Saturday, December 31, 2011
HERE'S HELP FOR YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESULOTIONS
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| Image via Wikipedia |
Too Many Tasks, Ambitious Items Make Chores Feel Never-Ending; Start 2012 With the Right List
The first item on a highly successful to-do list: Make a better to-do list.
With the new year comes the urge to accomplish all the things that were meant to be done the year before, and it often starts with long to-do lists. The lists themselves can fuel anxiety, says Sasha Cagen, an Oakland, Calif., life coach and author of a book on to-do lists. She sees many new clients at this time of year and often advises them to put more tasks on their list that they genuinely enjoy. Some 23% of list-makers spend more time making the lists than doing the tasks on them, according to a 2006 online survey of 600 people conducted by Ms. Cagen. (click below to read more)
TUNE IN TODAY
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| A Night at the Opera (Image via RottenTomatoes.com) |
MARX BROTHERS MARATHON
TCM, All day until 8 p.m. ET
All day, until
prime time, TCM is rolling out movies by the Marx Brothers. You could do
a lot worse than watch them all – but if you want to cherry-pick or
record the absolute classics, start with 1935’s A Night at the Opera at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed at 6:45 p.m. ET by 1933’s Duck Soup.
It’s a gala day for fans of Groucho, Chico and Harpo – and that’s good,
because a gala day is about all I can handle.
TODAY IN HISTORY
DECEMBER 31
1972:Dick Clark begins one of the 20th century's most memorable New Year's Eve traditions as he hosts Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve
for the first time with guests including Al Green, Helen Reddy and
Three Dog Night. Since 2005, Clark has cohosted the annual bash with
Ryan Seacrest
1967: Daredevil Evel Knievel attempts to jump the famed fountains at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas,
but fails with dire consequences — he is left in a coma for 29 days
with a fractured skull, a broken pelvis and broken ribs, among other
injuries.
1993: Barbra Streisand
performs her first paid concert in more than 22 years, singing before a
sold-out crowd with guests Marlon Brando and Mike Myers at the MGM
Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
GREAT 2011 INVENTION
Leveraged Freedom Chair
Rolling around a city in a wheelchair
is difficult enough without ramps and elevators. Toss in unpaved roads
full of rocks and mud, as found throughout the developing world, and it
becomes impracticable.
A new wheelchair created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mobility Lab could be the solution for millions of disabled people in
these countries, a large share of whom live in rural areas and travel
upwards of two to three miles to get to work or school, or simply stay
at home.
Built with bicycle parts found cheaply and abundantly in developing
countries, the Leveraged Freedom Chair costs only about $100 to
make—compared with a few thousand dollars for conventional push-rim
wheelchairs—and is designed with a special lever system that enables the
user to muscle over rough terrain and up steep hills.
After several years of testing, the chair will begin production early next year in India, with other countries likely following.
Friday, December 30, 2011
MENSA Q & A
What's the next number in this sequence: 10, 9, 60, 90, 70, 66 … ?
(click below for the answer)
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FACEBOOK MUSIC?
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| Image via Wikipedia |
On
Facebook, people befriend people who are already very much like
themselves, and their cultural tastes change only slightly in response
to the tastes of others, a study finds.
Researchers followed the Facebook
pages and networks of about 1,600 students at one college for four years
(looking only at public information).
The strongest determinant of Facebook
friendship was proximity—living in the same building, studying the same
subject—and people also self-segregated by gender, race and place of
origin.
On the cultural front, people who
liked the genres of "lite/classic rock" and "classical/jazz" tended to
seek each other out, as did devotees of films featuring "dark satire" or
"raunchy comedy/gore."
"Jazz/classical" was the only taste to
spread from people who possessed it to those who lacked it. The study
also found that people whose friends liked "indie/alt" music tended over
time to shed that interest themselves.
