Slippery Rock Gazette | Did You Know that Bubble Wrap was Originally Intended as Textured Wallpaper? Better! Faster! Cheaper! Did You Know that Bubble Wrap was Originally Intended as Textured Wallpaper? One of Bubble Wrap’s first big shipping assignments? Protective wrapping to help cocoon the enormous and delicate IBM computing machines during transport, in 1959. What’s a common product that nearly everyone has used or received at some point in their lives? Bubble Wrap. Alfred W. Fielding and Mark Chavannes co-invented Bubble Wrap in the late 1950s. Today, Sealed Air Corporation, the Saddle Brook, New Jersey-based company he co-founded in 1960, is a worldwide manufacturer of packaging materials with annual revenues in the billions. Fielding’s story is one of those inspirational invention tales with a creative, unintended twist - a success story that even today engineering students can learn from as they look forward to their careers. The early history of Bubble Wrap demonstrates, for inventors, that keeping an open mind to possible applications is a clear advantage - ultimately, you may start out trying to invent one thing, only to hit on an even better idea.

Inventor & Entrepreneur The story begins in 1957 in a garage in Hawthorne, New Jersey, with two entrepreneurial engineers hard at work, Fielding and his partner, a Swiss inventor named Marc Chavannes. They are trying to invent a textured, plastic wallpaper with a paper backing. They started out by sealing two shower curtains together in such a way that it would capture air bubbles, which would make the textured appearance for their wallpaper. It fails. But along the way they realize their invention could be used for packing material, thus, giving birth to what is now known around the world as Bubble Wrap, and the Sealed Air Corporation, the company that has developed and marketed it. Through its technology, Sealed Air Corporation essentially built a specialty chemical business in protective packaging. The Early Years of Bubble Wrap It was three years after the initial creation of Bubble Wrap that Frederick W. Bowers, a marketer at Sealed Air, which makes Bubble Wrap, finally came up with the perfect use for their product. On October 5, 1959, IBM announced their new 1401 variable word length computer.

Bowers got the idea that Bubble Wrap could be used as a good packaging material to protect the computer while it was being shipped. He then pitched the idea to IBM and demonstrated Bubble Wrap’s protective abilities. His demonstration went over well and IBM began purchasing Bubble Wrap to protect their 1401 and other fragile product they sold and shipped. From those humble beginnings, the company has grown to annual sales of around $4 billion with a net profit of around $255 million. For reference, about 10 percent of Sealed Air’s revenue comes from Bubble Wrap, so around $400 million worth of Bubble Wrap is sold annually. One common misconception about Bubble Wrap is that it is created using machinery that inflates and then seals each and every bubble. In fact, it’s made by trapping air bubbles in between two sheets of plastic as they are heated and passed between rollers. Fun with Bubbles Sealed Air continually does extreme demonstrations showing how much better Bubble Wrap performs at protecting fragile items. In one such demonstration, they dropped an 815-pound pumpkin from a height of 35 feet onto layers of Bubble Wrap. The pumpkin survived the fall without a scratch.

Among its many uses, Bubble Wrap can be used as a cheap burglar alarm by placing large bubbled bubble wrap on the floor in front of your door. Another common, but annoying use: stress relief, by popping the little bubbles, one–by– one. A final weird fact, and a mystery: the amount of Bubble Wrap produced by Sealed Air annually is enough to wrap the entire Earth (at the equator) with Bubble Wrap about 10 times. Where does it all go? Bubble Wrap was Originally Designed to Be Used as Wallpaper Bubble Wrap was Originally Designed to Be Used as Wallpaper Daven Hiskey 9 comments Today I found out bubble wrap was originally designed to be used as wallpaper. Bubble Wrap was invented by two engineers Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes in Hawthorne, N.J. in 1957. The two were not, however, trying to make a product to be used as packaging material. Rather, they were trying to create a textured wallpaper. They started out by sealing two shower curtains together in such a way that it would capture air bubbles which would make the textured appearance for their wallpaper. Needless to say, this wallpaper idea didn’t sell too well.

Not to be deterred, they then set about finding another use for their product. The alternate use they came up with was to use it as greenhouse insulation. While bubble wrap by itself does create somewhat of an insulating effect, this idea didn’t pan out popularly either. It was three years after the initial creation of Bubble Wrap that Frederick W. Bowers, a marketer at Sealed Air, which makes Bubble Wrap, finally came up with the perfect use for their product. On October the 5, 1959, IBM announced their new 1401 variable word length computer. Bowers got the idea that Bubble Wrap could be used as a good packaging material to protect the computer while it was being shipped. He then pitched the idea to IBM and demonstrated Bubble Wrap’s protective abilities. His demonstration went over well and IBM began purchasing Bubble Wrap to protect their 1401 and other fragile product they sold and shipped. From those humble beginnings, the company has grown to annual sales of around $4 billion with a net profit of around $255 million. For reference, about 10% of Sealed Air’s revenue comes from Bubble Wrap, so around $400 million worth of Bubble Wrap is sold annually.

Bonus Facts: One common misconception about Bubble Wrap is that it is created using machinery that inflates and then seals each and every bubble. In fact, it’s made by trapping air bubbles in between two sheets of plastic as they are heated and passed between rollers. In its lifetime, the IBM managed to sell or lease about double the number of 1401’s it projected, a whopping 10,000 units, 5,000 of which were sold or leased in its first five weeks on the market. This might not sound like much, but by the mid-1960s about half of all the computers in the world were the IBM 1401. This computer leased for $2,500 a month (about $18,000 a month today). One of the more interesting aspects of the 1401 was that it was a decimal based computer, rather than binary like most all computers today. One of the downsides to Bubble Wrap has always been how much space it takes up during shipping and storage, for customers who are just buying the Bubble Wrap.

