FUN WITH NUMBERS

The number 37, which cannot be wholly divided by any number except by 1 and itself, has the property that it will wholly divide the following numbers: 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, 666, 777, 888, and 999.

Wanna bet?

TRIVIA - THE OLYMPIC.....ship

The Titanic had a sister ship--the slightly lighter Olympic, which was built first. Upon being launched, the Olympic collided with the British cruiser Hawke and had to steer to Belfast for repairs.

WORD POWER

The ideal and practical way of increasing your vocabulary is to be on the lookout for new words in your reading, to get their meaning from the context, to check them in a dictionary, and, whenever possible to fix them by associations that enrich the words and make you remember them.

A BITE FOR A BITE

A strange report from abroad!!!

An 11-year old boy bit a pit bull that had attacked him causing the animal to flee. The boy was attacked in the family's garden by their dog, but fought back, biting the dog. "Then, he chocked the dog's neck and bit it. He is a champ," the boy's grandmother, said with pride when describing the incident. The boy broke a tooth, but received only minor injuries on his arm. The dog was captured by the Fire Department and will remain under observation for 10 days. The family will then decide with the help of experts whether to keep the animal or put it to sleep, but they reportedly want to have no further contact with the dog.

Lesson: Dog, you just watch out...., if you bite, we bite, too! ugghhh!!!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - DETERMINATION

"Most of the important things in the world
have been accomplished by people who have
kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

Dale Carnegie

CUSTOMERS' COMPLAINTS

This is a very tiring day,
so let's have a little laughter to release the stress!

A man boarded a plane with six kids. After they got settled in their seats, a woman sitting across the aisle from him leaned over to him and asked, "Are all of those kids yours?"

He replied, "No! I work for a condom company. These are customers' complaints."

MYTH - FACT

The Myth
Ostriches bury their heads in the sand!

The Fact
Since Roman times, ostriches have been said to be so dim that they react to danger by sticking their heads in the ground. They've thus become a metaphor for humans, who refuse to accept reality, preferring to ignore the truth, like children sticking their fingers in their ears and crying: "na ... na... I can't hear you!" In fact, however, ostriches react to danger in the most sensible, obvious way available to a flightless bird capable of running at 40 mph. They skedaddle.



So where does the myth come from? Well, ostriches swallow sand and pebbles to help grind up food in their stomachs. This means they have to bend down and briefly stick their heads in the earth to collect the pebbles.

LET'S GO FLY A KITE!

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height
Let's go fly a kite
And send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite!

In Thailand, kite flying is a big-league sport with established teams, umpires, official rules, and a national championship. The competition involves fighting between kites controlled by teams of up to twenty men.

TRIVIA - GERMS

A germ is not necessarily a bacterium; it is a tiny small scrap of life. That's why egg cells and sperm cells are called "germ cells." And why the little bit of living protoplasm in the wheat kernel is called "wheat germ."

Germ cells

Wheat germ

REMOVING GALLSTONES NATURALLY

I got this very useful information this morning and the sender requested me to pass it around. You may have received it before, nevertheless, please help in spreading the good things.

I haven't tried it yet, but you can google Dr. Lai Chiu-Nan to find out more about her and the feedbacks of this treatment.

PICTURES FIRST, EXPLANATIONS AND PROCEDURES, FOLLOW:

1. Liver
2. Common Bile Duct
3. Gallstones
4. Gallbladder

REMOVING GALLSTONES NATURALLY

By: Dr. Lai Chiu-Nan

It has worked for many. If it works for you, please pass on the good news. Dr. Chiu-Nan is not charging for it, so we should make it free for everyone. Your reward is when someone, through your word of mouth, benefits from the regime.

Gallstone may not be everyone's concern. But they should be because we all have them. Moreover, gallstones may lead to cancer. "Cancer is never the first illness," Dr. Chiu-Nan points out. Usually, there are a lot of other problems leading to cancer.

In my research in China, I came across some materials, which say that people with cancer usually have stones. We all have gallstones. It's a matter of big or small, many or few. One of the symptoms of gallstones is a feeling of bloatedness after a heavy meal. You feel like you can't digest the food. If it gets more serious, you feel pain n the liver area. So, if you think you have gallstones, Dr. Chiu-Nan offers the following method to remove them naturally. The treatment is also good for those with a weak liver because the liver and gallbladder are closely linked.

