Figures & Facts

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10 of Benjamin Franklin’s Lesser-Known Feats of Awesomeness
4. HE WAS NO DEBTOR.
Franklin was terrified of debt and viewed it as similar to slavery because he believed that, through the acquisition of debt, man essentially sold his own freedom. He was so anti-debt that he often spoke (seriously) about forming an international organization called The Society of the Free and Easy for virtuous individuals who, among other things, were free of debt and, therefore, easy in spirit.

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Image courtesy pearlsofprofundity.wordpress.com

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HOUSTON: a new study finds that consuming full-fat dairy products - including cheese, yogurt, and butter - likely won’t play a role in sending you to the grave any sooner.
Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston say that not only are dairy fats not linked to the development of heart disease or stroke, it turns out they may actually help prevent people from suffering a severe stroke.

"Our findings not only support, but also significantly strengthen, the growing body of evidence which suggests that dairy fat, contrary to popular belief, does not increase risk of heart disease or overall mortality in older adults," says Marcia Otto, the study’s first author and an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at the university, in a media release.

"In addition to not contributing to death, the results suggest that one fatty acid present in dairy may lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, particularly from stroke," says Otto. That fatty acid, known as heptadecanoic acid, led the researchers to conclude that people who show higher fatty acids levels - particularly from full-fat dairy products - had a 42 percent lower chance of death due to a stroke.

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Photo courtesy Iron Man Magazine

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There is only one Blockbuster still surviving in the entire United States. Employees mourn the closure by leaving candles outside the store: Alaska’s last two Blockbuster video rental stores are closing this weekend -- leaving only one Blockbuster store open in the United States. 7/13/2018 Alaska’s last two Blockbuster stores — community gathering spots and nostalgic tourist attractions that got a big plug from HBO’s John Oliver — are shuttering. That leaves just one of the once ubiquitous video rental hub open in the entire U.S. The franchises in Anchorage and Fairbanks will close for rentals after Sunday night and reopen Tuesday for video liquidation sales through the end of August, said Kevin Daymude, general manager of Blockbuster Alaska.

7/18/2018 "Making the trek to this "last standing" Blockbuster Video Store is a must do!" (Yelp review)
Oh my how the blue and yellow Blockbuster Video Storefront has changed since 2004 when there were 9,000 Blockbuster outlets. By 2013, all corporate-owned stores closed and fast forward to July 18, 2018 -- this family-owned Bend, Oregon store has earned the distinction as the last Blockbuster in operation since the two remaining Alaska stores closed their doors this week.  read more »

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Abraham Lake is an artificial lake on North Saskatchewan River in western Alberta, Canada, created in 1972, with the construction of the Bighorn Dam. It was named for Silas Abraham, an inhabitant of the Saskatchewan River valley in the nineteenth century. Although man-made, the lake has the blue color of other glacial lakes in the Rocky Mountains, which is caused by rock flour as in other glacial lakes.

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Image courtesy @iLikePics_Daily

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SCOTUS rejects warrantless cellphone location tracking in Carpenter v. United States.
In a blockbuster 5-4 decision issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that warrantless government tracking of cellphone users via their cellphone location records violates the Fourth Amendment. "A person does not surrender all Fourth Amendment protection by venturing into the public sphere," declared the majority opinion of Chief Justice John Roberts. "We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier's database of physical location information."

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Photo courtesy reason.com

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June 1, 2018 (formatted as 1/6/18 in many parts of the world) is Phi Day, a date that matches the first four digits of the golden ratio.

Represented by the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet, the golden ratio, which comes out to roughly 1.618 when rounded, is the number you get when you divide a line into two parts so that the longer part divided by the smaller part is the same as the total length divided by the longer part (or simplified: When the smaller is to the larger as the larger is to the whole).

The Pyramids at Giza, Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," nautilus shells, sunflower seed heads, and spiral galaxies all feature the golden ratio.

The golden ratio is also closely related to the famous Fibonacci sequence. In this series of numbers beginning with zero or one, each subsequent number equals the sum of the previous two (i.e., 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc.). The ratio of any two successive numbers in this sequence comes very close to the golden ratio. Shapes made with Fibonacci dimensions are considered pleasing to the eye, which is why they so often appear in art, either unintentionally or by design.

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Image courtesy MSN / iStock

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Khao Phing Kan or Ko Khao Phing Kan is an island in Thailand, in Phang Nga Bay northeast of Phuket. About 40 metres (130 ft) from the shores of Khao Phing Kan lies a 20-metre (66 ft) tall islet called Ko Tapu or Khao Tapu. The islands are limestone tower karsts and are a part of Ao Phang Nga National Park. Since 1974, when it was featured in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, Khao Phing Kan has been popularly called James Bond Island.

Khao Phing Kan means "hills leaning against each other" in Thai, reflecting the connected nature of the islands, and Ko Tapu can be literally translated as "nail" or "spike" island, reflecting its shape.

Khao Phing Kan consists of two forest-covered islands with steep shores. They lie in the northwestern part of Phang Nga Bay, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the mainland, amid a group of a dozen of other islands.

Ko Ta Pu is a limestone rock about 20 metres (66 ft) tall with the diameter increasing from about 4 metres (13 ft) near the water level to about 8 metres (26 ft) at the top. It lies about 40 metres (130 ft) to the west from the northern part of Khao Phing Kan.

A local legend explains the formation of Ko Ta Pu as follows. Once upon a time, there lived a fisherman who used to bring home many fish every time he went to the sea. However, one day he could not catch any fish despite many attempts and only picked up a nail with his net. He kept throwing the nail back into the sea and catching it again. Furious, he took his sword and cut the nail in half with all his strength. Upon impact, one half of the nail jumped up and speared into the sea, forming Ko Ta Pu.

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Image courtesy amazingplacesonearth.com