Knowledge Handler
Information Sources & Information Sifting Techniques
About Me
- Name: David Dial
- Location: Independence, Ohio, United States
I am a retired librarian, most recently serving at Indiana Wesleyan University's Cleveland Education Center.
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Oldest Voice Recording
The BBC has decoded the earliest known voice recording .
-DDLabels: Audio technology, Sound recording
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Monday, October 14, 2024
Time Management and St. Benedict
Jonny Thomson shares insights from Oliver Burkeman and St. Benedict on time management .
-DDLabels: time management
Friday, October 11, 2024
Some Nations Charge You If You Bring Technology Into the Country
Joni Sweet warns that some nations impose custom duties when laptops and computer tablets are brought into the country.
-DDLabels: Custom duties
Thursday, October 10, 2024
U.S. Infrastructure Requirements
Darren Orf mourns the infrastructure concerns (bridges, roads) of the United States.
-DDLabels: Infrastructure, United States
Wednesday, October 09, 2024
Tuesday, October 08, 2024
The Expanding Universe
Liz Kruesi reports on some unresolved questions about the cosmic exansion rate .
-DDLabels: Astronomy, Universe expansion
Monday, October 07, 2024
Digital Banking
Meredith Dietz suggests that digital banks may lack some FDIC insurance protections of traditional saving institutions.
-DDFriday, October 04, 2024
Identifying Essays Written by Chatbots
Kelsey Piper offers tips for identifying when essays have been written by ChatGPT .
-DDLabels: academic writing, ChatGPT
Thursday, October 03, 2024
Bosons and Mass
Wednesday, October 02, 2024
Tuesday, October 01, 2024
Ripening Tomatoes at the End of the Growing Season
Amanda Blum shares how she allows her tomatoes to ripen after the close of the outdoor growing season.
-DDLabels: Harvesting, Tomatoes
Monday, September 30, 2024
Reignite Love for Your Partner
Melanie Curtin suggests a dialog tool which can reignite your love for your partner .
-DDLabels: Counseling, Love, Romance
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Internet Archive and the Disappearing Web Pages
Chris Stokel-Walker applauds the Internet Archive for saving select web pages after they disappear from their original web server.
-DDLabels: document preservation, Internet Archive
Friday, September 27, 2024
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Forestalling Hip Pain Which Occurs When Walking
Chloe Gray addresses hip pain that impairs walking. On the same topic, Priyankaa Joshi suggests stretching regimes which may prevent such pain.
-DDWednesday, September 25, 2024
Greedflation
Alina Selyukh examines reports of "greedflation ." "Greedflation" is a term describing when grocery merchants raise prices to increase their profits. Alina finds that many of the price increases were directly or indirectly a result of the pandemic, and that prices show signs of being reined-in by consumer pushback and competitive forces.
-DDTuesday, September 24, 2024
Data From Old Disk Drives
Christian Cawley provides detailed direction for harvesting data from undamaged old hard disks . These methods include:
- Connect it using a special USB adapter cable.
- Hack an external HDD.
- Build your own external HDD.
- Use a USB docking station for disk drives.
- Install the disk in your PC.
- Install the HDD in a laptop.
Labels: Data access, Disk drives
Monday, September 23, 2024
Planned End of Life for the Windows 10 Operating System
Ed Bott offers options if your Windows 10 PC cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 when support for Windows 11 ends October, 2025 .
-DD.Labels: windows 10, Windows 11
Friday, September 20, 2024
Oversleeping
Austin Meadows and Anis Rehman review the effects of oversleeping .
-DDLabels: Health, Sleep, Sleep deprivation
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Mobile Phone Security
Lance Whitney offers suggestions to improve mobile phone security .
-DDLabels: mobile phones, security, Spyware
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Electric Earthmovers
Chris Baraniuk recounts how electricity now powers some of the largest earthmovers and other large machines.
-DDTuesday, September 17, 2024
Ticklishness
Lauren Leffer shares the research of Shimpei Ishiyama as to why humans are ticklish . This is a social bonding behaviour observed in humans and a few other social mammals.
-DDLabels: Social bonding, Tickling
Monday, September 16, 2024
Brain Speed
Discover Magazine's Physics ArXiv Blog discusses the contemplations of Jieyu Zheng and Markus Meister about how the brain filters-out sensory information .
-DDFriday, September 13, 2024
Electronics Recycling
The U.S. Enironmental Protection Agency offers advice on electronics recycling .
-DDLabels: Electronics, Metals, Recycling
Thursday, September 12, 2024
The Most Durable Vehicles
ISeeCars has created a list of the most durable vehicles available in the U.S. market .
-DDLabels: Vehicles
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Remembering 9-11
Pocket has curated a list of articles on the terrorist attacks September 11, 2001 .
-DDLabels: Remembrance, September 11 2021
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Confront or Be Quiet?
Jonny Thomson explores the ethics of choosing of confrontation and quietism when a stressful discussion topic is raised.
-DDLabels: Confrontation, Silence
Monday, September 09, 2024
Metabolic Problems Associated with Aging
Melanie McReynolds pinpoints metabolic problems associated with human aging .
-DDLabels: Aging, Metabolism
Friday, September 06, 2024
Financial and Technical Aid Allows Impoverished Women to Reach Their Potential
Bedassa Tadesse writes about battling gender inequality in third-world nations with
needed financial and technical support.
