Just For Fun (Update on Doraemon Story) 10:36 PM

It looks like many don't believe about the sad story of Doraemon,
now, let's see Doraemon talks about his past on a Japanese TV program and explains why he lost his ears and how he turned blue. Let's hear it from the direct source...LOL

also, he also explain how'd he get his hoarse voice like what we heard :))
Enjoy!

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Veda #31 : Scrubs 8:25 PM

Day 31
"Why the doctors and nurses always using green/blue scrubs when they operate?"


Familiar with tv series House?Grey's Anatomy?or the classic ER or Scrubs?
No problem if you haven't seen one of those movies, they all telling life in hospital as medical and surgical unit at the hospital. i'm not gonna tell each synopsis of those movies, but i'll tell you about their apparel, called Scrubs. Scrubs are the shirts and trousers or gowns worn by nurses, surgeons, and other operating room personnel when "scrubbing in" for surgery. They are designed to be simple with minimal places for dirt to hide, easy to launder, and cheap to replace if damaged or stained irreparably.
Now, do you know why this scrubs always coloured green (or in some case : blue)?

Earlier history tell that usually the doctors wearing white suit, to resembles clean and hygiene, because it's vital to health, or to sick persons, they must treated with hygiene stuff. This is a basic colour's psychology on most human's mind.
But then, if we talk about scrubs, most of the doctor change their clothes to green suit, because of the simple reason : it is more comfortable and refreshing to looked at. Although it is hard to believe and lack of logical reasons, green color is very suitable for the operating doctors and nurses to help them see better, because green is the opposite of red in color's wheel.
interesting isn't it?why?
According to Psychologist, seeing green color could refresh the eyes of the surgeon who stare at red things for a long period of time, this is including the blood and internal organ of the body. Seeing red color (or any 1 color) for too long will cause the brain lose its sensitivity to those color, and made the eyes a little bit blurry. Other case mentioned that it'll triggering some color illusion on bright color.
i.e : if the surgeon stare at the red blood for too long, the eyes will become blurry and they'll see some color illusion of red when they see the white or bright background.
So, that's why they using green color to help neutralize this illusion and improve permormance when operating.

About some of the surgeon or doctor using blue?the reason is simple, red is hot color, and to help neutralize it, use the cold colors such as green or blue.
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Veda #30 : 22nd Century Cat 10:06 PM

Day 30
"Here's an early story of Doraemon, for you who might don't know"

Do you recognize the picture above?yes, he's Doraemon, a cat-robot came from future to help Nobita solve his problem, and help him to earn better living for his great-great-great-grandson. What?that's not Doraemon?Doraemon is blue you said?hoho...no, no, no, tell you what, Doraemon is actually yellow and have (or had) ears. He's basically a cat-robot right. Now, let's see how he ended up earless and blue like the one you know.

Here's the early story kid, it's gonna be fun!
Doraemon is actually a robot who travels to the future under Sewashi’s (Nobita’s great-great-great-grandson) orders, in order to make changes that affect the present. When Doraemon lived in the future, he was yellow and had ears. Doraemon’s story begins in the 22nd Century. At that time, robot is a main production to help peoples. His story begin at Tokyo, at the factory specialized in making cat-robot.
Unfortunately, the production process went wrong. There is actually one robot that incomplete because lack of 1 bolt! (yeah, just 1 bolt and it makes Doraemon a defective one). The scientist considered this as "second-grade" production. But they insist to send him to Robot Academy, Doraemon then programmed (or should i say, taken a written test) to become a housekeeping robot. And unfortunately again, he failed those test--now that he really remind me of Nobita. And later, he was auctioned off and sold to a very poor family, Nobita's descendant at the future, as a babysitting robot.


About the ears, here's the story
One day, after babysitting, he took a nap. Teen Sewashi decided to gave him a surprise for taking care of him. He then made a miniature robot of Doraemon, and he realized that the miniature's ears were tilted and not in the right position. He asked the rat-robot to fix the miniature's ears, but instead of that, the rat-robot ate the ears of the real Doraemon.
Doraemon surprised and cried so hard that the tears rubbed the yellow off. That’s how he turned blue.

And if you wondered why Sewashi sending Doraemon to Nobita, here's the reason.
Nobita’s descendants- were living in misery due to the huge debts inherited from their great, great, great grandfather. Sewashi decided this could not go on like that. So, he sent Doraemon back to the past in order to help Nobita become a better person. The idea was that this would change the future and so improve the family’s lot in life.
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Veda #29 : Sleeping Time 10:22 PM

Day 29
"Sleeping with the lights still on may cause health problem such as Leukimia, how'd that happen?"

How many of you sleep at night with the light still on?. Well, maybe after you read the explanation below, you might want to consider to kill your light whenever you sleep. As we may know, your night sleep is the most important state of sleep than any ther that you have on the afternoon, or evening, because most of our body's hormones regeneration happened at night. One of them called "Melatonin". Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland, a small gland in the brain. Melatonin helps control your sleep and wake cycles. Very small amounts of it are found in foods such as meats, grains, fruits, and vegetables. You can also buy it as a supplement.
Now, how this connected with your health?and most of all, how did this connect with your sleeping habit?

