selectiv-e-pedia

Stop Spam In Wordpress, Installed reCAPTCH But Still Getting Spam

2011-12-23T01:36:00.000-05:00

'reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows. Check out our paper in Science about it (or read more below).

A CAPTCHA is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer. You've probably seen them — colorful images with distorted text at the bottom of Web registration forms. CAPTCHAs are used by many websites to prevent abuse from "bots," or automated programs usually written to generate spam.

No computer program can read distorted text as well as humans can, so bots cannot navigate sites protected by CAPTCHAs.' Source: reCAPTCHA.

However, if this did not solve your problem in WordPress, you may want to do the following.

In WordPress dashboard under Settings > Discussion, Default article settings section un-check 'Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks)'. It solved my spam issue. I used to get 800 spam comments per week. By installing reCAPCHA in my blog it reduced to 25 spam messages per week. Then I disabled the pingbacks and trackbacks and now I am getting zero spam. Moderate all your comments, that really helps too.

Avoid This Additive In Your Food - The High Fructose Corn Syrup

2011-12-22T01:14:00.000-05:00

Over the years I trained myself to read the ingredients labels on every product I buy that is packaged. Note, processed food is constantly enhanced so don't be surprised that the ingredient list changed. You also may want to know that the ingredient list is listed from the ingredient that is used the most and then to the least.

The best nutrition for your body is to consume whole foods - or the least amount of ingredients. The more natural foods you eat the better you will be. Processed foods contain preservatives, chemicals, fillers, artificial flavors and artificial colors.

I avoid any processed food that is contains artificial flavors or artificial colors, but the most I avoid is the High Fructose Corn Syrup often abbreviated HFCS. Corn syrup is just a cheaper version of cane or beet sugar.

Why add to baked foods? HFCS preserves freshness in the baked foods. It is definitely a natural sweetener in other foods.

Why avoid it? Studies revealed that fructose turns into fat, thus the obesity. Your liver does not process or metabolizes the corn syrup effectively. It also increases risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer, and type-2 diabetes. I think there is enough reasons for not to consume anything that contains High Fructose Corn Syrup.

You may want to read this as well: Top 10 Food Additives to Avoid

Urge To Cough During Orchestra Concert

2011-12-20T00:38:00.000-05:00

Here you are enjoying beautiful music at the orchestra concert and suddenly you get urge to cough. It usually happens when you are recovering from a cold. It can be disturbing for someone who performs so it is better to be prepared. Bring some cough medicine or unwrapped candy or lozenges with you. Yes, unwrapped because they can make noise as well. Keeping quite even for the people that surround you in the auditorium is also important. They all paid for the tickets and want to enjoy the concert. You can also try to hold and cough during the loud passages of music. Now, if all the above do not work, then you can excuse yourself and quietly exit the concert hall. You may not be able to re-enter the concert hall immediately after you stopped coughing. Ushers will let you know preferred re-entrance to the auditorium.

Hopefully this hint will be handy one day, especially if you are not a regular when comes to concerts.

Another great tip for the orchestra concert is when to clap. Usually audiences tend to clap when the piece is finished. This gesture of holding the applause between the movements is actually considered respectful. Applause can easily break the performer's concentration. The conductor will usually let the audience know when the piece is completed by putting his/her baton down and turning towards the audience.

You also may want to remember this proper concert etiquette - no talking, tapping, humming, turning program pages, standing or leaning forward in the seat, and of course unwrapping candies or your cough lozenges. Such things my disturb both sides, audiences and performers.

Go Green Go Breastfeeding - Environmental Advantages of Breastfeeding and Environmental Disadvantages of Infant Formula

2011-11-17T00:26:00.000-05:00

Breastfeeding has many benefits for the baby, for the mother, but as well for the environment. Yes breastfeeding is good for the environment, and I am glad that I contributed. It wasn't that easy when you are new mother, and when never breastfed - but once you master it, it is the best thing ever. Starting with delivery system of this natural food. The delivery system is the most efficient system because it goes from the mother straight to baby's mouth. It is also clean, because no pollution is generated. On the side note nothing to do with the pollution, note that even baby's stool has no odour. No energy is required to heat it up or refrigerate. No accessories are required to feed the baby - like bottles, nipples. In addition, no additional cost of food for the first year - but you have to ensure that mother eats well nutritious food. And how about all the trips to the local store to shop for the baby food. If you care about environment then breastfeed your baby. I also understand, that some mother's cannot breastfeed, but for those who can, then they can contribute to the environment a lot.

