Saturday, 10 September 2016

When in doubt...

I may have posted this before, but as I hope your memories are as bad as mine, here we go again? Or  for the first time, just in case...?


Hehehe...

Friday, 9 September 2016

How things have changed in a little over one hundred years!

View sent us some fascinating statistics from the year 1910. The last one must be the most startling of all... Thank you very much, View.



Fuel for this car was sold in drugstores only.
Average life expectancy for men was 47 years.
Only 14 percent of houses had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower !
The average US wage in 1910 was 22 cents per hour.
The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year.
A dentist made $2,500 per year.
A veterinarian earned between $1,500 and $4,000 per year.
And a mechanical engineer made about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.
Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools,
many of which were condemned in the press
AND the government as 'substandard.'
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, 
and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
There was no such thing as under arm deodorant or tooth paste.
Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from 
entering into their country for any reason.
The five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2, Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars.
The population of Las Vegas Nevada was only 30!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A. !

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years...

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Perfection

These photos will appeal to readers who like things organised just so... everything in its place, in the right order, and pleasing to the eye. Things need to be perfect.










Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Beautiful "sculpture"

I couldn't believe my eyes when I found out that this item is not a sculpture, but in fact an acrylic on canvas! The title is "Dissolution of Ego" and it was painted by Petr Gric.


Tuesday, 6 September 2016

Peace. If only it could be that simple...

This photo caught my eye and I thought it was a clever way to convey a simple, hopeful message. The graphic designer is a 24-year-old called Yücel Türkoglu, from Turkey.


Monday, 5 September 2016

Very interesting stairs...

Remember the post of all those dizzy stairs? Well, I recently found two examples that will make you smile...




Saturday, 3 September 2016

Let's party!

Today our very special friend 1smartcanerican turns 70 years young. Have a fantastic day, 1sc, you deserve the best! 





Some blog related cakes:




A lot of deliciousness:













... and the inevitable Canadian themed cakes:



Happy, happy birthday!


Wednesday, 31 August 2016

A very unusual published physicist

I found this amusing article and had to share it with you...

Jack H. Hetherington was a professor of physics at Michigan State University in 1975, when he finished what would become an influential physics paper, an in-depth exploration of atomic behavior at different temperatures.
   

He was all set to send it to Physical Review Letters, but before he dispatched it, Hetherington gave the paper to a colleague to get one one last set of eyes on the piece. This is when he ran into a strange problem. Hetherington had used the royal "we" throughout the paper. As his colleague pointed out, Physical Review Letters generally only published papers using plural pronouns and adjectives like “we” and “our” if the paper had multiple authors.

Hetherington couldn’t have simply done a find-and-replace to correct the offending articles as it was the year 1975 and the whole paper had been produced on a typewriter.

Unwilling to change all the pronouns, Hetherington portrayed F.D.C. Willard as one of his colleagues at Michigan State and submitted the paper, which was published in issue 35 of Physical Review Letters.

F.D.C. Willard was Hetherington's cat, Chester. Of course just listing “Chester” as a co-author probably wouldn’t fly, so he invented the name F.D.C. Willard. The “F.D.C.” stood for “Felix Domesticus, Chester." Willard had been the name of Chester’s father.

 

[Source: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/in-1975-a-cat-coauthored-a-physics-paper]


Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Street art

I really like imaginative street art. The availability of it makes it very attractive, in my eyes. Ok, we can't travel the world looking for it, but then we can't travel and in many cases pay entrance fees to see art in museums.... Viva the internet!















[I've been in touch with Pallottine and he's been away due to some health issues. He has a stubborn clot in one leg and is undergoing further exams in order to decide which is the best course of action. He simply doesn't feel like commenting here, as it's a very personal blog, people behave differently, are more involved with each other than in a political blog, for example... That won't stop us from sending our good thoughts, lighting candles and all the things we always do when somebody needs our love and attention, eh? Pallottine sends his love to all.]