how we learn

tuesday, 20 november, 2007 16:50 MAT

we learn:
95% of what we teach
80% of what we discover
70% of what we discuss
50% of what we see & hear
30% of what we see
20% of what we hear
10% of what we read

~william glasser

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no plane or boat necessary

thursday, 15 november, 2007 10:25 MAT

eurotunnel is the company responsible for building the twin railway tunnels under the english channel linking britain and france.

here you can see where eurotunnel crosses the english channel.


i thought england was an island, meaning you'd either have to fly or take a boat to get from the uk to europe (or anywhere else, for that matter)... but i'm terriblie mistaken.

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window shot

monday, 5 november, 2007 13:00 MAT

the techies here taught me something neat.

rather than getting an entire screen shot from your computer monitor by pressing the print screen button and pasting it into word, using alt-print screen only captures the active window.

call me a n00b, but i never knew that before !

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Crystal vs Glass

It took a while to discover how to make "clear" glass. Adding MnO to glass quenched the optical transitions in dissolved Fe ions to make the clear glass. The Venetians called this "cristallo" by analogy to earlier transparent objects hogged out of large single quartz crystals. This is why the English use the inaccurate term "crystal" to describe fine glassware.

about elmo

wednesday, 10 october, 2007 14:45 MAT



birthday: 3 february
best friend: zoe
likes: everything !
favourite toy: david

source: apple & eve elmo's punch juice box

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outlook advanced search

wednesday, 3 october, 2007 12:05 MAT

i am forced to use microsoft outlook for email at work. i really don't like it very much at all, problie like many people on the planet.

in an attempt to keep myself organised, i file the emails in folders according to what it's about (emails from students, emails from other lecturers, the school of computing sciences, the learning & teaching grant team, the general university, etc). sometimes i forget where i have filed a particular email, so i have used the search function to find it.

that works, most of the time, but i noticed that it would find the email and i could open it, but it would never tell me the location of the email. so, if i needed to find it again, i would have to do the search all over again. that annoyed me.

the other thing that annoyed me was that the search results displayed in the same window. if i needed to navigate away from the search results because a different email arrived and I needed to deal with it immediately (like I clicked on the inbox or something), the search results would vanish and be replaced by the selection and I would have to do the search all over again.


one of the techies here showed me the advanced search.

one of the columns in the advanced search results says what folder the email is located in.

the search results also open in a separate window. i find this particularly convenient because I can see everything else and navigate away from the search results and have the search results if i need them later and don't have to do the search all over again.

advanced search is the go ! thanks aaron !

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next time you have a candy bar, consider this:

Candy Bar / size in grams / calories/ cals per gram

York Peppermint Pattie / 39 grams / 140 / 3.59
3 Musketeers / 60.4 grams / 260 / 4.30
Reese’s Whipps / 53 grams / 230 / 4.34
M&Ms Peanut / 49 grams / 220 / 4.49
Butterfinger / 60 grams / 270 / 4.50
Snickers / 58.7 grams / 280 / 4.77
Reese’s Crispy Crunchy / 48 grams / 230 / 4.79
KitKat / 43 grams / 210 / 4.88
Twix / 57 grams / 280 / 4.91
Hersey’s Milk Chocolate / 60 grams / 300 / 5.00
M&Ms Milk Chocolate / 48 grams / 240 / 5.00
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups / 51 grams / 260 / 5.10

firefox cache updates

monday, 1 october, 2007 13:50 MAT

i guess tech support at cqu is good for something !

__________
Firefox caches information across all windows. This means that if you view a page in one window, no matter how many new windows you open up it will still be drawing from cache until it updates its view. The way to change how often it updates the view is described below:

*SHORT FORM*
Open firefox.
Type "about:config" in the URL window.
Change integer value of "browser.cache.check_doc_frequency" to 1.


*LONG DESCRIPTION*
To quickly and easily access a whole range of customizations and preferences for Firefox, simply open Firefox then go to your Firefox address bar and enter the URL "about:config" (without quotes), then press Enter. Instantly Firefox displays a large range of preferences sorted alphabetically.

browser.cache.check_doc_frequency [Integer] (3) - This setting determines how often Firefox checks for newer versions of the page you are viewing. This setting is similar to Internet Explorer's 'Check for newer versions of stored pages' setting.

If set to 0 Firefox only checks once per browser session; if set to 1 Firefox checks every time a page is viewed; if set to 2 Firefox never checks (i.e. it always uses the version stored locally in your browser cached); and if set to 3 (the default) Firefox checks at automatically determined intervals.

If you browse mostly pages which update their content often (i.e. daily) or have a lot of dynamic content you may wish to set this to 1 though it may slow down browsing speed, especially on slower connections. Otherwise the default of 3 is best for fastest browsing on most connections. You can experiment to see if 0 suits your needs, but don't use a value of 2.

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knowledge

tuesday, 18 september, 2007 11:45 MAT

knowledge is one of the rare things in life that can be given to others without losing any yourself.

,` )

Bike paths cause bridge collapse

Apparently, there are those who believe that spending money on museums, bike paths, lighthouses, etc. is a cause of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. And these are the people running our country.

Article

Video

ramadan

thursday, 13 september, 2007 08:40 MAT

i learned from one of my students that ramadan started today in australia and will go from 13 september to 12 october.

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Luciano Pavarotti is dead

He died of pancreatic cancer.

The name of the third tenor nobody can remember is Jose Carreras. Carreras suffered from leukemia but recovered in 1988.

cheetos and chopsticks

monday, 3 september, 2007 15:25 MAT

eating cheetos with chopsticks saves your fingers from becoming orange.

this is provided that one can use chopsticks properly and doesn't cheat by employing the stab and eat method (one of the reasons eating cheetos with a fork doesn't work either). i find it difficult to stab cheetos, especially the crunchy kind.

,` )

happy father's day !

monday, 3 september, 2007 14:00 MAT

father's day is celebrated on the first sunday of september in australia.

so, sunday, 2 september, 2007 was father's day in australia.

happy father's day to dads everywhere from down under !!

,` )

Wiffle

So I heard the term used twice this last weekend, once in reference to my usual hair style and another in reference to a dog that was shaven. Apparently, it's pretty much the same as a buzz cut or crew cut, as I'm sure it was guessable, but it's the first time I'd heard it used.

Wikipedia article

Evite privacy policy

I got an evite today, which I refuse to open on the grounds that I don't trust evite. Instead, I decided to take a look at the Evite privacy policy, which was linked to in the e-mail.

This invitation was sent to you by XXXXX using Evite. To remove yourself
from this guest list please click on the link above.


This Evite Invite is covered by Evite's privacy policy*.
To view this privacy policy, click here:
http://www.evite.com/privacy


*********************************

I think I may be one of the only people in the world who actually reads these things, but this one was hilarious. The web page linked to in the e-mail doesn't actually exist. Instead, I get a standard 404 Not Found error.

Like hell I'm gonna use Evite.

eliminate one olive

monday, 27 august, 2007 21:50 MAT

libra odd spot #180

american airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

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friday the 13th

monday, 27 august, 2007 21:50 MAT

libra odd spot #380

months that begin with sunday will always have a "friday the 13th".

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Are you jaded?

jade

1.	a worn-out, broken-down, worthless, or vicious horse.

2.	a disreputable or ill-tempered woman.