Melatonin and its functions
Your body has its own internal clock that controls your natural cycle of sleeping and waking hours. In part, your body clock controls how much melatonin your body makes. Normally, melatonin levels begin to rise in the mid- to late evening, remain high for most of the night, and then drop in the early morning hours.
Melatonin also helps control the timing and release of female reproductive hormones. It helps determine when menstruation begins, the frequency and duration of menstrual cycles, and when menstruation ends. As an antioxidant, in many studies melatonin has been shown to protect DNA from oxidative damage that bring cancer. The scientist suggests that it may help strengthen the immune system.

Melatonin and its cycle
Many researchers believe that melatonin levels are related to the aging process. For example, young children have the highest levels of nighttime melatonin. Researchers believe these levels diminish as we age. In fact, the decline in melatonin may explain why many older adults have disrupted sleep patterns and tend to go to bed and wake up earlier than when they were younger.
Darkness stimulates the production of melatonin while light suppresses its activity. Exposure to excessive light in the evening or too little light during the day can disrupt the body’s normal melatonin cycles. The stronger the light at night, the less Melatonin will produced.

Melatonin and sleeping habit
Okay, now you've known enough about melatonin, now you should've been figure the connection between this and sleeping with the light still on. As explained above, darkness stimulates the production of Melatonin, a reduction in melatonin had been linked to cancer initiation and cancer progression. Since Melatonin also figured as an antioxidant that protect DNA from oxidative damage, Once damaged, DNA may mutate and carcinogenesis may occur. This is why people most likely having cancer, especially on children. Also, night workers were known to have a higher risk of breast cancer, because their exposure to lights in the day and night.

This should come to consideration to you who having a childs, don't forget to turn off the light whenever the children sleep, because their immune system aren't as well as adults. If you or your children having trouble with darkness, try to use a low intensity light bulb as consideration.

So, have you turn off your lights?better safe than sorry, right?
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Veda #28 : Lights Out 10:43 PM

Day 28
"Why do pilots always dim the light inside the cabin whenever they need to take off or landing the airplane?"


"For safety regulation, the lights inside the cabin will be dimmed, and please raise the shade, adjust the seat, and please remain seated until this aircraft fully stopped". For you who travel with aircraft a lot, maybe you've remembered the standard operation procedure at the airplane whenever they need to landing or take off. The pilot usually gonna dim the light inside the cabin to ensure safety and follow the flying regulation.
Did you know why?

There are actually two moments when the lights are killed in the cabin. The first is merely a flicker. Airline electrician John Payton explains, ''While the craft is at the ground, it is hooked up to an auxiliary power unit, which provides power for lighting and ventilation. When the engines are running, they switch over to power generated by the engines and disconnect the auxiliary unit.''
This way, the power that being used for the interior light gonna switched to help the engine boost. Also, cutting the use of cabin electricity provides greater electrical potential for the plane to use on landing.

Some safety instruction said that during take-off and landing, you are asked to raise your shade so that in the event of an accident you can see through the window to help you remain oriented (which way is up, etc.). Because of this, it lets you see what hazards there are outside the plane (fires, debris and such), which would be important during an evacuation. It also serves as a way to let light into the cabin and make it easier for rescuers to see inside. If it is dark outside, they dim the lights to help your eyes adjust to the darkness, so if anything happens and it goes dark, you're not suddenly blinded while dashing for the exits. It also makes the emergency path/exit lights more visible, as these might be the only lights you see in an emergency. As with the shades, it allows you to see outside for orientation, because with the cabin lights burning brightly, the glare would make it impossible.

But if you're referring to the practice of main cabin lights being extinguished during take-off, it has absolutely nothing to do with safety or technical problems. The flight attendants turn out the lights; United Airlines captain Mike Lauria claims that the lights-out custom is motivated by passengers' desire to better see the lights outside the plane on take-off.
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Veda #27 : Square-ing 10:09 PM

Day 27
"Why they called the boxing arena with "boxing ring" although it was square?"

Square area, 2 men, 1 winner. You've probably known this sport, yes it's boxing. This sport is about survival of the fittest and of course strategy, to beat down the opponent before being beaten down. Talk about boxing, let's set an eye to the arena, the ring, that actually had an interesting fact. Boxing ring is often referred to by many as the only circle in the world that is square. Why don’t they just call it boxing square, boxing stage or boxing something?

The answer is that “ring” was first applied not to the boxing area but to the spectators who formed a ring around the combatants. The first boxing ring was actually round. The earliest spectacle combat sports which have resemblance to the modern day boxing were actually played on a round drawing on the ground. The purpose perhaps of drawing lines, as opposed to just freely fighting without any delimiters on the ground, is to keep the fighters in a single location. And because of that lines, the spectators formed a ring around the combatants.

The first public boxing matches took place in early 18th century England. These were bare-knuckled affairs with no time limits and no referees. Small arenas were built that featured rings demarcated by wooden barriers or heavy ropes. The winner was the last man standing.

The purpose of the ring became very clear. It was used as the starting point of the match where the two wrestlers met at the beginning of the round. Since the boxings eventually became a sport, the using of wooden barriers considered dangerous for the fighters, so square shaped boxing areas were introduced only in the year 1838 by the Pugilistic Society. It constructed with four posts mounted on all four corners of the structure, and each side of the boxing ring are four ropes arranged in parallel and attached to the boxing posts using a technique called turn buckle, to ensure the safety.
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Veda #26 : Men Are Right, Women Are Left 11:02 PM

Day 26
Today's Fact : "Why are buttons sewn on the left side of women's clothing and on the right side of men's?"


