* Time to Change originated because it IS Time to Change the thought processes that occur each and every day and for them to be happy with themselves, and hold their heads up and once again bring back their self esteem.
* Time to Change is a Homeless Veterans Reintegration/Transitional Program for male, female and Veterans/Families.
* Programs consist of Drug & Alcohol Counseling, Aid in submission of Veterans Forms.
* On-site Veterans Affairs Officer to assist with obtaining pension/compensation.
* Provide a shelter and meals while helping them to Transition to a residence of their own.
* Assist with resumes' and job applications.
* Provide any aspect of counseling as needed.
* Provide counseling and shelter for Domestic Violence, Male/Female.
* Provide assistance with Continuing Education by assisting with Grants.
"THEY HAVE FOUGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY, NOW IT'S TIME TO SHOW THEM "WE CARE" FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE FOR US". MAINLY FREEDOM
Tom Tedder
Director
(720) 422-9374
Jimmy Williams
Asst. Director
Or contact your Representative
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Saturday, May 30, 2015
About The Bible II
14. Written over the course of a thousand years, primarily in ancient Hebrew, the Jewish Bible is the equivalent of Christianity's Old Testament. For Jews there is no New Testament.
15. At least half as much time elapsed between the Bible's first book and its last (with well over a thousand years between the first writing and the time of the last), as has elapsed between its last book and now. This means that writing styles vary not just between modern books and the Bible but among the Bible books themselves.
16. The terms Old Testament and New Testament originated with the prophet Jeremiah. When he spoke about the glorious future for Israel of which the prophets often spoke, he said that God would "make a new covenant with the house of Israel." Testament means "covenant," and Jesus of Nazareth, the long-awaited Messiah, made a new covenant with God's people. The books of the New Testament provide the fulfillment of the promises made throughout the Old Testament books.
17. The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Koine Greek dialect was an outstanding literary accomplishment under the Ptolemies. This translation was called the Septuagint. The translation project is said to have been sponsored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus around the third century B.C. According to tradition, seventy-two Jewish scholars (six from each of the twelve tribes) were summoned for the project. The work was finished in seventy-two days; the Jewish scholars were then sent away with many gifts.
18. The Septuagint provided a bridge between the thoughts and vocabulary of the Old and New Testaments. The language of the New Testament is not the koine of the everyday Greek, but the koine of the Jew living in Greek surroundings. By the New Testament era, it was the most widely used edition of the Old Testament.
19. Most Jews of Jesus' day spoke Aramaic, a Syrian language similar to Hebrew that was commonly used at the time. Jesus surely studied the formal Hebrew of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Whether he could also speak Greek is unknown. Jesus left no personal writings.
20. Both the Jewish Bible and Christian Old Testament contain the same thirty-nine books, although they are arranged and numbered in a slightly different order. In Jewish traditions the Bible is called the Tanakh, an acronym of the Hebrew words Torah (for "law" or "teaching"), Nevi'im ("the Prophets"), and Kethuvim ("the Writings").
21. The Old Testament's first five books, the Pentateuch, were already considered authoritative Scriptures by the time of Ezra in the fifth century B.C. The other books were recognized as part of the Old Testament at later times.
22. Jesus himself knew the "old covenant." As a Jewish boy, he diligently studied the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. He could recite them by heart when he was twelve. Because there was no Bible as we know it, he would have learned by rote from scrolls kept by local teachers or rabbis.
23. The earliest references to the Old Testament were "the law of Moses," the law of the Lord," or simply "Moses." Since the additional writings were considered the work of prophets, the common term became "Moses and the Prophets" or something similar.
Note: Wherever the word "law" is seen, the Jewish reference would be "Torah." By New Testament times, "Scripture" or "the Scriptures" became common. The simplest generic term for the collection was "writings," often with "sacred" or "holy" added.
24. The uniformity of Bible printing sometimes obscures the scope of variety within the Bible's writings. If Bible printers laid out the print with all the different styles and languages accounted for, including prose, poetry, and songs, a wheelbarrow would be needed to move a Bible from the den to the bedroom.
25. No Bible writer that we know of ever drew a map to accompany his writing-at least not one that was preserved. Maps are generally drawn from facts discovered through historical and archaeological research.
15. At least half as much time elapsed between the Bible's first book and its last (with well over a thousand years between the first writing and the time of the last), as has elapsed between its last book and now. This means that writing styles vary not just between modern books and the Bible but among the Bible books themselves.
16. The terms Old Testament and New Testament originated with the prophet Jeremiah. When he spoke about the glorious future for Israel of which the prophets often spoke, he said that God would "make a new covenant with the house of Israel." Testament means "covenant," and Jesus of Nazareth, the long-awaited Messiah, made a new covenant with God's people. The books of the New Testament provide the fulfillment of the promises made throughout the Old Testament books.
17. The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Koine Greek dialect was an outstanding literary accomplishment under the Ptolemies. This translation was called the Septuagint. The translation project is said to have been sponsored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus around the third century B.C. According to tradition, seventy-two Jewish scholars (six from each of the twelve tribes) were summoned for the project. The work was finished in seventy-two days; the Jewish scholars were then sent away with many gifts.
18. The Septuagint provided a bridge between the thoughts and vocabulary of the Old and New Testaments. The language of the New Testament is not the koine of the everyday Greek, but the koine of the Jew living in Greek surroundings. By the New Testament era, it was the most widely used edition of the Old Testament.
19. Most Jews of Jesus' day spoke Aramaic, a Syrian language similar to Hebrew that was commonly used at the time. Jesus surely studied the formal Hebrew of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Whether he could also speak Greek is unknown. Jesus left no personal writings.
20. Both the Jewish Bible and Christian Old Testament contain the same thirty-nine books, although they are arranged and numbered in a slightly different order. In Jewish traditions the Bible is called the Tanakh, an acronym of the Hebrew words Torah (for "law" or "teaching"), Nevi'im ("the Prophets"), and Kethuvim ("the Writings").
21. The Old Testament's first five books, the Pentateuch, were already considered authoritative Scriptures by the time of Ezra in the fifth century B.C. The other books were recognized as part of the Old Testament at later times.
22. Jesus himself knew the "old covenant." As a Jewish boy, he diligently studied the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. He could recite them by heart when he was twelve. Because there was no Bible as we know it, he would have learned by rote from scrolls kept by local teachers or rabbis.
23. The earliest references to the Old Testament were "the law of Moses," the law of the Lord," or simply "Moses." Since the additional writings were considered the work of prophets, the common term became "Moses and the Prophets" or something similar.
Note: Wherever the word "law" is seen, the Jewish reference would be "Torah." By New Testament times, "Scripture" or "the Scriptures" became common. The simplest generic term for the collection was "writings," often with "sacred" or "holy" added.
24. The uniformity of Bible printing sometimes obscures the scope of variety within the Bible's writings. If Bible printers laid out the print with all the different styles and languages accounted for, including prose, poetry, and songs, a wheelbarrow would be needed to move a Bible from the den to the bedroom.
25. No Bible writer that we know of ever drew a map to accompany his writing-at least not one that was preserved. Maps are generally drawn from facts discovered through historical and archaeological research.
About The Bible I
1. The Bible. Christians believe this book to be the true Word of God. From the creation account of Genesis to the end-time visions of Revelation, from the story of Israel to Jesus' ministry, it is the source for what Christians believe and how they try to live.
2. The word Bible comes from the Greek word biblia, which means "books," which comes from another word, biblos, meaning papyrus, a material books were made from in ancient times.
3. The ancient Greeks obtained their supplies of paper from the port of Byblos, in what is now Lebanon. Their word for book-biblion (the singular form of biblia)- was derived from the name of this port, and from this we get our English word Bible, meaning the Book of books.
4. The word Bible is not in the Bible. The term came long after all the writings were completed and assembled.
5. The Bible is the world's best-selling book as well as the world's most shoplifted book!
6. The Bible is the most bought yet understood book. Nine out of ten Americans own a Bible, but fewer than half ever read it. Worldwide sales of the Bible are uncountable.
7. Just how big is the Bible? Stack ten average-sized nonfiction books printed today. That pile will contain the same number of words that are found in one Bible-close to one million words not counting the number of words in features like footnotes, verse numbers, and concordances.
8. The Bible looks like one book, but is actually an anthology, a collection of many smaller books. In an even broader sense, it is not just an anthology of shorter works but an entire library.
9. Some Bible books are as short as half a page. One of the longest books-Jeremiah-is roughly the length of today's short novel. This makes the Bible's longest book one hundred times longer than its shortest book.
10. Though the Bible as a whole is much longer than most any other book we'd like to read, its individual books are mostly shorter than any other book we consider reading.
11. The Bible is an extraordinary gathering of many books of law, wisdom, poetry, philosophy, and history. The number of books in this portable library depends on which Bible you are holding. The Bible of a Jew is different from the Bible of a Roman Catholic, which in turn is different from the Bible of a Protestant.
12. The Bible is both ancient and contemporary as it deals with the unchanging issues of human existence: life, death, joy, sorrow, achievement, and failure...Yet these issues are couched in the language and correspondence of ancient times.
13. Testament was another word for "covenant"-meaning an agreement, contract, or pact. For Christians, the Old Testament represents the ancient covenant made between God and his people. In the New Testament, Christians believe in a new covenant with God made through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
2. The word Bible comes from the Greek word biblia, which means "books," which comes from another word, biblos, meaning papyrus, a material books were made from in ancient times.
3. The ancient Greeks obtained their supplies of paper from the port of Byblos, in what is now Lebanon. Their word for book-biblion (the singular form of biblia)- was derived from the name of this port, and from this we get our English word Bible, meaning the Book of books.
4. The word Bible is not in the Bible. The term came long after all the writings were completed and assembled.
5. The Bible is the world's best-selling book as well as the world's most shoplifted book!
6. The Bible is the most bought yet understood book. Nine out of ten Americans own a Bible, but fewer than half ever read it. Worldwide sales of the Bible are uncountable.
7. Just how big is the Bible? Stack ten average-sized nonfiction books printed today. That pile will contain the same number of words that are found in one Bible-close to one million words not counting the number of words in features like footnotes, verse numbers, and concordances.
8. The Bible looks like one book, but is actually an anthology, a collection of many smaller books. In an even broader sense, it is not just an anthology of shorter works but an entire library.
9. Some Bible books are as short as half a page. One of the longest books-Jeremiah-is roughly the length of today's short novel. This makes the Bible's longest book one hundred times longer than its shortest book.
10. Though the Bible as a whole is much longer than most any other book we'd like to read, its individual books are mostly shorter than any other book we consider reading.
11. The Bible is an extraordinary gathering of many books of law, wisdom, poetry, philosophy, and history. The number of books in this portable library depends on which Bible you are holding. The Bible of a Jew is different from the Bible of a Roman Catholic, which in turn is different from the Bible of a Protestant.
12. The Bible is both ancient and contemporary as it deals with the unchanging issues of human existence: life, death, joy, sorrow, achievement, and failure...Yet these issues are couched in the language and correspondence of ancient times.
13. Testament was another word for "covenant"-meaning an agreement, contract, or pact. For Christians, the Old Testament represents the ancient covenant made between God and his people. In the New Testament, Christians believe in a new covenant with God made through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Friday, May 29, 2015
10 More Reasons Why The Beatles Are The Greatest Band Ever
11. One may not like songs such as "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude," but they are unrivaled in their popularity, and the melodies are unforgettable.
12. Paul McCartney actually dreamed the tune to "Yesterday."
13. "Helter Skelter" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" are considered two of the first heavy metal songs.
