The Misunderstood Peanut

Image by Couleur from Pixabay

Peanuts is a misunderstood food. Often, people consider it unhealthy but this is, most of the time, untrue. At least, not the sweetened and/or salted type. According to Prevention.com, eaten as a snack in moderation, peanuts can be beneficial in its natural form.

High in monounsaturated fats and protein but low in carbohydrates, this appears to be a superfood that suits the current health trend. Besides that, it is also high in vitamin E and various antioxidants, serving as a natural anti inflammatory. 

As long as peanuts is not over consumed, a serving ounce contains 160 calories (so factor this based on your daily calorie intake), this is one nutritious snack that is, at the same time, (but rare) delicious!

Half Sick

Yesterday, a crazy hardworking colleague went on medical leave and her staff reported that she was also unwell. In fact, half sick. When she said that, I thought of this:

Ultraviolet Drink

Nothing can substitute my first post of this year's final month than a highly ultraviolet (to the point of being pink) drink with a yellow straw! It's dragon fruit juice! I heard it's full of nutrition! Stay healthy! It's a joyous month!

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Dec 2, 2015 at 7:40am PST

Tips and Tricks for People with Glasses

Very useful tips from Mashable for people with spectacles, especially this one:

Early end for this papaya leaf.

This papaya leaf was probably grind into its current state by some vehicle tyres but it did look kind of artistic so there you go if you were guessing why I took the photo. The papaya leaf had gained some traction lately in Malaysia ever since the dengue outbreak and an official recommendation from the Health Ministry.

A photo posted by @ionbuck on Oct 10, 2015 at 8:59am PDT

Thinking of work will destroy your weekend

Found something very true this post-Labour Day holiday about most people's lifestyles these days in relation to work:

They will go into a weekend that they want to spend with a good book and the family, maybe with friends down at the pub or with going out for a hike or a picnic in the sunshine. 

And then they will get lost in thoughts about work. 

And so the stress will start to build. The motivation and energy will start to get sucked out. The attention will wander. There is no real relaxation and recharging happening.

Bosses should really look into this and stop calling your staff to remind them of work, especially over something that can be discussed on the next working day!

To the rest of us with such bosses and with the tendency to think of work over the weekends or holidays, The Positivity Blog offers some suggestions: Promise yourself not to think about work at all, look at the consequences if you do and fill up your off days with things you would love to be doing.

Sounds very reasonable. Check out the blog for more info. Now it's just a matter of doing it... Sigh.

Dirty Money, Literally

Money is dirty indeed.

Each dollar bill carries about 3,000 types of bacteria on its surface, scientists have found. Most are harmless. But cash also has DNA from drug-resistant microbes. And your wad of dough may even have a smudge of anthrax and diphtheria.

While the study did offer some form of assurance, it makes mobile payment look like an ingenious idea, huh?

via npr.

Ingenious: Tobacco Plant Species Fights Cancer

Ingenuity or irony, a species of the tobacco plant used to make cigarettes, Nicotania Alata, contain the protein NaD1 that fights cancer (and sounds pretty good at it, too):

NaD1 latches onto cancer cells with its pincer-like structure, causing them to form little balloons on the surface until they explode. But, what makes it an ideal cure is that while it attacks affected cells, it leaves healthy ones untouched. 

Sounds like a miracle drug but it is not expected to leave the laboratories for years. It's good that there is hope, though.

via Engadget.

Of which sugars

I was surprised on the sugar content of natural food versus the processed ones shown in the video below. Bet you would be, too.

via One Green Planet.

Do you eat dropped food?

Frankly, if I dropped my food, I would discard it with a heavy heart but during a meeting a few years back, a boss did just that and told me there's this 2 second-rule. The food is safe to eat if you pick it up within 2 seconds of dropping it. GASP!

Today, Forbes told me there was a 5 second-rule. GASPS x 5! Anyways, there's this research by Aston University, UK that sort of tested this theory...

For the study, Anthony Hilton, a professor of Microbiology, and his students considered a variety of foods – toast, pasta, cookie, and a sticky candy – to see how much bacteria (E. coli andStaphylococcus) they attracted when allowed contact with the floor. They allowed the food to lie on various types of flooring – carpet, laminate, and tiles – for 3 seconds to 30 seconds. 