"Social Selection and Peer Influence in an Online
Social Network," Kevin Lewis, Marco Gonzalez and Jason Kaufman
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Dec. 19 online)
TIPS ON HOW TO STAY HEALTHY AT 30,000 FEET
Where Germs Lurk on Planes
What to Do When Stuck at 30,000 Feet Next to Sneezers and Coughers
It's a common complaint: Fly on a crowded plane and come home with a cold. What's in the air up there? (click below to read more)
What to Do When Stuck at 30,000 Feet Next to Sneezers and Coughers
It's a common complaint: Fly on a crowded plane and come home with a cold. What's in the air up there? (click below to read more)
TODAY IN HISTORY
DECEMBER 30
1924:Astronomer Edwin Hubble announces his discovery of the Andromeda
Galaxy, indicating that the Milky Way is not the only galaxy in the
universe. Hubble used a 100-inch telescope at the Mount Wilson
Observatory in Pasadena, Calif., to see Andromeda, located more than 2
million light years away from Earth. Hubble's discovery also proves that
the universe is much larger than was previously thought.
1927: The Tokyo Underground Railway opens the first section of
subway in Asia, between Ueno and Asakusa (now known as the Ginza Line)
in Tokyo.
The line became so popular back then that passengers happily waited two
hours for a five minutes trip on the train. The Tokyo subway was
founded by Japanese businessman Noritsugu Hayakawa after he was inspired
by a ride on the London Undergound. The Tokyo subway system is
currently the busiest and most extensive underground mass transit system
in the world, with 282 stations and a daily ridership of 8.7 million
people.
1936: Employees at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant No. 1
in Flint, Mich., begin one of the first sit-down strikes in U.S.
history, demanding recognition of the United Auto Workers union and the acceptance of a list of pro-worker reforms. The strike lasts 44 days.
AND I QUOTE
- "A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company."-Gian Vincenzo Gravina
Thursday, December 29, 2011
DO YOU FEEL A YAWN COMING ON?
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| Image via Wikipedia |
What determines whether a yawn spreads? The emotional closeness between the yawner and people nearby, a study shows. Watching people on trains, at meals and in other public spaces, Italian researchers noted whether those sharing yawns were family members, friends, acquaintances or strangers. They recorded information about gender, country of origin, social context and physical orientation of yawners. A yawn counted as contagious if it occurred within three minutes of an initial yawn.Family members caught each other's yawns more often, and more quickly, than friends did. Yawn contagion was weaker among acquaintances. Similar mental networks get activated when a friend is sad as when a friend yawns, the researchers noted.
"Yawn Contagion and Empathy in Homo sapiens," Ivan Norscia and Elisabetta Palagi, PLoS ONE (Dec. 7)
TOP 5 ROTARY STORIES OF 2011
From the tsunami in Japan to the launch of strategic partnerships
that will help Rotary expand its reach, 2011 was an eventful year for
Rotary International and Rotarians. As the year winds down, we share our
list of the top five Rotary news events of 2011.(click below to read more)
SPACE
Image Credit & Copyright: Bill Snyder (Bill Snyder Photography)
Explanation:
The first hint of what will become of our
Sun was discovered inadvertently in
1764.
At that time,
Charles Messier was compiling a list
of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets.
The 27th object on
Messier's list, now known as
M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a
planetary nebula,
the type of nebula our
Sun will produce when
nuclear fusion stops in its core.
M27 is one of the brightest
planetary nebulae on the sky,
and can be seen toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula) with binoculars.
It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27,
shown above in colors emitted by
hydrogen and
oxygen.
Understanding the physics and significance of
M27
was well beyond 18th century science.
Even today, many things remain mysterious about
bipolar planetary nebula like
M27, including the physical mechanism that expels a
low-mass star's gaseous outer-envelope, leaving an
X-ray hot white dwarf.
TUNE IN TONIGHT
THE GREAT ZIEGFELD
TCM, 8 p.m. ET
TCM’s salute to
“Star of the Month” William Powell continues – and concludes – with this
last batch of samples from Powell’s lengthy cinematic resume. Starting
the evening is this lavish 1936 biographical musical drama, in which
Powell stars as legendary stage showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Myrna Loy, who
launched the Thin Man movie series opposite Powell two years
previously, plays opposite him again. This
time she portrays Billie Burke (who, in real life, was three years away
from playing Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz when this film was made). And there are other stars to watch as well: Fanny Brice, later immortalized by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, plays herself. Playing himself, also, is Ray Bolger, who was about to join Burke in the Oz
cast (as the Scarecrow). And co-starring, as Ziegfeld associate
Billings, is Frank Morgan, who shortly would play the title character in
guess which movie? (That’s right: The Wizard of Oz.) And if you’ve seen the Broadway show Follies, the lavish costuming and presentation of “The Ziegfeld girls” is what that musical was striving (quite successfully) to evoke.