14. They have 23 of the Top 500 songs of all time, again according to Rolling Stone-the most of any artist.
15. Their iconic No. 1 singles notwithstanding ("Love Me Do", "From Me To You", "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "I Feel Fine","Eight Days A Week", "Ticket To Ride", "Help!", "Yesterday", "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out", "Paperback Writer", "Yellow Submarine", "Eleanor Rigby", "Penny Lane", "All You Need Is Love", "Hello, Goodbye", "Lady Madonna", "Hey Jude", "Get Back", "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", "Something", "Come Together", "Let It Be", "The Long And Winding Road"), some of their best songs weren't even on any singles or B-sides: "I Should Have Known Better", "You Won't See Me", "For No One", "Across The Universe", "Two Of Us", "Dear Prudence", and "Because" are all just album filler.
16. They revolutionized the science of recording, using multiple tracks instead of playing live. Producer George Martin used varying tape speeds to make Lennon's voice sound high ("Tomorrow Never Knows") and slow ("Strawberry fields Forever"); he also brought in string musicians to accompany certain songs ("Yesterday"). In another session, McCartney utilized bass drums halfway down a corridor to achieve a staccato sound in "Mother Nature's Son).
17. In an age where other people wrote songs for the flavor of the day-think the Brill Building songwriters doing all the work for the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups- The Beatles surprised everyone by penning their own hits from the beginning. As a result, they helped usher the singer-songwriter movement that popularized the late 1960s.
18. Their ability to cross over from media and teen idols to musical innovators is one-of-a-kind. Their chart success and initial popularity are unparalleled; but despite their initial fame, they managed to continue to improve throughout their career.
19. Their place in popular culture is unrivaled-their movies, their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (in which they played to 74 million people), the "bigger than Jesus" comment, the refusal to play in concert after 1966, the Maharishi, the painstaking production work, the beginnings of the drug culture and LSD fad, "Helter Skelter" and Charles Manson, the "Paul Is Dead" phenomenon, Yoko Ono, the rooftop concert, the cover of "Abbey Road", the subsequent solo years, and the hit singles created from rough demos of the late Lennon.
20. They accomplished all this in just seven years.
12. Paul McCartney actually dreamed the tune to "Yesterday."
13. "Helter Skelter" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" are considered two of the first heavy metal songs.
14. They have 23 of the Top 500 songs of all time, again according to Rolling Stone-the most of any artist.
15. Their iconic No. 1 singles notwithstanding ("Love Me Do", "From Me To You", "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", "A Hard Day's Night", "I Feel Fine","Eight Days A Week", "Ticket To Ride", "Help!", "Yesterday", "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out", "Paperback Writer", "Yellow Submarine", "Eleanor Rigby", "Penny Lane", "All You Need Is Love", "Hello, Goodbye", "Lady Madonna", "Hey Jude", "Get Back", "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", "Something", "Come Together", "Let It Be", "The Long And Winding Road"), some of their best songs weren't even on any singles or B-sides: "I Should Have Known Better", "You Won't See Me", "For No One", "Across The Universe", "Two Of Us", "Dear Prudence", and "Because" are all just album filler.
16. They revolutionized the science of recording, using multiple tracks instead of playing live. Producer George Martin used varying tape speeds to make Lennon's voice sound high ("Tomorrow Never Knows") and slow ("Strawberry fields Forever"); he also brought in string musicians to accompany certain songs ("Yesterday"). In another session, McCartney utilized bass drums halfway down a corridor to achieve a staccato sound in "Mother Nature's Son).
17. In an age where other people wrote songs for the flavor of the day-think the Brill Building songwriters doing all the work for the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups- The Beatles surprised everyone by penning their own hits from the beginning. As a result, they helped usher the singer-songwriter movement that popularized the late 1960s.
18. Their ability to cross over from media and teen idols to musical innovators is one-of-a-kind. Their chart success and initial popularity are unparalleled; but despite their initial fame, they managed to continue to improve throughout their career.
19. Their place in popular culture is unrivaled-their movies, their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (in which they played to 74 million people), the "bigger than Jesus" comment, the refusal to play in concert after 1966, the Maharishi, the painstaking production work, the beginnings of the drug culture and LSD fad, "Helter Skelter" and Charles Manson, the "Paul Is Dead" phenomenon, Yoko Ono, the rooftop concert, the cover of "Abbey Road", the subsequent solo years, and the hit singles created from rough demos of the late Lennon.
20. They accomplished all this in just seven years.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
10 Reasons The Beatles Are The Greatest Band Ever
Every once in awhile, I meet someone who just doesn't get The Beatles, or who doesn't even like them.
I try to keep an open mind about this, since there are some groups that I simply don't get, either. Bob Dylan? Sure. His voice itself can turn some people away. But The Beatles? Come on!
20 accomplishments, achievements and innovations that may change your mind:
1. During the week of April 4 1964, The Beatles occupied the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (12 in the 100), the top 2 positions on the albums chart, the no. 1 position in the British singles chart, the first two positions in the British albums chart and the no. 1 position in the British EP chart,-the most complete domination of the British and American charts in history. Today, you're lucky to have one top 10 album and single at the same time.
2. To date, The Beatles have sold over 1billion records. That's billion, with a B.
3. They have the most no. 1 albums in the British album charts (15), and 17 no. 1 hits.
4. They hold the record for the group with the longest span between no. 1 albums in the Billboard albums chart (39 years and 51 weeks, 1964 to 2001). In 2000-20 years after John Lennon was killed and 30 years after they broke up, their second major greatest hits compilation, 1, spent eight weeks at no.1 and sold 13 million copies in it's first month of release.
5. They boast 20 no. 1 hits in the United States, (19 no. 1 albums), with 24 consecutive Top 10 hits from 1964 to 1976 (six years after they broke up), a record for a group. They also have 12 no. 1 hits in Germany, 23 in Australia, 21 in the Netherlands, 22 in Canada, 13 in Malaysia.
6. According to the United World Chart, The Beatles have 16 of the 100 most successful tracks of all time, and also seven of the 100 most successful albums in history.
7. The Beatles recorded four of the Top 10 Greatest Albums of All Time, according to Rolling Stone magazine, and three of the Top Five. (I'll ignore the fact that Abbey Road was only no. 14).
8. They were ground-breaking pioneers almost from the beginning, being the first group ever to employ feedback in 1964's "I Feel Fine." One of their hits, "A Hard Day's Night," features an opening chord so revolutionary that people are still trying to figure out. 1965's Rubber Soul and the follow-up, Revolver, saw more innovation, from the use of a sitar in "Norwegian Wood" to tape loops in "Tomorrow Never Knows." Then there are the backwards vocals in "Rain" (a first) and a Moog synthesizer on several songs on 1969's Abbey Road.
9. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band is arguably the greatest album ever made (indeed, it topped Rolling Stone's list). While it doesn't have the strongest material, the album was a landmark in recording. It popularized the concept album-something that would serve as inspiration to the Who and Pink Floyd.
10. "A Day In The Life" from Sgt. Pepper may have been the crowning achievement of the group-a five and a half minute song composed of two suites-one by Lennon, one by McCartney-that are totally different in song and texture, yet complement each other perfectly. The song features two cacophonous crescendos from an orchestra, the final one climaxing in a single E major chord that lasts 42 seconds.
I try to keep an open mind about this, since there are some groups that I simply don't get, either. Bob Dylan? Sure. His voice itself can turn some people away. But The Beatles? Come on!
20 accomplishments, achievements and innovations that may change your mind:
1. During the week of April 4 1964, The Beatles occupied the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (12 in the 100), the top 2 positions on the albums chart, the no. 1 position in the British singles chart, the first two positions in the British albums chart and the no. 1 position in the British EP chart,-the most complete domination of the British and American charts in history. Today, you're lucky to have one top 10 album and single at the same time.
2. To date, The Beatles have sold over 1billion records. That's billion, with a B.
3. They have the most no. 1 albums in the British album charts (15), and 17 no. 1 hits.
4. They hold the record for the group with the longest span between no. 1 albums in the Billboard albums chart (39 years and 51 weeks, 1964 to 2001). In 2000-20 years after John Lennon was killed and 30 years after they broke up, their second major greatest hits compilation, 1, spent eight weeks at no.1 and sold 13 million copies in it's first month of release.
5. They boast 20 no. 1 hits in the United States, (19 no. 1 albums), with 24 consecutive Top 10 hits from 1964 to 1976 (six years after they broke up), a record for a group. They also have 12 no. 1 hits in Germany, 23 in Australia, 21 in the Netherlands, 22 in Canada, 13 in Malaysia.
6. According to the United World Chart, The Beatles have 16 of the 100 most successful tracks of all time, and also seven of the 100 most successful albums in history.
7. The Beatles recorded four of the Top 10 Greatest Albums of All Time, according to Rolling Stone magazine, and three of the Top Five. (I'll ignore the fact that Abbey Road was only no. 14).
8. They were ground-breaking pioneers almost from the beginning, being the first group ever to employ feedback in 1964's "I Feel Fine." One of their hits, "A Hard Day's Night," features an opening chord so revolutionary that people are still trying to figure out. 1965's Rubber Soul and the follow-up, Revolver, saw more innovation, from the use of a sitar in "Norwegian Wood" to tape loops in "Tomorrow Never Knows." Then there are the backwards vocals in "Rain" (a first) and a Moog synthesizer on several songs on 1969's Abbey Road.
9. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band is arguably the greatest album ever made (indeed, it topped Rolling Stone's list). While it doesn't have the strongest material, the album was a landmark in recording. It popularized the concept album-something that would serve as inspiration to the Who and Pink Floyd.
10. "A Day In The Life" from Sgt. Pepper may have been the crowning achievement of the group-a five and a half minute song composed of two suites-one by Lennon, one by McCartney-that are totally different in song and texture, yet complement each other perfectly. The song features two cacophonous crescendos from an orchestra, the final one climaxing in a single E major chord that lasts 42 seconds.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
LSD Has Been Used Successfully In Psychiatric Therapy
Given the demonization of the psychedelic drug LSD, it may seem inconceivable that mainstream psychiatrists were giving it to patients during sessions. Yet for at least 20 years, that's exactly what happened.
Created in 1938, LSD was first suggested as a tool in psychotherapy in 1949. The following year saw the studies in medical/psychiatric journals. By 1970, hundreds of articles on the uses of LSD in therapy had appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Journal of Psychology, the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Quarterly Journal of Studies of Alcoholism, many non-English-language journals, and elsewhere.
Psychiatric and psychotherapeutic conferences had segments devoted to LSD, and two professional organizations were formed for this specialty, one in Europe and the other in North America. International symposia were held in Princeton, London, Amsterdam, and other locations. From 1950 to 1965, LSD was given in conjunction with therapy to an estimated 40,000 people worldwide.
In his definitive book on the subject, LSD Psychotherapy, transpersonal psychotherapist Stanislav Grof, MD, explains what makes LSD such a good aid to headshrinking:
...LSD and other psychedelics function more or less nonspecific catalysts and amplifiers of the psyche... in the dosages used in human experimentation, the classical psychedelics, such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline, do not have any specific pharmacological effects. They increase the energetic niveau in the psyche and the body which leads to manifestation of otherwise latent psychological processes.
The content and nature of the experiences that these substances induce are thus not artificial products of their pharmacological interaction with the brain ("toxic psychoses"), but authentic expressions of the psyche revealing its functioning on levels not ordinarily available for observation and study. A person a who has taken LSD does not have an "LSD experience," but takes a journey into deep recesses of his or her own psyche.
