August 2004
SciFi Language
Michael Quinion writes about English words from a British viewpoint. Most are about English words and phrase--what they mean, where they came from, how they have evolved, and the ways in which people sometimes misuse them. I enjoyed this article the Linguistic Legacy of Star Trek. Klingon was invented by Marc Okrand, for use in some of the Star Trek movies. He invented not just a few words to make the Klingons sound alien, but a complete language, with its own vocabulary, grammar, and usage. A page on alternate theme show lyrics (I liked the Enterprise one).
Its invented terminology—dilithium crystals, transporters, cloaking devices, replicators, warp drives, mind meld—has become familiar (even if the physics is more than a little wonky). The catchphrases from the original series—“It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it”, “I’m a doctor, not a ...”, and “Beam me up, Scotty”—are familiar to many unborn when it was first transmitted (even if, in the case of the last of these, it was never actually said: compare Humphrey Bogart’s “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca). Even the split infinitive in the title sequence that offended many purists—“to boldly go where no man has gone before”—has had its sharp edges of offence rubbed off by long familiarity; perhaps even by the growing consciousness that there’s really no such thing as a split infinitive in English and that altering the word order would destroy the emphasis. The producers changed it for The Next Generation and I was fascinated and delighted to discover that they’d gone PC but hadn’t altered the grammar, making it “to boldly go where no one has gone before”.
Fugu
Would you eat a meal and risk death? I doubt if I would. But they do in Japan. The fugu dish is a delicacy, properly prepared it provides a slight high and sends a tingling sensation throughout the body. But fugu is so deadly that customers sometime die when they eat it. Below is from a poisonous dish, compliments of Playground of the Mind.
The blowfish, also known as puffer, globefish, or swellfish, is the ideal of gourmet dining-and the cooking version of Russian roulette. While the fugu has long been praised in Japan as the most delicious of all fishes, it has also been feared, as improper preparation may cause fatal poisoning. The ovaries of the fish, as well as the liver, are highly poisonous, and only a licensed chef can prepare it. At present, fugu dishes are enjoyed as delicacy. Fugu are sold while they are alive to maintain their freshness. Only specially licensed cooks who know exactly how to cut up fugu are allowed to cook fugu. The blowfish poison is known as tetrodoxin. A pinch of the white powder, about the amount found in one prime-sized tiger fugu, is enough to kill more than 30 persons. The estimated lethal dose for an adult, a mere one to two milligrams, could be put on a pinhead. Puffer toxin blocks sodium channels in nerve tissues, ultimately paralyzing muscles. Respiratory arrest is the cause of death. There is no proven antidote, perhaps because the toxin has a molecular structure unlike anything previously known to organic chemistry. Because of its potency -- it is 1250 times deadlier than cyanide -- the toxin is an important tool in modern neurological research. In diluted from it is also used as a painkiller for victims of neuralgia, arthritis and rheumatism. Every year from October through March, millions of diners bet their lives on not getting fatally poisoned. But this curious and preposterous fish remains the worldıs most deadly feast. Fugu is one of the most expensive foods in Japan. A single fish can bring $50 to $140. Cut up and served in a restaurant, it can bring $200.
WonderQuest
April Holladay writes a question and answer column (WonderQuest) about nature and science for USA Today and New Mexican newspapers. You may want to view the archive. The below snip is about eye color.
Q: Seems that no one can figure this one out with a simple 2-gene square chart. My mother has green eyes. My father has blue eyes. How did I get light brown?
A: Youe’re right. The 2-gene square chart predicts that no offspring of your mother and father should have brown eyes. We’re developing a new genetic model. At least three-not two-gene pairs control human eye color. So, a 2-gene explanation cannot account for all situations.
The 2-gene model uses only the bey 2 gene (brown-blue) on chromosome pair 15 and the gey gene (green-blue) on chromosome 19. It neglects the bey 1 gene on chromosome 15. This is the central brown-eye color gene. We think that this third gene and perhaps others we haven’t discovered yet determine eye color or modify the expression of the known eye genes. These genes may also control how the pigment is distributed over the iris and therefore the flecks, rays, and rings of the iris.
