Nov 21, 2014

Sleep Calories

Many variables that go into the calorie-burning equation, such as age, sex, weight, metabolism, diet, and physical and nonphysical daily habits. The two most important factors in determining how many calories you burn while sleeping are weight and number of hours slept. On average, a person burns between 0.4 and 0.5 calories per pound, per hour. For example, a 100 lb. person burns 40-50 calories per hour. In eight hours of sleep, this person will burn approximately 360 calories.

A pound of muscle burns fifty calories a day on average and a pound of fat burns nine calories. A leaner, more muscular person is going to burn up to five times more calories per pound.

If you weigh 160 pounds, you burn 69 calories per hour while sleeping, the FitWatch website calculates up to 552 calories burned during eight hours of sleep. A 120-pound person burns about 51 calories per hour sleeping, or 408 for eight hours; a 200-pound person burns 86 calories per hour, or 868 for eight hours of sleep.

Fifteen minutes of laughter a day will burn ten to forty calories, depending on a person’s weight and the intensity of the laughter.  A study by Loma Linda University found that laughing raises the levels of immunoglobulins, which ward of disease, by fourteen percent. Laughter also has other benefits, including increased pain tolerance, relief of emotional stress and a workout for the muscles of the diaphragm, abdomen, back, and shoulders.

Free Friday Laugh


Nov 14, 2014

Happy Friday

"By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property." Voltaire

We can all appreciate the excellence of another Happy Friday!

Wordology, Handicap

The word handicap is known to originate from the old English trading game Hand-in-cap. The game was based on trading possessions, and proceedings would take place with the help of an umpire. The umpire had a responsibility to decide if the items were valued the same, and if not, he had to decide what the difference was. The two players then put the money in a cap. They had to place their hands in the cap and subsequently remove them either holding money or not, to show if they had accepted the terms of the deal.

Other uses for the word handicap include a condition that markedly restricts a person’s ability to function physically, mentally, or socially. The word also means a disadvantage imposed on a superior competitor in sports such as golf, horse racing, and competitive sailing in order to make the chance of winning more equal.

Famous Inventions by Women

A Shaker community in Massachusetts had a woman named Tabitha Babbitt who worked as a weaver. She would regularly witness the men cutting the wood with a pit saw (a two-handled saw that needed two individuals to operate). Although the saw needed to be pulled in two directions to cut the wood, there was only cutting going on when the saw was being pulled in a forward direction making the backward motion useless. In 1810 Babbitt developed her own draft of a saw that was circular in shape and would eventually be commonly used in saw mills. She attached the blade to her own spinning wheel in order to make every movement count toward cutting results.

Admiral Grace Murray Hopper joined the military during 1943 and was stationed at Harvard University where she was employed using IBM’s Harvard Mark I computer, which was the first large-scale computer in the US. She was the third individual programming the machine and she wrote a handbook of operations that led the way for many that would follow her. During the 1950s, the Admiral came out with the compiler, which converted English instructions into a computer code. This meant that computer code could be developed by programmers with less errors and complications. Hopper then created the Flow-Matic, which was utilized to program the UNIVAC I and II computers. Hopper had also been overseeing the advancements of Common Business-Oriented Language or (COBOL), which was one of the very first computer languages. She went on to obtain various awards for her work and even had a US warship named after her. Heard her speak one time and she used a length of wire 11.8 inches long as a prop. She described how light traveled that distance in one nanosecond.

Leather Stain Removing

If you have an oil stain on your favorite leather handbag, coat the stain with baby powder and let it stand overnight. By morning, the stain should be gone. If a bit still remains, repeat the process until the stain is completely gone. Also, add a few drops of vinegar in a bowl of water and scrub for water stains on leather shoes or boots.

Origin of Scotch Eggs

Scotch eggs are hard-boiled eggs wrapped in sausage meat, dipped in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. According to food historian Alan Davidson, the Scotch egg originated in India and was brought back by returning soldiers of the British Empire.

It is a descendent of the Indian dish nargisi kofta, which consists of eggs covered in minced lamb and cooked in curried tomatoes.

The first written reference to Scotch eggs, with the recommendation that they be eaten hot with gravy, was in the Cook And Housewife’s Manual in 1910.

Bacon and the N Words

Most discussions of eggs are followed by bacon and vice versa. Nitrates and nitrites may be unhealthy for your body, but what most nutritionists fail to tell you is that you can easily avoid nitrates and nitrites by simply not burning, charring, or over cooking your bacon or by baking your bacon in the oven.

By including some dairy and citrus with a bacon meal, the vitamins A, D and E work to effectively prevent conversion of “nitrates and nitrites into nitrosamines in the stomach, rendering them harmless to the body. Yea!
#bacon

Intel Wearable Awards

Intel’s Make It Wearable is a global initiative to inspire ideas and fuel innovation that will evolve personal computing in exciting new ways.

The Development track focuses on concepts that are both excitingly innovative and feasible to execute. They also demonstrate innovative solutions, creative implementation, technical feasibility, intelligent business planning, and potential for long-term success.

Intel is on a mission to identify and support wearable products and/or technology that can go to market in near future. This track features 3 rounds. All submissions are evaluated in round 1 (idea proposal submission), forty advance to round 2, ten advance to round 3, and three winners are chosen. Semifinalists and finalists gain expert support and education aimed at evolving their proposals into fully developed designs and business plans.

Nixie, the Selfie-Taking Drone, won. It is a wristband that unfolds into a remote-controlled flyable camera, and the winner of the US $500,000 prize. Each of the second through tenth place winners took home US $50,000.

In second place was Open Bionics' 3D printed, functioning prosthetic robotic hand.

Third place was won by Team Proglove's "smart glove" for production and manufacturing. It is a sensor-based "smart glove" that can boost productivity for manufacturing jobs. With an embedded Intel Edison module, and an on-board display, ProGlove allows wearers to scan, sense, and record activities.