Jan 27, 2017

Happy Friday

Keep smiling and your wrinkles will appear to be from happiness.

I always smile and exercise my wrinkles, especially on a Happy Friday!

Stone Age Bacon

Oetzi the famous "iceman" mummy of the Alps appears to have enjoyed a fine slice or two of Stone Age bacon before he was killed by an arrow some 5,300 years ago. His last meal was most likely dried goat meat, according to scientists who recently managed to dissect the contents of Oetzi's stomach.
"We've analyzed the meat's nanostructure and it looks like he ate very fatty, dried meat, most likely bacon," German mummy expert Albert Zink said at a talk in Vienna.

More specifically, the tasty snack is thought to have come from a wild goat in South Tyrol, the northern Italian region where Oetzi roamed around and where his remains were found in September 1991.

Google Search Tip

When searching for solutions to a problem, add the word 'solved' at the end and more practical results should show up high on the list.

Beer Yoga

Yes, it is a real thing. It is yoga that is done with beer. It first originated in places like Berlin and Burning Man, and is now becoming the biggest thing in Australia.

According to BierYoga founder Jhula, it is a marriage between two art forms, both of which are great for one’s well-being. “BierYoga is fun, but it is no joke,” said Jhula. “We take the philosophies of yoga and pair it with the pleasure of beer-drinking to reach your highest level of consciousness.” 

Beer Can Origin

Prohibition was finally repealed during December 1933. During that same year, the first beer can patent was issued. After much testing and changing designs, the American Can Company finally was ready to sell its cans. On January 24, 1935 the Krueger Brewing and Ale company began selling beer in cans for the first time. By the end of the year, 36 other brewers were also selling beer in cans.

A 'churchkey' type can opener was patented by another company that same year. One end was used for opening bottles and the other for puncturing the top of beer cans. They were usually given away for free. Young people will never be able to appreciate the versatility of this handy device.

Incidentally, Churchkey Can Company is a brewery founded in 2012 by actor Adrian Grenier and former Nike designer Justin Hawkins in Seattle, USA. The brewery's name refers to its flagship beer, which must be opened using a can piercer, or 'church key'.

Cell Phone Usage

During January, 2009, only about 10% of the U.S. population had smartphones, resulting in network traffic that mostly involved texts and voice, and some modest picture messaging.

Four years later the faster LTE wireless network that Verizon had launched during late 2010, still had not gone mainstream. AT&T said that data usage on its D.C.-area network was more than 16 times larger than it was during 2009. By 2016, 88% of the population owned smartphones.

Wordology, Chalaza

When you crack an egg, there is the white albumen, the yolk, and that strange white string. It is called the chalaza, and its job is to hold the yolk in place in the center of the white. It is completely edible, but is sometimes removed during baking for aesthetic reasons.

More Egg Tidbits

To clean a dropped egg up off the floor cover it in salt to help it congeal, then clean.

The older the hen, the bigger the egg.

Eggs can stay good in the refrigerator for up to a month after the sell-by date on the carton.

Horny Cows

First scientists have been trying to make dairy cows less flatulent, now they are trying to make them hornless. Dairy cows grow horns, but dairy cows in the U.S. rarely have horns, because they are seared, cut, or chemically burned off. The purpose is to prevent injuries to other cows and handlers.

Recently, a company named Recombinetics took a hornless gene from a breed of beef cattle and inserted it into a breed of dairy cattle. The resulting cattle are hornless, good at producing milk, and still genetically 100 percent cattle. In the past, breeders could have crossed dairy cattle and hornless beef cattle to get hornless dairy cattle after many generations. The good news for dairy farmers is that the cows are hornless, but not less horny, just confused.

Google Personal Activity

Do you want to see what personal information about you Google keeps. Go here LINK and you will find out. You can also change your personal and security settings.

Jan 20, 2017

Happy Friday

Conscious of being unique is not necessarily vanity.

I am not unique in consciously believing this is a Happy Friday!

Happy Inauguration Day

Finally! Now we get six months before the 2018 midterm election campaigns begin and one year before the 2020 Presidential election campaigns begin.

Incidentally, Donald Trump mentioned the 2020 election during one of his pre-inaugural speeches last night.

Viscious Circle

Election campaigns have sometimes been referred to as a vicious circle. The term vicious circle or vicious cycle refers to a complex chain of events which reinforce themselves through a feedback loop. A chain of events in which the response to one difficulty creates a new problem that aggravates the original difficulty.

During the feedback loop each iteration of the cycle reinforces the previous one. These cycles will continue in the direction of their momentum until an external factor intervenes and breaks the cycle.


Incidentally, A virtuous circle has favorable results, while a vicious circle has detrimental results.