3.	to make or become dull, worn-out, or weary, as from overwork or overuse.

jaded

1.	dulled or satiated by overindulgence: a jaded appetite.

2.	worn out or wearied, as by overwork or overuse.

3.	dissipated: a jaded reprobate.

Which one are you?

Holy Molasses!

The Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919 left 21 dead and over 150 injured in a sticky mess in Boston's North End. A giant tank, containing some 8.7 million liters of molasses, collapsed and released a veritable tidal wave of liquid gunk traveling at some 56 km/h (35 mph). The force of the wave was enough to knock over buildings and trains. Many humans (and horses!) fell victim to asphyxiation.

The spilt molasses took over a man-decade to clean up from streets, storefronts, etc. And, of course, litigation followed.

debunking health myths

tuesday, 7 august, 2007 11:10 MAT

"there's lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven't the time to enjoy it."
~josh billings

no, there are no hair growing herbs.

no, rosemary does not cure toenail fungus.

yes, several components of some red wines have been proven to lower blood pressure and reduce risk of heart attack while boosting your anti-oxidative state.

ever had questions like these? ever seen the stupid, cheesy, almost-too-dumb-to-not-believe ads online promising health miracles?

my friend aaron moss and some other people at uw pharmaceutics have decided to provide the public with a way to find out the truth about these things. they would love to hear your health myth questions.

give it a shot, its free. just click on the "post a new message" button in the middle and type. no subscribing or anything. it's easy. tell everyone that might be interested about this forum. they want to spread the word and help people become informed about these false/misleading/unusual promotions and messages.

discuss debunking health myths

go there, ask questions. see what information they find to set the record straight!

,` )

Empire State Building - the Terminal?

Snapple wisdom - "Real Fact" #330

"The top of the Empire State Building was originally built as a place to anchor blimps"

This is fact! I saw it on the History Channel. When airships were still roaming the skies in the 1930s, everyone thought they were the future of air travel. There were at least 2 failed attempts to dock an airship on top of the Empire State Building. Problems such as high wind made it unfeasible. Then the Hindenburg disaster happened ... end of story.

Rainbows

So www.trickshottim.com drank another Snapple product.

"Real Fact" #182 (Why is that in quotes?)

A rainbow can only be seen in the morning or late afternoon.

Astronauts

So they drink and fly.

Astronauts have flown intoxicated on at least two occasions. Does this really surprise anyone? Okay, more specifically, they claim astronauts have engaged in "heavy use of alcohol" within 12 hours of flight. Some have been cited as risk to flight. But it says it's unclear whether space shuttle flights were involved. What? Who's doing the reporting? And exactly what are they reporting?

Pay it forward

(from abcnews.com)

Matt Jones, a 28 year old father of four, decided without being sought to donate one of his kidneys to a complete stranger, on the condition that someone from the stranger's family will pay it forward and make a donation himself/herself.

Matt's kidney saved a grandmother in Phoenix, Arizona. Her husband in turn donated his kidney to another complete stranger (Angie) in Toledo, Ohio, who had been on dialysis for the past 32 years. Angie's mother will soon donate her kidney.

If we could all be this selfless, imagine what a wonderful place this world could be.

clickers (as an adjective)

thursday, 26 july, 2007 17:55 MAT

when doing research about clickers for that last post, i discovered another meaning of clicker, this time as an adjective rather than a noun.

A clicker is also a term used to describe a player in an MMORPG, like World of Warcraft, who plays only with the mouse rather than binding actions to a key. This is often used as a negative term, as clicking buttons tend to be less efficient than binding, giving you a slower reaction time.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clicker

*phew* i'm not a clicker. i play wow with both the keyboard and the mouse.

,` )

clickers (as a noun)

thursday, 26 july, 2007 17:50 MAT

according to the associate dean of learning & teaching in our faculty at central queensland university, we are no longer allowed to use clickers when we teach. she notified the staff of this decision in an email to which some lecturers (myself included) had to ask "what is a clicker ?" and "could i be using a clicker when i teach and not know it ?"



Clickers allow instructors to ask questions and gather students' responses during a lecture. (Clicker systems are also commonly called Classroom Response Systems, Student Response Systems, or Audience Response Systems.)

In clicker systems, each student uses a device (a "clicker") that looks like a TV remote to answer questions posed by the instructor in a specially-designed PowerPoint presentation. Summaries of student responses can be shown in real time to both instructors and students. Answers are also stored electronically for later viewing.

source: http://telr.osu.edu/clickers/

anyways, i know what a clicker is now. everything is ok for me. i don't use the clickers when i teach. clickers do sound like a fun way to teach and encourage student interaction if used appropriately.

has anyone else ever used a clicker ?

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Queen of CFE

Capillary Flow Experiments are a big deal. In her recent stay on the International Space Station, Sunita Williams was dubbed the Queen of CFE because she worked the experiments 9 times.

It's no surprise that fluid management can be an important problem in space. After all, you gotta use fluids, whether it's in a cooling system or in a fuel tank. The problem is, on Earth, you can always know where the fluid is because gravity helps is all pool together at the bottom, typically. In microgravity, you don't get that benefit. So what happens if you're sucking fuel in from your gas tank and suddenly all you get is air because all your gas is now on the opposite side of the exit?

Scientists today have devised a variety of "vanes" and "screens" to help move fluid along in the right direction by utilizing capillary forces. Because capillary forces are normally dominated by gravity, there's a lot that's still unknown about how to harness the capillary force phenomenon. On the space station, the scientists were able to set up video live feeds to scientists on Earth, thus allowing earthbound scientists to do their experiments with practically real-time tweaking. The scientists at Portland State University, Purdue University, NASA's Glenn Research Center and Zin Technologies have been able to collect a lot more data than expected because they have the benefit of trial and error on the space station.

The data so far can help engineers on Earth reevaluate designs for many fluid systems, including fuel tanks and fuel lines, IV drips, cryogenic equipment, thermal systems, purification systems, as well as waste management.

Read more details from the original article on NASA's website. YAY! for space station!

Nail It

From Wikipedia, based on a previous conversation:

A hangnail or agnail is a small, loose strip of torn skin near a fingernail or toenail. Hangnails are usually caused by dry skin or (in the case of fingernails) nail biting, and may be prevented with proper moisturization of the skin.

Onychocryptosis, commonly known as ingrown nails (unguis incarnatus), is a common form of nail disease. It is a painful condition in which the nail grows or cuts into one or both sides of the nail bed.

Beijing's Cardboard Steamed Buns

(from CNN.com)

No, it's not art. A China Central Television reporter interviewed a steamed buns maker in Beijing's Chaoyang district, and found that his steamed bun fillings consist of 60% cardboard and 40% fatty meat. Apparently, cardboard picked up directly from the ground is soaked to a pulp in caustic soda, then minced and mixed with fatty pork and seasoning. The maker says that the average person cannot tell the difference. His operation was eventually shut down by the police.

When Mammoths Walk the Earth ... Again?

A well-preserved, frozen specimen of a 6 month old female mammoth was discovered back in May in Siberia by a reindeer herder. The mammoth is believed to have died 10,000 years ago. A delegation of scientists is studying the mammoth, hoping to extract DNA samples that may resurrect the extinct species.