Let see now, how damaging to the environment infant formula can be. The formula production is a mechanical process which causes air pollution and uses fuel from natural resources. Same applies to the nice fancy packaging - glass, plastic, tins, cardboard. All this, needs processing and printing, and packaging which all creates pollution before being used and after it is disposed. Yes all this fancy packaging needs to be recycled, thus more energy required, thus more use of fuel extracted from natural resources. Hopefully you got the idea by now. However, we are not done yet. How about the transportation, meaning once packaged, it needs to be shipped, now days possibly around the world. Transportation is in fact one of the greatest contributors of air pollution. Lastly, just at home, you will use energy to prepare and store the food. You will need bottles and nipples which are produced also by means of mechanical processes thus the resulting pollution. And once not needed, recycling process will take over.

Hopefully now you got the complete picture, and if you are expectant mother, by breastfeeding your baby, you will not only contribute to your baby's health and your health, but also to the environment's health. In addition, you will save money. The cost of using infant formula can be between $1,250 up to $3,000 a year, a very expensive compare to breast milk costing you almost nothing. And since breastfeeding is beneficial to the human health, guess what - reduction in health care costs.

Make Plain Yogurt Tasty for Children and Adults - Add Cooked Pears

2011-10-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

I should say I used to like all the creamy and tasty yogurts [yoghurt] out there, but then when I changed to a healthy life style and started to read labels, I was amazed what all kinds of stuff is added to make it delicious and for those who are conscious about weight, to make the fat free ones. Extra sugar, I still don't understand why. Probably because all the fruits added are not that sweet, meaning probably not riped too. Then fat free - you know that they add extra chemicals to reduce the fat content. Therefore, the best recommendation of mine is, get normal 1% up to 3% fat yogurt, have little bit and enjoy it.

Now, how to make it delicious. Peel bosc pears [the sweet one], dice and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350-375 F, then puree. Let it cool and add to yogurt as much as you want to make it tasty; however, do not indulge on the pears, but rather on yogurt. This combination makes yogurt nice and sweet, and some say even more delicious. Then if you like other fruit, you can cut up some fresh fruit , and spice it up with cinnamon. Note that if you get a nice sweet red delicious apples, this may have the same effect.

I actually like plain yogurt plain or with vegetables, but children may be a bit fussy about its taste, however addition of pears can make a difference. I introduced yogurt to my baby at 11 months, and if your doctor recommends earlier, then go for it. He actually didn't mind like me eating the plain yogurt too, probably because I ate so much during pregnancy. Plain yogurt is excellent for balancing levels of the bacteria cultures in our system. We all have bad bacteria, so it is always good to eat yogurt to add good bacteria. Its all about balance.

Here are nutritional benefits of yogurt in general: excellent source of protein, rich in calcium, rich in potassium, source of B vitamin riboflavin, it is easier to digest than milk due to the culturing process, boosts immune system, can reduce cholesterol, improves colon health and may reduce risk of breast cancer due to improved immune system, reduces yeast infection [Candidiasis], and it aids in healing intestine infections. The plain yogurt is better than the taste enhanced yogurts because they contain less calories than the one with added fruit or sugars, they contain less fillers to make it creamy, contain more protein and calcium, and you will note also that there are no added sugars.

When buying yogurt here are some pointers. Look for containers with ingredients containing live and active cultures of Lactobacillus acidophilus or Bifidus bacteria cultures. Look for the ones with no added sugar - bingo - choose plain yogurt. Lastly, the active bacterial culture decreases after the expiration date, therefore, guess what you really need to check the expiry date on the containers.

Silkworm Moth Has the Ultimate Perfume for Mating,

2011-09-06T23:06:00.000-04:00

Hopefully the above title really lured you in to read this article. Did you know that silkworm moth female announces that is available for mating by giving off an ultimate perfume or pheromone called bombykol? I bet not. I didn't. My personal interpretation, bomb - it is a strong and attractive scent, and -ykol, the alcohol base of the chemical molecule unit - a chemistry that is the same as man made perfumes. The male silkworm moth can smell the bombykol very well. Lets just say he can smell one molecule of bombykol diluted in the quadrillion of air molecules. This is one of the amazing chemical sensing trades in the animal kingdom.

