MONEY IN AMERICA

Posted on August 13, 2024August 13, 2024 by vlaw759

There’s a lot of it! Cautioning that federal spending had a way of getting out of control, Erik Dirksen reportedly observed, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” In 2022, the value of currency in circulation in the United States amounted to roughly $2.26 trillion, a slight increase compared to the previous year.

*These $10,000 bills were only in circulation from 1928 to 1934. Think the grocery store could make change?*

Not surprising, money in the U.S. isn’t evenly distributed. Now the caveats:

(1) numbers vary, depending on year reported and source, but the patterns are stable.

(2) “Average” is usually the arithmetic average, or ”mean.” Averages tend to be skewed, pulled high or low by the extreme numbers. Often median is the more useful number: the median is the mid-point where half are higher and half are lower. For example, in 2024, the mean family income in Virginia was $123,883 while the median family income was $93,284.

Caveats aside, I hope you find what follows interesting.

American Wealth

America is, indeed, a rich country. According to an annual assessment of wealth and assets compiled and published by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse, in the middle of 2021, there were 56 million people worldwide whose assets exceeded one million US dollars. Over 40% lived in the United States .

So, worldwide, the United States is home to the largest number of millionaires: 22 million in 2023, representing 6.6 percent of the country’s population.

At the other end of the spectrum, in 2022, 41.89 million people in the U.S. were living in poverty. The most recent data from the US Census Bureau showed the national poverty rate at 11.5%. To put that into perspective, that’s 37.9 million people living in poverty in America.

About 50 million Americans are “poor”: i.e., they have household incomes below 125% of poverty, including more than 15 million children. In 2022, household incomes below 125% of poverty correspond to annual incomes below $34,500 for a family of four or $17,500 for an individual.

Just as being poor isn’t identical with living in poverty, having a million dollars isn’t the same as being “rich.”

For example, you may be considered rich if you’re in the nation’s top 1% of earners. In 2022, that group saw an average annual income from wages of $785,968—nearly 19 times higher than the bottom 90%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The top 5% of income earners make $335,891 per year.

American Net Worth

Another measure of wealth is net worth. Net worth is the difference between the values of your assets and liabilities. The average American net worth is $1,063,700, as of 2022. Net worth averages increase with age from $183,500 for those 35 and under to $1,794,600 for those 65 to 74.

A high-net-worth individual, or HNWI, might be defined differently among certain financial institutions. But in all cases, a high-net-worth individual is someone with a large amount of wealth. Typically, a high-net-worth individual has assets of between $1 million and $5 million. To be considered very high net worth, one might need assets ranging from $5 million to $10 million, while an ultra-high net worth would require $30 million or more.

According to Schwab’s Modern Wealth Survey, in 2023, Americans said that it takes an average net worth of $2.2 million to qualify a person as being wealthy—i.e., high-net-worth according to the above labels.

Rich or Wealthy?

There’s a difference between being rich and being wealthy. Wealth is all about the money you hold onto. Being rich is having things: the nice house, car, clothes. And free time. We’re all familiar with “Time is money.” For the rich, money is time, time available to do whatever one pleases.

Two studies consistently found that rich people are more conscientious, open to experience, and extraverted than the average population. They are also less agreeable (that is, less likely to shy away from conflict) and less neurotic (as in, more psychologically stable).

Traits of rich people (from sources across the web)

Emotional stability
Conscientious
Less neurotic
Sociopathy
Passion
Healthy habits
Lack of empathy
Optimistic and opportunistic
Less likely to assign blame
Strategic use of credit and investments
Confidence (often over-confidence)
Education (important, but not required)
Narcissism
Self-centered
Resilience
Risk taking
Extroverted
Decisive

The rich are often quieter than the poor because they have less to worry about. Money can buy you food, shelter, and a financially secure future. It can also buy you freedom from want and fear. When you have enough money, you don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from or whether you’ll be able to pay your rent. Wealthy people don’t have to live with the constant fear that a single illness, car malfunction, or unexpected bill will send them spiraling into homelessness.

Poor or Impoverished?

Though America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, huge swaths of the population are only one or two paychecks away from financial disaster. Living near or below the poverty line has drastic effects on peoples’ mental and physical health, some of which show up as behavioral patterns. People who cannot afford to lose their jobs are more likely to put up with bad conditions at work. Taking the bus to work and doing your own home cleaning and repairs leaves very little time or energy to visit with friends. Not being able to afford seeing a doctor often means minor ailments develop into serious health complaints. If your mind is consumed with how to pay the electric bill and afford medication, you’re liable to pay less attention to international politics.

*Matthew Desmond makes the argument that American poverty is the result of deeply-rooted societal practices and the byproduct of government policies.*

Traits of impoverished people

Likely to develop chronic stress health conditions (heart disease, diabetes, etc.)
Adaptability
Focus on short-term goals
Innovation
Community involvement
Tendency to unhealthy coping mechanisms (alcohol, drugs, etc.)
Missing work or obligations due to unreliable transportation
Shorter lifespans
Empathy
Lack of access to routine healthcare
Patience
Malnutrition or poor diet
Lack of trust in institutions
Wide-ranging skill sets
Have less time for hobbies or social engagement
Lower sense of control

Children Without Money

Children who grow up without financial stability are more likely to develop a myriad of health issues, including depression, asthma, diabetes, PTSD, obesity, lack of impulse control, and delayed cognitive and social development. Poverty can drastically impact a child’s performance in school. A person who grows up in poverty will likely continue to feel the echoes of these ills into adulthood.

Signs of Poverty & Neglect in Children:

Poor hygiene and general lack of cleanliness
Inappropriate uniform, shoes, or clothing
Lack of food provided or money for food
Malnutrition
Missing school equipment or other required items
Poor or inappropriate living conditions
Negative impact on mental health and self-worth
Tiredness or inability to concentrate at school
Stealing or taking things to use, eat, or sell
Being left home alone

Signs of Poverty	Signs of Neglect
Parents requesting support from school	No or limited access to health care
Children working jobs outside school	Repeated absence from school
Children concerned about parents and situation	Lack of parental involvement

Many of the signs are the same for both neglect and poverty.

Does Money Buy Happiness?

The folk wisdom is that money can’t buy happiness, but the lack of it can “buy” a lot of misery.

And, actually, self-reports of life satisfaction indicate that as income/money goes up, so does satisfaction, although at the high end, there are diminishing returns. More money is associated with more happiness for most, but not all, people. For 80% of people, happiness continues to rise with income past $75,000.

And much depends on where you start. “If you’re rich and miserable, more money won’t help,” said Matthew Killingsworth in a UPenn release. Further, the extent to which money affects happiness differs for people with different levels of emotional well- being. According to the UPenn release, the collaborative 2021 paper found that “for the least happy group, happiness rises with income until $100,000, then shows no further increase as income grows. For those in the middle range of emotional well-being, happiness increases linearly with income, and for the happiest group, the association actually accelerates above $100,000.”

John Jennings gave a great summary in Forbes: “While the link between income and happiness is real, it’s modest and conditional. We must be careful not to overemphasize money’s role in happiness. Happiness is a complex topic involving various factors —money being just one of them. Genetics, health, relationships, leisure time, and purpose likely matter more for well-being than dollars alone.

“As the Beatles sang, ‘Money can’t buy me love.’ Yet, used wisely, money can enhance our sense of well-being and improve our lives.”

How Do You View Money?

In my opinion, people in the United States have a skewed view of money. Between depictions of wealth and “the good life” in the media, not to mention the incomes publicized for professional athletes and others, there’s a tendency to think more is always better.

For people living in poverty or just above, life is hand-to-mouth, and there is virtually no wiggle-room. For the rest of us, we should look at our relationship with money and its place in our lives. Many years ago, I read Your Money or Your Life (Dominguez & Robin, 1992). I highly recommend it for getting one’s head on straight about money.

Bottom Line: Consider the place of money in your life and make the most of both money and your life.