National Days to Celebrate

Yesterday, January 19 was National Popcorn Day, today, January 20 is National Cheese Day and tomorrow, January 21 is National Hug Day. Followed next week Tuesday January 24 with Global Belly Laugh Day. What a week, popcorn and cheese followed by hugs and topped off with a great big belly laugh to be heard 'round the globe.

What's in a Name, FODMAP

Have been seeing ads lately for something called FODMAP. I never heard the term before, so thought I would do some research. It is an acronym for Fermentable Oligosaccharides (eg. Fructans and Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) Disaccharides (eg. Lactose) Monosaccharides (eg. excess Fructose) and Polyols (eg. Sorbitol, Mannitol, Maltitol, Xylitol and Isomalt). The name alone raised my latest-fad-diet-of-the-week antenna.

A FODMAP is one of a group of compounds thought to contribute to the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and similar gastrointestinal disorders. The term is used mainly with reference to a diet that is low in these compounds.

Foods high in FODMAPs include barley, yogurt, many fruits, honey, almost all beans, garlic, onions, foods that contain wheat, beer, coconut milk, rum, soy milk, tea, cheese, milk, ice cream, and cauliflower.


Blackberries bad, blueberries good. Celery less than 5cm of stalk good, Celery more than 5cm of stalk bad.

It is a relatively new concept and was first published in 2005. The low FODMAP diet was originally developed by a research team at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. When looking for some proof, only found a few published papers and each contained the same author Susan J Shepherd, an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist who is director of a private practice Shepherd Works. She also has a line of low FODMAP products.

The foods to avoid is so long decided to add a link LIST  for those who wish to find out more. For me, the name alone gives me IBS.

Wordology, Eke

 If we see the word 'eke' these days, it is usually when we 'eke out' a living, but it comes from an old verb meaning to add, supplement, or grow. It is the same word that gave us 'eke-name' for 'additional name', which later  changed from an 'eke-name' to 'nickname'.

Quote

A hearty belly laugh leads to a natural boost in blood pressure and heart rate, which can overpower the midday fatigue. ~ Dr. Robert Provine

Lucky Seven

This is the seventh item in today's Friday Thoughts. The number seven is seen as lucky in many cultures. According to biblestudy.org, the number gets 735 mentions in the Bible (860 if you count "sevenfold" and "seventh"). According to religious beliefs, it is the number of days it took God to create the universe, the number of miracles Jesus performed on the Sabbath, and the number of trumpets blown before the dead are resurrected in the Book of Revelation. There are also seven angels, seven churches, seven thunders, seven seals, and seven plagues.

Seven is also lucky in Japan, due to seven deities known as the Seven Lucky Gods. In China, seven is a lucky number, because it is pronounced "qi," which is the same as the Chinese words for 'arise' or 'life essence'. The seventh son of the seventh son always seems to get the kingdom.

The 'Seventh Son' is also a well known song (and one of my favorites) LINK for Mose Allison, a legendary blues and jazz pianist, who passed away this past November.

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the name of  a Canadian Province on the East Coast of Canada. Labrador is the Northern portion and Newfoundland Island is Southeast. They are also the names of two different breeds of related dogs.


Newfoundlands were originally bred and used as a working dog for fishermen in Newfoundland, Canada. They are famously known for their giant size, tremendous strength, sweet dispositions, and loyalty.

Labrador Retrievers were originally black and initially bred for retrieving small downed waterfowl. They are also adept at a number of other jobs including leading the blind, acting as hearing dogs, and used for police and military work. The name "Labrador" was given to this dog by British breeders in order to differentiate between the two types. The retriever was originally called the 'lesser Newfoundland' or St. John's Dog.

Incidentally, St. John's a city on the Island and is the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Jan 13, 2017

Happy Friday

Happiness does not have a future tense.

It is always here if you look for it, especially on a Happy Friday!

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

That is the official name for fear of Friday the 13th. Therapist Dr. Donald Dossey, whose specialty is treating people with irrational fears, coined the term paraskevidekatriaphobia. Another is known as friggatriskaidekaphobia. The fear of the day is likely rooted in Christianity. Jesus was crucified on a Friday and ever since the day has been associated with general ill omen according to Michael Bailey, a history professor at Iowa State University who specializes in the origins of superstitions. See also LINK

Weddings in the Middle Ages were not held on Fridays and it was not a day someone would start a journey. Thirteen guests are believed to have attended the Last Supper, the night before Jesus was killed, according to Stuart Vyse, a psychology professor at Connecticut College. Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, is considered to have been the 13th guest, Vyse said.

