Archive - 2018

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Simon Cowell confessed he switched off for the sake of his mental health
In an astonishing confession, the television mogul revealed he had become so distracted and irritated by his phone that he made himself uncontactable for the sake of his mental health and happiness.

He told The Mail on Sunday: 'I literally have not been on my phone for ten months.

'The difference it made was that I became more aware of the people around me and way more focused.

'The thing I get irritated with is when you have a meeting everyone's on their phone - and I was probably in that place too. You can't concentrate.

'It has been so good for my mental health. It's a very strange experience but it really is good for you and it has absolutely made me happier.'

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Photo courtesy REX / Shutterstock

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June 1, 2018 (formatted as 1/6/18 in many parts of the world) is Phi Day, a date that matches the first four digits of the golden ratio.

Represented by the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet, the golden ratio, which comes out to roughly 1.618 when rounded, is the number you get when you divide a line into two parts so that the longer part divided by the smaller part is the same as the total length divided by the longer part (or simplified: When the smaller is to the larger as the larger is to the whole).

The Pyramids at Giza, Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," nautilus shells, sunflower seed heads, and spiral galaxies all feature the golden ratio.

The golden ratio is also closely related to the famous Fibonacci sequence. In this series of numbers beginning with zero or one, each subsequent number equals the sum of the previous two (i.e., 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc.). The ratio of any two successive numbers in this sequence comes very close to the golden ratio. Shapes made with Fibonacci dimensions are considered pleasing to the eye, which is why they so often appear in art, either unintentionally or by design.

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Image courtesy MSN / iStock

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A Louisiana second-grader's homework assignment is going viral and making parents across the nation question if they spend too much time on their cell phones.
Teacher Jen Adams Beason wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post that she assigned her students to write about an invention they wish had never been created.
She posted an essay in which one of her students picked the cell phone.
"I don't like the phone because my [parents] are on their phone every day ... I hate my mom's phone and I wish she never had one," the student wrote.

Texas boy, 10, pens hilarious thank you note to Fulshear officer who pulled mom over: 'She deserved it'
Police officers in Texas were so tickled by a 10-year-old boy's handwritten thank you letter that they decided to share it on social media.
"We received the letter last Friday from a young man who attends Huggins Elementary School in Fulshear," Captain Mike McCoy with the Fulshear Police Department told Fox News. "During National Police Week, students from this school write us many letters of support. This one, obviously, stood out."

The boy's letter to a "Fulshear Police Officer" expressed gratitude for his mother getting stopped.
"Thank you for pulling my mom over because she deserved it because she took my phone away and I did not like it and how she always brags about how good of a driver she is," the student said. "And it just annoys me."

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Khao Phing Kan or Ko Khao Phing Kan is an island in Thailand, in Phang Nga Bay northeast of Phuket. About 40 metres (130 ft) from the shores of Khao Phing Kan lies a 20-metre (66 ft) tall islet called Ko Tapu or Khao Tapu. The islands are limestone tower karsts and are a part of Ao Phang Nga National Park. Since 1974, when it was featured in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, Khao Phing Kan has been popularly called James Bond Island.

Khao Phing Kan means "hills leaning against each other" in Thai, reflecting the connected nature of the islands, and Ko Tapu can be literally translated as "nail" or "spike" island, reflecting its shape.

Khao Phing Kan consists of two forest-covered islands with steep shores. They lie in the northwestern part of Phang Nga Bay, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the mainland, amid a group of a dozen of other islands.

Ko Ta Pu is a limestone rock about 20 metres (66 ft) tall with the diameter increasing from about 4 metres (13 ft) near the water level to about 8 metres (26 ft) at the top. It lies about 40 metres (130 ft) to the west from the northern part of Khao Phing Kan.

A local legend explains the formation of Ko Ta Pu as follows. Once upon a time, there lived a fisherman who used to bring home many fish every time he went to the sea. However, one day he could not catch any fish despite many attempts and only picked up a nail with his net. He kept throwing the nail back into the sea and catching it again. Furious, he took his sword and cut the nail in half with all his strength. Upon impact, one half of the nail jumped up and speared into the sea, forming Ko Ta Pu.

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Image courtesy amazingplacesonearth.com

Sea Turtle photo courtesy Fargioneorazio / @iLikePics_Daily

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Bitcoin is 'rat poison,' "I like it when my country steps hard on idiot booms instead of fanning the flame," Berkshire's Munger: interview on "Countdown to the Closing Bell."
Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, described digital currency as a nonproductive asset.

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Image courtesy youbrandinc.com

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Washington Post: As China cleans up its act, India’s cities named the world’s most polluted
India’s capital, New Delhi, choked by rising automobile emissions and construction dust, was named Wednesday the world’s most polluted megacity by the World Health Organization, which analyzed the levels of the pollutant PM10 in the air in cities with populations above 14 million between 2010 and 2016.
Greater Cairo was the second most polluted large city. India’s other megacity of Mumbai ranked fourth on the list and Beijing fifth.

Nine out of 10 people around the globe are breathing polluted air, the study said, and air pollution is responsible for the deaths of 7 million people worldwide each year, most of them living in Asia and Africa. Of those deaths, 3.8 million were from indoor air pollution from unhealthy cook stoves, a huge problem in India.
Former perennial offender China, in response to citizen outrage, has taken steps to clean up its air, shuttering or reforming factories and reducing its coal consumption in favor of renewable energy. The moves helped improve air quality in Beijing and elsewhere but at a cost — many poor people were denied coal heat during winter or lost jobs.
The World Health Organization’s head of public health, Maria Neira, told the Reuters news agency that India should follow China’s lead.  read more »