Vanilla Extract

Here is a trick that some realtors use to get rid of unpleasant odors and make a house smell better. Put two caps full of vanilla extract in a coffee cup, then place it in the microwave or the oven at 300 degrees for about one hour. Within twenty minutes the whole house smells pleasant. If it gets too strong, turn it off sooner. I found that cooking bacon has the same pleasant effect for many people.

Dumpsters

The Dumpster was invented in Knoxville Tennesee by the Dempster brothers. The original name was the Dempster Dumpster. The Dempster-Dumpster system is a way of mechanically loading the contents of standardized containers onto garbage trucks.  The Dempster Dumpmaster, was the first successful front-loading garbage truck, which really brought the word into everyday language.

A dumpster is a large steel waste receptacle designed to be emptied into garbage trucks. The word is a trademark of Dumpster, an American brand name for a type of mobile garbage bin.

Dumpster diving involves people voluntarily climbing into a dumpster to find valuables, or useful items, including food and used clothing.

Happy Friday

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

I am healthy and content with my faithful devotion to having a Happy Friday!

Millionaires

People and households earning $1 million or more annually made up 0.1 percent, or about 235,000, of the 140 million tax returns filed in 2009. Tax returns filed by people making $10 million or more amounted to 8,274. About 97% of all filers earned less than $200,000.

National Speed Limits

Sometimes the citizens win, but it takes a while. During the oil crisis of the 1970s, the U.S. government was desperate to convince Americans to burn less gasoline. Realizing that cars are more fuel-efficient when driven at lower speeds, Congress decided to force people to drive slower. In 1974, it enacted a law that set the national speed limit at 55 mph, along with a threat: Any state that didn’t comply with the rule would lose its federal highway funding.

Congress may have set the speed limit, but it was up to individual states to enforce it and many states didn’t appreciate being bossed around. In fact, some states made a mockery of the law. Nevada, for example, refused to write tickets to speeders unless they were caught traveling more than 70 mph; instead, offenders received $5 “energy wasting” fines.

So, did the lowered speed limit actually accomplish its goal? While the law did slash petroleum consumption by 167,000 barrels per day, the savings represented a drop in demand of only about one. Highway fatalities also dropped with the lower speed limit, though some analysts have theorized that this reduction was the result of a general decrease in recreational driving rather than slower speeds.

Nonetheless, both state governments and average citizens whined about the law so much that Congress bumped up the speed limit to 65 mph in 1987, then did away with the law completely in 1995, putting speed limits back in the hands of the states, where it belongs.

Smithsonian

This week in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. was established by the United States Congress as an institute of learning. An Englishman, James Smithson, made it possible to create the eponymous institute with his gift of $500,000. It was an enormous amount of money back then.

The Smithsonian Institution supports a wide variety of research projects and publications. It also houses the national museums of natural history, technology, art and history. One of the most popular is the National Air Museum which contains the Wright Brothers original biplane.

It is the world's largest museum and research complex and includes 19 museums and galleries as well as the National Zoological Park. Most Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo are free and open every day of the year except December 25.

The Smithsonian has something for everyone from every era. You can find Archie Bunker’s chair and Fonzie's leather jack among other treasures. It provides a much better experience than Disney World or any other amusement park, especially for school age children, from first grade through college.

If you are in the area, plan to spend a few days. If you are not in the area, there is much you can still learn from the comfort of your armchair and the Internet. You will be surprised at what you can learn. One of the few places around DC that is refreshingly free of politics.

Happy Friday

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend.

I am content that I possess good health and have the confidence that I will have a Happy Friday!

NASA Satellite Data

Remote Sensing Journal reports that NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist models have predicted. Dr Roy Spencer, who works on the space agency’s temperature-monitoring satellites, claimed they showed ‘a huge discrepancy’ between the real levels of heating and forecasts by the United Nations and other groups. He used data from the satellite to dispute the notion of global warming. He says his data indicated that far less future global warming will occur than United Nations models predicted.

Related news - A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.

Floppy Disk Storage

The first floppy disks were invented by IBM to store data and programs. Floppy disks came in 8 inch, 5 1/4 inch and 3 1/2 inch forms and were used for data storage from the mid-1970's to the late 1990's. The floppies held anywhere from 1.44 MB to 6MB worth of data. Now, a micro SD or flash drive or thumb drive can hold many gigabytes of data can fit. These can be used to take your email or other programs with you and run them on any compatible computer, along with your own data. A recent TV ad showed a 4 gig drive for $5.99

Fatty Foods and Emotions

A new study published in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation tells why people tend to turn to fatty foods in order to boost their emotional state and reduce feelings of sadness.