It is unclear when Friday and number 13 became linked in the way we think of them today, according to Vyse and Bailey. There are no mentions of Friday the 13th before the 19th century.

Taylor Swift says her lucky number is 13. "I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. My first #1 song had a 13-second intro." The performer was sued in 2014 by the clothing brand Lucky 13 for selling T-shirts on her online store with the phrase "Lucky 13" on them.

Cold Weather Hack

We have not had much cold weather here lately, but I know some of you are dealing with it. When you are outside in cold weather, one of the first things to get cold is your feet. The reason is the body is protecting itself from the cold and trying to keep the core of your body, where all your internal organs are located, warm. That means blood flow to your hands and feet become limited, making them colder.



This is why it is important to have warm footwear when venturing outside in cold weather. A way to improve the warmth of even the cheapest boots is to go to a dollar store and buy a sun sheet, like the one you put in a car window to keep the sun out during summer. Remove shoe or boot insoles, place them face down on the sheet, trace the outside of them, and cut the sun sheet. Put the cut sun sheet in your boot and put your insole in over top of it. This will add insulation between you and the cold ground and it will also reflect your body heat back up into you.

Wordology, Just Deserts

The 'desert' from the phrase 'just deserts' is not the hot, dry, and sandy kind, nor the after dinner kind. It comes from an Old French word for 'deserve', and it was used in English from the 13th century to mean "that which is deserved." When you get your just deserts, you get what you deserve.

Things and Stuff

George Carlin had a great bit about Stuff. He talked about his stuff, your stuff and everybody's stuff LINK. He talked about stuff, but he neglected to mention things.
We distinguish between these two classes of existence. We can count things, but stuff forms a sort of cumulative mass. Things are made of stuff (cars are made of steel), but stuff is made of things (gold is made of molecules).

Chairs, dogs, balloons, and flowers are things. If I have one dog and add another, I have two dogs. My chair did not exist until it was assembled into that form. If a balloon pops, it is no longer a balloon.

Helium, gravy, wood, and music are stuff. If some helium escapes my balloon, it seems wrong to say that I lost a thing. If I divide my gravy into two portions, it is still gravy. If I chop my cabin into firewood, the amount of wood in the world has not changed.


Linguistically, we distinguish between thing terms and stuff terms, where a thing is a count noun, and stuff is a mass noun. Syntactically, thing functions as a term that refers to a single "entity" and hence takes "a" and "every" and is subject to pluralization, while stuff functions refers to a plurality of "entities" and hence takes some and is not subject to pluralization. Bottom line, we have some things and some stuff.

Cosmetic Codes

There is a code on the back of a makeup container with a 6, 12, etc. Shelf life of cosmetics depends on the period after opening and production date. Some cosmetics should be used within a specified period of time after opening due to oxidation and microbiological factors. The packaging has a drawing of an open jar, inside it there is a number representing the number of months. In this example it is 6 months of use after opening.




Unused cosmetics also lose their freshness and become dry. According to EU law, the manufacturer must put the expiration date only on cosmetics whose shelf life is less than 30 months. The most common periods of suitability for use from date of manufacture:
Perfumes with alcohol  - about 5 years,
Skin care - 3 years,
Makeup - 3 years (mascara) to more than 5 years (powders).
Expiration dates also may vary depending on the manufacturer.

Quote

 I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. ~Audrey Hepburn

Dark Web vs. Deep Web

Many people use the terms Dark Web and Deep Web interchangeably, but they are two very different things. Dark Web is basically just a part of the internet that is not completely public and you need special software to access. The Deep Web is designed for extra security and privacy that the regular Internet does not have. The Deep Web cannot be accessed by a search engine, and consists mostly of data stored on private networks of corporations.

The Dark Web is an encrypted network of darknets that makes up a portion of the Deep Web. Accessing this hidden section of the web requires a special encryption software called Tor. There is nothing wrong with the Dark Web, nor is it actually Dark. Originally it was designed with privacy, security, and anonymity in mind. It is not illegal, in fact, legitimate sites such as Facebook have sites on the Dark Web. Many people use it to browse the web without being tracked by an internet service provider or the government. There is a dark side to the Dark Web, including graphic content, evidence of kidnappings, hit-men for hire, prostitution, child pornography, drugs, guns, and more.
Due to the anonymity the Dark Web provides, it is more difficult for law enforcement officials to track down and stop illegal activities.

The regular web, or Internet you use every day to search for your daily news, shop, Tweet, and watch viral animal videos can be just as bad. Many criminals and other predators hide in plain sight. Almost everything you can find on the Dark Web can also be found on the regular Internet. This includes drugs, solicitation, stolen data, terrorism groups, and various types of pornographic material.

