Turkey Sausage Fry-up!

Hey hey! How's it going? Good of you to click by today. I know how busy you are so I appreciate you hovering by. Coffee's fresh and you should treat yourself to a scrumptious virtual muffin. Doctor's orders! Speaking of scrumptious, I made a turkey sausage fry-up last night.

Bought some turkey sausages and then went searching the Net for a recipe. Found this one. Worth a try. Any kind of sausages will do but of course, I'm on a low fat diet so turkey it is, eh. Never mind. It works fine.


Turkey Polish Sausage and Peppers

Ingredients
•     2 tablespoons olive oil
•     2 medium yellow bell peppers, seeded and diced
•     2 medium red bell peppers, seeded and diced
•     1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
•     1 small onion, chopped
•     2 medium zucchini, cubed
•     3 tablespoons minced garlic
•     1 tablespoon steak seasoning
•     1 tablespoon onion powder
•     1 (16 ounce) package turkey kielbasa, sliced
•     1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste
•     grated Parmesan cheese for topping
Directions
1.    Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the red and yellow bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, onion and garlic, and stir to cook evenly. Season with steak seasoning and onion powder. Cover, and cook for about 10 minutes.
2.    Add the sausage to the skillet, and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes. Just before serving, add a splash of balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle liberally with Parmesan cheese.

I used turkey sausages instead of kielbasa and forgot to cut up the sausages (oops!) but it worked out fine. I also forgot the balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese. Still very tasty. To give it a bit of an Asian flavour, I added a dash or two of light soy and topped the sausages with Sriracha Sauce for a bit of a zing!

Here's a shot of our actual fry-pan at the height of my culinary endeavour...


See ya, eh!


Bob on the mend (hot sauce helps!)
 

Reeling in a Whopper!

G'day to you. I hope you're having a 'caffo' one...learning something new and taking time to suck up a little caffeine.  You've come to the right place. Coffee's always fresh here and the array of virtual no-fat treats is a sight to behold. Say...do you like to go fishing? Yeah, me too. Biggist thing I've ever caught was a 24 lb King Coho Salmon. Well, listen to this...

A Florida fisherman has reeled in an 805lb (365kg) mako shark along a Gulf Coast beach.

Joey Polk says he battled the 11ft (3.4m) shortfin mako for about an hour before he managed to get it to shore.

Mr Polk and his cousin Earnie Polk, already record-holding anglers in the world of land-based shark fishing, had hoped to keep their latest catch under wraps.

But a curious passer-by snapped a photo of the large mako stuffed into the back of Joey Polk's pickup truck at a petrol station, and the image went viral on social media.

Despite the publicity, the Polk cousins refuse to reveal where the shark was caught, saying they want to keep people from flocking to the secret location.

Joey Polk told WKRG-TV: "The more people that know about it, the more people that crowd our beach, the more people that come out and fish with hundreds of people swimming - that's not what we want."

Earnie Polk said he and his cousin tag and release about 95% of the sharks they catch. The mako, however, was apparently too weak to swim back out, prompting the cousins to take it home.

They told the Pensacola News Journal that they planned to share the nearly 270kg of meat.
Mako sharks can grow in length to nearly four metres (13ft) and weigh over 500kg (1,100lb).

Shark does make good eating though it can be a tad dry if not cooked right. Upload me a slice, Joey!

See ya, eh!

Bob

Unexpected Remedy for Your Seasonal Allergies

Hi ya! Glad you could spiral down from cyberspace for a few moments... and just in time, too. Coffee's freshly perked and there's a delectable array of zero-fat virtual treats awaiting your pleasure. Speaking of zero-fat (or not)...Most of us love sugar. Even health-nuts.

People with the strictest diets are still so often unwilling to give up their sugar. Agave nectar, raw honey, brown rice syrup, sugar cane juice, apple juice and sugar in the raw are just a few of the many examples of sugars being considered healthy. But they’re not. They’re all refined sugars.

In nature, sugar wasn’t so easy. We weren’t meant to have so much.

