Sunday, September 30, 2007
Daily Education- Science
The moaning frog is native to the islands of Rottnest, Bald and the south-western section of Werstern Australia.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Daily Education- Religion
In Shinto shrines prayers and wishes are written on wooden plagues called ema and left hanging at the shrine.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Daily Education-Weather
The average temp. in Honolulu Hawaii in January is only 7.6 degrees lower then its average temp. in July.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Daily Education- Languages
Hebrew is the only language that was a dead language but is now a living one.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Daily Education-History
Signers of the Declaration of Independence included Sam Adams, John Adams, Ben Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, and Thomas Jefferson.
Monday, September 24, 2007
One Week Left!!!!!
There is only one week left until October. And as many of you know that means Super Holiday Specials!!!!! The entries during the month of October will all (or at least mostly) be about Halloween, followed in November with Thanksgiving and then Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza and any other winter holidays we find. (or want to write about.) So get ready, tell a friend and enjoy the holidays!!!!!!!!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Daily Education-Odd
The motto of Puerto Rico is Joannes est nomen eius, which means John is his name.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Daily Education- History
Imhotep was the only non-royal in ancient Egypt that was a real person that was worshiped as a god after their death. He did many great things to cause this including inventing the step pyramid and making a code of medicine much like the Hippocratic oath that was invented later.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Note for Self:
Grave Apparel, By: Ellen Byerrum
Fiction: mystery/fashion 290 pages copyright 2007
Note: although this is a new book I reviewed an earlier book in the series to read that review click here
This book is two later in the series and involves a attempted murder and an eco extremist that hates Christmas and gets Lacey caught up with something known as sweatergate and charged with saving Christmas for everyone she knows.
Fiction: mystery/fashion 290 pages copyright 2007
Note: although this is a new book I reviewed an earlier book in the series to read that review click here
This book is two later in the series and involves a attempted murder and an eco extremist that hates Christmas and gets Lacey caught up with something known as sweatergate and charged with saving Christmas for everyone she knows.
Daily Education- Music
The minuet is a dance and type of musical composition that originated in France.
Monday, September 17, 2007
A Book in Review – Fantastic Tales
Fantastic Tales, By: Jack London edited by Dale Walker
Fiction: Sci-fi, fantasy 221 pages copyright 1975
Yes this is some random book from the 70’s, but as it is a collection of short stories from a famous author I thought I would say a little about it. First, it has a number of lesser know tales, some of which hadn’t been in print since they were first published. For some I think that there was a reason for this. This book was a mixed bag, some of the stories were very good and held my attention, some I read and wondered why I wasted my time on them. A number were interesting just because they were written around the start of this last century about what would happen in it and it was fun to see what he got right and wrong. For example, he foresaw China growing vastly in number of people but that with such a huge number of people they would be forced to take over all the lands around them as China would not be big enough to hold nearly a billion people. And that Japan would be the one to bring China into the modern world because they were “a kindred race” who understood each other as brothers. Also in this story they were able to take over all these places that in his time were often European colonies as he foresaw the reduction of European peoples to the point where much like in real live they are at negative population growth.(except Ireland last I heard.)
Fiction: Sci-fi, fantasy 221 pages copyright 1975
Yes this is some random book from the 70’s, but as it is a collection of short stories from a famous author I thought I would say a little about it. First, it has a number of lesser know tales, some of which hadn’t been in print since they were first published. For some I think that there was a reason for this. This book was a mixed bag, some of the stories were very good and held my attention, some I read and wondered why I wasted my time on them. A number were interesting just because they were written around the start of this last century about what would happen in it and it was fun to see what he got right and wrong. For example, he foresaw China growing vastly in number of people but that with such a huge number of people they would be forced to take over all the lands around them as China would not be big enough to hold nearly a billion people. And that Japan would be the one to bring China into the modern world because they were “a kindred race” who understood each other as brothers. Also in this story they were able to take over all these places that in his time were often European colonies as he foresaw the reduction of European peoples to the point where much like in real live they are at negative population growth.(except Ireland last I heard.)