The Deep Web is estimated to be around 500 times larger than the regular Internet and the Dark Web is estimated at 7,000 to 30,000 sites hidden from everyday access. Bottom line, the Dark Web is not so dark, the Internet is not so innocent, and the Deep Web is owned by corporations and governments.

Preauricular Sinus

I have a Preauricular sinus and never knew it. These are common congenital malformations first described by Heusinger in 1864. Both sexes can have one. In females, it is commonly found outside the right ear.

Theories of origin of preauricular sinus (also known as a congenital auricular fistula) includes: defective or incomplete fusion of the beginnings of the external ears at the embryonic stage. Just one third of folks even know they have one.

The sinus may be bilateral (both ears) in 25-50% of cases, and bilateral sinuses are more likely to be hereditary. In unilateral cases, the left side is more commonly affected. They are usually benign and do not change through life.

On Facebook, people with a preauricular sinus believe they are special. Neil Shubin, an evolutionary biologist, has a highly speculative theory that the holes could be an "evolutionary remnant of fish gills."


In Taiwan, the incidence of preauricular sinuses is estimated to be 1.6-2.5%; in Scotland, 0.06%; and in Hungary, 0.47%. In some parts of Asia and Africa, the incidence is estimated to be 4-10%. Just 0.1 percent of the population have it in the US, and 0.9 percent in the UK. Bottom line, I always knew I was special, now I can prove it. Ha

Idle Thought

Politicians have the unique ability to believe they are the one in seven billion people, rather than just one of seven billion people.

Jan 6, 2017

Happy Friday

Happy roads are created by happy feet.

Wake up and be happy, especially on a Happy Friday!

Wordology, Old Chestnut

An 'old chestnut' is another way of saying a joke is old or stale. The origin appears to be eating roasted chestnuts at the fireside while listening to old stories.

The Broken Sword, was a melodrama by William Dimond (1816) in which one of the characters, Captain Xavier, is forever telling the same jokes, over and over, with slight variations. As he repeats a certain joke involving a cork tree, he is corrected. The man says, "A chestnut. I have heard you tell the joke twenty-seven times, and I am sure it was a chestnut."

Clear Cookies, Cache

Hey, it is a new year, why not get a head start on some Spring cleaning. Does your web surfing seem to slow down? Are the pages loading a bit slower lately? Maybe it is time to clear the clutter. Every so often we need to remove the crap that browsers and web sites deposit onto our computers. There are programs, like 'CCleaner' to do this for your entire computer, but below is an easy and quick way to clean up just your browser.

Cookies and cache are supposed to help make web surfing and streaming experience better, but as they accumulate, they also bog things down. A quick way to freshen up your browser is by clearing the browsing data, such as cookies, cache, history, etc. If you save passwords, be careful to uncheck that box, or you will be doing a bunch of typing as you get back into those sites.

Here is how to clean up:
    Launch your Web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, etc),
    Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete at the same time,
    Select the items you would like to clear, at least cache and cookies,
    Select the Delete or Clear button, depending on your browser type,
    Close and re-start your browser and try streaming again.


Things should be much quicker for a while.

What's in a Name, Pineapple

Pine cones used to be called pineapples and pineapples got the name because they resembled pine cones.
Originally, the word pineapple in English was first recorded in 1398, when it was used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now called pine cones).


When European explorers discovered the tropical fruit in the Americas, they called them pineapples, because they resembled pine cones (with the original name). Most European countries eventually adapted, and still use the name ananas, which came from the Tupi word nanas (also meaning pineapple).

Incidentally, The pineapple “fruit” is not really a fruit, but is a mass of individual berries fused to the central stalk. This is why the “fruit” has leaves on top. They are actually the continued growth of the stalk beyond where the berries are attached. Pineapples are not grown from seed.

Utility Blades

Many of us have those little utility knives with multiple snap off blade pieces, so we can break them when the blade gets dull. The problem is trying to snap a bit of blade with pliers, tapping with a hammer, using a rag or other protective material.

If you look close, a good number of those products have a removable tip at the other end that is to be used to snap off the blade. Pop off the tip, insert the blade into it and snap. Wow, easy.

Spacebar Scrollbar

You know you can scroll down a web page by holding down the spacebar. By holding the shift key and pressing the spacebar you can scroll back up.

Smile, this is the beginning of a great new year


NCIS Fact

NCIS during 2016 had about 18 minutes of ads for every 1 hour episode. During 2003 NCIS had about 16 minutes of ads per episode.

Those extra few minutes over a 23-episode season add up to an additional 46 minutes of ads. If you watched a typical 23-episode season of NCIS today you would watch about 414 minutes worth of ads or almost 7 hours.