Researchers say fatty foods, like chocolate, fries, etc., create a biological change in your body to reduce feelings of sadness.

They recruited 12 healthy and non-obese participants who were shown images of people with sad expressions while listening to one minute clips of sad classical music selections, while hooked up to fMRI scans to monitor brain activity. The participants were also hooked up to a feeding tube, with half fed the fatty acid found in Twinkies, and the other half fed a saline liquid.

During the test, participants were asked at four different times to rate their levels of hunger, fullness and mood. The results showed those who received the saline were twice as sad than the fatty acid group, but there was no difference in hunger of fullness.

The fMRI scans also confirmed the findings that participants who received the fatty acid solution showed dampened activity in the areas of the brain that are connected to emotions and feelings of sadness. I like this kind of study, eat fat, be happy! Maybe that is why bacon lovers are happier.

Bandstand Day

On this day in 1957, Dick Clark’s American Bandstand was put on the ABC-TV afternoon schedule. However, the one thing they couldn’t do was disrupt an airing of the hugely popular Halfway through the American Bandstand show, Clark would tell listeners to come back for more of the show, but “right now ... here comes the Mouse!” The network would cut away from Philadelphia and show Walt Disney’s Mouseketeers. Following the show, American Bandstand would return for another 30 minutes. The show ran for thirty years.

Print Your Screen

How to print what you see on your screen.
First, find the Print Screen key on your keyboard, which might be labeled PrtScn.

To capture the entire screen (everything you see on the screen, including all open windows), press the PrtScn button. This screenshot will be placed in your clipboard.
Alternatively, to capture just the active or foremost window, press Alt+PrtScn. Now you can paste the image into an email or document, or open an image editing program like Microsoft Paint and either go to the Edit menu then select Paste,  or press Ctrl+V to paste the image into the program. Now you can manipulate the image.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 come with another screen capturing tool, the Snipping Tool. With the Snipping Tool, you can define areas of the screen to capture (an irregular shape, rectangle that you draw, selected window, or the entire screen), annotate the screen capture. Since you can save the image directly from the program, the Snipping Tool also saves you the step of having to open Paint or a different program and pasting the image from the clipboard.

To use the Snipping Tool: Full size - Click Start, then All Programs, then Accessories, and then Snipping Tool. Click the down arrow next to the New button to select your snipping type. Then use your mouse to select the area of your screen or window you want to capture. Click and go.

What's in a Name, Entertainers

Here are some interesting real names of entertainers. Some are real tongue twisters.
Woody Allen - Allen Konigsberg
Jennifer Aniston - Jennifer Anastassakis
Cher - Cherilyn Sarkisian
Vin Diesel = Mark Vincent
Tom Cruise - Thomas Mapother IV
Hulk Hogan - Terry Jene Bollea
Jean-Claude Van Damme - Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg
Gene Autry - Orvon Grover Autry
Ben Kingsley - Krishna Banji
Wynonna Judd = Christina Ciminella
Elle MacPherson - Eleanor Gow
Walter Matthau - Walter Matuschanskayasky
Demi Moore - Demetria Gene Guynes
Bono (U2) = Paul Hewson
Joan Rivers - Joan Sandra Molinsky
Meg Ryan -  Margaret Mary Alice Emily Hyra
Christian Slater - Christian Michael Leonard Hawkins

Cinnamon and Potatoes

Potatoes were once reviled for their high carbohydrate content, but are now being appreciated for their many health benefits, including their ability to lower blood pressure. A 2010 report by the American Dietetic Association found that potatoes' high potassium levels can lower blood pressure by prompting the kidneys to excrete excess sodium from the body. Other potassium-rich foods include white beans, orange juice and plain yogurt.

High blood pressure significantly increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Cinnamon is sweet spice, used most often with pancakes, toast, oatmeal, or buns and has a long history that includes being used in the ancient Egyptians' embalming process.

Now we find that it may also do more than make our food taste better. A study posted in the journal Diabetes Care of five dozen people with Type 2 diabetes showed that the daily addition of cinnamon to their diet lowered blood sugar, cholesterol and triglyceride levels after 40 days. Good news for us as the State Fair approaches with plenty of each to enjoy.