Think About These Facts The Next Time You're Flying On An Airplane!

Having just returned from a trip to Africa, whereby I spent about 25 hours in transit, here's some crazy facts about flying that will give you cause for thought. 

Only 5% of the world's population has ever flown, though it has been difficult to confirm this fact with an internet search since few countries actually chart these statistics. However, if you consider that approx 47% of people in the U.S have flown and they account for 4.4% of the world's populatuion, we could surmise this fact to be true.

Food on a plane isn't terribly appetizing because altitude, pressure, and lack of humidity affect your sense of taste. Also, the cabin air affects your smell, which is the predominant factor in taste. Apparently, even jet engine noise has an impact on your tongue and will affect your taste.

That air quality and lack of humidity is quantifiable, being about 20% and similar to that of  the Sahara Desert.

Like being in the desert, you lose about 250 ml of water for every hour of flying, so drinking a lot of water may mean extra trips to the toilet but will ensure you're properly hydrated..

And, speaking of the toilet, it is impossible to be accidentally locked in the washroom of an airplane. For safety reasons, flight attendants have ways of opening those doors!

An empty Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" weighs close to 117,617 kilograms., the equivalent of about 29 elephants! 

The above mentioned passenger plane travels at an average speed of 1045 kmph.

That 747 also burns up about 13,600 litres of fuel per hour during flying, which sound like a lot but considering that the plane holds about 500 people, that works out to approximately 27.2 litres per hour per person, with the plane flying at a speed of 800 kmph. That's about 3 litres per 100 km., somewhat better than the approx. 4 litres per 100 km you'd get in a Toyota Prius!

Redundancy

Help Stamp Out, Eliminate And Abolish Redundancy!

Haha! This is another one of my favourite sayings, just like the "Say What" post done on Oct 13th. And, to compliment the saying, here's a few photos to process too! haha.

How Many F's ?

Here's a quick test of your perception....read the following and count the number of "f'"s in the paragraph. 

Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of many years!

How many did you get? Most people come up with an immediate answer of 3, but how about you?

Count again! If in doubt, start at the end and read it backwards.

Proof positive that "perception is reality". 

Want!!

Maybe it's because I love the old vintage Airstreams so much, but this crazy 1930's era Stout Scarab would sure be cool to own. 

Designed by William Bushnell Stout and inspired by the Dymaxion car conceptualized by Buckminister Fuller, this Rolling Art Deco rig actually went into a very limited production. They only hand built about 100 of what could rightfully be called the first "minivan", so having one in this day and age is a rarity.

Very cool indeed, and innovative too. Ponton styled body, rear mounted engine, independant suspension, and a unitized body that emulated an aircraft fuselage. They were considered "ugly" at the time, but hey, art is subjective and this rig could only be called rolling art.

Daylight Savings Time

Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight, to reflect daylight savings which takes place at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday November 4th.

Some interesting facts about day light savings time

• Originally designed to be an energy savings process by giving more daylight hours in the evening during summer months and reducing the need for lights and heating
• The first country to adopt DST was Germany in 1916
• It was used sporadically and inconsistantly throughout various cities and regions in Canada as far back as 1914 but only introduced across the country in 1966, when Canada followed the lead of the U.S. and adopted their Uniform Time Act
• Only about 40% of countries in the world use DST, with many of the non-users living near the equator where sunrises and sunsets are relatively consistant
• There is little consequence to those living in polar regions, as the sunrises and sunsets are dramatically different during the two seasons
• It seems that sports, retailing and tourism gain the most benefit from DST
• In Canada, the province of Saskatchewan stays on DST permanently
• Autumn clock adjustments have you putting the clock back to what would be the standard time
• Many people have difficulty adjusting to even just a one hour time change, and pets and small children are prone to not fitting in to new time schedules.
• There are continuous debates about DST, with some opposing having it at all, some for maintaining the status quo, and some saying we should stay on it at all times 

Cyber Warfare

photo courtesy of pablo amargo/boston globe

"Cyber warfare represents the next frontier for organized crime, state-sponsored espionage, hacktivists, and anarchists", according to Microsoft's Principal Researcher and Partner, Dr. Chris White. This was his assertation at the 2018 Global Business Forum held in Banff on September 27th.

And like many other cyber related crimes, he states that too many companies remain blissfully ignorant of the risks, only finding out after an attack has been successful and their proprietary technology, financial information or customer data has been exposed.

Five years ago there were only about 5 countries that had the capability to conduct cyber warfare, but that number has grown to over 60 countries, states Roy Boisvert of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He believes that "our infrastructure could be a target" yet thinks that "firms responsible for these systems are lacking in effort to defend against such attacks". 

If you think about it, hackers could cripple a country if they gained access to things like the power grid, water service, and other such critical infrastructure. I'm actually amazed that this hasn't already happened to some degree. or maybe it has and we just don't know about it, since the government tends to keep these things under wraps in an effort to catch the criminals. 

The Canadian federal government is concerned about cyberattacks perpetrated by state-sponsored agents targeting critical infrastructure and is quietly and steadily working on improving defenses in this area.

Esteban Diacono

Esteban Diacono is an Argentina based motion graphics desigener who does major work for companies like the Discovery Channel and  FX. Diacono also does a lot of experimentation on the side and produces some amazing animations, as shown in the video below.

You're about to have your mind blown!!