Mainly focusing on Sarah Palin, he also points out numerous other gaffs. It really makes you wonder if maybe Bush was not that much out of the ordinary as far as brains go. Even the writer himself (Rick Ungar) goes a little beyond the edge when referring to McCain as running for "leader of the free world". Just who the hell do these people think they are?
Showing posts with label Interesting Stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interesting Stuff. Show all posts
Monday, November 14, 2011
Appalling Palin
Interesting little article by Rick Ungar in Forbes Magazine: http://www.forbes.com/sites/
Mainly focusing on Sarah Palin, he also points out numerous other gaffs. It really makes you wonder if maybe Bush was not that much out of the ordinary as far as brains go. Even the writer himself (Rick Ungar) goes a little beyond the edge when referring to McCain as running for "leader of the free world". Just who the hell do these people think they are?
Mainly focusing on Sarah Palin, he also points out numerous other gaffs. It really makes you wonder if maybe Bush was not that much out of the ordinary as far as brains go. Even the writer himself (Rick Ungar) goes a little beyond the edge when referring to McCain as running for "leader of the free world". Just who the hell do these people think they are?
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
More intresting trivia
Some interesting scientific and historical items I picked up in recent readings:
- CHARLIE CHAPLIN: Apparently Charlie once came in third in a Charlie Chaplin Look-alike contest in Monte Carlo.
- WHO REALLY FLEW FIRST? Contrary to popular opinion, the Wright Brothers were not the first to achieve powered flight. The first was, apparently, a Frenchman, Clement Adler, who flew a powered craft some 50m. (Some 13 years before the Wright Brothers). The Wright Brothers were the first to achieve controlled powered flight. (true to form, whatever an American invents is, naturally, the more important than anything anyone else may invent).
However, the Wright Brothers were apparently, (and I haven’t confirmed this), the first to realize that the propeller is in fact a rotating wing, and as such it generates “lift” just as a wing does. Therefore since the tips move faster than the inner part of the propeller blade, the pitch can vary throughout the length to even out the “lift” over the length of the blade.
- THE FIRST VOICE BROADCAST: The first voice modulated radio broadcast was made by a Canadian. Tom Edison had hired a Canadian physicist named Reginald Fessenden who, in 1897, wanted to experiment with broadcasting the human voice. Edison, however, discouraged him, saying that such a thing was less likely than man’s chances of jumping over the moon. Nevertheless, Fessenden made the first voice radio broadcast on Dec 23, 1900.
- Lord Kelvin, while president of the Royal Society, proclaimed that “X-Rays will prove to be a hoax” and also that “Radio has no future”.
- SCRATCHES ON CD's: found out an interesting fact about CD’s. I’ve always wondered why scratches don’t come through as pops or dropouts in the audio. The way it works is the two audio tracks are sampled 44,100 times per second each and the samples are turned into digital codes representing the amplitude of the sample. You would therefore expect that a scratch would ruin enough of the coded samples to cause either a dropout or a pop in the audio. It doesn’t.
The reason why it doesn't is that the crafty buggers who designed it, realized that the samples don’t have to be put on the track sequentially….. they can, instead, be “interlaced” out of order so that a scratch that is wide enough to interfere with several codes in succession will in fact be spread out over several waveforms and will not be detectable. They also, of course, included three error correcting bits in each sample which allow the reader to detect and sometimes to actually correct, an error. By the way, the track on a CD, starting from the inside, is actually about 3 ½ miles long and the speed of the disc changes from about 500 rpm to about 350 rpm at the outer edge so that the bits/second is constant.
- COMPUTER CHIP LIFE: Modern computer chips apparently have an expected life-span of about 5 years continual service. There are three mechanisms responsible:
ELECTROMIGRATION: which causes atoms in the metal to be swept along like pebbles in a stream to be deposited where they shouldn’t be.
OXIDE BREAKDOWN: weak spots developing in the insulating oxide layer and causing shorts.
HOT-CARRIER INTERACTION: where overenthusiastic electrons may punch through the oxide layer.
