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What I've Learned
May 24, 2012 12:00 amDo people in cities walk faster than people in towns?
And if so, does this scale upward? If a city grows from one million to two million, will people there walk faster than before?
Does location matter? As cities in France or the US or Germany grow, will people walk faster, but as cities in New Zealand or Mongolia or Guatemala grow, will people not walk faster?
Until a couple of days ago, my answers would have been these:
What I've Learned
May 24, 2012 12:00 amDo people in cities walk faster than people in towns?
And if so, does this scale upward? If a city grows from one million to two million, will people there walk faster than before?
Does location matter? As cities in France or the US or Germany grow, will people walk faster, but as cities in New Zealand or Mongolia or Guatemala grow, will people not walk faster?
Until a couple of days ago, my answers would have been these:
What I've Learned
May 17, 2012 12:00 amWhen I was 19, I knew a couple in San Antonio – this was in the 1960s – who had a large house with a screened-in upper porch. Every month they would host a mid-morning brunch there to which they invited 15 or so people.
I was blessed to attend more than a few of these gatherings. Why, I'm not sure.
Food would be provided by the couple, but each invitee, not by decree, but by good manners (remember those?), would bring something to the feast. Wine and cheese and exotic breads were favorites.
What I've Learned
May 10, 2012 12:00 amIn the mid-1800s, Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (Pronounced Shern-vert, sort of) traveled about the Bavarian region of Oberpfalz, Germany, collecting fairytales, myths, and legends. This was about the same time that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were traveling around Germany doing the same thing.
The Grimm brothers polished up the tales they collected and published them. Von Schönwerth didn't. In fact, his collection of nearly 500 stories remained undiscovered until recently.
What I've Learned
May 03, 2012 12:00 amOkay. That's it. I'm done. I'm swearing off teenage girl first-person fiction.
A few years ago I suffered through the interesting, but atrociously-written Twilight series. After more than 2,700 pages inside the head of high-schooler Isabella Swan (the product of an inexperienced author), I was determined no plot device would ever lure me back into the genre.
Recently I watched Hunger Games and decided to read the trilogy. The movie, it is said, follows the first book closely, so I skipped ahead and began reading number two.
What I've Learned
Apr 26, 2012 12:00 amI want to ask you and Julius Caesar a question. How many days are there in a year?
If you said 365.25, you and Julius are darn close. It actually takes the earth 365.242199 days – which is to say 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds – to circle the sun.
During his reign, Caesar declared – when you are emperor, you can declare things – that instead of the old 365-day calendar, the Roman empire would go with a 365.25 day calendar. The quarter days would be made up for by adding an extra day, a leap day, to the calendar every four years.
What I've Learned
Apr 19, 2012 12:00 amOn busy roadways in Michigan, left turns are not allowed. If there is a stop light at a crossroad, there is no left turn signal and no left turn lane.
An advantage to this is that the traffic light sequence is shortened. A disadvantage is -- well, you can't turn left.
But what if you really need to go left? What if you are out of potatoes and PEZ refills for your candy dispenser and the store is not straight ahead or to the right?
In that case, you must make what is called a Michigan Left. That is, make a U-turn, then turn right.
What I've Learned
Apr 12, 2012 12:00 amIn air, the faster the air molecules are moving, the higher the temperature, right?
Well, sort of.
Actually, air temperature is the average of fast and slow moving molecules. The higher the average speed of the fast and slow, the higher the temperature. If there were a way to separate the faster moving molecules from the slower ones, you could have a stream of hot air and a stream of cold air.
There is a way.
In 1933, French physicist Georges J. Ranque invented a tube that could spin gases.
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