Vehicles: Honking

DRIVING IN TUNE

Many of us take our car horn for granted. Comforted by the fact that when in need, it’ll be there. What most neglect is the sheer power of the horn to allow drivers the ability to communicate with others. The language of the road is simple, yet emphatic. Here’s a brief look at our complicated relationship with horns and honking.

Horn History

Horns are found on trains, ships, bicycles, and to the musically adventurous, even a few orchestra pits. But the first “car horns” were not inside cars at all. They were used by prudent British pedestrians to alert oncoming vehicles. It didn’t take a huge leap in imagination for horns to move inside the car as driving increased in popularity.

Honking

Some of us honk out of frustration, while others lay on the horn to prevent accidents or warn other drivers. People honk at perceived, actual and potential roadside threats. Others honk when seeing a long lost pal on a street corner. A few old fashioned folks favor two short beeps as a final farewell when departing the home of a friend or relative. And there are honks to convey exaltation as well. This last one often occurs following important sporting events. It’s a great way to express joy while exiting a congested parking lot.

Strange Prohibition

Beginning in the 1980s, New York City posted signs indicating a $350 fine for honking in certain areas. Some suggested it was an attempt to curb noise pollution. But in 2013, the city began removing the signs and lifting the ban. Critics saw the effort against honking as a wholly futile one. With all this noise, it’s a little harder to catch some shuteye in the city that never sleeps.

What are your thoughts on honking? Leave a couple beeps below.

Internet and Networking: Blog

          How do you build a blog?

Start your blog by choosing a topic you are passionate about, setting up a blogging platform and writing posts. You have many options for publishing content online. Blogger and Tumblr are a couple of popular blogging websites, but you can also choose to purchase a domain name and Web hosting.

1. Select a topic of passion:  Select a topic that motivates you to write. The best topic to write about is one with which you have passion or experience. If you are not inspired by your topic, you might find it hard to write posts about it.
   
2. Set up the blog platform:  If you cannot afford to start a website or your blogging as a hobby, sign up with Tumblr, Blogger or a similar website. If you wish to start a new website dedicated to your blog, sign up with a Web hosting company, such as GoDaddy, iPage or Web Hosting Hub. Choose a hosting option that is compatible with WordPress, which is a popular blogging software program. Install WordPress if the hosting option does not automatically do so.
   
3. Start creating content:  With WordPress installed, log in to the software's administrator panel. Add new blog posts in the Posts section. Adjust the appearance of your website by installing themes. Add permanent pages, such as "About Us" and "Contact," to your blog by adding content to the Pages section. Install plugins to add new features to WordPress, such as search engine optimization with "WordPress SEO by Yoast."

Inter and Networking: Blog

    How can one write a blog post?

In order to write a good blog post, it is necessary to choose a subject of interest, determine the topic, outline the post, fill in the details, edit and share. These are the basic steps involved in writing any blog. Following the steps detailed below should help just about anyone write a good blog post.

• Choose subject of interest:  

It is a good idea for the author to choose a subject that interests them as this is the best way to stay determined and persistent when sharing it even in the face of challenges.

• Determining topic:  

The topic of the blog post should be catchy and interesting to readers. It is important for the author to carefully think about relevant topics and settle on the most appealing topic and headline.

• Outline post:  

Writing down the basic points of the blog is a good way to start. Make sure to research specific points thoroughly in order so that your post comes across as informed and well written. Anything sensitive should be backed up by authoritative evidence or citation.

• Filling in the details:  

The details normally come once the basic outline is finished. The details should not be filler words, but rather important details aimed at educating or passing a message across.

• Editing and sharing:  

Proofread the content multiple times and edit for grammar, style and readability. Afterward, the blog should be posted for all to read.

Internet & Networking: Blog

     How do you write a famous blog?

You can develop a popular blog if it provides content that gathers interest from the online community. From the blog title to its structure, it takes several elements to make a share-worthy blog and keep it popular beyond its initial publication date.

1. Approach the content with care: Do not just write about the first thing that comes to mind. Research intriguing stories on Google News, or develop a blog based on something you may have in common with other people, such as a hobby. Develop a niche first, and write quality content based on that.
   
2. Craft a catchy title: Avoid boring titles that do not generate interest, such as "How to Lower Heating Bills." Instead, create a more captivating title: "5 Heating and Cooling Mistakes You Didn't Know You Were Making." Capture attention with the title, and pull readers into the blog with good content.
   
