Spumoni originated in Naples and
is the ancestor of Neapolitan ice cream. Spumoni ice cream, like
Neapolitan ice cream is a molded Italian ice cream made with layers
of different colors and flavors. The difference is that Spumoni
usually also contains candied fruits and nuts. The name Spumone
comes from spuma or 'foam'. The plural form is spumoni.
Typically it is of three flavors, with a fruit/nut layer between
them. The ice cream layers are often mixed with whipped cream.
Cherry, pistachio, and either chocolate or vanilla are the typical
flavors of the ice cream layers, and the fruit/nut layer often
contains cherry bits, causing the traditional red/pink, green, and
brown color combination. It is popular in places with large Italian
immigrant populations such as the United States and Argentina.
August 21 is National Spumoni Day in the United States. November 13
is National Spumoni Day in Canada.
Aug 15, 2014
National Senior Citizens Day
This is celebrated on August
21 with various events and activities held across the United States,
in recognition of National Senior Citizens Day. This day was created
as a day to support, honor, and show appreciation to our seniors and
to recognize their achievements and the contributions they make to
our communities.
On August 19, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5847 declaring August 21 as National Senior Citizens Day. Someday I may be forced to grow up and celebrate this day, but for now, every day is a good day to celebrate the achievements of others.
On August 19, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5847 declaring August 21 as National Senior Citizens Day. Someday I may be forced to grow up and celebrate this day, but for now, every day is a good day to celebrate the achievements of others.
USB Business Card
Here is a novel use of high tech and low
tech. It is a folding business card that turns into a USB drive.
Currently it is still in the Kickstarter stage, but is planned to be
available October, 2014.
A swivelCard is a premium paper business card that includes a USB drive and analytics that can be updated even after giving it out. LINK
A swivelCard is a premium paper business card that includes a USB drive and analytics that can be updated even after giving it out. LINK
French Fry Facts
The origin of French fries is Belgium.
According to some historians, potatoes were being fried by 1680 in
the Meuse Valley of Belgium. Locals often ate small fried fish, when
the river was frozen they used potatoes as a substitute. They used
to cut potatoes lengthwise and fry them in oil to use them as a fish
substitute.
Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing French fries to America when he served them at a White House dinner in 1802 after reportedly requesting, "Potatoes, fried in the French manner.
The average American eats thirty pounds of French fries per year.
The earliest known reference to fries in English literature is in A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens refers to, “Husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil”.
In general, potatoes cooked with the skin on are healthier, as most of the nutrients in a potato come from the skin
French fries are eaten all over the world and every culture has its own preferred condiment. Americans dunk them in ketchup, Brits eat their chips with salt and malt vinegar, mayonnaise is a popular accompaniment in Belgium and they look forward to steamed mussels and fries, in Vietnam they serve fries with soft butter and a sprinkling of sugar. "Clams and chips" is a very popular dish in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. French fries served with hot mustard is very popular in Ireland
There is a museum in Belgium entirely devoted to the classic fast-food snack frites.
French Fries in France are known as frites, patates frites, or pommes frites in French. These names are also used in many non-French areas.
About seven per cent of the potatoes grown in the US are sold by McDonald’s. It sells more than one third of all the French fries sold in restaurants in the U.S. each year.
According to the Agricultural Research Service in Navarre, potato skins are packed with 60 phyto-chemicals, many of these are flavonoids which help lower bad cholesterol and keep arteries clear.
Belgians may or may not have invented the French fry, today, they do consume the most French fries per capita of any country in Europe.
Belgians, who are the world’s connoisseurs when it comes to French fries, occasionally will serve French fries with egg as a topping. The raw egg is cracked over the French fries immediately after the fries have been pulled from the fryer. This tends to mostly cook the egg, but leaves the yoke somewhat runny for dipping the fries in.
Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing French fries to America when he served them at a White House dinner in 1802 after reportedly requesting, "Potatoes, fried in the French manner.
The average American eats thirty pounds of French fries per year.
