Golden Gate Sister Bridge

Charles Colton onserved that “imitation is the sincerest (form) of flattery.” As the Golden Gate Bridge celebrates its 75th anniversary it can appriciate the flattery bestowed by a bridge several thousand miles away —  the 25 de Abril Bridge that connects Lisbon to Almada in Portugal. Looking at photographs of the two bridges, there are striking similarities: both are suspension bridges with two main towers and both are painted red-orange. Interestingly, the bridge was constructed from 1962-1966 by an American company, the American Bridge Company, that also built the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (SFOBB) from 1933-37. (The SFOBB opened six months before the Golden Gate Bridge). The design is actually modeled after the original design of the SFOBB developed by Charles Purcell. Like the SFOBB, The 25 de Abril bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge: six car lanes are on the upper deck and two train tracks on the lower deck. Also like the SFOBB, it has very deep foundation designed to withstand seismic events.

The bridge in Portugal was originally named the Salazar Bridge (Pone Salazar) in honor of the Prime Minister. In 1974 the military led a coup to transform Portugal from a dictatorship to a democracy. The coup occurred without any gun battle; in fact, quite the opposite: carnations were placed in gun nuzzles and on uniforms. Hence, the coup was known as the Carnation Revolution and soon after the bridge was named 25 de April to recognize Freedom Day, the day the revolution began.

For further reading: www.wikipedia.com

Fort Point

Beneath the arched skeleton of steel at the southern approach of the Golden Gate Bridge, sits Fort Point, a massive brick-and-mortar sentinel watching over the gateway to San Francisco Bay. The Fort is notable for its history and impressive architecture — it has been called “the Gibraltar of the West Coast” and hailed as “one of the most perfect models of masonry in America.”

At the peak of the Gold Rush, the US Army Engineers wanted to protect the San Francisco Bay’s commercial interests and military installations with an effective defense system consisting of forts at the north and south shores of the Golden Gate and on Alcatraz. The fort was built from 1853 to 1861 using brick and mortar to construct 7-foot walls and three tiers of arched brick casemastes (rooms to house a cannon), and a barbette tier on the roof in the traditional “Third System” style of military architecture during 1850-84.

 Historian Emanuel Lewis describes this important architectural period: “[During the Third System] some of the most spectacular harbor defense structures to come out of any era of military architecture were to be found. Included by virtue of their role in the Civil War were certainly some of the most famous — Sumter, Pulaski, Monroe, Pickens, Morgan and Jackson. From the technical standpoint, this large group of massive, vertical-walled forts represented the general embodiment and the fullest development of features which had previously appeared in only a few and isolated instances, i.e., structural durability, a high concentration of armament, and enormous overall firepower. 

Ironically, although Fort Point was built for impressive firepower (emplacements for 141 cannons and guns; the cannons could fire a 128 pound shot over 2 miles), the military installation never saw battle. During the Civil War, the Army was prepared for battle, mounting the first 55 cannons and housing over 500 men. However, the Confederate Army never launched an attack on the Bay in an attempt to weaken the Union’s control of Pacific Coast. So after the war, the Army moved its troops out of the fort. The fort was deemed obsolete, when another fortification, East Battery, was built south east of Fort Point in 1870. Then during WWII, the Army converted the fort into a detention center, although it was used in later years to provide housing for unmarried officers. 

Point Fort was spared a date with a wrecking ball when plans for constructing a bridge began in the 1930’s. Realizing the historical and architectural value of Fort Point, the bridge’s chief engineer, Joseph Strauss, designed an arch at the southern approach to skip over the fortification. After the bridge’s construction, preservationists created the Fort Point Museum Association and tirelessly lobbied to have the site to be registered as a National Historic Site, which finally happened in 1970.

http://www.nps.gov/fopo/historyculture/index.htm.
http://www.nps.gov/goga/historyculture/american-third-system.htm
http://www.nps.gov/goga/historyculture/fort-point.htm. www.wikipedia.com

The Lone Sailor Memorial

He stands tall, bravely enduring the chilly winds sweeping off the San Francisco Bay, as if he just stepped out of a Jack London novel. With a fully-packed duffel back at his feet, the young sailor looks back at his beloved San Francisco, just beyond the Golden Gate’s distinctive Art Deco towers that soar majestically upwards. He battles the bitter cold by shoving his hands deep into his pea-coat, turning the collar up to warm his neck. There is a profound nostalgic and elegiac sense about his gaze and stance, as he takes in — perhaps one last time — the sights and sounds of this beautiful and bustling harbor he calls home. With both feet planted firmly on the ground, there is also a powerful sense of honor and duty about him: he is resolute and stalwart. Beneath his feet is a compass rose and a plaque, written by Chronicle reporter Carl Nolte, that reads: “This is one last chance to look back at the city of San Francisco, shining on its hills, one last chance to look back at the coastline of the United States, one last chance to look back at home.” There is another plaque nearby that adds: “Dedicated to the ordinary sailors and marines who sailed from this place and did their duty.”

The Lone Sailor Memorial located on the northern Vista Point of the Golden Gate Bridge, was dedicated on April 14, 2002. It is a fitting tribute to the more than 1.5 million sailors, men and women, who served their country, their ships passing silently beneath the mighty Golden Gate. At the dedication ceremony, secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi spoke eloquently about the statue’s symbolism: “The Lone Sailor is the embodiment of honor, respect and devotion to duty. These values have been the basis of our maritime strength throughout our history, and they have contributed so much to America’s security and prosperity. The Lone Sailor represents every sailor serving his or her country today and will continue to do so as our nation continues to require them to go in harm’s way.”

The 7-foot bronze statue located in San Francisco is one of 11 copies of the statue sculpted by Stanley Bleifield who was originally commissioned by the US Navy in 1987 to create the tribute. The original sculpture is located at the U.S. Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

For further reading: http://www.northofseveycorners.com/mil/lone.htm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Sailor

Top Ten Structures in America

The 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate bridge, a truly amazing combination of brilliant engineering and beautiful architecture, begs the question: how does this rank with the best structures and buildings in the United States? Architects from throughout the U.S. decided that very issue back in 2007 when, commemorating the American Institute of America’s 150th anniversary, published their list of America’s Favorite Architecture in 2007. The poll, incorporating feedback from both architects and the general public, identified 150 structures that were found to have merit. Not surprisingly, Americans are found of their memorials and power structures. Washington DC has 6 structures in the top ten list. New York boasts the most iconic architectural structures in the complete list (32), followed by Washington D.C. (17) and Chicago (17). Most of the buildings enjoy a certain august seniority — the oldest is 220 years old (White House) and the youngest is 30 years old (Vietnams Veteran Memorial).

Lucky for Californians, the Golden Gate is very much appreciated beyond its state borders, ranking in the top ten:

1. Empire State Building (New York)
2. The White House (Washington DC)
3. Washington National Cathedral (Washington DC)
4. Thomas Jefferson Memorial (Washington DC)
5. Golden Gate Bridge (California)
6. United States Capital (Washington DC)
7. Lincoln Memorial (Washington DC)
8. Biltmore Estate/Vanderbilt Residence (North Carolina)
9. Chrysler Building (New York)
10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Washington DC).

