Cereal companies had wheat, corn, and rice, but
none had a cereal with an oat base until 1941. CheeriOats were
introduced as a “ready-to-eat” oat cereal. The name emphasized the
main ingredient to differentiate itself from the other types of
cereals.
Unfortunately for CheeriOats, Quaker Oats took offense to the name,
claiming the “Oats” part infringed on their trademark. To avoid a
potential lawsuit, the name was changed to Cheerios in 1945. It had
a mascot named Cheeri O'Leary, but that was quickly dropped. In
1949, the Lone Ranger radio show needed a sponsor. General Mills
obliged and the association with the Lone Ranger lasted for 20 years
and helped propel Cheerios into the most popular breakfast cereal.
The shape inspired the updated name. The “O” shape was made by a
specially designed “puffing gun”. Cheerio dough is heated and
rapidly and shot out of this gun, which makes the dough puff into
the “O” shape.
By 1951 Cheerios was the top-selling cold cereal sold by General
Mills. Cheerios continues to dominate the cereal market with about
one eighth of all cereal sales in the United States. It is sold in
over 130 countries. Other varieties of Cheerios introduced over the
years include honey nut, apple cinnamon, multi-grain, berry burst,
fruity, banana nut, chocolate, and frosted.
Aug 30, 2013
Fairy Floss
William James Morrison was a dentist, lawyer,
and author from Nashville, Tennessee in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Because he became President of the Tennessee State Dental
Association in 1894 and wrote several children’s books, it might
seem a little odd that he would go on to invent cotton candy.
Dr. Morrison patented several inventions. He developed a process for extracting the oil from cottonseeds and converting it to lard substitute, and developed a chemical process to purify the public drinking water in Nashville.
In 1897, he and a Nashville candy maker named John C. Wharton conceived and co-patented an “electric candy machine” which produced what was then called Fairy Floss and today is called Cotton Candy. The product was brought to the public in 1904 and became a huge instant success.
Dr. Morrison patented several inventions. He developed a process for extracting the oil from cottonseeds and converting it to lard substitute, and developed a chemical process to purify the public drinking water in Nashville.
In 1897, he and a Nashville candy maker named John C. Wharton conceived and co-patented an “electric candy machine” which produced what was then called Fairy Floss and today is called Cotton Candy. The product was brought to the public in 1904 and became a huge instant success.
Tokyo
It is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is the
capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the
largest metropolitan area in the world. It is the seat of the
Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the
Japanese Imperial Family.
Tokyo is often thought of as a city, but is commonly referred to as a metropolitan prefecture. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area with over 35 million people and the world's largest urban agglomeration economy. Canada has a fewer people than the Tokyo island metropolitan area.
Tokyo is often thought of as a city, but is commonly referred to as a metropolitan prefecture. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area with over 35 million people and the world's largest urban agglomeration economy. Canada has a fewer people than the Tokyo island metropolitan area.
Watermelon Facts
The watermelon grows on vines on
the ground. It is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family and is
related to cantaloupe, squash and pumpkin. Some varieties of
watermelon come with a variety of rind and flesh colors. The inside
flesh of the popular varieties are red or yellow. The watermelon
grows in many different shapes. Watermelon has 92% water. Watermelon
contains vitamins A, B6 and C. You can eat every part of a
watermelon, including the seeds and rinds.
Thought to be the ancestor of the original watermelon, the white-skinned citron first grew in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. Egyptians recorded the earliest harvest of them 5,000 years ago. Watermelons were depicted in hieroglyphics that adorned the ancient walls of their structures. They buried the fruit in the tombs of their kings, because they believed it nourished them in the afterlife.
Watermelons spread by merchant ships to other countries as they traveled to conduct their business. The plants flourished along the Mediterranean Sea, and by the 10th century they made their way to China. Later in the 13th century the Moors helped spread the watermelon throughout Europe.
The watermelon may have made its way to the United States during the African slavery trade via slaves carrying the seeds on the ships. The word watermelon made its first debut in the English Dictionary in 1615. There are five states that currently lead watermelon production in the US - Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, and Arizona. The United States ranks as number four in worldwide production of watermelon. China is number one. 96 countries grow watermelons globally. Chinese and Japanese often give watermelons to the host when they visit. Israelis and Egyptians enjoy salads made with sweet watermelon and salty feta cheese.
Watermelons come in 1200 different varieties. Recent cultivations led to development of several desirable characteristics of the fruit, including seedless varieties and ones with thin rinds.
