Jul 11, 2014

Pain and Coughing

Next time you feel some pain, such as a shot from the doctor, or paper cut, or a prick from a plant thorn, force a rough cough or a few coughs. Coughing  has been shown to moderate the feeling of pain.

Five Attributes Happiness and Sex Share

Here is another way to ease pain. A 2004 study asked 900 American women how various daily activities made them feel and found that "intimate relations" topped the charts for happiness. Both reduce anxiety, reduce stress, boost your immune system, ease pain, and both reduce neuroticism, a trait marked by mood swings and frequent worry. Not sure who paid for the study to show the obvious.

Kindness Multiplies

Here is a site that has 35 uplifting acts of kindness. LINK Too good not to share.

Free Friday Thought


Jul 4, 2014

Friday Thoughts

Happiness has two faces, tears and smiles.

Sometimes my smile gets so big it makes my eyes leak, especially while having a Happy Friday!

Happy Canada Day

On July 1, 1867, the nation was officially born when the Constitution Act joined three provinces into one country: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canada province, which then split into Ontario and Quebec. However, Canada was not completely independent of England until 1982.

PL Peace Tower, Japan

July 6 fireworks - a tribute to all the fallen souls of war. This six hundred foot tower is located at the Church of Perfect Liberty headquarters in Tondabayashi, Japan. The tower stands as a monument to all the perished souls of war throughout all time. Within the tower is a shrine in which all known names of the lives claimed in human conflict have been recorded on microfilm and stored in a golden container.

The structure was built in 1970. Once a year, the Church of Perfect Liberty headquarters is the site of one of the world's largest fireworks shows. Every July 6th, the members celebrate the passing of their first founder with what they call the "PL Art of Fireworks." Unlike most fireworks shows, which fire around 5,000 shells, the PL show consists of around 25,000 shells fired. During the finale about 7,000 shells are shot off in unison, almost completely lighting nearly night sky.

Darwin Beer Can Regatta

Jul 06, 2014, Darwin, Australia. The first Beer Can Regatta was held on the 16th June 1974, and was a "festival" developed by Lutz Frankenfeld and Paul Rice-Chapman. Each year contestants handcraft boats out of recycled beer cans and take to the seas. For boats that do not float, there is another chance, to see how fast the team can carry a Henley boat in a straight line in a race down the beach.

Entrance is by a gold coin donation and proceeds go to projects of the combined Lions Clubs of Darwin. There are many festivities along with eating and drinking booths set up.

Rules for the beer can boats - The Ten Can-Mandments
1. Thou shalt enter the event in the right spirit.
2. Thou shalt build the craft of cans.
3. The craft shall float by cans alone.
4. Thou shalt not drown.
5. Thou shalt not take the name of the craft in vain. Any craft bearing signs or lettering that may be offensive will be barred.
6. Thou shalt not drift from the straight and narrow and end up at Mandorah.
7. Thou shalt not protest too much.
8. Thou shall honor thy Committee.
9. Thou shalt not commit adultery – nothing really to do with the Regatta, but it gives us an air of responsibility and respect.
10. Thou shalt go back and read the first can-mandment again.

The Aussies sure know how to have a good time.

Lobster Colors

Before you cook a lobster it looks grey-blue, and when you cook it, it turns pink. It does not really change color, the red pigment is already there, but is surrounded by the grey and blue pigments. When those pigments are heated they are destroyed. The red pigments take the heat and remain.

Ten Interesting Tidbits

The average child asks over four hundred questions each day. Makes it easy to understand why they learn so fast.
Of all the people in history that have reached age 65, half are still living.
The US is older than Germany. Germany became independent in 1871 and the US in 1776.
Two thirds of the people on earth have never seen snow.
A hummingbird weighs less than a US penny.
There are more empty houses in the US than homeless people.
The US FDA allows ten insects and thirty five fly eggs per eight ounces of raisins.
One in ten European babies were conceived on an IKEA bed.
A giraffe's tongue is twenty one inches long.
The Guinness Book of Records holds its own record as the book most stolen from public libraries.

