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What I've Learned
Dec 15, 2011 12:00 amI received a Christmas card that depicts carolers dressed merrily in coats, hats, and colorful scarves, singing with much gusto. There is snow on the ground. It's night. You can tell it's night because the artist has sprinkled some stars in the sky, plus a C-shaped sliver of a moon.
Nice card. But, Houston, we have a problem. Either the carolers are doing their business at an extremely rude hour or it has snowed in Australia.
What I've Learned
Dec 08, 2011 12:00 amA tomato is a seed-bearing structure growing from the flowering part of a plant – which makes it what?
A fruit.
Legally, however, it's a vegetable and has been since 1893 when the US Supreme Court ruled it so.
The case involved a tomato importer, John Nix, who wanted a tax refund. The Tariff Act of 1883 – enacted to help protect American farmers – taxed imported vegetables. Nix claimed that because tomatoes are actually fruit, he was taxed in error and should get his money back.
Automotive Christmas list
Dec 08, 2011 12:00 amMost people do not receive a new car with a giant bow on it for Christmas. Of course, the advertising agencies return to this theme every year, so there may be something to it. Therefore, in the spirit of the industry’s annual salute to this season’s shopping, I hereby submit my Automotive Christmas List. (By the way: the industry is enjoying a pretty fine gift themselves, as November sales were very strong. Chrysler’s increase over last year’s November was phenomenal.)
What I've Learned
Dec 01, 2011 12:00 amTwo weeks ago I wrote about the McGurk Effect. There has been a recent and hilarious update worth sharing.
Harry McGurk and John MacDonald, back in 1976, discovered that if you make a video in which the sounds of words beginning with b are dubbed over people mouthing those words with an f, viewer hears an f sound instead of the b. Even if you know the sound you are hearing is box, for example, but it looks like the person is saying fox, then fox is what you hear.
Wait ...what?
Nov 23, 2011 12:00 amWe are happy to announce the first winners of the OCDVTF Paint the County Purple Contest.
Oxford Hills Winner: Ari's Pizza and Subs
River Valley Winner: River Valley Healthy Community Coalition (RVHCC)
Thank you to Eleven Circles and A Girl Thing students for judging the contestants.
Congratulations to all those that participated. The judges made note of the many creative ways participants incorporated the message, resources and the color purple in their displays. They were all unique and informative
What I've Learned
Nov 23, 2011 12:00 amMost writing books are rubbish. There’s one, though, that is fun, readable, and actually helps your writing, no matter if your are a young student or an adult. It’s called Turn Not Pale Beloved Snail by Jacqueline Jackson.
The author has a simple, pleasant style that young readers will find engaging and older readers, refreshing.
She says she wrote it "because it’s the sort of book I wish someone had written for me."
The examples Jackson gives in Turn Not Pale are not academic exercises, but real bits of writing.
What I've Learned
Nov 17, 2011 12:00 amA child, out playing, yelled, "On your merk. Get serk. Gerk!"
The girl, of course, didn't mean gerk – Gerk (first name, Anatoli) is a Russian soccer player – she was merely playing with sound and said gerk instead of go.
The fact that she was playing with sound and said gerk reminded me of the McGurk Effect, a trick of the eye and the ear.
The effect was first described in a paper by Harry McGurk and John MacDonald in 1976 and is sometimes called the McGurk-MacDonald effect.
When it's demonstrated for you, it messes with your mind.
What I've Learned
Nov 10, 2011 12:00 amIn Europe, the summer of 1816 was cold and rainy.
Europe wasn't the only place having weather problems. Here in the States, 1816 was known as the year without a summer. There was frost every month, including July and August. It snowed in June. Crops failed, flowers wilted from the untimely cold snaps, and people must have thought the end had come.
Not just in Europe and the United States, but throughout the world, the weather was crazy.
We know now what caused the miserable conditions. It was a volcano named Mount Tambora.
What I've Learned
Nov 03, 2011 12:00 amA man and his children got up early, cooked pancakes and bacon, and mixed a pitcher of orange juice.
As the kids proudly carried in a tray to serve their mom breakfast in bed, the man said, "Uh, just checking, dear. Baking soda and baking powder are pretty much the same thing, right?"
His wife, being the sort of good person that mom's tend to be, smiled and said, "Absolutely."
She ate the breakfast – bad-tasting pancakes and all – and lavished praise on husband and children for their kind efforts.
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