(source: CNN.com)

Singapore Fuel Gauge Rule

In my last visit, I learned that it is illegal to attempt to drive from Singapore to Malaysia with less than 3/4 a tank of gas. The reasoning behind this law is that gasoline is much cheaper in Malaysia than it is in Singapore, and the government wants to stop its residents from driving in to Malaysia just for fueling up. Near the border, there are signs politely reminding Singaporean residents to tank up before attempting to cross.

http://app.ica.gov.sg/travellers/exit/fuel_gauge_rule.asp

Yet another reason I don't think I could ever live in Singapore.

From the world of competitive eating

American competitive eater Joey Chestnut won the 92nd Annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest this past July 4th. Chestnut wrested back the title from the Japanese, from six-time defending champion Kobayashi.

Chestnut consumed (aka inhaled) 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. Kobayashi came in second with a personal best of 63 after suffering a, uh, shall we say, reversal of sorts during the home stretch. Kobayashi had been complaining of a jaw injury in the weeks before the competition.

Cold-brewed Coffee

It is claimed by Brett Holmes, a partner in the company Toddy, that cold-brewed coffee has 67% less acid than regular hot-brewed coffee. Bitterness intensifies when hot coffee becomes cold. So if you want iced coffee, used cold-brewed coffee. (Allow 10 cups of water to steep at least 12 hours in 1 pound of ground coffee, filter, dilute with water or milk, enjoy. Hint: a bit of Kahlua makes it really tasty.)

The Turtles

I went to a concert by The Turtles Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan as Flo and Eddie last night. Here's some LSRE that was unearthed. For the uninitiated, The Turtles are the group that sang (sung) Happy Together (how is the weather, bah bah bah bah).

Their first big hit was with their arrangement of a Bob Dylan (anyone remember his birth name) song: It Ain't Me Babe.

Eve of Destruction was featured on the Forrest Gump soundtrack.

Later, Flo and Eddie wrote and arranged the music for Strawberry Shortcake and The Care Bears.

Their song "Outside Chance" was featured on the CSI episode that Quentin Tarantino directed.

And finally, they'll have a song on the new Simpsons Movie.

Nantucket and Spice Girls

From the bottle cap: In 1692, Nantucket was purchased for 30 English pounds and two beaver hats.

Also, the Spice Girls have reunited for a world tour! Does anyone want to go?

New York Times Double-Click

Whoa! I just accidentally double-clicked on a random word in a random NYTimes article. It automatically looks up the word and does a search! Powered by answers.com. SWEET!

spaces rather than commas

monday, 25 june, 2007 14:05 MAT

numbers with more than 4 digits sometimes have a space as a place value separator rather than a comma.

ie. 50,000 vs 50 000

this has taken me some time to get used to. i don't like it, but i understand it now. i have been told that the use of commas are an american thing.

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French Restaurants

According to Snapple, there are more French restaurants in New York City than in Paris.

Too Much Sweetness?!

Next time you eat or drink something, consider this:
4 grams = 1 teaspoon sugar
1 gram of sugar = 4 calories

According to the US Department of Agriculture, people consuming 2,000 calories a day should eat no more than about 10 teaspoons of refined sugar/day. Some website cite 12 teaspoons of refined sugar/day.

I just visited my office pantry. Fun stuff.

Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate with Marshmellows, 1 oz envelope - sugars => 16g
Swiss Miss No Sugar Added with Calcium, 0.55oz envelope - sugars => 7g
Dr. Pepper, 12 oz can - sugars => 40g
Coke, 12 oz can - sugars => 39g
Pepsi, 12 oz can - sugars => 41g
7 up, 12 oz can - sugars => 38g

Siriusly?

Apparently there is an indie rock band called Harry and the Potters. Their first album was titled "Harry and the Potters and the Powers of Love" and their second, "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!" Indeed not. See the wikipedia entry here.

Or, if you're into less wholesome stuff, try out Draco and the Malfoys. Apparently they exist too. A darker alternative to the Potter crew, I suppose.

Book 7 comes out July 21st.

Pain

When is a Pain Doctor a Drug Pusher?

Excellent article about pain, the undertreatment of pain management, and a doctor's risk of being a drug trafficker while helping patients deal with chronic pain.

A couple of tidbits:

• 20% of adult Americans suffer from chronic pain
• Pain costs $61 billion per year in US productivity (no medical costs included)
• Pain kills: can lead to stress in the heart and lungs, heart attacks, stroke, degradation of the immune system, suicide
• Most people do not become addicted to painkillers. Less than 10% of people have a predisposition for addiction
  
• High doses are not always dangerous. They can be safer than high doses of aspirin, Advil, or Tylenol, which are always dangerous in high doses
• Undertreatment of pain: only 50% of sufferers have sufficient relief, less than 50% of cancer patients have adequate pain relief
  
• Pharmaceuticals are more abused than all illegal drugs except marijuana
  

father's day

monday, 18 june, 2007 18:40 MAT

on sunday, 17 june, 2007 was father's day in america. (the third sunday of june)

father's day in australia isn't until sunday, 2 september, 2007. (the first sunday of september)

,` )

Bigfoot was first photographed in Bluff Creek, CA. -Hampton Inn mint box

I guess that doesn't make him/her a Washington state icon even though they tried to get a likeness on the state quarter.

Also, apparently it's a misdemeanor to "embrace while driving", at least in Washington state.

Acronym, Backronym, Portmanteau

An acronym needs no definition. You know what it is. But can you name a backronym? Backronym is backwards + acronym (portmanteau), which means that the acronym came first and the phrase it "represents" came later. A pure backronym is derived from a root word that was not an acronym. Sometimes, they are apronyms if they reference themselves. An anacronym replaces an old definition of an acronym. And my favorite backronym is the recursive type: PINE.

Spork is a portmanteau.

Read more at Wikipedia.

one click = new tab

monday, 11 june, 2007 14:40 MAT

in firefox, click on a link with the scrollie wheelie button on the mousie and it automatically opens in a new tab !

one click = link open in a new tab

no more right click --> open link in new tab = link open in a new tab

neat-o !!

,` )

the first vcr

thursday, 7 june, 2007 15:45 MAT

the first vcr was made in 1956 and was the size of a piano.


source: liddle fact #129 from a spring valley orange juice bottle cap

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Best Sellers

Everyone knows that the Bible is the best-selling single-volume book in the world. But do you know what else is on the list?

Coming in the #2 slot is "Quotations from Chairman Mao," followed by the Qur'an in #3.

All six of the Harry Potter books are in the top 20.

Source: Wikipedia

meds

monday, 4 june, 2007 10:00 MAT

"are you on meds ?"

in america, it is common to ask this of anyone that is experiencing pain or an illness and one is concerned. i learned today not to ask australians this question using those words, especially boys. to many, the word "meds" refers to a popular brand of tampons.


i've never seen this brand in america. i can't say i notice this brand when i shop, but i don't look at brand so much. i tend to get the ones that happen to be on special. i'll have to be more observant next time.

,` )

Googlewhack

The concept certainly isn't new, but in the off-chance that you're looking to procrastinate, let me introduce the Googlewhack.

A Googlewhack is a search query of two words in Google that results in exactly one hit. As taken from the Googlewhack website, here are the rules.

1. Both words must exist in Google's idea of a dictionary, which is apparently www.answers.com.
2. The results bar up top must say "Results 1 - 1 of 1" to let you know there's really only one hit.
3. Can't be a wordlist or bibliography or something like that. Check the text for the context of the words.
4. Other details: no quotation marks around the words, no punctuation, no numbers, words have 4-30 letters only.

