✚Helpful Hints #10

HEALTH and WELLNESS

THE KEY TO BEING HAPPIER AT WORK!

Pop a B-complex vitamin every day, and within a month, you should feel 20% less work-related tension, anxiety and strain, suggests a study out of Australia's Swinburne University of Technology.  B vitamins are critical for helping the brain produce certain neurotransmitters needed to feel calm, explains lead study author con Stough, Ph.D.

SMOKELESS TOBACCO SAVES LIVES!
Just can't seem to quit smoking?  While you're working on it, you can greatly reduce your risk of disease by opting for electronic cigarettes or new spit-free smokeless tobacco, reveals recent researcy by Brad Rodu, D.D.S., an expert on tobacco harm reduction at the University of Louisville James Graham Brown Cancer Center.  Both, he says, are 98% safer than cigarettes because they deliver nicotine without the smoke; it's the chemicals in smoke - not nicotine - that are most harmful.

BEAUTY and FITNESS

WOMEN - SLIM YOUR CALVES IN AN INSTANT!

If you want thinner-looking legs in a snap, put on a pair of pointy-toed shoes!  Even if you choose flats instead of heels, the elongated vamp of the shoe will make your legs appear smaller!

MEN - SOCKS TIPS 101
Match Your Socks with Your Pants and not Your Shoes!
Wearing a dark blue pants? Try to wear dark blue socks.  The reason it’s important to match socks with your pants is that when you have to take your shoes off or sit down and your socks are exposed, socks that coordinate with your pants make your outfit appear more fluid. On the other hand, socks that don’t match your pants will break up an otherwise awesome ensemble.

Dress Shoes Require Dress Socks
If you’re going to wear dress shoes, you can’t wear athletic socks -- no matter what their color. For example, it’s simply not enough that your socks be black. The reason for this rule is the following: Athletic socks are often bulkier than dress socks since they’re usually made of heavier cotton or other materials, so they tend to bunch out over dress shoes. Plus, athletic socks are frequently ribbed and the contrast of cheap, ribbed socks against smooth, high-quality dress shoes looks odd. Instead, wear dress socks with dress shoes. They’ll be easier to slip in to your shoes and the finer, thinner material will mean that any attention focused on your foot area will remain centered on your swish shoes instead of your socks.


White Socks Are Only For Sports
Apart from activities where you’re going to generate a lot of sweat, white socks are a big no-no. Black socks should even be worn with jeans, so section off your sock drawer and keep your white socks close to your workout clothes and well away from your dress-up wardrobe.

Avoid Socks with Sandals
Everyone who's anyone knows that socks should be worn with shoes, and only barefeet should be slipped into sandals. Yet, in our jet-powered Digital Age of Information and Free Junk lying everywhere, there are still those few, backwards wackjobs who insist on going through the extra trouble of rummaging through their sock drawer to find their most unsightly plaid socks or thick, white ones, put on those socks, and then put on their sandals!

HOME and AUTO
BREAKING-IN YOUR NEW CAR? BE PATIENT!
You’ve bought your dream car and now you want to make it last at long as possible in top condition. Here are some things to remember as you pull it out of the dealer’s lot:

• During the break-in period, typically the first 1,000 miles (1,600 km), keep your speed under 55 mph (88 kpm) or to the speed recommended by your car’s manufacturer.
• Avoid heavy loads on the drive train, such as towing trailers, and loading the roof rack or trunk with heavy construction materials.
• Do not allow your new car to idle for long periods — this is good advice for the life of your car, but especially during breakin. The oil pressure generated by doing so may not be sending oil to every part of your engine.
• Use only light to medium acceleration, keeping the engine rpms below 3,000 for the first few hours of driving.

HOME SAFETY TRICK:  KEEP CAR KEYS NEXT TO YOUR BED WHILE YOU SLEEP!

If you hear a suspicious noise and suspect that someone is trying to break in, press the Panic button on your key ring. The car alarm will sound, and the burglar will have no choice but to flee the scene.

SEX and RELATIONSHIPS
MEN - DON'T WEAR YOUR SOCKS IN BED!
Not only is it a turn-off to most women, but it is an ugly site to behold.  Women love the skin-to-skin contact and don't want to feel some sweaty, fuzzy thing between their toes! 


FIND YOUR PERFECT LOVE MATCH FASTER!
Looking for Mr. Right?  Try signing up for a job-related networking event or taking an adult education class.  In studies that looked at how 11,000 people met their spouses, work or school nabbed the top spot with 36%, followed by through a friend or family member (26%); dating websites (17%); bars, clugs and social events (11%) and places of worship (4%).

BONUS VIDEO!

11 USEFUL TIPS...

Resource(s):
askmen.com/, Reader's Digest magazine, rd.com/, Consumer Reports magazine, tips.become.com/, The Oprah magazine, Womans World magazine, Men's Health magazine, Quirkology.com, Best Health magazine, homesafe.com, Money magazine, Macleans magazine, Better Homes and Garden magazine, beauty-tips.net/

✈Worldwide Wednesdays: Astounding Sinkholes From Around the World

Where shall we travel to today?....

Astounding Sinkholes From Around the World

Sinkholes - frightening yet fascinating.They are holes created by the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks.  They are everywhere!  They can form slowly or instantly, making them all the more intriguing and intimidating.  

The Devil's Sinkhole. This was the original site for a limestone dig near Hawthorne, Florida.  The Devil's Hole (sometimes referred to as the "Devil's Toilet Bowl" by the locals) is a fun spot for an afternoon dip. There is a rope swing, and two stands to jump from.






Sinkholes, also known as a sinks, shake holes, swallow holes, swallets, dolines or cenotes are common where the rock below the land surface is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can naturally be dissolved by ground water circulating through them - otherwise known as the karst processes.. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground. Sinkholes are dramatic because the land usually stays intact for a while until the underground spaces just get too big. If there is not enough support for the land above the spaces then a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur. Sinkholes may vary in size from 1 to 600 meters (3.3 to 2,000 ft) both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. Sinkholes may be formed gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide. The different terms for sinkholes are often used interchangeably. Sinkholes may capture surface drainage from running or standing water, but may also form in high and dry locations.

This is a sinkhole in a parking lot at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA, USA

⅏Did You Know: Barlow and Chambers Execution

Did You Know...

The Barlow and Chambers execution refers to the hanging on July 7, 1986 in Malaysia of two Australian citizens, Kevin John Barlow and Brian Geoffrey Chambers of Perth, Western Australia, for the drug trafficking of 141.9 g of heroin.

The two men became the first Westerners to be executed under Malaysia's new tougher laws for drug offences that prescribe death for anyone convicted of having over 15 grams of heroin. Barlow was born in the UK in Stoke-on-Trent and held dual British and Australian nationalities. Barlow's family made appeals to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to make a protest about the impending execution, and an appeal for clemency to the Malaysian government from Australian politician Bill Hayden was made.

The executions caused public outcry and strained political relations between Australia and Malaysia at the time.
Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers were arrested in Bayan Lepas airport in Penang on 9 November 1983. What tipped airport security off was the fact that Barlow was reported to have acted extremely nervous. When they eventually opened the maroon suitcase the duo carried, they found 141.9g of heroin.

Abdullah Badawi
Pic by Mr Tan

Death is the right kind of punishment for drug traffickers because of the suffering they cause, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says.
"We are very hard, very hard on drugs ... (they are) a threat to the wellbeing of our society," the Malaysian prime minister told journalists in Perth.
"You know the kind of suffering they (drugs traffickers) have inflicted upon the people who have to take their product.
"I have seen enough suffering. I have seen enough. I have seen what happens to these people."

Background
Between early 1981 and the end of 1983 Chambers had made at least twelve trips abroad to transport heroin to Australia. In 1980 Chambers and his then-girlfriend imported heroin to Australia using body packing techniques: Chambers placed some in his anus, the girlfriend inserted packets into her anus and vagina. The rest of the load was swallowed. The two were using the same technique in 1981 when, on transit in Singapore, customs officers detected Chambers' two vials of personal-use heroin in his jacket pocket. They were released after bribing officers. Chambers and his then girlfriend, Susan Cheryl Jacobsen, decided to move to Melbourne to escape Perth's organised crime scene. Driving intoxicated near Penong, South Australia, Chambers crashed the vehicle. Chambers was not seriously injured however Jacobsen received severe injuries. Jacobsen spent several days in a coma before dying of her injuries on 20 May 1983.

