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TEIXOBACTIN, A NEW TYPE OF ANTIBIOTIC

9/10/2018

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Teixobactin, is the first in a new class of antibiotics. The tendency of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics by mutating threatens to significantly set back the practice of medicine. However, finally some enterprising researchers have started to think like a bacterium to come up with "new" ideas.

Did you ever ask yourself where antibiotics come from? There are millions of bacteria and fungi in every scoop of soil and they exist in thousands of different varieties. How do they survive? Like every other living creature, they battle one another to acquire nutrients available in their environment. In other words, by isolating the "antibiotics" that fungi and bacteria create to fight one another, we can develop and use those antibiotics to likewise battle bacteria and fungi that invest and sometimes kill us.

​The genius of the researchers Kim Lewis, Slava Epstein, and team from Germany, England, and NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals in Massachusetts, who have worked to develop teixobactin for over a decade, is the development of the ichip. A soil sample is diluted and poured onto the ichip in the hope of catching only one microbe in each of a series of holes that cover the ichip, which is then covered with special membranes with pores that allow the flow of nutrients to the bacterium or fungus but block the movement of fungi and bacteria. The ichips are then replaced in the soil where they thrive on nutrients they find there, but they are not contaminated or attacked by other bacteria or fungi because they are isolated and protected from them. About half the bacteria thus isolated have been grown in ichip cells and about three-quarters of the ichip bacteria can then be transferred to lab solutions where they continue to grow. To date the teixobactin antibiotic has saved the lives of many mice infected with virulent staph and other germs. Undoubtedly many more years of research and millions, probably billions of dollars will be spent before teixbactin and similar antibiotics are developed by using the ichip method to provide new and resistant-proof cures for the many bacterial and fungal diseases that plague mankind.Now what about viruses?


 
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THOUGHTS ON THANKSGIVING

11/29/2014

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The Wamanoag Indians were not alarmed by the arrival of Puritans on their shores in 1620, but they allegedly did not rush to greet them either. According to native tradition, Squanto, a Wamanoag who spoke English, showed the colonists how to plant corn, to fish, and to survive on the land, but the two peoples were not best of friends. The Indian account of the first Thanksgiving is as follows. Alarmed to hear gunfire from the Puritan settlement, 90 armed Wamanoag warriors proceeded to the settlement to find that the Puritan men were shooting fowl for a feast. The Puritans invited the warriors to dine with them, but there wasn't enough food to feed 90 warriors, so the Indians went into the woods and returned with enough venison and fowl for all. A feast of Puritans and 90 native warriors does not sound like our traditional concept of the first Thanksgiving dinner. 


In fact, the Puritans and the Wamanoag did not always get along well, and recently the Wamanoag people decided to make their complaints public. On each Thanksgiving Day since 1970, Womanoag Native Americans have staged an event at Plymouth, Massachusetts that they call The Day of National Mourning. When Wamutta James, a Womanoag Native American, was asked by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to make a speech to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Puritan landing at Plymouth, he accepted the invitation. However, after the organizers of the event heard that James was going to say words like: "We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that that was the beginning of the end," they rescinded their invitation for him to speak. The National Day of Mourning has become a day for the native people to dance, sing, and feast, feeding up to 500 people who come from near and far to participate in the celebration. They still criticize the injustice of the colonists and honor the deaths of their ancestors caused by actions taken by the colonists, but they also want to shine light on the problems of many Native Americans who are living below the poverty level and discuss other issues of interest to them. Books like 1621 A NEW LOOK AT THANKSGIVING have become popular as various groups of citizens lobby to put the books in public schools and stress the negative aspects of American history that have often been overlooked. One can only hope that a balance can be achieved. Whatever the truth may be about the Thanksgiving holiday, the spirit of the holiday is the important thing to emphasize, not whether the Puritans and the Indians loved one another. When asked what the Wamanoags think about Thanksgiving, Gladys Widdiss, a tribal elder, said, "Everyday (is) a day of thanksgiving to the Wampanoag....There (is) always something to be thankful for."