3. Write the blog with good structure: Create a short introduction about the blog. Next, create the body. Separate the body with paragraphs that contain less than four or five sentences. Add bullet lists to break up the text. If you write a sales blog, end it with a call to action.
   
4. Use search engine optimization techniques: Using search engine optimization, or SEO, helps propel your blog to the top of the search results. Insert keywords in the blog that people look for when searching online. If people search for "lower heating bills," add that keyword one to three times in your text.

Question of the Day

What's a group of chickens called?

A group of chickens is called a brood. You can also refer to a group of chickens as a flock, the general term used to describe a group of birds. A group of hens (or female chickens) is called a brood, and a group of baby chicks is called a clutch.

Chickens have combs: the red floppy skin around their head and neck. These combs serve as a cooling system because chickens do not sweat like humans. They also have hollow bones, as do all birds, to make them lighter for flight. Chickens have an interesting medullary bone system that produces calcium for eggshell formation. These specialized bones are located throughout the female's body. When a chicken eats, the bird's quick digestive tract passes the food through the body in only 2.5 hours.

Most chickens have been domesticated and live on farms or in backyards wherever local laws allow. Wild chickens can be found in parts of India and southeast Asia. Chickens that are bred and raised on farms typically spend their time in a fenced area or in chicken coops. They are used as a source of food around the world. Humans consume both the meat and eggs of chickens. More than 70 percent of chicken meat and over 65 percent of chicken eggs are farmed using intensive techniques. Free-range farming is the second most common method. Jungle fowl have appeared in bamboo forests of India and Asia. Some wild or feral chickens are a result of domesticated chickens that were returned to the wild. These birds will often make their way into treetops to avoid predators.

When a rooster and hen mate, a fertilized egg is produced. The chicken lays the egg and, if exposed to the right conditions, it continues to develop for 21 days after which a chick hatches. Hens are born with as many as 4,000 small ova in their ovaries, each of which can develop into a yolk. A rooster mounts a hen to bring their sex organs, both called cloaca, together, and the rooster’s sperm is transferred to the hen where it combines with the ova, resulting in fertilization. When the egg is laid it needs warmth and humidity for a chick to grow; this can be accomplished by the hen sitting on the egg or by artificial incubation. One mating delivers enough sperm to produce as many as five eggs.

Chickens lay eggs and incubate the eggs in a nest. They do not get pregnant. They can lay eggs without mating, but in order for eggs to develop into chicks, they need to mate with a rooster. The mating process is simple and requires only that the birds briefly press their cloacas together in order for the rooster to transfer sperm to the female. Chickens lay one egg every 25 hours. If the eggs are not collected, the hen lays the eggs in a nest and becomes broody. A broody hen stops laying eggs and instead spends most of her time sitting on the eggs, keeping them warm. She turns the eggs several times a day and keeps them at a constant temperature. If the hen mated with a rooster, the eggs hatch after 21 days of incubation. Chickens attempt to brood unfertilized eggs if the eggs are not collected.In many commercial hatcheries, the fertilized eggs are collected and artificially incubated. Collecting the eggs induces the chicken to keep laying more eggs, thus maximizing the productivity of the operation. In an artificial incubation setting, the eggs need to be turned regularly and kept at a constant temperature and humidity until the eggs hatch.

Trivia: Pets and Animals, Birds

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

There are two ways to look at this question - either relating to eggs in general or to the chicken egg specifically. Either way, the answer is the same: the egg came before the chicken. In the case of eggs in general, animals such as dinosaurs were laying eggs long before the modern chicken came into existence, meaning that in this sense, the egg predated the chicken by thousands of years. As for the chicken egg specifically, according to NPR's Robert Krulwich, the modern chicken was hatched from an egg, meaning the egg came first.

The key to understanding the answer, and indeed the question itself, is to understand what the question is getting at. The dilemma is to understand whether a chicken-like bird transformed into what is known as a modern chicken after being hatched or whether two chicken-like birds laid and fertilized an egg that then hatched a fully formed chicken. In this case, the latter option is the most realistic, therefore answering the question of which came first. Essentially, a bird that was similar to a hen and another bird that is similar to a rooster combined their genetic material, leading to a gene mutation that resulted in the chicken that is well known and loved today.