Planning
The drug run was organised by Perth criminal John Asciak. Chambers was enlisted for the job due to his experience in the task. Asciak spent much time at the residence of his girlfriend Debbie Colyer-Long and got to know her boarder, Kevin Barlow. Asciak soon learned Barlow had little money and few prospects for regular work. At the time Barlow was on compensation after injuring himself at work. He was depressed, consuming a lot of alcohol and marijuana after losing his girlfriend. He had also been threatened with the repossession of his car.
Though Barlow and Chambers later testified they were tourists travelling alone who met by chance in Singapore and then opted to travel together, their meeting in Singapore in October 1983 was planned by Asciak. Chambers had previously had a meeting with Barlow in Perth to approve him for the job. To help conceal their activities, Barlow had flown to Singapore directly from Perth, while Chambers had flown there via Sydney. After the Singapore meeting they disobeyed orders by travelling together and sharing the same hotel rooms; they had been directed to stay apart. 
Barlow was a novice on his first drug run; he was convinced by organisers that as Chambers was an experienced drug courier the plan would proceed smoothly.  Barlow was initially confident the drug run would be successful.
The proposed drug run had been openly discussed by John Asciak and Kevin Barlow in the household of Debbie Colyer-Long prior to the event. Colyer-Long's brother-in-law Trevor Lawson learned of it and had informed the National Crime Authority of the scheme.

Initial plans were that Barlow and Chambers conceal the drugs by inserting packages into their anuses and swallowing the rest. Barlow refused to do either, the former for reasons of distaste, the latter due to health concerns with that method. Chambers relented and placed the several packages of drugs, which were within plastic carry bags and wrapped in newspaper, into a newly purchased maroon suitcase. Barlow had become very nervous after the collection of the drugs

Arrest/Jail
Barlow and Chambers were observed alighting from the same taxi at Bayan Lepas International Airport on 9 November 1983. Barlow carried the maroon suitcase and entered the airport. He bypassed the luggage scanning area and approached the check-in desk. Chambers, carrying Barlow's bags, paid the taxi, entered the airport and passed through the luggage scanning area, and joined Barlow at the check-in desk. They were detained by police and Barlow was seen to be very nervous.
Taken to an interview room they were asked to open the suitcases. Chambers opened the bags he was carrying. Barlow said he was unable to open the case he had carried and that it was Chambers' case. Chambers unlocked the case's combination locks and the drugs were found, however he claimed he had not known the contents of the smaller carry bags the drugs were in.
When police handcuffed them, they were reportedly "shivering terribly".
Chambers was well liked in prison; however Barlow had trouble adjusting, and was described as being a "lunatic" and "cracking up".
Barlow attempted to excuse his actions by claiming that he had been forced to take the trip and his girlfriend threatened if he refused.

Trial/Sentence
Their trial started 17 July 1985 at the High Court of Penang. The trial opened with both men claiming the drugs found in the maroon suitcase belonged to the other.
Chambers remained handcuffed through the trial. Barlow was not cuffed but used crutches due to a groin injury.  The arresting officer testified that he saw Barlow holding the maroon suitcase and shivering while waiting to board the plane. The court heard that Chambers had acknowledged ownership of the suitcase two days after the arrest. Chambers testified in court that he didn't know about the drugs in the case, and that Barlow had also used the case. Chambers also testified that Barlow had attempted to bribe a policeman at the airport when the drugs were discovered.

An overhead view of the
Pudu Prison complex,
as seen from the
 Berjaya Times Square

The trial concluded 24 July and both men were found guilty. The trial judge deferred pronouncing sentence for a week to enable lawyers of the two men to prepare submissions to him which might be used in an appeal to the supreme Court of Malaysia, and to hear submissions on behalf of Barlow that he should be allowed to return to Australia immediately for an operation on his leg.  The prosecutors surmised that as they had arrived, stayed, and were leaving together, they had a common purpose of trafficking drugs. 

On 1 August 1985 Barlow and Chambers attended their sentencing hearing to learn they had received the death sentence by hanging.

Barlow and Chambers were hanged in Pudu Prison on 7 July 1986. Kevin Barlow's mother Barbara Barlow reportedly prepared a suicide potion for her son to enable him to evade death by hanging. She prepared the mixture of 75 sleeping tablets dissolved in gin, whisky and brandy in her hotel room and smuggled it into the prison in a small plastic bottle concealed in her handbag. However, fearing her son would use it before all avenues of appeal had been exhausted she made the last-minute decision to keep the secret solution to herself

Malaysia has executed three Australians for drug offences in recent years.
Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers were hanged in July 1986, followed by Michael McAuliffe in June 1993.

Germany's Green Party is worried about the health risks of sex toys. Dildos and vibrators contain dangerously high levels of phthalates and other plasticizers, which can cause infertility and hormone imbalances, they claim. Now the party wants the government to take action to protect the 20 percent of Germans who use sex toys.

also

Did You Know?  For the month of

back in.....

