Spelling

The headline says it all. Hmmm!

Beer for Blood

Cascade Regional Blood Services in Tacoma, Washington is offering donors a free pint of beer every time they give blood. They are hoping the scheme might encourage more people to donate. Donors must be over 21 and are given a coupon entitling them a free pint when they donate blood.

It appears to be having the desired effect with the blood center saying the scheme has worked so well that it is being expanded. Maybe next year they should try bacon for blood. Ha.

Daylight Savings Time

My brother has one of those clocks that only shows the days of the week. He set it ahead for daylight Savings time and lost a whole day.

American Gothic

American Gothic is a famous painting that was created in 1930.  Grant Wood entered the  painting in in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago and won the bronze medal.

Since it came out at the onset of the Great Depression, it was viewed by many as a symbol of the steadfast American spirit. Many saw it as a struggling farmer and his wife who refuse to give up. The woman is actually Wood’s sister and the man was his dentist.

Irish Friendship Wish

May there always be work for your hands to do; 
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May the sun always shine on your window pane; 
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain; 
May the hand of a friend always be near you; 
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you

Play Doh

Did you know Play Doh was originally a cleaner for cleaning soot off of wallpaper? Captain Kangaroo helped make it famous on his TV show. Now you know.

Foods From the Fifties

Did you ever wonder how long some things have been around?
 -
1950
Sugar Pops (Kelloggs)
Minute Rice (General Foods)
Lawry's Seasoned Salt (Lawry's)
Dunkin' Doughnuts (fast food chain)

1951
Ore-Ida Foods (frozen potato products)
Duncan Hines Cake Mix (Nebraska Consolidated Mills)
Tropicana Products (Florida orange juice)
Jack-in-the-Box (fast food chain restaurant)
Taco Bell (fast food mexican restaurant)

1952
No-Cal Ginger Ale (Kirsch Beverages)
Sugar Frosted Flakes (Kellogg's)
Non-dairy creamer (M & R. Dietetic Laboratories)
Dehydrated onion soup mix (Lipton)
Ms. Paul's Fish Sticks

Piconewton

A piconewton is a millionth of the force that a grain of salt exerts when resting on a tabletop.

China Dogs

The Chinese government is considering legislation that would make eating cats and dogs illegal.

Eating dog meat is a long-standing culinary tradition not just in China, but also Korea, and the Philippines. Cat meat can be found on the menu in China, Vietnam, Philippines,  and even parts of South America.

"The dogs you raise at home, you shouldn't eat," said Pan, a butcher who declined to give his first name. "The kind raised for eating, we can eat those." Many dogs and cats sold for meat are specially raised on farms.

The ban on eating dog and cat meat is part of a larger proposal to toughen laws on animal welfare. Individual violators could face up to 15 days in prison and a small fine. Businesses found guilty of selling the meat risk fines up to 500,000 yuan ($73,500).

Restaurants won't necessarily need to change their menus immediately. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the law prohibiting cat and dog meat could take as long as a decade to pass.

However, to avoid upsetting international visitors during the Beijing Olympics, officials ordered dog meat off the menus at local markets. Officials in Guangzhou have warned vendors to stop selling it ahead of the Asian Games which will be held there later this year.  Reminds me of what Utah did for drinking as a prelude to its Winter Olympic bid. It's true that money talks, even to religions and Communists.

No religion

According to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, released in March, 2009, the percentage of people who claim no religion has nearly doubled since 1990. Those claiming no religion jumped from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008.

3D is a Big Deal

Sony is announcing six new 3D ready TVs this year. Some come with the glasses and others require a separate purchase of glasses and infrared transmitters. It is planning for 3D to be ten percent of its TV sales. Panasonic and Samsung already have 3D sets available at Best Buy. Vizio, the number one largest LCD TV seller, is following with a 72inch, 480Hz LED 3D HDTV screaming stunner in August, with smaller 3D sets to follow. The 72inch is slated to cost a comparatively measly $3,500.

At least a dozen 3D movies are coming out this year and a large number of theaters are upgrading to 3D capable screens.

ESPN has been testing it for two years and recently announced it is coming out with an all 3D network June 11, and plans to have at least eighty-five 3D events ready this year. One caveat, the new network will go dark when no 3D is available. Discovery announced plans for its 3D network to begin broadcasting in 2011.

Gamers are also in on the 3D craze and Microsoft and others announced some of their new games in all 3D.

Just when we all have slipped into the HDTV age, another new technology makes it obsolete. Still, I don't see full scale adoption for another 4 - 5 years, but I do smell upcharges coming sooner to a cable network near you.

Birthday Wishes

Tomorrow is Donald Duck's Birthday. He was likely born Friday, March 13, 1914. The number of his car license is always 313 and it really does reflect his birthday.

A Hundred Years Ago

Here are a few things from a century ago. -
1910 - First photo of Halley's Comet 1910
1910 Boy Scouts of America is founded
1911 First air conditioner invented 
1912 Sinking of the Titanic
1912 First use of zippers in clothing
1913 Panama Canal completed
1914 Outbreak of World War I
1915 Fist use of poison gas in warfare
1916 Albert Einstein - General Theory of Relativity
1917 USA enters World War I
1918 Lawrence leads Arabs into Damascus
1919 First airline between London and Paris

Cucumber Reduces Eye Puffiness Myth

The cucumber itself does not reduce puffiness. Cucumbers are able to stay cold for long periods of time outside of a refrigerator. That cold is what actually reduces puffiness (it causes blood vessels around our eyes to constrict, thereby reducing swelling). Of course, you could also lay a cold dirty sock over your eyes and it would help as much.