In order to get around this problem, one of the dreams of the original inventors was that they’d some day be able to create a Bubble Wrap that customers could self inflate, as needed. So that when they purchased it from the manufacturer, it could be shipped as thin flat sheets of plastic, without the bubbles. Once they assigned some engineers to the problem in the early 1990s, it took about a decade to finally work out the kinks, but Sealed Air now offers such a Bubble Wrap product. The method they came up with was to extrude tiny pellets of polyethylene into sheets, which are then heated. The tiny beads of polyethylene then flatten to form extremely strong polymer sheets with rows of un-inflated bubbles which are connected in lines. Customers can then lease a special machine ($500 per year) from Sealed Air which connect to one end of the sheets and inflate all the lines and then seal off the opening. This new customer inflatable Bubble Wrap is about 40 times cheaper than the traditional bubble wrap in terms of shipping costs to the customers buying the Bubble Wrap. You can tell if some of the Bubble Wrap you have uses these inflatable Bubble Wrap sheets if you can’t pop individual bubbles on the sheets.

Popping one bubble will just pop all the bubbles on a line. While originally being used primarily for packaging for electronics equipment, today the vast majority of Bubble Wrap made is used for food packaging. Sealed Air continually does extreme demonstrations showing how much better Bubble Wrap performs at protecting fragile items. In one such demonstration, they dropped an 815 pound pumpkin from a height of 35 feet onto layers of Bubble Wrap. The pumpkin survived the fall without a scratch. Among its many uses, Bubble Wrap can be used as a cheap burglar alarm by placing large bubbled bubble wrap on the floor in front of your door. Another zany use, used by teenage girls the word over, is as a good stuffing for one’s bra. 😉 The amount of Bubble Wrap produced by Sealed Air annually is enough to wrap the entire Earth (at the equator) with Bubble Wrap about ten times. One major competitor to Bubble Wrap in the packaging industry popped up around five years after Bubble Wrap, “packing peanuts”. These are typically made from pure polystyrene resin. The color of packaging peanuts usually indicates what it is exactly made of. Green, for instance, indicates that it’s made from recycled polystyrene.

Pink means that it is an anti-static version of packaging peanuts. White means that it’s at least 70% virgin polystyrene resin. A new kind of packaging peanut has come on the market in the last couple decades which is actually edible. These are made from organic based materials, such as corn starch, rather than petroleum based. They are also completely biodegradable and can’t retain an electrostatic charge, which can be useful in shipping electronics equipment. Expand for References Strange but True - Itsmorethanagame Itsmorethanagame Where the hell are you? Chinese have found us Reporter: Adapted from ABC Landline Alongside the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and Sydney Harbour, Australia has a new and somewhat unlikely must-see tourism hotspot. Lake Tyrrell, a large salt lake in northern Victoria, has brilliant shades of pink and photos of it have gone viral on websites in China. It's causing a flood of Chinese tourists to the sleepy Mallee town of Sea Lake, which is proving quite a culture shock for both locals and visitors.

The attraction, lauded on a growing number of Chinese websites as the best thing to see in Australia, is a shallow, salt-crusted depression six k's out of town - Lake Tyrrell. There are already more tour operators than hotels in Sea Lake. Rock Wong and his wife design Australian tours for corporate Chinese groups, and with tourists supplying the alluring photos, they can operate from an office set up in the garage. The backdrop to all of this is a town in sharp decline. Like so many rural communities across Australia, Sea Lake was once a bustling centre. But slowly, the banks and the barbers left, the butcher shut up shop. Today, you won't even find a bakery. And that domino effect continues on. The Newsagent is in the process of clearing out, closing a chapter on a 103-year-old family business. It's been on the market for 13 years. But the baffling influx of Asian tourists is forcing the community to see a sparkle in the things even they have taken for granted like the rooster who crossed back and forth the main street at will. Once a pesky nuisance forcing cars to stop and wait, the grumpy cock became a protected tourist attraction.

And seen through new eyes, that salt-crusted depression out the road could be the lifeline this drought-stricken town needs. A fascinating half hour program. What is Pokeman Go - Update Reporter: Dave This is moving fast so I need to provide another update this week. Pokermon GO is now released in 26 more countries...but it is not always welcome. In Saudi Arabia, clerics renewed an existing fatwa against Pokemon, calling it "un-Islamic."Bosnia has warned players to avoid chasing the creatures onto land mines left over from the 1990s. An Egyptian communications official said the game should be banned because sharing photos or videos of security sites could put the sites at risk. "Pokemon GO is the latest tool used by spy agencies in the Intel war, a cunning despicable app that tries to infiltrate our communities in the most innocent way under the pretext of entertainment," said Hamdi Bakheet, a member of Egypt's defense and national security committee in parliament, according to a report on Al-Jazeera. Russian officials sounded similar warnings, saying that "the consequences would be irreversible" if Pokemon players continued unchecked.

South Korea's government already restricts Google Maps for security reasons, so Pokemon GO — which uses the data to populate its own maps — wouldn't work anyway. But the app happens to be working in one small seaside town near the North Korean border — and busloads of people are showing up to play. Crowds gather at the State Library looking for Pokemon Physduck in the Yarra THE Pokemon Go craze has been branded “appalling” and “disrespectful” by the ­RSL as hundreds swarm to the Shrine of Remembrance to try and catch their digital prey. Have you fallen into the latest craze...Pokeman GO? Or like me wondering what is all about. My curiosity has got the better of me and so here is some research that you might find useful. Remember the '90s? Back then we played Pokemon video games on the Game Boy handhelds, watched Pokemon cartoons as well as movies and battled it out with Pokemon cards during lunch breaks at school. And...new generations of kids never quite stopped doing that. (The last two Nintendo 3DS video games sold 25 million copies, combined.) BTW, Pokemon is short for "pocket monster." They're tiny monsters.

