Mish Mash
Hodgepodge Gallery 
This gallery is currently a hodgepodge of fun and interesting stuff. Your contributions to this page are most welcome... and, seeing how it's a work in progress, keep checking back!
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Dancing Parrot
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CALCULUS IN LESS THAN 20 MINUTES: 
Check these links out while you're having your morning coffee. If they don't get you going... nothing will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX_is9LzFSY&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9OkFTDG4fY&annotation_id=annotation_527270&feature=iv
THE ELEMENTS: 
For those of us who have forgotten, here's a fun refresher...
ON THE "ENDANGERED SPECIES" LIST: 
Thanks to Diane Davis-Nelson, who submitted the following list of the top twenty-four things that are about to become extinct in America.... Do you think we could have predicted any or all of these back when we were in high school? Chances are, we can probably think of even a few more "endangered" things that could be added to this list now....
24. Yellow Pages
This year will be pivotal for the global Yellow Pages industry. Much like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will continue to bleed dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines and combination search/listing services like Reach Local and Yodel Factors; and the looming recession will contribute to the onslaught. One research firm predicts the falloff in usage of newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even reach 10% this year -- much higher than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years.
23. Classified Ads
The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that could signal the end of civilization as we know it. The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them.
22. Movie Rental Stores
While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster keeps closing store locations by the hundreds. It still has about 6,000 left across the world; but those keep dwindling and the stock is down considerably in 2008, especially since the company gave up a quest of Circuit City. Movie Gallery, which owned the Hollywood Video brand, closed up shop earlier this year. Countless small video chains and mom-and-pop stores have given up the ghost already.
21. Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up connections have fallen from 40% in 2001 to 10% in 2008. The combination of an infrastructure to accommodate affordable high speed Internet connections and the disappearing home phone have all but pounded the final nail in the coffin of dial-up Internet access.
20. Phone Landlines
According to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly one in six homes was cell-phone only and, of those homes that had landlines, one in eight only received calls on their cells.
19. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs
Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake Bay. Last year, Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds) since 1945. Just four decades ago, the bay produced 96 million pounds. The population is down 70% since 1990, when they first did a formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs in the bay and they think they need 200 million for a sustainable population. Over-fishing, pollution, invasive species and global warming get the blame.
18. VCRs
For the better part of three decades, the VCR was a best-seller and staple in every American household until being completely decimated by the DVD, and now the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). In fact, the only remnants of the VHS age at your local Wal-Mart or Radio Shack are blank VHS tapes these days. Pre-recorded VHS tapes are largely gone and VHS decks are practically nowhere to be found. They served us so well.
17. Ash Trees
In the late 1990s, a pretty, irridescent green species of beetle, now known as the emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North America with ash wood products imported from Eastern Asia. In less than a decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in the Midwest and continue to spread. They've killed more than 30 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of millions more lost in Ohio and Indiana. More than 7.5 billion ash trees are currently at risk.
16. Ham Radio
Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide) wireless communications with each other, and are able to support their communities with emergency and disaster communications, if necessary, while increasing their personal knowledge of electronics and radio theory. However, proliferation of the Internet and its popularity among youth has caused the decline of amateur radio. In the past five years alone, the number of people holding active ham radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even though Morse Code is no longer a requirement.
15. The Swimming Hole
Thanks to our litigious society, swimming holes are becoming a thing of the past. '20/20' reports that swimming hole owners, like Robert Every in High Falls, NY, are shutting them down out of worry that if someone gets hurt they'll sue. And that's exactly what happened in Seattle. The city of Bellingham was sued by Katie Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall at a popular swimming hole in Whatcom Falls Park. As injuries occur and lawsuits follow, expect more swimming holes to post 'Keep out!' signs.
14. Answering Machines
The increasing disappearance of answering machines is directly tied to No. 20 on our list -- the decline of landlines. According to USA Today, the number of homes that only use cell phones jumped 159% between 2004 and 2007. It has been particularly bad in New York; since 2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It's logical that as cell phones rise, many of them replacing traditional land lines, that there will be fewer answering machines.
13. Cameras That Use Film
It doesn't require a statistician to prove the rapid disappearance of the film camera in America. Just look to companies like Nikon, the professional's choice for quality camera equipment. In 2006, it announced that it would stop making film cameras, pointing to the shrinking market -- only 3% of its sales in 2005, compared to 75% of sales from digital cameras and equipment.
