Happy Friday

Reading is the best medicine for a sick man, the best music for a sad man, the best counsel for a desperate man, the best comfort for one afflicted.

I am not sick, sad, desperate, or afflicted, because I am having a Happy Friday!

Free Museum Maps

Visitors at the Smithsonian Institution can use a smartphone to find their way through 17 museums, the National Zoo in Washington and locations in northern Virginia and New York City.

The interior maps totaling 2.7 million square feet can be accessed by visitors with Google Maps for Android. They include maps of the National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of American History and National Museum of Natural History, which draw millions of visitors.

Maps also have been completed for the National Portrait Gallery and six other art museums.

What's in a Name, Nanker Phledge

Mick Jagger and the Rollin' Stones were paid 30 guineas (about 30 Pounds or about $50) and played to a crowd of a bit more than  100 people. The pseudonym Nanker Phelge was used between 1963 and 1965 for several Rolling Stones group compositions.

Multicolor Penlight

In November 2012, Tomy will release a multicolored penlight that can be used for long exposure light painting on an iPhone or iPad.

Here is a LINK to see it in action. The subtitles are included below.

"Nowadays, penlight art is often used at wedding ceremonies and school festivals, but it requires an SLR and photography skills. We wanted to make penlight art easier, so people of all ages can enjoy it. What we've done is, we've created a simplified version of penlight art as an iPhone app."

"This penlight offers up to 27 colors at the touch of a button. It also provides straight lines, dotted lines, and gradation, so you can do a lot of things with it. This application really makes you want to get creative."

"You can also turn a series of photos into a video, like a flip book, and you can upload to Twitter and Facebook directly from the Album mode. So, you can share your photographic creations with everyone."

The multicolored penlight will be available for approximately $30 and the iPhone app can be downloaded for free. Beware, the site can be addicting because it has so much advanced, cool, fun, and useless technology.
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Double Bacon Corn Dog

This year the Iowa State Fair has a new treat. The Campbell’s Concessions’ Double Bacon Corn Dog makes its debut.

The recipe - Wrap a hot dog in bacon, deep-fry it, dip it in 'bacon-bit-enriched' batter and deep fry it again. Mmmm!

Five Almost Famous Characters

Arthur Conan Doyle made notes that indicated he considered the name “Sherringford” for Detective Holmes.

Holmes’ assistant was originally going to be called “Ormond Sacker.” Arthur Conan Doyle decided the name was a bit too bizarre and changed it to John H. Watson.

Before “Nancy Drew” was decided upon, names kicked around included Stella Strong, Diana Drew, Diana Dare, Nan Nelson, Helen Hale, and Nan Drew.

Small Sam, Little Larry, and Puny Pete were all in the running before Charles Dickens settled on “Tiny Tim” for the sickly lad in A Christmas Carol.

Little Orphan Annie was Little Orphan Otto, until Harold Gray’s publisher at the newspaper syndicate suggested his character looked more female than male and told him to make it so.

Equiso

This is one of the newest devices for your TV and is awesome. Details can be found on kickstarter.

The Smart TV is an HDMI dongle (left bottom of pic) that plugs into your television and essentially turns it into an Android tablet. You have access to apps, the web, and any video content you can stream and store on the device. it lets you play free YouTube movies and any other movies from the web. You can check your email, including replying, etc.

It includes a portable keyboard and the remote shoots a beam that makes it act like you are scrolling with your fingers. It is coming out soon and the price is slated to be only $69. I love technology and this is soon to be in my living room.

Cheesburger in a Can

Swiss people have come up with the product of the year. It's an import that is giving restaurants a run for their money. They are actually made in Germany and available on eBay. 

The ad says Cheeseburger In A Can is a tasty treat when you are on the run. The can has an expiration date of one year. This does not beat the Japanese, who have come out with a powdered mini cheeseburger in a bag. Neither will be on my menu anytime soon.

Scratch Remedies

Most folks under 30 have never heard of using the relatively painless Mercurochrome in lieu of that nasty stinging Iodine. It stained your flesh pinkish-red. The FDA put limitations on the sale of Mercurochrome in 1998 and stated that it was no longer considered 'Generally Recognized As Safe' over-the-counter product. The main active ingredient in Mercurochrome is mercury.

Speaking of Iodine, it burned like fire when applied to an open wound, because it had an alcohol base. Many doctors today use a water-based iodine as an antiseptic, as it has one of the broadest germ-killing spectrums. This old school remedy is rarely found in home first aid kits anymore. Alas, change comes too late for some of us.

List of Lists

It is finally here, more information that you never knew or cared about. However, every now and then you need a list to prove a point. Here it is from Wikipedia LINK.

Or you can wait a few weeks and get more interesting information from my upcoming 49th book 'Amazing Facts and Bite Sized Brain Food'.

Happy Friday

An old saying is 'to forgive is to forget'.

You do not need forgiveness for never forgetting to have a Happy Friday!

Salt

Saltiness is one of the five primary basic tastes the human tongue can detect. Those five tastes being: salt, bitter, sweet, sour, and umami (it is from glutamic acid, which is found in many foods, particularly some meats, and is the basis of the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG).

Extra salt has other effects, beside simply making things more salty it helps certain molecules in foods more easily release into the air, thus helping the aroma of the food, which is important in perception of taste.

Adding a bit of salt will also decrease the bitter taste perception in food, which is why it is often sprinkled on grapefruit.

Salt does not suppress sweet or sour flavors as with bitter flavors, but balances out the taste by making the perceived flavor of sugary candies or lemons, less one dimensional.

Sticky Tip

Use nonstick cooking spray in votive candle holders and the remaining wax after burning will easily slip out.

Slut

This unpleasant term is used these days to refer to an immoral or sexually promiscuous woman, but the origin of the term had a more innocuous meaning. It actually meant a woman who did not keep her room tidy. Another early meaning was kitchen maid or drudge. Only later did it begin to mean immorality of a sexual type. In Thomas Hoccleve’s 1402 Letter to Cupid, “The foulest slutte of al a toune.”

In Victorian English, sluts wool referred to the little piles of dust that gather on the floor if it was not swept.