Friday, September 30, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

What is the difference between lager, bitter, ale, and stout?

The Internet contains a surprising number of categories pertaining to the malted, hopped, and somewhat bitter alcoholic beverage known as beer. I selected the non-commercial Alcohol and Spirits > Beer category on yahoo!, and reached for Real Beer, a web site acclaimed both for quality and popularity. The wealth of real content was astonishing -- beer news and views, beer and brewpub tours, beer journalism for amateurs and brewery insiders, and more. The only thing I couldn't find was a quick glossary for types of beer. No doubt it was somewhere on the site, but I decided to move on.

Beershots, another popular site, offers microscopic view of beers around the world. We compared the distinctive rainbow patterns of Razor Edge Lager, Bass Pale Ale, and Watney's Cream Stout. While entertaining, it was probably not what I had in mind.

Finally, I ambled over to the Samuel Adams Beer Glossary. This alphabetical index from the Boston brewer offered succinct definitions of types of beer:


Ale - made with a top fermenting yeast, ales are described as "hearty, robust, and fruity."

Bitter - a mainstay in English pubs, this golden-brown draft ale is top-fermented, hoppy, dry, and lightly carbonated.

Lager - made with a bottom fermenting yeast, lagers are characteristically "smooth, elegant, crisp, and clean." Comparable to pilsener.

Stout - typically dark, heavy, and richly flavored, stout is "top-fermented beer made from pale malt, roasted unmalted barley, and often caramel malt." People in all corners of the globe have been brewing for thousands of years, and the proof is in the awesome abundance of styles.

So bend your elbow, drop your mouse, and don't forget to taste responsibly.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Thursday, September 29, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Where is Albert Einstein buried?

Rather than using my normal search techniques, I headed straight to Find A Grave, a very helpful, if morbid, resource I've used in the past. The site came through once again, informing us that Albert Einstein was cremated and his ashes were scattered near an unspecified river in New Jersey. The site made no mention of it, but I had heard rumors that Einstein's brain had been preserved. I tried a search on "einstein brain" to get to the bottom it. A page from University if Washington filled me in.

Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955, at the age of 76. His body was cremated, and his brain was preserved for scientific study, although whether or not Einstein or his family gave permission to save his brain is up for debate. Dr. Thomas S. Harvey, a pathologist at Princeton Hospital, conducted the autopsy. No one knew what happened to Einstein's brain after Dr. Harvey removed it.

In 1978, Steven Levy, a curious reporter for the New Jersey Monthly, set out to track down the famous brain. After much hunting around, Levy learned that Dr. Harvey still had Einstein's brain in two mason jars in his house in Wichita, Kansas. You can read an abbreviated version of the discovery online.

After Einstein's brain resurfaced, so to speak, several studies were conducted comparing it to "average" human brains. Several key differences were noted that may help explain the great man's genius.

And that's all there is to this (gray) matter.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Friday, September 23, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Why is our pee sometimes clear and sometimes yellow?

The color of pee is caused by bile, a chemical the liver produces to break up fat. When our bodies break down bile, the pigment urochrome turns pee yellow. The lighter the color, the more liquid has watered it down.

In fact, you can easily determine if you're dehydrated from the color of your urine. Dark yellow is a symptom of moderate dehydration and is a sign that you should drink fluids right away. However, taking vitamin supplements can also cause pee to appear yellow.

Believe it or not, urine's yellow color was once believed to come from gold. Long ago, alchemists attempted to extract gold from pee. Needless to say, they were unsuccessful. However, in 1669, an alchemist named Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus while engaged in the undertaking. Among other things, this find helped to spark the creation of matches.

You may have asked this question lightheartedly, but for hikers and parents of small children, understanding the significance is important for health and safety.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Thursday, September 22, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

What is the history of the heart icon?

I headed off to visit a dictionary of Symbols.com in the first search match. I used the intriguingly easy Graphic Search, which took me through a step-by-step series of drop-down menu options to narrow our quest. I discovered that the heart graphic can be described as single-axis symmetrical, closed, with soft, non-crossing lines. Then, in a group of similar icons, I found the answer.

The evocative two-lobed heart shape was used by early hunters living in Europe before the last ice age, and is believed to have symbolized the vital organ that sustains life by pumping blood through a living organism. Variations on this shape have defied systematization through the ages, and have been used in different cultural and religious contexts.

In the Middle Ages, the heart sign was associated with signs for union, togetherness, fire, and flight. More recently, in Sweden, the symbol was used to denote a coed toilet. On an ancient Greek amphora, hearts represented leaves on Dionysus' wreath, although later, the heart's association with Eros, god of sexual love, and Cupid, his Roman counterpart, prevailed. Apparently Aztecs, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Celts, and Taoists all use this fortuitous symbol.

I did some serious searching to confirm these findings. A site from Thinkquest called The Interactive Heart explores the cultural significance of the heart in ancient civilizations and contemporary culture -- and describes the long-standing perception of the heart as the seat of human emotion.

A heart exhibit from the Franklin Institute includes a section about the heart in pop culture. Don't miss The Poetry of the Heart, an anthology of verse submitted by visitors to the web site.

Here's a succint example of the genre, submitted by Ruth Porter:

Poems from the heart,
may be pretty smart,
but all this lovey-dovey,
makes me fairly tart.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

History of the London underground

"The underground is beautiful in the way you can see the daylight like in the middle of the night" Benabar

The London Underground is an electric railway public transport network (a metro or subway system) that runs both above and below ground throughout the Greater London area. It is the oldest such transit system in the world. Operations began on 10 January 1863 on the Metropolitan Railway — the initial route is now part of the Hammersmith & City Line.

The London Underground is usually referred to as either simply "the Underground" by Londoners, or (more familiarly) as "the Tube", due to the shape of its deep-bore tunnels.

There are currently 274 stations open and over 253 miles (408 km) of active lines, as well as a number of stations and tunnels now closed. In 2004-05 total passenger journeys reached a record level of 976 million, or 2.67 million per day.

Since 2003, the Tube has been part of Transport for London (TfL), which also schedules and lets contracts for London's buses, including the famous red double-decker buses. Previously London Regional Transport was the holding company for London Underground.