Lies, They’re Everywhere

Posted on August 6, 2024August 6, 2024 by vlaw759

For purposes of this blog, I’ve used one of the many dictionary definitions of a lie: an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker or writer to be untrue, intended to deceive. In spite of the generally held belief that lying is a bad thing, and all the admonishments of “thou shalt not lie,” people do—surprisingly often! How often? On average, a person lies 11 time per week.

Lying Statistics

Check out these statistics from Cross River Therapy, Bright Futures, and other sources across the web.

At four years of age, 90% of kids understand the meaning of lying. Typically, a child tells his or her first lie between ages 2 and 3.

Parents are the primary victims of lying, with 86% of lies being told to them.
Second to parents are friends, lied to 75% of the time.
Siblings are the third most lied to, accounting for 73% of victims.
The fourth most lied to are our spouses, lied to 69% of the time.
12% of people 18 and older lie sometimes or quite often.
Online, people lie most often on dating sites, where 90% of participants engage in untruthfulness.
On CVs and resumes, 31% of people admit to lying.
On average, people tell six lies every day, whether to supervisors, partners, spouses, or workmates.
80% of women tell half-truths on occasion.

Lying on a phone call during voice chat is 70% more likely than a face-to-face chat.
10% of all lies can be defined as exaggerations, though 60% of all those lies are considered to be deceptive.
Of all liars, 70% of them say they are willing to do it again.

Don’t Lie at the Doctor’s Office!

Lying to a medical provider can cause serious problems with your health!

Doctors hear many lies; 13% of patients admit to lying when talking to their physicians. This could be regarding the number of times one has smoked tobacco, taken medication, or engaged in intimacy without protection.
Medical providers consider stretching the truth to be a form of lying, an occurrence committed by 32% of all patients at hospitals and healthcare centers.
30% of patients have lied about their exercise routine and food-eating habits.

*Doctors and nurses can tell when you’re lying.*

Lying Research

In a study of 11,366 lies told by 632 people over 91 days, 75% of them lied between 0 or 2 times per day. 6% of the participants had low lying levels, though they lied more often on some days at random. In total, most of the lies were trivial, such as lying about how well one’s day was going.

Interestingly, one study found a link between truthfulness and health. Participants who refrained from telling any lies for ten weeks experienced improvements in their physical and mental health. Those in the control group experienced no such improvements.

During most communication, only 10% of the lies people tell are major lies. 90% of the time, the lies are trivial.

When the Lies Come Out

Everyone lies at times. When meeting someone for the first time, a person will lie to them twice or 3 times within a ten-minute time frame.

60% of people lie at least once in a 10-minute conversation.
Men lie 6 times a day on average, while women lie 3 times a day on average.
80% of women admit to lying to their partner about their spending habits.
50% of teenagers admit to lying to their parents about their whereabouts.
81% of people lie about their height, weight, or age online.

*Some politicians might be skewing these averages…*

6. Politicians lie on average once every five minutes during a debate.

One study found that people are more likely to lie in the afternoon than in the morning, suggesting that willpower and self-control may play a role in our honesty levels throughout the day.

In another study, researchers studied lies over a brief period. The variety of people’s lies tended to fluctuate. People who lie more often show greater variation than those who lie less often. The top 1% of all liars (who lied 17 times each day) had the most variance. The participants with little variance were the 1%, with nearly no instances of lying.

Why Do People Lie?

Lying allows a person to establish perceived control over a situation by manipulating it. It’s a defense mechanism that (seemingly) prevents them from being vulnerable, that is, to not open up and reveal their true self to another person.

Everyone knows that not all lies are the same. For example, the statistic above that only 10% of lies were serious. But how else can they be classified?

*“I’d love to come to your party, but I have to walk my fish.”*

21% of people lie to avoid being around other people
20% of people lie to be humorous, such as when telling a joke or making a prank
Self-protection is the reason for 14% of people who lie
13% of liars do so to make a good impression on others, or to appear more favorable to them
11% of liars do it to protect someone else
Personal gain or benefits are the reason that 9% of people tell lies
2% of liars do it with the sole intent to hurt someone else
5% of liars are unspecified, doing it for no stated reason

Fear of punishment is the most common reason for lying, with 27% of people admitting to it.

23% of people lie to protect themselves or others from harm
20% of people lie to avoid embarrassment or shame
14% of people lie to gain power or advantage over others
9% of people lie out of habit or compulsion

Who Do People Lie To?

56% of people admit to lying to their boss or supervisor.
42% of people have lied to their significant other about something significant.
39% of people have lied to their friends at least once.
28% of people have lied to a healthcare provider.
23% of people have lied to their children.
18% of people have lied on a job application.

White Lies

These are the most common type of lie, with 72% of people admitting to telling them. People often tell harmless white lies to be polite or to avoid hurting someone’s feelings.

*“What a great gift. I love it. Really.”*

Lies about personal accomplishments:
- 64% of people admit to lying in this way. These can include exaggerating one’s own achievements or skills, or taking credit for something they didn’t do.

Lies about emotions:
- 63% of people admit to telling these kinds of lies. These can include pretending to be happy when you’re really upset, or saying something doesn’t bother you when it really does.

Lies about whereabouts:
- 60% of people admit to lying about where they are at any given time. This could be because they don’t want others to know where they are, or because they want to appear more interesting than they actually are.

Target of Our Lies

According to a survey conducted by Statista in 2020, many people report that they have been lied to by someone they know:

Friends: 80%
Romantic partners: 70%
Family members: 69%
Coworkers: 64%
Acquaintances: 40%

Interestingly, the survey also found that people were more likely to be lied to by someone they knew than by a stranger. (Or maybe those are just the lies they know about!)

The Most Common Lies People Tell

“I’m fine.” This is perhaps the most common lie people tell, with 60% of people admitting to telling this lie. Often used as a response to the question “How are you?” when they’re really not feeling okay.

*“I’m right around the corner, honest!”*

“I’ll be there in five minutes.” This lie is told by 40% of people, and it’s often used when running late or stuck in traffic.

“I’m on my way.” 35% of people admit to using this lie when they’re not even close to leaving their current location.

“I didn’t see your message/call.” This is a common excuse for not responding to messages or calls, and 30% of people admit to using it.

“I have read and agree to the terms and conditions.” This lie is often used when signing up for online services, with 25% of people admitting to not actually reading the terms and conditions before agreeing to them. (I’m surprised this number isn’t higher; experts estimate we’d have to spend an average of 250 hours every year if we actually read all the terms and conditions we agree to!)

The Consequences of Lies: Damaged Trust, Legal Consequences, and More

Lying can damage trust and relationships. In a study conducted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, participants who were told that their partner had lied to them in a game were less likely to cooperate with their partner in future interactions.

*“So tell me more about your experience curing cancer and solving world hunger.”*

Lying can have negative effects on mental health. Research has found that individuals who frequently lie experience more anxiety, depression, and stress than those who are more honest.

Lying can lead to legal consequences. In a survey conducted by the American Management Association, 21% of respondents reported that they had been involved in a lawsuit where lying was a contributing factor.

Lying can damage one’s reputation and credibility. A CareerBuilder study found that 58% of employers have caught an employee lying on their resume, which could lead to termination or difficulty finding future employment opportunities.

Lying can become a habit, and frequent liars may find themselves telling lies even when there is no real benefit to doing so. This can lead to feelings of guilt and anxiety, as well as damage to personal relationships. Additionally, some people may have a pathological tendency to lie, which can be indicative of deeper psychological issues.

Psychology of Lies

To truly understand the psychology of lying, it is important to examine the underlying emotional and psychological factors that contribute to the behavior. By doing so, we can gain a greater understanding of how lying impacts our lives and the lives of those around us.

