Swinging And Sucking

September 30, 1901, something got patented many people, especially women, had been waiting for: the vacuum cleaner. It was the British engineer Hubert Cecil Booth (1871-1955) who’s design meant the first powered vacuum cleaner, that didn’t blow the dirt away, but was sucking it up, like all the vacuum cleaners do that we’re having. And as we all know; there’s a world of difference between blowing and sucking. Oh, and today, the year 1791, Mozart’s opera ‘The Magic Flute’ was performed for the first time. And that was a nice piece of a blowjob as well. Image by Photobucket/eakkyreport

Watching Sparks, Wiring Talks

Unconsciously I was humming ‘Wake me up when September ends’ a minute ago. To realize this could sound carelessly to the people of Northern Luzon who still experience the outcome of typhoon Ondoy’s rage (international code name Ketsana). Watching the news still squeezes my heart and I’m grateful that our area was not affected though I was, almost, being included of the tragedy. It could not be blamed to floods but to a huge transformer that exploded while I was in a local shop, the same day when rescue teams in Luzon were evacuating people. At first, I was calm to know that the sound of the explosion was telling me it happened from a safe distance. But the blackout followed by lots of sparks and lightning, and an expulsion just above the store’s thin roof was loud enough to make a different point. Nothing else happened, so we all got away unharmed. But being back home I fully realized how lucky I got, and that a term life insurance is far from luxury. On the other hand, millions of people, including myself, can’t afford even this basic insurance, that normally is less expensive than all other options. Its primary use is to provide coverage of financial responsibilities for the insured. And many are, especially these days, wishing they could afford one. Image by Photobucket/turtlebugs3

A Bobby And A Box

September 29, 1829, the Metropolitan Police of London was founded. Originally started as the Bow Street Runners in 1753 consisting of just 8 volunteer constables, having not much more than a rattle or whistle to distinguish themselves, they became a 1,000 head strong force of Bobby’s, named after Sir Robert Peel who persuaded the Parliament to establish a much more professional organisation. Initially seen as a ‘threat to civil liberties’ and nicknamed Raw Lobsters, they became to patrol the whole area of Greater London, except the ‘Square Mile’ along Southwark and Westminster. Today, this force (sometimes called Scotland Yard, referring to the old address of the HQ) counts 50,000, and a number of them we know as the classic London officer, just armored with a truncheon. Or is this image outdated like the red telephone boxes? Anyway, the material used for this weapon, Lignum vitae, or ‘Wood of Life’ is very familiar to our birthday boy today, the year 1957, cricketer Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas, born in Westminster London, being one of the best players of his time, but never has played a Test for England. Maybe enough reason for him to throw his frustration away with a cricket ball made of the same wood? Image by Photobucket/davidharper

An Asbestos Account

Invisable to the eye and unnoticed (on the lurk for possibly decades), Mesothelioma, caused by asbestos, has a poor prognosis. Despite the presence and availability of CT-scans, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or sometimes surgery, will show, at most, an improvement of the condition for a short term. Treatment using conventional therapies in combination with radiation and/or chemotherapy have proved on average 74.6% successful in extending the patient's life span by five years or more. Surgery, by itself, has proved disappointing. However, research indicates varied success when used in combination with radiation and chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy is the only treatment for Mesothelioma that has been proven to improve survival in randomised and controlled trials. But, there are still unanswered questions about the optimal use of chemotherapy, when to start treatment, and what the optimal number of cycles is to give. Some tests have been developed to detect it in an early stage, the old asbestos suit might be in the museum, but Mesothelioma will require much more research. Surprisingly, the dramatic event of 9/11, with tiny asbestos parts flying and whitening the streets of Manhattan for days, might be helpful to find more ways to understand and solve this still rather unknown cancer. Image by Photobucket/krissybush

A Regressive Reprise

September 28, 1973, the ITT building at 1330 Avenue of the Americas in New York City got bombed to protest its involvement in the ‘September 11 Coup’ in Chile, that overthrowed the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende (1908-1973) by a (American back-upped) military junta led by Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006). Having a close relation with the Chilean Communist Party, Allende was chosen by them to be their alternate for their own candidate for presidency, the writer Pablo Neruda. With the Cold War still going on, when the fear for communism in the USA was way out of proportions, he was seen a danger by the CIA and American government. Allende, who had protested, as one of the few, against Hitler’s 1930s Kristallnacht persecution of the Jews, lost his life, leaving Chile in the hands of a dictator for many decades. Making 9/11 an even more memorable day of the year for the city of New York. Image by Photobucket/Hitokiri1849

Wild Water, Wild Ideas

It’s still such a great devastation that Ondoy brought upon us, that it’s hard to get it all in. But people have come to their senses again, and started to aid food, shelter and clothes. For once I found myself glued in front of a tv-screen many times, catching up the latest news. This time, no one is excluded from disaster and destruction, even Philippine celebrities like Christine Reyes had to face the reality of life in the tropics. And she wasn’t the only well known face shouting for rescue. There was a sneak preview of their luxury house being destroyed and covered with sand. Among the appliances that got saved were a couple of tv stands that they used to sit on at their rooftop. At moments like this, the difference between the wealthy and the poor disappears, and all one can witness is the despair of human beings. Perhaps we should consider every idea, to prevent these awful times, no matter how crazy they might look at first glance? Image by Photobucket/FearTheKirby

A Typhoon’s Toil

September 27, 2009, Typhoon ‘Ondoy’ has gone, taken its course to other shores to beat. That doesn’t mean everything is hunky dory here, in the Phillipines, right now. The mess and devastation will be visible for a long time to come. With the annual average of twenty typhoons we’re rather familiar with them, especially the north eastern part, with the island of Luzon the most hitted target. But this one seems to have been the worst in 40 years. With a whole month of rain fallen in just 6 hours. This time of year is typhoon or ‘Big Wind’ high peak of the season, lasting from Augustus till October. The media show the images and a few stories, and that’s a good thing. But they can’t cover the hidden losses of many unanymous people. And it’s much more than getting your hair messed up! What they had been building up with all the effort they possessed, can be totally gone in those 6 hours. The cut off the electricity for instance, to prevent accidents, will effect the smallest (family)businesses the hardest and the longest.

