Cleveland Recycles

The city plans to sort through curbside trash to make sure residents are recycling and fine them $100 if they don't. The move is part of a high-tech collection system the city with new trash and recycling carts embedded with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes.

The chips will allow city workers to monitor how often residents roll carts to the curb for collection. If a chip show a recyclable cart hasn't been brought to the curb in weeks, a trash supervisor will sort through the trash for recyclables.

Trash carts containing more than 10 percent recyclable material could lead to a $100 fine. It plans to roll out to nearly all of the city's 150,000 residences.

The city stepped up enforcement of ordinances governing trash collection last year by issuing 2,900 tickets, nearly five times more tickets than in 2008. Those infractions include citations for people who put out their trash too early or fail to bring in their garbage cans from the curb in a timely manner. The Division of Waste Collection is on track to meet its goal of issuing 4,000 citations this year. Fines for excessive trash will range from $250 to $500 depending on the amount.

The Washington, D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Va., earlier this year announced it would issue carts to check whether people are recycling.

English School Lunches

The chairman of England's School Food Trust (part of the Department of Education), said parents are hampering efforts to cut obesity in children by sending them to school with crisps (chips), fizzy drinks, and biscuits. He also suggested chocolates, crisps, and sugary drinks could be banned in packed lunches altogether by tightening the rules on what children can bring into school.

The chairman said the best solution would be for parents to pay for their children to eat healthy hot meals in canteens rather than giving them lunch boxes. Stricter measures on what can be included in school dinners were implemented by the Trust five years ago, but he said many middle class parents remain unconvinced that packed lunches are less healthy than canteen meals.

Parents' groups, however, said the Trust and the government should "get off our backs" and stop attempting to prescribe to parents what they can and cannot feed their children.

Ring Finger

The Chinese have a good explanation for what the fingers represent.

The Thumb represents your Parents
The Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings
The Middle finger represents your Self
The Fourth (Ring) finger represents your Life Partner, and
The Last (Little) finger represents your Children

First, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers down and hold them together - back to back.
Second, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip.
Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents). They will open, because your parents are not destined to live with you (or you with them) forever.

Join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings). They will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will lead their own separate lives.

Now join the Index fingers and separate your little fingers (representing your children). They will open too, because the children also will get married and leave.

Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).

You cannot do it, because husband and wife should remain together all their lives.

Cream Cheese

This American invention was developed in 1872 in New York state. Cream cheese is similar to French Neufchatel in that it is made from cow's milk, but differs in that it is unripened and often contains emulsifiers to lend firmness and lengthen shelf-life. USDA law requires standard cream cheese must contain at least 33 percent fat and no more than 55 percent water, although there are low-fat and nonfat varieties now on the market.

What's in a Name

Iowa and DOA: The state changed the name of its Department of Elder Affairs to the Department on Aging, or DOA, in 2009. It has since learned the unintended consequences of the acronym and changed to IDA, for Iowa Department on Aging.

Sioux City and SUX: The Sioux City Iowa Gateway Airport has the FAA moniker of “SUX.” Airport authorities petitioned for a new code, and the FAA (not a joke) offered them “GAY” recognizing the “Gateway” part of the airport’s name. The city declined. Other contenders are Fresno’s "FAT", and Perm, Russia’s is "PEE."

Seattle and SLUT:  In 2007, Seattle opened a new streetcar line connecting the South Lake Union neighborhood to downtown. The project was officially called the South Lake Union Streetcar, but local residents began calling it the South Lake Union Trolley, or SLUT. The city tried to change the opinion, but residents still refer to it as the SLUT. Some local places sell t-shirts that read, “Ride the SLUT.”

Graham Crackers

The namesake of the graham cracker is a Presbyterian minister who claimed that overeating could not only make you fat, it could make you lecherous, too. Sylvester Graham ran health retreats during the 1830s for like-minded parishioners featuring a strict meat-free, bland diet. It must work, because you do not see many lechers running around eating graham crackers. Although I love them with peanut butter and jelly. Mmmm!

Rum and Tots

For hundreds of years, Royal Navy seamen lined up in galleys from the poles to the tropics to receive their regulation lunchtime tot (about eighth to half pint) of rum, but 40 years ago, the tradition was ended. On 31 July 1970, known in the navy as Black Tot Day, free rum was retired from navy life.