1867, July 1, Canadian Independence Day.  The autonomous Dominion of Canada, a confederation of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the future provinces of Ontario and Quebec, is officially recognized by Great Britain with the passage of the British North America Act.
On July 1, 1867, with passage of the British North America Act, the Dominion of Canada was officially established as a self-governing entity within the British Empire. Two years later, Canada acquired the vast possessions of the Hudson's Bay Company, and within a decade the provinces of Manitoba and Prince Edward Island had joined the Canadian federation.
1979, July 1, The First Sony Walkman Goes on Sale.  The transistor radio was a technological marvel that put music literally into consumers' hands in the mid-1950s. It was cheap, it was reliable and it was portable, but it could never even approximate the sound quality of a record being played on a home stereo. It was, however, the only technology available to on-the-go music lovers until the Sony Corporation sparked a revolution in personal electronics with the introduction of the first personal stereo cassette player. A device as astonishing on first encounter as the cellular phone or digital camera would later be, the Sony Walkman went on sale for the very first time on July 1, 1979.
1984, July 1, PG-13 Rating Debuts. On this day in 1984, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which oversees the voluntary rating system for movies, introduces a new rating, PG-13.
The initial rating categories were G (appropriate for all ages), M (for mature audiences, but all ages admitted), R (persons under 16 not admitted without an accompanying adult) and X (no one under 17 admitted). The M category was eventually changed to PG (parental guidance suggested), the R age limit was raised to 17 and on July 1, 1984, the PG-13 category was added to indicate film content with a “higher level of intensity.” According to the MPAA, the content of a PG-13 film “may be inappropriate for a children under 13 years old” and “may contain very strong language, nudity (non-explicit), strong, mildly bloody violence or mild drug content.” On August 10, 1983, the action film Red Dawn, starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, became the first-ever PG-13 movie to be released in theaters.
2002, July 1, Two Planes Collided Over Germany. A Russian Tupolev 154, carrying 45 young students from Russia to a resort near Barcelona in Spain for a summer vacation, collided in midair with a Boeing 757 cargo plane, headed from Bahrain to Brussels, over southern Germany on this day in 2002. The 69 passengers and crew on the Russian plane and the two-person cargo crew were all killed. The collision occurred even though each plane had TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) collision-avoidance equipment onboard and everything functioned correctly.

 

Resources:

wikipedia, theage.com.au,

✈Worldwide Wednesdays: Australian Road Trains

Where shall we travel to today?....

Australian Road Trains, AUSTRALIA

I've been around many tractor trailers before but I've never heard of or seen ones like these!  Can you imagine driving one of these, pulling so many trailers??...

Australia has the largest and heaviest road-legal vehicles in the world, with some configurations topping out at close to 200 tonnes (197 LT; 220 ST). The majority are between 80 and 120 t (79 and 118 LT; 88 and 132 ST).

They have the Double (two-trailer) road train combinations which are allowed in most areas of Australia, and the Triple (three trailer) road trains which operates in western New South Wales, western Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, with the last three states also allowing AB-Quads (3.5 trailers).
Darwin, the capital of Northern Territory, is the only capital city in the world that triples and quads are allowed to within 1 km (0.62 mi) of the central business district (CBD).

Road trains are used for transporting all manner of materials; common examples are livestock, fuel, mineral ores, and general freight. Their cost-effective transport has played a significant part in the economic development of remote areas; some communities are totally reliant on regular service.

Road Train Configurations Allowed in Australia

'K' represents the largest road trains operating in Australia, and therefore, the world. Called a "Powertrain" or a "Body and six", these machines operate at The Granites Gold Mine in the western Northern Territory, and are used inplace of 200 t (197 LT; 220 ST) dump trucks, because of the distances involved on the haul run. As these trucks operate on private property, they are not subject to governed weight and length rulings, but instead are utilised in the most efficient way possible.

Northern Territory AB-Quad tanker road train.
Trailer arrangement is
B-double towing two tri-axle trailers.

Australian road trains have horizontal signs front and back with 180 mm (7.1 in) high black uppercase letters on a reflective yellow background reading "ROAD TRAIN". The sign(s) must have a black border and be at least 1.02 m (3.3 ft) long and 220 mm (8.7 in) high and be placed between 500 mm (19.7 in) and 1.8 m (5.9 ft) above the ground on the fore or rearmost surface of the unit.

