December 2003
Tech columns
Yahoo Tech Tuesday and Walt Mossberg's WSJ Thursday column are very informative. Yahoo has alot of advertising. Other tech columnists would be: mikesejournal, usatoday (Kim Komando is good - better index found at Detroit News, which is owned by Gannett), Sun-Sentinel computer Q&A (columnist index page) and gizmodo (gadgets). Really getting off subject, but here is a page on "Pitching a Newspaper Column Idea" (for any aspiring wannabe columnists). Below is a snip from an article written in '92, by an editor at an MIT school newspaper.
Opinion is not news. Most of our readers seem to know that there is a world of difference between news and opinion, but there appear to be a number of people out there who insist on blurring this division.
Opinion pieces are meant almost exclusively for the
purpose of expressing viewpoints. We get a number of letters every month accusing our columnists of being biased against a certain group, or saying we should send them to journalism school to learn how to approach issues more fairly. And while I believe arguments are more effective when they show a sense of balance between two extremes, that is by no means a requirement for our columnists, let alone people who write letters to the editor.
Columns are not editorials. Someone comes into the Tech office at least once a week complaining about an "editorial" we've run. More often than not, we haven't actually run an editorial on the subject; the person is complaining about a letter or column we have printed.
While other newspapers may use the word "editorial" to mean anything on the opinion page, at The Tech it refers to only one thing: an opinion piece approved by a majority of the editorial board, representing the newspaper's official viewpoint. Columns represent an individual's views, and are independent of the newspaper's opinion.
This may interest some. A page that lists all of the Gannett newspapers on the net. They also have a page of web resources for Newsrooms. Lots of resources for you and I to look over! Another interesting note, some of the individual newspaper tech columnist pages will redirect viewer to usatoday. Seems like a centralized distribution system.
Kids Inventor Challenge
Danny Grossman launched a company called Wild Planet in 1998, whose gizmos and gadgets based on simple technologies let kids snoop, spy and generally sneak around. Each year the site sponsors a "Kid Inventor Challenge". View the top ten entries for 2003.
The Idea:
My toy is the Tattoo Express. There's a slot on each side. You can draw the picture of the tattoo you want and put it in one of the slots. It will come out the other side as a real tattoo. On it is the alphabet on buttons, so you can make the tattoo a word. It has eight buttons with other tattoos on them. To change the style of a word tattoo, press the style button. When you're done deciding what tattoo you want, press the start button.
Freedmens Bureau
The Freedmen's Bureau is a reference for African Americans with slave ancestry.
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, often referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of March 3, 1865. The Bureau supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory. The bureau records were created or maintained by bureau headquarters, the assistant commissioners and the state superintendents of education and included personnel records and a variety of standard reports concerning bureau programs and conditions in the states.
Learn Physics Toy
This toy sparked my interest, was reviewed in a newsletter. There are two 13 year old boys in the household. It's called Cat-a-pult and here is a flight tutorial page. I searched for a store near me and found it came in a set of 2 for $40. I figure you need two sets to keep a kids interest, to stimulate learning patience and exercising the mind in a constructive way. It would take much thinking to learn how to accomplish four jumps. Measurements and velocity or thrust would have to be exact, even with Dad's help! The price is too steep for my budget, but I thought others might be interested. I would want to see a demonstration first, would not buy online. Would want to see the quality and durability of pieces.
Engineering Achievements
Greatachievements.org lists the 20th century's top 20 greatest engineering achievements. Each topic has a brief intro page and to the right a "history" and a "timeline" link. You may want to visit the automobile or fiber optic history pages. Below is a snip from the highway history page.
Early in the 20th century, most of the streets and roads in the U.S. were made of dirt, brick, and cedar blocks. Built for horse, carriage, and foot traffic, they were usually poorly cared for and too narrow to accommodate automobiles.