For further reading:  http://favoritearchitecture.org/afa150.php. http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-poparch07-sort2.html
www.wikipedia.com

The Golden Gate Bridge by the Numbers

On May 28, 2012, the Golden Gate Bridge celebrates its 75th anniversary. Each day thousands of drivers and pedestrians cross the famous bridge — most of them are unaware that this structure is an absolute engineering marvel, especially when you consider that all the engineering and calculations were done the old-fashioned way, predating calculators, computers, and precise GPS measurements. Over 100 years ago, it was considered by many engineers of the time a bridge that could not be built. Such a bridge would face many critical challenges: it would be located about eight miles from the epicenter of the devastating earthquake of 1906, it would have to withstand 70 mph blistering winds, powerful tides (during high tide the flow of water is three times greater than that of the Amazon river), dramatic changes in temperature, and it would often be cloaked in a dense blanket of fog. Furthermore, it was speculated that the cost of a bridge, if it could be built, would cost over $100 million. 

Enter Joseph Strauss, an American engineer who had designed 400 bridges in his career and had the vision and tenacity to challenge the conventional engineering of the time. In 1920, he introduced the idea for a hybrid cantilever and suspension bridge with truss arches and causeways spanning 4,200 feet across the strait for a more reasonable cost — $27 million. It took Strauss almost 10 years to get private funding for the project ($35 million in bonds). The fact that he was able to do this during the Great Depression was a testament to Strauss’s amazing salesmanship. Beyond securing financing, Strauss’s other great accomplishment was assembling a team that would revolutionize bridge design and engineering forever. The team consisted of Joseph Strauss as chief engineer; Leon Moisseiff, A. H. Amman, and Charles Derleth, Jr. as consulting engineers; and Irving Morrow and Gertrude Morrow as consulting architects. The Morrows were responsible for the bridges overall shape of the bridge and its distinctive Art Deco elements (railings, walkways, and streetlights) and most importantly for its paint color, orange vermilion.

In addition to innovations in bridge building and design, Strauss and his team also revolutionized construction. Strauss was very focused on worker safety and introduced the prototype for the hard hat, ubiquitous on any construction site today, and the safety net. The safety net saved the lives of 19 men, all members of a new club they called the “Halfway to Hell Club.” Many of the safety standards developed by these innovative bridge builders are now part of construction safety regulations practiced in the U.S. and throughout the world. Another innovation was the introduction of cement trucks with rotating drums to pour the massive foundations. The north pier was constructed on a bedrock ledge 20 feet below the water, but the south pier had to be constructed under 100 feet of water, requiring the construction of a massive caisson.

The Golden Gate Bridge is as strong and resilient as it is beautiful. The bridge was designed to withstand an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale while its roadway has bumper to bumper traffic. It will also withstand 90 mph winds and tidal waves — during an earthquake. The bridge can sway up to 27.7 feet (transverse deflection) to withstand an earthquake or winter storm; and it can deflect up or down 10 feet (vertical deflection) due to daily temperature changes.

The Golden Gate Bridge is recognized as the most photographed architectural structure in the world. The bridge has appeared in over 30 films, 25 television shows, 20 video games, and has been the inspiration for many poems and songs. A review of the Golden Gate by the numbers gives you some appreciation of this truly spectacular feat of engineering and architectural splendor by a group of builders who dared to defy the conventional wisdom of their day.

Construction began: Jan 5, 1933
Construction ended: May 26, 1937
Cost of bridge: $35.5 million
Cost to bridge in today’s dollars: $1.8 billion
Number of workers died during construction: 11
Number of workers saved by safety net: 19

Total length including approaches: 8,981 feet 1.7 miles
Length of main span: 4,200 feet

Width: 90 feet
Width of roadway/sidewalk: 62 feet/10 feet
Clearance from water: 220 feet at tide

Total weight: 894,500 tons
Height of towers: 746 feet (above the water)
Foundation of towers: 110 feet
Weight of each tower: 44,000 tons
Load on each tower: 44,000 tons
Total weight of steel: 83,000 tons
Main cables: 2
Number of strands in each cable: 27,572 (80 miles of wire strands)
Diameter of cable: 36.375 inches
Amount of cement for foundations: 389,000 cubic yards

Weight capacity:
Original design (concrete): 4,000 pounds per foot
1980s (lightweight steel): 5,700 pounds per foot

Gallons of paint required to paint bridge: 47,000
Number of lanes: 6

Number of plaques on bridge: 5

Toll in 1937: 50 cents each way
Toll in 2012: $6 southbound only ($5 for FasTrack; $3 for carpools during peak hours)

Average number of cars that cross bridge: 120,000 (both directions)
Average crossings per year: 41 million (both directions)
Highest crossings: 162,414 on Oct 27, 1989 shortly after Loma Prieta earthquake
Total crossings since opening: about 2 billion (both directions)
Times bridge has been closed: 3 for weather; once for its 50th anniversary
Most pedestrians on bridge at one time: 300,000 (during 50th anniversary)
Weight of pedestrians: approx 45 million pounds or 22,500 tons
or 5,400 pounds per foot (that the bridge was designed for 5,700 pounds per foot)

Total number of suicides as of 2012: 1,600 (confirmed, many more unconfirmed)
Suicides in 2011: 37
Average fatalities per year: 20
Fatality rate: 98%
Speed of body hitting water: 75 mph
Length of fall: 4 seconds
Water temperature: 47 degrees F
Youngest person: 5 years old
Oldest person: 75 years old

For further reading: USA 101: A Guide to America’s Iconic Place, Events, and Festivals by Gary McKechnie, National Geographic Books (2009).

http://goldengate.org/news/GGF-GGBEmergencies.php

http://goldengatebridge.org/research/facts.php.
http://goldengatebridge.org/research/factsGGBDesign.php
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-facts.html
http://www.californiahistorian.com/articles/golden-gate-bridge.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge
http://gosanfrancisco.about.com/od/thingstoseeanddo/p/ggbridgepro.htm

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-adv-bateson-golden-gate-20120525,0,233352.story 

Why is it Called the Golden Gate Bridge?

It is one of the most famous and most photographed suspension bridges in the world, but the Golden Gate bridge really isn’t gold. Technically, the Golden Gate’s paint color is orange vermilion, also known as “international orange” or in the Pantone Matching System, PMS 173 — all of which are fancy ways of saying orange-red. Soon after it was completed in 1937, consulting architect Irving Morrow rejected gray, black, and silver, and successfully persuaded the bridge builders to keep the bridge the color of the primer (orange-red) as the final color. Not only was orange-red highly visible from the water and through the fog, but the color also blended in with the bridge’s natural setting. In a report, Morrow writes: ““The effect of International Orange is as highly pleasing as it is unusual in the realm of engineering.”

Had Morrow not been successful in promoting orange-red, the Golden Gate Bridge would look entirely different. The U.S. Navy wanted the two giant towers painted with alternating yellow and black stripes (resembling a bumblebee); while the Army Air Corps wanted alternating red and white stripes (resembling a barber pole or candy cane).

So, back to our original question: why is it called the Golden Gate Bridge rather than the Orange-Vermilion Bridge or the Orange-Red Bridge? Back in 1846, explorer John Fremont (captain of the topographical engineers of the U.S. Army) named the strait forming the entrance to San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate. In his notes, Fremont used the Greek word, Chrysopylae, an allusion to the Golden Horn of the Bosporus (Istanbul). Fremont imagined that all the riches from the Far East would flow through this magnificent strait, a grand portal into San Francisco. Hence, San Francisco was called the City of the Golden Gate, referring to the strait and not any existing or future structure. When the bridge was built almost 100 years later, it became a physical — as well as symbolic — gate to the city — a golden gate that happened to be painted orange-red rather than gold.

