I’ve only been a dad for a few weeks, so I can’t provide any anecdotal evidence on this one. Thankfully, a much more scientific source is available. The British Medical Journal has published a study that concludes: sugar does not make children hyperactive.

Of course, we’ve all heard this myth. There are even some parents who give their kids pixie stix, hoping it will give them more energy:

However, the results from at least 12 double blind randomized controlled trials have shown that there is no noticeable difference in a child’s behavior regardless of how much sugar they have consumed. Even kids who are considered “sensitive” to sugar or have attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder are not more hyper after consuming sugar.

There does appear to be a placebo effect though. The study indicated parents do rate their children as more hyperactive after their child has consumed what appears to be a sugary drink, even if the drink was in fact sugar free.

That’s food for thought.

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Image: Louise Ferrari (cc)

Source: British Medical Journal

Although aqueducts were used as far back as the 7th century BC, the first known “pipeline” was built in 1595 to carry salt water. At 40 km (25 miles) in length, it was made from 13,000 hollowed tree trunks.

Today, some of our most valuable resources are carried by pipeline: water, oil, natural gas, and even beer. Yes, there is a beer pipeline. Actually, there are at least two beer pipelines.

A 5 km (3 mile) beer pipeline supplies all of the bars within Germany’s Veltins-Arena, a large football (soccer) stadium. The pipeline is connected to a central tank, allowing for fast distribution during busy times.

In Randers Denmark, the bars and restaurants in the entertainment district are connected by a beer pipeline that once connected directly to the brewery. When the brewery left town, it was replaced by a large tank that now feeds the pipeline.

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Photo: Travis S (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (Pipeline Transport, Aqueduct), arrivalguides.com

Have you ever worn out a magnetic card? You can ask your bank for a new one but it usually takes a few days. In the meantime, you can put a piece of clear tape or use some receipt paper from the cashier to cover the magnetic stripe while the card is swiped.

Usually, the cashier will do this for you, but if not then you can ask them to try it. Some may even use a plastic bag, but any thin barrier may work. Be sure it’s very thin so it doesn’t get jammed in the card reader.

Many people know about this little trick; the real secret is why it works…

As a magnetic card gets used, the magnetically charged particles get smeared. This smearing repeated many times creates  magnetic noise which distorts the data when read. The magnetic strength of the noise is low enough that a small barrier can block or reduce it enough to get a proper reading from the card.

For a bit of anecdotal evidence, I worked retail back in college and I used this trick hundreds of times — it worked nearly every time.

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Sources: creditcards.com, wired magazine (Nov 2011)

The weather is starting to change in many parts of the world so this may be when you start to look at new tires for your car.

Tire specs can be confusing, but it’s just like replacing a vehicle fuse, light bulb or most other car parts — you look at the model number or specifications of the current one and you try to find another one just like it. The confusing part about tires is that you have more options; slightly different sizes, treads and styles are likely compatible with your wheels.

Understanding what the numbers mean will help you make the best decision about new tires.

Because the tread and maintenance of your tires is so important to your safety, fuel economy, and performance, it’s very important that you buy tires that are suitable for your climate and performance needs.

Just so there is no confusion, the word “tire” refers to the rubber that touches the ground. The tire is stretched around the metal “wheel” or “rim”. Some of this confusion comes from the phrase, “changing a tire.” When you change a tire at the side of the road, you typically change a wheel (that has a tire wrapped around it).

The manufacturer of your car will provide a recommended tire size for your car. It can usually be found in the manual or on the inside of the driver’s door frame (the suggested tire pressure is also listed here). You can also just look at one of the tires on your car, it will usually have all of the specifications on the side wall of the tire. It should look something like this: P215/45R17. If none of these options help, TireRack.com has a tool that will let you enter your car make/model/year and it will tell you which tires and wheels will fit on your car.

The first letter or pair of letters in the tire size (P215/45R17) tells you if the tire is meant for a Passenger car, Truck, Light Truck, Commercial vehicle or a couple other special cases.

The first set of numbers (P215/45R17) indicates the section width of the tire in millimeters. Without getting too technical, this is basically the width of the tire.

The next number is the sidewall aspect ratio. It represents the height of the tire — the distance between the outer edge of the wheel and the tread of the tire. This distance is measured as a percentage of the section width. In the example set (P215/45R17), the sidewall height is 45% of the tire width. Since the width was 215 mm, 45% of that is 97 mm.

If you’re replacing tires and you want to mount them on your existing wheels/rims then the wheel diameter and the section width need to match your rim. The wheel diameter is usually the last number in the tire size. In our example (P215/45R17), the last number is 17, which means the wheel diameter is 17 inches.

You may also notice the “Z” in the photo above. This is a speed rating. It’s not found on most tires, unless they are Z-rated. Z-rated means the tire is designed for faster speeds — they are generally harder tires which handle better at high speeds while “slower” tires are softer and provide a more cushioned ride.

Since we’re talking about tires, make sure you know what the tire pressure warning light looks like. About 33% of drivers don’t know what it looks like and it could save your life.

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Sources: TireRack.com 1, NHTSA, How Stuff Works, TireRack.com 2, TunerTools.com

Finding the shelf life or expiry date on something in your fridge can be challenging. It’s much easier to find the product life on personal items like shampoo, mouthwash, body wash, cosmetics, etc. You won’t find it on all products of this type in North America, but it is a requirement in Europe so you will see it on many products that share global packaging.

The “Period After Opening Symbol” is a standard icon that indicates how many months (M) or years (Y) the product is good after opening. The product must remain harmless to its user within this period.

Now, you just have to remember when you opened it.

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Sources: wikipedia (PAOS)

I saw the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird at an air-show on the west coast in 1986. When the announcer introduced the jet, he indicated the plane had left New York about an hour earlier. A similar flight would take more than 5 hours on a commercial jet, but the SR-71 Blackbird is capable of traveling at over 2,200 mph (3530 km/h). As a kid and now as an adult, this blows my mind.