Best practices include:
- Incorporate gender considerations in all development projects
- Engage men and boys
- Ensure that efforts are relevant and practical
- Respect the social, political and cultural contexts
- Encourage and strengthen governmental instituions
- Promote education for women and girls.
Labels: Development aid, education, gender bias, Women
Thursday, September 05, 2024
Nonverbal Learning Disorder
Wednesday, September 04, 2024
Resurgence of the American Chestnut
Steve Wick reports that the American Chestnut is making a comeback after a blight killed about four billion trees. More information is available from the American Chestnut Foundation.
-DDLabels: American Chestnut, Genetic engineering
Tuesday, September 03, 2024
Dog - Human Communication
Ross Pomeroy summarizes the research of Jennifer Holland, an expert in how dogs communicate with humans .
-DDLabels: Animal communication, communication, Dogs
The Great Dying: The Permian Mass Extinction
Darren Orf explains that global warming was the cause of the Permian Mass Extinction .
-DDLabels: Permian Extinction
Monday, September 02, 2024
Wet Bulb Events
Lewin Day discusses the potentially fatal impact of "wet bulb weather events", as well as remediation methods. Both Kenney et al. (2302) and Sara Chodosh have written on the same topic.
-DDFriday, August 30, 2024
Threat of a Warming Gulf of Mexico
Benji Jones explains the threat caused by ocean warming to Florida's Gulf Coast.
-DDLabels: Global warming, Gulf of Mexico
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Freezing Your Credit Helps Secure Your Finances
Adam Clark Estes explains how freezing your credit lines can guard against data breaches .
-DDLabels: Credit Freeze, Credit Report, Data breaches
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Campfire Coffee
Richard DiCicco explains how to brew coffee over an open fire . This would be useful in any enviroment without the electricity used by coffee making devices.
-DDTuesday, August 27, 2024
Scientific Fraud Can Corrupt Peer Reviewed Research Results
Kelsey Piper suggests that some types of fraud by scientists should be criminalized . She cites the example of Don Poldermans, a researcher who promoted treatment guidelines employing harmful heart medication may have killed 800,000 patients in Europe alone (see Kendricks, 2014. Malcolm Kendricks uses this case to highlight that a peer reviewed research result suggests, but does not prove, the validity of a therapy.
-DDLabels: fraud, peer review
Monday, August 26, 2024
Friday, August 23, 2024
Physical Height and Percieved Political Stature
Gideon Lasco writes about the relationship between physical height and perceived political stature.
-DDLabels: Height, Politicians
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Fight Dementia
Jaime Ducharme advises on delaying or avoiding dementia :
- Keep your brain busy
- Socialize
- Stay physically active
- Avoid concussions (wear a helmet when biking)
- Track your mental health
- Follow doctor's orders
- Avoid smoking, minimize alchol consumption
- Avoid injuring ears (loud sounds) and eyes
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Your Turn to Speak
Brenda Barbosa suggests that taking notes in thoughtful silence is key to delivering smart answers and results in more productive (and pleasant) meetings. Waiting your turn to speak is more gracious than interrupting, and often helps you integrate into a new team or social group.
-DDTuesday, August 20, 2024
Behaviors That Resist Infection
Ahra Ko and Steven Neuberg explore individual behavior that conveys resistance to disease .
-DDLabels: behavior, Infection rates, Political beliefs, Vaccine hesitancy
Monday, August 19, 2024
Friday, August 16, 2024
Boiler Explosions
Terry Welch writes about the 2001
boiler explosion
of an antique tractor at the Medina (OH) Fairgrounds. Five people were killed, and many more were injured.
The explosion was caused by an inadequate supply of water in the tractor's boiler, as well as botched boiler maintenance that deactivated plugs designed to blow before the boiler pressure reached a dangerous level.
Labels: Railroads, Steam locomotives, Traction engines
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Introduction to ChatGPT
Kaycee Hill provides a quick introduction to ChatGPT . I found that you can do simple queries using the chat box at the bottom of the screen for no charge and no login.
-DDTuesday, August 13, 2024
Restoring Profitability to Amazon's Alexa Sales
Mike Prospero offers three tips for restoring profitability to Amazon's smart speaker business .
-DDLabels: Amazon, Profitability, Smart speakers
Monday, August 12, 2024
Love in Relationships
Edith Nally muses on the nature of love in relationships , citing the work of Gary Lewandowski Jr. and others.
-DDLabels: Love, Relationships
Friday, August 09, 2024
Comedy Movies
Matthew Jackson has curated a list of the 30 Best [U.S.] Comedy Movies . Additionally, Rotten Tomatoes has created a list of 150 Essential Comedy Movies. Remember, laughter is like medicine.
-DDThursday, August 08, 2024
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Stupidity
Tuesday, August 06, 2024
Solar Power and the Environment
Andrew Paul comments on the health of the environment when a solar farm is constructed.
-DDLabels: environment, Solar power
Monday, August 05, 2024
Nukemap
Alex Wellerstein created the Nukemap : an online map which allows one to estimate the impact of a bomb explosion at a specific point.
-DDLabels: maps, Nuclear weapons
Friday, August 02, 2024
Ukrainian Scouting in the U.S.
Andrea Wenglowskyj writes about Ukrainian scouting camps in New York state .
Ethnic Hungarians also hold a scout camp each summer outside Fillmore, New York.
-DDLabels: Ukrainian scouting
Thursday, August 01, 2024
Air Turbulance Events
Pete warns notes that air turbulance injories are becoming more common.
-DDLabels: Air turbulance, Commercial aviation