Bad Breath Eliminators

If you do not have any Listerine handy, here are a few other options. Sugar may cure hiccups, but it also can cause plaque, which is one cause of bad breath. Bad breath usually results from poor oral hygiene and gastrointestinal health. Breath odors originate inside the mouth and also from the digestive tract. The cause in both is mostly bacteria.

Coriander, spearmint, tarragon, eucalyptus, rosemary, and cardamom are all good for fighting bad breath, either by chewing, or steeping in hot water, as a tea.

Research also shows that live microorganisms in sugar free yogurt may reduce levels of bad breath germs. A serving of yogurt each day reduces the level of odor-causing hydrogen sulfide in the mouth. It also reduces bacteria in the mouth as well as reduces plaque and gum disease.

Apples, carrots, celery, and any fiber-rich fruits or vegetables also help fight halitosis. Plaque build-up causes odors and eating foods that increase saliva production keep the mouth moist and rinsed. Eating berries, citrus fruits, melons and other vitamin C foods create an inhospitable environment for bacteria growth and prevent gum disease and gingivitis.

National Hot Dog Day

You can renew that bad breath with some of your favorite toppings on a hot dog, wiener, or frankfurter. This week, July 23, Americans celebrated National Hot Dog day.

Hot dogs were originally culturally imported from Germany. The word frankfurter comes from Frankfurt, Germany, where pork sausages similar to hot dogs originated. Wiener refers to Vienna, Austria, whose German name is 'Wien', home to a sausage made of a mixture of pork and beef.

Americans eat seven billion hot dogs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. That amounts to about 818 hot dogs consumed every second, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.

Hot dogs are made with a simple mixture of ground meats and spices, such as salt, garlic, and paprika. Some commercial makers include binders and fillers. Preservatives from curing typically include sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrite. Skinless dogs have the casing removed after cooking and before packaging. I love the natural casing dogs that crunch with every bite.

3D Printed Keys

The once almost ubiquitous key kiosks have long since gone and many hardware stores no longer provide the service. Now a company called 'Keys Duplicated' prints keys from photographs. Snap a picture of any key, send it in, and within a few days you will receive a duplicate in the mail. The site suggests to text a link to its page to your phone, or go to keysduplicated.com on your mobile browser. It says it is easier to send a key if you visit the page directly on your mobile phone. No need to download an app.

The charge shows six dollars for the first key and four dollars for the second, with no shipping charges. The company pitches its service to people who need an extra key to their own house. LINK  Practical use for new technology.

Hologram Shopping

Lowe's may not provide printed 3d keys yet, but it is entering the digital age in a big way. The Lowe's Holoroom is a home improvement simulator which applies augmented reality to provide homeowners an intuitive, immersive experience in the room of their dreams. It was introduced to stores in Toronto in June, 2014 and equipped with thousands of products to help customers plan a bathroom remodel or refresh project.

Customers begin by choosing their preferred products on a pad device before viewing and experiencing those products in the Holoroom. While in the Holoroom, they can make changes to the room design or finalize their plan. A take-home link allows customers to view a 3-D model of their room at home, and share the model with family and friends by downloading a free app available on smartphones.

The concept is to let customers use a pad to create the room, adding features, textures, tiles, counters, etc., then walk around a physical space set up in the store to view it as if they are in the actual room. They can look down into the sink to see the texture and drain or up to see a light fixture.

Lowes plans to expand additional living spaces in the future, including the kitchen and outdoor living. It is also envisioned to eventually let people do the same thing in their own home, then click to buy everything needed to make that room a reality. Cool technology, from hammers to holograms. Seems to me this might be a perfect application for an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset device.

National Ice Cream Month

July is National Ice Cream Month, so here are a few ice cream facts.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared the third Sunday in July to be National Ice Cream Day and the month of July to be National Ice Cream Month.

Per capita ice cream consumption in the US is about 5 1/2 gallons.

It takes about twelve pounds of whole milk to make one gallon of ice cream.

French Ice Cream is enriched with egg yolks.

More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week.

It takes 50 licks to finish a single scoop of ice cream.

The top five most popular ice cream flavors are: vanilla, chocolate, Neapolitan, strawberry, and cookies n' cream.

Vanilla makes up about twenty five percent of all ice cream sales.

Neapolitan ice cream is ice cream made up of blocks of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream side by side in the same container. Giuseppe Tortoni, a Neapolitan (living in Paris) created many layered ice cream cakes and the term Neapolitan was named after him.

Free Friday Smile

Happy Friday

The greatest hindrance to life as we know it is the snooze button.

