Jan 13, 2017

Things and Stuff

George Carlin had a great bit about Stuff. He talked about his stuff, your stuff and everybody's stuff LINK. He talked about stuff, but he neglected to mention things.
We distinguish between these two classes of existence. We can count things, but stuff forms a sort of cumulative mass. Things are made of stuff (cars are made of steel), but stuff is made of things (gold is made of molecules).

Chairs, dogs, balloons, and flowers are things. If I have one dog and add another, I have two dogs. My chair did not exist until it was assembled into that form. If a balloon pops, it is no longer a balloon.

Helium, gravy, wood, and music are stuff. If some helium escapes my balloon, it seems wrong to say that I lost a thing. If I divide my gravy into two portions, it is still gravy. If I chop my cabin into firewood, the amount of wood in the world has not changed.


Linguistically, we distinguish between thing terms and stuff terms, where a thing is a count noun, and stuff is a mass noun. Syntactically, thing functions as a term that refers to a single "entity" and hence takes "a" and "every" and is subject to pluralization, while stuff functions refers to a plurality of "entities" and hence takes some and is not subject to pluralization. Bottom line, we have some things and some stuff.

Cosmetic Codes

There is a code on the back of a makeup container with a 6, 12, etc. Shelf life of cosmetics depends on the period after opening and production date. Some cosmetics should be used within a specified period of time after opening due to oxidation and microbiological factors. The packaging has a drawing of an open jar, inside it there is a number representing the number of months. In this example it is 6 months of use after opening.




Unused cosmetics also lose their freshness and become dry. According to EU law, the manufacturer must put the expiration date only on cosmetics whose shelf life is less than 30 months. The most common periods of suitability for use from date of manufacture:
Perfumes with alcohol  - about 5 years,
Skin care - 3 years,
Makeup - 3 years (mascara) to more than 5 years (powders).
Expiration dates also may vary depending on the manufacturer.

Quote

 I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. ~Audrey Hepburn

Dark Web vs. Deep Web

Many people use the terms Dark Web and Deep Web interchangeably, but they are two very different things. Dark Web is basically just a part of the internet that is not completely public and you need special software to access. The Deep Web is designed for extra security and privacy that the regular Internet does not have. The Deep Web cannot be accessed by a search engine, and consists mostly of data stored on private networks of corporations.

The Dark Web is an encrypted network of darknets that makes up a portion of the Deep Web. Accessing this hidden section of the web requires a special encryption software called Tor. There is nothing wrong with the Dark Web, nor is it actually Dark. Originally it was designed with privacy, security, and anonymity in mind. It is not illegal, in fact, legitimate sites such as Facebook have sites on the Dark Web. Many people use it to browse the web without being tracked by an internet service provider or the government. There is a dark side to the Dark Web, including graphic content, evidence of kidnappings, hit-men for hire, prostitution, child pornography, drugs, guns, and more.
Due to the anonymity the Dark Web provides, it is more difficult for law enforcement officials to track down and stop illegal activities.

The regular web, or Internet you use every day to search for your daily news, shop, Tweet, and watch viral animal videos can be just as bad. Many criminals and other predators hide in plain sight. Almost everything you can find on the Dark Web can also be found on the regular Internet. This includes drugs, solicitation, stolen data, terrorism groups, and various types of pornographic material.

The Deep Web is estimated to be around 500 times larger than the regular Internet and the Dark Web is estimated at 7,000 to 30,000 sites hidden from everyday access. Bottom line, the Dark Web is not so dark, the Internet is not so innocent, and the Deep Web is owned by corporations and governments.

Preauricular Sinus

I have a Preauricular sinus and never knew it. These are common congenital malformations first described by Heusinger in 1864. Both sexes can have one. In females, it is commonly found outside the right ear.

Theories of origin of preauricular sinus (also known as a congenital auricular fistula) includes: defective or incomplete fusion of the beginnings of the external ears at the embryonic stage. Just one third of folks even know they have one.

