Semi-Daily Nugget Of Knowledge
Second Page (Feb 2005 to Mid-May 2005)
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Wednesday, 5-11-5
I was talking to a friend of mine that made a joke about us Yanks. He being British and all thought it was real funny to point out that America has won the baseball World Series every year! "Not so much a 'world' event now is it?" I told him to shut up and go eat a spotted dick.
Canada is still a foreign country no matter what you people from Minnesota say. They had 2 expansion teams; in 1969 the Montreal Expos and in 1977 the Toronto Blue Jays.
In 1992, The Blue Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves to become the first non-US team to play in and win the World Series. A year later, they repeated by beating the Phillies. That's the only 2 times so far though.
The Expos didn't have any luck at all. They never won any pennants and never got to the World Series. They did come close once. In 1994, Montreal was on fire. They seemed destined to break records and go to the series. They had a 74-40 record when the strike happened. No World Series for Montreal. The Expos were relocated to Washington DC in 2004.
Just for the record, and to make Canadians feel better, the 2 teams that hold the most Stanley Cup Championships are the Montreal Canadians (24) and the Toronto Maple Leafs (11).
But then, just to bring it back home, the only North American sports team to hold more championships is the New York Yankees (26).
It's a dessert, I swear!
Tuesday, 5-10-5
I just watched Fiddler On the Roof last night. Being a big trivia/movie flaw fan, I was surprised that I had no idea what the 5th daughter's name was. I knew 4 of 5 but that's never good enough for me.
Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze and Bielke
The one I didn't know was Shprintze.
One bit of trivia that I did know was that Perchik the teacher was played by Paul Michael Glaser. Det. David Starsky from Starsky and Hutch.
So when you're playing the "six degrees of separation" game you can now connect Huggy Bear to pre-Russian Revolution Jewish society. Just in case the need ever presents itself.
Some things can be beautiful and wrong at the same time...
Monday, 5-9-5
The armadillo is called "Texas Roadkill". I see more squashed possums than armadillos but then, I'm not in Texas. Maybe the possum is called "Florida Roadkill", maybe I'm thinking too hard on this.
I looked them up and found that there are at least 2 types. A 3-banded and a 9-banded. It's a reference to the hinges on the back of the animal. The 3-band can roll into a tighter ball than the 9-band armadillo.
Native to South America, they migrated up into the Southern US. They breed in July but the embryo remains dormant until November and are born around March. The Armadillo is the only mammal that produces multiple young from the same egg on a regular basis. Normally 4 babies are born and they are all identical quadruplets, sharing even the same placenta in the womb.
Kind of freaky huh?
Hungry yet?
Thursday, 5-5-5
Cinco de Mayo
I thought this was The Mexican Independence day. I was wrong. That would be Dieciseis de septiembre. Much harder to work into the Corona ads. The Mexicans won independence from Spain just after midnight on the morning of September 16, 1810. The Spanish soldiers were not forced to leave until 1821.
So what is Cinco de Mayo and why should Americans celebrate it aside for the excuse to go drink watered down beer and tequila? Well, actually, do we need any other reason? If people are willing to drink green beer for a foreign holiday in March, why not the same thing in May?
Mexico was bankrupt and trying to recuperate after the Mexican-American war and it's own civil war and had borrowed heavily from England, Spain and France. The new Mexican President, Benito Juarez, had just instituted a 2 year moratorium on all debt payments to foreign countries promising that payments would resume after 2 years. The 3 countries invaded to excise their payments through whatever means necessary. The English, and Spanish later withdrew when they saw that the French intended to conquer Mexico to expand the French Empire.
May 5th, 1862, 3500 Mexican soldiers defeated an army of 7000 French and rebel Mexican soldiers (the numbers vary from report to report).
"Cinco de Mayo" or more properly called "Batalla de Puebla" happened 100 miles east of Mexico City, in Puebla. As the French marched toward Mexico City, General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to send his cavalry out to flank the French. In their contempt for the seemingly disorganized Mexican army, the French chased Diaz. Little did they know that Diaz had trained up what was probably the best cavalry in the world at that time. The French cavalry were slaughtered. The remaining French infantry were faced with bad terrain, cattle stampedes and a rallying Mexican army. The French were decimated and forced to retreat.