Most of you probably don't know about this one, or even didn't care about this fact. Buttons have been used since ancient times to fasten or decorate clothing. But do you actually know that the button sewn on men's clothes are on the right side, but on women's clothes, its inverted?Amazingly, there were actually an explanation about this one.

In the 1200s, when fitted clothes took the place of loose robes tied by string or fastened by pins, buttons became popular. At that time, both men and women had buttons sewn on the left side of their garments, the same side as women do today. Then, during the Middle Ages, a change occurred. Men needed to unbutton their coats quickly to draw their swords, which hung on their left side. Since the sword was drawn with the right hand, it took a great deal of time for that same right hand to first undo the buttons. Therefore, men's buttons were changed to the right side so that a swordsman could use his left hand to unbutton his coat and immediately draw his sword with his right hand.

see those?can you spot the difference?

There's actually another theory, according to Metali Goswami of De La Salle - College of Saint Benilde, this particular fashion has its roots in the Victorian era, at a time when buttons were expensive and mostly worn by wealthy people. Women also had servants to dress them. Given that most people are right-handed, their buttons were placed on the servant's right, which is the wearer's left side. Men, on the other hand, dressed themselves so their buttons were placed on their right side. Those who could not afford servants copied the style of the wealthy, and women's buttons have remained on the left since.
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Veda #25 : Fly Me To The Moon 9:24 PM

Day 25
Question : "Were Americans the first human who landed on the moon?"


At high school, we learned that the first human ever landed on the moon was Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. They travelled on Apollo 16 approximately 1/4 million miles to set foot on the moon surface at July 20th 1969. Neil Armstrong spoke the famous quote "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." This has been questioned perhaps because the Russians never sent a man to the moon and that, even nearly forty years later, there are still no American plans for a return visit. Was it a hoax?

The Moon Landing Conspiracy Theorists were initially labelled as lies and fools but recent Market Research studies have indicated that approximately 20% of Americans now believe that there is enough cumulative evidence to suggest that man never went to the moon - that the Lunar Landing was a hoax.

What reasons would the US Government have to fake such an event?
To answer such a question can only lie in space exploration history. The decade of the sixties was consumed by thoughts of the Cold War between Russia and the USA. The Russian launch of Sputnik terrified the USA due to the fear of nuclear annihilation. There was a real fear that the winners of the Space Race could build a Nuclear Missile Base on the Moon. Did this lead to the speculation about a Fake Moon Landing Hoax - a Conspiracy Theory?


What evidence do the Fake Moon Landing Conspiracy Theorists have?
The evidence and ideas put forward by the Fake Moon Landing Conspiracy Theorists include the following :

1. No Plans for return trips
2. Images show that Stars were missing from the black lunar sky
3. Absence of engine noise in official NASA footage - how was it possible to clearly hear the voices of the Astronauts?
4. No Blast Crater under the LEM after the powerful engines had been fired
5. Astronauts Footprints - How was it possible for footprints to be left undisturbed and without dust
6. American Flag was waving - how is this possible when there is no air on the moon
7. Grainy, Unclear images although technology at the time could have produced much clearer images
8. Shadows - The only source of light on the moon was the Sun but shadows were cast in multiple directions
9. Lighting - Images of Astronauts were brightly lighted although their positions would have clearly been in shadow. Some images indicate that the Astronauts appeared to be in spotlight
10. The Van Allen Radiation Belt - Could the Astronauts survive travelling through the deadly radiation belt which is situated 500 miles above the earth and is 1000's of miles thick with only the protection from their space suits and the thin covering of the space ship when it is estimated that 6 feet of lead would be necessary would have been needed. None of the Astronauts have since showed any signs of radiation poisoning
11. No other manned mission has gone through the Belt
12. Silencing - It seems unreasonable that information would not have been leaked about any such hoax - theorists therefore believe that key witnesses, including members of the Astronaut Corps, were deliberately silenced. Between 1964 and 1967 10 astronauts died in accidents - 15% of the total astronauts at that time.

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Veda #24 : That Wasn't Me 10:30 PM

Day 24
Question by : Me - "Why do other people hear our voices differently than we do?"


We have probably all had this experience or feeling. We listen to our own voices through tape recorder or through voice notes, and we insist that the voices on the tape doesn't sound at all like our voice, but other people's voice sound reasonably accurate.
Why did this happens?

Speech begins at the larynx, where the vibration emanates. Part of the vibration is conducted through the air, which it was what your friends (and those recorder) hear when you speak. another part of the vibration is directed through the fluids and solids of our heads. Our inner and middle ears are parts of cavern hollowed out by bone, the hardest bone of the skull. The inner ear contain fluids, the middle ear contains air, and the two press against each other. The larynx is also surrounded by soft tissue full of liquids. Sounds transmits differently throught the air than through the solid and liquids. That's why when we hear our own voice through recorder, we could hear all tonal differences.

When we speak, we are not hearing our voices through the ears, but also through internal hearing, the voice sounded inside our head, literally. And our brain said that the voices that we heard over the recorder is recognized but sounded like a pale imitation.
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Veda #23 : Sneeze It! 11:44 PM

Day 23
Question by : Me - "why can't we open our eyes whenever we sneeze?"

It really cold tonight, rain all day long, and i just sneeze several minutes ago. Darn it was very good and relieving... . But some facts stated that you can't sneeze with your eyes open, and some said that if you forced to open your eyes whenever you sneeze, your eyes will pop out because of the strong reaction from sneezing. is that true?