Although it was retired in 1998, it still holds the record for fastest jet powered aircraft, which it achieved in 1976. It was so fast that the standard procedure for missile defense was to simply accelerate and outrun the missile.

At about $33 million, the plane was expensive for its time. This was partly because its structure was 85% titanium. Much of the titanium was acquired from Russia during the cold war no less. The titanium was procured under many false pretenses to hide its true use from the Soviet government.

Titanium was needed to withstand the extreme heat generated by the high speeds. Over time, engineers discovered that the titanium skin was actually becoming stronger due to the extreme heat it was exposed to during flight. The exterior was painted a very dark blue color, so dark it actually looks black. This color was selected to increase the emission of internal heat and to offer camouflage at night, not to mention its body was designed to reduce its radar signature, so it could hide in the “black” on radar.

Only 32 of these jets were ever built. Twelve were lost in accidents; the other 20 remain in museums around the United States, except for one which lives in the American Air Museum at the Imperial War Museum Duxford (Cambridgeshire, England).

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Image: wikimedia commons, US Gov (public domain)

Sources: wikipedia (SR-71)

The more new things I learn, the more I realize how little we truly know about our world. Although we’ve made incredible discoveries and developed amazing technology, many things have yet be explained. Throughout history, supernatural beings have been used to explain the otherwise unexplainable. Serial murder is one unusual example.

When a string of brutal murders happened in pre-modern times, it was not attributed to a person, but rather a supernatural force. This was particularly true when the murders appeared to be done in a similar or ritualistic manner.

In 16th century Europe, stories of vampires and werewolves became intertwined with serial murder cases. One legendary character is the werewolf who is associated with brutal mutilations during full moons.

In the year 1573, a French man was arrested for a series of gruesome attacks and murders that included strangulation and cannibalism. The court took him very seriously when he claimed that he was a werewolf. Although he was punished, this was a legitimate explanation for his crimes.

Another famous werewolf was Peter Stumpp, a German farmer executed in 1589 for his killing and cannibalization of sixteen people. He confessed to practicing black magic which he claims earned him a magic belt from the devil. The belt allegedly gave him the ability to morph into a wolf who could devour animals and humans. This earned him the nickname, “The Werewolf of Bedburg.”

Because of his alleged supernatural powers, people were very  worried that he would return from the grave, so his execution was particularly gruesome. They sentenced him to the wheel where flesh was torn from his body, then they broke his bones with an axe before they beheaded and burned his body — you know, just to be sure he was dead.

Do you believe in any supernatural beings? Leave a comment…

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Sources: scribd.com, wikipedia (serial killer. Peter Stumpp)

FedEx Express currently owns 697 airplanes, with another 48 on order. That makes FedEx the 6th largest airline by fleet size. They operate more Airbus 300 and 310 airplanes than any other airline and there are only five airlines with more planes than FedEx.

1. Delta Air Lines
2. SkyWest
3. United Airlines
4. Lufthansa
5. Southwest Airlines

The next five airlines after FedEx are: American Airlines, Air France-KLM, International Airlines Group, Air Canada, and Chine Southern Airlines.

The FedEx airfreight concept was dreamt up by Fred Smith who wrote a college paper proposing the idea. His professor gave the paper a ‘C’ grade and that’s kind of how the company started out in 1971.

At one point, the company was losing up to a million US dollars per month. Smith tried to raise capital from General Dynamics, who turned him down. While waiting for his flight home to Memphis, he decided to take a detour to Las Vegas where he won $27,000 — enabling the company to make payroll the week after.

That gave him enough time to raise between $50 and $70 million in additional funding. By 1976, it was a profitable company that set many trends in the industry. They were the first shipping company to computerize and offer parcel tracking. In 1994, they were the first shipping company offer online tracking.

Tip: Enter a FedEx, UPS or USPS tracking number in google and you’ll get a link to the tracking info.

Fedex’s largest customer is actually the US Postal Service. This is a bit strange since FedEx introduced its overnight mail service in 1981 to compete directly with the USPS’s express mail service. But, in 2001, FedEx signed a deal to carry Express and Priority Mail for the USPS — that contract has been extended to 2013.

Last but not least, the FedEx logo has an arrow between the letters “E” an “x”.

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Sources: wikipedia (world’s largest airlines, fedex)

Perhaps this is why they call them “Blender Jars” — the thread on the bottom of the jar is the same as a mason jar. That means you can remove the blade assembly from your large blender jar and attach it to a mason jar for small recipes, quick smoothies, baby food, etc.

If you’ve already got a blender, that’s just a few dollars in mason jars. Otherwise, you could shell out $50 for a magic bullet:

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I’ve been saving hotel key cards for years because I want to see exactly what is on them.

Years ago, somebody told me that hotel room access cards contained personal info and credit card data. The rumor was that this info was necessary for you to charge items to your room during your stay.

I recently got my hands on a magnetic card reader and started swiping all my old cards. The results fit into three categories.

1. 77% of all the cards could not be read at all. This should not be a surprise to anyone who has ever stayed in a hotel with magnetic card keys; some are notoriously poor at holding their magnetic charge. Another reason they may appear blank is that some systems use non-standard data encoding which make it difficult for an ISO card reader to extract information. Whether the charge is weak, distorted or proprietary, specialized card readers may be able to extract data from these cards. Still, that data would likely fall into one of the two following categories.

2. The information on the card is encrypted or written in a proprietary format. 8% of the cards did yield data of this sort. This makes it extremely difficult to see the meaningful data. Even if you could decode the data, it would still likely fall into category three.

3. Most of the data on the card is unreadable to humans. The other 15% of cards were in this group. The only numbers that could be recognized on any given hotel card were the expiration date, which I was able to match up with my checkout dates from old travel confirmation emails. The expiration date is used by the door lock to ignore your card after you’re supposed to be checked out. If you’ve ever tried to get back into your room after checkout time, you have seen this in action.