Painting the Golden Gate is a herculean task requiring more than 47,000 gallons of paint. The paint alone adds almost 500,000 pounds to the weight of the bridge. Sherwin Williams has been the recent supplier for the Golden Gate’s paint, officially named: Golden Gate Bridge International Orange. Realizing that some people are so fond of the Golden Gate color, Sherwin Williams has developed a color, Fireweed (SW 6328), specifically for homeowners. Fortunately for homeowners, most home projects don’t require 47,000 gallons.

Read related post: The Golden Gate Bridge by the Numbers

For further reading: Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 17th Edition by John Ayto, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2005). Placenames of the World by Adrian Room, McFarland (1997).
http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/sanfrancisco/a/ggbridge_3.htm

http://goldengatebridge.org/research/facts.php#Name

http://goldengatebridge.org/research/documents/ReportColorLighting.pdf
http://goldengatebridge.org/research/factsGGBIntOrngColor.php 

 

Origins of Mother’s Day

Ironically, the person who conceived of the modern version of Mother’s Day — a national celebration for children to honor their mothers — never married and never had children, and became well-known as a staunch opponent of Mother’s Day.

The history of Mother’s Day begins with Julia Ward Howe (born 1819), a poet and social activist who promoted women’s suffrage and pacifism. She is remembered mostly as the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” In 1861, the Howes met with Abraham Lincoln at the White House. During that trip, a friend suggested that she write new lyrics for a marching song about abolitionist John Brown (the song was known as “John Brown’s Body) that was very popular with the Union during the Civil War. Howe’s stirring words were published in the Atlantic Monthly a few months later in 1862 and became the rallying song for the Union soldiers. Several years later in 1870, she conceived of “Mother’s Day for Peace” to be observed on June 2 — calling women throughout the world to support disarmament and peace. Unfortunately for her, this version of Mother’s Day never took root.

Fast forward to 1907. Anna Marie Jarvis, of Philadelphia, wanted to fulfill her mother’s dream of a holiday that would honor mothers. The first “Mother’s Day” was a memorial service to her mother, held two years after her death, on May 12, 1907. The original idea for the celebration of “Mother’s Day” was a special church service, held on the second Sunday in May, where members of the congregation wore white carnations. With the help of a wealthy local merchant, she promoted the concept until Woodrow Wilson, who clearly loved his mother, declared it a national holiday in 1914.

It didn’t take long for American business to see the potential gold in mining this new national holiday. Within a few years, whether out of genuine love or guilt, sales of candy, flowers, greeting cards, and long-distance phone calls raked in billions for American companies. Anna Jarvis was horrified at the excessive commercialization of the pure celebration and tribute she originally envisioned, and in the early 1920s became a very vocal opponent of the holiday. Almost as if following Julia Howe’s footsteps she became an activist against Mother’s Day, staging protests — even to the point of being arrested in 1948 for disturbing the peace. She had deep regrets: “[I wish I ] would never have started the day because it became so out of control.” Jarvis was no fan of Hallmark — she considered that children who would send a card (letting Hallmark’s wordsmiths do all the heavy lifting) were simply too lazy and uncaring to write a personal letter to their dear mothers. You can only imagine what Jarvis would say about texting and email.

And just how much do Americans love their mothers? According to the National Retail Federation, children will spend $18.6 billion saying “I love you Mom.” The average child will spend $152 this year, $12 more than last year — call it emotional inflation. In the list of holiday expenditures in the U.S., Mother’s Day ranks fourth in the list below Christmas (1st place, with over $140 billion in spending), Thanksgiving (2) and Valentines (3).

For further reading: The Folklore of World Holidays by Robert Griffin, Gale (1998). www.wikipedia.com.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/story/2012-05-10/mothers-day-spending/54892504/1

http://www.ibisworld.com/Common/MediaCenter/Holiday%20Spending.pdf

The Hindenburg Disaster By the Numbers

May 6, 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the Hindenburgh disaster. Like the sinking of the Titanic 25 years earlier, the devastating explosion of the Hindenburg in 1937 is one of the most well-known disasters of all time. And like the Titanic that was the largest ship of its time, the Hidenburgh was the largest airship ever built and was thought to be the future of air travel, dramatically reducing the time to travel from Europe to the U.S. in just two days. Although the sinking of the Titanic did not bring an end to the passenger liner travel (it did introduce numerous maritime regulation reforms), the Hindenburg explosion effectively ended airship travel.

The airship, officially named LZ 129 Hindenburgh, was built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Germany from 1931-35. Soon after construction of the airship began, the company went bankrupt. The head of the company, out of desperation, made a deal with the Nazi party to get financing. In return the airship was required to display the swastikas on its fins as a way of promoting the power and reach of Hitler’s Third Reich. (A second massive airship, the LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin, was begun in 1935.) The Hidenburgh was originally designed for helium, a nonflammable gas, but since the U.S. was the only source of helium and had recently implemented an embargo on the gas, the engineers modified the gas cells to use helium, a very flammable gas. Because there had been no accidental hydrogen fires on previous Zeppelins the engineers were not that concerned.

The maiden flight of the Hindenburgh was March 4, 1936. During the first few days the Hindenburgh and Graf Zeppelin were propaganda tools for the Nazi Party. The crew would make radio broadcasts, drop Nazi flyers, and play music. On March 31, 1936 the Hindenburgh began its passenger services transporting passenger from Frankfurt, Germany to Rio de Janeiro (7 round trips) and from Frankfurt to New York (10 round trips) during its first year. In 1937, the ship had been refurbished and had made a round trip from Germany to Rio de Janiero. It was the final flight, from Germany to the U.S., that ended in tragedy.

On May 6, 1937 the ship arrived at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station located in Lakehurst, New Jersey at about 7:00 pm — it was about then hours late due to stormy weather. Soon after the water ballast and the landing lines were dropped, there was a massive explosion in the rear section that quickly engulfed the massive airship in flames. As the zeppelin sank toward the ground, passengers and crew members jumped — miraculously some survived. As this nightmare unfolded, it was captured on film and the eyewitness account by a young reporter, Herb Morrison, was recorded on audio tape, capturing the shock and disbelief. The next day, the nation and the world, watched and listened to that horrifying eyewitness account that was continuously broadcast over radio the next day and shown in newsreels with Morrison’s commentary dubbed in.

The cause of the explosion remains a mystery 75 years later but one expert, Richard Van Treuren, NASA Hydrogen Fuel Program Manager, has carefully reviewed the newsreel footage of the event. He believes that the mooring ropes conducted electricity and that an electrical plasma event in the atmosphere created the spark that ignited the aluminum coated shell and flammable coating of the zeppelin’s shell.

