From Denny: OK, this is too funny. It's also a good test of your knowledge about what you think you know about sex from a science perspective. Take the test and see how much you know - or don't know. It may surprise you! :) These two TV hosts had fun with it. Take a look and maybe learn something new:
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From Denny: For most of the country allergy season is just beginning. Here in Louisiana I'm starting on round two. First it was the trees leafing out along with the weeds blooming and now it's the azaleas, Indian hawthorn and other sweet shrubs. Somehow, it's the first volley of pollen that's the worst as your immune system just isn't ready for the attack of killer plants.
Did you know that 60 million people suffer from allergies? No wonder there is a thriving industry for over the counter allergy medicines. This is the time of year when your body recognizes pollen and weeds as dangerous and so creates an intense reaction by releasing histamines.
Symptoms of Spring allergies:
* sore or scratchy throat
* red, itchy, watery eyes
* runny nose
* post-nasal drip
* cough (sometimes you wonder if you have a hairball like your cat)
* sneezing
* congestion
* itchy ears, buzzing sound
* you feel sluggish, tired and fatigued
Some over the counter medications available:
* Claritin
* Tylenol Allergy
* Sudafed PE
* Benadryl
* Afrin
* Visine
Make sure to check which medications might make you drowsy and take precautions not to drive, use heavy machinery, be found chopping veggies in the kitchen with sharp knives and the like. :)
I usually pass on over the counter meds and prefer to use lots of black tea, honey and lemon. At the height of the drippy business I go for spiking my hot tea, honey, lemon mixture with a healthy dose of cognac or brandy. You can use anything high octane alcohol you like or can tolerate. I find tea tends to work better than coffee for drying up the drips.
Another food to include in your diet are soups made with lentils as they are drying - especially mung beans. If you make a mung bean soup make sure to include carrots to help sweeten the taste as they are a natural pairing with mung beans that dry up excess water. That's why mung beans are so great for weight loss too.
If you can stay away from anything that is hard to digest like heavy meats. Stay away from mucous forming foods like milk, ice cream and cheese during this time. Food support is always important when you get into pollen season.
Ever noticed sometimes you feel itchy and sneeze even when in your house away from the pollen and the house is closed up with the air conditioning running full blast to filter the air? If you spent any time outside gardening, walking or anything else the pollen may have hitch hiked onto your shoes, clothing, hair and body. Take off your shoes, wash your clothes immediately and take a shower.
Other precautions to keep away the killer plants in your life is to buy a special vacuum cleaner for allergies, have hardwood or tiled floors, leather couches, no curtains, mattress and pillow covers and purchasing high numbered air filters for your air conditioning and heating system.
During the height of the pollen season be sure to change your air filter every month - not the three month period recommended by the product packaging. Trust me; you will feel better and the house will be clear of most pollen this way. Sometimes, I just run the house fan when the weather is not hot enough to run the air conditioning and the pollen gets filtered that way too. Consider this too: a lot less dusting! That's a "Yay!" factor in my book. :)
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From Denny: Check out these just wonderful science facts about pollen from Science Daily:
* Under human-induced climate change we expect higher wind speeds and more frequent storms will move pollen and seeds even farther from the source.
* The older a tree gets, the more pollen it produces each year.
* Long-distance dispersal of transgenic pine pollen is a potential problem only if that pollen is viable.
* Until then, the highest pine pollen had ever been found in the atmosphere was 1000 feet
* The odd thing is that pollen germination did not decline as distance increased ... You would expect germination to gradually drop off as pollen floats further away, but that's not the case.
* Pine pollen can travel up to 1800 miles in a short amount of time.
OK, everyone, do you get the idea that the plant world just might be mad at humanity and this is their revenge? As it was I ran across a study of growing hay fever plants in a carbon dioxide rich environment that caused the plants to produce 61% more pollen. Supposedly, we cannot blame the sooty air all on car emissions as apparently plants and trees make up 80% of the pollution.
So, this is what humanity can expect, just in time for the 2012 predictions of the end of the world as we know it: Climate change is causing faster winds and more storms to blow pollen our way from the ends of the earth that we have never experienced. Trees on this planet are arriving in old age so they are having a last fling at reproducing themselves with the ladies so they are sending out Viagra moments at an alarming rate. Pine pollen is like a blood hound; it likes to travel ridiculously long distances and arrive on your doorstep.
Quote
* I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness. - James Thurber
*** For the full post with many more funny quotes, a funny allergy season customer service tech support joke and lots of entertaining photos - and your very own special link to a pollen count in your area - hike on over to The Social Poets for Cheeky Quote Day:
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Woman in Genoa, Italy, receives citation from cheeky Slow Warden for walking too fast on World Slow Day
From Denny: The Italians want us to slow down and stop to smell the roses - at least for one day. Yesterday they celebrated World Slow Day where everyone slows down the pace of their day and quit rushing around. The special day went by so fast I think they need to extend the celebration to a full week.
In Rome the city offered all kinds of goodies to entice the people, from free public transportation to slamming poetry contests. They even offered free exercise in the form of free yoga and Tai Chi lessons. Being true to the "holiday," the local police handed out mock fines for pedestrians walking too fast.
Who started this fun holiday? World Slow Day began in 2007 as the brain child of Bruno Contigiani, age 62, who is President of the Art of Living Slowly Association. The whole point of this special day is to get people to live at a normal natural speed. He promotes the Association's "14 Commandments" like getting up five minutes earlier to start your day with a leisurely breakfast. He also suggests to make traffic jams a celebration by striking up conversations with fellow stranded motorists.
Other cities in Italy who participated in the event:
Caltanissetta: They offered free transportation on Monday and commuters were gifted with free copies of the "14 Commandments."
Milan and Genoa: These guys were far more cheeky and direct in promoting the holiday celebration. They decided to deputize "Slow Wardens" to chastise pedestrians who were walking too fast and issue them a mock citation. Pedestrians were also cited for taking too direct a route to their destination as well. Makes you wonder if the Slow Wardens went about their day following people to their destinations, clipboard in hand, and determined if the pedestrian was in need of a reprimand for living life too fast or too efficiently. After all, the whole point of World Slow Day is to slow down and savor the journey.
Benevento: They held a competition for the best Haiku poem that best described the day. Guys, haiku is short. You should have asked for a Shakespeare style soliloquy in poetry form. Now that would have been a slow journey - and witty!
Treviso and Palermo: offered free Tai Chi and yoga lessons.
In public parks all around Italy there were offered free Tai Chi and yoga lessons to help people relax and enjoy the special day. "Let's take this one day to stop and think about all the things we miss out on while we're rushing through our lives," Contigiani said.
Turns out that World Slow Day is now honored in 90 cities in 11 countries, including New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. It's linked to the Slow Food Movement.
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From Denny: Chef Jamie Oliver recently discovered that America's first graders cannot identify even the most common vegetables and fruits like tomatoes and potatoes.
The British chef is on a mission to improve the diets of America's school kids. He entered a first grade classroom and queried the children as he held up each vegetable from a table display. They did not know one. All they knew was they didn't like vegetables when he first uncovered the display as audible gasps were heard throughout the classroom.
His first stop on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution - celebrity chef of Naked Chef fame - was to visit what is known as the unhealthiest city in America: Huntington, West Virginia. Chef Oliver is determined to improve America's ingrained bad eating habits and turn us away from the alarming rising rate of obesity. He is hoping this new series will be the catalyst for a healthy food reaction across America.
Take a look at these cute kids who clearly did not know what was on their plate or have any idea of the connection from farms or gardens to their lunch plate:
*** Almost every time I go to the grocery store the cashier asks me what those fruits and veggies are called. Hmmmm... maybe I should start memorizing those bar codes? :)
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