World’s Tallest Mountain is Discovered in the Pacific Ocean

We have known for quite a while that the summit of Mt. Everest is the highest point of land above sea level in the world at 29,029 feet above sea level. However, it’s not actually the world’s tallest mountain nor is it the solar system’s biggest mountain. The reason is because the definition of a mountain is more complicated than you might think. Using Wikipedia’s definition a mountain is “a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak.” This is a moment in science that is very similar to when Pluto got demoted to being a dwarf planet.

One thing that many of us tend to forget is that the ocean floor is by no means flat and there are massive, undersea mountain ranges in all of our oceans formed mainly by underwater volcanoes. Some of these volcanic mountains get so tall that they break the surface of the ocean and become islands. Some of those islands include all of the islands that make up Japan and Hawaii. Using that definition though, scientists just recently discovered the largest mountain in the world beneath the Pacific Ocean about 1000 miles east of Japan. This mountain, Tamu Massif, is a rounded dome about the size of the state of New Mexico that rises up 21,120 feet above it’s base reaching its summit about 6500 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Tamu Massif has been known to humanity for about a century but it was only recently that it was discovered that this mountain is one giant volcano. It was previously thought that it was an underwater plateau or mountain range built up by many different volcanoes close to one another but further analysis revealed that most of the mountain was formed by one massive eruption about 145 million years ago when dinosaurs were walking the Earth. Geologists estimate that the volcano went extinct very soon afterward and has been quiet ever since. Now that it has been confirmed that the mountain was made by one volcano, this mountain actually takes the title of the biggest mountain in our solar system away from Olympus Mons on Mars. This is one of those moments that makes us realize that there is still so much about our own planet that we still don’t yet know especially when it comes to things in the depths of the ocean.

A topographic map of the ocean floor is not quite as impressive as Mt. Everest

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

Illegal Fantasy Football?

With the passing of Labor Day, fall is now upon us and so is football season. For millions of Americans the start of the NFL’s regular season means the beginning of millions of fantasy football leagues. By this point most fantasy drafts are done and rosters are being set for Thursday’s games. However, it turns out that in some states some fantasy football leagues are illegal. It turns out that certain states have gambling laws that would technically make playing fantasy football for a cash prize illegal. Those states define illegal gambling as betting on an event where random chance can possibly play into the result. As a result if you’re playing in a fantasy league with money involved and you live in the states of Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Iowa, or Tennessee keep the money part of your fantasy league quiet because you’re probably breaking the law. I wish the best of luck to all of your creatively named fantasy teams this season.

As an aside back when I played fantasy football regularly, I think I got the greatest fantasy draft steal of all time. In the summer of 2007 I drafted Tom Brady in the fifth round in my league. He went on to throw 50 touchdowns that season, a feat no quarterback has achieved before or since. I then lost in the first round of the playoffs in part because the Patriots had already locked up home field advantage and Bill Belichick sat Brady in the second half of the game to keep him healthy for the playoffs.

Bill Belichick: He admitted to cheating and screwed me out of a fantasy title.

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

Dial-Up Internet Still Exists

In a recent post I briefly mentioned that nearly one in five Americans are still without a personal internet connection. Well the Pew Research Center investigated that figure further and has given us some valuable insight. The way we get to that 19 percent figure of Americans without internet is by adding up the number of Americans without a household broadband connection or a data plan on a tablet or smartphone. The rise of mobile data has reached a point where it can be a viable substitute for a traditional internet connection for a more traditional computer and that has become a big part of the strategy for closing the digital divide both in America and all over the world.

Also it may be hard to believe but 3 percent of Americans still access the internet through a 56k dial-up connection. Apparently there are still holdouts who want to stick with a really slow internet connection even as the internet has evolved way past them. (If you want to see a site designed for a dial-up connection, here’s Bob Dole’s campaign website from 1996. Yes it’s still on the internet and hasn’t been touched in 17 years.) Also apparently 2.5 million Americans are still under the misguided notion that they have to pay AOL for their internet connection and email address. The reasons cited for sticking with narrowband? Lack of broadband access in certain rural areas, lack of interest, and cost. I guess most of those people don’t try to stream Netflix.

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

Where People Are (and Aren’t) Using the Internet

Let’s face it, if you’re reading this you have internet access. You are one of the 2.5 billion people on this planet that have reliable access to the internet and all the benefits that it brings. That also means you’re not part of the roughly 4.5 billion people who don’t have internet access. Well Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he’s going to try and change that. The ride of the internet and social media have allowed people to access unprecedented amounts of information, created entire new businesses and markets all over the world, and has even helped overthrow governments. Zuckerberg of course has a big financial interest in greater worldwide internet access. 4.5 billion more internet users means 4.5 billion more potential Facebook accounts and a potential rise in value of Facebook’s stagnant stock price.

