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The puzzling popularity of Su Doku
BBC News ~ By Paula Dear
It's the latest craze in games but there isn't a computer graphic in sight. Su Doku began its gentle attack on the nation last year, and versions can now be found in four national newspapers. Addicts are as obsessed as 1980s teenagers fixated on the Rubik's cube. So what's the big deal about these little rows of boxes on a page?
For anyone who doesn't know, it's a puzzle found in newspapers, books and online. A simple-looking grid of nine rows by nine, split into nine boxes, each containing nine squares, it looks like just another numbers game. To be pure Su Doku each of the unique puzzles - which come in varying levels of difficulty - must have only one solution. The aim? To fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every box contains the digits one to nine. This simple game has spawned a complex industry, according to the man who brought Su Doku to UK newspapers. Plans are afoot to add the game to mobile phones, and a board game and television show could soon leap on the bandwagon. Su means number in Japanese. Doku translates as singular or solitary, or can mean bachelor.
Let's say it's 6:15 p.m. and you're driving home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home; unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. What can you do? You've been trained in CPR but the guy that taught the course neglected to tell you how to perform it on yourself. Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, this article seemed to be in order.
How To Survive A Heart AttackWithout help, the person whose heart stops beating properly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough. The cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. And a cough must be repeated about every 2 seconds without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save their lives! From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240s newsletter AND THE BEAT GOES ON ... (reprint from The Mended Hearts, Inc.publication, Heart Response)
We were the lucky ones
Congratulations!
- According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s or even the early '80s, probably shouldn't have survived.
- Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
- We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.
- Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
- We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
- Horrors! We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
- We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
- We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!
- We did not have Play stations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends!
- We went outside and found them. We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.
- We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
- We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.
- We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
- Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back
- to repeat the same grade. Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
- Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of.
- They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever. We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it. And you're one of them!
Congratulations.
Good Ways to Avoid Getting a Traffic Ticket
1. I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer. (OK in Texas)
2. Sorry, Officer, I didn't realise my radar detector wasn't plugged in.
3. Aren't you the guy from the Village People?
4. Hey, you must've been doin' about 125 mph to keep up with me. Good job!
5. Are You Andy or Barney?
6. I thought you had to be in relatively good physical condition to be a police officer.
7. You're not gonna check the trunk, are you?
8. I pay your salary!
9. Gee, Officer! That's terrific. The last officer only gave me a warning, too!
10. Do you know why you pulled me over? Okay, just so one of us does.
11. I was trying to keep up with traffic. Yes, I know there are no other cars around. That's how far ahead of me they are.
12. When the Officer says "Gee Son....Your eyes look red, have you been drinking?" You probably shouldn't respond with,"Gee Officer your eyes look glazed, have you been eating doughnuts?"
TRIVIA
What is the fastest time someone has climbed the 102 flights of stairs?The fastest time is 10 minutes, 15 seconds (a new world record) established in 1999. (The person who made that record was participating in a contest sponsored by the Empire State Building). He had to climb a total of 1,860 steps to make it from street level to the 102nd floor. The average person climbing one stair every 2 seconds would take 1 hour and 2 minutes.
NEW WORDS
Each year the Washington Post asks its readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it either by adding, subtracting or changing only one letter and supply a new definition. Enjoy the 2002 winners.
- Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
- Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly
- Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
- Giraffiti: Vandalism painted very, very high.
- Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
- Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
- Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
- Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit)
- Karmaggeddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
- Glibido: All talk and no action.
- Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
And the winner: A PARABLE OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Ignoranus: A person who is both stupid and an ass.
One day a boy and an old man were walking through a village with their donkey. The boy rode on the donkey, and the old man walked. As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.Later, they passed some people who remarked, "What a shame, he makes that little boy walk." They then decided they both would walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey.
Now they passed some people who shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey. The boy and man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.
The moral, of course, is that if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.
How To Get Rid Of Telemarketers Telemarketers suck big time. Here are some proven ways to rid your life of these clowns for good...1. If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money.
2. If they start out with, "How are you today?" say, "I'm so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems. My arthritis is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died . . . "
3. If they say they're John Doe from XYZ Company, ask them to spell their name. Then ask them to spell the company name. Then ask them where it is located, how long it has been in business, how many people work there, how they got into this line of work if they are married, how many kids they have etc. Continue asking them personal questions or questions about their company for as long as necessary.
4. (This works great if you are male) Telemarketer: "Hi, my name is Judy and I'm with XYZ Company. " You: Wait for a second and with a real husky voice ask, "What are you wearing?"
5. Cry out in surprise, "Judy? Is that you? Oh my God! Judy, how have you been?" Hopefully, this will give Judy a few brief moments of terror as she tries to figure out where she could know you.
6. Say "No" over and over. Be sure to vary the sound of each one, and keep a rhythmic tempo, even as they are trying to speak. This is most fun if you can do it until they hang up.
7. If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends Plan reply, in as sinister a voice as you can, "I don't have any friends, would you be my friend?"
8. If the company cleans rugs, respond: "Can you get out blood? Can you get out goat blood? How about human blood?"
9. After the Telemarketer gives his or her spiel, ask him or her to marry you. When they get all flustered, tell them that you can't just give your credit card number to a complete stranger.
10. If the Telemarketer is selling raffle tickets, tell him or her that you work for the same company, and that employees cannot participate.