Here’s what the data on a hotel card looks like. I highlighted the expiration date which is in yy/mm/dd format:

1122725628023063=1012051500001742

From my research, the remaining numbers on the card can include the room number itself, although I didn’t see any cards where this number was evident, along with a code the door lock uses to grant access to the room and sometimes a code used for billing charges to your room. Generally, the door locks are battery powered and don’t have a link to the reservation computer — the key cards are the only external source of data used to unlock the door.

In many cases, if you watch the hotel employee program your card at check-in they use a standalone device that is completely separate from their computer system. The room number, nights of stay and number of cards being issued are punched in before they program your card. If the card programer is integrated with the computer system then it’s likely just to improve speed and reduce human error since the agent wouldn’t have to manually enter your room data.

Card programmers that integrate with the computer system are also popular at resorts where the key card can be used to make room charges. Your actual credit card info is not on the card. That is against the policy of most credit card companies, not to mention it’s unnecessary. As long as the card identifies you, the charges can be added to your bill. I scanned a couple resort cards which could be used for room charges and found no personal data.

The door locks themselves often store a log of which keys accessed the room and when. So, you should still treat your card with care and let the staff know if it’s lost or stolen. You wouldn’t want somebody else to access your room with your key since the log just knows which key was used, not who used it. The hotel staff typically have a unique key so they can be differentiated from you in the log.

The idea that these cards do contain personal info seems to be a myth perpetuated by a misunderstanding of a credit card fraud presentation that suggested any type of magnetic card could be programmed with stolen credit card info. That said, there are some specific claims of personal info being found on hotel key cards. The Pasadena, California police department mentioned one case in it’s retraction about a previous email indicating hotel key cards could be an identity theft risk. The other case was reported by Robert L Mitchell at Computerworld. For legal and business reasons, his source could not provide proof or indicate the names of the hotels where he claimed to find personal info on the key cards.

There is truth to the idea that the cards could have personal data written to them. Technically, you could write any type of data to magnetic cards. In fact, I scanned every magnetic card I could find: credit, debit, loyalty club, membership, etc. All of my bank related cards and one of my airline loyalty cards did have my full name programmed into the magnetic strip.

I wasn’t too worried about that since my name is also on the front of these cards for anyone to read. I shred anything personally identifiable before I throw it out and these cards would be no different. I didn’t find any cards with any personal info magnetically programmed on them that wasn’t also on the front.

All of my results, including the exact percentage of readable cards, match up with Robert L Mitchell’s findings at Computerworld.com. Robert interviewed a number of industry experts and they stated that it is extremely unlikely that any travelers in the US would find personal private information on their hotel key cards. That’s not to say it’s impossible, but they weren’t convinced the probability was high enough for anybody to worry about it.

While most experts agree that current systems are likely very secure, there is suspicion in the industry that very old card key access systems from years past may not have been as secure and these systems may have included personal information on the cards. Although there are a couple unproven claims to the contrary, I cannot find any demonstrable proof that hotel key cards have any personal info on them.

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Sources: nytimes, consumer affairs, Computerworld (2005, 2006), snopes.com

In South Korea, it is a commonly held belief that an electric fan can cause death if it is blowing on you overnight in a closed room.

To prevent “fan death”, the Korean government’s Consumer Protection Board urges everyone to leave a door or window open and use the oscillate function or a timer that automatically shuts the fan off. They also list fan death as one of the top five fatal summer accidents.

The exact origin of this phenomenon is not known for sure, although it allegedly emerged in the 1970s. Some people believe the Korean government may have created this ideology in an effort to save energy during the energy crisis. Oh, and fan death is not limited to just fans, it also includes air conditioners.

South Korean media outlets credit fans and air conditioners for deaths too. In fact, between 2003 and 2005, some 20 deaths were reported to Korea’s Consumer Injury Surveillance System.

Many experts in South Korea firmly believe in fan death, including respected doctors and scientists. South Koreans don’t always agree on why fans can cause death but the following theories are often cited.

Hypothermia is a common one. It’s true that if your body temperature drops low enough, you can die. However, experts claim your body temperature needs to drop by about 16°F (10°C) for this to happen. Since fans don’t actually cool the air, it is not plausible that a fan could cause this temperature drop by convection cooling alone. Not to mention, people frequently asleep outside in much cooler temperatures and survive without question.

That leads to the asphyxiation theory — the belief that somehow these fans reduce the available oxygen in the room. There is no scientific proof to suggest this is true. In North America, the believe is almost the opposite since fans are often recommended to help babies sleep (as a source of white noise).

Another theory is that fan deaths are actually suicides, but reported as fan deaths in the media to spare the family from any cultural shame associated with suicide.

A fourth theory is that the fan combined with hot air creates a convection oven like effect, raising a person’s body temperature, causing them to sweat until they are dehydrated. This theory is interesting because it’s kind of the opposite of the first theory and it could theoretically work, but not likely in South Korea. You see, the highest average temperature in South Korea is about 84°F (29°C), which is still well below body temperature and well below the temperature where the body will start to shut down and die (around 107°F / 42°C). The highest officially recorded temperature in South Korea is 104°F (40°C), just slightly above core body temperature.

The same way a fan doesn’t cool air, it also doesn’t heat it, it just speeds up the transfer of heat between the air temperature and your body. That is why you can cook something in a convection oven at a lower temperature — the fan doesn’t make it hotter, it just improves the transfer of heat. In a traditional oven you need to use a higher temperature setting to make up for the fact that still air doesn’t transfer heat nearly as well.

During extremely hot weather, heat can cause fatalities. Because fans can increase the rate at which your body temperature increases, the EPA does caution against using a fan at temperatures above 90°F (32°C). Don’t mistake this as a suggestion that fans can kill you — you are at risk of dying in extreme heat whether you use a fan or not. In terms of Korean fan death, the 90°F warning is still 6° higher than the average high temperature in South Korea.

