Tuesday, November 4, 2008

President Obama

I learned that Obama is going to be our next president. Lord, help this man in our time of need.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

There are these amazing crystal caverns in Mexico

There are these amazing crystal caverns in Mexico.

You have just got to see this.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/crystal-giants/shea-text

I am adding it to the list of things I want to see before I die.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

jack o'lantern face lift

I just learned that you can restore a wilting jack o'lantern by soaking it in water overnight. Kinda makes me want to try the experiment out!

Friday, October 31, 2008

Fruit has UPCs

While standing in line at the checkout counter with LOTS of fresh fruit, I marveled at how the young lady entering the codes could keep all these numbers in her head. Then I wondered if she went to another store, would she have to learn new codes, so I asked. Apparently, larger stores all have the same codes for fruit. They use the standard Universal Product Code that you see on all the other material in the store.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

dilating my pupils

I learned how to dilate my pupils voluntarily today.  Just need to tighten my stomach or send a small shot of adrenaline through my system.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The mobile looks like...

Remobo looks like a good program for sharing desktops. Look into this. listen

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Between Life Interviews

OK, so this one seems lame, but I can't think of what else I have learned today.

I was listening to a podcast called Theatre of the Mind and she was interviewing a guy who has done over 7000 interviews with people under hypnosis. Apparently, we do come from other dimensions and sometimes other planets. Or this is what people have called up for him.

It was odd though, he said that there have been people that have been born here (Earth) thousands of times. This just does not make sense to me as we have more people alive today than have ever been born in history. How is this possible if he has interviewed 7000? Does that mean that 3 billion souls have recently come here from another planet?

Monday, October 27, 2008

Frankincense was Chewing Gum

Frankincense, one of the precious items the wise men gave the baby Jesus, was actually an ancient form of chewing gum.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Johann Von Maedler Coined Photography

For years I thought that Sir John Frederick William Herschel coined the term "photography". This is what I was told in my History of Photography class. Tonight I found out that Johann Von Maedler, an astronomer and Hercules Florence were using this term before Herschel. Herschel suggested this term to Henry Fox Talbot.

Apparently, Herschel did coin the terms snap-shot, negative and positive.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Indian Monks Eat

Apparently Indian monks will eat less than desirable food once a week in order to keep their immune system strong.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Captivate

In order to become a better online teacher, I have been learning how to use Captivate better today. It has so much to offer. I need to really make it work well for my classes.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Ubiquity and tiny URL.

Ubiquity and tiny URL.

I discoverer Ubiquity for Firefox - very, very cool!!!!

I knew of tiny URL, but did not understand exactly what it was for until today.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Bush and His Cabinet

President Bush and members of his cabinet, like Cheney and Rumsfeld, have a whole bunch of slime-mold beetles named after them. The names of the beetles are Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi and Agathidium rumsfeldi respectively.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Basting in Sewing

I found out what "basting" is with regards to sewing. I guess there are just some things that still need to be done my hand. :)

Monday, September 29, 2008

Da Vinci had 7 Principles He Lived By..

  • Curiosita, or curiosity. Stay curious about life.
  • Dimonstratzione means to always test your knowledge throughout you life
  • Sensazione is to become very aware of your senses. When you eat, taste the food. When you breathe, smell the air, and so on...
  • Sfumato: Coined after his style of painting, one should be ready to embrace uncertainty
  • Arte/Scienza suggests you should use both the right and left hemispheres of your brain well and often.
  • Corporalita is to be fit and able to use the whole body, both left and right sides well.
  • Connessione - know that ALL things are connected to one another.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Dreamweaver Anchors

Last night I figured out how to make and linked anchors in Dreamweaver. This is going to come in very handy.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Bamboo will grow its...

Bamboo will grow its entire height within several months, after that point it will stop growing, it will grow no more. listen

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

He, She or It...

English once had a pronoun "hae" that was not specific to gender. It was lost in medieval times, leaving us with only " he", "she", and " it".

Monday, September 15, 2008

Fly's Eyes

According to a scientist being interviewed on NPR's Science Friday...

Flies are able to see one image like humans do, but just do it with many different lenses. Their vision is very fast. If a fly were to watch a movie in a theater, it would look more like a slide show to them rather than the moving pictures we see. Apparently, this slide show would be rendered very chunky though. Something of the tune of 25 PPI...

Friday, September 12, 2008

School Matrix

I am looking at joining a committee at school. Today I learned about the matrix the schools structure is to get things done... No wonder it takes so long to accomplish anything.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Laziness is an Odd Thing

So, I haven't posted in a while. I can give all kinds of excuses, but when it comes down to it, I choose not to. It is not that I am not learning something new every day. Indeed I am and more importantly, to me, notice that I am. I just seem not to want to take the time out of the flow of what I am doing to post the learning.... or even Jott a quick reminder of what I learned. Discipline over time has never been my strong suit. While I am still interested in working on this project in 2009, I am really seeing how challenging it will be.