REGIMEN


1.

For the first five days, take four glasses of apple juice every day, or eat four or five apples whichever you prefer. Apple juice softens the gallstones. During the five days, eat normally.

2.

On the sixth day, take no dinner.

3.

At 6 p.m., take a teaspoon of Epsom salt
(magnesium sulphate) with a glass of warm water.

4.

At 8 p.m., repeat the same.
Magnesium sulphate opens the gallbladder ducts.

5.

At 10 p.m., take half cup olive oil (or sesame oil) with half cup fresh lemon juice. Mix it well and drink it. The oil lubricates the stones to ease their passage.

PS: 1 cup = 250 ml, 1/2 cup lemon juice = 3 lemons (approx.).

The next morning, you will find green stones in your stools. Usually, they float, Dr. Chiu-Nan notes. You might want to count them. I have had people who passes 40, 50, or up to 100 stones. Very many.

Even if you don't have any symptoms of gallstones, you still might have some. It's always good to give your gall bladder a clean-up now and then.

PASS THIS AND YOU MAY HELP OTHERS!

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Some of the names by which Bangkok is known are Great City of Angels, the Supreme Warehouse of Divine Jewels, the Great Land Unconquerable, the Grand and Prominent World, the Royal and Delightful Capital City Full of Ninefold Gems, the Highest Royal Dwelling and Grand Palace, the Divine Shelter and Living Place of the Reincarnated One, Venice of the East, but believe it or not, the official full name of Bangkok …. don’t be surprised …. it won the Guinness Book of Records’ longest place name --

Krungthep Maha Nakorn Amorn Ratanakosindra Mahindrayudhya, Mahadilokpop Noparatana Rajthani Burirom Udom Rajnivet Mahastan Amorn Pimarn Avatarn Satit Sakkatuttiya Vishnukarm Prasit.

Hi! Wichai, many thanks for the book about Thailand. Did I spell the full name of Bangkok correctly? I'll be posting an entry about my last trip to Thailand very soon!

THE DESERT TRANSPORT

Are camel humps filled with water?

Camels can cross the deserts because their humps are filled with water; this is what we know! Well, we are all wrong. A camel’s hump is actually filled with fat. The bloodstream, where most of the 150 liters of water it drinks in a single go is stored, is the main source of its water.

Unlike other mammals, which have round blood cells, camels’ blood cells are oval, so they can slip easily through veins and arteries even when they are dehydrated, and they can also absorb lots of water without rupturing.

Camels also protect themselves against desert conditions by sweating far less than most animals; closing their elongated nostrils so that a large amount of water vapor in their exhalations is trapped and returned to their body fluids, reducing the amount of water lost through respiration producing dry feces and little urine, and reflecting sunlight from their coats. Even that fatty hump comes in handy. As the fat is converted to energy, it produces water as a byproduct. Although, the myth is false, it is half true in the long term.

STRESS INTO DISTRESS

Anything that requires a major
adjustment in our way of life can turn
stress into distress!

Stress is a fact of life--particularly adult life. When we speak of stress, they usually mean something negative. But stress can also have positive excitement value, as in sports, chess, or work. Most of us often try to avoid the harmful effects of stress. A traffic jam is an example of a stress situation. Having to make a tough decision, worrying about bills, and having a nightmare are stress situations.

Many things we do every day are stressful to some degree, but most of them are not serious and we readily adjust to them. Family tensions are a common source of stress, but we take time to discuss the issue. The boss pressures us to do more work, but we go along, hoping to get a raise.

The ordinary stress of life is useful because it nudges us to work out new approaches to different situations. Stress keeps us adapting to an ever changing environment. But stress becomes serious when we cannot cope up with too many changes at one time, or adapt to radical changes we are not ready for. Boredom and monotony are also stressful. Loneliness can cause serious stress.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - DISCIPLINE

"The things that will destroy us are:
politics without principle;
pleasure without conscience;
wealth without work;
knowledge without character;
business without morality;
science without humanity;
and worship without sacrifice."

Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi

NO DRUNK DRIVING!

A cathy sign!

For every ounce of alcohol you drink, it takes an hour to regain full driving faculties; that is, normal, alert, clear-headed reactions. If you have the ounces of alcohol around 8 p.m., you should not drive until at least 1 a.m. the following day.

SELF-CONCEPT

When we describe ourselves or our personalities we may need several types of descriptions. We are not just one person, but several. Taken together, these images of ourselves make up a picture--the picture you carry around in your head about yourself. This composite image is your self-concept. It is how you see your own personality.

Many aspects of your self-concept come from the way you feel about the self you were born with--for example, your sex, physical appearance, and race. Although, you can do little to change these inborn physical features, how you look at them and how others respond to them determine, in part, your self concept. How you look at your abilities and typical responses, at all the behaviors you've acquired, also determines your self-concept--probably to an even greater degree.

HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL!!!

"...don't wanna hear about it ...
don't wanna see it ...
don't wanna talk about it..."

Whatever the origin and meaning of
"hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,"
it is one of the most visual phrases in existence.

PEACE PRIZE

A destructive mind? Not at all!

When Alfred Nobel’s nitroglycerine factory blew up in 1864, killing his brother, the Swedish government refused to allow the factory to be rebuilt. Nobel, who had invented dynamite, came to be looked upon as a mad scientist viciously manufacturing destruction. He fought that reputation all his life, finally winning out posthumously with the establishment of the Nobel Prizes in his will.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - PASSIONS

The happiness of a man in this life
does not consist in the absence, but in the
mastery of his passions.

Lord Alfred Tennyson

WORD CONNOTATION

Sometimes a word suggests or implies more than its dictionary meaning—emotions and memories cling to it. This overtone of the word is called its connotation—and that connotation may be good or bad. The word home, for example, has always had a good connotation; it suggests comfort, warmth, privacy, love. On the other hand, the memories of World War II have given the word collaborator, a bad connotation. The word misnomer almost always has a bad connotation. We use it to refer to something that in our opinion doesn’t live up to its name.

TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES

The Olympians are coming!!!

TRIVIA - PULSE DIAGNOSIS

The technique of diagnosing illness by taking the pulse of an individual was developed in China tens of centuries ago. Fifty-one different types of pulse beats were said to be identified at eleven different locations on the body. Each pulse was linked with a different health problem.

SHORTHAND

My team mate was so thrilled to see me taking down notes while standing and using curve lines, loops, circles, etc., which seemed very strange to him. I was actually using shorthand. He thought it was another form of Arabic writing.

I started learning this skill when I was 14 years old, an optional subject in high school. Sometime later, I was learning typewriting.

Shorthand writing may no longer be experiencing the glory days it had in the past, however, it is not at all dead by any means. It may be true that with the computer-age upon us, this method is no longer the norm in court rooms, but there are still thousands or millions who still use it for employment purposes, who use personal shorthand to make their lives easier and more productive, or who enjoy it as a hobby.

I still find it very useful in my

daily life especially when making records and notes.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - FORGIVENESS

"Don't think about
the people that hurt you,
Think about the people that you hurt".

CRAZY LITTLE CARCASS

“To err is human to forgive is divine”

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”

“Some people will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon"

“Man: the glory, jest, and riddle of the world”

These are only few of Alexander Pope’s famous quotations, but did you know that because of his spindly arms and legs, the satirist was described as a “crazy little carcass” of a man. To keep his miniature body erect, he wore stiff canvas. To swell his pin-sized legs to something approaching normal, he wore three pairs of stockings.

ATTITUDES

Virtually every day we are bombarded by attempts to influence the way we think, feel, and act. Advertisers try to persuade us to buy their products and services. Politicians try to influence our votes, teachers, our intellect, and religious leaders, our moral behavior. Friends influence our style of dress, vocabulary, and taste in music. Our parents often shape many of our attitudes about right and wrong behavior. We often accept ideas and attitudes without realizing how much we are influenced by the persuasiveness of others.

How do people change our attitudes? What is it about human behavior that makes us either susceptible to persuasion or resistant to it?

THE HONEY ANT

Honey ant recipe?

You are honey ant dreaming!

The honey ant of the desert has an unusual method of providing food in times of scarcity. Certain members of the colony are stuffed with liquid food or water until the rear portions of their bodies are enlarged to the size of a pea. When a famine occurs. these ants disgorge their supplies to feed the others.