 World's longest road trains



Using its Australian-designed
Titan model,
 Mack recaptured the world record
 for the
 longest road train ever
pulled
with a single prime mover
Pic by John Denman, Australia

• In 1989, a trucker named "Buddo" tugged 12 trailers down the main street of Winton, Queensland.
• In 1993 "Plugger" Bowden took the record with a 525 hp (391 kW) Mack SuperLiner pulling 16 trailers, but a few months later this effort was surpassed by Darwin driver Malcolm Chisholm with a 290 tonnes (285 LT; 320 ST), 21 trailer rig extending 315 metres (1,033 ft).
• There was some back and forth in the 1990s between Winton and Bourke, New South Wales, with the record finishing in Winton with 34 trailers.
• In 1999 the town of Merredin, Western Australia officially made it into the Guinness Book of Records, when Marleys Transport made a successful attempt on the record for the world's longest road train. The record was created when 45 trailers, driven by Greg Marley, weighing 603 t (593 LT; 665 ST) and measuring 610 m (2,001 ft) were pulled by a Kenworth 10x6 K100G for 8 km (5 mi).
• On October 19, 2000, Doug Gould set the first of his records at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, when a roadtrain made up of 79 trailers, measuring 1,018.2 m (3,341 ft) and weighing 1,072.3 t (1,055.4 LT; 1,182.0 ST), was pulled by a Kenworth C501T driven by Steven Matthews a distance of 8 km (5 mi).
• On March 29, 2003, the record was surpassed near Mungindi, New South Wales, by a road train consisting of 87 trailers and a single prime mover (measuring 1,235.3 m (4,053 ft) in length).
• The record returned to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, on October 17, 2004, when Doug Gould assembled 117 trailers for a total length of 1,445 m (4,741 ft). The record nearly didn't fall, as the first prime mover's main driveshaft broke when taking off. A second truck was quickly made available, and pulled the train a distance of 1,500 m (4,921 ft).
• In 2004, the record was again broken by a group from Clifton, Queensland which used a standard Mack truck to pull 120 trailers a distance of about 100 metres (328 ft).
• On February 18, 2006, an Australian built Mack truck with 112 semi-trailers, 1,300 t (1,279 LT; 1,433 ST) and 1,474.3 metres (4,836 ft 11 in) long, pulled the load 100 metres (328 feet) to recapture the record for the longest road train (multiple loaded trailers) ever pulled with a single prime mover. It was on the main road of Clifton, Queensland, that 70-year-old John Atkinson claimed a new record, pulled by a tri-drive Mack Titan.

Resources:
wikipedia

✈Worldwide Wednesdays: Foods Prepared and Eaten Alive!

Where shall we travel to today?....

Prepared and Eaten Alive - JAPAN, CHINA,  TAIWAN, KOREA

A great deal of you may already know about the customs of eating live food but for the rest of you:

I must warn you that if you have a weak stomach, or you are a vegetarian or just plain disgusted of even the thought of eating anything alive - I suggest you stop reading and go find something else on this blog to read because I for one could barely make this post, lol, since I'm so used to the western way of eating, you know, making sure it's good and dead before cooking and eating it.  But as usual, since I'm so darn curious and is always interested in all aspects of cultures from around the world, I just had to add this!

Now, scientists claim the live fishes served feel no pain, but I've always wondered how they tested that theory... were they a fish once and lived to tell about it?  Or was it because the fish didn't squeal like a banshee as they were being eaten alive?   Anyways...

Us westerners 'distance' ourselves from our food sources a great deal.  So much so that most of us don't even have a clue as to how the meats that eventually end up on the shelves of our local supermarkets came to be. 

In all fairness, Japanese tradition holds that we should be grateful to the animals who gives us sustenance, and to acknowledge our relationship to them.  Whether I agree with this ideology or not is really irrelevant (even though I'm still not sure how eating them alive acknowleges this), but showing respect to the way certain cultures do certain things is what it's all about.  After all, I'm sure some of them are just as grossed out about our 'Big Macs' and 'Whopper' burgers and mcnuggets and God only knows what else.

I don't know if I can really eat food that stares right back at me, or twitches or flaps around..  I don't know.  Maybe if I try not to make eye contact or something...   As long as they don't start with cows or pigs.... I think I'll be ok...

Ikizukuri (Live sashimi), JAPAN

In Japanese cuisine, ikizukuri or ikezukuri (生き作り/活け造り, “prepared alive”) is the preparation of sashimi from a living sea animal such as fish, shrimp, lobster and octopus.
Ikizukuri usually begins with the customer selecting from a tank in the restaurant, the animal they wish to eat. The chef, who is often a sashimi chef takes the animal out of the tank and filets it, but without killing the animal, which is served on a plate, sliced, with the heart still beating. Other variants of ikizukuri involve temporarily returning a filleted fish to an aquarium, to swim around until recovered for a second course of soup.
Ikizukuri of fish consists of thin, sheet-like slices or finger-sized pieces sometimes garnished with lemon wedges, a decoration of ginger, or nori (seaweed). Squid and small octopus are usually wrapped around a chopstick and eaten whole.

