A Sad Day…

 

At the Ft. Hood Memorial Service...

It is a sad day when our Presidents does not respect, love, and honor this country enough to salute the Flag or honor our service members who have given their life for this very country ,by a simple jester of placing his hand over his heart.

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
-- Thomas Jefferson

 

'American' background and decor as opposed to
the new decor.

Trivia–Did You Know?

Umbrella Trivia

The basic umbrella was invented over four thousand years ago.

The word "umbrella" comes from the Latin root word "umbra", meaning shade or shadow.

The first all umbrella shop was called "James Smith and Sons". The shop opened in 1830, and is still located at 53 New Oxford Street in London, England.

In 1852, Samuel Fox invented the steel ribbed umbrella design.

 

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Answering Machine Trivia

Mr. Willy Müller invented the first automatic answering machine in 1935. This answering machine was a three-foot-tall machine popular with Orthodox Jews who were forbidden to answer the phone on the Sabbath.

CASIO COMMUNICATIONS created the modern telephone answering device (TAD) industry as we know it today by introducing the first commercially viable answering machine a quarter of a century ago. The product - the Model 400 - is now featured in the Smithsonian.

The pioneer patent for what evolved into voice mail belongs to Gordon Matthews. Gordon Matthews was the founder of the VMX company in Dallas, Texas that produced the first commercial voice mail system, he has become known as the "Father of Voice Mail."

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http://inventors.about.com/od/uvstartinventions/a/Umbrella.htm July 6, 2011

http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/Answering.htmJ uly 6, 2011

Word Wise

 

Petrichor

The smell of rain on dry ground

Petrichor (pronounced /ˈpɛtrɨkər/; from Greek petros "stone" + ichor the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology) is the name of the scent of rain on dry earth.

The term was coined in 1964 by two Australian researchers, Bear and Thomas, for an article in the journal Nature.^[1] In the article, the authors describe how the smell derives from an oil exuded by certain plants during dry periods, whereupon it is absorbed by clay-based soils and rocks. During rain, the oil is released into the air along with another compound, geosmin, producing the distinctive scent. In a follow-up paper, Bear and Thomas (1965) showed that the oil retards seed germination and early plant growth.^[

 

Geosmin, which literally translates to "earth smell", is an organic compound with a distinct earthy flavour and aroma, and is responsible for the earthy taste of beets and a contributor to the strong scent that occurs in the air when rain falls after a dry spell of weather (petrichor) or when soil is disturbed.^[1] The human nose is extremely sensitive to geosmin and is able to detect it at concentrations as low as 5 parts per trillion^{[citation needed]}.

Geosmin is produced by several classes of microbes, including cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and actinobacteria (especiallystreptomyces), and released when these microbes die. Communities whose water supply depends on surface water can periodically experience episodes of unpleasant-tasting water when a sharp drop in the population of these bacteria releases geosmin into the local water supply. Under acidic conditions, geosmin decomposes into odorless substances.^[2]

Geosmin is also responsible for the muddy smell in bottom-dwelling freshwater fish such as carp and catfish. Cyanobacteria produce geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol, which concentrate in the skin and dark muscle tissue. Geosmin breaks down in acid conditions; hence vinegar and other acidic ingredients in fish recipes help reduce the muddy flavor.

 

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http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Geosmin July 6,2011

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/petrichor July 6,2011

Phobia’s D-H

Dendrophobia	Fear of trees.
Dentophobia	Fear of dentists.
Domatophobia	Fear of houses.
Dystychiphobia	Fear of accidents.
Ecophobia	Fear of the home.
Elurophobia	Fear of cats.
Entomophobia	Fear of insects.
Ephebiphobia	Fear of teenagers.
Equinophobia	Fear of horses.
Gamophobia	Fear of marriage.
Genuphobia	Fear of knees.
Glossophobia	Fear of speaking in public.
Gynophobia	Fear of women.
Heliophobia	Fear of the sun.
Hemophobia	Fear of blood.
Herpetophobia	Fear of reptiles.
Hydrophobia	Fear of water.

Word Wise

This weeks word:

wastrel (ˈweɪstrəl)
noun
1. a wasteful person; spendthrift; prodigal; someone who dissipates resources self-indulgently
2. an idler or vagabond

Word Origin & History
"spendthrift, idler," 1847, from waste (v.) with pejorative suffix (cf.mongrel , scoundrel , doggerel ).

