Tuesday, September 25, 2007

But For The Love Of God, Keep Shopping!

From The New York Times Webpage Bits:

Walmart.com to Customers: Stop Calling

By Katie Hafner

When it comes to customer service, who needs a human touch? Not Wal-Mart’s online customers, apparently.

As part of what Wal-Mart is calling its “Customer Contact Reduction” program, by next week, Walmart.com, the company’s online arm, will no longer give customers a toll-free phone number to call–or any phone number, for that matter–if they have a question. Instead, they will have to rely solely on the Wal-Mart Web site as their guide to the solution for whatever problem they might have, whether it is a question about a credit card charge or the status of an online order.

We’ve made a significant investment in the enhancement of our online customer “self-help” tool at Walmart.com to better serve our online customers,” said Amy Colella, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Read the rest here.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Yeah!


Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Alicia Silverstone Naked PETA Ad

They say her 15 minutes is up but who cares? She still looks good naked, and that's all hat counts

Finally Proof. It's Bilogical.

I've been telling my wife this for years but now LiveScience has the proof:

Eyes Can't Resist Beautiful People

By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer

Whether we’re looking for someone to date or sizing up a potential rival, our eyes irresistibly lock on to good-looking people, a new study finds.

Read more at LiveScience

Here's :-) At You Kid

The :-) turns 25

First use of the emoticon took place 25 years ago in an electronic bulletin board message about online humor.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon. :-)

Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes - a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis - as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

Read More About :-)

Friday, September 14, 2007

News You Can Really Use! Funny Stuff From The Bing Blog.

10 things to do when you don’t feel like working (Employee Level)

1. Have an apple at your desk. Nobody will interrupt a person who is eating an apple. An apple a day keeps the bosses away.

2. Get three of the huge binders that financial people use to house their long, tedious spreadsheets. Put them under your arm and walk around the hallways with them. This may be a little tiresome after a while, but it beats working, right? Better still, people after a while will think you are actually a financial person and definitely leave you alone.

3. Find a meeting that marginally concerns you, or perhaps not even. Make sure it contains more than six people and, if possible, is badly lit because somebody is doing a Powerpoint presentation. Slide into a chair at the far end of the table, lean over to the person next to you and say, “Sorry I’m late.” Then sit for the duration of the meeting without saying anything, while taking notes. This is appropriate behavior for a person whose function at the meeting is unclear to everybody. After the meeting, hang around for a while straightening up your notes, saying hi, shaking hands, etc. When you return to your space, you can tell people you were “at a meeting,” and it will have been the truth. If your boss asks you why you were at a meeting about building security when you are actually in Information Technology, you say that you don’t know, really, and you have no intention of getting roped into another again. This will work.

4. Eat a banana at your desk. Nobody ever bothered anybody who was eating a banana. If the banana is your second piece of fruit for the day, make sure to have a document in front of you or something like that. You don’t want people think that all you do is sit around eating fruit all day like a monkey.

5. Defragment your hard drive. This takes several hours and incapacitates your computer for business use. It’s also good digital hygiene. If you work in a system that won’t allow you to defrag your hardware, try doing a complete system scan of some sort. You can then tell people you are annoyed at how long it is taking.

6. Some techniques that work for management (see yesterday’s entry) may work for you also. This includes the use of coffee. The only difference between you and an executive is how far you are allowed to ramble with your cup. Do NOT go off the floor. Stay relatively close to home and make sure you have a sheaf of paper in one hand so you can lean over the desk of a fellow goof-off and regard the documentation when necessary.

7. Don’t forget to take lunch. Everybody deserves a lunch. You have a right to it. So do not waste your lunch time by working at your desk unless you have a door. If you have a door, you can have lunch delivered, close your door and be perceived to be a hardworking person so busy that you don’t even have time to go out.

8. While it is very hard for sub-management to take naps, it can be done. While a simple associate, I used to sleep in my office on the floor with head against my closed door. That way if anybody opened the door it would hit me in the head, waking me dramatically so that I could then flip over and go about on my hands and knees muttering something like, “where’s that paperclip?” or something like that. Incredibly, I never got caught, perhaps because my bosses were napping at the same time. Another good technique is to sleep with your feet up on your desk only until the telephone rings. On busy days, that may be just two minutes. On quiet summer Fridays, however, you may need a bib.

9. Gatherings of like-minded associates in a public location — like the nearest conference room — often give the impression of business activity while involving very little. Obviously, on days when all the bosses are at boondoggles, getaways or other forms of executive indolence, your standards can be adjusted accordingly.