Not surprisingly, the longer the food was allowed commune with the floor, the more bacteria it accumulated. And the surfaces differed in how likely they were to transfer the bacteria, with carpeting being the least likely, and tiled surfaces and laminate the most likely. “We have found evidence that transfer from indoor flooring surfaces is incredibly poor with carpet actually posing the lowest risk of bacterial transfer onto dropped food,” said Hilton in a news release. 

The moister the food, the more likely it was to pick up bacteria. Again, an interesting but not surprising result.

Still, I wouldn't want to consume anything that fell on the floor or any other dirty surfaces. Would you?

via Forbes.

Disorders Caused by... the Internet

It's only a matter of time before someone (in this case that someone is somebody in TechHive) does a compilation of all the common disorders caused by the Internet and I'm proud to tell you that I'm only suffering from less than half of these:

1. You keep thinking that your phone is ringing (or vibrating) in your pocket. - urgh! I'm a patient.
2. Nomophobia (derived from "no mobile phobia") where you panic whenever you don't have  your phone with you. - Guilty as charged!
3. Dizziness or nausea when online.
4. Social depression caused by envy because your online friends only talk about their happier and cool lives.
5. Constant urge to access the Internet. - I admit this!
6. Online gaming addiction.
7. Paranoid that you may be suffering from the diseases you read online.
8. Lazy to utilise the brain because everything is at the tip of your fingertips... errr or rather Google.

Wait till someone talk about what the smartphone is doing to us... we are doomed as we know it!

Screen Sightedness

Eye sight problems (in this case myopia or short-sightedness) are so rampant since the days of computers made worse by smartphones and tablets that British eye surgeon David Allamby had given this phenomenon a name called “screen sightedness”:

Mr. Allamby also believes the problem could increase by 50% during the next decade, with the problem having become so common that he has given it a name: “screen sightedness.” Allamby contends that smartphone use, combined with with time spent using computers and watching television, is putting children and young people at risk of permanently damaging their eyesight, with excessive screen watching at close proximity keeping the genes that control myopia active sometimes long beyond the age that short-sighted sets would normally have stabilized (approximately age 21), in some instances even into the 40s. He predicts that 50% of 30-year-olds could have the problem by 2033.

And…

The Protect Your Eyesight Website explains that the human eye is not meant to spend hours focusing on objects at close range, and is in a naturally relaxed state when looking at something at further distances, approximately 7 feet and beyond. Additionally, research has shown that long hours spent on a computer or reading can lead to permanent damage caused by this “near-point stress.”

Besides that, this technologytell article also introduced to me the existence of trifocal glasses, something not quite commonly known:

A “do-all” solution is trifocal glasses with three lens planes, combining an upper segment for distance vision, a lower/bottom one for close work, and a third one for mid-range or screen distance in between. The downside of this is limited continuity of vision and peripheral distortion greater than with bifocals or single vision lenses. A trifocal variant is occupational “readables” with a relatively larger center zone for mid-range computer distance and proportionately smaller lower and upper zones for reading/close work and focusing at about 10 feet for “room-type vision” respectively. However, “readables” are not intended for driving and such because they don’t support true distance focus.

via technologytell.

Is Coffee Good or Bad For Your Health?

CNN has a report for you coffee addicts. Apparently, there's a study that implied 4 or more cups a day could be bad but it's inconclusive because there may be other causes. Other studies indicate coffee may help prevent Alzheimer's. So, errr... there's really no answer to the question if coffee is good or bad for health. Best bet, drink in moderation.

Microbeads In Scrubs Are Pollutants, Too!

It’s terrifying to know that microbeads used in scrubs are just as bad pollutants as their bigger plastic “cousins”.

It’s possible fish are eating the pellets, believing them to be eggs, he added. That’s worrisome, because plastics tend to absorb pollutants such as PCBs, pesticides and motor oil. The pellets could therefore be poisoning the small fish that larger fish then prey on, and the larger fish are consumed by humans, posing a human health risk.

via CBC News thru @legalnomads.