The losses the French suffered were not enough to deter them from Mexican conquest and in fact, 3 days later Puebla fell. Napoleon sent in 30,000 troops and the Mexican army was defeated a year later. France was victorious and Maximilian was installed as Emperor of Mexico in the name of the French Empire.
Although it was a fleeting victory, The Battle of Puebla served as a symbol that the Mexican people were willing to fight off invading countries and could pool together and defend their country. In 1867, after the US Civil war ended, Union forces marched to the Texas border and assisted the Mexican army in expelling the French army. US soldiers were allowed to keep their uniforms and rifles if they joined up with the Mexican army to fight the French.
Now for the conspiracy and historical stretch...
This may or may not have been significant to the survival of the US. We were in the middle of the Civil War. After the Monroe Doctrine, French Emperor Napoleon III saw the US as a threat of becoming a world power and was supplying the Confederate army with the latest war technology.
The losses the French suffered at Puebla were enough to keep Napoleon from supplying the US Confederate army because he had to rebuild his own army. Just over a year later, the Confederates lost the decisive battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War was all but over.
If Cinco de Mayo hadn't happened and the French marched in and took over Mexico without this minor setback, is it possible that the history of the US would be different? Would Napoleon have supplied the Confederates enough to change the outcome of the civil war? Maybe, Maybe not. Drink up!
Another possibly significant May 5th
Thursday, 4-28-5
I went looking for information on what happens to you when you die while on a cruise ship. A lot of old people go on cruises, some of them die. I'm not asking about the mass illness or poisonings, just old Aunt Millie having a heart attack or a stroke.
It seems that no one wants to talk about that. There is very little information about on-board morgues and such. This is what I have found out though.
About 20 people a year die on cruises in Alaskan waters. That's the only numbers I could find. No stats from elsewhere in the world.
Depending on their size, most cruise ships have an all-purpose room which doubles as a pantry, a holding cell and morgue. It's normally in a compartment next to the ship's clinic. The morgue normally has between 1 to 3 "body coolers".
There's no standard, The Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is half the size of the Queen Mary 2 but has double the morgue capacity (8).
Your body will not be kept on board longer than necessary. They will not "bring you home". When they reach the next port, there are doors on the opposite side of the ship (away from the gangplanks and tourists) that open up and a small boat is used to ferry the body to a private dock, far away from the tourists.
Carnival Cruise Lines actually hung up on me when I called them to ask about this. I guess no one ever dies while on their cruises....
I want to cruise on ships that are already dead and buried
Tuesday, 4-26-5
According to the Mayo Clinic website (and many other sites) swallowing gum is not harmful to your body. It is not digested in any way and passes through "relatively intact".
Another website asked the same question but added that they chew 10-15 sticks of gum each day and swallow them all. No difference, all 15 wads of gum are passed though the same.
The human body consumes many things that it does not digest and simply passes them through. Some people chew their fingernails. Those clippings and any excessive amount of certain foods are passed intact as well.
Enjoy the gum and fingernails and any other strange things you people eat.
I thought they took this off the market because of the tobacco/youth deal...
Thursday, 4-14-5
Normally, I stumble across these trivial thoughts by screwing around on the web because I'm bored. Recently, I've been very busy and haven't really had the time to surf around and stumble. Today, I have a good one that not only did I stumble across, I tripped, fell down and bloodied my nose over it.
Engines: Interference and Non-Interference.
The simple explination: When the timing belt breaks on a non-interference design, the pistons and valves don't collide because there is enough clearance between the two.
On an interference engine there is insufficient clearance between those parts. A broken timing belt results in open valves being struck by the top of the pistons and major engine damage. Most likely, replacing the engine.
According to the lists I saw, Nissan and Isuzu (my 2 cars) don't make a Non-Interference engine. Most of the lists I saw showed that a little more than half of the domestics and a vast majority of the foreigns are interference types.
Now we run into the "why". Why aren't all engines non-interference if the damage can be so catastrophic?
It has to do with (surprise!) manufacturing costs. But, efficiency also plays a part in this too. In the interference engines, the larger valves open further into the combustion chamber allowing more outside air. This allows a smaller engine to create just as much power as a larger non-interference or "free-running" engine. Smaller engines, less cost to produce but it also allows for smaller, lighter cars.