TODAY IN HISTORY
DECEMBER 29
1984:Rajiv Gandhi, son and grandson of former Indian
prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, respectively, is
effectively elected to the same post with a landslide victory for his
Congress Party.
1845: Texas
is admitted to the union as the 28th state, ending two tumultuous
decades that included a war of independence from Mexico, the creation of
the independent Republic of Texas and eventual annexation by the United
States.
1963: New York's WMCA is the first U.S. radio station to play The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand." And thus, American Beatlemania begins!
LET'S TAKE A TRIP IN THE ZEP
The
Goodyear blimps don't take paying customers, but the Farmers
Airship—the world's largest zeppelin, and the only one in North
America—does. It also has huge seats, windows that open and a bathroom
with a view: you can see why the original zeppelin folks thought the
idea would catch on for travel. This one is safer than the 1930s model
(helium, not hydrogen, provides lift), and flies regularly from historic
Moffett Field near San Francisco, with occasional flights in Southern
California and elsewhere. $375 per person for a 45-minute flight; airshipventures.com
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
HOW DO YOU TREAT YOUR ONLINE FRIENDS?
Why You Didn't Hit 'Reply'
Online, friends still get premium treatment
It's hard to imagine a world without email. It's now the dominant form of exchange, with the typical American adult spending more than an hour a day managing the inbox. (People under 25 now spend more time texting from their cellphones than talking on them.) The shift has been most dramatic for "knowledge workers" like computer programmers and lawyers, who devote nearly half their workdays to email. (click below to read more)
Online, friends still get premium treatment
It's hard to imagine a world without email. It's now the dominant form of exchange, with the typical American adult spending more than an hour a day managing the inbox. (People under 25 now spend more time texting from their cellphones than talking on them.) The shift has been most dramatic for "knowledge workers" like computer programmers and lawyers, who devote nearly half their workdays to email. (click below to read more)
TODAY IN HISTORY
DECEMBER 28
1944:Composer Leonard Bernstein's first big musical On The Town, featuring the hit show tune "New York, New York," opens at the Adelphi Theater on Broadway.
The show, with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, tells
the story of three sailors on shore leave in New York City during World War II, and of the three women who catch their fanc
1897: Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac is first
performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, France,
with Constant Coquelin in the role of Cyrano, a dashing 17th century
poet and soldier with an enormously large nose. After the play's
premiere, the audience applauds for a full hour.
1958: In a match-up often called "the greatest game ever
played," the Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 23-17 in sudden
death overtime to win the 1958 NFL championship game at Yankee Stadium
in New York. An estimated 45 million Americans watch the game, televised
by NBC, marking the beginning of a surge in the popularity of football in the United States.
MENSA Q & A
Czarnina is a Polish soup with a very unusual ingredient. What is it?
(click below for the answer)
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING
An Emoticon in the Sky
The
Fühlometer—literally translated, feel-o-meter—is an emoticon, 16 feet in
diameter, fashioned from neon tubes and designed to be placed atop a
building. The device's Berlin-based creators most recently installed it
on a lighthouse in the Bavarian town of Lindau (at right) and are now in
talks with officials in their home city about showing it there.
The brainchild of three artists
interested in the issue of surveillance, the installation includes a
camera that snaps photographs of nearby crowds at regular intervals.
Face-recognition software analyzes the expressions in each photograph
and produces a formula capturing the general mood, which then appears on
the neon face—smile, frown or anything in between. (No ironic winks,
however.)