While lying is a common human behavior, some people lie more frequently than others. Here are some reasons why this might be the case:

Certain personality traits, such as narcissism or low self-esteem, may lead individuals to lie more frequently.
Growing up in an environment where lying is normalized or even encouraged can make it more likely for individuals to adopt the same behavior.
People who have experienced trauma or abuse may use lying as a coping mechanism to protect themselves or avoid further harm.

Although lying can serve a purpose in the short term, it can also have negative consequences on one’s personal and professional life. Frequent lying can damage trust and relationships with others, lead to legal issues, and cause mental health problems like anxiety and guilt.

How to Catch Lies

People tend to give verbal or physical “tells” when they aren’t being truthful.

*“And then, uh, the, um, the banana peel I slipped on, er, a dog ate it. Yeah, and then, uh, all the lights went out and so, um, nobody could see it. And that’s how I lost my pants!”*

Being vague and offering few details
Repeating questions before answering them
Repeating the same story over and over
Speaking in sentence fragments
Explaining things in strict chronological order
Sounding like they are repeating a rehearsed script
Failing to provide specific details when a story is challenged
Failing to give a straightforward response to a simple yes or no question
Grooming behaviors such as playing with hair or pressing fingers to lips
Physical changes that indicate a fight-or-flight response, like increased sweating, muscle tension, restlessness, and fidgeting

The consequences of lying are not as simple as they might seem. People often think that lies breed contempt and guilt, but they do much more.

The Upside of Lying?

They foster relationships, build trust, destroy social networks, create social networks, make people more creative, and influence how often other people lie.

Lie is a harsh word. Often people soften the act for their own self-concept or to minimize negative fallout.

For example, here are a few of the many synonyms for telling lies:

Fool	Trick
Tease	Kid
Mislead	Spoof
Bluff	Con
Misinform	Take someone in
String someone along	Blur the truth
Pull someone’s leg	Fake someone out

Bottom Line: Virtually everyone lies. Some motives are more benign than others. Some consequences are more serious than others. Not all lies can be painted with the same brush!

THE COMMON COLD

Posted on July 30, 2024July 30, 2024 by vlaw759

How common is the common cold? People in the U.S. suffer a billion colds per year!

Protein coating of common cold — *Protein coat of human rhinovirus HRV14*

Adults average 2-3 colds per year; children 6-10. Not generally dangerous, but you can feel like you’ve been hit by a truck—i.e., wiped out, tired, with sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, cough, discomfort, sneezing, headaches, and body aches. Fever is more common in children, likely to be low-grade in adults.

Cold symptoms will go away on their own over time. Sleep helps boost the immune system and can help you recover from a cold more quickly—assuming you’re able to sleep when you have a cold. For three days, I slept in a recliner, about 20 hours a day. I gather elevating the head generally helps sleep.

And how long will this misery last? Generally 3-10 days. (However, my current cold has hung on for two weeks, albeit with diminished symptoms. Oh, sigh.)

Common Cold symptom progression — *from the US Center for Disease Control*

Contrary to popular belief, cold weather or getting chilled does not cause a cold, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Yes, colds are more common in fall and winter, but you can get a cold any time of year. Seasonal frequency may be related more to seasonal activities, such as returning to school or spending more time indoors.

Cold Research

Ebers Papyrus, describing cold symptoms — *page from the Ebers Papyrus*

So why do we call it a cold anyway? The name “cold” came into use in England in the 1500s, due to the similarity between its symptoms and those of exposure to cold weather. But it’s much older than that! Cold symptoms and treatment are described in the Egyptian Ebers papyrus, the oldest existing medical text, written before the 16th century BCE.

In 1956, Harvard Hospital of Salisbury and the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom set up the Common Cold Unit (CCU). Researchers there discovered the rhinovirus in 1956. The only successful treatment the unit discovered, in 1987, for the prevention and treatment of rhinovirus colds was zinc gluconate lozenges. Two years after making this discovery, the CCU closed, in 1989.

Rhinoviruses cause an estimated 30-35% of all adult colds. Scientists had previously identified 99 distinct rhinovirus types. Recently, however, researchers have detected a number of unknown types in patients with severe flu-like illnesses. Research indicates that there may be up to 4 different species of rhinovirus.

So, 65-70% of colds (upper respiratory infections) are not caused by a rhinovirus, meaning zinc isn’t a cure-all. Other respiratory viruses that can cause colds in the United States include common human coronaviruses, parainfluenza viruses, adenoviruses, enteroviruses (including EV-D68), and human metapneumovirus. Scientists know of more than 200 different viruses that cause the symptoms of the common cold.

Cold Complications

All colds risk complications beyond the symptoms listed above.

Mild to moderate complications:

Sever complication of a cold may include pneumonia — *Public health warning from 1936*

Middle ear infections (infection behind the ear drum)
Sinus infections

Potentially severe complications:

Asthma attacks (wheezing, difficulty breathing)
Bronchiolitis (infection of the small airways)
Bronchitis (infection of the large airways)
Pneumonia (infection of the lungs)
Worsening of chronic medical conditions (for example, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure)

SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), influenza virus (the virus that causes flu), and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can also cause cold-like symptoms but do not cause colds. These respiratory viruses are more likely to cause severe illness, hospitalization or death, especially among groups at increased risk: infants, older adults, or those with underlying medical conditions or weakened immune systems.

If you have cold-like symptoms and suspect you have COVID- 19 or flu, take a COVID-19 test. This is especially important if you’re at higher risk for severe illness. Antiviral treatments are available for COVID-19 and flu and work best when started very soon after symptoms begin.

Cold, Hard Facts

I found the following “interesting facts” about colds at Ago Virax.

There are around 100 known serotypes of HRV, meaning that a vaccine cannot be made … and that we have the potential to be infected around 100 times by this virus alone. Plus, mutations cause a thus-far eternal number of new strains of the virus.
Rhinoviruses can survive for three hours outside of the body, and can sometimes live for up to 48 hours on touchable surfaces, infesting everything from door knobs and subway poles to shopping carts and light switches.
A single cold virus can have 16 million offspring within the course of a day.
Research suggests people are most contagious when symptoms are at their worst. However, sick people can also infect others even before symptoms develop.
The lower the humidity, the more moisture evaporates from sneeze and cough droplets, and the further the germs can travel. Dry air also dries out the mucous lining in our nasal passages, weakening an important protective barrier. Both of these contribute to the increase in colds during cold, dry weather.
Vitamin C won’t cure a cold. But, according to the latest scientific research, taking at least 0.2 grams of vitamin C every day may decrease the duration of a cold by a day or two.
The single best way to avoid getting a cold, aside from becoming a hermit, is to wash your hands. A lot. Use soap and wash them in water for 20 seconds. It’s cheap and easy and more effective than alcohol-based hand sanitizers. However, if you don’t have soap and water, sanitizers will still do the job.

*from Baltimore and Ohio employees’ magazine, c. 191*2

Infected people spread colds by touching their eyes, nose, and (to a lesser extent) mouth and then touching communal surfaces like doorknobs or counters.
Virus-harboring droplets can hang in the air for a few seconds after an infected person sneezes or coughs, waiting to infect the unwary.
While a person’s breath can travel one meter per second, droplets from a sneeze can travel at about 160 kilometers per hour.
A single sneeze can spray 100,000 germs into the air … which is why you should keep 6 feet of distance from a sneezing sick person.

Cold Comfort

And finally, a bit of good news: most cold viruses are not spread by saliva. Thus, kissing itself is not likely to transmit the common cold. (Unfortunately, if you’re close enough to be kissing, you are probably close enough to succumb.)

*“Man with a Cold” from Yamai no Soshi (Diseases and Deformities) c.1615, Japan*

Bottom Line: There’s no vaccine for the common cold, and no known cure. If it truly is a common cold, prepare to just suffer through it!

KNOW WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS

Posted on July 23, 2024July 22, 2024 by vlaw759

I just found out that the US now has a derecho season every year. Reading about it lead me to all the fascinating and bizarre ways wind impacts the rest of the weather, many of which I discussed in this post from 2021.