Sneezing in your body's way of getting rid of an irritation in your nose. Your nose is a sensitive organ,so all sorts of things might irratate it.
Sneezing is a reflex and so is closing our eyes. We have no control over whether or not we close our eyes when we sneeze. Some people don’t have reflex, so when they sneeze then their eyes won’t close. Some people try to close their eyes so when they sneeze their eyes won’t pop out. Your eyes don’t really pop out.

So why did we close our eyes?according to research, Sneezing is our body reaction to prevent bacteria entering our body, so whenever we sneeze, our body reflex shutting our eyesto prevent germs and bacterias entering through our eyes. As we may know, a sneeze is a kind of bodywide reflex in which a LOT of muscles contract, not just in the nose and throat but also the entire face, those in the diaphragm, the abdomen, thighs, back, which is why some people with stress incontinence may urinate slightly when they sneeze
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Veda #22 : A Man Who Doesn't Exist 9:30 PM

Day 22
Question by : Me - "Who is John Doe?"

(Not) John Doe

A question pop on my mind lately, just because i'm seeing too much crime tv series. Often at the murder scene, the victim has been murdered, and his identity simply taken by the killer. Whenever the victim goes to the autopsy room, he was reffered as John Doe. Even in the court, to ensure the safety of the survived victim, he often reffered as that name. The question is simple : who is this John Doe?and why did they called John Doe?

The History
The name "John Doe" is used as a placeholder name in a legal action, case or discussion for a male party, whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown.

"John Doe" dates from the reign of England's King Edward III (1312-1377). A famous legal document from this period labels a landowner "John Doe," who leases land to a "Richard Roe," who then claims the land as his own and kicks out John.
Actually, the names don't have any particular relevance, other than the fact that a doe is a female deer, while a roe is a smaller species of deer. But the debate became a history of legal theory, and the name "John Doe" in particular gained wide currency in both the legal world and general usage as a generic stand-in for any unnamed person.

The Usage
In the US or Canada, the name John Doe is used for a defendant or victim in a legal matters or for a person whose identity is unknown or is intended to be anonymous. Male corpses whose identity is unknown are also known by the name John Doe. A female who is not known is referred to as Jane Doe. A child whose identity is unknown is referred to as Precious Doe or Baby Doe. Additional people in the same family may be called James Doe, Judy Doe, and so on.

According to The Oxford English Dictionary states that John Doe is "the name given to the fictitious lessee of the plaintiff, in the (now obsolete) mixed action of ejectment, the fictitious defendant being called Richard Roe".
But practically, to made it more simpe and avoid mistakes during the trial, the first victim usually called John Doe, and the second victim called Richard Roe if there is no blood relation.

By extension from the law usage, John Doe is often used in computer software needing a default or example first and last name for a form.

The Common Story
So you have read the explanation and history about this John Doe and its origin, but sometimes people who knows this matter usually reffered John Doe more simple : John was the common first name in US, and Doe was the common surname. I don't know it that's true. Let's keep it as it is.
And this is my version, i think John Doe and Richard Roe really never exist, because it's simple : i can't find the picture of those gentlemen.
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Veda #21 : It's Just (Not) An Ordinary Pocket 10:56 PM

Day 21
Question by : Me - "Why did my jeans always have a little "second-pocket" in the right pocket?"


Pay an attention to your jeans, the right pocket. In those pocket you'll see a second little pocket inside it. At a glance, it was no more than just an accesory or an accentuation, or maybe every jeans has it. But actually there is a history behind it. So tonight, we're gonna reveal why they had this little pocket inside every trousers that popularized by Levi Strauss on 1880.

As one kind of textiles, jans was originated from Genoa, Italy, on 1560. This kind of textiles usually wore by Navy. The French called this trousers with "bleu de Génes", means Genoa's blue. Although its origin was from Europe, but as a fashion item, jeans was popularized by Levi Strauss, 20 year old male that moved to San Fransisco as clothes merchant, at 1880. That time, the gold fever was a great issue on US soil.

However, when he was still at California, his goods were sold out, except one canvas tent. He then cut this tent and make several trousers that later he sold it to gold miners. And unexpectedly, this workers loves this trousers because this kind of trousers are highly durable and didn't rip easily. Levi then takes this opportunity to imported more garments from Genoa, called "Genes" and he changed the name into "Jeans".
Those workers loves Levi's jeans and made it as an official trousers for gold miner, and they even made their own name "Levi's Jeans" and this was the first Jeans brand name in the world that later changed into "Levi's 501"


Now, back to the pocket issue.
This jeans prototype was actually made for the gold miners. It has 5 pockets, 2 at the back, 2 at the front, and 1 little pocket on the front right pocket. This wasn't an accessory, but it was really designed for the gold miner to store their small gold pieces when they found it.
Nowadays, Jeans has produced with so many brand name, and apparently, this little pocket become a standard issue for every jeans. Of course, it isn't meant to store the gold pieces... :)
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Veda #20 : Tomato is a fruit (technically, not officially) 11:22 PM

Day 20
"Tomato is a fruit, this is why"


Most of you probably know this classic question, "What is tomato?is it a fruit or a vegetable?". And probably you also knew the answer that most people think of it as a vegetable. This misnomer could be because tomatoes are so easy to grow in the vegetable garden or because they are a favorite salad recipe item. In the grocery store, we generally understand a fruit to be a natural plant product that is sweet, and a vegetable to be a natural plant product that is not sweet. In this standard definition, apples, strawberries, grapes and bananas are all fruits, while green beans, tomatoes, squash and potatoes are all vegetables.
The fact?tomato technically is a fruit.