12. Incandescent Bulbs
Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt) bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement and all-things-sustainable-energy crowd, the Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (CFL) is largely replacing the older, Edison-era incandescent bulb. The EPA reports that 2007 sales for Energy Star CFLs nearly doubled from 2006, and these sales accounted for approximately 20% of the U.S. light bulb market. And according to USA Today, a new energy bill plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in the next four to twelve years.
11. Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys
'US' claims there are still 60 million Americans who bowl at least once a year; but, many are not bowling in stand-alone bowling alleys. Today, most new bowling alleys are part of facilities for all types or recreation including laser tag, go-karts, bumper cars, video game arcades, climbing walls and glow miniature golf. Bowling lanes also have been added to many non-traditional venues such as adult communities, hotels and resorts, and gambling casinos.
10. The Milkman
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1950, over half of the milk delivered was to the home in quart bottles. By 1963, it was about a third and by 2001, it represented only 0.4% percent. Nowadays, most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is blamed, of course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration and longer-lasting milk. Although, some milkmen still make the rounds in pockets of the U.S.; but, they are certainly a dying breed.
9. Hand-Written Letters
In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were sent each day -- two million each second. By November of 2007, an estimated 3.3 billion Earthlings owned cell phones, and 80% of the world's population had access to cell phone coverage. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and the number has no doubt increased exponentially since then. So, where amongst this gorge of gabble is there room for the elegant, polite hand-written letter?
8. Wild Horses
It is estimated that 100 years ago, as many as two million horses were roaming free within the United States. In 2001, National Geographic News estimated that the wild horse population had decreased to about 50,000. Currently, the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board states that there are 32,000 free, roaming horses in ten Western states, with half of them residing in Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management is seeking to reduce the total number of free range horses to 27,000, possibly by selective euthanasia.
7. Personal Checks
According to an American Bankers Association report, 23% of consumers plan to decrease their use of checks over the next two years, while 14% plan to increase their use of PIN debit. Bill payment remains the last stronghold of paper-based payments -- for the time being. Checks continue to be the most commonly used bill payment method, with 71% of consumers paying at least one recurring bill per month by writing a check. However, on a bill-by-bill basis, checks account for only 49% of consumers' recurring bill payments (down from 72% in 2001 and 60% in 2003).
6. Drive-in Theaters
During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-in theaters in this country; but, in 2007, only 405 drive-ins were still operating. Exactly zero new drive-ins have been built since 2005. Only one reopened in 2005 and five reopened in 2006; so, there isn't much of a movement toward reviving the closed ones.
5. Mumps & Measles
Despite what's been in the news lately, measles and mumps are actually disappearing from the United States. In 1964, 212,000 cases of mumps were reported in the U.S. By 1983, this figure had dropped to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination program. Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine, approximately half a million cases of measles were reported in the U.S. annually resulting in 450 deaths. In 2005, only 66 cases were recorded.
4. Honey Bees
Perhaps nothing on our list of things disappearing in America is so dire, or plummeting so enormously, or is so necessary to the survival of our food supply as the honey bee. Very scary. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD, has spread throughout the U.S. and Europe over the past few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many beekeepers -- and, along with it, their livelihood.
3. News Magazines and TV News
While the TV evening newscasts haven't gone anywhere over the last several decades, their audiences have. In 1984, in a story about the diminishing returns of the evening news, the New York Times reported that all three network evening-news programs combined had only 40.9 million viewers.... Fast forward to the present and what they have today is half that.
2. Analog TV
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of homes in the U.S. get their television programming through cable or satellite providers. For the remaining 15% -- or 13 million households -- who are using rabbit ears or a large outdoor antenna to get their local stations, change is in the air. If you are one of these people, you'll need to get a new TV or a converter box in order to get the new stations which will only be broadcast in digital.
1. The Family Farm
Since the 1930s, the number of family farms has been declining rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in 1950; but, this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census (data from the 2007 census hasn't yet been published). Ninety-one percent of U.S. farms are small family farms.
Too bad the gasoline engine isn't on this list. 
THE USS NEW YORK: 
It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center. It is the fifth in a new class of warship... designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.
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Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the hair on his neck stood up. He said, "It had a big meaning for all of us. They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back." The ship's motto? *NEVER FORGET*
Now, for those of us who weren't paying attention in Astronomy class.... 
The sun as compared to some other stars in the universe....
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Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky and is over 1,000 light years away....
Below is a close-up of one of the darkest regions of the photo above....
