Friday, October 25, 2013

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Cars






1.  In 1760 King George III housed around 30 horses in the Royal Mews stables in London. Today a typical compact car packs a 150-horsepower engine. So a suburban commuter has instant access to five times as much sheer muscle as the king who nearly crushed the American Revolution.

2.  By the formal definition of horsepower (the power required to lift 33,000 pounds by one foot in one minute), a real horse musters only about 0.7 horsepower.

3.  Not only has the horse been outgunned by the car, it faces the further indignity of not being able to keep up with itself.

4.  Contrary to legend, Ford’s Model T originally came in a variety of colors…and black was not one of them. The “any color so long as it is black” philosophy arrived in 1913, as Henry Ford sought to simplify production.

5.  Volkswagen had the good sense to change the original, Hitler-sanctioned name for its small car, the Kraft durch Freude Wagen (“Strength Through Joy Car”). You know it as the Beetle.

6.  The first documented auto fatality in the United States was H. H. Bliss of New York City, who was struck by an electric taxicab on September 13, 1899, while alighting from a trolley car.

7.  The motor vehicle fatality rate in the United States—the average number of deaths per passenger-mile of driving—has dropped by roughly 80 percent in the past half century.

8.  Last year 32,310 Americans died in auto accidents. If the 1962 fatality rate still held, there would be an extra 150,000 deaths annually, equivalent to losing the population of Pittsburgh every two years.

9.  Credit a mix of improvements, including crash impact standards, air bags, better tires, antilock brakes, and stability control.

10.  One of the biggest factors? Seat belts. 84 percent of people now buckle up, compared with 14 percent three decades ago.

11.  Please don’t kick the tires. The contact patches—the areas of the tires that actually touch the road at any given moment—cover an area of just over 100 square inches for an average family sedan.

12.  In other words, all of the accelerating, cornering, braking, and everything else that your four wheels do, happens on a piece of ground scarcely bigger than your own two feet.

13.  Lighting is one of the next frontiers in safety. BMW is developing headlights that highlight nearby people to help focus the driver’s attention, and a Carnegie Mellon University researcher has developed lights that can track droplets and avoid illuminating them, rendering rainfall nearly invisible.

14.  In 2004 Nevada hosted the first Darpa Grand Challenge for autonomous cars. None of the contenders finished the course, and one lunged menacingly at spectators. Now Google’s fleet of self-driving cars has completed 140,000 miles on the road with only two small accidents—one of them caused by human error.

15.  Betting all-in on robots: [Last year] Nevada became the first state to issue licenses for self-driving cars.

16.  Many high-end vehicles are already partly autonomous, with brakes that activate if sensors indicate an impending crash, steering that prevents drifting, sonar systems that navigate into parking spaces, and cruise control that prevents following the next car too closely.

17.  Self-driving cars could improve highway flow by regulating distances between cars and ease urban congestion by automating the search for parking (which causes up to three-quarters of city traffic).

18.  Could they even eliminate dumb driver errors? “Crashless is the goal,” John Maddox of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently told Automotive News.

19.  The AMC Gremlin, often cited as one of the ugliest cars ever made, pioneered the high-hood, sloping-side-window look ubiquitous among today’s SUVs. Which makes AMC’s Bob Nixon perhaps the world’s most unsung designer.

20.  What is the most beautiful car? Good luck getting any two people to agree, but the 1946 Cisitalia 202 GT was the first to be exhibited alongside the Picassos at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. If it does not make your heart jump, check your pulse.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Haunted Places!





As we all know, Halloween is quickly approaching. With it, comes haunted stories, places, and other ghoulish frights around your neighborhood town. What we'd like to know, is if anyone has been to the haunted places on this list! Did anything crazy happen there?

At the very least, check out some of the cooler places to go during this time of the year. Just don't be surprised if you encounter ghosts, ghouls, or other nightmarish creatures!

