More lesser known facts

• Coca-Cola was originally green.
• It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
• Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.
• Amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served first class: $40,000.
• City with the most Rolls Royce's per capita: Hong Kong.
• State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
• Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
• Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
• Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%
• Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man if they had it to do all over again: 50%
• Cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400
• Average number of people airborne over the US at any given hour: 61,000
• Percentage of Americans who have visited Disneyland/Disney World: 70%
• Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
• The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
• The youngest pope was 11 years old.
• Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
• First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
• In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
• The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
• The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a  letter is uncopyrightable.
• Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
• The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of old when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
• The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
• When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
• The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
• • Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great,
  • Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
• Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
• Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2nd, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
• The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50  caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo  at a target,it got "the whole 9 yards."
• Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
• The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from and old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
• An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain.
• The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
• The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
• David Prowse was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie.
• In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
• The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.
• The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
• The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
• Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
• The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
• Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
• If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have 1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
• The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver".
• The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League all-stars Game.
• Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."

Facts proved wrong

No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl.

Russel states that "in Jan 2000 the St Louis Rams won and they play in a dome"

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

A duck's quack does echo.

Average number of days a West German goes without washing his underwear: 7

Stefan says that "The Fact about West Germans not changing their underwear for 7 days is absolutely wrong. I am from West Germany, and I change my underwear every day, and I know of no-one who wears his underwear any longer than 2 days without washing it..."

"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

The shortest complete sentence in the English language is "Go." The subject is implied in the sentence as it is a command and is, in fact, a complete sentence.

More lesser known facts

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A Clean House is a sign of a wasted life! : EarthFrisk Blog

Humor is most essential in this crazy world that we live in. As the owner of some incredible sites, I see the best videos and photos out there posted by our members.

Retro humor makes me laugh a lot. Someone posted lots of magnets and posters for retro type humor here at EarthFrisk. Click here to see almost 90 pieces that can really put a smile on your face.

Here are some of my favorites:

We do love our guns here in America. Our freedom as well and for those of you in other nations who are reading this, the main reason is we really don’t trust any government here in America. In fact that is why we have guns, for that day when Hillary or some other really left leaning or right wing nut politician decides that we don’t need the Bill of Rights any longer. That’s the day when you see many guns used all over the nation, as the heavily armed people in America revolt. Fear the Government that fears YOUR gun!

This one above my girlfriend loves, as she has wrestled with diets for years even though she is very hot. Women always think they are fatter than they really are. I think you all need to stop reading beauty magazines with the model’s that look like aliens that are supposed to be the examples of beauty when they are not.

Who can argue with the logic and humor of this one. As we all know alcohol impairs the senses and makes even the ugly and stupid get some confidence. This confidence has helped many people get some as they say. When others are out poisoning their livers with alcohol I’ve tended to smoke some marijuana ( in the past ). The logic is anyone that smokes weed hurts their bodies far far less with much more enjoyment than any beer or alcohol.

What red-blooded American male (or any male on earth) wouldn’t agree that the humor in what we are thinking as groups can make you think and laugh. Men typically are like this guy. The caption is funny because it is what you’d be thinking too if you are a male.

I remember back when I was in college we had quite a few students who were there for many years. Some even twice the normal amount of time ( 4 years) it takes to graduate.

At about 28 or s0 I had first become a coffee drinker. Until then I never bothered as it is an acquired taste. Once I started up with 7-11 coffee with French Vanilla, I was hooked, and have had coffee nearly every day since. Man that is bad for me and you if you drink as much.

I once played Civilization for 16 hours straight and once long ago I had the world record for one of the first video games called Asteroids. I would play for 12 hours easily and have hundreds and hundreds of spaceships lined up. Like anything, we all get good at what we spend our time on. My tag way back was ZZZ and I ended up getting my butt beaten for the Guiness book of world records by someone in Utah who played asteroids for 23 hours straight. I know these records are nothing compared to the feats that modern kids do. It was a lot back then with our puny graphics though.

Hey -if anyone loves to laugh and have fun you really should check this out click here. It’s the EF homepage - look at videos on left and you will be laughing your butt off for many many hours.

Who can argue this? Most people would gladly exchange their level of success for a great record deal. I wouldn’t at all. I love where I am in the world and would really hate it if I am in the bathroom doing a number 2 and a camera pops up under the door to take a picture of me. Someone would have to die in that case. lol

Yeah I have ADD, so what?