With the increase in auto production, private turnpike companies under local jurisdiction began to spring up, and by 1921 there were 387,000 miles of paved roads. Many were built using specifications of 19th century Scottish engineers Thomas Telford and John MacAdam (for whom the macadam surface is named), whose specifications stressed the importance of adequate drainage. Beyond that, there were no national standards for size, weight restrictions, or signage. During World War I, roads throughout the country were nearly destroyed by the weight of trucks. When General Eisenhower returned from Germany in 1919, after serving in the U.S. Army's first transcontinental motor convoy, he noted: "The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany (Autobahn) had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land."
Game Shows
Gameshowfame is the most comprehensive online game show encyclopedia on the net. Regis Philbin hosted a show called "The Neighbors", which I never heard of. I bet you want to know what the CBS Television Quiz show was that aired in 1941. Site is very well organized, here is a brief article on the game shows of the 1940's.
Markie Post Best known for her role as a cute but tough attorney on Night Court, Post started her career as a card dealer on the popular 1970s show Card Sharks.
Smithsonian Institution
Read about the history of the Smithsonian. In 2002, there were 24.2 million visitors to the museums. The website has an Encyclopedia Smithsonian area, which is great for kids and learning! Quite appropriate with the current events of the world, start with the history of the Armed Forces.
In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament, naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate should go to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.
The motives behind Smithson's bequest remain mysterious. He never traveled to the United States and seems to have had no correspondence with anyone here. Some have suggested that his bequest was motivated in part by revenge against the rigidities of British society, which had denied Smithson, who was illegitimate, the right to use his father's name. Others have suggested it reflected his interest in the Enlightenment ideals of democracy and universal education.
Magic 8-Ball
This page is an amusing spoof on disassembling a Magic 8-Ball.
Discovered Icosahedral Answer Device
With the cylinder dissected, the forrmerly mysterious answer mechanism was revealed. The answer device turned out to be a plastic icosahedron, with a different answer message on each face. The icosahedron was hollow, and appeared to be made of two pieces of plastic held together by inner clips. The authors decided, in the interest of preserving the icosahedron, that no further disassembly was warranted.
Digital Home
An interesting article on Sony PlayStation vs Microsoft XBox, the video game console and how it affects strategy for control of the digital home
The design and functionality decisions underlying Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2 reflect the differing strategies of their makers for controlling the flow of digital content through the home. Microsoft maintains a computing-centric vision of the universe, while Sony remains committed to digital evolution through consumer electronics.
There are important consequences to the development of PlayStation and Xbox that transcend the game businesses of both companies, as they map out broader strategies at critical junctures in their corporate histories. And because Sony and Microsoft are leaders in their respective fields, analysts and competitors are monitoring the rivalry for clues to the future of consumer technology.
Palindrome
Don't feel so bad, I didn't know what the word meant either. Here is a clue, think of "BoB" or "noon". Here is the meaning. Or visit the glossary index page, middle of page is the letter navigation. I clicked "C" and then "cliche". As you can see, a very useful glossary reference site. This is one of the most interesting glossaries I have seen - Mountain Men terms, words & expressions. Two other useful ones would be dvd and weather.
Mercury Theatre
The finest radio drama of the 1930’s was The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman. In its brief run, it featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is famous for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown. This site has many of the surviving shows, and will eventually have all of them. Below is taken from the history page.
The beginnings of The Mercury Theatre on the Air actually go back to the formation of The Mercury Theatre itself. Having successfully produced Marc Blitzstein’s controversial labor union opera, The Cradle Will Rock, for the Federal Theatre Project in June of 1937, John Houseman and the 21-year-old “boy wonder” of the theatre, Orson Welles, decided to form their own theatrical producing company. In August of that same year The Mercury Theatre was born, starting off with total monetary assets of $100 (about $1150 in modern funds). Their first production, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, adapted by Mr. Welles (and set in fascist Italy), opened in New York on November 11 and created as much controversy as the young producers had hoped; The Mercury Theatre (along with the widespread public recognition of Orson Welles) was off and running.
