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A computer program is an organized list of instructions that, when executed, causes the computer to behave in a predetermined manner. Without programs, computers are useless.
A program is like a recipe. It contains a list of ingredients (called variables) and a list of directions (called statements) that tell the computer what to do with the variables. The variables can represent numeric data, text, or graphical images.
Love it or hate it, PowerPoint is one of those programs. If you have worked in an office in the Western world in the past 25 years, you will probably have sat through a PowerPoint presentation. But where did it come from?
This week, a look at the improbable origins of PowerPoint.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip." - Will Rogers (US humorist and showman, 1879 - 1935)
There was a time when Southern California’s youth sought to do battle with “The Man” in a theme-park-like setting. In the spring of 1970, Disneyland had just relaxed its dress code for guests (meaning that teenagers with long hair and dressed in hippy garb were no longer automatically turned away at the turnstiles). That made the Happiest Place on Earth a very tempting target for the Youth International Party, which was this theatrically inclined offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movement of the 1960s who were always looking for new ways to mock the establishment.
This week, a look a an attempted and failed invasion of Disneyland.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Quote of the week: "The only sure thing about luck is that it will change." - Bret Harte (US author, 1836 - 1902)
According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, RV manufacturing is a $50 billion business in the United States, employing nearly 300,000 Americans. Approximately 80% of the RVs manufactured in America are made in Northern Indiana.
The Amish in this region don’t just live near the RV epicenter, they’re building the vehicles. Most of the Amish men under 65 work in factories. The majority of these manufacturing plants either assemble RVs or supply parts such as cabinets or windows.
This week, a look at why the Amish are building America’s RVs.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future." - Stephen Ambrose (American historian and author, 1936 - 2002)
Gruit is a catchall style that can encompass any beer made with a single variety or blend of herbs in place of hops. These beers were brewed in Northern Europe in some form perhaps as early as 5,000 years ago. A wide variety of botanicals were used as bittering agents, flavorants, and preservatives in these beers, including rosemary, juniper, and sage. In addition to grains, these beers would contain a large amount of adjuncts such as honey and fruit.
Along with religion, the Protestant Revolution changed beer as we know it today. Who knew the two were intertwined?
This week, more beer...that is a good thing.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on?" - Peter McWilliams (American self-help author, 1949 - 2000)
Glass is one of the oldest materials around. The discovery of glass
date back to the Stone Age, around 7,000 BC. The organized production of
glass in the form of jewelry and small jugs began in Egypt
approximately four millennia later.
Only in 1861, did the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay introduce the
material to wide circles of the population with the cost-effective
production of glass. Suddenly, countless office buildings, train
stations, administrative buildings and ministries were equipped with
massive window facades. This laid the foundation for the commercial window cleaning industry. Eventually windows were so prevalent it became a househld chore and window cleaning products were developed.
This week, a brief look at window cleaning.
Quote of the week: "One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it." - Henry Moore (British sculptor, 1898 - 1986)
A cocktail party is a party at which cocktails are served. It is sometimes called a cocktail reception. A cocktail party organized for purposes of social or business networking is called a mixer. A cocktail hour is sometimes used by managers of hotels and restaurants as a means of attracting patrons between 4 pm and 6 pm, for example.
Cocktails can have some great origin stories, but how can you tell sober fact from tipsy fiction? The noble institution of pre-dinner drinking has a complicated history, stretching across the Atlantic and a century or two
This week, a look at where the cocktail party might have originated.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything." - Kurt Vonnegut (US novelist, 1922 - 2007)
A drinking straw is a tube for transferring a beverage from its container to the mouth of the drinker. The oldest drinking straw in existence, found in a Sumerian tomb dated 3,000 B.C.E., was a gold tube inlaid with the precious blue stone lapis lazuli, used for drinking beer,
probably to avoid the solid byproducts of fermentation that sunk to the
bottom. Argentines and their neighbors used a similar metallic device called a bombilla, that acts as both a straw and sieve for drinking mate tea for hundreds of years.
In the 1800s, the rye grass straw came into fashion because it was cheap and soft, but it had an unfortunate tendency to turn to mush in liquid. To address these shortcomings, Marvin C. Stone patented the modern drinking straw, made of paper, in 1888. He came upon the idea while drinking a mint julep on a hot day in Washington, D.C.; the taste of the rye was mixing with the drink and giving it a grassy taste, which he found unsatisfactory. He wound paper around a pencil to make a thin tube, slid out the pencil from one end, and applied glue between the strips. He later refined it by building a machine that would coat the outside of the paper with wax to hold it together, so the glue wouldn't dissolve in bourbon.
Beer, mint juleps, bourbon...once again, proof that alcohol leads to greatness.
This week, a look at the history of the straw.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "The easiest thing in the world to be is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position." - Leo Buscaglia (US author and lecturer, 1925 - 1998)