Cost to build: $5 million
Cost of ticket: $400
Passenger/crew capacity: 90 total — 50 passengers, 40 crew
Length: 803.8 feet (about 80 feet shorter than Titanic)
Diameter: 135 feet
Volume: 7.1 million cubic feet
Maximum speed: 84 mph

Number of passengers: 36
Number of crew: 61
Number of people killed: 13 passengers, 22 crew and 1 ground crew member
Number of survivors: 62
Amount of time for fire to destroy Hindenburg: 34 seconds

See related post: phrase related to Hindenburg disaster

For further reading: We Interrupt This Broadcast by Joe Garner, Source Books (2002).
The 100 Greatest Disasters of All Time by Stephen Spignesi, Citadel Press (2002). www.wikipedia.org. http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/newspaper/opinion/
ct-per-flash-blimpside-0506-20120506,0,4778204.story

 

Why Do We Celebrate Cinco De Mayo?

Many Americans think Cinco De Mayo is Mexico’s counterpart to the U.S.’s Independence Day, celebrated on the fourth of July. After a decade of war, Mexico declared independence from Spain in 1821; Mexico’s Independence Day commemorates that important historical event and is celebrated each year on September 16. Cinco De Mayo, however, honors the Mexican army’s victory at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 during the French occupation of that country. A French fleet arrived in Veracruz and intended to march inland to capture Mexico City. It was a classic David and Goliath story, worthy of several celebratory shots of tequila: the poorly equipped Mexican army, numbering 4,000, fought a very well-trained, and very well-dressed (the French would never eschew fashion — even in battle) French army of more than 8,000 troops. The Mexican army managed to force a French retreat, thus bolstering the resistance, promoting much needed national unity and pride. If the Mexican army was high-fiving one another, the celebration did not last long. The French army returned 30,000-troop strong, crushed the Mexican army, and captured Mexico City, installing a three-year reign of French rule.

If the Battle of Pueblo victory was so short-lived why is it such a big deal? First, as already mentioned, it was a David and Goliath battle that shored up Mexican nationalism. Almost 200 years later, Cinco de Mayo is symbolic of a courageous stand against foreign forces — and it is a celebration of Mexican culture.” Second, according to historians, if the French had been victorious at Pueblo it could have changed the outcome of the American Civil War. Napoleon wanted to take advantage of the strife in the U.S., and by establishing a French presence in Mexico, the French armies could have supported the Confederates. With the assistance of considerable French fighting forces, the South could have had a significantly better chance of winning the Civil War. This in turn could have prevented the U.S. from becoming a unified world power.

So the next time you raise a margarita glass on Cinco De Mayo, make a toast to the Mexican David and Goliath battle that was a slap in Napoleon’s face, and indirectly led to a Union victory in the Civil War, that in turn led to the gradual healing of a now-unified nation.

For further reading: The Folklore of World Holidays by Robert Griffin, Gale (1998). The Oxford Companion to the Year: An Exploration of Calendar Customs and Time-Reckoning by Bonnie Blackburn, Oxford (1999). Cinco de Mayo: What is Everybody Celebrating?  by Donald Miles, iUniverse (2006). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/04/cinco-de-mayo-history-of_n_195769.html. www.wikipedia.com

Most Expensive Painting

The subject of many parodies, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” was recently auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York. This particular painting is only one of four version, considered one of the best, that was painted by Munch around 1895. Art experts had anticipated a price of about $80 million, but the auction ended in about 12 minutes with a final of $119.9 million by an anonymous bidder. With that staggering price, the painting breaks into the list of the top ten most expensive paintings.

When asked “what is the most expensive painting in the world?’ most people either respond with Vincent van Gogh’s “Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers” or Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic “Mona Lisa.” Only the latter answer is correct. The Mona Lisa has been valued at $100 million but when you take into account inflation, the current value is about $740 million. No wonder she is smiling.

Because Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso were very prolific painters — Van Gogh produced more than 2,100 works of art; Picasso more than 13,500 during their careers — they dominate the list of most expensive paintings in the world (numbers adjusted for inflation):

1. The Card Players by Paul Cezanne: $250 million
2. No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock: $156.8 million
3. Woman III vy Willem de Kooning: $154 million
4. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt: $150.2 million
5. Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh: $144.1 million
6. Dai du moulin de la Galetter by Pierre-Auguste Renior: $136.4 million 
7. Garcon a la pipe by Pablo Picasso: $124.3 million
8. The Scream by Edvard Much: $119.9 million
9. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust by Pablo Picasso: $110.1 million
10. Portrait of Joseph Roulin by Vincent van Gogh: $107 million 

For further reading: Guinness World Records 2012 edited by Craig Glenday, Guinness Publishing (2011). http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/may/02/edvard-munch-scream-sothebys-auction?newsfeed=true. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/may/03/the-scream-sells-record-auction

How Much Do Teenagers Spend?

When teens are not texting one another or updating their Facebook profiles, they are borrowing money from their parents. Unknowingly, parents are being very generous — to the tune of an estimated $208.7 billion in 2011. The teenager population, according to a Package Facts report, is approximately 25.6 million in the US. (If they all met together in one place it would certainly lead to epic — unrecoverable — server and wifi service crashes.) Getting older has its benefits: the average 12-14 year old teen has an average annual income of $2,167; for a 15-17 year old that amount increases to $4,023. Keeping that population fed, dressed and groom keeps parents working hard to pay off that staggering $110 billion annual cost — and that does not include cell phone and internet service. These are truly the children of the Internet Age — more than 90% use a computer and 51.6% state the the Internet has changed the way they spend their free time.

As teenagers mature into young adults (ages 18-24) and are weaned from their parents’ wallets, things are not as rosy. Since the 1960′s, ad agencies and marketers focused much of their efforts in appealing to this demographic. They may want to rethink that strategy. Due to their newly established financial independence and the impact of the recent recession, these young adults are a relatively frugal (euphemism for broke) bunch. Employment for young adults has fallen steadily since 2007: 54% are not working. Subsequently, if there is no job there is no money for rent: 20% live at home (in 1980 that rate was 10%). And unlike their parents, these young adults have a rather relaxed morality: 70% admit to pirating music and movies compared to 46% of adults. All this unemployment has led to less social networking for young adults; meanwhile parents are enjoying their freedom without financially-dependent children: social networking among adults over 65 years old has grown 150%. Who says the AARP crowd isn’t hip to “the Twitter”?

For futher reading: http://www.marketingvox.com/by-2011-teen-market-shrinks-spending-clout-soars-to-200b-031001/. www.PackagedFacts.com/. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/. Time, April 9, 2012, The Young and the Penniless by Andrea Ford. http://www.bea.gov/. http://pewresearch.org/.

The Zipper and Velcro: Linked in History

Just how to fasten clothes has been an interesting challenge for inventors. In the US, Charles Atwood invented the hook and eye in 1843, in France Paul-Albert Regnault developed the snap fastener (1855), and in England, John Newham introduced the press stud. To improve upon the snap fasteners, which took a lot of time and patience to fasten and unfasten each one, American inventor Whitcomb Judson developed the “clasp locker or unlocker for shoes” in 1891. Judson’s patent describes a sliding device to lock or unlock a row of clasps. This is considered the first “zipper.” 20 years later, in 1913, an engineer named Gideon Sundback perfected Judson’s clasp by using a slide fastener to fasten interlocking metal teeth on a flexible tape. The name “zipper” was derived from the sound it made and the speed (zip).