Mind boggling, isn't it? To view more Hubble pictures and to learn more about this fascinating subject, click on the following links: 
www.hubblesite.org
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html
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Gives New Meaning to Jumping Rope 
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1418565565?bctid=23207933001
Just a good tune
IS IT STILL FRESH? 
How long will your food or beverage stay safe and tasty? Here's a site that'll give you the answers on thousands of items and how to best store them.
http://www.stilltasty.com/
FISHING ANYONE? 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x768VAsOQSw
WHO'S MINDING THE STORE?! 
This is really unbelievable. He is the former prosecutor, House Democrat, Al Grayson, and she is Elizabeth Coleman, Inspector General of the Federal Reserve. This is pertaining to the runaway, out-of-balance, Balance Sheet of the Fed. It's quite shocking and scary as to where we're headed....
Kseniya Simonova is a sand animator from the Ukraine who started drawing with sand after her business collapsed due to the early 21st century credit crunch. She became the 2009 winner of the Ukraine's Got Talent show, constructing an animation that portrayed life during the USSR's Great Patriotic War against the Third Reich in World War II. The YouTube video of the performance has received more than 10 million hits.
Click on the figure above - and enjoy!
This is really an amazing view! It's 24 hours of Real Time Flight paths being recorded...shows how much traffic is in the air at one time. . . .
I'm glad I'm not an Air Traffic Controller - How about you?
Escape Rescue:
This is pretty cool and an ingenious solution to help save lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tIsXHYtT14
HIGH-SPEED ROBOT HAND:
And... speaking of cool, high-tech stuff, check this out!
FREESTYLING - For all you wannabe pilots out there....
ORDERING A PIZZA IN 2015: 
The following link sure gives a whole new meaning to ordering a pizza!
http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf
Newspaper Front Pages from Around the World
Best Shadow Puppet Show Ever / A wonderful world
ODE TO AMERICA: 
The following is an excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper. The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title 'C'ntarea Americii, meaning 'Ode To America' in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei, meaning 'The Daily Event' or 'News of the Day.'
"Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs. On 9/ll, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about. Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.
After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occasion, they started singing: 'God Bless America !' I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the California hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.
How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into collections aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy. What on earth can unite the Americans in such way? Their land? Their history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion....
Only freedom can work such miracles."
Cornel Nistorescu
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HELP FIGHT BREAST CANCER: 
The Breast Cancer Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site every day to meet their quota of donating free mammograms to underprivileged women. It only takes a few seconds to click on the link below, and then on the large pink button that says "Click Here to Give - It's FREE!" to donate a mammogram. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising. http://www.thebreastcancersite.com
ANIMAL RESCUE:
There is an animal rescue shelter that receives free food and care from sponsors for its animals based on the number of people who click on the following site daily. To help the animals, just click on the link below and then on the large purple box that says, "Click Here to Give - It's FREE!" Like the breast cancer link above, please be sure to click on this one every day, too, as only one click per visitor a day is counted... and they need YOUR help. Thank you and thanks to Luann Valetti for sharing this link with us: http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Mind Boggling .gif)
Drivers Ed .gif)
Hero Dog .gif)
Moose
Picture of a carved tree at the Limpopo River in Africa
THE WATERBED: 
This is hilarious... in any language!
Amazing Technology 
See if you can find the number of miles of cable it took to build the bridge? Speed limit on the bridge? Alcatraz?
gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php
FLY LIKE AN EAGLE: 
Anyone game?
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1778399&server=vimeo.com&am
CARBON FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR: 
Calculate your carbon footprint and see how you compare to the national average and the rest of the world! Then learn what you can do to help save our planet by clicking on the link below.... Go green!
http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
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Click the 1968 link below to read more...
IN THE KNOW: 
The main difference between http:// and https:// is security. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transport Protocol, which is a fancy way of saying it's a protocol (or a language) for information to be passed back and forth between web servers and clients. The S stands for Secure. If you visit a website or webpage, and look at the address in the web browser, it will likely begin with http://. This means that the website is talking to your browser using the regular unsecured language. In other words, it's possible for someone to "eavesdrop" on your computer's conversation with the website; but, if the web address begins with https:// it basically means that your computer is talking to the website in a secure code that no one can eavesdrop on. So, if a website ever asks you to enter your credit card information, you should automatically look to see if the web address begins with https://. If it doesn't, do not enter sensitive information like your credit card number.
Think you know the 70's - Push the button to take the Quiz .gif)
