Misc. Trivia Postings Research

Expresso-Based Drinks

For the longest time I couldn't figure out the difference between all those awesome Italian European coffee drinks.  Here's the basic distinctions of the drinks similar to each other.

Cappuccino -- Uses equal part milk and expresso milk:expresso = 1:1.  But the milk is "microfoamed" so it's 2x it's volume.  Making the milk volume:expresso = 2:1 even though the original quantities are equal.   If the milk is poured over the expresso you get a cappuccino, if the expresso is poured over the milk, apparently you get a totally different drink, a macchiato (ridiculous but one could say sophisticated).

Latte -- Milk:expresso = 2:1.  Twice the amount of milk as cappuccino.  Milk is heated instead of microfoamed.

Expresso -- Can use similar beans as coffee, but instead of just using gravity to drip hot water through the grind, expresso uses a much more pressurized production.  Near-boiling water is pressurized and forced through a packed "puck" of finely ground coffee.  I guess you could think of expresso brewing as coffee-drip brewing but at a much more concentrated, finer grind, pressurized, warp speed.  Add milk to any of these expressos and you have a latte (more milk) or cappuccino (less milk)

This site sorted out the discrepancies.

Neptune

• Neptune is 17x earth
• Windiest planet in solar system
• Named after roman god of the sea, his brother’s are Jupiter and Pluto.
• Methane makes it blue.
• And it’s moon is Triton (1 of 13 moons).
• Undergoes apparent retrograde every 367 days

Janus

• Janus is the Roman god of new beginnings and doors. Pray to Janus to get a golden audition.

Lost (TV)

• Lost is so successful and draws 15 million viewers because it ties in mythology (the island develops it’s own myths, legends, and culture amongst the pod of survivors).

POST

Thunderstorms -- Meteorological Heat and Moisture
Thunderstorms, in short, need heat and moisture. Warm air can carry more molecules than colder air and the moisture condenses producing latent heat, also adding to the storm.

Storms usually occur with "high horizons" with those huge cumulus clouds.

Thunderstorms in winter DO occur but rare. They needs cloud air colder than surface air (difficult in winter b/c surface ground air is already pretty cold) and a lot of moisture (again hard. because winter is typically dry). But they do happen if the aloft air gets a lot colder than surface and some moisture is brought in from some source like gulf of mexico. If a huge cloud mass passes a body of water and picks up moisture, that could contribute to a winter storm.


iPhone
71% of all web browsing mobile is done from Safari (iPhone)

iPhone has 28% of all mobile market and it's only been out for a year. RIM has like 41% but it's been out for decades! haha! Apple rocks!

Apple has created two music phones. The ROKR, made with Motorola in 2005, respected the traditional relationships between manufacturers and carriers. The iphone, released last summer, completely overturned them.

ROKR

This was me at CC when obeying timb_ezra!

* Won't hold more than 100 songs, even if there's memory left.
* iTunes Music Store purchases must be synced from a PC.
* Clunky interface is sluggish and hard to navigate.
* Design screams, "A committee made me."

iPhone

This is me now
* Can hold about 1,500 songs — as much as its 8-GB drive allows.
* iTunes Music Store purchases download wirelessly, directly to the phone.
* Just tap and go; no user manual required.
* C'mon. Look at it. It's gorgeous.

A cozy relationship with the maker of the iPod would bring sex appeal to the company's brand. And some other carrier was sure to sign with Jobs if Cingular turned him down — Jobs made it clear that he would shop his idea to anyone who would listen. But no carrier had ever given anyone the flexibility and control that Jobs wanted, and Sigman knew he'd have trouble persuading his fellow executives and board members to approve a deal like the one Jobs proposed.

Apple engineers bought nearly a dozen server-sized radio-frequency simulators for millions of dollars apiece. Even Apple's experience designing screens for iPods didn't help the company design the iPhone screen, as Jobs discovered while toting a prototype in his pocket: To minimize scratching, the touchscreen needed to be made of glass, not hard plastic like on the iPod. One insider estimates that Apple spent roughly $150 million building the iPhone.

In February, Jobs will release a developer's kit so that anyone can write programs for the device.

The iPhone cracked open the carrier-centric structure of the wireless industry and unlocked a host of benefits for consumers, developers, manufacturers — and potentially the carriers themselves.

It may appear that the carriers' nightmares have been realized, that the iPhone has given all the power to consumers, developers, and manufacturers, while turning wireless networks into dumb pipes.But by fostering more innovation, carriers' networks could get more valuable, not less. Consumers will spend more time on devices, and thus on networks, racking up bigger bills and generating more revenue for everyone. According to Paul Roth, AT&T's president of marketing, the carrier is exploring new products and services — like mobile banking — that take advantage of the iPhone's capabilities. "We're thinking about the market differently," Roth says. In other words, the very development that wireless carriers feared for so long may prove to be exactly what they need. It took Steve Jobs to show them that.
(Source NYT iPhone Article)

Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps was offered $1 million by speedo if he got seven golds in the 2004, tying Spitz's 10972 record.  He fell one short, but he, at 15, was the youngest male swimmer at the olympics in over 60 years, and he was 2nd person ever to win 8 medals in one olympics.  8 medals in one olympics?!! That's a lot of hardware!  Phelps may not have beaten Spitz's 7-gold record (which is ridiculously off the charts) but his name just sets records of all kinds across the board.