Do you Drive, Sail or Steer a boat?

Friends of mine and I were thinking about hiring a houseboat for New Years, which then started a side conversation between a one of those friends and I, as to whether you drive a boat or whether there was another nautical term that we were supposed to be using. She then challenged me (possibly because she is too lazy) to find out what word we were supposed to use. I know that if the boat has a sail, then the term would be to sail the boat, however since a houseboat has a motor, I wondered, do we just steer the boat, or are we considered to be driving the boat? A car has a motor and we also steer a car, however we generally say to people that we drive the car, steering is simply one of the actions we consider to be part of driving, along with accelerating, breaking, watching for road signs, and generally following road rules. Since some of these actions apply to 'driving' a boat as well, I thought that maybe driving was the best description, however I thought it best to consult Google, the all knowing and all powerful.

My quick ten minute Google search turned up very little in the way of hard facts, and gave me other options to consider. Basically, I decided to also check the dictionary definition of Drive. This turned out to be more useful, and decided me on the issue. My Google search highlighted that depending on the whether a boat was powered by a sail, or a paddle or a motor, you would use a different term, such as to sail the sailboat, paddle the canoe, or steer the motorboat. Dictionary.com defined 'drive' as, 'to cause and guide the movement of a vehicle,' and since a sailboat, a canoe and a motorboat could all be considered vehicles, of one description or another, I decided that you can drive them all. You can then choose if you wish to be more specific, depending on whether it has a sail or paddle, to say you are sailing or paddling, that is up to you. Now a sailor may disagree with me, but since I am not a nautical man myself, I am happy with saying that I will drive the houseboat (well perhaps not me specifically, but whoever does the driving).

Check out Dictionary.com for the definition, none of the other sites are reliable enough to be referenced!

A Soundscraper

The other day I was reading some interesting articles, however the most interesting that I found was about something called a Soundscraper. Now my first reaction on hearing this name, without actually reading the article, was that of a huge tall building built out of sound. My little imagination ran wild, and I imagined people building this tower by simply playing music at the site and the tower just getting bigger and bigger. Now obviously this not what the article was about, the idea in the article, although not a fun as my idea, was much more practical and infinitely more amazing!

Reading the article, I discovered that an entry into the 2013 eVola Skyscraper Competition (I am sure that you have all heard of this competition and talk about it constantly to your friends and family, or if you are like me, you have probably never heard of it), was to build a large tower that absorbs sound, and converts the sounds into electricity, which can then be connected to the grid to light people's homes and run their air conditioning. The size of these towers was not defined, but it was estimated that a single Soundscraper, ideally positioned near a noisy motorway or regular flight-path could power 10% of Los Angeles' lighting needs. Since these towers are only a theory at this stage, and no working prototype seems to have been created or being near creation, we can only look at the artists impressions of these towers. However the fact that people believe we have the technology available to construct such buildings, does highlight the potential for us to be pillaging less of our natural resources to power our electricity needs and instead actually take a pollutant, noise, and convert that into something useful.

To read more, and see an artist's impression of a Soundscraper, check out the Inhabitat website.

Real Life Invisibility Cloak

I don't know about everyone else, but I have always dreamed of being able to be invisible. Growing up there was many instances of people on television or in books who had some sort of device or a power that could make them invisible. Once I even watched one of the worst movies ever made (it even looked bad when I read the blurb), about an invisible plane. However I thought, "what the hell, it's about an invisible plane, it can't be that bad!" It was! I also recall Rowan Atkinson did a stand-up comedy routine back in the 80's about an Invisible Man (it was a really funny routine) and more recently J.K Rowling wrote about Harry Potter, who he had an invisible cloak. So I know that the idea has not died and has in fact been thought of by many other people than myself (an not all of them have made terrible movies with no real plot or story line).

