World Countdown or Up

Time to die

Here's a clock that shows what is happening second by second.

How many are being born and how many are dying and by what means.


PoodWaddle.com:

World Clock

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Euro to Lira

Pint's a pound

This application allows you to complete many different types of conversions; it includes all the mathematical functions offered in Microsoft Calculator.

It will also do currency conversions.

Microsoft Calculator Plus

Exchange rates are downloaded from the European Central Bank.
You can enter non-European rates by hand.

A more extensive currency conversion tool can be found at:
The Full Universal Currency Converter®



None of them verify that a pint's a pound the world around.
How much does a gallon weigh?


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Full Moon Stuff

50 things about the moon

The an article on moon detritus:

3 -Lunar eclipses - caused by the passage of the earth's shadow across the illuminated hemisphere - only occur during a full moon. However, because of the angle of tilt of both bodies the moon normally passes either north or south of the earth's shadow.

4 -The chances of being bitten by a dog are twice as high during a full moon, according to a study at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which reviewed 1,621 cases of dog bite between 1997 and 1999. However, a study at the University of Sydney in Australia concluded there was no identifiable relationship between the state of the moon and dog bites.

16 -In October 1939 in Springfield, Missouri, the full moon appeared to fall from the sky. The event was reported in the local newspaper but was later revealed to be a plunging weather balloon.

26 -The full moon may appear round, but is actually shaped like an egg with the pointed end facing earth.

33 -The full moon is the brightest object in the night sky. It has an apparent magnitude of -12.6 compared with the Sun's of -26.8.

50 -In a study of 1,000 tonsillectomy operations, 82 per cent of post-operative bleeding crises occurred nearer the full moon than the new moon, according to the Journal of the Florida Medical Association.

The sky at night


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Resume Writing

Get a Job

There are a number of templates installed in Word that will help in creating a good looking resume.
Get started on your job hunt with Word templates

Here are some suggestions about what a resume should look like:

About.com
Resume and Cover Letter Guide

The Riley Guide:
Prepare Your Resume for Emailing or Posting on the Internet


Want to work for Microsoft?

Microsoft's Zoe Goldring and Gretchen Ledgard:
What is it like to interview at Microsoft?

Chris Sells:
Interviewing at Microsoft

Blog:
Technical Careers@Microsoft


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Google Guide

How to do dat

Why Take The Google Guide Tutorial?

Google Guide

"Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a fraction of Google's features and services. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.

Just as the best way to learn how to sail is to sail, the best way to learn how to search with Google is to search with Google. Consequently, this Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give you practice with the material presented and to inspire you to find amusing or useful information."

Using Search Operators:
Advanced Operators

Google Guide TOC:
Table of Contents

Also:
GoogleTutor.com

and
Googling for XML


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Read All About IT

Excel reading

Bastien Mensink, from the Netherlands, runs ASAP-Utilities.com.

He has aggregated the headlines from a number of Excel Blogs.

If you don't have them as part of your RSS list, you should.

Weblog Headines


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Foley Sounds

Clip Clop

Here's a subject you have heard about:

A Foley Artist 'recreates' sound effects for film, television and radio productions on a Foley Stage in a Post Production Sound Studio.
Using many different kinds of shoes and lots of props - car fenders, plates, glasses, chairs, and just about anything found at the side of the road - the Foley Artist can replace original sound completely or augment existing sounds to create a richer smoother track.
Almost every motion picture and television show you have ever seen and heard contains a Foley track!

NPR presented this story:
Jack Foley: Feet to the Stars

Also:
Art of Foley

Film Sound Q&A


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Cmabrigde

Crorcet Sllipneg

"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."

Spanish:

"Sgeun un etsduio de una uivenrsdiad ignlsea, no ipmotra el odren en el que las ltears etsan ersciats, la uicna csoa ipormtnate es que la pmrirea y la utlima ltera esten ecsritas en la psiocion cocrrtea. El rsteo peuden estar ttaolmntee mal y aun pordas lerelo sin pobrleams. Etso es pquore no lemeos cada ltera por si msima preo la paalbra es un tdoo."

Russian:



See: Matt Davis - Cmabrigde, for a full discussion.

True or fsale?

TheSpellingBlog


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And Then There Was Word

Remember the past

As one writer put it:

"Before the development of personal computers and word processing software, documents were produced on typewriters."

Chris Pratley, a Microsoft Program Manager, started with the Excel team in 1994 and then worked with the Word team. He has written about the early days:
Let's talk about Word


Also see:
WordStar Resource Site
(Includes a WordStar emulator for Word)


And:
In Search of Stupidity


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Horrific Stories

What did your Grandparents do?

"Unsuspecting visitors in crime-infested Port Townsend, victims of shanghaiing, are sold to the highest bidder
Bunco Kelly, Spider Johnson and fourteen dead men on the deck of the Flying Price.
Urban East Hicks surrounded by Indians in 1886.
Earthquakes, riots, robberies, murders and a host of other terrifying events which created panic in the streets of communities throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Selected from the Clippings File of the Tacoma Public Library's Northwest Room /Special Collections, these true-life tales chillingly capture the dark side of our state's history."

Unsettling Events!


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Wrist Time

Ding dong bling

Face it, you're never going to wear these watches. Some of them are just concepts, others are just too.

They are fun to look at.

Wrist Fashion is a Weblog that publishes the latest news, trends and products from the Wristwatch Industry in bite size morsels.

Brand: Venexx
Movement: Swiss Ronda Calibre 1063.1.90 quartz movement
Perfume: Approximately 60 sprays
Water Resistant: 30 metres

Perfume Watch

WristFashion.com


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Convert Anything

Four pecks to a bushel

Convert

"Convert is an easy to use unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions!"

OnlineConversion.com does more conversions online.
(A Hogshead is 63 Gallons)


Also:
Convert between bits/bytes/kilobits/kilobytes/megabits/megabytes/gigabits/gigabytes


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World War I

Color pictures

"Louis Lumière had already invented instant photographic plates and the Cinematographe when, in late 1903, he and his brother Auguste patented a new process for producing colour photographs : the Autochrome.