Fancy flower or animal named typhoons or ‘tai feng’ (Mandarin), ‘dai fung’ (Cantonese), ‘tufan’ (Arabic and Hindi), or ‘typhon’ (Greek) attract the eyes of the world for a split second, like the eye of the storm hits the land, to move on to other places. Not looking back. This was written pretty far away from such an eye, having electric power....as long as it takes. Let’s take advantage of that, and end this post with a smile: today, the year 1968, the musical ‘Hair’ opened at the London Shaftesbury Theatre, ending up at 1,998 performances. Why not have made it a 2,000 I can hear you ask? Because the roof collapsed! I’m sure that roof got fixed pretty soon. Image by Photobucket/ taytaydd

A Bash For Bingo

I was preparing myself for a pool party hosted by Maricel at Cebu City Sports Ayala today. My two piece swim suit coordinated with the colorful bag and flip-flops and I was ready to divulge the beauty of City Sports. It was not actually a grand pool party but I am what I am, cautious of being frumpy in a crowd. No one else would like to look dowdy, is it? I woke up the usually 9:00 am, I felt the gloomy weather and closed my eyes for another hour of sleep. Knowing the other schedule for another meeting was at lunch time, it didn’t bother my extension of rest till 1:45pm. I took my shower and lunch without really noticing what was going on outside. I continued my preparation and out of a sudden a txt from Lany came in telling that Manila was experiencing an extreme typhoon and floods. Being inside the closed four corners of my room, I switched on the t.v. showing Luzon was indeed troubled by the floods. I was thankful that Cebu, my place, was not affected much by it. I texted my family to know their situation and received Eva’s txt that her trip to Manila scheduled for tomorrow got cancelled. That she was entertaining herself with online gaming.

I felt sad when Eva’s schedule to Manila was cancelled. She has an important errand to do there and already had prepared a lot for her new endeavor in life. I felt sad about the itinerary that had been done. It had been tiring for her to get that far, that gives her credit for some coveted games in a casino or perhaps bingo? Well, bingo never costs a lot . She can make use of the tricks of the Costa Bingo especially because I know her companion mastered such games. Actually, playing bingo needs no going to anyplace. It is just the magic click of the mouse and your luck and tricks in the game all in your hand. As I checked the site myself it was easy to navigate. There’s no sweat needed. But since Eva likes to buy the latest HP Pavilion Laptop in Manila first thing she might be trying right now, is playing the Costa Bingo . It could be that the bad weather and Costa Bingo can trigger Eva’s purchase of that laptop and luckily will turn into another purchase of a laptop for me as well! Image by Photobucket/Nrosa

A Jet Jingle

September 26, 2008, the Swiss airline pilot Yves ‘Jet Man’ Rossy (1959) dropping out of an airplane above the French city of Calais, ignites his carbon-fiber wing with a span of 2.4 metres and 4 jet engines, using his body to steer like a bird, flies across the English Channel to Dover in merely 10 minutes. To become the first human jet, with the average speed of 125 mph. It wasn’t his maiden voyage though, he’d succeeded a previous 6 minutes flight in 2006. The picture above shows the flight later in 2008, not with the white cliffs of Dover, but the Swiss Alps. The instant image of us all going in that fasion to our holiday destination one day, flies in shatters, realizing it might take a week to get at the other side of the earth? Practically non-stop flying that is, and I’m afraid that a poor service ‘on board’ is to be expected. Maybe listening to the mp3-player might help to kill time... ah, John Denver: ’..i’m leaving on a jetplane, dunno when i’ll be back again..’ er... wrong choice! Image by Photobucket/fidelcastro

A Bag’s Banter

If one of the previous blogs was about the ‘ends’ of our skin, there might be a surprising fourth: a bag! Especially the female of Homo Erectus has been afflicted with this phenomenon. For obvious reason it’s not an appendage, although the previous mentioned female will be spotted with bags most of the time. For me it’s a hard nut to crack, if this is a kind of relic from ancient times, being discarted, or if we’re having a first glimpse of a revival now! Time will tell if we’ll ever become marsupials once again.

But there’s no doubt of the usefulness of such a pocket. The various needs have resulted in a multitude of applications. And although fashion and personal statement play a specific role, it’s the practical side that gives the shape to the bag. There won’t be many globetrotters who’ll choose the purse to sling around the shoulders! Size matters: the bigger, the more stuff you can take with you. On the other hand, too big means too much weight to carry around. 

So, where rucksacks are the best choice for these explorers of the world, this won’t fit all people who fly to all the corners of the earth. The latest species carries a laptop with them. That requires different qualities to look for. One has to think of protection and practicality to keep the laptop unharmed for natural elements or human snatchers. What all mentioned bags have in common is the importance of the right size and number of compartments and the accessibility. Not necessarily it’s the lady with the small handy purse that walks out with the less effort. The wrong choice-of-the-day might make her delayed. And perhaps it’s the loaded-with-gadgets-but-practical-traveler who’ll arrive at the destination first. After all, there always have been slow and fast moving marsupials. I don’t think that will ever change. Image by Photobucket/beckstraordinary

The Name Of The Game

What has a deck of playing cards, a taxi company, a love hotel, instant rice and a gorilla have in common? All, except the gorilla, were more or less failures of a company founded today, the year 1889, that almost got bankrupt with just 60 yen in stocks in Tokyo’s Olympic Games Year 1964, and doing nicely with its current value of around 85 million us dollars. When the names of Donkey Kong, Game Boy, Game Cube and Wii got dropped, you’ll very likely know the name. Right, it’s the company ‘Leave Luck to Heaven’! Confused? I don’t blame you, it’s better known under the Japanese meaning of this English translation: Nintendo! Image by Photobucket/abi69

Yeah! York!