According to the wind sock above, the wind when the photo was taken was blowing at about 6 knots (7mph). The sky is clear, the sun is bright, and there are no flying sharks. Unless you live in England or Seattle, this is nothing to write home about.

Even though you can’t actually see it, wind can create some pretty incredible things to write home about. Our ancestors definitely thought the wind was worth writing about, especially when it picked up everything around and sent it flying through the air.

Like snow, there are seemingly endless names for specific types of winds. If you really want to know about the difference between piteraq and bora winds, check out the World Meteorological Organization or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration websites. I’ve included some of the most spectacular and most mythological wind events here.

Dust Devils

Suppose you experienced a Dust Devil? A small dust devil, say 18 inches wide and a few yards tall is a sight to behold. A BIG dust devil—say 33 feet wide and 1000 feet tall—can be terrifying!

An extreme dust devil can reach 60 mph and last up to 20 minutes. In the process, it could lift more than 12 tons of dirt, and the friction between wind and surface can create sparks often mistaken for lightning. In fact, dust devils are not associated with storms.

Dust devils have been known to lift roofs and collapse buildings, sometimes killing people. There are reports of them flinging animals and 10-year-old children about. Inflatable bounce houses are especially vulnerable.

Where do they come from? When hot air at ground level rises quickly and hits a pocket of cool/cold air, it can start to spin, forming a column of air. The spinning, along with friction from the surface, allows the column to move, picking up dust along the way. Dust devils are especially likely in deserts. Usually they cause little damage.

Other Names for Dust Devils

Dancing devil
Dirt devil
Dust whirl
Sand auger
Sand pillar
Redemoinho in Brazil
Remoinho in Portugal
Willy willy or whirly whirly in Australia

Beliefs About Dust Devils

Saci-Perere living in the wind of a dust devil — *Saci*-Pererê *by J. Marconi*

Chindi is the Navajo term for spirit or ghost
- Good spirits whirl clockwise; bad spirits spin counterclockwise
Ngoma cia aka is the word for women’s spirit/ demon or women’s evil among the Kikuyu in Kenya
Fasset el ‘afreet from Egypt, meaning ghost wind
- Many traditions on the Arabian peninsula include a djinn or afreet/ ifrit inside the column of dust
According to Brazilian legend, Saci-Pererê lives inside the dust devil and grant wishes to anyone who can steal his magic cap

More Devilish Wind

*Everything is more awesome on Mars, even dust devils.*

Martian dust devils form the same way as on Earth, but bigger: up to 10 times as high and 50 times as wide, with mini-lightning flashes. Dust devil trails on earth’s deserts usually disappear in a couple of days; on Mars, they remain visible (so I’m told) for weeks.

Snow devils develop when a strong wind hits a solid object (like a mountain), spins downward and lifts up snow, creating a vortex. They usually last only a few minutes, and they are small (seldom more than 30 feet across). Still not something one would want to be out in.

Fire whirls, aka fire devils or fire tornadoes, develop a vortex inside a wildfire. They are whirling columns of fire rising up into the air. They carry ash, debris, and smoke and feed the fire and spread it. There have also been reports of fire whirls at volcanos and during earthquakes.

Haboob (هَبوب‎) is a kind of huge dirt devil that can appear in deserts around the world, including the U.S., associated with thunderstorms. When the rain is released, it causes sand to blow up, making a wall of sand that precedes the storm. Haboobs can be several miles high and 60 miles wide.

Tornadoes

There are many varieties of tornado beyond those that transport Kansas farm houses to Munchkinland.

*Composite photo showing the development of a tornado*

The actual definition of a tornado is a bit fuzzy, even among the experts. They can’t seem to agree on when one tornado stops and another starts. The swirling wind tunnel has to touch the ground and the clouds at the same time before it counts (that’s why gustnadoes aren’t really tornadoes, though I’ll include them here for ease of reference). Tornado experts judge tornado strength by size, wind speed, and distance over the rainbow it can throw a farmhouse.

Gustnadoes

Gustnadoes are closely related to dust devils, short-lived and ground based, but they have stronger winds (maybe as strong as weak tornadoes) and develop over open plains areas of the U.S. They don’t form funnels and may go unnoticed. Though a gustnado can cause serious damage, it’s not tall enough to register as a tornado.

Other Weird Winds

Firestorm

A firestorm develops when a fire becomes so big and intense that it creates its own storm-force wind systems. Firestorms are most often associated with wildfires and brush fires, but they can also be created when large sections of densely built cities catch fire.

Sandstorm

Sandstorms (aka dust storms) don’t whirl or spin. It’s essentially a wall of wind that pushes sand in a more-or-less straight line. Wind strength can be strong enough to pick and move entire sand dunes great distances. Sandstorms occur worldwide, wherever deserts are found.

Khamsin

Each spring, areas along the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Arabian peninsula are hit by a khamsin (خمسين from Arabic word for 50). The khamsin is a 50-day wind that coats everything in sand and dirt.

In 2009, archaeologists may have found remains that appear to be those of a Persian army of more than 50,000 that vanished in 525 BCE. A strong wind that blew up from the south is suspected of covering them in suffocating mounds of sand.

Downburst

A downburst occurs when the downdraft of a thunderstorm hits the ground and forces the air to gust outward and curl backward. As it moves horizontally, the wind can cause extensive damage to everything it passes over. The wind curling backward can cause further damage, creating tornadoes, waterspouts, snow devils, sharknadoes, and fire whirls.

A macroburst happens when an extremely strong downdraft hits the ground. Horizontal gusts cover an area more than 4 km in diameter. These gusts can be as destructive as a tornado.

Microbursts are smaller in size and shorter in duration. A microburst is less than 4 km across and short-lived, lasting only five to 10 minutes, with maximum windspeeds sometimes exceeding 100 mph.

Derecho

A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. A typical derecho consists of numerous microbursts, downbursts, and downburst clusters. By definition, if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles (about 400 kilometers) and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) or greater along most of its length, then the event may be classified as a derecho.

Ground Blizzard

Unlike regular blizzards, ground blizzards don’t involve any snow falling from the sky, but they are still deadly. Instead, snow that is already on the ground is whipped into whiteout conditions by an extreme cold front. Temperatures plummet, and snow on the ground is picked up by wind gusts up to 60mph. The Arctic cold fronts that cause ground blizzards also cause extreme low temperatures.

*A Sand Wind on the Desert by George Francis Lyon*

Every one of these wind events have been known to kill people! In addition, extremely hot or cold winds can do the same. Though we usually can’t see the air itself, the effects are pretty amazing!

Godly Winds

Wind Spirits — Riders of the Sidhe, by John Duncan 1911
In Irish folklore, the Sidhe or Aos Si are the supernatural pantheon. Sidhe is used to mean fairies, but the Old Irish translation is “wind” or “gust.”

Deities connected to the wind are often closely related to those of the air. In many traditions, the same deity governs the air and the wind. Cultures heavily reliant on changes in the wind, such as seafaring communities or nomadic groups on open plains, tend to have more detailed and powerful wind and air gods.

One of the most famous wind gods in mythology is Aeolus, the Greek god governing all winds, who was closely involved in Odysseus’s voyage home. He is certainly not the only supernatural being in charge of the wind and air.

Wind Deity — *Njörðr, Viking god of wind and sailors*

Superhero Winds

If that’s not enough to convince you that wind and air hold a prominent position in our collective subconscious, just look at how many modern superheroes (and villains) have the names and powers of wind phenomena.

Wind Superhero — *Cyclone in the DC Universe*

Bottom Line: We tend to think in terms of breezes or stiff winds, but there’s so much more to wind than that!

Surprising Salvia

Posted on July 16, 2024July 15, 2024 by vlaw759

For the first time, I have three salvia (SAL-vee-uh) plants in my yard, chosen by another, planted for their blooms. I wanted to know more. And what I learned at KidsHealth and Australia’s Alcohol and Drug Foundation surprised me!