It is interesting that this theory is so prevalent in just one country. Most people outside of South Korea do not believe in fan death and there does not seem to be any scientific evidence that a fan will kill you while you sleep.

Do you believe it? Let us know in the comments.

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Sources: wikipedia (Fan Death), snopes, ask a korean, FanDeath.net, cpb.or.kr, ggweather.com, weather.com

Photo: db0yd13 (cc)

Many words we use today are twisted versions of words used long ago. In fact, we can often watch words get twisted in our own lifetime. Technology is having a huge impact on the way we use language and will shape words we know into words that we don’t recognize. Thanks to technology, this transformation will be visible for future generations to study.

Thanks to the written word, we can study the evolution of the words we know as normal. Goodbye is a very common word, but it’s actually a contraction — it was a whole sentence 500 years ago. The first written usage of goodbye is from a 1573 letter written Gabriel Harvey. “To requite your [gallon] of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes.”

Today, saying “bye” has the same basic meaning as “goodbye” since we’ve completely lost the original meaning of the phrase. Really, we’re just saying “be with ye” which doesn’t really make any sense. Etymologists believe a similar situation lead to “good” replacing “god” in that phrase too, people lost the sense of where the phrase came from and what its original meaning was so there was nothing to shape the way it was said.

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photo: knegtel (cc)

sources: TheFreeDictionary.com, Dictionary.com, Etymonline.com

Sleep can make you more happy, alert, motivated, and productive. If you’re healthy, it’s fairly straightforward to get these benefits from sleep if you know a little bit about your sleep cycles.

First, imagine if washing machines didn’t have timers and you had to guess when they finished their last cycle. If you stopped it too soon, your clothes would still be soapy; if you stopped it too late then it would start all over again. That would be a disaster; nobody would put up with that. Yet, that’s exactly what most people do with their sleep cycles.

You sleep in cycles. Each cycle usually lasts 90 – 110 minutes. It’s called a cycle because your brain and body go through a number of different stages and then it starts all over again. The stages can be divided in different ways, but two of the most common divisions are REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM.

The non-REM “deep sleep” phase is longer during the cycles earlier in the night and tend to get shorter during the later cycles. The REM phase is the opposite. Vivid dreams generally occur during REM sleep, so you tend to dream more as you get closer to your wakeup time.

Most of us get up at about the same time every day. Sometimes, you feel well rested; other times you feel like you barely slept at all. This wide variance can be caused by waking up in the middle of your sleep cycle rather than close to the end.

During a sleep cycle, your body is temporarily paralyzed. Some doctors and researchers believe this may be to prevent you from physically acting out the actions you perform in your dreams, potentially causing yourself harm or waking yourself up. If you wake up during a paralysis phase, you will feel groggy. Since a sleep cycle is typically ninety minutes, your total sleep time should be a multiple of ninety minutes.

Getting enough sleep is also important to your health. The length of your cycles and the exact number of cycles needed will vary by person. But, you’ll know you’ve had adequate sleep when you have no signs of sleepiness or dysfunction during daytime hours. In lab tests, sleep deprivation has shown to reduce white blood cell count, hurting the immune system. Sleep deprivation has also been linked to increased risk of: heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, memory lapses or loss, and irritability. It also slows your reaction time and accuracy.

There’s a free online calculator to help you calculate when you should go to sleep or wake up: http://sleepti.me. If you have a smartphone and want to be more precise, there are advanced alarm clock apps available such as Sleep Cycle that will wake you during the ideal point in your sleep cycle. I’ve tried Sleep Cycle and it works great. It is an iOS app, but there are plenty of Android and other options too — Elbyron has listed some in the comments. In general, these tools make you a lot more aware of your sleep cycles, which has definitely helped improve the quality of sleep that I get, even when I don’t use the app.

Sleep smarter and you’ll feel even better.

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Photo: Jeff Hill (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (sleep, sleep inertia), highexistence.com, sleepti.me

Someone who has always been a good friend to me is my buddy Rick. He is always good for new ideas and he happens to be a TV fanatic.

Two seasons after LOST started, Rick knew I’d love the show. He ran down the plot summary from the first two seasons over lunch and I was hooked before I even saw the show. Another time, he was telling me about a show he liked but was unhappy because it had “jumped the shark.” I wasn’t familiar with the phrase so he explained it to me.

In 1977, during the the fifth season of the TV series Happy Days, the character Fonzie was water skiing and literally jumped over a shark. You can see it in this clip:

The show had been extremely popular, but this stunt was a pivotal point which marked a steady downturn in the quality of the show. It was a grave departure from the stories in previous seasons and seemed to indicate that the writers had run out of ideas.

These days, the phrase is generally used to indicate that something is past its prime or has reached a point that is the beginning of an end.

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Photo: Bill Ward (cc)

Sources: Rick … and wikipedia (Jumping the Shark)

Most shirts used to have an irritating tag inside the back of the neckline. Some tags were particularly jagged and became increasingly torturous throughout the day.

The tags are useful because they displayed the shirt size, fabric type and care instructions. But, the shirt size is the only one that really needs to be there since it’s a convenient place to look when you’re browsing the rack for your size.

Thankfully, many shirt makers have started screen printing the size on the inside of the neckline. In those cases, the protruding tags are often moved to a more comfortable position — on the inside of the left seam near the bottom of the shirt. Not all garments have a side seam of course, but you will frequently find the tag there when they do.

I bring this to your attention not for superfluous trivia, but rather for a “landmark” you can find when you’re getting dressed in the dark. You may not want to turn the light on when your roommate or spouse is still sleeping, but you still want your clothes on correctly.

So far, this has held true for men and womens shirts, sweaters etc. Although I haven’t found any yet, there will likely be exceptions.