Note do not try to extract this ultimate perfume for yourself, it only works between silkworm partners.

WordPress Sites Hacked Via Timthumb.php

2011-08-18T01:51:00.003-04:00

One of my Wordpress based websites got compromised. When I was logged into the Wordpress by previewing posts a bogus website would pop up.

To check if your website was compromised you can visit this site to run free check: Sucuri Security Site Check.

Then you may want to ensure that your timthumb script is the latest version, already updated with tighten security. In my case my hosting server updated the script for all Wordpress users.

Latest timthumb can be found here.

More reading:

Timthumb.php Security Vulnerability – Just the Tip of the Iceberg

WordPress Sites Hacked with Superpuperdomain dot com (Attacking Timthumb.php)

If your site was hacked then best way to clean up is to re-install your theme. Ensure that your timthumb is the latest version. The hack did not affect the database in my case.

Horseshoe - A Symbol Of Good Fortune

2011-08-16T00:33:00.000-04:00

I wonder if the new Internet age era someone would consider to have a horseshoe on the web site or blog. We all know what horseshoe stands for, a shoe for the horse. After the horses were put into work it was necessary for them to own a shoe, in the shape of the moon.

The use of the worn out horseshoes was also popular in many countries. The tradition to hang the horseshoe above or next to the doorway originated first in Europe (most of Europe), and spread to the Middle-East, and Latin America, and eventually enter Americas. From my experience, many old barns in North America will have a horseshoe if you look closely - an example here.

In most of Europe, the Middle-East and Latin America horseshoes are placed downward or opening down, however, in some parts of Ireland and Britain people believe that the shoes must be upward or 'the luck will run out'. Americans of English and Irish descent prefer to display horseshoes upward; for Germans, Austrians, Italians, Spanish, and Balkans 'it must point down so the luck can pour onto you'. Two different ways, no wrong way. However, most of people were satisfied either way, because since the shoe protects the horse then it must protect the people.

In some countries such as Italy, a horseshoe is nailed by the side of the door and not above. Direction is not important, but some still do point them downward. However, it is important that the horseshoe was worn and discarded by a horse. Meaning that the horseshoe was found on the road or field, and not purchased. In addition, a person entering through the door can touch it.

Track Traffic On Your Blog With Google Analytics

2011-08-10T23:05:00.000-04:00

Signing up is easy especially if you are a proud owner of Gmail account. Visit Google Analytics and you will find how easy it is to set it up. You have to register every blog or web site every time, and generate unique code. Once you generate this unique code, here is how to install in Blogger. Firstly, as always back up your template, no excuse. Then from your Dashboard select blog you want to install the script to. Go to Layout, Edit. This is where you can back up your template. In the html code window scroll down all the way to the bottom. Insert your code above the code. Save Template and you are ready to track your blog traffic. Go back to your Google Analytics code and make sure it is correctly installed. It takes about 24 hours to generate the data and start tracking. If you like statistics, you will like the Google Analytics.

Wonders of the Chicken Soup and Recipe – Is it a Common Cold Relief Remedy or a Cure?

2011-08-03T22:47:00.000-04:00

Chicken soup is the probably the oldest soup recipe in the world, and in addition to be a very tasty it’s been used as a remedy to relief a cold – also called a comfort food or feel-good food when you are sick. It has been known that there is no other remedy that effective as the chicken soup. For centuries it was believed that chicken soup had the healing powers or cure for the illnesses as a common cold. This sparked attention among researchers and scientists to conduct studies in that field. The research concluded that chicken soup was in deed a relief remedy for a common cold, and not a cure. However, with the continued advances in science and technology time will tell what other benefits will be discovered in the future.

