Apr 17, 2013

Wordology, Ullage

The space in a bottle of wine that is not occupied by wine. In other words, the amount the bottle lacks in being full. Pronounced ull ij.

Salt Myth Debunked

There continues a myth that originated in the 1940s when a professor used salt-reduction to treat people with high blood pressure. Science has since found out that there is no reason for a person with normal blood pressure to restrict salt intake.

Decades of scientific research have failed to prove any benefits of a low-salt diet, and in fact tend to show the opposite. Studies have also failed to prove salt's connection to heart disease.

Salt is essential for life. Natural salt is important to many biological processes, including:
Being a major component of your blood plasma, lymphatic fluid, extracellular fluid, and even amniotic fluid;  Carrying nutrients into and out of your cells;  Increasing the glial cells in your brain, which are responsible for creative thinking and long-term planning; and  helping your brain communicate with your muscles, so that you can move on demand via sodium-potassium ion exchange.

A Scottish Heart Health Study, was launched in 1984 by epidemiologist Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe and colleagues at the Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee, Scotland. The researchers used questionnaires, physical exams, and 24-hour urine samples to establish the risk factors for cardiovascular disease in 7300 Scottish men. This was an order of magnitude larger than any intrapopulation study ever done with 24-hour urine samples. The BMJ published the results in 1988: Potassium, which is in fruits and vegetables, seemed to have a beneficial effect on blood pressure. Sodium had no effect.

A review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. University of Copenhagen researchers analyzed 114 randomized trials of sodium reduction, concluding that the benefit for hypertensives was significantly smaller than could be achieved by anti-hypertensive drugs, and that a "measurable" benefit in individuals with normal blood pressure of even a single millimeter of mercury could only be achieved with an "extreme" reduction in salt intake.

Recent studies, including those cited by Harvard University at St. George’s Medical School in London, have shown that potassium rich foods are an essential defense in helping to relieve high blood pressure. Potassium is an essential mineral that enables the body to maintain a healthy fluid and electrolyte balance, while also promoting optimal nerve and muscle functions.

If a person has high blood pressure he or she may become salt-sensitive. Hypertension is actually promoted more by excess fructose than excess salt. This can be relieved by reducing salt intake or increasing potassium intake, because it is the balance of the two that is important. Eating more potassium is probably more important than reducing salt.

Potassium is found in orange colored fruits and vegetables, including pumpkins, carrots, and apricots. Tomatoes and bananas are another source of high potassium. It is also found in artichokes, avocados, broccoli, dark chocolate, spinach, potatoes, yogurt, fish, and and a variety of beans.

Apr 13, 2013

Happy Friday

I always enjoy a Happy Friday for a whole nychthemeron!

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was polymath, a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, and inventor. Next week is the anniversary of his death.
Born: January 17, 1706, Boston - Died: April 17, 1790, Philadelphia

In his will, the left 1,000 pounds each (about $4,400 at the time) to the cities of Philadelphia and Boston, but the cities were not given access to the money immediately. Franklin required that the money be held in trust for 100 years after his death. After that, the cities could remove a portion of the trust money to establish a trade school, but not all of the money could be withdrawn; some had to remain for another 100 years.

When the trusts became due in 1990, Philadelphia’s was worth $2 million. Philadelphia used the $2 million windfall to provide scholarships for area high school children. Boston’s trust, which withdrew less money during the trust’s second century, was worth $5 million. Boston used the $5 million to fund the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, which was established out of the trust’s funds which were withdrawn 100 years earlier.

Wordology, Arcuate

The back pocket of Levi jeans has a double arch design called the Arcuate for which the company holds a trademark. Arcuate means 'curved like a bow'.

During World War II, the US government ruled that the design served no practical purpose, was only decorative, and due to wartime rations involving cotton, did not allow the company to use extra thread to create the arcuate. To maintain the trademark during those years, the company painted the design on the jeans.

Renminbi and Sterling

Now that Australia joins a host of nations that are bypassing the US Dollar as the world's "reserve currency" and trading currency directly with China, I thought it might be good to discuss confusion about the name of the Chinese currency.