If you find one, feel free to submit it to The Whack Stack.

There's Something Curious About the Romans and Their Cocaine...

Fresh off Bloomberg wires...



Cocaine Traces Discovered in Roman Air, Pollution Study Shows

2007-06-01 08:56 (New York)

By Sheyam Ghieth

Romans are living with cocaine in their air, and in their noses, according to a report that found traces of the drug in the city's atmosphere. Parts of the Italian capital have a pulverized cocaine concentration of as much as 0.1 nanograms per cubic meter,according to the report, released yesterday by the Italian National Research Council. The study also found trace elements of cannabis in the air. The area with the highest airborne concentration of cocaine is near La Sapienza University, where ``consumption and dealingof cocaine is probably most widespread,'' the report's authors said. ``Cocaine has become a common pollutant,'' chemical researcher Roberto Fanelli told Italian daily la Repubblica. Fanelli was part of a group of researchers who found that the equivalent of 4 kilograms of cocaine floats down the Po River every day. La Repubblica reported today that nine out of 10 bank notes in Italy reveal traces of cocaine, though not all have been used to ``snort'' it, the newspaper said.

Single or Double

When I first began typing, I used to put three spaces after a sentence. Somewhere along the way, I whittled it down to two. Apparently now, it's accepted that you should use a single space after a sentence.

Looking into it, the double space originated during the typewriter era where they used monospaced fonts (all the characters are the same width). It made it easier to distinguish where the sentences were. I think this applies mostly with question marks and exclamation points. Periods tend to have a lot of associated white space anyways, so I don't see the problem there. Apparently, double spaces were also used after colons or semicolons as well.

Anyways, as times progressed and variable width fonts came to prominence, the double space was reduced to a single space. I'm not sure if it improves readability or not, but for those old school folk, it reduces the number of bytes that the document takes up. Besides, web browsers don't render two spaces, from what I've been told. However, there could be potential confusion when a sentence ends in an abbreviation or acronym and the following sentence begins with a proper noun.

Kitty Spies

Acoustic Kitty was a CIA project launched in the 1960s attempting to use cats in spy missions. A battery and a microphone were implanted into a cat and an antenna into its tail. Due to problems with distraction, the cat's sense of hunger had to be removed in another operation. Surgical and training expenses are thought to have amounted to over 10 million British pounds.

The first cat mission was eavesdropping on two men in a park outside the Soviet compound on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C.. The cat was released nearby, but was hit and killed by a taxi almost immediately. Shortly thereafter the project was considered a failure and declared to be a total loss.

(taken verbatim from Wikipedia)

Edward Hopper

I went to an Edward Hopper special exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts the other day. I've never been one to "get" art. But it makes it easier to see themes and get an overall impression when an entire gallery is dedicated to one artist. The placards set the tone using words such as "vernacular" and "bittersweet". Maybe that's all brainwashing to give the viewer a bias. While true, most of his paintings depict a quiescent solitude, should that be necessarily attached to any given emotion? His human subjects do tend to emit a kind of plainness and despair though. Oh, and his utility poles tend to be a bit curved.

female dog = bitch

tuesday, 29 may, 2007 15:25 MAT

whilst reading a new scientist article on dogs, the term bitch was used when referring to a female dog. looking that up on dictionary.com the first definition was indeed a female canine animal, especially a dog.

if it was used in this way on television during the normal broadcasting hours, would this word be allowed or bleeped out ? how many people realise this and would not be offended ?? to many, the word bitch is considered a curse word and nothing more, not aware that it can be used to scientifically refer to a female dog.

,` )

rockhampton mathematics

saturday, 26 may, 2007 15:10 MAT

i live in the city of rockhampton in queensland, australia. according to the may - june issue of the community newsletter, rockhampton has evolved with some very interesting mathematics.

1860 - rockhampton proclaimed a town
1902 - rockhampton delcared a city
2005 - rockhampton celebrates 150 years a city

i don't remember any big celebrations in 2005 when i was here, but i didn't much pay attention. either they celebrated really, REALLY early or there is some new form of mathematics down under that i am not aware of yet.

,` )

Math sale

So, I was like, waiting for someone outside a restaurant and it was soooooo hot, at least as hot as it's been this year, but I was in the shade, so it wasn't too bad, but still I was almost prespiring just standing there. Ick! Anyways, there was this store on the other side of the street that was having a grand opening sale. On the sign, it read:

For each

$50 take off $5
$100 take off $15
$150 take off $20

And I was like, OMGWTF!!!!?????

Hijabs

The hijab, in the context of most Western discussions, refers to Muslim women’s head and body covering. Islam has often been the subject of criticism by feminists and others who believe that the hijab is a symbol of oppression, of secondary status. In Saudi Arabia and Iran, women are required to wear the national version of Islamic dress or else face punishment. Although there are verses in the Quran prescribing modesty in dress, some scholars argue that neither the Quran nor Muhammed himself required the hijab of women. In fact, according to some interpretations, the idea of wearing headscarves originated with Muhammed’s wives, who wore them as a sign of status; only later did the wearing of hijab by women became a social custom and, much later, expected and/or compulsory.

Sources: Karen Armstrong's Muhammad: Biography of the Prophet; Wikipedia

Sleep . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Asleep On The Job

More companies are allowing workers to take afternoon naps, finding that it increases productivity. A NASA study confirms this, claiming a workers output can be boosted as much as 34%. I guess that depends on how you measure "output".

Anyways, it definitely would be nice to find one of these companies, if I ever graduate. I've definitely found myself to be more productive after a nap, but I usually only take them when I'm really drowsy. I'm glad there's something I can at least point to now.

RNA Interference (RNAi)

RNA interference (RNAi) is a cellular mechanism for regulating gene expression. RNA, in contrast to DNA, is usually single-stranded in cells. Exogenously-introduced double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), which can come from a variety of sources such as viruses and synthetic dsRNA (i.e. for experimental purposes), trigger the RNAi pathway in the cell.

The RNAi pathway:

1) The enzyme dicer chops the dsRNA into small double-stranded RNA fragments of 20-25 base pairs. These fragments unpair to become single-stranded RNA, which are called siRNA (short interfering RNA).
2) The single-stranded siRNA's are incorporated into a complex called the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC).
3) When the siRNA's base-pair with complementary RNA sequences such as in messenger RNA (mRNA), the business end of the RISC - argonaute - degrades the target mRNA.

Recall the central dogma of biology:

DNA --> mRNA --> protein

DNA is transcribed into mRNA, which exits the nucleus and is translated into protein, which mediates biological functions. Since RNAi results in the degradation of mRNA, the effect is that protein production is reduced, or "knocked down."

Biological Functions of RNAi

Why does the RNAi pathway exist? There have been theories about RNAi playing a role in the immune system. It has been reported in plants that RNAi plays a role in cleaving an intruding viral dsRNA. The immunological role of RNAi in animals and humans is less understood.

RNAi in Research

RNAi has become an indispensable tool of molecular biological research. It has become one of the major ways to downregulate a specific protein's expression. In simplistic terms, scientists often want to study the function of a protein. So how do you know that Protein A mediates Function A'? You can increase the expression of Protein A and see if the effect (A') is increased. This is called overexpression. You can reduce the expression of Protein A and see if the effect is decreased. RNAi is one of the main techniques used to reduce protein expression. The other major technique is a genetic knockout, which is more cumbersome, and sometimes can result in lethality of the animal or cell line if the target protein is essential for survival.

