Oct 10, 2014

My Blog Statistics

Interesting statistics from last month show that the top five viewing countries to my blog, in order were Ukraine, US, France, Russia, and UK. It has been a very long time since US was not first on the list. Thanks and welcome to my new best friends from Ukraine.

Friday Happy Dance


Oct 3, 2014

Happy Friday

Smiles are primal.

Even cavemen enjoyed a Happy Friday!

Happy German-American Day

It became Public Law 100-104 when President Reagan signed it on August 18, 1987. The US celebrates German-American Day on Oct. 6. It commemorates the date in 1683 when 13 German families from Krefeld, near the Rhine landed in Philadelphia. These families subsequently founded Germantown, Pennsylvania, the first German settlement in the original thirteen American colonies. About 1 in 4 Americans claim part or full German heritage.

Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) is observed on October 3, when the official German holiday commemorates Germany's reunification in 1990, when East and West Germany once again became one country known as the Federal Republic of Germany die Bundesrepublik Deutschland).

German Pioneers Day is celebrated in Ontario, Canada on the day after Canadian Thanksgiving, second Monday in October. A law passed by the Ontario provincial Legislative Assembly in 2000 proclaimed the annual celebration of the German contributions to Canada on the day after Canadian Thanksgiving.

National Pizza Month

It was first observed in the US during October 1984. The observance was thought up by Gerry Durnell from Santa Claus, Indiana and the founder of Pizza Today magazine. It is also observed throughout much of Canada.

The US has about 63,000 pizzerias and 94% of Americans eat pizza at least once a month. About three billion pizzas are sold in the United States every year, plus an additional one billion frozen pizzas. That works out to about 100 acres of pizza per day, or 350 slices per second.

UPS 3D Printing

It has reached a new plateau. UPS is now offering in-store printing of 3D objects for its customers. It is the first nationwide retailer to offer 3D printing services in-store. Other local and regional stores have been set up around the country specifically to offer 3D printing with varying degrees of success, but having a national brand offering the printing service brings a shift from concept to mainstream.

UPS' experiment with in-store 3D printers worked and now has expanded the availability of 3D printing services to over 100 locations across the US, including Hawaii. Customers can print everything from accessories, architecture, functional prototypes, and one-of-a-kind gadgets.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/22/ups-3d-printer-expansion/

Coupes, Flutes, and Tulips

During the 19th century, champagne glasses were wide and shallow, not at all like the flutes we use today. They were called 'coupes' and legend has it that they were modeled after the shape of Marie Antoinette's left breast.

The coupe eventually gave way to the 'flute', the tall, narrow glasses out of which most of us currently our bubbly. The flute both displays and preserves champagne bubbles, and makes it easier to drink.

Many champagne lovers say the 'tulip' is the true way to enjoy the beverage. The glass is tall, but curves outward to within a couple inches from the mouth, then curves inward to the mouth. This design allows a little more space for swirling, and focuses the aromatics.

Fatfingers

Smaller and smaller keyboards have caused many to mistype words. This is commonly called fat fingering the keyboard. Now there is a site that can help, Fatfingers. The main purpose of Fatfingers is to help people find items on Ebay that have not sold, because the owner mistyped the word. Fun to try. I typed in bicycle and found 1,643 results. LINK

Wordology, Schmoo

The origin of the word comes from Al Capp and his cartoon Lil Abner. A Shmoo is a cuddly creature that desires nothing more than to be a boon to mankind.

Shmoos are the world's most amiable creatures, supplying all man's needs. However, they reproduce so prodigiously they threaten to wreck the economy.
They require no sustenance other than air, have no bones, and reproduce asexually and prolifically. Shmoon (plural) are delicious to eat, are eager to be eaten, and taste like chicken. Nogoodniks are anti-Shmoo. They are Shmoo-shaped, but colored sickly green with yellow teeth, red eyes, and often had five-o’clock shadow, chomp stogies, and devour their friendly Shmoo cousins.

Since then, the word schmoo now has taken on other meanings. In socioeconomics, a shmoo refers to any generic kind of good that reproduces itself.

In microbiology, the cellular bulge produced by a haploid yeast cell towards a cell of the opposite mating type during the mating of yeast is referred to as a shmoo, due to its structural resemblance to the cartoon character.

In the field of particle physics, shmoo refers to a high energy survey instrument. Over one hundred white shmoo detectors were at one time sprinkled around the accelerator beamstop area and adjacent mesa to capture subatomic cosmic ray particles emitted from the Cygnus constellation. The detectors housed scintillators and photomultipliers in an array that gave the detector its distinctive shmoo shape.

In electrical engineering, a shmoo plot is the technical term used for the graphic pattern of test circuits. The term 'to shmoo means to run the test. Incidentally, there is no relationship between schmoo and schmooze.

Coupons Site

Do you use coupons? This is a site that has many coupons that you cannot find in the paper. Go ahead; get some money off of your next purchase. LINK

What's in a Name, Viagra

The official name is Sildenafil Citrate. Pharmaceutical chemists at Pfizer's research facility in Kent, England originally conceived it as a treatment for hypertension, angina, and other symptoms of heart disease. Clinical trials during 1991 and 1992 revealed the drug was not great at treating what it was supposed to treat, but eighty percent of male test subjects were experiencing a side effect of erections.

It was finally approved by the US FDA in 1998 and the drug took US markets by storm as a treatment for penile dysfunction and became an overnight success. It and female Viagra now raise over two billion dollars a year.

Five Interesting Baseball Facts

Two brother pitchers win every World Series game for the winning team: In the 1934 World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 3. Jerome “Dizzy” Dean and his kid brother Paul “Daffy” Dean won two games each, accounting for all four Cardinal wins.

Pitching a no-hitter and homering twice: On June 23, 1971, Phillies Pitcher Rick Wise pitched a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium and hit two home runs in the same game.

Making the final out in two no-hitters against the same pitcher: Harvey Kuenn made the final out of two no-hitters, both against Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax. On May 11, 1963, Kuenn made the final out of Koufax’s no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants. On September 9, 1965, Kuenn struck out to end Koufax’s perfect game against the Chicago Cubs.


Eddie Gaedel was 26 year old, 3 feet, 7 inch tall. He was signed by Bill Veeck to a Major League contract of $15,400 ($100 per game), which was the set minimum one could pay a little person performance act, per event. During his first (and last) game he walked. Eddie took his base, stopping to take a bow twice on his way, and was lifted for a pinch runner, Jim Delsing. Two days later, American League President Will Harridge voided Gaedel’s contract and he was out of a job. Further, Harridge officially banned midgets from being able to play in the American League. Although he only made $100 for the one game, it’s estimated he earned over $17,000 ($140,000 today) in the few weeks following his lone Major League at bat. Gaedel’s uniform had the number 1/8 on the back and it now sits in the MLB Hall of Fame.

Four more people in the history of Major League Baseball had only one plate appearance and drew a walk. The others were Dutch Schirick on September 17, 1914, with the Browns; Bill Batsch on September 9, 1916, with Pittsburgh; Joe Cobb on April 25, 1918, with Detroit; and Kevin Melillo on June 24, 2007, with the Oakland A’s. 

Pork Powered Protein

The protein found in bacon is extremely valuable to maintaining our energy levels and a fully functioning, healthy body, with a minimum nasty, waist, thigh, and butt expanding, fat building carbohydrates.

Free Friday Caveman Smile