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THANKSGIVING MYSTERIES

11/22/2014

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Like to read mysteries to fit the season? Halloween is over and Christmas is a month away. So take a look at the Thanksgiving Cozy Mystery Book List for some gems like THE KILLER WORE CRANBERRY, THE TROUBLE WITH TURKEYS, or DEATH IN A TURKEY TOWN. THE KILLER WORE CRANBERRY is edited by J. Alan Haartman. A complex anthology of mysteries with different plots and different locales but all about Thanksgiving and presumably turkeys.THE TROUBLE WITH TURKEYS by Kathi Daley tells the tale of a heroine entangled in murder involving a dead miser and inebriated turkeys on a turkey farm just before Thanksgiving. Recipes for the season are included. DEATH IN A TURKEY TOWN by Melanie Jackson deals with an overturned truck full of turkeys. Detective Chloe Boston is ordered to round up the turkeys and solve a murder, all before Thanksgiving. But there are many more delightful mysteries to be had on the Cozy Mystery list, so take a minute to take a look Thanksgiving is almost here. http://www.cozy-mystery.com/Holiday-Mystery-Books/Thanksgiving-Mystery-Book-List.html
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DANGEROUS DEBRIS

11/21/2014

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NASA tracks at least 500,000 pieces of space debris the size of a marble or larger that hurtle around Earth at speeds of 17,500 mph. Even flecks of paint orbiting Earth can damage the windows of spacecrafts. What does that mean to me, you may ask. Take a look at the picture of the space junk orbiting our Earth. 1996 - French satellite is hit by rocket that exploded ten years before. 2009 - Defunct Russian satellite hits and destroys US commercial satellite. 2007 - Chinese test uses missile to destroy an old satellite. Problem? The test added 3,600 pieces of space junk to the debris already orbiting Earth. Russia and the US created an imaginary box in space, termed "pizza box," around the space station. When debris is likely to pass close to the station, a "debris avoidance maneuver" moves the station slightly to avoid a possible collision. The crew can also "hide" in the Soyuz spaceship that takes them to and from the space station to Earth if the danger of a collision is deemed possible or probable. The hatch is closed until the danger of collision passes. Take a look at the NASA picture again. If something is not done soon, we won't be going to Mars or anywhere else without getting zapped by flying space junk.

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BIRTH OF THE DARK AGES? 535-36 AD

11/5/2014

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In February 535 AD the world literally shook. A notation in a Chinese journal recorded "a huge thunderous sound coming from the south west." Byzantine historian Porcopius noted that during the year 536 "the sun gave forth its light without brightness like the moon during this whole year." The following decades were characterized by drought, plague, famine, and death that spread over the earth. In 1978 a team of Danish, Swiss, and US scientists drilled 1.25 miles deep into the Greenland ice cap to look for clues to the cause of the disastrous events occurring during the latter part of the 6th century AD that had begun in the year 535. Imprints in the ice cores they retrieved showed evidence of two substantial volcanic eruptions that took place around the latter part of the 6th century. Similar ice cores drilled in Antarctica provided evidence of acid snowfall for approximately four consecutive years. Some scientists suggested that the days of darkness and distress were caused by a tremendous eruption of the Indonesian volcano called Krakatoa that created a massive caldera 25 miles in diameter that now lies mostly underwater in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. Could such rapid climate change occur in our modern age? Unfortunately, yes. Six to ten known volcanoes called supervolcanoes are large enough to create a global disaster should they explode and eject molten lava and poisonous gases high into earth's atmosphere thereby affecting the climate world wide. Some historians point to this period as the beginning of the Dark Ages. Whether it was a volcanic explosion or perhaps the impact on earth of a comet or asteroid that created the days of darkness and death in the 6th century, it will happen again and quite possibly result in another Dark Ages for the human race.      
 

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STATE OF THE REPUBLIC

10/30/2014

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Senate of Ancient Rome
United States Congress
We blog to inform those who read blogs about things that we think are interesting and informative. Sometimes we speak of trivia and sometimes we speak about important matters like the fall of Rome. I read an article today that discussed why the fate of Rome is relevant today. In the article best-selling author Oliver DeMille concisely explains when the fall of Rome really occurred and why we should study it. He points to Roman historian Livy's history of early Rome as our guide and instructs us all to read it. DeMille states that the important era of Roman history for the United States and the world today is that of the Roman Republic stretching from 600 to 49 B.C. He contends that this is the period of Roman history that the founding fathers of the United States republic studied when forming a government. He also points to Gibbon's book THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE to summarize the reasons why Rome fell. In large part DeMille states it was "because of the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens.They had become weak, outsourcing their duties to defend their empire to barbarian mercenaries." Romans, he contends became "effeminate, unwilling to live a tougher, 'manly' military lifestyle." It was "a loss of morals and a focus on bread and circuses" that weakened the empire and "made it prone to decay and eventually collapse." 


