:
If you're a real geek, you may want this:
Excel Function Wall Clock

Some of the functions used to indicate the time are:
=INT(PI)

=FACT(3)

=GCD(77,49)

and

=ROMAN(2)




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Labels: General, Reference

And other stuff

• "Relieve itching from chicken pox, poison ivy, poison oak, or pain from sunburn. Pour two cups Cheerios in a blender and blend into a fine powder on medium-high speed. Put the powdered Cheerios into a warm bath and soak in the oats for thirty minutes. It's a soothing oatmeal bath.
  
  
  
• Make "Cheerios Chicken." Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a jelly-roll pan (15.5 inches by 10.5 inches by 1 inch) with aluminum foil. Mix two cups finely crushed Cheerios (from the yellow box), one-quarter teaspoon pepper, one teaspoon parsley flakes, one-quarter teaspoon garlic powder, one-quarter teaspoon dried oregano leaves, and one-half teaspoon salt. Dip four chicken-breast halves (skinned and boned) into one-quarter cup milk, then roll in cereal mix until well coated. Place chicken in pan and drizzle with two tablespoons melted margarine. Bake until done, about twenty to twenty-five minutes. (Above 3,500 feet elevation, bake about thirty minutes.) Makes four servings."

Labels: Answers, Books, General, Products, Reference, Tutorials

A little is dangerous, a lot is too much

Aspirin

The inventor of this modern miracle drug saw no use for it. Luckily, aspirin's formula was rediscovered nearly fifty years later and the rest is history. But, did you know that aspirin was included as part of the Treaty of Versailles?

Band-Aids

I'm stuck on Band-Aid 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me. Millions of these little adhesive strip have been sold over the years. Yet, their existence may never have been if it weren't for Listerine.

The Brassiere

Mary Phelps Jacob is widely credited with inventing this article of clothing way back in 1913. Did she really invent this garment? Better yet, did you know that it could possibly kill you? Check out the real answers.

Labels: Answers, General, Humor

Twaddle free

"The Federal Government's writing must be in plain language. By using plain language, we send a clear message about what the Government is doing, what it requires, and what services it offers. Plain language saves the Government and the private sector time, effort, and money."

Plain language can be understood by YOUR reader at first reading. It doesn't mean writing for a certain grade level - it means organizing and writing for your reader. Writing in plain language saves time and money for writers and readers.

The Plain Language Center
Building Plain Language from the Ground Up

Introducing Plain Language

Plain language matches the needs of the reader with your needs as a writer, resulting in effective and efficient communication. It is effective because the reader can understand the message. It is efficient because the reader can read and understand the message the first time.

Also:
LegalWriting.net
Plain language produces clear, concise, and readable documents

And then for no reason ,other than most writing is twaddle, here's a review of:

How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World:
A Short History of Modern Delusions
by Francis Wheen.

It's entitled: "Twaddle unswaddled".
Appropriate or not, it is fun to say.

[Edited entry from 12/27/2004]




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Labels: General

Not just Word

Labels: General, Products, Tutorials

Figure the vigorish

• Auto Calculators
  
  
• Bond Calculators
  
  
• Budget Calculators
  
  
• College Calculators
  
  
• Credit Card Calculators
  
  
• Home Calculators
  
  
• Insurance - Disability Calculators
  
  
• Insurance - Health Calculators
  
  
• Insurance - Life Calculators
  
  
• Life Expectancy Calculators
  
  
• Choose-to-Save - Life Expectancy
  
  
• Mutual Fund Calculators
  
  
• Paycheck Planning Calculators
  
  
• Retiree Health
  
  
• Retirement Calculators
  
  
• Roth IRA Calculators
  
  
• Savings Calculators
  
  
• Social Security Calculators
  
  
• Social Security Administration - Estimate Your Potential Benefit
  
  
• Stock Calculators
  
  
• Tax Calculators

Labels: Answers, General

How trigger happy is your state?