Thought to be the ancestor of the original watermelon, the white-skinned citron first grew in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. Egyptians recorded the earliest harvest of them 5,000 years ago. Watermelons were depicted in hieroglyphics that adorned the ancient walls of their structures. They buried the fruit in the tombs of their kings, because they believed it nourished them in the afterlife.
Watermelons spread by merchant ships to other countries as they traveled to conduct their business. The plants flourished along the Mediterranean Sea, and by the 10th century they made their way to China. Later in the 13th century the Moors helped spread the watermelon throughout Europe.
The watermelon may have made its way to the United States during the African slavery trade via slaves carrying the seeds on the ships. The word watermelon made its first debut in the English Dictionary in 1615. There are five states that currently lead watermelon production in the US - Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, and Arizona. The United States ranks as number four in worldwide production of watermelon. China is number one. 96 countries grow watermelons globally. Chinese and Japanese often give watermelons to the host when they visit. Israelis and Egyptians enjoy salads made with sweet watermelon and salty feta cheese.
Watermelons come in 1200 different varieties. Recent cultivations led to development of several desirable characteristics of the fruit, including seedless varieties and ones with thin rinds.
What's in a Name, Emmy
Harry Lubcke suggested the name
“Immy” be used, named after the “image orthicon tube” that was
nicknamed the “Immy”. The Academy members liked it, but felt is
should be more feminine, to match the statuette, so switched it to
the name “Emmy”.
The statuette itself, of a winged woman holding an atom, was designed in 1948 by TV engineer and editor Louis McManus. His wife, Dorothy, served as the model for the statuette. Unlike the Academy Award statuette, where only one design was considered, this design was the 48th looked at by the Academy, with the previous 47 being rejected. The idea behind the design is that the winged woman represents the muse of art and the atom she’s holding represents “the science of television”.
For his design, Louis McManus was awarded a “Special Award” Emmy in the first year the Emmys were given out in 1948. His Emmy was not the statuette he designed, but rather a plaque.
The statuette itself, of a winged woman holding an atom, was designed in 1948 by TV engineer and editor Louis McManus. His wife, Dorothy, served as the model for the statuette. Unlike the Academy Award statuette, where only one design was considered, this design was the 48th looked at by the Academy, with the previous 47 being rejected. The idea behind the design is that the winged woman represents the muse of art and the atom she’s holding represents “the science of television”.
For his design, Louis McManus was awarded a “Special Award” Emmy in the first year the Emmys were given out in 1948. His Emmy was not the statuette he designed, but rather a plaque.
Boy Scouts and Astronauts
Eleven of the twelve men who
walked on the moon were Boy Scouts. Boy Scouts and astronauts need
similar qualities. They are dependable, responsible, attentive to
detail, and respectful. It makes sense that two thirds of all
current and former astronauts were also Boy Scouts.
Since 1959, there have been 312 pilots and scientists selected to be astronauts, at least 207 were involved with scouts, as Eagle Scouts, Cub Scouts, Life Scouts, etc. Of the 24 men who traveled to the moon, 20 of them were scouts. All three members of the Apollo 13 mission were scouts. NASA supports both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts as potential leaders.
Since 1959, there have been 312 pilots and scientists selected to be astronauts, at least 207 were involved with scouts, as Eagle Scouts, Cub Scouts, Life Scouts, etc. Of the 24 men who traveled to the moon, 20 of them were scouts. All three members of the Apollo 13 mission were scouts. NASA supports both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts as potential leaders.
Aug 23, 2013
Happy Friday
Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses
the glory of being alone.
It is not loneliness, but solitude if you celebrate a Happy Friday by yourself!
It is not loneliness, but solitude if you celebrate a Happy Friday by yourself!
How to Repair a Credit Card
The dark stripe on the back
side of the credit card is made up of a bunch of tiny magnetic
particles bound in plastic. The particles are arranged in magnetic
and non-magnetic “zones” to encode the data, like your account
number, expiration date, etc., that the card reader needs to process
the transaction. When you swipe the card, the card reader reads the
information by detecting the changes between the zones.
The strip is delicate, and the data on it can be corrupted by exposing it to a strong magnet or scratching it. Some of the magnetic particles can get dragged out of position. If enough magnetic bits move into a non-magnetic space to create a weak signal, the data gets corrupted and the card reader gets an error.
Applying Scotch tape to the magnetic stripe, encasing the card in a plastic baggie, rubbing the card on clothing, or wrapping the plastic in a dollar bill or a register receipt may enable a cashier to complete the transaction. Also, licking the mag stripe, applying and removing Scotch tape, or rubbing it on your clothes can remove dirt and debris that may be preventing the reader from accepting the card.
