Origin of Bacon

A friend of mine, Sherri Moore asked me where that funny word came from, so it sent me crawling around the web for an answer, beginning with the online etymology dictionary. Records of bacon, by its many names go back to 1500BC. The word we use derives originally from the Old High German “bacho”, meaning “buttock”, which derived from the Proto-Germanic “backoz”, meaning “back.”  By the 14th century, turned up in Old French as “bacun”, meaning “back meat”.  By the 16th century, it came into Middle English as “bacoun”, which referred to all cured pork, not just the back meat. Lately, aficionados have been calling it 'nature's candy'.

American Bacon, or “streaky bacon” as the Brits call it, is usually cut from the fatty sides of a pig’s belly.  Canadian Bacon, known as “back bacon” is made up of the tender loins located on the back of pigs. Guess that means they are calling it 'back back meat', ay.

Bacon contains a nutrient called choline which has been shown to boost memory and muscle control. When deprived of choline in their diet almost 80% of the men and postmenopausal women developed liver or muscle damage. The study also found that young women can supply more choline because pregnancy is a time when the body's demand for choline are highest. Choline is particularly used to support the fetus's developing nervous system. You can also get choline from eggs, liver, milk, chicken, and various nuts. That proves it, bacon and eggs are good for you.

Happy Friday

A smile starts on the lips, a chuckle comes from the belly, but a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, overflows, and bubbles all around.

I always smile, and chuckle, and laugh when I am having a Happy Friday!

Father's Day Gift

If anyone has been wondering what to buy me for Father's Day, I have a suggestion from Beafeater. LINK

This grill is 24-carat gold plated and has six-burners, wok burner, convection roasting hood and warming rack, quartz start ignition, vaporizer grid and reflector system It also comes with a lifetime warranty. It is a perfect device for cooking up bacon wrapped, cheese filled hot dogs. Mmmm!

Origin of the Bikini

The United States tested the first nuclear bomb in 1946 in the Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean. At the same time, another kind of weapon was being tested on other beaches, the bikini.

Louis Réard, a French car engineer who was running his mother's lingerie shop in Paris, introduced two small pieces of clothing and advertised them as "the smallest bathing suit in the world."

Simultaneously, fashion designer Jacques Heim was working on a similar design. He called his the Atome (French for Atom)

Réard named his invention the bikini because of the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests. He thought that everyone would be shocked by the risqué display of curves and belly buttons. The joke at the time was that that the 'bikini split the atom'.

The bikini came to the US in 1947, but was not seen much in public until about 1960. In 1964 Sport’s Illustrated published its first Swimsuit Edition.

The real origin of the Bikini can be found in the above mosaic discovered in Sicily. Its thousands of colored tiles show women in bikinis playing and exercising by the beach.

Incidentally, in 1932, one of the first men's chest-revealing swimsuits, the “Topper,” was introduced. It boasted a detachable top that could be zipped away from the trunk bottoms. Many men chose to go topless in this swimsuit and were arrested for indecent exposure.

What's In a Name

The Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company, founded in 1910 by Jesse Shwayder, made suitcases and briefcases that emphasized durability and strength.

Shwayder named one of his first cases after the biblical figure Samson, a man given supernatural strength by God to defeat his enemies, wrestle lions, and slay entire armies.

It started using the trademarked name "Samsonite" in 1941, and changed his company's name in 1966. Relevant names are easier to dominate the minds of the public, than family names.

Seven US Post Office Facts

Did you know that the amount of first class mail through the US Post Office has been less than junk mail since 2005.
The Post Office cannot lay off staff because union contracts prohibit layoffs.
It lost $20 billion since 2007.
Eighty percent of Post Offices lose money each year. 
Federal law forbids closing post offices for solely economic reasons.
FedEx spends 43% of its budget on staff and the Post Office spends 80% on staff.
More than 47% of all mail does not go through the Post Office, but to competitors.

History of TP in the USA

The first product designed specifically to wipe one’s behind was invented in 1857 by a New Yorker named Joseph Gayetty, who sold boxes of  individual sheets infused with aloe. It was a difficult sell and he didn't exactly wipe out the competition as Americans still had the free Sears catalog, as well as other free alternatives.

In 1890, the Scott brothers came up with toilet paper on a roll, which they mainly marketed to hotels and drugstores. It was still a difficult sell and many were reluctant to go out and order something so personal. They managed to cling on and are still selling their product today.

As the 1900s began, more homes included inside flush toilets. That is when greater acceptance came for toilet paper. Indoor plumbing did not do well with catalog paper or other heavier alternatives, like leaves, etc. People required a product that could be flushed away with minimal clogging or damage to the pipes and catalog paper, corncobs, and moss did not flush well. Toilet paper became an alternative that still works.

The United States spends more than $6 billion a year on toilet tissue, more than any other nation in the world. Maybe someone can invent a way to turn junk mail into toilet paper and it would at least have some value.

RCA and NBC

On June 17 in 1941, WNBT-TV, channel 4 in New York City, was granted the first construction permit to operate a commercial TV station in the United States. WNBT signed on the air on July 1, 1941.