Before the invention of the Autochrome, colours were separated using a complex three-colour process whereby three successive exposures had to be taken and then superimposed onto each other.

Louis Lumière, however, devised a method of filtering light by using a single three-colour screen made up of millions of grains of potato starch dyed in three different colours.

This mixture was then laid out on a varnished glass plate, which would be ready for use once it was coated in a black and white emulsion.

Developing the plate entailed applying the same process as was used for black and white photographs at the time, with the impression being processed to reversal.

Institut-Lumiere.org
Here are some examples:

"It looks like a painting by impressionist Edouard Manet, but it is a real color picture, made in 1914, by Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud, Commander of the Photography and Cinematography Section of the French Army.

When the Great War broke out, in 1914, French poilu's (common soldiers) still wore their Napoleontic uniforms with red trousers. They made perfect targets.

Here are some more:
World War I Photos

The Great War


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Tuva or Bust

Richard Feynman's Last Journey

By Ralph Leighton
ISBN 0-393-32069-3
W.W.Norton & Company, Inc. 2000, 1991

Tuva or Bust

There has been a lot made of the PowerPoint contribution to the failure of the Challenger shuttle (see Edward Tufte.)

Before that was the Columbia disaster. Richard Feynman found the problem with the "O" rings, He too complained about PowerPoint like presentations:

"Then we learned about bullets — little black circles in front of phrases that were supposed to summarize things. There was one after another of these little goddamn bullets in our briefing books and on the slides."

This book however is about something altogether different.

As a stamp-collecting boy always fascinated by remote places, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman was particularly taken by the diamond-shaped stamps from a place called Tannu Tuva. He hoped, someday, to travel there. In 1977, Feynman and his sidekick — fellow drummer and geography enthusiast Ralph Leighton — set out to make arrangements to visit Tuva, doing noble and hilarious battle with Soviet red tape, befriending quite a few Tuvans, and discovering the wonders of Tuvan throat-singing. Their Byzantine attempts to reach Tannu Tuva would span a decade, interrupted by Feynman's appointment to the committee investigating the Challenger disaster, and his tragic struggle with the cancer that finally killed him. Tuva or Bust! chronicles the deepening friendship of two zany, brilliant strategists whose love of the absurd will delight and instruct. It is Richard Feynman's last, best adventure.

Quote

"Sure enough, occupying a notch northwest of Mongolia was a territory that could well once have had the name Tannu Tuva.
"Look at this," remarked Richard, "The capital is spelled K-Y-Z-Y-L."
"That's crazy," I said. "There's not a legitimate vowel anywhere!"
"We must go there," said Gweneth.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Richard. "A place that's spelled K-Y-Z-Y-L has got to be interesting."

More Tuva:
Tuva Movies and Sounds
Friends of Tuva

Also:
Listen to the music of Tuva on this CD. Willie Nelson is on one track, but it does demonstrate two toned throat singing:

Tuva Throat Singing

Here's another great Tuva story:

Genghis Blues

" Paul Pena is a blind San Francisco blues singer who has played with the likes of John Lee Hooker and Jerry Garcia (he also penned "Jet Airliner," which Steve Miller covered). One night while listening to his shortwave radio, he picked up a Radio Moscow broadcast and heard the mesmerizing, gutteral sound of throat singing, which is peculiar to Tuva's region of upper Mongolian. Enthralled, he became a master of this obscure art form. Enter Friends of Tuva, a curious group that included Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, who likewise had become fascinated with Tuva. In 1993 they sponsored a San Francisco appearance by Tuvan singers. Pena was in the audience and met with the singers afterward. Pena so impressed the Tuvans that he was encouraged to come to Tuva and participate in its annual festival competition. Genghis Blues chronicles this incredible journey."

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Learn to Draw

No match cover required

Do you want to learn how to draw? Now you can online! Learn how to draw like an artist, from a professional artist. Begin by learning the fundamentals of drawing with easy to follow interactive instruction.

Learn how to draw a person and make it actually look like the person! Take drawing people further and learn how to draw a caricature of a person!

• DRAWING BASICS
  You don't know how to draw? Begin learning how to draw.
  
  
• DRAWING PEOPLE
  You know how to draw, but you can't draw people.
  
  
• DRAW CARICATURES
  You want to draw funny people, but you don't know how?

LearntoDraw.com


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Wage is Too Minimum

Low pay by state

Since 1997, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15. The new Congress plans to introduce legislation raising the minimum wage to $7.25-an increase that is long overdue.

This minimum wage increase would boost earnings for 13 million American workers-9.8 percent of the United States workforce.

Six million families with children-46 percent of the total low wage-earning families with children-currently receive all of their earnings from minimum wage jobs.

Raising the minimum wage will increase annual earnings to $15,000 from $10,700.

Without this increase, a family of three supported by one minimum wage earner will live roughly $5,400 below the federal poverty line.

At the 350 largest public companies, the average CEO total direct compensation was $11.6 million in 2005. At this rate of compensation, it takes the average CEO only one hour and 55 minutes to earn the annual pay of a minimum wage worker.

Here is an interactive map that will show how your state relates to the others.

Minimum wage map


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Soup is no Joke

A ladle humor

"Garçon, le mouche dans ma soupe!"

"Non, monsieur, la mouche"

"Mon Dieu, you Belgians have wonderful eyesight!"

Soup Jokes


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STIFF

The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

By Mary Roach
ISBN 0-393-05093-9
W.W. Norton 2003

About the Author
Has written for Salon, Discover, New York Times Magazine

Book Description

For two thousand years, cadavers -- some willingly, some unwittingly -- have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries -- from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting.

Quote
Besides a study about what happens to our remains, Roach has this comment:

"Anthropologists will tell you that the reason people never dined regularly on other people is economics. While there existed, I am told, cultures in Central America that actually ranched humans -- kept enemy soldiers captive for awhile to fatten them up -- it was not practical to do so, because you had to give up more food to feed them than you'd gain in the end by eating them. Carnivores and omnivores, in other words, make lousy livestock."