10. Don’t ever forget that, as a responsible employee, your right to goof off is directly proportional to your ability to deliver the goods on time, under budget, every time. Only the most superb performers can consistently goof off and get away with it. So sometimes, when you don’t really feel like working? Work anyhow, okay?

Stolen Directly From The Bing Blog.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

VMA Wha?

VMA Un Sexy

VMA Sexy II




VMA Sexy

Fashion Week: This Season's Must-Have -- A Stylin' Tot

Kingston.jpg

Gwen Stefani's son Kingston is hardly the only kid kickin' it at Fashion Week.

Article from Mediabistro.com's NY Fishbowl News Blog.

From the looks of things yesterday, forget about that new Fendi or Chanel bag: The must-have accessory of the season is an adorable -- and, of course, fashionably-dressed -- tyke. We counted six kiddies at the Michael Kors show and saw at least another half-dozen toddlers toted around the tents by their moms (and dads). Cosmo accessories editor Danielle Levy held 2 1/2-year-old daughter Gemma -- who was sporting pearls and a lace skirt -- on her lap in the fourth row.

Levy explained the tot's presence, saying, "It's Sunday, so I have no help." (Hubby was home with their other three-month-old daughter). In response to the influx of youngsters, one fashionista sniped, "Last season it was dogs, this season it's kids." Tell that to designer Reem Acra, who did her post-show runway bow toting a miniscule dog dressed in purple taffeta. Meow!

by Diane Clehane

What Is So Bad About That?

Bras Don't Support Bouncing Breasts, Study Finds

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer

Whether women are said to be flat-chested or big-busted, ordinary bras fall short when it comes to supporting bouncing breasts, a new study claims.

And during exercise, women's breasts bounce more than previously estimated, moving a vertical distance of up to around eight inches (21 centimeters) compared with a past maximum measurement of six inches (16 centimeters).

The bouncing, in some cases with breasts weighing 20 pounds or more, can prove painful and damaging to the limited natural support system.

While brassieres have evolved throughout history from body-binding corsets to cleavage-enhancing "miracle" bras, only recently have researchers injected a dose of science into the design of undergarments that go beyond conferring a more "perky" look, the researcher says.

"It is only recently that bra design has turned to science," said study author Joanna Scurr, a biomechanics professor at the University of Portsmouth in England. "There was no research. It’s like designing a car or kitchen equipment without first thinking 'what is the purpose of this?'"

Scurr will present her research this week at an annual meeting for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences in Bath.

Read the rest of the article at LiveScience.

(The real problem is that they are not accepting any more applications for researchers. I already checked.)

L.S.C.

What they don't teach you at the Culinary Institute

This from CNN.com

Worker who prepped food underfoot fired, restaurant says

NANUET, New York (AP) -- Stomping on garlic with your shoes on is apparently not the correct way to prepare food.
art.garlic.stomp.barreto.jpg

Dan Barreto, who sometimes ate at Great China Buffet, took this picture of garlic being stomped.

The Rockland County health department hit the Great China Buffet restaurant with two violations after someone took pictures of an employee stomping on a bowl of garlic with his boots in an alley.

The photographer alerted health inspectors.

"I go back there, and the guy's stepping on garlic," said Dan Barreto, who used to eat at the restaurant. "There he was just jumping up and down on it, smashing it up, having a good time."

The health department does not consider a person's shoe or boot a proper instrument to use in food preparation, senior public health sanitarian John Stoughton said Tuesday.

"It was a novel way to prepare food," he acknowledged. Video Watch customers react to reports of the garlic-mashing technique »
advertisement

Great China Buffet owner Jiang Shu said the worker has been fired over the incident.

The health department said it would inspect the restaurant again.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Self Explainatory Post #1

Jane Wyman Dies

CNN Reports on Jane Wyman's Death.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Jane Wyman, an Academy Award winner for her performance as the deaf rape victim in "Johnny Belinda," star of the long-running TV series "Falcon Crest" and Ronald Reagan's first wife, died Monday morning at 93.

Wyman

Jane Wyman won an Oscar for "Johnny Belinda" and appeared in the long-running TV show "Falcon Crest."

Wyman died at her Palm Springs home, said Richard Adney of Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary in Cathedral City. No other details were immediately available.

Wyman's film career spanned from the 1930s, including "Gold Diggers of 1937," to 1969's "How to Commit Marriage," co-starring Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason. From 1981 to 1990 she played Angela Channing, a Napa Valley winery owner who maintained her power with a steely will on CBS' "Falcon Crest."

