Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Oatmeal and Eczema.

I was discussing yesterdays interesting fact with Nick and for some reason the conversation moved to skin complaints and natural remedies that help them.

If you take oatmeal, place it in a small muslin pouch, and run hot water through it into your bath, bathing in the water can help with eczema.

I learned this from David Bellamy when he was on a TV program, and he mentioned that his daughter had eczema and this herbal remedy helped his daughter.

Someone in my family had problems with eczema and we tried the remedy and it also helped her, and it has also helped everyone I've ever mentioned it to who told me they had tried it.

I understand it doesn't always work, but so far I've never known anyone who it hasn't help relieve at least some if not all of the symptoms.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with the liquorice.

Liquorice is enjoyed by many people, but there are some who should not eat it, especially not in large amounts.

Liquorice increases your blood pressure, and if you have high blood pressure and are on medication for it, you should not eat the sweet.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with the musically inclined and the age 27.

Since 1908, at least 45 musicians and singers who are considered to being important to the development of music have died on reaching 27 years of age.

A short list that I've looked up is as follows:

NameWhat they did.
Brian JonesRolling Stones founder and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist.
Jimi HendrixPioneering electric guitarist, singer and songwriter for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys.
Janis JoplinLead vocalist and songwriter for Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band.
Jim MorrisonLead singer, songwriter and video director for The Doors.
Kurt CobainFounding member, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Nirvana.
Louis ChauvinRagtime musician.
Robert JohnsonBluesman. Recorded very famous and influential set of 29 songs that influenced many famous musicians after him.
Nat JaffeBlues musician.
Jesse BelvinR&B singer and songwriter.
Rudy LewisVocalist of The Drifters.
Malcolm HaleOriginal member of Spanky and Our Gang.
Dickie PrideBritish rock and roll singer.
Alan "Blind Owl" WilsonLeader, singer and primary composer of Canned Heat.
Arlester "Dyke" ChristianFrontman and vocalist of Dyke & the Blazers.
Linda JonesR&B singer.
Les HarveyGuitarist for Stone the Crows.
Ron "Pigpen" McKernanFounding member, keyboardist and singer of the Grateful Dead.
Roger Lee DurhamSinger and percussionist of Bloodstone.
Wallace YohnOrgan player of Chase.
Dave AlexanderBassist for the Stooges.
Pete HamKeyboardist and guitarist, leader of Badfinger.
Gary ThainFormer bassist of Uriah Heep and The Keef Hartley Band.
CeciliaSpanish singer
Helmut KöllenBassist with 1970s German prog rock band Triumvirat.
Chris BellSinger-songwriter and guitarist of power pop band Big Star and solo.
Jacob MillerJamaican reggae artist and lead singer for Inner Circle.
D. BoonGuitarist, lead singer of punk band the Minutemen.
Alexander BashlachevRussian poet, rock musician and songwriter.
Jean-Michel BasquiatPainter and graffiti artist; formed the band Gray.
Pete de FreitasDrummer for Echo & the Bunnymen.
Mia ZapataLead singer of the Gits.
Kristen PfaffBass guitarist for Hole and Janitor Joe.
Richey James EdwardsLyricist and guitarist for Manic Street Preachers.
StretchRapper
Fat PatRapper and member of Screwed Up Click.
Freaky TahRapper and member of the hip hop group Lost Boyz.
Sean Patrick McCabeLead singer of Ink & Dagger.
Rodrigo BuenoArgentinian Cuarteto singer.
Maria Serrano SerranoBackground singer for Passion Fruit.
Jeremy Michael WardThe Mars Volta and De Facto sound manipulator.
Bryan OttosonGuitarist for American Head Charge.
Valentín ElizaldeMexican banda singer.
Orish GrinsteadFounding member of '90s R&B group 702.
Lily TemboZambian musician.
Amy WinehouseBritish singer/songwriter.


Lots of other individuals many have considered as influential in their fields of expertise have also died at 27. These include sport stars, scientists, politicians and many more.

27 seems to be a special age and I have heard some suggesting there must be a conspiracy, but I think it is just that some people die at 27.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with toothpaste and wasting money.

Does anyone ever read the instructions on the toothpaste boxes or containers?

Being a bit of a nerd, I have.

The instructions are contradictory to the adverts that show us how to use the stuff.

Adverts show the users placing a long line of paste from one end of the bristles of toothbrush to the other and usually extending over the ends.