We’ve all done it. For those of you that are disgusted by this one, get a life. It’s called human nature. I wrote about a cool quote from my high school days. Tell me what you think!

A study was done of high school students and college students. They were all asked in private if they masturbated. 99% admitted that they did, and the other 1% were liars.

One last one below that I’ve used in a couple of posts. I hope you all enjoyed these.

A Clean House is a sign of a wasted life! : EarthFrisk Blog

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The benefits of drinking beer every day | Beer Utopia

Beer improves metabolism, and many doctors consider that it is better to drink beer often (maybe every day), but with moderate portions (100-200 ml), than rarely but with huge portions.

1. Beer strengthens cordial muscle.
There are lots of potassium, magnesium, phosphorus in beer and it is excellent prophylaxis of myocardial infarction (heart attack), hypertension and heart failure. And nonalcoholic beer and dark beer of some brands could decreases the possibility of blood coagulability and thus decreases the risk of clots formation.

2. Beer appeases and cheers up.
Hops bitterness renders drowse, and alkaloid isomorphine which is in hop by chemical characteristics is analogous to morphine.

3. Beer withdraws uric stones.
Many sorts of beer withdraw uric stones. It happens like that: potassium intensifies natrium and chlorine segregation by kidneys, and urine formation deeply increases. Thus demineralization of organism happens and uric stones are being withdrawn.

4. Beer softens skin and enlarges breast.
In XVI century pharmaceutical chemists recommended women to wash themselves with beer in order to have soft skin. And Prussian Queen Louise who had flat breast was advised to drink beer and smear her breast with beer three times per day.

5. Beer strengthen bones.
Beer is the main source of silicon. This mineral plays a large role in strength of bone and muscle system.

6. In 100 grams of beer are only 37 Kcal.
To compare in 100 gram of kefir − 59 Kcal. That means that drinking beer after work is not so harmful for the figure. And so called “beer bellies” form not from beer but from sausages to beer.

7. Beer is good for mental work.
There are lots of group B and P vitamins in malt and hop, and they improve mental activity.

8. Beer hastens hair growth.
And vitamins B and P affect hair growth. It is recommended to make nourishing masks from beer for hair once a week. And if you wet your clean hair with beer and then use hair rollers – after that you will get tight and bright ringlets.

9. Beer is good while having cold.
Beer has bactericidal behaviour, if you drink warm beer while having cold or flu, it is possible to recover faster. In Medieval times during plague and cholera epidemic brewery workers rarely were ill. And while having toothache before teeth were rinsed with beer.

10. Beer is good for male potency.
Zinc which is in beer is good for male potency and it prevents prostate inflammation.

Ok I am off for another pint. Hey it’s good for me.

The benefits of drinking beer every day | Beer Utopia

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Ajihad's profile - StumbleUpon

Ajihad's profile - StumbleUpon

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Home Decor for Absolute Geeks

Home Decor for Absolute Geeks

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What the Finance

Thousands of US Businesses Go Bankrupt

The number of US businesses bankruptcy filings has risen as much as 49% in April compared to a year earlier. According to statistical data that was compiled by Jupiter eSources LLC, the business bankruptcy filings soared to 5,713 during April. The total number of bankruptcy filings, including those filed by individuals amounted to a total of 93,096, the Oklahoma-based group said.

And just to spice up the news a bit…

• The economy has lost a total of 260,000 jobs since the beginning of 2008.

• Banks have foreclosed nearly 650,000 properties in the last quarter of 2007.

• Analysts estimate bankruptcy filings will reach a total of 1.1 million by the end of 2008.

What the Finance

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say_the_color.gif (GIF Image, 450x316 pixels)

say_the_color.gif (GIF Image, 450x316 pixels)

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Jelly Belly Flavor Guide - Brandon's Website

