Supination, pronation, sunwise, clockwise, anticlockwise and counterclockwise

A clockwise (typically abbreviated as CW) motion is one that proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite sense of rotation or revolution is (in Commonwealth English) anticlockwise (ACW), or (in North American English) counterclockwise (CCW).

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwise

 

Supination. Rotation of the hand or forearm so that the palmar surface is facing upward

From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/supination

 

Pronation. Rotation of the hand or forearm so that the surface of the palm is facing downward or toward the back

From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pronation

 

From the anatomical position, with the arms fully extended to the sides of the trunk and the palms facing forward, pronation is the movement of the hands to turn the palms posteriorly. In other words, pronation involves placing the palms into the prone (face-down) position, like someone would do when looking at the backs of their hands....

See http://www.innerbody.com/image/musc03.html

 

The reason for the clockwise orientation of most screws and bolts is that supination of the arm, which is used by a right-handed person to turn a screw clockwise, is generally stronger than pronation. Also, it was wise to adopt a single standard version for most screws and bolts – in order to eliminate endless confusion.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwise

 

Why do screws tighten clockwise?

This is because the biceps muscle - the strongest muscle in our arm - actually has two functions:

1) flexion of the arm and

2) supination (which is the motion used when screwing in a screw clockwise).

From https://www.quora.com/Why-do-screws-tighten-clockwise

 

Why do clocks go clockwise?

The clock that we use today was originally developed from the sundial, which used the sun to cast a shadow that would tell what the time was. In fact, before clocks had become popular the term wasn’t “clockwise,” it was “sunwise,” because that’s the way the rotation went.

From http://www.omgfacts.com/throwback/9524/Clocks-go-clockwise-because-sundials-were-originally-used-in-the-Northern-Hemisphere-ab911-0

Shipping Containers

A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of international shipping trade, "container" or "shipping container" is virtually synonymous with "(standard) intermodal freight container" (a container designed to be moved from one mode of transport to another without unloading and reloading).
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container

Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They are a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport and now carry most seagoing non-bulk cargo.
Container ship capacity is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Typical loads are a mix of 20-foot and 40-foot (2-TEU) ISO-standard containers, with the latter predominant.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_ship

But the record-breaking aspect of the Globe, owned by Shanghai-based China Shipping Container Lines and built in South Korea, is its capacity. It can carry 19,100 standard 20ft containers. That's estimated to be enough space for 156 million pairs of shoes, 300 million tablet computers or 900 million standard tins of baked beans.
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30696685

The Clothes Peg

The first patented clothes peg issued in March 1832, described a bent strip of hickory held together with a wooden screw which proved to be totally impractical. Rain or even dampness would cause the screw to swell, rendering the pin inoperable

From http://www.ecoforce.co.uk/history-of-clothes-peg.htm

 

The (modern) clothes peg design was invented by David M. Smith of Springfield, Vermont (USA) in 1853 by creating two interlocking plastic or wooden prongs in between which is often wedged a small spring.

From http://www.dryingforfreedom.com/general-laundry-news/clothes-pegs-make-history/

 

Other Names for the clothes peg

• Clothespin – America
• C47 – film industry
• Clothes peg or Dolly peg- UK

From http://www.heritageandhistory.com/contents1a/2010/04/wooden-pegs-c47-or-a-clothespin/

 

Mini Matchstick Gun - The Clothespin Pocket Pistol

See http://www.instructables.com/id/Mini-Matchstick-Gun-The-Clothespin-Pocket-Pistol/

 

33 Crafty Things To Make With Clothespins

http://www.tipjunkie.com/post/crafty-things-to-make/

Elizabethan Manners - Cutlery

Food was taken from the serving dish using the tip of your knife to spear it and place it in your trencher, where you would eat it with your hands. Knives of the time period had very sharp tips for this purpose. People were constantly being told not to put the knife in their mouths and not to eat the food off the knife (which of course means they did that constantly).

Spoons were used to eat soft foods and broth out of the common dish, which is why it was rude to leave your spoon in the dish when you had eaten your share. Individuals did not have their own bowls to eat soupy dishes.