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Where in the World is it Not

Trouble map

If it's not happening here, it's coming down over there.

Here's a Google map mashup of the world wide mashups.

Global Incident Map


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Download 2013 Books

On the Internet shelf

• Downloadable book: Getting started with Office 2013
  
  
  
• Downloadable and printable content (available in .doc, .pdf, or .xps file formats) about how to get started with Office 2013.
  
  
• Downloadable book: Planning guide for Office 2013
  
  
  
• Downloadable and printable content (available in .doc, .pdf, or .xps file formats) about how to plan a deployment of Office 2013.
  
  
• Downloadable book: Deployment guide for Office 2013
  
  
  
• Downloadable and printable content (available in .doc, .pdf, or .xps file formats) about how to deploy Office 2013.
  
  
• Downloadable book: Group Policy for Office 2013
  
  
  
• Downloadable and printable content (available in .doc, .pdf, or .xps file formats) about how to deploy and configure an installation of Office 2013.
  
  
• Downloadable book: Operations guide for Office 2013

and more.

Technet.Microsoft.com


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Translate on the Fly

Translate Text

Ahora usted puede exhibir un grado de la sofisticación que excede tu conocimiento


On the Tools menu, click Research.

1. In the Search for list, select Translation.
   
2. To change the languages used for translation, in the Research task pane, under Translation, select the languages you want to translate from and to.

Do one of the following:

• To translate a specific word, press ALT and click a word. The results appear under Translation in the Research task pane.
  
• To translate a short sentence, select the words, and then press ALT and click the selection. The results appear in the Research task pane under Translation.
  
• To translate a whole document, in the Research task pane, under Translation, click Translate whole document A translation of your document appears in your Web browser
  
• To translate a word or phrase, type the word or phrase in the Search for box, and then click Start Searching .

Also see:

• Babel Fish
  
• Google Language Tools
• LangToLang.com
  
• Promt Online Translator
  
• Foreignword.com

Speaking of translating a fly, here's another kind of translation: BzzzPeek A collection of 'onomatopoeia' from around the world using sound recordings from native speakers imitating the sounds of mainly animals and vehicles.


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Color Feels Right

Colors and emotions

When you're mad, do you see teal?

"Color plays a vitally important role in the world in which we live. Color can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your blood pressure or suppress your appetite.

When used in the right ways, color can save on energy consumption. When used in the wrong ways, color can contribute to global pollution.

As a powerful form of communication, color is irreplaceable. Red means "stop" and green means "go." Traffic lights send this universal message. Likewise, the colors used for a product, web site, business card, or logo cause powerful reactions.

Explore : The concept of color can be approached from several disciplines: physiology, psychology, philosophy, and art."

ColorMatters.com


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Sunrise, Sunset

Times

Here is a location that will give you times for sun and moon, rise and set,
Civil Twilight, Nautical Twilight. and Astronomical Twilight anywhere in the world.




SunriseSunset.com


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Airplanes

modèles de papie

Model Templates for paper airplanes


Also:

Collection of paper airplanes

Build the best paper airplane in the world

Record winning paper airplanes


More sites

Fiddler's Green paper airplane models, some free some for sale


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Carophile

All things auto

"Jalopnik loves cars.

Secret cars, concept cars, flying cars, vintage cars, tricked-out cars, red cars, black cars, blonde cars
sometimes, cars just because of the curve of a hood."

Jalopnik.com


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Legal Understanding

See what they mean

Through precise definitions, an act can be compared to what's allowed and what is prohibited.

This very process of clarification can make the statutes difficult for the layman to understand.

" Welcome to Nolo's Legal Glossary, your life-raft in the sea of legal jargon. Do you need to know the meaning of sprinkling trust, toxic tort or some equally puzzling legal term? Look it up here. Our glossary contains plain-English definitions for hundreds of legal terms, from the common to the bizarre."

Toxic tort

A personal injury caused by exposure to a toxic substance, such as asbestos or hazardous waste. Victims can sue for medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering.

Willful tort

A harmful act that is committed in an intentional and conscious way. For example, if your neighbor builds an ugly new fence and you intentionally run it down with your truck, that's a willful tort. But accidentally backing into the fence as you pull out of your driveway is not willful, though it's still a tort.

Everybody's Legal Glossary


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Bricks as Pets

Is it right?

Tired of picking up after your pet?

"Red Bricks (Brickus vermillius) are found around the world. Their association with humans is a long one, for bricks have been found in archaeological sites from the very ancient to the modern.

The vast majority of bricks are working bricks, used mainly in construction of human houses and other buildings. A tiny minority of bricks, however, are unfortunately kept for human consumption, a use that is thankfully dwindling under the force of anti-brick-cruelty laws."

Pet Brick FAQ


The site also has more than enough information about rats.
Rat Behavior and Biology


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Grandma Knew Best

Advice from the past

History does repeat itself, so we might learn from advice from the past.

"Take a step back in time as I share words of wisdom from my collection of about 1,000 classic advice books in a quest to solve modern-day dilemmas.

The books span from 1822 to 1978 and cover the age-old topics of dating, love, living together, marriage, health, beauty, puberty, sex, etiquette, housekeeping, home economics, and home repairs. I've spent years scouting out used bookstores and thrift shops to locate these treasures of self help. "

MissAbigail.com


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A Way Cool Paint-Picker

Just slap it on

If you have decided to paint your home, or just this inside of the downstairs coat closet, the Behr paint people have a neat tool.

Color Smart

You still have to slop the paint on yourself, though.

Here are other color generators:

Top 8 Color Tools

EasyRGB matches generated RGB values to paints, inks, etc.


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Internet History

Two tin cans

From Forbes:

The Internet: A Short History of Getting Connected.

When the Defense Department issued a $19,800 contract on December 6, 1967, for the purpose of studying the "design and specification of a computer network," the world didn't take notice. But it should have. For, from that small, four-month study grew the ARPANET. And, from ARPANET emerged the Internet.