11. Answer the phone. As soon as you realize it is a Telemarketer, set the receiver down, scream, "OH MY GOD!" and then hang up.
12. Tell the Telemarketer you are busy at the moment and ask if he/she will give you their home phone number so you can call him/her back. When the Telemarketer explains that telemarketers cannot give out their home numbers say, "I guess you don't want anyone bothering you at home, right?" The Telemarketer will agree and you say, "Me either!" and proceed to hang up.
13. Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times.
14. Tell them it is dinnertime, but ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speakerphone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation. For added effect, clanging of cutlery and dishes is recommended.
15. Tell the Telemarketer you are on "home incarceration" and ask if they could bring you some beer.
16. Ask them to fax the information to you, and make up a number.
17. Tell the Telemarketer, "Okay, I'll listen to you. But I should probably tell you, I'm not wearing any clothes."
18. Insist that the caller is really your buddy Leon, playing a joke. "Come on, Leon, cut it out! Seriously, Leon how's your momma?"
19. Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up... louder... louder!
20. Tell them to talk very slowly, because you want to write every word down.
BBC News ~ 2003/05/28
Video games 'good for you'
Keen video gamers now have one more excuse to keep on playing. US scientists have found that regular players of shoot-em-ups, such as Half-Life and Medal of Honour, have much better visual skills than most of the population. The researchers have shown that gamers were particularly good at spotting details in busy, confusing scenes and could cope with more distractions than average. The two scientists also found that with a little game playing the visual skills of anyone can be improved.
Sight skills
Researchers Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier pitted keen players of computer games against people who never play in a series of psychological tests that measure basic visual skills. The tests demanded that subjects match shapes appearing in a series of circles with ones displayed at the side of the screen. Although video game playing may seem to be rather mindless, it is capable of radically altering visual attentional processing. Keen players were vastly better at this task, and completed it much faster, especially when the test was made more difficult by the circles being filled with distracting shapes. Gamers also showed their skill in another experiment that measured "attentional blink" which captures how easy it is to
catch someone's attention. The test asks subjects to identify a symbol flashed up very soon after the appearance of a first one. The second symbol appeared between two-tenths and half a second after the first symbol. Gamers managed to correctly identify the second symbol correctly far faster than non-players. "Video game playing enhances the capacity of visual attention and its spatial distribution," wrote the researchers in a paper published in the journal Nature this week.Training day
To ensure that it was experience with computer games that was refining visual and attentional skills, the researchers trained subjects on a variety of games and then tested them again. The subjects were trained on two different games. One group played the WWII shooter Medal of Honor and the second group got to play the classic puzzle game Tetris. After training for an hour per day for 10 days, the subjects were put through the tests again. The players who had been wrestling with Medal of Honor showed a significant improvement in visual and attentional skills. By contrast, the Tetris veterans showed almost no change in these skills. "By forcing players to simultaneously juggle a number of
varied tasks, action video game playing pushes the limits of three rather different aspects of visual attention," wrote the researchers. They added: "Although video game playing may seem to be
rather mindless, it is capable of radically altering visual attentional processing." The study was commissioned by the US Government's National Institute of Health.
What philosophers (okay, one is better described as a theologian) were the cartoon duo "Calvin and Hobbes" named after?
Calvin is named for theologian John Calvin, while Hobbes is named for philosopher Thomas Hobbes.By: Michael R. Neece , President and CEO , Interview Mastery.com
Tips For A Great Job Interview
1. Hey! What are you looking for?:
Interviewing is just like playing darts. The interviewer's screening criteria is the target while each dimension of your talents represent a dart. At the start of the interview you must first find the target and then decide which 3 of your "experience darts" you are going to throw at the target. "What skills do you feel are required to be successful in this position?" is an effective question for you to ask at the start of the interview to discover what is most important to this interviewer and what they are most interested in learning about you. If you don't ask an "opening" question, you're trying to shoot darts in the dark because you don't know where the target is.2. Ask Questions:
It is your responsibility to make sure the interview is an interview and not an interrogation. You do this by asking questions throughout the interview. If you don't ask questions you force the interview to be an interrogation. If you remember only one item from this article, remember this. That is why it's mentioned twice in this article.3. Specific Examples:
Interviewers ask questions about your experience to predict your future performance. Provide specific examples of your work and life experience to impress the interviewer. Describe what you have done. Focus on the actions you took and the results achieved. Be as specific as possible. Interviewers are less interested in what "the team did" or what you were "responsible for". They want to know what YOU have done. Behavioral Event Interviewing is a strategy used by skilled interviewers where they are trained to ask you for specific example of your experience.4. How do you like me so far?:
At the conclusion of each interview ask each interviewer for their assessment of your background. Ask them what they feel your strengths are and what concerns they have about your ability. Interviewers form opinions about you based on a 45 minute meeting called an interview. The potential for misunderstanding and miscommunication is enormous. Ask a couple questions at the end to make sure they understand your experience and talents accurately. This can make all the difference on whether or not you get the offer.5. Visual Aids:
Bring visual aids whenever applicable to convey the quality of your work. You can even prepare a few powerpoint slides or one page document to communicate your perspectives. Visual aids could include, writing samples, pictures of projects you worked on during school, etc. Visual aids can include anything that you feel helps you convey what you have done and what you can do for a potential employer.
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