Check out a list of Haunted Places in California: http://bit.ly/1c2OMUc

Friday, October 11, 2013

101 Things to do in the Winter





Brace yourselves, winter is coming… however, that doesn’t mean you should just sit inside and bundle up the entire time! (Definitely bundle up a little…) I mean, look at all these cool things that you could be doing with your friends or family! If you’ve never made a snowman, or never knitted a scarf, these are some of the exciting things you’ll find that winter brings out… let your creative juices flow!
  1. Go ice skating.
  2. Go sledding.
  3. Have a movie marathon.
  4. Ski on your Wii.
  5. Go skiing.
  6. Build a snowman.
  7. Make a snow angel.
  8. Build a snow fort.
  9. Have a snowball fight.
  10. See this year’s cool Christmas/Winter movie.
  11. Watch last year's cool Christmas/Winter flick on DVD.
  12. List your ten favorite Christmas carols in your journal.
  13. Shovel off the porch or driveway for your family.
  14. Write a poem about ice or snow in your journal.
  15. Make a winter journal.
  16. Go on a winter hike with friends.
  17. Go ice fishing.
  18. List your ten favorite Christmas television specials in your journal.
  19. Eat an icicle.
  20. Drink hot chocolate.
  21. Knit a scarf.
  22. Babysit for someone for free.
  23. Donate blood.
  24. Sketch a winter scene.
  25. Decorate your bedroom door for the Holidays.
  26. Make a snowflake card for a friend who lives far away.
  27. Start a new jigsaw puzzle – then finish it.
  28. Make a cinnamon ornament.
  29. Try and make a fun family or winter recipe.
  30. Start a snow shoveling business.
  31. Snow shovel for those in need for free.
  32. Play a game of basketball.
  33. Go watch your high school basketball team.
  34. Go watch your high school ski team.
  35. Go watch your high school wrestling team.
  36. Drink some hot cider.
  37. Make origami ornaments.
  38. Make and use an advent calendar.
  39. Go snow tubing.
  40. Learn to use a snow board or learn a new trick.
  41. Make a snowflake.
  42. Take a walk while it’s snowing and catch snowflakes on your tongue.
  43. Friend someone famous on your social networking page.
  44. Decorate your social networking page with a holiday or winter theme.
  45. Sit or look outside and write a song.
  46. Sit or look outside and write a play.
  47. Start your winter fantasy novel.
  48. Take your dog/pet for a mile-long walk.
  49. Clean out and organize your junk drawer so you have room for this school year's junk.
  50. Read something that warms your heart.
  51. Read something that makes you laugh out loud.
  52. Go to a museum.
  53. Start a new healthy habit.
  54. Add or add to a folder for homework help sites to your favorite links.
  55. Add or add to a folder for sites on a new interest to your favorite links.
  56. Create a family newsletter to send to your whole family.
  57. List ten thing you like about winter in your journal.
  58. Hug your parent, a friend and yourself.
  59. Learn a card trick.
  60. Make place cards for your family’s holiday meal.
  61. Create an About Me scrapbook album or add a page to the one you have.
  62. Send holiday cards to your friends.
  63. Join a book club.
  64. Play with Magnetic Poetry.
  65. Take a bath in Glistening Winter Nights Bath Salts.
  66. Make Vanilla Lip Gloss.
  67. Make a Winter Beaded Safety Pin.
  68. Make a Decoupage Snowman Bookmark Craft.
  69. Make an Ice Candle.
  70. Go Christmas caroling.
  71. Volunteer to read to children at the library.
  72. Create an imaginary teen from the future.
  73. Go on a winter photo scavenger hunt.
  74. Plan a board game or video game tournament.
  75. Make friendship bracelets in winter blue colors.
  76. Learn a yoga position.
  77. Play ice hockey.
  78. Rearrange your bedroom.
  79. Organize your closet: Bring out your cold weather clothes and store your warm weather clothes.
  80. Go through your socks and underwear. Pitch the old and ask for new.
  81. Go snowshoeing.
  82. Go cross-country skiing.
  83. Bake your favorite cookie.
  84. Make a snow mural with squirt bottles, water, food coloring and a yard full of snow.
  85. Post winter greetings on your friend’s social networking pages.
  86. Make a New Year’s resolution, and a plan that will help you stick to it.
  87. Make a gel candle mug.
  88. Make a heats and pearl choker.
  89. Start or update your checking or savings account.
  90. Plan a Holiday Party.
  91. Plan a Valentine Party.
  92. Go snowmobiling.
  93. Learn a new make-up trick.
  94. Get a new haircut or style.
  95. Volunteer at your community food pantry, soup kitchen or church.
  96. Go winter camping – learn survival skills.
  97. Make a snowflake mobile – use glitter.
  98. Make a crazy music video to your favorite song.
  99. Write five facts about your favorite animal/rock star/person in your journal.
  100. Grunge up a pair of jeans.
  101. Play outside with flashlights after dinner.