The earliest known reference to fries in English literature is in A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens refers to, “Husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil”.
In general, potatoes cooked with the skin on are healthier, as most of the nutrients in a potato come from the skin
French fries are eaten all over the world and every culture has its own preferred condiment. Americans dunk them in ketchup, Brits eat their chips with salt and malt vinegar, mayonnaise is a popular accompaniment in Belgium and they look forward to steamed mussels and fries, in Vietnam they serve fries with soft butter and a sprinkling of sugar. "Clams and chips" is a very popular dish in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. French fries served with hot mustard is very popular in Ireland
There is a museum in Belgium entirely devoted to the classic fast-food snack frites.
French Fries in France are known as frites, patates frites, or pommes frites in French. These names are also used in many non-French areas.
About seven per cent of the potatoes grown in the US are sold by McDonald’s. It sells more than one third of all the French fries sold in restaurants in the U.S. each year.
According to the Agricultural Research Service in Navarre, potato skins are packed with 60 phyto-chemicals, many of these are flavonoids which help lower bad cholesterol and keep arteries clear.
Belgians may or may not have invented the French fry, today, they do consume the most French fries per capita of any country in Europe.
Belgians, who are the world’s connoisseurs when it comes to French fries, occasionally will serve French fries with egg as a topping. The raw egg is cracked over the French fries immediately after the fries have been pulled from the fryer. This tends to mostly cook the egg, but leaves the yoke somewhat runny for dipping the fries in.
Google Tools
Google has a handy feature that allows you to
set up a countdown timer. Type in set timer x minutes or hours and
it will show a countdown clock. You can continue to surf and an
alarm will sound when the time has expired. Handy if you want to
limit your activities to a fixed time.
Type "google.com sky" without the quotes, to look around the sky the same way you look at a map of the earth. It shows objects in the sky, such as stars, constellations, planets, the Earth's moon, and galaxies.
Type "google.com sky" without the quotes, to look around the sky the same way you look at a map of the earth. It shows objects in the sky, such as stars, constellations, planets, the Earth's moon, and galaxies.
Cat Scan Origin
The Beatles were indirectly responsible for
funding the development of the CT (CAT) scanner. Their record label,
EMI, also operated a computer research facility that once employed
Godfrey Hounsfield, who had been developing X-ray computerized
tomography (CT) in the late '60s. Researchers and radiologists claim
that EMI invested the profits they earned from the Beatles' music
into Hounsfield's technology, allowing for the invention of a
commercial CT scanner (then known as an EMI scanner) by the early
1970s.
Social Security Checks
A friend asked me when Social
Security checks are mailed, so it sent me to the dot gov site to
find out some details. If you were born on the: 1 – 10th of the
month, your Social Security check is deposited on the 2nd Wednesday
of each month
11 – 20th of the month, your Social Security check is deposited on the 3rd Wednesday of each month
21 – 31st of the month, your Social Security check is deposited on the 4th Wednesday of each month.
However, if you started receiving benefits before 1997, or you get SS and SSI payments, then your Social Security check is paid on the third day of the month.
If the day your Social Security check is supposed to be deposited is a holiday, it is deposited the day before. Very simple formula for very complicated system.
11 – 20th of the month, your Social Security check is deposited on the 3rd Wednesday of each month
21 – 31st of the month, your Social Security check is deposited on the 4th Wednesday of each month.
However, if you started receiving benefits before 1997, or you get SS and SSI payments, then your Social Security check is paid on the third day of the month.
If the day your Social Security check is supposed to be deposited is a holiday, it is deposited the day before. Very simple formula for very complicated system.
Youtube Tips
If you are annoyed by the ads when you watch
YouTube videos or songs, change "youtube" in the URL to
"youtubeskip" (do not use the quote marks) to skip the ads.
To repeat videos or songs without hitting the replay button, type "youtuberepeat" in place of "youtube" in the URL (also without the quotes).