When used as a tool during full-scale therapy, Grof says, "the potential of LSD seems to be extraordinary and unique. The ability of LSD to deepen, intensify and accelerate the psychotherapeutic process is incomparably greater than that of any other drug used as an adjunct to psychotherapy, with the exception perhaps of some other members of the psychedelic group."
Due to bad trips experienced by casual users, not to mention anti-drug hysteria in general, LSD was outlawed in the US in 1970. The Drug Enforcement Agency declares: "Scientific study of LSD ceased circa 1980 as research funding declined."
What the DEA fails to mention is that medical and psychiatric research is currently happening, albeit quietly. Few researchers have the resources and patience to jump through the umpteen hoops required to test psychedelics on people, but a few using LSD, ecstasy, DMT, ketamine, peyote, and other such substances are happening in North America and Europe. Universities engaged in this research include Harvard, Duke, Johns Hopkins, University College London, and the University of Zurich.
We're presently in the dark ages of such research, but at least the light hasn't gone out entirely.
Created in 1938, LSD was first suggested as a tool in psychotherapy in 1949. The following year saw the studies in medical/psychiatric journals. By 1970, hundreds of articles on the uses of LSD in therapy had appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Journal of Psychology, the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Quarterly Journal of Studies of Alcoholism, many non-English-language journals, and elsewhere.
Psychiatric and psychotherapeutic conferences had segments devoted to LSD, and two professional organizations were formed for this specialty, one in Europe and the other in North America. International symposia were held in Princeton, London, Amsterdam, and other locations. From 1950 to 1965, LSD was given in conjunction with therapy to an estimated 40,000 people worldwide.
In his definitive book on the subject, LSD Psychotherapy, transpersonal psychotherapist Stanislav Grof, MD, explains what makes LSD such a good aid to headshrinking:
...LSD and other psychedelics function more or less nonspecific catalysts and amplifiers of the psyche... in the dosages used in human experimentation, the classical psychedelics, such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline, do not have any specific pharmacological effects. They increase the energetic niveau in the psyche and the body which leads to manifestation of otherwise latent psychological processes.
The content and nature of the experiences that these substances induce are thus not artificial products of their pharmacological interaction with the brain ("toxic psychoses"), but authentic expressions of the psyche revealing its functioning on levels not ordinarily available for observation and study. A person a who has taken LSD does not have an "LSD experience," but takes a journey into deep recesses of his or her own psyche.
When used as a tool during full-scale therapy, Grof says, "the potential of LSD seems to be extraordinary and unique. The ability of LSD to deepen, intensify and accelerate the psychotherapeutic process is incomparably greater than that of any other drug used as an adjunct to psychotherapy, with the exception perhaps of some other members of the psychedelic group."
Due to bad trips experienced by casual users, not to mention anti-drug hysteria in general, LSD was outlawed in the US in 1970. The Drug Enforcement Agency declares: "Scientific study of LSD ceased circa 1980 as research funding declined."
What the DEA fails to mention is that medical and psychiatric research is currently happening, albeit quietly. Few researchers have the resources and patience to jump through the umpteen hoops required to test psychedelics on people, but a few using LSD, ecstasy, DMT, ketamine, peyote, and other such substances are happening in North America and Europe. Universities engaged in this research include Harvard, Duke, Johns Hopkins, University College London, and the University of Zurich.
We're presently in the dark ages of such research, but at least the light hasn't gone out entirely.
The Auschwitz Tattoo Was Originally An IBM Code Number
The tattooed numbers on the forearms of people held and killed in Nazi concentration camps have become a chilling symbol of hatred. Victims were stamped with the indelible number in a dehumanizing effort to keep track of them like widgets in the supply chain.
These numbers weren't chosen at random. They were part of a coded system , with each number tracked as the unlucky person who bore it was moved through the system.
Edwin Black made headlines in 2001 when his painstakingly researched book, IBM and the jackbooted takeover of Europe. Worse, he showed that the top levels of the company either knew or willfully turned a blind eye.
A year and a half after that book gave Big Blue a black eye, the author made more startling discoveries. IBM equipment was on-site at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Furthermore:
Thanks to the discoveries, researchers can now trace how Hollerith numbers assigned to inmates evolved into the horrific tattooed numbers so symbolic of the Nazi era. (Herman Hollerith was the German American who first automated US census information in the late 19th century and founded the company that became IBM. Hollerith's name became synonymous with the machines and the Nazi "departments" that operated them.) In one case, records show, a timber merchant from Bendzin, Poland, arrived at Auschwitz in August 1943 and was assigned a characteristic five-digit IBM Hollerith number, 44673. The number was part of a custom punch-card system devised by IBM to track prisoners in all Nazi concentration camps, including the slave labor at Auschwitz. Later in the summer of 1943, the Polish timber merchant's same five-digit Hollerith number, 44673, was tattooed on his forearm. Eventually during the summer of 1943, all non-Germans at Auschwitz were similarly tattooed.
The Hollerith numbering system was soon scrapped at Auschwitz because so many inmates died. Eventually, the Nazis developed their own haphazard system.
These numbers weren't chosen at random. They were part of a coded system , with each number tracked as the unlucky person who bore it was moved through the system.
Edwin Black made headlines in 2001 when his painstakingly researched book, IBM and the jackbooted takeover of Europe. Worse, he showed that the top levels of the company either knew or willfully turned a blind eye.
A year and a half after that book gave Big Blue a black eye, the author made more startling discoveries. IBM equipment was on-site at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Furthermore:
Thanks to the discoveries, researchers can now trace how Hollerith numbers assigned to inmates evolved into the horrific tattooed numbers so symbolic of the Nazi era. (Herman Hollerith was the German American who first automated US census information in the late 19th century and founded the company that became IBM. Hollerith's name became synonymous with the machines and the Nazi "departments" that operated them.) In one case, records show, a timber merchant from Bendzin, Poland, arrived at Auschwitz in August 1943 and was assigned a characteristic five-digit IBM Hollerith number, 44673. The number was part of a custom punch-card system devised by IBM to track prisoners in all Nazi concentration camps, including the slave labor at Auschwitz. Later in the summer of 1943, the Polish timber merchant's same five-digit Hollerith number, 44673, was tattooed on his forearm. Eventually during the summer of 1943, all non-Germans at Auschwitz were similarly tattooed.
The Hollerith numbering system was soon scrapped at Auschwitz because so many inmates died. Eventually, the Nazis developed their own haphazard system.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Do We Really Use Only 10 Percent Of Our Brains?
Psychologists in the early twentieth century commented that humans use only 10 percent of their brains, Albert Einstein also indicated that humans use only a small portion of the brain. It's a theory that has been propounded in television documentaries, magazines, advertisements and books over the past century. Psychics have also latched on to it as a possible explanation for paranormal behavior, attributing unusual incidents to the workings of the unused portion of the brain. They profess that 90 percent of the brain consists of untapped potential that is capable of remarkable feats.
Nearly all scientists now agree that the theory that we use only 10 percent of our total brain function is completely unfounded. In fact, they question how this figure was arrived at in the first place and what areas of the brain are supposed to be redundant. The theory supposes that if 90 percent of the brain were removed, a person would still be able to function normally, whereas in reality it is known that damage to even a small area of the brain can result in physical devastation.
In addition, most significant disorders of the brain involve only a small and very specific area of the brain. If the 10 percent argument was true, it's unlikely that so many problems would persistently occur in that area. And if we use only 10 percent of our nerves and neurons in the brain, how would this be measured? Indeed, imaging of the brain in scans shows that all parts of the brain are used for different activities and that many areas of the brain are used for some complex activities or thought processes. Throughout the course of one day, most areas of the brain are active at some time, even during sleep. The 10 percent theory suggests that a discrete area of the brain is not used, whereas scans reveal activity throughout the entire brain and not in any isolated segment. The final nail in the 10 percent theory is the fact that neurosurgeons carefully map the brain before removing tumors so that they don't compromise other essential areas. In fact, there is absolutely no evidence to support the 10 percent theory.
Nearly all scientists now agree that the theory that we use only 10 percent of our total brain function is completely unfounded. In fact, they question how this figure was arrived at in the first place and what areas of the brain are supposed to be redundant. The theory supposes that if 90 percent of the brain were removed, a person would still be able to function normally, whereas in reality it is known that damage to even a small area of the brain can result in physical devastation.
In addition, most significant disorders of the brain involve only a small and very specific area of the brain. If the 10 percent argument was true, it's unlikely that so many problems would persistently occur in that area. And if we use only 10 percent of our nerves and neurons in the brain, how would this be measured? Indeed, imaging of the brain in scans shows that all parts of the brain are used for different activities and that many areas of the brain are used for some complex activities or thought processes. Throughout the course of one day, most areas of the brain are active at some time, even during sleep. The 10 percent theory suggests that a discrete area of the brain is not used, whereas scans reveal activity throughout the entire brain and not in any isolated segment. The final nail in the 10 percent theory is the fact that neurosurgeons carefully map the brain before removing tumors so that they don't compromise other essential areas. In fact, there is absolutely no evidence to support the 10 percent theory.
Is Suicide Illegal?
The word "suicide" is a Latin-derived word meaning "to kill oneself" and refers to the act of intentionally ending one's life. In order to be considered suicide, the death must be the main reason for the act and not simply a consequence. For this reason, so-called suicide bombers and kamikaze pilots are not technically committing suicide.
Attitudes toward suicide vary from culture to culture and religion to religion. Many philosophers in ancient Greece and ancient Rome considered it honorable to kill oneself in certain circumstances, while Islamic law is a sin.
Western civilization has traditionally looked unfavorably upon suicide, and for many years it was a crime in many jurisdictions. In England, by the tenth century it was considered a crime, and by the seventeenth century anyone who committed suicide forfeited his or her personal property. It wasn't until 1961 that suicide and attempted suicide were decriminalized in England, while in Ireland suicide was decriminalized as late as 1993. Strangely, when suicide was still considered a crime, it was considered punishable by death.
As of 1963, six states in the U.S. still considered attempted suicide a crime, but by the 1990s this number was reduced to two states and today suicide is legal everywhere in the U.S. For this reason, the word "commit" is often avoided in connection with suicide, as it implies that the act is a crime.
While the act of suicide isn't a crime, it can have negative consequences. Most insurance companies, for instance, won't pay out to the beneficiary of a person holding a life-insurance policy who has committed suicide. In addition, many jurisdictions still consider assisting someone in the act-such as a medical professional performing euthanasia-as a criminal offense. Euthanasia consequently remains a hotly debated topic.
Attitudes toward suicide vary from culture to culture and religion to religion. Many philosophers in ancient Greece and ancient Rome considered it honorable to kill oneself in certain circumstances, while Islamic law is a sin.
Western civilization has traditionally looked unfavorably upon suicide, and for many years it was a crime in many jurisdictions. In England, by the tenth century it was considered a crime, and by the seventeenth century anyone who committed suicide forfeited his or her personal property. It wasn't until 1961 that suicide and attempted suicide were decriminalized in England, while in Ireland suicide was decriminalized as late as 1993. Strangely, when suicide was still considered a crime, it was considered punishable by death.
As of 1963, six states in the U.S. still considered attempted suicide a crime, but by the 1990s this number was reduced to two states and today suicide is legal everywhere in the U.S. For this reason, the word "commit" is often avoided in connection with suicide, as it implies that the act is a crime.
While the act of suicide isn't a crime, it can have negative consequences. Most insurance companies, for instance, won't pay out to the beneficiary of a person holding a life-insurance policy who has committed suicide. In addition, many jurisdictions still consider assisting someone in the act-such as a medical professional performing euthanasia-as a criminal offense. Euthanasia consequently remains a hotly debated topic.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Strange Species & Hump Day
A Geep is a cross between a goat and a sheep.
