Notifiblog: Kindness Day and Felix Unger Day

Here's a nice article on World Kindness Day, which is celebrated on November 13th, I just learned. It's easy! Just be kind!
Someone took me by surprise today by tweeting the first part of the first line:

"On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence; that request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that some day he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his friend, Oscar Madison. Several years earlier, Madison's wife had thrown HIM out, requesting that HE never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?"

Thus began the establishing scenes for the opening of The Odd Couple telly show, which ran from 1971-1975. It followed the adventures of two best friends who were polar opposites in housekeeping: the slob vs. neatnik concept actually had five seasons' scripts in it. Jack Klugman and Tony Randall became household names in our household.

The play, by Neil Simon, opened in 1965 with Walter Matthau and Art Carney in the lead roles. In 1968, a film starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon was released. A cartoon version, "The Oddball Couple" ran from 1975-1976 on Saturday mornings, featuring the voices of Paul Winchell and Frank Nelson.

Oh, and that catchy, jazzy theme music: Neal Hefti.

Notifiblog: Birthday Begins Today!

In case you don't already know, I celebrate every birthday, including my own, for three months. But the first day, I reserve to celebrate my 22nd birthday, every year. That was the one that inspired me to stop trying to cram all that goodness and happiness into only one day.

There's actually a Birthday Problem (aka Birthday Paradox) in probability theory. "In probability theory, the birthday problem or birthday paradox^[1] concerns the probability that, in a set of n randomly chosen people, some pair of them will have the same birthday." Of course, if you have 367 people in the group, the probability is 100%. However, 99% probability is reached with as few as 57 people. There's something about assumptions in there. It's worth reading at least the first bit of the article.

There are maybe limitless reasons to celebrate one's un-birthday.

In East Asia, there are various ways of dating one's age. In Japan, for example, babies are born at "1 year" by tradtional counting -- accounting for the year one is working on. I've also been told by a reliable Japanese friend that everyone's age advances on New Year's Day (solar--celebrated Jan. 1)

In any event, please just be happy about something for me, especially today!

Notifiblog: I'm Gonna Look at This for the Next Eight Years?!?

Congratulations to me: I have finally made good on my theory that one's driver's license photo should look absolutely as dreadful as possible so no matter what one looks like when displaying said form of ID, one looks better in real life.
In Oregon, one must present:

• a completed (and signed) Form 735-175,
• proof of US citizenship (or authorization to exist in the US),
• one's current driver's license or a document of that ilk to prove one's full legal name,
• proof of one's identity and date of birth (can be the same as the document that proves US citizenship if one is a citizen),
• proof of current residence address (if it has changed),
• the fee (likely county-based) on the little renewal card. Mine was US$40.

I think I got my money's worth.

Notifiblog: Back in the Saddle, Again!

It's been too long since I last Notifiblogged on any but Fridays. And the Friday theme is just photos from www.icanhascheezburger and my lame-o commentary. Doesn't translate to the worldwide version of this blog. I'll try to do better.

I got to see my first University of Oregon (American) football game Saturday. We stayed in our seats only for the first half, though. The seats were in direct sunlight, so we experienced the symptoms of heat exhaustion--a precursor to heat stroke, but you haven't stopped sweating at the time.

We also got sunburned. We forgot to bring sunscreen. We weren't being terribly sun-smart.

We saw Planes in "Real 3D" yesterday. Far less dodgy than sitting in full-on sun! It was apparent that Planes was not a full-on Pixar film. It was like the second-string team in (American) football: still enjoyable, but not the top quality. I enjoyed it all the same.

Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!

​I've been so busy, I've been neglectful of Notifiblog. I can't really apologize: I've been busy working at the job someone's paying me to do.

Today's "caught my attention" article from www.howstuffworks.com is 10 Science Questions You Should Really Know How to Answer. Per tradition, Notifiblog looks at the three I like best. Due to limited time, I'm forced to quote direcly from the HSW answer people.

Why is the sky blue? "The reason the sky appears blue is because of an effect called scattering. Sunlight has to pass through the Earth's atmosphere, which is filled with gases and particles that act like the bumpers on a pinball machine, bouncing sunlight all over the place. But if you've ever held a prism in your hands, you know that sunlight actually is made up of a bunch of different colors, all of which have different wavelengths. Blue light has a relatively short wavelength, so it gets through the filter more easily than colors with longer wavelengths, and as a result are scattered more widely as they pass through the atmosphere. That's why the sky looks blue during the parts of the day when the Sun appears to be high in the sky (though it's actually the spot on the planet where you are standing that is moving, relative to the Sun).
"At sunrise and sunset, though, the sun's rays have to travel a longer distance to reach your position. That cancels out blue light's wavelength advantage and allows us to see the other colors better, which is why sunsets often appear red, orange or yellow."

