Vegan Vegetarian Study

According to a poll of 11,000 Americans, 84 percent of vegetarians and vegans return to eating meat.

Eggplants are Berries

In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants, and bananas, but exclude certain fruits commonly called berries, such as strawberries and raspberries.


By this definition, oranges, kumquats, blueberries, and even tomatoes can be considered part of the berry family. The term berry refers generically to any small, edible fruit with multiple seeds. Aggregate fruits, such as the blackberry, the raspberry, and the boysenberry, which develop from several ovaries are berries in this sense, but not in the botanical sense.

Spacesuit Facts

According to NASA:
A spacesuit is also known as Extravehicular Mobility Unit.
Spacesuits provide protection from extreme temperature to providing a pressurized environment for astronaut body.
Spacesuits are puncture proof.
A spacesuit weighs approximately 280 pounds on the ground - without the astronaut in it. In the micro-gravity environment of space, a spacesuit weighs nothing.

They have an internal pouch attached to contain urine. They have a separate pouch for drinking water.
Shuttle spacesuit materials include ortho-fabric, aluminized mylar, neoprene-coated nylon, dacron, urethane-coated nylon, tricot, nylon/spandex, stainless steel, and high-strength composite materials.
Putting on a spacesuit takes 45 minutes, including the time it takes to put on the special undergarments that help keep astronauts cool. After putting on the spacesuit, to adapt to the lower pressure maintained in the suit, the astronaut must spend a little more than an hour breathing pure oxygen before going outside the pressurized module.
The reason that spacesuits are white is because white reflects heat in space the same as it does on earth. Temperatures in direct sunlight in space can be more than 275 degrees Fahrenheit.
It has a liquid cooling and ventilation system inside the spacesuit.
No difference exists in a male's or female's suit, other than size.
Spacesuits are designed to be made of many interchangeable parts, to accommodate the large number of astronauts with widely varying body sizes.

Body measurements of each astronaut are taken, then the measurements are plotted against the size ranges available for each spacesuit component.

Did You Know

JAB Holding, a German private conglomerate, headquartered in Luxembourg owns Bruegger's Bagels, Einstein Brothers Bagels, Panera Bread, Krispy Kreme, Peet’s Coffee, Caribou Coffee, Stumptown Coffee, Clearasil, Dr. Pepper, Snapple, 7Up, Sunkist, Au Bon Pain, Calgon, Keurig Green Mountain, Mighty Leaf Tea, and Bally, among others.

Wordology, Red Herring

The actual origin of the figurative sense of the phrase can be traced back to the early 1800s. Around this time, English journalist William Cobbett wrote a presumably fictional story about how he had used red herring as a boy to throw hounds off the scent of a hare.

An extended version of this story was printed in 1833, and the idiom spread from there. Although many people are more familiar with red herrings in pop culture, they also crop up in political spheres and debates of all kinds. Robert J. Gula, the author of Nonsense: Red Herrings, Straw Men and Sacred Cows: How We Abuse Logic in Our Everyday Language, defines a red herring as "a detail or remark inserted into a discussion, either intentionally or unintentionally, that sidetracks the discussion."

The goal is to distract the listener or opponent from the original topic and it is considered a type of flawed reasoning or, more fancifully, a logical fallacy.

Aspirin and Heart Attacks

Taking an low-dose aspirin every day to prevent a heart attack or stroke is no longer recommended for most older adults, according to guidelines released a few weeks ago. Doctors said for decades that a daily 75 to 100 milligrams of aspirin could prevent cardiovascular problems, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association just reversed that idea.

This change comes after a large clinical trial found a daily low-dose aspirin had no effect on prolonging life in healthy, elderly people, and actually suggested the pills could be linked to major hemorrhages. The recommendations say low-dose aspirin should not be given to prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease on a routine basis to adults older than 70 or any adult with an increased risk of bleeding.

“Clinicians should be very selective in prescribing aspirin for people without known cardiovascular disease,” Roger Blumenthal, co-chair of the new guidelines said in a statement. "It’s much more important to optimize lifestyle habits and control blood pressure and cholesterol as opposed to recommending aspirin."


Only select people with a high risk of cardiovascular disease and low risk of bleeding might continue using the pain killer as a preventative, as told by their doctor, Blumenthal said. I you are taking one, consult your doctor before quitting.

Seven More Body Facts

In an adult human, 25% of bones are in the feet.
The gluteus maximus in the buttocks is the body’s largest muscle.
A human’s ears and nose never stop growing.
A human’s little finger contributes over fifty percent of the hand’s strength.
If a human being’s DNA were uncoiled, it would stretch 10 billion miles, from Earth to Pluto and back.
There are more than 100,000 miles of blood vessels in your body.

For an adult human, taking one step uses up to 200 muscles. I am already tired just thinking about it.

Happy Friday

A person wrapped up in happiness makes a wonderful gift.

I love to get wrapped up in happiness, especially on a Happy Friday!