"Most U.S. states have failing scores when it comes to stopping criminals and other dangerous people from obtaining guns.

Two-thirds of all states score less than 20 points out of 100. Almost half of all states score 10 points or less out of 100.

The state with the strongest gun laws is California with 79 points, followed by New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maryland."

Labels: General

Old Food Tools

"Henry Petroski, in The Evolution of Useful Things, makes the argument that it is not so much that necessity is the "mother of invention" as that invention takes place in response to dissatisfaction at the shortcomings of an already existing way of doing things.

The eating utensils we use and the ways we use them are the result of centuries of experimentation."

The Elizabethan Practical Companion

Medieval and Renaissance Eating Utensils and "Feast Gear"

Ron Popeil (aka Ron "But Wait!" Popeil)

"Born in 1935, he was for all practical purposes orphaned three years later when his parents divorced and he and his brother were shunted to a boarding school in upstate New York.

The one memory of this period is of a Christmas when parents were taking their children home for the holidays. Ron peered through a window at the long, straight road leading to the school, hoping to see his father's car approach. It never did."

Labels: General, History

Small change(s)

Fund A Business

Loan for a woman

International Medical Corps.
Your gift of $200 can help IMC to give a deserving woman a loan to start her own business. Through a proven "community investment" model, women pay back their loans not to IMC, but to a community bank that consists of the pooled contributions of a group of women.

Expand A Business

Loan for a mother
Foundation for International Community Assistance.

Added income from a $50 loan can help a Tanzanian mother expand her business and feed her children more nutritious food.. And you're providing a self-employment loan, not a gift. Your donation will build discipline, responsibility, and self-confidence as women create their own business.

Rent A Market Stall

Loan for a woman
Foundation for International Community Assistance.

With a $100 loan, a Haitian woman can rent a market stall and increase her income two-fold. And you're providing a self-employment loan, not a gift. Your donation will build discipline, responsibility, and self-confidence as women create their own business.

Support Development

25 chickens & rooster
Operation USA.

Give the gift of life – literally! Giving a loan to purchase and raise animals, such as cows, rabbits, sheep, chickens and roosters is the perfect gift for someone who cares deeply about providing opportunity and empowering a family to lift itself out of poverty.

Labels: Activities, General, World

So very SAD

SAD

A wistful feeling comes over us in late autumn, as the last remaining leaves drop, morning frosts cover the ground, and the sun sets earlier each day. Hot cider and the warmth of a favorite old coat may be all you need to face the coming winter with good cheer, but for many people, fall melancholy deepens to winter depression.

Winter depression is still a mystery to scientists who study it. Many things, including brain chemicals, ions in the air, and genetics seem to be involved. But researchers agree that people who suffer from winter depression -- also known as "seasonal affective disorder," a term that produces the cute acronym SAD -- have one thing in common. They're particularly sensitive to light, or the lack of it.

"Research shows that bright light visual stimulation (light which enters the eyes), can change the timing of the body clock and its timing of sleep or awakening signals to the body. Thus, bright light therapy has been used to treat the range of disorders caused by a mis-timed body clock including shift work, jet lag, sleep onset and early morning insomnia mentioned above as well as winter depression (Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD)."

"Probably the greatest use of bright light therapy is for the treatment of winter depression, especially in very northern countries which have little sunlight in the winter months. These sufferers appear to have delayed body clocks and benefit most from morning light therapy.

At present, the blue LED glasses are still experimental devices. They are not yet commercially available. The Flinders University owns the intellectual property rights and a provisional patent. A commercial partner to manufacture and market the devices under license is still being sought."

