Mourning Colors

Many colors are used around the world to signify mourning. Important information to know when traveling to avoid a potential faux pas.

In South Africa, red is the color of mourning.

In Iran, blue is the color of mourning.

In Egypt and Burma, yellow signifies mourning.

The ancient Egyptians and Romans used black for mourning, as do most Europeans and Americans today.

Filipino people wear black or white for mourning.

Japanese wear  black traditional Japanese clothing at funerals and Buddhist memorial services. Other colors, particularly reds and bright shades, are considered inappropriate for mourning dress.

In Thailand, black is the traditional mourning color. Purple is worn by widows mourning their husband’s death.

In continental Europe and the UK, black is the mourning color. The color of deepest mourning among medieval European queens was white.

In Asia many people dress in different colors such as indigo, ruby-red and many more. In China, during the period of mourning family members of the deceased wear a piece of cloth on their arm for 100 days. A color of the cloth tells the relationship to the deceased. The children of the deceased will wear a black cloth, blue by the grandchildren, and green by the great grandchildren.

In the Middle East it is the norm that white symbolizes time of mourning and funerals.

In India the members of the mourning family and the people who come to participate in mourning all wear white clothes.

Violet and purple became the color of demi-mourning, worn after a widow or widower had worn black for a certain time, before he or she returned to wearing ordinary colors.

Greatest Love Letter

A heartfelt birthday message from Johnny Cash to his wife June has been voted the greatest love letter of all time. It was hand written and the text is below.

We get old and get used to each other. We think alike. We read each other's minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted.

But once in awhile, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met. You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You’re the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence. I love you very much.

    Happy Birthday Princess.

    John

TV Set Top Box Changes

On February 18, this year, the FCC voted to propose formally an open standard for set-top boxes. Proponents say that could mean one box bringing you cable channels, premium TV channels and streaming TV. The process could lead to TV viewers being able to own their cable TV set-top boxes.

It still will be several months before any final action is taken. Debate is expected regarding how the new devices would collect and handle viewers' data and what kind of access the new competitors would get to video content, for which cable companies and their existing competitors have to negotiate contracts.

Nine Plants to Clean Stale Air

We all know indoor plants are good to have for a variety of reasons. Some are better than others to help clean stale air.

Many of these plants remove toluene, which is a raw material used in the manufacture of polyurethane foam and TNT. Toluene is also a common solvent for paints, paint thinners, silicone sealants, many chemical reactants, rubber, printing ink, adhesives, lacquers, leather tanners, and disinfectants. Inhalation of toluene in low to moderate levels can cause tiredness, confusion, weakness, drunken-type actions, memory loss, nausea, loss of appetite, and hearing and color vision loss.

Areca Palm - Helps to remove toluene and xylene from the air and can help to increase overall air purification. Great for those who may have asthma or require effective air purification.

Money Plant - Helps to reduce the toxins benzene, formaldehyde, toluene, and xylene from the air. It can also help to increase overall air quality and purification.

Moth Orchid - Ideal for helping to increase purification of the air within homes. They are suitable for removing xylene and toluene and can increase air quality.

Dwarf Date Palm - Helps to reduce common toxins xylene, toluene, and formaldehyde from the air. This plant can also help to promote increased oxygen levels, and is able to improve air quality in highly exposed areas.

Spider Plant - Promotes high air purification. It is suitable for helping to decrease exposure to formaldehyde, toluene, and xylene.

Lilyturf - Helps to remove ammonia, toluene, xylene, and formaldehyde from the air. This plant is capable of increasing oxygen levels and can help to improve air quality. Great for people who are exposed to cleaning products, paint fumes, city or factory smog, or vehicle fumes. This plant can help clean the air for those with common lung conditions including emphysema and asthma.

Boston Fern - Helps to remove formaldehyde from the air and is said to act as a natural type of air humidifier. This plant can also remove xylene and toluene. It is said to be one of the best houseplants for air purification. Great for those living or working in areas where exposure to gasoline exists. They are ideal for homes exposed to city smog, and are suitable for those who may have asthma or breathing conditions.

Purple Waffle Plant - Helps to remove formaldehyde from the air. It can help to increase overall air purification, and is suitable for increasing the quality of the air within any home. Great for city homes that are exposed to smog and car fumes. It may also help those who live near industrial factories.

Bamboo Palm - Helps to remove formaldehyde and is suitable for acting as a natural humidifier for most indoor areas. It can also help to remove xylene and toluene. Great for those who live in high air pollution areas and areas where car fume exposure exists. Suitable for placing in homes or shops which may be exposed to gasoline.