However if you read the instructions they tell you to place a pea sized amount on the brush.

Peas are not that large which means if you are using the adverts to determine how much to place on your toothbrush, you are putting three to four (or more) times more paste than you actually need.

The reason for the adverts suggesting you put so much more on is of course to increase sales, if you use four times as much toothpaste as you need, you will be purchasing toothpaste four times as often as you need.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with the platypus, often referred to as the duckbilled platypus.

This is one of the five species of Monotremes that are still with us.

A Monotreme is an egg laying mammal that nurses its young.

Unlike placental or marsupial mammals which have two sex chromosomes, one pair; the platypus has ten sex chromosomes, five pairs.

There is no agreed plural of the word platypus.

Platypuses is sometimes used as is platypi but the first is by English rules and the second is pseudo-Latin.

The name platypus is derived from Greek, so the correct plural is really platypodes.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with moths.

Moths are closely related to butterflies and are in the same order, Lepidoptera.

There are thought to be between 150,000 and 250,000 species of moths in the world, perhaps 10 times as many butterfly species.

Most are nocturnal but some work at twilight or during the day.

Some moths can be easily identified when in caterpillar form and others are easily identified as adults, but many are so similar that the only way to properly identify them is to scan their genetics, which is time consuming, and as most species moths have not had their genes analysed yet, pointless; or to dissect their genitals, which involves killing the moth.

Most moth species have genitals that are completely different, with male and female parts fitting together in one specific way, thus preventing breeding with incompatible species.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with wasps.

Many people get upset by wasps, some positively freak out.

But until the wasp larvae grow up, wasps provide a valuable service, especially in our vegetable gardens and farms, as they are predators who hunt those insects that damage our crops.

Until the wasp larvae have matured, the adult hunters go out and find many of the caterpillars and adult insects for the wasp grubs.

Adult wasps do not become attracted to our picnics until later in the summer.

This is because the wasp larvae act as secondary stomachs for the adult hunter wasps that do not have the metabolic ability to digest proteins.

Adults feed the larvae protein rich insects and carrion and the larvae then regurgitate pre-digested meals for the adult wasps.

It is only after the last generation of wasps in the nest which includes all the drones and queen larvae have gone to pupation in the last days of the nest, the hunter wasps then turn to finding more sugary foods to feed themselves.

At this point go after fallen fruit, our sugary drinks and our picnic baskets and therefore become pests to us.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Between Nick and I having time off last week, I wasn't able to give him his facts of the day in a timely manner.

I have been off setting this omission by adding some additional facts, here is another for today.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with passwords.

Recently, with the hacking of Sony user database as well as various banks, there has been a lot of attention to people's passwords.

Various hacking groups have posted the information on websites for other hackers, and security analysts have downloaded the information in an attempt to make our passwords more secure.

The results of this scrutiny have caused some companies to change the types of passwords they allow us to use, requiring the addition of numbers and non-alphanumeric characters in our passwords.

A recent study by one of these analysts has shown that 14 percent of the passwords used are given names.

Of these names, the top three used are,

maggie
michael
jennifer

The same study showed that 25 percent of passwords come from the dictionary.

The top three used of these are:

password
monkey
dragon

In addition, many use the same passwords for every site they access.

Is it any wonder that so many find their accounts hacked?
Today’s interesting fact has to do with Thumbs.

Specifically with how many distal digits animals have.

There are two types of animals that normally have 6 digits on the ends of their forearms.

The Giant Panda is one and moles are the other.

Both have a 'second thumb'.

In the case of the Giant Panda, the first thumb is like a finger and the thumb is a growth developed from one of the wrist bones.

In the case of moles, the second thumb has also developed from of the wrist bones.

This second digit is not the same as the polydactyl condition that sometimes occurs in cats, as only some cats have multiple digits, whereas all Giant Pandas and Moles have these second thumbs.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Tuberculosis (TB).

Many people know something about TB, usually that it was common and lethal in the past, and 100 years ago, everyone knew someone who had it.

Now, it seems to be confined to third world countries, and most people don't know anyone with it.

Back in 2005, in the UK they stopped inoculating people against the disease, because people were not catching TB in numbers that made it sensible to continue the vaccines.

But in London, in just 6 years, the number of the indigenous population catching the disease has increased to a point where they are considering re-introducing the vaccine.