Okay, most of you maybe also know it...but do you know why it is technically a fruit?

According to The Encyclopedia Britannica, it sums it up like this:
Fruit - in its strict botanical sense, the fleshy or dry ripened ovary of a plant, enclosing the seed or seeds. Thus, apricots, bananas, and grapes, as well as bean pods, corn grains, tomatoes, cucumbers, and (in their shells) acorns and almonds, are all technically fruits.
This definition of fruit is very broad, and encompasses almost everything that contains seeds. So that's mean, tomato is a FRUIT


BUT
Tomato officially is a vegetable!
here's the story : Back in 1893, US decided there were tariffs placed on tomatoes imported from the West Indies because they were considered a vegetable, and imported vegetables were subject to tariffs. The case originated on February 4, 1887 when the Nix Family sued Edward L. Hedden, tax collector of the port of New York to recover back duties collected on their tomatoes.

Webster's Dictionary was consulted, along with Worcester's Dictionary and the Imperial Dictionary for the definitions of "fruit" and "vegetable." The passages from the dictionaries defined "fruit" as the seed of plants, or that part of plants which contains the seed, and especially the juicy, pulpy products of certain plants, covering and containing the seed.

This case was brought to the highest US Supreme Court at that time, and the court stated that :
"Botanically, tomatoes are considered a fruit of the vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in common language of people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not like fruits generally, as dessert."
and the result officially labeled tomatoes as VEGETABLE

confuse?for me, tomato is a fruit :p how about you?
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Veda #19 : Itchy Itchy Mosquito 10:44 PM

Day 19
Question by : ? - "Why do we feel itch and need to scratch our skin whenever mosquito bite us?"


General question tonight, maybe some of you've already know the answer to this question.
Mosquito is like a little annoying robot, they can sense us humans. With their antenna, mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to 100 feet away. They can also detect chemicals in sweat. Since people and animals give off lots of carbon dioxide and these other chemicals, it makes it easy for mosquitoes to find us. Whenever a mosquito bite us, it'll left behind the itchy feeling to us, and suddenly we need to scratch it. why would that happen?why suddenly we feel itch?and do we really need to scratch it or not?

So to be clear, the mosquito that usually bite us is the female one. They do this because they use blood as a source of protein. Without a protein snack, a female mosquito cannot lay eggs. So when the mosquito lands, her first thing to do is to stick her long, thin sting into your skin like a needle. She injects a fluid that keeps your blood from coagulating (thickening). Then she sucks up a drop of blood, about five microliters, and stores it in her abdomen. Once she is full, she flies away to lay her eggs.

People probably wouldn't mind this so much, it's not a lot of blood from their body, but there are two problems with mosquitoes. First, diseases. When the mosquito injects this fluid, germs and parasites can enter your body. You could get malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever or West Nile encephalitis. And each of these can be fatal!
The second problem is, the fluid the mosquito injects does not belong in your body. Your immune system makes the area swell so that it can clean out the fluid, that unfortunately "disturb" our skin nerves. The whole clean up process is what makes your skin itch after the bite. So, it's not the mosquito that makes us itch, but our immune system basically.


And do we really need to scratch the itchy part?if it was caused by mosquito, go ahead, don't scratch it too hard though.
but if your skin feel any itch without any mosquitos bite, then don't. Because this itch indicating there is some abnormalities on our skin nerve, scratching it only make it worse because the allergies gonna be spreading, and make your skin wounded.
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Veda #18 : Up, Up, And Away 10:47 PM

Day 18
Question by : Me - "Could hanging on a helium balloon could make you fly?and how many balloons to make that happen?"


Okay, so first, congratulation to "Up" for being the Best Animated Feature Film on Golden Globe Award...yaaay.
For you who don't know what was Up about, it was a movie about a husband/grandfather, who lived alone because of his wive was dead, before accomplishing their dream to go to Angel Falls waterfalls. The grieving husband suddenly had this "insane" idea, to fly his house to Angel Falls, with only using a bunch of helium balloons.
It sounds so cartoonish and full of imagination, but let's take it a lil bit serious this time. If somebody wanted to fly with a helium baloons, how many baloons would it take to make somebody float?. Let's assume this person's weight is around 50 kg.

Now, let's explain about this helium baloon and it's basic principles.
A helium balloon works on the same basic principle as an air bubble in water. A bubble rises in water because it is lighter than the water around it. The water pressure pushes the lightweight bubble upward. Now, let's consider the air is the water, and helium baloon is the bubble. With a helium balloon, what you have is a "bubble" of helium rising in an ocean of air. Helium has a lifting force of about one gram per liter. That happens because helium atoms weigh less than the oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the air.

If one liter of helium can lift about a gram, and if you weigh 50 kg, let's assume there are 1000 grams in a kilogram, then you are going to need about 50,000 liters of helium to lift yourself off the ground. So the question becomes, "How many balloons does it take to hold 50,000 liters of helium?"
If you buy a balloon, it is normally about 30 cm in diameter. A balloon like that holds about 14-15 liters of helium. let's assume it 15, therefore one baloon could lift 15 grams or so if you assume that the balloon and the string don't weigh anything.

standard helium baloon that we used as measurement...