To control volume after you click on a video or song, use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard. You can use the keyboard spacebar to pause or play. Also use the left and right arrows for rewind and fast forward.
If you can not seem to get enough of an artist or group, type http://www.youtube.com/disco and it serves up a page where you can search and you can string together a personal playlist. I am listening to ABBA now.
To repeat videos or songs without hitting the replay button, type "youtuberepeat" in place of "youtube" in the URL (also without the quotes).
To control volume after you click on a video or song, use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard. You can use the keyboard spacebar to pause or play. Also use the left and right arrows for rewind and fast forward.
If you can not seem to get enough of an artist or group, type http://www.youtube.com/disco and it serves up a page where you can search and you can string together a personal playlist. I am listening to ABBA now.
Bacon Fueled Motorcycle
Hormel created a motorcycle that is
fueled by bacon grease and is sending it on a journey from Minnesota
to the San Diego Bacon Fest just in time for International Bacon
Day, August 30, 2014. Should be some interesting exhaust fumes
coming from the bike.
Aug 8, 2014
Happy Friday
The difference between the optimist and pessimist is that the optimist never uses the snooze button.
I do not even wait for the alarm, especially when waking up to a Happy Friday!
What's in a Name
Microsoft’s search engine, Bing
was named “Kumo,” during development, but Microsoft went with
Bing after focus groups said it reminded them of “the moment of
discovery.”
Yelp - The “yel” in “Yelp” comes from “yellow,” and the “p” comes from “pages.” The business listings and ratings site is like an Internet version of the Yellow Pages.
Twitter - It is a microblogging site and users’ posts cannot exceed 140 characters. Those short messages reminded company founders of birds chirping or twittering. Individual posts are known as tweets and the logo is a bird.
Wikipedia - “Wiki” is Hawaiian for “quick,” and “pedia” comes from “encyclopedia.” It is a quick encyclopedia added to and edited by almost anyone.
The Onion - It began as a college newspaper, and founders Tim Keck and Chris Johnson had so little money they ate onion sandwiches. While planning the paper, Keck’s uncle saw them eating onion sandwiches and reportedly said, “You should call the newspaper The Onion.”
Skype - The video phone via Internet service got its name from a shortening of the phrase “sky peer-to-peer,” as users connect person-to-person via the cloud (Internet).
Etsy - Rob Kalin, founder of the marketplace where users buy and sell vintage and handmade goods, wanted a nonsense word, but as he was watching an Italian film, he noticed characters often said “etsi”, which means “oh, yes.”
Pinterest - The name is a combination of “pin” and “interest,” which reflects how the site functions. It is a social network where users share pictures of things they find interesting by “pinning” them on their pin board.
Yelp - The “yel” in “Yelp” comes from “yellow,” and the “p” comes from “pages.” The business listings and ratings site is like an Internet version of the Yellow Pages.
Twitter - It is a microblogging site and users’ posts cannot exceed 140 characters. Those short messages reminded company founders of birds chirping or twittering. Individual posts are known as tweets and the logo is a bird.
Wikipedia - “Wiki” is Hawaiian for “quick,” and “pedia” comes from “encyclopedia.” It is a quick encyclopedia added to and edited by almost anyone.
The Onion - It began as a college newspaper, and founders Tim Keck and Chris Johnson had so little money they ate onion sandwiches. While planning the paper, Keck’s uncle saw them eating onion sandwiches and reportedly said, “You should call the newspaper The Onion.”
Skype - The video phone via Internet service got its name from a shortening of the phrase “sky peer-to-peer,” as users connect person-to-person via the cloud (Internet).
Etsy - Rob Kalin, founder of the marketplace where users buy and sell vintage and handmade goods, wanted a nonsense word, but as he was watching an Italian film, he noticed characters often said “etsi”, which means “oh, yes.”
Pinterest - The name is a combination of “pin” and “interest,” which reflects how the site functions. It is a social network where users share pictures of things they find interesting by “pinning” them on their pin board.