History
For more details on this topic, see History of the London Underground. The first section of the London Underground (the "Metropolitan Railway", running between Paddington and Farringdon) was the world's first urban underground passenger-carrying railway. After delays for financial and other reasons following the scheme's adoption in 1854, public traffic eventually began on 10 January 1863. 40,000 passengers were carried over the line that day, with trains running every 10 minutes; by 1880 the expanded 'Met' was carrying 40 million passengers a year. Other lines swiftly followed, and by 1884 the Circle Line ("Inner Circle") was completed. All these early lines used steam-hauled trains, which required effective ventilation to the surface. Advances in electric traction later allowed tunnels to be placed deeper underground than the original cut-and-cover method, especially as deep-level tunnel design (including the use of tunnelling shields) improved. The first "deep-level" line, the City & South London Railway, now part of the Northern Line, opened in 1890.

In the early 20th century the presence of six independent operators running different Tube lines caused passengers substantial inconvenience; in many places passengers had to walk some distance above ground to change between lines. The costs associated with running such a system were also heavy, and as a result many companies
looked to financiers who could give them the money they needed to expand into the lucrative suburbs. The most prominent of these was Charles Yerkes, an American tycoon who in 1900–1902 acquired the Metropolitan District Railway and the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (to become part of the Northern Line) which has yet to be built, Great Northern & Strand Railway, Brompton & Piccadilly Circus railway (jointly to become the core of the Piccadilly Line) and Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (to become the Bakerloo Line), creating the Underground Electric Railways of London Company Ltd (Underground) on 9 April 1902. That company also owned many tram lines and proceeded to buy the London General Omnibus Company, creating an organisation colloquially known as the Combine.

In 1933, a public corporation called the London Passenger Transport Board was created. The Underground Group, the Metropolitan Railway and all the independent bus and tram lines were placed under the Board, an organisation which approximated in scope the current Transport for London. The outbreak of World War II, and especially The Blitz, led to the use of many Tube stations as air-raid shelters. Following the war, travel congestion continued to rise. The construction of the carefully planned Victoria Line on a diagonal northeast-southwest alignment beneath central London attracted much of the extra traffic caused by expansion after the war.

In 1977, the Piccadilly Line was extended to Heathrow Airport, and in 1979 the Jubilee Line was opened.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

What ever happened to the cast of 'Different strokes'

Dana Michelle Plato (Kimberley)

(November 7, 1964 – May 8, 1999) was an American actress who became famous playing the role of Kimberly Drummond in the U.S. television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Plato was born in Maywood, California and grew up in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

Plato was dismissed from Diff'rent Strokes when she became pregnant as it wouldn't have suited her character, but she returned to the show for several cameo appearances after her pregnancy. Her career slumped after the show, with appearances in low-budget films, including some soft-core pornography, and in some minor roles in made for TV movies. She had a starring role in the pioneering and wildly controversial live action video game Night Trap in 1992. She also had repeated drug and alcohol problems.

Plato appeared partially nude in Prime Suspect (1988), Compelling Evidence (1995), and Different Strokes: The story of Jack and Jill... and Jill (1997), a softcore movie unrelated to her TV series. She was also the feature of a Playboy pictorial in 1989.

Her one year marriage to Lanny Lambert produced a son, Tyler Lambert (born 1985). She was arrested in 1991 for robbing a video store in Las Vegas, but was placed on probation. The following year Plato was arrested again, this time for forging a prescription for Valium.

In 1999 she and Robert Menchaca, her fiancé, were returning to California following Plato's appearance on the Howard Stern show, hoping to revive her stagnant career. They stopped at Menchaca's mother's home in Moore, Oklahoma for a Mother's Day visit, where she died of an overdose from Vanadom (carisoprodol) and Vicodin (hydrocodone). Her death was subsequently ruled a suicide. Of the child stars on Diff'rent Strokes, Plato got into the most trouble. The other child stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges are still alive.

Gary Coleman (Arnold)

Gary Coleman as a ChildGary Coleman (born February 8, 1968 in Zion, Illinois) is an American actor.

Coleman is most famous for the role of Arnold Jackson on Different Strokes, an American sitcom which ran on NBC from 1978 to 1985 and then switched to ABC. He was particularly famous for his catch phrase, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?", delivered to his character's older brother Willis Jackson (Todd Bridges).

Coleman was born with a congenital kidney disease causing nephritis (an autoimmune destruction of the kidney), which halted his growth at an early age, leading to a notably small stature (4' 8") which became his most distinguishing feature. Coleman has had two kidney transplants, one in 1973 and one in 1984, and requires constant
dialysis.

During the run of the show Coleman was a popular figure, starring in a number of feature films and made-for-TV movies including On the Right Track, and The Kid With the Broken Halo. The Kid With the Broken Halo eventually served as the basis for the Hanna-Barbera produced animated series The Gary Coleman Show from 1982.


Gary Coleman February 28, 2005At the height of his fame on Different Strokes, Coleman earned $70,000 per episode. As he grew older, however, he fell from public favour and, after the cancellation of Diff'rent Strokes, his acting career declined sharply.

Coleman famously sued his own parents and manager over misappropriation of his $3.8 million trust fund, and won a $1,280,000 ruling on February 23, 1993. The basis for the lawsuit was that using the trust fund, his parents had accumulated $770,000 for themselves, leaving Gary only $220,000. He briefly owned a video game arcade in
Fisherman's Village in Marina del Rey, near Santa Monica, California. Despite this, Coleman filed for bankruptcy in 1999. In 2001, he was employed as a shopping mall security guard in the Los Angeles area (a video of him trying to stop a vehicle from entering a compound while the driver ridiculed him was a popular Internet phenomenon). He occasionally is able to cash in on his camp value to members of
Generation X, by appearing in cameo roles. As with Knight Rider, Rubik's Cube, Care Bears, the Smurfs and other artifacts from the early 1980s, Coleman's popularity coincided with the childhood of a particularly productive demographic of internet users, and he is, as of 2004, a minor cult figure.

Coleman appeared in court on November 2, 2000, charged with assault. He was ordered to pay bus driver Tracy Fields $1,665 for hospital bills resulting from a fight, stemming from an attempt by Fields to get Coleman's autograph whilst he was shopping for a bulletproof vest in a California mall. Coleman said he felt "threatened by her
insistence" and punched her in the head.

Coleman was a candidate for governor in the 2003 California recall election. This campaign was sponsored by the free newsweekly the East Bay Express as a satirical comment on the recall. After Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy, Coleman stated that he would be voting for Schwarzenegger. Coleman placed 8th in a field of 135 candidates, receiving 14,242 votes.

Since the recall elections, Coleman has been starring in a TV commercial for a short term loan company in the Los Angeles market.

