Infinitely CRAZY: April 2007

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Aaahh!! Lovely Dark Chocloate!!

Dark chocolate (as opposed to other kinds of chocolate) is considered healthy, and recommended for daily consumption in small amounts to maintain a healthy heart and lower cholesterol.

Dark chocolate is also an excellent energy source because it releases slowly into the bloodstream and does not elevate insulin levels. (Indeed, dark chocolate has a GI rating of a mere 22.) As a result, the sustained energy it provides is ideal for endurance activities and even weight training routines.

If you don't like dark chocloate, start with a very mild dark chocolate such as 45-55% cacao. A good example of this is Bournville, an easily available brand (in the UK) with distinctive packaging. Mild dark chocolate will taste similar to milk chocolate and won't be too bitter. If you are more adventurous, you can get dark chocolates that go all the way up to 100% cacao (i.e., unsweetened).

The formation of whitish spots, or bloom, on chocloate is due to a separation of some of the fat in the chocolate. While it affects the aesthetics of the chocolate somewhat, it isn't harmful to eat or use chocolate that has bloomed. Bloom is related to heat and humidity, so store chocolate in a cool, dry place free of odors.

Here are some excellent brands to try: Michel Cluizel, Perugina, Wedel, Domori, Amedei, Valrhona, Neuhaus, Marcolini, Lindt, Felchlin, Guittard, Scharffen Berger, Santander, Malagasy, Weiss, El Rey, Theo, Bonnat, Pralus, Castelain, Slitti, Dagoba, Green and Black's, and Ghirardelli.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 11:28 AM 3 comments

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Thursday Thirteen - I can't HELP thinking...

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are low?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars,but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?

What is the speed of darkness?

If you send someone "Styrofoam", how do you pack it?

If the temperature is zero outside today and it's going to be twice ascold tomorrow, how cold will it be?

If it's true that we are here to help others, what are the others doing here?

If someone with a split personality threatens to commit suicide, is it a hostage situation?

Since bread is square, then why is sandwich meat round?

Why do you have to "put your two cents in"...but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?

What did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

If you drink Pepsi at work in the Coke factory, will they fire you?

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 6:22 AM 23 comments

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Disappearing Colours...

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 6:34 AM 22 comments

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Baby Porcupine Eats Banana and has HICCUPS!

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 6:17 PM 1 comments

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Cockroaches!! Ugh!!!!!

Roaches by the numbers...
6 -- Number of legs on a cockroach
18 -- Number of knees on most cockroaches (at least!)
40-- Number of minutes cockroaches can hold their breath
75 -- Percentage of time that cockroaches spend just resting (how lazy can you get?)
5,000 -- Number of species of cockroaches worldwide
280 million+ -- Years ago that cockroaches are thought to have originated

A cockroach can live a week without its head. The roach only dies because without a mouth, it can't drink water and dies of thirst.

Roaches can live without food for a month, but will only survive a week without water.

A cockroach heart is nothing but a simple tube with valves. The tube can pump blood backwards and forwards in the insect. The heart can even stop moving without harming the roach.

Crushed cockroaches can be applied to a stinging wound to help relieve the pain.

Roaches use their feelers, or antennae, as noses. Their sense of smell is so great, they recognize family and friends by their distinctive odors.

Some female cockroaches incubate their egg cases in their bodies until they are ready to hatch. These babies stay with their mothers a day or two after they are born.

Cockroaches can climb walls because they are equipped with a set of little claws on their feet designed for that very purpose.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 6:07 PM 25 comments

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Wordless Wednesday...Yummy Sushi!!

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 5:55 PM 30 comments

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Antarctica Facts

If Antarctica's ice sheets melted, every one of the worlds oceans would rise by 60 to 65 metres

Antarctica is pushed into the earth by the weight of its ice sheets. If they melted, it would "spring back" about 500m (1 625 ft). Scotland and Scandinavia are still rebounding today after the last ice age - at the rate of half a meter a century in the Northern Baltic - the fastest place.

The cold and dry conditions in the "Dry Valleys" region of Antarctica are so close to those on Mars that NASA did testing there for the Viking mission. It has not rained in the dry valleys for at least 2 million years.

One of the biggest icebergs ever (maybe the biggest) broke free from the Ross ice shelf in Antarctica in 2000.It was 295km long and 37km wide, with a surface area of 11,000 sq km (4,250 square miles) above water - and 10 times bigger below. Its size is equivalent to that of the Bahamas, or Connecticut.

