S.H.I.T.

Manure...A True Story.
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Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!
Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening.

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term " S.H.I.T " , (Ship High In Transport) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.
You probably did not know the true history of this word.

Neither did I.

Too Much Homework ?

Homework is an accepted part of children’s coursework, starting as early as first grade. But how much is too much?

Homework -- the traditional bane of a school-age child's existence -- is once again coming under fire. Some influential researchers say homework does little to improve a student's academic abilities. Others believe homework is excessive, and doing more harm than good.

The National PTA suggests children in kindergarten through second grade receive 10-20 minutes of homework each night. In grades three through six, that recommended amount increases to 30-60 minutes nightly. In middle and high school, the amount depends on the number and level of difficulty of classes a student takes.

At the turn of the century, homework was actually outlawed in some areas because it was considered child labor. The theory was to simply let kids be kids. But Sputnik and the space race changed everything. Almost overnight, educators were scrambling to fill the "education gap" with the Soviet Union.

Nine-year-old Andrew has so much homework that his stepmother, a teacher herself, says, “at times it is overwhelming.” Every day, including weekends, the fourth grader has at least 1½ hours of work to do. Some days it takes him two hours or more to finish up. Not surprisingly, this workload has dampened his enthusiasm for school.

A retired school teacher is spreading a message most students would agree with – kids in Alberta have too much homework.
“There’s huge amount of stress on families. And I see homework as the icing on the family stress cake,” said Vera Goodman, a Calgary-based author with more than 30 years of teaching behind her.

Some teachers sometimes overdo the work load. All factors need to be considered and sometimes teachers forget to do that.

And for every parent who thinks there's too much homework, however, there is another who feels her child needs more.

World: Europe Women In Jeans 'Cannot Be Raped'

Italy's highest court has ruled that a woman wearing jeans cannot be raped.


The Supreme Court of Appeal in Rome on Wednesday overturned a rape conviction, saying that the supposed victim must have agreed to sex because her jeans could not have been removed without her consent.

A court in the southern town of Potenza had convicted a driving instructor of raping his 18-year-old pupil.

The instructor, aged 45 and identified only as Carmine, had been sentenced to 34 months' jail.

His defence had argued that the young woman - identified as Rosa - had consented to sex, a version of events which the woman strongly denied.

The Supreme Court ruled that it was impossible .....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/277263.stm

Revealed At Last: Scotland Yard's Jack the Ripper Case Book

'PC.97J. NEIL reports at 3.45.a[m] 31st inst, he found the dead body of a woman lying on her back with her clothes a little above her knees...' So begins a vivid account on lined notepaper, by a Superintendent J Keating, under the heading 'Metropolitan Police'. The ink seems as fresh as a morning newspaper. Yet it is dated 31 August, 1888.

This is one of the police reports filed just hours after Jack the Ripper claimed another victim in London's East End. It is one of numerous documents relating to the Victorian killer which, after more than a century in the archives, are to go on public display for the first time.

Handwritten accounts from the scenes of the crimes, detectives' case reports, coroners' inquiry records, witness statements, photographs and letters will form the centrepiece of a major exhibition, 'Jack the Ripper and the East End', at the Museum in Docklands, London. Visitors will not be spared graphic descriptions, such as 'her throat cut from ear to ear', in the retelling of the bloody and gruesome crimes.

'They are absolutely ........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/09/ukcrime

How Bluetooth Got Its Name

In 1996 a number of companies were looking to standardize the industry around a short-range radio link for doing a number of things which seem obvious today (not so obvious in 1996).

Within Intel, I had started a program called Business-RF; Ericsson had a program called MC-Link; Nokia had a program called Low Power RF. At the time we were in discussions to figure out the best way to drive a single wireless standard in the industry in order to prevent fragmentation of technologies in this area (remember that in 1996 nothing existed).

As we would approach different companies to talk about what short range wireless technologies could do and how having a single short-range standard would be so much better than having three or more competing and fragmenting standards, it became apparent the need to have a single name; as Intel would talk to people about "Biz-RF," Ericsson about "MC-Link" and Nokia about "Low Power-RF," which also created confusion.

In December of 1996 we figured we had the right mixture of companies to be successful in driving the technology through a Special Interest Group (SIG) and met in Lund, Sweden at the Ericsson plant to get final agreement on forming the SIG.

At this time, Intel proposed.....

http://www.eetimes.eu/scandinavia/206902019?cid=RSSfeed_eetimesEU_scandinavia

How Doctors Tell Patients They're Dying

Telling patients they're going to die is less dramatic than one might think, and contrary to popular belief, most doctors refuse to estimate how many weeks or months patients have left to live.

While initial reports of Patrick Swayze's pancreatic cancer diagnosis came with predictions that the star would have only five weeks to live, the actor's doctor quickly released a statement refuting the rumors.

"Patrick has a very limited amount of disease, and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far," Dr. George Fisher, Swayze's physician, said in the statement. "All the reports stating the time frame of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic

Putting a time stamp on someone's life, several doctors told ABCNEWS.com, is something that few doctors are willing to do. Instead, they employ much more methodical and caring techniques of breaking the news to terminally ill patients.

"It's not [a doctor's] job......

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=4402744&page=1

The Sky Is Falling

Or at least a part of it. I am refering to the spy satellite that the americans are losing. They didn't get much use out of that. Only sent it up about a year or so ago. Now it will be target practice for the navy. But remember, this is not a movie. In real life, you can actually miss. I wonder how many shots they get at it.
Ranting on, the question is why do hey want to shoot it down. Is it because they want to prevent toxic fuel from falling to earth as they say. Or is there something on it that they don't want anyone to see. Then again it could be a practice run for the missile defence system. So it would be just a drone.
My son has given me another possibility. It could be a meteor. They don't want to tell us because of people freaking out. That would be something you might have to take more that one shot at. They also want the space shuttle down before they do this. Shooting a big rock would cause a lot of debris.
So we may find out the truth or we may not.

Which Flag
They sure have a lot of trouble with people sneaking across the border at Mexico. Sound like an easy spot for a terrorist to come across. And there is only so much you can do. Only a matter of time before North America is one country. I'm sure that is already in the planning. It started with free trade. Look at Europe. They are well on the way.

Who Would Have Guessed
I was thinking the other day about when I was in the air force in Germany. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought about NATO having a meeting in Lithuania. They were all the sworn enemy. And MacDonalds in Russia and China. They would have carted me away.
You never know how things are going to turn out.