We should concern ourselves according to DeMille with "how a Republic dedicated to morality, justice, service, and improvement became powerful and then forgot about everything except the power, the money, and the control of other nations." He further maintains that this is exactly where the society of the United States finds itself today. He points to the author of THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION, Will Durant, who stated that the fall of Rome's republic came about "because of corruption among the politicians, political party divisions in the capital city, and the military's constant involvement in violent conflicts around the known world." Roman historian Tacitus noted that the fall of the Republic was caused when the "equality" of the people that supported their freedom was replaced by a growing divide between regular people and so-called elites. (I am always amused that some of the most unintelligent, unproductive people in a society are called elite, which means "superior to the rest in terms of ability or qualities" according to the Oxford dictionary.) DeMille continues by citing the Roman poet Vergil, who warned in 38 and 37 B.C. that he was "exiled from home" because he stood for freedom while his friend sat "careless in the shade," not realizing that the freedom of the Roman citizen was quickly ebbing away. Rome exerted power in the world, but the Roman citizen, said Vergil "has no hope of freedom." DeMille suggests that we first read Livy, then Vergil, and then the founding fathers such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson to learn how to appreciate the freedom that we enjoy as citizens of the United States.There is a saying attributed to the English parliamentarian Edmund Burke, who allegedly said something like: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Next Tuesday is the day that citizens of the United States go to the polls to elect those who will govern them. It is my hope that all eligible voters will take the time to educate themselves about the issues and candidates on their ballots and then go to the polls and vote responsibly so that our freedoms do not ebb away like those of the citizens of the Roman Republic centuries ago. 
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THE LAST POPE

10/23/2014

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The name of the magazine of ISIS is DABIQ. This is also the name of a town in North Syria allegedly mentioned in a saying by Mohammed as the place where the battle of Armageddon between Moslems and Christians will be fought. Christian legend favors Megiddo, the name of a valley in North Israel, as the site where a final battle between good and evil called Armageddon will be fought. There is another legend that Pope Francis I will be the last Roman Catholic pope. Summoned to Rome by Pope Innocent II, St. Malachy, a 12th century Irish monk, had a vision of the apocalypse and wrote down a series of Latin phrases describing information about 112 Roman Catholic popes including the last, whom he called Peter the Roman. St. Malachy also prophesied the fall of Rome in his manuscript. He predicted: "In a final prosecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dread final judgment will judge his people. The End." St. Malachy deposited the manuscript containing his predictions in the Vatican's Secret Archives where it sat undisturbed until rediscovered in the year 1590. How, you ask, can Francis I be called Peter the Roman? Although he comes from Argentina, the pope's parents were both from Rome. Furthermore, the pope took the name of Francis of Assisi whose middle name was Peter. It is the coalition of Western and Arab countries led by US bombing sortees that prompted the ISIS forces to print the statement "The Failed Crusade" on the cover of their magazine. They intend to depose the Roman Catholic pope in Rome as well as the President of the United States in Washington, D.C. and fly their black flag over both the Vatican and the White House.

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GHOULISH GOODIES

10/15/2014

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It's that time of year again to be creative in a scary way with interesting and tasty Halloween treats straight from cook books such as best-selling author Billy Taylor's HORRIBLY GOOD HALLOWEEN RECIPES WITH COFFEE. How about some Rotten Guts Pumpkin Trifle, Totally Zombied Latte, Frankenstein's Nuts and Bolts Affogato, or Damned Souls Cake? Toe Jam Pumpkin Cheesecake sounds especially intriguing to me. There is also Jean Pardue's 35 HALLOWEEN RECIPES FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. This author offers Monstrous Creepy Spider cookies, Boo Chili, and Spicy Spooky Chicken among other yummies, I can't even imagine what Unearthly Night Crawlers, A Grim Reaper Meal In A Pumpkin, or Velociraptor Dirt made with jello and white chocolate chips could be. I do know that a velociraptor was a rather dumb dinosaur (as in stupid) about the size of a big chicken with curved, three-inch claws on its hind feet. I don't know what velociraptors had to do with dirt. I think that once again I will pass up the opportunity to make my own Halloween treats.
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"PEANUTS" 64 YEARS OLD