Types of Bacon Sandwiches

 A bacon sandwich (also known in parts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand as a bacon butty or bacon sarnie, in Ireland as a rasher sandwich, and as a bacon sanger in Australia and parts of Scotland is a sandwich of cooked bacon between bread that is usually spread with butter or margarine, and may be seasoned with ketchup or brown sauce. It is generally served hot. The BLT is a popular variant of the bacon sandwich with the additional ingredients of lettuce and tomato, but served cold. It is also called piece 'n bacon, bacon cob (made with bread roll rather than slice), grilled bacon and cheese.

A Fool's Gold Loaf, mostly in Colorado, US consists of a single warmed, hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with one jar of creamy peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon.

Bacon Gerber in Saint Louis, Missouri, US half section of Italian or French bread with garlic butter, containing ham, provolone cheese, topped with paprika, then toasted.

Hot Brown in Louisville, Kentucky, US open-faced with turkey and bacon, topped with Mornay sauce, and baked or broiled

Bacon sandwiches are an all-day favorite throughout the United Kingdom. They are often served in greasy spoons, and are sometimes recommended as a hangover cure. Australian hamburger shops sell a bacon sandwich, which is made much like a traditional Australian hamburger with fried bacon, fried onions, lettuce, tomato, tinned beetroot and barbecue sauce or tomato sauce. In some places the sandwich is made from bread toasted on only one side and other establishments serve it on the same roll as used for hamburgers. In Toronto, Canada, peameal bacon (rolled cured and trimmed boneless loin in dried and ground yellow peas) is served on a Kaiser roll.

Irish formula - Place at least three carefully chosen bacon rashers on grill pan. Insert grill pan under grill (broiler). Cook until sizzling, then turn over (the rashers, not the pan), and cook other side until sizzling.
In the meantime, cut two hunks of Kelly's small loaf. Butter liberally with real butter (none of that low cal crap). According to taste, apply your chosen sauce to the bread. Evenly spread the rashers (still sizzling) onto the bread. Apply the upper part of the sandwich. Turn off the TV and the radio. Tell the wife / girlfriend / dog etc to go away.

Perfect Bacon Sandwich - Experts at Leeds University discovered the secret to the ideal sandwich, after four researchers at the Department of Food Science spent more than 1,000 hours testing 700 variations of a traditional bacon sandwich. They tried different types and cuts of bacon, cooking techniques, types of oil and a range of cooking times at different temperatures. They found that two or three back bacon rashers should be cooked under a preheated oven grill (broiler) for seven minutes at about 240C (475F). The bacon should then be placed between two slices of farmhouse bread, 1cm to 2cm thick. They concluded  that is not only the taste and smell of bacon that consumers find most attractive, but that texture and how crispy and crunchy rashers are. Side note - A rasher of bacon can also be used to mean a "portion" or "serving" of bacon, not just a single slice. Also, streaky bacon is the British term for American style bacon.

Borrow a Drone

Students at the University of South Florida, US are now able to borrow quadcopter drones from the school library. The university allows students to check out one of the library's two remote control devices for supervised flights. The small white drones come fitted with a video camera. The university says they will be useful for students studying a range of disciplines. Students need to complete a course in drone operation before checking the devices out, and their use is to be monitored by staff members standing over the students' shoulders.

What's in a Name, Bronx

A seventeenth century Scandinavian man by the name of Jonas Bronck immigrated in 1639 to New Amsterdam (now New York), which was right next to the Bronx River, that was later named after him.

Jonas owned a 680 acre farm called 'Bronck’s Land' and the river abutting it 'Bronck’s River'. Various people owned this property and kept the name, until Colonel Lewis Morris acquired it and renamed it the 'Manor of Morrisania'. The river next to it continued to be called Bronck’s River. From the river’s name, the modern-day name of 'Bronx' extended to the region directly around it.

The spelling change happened around the same time there was a big push for the simplification of English, such as thre names of the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, from 'Socks'.

Holiday Thought


Get out there and have some fun!