Honey ants have small head and thorax, but big abdomen full of honey. They are edible and form an occasional part of the diet of various Australian aborigines. They live in underground nests found in a variety of arid or semi arid environments. Some live in extremely hot deserts. The nests are usually on the shady side of the tree, which can be up to two meters deep. To eat a honey ant, you pick it up by the head and put the abdomen in your mouth and bite it.

HAPPINESS IS WHERE YOU ARE!

Happiness is where you are
and what you want to be.
If you look you’re sure to find
the rainbow of your dreams.
Tomorrow’s fuller than a thousand yesterdays,
With a vision of a new day in your life!

(Weston Priory Monks)

What is the good life, and the ultimate end or purpose of life? Is it not happiness, which is none other than the complete good, the sum of all goods, leaving nothing more to be desired? Do you seek the highest good, the total good, which is above all else?

How can one possibly find happiness in poverty, hunger, mourning, and persecution? Poverty of spirit finds ample room and joy in possessing God as the greatest treasure possible. Hunger of the spirit seeks nourishment and strength in God's word and Spirit. Sorrow and mourning over wasted life and sin leads to joyful freedom from the burden of guilt and spiritual oppression. God reveals to the humble of heart the true source of abundant life and happiness, and that the joys of heaven will more than compensate for the troubles and hardships they can expect in this world.

Thomas Aquinas said: No one can live without joy. That is why a person deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures. Do you know the happiness of hungering and thirsting for God alone?

"There is no amount of
money that can buy you happiness"

BLUE MOON - A PHENOMENON

Was there really a blue moon?

When did it happen?

There has been a blue moon. When a large amount of fine dust was sent into the upper atmosphere by huge Canadian forest fires in 1950, the dust caused a blue coloring in various parts of the world. Cars turned on their headlights in the daytime, and at least one daytime baseball game was played under lights. In some places, people even reported a blue sun. The phenomenon lasted at least two days.

WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS

A point of view? A mystery? An I

Consciousness is the degree to which we take in information about ourselves and environment. It may involve ideas, notions, thoughts, sensations, perceptions, moods, emotions, dreams, and an awareness of self.

Since we were born, we have been traveling through regular cycles of consciousness. Now, we travel through one cycle about every twenty-four hours. We sleep, dream much of that sleep, then we wake into an alert consciousness that lasts about sixteen hours. Then we sleep and dream again.

A healthy waking consciousness depends a lot on a healthy sleep consciousness, through again, we are not sure why. Consciousness is a mystery. It is also very personal. Our sleeping habits are highly personalized. Our dreams are our own private worlds. Our waking consciousness is colored by our personality, our emotions, our motivations, and our physical well-being. There are, however, some general statements that can be made about the natural states of consciousness through which we travel every day.

TRIVIA - THE INCA

Machu Picchu
The most famous legacy of the fated Inca empire.

The name “Inca” originally did not refer to a race or to a nation of people. When Francisco Pizarro landed in South America in 1532, “the Inca” meant king or ruler, and by extension, one of the king's ancestors or relatives.

A TREASURE IN HEAVEN

What is the best investment you can make with your life? The gospel presents us with a paradox: we lose what we keep, and we gain what we give away. When we lose our lives for Jesus Christ, we gain a priceless treasure and an inheritance which last forever. Whatever we give to God comes back a hundredfold. Generosity flows from a heart full of gratitude for the abundant mercy and grace which God grants.

Do you give freely and generously?

And why do you give, for reward or for love?

THE BOOK OF TITAN

A book of maps is called an atlas because the innovative sixteenth century Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator's book of maps detailing various portions of Europe sported on its cover a picture of the Greek titan Atlas holding the world on his shoulders--and this book became known as the atlas.

THE SERPENT OF THE NILE

Though popularly thought to have been an Egyptian, Cleopatra was a Macedonian, the daughter of Ptolemy XI. She married two of her brothers and was the mistress of both Caesar and Mark Antony.

ONE AND FORTY

The belief, "life begins at 40" is an ambiguous phrase and wasn't very true in the ancient Greece where women counted their age from the date on which they were married, not from the day they were born, signifying that the wedding marked the start of a woman's real life.