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| If you don’t usually say grace before meals, you might want to start doing so this Thanksgiving — and whenever your family dines together. It’s a way to remind ourselves of all we have to be thankful for. Plus, for many families, the evening meal is the only time spent together. Grace provides an opportunity to reflect on how precious this time is.If you say grace often, you may want to change what you say occasionally so that the words don’t become rote and meaningless. We have collected more than 300 mealtime graces from around the world. Some of our favorites… For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Unitarian minister, poet and essayist (1803-1882) May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all beings be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow. May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless. May all live in equanimity, without attachment or aversion, believing in the equality of all that lives. Thank heaven for this food and for this company. May it be good for us. — Greek prayer May we be a channel of blessings for all that we meet. God of pilgrims, give us always a table to Stop at where we can Tell our story and Sing our song. — Father John Giuliani (1932-), Benedictine Grange, West Redding, Connecticut Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. Marcia and Jack Kelly, editors of 100 Graces (Bell Tower). They live in Olean, N.Y. http://www.monasteries |
In our hyperconnected world, where your phone is always with you, information is being collected—and shared—every nanosecond.
“So what?” you say. “I have nothing to hide.” Don’t be so sure. As privacy expert Bennett Cyphers told a reporter for the New York Times’s Privacy Project, “The only people I’ve heard say ‘Who cares?’ are people who don’t understand the scope of the problem.
Read the rest of this entry »How an Indian export became part of the fabric of American life
(carlitoz.com)
Long before American cowboys sported bandanas, the European snuff user of the 18th century suffered from an embarrassing problem: Blowing his nose into a white or solid-colored handkerchief left behind dark tobacco stains. He found a stylish solution in India, where textile makers employed a millennium-old tie-dyeing technique called bandhani to create colorful silk and cotton kerchiefs covered in lively patterns. After the Dutch and English East India companies imported these kerchiefs to England, snuff-takers embraced them to make their habit more discreet, and the name was anglicized to “bandana.”
The Saturday following Thanksgiving plays hide and seek between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but easily stands on it’s own as one of the most important shopping days of the year. Founded six years ago in response to small business owners’ most pressing need – getting more customers during the busy holiday shopping season – Small Business Saturday has quickly earned its’ stripes among holiday traditions. Last year alone, 88 million consumers shopped small on Small Business Saturday – which was up 14.9 percent from 2013. Additionally, consumers spent $14.3 billion at local and independent businesses on Small Business Saturday in 2014, and this year the hype and buzz surrounding the day seems to have only increased.
mokra (sxc.hu)
The busiest shopping day of the year is the day after Thanksgiving.
Buy Nothing Day is also the same day.
Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser
BBB: Why many ‘risk-free’ trials are anything but free
We get it: On the surface, doing a risk-free trial looks like it will save us money, allowing us to test a product or service before purchasing it fully. But the BBB says buyer beware.
The agency’s investigation unveiled that in many cases, offers for free product samples are outright lies and that many companies bury the stringent conditions in fine print.
“The study found that many of the celebrity endorsements are fake,” the BBB says. “Dozens of celebrity names are used by these frauds without their knowledge or permission, ranging from Oprah Winfrey, Chrissy Teigen and Ellen Degeneres to Mike Rowe, Tim Allen and Sally Field. Sometimes the fine print even admits these endorsements are not real.”
“You only have to pay $1.95 for shipping and handling. The claims look plausible, and celebrities would not endorse a product unless…
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If you don’t usually say grace before meals, you might want to start doing so this Thanksgiving — and whenever your family dines together. It’s a way to remind ourselves of all we have to be thankful for. Plus, for many families, the evening meal is the only time spent together. Grace provides an opportunity to reflect on how precious this time is.If you say grace often, you may want to change what you say occasionally so that the words don’t become rote and meaningless.
We have collected more than 300 mealtime graces from around the world. Some of our favorites… Read the rest of this entry »
Something unprecedented is about to happen on your phone soon. Here’s what you need to know…
You’re probably familiar with Amber Alerts about missing children on your phone, but have you ever heard of WEA alerts?
What does WEA stand for?
WEA stands for Wireless Emergency Alert and it’s part of our nation’s broader Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS), which also includes the familiar Emergency Alert System (EAS).
The EAS is what you see and experience when your TV or radio broadcast is interrupted for about a minute with a monthly test.
What distinguishes a WEA alert from the EAS alert? Read the rest of this entry »
spela Andolsek
(freeimages.com)
What you need to know about coconut oil.
A 2017 American Heart Association panel reviewed the evidence on which fats in foods raise—and which lower—the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The experts’ findings: “We conclude strongly that lowering intake of saturated fat and replacing it with unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats, will lower the incidence of CVD.” Yet many people have heard that saturated fats are harmless. Read the rest of this entry »
(worldartsme.com)
“Sparkling water is made by pumping carbon dioxide into water,” explains John Ruby, a retired professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “The CO2turns into carbonic acid, and the pH drops.”
A lower pH means that the liquid has become more acidic. (Pure water has a neutral pH of 7 on the 0-to-14 pH scale.)
Acids can erode tooth enamel. And “once you lose enamel, you never get it back,” says Ruby. That can lead to sensitivity, discoloration, and loss of tooth structure. Read the rest of this entry »
Adrian Baciu (freeimages.com)
Everyone agrees that drug names are becoming ever more crazy. For instance, why all those X’s and Z’s in brand names (Pradaxa, Xarelto, Xeljanz, Zyprexa)?