Friday, August 29, 2008

First ain't gonna have...

Birds don't have receptors in their mouths to taste the spiciness of chili. This way they can take the seed of the chili pepper and spread them around while other animals will stay away. It is thought that the spiciness of a chili is do to keep the fungus off the plant as the spice is anti-microbial.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Gunsmoke Longevity

"Gun Smoke:" was the longest running TV series. It ran for 20 years.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Wasps(?) are being(?)...

Wasps are being used to replace security dogs at airport. They can sniff bombs and they can sniff drugs. They're only used for about 48 hours and then they're released, it only take for half hour to train them and only costs a hundred dollars to do so.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

The world's tallest...

The world's tallest man was 8 feet 11 inches tall. listen

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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Tug of War used to be...

Tug of War used to be an Olympic sport. listen

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Her reward used to be...

Her reward used to be listing sport. listen

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Wonder Bread - The Sliced Bread Pusher

It may get a lot of credit now, but at the time of its debut in 1928, sliced bread received less-than-rave reviews. Baker and inventor Otto Frederick Rohwedder had spent 15 years perfecting his bread slicer (finally settling on one that wrapped the sliced bread to hold it together as opposed to the hat pins he’d tried earlier), but consumers weren’t quick to convert. People found the sliced bread strange and senseless.

It wasn’t until the advent of Wonder Bread, and the collective realization that sliced bread worked better in the toaster, that Rohwedder’s invention really took off. By World War II, the military was using sliced bread to serve peanut butter & jelly sandwiches as part of soldiers’ rations. Previously uncommon, the PB&J gained a loyal following among servicemen, who kept making the sandwich, sliced bread and all, after they came back to the home front.

This explanation originally appeared in the “25 Most Important Questions in the History of the Universe” issue of mental_floss magazine.
* * * * *

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Turning red at stop...

Turning red at stop light actually became law with the ability to do so. Became law to promote less gas ____ is in the 70. listen

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Monday, August 4, 2008

White Chocolate is Not Chocolate

It's coco butter, sugar and goodness, but does not contain chocolate.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Japanese Government Taxes Large Waistlines

According to a June 13th article by the NY Times " a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.

Those exceeding government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks — and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.

To reach its goals of shrinking the overweight population by 10 percent over the next four years and 25 percent over the next seven years, the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. The country’s Ministry of Health argues that the campaign will keep the spread of diseases like diabetes and strokes in check.

The ministry also says that curbing widening waistlines will rein in a rapidly aging society’s ballooning health care costs, one of the most serious and politically delicate problems facing Japan today. Most Japanese are covered under public health care or through their work."

Interesting...

Thursday, July 31, 2008

You don't sneeze while sleeping

While I have never given it much thought, I have just found out that we do not sneeze while sleeping from a Mental Floss RSS feed

According to this article, sleeping will bring on REM atonia which is, "a state caused by the shutdown of the release of certain neurotransmitters during REM sleep that results in motor neurons not being stimulated and reflectory signals not being sent to the brain."

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

ad astra per aspera

The motto of Kansas is "ad astra per aspera". Apparently this means, "to the stars, by hard ways". This was the first think I read this morning at 6am. While I may not remember the latin, I now know Kansas has a motto.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Superman's Cod Piece Was Made of Steel

Earlier, I posted that Superman got the name "Man of Steel" due to the fact that in the early TV shows he wore a steel suit underneath his exterior underwear to make him look muscular. Well, I found this information out by listening to a trailer for Studio 360, an NPR show. I finally got around to listening to the whole piece and I found out that his "cod piece" was made of steel. The actress that played Lois Lane would "ping on it" and the actor would get upset.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Steampunk

"Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality." Taken from Wikipedia.

Possibly a better way to understand it is to see it. It is my understanding that Lemmony Snicket the Movie made use of steampunk in the look of it.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Modern Jackass

Heard from Ira Glass with "This American Life" that a "modern jackass" is one who speaks as an expert on a subject while only knowing the basics of the subject. With today's information age, this happens with frequency and I am guilty of it myself.


Wednesday, July 23, 2008

TinEye Image Search Engine

On the way to work today, I was listening to a podcast from The Focus Ring. This is a group of photographers/podcasters all around the world that speak on photography. At the end of the broadcast, each photographer gets to bring forward a tip-of-the-month. Boris Nienke, from the German speaking nSonic podcast, brought up TinEye, a web site that will search the Internet for an image that you feed it. It looks like it does a pretty good job finding manipulated copies of the image too. I am off to check it out a bit now.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

I have just learnt how...