Daily Education- Science
Both Tomato vines and potato leaves are poisonous and can cause digestive problems and nervous disorders.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Daily Education- Science
In taxonomy (the classification of living things) armadillos are in the order Edentata as they are toothless and in the family Dasypodidae.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Daily Education- Fashion
A woman’s dress that is a size 12 in the U.S. would be called a size 32 in Great Britain and size 38 on Mainland Europe.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Today in Holidays
Today at sunset marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan. It is also the New Year in the Coptic Calendar and the Ethiopian calendar (where it is Y2K - - - luckily they had 7 more years to fix their computers to stop the world from ending.) So if you live in the Middle East or North Africa or you religion is from there; have a Happy New Year or a Solemn Ramadan. (OK there are multiple religions from that area that don’t have a holiday tonight, but still most people do like a reason to play “1999” from Prince/male-female sign/no name/whatever he’s calling himself now.)
An Explanation on “Note for Self” Books
Like most avid readers we at Weird News BNI like to keep track of the books we read. We take joy in being able to say “I read 105 books last year.” Or “I read an average of 32 pages in a day.” (Both facts are completely made up as I don’t feel like doing the math now.) However, the point is like other readers the world over I have the compulsion to record my readings, and as I have decided that it is silly to write a report on some book I just felt like reading from the 1970’s that you wouldn’t get even if it sounded interesting. And that would be impossible to get if it weren’t for the fact that you can find most everything on E-bay. (I once saw a person selling dirt in a jar.) I will be listing the books under the “Note for Self” title, so you can skip it (unless you want to admire my reading prowess) and I can have all my info in one place. (Although, I may add a little note in it just incase you’re reading it.)
Note for Self:
Meet Kirsten: An American Girl, by: Janet Shaw
Fiction: children’s, historical 61 pages copyright 1986
(1854)
Meet Josefina: An American Girl, By: Valerie Tripp
Fiction: children’s, historical 85 pages copyright 1997
(1824)
Fiction: children’s, historical 61 pages copyright 1986
(1854)
Meet Josefina: An American Girl, By: Valerie Tripp
Fiction: children’s, historical 85 pages copyright 1997
(1824)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
A Book in Review - A Moveable Feast
A Moveable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization, By: Kenneth F. Kiple
Non-fiction: history, nutrition, culture 306 pages, copyright 2007
This book is about the entire history of food in human history. It starts with the hunter gathers; who apparently were the healthiest people as far as nutrition goes and ends with the issues of the modern era, like genetically engineering food and the vast increase of processed and fast food in the diet of industrial nations. It includes lots of useful information and odd facts such as: the amount of salt that an average American today eats in a day would be a deadly dose for most people throughout history, pepper was once worth it’s weight in gold, apples are not native to America, when the Inuit of the Artic changed there diet from one of almost exclusively raw meat to one of grains, fruit, veggies, cooked meat, and milk (i.e. the food pyramid) it actually decreased their health as over the centuries their bodies had evolved to pull all their nutritional needs out of the raw meat and they weren’t able to do the same as well with a diet based more on how Europeans evolved food wise, and that changes in potatoes grown in Ireland is what caused the potato famine to be so bad, even though the changes were made to make a famine less likely. This would be a good book to read if you are into food, how cultures change and interact, or concerns over globalization, the environment and other related issues and you don’t mind reading a book with a footnote for ever couple of sentences. (The footnotes are in the back making it easier to skip, but I just wanted to let you know it is not a light read.)
Non-fiction: history, nutrition, culture 306 pages, copyright 2007
This book is about the entire history of food in human history. It starts with the hunter gathers; who apparently were the healthiest people as far as nutrition goes and ends with the issues of the modern era, like genetically engineering food and the vast increase of processed and fast food in the diet of industrial nations. It includes lots of useful information and odd facts such as: the amount of salt that an average American today eats in a day would be a deadly dose for most people throughout history, pepper was once worth it’s weight in gold, apples are not native to America, when the Inuit of the Artic changed there diet from one of almost exclusively raw meat to one of grains, fruit, veggies, cooked meat, and milk (i.e. the food pyramid) it actually decreased their health as over the centuries their bodies had evolved to pull all their nutritional needs out of the raw meat and they weren’t able to do the same as well with a diet based more on how Europeans evolved food wise, and that changes in potatoes grown in Ireland is what caused the potato famine to be so bad, even though the changes were made to make a famine less likely. This would be a good book to read if you are into food, how cultures change and interact, or concerns over globalization, the environment and other related issues and you don’t mind reading a book with a footnote for ever couple of sentences. (The footnotes are in the back making it easier to skip, but I just wanted to let you know it is not a light read.)
