A special Rink Rats Weekend
Edition: What interests RRs and what we are doing this summer 2015 July
weekend.
What is the weather like this Saturday morning in areas of
interest to Rink Rats?
Clareville, CA – High of 82 degrees, chance of
thunderstorms, yes thunderstorms
Beijing, China – High of 79 degrees, thunderstorms
Canton, New York – High of 81 degrees, chance of afternoon
showers
Jackson, Michigan – High of 90 degrees, partly sunny skies
Saint Andrews, Scotland – High of 64 degrees, windy
Kuwait City, Kuwait – High of 117 degrees, sunny skies
Sao Paulo, Brazil – High of 75 degrees, partly cloudy skies
SUMMER’S
DEEP FREEZE – It’s summertime. The season when you can write
your name in the condensation on the windows at Starbucks, people pull on
parkas to go to the movies and judges have been known to pause proceedings so
bailiffs can escort jurors outside the courthouse to warm up.
On these, the hottest days of the year, office workers
huddle under fleece blankets in their cubicles. Cold complaints trend on
Twitter with posts like, “I could preserve dead bodies in the office it’s so
cold in here.” And fashion and style bloggers offer advice for layered looks
for coming in and out of the cold.
Why is America so over air-conditioned? It seems absurd, if
not unconscionable, when you consider the money and energy wasted — not to
mention the negative impact on the environment from the associated
greenhouse-gas emissions. Architects, engineers, building owners and energy
experts sigh with exasperation when asked for an explanation. They tick off a
number of reasons — probably the most vexing is cultural.
There’s also the widely held misconception that colder
temperatures make workers more alert and productive when, in fact, research
shows the opposite. Studies have shown people work less and make more mistakes
when the air temperature is 68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit versus 74 to 76
degrees. Moreover, some research indicates feeling cold can take a
psychological toll, making people untrusting, uncommunicative and unfriendly.
A region of the brain called the hypothalamus is responsible
for our body’s thermoregulatory system, constricting blood vessels when we are
cold and dilating them when we are hot to maintain a safe core body
temperature. Your physical discomfort is essentially the hypothalamus prodding
you to say, put on a sweater if it’s chilly or fan yourself when it’s hot.
Extreme temperature changes like entering a freezing lobby
on a sweltering summer day may feel good at first, but it makes the
hypothalamus go nuts, intensifying physical and psychological discomfort when
the initial pleasure wears off — as if to say: “A blizzard is on its way! Do
something!”
A couple of computer scientists have developed a smartphone
app (what else is new) that proposes to solve that problem by making people the
thermostats. Users can tell the app, called Comfy, whether they are hot, cold
or just right. Over time, it learns trends and preferences and tells the
air-conditioning system when and where to throttle up or throttle back the
cooling. So far it’s used in a dozen buildings, including some of Google’s
offices and some government-owned buildings, for a total of three million
square feet. The developers claim Comfy-equipped buildings realize savings of
up to 25 percent in cooling costs.
Of course, for fresh air and comfort, engineers and
architects tend to agree the most effective control is being able to open and
close the windows. No app required.
BARBECUE
– Rink
Rat’s favorite BBQ Sauce –
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1 smallish onion, coarsely chopped (preferably a Spanish or
other sweet onion)
3 small cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 cup ketchup
1/3 cup water
1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (or substitute sherry vinegar)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 canned chipotle en adobo, chopped (note that this is 1
chipotle pepper from a can of peppers, not 1 can of peppers)
2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon sweet Spanish paprika (pimentón)
2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon molasses
Kosher salt and
freshly ground black pepper
DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the
onion and cook until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1
minute. Add the ketchup and water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and
simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Add the mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, chipotle
chile, ancho chile powder, paprika, brown sugar, honey, and molasses and bring
to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for an additional 10 minutes or until
thickened. Let cool for at least 10 minutes.