No Injuns Allowed

Did you know that until May 2005 a law existed that banned Native Americans from entering the city of Boston? The law was enacted in the late 17th century and has been on the books, pretty much unenforced, since the early 18th century.

Here is the relevant article from the Boston Globe.

Mark Rothko

Last night, May 15, 2007, Sotheby's had their Contemporary Art Evening Auction. The star of the show was the beautiful piece shown above. It is known as White Center (Yellow, Pink, and Lavender on Rose) by Mark Rothko. It sold for a record breaking $72,840,000.

Many people have asked me what makes this piece so important? And is it worth all that money? I leave the latter question alone, but I will attempt to convey some of the history and importance regarding this piece of work.

In short, this piece was painted in 1950 and is largely regarded as the first "fully-resolved" piece of Rothko's vision that would become his signature style. If one looks at the paintings by Rothko before this time, one will find a much more calligraphic and representative/pictorial style. As David Anfam puts it, "Certainly, White Center's dazzling amplitude and finesse invite an otherwise overused label-the appellation of masterpiece. In short, its commanding scale, sumptuousness and sheer intensity bespeak a modern master in the first full flush of his mature creativity. As such, White Center is also a summation." We should remember that visions and concepts such as this do not come overnight. It is a culmination of Rothko's evolution from 1924 and reflects the influence of Bonnard, Matisse, and Mondrian.

Outside of the painting, there are also some notable points. The provenance of this painting reads as follows: Sidney Janis Gallery (New York), Eliza Bliss Parkinson (Niece of one of the founders of MOMA, New York, before 1960), Sidney Janis Gallery (New York, 1960), David Rockefeller (New York, June 1960). On the advice of Dorothy C. Miller, one of MOMA's most well-known curators and champion for upcoming American contemporary art, Rockefeller purchased the piece for $10,000. [Inflation calculator from the previous post puts it at $66k today.] It was Rockefeller's first abstract work.

More from Snapple

The first ball point pens were sold in 1945 for $12.

From an internet inflation calculator, that $12 in 1945 translates to $132.91 in 2006. I haven't really gone shopping for high class pens. Is that about the going price for them now, or did other economic forces cause a downturn in the retail price for ball point pens?

nokia 2280 user's manual

monday, 14 may, 2007 09:55 MAT



gosh... who wouldda thought !!

,` )

US Patents

In preparing a proposal for a department engineering competition, I've been reading some patents. Here's an simple link telling you how to read the front page of a patent. Interestingly enough, it provides a little tidbit that states the date of issue on US patents are all Tuesdays! (Why is this??)

I'd post about patent term lengths, but upon reading another site, I found it very confusing. I'll leave it up to someone else to explain.

Pouf

So I learned that those scrubber ball thingy's you use with bodywash are called poufs. Or at least that's what someone told me. Apparently, it hasn't made it into the online dictionaries yet. However, when I do look up pouf, one of the definitions is that it is a slang and offensive term of an openly homosexual man.

Coffee Cups

So apparently, coffee cups have a lip/feet at the bottom in order to lift the bottom of the cup off the surface of whatever it's sitting on. Having that pocket of air under your coffee provides thermal insulation. In other words, it reduces the amount of heat lost from your coffee through the bottom of the cup. And all this time, I thought it was just there so you could hold the cup without burning your hand or using those sleeve things. You ever notice that Chinese bowls have feet on the bottom? Yeah, so much more convenient than lots of "American" bowls.

More from Snapple caps

In 1900, cars in New York City were electric. There might have been a fraction or percentage after the comma, but it goes in hand with one of my previous tidbits.

A dragonfly has six legs but cannot walk.

Kissing Randomness

When a Kiss is More than a Kiss (NYTimes) The article comes out of the recent hoopla surrounding Richard Gere and Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. It also mentions other public kisses by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (president of Iran), Al/Tipper Gore, Hillary Clinton, and mobsters.

Random facts from the article:

• Romans identified 3 different kinds of kisses: basium - standard romantic kiss, osculum - friendship kiss, savium - the passionate "french kiss"
• Monkeys don't kiss, though apes do to show respect (Only on the arm/chest)
• Earliest written record of kissing comes from Sanskrit, 1500 BC
• Is kissing an innate human act? There is debate. Some argue it comes from the mother passing prechewed food to the baby. Yum-o

blue lights on emergency vehicles

monday, 7 may, 2007 10:50 MAT

we were driving to uni this morning and noticed an ambulance vehicle with blue and red beacons. that prompted me to investigate why it had blue lights. this is different to what i am used to in america.

There is practical advantage of using two colors for high intensity lights on police car beacons. Blue is easier to see during daytime and red more clearly discerned at night. Blue also is chosen for its long association with police in US (e.g: blue lights in front of police stations, blue uniforms in many states) and because of its high daylight visibility. Red has long been a symbol of warning and danger and a signal to stop. No other emergency service uses blue in its beacon. Firefighters and ambulances use red. Construction and emergency transport vehicles (towing etc.) use yellow or amber. Only police beacons are two-colored.

i guess in australia, it isn't regulation that only police cars use blue lights. i also didn't realise that in america ambulances and firefighters use only red. i always thought it was red and white. i'll have to pay more attention, i guess.

source: http://www.garamchai.com/askadesi/askgov08.htm

,` )

Why the Toyota Way Works

Toyota, as you all know, just became the largest car manufacturer in the world, surpassing GM. For many years now, their incredible efficiency and production line methods have been studied, analyzed, and have been publicized. GM, itself, tried to learn from Toyota by owning and operating a joint manufacturing plant in California--the deal was that GM would learn how Toyota makes incredible quality-cars and Toyota would gain a sales channel in the US. Well, although that plant was successful (like all of Toyota's other plants) GM did not figure out how to turn their other factories into money-making machines.

Yet, the Toyota-way is not a mystery. In theory, it's all very simple and intuitive. If there is a mistake on the production line, a worker pulls a cord, and the entire line is stopped. A manager will rush over to the source of the error, and if the problem is not fixed immediately, the worker will pull the component/part off the line and will resume the rest of the production line. The worker is in charge of reporting the problem and working with people to develop a solution. Once a solution has been created, both the problem and solution are announced to the company, so that the issue does not occur again. With this incredible process, Toyota continues to learn from their own mistakes about quality and improvement.

However, no other car manufacturer in the world and most other factories, in general, have not been able to use this same method. This is a mystery, as Toyota is very open about their processes and the Toyota case is touted by b-school professors everywhere. So why does it work in Toyota and not elsewhere? Is it their corporate culture? Is it because American unions disincentivize workers from doing quality-work?

My classmate Yas, who is an up-and-coming manager at Toyota, gave a lecture today in class and presented a perspective that I've never heard before. He thinks their success has to do with respect. At Toyota, the line worker, though he may not have had a college education, is expected to problem-solve at the level of an ivory-tower-trained engineer. Furthermore, he said that the line workers are willing to do this because they are given incredible respect. Hierarchy is minimal at Toyota. People don't think line workers are idiots or are unsophisticated--they realize that the line workers are the ones who make the company successful. If a line worker has a design-idea, there are processes in play that allow immediate implementation of the idea, further supporting the notion of acknowledgement across all levels of employees.