September 22, 1910, Brighton UK, ‘The Duke of York’s Picture House’ one of the first cinemas opens, and still is operating, making it the oldest of the world. It’s also the birthday of Catherine Oxenberg (1961) actress who’s born in New York City, made her acting debut in the 1982 made-for-television film ‘The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana’ in which she played her real-life distant relative Princess Diana and in 1992 reprised that role of Princess Diana in the TV film ‘Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After’. Also appeared in the 1980s soap ‘Dynasty’. Royalty herself, she’s familiar with Dukes: from Edinburgh (husband of Queen Elizabeth) from Kent (Prince Edward) and from York (Prince Andrew). The oldest birthday celebrity today is New York, celebrating her 400 year anniversary for a couple of days already, having got her name from... right: York! Let’s have a Manhattan... Image by Photobucket/boam077

A Note Of Nails

Some people clip them, cherish or curse them, chew on them, or even ‘read’ them (dermatologists), we’re talking about the appendages of our skin: nails! And like the other ‘ends’; teeth and hair, they get lots of attention. Where it’s nails that’s concerned, we’re talking of more than 5,000 years of attention, so it seems. Fingernails are essentially flattened versions of claws, and they evolved in all primates (including humans) to support the fingertips. And they’ve become a rather handfull. Too little humidity and nails become brittle and break easily. Too much and they get twisting and shearing. It’s said that the perfect level is 55% humidity. In common language: never cut them just before (too dry) or after taking a shower or bath (too wet). The way to cut them is rather simple: short. 

With a few exceptions, like 68-year-old Lee Redmond, who hadn't cut her nails since 1979 and entered the Guinness World Records book in 2002 for longest fingernails on a woman, with the longest nail on her right thumb at 2 feet, 11 inches (88.9 centimeters). She has lost her nails recently in a car accident by the way. That’s a lot of storage waste, according a 2005 publication telling that secure optical data storage could soon literally be at your fingertips thanks to work being carried out in Japan. Yoshio Hayasaki of Tokushima University and colleagues have discovered that data can be written into a human fingernail by irradiating it with laser pulses. Capacities are said to be up to 5 mega bits and the stored data lasts for 6 months (the length of time it takes a fingernail to be completely replaced). 

Let’s put the spotlight on two longnailed birds today, the year 1898, when Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) sat down on the Forbidden City’s Dragon Throne, and remember Florence ‘Flojo’ Griffith born in 1959, Olympic champion, who died today, the year 1998. Image by Photobucket/bealwaysyourself99

Orbit Obliquity

September 20, 1633, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) got trialed before the Inquisition for teaching that the Earth orbits around the Sun. Although he had published an account in 1610 already stating a similar idea. At first imprisoned, he later got house arrest for the rest of his life. Like many times before, and after him, science has to struggle with a very lumbering view of people in power who refer to religious old writings, and stick to the one and only (home made) interpretation that suits them. Like in Galileo’s case, Western Christian biblical references, including text stating such as ‘the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved’, ‘the lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.’ And ‘the sun rises and sets and returns to its place’.

Not that Galilei never could be wrong. For instance, he dismissed the idea, held by his contemporary Johannes Kepler, that the moon caused the tides. Galileo also refused to accept Kepler's elliptical orbits of the planets, considering the circle the ‘perfect’ shape for planetary orbits.

And in his personal life he had a typical flaw as well. Although a pious Roman Catholic, Galileo fathered three children out of wedlock. His two daughters, Virginia and Livia, and one son, Vincenzo. Because of their illegitimate birth, he considered the girls unmarriageable. Their only worthy alternative was the religious life. Maybe that was a common and respected thing to do in his days. To me, that makes him a bit less a visionary. Perhaps staring too long into the restricted view of a telescope? Image by Photobucket/katjehim_photos

Peptides And Price Tags

Standing in front of the mirror, slapping some wrinkle cream on my face, a question came to mind: what was that stuff made of that I was applying right there? If we’re very particular and conscious about the food we eat, why not wonder about the cosmetic concoctions displayed in our bathroom? Once that’s nestled inside of my brain, I needed to know a bit more. The same way that I always like to know what I’m eating. The name ‘peptides’ was popping up in such a way, it couldn’t be ignored, that was very clear from the start. In short (I don’t want you to get wrinkles), these peptides are already present in our body, perform their functions, released into the bloodstream, having a hormonal activity. They cooperate with strings of polymers, next to in plastic bags, they also seem to be natural inside of us, like in DNA and proteins. Those strings contain amino-acids, building blocks of life and for instance used in the food industry as a flavor enhancer. And they were noticed by the French chemists Vauquelin and Robiquet in 1806, having isolated a compound in asparagus. (Mmm, that makes my mouth water already). So, no alarming bells are ringing, as far as I’m concerned. Oh, maybe there is one small detail not to be forgotten: the price tag for such a bottle seems to vary, without much difference in quality. Be a bit picky, and don’t be a thief of your own pocket. Image by Photobucket/ales35

Parrots And Pirates

September 19, 1959, during his 13 days stay in the USA, Russian president Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) got, to his utterly despair, barred from visiting Disneyland due to security concerns. I wonder the security of whom? The man who survived Stalin’s regime (by cooperating with him), who battered his shoe in a rage during a UN conference, the one who banned Pasternak’s ‘Doctor Zhivago’? The one who called avant garde art ‘dog shit’? Or the staff and visitors of Disneyland? He was considered an ill-tempered untrimmed bear. If he was a bit of a pirate, he might have liked John Bear’s and Mark Summers’ idea this day, starting in the 1990s of ‘Talk Like a Pirate Day’, when all should talk like a pirate? I’m not an expert in how a pirate should talk, but a lot of Nikita’s gaggle must be at close range? Lets end with a hyber-space-smile: the :-) This emoticon consisting of a colon/dash/bracket, was first used today, the year 1982 by Scott Falman, a professor at the Carnegie Melon University, Pennsylvania. Why don’t you get the Pirates Flag flying and have a nice weekend. Yoho, and a bottle of rum. If you don’t have lemon, melon will do (I think). ColonDashBracket! Image by Photobucket/lapsedlawyer