Let's calculate now.
the body's weight = 50 kg
amount of helium needed to lift = 50,000 litres
amount of helium in one baloon = 15 litres
therefore, to lift a person with 50 kg weight, it would need about : 50,000 / 15 = 3,333 balloons
Let's assume you're gonna need 3,500 baloons to add some more to compensate for the weight of the 3,333 balloons and all their strings.
So, GOOD LUCK!

up, up, and away!!

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Veda #17 : Punctuation 11:34 PM

Day 17
Question by : none - "history of punctuation"

Little bit interesting tonight, we're gonna learn about the history and name of punctuation and symbols. Not the whole symbol though, but several symbols that have their story. Last post was about keyboard layout, now why don't we describe the symbols.
okay here goes

1. Question mark (?)
this symbol came from latin word "Questio", indicating a question, so at first time, people have to write questio after the question. To save some spaces and times in writing, they abbreviated it from Questio to "qo" with the letter "q" above the "o". And because the increasing on writing speed, it transform like the question mark we know now.

2. Exclamation mark (!)
Just like the question mark, this was made by stacking two letters. This symbol came from latin word "io", means "happy call" or "shout of happines". At first, they put an "i" above the "o" and gradually become like what we use now.

3. Equal mark (=)
Founded by an English mathematician, Rober Recorde, on 1557, with this thought "I'll use this usual mark, a pair of twin lines, because there aren't two things can be more equal than this two lines". So he often use it to equaling a comparison on his formula. The first equal mark made by Recorde was 5 times longer than the one we know.

4. Ampersand (&)
This mark came from Latin word "Et" means "and". This was founded by Marcus Tullius Tiro, first century writer from Rome. The name "Ampersand" was given 17 centuries later. At earlier 1800s, the scholar learn this symbol as the 27th letter after "Z", but they haven't found the name yet. So they often said it ABC, until Z, and then they said "and per se, and", gradually became "ampersand".

5. Cross mark / Octothorp (#)
This symbol has quite an unique name, "Thorpe" from old Normandic language means "farm land". This was first used in map-making to symbolize the village that surrounded by eight farm. According to Latin language, 8 is called "Octa" and farm is called "Thorpe", that's why they called this symbol an "Octothorp".

6. Dollar mark ($)
US government published their own currency at 1794, and at that time they still used an old world currency "Peso" or "Spanish dollar". The first America's 1 dollar coin was exactly the same with Spanish's Peso, both weight and value, so they use the same abbreviation : "Ps" - Not Photoshop. Gradually, they write the letter "p" above the "s", and then, the round circle on "P" is ignored, and leave behind the letter "S" with a vertical line.

7. At mark (@)
Ray Tomilson, an engineer whom first invented this symbol confess that he didn't think long enough why he did use this symbol to send the very first email between two computers. He randomly pick the "@" symbol because it was similar with the letter "A" in the first letter of "address".
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Veda #16 : QWERTY 10:01 PM

Day 16
Question by : none - "Why our present keyboard have this random arrangement?"

Take a look to your keyboard, everyday you use it, and some of you maybe use it on your phone. Now let's take a detailed look, and imagine it for a while, why they had this "random" arrangement. Why didn't sort it from A,B,C,D to Z?
This is maybe an interesting and "out-of-the-box" invention. We should know that every invention ever made was meant to made human's life easier. But unfortunately, this QWERTY arrangement was meant to harden it, and in contrary, this particular arrangement of letters on a keyboard is the near-universal standard for the entire English-speaking world.

The History
To understand how it get it's arrangement, we should travel back to the early invention of computer, the great-grandmother, Typewriter. The first practical typewriter was patented in the United States in 1868 by Christopher Latham Sholes. His machine was known as the type-writer. It had a movable carriage, a lever for turning paper from line to line, and a keyboard on which the letters were arranged in alphabetical order (A-Z). But Sholes had a problem. Sholes' original prototypes had a problem with the bars colliding with each other and jamming. So the story goes that he arranged the keys with the most common letters in hard to reach spots, to slow typists down and try to avoid this problem.

Sholes' early prototype of QWERTY layout

QWERTY's effect reducing those annoying clashes, was determined to speed up typing rather than slow it down. Sholes then went to Remington, the arms manufacturer, to have their machines mass-produced. In 1874 Remington & Sons manufactured the first commercial typewriter, called the Remington Number 1. This typewriter used the "QWERTY" keyboard. The name "QWERTY" for our typewriter keyboard comes from the first six letters in the top alphabet row.

The Keyboard's Development
Like an old proverb said, "nobody perfect", this QWERTY layout wasn't the perfect one, in fact it wasn't the effective one. By the time goes, many researchers and typist trying to find more effective way of typing. One of the considered contender of this QWERTY layout was DVORAK layout, invented by Dr. August Dvorak at 1940.

Comparation between DVORAK and QWERTY (red lettered)

The QWERTY keyboard is very different from the DVORAK keyboard layout. The DVORAK keyboard layout tries to minimize the distance traveled by the fingers. It also tries to make the typist alternate hands on consecutive letters as often as possible. DVORAK's home row uses all five vowels and the five most common consonants: AOEUIDHTNS. With the vowels on one side and consonants on the other, a rough typing rhythm would be established as each hand would tend to alternate. With the DVORAK keyboard, a typist can type about 400 of the English language's most common words without ever leaving the home row, while QWERTY is 100. The home row letters on DVORAK do a total of 70% of the work. On QWERTY they do only 32%.