In reaction to this news CNN Money made up an interesting interactive map showing which countries have the best and worst percentage of people with internet access. Iceland, Norway, and Sweden lead the world in internet access with 96%, 95%, and 94% connectivity rates while the three countries with the lowest percentages are Eritrea, East Timor, and Myanmar which have rates of 0.8%, 0.9%, and 1.1% respectively. One interesting revelation of this map is what it says about the United States. Only 81% of American households have internet access and I find that pretty astonishing since we’re the country that invented the internet in the first place. This would suggest that Facebook hasn’t quite run its base of potential subscribers completely dry in America despite many reports to the contrary.

The darker the better.

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

$1 Houses Are For Sale in Indiana… With a Catch

The city of Gary, Indiana currently has some of the best deals in real estate. The city recently bought several properties at a tax auction and they have recently announced that all 12 of those houses will be sold for one dollar. While the too-good-to-be-true price tag has drawn a great deal of attention, the city has turned away the vast majority of it’s roughly 400 suitors. That is because the city will only sell the properties to buyers who meet these qualifications:

-Must have lived in Gary for at least 6 months;
-Must have $1,000 in savings;
-Must earn at least 80% of the area’s median annual income of $35,250;
-Must demonstrate that they have the financial ability to rehabilitate the home;
-Must not currently own a home.

It also comes with the requirement that the owner must reside in the house for at least five years before they get full ownership of house and forfeit everything if they leave early. They may be offering perhaps the greatest house flipping opportunity ever but you’ll have to wait a while before you can cash in. In all, only 25 of the 400 interested buyers met those qualifications and the people who eventually get the houses will be selected through a random drawing held next month.

So why is Gary even doing this in the first place? All of these houses are serious fixer-upers and Gary’s mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson wants the potential buyers to be the ones to fix them and be more invested in the city as a whole. By selling a home for pocket change, the new homeowners will be able to afford the thousands of dollars worth of repairs all of the houses will need and it is hoped that their continued residence will stabilize the long economic decline the rust belt city has experienced for decades. Freeman-Wilson has said that if this pilot program is successful, she intends to sell about 50 homes per year under these conditions. It’s certainly an interesting idea and it’s fun to know that it is possible to become a first-time homeowner for just a dollar.

I could go for a $1 house

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

The World’s Most Dangerous Nature Preserve

There are parts of the Earth that were once settled and inhabited by people that have since been abandoned for various reasons. Some of these places were once settlements of ancient civilizations that have been abandoned for centuries while some are more recent. In all of these areas, nature has a way of slowly taking back the evidence of human settlement. Structures deteriorate from the environment and weather and all kinds of plants and animals move in to replace the people who left. National Geographic recently released some amazing photos of one of the more recently abandoned areas of the world, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

The DMZ was established in the ceasefire that effectively ended the Korean war in 1953 and anyone who was living there at the time was moved out by the two governments. This buffer zone stretches across the entire Korean peninsula and extends out about 2 kilometers either way from the official boundary of the two countries. Despite its name it is one of the most heavily militarized areas in the world and the site of the world’s largest minefield making any attempt for people to live there suicidal. This abandonment has turned most of the area into a giant nature preserve where plants and animals can live and thrive in peace. The Korean War more than anything else shaped what both Koreas are today and I find it quite interesting that 60 years later one of its most enduring legacies is the world’s most dangerous nature preserve.

It turns out that birds can coexist with land mines just fine.

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

Receipts for Fast Food

I am a frequent customer of fast food establishments mostly for their various coffee products. Whenever, I leave the restaurant or drive thru with my coffee my thoughts are always about this bit from the late great comedian Mitch Hedberg:

Oh Mitch, you’ve been dead for eight years but your words on that subject still ring so true. Every day on my way to work I stop at a McDonalds drive-thru to buy some coffee and the transaction is always the same. I order my coffee, drive around and hand the employee $1.07, he hands me a large coffee with cream and a receipt. That receipt goes onto a pile of other receipts that eventually end up in a garbage can when I clean my car out. To steal from Mitch Hedberg again, the McDonalds workers are like people who hand out fliers in public places. They’re really saying “Here, you throw this out.”

But the McDonalds receipts are just small fries compared to what I got at Dunkin Donuts. Here is a receipt that I got for a $2 cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts:

Yes that’s an 11 inch receipt for a $2 cup of coffee.