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]]> http://brokensecrets.com/2012/01/09/shirt-tags-are-moving-to-the-bottom-left-seam/feed/ 1 Broken Secrets hurley shirt http://brokensecrets.com/2012/01/05/its-normal-for-half-your-nose-to-always-feel-blocked/ http://brokensecrets.com/2012/01/05/its-normal-for-half-your-nose-to-always-feel-blocked/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000 Chad Upton http://brokensecrets.com/?p=6342 ]]> By Chad Upton | Editor

You probably don’t think about it much, but if you did, you’d notice that it often feels like one nostril or the other is always plugged. That’s completely normal for about 70% of adults.

Assuming you’re healthy, your “plugged” nostril actually allows a tiny amount of air through and your other nostril handles the rest. After an average of 2.5 hours, the cycle will shift and use the alternate nostril as the primary source of air. The following scan shows one nasal passage mostly blocked and the other mostly open.

For a long time, Eastern medicine has had theories about the purpose of this cycle and a number of exercises that involve moving air through a specific nostril. On the other hand, Western scientists didn’t come up with a physiological purpose for this phenomena until more recently.

Research indicates that the high/low flow approach in the two nostrils optimizes your sense of smell. As you’ve probably discovered first hand, or shall we say finger, the inside of your nose is lined with mucus. This mucus continues deep inside your nasal passage and is very important; it acts as a barrier and helps protect your brain from infection. But, it also means that something you smell has to be absorbed by the mucus before you can smell it.

This mucus absorbs different chemical compounds at different rates. Therefore, some smells are better detected when they are absorbed in more concentrated levels in the slow moving airstream of your plugged nostril while others are better smelled when absorbed in lower concentration through the fast moving airstream of the other nostril.

Humans have about 1.6 sq inches (10 cm²) of smell receptor cells in our nasal passage. By contrast, dogs have 17 times more space dedicated to these same receptors, and in greater density, which explains why their sense of smell is so much better than ours.

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Photo credit: Len Matthews (cc), Wikimedia Commons (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (Nasal Cycle, Olfaction)

If you have ever gone swimming for several hours or taken a really long bath, then you are probably familiar with the phenomenon referred to as “pruney fingers” or “raisin fingers.” A common explanation for this wrinkling of the hands (and feet) is that the skin absorbs excess water when submerged, which causes it to expand. This expansion increases the surface area of the skin, thereby resulting in wrinkles. So while these pruney fingertips may have the appearance of being shrunken or shriveled, they are actually larger than they were when dry. It has been suggested that fingers and toes are more susceptible to this effect than other areas of the body due at least in part to a lack of hair follicles, which produce sebum – an oily secreted substance that may act as a temporary protective barrier against water absorption.

But water uptake is only part of the story. As early as the 1930s, scientists noted that patients with palsy-related nerve damage in their hands showed no signs of water-induced wrinkling in the areas specifically affected by the impaired nerves. This insight suggested that the nervous system is actively involved in the wrinkling process, and additional research has shown that vasoconstriction – narrowing of the blood vessels – plays a role as well. A modern view of raisin fingers goes something like this: prolonged immersion leads to excess water uptake by the skin; the resulting electrolyte imbalance causes neurons to fire more rapidly, which causes blood vessels to constrict, thereby reducing blood flow underneath the skin and leading to a decrease in skin tension, thus causing wrinkling. This process is clearly more complicated than simple water-induced swelling, which is probably why most people have never heard about it. The complete physiological mechanism of action is likely a combination of water-induced swelling and vasoconstriction.

But none of this explains why fingers that look like little dried fruits should be a part of our biology in the first place. A new theory (put forth in a recent article in the journal Brain, Behavior and Evolution) proposes that wrinkles on the fingers and toes may actually act as miniature drainage channels to displace water and increase grip in wet conditions, similar to the rain treads on the tires of a car. In other words, when your fingers and toes get really wet, they wrinkle up to counteract the slickness of the water. Additional work still needs to be done for the theory to become more widely accepted, but it appears that the raisiny morphology may be an evolutionary adaptation for life in slippery environments.

As a professional bioengineer I feel inclined to run my own experiments, but I’m still waiting for my hot tub/climbing wall grant to go through.

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Sources: Amazing Health Trivia, WonderQuest, Wikipedia, Nature, 1Mark Changizi, et al

Image: Brian Zambrano (cc)

The HOLLYWOOD sign in Los Angeles, California needs little introduction.

Although it is often associated with movies and television it was originally erected in 1923 as an advertisement for a new housing development named Hollywoodland. It originally cost $21,000 to build the 50-foot high letters on Mount Lee, including the four thousand 20 watt bulbs that illuminated them.

The letters quickly became a symbol of the movie industry. Ironically, actress Peg Entwistle became famous when she climbed a workman’s ladder to the top of the “H” and allegedly jumped to her death in 1932. She was apparently unhappy about her failure as an actress. It’s true, she was not well known — it took two days for police to identify who she was, and only then because her uncle contacted them to see if it could be her.

In 1944, the housing developers transferred ownership of some land, including the Hollywoodland sign, to the City of Los Angeles. By 1949, the sign was in grave disrepair. As the city was demolishing it, public outcry turned the demolition into a refurbishing project, during which time it was shortened to HOLLYWOOD. The letters were shortened too, now standing 45 feet tall, instead of the original 50. More residents could identify with HOLLYWOOD since that was the name of the city from 1903 to 1910 and remains the name of the district today.

The 1949 sign was built from sheet metal and wood, which fared well considering its materials, but was falling apart by 1978. At this time, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce began a campaign to replace the sign with a more permanent version. Nine generous donors including, Hugh Hefner; Warner Brothers Records and Alice Cooper, each paid $27,700 to reconstruct a letter. In 2009, Hugh Hefner saved the sign again when he donated $1 million to The Trust for Public Land, an organization formed to protect the area from further real estate development.

