Six Interesting Animal Facts

Pandas can sleep anywhere, so they usually fall asleep wherever they happen to be.

Squirrels use their tails as umbrellas and parachutes.

A dog’s nose print is as detailed as a human fingerprint and can be used to identify them.

Giraffes only sleep for about 4 and a half hours a night, on average.

Tigers have striped skin underneath their striped fur.

Baby elephants suck on their own trunks, like pacifiers.

Happy Friday

No one ever died from an overdose of happy.


I like to soak it up, devour it, and bathe in it, especially on a Happy Friday!

Happy National Happiness Happens Day

It is celebrated annually Aug 8 on the founding date of the Society of Happy People, which you can join for free. The society encourages members to recognize their happy moments and think about happiness in their daily life. They have two mottos which include “Happiness Happens” and “Don’t Even Think of Raining on My Parade.” Their purpose is to stimulate people’s right to express their happiness.
The holiday is based on the premise that happiness is unlimited and contagious and that sharing one's happiness and can bring a lot of joy in other people's lives. Happiness is encouraged all day. Recognize every moment of glee, joy, delight, and pleasure.  A flicker of a giggle should be given its due and should it blossom into full blown happiness.


Incidentally, August 9 is Book Lovers Day, an unofficial holiday that encourages people to pick up a book (or two) and spend the day reading, especially all 54 of my books.

Antenna Color Codes

Many are not aware of how much free TV is available using a TV antenna. There is a handy site that lets you know how many TV channels you can expect to see using an antenna. There is some overlap of stations and some not in English or for shopping only, but there is variety. A number of local stations have begun adding sub-channels, such as Laff, PBS, CW Network, Escape, GRIT, Cozi, Retro TV, Movies!, Go, ME TV, This TV, Justice Network, Weather, Bounce, and more. In fact, there are over 130 new, free, over-the-air stations coming during the next year.

Obviously all antennas are not equal and outdoor are better than indoor for receiving more stations. LINK
By typing in my zip code, I find that there are 112 free over the air TV stations, not including sub-channels available, providing I use the correct antenna. They are sorted by antenna color code, with the easiest and cheapest type first.

Yellow - A Small Multi-Directional Antenna is recommended in Yellow color code areas. Signal strength is highest, so small antennas that receive signals equally well in all directions work very well. Indoor antennas work very well in Yellow color code areas, which are usually 10 to 15 miles from the TV station transmitter. Many indoor antennas have a range from 30 to 50 miles.

Green - A Medium Multi-Directional Antenna is recommended in Green color code areas. Signal strength is still good, but weaker than in yellow areas. An amplified indoor antenna may also work in Green color code areas, which can be up to 30 miles from the TV station transmitter.
Light Green - A Large Multi-Directional or Small Directional Antenna is recommended for Light Green color code areas. Signal levels are weaker, so a larger omnidirectional antenna or a directional antenna is needed to receive signals effectively, which can be up to 30 miles from the TV station transmitter.
Red - A Medium Directional Antenna is recommended in Red color code areas. Signal strength is weaker, and directional antennas are needed to pick up signals. These are the most popular antenna types due to their modest size and effectiveness 30 to 45 miles from the TV transmitter site.
Blue - A Medium Directional Antenna with an Antenna Preamplifier or a Large Directional Antenna is recommended for Blue color code areas. Signals are weaker, so larger antennas or antennas with amplification are needed to receive TV signals effectively. TV antennas in the blue color code area may also need to be installed on a tower or high rooftop to pick up distant channels, which can be 45 to 60 miles from the TV station transmitter.

Violet - A Large Directional Antenna with an Antenna Preamplifier is recommended for Violet color code areas. These are areas farthest from the TV station transmitting towers, and need the largest antennas and best preamplifiers to pick up TV signals effectively, which can be 60 miles or more from the TV station transmitter. TV antennas in the Violet color code area may also need to be installed on a tower or high rooftop to pick up distant channels.

Networks Sue Over Free Channels

This is amazing. For profit companies are suing a non profit company because it is giving away free access to local TV stations, and because these companies sell the same free stuff to cable companies.
CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox sue Locast, a free, nonprofit TV streaming service for distributing free channels. Locast has been operating since January 2018 without issue. It reaches 35 million homes in 13 cities. Locast says it is an independent nonprofit that provides a public service, and what it does is allowed under copyright law. The networks it streams are also available free to consumers if they have an antenna.

Broadcast TV networks are available for free over the air with an antenna, but selling the rights to retransmit those signals in other ways is a big business. Broadcasters reportedly collected $10.1 billion in 2018 and over $11 billion expected during 2019 via retransmission fees they charge cable and satellite TV companies.
Because companies like NBC, etc., typically charge cable and satellite operators a fee for redistributing their programming, they fear that Locast will erode this revenue stream, because it does not pay them.

Bottom line, for-profit companies are suing a nonprofit company for giving away free the same free channels that they are mandated to give us for free, but they also charge cable companies for. Next they will be coming after us for using an antenna to view those same stations. Yikes!