Chicken Soup Scientific Research HistoryThe research done in 1978 at Mount Sinai Medical Centre, Miami Beach, Florida by group of lung specialists concluded that the chicken soup helped ease the nasal congestion than the hot and cold water. The study was performed on 150 individuals with colds who were told to drink hot chicken soup, hot water and cold water. The objective of the experiment was to measure how quickly the mucus and air flowed through each individual’s nose. Interestingly, note this: ‘Hot liquids in general can be soothing, if only because they require you to slow down, sit still, and sip patiently in order to consume them without scalding yourself’ – as Dr. Andrew Weil suggests in his article: ‘Can Chicken Soup Banish Colds?’. This one actually made me smile as he is right; we tend to forget the physical component of the eating hot stuff.

The research done in early 1990’s has shown that the home made chicken soup contains substances that can relief a common cold. This research was done by Dr. Rennard and his research team at the University of Nebraska. It was concluded that the chicken soup can relief cold symptoms such as a stuffed nose, coughing and congestion – typical signs when body is fighting a cold. In more detail, when we get a cold, neutrophils [cells that fight infection] move to the airways like an army to destroy the attacking virus. When virus is being destroyed our body responds with inflammatory reactions such as a stuffed nose, coughing and congestion. However, when chicken soup is consumed it slows down movement of these neutrophils thus the reduction in the cold symptoms, and therefore we feel better.

The most recent study in 2008 concluded that the ‘Chicken soup may lower blood pressure, study finds’ – an article you can read from USAToday. However, you may want to take a note of this quote: As this study suggests, some collagen in chicken may lower blood pressure," said Dr. Byron Lee, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. "But be careful. The salt we put on our chicken and in our chicken soup may offset or even reverse this potential benefit."

Hopefully in the future the above research areas can be repeated and fully validated, as it seems there was no further scientific studies performed to confirm the 1978, 1990s and 2008 findings.

Difference between Chicken Soup and Chicken Broth, Chicken Stock
May be this terminology should have been explained at the beginning, however, let me clarify now. Chicken soup is a mixture of chicken stock, vegetables, chicken itself, meat pieces, and/or some kind of noodles. Chicken broth is the liquid part of the chicken soup. And the chicken stock is a liquid in which chicken or chicken parts and vegetables been boiled. Confused? If so just call everything chicken soup.

How About Chicken from the Chicken Soup
Chicken also contains an amino acid called cysteine that is released when you make the soup. This amino acid thins mucus in the lungs, aiding in the healing process, and with the benefit of the hot chicken vapours it leads to even faster recovery and comfort. Coincidentally the cysteine is similar to the drug called acetylcysteine. Acetylcysteine is a drug prescribed by doctors to those who suffer from bronchitis. For those who like to learn more technical stuff about cysteine and acetylcysteine – just follow the link.

How About All the Vegetables from the Chicken Soup
Yes, how about all the good stuff cooked with the soup like carrots, onions, leaks, celery, garlic, parsley, black pepper, basil leaf, and sea salt. And if you adventures then you can also throw some cauliflower, parsnips, turnips and sweet potato. All these vegetables cooked in the chicken soup are loaded with many valuable nutrients. However, one may ask are they really loaded, since it has been know that heat can also kill nutrients. That I cannot answer, thus in my opinion, I doubt that all the nutrients from the vegetables do exists after prolonged and required cooking of the chicken soup.

Cleaning Chicken before Making Chicken Stock or Soup
It is very important that you clean raw chicken or chicken parts before making chicken stock or chicken soup. This is what I do. I usually clean chicken under running cold water, remove skin and extra fat, and then rinse it with white vinegar. I fill a pot with cold water, enough to cover the chicken and plus extra above the chicken. Bring to boil until the foam forms. This should take about few minutes of boiling. On the side I prepare a pot of measured water for chicken stock or soup and start heating up. Then I take the partially pre-boiled chicken, rinse with cold water again to remove residues of foam, and transfer to the other pot with correct amount of water. Now you are ready for nice clean chicken soup.

Are You Ready To Make Your Chicken Soup?
Now that you have cleaned your chicken or chicken parts, first you can prepare chicken stock, and then decide if you want to continue with chicken soup. If you search Internet you will find thousands of recipes for chicken stock or soup. And believe or not on some occasions you will find the same recipe copied from blog to blog, from web site to web site. I am not sure if you seen this one before, but this is what I do.