SYNONYMS:
waster, prodigal, squanderer, profligate - a recklessly extravagant consumer, layabout, loser, shirker, good-for-nothing, piker (Austral. & N.Z. slang), drone, loafer, waster, skiver (Brit. slang), idler, ne'er-do-well, malingerer, saddo (Brit. slang), bludger(Austral. & N.Z. informal) Her husband is a workshy, good-for-nothing wastrel.


ANTONYMS:
miser, hoarder, penny pincher

References in classic literature:On the sideboard, between fluted Sheraton knife-cases, stood a decanter of Haut Brion, and another of the old Lanning port (the gift of a client), which the wastrel Tom Lanning had sold off a year or two before his mysterious and discreditable death in San Francisco--an incident less publicly humiliating to the family than the sale of the cellar.
~The Age of Innocence by Wharton, Edith

The hard-working man would come to the top, the wastrel sink to the bottom.
~Howards End by Forster, E. M.

QUOTE:

Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust. ~Karl Kraus

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"wastrel." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 14 Jun. 2011. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wastrel>.
"Experiences_are_savings_which_a_miser_puts_aside." Columbia World of Quotations. Columbia University Press, 1996. 14 Jun. 2011. <Dictionary.comhttp://quotes.dictionary.com/Experiences_are_savings_which_a_miser_puts_aside>.

Words that Sound Alike

Here is a list of some words that sound alike, are spelled differently, and have different meanings.

Here	Hear
Their	There	They’re
Where	Ware
Its	It’s
Picture	Pitcher
Wander	Wonder
Weather	Whether
Fair	Fare
Hay	Hey
Lie	Lye
Pare	Pair
Close	Clothes
Pour	Poor
Rain	Rein
For	Fore
To	Two	Too
Arc	Ark
Ate	Eight
Bail	Bale
Wright	Right	Write
Our	Hour
Buy	Bye	By
Beat	Beet
Break	Brake
Cell	Sale
Creak	Creek
Plain	Plane
Scent	Sent
Toe	Tow
Waist	Waste
Wait	Weight
Know	No
Maid	Made
Blew	Blue
Be	Bee
Site	Sight	Cite
Herd	Heard
Base	Bass
Berry	Bury
Chews	Choose
Flu	Flew
Missed	Mist
Or	Oar
Hour	Our
Pray	Prey
So	Sew
One	Won
Bare	Bear
Bored	Board
Billed	Build
Hi	High
Read	Reed
Cent	Sent	Scent
Creak	Creek
See	Sea
Died	Dyed
Knight	Night
Pa	Paw
Bridal	Bridle
Beet	Beat
Knot	Not
Write	Right
Whole	Hole

Phobia’s

Each week I’ll try to post a new list of phobia’s as I find them. We all have them, how many do you suffer from?

Achluophobia	Fear of darkness.
Acrophobia	Fear of heights.
Agliophobia	Fear of pain.
Agoraphobia	Fear of open spaces or crowds.
Aichmophobia	Fear of needles or pointed objects.
Amaxophobia	Fear of riding in a car.
Androphobia	Fear of men.
Anginophobia	Fear of angina or choking.
Anthrophobia	Fear of flowers.
Anthropophobia	Fear of people or society.
Aphenphosmphobia	Fear of being touched.
Arachnophobia	Fear of spiders.
Arithmophobia	Fear of numbers.
Astraphobia	Fear of thunder and lightening.
Ataxophobia	Fear of disorder or untidiness.
Atelophobia	Fear of imperfection.
Atychiphobia	Fear of failure.
Autophobia	Fear of being alone.
Bacteriophobia	Fear of bacteria.
Barophobia	Fear of gravity.
Bathmophobia	Fear of stairs or steep slopes.
Batrachophobia	Fear of amphibians.
Belonephobia	Fear of pins and needles.
Bibliophobia	Fear of books.
Botanophobia	Fear of plants.
Cacophobia	Fear of ugliness.
Catagelophobia	Fear of being ridiculed.
Catoptrophobia	Fear of mirrors.
Chionophobia	Fear of snow.
Chromophobia	Fear of colors.
Chronomentrophobia	Fear of clocks.
Claustrophobia	Fear of confined spaces.