Coleman is a character (not an actor) in the hit 2003 Broadway musical, Avenue Q, which won the 2004 Tony Award. In the musical, Coleman is portrayed by actress Natalie Venetia Belcon.

In 2004, Coleman played a supporting role in the controversial computer game Postal² by Running With Scissors, Inc.

He recently made an appearance in John Cena's video, Bad, Bad Man.

In June 2005, VH1 named Gary Coleman No. 1 on its list of the top 100 child stars ever.

Filmography
Diff'rent Strokes (1978-1986)
The Kid From Left Field (1979)
Lucy Moves To NBC (1980)
The Kid With The Broken Halo (1982)
The Gary Coleman Show (1982)
Jimmy The Kid (1982)
The Kid With The 200 IQ (1983)
Playing With Fire (1985)
Amazing Stories (1985)
Simon & Simon (1986)
It's Howdy Doody Time (1987)
227 (1990)
Ben Stiller Show (1992)
The Jackie Thomas Show (1993)
S.F.W (1994)
Married With Children (1994, 1996)
Martin (1995)
Saturday Night Live (1995)
Mad TV (1995, 1998)
Fresh Prince Of Bel Air (1996)
Shasta McNasty (1999)
The Simpsons (1999 (once), 2000 (twice))
Chasing The Edge (2004)
The Simpsons (1999 (once), 2000 (twice))



Todd Bridges (Willy)

Todd BridgesTodd A. Bridges (born May 27, 1965 in San Francisco, California) is an American actor. Bridges initially gained fame for his role as Willis Jackson on the television show Diff'rent Strokes from 1978 to 1986.

Todd has a brother and sister who are both actors, Jimmy Bridges and Verda Bridges. His mother, Betty A. Bridges, was also an actress. He is married and has one son, Spencer Todd Bridges, Jr..

Although he was arrested, in 1997, for allegedly ramming someones car after an argument, he has since improved his standing in the public eye. Bridges is very active in the community, as he has traveled the U.S. speaking to over 6,000 kids per day in schools and churches discussing the dangers of drug use, negative peer pressure, and promoting his religious beliefs. In 2001, Bridges rescued a woman who
fell from her wheelchair while she was fishing.

Filmography
Hollywood Horror (2006) (post-production)
Punk'd (2005) (TV)
Dead Rail (2005) (TV) (post-production)
Treasure n tha Hood (2005)
Jane Doe: Now You See It, Now You Don't (2005) (TV)
Issues (2004)
Curse of the Maya (2004)
Land of the Free? (2004)
May Day (2003) (V)
Black Ball (2003)
Ghost Dog: A Detective Tail (2003) (TV)
The Young and the Restless (2002) TV Series
The Climb (2002)
The Beach House (2002)
Baby of the Family (2002)
Pacino Is Missing (2002)
Scream at the Sound of the Beep (2002)
Welcome to America (2002)
Inhumanity (2001) (V)
Flossin (2001)
Dumb Luck (2001)
The Darkling (2000) (TV)
After Diff'rent Strokes: When the Laughter Stopped (2000) (TV)
Building Bridges (2000)
Flat Out (1998)
The Thief & the Stripper (1998)
The Waterfront (1998)
The Girl Gets Moe (1997)
A Day in the Life of Mia (1997)
A Devil Disguised (1997)
Diamonds From the Bantus (1997)
Hoover Park (1997)
Busted (1996)
Circle of Pain (1996) (TV)
Gangstaz (1996)
Homeboys (1992)
The Sounds of Silence (1992)
She's Out of Control (1989)
Twice Dead (1988)
High School U.S.A. (1983) (TV)
Return of the Mod Squad (1979) (TV)
Diff'rent Strokes (1978) TV Series
Fish (1977--1978) TV Series
A Killing Affair (1977) (TV)
Roots (1977) (mini) TV Series
Katherine (1975) (TV)

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Monday, September 19, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Math trick is a head scratcher!

Common, its monday morning, you should have had a nice weekend of rest, so get those grey cells a bit of a stir :)

Pick a 3-digit number where the first and last digits differ by 2 or more...

Consider the "reverse" number, obtained by reading it backwards.
Subtract the smaller of these two numbers from the larger one.
Add the result to its own reverse.
Why is this always equal to 1089?
This is one of the better tricks of its kind, because the effect of reversing the digits is not obvious to most people at first... If the 3-digit number reads abc, it's equal to 100a+10b+c, and we have the following result after the second step:

| (100a+10b+c) - (100c+10b+a) | = 99 | a-c |

The quantity | a-c | is between 2 and 9, so the above is a 3-digit multiple of 99, namely: 198, 297, 396, 495, 594, 693, 792 or 891. The middle digit is always 9, while the first and last digits of any such multiple add up to 9. Thus, adding the thing and its reverse gives 909 plus twice 90, which is 1089, as advertised

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Friday, September 16, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Largest floods in Hungarian history

Flood in Miskolc, 1878

Memorial of the flood on St. Anna SquareThe Hungarian city of Miskolc lies on the drainage area of the river Sajó and the stream Szinva. Both the river and the stream played an important part in the development of the city, but during great rains they also meant danger. There were floods in 1691, 1788, 1813, 1845 and 1853, but the largest, which had the most victims and still remembered as the "Great Flood" was the one which destroyed the city in 1878. Among the floods in 19th century Hungary this one killed the most people.

On August 30, 1878 big storms coming from the Transdanubian region arrived in Northern Hungary – first in Eger, then Óhuta, Diósgyőr and Miskolc, then in Tállya, Golop and Mád. The rainfall swelled the water of the streams Szinva and Pece, and destroyed the largest part of Downtown Miskolc. The water swept away bridges, mills and houses, carrying a large amount of debris. The water level rose by 0,5 m by minute, making it impossible for many people to escape. In some parts of the city the water level was 4-5 m.

The flood destroyed 2000 buildings and killed almost 300 people (400 if people in neighbouring areas are counted). In the small village of Óhuta 73 houses were destroyed.

After the flood the citizens of Miskolc had to re-build the city virtually without any help. In the previous years the cities of Pest and Szeged were rebuilt in countrywide collaboration, with the help of generous donations, but in the case of Miskolc the fact that other, then more important cities were threatened by flood, diverted the nation's attention, even though the flood in Miskolc killed more victims that the floods in Szeged and Pest together.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Thursday, September 15, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Do your homeworks, or you'll be swimming down the bogs!

Who is the world bog snorkelling champion? As funny as it looks, this is not a daft question!
A firefighter from Bristol has won the world bog snorkelling championships. Iain Hawkes, originally from Llandrindod Wells, won the competition in Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys.