But it took the frustration of a jammed zipper (and who hasn’t experienced that?) to inspire another inventor to improve on the zipper. One day in 1941 George de Mestral was walking his dog and noticed that cockleburs were sticking to his dog’s fur and his clothes. At his lab, using a microscope, de Mestral viewed the structure of the cocklebur covered with tiny hooks that had interlocked with the loops in clothing and dog fur. His eureka moment was using nature’s design to develop a new type of fastener that was much simpler than the zipper — and one that would not jam. A few years later, in 1951, velcro was introduced to the world. The word is derived from the French words VELour CROche that mean “hooked velvet.”

For further reading: The Book of Inventions: How’d They Come Up With That? by Ian Harrison, National Geographic (2004)

Earth Day by the Numbers

Earth Day (initially celebrated on March 21) was conceived during a UNESCO conference in San Francisco back in 1969 — an appropriate legacy from the era of flower children. Just two years later these peace-loving, shaggy-haired kids would be joining hands on a hilltop and singing “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.” Who could have imagined that “keeping a can a Coke company” would be so fleeting. Soon after, this same generation, due to the accelerated growth of the soft drink industry, would leave the hilltops, the roadways, the city streets, the town squares — just about any public space around the world — littered with Coke cans.

Earth Day observance jumped from a local event to a national level when Senator Gaylord Nelson (Wisconsin), in response to a devastating oil spill in the Pacific Ocean in 1969, championed Earth Day (a national environmental teach-in) to be held on April 22 to draw awareness to the planet’s health. Earth Day quickly spread from the U.S. to the entire globe and now includes over 175 participating countries continuing the race between recycling and unabated consumerism.

In honor of Earth Day, we examine some interesting facts about recycling and Mother Earth:

Recycling in the U.S.
First recycling program: New York, 1890 George Waring Jr. was street cleaning commissioner and built first municipal facility to separate, reuse, and resell different kinds of garbage.
Number of cans made each year: 131 billion (in more than 600 sizes)
Number of cans recycled each year: 74 billion
Amount paid by industry to recyclers: $800 million per year
First canned soft drink: Cliquot Club ginger ale (1938)
First canned beer: Kreuger Beer (1935)
First canned 12-pack: Pepsi-Cola (1972)
Weight of first aluminum can: 3 oz.(1972)
Weight of modern aluminum can: .5 oz
Recycling kisses: each day, 20 million Hershey kisses are wrapped in aluminum foil (133 square miles). Unfortunately most of that foil is not recycled.
Paper usage: average person uses 650 pounds of paper each year
Plastic bottle usage: average consumer uses 2.5 million plastic bottles per hour
Recycling rate: 80% of what consumers throw away is recyclable; however recycling rate is only 28%

The planet Earth
Name: Derived from Anglo Saxon word, Erda, meaning soil (all other planets are derived from the names of Roman or Greek gods)
Age of Earth: About 4.5 billion years old
Shape: Geoid (rounded shape with a slight bulge near the equator)
Orbit velocity: 66,622 mph
Circumference: 24,873 miles
Surface Area: 196.9 million square mile (70% covered by water)

Population today: 7,035,506,050
Annual birth rate: 134 million  (about 36,700 per day)
Annual death rate: 62 million  (about 170,000 per day)

Hottest place on earth:
El Azizia, Libya: 136 degrees F.
Second place: Death Valley in the Mojave desert in North America: 134 degrees F.

Coldest place on earth:
Vinson Massif, Antarctica: -128.6 degees F.

Highest point:
Mount Everest, Nepal: 29,029 feet

Lowest point:
Dead Sea shore, Israeil-Jordan: -1,391 feet

Deepest point in ocean:
Mariana Trench (SW of Guam) in Pacific Ocean: 35,800 feet

Pressure: 15,750 pounds per square inch

Deepest cave on earth:
Krubera-Voronja Cave, Abkhazia, Georgia: 7,188 feet

For further reading: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Earth&Display=Facts&System=Metric. http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-news/10-deepest-caves-in-the-world/1185?image=10. http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/.
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/7-interesting-bits-of-environmental-trivia/citywide-recycl. http://www.cancentral.com/recfaq.cfm. ttp://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-recycling

The Titanic and the Costa Concordia

On the day marking the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, it is worth noting that maritime disasters are inevitable — regardless of the quality of modern-day ship technology and engineering. As Time magazine’s Jon Meacham observes: “The great lesson of the disaster [is] that no matter how smart we think we are, how skilled, how technologically advanced, we remain at the mercy of events beyond our control. Whether it’s the patterns of the tides or the distortions of vision at sea, there will always be something that we can’t account for, something that will elude even the greatest of minds or the sincerest of hearts.”

A recent reminder of a ship’s vulnerability was the capsizing of the Costa Concordia (owned by Carnival Cruise Lines) on January 13th of this year — and yes it was a Friday, Friday the 13th. The ship struck a rock at 9:45 pm in the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 62 miles off the western coast of Italy, near the city of Giglio Porto.

There are some remarkable connections to the Titanic tragedy. For example, one Concordia passenger, Valentina Capuano, is the granddaughter of a woman who survived the sinking of the Titanic. It was reported that Capuano was “dumbstruck by history repeating itself.” In an another eerie coincidence, Celine Dion’s hit song, “My Heart Will Go On” (the Titanic theme song) was playing in the ship’s restaurant when the rock struck the hull as reported by many survivors of the Concordia.

By comparing the two maritime disasters one can ascertain that there some uncanny similarities as well as some obvious differences. The Titanic is noted by (T) and Costa Concordia noted by (C) in the list below:

Size: (T) 882 feet long x 92 feet wide   (C) 952 feet long x 116 feet wide
Both ships were the largest ships built at the time the ships were constructed (1912, 2005)
Number of decks: (T) 9   (C) 13
Passenger Capacity: (T) 3,547   (C) 3,780
Crew members: (T) 913   (C) 1,100
Gross Tonnage: (T) 45,324   (C) 114,137
Speed: (T) 21-24 knots   (C) 20-23 knots
Maiden Voyage: (T) April 10, 1912   (C) July 14, 2006

Day of wreck: (T) April 15, 1912  (C) Jan 13, 2012
Time of collision: (T) 11:40 pm   (C) 9:45 pm
Location of collision: (T) iceberg on starboard side   (C) rock on port side
Size of gash in hull: (T) 250 feet    (C) 160 feet
People on board: (T) 2,229   (C) 4,252
Casualties: (T) 1,515   (C) 32
Time between collision and lowering of lifeboats: (T) 1 hour    (C) 45 min
Temperature of ocean: (T) 28 degrees F   (C)   50 degrees F
Time it to sink/list: (T) 2 hours 40 min   (C) 3 hours 20 min

The captains: (T) Captain Edward Smith went down with his ship; his body was never found
(C) Captain Francesco Schettino allegedly abandoned his ship and was berated and eventually ordered by a coast guard officer to return to his ship.

For further reading: www.time.com. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/16/costa-concordia-cruise-titanic_n_1208175.html. http://www.livescience.com/18004-costa-concordia-titanic-comparison.html. http://digitaljournal.com/article/318260. http://blog.mydot.com/post/Titanic-Costa-Concordia-Similarities.aspx. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087133/Costa-Concordia-accident-So-DID-cause-cruise-ship-hit-rocks.html

The Titanic by the Numbers

April 15, 2012 is the Centennial of one of the greatest maritime disasters — the sinking of The White Star Line’s RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic after colliding with an iceberg at 11:40 pm about 375 miles south of Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The story of the luxury passenger liner, hailed by the press as “virtually unsinkable,” captured the imaginations of several generations largely because the ship was, at that time, the largest in the world and like the  modern day banking system in America, it was believed “too big to fail.” Furthermore, the Titanic represented the epitome of extravagance and luxury during the Gilded Age — an age of great prosperity and progress. Given this great faith in innovation (many historians even calling it arrogance) it was unimaginable that this magnificent ship, its wealthy passengers, and its precious valuables would soon be entrapped in a dark and frigid oceanic tomb.