I have just learnt how to post to blogger using jott on my iphone. listen

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(Typed in Note: I truly do know how to spell learned. :) But this feature is so cool, I may not even correct spelling errors as I go.)

Monday, July 21, 2008

A friend sent me a list of new learning today. :)
Bananas
Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.
Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
Cheese
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.
It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
Peppers
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
Ground Beef
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. (My question is is, doen't it evaporate an cause this to not work?)
Scrambled Eggs
To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket.
It will keep the mosquitoes away.
Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.
Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
Reducing Static Cling
Pina small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing pantyhose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ...static is gone.
Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water.Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient,such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out. (OK, I have done this one, but I thought I would show the whole list.)
Foggy Windshield?
Hatefoggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car . When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so,especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry aboutpets or small children being harmed!
INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the
house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the
dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material ... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit.
You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box .. well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months.
He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! (Yeah, I knew about this one too and actually have it calendered to do... along with vacuuming under the fridg. Guess I will have to save my wrapping paper tubes for next Spring.)

Saturday, July 19, 2008

The Man of Steel

Listening to a trailer for next week's Studio 360, I found out that Superman got the name "Man of Steel" due to the fact that in the early TV shows he wore a steel suit underneath his exterior underwear to make him look muscular.

Friday, July 18, 2008

William Moulton Marston, Inventor of Wonder Woman, also Invented a Lie Detector

I heard about both inventions on TV and decided to look it up. Here is what is said about the matter at http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2005/10/06/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-19/

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston invented the polygraph test!
STATUS: False
It has long been a funny sort of dramatic irony that William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman and her golden lariat, which forces people to tell the truth, was also the inventor of the polygraph test, which (purportedly) detects whether people are lying.
However, this is not the case.
Marston WAS, however, an early innovator in the field of lie detection, and his contributions to the polygraph test should not be overlooked, for Martson DID, in fact, invent the first lie detector of any sorts, in 1917. In 1921, Martson published his doctoral thesis for Harvard University. The title was “Systolic blood pressure symptoms of deception and constituent mental states.” That was Marston’s innovation - the idea that, by testing a subject’s systolic blood pressure, one would be able to determine whether the subject was lying.
The polygraph test, however, uses three OTHER methods, not just blood pressure. It is only when using the four methods combined that the results of the polygraph test are achieved. The other three tests are for heart rate, respiration and skin conductivity.
Still, one out of four is very impressive!

Yogurt can cure bad breath....

"Sugarless yoghurt could help beat bad breath, tooth decay and gum disease, say scientists." - This from the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4367723.stm

I know some people that could eat more yogurt. :)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Text Reader for the Blind

There is now a text reader for the blind that will translate in 7 different languages. This means that if the seeing are traveling through a foreign country and need help with signs, menu, what have you, s/he can photograph it and have it translated. The world just got a bit smaller. :)

http://www.knfbreader.com/products-mobile.php

Sunday, July 13, 2008

"Brick" is a verb

Found out that you can use the word "brick" as a verb. For example: "I bricked my phone" means you have just rendered your phone useless, like a brick in an office, and will need to get a new one.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

More Moodle

Seems like a cool program with room to grow

Monday, July 7, 2008

Moodle, moodle, moodle

Today was a four hour HowToMoodle class. While I can't put my finger on what I learned, I do feel more comfortable with it... though not enough to teach with it. I will be taking this class till Thursday.

Friday, July 4, 2008

camera guns

Some police now have the option of having a video camera, flash light
and something else attached to their handguns. The video will record 1
hour of footage with audio. The video will be encripted to prevent
fraud for court purposes. The tape will role once the handgun is
drawn.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

More considerations

I was speaking to a friend today about "what is learning" and the expression, "You learn something new every day." We were talking about how I was choosing to separate the "discoveries" from actual learning. It is her opinion that discoveries are probably closer to what the expression was talking about. Sure, there are days a person actually learns, but discovering is a learning process too.

So now I am considering the expression more. Especially since it has become much harder to decide what to post. I am over-thinking it... then again, that is what I do... :)

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Deciding what "learning" is...

Yesterday, when I was having tea with a friend, she told me about a cool website, Pandora. This brought up some thoughts for me that have been stirring around in my head for a bit. The thought was, "What am I going to consider to be learning?" Now, using Pandora as an example, I had not heard of this site before, and now know if it, but would I actually consider it to be learning? After thinking on it for a few days, I think it is more so a "discovery". Sure, I have knowledge that I did not have before, but I think what I am after is actually learning something... um.. more so on the factual part. Hmmm... that is not such a great explanation, but somewhere, for me, there is a gray line that I and going to draw in the sand as to what learning is.