Older chips with larger internal components can apparently last many decades.
- SPAM: The word “spam” representing junk e-mails, comes from a skit performed at the final Monty Python Flying Circus show of 1970 wherein they insert the word “spam” throughout the skit.
- BALL POINT PENS: Do you know why ball point pens leak when they get wet? Did you know that they do? Well, the reason is that when you finish writing the ink left on the ball immediately dries, form-ing a seal. If, however, the pen gets wet, the seal is broken and the ink leaks out.
- SUPERGLUE: Apparently scientists are not really sure how superglue works. One theory is that it is because of “van der Waals” forces, which are forces between molecules resulting from the interaction of their polarities. What they do know is that the cyanoacrylate (superglue) reacts with water to form long chains that coil around each other and bond together to form a hard resin. That’s why it sticks to skin so well and why it is used to detect fingerprints.
Now thats a spider
I have been digitizing a huge box of slides for an old friend (old meaning that he's 85) who spent a lot of time in the middle east in the sixties, and I ran across this slide:
Now if you look closely, it looks like a spider with ten legs and a pair of really wicked looking fangs. Notice that the hand is keeping its distance.
Feeling that this warranted further investigation, I searched the web for desert spiders, thinking that if this thing really is a spider, then I have found absolute proof that God doesn't exist, since no rational being (I assume a god would be rational) would create such a thing.
It is (was) a spider. A Camel Spider to be exact (probably named that because they eat camels). I also found a site devoted to the little beasties: camelspiders.net
Furthermore, the one in the slide above IS A SMALL ONE, they can get to be 10 inches long. Below is a more modern picture (from the site mentioned). Now I know for sure there is no God.
By the way, they don't have ten legs. The two long things out front that look like legs are feelers of some kind. They tell me (and I don't believe it for one minit) that they are relatively harmless. However its rumoured that they can inject an anesthetic so that you don't feel them taking chunks of flesh out of you while you sleep.
I'm never going to the Middle East.
Now if you look closely, it looks like a spider with ten legs and a pair of really wicked looking fangs. Notice that the hand is keeping its distance.
Feeling that this warranted further investigation, I searched the web for desert spiders, thinking that if this thing really is a spider, then I have found absolute proof that God doesn't exist, since no rational being (I assume a god would be rational) would create such a thing.
It is (was) a spider. A Camel Spider to be exact (probably named that because they eat camels). I also found a site devoted to the little beasties: camelspiders.net
Furthermore, the one in the slide above IS A SMALL ONE, they can get to be 10 inches long. Below is a more modern picture (from the site mentioned). Now I know for sure there is no God.
By the way, they don't have ten legs. The two long things out front that look like legs are feelers of some kind. They tell me (and I don't believe it for one minit) that they are relatively harmless. However its rumoured that they can inject an anesthetic so that you don't feel them taking chunks of flesh out of you while you sleep.
I'm never going to the Middle East.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Beer, a short history
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
- Benjamin Franklin
You know, I always thought of Ben Franklin as more of a clown than a wise man, but those are truly awe inspiring words. But, if they are true, beer must have been with us right from the beginning. Right? So just how far back does it go? Well, Noah included it in the Ark’s provisions, but that’s as far back as we can go because the flood destroyed all the records.
Beer next pops up in 4200BC on Babylon clay tablets. It must have been very well established by that time since the Babylonians boasted over 20 varieties.
Interestingly, bread must have come before beer, which is always a good plan. But really, bread was developed first. We know this because early brewers used unbaked bread as a source of yeast to make beer. More importantly though, the master brewers were women, and in fact continued to be a major force in beer making well beyond the middle ages. The Babylonians even had beer Godesses (Siris and Nimkasi), as did the Egyptians. Theirs was Isis, the nature goddess and patroness of beer making.
Life in Babylon must have been one of the happiest of times in humanity’s long history, because in 2100 BC Hammurabi, the 6th Babylonian king, decreed a daily beer ration for the populace: a worker received two litres, civil servants three litres, and high priests five litres per day. Truly an enlightened society. However, it may explain a lot of things, including the popularity of certain careers, and some curious religious beliefs as well as rather erratic government policies.