Friday, October 4, 2013

5 Things Optimists Do, and You Should Too!





1. Optimists know that you don’t necessarily need to achieve something in order to be truly happy.

Happiness comes from within. It’s a conscious decision that you need to make, whether or not things are going the way you want them to.

If you provide a condition to your happiness, like you’ll only be happy if you’re able to achieve something, then what happens if that condition isn’t met?

Success isn’t a guaranteed factor. If you equate happiness with success, you may be happy, but this happiness stops the minute you start failing.

Give yourself the power to be committed to being happy by adapting a grateful outlook in life.

2. They avoid negative people and refrain from encountering bad vibes.
Optimists are well aware that being negative and being positive are both contagious. So, for them to create an optimistic environment, they stay away from grouchy people who always complain.

Instead, they nourish relationships with emotionally supportive and equally optimistic people. They know that life is too short to spend with people who don’t really value them, so they choose to spend it with people who do realize their worth.

3. Optimists respect themselves and their time.
In a way, optimistic people are like wild and brave souls–they are confident that they don’t need the approval of anyone else in order to live their lives. Positive people know that people will always judge them with whatever they do, so why bother pleasing people when it’s obvious that you can never please everyone every single time?

Optimists even have the courage and the confidence to say no to things that don’t really matter to them. They’re not pressured into doing something that they don’t really like, and they’re free to pursue their passion accordingly.

4. Optimists are resourceful people.
Successful entrepreneurs and optimists are both innovative and creative individuals. They know that they’re never going to have everything that they need, so they make do with what they have instead.

- Steve Jobs didn’t wallow in fear when he didn’t have enough money to fund his startup: he sold his only means of transportation, his VW Microbus, to finance it.

- Walt Disney didn’t go into severe depression when he was told that Mickey Mouse is a “giant mouse on the screen that would terrify women”; he pushed through and look at how famous and well-loved Mickey is today.

- Donald Trump was bankrupt four times (in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009) but his resourcefulness and innovation gave him a $2.7 billion net worth today.

5. They know that life is not fair–and they’re okay with that.
Most people feel grumpy, frustrated or disappointed because they expect life to be fair for everyone.
Why does Justin Bieber have a lot of haters? Because a lot of people don’t like the fact that he gets millions just by performing and doing his hair flips regularly.

Why are there a lot of complainers all over the world? Because they feel that they’re self-entitled to everything that their neighbors have.

Why are there crime scenes? Because people feel like they’re not given equal treatment (such as equal money with the rest of the society), they should just go ahead and make things equal. By taking the matter into their own hands, they commit crimes instead.

Optimists are not like these people. They know that life is never going to be easy–it’s never fair and it’s never predictable. In fact, they expect life to be unfair and unpredictable most of the time! They accept the fact that their friends may be given more money, that some celebrities are given more fame, and that some of their loved ones are more successful in terms of romance.

And you know what?

They’re okay with that.