History

October 12, 2020

Dow Jones Changes Over Time

https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/dow-jones-industrial-average-companies-full.jpg?itok=VF_l2dw2

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/visualizing-every-company-and-out-dow-jones-industrial-average-1928

September 9, 2020

Who Remembers Y2K?

Watch Computer Experts Discuss the Y2K Problem in 1999

BY Chris Higgins December 31, 2016

Archive.org // Computer Chronicles
Archive.org // Computer Chronicles

In the late 1990s, computer nerds (myself included) were up in arms about the Y2K problem. In brief, the issue was that many computer systems used six-digit dates (two digits each for day, month, and year), which meant that when the year 2000 hit, the system might read it as 1900. That could be a big problem.

Much money, time, and computer programming was necessary to fix the Y2K Problem, and for the most part, we survived just fine. But anyone using a computer in 1999 (especially for business) was pretty concerned about keeping things clean. In this 1999 episode of Computer Chronicles, host Stewart Cheifet goes deep on the Y2K bug. Exhibit A is Cheifet’s own credit card from Shell, which expires in the year “1000.” Oops.

In this episode, Cheifet and friends dig into a bunch of actual applications that are not Y2K-safe. Perhaps the biggest problem was with spreadsheets, which often included lots of dates and date math. In this episode, a Symantec rep comes along with a tool that reviews all your Windows apps for problems. A Microsoft rep shows some Wizards (oh, the 90s) to help with Excel problems.

Have a look, and think back to a time when we were thoroughly ready to flip out on New Year’s Eve:

There’s one other notable part of this episode—the demo of Audible (now Audible.com), around the 26-minute mark. At the time, Audible was a combination web service and hardware player (basically a proto-MP3 player with poor fidelity). The player cost $200, or $99 if you committed to buying a handful of books on tape, er, digital. Amazon eventually bought Audible in 2008.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/90427/watch-computer-experts-discuss-y2k-problem-1999?a_aid=45307

August 17, 2020

The First Mattress

Humans have slept on beds for their entire existence: cave discovery

By Ben Cost

August 17, 2020 | 10:51am Enlarge Image

Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains.

Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains. A. Kruge

It was so easy even a caveman could make it.

Humans have been sleeping in beds for nearly as long as they’ve been roaming the earth, according to a new study published in the journal Science.

In South Africa’s world-renowned Border Cave excavation site, archaeologists uncovered evidence of grass sleeping mats that date back to 200,000 years ago — more than 100,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to the study. Researchers say the discovery demonstrates “cognitive, behavioral and social complexity” more commonly observed in much newer civilizations, Science Alert reports.

Indeed, the prehistoric slumber sacks employed a surprisingly sophisticated system of grass stacked atop ash from a fireplace or burned plants, which was reportedly used to deter pests.

“We speculate that laying grass bedding on ash was a deliberate strategy, not only to create a dirt-free, insulated base for the bedding, but also to repel crawling insects,” said lead study author Lyn Wadley, professor of archaeology at Johannesberg’s University of the Witwatersrand, said in a news release.

The Flinstone-evoking inventions also likely doubled as workspace — as evidenced by the fact that the beds contained stone shards from the tools used in their making.

Beyond being multifaceted, the ancient mattresses also provide important clues about early humans’ decorative habits. Wadley noted that “many tiny, rounded grains of red and orange ochre were found in the bedding where they may have rubbed off human skin or colored objects.”

From this one discovery alone, we can deduce that for almost as long as they’ve been alive, humans adorned their homes with ochre; knew the best spots to sleep; used their beds as work stations; and could produce fire at will and employ it as insect repellent.

“Such strategies would have had health benefits that advantaged these early communities,” said Wadley.