Brush Up Your Back Up

There’s another thing that crossed my mind lately, next to get a decent storage of my personal stuff. Maybe I better admit it wasn’t crossing my mind, but my right foot more like it: being busy with handling my computer, it slipped and just missed that foot by an inch. But it hit the floor. And my nerves. Instantly I felt the horror of having lost my just obtained internet connection. Or having witnessed a crash that would meant the end of certain data. This latest experience, together with the regular power failures we’re facing in the Philippines, has set the alarm bells. I really have to consider an online backup to store my files and pictures. USB sticks are fine, but can be easily lost and have limited space. To know that my files are safely stored somewhere else, that I got access to them all times, can share the pictures with a few friends without the obnoxious slow downloading, will get my blood pressure back to normal, and me working more relaxed and more effective. Let’s get this knot straight for once and for all! Image by Photobucket/JenRoe88

Domino’s Drift

September 18, 1873, USA, something I’d never heard of happened; ‘The Panic of 1873’. But to me it has similarities with the Credit Crunch we’ve been facing for some time. In those days, at the end of the Civil War, the railroad industry, at the time the nation's largest employer next of agriculture, involved huge amounts of money and risk. A large infusion of cash from speculators caused abnormal growth in the industry. While business was expanding, the actual money that banks needed to finance it was becoming more scarce, if excisting. It was this boom in railroad construction, with 35,000 miles of new track being laid across the country between 1866 and 1873, that triggered the bankrupty of one bank that dragged many others with it in its downfall.

This domino effect, causing the economy of the United States to collapse. The New York Stock Exchange closed for 10 days. Of the country's 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt. A total of 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875. Unemployment reached 14 percent by 1876. Today it’s not railroads but real estate, but it’s the same blind devouring hunger for more money and power of uncontrolled individuals that is still the engine for all-embracing disaster, especially now the pieces of domino only got bigger and even connected global wide. Image by Photobucket/krist2ps

Dumb-bells And Dotty Abdomen

For whatever reason, something made me start working out and try to re-shape my body two weeks ago. I know there’s something like compulsory eating, maybe there’s something that looks like compulsory dieting as well? Anyway, I decreased my daily portion of rice, swallowed a lot of glasses of water and skipped the dangerous snacks totally. All things considered, my figure isn't that bad, but there’s my bulging belly that needs attention. I even picked up the sit-up’s again, once abandoned in 1998. Some days later, a painful back made me decide to give them up again. I might be doing something wrong, or it’s my back to blame? These days, I’m walking around the mall looking for suitable and affordable fitness equipment. Because my budget and my room are pretty tight (and unfortunately not my belly), some good advice about exercises to beat the dotty abdomen and some basic dumb-bells is what I’m hoping for.

Wrath Of Wings

September 17, 1908, when Orville Wright (1871-1948) had done a few flights already at Fort Myer, Virginia, to demonstrate his aircraft for the Army, Thomas Selfridge (1882-1908) arranged to fly along as official observer while Orville piloted the craft. During the flight, at an altitude of 150 feet the plane lost its propeller, which damaged the wing. Orville managed to bring the plane down to 75 feet, but then it dove into the ground. Selfridge died wearing no helmet, becoming the first fatal victim of a powered aircraft. Orville Wright suffered severe injuries and was hospitalized for three months. Image by Photobucket/bburns1

A Moving Mystery

Not that long ago (I still feel a twitch of the nerves of my back sparkled by the sheer memory of it), I had to deal with a removal. And like many people, I just used whatever was available to dump my stuff in. By experience I knew it wasn’t the best of ideas. What happened is obvious: some fragile items got broken or damaged. Some others I haven’t traced yet. Next time, I better listen to some golden advice: like rebuildings, removals should be done well prepared and neatly organized. There was a time that people here in the Philippines were used to help each other with removals. If necessary, a whole house. Boxes were not needed then. Today’s equivalent is the versatility of a shipping box, its multitude of seizes that will protect even oddly measured items like mirrors and computers, or will store a whole wardrobe hanging nicely (even after the actual removal), is one of the next purchases I’m going to call my own. Oh, that reminds me: if one of you is missing a bunch of t-shirts (of mixed seizes and colors), that box might be here, waiting for you. It also contains an item that I can’t figure out, but I’m sure you can, being the rightful owner! Image by Photobucket/thejunctiondotnet

A Diva Detained

September 16, is not just the day that Maria ‘God-Given’ Callas (1923-1977) born in New World’s New York, but raised in Old World’s Greece, exchanged the Temporary for the Eternal, but it’s also the third day of the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries dealing with life and rewards after death, and related to Persephone of the underworld. Being abducted by Hades the god of the underworld, Persephone was forced to remain there for six months a year, to return to the world for another six, to become godess of spring, new life and fertility. Maria Callas, in her turn, was called by colleagues ‘..one who opened a new door to us, for all singers of the world, a door that had been closed’. Where her life has seen many tragedies that wouldn’t ashame many scriptwriters, her voice, not appriciated by all people for its beauty, reminds us time and again of at least the vitality of life, and is her afterlife reward. Image by Photobucket/esteblaz

Charming Calories

To start with what you got in actual or cyberspace hands, in search for a reliable fatburner that suits you best: the label. One can read the most exotic names coming from exotic places. To top off these Latin Charms, and get to the basics, what is there left in front of us, let’s say with apidexin, a fat burner that seems to have eight major ingredients. First, the fancy names: DiCaffeine Malate. ThermoDiamine. ForsLean. Fucoxanthin. GuggulEZ 100. Razberi-K. Lipolide-SC. Bioperine.

