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13 December 2009 @ 09:23 pm
  • Pies and tarts are the most popular desserts with people whose dinner check is under 15.00-dollars.
  • Try brushing the bottom crust of fruit pies with egg whites to prevent the fruit juices from soaking in.
  • Make sure your oven has been pre-heated for 15 to 20 minutes before placing a cake in.
  • Always bake on a middle shelf in the oven; the heat will circulate more evenly.
  • To keep a cake from drying out, attach slices of bread with toothpicks to any exposed cut edges of cakes.
  • To ice a many-layered cake, try attaching all the layers with a few pieces of dry spaghetti.
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13 December 2009 @ 12:49 pm
  • The crabapple is the only apple native to North America.
  • Apples come in all shades of reds, greens, and yellows.
  • Two pounds of apples make one 9-inch pie.
  • Apple blossom is the state flower of Michigan.
  • 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States.
  • 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.
  • 100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States.
  • Apples are grown commercially in 36 states.
  • Apples are grown in all 50 states.
  • Apples are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free.
  • A medium apple is about 80 calories.
  • Apples are a great source of the fiber pectin. One apple has five grams of fiber.
  • The pilgrims planted the first United States apple trees in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • The science of apple growing is called pomology.
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11 December 2009 @ 12:07 am
Poo nugget for this weekend: Sour Milk - The early twentieth-century observation by Russian scientist and Nobel Prize winner Elie Metchnikoff, that rural Bulgarians who consumed fermented milk lived long lives has led to the widespread consumption of sour milk. Metchnikoff hypothesized that the lactic acid bacteria present in fermented milk conferred health benefits. Soon after this observation, doctors across Europe began prescribing sour milk to their patients. One hundred years later, healthful bacteria are still found in many dairy products, including fermented milk like kefir.

Poo nugget for Monday, December 7: Doo You Know? - When A Penny Saved Is Not A Penny Earned - The British saying "to spend a penny" is a euphemism for using the toilet. This saying comes from the British practice of paying to use public toilets. Although pay toilets fell out of favor in the United States in the 1970s, the United Kingdom still uses these facilities for Number Two.

Poo nugget for Tuesday, December 8: Worms Suck - This day in 1813 marks the birth date of Angelo Dubini, the Italian physician who discovered the hookworm, a parasite that causes iron deficiency anemia. He found the worm, Anchylostoma duodenale, in 1843, when conducting an autopsy on a peasant woman. This worm literally sucks blood from the intestinal tract, and its spread amongst workers gave rise to such conditions as "miner's anemia" and "bricklayer's anemia."

Poo nugget for Wednesday, December 9: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words... - The Bristol Stool Scale is a tool used by gastroenterologists to help standardize the discourse on poo. Utilizing pictures and descriptions such as "like a sausage but with cracks," the scale breaks down poo into seven types. British physicians first published this poo pictorial in 1990, and found that the appearance of poo correlated with the amount of time it spends in the colon. The harder and more lumpy the stool, the longer the travel time.




Poo nugget for Thursday, December 10: Always Shake With Your Right Hand - Post-poo cleanup in countries such as India and Pakistan occurs with the use of water and the left hand. For this reason, extending one's left hand in greeting is considered impolite and offensive, and maybe a little gross.

Poo nugget for Friday, December 11: The Worst Case of Constipation - The world's largest preserved colon once contained over forty pounds of stool, and was stretched to many times its original size. On display at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, the colon's owner suffered from Hirschprung's disease, a thankfully rare disorder that results in the inability to empty one's bowels.
 
 
Place: townhouse
Attitude: cheerful
Tunes: Fugazi, "And The Same"
 
 
 
09 December 2009 @ 12:23 am
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, has sisters called Maggie and Lisa, and parents called Homer and Marge. He didn't want to name Grampa Simpson after his own grandfather, so let the writers choose a name. The writers chose the name Abraham, which coincidentally is also Groening's grandfather's name.

Source: Wikipedia entry for Matt Groening
 
 
08 December 2009 @ 04:36 pm
Adolf Hitler targeted the Jews in the Holocaust not simply out of hate, but for strategic reasons. Describing his plan to take over Germany, and then Europe, he wrote:

I scanned the revolutionary events of history and… [asked] myself: against which racial element in Germany can I unleash my propaganda of hate with the greatest prospects of success? …I came to the conclusion that a campaign against the Jews would be as popular as it would be successful.

Jews, Hitler figured, were already well hated and, thus, would lend themselves to demonization quite easily.

However, Ronald Berger writes in his essay The “Banality of Evil” Reframed, once it was decided that the Jews would be targeted, “the most immediate difficulty that confronted the Nazis was the construction of a legal definition of the target population”.

Who was Jewish? At first, the Nazis defined Jews as non-Aryan. But this became problematic because nations with whom Germany wanted to ally (e.g., Japan) were arguably non-Aryan. The regime settled on a definition that linked non-Aryan-ness to religion. Both racial and religious characteristics could qualify one as “Jewish.”

Source, with pictures instruments for measuring Jewishness: Sociological Images
 
 

Your (LOL) funny bone.

But your funny bone isn't actually a bone at all. Running down the inside part of your elbow is a nerve called the ulnar nerve. The ulnar nerve lets your brain know about feelings in your fourth and fifth fingers. It's also one of the nerves that controls some movement of your hand.

You get that funny feeling when the ulnar nerve is bumped against the humerus (say: hyoo-muh-rus), the long bone that starts at your elbow and goes up to your shoulder. Tapping your funny bone doesn't do any damage to your elbow, arm, or ulnar nerve. But it sure feels strange!

Source: KidsHealth

 
 
07 December 2009 @ 05:00 pm



The United States Library of Congress in Washington D.C. ranks as the largest library in the world. How large is it?

The nation's library holds over 118 million items which require more than 500 miles of shelving.
Source: Library Spot

 
 
05 December 2009 @ 12:54 pm
Edward Craven-Walker is responsible for bringing the lava lamp into millions of homes over the years. After seeing a fascinating egg-timer with a blob of wax in it at an English pub around the mid-1940s, and being informed that the person who invented it had passed away, Craven-Walker spent the next 15 years perfecting the lava lamp. Beginning in 1963, Craven-Walker brought the novelty lamps to trade shows, and by 1965 they were being sold in the U.S. The lava lamp, whose original name was "Astrolight" or "Astro Lamp," became a staple fixture during the psychedelic 1960s. More lava lamps were sold in the 1990s than in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s combined.

source.
 
 
Tunes: Quarterflash - Harden My Heart
 
 
05 December 2009 @ 12:18 pm
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Turtles have been on the earth for more than 200 million years. They evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and even lizards.

 

The earliest turtles had teeth and could not retract their heads, but other than this, modern turtles are very similar to their original ancestors.

 

Several species of turtles can live to be over a hundred years of age including the American Box Turtle.

 

One documented case of longevity involves an adult Indian Ocean Giant Tortoise that when captured as an adult was estimated to be fifty years old. It then lived another 152 years in captivity.

 

Turtles live on every continent except Antarctica.

 

 

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04 December 2009 @ 12:31 am
Poo nugget for this weekend: Dung Beetle - True to its name, this insect feeds almost exclusively on the feces of other animals. Aided by a strong sense of smell, the dung beetle has a discerning palate for poo, preferring the excrement of herbivores because it contains all the nutrients necessary for the beetle's survival.

Poo nugget for Monday, November 30: Be Thankful You're Not A Horse - The rectal exam is one of the most dreaded aspects of any visit to the doctor. This intrusive anal probing involves insertion of a gloved finger a mere three to four inches inside the rectum, and is performed to evaluate the lower part of the GI tract... in reality, it examines less than 10 percent of the total colon. In horses, the rectal exam is a bit more involved, as veterinarians don a rubber sleeve extending from the hand to the shoulder, and insert the entire arm in the poor horse's rectum.

Poo nugget for Tuesday, December 1: Gift Poo - Synonyms: Pollyanna Poo, Phantom Poo, Surprise Party, Shock and Awe, Flushless Folly, River Pickle. (POO OF THE MONTH!) [the drawing is of a smelly toilet with a gift ribbon around the bowl, hahaha!]

Poo nugget for Wednesday, December 2: No Soft Cheese For You! - Listeria monocytogenes is a common cause of food poisoning. When infection occurs in healthy, non-pregnant adults, symptoms of explosive diarrhea and mild abdominal pain usually resolve in 24 to 48 hours. Infection can be much more serious in pregnant women, so expectant mothers are usually advised to steer clear of the common causes. Infection in pregnancy typically occurs after consumption of soft-ripened cheeses like feta / Brie / Camembert and can be quite serious, even resulting in miscarriage.

Poo nugget for Thursday, December 3: Doo You Know? - Everyone Needs TP - Toilet paper manufacturing is an enormous global industry. In 2007, U.S. consumers spent more than $3.7 billion on toilet paper, according to Information Resources. That does not include Wal-Mart stores, which do not report sales data.

Poo nugget for Friday, December 4: Combating Farts - Alpha-D-galactosidase, the active ingredient in gas-reducing substances like Beano, is an enzyme that helps you digest the otherwise indigestible polysaccharides high up in the digestive tract. Thus, it prevents their passage into the colon, where voracious gas-forming bacteria reside.
 
 
Place: home
Attitude: amused
Tunes: the AVC.com, "Cybersex"
 
 
 
 

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