May 25, 2011

Super Heroes

For the cartoon lovers in the crowd, Marvel comics has full shows of its famous cartoon super heroes on its web site.

Adventures of the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Avengers and more. LINK

May 20, 2011

Happy Friday

It takes an hour to like someone, a day to love someone, and a lifetime to forget someone.

I spend my hours and days trying not to forget to have a Happy Friday!

Expensive Phone

Do you think your phone was expensive? Try this one. The Goldstriker iPhone is encrusted with 271 grams of 22 carat pure solid gold and more than 200 diamonds. The Apple logo on the back features 53 gems and the home button is covered with a single 7.1 carat diamond.

It is also decorated in a chest carved from granite and kashmir gold along with a lining made from top Nubuck grain leather. Oh, the cost, $3.2 million.

What's in a Name

Sometimes names, sayings, and slogans do not port well to non-English speaking countries. When Kentucky Fried Chicken opened their first restaurant in Beijing, they accidentally translated KFC's famous slogan, “Finger-lickin' good” to “We'll Eat Your Fingers Off!
Pepsi had fun when "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation"  turned out to be "Pepsi will make your ancestors return from the dead". in Taiwan.
Pizza Hut calzone called the P'zone turned into pezón, the Spanish word for "nipple".
Puffs tissues had a problem in Germany as the name is a colloquial term for whorehouse.
A warehouse sign in China was painted on the building as "Translator Server Error".
Coors slogan, “Turn it loose!” came out as, “Suffer from Diarrhea" in Spanish.
Clairol  had a curling iron called the "Mist Stick" that turned out to be “Manure Stick” in Germany.
Jersey Shore cast comes out as "The New Jersey Life of Macaroni Rascals".
Frank Perdue of chicken fame was surprised when, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken"  was translated into, "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused".
The name for a massage parlor in Japan was translated into hand job.
An interesting twist was IKEA furniture in Swedish translated into English became a "Fartfull workbench". Finally after a Papal visit, “I saw the Pope” (el Papa) translated as “I saw the potato” (la papa).

Six Uses for Bananas

There are many uses for bananas, including the peels. For instance, you can dry out banana peels, grind them up, and use as a potassium and phosphorus rich mulch for new plants and seedlings.

You can skip the grinder and cut up banana peels and chuck them in the soil as plant food. This is especially effective for roses and staghorns. It also keeps aphids away from the roses, although I don't know why.
Put a banana peel into a large jar, cover it with water, and let it soak. Top up your watering can with the banana peel liquid of one part banana-peel water to five parts regular water. Makes great liquid fertilizer.

The tryptophan in bananas can be a relaxing mood enhancer, helping to combat the symptoms of depression. That is also why bananas and chocolate are so good to set the mood.

Adding a peeled banana in with a roast will tenderize it. You can also put a banana skin on top of chicken pieces to keep them moist while cooking and it does not affect the flavor.
One of my favorites is to use a cut up banana on cereal to eliminate the need for sugar.

The Year 1950

Here are some prices from that year.
Car: $1,750
Gasoline: 27 cents/gal
House: $14,500
Bread: 14 cents/loaf
Milk: 82 cents/gal
Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Stock Market: 235
Average Annual Salary: $3,800
This week last year many European airports were closed due to the Icelandic Volcano ash covering the skies.

May 19, 2011

Something is Rotten in Denmark

I heard someone say this on an English TV show recently and thought it interesting that they use the same expression we do. Looked it up and found out it is from Shakespeare's Hamlet when Marcellus sees the ghost of Hamlet's father, the king of Denmark. Literally it meant that something was wrong with the government of Denmark. Used loosely now, it means something is wrong or things are unsatisfactory.

Bacon Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds with bacon salt. Yum!

Textaphrenia

Thinking you've heard or felt a new text message vibration when there is no message.

Pocket Picks

Back in 1982, Sony came out with the 'Watchman', a flat panel black and white TV that was 7 inches by 3 inches, with a 1 3/4 inch screen and weighed about 22 ounces. It hit the US two years later, in 1984. It was amazing for its time.

Sony also had the 'Walkman' portable music player that you could carry with you. It came out in 1979.

Apple just took those concepts a few steps further with it's iPad, which combines TV, music, and computer technology in roughly the same size package. It just took 30 years for smaller, faster technology to catch up. I can hardly wait for the next 10 years, when all of this technology will be placed in a pair of glasses, and voice controlled.

Venus Rising

The Soviets successfully landed several spacecraft on Venus, beginning in 1975. Seven of the landers conducted chemical analysis of rocks, which indicate a composition similar to that of terrestrial basaltic volcanic rocks. In 1981, the Venera 13 lander provided the first color images of the surface of Venus. The US sent Pioneer to Venus in 1979 and Magellan in 1989 to continue the work of mapping the surface of the planet. Neither landed on the surface of the planet.

At the surface, the atmospheric pressure is 92 times that of the Earth's at sea-level. Venus has a surface temperature of about 900° F. It is about 84% of the size of earth and a Venusian day is 243 Earth days. Venus rotates from east to west, so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

May 13, 2011

Happy Friday

May you have smiles when sadness intrudes, laughter to kiss your lips, and hugs when spirits sag.

I always smile and laugh while thinking about giving out free hugs and having a Happy Friday!

Five Anti Ant Actions

This is the time of year ants are really having fun with us, but here are a few household things to keep them away for a while. These are all cheaper than the commercial insecticides.

Put some vinegar in a spray bottle. Spray around the areas they show up, like all your door jams. Vinegar leaves behind a natural ant repellent and the smell dissipates quickly.

Draw a wide line of chalk on the ground, ants will not cross over it, nor will a number of other little creatures. if you see a few ants, draw a circle around them and watch how effective it is.

Black Pepper is another natural safe item to use if the other methods are not available, try sprinkling some pepper around. They hate that. Sprinkle some by their nest to keep them from feeding the queen. Course ground pepper is less effective.

Cayenne Pepper has the same abilities as regular pepper and it also keeps the squirrels away if you mix it with a bit of Vaseline and put it on your fence. Of course you need to replace after a heavy rain.

Cinnamon is also good to bug the bugs and it smells great

Ducks, Pigs, and Bunnies

For those of you who remember the good old days of clean and entertaining cartoons, here is a site that has what it bills as the top ten best Looney Tunes cartoons. Daffy is daffy, Bugs is bugged, Elmer is befuddled, Sylvester is sly and Porky is porky, plus more.  LINK