I always get up early to enjoy a longer Happy Friday!

Hot Weather Thoughts

While some of complain about heat, think of this: Lowest temperature recorded was in Vostok, Antartica July 21, 1983, –128.6f or –89.2C

Record breaking rainfall during 24 hours in Alvin, Texas, July 25–26, 1979 43inches or 109centimeters

The hottest temperature recorded was 134f or 56.7C at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley California, July 10, 1913

Heaviest hail officially recorded: 2.25 pounds or 1.02 kg; Gopalganj District, Bangladesh, 14 April 1986.

Beer-nails

College students have loved beer for centuries. They are also generally very smart. In one fit of brilliance, students invented biernagels (beer-nails).

These are metal studs placed on the covers of books to keep the leather covers away from wet (spilled beer) pub tables. With biernagels on it, a book cover is raised half a centimeter from the surface of the table, and thus remains mostly dry. From the name, we can only assume it was some inventive German students.

Guarana

This is a climbing plant in the maple family, native to the Amazon basin and especially common in Brazil. Guarana features large leaves and clusters of flowers, and is best known for its fruit, which is about the size of a coffee bean. As a dietary supplement, guarana is an effective stimulant and its seeds contain about twice the concentration of caffeine found in coffee beans (about 2–4.5% caffeine in guarana seeds compared to 1–2% for coffee beans). As with other plants producing caffeine, the high concentration of caffeine is a defensive toxin that repels herbivores from the berry and its seeds.

If you look at the contents of any energy drink, chances are that guarana is listed as one of the main ingredients. European missionaries in 17th-century Brazil recorded the native people’s use of the berry, noting that it not only gave them energy, but allowed them to go for days without feeling hungry. It became a colonial trading commodity that was said to help protect the body from illness, but too much of it was known to cause insomnia.

The caffeine that is found in the guarana berry is thought to be different from the caffeine found in coffee. Guarana contains chemical components called tannins, which are thought to produce a longer-lasting effect than caffeine from other sources. For centuries, guarana berry seeds have been powdered or smoked in a long process that is done by hand. Drinking properly prepared guarana can be central to formal occasions and gatherings, where groups of people pass around a calabash bowl.

Two Summer Ice Cream Tips

Ice cream two ways - one is to slice it for serving the other is to put the whole carton in a large freezer bag and it will not freeze so hard, so it is easier to extract.

What's in a Name, Wenis

Wenis has achieved the status of a dictionary word and can be found in the online Merriam Webster dictionary. Even Wikipedia is reserving the word for inclusion. It refers to the skin on the outside of the elbow. The excess skin allows your elbow to move and flex. Medically speaking, it is called the olecranal skin.

The word has long been used as slang, because it sounds like the male appendage. Sample usage, "I fell and scraped my wenis."

Browser Tip

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Fifteen More Coffee Facts

Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world (oil is the largest).

1. There are two types of oils in coffee, good oils and bad oils. The good oils are good for your body and your health, the bad oils may give you ulcers and stomach problems. To avoid the bad oils in coffee use paper filters to minimize the effects.
2. Mocha Java Coffee has no chocolate in the Mocha or Java bean. Mocha is the name of the port in Yemen, where all African coffee beans are traded and transported. Java is the name of an island in Indonesia where the Java bean originates. Both coffees are dark bean and provide a bold coffee, when you mix the two together you get Mocha Java coffee.
3. Coffee starts out as a yellow berry, ripens into a red berry, and is then harvested by hand. Through water soaking process the red berry is de-shelled and leaves the green coffee bean. This bean then dries in the sun for 3-5 days before bagging.
4. In Africa, coffee beans are soaked in water mixed with spices and served as candy to chew.
5. Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world and the US is the largest coffee consuming country in the world.
6. There are 65 countries in the world that grow coffee and they are all located along the equator.
7. Black coffee with no additives contains no calories.
8. There are two types of coffee plants, Arabica and Robusta.
9. Espresso Coffee has one third of the caffeine content of a cup of regular coffee.
10. James Mason invented the coffee percolator on December 26, 1865.
11. Instant coffee was invented in 1901 by a Japanese American chemist, Satori Kato. In 1906 English chemist, George Constant Washington claimed he invented instant coffee.
12. Melitta Bentz a housewife from Dresden, Germany, invented the first coffee filter in 1908.
13. It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach full maturity, coffee trees can live up to 100 years and the average yield from one tree equals about one pound of roasted coffee.
14. A regular 6oz cup of coffee contains about 150 milligrams of caffeine.
15. Robusta coffee beans have twice as much caffeine as Arabica beans, but are of less quality.