Forks existed, but these were generally two-tined forks used for carving meat, and not for individual dining. Delicate little forks might be used to eat sticky suckets in the fruit or banquetting course, but this is a very high-class affectation. Use of forks at court was a sign of depravity mentioned in political satires against Henri III.

All this eating with your hands means that they need frequent cleaning (it is bad manners to lick them). Napkins are heavily used. Ladies must have put them in their laps as they are not visible. Napkins are not always available -- the medieval approach was to take the long table-cloth hanging down on the side facing the guests, put it in your lap and use it to clean your hands. Eating without some kind of tablecloth is Not Done.

Extracted from http://www.latourdulac.com/manners/Elizabethan.htm

Top Ten Pirate Punishments

Marooning
Throwing Overboard
Cat O’ Nine Tails
Keelhauling
Walking The Plank
Selling Into Slavery
Dunking
Clapping In Irons
Sweating
Hanging

See more at Http://Pirateattack.Co.Uk/Top-Ten-Pirate-Punishments-2/

Chclobirie

The practice of chclobirie (literally beating one's forehead on the ground) was adopted as part of Russian court etiquette ...

From Russia: A 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East, By Martin Sixsmith

Golden Ratio

The golden ratio (symbol is the Greek letter "phi" ) is a special number approximately equal to 1.618
It appears many times in geometry, art, architecture and other areas.

See more at http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/golden-ratio.html

Olbers' Paradox

Why isn't the night sky uniformly at least as bright as the surface of the Sun? 

If the Universe has infinitely many stars, then presumably it should be. 

After all, if you move the Sun twice as far away from us, we will intercept one quarter as many photons, but the Sun's angular area against the sky background will also have now dropped to a quarter of what it was.  So its areal intensity remains constant. 

With infinitely many stars, every element of the sky background should have a star, and the entire heavens should be at least as bright as an average star like the Sun.

See more at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/olbers.html

Flyback and Double chronographs

A Flyback chronograph is a complication watch, which uses a single push of the button for stopping, resetting and restarting the chronograph function of the watch.

Other names: Taylor system, Permanent zero setting

See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyback_chronograph

 

A Double chronograph is a watch that includes two separate stopwatch mechanisms in order to estimate two separate events of different durations. It is often confused with the flyback chronograph.

Other names: Split-second chronograph, Split chronograph

See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_chronograph

 

In horology (study of clocks), complication refers to any feature in a timepiece beyond the simple display of hours and minutes. A timepiece indicating only hours and minutes is otherwise known as a simple movement.

See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complication_%28horology%29

Dangerous Hats

In the late 19th Century, the size of a civil engineer’s top hat denoted his status.

They continued to increase in size until they became a danger to the public.

This led to the passing of The Dangerous Hats Act 1887

From http://www.lancashirelife.co.uk/people/forgotten_lancashire_restoring_the_fortunes_of_the_tripe_industry_1_1779139

Long and short scales

The long and short scales are two of several different large-number naming systems used throughout the world for integer powers of ten:

Long scale: Every new term greater than million is one million times larger than the previous term. Thus, billion means a million millions (10^12), trillion means a million billions (10^18), and so on.

Short scale: Every new term greater than million is one thousand times larger than the previous term. Thus, billion means a thousand millions (10^9), trillion means a thousand billions (10^12), and so on.

See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

Deaver on trembling hand equilibrium

I doubted we'd find much about his immediate plans; he was too smart to leave obvious evidence but even a player as conscientious as he made mistakes sometimes.

Game theory takes this into account.

In a "trembling hand equilibrium," a player can accidentally pick an unintended strategy--say, when you reach for a queen's bishop's pawn and accidentally move the knight's in error. If you release the piece, you've made the move, even if the consequences are the opposite of what you'd intended and are disastrous.

From Edge, by Jeffery Deaver

Full-Grain Leather vs. Top-Grain Leather

The strongest and most durable part of the hide of an animal is just below the hair. The grain pattern in this part of the hide is very tight, and the leather made from here is called "full-grain" leather. Full-grain leather is the strongest and most durable leather. Additionally, since the grain is so tight, it resists moisture very well. Over time, full-grain leather will look nicer and nicer and develop a patina from being handled.