Today however, I discovered that my long time obsession with being invisible and things being made invisible came a step closer to reality, and that it could be potentially possible in my life time to become invisible! Today I read a story about a Professor from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Professor Baile Zhang, who earlier this month unveiled, to an amazed audience, a small box (it doesn't sound like much at this point, but wait for it). This box is made from calcite optical crystal (whatever that is), and has the ability to bend light around an object and make anything behind the box disappear! This is a remarkable discovery and although it is a long way into the future, this could be a step in the right direction for Professor Zhang, who admitted he invented the box, "just for fun", to then go on to create my invisibility cloak! So watch out people, sometime in my lifetime I might be sitting beside you and you would never know it (if you have never met me, the last statement would also be true, however in that instance you would at least know you were sitting beside someone, unlike if I was invisible).

Check out more about the invisibility cloak on the Daily Telegraph website.

Acalculia

I was once again watching the West Wing and as usual Martin Sheen's character was saying something intelligent, this time he was asking people the definition of Acalculia. Some of the other character's, being equally as smart as the president (or equally well rehearsed as the case may have been) knew the answer. I on the other hand had no idea! It turns out that Acalculia, according to the definition on the West Wing, is the inability to do simple mathematical problems. This reminded me of a friend of mine who after a big night out was supposed to be counting money at work, however instead of adding the notes together, she found herself just saying what each note was and putting it in a pile. Once her co-worker realised what she was doing, she told her it was best if she went home! So this is where my mind went when thinking about how somebody with Acalculia might suffer.

I decided not to rest here, but went to do one of my (hopefully now famous) ten minute Google searches, and discovered that actually Acalculia was much more serious. It turns out that Acalculia is actually more accurately described as, a person who has difficulty with simple mathematical equations due to an acquired brain injury. Basically it is not just that they cannot perform the mathematical functions, but in order to be diagnosed with Acalculia, they previously had to have had the ability to perform those simple mathematical problems. Now again my friend who acquired a hangover and lost the ability to count money, could technically be classed as have Acalculia, however the road for her to recover this function is a short one, with hydration and sleep. Most people with Acalculia would have a much longer road to recovery. As a sidebar, I also discovered that people who, from birth are unable to simply calculate numbers, are referred to as having Dyscalculia, not Acalculia.

If you want to check out some further information, check out Wikipedia and Medical Dictionary.

What is a Pingo?

I was playing Words with Friends the other day against my cousin. The word that I played was pin, then she played back pingo! I was in disbelief that such a word existed, so I accused her of making the word up, even though this would require collusion with the makers of Words with Friends and I was was reasonably certain that, a) She didn't know the makers of Words with Friends, b) They wouldn't change a word on her request, even if they knew her, and, c) That she wasn't likely to expend the level of effort and planning required to add this word into the game, just to score a few points. Nevertheless I challenged her to use pingo in a sentence, as I was sure that even if it was an accepted word, she was probably just playing around with letters and didn't know the meaning.

My cousin rose to this challenge and replied with the sentence, "the Eskimo swore as he tripped over the pingo." I had a good laugh as I read this, firstly assuming that she had just made the sentence up for a laugh, but then thought it was a bit obscure to add that it was an Eskimo, so perhaps she had actually looked up the meaning (a thing that I could have done myself instead of challenging her, but it would have been less fun). So I decided to check the meaning as well (at this stage the fun was over and I really needed to know if she was making things up, or had actually checked the definition), sure enough the meaning of the word pingo is, "a hill of soil-covered ice pushed up by hydrostatic pressure in an area of permafrost." So it would be reasonable to assume that Eskimos would see pingos all the time, and understandably might swear as they trip over them.  Obviously my cousin had looked up the definition and came to the same conclusions as myself. So I had to admit that pingo was an acceptable word, however I would still like to point out that my spell checker highlights pingo as a misspelt word, so I am not the only one in disbelief!

Check the definition of pingo yourself at dictionary.com.

What causes more deaths, vending machines or wolves?