Tavern keepers haven’t changed a bit since then either, since Hammurabi was forced to institute some serious regulations in his great code of law to protect beer drinkers. These stated that the punishment for short measure by an innkeeper was drowning; a rather effective but reasonable, way to prevent any repetition of the offence!
The Chinese were a bit behind, which was unlike them. China was not usually behind anyone in the pursuit of life enriching activities. However it was not until about 5,000 years ago that they began brewing a beer called ‘Kui'.
The Greeks and Romans also brewed beer, but they considered it the drink of barbarians, as did the Germans who thought beer contained a spirit which possessed the drinker (who’d have thought it?). Wine was reserved for upper crust.
But women continued to play in an important role in the making of beer, a fact that I’m sure all the women pushing for prohibition in the 30’s were not aware of, and which may have helped the cause of those resisting that terrible law. However, until the Middle Ages, brewing was exclusively the domain of women, mainly because they were in charge of baking the bread which also used yeast.
As the Christian Era dawned beer really caught on, mainly at the hands of the Monks. They began making beer as a pleasant-tasting, nutritious drink to serve with their meals and to help them through fasting periods (good story). Since drinking is allowed during a fast, beer was permitted; in fact some monks were allowed to drink as much as five litres a day. (No wonder some of them saw visions, and no wonder monasteries were so popular in the Middle Ages).
These guys knew when they were onto a good thing and they knew what they were doing. They added hops to the beer and perfected the brewing process. They built the first breweries are considered the pioneers of the hotel business, providing food, beer, and a roof for pilgrims and other travelers. They are the inventors of the PUB. We have much to thank the monks for.... beer, and coffee too.
Three very well thought of Christian saints are listed as patrons of brewing: Saint Augustine of Hippo; Saint Luke the Evangelist; and Saint Nicholas of Myra, better known as Santa Claus. Its funny how that little tid-bit never came up in Sunday school.
Saint Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, established a religious brotherhood there in 540 AD, and one of the brothers started brewing to supply the others. Brewing is still regarded as the oldest industry in Glasgow. Saint Patrick apparently retained among his household a brewer - a priest called Mescan.
Even the Emperor Charlemagne (AD 742-814), the great Christian ruler (considered by some to be the founder of Christianity), considered beer as essential for moderate living, and personally trained the realm's brewmasters.
But, invent a good thing and sooner or later the government will want a piece of it. In this case they wanted it all, and around the 12th century the rulers, saw beer as a good way to collect taxes and so brewing in much of Europe became the responsibility of commercial enterprises, given permission under royal licence. (Things haven’t changed.) As a result, the monastery pubs started to close down. It may not be coincidence that in the Middle Ages, monks nearly took over wine production, as they ran most of Europe's vineyards. While today a number of families and corporations also run vineyards and make notable wines, monks still run some of the oldest vineyards throughout Europe. But as winemaking in monasteries became more prevalent a suspicion slowly fermented that monks perhaps were more interested in celebration than in the mass… but that’s another story.
Despite the fall of the monastery breweries, beer continued to be handed out to weary travelers with the establishment of the Wayfarer Dole by William of Wykeham, (1367-1404). A Pilgrim's Dole of ale and bread can still be claimed by all wayfarers at the Hospital of St Cross, Winchester, England.
But beer was still loved by the upper crust. The ladies-in-waiting at the court of Henry VII were allowed a gallon of beer for breakfast alone. The mind boggles. One wonders what they were waiting for. And then there was Queen Elizabeth I, who, when traveling through the country, always sent couriers ahead to taste the local ale. If it didn't measure up to the quality required, a supply would be shipped from London for her.
William Shakespeare's father was an ale-tester or "conner". The "conner" tested the ale by pouring some upon a bench and sitting on it while drinking the rest. If there was sugar in the ale, or it was impure, their leather breeches would stick after sitting for half an hour or so. (that’s an excuse I never thought of)
And one further little fact: in England, a "bride's ale" would be brewed for the wedding by her family. "Bride's ale" gave way to the word "bridal."
