Tanya Stephens- These Streets- acoustic

Tanya Stephens - These Streets by elmokozo

Famous Left-handers

After visiting the great city of Bloomington, Indiana this winter-- which Dali Lama called "the center of the universe". I agree with his assertion that it could be the center of the universe, after seeing that they too, are left-hand centric.

Although I joke and tell people that left-handed citizens are minorities, living in an oppressed, right-handed world, I truly feel that our brains are wired differently. As I sit here and listen to the Howard Stern Show while Howard interviews Jerry Seinfeld, the iconic, irritable comedian, makes me think he's left handed. I do a quick Google check for famous lefts.

Low and behold, Indiana University has created a website devoted to cataloguing famous left-handed people in their primate department. http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html

"Print is dead" - Dr. Egon Spengler

Most websites would kill for increased traffic. Buying ad-space from Google and increasing their online presence by cleaning up their pages with meta-tags blah, blah... So why is it that certain websites; mainly stodgy, old "newsprint networks" insist on driving away traffic? Requiring usernames and payment? I get it, they can't make money with print anymore, so they must resort to online revenue to keep them afloat.

Filling up the boarders with banner ads for Acai berry diets doesn't really pay, and instead of figuring out a better model for online marketing, news networks are incresingly require an account be created- the user may or not have to pay $$$ for the same news you can read for free by just googling.

I will choose the latter and not support the printing press dinosaurs. Instead, I'll rely on Google, Reuters, Associated Press, and social media- for free and current, news and events. Everybody out there is a journalist these days, with news/information being uploaded worldwide instantaneously through online publishing. Social media and independent news is the way it's gonna be, so get with the program.

Rectify

rec·ti·fy /ˈrektəˌfī/ Verb Put (something) right; correct: "mistakes made now cannot be rectified later". Purify or refine (a substance), esp. by repeated distillation: "rectified alcohol". Synonyms correct - amend - redress - straighten - emend - mend



www.lefthandedliving.com is (in) my domain again. I will forward all traffic to my blogger page until new site is developed.

Wooden bats in MLB

A few years ago, I began researching the rules and regulations of wooden bats used in Major League Baseball, MLB. With all the shattered baseball bats in recent years (blasting players and spectators), I began thinking about possible reasons for all the broken bats. The traditional species of wood used in baseball bats was Ash, a ring porous hardwood (similar to oak or hickory) specifically white Ash. I hypothesized that it was diffuse porous woods, such as Sugar Maple (acer saccharum) that was the main culprit.
And http://www.woodbat.org agrees, stating that- in the early 90's, bat manufacturers began using maple more often, likely because A. saccharum' physical properties are 5-10% > Ash.
MLB Official Rules:
1.10 (a) The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 23/4 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood. NOTE: No laminated or experimental bats shall be used in a professional game (either championship season or exhibition games) until the manufacturer has secured approval from the Rules Committee of his design and methods of manufacture. (b) Cupped Bats. An indentation in the end of the bat up to one inch in depth is permitted and may be no wider than two inches and no less than one inch in diameter. The indentation must be curved with no foreign substance added. (c) The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from its end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance, which extends past the 18 inch limitation, shall cause the bat to be removed from the game. NOTE: If the umpire discovers that the bat does not conform to (c) above until a time during or after which the bat has been used in play, it shall not be grounds for declaring the batter out, or ejected from the game. (d) No colored bat may be used in a professional game unless approved by the Rules Committee.
What struck me when looking over the rules above /\ was what wasn't there- wood species. It's my feeling that not specifying wood species is important as size and weight regulations for Major League Baseball bats.
Here is a good article from NYTimes that I just found (from 2008) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/sports/baseball/25maple.html?_r=0.