I spent many hours during my holidays watching episodes of the West Wing. I love this show and I have picked up a few random facts, that I will share with you over the coming weeks. Today however, the fact that caught my eye happened whilst one of the characters, CJ, was listening to a group of people who were lobbying to have an Animals Only Highway built across the United States of America (USA) and into Canada (this has actually begun construction in real life, and is referred to as Y2Y). The group were using the example of a wolf, called Pluie (this wolf was also a real life wolf who was tracked, and provided inspiration for Y2Y), and in using this example stated that more people in the USA die from vending machines than wolf attacks. This is a statistic that is hard to find on the internet, and reminds me of another statistic which is equally hard to prove, 'that more people are kicked to death each year by donkeys than die in airplane crashes.'

These are two comparisons that are trying to make people think of the big picture, rather than focus on these facts in a small context, however from what I can find (in my 10 minute Google search), there are no statistics gathered around how many, if any, people are kicked to death each year by donkeys, however airplane fatalities are very well documented. Therefore I don't think that this statistic can be supported, although I am sure people will continue to use this comparison. As to the amount of wolf deaths versus that of vending machines, I think we may have a winner! Although I could not find statistics, from sources that were anywhere near credible, around the number of deaths per year by vending machine in the USA, I did find one Australian vending machine website that stated of the 15 injuries by vending machines recorded, only three resulted in death. Now there is not much detail around this statement, so it is my assumption these statistics are from all recorded incidences in Australia. I also found another website which stated that in North America (including Alaska and Canada) in the 100 years of the 20th century 20-30 wolf attacks were recorded and only three resulted in death, all due to rabies. Australia has a much smaller population than the USA, 20 million versus 300 million  so there are around 15 times more people in the USA. So if you calculate that Australia has had three vending machine deaths, you could reasonable multiply this number by 15 to get 45 deaths by vending machines in the USA (I know this is not exact, there are many other factors to consider, but lets just go with it). So based on this, you could reasonably state that more people's deaths are attributed to vending machines in the USA than to wolves!

I sourced many sites, Y2Y, the Yellowstone Insider around wolf attacks, Snopes, around the donkey deaths and SVA vending machines.

KFC to be served on Japan Airlines flights

I was reading an article the other day on The Age website about the new cuisine to be served on Japan Airlines. I have flown with a few different airlines, such as Thai Airways, Malaysian Airlines and British Airways, and often on board these flights some of the meals served is from that country's local cuisine. So to hear the Japan airlines, which I assumed would serve something local like Sushi, is to start serving on the flights for Christmas Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), was quite a surprise. I would have thought that American Airlines would be the first airline to serve a fast food product on board their flights.

I read further into the article to discover why Japan Airlines would take such an interesting move with their choice of in-flight cuisine, and I discovered that there is actually an interesting explanation. Apparently in the 1970s, over Christmas, many expatriates in Japan would purchase KFC chicken for their Christmas dinner, as it was the closest thing they could find to a Christmas turkey in Japan. So sales of KFC would dramatically increase around December 25th each year. This lead to a tradition of having KFC for Christmas, which was picked up by the younger Japanese locals, making the tradition even more widespread in Japan, than just the expatriate community. It is in honour of this tradition that Japan Airlines has decided to serve KFC on their flights over the Christmas holiday period this year.

If you are interested in reading the original article, check out The Age website.

Nikola Tesla (Part 2)

Last week I started telling you about an inventor named Nikola Tesla, and I told you about an incredible invention he discovered. Now if you remember last week I said that he invented the Alternating Current (AC) electrical system, the first hydro-electric generator at Niagara Falls, X-rays and Radio. Although all of these inventions are still in operation or being used in some way today, the incredible invention that I am about to tell you about was never completed, but would have revolutionised the way in which we use electricity. Basically Nikola discovered a way to magnify electrical energy and to distribute the power wirelessly around the world. Imagine a world where you no longer had power lines connected to every home and the cost of delivering power to a large city would be the same as to deliver power to a shack in the middle of the desert. This is the invention that Nikola Tesla discovered, and not only did he discover it, but he started to build a tower in Long Island (New York State, in the United States of America) between 1901 and 1905. The foundations of this tower still exist today, however the tower was never completed.