I didn’t want to shorten you this string of names given above, telling nothing much. There’s hardly any substantial information. I tried to make sense of it, have cut the bragging in between those names, easier than most of the people (who are looking for some help) will lose some pounds of fat. And was left emptyhanded. Instead, and I can advise everyone to do the same, I read some stories of people having tried, suffered and paid dearly. In layman’s lingo it comes down to this; a cup of coffee with a sniff of black pepper accompanied with a cake loaded with fresh raspberries and plums after a visit to the japanese massage parlor might come close to the promised pharmaceutical beneficials! And without all the side-effects. Or perhaps there is one: don’t forget to walk home, to be sure to burn all calories. But is the coffee and cake option not a much more charming and tasty idea? For sure it’s cheaper! Anyway, don’t be a Fruit Cake, have one! Image by Photobucket/lifetyme465

On Track Of Time

September 15, 1830, at the official opening of the Liverpool-Manchester Line in the UK, the first fatal accident of railway history happened when MP W. Huskisson (1770-1830), having stepped out of his carriage, was surprised by the speed of the coming back and forth steam engined loc ‘Rocket’, that was the centre of the occasion, got confused, tripped and was ran over. A clear unfortunate mishap, but details like the age and illness of the victim, his attention gone for just a split second, the slip of the shoe, could be the wooden beams to support a novel’s track for today’s birthday girl Agatha Christie (1890-1976) called ‘Queen of Crime’ and the world’s best selling and most translated writer of all times. 

In her 4 billion copies of novels, trains have been many times at the scene of the crime. The best known is ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, later filmed by Sidney Lumet in 1974 with the same name, starring people like Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall and Albert Finney. Other such trains that left her station of imagination were ‘Mystery of the Blue Train’ and ‘4.50 from Paddington’. Usually with Europe as the novel’s background, she made a few side tracks to places like Baghdad and at the end of her career, the Caribbean with ‘A Caribbean Mystery’ that was reviewed ‘... one of those gratifying veteran’s comebacks’. More or less on the dot, this day, 2008, I made my debut and published my first paid blog... it was about Barbados. Image by Photobucket/Robmacd

Nestling In A Network

To have made up your mind which direction you like or need to go, is usually already the outcome of many hours of comparison. To have done the pro’s and con’s. Very likely this counts for most matters in life, may it be personal or professional. Getting yourself prepared well means being informed well. The more you’re familiar with the issue, the better and faster you’ll get the information that is necessary. But what about the more unknown territories? Do you trust your instinct, or is it a wise thing to rely on other people’s experience and their network? It might sound scary; to rely on people you don’t know, but many professionals who we trust our lives with, rely on such networks each day. Think of airline pilots and air controllers. A bit similar to what they do, is a network of individual agents, companies and organizations that provide a safety net for anyone who’s doing insurance marketing. They got the overall picture of what’s going on, survey 24/7, take things out of your hands, keep you informed with the right data, adjust if necessary and deliver the service promised. Image by Photobucket/leszaoh

Movies On The Move

It doesn’t make any sense to be in denial that home entertainment has developed rapidly into many ways. And I welcome it. Honestly. The More the Merrier. Diversity is Devine. But it doesn’t mean that all the new branches of the tree of entertainment will eventually blossom to the fullest and richest. Or, perhaps, who will tell, there’s a season in the near future that they will flower, and will bear fruit as tasty as your lover’s butt. The way to watch movies for example, has become more extensive because of today’s technical innovations. But does it always mean ‘improvement’? That might be a rather personal matter. And it’s up to all of us and to our needs to get the answer. Think of the screens in airplane and car seats! Handy perhaps, but not to get one’s feet up!

To me, to watch movies means having a comfortable sit in front of a high definition wide screen accompanied and supported by hifi sound. All those things to knock me off my feet! If I wasn’t sitting nicely already. The idea to watch movies online brings instantly a narrowness, a little space in mind that I can’t associate with pleasure. Call it presumption if you like. But if I can treat myself a fast ride in a Ferrari, on a regular base, would I be satisfied with a ramshackle average Japanese car instead? Why would I get my eyes punished staring at some tiny computer screen? Harass my ears with some plops and bleeps? What’s the joy in that? Then again, do I always sit in that seat, in front of that screen, being that ‘obnoxious’? Frankly, no, I don’t. I do have my friends I like the company of.

And there, in this social network, there’s the beginning of something that looks like a flower, a blossom to me. Some ‘smaller gem’ can become handy here. If not in real person, to share the latest news (call it chit chat) with someone online, catch up with whatever has been on air, and to watch free movies or upload a few trinkets of myself, to get to know and watch others findings, that all and more, is what Movies Planet is all about: a movie lovers worldwide network. To interact with other movie addicts one usually wouldn’t meet. Now, that’s something I won’t have around, when I’m sitting and enjoying myself in that comfortable seat, in front of that wide screen! Image by Photobucket/Mix_Ice_Cream

A Flash Of Dracula

We all have heard of cookies, the small data files, that make it easier for us to log in and to save configurations. And probably we also know that those cookies can be little spies handing over some of our whereabouts on the world wide web. Very likely we trust our browser to keep them far enough of dipping into our ‘jar of too private honey’. And usually they do what we hope them to do. Some of the more technical bees among us will have taken extra precautions. Always using the latest updated ‘lock’ that’s available. Yet, according a recent American research, there’s a ‘Trojan Horse’ at our gates for quite some time being not really noticed. In fact, this horse seems to have rattled around our streets and walked into our homes, for a long time, and pretty easy. A whopping 98 out of each 100 of us have a tiny hole, or Achilles Heel if you like, left in our defence.

