Pet Jellyfish Facts: Upside Down Jellyfish (Cassiopeia Xamachana)

Upside down jellyfish (Cassiopeia xamachana) are another member of the order Rhizostomae. The species name, xamachana, means Jamaican although their natural habitat is in no way exclusive to Jamaican waters. Populations exist throughout the Gulf of Mexico andCaribbean as well as along the coats of Florida. They are also present half way across the globe in the Pacific Ocean. Although not native to these waters, upside down jellyfish were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands during World War II most probably from jellyfish polyps attaching themselves to the underbellies of war ships coming back from the Philippines.

This species is prevalent in shallow, warm tropical waters such as mangrove swamps. They are often called mangrove jellyfish because they are frequently found in large aggregations in these swampy regions. Unlike many species of jellyfish, upside down jellies are completely marine. None have been found in brackish or fresh waters. Continue reading “Pet Jellyfish Facts: Upside Down Jellyfish (Cassiopeia Xamachana)”

Choose Beneficial Fermented Foods

Many vegetables are grown in a fertile valley far away. Almost as soon as they are harvested, they are flash-frozen and transported on refrigerated trucks to a supermarket near you. You have a freezer at home, and the delivery of healthy nutritious vegetables from farm to consumer is completed easily. Refrigerated trucks keep fresh-picked vegetables viable long enough that your green grocer’s shelves remain well-stocked throughout the year.

Go back just a few decades, and you will find that this was not the case. Winter produced very sparsely populated shelves in the green grocery section of the market. Go back just a few more decades and you will discover that people had to find creative ways to sustain themselves through harsh winters and on long journeys. For thousands of years, people have fermented foods to preserve them for when supplies of fresh foods were not available. Continue reading “Choose Beneficial Fermented Foods”

How Much Do You Know About Your Serveware Plate?

A plate is a flat vessel on which food can be served. It is generally broad and concave. It’s slightly shallow that helps in holding food. It can be used for serving meals, decoration or ceremonial purpose. The plates are made of variety of material i.e. glass, wood, porcelain, bone china, plastic, paper and in some cases even stone. In ancient times stone was a more popular choice until they discovered more feasible options. Plates found during excavation have been able to provide a glimpse of that culture and people.

Plates constitute of 4 major parts. A well, where the food is kept. The raised part of the plate with a slightly upward slope known as lip. The outer edge of the piece known as rim, which can also be decorated. And the underside which helps in keeping the plate stable on a surface is called base. In different culture, the design and build of plates vary. Continue reading “How Much Do You Know About Your Serveware Plate?”

Foods That Can Literally Make You Happy

Most people would agree that food makes them happy – but did you know there’s actual science behind it? Some foods can truly boost your mood, and I want to share a few of those with you. It’s important to note that our gut is our second brain so when we take care of it by eating a healthy diet we will feel much better overall. It is estimated that 90% of our serotonin production is in our digestive system so let’s get to feeling happy.

Here are a few of my favourite mood-boosting foods…

Dark chocolate. You may have felt like chocolate made you happier, but now it’s been scientifically proven as well. It’s been shown that eating dark chocolate each day lowers your levels of stress hormones and therefore makes you happier. This isn’t a free pass to eat endless amounts of chocolate, but a little piece won’t hurt – in fact, it could actually help! Continue reading “Foods That Can Literally Make You Happy”

Meat Slicers and Their History for Healthy Food Preparation

Meat Slicers are part of American food preparation. The product dates back to the nineteenth century. The first American slicer for meat came as early as 1909. They were at one time, an integral part of American manufacturing of food preparation products. The development occurred to slice more meat more quickly in delicatessens and butcher shops. As the twentieth century progressed, Meat Slicers became part of kitchens in the United States. With minimal advertising, the products showed value for slicing meats for snacks and meals. Soon after the second world war, meat slicer use became part of healthy lunches for students as well as for those taking lunches to work in bags and lunch boxes.

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The Reduced Fed. Excise Tax on Beer Launched in 2018 Is Now Permanent in 2020

Tax on alcohol has been with us since the Revolutionary War and later it was a device used to help pay for the Civil War. Honest Abe gave us the first tax on beer in 1862 at $1 per gallon. Even Cleopatra VII imposed beer taxes on Egyptians to pay for her wars. In America’s early history 80% of the Federal budget was funded by tax on beer, wine, and whiskey. The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 was a direct result of an alcohol tax that increased from $0.09 per gallon to $0.25 per gallon.