Ikizukuri is a controversial method of preparing food, both in Japan and elsewhere.

Typically ikizukuri style is used with fish like carp or snapper, octopus, squid, lobster or shrimp. This is a very old technique, at least 2000 years old, first brought to the West a decade ago by Nobu Matsuhisa.

When restaurants in the West started serving it, ikezukuri experienced an inevitable backlash from animal rights groups. After a Japanese chef demonstrated the technique on a Los Angeles television station, he received hundreds of angry calls, including death threats.

Lobster Ikizukuri

Live Squid Sashimi

Drunken Shrimp and Ying Yang Fish, CHINA and TAIWAN

Drunken shrimp is a popular dish in portions of China based on fresh-water shrimp that are often eaten alive, but stunned in a strong liquor—baijiu (白酒)—to make consumption easier. Different parts of China have different recipes for it. For example, the shrimp are sometimes made drunk and then cooked in boiling water rather than served live, and in other recipes cooked shrimp are marinated in alcohol after they are boiled.

However, in some parts of China, for example, Shanghai, drunken shrimp is not only served raw -- it's alive.   A bowl of live shrimp is served “swimming” in very strong rice wine.

The point of the rice wine serves many purposes apparently: it would sanitize the shrimp, mellow out the shrimp, eventually kill the shrimp and flavor the shrimp. This dish seems simple enough:  Get shrimp, add alcohol. Wait a few minutes.. then eat.  

The alcohol/rice wine is suppose to relax them.  I've also read that it is best to start devouring your drunken shrimps once they seem a bit.. you know, drunk.   The idea being they will be less resistant (even though I don't see why WE need anymore advantage over these things). However some enthusiasts say the taste is better the more active the shrimp is. The flavor is in the fight and so on and so on.

Ying Yang fish or Yin Yang fish (also called dead-and-alive fish) is a dish (mostly Ying Yang Fish and Carps) where the fish's body is deep-fried but still has a fresh and moving head. It is popular in China, but it originated in Taiwan where chefs use it to show customers how fresh the food is. Cooking of this dish is now prohibited in Taiwan.

Drunken Shrimp in Shangahi

Drunken Shrimp in Guilin

It involves serving LIVE shrimp doused in that strong Chinese liquor, baijiu.

Annual Chinese Competition

Demonstrates how to 'semi' cook and prepare a live fish (Ying Yang Fish) and snake....  The mouth of the fish has to still be moving when you eat it or the chef fails.

Sannakji, KOREA

Sannakji or sannakji hoe is a variety of hoe, or raw dish, in Korean cuisine. It consists of live nakji (hangul: 낙지, a small octopus) that has been cut into small pieces and served immediately, usually lightly seasoned with sesame and sesame oil. The nakji pieces are usually still squirming on the plate. It can also be served whole.

Because the suction cups on the arm pieces are still active when the dish is served, special care should be taken when eating sannakji. The active suction cups can cause swallowed pieces of arm to stick to the mouth or throat. This can also present a choking hazard for some people, particularly if they are intoxicated. One must thoroughly chew so that no piece is big enough to stick to one's throat. Some people like the feel of the pieces wriggling as swallowed, and so will not completely chew up the particles. Those who are new to eating sannakji should completely chew it up into tiny particles before swallowing.

Sannakji (live octopus) in Seoul, Korea

Try Eating a WHOLE Octopus all at once

Ok, I think I've seen enough 'live' food squirming around on a plate for one day.  It's fascinating these different ways of eating... fascinating.

If any of you ever watched that show FEAR FACTOR, I'm sure you've seen episodes of westerners eating live worms.... uh, to win money of course but it shows maybe we can all do this "eating it raw and still moving" thing.   Some of us also eat live oysters.  So, I guess in a way, we are not so different from these cultures.

How To Eat Fresh Oysters From the Ocean

Finding, Opening and Eating Fresh Oysters outside Coburg Penninsula, Northern Territory, Australia.

I think I'll go get me a BIG MAC now...

Resources: 
wikipedia, blog.sushi.pro, deependdining.com, japanfortheuninvited.com,

✍ FYI: Fake Name Generator

For Your Information...

Fake Name Generator - As their site states "the Fake Name Generator is the most advanced name generator on the internet."

People, this site is great!  Not only can you get an American name complete with an american address but you can also get an Australian, Austrian, Belgian, French, German, Canadian, Polish, Italian, Spanish or Norwegian - just to name a few - names and addresses also! 