Now in their defense, fast food restaurants probably use the same point-of-sale systems that every other bar and restaurant uses. In a normal restaurant you absolutely want a check to make sure you were only charged for what was ordered and to calculate an appropriate tip. I can still see the value of a receipt in a fast food place especially when a larger order is placed or a credit card is used. However, when you’re only ordering one simple, cheap item like a donut or a coffee, paying cash, getting an 11 inch receipt back in return that’s pretty absurd. You as the consumer can easily verify that you got what you ordered and are paying the correct price for it without bringing in ink and paper.

There is a great alternative to that experience though. Yesterday I decided to treat myself to a latte at Starbucks (4x the price of my usual McDonalds) and I had what I thought was a much better customer experience when it came to receipts. After placing my order the barista asked me if I wanted a receipt, I said no, and the receipt was whisked way into a garbage can underneath the counter. This Starbucks made giving receipts to customers with tiny orders something they had to opt in to rather than have the customer transport the receipt to the nearest garbage can. It may be small and insignificant, but those are the sort of things I notice and appreciate.

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

How to Properly Test Smoke Alarms Using Real Smoke

Most of the time we only think about smoke alarms when we’re cooking in the kitchen and something isn’t quite right. If the smoke detector going off then is a sure sign that you’re probably making a very burnt dinner. However, we should be grateful when that happens because that is probably the best way to test if your smoke detector is working and has live batteries. Lifehacker has a great article up on how to properly test your smoke detector and they recommend testing it with real smoke instead of just pushing the test button.

The reasoning behind that recommendation is that the test button only tests the alarm’s ability to make noise and not its ability to actually detect smoke. By lighting a match, quickly blowing it out, and holding that still-smoking matchstick underneath the smoke detector you can safely and deliberately trip your alarm. By doing this and changing out the batteries every six months you can rest assured that your smoke alarm will be working in the event of a fire. A properly working smoke detector can save your life but it’s important to ensure that it’s actually working properly.

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

Sports Legends, Dead Leaders, and Street Names

American cities love to name their infrastructure after their dead politicians. Just look at New York city for example: JFK Airport, LaGuardia Airport, the FDR, the George Washington Bridge, and the recently renamed RFK bridge (I will still always call it the Triboro though). However, the city of Green Bay Wisconsin does things a bit differently. In Green Bay if you coach the Packers to a Super Bowl victory, you’re getting a street named after you. The legendary Vince Lombardi has been immortalized in Green Bay’s municipal infrastructure for over 40 years. When Mike Holmgren’s Packers won Super Bowl XXXI in 1997 he had a street named after him later that year. So it stands to reason that after current Packers coach Mike McCarthy brought home the Lombardi Trophy in 2011, residents would be lining up to have their streets renamed.

Well not so fast. Residents have been resisting having a street named after McCarthy even though they love what he’s done for their Packers. When the name of your street changes, you have to contact everyone that uses your address and notify them of the change. Some people understandably don’t want to take the time to do that. There’s also the issue of Mike McCarthy sharing the same last name of a rather infamous dead Wisconsin politician. Some people think that honoring their current coach with a street name can be misinterpreted as honoring former Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy who was rather famous for being an overzealous communist-hunter in the 1950s. So Mike McCarthy’s street remains in limbo for this season amid the controversy but one thing remains certain though. If Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers win a second Super Bowl this season, street names are definitely going to get changed although one of the streets may be named “Mike McCarthy St.”

Time to show McCarthy some love.

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.

How to Get Rid of Swimmer’s Ear

It’s a very common occurrence in the summer. You go for a nice refreshing swim on a hot day and when you get out you’re stuck with water in your ears that just won’t get out. Usually the water in your ear is just an annoying nuisance but if nothing is done about it, it can easily escalate into an ear infection. The Wall Street Journal interviewed some medical professionals about it and have put together some good tips on how to (and how not) to get that annoying water out of your ears:

Assuming that it’s only a little water and you don’t feel any pain:
Put about five drops of rubbing alcohol in the ear canal – This will allow the water to more easily evaporate.
Cup your ear with the palm of your hand and pump inward – This will create suction that can draw the water out of your ear.
Jump on one leg with the water-filled ear tilted to the ground – This is a classic move that uses helps gravity pull the water out.
Don’t try getting it out with a Q-tip – This will likely make the problem worse pushing the water further into your ear.

If it does get infected and you start to feel pain:
Go see a doctor – If it reaches that point you likely need prescription antibiotics to get rid of the problem.
Go for ear drops and not pills – Using ear drops is like the equivalent of dropping a nuclear weapon on the infection. Pills will take a much longer time to get rid of the infection.

I know the feeling.

Churchill has short-term corporate housing available Nationwide. Please contact us at 866-255-0593 or National@FurnishedHousing.com for more information.