A valuable computer tip!

Here is a good computer tip for you. (Some of you may already know this) If you visit a blog or website frequently, you”bookmark” it in the “Firefox browser” or save it in “Favourites” in Internet Explorer. However, those lists can become very long and it can take some considerable time to find the blog or website you want to visit.

Here is an easy way to put your most frequently visited blog or website on a bar on your browser. Just left click on the icon in the URL (Address line) (See my screenshot) and drag it down below the address line.

So, this makes it easier to get to your most visited blogs or websites much quicker.

To get rid off these favourites you dragged down, just right click on the one you want to get rid off and click on “Delete.”

There is always something new to learn with computers. As I so often say: "If I haven't learnt something new every day, I have wasted a day. - Werner

Eat Fat With Tomatoes to Absorb All the Nutrients.

Tomatoes are certainly nutritious — a good source of the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene. But consider this: if you eat a tomato without adding a little fat — say a drizzle of olive oil — your body is unlikely to absorb all these nutrients.

Scientists at Iowa State University figured this out a while ago. They recruited graduate students to eat bowls of salad greens with tomatoes and various types of salad dressings — from fat-free to regular Italian. "Basically once a month for several months we'd show up first thing in the morning," recalls participant Gregory Brown, now a professor of exercise science at the University of Nebraska. Researchers put IV lines into the participants' veins and drew blood samples before and after they'd eaten the salads in order to get precise measurements of the absorption of nutrients.

"The salads all tasted the same to me," says Brown. But when researchers went back and analysed the blood samples they realized that people who had eaten fat-free or low-fat dressings didn't absorb the beneficial carotenoids from the salad. Only when they had eaten the oil-based dressing did they get the nutrients.

Carotenoids are the pigments responsible for red-, yellow- and orange-coloured fruits and vegetables. And carotenoids are also found in dark green vegetables such as spinach. The compounds convert to Vitamin A in the body, and studies have found that carotenoids have anti-oxidant activity which may help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals. Human studies have linked high consumption of fruits and vegetables to reduced risk of cancer.

Beta-carotene researchers were not particularly surprised by the findings of the fat-free vs. regular Italian salad dressing study. "We already knew that carotenoids were fat soluble," explains Wendy White, a professor of Human Nutrition at Iowa State University. The results helped reinforce the idea that a little fat is healthy.

Chop And Chew
There are other ways to help maximize the absorption of carotenoid nutrients. Chopping or grating breaks down the plant material. "The finer the particle size ... the better the absorption of beta-carotene," explains White.

The findings of nutrition research often go against the grain of trendy food ideas. For instance, many people have heard that raw vegetables are best. But if you're eating carrots, it may be helpful to cook them gently. The heat can soften the food allowing more nutrients to be released.
A recent study in the Journal of Food Science suggests that some cooking methods may be better than others. Researchers at the University of Murcia in Spain cooked 20 different kinds of vegetables six different ways. Then they analysed how well the foods retained antioxidants. They found that microwaving helped maintain the antioxidants, whereas boiling and pressure cooking led to the greatest losses.

Green beans, beets and garlic all did well with heat — maintaining beneficial phytonutrients after most kinds of cooking. The antioxidant value in carrots actually increased after cooking.
Experts explain that boiling may allow nutrients to leach into the pan water that people end up tossing out, especially with water-soluble nutrients such as Vitamin C and the B Vitamins.

Eat Plenty Of Colours.
As testing methods have become more sensitive, scientists have the ability to peer into our foods and tally up all the phytonutrients that may be beneficial. But experts say the ways in which our bodies may use and absorb these compounds are complicated. Therefore, many experts say it's best not to fixate too much on how food is prepared. Instead, focus on eating more plant foods — of all colours.

Jeffrey Blumberg, an antioxidant expert at Tufts University, says "What's important is that you find a way to cook that's palatable to you so you're getting lots of plant foods."
Eat Fat with Tomatoes to Absorb All the Nutrients.

Tomatoes are a good source of the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene. But if you eat a tomato without adding a little fat, your body is unlikely to absorb all these nutrients.

Scientists recruited graduate students to eat bowls of salad greens with tomatoes and various types of salad dressings. The researchers put IV lines into the participants' veins and drew blood samples before and after they'd eaten the salads in order to get precise measurements of the absorption of nutrients.

When researchers went back and analysed the blood samples, they realized that people who had eaten fat-free or low-fat dressings didn't absorb the beneficial carotenoids from the salad. Only when they had eaten the oil-based dressing did they get the nutrients.

Sources:

NPR July 27, 2009

A must see video

If you do not understand THE REALITY OF ISLAM spreading around the world,

YOU MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO!

START EACH DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK

1. Open a new file in your computer.

2. Name it: Premier Anna Bligh.

3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.

4. Empty the Recycle Bin.

5. Your PC will ask you:

'Do you really want to get rid of Premier Anna Bligh?'

