Aug 21, 2015

Happy Friday

Speak in a way that others love to listen to you and listen in a way that others love to speak to you.



I always listen first then speak about having a Happy Friday!

Happy Just Because Day

Each year on August 27, it is National Just Because Day and you can celebrate this day any way you choose, “just because.”

It is an unofficial national holiday created by Joseph J. Goodwin from California, in the late 1950′s. It began as a family holiday and has grown into an annual celebration across the United States.

Today is a chance to do something without rhyme or reason. It could be that there is an outfit at the mall that you are admiring; buy it, just because. Maybe you want to go fishing; do it,  just because. Take the rest of the day off, just because. The possibilities are endless.

Wordology, Want, Wont and Won't

The first two words are pronounced the same, but mean two different things.

Want means ‘desire something’ or ‘wish for something': I want to stay here, he wants to speak, etc.

Wont means in the habit or tendency doing something, or of a characteristic of something. such as, “Tomorrow will be quiet, as Sundays are wont to be” or "He writes every day as he is wont to do."

Neither should be confused with the contraction of will not. Won't is used to express the future and meaning 'will not' as in, I won’t be here tomorrow.

Cancer and Chemotherapy Facts

Not usually a positive topic, but it is nice to get a few facts and dispel some myths.

There are over 200 different types of cancers and 200 different types of cells in the human body with all of these having the potential to become cancerous. All types are a result of unregulated cell growth. The result is excessive tissue, known as tumors. These tumors can be localized, or they can spread to surrounding areas through your lymphatic system or your blood stream.

Normal healthy cells divide and die as they should. The average number of times normal healthy cells divide is known as the Hayflick Limit. It was named after Dr. Leonard Hayflick, who in 1965 noticed that cells divide a specific number of times before the division stops. The average was between 40-60. If you took every cell in your body, at the time you were born, and accounted for all the cells they would produce and so on, multiplied that number by the average time it takes for those cells to die, you get what is known as the ultimate Hayflick limit, or the maximum number of years you can theoretically live, 120 years.

Chemotherapy, by definition is "a chemical that binds to and specifically kills microbes or tumor cells." It is a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body. It is usually systemic treatment, meaning that the drugs flow through the bloodstream to nearly every part of the body. Chemotherapy is generally given in cycles: a treatment period is followed by a recovery period, then another treatment period, etc.

It is most often used to treat cancer, since cancer cells grow and multiply much more quickly than most cells in the body. Many different chemotherapy drugs are available and can be used alone or in combination. Chemotherapy treatments carry risks of side effects, some mild and treatable and others which can cause serious complications.


Most chemotherapy cannot differentiate between abnormal cancer cells and normal healthy cells. Because of this, cells that multiply rapidly can also be affected by chemotherapy. Not all chemo drugs will make you lose your hair. Some people have mild thinning that only they notice and some show no loss. Hair loss includes eyelashes, eyebrows, underarms, legs, and even pubic hair. Whether you lose hair depends upon the medication, dosage, combinations, and individual sensitivity. Hair loss happens because the chemotherapy affects all cells in the body, not just the cancer cells. The lining of the mouth, digestive tract (that is why many have nausea and vomiting as side effects), stomach, bone marrow, and the hair follicles are especially sensitive because those cells multiply rapidly just like the cancer cells.

Chemotherapy can also decrease in production of white blood cells (causing immune-suppressed), and inflammation of the digestive tract. Other areas that can be affected include,
kidneys, liver, heart, and lungs. Luckily, many healthy cells repair themselves during or shortly after therapy.

Vikings

Vikings believed that a giant goat whose udders provide an endless supply of beer was waiting for them in Valhalla (Viking Heaven).

How to Stop Hiccups

Hiccups are caused by a spasm in the diaphragm. The diaphragm is the muscle that separates your thorax (including your lungs and heart) from your abdomen (including your stomach and intestines). When you breathe in, your diaphragm contracts and pulls down and becomes flat in order to make room for more air in the lungs. When you breathe out, your diaphragm expands and forces air out of your lungs.

During a hiccup, your diaphragm spasms causing you to take a quick breath in. This breath in is then interrupted by the epiglottis closing and causing a “hic” sound. (FYI, the epiglottis is a flap that covers the space between the vocal cords).


It is possible to stop them within 60 seconds or so by swallowing a teaspoon filled with dry sugar. Specialists believe the abrupt sweetness on the tongue overloads the nerve endings in the mouth and blocks the hiccup spasm.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and also found on Medicine.net showed when a spoonful of granulated sugar is eaten, it was found to be effective in 19 out of 20 patients.

Fur and Hair

There is no difference between fur and hair; it is all just hair. Most refer to animal hair as fur, while referring to our own hair as just hair.  However, hair and fur are chemically indistinguishable, both made up of keratin.

Human hair does not grow forever nor does animal hair/fur, although the length of the growing cycle can be longer or shorter for both. Various mammals have different growth cycles for their hair than humans do. Cat hair seems to stop growing at a relatively short length, similar to the growth rate and length of the hair on a human’s arms and legs.

The maximum length of hair on various parts of a body is entirely determined by genetics and varies widely from person to person and animal to animal.

A cat’s whiskers are just hair, though these hairs are attached to special nervous system connections allowing them to work as sensory receptors.

A Porcupine's quills are extremely enlarged hairs.

Incidentally, shaving does not make your hair grow back thicker, stronger, or faster. It has been proven by numerous studies that shaving has absolutely no effect on hair growth rate or shape

Google Translate

I recently received an email in French and needed to translate it. Went to Google, and typed in the word translate. The first result showed two boxes next to each other. The first box had a caption 'enter text' the second was 'English'. I pasted the text into the first box and it detected French and populated the second box with the English equivalent. The second also had a microphone icon. When I pressed it, a female voice correctly read aloud the English text. The amazing thing to me was that the translated text was so accurate. Not something we use everyday, but nice to know it is available when we need it.

Free Friday Smile