May 31, 2007
Posted at: 10:58 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Entertainment and News
In an attempt to prove that I am smarter than 8th graders, I watched the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship. I was proven wrong however because those students are a lot smarter than me…with spelling anyways.
Unfortunately, the winner of the 2007 spelling bee was a disappointment because he did not have a reaction like winners do. He just sat there with the same look on and it made it seem like he didn’t care about winning. To be quite honest, he actually stated that he doesn’t care about the spelling bee and he likes music and math more. When he was interviewed after, they asked if winning has changed his mind about the spelling bee and he said on national TV, not really. His winning word was “Serrefine” and he said he knew how to spell it as soon as the pronouncer said it.
The most notable winner was Rebecca Sealfon for spelling her final word, “euonym,” by screaming out each letter. As she represented the New York Daily News, the Daily News’ entire front page the day after her triumph was a picture of Sealfon, arms raised in victory, with the headline “EUONYM!”
Here is the Best of the Bee, a compilation of the best answers from the contestants.
scripps, 2007 spelling bee, spelling bee, spelling, bee, championship
May 30, 2007
Posted at: 11:58 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Rants and Randomness
Yesterday I wrote a post about the 100 Words High School Grads And Parents Should Know and today while I was watching the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee, I came up with today’s post which is quite similar.
In the English Language, there are many words that are longer than most, but some are not even real words. However, here is a list of the longest words.
Lets start with the longest non-technical word and then move on to words that are technical in matter.
- Floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters) – “the act or habit of estimating or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by deprecation”. (the longest non-technical word)
- Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters) – inherited disorder that closely simulates the symptoms, but not the consequences of pseudohypoparathyroidism, thus it has mild or no manifestations of hypoparathyroidism or tetanic convulsions.
- *Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (34 letters) – the 34-letter title of a song from the movie Mary Poppins, does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a proper noun defined in reference to the song title. The attributed meaning is “a word that you say when you don’t know what to say.
- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters) – “a factitious word alleged to mean ‘a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust usually found in volcanos’. It was coined to serve as supposedly the longest English word. The more general and widely used term for this condition is pneumoconiosis, also known as black lung disease.
- Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu (85 letters) – the Māori name for an otherwise unremarkable hill, 305 metres high, close to Porangahau, south of Waipukurau in southern Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. The name is often shortened to Taumata by the locals for ease of conversation.
- acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylserylglutaminyl-
phenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylserylvalyltryptophylalanyl-
aspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinyl-
threonylserylserylleucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanyl-
glutaminylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreonylthreonyl-
glutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylglutaminylvalyl-
tryptophyllysylprolylphenylalanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalyl-
arginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosyl-
arginyltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucylisoleucyl-
threonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenylalanylaspartylthreonyl-
arginylasparaginylarginylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylvalylglutamyl-
asparaginylglutaminylglutaminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamyl-
threonylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspartylaspartyl-
alanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylserylalanylasparaginylisoleucyl-
asparaginylleucylvalylasparaginylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycyl-
threonylglycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonyl-
phenylalanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltryptophyl-
threonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine (1,185 letters) – describes a relatively simple yet lengthy organic molecule. Single-chain organic molecules are constructed of numerous functional groups connected together.
- Methionylthreonylthreonyl…isoleucine (189,819 letters) – AKA Titin is the largest known protein, consisting of 26,926 amino acids. The molecular weight of the mature protein is approximately 2,993,451.39 Da, and it has a theoretical pI of 6.35. The protein’s chemical formula is C132983H211861N36149O40883S693. It has a theoretical instability index (II) of 39.69, indicating that it would be stable in a test tube.
longest words, words, English language, language, English, longest, dictionary
May 29, 2007
Posted at: 10:51 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Rants and Randomness
The American Heritage Dictionaries wrote a book that tells the 100 words HS grads should know. “The words we suggest,” says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, “are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language.”