This isn’t the first discovery to shift modern perceptions of early people. In December, a spelunker happened across an Indonesian cave painting of a hunting scene that could be the world’s oldest story.

https://nypost.com/2020/08/17/humans-have-been-sleeping-on-beds-for-their-entire-existence/?utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter

June 4, 2020

History of the Water Bed

Taylor Galla
a bird sitting on top of a body of water: Waterbed-Featured-Image
© Shutterstock Waterbed-Featured-Image

 

Hey world, we’ve got a question.

Do they still make waterbeds?

What happened to this seemingly ingenious sleep aid, the mattress designed to help sleepers drift away to the rhythmic movements of water every night? Did they just disappear?

Waterbeds have always been fascinating, especially for those of us who came after their prime and have always wondered why their immense popularity didn’t seem to last. Were the potential negative consequences of a leak just too dire to bear anymore? Was the sleep not as restful as advertised? And how exactly are they made?

As you can tell, we have a lot of questions about these plastic mattresses filled with water, so we decided to get some answers. Let’s explore this neglected corner of sleep society.

What Happened to Waterbeds? The History of the Water Mattress

In order to understand the story of waterbeds and their history, we decided to consult a true expert. Bill Fish is the CEO of the Sleep Foundation, an organization dedicated to all things sleep and helping people find more of it. He’s also a certified sleep coach and helps nearly two million people per month to improve their sleep routines through his website.

Those are impressive credentials, but he also graduated from high school whilst sleeping on a queen-sized waterbed and was eager to discuss this sleep phenomenon with us.

According to Bill, waterbeds were “all the rage in the late 1970s, peaking in the mid-1980s, where at one point 22% of all bedding purchases were waterbeds.”

The waterbed was invented in the late 1960s as a master’s thesis project at San Francisco State University. The creator, Charles Hall, still sleeps on one every night despite his creation’s decline in popularity, and he believes they’re still the most comfortable bed.

Here’s a look at a vintage waterbed commercial in all its 1970s glory:

Water mattresses rose to immense popularity, becoming a $2-billion-a-year industry in 1989, but demand declined throughout the 1990s. By 2013, waterbeds laid claim to less than 5 percent of the mattress industry. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

And they are mighty alright — a full-size waterbed at full liquid capacity weighs 1,600 pounds. This makes them very difficult to move, a major factor in their ultimate decline in popularity.

Now, waterbeds are rare, and most young people don’t know anyone who’s purchased one. According to Bill, the reasons behind waterbeds’ withdrawal from popular society is a bit more complicated than you would think.

“In the 1990s, the technology in mattresses began to improve. With companies such as Tempurpedic changing the game a bit utilizing memory foam, as well as other components to get away from the firm innerspring beds of the prior 40 years.”

“At the same time, people were finally coming to the realization that waterbeds were quite a bit of work. A waterbed is extremely heavy, and moving it even a bit would require the entire bed to be drained. The bed frames are also extremely heavy due to the support needed for the actual bed.”

“Draining the bed would require a hose, as well as a pump, one misstep and you are looking at a mini flood. Waterbeds also had a tendency to leak all too frequently. It got to the point where many landlords wouldn’t even allow a waterbed inside of their buildings.”

All of this became too difficult to deal with for consumers, and the allure of drifting off to the soothing ripples of aquatic bliss was outweighed by the hassle of moving them, filling them, draining them and praying for no leaks. In fact, your own apartment lease might forbid waterbeds. My own lease agreement stipulates that no “water-filled furniture” is allowed on the premises.

And with low-cost memory foam and bed-in-a-box mattresses

Do They Still Make Waterbeds?

Yes, it turns out there are still some sleep manufacturers producing and selling waterbeds. They’re not nearly as popular or common as they were in their hay day, but they’ve still got a presence. The best waterbeds will cost you about $1,500, which is one more reason they struggle to survive in the era of cheap Casper mattresses.

Keep reading to find out where you can still buy waterbeds.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/shopping-all/what-happened-to-waterbeds-an-update-on-the-trendy-aquatic-mattresses-of-the-80-s/ar-BB14QKNw

May 14, 2020

Forgot That Flash Gordon Worked for Union Carbide