CHICKEN STOCK
Ingredients
3 L of Water
3 Chicken Drumsticks
2 Chicken Breasts
5 Bay Leafs
1 Table Spoon of Black Peppercorn

Procedure
[1] Simple, combine all, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 2 hours.
[2] If you planning to consume chicken stock, you can add pinch of salt here to taste.

CHICKEN SOUP
Ingredients
3 L of Chicken Stock
5 Large Carrots
1 Large Onion
½ Head of Cauliflower
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 Table Spoon of Salt [optional]
5 Table Spoons of Small Shell Pasta [optional]
Procedure
[1] Simple, combine chicken stock, carrots and onion, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for ½ hour.
[2] Add cauliflower and boil for another ½ hour.
[3] Remove chicken into separate container and store temporarily.
[4] Now that you have all nice and cooked, you can easily make nice soup with little of extra work. Take 4 carrots and onion and pureed them in the blender, pour back into the soup.
[5] Take left over carrot slice and put back to the soup.
[6] Take one chicken breast and mash in the blender with some chicken broth. Pour back to the soup.
[7] Take all chicken drum sticks, strip from the bone, cut them into pieces and put back to the soup.
[8] Add garlic, and bring to boil, simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

Optional: Salt is optional and can be added on the end to taste. I noticed that pureed carrots, onion and chicken breast add nice sweet taste.
Optional: Add small shell pasta in Step [8].

How About that Extra Chicken Breast?
With extra chicken breast you can make nice chicken salad, but that is recipe for next future post.

Hope this post summarizes all you needed to know about the chicken soup. So now when you find that you are about to come down with a cold, get those ingredients going fast and make yourself home made chicken soup. In the future, I will be cooking different variations of chicken soups thus I will be sharing them here with you. However, if you are too sick to get to the chicken soup part, just enjoy nice hot chicken stock in the cup, you will be surprised how much better you are going to feel.

Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: March 23, 2009

Who Invented Frisbee? - Walter Fredrick Morrison

2011-08-03T15:36:00.000-04:00

Well I never played frisbee, never tried it. May be one day. However, I am completely aware what it is and what it does. In case, if you don't know, it is a flying disc, or gliding disc that is tossed among players. Usually it is used for beach or outside activities and it can be a real fun to play.

The reason I decided to write about the frisbee, is that every toy or every thing in this world holds an inventor. May be not every thing, but almost. The inventor of the frisbee was Walter Fredrick Morrison. He recently passed away at the age of 90 on February 9th, 2010 at his home in Monroe, Utah. Unfortunately age and cancer were the factors of his death, however, he had good long life. Never know may be the active frisbee life kept him going. We all know that any sort of exercise is good for us.

Believe or not Morrison never liked the Frisbee name and thought that it didn't mean anything, but that's what usually happens when you sell the rights of your invention.

It all started when Morrison and his wife to be Lu were tossing a tin cake pan on the beach in California. Others like the idea, so Morrison apparently ended up selling tin cake pans for 25 cents, and it cost him only 5 cents to buy. The idea grew bigger since Morrison recognized the market for his new toy. He invented his flying plastic disc which was flying and gliding better than the tin cake pans, and then he started to manufacture his new Pluto Platters in 1948.

As I mentioned he then sold the rights to Wham-O Manufacturing company who called Morrison's flying disk a frisbee. The frisbee name originated from the college students in New England. The students were calling Pluto Platters a frisbee. Going one step back, the frisbee name for Pluto Platters by students came from the Frisbie Pie Co., a bakery whose empty tins were tossed like the new Pluto Platter Frisbee.

Beware of the Wild Weed - Jimson Weed or Datura stramonium

2011-08-02T11:49:00.000-04:00

There are just some things we don't know. I got this seed from my mother in law, who got it from someone else. In a matter of time, the weed spread everywhere, and became not a beautiful plant anymore, but annoying. The Jimson weed (Datura stramonium) is often called as devil's apple or devil's weed. Scary kind of, but in reality it is kind of very attractive plant. I still remember how one lady tried to break off a branch from my garden - I guess now I know why it is called sometimes devil's apple. But yet I to find out that it is also very poisonous plant. The seeds of the jimson weed can produce a feelings of mild euphoria, cause hallucinations, delusions, agitation, disorientation and paranoia. Other symptoms are a rapid and irregular heart rate, blurred vision, high blood pressure, dry mucous membranes, flushed skin and dilated pupils. Toxicity rate is high, the seeds of this plant are extremely toxic. Deaths in humans and animals have been reported. Seeds are the most dangerous parts of the plant, but other parts are too. What kind of plant was I growing in my garden? I just didn't know.

