Wonder of numbers, mystery of God

Why is 12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111, and 123456789 x 9 + 10 = 1111111111? Also, why is 987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888, and 9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888? Why is there such order in numbers and in the universe?

Lazing around the house or resort during these holidays? It’s a good time to ponder the beauty of mathematics, and of God our Creator, the sum of all wonders, as shared in this PowerPoint presentation. Credits to Wonderful World:

1 x 8 + 1 = 9

12 x 8 + 2 = 98

123 x 8 + 3 = 987

1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876

12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765

123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654

1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543

12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432

123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

Then this:

1 x 9 + 2 = 11

12 x 9 + 3 = 111

123 x 9 + 4 = 1111

1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111

12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111

123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111

1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111

12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111

123456789 x 9 + 10 = 1111111111

And this:

9 x 9 + 7 = 88

98 x 9 + 6 = 888

987 x 9 + 5 = 8888

9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888

98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888

987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888

9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888

98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1

11 x 11 = 121

111 x 111 = 12321

1111 x 1111 = 1234321

11111 x 11111 = 123454321

111111 x 111111 = 12345654321

1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321

111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

Brilliant, isn’t it? So awed was Einstein about the nature of numbers and of the universe that he gushed: “God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.” Intelligent Design was for the physicist basic proof that there is a God. (Reprinted)

Financial Management Tips

In these times of global financial crisis and talks of recession it is wise that we should be conscious of our money habits. Recession or not, our financial habits are something that we should take a second look on. Little money mismanagement can hurt us, without us even being conscious about it… until it’s too late.

Here are just some of the suggestions to make us become more money-wise:

1. Live Below Your Means

Before you take your next frapuccino on your favorite coffee shop, think again, can you really afford that lifestyle? Stall the upgrading of your cellphone to the latest model when your present handset is doing just fine. More shoes? Really now, were you able to wear all the shoes that you already have?

These little “luxuries” are what’s hurting us the most. If we can learn to discipline ourselves and differentiate the necessities from the luxuries, we might do well on our finances.

2. Save For the Rainy Days

It cannot be overemphasized. Learning how to save can make the big difference from financial ruin to a financially fit individual. Even if you start small, say just a P50 a week, what’s important is you get to start the habit of saving. Once you get to earn more, you can increase the amount of money you save.

3. Live the Simple Life

Learn how to do away with the material things and just live with the basic necessities. Don’t be too materialistic. The habit of keeping up with the Joneses isn’t healthy and may hurt your finances terribly in the long run.

4. Don’t Believe Those Get-rich-quick Schemes

One weakness that helps scammers make their jobs easier is the inherent greed in every individual. The promise of earning high returns with a quick investment can easily lure you to part with your hard-earned money. But before you do that, remember the saying, “When something seems too good to be true, it’s because it is.”

5. Pay Your Debts

If you can avoid them in the first place, do so. But once you availed of a loan, be sure to meet your due dates and pay your debts. Aside from a clean credit reputation, you can save a lot from the interests and penalties that you might pay if you failed on your obligations.

As a rule of thumb, start paying off the ones with the higher interests.
These are just some of the suggestions that we can do to check our money habits. Of course, getting financial education and having a plan can help us manage our finances better.

The coming Year (2009) would be a perfect time to correct all our bad spending habits and take control of our finances. (Source: Pinoy Business)

Bill Gates - the Billionnaire: How did it all started?

The most influential and probably the richest person in the world now is always good to be discussed. Bill Gates. Let’s go back to his past and learn again how this person position himself in the world now. The leading actor in the world economy.

Like any other teenagers that are hooked in computer games, Bill Gates spends most of his time handling and working with the computer (although during those times, computers are not that good as compared to what we have now). He was a bit dissatisfied with the computer and system his school, Lakeside School in Seattle, offers his students. The system that they were using was Teletype link.

Aside from him, there’s this another guy who were also dissatisfied with the primitive characteristics of the computer they were using at school. So he and Bill (age 15) decided to be partners for a business. The teenagers gain a profit of $20,000 because of their development of Traf-O-Data that measures the traffic flow in their city.