6. Firmly Click 'Yes.'

7. Feel better? GOOD! -

8. Now say to your computer screen (very loudly):

9. "That's for forcing fluoridated water on me against my will, when it has now been banned in European Countries, as it is a cumulative poison".

10. Now send it to all of your contacts to help them gain a positive outlook.

Tomorrow we'll do the Health Minister!

Welwitschia mirabilis.

It is really amazing what a diversity of plants nature has to offer. Here is a plant that came to my notice a long time ago, its unusual name is: Welwitschia mirabilis. This curious plant is an amazing survivor of the arid regions of southwestern Africa and the Namibia Desert; This is a living relic of a flora long disappeared.
AN AMAZING SURVIVOR.
HERE in the Namibia Desert of southwestern Africa, the air is clear and crisp. It is a cloudless day. As the sun rises, so does the temperature. This is a world of sand dunes and windswept gravel plains. We look around in awe. What is that heap of green leaves in the distance? Looking closer, we find that we have stumbled upon one of the strangest plants in the world-the Welwitschia mirabilis. The second word of that scientific name is Latin for "wonderful."

In the wild, welwitschias are found only in desert regions of Angola and Namibia. They are so different from any other plant that scientists classify them as a unique family and genus made up of only one species. "Of the approximately 375,000 species of plants known to man, no other plant has succeeded in creating so much botanical interest as has Welwitschia; nor has any other plant so defied man's habit of categorizing," writes Chris Bornman in his book Welwitschia-Paradox of a Parched Paradise.
Welwitschias may look like a mass of leaves surrounding a tree stump, but the plant actually has only two leaves. These become shredded into strips by the desert wind. An Afrikaans name for it, tweeblaarkanniedood, literally means "two-leaf-cannotdie." And how apt that name is! Here daytime temperatures sometimes reach 40 degrees Celsius, and the nights can be bitterly cold with no trees to break the fierce winds. While most plants depend entirely on their roots to absorb water from the soil, that is not true of the welwitschia. The Namib averages less than 25 millimeters of rain a year, and sometimes there is no rain for years! Under such conditions, the welwitschia continues to grow and its leaves remain green. Scientists have long wondered how this is possible. The answer seems to be that welwitschia leaves absorb the morning fog carried into the desert by regular coastal winds.

The welwitschia does not shed its leaves and grow new ones. The original pair continue growing for the entire life of the plant. On being unravelled; one leaf was found to be over 8.8 meters long! Imagine what would happen if the ends of a welwitschia leaf did not die and wear off! "In a life span of 1500 years," explains the scientific magazine Veld & Flora, "Welwitschia could produce a leaf as long as [225 meters]." But can the plant really live that long? "Welwitschia plants grow slowly and often live 1,000 to 2,000 years," confirms The World Book Multimedia

Encyclopedia. The welwitschia is indeed a wonderful survivor. What accounts for the fact that this unique plant lives so long in such harsh desert conditions?
I Hope you found this story interesting. Have you ever heard about this plant before? - Werner

What US President Theodore Roosevelt said in 1907.

In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag.... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.' Unquote.

I strongly believe that the message in this proclamation should be adhered to in Australia. Unfortunately, this is not the case here, and consequently we are sowing the seeds of future trouble for our nation. We are handing out Australian citizenships in a hasty and haphazard fashion, to people from strange cultures after being here for only two years. These people will never assimilate or integrate into our way of life (there are a few exceptions) they are merely “certificate” Australians, but their heart and souls are forever embedded in their old country, their holy script even tells them to kill us infidels. Will we ever take the blinkers off?

Now, don’t you agree that a similar proclamation should be made by the Australian Prime Minister?

When we applied to migrate to Australia, we received reading material from the Australian government, which told us among other things, about the Australian way of life and they encouraged every prospective migrant or “New Australians” as they called us then, to integrate and assimilate into the Australian community and the Australian way of life. We have certainly done this and we have no divided loyalties, this is our country where our three children grew up and we treasure being here and are proud to be Australians. We strongly believe that you can only be loyal to one country.

Werner Schmidlin

The Cannonball Tree. - By Werner Schmidlin

The population of Cairns has considerable increased since we first came to North Queensland in 1958 and not many people know about this interesting tree in the Freshwater Valley Cairns. Publishing this story on my blog may create enough interest for newcomers to our beautiful area to go and have a look at this unusual tree. To see a picture of the wonderful blossoms and the balls on the trunk, click on the “German section” on the right side on the top of the page.

* * * * * *

It is most likely that not too many people have ever heard about, and much less seen a Cannonball Tree. Firstly, the tree is a native to South America, and secondly, there are not many to be found in Australia, with the exception of Botanical Gardens perhaps. To my knowledge there are only two trees in the Cairns area, a young insignificant one in the Cairns Botanical and the one I’m writing about. The Botanical name of this tree is: Couroupita – The Cannonball Tree. Family, Lecythidaceae. However, its old name was: “Couroupita guianensis” referring to the Guianas, where this real curiosity grows wild. Cannonball Trees can be grown easily from seed in a warm climate. Just don’t plant one in your garden.