According to BBC online he said: "I have got to be good at something - I was useless on my GCSEs, never went to uni, but I am champion of the bog snorkelling."

Competitors have to swim two lengths of the 60-yard Waen Rhydd peat bog without using conventional swimming strokes.

This year's contest is the 20th annual event, and organisers dug a second trench in expectation of a record number of competitors.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

What does the "YKK" on zippers stand for?


Those mysterious marking etched on the zippers of many of the clothing items you own are little more than the name of the top manufacturer of zippers. A quick Google search on "ykk zippers" took me right to the web site of the fastener giant.

The company got its start in Japan in 1934, and opened its first office in 1960 in New York City. It eventually grew to become the country's top supplier of zippers and other fastening devices such as snaps and buttons. Today, their plant in Macon, Georgia, produces 1,500 styles of zippers in 427 standard colors for use on clothing as well as other items, such as tents or boat covers. Besides notions, YKK also manufactures "entrances and window systems."

What does the "YKK" stand for? Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, the name of the Japanese company. The letters were stamped onto products and eventually became the trademark and official name of the company.

Today, the company is so well-known for their zippers, there is even a market for counterfeit YKK zippers.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

What are the Ashes in cricket?

The Ashes
For the rugby league series between Great Britain and Australia see Rugby League Ashes; for the "Women's Ashes" Test series for female players between England and Australia see Women's Ashes.

The Ashes urn is reputed to contain a set of burnt bails symbolising "the ashes of English cricket".The Ashes is a biennial Test cricket contest played between England and Australia. The Ashes is one of cricket's fiercest and most celebrated rivalries. The 2005 Ashes series was played in England, and was won by England. The next Ashes series will be in Australia in 2006/2007; the next series in England will be in 2009.

The series is named after a satirical obituary published in The Sporting Times in 1882 following the match at The Oval in which Australia beat England in England for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia as the quest to regain The Ashes. A small terracotta urn was presented to the England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women after England's victory in the Test series. The urn is reputed to contain a set of burnt bails symbolising "the ashes of English cricket". While the urn has come to symbolise the Ashes series, the name The Ashes predates the existence of the urn. The urn is not used as the trophy for the Ashes series, and whichever side "holds" the Ashes, the urn remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's. Since the 1998/99 Ashes series, a Waterford crystal trophy has been presented to the winners.

Notable Ashes series took place in 1932/33 (the Bodyline tour), 1948 (Sir Donald Bradman's "Invincibles" Australian side), 1981 (in which an England team spearheaded by Ian Botham won a thrilling series), and 2005 (when England won the Ashes for the first time in 18 years in one of the most exciting series of all time).


The obituary

The mock obituary notice that appeared in The Sporting Times.The first Test match between England and Australia had been played in 1877, but the Ashes legend dates back only to their ninth Test match, played in 1882.

On the 1882 tour, the Australians played only one Test, at The Oval in London. It was a low-scoring game on a difficult pitch. Australia made only 63 runs in their first innings, and England, led by Monkey Hornby, took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In the second innings, Australia made 122, leaving England to score only 85 runs to win. Australian bowler Fred Spofforth refused to give in, declaring, "This thing can be done". He devastated the English batting, taking the final four wickets while conceding only two runs, to leave England a mere seven runs short of victory in one of the closest and most nail-biting finishes in cricket history.

When England's last batsman went in the team needed only 10 runs to win, but the final batsman Peate scored only 2 before being bowled by Boyle. The astonished crowd fell silent, not believing that England could possibly have lost by 7 runs. When what had happened had sunk in, the crowd cheered the Australians.

When Peate returned to the Pavilion he was reprimanded by WG Grace for not allowing his partner at the wicket Charles Studd to get the runs. Despite Studd being one of the best batsman in England Peate replied, "I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, so thought I had better do my best."

The defeat was widely recorded in the English press. The most notable report was a mock obituary, written by Reginald Shirley Brooks, printed in The Sporting Times on the following Saturday, September 2. The obituary read as follows:

"In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P.
N.B. — The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."
The English media played up the subsequent tour to Australia in 1882/83 (which had been arranged before this defeat) as a quest to "regain the Ashes".


The Ashes urn
After the third game of the 1882/83 tour, the English team, led by Ivo Bligh were guests of Sir William Clarke, at his property "Rupertswood" at Sunbury, Victoria. A group of Victorian ladies headed by Lady Clarke burned what has variously been called a ball, bail or veil, and presented the resulting ashes to Bligh in an urn together with a velvet bag, which was made by Mrs Ann Fletcher, the daughter of Joseph Hines Clarke and Marion Wright, both of Dublin. She said, "What better way than to actually present the English captain with the very 'object' — albeit mythical — he had come to Australia to retrieve?" Bligh later married another of these Melbournian ladies, Florence Morphy. When he died in 1927, his widow presented the urn to the Marylebone Cricket Club. The urn itself is made of terracotta and is about four inches (10 cm) tall.

A poem was presented to Bligh with the urn and appears on it:

When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
And the rest coming home with the urn.
The Ashes urn itself is never physically awarded to either England or Australia, but is kept permanently in the MCC Cricket Museum at Lord's Cricket Ground, where it can be seen together with a specially-made red and gold velvet bag and the scorecard of the 1882 match.

The urn has been back to Australia once, in 1988 for a museum tour as part of Australia's Bicentennial celebrations. In the 1990s, given Australia's long dominance of the Ashes series, the idea was mooted (mostly by Australians) that the victorious team in an Ashes series should be awarded the urn as a trophy and allowed to retain it until the next series. Instead the MCC commissioned a Waterford Crystal larger-scale replica trophy which is now awarded to the winning team.

In 2002, Bligh's great-great-grandson (Lord Clifton, the heir-apparent to the Earldom of Darnley) argued that the Ashes urn should not be returned to Australia as it was essentially the property of his family and only given to the MCC for safe-keeping.


The matches
First Ashes quest

The Honourable Ivo Bligh led the expedition to Australia to "recover the Ashes" against the side that had beaten England earlier in 1882. Publicity surrounding the series was intense, and it was at some time during this series that the Ashes urn was crafted. Australia won the first Test by nine wickets, but in the next two England were victorious. At the end of the third Test, the small wooden urn was presented to Bligh by some Melburnian ladies, England having been generally considered to have "won back the Ashes" 2–1. A fourth match was in fact played, against a "United Australian XI", which was stronger than the Australian side that had competed in the previous matches; this game, however, is not considered part of the Ashes series.