The only purple animal is the South African Blesbok.
The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
There have been more than fifteen hundred documented sightings of Bigfoot since 1958.
Thr largest known egg ever laid by a creature was that of the extinct Aepyornis of Madagascar. The egg was nine and a half inches long.
The pichiciego is a little-known burrowing South American animal that is related to the armadillo but is smaller in size. The ending of the animal's name is derived from the Spanish word ciego, meaning "blind."
Unrelated to the chicken, the male cock-of-the-rock bird earned the name "cock" because of its roosterlike appearance and combative behavior . The female of the species influenced the word rock being added to the name because of her habit of nesting and rearing the young in sheltered rock niches.
The world camel population is approximately twenty million.
The longest recorded life span of a camel was thirty-five years, five months.
A camel's backbone is just as straight as a horse's.
Camel's milk does not curdle.
Camels have three eyelids to protect their eyes from blowing sand.
Traveling at a rate of two to three miles per hour, camels can carry five hundred to one thousand pounds on their backs. They are able to keep up this pace for six or seven hours a day. Camels will refuse to carry loads that are not properly balanced.
There are fewer than one thousand Bactrian camels left in the wild. They have survived in a land with no water in an area used for nuclear testing. Their numbers, however, are falling dramatically as humans encroach farther and farther into China's Gobi Desert.
The fur of the vicuna, a small member of the camel family that lives in the Andes Mountains of Peru, is so fine that each hair is less than two-thousandths of an inch thick. The animal was considered sacred by the Incas, and only royalty could wear its fleece.
The only purple animal is the South African Blesbok.
The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
There have been more than fifteen hundred documented sightings of Bigfoot since 1958.
Thr largest known egg ever laid by a creature was that of the extinct Aepyornis of Madagascar. The egg was nine and a half inches long.
The pichiciego is a little-known burrowing South American animal that is related to the armadillo but is smaller in size. The ending of the animal's name is derived from the Spanish word ciego, meaning "blind."
Unrelated to the chicken, the male cock-of-the-rock bird earned the name "cock" because of its roosterlike appearance and combative behavior . The female of the species influenced the word rock being added to the name because of her habit of nesting and rearing the young in sheltered rock niches.
The world camel population is approximately twenty million.
The longest recorded life span of a camel was thirty-five years, five months.
A camel's backbone is just as straight as a horse's.
Camel's milk does not curdle.
Camels have three eyelids to protect their eyes from blowing sand.
Traveling at a rate of two to three miles per hour, camels can carry five hundred to one thousand pounds on their backs. They are able to keep up this pace for six or seven hours a day. Camels will refuse to carry loads that are not properly balanced.
There are fewer than one thousand Bactrian camels left in the wild. They have survived in a land with no water in an area used for nuclear testing. Their numbers, however, are falling dramatically as humans encroach farther and farther into China's Gobi Desert.
The fur of the vicuna, a small member of the camel family that lives in the Andes Mountains of Peru, is so fine that each hair is less than two-thousandths of an inch thick. The animal was considered sacred by the Incas, and only royalty could wear its fleece.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
International Palettes
Dinner guests during the medieval times in England were expected to bring their own knives to the table.
In eighteenth-century France, visitors to the royal palace in Versailles were allowed to stand in a roped-off section of the main dining room and watch the king and queen eat.
In certain parts of India and ancient China, mouse meat was considered a delicacy.
Each year, Americans spend more on cat food than on baby food.
It is estimated that Americans consume ten million tons of turkey on thanksgiving Day. Due to turkey's high sulfur content, Americans also produce enough gas to fly a fleet of seventy-five Hindenburgs from Los Angeles to new York in twenty-four hours.
The Southern dish 'chitlins" is made up of pigs' small intestines.
Yogurt intake among North Americans has quadrupled in the past twenty-five years.
In Australia, the number-one topping for pizza is eggs. In Chile, the favorite topping is mussels and clams. In the United States, it's pepperoni.
The world's number-one producer and consumer of fresh pork is China.
China produces 278,564,356,980 eggs per year.
China's Beijing Duck Restaurant can seat nine thousand people at one time.
If China imported just 10 percent of its rice needs, the price on the world market would increase by 80 percent.
France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese. More than half of the different types of cheese in the world come from France.
The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
Japan is the largest exporter of frogs' legs.
A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.
Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it.
Since 1978, at least thirty-seven people have died as a result of shaking vending machines in an attempt to get free merchandise. More than one hundred have been injured.
Some people drink the urine of pregnant women to build up their immune systems.
The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma in an emergency.
You should not eat a crayfish with a straight tail. It was dead before it was cooked.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
There are more than fifteen thousand different kinds of rice. Rice is grown on more than 10 percent of the earth's farmable surface and is the main food for half of the people of the world.
Rice is thrown at weddings as a symbol of fertility.
Shredded Wheat was the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal.
The wheat that produces a one-pound loaf of bread requires two tons of water to grow.
No two cornflakes look the same.
My Favorite
the U.S. government spent $277,000 on "pickle research" in 1993.
In eighteenth-century France, visitors to the royal palace in Versailles were allowed to stand in a roped-off section of the main dining room and watch the king and queen eat.
In certain parts of India and ancient China, mouse meat was considered a delicacy.
Each year, Americans spend more on cat food than on baby food.
It is estimated that Americans consume ten million tons of turkey on thanksgiving Day. Due to turkey's high sulfur content, Americans also produce enough gas to fly a fleet of seventy-five Hindenburgs from Los Angeles to new York in twenty-four hours.
The Southern dish 'chitlins" is made up of pigs' small intestines.
Yogurt intake among North Americans has quadrupled in the past twenty-five years.
In Australia, the number-one topping for pizza is eggs. In Chile, the favorite topping is mussels and clams. In the United States, it's pepperoni.
The world's number-one producer and consumer of fresh pork is China.
China produces 278,564,356,980 eggs per year.
China's Beijing Duck Restaurant can seat nine thousand people at one time.
If China imported just 10 percent of its rice needs, the price on the world market would increase by 80 percent.
France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese. More than half of the different types of cheese in the world come from France.
The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
Japan is the largest exporter of frogs' legs.
A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.
Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it.
Since 1978, at least thirty-seven people have died as a result of shaking vending machines in an attempt to get free merchandise. More than one hundred have been injured.
Some people drink the urine of pregnant women to build up their immune systems.
The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma in an emergency.
You should not eat a crayfish with a straight tail. It was dead before it was cooked.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
There are more than fifteen thousand different kinds of rice. Rice is grown on more than 10 percent of the earth's farmable surface and is the main food for half of the people of the world.
Rice is thrown at weddings as a symbol of fertility.
Shredded Wheat was the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal.
The wheat that produces a one-pound loaf of bread requires two tons of water to grow.
No two cornflakes look the same.
My Favorite
the U.S. government spent $277,000 on "pickle research" in 1993.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Public Opinion & Statistics
One out of four people do not know what their astrological sign is.
Fifty percent of teenage boys say they would rather be rich than smart.
Fifty-seven percent of British schoolkids think Germany is the most boring country in Europe.
Sixty-nine percent of men say they would rather break up with a girl in private.
Seven percent of Americans think Elvis is still alive.
Nine percent of Americans report having been in the presence of a ghost.
Only 55 percent of Americans know that the sun is a star.
More than 50 percent of Americans believe in the devil.
About 5 percent of Americans claim to have talked to the devil personally.
Fifty-eight percent of men say they are happier after their divorce or separation.
Eighty-five percent of women say they are happier after their divorce or separation.
Eighty-two percent of the world's population believes in an afterlife.
Fifty-five percent of men wash their hands after using a toilet.
Eighty percent of women wash their hands after using the toilet.
Statistically, the safest age of life is ten years old.
Summer is statistically the most hazardous season.
You are more likely to get attacked by a cow than a shark.
In the next seven days, eight hundred Americans will be injured by their jewelry.
Men are 1.6 times more likely to undergo bypass surgery than women.
Twenty-two thousand checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next hour.
An estimated 880,000 credit cards in circulation will turn out to have incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips.
About 811,000 faulty rolls of thirty-five millimeters film will be purchased this year.
One in ten people are arrested every year in the United States.
Women shoplift more often than men; the statistics are four to one.
Fifty percent of bank robberies take place on Fridays.
Chances that a burglary in the United States will be solved: one in seven.
About 43 percent of convicted criminals in the United States are rearrested within a year of being released from prison.
Sweden has the least number of murders annually.
The murder rate in the United States is two hundred times greater than in Japan. In Japan, no private citizen can buy a handgun legally.
Fifty percent of teenage boys say they would rather be rich than smart.
Fifty-seven percent of British schoolkids think Germany is the most boring country in Europe.
Sixty-nine percent of men say they would rather break up with a girl in private.
Seven percent of Americans think Elvis is still alive.
Nine percent of Americans report having been in the presence of a ghost.
Only 55 percent of Americans know that the sun is a star.
More than 50 percent of Americans believe in the devil.
About 5 percent of Americans claim to have talked to the devil personally.
Fifty-eight percent of men say they are happier after their divorce or separation.
Eighty-five percent of women say they are happier after their divorce or separation.
Eighty-two percent of the world's population believes in an afterlife.
Fifty-five percent of men wash their hands after using a toilet.
Eighty percent of women wash their hands after using the toilet.
Statistically, the safest age of life is ten years old.
Summer is statistically the most hazardous season.
You are more likely to get attacked by a cow than a shark.
In the next seven days, eight hundred Americans will be injured by their jewelry.
Men are 1.6 times more likely to undergo bypass surgery than women.
Twenty-two thousand checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next hour.
An estimated 880,000 credit cards in circulation will turn out to have incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips.
About 811,000 faulty rolls of thirty-five millimeters film will be purchased this year.
One in ten people are arrested every year in the United States.
Women shoplift more often than men; the statistics are four to one.
Fifty percent of bank robberies take place on Fridays.
Chances that a burglary in the United States will be solved: one in seven.
About 43 percent of convicted criminals in the United States are rearrested within a year of being released from prison.
Sweden has the least number of murders annually.
The murder rate in the United States is two hundred times greater than in Japan. In Japan, no private citizen can buy a handgun legally.
Friday, May 15, 2015
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
The Beatles featured two left-handed members: Paul, whom everyone saw holding his Hoffner bass left-handed, and Ringo, whose left handedness is at least partially to blame for his "original" drumming style.
The Beatles performed their first U.S. concert in Carnegie Hall.
The Beatles song "A Day in the Life" ends with a note sustained for forty seconds.
The Beatles song 'Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and The Beatles at a religious retreat in India.
The Beatles performed their first U.S. concert in Carnegie Hall.
The Beatles song "A Day in the Life" ends with a note sustained for forty seconds.
The Beatles song 'Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and The Beatles at a religious retreat in India.
A Weather Eye
A normal raindrop falls at about seven miles per hour.
A downburst is a downward-blowing wind that sometimes comes blasting out of a thunderstorm. The damage looks like tornado damage, because the wind can be as strong as an F2 tornado, but debris is blown straight away from a point on the ground, not lifted into the air and transported downwind.
A wind with a speed of seventy-four miles per hour or more is designated a hurricane.
An inch of snow falling evenly on 1 acre of ground is equivalent to about 2,715 gallons of water.
At any given time, there are eighteen hundred thunderstorms in progress over the earth's atmosphere.
A cubic mile of fog is made up of less than a gallon of water.
The two hottest months at the equator are March and September.