Happy Friday

Savor the happiness, because today will never happen again.

I always savor the happiness, especially on a Happy Friday!

Blue Bears

Many have heard of black bears, brown bears, cinnamon bears, and white bears, but there are also blue bears. The Tibetan bear or Tibetan blue bear is a subspecies of the brown bear found in the eastern Tibetan plateau, western China, Nepal.

It is also known as the Himalayan blue bear and Himalayan snow bear and is one of the rarest subspecies of bear in the world and rarely sighted in the wild. The blue bear is known in the west only through a small number of fur and bone samples. It was first classified in 1854.

Tibetan blue bears are black with a tinge of blue gray. They often have a beige or white collar and chest. It is common for their face to be a reddish yellow.

Nostalgia Machine

Here is an interesting site that plays songs by year from 1960s - 1990s. Original sounds and a good read, even if you do not want to listen to all the music. Fun diversion. LINK

Seven Super Brain Foods

Whether it is a new dance or a foreign language, the older you get the harder it is to learn new things. Some foods have been found to be beneficial to keeping the brain sharp. Alzheimer's researchers like to say what is good for your heart is good for your brain.

Blackberries can get the conversation flowing again. They provide potent antioxidants known as polyphenols that zap inflammation and encourage communication between neurons, improving our ability to soak up new information according to a Tufts University study.

A recent Finnish study of 1,400 longtime coffee drinkers reveals that people who sipped between three to five cups of coffee a day in their 40s and 50s reduced their odds of developing Alzheimer's disease by 65 percent compared with those who downed fewer than two cups a day. Researchers believe that coffee's caffeine and antioxidants are the keys to its protective affects.

Apples are a leading source of quercetin, an antioxidant plant chemical that keeps your mental juices flowing by protecting your brain cells. According to researchers at Cornell University, quercetin defends your brain cells from free radical attacks which can damage the outer lining of delicate neurons and eventually lead to cognitive decline. To get the most quercetin bang for your buck, eat apples with the skins on.

Chocolate can lower blood pressure and it can also keep your mind sharp. A Journal of Nutrition study found that eating as little as one-third of an ounce of chocolate a day (the size of about two Hersey's kisses) helps protect against age-related memory loss. They credit polyphenols in cocoa with increasing blood flow to the brain.

Cinnamon research from the University of California at Santa Barbara reveals that two compounds in cinnamon, proanthocyanidins and cinnamaldehyde may inactivate tau proteins that can cause brain cells to die.

Spinach is packed with nutrients that prevent dementia, such as folate, vitamin E, and vitamin K. Just one-half cup of cooked spinach packs a third of the folate and five times the amount of vitamin K you need in a day. A 2006 Neurology study revealed that eating three servings of leafy green, yellow, and cruciferous vegetables a day can delay cognitive decline by 40 percent. Of these three, leafy greens were found to be the most protective. Try spinach drizzled with a little olive oil. Its healthy fats boost absorption of fat-soluble vitamins E and K.

Scientists found the heart-healthy polyphenols in red wine and Concord grape juice can also give your brain a boost. When researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine gave twelve older adults with declining memory a daily drink of Concord grape juice or a placebo drink for three months, they found that the volunteers who drank the grape juice significantly improved their spatial memory and verbal learning skills. Researchers believe that, just like blackberries, grape juice polyphenols improve communication between brain cells.

Self Parking Office Chair

I had to go searching for more sources, because I thought this was a joke, but it is not. Nissan Motor Co Ltd announced the first Intelligent Parking Chair, a concept inspired by its intelligent park assist technology that allows drivers to easily park their vehicles using automatic steering. You can see a demo on YouTube. LINK

Read Old Newspapers and Magazines Online

Below are a few more ways to get your favorite reading online and for free.

Google News – Google News indexes thousands of newspaper websites from around the world and organizes news in clusters for easy reading. In addition to current news, Google News also offers access to stories published in old newspapers that you can search for free.

Google Books – If you are looking for an older issue of a magazine, Google Books might be the best place to find it. The magazines are scanned and searchable and can be read online using the standard Google Book interface. Decades worth of material are available, and the magazines are laid out just as they were when they were originally printed, including the original articles, index, cover, and advertisements.

Trove – The National Library of Australia has a large selection of newspapers from across Australia archived online that anyone may read for free. All the newspapers are completely scanned and can be viewed online in any modern browser, or you may download them as a PDF for offline reading.