And then European beer came to North America in Christopher Columbus' ships. I suspect that Eric and Leif brought their version of beer to our shores long before that, but It is very likely that, as good Norsemen, they drank it all on the way over, which is exactly why the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock, instead of further south as planned; because they ran out of beer. A journal entry dated December 19, 1620 said: "We could not take time for further search or consideration; our victuals being much spent, especially our beer" Which is not surprising; not that they ran out of beer, but that they stopped to brew some, because in those days, ships did not move without a crew, and crews did not move without their beer. In fact, Henry the VIII once nearly lost a major battle because someone had forgotten to order the beer for the ships.
Nevertheless, lets not forget our own native brethren. On his last voyage to Central America in 1502, Columbus found that they were making a first-rate brew "of maize, resembling English beer".
If, in reading all of this you think that we have lost something along the way, you’re not alone. Particularly noticeable in their absence, are beer allowances, and beer-making in the home under the direction of the little woman. It is also of note that at the end of the 17th century, the weekly allowance for pupils of all ages at one English school was two bottles a day (mostly because beer was a good deal safer than the drinking water). What a way to learn.
And beer was also common in the workplace. Benjamin Franklin, who introduced this piece, recorded the daily beer consumption in a London printing house which he visited. The employees each had a pint before breakfast, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint at six o'clock and a pint when they finished work. (and probably stopped at the local pub on their way home).
I didn’t work there
The advent of beer as we know it came in 1516 when the Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm IV, proclaimed the German Beer Purity Law. For the first time, a law established that only barley, hops and pure water were to be used in the making of beer. The law remained in effect in Europe until 1988, when European Union rules came into effect.
Some historical notes:
4300BC Babylon clay tablets have recipes for beer. They produced around 20 varieties.
3000 BC in the Imperial Egypt of the Pharaohs, beer was already an important food item in the daily diet
3,000 year old beer mugs were uncovered in Israel in the 1960s
55 BC Roman soldiers introduce beer into Northern Europe
49 BC Caesar toasted his troops as they crossed the Rubicon, starting the Roman Civil War
500-1000 AD the first half of the Middle Ages, brewing begins to be practiced in Europe, shifting from family tradition to centralized production in monasteries and convents (hospitality for traveling pilgrims). During Medieval times beer was used for tithing, trading, payment and taxing.
800 AD: The ancient Germans were also brewing the stuff using barley or wheat.
1000 AD hops begins to be used in the brewing process.
1295 King Wenceslas grants Pilsen Bohemia brewing rights (formerly Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia & Czech Republic).
1420: German brewers develop the lager method of brewing.
1490's: Columbus found Indians making beer from corn and black birch sap.
1500: there were 600 breweries in Hamburg alone
1553: Beck's Brewery founded & still brewing today.
Late 1500's Queen Elizabeth I of England drank strong ale for breakfast.
1587 the first beer brewed in New World at Sir Walter Raleigh's colony in Virginia--but the colonists sent requests to England for better beer.
1612 the first commercial brewery opened in New Amsterdam (NYC, Manhattan) after colonists advertised in London newspapers for experienced brewers.
1620 Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock because the beer supplies were running low.
1786 Molson brewery is founded in what is today Canada.
1830's Bavarians Gabriel Sedlmayr of Munich and Anton Dreher of Vienna developed the lager method of beer production.
1842 the first golden lager is produced in Pilsen, Bohemia.
1876 Pasteur unraveled the secrets of yeast in the fermentation process, and he also developed pasteurization to stabilize beers 22 years before the process was applied to milk.
1880 there are approximately 2,300 breweries in the US.
1890s Pabst is the first US brewer to sell over 1 million barrels in a year.
1933 Prohibition ends for beer (April 7).
1938 Elise Miller John heads Miller Brewing for 8 years as the first and only woman ever to run a major brewing company.
People around the world consume more than 100 billion litres of beer annually.