Why do you suppose the tower was never complete? It was because the financier of the project realised that there would be no way to measure people's usage of power from the tower, so he could not charge them properly. J. Pierpont Morgan was the financier and his comment regarding the tower and his withdrawal of funding was, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" So instead of creating a tower that could distribute electricity wirelessly around the globe, we have instead invested billions of dollars in cables being run all around the globe to deliver electricity, which has damaged our environment and I would say cost many more billions in repairs and maintenance just because with this method we are able to measure how much power is used and therefore charge people who use the most power. I think in the long run he would have made millions more distributing power wirelessly regardless of inability to measure people's usage.

If you would like to read more about Nikola Tesla, have a look at his biography on the Tesla Society website, or the original website I viewed to learn about Nikola, The Oat Meal. Learn more about wireless electricity transfer on ncoic.com.

Nikola Tesla (Part 1)

A while ago my friend sent me a website link about a man called Nikola Tesla, he was a Serbian-American inventor who lived from 1856 - 1943. The website outlined many of the great inventions that were attributed to Nikola Tesla, who by the end of his life had registered over 700 patents worldwide. The invention that interested me most was that of the Alternating Current (AC) electrical system. The reason that I find this interesting is because in school I always learnt that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and modern day electricity, however this is in fact incorrect. Thomas Edison developed a light bulb based on other men's inventions and his Direct Current (DC) electrical system which powered this light bulb was weak and inefficient. It was Nikola Tesla who reinvented this system and created the AC electrical system, which is the system that is used to power all the nations around the world today, so in fact Nikola Tesla is actually the inventor of modern day electricity, not Edison. Tesla, after inventing the AC system, went on to develop the first Hydro-electric plant at Niagara Falls.

Nikola Tesla can also be credited with many other modern day inventions which have in fact been credited to other people. Wilhelm Rontgen is credited with inventing the X-Ray, however at the same time that he discovered this, Nikola Tesla was also experimenting with the same X-Ray technology. Although Wilhelm won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 for this discovery, it was actually discovered by Nikola prior to his experiments, however Nikola never attempted to claim priority for this invention. Guglielmo Marconi won the Nobel Prize in 1909 for his invention of the Radio, however in 1943 the United States Supreme Court ruled that Guglielmo's most important patent was invalid and recognised that Nikola's earlier discoveries regarding radio were more significant and recognised him as the inventor of Radio. This article highlights only a few, although there were many others, of Nikola's significant contributions to electrical science. In particular, there is one more incredible invention that I would like to highlight  however I do not have the space to include it in this blog. To learn what invention he discovered that was so incredible, you will have to check out my blog early next week.

Normally I include further references about a topic, in this case you will find the articles regarding Nikola Tesla on next week's blog, however to learn more about the invention of the light bulb, check out the UnMuseum website.

Waltzing Matilda definition

I was looking at the fact of the month on my desktop calendar and for November it said that the meaning of 'Waltzing Matilda' in German was 'carrying a backpack'. So in fact the tune would go, 'carrying a backpack, carrying a backpack, you'll come a carrying a backpack with me.' I thought this was very interesting, butI didn't quite believe it, so I did a little Google research. It turns out that the phrase 'Waltzing Matilda' was thought to have originated with the German immigrants in Australia and was derived from the German language. However although the definition could be loosely translated to mean 'carrying a backpack', that is a much too simplified definition of the phrase.The definition that I discovered on a few different sites, was that Waltzing was derived from the German term Auf der walz, which means to travel whilst working or learning a trade. The term Matilda has Teutonic origins and means Mighty Battle Maiden. This term was applied to camp followers of armies and a Matilda came to be known as someone who 'keeps you warm at night'. Eventually Matilda was applied to other things that kept you warm at night, such as a coat or blanket. 