That doesn't mean we should never have refined sugars. They certainly have their place. But if you find yourself having them every day you’re taxing your system.

Try this natural allergy remedy for one week!

If you’re someone who takes good care of themselves and you are wondering if it’s possible to get rid of your allergies, give this a try for a week—give up all refined foods. All refined sugars, all refined grains, all refined foods. Try it for a week. (What!!!???)

Cut out all sugars. Even cut out fruit, carrot and beet juice. As your allergies subside (and they almost always do) slowly add fruit back into your diet and see what happens. If all goes well, try some fresh juices and the occasional sweetener. 

Just keep listening to your body and make adjustments as needed.

I try not to listen to my body too much...otherwise I'd be making tracks for the fridge all the time!

See ya, eh!

Bob

Meskel Square...Chaos without Traffic Lights!

Hey! Hey! Wonderful to see you. Traffic bad in cyberspace today? Grab yourself a mugful and a virtual treat while I enlighten you as to where traffic is really, I mean really, bad...

Chaotic doesn’t even begin to describe how crazy the Meskel Square intersection is, in the city of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Without a single traffic light, or a traffic controller in sight, vehicles simply work around each other trying not to bump. Navigating the square for the pedestrians is a nightmare. 

This time-lapse video shot above Meskel Square will give you an idea. No wonder, Meskel Square is one of the major hotspots for accidents in Addis Ababa. 

Between 2004-2006, the intersection witnessed 237 major accidents or 8% of all accidents in Addis Ababa.

Meskel Square is a primary site for public gathering or for demonstrations and festivals, notably, the Meskel Festival from which it takes its name.

Want to watch it in action? Click on the picture above or go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEIn8GJIg0E

Oh, and notice the pedestrians walking / running between the cars as well. Ready for your driving test?

See ya, eh!

Bob

Superman's Krypton Aids Hunt for World's Oldest Ice

Hi there! Thanks for clicking by today. I appreciate it. Help yourself to a mug of Arabica juice and a virtual treat while I bend your ear a little. To some people, ice is what they throw in a glass of lemonade. To others, like me, ice is something you have to scrape off your windshield. But ice is also like  a history book, recording events as they occur throughout the ages. So how would scientists find the oldest ice on Earth?

One way to find the oldest ice is to drill ice cores thousands of feet long, which involves expensive, years-long endeavors. But the longest ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland so far have uncovered only about 800,000 years of the planet's warm and cold cycles. 

Another solution is to analyze Antarctica's blue ice. Typically, blue ice forms where mountains block flowing ice, forcing it to surge upward. This brings older ice from the bottom to the surface, where researchers can hack out chunks with a chainsaw or using a small drill rig. Blue ice is also free of surface snow because of wind and sublimation, when snow immediately vaporizes in the air. And just 15 feet (about 5 meters) below the surface, the ice is pristine, untouched by today's atmosphere, Buizert said.

 "You can just chainsaw it up and have as much ice as you want, but the difficulty is figuring out how old it is," Buizert told Live Science's Our Amazing Planet.

Scientists think Antarctica's blue ice is at least 2.5 million years old in some spots, based on meteorites and volcanic ash layers, but they've had trouble proving it. The same chemical-dating techniques that work on soil and rock don't translate well to ice.

Now, Buizert and his co-authors show that analyzing rare krypton isotopes can accurately locate and date very old Antarctic ice. (Isotopes are versions of the same element with different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.) The findings were published April 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This new krypton method is the most precise way of telling us the age of this old ice," Buizert said.

Aha! Another history lesson, eh! You'll soon know everything there is to know...until they come up with some new stuff for us to learn. It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's just another load of blue ice...ah, well.

See ya, eh!

Bob on the mend

Cousin... 65 times removed

Halellulah! There you are. Looking good, too! Fill your mug and snag a virtual treat, why don't'cha? Say, we've done some research into our family history and my cousin Pam has really gotten into it... but nothing like this lady in Pennsylvania...