You may also know salvia as diviner’s sage, magic mint, maria pastora, sally-d, seer’s sage, and shepherdess’s herb.

Please note: what follows is readily available information. I’m absolutely not recommending any particular use of salvia.

Psychedelic Salvia

It’s an herb in the mint family that can cause brief, intense psychedelic experiences. Salvinorin A is the active ingredient in salvia divinorum. Native to the mountains of southern Mexico, salvia has a long history of use by Indigenous shamans there.

Salvinorin A affects opioid receptors in the brain. This differs from other hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and psychedelic mushrooms, which affect the brain’s levels of serotonin. As a psychedelic drug, it can affect all the senses, altering a person’s thinking, sense of time, and emotions. Psychedelics can cause a person to hallucinate, seeing or hearing things that do not exist or appear distorted.

As a drug, salvia comes as fresh green plant leaves, dried shredded leaves, or a liquid extract. Traditionally, users chewed the fresh salvia leaves or drank the extract, but now people take the drug in a variety of ways. A user can also smoke the dried leaves in a bong or mixed with tobacco as a cigarette. For sublingual absorption, a user holds the fresh leaves under the tongue.

Salvia’s effects come on quickly, sometimes in less than a minute. According to anecdotal user reports, when smoked the effects of salvia begin in 15 to 60 seconds and last for about 15 to 90 minutes. When placed under the tongue, the effects begin in around 10 to 20 minutes and last for about 30 to 120 minutes.

Savlia’s Side Effects

Psychoactive drugs affect a person’s mental state and can have varied effects depending on a person’s mood or mindset (often called the ‘set’) and/or the environment they are in (the ‘setting’). Salvia’s effects on the mind can range from mild to intense. They may be frightening, depending on how strong a dose of the drug someone takes.

(Factors affecting the effects of psychedelic drugs is too big a topic to include here, but info is readily available online.)

Common short-term effects include

Hallucinations and changes in visual perception
Uncontrolled laughter
Mood and emotional swings
Difficulty concentrating
Sense of detachment from self and reality (not being able to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imaginary)
Dizziness and lightheadedness
Lack of coordination
Slurred speech
Amnesia
Loss of energy (higher doses can cause sedation)
Pain relief
Confusion
Delusion
Feelings of impending doom
Increased appreciation of music
Uncontrolled body movements
Anxiety
Restlessness
Increased body temperature
Time distortion

Some studies suggest that, over time, salvia use may contribute to dysphoria, which is characterized by feelings of depression, discontent, and restlessness.

Smoking salvia over a long period of time can lead to breathing trouble and other health problems.

Because the drug has such dramatic psychological effects, it can seriously impair coordination and perceptions of reality; people under its influence expose themselves to a substantial risk of injury or accidental death.

Salvia and the Law

In many areas, salvia is perfectly legal and widely available. Stores sell it as a tincture or tea in some countries, or even as commercially extracted products.

However, salvia is illegal in a number of foreign countries and in many American states. Salvia is a schedule 9 drug. Federal and state laws provide penalties for possessing, using, making, selling, importing or exporting, or driving under the influence of salvia. Possession or use of salvia in states where it is illegal is punishable by fines and jail time.

This last bit gave me an adrenaline rush. But common sense soon surfaced: a garden center wasn’t likely to be selling salvia divinorum. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to find out just what kind of salvia I have. As best I can determine, it is salvia coerulea.

Salvia’s Other Uses

Most salvias are considered non-toxic to people of any age. Many ornamental varieties have a noxious taste, but there are no known toxic qualities when consumed by humans. (In large quantities, salvia can be toxic to dogs, causing symptoms like vomiting, depression, and breathing difficulties.) So, although ornamental salvias are not poisonous, they’re nothing you’d want to put in soup.

The edible salvias are usually referred to as sage, like the Salvia officinalis used to flavor roasted chicken and turkey. In fact, there are several edible varieties that are used in everyday seasonings.

Sage’s leaves are very pungent when raw, which is why most chefs recommend cooking them before eating. However, the flowers are reputed to have a delicate taste that makes a nice garnish in salads or sauces. They are great for the pollinators too!

According to WebMD, sage might help with chemical imbalances in the brain that cause problems with memory and thinking skills. It might also change how the body uses insulin and sugar.

People commonly use sage for memory and thinking skills, high cholesterol, and symptoms of menopause. Some people also use it for pain after surgery or to treat lung cancer, sore throat, sunburn, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.

Bottom Line: Know your salvia and use accordingly!

BETTER KNOW YOUR BODY

Posted on July 9, 2024July 9, 2024 by vlaw759

Everybody has one. But how much do you really know about your body?

Skin

Let’s start with your largest and most visible organ: your skin. You probably aren’t precisely average, but these “average” data will give you an idea of how you compare.

World Body Painting Festival — *Artist: Birgit Linke, Austria*

If you are average, your skin weighs 6-9 or 7.5-22 pounds, depending on your source. According to the NIH Library of Medicine, skin makes up approximately 1/7 of your body weight.
Again, if you are average, you have approximately 21 square feet of skin.
Organ donation can include skin.
The average person has about 300 million skin cells. One square inch of skin has about 19 million cells.
The entire surface of your skin is replaced every month, which put another way means you have about 1,000 different skins in your life!
This skin renewal every 27-28 days involves sloughing off the old cells.
Your skin constantly sheds dead cells, about 30,000 to 40,000 cells every minute!
- (That’s nearly 9 lbs. per year. On the low end, other sources say you slough off roughly 1.5 pounds of dead skin a year, equal to about 3 ½ cups of sugar.)

Dead skin comprises about a billion tons of dust in the earth’s atmosphere.
Some sources estimate that more than half of household dust is actually dead skin, others say 70%, but much depends on number of people, pets, etc.
Scar tissue is different from normal skin because it lacks hair and sweat glands.
The color of human skin is determined by the level of pigment melanin that the body produces. Those with small amounts of melanin have light skin while those with large amounts have dark skin.
Genital skin is darker than other skin: nipples, anus, and genitals are more sensitive to sex hormones acting on melanocytes. The contrast increases during puberty and pregnancy.
Your skin has at least five different types of receptors that respond to pain and touch.
The loose skin on your elbow, known scientifically as olecranal skin or colloquially as the weenus, is basically nature’s Silly Puddy because there are fewer sensory neurons located there. That means you can keep kneading it all day long, and as hard as you want.

When it comes to skin, we tend to notice attractiveness, color, roughness, and wrinkles. But skin is functional as well as ornamental. It keeps everything on the inside from coming out. In addition, it also helps regulate temperature, provides touch and sensation, allows us to move without restriction (not too tight or too loose), heals and regenerates constantly, and much more.

Blood and Heart

Your skin contains more than 11 miles of blood vessels.
Your blood makes up about eight percent of your body weight.
Laid end to end, an adult’s blood vessels could circle Earth’s equator four times!
This includes veins, arteries, and communicating little capillaries that move between both.
Pus is a build-up of white blood cells.
The human heart beats more than three billion times in an average lifespan.
Humans are the only species known to blush.
Your heart beats around 100000 times a day, 36500000 times a year and over a billion times if you live beyond 30.
Inside your bones are tiny tubes filled with blood vessels called osteons. They are to bones what rings are to trees. The percentage of large osteons increases with age.
If you live to age 70, your heart will have beat around 2.5 billion times!

Sweat

The body has 2.5 million sweat pores.
A single square inch of skin has up to 300 sweat glands.
Earwax is actually a type of sweat!
There are two different types of sweat glands.
- Eccrine glands secrete salty water when body temperature gets too high.
- Apocrine glands in the armpits (and a few other areas) secrete an oily, opaque substance that gains its characteristic scent from the bacteria in the area.
Sweat caused by mental or emotional distress is released by apocrine glands.
Your body needs time to adapt its sweat production in high temperatures, allowing you to produce sweat more quickly and with less salt and potassium.
When you’re too hot—or you lose your cool—your nerves send signals to open millions of glands, allowing sweat to flow. It pools by your armpits, palms, feet, head, and genitals.
Germs love to swim, so they thrive in sweat. Sweat on its own doesn’t smell bad. It’s the bacteria that mix with it.