- Benjamin Franklin
You know, I always thought of Ben Franklin as more of a clown than a wise man, but those are truly awe inspiring words. But, if they are true, beer must have been with us right from the beginning. Right? So just how far back does it go? Well, Noah included it in the Ark’s provisions, but that’s as far back as we can go because the flood destroyed all the records.
Beer next pops up in 4200BC on Babylon clay tablets. It must have been very well established by that time since the Babylonians boasted over 20 varieties.
Interestingly, bread must have come before beer, which is always a good plan. But really, bread was developed first. We know this because early brewers used unbaked bread as a source of yeast to make beer. More importantly though, the master brewers were women, and in fact continued to be a major force in beer making well beyond the middle ages. The Babylonians even had beer Godesses (Siris and Nimkasi), as did the Egyptians. Theirs was Isis, the nature goddess and patroness of beer making.
Life in Babylon must have been one of the happiest of times in humanity’s long history, because in 2100 BC Hammurabi, the 6th Babylonian king, decreed a daily beer ration for the populace: a worker received two litres, civil servants three litres, and high priests five litres per day. Truly an enlightened society. However, it may explain a lot of things, including the popularity of certain careers, and some curious religious beliefs as well as rather erratic government policies.
Tavern keepers haven’t changed a bit since then either, since Hammurabi was forced to institute some serious regulations in his great code of law to protect beer drinkers. These stated that the punishment for short measure by an innkeeper was drowning; a rather effective but reasonable, way to prevent any repetition of the offence!
The Chinese were a bit behind, which was unlike them. China was not usually behind anyone in the pursuit of life enriching activities. However it was not until about 5,000 years ago that they began brewing a beer called ‘Kui'.
The Greeks and Romans also brewed beer, but they considered it the drink of barbarians, as did the Germans who thought beer contained a spirit which possessed the drinker (who’d have thought it?). Wine was reserved for upper crust.
But women continued to play in an important role in the making of beer, a fact that I’m sure all the women pushing for prohibition in the 30’s were not aware of, and which may have helped the cause of those resisting that terrible law. However, until the Middle Ages, brewing was exclusively the domain of women, mainly because they were in charge of baking the bread which also used yeast.
As the Christian Era dawned beer really caught on, mainly at the hands of the Monks. They began making beer as a pleasant-tasting, nutritious drink to serve with their meals and to help them through fasting periods (good story). Since drinking is allowed during a fast, beer was permitted; in fact some monks were allowed to drink as much as five litres a day. (No wonder some of them saw visions, and no wonder monasteries were so popular in the Middle Ages).
These guys knew when they were onto a good thing and they knew what they were doing. They added hops to the beer and perfected the brewing process. They built the first breweries are considered the pioneers of the hotel business, providing food, beer, and a roof for pilgrims and other travelers. They are the inventors of the PUB. We have much to thank the monks for.... beer, and coffee too.
Three very well thought of Christian saints are listed as patrons of brewing: Saint Augustine of Hippo; Saint Luke the Evangelist; and Saint Nicholas of Myra, better known as Santa Claus. Its funny how that little tid-bit never came up in Sunday school.
Saint Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, established a religious brotherhood there in 540 AD, and one of the brothers started brewing to supply the others. Brewing is still regarded as the oldest industry in Glasgow. Saint Patrick apparently retained among his household a brewer - a priest called Mescan.
Even the Emperor Charlemagne (AD 742-814), the great Christian ruler (considered by some to be the founder of Christianity), considered beer as essential for moderate living, and personally trained the realm's brewmasters.
But, invent a good thing and sooner or later the government will want a piece of it. In this case they wanted it all, and around the 12th century the rulers, saw beer as a good way to collect taxes and so brewing in much of Europe became the responsibility of commercial enterprises, given permission under royal licence. (Things haven’t changed.) As a result, the monastery pubs started to close down. It may not be coincidence that in the Middle Ages, monks nearly took over wine production, as they ran most of Europe's vineyards. While today a number of families and corporations also run vineyards and make notable wines, monks still run some of the oldest vineyards throughout Europe. But as winemaking in monasteries became more prevalent a suspicion slowly fermented that monks perhaps were more interested in celebration than in the mass… but that’s another story.