A rainbow can only occur when the sun is forty degrees or less above the horizon.
Meteorologists claim they're right 85 percent of the time.
A downburst is a downward-blowing wind that sometimes comes blasting out of a thunderstorm. The damage looks like tornado damage, because the wind can be as strong as an F2 tornado, but debris is blown straight away from a point on the ground, not lifted into the air and transported downwind.
A wind with a speed of seventy-four miles per hour or more is designated a hurricane.
An inch of snow falling evenly on 1 acre of ground is equivalent to about 2,715 gallons of water.
At any given time, there are eighteen hundred thunderstorms in progress over the earth's atmosphere.
A cubic mile of fog is made up of less than a gallon of water.
The two hottest months at the equator are March and September.
A rainbow can only occur when the sun is forty degrees or less above the horizon.
Meteorologists claim they're right 85 percent of the time.
Weird Science
One hundred seven incorrect medical procedures will be performed by the end of the day today.
Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west.
Two and five are the only prime numbers that end in two or five.
Fifty-one percent of turns are right turns.
If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times but more like 4,950. The head picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.
If you yelled for eight years, seven months, and six days, you would have produced enough energy to heat one cup of coffee.
The strength of early lasers was measured in Gillettes, the number of blue razor blades a given beam could puncture.
The tip of a bullwhip moves so fast that it breaks the sound barrier; the crack of the whip is actually a tiny sonic boom.
Clouds fly higher during the day than at night.
Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry.
Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours.
Iron nails cannot be used in oak because the acid in the wood corrodes them.
Bacteria, the tiniest free-living cells, are so small that a single drop of liquid contains as many as fifty million of them.
Life on Earth probably developed in an oxygen-free atmosphere. Even today there are microorganisms that can live only in the absence of oxygen.
Stainless Steel was discovered by accident in 1913.
If we had the same mortality rate as in the 1900s, more than half the people in the world today would not be alive.
Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west.
Two and five are the only prime numbers that end in two or five.
Fifty-one percent of turns are right turns.
If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times but more like 4,950. The head picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.
If you yelled for eight years, seven months, and six days, you would have produced enough energy to heat one cup of coffee.
The strength of early lasers was measured in Gillettes, the number of blue razor blades a given beam could puncture.
The tip of a bullwhip moves so fast that it breaks the sound barrier; the crack of the whip is actually a tiny sonic boom.
Clouds fly higher during the day than at night.
Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry.
Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours.
Iron nails cannot be used in oak because the acid in the wood corrodes them.
Bacteria, the tiniest free-living cells, are so small that a single drop of liquid contains as many as fifty million of them.
Life on Earth probably developed in an oxygen-free atmosphere. Even today there are microorganisms that can live only in the absence of oxygen.
Stainless Steel was discovered by accident in 1913.
If we had the same mortality rate as in the 1900s, more than half the people in the world today would not be alive.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
A Little Ego
Napoleon Bonaparte was afraid of cats.
Napoleon conducted his battle plans in a sandbox.
Napoleon favored mathematicians and physical scientists but excluded humanists from his circle, believing them to be troublemakers.
Napoleon had his servants wear his boots to break them in before he wore them.
This explains a lot.
Napoleon had only one testicle.
Adolph Hitler was Time's Man Of The Year in 1938.
Hitler's great-great-grandmother was a Jewish maid.
Hitler had planned to change the name of Berlin to Germania.
Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens's hand at the 1936 Olympics because he was black.
Hitler was claustrophobic. The elevator leading to his eagles' nest in the Austrian Alps was mirrored so it would appear larger and more open.
Hitler had one testicle.
Al Capone's famous scars (which earned him the nickname "Scarface") were from an attack. The brother of a girl he had insulted attacked him with a knife, leaving him with three distinctive scars.
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. His brother was a town sheriff.
While in Alcatraz, Al Capone was inmate 85.
Behram, an Indian thug, holds the record for most murders by a single individual. He strangled 931 people between 1790 and 1840 with a piece of yellow and white cloth called a ruhmal.
Countess Erzsebet Bathory Of Hungary, holds the most murders by a woman, 610.
Mass murderer Charlie Manson recorded a music demo with the Beach Boys.
Benito Mussolini would ward off the evil eye by touching his testicles.
Fidel Castro was once a star baseball player for the University of Havana in the 1940s.
Leon Trotsky, the seminal Russian Communist, was assassinated in Mexico with an ice pick.
Lee Harvey Oswald's body tag was auctioned off for $6,600.
Josef Stalin's left foot had webbed toes, and his left arm was noticeably shorter than his right arm.
Attila the Hun was a dwarf.
Pepin the Short, Aesop, Gregory the Tours, Charles III of Naples, and the Pasha Hussain were all shorter than three and a half feet tall.
Napoleon conducted his battle plans in a sandbox.
Napoleon favored mathematicians and physical scientists but excluded humanists from his circle, believing them to be troublemakers.
Napoleon had his servants wear his boots to break them in before he wore them.
This explains a lot.
Napoleon had only one testicle.
Adolph Hitler was Time's Man Of The Year in 1938.
Hitler's great-great-grandmother was a Jewish maid.
Hitler had planned to change the name of Berlin to Germania.
Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens's hand at the 1936 Olympics because he was black.
Hitler was claustrophobic. The elevator leading to his eagles' nest in the Austrian Alps was mirrored so it would appear larger and more open.
Hitler had one testicle.
Al Capone's famous scars (which earned him the nickname "Scarface") were from an attack. The brother of a girl he had insulted attacked him with a knife, leaving him with three distinctive scars.
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. His brother was a town sheriff.
While in Alcatraz, Al Capone was inmate 85.
Behram, an Indian thug, holds the record for most murders by a single individual. He strangled 931 people between 1790 and 1840 with a piece of yellow and white cloth called a ruhmal.
Countess Erzsebet Bathory Of Hungary, holds the most murders by a woman, 610.
Mass murderer Charlie Manson recorded a music demo with the Beach Boys.
Benito Mussolini would ward off the evil eye by touching his testicles.
Fidel Castro was once a star baseball player for the University of Havana in the 1940s.
Leon Trotsky, the seminal Russian Communist, was assassinated in Mexico with an ice pick.
Lee Harvey Oswald's body tag was auctioned off for $6,600.
Josef Stalin's left foot had webbed toes, and his left arm was noticeably shorter than his right arm.
Attila the Hun was a dwarf.
Pepin the Short, Aesop, Gregory the Tours, Charles III of Naples, and the Pasha Hussain were all shorter than three and a half feet tall.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Electric Cars Have Been Around since The 1880s
The car of the future runs completely on electricity. No more dependence on gas. No more choking the atmosphere with fumes. Whenever the possibility of electric cars is raised, the media and other commentators ooh and ahh over potential. But this technology isn't futuristic-it's positively retro. Cars powered by electricity have been on the scene since the 1800s and actually predate gas-powered cars.
A blacksmith in Vermont-Thomas Davenport-built the first electric motor in 1833 and used it to power a model train the next year. In the 1830s, Scottish inventor Robert Davidson rigged a carriage with an electric motor powered by batteries. In his Pulitzer-nominated book Taking Charge, archaeology professor and technology historian Michael Brian Schiffer writes that this "was perhaps the first electric car."
After this remarkable achievement, the idea of an electric car languished for decades. In 1881, a French experimenter debuted a personal vehicle that ran on electricity, a tricycle (ie, three wheels and a seat) for adults. In 1888, many inventors in the US, Britain, and Europe started creating three-and four-wheel vehicles-which could carry two to six people-that ran on electricity. These vehicles remained principally curiosities until May 1897, when the Pope Manufacturing company- the country's most successful bicycle manufacturer-started selling the first commercial electric car: the Columbia Electric Phaeton, Mark III. It topped out at fifteen miles per hour, and had to be recharged every 30 miles. Within two years, people could choose from an array of electrical carriages, buggies, wagons, trucks, bicycles, tricycles, even buses and ambulances made by numerous manufacturers.
New York City was home to a fleet of electric taxi cabs starting in 1897. The Electric Vehicle Company eventually had over 100 of them ferrying people around the Big Apple. Soon it was unleashing electric taxis in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington DC by 1900, though, the company was in trouble, and seven years later it sputtered out.
As for cars powered by dead dinosaurs, Austrian engineer Siegfried Marcus attached a one cylinder motor to a cart in 1864, driving it 500 feet and thus creating the first vehicle powered by gas (this was around 25 years after Davidson had created the first electro-car). It wasn't until 1895 that gas autos-converted carriages with a two-cylinder engine-were commercially sold (and then only in microscopic numbers).
Around the turn of the century, the average car buyer had a big choice to make: gas, electric, or steam? When the auto industry took form around 1895, nobody knew which type of vehicle was going to be the standard. During the last few years of the nineteenth century and the first few of the twentieth, over 100 companies placed their bets on electricity. According to Schiffer, "Twenty-eight percent of the 4,192 American automobiles produced in 1900 were electric. In the New York automobile show of that year more electrics were on display than gasoline or steam vehicles."
In the middle of the first decade of the 1900s, electric cars were on the decline, and their gas-eating cousins were surging ahead. With improvements in the cars and their batteries, though, electrics started a comeback in 1907, which continued through 1913. The downhill slide started the next year, and by the 1920s the market for electrics was "miniscule," to use Schiffer's word. Things never got better.
Many companies tried to combine the best of both approaches, with cars that ran on a mix of electricity and gas. The Pope Manufacturing Company, once again in the vanguard, built a working prototype in 1898. A Belgian company and a French company each brought out commercial models the next year, beating the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight to the market by over a century. Even Ferdinand Porsche and the Mercedes Company got in the act. Unfortunately, these hybrids never really caught on.
Didik Design- which manufactures several vehicles which run on various combinations of electricity, solar power, and human power-maintains an extensive archive on the history of electric and electro-fuel cars. According to their research, around 200 companies and individuals have manufactured electric cars. Only a few familiar names on the list (although some of them aren't familiar as car manufacturers): Studebaker (1952-1966), General Electric (1901-1904), Braun (1977), Sears, Roebuck, and Company (1978), and Oldsmobile (1896 to the present). The vast majority have long been forgotten: Elecctra, Pfluger, Buffalo Automobile company, Hercules, Red Bug, and Nu-Klea Starlite, to name a few. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison teamed up on an electric car, but, although some prototypes were built, it never was commercially produced. Though they have faded from mass cultural memory, electric cars have never been completely out of production.
The reasons why electrics faded into obscurity while gas cars and trucks became 99.999 percent dominant are complex and are still being debated. If only they hadn't been sidelined and had continued to develop apace, the world would be a very different place.
A blacksmith in Vermont-Thomas Davenport-built the first electric motor in 1833 and used it to power a model train the next year. In the 1830s, Scottish inventor Robert Davidson rigged a carriage with an electric motor powered by batteries. In his Pulitzer-nominated book Taking Charge, archaeology professor and technology historian Michael Brian Schiffer writes that this "was perhaps the first electric car."
After this remarkable achievement, the idea of an electric car languished for decades. In 1881, a French experimenter debuted a personal vehicle that ran on electricity, a tricycle (ie, three wheels and a seat) for adults. In 1888, many inventors in the US, Britain, and Europe started creating three-and four-wheel vehicles-which could carry two to six people-that ran on electricity. These vehicles remained principally curiosities until May 1897, when the Pope Manufacturing company- the country's most successful bicycle manufacturer-started selling the first commercial electric car: the Columbia Electric Phaeton, Mark III. It topped out at fifteen miles per hour, and had to be recharged every 30 miles. Within two years, people could choose from an array of electrical carriages, buggies, wagons, trucks, bicycles, tricycles, even buses and ambulances made by numerous manufacturers.