This horse has another name, perhaps ringing more bells of alarm, because we all make use of it watching video files: Adobe Flash. The built-in super cookie of A. Flash can contain 25 times more data, making his predecessor 4-byte-one a crumb of old bread. Where the old cookies have or had an expire date, the super cookies have none. And, ‘Oh Dracula!’, they even can revive the old cookies. And they seem to encapsulate themselves pretty neat and hard to trace. For some time to come we’ll have to check the dark corners and keep that hole as small as possible. Using what we have available, may it be a sharp silver pin or a crucifix! Image by Photobucket/Elvolganta

New York Nutters

September 13, is Programmer’s Day, a whimsical ‘holiday’ on the 256th day of the year celebrated mostly by computer programmers for the following reason: 256 = 2 to the power of 8 = the number of values representable in a byte of data). Their Treasured Traditions include drinking, behaving silly, coding silly programs and playing with old computers. So, let’s join them for a minute or two? For some reason I think that birthday girl Judith ‘Ms. Manners’ Martin (1938), American writer/columnist and watchdog for the etiquette, might not be happy with this fooling around, but hey, it’s Programmer’s Day! Let’s ‘chocolate-butter’ her up a bit and introduce her to two other guests of honour: Milton Hershey (1857-1945) founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company and Roald Dahl (1916-1990), writer of children’s books like ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

If that’s not helping, the next in line of the company will make her fingers get crossed in despair for sure: singer Randy ‘Cowboy’ Jones (1952) of the Village People. Before he starts the first line of YMCA, I gently move her to David Clayton-Thomas (1941) singer of Blood, Sweat and Tears. And that name brings us back in time, a way back indeed: this day, the year 490 BC, when Athens defeats Persia and a runner having delivered the first marathon ever, and the good news, dies on the spot. Before you say that this happened on the 12th of September, I like to remind you that it’s Programmer’s Day. Loosen up a bit.

You want some more facts? This day, the year 1970, was the first New York Marathon, also the day, the year 1788, that New York City became temporary capitol of the USA, and it was the day in the year 1899, that New York City got the first fatal car accident. Some Mr. Bliss lost his bliss. Today, the year 2009, New York City celebrates its 400th birthday. Ok, guys, stay all together, please... mind the traffic, no, we’re not going to the YMCA, ‘Hi-de-Ho’ to you too David, who put this melted chocolate bar in my handbag?... Judith?... Judith!... darn, she has left already! Image by Photobucket/evilvztwigz

Beneficial Buddies

There’s some contradiction in a harness buddy: it’s purpose is to limit the freedom of movement, and at the same time to give freedom of movement. But the final goal is to serve ‘both ends’: the toddler and the accompanying parent. In some cases; a pet and its owner. So, there it is: an intermediate with the qualities to satisfy the ‘pulling side’ and the ‘pushing side’. Needless to say, all mentioned parties above can be pulling or pushing. Not necessarily in this particular and consistent order. To the despair of the ‘connected’ party. It’s clip and clear, the buddy needs to be reliable, strong and flexible. For some it’s a statement or a fashionable item. But what it needs is the appearance of a kind of casual ‘looseness’, to prevent other two-or-four-legged-creatures to monkey about with our illustrious couple having walkies. If that’s the case, the interfering monkey-abouts can experience the Law of Gravity, if the couple co-operates (for once); rounding them up with the line at the required (ankle)height, and pull. After the dust has disappeared, the bruised knees rubbed and the upcoming black eye has been kissed to a halt, it’s just a circle of buddies left, having shared the experience, otherwise would have remained strangers to each other. Image by Photobucket/chezcake4rk

Nine Eleven

...and through the darkness, there was light...

Wounds, Weights And Waists

September 10, 1898, in Geneva, Switzerland, the Empress of Austria Elisabeth of Bavaria aka 'Sisi' (1837-1898), was stabbed in the heart by young anarchist Luigi Lucheni. The strong pressure from her corset kept her and her staff unaware of the severity of her condition, and kept the bleeding back, until the corset was removed. She was known for her unconventional mind, beauty and fashion sense. To maintain her 20 inch waistline she followed a diet and exercise regime that brought her, what we call today, anorexia. 

It’s also the birthday of another Fashion Icon being familiar with wasp-waists and High Society: Karl Lagerfeld, the year 1938. In his turn known for his knowledge of fashion through the centuries and unconventional outfits. Less known, or perhaps even a (public) secret, is his loss of weight of about 92 pounds (42kg) in just 13 months, although there’s a book called the Lagerfeld Diet. I’m sure Sisi would had been interested in that book, having it on the shelf.

At a more modest catwalk: inventor Elias Howe (1819-1867), who patented the sewing machine today, the year 1846. And it must be said, others had been working on this invention that would change the fashion industry quite a bit already, among them Walter Hunt (1796-1859) inventor of the fountain pen, safety pin and nail making machine. The latter brings the circle to a close, or the tape-measurer around the waist: it was a sharpened file that killed appearance-addict Sisi. Image by Photobucket/primipuspita

September To Remember

This September could become a month to Remember with that world wide sale going on that always get launched this time of year till the spirit of Christmas is among us. It’s the time when we usually can count on the quality and diversity of the sales down there. It is the best way to have a huge rewarding range of beneficial savings for items of extra ordinary quality. I myself have already started listing down a handful of the things that I like to purchase and to give on the day of sharing our blessings. Why don’t you, you name it, they’ll have it.

Bugs, Bats And Boats

September 9, 1839, John Herschel (1792-1871) mathematician, chemist and ‘one of our greatest philosophers’ by Charles Darwin (yes, the one who got on board of the ‘Beagle’), takes the first glass plate photograph. He used to make copies of his notes making use of the photosensitivity of iron salts, a process called cyanotype. This is also regarded as the precursor of the blueprint. He discovered sodium thiosulfate to be a solvent of silver halides in 1819, and informed Talbot and Daguerre of his discovery that this hyposulphite of soda or ‘hypo’ could be used to ‘fix’ pictures and make them permanent. Fortunately not very permanent, was the publication of the 1835 New York Sun satiric series ‘the Great Moon Hoax’, with statements falsely attributed to Herschel about his supposed discoveries of animals living on the Moon, including batlike winged humanoids.

