Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Cab Thoughts 5/7/14

"What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say."--Emerson



Notes, hand and computer: "Prior studies have primarily focused on students' capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops. The present research suggests that even when laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing. In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers' tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning." Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University in "Psychological Science"

In 1704, a minor playwright named John Dennis came up with a new sound-effect for his play, Liberty Asserted. At the Drury Lane Theatre that year a backstage helper rattled sheets of metal to generate the sound of thunder. The play failed and Macbeth was inserted into the schedule. They used Dennis' thunder technique in the Shakespeare play as well and Dennis complained. Thus was born the phrase "to steal my thunder."

A number of sad stories are coming out of the sunken Korean ferry story but the important one is this: During the crisis the crew told the children to stay in their cabins. Most of those who obeyed died. Many of those who ignored or did not hear the instructions and went out on deck were rescued. As uncertain as our world is, the advice of experts often seems to make it only more so.

Who was....Valerie Solanas?

A British study, which looks at the ways "cultural engagement" affects overall wellbeing, concluded that a significant association was found between frequent library use and reported wellbeing. The same was true of dancing, swimming and going to plays.

Some of the country’s biggest Democratic donors — including Tom Steyer and Jonathan Soros — are huddling behind closed doors in Chicago with union bigwigs and progressive superstars like Bill de Blasio to plan how to pull their party — and the country — to the left. Democracy Alliance partners, as the group calls its members, pay annual dues of $30,000 and are required to contribute a total of at least $200,000 a year to recommended groups. Since its inception in 2005, the DA has steered upward of $500 million to a range of groups, including pillars of the political left such as the conservative media watchdog Media Matters, the policy advocacy outfit Center for American Progress and the data firm Catalist — all of which are run by Clinton allies. Steyer, the San Francisco hedge fund billionaire trying to raise money for a planned $100-million midterm spending spree on behalf of environmentally minded candidates. (Politico)

Stephen King threw away the manuscript of his first novel, Carrie. His wife retrieved it and it was later published.

Weightlessness makes astronauts lose taste and smell in space. In the absence of gravity, molecules cannot be volatile, so few of them get into our noses deeply enough to register as odors. This is a problem for nutritionists designing space food. Much of the taste of food depends on its smell; some chemists have gone so far as to claim that wine is simply a tasteless liquid that is deeply fragrant. We taste only four flavors: sweet, sour, salt, and bitter. That means that everything else we call 'flavor' is really 'odor.' (Natural History of the Senses by Ackerman)
 
 
The Business Times reports, sixty per cent of underground water in China which is officially monitored is too polluted to drink directly, state media have reported, underlining the country's grave environmental problems.

Golden oldie:
 
 
We are, for some reason, morally opposed to voter ID. A February 2012 report by the Pew Research Center on the States, "Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient: Evidence That America's Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade," found that 1.8 million deceased registrants were listed as active voters, and that 2.75 million voters had active registrations in more than one state. Apparently we are, nonetheless, confident we have no electoral fraud--this according to incumbents. In his biography of Truman, Robert Ferrell has reported that a single house at 912 Tracy Street managed to produce 141 voters, and a vacant lot at 700 Main Street yielded 112 voters. The Second District, with a population of 18,478, brought in 19,202 votes for the Democrat ticket, 12 for the opposition. The total Kansas City vote had 200,000 more voters than its actual population. When Truman ran for the Senate, the Second District gave him 15,145 votes, to 24 for his oppo­nent.
We are probably a lot different now.

Trucking statistics show the industry burns 28 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year in the US alone. That works out to an average of over 10,000 gallons per truck per year. For the long-haul segment the fuel burn is 20,000 to 35,000 gallons per truck per year.

After Fischer, the world chess domination returned to the Russians. Then the chess crown was won by an Indian, Viswanathan Anand. He held it for six years until he was unseated by Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. Chess experts say the internationalization of chess is a function of the computer. ChessBase is one of the game's leading databases founded in 1986. ChessBase gives its users access to thousands of games, historical and modern, enabling them to hone their skills and analyze opponents' tendencies. Carlsen, who was born in 1990, has been able to hone his skills at home by playing online against opponents all over the world.

Fury: n. Intense, uncontrollable anger. In Greek mythology the Furies were the avengers of crimes, particularly murder. They haunted, chased and tormented offenders and are a crucial element in the Orestes story where they hunt him after he avenges his father's murder by killing his mother, Clytemnestra. As time ahas passed, some believe the Furies represent one's own tormented conscious.

AAAAAaaaannnndddd....a picture created by ZeroHedge depicting the volume of available water in the world relative to the world's surface area. It's a sphere about 860 miles in diameter, or roughly the distance from Salt Lake City to Topeka. The smaller sphere, over Kentucky, is the fresh water in the ground and in lakes, rivers, and swamps. The tiny dot over Georgia is the fresh water in lakes and rivers.

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