May I introduce Tim Berners-Lee?

Since I devoted a lot of time and effort to my Culture Paper which is about "Great American Entrepreneurs", I decided to introduce to you another great entrepreneur in this blog post. But I don't want you to be bored to hear about Americans all the time, so I am now going to write about a British entrepreneur.

Born and raised in London, Tim Berners-Lee studied physics at the University of Oxford for about three years, but in the end became a computer scientist. Tim is best known for being the inventor of the World Wide Web.
Berners-Lee had been working as a software engineer at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, for several years. In 1989 he came up with the idea of the WWW. Coming from all possible continents, the people working at CERN were gathering in Geneva in order to work on their projects. After returning to their home countries, they wanted to keep in touch and exchange data. Doing so over the telephone or via air mail was both pricey and laboriously. Tim unterstood their problem and thought of an idea how to connect the computers they were working with, even when being a thousand miles away from each other. Thereupon Tim Berners-Lee invented three technologies which are today the basis of the World Wide Web:

1. HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) is a protocol that defines how information is transmitted and tells, so to say, the web browsers and servers what to do. The acronym "http" or "https" is placed in front of every Internet address (URL).
2. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a language used for creating web pages. The language consists of certain elements which are "read" by the web browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.).
3. URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) identifies the name and location of a resource (e.g. a file or a Internet address). A URI would look like this: /images/bernerslee.jpg, whilst a URL, which is similar to the URI, would look like this: http://www.blogger.com/images/bernerslee.jpg.

Based on these three technologies, Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web. The world's very first website, info.cern.ch, was launched in 1991 and outlined the concept of the WWW. If you like to read more about the invention of the World Wide Web, feel free to visit this website. Or you could watch this TED video of Tim Berners-Lee talking about his invention. It's about 16 minutes, but it's definitely worth watching.

Today, Berners-Lee is a professor in the Electronics and Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton (UK). Also, he founded and is currently leading the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an organization working on the development of the WWW. Although Berners-Lee invented today's most dominant communication medium, he is not considered one of the wealthiest persons in the world.

Sources
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/berners_lee_tim.shtml
http://webfoundation.org/about/sir-tim-berners-lee/
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/HTTP.html
http://www.techterms.com/definition/uri
http://www.ted.com/speakers/tim_berners_lee

Image Sources
http://3ehspg3e85cn1oz25ebdof7cd3.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/timbernerslee.jpeg

Being a Paramedic For One Day

Hey guys! :-)
Since we're currently covering the topics Health and Medicine, I would like to tell you how a typical 12-hour shift within the Ambulance-Services looks like. As you might have read in some of my preceding blog posts, I work as a voluntary paramedic at the Austrian Red Cross in Linz. I've made the experience that lots of people don't really know what a paramedic does all day long. Most of them assume a paramedic works in a hospital. That's completely wrong! So let yourself plunge into my world of  "being a paramedic (for one day)".

06:30 am - Getting ready for the shift

A typical shift starts at 7 am, which is why you need to check if the ambulance car you'll be driving with is OK. What does that mean? Within an ambulance car, you have a number of various equipment. All this equipment needs to be checked if it's working (e.g. the stretcher [folding bed used to transport the injured]), if it's still usable (e.g. the antiseptic) or how much oxygen you still have aboard (see the portable oxygen cylinders in the second picture). If everything's alright, you tell the dispatchers (the ones who take the calls and then send out the vehicles) by radio that you are available. Have a look at the pictures what we have in our ambulance cars (among lots of other stuff).

 

07:00 am - Ready to rumble!

Now that the dispatcher knows we're on standby, we might receive a call soon. We don't know what's going to happen next or which kind of patient we're going to get. Maybe it's just an elder woman who is living alone, toppled and can't stand up on her own. Or we assume the worst and we could be sent to a car accident. Anything can happen!

7:44 am - Our fist mission

Beep, beep the radio goes. It's time to save the world.

Yeah, About that phrase... Many people become a paramedic because they believe they are going to save the entire world. Not quite. I don't know about my colleagues, but I have never saved the whole world before. And I suppose I won't do so any time soon. Being a paramedic isn't always about saving someone's life. Instead, we provide first aid in order to relieve the suffering of individuals. Frequently, we pick up our patients at home to bring them to the hospital. For instance: A patient has their leg in a plaster cast and can't go to the hospital on their own. In order to make the doctor's appointment at the hospital happen, we fetch the patient and transport them there. So let's not say we save the world, but rather try to ease someone's pain by giving first aid or giving someone a ride.

Have a look at the picture on the right hand side. This is what our terminal looks like. For those of you who speak German, you'll find that no trouble to understand. There are a few abbreviations, though, which even German speakers might not be familiar with.