Why are bubbles round? "Well, actually, bubbles are not always perfectly round all the time, as you probably have noticed if you've ever used one of those toy thingies to blow soap bubbles. But bubbles want to be spherical, and if you blow one that's more cigar-shaped initially, it struggles to reshape itself. That's because bubbles basically are thin layers of liquid whose molecules stick together because they are attracted to one another, a phenomenon called cohesion [source: USGS]. This creates what we think of as surface tension -- that is, a barrier that resists objects trying to move through it [source: USGS]. Inside the layer, air molecules that are trapped can't get out, even though they're pushing against the water. But that's not the only force acting on that layer. On the outside, more air is pushing inward at them. The most efficient way for the liquid layer to resist those forces is to assume the most compact shape, which happens to be a sphere, in terms of ratio of volume to surface area [source: Popular Science].

"Interestingly, scientists have figured out ways to make bubbles that aren't round, so they can study the geometry of the surfaces. They're able to create bubbles that are cubical and even rectangular, by suspending a thin layer of liquid on a wire frame that that is molded into the desired shape [source: NEWTON]."

 

How do magnets work? "'[Bleeping] magnets: How do they work?' That's the question that rappers Insane Clown Posse posed in their single "Miracles" a few years back, which led those snarkmeisters at "Saturday Night Live" to ridicule them unmercifully. And that was unfortunate, because it's a perfectly reasonable thing to ponder. A magnet is any object or material that has a magnetic field -- that is, a bunch of electrons flowing all around it in the same direction. Now, electrons -- like rappers from Detroit who wear clown masks, curse a lot, and drink Faygo Cola -- like to hook up in pairs, and iron has a lot of unpaired electrons that are all eager to get in on the action. So, objects that are solid iron or have a lot of iron in them -- nails, for example -- are going to be pulled towards a sufficiently powerful magnet. The substances and objects attracted to magnets are called ferromagnetic substances [source: University of Illinois].

"Humans have known about the phenomenon of magnetism for a long, long time. There are naturally occurring magnets, such as lodestone, but medieval travelers figured out how to rub steel compass needles against those stones so that they picked up electrons and became magnetized, which means that they developed their own magnetic fields. Those magnets weren't particularly durable, but in the 20th century, researchers developed new materials and charging devices that enabled them to make more powerful permanent magnets [source: Stupak]. You can actually create a type of magnet, called an electromagnet, from a piece of iron by wrapping an electrical wire around it and then connecting the ends to the poles of one of those big batteries with the clips on top [source: University of Illinois]."

 

Who knew? Now we do!

Notifiblog: Notifiblog: Remember Music on Vinyl?

It's being a busy week! At the weekend, I was doing a little Wikipedia hiking and landed on the article for "His Master's Voice." That led to HMV, which reminded me of this inane YouTube item. (There's another one where he calls HMV.)

All this led to an exploration of limited edition Gramophone records. Finally, I landed on Unusual types of gramophone records. That's how a Hikipedia expedition goes, eh!

Unusual grooving: Most vinyl LPs have but one groove! (Remember that if you play Trivial Pursuit!) However, there are a few that were released with parallel grooves. Ever heard of Monty Python's three-sided album? Can't guarantee its content on any of its three grooves (one on one side, two on the other) is SFW. There are others!

Unusual shapes: As long as the content groove is spiral, the outer edge of the disc can be in any shape an artist pleases. Tangerine Dream released "Warsaw in the Sun" in the shape of Poland. These unusually-shaped records are often also picture discs.

Unusual speeds: I remember Mum's old stereo console had four speeds for the record player: 78, 45, 33, and...wha?..16?! "This speed was used almost exclusively for spoken word content, in particular for the "talking books" used by the visually impaired, though it was also employed in the Seeburg 1000 Background Music System." Apparently in some countries (US must have been one of them), inclusion of the 16-2/3 RPM setting was compulsory. At least by the time I came along, there weren't a lot of proprietary formats that required playback at anywhere from 60-130 RPM!

It was so much fun to watch all the mechanics in the player speed up when 78 was selected. I've always been easily entertained.

Funny, we slowed down our "long-playing" records, but we speeded up our CDs. Now, with MP3 and its growing family, there may be nothing to revolve!

Notifiblog: How Stuff Works Thursday!

​Vending machines have always fascinated me. You put in some money, and out comes a prize. How do they work?

The machine knows how much money you've inserted! Inside is a currency detector to read your paper money, and there's coin detector that trips certain electromagnets when particular coins are inserted.

"The keypad is not only the vending machine’s main input device but also the home for its central computer. When you press a key combination on the pad, it tells the central computer what it should do next." (HowStuffWorks.com)

"At the bottom of the vending machine, a line of laser beams determines if your product has been released by the metal spirals. Each laser beam is paired with an electronic light sensor. When your product falls it breaks this path, telling the computer that it was a successful transaction." (HowStuffWorks.com)

So that's why it thinks you have your prize when it's really stuck between that little door and you!

You can get some crazy stuff in Japan from vending machines. Maybe that's a good topic for another Notifiblog. Cheers!