Also:
Living Internet

"An elegantly organized tour of the history of the Internet -- both fun and informative -- a rare combination!"
Steve Crocker, invented the Request For Comments.

All About the Internet

Hobbes' Internet Timeline v11.0


A Brief History of the Internet

"When the late Senator Ted Kennedy heard in 1968 that the pioneering Massachusetts company BBN had won the ARPA contract for an "interface message processor (IMP)," he sent a congratulatory telegram to BBN for their ecumenical spirit in winning the "interfaith message processor" contract."

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Be a Local Scoble

Photo Walk

Robert Scoble, tech evangelist, has been touting the fun of Photowalking. Getting together with a group of like-minded people to just walk around and take pictures.

Robert has made a number of videos that you can see on his blog The ScobleShow.

Locally Kevin Freitas, a web developer and community supporter, solicited participation in a Tacoma area walk.

Since digital film is free. After you've got a camera, why not set a walk up in your city?



The results of our stroll can be seen at theses links:

• Tacoma Photo Gang - Shot da Tideflats
  
• Tacoma Photo Gang on Flickr
  
  
• Tacoma Foto Gang Muvee
  
  
• Waterfront shots



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Did You Know

Nerd Conversation Nibblets

Here's a part of the list of knowledge tidbits from Kelly's Bar

Did You Know?

• Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
  
• The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.)
  
• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
  
• The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick.
  
• There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
  
• Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey.
  
• Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
  

If you have doubts about these "facts", look at the Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages


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Color Blind

Be seen by all

Books on web design warn against using the colors red and green.

One out of twenty people have problems with some form of color blindness.

Here is a site that will let you check your web pages. You will be able to see the page as it appears to someone with one of the three main types of color deficit.

Vischeck

Normal



Deuteranope color blindness





Colorblind Web Page Filter


How do things look to Color Blind People


Web Colors


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President's Day or Presidents' Day

Neither

The third Monday in February is officially Washington's birthday, not Presidents' Day according to the federal government.

Individual states may designate the day as anything they want, but the federal holiday is Washington's birthday.

Snopes.com

Interestingly enough, although Georgia celebrates Washington's Birthday, the Governor is accorded the right to designate when state holidays occur. In Georgia, Washington's Birthday is recognized the day after Christmas.

There is an urban legend that when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was implemented in 1971, President Richard Nixon issued a proclamation calling for a Presidents' Day on the third Monday to honor all U.S. presidents.

Each February both the Law Library at the Library of Congress and the Nixon Library field an upsurge in calls on this question. No evidence of this exists in Nixon's official papers.

Wikipedia


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Non Designers Type Book, The

By Robin Williams

ISBN 0-201-35367-9
Peachpit Press 1998


About the Author
Williams teaches electronic typography and has written some excellent books on digital design.

Anyone who has witnessed the horrific use of type on many personal web sites knows how badly these books are needed. Clear explanations and good illustrations are the hallmarks of both volumes.

Also author of The PC is not a typewriter.

Book Description
Each short chapter explores a different type secret including use of evocative typography, tailoring typeface to project, working with spacing, punctuation marks, special characters, fonts, justification, and much more. It is written in the lively, engaging style that has made Williams one of the most popular computer authors today.

It uses numerous examples to illustrate the subtle details that make the difference between good and sophisticated use of type. The non-platform specific, non-software specific approach to the book makes this a must-have for any designer's bookshelf - from type novices to more experienced graphic designers and typesetters.


Quote

"Most packages also have a discretionary hyphen, affectionately called a "dischy." If you type Ctrl+- (Control Hypen on a PC), the word will hyphenate at that point, that hyphen will disappear when the word moves to another location.

Also (and this is the point), if you type a discretionary hyphen in front of a hyphenated word, it will not hyphenate at all, ever."

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Home School Computers Available

Need PCs?

"Our economy is at a crucial turning point. Jobs in America require technological skills and computer expertise. The CFL program places computers in our classrooms and prepares our children to contribute and compete in the 21st century.

The CFL website connects the registered needs of schools and educational nonprofit organizations with available computer equipment. The program allows federal agencies and private sector entities to transfer unneeded computers and related equipment to schools and educational nonprofit organizations, while giving special consideration to those with the greatest need."

Computers for Learning (CFL) FAQ

"Schools and educational nonprofit organizations can participate in the CFL program.

A school is eligible to participate if it is a public, private, parochial, or home school serving pre-kindergarten through grade 12 students. Day care centers must provide a state approved preschool curriculum in order to participate. "

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Tiny Trebuchet

Pumpkin (seed) flinger

Something there is that is fascinated by hurling things through the air. The medievals tossed oil and rocks.
Today it's mostly Fall vegetables.

Here's away to bring the machine down to desk level and make cubical living even more dangerous.



Build your own 3" trebuchet out of paperclips

Also:
Build a Trebuchet in your backyard


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Calendar Templates

New days

Here are calendars that you can produce using Word, PowerPoint, or even Visio.

Calendars

Also see
Make a Calendar

"For each month of each year featured, there are a variety of printable calendar pages for you to choose from. You can print out calendar pages that include coloring pages, selected craft projects, and special days to celebrate. "

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Shoelaces

What's to know?

Fun, fashion & science in this quirky site about shoelaces. Whether you want to learn to lace shoes, tie shoelaces, stop shoelaces from coming undone, calculate shoelace lengths or even repair aglets, Ian's Shoelace Site has the answer!

Fieggen.com


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Find Commands

Ribbon seeker

MS has a download that can be used to search for those old toolbar commands on the new Ribbon.

OfficeLabs.com


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Open with Google

And you want to do this why?

"Google has added the functionality to make its office apps (Docs and Spreadsheets) the default application to open word documents and spreadsheet files, either for files downloaded from the Internet or local files on your computer, or both."

GoogleTutor.com


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Templates

Suggestions

If you have a task with an app that you find yourself repeating, make a template.
Here are some suggestions.

Bottom line: don't do it twice if you can template it once.