Decades of temporary alterations to the sign began in 1976, some authorized and some not. A few of the more famous modifications include: HOLLYWEED, HOLYWOOD, GO NAVY, CALTECH, OLLYWOOD, OIL WAR, PEROTWOOD, GO UCLA, SAVE THE PEAK, JOLLYGOOD. To prevent further unauthorized modifications, the LAPD installed a motion detector alarm system in 2000.

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Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid (cc)

Sources: Wikipedia (Hollywood Sign, Peg Entwistle), Film Bug, Beachwood Canyon

Although it looks like a rockstar tour bus, this is one of at least 40 mobile execution vehicles that China uses for capital punishment. Just like a blood bank bus or MRI trailer brings a scarce resource to a remote community, death vans tour the Chinese countryside executing criminals.

Whether you agree with capital punishment or not, China is good at it. They should be, they do it more than all other countries combined. The question is: do they do it ethically?

China doesn’t disclose how many executions it performs each year, but Amnesty International estimates at least 1718 were conducted in 2008. Another group believes the number could be as high as 4,000 per year now and 8,000 when it was at its peak.

China is trying to reduce the number of executions it carries out. In 2006, Chinese law dictated sixty-eight offenses, including tax evasion, that were punishable by death. Earlier this year, tax fraud and some other non-violent crimes were removed from the death penalty list. Since 2007, all execution orders are reviewed by the high court to help ensure ethical reasoning.

A lethal injection, made from the same ingredients used in the United States, is administered in the back of the death van. The execution is broadcast live to local authorities who verify the execution is carried out legally.

But, some agencies have raised questions about what happens to the bodies after the execution. The government has indicated the bodies are taken directly to the crematorium. However, some people have complained that the bodies are not available to be viewed before they are cremated. This has sparked rumors that organs from the bodies could be sold on the black market. The Ministry of Health has tried to crack down on this by tightening controls over organ transplants. However, Amnesty International in Hong Kong claims they have evidence suggesting the Chinese police, courts and hospitals participate in the organ trade.

Historically, gunshots have been the most popular method of capital punishment in China. They’re cheap, quick and don’t require a lot of expertise to perform. The gunshot executions are still used, but they’re being replaced by lethal injection. They’re not performed by a firing squad like some other countries, they are performed by one shooter.

Some people wish the government continued to use guns since lethal injections are expensive. The lethal cocktails costs about $125 and a trip to the execution chamber can cost local authorities as much as $250. The death vans were created to help reduce the cost of lethal injections; instead of sending all the criminals to the cities, the death vans come to them.

Ironically, one of the companies that makes these killing machines also makes bulletproof vehicles that help others escape death.

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Source: NY Times, USA Today, AFP/Google

Photo: Jinguan Group

No matter which mobile phone carrier you use, you’ll eventually drop a call with somebody. Even if you don’t have a cellphone, you still have to deal with dropped calls when you’re talking with people who do.

Sometimes you both try to call each other at the same time and get each other’s voicemail. Other times, you try to call the other person and they’re still talking away, oblivious to the fact that the call was dropped.

Rule #1: Whoever initiated the call, initiates the call back after a dropped call.

To some, this rule is obvious. But, it needs to be stated to remove any confusion and prevent the double voicemail dilemma.

Rule #2: Whoever was listening when the call was dropped, remembers the last sentence the other person said.

This is less obvious, but since the listener is the only one who knows exactly when the call was dropped; they need to remember the last sentence or at least the topic — this may be the same person who needs to call the other person back.

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Photo: addicted eyes (cc)

You probably learned about rods and cones in high school biology class. These retinal cells allow our brains to process light so we can see. But, there is a third type of cell that most people don’t know about: photosensitive ganglion cells.

They don’t have a cool name like Rods and Cones, but what they lack in name they make up for in swagger. Much like rods and cones, they send light information to the brain. Instead of using this information to “see”, the brain uses it to synchronize your body’s circadian rhythm to the 24-hour light/dark cycle of this planet. These “lion” cells are the original atomic clock.

They’re also used to control the pupillary light reflex. When you doctor, or local police officer, shines a bright light in your eyes, these cells are used to close your irises to limit the bright light hitting your retinas. Additionally, they help regulate melatonin — the hormone that controls several biological functions, including sleep.

Most research indicates that the ganglion cells are sensitive to light in the spectrum between 460 and 484 nm, or “blue” light which is prevalent in the visible spectrum of sunlight. Basically, this is why you get sleepy when it gets dark and why you start to “wake up” when it gets light outside.

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Photo: bigbluemeanie (cc)

Sources: nature.com, wikipedia (pupillary light reflex, photoreceptor cell, photosensitive ganglion cells, melatonin)

The thirty mile zone (aka “TMZ” or “studio zone”) is the approximately thirty mile area in Southern California where America’s movie industry is based. However, New Jersey was the center of film in America before Hollywood.

Thomas Edison owned a majority of the patents on motion picture cameras and through these patents, he tightly controlled who could make films. In 1908, he formed the Motion Picture Patents Company, a licensing trust that included other important motion picture patent holders, including Eastman Kodak, who sold the only film stock that film makers could legally purchase.

The patents allowed the group to use law enforcement to prevent unauthorized use of their cameras, film, projectors or any variation of this equipment that included features that infringed on their patents. In some cases they hired thugs to do the enforcement.

Understandably, these tight restrictions stifled inovation and crippled the film industry.

Independent filmmakers fled to Hollywood. The physical distance from the Edison Trust made it easy to work on their films without the tight control and patent enforcement.

The reliable sunshine and temperature also made Hollywood a more suitable place to make films year-round.

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Sources: filmbug, wikipedia (motion picture patents company)

Photo: Heather Culligan (cc)

How much is your fridge space worth?

Traditional watermelons take up a lot of space in your fridge. So, farmers in Japan came up with a way to grow square watermelons.