Since it comes from Japan, the word "Pokemon" is pronounced "po-kay-moan" and is both singular and plural. ("Fish" not "fishes".) So, the premise of Pokemon Go is that these pocket monsters are hidden around our real world -- literally. You need to go look for them. When they get close enough, they'll appear on your in-game radar and then you can try to catch them. You walk around town, the park, the mall (if you can get a GPS signal), your workplace, until you find a Pokemon. Then, you try to catch it. The balls are for catching the Pokemon. It's a time-honored tradition that, to catch a Pokemon, you throw a ball at it. The ball slurps it up like a vacuum cleaner, or something. And then, according to the rules of Pokemon, it belongs to you. Why am I enslaving a race of tiny animals? To get them to fight for you, of course! (No, that doesn't make it better.) You're catching and raising animals to fight for your amusement, and perhaps getting them to evolve into more powerful ones.

AR (augmented reality) is a fancy way of describing how Pokemon Go lets you see the tiny animals as if they're in the real world. Basically, it uses your phone's camera to show you what's behind the phone, then digitally places the Pokemon on top. The Pokemon you see in the game differ based on your location and geography. For example, in San Francisco we've found a lot of Zubats. Travel 45 minutes south to Mountain View and you'll find a lot of Pidgey, Paras and Rattata. You can expect to find different Pokemon near a body of water, for instance, than in a small midwest town. This phenomena is breaking many records. Launch date Daily active users in 1st week Additional downloads per day Ave daily use time per user Estimated cost of development Increase in Nintendo value in 1st 5 days 6 July Human endeavours knows no bound Reporter: Jill Price The Great Wall MarathonTaking place in the Tianjin Province, the Great Wall Marathon requires runners to take a knee-shaking 5,164 steps over 42.1 kilometres, making it one of the toughest marathons in the world.

If that wasn't enough, the marathon takes place in May, which often draws sweat-inducing temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius. Jungfrau MarathonDespite the extreme weather conditions, the Jungfrau marathon is extremely popular, attracting almost 3500 die-hard runners every year from around the world. During the race competitors climb almost 1800 metres straight up through vertigo-inducing mountain goat paths. Sesame Street goes cognitive Sesame Street and IBM join forces to change the world of education. The creator of the popular children’s show is teaming up with the computing powerhouse to explore and develop tools that prepare toddlers to succeed in school. Research suggests that 90 percent of a child’s brain is developed the age of five, and it’s during these formative years that IBM and Sesame want to focus on. Executives from both organizations describe the collaboration as a marriage between Sesame’s cache of high-quality educational media and IBM Watson’s cognitive computing powers. “The Watson technology, coupled with Sesame content, offers the potential to help teachers and parents deliver personalized learning experiences,” says Stanley Litow, IBM’s Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, and the former Deputy Chancellor at New York City Public Schools.

But don’t expect Watson to show up in classrooms in the form of a hulky Jeopardy podium anytime soon. The first phase of the Sesame-IBM partnership will involve high-octane brainstorming sessions involving educators, developers, scientists and researchers from both organizations to determine what tools to build and prototype. These could be a “smart” toy like Elmo, or a reading app for students that can adapt lessons and stories based on their interests. Satya Nitta, IBM’s Program Director of Cognitive Sciences and Education Technology, adds that his team is also “highly interested in tangible user interfaces [in the form of] physical blocks with digital signatures.”Within the next year, at least one tool should be ready to be tested in schools. Nitta says as many as six different technologies could be developed by 2019. Each tool will be piloted in New York City schools and other classrooms around the country, and be fine-tuned based on feedback from teachers and students. No money is changing hands between IBM and Sesame Workshop. “This is purely a research and development partnership,” Dunn tells EdSurge.

He also recognizes that “we’re in the exploratory phase, and we’re ways away from arriving at a solution and implementation.” 17 years in the making Fascinating insight to nature. As you would expect brought to you by David Attenborough. These amazing insects creating a flurry of activity for a a few days where predators gorge themselves in millions of defenseless inserts but they still manage to create billions more offspring to populate the lifecycle for another 17 years. Melway turns 50 Adapted from article in the Age 23 April The year is 1966. Decimal currency is introduced… Harold Holt’s in charge… the Saints win the flag… and a Melbourne icon is born. The Melway Street Directory is as much a part of this city as the MCG, the Yarra River, Flinders Street Station and W Class trams. Do you have a 1975 Melways hidden in a packing box or at the back of the bookcase. I suggest you look for it as it could be very valuable. Read on.

Merv Godfrey, who died three years ago, was the co-founder of Melway, as well as the Sydway and Brisway street directories, all under the Ausway banner. For most of the company's history, clever data collection methods and sales figures have been kept close to the chest. Compiling that first edition was an enormous task for him and business partner Iven Mackay: Godfrey – a cartographer - did the drawings and design in his home office while Mackay spent a good part of four years driving a total of 274,000 kilometres around every street of the metropolis, checking and double-checking details. In 1982, a cartographer's note saying ''Looks Funny Eh?" - indicating the Tullamarine Airport terminal - made it through on 4000 copies. It was – and still is - an incredible amount of hard work. Note that the publication is called Melway, even though everyone knows it as Melways. The Melway is so embedded in Melbourne culture that even today, most local businesses, retailers and party-throwers still list their Melway reference when giving directions.