The Titanic is undeniably one of the most famous ships in history — its story has been told by survivors, witnesses, scientists, and historians for over a century through interviews, articles, books, films, musicals, songs, museum exhibits, computer games, and websites. In 1997, James Cameron’s blockbuster film, Titanic, reached an international audience, grossing over $1.8 billion — proving that interest in the legendary ship had not ebbed and that its lessons endure.

Surprisingly, the wreck of the Titanic was not discovered until 1985, about 1,000 miles due east of Boston — giving historians and scientists the opportunity to provide answers to many of the lingering questions about the accident. The wreck, like a seductive siren’s call, draws explorers to the depths of the ocean. Two explorers have spent a great deal of time studying the rusting ship: Robert Ballard and James Cameron. In a recent National Geographic article, Cameron explains his fascination: “There’s this very strange mixture of biology and architecture down there. I think it’s gorgeous and otherworldly. You really feel like this is something that’s gone to Tartarus — to the underworld.”

The largest exhibit of Titanic artifacts is in the seaside town of — um — Las Vegas, Nevada. What are the odds? Seen by more than 25 million curious visitors, the exhibit is located in the Luxor Hotel and contains the largest collection of artifacts. These 5,000 artifacts have been salvaged by the RMS Titanic, Inc., which was declared by a U.S. court as the wreck’s sole salvager since 1994. The wreckage is now protected as an UNESCO underwater cultural heritage site.

Today, 100 years later, the Titanic remains alluring and mysterious, gradually revealing its secrets from the icy depths of the Atlantic seabed:

Year the Titanic was built: 1911-12
Costs to build: about $7.5 million in 1912 dollars; over $400 million today
Years of construction: 2
Number of workers: About 4,000 (out of 15,000 that worked for Harland & Wolff in Belfast, Ireland)
Number of accidents: 254
Number of accidental deaths: 8

Number of rivets in hull: 3 million
Length of ship: 882 feet
Height: 175 feet
Number of decks: 9
Passenger/crew maximum capacity: 3,547
Number of lifeboats: 20 (capacity: 1,178)
Gross registered tonnage: 45,324 tons
Weight of ship, fully laden: 66,000 tons
Combined power of two engines and one turbine: 46,000 horsepower
Amount of coal required per day: 600 tons
Water consumption per day: 14,000 gallons
Speed: 21-24 knots (24-28 mph)

Date of maiden voyage: April 10, 1912
Total people on board: 2,229
Number of passengers: 1,316
—922 from Southampton, England
—395 from Cherbourg, France and Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland
First class passengers: 325
Second class passenger: 285
Third class passengers: 706
Dogs on board: 9
Number of crew members: 913
—Senior officers: 9
—Restaurant: 55 cooks and waiters
—Stewardesses: 18
—Barbers: 2
—Mail clerks: 5 (sorting 60,000 items daily)
—Engineers: 28
—Firemen and stokers (shoveled coal into boilers): 289
Cost of ticket
—First class parlor suite: $4,350 in 1912 dollars; $83,200 today
—First class berth: $150 in 1912 dollars; $2,975 today
—Second class: $60 in 1912 dollars; $1,200 today
—Third class: $40 in 1912 dollars; $792 today
Salaries
—Captain: $2,015 dollars per year in 1912 dollars ($125,00 per year today)
—Stewardess: $68 dollars per year in 1912 dollars ($4,100 per year today)

Number of drifting ice warnings on April 14: 6
Time iceberg was spotted: 11:40 pm
Time from alert to call to bridge: 37 seconds
Speed at impact: 20.5 knots
Size of iceberg: about 100 feet high and 400 feet long
Number of compartments breached: 5 (out of 16)
Size of gash in hull: about 3/4 inch high x 250 feet wide (about 12 square feet)
Temperature of water: 28 degees (F)
Time first lifeboat was launched: 12:45 am
Time last lifeboat was launched: 2:05 am
Time ship disappeared under water: 2:20 am
Time for ship to reach the ocean bottom: about 15 minutes
Number of ships near the Titanic at time of collision: 2
—The SS Californian (11 miles away) and RMS Carpathia (60 miles away)
Time that the RMS Carpathia arrived at the scene: 4:00 am

Number of survivors: 713 (498 passengers, 215 crew)
Number of victims: 1,516
Number of dogs rescued: 2 (a Pomeranian and a Pekinese)
Days it took rescue ship, RMS Carpathia, to reach NYC: 3
Number of ships to retrieve the bodies: 4
Time spent retrieving bodies: 6 weeks
Number of bodies recovered: 306
Number of bodies buried at sea (due to condition of deterioration): 116

Date the wreck of the Titanic was found: September 1, 1985
Distance between bow and stern on sea floor: 1,970 feet
Depth: 12,500 feet (about 2.5 miles)
Water pressure at that depth: 6,500 pounds per square inch
Temperature: 36 degrees (F)
Amount of light: None
Debris field: 3 x 5 miles
First manned dive into wreckage: 1986
Value of 5,000 artifacts salvaged from wreckage: over $189 million

Read related posts: Phrases Associated with the Titanic, Best Books on the Titanic, Futility (the book that predicted the Titanic disaster)

For further reading: Titanic by Simon Adams, Dorling Kindersley (1999). Ship: The Epic Story of Maritime Adventure by Brian Lavery, Dorling Kindersley (2004). National Geographic, April 2012.
www.titanicuniverse.com. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2082945/Titanic-artifacts-auction-100-years-historic-shipwreck-shook-world.html. http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/a/titanicfacts.htm. www.titanic-nautical.com/RMS-Titanic-Iceberg-FAQ.html.
http://historyonthenet.com/Titanic. www.nationalgeographic.com 

What is the origin of April Fools’ Day?

The most commonly accepted explanation for the origin for April Fools’ Day (or All Fools’ Day) is that when France changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1852 ( changing the mean length of the calendar year from 365.25 days to 365.2425 days), the observance of New Year’s Day was moved from March 25 to January 1. Apparently, those who forgot or stubbornly continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on March 25th were considered fools and were the subject of innocuous pranks. A common prank would be sticking paper cutouts of paper or cardboard fish, known as “Poisson d’avril” or April fish, on the back of unsuspecting individuals. Another trick was to send someone on a fool’s errand, going from one confederate to another, each claiming that it was someone else with whom the business or task was to be completed. The April fish was the mackerel (from the Dutch “makelaar” meaning broker), thus “Poisson d’avril” also meant a pander or go-between, especially a one that was sent to arrange a love affair. It seems that this term eventually was used to describe the hoax, the dupe, and the day. 

For further reading: The Folklore of World Holidays by Robert Griffin, Gale (1998). The Oxford Companion to the Year: An Exploration of Calendar Customs and Time-Reckoning by Bonnie Blackburn, Oxford (1999).