Square watermelons are a better use of space in your fridge and during shipping. When you pack them together there isn’t as much “empty” space in the corners. They’re also more convenient because they don’t roll over, they stand on their own.

From a practical standpoint, they’re definitely better. But, are they worth the money? In Japan, they go for the equivalent of about $82 USD. These watermelons are available in some US specialty grocery shops as well. These Panama imports are going for $75 and up.

If you want square watermelons without the obtuse price, you might consider growing your own. You can do it just like the Japanese farmers if you pickup a polycarbonate mold to grow them in. Basically, you fit the case around the watermelon as it starts growing and the watermelon grows to fill the shape of the case. The case runs for about $110 USD, but you can use it to grow many watermelons. Once you’ve grown two, you’ve more than paid for it.

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Photo: solution_63 (cc)

Sources: CNN, slashfood, snopes, square-watermelons.com

Sailors have it easy these days — an inexpensive GPS will tell you how fast your ship is travelling. Heck, even your smartphone can do it if you have the right app. That’s how I clocked the car ferry on Lake Michigan at 35 mph (56 km/h) last summer.

However, a blackberry could not measure your speed 450 years ago. That required a “chip log” (aka “ship log” or “log”). This was a spool of rope attached to a small piece of wood. The sailors would place the wood in the water where it would drag in the water, unspooling the knotted rope. One sailer count the knots passing over the haul and another would use a 30 second sandglass to measure the time. They had a table to lookup the speed (“knots”) based on the number of knots that passed by.

Although the method has changed significantly, the units are still called “knots.” To put that in a way that might have more meaning, one nautical mile translates to 1.151 miles or 1.852 km.

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Sources: wikipedia (knots, chip log)

Photo: Rémi Kaupp (gnu license)

There are thousands of grape varieties out there. You’ll find a couple of them in the grocery store and another fraction of them in wine making.

Casual wine drinkers might be able to name a couple dozen grape varieties used for wine, but two of the most common are actually the same grape: Syrah and Shiraz.

Why have two names for the same thing?

Based on current naming conventions, it appears to have happened when the grape was introduced to Australia in 1832, where it is known as Shiraz. Before then, it was mostly found in the Rhône valley of Southern France, where it is known as Syrah. It is also known as Shiraz in South Africa

Outside of these regions, the wines made from these grapes are marketed as either Shiraz or Syrah. The choice is sometimes arbitrary, but often has to do with the flavor of the wine. A smokey, tannic wine from these grapes could be called a Syrah since it is similar in character to those made in Rhône valley. Conversely, a sweet, fruity, peppered version might be labelled a Shiraz because it’s more like an Australian classic.

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Photo: Adrian Midgley (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (Syrah), wine-searcher

Often inspired by the Disney fairytales of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, many young girls dress as princesses for Halloween.

While they are popular fairytales, these theme-park castles are largely based on a real castle in Germany – Neuschwanstein Castle. Look at the resemblance:

Disney has also noted the inspiration from structures in France too: Notre Dame de Paris and Hospices de Beaune.

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Sources: wikipedia (Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, Cinderella Castle, Neuschwanstein Castle)

Photos: Katie Rommel-Esham (cc) Jack Versloot (cc)

Although we typically use QR codes with our mobile phones, they were actually invented by a Japanese company (Denso) for tracking products during manufacturing. Even though they’ve been around since 1994, QR codes have only started to become popular in North America in the past few years. They’re also known as “matrix”, “2d” or “square” barcodes.

Traditional 1 dimensional barcodes are very limited in the amount of information they can store in a small space, generally an 8-24 digit number. The number in a traditional bar code is really only useful if you have a database or table where you can lookup that number to get more meaningful information, such as the price of the item at a grocery store. QR codes can contain a lot more data.

They’re called Quick Response codes because the data is in the code and it doesn’t have to be looked up in a table to be meaningful. For example, the QR code in this article contains a URL to another post on the blog related to bar codes. When you scan it with your phone’s QR app, your phone can decode the image into the URL, no remote lookup is required. QR codes can also be used to get text or send sms text messages and dial phone numbers.

These codes appear on everything from magazine and TV advertisements to product packaging and restaurant menus. But, one of my favorite places to see QR codes are alongside street addresses. Instead of typing the long address in your phone and risking a wild-goose chase inducing typo, scan the code and go.

So, how do you get your phone to interpret these codes? Here are the names of a couple QR reading apps on each of the major platforms.

Android: QR Droid, mobiScan QR

iOS: RedLaser, pic2shop

BlackBerry: QR Code Scanner Pro, mobiletag 2D barcodes scanner

Windows: QR Reader, Quickmark

Microsoft also has their own variant called “tag.” Tags look a bit different than QR codes and they require Microsoft’s own mobile app to read them. Tags do provide a bit of a branding enhancement since the user will see a picture of your choice in the MS app, making it easier to identify your link when they’re browsing through their tags later. The tag app is available for Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Symbian, J2ME and of course Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7. Unfortunately, this app does not read regular QR codes. If it did, maybe they’d see better traction on this app, especially since they’re one of the few QR readers that lives on every major platform.

There are hundreds of millions of smartphones and tablets that can use QR codes; it’s surprising they’re not even more popular than they already are. Maybe some people like thumb typing.

Code generators: QRStuff, Kaywa, MS Tag

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Sources: intomobile.com, wikipedia (qr code)

Like many kids, I didn’t like vegetables — especially carrots and broccoli. Adults frequently told me that carrots would improve my eyesight, so that seemed like a good reason to try liking them.

There was one person who didn’t tell me this, he actually told me the opposite. My grand father overheard somebody tell me that carrots would improve my eyesight and he let me in on a little secret — it was all a big lie. Carrots do not improve your eyesight.