New York City was home to a fleet of electric taxi cabs starting in 1897. The Electric Vehicle Company eventually had over 100 of them ferrying people around the Big Apple. Soon it was unleashing electric taxis in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington DC by 1900, though, the company was in trouble, and seven years later it sputtered out.
As for cars powered by dead dinosaurs, Austrian engineer Siegfried Marcus attached a one cylinder motor to a cart in 1864, driving it 500 feet and thus creating the first vehicle powered by gas (this was around 25 years after Davidson had created the first electro-car). It wasn't until 1895 that gas autos-converted carriages with a two-cylinder engine-were commercially sold (and then only in microscopic numbers).
Around the turn of the century, the average car buyer had a big choice to make: gas, electric, or steam? When the auto industry took form around 1895, nobody knew which type of vehicle was going to be the standard. During the last few years of the nineteenth century and the first few of the twentieth, over 100 companies placed their bets on electricity. According to Schiffer, "Twenty-eight percent of the 4,192 American automobiles produced in 1900 were electric. In the New York automobile show of that year more electrics were on display than gasoline or steam vehicles."
In the middle of the first decade of the 1900s, electric cars were on the decline, and their gas-eating cousins were surging ahead. With improvements in the cars and their batteries, though, electrics started a comeback in 1907, which continued through 1913. The downhill slide started the next year, and by the 1920s the market for electrics was "miniscule," to use Schiffer's word. Things never got better.
Many companies tried to combine the best of both approaches, with cars that ran on a mix of electricity and gas. The Pope Manufacturing Company, once again in the vanguard, built a working prototype in 1898. A Belgian company and a French company each brought out commercial models the next year, beating the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight to the market by over a century. Even Ferdinand Porsche and the Mercedes Company got in the act. Unfortunately, these hybrids never really caught on.
Didik Design- which manufactures several vehicles which run on various combinations of electricity, solar power, and human power-maintains an extensive archive on the history of electric and electro-fuel cars. According to their research, around 200 companies and individuals have manufactured electric cars. Only a few familiar names on the list (although some of them aren't familiar as car manufacturers): Studebaker (1952-1966), General Electric (1901-1904), Braun (1977), Sears, Roebuck, and Company (1978), and Oldsmobile (1896 to the present). The vast majority have long been forgotten: Elecctra, Pfluger, Buffalo Automobile company, Hercules, Red Bug, and Nu-Klea Starlite, to name a few. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison teamed up on an electric car, but, although some prototypes were built, it never was commercially produced. Though they have faded from mass cultural memory, electric cars have never been completely out of production.
The reasons why electrics faded into obscurity while gas cars and trucks became 99.999 percent dominant are complex and are still being debated. If only they hadn't been sidelined and had continued to develop apace, the world would be a very different place.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
The Board Game Monopoly was Swiped From Quakers
Monopoly, according to it's manufacturer, has been played by over 500 million people. Translated into 26 languages, as well as Braille, it's sold 200 million copies as of 1999 (the latest figures the maker has announced). Over 5 billion of these green houses have been stamped, and each year countless dead trees are turned into 500 billion dollars of rainbow-hued money.
In other words, it's a popular game. The most successful board game ever.
The official story is that a toy tinkerer named Charles Darrow from Germantown, Pennsylvania, created this billion-dollar game out of whole cloth in 1934. However, the official story is what's made from whole cloth.
When economics professor Ralph Anspach cooked up a parody game called Anti-Monopoly, the goal is to bust trusts, not build them-Parker Brothers, not surprisingly, took him to court. While researching the game's history for the lawsuit, Anspach stumbled upon the hidden truth. Using dogged detective work, he assembled the suppressed history of Monopoly.
Greatly simplified, it goes like this. The roots stretch back to the Landlord's Game, a Monopolyesque game patented in 1904 by a cross-dressing Bohemian and game-inventor named Lizzie Magie. This game mutated into a folk-game called "monopoly." As charmingly quant as it may seem, people used to spend hour after hour playing board games with each other; they would even handmake their own copies of a game's board, cards, and pieces. From 1910 to the early 1930s, this is what happened with monopoly, mainly in the Northeastern US.
While visiting her hometown of Indianapolis, in 1929, a Quaker teacher named Ruth Hoskins was introduced to the game by a childhood friend. She made a copy, which she took back to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her friends and colleagues, themselves Quakers, soon decided to redo the game using places from their neck of the woods-Pacific Avenue, Park Place, the Boardwalk, etc. They also added the little hotels in addition to houses. In a crucial rule change, they removed the property auctions and gave each piece of pretend real estate a fixed value, making the game so simple that even little kids could play.
Eventually, a Quaker couple invited another couple to play the game. That's how Charles Darrow was introduced to monopoly. He showed great interest, pressing his hosts to explain all the fine points of the game. When he asked them to type up the rules and make board for him, they thought he was a demanding bastard, but they complied. Next thing you know, Darrow is selling it as a game he "created." He had lifted the Quakers' Atlantic City version wholesale, making only some superficial changes to the game board (such as putting a colored stripe across the top of the squares instead of the original triangles in the bottom left corner).
He then sold it to Parker Brothers, still pretending to have invented it. The company soon discovered the ruse but went along with it, omitting and suppressing evidence of the game's true origins when they patented it under Darrow's name.
In it's ruling against Parker Brothers' effort to torpedo Anti-Monopoly, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals officially agreed with the facts Anspach unearthed, declaring the "reference to Darrow as the inventor or creator of the game is clearly erroneous." The Supreme Court upheld the decision.
Even today, Hasbro-which assimilated Parker Brothers-won't acknowledge the origins of their cash cow. They have, however, craftily modified their so-called history of Monopoly. The game's website now coyly refers to the "legend" of the game's birth, which commences when Darrow "showed" the game to the suits at Parker Brothers. They don't say that he created it, although that's the impression you'd get if you didn't know the real story.
In other words, it's a popular game. The most successful board game ever.
The official story is that a toy tinkerer named Charles Darrow from Germantown, Pennsylvania, created this billion-dollar game out of whole cloth in 1934. However, the official story is what's made from whole cloth.
When economics professor Ralph Anspach cooked up a parody game called Anti-Monopoly, the goal is to bust trusts, not build them-Parker Brothers, not surprisingly, took him to court. While researching the game's history for the lawsuit, Anspach stumbled upon the hidden truth. Using dogged detective work, he assembled the suppressed history of Monopoly.
Greatly simplified, it goes like this. The roots stretch back to the Landlord's Game, a Monopolyesque game patented in 1904 by a cross-dressing Bohemian and game-inventor named Lizzie Magie. This game mutated into a folk-game called "monopoly." As charmingly quant as it may seem, people used to spend hour after hour playing board games with each other; they would even handmake their own copies of a game's board, cards, and pieces. From 1910 to the early 1930s, this is what happened with monopoly, mainly in the Northeastern US.
While visiting her hometown of Indianapolis, in 1929, a Quaker teacher named Ruth Hoskins was introduced to the game by a childhood friend. She made a copy, which she took back to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her friends and colleagues, themselves Quakers, soon decided to redo the game using places from their neck of the woods-Pacific Avenue, Park Place, the Boardwalk, etc. They also added the little hotels in addition to houses. In a crucial rule change, they removed the property auctions and gave each piece of pretend real estate a fixed value, making the game so simple that even little kids could play.
Eventually, a Quaker couple invited another couple to play the game. That's how Charles Darrow was introduced to monopoly. He showed great interest, pressing his hosts to explain all the fine points of the game. When he asked them to type up the rules and make board for him, they thought he was a demanding bastard, but they complied. Next thing you know, Darrow is selling it as a game he "created." He had lifted the Quakers' Atlantic City version wholesale, making only some superficial changes to the game board (such as putting a colored stripe across the top of the squares instead of the original triangles in the bottom left corner).
He then sold it to Parker Brothers, still pretending to have invented it. The company soon discovered the ruse but went along with it, omitting and suppressing evidence of the game's true origins when they patented it under Darrow's name.
In it's ruling against Parker Brothers' effort to torpedo Anti-Monopoly, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals officially agreed with the facts Anspach unearthed, declaring the "reference to Darrow as the inventor or creator of the game is clearly erroneous." The Supreme Court upheld the decision.
Even today, Hasbro-which assimilated Parker Brothers-won't acknowledge the origins of their cash cow. They have, however, craftily modified their so-called history of Monopoly. The game's website now coyly refers to the "legend" of the game's birth, which commences when Darrow "showed" the game to the suits at Parker Brothers. They don't say that he created it, although that's the impression you'd get if you didn't know the real story.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Smoking Causes Problems Other Than Lung Cancer And Heart Disease
The fact that smoking causes lung disease and oral cancer isn't exactly news, and only tobacco industry executives would express (feigned) shock at being told. But cigarettes can lead to a whole slew of problems involving every system of your tar-filled body, and most people aren't aware of this.
The American Council on Science and Health's book Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You is the first comprehensive look at the medical evidence of all types of harm triggered by smoking. Referencing over 450 articles from medical journals and reviewed by 45 experts- mainly medical doctors and PhDs-if this book doesn't convince you to quit, nothing will.
Among some of the things cancer sticks do:
Besides cancers of the head, neck, and lungs, butts are especially connected to cancer of the bladder, kidney, pancreas, and cervix. Newer evidence is adding leukemia and colorectal cancer to the list. Recent studies have also found at least doubling of risk among smokers for cancers of the vulva and penis, as well as an eight-fold risk of anal cancer for men and a nine-fold risk for women.
Smoking trashes the ability of blood to flow, which results in a sixteen-fold greater risk of peripheral vascular disease. This triggers pain in the legs and arms, which often leads to an inability to walk and, in some instances, gangrene and/or amputation. Seventy-six percent of all cases are caused by smoking, more than any other factor, including diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure.
Smokers are at least two to three more likely to develop the heartbreak of psoriasis. Even if that doesn't happen, they'll look old before their time. The American Council tells us, "Smokers in their 40s have facial wrinkles similar to those of nonsmokers in their 60s."
Smokers require more anesthesia for surgery, and they recover much more slowly. In fact, wounds of all kinds take longer to heal for smokers.
Puffing helps to weaken bones, soft tissue, and spinal discs, causing all kinds of musculo-skeletal pain, more broken bones and ruptured discs, and longer healing time. "A non-smokers leg heals an average of 80 percent faster than a smoker's broken leg."
Smoking is heavily related to osteoporosis, the loss of bone mass, which results in brittle bones and more breaks.
Cigarettes interfere with your ability to have kids. " The fertility rates of women who smoke are about 30 percent lower than those of nonsmokers." If you're an idiot who continues to smoke while you're expecting-even in this day and age, some people, including stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Courtney Love did-you increase the risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, low birth weight, underdevelopment, and cleft pallet. If your child is able to survive outside the womb, it will have a heavily elevated risk of crib death (SIDS), allergies, and intellectual impairment.
Smoking also does a serious number on sperm, resulting in more deformed cells, less ability of them to swim, smaller loads, and a drastic decrease in overall number of the fellas. The larger population of misshapen sperm probably increases the risk of miscarriages and birth defects, so even if mommy doesn't smoke, daddy could still cause problems. What's more, because smoking hurts blood flow, male smokers are at least twice as likely to be unable to get it up.
Besides shutting down blood flow to the little head, smoking interferes with the blood going to the big head in both sexes. This causes one quarter of all strokes. It also makes these strokes more likely to occur earlier in life and more likely to be fatal.