When the cashier puts the card in a plastic bag, it creates a spacer so the card slides through the reader with a slight separation between the data stripe and the stripe-reading head. The separation weakens the signal and cleans it up. With just a little bit of magnetic material in them, the contaminated non-magnetic zones still have a much lower magnetic strength than the parts that are supposed to magnetized. Increasing the distance between the card reader and the corrupted zones is enough to get the reader to read those weak parts as non-magnetized again.
The strip is delicate, and the data on it can be corrupted by exposing it to a strong magnet or scratching it. Some of the magnetic particles can get dragged out of position. If enough magnetic bits move into a non-magnetic space to create a weak signal, the data gets corrupted and the card reader gets an error.
Applying Scotch tape to the magnetic stripe, encasing the card in a plastic baggie, rubbing the card on clothing, or wrapping the plastic in a dollar bill or a register receipt may enable a cashier to complete the transaction. Also, licking the mag stripe, applying and removing Scotch tape, or rubbing it on your clothes can remove dirt and debris that may be preventing the reader from accepting the card.
When the cashier puts the card in a plastic bag, it creates a spacer so the card slides through the reader with a slight separation between the data stripe and the stripe-reading head. The separation weakens the signal and cleans it up. With just a little bit of magnetic material in them, the contaminated non-magnetic zones still have a much lower magnetic strength than the parts that are supposed to magnetized. Increasing the distance between the card reader and the corrupted zones is enough to get the reader to read those weak parts as non-magnetized again.
Eight Coffee Facts
A coffee bean tree takes five years to
mature.
It takes the yield of a complete coffee tree to make one pound of coffee.
There are fifty species of coffee, but only two, Arabica and Robusta are used for commercial coffee.
The first coffee house opened in Venice in 1683.
Starbucks uses about 2.3 billion paper cups each year.
Coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil.
Americans drink an average of 450 million cups of coffee per day.
The name java comes from the place, Java, Indonesia, which was the primary source of coffee in the nineteenth century.
One of my favorite old songs is Manhattan Transfer singing Java Jive LINK
It takes the yield of a complete coffee tree to make one pound of coffee.
There are fifty species of coffee, but only two, Arabica and Robusta are used for commercial coffee.
The first coffee house opened in Venice in 1683.
Starbucks uses about 2.3 billion paper cups each year.
Coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil.
Americans drink an average of 450 million cups of coffee per day.
The name java comes from the place, Java, Indonesia, which was the primary source of coffee in the nineteenth century.
One of my favorite old songs is Manhattan Transfer singing Java Jive LINK
Latinizing Words
For a while, it was popular to change the
spelling of ordinary words to make them appear more Latin to
increase their stature. Receipt is a victim of the Latinizing craze.
When the word came into English from French it had no ‘p’, and no
one pronounced it as if it did. Enthusiastic Latinizers later added
the ‘p’ on analogy with the Latin receptus. This is also how debt
and doubt got their ‘b’s, salmon and solder got their ‘l’s, and
indict got its ‘c.’
Most of the words that were Latinized did have some distant connection, through French, with the ancient Latin words that dictated their new spellings. However, sometimes a Latin-inspired letter got stuck into a word that had not come through Latin. “Island” came from the Old English íglund, and was spelled illond, ylonde, or ilande until someone picked up the ‘s’ from Latin insula and stuck it where it had never been meant to be.
Most of the words that were Latinized did have some distant connection, through French, with the ancient Latin words that dictated their new spellings. However, sometimes a Latin-inspired letter got stuck into a word that had not come through Latin. “Island” came from the Old English íglund, and was spelled illond, ylonde, or ilande until someone picked up the ‘s’ from Latin insula and stuck it where it had never been meant to be.
Drain the Mediterranean
During the 1920s, Herman Sorgel, a
German architect, proposed creating a dam across the Strait of
Gibraltar, turning the area into a massive hydroelectric plant,
creating enormous amounts of renewable energy. A natural byproduct
of the dam would be to drain much of the Mediterranean Sea by
restricting the flow of water into it. The idea was to create much
new land for Germany to grow into. They called the project
Alantropa.
During the early 1900s, many German leaders were espousing a political science theory called Lebensraum, literally “space of life.” Lebensraum advocates argued that overpopulation required a solution, and that solution should simply be to acquire more space. While the easiest and most straightforward way to spread is to take over the land of others, there could be another way, to create new land. Doing so would require a public works project larger than anything the world has ever seen, like draining the Mediterranean Sea.
