My 4 year old son asked me this question as he was blowing bubbles in the car this morning. I told him that was a great question, and I didn't have the answer but I would look it up on the internet. Here is what I came up with (from www.askkids.com):
Bubbles and balloons have a lot in common! Scientists refer to them as "minimal surface structures." This means that they always hold the gas or liquid inside of them with the least possible surface area. The geometric form with the least surface area for any given volume is always a sphere, not a pyramid or a cube or any other form. An amazing exception to the rule! (Not really.) When a normally round bubble is surrounded by other bubbles, it can be made to take on a seemingly odd shape. Here, a bubble filled with smoke to make it more visable, is surrounded by six other bubbles, it appears to be a bubble cube! If the surrounding bubbles are popped, though, the bubble in the center reverts to its natural "round" shape.
Similar to the way we perceive the colors in a rainbow or an oil slick, we see the colors in a bubble through the reflection and the refraction of light waves off the inner and outer surfaces of the bubble wall. You can't color a bubble since its wall is only a few millionths of an inch thick. A bubble reflects color from its surroundings. When a light wave hits the surface of a bubble, part of the light is reflected back to a viewer's eye from the outer surface and part of the light is reflected from the inner surface which is a few millionths of an inch further. As the two waves of light travel back, they interfere with one another causing what we know as color. When the waves reinforce each other, the color is more intense. When the wave get close to canceling each other out, there is almost no color. As a bubble wall gets thinner, either from a weak solution or because gravity has pulled its chemical content to the bottom, the distance between the inner surface and the outer surface of the bubble becomes less and less until the two reflected waves of light start to coincide and cancel each other out. The result is that the bubble loses its color and can become nearly invisible.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Movie Box-Office Records
How the heck is it fair to keep saying "we had a record-breaking weekend for such and such movie" when ticket prices keep going up all the time? Of COURSE the newer movies are going to break records because it costs about $10 a ticket per person for each movie now when in times past, it was maybe $5 or $6. They make twice as much already for each movie ticket sold!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Chris Brown has just flushed his career down the toilet.
Okay. Chris Brown PUNCHED Rihanna IN THE FACE and BIT her on the arms and finger. Then he expects to have his friends say "Oh, Chris says he's really sorry for what happened." TOO LATE buddy. I used to think he was such a cutie and liked his music, but now I won't support him for anything. You fucked up and your career is over. He needs some serious help.
On a side note: I also have heard reports that Rihanna was jealous that Chris was talking to Leona Lewis at the Clive Davis pre-Grammy's party. Someone confronted someone on it obviously. HOWEVER, that is NEVER an excuse for a man to hit a woman, I don't care WHAT the woman does or says to that man (or boy in this case.)
On a side note: I also have heard reports that Rihanna was jealous that Chris was talking to Leona Lewis at the Clive Davis pre-Grammy's party. Someone confronted someone on it obviously. HOWEVER, that is NEVER an excuse for a man to hit a woman, I don't care WHAT the woman does or says to that man (or boy in this case.)
Taxpayers may have to cover octuplet mom's costs
WHAT...THE...FUCK was this lady thinking? She was already on welfare for her SIX children, 3 of which have disabilities, and she KNEW with being implanted with 8 fertilized eggs that there was a darn good chance all 8 would be born?!!!!!!!!!!
This really pisses me off because she has no business having more children when she's NOT WORKING and collecting welfare already. Especially EIGHT more. And the California public will be responsible for paying for them? I hope they take those babies and adopt them to families who CAN pay for them and CAN give them the attention and nurturing they need.
What a foolish, selfish woman.
(see Yahoo story below)
LOS ANGELES – A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.
Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.
Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.
Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.
"It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday's paper. He called Suleman's story "grotesque."
On the Internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an "idiot," criticizing her decision to have more children when she couldn't afford the ones she had and suggesting she be sterilized.
"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"
She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.
"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."
Suleman's spokesman, Mike Furtney, urged understanding.
"I would just ask people to consider her situation and she has been under a tremendous amount of pressure that no one could be prepared for," Furtney said.
Furtney said he, Suleman and her family had received death threats and had been getting messages that were "disgusting things that would never be proper to put in any story."
In her only media interviews, Suleman told NBC's "Today" she doesn't consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and doesn't intend to remain on it for long.
Also, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children. It features pictures of the mother and each octuplet and has instructions for making donations by check or credit card.
Suleman, whose six older children range in age from 2 to 7, said three of them receive disability payments. She told NBC one is autistic, another has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, and a third experienced a mild speech delay with "tiny characteristics of autism." She refused to say how much they get in payments.
