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.

,` )

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

,` )

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.