Thank goodness Cannonball trees are not to be found in every garden! Dodging the head-size fruit as they come cannonading down the trunk in a rainstorm could become a real hazard, and the less is said about its decaying droppings (balls) the better. They are a sight to behold though, that every tree-lover would want to see at least once in a lifetime. What stunning botanical conversation piece! A 17 metre (50ft) tall tree which produces the flowers and the fruits (balls) on the trunk and not as usual high up on the branches. In season, the tree produces Hibiscus-sized flowers of a mixture of rich apricot pink, snow white and gold. They have a curious lop-sided mass of stamens and exude a strong fruity fragrance that can be smelt from afar.

The brown fruit hang in clusters from the top to the bottom of the tree trunk, suspended like balls on a string. They consist of a mass of seed, embedded in sickly greenish pulp, which to Westerners smells distinctly “off”. As the story goes, the South American natives, however, find the “inside” of the balls delicious, and squeeze a popular brew from it, which they drink from the hard empty outer shell.

Having introduced this interesting tree; let me tell you how I found it more than forty years ago. A friend of ours who knew that I love everything that is interesting, nice & beautiful, told me about a big unusual tree with ball-like fruit on the trunk. “It is right beside the road and close to the farmhouse of Lyon’s sugar cane farm, way back in the Redlynch Valley” (near Cairns N.Q.) he said. Being a natural stickybeak, I was dying to have a look at this tree at the first opportunity. Well, a nice sonny Sunday with blues skies presented that opportunity. “Let’s go for a drive,” I said to Karola (my wife) and the three young children. “Oh good,” was the emphatic reaction. “Where are we going?” they queried. “We’ll be going to the Redlynch Valley (about 30 kilometres away,) to see if we can find that tree, that’s where we are going,” I said.

We didn’t know exactly where Lyon’s sugar cane farm was, but the road into the Redlynch Valley was a long, but dead- end road so there was no danger of taking a wrong turn. So, we kept a good lookout on both sides of the road as we drove along. After about five Kilometres into the Redlynch Valley road, there was suddenly this towering tree on the left side in front of us, with the trunk laden with brown balls intermixed with beautiful Magnolia-size flowers. There was no doubt we had found the right tree. We stopped, went out of the car and looked with amazement at this fascinating tree in front of our eyes.

After we have had a long close look at the tree and its appendages from every angle, I walked the 20 meters to the farmhouse to ask what tree it was.
I reached the front door and with my curled index finger knocked on the door. I was ready to say, “excuse me, would you please tell me what tree that was,” but I didn’t get a chance to say that. Almost simultaneously as I knocked on the door, the door sprang open, halfway, a lady said, “it’s a Cannonball tree,” shut the door and left me standing there for a minute dumbfounded – I didn’t even have time to say thank you.

I could only assume, that this question had been asked hundreds of times, especially on a weekend, since this tree was not far from a popular swimming place, the Crystal Cascades. When I returned to the site a few weeks later to show the tree to a friend, a sign was placed nearby, saying: “This is a Cannonball Tree.”

Since that “fateful” day, when I first put eyes on this fascinating tree, I have taken countless tourists and friends to this tree – their first comments is always without exception, “absolutely amazing!” When I was active in the North Queensland Promotion in the 1970’s & 80’s, I made sure it was included in tourist literature. However, I noticed that in recent times the tree has gone missing in tourist literature, but I will continue to take every opportunity to tell people about the tree, or take them there. It gives me such a wonderful feeling to see the happy faces when they look at this tree with “open-mouthed” amazement.

PS. This story is also to be found on the internet, at “Tintota.com” and achieved, when first published in 2001 the number one spot on the search engine Yahoo from 65.000 hits for more than six months – a remarkable achievement I was told by my Web publisher. - Werner

Faux Pas

I’ll start of on lighter side of life with a humorous explanation of "faux pas" or in English, "gaffe", you of course all know what it means, but should you be called upon to explain it to somebody, here is an excellent way of doing it. - Werner

In the north of England lived a man, poorly educated, and made a large fortune by selling his design for a bicycle chain.

With this money he set about realizing his childhood ambition to become a country squire. He purchased a beautiful estate near the Scottish border, and proceeded, with the help of some excellent servants, to live in a manner none in his family had ever dreamed of.

Foremost of these servants was his butler, Jeeves, a well educated man who assisted his master in every way he could to better himself.

The master would often ask Jeeves for advice on how to handle a social situation, or to explain a new term.

One day when the master was reading he called Jeeves in and asked, "Jeeves, what is this fox pass?"

"Sir," replied Jeeves, "that would be 'faux pas'. I'll give you an example.
Do you remember recently when Lord and Lady Plushbottom stayed for the weekend? And do you remember how on Sunday morning Lord Plushbottom pricked his finger on a rose?

"And do you further remember how later, at breakfast, Lady Plushbottom asked her husband 'Is your prick still throbbing dear?' and you said 'Christ!' and I dropped the marmalade?

"That, Sir, was a faux pas".