10/2/2014

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October 2, 1950. Charles Schulz sold his cartoon strip to United Feature Syndicate and "Peanuts" was born. The first four-frame strip titled "Good Ol' Charlie Brown" depicted two little kids about five or six years old watching Charlie Brown walk down the street. One says to the other: "Good Ol' Charlie Brown...how I hate him!" Charlie Brown's beagle, Snoopy, debuted on October 4. The other most popular characters such as Linus and Lucy came to life in following years. It has been alleged that creator Schulz used events in his own life to glean material for "Peanuts." I particularly like the time Snoopy opens a rejection letter from a publisher that states: "You are a terrible writer. Why do you bother us?...Leave us alone. Drop dead." Schulz is allegedly recalling the time his high school refused to put his drawings in the class yearbook. Numerous people wrote to Schulz to ask why he wouldn't let Charlie Brown kick the football Lucy held out for him to kick every year during football season. The answer was always, "Well, there is nothing funny about the person who gets to kick the football." Schulz explained that "Charlie Brown must be the one who suffers, because he's a caricature of the average person.... Most of us are much more acquainted with losing than winning. Winning is great, but it isn't funny." However, in 1999, when his long career as the creator of "Peanuts" comics came to an end, he mused, "All of a sudden I thought,'You poor kid, he never even got to kick the football. What a dirty trick--he never had a chance to kick the football!'" Like Charles Schulz, I wish he had.

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UFO'S AND NUKES

9/24/2014

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It has come to my attention again recently that there is apparently a rather scary relationship between nuclear weapons and UFO activity. Noted researcher Robert Hastings has spent many years collecting information about numerous incidents in which UFO's were sighted at various nuclear missile sites. His interest began on March 16, 1967 when he viewed radar tracking five UFO's near a nuclear missile site not far from Malmstrom, Montana at the same time that ten MInuteman missiles were mysteriously disabled at the missile site. An even scarier event occurred on October 4, 1982 when a disc-shaped object hovered over a ballistic missile base in Ukraine where a number of missiles suddenly became activated and ready to launch. The missiles were aimed at the United States. Witnesses to this event suggested that World War III would have started had the missiles launched and that nothing that the technicians at the base tried to do to disable the unintended missile launching worked. Fortunately, the UFO disappeared, and the launching activity stopped as abruptly and mysteriously as it had started. UFO sightings and interventions over missile sights continue. It seems that someone somewhere up there or out there is trying to tell us something. Or are they just testing their abilities to control our most powerful weapons and thereby control us should they wish to do so.

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THE FROZEN PHENOMENON

9/5/2014

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Released in November, 2013, FROZEN is Walt Disney Pictures' latest animated film and its most successful animated film ever with world wide revenues of over US$1.2 billion. The plot is loosely based on the well-known fairy tale titled THE SNOW QUEEN written by Hans Christian Andersen and published in Denmark in 1844. As far back as 1937 Walt Disney himself was interested in co-producing a movie with Samuel Goldwyn about the life of Hans Christian Andersen. It was to be followed by film centered around a number of Andersen's fairy tales before Disney's first animated movie, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, came out in 1940. The project was shelved, but in 1952 Samuel Goldwyn Productions did produce a film about the life of the Danish author starring Danny Kaye as Hans Christian Andersen and using song and dance to relate some of his most famous fairy tales. The film received six Academy Award nominations. You have probably seen it. Walt Disney Feature Animation began working on a new adaptation of THE SNOW QUEEN in the late 1990's. Since the original story was rather lengthy and complicated, it was changed quite a bit to appeal to 21st century rather than 19th century audiences. There are various theories as to why FROZEN has been so successful. Some point to the added impact of viewing the film in 3D computer animation or the fact that it is a musical fantasy. Some suggest that films with female leads are bringing out young girls in droves to view the story of two independently minded princesses, Elsa and Anna, instead of the usual single princess heroine in other Disney creations. Some point to the sound track with singable songs. Whatever the reason, Disney is planning to release a short sequel in the spring of 2015 titled FROZEN FEVER. It will allegedly focus on the topic of Anna's birthday. 