Those being infected are catching it from people from overseas who are either visiting, as tourists or migrant workers, or from immigrants from countries where the disease is still prevalent.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Bone China,

Many people like the porcelain that is bone china.

The fact that is is so white and translucent coupled with the high mechanical strength and chip resistance makes it very popular.

The strength means that it can be made much thinner than other china.

But what a lot of people don't know is that the name describes what it is made from, with more than 30% made from phosphate and calcium phosphate from animal bones.

The traditional method of making it requires 50% bone ash in the preparation and to keep the iron content down, most is derived from cattle bones.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with transfats.

The medical profession have all agreed throughout the world that transfats are bad for us.

The US FDA recommends a limit of 2 grams of transfat a day.

The EU is considering what limit to suggest.

Denmark recently banned transfats in foods in that country, but the EU stated that the ban was illegal and they had to rescind it.

Transfats have often been called empty calories, except that your body does use them, although not in the way you might wish it to.

Transfats increase the bad cholesterol in your blood, and has been linked to the plaque that forms in arteries.

In the US, if a product has more a half a gram of transfat per serving, they have to put the information on the packet.

So many companies have reduced their suggested serving sizes, so that each serving size only has 0.49 grams of transfat in it, and therefore they do not need to declare it is in the product.

It also means they can put 0% transfat on their packet, even though the product has transfats in them.

Because the serving size is reduced, and people tend to still eat what they think is the correct serving, many end up going over the recommended limit very quickly.

In the EU, transfat amounts are not yet required on the packet, and companies include it within the saturated fat figure.

Granola bars, breakfast cereals, cakes and breads often contain transfat.

Until the EU requires transfat amounts on packages and the US requires exact amounts of it in food products, no one will really know how much they are eating.

Did I mention that transfats are bad for us?

Monday, July 11, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with the practice of sex selective abortions.

In China and India, they have been selecting to have male children instead of female children for a number of years.

This can be done with an easy screening of the foetus by extracting cells floating in the water of the womb, an amniocentesis, and verifying the sex of the child by looking at the sex chromosomes.

This is because within even a small amount of amniotic fluid there will be foetal tissue.

This originally was used to test for chromosomal abnormalities and foetal infections, but has been turned to making sure you have the sex of the child that some desire.

In China, the sex of your child is considered important, as male children look after their parents as they age, and female children when they marry move to their husband home, where they look after the parents.

Because of the one child policy, where urban couples are allowed to only have one child, many of these urban couples are selecting to only have male children.

There are exceptions to the policy, which are rural couples, ethnic minorities and parents without any siblings.

Unfortunately this sexual selection in China now means that under the age of 20, there are 32 million more boys than girls in the Chinese population.

Where these young men are going to find wives is anyone’s guess.

This subject has been covered in a number of future fictions, where many of the books have suggested other countries would be invaded to provide these women.
Today’s interesting fact has to do with Asthma.

I have asthma, and the past few days it has been very difficult to breathe.

The number of people who have asthma seems to be increasing exponentially in the western world.

There are many possible theories for why this has happened.

One theory is that we have become too clean, have gotten rid of too many parasites such as worms, bacteria, and viruses that are normally found in our systems, and our immune systems are attacking the only thing they have left, our own bodies.

This theory has gotten a boost recently with the discovery that infections of helicobacter pylori seem relieve some symptoms of asthma, as if the immune system is attacking the bacteria instead of the lungs.

Because of the potential bad affects of h. pylori on the body, which include ulcers, acid reflux, and various cancers, doctors have been treating many to get rid of the infection, even if the infections have been benign.

They are now rethinking the treatments of benign infections.

Friday, July 08, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Krill.

Krill are small shrimp like invertebrates that are found in all the oceans of the world and they feed many large animals, such as whales and basking sharks as well as many smaller species.

It is estimated that if you took all the Antarctic krill and placed them on one side of a balancing scale and put all the humans on the planet on the other side of the scale, the Krill would weigh more.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with dogs.

I wrote earlier about the new evidence that humans and dogs have co-existed for more than 32,000 years.

An article I read a little while ago asked why humans would have domesticated dogs, because as carnivores they would compete with humans, and that that competition would contraindicate the relationship.

However, another article suggested that as dogs are eaten over a large part of the world, and that dogs have been shown to been eaten everywhere in the world at one time or another, domesticating dogs would have made sense, especially if larger litters were selected for as well as breeding more than once a year.