I always wanted to know - what is Lorem Ipsum?

2010-04-28T00:55:00.000-04:00

I am sure you at some point came across text 'Lorem Ipsum' many times when searching for web templates or blog themes. At first I thought that this was just random, but apparently not. Lorem Ipsum is a dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. It has been industry's standard dummy text since the 1500s - yes that long. It was 'invented' when an unknown printer scrambled text to make a type specimen book. Funny, that this scrambled text has survived not only five centuries, but also got into the today's electronic age and remains unchanged. It became popular in 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages. Recently popular with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Recent Quakes Definitely Doing Their Job - Relocating Cities & Shortening Earth's Days

2010-03-16T14:06:00.000-04:00

That is all I need - a shorter day! Researchers at NASA calculated that the Chilean earthquake shortened Earth's days. It shortened by one-millionth of a second, still small but shorter. I think this is a second earthquake in a decade to result in a shorter day.

After the catastrophic 2010 Haiti earthquake at magnitude of 7.0 with 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater, a chain of other earthquakes surf through the Earth's crust. The second one to start was Chile with an 8.8 magnitude. If I correctly remember, then it was Japan, Turkey, Kosovo, Japan again. I probably missed some. This may be normal after after all, shake the world and it will move - like everything else.

Well, these earthquakes did shake the world enough to relocate cities in Chile. Researches found that cities and islands physically shifted west. From the satellite data, scientist at Ohio State University and University of Hawaii found that city of Concepcion moved about 3 meters to the west. When compared to Earth size it may not be big shift, but to me three meters is a lot. In addition, the Chile's capital Santiago moved only 30 centimeters. Buenos Aires in Argentina moved 2.5 cm.

Scientists say that this usually happens with earthquakes, but usually too small to notice. However, this time it was definitely noticed.

Just Spreading The Word - Earth Hour March 27, 2010

2010-02-26T13:55:00.001-05:00

The Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) calling every individual, every business and every community throughout the world to turn off the lights. Earth Hour originally started in Sydney, Australia in 2007. About 2.2 million homes and businesses turned off lights for one hour to stand against climate change. In the following year the Earth hour yet to become a global moment, where 50 million across 35 nations started to participate. The following landmarks participated also: Sydney Harbor Bridge; The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada; The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; and Rome's Colosseum. They all stood dark for one hour.

This year in 2010 the Earth Hour will take place Saturday March 27th at 8:30 pm, local time.

Bejeweled - Online Puzzle Game To Waste Your Time

2010-02-09T00:40:00.000-05:00

This is how sometimes I waste my time. I love those games, and I could play them for hours, but not anymore. I don't even know why I am suggesting one here, but this can be a complete waste of time.

Simple Equation Editor - Converts Equations To Graphic Files

2010-02-09T00:19:00.003-05:00

If you like equations and formulas like me you will enjoy this simple equation editor.

How To Use It?

Simply hover over Characters, Math or Symbol tab. Select any of the three, and move your mouse down to hover over individual Characters, Math items or Symbol items. Click.

Below you will see two windows. First one is the formula in text format. Second one is the formula in the graphical representation.

Note you can edit characters in the first window by changing them to numbers if desired, or words. Characters which you have on the key board like =, +, (, ) etc. signs can be just typed normally from your key board. For some reason I couldn't locate the x (times) symbol and percent (%) symbol, so if you figure out how to get it please let me know.

Once your equation is completed, simply click on the second window with the nice formula, and it will prompt you to save the file in PNG format.

Then you can use it any way you want to. Have fun!

Let's Talk About Snails & Snakes

2010-01-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

Snails yes, snakes no. I am petrified when comes to snakes; spiders and dogs too but that is a different story for another rainy day. I was reading something about snails and let me share this with you. There are more than 80,000 different species of snails, yes 80,000 that is darn a lot. I think I probably seen 20 the most including the one I ate. They are widely distributed on land, in the sea and in the fresh water. Land snails have two pairs of tentacles where their set of eyes reside on the lower set. Water snails have only one pair of tentacles, with eyes at the base.