But how do you teach people this kind of respect? Yas, himself, who is an Ivy-league trained engineer, fluent in English and Japanese, has worked on the line. Apparently every new employee regardless of the position he/she was hired for, must work on the production line for a few months, side-by-side with all the line workers who will not be assuming other positions in his/her career. Yas said that it taught him respect for what line workers do, because not only did he have to do it himself, but he ended up becoming friends with everyone on his line. With those kinds of friendships, it's hard to disrespect people on the line, even when he moved on to higher positions and they stayed. In addition, all new hires must also sell cars for a few months, so Yas learned to appreciate sales and became friends with car salespeople as well. I think this is an amazing way to build camraderie.

Fire Starters

So apparently, in lieu of lighter fluid, you can use flour. Something about high surface area. -Gabe Vieth

On a similar note, I had a friend who would light non-dairy coffee creamer on fire by tossing it up in the air forming a cloud, then lighting it from the bottom creating a nice quick fireball. -eyewitness account

1%

More than one percent of all the energy used by humankind goes to synthesizing ammonia. Ammonia is used to make nitrogen fertilizers. The higher grain yields obtained with nitrogen fertilizer are absolutely necessary to feed more than 40% of the world's population, and to support the nitrogen-intense diet of the rest of the world.

Anthropogenic sources (primary ammonia synthesis, but also NOx from fossil fuel combustion and cultivation of leguminous crops such as soybeans) account for well over half of the flux of nitrogen fixation in the world (on land). This is a huge perturbation to the global geochemical cycling on nitrogen. Biogeochemists, however, haven't yet figured out what happens to all the nitrogen fertilizers we put in the ground. Some of it forms nitrates which enter groundwater via leaching from the soil or runoff into lakes and rivers. No one knows what happens to all the nitrate after that, though. Either it is "denitrified" by soil and freshwater microorganisms, or it is being trapped in some unknown and huge nitrate reservoir, possibly deep underground.

The full environmental consequences of all this extra nitrogen are largely unknown.

Hot Fudge Sundaes

The very first hot fudge sundae was made at CC Brown's Ice Cream Shop located in Hollywood, CA.

-Hampton Inn mint box

Jim Koch is content

Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams), gave a talk about sales at MIT today. At one point, someone asked him for how much would he sell Sam Adams to Anheuser-Busch. To paraphrase his answer, he said that he already eats three meals a day and being able to eat six meals a day adds no extra value and isn't interesting to him.

Jim's first experience as a beer salesman landed him on Washington Street, which apparently has no bars, and State Street, which also had no bars. Luckily, he eventually found a bar and made his first sale. The company currently has some 400 employees of which 240 are salesmen, 100 are brewers, and the rest do all the other things. They did not have anyone in marketing for the first 10 years of their existence. The lesson is sales, sales, SALES!

Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR)

The kidney is one of the most important organs in the body, performing numerous key functions such as excretion of waste products; regulation of blood pH, serum electrolyte concentrations, blood volume, and blood pressure; and the secretion of hormones such as erythropoietin (for synthesis of red blood cells), renin (for blood pressure control), and vitamin D (for bone health). The anatomy of the kidney is therefore complex in order to accomodate all these functions.

The basic functional unit of the kidney is known as the nephron. There are millions of nephrons in each kidney. One of the key components of a nephron is the glomerulus, which handles the filtration function of the kidney. Blood is carried into and out of the glomerulus via afferent and efferent arterioles. Surrounding the afferent arteriole is a filtration barrier, which allows fluid carrying wastes and electrolytes to pass through into what's known as Bowman's capsule, which is part of an extensive collecting system for that filtrate, commonly known as urine.

Kidney function is often measured by the glomerular filtration rate (GFR), which is the volume of fluid filtered across that filtration barrier per unit time. The GFR represents the total ability of the kidney (e.g. the sum of all glomeruli) to filter blood. Hence as we age, or as the kidney gets damaged in some disease process, nephrons begin to die, and the overall rate of filtration drops.

GFR is commonly estimated by the body's creatnine clearance. Creatnine (Cr) is a molecule synthesized by your muscles. It is freely filtered by the glomerulus and neither secreted (actually it is minimally secreted) nor reabsorbed into the urine. In other words, the only way for the body to get rid of creatnine is by filtering it through the glomerulus. Thus, measuring the creatnine filtration closely approximates the GFR. In the hospital, serum (blood) creatnine is routinely measured. A rise in serum creatnine may suggest a defect in glomerular filtration (i.e. if the glomerulus is not filtering properly, then creatnine cannot exit the body and therefore builds up in the blood).

Normal GFR is approximately 100 ml/min, with men usually having higher baseline GFR than women. Normal aging can decrease the GFR at an approximate rate of 1 ml/min per year after the age of 30. Various disease processes (e.g. diabetes, hypertension, lupus, etc) can reduce kidney function. Whatever the disease process, renal disease may be classified into 5 stages, based on the GFR:

Stage 1: GFR > 90. Kidneys are largely intact, and treatment is aimed at halting the disease process to preserve kidney function.

Stage 2: GFR between 60-90. Kidney function has declined slightly, and treatment is still aimed at halting the disease process.

Stage 3: GFR between 30-60. Kidney function is significantly compromised. Anemia and bone problems occur with higher frequency (recall that the kidney is responsible for synthesizing erythropoietin and vitamin D).

Stage 4: GFR between 15-30. Kidney function is severely compromised. At this stage, you have to make preparations for dialysis and think about a kidney transplant.

Stage 5: GFR < 15. This is also known as end stage renal disease By this point, your kidneys no longer have sufficient filtration capacity to maintain life, and you will need dialysis or a transplant.

The kidney is an organ that cannot regenerate or repair itself (at least with current medical technology); whatever is lost is lost forever. So treat your kidneys well!

My rental car is a Mercury Grand Marquis. That's historically pronounced mar-kwis.

Marilyn Monroe's famous subway grate is located at the northwest corner of 52nd and Lexington in New York City. -Hampton Inn mint box

rqotd - on phd revisions

tuesday, 1 may, 2007 11:00 MAT

on why to put off making the revisions to your phd that your supervisor has requested...

"the more you do today, the more they will be able to give you to do tomorrow."
~ brett brooks

,` )

Hampton Inn sugar free mint box

The first email was sent in 1971 from Cambridge, MA.

From Cranium on the Airplane

1. It takes 850 peanuts to make an 18 oz jar of peanut butter. About half of the US peanut crop goes towards peanut butter.

2. The wingspan of the 747 is longer than the flight of the Wright brother's first flight. 200 something to 120 feet.

3. Bob Dylan was born as Robert Zimmerman. (<-- OK, I knew this a long time ago)

4. Electric cars were manufactured in the US in the 19th century up until around 1930.

5. A geegaw, or gewgaw, is a showy trinket. (<-- Had to look this up, but the word was used in flight)

6. Much like everything else, toilet paper was first produced in China. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it could have been 3 x 7 ft for the emperor.

Flower Girls

Calling a girl a tulip is generally acceptable.

Calling a girl an orchid is wrong because it connotes an old woman.

Rose is acceptable, I'm not sure what the consensus was on daisy or pansy. Carnation implies cheapness, so steer clear of that.