Read More about Jane Wyman here.

Wyman starred int he classic film The Lost Weekend about a writer who drinks away a weekend because of writer's block. According to Wikipedia, the novel featured an accusation about a gay affair with the writer's friend as the reason for the man's drinking binge:

The Lost Weekend is an Academy Award-winning 1945 motion picture directed by Billy Wilder for Paramount Pictures, starring Ray Milland, Jane Wyman and Phillip Terry. The film was based on a novel of the same title by Charles R. Jackson about a writer who drinks heavily out of frustration over the accusation that he had an affair with one of his buddies while in college. The reference to the gay affair is removed in the film, and the main character's descent into an alcoholic binge is blamed on writer's block.

Also from Wikipedia: Although the movie adaptation hews closely to the novel, the novel differed in one crucial respect: Birnam is described in the novel as being tormented by a homosexual incident in college. That is omitted from the film.

Wyman won an Academy Award for her role as a deaf rape victim in the film Johnny Belinda. According to Wikipedia's page on the movie : The story is based on a real life incident that happened near Harris's summer residence in Fortune Bridge, Bay Fortune, Prince Edward Island. The title character is based on the real life of Lydia Dingwell (1852-1931), of Dingwells Mills, Prince Edward Island.


9/11

Monday, September 10, 2007

One Million Apples!

Well, Steve Jobs has done it again. Apple Inc. (AAPL) announced that it has sold One Million Apple iPhones since June 29th release. They beat their own estimates of selling a million phones by the end of September.

“One million iPhones in 74 days—it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”

Hey Stevie, if you have an extra one lying around let me know 'cause I want one.

It's not just me, the New York Times reported on the news about Apple's iPhones too.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

On A Clear Night You Can See Forver. Or At Least The Milky Way.

"Make the Stars Your Old Friends!" - Mike Lynch, Master Stargazing instructor.


The best place to look at the stars is wherever you happen to be. You can see stars from the most light-polluted area, even midtown New York City, if you stare long enough. The second best place to see the universe at night is from the beach at Montauk. On a clear night you will see more stars and objects in the sky than you probably have ever seen in your entire life. But in reality, you are only seeing a very small percentage of what is going on in the universe. Most of the interesting stuff is either too large, too small, too invisible or happening too slowly for our puny brains to comprehend or decipher. The ultimate adventure is one where we travel through time and space without ever moving a muscle. It can make you feel downright negligible in the scheme of things. (Sorta like how I feel after I do my tax returns.)

Let's start with the stuff you can see, shall we? First thing you see is the sand and the water. All that stuff and everything else that makes up the world is what we call matter. Matter is only about 4% of the entire Universe. That's it. The Grilled vegetables, roasted peppers, fresh mozzarella, balsamic dressing, lettuce & tomato on a French bread sandwich that you ate for lunch sounds like a lot of stuff, but it's miniscule compared to everything else. Feeling inconsequential yet?

Unfold your beach chair and sit. Ratchet it down to the lowest setting and relax. Let your eyes adjust to the darkness. Just like sailors get their sea legs, you need to get your sky eyes. It's a great magic trick because the longer you sit there staring at the sky, the more stars begin to pop out of the blackness. This is not actually happening but it is a phenomenon where you start seeing deeper into the night and your eyes adjust to let more light in, hence you start to see fainter stars.

The most obvious thing in the sky is a cloudy band that runs from north to south. This is the Milky Way. More than just a delicious chocolate bar, the Milky Way just happens to be the galaxy that we live in. What you are seeing is the light from stars deep in our galaxy's center. A dense concentration of stars makes this band glow in the night sky. Inside the Milky Way (of which that band is just a small part) are about 100 billion stars. Astronomers suggest that there are over 100 billion galaxies.

That's still only 4% of the entire Universe! The question that comes to mind is, "What the heck is the other 96% of the Universe made of?" Here's the answer: "We don't know!"

96% of the stuff out there is that we haven't figured out yet. We classify it as Dark Stuff. Or more accurately, Dark Matter, which makes up about 23% of the universe, and Dark Energy, which makes up about 73% of the universe.

But understanding the nature of the other 96% of the Universe is a beyond the scope of this article. We just care about the 4% of the Universe that we can see and understand; in other words, the stuff. Over your head you can see a good amount of that stuff with the naked eye; enough to make for an interesting evening.

Stars are what make this world interesting. Just look at the tabloids. If it weren't for stars, those magazines would have to write about something else. And as everyone knows, the best place to see a star is in the Hamptons.

