Drews Sign It Pty Ltd - Food For Thought

My readers in Europe have had a cold start by all accounts. Some tell me that it has been dumping a lot of snow in most parts compared to previous years.

Spare a thought for my Scottish colleagues. Phill Fenton from The Right Signs says "This has been like this for more than a fortnight now with no signs yet of a thaw. Unbelievably the front street is no better having not been cleared by the council. Only the main roads have been ploughed and cleared. I have never experienced this amount of snow for this length of time in the 20 years I have lived here. "

I'm must say I'd rather the snow than the rain, but I guess living in the sub tropics of Australia, getting snow here would probably ring a few alarm bells.

Seems everyone is travelling too. I've had colleagues leave our Australian shores in December and holiday in Manchester UK, another went to London UK, one went to Germany, another went to Vietnam and one to South Africa. Still another went to New Zealand, and another came back from a New Zealand holiday and promptly emigrated back to the land of the long white cloud.

I wonder if it was something I said?

Working on the premise that a change is as good as a holiday, you'll notice some changes too. We've changed the 'Drews Nooze' to 'Food For Thought....'. This lends itself more to the direction we are heading with the compilation of stories that I'm sent by my readers, or that I stumble across when I'm researching a thought.

You'll also see a new website up and running in a few days. I've employed a web agency to overhaul the web image, and this should be up and running sometime this month.

We've also employed John Schindler Communications to promote our various services via our new phone message on hold. We are trying to raise awareness of our VISTA Modular Signage agency, and the fact that we only use premium products, as well as promoting services that some clients have been unaware of us offering.

Anyway, I hope you have a successful year in 2010, and I look forward to communicating with you throughout the year.

The Father of the 'area rule'

Next time you fly in a plane, think of Richard Whitcomb.

In 1951, 34 year old Richard Whitcomb was working as an aeronautical engineer for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor of NASA.

He was increasingly curious about air drag, a problem plaguing jet aircraft. As planes got closer and closer to the speed of sound, drag increased, and reduced performance and increased fuel consumption. Colleagues maintained that Whitcomb had the ability to "see air," and could envisage in his mind how air flowed over various surfaces. It was, they said, as if he had wind tunnel in his head.

Whitcomb began by building, flying - and continually improving - rubber-band-powered model airplanes. Those who worked with him remember him using fingertips and a file to sculpt windtunnel models to match his vision.

Whitcomb realized that the area where the wings connected to the fuselage was responsible for the drag, so he simply redesigned the fuselage more slender in that spot. The resulting "coke bottle" or "wasp waist" shape became known as the 'area rule', and instantly added 100 mph to planes' top speeds. An added bonus was no increase in fuel consumption.

In 1954, he was awarded the National Aeronautic Association's Collier Trophy, and in 1973 was awarded the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for science and engineering. Whitcomb was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Academy of Engineering.

After figuring out the 'area rule', Whitcomb went on to design improved wings for planes, including the "supercritical wing" and "winglets", which further increased jets' speed, stability, and fuel economy. "His intellectual fingerprints are evident on virtually every commercial aircraft flying today," said Tom Crouch of the National Air and Space Museum.

Although retiring from NASA in 1980, he continued consulting for them and aerospace companies. It has been reported that he would rarely bother to cash the paychecks sent to him. "There's been a continual drive in me ever since I was a teenager to find a better way to do everything," Whitcomb once told an interviewer. "If a human mind can figure out a better way to do something, let's do it. I can't just sit around. I have to think." He died aged 88 on October 13, 2009 from pneumonia.

(source: honoraryunsubscribe.com, aviationweek.com)

You're Kidding, right?

Smell of freshly cut grass can relieve stress....

Thaindian.com reported recently that a new study has found mowing the lawn can actually help you beat stress.

Apparently a chemical released by freshly mowed grass can help people relax and make them cheerful, thus slowing down the decline in mental ability with age.

Scientists claim the scent released from the grass works directly on the brain, specially affecting the emotional and memory parts called the amygdala and the hippocampus.

After seven years of rigorous research, scientists now claim to have made a perfume, the "eau de mow" which "smells like a freshly-cut lawn", and helps relieve stress and enhance memory.

Dr Nick Lavidis, a neuroscientist at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, developed the idea of the perfume, named Serenascent, after he trekked a US forest twenty years ago.