Labels: Answers, General, Products

Like those fruity machines

Labels: General, Music

IRS worthy or not

• Benevolence International Foundation, Inc.
  Palos Hills, Illinois
  
  
• Global Relief Foundation, Inc.
  Bridgeview, Illinois
  
  
• Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development
  Richardson, Texas
  
  
• Rabbi Meir Kahana Memorial Fund
  Cedarhurst, New York

Labels: Answers, General, Search

The real stars

JPL NASA

Also:
Arachnoid.com

In 1826, the astronomer Heinrich Olbers asked, "Why is the sky dark at night?" By his time, physicists had learned enough to realize that, in a stable, infinite universe with an even distribution of stars, the entire universe should gradually heat up.

You will also discover the connection between a rubber band, your refrigerator, and the universe.

An Observation of the Night Sky
There is plenty here to keep you busy: Beginners will find the Tutorials very useful along with the Constellations and weekly Skycharts.
By Jerry Pool

Photographs:
Events in the night sky

StarDate Online
StarDate is the public education and outreach arm of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory.

English and Spanish radio programs air daily on more than 500 stations.

Fourmilab Switzerland
To make a sky map, enter the latitude and longitude of your observing site and press the "Make Sky Map" button

This site is developed and maintained by John Walker, founder of Autodesk, Inc. and co-author of AutoCAD.

Space Watch
by Imaginova Spaceware



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Labels: Activities, General, World

Where'd it go?

Keeping Found Things Found™

"What is KFTF?

The classic problem of information retrieval, simply put, is to help people find the relatively small number of things they are looking for (books, articles, web pages, CDs, etc.) from a very large set of possibilities. This classic problem has been studied in many variations and has been addressed through a rich diversity of information retrieval tools and techniques.

A follow-on problem also exists which has received relatively less study: Once found, how are things organized for re-access and re-use later on? What can be done to avoid the need to repeat the process by which the information was found in the first place? (If, indeed, it is possible to repeat this process.) We refer to this as the problem of Keeping Found Things Found™ or KFTF."

Labels: Answers, General, Help

Notes and Slides

"Now, what I am going to show is how to have two different desktop screens in this configuration. Yes, you heard me right. The base display (say, laptop screen) shows different applications and the secondary display (say, projector) displays a separate desktop."

1. You are in a sales presentation. During the presentation, customer is negotiating the price. You want to refer to your price list, use Excel and calculate some discounts and so on.
   
   
2. You are in a technical presentation. Someone asks a question about a topic you are not fully clear about. You can now refer to the technical help / documentation or website, without disturbing the base presentation.
   
   
3. Assuming you have an Internet connection, you can even chat with colleagues, take approval from your boss, download additional deliverables and clinch a deal without leaving the presentation.

Labels: General

Who's living in your neighborhood?

ZIPSkinny displays US Census data for any selected Zip code .

You can find out how old your neighbors are and how much money they make.

Find out how many graduated from high school and how many are single.

Here's part of the information available about someone's vacation home.



ZIPSkinny.com



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Labels: Answers, General, Search

50 things about the moon

The Belfast Telegraph had an article on moon detritus:

3 -Lunar eclipses - caused by the passage of the earth's shadow across the illuminated hemisphere - only occur during a full moon. However, because of the angle of tilt of both bodies the moon normally passes either north or south of the earth's shadow.

4 -The chances of being bitten by a dog are twice as high during a full moon, according to a study at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which reviewed 1,621 cases of dog bite between 1997 and 1999. However, a study at the University of Sydney in Australia concluded there was no identifiable relationship between the state of the moon and dog bites.

16 -In October 1939 in Springfield, Missouri, the full moon appeared to fall from the sky. The event was reported in the local newspaper but was later revealed to be a plunging weather balloon.

26 -The full moon may appear round, but is actually shaped like an egg with the pointed end facing earth.

33 -The full moon is the brightest object in the night sky. It has an apparent magnitude of -12.6 compared with the Sun's of -26.8.

50 -In a study of 1,000 tonsillectomy operations, 82 per cent of post-operative bleeding crises occurred nearer the full moon than the new moon, according to the Journal of the Florida Medical Association.