Parachute
Never really thought about it before, but it makes sense. The parachute was invented before the airplane. Sebastien Lenormand is generally credited with being the first to invent a practical parachute, way back in 1783. It was used in hot air balloons.
Androgogy
A champion of andragogy, self-direction in learning and informal adult education, Malcolm S. Knowles was a very influential figure in the adult education field. His model of adult education is controversial and quite different from child education (pedagogy).
While the concept of andragogy had been in spasmodic usage since since the 1830s it was Malcolm Knowles who popularized its usage for English language readers. For Knowles, andragogy was premised on at least four crucial assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners that are different from the assumptions about child learners on which traditional pedagogy is premised. A fifth was added later.
1. Self-concept As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being.
2. Experience As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.
3. Readiness to learn As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles.
4. Orientation to learning As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem centredness.
5. Motivation to learn As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal.
Mustangs
Carroll Shelby began designing his "muscle cars", that is, "relatively small vehicles with big, beefy engines", in 1961, after a heart ailment forced him off the racing circuit. His vision has had a tremendous impact on the sports car world, with the greatest impact being the development of the Cobra and the Mustang (other history of articles). Petersen Automotive Museum is currently offering a 17-car show of Shelby's cars, each of which costs at least $500,000 and were culled from various private collections. There are also more than 100 Shelby car clubs across America.
What began on April 17, 1964, was simply Ford's best runaway sales success since the Model T. More than 100,000 Mustangs sold during their first four months on the market. However, by August of that year, Ford's marketing execs felt that the magic sales bubble was about to burst. They feared being on the hook with huge numbers of Mustangs that had no buyers.
Someone mentioned Shelby's name. It seemed a natural. The pugnacious Texan had worked wonders with the Ford-engined Cobra project and had kicked tail on almost every road circuit across the globe. So what could he do with a chance to modify a limited run of Mustangs? Race a few of them to build an image and sell some to the public at Ford dealers--right next to the regular Mustangs. With big bags of FoMoCo development money poised to arrive at his door, Shelby gladly agreed.
The main site is primediaautomotive (largest network of automotive coverage). Look at the left and right navigation areas. I clicked motorcycles which eventually led me to the how to page.
Franklin - the State
As the Revolutionary War ended, colonists distrusted authority and refused to take orders from fellow citizens who weren't residents of their known immediate region. The tension between states and their residents was thick - especially in a region of North Carolina now known as Upper East Tennessee. A move to separate from North Carolina gained ground in August 1784 when delegates from around the region gathered in Jonesborough. By the following December, separation was a done deal and a new state was born. Its name was Franklin - after Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founding fathers. They thought they might form an independent nation instead and even discussed the prospect of getting financial aid from Spain. For awhile, the region operated under two governments - the State of Franklin and the State of North Carolina. Eventually, what once was Franklin became the state of Tennessee and Franklin governor John Sevier became the first governor of Tennessee.
They elected John Sevier governor, adopted a constitution. created four new counties, negotiated the purchase of additional land from the Cherokee Indians by the Treaty of Dumplin Creek (1785), and sent a representative to ask Congress for recognition as a state. Congress, however, turned down the petition, and Gov. Josiah Martin of North Carolina denounced the new state as an unlawful creation. For four years Franklin remained in existence with decreasing effectiveness. Because money was scarce, salaries were paid in furs, whiskey and tobacco. Factionalism developed between those loyal to Franklin and those loyal to North Carolina, and led to governments, and both had courts to administer justice. Fights broke out between the factions, but eventually were solved by Gov. Richard Caswell of North Carolina, Martin's successor, whose persuasiveness and moderation healed the break. When John Sevier's term as governor of Franklin expired in 1788, no one was elected to succeed him, and the state of Franklin quietly dissolved. North Carolina regained control and pardoned the members of the separation movement.