Six Body Facts

The lining in a person's stomach is replaced every 4 to 5 days to prevent it from digesting itself.
An adult human small intestine is about 18 to 23 feet long, which is about four times as long as an adult is tall.
Semen normally contains 1-8 billion sperm per fluid ounce (140-300 million sperm per millimeter).
Feet have about 500,000 sweat glands and can produce about a pint of sweat a day.
A human sneeze can travel about 100 mph or more.
The average human produces 25,000 quarts of saliva in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools.

More Cancer Causing Myths Debunked

Dental fillings from years ago likely have mercury in them, but they also have other metals, including silver, tin, and copper. According to the American Dental Association, the combination of these metals makes the fillings, known as dental amalgams, completely safe. "It's important to know that when combined with the other metals, it forms a safe, stable material," the ADA says.  Also the type of mercury used in the fillings is not the same type (methylmercury) that has been shown to cause health problems.
Sugar may do some bad things to your body, but does not cause cancer. This is true despite research suggesting that cancer cells consume more glucose (blood sugar) than normal cells. You actually need some sugar in your diet, because it is necessary for your immune system, according to Anton Bilchik, MD, chief of medicine and gastrointestinal research at John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint John's Health Center.
Lucky Charms has an interesting list of ingredients, including trisodium phosphate. It is found in many food items and it is also in cleaning products and paint thinners. TSP is a leavening agent similar to baking soda (also in foods and cleaning products). The amounts in Lucky Charms (and other foods) are so tiny that there is no cancer threat.
You may have heard that candy canes contain the scary-sounding titanium dioxide, but that is just a pigment that turns candy canes (as well as sunblock and toothpaste) brilliant white. Titanium dioxide is not a known carcinogen.

Parents everywhere panicked when the news that Nutella could cause cancer came out. Nutella does contain palm oil which, when heated above around 400 degrees F, can be cancerous. The makers of Nutella say they never get their product that hot.

Six Strange US Laws

Any person who attempts to pass off margarine, oleo, or oleomargarine as real butter is guilty of a simple misdemeanor in the state of Iowa, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $625 fine.

In Alaska, it is illegal to give alcohol to a moose.

In Louisiana it is illegal to steal someone’s crawfish. Crawfish theft in excess of $1,500 can land the offender up to ten years in prison or a $3,000 fine.

In Minnesota, since 1971, it is considered a misdemeanor to operate, run, or participate in any activity where a pig is oiled up and released with the object of being recaptured.

In Nevada, it is illegal to use an x-ray device to determine someone’s shoe size.

In New York City, “altered” bagels (sliced, toasted, or served with cream cheese, etc.) carry an eight cent sales tax. Uncut bagels are tax exempt.

Smart vs. Connected

It is easy to use the terms smart and connected interchangeably, but the truth is they are not exactly the same thing.
Connected devices have ports, antennae, and protocols that facilitate communication between a product and its operating environment. A connected device can share data directly with other devices or over a network. The data transmission can be one way or two way.  Some wireless home speakers are solely connected, allowing you to play music from your smartphone via Bluetooth connection.

A smart device typically has an operating system that will let you connect with other information services, entertainment services or apps. For example a smart phone allows you to browse the internet and make calls, but it also lets you connect to apps. Smart thermostats are intelligent because they can make calculated decisions based on other system components, such as the owner's previous room temperature adjustments, built-in algorithms, and sensors.

Real Bacon Bombs

During World War II, handing over cooking fat to the government was doing your patriotic duty. The American Fat Salvage Committee was created to urge housewives to save all the excess fat rendered from cooking and donate it to the army to produce explosives.
Fats are used to make glycerin, and glycerin is used to make things blow up. Homemakers were asked to give their bacon grease to the local butcher, who turned it into the government, because it was needed for the production of glycerin.
One pound of waste fat equaled 1/10 of a pound of glycerin.
1/10 pound of glycerin equaled 1/5 of a pound of nitroglycerine.
1/5 of a pound of nitroglycerine equaled 1/3 pound of gunpowder.
1/5 of a pound of nitroglycerine equaled ½ pound of dynamite.

“A skillet of bacon grease is a little munitions factory,” announced a booming voice in a Disney propaganda cartoon. “Every year two billion pounds of waste kitchen fats are thrown away, enough glycerin for ten billion rapid-fire cannon shells. Making a roast? Don’t throw out those lovely puddles of grease drippings, save them for our boys on the front line." Housewives were directed to strain their leftover fats and store them in a wide-mouth can. Once a pound or more was collected, the fat was to be handed over to any one of 250,000 participating butchers and retail meat dealers or 4,000 frozen food plants who would then turn the fat over to the army. The donor received four cents a pound for the fat.

Peanut Butter and Alzheimer's

Came across this interesting information about a test for Alzheimer's. The test involves a jar of peanut butter and a ruler, and is performed under each nostril. If the left nostril is significantly worse at detecting the smell of peanut butter-than the right one, then it may be a sign of Alzheimer's. The olfactory cortex (part of the brain that processes smell) is the first area of the brain to deteriorate in Alzheimer's.


Peanut butter is a smell that is not typically lost as people age.