The Big Dipper.

Most people will set up their chairs facing the water. If you are on the beach in Montauk, you're facing southeast. After you amaze yourself with the total incomprehension of the Milky Way for a while, the next thing you are likely to recognize is the Big Dipper. This will be in the northwestern area of the sky, just above the horizon behind you. By this time of year the Big Dipper is starting to dip a little below the horizon. It will be tilted downward, as if trying to spill out the contents in the bowl. The handle is made of three stars that go off toward the western horizon. If you're good enough, you can make out the entire Big Bear or Ursa Major.

The North Star.

After looking at the Big Dipper, you'll want to find the North Star. (Everybody does.) To do that you'll need to find the front of the Big Dipper's pot and trace a line from the two stars that make up the front, up in the direction of the very top of the sky overhead. Stop when you get approximately a fist's length away from the top of the pot and there sits the North Star, or Polaris. This is not the brightest star in the sky. Polaris has another claim to fame. It is a star that will always be in the northern sky no matter what the season. For all intents and purposes this is always going to be due north, which is why it is also called the "Pole Star." Because of the way the earth's rotation "wobbles" a little over thousands of years, this was not always so.

The Little Dipper.

Looking almost straight up but a little to the north, the North Star is actually the last star on the handle of The Little Dipper. Follow the stars in the handle to the pot and you will see this constellation as a tiny, upside down reflection of the Big Dipper. The Little Dipper is also called Ursa Minor, or The Little Bear.

Drago.

Find the tip or edge of the pot of the Little Dipper and then find the handle of the Big Dipper. In between is the tail of Drago, The Dragon. Drago winds his way between the Big and Little Dipper. In the tail, between the Dippers is the star Thuban. (Interestingly, Thuban was the Pole Star back in 2700 BC because the North Pole wobbles as the Earth rotates making the Pole Star change every few thousand years.) To find Drago's head, follow the tail as it goes south between the Dippers, then makes a turn to the east and then doubles back to the west. The Dragon ends up looking southwest, the head in the shape of a trapezoid.

Hercules.

If you think of Drago's face as being the flat part of its head pointing southwest, then Drago is facing his eternal mortal enemy in the sky, Hercules. Hercules is a large but faint constellation, mimicking the mythological figure who was himself, large and brawny but a little dimwitted. His "foot" is exactly on top of Drago's "head." It's a billion year battle and neither has flinched yet. Although I bet Drago is getting a bit of a headache right about now. This constellation is also in the shape of the letter "H" so that also makes it easier to spot. If you believe the ancients, then Hercules and Drago-named Ladon in the myth-fought each other as part of the Hero's Twelve Labors to atone for his sins. The eleventh Labor was to retrieve the Golden Apples of the Hesperides, a gaggle of Nymphs. In the course of this labor, Hercules had to slay Landon. Of course, now Hercules can get Apples from the Apple Store (trademark).

Lyra.

The Lyre, as Lyra is called, is the constellation that is almost exactly overhead. It lies to the east of Hercules and contains the star Vega. Vega is easy to spot because it is one of the brightest stars in the summer sky. A lyre is a sort of Harp, something you've probably seen a thousand times in any epic movie about the ancient Greeks or Romans. Lyra is thought to be the lyre that Hermes (Mercury) gave to Apollo, who bequeathed it to his son Orpheus. The Lyra was then placed into the sky when Orpheus died.

Cygnus.

Just to the east of Lyra is The Swan, Cygnus. This constellation is said to resemble a swan in flight and represents the god Phaethon, who was the son of Apollo. After taking his Dad's Chariot out for a joy ride, Zeus mistook the young lad for a thief and shot him with an arrow. When the gods found his body floating in a river they placed him in the sky among the stars. Let that be a lesson to you, you young whippersnappers! Inside of the constellation are the stars that make up the Northern Cross. The head of the cross, pointing north, is Deneb, a star that is 2600 light years away and about as bright as 160,000 of our suns! This is a true star among stars, a splendid naked eye, stargazing sight. Deneb was also a Pole Star about 18,000 years ago. The Swan actually looks like it is flying along the Milky Way from north to the south, with the star Deneb at the end of its tail.

Pegasus

Keep heading east and you will come to Pegasus, The Winged Horse. Now I've been to the Hampton Classic and let me tell you, wings or no wings, I just don't see it, so don't be too upset if you can make out a horse either. We are talking about the ancient world here so they had a lot more time on their hands to make stuff up. In any case, the square of Pegasus is supposed to be the body of Pegasus. After that, I'm lost.