Mobile: Carriers take and eat the cake but so do the Aggregators

I went to a pretty interesting talk on the mobile market today. Apparently, the US has caught up to Europe in the # of text messages sent around the country. (I'm not sure exactly what metrics the speaker was using to measure this, but whatever.) In addition, beyond just peer to peer texting, apparently interactive TV-text message marketing campaigns generate a ton of revenue. Take the TV show "Deal or No Deal," for example, they were able to pay for the entire cost of one season (including studio-rent, production operating costs, payroll for everyone, etc...) with their text-message voting game alone. Amazing! The revenue on that is in the 10s of millions of dollars!!

Even though people say there is no money in mobile (unless you're a carrier today), apparently that's not true. The people who do the these mobile marketing gimmicks (i.e. offer marketing consulting, put together the technology, and do the billing for these marketing campaigns), callled aggregators, also apparently make tons of moola/bucks/dinero. One top company called mCube sold to Verisgn last year and was earning $85M in revenue. They were acquired for nearly $300M! And all they did was marketing campaigns for mobile devices, an area that people did not think was very mature in the US. Make way for mobile!

Theremin

(The information gathered below is courtesy of wikipedia)

The theremin is one of the earliest electronic instruments, and was invented by Russian inventor Leon Theremin in 1919. On the left is an image of Theremin himself playing his instrument.

The instrument is composed of 2 radio frequency oscillators and 2 metal antennae, one controlling the frequency (pitch) and the other controlling the amplitude (volume). The electronic signals are fed into an amplifier, completing the instrument. Of note, this is the first musical instrument where the performer does not physically touch the instrument. The distance between the performer's hands and the antennae control the pitch and volume. The sound quality of the theremin is eerie and alien-like.

The theremin operates on the heterodyne principle. The instrument uses 2 radio frequency oscillators, one emitting a fixed frequency, and the other a variable frequency. The circuitry of the instrument is such that the performer's (right) hand acts as ground of a variable capacitor in an LC circuit. The variable frequency generated by the performer is mixed with the fixed frequency emitted by one of the frequency oscillators to generate a beat frequency which is in the audible range. This signal is then fed to the amplifier.

Volume control is accomplished with the performer's (left) hand acting as ground for another variable capacitor, which takes the place of a variable resistor usually used to control volume in audio equipment.

Brain Asymmetry -> Asymmetric Wagging

Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli (NY Times)

Fascinating article.

We all know about left brain and right brain. The left brain "specializes in behaviors involving what the scientists call approach and energy enrichment." The right brain "specializes in behaviors involving withdrawal and energy expenditure." Basically, this means that left brain is connected with positive feelings like love and safety and calm. The right brain goes with fleeing and depression.

We have also heard that the right brain controls the left side of the body, and the left brain controls the right side of the body. Apparently this manifests itself in humans in certain ways like muscles on the right side of your face showing happiness and left side showing sadness. Curious, the scientists, Giorgio Vallortigara, Angelo Quaranta, and Marcello Siniscalchi, thought. What about the dog's tail? It's smack in the middle of the body!

Well, turns out dog tails do indeed show emotional asymmetry. When dogs are happy, the wag more strongly to the right. (Higher amplitude) When they are frightened, they wag more to the left. Same thing happens for chimps scratching themselves.

international postage from australia

monday, 23 april, 2007 17:00 MAT

it costs AUD $1.25 to post a greeting card from australia to america. that's a greeting card only with nothing else in the envelope.

it costs AUD $1.85 to post a letter from australia to america.

there is a separate classification of postage stamps for international postage that must be used.

,` )

Opera Etiquette

Jeremy and I went to see Giulio Cesare, an opera about the first meeting between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. As a side note, this is definitely not an opera for beginners. Act I and Act II are extremely slow, as in the Handel/Baroque tradition. I have to say that we both snoozed a bit. However, Act III was perkier and cheesier. Cleopatra's last aria is something to truly admire and appreciate. Ruth Ann Swenson did a fantastic job.

Anyway, after each aria, a man behind me would constantly yell, "BRAVO!" over and over. Meanwhile, a guy in front of me would yell back at him, "BravA!!"

It is tradition to say "Bravo" to cheer for a male performer. You ought to use "Brava" for women and "Bravi" for more than one performer.

However, what is correct when it is a woman singing a man's part, as in the Met's Giulio Cesare?

Sam Adams and Twisted Tea marketing

So, I went to the Sam Adams Brewery yesterday as a "school field trip." We chatted with the general manager of Twisted Tea, which is a Sam Adams brand of alcohol (ice tea + alcohol brewed using Sam Adams' signature beer brewing style.), and did some "product testing" of all their beers and Twisted Tea flavors. Totally awesome visit!!

We chatted a lot about marketing Sam Adams' products and managing the operations in general but the most interesting topic was about their Twisted Tea brand and distribution system. I expected Twisted Tea's target demographic to be women, but it's not. Even though the drink itself is nice and sweet and tea-ish and appealing to women, they compete heavily with Smirnoff's and other girly drinks. When the product was first launched, the managers of Twisted Tea also surmised that the niche demographic would be women, so Twisted Tea has a bright somewhat "girly" label on it. However, it turns out the Tea never really took off amongst women, and their niche market is blue collared, White men! Now that they know this, Sam Adams distribution channels will only sell to bars in neighborhoods with large concentrations of "poor White people." So, for example, you can't buy Twisted Tea at a bar in the Back Bay, but you can find it in South Boston. In addition, even though Twisted Tea is marketed to low-income guys, the Tea itself is branded as a high-end brand. In addition, amongst blue-collared workers overall, White men tend to make more money and can afford this Tea, so, they focus specifically on this race. Therefore, they will not market in the South west of the US, because there are few places with large concentrations of lower-income, White men. Interesting.

And what do the guys think about the "girly" label? Well, apparently construction workers perceive the label as "loud and colorful" but not girly. So, they continue to drink the tea. The brand will undertake a makeover this summer, so look for the new Twisted Tea in stores this summer--in South Boston.

Snapple Bottle Lid Wisdom

Bamboo comprises 99% of a panda's diet.

html superscript and subscript tags

friday, 20 april, 2007 16:40 MAT

just for jeremy and www.trickshottim.com

15^2 = 15² by typing html tags < sup > < /sup > (without spaces) around the 2

water = H₂O by typing html tags < sub > < /sub> (without spaces) around the 2

therefore, CO2 + H2O = H2CO3 = H+ + HCO3- would appear as
CO₂ + H₂O = H₂CO₃ = H⁺ + HCO₃^-

,` )

MIT RFID cards

The MIT ID card system is provided by the Indala corporation. Each card contains an antenna and RFID chip that allows contactless entry to buildings, labs, and other rooms on campus. The card readers emit a continuous 125 kHz sine wave, which at a range of 5-7 inches is just enough to power the RFID chip and cause it to emit a 224 bit AM broadcast identifying the card.

This is not a very secure system, as it's pretty easy to build or buy a card reader and "steal" IDs from other people. All MIT ID cards will happily broadcast their numbers when powered by the right signal. Card readers do not draw much power, so it's possible to build a small handheld device and brush it against someone's pocket or purse and harvest their card ID. With someone else's card ID, it's then an easy matter to build an ID emitter or duplicate the card. Although the card ID cannot be used to derive the MIT ID (i.e. the student ID), it can be used to gain access to restricted areas on campus and use the victim's TechCash account.