Taking Latin really helped me to know some of these words because I was able to take the root of the word and figure out what it actually meant. Thank you Vasken for the Latin classes to help with some of these words. Take the word “antebellum”, ante means before like placing an ante in poker before the cards get dealt and bellum means war.
Loquacious which means chatty, I learned in the movie Conair when John Cusak is talking to the other agents.
- Garrulous? What the F%$* is garrulous?
- That would be loquacious, verbose, effusive. How about “chatty”?
- What’s with dictionary boy, here?
- Thesaurus boy, I think, is more appropriate.
How many do you know?
- abjure
- abrogate
- abstemious
- acumen
- antebellum
- auspicious
- belie
- bellicose
- bowdlerize
- chicanery
- chromosome
- churlish
- circumlocution
- circumnavigate
- deciduous
- deleterious
- diffident
- enervate
- enfranchise
- epiphany
- equinox
- euro
- evanescent
- expurgate
- facetious
- fatuous
- feckless
- fiduciary
- filibuster
- gamete
- gauche
- gerrymander
- hegemony
- hemoglobin
- homogeneous
- hubris
- hypotenuse
- impeach
- incognito
- incontrovertible
- inculcate
- infrastructure
- interpolate
- irony
- jejune
- kinetic
- kowtow
- laissez faire
- lexicon
- loquacious
- lugubrious
- metamorphosis
- mitosis
- moiety
- nanotechnology
- nihilism
- nomenclature
- nonsectarian
- notarize
- obsequious
- oligarchy
- omnipotent
- orthography
- oxidize
- parabola
- paradigm
- parameter
- pecuniary
- photosynthesis
- plagiarize
- plasma
- polymer
- precipitous
- quasar
- quotidian
- recapitulate
- reciprocal
- reparation
- respiration
- sanguine
- soliloquy
- subjugate
- suffragist
- supercilious
- tautology
- taxonomy
- tectonic
- tempestuous
- thermodynamics
- totalitarian
- unctuous
- usurp
- vacuous
- vehement
- vortex
- winnow
- wrought
- xenophobe
- yeoman
- ziggurat
latin, 100 words, hs grads, high school grads, parents, words to know, 100, words, root
May 28, 2007
Posted at: 11:58 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Entertainment and News
“On The Lot” premiered on Fox tonight and it was actually really good in my opinion.
On the Lot is a reality show competition produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett. The show, which airs on FOX, features filmmakers competing in weekly elimination competitions, with the ultimate prize of a million dollar development deal at DreamWorks.
Some of the videos that the directors created were amazing, but others fell short in the category of funny (what they were looking for). There were a few that were so good that it made me want to be a director to create videos like that. A few notable directors were Andrew Hunt, Sam Friedlander, and Zach Lipovsky.
Ratings
The premiere episode of On the Lot followed highly rated American Idol, but failed to hold a majority of the Idol audience. Lot had a 6.2 rating/ 9 share from 9-10 p.m., retaining just 38 percent of Idol’s audience, followed by a loss of 39 percent at 9:30 p.m. (7.7/11 to 4.7/ 7). The second episode followed another FOX network reality hit, So You Think You Can Dance. However, like its premiere, the ratings did not hold up after the lead-in show ended, losing half of Dance’s audience. On the Lot had a 2.1/6 share.
Watch On The Lot if you haven’t already to hopefully bring up its ratings.
on the lot, the lot, fox, directors, videos
May 27, 2007
Posted at: 11:45 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Sports and Leisure
Julian Tavarez
May 22, 1973
Santiago, Dominican Republic
Height: 6-2
Weight: 195 lbs.
Age: 34
Pronounced: JOOL-ee-an tah-VAR-rez
REC 3-4
SV 0
ERA 5.40
WHIP 1.43
The Red Sox had not swept a three-game series from the Rangers in Texas since Nixon was in office. And no, we don’t mean Trot.
But the team with baseball’s best record continues to rewrite history. Sunday’s 6-5 victory before 40,323 at Rangers Ballpark was the third successive comeback for the Red Sox, and gave them their first three-game sweep in Arlington since Aug. 20-22, 1973.
