Thomas F. Shubnell's Blog, page 2

Ten Interesting Facts

 Finland is the world's happiest country, according to the 2019 World Happiness Report.

McDonald's buys about 2 billion eggs every year for their U.S. restaurants alone.

1 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube every day.

Japan has more than 50,000 people who are over 100 years old.

Japan consists of over 6,800 islands.

The key to happiness is spending your money on experiences rather than possessions, according to studies.

By law, only dead people can appear on U.S. currency.

To be legal, prop money for films in the U.S. must be one-sided and less than 75% or more than 150% of the size of a real banknote.

69% of Americans have less than US$1,000 in savings.

California's official state animal, the California grizzly bear, is extinct.

Grapefruit Origin

The grapefruit first appeared after 1693 when Captain Shaddock transported some pomelo seeds to the West Indies and planted them close to some orange trees. The pomelo and orange later cross-pollinated to create the grapefruit. However, the grapefruit was still unknown outside the Caribbean.

Europeans learned of this citrus fruit in 1750 when Reverend Griffith Hughes encountered one. Hughes was so surprised with the discovery that he named the grapefruit “the forbidden fruit.” That was the name until 1814 when John Lunan called it the grapefruit because grapefruits resembled the smaller and unrelated grapes when they were still growing.

The grapefruit reached the United States in 1823 but was mistaken for the pomelo. It was only determined to be a distinct fruit in 1837. However, botanists were still confused about its origin. It wasn’t until 1948 that they discovered it was a hybrid of the pomelo and the orange.

 

IHOP and Real Eggs

Ask for real eggs in your omelet or when you want scrambled eggs. IHOP uses powdered or liquid eggs to make scrambled eggs and omelets, but if you ask for real eggs, they will be happy to make your meal that way instead for no extra charge.

Flu Shot Facts

  It is that time of year again for flu shots. Here are a few interesting facts you may not be aware of. The shots are generally free or cheap at Walmart and various pharmacies. T

The flu virus comes in numerous strains, or types. The strain called H1N1 is now a common type of seasonal flu. The bird flu, also known as H5N1 or H7N9, has made a lot of birds sick, but rarely spreads to humans unless they have handled infected birds.

Each shot contains a tiny bit of dead flu virus. The virus is grown in fertilized chicken eggs, then extracted and deactivated with microscopic amounts of formaldehyde. A chemical called octylphenol ethoxylate pulls out even smaller pieces of virus, which helps reduce the chances of side effects. Gelatin holds the virus together and keeps it stable during shipping, and a preservative called thimerosol keeps the vaccine from going bad on the shelf.

There is no reason to be concerned about any of these chemicals; they are present in such small quantities that your body will barely register them.

You should get a flu shot even if you think you never get the flu. Just because you have never had it before does not mean you are invincible. In addition, even if you never have symptoms, you could be carrying the virus around, exposing everyone else to it.

You need to get a flu shot every year. There are many types of flu. Each year, researchers and public health officials determine which strains seem like they are going to be a threat, and formulate a vaccine that protects against those strains. To stay protected against the latest flu risks, you must keep your shots up to date.

This year's flu shots will protect against three or four strains. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three or four kinds of flu viruses commonly circulate among people today: influenza A (H1N1) viruses, influenza A (H3N2) viruses, and influenza B viruses. The 2020-2021 flu shot has been updated to protect against three virus strains: A/Guangdong-Maonan/SWL1536/2019 (H1N1) pdm09-like virus, A/Hong Kong/2671/2019 (H3N2)-like virus, and B/Washington/02/2019 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus.

Quadrivalent flu shots, which are designed to protect against four types of flu, will protect against an additional B virus called B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (Yamagata lineage) virus.

The flu shot can't give you the flu. The flu shot is either made with dead (deactivated) flu virus or, in the case of the recombinant flu vaccine, with no actual virus at all. You may have some side effects after getting your shot, but those are usually limited to pain or swelling around the site of the injection. In rare cases, you may have a low-grade fever or mild muscle aches, but these are side effects, and not the flu.

You can get the flu shot if you are allergic to eggs. For a while, doctors were cautioning people with egg allergies to stay away from the flu vaccine, but this seems to have been unnecessary. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology recently stated that “no special precautions are required for the administration of influenza vaccine to egg-allergic patients, no matter how severe the egg allergy.” If you are concerned about an allergic reaction, talk to your doctor. He or she may be able to get you an egg-free flu shot.

Incidentally, If you get the flu, antibiotics will not help. The flu is caused by a virus, not bacteria; antibiotics respond only to bacteria. Antibiotics will not do anything to fight the flu virus.

Origin of Football Huddle

There are a few different stories about how the huddle originated (in 1918 at Oregon State, in 1921 at the University of Illinois, and in 1924 at Lafayette College are a few of them).

It was first used in the 1890s when Paul Hubbard, the quarterback for Gallaudet—a Deaf college in Washington, D.C., which is now a university—had his offense form a tight circle so that they could discuss plays without the other team seeing what they were signing. Another Gallaudet football innovation was the giant drum on the sidelines that would be used for the snap count (the players could feel the vibrations).