Despite the fall of the monastery breweries, beer continued to be handed out to weary travelers with the establishment of the Wayfarer Dole by William of Wykeham, (1367-1404). A Pilgrim's Dole of ale and bread can still be claimed by all wayfarers at the Hospital of St Cross, Winchester, England.
But beer was still loved by the upper crust. The ladies-in-waiting at the court of Henry VII were allowed a gallon of beer for breakfast alone. The mind boggles. One wonders what they were waiting for. And then there was Queen Elizabeth I, who, when traveling through the country, always sent couriers ahead to taste the local ale. If it didn't measure up to the quality required, a supply would be shipped from London for her.
William Shakespeare's father was an ale-tester or "conner". The "conner" tested the ale by pouring some upon a bench and sitting on it while drinking the rest. If there was sugar in the ale, or it was impure, their leather breeches would stick after sitting for half an hour or so. (that’s an excuse I never thought of)
And one further little fact: in England, a "bride's ale" would be brewed for the wedding by her family. "Bride's ale" gave way to the word "bridal."
And then European beer came to North America in Christopher Columbus' ships. I suspect that Eric and Leif brought their version of beer to our shores long before that, but It is very likely that, as good Norsemen, they drank it all on the way over, which is exactly why the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock, instead of further south as planned; because they ran out of beer. A journal entry dated December 19, 1620 said: "We could not take time for further search or consideration; our victuals being much spent, especially our beer" Which is not surprising; not that they ran out of beer, but that they stopped to brew some, because in those days, ships did not move without a crew, and crews did not move without their beer. In fact, Henry the VIII once nearly lost a major battle because someone had forgotten to order the beer for the ships.
Nevertheless, lets not forget our own native brethren. On his last voyage to Central America in 1502, Columbus found that they were making a first-rate brew "of maize, resembling English beer".
If, in reading all of this you think that we have lost something along the way, you’re not alone. Particularly noticeable in their absence, are beer allowances, and beer-making in the home under the direction of the little woman. It is also of note that at the end of the 17th century, the weekly allowance for pupils of all ages at one English school was two bottles a day (mostly because beer was a good deal safer than the drinking water). What a way to learn.
And beer was also common in the workplace. Benjamin Franklin, who introduced this piece, recorded the daily beer consumption in a London printing house which he visited. The employees each had a pint before breakfast, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint at six o'clock and a pint when they finished work. (and probably stopped at the local pub on their way home).
I didn’t work there
The advent of beer as we know it came in 1516 when the Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm IV, proclaimed the German Beer Purity Law. For the first time, a law established that only barley, hops and pure water were to be used in the making of beer. The law remained in effect in Europe until 1988, when European Union rules came into effect.
Some historical notes:
4300BC Babylon clay tablets have recipes for beer. They produced around 20 varieties.
3000 BC in the Imperial Egypt of the Pharaohs, beer was already an important food item in the daily diet
3,000 year old beer mugs were uncovered in Israel in the 1960s
55 BC Roman soldiers introduce beer into Northern Europe
49 BC Caesar toasted his troops as they crossed the Rubicon, starting the Roman Civil War
500-1000 AD the first half of the Middle Ages, brewing begins to be practiced in Europe, shifting from family tradition to centralized production in monasteries and convents (hospitality for traveling pilgrims). During Medieval times beer was used for tithing, trading, payment and taxing.
800 AD: The ancient Germans were also brewing the stuff using barley or wheat.
1000 AD hops begins to be used in the brewing process.
1295 King Wenceslas grants Pilsen Bohemia brewing rights (formerly Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia & Czech Republic).
1420: German brewers develop the lager method of brewing.
1490's: Columbus found Indians making beer from corn and black birch sap.
1500: there were 600 breweries in Hamburg alone
1553: Beck's Brewery founded & still brewing today.