During the feeding season in Antarctica, a full grown blue whale eats about 4 million krill (shrimp-like creatures) per day , that's 4 tons - every day for 6 months. What they eat daily would feed a human for 4 years!

Antarctic fish have lived at between +2°C and -2°C for 5 million years (-2°C is the freezing point of sea water, below zero because of the salt).

The freezer at your house runs at about -20°C. The mean summer temperature on the great East Antarctica icecap is -30°C and mean winter temperature around -60°C. The lowest ever temperature recorded was at the Russian Vostok station: - 89.6°C

When the Antarctic sea-ice begins to expand at the beginning of winter, it advances by around 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometres) per day, and eventually doubles the size of Antarctica, adding up to an extra 20 million square kilometres of ice around the land mass. That's 1.5 USA's, 2 Australia's or 50 UK's worth of ice.

Snow falling at the South Pole takes about 100 000 years to "flow" to the coast of Antarctica before it drops off the end as part of an iceberg.

The Antarctic ice cap has 29 million cubic kilometres of ice. This is 90% of all the ice on the planet and between 60 and 70 % of all of the world's fresh water. Only about 0.4 percent of Antarctica is not covered by ice.

Antarctica has a peculiar group of fish called the ice fish. These have no haemoglobin. The temperature is very low and oxygen dissolves better in cold temperatures, so there's no need. They just have a larger volume of clear blood instead and this gives them an unusually ghostly white colour, particularly their gills. They have antifreeze in their blood so they don't accidentally get frozen solid!

The largest land animal in Antarctica is an insect, a wingless midge, Belgica antarctica, less than 1.3cm long.

Samples of ice known as ice cores are regularly drilled through the ice in Antarctica by scientists. They are removed as a long cylinder of ice that gives an indication of the past going back tens of thousands of years. The properties of the ice, of dust trapped in the ice, and even of air bubbles trapped in the ice give valuable information about the earth's climate at various times in the past. Now you know exactly where you can get a drink of water that was frozen during the life of Christ.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 4:49 AM 14 comments

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The Art of Using Matchsticks

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 4:24 AM 29 comments

Friday, April 6, 2007

Chocolateism

There are about 5 to 10 milligrams of caffeine in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, 5 milligrams in milk chocolate, and 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa; by contrast, there are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee. You would have to eat more than a dozen Hershey Bars, for example, to get the amount of caffeine in one cup of coffee.

Chocolate has great value as an energy source. A single chocolate chip provides sufficient food energy for an adult to walk 150 feet; hence, it would take about 35 chocolate chips to go a mile, or 875,000 for an around-the-world hike.

Although chocolate is not an aphrodisiac, as the ancient Aztecs believed, chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love. Hence, heartbreak and loneliness are great excuses for chocolate overindulgence.

It is reported that Napoleon carried chocolate with him on his military campaigns, and always ate it when he needed quick energy.

While solid chocolate certainly is high in fat, just over half the calories in bittersweet, semisweet, and milk chocolate come from fat. And even though the cocoa butter in chocolate is mostly saturated fat, studies have shown that it doesn't appear to raise blood cholesterol.

It's a common myth that chocolate aggravates acne. Experiments conducted at the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Naval Academy found that consumption of chocolate - even frequent daily dietary intake - had no effect on the incidence of acne. Professional dermatologists today do not link acne with diet.

Ten percent of U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of iron is found in one ounce of baking chocolate or cocoa.

Lecithin is an emulsifier used to reduce the viscosity of chocolate. It serves to lessen the amount of cocoa butter required in the manufacturing process.

Chocolate can be lethal to dogs. Theobromine, an ingredient that stimulates the cardiac muscle and the central nervous system, causes chocolate's toxicity. About two ounces of milk chocolate can be poisonous for a 10-lb puppy.

Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "Psycho" which actually took 7 days to shoot.

Chocolate has over 500 flavor components, more than twice the amount found in strawberry and vanilla.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 6:41 AM 4 comments

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Thursday Thirteen - Monkey Facts

Monkeys don't eat the peals of their bananas.

Monkeys do not catch colds.

A group of monkeys is called a troop.

The Marmoset is the smallest monkey.

The Baboon is the largest monkey.

The male Howler monkey is the loudest land animal. It can be heard a distance of ten miles.

There are about 125 different species of monkeys.

A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.

Monkeys live most of their lives in trees.

In captivity, monkeys can live up to 45 years.

A mother monkey will grab a young monkey's tail to keep it from straying too far.

A monkey uses it's tail just like it uses it's hands and feet.

Sea Monkeys are not monkeys, but shrimps.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 12:27 PM 21 comments