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans Below are the flavors inspired by the candy featured in the Harry Potter series.  Some of these beans are downright nasty and make me barfy.  However, Jelly Belly makes these, and while the flavors may be bad, at least the quality is good. One of the worst mistakes I had ever made was mixing the Bertie Bott's beans into the candy machine with the normal 49-flavor beans; you couldn't tell them apart!  I was going for the ultimate "every flavor" kind of deal, but nobody wanted any because of the risk of getting dirt or vomit.  I eventually ended up hand-sorting the Bertie Bott's beans from the regular beans, but I wasn't sure that I got them all because many of them are similar in color.
	Bacon (retired) It tastes more like bacon bits than ordinary bacon, but it's still an interesting flavor.  It doesn't have any real bacon in it (Jelly Belly doesn't use animal products in their beans).  Interestingly, Bacon is the first meat-flavored bean available (unless you want to count Earthworm, which was released before bacon; I don't think Earthworm should count).  The shell is crunchy, but the inside is chewy.  The texture reminds me of how some parts of bacon is hard and crunchy while the rest is soft and chewy.  Bacon jelly beans are brown with white spots, which is easy enough to distinguish from other beans.
	Black Pepper Wow, this is very very peppery.  Of course, Jelly Belly had to use real pepper in it, so it's absolutely peppery.  When you bite it, you can feel the grains of pepper explode out of the shell.  You can feel it in your nose—that's how peppery and spicy this yucky whoabad jellybean is.  In fact, I felt as though I nearly had to sneeze when I ate one of these.  The taste lingers on your tongue after you swallow it!  Hey, we have pepper, but where's the salt flavor?  Oh, I guess we'll get there when we investigate Sardine.
	Booger A pretty gross bean, if I may say so myself (which I may).  Gross gross gross.  Not only is the flavor bad, but the texture isn't so hot either.  It's very chewy, perhaps one of the chewiest beans there are.  The picture to the left is misleading; the bean is light green with brown flecks—just like real boogers!  In the Harry Potter movie, they call these "bogeys".  Isn't that fun to say?  "Bogey!"
	Dirt I like the Dirt jelly beans.  Similarly to Black Pepper, the inside seems to be designed so that when you bite it, the grainy particles explode out of it.  It genuinely tastes like dirt!  I gave one to my aunt Karen.  She had to spit it out.  She said it got worse as she ate it and left a yucky flavor in her mouth for hours!  Dirt's dark brown coloration can be easily confused with other beans if you aren't paying attention.
	Earthworm Blech!  Here is my least favorite flavor out of all the Jelly Belly jelly beans.  As if thinking about eating an earthworm is gross enough, the flavor is horrific.  It's the nastiest flavor anyone could ever imagine.  And that's not even the worst part!  It crunches when you bite it!  Eeyuck!  It's disgusting!  My goodness, I hope they didn't use real earthworm in those beans (no, they didn't).  Earthworm is dark red with black splotches on it; try not to confuse it with other beans!
	Earwax According to myself, Earwax is a pretty awful too, in texture alone (but nowhere near as bad as Earthworm!).  The texture seems to have little bits of chewy wax in it!  It's similar in texture to Peanut Butter, which is sad because I sometimes can't eat Peanut Butter jelly beans without being reminded of this flavor.  The flavor of Earwax is repulsive.
Picture Not Available	Fruit Punch (retired) A somewhat juicy, fruity flavor, it tastes just like the kind of punch you'd expect to ladle out of a punch bowl.  Honestly, I must say that the flavor wasn't all there, but I must confess that the Fruit Punch bean I tasted is more than five years old, so one might expect some of the flavor to have left.  I'm not sure, but this might be Hawaiian Punch, renamed for the Bertie Bott's collection.
	Grass Oh boy, I bet my cat would love to eat the Grass jelly beans.  Grass is his favorite food.  It's interesting to eat them.  Pretend you're a farm animal eating grass.  Isn't that weird?  It feels as though there were real grass ground up into the bean, but there isn't.  This bean is actually pretty good tasting, which, unfortunately, probably says a lot about my taste in food.