“It’s not easy [to sweep],” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “Because normally, like we did, you go through the first couple of games using the guys at the end of your bullpen.”
After the Red Sox swept the Rangers, the Yankees were swept by the Angels putting the so called “empire” 12 1/2 games behind the Boston Red Sox. So far out of the 49 games the Sox have played, those 15 games that we lost were hard to swallow, however the Yankees have almost lost double the amount of games that the Red Sox have lost so put it in perspective.
The Sox have to prepare for the Indians tomorrow where we will get to see Trot Nixon who was traded during the off season.
red sox, boston, boston red sox, baseball, mlb, bosox, rangers, sweep
May 26, 2007
Posted at: 11:29 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Rants and Randomness
After I graduated on May 19th from Plymouth State, I had a graduation party that my family put together. All of my friends, family and others showed up to celebrate with me. It was great to be able to spend time with my friends from college, high school (who I haven’t seen in forever) and family.
It was a great day and I had a lot of fun. Thanks to all who came and celebrated with me.
college, graduation party, plymouth, party
May 25, 2007
Posted at: 11:40 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Tech and Web
Facebook added a widget that allows you to get your Digg History displayed on your facebook profile. It seems like it will be an awesome widget to have so that when someone views your facebook profile, they will know the kinds of articles that you have dugg.
*UPDATE: Digg fixed the problem they were having with the connection to facebook and I was able to add the widget very easily.
However, currently there is a problem with getting a connection to the facebook account through Digg. I will update this post once it gets fixed. It gives the following error:
“ERROR: There has been a problem establishing a connection with your facebook account. Please return to your facebook profile and try to configure or install the module again.”
For now, this is what the widget looks like until the error gets taken care of.
facebook, digg, widget, dugg, error, history, digg history, profile
May 24, 2007
Posted at: 11:21 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Sports and Leisure
Even though it took the guys who made this 4 hours to get this perfect, it is still sweet.
pool, trick shot, pool shot
May 23, 2007
Posted at: 11:46 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Rants and Randomness
This is an amazing video of an alternate universe in the family guy series. Pay close attention to the Jetson’s section of the video because it is by far the best part of the whole clip. Enjoy!
humor, funny, video, family guy, alternate, quagmire, al gore
May 22, 2007
Posted at: 8:04 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Tech and Web
Here is a list of firefox tips that you may not have known, but can greatly improve its value to you. I would highly recommend firefox as your primary browser when compared with Internet Explorer
- To quickly find any word in a web page type /word it will highlight the word and press Ctrl+G to “Find Again” that word again
- If you wish to remove an item from your Address Bar Drop down menu, Highlight it without clicking and use Shift+Delete.
- Clear your Download history to make the download manager more responsive : Tools | Options | Privacy
- Type about:cache?device=disk in your address bar to view/save items that you have in your firefox disk cache
- Type about:cache?device=memory in your address bar to view/save items that you have in your Firefox memory cache
- Drag any link to the Download Manager Window to add & download the link.
- If you accidentally delete a bookmark and want to recover it, open the “Bookmarks Manager” and use Ctrl+Z, or Edit | Undo.
- Double Clicking empty space on the Tab Bar will open a ‘New Tab’
- Holding down the Ctrl key when you right click to “View Image” or “View Background Image” will open the image in a New Tab or New Window.
- A bookmarks Folder’s position can also be Dragged & Dropped but you must hold down the SHIFT key while Dragging.
- To prevent a website from replacing/changing your rightclick context menu go to Tools > Options > Web Features then click the “advanced tab” and de-select “remove or replace context menus”. Update: go to Tools>Options>content>Advanced on Firefox2
- You can work offline in Firefox just go to File > Work Offline. This means that you can browse your previously visited pages even when you’re offline this is a really cool feature but not many people who use it.
- You can bookmark the current page by dragging the icon from the location bar to your Bookmarks folder. You can also drag it to the desktop to make an icon for that page.
- To stop animated gifs from moving, press the ESC key.
firefox, tips, firefox tips
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