Monday, September 10, 2007
September
September is back to school time. (We know many people start in August, or do year round school.) But, September is the time of year that you think of for school. Because of this we are Weird News BNI have decided to each day bring to you information about as useful as 80% of what you learned in school or are learning. (If you are still in school remember, even though 80% of what you are learning you will never use in real life even McDonald’s won’t hire a 25 year old with an 8 grade education. All people working there over 21 have graduated from at least High School, even if you wouldn’t guess it.) Anyway, enjoy this quick daily education that you can learn in you bathrobe.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
A Book in Review - Al Capone Does My Shirts
Al Capone Does My Shirts, By: Gennifer Choldenko
Fiction: children’s, historical 225 pages, 5th grade reading level, copyright 2004
From the title of this book I thought it was just a fun book on living at Alcatraz in the 30’s. But this is more a story about a 12 year old boy and his older sister who has autism in an era before it was understood at all. This book wove the stories of living on Alcatraz with the effects of living with someone with autism well. It was well resourced and would be good for a child interested in Alcatraz or who wanted to understand more about autism not in great detail but as a starting place. It included information on both at the end of the story too.
Fiction: children’s, historical 225 pages, 5th grade reading level, copyright 2004
From the title of this book I thought it was just a fun book on living at Alcatraz in the 30’s. But this is more a story about a 12 year old boy and his older sister who has autism in an era before it was understood at all. This book wove the stories of living on Alcatraz with the effects of living with someone with autism well. It was well resourced and would be good for a child interested in Alcatraz or who wanted to understand more about autism not in great detail but as a starting place. It included information on both at the end of the story too.
Notice:
We are Weird News BNI took a short, unannounced vacation from publishing. We are sorry if not informing you of this caused unnecessary trips to the page. We just needed a rest and will go back to publishing on our old schedule. We also have been working on ideas for the blog during this time.
Monday, September 03, 2007
Useless Conversion Chart:
A Classic W.N.B.N.I. from January 2004 (we think)
1 astronomical unit = about 93 million miles
1 bath = 2.250 cu. In
1 tun = 252 gal
1 mite = 3.24 mg
1 pfund= 1.1 lbs
1 shekel ( ancient Israel) = .5 oz
1 shekel ( ancient Babylonia) = .3 oz
1 cubit ( ancient Greece) = 18.3 in
1 cubit (ancient Israel) = 21.8 in
1 cubit (ancient Rome ) = 17.5 in
1 hand = 4 in
1 stadion = 622 ft.
[The editors of W.N.B.N.I. would like to apologies for any useful conversions in that chart.]
1 astronomical unit = about 93 million miles
1 bath = 2.250 cu. In
1 tun = 252 gal
1 mite = 3.24 mg
1 pfund= 1.1 lbs
1 shekel ( ancient Israel) = .5 oz
1 shekel ( ancient Babylonia) = .3 oz
1 cubit ( ancient Greece) = 18.3 in
1 cubit (ancient Israel) = 21.8 in
1 cubit (ancient Rome ) = 17.5 in
1 hand = 4 in
1 stadion = 622 ft.
[The editors of W.N.B.N.I. would like to apologies for any useful conversions in that chart.]
Sunday, September 02, 2007
A Book in Review – Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh: 80th anniversary Edition, By: A.A. Milne
Fiction: children’s, 160 pages, 3rd grade reading level, copyright 2006
This is the classic children’s stories that we grew up with, with the original stories and pictures. It is the prefect bedtime story for younger kids as each chapter is an individual story. Many of the stories you will notice as being used in movies, but slightly changed (like Disney can ever refrain from changing stories.) The book itself it beautifully designed to be a special tome in a collection. And well what else can one say about one of the most beloved bears in literary history?
Fiction: children’s, 160 pages, 3rd grade reading level, copyright 2006
This is the classic children’s stories that we grew up with, with the original stories and pictures. It is the prefect bedtime story for younger kids as each chapter is an individual story. Many of the stories you will notice as being used in movies, but slightly changed (like Disney can ever refrain from changing stories.) The book itself it beautifully designed to be a special tome in a collection. And well what else can one say about one of the most beloved bears in literary history?
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