I was so excited I just had to play around with it.  I was thinking once of going undercover as a secret chinese guó ān bù 国安部, you know - like a CIA agent - but living in Germany, and this is what the generator came up with:

Hsin Tien

Invalidenstrasse 80
66484 Althornbach

Not only did it give me a name complete with address but it also gave me my own personal phone number, website, email address (a real one!), password, mother's maiden name, my birthday (It says I'm 33 by the way... cool), VISA number complete with expiry date, my occupation, a UPS tracking number and even my freakin' blood type!

Phone:  06338 59 84 12

Website:  InstantPositions.com

Email Address: HsinTien@example.com This is a real email address. Click here to use it!

Password: Phae3eix

Mother's Maiden name:  Ni

Birthday: March 30, 1978 (33 years old)

Visa:  4929 1235 8307 0727

Expires: 12/2013

Occupation: Barber

UPS Tracking Number: 1Z A43 833 32 0374 662 1

Blood type:  B+

This is absolutely fantastic when you need a fake name and/or address quickly... or anonymously! 

And by the way, it also gave me a fake weight and height:

Weight:  165 pounds (75 kilograms)

Height:  6' 2" (189 centimeters)

(For a chinese living in Germany, it's not bad eh?  I LOVE THIS THING!!)  Anything that makes me look 40 lbs. lighter, 10 inches taller and 30 years younger.... HELL -  I'll use it! 

Source:  MFS-UsefulLinks/Unique

⅏Did You Know - These Random Facts? #20 - Apr

Did You Know?  For the month of

back in.....

• 4977 B.C., Universe was created, according to Kepler.  On April 27in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets. Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' theories of planetary ordering.
• 1521, Magellan killed in the Philippines.  After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines. Earlier in the month, his ships had dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebu, and Magellan met with the local chief, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In the subsequent fighting, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.
• 1865, Licoln assassin John Wilkes Booth died.  John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
• 1888, Orange-sized hail reported in India.  A hail storm devastates the farming town of Moradabad, India, killing 230 people and many more farm animals. Sixteen others died in nearby Bareilly. In the Central Plains region of Uttar Pradesh, March and April are the prime seasons for hail. However, the hail storm that struck on April 30, 1888, was far more intense than usual and is now the stuff of legend in India. The hail was accompanied by strong winds that toppled many structures and homes in the area.
• 1908, Tornado flattens towns in Louisiana and Mississippi.  On April 24, A single tornado traveled 150 miles through Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving 143 dead in its wake. In total, 311 people lost their lives to twisters during the deadly month of April 1908 in the southeastern United States. Another 1,600 were seriously injured.
• 1913, Girl murdered in pencil factory.  Thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan was found sexually molested and murdered in the basement of the Atlanta, Georgia, pencil factory where she worked. Her murder later led to one of the most disgraceful episodes of bigotry, injustice, and mob violence in American history.
• 1922, Forensic evidence was introduced in Australia.  Colin Ross was hanged to death in Australia for the rape and murder of 13-year-old Alma Tirtschke. Ross was one of the first criminals in Australia to be convicted based on forensic evidence. On December 30, 1921, Tirtschke was reported missing in Melbourne. The next day, a constable patrolling Gun Alley, a well-known area for prostitutes, found the young schoolgirl's body bundled up in a blanket. Strangely, despite evidence of a brutal rape, there was no trace of blood found on her body.
• 1927, The first federal prison for women opened.  The Federal Industrial Institution for Women, the first women's federal prison, opens in Alderson, West Virginia. All women serving federal sentences of more than a year were to be brought here.
• 1954, Polio vaccine trials began. On April 26, 1954, the Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving 1.8 million children, began at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. Children in the United States, Canada and Finland participated in the trials, which used for the first time the now-standard double-blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending doctor knew if the inoculation was the vaccine or a placebo.     On April 12, 1955, researchers announced the vaccine was safe and effective and it quickly became a standard part of childhood immunizations in America. In the ensuing decades, polio vaccines would all but wipe out the highly contagious disease in the Western Hemisphere. 
• 1963, High school freshman Little Peggy March earns #1 hit with "I Will Follow Him".  On April 27, 1963, Margaret Annemarie Battavio's very first single, "I Will Follow Him," reached #1 on the U.S. pop charts. With her 15th birthday only six weeks behind her, and three more years of high school ahead of her, the singer better known as Little Peggy March became the youngest female performer ever to top the Billboard Hot 100, but she'd never crack the top 10 again. After spending the better part of two decades living in Germany, Peggy March eventually returned to the United States where she continues to perform regularly and where she still holds the record for youthful chart achievement that she set on this day in 1963.