In California, a low-income family can receive Social Security payments of up to $793 a month for each disabled child. Three children would amount to $2,379.
The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.
For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.
State Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, an oral surgeon who sits on the Health Committee, said that once a state Medical Board investigation is complete, lawmakers could review issues from government oversight to standards in fertility treatment.
Suleman received disability payments for an on-the-job back injury during a riot at a state mental hospital, collecting more than $165,000 over nearly a decade before the benefits were discontinued last year.
Some of the disability money was spent on in vitro fertilizations, which was used for all 14 of her children, Suleman said. She said she also worked double shifts at the mental hospital and saved up for the treatments. She estimated that all her treatments cost $100,000.
Fourteen states, including California, require insurance companies to offer or provide coverage for infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California has a law specifically excluding in vitro coverage. It's not clear what type of coverage Suleman has.
In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She already owes $50,000 in student loans, she told NBC. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.
This really pisses me off because she has no business having more children when she's NOT WORKING and collecting welfare already. Especially EIGHT more. And the California public will be responsible for paying for them? I hope they take those babies and adopt them to families who CAN pay for them and CAN give them the attention and nurturing they need.
What a foolish, selfish woman.
(see Yahoo story below)
LOS ANGELES – A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.
Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.
Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.
Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.
"It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday's paper. He called Suleman's story "grotesque."
On the Internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an "idiot," criticizing her decision to have more children when she couldn't afford the ones she had and suggesting she be sterilized.
"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"
She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.
"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."
Suleman's spokesman, Mike Furtney, urged understanding.
"I would just ask people to consider her situation and she has been under a tremendous amount of pressure that no one could be prepared for," Furtney said.
Furtney said he, Suleman and her family had received death threats and had been getting messages that were "disgusting things that would never be proper to put in any story."
In her only media interviews, Suleman told NBC's "Today" she doesn't consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and doesn't intend to remain on it for long.
Also, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children. It features pictures of the mother and each octuplet and has instructions for making donations by check or credit card.
Suleman, whose six older children range in age from 2 to 7, said three of them receive disability payments. She told NBC one is autistic, another has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, and a third experienced a mild speech delay with "tiny characteristics of autism." She refused to say how much they get in payments.
In California, a low-income family can receive Social Security payments of up to $793 a month for each disabled child. Three children would amount to $2,379.
The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.
For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.
State Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, an oral surgeon who sits on the Health Committee, said that once a state Medical Board investigation is complete, lawmakers could review issues from government oversight to standards in fertility treatment.
Suleman received disability payments for an on-the-job back injury during a riot at a state mental hospital, collecting more than $165,000 over nearly a decade before the benefits were discontinued last year.
Some of the disability money was spent on in vitro fertilizations, which was used for all 14 of her children, Suleman said. She said she also worked double shifts at the mental hospital and saved up for the treatments. She estimated that all her treatments cost $100,000.
Fourteen states, including California, require insurance companies to offer or provide coverage for infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California has a law specifically excluding in vitro coverage. It's not clear what type of coverage Suleman has.
In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She already owes $50,000 in student loans, she told NBC. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
MySpace Wars...and I Win!
As stupid or crazy as this may sound...here it goes. My not-my-father-anymore's evil bitch of a wife had a MySpace page and she kept checking my page (private) and making her moods reflect whatever I had on there...even though I could give a shit less what she was doing and the mood comments had NOTHING to do with her! (I will admit, I obviously was checking her page too, but more just to see what she was doing.)
So all I could do was keep my mood comments neutral so she had nothing to go on, but she was still putting stuff on hers about me. And OH YES, I KNEW they were about me. Sooo...this morning from the hotel room I'm at (at a conference) I was up super early so I decided to check her page for the hell of it. She had put up something like "I Can't Be Bought" with a pink, glittery barcode for her "mood" comment. So I put on my page "Who wants to buy an old, rotten piece of fruit anyway?"
NOTE: I have been checking hers every once in a while, but not OBSESSED like she apparently was.
So...I guess she checked my page again, didn't like what she saw...and DELETED her MySpace page! Woohoo! I am free from my stalker!!!!!!! What a bitch! Serves you right!
...Oh, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, read my other blog. :)
So all I could do was keep my mood comments neutral so she had nothing to go on, but she was still putting stuff on hers about me. And OH YES, I KNEW they were about me. Sooo...this morning from the hotel room I'm at (at a conference) I was up super early so I decided to check her page for the hell of it. She had put up something like "I Can't Be Bought" with a pink, glittery barcode for her "mood" comment. So I put on my page "Who wants to buy an old, rotten piece of fruit anyway?"
NOTE: I have been checking hers every once in a while, but not OBSESSED like she apparently was.