Money
A webpage on the history of money in the United States. One of the better pages on the net, simple and easy to understand.
The American Revolution and the War of 1812
When the war broke out the monetary brakes were released completely and the revolution was financed overwhelmingly with an expansionary flood of paper money and so the American Congress financed its first war with hyperinflation. By the end of the war the Continentals had fallen to one-thousandth of their nominal value. Yet although the phrase not worth a Continental has subsequently symbolized utter worthlessness, in the perspective of economic history such notes should be counted as invaluable as being the only major practical means then available for financing the successful revolution.
The financial chaos of the aftermath of the revolution and outbreaks of violent conflict between debtors and creditors led to the establishment of the dollar as the new national currency replacing those of individual states. However, owing to shortages of gold and silver bullion and the rapid disappearance of coins from circulation legal tender was restored to Spanish dollars in 1797 and it was not until 1857 that the federal government felt able to repeal all former acts authorizing the currency of foreign gold or silver coins, but by then coins were merely the small change of commerce.
Gettysburg
Planning a trip to Gettysburg soon? Visit this site first, one of the best on the net. Hundreds of photos with informative captions giving background information. Browse thru the guestbook, over a hundred pages.
Prior to the great battle that took place here this was a sleepy village unknown to most of the world. The population was approximately 2,400 people and the town itself, founded by James Gettys, was centered around many crossroads. These crossroads were to be the vehicles that brought the two great armies together on those fateful July days in 1863.
Cops on Motorcycles
A french site (text in english and french) showing 187 pictures of worldwide cops on motorcycles; Europe, Middle East, Asia, Canada, Americas.
Cheerleading Jump
I admire pages like this one, kids helping kids. This girl is a teenager and in cheerleading. She created a sight on anglefire, to help other high school cheerleaders. On this page she explains a few jumps.
Toetouch!
hehehe, ignore the expression, ok? I was trying to smile and ... well, I look goofy! Anyway, start with your legs together and your arms in a high V. Swing your arms across your chest and down past your knees, then use them to pull yourself up. When you start to jump, throw both of your legs out in a stradle. Make sure you sit into your jump and keep your arms in a T. This is probably one of the more difficult jumps, so if you don't get it on your first try, keep trying!
Helicoptors in Movies
RotaryAction is a fan-site devoted to airborne action. It is a guide to helicoptors in cinema and television. Apart from the practical operations like air/sea search and rescue missions, modern cinema makes the most spectacular (if not always the best) use of a chopper's unique abilities. Not just as a platform for aerial cinematography - but on the screen too, where a wide variety of rotorcraft (from sky-cranes to autogyros) are used to create the kind of exciting stunts. On the main page is a segment on the history of helicoptors and a short trivia section.
Helicopters add "production value" to all kinds of movies and shows (and by far the most popular type of helicopter seen on big or small screens is the Bell JetRanger), so if a film includes an aerial sequence you can be sure a clip of that footage will appear in the trailer. One military rotorcraft unseen at the movies until recently is the Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche (first flown on 4th January 1996). This stealth weapon is still in the development phase, though it's been used in computer games, and appears in computer animated form in Ang Lee's superb Hulk movie.
Book Hive
Take this Harry Potter quiz with your kids. BookHive is a web site designed for children ages birth through twelve, their parents, teachers or anyone interested in reading about children's books. Providing reader's advisory service, this site contains hundreds of recommended book reviews in a variety of reading levels and interest areas. In January 1999, the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, NC) decided to address the need to have a readers' advisory web site for children written specifically for children, their parents and adults interested in children's books.
Computer Tips
A website you will want to visit, great computer tips and links to other helpful sites
This site was started by Irving Stein in July 2001. The reason for creating and maintaining this site is to help computer users .... both "newbies" and intermediates .... to learn to keep their computers in top running condition, and to take advantage of the free links to download/install useful utilities to keep U out of trouble and to enjoy your computing experience.