Body Products

Your mouth produces about one-two liters of saliva each day!
Babies don’t shed tears until they’re at least one month old.
What we eat directly effects urine and feces. For example, you might notice red or pink after bingeing on beets. Or changes in your urine eating asparagus.
- Note: Although asparagus affects the chemistry of everyone’s urine, some people are able to smell it and others aren’t—whether their own or someone else’s.
You produce about 40,000 liters of spit in your lifetime. Or to put it another way, enough spit to fill around five hundred bathtubs.
The average nose produces about a cupful of nasal mucus every day.
On average, you fart enough in one day to fill a party balloon.
We urinate enough every month to fill a bath!
Every second, you produce 25 million cells.

Brain and Nervous System

Your brain is the fattest organ in the body, approximately 60%. It needs essential fatty acids to perform adequately.
The brain uses over a quarter of the oxygen used by the human body.
Your brain is sometimes more active when you’re asleep than when you’re awake.
Humans have a stage of sleep that features rapid eye movement (REM). REM sleep makes up around 25% of total sleep time and is often when you have your most vivid dreams.
Information zooms along nerves at about 400k mph!
Everyone is familiar with forgetting, but additionally, our brain re-writes memories each time we think of them, slowly altering or twisting them over time.
Some of the nerves in your skin are connected to muscles instead of the brain, sending signals (through the spinal cord) to react more quickly to heat, pain, etc.

Muscles

The word “muscle” comes from Latin term (musculus) meaning “little mouse“, which is what Ancient Romans thought flexed bicep muscles resembled.
Your heart is the only muscle that doesn’t get tired.
Gluteus maximus is the Latin name for the largest muscle in your body, your behind. You have two of them, one for each cheek. These powerful muscles serve as a cushion when you sit down, but when flexed tight, they keep you upright.
Few muscles are as hard-working as the tongue. By day, it twists to form the sounds you speak and pushes around the food you eat. While you sleep, your tongue moves saliva down your throat.
Dentist Stuart Froum coined the term “curious tongue” to describe the reflex most people have to move their tongue to investigate foreign objects in the mouth, including dental drills.
The strongest muscle in the human body is the jaw (masseter).
A healthy jaw can close teeth with a force of up to 200 pounds.

Eyes

Your eyes can get sunburned. The symptoms include headache, eye pain and redness, tearing, blurred vision, twitching, and feeling gritty. Sunglasses can prevent sunburn, and symptoms typically resolve themselves after 48 hours.
Your eye is your fastest muscle. The orbicularis oculi is capable of contracting in less than 1/100th of a second.
A blink typically can last 100-150 milliseconds.
Infants blink only once or twice a minute while adults average between 10 and 20.
Women blink 19 times per minute compared to 11 per minute for men. This may relate to estrogen levels, which can make the cornea more elastic, changing how light waves travel through the eye.
- That’s over ten million times a year!
You blink more when talking and less when you are reading. This is why you get tired eyes when reading.

Only two percent of the population have green eyes. The largest concentration of green-eyed peoples is in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern Europe.
- All races (Asian, African, Caucasian, Pacific Islanders, Arabic, Hispanic, and the indigenous peoples of the Americas) can have green eyes.
All babies are born with blue or brown eyes. Green eyes can take between six months and three years to appear in children.
By three months, our eyes are the same size that they will ever be as the corneas have reached their full width. Human eyes grow rapidly in the womb and for the first three months after birth.

Noses

Our bodies give one nostril a break while the other is active – we just don’t know we do it. We naturally tend to alternate breathing from one nostril then the other, which helps keep the air we breathe moist so as not to irritate our lungs.
Noses and ears do not continue to grow during adulthood. They do change shape, however, due to skin changes and gravity.
Scientists estimate that the nose can recognize a trillion different scents!
Identical twins smell the same. No surprise there!
Researchers at Rockefeller University estimated that humans can detect at least a trillion distinct smells.
In general, females are more sensitive to odors than males.
Your sense of smell is around 10000 times more sensitive than your sense of taste.

GI Tract

As well as having unique fingerprints, humans also have unique tongue prints.
It takes the body around 12 hours to completely digest eaten food.
When meds are to be taken “on an empty stomach” that means an hour before or two hours after eating.
You can’t breathe and swallow simultaneously (though I bet you’ve accidentally tried at some point in your life, likely with painful results).
On average, your intestines are 25 feet long from end to end. Your small intestine is over 20 feet. And while your large intestine is wider around, it’s only about 5 feet in length.
Your intestines are always moving, a continuous wavy motion called peristalsis. Or when vomiting, reverse-peristalsis.
Stomach acid can melt metal—at least certain metals, such as zinc. Digestive juices in the gut contain hydrochloric acid. They rank just below battery acid on the pH scale.

Who Else is in Your Body?

Your skin is home to more than 1,000 species of bacteria.
Your face is host to bugs too tiny to see. Your hairline, eye sockets, and lashes are favorite hiding places. If they get out of control, they can cause skin problems or eye infections.
200 to 500 million different species of call your intestines home and play a crucial role in breaking down and digesting everything you eat.
About 2,400 different germs call the belly button home.
The average person has 67 different species of bacteria in their belly button.

Your Asymmetrical Body

The two sides of your face are not alike. If you take a photo of your face and divide it down the middle, then replicate each half, the faces look different enough for people to judge one face better looking than the other!
One side of your body is bigger than the other, with bigger hand and foot.
Your left lung is about 10 percent smaller than your right one.
It is possible to be “flipped.” Patients with dextrocardia have their heart on the right side of the body and the left lung is slightly larger. Depending on the patient, the liver, appendix, stomach, etc. may also be on the opposite side of the body.

Aging

Every new cell is reproduced from the template of our DNA. Therefore, it’s not surprising that this DNA template gets worn away and errors occur as we age.

But the aging body is beyond the scope here!

Bits and Pieces

All humans share about 99.9% of our DNA with other humans. For comparison, we share 98% with pigs, and 60% with bananas!
Adult lungs have a surface area of around 70 square meters!
Human teeth are just as strong as shark teeth.
Human teeth are almost as hard as opal. Diamonds have a hardness of 10,teeth are at 5.
You are about 1cm taller in the morning when you first get up than when you go to bed. This is because during the day the soft cartilage between your bones gets squashed and compressed.
You are also lighter when you first get up. During sleep, you exhale water vapor and tiny amounts of carbon as a byproduct of digestion.
Some penises “grow” more than 4 centimeters when aroused. I found nothing about any relationship between this and any aspect of sexual functioning.
Vaginas range from 2.7 to 3.1 inches. When aroused, the depth ranges from 4.3 to 4.7 inches.
Men are more sensitive to caffeine; women are more sensitive to alcohol.
Your fingernails grow three times faster than toenails, explained by the hands having more blood pumping through them. In colder climates, nails grow more slowly.
The smallest bone found in the human body is located in the middle ear. The stapes (or stirrup) bone is only 2.8 millimeters long.
Spread across their lifetime, most people spend an average of one whole year sitting on the toilet.

Bottom Line: Know your body well as a path to taking good care of it!

Happy 4th of July!

Posted on July 2, 2024July 1, 2024 by vlaw759

Enjoy the holiday, and I’ll be back next week!

Playing Games with Words

Posted on June 25, 2024June 25, 2024 by vlaw759

Recently I had a dream that involved seeing how many words I could make from “Texas Hold ‘Em.” That felt so weird that the memory stuck with me. Subsequently I decided to give it a go, and ended up with 78 words using those letters, only those letters, and each letter only as often as it appeared in those words—i.e., words with two e’s were acceptable but two t’s, d’s, etc., weren’t.