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WHY DRAGONS

8/26/2014

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Dragons are popular subjects for books and films as evidenced by the popularity of the book series HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and the two recent animated films of that name that brought in over one billion US dollars in earnings so far. The history of the dragon goes back to 4000 B.C. A good guess is that the dragon's reptilian appearance with scales, a long tail, and long snout with fire-breathing capabilities evolved from viewing their smaller cousins such as snakes, lizards, and crocodiles plus discovery of the bones of long dead dinosaur reptilians. Who knows. For whatever reason dragons appear in myth and fairy tales in cultures worldwide often as hoarders of treasure. Most mythical dragons must be slayed by a hero to stop them from terrorizing the countryside. The hero subsequently receives the hand in marriage of the local princess, or at least a beautiful maiden, to reward his efforts in destroying the marauding dragon. Viking raiders used the symbol of the dragon on the prow of their longships. St. George, patron saint of the United Kingdom, is famous for slaying a fire-breathing dragon and rescuing a maiden. In Japan's oldest book, Yamata no Orochi, a dragon with many heads, was slain by the warrior Susanoo, who won the hand of the maiden he saved from the dragon that had already eaten her seven sisters. In ancient Mesopotamia, the dragon Zu stole the Tablets of Destiny from Enlil, the sky god. Ninuta, the sun god, had to kill Zu to retrieve them. The list of evil dragons of all colors living in all sorts of habitats, from snow fields to swampy marshes, to forests, to deserts goes on and on. In China, as opposed to most other lands, the dragon is venerated. Yu, the rain god in Chinese myth, was a golden dragon that controlled floods as well. The Dragon dance performed on the Chinese new year is a tradition to petition the "Dragon King" to provide rain to grow crops needed for the coming year and to scare away evil spirits.

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PIRATES

8/15/2014

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Guess It's time to talk about pirates, the "romantic" kind. That means the pirates of the 16th and 17th centuries as presented by Hollywood, who mostly plied the Caribbean in tight pants, white silk shirts open at the neck, bucket boots, red bandanas, and gold looped earrings. Gripping daggers in their teeth and holding swashbucklers' swords that glinted in the sun, they boarded Spanish treasure ships and made off with booty and sometimes the ship itself. Perhaps the unfortunate crew of the Spanish galleons were made to walk the plank. A popular subject for children's books, these pirates are also popular with adults who read those same books when they were young. Truth be told, the real pirates were just as fascinating as the Hollywood variety. We all love the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films with Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew of characters, and we are all looking forward to their next adventures in DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES to be filmed along the coast of Australia. To prepare for the next installment you might want to read PIRATES, the book by John Matthews that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about pirates and give you access to pirate memorabilia such as a guide to grisly pirate flags like the Jolly Roger, a book of pirate slang, and, of course, a treasure map.

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SURVIVAL

8/1/2014

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Disasters happen every day everywhere. Little disasters and, God forbid, big ones. Be prepared. Be a survivor. How? Start by reading up on the subject. There are survival books for practically all types of disasters in all types of environments.
Humankind lives in fear of disasters. Hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, terrorism and wars to name only a few. The list is endless. Even a simple electric outage needs preparedness. Everyone must have a radio with batteries handy as well as flashlights, bottled water, and food that does not require refrigeration. You know the list. Know more. Plan for your survival or at least have some books on hand to help you survive if you are suddenly confronted with a disaster whether large or small. A book like SURVIVAL FAMILY BASICS is listed as The Beginner Prepper's Guide for When Disaster Strikes. It focuses on family planning. Perhaps you live in an urban area, so something like SURVIVING DOOMSDAY: A GUIDE FOR SURVIVING AN URBAN DISASTER might be helpful. If you are facing disaster in an outdoor setting, you might find HAWKE'S GREEN BERET SURVIVAL MANUAL: Essential Strategies For: Shelter and Water, Food and Fire, Tools and Medicine, Navigation and Signaling, Survival Psychology and Getting Out Alive! a very useful addition to your library.


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WINNIE THE POOH

7/29/2014

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I took this photo of the stuffed animals that belonged to the boy Christopher Robin and became characters in the original Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. They are among the objects on display as part of an exhibition at the New York City central library called THE ABC OF IT. The display considers the history of children's books and stories and attempts to answer the question of why children's books matter. What do they teach children, and what do various books and stories tell us about the societies that produced them? How did the books and stories themselves help to shape the societies? I was surprised to see how dingy the toys had become over the years since they were owned by Christopher Robin as a boy in the 1920's. Pooh was based on the stuffed teddy bear in the photo. Eeyore, the old grey donkey, was also based on the fairly large stuffed animal in the photo presumed to be a donkey. The character of Tigger was based on the stuffed tiger, and Kanga, the female kangaroo, based on the other stuffed animal in the photo. Piglet was apparently suggested by the tiny figurine placed in front of Pooh in the exhibit. It looked like clay to me, a rather pathetic rendering of the character in the Pooh stories that is supposed to be the best friend of both Pooh and Christopher Robin. As I recall, the photo in the picture I snapped is that of A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin. The more modern Pooh cookbooks sound somewhat intriguing. I wouldn't mind trying some of the recipes such as Poohanpiglet Pancakes. Reviewers also lauded the chocolate cake from the WINNIE-THE-POOH TEATIME COOKBOOK.

