Do Fish Drink Water?

by Bill McLain

  In addition to gasoline, the vapors at the top of the fractionating tower are also used to produce petrochemicals. Chemists have used these petrochemicals to create thousands of products we use every day. Products such as clothes, toothpaste, fertilizers, bandages, food additives, lipstick, shampoo, compact disks, vitamin capsules, shampoo, candles, and sunglasses, to name just a few.

  What caused the Great Depression of 1929? (The whole world had the blues.)

  A severe economic depression is never caused by one single factor. Many complex elements contributed to the Great Depression of 1929. However, most economists believe that the two main causes of the Depression were the immensely uneven distribution of wealth during the previous decade and the extensive speculation in stock that took place in the latter half of the decade.

  The decade preceding the Depression was a time of tremendous prosperity and became known as the “Roaring Twenties.” However, prosperity was not for everyone. The number of wealthy people in the country was less than a tenth of a percent of the total population yet they controlled most of the money in the country.

  In a well-functioning economy, demand must equal supply. But in 1929 wealth was so unevenly distributed that the supply of products far exceeded the demand for them. People may have wanted the products at the time but they couldn’t afford them. If supplies keep building and demand lessens, the economy can collapse. One way to balance the equation is to allow people to buy products over time. By the end of the Roaring Twenties, over 60 percent of all automobiles and 80 percent of all radios had been purchased on credit. With this new influx of money into the market, the economy was booming at the end of the 1920s.

  Stock speculation became rampant. Profits as high as 3,400 percent could be made in less than a year and people could buy on margin. In other words, they only had to put down 10 percent cash when buying a stock. Because of this, everyone was buying stocks. The poor were equal players with the rich. This buying spree pushed the market to new highs. In 1928 alone the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose from 191 to 300.

  There were warning signs as minor recessions occurred in the spring of 1929. Investors became nervous. In October people started selling their shares of stock. As the market started dropping, more and more people sold stock, margins were called, and by October 1929 there was panic selling. Stock prices dropped so fast that many rich people became poor in a matter of hours.

  FACTOIDS

  In 1929 the average U.S. citizen earned $750 per year while farmers earned an average of $273 a year. Henry Ford earned $14 million that year.

  By 1932 over 13 million people in the United States had lost their jobs, 10,000 banks had failed, and stocks had lost 80 percent of their value.

  The Depression was worldwide; the first country to fully recover was Sweden.

  Of all the countries affected by the Depression, Germany was the hardest hit.

  More questions? Try these websites.

  INTERESTED IN STOCK PRICES?

  http://www.stockmaster.com/

  Simply enter the symbol for a stock and click on Go to display the current price of the stock and a chart showing the stock’s performance over the past year. You can click on the name of a stock to go to the website for that company, if available. If you don’t know the stock symbol, click on Alphabetical List under Stocks, then click on a letter of the alphabet to see a list of company names that begin with that letter and their associated stock symbols.

  Stockmaster also has information on most active stocks, currency rates, and reference material. You can create your own portfolio and view the current prices of all your stocks with one mouse click.

  HOAXES AND SCAMS

  http://www.abraxis.com/fans/PAGE_7.htm

  Use the information on this site to protect yourself from cons, frauds, and scams. This site covers such scams as 900 numbers, land sales, investments, and loans. Much of the information contained on this site is from the Federal Trade Commission.

  CURRENCY CONVERTER

  http://www.oanda.com/converter/classic

  This site lets you quickly find the value of a foreign currency. Simply select the currency you have, enter an amount, select the currency you want to convert to, and click on Convert Now! For example, if you want to know how much 800 Mexican pesos is worth in U.S. dollars, select Mexican Peso in the left-hand menu, enter 800, select U.S. Dollar in the right-hand menu, then click on Convert Now! to see the result. In this example, 800 Mexican pesos is worth $87. Note that this is only an example, as currency rates of exchange change daily.

  ANECDOTE: A RARE DISEASE LEADS TO A WEDDING

  Although I never answer medical questions because I’m not a doctor, I will on occasion provide information if it comes from a recognized medical source. For instance, I would answer the question “What is diabetes?” but would never answer a question asking how to treat or prevent it.

  One day I received a message from a person who said he had a rare nervous disorder and would like to find out more about it. (I won’t mention the name of the disease because I respect the privacy of the person who sent the message.) I sent him the information he had requested. I thought that was the end of it, but it was only the beginning.

  I next received a message of apology, explaining that the first message was a prank. The sender was a premed student and he and his fellow students were trying to stump me. As the person later said, “I received an in-depth answer within 24 hours and it was 100 percent consistent with what we had learned in medical school. Myself and my fellow students were greatly impressed.” He finished the message by thanking me and then asking, rather sheepishly, if I could help him with a problem he was having. I replied, “Of course.”