The next best—and second strongest—leather is called "top-grain" leather. Top grain leather is similar to full-grain leather, except that the top couple millimeters have been sanded and buffed to take away imperfections. With the top layer removed, the leather will have a more uniform finish, but it won't be as durable—and it will break down much faster. This is more of a "cookie cutter" leather that most leather wallets and handbags are made of, which lends to their generic appearance. Top-grain leather can be good leather, but its strength and durability is not even close to the strength of full-grain leather.

See full article at http://www.waskerd.com/leather.html

Tourbillon

In horology, a tourbillon is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement.

… a tourbillon aims to counter the effects of gravity by mounting the escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage, to negate the effect of gravity when the timepiece (thus the escapement) is stuck in a certain position.

Originally an attempt to improve accuracy, tourbillons are still included in some expensive modern watches as a novelty and demonstration of watchmaking virtuosity. The mechanism is usually exposed on the watch's face to show it off.

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

PK Porthcurno

Porthcurno is unusually well known for its size because of its history as a major international submarine communications cable station. In the late nineteenth century, the remote beach at Porthcurno became internationally famous as the British termination of early submarine telegraph cables, the first of which was landed in 1870, part of an early international link stretching all the way from the UK to India, which was then a British colony.

Porthcurno was chosen in preference to the busy port of Falmouth because of the reduced risk of damage to the cables caused by ships’ anchors.

In the Inter-War years, the Porthcurno cable office operated as many as 14 cables simultaneously, for a time becoming the largest submarine cable station in the world, with the capacity to receive and transmit up to two million words a day.

Porthcurno is still known colloquially by the acronym 'PK' being represented in Morse code as 'di-dah-dah-dit' followed by 'dah-di-dah'. In the early days of expensive telegraphy, this could be sent unambiguously with just two letters instead of ten.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porthcurno

What is a Mummers Play, and what is mumming?

Mumming is a word for disguising oneself, going door to door, and performing songs, dances and plays in neighbour's homes and in public places. It's a very old and widespread custom, going back at least to the Middle Ages.

The type of play we call a Mummers Play today is a little less ancient and less universal. In fact, it may not go back any further than the 18th century, since earlier English-language references to "mumming" either are vague about the exact type of performance, or are clearly a different kind of play.

Modern Mummers Plays have a basic recurring plot that is used as an excuse for the actors to sing, dance and rhyme. The plot involves a fight between two champions, who can be St. George and the Dragon, or St. Patrick and the Turkish Knight, or any other combination of historical or fantasy characters.

See more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-d-winick/mummers-play_b_2371695.html

Atlantic Crossing (1)

Atlantic Crossing is Rod Stewart's sixth album, released in 1975. It peaked at number one in the UK (his fifth solo album to do so), and number nine on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Crossing

 

Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1) is an optical submarine telecommunications cable system linking the USA and three European countries. It transports speech and data traffic between the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Crossing_1

Errors of automaticity

When our attention is distracted we carry out highly practised behaviours automatically, occasionally at inappropriate times.

Like putting the milk out and the cat in the fridge.

In a classic diary study of everyday slips and lapses Reason (1979) got people to describe all sorts of cute out-of-context slips.

One person reported unwrapping a sweet (candy to the rest of you), throwing the sweet away and putting the wrapper in his mouth, another to putting shaving cream on his toothbrush and another to going upstairs to change for the evening, then finding himself wearing pyjamas.

Although practice makes perfect, it can also make an unthinking robot.

See other ways attention goes wrong at http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/04/18-ways-attention-goes-wrong.php

The Cocktail Party Effect

For psychologists the ‘cocktail party effect’ is our impressive and under-appreciated ability to tune our attention to just one voice from a multitude.

At a party when bored with our current conversational partner — and for the compulsive eavesdropper — allowing the aural attention to wander around the room is a handy trick.

See full article at http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-cocktail-party-effect.php

The Hat Law

THE WORLD'S first hat revolution took place in Turkey in 1925. On November 25 of that year, the parliament passed a law that made it mandatory for all men to wear Western-style hats in public places; all civil servants had to wear them, and no other type of hat would be allowed. Those who went hatless would be left alone, but if one wanted to wear a hat then one had to either wear the proposed model (and not the traditional turban or fez) or face the consequences, which could be as severe as the death penalty.

See full article at http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/turkeys-glorious-hat-revolution