History's Alive
Patrick Garner portrays Thomas A. Edison in a "one-man show meant to bring history to life", to school kids in New Jersey. Patrick launched his educational shows during the Screen Actors Guild strike, when his income from television commercials tanked. He "spent the summer of 2002 writing his 45-minute program", basing it on "half a dozen Edison biographies". In addition to entertaining with theatrics, Patrick teaches the kids "what he sees as Einstein's four mottos: work hard, learn from mistakes, look at a problem from a different angle and find something you love in your life and do it for your whole life long". He has so far done 30 shows as Edison, for which he charges $600 each, or $800 for two. I never realized this, but there are commercial companies that offer this service to elementary schools.
In 2001, Patrick Garner conceived the idea of HISTORY'S ALIVE!, a series of historical presentations for elementary school children designed to entertain, instruct and inspire. Famous figures from history come alive to share the valuable lessons of their lives, their successes and their failures. Who better than Thomas Edison to teach the value of hard work? Who better than Lewis & Clark to teach the value of teamwork? Who better to teach children about life than those whose real lives have become the stuff of history?
India
I have read two articles dealing with different subjects concerning India. The first is about the outsourcing of skilled labor to India. The second is that of government regulation of cyber cafes.
No wonder India is at the center of a brewing storm in America, where politicians are starting to view offshore outsourcing as the root of the jobless recovery in tech and services. An outcry in Indiana recently prompted the state to cancel a $15 million IT contract with India's Tata Consulting. The telecom workers' union is up in arms, and Congress is probing whether the security of financial and medical records is at risk. As hiring explodes in India, the jobless rate among U.S. software engineers has more than doubled, to 4.6%, in three years. The rate is 6.7% for electrical engineers and 7.7% for network administrators. In all, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 234,000 IT professionals are unemployed.
Now the city government of Mumbai (Bombay) is looking to squelch those dual impulses by regulating cyber cafes. They want to force cafes to get licenses from the government, install software filters for pornography, and force patrons to show valid photo IDs. Many cyber cafe owners are angry at the proposed regulations and are organizing to prevent India from becoming like its neighbor, China, which forced licensing of cafes after a deadly fire.
Cooking Encyclopedia
The Cook's Thesaurus is a cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools. Entries include pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions. Below is a snip from the American condiments page.
chili sauce To make your own: 1 C tomato sauce + 1/4 C brown sugar + 2 tablespoons vinegar + 1/4 teaspoon allspice OR 1 C catsup + 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon + 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves + 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice OR 4 parts catsup + 1 part horseradish + 1 part lemon juice
hot pepper sauce = hot sauce Notes: Three well-known brands are Tabasco sauce, Louisiana hot sauce, and the thicker Pickapeppa sauce. Substitutes: Sriracha (as a condiment) OR crushed red pepper flakes OR dash of cayenne pepper.
Checkers
A short article on the history of checkers and another that is more detailed. I did not know there were so many variations thruout the centuries.
Draughts is a very ancient game indeed, the origins of which, like Chess, aren't completely clear. However, early forms of Alquerque, its venerable ancestor, have been found in Egypt dating at least as early as 6000BC. Alquerque boards can be seen carved into the stone slabs which form the roof of the great temple at Kurna, Egypt, which was built in 1400BC. The game of Alquerque was played like Draughts on a 5 x 5 point board with the pieces starting in a non-symmetrical pattern. The game clearly had staying power - it is mentioned under the name of Quirkat in the Arabic work Kitab-al Aghani, the author of which died in 976 AD. Quirkat was first brought to Europe by the Moors during their invasion of Spain. It was recorded as Alquerque (Spanish form of El-Quirkat) in the Alfonso X Manuscript which was written between 1251 - 1282 at the command of Alfonso X, King of Leon and Castile.