Jotform.com


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Long Bets

Take a chance

The purpose of Long Bets is to improve long–term thinking. Long Bets is a public arena for enjoyably competitive predictions, of interest to society, with philanthropic money at stake. The Long Now Foundation furnishes the continuity to see even the longest bets through to public resolution. This website provides a forum for discussion about what may be learned from the bets and their eventual outcomes.

• By 2060 the total population of humans on earth will be less than it is today.
  
• By 2020, bio-terror or bio-error will lead to one million casualties in a single event.
• By the year 2020 solar electricity will be as cheap or cheaper than that produced by fossil fuels.

LongBets.com

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Snow Flakes

Cooling

Your online guide to snowflakes, snow crystals, and other ice phenomena ...

SnowCrystals


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First Aid

Do it yourself

Got a foreign object in your nose? The Mayo Clinic has some advice on First Aid.

MayoClinic.com


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Thai Recipies

Videos

How to cook Thai dishes with videos and ingredients.

ThaiFoodTonight.com


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World Wide Web Cams

Peek around the planet

Links to over 500 free webcam.

Opentopia.com


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Tag a Collection

Basic naming and tagging protocol

Here are some suggestions about indexing a collection. In this case pictures on Flickr.

Deciding on classifications and inputting the tags is the hard part. Once all of the tags are in place your collection is searchable, and you can make sets based on any of the criteria used.


EvilMadScientist.com


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One Summer America, 1927

EVERYTHING happened in the Summer of 1927!

by Bill Bryson




"It’s amazing what a talented writer at the top of his game can do with a seemingly narrow topic. The title of Bill Bryson’s latest sums up the simplicity of his task: to document the “most extraordinary summer” of 1927, beginning with Charles Lindbergh’s successful flight across the Atlantic. 

Even though we know many of these stories--Lindbergh’s flight, Babe Ruth’s 60-homerun season, the Mississippi River flood, Al Capone’s bullet-ridden reign over Chicago--in Bryson’s hands, and in the context of one amazing summer of twentieth-century ingenuity and accomplishment, they feel fresh, lively, and just plain fun. The book is so jammed with “did you know it” nuggets and fascinating origin stories (the opening of the Holland Tunnel, the first Mickey Mouse prototype, the source of the term “hot dog”), the effect is like sitting beside a brilliant, slightly boozy barstool raconteur, who knows a little bit about everything. 

From a tabloid murder trial to a flagpole-sitting record to the secret origins of the looming Great Depression, One Summer offers a new look at a transitional period in history, re-introducing us to such characters as Capone, Jack Dempsey, Al Jolson, Charles Ponzi, and Herbert Hoover. Ultimately, this is a book about the moment when important things, for good or ill, began happening in the US. With a giddy narrative voice and keen eye for off-kilter details, Bryson has spun a clever tale of America’s coming of age." --Neal Thompson




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Healthy Computing

10 tips

Neck hurt? Wrists ache? Back pain?
Here are some suggestions.

TipTalk


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Need a Doctor?

Look up site

”Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2016, the AIM DocFinder was the only online physician directory of its kind when it was launched in 1996. The DocFinder is still recognized for its easy to use search engine. DocFinder remains the only combined database of all licensing jurisdictions that has its direct source of data from and controlled by state licensing boards and remains free of charge to the public.”

DocBoard.org


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How to Lace Shoes

Two trillion Ways

Forget about Velcro. Here are 33 illustrated ways to lace your shoes.

Fieggen.com/Shoelace


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Sgt. Pepper

If you're old enough

The Oxford Dictionary presents an interactive version of the cover.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography


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Office 2010-13 is Loose

It’s been loosed on the world

More news about the latest version.

Office 2010

Office 2013


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Ribbon Guide

FluidUserInterface

”These interactive guides show you where your favorite menu and toolbar commands are located in Office 2010-13. Just click the command or button that you want to find, and the guide will show you its location in the 2010-13 version of the program.”

Office.Microsoft.com


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Office 2010-2013

Preview review

Ed Bott has been writing about Office since 1996. Here is his take on the latest version.

Ed Bott Office 2010

Office 2013

Office 2010: Product Guides

Office 2013


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Set Your Kindle Free

Jailbreak

You can program your Kindle to accept screensavers, and other aps.

How to Geek.com


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How to spot a gun

using a graph

Edward Tufte has this discussion about a graphic that shows how to spot a hidden firearm.

"Color is used to highlight how the gun moves and how the gun reveals itself, short visual noun-verb sentences that indicate the key signs that help detectives to spot someone carrying a hidden handgun. Thus the color usually has a distinct substantive point and is not just used to depict surfaces or to decorate the news."

(Scroll down on web page)

Hidden hand gun


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Flight Status

Where da plane?

An easy way to find out whether Aunt Mable's plane is on time is to type the airline name and number into Google (or Bing).




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Ribbon Reasoning

What it's all about

Users opened Office 2007-10 and were shocked by the
transformation that was the Ribbon User Interface.
Here's a collection of how to's and why's by Patrick Schmid.
The Office UI Bible


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Wireless Security Myths

How to

A bit techy, but it may come in handy

The six dumbest ways to secure a wireless LAN:
George Ou


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Free Information

Sound bites and more

This is a collection of historical material including Edward R Murrow’s response to Joseph McCarthy.

Edward R Murrow

FreeInfoSociety


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Typig Games

Keyboard action

Improve your typing speed. A geek video game.

CognitiveLabs.com


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Type Design

Basic ideas

Sketches explaining some basic issues in type design.



TypeWorkshop.com


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Certification

Get your paper

"Discover the only worldwide, performance-based certification program that validates the skills needed to get the most out of Microsoft Office and Windows Vista. Whether you want to stand out in the job market, improve your performance, or better prepare your students to enter the workforce, the Microsoft Certification program can help you attain the valuable expertise you need—and businesses rely on—to succeed."

Microsoft Certification


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Productivity Guides

Free suggestions

Microsoft provides 22+ guides to productivity in the office.