Bill later entered Harvard in 1973. He never had a realization of performing well until 1974, when Allen showed him a magazine that contains the article about the invention of the world’s first microcomputer. To their enthusiasm and love for computers, they called MITS (the company) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and told them that they have the best software that will fit their new microcomputer. The company immediately says yes, that obliges them to put up their lies into reality.

Then came BASIC, the system that fits MITS and the reason why Bill dropped out of Harvard and join his buddy Allen to work in Albuquerque. To cut it short, they developed more system (MS DOS) for IBM and obtained more money, moved their company to Seattle and work hard. And later, obliges computer industries, to make sure that in producing computers their software must also come into package, and thus increasing the sales of their business. And until now, their business is such a boom, the Microsoft.

A New Technology Locks Your Laptop When Stolen

It's an old story but I'll say it again: Stolen laptops are the no. 1 computer crime in the world, though they don't get anywhere close to the amount of press that identity thieves and NORAD hackers do.

But preventing physical theft is a surprisingly difficult challenge, and even the most dedicated security enthusiast can't prevent every mugging, or every rental car trunk from being jimmied open during a quick bite of lunch. Meanwhile, electronic security measures like encryption and biometrics have terrible uptake levels. Other solutions, like LoJack for Laptops, can be helpful in recovering lost hardware, but by then any sensitive data on the device will have likely fallen into the wrong hands.

Enter a new solution from Lenovo, the ThinkPad people: Using a text message sent via the cellular network to disable a notebook when a user discovers it's gone missing. It works just like a standard text message: A 3G cellular chip in the laptop is always listening for the kill signal, and when it arrives, the laptop immediately becomes unusable. If the laptop is off at the time, it goes into lockdown the next time it's booted. No data on the laptop is destroyed, but a password is required to make the notebook functional again.

Tips for Sleeping Comfort

Generally, it has been assumed that the need for sleep does not decrease with age, but rather that other factors gradually come to interfere with our ability to sleep through the night.


Older individuals, for instance, are at greater risk not only for developing medical and psychiatric disorders but also for taking medications that can disrupt sleep. In spite of these influences, however, it may be that an actual biological deterioration of the sleep drive might also be playing a role.

A new study published in the journal Current Biology has been able to shed some light on this puzzle of sleep and aging. The researchers, who wanted to determine the maximal sleep capacity of both young and older persons, arranged for groups of younger adults (ages 18 to 32 years) and older adults (ages 60 to 76 years) to lie in bed for 12 hours during the night and for another 4 hours in the afternoon.

The subjects tended to sleep significantly longer at the beginning of the experiment, presumably because they were making up for a sleep debt accrued during their usual daily sleep routines. When the sleep patterns stabilized, however, the younger adults were capable of sleeping for much longer times — an average of 8.9 hours daily — than were the elderly people, who got only 7.4 hours daily. This 1.5-hour difference in maximal sleep capacity is impressive.

If your biological drive for sleep seems to have decreased, make sure that you are following the kinds of routines and behaviors that will give you the best chance of getting as much refreshing sleep as possible. Here are some examples of good sleep hygiene:

1. Make sure that you're going to bed early enough to allow yourself to get an adequate night's sleep.

2. As your bedtime approaches, develop a relaxing routine in the evening — don't keep busy until the moment before you expect to fall asleep.

3. Avoid watching TV in bed.

4. Sleep in a cool, relatively dark room.

5. Consider going to sleep to the sound of white noise, either from a bedside fan or
a machine that generates calming sounds.

6. Increase your exercising, but don't do it so near to bedtime that it gets your adrenaline flowing and keeps you awake.

7. Limit your daily intake of caffeinated beverages and avoid them completely after lunchtime.

8. Avoid alcoholic beverages.

The 10 Most Disappointing Treats for Halloween

On Halloween night, some houses struggle with the idea of candy. There are good houses, and there are bad houses. The best trick-or-treaters know to avoid the latter. At the food site Serious Eats, we all love Halloween, but wish certain homes would just stop handing out the classically bad "treats." They weren't good last year, the year before that, or now. Our own Erin Zimmer put together this list of our top 10 Halloween treats that nobody wants...