Also, there’s an additional brownish-yellow pigment in green eyes, called lipofuscin or lipochrome. This pigment may account for your light brown eyes, says JJ Brannon, student of Salvador Luria (Nobel Laureate for Genetics) at MIT. The pigment causes age spots and underlies sallow complexion.
The pigment amount in the stroma determines the color lightness, for example, the shadings from light brown to hazel to dark brown, says Brian DeBroff, ophthalmology professor at Yale University.
America on the Move
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History has a virtual exhibition site, telling a variety of stories about America’s past, from the Star-Spangled Banner to submarines to the Sixties. They also chronicle the evolution of the Web itself, from the Museum’s earliest online efforts (found towards the bottom of the list), to today’s more sophisticated sites. Here is the index page to the America on the Move exhibit. Below is from page 2 of the Americans adopt the Auto exhibit. Shows a few photos early driver licenses, a watch tower for signals, early parking meters and short history.
Licensing Cars and Drivers
As the number of motor vehicles reached tens of thousands, state and local governments assumed a new power: authorizing vehicles and drivers. In 1901, New York became the first state to register automobiles; by 1918 all states required license plates. States were slower to require licenses for drivers. Only 39 states issued them by 1935 and few required a test, despite widespread concern about incompetent drivers. Early motorists were taught to drive by automobile salesmen, family and friends, or organizations like the YMCA. By the 1930s, many high schools offered driver education.
Daylightsaving Time
Webexhibits is produced by the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement, helping people to be more informed about science and culture. There are seven exhibits, including pigments thru the ages (art and painting), Giovanni Bellini’s Feast of the Gods, and calendars thru the ages. I did not know the below, that Ben Franklin was the first to propose the idea of daylight saving time.
Idea of Daylight Saving Time
The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." Read more about Franklin’s essay.
Some of Franklin’s friends, inventors of the oil lamp, were so taken by the scheme that they continued corresponding with Franklin even after he returned to America.
The idea was first advocated seriously by a London builder, William Willett (1857-1915), in the pamphlet "Waste of Daylight" (1907) that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September. As he was taking an early morning a ride through Petts Wood, near Croydon, Willett was struck by the fact that the blinds of nearby houses were closed, even though the sun was fully risen. When questioned as to why he didn’t simply get up an hour earlier, Willett replied with typical British humor, "What?"
America’s Byways
The National Scenic Byways Program is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. The program is a grass-roots collaborative effort established to help recognize, preserve and enhance selected roads throughout the United States. Since 1992, the National Scenic Byways Program has provided funding for almost 1500 state and nationally designated byway projects in 48 states. All of America's Byways™ are "scenic", representing the depth and breadth of scenery in America--natural and man-made panoramas; electrifying neon landscapes; ancient and modern history coming alive; native arts and culture; and scenes of friends, families and strangers sharing their stories. Here is a listing of byways by state.
Natchez Trace Parkway
The Natchez Trace Parkway tells the story of people on the move, the story of the age-old need to get from one place to another. It is a story of Natchez, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Indians following traditional ways of life, of French and Spanish people venturing into a new world, and of people building a new nation.
At first, the Trace was probably a series of hunters’ paths that slowly came together to form a trail that led from the Mississippi River over the low hills into the Tennessee Valley. By 1785, Ohio River Valley farmers searching for markets had begun floating their crops and products down the rivers to Natchez or New Orleans. Because they sold their flatboats for lumber, returning home meant either riding or walking. The trail from Natchez offered the most direct route for them to follow.