The comparation of effectiveness

the ideal number is 50-50, however, the closest one to 50 considered more effective

However, the DVORAK keyboard is no more efficient than QWERTY. An independent study in 1956 showed that QWERTY typists and DVORAK typists had about the same rate of speed, and continued studies don't show a clear winner between the two (to see the table of effectiveness, see the diagram above). This may explain why QWERTY is still the standard. Besides, many people and typist already familiar with this QWERTY layout, making it harder for them to adapt again. Just a matter of habit, i think.

The Other Development
Maybe this is a little bit different from QWERTY layout, but this one definitely made by it's layout. These layouts below are considered as a standard for it's own country. Some examples are : QWERTZ, used in Hungaria, Germany, Switzerland ; AZERTY, used in French and Belgium ; QZERTY ; and many more including Dvorak for left hand, for right hand, and for both hands.

AZERTY layout

QWERTZ layout

Hebrew layout

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Veda #15 : Crosswords Puzzle 11:26 PM

Day 15
Question by : None - "Who was the inventor of crosswords puzzle?"


Most of you probably knew this classic word game, yes, crossword puzzle. A crossword puzzle is a game of words where the player is given a hint and the number of letters. The player then fills in a grid of boxes by finding the right words. Today crosswords are among the most popular word games in history. There are people who make answering crossword puzzles a daily habit, or just a way to spend some boring time.

Arthur Wynne, the father of crossword puzzle

This game was invented by Liverpool journalist, Arthur Wynne. Once upon a time, Arthur remembering the childhood game he used to play when he was a kid. This game was called "Magic Square", based from Pompeii game where the player have to arrange the word horizontally and vertically, until it form a square. Like this example :
ROTAS
OPERA
TENET
AREPO
SATOR
It is unusual because it can be read in any direction. At later game, he try to make a new creation by expanding the words, and more complex shape than only a square, and then he added more "key question" to reveal the answers.

Arthur Wynne's crossword puzzle was initially called word-cross and was diamond shaped. The name later switched to cross-word and then crossword. It was first published at December 21, 1913 at the pages of the Sunday New York World. It is very different from the current puzzles, since there were no black squares. The New York World was the only newspaper back then which started publishing crossword puzzles, and it was a huge success.

The first crossword puzzle published

The first book of crossword puzzles appeared in 1924, published by Simon and Schuster. This odd-looking book with a pencil attached to it, was an instant hit and crossword puzzles became the craze of 1924. Up until now, this game is still a major favorite for word game, and it developed into many kinds, such as Sudoku - crossword based, but instead of letters, they used numbers.

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Veda #14 : How Many US Presidents Got Killed? 8:37 PM

Day 14
Question by : Babypunk - "how many US presidents got killed?"

One of the most dangerous and heavy-sentenced crime is attempt to murder head of government. As we may know, being a head of country, means 24-hours full of protection, security tests, sterilization of area which gonna be visited, bulletproof vest, and of course : Men with black sunglasses (i dunno why they always wearing black sunglasses) who willing to risk their lives in order to save the president. But unfortunately, there were a history about successful murder attempts to president, especially US President, since they lead a super country, that will take effect to other country. Now the question is, how many US President got murdered?

History said that four US presidents were assassinated : Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy.

1. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was shot on the evening of April 14, 1865, as he sat in the presidential box of Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., watching a performance of Our American Cousin. The man who fired the shot was actor John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865), who then jumped onto the stage, fell, and limped away, calling out, "Sic semper tyrannis" (a Latin phrase meaning "Thus always to tyrants").

The president lived through the night, attended by family. He died just after 7:00 a.m. on April 15. He was succeeded in office by Vice President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875). On April 26 a search party found Booth in a Virginia barn, where he was fatally shot.

2. James Garfield
James Garfield (1831-1881) was en route to a class reunion at Williams College , Massachusetts, on July 2, 1881, when his assailant fired two shots at him in a Washington, D.C., train station. The shooter was Charles J. Guiteau (1841- 1882), who held a grudge against the president. One of Guiteau's bullets had only grazed the president; the other was fixed in his back, and doctors were unable to locate it.

Today the president's life might well have been spared, but the medical treatment of the late 1800s, could not save him. He lived 80 days more, dying at a cottage on the New Jersey shore on September 19. He was succeeded in office by Vice President Chester Arthur. Guiteau's trial lawyer would later claim that Garfield's assassin was insane, but it was an unsuccessful plea for his life: In 1882 he was convicted and hung.

3. William McKinley
September 6, 1901, President William McKinley (1843-1901) was attending a reception in Buffalo, New York, where the previous day he had delivered a speech. As he approached a man to shake his hand, the fellow fired two shots at McKinley. One bullet delivered only a minor flesh wound, but the other lodged in his stomach. Surgeons operated, but gangrene and infection set in, claiming the president's life the morning of September 14. He was succeeded in office by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). The shooter was identified as an anarchist Leon F. Czolgosz. He was tried, convicted, and put to death in 1901.

4. John F. Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), accompanied by his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, traveled in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. They were en route to the Dallas Trade Mart, where the president was scheduled to make a lunchtime speech. At 12:30 p.m., shots rang out; the president, who was riding in the back seat of a convertible, was hit in the neck and head. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died at 1:00 p.m. The nation's loss was immediately felt, as television and radio stations broadcast the message live that Kennedy had been shot and killed. He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

The ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963–1964, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations of 1976–1979, and other government investigations concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was murdered before he could stand trial.