So let's have a closer look:
EO stands for Einsatzort, which means the place where something happened (e.g. an accident) and we therefore need to go to in order to help our patients; the Irish Red Cross calls it the incident location.
Dia stands for Diagnose, which means diagnosis. In this particular case we have a patient who suffers from Tachykardie (tachycardia). The prefix tachy- says that something is accelerated whilst cardio/cardia is always linked to the heart. If we have problems with our heart, for example, we would see a cardiologist.
Pat stands for Patient (patient). Our dispatchers always suggest to which hospital our patient should be brought. In this case it says nach AKH. That means we'll bring our patient to the general hospital.
KEO stands for Koordinaten Einsatzort and tells us the exact coordinates of our incident location.
In the very last line we come to know that a GP had a look at the patient already and finds it necessary to bring him to the hospital. (HÄND war vor Ort).

How will we treat our patient?
Our patient suffers from tachycardia, which means that their heart beats really really fast right now. First of all, we will tell our patient to breathe calmly. One of us will feel their wrist to check the pulse. A normal heart beat is about 80 (+/- 20) per minute. Our patient has a pulse of 130(!). We also take their blood pressure, which turns out to be at a normal rate (120/80). The most important thing now is to quickly bring our patient to the hospital. While driving to our destination, the patient should sit up straight as that's easier to breathe. After the patient is brought to the emergency room, we will drive back to our station and hopefully have some coffee there.

10:13 am - The next mission's certain to come.

After having a longer break at the station, the radio beeps again. This time, the beep goes way faster and louder. There are two different radio sounds: the slower one tells us that it's not a matter of life and death, but the faster one does. So we'll finish our coffee quickly and get started.

On our terminal we get to know the following: In the first line the dispatchers tell us that we have to turn our flashing blue light on ("Blaulicht"). The diagnosis says bewusstlos, which means unconscious. In the penultimate line we get to know that a doctor on emergency call is going to be there as well ("NEF 1 ebenfalls").

Since our patient is unconscious, we need to place them in recovery position. I am not going to explain here what the recovery position is about. If you like to read a more detailed explanation how to place someone in recorvery position, have a look at one of my previous blog posts called "How to place someone in Recovery Position". What's more is that we will administer oxygen to our patient in order to make their breathing easier. We'll also cover our patient with a blanket made of aluminum. We don't want them to feel cold, do we?
Generally speaking, since a doctor was sent to the incident location too, he's the one to call the shots. We'll place the patient on the stretcher, of course still being in recovery position, and set off. After dropping the patient off at the emergency room, we drive back to our station and have a break.

12:30 pm - Enjoy your meal!

I'm starving! When volunteers work the day shift, they get coupons to get free lunch at one of the hospitals in Linz. Most of the time, we receive coupons from the "Landes- Frauen- und Kinderklinik" - a hospital that emphasizes on toddlers, children and expectant mothers.

This is how a typical lunch in a hospital looks like. What do you think about it? Does it look delicious to you? Would you call it "gourgeous" as Jamie Oliver always does?

04:47 pm - Last but not least.

What we have here is something that we experience in almost every (night) shift: alcohol abuse. No, we're not the ones , but our patient. Sadly, like in every bigger city, there are people living in a poorhouse or even on the street. Actually, we don't transport these kind of patients to the hospital because they have a problem with alcohol. Instead, we bring them there because when they are drunk, they do silly things like sleeping outside or trip and fall. We neither want them to feel cold, nor do we want them to bleed or feel pain. 

It can be a bit nerve-wracking to pick up a drunk guy who talks a lot of nonsense or might even be aggressive. In case a patient is aggressive, I call the cops so that they escort us to the hospital. It's a lot more secure for us paramedics to have a police officer on our side.

What will we do with this patient?

Well, the most important thing is to, again, bring the patient to the hospital. Before that we'll feel their wrist to check the pulse and take a blood sample so as to measure their blood sugar. If the person had been sleeping outside, we make sure to cover them with a blanket. Otherwise the patient might suffer from hypothermia. What does that mean? Hypo always refers to something that is below a normal frequence or value. In contrast, hyper means that something is above a certain value. "Thermia" refers to temperature, which means that hypothermia is when your body temperature gets low so that it even might endanger yourself.

06:45 pm - Exhausted, but satisfied.

Our shift is drawing to an end. For twelve hours we've been available for people in need. We didn't exactly save the world. Instead, we tried to ease people's pain and bring them to the hospital. That's actually a lot. Even when we're quite exhausted right now, we can be proud of ourselves!

If you have any questions on that, please don't hesitate to text me! :-)


image source (1): http://www.roteskreuz.at/typo3temp/imagegallery/450_450_16329_T5%20-%20Seiteneinstieg.JPG
image source (2): http://www.roteskreuz.at/typo3temp/imagegallery/450_450_30703_P4120113.JPG 
image source (3): http://www.roteskreuz.at/typo3temp/imagegallery/450_450_16328_T5%20-%20Verbandkoffer.JPG
iamge source (4): http://www.roteskreuz.at/typo3temp/imagegallery/450_450_16331_T5%20-%20Heck%20offen.JPG
image source (5): (c) Manuel PIRKLBAUER
image source (6): (c) Manuel PIRKLBAUER
image source (7): (c): Werner SCHIER
image source (8): (c): Manuel PIRKLBAUER

10 foods that keep you hale and hearty

Hey guys! :-)

As I might have told some of you before, I am living in a dorm in Graz and therefore cooking for myself. I always try to have lots of vegetables, fruit and other nutritious crops. I've been browsing through the web a lot lately and found some interesting information about foods that are essential for a healthy diet:

1. Green Tea

Health benefits: Reduces skin damage, reduces level of stress, ideal for losing weight

Green tea consists of certain antioxidants that prevent cell damage and slow down skin aging. According to a Swiss study, people's brains were much more active in the working and memory areas when drinking green tea. Additionally, green tea allows you to calm down and relax. A Japanese study found out that the levels of stress were 20% lower in people who drank green tea than in people who did not. Green tea is a smart substitution for sugary drinks and therefore ideal for losing weight. That is because green tea changes the metabolism so that more calories are burnt.