  He responded by describing his problem. It seems that he had fallen in love with a girl he had known in high school but she was just coming off a three-year relationship and didn’t want to get involved with anyone. He wanted very much to show her how much he cared for her. On the other hand, he was afraid of not giving her space and of becoming too pushy. He was in a quandary and didn’t know how to find the right balance between showing affection and pushing her away.

  I’m certainly not a counselor or psychologist, but I have been around for many years, so I gave him some initial advice. (I sometimes give personal advice about relationships. If I’m wrong and someone gets a broken heart it will be sad but I won’t be sued for impersonating a doctor.)

  A few weeks later he contacted me and told me what I had suggested was working. Now he wanted more advice, which I gave him.

  We corresponded for the next 15 months. I gave him advice, and he always did what I suggested. The messages asking for advice were interspersed with various questions about food and travel, which I also dutifully answered.

  Then one day I received the message I had hoped for. The two of them were in a wonderful relationship and were planning to get married. He wanted me to know that I would be invited to the wedding.

  They’ll be getting married in a state about 2,000 miles from where I live. I’ll try to make the wedding, but if I can’t, my heart will definitely be there with them on that day.

  Food

  Where did pizza originate?

  Although it is believed that pizza dates back to the Stone Age, the earliest record occurs around 1000 B.C. when the word pizziare, meaning “to pinch” or “to pluck,” was first used. It is believed that the word referred to plucking the hot pie from an oven.

  Although some experts believe that pizza evolved from Egyptian flatbread, most agree that Italian pizza actually evolved from concepts introduced by the Etruscans to the north and the Greeks to the south.

  Etruscans made a crude bread baked under heated stones. Once cooked, it was flavored with numerous toppings. It served as both plate and utensil because it was used to sop up gravies or broth. The idea of a flavored bread eventually evolved into the Italian focaccia.

  The Greeks used this edible plate in a different manner than the Etruscans. Instead of
flavoring the bread after cooking, they baked flavorings directly on the bread, which became the main course.

  The Romans took both concepts and created a number of similar dishes. The idea spread throughout Italy and today there are hundreds of pizza variations from region to region and town to town.

  Today, most people agree that pizza was invented by the Italians. In fact, the Roman statesman Cato talked about “flat rounds of dough dressed with olive oil, herbs, and honey and baked on stones.”

  FACTOIDS

  Americans eat the equivalent of 100 acres of pizza each day, or about 350 slices each second.

  There are over 61,000 pizzerias in the United States.

  Marie Antoinette’s sister had ovens built in the forest so she could enjoy pizza while the royal hunting party feasted on wild game.

  In the United States, the favorite topping is pepperoni and the least popular is anchovies.

  Some shops excavated in Pompeii appear to have been pizzerias.

  In 1987 Lorenzo Amato and Louis Piancone made the world’s largest pizza, which was 10,000 square feet and measured 140 feet in diameter. This 44,000-pound monster was cut into over 94,000 slices and eaten by 30,000 spectators.

  Children between the ages of 3 and 11 have voted pizza as the number one preferred food for lunch and dinner.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Pizza as we know it today would not have been possible if Old World Europeans had not overcome a basic fear of a New World fruit native to Peru and Ecuador. This yellow or red fruit (eventually called the tomato) was thought to be poisonous. It wasn’t until the late 1600s that Europeans began eating tomatoes. In Spain, tomatoes were still considered poisonous until the middle of the eighteenth century.

  Modern pizza was born in 1889 when a tavern owner was asked to prepare a special dish in honor of the English queen’s visit to Naples. He created a pizza with ingredients that represented the red, white, and green colors of the Italian flag: tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil.

  What is the difference between lager and pilsner beer? (Isn’t a beer just a beer?)

  Lager beer is produced by slow bottom fermentation and aged under refrigeration for several months. In German lagern means “to store” or “storehouse.”

  Pilsner beer is a light lager beer with a strong flavor of hops. It originated in Pilsen (Plze?), a city in the Czech Republic, in 1877. Being a delicate and golden lager, it was a dramatic departure from the dark, sweet beers that were common at the time.

  Pilsner beer gets its flavor from pale malts, soft water, German or Czech hops, and lager yeast. These pale malts are dried for shorter periods of time and at lower temperatures than darker malt. The result is a beer with a golden color. Pilsner is the most widely copied beer and is the world’s most popular beer.

  All beers can be defined as either lager or ale. The difference is in the brewing. Whether a beer is a lager or an ale depends on the yeast used and the temperature of the fermentation process.

  Lager ferments more slowly and at colder temperatures than ale. Because the yeast settles to the bottom of the tank, it is called “bottom-fermented” beer.

  Ale tends to ferment rapidly and is referred to as “top-fermented.” Ale tends to have a higher alcohol content and to be heartier and darker than lager.

  Malt liquor is a beer that has too high an alcohol content by law to be labeled lager or ale. Malt liquor is 5 to 6 percent alcohol, ale is 4 to 5 percent alcohol, and lager is 3.5 percent alcohol.

  When most of the alcohol is removed from an ale, it is called “near beer” and has an alcohol content of one half of a percent.