Steel timing chains can last for 150,000 to 200,000 miles. Since there is no way to measure the wear on rubber timing belts they are recommended to be replaced at 60,000. That's where I think they get us. I can see the reason behind the smaller engines but why couldn't they use steel timing chains on them?
Here's an illustration of just how lucky I am. My engine is the one on the bottom.
Wednesday, 4-13-5
Aluminum does not occur naturally as a metal. Bauxite ore is refined into alumina and then combined with cryolyte and given a shock, low voltage and extremely high current. The mixture reaches temperatures of close to 900ºc. The electricity splits the alumina oxide into molten aluminum and carbon dioxide. The newly formed aluminum drops to the bottom of the crucible and is siphoned off and thus we get aluminum. Although formed at 900ºc, aluminum's melting point is 660ºc.
Alumina is abundant in tropical areas like Africa, West Indies, South America and Australia. The smelting is done anywhere that has access to inexpensive power like hydro-electric. Sometimes they build whole power plants just to power an aluminum processing plant. If the power shuts down for more than 4 hours, the molten aluminum solidifies and boom, you have to re-tool the entire plant. With all the fjords and all, Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA is the worlds 3rd largest producer of aluminum.
One of my favorite Norwegian metal exports
Tuesday, 4-12-5
My Father had a kidney taken out last year and he just had his gall bladder removed this month.
I got to thinking, "How many body parts can you live without?"
Of course, we'd have to set ground rules. You can live without a finger, foot, arm... etc. I'm talking about internal parts and not needing supplemental drugs to survive.
Kidney: You can lose a whole kidney and 2/3 of the other.
Liver: You only need 1/3 of your liver.
Appendix: Maybe not as completely useless as thought but it can go.
Tonsils: 0% need.
Gall bladder: Gone, just don't eat fatty foods.
Pancreas: 1/10th Should supply the insulin needed.
Lungs: One lung should sustain normal breathing.
Intestines: Most of the small intestine including the bladder and all of the large intestine.
Spleen: Cleans the blood, after adulthood, the spleen can go.
Reproductive organs: Don't need them, especially if you're married.
That's about all I could find. I know they say that most of the brain is unused and could be removed but I couldn't find any definitive number on that.
I don't know what you'll do with the spare parts but I know you won't sell them on eBay
Wednesday, 4-6-5
I was asked by a friend of mine if I could procure a virus for him that trashes a computer. He has a cyber-stalker and wants to strike back. Even if I could locate such a thing, I'm not sure I would allow myself to give it to him. Not to mention that his stalker is MUCH more computer savvy that he is and there would be no way to deploy the virus without the stalker detecting it. It would probably end up back on his computer and then sent to me as instant karma.
The general consensus seems split on physically damaging computer viruses. Some people say that there is no way to cause physical damage, others say that it is possible. Most virus or hoax websites will tell you that if the virus warning you receive tells you that the virus will cause physical damage, then it is undeniably a hoax. Others point out that this is true in MOST cases but that there are instances where physical damage is possible.
Field Programmable Gate Arrays. This is a special chip that, unlike a regular PROM chip, can be re-written to after deployment. It is possible for a virus to write bad firmware into these chips causing conflicts within the programming and lead to malfunctions due to overheating.
The trouble with this theory is that FPGAs are not used in everyday PCs. They are normally used by engineers and programmers who make constant changes and fine tune their machines. You and I are not going to have these problems.
The other example is older computers. Not early Pentium 1s or even 486s. The Commodore Amigas had a particular problem. They had spindles and string like old stereo receivers. There was a virus that could "set cogwheel belt speed to infinity" and the computer would saw itself in half. Funny. I've never seen it but I just read about it. Unusual, but funny.
Another early virus infected the ZX Spectrum by repeatedly writing to a device causing overheating and burnout. The ZX Spectrum is obsolete and gone. If you are running one of those, you aren't reading this webpage on it.
The only modern one that I found was one involving sending repeated signals to the actuator arm on the hard drive causing it to burn out. Not so far fetched but I would think that most virus protection software would be fully aware of this simple trick.
The first computer "virus" I came ever across...
Monday, 4-4-5
I didn't do any jokes (practical or otherwise) for 4-1 this year but I was wished "happy new-year" by some of my friends.
There is no definitive origin of April Fool's Day. Some claim it to be the date one army or another surprise-attacked another, others claim it to be a celebration of the Vernal Equinox. Most of the accounts I have read attribute it to the changing of the calendar from the Julian to the Gregorian.