English dominance ends
After this series followed an extended period of English dominance. The tours were shorter in the 1880s and 1890s than people have grown accustomed to in more recent years, possibly owing to the extended travelling time (the sea journey between the two countries took at least a month). Thus, England only lost four Ashes Tests in the 1880s, out of 23 played, and they won all the seven series contested. There was also more chopping and changing in the teams, there was no official board of selectors for each country (at times, two competing sides toured a nation), and popularity with the fans varied. The 1890s games were more closely fought, Australia taking their first series win since the match that sparked the legend in 1891/92 with a 2–1 victory. England still dominated, winning the next three series despite continued player disputes. Towards the end of the decade, though, the Australians got more of a foothold, winning four successive series from 1897/98 to 1902.

Repopularising of the Ashes
After what the MCC saw as the problems of the earlier professional and amateur series, they decided to take control of organising tours themselves, and this led to the first MCC tour of Australia in 1903/04. England won it against the odds, and Plum Warner, the England captain, wrote up his version of the tour in his book How We Recovered The Ashes. This book repopularised the Ashes myth in England, which continues to this day.

England and Australia shared the spoils for the next few years. The entrance of South Africa onto the world cricketing scene meant less time for Ashes series, but even so there were four played after Plum Warner's series, each of the sides taking two victories. England won the last series in 1911/12 by four matches to one, Sir Jack Hobbs establishing himself as a regular with three centuries. England then retained the Ashes when they won the Triangular tournament, which also featured South Africa, in 1912. England looked as if they had established themselves as the dominating force by the time World War I intervened and brought a halt to all international cricket.

After the war, however, Australia took firm control of both the Ashes and world cricket. They recorded thumping victories both in England and on home soil, and England only won one Test out of fifteen from the end of the war until 1925. In a rain-hit series in 1926, however, England managed to eke out a 1–0 victory with a win in the final Test at the Oval, and despite the appearance of Donald Bradman, Australia could not win the next series either, losing 4–1. Bradman won the next series almost by himself, however, as one of the best batting line-ups of all time began to form in the early 1930s, including Bradman himself, Stan McCabe and Bill Ponsford. It was the prospect of bowling at this line-up that caused England's captain Douglas Jardine to think up the Bodyline tactic.

Bodyline

Bill Woodfull evades a ball from Harold Larwood with Bodyline field settings.In 1932, after Bradman's routing of the English team in the previous series, Douglas Jardine developed a tactic of instructing his fast bowlers to bowl at the bodies of the Australian batsmen, with the goal of forcing them to defend their bodies with their bats, and provide easy catches to a stacked leg side field. The tactic was descriptively dubbed Bodyline. Although this won England the Ashes, it caused such a furore in Australia that diplomats had to intervene to prevent serious harm to Anglo-Australian relations, and the MCC eventually changed the laws of cricket to prevent anyone from using the tactic again.

Jardine's comments summed up England's views: "I've not travelled 6,000 miles to make friends. I'm here to win the Ashes."

On the batting-friendly wickets that prevailed in the late 1930s, most Tests up to the war still gave results, although many batting records were set in this era. Len Hutton scored 364 at The Oval to save a draw in the 1938 series, a world record innings, while Jack Fingleton and Bradman set a sixth-wicket partnership record of 346 runs in the Third Test at Melbourne that stands to this day. The series were surprisingly competitive, though, considering England's desperation in the early 30s.

The Invincibles

Australia's first tour of England after World War II, in 1948, was led by the 39-year-old Bradman in his last appearance representing Australia. His team has gone down in cricketing legend as The Invincibles, as they played 36 matches including five Tests, and remained unbeaten on the tour. They won 27 matches, drawing only 9, including of course the 4–0 Ashes series victory.

This series is also known for one of the most poignant moments in cricket history, as Bradman batted for Australia in the fifth Test at The Oval — his last — needing to score only 4 runs to maintain a career batting average of 100. Eric Hollies bowled him second ball for a duck, denying those 4 runs and sending Bradman into retirement with a career average of 99.94.

Australia gradually weakened after 1948, allowing England back into the fray in the early 1950s when they won three successive Ashes series, from 1953 to 1956 to be arguably the best Test side in the world at the time. A see-sawing series in 1956 also saw a record that will probably never be beaten: the spinner Jim Laker's monumental effort at Old Trafford when he bowled 68 of 191 overs to take nineteen out of twenty possible Australian wickets. Never has the phrase "He won the match single-handedly" been more appropriate. England's dominance was not to last, however. Australia thumped them 4–0 when they next toured in 1958/59, having found a good bowler of their own in Richie Benaud who took 31 wickets in the 5-Test series. England failed to win any series during the 1960s, a period dominated by draws as teams found it more prudent to save face with a draw than risk losing. Of a total of 25 Ashes Tests playing during this decade, Australia won seven and England three.

In the first series of the 1970s, however, England managed to win 2–0, much thanks to the efforts of Geoffrey Boycott who scored four fifties and three centuries in the series, but in the mid-1970s Australia regained ascendancy with fast bowler Dennis Lillee taking English wickets all too consistently. However, both teams had their victories, England enjoying an emphatic 5–1 win in 1978/79 while Australia took a non-Ashes series (with the WSC players returning) 3–0 a year later. Most would say that the two sides were evenly matched, but no one knew just how evenly they would be matched in the next one.

Botham's Ashes
Australia took a 1–0 lead in the first two Tests of the 1981 series, and looked to make it 2–0 in the third Test at Headingley when they forced England to follow-on 227 runs behind. Famously, an English bookmaker offered odds of 500–1 for an English victory, and Australian players Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh laid a small bet. This came back to haunt them as England, reduced to 135 for 7 wickets, produced a second innings of 356, Ian Botham scoring an unbeaten 149, and adding 221 for the last three wickets in partnerships with Graham Dilley, Chris Old and their fast bowler Bob Willis. Chasing 130, Australia were dismissed for 111, with a devastating spell of 8–43 by Willis giving England a miraculous victory by 18 runs. Lillee and Marsh were reprimanded for betting on the outcome of a game, but not suspended.

The fourth Test at Edgbaston was a similarly inspired comeback victory for England. Ian Botham this time starred with the ball, taking five for 11, including a spell of five wickets for a solitary run, in Australia's second innings of 121 to give England victory by 29 runs. England also went on to win the fifth Test at Old Trafford to take the Ashes — the sixth test at the Oval was drawn.