"Depression-whether viewed as a trait, a symptom or a diagnosable disorder-is overrepresented among smokers." Unfortunately, it's unclear how the two are related. Does smoking cause depression, or does depression lead to smoking? Or, most likely, do the two feed on each other in a vicious cycle?
"Smokers experience sudden hearing loss an average of 16 years earlier than do never
smokers."
Smokers and former smokers have an increased risk of developing cataracts, abnormal eye movements, inflammation of the optic nerve, permanent blindness from lack of blood flow, and the most severe form of macular degeneration.
Lighting up increases plaque, gum disease, and tooth loss.
It also makes it likelier that you'll develop diabetes, stomach ulcers, colon polyps, and Crohns disease.
Smoking trashes the immune system in myriad ways, with the overall result being that you're more susceptible to disease and allergies.
And let's not forget that second-hand smoke has horrible effects on the estimated 42 percent of toddlers and infants who are forced to inhale it in their homes:
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), children's "passive smoking," as it is called, results in hundreds of thousands of cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, and worsened asthma. Worse yet, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 702 children younger than one year die each year as a result of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), worsened asthma and serious respiratory infections.
It's very surprising to note that smoking can have a few health benefits. Because they zap women's estrogen levels, cigarettes can lead to less endometriosis and other conditions related to the hormone. Smoking also decreases the risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knees, perhaps because the pliability of thin bones takes some pressure off the cartilage. And because it jacks up dopamine levels, it helps ward off Parkinson's disease. Of course, these benefits seem to be side effects of the hazards of smoking, so the trade-off hardly seems worth it.
The American Council on Science and Health's book Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You is the first comprehensive look at the medical evidence of all types of harm triggered by smoking. Referencing over 450 articles from medical journals and reviewed by 45 experts- mainly medical doctors and PhDs-if this book doesn't convince you to quit, nothing will.
Among some of the things cancer sticks do:
Besides cancers of the head, neck, and lungs, butts are especially connected to cancer of the bladder, kidney, pancreas, and cervix. Newer evidence is adding leukemia and colorectal cancer to the list. Recent studies have also found at least doubling of risk among smokers for cancers of the vulva and penis, as well as an eight-fold risk of anal cancer for men and a nine-fold risk for women.
Smoking trashes the ability of blood to flow, which results in a sixteen-fold greater risk of peripheral vascular disease. This triggers pain in the legs and arms, which often leads to an inability to walk and, in some instances, gangrene and/or amputation. Seventy-six percent of all cases are caused by smoking, more than any other factor, including diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure.
Smokers are at least two to three more likely to develop the heartbreak of psoriasis. Even if that doesn't happen, they'll look old before their time. The American Council tells us, "Smokers in their 40s have facial wrinkles similar to those of nonsmokers in their 60s."
Smokers require more anesthesia for surgery, and they recover much more slowly. In fact, wounds of all kinds take longer to heal for smokers.
Puffing helps to weaken bones, soft tissue, and spinal discs, causing all kinds of musculo-skeletal pain, more broken bones and ruptured discs, and longer healing time. "A non-smokers leg heals an average of 80 percent faster than a smoker's broken leg."
Smoking is heavily related to osteoporosis, the loss of bone mass, which results in brittle bones and more breaks.
Cigarettes interfere with your ability to have kids. " The fertility rates of women who smoke are about 30 percent lower than those of nonsmokers." If you're an idiot who continues to smoke while you're expecting-even in this day and age, some people, including stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Courtney Love did-you increase the risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, low birth weight, underdevelopment, and cleft pallet. If your child is able to survive outside the womb, it will have a heavily elevated risk of crib death (SIDS), allergies, and intellectual impairment.
Smoking also does a serious number on sperm, resulting in more deformed cells, less ability of them to swim, smaller loads, and a drastic decrease in overall number of the fellas. The larger population of misshapen sperm probably increases the risk of miscarriages and birth defects, so even if mommy doesn't smoke, daddy could still cause problems. What's more, because smoking hurts blood flow, male smokers are at least twice as likely to be unable to get it up.
Besides shutting down blood flow to the little head, smoking interferes with the blood going to the big head in both sexes. This causes one quarter of all strokes. It also makes these strokes more likely to occur earlier in life and more likely to be fatal.
"Depression-whether viewed as a trait, a symptom or a diagnosable disorder-is overrepresented among smokers." Unfortunately, it's unclear how the two are related. Does smoking cause depression, or does depression lead to smoking? Or, most likely, do the two feed on each other in a vicious cycle?
"Smokers experience sudden hearing loss an average of 16 years earlier than do never
smokers."
Smokers and former smokers have an increased risk of developing cataracts, abnormal eye movements, inflammation of the optic nerve, permanent blindness from lack of blood flow, and the most severe form of macular degeneration.
Lighting up increases plaque, gum disease, and tooth loss.
It also makes it likelier that you'll develop diabetes, stomach ulcers, colon polyps, and Crohns disease.
Smoking trashes the immune system in myriad ways, with the overall result being that you're more susceptible to disease and allergies.
And let's not forget that second-hand smoke has horrible effects on the estimated 42 percent of toddlers and infants who are forced to inhale it in their homes:
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), children's "passive smoking," as it is called, results in hundreds of thousands of cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, and worsened asthma. Worse yet, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 702 children younger than one year die each year as a result of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), worsened asthma and serious respiratory infections.
It's very surprising to note that smoking can have a few health benefits. Because they zap women's estrogen levels, cigarettes can lead to less endometriosis and other conditions related to the hormone. Smoking also decreases the risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knees, perhaps because the pliability of thin bones takes some pressure off the cartilage. And because it jacks up dopamine levels, it helps ward off Parkinson's disease. Of course, these benefits seem to be side effects of the hazards of smoking, so the trade-off hardly seems worth it.
Friday, May 8, 2015
How Do You Plead?
A Virginia law requires all bathtubs to be kept out in the yard, not inside the house.
According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. Offenders could be hanged for trying.
Celebrating Christmas was once illegal in England.
Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in twenty-four American states.
In a tradition dating back to the beginning of the Westminster system of government, the bench in the middle of a Westminster parliament is two-and-a-half swords lengths long. This was so the government and opposition couldn't have a go at each other if it all got a bit heated.
In Alaska, it is illegal to shoot at a moose from the window of an airplane or other flying vehicle.
In Athens, Greece, a drivers license can be taken away by law if the driver is deemed "unbathed" or "poorly dressed."
In Baltimore, it is illegal to wash or scrub a sink, regardless of how dirty it is.
In Cleveland, Ohio, it is illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
In England during Queen Victoria's reign, it was illegal to be a homosexual but not a lesbian, the reason being that when the queen was approving the law, she wouldn't believe that women would do that.
In Hartford, Connecticut, it is illegal for a husband to kiss his wife on Sundays.
In Helsinki, Finland, instead of giving parking tickets, the police usually deflate tires.
In Italy, it is illegal to make coffins out of anything except nutshells or wood.
In Jasmine, Saskatchewan, it is illegal for a cow to moo within three hundred kilometers of a private home.
In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry ice cream in you back pocket.
In Sweden, although prostitution is legal, it is illegal for anyone to use the services of a prostitute.
In Texas, it is illegal to put graffiti on someone else's cow.
In the United Kingdom, there is no Act of Parliament making it illegal to commit murder. Murder is only illegal due to legal precedent.
It is against the law to stare at the mayor of Paris.
In Singapore, it is against the law to urinate in an elevator.
In Sweden, it is illegal to train a seal to balance a ball on its nose.
In California, it is illegal to eat oranges while bathing.
In Bladworth, Saskatchewan, it is illegal to frown at cows.
It is illegal to grow or sell pork in Israel.
In Arizona, it is illegal to hunt camels.
In Malaysia, it is illegal for restaurants to substitute toilet paper as table napkins. Repeat offenders go to jail.
It used to be law in France that children's names had to be taken from an official government list.
In Iceland, it was once against the law to have a pet in a city.
I one city in Switzerland, it was once against the law to slam your door.
Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the United States since 1916, when a man mailed a forty-thousand-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates.
Pennsylvania was the first colony to legalize witchcraft.
A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.
According to the United States Refuse Act of 1899, every industrial discharge into bodies of water since 1899 has been a crime.
Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year.
If you live in Michigan, it is illegal to put a skunk in your boss's desk.
In Hartford, Connecticut, you may not, under any circumstances, cross the street walking on your hands.
In Idaho, a citizen is forbidden by law to give another citizen a box of candy that weighs more than fifty pounds.
In Indiana, it is illegal to ride public transportation for at least thirty minutes after eating garlic.
In Minnesota, it is illegal for women to be dressed up as Santa Claus on city streets.
In Morrisville, Pennsylvania, women need a legal permit before they can wear lipstick in public.
In some parts of Alabama, it is illegal to carry a comb in your pocket.
In the Rhode Island legislative during the 1970s, it was proposed that there be a tax of $2 on every act of sexual intercourse.
In Oklahoma, it is against the law to hunt whale.
It is illegal for boys in ninth grade to grow a mustache in Binghamton, New York.
In Omaha, Nebraska, it's against the law to burp or sneeze in a church.
In Kansas, it's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands.
It's against the law to ride down the streets of Brewton, Alabama, in a motorboat.
Most burglaries occur in the winter.
The state legislature in North Dakota has rejected a proposal to erect signs specifically warning motorists not to throw human waste on the roadside. Maintenance workers report at least twenty incidents of road crews being sprayed with urine after rupturing urine filled plastic bottles that became swollen in the hot sun. Opponents of the measure say they're afraid the signs would discourage tourism.
Under the law of Mississippi, there's no such thing as a female peeping Tom.
in 1976, a Los Angeles secretary named Jannene Swift officially married a fifty-pound rock. The ceremony was witnessed by more than twenty people.
According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. Offenders could be hanged for trying.
Celebrating Christmas was once illegal in England.
Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in twenty-four American states.
In a tradition dating back to the beginning of the Westminster system of government, the bench in the middle of a Westminster parliament is two-and-a-half swords lengths long. This was so the government and opposition couldn't have a go at each other if it all got a bit heated.
In Alaska, it is illegal to shoot at a moose from the window of an airplane or other flying vehicle.
In Athens, Greece, a drivers license can be taken away by law if the driver is deemed "unbathed" or "poorly dressed."
In Baltimore, it is illegal to wash or scrub a sink, regardless of how dirty it is.
In Cleveland, Ohio, it is illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
In England during Queen Victoria's reign, it was illegal to be a homosexual but not a lesbian, the reason being that when the queen was approving the law, she wouldn't believe that women would do that.
In Hartford, Connecticut, it is illegal for a husband to kiss his wife on Sundays.
In Helsinki, Finland, instead of giving parking tickets, the police usually deflate tires.
In Italy, it is illegal to make coffins out of anything except nutshells or wood.
In Jasmine, Saskatchewan, it is illegal for a cow to moo within three hundred kilometers of a private home.
In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry ice cream in you back pocket.
In Sweden, although prostitution is legal, it is illegal for anyone to use the services of a prostitute.
In Texas, it is illegal to put graffiti on someone else's cow.
In the United Kingdom, there is no Act of Parliament making it illegal to commit murder. Murder is only illegal due to legal precedent.
It is against the law to stare at the mayor of Paris.
In Singapore, it is against the law to urinate in an elevator.
In Sweden, it is illegal to train a seal to balance a ball on its nose.
In California, it is illegal to eat oranges while bathing.
In Bladworth, Saskatchewan, it is illegal to frown at cows.
It is illegal to grow or sell pork in Israel.