So for now, as I warm up to the year of learning in 2009, I will go after information that is something I will remember - after all, I will have had to have "learned" it and not just been introduced to it. The information will have to also be... well, I guess significant and interesting to me in some way.

Now that is well, sorta settled, I am going to have to start figuring out a better way or discipline of recording my new daily learnings. I am getting better at recognizing them, and the game of it is fun, though I am probably tiring my friends with it, but I need to learn to stop and blog or note or something....

On a side note, I am testing out Pandora now and it is pretty cool!! :)

Saturday, June 28, 2008

mehndi is henna on hands at marriage ceremony

While having tea with a friend, I found out that when mehndi is applied to a lady's hand before a wedding, her husband's name is hidden in the design over and over again. It is his job to take the time to find his name.

Friday, June 27, 2008

I FINALLY learned how to spell "acupunture"

I have not idea why I have had trouble spelling acupuncture, but I am finally beyond it! Whew! Now bring on the five syllable words!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

12 Men Have Walked on the Moon

For some reason I thought it was just three. Man, I really am in need of a great history lesson!!!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Usra is the Bear Star

So when a friend was asking for a four letter word meaning "Bear Star", I came up with Osos. Working the puzzle more, she found that the Bear Star is actually Ursa. In confirming this information online, I found that, " The constellation Ursa Major contains the group of stars commonly called the Big Dipper. The handle of the Dipper is the Great Bear's tail and the Dipper's cup is the Bear's flank. The Big Dipper is not a constellation itself, but an asterism, which is a distinctive group of stars. Another famous asterism is the Little Dipper in the constellation Ursa Minor."

Monday, June 23, 2008

Friend's Grandfather Request

I found that one of my friend's grandfather asked for her and her brother on his death bed. He wanted to say good-bye. So touching to me.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Ghost marriages

In China there is a practice of marrying the dead. Read all about it
in Mental Floss.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Michael Kenna has an honorary MA from Brooks

Michael Kenna received an Honorary Master of Arts from Brooks Institute here in Santa Barbara in 2003. I love this guy's work. I am not surprised Brook's took him on to raise their name.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Nightime Scooter Riding

Tonight was the first night I rode my scooter close to dark. It was not quite pitch black, but with my shades on, it was close enough. Thank goodness they are a clear to dark gradient shift so that I could cheat my vision.

The ride itself was amazingly fun while being very scary at times. I did not have a close call, but being in the dark moving that fast is not the same as riding our bike on the Playa at night. It is even more surreal in someways. Like you are dreaming it, but need to stay aware.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

plants think

If you ever go on a tour of Lotusland with me you will find out that I
believe that plants think. I'll even attempt to prove it to you as we
move forward through the garden.

Well tonight I found out that tobacco plants, when being eaten by a
certain catapillar, will put out a certain scent that will bring wasps
into the area and will sting the catapillars... Yeah, I believe it.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Trama Delays Delivery

I learned today that trauma, even something as simple as breaking a toe or horseback riding, can not only delay the due date of a baby, it can actually stop contractions, thus potentially delaying birth for up to four weeks.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Honey

Honey is antibacterial (I knew this part). This quality makes it so
that it never spoils.

Yes, I am watching a special on bees and the CCD occurance.

Bees Eyes

Bees have three eyes on the tops of their heads. They also have tiny
hooks that hold each of their two wings, on one side, together.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The "G-Spot"

I heard that the "G-Spot" is actually the prostate of a female. Will
have to do some research to find if this is true.

(Later that day)
Well, I did some digging and learned that, "The G-Shot is a trademarked collagen injection meant to increase the size of a woman’s G-spot, and it's being touted as the "next big thing." Women are using their lunch breaks to drop in on their gynecologist for this trendy procedure, which takes roughly 30 minutes to accomplish, from start to finish. The $1,850 injection is administered quickly and only requires a local anesthetic." ~ AskMen.com


According to Wikipedia, "Tepper hypothesized that non-urine female ejaculate originated from the female paraurethral glands, or Skene's gland.[9] In their study they examined tissue from 18 patients and demonstrated that 15 showed prostate-specific antigens. More recent studies have backed up this finding, leading some to call the Skene's glands the female prostate.[10]"

Hmmm... sounds pretty factual to me.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Photo?

Yeah! Now, am I good for two days?

Re: Blogger Mobile Post

K, just learned how to blog from my phone. Guess I am good for the day. Now if I could only attach a photo... hmm...