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Why Is There a Leap Day?
The need for a leap day arises from the fact that the Earth's orbit around the sun is not precisely 365 days. By adding an extra day to the calendar, we can account for this discrepancy and keep our calendar aligned with the astronomical year.
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What is Quantum Annealing?
A concise and non-mathematical introduction to quantum annealing and its applications.
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A Fossil Story
On a recent trip to the local Goodwill in search of neglected treasures, Sandy found a bag of 11 fossils, each packaged separately with an identification card. It was an amazing find. Included were a fossil fish (Gosiutichthys, 40 million years...
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An Idea For Personalized Music For Restaurant Customers
What if restaurants played personalized music for you the moment you sat down at your table?
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Special Effects Photography in a Minute
Most of the time I use my digital camera for photographing eBay items, but it is enjoyable to occasionally experiment with other subjects. This evening I returned home just after a rain storm and spotted a brilliant double rainbow above the house....
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Connecting the Samsung Chrono SCH-R261 to a PC with a Bluetooth Wireless Adapter
I recently purchased a Samsung Chrono R261 cell phone from my local Cricket store. Believe it or not, this is the first cell phone I have ever owned. I was not interested in buying an expensive smartphone because I already have a laptop computer (an...
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Visualize a Webpage in 3D Using the Firefox Browser
I have just discovered a nice tool in my Firefox web browser. It is high on the "cool" index so I thought I would share my find here. I am taking a crash course in website development and getting a whole new perspective on what goes on "behind the...
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The Making of the American National Debt
I have been hearing much lately about the U.S. debt ceiling crisis and how it relates to the annual budget deficit and the national debt. I will confess immediately that I am not an economist and I don't claim to have any in-depth knowledge of how...
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The Death of the Classic American Automobile
Just yesterday, I visited an automobile junkyard in North Vancouver, Washington. I was accompanying a friend who was in search of spare fender for a 1964 Pontiac Tempest/GTO. "What is wrong with yours?" I asked. "Nothing," he replied, "but you never...
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The Mysterious Abandoned House in Topanga Canyon, California
Exploring a mysterious abandoned house in Topanga Canyon, California.
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Technology Trend: Ubiquitous Television Screens
Today I became hyperaware of how many video screens we are exposed to as we go about our everyday activities. With the advent of cheap, flat-screen displays, we now see them everywhere. You will find them at the Albertson's check-out counter, in the...
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Monitoring Usage of Your Online Photos
I upload many photos to the photo hosting site www.photobucket.com for use in my eBay ads. Because they are posted as "public" anyone can view, link to, or download the photos. I use the Photobucket "stats" tool to monitor the number of views my top...
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Online vs. Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore Buying: A Dilemma
I recently read an article in the Los Angeles Times about Marcus Books (a well-established bookstore in San Francisco) which is protesting Amazon's new campaign which encourages customers to use a smartphone app to scan prices in bookstores. Amazon...
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Selling Steampunk Items on eBay
A few ideas on how to market antique or vintage items as Steampunk on eBay. This hubpage briefly discusses how old skeleton keys can be sold as Steampunk jewelry.
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How to Recover Expired eBay Ads
If you are an intermediate or advanced eBay seller you may often like to reuse an old eBay ad instead of creating a new one from scratch. This can be done using the Sell a similar item menu option. Lets say you created a successful ad two months ago...
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The Mathematics of the Genetic Code
Analyzing the mathematical structure of a chromosome.
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Silverlight plugin crashes when streaming Netflix movies online
Troubleshooting Silverlight problems when using Netflix online.
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Free Cell Phone Service - The Coming Telecom Revolution
That's what was said about nuclear power in the early days. Lewis Strauss coined this phrase in 1954 when he was Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. (Nuclear power turned out to be far more expensive than he ever imagined.) But can the...
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eBay Auction: Walt Disney's Cinderella Lobby Card 1950
Occasionally I like to feature one of my eBay items in a Hub. I want to keep my articles informative and entertaining, but sometimes I have a unique item I would like to share with my readers. I have just listed a rare 1950 original Walt Disney's...
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Finding Economic Opportunites in Your Everyday Activities
In difficult economic times, it is obviously helpful to find ways to make or save money even if it is a small amount. I would not call myself a financial genius, nor would I call myself successful. I don't even know if I could call myself "barely...
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Kewty.com - The Domain Name Game
A few years ago in 2006 I experimented with creating and marketing a few domain names. I had heard stories during the dot com bubble of elite domain names selling for millions of dollars. Who was making this money? How did they get there first? ...
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A Curious Coffee Card Conundrum
Yesterday afternoon I found a Starbucks gift card on the sidewalk not too far from a Starbucks store. My lucky day? The card looked used and was possibly dropped by a customer leaving the store in a hurry. I walked into the coffee shop but it was...
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Cancer, the Crayfish, and the Crab
I am fascinated with word origins. Reading a cancer research newsletter recently motivated me to do a little digging to find the origin of the word "cancer". The world's oldest documented case of the disease we now call cancer was recorded on...
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eBay Tips: Selling Vintage Britains Toy Soldiers
Although I have sold items on eBay since 2003, selling Britains toy soldiers is a new experience. My father has an extensive collection which he has gathered over a lifetime, and now it is time to down-size. Britains toy soldiers have been...
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Enron Musings
For a number of years, I have been fascinated by the story of Enron's rise and fall. Like many people, I knew virtually nothing about Enron before the news of their demise. During the summer of 1997, about four and a half years before the collapse...
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Why are people standing on the tables at McDonald's?
So why are people standing on the tables at McDonald's? This is a new behavioral pattern which I have noticed in the last year or so. The answer? Blame it on all of the new electronic gadgets! McDonald's began offering WiFi service at many of...
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What was the first item you sold on eBay?
The first item I ever sold on eBay was a book called The Water of Life: A Tale of the Grateful Dead by Alan Trist with illustrations by Jim Carpenter. The book was a somewhat rare autographed first edition and it sold back in 2003. I have seen...
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A WiFi Newbie with a Troublesome Compaq Presario CQ62
I recently purchased a Compaq Presario CQ62-219WM laptop computer. I found it at Walmart for around $348. I have used Compaq computers in the past and they have performed fine. Compaq has been owned by HP since 2002. The computer has an Intel...
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How to Order the Perfect Americano at Starbucks
A surprisingly simple way to make your Starbucks Americano coffee drink more enjoyable. Whipped cream? Always!
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Using Photobucket Stats With eBay
Note: The Photobucket.com site has been redesigned since this hub was published. The STATS menu seems to have disappeared! You can still see a "Public Stats" view counter in your User Profile, but any graphs and detailed information seems to be...
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eBay Tips: Photography Basics
VINTAGE LESNEY SCAMMEL 6X6 TRACTOR (circa 1960) A successful ad will have great photos. All of your ads should have at least one photo and a gallery. The gallery picture will appear in the search results when a buyer types in a keyword in the...
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eBay Tips: Photographing Chalkware Lamps
Set the Wayback Machine to the summer of 2005. I was shooting eBay photographs for an independent eBay consignment shop. I had very little experience and we had a make-shift studio in the back of the warehouse with just a gray backdrop and a couple...
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eBay Tips: Buy to Sell Goodwill Outlet Store Merchandise
Picking merchandise like a pro at a Goodwill outlet store.