Sure, carrots and many other foods do contain beta-carotene, which metabolizes into Vitamin A and everyone agrees that is essential for maintaining eye health, but it does not improve it. If you are not consuming enough vitamin A, any number of sources could help restore your vitamin A supply. Carrots themselves are not unique or magical in this way. In fact, carrots have less beta-carotene per 200 calorie serving than red peppers, kale and lettuce.

If lettuce, kale and red pepper have more beta-carotene than carrots, why do carrots get all the eyesight credit?

During World War II, the British were particularly good at shooting down Nazi bombers at night, when it’s almost impossible to see other planes. It was as if they had super-human sight, and they did. They had radar.

Once news stories started to circulate about these pilots with seemingly super-human eyes, the government needed a good explanation to prevent the Germans from learning about this technology. Carrots.

Flight Lieutenant John Cunningham, nicknamed ”Cats Eyes” for his incredible ability to shoot down enemy planes, had a natural love for carrots. The story wrote itself and they explained that they were feeding other pilots a lot of carrots to improve their eyesight too.

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Sources: duke health, snopes, self.com

When I was about 7 years old, my grade school classroom had an Apple II computer stashed in the corner of the room. I remember the excitement when our teacher said we could use the computer after we finished all of our work, even though I had no idea how to use it. Nobody knew how to use it, except for Woody.

Woody was the only kid who had a computer at home and it too was an Apple II. Since that was the first affordable mass-market computer, if any home or small business had a computer, it was usually an Apple.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started the personal computer revolution. There’s no doubt it would have happened without them, but who knows when. Steve Wozniak had the drive to build prototypes of computers just for fun while his partner Steve Jobs had the vision and drive to sell them to people who didn’t know how to use them, like some other products Apple has recently been successful with.

When Steve Jobs passed away, his assets were estimated to be around $6 billion. With that kind of wealth, you could buy almost anything. So, when he received a liver transplant in 2009, a lot of people suggested that he bought his way to the top of the waiting list. How else could he have skipped ahead of 16,000 other people?

His wealth did help him, but not in the way that some have implied.

He was on the transplant waiting list. Well, he was actually on more than one waiting list. Some have even speculated that he was on all of the waiting lists.

So, why doesn’t everyone do this? The rule at the time was that you needed to be within 4 hours of the transplant hospital. For most people, that significantly reduces the number of transplant lists you could be on. But, if you’re a billionaire with a private jet on standby, you’re within 4 hours of a lot of places.

Even still, with so many people waiting, how did he get to the top of the list so quickly?

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) audits the transplant centers to ensure fair treatment. So, he didn’t likely get to the top of the list because of his wealth or social status.

Since his jet gave him access to almost any transplant center in the country, he did what any smart analytical person would do: he figured out which transplant center had the shortest wait and made sure he was on that list. That’s how a guy who lives in Northern California ends up with a liver transplant in Tennessee. It turns out, the median wait time in Tennessee was 85% shorter than the national average.

The technology that Steve brought us will fade, but his approach to everything, including saving his own life, is the real gift he gave us. When Steve rejoined and began to rejuvenate Apple in 1997, the slogan was, “think different” and that sentiment is Steve’s real legacy.

Rest in peace.

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Sources: digital journal, cnn, slate, the daily beast

Some people think these shoes look weird:

But, they just look like feet. So, maybe it’s our shoe stressed feet that look weird. If you look at your toes, they’re not spread out like your fingers. Most people’s toes are squished together in the shape of a shoe, even when they’re not in shoes.

That’s weird.

I never really thought about it much, until I saw a pair of these shoes. They’re called “Five Fingers” and they’re made by a company called Vibram. They’re a bit pricey, so you may also want to look at Fila’s similar and slightly cheaper version called “Skele-toes.” This style of footwear are to shoes what winter gloves are to mittens.

These shoes and the growing category of “minimalist running shoes” are a hot trend in running circles right now. There are many reasons why, but the ten most convincing reasons are on the floor in front of you.

We’ve been cramming our feet into unnatural shoes since childhood, but what would our feet look like if we had never worn shoes? Probably something like this:

These feet actually look weird too; we’re used to seeing feet that are shaped like shoes.

The difference is glaring. Look at the straight black line in the first photo, it stretches from the big toe, across the ball of the foot to the heel. You can’t draw a straight line on the second photo that aligns these three important parts of your feet.

Cramping your foot’s style is not cool because that can lead to cramps and strains and lots of heel pains. If you’ve ever had foot pain or discomfort, you may think your shoes don’t have enough cushioning or that your arches have too much or too little support. While there are exceptions, these problems are generally myths perpetuated by the shoe industry that simply wants you to buy new shoes often.

Many of the best runners in the world, who consistently win marathons, run without any shoes at all. Do they have bad feet? No, they have really strong feet. They also have better knees and hips than runners who use thick padded running shoes. One medical study compared running in shoes to barefoot and fount that barefoot running demonstrated 38% lower knee torque and 54% less internal hip rotation torque. This means that running barefoot provides a much more natural motion for your joints. This notion is pretty surprising the first time you hear it, but there are a mountain of medical studies to support it.

Should you throw away your super spongy running shoes and go barefoot tomorrow? Probably not. Just like running in shoes, you need some education to do it the best way possible. Check your area for a local running club where you can learn, or look for some online videos on the subject. I’ve also got some great sources listed below which would make a good starting point.

Also, running on soft shoes might not be a good idea but research shows that running on soft surfaces is better than hard surfaces. Even though grass and dirt may have rocks and pits, these actually work to strengthen your ankles over time. That said, you may also want to consider the type of floors you have at home — you may even want to get something like soft rubber floors. One popular retailer in the US is Discount Flooring, for some other countries you may want to look at: Vintage Flooring (Canada) and Carpet Right (UK).

PS – Neil posted a funny story at 1000awesomethings.com about my first outdoor run earlier this year.

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Sources: PM&R, Shoe Myths, Nature.com, CMAJ.ca, bjsportmed.com