Mary Beth Webb, from Murrysville, Pennsylvania, is making  some tall claims about her ancestry. She considers herself to be the 64^th great-granddaughter of Saint Joseph Ben Matthat Arimathaea, who is considered to be Virgin Mary’s paternal uncle. So that makes her the Virgin Mary’s cousin, 65 times removed.

Mary has been looking into her ancestry since 2010, and it has taken her two years to spot her connection to Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph of Arimathaea is credited in the Bible for providing the tomb in which Jesus Christ’s body was placed after his execution on the cross.

The idea to research her ancestry came from her other bizarre ritual – speaking to the dead. 

When she lost her brother to cancer in 1999, she started communicating with him and also with her dead parents. Mary’s cousin was always the medium for these conversations – she conveyed messages from Mary’s parents that included details she could never have known about. 

Mary herself admitted that there was no way her cousin could have known some of the stories.

So there you have it...your history lesson for the day.

See ya, eh!

Bob on the mend

Palcohol, the Powdered Alcohol You Can Sprinkle in Drinks and on Food

Well, hey! It's been a while. I'm still feeling the tiring effects of my surgery so I post to CWB when I can muster the energy, eh. How the heck are you? Ready for a mug of coffee and a virtual treat? Want to add a little something into your coffee? Well read on...

Palcohol – powdered alcohol – is a new American product that can be sprinkled on all sorts of dishes and drinks. According to the company’s website, Palcohol is the brainchild of Mark Phillips, a physically active guy who was tired of lugging heavy bottles of alcohol during his adventures. So he decided to create instant alcohol – just open the sachet, add some water and get a strong drink to enjoy whenever and wherever he wanted.

Initially, Mark did search for powdered alcohol on the market, but it wasn’t available. So he got together with scientists from around the world and spent years in experiments, research and consultation. 

Finally, he succeeded in making powdered alcohol a reality, and called it Palcohol. “Now Palcohol is here,” declared the website. “A great convenience for a person on the go. One package weighs about an ounce and is small enough to fit into any pocket.” The product is now privately owned by a company called Lipsmark.

The company does insist that Palcohol is not just for sportspersons. “Palcohol can be transported in your luggage without the fear of bottles breaking. In any situation where weight and breakage is an issue, Palcohol provides the answer. That’s why we say: ‘Take your Pal wherever you go!’” 

The product’s promotional material also stated: “What’s worse than going to a concert, sporting event, etc. and having to pay $10, $15, $20 for a mixed drink with tax and tip. Take Palcohol into the venue and enjoy a mixed drink for a fraction of the cost.” Such claims were taken off the site after news of the invention went viral.

So like, imagine a new condiment at the table. Salt, pepper and...Palcohol. Meatloaf a bit boring? Sprinkle on some Palcohol and give it a zip-a-dee-doo-dah boost. Just don't let the kids get into it, eh! Spaghetti and Palonaise sauce? Think of the possibilities at the office. Gathering around the coffee machine. Who's the Pal of the day?

The mind boggles.

See ya, eh!

Bob 

Plastic Surgeon Certificates of Identity

Well, hey there! Great to see you today. What'cha been up to? Me? Going for walks with Nong, then chillin' out in my recliner with a coffee. Help yourself to one and slip a virtual treat onto your plate while no one is looking. Say... take a gander at the before and after photos above...

Korean plastic surgeries have gotten so good that some surgeons are issuing special certificates to prove people are who they say they are.

South Korean plastic surgeons are among the best in the world. In fact they’re so good that people from other countries like China and Japan are actually having trouble getting back home.

That’s sounds really crazy, but it’s true. When most people get a nose job or a lip job, they just look like ‘enhanced’ versions of themselves. But people returning from a plastic surgery vacation in South Korea are truly transformed. 

You’d have to look very closely at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs, and even then, it’s hard to make a connection. So I suppose you couldn’t really blame airport officials for stopping these tourists from returning home.

My idea of a nose job is when I'm drinking cappucino, get a little too close to the whipped cream and get it all over my shnoz!