The parklands along the Trace preserve important examples of our nation’s natural and cultural heritage. Since the late 1930s, the National Park Service has been constructing a modern parkway that closely follows the course of the original Trace. Today, the parkway gives present-day travelers an unhurried route from Natchez to Nashville. It is a subtle driving experience. Motorists and bicyclists alike enjoy the scenery, from the rock-studded hills of Tennessee, past the cotton fields of Alabama, to the flat and meandering southern extremes shaded by trees and Spanish moss. The Natchez Trace Parkway winds along 445 scenic miles through three states, including Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Song Facts
Songfacts is a searchable database of song information compiled by radio professionals, music enthusiasts, and visitors to this web site. We hope using this site will help you better understand and enjoy the songs you listen to, and invite you to share your knowledge with us so that others may benefit. We provide the album, year the song was released, highest US and UK chart position, and "Songfacts " about each song. The "Songfacts " are interesting tidbits like what the song is about, who wrote it, and what makes it different. Songfacts is free. They have a companion site artistfacts, where you can learn more about the artists that you listen to. If you think you know music trivia, visit songfallacies. I scored 14 on my quiz, which was ok - but they said I oughta bone up on my music knowledge. A snip from the song Bell Bottom Blues is below.
Bell Bottom Blues by Derek And The Dominoes
Derek And The Dominoes formed after Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon worked on George Harrison’s solo album, All Things Must Pass. They went to England and played a bunch of small clubs all over Europe, with Clapton and Whitlock writing songs along the way. The band was in France when the inspiration for this song hit. Says Whitlock: "Eric met this girl, she was like a Persian princess or something, and she wore bell bottoms. She was all hung up on him - he gave her a slide that Duane (Allman) had given him and he wrapped it in leather and she wore it around her neck. She didn’t speak a word of English and they had to date through an interpreter. That relationship did not last but a week. He started the song over there, then when we got back to England, we finished it up in his TV room in Heartwood Edge."
This is the only studio album Derek And The Dominoes recorded. They attempted another, but the sessions imploded over what Whitlock describes as "Ego Problems."
Whitlock did not get a songwriting credit for this, but has no hard feelings: "That’s part of the ego thing. Had I been credited on ’Bell Bottom Blues,’ that would have meant I had more songs on the Layla album than Eric. At that time he had a massive ego trip going. In 2000, Eric played with me on a show. We did ’Bell Bottom Blues’ and a couple of other songs. We actually played with all the other bands that night; Giants is the DVD that’s out of that show. I didn’t say anything to anyone about me having written ’Bell Bottom Blues,’ I think it’s just something everybody knows." They did an interview at the piano and Jools Holland said, "How did you and Eric come about writing ’Bell Bottom Blues?’ In front of like 50 million people, I told the story. I said, ’The rest of it, you'll have to ask Eric,’ and the camera pans over to Eric and he’s shaking his head like I’m absolutely right. Eric wasn’t looking after his business back then. He had management to do that. He was playing. It was no business stuff - nobody was into publishing or that whole thing. It was more of an ego trip with that thing."
Dry Socket
You will hear the term dry socket if you ever have a tooth pulled. Dental Health library has a FAQ Categories page, quite an extensive listing in their ask a dentist online information program. Here are the questions on wisdom teeth. Health Boards is a very active forum on all health issues. A link to the acne board or visit fibromyalgia.
What Is It?
Dry socket is a complication of tooth extraction. It occurs when the blood clot that should form at the extraction site gets washed away. As a result, the bone beneath the socket is painfully exposed to air and food.
Dry socket is more common in people with diabetes, smokers and women who take oral contraceptives. It occurs following 3 percent to 20 percent of extractions and is more common after the removal of premolar or molar teeth in the lower jaw.
Symptoms
Dry socket causes pain in and around the site where the tooth was extracted. The pain usually starts on the third or fourth day after surgery and can radiate out from the site. Many people who have lower back teeth extracted feel pain in the ear on that side. The pain is severe and usually not relieved by over-the-counter painkillers. Dry socket can also cause bad breath and a bad taste in the mouth.
Jews & American Revolution
From an article entitled "How the Jews saved the American Revolution". Another article is a parable on life, between the taker and the giver. It compares the Dead Sea and the sea of Galilee.
But how did the Jews save the American Revolution? As late as 1781 the war had not been won by the Americans nor was it lost by the British. Arms were being funneled into the Colonies by arms merchants running the British blockade primarily from the tiny free trading Island of Dutch St. Eustatius. Jewish merchants and arms traders were a major presence on the island.
