399 - Canadian Music Friday ...

Spirit of the West are a Canadian folk rock band, who were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.


Home For A Rest



Venice Is Sinking




Joneses



D For Democracy

398 - The Bubble Butt ...

New Underwear Technology May Devastate U.S. Masculinity

The issue of fancy men's underwear is still threatening to undermine this great country. Andrew Christian has unveiled his new, horrific men's underwear with Flashback Butt-Lifting and Contouring Technology. He promises that it "gives men the illusion of having a sought-after "bubble butt" without having to spend hours in the gym." Great John Wayne's ghost, is a bubble butt now sought-after among men?!? An actual quote from the designer, who is suspected by me to be working with the terrorists: "Surprisingly, I was actually inspired to create this technology while at the gym and seeing how hard men work on exercising their buttocks. I just knew that there had to be a way to achieve similar results by simply wearing underwear." Good. God. After the jump, before and after pictures of the new underwear technology at work. We beg you, do not be seduced.

397 - Around The World ...

Around the world in 13 years

By Graham Bensinger
ESPN

Imagine deciding one day that you'd like to make it around the world using only your own power. No motors, no sails -- just the energy that you can muster up. On July 12, 1994, intrepid 26-year-old Briton Jason Lewis put that quest into action. In average physical condition and with hardly any money to support the expedition, he set off thinking it would take about two years.

Uncertain if the 26-foot boat, built by friends who had never made one before, would hold up, he began pedaling.

After two broken legs, a crocodile attack, blood poisoning that almost killed him, and being jailed as a foreign spy, he's finally accomplished his 46,505-mile goal. Lewis, now 40 years old, crossed The English Channel making it back into London in October. Admittedly way off on calculating how long the trip would take, Lewis is just happy to be alive after spending a third of his life in foreign places.

 

With no motor and no sails, Jason Lewis powered his 28-foot boat across oceans by pedaling.

Graham Bensinger: How did you come up with the idea?

Jason Lewis: It wasn't actually my original idea. My college friend, Steve Smith, came up with it. He was working as an environmental scientist in Europe at the time (in 1991). He was a little bored with his job and was looking out of his office window one rainy Monday morning and wondering what he could do before he gets locked down with a mortgage and a family. Being an environmental scientist, he wanted to do something that was environmentally friendly also. After he thought of the human-powered approach to doing the circumnavigation, he was surprised to learn that no one got all the way around without motors or the power of the wind. He then came to me. I was actually working for a window-cleaning business that I had in London and as a musician in the evenings. Neither of us had done anything like this before, but he asked me to join him. Thinking that it was just going to take three years to rattle off, I joined thinking that this would be an amazing adventure and get me out of London for a few years on what I thought would be more of a holiday than anything else. That turned out to be quite an underestimation of the whole thing.

Right, and it would have been a rather long holiday to begin with.

The original T-shirts that we made up said 1994-1996. Clearly, we had no idea what we were getting into.

It was initially called "Pedal for The Planet." Why pedaling?

Originally, we were going to pedal the entire way in bicycles across land and on the ocean in a specially designed pedal-powered boat. As we got into the trip, we found that other means of human-powered propulsion were needed. For example, I had to swim across rivers, hike across Hawaii and rollerblade. After a few years, it became something more than just pedal power.

TRIP TIMELINE
• July 1994: Jason and original partner Steve Smith depart on bikes from Greenwich Meridian Line in London.

• October 1994: Depart Lagos, Portugal, for 4,300-mile trip across the Atlantic.

• January 1995: After 84 days at sea, Jason and Steve arrive at the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.

• February 1995: Reach Miami.

• June 1995: Depart Ft. Lauderdale.

• September 1995: Jason is hit by a car in Colorado, breaking both his legs.

• June 1996: Jason and school teacher April depart from Colorado (April bikes while Jason rollerblades).

• September 1996: Jason and April arrive in San Francisco.

• September 1998: After previous failed attempts to reach Hawaii, Jason and Steve leave San Francisco for Hawaii, arriving 53 days later.

• February 1999: Steve leaves the project for good.

• May 1999: Steve pedals off from Hawaii, bound for the island of Tarawa -- 2,200 miles southwest.

• July 1999: After 73 days, Jason reaches Tarawa, escaping blood poisoning along the way that nearly killed him.

• April 2000: Jason and Chris Tipper start pedaling the 1,100 miles to the Solomon Islands.

• July 2000: The remaining 1,100 miles to Australia nearly end in disaster as the boat is nearly shipwrecked and April in desperate need of medical attention.

• July-October 2001: Jason and a group of teenagers and educators ride 3,000 miles through the Australian outback.

• October 2001-March 2005: In debt $45,000, Jason takes time off to work regular jobs.

• June-November 2005: Jason and three others bike and kayak their way up to Singapore. Bandits attack Jason along the way.

• May-November 2006: Jason bikes from Malaysia through Thailand, onto the Tibetan Plateau, into Nepal and finally into India, about 10,000 kilometers.

• February 2007: Jason and friend Sher Dillon pedal their boat 2,000 miles from Mumbai across the Arabian Sea to Djibouti in Northern Africa.

• October 2007: After being temporarily held in Egypt as a possible spy, Jason finally pedals across the English Channel and reaches home turf in London. Total distance: Over 40,000 miles. Total time: 13 years.

Before the trip even started, what did you need to do in preparation for it?

We did have big ideas about training and getting in shape, but the reality of not having a sponsor from the get-go meant that we ended up having to do everything ourselves with help from friends and family. We had to build a boat, which took a year-and-a-half alone! We were looking to raise initial startup funds by selling T-shirts and names on the boat for $20. Then, there were a lot of logistics, which included getting the proper visas for the countries that we were going to go into, equipment, [food and medications]. We set off from London in July 1994 quite inexperienced and not particularly fit either.

What was involved in the preparations to make the 4,300-mile crossing of the Atlantic Ocean?

Get the boat fully equipped and supplied up to four months at sea without resupply. We didn't actually load enough food. We had enough for 97 days and the whole trip ended up taking 111 days. When you consider what it takes for a human to survive out at sea for that long of a time, there are an incredible number of small things that you have to think of that you would likely take for granted on land -- from food and life rafts (in case the boat sinks) to medication and bringing equipment to refill cavities. There are all sorts of things humans need to survive such an inhospitable environment such as the ocean.

Considering how long you and Steve were going to be alone together at sea, what was it like pushing off that first day?

This huge silence descended upon us. Only then did what we were getting into really sink in and it felt very intimidating. Perhaps we had bitten off more than we could really chew. We were very nervous during those first few days and weeks. We thought we might be run over by a ship in the middle of the night and we also wondered if the boat would hold up. The guys who built the boat for us were friends of ours, but they had never built a boat before. We didn't even know if the thing was going to float!

So you planned to pedal 12 hours per day in two- or four-hour shifts, seven days a week. How much was that actually followed?

We had no choice but to always have someone pedaling because the boat is designed with only one sleeping compartment in the front and there really isn't anywhere else for someone to lie down. We ended up getting into a routine that seemed to work well. It was two-hour shifts during the day and three- to four-hour shifts at night. ... You can listen to music -- on a tape machine because iPods hadn't yet been invented -- but there's a point at which your body just needs sleep.

Besides the tape player, what did you do to remain sane?

We took card games and others that we could play together, but we didn't actually play them. There were quite a few other things that kept us engaged during the day, from cooking to navigating to fixing things. I took a guitar with me and would periodically sit out on deck and play that. At night time, if you didn't want to listen to music, you just kind of end up mind traveling. You're pedaling away and its pitch black out if there's no moon and all you feel is the movement of the ocean underneath the boat. It's almost like being in a sensory deprivation tank. In that kind of environment, it's very surreal. Your mind wonders and you think about all these things that you wouldn't otherwise think about on land. A couple hours can fly by.

How big was the boat and what exactly did it look like?

The boat was 26 feet long, 4 1/2 feet wide and 4 feet high. It has a sleeping compartment in the front and in the rear is where the food and equipment is stored. In the center compartment area is a cockpit area where two people can sit: one person pedaling and the other person facing the opposite [direction] where a meal can be cooked or the navigation can be done. Then, there's a sliding hatch above the cockpit that can be opened and closed depending on the weather. The whole boat looks like an elongated canoe. It cuts through the water efficiently, which allows minimum friction loss.

Christmas Day, 1994. You both had been pedaling since October and still had a month remaining before you'd reach land.

This was one of the high points of the voyage. It's Christmas Day and we were feeling quite sorry for ourselves sitting out in the middle of the Atlantic about 1,200 miles from land. We were looking forward to our Christmas dinner, which was going to consist of the same dried food that we'd had for over 80 days which we'd rehydrate with water that we were making with our desalinator pump. This was actually part of a British army ration pack and it has a very uninspiring taste.

 

Lewis began his human-powered circumnavigation in 1994. He may have thought differently if he realized it would take 13 years to finish.

We found ourselves pedaling towards a ship that wasn't moving. When we called her on the radio, it turned out that it was an AT&T cabling repairing ship that was fixing the underwater fiber optic cable that was running between North America and Europe. When we called up the skipper, at first he didn't believe us and thought it was his crew playing a practical joke. When we got close to the boat and they could see that we were telling the truth, they invited us up on deck and laid out an amazing full-course Christmas dinner and a bottle of red wine. We even managed to take a shower. That was the first time we'd been able to wash the saltwater off of our skin.

January 27th, 1995. After 84 days at sea, you finally hit land in the Turks and Caicos Islands [in the Caribbean]. How great did it feel?

That first landfall that we made was probably one of the highest points of the whole trip because on subsequent voyages the novelty had worn off. We arrived on cold sandy beaches with quite a few islanders waiting to greet us. When we stepped off of the boat onto the boardwalk, we were swaying all over the place for the first few steps. Having been at sea that whole time, we weren't accustomed to being on a static surface.

A local restaurant brought plates of burgers and fries. Apart from Christmas Day, we hadn't had food like this or even a can of Coke. We hadn't had a cold drink in months. I remember going into a store to buy some food and being completely baffled by all of the bright red colors of the detergents because out at sea you only see grays, whites, and blues. I almost wasn't able to look at them. It was pretty overwhelming.

After a few months fundraising in Miami, you and Steve depart Fort Lauderdale in June 1995, but separate following St. Petersburg. How was your relationship?

We'd had a few run-ins on the Atlantic. To be fair, I think it boiled down to two guys with big egos in stressful conditions in a tiny space for three months. We were ready to separate when we reached Miami, but since I had never really been rollerblading before and couldn't initially stay up on them for long, Steve kindly let me hang onto the back of his bike for the first 300 miles.

September 1995. You're run over by a car in Colorado. What happened?

I was a little over halfway across the States and was approaching a town called Pueblo. I had done about 70 miles on skates that day, which was the most I had ever done, but I was determined to get to this town where I knew a bed was waiting for me. I was told that someone could put me up, which sounded pretty good because I'd been sleeping by the side of the road pretty much the whole way through the country with the occasional exception.

At about 5 p.m., just as I was entering city limits, it felt like a steam train hit me from behind and put me into the side of the road. I didn't know what had happened at first because I didn't feel any pain. I actually tried to stand up because I thought somebody might have just stuck their hand out of their vehicle and smacked me on the back of the head or something as had happened once before down in the Deep South. When I tried to stand up again, that's when I realized I was actually standing on the stumps of my lower legs. I had actually been hit by a car traveling at 40 mph. My rucksack had probably saved my life because it actually shattered the windshield. I was thrown over the top of the car and was lying there with two broken legs. Unfortunately, the driver actually carried on driving from about another mile before another driver who had seen what happened stopped him and made him come back. That was my saving grace because I didn't have insurance and the hospital bill ended up being about $130,000. I was in the hospital for six weeks with two broken legs and a couple more months in a wheelchair. Finally, after nine months of recuperation, I was able to continue.

And this was an 82-year-old driver who had cataracts.

He had been drinking, but he wasn't completely drunk. When they did a vision test on him a few weeks later it turned out that he had cataracts and was in need of an operation. He told police that when he hit me he thought he hit a deer and that's why he carried on driving.

At that point, what did you think your chances were at actually finishing this?

The second day that I was in the hospital my surgeon told me that the left leg had been broken very badly. They were compound fractures, which meant that the bones had come out through the skin. From trying to stand up immediately after being hit, the wound site on my left side was full of dirt and debris. There was a chance of the bone becoming infected and if that happened my left leg would have been amputated below the knee. I think this was really the first time that I realized this wasn't a lark stroke holiday around the world like I thought that I was going on when I first agreed to join Steve.

I'd say so.

(Laughs.) This was a bit more serious. Losing my left leg would have been a high price to pay for going on an extended holiday. I got to keep the leg mainly because of the skill of the surgeon. I decided to give the trip a second chance and perhaps take it more seriously this time.

How difficult was it to skate the remaining portion to San Francisco?

Very difficult. I was at the foothills of the Rockies. Nine months had passed and by this point I had lost all fitness in my legs. It was pretty severe pain. Going up the Rockies was quite a challenge and then I also had the problem of coming down the other side. It's not easy to control your speed when you're going downhill for 12 miles on a very steep grade. I recall one time losing control and having to use one of the runaway truck ramps to stop myself from flying off of the mountain.

You didn't resume the next leg to Central America until February 1997. What did you do in the meantime?

Fundraising and visiting schools. We'd actually been visiting schools in all of the countries so far talking to children about their dreams and aspirations. We used our expedition as a metaphor for following one's dreams. When I was in Colorado, I met a teacher named April. We developed a cultural exchange program that we ended up implementing in some of the schools that we visited along the way.

You went south through California and into Mexico, but the Central America portion had to be abandoned. What effect did El Nino have?

The idea was to get down to Peru through Central America and use the favorable winds and currents to get across to Australia because we needed to hit two points opposite to each other on the Earth's surface in order to achieve a legitimate circumnavigation. In 1997, the El Nino effect was particularly strong and the current had been reversed because of ocean warming. Rather than waiting for another year, we decided to backtrack to San Francisco and try an alternative route pedaling to Hawaii and crossing the pacific diagonally to Australia.

From September to November 1998, you pedaled from San Francisco to Hawaii. Having already spent considerable time at sea, what were your expectations for this section?

Steve and I decided we'd get together again and pedal this section. We'd grown up a bit by this point. We were looking forward to a better crossing and not having the conflict that we experienced on the Atlantic. We had a big educational program with kids going on that was occupying our time. We were sending data back to our Web site so classes could compare and contrast the different size of carbon footprints.

How was the 53-day stretch?

The only problem was that our water-maker broke down. We were surviving using a pump that is normally just used in a life raft because it takes a long time to produce enough water for two people's consumption for an average day.

And you guys were getting along OK?

Yes, but Steve still didn't particularly enjoy being on the water because he had a scary experience crossing the Atlantic. We'd been in heavy seas and the boat was actually flipped over by a big wave and he was washed away and was only saved by a trailing rope wrapping itself around his ankle which kept him connected to the boat. A few weeks before we arrived in Hawaii he was starting to contemplate leaving the expedition. In addition to not liking the water, he was getting tired and disillusioned with the whole transient gypsy lifestyle.

February 1999. Steve announced he would leave the expedition. To what extent did you consider leaving also?

 

During his voyages, Jason was attacked by a crocodile, imprisoned as a spy and nearly died from blood poisoning.

