Archives for February 2012
What Does A Trillion Dollars Look Like
February 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
One Hundred Dollars
$100 – Most counterfeited money denomination in the world. Keeps the world moving.
Ten Thousand Dollars 
$10,000 – Enough for a great vacation or to buy a used car. Approximately one year of work for the average human on earth.
One Million Dollars 
$1,000,000 – Not as big of a pile as you thought, huh? Still this is 92 years of work for the average human on earth.
One Hundred Million Dollars 
$100,000,000 – Plenty to go around for everyone. Fits nicely on an ISO / Military standard sized pallet.
One Billion Dollars 
$1,000,000,000 – You will need some help when robbing the bank. Now we are getting serious!
One Trillion Dollars 
$1,000,000,000,000 This is double stacked pallets of $100 million dollars each, full of $100 dollar bills. You are going to need a lot of trucks to freight this around.
If you spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, you would have not spent $1 trillion by now…but around $700 billion.
One Trillion Dollars 
Comparison of $1,000,000,000,000 dollars to a standard-sized American Football field and European Football field. Say hello to the Boeing 747-400 transcontinental airliner that’s hiding on the right. This was until recently the biggest passenger plane in the world.
15 Trillion Dollars 
$15,000,000,000,000 Statue of Liberty seems rather small in comparison.
$ 114.5 Trillion Dollars
WOW! That’s a lot of money!
The Science Behind A Tear-Jerker: Someone Like You
February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Why does Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ make everyone cry? Science has found the formula
By MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF
![[ADELEgraphic]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/RV-AF961A_ADELE_G_20120210234610.jpg)
The Wall Street Journal (illustration) Associated Press (photo); Universal Music Publishing (score)
On Sunday night, the British singer-songwriter Adele is swept the Grammys. Three of her six nominations are for her rollicking hit "Rolling in the Deep." But it’s her ballad "Someone Like You" that has risen to near-iconic status recently, due in large part to its uncanny power to elicit tears and chills from listeners. The song is so famously sob-inducing that "Saturday Night Live" recently ran a skit in which a group of co-workers play the tune so they can all have a good cry together.
What explains the magic of Adele’s song? Though personal experience and culture play into individual reactions, researchers have found that certain features of music are consistently associated with producing strong emotions in listeners. Combined with heartfelt lyrics and a powerhouse voice, these structures can send reward signals to our brains that rival any other pleasure.
Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted a simple experiment. He asked music lovers to identify passages of songs that reliably set off a physical reaction, such as tears or goose bumps. Participants identified 20 tear-triggering passages, and when Dr. Sloboda analyzed their properties, a trend emerged: 18 contained a musical device called an "appoggiatura."
An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound. "This generates tension in the listener," said Martin Guhn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject. "When the notes return to the anticipated melody, the tension resolves, and it feels good."
Chills often descend on listeners at these moments of resolution. When several appoggiaturas occur next to each other in a melody, it generates a cycle of tension and release. This provokes an even stronger reaction, and that is when the tears start to flow.
Read the rest here.
Music Review: Michael Jackson – Immortal
February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I received Michael Jackson’s “Immortal” as a Christmas gift from one of the most talented musicians I know. I didn’t know what to expect when I first opened the CD. It’s impossible not to be impressed by his talent, rhythmic sensibility, and most of all, his flawless intonation. After listening to this collection, those opinions were confirmed. I was mesmerized from the first downbeat.
The soundtrack to Cirque du Soleil’s celebration of Michael Jackson’s music is a twenty-track effort that takes the King Of Pop’s catalog and sanctions producer, Kevin Antunes, to chop up and piece back together to fit the show. In my opinion, this album doesn’t approach the sophistication of the remixing demonstrated by Cirque’s Beatle’s show, “Love”. It does, however, celebrate Jackson’s musical genius admirably.
The collection does a fine job drawing from the various eras of Michael’s career, from "The Jackson 5 Medley", featuring "I Want You Back", "ABC", and "The Love You Save", to the modern “King of Pop”. I found it hard not to smile as I listened to Michael’s grade school voice clearly cut through the densely orchestrated charts.
The album fuses lesser-known tracks like "Speechless" with bigger hits like "Human Nature", leaving the crisp bouncing of the twinkling synth intact. Disco laced rarities like "Workin’ Day And Night" and "This Place Hotel" feel at home with the thumping beat of "Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’", though THE slightly more cluttered beat does not really add anything to the tune.