It is a code (eg ref: 88 C2, or ref: 39 F7) that must be utterly enigmatic to non-Melburnians. Godfrey once quipped that "I have spent a lifetime telling people where to go!" but it was his wife Barbara who got the books onto the market. Many told her that because of the price, this street directory would never sell but she persisted. It took her six months to cover Melbourne, walking into a few newsagents each day to tout the directories. She was not a born salesperson. On her first day, the story goes, she visited newsagents around Huntingdale and was so anxious she could barely speak. One shop-owner told her to go back outside, take a few deep breaths and start again. She did - and sold him a box of 36 street directories. Later, her husband would go into the shops and buy a couple – an old trick to get retailers to restock and build some buzz about the product. THEN AND NOW1966 There were 106 maps in the first edition. This year, there are more than 500.

The map key listed 25 symbols, compared to 76 in 2016. Schools were divided into "Specialist-Type, Non-Catholic and Catholic". The edition marks "Public Telephones", "Roads not fully trafficable" and "Migrant Hostels". 1968 The central City map was printed at a larger scale than the rest of the directory for the first time. "Alternate routes" were inserted. Postcode boundaries and house numbers were introduced. 1970 The Sun and the seasons Artist: Frey Micklethwait. Source: Museum Victoria. Spring Equinox (AEST) 2014 2015 September 23, 18:20 On the day of the Spring Equinox, the Earth’s poles are the same distance from the Sun. In Melbourne, the Sun rises due east, sets due west and gets to 52° above the horizon at noon. On this day there are roughly 12 hrs of day and 12 hrs of night.

Summer Solstice (AEDT) 2015 December 22, 15:48 On the day of Summer Solstice, the Earth’s south pole is tilted towards the Sun. The Sun rises south of east, sets south of west and reaches 75 1/2° above the horizon at noon. This is, usually, the longest day of the year. Autumn Equinox (AEDT) 2015 March 21, 09:45 On the day of the Autumn Equinox, the Earth’s poles are the same distance from the Sun. The Sun rises due east, sets due west and reaches 52° above the horizon at noon. There are roughly 12 hrs of day and 12 hrs of night. Winter Solstice (AEST) 2015 June 22, 02:38 On the day of Winter Solstice, Earth’s south pole is tilted away from the Sun. The Sun rises north of east, sets north of west and reaches 28 1/2° above the horizon at noon. This is, usually, the shortest day of the year.

The facts about the oceans Almost two-thirds of the earths surface is covered by water. If the earth were flat, water would cover everything in a layer two miles deep! Geologists have discovered there seems to be more water miles deep between the rocks of Earths mantle than in all the oceans of the world. The intense pressure of the tons of rocks above keeps the hot water from turning to steam and escaping. Water is the only substance on earth that is lighter as a solid than a liquid. The biggest canyons in the world are under water. Beneath the Bering Sea off Alaska there are seven giant canyons: Bering Canyon, 240 miles long; Navarin Canyon, 60 miles wide; Zhemchung Canyon, 9000 feet deep. In comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is only 10 miles wide, one mile deep and 250 miles long. Monster waves of over 100 feet tall can suddenly appear at sea when there is no storm to cause them. They are actually accidental meetings of several waves that can combine to form one huge one that can easily sink a freighter.

When scientist drilled through the ice of Antarctica’s Lake Vanda, they discovered that the water at the bottom of the lake was an amazingly warm 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice crystals actually heat the water by focusing on the bottom of the lake. 8,200 below the surface of the ocean a ridge of volcanoes stretch around the globe. Vents in the ridge spew mineral rich water at temperatures of 700 degrees Fahrenheit or more. In the hot waters, bacteria live feeding on the minerals. Tube worms grow to six feet long and foot long clams grow 500 times faster than their relatives living near the surface. A two-mile thick dome of glacial ice covers most of Greenland. The weight of the ice is so great that if it suddenly melted the bedrock of the island would rise 2500 feet! There are giant waterfalls under the ocean! The largest is between Greenland and Iceland. This submarine waterfall drops 11,500 feet; three times the height of any land waterfall. One inch of rain is equal to 10 inches of snow.

Vintage photos Doctor WHO Back in 1962, a report on the viability of science fiction as a genre for BBC drama had concluded that it could never guarantee a large TV audience. 'Doctor Who' was inspired by that report and in this document from the BBC Audience Research Department we can finally see whether there was any truth in those early findings. As expected, those who liked the show seem passionate about it, while those who didn't like it appear almost as determined. After more than 50 years the series launched on 24 August 2014 with the 12th Doctor Who. The cult lives on. Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of the Doctor, a Time Lord—a time-travelling humanoid alien. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, the Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilisations, help ordinary people, and right wrongs.

The show is a significant part of British popular culture, and elsewhere it has become a cult television favourite. The show has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. After an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot in the form of a television film, the programme was relaunched in 2005 by Russell T Davies who was showrunner and head writer for the first five years of its revival, produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff. The first series of the 21st century, featuring Christopher Eccleston in the title role, was produced by the BBC. Series two and three had some development money contributed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which was credited as a co-producer. Doctor Who also spawned spin-offs in multiple media, including Torchwood (2006–11) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–11), both created by Russell T Davies; K-9 (2009–10); and a single pilot episode of K-9 and Company (1981).