I didn't. I was really into the educational program part of it. It kept me engaged. I was also quite interested to see what it would be like to be completely alone on the ocean, but it ended up being much different than I expected.

How so?

For starters, I underestimated the number of things I'd have to do on the boat with Steve gone. There was a never spare minute to even reflect. It was pedaling for 15 hours, cooking, navigating, updating the Web site, and responding to kids' e-mails.

There was a section called the doldrums which is a stretch about 400 miles wide, north of the equator. There is very little wind, lots of thunderstorms, and the water is actually running the wrong way back to Mexico. I was essentially pedaling in the same spot for nearly three weeks. There was a strong countercurrent running in the opposite direction that I wanted to go. I would pedal for 15 hours and get 15-20 miles ahead and then be pushed back to the same spot when I turned on the GPS in the morning after getting some sleep.

During this period, I got really really lonely and I started talking to myself to keep myself company. I found these different personalities developing in my head during these conversations. There was an Irish, German and French guy. They were quite caricatured, but I would talk to them as the English guy. We'd have arguments together about how to do something and they almost took over my head.

And it's funny now, but I would imagine mildly frightening at the time.

It didn't seem frightening because to me it seemed completely normal. About a week before making landfall, I realized that if I arrived as one of these crazy lunatics rather than Jason Lewis then I'd probably get locked up. To me, out there, in the middle of nowhere, with no one to tell me otherwise, it seemed completely sane.

As if the multiple personalities weren't enough, you also got blood poisoning during this stretch. What happened?

This happened during the same time and I think helped precipitate going a bit crazy. While I was stuck in this countercurrent and being pushed back every day, I was also occasionally getting out and swimming to cool off because it was very, very hot. At that time of the voyage, my skin had erupted in these salt sores which are essentially infected sweat pores. I ended up with these very nasty boils on my body. As I was swimming in the water, a pathogen entered my body and caused the blood poisoning. I knew I was feeling lethargic and debilitated so I was treating myself for dehydration, which has similar symptoms to early blood poisoning. I was writing the blog describing what was happening and a dermatologist in Colorado, who was reading it, thought there was something else wrong than what I was treating myself for. She got in touch through the Web site. I called her via satellite phone and she promptly diagnosed me. Fortunately, I had the antibiotics on board needed to treat the condition. She probably saved my life because if the poisoning had gone to my brain I probably would have been dead in three or four days.

You managed to survive those 73 days alone at sea. Then, the expedition has to go on hiatus from September 1999 to April 2000 because of the southwest Pacific typhoon season. Following that, you pedal 1,100 miles to the Solomon Islands [about 1,100 miles northeast of Australia] where things quickly become dangerous. What was going on?

There were two islands that were in the middle of a conflict. Traditionally, in this part of the world, if there's a disagreement, the islands send warring parties over and they take some heads by literally just decapitating their enemies. They then bring the heads back in canoes to their villages. Of course, cannibalism was also a part of this area until 30-40 years ago also. When we arrived there, they had semi-automatic weapons and motorboats that they had stolen so it was a very intimidating place to pedal into.

In July 2000 you and April pedal the remaining 1,100 miles from Tulagi to Australia. You have 32 days remaining and about 130 miles left and the teacher becomes ill. How sick does she get?

This was April's first time on the ocean. In fact, she had never even seen the sea before she joined me. She was sea sick pretty much from the get-go and it lasted the entire time. To give her credit, she never missed a pedal shift -- even at 3 a.m. in the darkness when she felt as sick as she did.

How close were you to being shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef?

The winds were blowing us northwest up towards the Torre Straits and Papua New Guinea and we were trying to cut diagonally across this weather pattern to get down to Cairns. We were basically running out of ocean. We couldn't get far enough south and we were just a few miles from getting wrecked on the Barrier Reef. April was very sick by this time. She had lost about 45 pounds and was actually suffering from internal hemorrhaging -- bleeding. She needed to get off the boat and to a hospital badly. I made the decision to get a tow through the reef, which basically saved both of our lives. That was a section that I subsequently had to go back and finish in a kayak to keep the human-powered part of our trip intact.

From July to October 2001, you are joined by an international team of teenagers and educators. What do you most remember about that?

Up until that point, we had a lot of classrooms following online through the satellite updates on the Web site. This was an opportunity to get teenagers to do the exploring with me on land. We'd cycle for 60 miles a day. At the end of each day, we set up laptops and developed lesson plans around what we had experienced. We then uploaded it to the Web site for the classrooms following remotely to utilize. This is ideally what I'd like to do more of now that the expedition is finished. We've since developed a DVD that we're looking to sell to school markets hopefully sometime early next year.

By the time this ends in October 2001, you are in awful shape moneywise. You owe about $45,000. What are your options at that point?

We'd been running on financial fumes for quite a number of years up till this point. The money was being lent to us by friends. I was continuing on with the hope that a sponsor would back us and we could pay off the debt and keep on going. That didn't happen and I had to get a regular job. I couldn't work in Australia so I took a job back in Colorado with the surgeon who fixed my legs back in 1995. He gave me a job cutting trees on his ranch. After awhile, I got to run the ranch, which I did for about two-and-a-half years. I was then able to pay off the debt and put aside $15,000 to do the next leg through Indonesia.

When the expedition resumed in April 2005, you ran into a little bit more than you bargained for ... I understand you had a run-in with a saltwater crocodile!

Fishermen dropped me off at the point by the Barrier Reef that we previously took a tow through. I paddled through the reef and shortly before arriving on the beach I noticed there were two good-sized [17-foot] crocodiles that were sunning themselves on the sand. As I approached, they both slipped into the ocean and began swimming out to sea under the water. Initially, I thought this is good because they've been frightened away by my presence. A few seconds later the hairs on the back of my neck went up and I see that one of the crocs had come to the surface and was swimming after me at speed.

I remember thinking if I could beat it to land then I had a fighting chance at defending myself. If it caught me in water, I was basically a goner. I managed to hit the beach first. As I sprang out of the cockpit onto land -- that seemed to frighten the croc off again. It went back into the water. A few minutes later I'm starting to load my gear to carry it to the top of the beach and I notice it had come back and was headed for my kayak. If it destroys my kayak, I'm 100 miles from any form of help.

Without really thinking about it, I ran down the beach with my big stocky wooden paddle. Initially, I tried to shoo it away with the paddle, but it latched on with its mouth. After a little tug of war and pushing the paddle further into its mouth, it released the blade. I hit the croc as hard as I could over the head. I broke the paddle blade into two parts which wasn't good because I needed it to get out of there. It did frighten the croc back into the water again and gave me enough time to get the kayak and all of the equipment up on top of a cliff overlooking the beach. I spent the night up there watching the croc swim back and forth near the beach. The next morning I was able to get help and get out of there.

Your luck doesn't get much better. Beginning in June 2005, you're on a six-month, 3,000-mile section to Singapore and you're attacked by bandits. What happened?

I was biking alone in Sumatra and a couple guys drove up along side of me. One of them reached out very quickly and grabbed the camera around my neck. In retrospect, it was my fault for having it visible when I was in a very poor part of the world. They were hoping the strap would break and they could just take off with it, but the strap didn't break. As his friend was accelerating away, it pulled me off of my bike. They dragged me down the road for awhile behind the motorcycle. The guy on the back of the bike got pulled off himself. The guy driving the bike stopped it and started walking towards me with a big machete. Luckily, a bus came around the corner and they both took off on their motorcycle. About a half hour later I bought a machete and I wore it for the rest of the expedition around the world. It was a rather good deterrent. Carrying a big knife does make people think twice about taking advantage of you.

You bike from Malaysia into Thailand and as far as southern China. Then, you pedal 2,000 miles across the Arabian Sea into Northeast Africa. That takes us to March 2007 and the beginning of the intense African leg. What problem did you encounter in Sudan?

There's a border between Egypt and Sudan and the only way you can effectively get from one country to another is to take a 190-mile ferry ride across a flooded part of the Nile River. Of course, I couldn't take the ferry since it was powered by a motor. My plan was to use a kayak, but no one had previously been given permission to paddle this section, including National Geographic. I applied for permission, but I had heard nothing back. My visa for Sudan had already expired by about a week at this point.

The only alternative was to go back through India and try an alternative route through Pakistan and Iran. I decided to roll the dice and see how far I got without getting permission. Over the course of three nights, I paddled over the border to avoid being detected. This is an area that has a lot of military presence on both sides of the border to prevent people from crossing so that's why I did it in the dark.

I managed to get to a town where the road picked up again. Just as I hit this town, in the early morning hours when it was still dark, I was apprehended by fisherman who turned me into the authorities. I was placed in an Egyptian military detention center. At first, they thought I was just a dumb tourist who took a wrong turn in his kayak, but since I didn't have any stamps in my passport leaving Sudan or entering Egypt and I had a lot of electronic equipment including a GPS device, satellite phone, and a digital camera with photos of areas they considered to be sensitive -- they drew the natural conclusion that I was there for undercover means. I was looking at being charged as a spy for espionage, which is punishable by about 40 years in prison.

But you made it out.

Another miraculous turn of fate. I think I've had a guardian angel sitting on my shoulder all these years. After 36 hours of questioning, I was going to be taken up to Cairo for further questioning. I was exhausted because I hadn't slept for two days at that point. It was 11 p.m. and the fax machine in the next room received the permission that I'd applied for five weeks earlier. It finally caught up with me. It was my freedom ticket out.

You once again made it out alive. You have three months of your journey remaining. Tell me about finishing on Oct. 6, 2007.

The last hurdle was crossing the English Channel, which is only 20 miles of water between France and England, but it is notoriously dangerous because it's one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and the current and tide runs through the narrow neck of water extremely fast.

The French have a law which prevents people leaving French national water if you don't have a motor or a sail on your boat. I was informed that if I try to leave France, they would potentially arrest me and turn me back. I was really worried because that would have essentially ended my shot at the circumnavigation.

We launched the boat off a beach away from the French observation posts. We pedaled like hell and it wasn't until I was about halfway across in British national waters that I could really breathe a sigh of relief.

Shortly after 12 p.m., I pedaled the last mile and the river finished. We put the boat on a trolley and the people who had helped with the expedition over the years came out and helped push the boat up to the observatory where Steve and I had left 13 years prior. We all walked over the line with the peddle boat and completed the circumnavigation.

If you had known in advance all that would go into the first ever human-powered circumnavigation, how would your feelings about doing it have changed?

That's a good question. I don't regret any part of it. Considering that it was originally going to be a two-year project, I suppose if I had known it was going to take 13 years I would have had to consider it a lot more than I did back then. It was a third of my life. Having done it, all that I've been lucky enough to experience -- the people that I've met, what I've learned about myself, and what I've learned about the world -- I feel I'm one of the luckiest people in the world to have gone through that.

396 - Marriage Proposal ...

A couple of days of meetings have wrecked hell on my posting schedule. Because this is a Tuesday post, about 12 hours late ... I'll give you a little chuckle. I don't know if these guys had the balls of a bear, were just plain stupid or were overly confident.

395 - Illiteracy, It's Never Too Late ...

Retired Teacher Reveals He Was Illiterate Until Age 48

OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- John Corcoran graduated from college and taught high school for 17 years without being able to read, write or spell.

Corcoran's life of secrecy started at a young age. He said his teachers moved him up from grade to grade. Often placed in what he calls the "dumb row," the images of his tribulations in the classroom are still vividly clear.

"I can remember when I was eight years old saying my prayers at night saying, 'please, God, tomorrow when it's my turn to read please let me read.' You just pretend that you are invisible and when the teacher says, 'Johnnie read,' you just wait the teacher out because you know the teacher has to go away at some point," said Corcoran.

Corcoran eventually started acting up to hide his illiteracy. From fifth through seventh grade he was expelled, suspended and spent most of his days at the principal's office.

"My parents came to school and it no longer was a problem for me reading because this boy Johnnie -- the native alien, I call him -- he didn't have a reading problem as far as the teachers were concerned. He had an emotional problem. He had a psychological problem. He had a behavioural problem," said Corcoran.

Corcoran later attended Palo Verde High School in Blythe, Calif. He cheated his way through high school, receiving his diploma in June 1956.

"When I was a child I was just sort of just moved along. When I got to high school I wanted to participate in athletics. At that time in high school I went underground. I decided to behave myself and do what it took. I started cheating by turning in other peoples' paper, dated the valedictorian and ran around with college prep kids," said Corcoran.

"I couldn't read words but I could read the system and I could read people," adds Corcoran.

He stole tests and persuaded friends to complete his assignments. Corcoran earned an athletic scholarship to Texas Western College. He said his cheating intensified, claiming he cheated in every class.

"I passed a bluebook out the window to a friend I painstakingly copied four essay questions off the board in U.S. government class that was required, and hoped my friend would get it back to me with the right answers," Corcoran said.

In 1961, Corcoran graduated with a bachelor's degree in education, while still illiterate he contends. He then went on to become a teacher during a teacher shortage.

"When I graduated from the university, the school district in El Paso, where I went to school, gave almost all the college education graduates a job," said Corcoran.

For 17 years Corcoran taught high school for the Oceanside School District. Relying on teacher's assistants for help and oral lesson plans, he said he did a great job at teaching his students.

"What I did was I created an oral and visual environment. There wasn't the written word in there. I always had two or three teacher's assistants in each class to do board work or read the bulletin," said Corcoran.

"As a teacher it really made me sick to think that I was a teacher who couldn't read. It is embarrassing for me, and it's embarrassing for this nation and it's embarrassing for schools that we're failing to teach our children how to read, write and spell!"

While still teaching, Corcoran dabbled in real estate. He was granted a leave of absence, eventually becoming a successful real estate developer.

It wasn't until he was 48 years old that he gave reading and writing another chance. He drove to an inconspicuous office with a sign he couldn't read. He studied and worked with a tutor at the Literacy Center of Carlsbad. Assigned to a 65-year-old volunteer tutor, Eleanor Condit, he was able to read at a sixth-grade level within a year.

"I'm just an optimistic hopeful person that believes in the impossible and miracles," said Corcoran.

Carlsbad City Library literacy coordinator Carrie Scott said people of all walks of life go through the reading program, including teachers.

Corcoran is now an education advocate.

"I believe that illiteracy in America is a form of child neglect and child abuse and the child is blamed and they carry the shame, if we just teach our people how to read we'd give them a fair chance," Corcoran said.

He has written two books, "The Teacher Who Couldn't Read" and "Bridge to Literacy." He is also the founder of the John Corcoran Foundation. The foundation is state-approved as a supplemental service provider for literacy in Colorado and California – providing tutoring programs for over 600 students in small group settings, and individually in homes through an online program.

394 - I Have Been Blessed ...

After the disgusting story I posted yesterday, my prayers have been answered. I received the following e-mail today, Sunday, 24 February, 2008

Dearest In The Lord,

I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ our Lord, I am Mrs Jenifer Bruce From Kuwait. I am married to Mr.Abram Bruce who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died last year 2006.

We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. Before his death we were both born again Christian. Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against.

When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of US$2.500million dollars in a Bank in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire West Africa. Presently, this money is still in bank. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next Eight months due to cancer problem.

The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a charity organization that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein.

I want an organization that will use this fund for orphanages, school and church , widows, propagating the word of God and to endeavor that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that "Blessed is the hand that giveth".

I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don't want my husband's efforts to be used by unbelievers.
I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly way. This is why I am taking this decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that "the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace".