Richard Stallman, for example, has consistently refused to use his MIT-issued ID because of security concerns. To gain access to the Stata center after hours, he got a student to build him a special-purpose emitter that randomly broadcasts one of several valid IDs.

Also worth noting is that MIT maintains records of all card access attempts for two weeks. So keep that in mind if you're doing something on campus and don't want to leave a trail.


[1] http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/6.805/student-papers/fall04-papers/mit_id/

passion fruit tic tacs

friday, 20 april, 2007 16:20 MAT (melanie australia time)

in australia, tic tacs come in passion fruit flavour. i've never seen or tasted passion fruit flavour in america.

,` )

i just learned how to post!

that's it. that's what i learned today.

Details

So much for everyday.

Anyways, it seems like girls will notice all the little details until they get really comfortable with someone. At which point, they only notice the details that annoy them.

Evaluating Acid-Base Disorders

pH of the human blood is very tightly controlled, usually between 7.38-7.42. Two major organs help regulate the pH: the lung and the kidney. The lung does so by controlling the CO2, which as some soda drinkers would know, is involved in the following equilibrium:

CO2 + H2O = H2CO3 = H+ + HCO3-

The kidney is the site of major filtration of the blood, and the kidney can secrete and reabsorb H+ as well as HCO3- into the urine, thereby having an effect on acid-base balance.

In evaluating an acid-base disorder, the first step is to look at the blood pH, which will tell you if the patient has acidemia (acidic blood) or alkalemia (alkaline blood).

The second step is to classify the the process into either respiratory (originating from the lung, e.g. change in CO2 intake) or metabolic (originating from other metabolic processes). To classify, look at the pCO2 and HCO3- in the blood. Example: respiratory acidosis can result from hypoventilation (e.g. lung disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]), leading to an increase in pCO2 as CO2 exchange is not happening quickly enough. The equilibrium is shifted to the right, producing more H+ (strong acid) and HCO3- (weak base), thus lowering the pH. Because HCO3- is also generated, HCO3- levels in the blood may be higher than normal. In contrast, metabolic acidosis results from some process (many causes are possible) that increase H+ and/or decrease HCO3-, thus acidifying the blood. Measured HCO3- is lower than normal, and pCO2 can be low as the lung tries to compensate for the acidemia by hyperventilating.

The third step is to further classify metabolic acidosis into anion gap metabolic acidosis or non-anion gap metabolic acidosis. Anion gap is defined as Na-(Cl+HCO3-). These are the major clinically-measured cation (Na) and anions (Cl and HCO3) in the blood. In certain metabolic processes (e.g. lactic acidosis, diabetic ketoacidosis), large amounts of anions (lactic acid, ketoacids) are generated. The presence of these acids (H+A-) leads to acidic blood, which HCO3- buffers by combining with H+. In effect then, HCO3- levels are decreased and are replaced by A-. This results in an increase in anion gap. The reason for classifying metabolic acidosis into anion gap and non-anion gap subclasses is to aid in differential diagnosis. Anion gap metabolic acidoses usually result from processes that generate anions, while non-anion gap metabolic acidoses may be a result of abnormal secretion or reabsorption of H+ and HCO3- by the kidney.

This is actually a simplification of the evaluation process, as many patients will have mixed acid-base disorders (e.g. respiratory alkalosis on top of metabolic acidosis), and 2 more steps can be undertaken to evaluate mixed acid-based disorders, but it is beyond the scope of this blog.

Presented here is only a flowchart of how to approach acid-base disorders. The job does not end at arriving at a classification of the disorder. The classification only aids the clinician in narrowing down the list of possible diagnoses. More needs to be done to pinpoint the pathological process that is leading to the acid-base abnormality, and arrive at an appropriate treatment.

Visualization of Squaring Numbers

Tricks to square numbers in your head.

First, let us note a simple way to square numbers that end in 5. All numbers that end in 5, when squared, will end with 25. Then, take the number to the left and multiply it to itself plus 1.
For example:
15 x 15 = (1 x 2) 25 = 225
25 x 25 = (2 x 3) 25 = 625

The figure to the left shows a "proof" for why this occurs. The trick lies in (e) to (f). At this point, you must realize we work in base 10, therefore making the tens place in the answer a 2 for sure.

------

Alright, now let us examine the "dragon" way of squaring arbitrary numbers in your head. The story goes that this was independently developed by www.trickshottim.com while he was lying in bed. Let us find the square of 17.
Start with the nearest square you know. 15 x 15 = 225. Now, to this, add 15 (light blue), 16 (light green), 16 (dark blue), and 17 (dark green).
15 x 15 + (15 + 16) + (16 + 17) = 17 x 17 = 289
Similarly, you could subtract.
20 x 20 - (20 + 19) - (19 + 18) - (18 + 17) = 289
Those who are bored can work on generalizing this to more dimensions.

----

If you are excited for more pictures, here is another way to visualize squaring numbers.
Again, let's calculate 17 x 17. This time, add and subtract to the nearest 10, in this case, 20.
(17 + 3) x (17 - 3) = 20 x 14 = 280
From the figure above, we see that we've neglected a couple of squares. To be precise, we're missing a square whose edges are the size of the number we added and subtracted, 3. Hence, the full answer is as follows.
17 x 17 = (17 + 3) x (17 - 3) + (3 x 3) = 20 x 14 + 9 = 289

Tada!

US Tax System

WSJ published a pretty compelling article yesterday about the current US tax system. Here are some highlights:

-40% of the country's households -- more than 44 million adults -- pay no income taxes at all.
-Those who make more than $43,200 (the top 40%) pay 99.1% of all income taxes.
-Those who made more than $87,300 in 2004, the top 10%, paid 70.8% of all income taxes
-The EITC program redistributes money from those who pay income taxes to 22 million families and individuals with incomes less than $36,348 through a government subsidy.
-The top 20% of workers, those with incomes over $64,300, pay 44.2% of the payroll tax while the bottom 20%, those who make less than $17,300, pay 4.2%.
-Lower-income workers typically receive more in Social Security benefits than they paid in, while the wealthy, who paid the most in taxes, simply can't live long enough to get back what they paid.
-As for Medicare, it doesn't matter that the rich paid far more in taxes; all recipients receive the same benefits. Think of it this way. If Medicare were a car, its price for a low-income worker would be $145 and its price for a millionaire would be $14,500, even though it's the very same car.

Smiling chimps

Some sort of primate related to humans (may have been chimpanzees, may have been multiple ones) smile and bare their teeth to express fear or submissiveness. Happiness is expressed with an open mouth.

immigration

if you care

Tax Returns Rise for Immigrants in U.S. Illegally (NYTimes)

Coffee Business

Starbucks bought rival company Seattle's Best Coffee back in... 2004, 05 but still bills the two brands as "rivals." This is due in part to the fact that Starbucks had a deal with Barnes & Nobles and Seattle's Best had a deal with Borders for in-store retail shops.

Barnes & Nobles and Borders are actual rivals, and the distinction in coffee brands is still represented. Very clever, right?

PS - Jen, so I take it this is your attempt to start a wiki?

Ticker-tape parade

A parade through downtown streets where people in adjacent office buildings throw bits of waste paper (used to be stock ticker tape) out the windows onto the street to create a snowstorm flurry effect. And a lot of trash.