In Arizona, it is illegal to hunt camels.
In Malaysia, it is illegal for restaurants to substitute toilet paper as table napkins. Repeat offenders go to jail.
It used to be law in France that children's names had to be taken from an official government list.
In Iceland, it was once against the law to have a pet in a city.
I one city in Switzerland, it was once against the law to slam your door.
Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the United States since 1916, when a man mailed a forty-thousand-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates.
Pennsylvania was the first colony to legalize witchcraft.
A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.
According to the United States Refuse Act of 1899, every industrial discharge into bodies of water since 1899 has been a crime.
Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year.
If you live in Michigan, it is illegal to put a skunk in your boss's desk.
In Hartford, Connecticut, you may not, under any circumstances, cross the street walking on your hands.
In Idaho, a citizen is forbidden by law to give another citizen a box of candy that weighs more than fifty pounds.
In Indiana, it is illegal to ride public transportation for at least thirty minutes after eating garlic.
In Minnesota, it is illegal for women to be dressed up as Santa Claus on city streets.
In Morrisville, Pennsylvania, women need a legal permit before they can wear lipstick in public.
In some parts of Alabama, it is illegal to carry a comb in your pocket.
In the Rhode Island legislative during the 1970s, it was proposed that there be a tax of $2 on every act of sexual intercourse.
In Oklahoma, it is against the law to hunt whale.
It is illegal for boys in ninth grade to grow a mustache in Binghamton, New York.
In Omaha, Nebraska, it's against the law to burp or sneeze in a church.
In Kansas, it's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands.
It's against the law to ride down the streets of Brewton, Alabama, in a motorboat.
Most burglaries occur in the winter.
The state legislature in North Dakota has rejected a proposal to erect signs specifically warning motorists not to throw human waste on the roadside. Maintenance workers report at least twenty incidents of road crews being sprayed with urine after rupturing urine filled plastic bottles that became swollen in the hot sun. Opponents of the measure say they're afraid the signs would discourage tourism.
Under the law of Mississippi, there's no such thing as a female peeping Tom.
in 1976, a Los Angeles secretary named Jannene Swift officially married a fifty-pound rock. The ceremony was witnessed by more than twenty people.
Hell Hath No Fury
One of the strangest tales in American history is recorded in the diary of Elizabeth Geer. She and her husband and their seven children set out in a covered wagon from Indiana headed for California in 1847. The wagon train with which the Geers were traveling reached the half way point by September 15. On the morning of the 16th, one of the men reported that he was having trouble.
His wife was angry at him for trying to drag her half way across the continent and refused to take another step west. Not only would she not budge, she wouldn't allow her children to go either. Her husband had his oxen hitched up to the wagons for three hours and had been coaxing her to hop aboard, bit she wouldn't stir.
Elizabeth told her husband what was taking place, and he gathered three male companions and went to consult with the recalcitrant woman. When she steadfastly refused their entreaties to join them, they grabbed her young ones and crammed them in the wagon. Her husband then drove off and let her sitting.
As the wagons rolled west, the abandoned woman got up, took the back track and traveled out of sight. Meanwhile, the husband sent his oldest son back to where they had camped to retrieve a horse that he had left. In less than an hour, having cut across a bend in the road, the wife overtook her husband. When he saw her he asked, "Did you meet Son John?"
"Yes" was the reply, "and I picked up a stone and knocked out his brains."
Her stunned husband went back to ascertain the truth, and while he was gone, she set his wagon, which was loaded with all of their store-bought goods, on fire. The cover was completely burned, as were some valuable articles. When the man saw the flames, he came running back to put them out. According to Elizabeth, when this was accomplished, The husband finally mustered spunk enough to give his wife what she needed: a good flogging."
Unfortunately, Mrs. Geer doesn't tell us what effect the whipping had on the woman, but one has to wonder if it did any good. After all, anyone who would set fire to her own wagon probably would not be deterred by a few blows from her husband.
His wife was angry at him for trying to drag her half way across the continent and refused to take another step west. Not only would she not budge, she wouldn't allow her children to go either. Her husband had his oxen hitched up to the wagons for three hours and had been coaxing her to hop aboard, bit she wouldn't stir.
Elizabeth told her husband what was taking place, and he gathered three male companions and went to consult with the recalcitrant woman. When she steadfastly refused their entreaties to join them, they grabbed her young ones and crammed them in the wagon. Her husband then drove off and let her sitting.
As the wagons rolled west, the abandoned woman got up, took the back track and traveled out of sight. Meanwhile, the husband sent his oldest son back to where they had camped to retrieve a horse that he had left. In less than an hour, having cut across a bend in the road, the wife overtook her husband. When he saw her he asked, "Did you meet Son John?"
"Yes" was the reply, "and I picked up a stone and knocked out his brains."
Her stunned husband went back to ascertain the truth, and while he was gone, she set his wagon, which was loaded with all of their store-bought goods, on fire. The cover was completely burned, as were some valuable articles. When the man saw the flames, he came running back to put them out. According to Elizabeth, when this was accomplished, The husband finally mustered spunk enough to give his wife what she needed: a good flogging."
Unfortunately, Mrs. Geer doesn't tell us what effect the whipping had on the woman, but one has to wonder if it did any good. After all, anyone who would set fire to her own wagon probably would not be deterred by a few blows from her husband.
Amelia Earhart's Private Side
In July 1937, a gallant and skillful pilot vanished over Howland Island in the Pacific. Her name was Amelia Earhart, perhaps the best known aviatrix in the history of flight. If her public thought that she was the epitome of determination, they ought to have seen her private side. The woman had icewater running through her veins.
Earhart had only been flying for two years when she set an altitude record for women by soaring to 14,000 feet, and she did it in a little open-cockpit plane powered by a three-cylinder air-cooled engine. Later she became the first woman passenger to cross the Atlantic by plane, and in 1932 she made history by being the first woman to actually fly solo across the Atlantic. The year before, she shocked the world by getting married. Would this be the end to America's dare-devil darling? Would some man tame her? Not a chance. The same iron will that she exhibited in public also reigned in her private life.
Amelia's intended was George Palmer Putnam, and while they were waiting in his mother's home for the justice of the peace to arrive, the bride handed the groom a letter. In it, Amelia let George know just what she expected out of the marriage.
At the outset. Amelia, although she did love George, expressed some reluctance to marry. She was afraid that it would interfere with her own ambitions. "In our life together," she wrote, "I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me, nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly. Please let us not interfere with each other's work or play. In this connection," she continued, "I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinements of even an attractive cage." In closing, Amelia exacted what she called a cruel promise. "You must let me go in a year if we find no happiness together."
Nobody knows how Amelia's marriage to George Putnam really worked privately, but one suspects that she charted her own course in the air and on the ground. She always had and she always would.
In public or in private, Amelia Earhart apparently loved her independence more than life itself.
Earhart had only been flying for two years when she set an altitude record for women by soaring to 14,000 feet, and she did it in a little open-cockpit plane powered by a three-cylinder air-cooled engine. Later she became the first woman passenger to cross the Atlantic by plane, and in 1932 she made history by being the first woman to actually fly solo across the Atlantic. The year before, she shocked the world by getting married. Would this be the end to America's dare-devil darling? Would some man tame her? Not a chance. The same iron will that she exhibited in public also reigned in her private life.
Amelia's intended was George Palmer Putnam, and while they were waiting in his mother's home for the justice of the peace to arrive, the bride handed the groom a letter. In it, Amelia let George know just what she expected out of the marriage.
At the outset. Amelia, although she did love George, expressed some reluctance to marry. She was afraid that it would interfere with her own ambitions. "In our life together," she wrote, "I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me, nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly. Please let us not interfere with each other's work or play. In this connection," she continued, "I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinements of even an attractive cage." In closing, Amelia exacted what she called a cruel promise. "You must let me go in a year if we find no happiness together."
Nobody knows how Amelia's marriage to George Putnam really worked privately, but one suspects that she charted her own course in the air and on the ground. She always had and she always would.
In public or in private, Amelia Earhart apparently loved her independence more than life itself.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
College Football's Worst Moment
Every member of the Georgia Tech football team was poised to decimate their opponents on that crisp October afternoon in 1916. Their coach had instructed them to show no mercy, and the players followed his instructions with relish. When the whistle finally blew, ending the game, the score stood at 222 to 0. Normally a coach who would allow such a massacre would become a pariah to the game. In this case, however, he became a national hero.
The high-scoring game was played between Georgia Tech and Cumberland College. No one really expected Cumberland to win, but neither did they expect such a rout. From the very first, Georgia's running backs scored at will. By half time, Georgia had scored 19 touchdowns and led by 126 points.
Both teams went to their respective locker rooms to plan their strategies for the second half. The record is silent about what transpired in the Cumberland shower room, but the Georgia coach's admonition to his players is well known.
Leading 126 to 0, he said, "Men, we might be in front, but you never know what those Cumberland players have up their sleeves." He went on to urge them to continue fighting as if they were behind in the game. "Show them no mercy," he intoned. The Georgia players stormed back on the field and ran up another 96 points in the second half.
It had been a bruising embarrassment for the Cumberland players and one should have sent the Georgia coach home, hanging his head in shame. The Georgia running backs rolled up 528 rushing yards, 220 on kickoff returns, and another on punt returns. Not a single pass was thrown by Georgia.
One would have thought that the Georgia coach would have been vilified, but the contrary proved to be the case. In spite of the unconscionable drubbing his team gave Cumberland, he went on to become a football hero, and as such, he left such an impact on the game that his name has become a household word.
The fact that football games are divided into four quarters can be traced directly to the Georgia Tech coach. He invented the center snap to the quarterback and came up with the "T" and "I" formations. Then in 1935, his name was immortalized.
Football officials decided that an annual trophy should be given to the most outstanding collegiate player in the country. In time it became the most prestigious award in football. They named it the Heisman Trophy after Coach John Heisman , that same Georgia Tech coach who once shut the gates of mercy on little Cumberland College. Apparently in this case, "might did make right."
The high-scoring game was played between Georgia Tech and Cumberland College. No one really expected Cumberland to win, but neither did they expect such a rout. From the very first, Georgia's running backs scored at will. By half time, Georgia had scored 19 touchdowns and led by 126 points.
Both teams went to their respective locker rooms to plan their strategies for the second half. The record is silent about what transpired in the Cumberland shower room, but the Georgia coach's admonition to his players is well known.
Leading 126 to 0, he said, "Men, we might be in front, but you never know what those Cumberland players have up their sleeves." He went on to urge them to continue fighting as if they were behind in the game. "Show them no mercy," he intoned. The Georgia players stormed back on the field and ran up another 96 points in the second half.
It had been a bruising embarrassment for the Cumberland players and one should have sent the Georgia coach home, hanging his head in shame. The Georgia running backs rolled up 528 rushing yards, 220 on kickoff returns, and another on punt returns. Not a single pass was thrown by Georgia.
One would have thought that the Georgia coach would have been vilified, but the contrary proved to be the case. In spite of the unconscionable drubbing his team gave Cumberland, he went on to become a football hero, and as such, he left such an impact on the game that his name has become a household word.
The fact that football games are divided into four quarters can be traced directly to the Georgia Tech coach. He invented the center snap to the quarterback and came up with the "T" and "I" formations. Then in 1935, his name was immortalized.
Football officials decided that an annual trophy should be given to the most outstanding collegiate player in the country. In time it became the most prestigious award in football. They named it the Heisman Trophy after Coach John Heisman , that same Georgia Tech coach who once shut the gates of mercy on little Cumberland College. Apparently in this case, "might did make right."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)