Having so many different businesses in different cities, I have a large number of acquaintances from all over. I think I met Dana, who is from New Orleans, when I lived in Cincinnati.

He gave me a phone call yesterday, said he was back in New Orleans, but he found himself in Harrisburg on Tuesday, and thought about my raving about fasnachts. He didn't have my phone number with him - it was an impromptu trip to Harrisburg - and all he could remember was my street name, not my street number, so he thought it was worth trying to find me.

As I explained to Blondie, Dana had stopped and bought all the fasnachts he could carry, and then started on my street, going down one side of the street and then back up the other. He started a couple of blocks one side of me, and got a couple blocks past me before coming back.

He Knocked On Doors

"He just knocked on all those doors?" Blondie asked me.

I shook my head. "He said I'd described it as like Mardi Gras, only with Fasnachts instead of beads," I'd told her, "So he knocked on every door, and when I didn't answer the door, he'd tell the lady who answered the door that he had lots of fasnachts, and he'd give her one if she's show him her breasts."

"Oh, my goodness," Blondie said. "Was he arrested?"

"No," I replied. "In fact, of all those houses, there was only one house he went to where the lady didn't play along, and that was on this block."

And WHERE Was This?

And where, Blondie wanted to know, did he go? I told her that he had gone along our street, every house on both sides, for a couple of blocks each way, Tuesday afternoon.

"Must have been that stuck up Mrs. Landis, across the street" Blondie offered.

Gotta love 'er.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
beads - breasts - fasnachts - Mardi Gras - New Orleans - Shrove Tuesday

A losing lottery ticket was auctioned for $9,663 on Wednesday night.

The ticket bears John Hancock's John Hancock at the bottom, as one of five Boston Selectmen. It is dated June 1765. Proceeds from the lottery - fifth in a series - were used to repair fire damage sustained in 1761 to Faneuil Hall. The building was later used by Sam Adams and others to organize the overthrow of the government.

Another Lottery Ticket

In an episode of Pawn Stars that first showed in February 2024, Rick is presented the opportunity buy a similar lottery ticket dated 1758, signed by George Washington.

The customer thinks it is worth between $8K and $10K. Rick wants it, you can see him salivating, but he's a little wary that it's in such good condition. Time to call in an expert.

I thought you might find this as interesting as I did.

They're always telling us that if you eat less, you won't get diabetes. That's based on the idea that obesity causes diabetes. In fact, if you have diabetes, your body produces more insulin to compensate, and if you have excess insulin in your blood stream, your body lays down fat in the abdomen. In other words, fat is caused by diabetes, rather than causing it in the first place.

Anyhow, here is a county-by-county diagnosed diabetes rate map. It's new, from the CDC, never before been developed. Pennsylvania has two really bad counties for diabetes, Philadelphia county and Fayette county.

One of the risk factors for developing diabetes is having a poor education. Another one is being black. Aha! They win on both scores. Diabetes is much more a problem in the US Southeast than in the rest of the country. Most counties in Alabama and every county in Mississippi in the really bad category.

The risk factors include having a high obesity rate (32.9 percent of diabetics versus 26.1 percent nationally), sedentary lifestyles (30.6 percent versus 24.8 percent), lower education levels (24.1 percent with college degrees versus 34.3 percent) and more non-Hispanic blacks (23.8 percent versus 8.6 percent). Interestingly, the diabetes rate is higher in the really bad counties even for people with none of those risk factors.

The complete study was published in the Population Health Metrics scientific journal.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
counties - diabetes - Pennsylvania

Some people are just jealous of those who, like me, are gifted.

Researchers at Japan's National Institute for Materials Science have found that immersing pellets of an iron-based compound in heated alcoholic beverages for 24 hours greatly increases their superconducting ability.

According to the abstract published in the Superconductor Science And Technology
technical journal:

We found that hot alcoholic beverages were effective in inducing superconductivity in FeTe0.8S0.2. Heating the FeTe0.8S0.2 compound in various alcoholic beverages enhances the superconducting properties compared to a pure water–ethanol mixture as a control. Heating with red wine for 24 h leads to the largest shielding volume fraction of 62.4% and the highest zero resistivity temperature of 7.8 K. Some components present in alcoholic beverages, other than water and ethanol, have the ability to induce superconductivity in the FeTe0.8S0.2 compound.

Translating From Atomic Chemistry To English

Let me translate this into ordinary English. Iron compounds tend to be somewhat magnetized because they were formed in the earth's magnetic field. The molecules line up - and that magnetic order interferes with superconductivity. It's sorta like meeting people in a classroom as opposed to a cocktail party - the rigid rows and columns of the desks don't make it easy to pass notes - or electrons.

If two chemicals come into contact with each other, sometimes they engage in atom-swapping. Bob & Carol and Ted & Alice become Bob & Alice and Ted & Carol. From a distance, you still have two couples, or two molecules, but they aren't exactly the same. This is known mostly from studying isotopes. Carbon-12 molecules and Carbon-14 molecules are exchanged, for instance.