I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband's relatives around me always. I don't want them to know about this development.With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Bank in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire west africa.

I will also issue you an authority letter that will prove you the present beneficiary of this fund from kuwait federal High Court of Justice. I want you and the church to always pray for me because the lord is my shephard. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian.

Whoever that Wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and Truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life. Contact me on this email any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another church for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein. Hoping to receive your reply.

Remain blessed in the Lord.

Yours Sister In Christ,
Mrs Jenifer Bruce

As chief priest in the Church of George, I must recruit a few disciples to help me scam this money, I mean,  collect our justly rewards and spread the word of George, chapter 69 “let he who would insert him/herself into another so allow another to return the offering”. This means, my prospective disciples … that your first “taste” of the Church of George would … and here you must create a response that would energize both the chief priest and his disciples.

Answer carefully if you would sincerely like to be considered a suitable candidate and are willing to convert to take up the staff of George, using it to satisfy the hunger of the beautiful masses.

*This recruitment is void where prohibited by law



 

393 - Kill The Fuckers ...

... as slowly and as painfully as possible.

Prosecutor: Baby left to die for 8 days

Parents of 5-month-old appear in court to face first-degree murder charges, may be facing death penalty

Thursday, February 21, 2008

By ANDY KRAVETZ

PEORIA - Benjamin Sargent died with his eyes open, fists clenched and strapped into a car seat after eight days without food or water, the county's top prosecutor said Wednesday.

The 5-month-old was dropped off at his parents' house on Feb. 4, wearing a bright-blue snow suit and strapped into his car seat. Eight days later, he was found in the same position, said Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons during a bond hearing for the parents, who are charged with capital murder for their son's death.

"It's the worst case of child neglect we have seen since the turn of this century," Lyons said afterward. "(On Tuesday), I told (Peoria Police) Chief (Steven) Settingsgaard that this case even rattled me."

Charged are Tracy D. Hermann, 21, and James E. Sargent, 23, both of 3012 W. Proctor St., with two counts of first-degree murder. Additionally, the charges state the parents' actions or lack thereof, were "brutal and heinous . . . indicative of wanton cruelty," factors that could mean they face up to 100 years in prison if convicted.

Lyons also said he might seek the death penalty for the two and has 120 days to make such a decision. State law allows a capital charge if the accused is older than 17 and the victim is younger than 12.

"He died from starvation due to neglect from these two defendants, his parents," Lyons said, spitting out the last word with contempt.

Several courthouse employees gathered in the third-floor courtroom for the hearing; many curious as rumors had been circulating throughout the day about the case. When the two walked into the room, the idle chatter immediately stopped and all eyes stared at Sargent and Hermann.

During the 20-minute hearing, both parents appeared before Circuit Judge Glenn Collier. Sargent said virtually nothing and carried a blank look on his face. Hermann told Collier her attorney was in Hawaii so she requested a court-appointed lawyer.

Collier ordered the two held without bond, pending a hearing Friday afternoon when it is expected that Lyons, who has indicated he will prosecute the case, will present more evidence as to why the two should not be released pending trial.

Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll said Wednesday afternoon Benjamin weighed 10 pounds when he was found by police. He was nearly eight pounds at birth, she said.

Reading from a prepared statement, Lyons said police found the infant sitting in his own waste, all the while strapped into the seat which was in a crib.

A person who was staying at an unattached garage adjacent to the house had seen Benjamin at some point, thought it was "odd" that he was still on the living room floor after being dropped off and moved him, car seat and all, into the other room.

There Benjamin sat for eight days, most of which both Hermann and Sargent were home, "playing video games, watching TV, feeding and caring for themselves," Lyons said afterward.

Police had interviewed Sargent, who at first told them he had moved the baby "once or twice," but later conceded that he might not have moved Benjamin at all during the week, Lyons said.

"The person from the garage tells police that Benjamin was found just as he had left him eight days earlier," the prosecutor said.

Hermann's last contact with her son was the night before police were notified. Then, she allegedly told police she "looked at the baby in the crib and presumed he was sleeping so she said she stuck a bottle between the baby and the side of the car seat so that when he woke up, he could grab it and feed himself," Lyons said in open court.

"In case the court had missed it earlier, Benjamin Sargent was five months old," he said, staring directly at Hermann.

The house, Lyons said, was in complete disarray, with clothing everywhere and spoiled food left out. The temperature in the baby's room was nearly 80 degrees and was also filthy, he said.

Hermann then left for Iowa to meet with a man she had met over the Internet, the prosecutor said, noting that she allegedly told police "that Benjamin was not her duty and that it was James' responsibility."

When asked if either exhibited signs of mental illness, Lyons said they showed no such signs from the state's point of view.

"Police noted that she seemed callous and somewhat annoyed with the process, something similar to what she showed in the courtroom today," he said.

Prosecutors from Lyons' juvenile division have already begun proceedings to permanently remove Hermann's 3-year-old daughter from the home. That child was staying with another family member but is now in foster care with Department of Family and Children's Services.

391 - Canadian Music Friday ...

Our Lady Peace, often abbreviated OLP, is a Canadian alternative rock band that have sold over five million albums worldwide, won ten Video Awards, including the People's Choice Award in 1997, 1998 and 2000. They have the most awards won by any artist or group at the MMVA's (whatever that is).

Innocent



Somewhere Out There



Clumsy



Thief



Not Enough

390 - Weirdness in the Presidency ...

The 10 Weirdest Facts about American Presidents

This week we celebrated Presidents’ Day, a holiday which itself has a weird and winding history. In honor of all of the U.S. Presidents who have graced the White House and fearlessly led our country, here (in no particular order) is a list of 10 of the weirdest things you (probably) never knew about some of our Commanders-In-Chief.

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt (President #32) was related in some way to 11 former U.S. Presidents.

2. James Garfield, the 20th president, was a professor of ancient languages; he was also ambidextrous. He is said to have been able to write in Latin with one hand while writing in Greek with the other.

3. John Tyler, the 10th president, fathered an impressive 15 children. He was in his 70s when the 15th child was born.

4. The tall stovepipe hat that Abraham Lincoln (President #16) is usually depicted wearing was, in fact, a useful wardrobe device. He stored important papers inside of it.

5. Our 17th President, Andrew Johnson, was born poor and could not read until the age of 17, when he met his future wife and she tutored him in reading, public speaking, and mathematics. He was later very nearly lynched in Virginia and forced to flee his home in Tennessee when he opposed the South’s secession from the Union.

6. The 22nd and 24th president, Grover Cleveland, was drafted in the Civil War but paid a substitute $150 to take his place so he could stay behind to care for his mother and sisters. Unlike Bill Clinton who would dodge the military draft nearly a century later, Cleveland wasn’t widely criticized for this move: the Conscription Act of 1863 expressly permitted such a substitution.

7. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was reported to be a very interesting character. When not having his head massaged with Vaseline during breakfasts in bed or riding his own mechanical bull, he was ringing the White House doorbell and then running off to hide.

8. So far, all American presidents have claimed ancestry limited to one or more of just seven nationalities: Dutch, English, German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh.

9. Grover Cleveland was the only president to openly admit that he had fathered an illegitimate child. When the allegations came out during his presidential campaign, he instructed his staff to tell the truth about the child. In reality, it was never determined whether Cleveland was the child’s real father; he paid child support because he was the only single man among the mother’s suitors.

10. There were four presidents who were not actual presidents of the United States: Sam Houston, Mirabeau Lamar, and Anson Jones were all presidents of the Republic of Texas. Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America.

389 - Most Important Questions ...

The 25 Most Important Questions in the History of the Universe

1. What Makes No. 2 Pencils So Darn Special?

Little. Yellow. Identical. The No. 2 is definitely No. 1 in the pencil market. It’s a staple in schools and workplaces everywhere, and the required writing utensil for Scantron® tests across the globe. But is it really that great of a pencil? You bet your bippy.

No. 2’s use medium weight graphite, which makes them the ideal pencils for general writing. 18th-century French pencil maker Nicolas-Jacques Conté created the number system based on a pencil’s hardness (the higher the number, the harder the graphite), and we’ve been using it ever since.

But let’s not forget the other numbers of pencils out there. No. 1’s are made with soft graphite and tend to smudge, and are often used to record bowling scores. No. 3’s and above indicate harder pencils that are most often used for drafting, when you need a sharp, strong point.

2. Who’s That AOL Guy Who Eerily Knows When You’ve Got Mail?

Meet Elwood Edwards, the man behind the message. Approximately 63 million times a day, Edwards’ voice greets AOL customers to let them know "you’ve got mail."

Edwards’ career as a disembodied cyber presence stretches back to 1989 when his wife overheard her boss at Quantum Computer Services discussing adding a voice to its online service, Q-Link. At the time, Elwood did voice-overs for radio and television, so his wife suggested him for the company’s new program. Not long after, Quantum changed its name to America Online and premiered AOL 1.0, with Elwood speaking four phrases: "Welcome," "You’ve got mail," "File’s done," and "Goodbye." Through AOL’s numerous upgrades, one thing has remained the same: Elwood Edwards.

Today, his voice is so well known that he’s created a website where fans can order their own custom phrases. The site also includes pictures of Edwards, just in case you’re looking to put a face with that friendly voice you love so much.

3. Where Does Nougat Come From?

Like falafel and the number "0," nougat is a product of Middle Eastern genius. Originally made from a mixture of honey, nuts, and spices, the basic recipe was transplanted to Greece where it lost the spices and gained the name "nugo."

Later cultural exchanges brought the treat to France, where it became "nougat," and the recipe switched from calling for ground walnuts to ground almonds. In 1650, the French made another change for the better, adding beaten egg whites and creating the fluffier, modern nougat texture. The first commercial nougat factory opened in Montelimar, France, in the late 18th century, and today, the area is renowned for its nougat, with about a dozen manufacturers producing the sugary treat.

As for its ugly American cousin - the nougat you’re probably familiar with from candy bars - it’s not "true nougat." The imitation stuff is chewier, less almond-y, and contains enough artificial preservatives to make a French candy-maker swoon.

4. Is There One Move That’s More Likely to Win a Game of Rock-Paper-Scissors?

To answer this question, we turned to the archives of the World Rock-Paper-Scissors Society (seriously!), where we found that RPS players rely on strategy, not probability, to win. From the playground to the annual International World RPS Tournament (really, people, we’re not kidding), outwitting your opponent is job No. 1 for serious competitors.

According to the Society, one way to guess what hand someone will throw out is to know how many rounds they’ve won so far. Players who are in the lead will often use scissors, because it’s believed to symbolize aggression, while paper is used for a more subtle attack. Rock is usually a last resort, when players feel their strategies are failing. There are also techniques you can use to mask your move, such as cloaking, in which players will pretend to throw rock and then stick out two fingers at the last second to make scissors. In addition, the true professionals (who do exist) will use sets of three moves, called "gambits," to help them make their moves out of strategy, not reaction.

But that’s not all. The Society also keeps track of how common moves are, particularly as they relate to mentions of RPS in pop culture. For instance, after "The Simpsons" episode where Bart beats Lisa with rock and thinks to himself "Good old rock, nothing beats it," the Society recorded a .3 percent upswing in the use of rock.

But if you’re gonna play, be prepared to pay; RPS can be a dangerous sport. In the late 1980’s, Kenyan Mustafa Nwenge lost a match and the use of a finger when an overzealous opponent "cut his paper" a little too hard and crushed Nwenge’s finger ligaments.

5. Which Came First, the Can Opener or the Can?

In 1810, a British merchant named Peter Durand patented the tin can, making it possible for sterilized food to be preserved more effectively than was possible with breakable containers. The can were especially useful for long ocean voyages, where glass bottles were prone to breakage, and soon the British Navy was dining on canned veggies and meat.

So far, so good. But what Durand (and everybody else for that matter) forgot to invent was a way to open the cans. For almost 50 years, getting into your pork ‘n’ beans required the use of a hammer and a chisel. The first can opener was patented by American inventor Ezra Warner in 1858, but even that wasn’t particularly convenient. These early openers were stationed at the grocery store, and clerks did the honors. It wasn’t until 1870 that the first home can openers made an appearance.

6. How Does a Word Become a Curse Word?

Our parents are totally going to ground us for talking about this, but if you must know, a "curse" was originally just a bad type of prayer. Thus, the first curse word was likely "damn," as in asking God to damn someone to Hell, which was considered taboo because of the religious power it wielded.

Condemning people to an eternity of suffering isn’t something to let everyone just go around doing on a daily basis, so the government stepped in, leading to the first censorship laws. Among the first victims was William Shakespeare, whose works were considered quite racy for their time, and not just because he sent his fair share of characters to Hades. The Bard’s plays were littered with sexual innuendo, and eventually, these types of references became swear words as well.

Depending on what the sexual mores of the current generation were, formerly innocuous words could suddenly become unfit for polite company. The Victorians, for instance, instituted the practice of referring to the thigh meat on a chicken as "dark meat" because saying the word "leg" or "thigh" at dinner could be enough to give your hostess a case of the vapors.

And in the 17th century, the "c-word" that formerly referred to a certain barnyard fowl took on another, er, more inappropriate meaning, leading to the invention of words like "rooster" and "weathervane" to keep the newly dirty word from crossing genteel lips.

Sometimes these avoidance tactics went a little too far, though. Case in point: the 1952-53 season of "I Love Lucy," during which, despite the star’s stomach being about the size of the Superdome, censors prevented the show’s writers from even once mentioning the word "pregnant."

7. Can a Pregnant Woman Drive in the Carpool Lane?

Expectant mothers, start your engines! In 1987, a pregnant California woman was ticketed for driving "by herself" in the carpool lane. Sure, the citation was only for $52, but she sued anyway, contending that her 5-month-old fetus constituted a second person.

Lo and behold, the jury agreed with her, despite the prosecution’s argument that women could then just stuff pillows up their dresses to drive "carpool" on California’s freeways.

But as it turns out, the California Highway Patrol took care of that concern, brushing off the case as a bunch of hooey. Verdict or not, officers said they would continue to ticket solo drivers, even if they claimed to be pregnant.

See also: Pregnant mom driving in the carpool lane? Not in Arizona, you won’t | Dummies won’t work, either!

8. Why Do Battery Letters Skip from A to C? Was There Ever a B-Cell Battery?

Battery letter designations are based on the size of the battery: for common sizes, A is the smallest, and D is the largest. By the same logic, AA batteries are larger than AAA. Unfortunately for B batteries, it’s not the size that counts. You never see B batteries around because they aren’t very useful. The size never caught on in products made for consumers, so stores didn’t carry them, and the cycle continued. They are sold, but only in Europe, where they’re used primarily to power bicycle lamps.

9. What Does McDonald’s Have in Common with the CIA?

"Clowns wanted! We are looking for clowns to fit high profile, permanent positions. Must be wiling to relocate."

If this ad seems a little peculiar, it’s because McDonald’s execs share an intense policy of employee secrecy with their less-delicious counterparts over at the Central Intelligence Agency. Clowns who portray the company mascot, Ronald McDonald, are strictly forbidden from disclosing their identities.

It’s also taboo for two (costumed) Ronalds to be in the same place at the same time. In fact, the only time they get together is at the biennial Ronald McDonald Convention, which, as you might imagine, is also very top-secret.

