In Soviet Russia, McD eats you!

Here is a pretty interesting video i stumbled upon. It is from 1990 and it represents the waiting line at the first McDonald's restaurant in Russia.

Vezi mai multe din Faze tari pe 220.ro

Insomnia kills men, but not women

A recent survey revealed that between insomnia and premature mortality there is a close connection, but only in men.
According to researchers at the University College of Medicine in Pennsylvania, womens' bodies can bear more sleepless nights, without having any effect on their life-expectancy, reports the Daily Mail.
A Study that was done on 1,000 women and 741 men, held for 10 and respectively 14 years showed that men who suffer from insomnia pose a risk of premature mortality for four times higher than those who do not have problems sleeping.
Lack of sleep affects not only adults but also children or teenagers. A U.S. study also showed that teens who slept less than 8 hours a night are more likely to eat fast food, which has a strong impact on their health status in the long term.

No Vuvuzelas in the UEFA Champions League matches

UEFA took the decision to deny access to fans with vuvzelas in the Champions League matches and the national teams qualifying matches for European Championship in 2012.

Reasons for the decision is that they want to protect the specificity of European fans. Unlike the African stadiums, in Europe the fans sing most of the times, and the infernal noise of the famous plastic tool would damage the atmosphere, says ESPN.

UEFA said in a statement that "use of this tool would not be suitable for stadiums in Europe." At the same time,memos were sent to all 53 European national federations to put this measure into practice at stadiums which will host competitions.

The action taken by the European forum comes after FIFA's refusal to deny access on South African stadiums with vuvuzelas at the matches from the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Back then the refusal was motivated by the fact that the use of the tool is part of the tradition  and the ban would affect locals and to local folklore.

Vuvuzelelas were also banned in Turkey, the World Basketball Championship hosted by this country. The 120 dB noise created by this instrument could seriously damage hearing players and spectators, mentions the International Federation of Basketball.

HP invented memory that works like the human brain

Hewlett-Packard announced a new technology development that will allow memory for computers or other electronic devices to copy brain function.

Unlike how the present submissions through electronic circuits are closed or open,the new technology, called memristor, will function as synapses in the brain, according to Stan Williams, HP researcher who began work on this project since 1998, reports CNN.

HP invented memory works like this: as the electrons move on the chip of titanium dioxide, atoms move very little, sometimes no more than a nanometer. These subtle movements record data stream changes.

New technology may be groundbreaking, if it works exactly as HP states. According to company officials, data transmission speed is 100 times faster than with flash memory.

Also, the memory uses only a tenth of the energy used by currently used memory. This means, for example, an MP3 player would be charged only once throughout its lifetime use, according to Williams.

If all goes according to plan, HP would be to market a new type of memory in the next three years.

Sounds really good to me!

September 3rd

I apologize, but due to some personal problems, I was unable to post anything yesterday.
But today I'm back in full force. First of all : the funsies !

The First Project

Since I have a project about Secured Loans , secured loan interest rate and home owner secured loans, that I must present in a couple of weeks, I figured I'd post on my blog about it also, maybe anyone is interested.
So, here goes:

First of all, what is a secured loan ?

According to wikipedia, a secured loan is a loan in which the borrower pledges some asset (e.g. a car or property) as collateral for the loan, which then becomes a secured debt owed to the creditor who gives the loan. The debt is thus secured against the collateral — in the event that the borrower defaults, the creditor takes possession of the asset used as collateral and may sell it to regain some or all of the amount originally lent to the borrower, for example, foreclosure of a home. From the creditor's perspective this is a category of debt in which a lender has been granted a portion of the bundle of rights to specified property. If the sale of the collateral does not raise enough money to pay off the debt, the creditor can often obtain a deficiency judgment against the borrower for the remaining amount. The opposite of secured debt/loan is unsecured debt, which is not connected to any specific piece of property and instead the creditor may only satisfy the debt against the borrower rather than the borrower's collateral and the borrower.

So, to summarise, a Secured loan is a type of loan that is protected by the borrower’s assets, that can be a house, a car, etc. Those assets now secure the loan as “collateral” or guarantee, in the case that the borrower cannot comply with the loan, the creditor will take possession of such collateral. Secured loans can have many uses, can be used in personal loans, business loans and commercial loans.

Moreover, it is important to note that Secured loans are much cheaper that unsecured loans, and the reason is obvious, they offer collateral that may be used to cover the debt. On the other side, unsecured loans tend to be more expensive because they lack of any collateral or personal assets.