The new year used to begin on March 25 (the Feast of Annunciation) and was celebrated for 8 days. In 1582, Pope Gregory 13th adopted the new calendar that moved the start of the year to January 1st. Many people didn't know this for years because Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet. Of others that did get the memo, some refused to recognize the change and still celebrated in the old ways.
They were labeled as backward and stubborn. Many of them received invitations to fancy New Year's parties and arrived to find they had been hoaxed. From there we get our tradition of practical jokes for April 1st.
Many European countries resisted the Gregorian calendar. Scotland didn't adopt it until 1660, Germany, Norway and Denmark resisted until 1700 and jolly old Great Britain waited 170 years, until 1752, before conforming to the new calendar.
Some South American cultures celebrate a day like this in December. It is called Innocents Day and started out as a day to commemorate the slaughter of children by Herod and somehow became a prankster's day like April Fool's Day.
I guess that's no stranger than some of the history behind most of our modern holidays...
A museum of April 1st pranks
Thursday, 3-17-5
St. Patrick's Day indeed.
The first person that comes near me attempting to pinch me gets punched in the neck!
I refuse to wear green on March 17th. I hardly EVER wear green anyway! A few years ago this girl at work runs over and pinches me real hard and yells that I wasn't wearing green. She grabbed muscle tissue man! It hurt bad! I yelled back that I'm not Irish, I'm not Catholic and if she pinched me again I'd tear her arm off. I don't think she talked to me again for a month.
The Catholics wear green but the Protestants wear orange. I'm neither. I'm one of the snakes that he drove out.
St. Patrick (Maewyrn Succat) was born in North Britain or South Scotland around 385CE. His village was raided and he was sold into slavery and grew up in Ireland. He prayed to the Christian god and received visions on how to escape. He became a monk in France and requested to return to Ireland as a missionary. So far, pretty reliable facts. From here it's open to interpretation and many different versions.
When he returned to Ireland, he met with the king and was laughed at by the king's advisors when he told them of the Christian "trinity" concept. That's where the shamrock story comes in to play (in the 1800's). According to legend, he picked up a shamrock and showed them that it has one stem with three leaves. This impressed the king who allowed him to preach Christianity throughout Ireland. For 30 years Patrick set up churches and schools and converted the Irish to Christianity, dying on March 17th around 461CE.
The snakes he's know for driving out? They're the pagans. There are no native snakes in Ireland. Around 18,000 years ago an ice cap covered north Europe and the British Isles. All snakes in the area died. 15,000 years ago, the ice melts and the 12 mile gap between Scotland and Ireland has been there ever since. The only snake you'll find in Ireland (or New Zealand) have been brought over by man.
The snake is a symbol of fertility and was common in the pagan religions of Ireland at the time. Although some say Ireland was the only nation to Christianize peacefully, others say that as St. Patrick gained power, he used intimidation, fear and murder to "drive the snakes into the sea".
So go drink your crappy green beer and pretend you're Irish. I'm gonna go get me a pet snake.
This is about as Irish as I get. Well, them and Guinness beer
Friday, 3-11-5
Sometimes I just run on and on and you don't hear it because I'm talking to a computer screen. Lucky you.
Yesterday I went on about National/International Days and Months. So I remembered someone talking about IHOP. They asked if these places are really International. If you're on a nice European vacation or lounging around the beaches of Australia, are you really going to eat in an IHOP? I've never been to Paris but I doubt there's an IHOP on the Champs-Elysees.
Well, it's official, they are International. They have 12 restaurants in British Columbia. Oohh, Canada, how exotic. But, they didn't say the Exotic House of Pancakes did they? There might be an EHOP but in my visual of it there is plenty of "Trucker Parking", a cover charge and ordering the fried eggs takes on a different meaning altogether. Gross!
IHOP has 1176 restaurants in 48 US states. Can you guess which 2 don't have any?
Wrong. Hawaii and Alaska have 1 each. Kentucky and Vermont are the lucky two. You would figure Vermont being known for it's maple syrup would go well with a pancake place huh? Kentucky? I don't know why not.
There's no IHOP there, but there are two McDonalds and a Planet Hollywood. Yuck!
Thursday, 3-10-5
I was just told it was National Frozen Food Month.
Why?