There also have been many spoofs and cultural references of the character in other media. Twelve actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. The transition from one actor to another, and the differing approach to the role that they bring, is written into the plot of the show as regeneration into a new incarnation, a life process of Time Lords through which the character of the Doctor takes on a new body and, to some extent, new personality, which occurs after sustaining injury which would be fatal to most other species. While each actor's portrayal differs, they are all intended to be aspects of the same character, and form part of the same storyline. The time-travelling nature of the plot means that on occasion, story arcs have involved different Doctors meeting each other. The Doctor is currently portrayed by Peter Capaldi, who took on the role after Matt Smith's final appearance in the 2013 Christmas special, "The Time of the Doctor". Housecleaning tips This tip comes to you from the husband whose wife is overseas walking various parts of Europe.

the Ultimate Journey For more information By 2015, Mars One expects put up to 10 four-member teams through intensive training, with the first of those teams reaching to Mars in 2023 on a high-risk journey that would take seven months to complete. If they survive the trip, the human Martians will have to deal with temperatures of minus 55 degrees C in a desert-like atmosphere that consists mainly of carbon dioxide. They will also have to consent to being observed back on Earth full-time as stars of a reality TV show that would help cover expenses. Countdown to take-off:2011: Mars One is founded 2013: Crew recruitment process begins 2015: Training selected crew members begins 2016: Demonstration Mission to launch to provide proof of concept 2018: Rover launched to find the best settlement location. Once located it will prepare for the arrival of cargo missions. A communication satellite will also be launched. 2020: Cargo mission will be launched with living united, life support systems and supply units.

2021: Rover will set up the outpost to the cargo units to prepare for human arrival 2022: The first crew departs from planet earth. It will take 210 days for them to arrive. 2023: The first crew of humans lands on Mars 2024: The second crew departs from planet earth - they take 240 days to arrive. Tour de France How are you doing with the late night/early mornings that comes at this time of the year as the northern hemisphere enjoys the summer sports. Wimbeldon, World Cup and just over in time to give way to the Tour de France. The animation here give you excellent insight to the event. Well worth a look as it provides some interesting facts. Did you know that the Tour de France was commenced in 1903 when a man called Henri Desgrange needed to boost the sales of his newspaper : L’Auto. Henri’s newspaper was locked in a competitive sales war with the sports paper Le Velo at the time and desperately needed to widen his readership. Fortunately for Henri the six-day race was a success and the sales of L’Auto were hugely boosted as a result.

For those frightened of technology Thanks to Bruce Longden for the idea. Watch the following short clip that takes less than a minute. A daughter is visiting her father and is helping in the kitchen. She asks: " Tell me dad, how are you managing with the new I-Pad we gave you for your birthday?" This clip is spoken in German but it's totally understandable in any language. Oils aint Oils Sorry about the obvious advertisement but this series of Youtube cartoons seemed too cute. If you have a spare 30 mins check out the third cartoon that provides an amusing look at McLaren testing with Jensen Button and Louis Hamilton. casino not liable for unshuffled cards Seems incredible but it appears that an act of negligence from a casino does not necessarily cost them dearly. An Atlantic City casino does not have to pay $US1.5 million ($A1.62 million) won by a group of gamblers who realised the cards had not been shuffled, and can move to recover more than $US500,000 it already paid them.Superior Court judge ruled that because the cards had been unshuffled, that made the game of mini-baccarat in April 2012 illegal under state casino rules.

Fourteen players racked up $US1.5 million in winnings over 41 straight hands when they realised the cards were coming out in a specific pattern.Many of them quickly upped their bets from $US10 a hand to $US5000.The problem was that a Kansas City playing card manufacturer that sold decks of cards guaranteed to have been pre-shuffled did not do so in this case.The company, Gemaco, admitted in court it had erred in providing cards to the casino. Isman dismissed a racketeering count against the casino. Shrine of Remembrance As redevelopment of the Shrine of Remembrance continues in preparation for the major events of next year I have watched a fascinating program on Landline. This took a look at the history of the memorial and its link to the small Victorian town of Tynong. Materials for building the Shrine were sourced from within Australia: the chosen building stone was granodiorite quarried from Tynong; the internal walls use sandstone from Redesdale; and the black marble columns used stone from Buchan. This raised some concerns when redeveloping the Shrine, as the Tynong quarry was no longer in use, and it proved to be prohibitively expensive to reopen the site.

Fortunately another quarry in the area was available and was able to provide the necessary stone. Check out the Landline program at this link as it presents some interesting aspects such as the techniques used, the stonemasons involved and the challenges of building such a beautiful memorial in the late 1920's Do you suffer friggatriskaidekaphobia According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" superstition before the 19th century. One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth, in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.

In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of divine organizational arrangement or chronological completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the clock day, the twelve deities of Olympus, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, the 12 successors of Muhammad in Shia Islam, twelve signs of the Zodiac, the 12 years of the Buddhist cycle, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. In Norse mythology, the beloved hero Balder was killed at a banquet by the mischievous god Loki, who crashed the party of twelve, bringing the group to 13. This story, as well as the story of the Last Supper, led to one of the most entrenched 13-related beliefs: You should never sit down to a meal in a group of 13. Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Sailors were particularly superstitious in this regard, often refusing to ship out on a Friday.