Some of the songs are condensed into shorter versions of themselves, with the occasional sound effects to enhance the choreography; such as the machine gun to close the otherwise effective, horn and metallic drum fueled remix of "Smooth Criminal". The sparse snaps that introduce "Thriller" would have made for a charming a cappela take on the song, but the storm of sound effects interferes with what could have been a fantastic retelling. At least they leave in Vincent Price’s creepy spoken word portion as the flickering funk of the guitar pulls in.
The slightly growling vocals of "Is It Scary", speaking of a book of darkness and mystery, give way to MJ’s trademark breathy beatboxing and piano-kissed orchestra swells pushing along the sinister hook before giving way to the clunky "Threatened", enhanced with a touch of Rockwell’s "Somebody’s Watching Me". A drippy electro-tinged synth muddies the waters of "You Are Not Alone" before transitioning to the string-laced, quivering vocals of "I Just Can’t Stop Loving You", where Antunes manages to sap the beauty out of one song before wisely using a more delicate touch with another on the same track. Titled “Immortal Megamix”, a new take on his solo hits makes for an eight-minute musical marathon on "Can You Feel It", "Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough", "Billie Jean", and "Black And White", with DJ scratches and a dance beat anxiously assembled together with interesting chants of "Michael" droning through "Billie Jean".
For me, the musical payoff comes on the last track, “Man In The Mirror”. It doesn’t matter how many times I hear this, I am always inspired.
Ultimately, this is a well-intentioned celebration of Michael Jackson’s music. Undoubtedly, the audio/visual show will be exemplary, with context given to this musical mix. As a teaser for the Cirque show, this CD absolutely does the job!
The Cheesy World of Music Video Clichés
February 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
click image for larger view
All About Fiber-Cement Siding
February 11, 2012 By 1 Comment
Wonder Siding
Picking the right siding for your house is a delicate balancing act between good looks, durability, maintenance, and affordability. With wood, vinyl, stone, brick, or stucco, you might get only two or three of these. But with fiber cement, a resilient mix of wood pulp and portland cement, you get all four. It’s the only siding that combines the performance of masonry—minimal upkeep; rot-, fire-, and termite-proof; unaffected by wind or cold—with the look of painted wood clapboards, shingles, even stone or brick. Yet fiber cement goes for just a fraction of the cost of these other materials. No wonder nearly 15 percent of new homes—and many TOH TV projects—are clad with the stuff.
All this has happened in just 25 years, since fiber cement was first introduced. Now architects regularly specify the siding because it holds down costs without compromising aesthetics. It’s even accepted for use in some historic districts.
Shown: The siding on this Gothic Revival-style home looks like wood clapboard, but it’s actually fiber cement painted a custom color. 7¼-inch-wide smooth lap siding, primed, about $1.50 per square foot; CertainTeed
By: SAL VAGLICA, This Old House magazine
read the rest at ThisOldHouse.com
Median Versus Average – Who Wins??!
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The median price of home is going down… The average home price is going up… What’s going on here?
When reading the bold newspaper headline declaring that the “Median home price is down again”, most people interpret this as bad news.
Is there a difference in Median or Average for the housing industry? Yes!
Median price = 50% above and below the middle price point.
Average price = All home sales added together and divided by the number of sales.
In our local market, the median sale price of homes is going down. Why, because homes in the more affordable price range have the biggest turnover (sell faster) and homes on the upper end (that tend to increase the average price) are selling more slowly.
Also, there are fewer upper end homes. So, when they do sell, the average 
goes up fast! The actual number of homes in an upper tier ($1,000,000+) may be 10% to 15%; one sale at $1,500,000 moves the AVERAGE up pretty quick.
In light of these numbers and formulas, every property must be examined within their own micro market and with multiple objective data points (trends and hard sales figures), to paint an accurate picture of market value.
Let me know how I can help. Email me.
Sail-Inspired Houseboats of Modern Steel & Glass
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Floating homes have to strike a delicate balance between livability and maximization of limited square footage. Most defer to the latter and form naturally into cubes as a result, but some, like this one, bend to accommodate their occupants better as well.
From steeltec37, this modular design uses steel frame and glass infill elements to create a lightweight core living space – one side, however, bends to deflect direct sun, wind, waves and spray, while also creating a more private enclosure.
Sister and brother developers Kerstin and Thomas Wilde work together as architect and engineer, crafting custom buildings but also proposing broadly-deployable solutions such as this floating home – something that can stand alone or with sibling structures, each visually protected from the next.