"Microsoft IT created Work Smart productivity guides (previously Everyday Productivity Education (EPE) guides) to bridge the gap between technology and users. Work Smart guides provide employees with scenario-based, best-use productivity aids on Microsoft products and technologies. As more Work Smart guides are published, Microsoft IT expects to see more consistent, productive, and cost-effective use of products and technologies across the company."

IT Showcase


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Flip Text

This text is right side up

uʍop ǝpısdn sı sıɥʇ

This site accepts your perfect prose and turns it around.
(with Unicode)

RevFad.com


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Historical Documents

Remember good old paper?

"Fold3 helps you find and share historic documents. We are able to bring you many never-before-seen historic documents through our unique partnerships with The National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Our patented digitization process is helping bring other collections to life on the web everyday.

But Fold3 is more than just a dusty, digital archive online. We provide you the tools to share your historical passions and connect with others."

Fold3.com


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Schlub

a stupid, worthless, or unattractive person

"(Jerry is) an all-American schlub . . . He has turned these degradations into an animated Web site appropriately named ItsJerryTime.com, on which he battles a cast of tormentors that includes the Meal Moth, his landlord and an alleged telephone conspiracy perpetrated by a duo of old ladies" Wall Street Journal

ItsJerryTime.com


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My One and Only Thrill

Melody Gardot

Gentle. Almost from another time.

"The story of vocalist Melody Gardot is as remarkable as any who perseveres against abject adversity. Born in New Jersey in 1985, she took up piano and played as a youngster on the nightclub scene of Philadelphia, influenced by jazz, folk, rock and pop musics. At age 19 she was a fashion student at the Community College of Philadelphia. But, on a fateful day, while riding her bicycle, the driver of a Jeep made an illegal turn, hurdling into Gardot and leaving her in the street for dead. Hospitalized for months with multiple head injuries and pelvic fractures, her love for music was the best therapy she could receive.
Her music could be described as a cross between Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Eva Cassidy, and Shania Twain, but goes deeper than mere pop convention. ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide"

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Fast Interchange

7 day URL

Go to http://cl1p.net and then:

Enter a URL that starts with http://cl1p.net.
example:http://cl1p.net/assuming/

Paste in anything you want.
Some text, links, etc. Click 'Save' when done.

On any other computer open a browser to the same URL.
You will find the information you entered in step 2.


Do more with CL1P.net. Just open any URL that starts with http://cl1p.net and you can...

• Create a notebook
  
• Have a conversation
  
• Create a community

Cl1p.net


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Clean PC

Wash and dry

"Your computer could fry if you don't keep it clean," says Jonathon Millman, chief technology officer for Hooplah Interactive.
Dust clogs the vents behind your computer, which causes your CPU to heat up—and heat is the biggest cause of component failure in computers. Regular cleaning could save you costly maintenance fees down the road.

Here are some suggestions for Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall cleaning:

PC Gamer


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Dryer Sheet Uses

Not just for machines

Use Dryer Sheets to:

1. Freshen smelly shoes.
   
2. Remove static from clothing, hair, TV screens, and computer monitors.
   
3. Clean pet hair from the floor or furniture.
   
4. Replace a sachet.
   
5. Loosen caked-on food from a pan.
   
6. Tackle suitcase and gym-bag odors.
   
7. Prevent old books from smelling musty when in storage.
   
8. Wipe up sawdust after working in the garage.
   
9. Prevent thread from tangling when sewing.
   
10. Dust venetian blinds.

RealSimple.com

DoItYourself.com

Curbly.com


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Hard Drive Innards

Hidden workings

Early on computers did not always have "Hard drives". The TRS-80 worked off a portable tape recorder.
If you want to see how they work today, look at:
HowStuffWorks.com

Here are a couple of videos that explore the entrails.

Break.com-Inside a Hard Drive

and

How a Hard Drive Works


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Convert to B&W

Photoshop tip

Pictures can be converted to black and white by just clicking on an action off of the menu.
If you want to have more control, here is a step by step instruction list.

GingerPixel.com


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Garden Cities of To-Morrow

Lullaby Baxter's Back

The quirky star of Capable Egg returns.




Rattled Little Clam

Montreal, 1997. Lullaby Baxter is waiting tables at Jello Bar. Coaxed on stage for an impromptu number, she sings Billie Holiday's signature song "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)". This, her first public performance since grade school, brings down the house.

She buys a green guitar and learns "Leaving On A Jet Plane". Someone at the Laundromat says, "Anyway, try writing songs."

Little Song
Also see:
Capable Egg


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Copyright Fair Use

When can you use it?

The copyright law is a little vague when it comes to fair use.

" Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. For example, if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist's work without asking permission. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work.
Unfortunately, if the copyright owner disagrees with your fair use interpretation, the dispute will have to be resolved by courts or arbitration. If it's not a fair use, then you are infringing upon the rights of the copyright owner and may be liable for damages."

U S Copyright Office
Ohio State University
CopyrightLaw.com


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Burn Wrapping Paper

Holiday info

If you want to find out the real background story on any number of water cooler questions, try:
StraightDope.com

For instance:

Why is it dangerous to burn wrapping paper?

The fire is the wrong place for other holiday detritus as well - der Tannenbaum, for example.

My assistant Una had an Uncle Bob, a manly man who felt throwing the Christmas tree away was a waste of good firewood. So he tossed it in the fireplace - gave him a nice warm glow.

Unfortunately

what was glowing was the roof, presumably ignited by embers.

Fortunately

the fire was small and anybody with a hose could have put it out.

Unfortunately

the hose was frozen solid and the fire department had trouble getting the nearest hydrant to work.

Fortunately

the firefighters were able to throw a ladder up against the house and put out the fire with a chemical extinguisher. They then hacked off a small hunk of charred roof with axes, peered into the crawl space, and declared the fire out.

Unfortunately,

having by now found an operational hydrant, the firemen declared they needed to hose down the roof "as policy," sending a torrent of water through the hole and collapsing the living room ceiling.