In 1781, the British realized they had to cut off the open door of arms shipments to the rebels through St. Eustatius. Admiral Sir George Rodney was sent to capture the island. His goal was to destroy the supplies and destroy the island’s commercial and merchant class so they could not provide any more aide to the rebels. Early in 1781 the lightly defended island fell to the heavy presence of the main British battle fleet. Rodney in his vehemence destroyed the warehouses and the supplies. He burnt every home. He paid particular venomous attention to the Jews of St. Eustatius. The British burnt their homes and the synagogue, Honen Dalim, "She Who is Charitable to the Poor" – built 1739. Jewish property was confiscated and the men imprisoned with particular cruelty. Rodney spent months directing half his fleet to convey much of the stolen treasure back to England.
African Wildlife
For more than 40 years, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has focused exclusively on the continent of Africa. AWF has played a major role in ensuring the continued existence of some of Africa's most rare and treasured species such as the elephant, the mountain gorilla, rhinoceros and cheetah. The essential need to conserve Africa's remaining vital ecosystems inspired AWF to mark a new era in African conservation by establishing the African Heartlands Program in 1998. Heartlands are large, cohesive conservation landscapes which are biologically important and have the scope to maintain healthy populations of wild species and natural processes well into the future. Seven Heartlands have been initially identified: Four Corners (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia); Kilimanjaro (Kenya and Tanzania); Limpopo (Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe); Maasai Steppe (Tanzania); Samburu (Kenya); Virunga (Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo); and Zambezi (Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique).
Nutrition
The Harvard School of Public Health has a nutrition source section on their website. Aside from not smoking, the most important determinants of good health are what we eat and how active we are. The Nutrition Source is designed to get you started down the path toward the healthiest diet possible. Navigating thru site is simple, left bar has 12 different sections: vitamins, protein, fiber, fats &colesterol, fruit & vegetables, and more. Below is from the carbohydrates page. Howstuffworks has a section on how diets work, this page will take you to the idea behind dieting. The crux of the whole section is that the idea behind most diets -- everything from Weight Watchers to the grapefruit diet -- is simply to help you somehow lower the number of calories that you consume each day. That’s all they do.
Carbohydrates and the Glycemic Index
A new system for classifying carbohydrates calls into question many of the old assumptions about how carbohydrates affect health. This new system, known as the glycemic index, measures how fast and how far blood sugar rises after you eat a food that contains carbohydrates.
White bread, for example, is digested almost immediately to glucose, causing blood sugar to spike rapidly. So white bread is classified as having a high glycemic index. Brown rice, in contrast, is digested more slowly, causing a lower and more gentle change in blood sugar. It has a lower glycemic index.
No Carbohydrates?
Some popular diets, particularly the Atkins diet, treat carbohydrates as if they are evil, the root of all body fat and excess weight. While there is some evidence that a low-carbohydrate diet may help people lose weight more quickly than a low-fat diet, no one knows the long-term effects of eating little or no carbohydrates. Equally worrisome is the inclusion of unhealthy fats in some of these diets.
Adding Good Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, and grains should give you the bulk of your calories. For optimal health, get your grains intact from foods such as whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole-grain pasta, and other possibly unfamiliar grains like quinoa, whole oats, and bulgur. Not only will these foods help protect you against a range of chronic diseases, they can also please your palate and your eyes.
Separating the Whole Grain From the Chaff
Food companies make it more difficult than it should be to spot a whole-grain food. Aware that consumers are interested in whole-grain products, companies often make foods sound like they're whole grain and healthy when they aren't. That means you must read food labels carefully. True whole-grain products list as the main ingredient whole wheat, whole oats, whole rye, or some other whole grain cereal. If the label says "made with wheat flour" it may be an intact grain product or it may just be an advertising gimmick, since even highly processed cake flour is made with wheat flour.