That led me to thinking about other word games. As so many do these days, I started my search online. And, as so often is the case, up popped Wikipedia.

Wikipedia defines Word Games as spoken, board, card or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties. I couldn’t find any other definitions online.

Most people see word games as a source of entertainment, but they can serve an additional educational purpose. Among the academically best performing children, 35% had parents who encouraged them to play word games. Many young children enjoy playing games such as Hangman, while developing language skills like spelling. ESL teachers often include word games in their classrooms to help students learn to recognize and use English words in context.

Benefits of Word Games

Contrary to the stereotype of young people being the primary demographic for online games, word games attract players of all ages. A 2020 Statista report suggested that people aged 25 to 54 make up nearly 60% of word game players.

And adults can reap benefits of such brain work as well. Researchers have found that adults who regularly solved crossword puzzles, which require familiarity with a larger vocabulary, had better brain function later in life.

Indeed, over time, playing word games improves problem-solving and analytical skills. Often these games require players to think and use other cognitive skills at the same time.

According to a 2024 article in Parade, the reason word games are good for brain health is that they can improve attention, verbal fluency, memory, and processing speed. All these skills can decline with age. One 68-year-long study found a link between playing word games and better cognitive health in old age.

According to a 2022 PBS broadcast, people who have a high need for cognition tend to seek out mental challenges like word game and puzzles. The results cited above are all correlational results, i.e., that is, as game playing habits go up, the positive brain measures go up as well, but maybe the cause, is actually something else, like a high need for cognition that accounts for both.

Depending on the situation, word games can play a soporific role as well. Because they require concentration and lateral thinking, they can distract the player from stress and anxiety. Many require nothing but the player’s mind, making them perfect to play in bed, on a plane, while stuck in a boring meeting, etc. A friend told me she plays an alphabet game when she has trouble falling asleep. I seem to be playing anagrams even after I’ve fallen asleep!

Word Game Categories

(Unless otherwise noted, the following information is from the Wikipedia article.)

Letter Arrangement Games

The goal of a letter arrangement game is to form words out of given letters. In addition to testing vocabulary skills, these games test lateral thinking skills. Scrabble, UpWords, Bananagrams, and Countdown are popular examples of letter arrangement games.

FYI: Around the world, approximately 150 million copies of Scrabble have been sold.

Note: This is where anagrams would fit best, although not mentioned in the article. On the other hand, it involves paper and pencil, so maybe it also fits the following.

Paper and Pencil Games

Paper and pencil game players write down their answers, following the specific constraints laid out in the game rules. Crossword players fill in a grid by following clues or solving riddles. Hangman players try to guess their opponent’s word or phrase before their opponent is able to draw a stick figure hanging from a gallows. Categories, Boggle, and word searches are other popular examples of paper and pencil word games.

Semantic Games

Semantic games focus on the meanings and context of words. Players rely on their shared knowledge of denotation and connotation to combine words in amusing ways. Popular semantic games include Mad Libs, Blankety Blank, and Codenames.

Modern Word Games

Game designers have taken advantage of technological advancements to create non-traditional word games for computers or mobile phones. Many of these newer games take advantage of the technology to include more complex rules.

Codenames, Decrypto, and Anomia all have popular digital formats, allowing players to participate on teams while in different physical locations. Modern audiences also eagerly play word games with mobile formats, such as Letterpress, Words with Friends, and Word Connect.

Technology and Word Games

Since Spelling Bee first aired on the BBC in 1938, the first televised game show, word games have been a constant offering on radio and television. Airing continuously since 1975, Wheel of Fortune is the longest-running syndicated game show in the United States.

The popularity (and relative low cost) of word games has led producers to adapt many word games to fit a radio or television format. Some shows revolve entirely around a word game, while others include elements of popular word games mixed in. Shows like Lingo, Says You!, Task Master, Catchphrase, Family Feud, and Only Connect are among the highest-rated shows on television.

*Ukranian Wordle, using the Ukranian alphabet*

Wordle was the most frequently downloaded game of the year after it was launched in January 2022. Its player base grew to tens of millions worldwide. Players claim it involves a lot of strategy as well as a broad vocabulary.

As of 2022, the annual number of word games app downloads is 1.42 billion. And nearly half of Americans believe that playing word games is a productive way to spend time. With 78.03% of word games app revenue generated in the U.S. ($1.74 billion) players are everywhere! And there are games for virtually every taste, so choose your poison.

Many of these games allow the player to select the language of play. This makes those games an ideal method of practicing vocabulary for people learning a new language. Playing June’s Journey or Drops is a lot more fun than memorizing Spanish flash cards.

To Play Alone or Together?

Several word games suit both sociable and loner players. Games like Scrabble virtually always involve multiple players. Many online games are played alone but players can get comparative stats for others who use the app. Still other games—such as anagrams—can be done informally and alone, but can also be made competitive when multiple people start with the same prompt and there is a time limit.

*Comic by Ben Orlin, MathWithBadDrawings*

Texas Hold ‘Em was so enjoyable that I did other anagrams:

Encyclopedia (102)
Thanksgiving Day (87)
Echo chamber (61)
Cat on a hot tin roof (88)
Valentine’s Day (104)
Vegetables (99)
Writing life (a puny 57)
Plant watering (135)
Orthopedic surgeon (135)

Let me know if/when you beat my numbers!

Bottom Line: Games are everywhere, they may be good for your brain, and they seem to pose no threats. So go for it!

BEACH READS 2024

Posted on June 18, 2024June 16, 2024 by vlaw759

Operational definition of beach reads: anything that’s read at the beach! Many of you know that I poll family members about their reading during our annual gathering at the beach. This year we were fourteen people, ages 15-93.

Actually, there was less reading than usual going on this year. One woman was submitting her thesis for a master’s degree in public health and another was job hunting. One man had two work-related zoom sessions. Two people had major cold symptoms, and one of those spiked a temperature a bit over 102—with weakness, sweats, and chills—and ended up in the ER from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., with two others in attendance.

Nevertheless, without attribution, in no particular order, here is the list:

The Face of Another, Kobo Abe
Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
The Husband’s Secret, Lian Moriarty
American Nations, Colin Woodard
Honeysuckle Season, Mary Ellen Taylor
Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
Spare, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

A Most Remarkable Creature, Jonathan Meiburg
Hidden Mountains: Survival and Reckoning after a Climb Gone Wrong, Michael Wejchert
Mrs. Digger’s Roots, Eleanor Friedlander and Wendy J. Collins
Here Comes the Postman, Dorothea Park
The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson
Brewed Awakening, Cleo Coyle
Sense of Deception, Victoria Laurie
Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns, and the Future of Choosing Snow, Heather Hansman

Bottom Line: I can’t speak for or against any of these, merely put them forth as books chosen by people I love.

LICENSE TO DRIVE

Posted on June 11, 2024June 10, 2024 by vlaw759

There’s nothing like a road trip to make me notice license plates even more than usual. I recently spent twelve days in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and, not surprisingly, their iconic plates were everywhere.

A local confirmed what I had heard before, that lower numbered plates are more prestigious, and that license plate numbers can be bequeathed, bought, or sold. In order to retain ownership of a license plate, before completing the sale or finalizing the trade of a vehicle, the owner must bring the title to the DMV. The fee to retain a plate is $35. There is a $20 fee to take the plate out of retention.

As I looked into Delaware plates, I learned a lot about other states as well.

History of License Plates

*Maybe charioteers marked the license number on the horse!*

License plates, also known as vehicle registration plates and license tags, must be displayed on every car and truck on the road in the United States these days. But identifying vehicles is far from a recent development.

The earliest references to vehicle registration and possibly license plates date back to ancient Rome at the time of Julius Caesar (102 – 44 B.C.). There are references to the licensing of chariots, but whether a number was marked on the chariot itself or onto an attachment to the vehicle is not known.

