Butter

The Iowa State Fair has boasted a "Butter Cow" since the early 1900s. It starts with a wood, metal, wire and steel mesh frame and about 600 lbs. of low moisture, pure cream Iowa butter. Once inside the 40-degree cooler, layers of butter are applied until a life-size butter cow emerges - measuring about 5-1/2-ft high and 8-ft long. Each year features one of the six major dairy breeds - Jersey, Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Holstein, Guernsey and Milking Shorthorn.

Are you wondering, like I am, what happens to all of that butter at the end of the fair? Much of the butter is recycled and reused for up to 10 years. A 600-lb. butter cow would butter 19,200 slices of toast and take an average person two lifetimes to consume, according to sponsor Midwest Dairy Association.

This week, a look at butter.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up." - Mark Twain (US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit, 1835 - 1910)

(scroll over or click on iPaper below to have a drop-down menu that includes a print option)

Butter - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Butter

Carrots

If you eat too many carrots, you'll turn orange. That's a fact, not something to scare your kids with (or maybe it is). Carotene is the red or yellow hydrocarbon pigment that gives carrots their characteristic cheery color, and also helps to brighten up egg yolks, sweet potatoes, and a variety of leafy vegetables. Intemperate carrot consumption will make the carotene build up in your bloodstream. Before you know it, your skin will take on a sickly yellow pallor, a grisly condition that superficially resembles jaundice.

And here I thought they were only good for making cake. This week, a look at carrots.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up." - Anne Lamott (political activist and author of several novels and works of non-fiction, 1954 - )

(scroll over or click on iPaper below to have a drop-down menu that includes a print option)

Carrots

Get your own at Scribd or explore others:

Radar

Air traffic control uses radar to track planes both on the ground and in the air, and also to guide planes in for smooth landings. Police use radar to detect the speed of passing motorists. NASA uses radar to map the Earth and other planets, to track satellites and space debris and to help with things like docking and maneuvering. Meteorologists use radar to track storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. You even see a form of radar at many grocery stores when the doors open automagically.

This week, a look at something that is invisible and in use all around us, radar.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious." - Brendan Gill (American author and writer, 1914 - 1997)

(scroll over or click on iPaper below to have a drop-down menu that includes a print option)

Radar - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Radar

Tree Nuts

We've talked about food allergies before. This hypersensitivity is an abnormal response to a food that is triggered by the immune system. True food allergies affect a relatively small percentage of people, but it is extremely important for people who have true food allergies to prevent those allergic reactions because these reactions can cause devastating illness and, in some cases, be fatal.

In the US, most food allergies fall into what is called the Big 8, which account for 90% of all food-allergic reactions: eggs, milk, peanuts, soy, wheat, fish, shellfish and tree nuts. What exactly are tree nuts? You'd be surprised how many different nuts grow on trees and what is considered a tree nut from a food allergy standpoint.

This week, a look at tree nuts.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." - Jimmy Buffett (singer, songwriter, author, businessman, and recently a movie producer, 1946 - )

(scroll over or click on iPaper below to have a drop-down menu that includes a print option)

Tree Nuts - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Tree Nuts

Aflatoxin and You

Aspergillus flavus is a wide spread saprotroph (an organism that obtains its nutrients from non-living organic matter, usually dead and decaying plant or animal matter, by absorbing soluble organic compounds). It is typically found in soil, seeds, fruits and decaying vegetation. Under favorable conditions, it can produce a toxin known as aflatoxin.

Why talk about it? Aflatoxin can cause acute necrosis, cirrhosis, and carcinoma of the liver in a number of animal species.

Aflatoxicosis (poisoning that results from ingestion of aflatoxins) in humans has rarely been reported; outbreaks occurred in India in 1974 and Keyna in 1982. It is difficult to recognize, so cases are not always readily diagnosed.

This week, a look at aflatoxin.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist, 1749 - 1832)

(scroll over or click on iPaper below to have a drop-down menu that includes a print option)

Aflatoxin and You - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Aflatoxin and You

The World in a Glass - Six Drinks That Changed History

Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates in A History of the World in 6 Glasses, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period.

If you want the entire story, I'll lend you the book. This week, a very brief look at the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda, 'The Empire Strikes Back'

(scroll over or click on iPaper below to have a drop-down menu that includes a print option)

The World in a Glass - Six Drinks That Changed History

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Honey, they've shrunk the grocery store

We've talked about how groceries and grocery packaging has been getting smaller. What is left, you say? The store itself.

This week, how grocery stores are getting smaller.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn't come every day." - George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion, Act 2 (Irish dramatist & socialist, 1856 - 1950)

(scroll over or click on iPaper below to have a drop-down menu that includes a print option)

Honey, They'Ve Shrunk the Grocery Store

Publish at Scribd or explore others: