Today's interesting fact has to do with Tea.

What is the difference between black tea and green tea?

Black tea has been oxidized.

In the distant past, this was done by the application of a mould.

Now it is oxidized using machinery specially developed for the process.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Cotton.

Cotton has been used for garments and ropes thousands of years.

Old World cotton has short strands.

When the Spanish went into the Caribbean they found that the cotton used by the Carib and Arawak Indians had long strands.

Europeans took seeds of the Caribbean cotton and exported it all over the world, where it was crossed with short strand cotten, to create the hybrids of cotton we use today.

Today's interesting fact has to do with dog's wool.

Which would you think is warmer, cardigans created from wool from sheep or lambs, or wool from dogs.

The answer might not be what you think.

Dog's wool is better at keeping you warm, it is up to 80% warmer than sheep or lambs wool.

You might not be able to purchase Chiengora garments, but there are plenty of examples on the internet on how to create your own garments.

Dog wool was the main fiber spun on the North American continent before the Spaniards introduced sheep.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the Lionfish.

The Lionfish comes from the pacific ocean.

It has sharp spines that contain venom which mean that it has few preditors.

It has become a pest in the Caribbean, where it has no natural enemies.

It seems a few were released from aquariums in the US and are now devistating Caribbean ecologies.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Films.

If you are into action films, animated or ones made from comics, it is important to watch to the end of the credits.

Often, these films will have spoilers at the end of the film, which sometimes makes part of the film make more sense, or will set up the reason for a sequel.

For example, Thor has reached the cinema, so if you go to watch it make sure you watch the film to the last credit.

Today's interesting fact has to do with GPS.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System.

GPS is being used by a number of systems these days.

Almost everyone knows about SatNavs and how it makes things easier for drivers to get from one place to another, and they have replaced maps for many.

But there are other systems that use GPS, even though they never move, because of the exact timings that can be obtained from the system.

Three satelites are used to determine the position of the object using GPS, and a fourth satelite then provides the exact time.

That exact time, is used in traffic systems in coordinating traffic lights, in hospitals in coordinating medical machinery, by telephone systems in the masts that send singnals to your mobile telephone.

A recent experiment involving GPS blocking in California by the US Navy caused no end of issues with these systems.

China is producing GPS blockers and these are on sale through the internet throughout the world.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the Small-leaved Lime.

Tilia cordata is a tree that grows through much of Europe and Southern Britian and it has been planted in many areas as an ornimental.

Car drivers are well aware of the honey dew that sometimes drips on their cars if carelessly parked in the wrong places, e.g. under the trees in late spring.

This honey dew comes from aphids that can attack the trees when the leaves are young.

The young leaves are edible and were traditionaly used in Britian in spring salads and as a replacement to lettuce in salads.

Lime tree honey is considered a delicacy by some and the flowers can be made into a tea which is supposed to have medicinal properties.

It is thought to be an anti-inflammatory and has been traditionally used in respiratory issues: such as colds, fevers, flues, sore throat, bronchitis, and cough.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the calorie.

When asked, a lot of people don't know what a calorie is.

A calorie is a unit of energy.

It is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree C, or around 4.2 joules of energy.

This calorie is sometimes called the small calorie or the gram calorie.

In most 'scientific' applications, the joule is now used instead.

The calorie is mostly used now as a unit of food energy.

To make things confusing for dieters, there is also the Calorie, sometimes called the Large Calorie, Kilogram calorie, the kilocalorie, Dietary calorie or food calorie.

The Calorie (always denoted with an uppercase or capital C) is the energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree C.

Calories in food is determined by calculations, developed by Wilbur Olin Atwater and associated in the 19th Century, where they compared the energy produce by burning and estimating how much energy is used after the foodstuff passed through an alimentary canal.

We have learnt recently that the number of calories that can be removed from food increases with the amount of processing a foodstuff receives.

This sadly means that the calories listed on many food packets can incorrect, by as much as 25% and those of us who diet, must keep this in mind when calculating how many calories we are consuming.

Today's interesting fact has to do with ties and high blood pressure.

Recently medical research has confirmed that wearing a part of the traditional western formal business attire can contribute to a serious health risk.

A tie increases pressure in two ways.

1) It places pressure on the glands of the neck that help the body control blood pressure and cause an increase in that way.

2) It constricts the blood vessels of the neck and the restriction this causes creates a feed back to the heart which then raises the blood pressure to get the correct amount of blood into the brain.

Both of these have been shown by the increase of pressure within the eye.

There is evidence that it can also cause Glaucoma.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Absinthe.

Absinthe is a high alcohol content drink that also has extracts of wormwood, green anise and sweet fennel within it.

It was very popular as an alcoholic drink in late 19th- and early 20th-century France.

Because of the wormwood extracts Absinthe has historically been portrayed as dangerously addictive and hallucinogenic.

One chemical, thujone, which is present in small quantities, has been was blamed for the alleged harmful effects.

Because of accepted belief that Absinthe was considered addictive, by 1915, Absinthe was banned in the United States and in most European countries.

However, recent research has shown that wormwood is not addictive nor a hallucinogen.

An examination of a few of the remaining Absinthe bottles from the 19th and early 20th century, it seems that the hallucinations users suffered were more likely to come about from the methyl alcohol also found in the bottles.

Today's interesting fact has to do with sleep and the brain.

In our busy modern lives, many of us find ourselves waking up tired.

There have been many proposed reasons for this lack of restful sleep.

It has been suggested that modern lighting has caused the problems, by resetting our body clocks.

It has been shown that bright blue light will reset our circadian rhythms.

Florescent and LED lights tend to be in the bluer range.

It has been suggested that looking at our bright computer screens and mobile telephones late at night does just this.

They have been studying the brain using MRI to determine what sections of the brain do various tasks and how they interact.

Several studies that have shown when we have a lack of sleep, sections of the brain can take a nap without our realising it.

These naps cause a reduction in ability, especially when doing repetitive tasks.

People will often do the 'wrong' things when these naps occur.

Drivers lose the ability to drive and have accidents, operators of machinery can mis-use their equipment, writers can type nonsense, and speakers can find they talk nonsense.

With a good night sleep, they find that the brain doesn't nap and accidents then are less likely to occur.