Australian dominance
England were the better team of the early 1980s, although it was close: Australia won the 1982/83 series, but England then took two victories in 1985 and 1986/87. After those wins, however, a period of extended Australian dominance began, and England did not win an Ashes series again until 2005. Australia won the 1989 series 4–0, and an England side weakened by Test bans following the Gatting tour to apartheid South Africa lost 3–0 in 1990/91. The Australians underlined their superiority in the contest by winning the 1993, 1994/95, 1997, 1998/99 and 2001 series — all by convincing margins.

Australia's almost complete superiority since 1989 has impacted upon the overall statistics between the two sides. Before the 1989 series began, Australia had won 36.9% of all Tests played against England, England 33.5% with 29.7% of matches ending in draws. Previous to the 2005 series, Australia had won 40.8% of all Tests, England 31% with 28.1% drawn. In the period between 1989 and the beginning of the 2005 series, the two sides had played 43 times. Australia winning 28 times, England 7 times, with 8 draws.

2005 Ashes series
England were undefeated in Test matches in the 2004 calendar year, which took the team to second in the LG ICC Test Championship and raised hopes that the 2005 Ashes series would be closely fought. In fact, the series proved to be even more competitive than most commentators had predicted.

The first Test was played at Lord's from 21 July to 24 July, and was won convincingly by Australia by 239 runs. However, England fought back in the remaining four matches, which were all tense and and closely fought. The second Test, played at Edgbaston from 4 August to 7 August was won by England by 2 runs, the smallest runs victory margin in Ashes history, and the second closest runs victory margin in all Tests. The rain-affected third Test, played at Old Trafford from 11 August to 15 August, ended with the final two Australian batsmen holding out to claim a draw. The fourth Test, played at Trent Bridge from 25 August to 28 August, was won by England by three wickets after Australia was forced to follow on for the first time in 191 Tests. England earned a draw at the fifth and final Test match, played at The Oval from 8 September to 12 September, to win an Ashes series for the first time in 18 years.

Summary of results and statistics


Chart of the matches won between the two sides.A team must win a series to gain the right to hold the Ashes trophy. A drawn series results in the previous holders retaining the trophy. To date, a total of 62 Ashes series have been played with Australia winning 30, England winning 27. The remaining five series were drawn, with Australia retaining the Ashes four times and England retaining it once.

Ashes series have generally been played over five Test matches, although there have been four match series (1938; 1975) and six match series (1970-71; 1974-75; 1978-79; 1981; 1985; 1989; 1993 and 1997). 293 matches have been played, with Australia winning 115 times, England 92 times, and 86 draws. Australians have made 264 centuries in Ashes Tests, twenty-three of them over 200, while Englishmen have scored 212 centuries, of which ten have been scores over 200. On 41 occasions, individual Australians have taken ten wickets in a match. Englishmen have performed that feat 38 times.


The Ashes today
The Ashes is one of the most fiercely contested competitions in cricket today, often rivalling the intensity that even India–Pakistan matches create. The failure of the English cricket team to regain the Ashes for 16 years from 1989, coupled with the global dominance of an almost invincible Australian team, had dulled the lustre of the series in recent years, and, prior to the 2005 Ashes series some had suggested that Australia's matches against India for the Border-Gavaskar trophy were more significant than those for the Ashes. Nevertheless, the Ashes matches still generated considerable news coverage in much of the international sports media, particularly in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The close results in the 2005 Ashes series, and the overall high quality and competitiveness of the cricket, have boosted the popularity of the sport in Britain and considerably enhanced the profile of the Ashes around the world. Whilst the tension of the matches has caused an occasional angry moment, the matches were generally played with good spirit, and sportsmanship of the players of both sides has been high, with commentators often highlighting Andrew Flintoff consoling Brett Lee at the end of the second Test as epitomising this. In interviews following the final match, players from both sides were quick to congratulate their opponents, both the individual players and the team as a whole.

The fact that Australian commentator Richie Benaud worked on so many Ashes matches for British television goes to show the friendly rivalry of the tournament.

Match venues
The series alternate between England and Australia, and within each country each of the (usually) five matches is held at a different cricket ground.

In Australia, the grounds currently used are the Melbourne Cricket Ground (first staged an England-Australia Test in the 1876–77 season), the Sydney Cricket Ground (1881–82), Adelaide Oval (1884–85), The Gabba (1932–33) and The WACA, Perth (1970–71). One Test was held at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground in 1928–29.

In England the grounds used are The Oval (since 1880), Old Trafford (1884), Lord's (1884), Trent Bridge (1899), Headingley Stadium (1899) and Edgbaston Stadium (1902). One Test was held at Bramall Lane, Sheffield in 1902.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Monday, September 12, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Is that a Croc or an Alligator Mate?

What is the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?

A classic question! Fortunately, a quick investigation of Yahoo's Crocodiles and Alligators category reveals several differences between alligators and crocodiles:

You can't see an alligator's teeth when it's mouth is closed; its lower teeth fit snugly into pits in the upper jaw. In contrast, a crocodile's lower teeth are always visible.

Alligators have a broad snout, while crocodiles have a thinner snout.

Alligators tend to be grayish black in color, whereas crocodiles have a light tan appearance.

Alligators can only be found in the southeastern United States and in some parts of China. Crocodiles can be found all over the world.

In the wild, alligators tend to run away. While not exactly wallflowers, they certainly prefer their own company. Some species of crocodiles, on the other hand, have legendary tempers. The Salt Water Crocodile and the Nile Crocodile have been known to eat people. Obviously, these two creatures have more in common than not. Alligators, caimans, crocodiles, and gharials are all referred to as crocodilians, and the last 25 years have been very kind to them. Thanks to conservation efforts and threatened animal legislation, 16 of the 23 species have been returned to sustainable population levels.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Friday, September 09, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

What country drinks the most beer per capita?

Well it is Friday after all! and no, it is not the brits ! schocking!

I started with a simple search on "beer" and received 89 category matches on Yahoo!. I decided to head to the Beer category in the non-commercial path, where I found a list of "Most Popular Sites." The Real Beer Page looked to be as good a choice as any, so I clicked on it.

I immediately learned that Real Beer has "over 150,000 pages about beer, searchable brewery and pub databases, beer festival and homebrew event calendars, and news about beer." Rather than browsing the massive site, I went straight to the site search bar and typed in "country and consumption." The search returned 2,170 documents, more than enough to find the answer. I hopped to one of the articles
listed about world drink trends.