Food Labeling Followup

The following is Gluten-free, fat-free, non toxic, and GMO-free.

The FDA’s 2015 guidance made clear that some labeling actions were violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act: “Another example of a statement in food labeling that may be false or misleading could be the statement ‘None of the ingredients in this food is genetically engineered’ on a food where some of the ingredients are incapable of being produced through genetic engineering (e.g., salt).”
“GMO-free” labels are found on products that have never had “genetically modified” counterparts. They are even on products that could not possibly come from “genetically modified organisms” because they do not come from organisms at all, such as salt and water. They are used to imply health and safety risks which, according to the judgment of more than 280 global health, safety, academic, scientific, and governmental organizations, including our FDA, do not exist.
The agency’s recently updated guidance once again makes it clear that the Non-GMO Project and many other GMO-free labels are “false and misleading” and violate long-standing truth-in-labeling laws.

Whether a food is manufactured to be free of gluten or by nature is free of gluten (e.g., bottled water), it may bear a gluten-free labeling claim if it meets all FDA requirements for a gluten-free food. The claim is voluntary.

Equifax Cash Gone

If you have not filed a claim for cash compensation in response to the Equifax breach, you might be out of luck. The company is no longer offering payouts in lieu of credit monitoring.

The Federal Trade Commission page devoted to the settlement it announced with Equifax last week was updated July 31 to say that any consumer affected can claim up to 10 years of free credit monitoring. "Previously, a cash payment was identified as an option," the site now adds, "but there are limited funds available."

The FTC said in a statement that "public response to the settlement has been overwhelming." In a separate blog post, the commission said the "unexpected number of claims" would result in claimants not getting the money they thought.

How to File Equifax Claim

Step 1: Check your eligibility. Use the eligibility lookup tool to see if you were among the 144 million US residents who was affected by the breach.

If the answer is no, congratulations. Your data may be still included in dozens of other breaches, but not this one. If the answer is yes, proceed.

Step 2: File a claim. You can use an online form or, if you prefer, send in a paper claims form. On the first page of the online claim form, fill in your personal information and click next. The second page will ask you to choose what you want to claim: cash or credit monitoring. Selecting either option will bring up an explanation of your choice. If you select credit monitoring, you will also have the option to add an additional six years of service, provided by Equifax, to the initial four years provided by Experian.

Finally, the form will ask if you lost or spent money as a result of trying to prevent or recover from identity theft linked to the incident. If you select "yes," you will be presented with a form asking you to provide detailed information and to upload documents supporting your claim. Funds spent freezing your credit or paying for credit monitoring in the wake of the breach are eligible in this section.

Coffee and Cancer

Drinking coffee does not change a person's risk of being diagnosed with or dying from cancer. The research findings have been published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The QIMR Berghofer study used cancer data drawn from the UK Biobank cohort for more than 46,000 people who had been diagnosed with most invasive cancer types, including about 7,000 people who died from the disease. The genetic and preference information from the people with cancer was compared to data from more than 270,000 others who had never been diagnosed with cancer.
Senior author and head of QIMR Berghofer's Statistical Genetics Group, Associate Professor Stuart MacGregor, said the study looked at data from more than 300,000 people and showed drinking coffee every day neither reduced nor increased a person's risk of developing any cancer.
Associate Professor MacGregor said, "We also know that a preference for coffee is heritable. Our two-pronged research looked at whether cancer rates differed among people with different levels of self-reported coffee consumption, and whether the same trend was seen when we replaced self-reported consumption with genetic predisposition towards coffee consumption. We found there was no real relationship between how many cups of coffee a person had a day and if they developed any particular cancers."
"The study also ruled out a link between coffee intake and dying from the disease."


In an August 2018 statement, the US Food and Drug Administration said current science indicated that consuming coffee posed no significant risk of cancer.

More Canadian Inventions

The paint roller was invented about 1940 in Toronto by Norman Breakey, but he died before being able to patent his invention. The first paint roller patent was held by American Richard Croxton Adams.
The pager was invented by Alfred J. Gross, a Toronto-based wireless communications pioneer, during 1949. Gross is also often credited as the inventor of the walkie-talkie, a distinction he sometimes shares with fellow Canadian Donald Hings, who is also credited for having created the two-way radio during 1939.
The first internet search engine, Archie (Archive without the V), was created by Alan Emtage at McGill University about 1988.
Basketball was invented by Canadian James Naismith, born in Ontario and educated at McGill University, but he did not invent it in Canada. He invented the sport while working as a physical education instructor at a YMCA in Massachusetts during 1891.

The first electric wheelchair was developed by George Klein, during 1953. The Ontario-born inventor also developed aircraft skis, the M29 Weasel army snowmobile/ATV, the microsurgical staple gun, the ZEEP nuclear reactor, a scientific language for snow and more.