All of this helps keep up the image that Ronald, the second most recognizable figure worldwide after Santa, is a single, magical character. There are, of course, many Ronalds - an estimate 250 of the clowns worldwide, in fact. Their average income is about $40,000 a year, but the busiest clowns can bring in as much as $100,000. The Ronald McDonald who appears in the company’s television commercials earns a salary of more than $300,000 and must be booked a year in advance. We could tell you who he is, but then, of course, we’d have to kill you.

10. Why Does Hawaii Have Interstate Highways?

While we’d like to believe Hawaii’s Interstate system exists for the sole purpose of annoying George Carlin, the name is actually a misnomer. Not all Interstates physically go from one state to another; the name merely implies that the roads receive federal funding.

The three Hawaii Interstates (H1, H2, and H3) became Interstates as part of The Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and National Defense Highways to protect the U.S. from a Soviet invasion by making it easier to get supplies from one military base to another.

11. Why Do Most Snooze Buttons Only Give You Nine More Minutes of Sleep?

By the time the snooze feature was added in the 1950’s, the innards of alarm clocks had long been standardized.

This meant that the teeth on the snooze gear had to mesh with the existing gear configuration, leaving engineers with a single choice: They could set the snooze for either a little more than nine minutes, or a little more than 10 minutes.

Reports indicated that 10 minutes was too long, since it allowed people to fall back into a "deep" sleep, so clock makers chose the nine-minute gear, believing people would wake up easier and happier after a shorter snooze. We’d tend to disagree with that logic, but, then we must be in the lazy minority.

Although today’s digital clocks can be programmed to have a snooze of any length, most stick with nine minutes because that’s what consumers expect.

12. Why Do We Call Them Grandfather Clocks?

Grandfather clocks are grandfather clocks for much the same reason M.C. Hammer pants are M.C. Hammer pants: It’s all about the pop music.

In 1875, American songwriter Henry Work checked in for a stay at the George Hotel in North Yorkshire, England. In the lobby was a large pendulum clock that had belonged to the inn’s pervious owners, both deceased. The clock was said to have stopped dead - to the minute - on the day the last surviving owner died.

Work thought this was a great story and went on to fictionalize it in a song called "My Grandfather’s Clock ." The lyrics centered around a clock that was "taller by half than the old man himself" and that "stopped short never to go again" when the grandfather died. It was, obviously, a runaway hit. Work sold over a million copies in sheet music, and eventually, the term "grandfather clock" became attached to the style of clock that inspired the song.

13. Was Turkey a Bird or a Country First?

And the award goes to: Turkey-the-country! Turns out, turkey-the-bird is native to North America and acquired its name when the Spanish brought it from Mexico to Europe. When the bird made its debut in England, it was mistaken for a Guinea Hen, a common fowl regularly imported from Africa by Turks. Then the English, demonstrating that they are the real turkeys in this story, named the bird after its supposed importers.

14. How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck if a Woodchuck Could Chuck Wood?

Probably none. Woodchucks aren’t particularly tree-oriented, and while they can climb to find food, they prefer being on the ground.

In fact, they got the name "woodchuck" from British trappers who couldn’t quite wrap their tongues around the Cree Indian name "wuchak." More commonly (and accurately) known as groundhogs, these animals are closely related to squirrels, marmots, and prairie dogs, with which they share an affinity for burrowing.

And actually, a burrowing woodchuck can chuck dirt, in the form of tunnels that can reach five feet deep and as much as 35 feet in length. So, based on that number, New York State wildlife expert Richard Thomas calculated that if a woodchuck could chuck wood, he could chuck as much as 700 pounds of the stuff.

15. We Know Nothing Better Has Come Along Since then, But Who Invented Sliced Bread Anyway?

It may get a lot of credit now, but at the time of its debut in 1928, sliced bread received less-than-rave reviews.

Baker and inventor Otto Frederick Rohwedder had spent 15 years perfecting his bread slicer (finally settling on one that wrapped the sliced bread to hold it together as opposed to the hat pins he’d tried earlier), but consumers weren’t quick to convert. People found the sliced bread strange and senseless. It wasn’t until the advent of Wonder Bread, and the collective realization that sliced bread worked better in the toaster, that Rohwedder’s invention really took off.

By World War II, the military was using sliced bread to serve peanut butter & jelly sandwiches as part of soldiers’ rations. Previously uncommon, the PB&J gained a loyal following among servicemen, who kept making the sandwich, sliced bread and all, after they came back to the home front.

16. Why Is It Called "Blackmail?"

The first blackmailers were Scottish landlords who exploited farmers by making them pay rent in livestock or services if they couldn’t pay in cash. The goods they had to hand over were usually worth more than the rent owned, and the landlords didn’t make change.

Around the same time, local chieftains started going after the same farmers with the kind of scheme the mafia usually refers to as "selling insurance." They made an offer the farmers couldn’t refuse: pay a fee for protection. If the farmers didn’t pay, then the chieftains would unfortunately be unable to prevent ruffians from destroying crops and sacking property.

The Scottish farmers called both nefarious deals "black" because they associated that color with evil, and because both payments were made in goods rather than silver coins (called "white money"). As for the "mail" part, it doesn’t refer to the postal system. That "mail" comes from the German word for "pouch." The "mail" in blackmail is related to the Old Norse word for "payment" or "agreement."

17. Is It Possible to Own Property on the Moon?

That depends on what your definition of is, is. According to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, countries can’t own lunar real state. However, the Treaty doesn’t say anything about the rights of individuals to claim land.

Enter Dennis Hope, a California entrepreneur / ventriloquist who’d exploited the loophole to its fullest. In 1980, Hope announced his ownership to the moon (and, incidentally, the rest of the solar system) and promptly started selling off plots through his company, Lunar Embassy.

Space-faring nations vehemently denied the legality of Hope’s business, pointing to the 1979 Moon Treaty, which forbids individual interstellar land investment. Finding yet another loophole, Hope countered by nothing that none of the space nations ever actually signed that treaty after the U.S. and Russia both refused.

But Moon Treaty or not, an individual can still only own land through the jurisdiction of his or her home country, and if nations can’t own it, then people can’t own land through them.

Tenuous as his argument is, Hope has still managed to inspire some serious investors. To date, the Lunar Embassy has made more than $1.6 million. If you’re interested, plots go for as little as $30, but don’t spend all your money on moon land: mental_floss has some contacts with beautiful oceanfront lots in Arizona and we’d love to get you in on the ground floor.

18. Why Can’t You Tickle yourself?

Much to the dismay of wacky masochist everywhere, the human brain is wired against self-tickling. Because the brain controls movement, it knows what your hand is going to do before you do it. Thus it anticipates the exact force, location, and speed of the tickle and uses that information to desensitize you to your own roving hands.

So why do we have a tickle response anyway? Turns out, it’s a defense reaction meant to alert our cave-dwelling ancestors to creepy crawlies that didn’t know their place, and the uncontrollable laughing fit that goes along with it is actually a panic response.

Even if you know someone else is about to go for your rib cage, it’s hard to turn the response off because a) your brain can’t anticipate exactly how and where they’ll tickle you and b) knowing someone is about to tickle you is usually enough to keep those panic receptors open and ready to go.

19. Human Meat Isn’t Appetizing, But is It Healthy?

You are what you eat. So it stands to reason that if you’re a cannibal, and you eat a diseased, dead guy, you’re going to become a diseased, dead guy.

But the cannibalistic Fore people of New Guinea found that out the hard way. For most of the 20th century, the Fore were plagued with a disease called Kuru [wiki], also known as the laughing death. Kuru, a relative of mad cow disease, paralyzes its victims and cause dementia by turning the brain into something resembling Swiss cheese - literally creating holes in the brain.

Fascinated by what he though was a genetic disorder, scientist Daniel Carleton Gajdusek [wiki] traveled to New Guinea in 1957 to study the Fore. While there, he discovered that women made up the vast majority of Kuru victims. He also noticed that women and children were the ones ceremonially eating the brains and intestines of dead relatives. Putting two and two together, Gajdusek deduced that the Fore were ingesting the prions, or misshapen proteins, that caused the disease.

Gajdusek received a Nobel Prize for his work, and today, cannibalism and Kuru are all but wiped out in New Guinea.

20. Can You Actually Sense Weather with an Injured body Part?

There was a time when scientists would walk barefoot, through the snow, uphill both ways, just to ridicule you for believing that sensing weather with the body was anything but an old wives’ tale.

Today, many will still scoff at the idea, but maybe just in an email. In 1961, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School conducted a series of tests that proved changes in climate could affect your health, especially if you suffered from arthritis.

It works like this: When a storm is approaching, the barometric pressure of the air falls, which can cause an inflammation around a bone injury to swell and stretch, irritating the nerves around the joint and causing a lot of pain.

The Pennsylvania scientists tested their theory on 12 volunteers in a climate-controlled chamber, and found that those who had arthritis experienced more pain when the air pressure was lower, thus suggesting that they could sense an approaching storm.

21. Why Won’t Pineapple and Jell-O® Be Friends?

If Jell-O® ads and 1950’s cookbooks are to be believed, you can mix almost anything with gelatin and have it come out tasty. Ham? Absolutely. Carrots? Sure thing. Tomato soup? M’m, m’m, good.

The only ingredient that seems to be taboo is one that actually sounds delicious: fresh pineapple. Unfortunately, the tropical treat works like kryptonite on Jell-O® because it contains an enzyme called bromelain, which prevents gelatin from forming into a solid.

But fret not, fruit salad mold fans: canned pineapple doesn’t contain bromelain. The canning process heats the pineapple to a temperature sufficient to break the enzyme down, making it oh-so Jell-O® friendly.

22. What are Sea-Monkeys®, Anyway?

Ah, Sea-Monkeys®. You know ‘em; you love ‘em; you’re totally confused by them. Well, consider he monkey mystery solved. Turns out, they’re Artemia salinas, or brine shrimp.

In the 1960’s, inventor Harold von Braunhut [wiki] discovered that the eggs of these shrimp lie dormant in salt flats waiting for the right conditions before they spring to life, so he started experimenting with them for his toy product, Instant-Life. But later, he changed the name (and struck pop culture gold) after a colleague heard him call the creatures his "cute little sea monkeys."

The shrimp became popular because of their ability to "come back to life" after being stored dry on a shelf, but hey weren’t so popular after children discovered that the shrimp only had a life span of about a month.

Over the years, however, Von Braunhut has managed to breed better Sea-Monkeys®. Today’s comic book ads now promise that they will live up to two years. Von Braunhut, who passed away in 2003, was also the man responsible for X-Ray Specs, and the late 1980s’ hermit crab craze.

23. How Many Pounds of Chimpanzee are Needed to Defeat the Average Human?

In 1924, the Bronx Zoo tested the relative strength of a 165-pound man against a 165-pound chimpanzee. Using a dynamometer, which measures strength by the force of a pull on a spring, the man was able to pull 210 pounds. The chimp pulled almost 900. The lesson: Don’t mess with the apes. Pound for pound, chimpanzees are about five times stronger than humans. In fact, a human is no match for a chimpanzee, regardless of its age or sex. In the same Bronx experiment, a 135-pound female chimp pulled a whopping 1,260 pounds. Scientists also estimate that, at the tender age of five, young chimpanzees are already stronger than adult humans.

24. Why are Grape-Nuts® Neither Grapes Nor Nuts?

Post Company founder Charles W. Post might have been good at creating popular cereals, but he wasn’t the best at naming them.

One of his first breakfast treats, Post Toasties, was originally known by the more, er, zealous name, Elijah’s Manna.

And then there’s the misleading Grape-Nuts®, which Charles named after a key ingredient in the cereal called maltose, which tasted like nuts and, at the time, was known as "grape sugar." Hence, Grape-Nuts.

It may sound like false advertising, but it’s not. Post would likely be protected from such allegations by that precious little hyphen. The Federal Trade Commission might consider a cereal called Grape Nuts "deceitful," but that hyphen makes the name "fanciful," which excludes it from prosecution according to the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.

25. How Many Licks Does It Take to Get to the Center of a Tootsie Pop?

No thanks to that animated owl and his woeful lack of willpower, this question has plagued the American public ever since the commercial first aired in 1970. Fortunately, there have been plenty of noble efforts to get to the bottom (or center, as the case may be) of it all.

But the answer depends on who you ask. A group of students at Swarthmore Junior High conducted an extensive study on the subject and concluded that getting to the center of a Tootsie Pop took a statistical average of 144 licks.

However, the more ambitious and distrusting engineering students at Purdue University chose instead to rely on a "licking machine" modeled after the human tongue for their results, and found that it took an average of 364 licks. Other studies have been done, and all results vary, so only one thing is certain: The world may never know.

388 - Letter To America ...

15/02/2008

Dear Citizens of America,

In view of your failure to elect a competent President and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy), as from Monday next.

Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up “aluminium,” and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour’, ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix “ize” will be replaced by the suffix “ise.”

3. You will learn that the suffix ‘burgh’ is pronounced ‘burra’; you may elect to spell Pittsburgh as ‘Pittsberg’ if you find you simply can’t cope with correct pronunciation.

4. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels (look up “vocabulary”). Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

5. There is no such thing as “US English.” We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of “-ize.”

6. You will relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”, but only after fully carrying out Task #1 (see above).

7. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but to be celebrated only in England. It will be called “Come-Uppance Day.”

8. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.

9. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

10. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

11. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric immediately and without the benefit of conversion tables… Both roundabouts and metrification will help you understand the British sense of humour.

12. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling “gasoline”) - roughly $8/US per gallon. Get used to it.

13. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call french fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called “crisps.” Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with malt vinegar.

14. Waiters and waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

15. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer,” and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as “Lager.” American brands will be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine,” so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

16. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors as English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in “Four Weddings and a Funeral” was an experience akin to having one’s ear removed with a cheese grater.

17. You will cease playing American “football.” There is only one kind of proper football; you call it “soccer”. Those of you brave enough, in time, will be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of Jessies - English slang for “Big Girls Blouse”).

18. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the “World Series” for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable and forgiven.

19. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

20. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due, backdated to 1776.

Thank you for your co-operation.

John Cleese

387 - Earth Hour ...

I found this nugget in some news I was reading tonight and thought that I have to post this right away because it is that important. I signed up immediately at http:\\www.earthhour.org and will observe earth hour at the end of March.

Tell your friends about earth hour and have them tell their friends. Get your company to sign up ... whole cities around the globe are signing up ... it is worth making the statement.

Earth Hour 2007 was a Sydney event. Earth Hour 2008 is a global movement.

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm March 29, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.



You don’t have to live in total darkness every day to make a difference. Just follow these five quick and easy tips.

- Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and reduce emissions. Lighting accounts for around 5% of household greenhouse gas emissions, and compact fluros use 75% less energy than an equivalent incandescent bulb. Although the bulbs cost more up-front, you will actually save money through the energy saved and extended life of the bulb.

- Turn appliances off while not in use. Unplug any appliances like mobile phone chargers, TVs, microwaves, MP3 players, which are not being used and are on standby. In Australia, appliances on standby consume up to 10% of your electricity bill.

- Turn off anything that doesn’t need to be on. A good rule is to turn off anything not being used. When you leave a room or leave the house, turn off your lights or appliances like the TV or computer.

- Switch to green power. This is one of the best ways you can make a difference. Contact your electricity provider today and switch to green power, a cleaner, more renewable form of energy that does not contribute to global warming. If all Australians switched to green power today, Australia’s total greenhouse pollution would be cut by 30% in one year. That’s the equivalent of more than 40 million cars!