I scrolled down and discovered that the Czechs are the world's leading beer drinkers, downing more than 160 liters a year. However, these statistics were a few years old (1995), so I headed back to the front page to perform another search.

This time, I changed our search phrase to "beer consumption." Once again, I was overwhelmed with the results. I clicked on several relevant-looking articles and finally came upon one that answered the question.

In an article dated August 11, 1999, they confirmed that Czechs are tops when it comes to downing more than a few brews. The article, "German beer sales continue slide," states: "German beer consumption has declined steadily in recent years. Still per capita consumption is 127 liters, with only Czech beer drinkers consuming more."

Cheers to the Czechs!

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Thursday, September 08, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Amityville Horror a true story ?

Was Amityville Horror a true story and, and what's the house doing today?

There are countless legends about what happened at the notorious house back in the '70s. We do know this: On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo murdered his mother, father, two brothers, and two sisters with a high-powered rifle in their Long Island home. He is currently serving a 150-year sentence for the murders. It's what happened after the murders that is controversial.

I started by searching on "Amityville," which led us to the Hauntings > Amityville category. The first site on the list, The Amityville Murders, had a promising description: "deals with the facts of the DeFeo murders and the subsequent Amityville Horror story."

When I reached the site, I clicked on a link about the Lutzes, the family that moved into the house about a year after the grisly murders. The web site uses the book, The Amityville Horror: A True Story, as a reference to what happened to the Lutz family. The incidents that purportedly took place include:

While a priest was blessing the house, he heard a masculine voice state "Get out!"
George Lutz said he had a cold for the 28 days he stayed in the house. Kathy Lutz discovered her crucifix turned upside-down on the inner wall of a walk-in closet.
George awakened to sounds of drumbeats and marching coming from the first floor. Upon entering the area where he thought the music originated, it ceased. George returned upstairs to find Kathy levitating two feet off the bed. Green slime oozed down the walls of the third-floor hall. Of course, none of this has been proven, and many people believe the entire Amityville story is a hoax. One thing on which almost everyone agrees is that the hit 1979 movie used an extensive amount of dramatic
license.

I found the answer to the second part of your question at Amityville: The Web Site, which has several pictures of the house taken in 1998. Apparently the house is in the same spot as it was 20 years ago. And, in our opinion, it still looks a little spooky.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Wednesday, September 07, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Why QWERTY and not ABCD...

The QWERTY is the most common modern-day layout of letters on most English language computer and typewriter keyboards. It takes its name from the first six letters shown on the keyboard's top row of letters. The QWERTY design was patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 and sold to Remington in 1873, when it first appeared in typewriters.

Purpose
Frequently-used pairs of letters were separated in an attempt to stop the typebars from intertwining and becoming stuck, thus forcing the typist to manually unstick the typebars and also frequently blotting the document. The home row (ASDFGHJKL) of the QWERTY layout is thought to be a remnant of the old alphabetical layout that QWERTY replaced. QWERTY also attempted to alternate keys between hands, allowing one hand to move into position while the other hand strikes a key. This sped up both the original double-handed hunt-and-peck technique and the later touch typing technique; however, single-handed words such as stewardesses and monopoly show flaws in the alternation.

It has often been noted that the word typewriter can be typed entirely using the top row of the QWERTY keyboard: it has been speculated that this may have been a factor in the choice of keys for ease of demonstration.


Languages other than English
This French Matra Alice uses the AZERTY layoutMinor changes to the arrangement are made for other languages; for example, German keyboards add umlauts to the right of "P" and "L", and interchange the "Z" and "Y" keys both because "Z" is a much more common letter than "Y" in German (the latter appearing seldom except in borrowed words), and because Z and A often appear next to each other in the German language; consequently, they are known as QWERTZ keyboards. French keyboards interchange both "Q" and "W" with "A" and "Z", and move "M" to the right of "L"; they are known as AZERTY keyboards. Italian typewriter keyboards (but not most computer keyboards) use a QZERTY layout where "Z" is swapped with "W" and "M" is at the right of "L". Portuguese keyboards maintain the QWERTY layout but add an extra key: the letter C with cedilla (Ç) after the L key. In this place, the Spanish version has the letter N with tilde (Ñ) and the Ç (which is not used in Spanish, but is part of sibling languages like French, Portuguese and Catalan) is placed at the rightmost position of the home line, beyond the diacritic dead keys. Other languages that use the Latin alphabet have other small variations on QWERTY.


Alternative keyboard layouts
Because modern keyboards do not suffer from the problems of older mechanical keyboards, the QWERTY layout's separation of frequently used letter pairs is no longer strictly necessary. Several alternative keyboard layouts, such as Dvorak Simplified Keyboard arrangement (designed by Drs. August Dvorak and William Dealey and patented in 1936), have been designed to increase a typist's speed and comfort,
largely by moving the most common letters to the home row and maximizing hand alternation. The effectiveness of these layouts is disputed, but it is often claimed that world records for typing speed are usually set on Dvorak layout keyboards. Some studies have shown that alternative methods are more efficient, but Dvorak and other alternative typists most often cite comfort as the greatest advantage. QWERTY's inventor, Christopher Sholes himself patented a key arrangement similar to Dvorak's, but it never became popular.

Some researchers claim that QWERTY is really no less efficient than other layouts, such as economists Stan Liebowitz at the University of Texas at Dallas, Texas, and Stephen E. Margolis of North Carolina State University. Other opponents claim that August Dvorak stood to gain from the success of his layout, and that he perpetuated his "efficiency myth" to increase his financial gains. Other QWERTY advocates claim that for a QWERTY typist to switch to Dvorak or another layout requires more effort than initially learning to touch-type, because of having to retrain the fingers' muscle memory. Computer users also need to unlearn the habit of pressing key-shortcuts (for example: ctrl-c for copy, ctrl-x for cut), though some programs and operating systems allow the use of alternate layouts combined with QWERTY shortcuts.

However, opponents of alternative keyboard designs most often point to QWERTY's ubiquity as a deciding factor, because the costs incurred by using the supposedly inefficient layout are much less than those of retraining typists. In fact, the Dvorak layout is sometimes used as an example in businesses to illustrate the difficulty of change. It is not unusual to find Dvorak typists who also touch type the QWERTY layout, for convenience owing to QWERTY's ubiquity.