The sinus may be bilateral (both ears) in 25-50% of cases, and bilateral sinuses are more likely to be hereditary. In unilateral cases, the left side is more commonly affected. They are usually benign and do not change through life.

On Facebook, people with a preauricular sinus believe they are special. Neil Shubin, an evolutionary biologist, has a highly speculative theory that the holes could be an "evolutionary remnant of fish gills."


In Taiwan, the incidence of preauricular sinuses is estimated to be 1.6-2.5%; in Scotland, 0.06%; and in Hungary, 0.47%. In some parts of Asia and Africa, the incidence is estimated to be 4-10%. Just 0.1 percent of the population have it in the US, and 0.9 percent in the UK. Bottom line, I always knew I was special, now I can prove it. Ha

Idle Thought

Politicians have the unique ability to believe they are the one in seven billion people, rather than just one of seven billion people.

Jan 6, 2017

Happy Friday

Happy roads are created by happy feet.

Wake up and be happy, especially on a Happy Friday!

Wordology, Old Chestnut

An 'old chestnut' is another way of saying a joke is old or stale. The origin appears to be eating roasted chestnuts at the fireside while listening to old stories.

The Broken Sword, was a melodrama by William Dimond (1816) in which one of the characters, Captain Xavier, is forever telling the same jokes, over and over, with slight variations. As he repeats a certain joke involving a cork tree, he is corrected. The man says, "A chestnut. I have heard you tell the joke twenty-seven times, and I am sure it was a chestnut."

Clear Cookies, Cache

Hey, it is a new year, why not get a head start on some Spring cleaning. Does your web surfing seem to slow down? Are the pages loading a bit slower lately? Maybe it is time to clear the clutter. Every so often we need to remove the crap that browsers and web sites deposit onto our computers. There are programs, like 'CCleaner' to do this for your entire computer, but below is an easy and quick way to clean up just your browser.

Cookies and cache are supposed to help make web surfing and streaming experience better, but as they accumulate, they also bog things down. A quick way to freshen up your browser is by clearing the browsing data, such as cookies, cache, history, etc. If you save passwords, be careful to uncheck that box, or you will be doing a bunch of typing as you get back into those sites.

Here is how to clean up:
    Launch your Web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, etc),
    Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete at the same time,
    Select the items you would like to clear, at least cache and cookies,
    Select the Delete or Clear button, depending on your browser type,
    Close and re-start your browser and try streaming again.


Things should be much quicker for a while.

What's in a Name, Pineapple

Pine cones used to be called pineapples and pineapples got the name because they resembled pine cones.
Originally, the word pineapple in English was first recorded in 1398, when it was used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now called pine cones).


When European explorers discovered the tropical fruit in the Americas, they called them pineapples, because they resembled pine cones (with the original name). Most European countries eventually adapted, and still use the name ananas, which came from the Tupi word nanas (also meaning pineapple).

Incidentally, The pineapple “fruit” is not really a fruit, but is a mass of individual berries fused to the central stalk. This is why the “fruit” has leaves on top. They are actually the continued growth of the stalk beyond where the berries are attached. Pineapples are not grown from seed.

Utility Blades

Many of us have those little utility knives with multiple snap off blade pieces, so we can break them when the blade gets dull. The problem is trying to snap a bit of blade with pliers, tapping with a hammer, using a rag or other protective material.

If you look close, a good number of those products have a removable tip at the other end that is to be used to snap off the blade. Pop off the tip, insert the blade into it and snap. Wow, easy.

Spacebar Scrollbar

You know you can scroll down a web page by holding down the spacebar. By holding the shift key and pressing the spacebar you can scroll back up.

Smile, this is the beginning of a great new year


NCIS Fact

NCIS during 2016 had about 18 minutes of ads for every 1 hour episode. During 2003 NCIS had about 16 minutes of ads per episode.

Those extra few minutes over a 23-episode season add up to an additional 46 minutes of ads. If you watched a typical 23-episode season of NCIS today you would watch about 414 minutes worth of ads or almost 7 hours.