Picture Not Available	Horseradish (retired) Kit Potter wrote to me with information about the Horseradish bean before I was able to obtain one myself.  She says that it tastes like sweet horseradish, which makes sense, seeing that the main ingredient in every bean is sugar.  She also says that it's white in color, which makes it difficult to tell apart from other beans.  I myself think it reminds me of Roasted Garlic, and my cousin Kevin thinks it tastes like a skunk.
	Pickle Usually, I pick pickles off my burgers.  I've just never liked them.  But you know what?  I don't think that the flavor of this bean really is really all that assaulting.  It has a sort of tanginess to it and I would say that the flavor is pretty darn accurate.  It's definitely not the worst in this collection.
Picture Not Available	Pumpkin Pie (retired) I must honestly say that it closely resembles real Pumpkin Pie!!  The taste is subtle but agreeable.  Kevin doesn't like them ("Gross, it tastes like pumpkin pie!") but I like it myself.  Oh, Kevin just told me more.  "Actually, it tastes more like squash with brown pepper on it."  My sister Stephanie thinks it just tastes like spices ("like nutmeg") and stuff.  Am I the only one who thinks it tastes like pumpkin pie?  I think this was the return of an old flavor called Gramma's Pumpkin Pie for the Bertie Bott's collections.
	Rotten Egg This is easily a disgusting bean to chew on.  It tastes pretty bad, like a real rotten egg.  I don't even want to describe it, but I'll tell you that at first, it doesn't seem that bad, but the flavor gradually worsens until you spit it out, at which point, an awful aftertaste takes over and tries to kill your tongue.  Rotten Egg beans are white with green spots.  They probably would have gone with yellow spots, but buttered popcorn beans already have the white-with-yellow color combination.
	Sardine Yeeeuck!  Sardine is another gross flavor.  The texture is pretty much what you'd expect.  It dissipates in your mouth in the most foul way imaginable.  The taste is not great, either.  The taste is incredibly strong.  Even cutting open one of these babies with a knife releases a pungent odor.  This bean contains codfish oil.  Sardine is also hideously salty.  It's unfortunately very similar in color to Soap.  I hope you like seafood.
	Sausage Quite a bit weird at first, Sausage is anything but comforting.  First things first, the bean is blood red inside, which is quite a bit icky!  For one thing, I don't really truly think that this tastes like any sausage I've really eaten.  I'm sorry, but it's really hard to describe the flavor.  At least subliminally, I think it tastes a lot like the old retired Bacon flavor.  Perhaps it's a bit too peppery.  Ugh, I'm getting too old to be eating these Bertie Bott's beans.  I don't enjoy them anymore.
	Soap It's my favorite out of the Bertie Bott's beans.  It's close in color to Sardine, so you have to be careful.  It's very close to white in color, just like a real bar of soap!  It's not every day that you can eat soap without worrying about being blinded by soap poisoning.  So... this is what it must be like to have your mouth washed out with soap...
Picture Not Available	Spaghetti (retired) It's interesting that it tastes like noodles.  Spaghetti is one of the least lethal beans in this collection.  It's interesting that most of these Bertie Bott's beans are designed to be disgusting.  What about less-disgusting-but-realistic flavors, like Cheeseburger, Steel, Salami, Milk, Cilantro, Cat Food, Toothpaste, Maple Syrup, Wood, Water, or Newspaper?  Every flavor doesn't have to be intentionally disgusting...
	Spinach (retired) Spinach?  I don't think real spinach is gross, as long as there's enough ranch dressing to drench it in, but somehow, they managed to make this bean nasty.  It's pretty close in flavor, though, so maybe it's the texture or something.
	Vomit When most people think of a vomit-flavored jelly bean, they would say something like "That is uncalled-for!" or "Gag City!".  Vomit is a socially-unacceptable jelly bean.  If you told someone you were eating one of these disgusting beans, they would ask you, "What are you, a sick puppy?"  Vomit is one gross flavor.  Disgusting.  Icky.  It's the grossest bean on the planet.  Eating one of these may as well cause you to vomit.  It's light yellow in color with green and red specks.  The coloration is distinct, thank goodness.