The Andromeda Galaxy

Just north of the square body of Pegasus is a fuzzy little wisp called the Andromeda Galaxy. The wonderful thing about the Andromeda Galaxy is that at about 2.5 million light years away, it is the most distant object in the sky visible to the naked eye.

Here is a brief history of the observation of the Andromeda Galaxy. In 1764, a certain Charles Messier was creating a catalogue of the nebulous (cloudy) objects in the sky. He called the Andromeda Galaxy M31. In the first photographs of M31 taken by Isaac Roberts in 1887, the spiral structure of the galaxy was seen but it was still thought to be a nebula within our own galaxy. In 1917, Heber Curtis concluded through research that M31 was what was called at the time an "island universe." This theory said that the spiral nebulae were actually galaxies independent of our own. In 1925 the great astronomer, Edwin Hubble, (he who the famous Hubble Space Telescope was named after) measured objects within the M31 Nebula and concluded it was a galaxy outside of our own at a great distance away. M31 has played a starring role in the conclusive modern evidence of the structure of the universe. Even in the time when Albert Einstein was first putting together his Special Theory of Relativity in the early Twentieth Century, everyone believed that the Milky Way was all there was to the Universe. Now we know that the Universe is actually very, very vast-almost infinite-and made up of a structure of billions of galaxies that cluster together.

Pondering the Universe

The above examples of what can be seen outside in on a clear day are not even the tip of the iceberg. There are around 3,000 individual stars that can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye on a very clear night out in Montauk. You do not need to be a professional to enjoy the universe at night. All you need is a good view of the sky and a nice comfortable seat.

Here's a hint, when you are outside reading a star chart, use a red bulb flash light or cover your regular flashlight with red cellophane. This will reduce the glare of white light that will ruin your night vision. Also, pick a night when there is a crescent or even no moon. A full moon will ruin stargazing.

If you want to observe with any type of optical equipment then it is almost unanimous that the amateur start out with a pair of binoculars. Telescopes are hard to handle and can be frustrating to observe with. Binoculars are easy to carry just about anywhere, especially to the beach where it is almost impossible to get a stable area to set up a telescope.

If you want to learn more about astronomy or just see some cool pictures then there are a plethora of great books and websites out there to guide you through the beginning of a love affair with the stars. Forget the rags at the grocery store. For this type of star viewing you'll need the books I list below.

New York Starwatch by Mike Lynch

This is probably one of the easier to understand and informative books for the beginning sky gazer. I used it extensively to reference the constellations in this article and for my trips outside. I always reference it later on after sky gazing to look up what I saw. I also refer to it before I go outside to sharpen my memory. Mike gives you plenty of stuff to think about in the front chapters and then goes on to break down the major constellations viewable from every season in the New York area. In the back of the book are monthly star charts. What I really like is that he doesn't overwhelm you with stars and objects to observe. He just gives the major ones that almost anyone can see from their backyard, even in semi-lit regions. His book is a constant companion of mine on my trips outdoors to view the night sky. Believe it or not, he has a book for almost every state in the Union and Canada.

A Year in the Life of the Universe: A Seasonal Guide to Viewing the Cosmos by Robert Gendler.

Author/photographer Rober Gendler spends his free time taking pictures of the sky. Don't think he goes out with an Instamatic to snap a few shots, this guy is using the real technical kind of equipment stargazers wish they had. He uses a CCD camera and a computer to come up with amazing imagery that has appeared in various books and magazines. The pages of this book are adorned with gorgeous deep sky photography catalogued as they appear in the sky by position and season. When the moon is full or the sky is cloudy this is the book to curl up to and get inspiration. His shots include galaxies that are over 65 million light years away!

Observing the sky is like looking back in time. The closest star to the Earth is the sun! It's eight light-minutes away from the Earth. If the sun went out, we would not know for a whole eight whole minutes. This is because nothing, and I mean nothing, travels faster than the speed of light. That is the cosmic speed limit. The next closest star is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.2 light years away. The light that you see in the sky left the star in 2003. The furthest object you can see in the sky is the Andromeda Galaxy at a whopping 2.5 million light years away. The object in the sky that you see as the Andromeda Galaxy left the galaxy before man even stood upright! We are not seeing the galaxy as it looks now but as it looked 2.5 million years ago. Looking into the night sky is actually a farce, a cosmic lie on the grandest scale. Everything you are seeing is from a different time period, like the rings of a tree when you cut it open. We can only observe these things as they were, not as they are.

