Vibrating Battery

No, not battery vibrator. Brother Industries Ltd developed small vibration-powered generators that can replace AA and AAA batteries.

Think of a flashlight that can be shaken to generate power to keep the light on. Reminds me of those wind up flashlights.

The new generator will semi-permanently eliminate the need to replace batteries and contribute to reducing the amount of wastes," Brother Industries said.
The generator can be used for a device that does not always consume electricity and has small power consumption, such as a TV remote, or LED flashlight.

Buggy Fruit

Dannon and Yoplait strawberry yogurt and Ocean Spray pink-grapefruit juice drink, and many other red foods are made with bugs. A common food coloring called cochineal extract (or sometimes carmine or carminic acid) is used in many red foods and drinks.

Cochineal gets its red color from an insect called Dactylopius coccus Costa, which feeds on red cactus berries.

To make cochineal, the insects are dried and then ground up into a powder. You'll find it in lots of processed pink, red or purple foods. Somehow knowing this does not bug me as much as I thought it would.

Low Flow Showerhead Savings

According to Intuit, the financial software company, Using a low flow shower head vs. a regular one saves $15 a year. Some sites claim it saves up to $25 a year, including either electric or gas costs to heat the water. Paying $250 for a new one takes quite a while to get your money back.

Don't Make Your Bed

I am sure many have been reading about the new fascination with and outbreaks of bed bugs (dust mites). Here is some good news for ridding your bed of these ugly little creatures, although I am not sure it really is good science.

Failing to make your bed in the morning may actually help keep you healthy, scientists believe, because research suggests that while an unmade bed may look bad it is also unappealing to house dust mites.

A Kingston University study discovered the bugs cannot survive in the dry conditions found in an unmade bed. The minute bugs feed on scales of human skin and produce allergens which are easily inhaled during sleep. The warm, damp conditions created in an occupied bed are ideal for the creatures, but they are less likely to thrive when moisture is in shorter supply. The scientists developed a computer model to track how changes in the home can reduce numbers of dust mites in beds.

Mites need humid conditions to thrive and cannot survive in very dry conditions. Something as simple as leaving a bed unmade during the day can remove moisture from the sheets and mattress so the mites will dehydrate and eventually die.

The average life cycle for a male house dust mite is 10 to 19 days. A mated female house dust mite can live for 70 days, laying 60 to 100 eggs in the last 5 weeks of her life.
   
A good idea is to always wash sheets and pillowcases in hot water, even though you wash your others things in cold water. Another way is to use high heat in your dryer.

PS - It is commonly believed that the accumulated detritus from dust mites can add significantly to the weight of mattresses and pillows, but there is no scientific evidence for these claims. Also, a 1996 study from the British Medical Journal has shown that polyester fiber pillows contained more than 8 times the total weight of fine dust than feather pillows. Sleep tight tonight, don't let the bedbugs bite.

Lost Time

Did you know that a single two-second distraction can cost you 15 minutes of lost time? When your concentration is interrupted, it takes up to 15 minutes to get your focus back. So, stop checking your email or looking at your phone every few minutes. It costs you way too much time that you could be doing other things.

True Bacon Burger

A friend of mine, Chris Joles sent this one to me. Geekdad, from the eponymous web site, made a burger of 100% ground up bacon and added an egg to help bind it. He cooked it under the broiler so the drippings didn't mess up his grill. 

His conclusions, try one, don't make it too big, use uncured bacon to reduce the salt content, have it with a strong beer, enjoy. It is not meant to be a weekly repast, but a nice change of pace from the ordinary meat burgers. Mmmm I may have to make one to see if I agree.

Salt Tips

If you are in a restaurant and spill something greasy on your lap, or tie, pour a generous amount of salt on the stain and rub gently. It will suck the grease out. This also works with red wine. It works with red wine on carpets at home also. White wine also helps to neutralize red wine on carpets.

Suture This

Sutures have a long and bizarre history, dating back to ancient Egypt, where everything from tree bark to hair was used to stitch human flesh back together again. Archaeological records from ancient Egypt show that Egyptians used linen and animal sinew to close wounds. In ancient India, physicians used the pincers of beetles or ants to staple wounds shut. They then cut the insects’ bodies off, leaving their jaws 'staples' in place.

Other natural materials used to close wounds include flax, grass, cotton, silk, pig bristles, and animal gut. The fundamental principles of wound closure have changed little during the past 4,000 years.

Late Night Snacks Myth

It does not matter what time of day you eat, as long as you eat no more calories than you burn, you will not gain weight. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.

Eating three meals a day at the same time each day can have other benefits in life, but snacks at night are no worse than snacks in the morning or afternoon.

Also, It is mathematically easier to lose weight than to gain weight. If you eat 3,500 calories more than you burn, you will gain 0.3 pounds, but if you burn 3,500 calories more than you eat, you will lose 1 pound.

Bacon Balm

Just saw this for sale on the net. Lip balm that can be used all year. Thought I would share. Mmmm!

 

US Employment Data

From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (not seasonally adjusted):
Jan 2008 -   144,607,000
Jan 2009 -   140,436,000
June 2010 - 139,882,000

We have to go back to June, 2004 to find a like number to today, 139,861,000. These numbers do not reflect the number of people added to the potential work force during the past six years.

That Doesn't Sit Well With Me

Sir George Sitwell (father of the famous writer Dame Edith Sitwell) was a very bizarre man in many ways.

This is the notice that Sir George hung in the hallway of his manor, “I must ask anyone entering the house never to contradict me or differ from me in any way, as it interferes with the functioning of my gastric juices and prevents my sleeping at night.”

He was a good gardener (he actually studied garden design) and, annoyed by the wasps in his garden, he invented a pistol for shooting them. After he moved to Italy to avoid taxes in Britain, he refused to pay his new wife’s debts which resulted in her spending three months in prison.

He was such an avid writer, reader, and collector of books that he had seven libraries in his home. Other eccentricities included paying his son an allowance based on the amount paid by one of his forebears to his son during the Black Death, and trying to pay his son’s Eton school fees with produce from his garden. Perhaps most bizarrely, Sir George had the cows on his estate stenciled in a blue and white Chinese willow pattern in order to make them look better. How does that sit with you?

Five More Uses for Peanut Butter

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches will never go out of style, but here are a few more things to do with peanut butter.

Replace butter in cooking recipes with peanut butter for a unique taste, especially brownies. Yum.

Dogs and cats love it. Next time wrap their pill in a spoonful, so you don't have to force it down.

It works almost as well as goo-gone to get labels off of packages.

After frying fish, drop a plop of it in the pan and let it melt. Takes away the fishy smell.

Remove gum from carpet or hair by rubbing it with peanut butter and wipe the whole thing off.

What's in a Name

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was nicknamed The Iron Lady and Imelda Marcos was known as The Steel Butterfly.