Additionally there were assassination attempts on the lives of Presidents Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Gerald R. Ford, and Ronald Reagan. Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan recovered from their injuries; the others were not injured in the attempts.

Fact : But that number is uncomparable with this murder attempt to ONE leader. Adolf Hitler, single man, has been through 42 murder attempt, all failed. How he died then?simple :Suicide.

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Veda #13 : Brr It's Cold...Wait, I Have To Pee 8:59 PM

Day 13
Question by : Me...me...mee - "Why do i have to pee more often when it's cold outside?"

Okay, simple question today, but probably most of you forget this one or even don't know. Hi-school science actually. It was raining all day long today at my place. Simple math : Rain + Air Conditioner = I HAVE to pee!. So that's how the question ran across my mind today. Let's see...with the last time i took a leak before made this post, i've counted 9 times i have to "jog" from my desk to the toilet.
Why did this always happen on the cold day?

Here's the explanation
When the weather is hot,our body system tries to keep our body cool by evaporating the water along with unwanted things through the skin in the form of SWEAT. Think of it this way: sweat contains urea, water and mineral salt, whilst urine contains the same thing as they both are related to the excretory system in our body.

So, during hotter/warmer weather and at high temperatures we tend to urinate less cause we are already sweating most of everything out. Skin helps the kidney by sharing its work of cleaning the body in hot weather conditions. In cold conditions,there is no perspiration, as the skin does produce sweat and the kidney has to bear the entire burden and hence we urinate frequently. This is the main reason for this condition.

Fact for you today : Females typically feel a need to urinate more than males because of their (usually) smaller bladders.
answered my question my most of female more often go to the toilet...

how about you?how many times do you go to toilet today? (ga pentiing...ga pentiing...ga usah dijawab...)

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Veda #12 : 10:10 rules in clock's advertising 10:05 PM

Day 12
Question by : None - "Why clock's hands always pointing at 10:10, sometimes 10:08 or 10:12, in clock advertising or clock shop?"



Have you ever realized, that most of the clock used in clock's advertising, or the one that displayed at the clock shop, always set to default 10:10 time? except of course, the digital one. There are plenty of people out there who think that clocks in advertisements and in shop displays are set this way to memorize Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. because that was the time at which they were shot or died. Another theory has it that 10:10 was the time that an atomic bomb was dropped on either Nagasaki or Hiroshima, and the setting is in memory of the casualties. But apparently, that's not the reasons.

So what's the real reason for this default setting?
The truth? just Aesthetics. The 10:10 position gives the clock or watch a number of benefits:

• The hands not overlapping, so they’re fully and clearly visible and their styling can be admired.

• The arrangement of the hands is symmetrical, which people generally find more pleasant than asymmetry, making the product more appealing to customers.

• The manufacturer’s logo, usually in the center of the face under the 12, is not only visible, but nicely framed by the hands of the clock.

• Additional elements on the face (like date windows secondary dials), usually placed near the 3, 6, or 9, will still be visible.

According to the folks at Timex (who set their products at 10:09:36 exactly), the standard setting used to be used to 8:20, but this made the face look like it was frowning. To make the products look “happier,” the setting was flipped into a smile (occasionally, you’ll still see the 8:20 setting on some clocks or watches where the manufacturer’s logo is at bottom of the face above the 6).
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Veda #11 : Project 365, times 18 9:22 PM

Day 11
Question by : Mr. No-one - this is actually not a question.

Jamie Livingston's 365 Project

Do you familiar with project 365? Short words, it is a project, done by a person, to do the same thing everyday for the whole year. You can take a pic, you can commit to post a blog-post everyday, or you could doodle something on the paper, and post it as the prove and to tracking your day. But actually, this is not a new thing.
Recently, I stuck at this one person's web, Jamie Livingston. Most of you maybe didn't ever heard his name before. Who is he?

Jamie Livingston
Jamie Livingston, New York photographer, film maker, and circus performer, born October 25, 1956. He has taken a photo every single day from March 31, 1979 through October 25, 1997. In 1979, Livingston received a Polaroid camera and after a few weeks noticed that he was taking about one photo a day, which subsequently evolved into the project, but the plan was to take one picture and keep it no matter how it turned out.

Livingston's Polaroid a Day charted his experiences with cancer, and his subsequent engagement and marriage. His photographs in and out of hospital continued up until the day of his death. Yes, he has taken a daily photo for nearly 18 years, using his polaroid camera.

The Photos
At first, no one know who is he, or who is the owner of these polaroid photos. There are a lot of random shots about everyday living with friends, objects at home, and in the street or park. There’s no author listed, no contact info, and no other indication as to where these came from. But apparently, this photographs tells a story. Before Livingston died, his friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid promised they would not let the project die with him. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of their friend’s death, they digitally photographed the Polaroids and reproduced them for an exhibition titled PHOTO OF THE DAY: 1979-1997, 6697 Polaroids, dated in sequence

Here's some of the interesting photos, and the record of his last time :

photo from July 2, 1989 of the photographer with his instrument

photo from March 30, 1991. What's this?a cassette tape?

October 5, 1997, His wedding ring...

October 7, 1997, we can see his wedding day...

On October 24, 1997, we see a friend playing music in the hospital room

the next day...Jamie Livingston died at age 41... May he rest in peace

you can visit the site here : Jamie Livingston-Photo Of The Day

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