So the phrase Waltzing Matilda actually means to travel whilst looking for work and carrying something to keep you warm at night. I can see why Banjo used the phrase Waltzing Matilda in his song, as the full definition would have really thrown out verses. Sing it with me, 'Traveling whilst looking for work and carrying something to keep you warm at night, traveling whilst looking for work and carrying something to keep you warm at night, you'll come a traveling whilst looking for work and carrying something to keep you warm at night with me'. Quite a mouthful, and it really doesn't have the same ring to it as Waltzing Matilda. I can also see why my desktop calendar shortened this definition, although they left out totally the part about traveling whilst looking for work, and I really don't consider that a backpack would keep you warm at night. So to say Waltzing Matilda means 'carrying a backpack' is an incredibly loose translation, but I can see that it would fit better on a desktop calendar than the real definition.

Thailand is a Monarchy

I will admit that I have traveled to many different countries and only upon arriving do I learn what form the political system of that country takes. My recent trip to Thailand was no different, upon arrival in Bangkok and after a checking out some of the sights, I noticed that there was a picture of a man in many different places around the city. I have noticed in my travels that countries which have an elected head of state don't tend to have pictures of the country leader strewn about, generally because they change so regularly that nobody forms a strong enough attachment to any of them that they start to hang pictures of them in the streets. So after seeing all of these pictures I wondered who the person was, I assumed that he was their king, however I wanted to be sure, so did a little Google research and also looked in my guidebook.

I discovered that Thailand is actually a constitutional monarchy, and that this king (I was right they were pictures of the king), Bhumibol Adulyadej, is the longest serving head of state in history, and Thailand's longest reigning monarch. His reign  has lasted over 66 of the 84 years of his life. During his reign there has been 15 coups, 16 different constitutions and 27 changes of Prime Minister. In order to survive that long as the head of state in a county which has had so many different forms of government during his reign, from military regimes to more democratic government systems, he must be a remarkable man. After learning all this information it didn't surprise me that the king was revered and that Bangkok had so many pictures of him hanging in different places around the city. 

If you would like to read more about King Bhumibol, check out Wikipedia.

Australia has thousands of species of flies

I got a sample of printing products the other day and contained in this sample was a small desk calendar which each month has a new fact. This month what I have learnt is that in Australia there are over 6000 different species of flies. This count includes blow flies, fruit flies, house flies and mosquitoes (which are apparently considered a form of fly). My first thought was, wow, how can there be so many different species of the one insect. My second thought was, why would somebody want to catalogue these different types of flies? It was this second thought that drove me to do a little more research on the subject, via Google, and discovered an animal health website which had detailed information on different species of flies (not all 6000, just some of the more common species). 

Aside from the information on some of the more common species of flies, the website informs that there are more effective methods for exterminating each species, depending on their habits and which sites they choose to breed. I guess since we are always looking for more effective ways to kill these pests, that would explain why so much research has been performed and why someone has catalogued that there are 6000 species of flies. I guess my only real concern now, is that since there are so many different species of flies, and we are always on the lookout for was to better exterminate them, that perhaps this might be seen as insect cruelty, and people might create Fly Rights activist groups. The next step is that these groups might lobby the government, first to create an endangered species list of insects, and then try and get different species of flies added to the list. Then it is just small step until I am being arrested in my own home for swatting a fly! Okay, maybe this scenario is a long shot, but if the day comes when you get arrested for swatting a fly, don't tell me I didn't warn you!

If you want to learn more about the different fly species, check out the Bayer Animal Health website.

World record for the longest free-fall

I was reading an article the other day about Felix Baumgartner who recently became the first man to break the speed of sound in free-fall. The jump took place 65 years to the day after Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier, whereas Chuck was being propelled in a jet, Felix was falling to the ground being propelled only by gravity (what goes up, must come down), which I think is a much scarier thought! Felix ascended to the height of 39km, to the edge of space, in a specially designed helium balloon before making his jump. He reached a top speed of 1342.8km/h and was in free-fall for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Although Felix broke the sound barrier, and the records for highest manned balloon flight and highest free-fall jump, he did not beat the record for the longest free-fall.