Oreo Cookies by the Numbers

Whether you dunk it in milk, twist it apart, pull it apart, or eat it whole, the Oreo cookie remains one of America’s — and the world’s — best-selling cookie. On March 6, 2012, the ubiquitous sandwich cookie celebrated its 100th birthday. The Oreo is a quintessential American snack that evokes nostalgia like other classics of that era: Cracker Jack (introduced in 1893) and the Twinkie (introduced in 1930). The first Oreos (called Oreo Biscuits back in 1912) were produced by the National Biscuit Company (or Nabisco, later acquired by Kraft Foods in 2000) at the Chelsea Market bakeries located on West 15th Street in New York (Oreo Way is the stretch of West 15th Street between 9th and 10th Ave.)

Exactly who came up with the idea for the cookie and its name is almost as puzzling as the ingredients that make up the center creme filling. Perhaps the Oreo was developed to compete against the popular cookie of the time, the Hydrox cookie (introduced in 1908), manufactured by the Sunshine company. (The Hydrox fought for shelf space in grocery aisle until 1999). Despite several proposed etymologies for the name of the cookie — most of them far-fetched — the most likely source of the name Oreo is (1) it is derived from the Greek word “oreo” meaning beautiful or well done; (2) it is derived from the Greek word “orexin” meaning appetizing; or (3) it is derived from the Greek word “oros” (also “oreo”) meaning mountain or hill. Or it could be all three — it’s all Greek to me. Nevertheless, when you have a product this successful it makes you wonder what happened to that employee that invented and named the cookie (was he fired for stealing cookies from the cookie jar?). At least  Nabisco had the good sense to record and preserve the Oreo cookie recipe.

William Turnier was a Nabisco cookie designer in 1952 who added the Nabisco logo to the intricate pattern on the face of the Oreo. He  explained that the Nabisco orb and double cross was a symbol dating back to medieval monks, who copied manuscripts, and placed that symbol at the bottom signifying that the scribes had done their best. Indeed the cookie bakers at Nabisco did their best to create a cookie for all ages — and a century later, kids of all ages are still dunking those sandwich cookies:

Annual worldwide sales in 2011: $2 billion
Number of Oreos sold since 1912: 491 billion (that’s 70 cookies for every human on the planet)
Number of Oreos sold per day: 95 million
Nations where Oreos are sold: 100+
Top sales by nation: US, China, Venezuela, Canada, and Indonesia (in that order)
Original price in 1912: 25 cents a pound, sold in novelty tins
Suggested retail price today: $4.00 (15 oz bag)
Factories around the world that produce Oreos: 20
Number of flavors: 33+
Oreos adapted to other forms (like pie crusts, ice cream, etc): 25+
Shelf life of Oreos: 2-3 when stored properly

And that’s the way the cookie crumbles…

 

Sources: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57391895/popular-cookie-oreo-turns-100
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=271821
http://www.kraftfoodsarabia.com/pages/oreo.aspx
http://boyer.kucdweb.com/oreos/html/history.html
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-06/news/ct-talk-oreos-turn-100-0306-20120306_1_oreo-cookies-bakeries-kraft-foods
http://www.eatbydate.com/oreos-shelf-life-expiration-date

A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

In the last few years, scientists have been studying how the pervasiveness of the Internet and social media has impacted children’s cognitive and social development. All that research about BFFs texting one another is leading to some sobering conclusions that may not leave parents LOL. According to Nielsen, teenagers 12-17 send the most texts — an average of 2,272 texts each month. Such a reliance on text messages for relationships is stunting children’s social development, in particular, their ability to read body language, voice tone, and subtle social cues as well as being able to experience “being in the moment” without being distracted by incoming messages. Furthermore, heavy Internet use leads to increases to violent and aggressive behavior.

A study published by Pediatrics also found that increased exposure to the Internet (“screen media”) may have a negative effect on attention. Diagnosis of ADHD has been on the rise over the past decade. Although research does not prove that screen media directly causes ADHD, researchers believe it might play some role. A study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health noted that the Internet addict is obsessed with Internet usage (online gaming, texting, tweeting, etc.) and its use often interferes with everyday life and decision-making ability. Internet addicts experienced very real withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, irritability, moodiness, and depression. It is only a matter of time before teenagers turn to dark alleyways buying black market mobile devices and smartphones from shadowy “data peddlers” for their daily Internet fix.

Internet addiction is certainly recognized by practicing clinicians; however it will not be included in the 2013 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5) published by the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM editors claim there is not enough research to support that diagnosis. The last time the DSM was revised was over 12 years ago which begs the question: why has it taken so long to update this book? Could it be that the editors have been distracted by online gaming and tweeting, losing focus of the day-to-day editing of the book?

FYI: if parents have been worried about their children these past few years, it’s time they started to worry about themselves. New research shows that Internet usage is modifying adult cognitive functioning. Consider that the average American spends about 12 hours consuming information — heaping tablespoons of data that amount to about 100,000 words (34 GB) of data — OMG! Betsy Sparrow, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia University, recently published her findings in Science magazine that describe three specific impacts on how adults process information in the age of Google. In her study: (1) subjects who didn’t know the answer to a question thought first about where they could find the nearest web connection rather than thinking about the question’s subject matter, (2) subjects had better recall on information only when told that the information would not be saved (in other words, when information is not saved, subjects worked harder to encode and memorize the information) and  (3) the expectation of subjects that they will be always be able to locate some information at a later time forms a memory not of the facts but of where the information can be looked up. All this boils down to one simple thing: as a race, we are trading in neural connections for mobile devices with good WiFi connections. If there is any hope for humanity, it rests with the legions of dedicated Jeopardy contestants, representing the apotheosis of rote memorization, who are the flesh-and-blood keepers of the world’s knowledge — from the trivial to the consequential. TTYL.

Sources: Time magazine (March 12, 2012; March 19, 2012)
www.everydayhealth.com/adhd-awareness/does-technology-cause-adhd.aspxwww.realtruth.org/news/090303-008-society.html
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-10-05/health/depression.adhd.internet.addiction_1_internet-addiction-social-phobia-adhd?_s=PM:HEALTH

Valentine’s Day by the Numbers

Valentine’s Day is that golden opportunity for individuals to express their affection for one another. How do I love thee? Let us count the ways:

In 2012, Americans will spend over $17.6 billion on Valentine’s Day cards, flowers, and gifts (the average person will spend $126). Consumers will spend $4.1 billion on jewelry, $3.5 billion on dining, $1.8 on flowers (198 million roses were produced for this special day), $1.5 billion on candy, $1.4 billion on clothing, and $1.1 billion on gift card. Whether motivated by genuine love or guilt, the frenzied spending is astonishing. “Today is Valentine’s day,” quips Jay Leno, “or as men like to call it: Extortion Day.”

The greeting card industry, with over 3,000 greeting card publishers in the US, is a $7.5 billion industry. Each year consumers purchase over 7 billion greeting cards. (Each U.S. household purchases an average of 35 cards per year; 80% of cards are purchased by women.) According to the Greeting Card Association American will exchange an estimated 160 million valentines this year, but the number is dramatically higher when you add the millions of packaged valentines (usually 20-30 to a box) bought by school-aged children. 

The earliest extant Valentine’s Day card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans and a prisoner in the Tower of London, to his wife. The card is now displayed at the British Museum. The first publishers of valentines in America was Esther Howland during the 1870s. Howland was a graduate of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (1847) that had annual Valentine festivities; Emily Dickinson was a classmate. The Howland family operated a successful book and stationery store. Inspired by a British valentine that her father received, she went on to design and make her own cards. Her decorative cards with elaborate lace and diecuts cost from $5 to $10, with the most ornate selling for over $35.