ROTARY TIME CAN BE FAMILY TIME
When Bill Simmermon joined the Rotary Club of Highlands Ranch
(Littleton), Colorado, USA, six years ago, he wanted to be an active
member without sacrificing time with his family. (click below to read more)
TODAY IN HISTORY
DECEMBER 27
1932
John D. Rockefeller Jr. opens Radio City Music Hall in New York City
as a "palace for the people," with the aim of offering affordable
entertainment during the Great Depression. The over-the-top opening night performance features Ray Bolger and Martha Graham, but the Hall is now best known for its high-kicking Rockettes and the annual Christmas spectacular. The art deco style building remains the largest indoor theater in the world.:
1831: Twenty-two-year-old British naturalist Charles Darwin goes aboard the HMS Beagle,
departing from Plymouth, England, bound for the southern Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. During the five-year voyage, Darwin conducted much of
the research contributing to his theory of evolution by natural
selection.
1900: Temperance advocate Carrie A. Nation smashes up a saloon
for the first time, destroying the bar at the upscale Carey Hotel in
Wichita, Kan. Although Nation was later jailed for causing hundreds of
dollars worth of damage, she would continue her anti-alcohol
"hatchetations" around Kansas, using her trademark hatchet to take the
enforcement of the state constitution's prohibition of alcohol into her own hands.
Monday, December 26, 2011
YOUR VOTE COUNTS
I
have seldom if ever asked the Family of Rotary to vote for an outside
of Rotary Project but when I see a reliable airline like United/
Continental involved I have to take note. If we get moving and vote
every day plus spreading the word with our contacts we will get a chance
to get part of the 10 Million Charity Miles as mentioned on their site to vote.
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Vote for Rotary International
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You can vote only
once a day. from each browser you use, and each computer or mobile
device that you own, between now and December 31, 2011 here: http://10millioncharitymiles.com/
When you click on the link you will see symbols and the Rotary Wheel will be included for you to click on to vote for Rotary.
Viva Rotary!
Frank Devlyn
Past Rotary President of Rotary International
Past Chair of The Rotary Foundation
and RGHF member
AND I QUOTE
" A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water."-Carl Reiner
MIDDLE-AGE CUTTHROATS
The fire of competitiveness doesn't dwindle after age 25 along with brain mass and steroid levels, it appears.
Psychologists had 543 men and women in
a mall, ages 25 to 75, take a test that involved quickly evaluating
whether a series of arithmetic problems had been properly solved.
Participants had the choice of being compensated 25 cents per correct
answer or getting 50 cents per answer if they beat the score of a
randomly chosen fellow participant—but nothing if they lost.
As expected, the researchers found
that men were more competitive than women—a pattern unaffected by
age—and that the gap couldn't be explained by ability. Just over half of
the men chose the competition track, versus just over a third of the
women. But for both sexes, the will to compete climbed from the youngest
ages up to 50, when it finally began to decline.
The authors urged more studies, to nail down whether the pattern was general or limited to generations living today.
"Competitiveness Across the Life Span: The Feisty
Fifties," Ulrich Mayr, Dave Wozniak, Casey Davidson, David Kuhns and
William T. Harbaugh, Psychology and Aging (forthcoming)
TODAY IN HISTORY
December 26
1776:George Washington defeated the Hessians at Trenton.
1865:James H. Nason received a patent for a coffee percolator.
1966:The first Kwanzaa is celebrated.
1972:The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Mo.
2004:In the Indian Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest in 40 years, triggered a tsunami that ultimately killed more than 280,000.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
TODAY IN HISTORY
DECEMBER 25, 1991
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announces his resignation as the
leader of the Soviet Union, days after 11 former Soviet republics joined
the newly created Commonwealth of Independent States. The Soviet Union
formally dissolves the following day, effectively ending the Cold War
between the communist superpower and its rival, the United States.
1914: Five months into World War I,
soldiers along the Western Front participate in a spontaneous
cease-fire known as the "Christmas truce." British and German (and some
French and Belgian) troops leave their opposing trenches to exchange
gifts and Christmas greetings, and even play soccer in the barren
no-man's land between their respective positions. The truce is not
sanctioned by the leadership of either army, and fighting resumes on the
following day, not to halt for good until November 1918.
2002: Katie Hnida of the University of New Mexico becomes the
first woman to play in a Divison I-A football game when she attempts to
kick an extra point for the Lobos during the Las Vegas Bowl against
UCLA. The kick is blocked.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
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