Also today, the year 1945, that Grace Hopper (1906-1992) US Navy rear admiral and early computer programmer, Cobol’s Cantor and known for her explanations of the nanosecond, while working on a Mark II computer at Harvard University, discovered a moth stuck in a relay impeding the operation, and remarked that they were ‘debugging’ the system. Allthough the term 'bug' cannot be attributed to Hopper, this did make the term ‘computer bug’ popular.

It’s also the birthday of William Bligh (1754-1817) vice admiral and ‘bugged’ captain of the HMS ‘Bounty’. Thanks to his craftmanship he managed to cross the more than 6,000 km to Timor in a dinky, to become, eventually, governor of New South Wales, Australia... where he had to face another bat flying in his face: the Rum Rebellion. Happy birthday and a bottle of rum to you, dear William! Image by Photobucket/salfordskyline

Two-toned Cars, Translucent Tapes

September 8, 1930, Richard Drew (1899-1980) working for a manufacturer of sandpaper, intrigued to find a solution for the very popular but hard to do two-tone car paintjob in the 1920s introduced the world's first transparent cellophane adhesive tape, better known as the Scotch Tape. Next to the fact that people started to use it for any kind of repairing job during the Depression, there’s another Twist of the Tape to tell. 

In 1953, Russian scientists showed that peeling a roll of Scotch Tape in a vacuum can produce X-rays. And in 2008, American scientists showed the rays can be strong enough to leave an X-ray image of a finger on photographic paper. ‘Triboluminescence’ is the name, and it’s an optical phenomenon not fully understood, but appears to be caused by the separation and reunification of electrical charges. If you like, you can witness it yourself by removing ice from your freezer in a darkened room, under conditions in which the ice makes cracking sounds from sudden thermal expansion. If the ambient light is dim enough, flashes of white light from the cracking ice can be observed.

Don’t think it’s nothing but science fiction; the Ute Indians from Central Colorado constructed special ceremonial rattles made from buffalo rawhide which they filled with clear quartz crystals collected from the mountains of Colorado and Utah. When the rattles were shaken at night during ceremonies, the friction and mechanical stress of the quartz crystals impacting together produced flashes of light visible through the translucent buffalo hide. Talking of science fiction, on this day, the year 1966, the first episode of the sf-tv series Star Trek got on air. That’s quite old, and who knows, how many people have used Scotch Tape to keep the old VHS and Betamax videotapes together. Image by Photobucket/jtbaptist_2006

Bytes, Brains And Books

September 7, 1998, Google got founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Both born in 1973 and being students at the Stanford University, they crammed their room with cheap computers, linked them to their own designed data system and finally gave birth to the search engine we all use today, at times with a smile or a tear? With all good intentions of scientists and engineers at any time, they too could have to face a Frankenstein unleashed. In fact, the monster has showed a glimpse of a new face already: Google Earth. It must be the Wet Dream of many a spy of the past century? It already has led to some controversy and censorship. And what to think of the latest ‘baby’, Google’s Book Search? To start such an overwhelming project that contains millions of titles of books, hundreds of millions of metadata that should be available to very different groups of people with their own way of working, purposes and needs, from all over the globe… isn’t that a bit smelling of a too big ego? Or is that the smell of something burning in the boys’ lab?

Again, the intention might be right, like Brin himself has said: "We just feel this is part of our core mission. There is fantastic information in books. Often when I do a search, what is in a book is miles ahead of what I find on a Web site." Maybe there’s the Rub: that books and bytes aren’t of the same matter? That bytes can’t beat books? Why not leave books to the warm blooded and soft spotted ‘librarians’ among us? Let them tell the nerds how to use those technical possibilities they come up with. It’s feared that Google’s position will lead to global monopoly, and its accessibility will be restricted and the privacy of the users will be violated. (George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is coming in mind here!) But let’s remain optimistic, let’s buy the idea and wish that the young dogs will be corrected by the older, more book loving ones, who also know the value and the importance of getting the right information. Google's own motto, of making all the world's information 'universally accessible and useful’ should be high on the agenda of its managers, or even encapsulated in the brain. Image by Photobucket/mzcarlet_photo

Beards Don’t Get Me Banana’s

September 5, 1698, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, in an effort to move his people away from archaic customs, imposed a tax on wearing beards. Except priests and peasants, men had to pay an annual fee of 100 roeble. With a bit of research, I found the same tsar reformed the currency in 1704, bringing the roeble to the equivalent of 28 grams of silver! In other words, beardwearing men had to pay almost 3kg of silver to Mother Russia each year! I’m not sure how successfull this tax has been, and how dear Peter has checked the streets, but the popularity of beards, like most utterances of personal expression, always have been going up and down (in esteem), short and long, flambyoant and minimalistic. It was another ‘Great’, Alexander, who ordered to go to battle clean shaved, or else the enemy might grab the beard and slice it, with the Macedonian throat still attached to it. Egyptian pharao’s, male and female, were proudly wearing fake beards (or better, goatties). Victorian scientists were wearing them. Also some Victorian ‘women with beards’ seem to have been around. Does it make me sad, now beards are leading a more secluded life? No, the only time I’m sitting on the lap of a bearded man, is around Xmas, I bet you now the guy! I wish you all a nice weekend, be careful with frying the eggs though! Image by Photobucket/LittleCaves

Brogues And Buttons

September 4, 1609, English navigator Henry Hudson, on his way to find an easterly passage to Asia, on the payroll of the Dutch East India Company, being forced by the incoming northern polar ice, sails down the Hudson River into what today’s New York City, and discovers the island of Manhattan. Birth and death of Hudson are not known, it’s suspected he got killed by his crew in 1611 on another expedition. 