Caffeine In Coffee Quantified

Caffeine content in coffee from your favourite coffee chain beautifully illustrated in pie coffee charts:

via Co.CREATE.

Advance in Medicinal Tech: Head/Body Transplant a "Possibility"

Shocked and bemused... According to a Dr. Sergio Canavero of the University of Turin humans may one day be able to change bodies... or bodies can change heads...

In his paper, published in the open access journal Surgical Neurology International, Canavero outlines a plan to cool the subjects’ head and spine to 18ºC, use "clean cuts" to sever the two spinal cords, then drain the blood from the transplanted head before fusing the two spinal cords together with an inorganic polymer "glue." He cites supporting research in dogs and guinea pigs showing that the reattachment ought to be possible.

via The Verge.

The iPad Experience Part 3 - Watch Your Posture, Kid!

Don't you get that a lot, especially during the early life of schooling where the teacher would comment things like "sit straight!", "don't slouch!", et cetera, et cetera? Parents would not hesitate to give us a lesson about postures if we were found lazing around being a couch potato!

Fast forward a few decades and here I am NOT sitting very properly typing this blogpost on an iPad using the Blogger app (that's really made for the iPhone actually). Only a month or so ago when I first got the iPad, my attention was so fully into the device that I did not realise I was actually reading and playing games for hours off it with my head down until I had to put it down and go grab a bite. My upper back (or whatever you call the area around the shoulder blades) hurt so much that the pain lasted for a few days!

On another incident (which I still frequently go), I was lazily slouching on the chair with my legs up on ANOTHER chair that when I finally got up, my legs and back were numb, feeling like I'm a thousand years old! The problem wasn't so bad during the days of the desktop because I had to sit upright to be able to look at the monitor. Things started to go downhill when desktop became laptop where the head had to be tilted downwards to look at the screen. There was still salvation then because I could still occasionally attach the laptop to the external monitor.

So, folks, be careful how you sit or lie down when using the iPad or ANY tablet... Especially if you are way passed your teens! The tablet is here to finish what the TV started!

The post most men and some women have been waiting for - women's breasts are getting bigger

Best explained by this paragraph: 

In 1960, the average bra size in Australia was 10B. Ten years ago, it was 12B. Today, it's 14C. "It's six to seven sizes up in a comparatively few number of years," says Sally Berkeley, the general manager of bra company Berlei, which next month launches a new super-sized range of cups, up to an H, to add to the traditional A-to-E dimensions.

While we are really happy, lets read some facts why this is happening. One reason is better food nourishment. Then, according to the same article, obesity is another factor.

Thirdly, hormones... it's always hormones. Hormones will always come into play. Hormones in plastic bottles (!?!?!?). Growth hormones used in food. Hormones due to earlier puberty. Hormones due to the contraceptive pill. All those raging hormones.

While big is good for most men and some women, those with smaller breasts do not despair! Beauty is only skin deep and most definitely not due to boobs sizes.

via The Sydney Morning Herald thru @GuyKawasaki

Sexsomnia

We learn something new everyday and today, I bring to you a term that I just discovered - sexsomnia. It basically is having sex while sleeping and the initiator (more men than women) would not have a clue when he/she wakes up later. According to the article by LiveScience, it is possible that this is due to illicit drugs.

via LiveScience.

Pick and Choose The Best Humans - Coming Soon

Have you watched Gattaca before? I can't really recall the story but the gist of it was people with the best genes were selected to go up to some where in space to perform some dream jobs while those that bear inferior genes were doomed to perform mundane jobs - the kind of jobs we do now. ;)

Looks like that time is not too far off now that genome sequencing is getting more popular than ever. All kinds of species have had their genomes sequenced... including us humans. Now, scientists are looking into something more in-depth - what are the unhealthy genomes that carry diseases. At the moment, it takes US$50,000 for a complete sequencing but as demand rise, I'm pretty sure you can eventually do it at a vending machine.

Prospective employers will definitely go get their employees sequenced and kick those inferior ones out. Insurance companies will not entertain bad genome people. Life is going to get messy!