The longest free-fall was actually achieved by Joseph Kittinger who fell for a record of 4 minutes and 36 seconds, 16 seconds longer than Felix Baumgartner. Joseph jumped, in 1962 (50 years before Felix's jump), from a height of approximately 31km above the Earth (8km closer to the Earth then Felix) and only reached speeds of 988km/h (354.8km/h less than Felix). Even though Joseph was in free-fall for a longer period of time, he actually only fell about 27km in free-fall, Felix on the other hand fell an astonishing 36.5km (9.5km longer than Joseph). Joseph spent a longer period of time in free-fall due to the lower speeds at which he fell. However since both Felix and Joseph used a Drogue parachute (a smaller parachute which is deployed to provide control and stability to a free-falling jumper), their free-falls are technically not considered to be genuine. The record for the longest genuine free-fall is thus considered to be held by Eugene Andreev who, in 1962, fell 24.5km (3km less distance than Joseph and 12km less than Felix) from a height of 25.46km above the Earth. As his jump was completed without the assistance of a Drogue parachute, he is considered to hold the world record for the longest free-fall.

If you would like to read the original article, check out The Age online or read about free-falls on Wikipedia.

The first Australian Police Force were originally Convicts

I was recently visiting Perth and whilst there playing cards with my sister and some other relations. The cards that we were using had a different fact on each card. One that interested me the most said that the first Australian Police Force was made up of the most well behaved convicts. I had recently visited Fremantle Prison where I learnt that the convicts that landed in Fremantle had to first build their own prison upon arrival, which I also found fascinating. So with my new found interest in convicts I decided to do a little Google research into the first Australian Police Force. It turns out that the New South Wales (NSW) Police Force was the first Australian Police Force and the cards didn't lie because the members of this force were actually recruited from the ranks of the best behaved convicts. The forces were named the Night Watch and the Row Boat Guard. These forces were created in 1789, however upon further reading, it turns out that although these convicts formed the first force of police in Australia, none of them were considered the first police officer in Australia.

Originally in 1788 the policing of the colony was performed by the Royal Navy Marines, however since this was not a job that they were particularly interested in doing, Governor Arthur Phillip appointed a free settler, John Smith, who performed the role of police constable. Although he performed the role for only a short while, his time as constable did earn him the record of being the first Australian Police Officer. It was after this appointment ended that the Night Watch and the Row Boat Guard were formed. In 1790 the Night Watch was replaced by the Sydney Foot Police (later simply known as the Sydney Police), who remained a separate force until all the NSW colonial police forces were amalgamated in 1862.  The Row Boat Guard were both a separate Water Police force and a part of the Sydney Police, and were the fore runners of what today is known as the Marine Area Command. The NSW Police Force is now one of the largest police organisations in the English Speaking world and it is interesting to know that the seed that they grew from was that of a few well behaved convicts!

Learn more about the NSW Police Force on their website.

Vasily Zaitsev

I watched a movie the other day called 'Enemy at the Gates'. I really enjoyed the movie, it is set during World War II on the battlefield and revolves around a duel fought between a Russian and German sniper in the battle of Stalingrad. Vasily Zaitsev was the Russian sniper (now if you haven't seen the movie and plan to watch it, don't read on as I am about to ruin the ending) and the German sniper was Erwin Konig, who was the head of the German sniper school. Vasily won the duel with the German sniper in the end, and also won the love of the girl, so happy endings all round in the film. However at the end it mentions that Vasily's sniper rifle is on display in a museum, which got me to wondering how accurately the film portrayed Vasily and the actual events of the battle. I did a little Google search and discovered that yes there was a Vasily Zaitsev who was a sniper and according to his memoirs he did have a duel with a German sniper during the battle of Stalingrad (however it only lasted 3 days), who it was revealed from his dog tags was the head of a German sniper school, however those were about the only two facts that they got right in the movie. 

Vasily in the movie was portrayed as one of many snipers operating in Stalingrad during the battle, although he was the most famous and the best. In real life Vasily was not only the best and most famous but he created a school where he trained other snipers during the battle of Stalingrad, and his tactics are still used today by snipers around the world. Overall I think the movie actually underrated the abilities of Vasily, who was credited with killing over 300 Nazi soldiers during World War II,  and would have been a much better film if they had let history and the character of Vasily drive the story instead of basing it around a love story and a duel. This blog seems to have turned into more of a critique on the movie than what I learnt and it seems that I didn't like the film when I actually did. So in conclusion, watch the film (even though I have ruined the ending, it was predictable anyway) but remember that Vasily was much different in real life than how he is portrayed in the film, and there was no love story in the real battle of Stalingrad.