3. Scrape the barbecue sauce into a food processor or
blender and purée until smooth or until the desired consistency. The sauce will
be quite, quite thick. Let cool to room temperature. Taste and season with salt
and pepper accordingly. You can start dousing and dolloping right away,
although if you wait overnight you’ll be rewarded with a more complex,
three-dimensional taste. (You can cover and refrigerate the sauce for up to 1
week. Bring to room temperature before using.)
After you’ve made this quick and easy sauce once, you’ll
want to slather it on grilled chicken, steak, pork chops…you might never go
back to the bottled stuff.
NUMBER
OF THE DAY: 4.1 TRILLION - That's how many megabytes of mobile data
Americans used in 2014, according to a new report from CTIA - The Wireless
Association. That's 26 percent higher than data usage in 2013, and it's
distributed across 243.4 million mobile devices. Other interesting stats:
Americans send 3.6 million text messages and 300,000 photos and videos each
minute, according to the report. The trade group is using the stats to back up
its push to make more spectrum available to wireless carriers.
RULES
OF GOLF -
Q. You and your opponent agree to concede all putts within a club
length of the hole in an effort to speed up play. Is this permissible?”
What is the correct answer?
Nope, you
may not agree in advance to concede putts.
FISHING
– Our
good friend, Sula Vanderplank, Consejera de Ciencia – Science Advisor at Terra
Peninsular and Biodiversity Explorer at Botanical Research Institute of Texas,
along with Linda MacKechnie, a Rink Rats Science Advisor – posts a cool picture
of her fishing exploits off the Baja Peninsula.
Nice catch Sula!
IT MUST
BE THE WATER – An Illinois couple welcomed the 100th child
born to their children, grandchildren, and other descendants. Ruth and Leo
Zanger have been married for 59 years and have 12 children, 53 grandchildren,
46 great-grandchildren, and now one great-great-grandchild. “We could start our
own town,” Leo said.
RINK
RATS TRAVEL - The new frontier in air travel: digital bag
tags. As the number of passengers climbs, airlines are developing technologies
to improve and automate how they handle and track bags. Their latest ideas
include allowing fliers to tag their own bags and print luggage tags at home,
and track their bags on smartphones and tags that digitally update if flight
plans change. The moves, however, face hurdles, including opposition from
unions, security rules and fliers who prefer a human touch. In other travel
news, the new normal for airlines appears to be more capacity on existing jets,
but fewer trips. According to an analysis of data by the Journal, U.S. airlines
are offering 12% more domestic seats this month than two years ago, but 4.4% fewer
flights.
DEADHEAD
FINALE -"Grateful Dead Close Out Their Final Concert With ...
'Please, Be Kind,': The Dead's 'core four' - Phil Lesh on bass, Bill Kreutzmann
and Mickey Hart handling percussion and Bob Weir on rhythm guitar - embraced
and waved from center stage after taking their final bows just before midnight,
capping more than three hours of the band's famously improvisational jams
spread across two sets and two encores. [Hart:] 'The feeling we have here -
remember it, take it home and do some good with it ... I'll leave you with
this: Please, be kind.'" http://nyti.ms/1HGKS3a
SPORTS
BLINK - U.S. Women's Soccer Team Will Get $33 Million Less Prize
Money Than The Men's World Cup Winner: The United States Women's National Team
will get a paltry $2 million for its victory on Sunday. The men's German team
got $35 million for winning the 2014 World Cup.
COLLEGE
CHRONICLES – Stanford University
finished out the year a top the final 2014-15 Division I Learfield Sports Directors’
Cup standings this season with 1448 total points. Stanford scored in 25 total
sports, but only 10 men’s and 10 women’s sports are scored in the standings.
The following scores were omitted – women’s cross country, field hockey,
women’s lacrosse and women’s outdoor track and field and wrestling.
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) led all conferences with
seven teams finishing in the top-25 – Florida (4th), Georgia (14th), LSU
(15th), Arkansas (16th), Texas A&M (17th), Kentucky (22nd) and Alabama
(25th).
UCLA finished second with 1236
points. The Bruins have scored in 19 total sports, including 50 points in
baseball.