It was owned by Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and later changed its call letters to WRCA. As RCA developed the NBC Television Network and, especially, TV in ‘living’ color in the early 1950s, WRCA, as well as its TV counterpart in Los Angeles, KRCA-TV 4 (channel 4), changed call letters once again. The station became WNBC-TV. On the west coast, KRCA was changed to KNBC-TV.

Both stations remain the flagships of NBC television and are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the television network. 

Charles Dickens

He was the author of numerous classics including Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol. He attended elementary school until his life took a twist of its own when his father was imprisoned for debt. At age 12, he left school and began working ten-hour days in a boot-blacking factory. Dickens later worked as a law clerk and a court stenographer. 

At age 22, he became a journalist, reporting parliamentary debate and covering election campaigns for a newspaper. His first collection of stories, Sketches by Boz (Boz was his nickname), was published in 1836 and led to his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, in March 1836.

League of Nations, United Nations, NATO, SCO

The League of Nations was formed after World War I (1914-1919) and was dissolved by the beginning of World War II (1939). It was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended World War I, and it was the precursor to the United Nations.

The League was the first permanent international security organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It had 58 members. The League's primary goals included preventing war through collective security, disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Germany, under Hitler, withdrew from the League and was followed by other nations. WWII showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to avoid a future world war.

The name "United Nations" was devised by US president Franklin D. Roosevelt following World War II and set up as another world organization for preventing future wars. The United Nations officially came into existence in October 1945, when the Atlantic Charter had been ratified by China, France, USSR, UK, and a majority of other signatories. It has 192 members. The main purposes of the United Nations are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, human rights, social progress and accomplish world peace.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defense where its members agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. It has 28 members. The Korean War galvanized the member states, and an integrated military structure was built up under the direction of two US supreme commanders.

The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the world's defense spending. The United States accounts for 43% of the total military spending of the world and the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy account for another 15%.

The six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was set up in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to address religious extremism and border security in Central Asia, and as a security counterweight to NATO that would allow Russia and China to rival US influence in Asia. It is now also looking to cooperate at an economic level. Its membership includes the ex-Soviet Central Asian states and with India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan attending meetings as observers. Its summits bring together an eclectic gathering of world leaders. In a recent summit declaration signed by all the member states, the organization also attacked missile defense programs in another apparent dig at the United States.

According to Defense Secretary Gates this past week, NATO may have a dim future and may no longer be worth the cost to the US.

Happy Friday

Heal the past, live the present, dream the future.

I am healed from last week and living today as I dream about having another Happy Friday!

Facebook Faces

Did you know Facebook has a feature called 'Facial Recognition' that allows people to tag photos that may contain your face, without your permission? It has been around for a while and this feature is turned on automatically. If you like to be tagged in photos, enjoy. If not, to turn it off:
1 Go to the "Account" tab in the top right hand corner
2 Click on "Privacy settings"
3 Click "Customize settings"
4 Scroll down to "Things others share"
5 Click "Edit settings" next to "Suggest photos of me to friends"
6 Choose "Disable" or "Enable" from the drop down

China Consumes

China consumes 53% of the world's cement. It consumes 48% of the world's iron ore and consumes 47% of the world's coal (more than the rest of the world combined). China is well ahead of the US in the consumption of television sets, refrigerators, and mobile phones. China has  become the world's second largest luxury goods consumer with 27.5% of the world's luxury goods. It also consumes 25% of the world's beer.

Nanotechnology and Nanoparticles

These tiny little things are used in all sorts of things we never hear about, but are changing our lives. Nanotechnology is a broad term that covers many areas of science, research, and technology. In its most basic form, it can be described as working with things that are small. Things so tiny that they can't be seen with standard microscopes. The same stuff that has always been there, but we just couldn't see it.

Here is a comparison - A nanoparticle size is compared to an ant as an ant is compared to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

More relative sizes: (nm is nanometer)
The head of a pin 1,000,000 nm across  You can see these with your eyes unaided
The page of a book 100,000 nm thick
A human hair 40,000 nm thick
A red blood cell 7,000 nm across You can see these using a light microscope
DNA molecule  2 nm wide
Most atoms  0.1–0.2 nm

During the next 20 years, nanotechnology will touch the life of nearly every person on the planet. Below is a guide to uses for some of these nano wonders.

Quantum dots - are made of semiconducting molecules, they glow fluorescently and are great at absorbing light. Used for more efficient solar cells and microscopy dyes for cell biology research.

Silica - silicon dioxide nanoparticles enable so-called shear thickening fluid to become stronger on impact. Used for stab-resistant Kevlar for body armor.

Zinc oxide - tiny crystals stop UV radiation and are toxic to microscopic life. Used for UV-resistant packaging, sunscreen, and paint and textiles that inhibit bacteria and fungi.
   
Nano barcodes - bits of various metals linked into tiny wires make good tags for microscopic things. Used for tracking DNA and cells.

Lithium iron phosphate - particles organize themselves into an anode, which allows batteries to charge and deliver power extremely quickly. Used for electric cars, power tools.

Iron oxide - mini magnets can stick to certain chemicals. Used for steering cancer drugs and genes to targets in the body while minimizing collateral damage. Sometimes smaller is better.