Do we really need to designate months of the year for stuff? And if we do, is frozen foods one of the top 12 things in our lives? Yeah, I know the history of the frozen food and how it changed our lives. (That's what you get from watching "Food Network" at 3am.)
So I got to thinking, I know February is Black History month and now I know March is Frozen Food month. What are the other 10? It depends on who you ask. I compiled a list from a whole bunch of places. Every month is inundated with "National this or that Month" titles.
Some of them say "National", some say "International" and some just don't claim to be either. Who makes those decisions? Shouldn't some of these be EVERY month, like April is "National Child Abuse Prevention Month". On the other hand, do we really need a "Cable TV Month"? And whose bright idea was it to put "National Stress Free Family Holiday Month" in December? I see "Turkey Lovers Month" but when is "Turkey Haters Month"? Or does "Turkey Lovers" refer to lovers who are good for 3 in a row? (Oh man, a bowling joke. Has he no shame!?!)
Couldn't we also combine some of these? July could be, National "Defeat Boredom By Going On A Recreational Picnic" Month. And on that picnic you would eat hot-dogs and baked beans with blueberry pie with ice cream for dessert. Gets all the actions done in one event.
It's not just the months. They've gotten to designating the individual days too.
Did you know last Sunday was National Dentist Day? Neither did I. Flew right by me, I didn't even know. (Interesting that Dentist Day falls on the same day the Oreo Cookie was first sold in 1912. Hmmm...)
Everyone knows what December 7th is right? Well that day may live in infamy, but it is also National Cotton Candy Day. My birthday (September 18th) is National Play-Doh Day. I'm not making the list of the 365+ daily designations but here is the list I made of the month by month (Inter)National recognitions that I could find.
January
National Eye Care Month
National Hobby Month
National Soup Month
National Staying Healthy Month
National Thank You Month
Oatmeal Month
February
American Heart Month
American History Month
Black History Month
Children's Dental Health Month
International Friendship Month
National Cherry Month
National Embroidery Month
National Grapefruit Month
National Snack Food Month
National Wild Bird Feeding Month
Responsible Pet Owners Month
March
American Red Cross Month
Music in our Schools Month
National Craft Month
National Frozen Food Month
National Noodle Month
National Nutrition Month
Woman's History Month
Youth Art Month
April
Autism Awareness Month
International Guitar Month
Keep America Beautiful Month
National Child Abuse Prevention Month
National Frog Month
National Garden Month
National Humor Month
National Mathematics Education Month
National Poetry Month
Stress Awareness Month
May
American Bike Month
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Asparagus Month
Asthma & Allergy Awareness Month
Better Hearing and Speech Month
Flower Month
National Bar-B-Que Month
National Egg Month
National Duckling Month
National Hamburger Month
National Mental Health Month
National Salad Month
National Photo Month
National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
National Strawberry Month
Older Americans Month
Transportation Month
June
Dairy Month
National Adopt-a-Cat Month
National Drive Safe Month
National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month
National Iced Tea Month
National Rose Month
National Safety Month
National Tennis Month
Turkey Lovers Month
Zoo and Aquarium Month
July
Anti-Boredom Month
National Baked Bean Month
National Blueberry Month
National Hot Dog Month
National Ice Cream Month
National Picnic Month
National Recreation Month
August
American Artist Appreciation Month
Foot Health Month
National Catfish Month
National Golf Month
National Investors Month
National Water Quality Month
September
Baby Safety Month
Better Breakfast Month
Cable TV Month
Children's Eye Health and Safety Month
Classical Music Month
Library Card Sign-Up Month
National Chicken Month
National Courtesy Month
National Honey Month
National Pediculosis Prevention Month
National Piano Month
National Rice Month
National School Success Month
National Sewing Month
Read A New Book Month
Women Of Achievement Month
October
Adopt a Shelter Animal Month
Computer Learning Month
Family History Month
National Apple Month
National Clock Month
National Dessert Month
National Pizza Month
National Popcorn Popping Month
National Roller Skating Month
Polish American History Month
National Stamp Collecting Month
November
Aviation Month
Child Safety and Protection Month
Good Nutrition Month
International Drum Month
Latin America Month
National Epilepsy Month
National Model Railroad Month
Peanut Butter Lover's Month
December
Hi Neighbor Month
National Stress Free Family Holiday Month
Read A New Book Month
Safe Toy and Gift Month
Universal Human Rights Month
Write to a Friend Month
As long as we're talking months, here are exact dates/times of the lunar cycles.