According to unverified legend (very likely untrue), the British Navy commissioned a ship in the 1800s called H.M.S. Friday, in order to quell the superstition. The navy selected the crew on a Friday, launched the ship on a Friday and even selected a man named James Friday as the ship's captain. Then, one Friday morning, the ship set off on its maiden voyage... and disappeared forever. A similar, entirely factual story is the harrowing flight of Apollo 13. Drone delivers the pizza They come topped with pepperoni, chicken tikka or vegetarian. But a flying variety may soon be found on Indian pizza menus, after an outlet in Mumbai said it had successfully delivered by drone. Staff at Francesco's Pizzeria in south Mumbai were inspired by the news that online retail giant Amazon was planning to use unmanned drones to deliver goods, and decided to try one out as a means to beat the city's notorious traffic. 'We successfully carried out a test delivery by sending a pizza to a customer located 1.5 kilometre away from our outlet on May 11,' Francesco's Pizzeria chief executive Mikhel Rajani told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

The company posted a video of the delivery on YouTube, which shows the drone carrying the pizza box over shops, cricketers and the coastline of the financial capital before landing on a high-rise rooftop. Rajani believes the test will lead the way to a cheaper and quicker service than their usual two-wheelers can provide by road. He said there were some snags, however, such as batteries running out after eight kilometres and drones being banned from flying over security establishments. It could only be India Submitted by Ian Stevenson You might remember that Ian and Jenny spent some time in Delhi a couple of years ago when Dale was competing in the Commonwealth Games. Therefore it is not surprising that these photos appeal to Ian as he recalls the reality that they show when in India. For those interested to reflect back to 2012 there were some good stories that Ian and Jenny submitted back then. You can re-read these here.... Dale's delhi may the Force be with You Who would have thought Margaret Thatcher’s election would be the genesis of a worldwide, annual celebration of all things “Star Wars?” Yet that’s exactly how May The Fourth began.

In 1979, Thatcher was congratulated on becoming the first ever female Prime Minister of Britain by the London Evening News with a half page ad that stated, “May The Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations.” “Star Wars” had been released two years earlier, and its cultural impact was enough that the pun on “May The Force Be With You,” one of the movie’s catchphrases, was universal enough to make sense in a British print ad. Did you know that....... The original Star Wars, A New Hope, is still the highest grossing Star Wars Film. It is the second highest grossing film of all time in the US if you adjust for ticket price inflation (right behind Gone With The Wind) Star Wars has made over 3.5 Billion dollars. Carrie Fisher and Sissy Spasic both auditioned for the role of Princess Leia and "Carrie" from Stephen King's Carrie at the same time. Fisher took Star Wars, as she was against the initial "nude" scene in Carrie. Can you imagine Princess Leia played by Sissy? Sixteen years after the release of the trilogy’s final film, the first in a new prequel trilogy of films was released.

In October 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion and announced that it would produce three new films, with the first film, Star Wars Episode VII, planned for release in 2015. George Lucas was the first filmmaker to ask for and sucessfully retain the merchandising rights to his characters...creating an empire of toys, t-shirts, and other movie memorabilia. This has been successful... ...after box office the franchise has grossed (so far) 3.8 Billion dollars on DVDs 2.9 Billion dollars on video games 3.1 Billion dollars on books and merchandise 12.0 Billion dollars on toys It cost 11Million dollars to make the first Star Wars episode. Pretty good investment. The sound effects for the Death Star's turbo-lasers were created by striking a telephone pole suspension wire with a heavy pole Lightsaber sounds were a combo of the hum from the back of an old TV set and an old 35mm movie projector Luke Skywalker's landspeeder noise is actually traffic on the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles, as heard through a vacuum-cleaner pipe.

In ROTS, bubbling, moving lava can be either a macaroni casserole being squished or a wet towel rubbed in mud. How is your bucket list shaping up Tell us about your adventure * Have you been to one of these places? Do you have any other amazing photos to share? Just send some details Here are a few examples that I know some of you have seen. Tell us about it or add some more using the box above. I can add you comments for future editions. What were they thinking... I was prompted to look for this array of amusing signs when I was reminded of the sign that was displayed in Sunbury after the recent fires. I did not get a photo but there was a big roadside electronic flashing sign that proclaimed; CAUTION LIVESTOCK WONDERING ON ROADS I am sure they were confused after the fire but I suspect that they were roaming around after the fences got burnt and were not necessary gathering in packs on the road debating the reason for the fences being down! 50 years on....do you remember..... Sir Robert Menzies - 12th Australian Prime Minister in office in 1964. He is the longest serving PM with 18 years in office.

Sir Henry Bolte - 38th Victorian Premier. Also longest serving with 17 years in the highest office in Vic. Well known 50 year olds 3rd free to air TV channel starts In April 1963 the licence to operate Melbourne's third commercial television station was awarded Austarama Television, owned by transport magnate Sir Reginald Ansett . The new channel, ATV-0 (pronounced as O, never the number zero), began transmission on 1 August 1964 from a large modern studio complex located in the then-outer eastern suburb of Nunawading , in the locality now known as Forest Hill , but referred to at the time as East Burwood . The new station opened with a preview program hosted by Barry McQueen and Nancy Cato followed by a variety program, This Is It!. Reception difficulties in parts of the city resulted in the station's virtually permanent third position in the Melbourne television ratings. ATV had been experimenting with colour transmissions from 1967, when the station was the first to mount a colour outside broadcast in Australia, from the Pakenham races. Many other colour test transmissions occurred subsequently.

Full-time colour transmission was introduced to ATV-0 in March 1975 Writer Isaac Asimov predicts life in 50 years back in 1964. Writing in the New York Times in 1964 , science fiction author and biochemistry professor Isaac Asimov predicted what the world would look like 50 years on in 2014. What do you think...how close did he get? "By 2014, electroluminescent panels will be in common use. Ceilings and walls will glow softly, and in a variety of colours that will change at the touch of a push button," "The appliances of 2014 will have no electric cords, of course, for they will be powered by long-lived batteries," "Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone. The screen can be used not only to see the people you call but also for studying documents and photographs and reading passages from books." "As for television, wall screens will have replaced the ordinary set; and transparent cubes will be making their appearance in which three-dimensional viewing will be possible." Donald Campbell sets world land speed record in Australia.