The sky at night



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Labels: General

Clip Clop

A Foley Artist 'recreates' sound effects for film, television and radio productions on a Foley Stage in a Post Production Sound Studio.

Using many different kinds of shoes and lots of props - car fenders, plates, glasses, chairs, and just about anything found at the side of the road - the Foley Artist can replace original sound completely or augment existing sounds to create a richer smoother track.

Almost every motion picture and television show you have ever seen and heard contains a Foley track!

NPR presented this story:
Jack Foley: Feet to the Stars

Also:

Art of Foley

Film Sound Q&A



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Labels: General

Paperless Bathroom

"In 1982, an article in The Economist began:

'The vision of the paperless office is future-gazing nonsense. Even computer giant IBM believes paper will be found amidst the micro-electronic wonders in the office of the future.'

In 1983 Wang Labs had introduced a system that could scan images and store them in memory. They predicted paperless offices. Today offices are wangless.

In 1985 the Wall Street Journal had a short quote that said there would be 'a paperless office when there is a paperless bathroom'"

The paperless office. Still waiting

Paperless toilet

"When you press the "cleanse" button, a wand, about the size and shape of a fat pencil (that was previously hidden under the seat) automatically extends, washes itself, and then sprays a carefully aimed aerated stream of water for a few seconds, or until you touch the "stop" button. Then the wand rinses itself off again, and it retracts, out of the way again.

The engineers have been perfecting the Washlet for over ten years, and millions of them have been sold. They have plenty of research on exactly what it takes."

"2001: A Space Odyssey"

The Social Life Of Paper

by Malcolm Gladwell

Labels: General, History

Crorcet Sllipneg

"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."

"Sgeun un etsduio de una uivenrsdiad ignlsea, no ipmotra el odren en el que las ltears etsan ersciats, la uicna csoa ipormtnate es que la pmrirea y la utlima ltera esten ecsritas en la psiocion cocrrtea. El rsteo peuden estar ttaolmntee mal y aun pordas lerelo sin pobrleams. Etso es pquore no lemeos cada ltera por si msima preo la paalbra es un tdoo."

Labels: General

Ding dong bling

Wrist Fashion is a Weblog that publishes the latest news, trends and products from the Wristwatch Industry in bite size morsels.

Brand: Venexx
Movement: Swiss Ronda Calibre 1063.1.90 quartz movement
Perfume: Approximately 60 sprays
Water Resistant: 30 metres

Labels: General, Products

Four pecks to a bushel

"Convert is an easy to use unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions!"

Also see Josh Madison's Chinese restaurant get well card.

OnlineConversion.com does more conversions online.
(A Hogshead is 63 Gallons)

Export911 has conversions and calculators.

Also:
Convert between bits/bytes/kilobits/kilobytes/megabits/megabytes/gigabits/gigabytes

Labels: Answers, General

July 10, 1856

Labels: General, History

Eavesdrop on the experts

Labels: General

2007 is lacking

"Yes, unfortunately, the Insert from Scanner and Camera feature was removed in Office 2007.
This was a difficult call, but I think for the best of the product overall. The feature supported a limited number of scanners and the camera support had not been updated for some time.
We came to the conclusion that most users would be better off using the software that came with their camera, scanner or even built into Windows, to get their images from their device, to the file system, and then use the Insert Picture command to get them into Office.
The downside, is that for some users, this feature did work and so will be missed."

"The From Scanner or Camera option for adding pictures to a presentation, photo album, or workbook is not available in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 or Microsoft Office Excel 2007.

Instead, you can add pictures from your camera or scanner by downloading the pictures to your computer first, and then copying them from your computer into PowerPoint or Excel."

Support.Microsoft.com
How to insert scanned images in Office 2007

You could also use the Microsoft Document Imaging/Scanning application.
About Microsoft Office Document Imaging

BTW, when the article calls for clicking on the Scan button, it's actually the picture of a scanner.





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Labels: General