Read more about Vasily Zaitsev on Russiapedia.

Procuring relates to prostitution

I was talking to my mother the other day and I mentioned that a friend of mine was a procurement officer. She looked at me a little strange, and then asked me what a procurement officer did. I replied that they purchase office supplies and computers, whatever the company required in order to continue running. I then asked her she how it was that didn't know, as I thought that procurement officer's were a common thing in organisations and surely she had encountered the term before. She replied that in her experience, what I was describing was the role of a purchasing officer, and procurement was the term applied to people who arrange prostitutes for other people. I found this hilarious, as I had never heard the term used for that purpose.

I did a little Google search and I discovered that procuring or pandering is exactly what my mother described. However nowadays people who are procuring are generally referred to as pimps. I also looked into the term procurement, and it is only a relatively recent term applied to purchasing since the late 1980s. It was recognised that people who performed the role of purchasing in an organisation were doing a very functional task and as organisations wanted purchasing to form part of their overall strategic direction, many organisations decided to rename the purchasing function, procurement (perhaps unaware of the other use the term already held), in order to support this more strategic outlook. So in essence both uses of the term are correct, however the definition of procuring a prostitute is perhaps less used these days then the procurement as a purchasing function of an organisation.

Check out Wikipedia for more information on this topic.

The definition of a Plutocrat

I was watching Downton Abbey the other day, and one of the maids was talking to a footman, who was boasting of his get rich quick plans, to which she replied something like, 'well aren't you the budding Plutocrat'. This got me to wondering, what is a Plutocrat? My first thought was since the word is similar to aristocrat, a plutocrat could be a person of the ruling class on the planet Pluto. However, being the ultra intelligent person that I am, I decided to rule that definition out, because it just didn't quite fit with the context in which the maid used the word. I mean to suggest she was saying that the footman was going to rule a planet that nobody had visited, and in fact had not even discovered at the time, would be a bit far fetched, even for me to suggest!

I decided that my best option was to ask my old friend Dictionary.com. The response I got was that a Plutocrat was a member of a Plutocracy. Now since I could have made up a better answer than that (and in fact did, although not a plausible one), I decided it must be the correct answer, and then looked into the definition of a Plutocracy. It turns out my search finished here, as a Plutocracy is a government or state in which the wealthy class rule. Since England could easily have been described in this way back in the time Downton Abbey is set, I knew this was the correct answer. So the maid was cleverly indicating that the footman would become part of the ruling class of England if his get rich quick scheme worked. I do love to watch a show where I need to have a dictionary on hand to understand the plot, just so long as I don't need to use said dictionary too often!

Check out dictionary.com for this and other definitions.

Is there a potential health benefit to smoking?

The other day I was reading a highly regarded publication, the MX (a Melbourne commuter newspaper, not really that highly regarded, although a great source of trashy news), and read a story about cigarettes actually having a healthy impact on an individual. I have always been taught about the harms of cigarettes, so I was intrigued to learn more about this possible benefit of smoking. It turns out that there was a story of an individual who was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (a bowel disease which is similar to Crohns disease) and was struggling with crippling pain, tiredness, dehydration and other symptoms, which all disappeared shortly after taking up a four- cigarette-a-day smoking habit.