Now my favorite subject - the snakes. What can I say about the snakes? They hatch from eggs - and no they are not related to the chicken. However, there are some species of snakes that do give birth to live young snakes.

What is a Berry? - Blueberry, Raspberry, Cranberry, Tomato

2010-01-19T14:24:00.003-05:00

Some fruit-full definition here today. A berry defined in botany (a study of plants) is a fruit in which the plant's entire ovary wall ripens into edible outside layer or skin. The seeds are embedded in the flesh of the ovary. Interesting to know, and to point out, according to this definition, the tomato is a berry and the strawberry is not. Oranges and lemons are modified form of berry called a hesperidium. In every day language, a berry is referred to all small, edible fruit that has multiple seeds. Enjoy your berries every day because of their amazing nutritional value.

OTHER READING SOURCES:

The Promise of the Solar Power

2010-01-11T13:46:00.002-05:00

This is going to be a short post. I know that solar power is something we need today to generate electricity - its clean and green. But then why do we have to abuse everything? Just look at the photo in the linked article. What is wrong with this picture? When we are out in the woods, we should be enjoying the woods and nature, and not playing video games - yeah that is the promise of the solar power. You can access this article here - Highlights - A new twist on solar cells. We shouldn't promote such things to our children.

Full Blue Moon & Lunar Eclipse Photography - New Years Eve 2009

2009-12-31T13:37:00.000-05:00

If you live in Americas, Europe and Africa the full moon falls on December 31, 2009, and is called Blue Moon. Blue Moon because it is a second full moon in December; thus the definition of the blue moon being two full moons in one month. The name has nothing to do with the color of the moon. This also will be a 13th full moon in 2009. The next full Blue Moon can be expected on December 31, 2028, 19 years from now. In other parts of the world like New Zealand, Australia and most of the Asia, this full moon falls on January 1st, 2010. In this case, those parts of the world will have two full moons in January 2010.

The lunar eclipse will be visible primarily from the Eastern Hemisphere.

Why not get your camera ready and get some nice pictures if the weather permits, otherwise, you will have to wait another 19 years.

Here are few of my posts on moon photography.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions
Tips and guides on lunar cycle and checking weather conditions.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required
Suggestions on what equipment you may need.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 3: Digital Camera Settings
General settings to help you get nice close up pictures of the moon.

Edit Posts Error bX-mcgjci in Blogger

2009-11-28T00:01:00.002-05:00

Its been days now and I cannot still get into my Edit Posts on one of my blogs. bX-mcgjci error keep flashing front of my face every time I click on Edit Posts. Theories are that this error is google account related. However, I am not sure if it is account related, since all my other blogs are working perfectly fine. Blogger issue- definitely, but why they are not looking into this problem, no body knows. This is what you get when using free services, and after all there must be more serious issues they are working on.

There is one workaround suggested I tried. Create a new gmail account, and then a new blogger account. In your blog, the one not working, assign admin privileges to the new account. Confirm by accessing a new account. To access Edit Posts you need to be logged in the new account. If you want to still be recognized among your blogger friends, ensure to create very similar id, because the new account id will be displaying for commenting.

However, if you need to just post your post, and you don't access the old posts, then you can do this. Create your post that is 100% proof, go to Create New and post. If you screw up, to edit you can still access the post from your blog, pending you have the little pencil image under the post. Remember, you always need to be logged into your account to access it. Same with commenting.

This is another workaround this issue.

Go to Layout > click on Blog Posts > Click on Edit > In the Configure Blog Posts ensure that the 'Show Quick Editing' is checked [a pencil].

To display Archives on your Blog go to Layout > Add Gadget > Click on Blog Archives to activate.

Now you are all set to access your posts from your blog [not edit mode]. On the Archives click on the post you want to edit, then on the bottom of the post you should have a pencil to edit your post.

Lastly ensure to back up your posts. Go to Settings > Basic tab > Export Blog. The backup posts can be imported back to other blogs.

Lastly, let's hope google blogger team will look into this issue as soon as possible.