   Jelly Belly Flavor Guide - Brandon's Website

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14 Habits That Make You Fat

1TV Watching

Prolonged TV watching is a strong predictor for obesity1. Recent research2 has proved that people who watch around two hours of TV per day are much more likely to be overweight than those who watched only half an hour per day. When you watch TV you are virtually motionless. Your heart rate, blood pressure and metabolic rate decline, resulting in burning 20 to 30 calories less per hour. Research by Harvard University4 has shown that there is a link between the amount children eat and the amount of television they watch.

2Eating Too Fast

It is a habit of most people living in a fast paced society. Eating fast lets you eat too much before you are fully aware of it. It takes the brain about 15-20 minutes to start signaling feelings of fullness. Scientists suppose that fast eating is a risk factor for the metabolic syndrome3, a combination of the symptoms such as high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance.

3Task Snacking

Task snacking refers to eating while doing other activities. if you often eat meals or snacks while working by yourself in front of your computer, while driving, watching TV, or standing at the kitchen counter, shopping with a friend, or talking on the phone, it's likely that the "task snacking" eating style is increasing your odds of becoming overweight or obese.

4Frequent Fast Food Consumption

One of the big reasons we’re seeing more obesity in our society these days is that we are too stressed and busy to make healthy dinners at home, often opting to get fast food at the nearest drive-thru instead. Fast foods compromise the quality of the diet by replacing more healthy foods. Fast foods are known for having high content of saturated and trans-fat, low content of fiber and massive portion sizes, which leads to obesity.

5Eating To Manage Feelings

Emotional eating is the practice of consuming large quantities of food (usually "comfort" or junk foods) in response to feelings (such as depression, anxiety, or loneliness) instead of hunger.

Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions. How many times have you found yourself scouring the kitchen for a snack, or absently munching on junk food when you’re stressed, but not really hungry?

6Too Busy To Exercise

With all the demands on your schedule, exercise may be one of the last things on your to-do list. If so, you’re not alone. Americans live a more sedentary lifestyle than we have in past generations, yet our minds seem to be racing from everything we have to do. Unfortunately, from sitting in traffic, clocking hours at our desks, and plopping in front of the TV in exhaustion at the end of the day, exercise often goes by the wayside.

7Your Friends Can Make You Fat

If you're putting on weight, you might want to take a look at who you're hanging around with. A study7 published in the July 26, 2007 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that obesity may be "socially contagious." The study was conducted on more than 12,000 people over 32 years, and concluded that having an overweight friend, sibling or spouse increased one's risk of obesity by 37 to 57 percent.

8Lack Of Sleep

Sleep deprivation can increase your risk of obesity by boosting ghrelin (an appetite stimulating hormone) and lowering leptin (an appetite suppressor). The study5 from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom found that, compared to an eight hours of shut-eye, each one-hour decrease in sleep duration was linked to almost 3% more body fat.

9Unaware Of Calories And Fat

Many people eat foods with no idea of the calorie or fat value. This leads to weight gain and unhealthy eating habits because you can easily consume twice the normal calories required to maintain your weight, let alone lose weight, if you don't know how many calories you are eating.

10Credit Cards

Your plastic may be affecting more than just your credit score. Visa conducted a study of 100,000 fast-food restaurant transactions and found that people who pay for their food with a credit card spend 30% more than those who pay with cash. For the average woman, who visits a fast-food restaurant once a week, that adds an extra 17,160 calories, or 4.9 pounds, per year.

11Missing Meals

Research shows that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight, and that morning meals seem to help those who've lost weight keep it off. Denise Bruner, MD, obesity specialist and former president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, says that skipping meals of any kind results in a "tremendous bout of compensatory hunger."

12Uncomfortable Clothing

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse6 found that casual and comfortable clothing workdays promote increased physical activity. Specifically, study participants took an average of 491 (or 8%) more steps on Jeans Day than on those days in which they wore normal business attire. It is also estimated that study participants burned an average of 25 additional calories on Jeans Day with the extra steps and miles walked. Wearing casual clothing every day for 50 weeks of work translates into burning an additional 125 calories per week and 6,250 calories per year.

13Neglecting Scales

Recent study from the University of Minnesota found that dieters who weighed themselves daily lost about 12 pounds over two years, while those who never did shed only four pounds. Other research, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that those who have daily weigh-ins (along with face-to-face support) are 82% less likely to regain five pounds than a control group without weigh-ins or support.

14Boredom

A survey by the Priory Group in the U.K. found that more people ate when bored than when stressed.

14 Habits That Make You Fat

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Teenagers

These darn kids today & their newfangled music formats!

It seems that teenagers don’t buy CDs anymore.  They have moved beyond the compact disc in a big way. 

I know this because I just read this article in the LA Times, which says that in 2007, half of all U.S. teenagers bought zero CDs.  Well, almost half… it’s 48%. 

That’s sort of astounding.  I remember being a teenager–barely–and I bought a lot of tapes and CDs.  Hey, back off…I’m just old enough that my youth spanned the gap between cassette tapes and CDs. 

But regardless….I bought a lot of music. 

And I don’t think music is any less important to teenagers today than it was to kids in my day.  It’s pretty clear what’s going on:  iTunes and illegal song-swapping have killed the compact disc… or at least maimed it. 