Campbell decided the Bonneville course was too short at 11-mile (18 km) and the salt surface was in poor condition for his land speed record attempt. After a long search, Lake Eyre , in South Australia, was chosen. It hadn’t rained there for nine years and the vast dry bed of the salt lake offered a course of up to 20-mile (32 km). At the end of 1962, CN7 was shipped out to Australia ready for the new attempt. Low-speed runs had just started when the rains came. By May 1963, Lake Eyre was flooded to a depth of 3 inches, causing the attempt to be abandoned. Campbell returned to Australia in early spring 1964, but the Lake Eyre course failed to fulfil the early promise it had shown in 1962 and there were further spells of rain. The track never properly dried out. Finally, in July 1964, he took advantage of a break in the weather and made two courageous runs along the shortened and still damp track, posting a new LSR of 403.10 mph (648.73 km/h).

This represented the official Land Speed Record for wheeled vehicle. This has never been beaten. In 2014 the fastest production car is the Bugatti Veyron that reached 267.857 mph (431 km/h). Strange but true returns Bubble Wrap was invented by two engineers Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes in Hawthorne, N.J. in 1957. The two were not, however, trying to make a product to be used as packaging material. Rather, they were trying to create a textured wallpaper. They started out by sealing two shower curtains together in such a way that it would capture air bubbles which would make the textured appearance for their wallpaper. Needless to say, this wallpaper idea didn’t sell too well. It was three years after the initial creation of Bubble Wrap that Frederick W. Bowers, a marketer at Sealed Air, which makes Bubble Wrap, finally came up with the perfect use for their product. On October the 5, 1959, IBM announced their new 1401 variable word length computer. Bowers got the idea that Bubble Wrap could be used as a good packaging material to protect the computer while it was being shipped.

He then pitched the idea to IBM and demonstrated Bubble Wrap’s protective abilities. His demonstration went over well and IBM began purchasing Bubble Wrap to protect their 1401 and other fragile product they sold and shipped. From those humble beginnings, the company has grown to annual sales of around $4 billion with a net profit of around $255 million. For reference, about 10% of Sealed Air’s revenue comes from Bubble Wrap, so around $400 million worth of Bubble Wrap is sold annually. One of the things to prompt this return of the "Strange but True" is some facts that are being presented by IBM as part of their latest strategy. Did you know that 10% of the world's photos have been taken in the past 30 days! 2.5 billion gigabytes of data is being generated every day! 80% of the world's data is unstructured audio, video, social media, sensor data! Nowadays there are so many companies with instantly recognizable logos, but few people actually know the meaning behind these corporate symbols. Here are 10 modern day examples of company logos and the meanings behind them: The FedEx logo looks simple and it’s hard to see what could be hidden within it.

But looking closely at the space between the ‘E’ and ‘X’ in the orange Ex shows an arrow pointing forward. This arrow represents moving forward toward to the future. Mercedes’ tri-star represents the companies dominance over land, sea and air. The arrow which looks like a smiling face in Amazon’s logo has another meaning behind it. It is a representation of the wide range of items available for retail by Amazon, from A to Z. Parched lips - Google Earth Eat your heart out, Angelina Jolie. These lips may not be as famous Jolie's but they're bigger. This geological find (12°22'13.32"N, 23°19'20.18"E) ( see it in Google Earth ) is located in Gharb, Darfur, in Sudan. To earthbound locals, the landmass is just another nondescript hill that's 0.5 mile long. If you ask me, this lady needs to do something about her 5 o'clock shadow. Google Earth shows the artificial island Need an island, but can't find one to buy? Why not build one?

That appears to be the philosophy behind islands being built in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the shape of palm trees crowned with crescents. This image shows one (25° 7'2.64"N, 55° 7'59.28"E) ( see it in Google Maps ) of three identical Palm Islands being built from an estimated 500,000 cubic meters of rock and sand . Google Earth offers a unique way to explore this island, serving up a high-resolution map where you can wander the island's 100 luxury hotels, water parks, and lavish homes. A good Father's Day present What about one of the bottles of scotch whisky found recently in a crate that had been stored in the Antarctic for over 100 years. Read more: #ixzz0tMo1XWzu Entries flood into Lake Eyre Regatta 2010 An outback yacht club says about 50 boats have registered for a rare event in the South Australian desert in early July. Lake Eyre Yacht Club was formed in 2000 but seldom sees enough water to hold a regatta.

The giant salt pan still does not have enough water for sailing this year despite flows from Queensland, so the regatta will be held on Lake Killamperpunna, about 160 kilometres north of Marree. Club commodore Bob Backway says boats have not sailed on that lake since 1989. "To think that just a month-and-a-half ago this area was just bone dry," he said. "[Now] you're sailing on this beautiful lake that looks like it's been there forever but hasn't had water this depth in it for 20 years, it's just ... out of this world."He says yachties will travel from across Australia will take advantage of the rare opportunity for desert sailing. "My wife and I sailed on the lake a few weeks ago and it's just magical and Cooper Creek is just so amazing," he said.

"Where the punt is it's 200 metres wide and five metres deep and it's just such beautiful scenery going through the sand dunes and of course the sand dunes are all covered with wild flowers at the moment." Hole-in One by two BRICKIES labourer Richard Kube plans to have his golf ball mounted after it played a starring role in one of the rarest golfing events in the world two holes in one during the same round. Even before he walked off the Tasmania Golf Club course at 4.45pm (AEST) yesterday, the local golfing community was abuzz with Mr Kube's amazing double. "We looked it up on the internet and it said it was a one in 67,000,000 occurrence, so it's pretty rare," the 23-year-old said at the 19th hole. He plays off a two handicap, and is a member of the Tasmanian senior team that will contest the Interstate Series against all other states in Queensland in September. His hole-in-one double happened in the TGC's regular Wednesday competition, which he only entered because he got off work earlier than expected.