Build Your Resume Any Time

2009-11-24T19:28:00.001-05:00

Thinking of getting a new job, or even if you have a job, you should always have your resume up to date. These days the way the economy is going our jobs are not secured anymore. And if the economy is picking up, employers will be looking for best souls out there - thus complete career change may be coming your way. My suggestion is that you always should keep a list of all your accomplishments, especially tangible ones - meaning what you actually did. Let's give you few examples.

Your sales team always made substantial errors in the cost estimation of products. Therefore, to increase profitability of the sales team you decided to help and create a quotation spreadsheet for your sales team to use. As a result you reduced errors to zero percent, and substantially increased profits in the first half of the fiscal year.
As project manager you manged development of the pilot automated facility that is now manufacturing one million of car seat belts a month with only one operator.
You have 10 mechanical design patents for consumer products one of them being the easy grip vacuum handle sold worldwide for 5 years now.

These days words like I have experience in this and that may not work. Employers want to see if you were actually able to bring your project to completion. And if it was not a project, what have you done to make it better. Now this accomplishment list may be tough one for students. However, I say no it is not. What have you accomplish in your schooling years? Let me give you some examples here.

You have completed your design thesis that was later used in the production environment.
You worked on the research paper that later was used to obtain 2 million dollar government funding to start further studies to develop better alcohol free coughing syrup.
You are proficient in the web development software and can start working on web design immediately, You have portfolio of 25 technical live websites.
You worked with plastic industry leaders to develop compact bottle crusher tool for home use.

As you can see as a student you can have many accomplishments as well. My recommendation is that when close to graduation time try to work with industry, outside of school. This will really help you to see the real world. Start building your resume, even if you are not in the market for a new job. Simple list of accomplishments is a great start. However, you can always start with this great free resume builder, and networking place. Whether you are trying to build a call center resume or an accountant resume you need to take the time to ensure that it is presentable and includes all relevant achievements and qualifications.

Start Toilet Training Early - Less Diapers

2009-11-06T00:26:00.001-05:00

I have been reading a lot lately about toilet training, and I just couldn't believe that some of the diaper companies like Pampers is recommending to start toilet training when your child is about 2 years up to 4 years old - obviously more business for them. In my own opinion, this is a bit too late. I started to toilet train my son when he was just little under one. As a matter of fact, I got him a putty when he was six months old and for the most of the time at the beginning he played with it as a toy. So what is the rush on my part. No rush at all, I think one year old child age group is about the right age to introduce children to the toilet training.

Here are some of the things about toilet training I learned:

[1] Toilet training can be very slow process for some children even when they start early toilet training. Holding may be an issue and as well as limited communication.

[2] Patience, consistency and discipline are the three key words. Children are in the process of learning, so give them some time. Toilet training is not the only thing they are learning in their lives. Children learn from repetition, therefore asking and bringing them to the toilet even when they don't want is the key. At that age children already know how to say - yes or no, so they will tell you. In addition, when toilet training is priority, you probably will have to give up some of your other chores.

[3] Children like to imitate, therefore sometimes bringing them when you are in the washroom may be not a bad idea after all. Be a model.

[4] Children that have dry diaper through the night are ready for toilet training.

[5] Children must be comfortable sitting upward in order to go on their toilet. In addition, it may be more comfortable for them when their feet are flat on the ground. More support and more balance.

[6] Sitting on the toilet and waiting may be sometimes a long process, therefore, bring some toys for them to play. Remember, children have short attention span.

[7] Children like to say good bye to their stool - then let them. However, ensure that they don't have any toys in their hands when you are flashing the toilet, because it may end up being flashed too. In my case, my son used ot get very excited and throw toys around - for fun of course.

[8] Do not wait when your child is 2 years or older. At that age children are more vocal, and know what they want. It may be harder to sit them down on the toilet.

[9] At the age of two most of the children already walk, and when they are going to washroom, mostly it may be in standing up position, therefore, it may be harder for them to go in the sitting down position.

[10] In the worst case scenario, don't get stressed out too much - it cannot be good for you or your child. Eventually all children will go to washroom on their own. Some take longer and some take faster. But still don't wait, start early, plus you will definitely save on diapers.

BOOKS TO READ: