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 ?

,` )

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.