  In America, 90 percent of all malt beverages produced are lager beer.

  FACTOIDS

  An ancient Babylonian clay document indicates that beer making dates back to around 6000 B.C. Hops were first used around 3000 B.C.

  Ancient Greeks believed that drinking beer would cause leprosy.

  When visiting Dortmund, Germany’s King William IV of Prussia drank a 10-year-old strong ale and was unconscious for over twenty-four hours.

  In the eighteenth century, ale was brewed very strong so that it could survive the six-month voyage from England to the British troops in India.

  Beer cans were not produced until 1935.

  American pale lager beer has fewer calories than an equivalent amount of 2 percent milk or apple juice.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Early beer makers left their brews in open vessels exposed to airborne yeasts. They didn’t realize that the foam on top of the fermenting brew consisted of millions of yeast cells. However, they always scooped off the foam to use it as a starter for the next batch. Without realizing it, they were breeding top-fermenting yeasts.

  Later, Benedictine monks took up beer brewing. Monks carved beer cellars into the rocks beneath the monastery and packed them with ice from frozen rivers and lakes so that beer brewed in the fall could be saved for later use in the summer. Stored in such cold temperatures, the beer became more stable and the yeast sank to the bottom. This was the origin of bottom-fermenting yeasts.

  Yeast is one of the most important ingredients in brewing and is jealously guarded by brewmasters, sometimes unsuccessfully. Once the son of a Bavarian brewmaster and an Austrian friend journeyed to England and, with the aid of a metal tube with a hidden valve, stole yeast samples from the British.

  As more and more scientific methods were applied to the brewing process, both the quality and types of beer improved. Today there are over 25 different types of beer.

  How many colors of M&M’s are there? (Color me blue.)

  Atypical bag of M&M’s includes six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and brown. However, there are actually 21 different colors available.

  Around certain holidays, for example, you may see M&M bags with different colors or color combinations. At Christmastime you may find M&M bags with red and green M&M’s only. During Easter, you may find bags with pastel-colored M&M’s.

  Large customers, such as retail stores, can special-order bags with the colors they like.

  Individuals can also order M&M’s of up to four different colors, but they have to buy a ten-pound bag of each color and then mix the colors in any way they choose. The minimum order is forty pounds.

  The 21 colors are black, blue, light blue, dark blue, brown, cream, gold, gray, green, aqua green, teal green, dark green, maroon, orange, pink, dark pink, purple, light purple, red, white, and yellow.

  FACTOIDS

  M&M’s are the nation’s top-selling candy and the only sweets offered on Air Force One (probably supplanting former President Reagan’s jelly beans).

  In 1995, after an election that drew 10 million votes, the company added blue and dropped the tan color, prompting a backlash. Some people alleged that the blue M&M’s murdered the tan M&M’s.

  It is rumored that M&M’s were originally developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky.

  Various colors have created a “mystique” of their own:

  Green M&M’s are widely considered aphrodisiacs.

  Orange M&M’s are thought to augment breast size.

  Brown M&M’s were written into Van Halen’s standard contract. If the rock group members saw them anywhere in the area, the show was canceled.

  Many Americans still refuse to eat the red M&M’s because of the Red No. 2 scare in 1976 (M&M’s never contained the dye).

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Some elementary school math classes use M&M’s to help students learn mathematical calculations. In one class, students were asked to calculate the percentage of different-colored M&M’s in a bag.

  The students first discovered that brown, red, and yellow M&M’s were most prevalent in the small bags they studied. These three colors accounted for 81 percent of the total, while the other three colors (blue, orange, and green) accounted for only 19 percent.

  The students then compared percentages between small bags and large one-pound bags. To their s
urprise, there was a significant difference. For example, 25 percent of the M&M’s were yellow in the small bags, while only 10 percent were yellow in the large bags.

  The study was not repeated, as the students ate all the M&M’s.

  What is the difference between caffe latte and cappuccino? (You can blame it on the priests but not on the Pope.)

  Both caffe latte and cappuccino are made from espresso. Espresso is coffee brewed by forcing steam through finely ground darkly roasted coffee beans. When espresso is mixed with steamed milk, it is called caffe latte. When espresso is mixed with frothed hot milk or cream and flavored with cinnamon, it is called cappuccino.

  The actual proportions of the ingredients depend on the person making the drink. For instance a cappuccino is usually a shot of espresso with the rest of the drink consisting of 50 percent steamed milk and 50 percent frothed milk. However, it is sometimes made with equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and frothed milk. Sometimes caffe latte is topped with frothed milk.

  There are many variations of these drinks such as mocha latte, which contains chocolate syrup, granita latte, which is frozen espresso topped with whipped cream, and flavored lattes such as raspberry latte.

  FACTOIDS

  Gourmet coffees account for 30 percent of all coffee sold in the United States.

  A single coffee tree produces only about a pound of coffee beans per year.

  All the world’s coffee is grown within 1,000 miles of the equator.