Much more light was in that same region seen this day, the year 1882, when Edison’s power station lit New York’s Pearl Street, Lower Manhattan, for the very first time by electricity. This is also the day, the year 1894, that New York’s streets got crammed with 12,000 brogue-shoed-tailors protesting the conditions in sweat shops. I’m sure, the lack of electricity was not to blame for that? But the number of them got me thinking... in the 1860s New York City had about 800,000 inhabitants, that’s roughly 1 tailor for each 700 New Yorkers. That’s a lot of buttons for one pair of hands. 

Another button could be pressed this day, the year 1888, when born New Yorker George Eastman (1854-1932) got the trademark Kodak registered, and his camera with roll film patented. By 1896, 100 Kodak cameras for 25 dollars per piece had been sold. Not many of those tailors must have got one? Because it wasn't all glamour in the Big Apple those days. In an effort to bring photography to the masses, Eastman introduced the Brownie in 1900 at a price of just 1 dollar. That pushed a lot more buttons, and became a success. Image by Photobucket/kac039

Two Trains Transit

September 3, is a day that two very different people, living in a different world and continent, even in a different century, take the train, on their track of destiny. It’s the year 1838, when slave-on-the-run, future abolitionist, editor and writer Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), wearing a sailor’s outfit and having frauded papers on him escapes, and will be eventually become the first African American to receive in 1880 a vote for the presidency of the United States. And the author of the 1845 biography ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’. The second person, got on board of another train, this same day, the year 1944, and perhaps ‘dressed’ with a yellow star, bringing her and her family, on what would be the last transport train from the Dutch Westerbork to Polish Auschwitz. Her name is Anne Frank (1929-1945), aknowledged writer (of 'The Secret Annex') in the days she would not witness. Both such freedom minded humanists and believers in the equality of all people and eloquent writers, that both were denied to be able to have written such marbles of literature. Where Douglass got out of that train, and walked into a new life, Frank was less fortunate: 7 months after she got out of her train, she died in death camp Bergen-Belsen, just a few weeks before it got liberated. Image by Photobucket/sarahbethsb

A Toss Of The Tummy

The moment I got the mirror unpacked and back on the wall, my (short) days of (semi) divine ignorance were over! Well, maybe that’s a bit aside the truth: my tummy has proportions that are very hard to be left out. And I’ve growled downward a few times. And as many times it has growled back to me. I’m still figuring out what’s the weakest part of me: my body or my mind? And does it make a real difference? I’m inclined to say ‘no’. At least I’ve got this far: I’m convinced it’s vital to exercise the muscles and the brain, in order to get those two working together and get rewarded with a tight tummy again. I’m aware small lifestyle changes are much better and easier to digest, to make my own. I know the few weight loss products that fit me best. The map with the variety of diets, I have experienced, the same with the number of mistakes that followed. I’ve got a few tricks at hand, some of them are tasteful, some are.. well, less... so, what am I waiting for? Let’s get Rollin’! Image by Photobucket/jazzy1586

Rowdy Or Royalty?

September 2, 1967 saw the light of a very exceptional day: the declaration of independence of the micronation of The Principality of Sealand. Constructed on ‘Roughs Tower’ in 1942 by the UK, being an abandoned world war II offshore fortress in the North Sea, a stone throw 6 miles off the coast of Suffolk England, its 550m2 got occupied and claimed by Paddy Roy Bates, a British subject and a pirate radio broadcaster. At that time, the UK claimed territorial waters of three nautical miles from its coast. In other words, ‘Roughs Tower’ was in international waters, outside the territorial jurisdiction of any state.

Like many nations, Sealand got its share of scrimmages. In 1968, under the veil of ‘repairing’ a nearby buoy, the British navy (perhaps) attempted to evict Roughs Tower’s inhabitants. Prince Roy responded by firing several shots at the vessels, and as a result was summoned to a British court. For 15 years, the UK government continued to harass the occupants of Sealand with litigations involving payment of social security taxes, television licensing, and other matters, but the court has consistently ruled Sealand was not a part of the United Kingdom. In 1978, while self acclaimed Prince Roy was away, something that could come close to a palace revolt stirred up: a handful of men forcibly took over Roughs Tower and held Prince Roy's son Michael captive, releasing him several days later in the Netherlands. In a contemporary Charge of the (not that) Light Brigade, including a helicopter, Roy retook the fortress. Imprisoned the invaders, claiming them as POW’s, and released them after several weeks.

Sealand has several ancillary features of a state, including a constitution, a flag, a national anthem and motto, postage stamps and forged Sealand passports (genuine passports are not for sale) have been widely sold and have been involved in several high-profile crimes, including the murder of Gianni Versace. If you’re charmed by the idea of having your own throne to sit on: legal quandaries similar to the statehood of Sealand are no longer possible today. If you like to book a holiday to the Principality, they don’t have a telephone line, as far as I know. But with a population of around 17, they might have a room for you just the same. Image by Photobucket/harrysoxfordlady

Frisky Frolics And Facts

September 1, 1902, the real first (fantasy) film ‘A Trip to the Moon’ got released by the French director/producer and former magician Georges Melies (1861-1938). He made more than 500 films, most of them got recycled or destroyed in the first world war. The film is loosely based on Jules Verne’s 1865 ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ and H.G. Well’s 1901 ‘First Men in the Moon’. In that same year 1901, Wells didn’t see any aircraft in the air before 1950, or submarines doing more than ‘suffocate the crew’. But he predicted the second world war in the early thirties. Some of Verne’s ideas were more surprisingly accurate, seen the lack of data of the time. In his books he mentions all kinds of inventions, like aircon, cars, internet, tv and projectors. Also helicopters and submarines, but these were mentioned and drawned by no-one less than DaVinci already, some lightyears ahead of him. Image by Photobucket/gerbero