Basketball Quickie

This week in 1892, the first officially recognized basketball game was played at the YMCA gym in Springfield, Mass.

Flying vs. Driving

MIT statistics professor Arnold Barnett reports that in the last five years, the risk of dying on a flight in the United States was one in 45 million. So, you can fly every day for 123,000 years before encountering a crash.

Your chance of being killed in a car accident in a given year is one in 7,000, making flying thousands of times safer.

Is It Cold or Flu

This time of year many will get one or the other, or both. However, there is a difference that is quite striking. Both can share a number of the same symptoms, including a runny or stuffy nose, sore throat, and cough. Because both the common cold and flu are caused by viruses, neither respond to antibiotics, which only work on bacterial infections. Antiviral medications can be prescribed by a physician to treat the flu and should be administered within 48 hours of when people begin to feel ill.

Colds tend to be relatively mild and typically last only a few days. Colds also have a more gradual onset with mild aches, and pains. Common colds are caused by many different viruses and high fever is rare. Colds are much more common than cases of flu.

The flu, short for influenza, usually comes on suddenly and is accompanied by fever, severe aches, chills, and fatigue. Effects of the flu can last for weeks.

Treatment for both includes plenty of rest, drinking fluids, taking antihistamines, pain relievers, and decongestants. Don't forget to keep a good supply of chicken soup, just in case.

Top Five Lead Singers Net Worth

1: Paul McCartney  – $800 Million (The Beatles, etc.)
2: Bono – $600 Million (U2)
3: Jimmy Buffett  – $400 Million (Solo)
4: Elton John – $320 Million (Solo)
5: Mick Jagger  – $305 Million (The Rolling Stones)

Definition of Happiness

No Words Needed

Happy Friday

How can you wake up in the morning and not be delighted that you have now lived another day longer than you ever have before.

I find it even more delightful when I wake up and celebrate a Happy Friday!

Laughing Buddha

The Laughing Buddha also Happy Hotei is the nickname for Budai or Pu-Tai, which means “Cloth Sack”. Budai was a real zen monk who lived in China during the 10th century, and he has always been portrayed as a smiling or laughing fat man. Though he is called the Laughing Buddha, do not confuse him with Gautama Buddha, the sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.

Budai or Hotei (in Japanese) is one of the seven lucky gods in Japan, and you can find statues of him in many shrines and temples just like in China and other East Asian countries.

Coffee Facts

A coffee bush does not produce usable fruit for five to six years, but then can produce for thirty to forty years after that. Coffee was eaten long before it became a liquid refreshment. African tribes would mix the coffee berries with fat and create energy balls that they would eat once or twice a day, when they needed a boost of energy. Green coffee beans were ground up and mixed with fat, then made into small balls, which were eaten by travelers on long journeys. It was the first plant to be cultivated around the world.
 
The fruit, or cherry, is a reddish two-seeded berry. The two seeds are what we call coffee beans, but are actually seeds. The cherries and leaves also contain caffeine. In some countries, the berries are fermented into wine, but mostly they are used for fertilizer or cattle feed.

Coffee was the very first food to be freeze dried in 1938. Nestle invented the freeze dried coffee. It was a milestone that was unprecedented and set a new standard for how food could be packaged and sold.

Coffee is so popular and in such high demand that it is actually the second most traded commodity on earth, only behind oil.

Mocha is a city in Yemen and the island of Java in Indonesia are two places, which types of coffee are named.

Wordology, Punt

A punt is the small indentation on the bottom of wine bottles designed to give the bottle extra strength. It is also known as a kick.

Nuff Said

Chocoholics Rejoice

Everyone knows the importance of eating vegetables and chocolate is a vegetable. Chocolate is made from cacao beans and sugar. Beans are vegetables. Sugar is derived from either sugar cane or sugar beets. Both are plants in the vegetable category.

Chocolate candy bars contain milk, which is dairy. Therefore, chocolate candy bars are a health food.

Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, and fruits are good for your health.

Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It will take the edge off your appetite, and you will eat less at meals.

Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.

A box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Am just trying to help.

Decimate and Obliterate

The word “decimate” does not mean to destroy something completely and leaving nothing behind. It actually means to destroy a great or large amount, not the entire amount. Some people tend to use this word in absolute and complete terms, as if there is nothing that can be done, said, or seen after the decimation takes place.

Think of it this way: if a 10-story building gets decimated, then there should still be a story or two left after the decimation. If all ten stories get destroyed, then the building has not been decimated. It has been obliterated.

Drain Fix

Grab some baking soda and sprinkle it in and on the drain. If it just sits on top of the drain, that's okay.
2. Pour white vinegar down the drain. Add as much vinegar as you can without overflowing the clogged drain. You will immediately be able to see the baking soda and vinegar start to go to work. Together, they will form bubbling carbon dioxide, which will naturally clear away any build-up.
3. Plug the drain with a stopper.
4. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes.
5. Remove the plug and run very hot water through the cleared drain pipe.

Ten Unique Jobs

With so many people out of work, I thought it might be nice to help them expand their job search. Here are some jobs you might not thought of applying for.
Dog Food Taster
Odor Judge (for underarm odors)
Bull Semen Collector
Artificial Inseminator (animals)
Condom Tester
Coin Polisher
Dinosaur Duster
Mount Rushmore Crack Filler
Pollen Collector
Breath Odor Evaluator
Now get out there and expand your horizons.