See ya, eh!

Bob on the mend...

Black and Blond – The Origin of Blonde Afros in Melanesia

Good day to you, eh! How're you going? Fit for footy? You will be after quaffing down a mug of coffee and a virtual treat. Being the world explorer that I know you are, I thought you'd be interested in this...

About a quarter of the Melanesian population in the Solomon Islands archipelago has an extremely unusual trait – dark skin with blond hair. The archipelago, located east of Papa New Guinea in Oceania, consists of a thousand islands inhabited by over half a million Melanesian people. They have the darkest skin in the world outside of Africa, but strangely, about one-fourth of the inhabitants sport blond afros.

This rare Melanesian characteristic has baffled scientists and genetic experts for years. Up until now, they have attributed the trait to inheritance – from the Europeans, especially the British, German and Australians, who have been associated with the island for hundreds of years. 

Several of the islands were under German jurisdiction in the 19^th century. In 1893, the UK took southern Solomon Islands under their wing, declaring the region a protectorate. The rest of the islands were added to the protectorate at a later stage. And in the early 20^th century, Australian and British companies set up coconut plantations on many of the islands.

So it isn’t entirely unbelievable that the dark-skinned Melanesians got their blond hair from the growing influx of ‘outsiders’. The locals, however, prefer not to go by that theory. They have been insisting for years that their blond hair is a result of a diet rich in fish and constant exposure to the sun. 

As it turns out, both theories may be quite far from the truth. According to a recent investigation, random mutation might actually be the answer to the mystery of the Melanesian blonds.

There...you've learned something new already today! 

See ya, eh!

Bob

Aging and Energy

Hi ya!

Thanks for clicking by today. Glad you could make it. Coffee’s on and there’s a splendid array of completely low-fat, virtual treats to tempt you so go on...be a devil. Hey, you know, while I have been rather incapacitated for the past few weeks, my pal, Dr. Al has still been sending me interesting emails. Here’s one that is apropos...

Dear Bob,

When your cells can’t make enough energy, you feel it. It’s a pretty good description of getting older. And that’s no coincidence. They go together.

But you don’t have to go through that.

Nature, in its wisdom, has provided us with a nutrient that can triple … even quadruple … your energy in just a few days.

It works by massively increasing the number of cellular “engines” you have. Then it protects those engines and keeps them humming along.

The engines I’m talking about are your mitochondria. They’re tiny, independent cells within your cells. Their job is to take nutrients and make energy for you. Not just energy to run around but also for pumping blood, blinking, and even reading the menu and deciding what to order.

But the same thing happens to mitochondria over time that happens to an old car engine. Oxidation (in a car it’s called rust) breaks down the engines so they don’t run as well, or produce as much power. You also have fewer of these engines as you age, and they’re undersized, and degraded.

Unless you do something about it, you get all the consequences of aging I just described. Slowing down like that is one of the things that bothers my patients the most about aging.

But when I introduce them to PQQ, everything changes. I love PQQ because it combines the two things that I have most specialized in; anti-aging and energy production. PQQ can reverse the energy loss that happens as you age, and keep your cells young and robust.

In one study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, researchers fed mice a diet supplemented with PQQ. The mice grew a staggering number of new mitochondria in just 8 weeks.¹

But PQQ is a powerful antioxidant as well, which is not very well known even in the anti-aging community. A new study gave five men and five women a single dose of around 10-15 mg (depending on their body weight) of PQQ. Then researchers measured changes in their antioxidant capacity. Over the next two days, PQQ significantly reduced their markers for oxidative stress.

Even better, in a second part of the study, the people got daily PQQ for three days. All of them had increases in metabolites showing their mitochondria were working much more efficiently.² They got more energy with less effort. Which means PQQ is like a whole-body energy tune-up.

Plus, PQQ works harder and for longer than any other antioxidant. It’s so stable and strong it works for thousands of antioxidant cycles.³ Other related antioxidants, like the ones in green tea, break down quickly. But PQQ keeps right on protecting you hundreds of times longer.