The illegal sharing of music online continued to soar in 2007, but there was one sign of hope that legal downloading was picking up steam. In the last year, Apple Inc.’s iTunes store, which sells only digital downloads, jumped ahead of Best Buy Co. to become the No. 2 U.S. music seller, trailing Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Please note that Wal-Mart is the number one music retailer in the U.S.  Also note that Tower Records went out of business in 2006.  Also note how sad these two facts make me.  And the article says that computers are to blame.  Here’s a snippet:

Rachel Rottman, 14, says she hasn’t bought a CD in a year. The Santa Monica High School freshman says she downloads five or six songs a day, using paid services such as iTunes and social networking site MySpace, where bands post songs for free download. Rachel said she had about 2,600 songs stored on her computer.

Before getting a computer in the seventh grade, she always bought CDs. But now it’s too much trouble, she said.

“You have to go to the store and then you have to pay — I don’t know how much, $12, I’m guessing? — then you have to put it on your computer,” Rachel said. “When you download it, it’s right there.”

Man, this girl is out of touch if she thinks CDs are only $12. 

But seriously, she’s right.  Buying a CD is, to this generation, just an unnecessary step in the process of getting your favorite songs on your iPod or uploaded to your MySpace page.  By the time people my age start becoming grandparents, the age of the physical medium for entertainment will have come to a close.  Movies, TV shows, music and more will be all digital.  These crazy teenagers today just don’t care about holding something tangible in their hands.  They care only for the music. 

In a decade or so you’ll find quaint little throwback boutiques opening up in trendy places like Nashville and Austin and they’ll sell things like CDs, DVDs, BluRay Discs, and other physical media like magazines and books.  And hippie people will shop there and remember the days when your entertainment dollars actually brought you something you could hold in your hand and touch.  And those things will cost $100 a piece, because they’ll be nostalgic items now… antiques. 

But the trend has too much momentum to be stopped now.  Digital media is the wave of the future.  You can either ride the wave, or let it overtake you… but there’s no stopping it, that’s for sure.  I can just hear the Scooby-Doo CD manufacturers howling about how they “would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.”

Hey, at least music itself isn’t dead… yet.

Teenagers

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THE Questions a candidate can ask during HR interview.

Usually by the end of the interview the HR person would ask you whether you have any questions. Under the stress of the job interview sometimes nothing comes to mind, but here’s a list of useful questions to ask.

1.Why do you enjoy working for this company?
2.What attracted you to this organization?
3.Can you describe the work environment here?
4.How do you describe the philosophy of the company or organization?

5.What do you consider to be the organization’s strengths and weaknesses?
6.Can you tell me more about my day-to-day responsibilities?
7.How soon are you looking to fill this position?
8.How do my skills compare with those of the other candidates you have interviewed?
9.I have really enjoyed meeting with you and your team, and I am very interested in the opportunity. I feel my skills and experience would be a good match for this position. What is the next step in your interview process?
10.Before I leave, is there anything else you need to know concerning my ability to do this job?
11.In your opinion, what is the most important contribution that this company expects from its employees?
12.Is there a structured career path at the company?
13.What are my prospects for advancement? If I do a good job, what is a logical next step?
14.Assuming I was hired and performed well for a period of time, what additional opportunities might this job lead to?
15Do the most successful people in the company tend to come from one area of the company, such as sales or engineering, or do they rise from a cross section of functional areas?
16.I know that for the position for which I am interviewing, the company decided to recruit from outside the organization. How do you decide between recruiting from within and going outside?
17.How does this position relate to the bottom line?
18.What advice would you give to someone in my position?
19.What major problems are we facing right now in this department or position?
20.Can you give me a formal, written description of the position? I’m interested in reviewing in detail the major activities involved and what results are expected.
21.Does this job usually lead to other positions in the company? Which ones?
22.Can you please tell me a little bit about the people with whom I’ll be working most closely?
23.As I understand the position, the title as ________, the duties are _______, and the department is called ________. I would report directly to __________. Is that right?
24.Can you talk about the company’s commitment to equal opportunity and diversity?
25.Who are the company’s stars, and how was their status determined?
26.How are executives addressed by their subordinates?
27.What can you tell me about the prevailing management style?
28If you hired me, what would be my first assignment?
29.Does the company have a mission statement? 30.May I see it? Does the company have a mission statement? May I see it?

THE Questions a candidate can ask during HR interview.

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ChildPilgrim's profile - StumbleUpon

ChildPilgrim's profile - StumbleUpon

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Teen Depression Worsened by Marijuana, Government Says - US News and World Report

Today the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy sent out a clear message on teen pot use and depression: They're a bad combination. Issuing a report that analyzes around a dozen studies about marijuana use and mental health, the policy office warned that teens who use marijuana to "self-medicate" may worsen their underlying depression or other mental health issues. The intention of the report, says John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is to "try to correct two misunderstandings: That teen depression is not a problem and that teen marijuana use is not a problem—marijuana use is not safe." He advises parents to talk to their kids' pediatrician if they see signs of depression and suspect drug use.