- Use less hot water. This is not only a good water saving tip, it saves electricity too. Spend one minute less in the shower.

Make Earth Hour Happen In Your Town
On 31 March 2007, more than 2 million Sydney businesses and households
turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour - sending a powerful national
and global message that it’s possible to take action on global warming.
At 8pm on 29 March 2008, Earth Hour goes global, with cities and towns
around the world taking stand on the greatest threat our planet has ever
faced, and millions of people uniting to turn the tide on global warming.
If you want to turn out the lights for Earth Hour in your town or city on 29
March 2008, this will help you get started!

Your Goal
Get the most people, businesses and government involved in Earth Hour and
get them to turn off their lights for one hour at 8pm on March 29 2008.

Making Earth Hour happen

1) Building your Team
A good team is one of the biggest success factors for making Earth Hour
happen around the world. Put together a small team of committed people and
organisations to help plan how you can turn out the lights for one hour in your
area.
Members of your Earth Hour Team could include your friends or schoolmates,
members of your family or your neighbourhood, the local mayor or business
leader, or your local school principal.
Pull together a team of people and organisations willing to put the time and
effort into making Earth Hour happen and you’ll be ready to get started.

2) Spread the Word about Earth Hour
To inspire yourself and those you speak to about Earth Hour, check out
www.earthhour.org to watch the video of the first Earth Hour in Sydney in
2007. This video will go a long way to inspiring you and those you speak to, to
get involved in Earth Hour and to help take a stand against global warming.

Think about how you could spread the word about Earth Hour in your area,
how can you encourage the most people and businesses to turn their lights of
for one hour at 8pm on Saturday 29 March 2008?

Thinking small can be big thinking
We’ve created a website to help you spread the word about Earth Hour.
Register at www.earthhour.org and recruit your friends to the Earth Hour
cause. Getting your friends and neighbourhood involved is the easiest way to
be a part of Earth Hour and help make a difference to our planet.

Think big
Who in your town uses lots of power?

First stop, the city. The city is one of the largest users of power in your area.
Write to your mayor or present the Earth Hour idea at your local council. If you
can get the city involved in turning off their non-essential lighting for Earth
Hour (in Sydney, we left our street lights on for safety), your town can make a
huge difference.
Office buildings and big retail stores also use a lot of power. Write to the
businesses and stores in your area and ask them to darken their buildings,
neon signs, stores and restaurants for one hour for Earth Hour.
Ask your favourite restaurant to have a candle-lit dinner hour (using beeswax
candles of course) and feature fresh “cold” dishes in the menu.
Write to your local newspaper or television channel and tell them what you’re
doing - try and get some news coverage of what your town wants to do for
Earth Hour and the planet…think big!

3) Be creative!
As well as asking as many people and businesses as possible to turn off their
lights in your city or town at 8pm on 29 March 2008, think creatively about
how to bring your friends and family together for the night.
Organise a “block party” in your neighbourhood with “in the dark” games and
activities, organise a movie or music night at someone’s house, look up at the
stars, use the hour to talk about what you can do every day to save energy.
Think about the different ways to have fun with Earth Hour.

4) What to do everyday
Turning off your lights for one hour at 8pm on 29 March 2008 is the first part
of getting involved in Earth Hour. Making a difference to the future of our
planet by making energy savings every day is the second part.
When spreading the Earth Hour message, don’t forget to encourage your
friends, family and workmates to turn off unused lights and appliances every
day of the year.

5) Make It Happen
Every town and city is unique and can bring its own special touch, identity and
passion of its communities to create its own Earth Hour on 29 March 2008.
But making Earth Hour happen is up to you!
Whatever you can organise to help turn out the lights on 29 March - whether
is a backyard barbeque or asking your local mayor to turn off the city’s nonessential lighting - will be a success.
You can make Earth Hour happen if you work together.

6) Other questions you might have
If you’re thinking about Earth Hour in your town or city at 8pm on 29 March,
you’ll probably have some other questions about how we did it in Sydney in
2007. Check out our website for some answers.

http://www.earthhour.org

386 - Whatever

I have posted many time about diabetes and how it effects me and I want to get this on record. I have said that I do not sho any symptoms of love blood sugar ... a blood sugar that should put most diabetics in a car or ambulance and on their way to the hospital and unconscious ... but I am different. It's 9:30 on Saturday night and I normally have to take a blood test at this time and take some of my medications around this time ... Risperdal, Zocor and Effexor. I take the blood test and 2 units of Novo Rapid (to lower my blood sugar after dinner).

I didn't take the Novo Rapid because my blood sugar is at 1.7 and in the other scale that is 30.6. As I type this I am eating some chocolate covered cookies. Yes, I should be drinking some juice to get it back up very quickly but i want to temporarily keep it low so that I can finish this post in a low blood sugar state of mind just to show everybody that they should not pooh-pooh me when I say that I am not really having symptoms.

Thank you and now I will go have some juice.

385 - Canadian Music Friday

Simple Plan is a French Canadian pop punk band based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The band has released three original albums: No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls (2002), Still Not Getting Any... (2004), and Simple Plan (2008), as well as two live albums: Live in Japan 2002 (2003) and MTV Hard Rock Live (2005). The origin of the band's name is obscure. Band members have given various responses on this point, including a liking for the movie A Simple Plan; that the band was their simple plan to avoid getting a "real" job; and that the name was only intended to be temporary, but they never thought of anything better, and with shows coming up for the new band, they needed a name.

Welcome To My Life



I’m Just A Kid



Perfect



Addicted

384 - Valentine ...

Valentine's Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14. In North America, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery.
The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine. Until 1969, the Catholic Church formally recognized eleven Valentine's Days. The Valentines honored on February 14 are:

Valentine of Rome : a priest in Rome who suffered martyrdom about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.

Valentine of Terni: He became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino).

The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of 14 February. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.

Some sources say the Valentine linked to romance is Valentine of Rome, others say Valentine of Terni. Some scholars (such as the Bollandists) have concluded that the two were originally the same person. In any case, no romantic elements are present in the original Early Medieval biographies of either of these martyrs.

In Ancient Rome, February 15 was Lupercalia, an archaic rite connected to fertility, without overtones of romance. Plutarch wrote: Lupercalia, of which many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank
also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy.

The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer: For this was on sent Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].

This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381. When they were married eight months later, he was 13 or 14. She was 14.

Using the language of the law courts for the rituals of courtly love, a "High Court of Love" was established in Paris on Valentine's Day in 1400. The court dealt with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women. Judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading.

Valentine's Day is mentioned ruefully by Ophelia in Hamlet (1600-01): Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day."

In American culture, Saint Valentine's Day was remade in the 1840s; as a writer in G.F. Traham's American Monthly observed in 1849, "Saint Valentine's Day... is becoming, nay it has become, a national holyday."

In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland (1828-1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stationery store, but Howard took her inspiration from an English valentine she had received, so clearly the practice of sending Valentine's cards had existed in England before it became popular in North America.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts in the United States, usually from a man to a woman. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates. In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for giving jewelry.

The day has come to be associated with a generic platonic greeting of "Happy Valentine's Day." As a joke, Valentine's Day is also referred to as "Singles Awareness Day."

In some North American elementary schools, students are asked to give a Valentine card or small gift to everyone in the class. The greeting cards of these students often mention what they appreciate about each other.

In North America, the day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards. The mid-nineteenth century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the United States to follow. The U.S.
Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

Valentine's Day also has regional traditions in the UK. In Norfolk a character called 'Jack' Valentine knocks on the rear door of houses leaving sweets and presents for children. Although he was leaving treats, many children were scared of this mystical person.

In Wales many people celebrate Dydd Santes Dwynwen (St Dwynwen's Day) on 25 January instead of or as well as St Valentine's Day. The day commemorates St Dwynwen, the patron saint of Welsh lovers.

In France, a traditionally Catholic country, Valentine's Day is known simply as "Saint Valentin", and is celebrated in much the same way as other western countries.

In Denmark & Norway Valentine's Day (14 Feb) is known as Valentinsdag. It is not celebrated to a large extent, but a lot people take time to eat a romantic dinner with their partner, to send a card to a secret love or give a red rose to their loved one. In Sweden it is called Alla hjärtans dag ("All Hearts' Day") and was launched in the 1960s by the flower industry's ommercial interests, and due to influence of American culture. It is not an official holiday, but its celebration is recognized and sales of cosmetics and flowers for this holiday are only bested by those for Mother's Day.

In Finland, Valentine's Day is called Ystävänpäivä which translates into "Friend's day". As the name says, this day is more about remembering all your friends, not only your loved ones.

In Slovenia, a proverb says that "St Valentine brings the keys of roots," so on February 14, plants and flowers start to grow. Valentine's Day has been celebrated as the day when the first works in the vineyards and on the fields commence. It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day. Nevertheless, it has only recently been celebrated as the day of love. The day of love is traditionally 12 March, the Saint Gregory's day. Another proverb says "Valentin - prvi spomladin" ("Valentine ­ first saint of spring"), as in some places (especially White Carniola) Saint Valentine marks the beginning of spring.

In Romania, the traditional holiday for lovers is Dragobete, which is celebrated on February 24. It is named after a character from Romanian folklore who was supposed to be the son of Baba Dochia. Part of his name is the word drag ("dear"), which can also be found in the word dragoste ("love").
In recent years, Romania has also started celebrating Valentine's Day, despite already having Dragobete as a traditional holiday. This has drawn backlash from many groups, reputable persons and institutions but also nationalist organizations like Noua Dreapt , who condemn Valentine's Day for being superficial, commercialist and imported Western kitsch.

In Turkey, Valentine's Day is called Sevgililer Günü which translates into "Sweethearts' Day".

According to Jewish tradition the 15th day of the month of Av - Tu B'Av (usually late August) is the festival of love. In ancient times girls would wear white dresses and dance in the vineyards, where the boys would be waiting for them. In modern Israeli culture this is a popular day to
pronounce love, propose marriage and give gifts like cards or flowers.

In South America the exchange of chocolates and flowers is traditional on Valentine's Day.

In Brazil, the Dia dos Namorados (lit. "Day of the enamored", or Boyfriend's/Girlfriend's Day") is celebrated on June 12, when couples exchange gifts, chocolates, cards and flower bouquets. This day was chosen probably because it is the day before the Saint Anthony's day, known there as the marriage saint, when many single women perform popular rituals, called simpatias, in order to find a good husband or a boyfriend.

In Colombia, the Día del amor y la amistad (lit. "Love and Friendship Day") is celebrated on the third Friday and Saturday in September, because of commercial issues. In this country the Amigo secreto ("Secret friend") tradition is quite popular, which consists of randomly assigning to each participant a recipient who is to be given an anonymous gift (similar to the Christmas tradition of Secret Santa).

In Venezuela, the Día del amor y la amistad(lit. "Love and Friendship Day") is also celebrated but this one does happen the 14th of February. The Amigo secreto ("Secret friend") tradition is also popular in Venezuela.

In Asia thanks to a concentrated marketing effort, Valentine's Day has emerged in Japan and Korea as a day on which women, and less commonly men, give candy, chocolate or flowers. It has become an obligation for many women to give chocolates to all male co-workers. In Japan this is known as giri-choko, from the words giri ("obligation") and choko, ("chocolate"). This
contrasts with honmei-choko; chocolate given to a loved one. Friends, specially girls, may exchange chocolate referred to as tomo-choko; from tomo meaning "friend".

By a further marketing effort, a reciprocal day called White Day has emerged. On March 14, men are expected to return the favour to those who gave them chocolates on Valentine's Day. Originally, the return gift was supposed to be white chocolate or marshmallows; hence "White Day". However, lingerie and jewelry have become common gifts.

In South Korea, there is also Pepero Day, celebrated on November 11, when young couples give each other romantic gifts. There is an additional day for single people, Black Day, celebrated on April 14.

In Chinese culture, there is a counterpart to Valentine's Day, called "The Night of Sevens"; according to legend the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid meet in Heaven on the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar. A slightly different version of this day is celebrated in Japan as Tanabata, on July 7th of the solar calendar.

In the Islamic world In Persian culture (Iran) Sepandarmazgan is a day for love, which is on 29 Bahman in the jalali solar calendar. The corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar is 17 February. Sepandarmazgan was observed in the Great Persian Empire in the 20th century BC hundreds of years before its acknowledgement by western world.

This day is currently celebrated semi-secretly in Iran despite some restrictions made by government; young Persian boys and girls may be seen on this day going out and buying gifts and celebrating.

In Saudi Arabia in 2008, religious police banned the sale of all Valentine's Day items, telling shop workers to remove any red items, as the day is considered an un-Islamic holiday. This ban created a black market of roses and wrapping paper, according to a BBC News article.

383 - Not Having Sex? ...

Surprising reasons you're not having sex

Estimated 40 million in U.S. have "sexless marriage" (less than 10 times a year)
Medications can curb your libido; ask doctor about drugs' sexual side effects
Choose a nonsexual time to talk about it with your partner

By Leslie Goldman

Not getting any? You're not alone: Women today have less time for sex than their 1950s counterparts. And it's estimated that 40 million Americans have what experts call a sexless marriage (having sex less than 10 times a year).

Bringing too many distractions to bed can put a crimp in your sex life.

A regular sex life is good for your health. It can satisfy all sorts of emotional- and physical-intimacy needs and help partners stay close, says Anita H. Clayton, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia and author of "Satisfaction: Women, Sex, and the Quest for Intimacy." So why the dry spell? You can chalk it up to a sheer lack of time, but there are a slew of other reasons, too -- from weight gain and perimenopause to technology overload (stop texting now) in the bedroom. Here's how to beat these sex busters.

Your bed isn't sexy anymore.

We hear it over and over again: The bed should be used for sex and sleep only. So why do so many of us insist on bringing third parties -- laptops, PDAs, "Law & Order" -- into the boudoir? All that technology and distraction can cause insomnia and put a damper on your sex life. After all, it's harder to initiate sex if your spouse is hiding behind a newspaper or glued to the TV or if your hands are busy exploring the Web rather than his body. Health.com: 10 dreamy bedrooms

Sex Rx: At a minimum, make the bedroom a no-technology zone, Clayton suggests. Then take a hard look at your life (from romance and work to entertainment and family), and give sex the priority it deserves. If you have to schedule sex as you would a meeting, do it!

Your meds are stealing your sex drive.

Oh, the irony. You start taking oral contraceptives (OCs) so you can have worry-free sex. Then the magic little pills start sapping your sex drive. Why? OCs contain estrogen, which increases the production of a protein called sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), says Michael Krychman, M.D., medical director of sexual medicine at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California, and executive director of the Southern California Center for Sexual Health and Survivorship Medicine. SHBG can trap testosterone, affecting your sex drive. There are even new data suggesting that this negative impact might be long-term. Other potential sex-drive-stalling meds to be on the lookout for: those that reduce blood pressure, anxiety, and acid reflux, and antidepressants, too.

Sex Rx: Ask your doc about the sexual side effects of all of your drugs. You may also want to try a contraceptive method that doesn't use hormones, such as condoms, a diaphragm, or an IUD.

Your crazy-busy life.