What may have happened during the intervening centuries is a mystery. However, there must have been developments in Victorian England in the 1880s. In The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try unsuccessfully to catch a public Hansom cab. Holmes, however, got close enough to the cab to spot its license number, which became a major clue in cracking the case.

Early American Vehicles

*1894 New York horseless carriage registration*

Delaware first required its residents to register their motor vehicles in 1905. Registrants provided their own license plates until 1909, when the state began to issue plates.

However, as of April 25, 1901, New York became the first state to require license plates on cars. The first New York plates were homemade, displaying the owner’s initials without any numbers. These first license plates were typically handcrafted of leather or metal (iron) and were meant to denote ownership via the initials.

California required license plates the next year.

Massachusetts was the first state to actually issue plates, beginning in 1903. The first such plate, featuring just the number “1,” was issued to Frederick Tudor, who was working with the highway commission. One of his relatives still holds an active registration on the 1 plate.

These early Massachusetts license plates were made of iron and covered in porcelain enamel. The background was cobalt blue and the number was white. Along the top of the plate, also in white, were the words: “MASS. AUTOMOBILE REGISTER.” The size of the plate was not constant, growing wider as the plate number reached into the tens, hundreds, and thousands.

Massachusetts was the first to issue license plates, but by 1918, all 48 of the contiguous United States were issuing license plate. Although territories at the time, Alaska and Hawaii began issuing plates in 1921 and 1922, respectively.

Variations Among States

*Washington DC plates carry an additional message*

Although the first license plates were meant to be semi-permanent, by the 1920s, states had begun mandating renewal for personal vehicle registration. Individual states tried various methods for creating the plates. The front typically contained registration numbers in large, centered digits while smaller lettering on one side dictated the abbreviated state name and a two- or four-digit year the registration was valid during. States often varied plate color from one year to the next to make it easier for police to identify expired registrations.

*1951 Tennessee plate shaped like the state*

Since 1957, most types of North American plates have been a standard size, six by twelve inches. Prior to that, different sizes and shapes were common. Most were rectangular, but some plates used oval, square, round, and triangular shapes as well. For a number of years, Kansas and Tennessee cut their plates to match the shape of the state itself.

Delaware was the last state to adapt to the 1957 changeover to standard-size 6″x 12″ license plates, and remains the only state with [historic] non-standard size plates in current use.

The majority of Delaware’s black porcelain plates in use today are reproduction copies of the original series one style. In 1986 Delaware’s Division of Motor Vehicles legalized the manufacture of accurate replicas due to popular demand. There is only one company actively supplying the demand for these plates, the Delaware Historic Plate Company. Delaware is the only state that allows the private manufacture of legal license plates, and the only state to have retained the famous (among license plate aficionados) porcelain plates in the modern era.

License Plates Today

The modern Delaware style of reflective gold on blue was first introduced in 1958. Delaware DMV added “THE FIRST STATE” slogan four years later.

The style of Delaware’s license plate has not changed much in about 50 years. The black onyx and heritage gold colored Centennial License Plate [2005] was a celebration of 100 years of state-issued license plates.

In the U.S., each state’s Department of Motor Vehicles issues vehicle registration plates. The only plates issued by the federal government are for their federal vehicle fleet or for cars owned by foreign diplomats.

*License plate issued by Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota*

Note: some Indigenous groups in America also issue their own registrations to members, but many states now offer a special registration.

New Mexico is the only state that specifies “USA” on its license plates, in order to avoid confusion with the country of Mexico, which it borders.

Initially, license plates were issued in pairs. During WWII, due to material shortages, most states dropped the requirement for a front plate. As of 2023, the “Rugged Nineteen” states still require only one plate:

Alabama	Arizona
Arkansas	Delaware
Florida	Georgia
Indiana	Kansas
Kentucky	Louisiana
Michigan	Mississippi
New Mexico	North Dakota
Oklahoma	Pennsylvania
South Carolina	Tennessee
West Virginia

Modern Standards

Even today, there’s no nation-wide standard for how many letters/numbers are on a license plate. Some states have six-character plates, some have seven-character plates and yet others have eight-character plates.

As of 2023, the four oldest plate designs in use – each with slight to moderate cosmetic changes since inception – are those of Delaware (in production since 1959), Colorado (since 1960, continuously since 1978), the District of Columbia (since 1975, and Minnesota (since 1978).

It’s been many years since all of a state’s license plates looked alike. Today, the 50 states and the District of Columbia offer 8331 different vehicle license plate designs.

Jon Keegan, an investigative data reporter, has published a complete list of all license plate designs in the US. He found that Maryland has the most plate designs of any state: 989, nearly twice as many as runner-up Texas (476). Hawaii has the fewest, with just 14. You can discover more intriguing tidbits from Keegan’s survey and search the database for yourself here.

License plates in Delaware feature up to seven characters. Prefixes indicate the type of vehicle or organization they represent. The state originally used the letter C only for trucks and vans. However, they introduced “CL” when they started to run out of numbers.

The number of possible license plate numbers depends on the format of the license plate. If the plate consists of 6 digits and letters, then there are 2,176,782,336 possible license plate numbers. If the plate consists of 7 digits and letters, then there are 78,364,164,096 possible license plate numbers.

Vanity License Plates

Virginia offers 333 basic plate designs. Drivers can personalize most of these designs for an additional fee. Vanity plates such as HRD TME, GR8 BOD, etc., are common. In fact, one out of every ten personalized license plates in the United States is registered to a Virginia driver. Perhaps this high take-up of vanity plates is due to the fact that a personalized plate in Virginia costs just $10 more than a randomly-assigned number.

Look, too, for vanity in New Hampshire, Illinois, Nevada and Montana, but car and truck owners in Virginia are the vainest of them all.

In Delaware, the DMV will no longer accept or process new vanity plate requests. The DMV has already stopped processing all pending vanity license plate requests as of Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Existing vanity license plates that have been issued prior to the Court’s decision currently remain eligible for renewal.

Government Plates

Politicians and elected officials have long had access to colorful, special, low-numbered plates. In Virginia, if you see a regular license plate that is 1, that is the Governor’s official car. The Lt. Gov. is 1A, the Attorney General A1, the Governor’s unofficial car is A, and prior Governors are 2, 3, 4, etc.

In Delaware, 1 is for the Governor, 2 for the Lt. Governor, and 3 for the State Attorney General.

In fact, in most states the No. 1 plate is assigned to the Governor’s limousine, while No. 2 is provided to the Lieutenant Governor.

North Dakota has a unique approach to providing low numbers to their elected officials. The North Dakota Governor gets plates No. 1 and 5, while the state’s senior U.S. Senator receives plate No. 2. The junior U.S. Senator from North Dakota gets plate No. 3, and the lone at-large Congressman can drive a car with plate No. 4. The Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota receives plate No. 6. However, officials who don’t want to attract attention—for whatever reason—will choose not to display such identifiable license plates. Such special plates are very sought after by collectors.

Collecting License Plates

Serious U.S. license plate collectors consider the 1921 Alaska plate to be the holy grail of license plates and perhaps the rarest of all U.S. license plates. As recently as 2008, just four were known to exist, with their worth being somewhere around $60,000 each at the time.

But for dollar value? In 2008, someone bought the No. 6 Delaware license plate at auction for $675,000. In 2018, Butch Emmert auctioned off the No. 20 tag for $410,000.

For Delawarians, there may be no status symbol greater than the coveted low-digit license plate. Not just anyone can buy these rare Delaware plates, though. You have to be a Delaware resident with a Delaware driver’s license.

Although the biggest draw is low numbers, Delaware complicates the situation by starting some tags with letters: C for commercial, PC for passenger car, T for trailer, MC for motorcycle, RT for recreational trailer, and RV for recreational vehicle.

Bottom Line: Even something as mundane as a license plate has history. What might you learn about your own?