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TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE? OR NOT ENOUGH

7/24/2014

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Can you become addicted to chocolate? Harvard Health Publications editor Dr. Michael Craig Miller says yes. Brain studies show volunteers drinking chocolate milkshakes exhibited brain activity similar to that caused by addiction to some drugs. Not surprising. Chocolate contains lots of phenylethylamine, the chemical produced in the brain when you are in love. The term "chocoholic" comes to mind. Although usually said in jest, chocolate can be said to be addictive because It can create an intense craving for a substance with high levels of fat and sugar and a unique and pleasant taste that makes overindulgence hard to resist for many chocolate lovers. First cultivated around 1500 B.C by the Olmec tribe in southern Mexico, the cacao plant that produces chocolate was used by the elite classes of both Mayans and Aztecs, who called cocoa, the raw product produced by the plant, the food of the gods. Tonacatecuti, ancient Mexican goddess of food, and Calchiuhtlucue, goddess of water, were said to be the guardian goddesses of cocoa. Each year human sacrifices were allegedly performed for them after the victim had eaten a last meal of cocoa.  Hot chocolate and much of the chocolate we eat today is not real chocolate produced from the cacao plant and therefore does not contain the beneficial ingredients that cocoa contains. A bit confusing. I suggest you check the ingredients panels on the "chocolate" products you buy to make sure you are getting a product containing cocoa and not just fat, sugar, and artificial flavors.

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GALAXY SMASHUP

7/20/2014

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This is a good illustration of the collision paths of our Milky Way galaxy and its neighbor Andromeda that is rushing towards us at the rate of 250,000 miles an hour according to NASA's calculations using data from the Hubble telescope. Both galaxies, now from 2 to 2.5 million light years apart, are elliptical in shape. The smaller Triangulum galaxy, which is also shown in the picture, may join in the smashup as the two larger galaxies merge into one huge elliptical-shaped galaxy. The smashup is expected to begin in approximately 4 billion years, but the complete merger will take another 2 billion years to complete. In the picture our Sun is located on one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Our Sun and solar system will probably survive the smashup and merger since even though they may be clustered together somewhat in galaxies, most stars still remain positioned far apart from one another in space even while their galaxies are colliding. (Credit for picture: NASA; ESA; A.Feild and R. van der Marel. STScl). For more information check nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/milky-way-collide.html. See some great pictures of colliding galaxies too.

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HEROES 

7/16/2014

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What is a hero? He must be larger than life, and recognized for his bravery, strength of character, and selflessness in the face of adversity. The word hero is from the Greek to describe one who is considered noble in the culture in which he lives. He is willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good as the most defining character trait of a hero. The most beloved and most well known of Greek heroes was Hercules, alleged to be the son of the leader of the gods, Zeus, and a mortal woman. His heroic deeds were extolled far and wide in ancient times. It is possible that the stories of demigod Hercules and other famous mythical heroes throughout history were based on the glorified exploits of actual men. There are also thousands of ordinary men, and don't forget women, who exhibited the characteristics of the hero throughout history. For Americans, of course, President George Washington would probably rank in the top ten of men who were heroes. However, the reputations of many of those once considered heroes would not stand the test of time. Many so-called heroes also turned out to be some of the worst villains the world has ever seen. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Tse-tung, all larger than life and three of the most powerful men of the 20th Century, each responsible for the deaths of millions of people, were all both hailed as heroes by some and denounced as villains by other members of the world community at large. In his best-selling book THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF HEROES William Bennett, well-known professor, author, and former Secretary of Education during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, celebrates real and fictional deeds of heroism both large and small. Using  stories chosen to illustrate various aspects of heroism in the book, he has tried to promote a better understanding of what heroism is and provide inspiration for young children. 








   

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THE MIGHTY OAK

7/8/2014

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One of the best-selling books for children is titled THE GIVING TREE, a tale about the relationship between a tree and a little boy and the changing relationship between the tree and the boy as the child grows up. A controversy grew up about the theme of the book because the tree sacrifices everything for the boy, and the boy apparently gives the tree nothing in return. In the real world, however, trees were venerated by mankind. The oak in particular has been revered throughout history and prehistory as perhaps the most sacred of all trees by many cultures. It was associated with the most powerful of the Greek gods, Zeus, wielder of the thunderbolt, who allegedly spoke prophecies interpreted by priestesses from the rustling of oak leaves. Likewise, the oak was linked with the great Norse god Thor, who hurled Mjolnir, a magical oak hammer, across the sky to create thunder and lightning. In Celtic lore the oak represents the seventh month of the Celtic tree calendar stretching from June 10 to July 7, as a symbol of power, endurance, and strength at the summer solstice. The Celtic name for the oak is Duir, meaning door. The oak represents the door of opportunity. It's branches can grow up to 110 feet in height, and its trunk can reach a girth of as much as 70 feet. The "Major Oak," an ancient tree still standing in England's Sherwood Forest, was said to be the actual meeting place of Robin Hood and his merry men. The mythical round table of King Arthur fame was likewise rumored to have been made from the bole of a huge oak tree. Unfortunately, men no longer venerate trees as they once did. Trees are cut down for timber all over the world, and, in many parts of the Earth, they are not replaced with seedlings to replenish the health of our forests. If saving trees interests you, I suggest you contact organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation to join in their project called Savng the Forest for the Trees.