More TV Antenna Facts

Any TV antenna will receive analog, digital, and HD TV signals. Even those old rabbit ears that you have in storage from when you switched over to cable/satellite can be used to receive digital and HD TV signals if the station transmitters are in range. Omni directional vs. directional antennas work well for capturing stations located in different directions from your location.

Current antennas can even be used with the new ATSC 3 coming during the next few years. It will offer two way communication with TV, 4K, targeted (personal) advertising, and weather alerts. The only thing that will need to be changed is the addition of an ATSC 3 dongle/box, or an ATSC 3 equipped TV. This standard is not compatible with current over-the-air TV.

Do not worry, it will be years before the changeover is made, and stations are required by law to maintain old signals for five years. During that time the stations will be broadcasting old and new. That is why you need to re-scan your antenna stations every few months as the broadcasters have already begun to consolidate station numbers. Many cities have been testing and may begin rollout during 2020.
Some newer antennas do have better designs for pulling in some signals, but most benefits are not significant and especially not because they are labeled HD (which is not true). All newer antennas are not better. Try your old one first, then decide. Generally outdoor antennas placed higher up pull in more stations. For most local sports and news, indoor antennas work well.

You cannot use a satellite dish to receive over-the-air TV signals. It is not the correct shape and has internal circuitry that is not suitable for broadcast TV reception. You can ditch the dish and attach an antenna to the pole to reuse the pole. Also, the same coax cable works for both satellite and antenna, unless it is more than ten years old or worn, then you might consider replacing it with an RG6 cable.

TV Stations Moving

The recent FCC sales of bandwidth and ATSC 3 changes are causing local TV channels to change numbers. Here is a handy web site that lets you know when to re-scan so you always have the most channels available in your area. Just type in your zip code. LINK

Select Scan or Autotune from your TV or converter box control menu to start the scanning process. Your TV will do the rest. This process usually takes a few minutes to complete.

Once your re-scan is complete you will find your favorite stations and maybe a few more. If you have re-scanning difficulties, you can usually find instructions by selecting the Set-Up or Menu button on your television or converter box remote control.

Interesting Mosquito Facts

We are in the season, so thought some juicy tidbits might be in order. Of the 3,000 species of mosquitoes around the world, at least 150 are found in the United States, and 85 of those can be found in Texas.
The female mosquitoes, which are the ones that sting and suck blood, are the transmitter of disease, and the deadliest animals in the world. Each year, the malaria parasites they transmit kill 2 million to 3 million people and infect another 200 million or more. They also spread pathogens that cause yellow fever, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, Chikungunya, and West Nile disease.
Not every species of mosquito sucks blood from people, and among those that do, not every one transmits disease. Males live entirely on nectar and other plant fluids, and the females’ diet is primarily plant-based, too. Most of the time, they only go after people when they are ready to reproduce, because blood contains lipids, proteins, and other nutrients needed for the production of eggs.
What you see sticking out of a mosquito’s face is the labium, which sheaths the mouth parts that really do all the work. The labium bends back when a mosquito bites, allowing these other parts to pass through its tip and do their thing. The sharp, pointed mandibles and maxillae, which both come in pairs, are used to pierce the skin, and the hollow hypopharynx and the labrum are used to deliver saliva and draw blood, respectively.
The saliva that gets pumped out from the hypopharynx during a bite is necessary to reduce our blood’s tendency to clot. It contains a number of chemicals that suppress vascular constriction, blood clotting, and platelet aggregation.

An old wife's tale is that you can flex a muscle close to the bite site or stretch your skin taut so the mosquito cannot pull out its proboscis and your blood pressure will fill the bug until it bursts. The consensus among entomologists is that this is nonsense.

Elections Interference

Trying to influence elections goes back a long way in the US. During 1757 George Washington stood for election to the House of Burgesses representing Frederick County, Virginia. He won only 40 votes out of more than 580 cast by the male landowners of the jurisdiction, an embarrassing defeat.

According to his close aide and political adviser at the time, his defeat was caused in part, by his failure to provide suitable liquid refreshment to voters, an oversight which his opponents took advantage of. Washington, who had publicly avowed that he would never stoop to such underhanded tactics, reconsidered his position during the election of 1758. He directed his friend and adviser, Colonel James Wood of the Virginia Colonial militia, to ensure potential supporters were better treated.
Washington purchased rum, whiskey, wine, beer, and hard cider, according to his own account books, spending the equivalent of about $9,000. His supply included nearly 50 gallons of beer, a like amount of wine, three full barrels of rum (over 100 gallons) and a half-pint of brandy, presumably for his own consumption.
In winning he received nearly 400 votes, though the exact count varies depending on the source, and his alcohol supply ensured there was at least a half-gallon of libations for each Washington supporter available at the polling site.


He never again lost an election, though he never again needed to ply his supporters with liquids to achieve success. It should be noted that juicing the voters was a common practice during the 18th century, and one reason why sales of alcohol were for many years in America proscribed while the polls were open.