Each spring, at Hallmark’s headquarters in Kansas City Missouri greeting card writers are expected to write about 20 cards a day. Although that seems like a lot of cards, the high rejection rate of 90% means that only the best sentiments find their way into print. Writers are asked to write either serious or humorous cards according to several price points (eg, $1.99, $5.99, etc.). All that earnest writing pays off: Hallmark offers over 2,000 Valentine’s Day cards.

The number of email valentines or “e-valentines” sent is difficult to ascertain. A look at the number of  visitors at websites that sell these types of cards provides a glimpse into a growing trend. According to Bizreport, prior to Valentine’s Day, American Greetings had 8.1 million unique visitors and Hallmark had 5.6 million unique visitors.

Eschewing the profligate ways of American consumers, members of the online community Farmville  (created by Zynga) recently showered one another with over 475 million free valentines gifts within a 2-day period, proving the old adage that some of the best things in life are free. That commonsense gets tossed out the window quickly, however, when you consider that other gifts in Farmville cost money, creating an industry that will generate over $1.6 for virtual (ie, nontangible) gifts.

For further reading: Bizreport, Greeting Card Association, Hallmark, National Retail Federation, Zynga.
Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati, Harper & Row (1987).

http://shine.yahoo.com/love-sex/really-writes-valentines-cards-q-38-greeting-card-211100121.html.

http://www.victoriantreasury.com

YouTube by the Numbers

Since its creation in early 2005 by three former PayPal employees (Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim), YouTube has grown exponentially, revolutionizing how people communicate. Prior to 2005, videos were like rare specimens trapped in liquid amber for perpetuity. Some of these videos found life on crass television shows featuring so-called “funniest” videos. YouTube’s innovation was to marry technology with the public’s endless addiction to wacky, mind-numbing videos. Some of YouTube’s statistics are astounding as they are sobering. According to Stephen Jay Gould’s theory of equilibria, it is only a matter of time until the human race evolves into a creature with extremely large eyes, small brain and body, living a complacent, sedentary existence that only T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock could appreciate: “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.”

Page views per day: 4 billion
Page views per year: 1 trillion
Number of users: 800 million
Time spent watching videos: 3 billion hours per month
Average time visitor spends watching videos: 15 minutes
Video footage upload: 10 hours of video per second (translating into about five months of videos every hour, 10 years of video every 24 hours!)
Percentage of videos that account for 99% of viewing on the site: 30%
Google’s purchase price: $1.65 billion (October 2006)
YouTube’s revenue: $1.1 billion+ (estimated, 2011)

Number of servers: According to a report by Rich Miller (Data Center Knowledge), Google owns approximately 900,000 servers based on a data center energy usage analysis by Stanford Professor Jonathan Koomey. How many of those are dedicated to YouTube is anyone’s guess since Google is very secretive about its data centers. (Facebook, with a similar amount of users as YouTube, owns over 80,000 servers.) According to Koomey, Google is designing a new storage system called “Spanner” that can automate allocation of resources across 1 to 10 million servers!

YouTube’s first video: “Me at the Zoo” by Jawed Karim filmed by Yakov Lapitsky at the San Diego Zoo in 2005.

YouTube’s most watched music video (all-time):  ”Justin Beiber – Baby featuring Ludacris” with over 695 million views*

YouTube’s most watched video (all-time): “Charlie bit my finger” with over  400 million views. Howard Davies-Carr filmed his two boys, Charlie and Harry, back in May of 2007. Howard says the video was “simply an attempt to capture the boys growing up” and wanted to share it with the boys’ godfather.

YouTube’s founder’s favorite video: “Battle at Kruger” This video (65 million views and counting) captures the quintessential essence of YouTube: the priceless eyewitness footage of life as it happens. Filmmakers Buzz Budzinski and Jason Schlosberg capture the spectacular circle of life as it plays out at a rather crowded watering hole located in Kruger National Park, South Africa. The cast of characters includes: a herd of cape buffalo, a pride of lions, and an opportunistic crocodile; at the center of all the action: a terrified, defenseless calf.

YouTube’s most annoying video: Just about any video featuring the Kardashians.

Sources: BattleatKruger.com, Citigroup, NBC Dateline, YouTube, Time (1.30.12), and Wikipedia.
*The most watched video is a moving target. Numbers cited here are as of the time of this writing. YouTube posts the most watched video in various categories in their charts section: http://www.youtube.com/charts/videos_views

What do Returns Cost Retailers?

The projected income by retailers in the 2011 holiday season is estimated to be $469 billion. That sounds like great news, until you consider that after the holidays, in late December and January, when consumers return those gifts that weren’t on their wish list. The hit on retailers? They will lose approximately $46.4 billion. How’s that for gratitude? High on the list of unwanted gifts is apparel (62%) followed by toys and games (16%), and electronics (14%). Returned personal electronics (due to buyer’s remorse or defective products) will cost manufacturers approximately $17 billion in 2011.

Sources: MarketTools, National Retail Federation, Accenture Research. As reported in Yahoo! Shine (12.23.11).

What is the Population of the World?

By November 2011, the population of the planet earth will reach 7 billion.* The world’s population reached 1 billion in the year 1804, taking 123 years to reach 2 billion in 1927. After the next growth spurt (taking 32 years to reach 3 billion in 1959), the level of growth to the next billion has decreased dramatically to a period of about every 14 years. This steady increase in population is due to two major factors: high fertility in the poorest regions of the planet, and the dramatic increase in life span.

The highest fertility rate is in Niger (7.2 children per woman) and lowest is Bosnia (1.2)

The number of people living in poverty is climbing: 1 in 8 is undernourished, 1 in 3 city dwellers lives in a slum.

The resident most representative of this planet is: Chinese (19%), Christian (33), male (50.4%), 29 years old (median age), earns approx. $10,300 (per capita gross world income), and surprisingly does not surf the web (73%), and we can safely assume, based on the aforementioned, does not work at Facebook or Google.

Top ten most populated countries: China (1.3B), India (1.2B), US (310M), Indonesia (240M), Brazil (195M), Pakistan (174M), Nigeria (158M), Bangladesh (149M), Russia (143M), Japan (127M).

*In a followup, Time reported that a girl, Danica May Camacho, born on October 31st, was the planet earth’s 7 billionth person.

Sources: UN, Population Reference Bureau, CIA World Factbook. Time (10.31.11) and (12.26.11).

Gettysburg Address

Surprisingly, Abraham Lincoln was not the main speaker on November 19, 1862 at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That honor went to former Harvard president, Edward Everett, who delivered a two-hour oration that no one seems to remember. Lincoln, on the other hand, kept his speech short; however due to its eloquence and compelling imagery it has remained one of the best known (and memorized) speeches of history.

Oh, Say Did You Know by Fred DuBose, Reader’s Digest (2009).

Kafkaesque

In his will, Kafka directed his executor to incinerate all of his work. Luckily, Kafka close friend, Max Brod, decided to disregard this stipulation and published, and edited, all of his work for the world to read.

From: Under the Covers and Between the Sheets by C. Alan Joyce, Reader’s Digest (2009).