Really unfortunately,

the house that all this happened in belonged not to Uncle Bob but his in-laws. Bob bought them an RV and matters were pronounced square, but it was a lesson he won't soon forget, and neither should you.

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Curves

and More

Famous curves from Cal State at LA. All your favorites from Astroid to Witch of Agnesi.

Here is a collection of Functions relating to astronomy from Stargazing.net.

Can't tell who might be interested in the obliquity of the equator given date in days after J2000.0.
See: Astro VBA

Other Curve stuff:

DelphiForFun.org: converting polar coordinates to Cartesian coordinates.

"Students of analytic geometry, (the kind that combines algebra and geometry), often work in one of two coordinate systems: Cartesian or Polar - and frequently must convert from one to the other.

The Cartesian system locates points on a plane by measuring the horizontal and vertical distances from an arbitrary origin to a point. These are usually denoted as a pair of values (X, Y).

The Polar system locates the point by measuring the straight line distance, usually denoted by R, from the origin to the point and the angle of an imaginary line from the origin to the point, θ, (Greek letter Theta), measured counterclockwise from the positive X axis."

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Get Toasted

It's a recommended practice

"Let's face facts. The whole low-carb craze is playing itself out. The USDA recommends that every day we eat 6 to 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice, pasta, and other foods containing grains, especially whole grains. Bread is not the enemy of a healthy body, if you select the right bread.

The American Dietetic Association recommends a minimum of three servings of whole grains per day and goes so far as to recommend whole-wheat toast with peanut butter as a quick and healthy breakfast option."

366 Ways To Enjoy Toast
By Mr Breakfast

Also:
Roller Toaster


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Psst - Cheap Gas

Drive to Save

"GasBuddy.com is the portal site to more than 170 web sites that help consumers find cheap gas prices. All web sites are operated by the non-profit organization known as GasBuddy Organization Inc.

Since gasoline prices change frequently and may vary by as much as 20 percent within only a few blocks it is important to be able locate the service station with the lowest priced fuel. GasBuddy Organization web sites allow consumers to both share information about low priced fuel with others as well as target the lowest priced stations to save at the pumps!"

Also:
Gas Price Watch.com

Autos.MSN.com


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History is Something to Play with

Games for kids (and you)

History can be boring when the only reward is a scribbled "Acceptable" on a test paper.

But what if part of the game is to build a trebuchet to fling the teacher?

"Welcome to the SchoolHistory.co.uk downloadable resources centre. This has been updated to allow quick, easy access to our resources kindly contributed by other teachers. There are now over 1,400 pages of resources available."

Interactive History Games



Also see Build a Trebuchet in your Backyard


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Type with One Hand

Does 85 WPM impress you?

The common short cuts are: Ctrl+X for Cut, Ctrl+C for Copy, and Ctrl+V for Paste.

These are optimized for use on the left side of the keyboard.

There's another set of shortcuts that use keys on the right-hand side the keyboard:

Cut: Shift + Delete
Copy: Ctrl + Insert
Paste: Shift + Insert

Also see:
One Hand Typing

"Computer Keyboard Shortcuts for one hand typists. Resources for vocational, occupational, rehabilitation therapists, and their clients, who have lost full, or partial use of one hand, with a special emphasis on learning to type with a standard keyboard."

"This video clip is of me, Lilly Walters. Note how I use my less able hand to do the SHIFT key. I am typing on a normal keyboard. I really do up to 85 words per minute - with enough caffeine and sleep. The keyboard shown here is a NORMAL keyboard you will find in any office, school or home. No alternative keyboard layouts. Just what all of my peers use. By the way, I type faster than most of my peers! All because I learned to type with one hand."

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Office Bling Bling

For your real desktop

C.A.Daniels & Company offers some decadent, fun, office bric-a-brac.


Hippo stapler


Hare Brush and Mirror


Hippo Clock/Paperweight


Trout Razor



Also:
Too much Bling

"A couple of months ago I bought a 17" LCD monitor (PolyView V17E). However, when I first powered it on, the thing that struck me was just how bright the blue power LED was! This power LED is just next to the power switch, immediately below the screen itself. The LED was bright enough to be very distracting, to the extent where it was just too bright to be able to look at the bottom part of the monitor without needing sunglasses.

Luckily, the LED was shining through a small plastic diffuser, mounted in the case, which had a flat surface on it. A couple of coats with a permanent marker dulled the brightness sufficiently to allow me to use the monitor without being blinded."

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Color News

A multidiscipline subject

Here is a study about how color effects a reader's choice of concentration.

It was intended for newspaper publishers, but the same knowledge can be used in Web design, PowerPoint, or any other reporting application. Word and Excel will also benefit.

Color, Contrast, and Dimension in News Design

Color Project

The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalists.
Poynter.org


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When Will You Die

Let the government help you find out

Stadium High school in Tacoma, WA, recently celebrated 100 years.



There have been 38,797 graduates since 1906 and 24,176 could still be alive.

This report presents period life tables for the United States based on age-specific death rates in 2003.

Presented are complete life tables by age, race, and sex. In 2003, the overall expectation of life at birth was 77.5 years, representing an increase of 0.2 years from life expectancy in 2002.

Between 2002 and 2003, life expectancy increased for males and females and for both the white and black populations.

Life expectancy increased by 0.3 years (from 77.7 to 78.0) for the white population and by 0.4 years (from 72.3 to 72.7) for the black population.

The greatest increase was experienced by black females with an increase of 0.5 years (from 75.6 to 76.1). Life expectancy increased by 0.2 years for black males (from 68.8 to 69.0), white males (from 75.1 to 75.3), and for white females (from 80.3 to 80.5).

Life expectancy at birth


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Go Back 23 Hours

Really save useful time

"Therefore, let us keep the fall ritual as it is. However, one Sunday each Spring, let us set our clocks not one hour forward, but TWENTY-THREE HOURS BACKWARD.

Think of all the advantages. We will not lose an hour of sleep; we will gain (almost) a day of rest. It will be Saturday all over again. You will never again miss Confession, or an airplane, or the Redskins game.