Thursday, 3-3-5
OK, I was never the worlds greatest math student. I could have been but I chose to sleep through the classes because I was much more interested in music and women, fool that I was. I spent more time using my calculus book as a pillow than as a book. So, I'm not the smartest guy around but I do know my math terms. Or so I thought.
Last night, while looking over Becca's homework, I came across a multiple choice question that did not have an answer listed.
"What is the median number of 11, 11, 10, 9, 8?"
a. 11
b. 10
c. 9
d. 8
She had circled "b". I was telling her that the correct answer (9.8) wasn't listed. I guess they just round up to 10. Didn't feel right.
The next set of numbers was 5, 5, 2, 2, 1
The answer was 2. Now this one is clearly wrong because the right answer was 3.
After talking with her (and looking it up on the web), I found out that I was confusing median with mean.
"The statistical median is the middle number of a group of numbers that have been arranged in order by size. If there is an even number of terms, the median is the mean of the two middle numbers."
I was tripping-up on simple 3rd grade math! What the hell?!? I had never used "median" before. What good is it?
Are they telling me that if I have 7 numbers, "729, 702, 645, 29, 2, 1, 1" that the Median is "29"?
What does that tell me? It certainly isn't the average and is not a fair representative of the number group. Why would anyone want to know the median rather than the mean? I don't get it.
Another useless (to me) statistic is mode.
"The statistical mode is the number that occurs most frequently in a set of numbers."
So in the same example, "729, 702, 645, 29, 2, 1, 1" the mode is "1"
Why!? Why would anyone need to know that? Maybe it's just me. I love to play around with numbers. I love warping statistics and playing number games but I just don't see the usefulness of either of these two math terms. Maybe there is a use. Hopefully someone will tell me the legitimate usage of median and mode. I just can't find any.
In the meantime, while they are learning "Median" and "Mode", she hasn't been taught "Mean" yet.
So, your trivia for the day was one of two things.
Either you learned about Median and Mode.
Or you already knew that and learned that Daddy can be corrected by an 8-year-old.
I was looking for a statistics page to link here but came across something cooler.
Here is a link to the winners if the Ig Noble Prizes.
They recognize people doing weird and strange research. Things like "The Effects of Country Music on Suicide Rates", "the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck" and "Coordination Modes in the Multisegmental Dynamics of Hula Hooping," Cool huh?
Wednesday, 3-2-5
Today Hank Aaron told me that Jackie Robinson was not the first black player in Major League Baseball.
The first black player was Moses Fleetwood Walker.
After some more research, I found Bud Fowler was the first black player to play in any white league (New Castle, PA in 1872) but, back to the majors...
Fleetwood Walker was a catcher for the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884. Toledo had just joined the American Association, which was a major league. He played in 42 games and hit .263 that year.
His brother Welday Walker played 6 games for the same team.
With teams refusing to take the field against black players and hotels refusing to give him a room, Fleetwood Walker went back down to the minor leagues. A silent agreement was reached by team owners to keep baseball segregated.
Walker was accosted one night by a white man with a knife. He killed his attacker and was brought to trial. He was acquitted by an all white jury.
In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the 1st black player in the majors in 63 years. Overall, he was the 3rd black player, not the first.
Penguins vs. Yeti Baseball
Friday, 2-18-5
They used to say that we would run out of phone numbers by 2009. Then the bubble busted on telecom and not the estimation is all the way out to 2031. The current rate of customers switching to VoIP is expected to increase every year. I'll eventually move to VoIP but I'd keep the B1 line for a while until I feel I could trust the new line. I don't trust anything until it's been tried and tested. Everyone I know that has switched says it works great. I'm also thinking of just giving up the house phone all together and just use the cell phones.
When we run out of numbers, they are going to add 1's and 0's to the area codes thereby doubling the numbers available. (904) becomes (9040 and 9041).
There are 1.3 billion numbers available in the existing scheme. With everyone having 5 phone numbers each, we might use them up pretty fast. How many of those numbers are we recovering? How many people are dumping their house phones for cells? I hate 10-digit dialing only because you don't know where/when. If it were uniform across the country I wouldn't hate it as much. If they are planning on making any changes, they should do it across the board and make everything the same. That way I won't get that annoying error operator in my ear telling me I do or don't need to dial the area code.
