Types Of Drumsticks

The Wood

There are 3 main types of wood used to make sticks.

• There is Maple, which is a lighter weight wood that has excellent flexibility. Maple is great for energy absorption, meaning you will fell less of the hit in your hands.
• There is Hickory, which is the most common wood with decent energy absorption and flex. Hickory is a well rounded wood.
• Lastly, there is Oak, which is the densest of wood. Oak sticks will not break as much, but you will feel the vibrations a lot more due to poor energy absorption. If the stick doesn’t state what wood it is, back away. This usually means it is a blended wood and is not made up to standard.

 

The Tip

There are 2 types of tips to choose from

• Most common is the wood tip. This is a solid choice for most applications. The only real downside to wood tips is the fact that they may chip after extensive use. Wood tips can splinter and severely damage your drum pads!
• Nylon tips are great for bringing out your cymbals and getting better rebound from your stick. They are great for studio work when you want to really make your cymbals shine. The problem with nylon tips is they sometimes fall off your stick, which can be a real problem in the middle of a show! If you are playing on an electric drum set, you want to use nylon tips.

The Size

There are three main stick categories.

• 7a. This is a thinner, lighter feeling stick meant for a softer sound on you drums. These work great for jazz drumming, or younger drummers.
• 5a. This is the most common stick. Medium thickness allows for both loud and softer play. Great for rock drumming!
• 2b/5b. These are thicker than average. They allow for louder sounding drums, and are ideal for heavy rock.

See the full article at http://www.rockdrummingsystem.com/underground/drum-articles/choosing-the-right-drumsticks.php

Tuborgflasken

Built in 1888 for a national exhibition (the Nordic Industrial, Agricultural and Art Exhibition), the Tuborgflasken looks, on the outside, like a giant beer bottle standing on the street. But it is actually an observation tower that was once outfitted with an internal elevator, Denmark's first; the elevator has since been replaced by a more maintenance-friendly spiral staircase.

See photo at http://atlasobscura.com/place/tuborgflasken

Map of the World's Countries Rearranged by Population

What if the world were rearranged so that the inhabitants of the country with the largest population would move to the country with the largest area?

And the second-largest population would migrate to the second-largest country, and so on?

See full article and map at http://bigthink.com/ideas/25109?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bigthink%2Fblogs%2Fstrange-maps+%28Strange+Maps%29

Types of Sea Shanty

• Long-haul (also called "halyard" or "long-drag") shanties:
• Short-drag (also called "short-haul", or "sheet") shanties:
• Capstan Shanties:
• Stamp-'n'-Go Shanties: were used only on ships with large crews. Many hands would take hold of a line with their backs to the fall (where the line reaches the deck from aloft) and march away along the deck singing and stamping out the rhythm. Alternatively, with a larger number of men, they would create a loop—marching along with the line, letting go at the 'end' of the loop and marching back to the 'top' of the loop to take hold again for another trip. These songs tend to have longer choruses similar to capstan shanties. Examples: "Drunken Sailor", "Roll the Old Chariot". Stan Hugill, in his Shanties from the Seven Seas writes: "(Drunken Sailor) is a typical example of the stamp-'n'-go song or walkaway or runaway shanty, and was the only type of work-song allowed in the King's Navee (sic). It was popular in ships with big crews when at halyards; the crowd would seize the fall and stamp the sail up. Sometimes when hauling a heavy boat up the falls would be 'married' and both hauled on at the same time as the hands stamped away singing this rousing tune."
• Pumping Shanties:
• Fo'c's'le (Forecastle) Songs, Fo'castle Shanty (Chantey) or Forebitters:
• Menhaden Shanties:

See full article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_shanty

Casino Dice

Casinos don't take any chances when it comes to profit so they don't use just any dice when thousands of dollars are riding on a roll.

Casino dice are called perfect or precision dice because of the way they are made.

They are as close to being perfect true cubes as possible, measured to within a fraction of a millimetre, manufactured so each die has an absolutely equal chance of landing on any one of its six faces.

Casino dice are specially hand made to within a tolerance of 0.0005 of an inch.

The spots are drilled and filled with material that is equal in weight to the material removed. Usually sides are flush and edges sharp. 

They are predominantly transparent red but can come in other colours like green, purple or blue.

See full article at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dice-play/DiceCasino.htm

The Seven Curses of London

James Greenwood is considered one of the first "investigative journalists" of Victorian London's seedy underbelly.

In his book (of the same name) he examines the seven "curses" of London

• beggars, drunks, thieves, neglected children, prostitutes, gamblers and "wasters of charity."

An insightful view of the dirtier side of London life.

From http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/book_reviews/victorian_london/book_detail.html?id=22ba500ac194e92bb6717ac9fbbab4e1

Twain, on the right word

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

From http://www.twainquotes.com/Word.html