Lonliness vs. Being Alone
Being lonely increases
the risk of everything from heart attacks to dementia, depression
and death. People who are satisfied with their social lives sleep
better, age more slowly, and respond better to vaccines. Those who
have rich social lives and warm relationships do not get as sick and
they live longer. A person can be lonely in a crowd or be alone and
not be lonely.
Research shows, our bodies have evolved so that in situations of perceived social isolation, they trigger branches of the immune system involved in wound healing and bacterial infection. Differences relate most strongly to how lonely people think they are. Ending loneliness is not about spending more time with people, but about our attitude to others. Changing this attitude reduces loneliness more effectively than giving people more opportunities for interaction.
Meditation is typically done while a person is alone and there is evidence that meditation boosts the immune response in vaccine recipients and people with cancer, protects against a relapse in major depression, soothes skin conditions, and even slows the progression of HIV. As with social interaction, meditation works largely by influencing stress response pathways. People who meditate have lower cortisol levels.
In a study of fifty people with advanced lung cancer, those judged by their doctors to have high “spiritual faith” responded better to chemotherapy and survived longer. More than forty percent were still alive after three years, compared with less than ten percent of those judged to have little faith.
Some think that what matters is having a sense of purpose in life. Having an idea of why you are here and what is important increases your sense of control over events. Spending more time doing what you love, whether it is gardening or volunteer work has a similar effect on health. Bottom line, loneliness is more of an attitude than a state of physical being. You have the power to be happy, alone or with others.
Research shows, our bodies have evolved so that in situations of perceived social isolation, they trigger branches of the immune system involved in wound healing and bacterial infection. Differences relate most strongly to how lonely people think they are. Ending loneliness is not about spending more time with people, but about our attitude to others. Changing this attitude reduces loneliness more effectively than giving people more opportunities for interaction.
Meditation is typically done while a person is alone and there is evidence that meditation boosts the immune response in vaccine recipients and people with cancer, protects against a relapse in major depression, soothes skin conditions, and even slows the progression of HIV. As with social interaction, meditation works largely by influencing stress response pathways. People who meditate have lower cortisol levels.
In a study of fifty people with advanced lung cancer, those judged by their doctors to have high “spiritual faith” responded better to chemotherapy and survived longer. More than forty percent were still alive after three years, compared with less than ten percent of those judged to have little faith.
Some think that what matters is having a sense of purpose in life. Having an idea of why you are here and what is important increases your sense of control over events. Spending more time doing what you love, whether it is gardening or volunteer work has a similar effect on health. Bottom line, loneliness is more of an attitude than a state of physical being. You have the power to be happy, alone or with others.
Attitude Changers
Here are some ideas to perk up your
attitude.
Asking people to list three things they are grateful for in life or three events that have gone well during the past week can significantly increase their level of happiness for about a month.
People become much happier after the smallest acts of kindness.
Adding plants to an office results in a fifteen percent boost in the number of creative ideas and helps produce more original solutions to problems.
Lightly touching someone on their upper arm makes them far more likely to agree to a request. In one study, the touch produced a twenty percent increase in the number of people who accepted an invitation to dance in a nightclub and a ten percent increase in those who would give their telephone number to a stranger on the street.
Praising a child’s effort rather than their ability encourages them to try.
Visualizing taking steps required to achieve a goal is more effective than dreaming about the goal.
Asking people to list three things they are grateful for in life or three events that have gone well during the past week can significantly increase their level of happiness for about a month.
People become much happier after the smallest acts of kindness.
Adding plants to an office results in a fifteen percent boost in the number of creative ideas and helps produce more original solutions to problems.
Lightly touching someone on their upper arm makes them far more likely to agree to a request. In one study, the touch produced a twenty percent increase in the number of people who accepted an invitation to dance in a nightclub and a ten percent increase in those who would give their telephone number to a stranger on the street.
Praising a child’s effort rather than their ability encourages them to try.
Visualizing taking steps required to achieve a goal is more effective than dreaming about the goal.
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