His first hole-in-one was on the par three eighth hole using a six iron. The second came on the par three 11th using an eight iron and the same brand new Srixon ball he dug out of his bag on the seventh. Buy a whole NZ town for $800,000 Why settle for a $1 million house in Sydney when you can have a whole village in New Zealand for less? The tiny town of Otira, in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, is on the market for $NZ1 million ($817,060). The village's current owners, Bill and Christine Hennah, made the purchase in 1998 after passing through the town and "feeling sorry for it". They paid $NZ80,000 ($65,290) for the hotel, school, railway station, town hall and 18 houses. The Kiwi couple, now in their 60s, are asking for $NZ350,000 ($285,520) for the hotel, or $NZ1 million for the whole lot.

Otira has a population of 40 and is in the middle of a national park on the west coast of the South Island. MIS 2901 Study Guide (2013-14 O'donnell) - Instructor O'donnell at Temple University - StudyBlue Good to have you back! If you've signed in to StudyBlue with Facebook in the past, please do that again. MIS 2901 Study Guide (2013-14 O'donnell) MIS 2901 Study Guide (2013-14 O'donnell) StudyBlue Size: 54 Views: 4 cloud computing Web-based applications that are stored on remote servers and accessed via the 'cloud' of the Internet using a standard Web browser. What is Grid Computing? Advertisement ) Grid Computing The process by which not files, but processing power is shared within a network between the belonging computers Moore's Law Predicts that the power of microprocessor technology doubles and the cost of production falls in half every 18 months. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) the Cloud Computing delivery model that provides access to software and its functions remotely as a Web-based service.

SaaS removes the need for organizations to handle the installation, set-up, and maintenance Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) a service that delivers hardware networking capabilities include the use of servers, networking and storage over the cloud using a pay per use revenue model Virtualization Platform as a Service (PaaS) Where cloud providers offer services that include the hardware, operating system, tools, and hosting (i.e., the platform) that its customers use to build their own applications on the provider’s infrastructure. In this scenario the cloud firm usually manages the platform (hosting, hardware, and supporting software), while the client has control over the creation and deployment of their appliation. extranet password protected form of internet intended for external users extranet semiprivate network that uses internet technology and allows more than one company to access the same info or allows people on different servers to collaborate intranet a private computer network like the internet that allows a business to securely share their organization information with its emplyees Virtual Private Network (VPN) A group of connected computers within a confined geographic area.

Wide area networks (WAN) A communications network covering a large geographic area peer to peer network a network where all computers can equally and easily share data without a central server Advertisement Which trade route connects the Atlantic and Pacific ocean? The Panama Canal What are the three most frequently traded currencies in the world? U.S. dollar, the Euro and the Japanese Yen What product that makes unpacking fun was invented by sealing two shower curtains together by two engineers who intended it as wallpaper? Bubble Wrap Coffee came originally from Ethiopia What city has the largest population in the world? Tokyo, Japan Before 1994, Brazilians spent Cruzeiros. Now they do deals with a currency by this name Real What is the largest single-site employer in the US with more than 66,000 employees, a manifold increase from the 5,500 it employed when it opened in 1971? Walt Disney World Resort Who was the world's largest employer in 2012 United States Department of Defense What are the two countries in the world that Coca-Cola does not conduct business?

North Korea and Cuba The discovery of Metallica's song "I Disappear" on a file sharing network in 2000 started a chain of events that led to the demise of the original incarnation of what company?

Napster Superior value creation When a firm provides products at a lower cost or with superior benefits to the customer Value chain analysis Process of analyzing a firm's activities to see where value is added to products or services and what the costs of the added value is Business process Activities an organization performs in order to reach it's goals Operational level of a firm Bottom level of an organization where day-to-day business processes occur Managerial level of a firm Middle level of an organization, where managers monitor operational level activities and provide information to the organization's higher level managers Executive level Top level of an organization, where executives focus on long-term strategic issues facing the organization Automating Using information systems to do an activity faster, cheaper, and more accurately Organizational learning The ability of an organization to learn from past behaviors and information, improving as a result Strategic planning Process of forming a vision of where the organization needs to head, converting the vision into performance targets and objectives, and crafting a plan to achieve the desired results 4 international business strategies The use of everyday people as cheap labor force, enabled by information technology. Web API A Web application programming interface that provides a way for different components of software to interact and exchange data or functionality using common Web communication protocols.

Metadata Data about data, describing data in terms of who, where, when, why and so on. Web 2.0 A term used to describe dynamic Web applications that allow people to collaborate and share information online. Social Networking Connecting to colleagues, family members, or friends for business or entertainment purposes. Geotagging Adding geospatial metadata(such as lattitude, longitue) to digital media Blogosphere The community of all blogs Groupware Software that enables people to work together more effectively Real Simple Syndication (RSS) A set of standards for sharing updated Web content, such as news and sports scores, across sites. Virtual World An online environment allowing people to communicate synchronously using 3D avatars. DATABASES collections of information that may be searched and organized supercomputer fastest, most powerful, and most expensive computer, capable of processing more than 135 trillion instructions in a single second. Operating Systems Controls the processes within the computer. Manages the computers hardware devices. Middleware software that helps diverse applications work together protocols are rules that govern data communication, including error detection, message length, and transmission speed Bandwidth Maximum amount of information in bits per second that a particular channel can transmit.

Internet worldwide collection of networks that links millions of businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals Web Browser

Question: What product that makes unpacking fun was invented by sealing two shower curtains together by two engineers who intended it as wallpaper?
Answer: Bubble Wrap