Video: Learning About Depression?

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The report, entitled "Teen Marijuana Use Worsens Depression: An Analysis of Recent Data Shows 'Self-Medicating' Could Actually Make Thing Worse," cites statistics to support its warning message, but experts are quick to note that it should be interpreted with caution. For example, the report's statement, "One 16-year study showed that individuals who were not depressed and then used marijuana were four times more likely to be depressed at follow-up," suggests marijuana might cause depression. That data from a 2001 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry was only statistically meaningful after the researchers adjusted for variables including age, gender, and antisocial symptoms, suggesting a weaker relationship between depression and marijuana before adjustments were made.The study also showed that those who were not depressed when first surveyed and then used opioids were 228 times more likely to be depressed at follow-up—without any adjustments. That statistic was not mentioned in the Drug Control Policy's report today. "Adolescent marijuana use may be a factor that triggers psychosis, depression, and other mental illness," says Walters, acknowledging that "research about causality is still ongoing."

Policy groups on the other side of the aisle believe the report is misleading. "We agree that kids shouldn't smoke marijuana, but we simply have to be honest to teens and parents. This report [is] deliberately confusing correlation with causation," says Bruce Mirken, director of communications at The Marijuana Project , a Washington-based group that aims to remove criminal penalties for marijuana use and make medical marijuana available to seriously ill patients with doctor's approval. "This very week the British government's official scientific advisors on illegal drugs issued a report saying they are 'unconvinced that there is a causal relationship between the use of cannabis and any affective disorder,' such as depression." Mirken takes issue with the lack of warning about alcohol's relationship to depression. "Data linking alcohol to depression is much stronger and alcohol use by teens is greater than marijuana use," he notes.

To be sure, experts believe marijuana carries risk, especially in the subset of teens who are more susceptible to substance abuse and mental health problems due to genetic makeup or environmental factors. "Among treatment populations [in] youth with substance abuse, there's a pretty high rate of clinical depression," says Oscar Bukstein, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; "many kids get high not to stay low."

Perhaps most important, those people with co-existing substance abuse and a mental health disorder have worse outcomes than those with either problem alone, he adds. For perspective, Bukstein notes that research has shown 1 in 10 kids who smoke marijuana go on to develop dependence, and about 1 in 10 kids who become dependent on marijuana have psychotic symptoms.

The bottom line, says Bukstein, is that mental illness and substance abuse very often go hand-in-hand. Parents who spot signs of depression should have their child professionally assessed for mental health issues, he says, and also for substance abuse—and the reverse is also true. As part of their development, kids are curious (see our previous story on teens' questions about drugs, addiction, alcohol and the like). To lower the likelihood of experimentation with pot, he advises parents to:

Always monitor and supervise. Know where your kids are going and with whom.

Set limits. Be sure they're not hanging out in homes where no adults are present.

Be consistent. Discipline works only when it's reinforced.

Seek professional help. If you have a hunch something's wrong, you're probably right.

Take care of your own problems. The biggest risk factor for substance abuse and mental health problems is family history.

Teen Depression Worsened by Marijuana, Government Says - US News and World Report

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9FF GT9 almost breaks world speed record : 409 km/h

The current world record speed for the fastest production car was set by the SSC Ultimate Aero that topped at 255.83 mph which is 411.71 km/h. Recently the 9FF engineers tried to beat that with their modified GT9 but couldn’t do it. They only managed to make it run at 409 km/h at a track in Papenburg on 10th April.

9FF’s GT9 was based on the Porsche 911 GT3, but lower and longer. The interesting part is that the car has the engine in the middle (not the rear) for better weight distribution. Now that I mentioned the engine, the beast outputs 987 bhp from a 4L flax six twin turbo and a six-speed transmission.
Though they couldn’t beat the world record, 9FF guys can stand proud because they managed to take on the Bugatti Veyron which topped at 407 km/h. The GT9 however, is not as fast as the Veyron : 0 - 60 mph in 4.2 seconds.

9FF GT9 almost breaks world speed record : 409 km/h

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Creative Coffee Art | The Top The Best

Creative Coffee Art | The Top The Best

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