No one else is talking about PQQ, and it’s mostly because they don’t know about it. It’s brand new, and unless you’re reading scientific journals you won’t have heard of it. They’re certainly not teaching this in nutrition classes, and you’re certainly not going to find out about it from your doctor.

Once you know how important it is, it is possible to get some through food. Right now no one is getting enough through food because they don’t know it’s there, or what to eat. But it is possible. It’s in a few, specific foods, and here’s what they are:

1. The food with the most PQQ is natto. Natto is the Japanese fermented soy product (without all the processed soy waste like there is in Western soy foods).

2. Eggs are the next best food for PQQ, which is one of the reasons eggs are a perfect food.

3. The herb parsley has some PQQ.
   

4. Kiwi, a fruit with lots of healthy fat, also has a small amount of PQQ.

5. Green tea has PQQ in it, too, to go along with its other health benefits.

6. Beyond that, you get some in green peppers, and whiskey.

Also, you can get PQQ in supplement. But here’s what you need to know:

• Most supplements only use a 5 mg dose, but you need 10 mg. PQQ is expensive, and many supplement makers want to get away with giving you either lower quality or a lower dose.

• It’s also a good idea to combine it with CoQ10, which is the fuel mitochondria use.

• If you take CoQ10, make sure you get the kind your body absorbs best, ubiquinol.

To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD

I’ll have to look for it next time I hobble past a GNC or other vitamin/supplement shop.

See ya, eh!

Bob

PS: PQQ is not the Parti Quebecois in Quebec!

Green Tea Improves Working Memory

Well, hey there! Great to see you. I know you’ve been hovering around the virtual cafe wondering if it’ll be open or not. I’m getting a little more energy day by day so sit down with a mug of java juice and a virtual treat, why don’t’cha...even though the topic today is tea. 

New evidence for the cognitive benefits of tea comes from a study published in Psychopharmacology.

Researchers at the University of Basel have now found that green tea extract can improve working memory (Schmidt et al., 2014).

Working memory is vital to holding pieces of visual, verbal or other information in your mind while you manipulate them.

Better working memory has been linked to improved learning, attention and other vital outcomes.

Synaptic functioning

In their study, participants were given a drink which sometimes contained green tea extract and were then asked to complete a series of tests of their working memory.

Either way the drink looked and tasted the same, whether or not it contained green tea extract.

Meanwhile, their brains were scanned to see how the green tea affected synaptic functioning.

What the researchers found was that not only did participants do better on the tests after ingesting the green tea, but that it enhanced the connections between the frontal and parietal regions of the brain.

The findings are interesting especially for older adults, as a series of studies have suggested green tea may be beneficial in this area:

    “…consumption of green tea improved memory and attention in subjects with mild cognitive impairments and that the consumption of flavonoid-rich foods such as green tea reduced beta-amyloid-mediated cognitive impairments.

Furthermore, higher consumption of green tea has also been associated with a lower prevalence of cognitive impairments in older adults.” (Schmidt et al., 2014).

Yeah, well, I drink green tea almost every day...when I can remember where I put it! Then a little later, I sit down with a nice mug of coffee though at the moment, I am only allowed decaf!

See ya, eh!

Bob on the mend

Burning Light Bulb!

Hi there! Thought It was time I got back in the saddle...sort of. I can't promise I'll post every day for a while yet. It will depend how I feel but this is something I received from Audrey in Calgary that I thought I should pass along to you. It was written by someone named Jerry Stiles...

"Above is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch! I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on as usual when they were not in the room.

I took the bulb to the Fire Department to report the incident. The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by “Globe” in China seem to have the lion’s share of problems. Lots of fires have been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting, pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was installed in a normal light socket.

I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from my house. CFL bulbs are a great energy saver but make sure you buy a name brand like Sylvania , Phillips or GE and not the ones from China.

PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS........."

Sincerely,

Jerry Stiles

Thanks, Audrey!

See ya, eh!

Bob