1. Toothbrushes

Dentists and orthodontists should not be allowed to celebrate Halloween if they're going to get all tooth doctory on us. Do not bring your work home with you, folks! We all have a personal responsibility to brush, and maybe some of us will forget, but your complimentary bristles on a stick (instead of a Snickers) will not help us remember. It will make us despise you and your trade.

2. Raisins

Little boxes of stuck-together shriveled globs are not what little kids schlep around the neighborhood for all night. When they say trick-or-treat, they want candy that will rot their teeth, not wrinkled grapes. (Using an empty box as a kazoo-like instrument, though, is kinda fun.)

3. Candy Corn

The most polarizing candy of all. The fruitcake of Halloween; it just never goes away. If you love them, fine. But don't subject the rest of us haters to the sickeningly sweet triangle that tastes like neither candy nor corn.

4. Smarties and Necco Wafers


These chalky candies are supposedly "fruit-flavored," but no fruit I know tastes like dust -- and makes everything eaten after taste like dust, too.

5. Dum Dum Lollipops

Usually, foods on a stick are yummy (corn dogs, ice pops), but Dum Dums just can't be included on that list. Not even if they were breaded and deep-fried and served at a fair.

6. Apples

Long before "poisoned candy" scares, evil people were handing out apples instead of candy on Halloween. This disappointing "treat" is the main reason to avoid unwrapped food while trick-or-treating.

7. Tootsie Rolls

It looks like chocolate and sort of smells like chocolate, but the mini brown tubes are not real chocolate. They taste like watered-down chocolate, and have a chewy texture that will strip the fillings right off your molars.

8. Miscellaneous, Wrapped Hard Candies

Halloween is supposed to be a holiday for young people, not senior citizens who suck on hard candies all day. Something about the strawberry-shaped strawberries, gold-wrapped butterscotch, and peppermint feels past the expiration date. (These usually get set aside for Granny.)

9. Laffy Taffy

I do not laffy when I get these. I sobby. I get depressedy. Because it gets all stucky to my teethy and doesn't even taste that goody.

10. Anything Fun-Sized

Who started calling it this? Since when is one bite fun?! Give us the rich houses with the sprawling driveways and full-sized candy bars any day. Portion control doesn't need to start this young.

Check out these Halloween treats you will want to eat.

Too Skinny?

My friend was recently on the "90210" set and the first thing I asked him about his visit was, "What did those girls look like in person?" He shook his head and told me, "The girl who plays Silver ... it's scary.. she's too thin!"

It is scary. Two of "90210's" stars -- 18-year-old Shenae Grimes and 21-year-old Jessica Stroup -- are significantly and horrifyingly underweight, especially when you take into consideration that what we're seeing on TV includes 10 additional "camera pounds."

The gossip from the set is that Shenae and Jessica have gotten even thinner since the show started and that some of their cast members have become so concerned that they are planning an intervention.

I hope that's true. Think about how tired and cranky you get when you haven't eaten. Now think about the extremely long hours and the intense pressure that these young women are subjected to. If Shenae and Jessica don't start taking their health more seriously, their bodies are going to react negatively.

In an LA Times piece addressing the issue, a few older and highly respected actresses (like Holly Hunter and Kyra Sedgwick) were also called out for being on the super skinny side, but there is something far more inherently wrong about casting emaciated actresses in a show targeted at young women. "Gossip Girl" may be "every parent's nightmare" and "mind-blowingly inappropriate," but at least those exceptionally hot-looking girls look like they've eaten breakfast.

Clearly the olden days of the original "Beverly Hills, 90210," which featured girls with normal teenage bodies (until Tori Spelling got implants), are long gone. An Entertainment Weekly article about this very issue made the observation that "Mad Men" is the only current show where "the exaggerated hourglass ... is the very definition of sexy. But, alas, her curves are another prop of the era."

Maybe the positive thing about all of this is that the audience has responded with an appropriate amount of shock, horror, and concern. And perhaps we're finally acknowledging the fact that someone actually can be too thin.