USC secured its third place finish
with its 50 points in baseball to increase its total to 1209 points. The Gators
of Florida finished in fourth overall with 1188.5 points. Florida had one
score omitted on the women’s side, women’s cross country due to scoring in 11
women’s sports.
Rounding out the top five is North Carolina with 1152
points The Tar Heels scored in 24 total sports with the following scores
omitted, women’s golf, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field and men’s
indoor track and field.
All 13 spring Division I championships have been completed
with the following institutions capturing titles: baseball – Virginia; softball
– Florida; women’s golf – Stanford; men’s golf – LSU; women’s lacrosse –
Maryland; men’s lacrosse – Denver; women’s rowing – Ohio State; women’s tennis
–Vanderbilt; men’s tennis – Virginia; women’s outdoor track & field –
Oregon; men’s outdoor track & field – Oregon; men’s volleyball – Loyola
Chicago; women’s water polo – Stanford.
The Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup was developed as a joint
effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics
(NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in
up to 20 sports — 10 women’s and 10 men’s.
WHY THE
NEW BOSS IS YOUNGER THAN YOU ARE - Top Executives Are Getting
Younger ... More companies hire chiefs in their late 40s. As older baby boomers
retire, more companies are turning to members of Gen X, those born between
about 1965 and 1980, and younger boomers, now in their mid-50s. Among companies
that have recently appointed CEOs aged 50 or younger are McDonald's Corp.,
Harley-Davidson Inc., Microsoft Corp., and 21st Century Fox ...
As members of the first generation to use personal computers
from childhood, they are generally more tech savvy. They also spend more time
wooing and keeping younger staffers, and worrying about how to keep products
and services relevant for the rising millennials projected to comprise 75% of
the workforce by 2025. Gen X and young boomer CEOs also generally take more risks
and react faster to sudden business shifts than the CEOs they replaced."
THE
SWAMI’S WEEKEND TOP PICKS –
Dustin Johnson wins The Open…U.S.A. Men Soccer 2 Cuba 1….Los
Angeles Angels 5 Boston Red Sox 3…Joe Zanetta for the 32nd straight
year will get The Swami’s birth date wrong by a week.
Season
to date (60-28)
BIRTHDAYS
THIS WEEKEND – Birthday wishes and thoughts this weekend to: Lucie Arnaz (64), Dick Button (86), Diahann
Carroll (80), Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (68), Nick Faldo (58), David
Hasselhoff (63), “Action”
Jackson Krich (2), Donald Sutherland (83), Joe Torre (75).
WEEKEND
ROAD TRIP - They’ll take Manhattan: Obama, daughters explore
New York, POTUS, [his] two teenage daughters, ... plus some of the girls'
friends, ... had a wide-open day [today] after zigzagging around Manhattan in
dad's motorcade [last] night. They lingered past 11 p.m. over dinner at an
Italian place in Greenwich Village [Carbone, on Thompson Street between
Bleecker and W. Houston Street, per pooler Byron Tau] and took an after-hours
tour of the Whitney Museum that lasted until midnight. ...
President Obama was scheduled to return to Washington on
Saturday night. He'll be back in New York ... Tuesday for one last appearance
with Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show’ and a Democratic fundraiser.
THE
PRESIDENT’S WEEK AHEAD: On Monday, the President will host
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House. ... On Tuesday, the
President will travel to Pittsburgh ... to address the 116th Veterans of
Foreign Wars National Convention. Following the convention, the President will
travel to New York, New York and will tape an appearance on ‘The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart.’ In the evening, the President will attend a [DSCC] event. On
Wednesday, the President will meet with small business owners to discuss the
importance of the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. On Thursday, the
President will attend meetings at the White House. In the evening, the
President will travel to Nairobi, Kenya. On Friday, the President will arrive
in Nairobi.
Monday:
Greece
and the state of Banking and those who get it.
Until Next Monday, Adios.
Claremont, CA
July 18, 2015
#VI-6-268
CARTOON
OF THE WEEKEND – Tom
Toro, New Yorker Magazine
No comments:
Post a Comment