Library of Congress – The Library of Congress has a large repository of historic newspapers published in America between 1880 and 1922, available as PDFs. Though the library has made available newspapers from 14 states and Washington, DC., these states contain some of the largest newspapers and thus the archives are still a very valuable resource. Additionally, the site has a database of records of all newspapers printed in America from 1690 to the present.

The Olden Times – If you are looking for a popular article about a major historical event, the Olden Times may be a good place to look for it. Although it does not contain entire newspapers, it does have snippets including popular news articles, print advertisements, and personal information sections such as births and obituaries. All content is free, and the content ranges from 1788 to 1920.

OMA – Old Magazine Articles contains magazine pages covering from famous historical events. The articles can be downloaded as PDF files for free. They have been edited to remove advertisements from the original magazines.

BBC – The 'On This Day' section of BBC offers an online archive of some of the most significant stories broadcast by BBC News since 1950. You can select any date from the menu at the top of the page, and view the news from that date as well as today’s historical news.

More Yogi Berra Quotes

Here a a few more of his many famous quotes:

    If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.
    When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
    It ain’t over till it’s over.
    It’s like déjà vu all over again.
    No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.
    A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.
    Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.
    We made too many wrong mistakes.
    Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.
    You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
    I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.
    Never answer an anonymous letter.
    I’m lucky. Usually you’re dead to get your own museum, but I’m still alive to see mine.

Ten German Inventions

MP3 - A German inventor, Karlheinz Brandenburg is responsible for an invention that has revolutionized how we listen to music.

Ring binder, ink eraser, hole punch, glue stick - Confirming the stereotype that Germans like to keep orderly records of everything, some of the most useful office supplies have been invented by Germans. Friedrich Soennecken invented ring binders and hole punches in the late 19th Century. Another German, Louis Leitz, then improved on the invention by putting a finger hole in the binder to make it easier to remove from a crowded shelf.

Aspirin - The world's favorite painkiller made from willow bark was developed by Felix Hoffmann in August 1897 for pharmaceutical giant Bayer, and although a US company claimed the patent for the drug after the First World War, 12,000 of the 50,000 tons of aspirin produced each year are still made by Bayer.

Carabiner - The most important piece of gear in any climber’s equipment was invented by Otto Herzog, a Bavarian climber and inventor. The carabiner has many uses, but this metal loop with a spring-loaded gate is most commonly used to allow a climber to safely scale or descend a steep cliff with the aid of a rope.

Lithography - Invented by Alois Senefelder in Bavaria in 1796, lithography has given the world some of its finest art. Most famously, Edvard (sic) Munch used the printing technique, but Picasso, Monet, Manet and more have also used the technique.

Accordion - When asked to think of Germany, one often thinks of a portly man wearing lederhosen, and a green hat, playing folk tunes on a huge accordion. In fact, early versions of the instrument date back to third century BC China. But the first 'true' accordion was invented by a German, Christian Friedrich Buschmann, who in 1822 attached bellows to a portable keyboard with vibrating reeds, naming it a 'hand-aeoline'.

X-ray machine - The first X-ray machine was invented by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, physics chair at the University of Würzburg. He apparently discovered the unknown radiation, which he marked with an x, while investigating cathode rays. He noticed that the radiation could pass through human tissue, but not bones.

Contact lens - Although Leonardo da Vinci is said to have been the first man to come up with the idea of a contact lens, it was a German by the name of Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick who first made a contact lens and successfully fitted it to the human eye. Fick’s prototype is could only be worn for an hour or two at a time due to its unwieldy size.

Playmobil - Playmobil was invented by Hans Beck in the 1970s with the idea to make a flexible toy that was still simple enough for young children to understand. With the original toys being an American Indian, a cowboy, and a builder, the little figures were a hit as soon as they came on the market.

Airbag - Walter Linderer came up with the idea of using compressed air in a bag which would inflate when the bumpers of two cars made contact. He patented it in 1951, although his design did not inflate fast enough and had little practical value at the time.

Happy Friday

A good smile and hearty laugh are the honey to which all are attracted.

I always try to spread some honey, especially on a Happy Friday!

Valentine's Day

February 14 is Valentine’s Day; the second most celebrated holiday around the world, second to New Year’s Day.

Also celebrated on Feb 14 is National Condom Day, originally started on campus at the University of California, Berkeley. It is celebrated every year in California and is designed to raise awareness of safe sex practices and encourage the use of condoms in a humorous, educated way, and to educate people about the serious risks from having unprotected sex.

For the interested few, there are J&D’s Bacon-Flavored Condoms that look like and taste like bacon.