Jaywalking is a portmanteau of jay and walking. Jay (archaic colloquial) itself means:
Applied to humans in sense of "impertinent chatterer, flashy dresser" from 1620s. […] Jay was slang for "fourth-rate, worthless" (1888) e.g. a jay town.
a fourth-rate, worthless walker.
A tone composed of multiple sine waves at the right frequencies and alignments which, depending on the disposition of the base pitch, creates the auditory illusion of a tone whose pitch is constantly ascending or descending.
"It has been described as a 'sonic barber's pole'."
Reminds me of Deep Note (mp3), but with no resolution.
Movies about prison life invariably show the use of the cigarette as currency, their value presumably being derived from their cost, portability, and physical addiction. Betting, buying, and bribing, it's all done with cigarettes.
But something more interesting is going on in real prisons, the use of honey buns. At $1.08 each, packed with flavour not found in the mess halls, and 680 calories, 51 grams of sugar and 30 grams of fat, they sell better than anything else at the commissary.
According to the article, they've been used "as currency for trades, as bribes for favors, as relievers for stress and substitutes for addiction. They've become birthday cakes, hooch wines, last meals even ingredients in a massive tax fraud."
Neat!
Reading This Time Is Different has taught me a lot about economic history, but it's taken a while because it's written very much like a dry academic paper than most nonfiction. Good news: it also has pretty pictures.
This graph struck me as very telling of our age—while the 10-year average inflation rate is always positive, only in the last generation has it stopped dipping below 0 every so often, and all of the most recent local maxima are higher than any age before.
From the book (page 179):
Perhaps it may seem excessive to devote so much attention here to currency debasement when financial crises have long since moved on to grander and more extravagant schemes. Yet the experience of debasement illustrates many important points. Of course, it shows that inflation and default are nothing new; only the tools have changed. More important, the shift from metallic to paper currency provides an important example of the fact that technological innovation does not necessarily create entirely new kinds of financial crises but can exacerbate their effects, much as technology has constantly made warfare more deadly over the course of history.
That's one hell of an analogy. The book goes on to explain that inflation is a tool used by sovereigns to reduce the value of debt owed, but the occurrence of sovereign default hasn't changed commensurately over the course of the graph.
And in case you don't follow Three Panel Soul:
Last night I made two catnip toys out of an old pair of jeans, hoping the denim would prolong their life more than other fabrics. This morning the catnip had the desired effect on one of our cats, and we checked the internet to see if she could overdose.
It's pretty common knowledge that catnip is a "recreational substance" for cats—dilated eyes, euphoria, rubbing, rolling, drooling, and sleepiness are all common. Catnip actually refers to all species in the Nepeta genus, but especially N. cataria.
All of the species in Nepeta share some less-commonly-known properties as well:
And according to one source:
According to The Herb Garden, "The root when chewed is said to make the most gentle person fierce and quarrelsome". In fact, there is a story about an executioner who would have to chew on the root of catnip so he could bring himself to do kill.
And in case you're still wondering, our cat will probably not overdose—they're pretty good at self-regulating their drug intake, unlike a lot of humans.
By changing the geometry of the turbine inlet, a turbo's effective range can be extended to the lower and upper ends of the engine's range, while eliminating the need for a wastegate.
Taking the adjustment capability a step further, the geometry can also be changed to purposefully increase exhaust backpressure to promote exhaust gas recirculation, reduce emissions, provide additional engine braking, and increase exhaust temperature for the purpose of regenerating a diesel particulate filter. While increased exhaust backpressure does not increase the efficiency or power of the engine, it can still be used beneficially during short periods (like when shifting).
The diesel particulate filter is also interesting: it captures microparticles and soot and regenerates (or cleans) itself via the application of high heat for a short period to burn away the particles. It can be functionally compared to the catalytic converter of a petrol-powered car (they can share the same structural materials) but instead of requiring oxygen to recharge the catalyst, it uses heat to clear the filter.
going through some old things, we found this map of Canada from 1904.