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Endangered species

6/30/2014

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There are only 700 to 1000 giant pandas left in China's wild Western forests. Most of the panda's forest habitats have been cut down for timber. There are many other animals on the endangered species lists of websites such as worldwildlife.org and imagineanimals.com. Take a look at the websites and enjoy the beautiful photos of animals. You can even symbolically adopt an animal on the World Wildlife website. Choose a tiger, polar bear, perhaps an African elephant, all endangered species. You can get a certificate of adoption, photo of the animal, a species info card, a gift bag, and an adorable plush stuffed animal. Check it out. The photo of the panda was taken by Craig Kasnoff, who travels the world taking photographs of animals and focuses his efforts on projects concerning conservation and endangered species.

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CLOUDS

6/23/2014

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Electrical charges within storm clouds create lightning that is fascinating and scary, but clouds that do not produce lightning are also fascinating although taken pretty much for granted. I recently saw this photo of a Lenticular cloud. They sometimes look like discs and have been mistaken for flyng saucer-type UFO's. How amazing is that?
What we call a cloud here on Earth is basically formed when invisible water vapor forms into liquid droplets or solid ice crystals, both visible forms of water molecules suspended in the atmosphere. Cloud droplets are very small, perhaps a thousand times smaller than a raindrop. The highest clouds are called Cirrus clouds because cirrus, Latin for curl, refers to the thin, feathery look of white clouds with long streamers that stretch across the sky high above the Earth. Those greyish clouds that cover all or most of the sky are named Stratus, Latin for strewn, because they lie across the sky like a sheet on a "cloudy" day. Fog is also a Stratus cloud although it is very close to the ground. What about those small, puffy cotton-ball clouds that float leisurely across the sky? Those are Cumulus cloudlets, Latin for heap, because they can increase in size to become the Cumulonimbus clouds up to six miles high that produce fierce thunder storms holding up to half a million tons of water. Since according to NASA, "clouds have an enormous influrence on Earth's energy balance, climate, and weather,"  we should pay more attention to them.

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LIGHTNING

6/5/2014

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Most people think that lightning strikes when a stream of electrically charged particles from a storm cloud hits something on the ground. Actually that stream of charged particles shooting earthward are invisible spurts of negatively charged electricity called step leaders that travel towards the ground in search of a stream of positively charged electric particles coming up from objects on the Earth. It is only when a positively charged streamer from the Earth connects with the negative charged particles from the cloud that we see the well-known flash of light and roar of thunder as the charged particles from the Earth shoot skyward up the pathway prepared by the invisible leaders from the storm cloud. The electric current formed by the "strike" makes the air expand so rapidly that it becomes hot enough to explode and sends out shock waves that create the sound that we call thunder. One summer day as I sat in the living room of our summer house, lightning flashed and thunder roared every few seconds as a huge storm created chaos outside. Suddenly a streamer of lightning flashed past my chair, divided into two branches and then forked into several smaller branches of light before disappearing. I wonder what would have happened if one of those branches of light had hit me. Leaders known as side flashes can travel above ground from the actual lightning strike to cause injury or death, and upward leaders that do not connect with downward leaders to form a lightning strike can also carry hundreds of amps. Scary.