 

Approving Political Ads

 Political ads conclude with a disclaimer that the politician being endorsed has sanctioned the spot. Usually, the person will say or be quoted as saying “I approve this message." It is a requirement.

During 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act was passed, along with the Stand By Your Ad provision. The Act, which was backed by then-senators John McCain and Russell D. Feingold, was intended to further legitimize campaign contributions by banning large corporate donations.

Stand By Your Ad mandates that anyone running for federal office stamp “I approve this message” as part of their campaign commercials. The goal was to curb muckraking, where candidates would lob insults and accusations at one another. With Stand By Your Ad, lawmakers were hoping political candidates would think twice before engaging in dirty tactics and then attempting to deny any involvement.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is very specific about how that disclaimer should appear. According to the FEC, the written statement must come at the end of the ad, appear for at least four seconds, be readable against a contrasting background, and occupy at least 4 percent of the vertical picture height. The candidate will typically identify themselves and say the message aloud.

If the message was not approved by a candidate, then the spot will typically name the entity that is responsible—a political committee, group, or person. There is also usually language about who financed the commercial.

Negative campaign ads made up 29 percent of political persuasion spots in 2000, and that number rose to 64 percent in 2012. In the week before the 2016 presidential election, 92 percent of ads were characterized as negative.

One possible reason: By stamping a negative message with “I approve,” candidates might actually be perceived as more credible by voters, as they are showing that they are willing to stand behind what viewers infer to be truthful statements.

In a study of 2,000 people using both real and fictional ads, researchers found that “I approve this message” did not change their perception of positive ads or personal attack ads, but did increase their confidence in politicians using policy-based attack ads.

Laughter and Smiles

Find a mirror and observe your face for a while. Look very carefully at your face. It is said that the face is a reflection of the mind. Is your face shining or gloomy? Is it tense or relaxed? Is it joyful or irritated? Or is it more or less blank?

Smile at yourself in the mirror. Watch your smile. Does your smile look natural and comfortable? Is your facial expression too hard to express a big smile because of tension?

Relax your shoulders and close your eyes. Then smile gently and feel your brain. Can you feel your face and brain become relaxed with your smiling? Soon you will feel the same comfort in your heart, as there is an energy line that connects your heart to your brain.

Now laugh intensely, shaking your whole body. First, make your face laugh, then your chest, your belly button, your knees, and finally your toes. When you are laughing, every energy center in your body is wide open, from the top of your brain to the bottom of your feet. Now you will be brimming over with energy.

Incidentally, we are 30 times more likely to laugh if we are with others. Laughing makes us more productive and seem more competent at work. Simpler jokes are considered funnier than complex ones. Laughter helps deal with stress. Even smiling helps.

 

Equinox

 Sept. 22: Happy Equinox! At 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT), autumn arrives in the Northern Hemisphere while the Southern Hemisphere will have its first day of spring. It happens two times a year, Vernal & Autumnal, spring and fall.

"Equinox" literally means "equal night", giving the impression that the night and day on the equinox are exactly the same length; 12 hours each - about equal almost everywhere on Earth.

Incidentally, the biggest difference between the equinox and the solstice is that a solstice is the point during the Earth's orbit around the sun at which the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator, while during an equinox, it is at the closest distance from the equator.

National Monte Cristo Day, September 17

National Monte Cristo Day recognizes the indulgent and delicious sandwich. A Monte Cristo is a fried ham, turkey, and Swiss cheese sandwich. The French sandwich called the croque-monsieur inspired the Monte Cristo. However, the sandwich goes by other names, too.

Bennigan’s founded National Monte Cristo Day in June of 2015 to celebrate a delicious sandwich loved across the country. The restaurant is renowned across the globe for its World Famous Monte Cristo.

While the Monte Cristo is typically a savory sandwich, sometimes powdered sugar and jam preserves sweeten it. To achieve the crispy outer coating, chefs dip the prepared sandwich in an egg batter. Then they either pan-fry or deep-fry the sandwich to perfection.

Some like to serve a grilled version. Another version may be served open-faced and heated under a grill or broiler. Monte Cristo is one of my all time favorite sandwiches.

Movie Theater Popcorn

The secret ingredient is in almost every bucket of movie theater popcorn. Manufactured by Gold Medal, Flavacol is the “secret sauce” most movie theaters use in order to produce that popcorn flavor only found in cinemas, stadiums, etc.

Flavacol is a butter-flavored, popcorn seasoning salt made of extra fine salt flakes. The product is made of four ingredients: salt, artificial butter flavor, and Yellow #5 and Yellow #6. The latter are what give movie theater-style popcorn that signature yellow color.

As MTV explains, “Flavacol is used by theaters when cooking the popcorn, not as a topping; it is basically salt with other stuff to give the popcorn that movie theater flavor and color.” It gets added during popping to give popcorn the yellow buttery color. It is essentially just a super-fine salt with some coloring agents. Flavacol contains a proprietary diacetyl-free butter flavoring.

I get mine on Amazon and it is good, but very salty. You can also use in on top of popped popcorn. Start easy, little goes a long way.