Mar 5, 2010

Crash Blossoms

I know you have seen them. The name emerged last year as a description of those funny headlines that can be taken more than one way. Here are a few real headlines for your reading pleasure.

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge
Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim
McDonald’s Fries the Holy Grail for Potato Farmers
Gator Attacks Puzzle Experts
Eighth Army Push Bottles Up Germans
Lotto Winner's Body Remains Identified
US Eyes Boom in Nuclear Reactors
Jessica Hahn Pooped After Long Day Testifying

Shadow Caddy

For you golfers in the crowd, you may be soon using one of these as spring is quickly approaching.
Shadow Caddy is a robotic caddy that follows you around the course, carrying your bags just like a human caddy. Set your bag on your Shadow Caddy and off you go, free to concentrate on your game without the distraction of dragging your clubs around. It has two settings, follow and park.

It is completely hands free. It follows a small transmitter attached to your belt. It has a sophisticated detection avoidance system which prevents collisions with other carts, people, trees, etc., then picks up the transmission and goes right back to following the game. The Shadow Caddy will also carry drinks, sand buckets, etc. Another good feature, no tips required.

The caddy has been around for a while as a rental on selected golf courses. Here is a LINK to watch it on YouTube

Census 2010

The census forms are coming in a few weeks. There will be ten questions and none have anything to do with income. No one will come to your door if you fill it out and mail it in on time with no errors.

The ACS is done annually, and is separate from the Census, but run by the Census Bureau. They changed the fine this year to $5,000 from $100 if you don't fill it out. This is the part where they ask you about income, etc. Each year approximately 3 million housing unit addresses in the United States and Puerto Rico are selected.

The American Community Survey (ACS) began full implementation of housing unit address in 2005. Since 2005, the ACS interviews samples of housing units in all counties in the United States (including the District of Columbia) and in all of the municipalities in Puerto Rico.

It is interesting to note that the census from 1870 asked for value of the house and value of the 'estate' of the main person in the house. It also asked about country of origin and native language. I have census copies from from my genealogy research. The census reports are available online after 75 years.

When You Were Born

Check this site out and put in the year of your birth to discover some interesting things that happened that year. LINK

Canadians Love Bacon

Canadians also love bacon. In a recent survey conducted by Maple Leaf Foods -

* 43% of the respondents said they would rather have bacon than sex
* 23% of men ranked bacon as their number one favorite fragrance
* 82% who said they love bacon also said they are good lovers
* 23% wondered if ‘my partner loves bacon more than me’

The survey was conducted from December 1 to December 2, 2009, among 1,006 randomly selected Canadian adults. The results of the online survey have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of Canada. The study didn't say whether it was back bacon or American style. Hmmm, 82%. . .

Olympic Cheescake

Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece and was served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 BC.

Cheese making can be traced back as far as 2,000 BC, and anthropologists have found cheese molds dating back to that period.

Cheesecake was mentioned in Marcus Porcius Cato's De re Rustica around 200 BC and he described making his cheese libum (cake) with results very similar to modern cheesecake."

VPIKE

Want to see a picture of someone's house and don't want to use Google? Here is an alternative. When you enter an address you will see a picture of that place.  You can move up and down the block and magnify, also drag around in a circle to see the other side of the street.. Works like Google  VPIKE

Mar 4, 2010

Fixing Split Ends

Although there are hair care products which are marketed as being able to repair split ends and damaged hair, there is no such cure. A good conditioner might prevent damage from occurring in the first place, but the only way to get rid of split ends after they appear is by a hair cut.

Tax Day Coming

More Americans than ever will be subject to scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service this year as the government pumps billions of dollars into tax collection.

More than 1.4 million Americans were audited last year. Even more audits are expected as the Obama administration plans to spend $8.2 billion in tax enforcement initiatives in 2011, a nearly 10% increase over last year. That is one stimulus that may pay off for the government. . .

Mangle


I am sure you heard someone say this or that is all mangled. A mangle is a device that used to be used for drying clothes. Sometimes it is also called a wringer. A mangle iron is used to press clothes and usually has steam coming from inside the roller.

The word mangle was coined in the early 20th century after many of the first industrial ironers had crushed and dismembered those who got to close to the feeder end or chain drives of the machines.

My Blog Visitors

The reports for shubsthoughts blog show that the blog has received interested visitors from 52 countries.

Here is the list in order of number of visitors - US, UK, Canada, India, France, Australia, Spain, Philippines, South Korea, Germany, Malaysia, South Africa, Russia, Netherlands, Romania, Italy, Pakistan, Denmark, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Poland, Thailand, Singapore, Switzerland, Brunei, Portugal, Japan, Greece, Hong Kong, Sweden, Bahrain. One each from Moldova, Belgium, Algeria, Finland, Iceland, Qatar, New Zealand, Jordan, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Serbia, Estonia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Egypt, Mauritius, and one unknown country. I am totally delighted and hope you all come back and visit often.

Banana Museum for Sale Cheap

The International Banana Club Museum price has dropped to only $15,000! Be aware that the museum includes only the banana artifacts but no real estate, as the museum has been housed in rented space.

The owner decided to liquidate the collection after the Hesperia Recreation and Park District told him that he would no longer be able to rent space at the Harrison Exhibit Building in Hesperia, California where he exhibited his thousands of banana goodies.

The Guiness Book of World Records says that the museum is the world’s largest collection devoted to any one fruit. Bannister, the current owner, hopes that someone or some company will buy the museum and display it somewhere.

Women

A good woman inspires a man,
a brilliant one interests him,
a beautiful one fascinates him, but
it is the sympathetic woman who gets him.

Feb 26, 2010

Siri


Talk into your iPhone and tell Siri what you want. Tickets for a show, reservations at a restaurant, a taxi to pick you up. Siri can arrange to get you what you need. Best of all, Siri learns what you want, and gets better at understanding your commands, just like a human assistant.

It was originally developed as part of DARPA’s CALO project and represents more than five years of research and refinement. The App is sophisticated enough to filter through a sentence and identify the relevant key words and know what to do. It understands to use GPS to determine what “in your area” means. It can handle most any command for six broad categories of interest: restaurants, movies, events, taxis, local information, and weather. Oh, did I mention it is free?
It can understand complicated commands that use unspecific key words. “I’d like a PG-13 movie near my house that’s funny and romantic.” Siri can handle that by using its patented algorithm to learn how to translate words and phrases into commands.

The Siri company has more than $24 million in funding and has plans to expand to include reminders, flight stats, reference questions, and many more tasks. It is currently only available for iPhone 3GS with OS 3.1, but it will eventually be offered for iPod Touch, iPhone 3G, and other smart phones.  I love technology.