What is special about August 1st? It seems that it should be special.
Not something like National Girlfriends Day. Not National Raspberry Cream Pie Day - which seems like a most obscure sort of pie and the pictures make it look like red mush. Or should we celebrate Shredded Wheat's birthday - this invention that paved the way for modern breakfast cereal. And World Scout Scarf Day? Really? Celebrate a scout's scarf? This is Respect for Parents day, aiming to promote kindness and understanding towards parents.
These are among the 33 fun facts for August 1st. There are more historical events but I wondered if there was something special about the beginning of August in the year. The summary of this day doesn't seem to say that:
August 1st holds numerous significant events, celebrations, and cultural milestones. From Swiss National Day to milestones in space exploration, this day represents a wide range of human achievements and historical moments that have shaped modern society.
I wondered if August 2nd has a fuller agenda - it celebrates National ice Cream Sandwich Day, National Coloring Book Day, and World Lizard Day. This date also holds historical significance, such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Einstein's letter to President Roosevelt, and the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
These national days seem to be of "odd things". Perhaps August 1st got National Girlfriends Day because it wasn't overly special and needed something to keep the social media postings going and not have a summer lull.
This was sidewalk art in Toronto many years ago. It seems like a good message for the middle of the summer.
What are racing thoughts? What speed should thoughts be? Wikipedia tells us that racing thoughts is an expression that refers to the rapid thought patterns that often occur in manic, hypomanic or mixed episodes. And I just expected to find out that sometimes we think fast and other times slower. Instead the articles are about calculating how fast we think.
The website "The Conversation" (Academic rigour, journalistic flair) has an article on the speed of thought. This article says that a given thought can be generated and acted on in less than 150 ms. This article identifies a 'thought':
"For our purposes, a “thought” will be defined as the mental activities engaged from the moment sensory information is received to the moment an action is initiated. This definition necessarily excludes many experiences and processes one might consider to be “thoughts.”"
"In sum, although quantifying a single “speed of thought” may never be possible, analyzing the time it takes to plan and complete actions provides important insights into how efficiently the nervous system completes these processes, and how changes associated with movement and cognitive disorders affect the efficiency of these mental activities."
Here's a great question on the internet: Is the speed of my thoughts/imagination, faster than the speed of light?
And here's a fact: According to a particular study it was seen that close to 99% of the thoughts in a human mind tend to be repetitive, with just 1% left for any original or new thought.
We're into the month of August and I found this abstract interpretation of the restaurant August's sign, along with some abstracts from a restaurant ceiling in Toronto.