Album Covers
Whitney Matheson is a pop culture columnist for usatoday. She did a short report on the ten best and five worst album covers of this year. In music forums, the debate over greatest cover album ever, is never agreed upon. In some threads the cover is shown, one from musicianforums and another of favorite bands from 411mania.
According to lead singer Robert Smith, the artwork was drawn by Smith’s young nieces and nephews — some of whom asked how much they would be paid — and hung in the recording studio while the group made the record. Buy the album, and you’ll be treated to 19 more Smith family drawings in the liner notes. They depict some of the magical images kids often daydream about: rainbows, ghosts, smiling angels, pirate ships, stars, kings and puffy clouds. Something about the drawings fits The Cure’s sound in a way most photos couldn’t.
Literature Glossary
Gale.com has a free resource section, covering women, hispanic, black history and a poets corner. Navigate thru the left bar, biographies and timelines will probably be the only areas of interest. Top right of page is a link to how to write a paper and one to a glossary of literature terms. From the glossary:
Avant-garde: A French term meaning "vanguard." It is used in literary criticism to describe new writing that rejects traditional approaches to literature in favor of innovations in style or content.
Indian Slave Trade
The New Georgia Encyclopedia provides an authoritative source of information about people, places, events, institutions, and many other topics relating to the state. Along the left side of page is a variety of topics or themes, mainly used for browsing the site. Top bar will bring you to articles, authors and quick facts about the state of Georgia. Easy to navigate and design is very well done. I browsed thru history and archeology and found the below article in English and Indian Trade.
How the Indian Slave Trade Worked
English traders would give European-made guns and ammunition to a group of Indians and demand that the guns be paid for with slaves. The armed groups would then raid an unarmed rival group for slaves with which to pay their debt. The unarmed group, now vulnerable to Indian slave raiders, would thus need guns and ammunition for protection and would have to acquire them. The Native Americans depended on the European trade for flintlock guns as well as for shot and powder. Therefore, anyone needing guns had to become a slave raider. In this way a cycle of dependency emerged.
Indian slave raiders captured slaves, mostly women and children, by the thousands and sold them to English, French, and Dutch slavers, who shipped them to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean, although some certainly went to the new coastal plantations in Virginia, South Carolina, and French Louisiana. For most native groups, already seriously weakened by losses from disease, slaving was a serious blow. Wherever slaving penetrated, the same processes unfolded: many Indian groups moved to escape slave raiders; some groups joined others in an effort to bolster their numbers and present a stronger defense; some groups became extinct after losses to disease and slave raiding; and all those left became part of the slave trade.
Alone
I surfed into the forums at Boomerwomenspeak. This thread doing things alone caught my eye. For the most part I enjoy the company of another person to go eating, a movie, a drive, etc. I prefer not to do things alone. But then again, single life starts out alone. I only partially agree with the below snip. I don’t believe enjoying the company of another is validating myself.
Many people look to others to define who they are. They’re afraid of the introspection to find and define themself. When one’s core is other-based, that person will always need to have the physical presence of other people or they feel alone. Emotional presence is not as important as the physical; these people are "validated " only when someone else pays them attention, whether through anonymous sex or online chat. Left alone with themself, there is nothing.
People who are self-defined are less likely to be lonely, because they always have themself.
Dead or Alive
How many times have you had a flash of a musician, or movie star, or writer - and wonder wether they are still alive or died. Find out on dead or alive info. Use the search engine or navigate thru the alphabet on the left side. Search engine is broad, I typed in hope and results included hope in the info fields. Site has a good related links page: the sports category included baseball hall of fame biographies.
Mr. Yuk
In 1971, Mr. Yuk was created by the Pittsburgh Poison Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Since then, Mr. Yuk has been used to educate children and adults about poison prevention and to promote poison center awareness. Last year alone Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh distributed 42 million Mr. Yuk stickers. Americans have introduced him to children in Europe, Asia and Iceland. Corporations have placed his face on the product labels of hazardous materials, and publishing companies have used the symbol in textbooks and standardized tests to represent poisons. Mr. Yuk was the first and continues to be the most commonly used poison education symbol in the nation.