Renminbi is the name of China’s currency, but yuan is the denomination of bills. It is equivalent to Britain’s currency, which is sterling with its pound as denomination of bills. The number of renminbi per dollar or sterling per dollar is incorrect. Renminbi and Sterling are the currency, but not a unit of the currency.  Prices and exchanges are measured in yuan and pounds, not Renminbi or Sterling.

The primary unit of renminbi is the yuan. One yuan is subdivided into 10 jiao , which is subdivided into 10 fen. Renminbi banknotes are available in denominations from 1 jiao to 100 yuan and coins have denominations from 1 fen to 1 yuan.

During the past two years - China and Japan economies bypass dollar and engage in direct currency trade, China and Russia drop dollar for direct trade, China and Iran bypass dollar, India and Japan bypass dollar, Iran and Russia replace dollar with rial and ruble in trade, India and Iran transact directly in rupees, Brazil bypasses dollar for direct China currency, Australia and China bypass dollar for direct currency trade.

How to Raise a Genius

Laszlo Polgar was a Hungarian psychologist who decided to make his children part of an educational experiment. Polgar believed that "geniuses are made, not born" and argued that children could achieve exceptional things if trained in one subject from an early age. He set out to turn his children into prodigies of whatever they showed interest in. The goal was to make the children happy with what they achieved

Laszlo wrote a book on how to raise a genius and proved the hypothesis by raising three chess grandmasters, two of them became record-breakers and one became the first female to beat the top ranked male.

He and his wife Klara raised three daughters, and decided that their specialist subject would be chess. He trained the girls in chess from when they were very small. Despite their intense training, the girls were happy and well adjusted.

Their youngest daughter, Judit, was a child prodigy. At age five, she beat a family friend in chess without even looking at the board. She started competing in tournaments at age six. Eventually at age 15, Judit achieved the status of Grandmaster and became the youngest person to do so.  She has beaten Anatoli Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Boris Spassky, and six other world champions. Her older sisters are Grandmaster Susan and International Master Sofia.

Judit Polgár was ranked number 36 in the world on the July 2012 FIDE rating list with an Elo rating of 2709, the only woman on FIDE's Top 100 Players list, and has been ranked as high as eighth in 2005. Last month, March 2013 she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary Commander's Cross with Star.

Hypnic Jerk

That feeling of falling when you are about to go to sleep is called a hypnic jerk. You are just between awake and asleep when suddenly you are falling. Then you jerk awake and maybe even experience a quick hallucination or two.

When you wake up suddenly for whatever reason, your brain reacts by searching for stability under your hands and feet. It doesn't detect it because you are likely lying down. This leads to a panic reaction similar to falling. Scientists think the brain is simply misinterpreting your muscles relaxing as falling.

Graham Cracker Facts

During the 1820s, Sylvester Graham created the eponymous cracker as part of his diet plan thought to increase physical wellness, sexual purity, and spiritual health. The Presbyterian minister's mission was to rid the world of sexual immorality. He believed a vegetarian diet, devoid of spices and sugars, combined with avoiding foods made with overly processed flours would do away with the greatest evils of his day, lustful thought and masturbation. Of course, neither Graham crackers nor his diet have ever been shown to cure sexual urges.

Graham flour is essentially a type of non-bleached, finely ground whole wheat flour. Among other things made with this flour, Graham made bland crackers. They were not the sweet treat we enjoy today.

Nabisco began making Graham crackers with bleached white flour and oils. The germ is rarely used today so the crackers have a longer shelf life.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his brother Will found the minister’s ideas useful at their Sanitarium in Battle Creek Michigan. Dr. Kellogg imposed the vegetarian diet on his patients with the belief that it could cure some of their troubles.

The brothers made their own Graham crackers on the premises. Once, Will left out some prepared wheat used to make Graham crackers. When he came back to finish the cooking, the dough had become hard and stale. Because he could not afford to waste a whole batch’s ingredients, he used it in the baking process anyway. Rather than get thin wafers after extruding the dough through rollers, he ended up with hard crispy flakes, similar to the corn flakes we eat today. Now you know how Graham crackers and Kellogg's corn flakes are related.