The Temperance movement got its start in the 1780’s and had an active presence until Prohibition which lasted from 1920 through 1933. The tenants of temperance were that alcohol destroyed the family, promoted abuse, destroyed the mind, led to alcoholism, and destroyed initiative. Basically, Alcohol was of the Devil to capture and destroy man’s soul. In the mid 1900’s, the message turned to using taxes as a means to throttle the availability of alcohol. The theory was that cheap alcohol was the genesis of abuse by the young and was the primary cause of highway tragedies. Continue reading “The Reduced Fed. Excise Tax on Beer Launched in 2018 Is Now Permanent in 2020”

A Monk and Two Widows!

Reims, which is the main town of the champagne area in France, is a town full of contrasts, colour, and impressive architectural styles and of course not to forget those wonderful bubbles that are Champagne!

The streets meander around buildings that date through the ages of Gothic architectural style through to art deco which are colourfully decorated with baskets of geraniums and petunias. A large Gothic style cathedral towers and is naturally the centre of town!

Both world wars played a huge part in this town and it is common to see reminders of the American influence during the world wars and the assistance they gave in post war restoration. E.g. Eisenhower Bar and the Roosevelt Building etc! The champagne caves became hideouts for the resistance and shelters from the bombs during the Second World War. Champagne is so important to this area, that limited production continued during the wars. Continue reading “A Monk and Two Widows!”

Waffles – Contemporary Food with Thousands of Years of History

Although waffles seem to be a relatively contemporary food, they have been around, worldwide, for thousands of years. It is quite likely the Ancient Greeks ate extremely flat cakes, called obleios. However, it would appear the earliest evidence of the manufacture of waffle irons may have come up from Holland or Germany during the 1300s. Construction of these waffle irons consisted of two hinged plates which were connected to two long handles of wood. It was not unusual to find elaborate patterns, such as landscapes, religious symbols, or heraldic shields, imprinted upon the waffles by plates embossed with these symbols. Some plates had the honeycomb-grid that we now use. The waffle plates (or irons) were then baked over the fire in the hearth.

Waffles were cooked between two hot metal plates, a method used continuously throughout the Middle Ages by obloyeurs, people specializing in making a variety of obleios that were often flat or rolled into coronets (a horned shape). Continue reading “Waffles – Contemporary Food with Thousands of Years of History”

Food Security – How Will We Grow Enough Food?

Around the middle of 2011 the world population clocks tell us that there will be 7 billion people on earth; that is 7,000,000,000 chemical engines requiring a minimum of 2,000 calories a day in food to stave off hunger.

The calorific value to our digestive systems of rice and wheat, the staple starches for most of us, is around 340 per 100g. If we only ate cereals to supply our daily calorific needs the gents would get through 290 kg and the ladies 214 kg in a year.

So we need 1.76 million every day if we were all vegetarians. Of course many of us enjoy meat. The efficiency of the energy transfer from plant to livestock to us means we need roughly three times the plant calories to provide animal protein.

Round off some numbers and ratios for the meat eaters and each and every day the agricultural land must produce the equivalent of 3 million metric tons of usable grain; over a billion tons every year.

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A Historical Perspective of Critical Thinking

Philosophy and psychology both started as a study of the human condition and the thinking process. From the musings of the philosophers came the sciences of behavior and mental processes. In earlier times the study of psychology and the human condition were considered to be a part of the study of philosophy.

In ancient Greece attempts were made to create the “ideal” society and the truly happy individual. Pericles was seen by the people of Athens as a great leader in this effort. He was elected to his position of leadership in Athens over and over again. He wanted Athens to be strong and powerful and the people who lived there to be prosperous and happy. He carefully developed policies to win the world and gain an empire by commerce rather than by war. Since Athens was dependent upon imported food they built a powerful navy to guard the routes by which that food came. The people were wealthy, happy, well fed and proud of themselves. But as history soon proved – they were very short sighted. They were only interested in their own well being not that of others. Continue reading “A Historical Perspective of Critical Thinking”