They plan to implement the new numbering system 10 years before they expect to exhaust the numbers. If telecom picks up again, the exhaustion date moves up to 2015 so we could see the new numbering system soon.
The Area Code Map
and another cool link...
Does your phone number spell anything?
Thursday, 2-17-5
The Chinese Zodiac
Teresa bought me a jade bear pendant last weekend. It's perfect because I love jade and the bear has decided to become my totem animal. I didn't want it to, I wanted something more exotic. Something unusual and different from everyone else like a fruit bat or an orangutan. You never see people talking about weird animals as totems, it's always a bear or a wolf. I guess some things you just can't choose, they choose you.
So, I was wandering the www looking up stuff about jade and as usual, fell off the subject. I found a Chinese myth that I hadn't read in a long time. "The Princess and the Cowherd". It's kind of like "Persephone and Demeter" but involves constellations. After I read that, I remembered a story of why cats hate mice and how the 12 animals were chosen for the Chinese zodiac. There are different versions but the rat is a central character in most of them. My father, myself and my daughter are all born in the year of the rat. Dad is a Yellow/Brown Rat, I'm a Black Rat, Becca's a Red Rat. Maybe Becca will wait until she's 24 to have a baby and continue the tradition with a White Rat? Could she then possibly convince her child to wait until 24 and have a Blue/Green Rat and close the cycle. Cool.
OK, I'm typing this up from memory so don't hold me to it but the story goes something like this;
The Jade Emperor was too busy ruling the universe to personally visit the Earth so he commanded that 12 representative animals be brought to him. Invitations were given to the rat, cat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, chicken and a dog. The cat was the most beautiful of the creatures so he went to sleep early to look good when they were to visit the Emperor. He asked his good friend, the rat, to wake him in the morning. The rat, knowing he was ugly in comparison to the cat, did not wake his friend and invited the ugly pig in his place.
When the animals arrived in Heaven the Jade Emperor was so delighted, he decided to split the calendar amongst them. He announced that there will be a race across a river. The order in which they reach the far bank is the order they will follow in the years. The cat arrived late but just in time for the race. The rat apologized profusely and the cat forgave him as they were friends after all.
The ox came to the two friends concerned about crossing the river with his poor eyesight. The cat was also concerned because he was afraid of water. The crafty rat came up with a solution to solve both of their problems. The cat should sit high on the head of the ox, staying dry and guiding the ox across the river. They all agreed that this was a good solution. As the race began, the rat jumped on to the ox as well. As they approached the far side the rat snuck up behind the cat, pushed him into the water and leapt onto the river bank first, followed by the ox. The cat fumbled in the river almost drowning. The pig saw what had happened and also felt guilty about replacing the cat so he stopped to help him. The pig saved the cat but they finished last in the race. The Jade Emperor refused to reward the cat with his own year since he had arrived late and was not in the original line-up. The rat was awarded the first year in the cycle and the cat vowed to be the rat's mortal enemy for all eternity.
This guy hates cats too. Check out the bagpipe picture.
Tuesday, 2-15-5
Whenever Paul is out of the office I keep a list of events that transpire through the day so I can bring him up to date when he returns. Normally, I'm so bored I create little stories to entertain myself. Mostly just to mess with Paul's head.
I most often write about the gnomes that live under the computer flooring. They come out and offer to trade me their women for a "Tweety Bird" Pez dispenser. When I tell them I have no Pez, they ask if I have any carrots, wall spackle or a stapler.
It goes on like this for a few lines and then returns to normal. A few paragraphs later I tell him the gnomes are back and they are giggling. I finish the report and at the end I tell him I'll see him on Monday, [Unless the gnomes get me].
Paul is beginning to be afraid.
So, since he is out today, I started to make the usual list and started to think about the gnomes again. There have been a lot of gnome-nappings recently. People stealing garden gnomes and sending pictures and ransom notes to the owners. So, I looked up garden gnomes.
They have organizations dedicated to the liberation of garden gnomes. Very popular hobby in France I hear.
The first garden gnomes were put into place by Sir Charles Isham in 1847 in England. He bought 21 terracotta gnomes in Germany and placed them around his garden in Lamport Hall.
This guy is taking gnomes to the extreme
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