Sorgel’s top objective was to stem the flow of water into the Mediterranean and over time, the water level would drop, creating more inhabitable land in both Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Low-lying lands would emerge basically everywhere, as hundreds of square miles of habitable space would be reclaimed from the sea. Europe and Northern Africa would, effectively, merge.
The Atlantropa Project’s support was strongest toward the end of the 1920s and into the 1930s, but waned as Hitler rose to power and in 1942, the Nazis banned Sorgel from publishing his plans further. Atlantropa was dead.
During the early 1900s, many German leaders were espousing a political science theory called Lebensraum, literally “space of life.” Lebensraum advocates argued that overpopulation required a solution, and that solution should simply be to acquire more space. While the easiest and most straightforward way to spread is to take over the land of others, there could be another way, to create new land. Doing so would require a public works project larger than anything the world has ever seen, like draining the Mediterranean Sea.
Sorgel’s top objective was to stem the flow of water into the Mediterranean and over time, the water level would drop, creating more inhabitable land in both Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Low-lying lands would emerge basically everywhere, as hundreds of square miles of habitable space would be reclaimed from the sea. Europe and Northern Africa would, effectively, merge.
The Atlantropa Project’s support was strongest toward the end of the 1920s and into the 1930s, but waned as Hitler rose to power and in 1942, the Nazis banned Sorgel from publishing his plans further. Atlantropa was dead.
Wordology, Piggyback
Back in the 16th century, goods were
transported in packs that people carried on theirs or animals backs.
The term used to describe this was “pick pack” because you would
pick up a pack in order to carry it on your back.
“Pick pack” eventually became “pick-a-pack” as in pick a pack and carry it on your back. Eventually, because an individual was picking a pack to carry on his back, the term “pick-a-pack” became “pick-a-back”.
Turns out, though, that the insertion of the “a” caused a problem and ultimately paved the way for the original phrase “pick pack” to become “piggyback”. Due to the pronunciation of the term as a whole, “pick-a-pack” often sounded like “pick -i-back” which sounded like “picky back”. This ultimately gave rise to the term “piggyback” around this time for people carrying a pack on their back and by the 1930s, the definition further progressed to describe riding on someone’s back and shoulders.
The pig was the only animal that sounded like “picky” and “pickyback” became piggyback.
“Pick pack” eventually became “pick-a-pack” as in pick a pack and carry it on your back. Eventually, because an individual was picking a pack to carry on his back, the term “pick-a-pack” became “pick-a-back”.
Turns out, though, that the insertion of the “a” caused a problem and ultimately paved the way for the original phrase “pick pack” to become “piggyback”. Due to the pronunciation of the term as a whole, “pick-a-pack” often sounded like “pick -i-back” which sounded like “picky back”. This ultimately gave rise to the term “piggyback” around this time for people carrying a pack on their back and by the 1930s, the definition further progressed to describe riding on someone’s back and shoulders.
The pig was the only animal that sounded like “picky” and “pickyback” became piggyback.
Saccharin
The artificial sweetener in "Sweet'N Low," is
somewhere around 400 times sweeter than sugar. It was discovered in
1879 by Constantine Fahlberg who was actually working on
substitution products of coal tar.
After a long day in the lab, he forgot to wash his hands before eating dinner. When the bread and everything he touched tasted sweet, he remembered he spilled a chemical on his hands earlier.
Fahlberg patented saccharin in 1884 and began mass production.
The artificial sweetener became widespread when sugar was rationed during World War I. In 1907 diabetics started using the sweetener as a replacement for sugar and it was soon labeled as a noncaloric sweetener for dieters. Because the body can not break it down, we do not get any calories.
After a long day in the lab, he forgot to wash his hands before eating dinner. When the bread and everything he touched tasted sweet, he remembered he spilled a chemical on his hands earlier.
Fahlberg patented saccharin in 1884 and began mass production.
The artificial sweetener became widespread when sugar was rationed during World War I. In 1907 diabetics started using the sweetener as a replacement for sugar and it was soon labeled as a noncaloric sweetener for dieters. Because the body can not break it down, we do not get any calories.
Ten Interesting Facts About Humans
- The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court.
- Sneeze outputs usually exceed 100 mph.
- Approximately 75% of human waste is made of water.
- The average person expels flatulence 14 times each day.
- Earwax production is necessary for good ear health. It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.
- Babies are always born with blue eyes. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time after birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later revealing the baby’s true eye color.
- Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
- After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.
- Women can smell better than men. (which is different than women do smell better than men.)
- Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents.
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