• 1964, Maple Leafs won third Stanley Cup in a row.  On April 25, 1964, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0, and won the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup championship, four games to three. The victory marked the Maple Leafs’ third consecutive Stanley Cup victory.  The Maple Leafs were founded in 1917, the same year the National Hockey League was established. At the time, the team didn’t have an official name but was known informally as the “Blueshirts.”
• 1969, De Gaulle resigned as leader

  

  Stanley Cup

  of France.  Following the defeat of his proposals for constitutional reform in a national referendum, Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France.
• 1980, Hostage rescue mission ended in disaster.  On April 24, 1980, an ill-fated military operation to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued. With the Iran Hostage Crisis stretching into its sixth month and all diplomatic appeals to the Iranian government ending in failure, President Jimmy Carter ordered the military mission as a last ditch attempt to save the hostages.
• 1980, Air tragedy hit Canary Islands.  A Dan-Air Boeing 727 carrying British tourists to the Canary Islands crashes and kills all 146 on board. This terrible crash came just three years after another even deadlier accident at the Canary Islands airport.  
• 1983, German endurance driver killed in crash.  Rolf Stommelen, a four-time 24 Hours of Daytona champ as well as a Formula One driver, is killed at the age of 39 in a crash at California's Riverside International Raceway.  Stommelen was born on July 11, 1943, in Germany. In 1968, he won his first 24 Hours of Daytona. 
• 1986, Nuclear explosion at Chernobyl.  The world's worst nuclear accident to date occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Kiev in Ukraine. The full toll from this disaster is still being tallied, but experts believe that thousands of people died and as many as 70,000 suffered severe poisoning. In addition, a large area of land may not be livable for as much as 150 years. The 18-mile radius around Chernobyl was home to almost 150,000 people who had to be permanently relocated.
• 1986, Maria Shriver marries Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Almost a decade after they met at a celebrity tennis tournament, the television news reporter Maria Shriver marries the movie actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger on April 26, 1986.
• 1989, A father was exonerated after 21 years.  James Richardson walked out of a Florida prison 21 years after being wrongfully convicted of killing his seven children. Special prosecutor Janet Reno agreed to the release after evidence showed that the conviction resulted from misconduct by the prosecutor. In addition, neighbor Betsy Reese had confessed to the crime to a nursing home employee.
• 1991, Cyclone killed 135,000 in Bangladesh.  A devastating cyclone hits Bangladesh, killing more than 135,000 people. Even though there had been ample warning of the coming storm and shelter provisions had been built in the aftermath of a deadly 1970 storm, this disaster was one of the worst of the 20th century. "Cyclone" is the name given to hurricane-type storms that arise in the Indian Ocean. "Typhoons" are those that start in the Pacific Ocean and "hurricanes" are those found in the Atlantic. Cyclone 2B, as this storm was known, had been tracked for a week as it made its way north through the Bay of Bengal. It slammed into the southeastern coast of Bangladesh on April 29.
  Seven of the nine most deadly cyclones or hurricanes of the 20th century took place in Bangladesh. The warning and shelter systems have improved since 1991; a large cyclone in 1997 took a far lesser toll. 
• 1994, South Africa held first multiracial elections.  More than 22 million South Africans turn out to cast ballots in the country's first multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to head a new coalition government that included his African National Congress Party, former President F.W. de Klerk's National Party, and Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party. In May, Mandela was inaugurated as president, becoming South Africa's first black head of state.
• 1995, Gas pipe exploded in South Korea.   Gas explosion beneath a busy city street in Taegu, South Korea, kills more than 100 people on this day in 1995. Sixty children, some on their way to school, were among the victims of the blast. Taegu was a city of 2.2 million people, located about 150 miles south of Seoul. At the time of the explosion, an underground railroad was being constructed beneath the city streets. Metal sheets were put down in place of asphalt to cover holes in certain sections of downtown roads during the construction.  The precise cause of the explosion remains a mystery. Some believe that the gas pipe was accidentally hit by the railroad construction, while others argue that something must have sparked an existing leak
• 2001, Italian Formula One driver died in crash.  44-year-old Italian race car driver Michele Alboreto is killed on a track in Germany during a test drive. Alboreto collected five Grand Prix wins on the Formula One (F1) circuit, where he competed during the 1980s and early 1990s, and also claimed victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 1997.
  Michele Alboreto was born in Milan, Italy, on December 23, 1956, and began his racing career in the mid-1970s. He made his F1 debut in 1981 and took home his first victory at the Caesars Palace Grand Prix Las Vegas in 1982.



Resources: history.com, explorevolcanosnow.com, ga.gov.au, various magazines