The XPeRT Keyboard alternative was designed to try to overcome the problem of resistance to change, by minimizing change from Qwerty. It moves only two common letters, A+N, and adds a second E key (13% of all letters); Dvorak moves 24 letters. Dvorak has five frequently used letters at outer finger locations (A,S,O,R,N); XPeRT has only one (S) and others are central. XPeRT increases opposing hand key sequences
(digraphs) from 50% on Qwerty, to 83% on XPeRT, to increase typing speed. Dvorak was designed this way too, and scores 80% for opposing hand digraphs. The Dvorak keyboard focusses on the home row, reducing finger reach and travel; the XPeRT keyboard does not take this approach, choosing to minimize change from Qwerty instead. Digraph statistics listed here are derived from the Dvorak keyboard US patent of 1936.


Trivia
The word QWERTY was the first message ever sent by e-mail. The longest common English word that can be typed using only the left hand (using conventional hand placement) is stewardesses. The words sweaterdresses and aftercataracts are longer and can also be typed with only the left hand, but they are not in all dictionaries.
The longest English word that can be typed with the right hand only (using conventional hand placement) is johnny-jump-up, or alternatively polyphony. Typewriter is not the longest word that can be typed on only one row, as is sometimes conjectured. Proprietory, protereotype and rupturewort, eleven and twelve letter words, can all be typed only with keys found in the top row.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Tuesday, September 06, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

What happened to Louis Armstrong's trumpet?


I knew I'd find a lot of links in Yahoo!'s Louis Armstrong category, but I wanted specific information about his instrument. So, I typed "Louis Armstrong's trumpet" (using quotation marks) into the Yahoo! search box and hoped for the best.

I clicked on the first match listed, a subpage of CNN.com. At first glance, the article, Clinton toasts 2000 at White House VIP dinner, didn't seem relevant, but I soon found mention of Satchmo's trumpet.

The article discusses, among other things, the White House Millennium Council project and its National Archives time capsule. The time capsule, a metal cabinet rendered to look like a three-dimensional, waving American flag, was sealed and stored at the end of 2000 and will be opened in 100 years.

The capsule contains a number of varied objects suggested by 20th century "thinkers, creators, builders," and teachers and students from across the country. Louis Armstrong's trumpet is in there. Other items include: a transistor, a shard of the dismantled Berlin Wall, a photo of civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and a film of Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Monday, September 05, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

John Travolta International Airport


Fly-in Home of the Rich & Famous...

What do you do when your neighbours won't let you park your Boeing 707 outside your home? You move to another "housing development" - one that lets you have close-parking privileges, complete with a 1.4-mile airstrip!

Following a lifelong love of aviation, 70's TV phenom actor John Travolta now lives in Jumbolair, just north of Ocala, Florida. Shown are two of Travolta's jets - a Gulfstream and a Boeing 707B - there aren't very many non-commercial airstrips where planes of that size can take off and land. About a decade ago, Travolta had a home in a fly-in community near Daytona, but was sued by neighbours who claimed his jet airplanes were too big and noisy for their facility.

The very layout of his new house is testament to Travolta's love of flying. It's located immediately off the main airstrip, and is designed so his jets can taxi right up to two outbuildings connected to the main structure, which is shaped like a squat air-control tower. Travolta literally can walk out his door, under a canopied walkway and into the cockpit, open the long mechanized gate and be airborne in a
matter of minutes.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration pilot database, Travolta is qualified in several types of single and multi-engine aircraft, and has the highest pilot medical certification possible.

"We know that Travolta's an accomplished pilot. A lot of people fly for the pleasure of it, and he's one of them," said John Clabes, an FAA spokesman. "If you have this many ratings on these types of high-performance aircraft, you're obviously a good pilot."

In layman's terms, Travolta has enough experience flying large multi-engine jets that he could easily switch to piloting commercial airliners for a living - but why bother when you can make a hobby of it? Tough life, but someone has to do it, eh?

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Friday, September 02, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Fishy Business!

Is the fish sandwich at McDonald's made of real fish?

McDonald's appears to be the subject of more mythology than the Greek god Apollo. Remember the rumor about the complete lack of milk in the shakes? Not true. Yet some question remains: is there something fishy about the fish?

An ingredient list at McDonald's specifies the following for their "Filet-O-Fish": fish filet patty, bun, tartar sauce, pasteurized processed American cheese, and seasoning. Still, any product with such a poor spelling of "fillet of fish" bears further scrutiny.

So I waddled over to DietRiot.com, where we found the F-O-F contains pollock or hoki, both of which, though not exactly seafood superstars, do qualify as actual fish.

Maybe the real question ought to be: what else does the Filet-O-Fish contain besides the fish? The caloric ratio of the sandwich is 46% fat, 39% carbs, and just 15% protein. Take another look at DietRiot, and you'll notice, in addition to the "foaming agent" dimethylpolysiloxane, several partially hydrogenated oils, which
produce trans fat.

The Filet-O-Fish is also cited in an obesity lawsuit against the company. Of course, the world's largest fast food chain does have its fans. So if you want to make the Filet-O-Fish at home, go right ahead. Just remember, when adding dimethylpolysiloxane, season to taste.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Thursday, September 01, 2005 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

So, What's (really) the Frequency, Kenneth?


The story behind R.E.M.'s song "What's the Frequency, Kenneth"

CBS News anchor Dan Rather, renowned for his unusual expressions and sayings, has led a colorful life. However, one bizarre event really takes the cake. One night in October 1986, Rather was walking down a Manhattan street when he was punched from behind and thrown to the ground. His assailant kicked and beat him while repeating, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"

No one could explain the event, and the rumors flew fast and wide. Some speculated the assailant was a KGB agent, while others claimed the attack was the work of a jealous husband. Rather himself couldn't shed any light on the subject. His explanation at the time?

I got mugged. Who understands these things? I didn't and I don't now. I didn't make a lot of it at the time and I don't now. I wish I knew who did it and why, but I have no idea. Apparently the strange event moved R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, who said of the incident:It remains the premier unsolved American surrealist act of the 20th century. It's a misunderstanding that was scarily random, media hyped and just plain bizarre.

The attack inspired the 1994 R.E.M. hit "What's the Frequency, Kenneth." Being a good sport, Dan Rather even accompanied the band when they performed the song on a Late Show with David Letterman appearance.

In 1997, based on a tip from a psychiatrist, Rather's attacker was identified as William Tager. According to the psychiatrist, Tager, who was currently serving time for killing an NBC stagehand, blamed news media for beaming signals into his head, and thought if he could just find out the correct frequency, he could block those signals that were constantly assailing him. Hence the enigmatic inquiry.

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Bookmarks