Translucent Concrete
I see somewhat of a rivalry of inventors with the concept of translucent concrete. Some photos at optics.org to better grasp the concept. Aron Losonczi is credited with devising LiTraCon or "light transmitting concrete". Bill Price produced samples in Sept of 1999. The two creative architects must have developed different patents in the process of making the concrete. A timeline of the use of concrete in modern times. Reveries offers some insight. Below is a snip from economist.com magazine.
That is not as crazy as it sounds. Technically, concrete is simply a mixture of three ingredients: big lumps of material called the coarse aggregate (such as gravel), smaller lumps called the fine aggregate (such as sand) and a binding agent, or cement, to glue it all together into a solid. So translucent concrete, in theory, should be fairly easy to make using bits of plastic or glass of various sizes, with some kind of transparent glue to act as a binding agent.
So far, Dr Price's work has spread among architects largely by word of mouth. Architectural practices have been requesting information, and asking when translucent or transparent concrete will be commercially available. That is probably some years off, although Dr Price recently held preliminary discussions with a major concrete manufacturer. Meanwhile, he continues to refine his translucent concrete, and is now seeking approval for limited use of the material in a private house in San Antonio, Texas. For the time being, the future of his innovative material remains opaque.
ArtsJournal
ArtsJournal is a weekday digest of some of the best arts and cultural journalism in the English-speaking world. Each day ArtsJournal combs through more than 200 English-language newspapers, magazines and publications featuring writing about arts and culture.
Bugmenot
Ever wanted to view an article on a newspaper site that requires registration? I won't give out all that personal information they require nor waste my time creating a fantasy person. Go to bugmenot.com and enter the url of the news site. Click the show logins button and top box will be member id and bottom will be password. Another interesting site is mailinator. Purpose is to prevent the risk of spam going to your mailbox. Make up an email addy using this service. Great for those sites wanting to confirm your email, so they can later spam. Someone wrote an FAQ about mailinator.
Web Game
A fun game to play called catapult. Actually takes strategy, learning by previous experience of adjustments made to the catapult power and angle. A 15 minute time killer, then it gets old. Shows some very high scores, those people ought to get a life.
Misspelled Words
Yourdictionary.com has a list of the 100 words most often misspelled ('misspell' is one of them). Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by 50%.
separate How do you separate the [e]s from the [a]s in this word? Simple: the [e]s surround the [a]s.
Low Pay in Journalism
Mediabistro has an interesting thread in their media issues forum.
Topic: Why is journalism such a low-paying career?
In fact, a hard-hitting expose of corporate malfeasance, for example, that might bring in plenty of appreciative readers (and what dollar value do they add?) might equally turn off lucrative advertisers looking for a soft, smooth ride from less-critical writers and editors...and whose money speaks more loudly? I wish every writer and editor could sit down, maybe on a quarterly basis, and hear what's going on in the ad sales side of things, (let alone the rising costs, whether of newsprint, ink or distribution) to hear from the publisher what s/he is having to do to keep those advertisers. Because of the putative church/state separation between ad and editorial functions (cost centers vs. profit centers), I think many journalists have no real idea, nor care to find out, just how their work is financed. If you're a mid-career corporate exec outside journalism, you might have a better sense of what's happening internally -- depending on your firm -- that's affecting your career and your real chances for bonus/benefits/promotions. I wonder, for example, how many journalists read the annual reports for the mega-corp that employs them and/or track their company's stock and management decisions in the trade press.
Robins Web
Robinsweb.com is a series of mini-sites, or sub-sites, with a variety of different subject matter, designed with original graphics. It started nearly six years and one page ago and just kept growing. Two pages I viewed were the trivia and list of lists. Two sections of the list are "entertainers killed in plane crashes " and "Saturday Night Live stars who died young ".
Sept. 20, 1973: Jim Croce dies in an air crash near Natchitoches, La., at age 30. He had put together a string of rock hits, such as the poignant "Time in a Bottle" and the witty "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown".
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