Generic names can be even more mouth-boggling. Can you remember that acetaminophen is the generic name for Tylenol, and can you pronounce it? If you want to get it when visiting Europe, however, you’ll have to ask for paracetamol. Both of those names get their syllables from a chemical name of the compound: para-acetylaminophenol.
But the names of most generics (like brand names) are largely or completely made up and illogical, except that some related drugs share a suffix, such as “-statin” at the end of cholesterol-lowering drugs like simvastatin (Lipitor) or rosuvastatin (Crestor), and “-azepam” for tranquilizers like lorazepam (Ativan) or temazepam (Restoril).
Tongue-twisting generic names are a big problem since the vast majority of drugs are now dispensed as generics, leading to growing concerns that if names are mispronounced or misread and drugs misidentified, patients could be harmed. Avoiding such confusions is one of the rationales for electronic prescriptions. Read the rest of this entry »
Rosie has a surprising history
You may know the woman depicted here as Rosie the Riveter,
but she wasn’t originally called that.
(www.freeimages.com)
The home microwave oven turned 50 in 2017. Here are some tidbits you may not know about this cooking contraption—now found in more than 90 percent of American homes—gleaned from an article written by an associate professor of radiation medicine at Georgetown University and other sources:
As it turns out, you really can overdose on candy—or, more precisely, black licorice.
Days before the biggest candy eating holiday of the year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) encourages moderation if you enjoy snacking on the old fashioned favorite.
So, if you’re getting your stash ready for Halloween, here’s some advice from FDA:
An influenza expert at Johns Hopkins University explains how the cocktail for this year’s flu vaccine was developed
Predicting which fast-mutating influenza viruses will dominate the flu season more than six months before it happens is notoriously difficult yet the ponderous global vaccine production process demands maximum lead time. So, scientists have to take their best guess based on the available data.
In March, the WHO rolled out its recommended composition for flu vaccines in the Northern Hemisphere. (It announced its next Southern Hemisphere recommendations six months or so later.) For northern climes, the WHO proposes a cocktail of H1N1, H3N2 and a B virus—and for those interested in a quadrivalent vaccine, a dash of B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus.
For an explanation on the process for making vaccines and related issues, Global Health Now spoke this spring to Andrew Pekosz, director of the Center for Emerging Viruses and Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Read the rest of this entry »
Social Media scans are nothing new, but right now there are three specific Facebook scams that are spreading like wildfire!
For cyber criminals, what’s the easiest way to reach the most people with one scam? Facebook. With more than a billion users, Facebook has become an easy way for scammers to rip off as many people as possible at once — and in a variety of different ways.
Here’s how to spot some big scams that are making the rounds and how to protect yourself.
Walter Groesel (free image.com)
Chest pain…shortness of breath…feeling faint…and/or discomfort in the arm—or even the neck, jaw or back. If you are overcome by such symptoms and perhaps even have an intense and sudden “sense of doom,” you’re likely to suspect a heart attack and rush to a hospital.
But wouldn’t it be better to get a heads-up beforehand that a heart attack is on the way?
The search bar located near the top of the screen when you sign into your Facebook account can do more than you might realize. Not only does it let you enter keywords to locate your old Facebook posts—it’s also a good way to…
mermaidofthelake.com
Wondering why you can’t re-create the wonderful flavor of your mother’s chicken recipe? It isn’t your fault—it’s the chicken’s.
Most meats and vegetables and some fruits have significantly less flavor than they did decades ago. Chicken has become especially bland—it has almost no flavor now. Read the rest of this entry »
9izqzG6iE (clipartbest.com)
Most of us want to look as youthful and vital on the outside as we feel on the inside. But without realizing it, we may be appearing older than we need to.
Here are 10 simple things you can do that will make you look younger…
leovdworp (freeimages.com)
Did you know that your smartphone and tablet can be infected with viruses and malware—just like desktop and laptop computers? This typically happens when you download a malicious app.
Once it is on your device, hackers can steal sensitive material such as account details, passwords and photos. They can cause your operating system to crash, rendering your device useless. They even can hijack your contacts list and send spam texts to your friends, family and associates. From 2013 to 2014, mobile app malware targeting Android phones rose by 600% globally to more than 650,000 different varieties.
How to protect your devices…
mspurity (freeimages.com)
You wouldn’t be surprised if a narcotic painkiller made you feel a little sleepy or you developed an upset stomach after taking an aspirin-like painkiller for a few days.
What most people don’t know—and their doctors don’t talk about—is that popular prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs can affect your body and your mind.
A hidden risk: Let’s say that you start taking a new drug. Weeks or even months later, you begin to feel depressed or suffer some other psychiatric symptom. You might assume that something’s wrong with you when, in fact, the drug could be to blame. Common offenders you need to know about—psychiatric side effects can occur with any dose, but the greater the drug amount, the greater the risk…
When you have a serious infection, you want your antibiotic to work fast and thoroughly and to kill the bacteria before they possibly kill you. But if the bacteria causing infection have learned to outsmart the antibiotic, then you’re in real trouble. Overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics are key factors in training bacteria to trump treatment.
So if you thought you could avoid a really uncomfortable case of diarrhea by popping an antibiotic—as many travelers do to avoid traveler’s diarrhea—would you?
I hope not. And I’ll tell you why.
Did You Know That??? 
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