You spend your days working, cooking, working out, taking care of the family. And, still, at 11:30 p.m., "you're expected to wave this magic goddess wand," Krychman says. It's enough to make even Pamela Anderson curl up in bed and cry, "headache." Besides totally tuckering you out, the chronic stresses of modern life can also trigger a cascade of hormonal changes that mess with your body's sexual-response cycle. And here's another modern sex buster that adds to all the craziness: today's always-connected technology. Health.com: The plus side of going without sex

Sex Rx: With spontaneous sex almost out of the question, you need some serious "life management" to work it in, experts say. Put a lock on the master bedroom door and set a technology time limit. Shift gears from the harried pace of everyday life with a soothing bath, suggests Health contributor and Los Angeles--based sex therapist Linda De Villers, Ph.D. Plunging into warm water takes you away from the laptops and cell phones that clog up your day. Add a few drops of ylang-ylang essential oil; the aroma is thought to heighten sexual feelings.

You don't like your body.

Many women find themselves withdrawing or not willing to experiment sexually if they're overweight or have a change in shape due to pregnancy, Clayton says. "Emotionally, we've bought into the media's idealization of what is really sexy. The message is, you have to look a certain way in order to have really good sex." Health.com: Look 10 years thinner

Sex Rx: "Women have a talent for disliking the very things about themselves that other people find very attractive," De Villers says. Feel free to ask him what he likes about your body; his compliments can help you feel more positive. But don't underestimate the mental boost of shedding some pounds. In a recent Health.com survey, 37 percent of respondents said losing weight makes them feel sexy. In fact, even a five-pound weight loss has been shown to jump-start sex drive.

You've hit perimenopause.

Before menopause, hormonal shifts -- specifically decreasing estrogen -- lead to physiological changes that can make sex seem about as appealing as running a marathon with a pebble in your sock. Sensitive vaginal tissues become less lubricated, the ensuing dryness leads to pain, and painful sex quickly turns into no sex, Krychman says. Hot flashes don't help matters, either. A landmark study published last year in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology shows women whose sexual desire drops during menopause are more apt to report night sweats, disturbed sleep, and depression.

Sex Rx: Talk to your physician about the pros and cons of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which may lessen menopausal symptoms. New research shows an estrogen cream or suppository may ease dryness without the risks of HRT. Lubricants such as Replens or his-and-hers lubes from K-Y can also help, especially if pain during intercourse is a problem. Pine bark extract is also getting a lot of buzz: A study in the Scandinavian Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that it may alleviate hot flashes, depression, panic attacks, elevated cholesterol, and other symptoms linked with perimenopause. Talk to your doctor before trying anything new.

Your man's just not that into it.

You may actually be raring to go, but your partner's engine seems stalled. Perhaps he's emotionally withdrawing, says Bob Berkowitz, Ph.D., co-author of "He's Just Not Up for It Anymore: Why Men Stop Having Sex, and What You Can Do About It." "The usual problems between husbands and wives can play out in the bedroom," he says, especially if your partner has a hard time expressing his feelings properly. Or, he may want you to be more sexually adventurous. You needn't hang from chandeliers; it could be as simple as being a more enthusiastic lover. Health.com: 12 secrets to better orgasms

Sex Rx: Talk it out in a blame-free way. "It's understandable that a woman would feel rejected," Berkowitz says. But don't confront him with 'What the hell is going on? Are you cheating on me?' or he'll shut down. If a man's sex life is not working out, he may feel he's failed as a man, because men invest so much of themselves in their sexuality," Berkowitz adds. So try to broach the subject in a loving way.

You're depressed.

When you're feeling down in the dumps, desire can take a big hit, particularly if you're female. Women tend to isolate themselves, Clayton says, and that can strain even the strongest of romantic relationships. Antidepressants may lift the dark cloud, but some affect your ability to have an orgasm. MayoClinic.com: Health Library

Sex Rx: If you notice your sex drive takes a nosedive after you start a new medication, tell your doctor; she may be able to prescribe an alternative, such as Wellbutrin (bupropion), which doesn't affect orgasm. Consider different avenues of treatment, too. "Psychotherapy doesn't cause sexual dysfunction and is effective, especially in mild-to-moderate depression," Clayton says. Exercise also helps; it enhances mood and energy, and it boosts blood flow to the genitals.

Your man is Viagra-ized.

The "Viagra-ization" of men, as Krychman calls it, isn't just happening to seniors. Younger men are taking the erectile-dysfunction drug, too, sometimes just to enhance sexual performance. The result can be a physical and emotional disconnect in bed. "The man takes the medication and is ready to go, but the woman needs more time to get aroused, to get connected." The sexes tend to deal with anxiety in opposite ways, too, Clayton says. Men head to the bedroom to relieve stress, while women often need to be relaxed to even have sex.

Sex Rx: Clayton suggests finding time for some nonthreatening and nonjudgmental sex talk (not in bed), during which a woman can discuss what she needs in bed to even the playing field.

You're sick and tired.

About 10 to 15 percent of the women Krychman treats for low libido end up having an endocrine problem, such as undiagnosed thyroid disease, which can affect menstrual functioning and lead to exhaustion, depression, low sexual desire, and fertility problems. Women who have chronic illnesses --such as fibromyalgia, anemia, diabetes, or rheumatoid arthritis --may not be in the mood, either, thanks to fatigue or body pain. And women who have diabetes may also experience poor lubrication, low arousal, and a propensity for yeast infections. Health.com: Boost your energy

Sex Rx: Once a thyroid condition or anemia is detected and corrected, any associated symptoms should dissipate. If you're battling a chronic disease, you should take the focus off of the intercourse and explore other ways to achieve sexual and sensual pleasure, Clayton says.

382 - Overwhelmed ...

I have been finding myself a little overwhelmed these days and I don’t like it in the least. The feeling applies to everything … work in particular, evenings, home, course … life in general. Reasons? There seem to be a number of them but I can’t put my finger on anything specific.

I feel that I am rushing all the time but going nowhere. Overworked, very busy at home and never accomplishing anything. It is a frustrating feeling and when it gets to be too much, it brings me down somewhat.

It is also very tiring, physically. I have been saying for quite some time now that I am tired a lot of the time and I have been blaming it on my medications as it seemed to start when I started on the 3 anti-depression medications. Co-incidence? My psychiatrist does not believe it is completely the meds and wants me to have a test for sleep apnea. I told him that I sleep very well and soundly. He said that most people who suffer from sleep apnea believe they sleep very well.

Take yesterday as an example. Even though I did not knock myself on the weekend, I was deathly tired all day at work. Enough to close my eyes and fall immediately into a micro nap, several times in the course of the day. It didn’t stop there either. Last night at school I had to leave half way through the evening because I kept closing my eyes and couldn’t concentrate. It was so bad that I missed the first few steps of doing something and was completely lost after that.

Tomorrow I have 3 medical appointments so I am taking the day off. First the shrink then the GP who wants to talk to me about the sleep study before he makes the appointment and then the diabetes guy.

I bust my ass at work (when I am not falling asleep … which is an almost daily occurrence) and never manage to make a dent in the pile that covers my desk or spews from my inbox. It feels like I have so much to do and I can never complete tasks … generally I do about 80% of whatever it is I am working on and then let it simmer down and leave it incomplete until somebody starts asking for it.

It feels like I have so much to do at home and never have enough time to even start most of it. I don’t know where to start and can’t set any priorities … clean the bathroom today or do some homework or read blogs … so I generally end up sitting for a while and then giving up completely. My procrastinating has gotten way out of hand and is affecting me detrimentally. I make little lists of to-dos and while I may get some done, other things stay there for weeks.

The most unfortunate part of feeling this way is that it isn’t true that I have all this work to do (at work I do but not at home). I don’t have any more now than I used to. Perhaps a lot of the things I do just take longer to get done … if I read all of the blogs I have bookmarked and they all have new entries then I am set for a couple of hours. That’s why I have taken some out of my bookmark list and others I only visit once or twice a week. Even doing that leaves me with what I perceive as little time.

It’s funny how I can sit here and write that I am really not that busy but when I get home I lose that idea and begin to feel overwhelmed again. Even though you, my blog friends, are supportive and provide great feedback I feel that I miss and need somebody to hug me and hold my face in her hands and tell me that it’s all OK, that she believes in me.

381 - Rarindra Prakarsa ...

A rare weekend post because this is something special.

There is a photography blog I read written by Scott Kelby. Scott is an awesome photographer and an even better teacher and writer. He is the #1 selling author at Amazon for any genre of book, let alone photography. He is also a Photoshop wizard and has written the best books about that as well.

In his blog today (Friday) he pointed his readers to a site called Photo.net and in particular, to a photographer named Rarindra Prakarsa. Scott had this to say, “His work just made me say, out loud, WOW! If you are a lover of gorgeous light, wonderful composition, and some tasty Photoshop work, this photographer’s images will speak to your soul.”

I visited the site and said a lot more than WOW … the most beautiful photographs I have seen. How can I describe them … emotional, dreamlike, mesmerizing, magical. Rarindra is a master of light.

I have set up a couple of links above and here is another one … you have to go visit if you even only like art a little … these will not only knock your socks off but every other bit of clothing as well.

Here are a few samples of his incredible work …

  

 

 

  

Browse through the gallery and you’ll see, not only Rarindra's work but thousands of incredible works of photographic art by other artists.

380 - Canadian Music Friday ...

Norman Jeffrey Healey (born 25 March 1966), known professionally as Jeff Healey, is a Canadian jazz and blues-rock guitarist and vocalist.

Born in Toronto, Healey was raised in the city's west end. His father was a firefighter. Healey is blind; he lost his sight when he was one year old, due to cancer of the eyes—his eyes had to be surgically removed, and he was given artificial replacements. Nevertheless he began playing guitar when he was only three, developing his unique style of playing the instrument flat on his lap.

Healey has discovered and helped develop the careers of other artists, including Amanda Marshall and Terra Hazelton.

On January 11, 2007, Healey underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissue from both lungs. In the previous eighteen months he had two sarcomas removed from his legs. He continues to tour and thrill audiences everytwhere.

Confidence Man



See The Light



Angel Eyes



Roadhouse Blues

379 - Young TV Starlets ...

Am I the only pervert out there or should I presume there are a few others? I am going to presume there are others.

My younger children are now 15 and 13 and over the course of the last 10 years I have sat with them and watched kabillions of kids shows on television. Most … well, you all know what they are like.

But there are some that had/have a special attraction … the young girls who headline these shows. Where in Christ were girls like this when I was a teenager?

The first one who caught my attention was Hilary Duff in Lizzie McGuire. She was very young then, probably 14 and what a knock out girl. Now, at the ripe old age of 20, she is still very pretty but when she was younger I found her to be much prettier, more innocent.

Others that I have seen that are just so pretty are … Some of these shows are no longer in production I would imagine so the ages I indicate are current age, they were obviously younger when filming the shows.

Ashley Leggat (a Canadian) on Life with Derek who is 21. I need no words to describe these young women as their picture is worth a billion words.

Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana … she is now 15

Ashley Tisdale in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody … old now at 22

Also in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody thewoman who plays mom to the boys is Kim Rhodes who is 38 and absolutely gorgeous

Phil of the Future has Alyson Michalka who is 18

Except for Kim Rhodes, what will these girls look like in a few more years. Hilary Duff has changed considerably over the last few years … I would like to revisit them in 10 years time (when I am a much older and much dirtier old man).

378 - The Perfect Husband? ...

Confessions of a Perfect Husband

From Men's Health

I am the best husband in the world.

If my wife were to read this, she'd fall to the floor, convulsed in laughter, and then gasp something about my "dazzling lack of self-knowledge." But no matter. I wear her ignorance of my excellence as a badge of honor. The best performers inhabit their roles--you never catch them acting.

I wasn't always a paragon. In my early years, I was a journeyman at best. In '88, I treated a precious marital secret as though it were the score of a Bulls game. And back in '96, there was a New Year's Eve kiss with our neighbor that probably should have been more perfunctory, less probing. But over the past decade, inch by inch, I've mastered the gig, and for the past few years, I've been locked in. I can see the seams on every chance to love, honor, and cherish.

I don't know how I got so good at this. As a kid, I had a front-row seat on my father's version of husband, which, at least according to my mother, was a star turn. And as a grown man, I've watched my father-in-law dazzle his sidekick of 53 years. But I have no formal credentials, and the only marriage counseling I ever got, from the rabbi the day before my wedding, amounted to, "A Catholic and a Jew? Don't bother. Cancel the wedding and save on the divorce." My only qualification? I've been a husband for a long time--24 years according to the state of Pennsylvania, over 30 by common-law count--and, fortunately for you, I've made many, many mistakes from which you are about to learn.

Will you ever be as great a husband as I am? Not likely. By now, I'm the gold standard. But you can do better, my brother. (And that's true for you unmarried guys, too: If you're with her, you can learn to be with her better.) I've condensed my wisdom into some guiding thoughts and tricks of the togetherness trade. Think of them as batting tips from Barry Bonds. Stash them in a part of your brain that guides your behavior, and two good things will happen: She'll get the partner she deserves, and you'll get the satisfaction and, oh yeah, the sex of which you dream.

No. 1 - Kill never and always

When you and Lucy argue, don't use either of these two words. First of all, they're not technically accurate. It's not true that she never wears the cheerleader skirt; you got some boolah-boolah on your birthday. But, more important, they're gas-on-the-fire words. Instead of these indicting adverbs, use ameliorative words and phrases, like sometimes or I feel or I wish.

Darn right they're soft, but guess what? The best husbands actually are a skosh more sensitive to their wives' feelings than your average brute of a mate is. By the way, the words never and always are great when you're complimenting her, as in, "You never fail to amaze me" or "I always enjoy reaching under your blouse."

No. 2 - Work the reunions

You come through the door tired, maybe distracted about something at work. You riffle through the mail, ask her a routine how-was-your-day question, and give her a pro forma kiss. But let's face it, you don't really focus on her, do you? She gets only a sliver of your attention. Not good enough.

Don't panic. I'm not about to suggest in-the-moment mindfulness. Men can't be "in" every moment. The secret is to "husband" your limited supply of attention, save it for deployment at pivotal times. Think like John McEnroe, who would occasionally tank a forsaken fourth set, saving his strength for the pivotal fifth. Your key moments are the reunions. Take a few seconds and resolve to be fully tuned-in during each come-together moment. You can do it. Trust me, if I can, you can.

Here's the plain truth: For all the habituation of marriage, all the erosions that come with familiarity, a link between a man and a woman is also instantly renewable in a momentary locked-on gaze. For just a beat, maybe two, claim her with your eyeballs. Look at her in a way that says, "I'm glad to be home, back in our powerful secret." This kind of subtle but daily maintenance keeps the engine thrumming.

No. 3 - Laugh at her

Among the most affirming things one person can do for another is to laugh at the other's attempts at humor. Lots of husbands, over time, forget this salute. What's that you say? Your wife isn't funny? So what? Neither is your dolt of a boss, but you laugh at his lame attempts. Why? Because you're trying to prove you respect him. Bingo!

One of the biggest dangers mature marriages face is that Homer and Marge stop trying to demonstrate their respect for each other. Laughter is tonic for a woman's woes. Keep it on display.

No. 4 Make the lion's roar

Describing his important role during World War II, Winston Churchill once remarked that though he was no lion, it had fallen to him to make the lion's roar. Every now and then, husbands have to get fierce, defiant on behalf of their team.

It won't happen often, but when you are in a confrontational situation, where reason and soft words have failed--a dispute with a teacher, a vendor, a bill collector, your neighbor, your mother--be prepared to bark in unambiguous defense of your family. Don't shrink from this obligation. Your wife's regard for you will shrink if you do.

No. 5 - Be a little lamblike, too

Yes, this contradicts the carnivorous idea above, but a husband is versatile: He can hammer the tee ball and feather the wedge. Softness and kindness and tenderness and all those traits that ain't much use in the marketplace are pure gold when it comes to being a husband.

A good husband relies on his wife, values her counsel, trusts her to love him even though he's not in command. We're most human when we're wounded or lost. Fred Rogers once said that the best gift you can give somebody is to gracefully receive his or her help. That enriches everybody, giver and getter alike. Now and then, wrap your arms around your wife and whisper that you're a mite confused. Let her help you find your way.

No. 6 - She needs closeness to feel sexual; you need sex to feel close

This is the fundamental impenetrable puzzle of love. I have no idea what to do about this. But great husbands have this reality in mind at all times.

No. 7 - Be touchy

Apparently, we touch our wives too infrequently--except, of course, when we are taxiing for takeoff. It pains me to cede any ground, but we're guilty as charged. I know one husband who when he's feeling conjugal actually touches his wife as though he cherishes her character. But in fact, he's hoping to cherish her caboose in a kitchen quickie. She sees through me every time. Did I say me? I meant him.

Nonsexual touch is a potent, underused endorsement of another soul. As you're heading out the door, give her upper arm a quick, affectionate double squeeze. As you're walking into a party or to your table, put a guiding hand, lightly but surely, on her lower back. Some nothing-special Tuesday night while she's standing at the sink doing the dishes, come up behind her and give her a kiss on the back of her head. It should be more than a peck--make it last 1.4 seconds.

Throw in a little grunt of gratitude; its message is only this: "I'm a lucky man." Don't linger behind her. No arms. No hint of pelvic urge. She'll get cranky if she suspects you're cruising for dessert while she's scraping chicken gunk off a baking dish. Just drop the husband kiss on her noggin and get out of there. She'll feel valued.

No. 8 - See the coffee cup

The perfect husband understands that women often get confused by stuff that doesn't matter, as in the unwashed coffee cup that's been sitting in the sink for days. Few wives understand that it isn't that we see the coffee cup and elect not to rinse it, but rather that the neural link between our eyeballs and brains actually keeps us from seeing the cup. The gender biology of why we don't see the cup comes down to this: We have a lot of more important things on our minds. Will the Bills cover? Any chance of sex today? I think my biceps really are getting bigger. Our minds are cauldrons of profound thoughts. Any wonder we occasionally overlook some stray dishware?

Charge: We don't help enough around the house. We're guilty. But here's the fix: Do more. Not a lot more--just a little more. One of the best things about women is that they really appreciate the smallest sign that you're trying. They're effort oriented.

Try walking into a room with a woman's mind. Imagine that your brain has space in it for trivialities like unwashed cups. Ask yourself, If I were a psycho neat freak, what would bother me in here? The coffee cup--which sometimes takes the form of the kids' sneakers under the table or the metro section crumpled on the couch--will suddenly reveal itself to you.

No. 9 - She ain't broke, so don't fix her

People rarely change unless they feel accepted as they are. Once folks feel they're not required to change, growth happens.

No. 10 - Play to win

You know the athletic wisdom that warns against playing not to lose, that argues you have to be loose to let your skills flow and maximize your game? Same goes for marriage. Oh, sure, you can have a perfectly fine little partnership by taking the cautious route. He & She Inc. may even hum along nicely if you companionably sidestep the briar patches. But that's no way to be a great husband. She's entitled to more, the full monty, the whole experience of being affiliated with, no, make that loved by, a man.

People often settle for accommodating coupledom because they're afraid some explosive issues will blow up the marriage. They fear ending their days alone, living under the bridge behind the high school. Set yourself free to play bravely by taking the big risk, divorce, off the table. Decide that you meant what you said at the wedding, that this woman, come what may, is your partner for life.

Older couples often report that once they've gone past the point where they might leave each other, their partnership gets an invigorating second wind. No longer afraid of being alone, they talk things through. In pursuit of something richer than mere amity, they explore regrets, grievances. Sure, it can be difficult, but it's full and human and adrenal and--hallelujah!--not dull. And it can lead to a more spacious marriage, a connection that is full hearted and well tempered instead of taped together.

377 - 10 Accidental Inventions ...

10Accidental Inventions

As anyone with a knack for clichés knows, necessity is the mother of invention. However, it could also be said that while good inventions are often the product of necessity, great inventions are accidental. To demonstrate the importance of serendipity, we’ve put together a list of 10 examples of unintentional discoveries that too often we find ourselves taking for granted. In no particular order.

1. Penicillin
Everybody knows the story – or at least, should – the brilliant yet notoriously absent-minded biologist Sir Alexander Fleming was researching a strain of bacteria called staphylococci. Upon returning from holiday one time in 1928, he noticed that one of the glass culture dishes he had accidentally left out had become contaminated with a fungus, and so threw it away. It wasn’t until later that he noticed that the staphylococcus bacteria seemed unable to grow in the area surrounding the fungal mould.

Fleming didn’t even hold out much hope for his discovery: it wasn’t given much attention when he published his findings the following year, it was difficult to cultivate, and it was slow-acting – it wasn’t until 1945 after further research by several other scientists that penicillin was able to be produced on an industrial scale, changing the way doctors treated bacterial infections forever.

2. The Microwave
In 1945 Percy Lebaron Spencer, an American engineer and inventor, was busy working on manufacturing magnetrons, the devices used to produce the microwave radio signals that were integral to early radar use. Radar was an incredibly important innovation during the time of war, but microwave cooking was a purely accidental discovery.

While standing by a functioning magnetron, Spencer noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. His keen mind soon figured out that it was the microwaves that had caused it, and later experimented with popcorn kernels and eventually, an egg, which (as we all could have told him from mischievous childhood ‘experiments’), exploded.

The first microwave oven weighed about 750lbs and was about the size of a fridge.

3. Ice Cream Cones
This story is a perfect example of serendipity, and a single chance encounter leading to worldwide repercussions. It’s also rather sweet.

Before 1904, ice cream was served on dishes. It wasn’t until the World’s Fair of that year, held in St Louis, Missouri, that two seemingly unrelated foodstuffs became inexorably linked together.

At this particularly sweltering 1904 World’s Fair, a stall selling ice cream was doing such good business that they were quickly running out of dishes. The neighboring stall wasn’t doing so well, selling Zalabia – a kind of wafer thin waffle from Persia – and the stall owner came up with the idea of rolling them into cone shapes and popping the ice cream on top. Thus the ice cream cone was born – and it doesn’t look like dying out any time soon.

4. Champagne
While many know that Dom Pierre Pérignon is credited for the invention of champagne, it was not the 17th century Benedictine monk’s intention to make a wine with bubbles in it – in fact, he had spent years trying to prevent just that, as bubbly wine was considered a sure sign of poor winemaking.

Pérignon’s original wish was to cater for the French court’s preference for white wine. Since black grapes were easier to grow in the Champagne region, he invented a way of pressing white juice from them. But since Champagne’s climate was relatively cold, the wine had to be fermented over two seasons, spending the second year in the bottle. This produced a wine loaded with bubbles of carbon dioxide, which Pérignon tried but failed to eradicate. Happily, the new wine was a big hit with the aristocratic crowds in both the French and English courts.

5. Post-It Notes
The invention of the humble Post-It Note was an accidental collaboration between second-rate science and a frustrated church-goer. In 1970, Spencer Silver, a researcher for the large American corporation 3M, had been trying to formulate a strong adhesive, but ended up only managing to create a very weak glue that could be removed almost effortlessly. He promoted his invention within 3M, but nobody took any notice.

4 years later, Arthur Fry, a 3M colleague and member of his church choir, was irritated by the fact that the slips of paper he placed in his hymnal to mark the pages would usually fall out when the book was opened. One service, he recalled the work of Spencer Silver, leading to an epiphany – the church being a good a place as any to have one, I suppose – and later applied some of Silver’s weak yet non-damaging adhesive to his bookmarks. He found that the little sticky markers worked perfectly, and sold the idea to 3M. Trial marketing began in 1977, and today you’d find it hard to imagine life without them.

6. Potato chips/crisps
In 1853, in a restaurant in Saratoga, New York, a particularly fussy diner (railway magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt) repeatedly refused to eat the fries he had been served with his meal, complaining that they were too thick and too soggy. After he had sent back several plates of increasingly thinly-cut fries, the chef George Crum decided to get his own back by frying wafer-thin slices of potato in grease and sending them out.

Vanderbilt initially protested that the chef’s latest efforts were too thin to be picked up with a fork, but upon trying a few, the chips were an instant hit, and soon everybody in the restaurant wanted a serving. This led to the new recipe appearing on the menu as “Saratoga Chips”, before later being sold all over the world.

7. The Slinky
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound? Well, originally it was just a spring falling off a desk. To be more precise, it was the desk belonging to marine engineer Richard James, who sometime in 1940 noticed that when the spring fell, it stumbled and tumbled across the floor for a while before laying to rest. After a few prototypes, the Slinky was ready to be introduced to toy stores in 1948, where it became one of the most popular and iconic toys of all time.

James’ wife Betty was the one who came up with the name “Slinky”, and has been CEO of the company since 1960. Over 250 million Slinkies have been sold worldwide, and they were even used as mobile radio antennae during the Vietnam war.

8. The Pacemaker
Like penicillin, here is another accidental invention that continues to save lives to this day. American engineer Wilson Greatbatch was working on a gadget that recorded irregular heartbeats, when he inserted the wrong type of resistor into his invention. The circuit pulsed, then was quiet, then pulsed again, prompting Greatbatch to compare this reaction with the human heart and work on the world’s first implantable cardiac pacemaker.

Before the implantable version was used on humans from 1960 onwards, pacemakers had been based on the external model invented by Paul Zoll in 1952. These were about the size of a television and dealt out considerable jolts of electricity into the patient’s body, which often caused the skin to burn. Greatbatch also went on to devise a lithium-iodide battery cell to power his pacemaker.

9. Superglue
More sticky stuff, though this one was famous for its high adhesive value, unlike Silver’s Post-It Notes. Superglue came into being in 1942 when Dr Harry Coover was trying to isolate a clear plastic to make precision gun sights for handheld weaponry. For a while he was working with chemicals known as cyanoacrylates, which they soon realized polymerized on contact with moisture, causing all the test materials to bond together. It was obvious that these wouldn’t work, so research moved on.

6 years later, Coover was working in a Tennessee chemical plant and realized the potential of the substance when they were testing the heat resistance of cyanoacrylates, recognizing that the adhesives required neither heat nor pressure to form a strong bond. Thus, after a certain amount of commercial refinement, Superglue (or “Alcohol-Catalyzed Cyanoacrylate Adhesive Composition”, to give it its full name) was born.

It was later used for treating injured soldiers in Vietnam – the adhesive could be sprayed on open wounds, stemming bleeding and allowing easier transportation of soldiers; adding a delicious layer of irony to the story in that a discovery made during an effort to improve the killing potential of guns ended up saving countless lives.

10. LSD
The unintentional discovery of d-lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate-LSD-25 led to a cultural revolution – nobody today can deny that the hallucinogen uncovered by Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman in 1938 helped shape the hippy movement of the 1960s and sparked worldwide interest, having a massive impact on neuroscience research and treatment.

The actual discovery of LSD as a hallucinogen occurred when Dr Hoffman was involved in pharmaceutical research in Basel, Switzerland, hoping to produce drugs that would help ease the pain of childbirth. Having synthesized what would later become known as LSD; Hoffman catalogued the untested substance and placed it in storage, after finding nothing particularly interesting about it during the initial analysis. It wasn’t until a Friday afternoon in April 1943 when Hoffman discovered the true properties of the compound, inadvertently absorbing a healthy dose of it when handling the chemical at work without wearing gloves. On his bicycle ride back home he observed “an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors”.

Criminalized throughout the USA in 1966 (and most others following suit soon after), further research into LSD was (and still is) constantly hampered by its illegal status. Early researcher Dr Richard Alpert claimed to have administered LSD to 200 test subjects by 1961, and reported that 85% of his test subjects said that the experience was the “most educational” of their lives.

Here are a few other accidental innovations that deserve at least a mention: saccharin (artificial sweetener), Scotchguard (aka Sellotape), Teflon, the band-aid, the frisbee, the sandwich, the popsicle, Silly Putty, x-rays, vulcanized rubber, velcro, and safety glass.

376 - Monument To Love ...

A little while back I posted about the Chinese couple who lived in a cave and the testament to their love. There is another testament to love in Florida that is open to the public ...

Coral Castle: Mysterious Monument to Lost Love
How Did One Small Man Move 1,100 Tons of Stone to Build a Marvel of Engineering?

Like the ancient wonders of Stonehenge or the Great Pyramids of Egypt, there is an incredible and mysterious creation right here in the United States.

Coral Castle, in Homestead, Fla., just south of Miami, is an intricate rock garden made of enormous pieces of coral, many of them weighing several tons.

But more amazingly, Coral Castle was built entirely by one man — Latvian immigrant Ed Leedskalnin, who stood just 5 feet tall and weighed 100 pounds. To this day, no one knows how he did it.

Leedskalnin was jilted by his 16-year-old fiancee Agnes Scuffs in Latvia just days before the wedding. Heartbroken and hoping to win Scuffs back, Leedskalnin traveled to the United States in 1923 and dedicated his life to building a monument to her, which he called Rock Gate Park. It was a project that he continued to work on until his death in 1951.

The castle is an extraordinary feat of engineering, and experts have puzzled over how Leedskalnin, who only had a fourth-grade education, constructed Coral Castle by himself. He reportedly did all of the work in the dark of night, in order to keep his secrets.

For example, how did this little man build a 9-ton coral gate constructed so precisely that you can push it open using one finger?

The castle also has a 40-foot tall, 28-ton obelisk, a sun dial that still keeps perfect time and a Polaris telescope that is perfectly aligned with the North Star.

Leedskalnin lived a reclusive, self-contained life at the castle — he built a water well, a fountain, a barbecue and several pieces of furniture, including an enormous heart-shaped table, 25 rocking chairs, a bathtub, beds and a 5,000-pound throne.

There are many theories on how Leedskalnin accomplished this amazing feat. Some say he had help from extraterrestrials, others believe he discovered the secrets behind anti-gravity and levitation.

Leedskalnin was a self-taught expert on magnetic currents, and one theory holds that he positioned the site to be perfectly aligned with Earth's poles to eliminate the forces of gravity, allowing him to move stones weighing several tons each.

Even Albert Einstein couldn't figure it out, says Jon Pasturing, an engineer who visited Coral Castle as a child.

Pasturing has also wondered how Leedskalnin did it, but he rules out extraterrestrials and magnetics.

Pasturing believes Leedskalnin employed a basic engineering principle, block and tackle, which uses a pulley system to hoist heavy objects into place.

"You can move a 20-ton rock if you have enough of a sophisticated block-and-tackle system," Pasturing said.

Old photos seem to back the idea. They show Leedskalnin raising stones with a giant pulley, and another pulley was found in his tool shed.