So...I guess she checked my page again, didn't like what she saw...and DELETED her MySpace page! Woohoo! I am free from my stalker!!!!!!! What a bitch! Serves you right!
...Oh, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, read my other blog. :)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Let's Not Teach "Tolerance" For Differences, Let's Teach "Respect" and "Understanding"
Tolerance -- a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.
This is the dictionary definition of "tolerance." However, I don't feel that's what the word really means. To me, tolerance means something you do to "put up" with something until it goes away or stops bothering you. It has a negative connotation.
Tolerance does not say to me "Let's accept everyone as they are and let them live their lives." It says "Fine, there are people who do different things and believe different things than I do, and I can't do anything about it even though I'm trying my hardest, so I'll have to just put up with it but I don't have to like it or treat them like people."
Since when should we be teaching our children to just "tolerate" others? That's one of the major problems with the world. If people taught their children to be "respectful" and "understanding" of others, the world would be better off.
Respect -- esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability
Understanding -- mental process of a person who comprehends; comprehension; personal interpretation
Instead of just shutting people out because they are different from us in some way, why don't we show them respect as human beings who are free to make their own decisions about what they want to do with their lives. Why don't we strive to learn at least a little bit about them and take it in as a learning experience instead of having to be at odds with them just because they think/act/look differently than you?
Human beings should strive to respect other people's choices and understand that they may be different, how they are different, and respect that there is difference between everyone and if we are to make this a better place, learn from each others' differences instead of letting it drive a wedge between us all!
If something someone does doesn't have anything to do with you, doesn't harm you, doesn't even involve you, why should you care what they do or try to stop them just because it's different from what you do?
I guess this is mainly right now directed at gay marriage and those who are opposing it. But as far as I'm concerned, this applies to ANYONE who has problems with anyone else because of skin color, religion, race, personal appearances, etc. Don't judge a book by its cover. I know that's such an old phrase and it may be overused, but it's so true at the same time.
This is the dictionary definition of "tolerance." However, I don't feel that's what the word really means. To me, tolerance means something you do to "put up" with something until it goes away or stops bothering you. It has a negative connotation.
Tolerance does not say to me "Let's accept everyone as they are and let them live their lives." It says "Fine, there are people who do different things and believe different things than I do, and I can't do anything about it even though I'm trying my hardest, so I'll have to just put up with it but I don't have to like it or treat them like people."
Since when should we be teaching our children to just "tolerate" others? That's one of the major problems with the world. If people taught their children to be "respectful" and "understanding" of others, the world would be better off.
Respect -- esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability
Understanding -- mental process of a person who comprehends; comprehension; personal interpretation
Instead of just shutting people out because they are different from us in some way, why don't we show them respect as human beings who are free to make their own decisions about what they want to do with their lives. Why don't we strive to learn at least a little bit about them and take it in as a learning experience instead of having to be at odds with them just because they think/act/look differently than you?
Human beings should strive to respect other people's choices and understand that they may be different, how they are different, and respect that there is difference between everyone and if we are to make this a better place, learn from each others' differences instead of letting it drive a wedge between us all!
If something someone does doesn't have anything to do with you, doesn't harm you, doesn't even involve you, why should you care what they do or try to stop them just because it's different from what you do?
I guess this is mainly right now directed at gay marriage and those who are opposing it. But as far as I'm concerned, this applies to ANYONE who has problems with anyone else because of skin color, religion, race, personal appearances, etc. Don't judge a book by its cover. I know that's such an old phrase and it may be overused, but it's so true at the same time.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Why Are Military Families So Poor?
I just saw a Sears commercial online with Ty Pennington (of Extreme Makeover fame) announcing that some military families were having to worry about if their child or children would have a warm winter coat to wear while their parent was overseas fighting for this country.
WHY on earth should military families, who give SO much, especially the Marines and Army branches, have to worry about not being able to provide for their families? Being former military myself, and then being a stay-at-home mom married to a military husband, I can tell you that even with the housing allowance we didn't have much to live off of...and we only had one child.
My heart goes out to these families and I implore the government...Why aren't the members of our armed forces, who are sacrificing months and years of their time, and sometimes their own lives, being paid a fair wage?
WHY on earth should military families, who give SO much, especially the Marines and Army branches, have to worry about not being able to provide for their families? Being former military myself, and then being a stay-at-home mom married to a military husband, I can tell you that even with the housing allowance we didn't have much to live off of...and we only had one child.
My heart goes out to these families and I implore the government...Why aren't the members of our armed forces, who are sacrificing months and years of their time, and sometimes their own lives, being paid a fair wage?
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