By 1970, the rum bosun's daily doling out of of rum at midday, diluted with water (grog) for junior ratings, neat for senior - was a reasonably gentlemanly affair. A grog was a mixture of two pints water and a half pint rum. The Admiralty took away the rum because it was concerned it would hinder sailors' ability to operate increasingly complex weapons systems and navigational tools.

Beer had been the staple beverage of the Royal Navy until the 17th Century, used as a self-preserving replacement for water, which became undrinkable when kept in casks for long periods. As the horizons of the British Empire expanded, the sheer bulk of beer, the ration for which was a gallon per day per seaman, and its liability to go sour in warmer climates, made it impractical to take on long voyages. Wine and spirits started to take the place of beer place until 1655, after the capture of the island of Jamaica from Spain, the navy introduced rum.

Until 1740 the daily ration was half a pint of neat rum, twice a day. Sailors would check their rum had not been watered down by pouring it onto gunpowder and setting light to it, from where the term "proof" originates. By volume, 57.15% alcohol has been calculated as the minimum required for it to pass the test.

Alcoholic proof in the United States is defined as twice the percentage of alcohol by volume . Consequently, 100-proof whiskey contains 50% alcohol by volume; 86-proof whiskey contains 43% alcohol, etc.

Etiquette

Dentristy is Old

The Indus Valley Civilization has yielded evidence of dentistry being practiced as far back as 7000 BC. This earliest form of dentistry involved curing tooth related disorders with bow drills operated by skilled bead craftsmen. The reconstruction of this ancient form of dentistry showed that the methods used were reliable and effective. Cavities of 3.5 mm depth with concentric grooves indicate use of a drill tool. Ouch!

New Uses for Silica Gel

Here are several great suggestions for using these packs around the house. They can be found in all sorts of packaging, vitamin bottles, and even new shoes. Some kitty litter is now made with silica to aid absorption. Some folks even use it for the same purposes as listed below.

Silica gel is a desiccant, a substance that absorbs moisture. The silicate is actually a very porous mineral with a natural attraction to water molecules. Manufacturers utilize the gel to keep goods from spoiling, molding, or degrading due to humidity. The gel itself is nontoxic and most silica found in food and household items looks like tapioca beads and is benign unless combined with certain chemicals.

Here are a few interesting uses for the stuff:
    * Put packs in your ammo cans and gun cases/safes to keep dry.
    * Protect personal papers and important documents by putting some gel wherever these are stored.
    * Keep with photos to keep them from humidity. Tuck a small envelope in the back of frames to protect important hanging photos.
    * Store in camera bags and with film. It will also absorb moisture to keep lenses from fogging.
    * Leave a couple packs in a tool box to prevent rusting.
    * Use it to aid in drying flowers.
    * Place with seeds in storage to prevent molding.
    * Slow silver tarnishing by using the gel in jewelry boxes or with silverware.
    * Cut open the packs and saturate the beads with essential oils to create potpourri.
    * Use in luggage while traveling.
    * Put some in your closet in leather goods to help them stay dry.
    * Add to video tape collections to help keep them dry.

Microsoft Word Tip

Don't know if you write large documents in Word, but this works even for short documents. The next time you open a document that you have saved, hold down the shift key and press the f5 key. This will take you back to the last spot you typed in the document before it was closed or saved.

Oyster Herpes

Is nothing free from the effects of global warming? True - National Geographic has found that a new strain of herpes in oysters is supposedly caused by global warming.

The new strain, which is named Ostreid herpesvirus 1 μvar, was first detected in 2008 among breeding Pacific oysters in France. Since then, the virus has wiped out 20 to 100 percent of oysters in the French beds, and this year it appears to have spread to United Kingdom waters too. They say it infects the shellfish during breeding season.

Although reasons behind the recent emergence of herpes in oyster beds across Europe are still a mystery, many researchers have not been surprised to find a correlation with global warming. Hmmm. Does that mean the 20% that didn't get infected were ugly. And what the heck are Pacific oysters doing in France? Maybe those Pacific oysters that caught herpes were just too promiscuous.