Stan Laurel
I enjoy learning the early days of celebrities; in other words how they started out. In 1910 Laurel joined and toured with the Fred Karno Troupe, a band of British actors who toured the states with a show called "A Night in an English Music Hall". Believe it or not, he was Charlie Chaplain's understudy. When Karno's company traveled to the United States in 1913, a slapstick film director Mack Sennett discovered Chaplin and asked him to sign with his company, Keystone Studios. Karno's team was eventually forced to split up and Laurel decided to stay in America. 1917 was the year he made his first film, Nuts In May, which won him a contract with Universal, and later, work with producer Hal Roach. Of course, we must read a bio on Oliver Hardy. After reading bio, be sure to click the link to index page, which will redirect you to blotto-online (excellent fan site). It is in frames and I can not deep link. Visit the Production and Support cast biographies. Some trivia on Laurel.
Was Stan Laurel his real name?
No, his real name was Arthur Stanley Jefferson. He was to adopt the name Stan Laurel because he was superstitious, the name he was using at the time Stan Jefferson had 13 letters, this was causing Stan problems or so he thought. It is said his partner of the time Mae Charlott Dahlberg came up with the name Laurel after seeing a picture of a Roman wearing a laurel wreath.
A short page on their comedy. Another good page that summarizes Laurel and Hardy. A two part column on the Lauel and Hardy team.
One, intended as a pilot to sell a distributor on a whole series of Stan Laurel comedies, was called Lucky Dog. The film
is remembered today only because, when they needed someone to play a crook, they hired a ubiquitous supporting actor named Oliver Norvell Hardy,
sometimes known as "Babe" Hardy. It was their first time together on a screen but magic did not happen, and the distributors just barely agreed to accept future Stan Laurel comedies. Perhaps, if Laurel had hired Hardy again, things would have been different.
Bizarre
The Kabalarian philosophy is a very strange site. It states that one's mental characteristics, state of well-being, and experiences in life are shown to be determined by one's name , which incorporates the specific forces of intelligence in the mind of the individual. Greater harmony and balance can be achieved in one's life through using a name balanced to enhance the constructive and natural expression of the inner conscious potential. So, what should I change my name to??
The Kabalarian Philosophy is dedicated to the service of humanity through dissemination of the wisdom of life, a scientific, practical knowledge based upon definite divine laws clearly understandable and applicable, teaching the individual's relationship to the two basic laws of life -- mathematics and language -- and teaching how everyone can greatly benefit through this wisdom.
They have a forum and this is an iteresting thread where a skeptic asks what is the difference between this philosophy and numerology? Some people will believe anything.
Numerology is an ancient study of the influence of names on personality. As this theory flows into many diverse numerological theories,one could argue that the Kabalarian Philosophy's understanding of name is the latest and most advanced evolution of this theory. In our minds, we have gone beyond the theory of name into a more complete theory of name, mind, and consciousness. You could say we teach a complete theory of life; relating cause and effect through a unique understanding of the physical, mental and spiritual laws of mind and life.
We don't associate ourselves with the term numerologists or numerology, as so many of the numerological theories are incorrect, incomplete or distorted. If one studies the various "flavours" of numerology with an understanding of the Kabalarian Philosophy, one quickly finds the discrepancies and flaws. We acknowledge that the Mathematical Principle is numerological in nature, but Mr. Parker forged so many new avenues of understanding relative to mind, name, and Consciousness, that the Philosophy is to numerology as a space ship is to a horse and buggy. They both are conceptual systems with some commonalities, but the development and advancement of understanding in the Philosophy supercedes and obsoletes the other older theory.
This may be difficult for you to see as a casual visitor, but it is true nonetheless. If you choose to think of us as numerologists, you miss the full import of what the Kabalarian Philosophy offers you; the understanding of how to live a full and complete life, using an understanding of mind and life to attain balance, harmony, and wisdom.
Desk Yoga
Been on the computer for a few hours? Getting drowsy or mind starting to wonder. Try some desk yoga.
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