May 23, 2014

Happy Friday

One of life's greatest inventions is the bed. At night, it erases the sins of yesterday and in the morning it presents a clean slate.

On Friday it introduces us to a Happy Friday!

Chopsticks Facts

Chopsticks were created about 5,000 years ago in China. The earliest versions were used for cooking and were most likely made from twigs. They began being used as table implements about 500 AD.



The table knife’s decline in popularity in these regions at this time can also be attributed to the teachings of Confucius, who was a vegetarian. He believed that knives were not appropriate to eat with. Confucius supposedly said, "The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen and he allows no knives on his table."


Chopsticks later migrated to Japan and Korea. One distinct difference between Japanese and Chinese chopsticks was that the former were made from a single piece of bamboo that were joined at the base.



While the early chopsticks were more often than not made of some cheap material, such as bamboo, later silver chopsticks were sometimes used during Chinese dynastic times in order to prevent food poisoning. It changes color if touched by garlic, onion, or rotten eggs, which release hydrogen sulfide that reacts with the silver causing it to change color.

Summer Tip

Put pineapple chunks or grapes on skewers and freeze for a tasty and refreshing summer treat.

Color Me Yellow

Yellow is the color of gold, butter, and ripe lemons. In the spectrum of visible light, and in the traditional color wheel used by painters, yellow is found between green and orange. Yellow is commonly associated with gold, wealth, sunshine, reason, happiness, optimism, and pleasure, but also with envy, jealousy and betrayal. It plays an important part in Asian culture, particularly in China, where it is the color of happiness, glory, and wisdom. In China, there are five directions of the compass; north, south, east, west, and the middle, each with a symbolic color. Yellow signifies the middle. China is called the Middle Kingdom; the palace of the Emperor was considered to be in the exact center of the world.

In Egypt and Burma, yellow signifies mourning.
In Spain, executioners once wore yellow.
In India, yellow is the symbol for a merchant or farmer.
In tenth-century France, the doors of traitors and criminals were painted yellow.
Hindus in India wear yellow to celebrate the festival of spring.
If someone is said to have a “yellow streak,” that person is considered a coward.
In Japan during the War of Dynasty in 1357, each warrior wore a yellow chrysanthemum as a pledge of courage.
A yellow ribbon is a sign of support for soldiers at the front.
Yellow is a symbol of jealousy and deceit.
In the Middle Ages, actors portraying the dead wore yellow.
To holistic healers, yellow is the color of peace.
Yellow has good visibility and is often used as a color of warning. It is also a symbol for quarantine, an area marked off because of danger.
The Beatles had a song
Yellow Submarine
“Yellow journalism” refers to irresponsible and alarmist reporting.

Brand Names

Many words we use are really patented or trade marked names owned by specific companies. Here are a few of names that have become more-or-less generic, but are still owned.

Breathalyzer, Bubble Wrap, ChapStick, Crock Pot, Dumpster, Jacuzzi, Jet Ski, Kleenex, Ouija Board, Ping Pong, Popsicle, Rollerblade, Seeing Eye Dog, Styrofoam, Taser, Velcro, Zamboni

Calcium Facts

Calcium is essential for human, plant, and animal nutrition. Animals skeletons get their rigidity primarily from calcium phosphate. The eggs of birds and shells of mollusks are comprised of calcium carbonate. Calcium is used as a reducing agent when preparing metals from their compounds; as a reagent in purification of inert gases; to fix atmospheric nitrogen; as a scavenger and decarbonizer in metallurgy; and for making alloys. Calcium compounds are used in making lime, bricks, cement, cheese, glass, paint, paper, sugar, glazes, as well as many others, including fireworks.

Calcium isn't found free in nature, but it can be purified into a soft silvery-white alkaline earth metal. Though calcium has been known for thousands of years, it was not purified as an element until 1808 by Sir Humphrey Davy from England.The element name "calcium" comes from the Latin word "calcis" meaning "lime". It is the 5th most abundant element in the Earth's crust at a level of about 3% in the oceans and soil.

Vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption by the human body. It is converted to a hormone which causes intestinal proteins responsible for calcium absorption to be produced.

Calcium is the main component of teeth and bones and is the fifth most abundant element in the human body. Approximately one third of the mass of the human body is calcium after all water is removed.

The top three countries that produce calcium are China, United States, and India.

Wordology, Seminar

From the mid-15 century, "plot where plants are raised from seeds," from Latin seminarium "plant nursery, seed plot," figuratively, "breeding ground," from seminarius of seed, from semen (genitive seminis). It is also a school for training priests and commonly used for any school (especially academies for young ladies) from 1580s to 1930s. Also commonly used today to describe where business people go to waste time and money.

Microwave and Plastic Myth Debunked

The dangers of plastic in microwaves appears to have originated with a TV station in Honolulu that ran a segment in 2002 featuring Dr. Edward Fujimoto, who explained how microwaving plastic wrap and containers can release potentially deadly toxins into our food. A short news segment from Hawaii that few actually saw became huge when someone made it into an email that went viral.

The email claimed to be a media release from Johns Hopkins University, has the common urge to "pass this on to your family and friends" as do most untrue or politically incorrect emails. Johns Hopkins has formally debunked the email as originating from it.

Scientists do admit that it is possible heating plastic in a microwave might leach some substances into foods, but nowhere near the amount that would cause harm.

Another myth about chemicals in plastic water bottles getting into our bodies, while a boon for the metal water bottle industry, scientists say that cold temperatures actually inhibit the ability of chemicals to leak out of plastics.