The Types of a secured loan :

• A mortgage loan is a secured loan in which the collateral is property, such as a home.
• A nonrecourse loan is a secured loan where the collateral is the only security or claim the creditor has against the borrower, and the creditor has no further recourse against the borrower for any deficiency remaining after foreclosure against the property.
• A foreclosure is a legal process in which mortgaged property is sold to pay the debt of the defaulting borrower.
• A repossession is a process in which property, such as a car, is taken back by the creditor when the borrower does not make payments due on the property. Depending on the jurisdiction, it may or may not require a court order.-

-EDIT- After a more thorough research, I've found out also that : 

Secured loans can also be home equity loans or home equity lines of credit or even second mortgages. Such loans are based on the amount of home equity, or the value of your home minus the amount still owed. Your home is used as collateral and failure to make timely payments can result in losing your home.
Other types of secured loans include debt consolidation loans where a home or personal property is used as collateral. Instead of having many --usually high interest-- payments to make each month, money is loaned to pay the original lenders off, and the borrower then only has to repay the one loan. This is not only more convenient but it will also save a lot of money over time, since interest rates for secured loans are lower. A debt consolidation loan usually offers a lower monthly payment as well.      

That's what I found out today. I guess I'll continue tomorrow.

Projects

At my University, we get different type of Projects to present on a weekly basis. In here, I will post the said projects and my progress with them.

These will probably be kind of boring compared with the stuff I post normally on the blog, but hopefully some of my viewers will find them interesting.

Mixed feelings

I'm not even sure what to think about this, guys. But first, read up :

The Stig is Ben Collins - official

                                           

 BBC lost the lawsuit with which it was trying to keep secret the identity of the test pilot from their well-known TV-programme Top Gear, The Stig.

Ben Collins, about whom it was suspected of being the mysteryous man behind the  white suit, is free to publish his autobiography that will tell the experience of seven years at Top Gear.

BBC refused to confirm his identity even after losing the lawsuit, but the publisher who will publish his autobiography confirmed that the pilot of white petticoat is Ben Collins.

"This is a victory for freedom of expression. Ben Collins has to tell us a beautiful story about his last seven years as Stig, a story that will reach more people than just motoring fans." Reads the communiqué issued by the publisher Harper Collins.

Ben Collins is 35 and he portrays The Stig since 2003. The British rider competed over time in the FIA GT3 racing, Le Mans and Formula 3, and in 2003 won the title in Ascari, later renamed RSV V8 Trophy competition.

The book will be called "man in white suit" and  will appear on September 16.

So what's your opinion on this? I mean, I liked the shroud of mystery around the Stig, but on the other hand, they couldn't force him to remain anonymous. I'm curious of your thoughts.           

September 2nd - double dose of funny !

Since yesterday I was kinda busy and forgot to post the daily funsies, I'll make it up to you guys with 2 pics:

It's all about positioning :

One of my favourite shows, but this vertical speaks the truth:

The World's Funniest Joke

So, apparently, Reader's Digest made a contest to establish The World's Funniest Joke. Each country that participated had the right to 1 joke, which was established through votes at a national level. Afterwards, a jury voted for the best country. Seems like a good idea, doesn't it?
Now, if my information is correct the jury decided that the best one was the one from Sweden.

Here it is:

"Visiting the countryside on a hunting trip, the well-dressed man from Stockholm takes aim and shoots a duck. But the fowl drops into a farmer's field, and the farmer claims it. Since both want it, the farmer suggests settling the dispute with an old fashioned hick-kick. "I kick you as hard as I can in the crotch, then you do the same to me," he explains. "Whoever screams the least gets the bird."
The city man agrees. So the farmer winds up and delivers a crushing blow to the man's privates, and he collapses to the ground. Twenty minutes later, when he finally manages to stand, he gasps, "My turn."
"Nah," says the farmer, turning away. "You can keep the duck."


What do you guys think about it? Do you know any joke that might be funnier?

When is the best time to buy plane tickets to minimize the price?

The Dilemma of all of us who want to go on holiday abroad, flying with a low cost company, is when to buy tickets so that they are at the lowest price.

Well, guess what? Two economists in Japan are able to answer these questions, managing to develop a formula to rid us of the travel headaches.

Thus, according to Makoto Watanabe and Marc Moller formula  the answer is ÐA = gUG + min(k - g, (1 - g)(1 - r)), where D represents profit. As the two were calculated, the ideal time to buy your tickets for a low cost flight for vacation is exactly eight weeks before loading, reports thisismoney.co.uk, citing The Economic Journal.

If bought earlier, there is a danger that this journey can not be done for various reasons, and buying last minute tickets could be too expensive. In addition, there is the risk of no longer finding tickets for the desired flight.

The two economists have calculated the ideal time of day and where to make the transaction. According to them, the tickets that are posted in the morning are the most expensive tickets, mainly because those who buy them are not very interested in price, they are usually those who travel on business and the ticket price is paid by their company. Therefore, they are booking from their office, early in the morning.

In the afternoon, instead, the people online are mostly connected to the Internet from home, which are looking for low cost tickets for vacation, so that companies make and beat tickets at minimum prices.

So yeah, trust me, I didn't understand that formula either, but the stuff about the time of day I found most interesting. Hope this helps.