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Volcanoes Versus Dinosaurs

5/25/2014

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If there is anything more exciting and terrifying for kids to read about than dinosaurs, it is for them to read about large asteroids crashing into the Earth's surface and erupting volcanoes spewing out massive amounts of lava. In the early 1990's a huge crater was discovered on the coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Earth scientists determined that it was made when an asteroid crashed into Earth's surface at the end of the Cretaceous period.The crater that the asteroid made was dubbed Chicxulub, the name of a nearby town. The asteroid impact  was blamed for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago. But geologists such as Greta Keller of Princeton suggest that the asteroid impact occurred approximately 300,000 years before extinction of the dinosaurs and therefore could not have caused their demise. These scientists also maintain that other similar impacts occurred before the boundary of the Cretaceous-Tertiary period extinction known as K-T and that it was rather the huge and violent volcanic eruptions that spewed out of the Deccan Traps found in modern-day India that finished them off. The Deccan Traps, named for a step-like rock formation, covered about 580,000 square miles between 63 to 67 million years ago when volcanic ejections hurled up to 10,000 billion tons of sulfuric dioxide into Earth's atmosphere, an amount of poison that circled the Earth suspended in the air in amounts that dinosaurs could not tolerate. In contrast Earth scientists state that the asteroid impact known as Chicxulub ejected between 50 to 500 billion tons of sulfur dioxide into the air. According to geophysicist Vincent Courtillot of the University of Paris, the Deccan volcanism began "just before the K-T boundary." Greta Keller agrees, stating that after the first flows of lava, "the species disappear; we have essentially very few left." The lava eruptions continued with two subsequent flows that prevented recovery of the species, and "by the fourth flow, the extinction is complete." The eruptions may have lasted for fewer than 30,000 years, actually a long time in human terms but not in geological history.


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The extinction of about 70% of all life on Earth occurred at the same time that the dinosaurs were annihilated, but 30% of Earth life still remained. Although the age of the dinosaurs was over, the age of the mammals began. Let's not forget that there were also animals similar to dinosaurs such as alligators and crocodiles that survived the massive extinction, and it is generally assumed today that birds probably evolved from dinosaurs. It is possible that the volcanic activity of the Deccan Traps and the impacts of asteroids contributed to the massive extinctions of the K-T period.  

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DINOSAURS

5/20/2014

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Why are dinosaurs so popular with kids? Probably because they were so ugly, nasty, and often huge, and they lived a long time ago; so kids today don't have to worry about running into one of them on the street. Amazon lists 12,534 children's dinosaur books on their website. National Geographic has created one book in its LITTLE KIDS FIRST BIG BOOK series devoted to dinosaurs. This book includes eight small dinosaurs, 40 big ones, 72 giants, and 102 gigantic dinosaurs. The smallest is Microraptor. It weighed less than four pounds, had feathers and wings, but allegedly did not fly. Instead of flying it climbed trees and glided through the air. Just recently paleontologists have uncovered bones of the world's largest animal ever to have walked on Earth referred to as "the big one." A member of the newly discovered species of dinosaur called Titanosaur, it is thought to have stood up to seven stories tall and weighed up to 77 tons. Dinosaurs reigned on Earth from the Mesozoic Era about 250 million years ago until their extinction 65 million years ago. But undoubtedly just the mention of the word dinosaur will continue to create excitement in the hearts and minds of generations of kids for as long as the human race exists.
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BUGS AND CREEPY CRAWLIES

5/14/2014

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Why are kids fascinated by bugs? Let's expand that to spiders and such as well as creepy crawlies. Author of THE BIG BOOK OF BUGS tries to entice buyers with the words: "Look right into a spider's eye and get tangled in its web!" and see "larger than life photographs of creepy crawlies." Wow! BUGS GALORE creators Peter Stein and Bob Stark suggest you buy their book to read about bugs that "creep, slither, stink, and squirm, scurry, fly -- ewww, a worm!" (Worms are not really bugs or spiders, but they definitely are creepy crawlies.) They promise that their book will "thrill (and gross out) bug enthusiasts of all ages, offering an in-the-dirt, high-in-the-sky critter tale sure to leave readers wiggling and stampeding for more."

Is it a good thing to insert bugs and creepy crawlies into the lives of kids? I suppose it must be. Speaking of insects alone, there are more insects on earth than there are people. According to "BugInfo" compiled by the Smithsonian Institution, bug experts suggest that there are up to 10 quintillion insects (that's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000) alive on earth at any one time. That's about 200 million insects for each human on earth or about 300 pounds of insect for each pound of humanity. (Thank goodness bugs are relatively small.) And that's not counting spiders, scorpions, worms, centipedes, and other creepies too numerous to count. Without all of these creatures that share the Earth with humans and animals, who or what would pollinate the flowers so that we could have vegetables and fruits to eat? Consider midges (small 1-4mm long flies also known in some places as no-see-ums). It is alleged that midges are very important pollinators of the cacao plant that supplies us with the principal ingredient in chocolate. Yes, bugs and creepy crawlies are functional and fascinating, but only in small doses and at arm's length.  


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