Late 1500's Queen Elizabeth I of England drank strong ale for breakfast.
1587 the first beer brewed in New World at Sir Walter Raleigh's colony in Virginia--but the colonists sent requests to England for better beer.
1612 the first commercial brewery opened in New Amsterdam (NYC, Manhattan) after colonists advertised in London newspapers for experienced brewers.
1620 Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock because the beer supplies were running low.
1786 Molson brewery is founded in what is today Canada.
1830's Bavarians Gabriel Sedlmayr of Munich and Anton Dreher of Vienna developed the lager method of beer production.
1842 the first golden lager is produced in Pilsen, Bohemia.
1876 Pasteur unraveled the secrets of yeast in the fermentation process, and he also developed pasteurization to stabilize beers 22 years before the process was applied to milk.
1880 there are approximately 2,300 breweries in the US.
1890s Pabst is the first US brewer to sell over 1 million barrels in a year.
1933 Prohibition ends for beer (April 7).
1938 Elise Miller John heads Miller Brewing for 8 years as the first and only woman ever to run a major brewing company.
People around the world consume more than 100 billion litres of beer annually.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Zamboni
It's very interesting that all this Canadian pride over our Olympic performance has resulted in several references to us having invented the Zamboni. A natural assumption really. After all who else would have invented it? Well, maybe someone in Russia, or Norway, or some other northern country? Or maybe even in Minnesota? But surely, southern California would be your last guess. Well, then you'd be wrong.
The Zamboni was invented by two brothers (Frank and George Zamboni) in the early 40's, in southern California when a huge skating rink opened up in Paramount California. The Zamboni plant is only blocks away from the rink.
The ones we use here in the great white north, are of course, made in the Zamboni plant in Brantford Ontario.
I hate to wound Canadian pride, but there it is. When you think it over, though, you'll realize that Canadians at that time would not have thought of building such a device. The tough Canadian attitude would have been to just learn to live with rough ice.
The Zamboni was invented by two brothers (Frank and George Zamboni) in the early 40's, in southern California when a huge skating rink opened up in Paramount California. The Zamboni plant is only blocks away from the rink.
The ones we use here in the great white north, are of course, made in the Zamboni plant in Brantford Ontario.
I hate to wound Canadian pride, but there it is. When you think it over, though, you'll realize that Canadians at that time would not have thought of building such a device. The tough Canadian attitude would have been to just learn to live with rough ice.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Rules of Engagement
War is made "civilized" by rules of engagement. This is where two countries, who obviously have a serious difference of opinion, decide to get together around a table and work out the rules they will "play" by as they try to cripple each other by killing off as many of the opposing forces as possible, in an orderly manner, of course.
Consider your situation as Canadian soldier in Afghanastan, however. You are part of a renewed offensive against the Taliban, however, you must do all you can to avoid killing civilians, and rightly so; far too many have died already. So when you are faced with a threat, it is incumbent upon you to first ask the person whether he is Taliban or not before shooting him. That may be tungue in cheek, but it doesn't fall far from the truth.
Suppose, however, you are a Taliban fighter. He doesn't care whether he kills civilians or not, his attitude is "kill them all, Allah will know his own", (I wonder who he learned that from). He also doesn't wear a uniform, instead, he tries to look as much like an innocent civilian as he can, and will continue to do so until the soldier with the red maple leaf on his shoulder asking what he is gets close enough, where upon he will pull out his gun and shoot him. Doesn't seem quite fair does it.
Consider your situation as Canadian soldier in Afghanastan, however. You are part of a renewed offensive against the Taliban, however, you must do all you can to avoid killing civilians, and rightly so; far too many have died already. So when you are faced with a threat, it is incumbent upon you to first ask the person whether he is Taliban or not before shooting him. That may be tungue in cheek, but it doesn't fall far from the truth.