Leedskalnin took those secrets to his grave, but Coral Castle stands as a magical gift he gave to world.

http://www.coralcastle.com

375 - Everything You Wanted To Know ...

... about winter.

A lot of you are familiar with the fact that I hate winter and everything that goes with it. A lot of you don't live in areas that get snow or cold temperatures. Here is the lowdown on snow and cold, taken from the CBC website. I have lived with winter all of my life and didn't know some of these things.

Forces of nature

Snow
A guide to the white stuff

It's just falling ice composed of crystals in complex hexagonal forms – a major part of Canadian life between November and early April. Unless, of course, you live in Victoria or Vancouver, where the mild Pacific is usually enough to ward off the white stuff.

So what is this substance that so consumes Canadians? Snow forms in clouds when water vapour turns directly to ice without going through the liquid stage.

We've developed quite the lexicon when it comes to the white stuff, but not quite the myth of the 400 words the Inuit allegedly have for snow. English or Inuktitut, there really are only a couple of dozen ways to describe snow – and the various ways it tests our patience.

Here's a quick guide to snow in Canada – and how to prepare for it:

While picking up your morning coffee at the local doughnut shop, you overhear the following conversation:

"I hear it's gonna snow today."

"Yup, we're getting some snow."

Here, the term snow is used without qualification. It means you can expect precipitation of significant duration and extent. Try to remember where you put your snow shovel.

Had the doughnut shop people said "we're expecting snow flurries or snow showers," you would have breathed a bit of a sigh of relief, because you knew that not much of the white stuff would accumulate. At least not enough to shovel.

You would have been even less concerned had they used the term snow grains – although very few of us do in normal conversation. Snow grains are very small snow crystals or the ice equivalent of drizzle. Not much to worry about – but you might have to scrape the windshield of your car a little.

One stage up is snow pellets, which are white, opaque particles that form as ice crystals fall through cloud droplets that are below freezing but still liquid. The cloud droplets freeze to the crystals forming a small lumpy mass – not the multi-pointed crystals of ice that make up snowflakes. Usually easy to shovel.

Among the nastiest stuff winter has to offer is sleet. This is formed when drops of rain or drizzle freeze into ice as they fall. Sometimes called ice pellets, these things sting when accompanied by a strong wind.

Even worse is freezing rain or drizzle. These water droplets maintain a temperature below 0 degrees C but do not turn to ice in the air. But they freeze as soon as they hit anything on the ground. Leads to much scraping of your car's windshield and slipping and sliding on sidewalks.

Ice crystals are tiny sprinkles that sparkle in the sunshine and hang in the air – usually when it's really, really cold out.

Snowstorms are a fact of life in Canada – and they can vary, depending on where you live.

Good old-fashioned blizzards, for instance, are rare in most of the country. The folks who watch the weather for a living define a blizzard as a severe storm that lasts three or more hours, and brings low temperatures, strong winds and poor visibility due to blowing snow. They're most common in the southern Prairies, Atlantic Canada and the Eastern Arctic, and are rare in the western Northwest Territories, British Columbia and the Yukon.

On Jan. 30, 1947, southern Saskatchewan was inundated with a series of blizzards that lasted 10 days. The storm blocked all highways in Regina and buried a train under a snowdrift that was one kilometre long and eight metres deep.

Thought that blowing snow and drifting snow were the same thing? There's an important distinction between the two. Blowing snow is lifted by the wind from the earth's surface to a height of two metres or more. Drifting snow is blown to a height of less than two metres. So if your head's poking out of a mound of snow and you're a little taller than two metres, it's drifting snow that got you.

Lake effect snow is most common near the Great Lakes. These squalls occur as cold air picks up substantial moisture as it moves over the lakes. The moisture gets dumped as snow inland from the downwind shore. Usually, they follow major storm systems that are cleared out of the area by blasts of Arctic air.

Often, the affected region will get a much bigger dump of snow from the squall than from the storm itself. In the more severe lake-effect snow squalls, accumulations of more than 75 cm per day are not uncommon, and fall rates as high as 28 cm per hour have been reported. Such severe snowfalls have been termed snowbursts.

These nasty little storms are often confined to small geographical areas. It could be snowing like crazy over your house – but bright and sunny (but really cold) a few kilometres away.

They may have some of the same characteristics, but there are some major differences between blizzards and snow squalls.

In a blizzard:
Winds must be sustained at 40 km/h.
Visibility is less than one km.
The wind chill value is greater than 1,600 watts per metre-squared, or the temperature is -25 C or lower.
The above conditions must be met for a minimum of four hours.
You do not have to have snow falling.

In a snow squall:
Snow must be falling.
A strong wind of at least 22 knots or 39 kilometres per hour must blow for at least one minute.

Yet another type of storm is sometimes called an Alberta clipper. This is a fast-moving winter storm that forms just east of the Rockies and sweeps south and eastward across southern Canada and the upper Midwest states. They're usually weaker than most winter storms and don't usually drop much snow. But they often bring along their evil twin – a surge of frigid Arctic air that can produce near-zero visibility in blowing and drifting snow.

There are various levels of warnings you will receive from your local weather forecaster. Pay attention, because there are significant differences between them.

If you hear a blizzard warning, expect snow or blowing snow, with a severe wind chill and visibility reduced to less than one kilometre, for four hours or more. Stock up on heating fuel and food. Stay indoors and wait out the storm – could be a long one.
A snow squall warning, however, means you might get hit by blizzard-like conditions over the course of the day. Or maybe the next town down the road will be. But be prepared for terrible driving conditions if you're in the path of a squall.

When you hear a heavy snowfall warning, you can expect 10 centimetres or more of snow to fall (15 cm or more in Ontario) in 12 hours or less. Travel could become hazardous, unless the plows get a good jump on the situation.

In Ontario, a winter storm warning is issued when two or more winter conditions reach warning proportions, such as wind and snow or freezing rain followed by heavy snowfall. You might want to think about hanging around the house for the day.

Winter storms and excessive cold claim more than 100 lives every year in Canada, more than the combined toll from hurricanes, tornadoes, flood, extreme heat and lightning. Many of those who die are killed trying to get rid of the stuff – stricken by heart attacks while shovelling snow off their driveways.

Some people may find freshly fallen snow very enjoyable to look at, but it can be pretty dangerous stuff. If you load a shovel with five kg of snow once every five seconds, you would move 60 kg of snow in one minute. Keep it up for 17 minutes and you will have shovelled one ton of snow.

Shovelling produces a rapid rise in heart rate and blood pressure – a combination that's tough on the heart. But cold can also act as a trigger for heart attacks, which is why some people suffer heart attacks while using snow blowers. Add to the mix that most people tend to ease off on the physical activity in the winter months, and you're looking for trouble if you try to crank it up after a big snow dump.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada offers these tips to avoid becoming a snow shovelling casualty:
- Do take the time to do warm-up exercises to get your body accustomed to the vigorous exercise in the cold.
- Do take frequent breaks so your body doesn't get too strained. The effort of picking up heavy show pushes up blood pressure more than aerobic exercise such as walking.
- Do the shovelling as part of a group activity. Get the entire family out there to pitch in.
- Do listen to your body. Stop shovelling if you experience any suspicious symptoms, such as sudden shortness of breath, discomfort in the chest, lightheadedness, nausea, dizziness or severe headache.
- Do wear the appropriate clothing. You should layer clothing so you can remove the top layer if you get overheated.
- Plan ahead. On days when heavy snowfalls are forecast, avoid rushing and allow adequate time for clearing the snow.
- Don't continue shovelling just to get the driveway cleared in a hurry. If you're tired, quit.
- Don't shovel or do any other vigorous activity directly after eating a meal. Your body is working hard enough just to digest the meal; adding vigorous activity on top of that could put too much strain on your heart.
- Don't stoop to pick up the snow; bend at the knees to avoid back problems.

Wind chill

The wind chill factor is the method used by weather forecasters to tell us how much colder the wind makes unprotected skin feel. So why do meteorologists say its -10 with a wind chill factor that will make it feel more like -18? Why don't they just say its -18?

The wind doesn't actually change the temperature outside, but the temperature we feel is not the air temperature but our skin temperature. A person will sense that it's colder because the wind steals body heat by blowing away warm air that surrounds the skin. This means the wind chill factor is not a factor for inanimate objects like rocks, cars and snow – they will all maintain the same temperatures no matter how strongly the winds blow.

The new wind chill index adopted in 2001 uses a mathematical model developed at Environment Canada that approximates how skin temperature, especially on the face, changes with various air temperatures and wind conditions.

The math was put to the test in the research labs of the Department of Defence in Toronto. A group of 12 volunteers, six men and six women, went through clinical trials in a refrigerated wind tunnel to see how the model held up in a real-world situation.

Quick facts

The coldest wind chill recorded in Canada was at Pelly Bay, Nunavut, on January 13, 1975, when 56 km/h winds (a wind chill factor of 3,357 watts/m²) made the temperature of -51 C feel more like -92 C.

The average high temperature in Yellowknife in January is -23.9 C. The average low is
-32.2

Temperatures in Ottawa are similar to those in Russia's capital. For the month of January, Ottawa's average high is -6.3 C and average low is -15.5 C, while Moscow's average high is -7 C and average low is -13 C. Average highs and lows for July, the warmest month, are also close for the two cities.

The wood frog, which is commonly found across Canada, has what's called freeze tolerance. In winter, the wood frog hibernates on land, usually using only a pile of leaves for shelter. Because this leaves it exposed to the cold, frost penetrates its skin and freezes its internal organs, halts blood flow and stops respiration. The heart stops beating and muscles stop moving. The wood frog's body functions return to normal when it thaws.

Environment Canada also warns of the level of risk of frostbite associated with a wind chill factor. For example, when the wind chill is from -28 to -39, exposed skin can freeze in 10 to 30 minutes.

Before 2001, Environment Canada would calculate wind chill as how much energy (or heat) the body loses per second depending on how much skin is exposed to the wind. Wind chill was measured in watts per square metre, with values ranging from 1,000 to more than 3,000.

But because a wind chill factor of 1,500 watts/m² is meaningless to most people, the value was translated to the temperature it would have to be to cause the same degree of heat loss without any wind. This is called the wind chill equivalent temperature – what you hear when meteorologists say, "Dress warm. It's -10 but with the wind chill factor it will feel more like -18."

Different countries use different formulas to calculate the wind chill factor and the wind chill equivalent temperature. However, they are all based on research conducted by scientists Paul A. Siple and Charles F. Passel in the 1940s, later used by the U.S. army to develop warmer clothing for soldiers. The research found that the rate at which water freezes depends on three factors: how warm it was to begin with, the outside temperature and the wind speed.

Canada and other countries adopted the wind chill index as a public health tool so people could protect themselves from cold-related ailments such as hypothermia and frostbite. This is especially useful for those who are going to be outside for long periods of time, whether snowmobiling or shovelling the driveway.

Hypothermia results when body temperature falls below 35 C. Symptoms include drowsiness, impaired co-ordination and weakness. It can also be fatal.

Frostbite is the result of skin freezing. It causes swelling, redness, tingling and burning. Skin turns white and waxy as the frostbite progresses. Infection and loss of extremities can result.

Frostnip is a condition where ice crystals form under the skin. Chilblains occur when bare skin is exposed to cold water, or when wet skin cools. The skin itches and swells. Chilblains can lead to gangrene.

According to Statistics Canada, 111 Canadians died from effects of the cold in 1997. Ninety-two of them were victims of hypothermia. Two cases of chilblains were fatal that year, and one person died from conditions resulting from frostbite of the hand.

Little-known facts about snow

The largest snowflake on record measured 38 centimetres in diameter, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It allegedly fell in 1887 at Fort Keogh, Montana. Ranch owner Matt Coleman took the measurement, and described the snowflakes as being "larger than milk pans." For their part, international weather stations do not measure snowflake dimensions.

Snow is white because visible sunlight is white. The crystals in a snowflake reflect white light off each other and what little light that is absorbed gives snow its white appearance.

It is never too cold to snow since moisture can exist in the air even at the lowest temperatures. However, most snowfalls occur when the air is -9 C or warmer, since air can hold more water vapour during warmer temperatures.

Snow is edible, at least in theory. Snow that falls in large urban centres may contain pollutants that should not be ingested, especially when these are present in high concentrations.

Snow makes things quieter because the air pockets in fresh snow absorb and trap sound waves. But ambient noise returns when surface snow hardens and begins to reflect more sound. In places where there is really hard snow, the icy surface will actually cause noise to travel farther.

Snow crunches when you step on it because snow is composed of ice grains surrounding tiny air pockets. Each layer of snow is largely of empty space. When you take a step on the surface, you are compressing layers and causing ice grains to compress. The colder the temperature, the louder the crunch because the ice grains are harder and less likely to melt during compression.

Icicles are more common on the south side of buildings because that exposure tends to receive more daytime sun. Snow is more likely to melt on the south side of a building. It then re-freezes during the night to form icicles.

Snow water refers to the amount of water that results from melted snow and varies with the type of snowfall and how dense the snow pack is. This runoff can flood storm drains and other low-lying areas and is carefully measured every year because of its importance to local agriculture. According to Natural Resources Canada, new snowfall typically has a density of around 100 kilograms per cubic metre but this can increase two or even three-fold as other snow is packed on top.

Watermelon snow is snow with algae growing on it. This particular algae thrives in cold water and has a reddish pigment that shows up especially when the snow is walked upon and compressed. It is even said to emit a subtle watermelon scent and is commonly found in alpine meadows in the Canadian Rockies.

374 - Canadian Music Friday ...

Canadian Music Friday … or not.

Last week I forgot my file on my 2nd memory stick. Well I brought it today and no file. Damn !

So I have to scramble and give you this that is very vaguely music, sort of.

Phil Nichol is a Canadian comedian, singer-songwriter and actor. Born in Scotland, but raised in North America, he first found fame as a member of the musical comedy trio Corky and the Juice Pigs.

As an actor, one of his most prominent roles was as Philip Salon in Boy George's musical, Taboo, which was shown in the West End of London.

His stand-up routines often include musical elements, with Nichol performing songs on his acoustic guitar, in which he is sometimes accompanied by a band. He is perhaps best known for the song "The Only Gay Eskimo (In My Tribe)". In 2002, his Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Things I Like I Lick was nominated for the Perrier Award and in 2006 he won the if.comeddie, successor to the Perrier Award, with a show entitled The Naked Racist which he has performed at The Stand comedy club and later at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In 2007, he was nominated for a Chortle Award.







UPDATE ... found my file

Daniel Lanois (born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer and singer-songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists including Bob Dylan, The Parachute Club, U2, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Robbie Robertson, the Neville Brothers, Chris Whitley, Ron Sexsmith, Martha and the Muffins and Nash the Slash.

After working collaboratively with Brian Eno on some of Eno's own projects, his career was given a huge boost when Eno invited him to co-produce U2's album The Unforgettable Fire. Along with Eno, he went on to produce U2's The Joshua Tree, the 1987 Grammy Winner for Album of the Year. Bono of U2 recommended Lanois to Bob Dylan in the late 1980s; in 1989 Lanois produced Dylan's Oh Mercy, widely considered one of Dylan's greatest later albums. Eight years later Dylan and Lanois worked together on Time Out of Mind, Dylan's first studio album of original material since 1993, which won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1997.

The Maker



Ma Jolie Louise



Shine



Fire