Naturally, if this were the whole plan, our calendars would fall behind one day in each year. However, the second part of the Revised DST Plan deals with this. Every four years, instead of adding a day, let us SUBTRACT THREE DAYS.

Furthermore, let these be Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which according to recent polls are the least popular days.

Stop Daylight Saving Time

---

Daylight Saving Time

About Daylight Saving Time

Wikipedia Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Savings Google News

As a result of the U.S. passing the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. changed starting in 2007. DST will begin on the second Sunday of March and end the first Sunday of November.


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Emperor of Scent, The

By Chandler Burr

ISBN 0-375-50797-3
Random House 2002



About the Author
Has contributed to The Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, and the Washington
Post among others.

Book Description
A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses. Luca Turin proposes a new theory of smell. Vision is perceived by light vibrations; Sound as well. Turin proposes that the same is true of Smell.
The science gets a little deep, but the human story is compelling.
Whether he is right or not has not been universally decided. The fights between branches of science are like civet fights.

Quote
One scientist, Richard Doty, says

"You may have noticed that if you breath through your nose, you tend to breathe through only one side of it for a while, then for a while through the other. . . When you smell information on the right side, you send it to the left side of the brain and vice versa, and you find a statistically significant increase in verbal scores when you breathe through the left side of your nose."

October, 2004
"The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year goes to two Americans who have puzzled out the sense of smell. Richard Axel and Linda Buck will split $1.4 million for discovering how chemicals in the air trigger thousands of recognizably different odors."

National Public Radio
Also:

Olfaction


"Doty's comment is incorrect. Actually, it might be from Chandler Burr's book, that was unclear.
The olfactory receptor sites do not switch recognition to the opposite brain hemisphere. What is breathed in through the right nostril goes directly to the right side of the brain, the left to the left."

Anonymous


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Paper Art

Fold it all up

Caterpillar on a leaf


Here are a couple of sites that provide templates and instruction about Origami; paper folding:

Animated lesson

OrigamiHeaven.com
David Mitchell is internationally known for his ground-breaking origami designs and publications. He is a particular specialist in the field of modular origami but is also a prolific inventor of one-piece paperfolds, novelties, flexagons, puzzles, visual paradoxes and magical effects.

This site sells paper and provides templates:
Paper and More


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Definition of Definition

One Stop OneLook

A plethora of punditry

"If you have a word for which you'd like a definition or translation, we'll quickly shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define or translate that word. If you don't know how to spell the word, we'll help you do that too. No word is too obscure: More than 21 million words in more than 1096 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook search engine.

What can you do at OneLook.com?

Define words:

Type a word into the search box on the front page to retrieve a list of dictionary web sites that define that word. Be sure "Find definitions" is selected.

Translate words:

Type a word into the search box and select "Find translations" to retrieve a list of dictionary web sites that have translations of that word into other languages.

Find words:

Type a pattern consisting of letters and the wildcards * and ? to retrieve a list of words matching your pattern."

OneLook.com


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Does Butter Fly?

Not Birders - Butters?

North American Butterfly Association
The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) is, by far, the largest group of people in North America (Canada, United States, and Mexico) interested in butterflies.



Here are some quotes from the FAQ:

How many kinds of butterflies are there?

There are approximately 20,000 species of butterflies in the world. About 725 species have occurred in North American north of Mexico, with about 575 of these occurring regularly in the lower 48 states of the United States, and with about 275 species occurring regularly in Canada. Roughly 2000 species are found in Mexico.

How many kinds of butterflies can I find near where I live?

In most parts of the United States, you can find roughly 100 species of butterflies near your home. The number is higher in the Rio Grande Valley and some parts of the West, somewhat less in New England. As one goes northward into Canada the number decreases, while as one goes southward into Mexico the number greatly increases.

How long does a butterfly live?

An adult butterfly probably has an average life-span of approximately one month. In the wild, most butterflies' lives are shorter than this because of the dangers provided by predators, disease, and large objects, such as automobiles. The smallest butterflies may live only a week or so, while a few butterflies, such as Monarchs, Mourning Cloaks and tropical heliconians, can live up to nine months.

Also See:
An Obsession with Butterflies

"Just living is not enough, said the Butterfly. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. "

-Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875)

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Unicode is Huge

More symbols and letters

This free download lets you see and select more characters in the Unicode set. The Unicode Character Grid shows all assigned characters and private use characters in Unicode 6+.



BablePad

Here's a blog covering Scripts, Unicode, Character Encoding and BabelStone Stuff
BableStone Blog


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Gambling for Tuition

Casino tutoring

An education will probably increase your lifetime earnings. Why not make that probability work for you? Or not.

Teaching probability can be challenging because the mathematical formulas often are too abstract and complex for the students to fully grasp the underlying meaning and effect of the concepts. Games can provide a way to address this issue. For example, the game of roulette can be an exciting application for teaching probability concepts.
In this paper, we implement a model of roulette in a spreadsheet that can simulate outcomes of various betting strategies. The simulations can be analyzed to gain better insights into the corresponding probability structures. We use the model to simulate a particular betting strategy known as the bet-doubling, or Martingale, strategy. This strategy is quite popular and is often erroneously perceived as a winning strategy even though the probability analysis shows that such a perception is incorrect.

The simulation allows us to present the true implications of such a strategy for a player with a limited betting budget and relate the results to the underlying theoretical probability structure. The overall validation of the model, its use for teaching, including its application to analyze other types of betting strategies are discussed.

Illustrating Probability through Roulette


More Roulette strategy and statistics:
To Be Ahead And Quit


The Laymans Guide to Probability

"An in-depth but easily readable guide on probability theory, covering various aspects of the theory with a bias to gambling games and strategies. Includes working examples in an excel spreadsheet."

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Hold the Book in Your Hand

DaVinci and friends

It's close to impossible to be able to physically handle a classic text by Mozart, Jane Austin or others.

There is a way to get pretty close. Look at:
Turning the Page



This was brought to my attention by
BookofJoe.com


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