Suppose, however, you are a Taliban fighter. He doesn't care whether he kills civilians or not, his attitude is "kill them all, Allah will know his own", (I wonder who he learned that from). He also doesn't wear a uniform, instead, he tries to look as much like an innocent civilian as he can, and will continue to do so until the soldier with the red maple leaf on his shoulder asking what he is gets close enough, where upon he will pull out his gun and shoot him. Doesn't seem quite fair does it.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Lets all worship the goat
Civilized life begins with coffee. Some would say it begins with beer, but they’d be wrong. It begins with coffee and ends with beer. We must thank a Goatherd, some Monks, the Arabs, but, primarily, we must thank a goat, for civilization.
It began in 850 AD when an Ethiopian goat got frisky after eating coffee berries. The goat herder noticed this and brought some berries to the local monks, who, after tasting them, threw the bitter berries in the fire, whereupon, the pleasant aroma made them try them again. They soon considered them a gift from God since eating the roasted berries allowed them to stay awake longer and get more work done. Later, the Arabs got wind of this wonderful thing, and, since they were not allowed alcohol, poured hot water over the roasted, ground up berries to make coffee.
Now we could venerate the Goatherd but no one knows his name. We could venerate the Monks, but we already have wine to thank them for. We could venerate the Arabs, but we already thank them for the alphabet. So it’s only fitting that we worship the goat for bringing civilization to the world. So here is a short history of coffee and the early temples devoted to it’s worship.
850 An Ethiopian goat gets high on coffee berries. The monks get high on the roasted beans.
1100 The Arabs first make coffee. (It took 250 years to get from roasted beans to coffee?)
1475 A year we should celebrate... the first coffee shop (temple) opens in Constantinople
1654 The first coffee shop in Italy
1607 Capt John Smith brings it to Jamestown. Apparently, however, it arrived in Canada earlier than that.
1652 First coffee houses in England (it costs a penny a cup)
1672 First Parisian café dedicated to serving coffee
1683 First coffee house in Vienna
1721 First coffee house in Berlin
1727 Brazil starts growing coffee from plants smuggles out of Paris
1750 Café Greco opens in Rome 1822 The French invent the espresso machine
1938 Instant coffee is invented in the US by Nestle thereby bringing coffee to its lowest point until Starbucks opens in 1971
1964 The fist Tim Horton’s opens in Hamilton Ontario
-.-
Currently, over 400 billion cups of coffee are consumed yearly throughout the world. I do my part.
It began in 850 AD when an Ethiopian goat got frisky after eating coffee berries. The goat herder noticed this and brought some berries to the local monks, who, after tasting them, threw the bitter berries in the fire, whereupon, the pleasant aroma made them try them again. They soon considered them a gift from God since eating the roasted berries allowed them to stay awake longer and get more work done. Later, the Arabs got wind of this wonderful thing, and, since they were not allowed alcohol, poured hot water over the roasted, ground up berries to make coffee.
Now we could venerate the Goatherd but no one knows his name. We could venerate the Monks, but we already have wine to thank them for. We could venerate the Arabs, but we already thank them for the alphabet. So it’s only fitting that we worship the goat for bringing civilization to the world. So here is a short history of coffee and the early temples devoted to it’s worship.
850 An Ethiopian goat gets high on coffee berries. The monks get high on the roasted beans.
1100 The Arabs first make coffee. (It took 250 years to get from roasted beans to coffee?)
1475 A year we should celebrate... the first coffee shop (temple) opens in Constantinople
1654 The first coffee shop in Italy
1607 Capt John Smith brings it to Jamestown. Apparently, however, it arrived in Canada earlier than that.
1652 First coffee houses in England (it costs a penny a cup)
1672 First Parisian café dedicated to serving coffee
1683 First coffee house in Vienna
1721 First coffee house in Berlin
1727 Brazil starts growing coffee from plants smuggles out of Paris
1750 Café Greco opens in Rome 1822 The French invent the espresso machine
1938 Instant coffee is invented in the US by Nestle thereby bringing coffee to its lowest point until Starbucks opens in 1971
1964 The fist Tim Horton’s opens in Hamilton Ontario
-.-
Currently, over 400 billion cups of coffee are consumed yearly throughout the world. I do my part.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)