A bitch that is nursing doesn't eat much more than they do when they are not, they tend to move about less and use less energy than they would normally.

As the owners of the litter would only want to keep one or two from a litter at most, and that they would be concentrating on selecting those in the litter that got on with humans best, the rest of the litter would be available for the common pot.

This would explain why dogs breed more than once in a year, unlike wolves, as well as the larger than normal wolf litter sizes most dogs have.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Tallow.

Tallow usually a rendered form of beef and mutton fat, although commercial tallows can also contain other animals fats such as lard from pigs, fat from deer or plant fats.

Tallow is used in making soaps, detergents, fabric softeners, cosmetics, medical preparations and a myriad of other products.

Many people such as Vegans or Vegetarians, find it important to know if animal extracts have been used in making the products they use, and others such as Muslims or Jews find it important to know if a product may contain pig lard in order to comply with their religious dietary laws.

One way to tell if a product contains tallow is if the name of the ingredient contains the letters tallo in it.

While in no way complete following list contains examples of known tallow derived ingredients:

Dihydrogenated Tallow Benzylmoniumchloride, Dihydrogenated Tallow Methylamine, Dihydrogenated Tallow Phthalate, Dihydroxyethyl Tallow Amine Oxide, Dimethyl Hydrogenated Tallowamine, Dimethyl Tallowamine, Disodium Hydrogenated TallowGlutamate, Disodium Tallamido Mea-Sulfosuccinate, Disodium Tallowaminodipropionate, Ditallowdimonium Chloride, Hydrogenated Animal Glyceride, Hydrogenated Ditallow Amine, Hydrogenated Tallow Acid, Hydrogenated Tallow Betaine, Hydrogenated Tallow Glyceride, Isopropyl Tallowatelsopropyl Lanolate, PEG-13 Hydrogenated Tallow Amide, PEG-15 Tallow Polyamine, PEG-20 Tallowate, PEG-28 Glyceryl Tallowate, PEG-3 Tallow Aminopropylamine, PEG-10 Tallow Aminopropylamine, PEG-15 Tallow Aminopropylamine, Potassium Tallowate, Sodium Hydrogenated Tallow Glutamate, Sodium TAllow Sulfate, Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Tallowate, Tallow, Tallow Acid, Tallow Amide, Tallow Amidopropylamine Oxide. Tallow Amine, Tallow Amine Oxide, Tallow Glycerides, Tallow Hydroxyethal Imidazoline, Tallow Imidazoline, Tallow Trimonium Chloride, Talloweth-6, Tallowmide DEA and MEA, Tallowmidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Tallowminopropylamine, or Tallowmphoacete.

The following ingredients that can be found in various product may have been extracted from Tallow: Palmitic acid, Stearic acid, Myristic acid, Oleic acid, Palmitoleic acid, Linoleic acid and Linolenic acid.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Camels and birth control.

I was eating a couple stoned dried dates, when I found a date seed and this reminded me of the following interesting fact.

I have read from several souces over the years that for thousands of years those who raised camels used to use the stones from dates as an IUD to prevent unwanted pregnancies in their female camels.

Monday, July 04, 2011

Today's interesting fact has to do with Polar Bears.

Many people think polar bears are white, but they are not.

The polar bear's skin is black, from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail.

While the fur looks white, it is actually transparent when viewed in a microscope, we see it as white due to limited diffraction and reflection of light.

If you look carefully at a hair, you will notice that it not just clear but it is also hollow.

The hollow core serves several purposes.

First it provides buoyancy when swimming.

Second the air in the hollow provides additional insulation.

Third like the most modern optical fibre which are now hollow, this core helps channel light down to the skin of the bear, where the black skin absorbs any residual heat.

This fur, combined with the layer of fat beneath the skin, allows polar bears to function in temperatures less than 70 degrees Centigrade.

Friday, July 01, 2011

Today’s interesting fact has to do with English Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Anvils.

A lot of people know that Song Thrushes will pick a large rock and use it as an anvil to break up snail shells and eat the extracted snail.

I was walking home last night and saw an English Blackbird do the same, using a brick drive way as the anvil.

Aparently Blackbirds in some parts of England have learnt the trick and in other areas, the birds will steal extracted snails from Song Thrushes and in other areas Blackbirds don't seem to eat snails.