I found this to be incredible, however as I read further in the article, I discovered that it wasn't the smoking habit the was removing these symptoms, but the nicotine that the person gained from the cigarettes. There has actually been a number of studies done on using nicotine as a treatment and apparently people can gain the same reduction in symptoms of this disease using nicotine patches, which have far less negative impacts. I can understand that this person would want to remove the pain, however to trade a lack of pain now for a potential to develop many types of cancer in the future, was dumbfounding. In general I am always a little dumbfounded as to why anybody would take up smoking these days, especially since we all know the risks involved. This is why I was interested in this story, because I thought perhaps the gains in this case outweighed the risks, which would at least justify why one person would take up smoking. Sadly I was disappointed, as the gains that were made from smoking in this story could easily have been gained from a less health damaging activity. So I am still yet to be given a satisfactory explanation of why anybody would risk their health by taking up smoking, maybe one day a reason will present itself, but I won't hold my breath.

Edwin Booth saved a Lincoln

I was sitting in a waiting room the other day and to pass the time I picked up the Readers Digest. Whilst reading I stumbled across an interesting article about coincidences. There were a few that were just unbelievable, although true, but the one that interested me the most was about John Wilkes Booth's (the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln) brother Edwin Booth. At the time Edwin was a famous actor, probably of a level with Brad Pitt, if he was alive today, and as a result his face was well recognised. He probably would have been famous in his own right if his brother had not killed the president, but he is now more often remembered as John Wilkes Booth's brother then for his own fame as a great actor.

The part of the article that interested me about Edwin Booth, was that prior to his brother assassinating Abraham Lincoln, Edwin Booth saved the life of Robert Lincoln, Abraham's son. Apparently Robert was waiting on a train platform, and the press of the crowd pushed him against a stationary train at the platform. As the train started to pull out of the station, Robert fell onto the tracks. Edwin Booth saw this happen, reached down and pulled Robert to safety. Robert recognised Edwin, (if your life was saved by George Clooney you would probably recognise your saviour) thanked him and that was the last they saw of each other. I found this story to be a massive coincidence which is why I am sharing it with you. To think that one Booth saved the life of a Lincoln and the other Booth took the life of a Lincoln, that is almost unbelievable.

If you want to read a section of a letter Robert wrote about Edwin Booth saving his life, check out Wikipedia.

Madison Square Garden iterations

I was watching a movie the other day called 'Cinderella Man' with Russell Crowe, it was about boxing and was actually a really good movie. The thing that I noticed when watching it though, was the Madison Square Garden, where many of the boxing matches were held, look entirely different to the Madison Square Garden that I had seen when I visited New York. This got me to wondering if they were even the same building. As usual I went to my trusty friend Google and asked my question. It turns out that it was not the same Madison Square Garden that I had seen, and in fact there have been four different Madison Square Gardens throughout history. 

The first Madison Square Garden was built on the corner of 26th street and Madison Avenue (diagonally across from Madison Square Park, which gave the arena its name). The building was a open air arena, with seating for 10,000, which had been converted from an abandoned railway depot. The arena was open from the early 1870s as an arena, but was only named Madison Square Garden in 1879. It was closed in 1890 and replaced by the second Madison Square Garden in 1891 on the same site. The second Garden was an indoor arena with seating for 8000, but standing room for thousands more. It operated until 1925 and after its closure it was demolished so that the New York Life Building (which stands currently) could be built on the site. In 1925 once the old arena closed a third Madison Square Garden, which was built in a different location away from Madison Square on 8th avenue between 49th and 50th streets, was opened. This is the Garden that was featured in 'Cinderella Man' and was also an indoor arena, with a different seating size for crowds depending on the sport, the largest capacity being 18,496 spectators for boxing or basketball. This arena operated for 43 years, from 1925 until its closure in 1968 (it was demolished and remained a parking lot until 1989), when it was replaced by the fourth and current Madison Square Garden, the one that I saw whilst visiting New York, which is located on top of Pennsylvania (Penn) Station, still on 8th avenue, however between 31st and 33rd streets (further downtown than the third Garden, and closer to Madison Square Park). This is also an indoor arena and has a different seating capacity depending on the attraction, with up to 22,292 squeezing inside for a professional wrestling match. The current Garden is the longest serving of that name, but who knows what the future may hold and whether there might be a fifth Madison Square Garden.

If you would like to read more about the various Madison Square Gardens, check out the Wikipeida articles, MSG, MSG2, MSG3 and MSG4.