Lastly, when you are sitting on the beach, looking up into the cosmos, feeling insecure and lonely on our little planet thing of this: While you may feel very still, relaxed and comfortable, you are actually located on a planet spinning at a rate of about 1,000 miles an hour, orbiting the sun at 67,000 miles per hour, which orbits the galactic center at 487,000 miles per hour. So when you're out at the beach, lying down in your chair, hang on for dear life!

New York StarWatch by Michael W. Lynch and A Year in the Life of the Universe: A Seasonal Guide to Viewing the Cosmos by Robert Gendler can both be purchased at www.voyageurpress.com.

About Mike Lynch. He has been a broadcast meteorologist and personality at WCCO Radio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 1981, as well as a regular weekly astronomy columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He can be found at www.lynchandthestars.com.

About Robert Gendler. He is a physician living in Connecticut with his wife and two children. His interest in astronomy dates back to his childhood in New York where he made frequent visits to the famous Hayden Planetarium. Check him out at www.robgendlerastropics.com.

I used the following websites as additional reference for this article and for general enjoyment in stargazing.

http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/starnames/starnames.html

http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire_collection

http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/index.php?category=1

Thursday, September 06, 2007

News You Can Really, Really Use!

Check out the link below for a gallery of all the Hooter's Calenders back to the late Eighties.

Hooter's Calendar Gallery

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

What Makes Us Fart?

from: LiveScience.com

The answer may stink, but eating or drinking anything gives us gas. In fact, it's normal to fart up to half of a gallon (1.9 liters), or about 15 to 20 toots worth of gas, each day.

When we gulp down food, air comes with it. So if a belch seems rude, remember that the air has to leave our bodies one way or another.

Fragrant flatulence, however, comes from colonies of bacteria shacked up inside our lower intestinal tract (which is why it can take hours for gas to kick in after a meal). In the process of converting our meals into useful nutrients, these food-munching microbes produce a smelly by-product of hydrogen sulfide gas—the same stench that emanates from rotten eggs.

Although the gaseous response of bacteria to food differs from person to person (as every one has a unique collection of their own), the biggest gas-generating ingredients are sugars, especially the following four:

* Fructose – A natural ingredient in plants like onions, corn, wheat and even pears. It's often concentrated into a sugary syrup for soft drinks and fruit drinks.

* Lactose – Milk's sweet natural ingredient, also added to foods like bread and cereal. Some people are born with low levels of lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose, a fact that inflates their gassy susceptibility.

* Raffinose – The secret gassy ingredient in beans, which is also found in broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, asparagus and other vegetables. Products like Beano, designed to reduce gas production, break down the sugar before it can reach eager intestinal bacteria.

* Sorbitol – Found in almost all fruits, this indigestible sugar is also used as an artificial sweetener in "diet" and sugar-free foods. Yes, sugar-free gum, candy, soda and anything else deceptively sweet can cause gas.

Other fart-forming ingredients include fiber and starches found in foods like corn, potatoes and wheat. While fats and protein don't cause gas, they can make a meal take longer to digest—and give bacteria more time to generate gas from other ingredients.

Just about the only food that doesn't give us gas? Rice.

Fighting flatulence takes trial and error to figure out which foods excite your intestinal friends and cutting back on them. As a general rule, taking anti-gas products like alpha-galactosidase (Beano) or lactase enzyme (Lactaid) with problematic foods can curb some flatulence—simethicone (Gas-X) only helps relieve bloating by passing gas faster.

Chronic irritating or painful gas may signal something serious, however, so seeing a gastrointestinal specialist is a good idea if this is the case.

--
Lon S. Cohen
Writer
lon@lonscohen.com
www.lonscohen.com
-------------------------
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, AHA!

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal

Craig is probably a big fan of MJ. I still like his music but I am undecided as to whether he is just inappropriate with children out of naiveté or is he a full-fledged child molester.

Thriller - Michael Jackson, 1983

Remember when he was still black? Ahhh... the old days. Michael Jackson was Black and Russia was Red. I miss the Cold War!

Thriller in Prison

My friend introduced me to a friend on who had a link to this on his website. I love the guy dressed as a chick. Is this the idea of rehabilitation or are they worse off now?

Check out Doug's site at www.therecordroom.com.

-Lon

Internet Marketing - Search Engine Optimization - Google

My client for a writing job is featured in this video. Andrew Hazen was featured on this clip about SEO Marketing. Andrew Hazen is founder and CEO of Prime Visibility.