Tip: Green tea should not be prepared with hot boiling water, but rather with water between 160 and 170 degrees. Otherwise, some important vitamins and antioxidants get lost. Adding one or two slices of lemon would be a good idea. Lemons contain loads of vitamin C which make the compounds of green tea way easier to absorb. Make sure not to combine green tea with dairy products (like milk or yogurt), as they make the absorbing process harder for your stomach.

2. Dark Chocolate

Health benefits: Decreases fatigue, reduces level of stress, helps treat depression, relieves menstrual cramps

According to a recent research, 1.5 ounces (some 28 grams) of dark chocolate a day for two weeks immensely reduces the stress level. Milk chocolates can be helpful as well, but not as much as the dark one. Chocolate contains antioxidants which are better absorbed without milk added. Besides, studies have shown that eating a few pieces of dark chocolate three times a week can lower blood pressure. It also improves the blood flow resulting in a significant decrease of risk of arteriosclerosis.
As you might be aware of already, chocolate makes you happy and boosts your mood. Chocolate even contains substances that could potentially make you high. But you would have to eat between 20 and 30 kg (200 to 300 bars of chocolate) to eventually become high!

Tip: Keep in mind that dark chocolate, or chocolate in general, should be consumpted in moderation because it is high in sugar. 

3. Bananas

Health benefits: Lowers blood pressure, helps reduce incontincene, relieves menstrual cramps, regulates blood pressure, promotes bone health

Bananas have a lot of health benefits. To illustrate, it prevents the bones from becoming thin and weak. Additionally, according to a study, fresh bananas protect the stomach from developing wounds or even ulcers. That is because bananas promote the production of a thicker mucus that prevents stomach acids. Bananas are also helpful for elimination problems and diarrhoea. By containing a high amount of pectin and fiber, bananas help normalize the movement of the digestive tracts and therefore ease constipation. Consuming three or more fruits per day reduces the risk of age-related vision loss. Especially bananas are fruit that protect your eye sight.

4. Whole grains

Health benefits: Increase concentration, ideal for losing weight

Whole grains like wheat, oats, einkorn or quinoa are ideal for losing weight. When trying to lose weight, products like whole wheat flour, bread or pasta can be really helpful. What's more is that whole grains boost concentration, especially when you have whole grain cereals for breakfast. It helps you to stay focused. Skipping breakfast results in poor concentration and fatigue, so try to have breakfast every day. In addition, whole grains reduce the risk of diabetes.

Quinoa: Quinoa is packed with proteins, magnesium and iron and a grain crop that is easily digestible. What's more is that Quinoa is gluten-free and helps relieve migraines. The NASA considered Quinoa an optimal crop for long-duration space flights.

Oats: Oats is a cholesterol-lowering grain that consist of calcium, magnesium and other essential vitamins. Basically, oats lack gluten. They are, however, grown next to wheat and other grains so that they are contaminated with glutens. So officially, oats is a gluten-containing crop.

Tip: What about starting the day with a healthy and delicious porridge?

5. Yogurt

Health benefits: Helps relieve indigestion, prevents osteoporosis

Yogurt is rich in bacteria and calcium that helps your stomach digest and reduce constipation and diarrhoea. Along with that, yogurt lowers the risk of osteoporosis, which is an illness that weakens bones and increases the risk of unexpected fractures. Combined with vitamin D, yogurt has a positive effect on bone mass. Vitamin D can be found in eggs, oily fish like sardines and salmons or powdered milk. In some yogurts, vitamin D is already added.

Tip: Enjoy your yogurt with fruit as they contain a lot of vitamins and add a pleasing taste.

6. Maca

Health benefits: Boosts concentration, prevents sexual dysfunction, promotes fertility

Maca, a root vegetable which looks similar to a radish, helps to balance hormones. Some consider it an aphrodisiac as it might also arouse sexual desire. The root helps women with menstrual problems and prepares them for pregnancy by supplying certain hormones. Moreover, maca serves as an energy and concentration boost.

The plant originally comes from Peru. Some hundred years ago, the Inca consumed maca as a vegetable due to its nutritional values. They boiled, fried, roasted or dried the root and even ate it to prevent lung problems.

7. Leafy greens

Health benefits: Boosts concentration, prevents cell damage

Leaf vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, lettuce, arugula, asparagus or cabbage are brimming with fiber and vitamin E. They help you to keep mentally focused and prevent your brain cells from damage. Leafy greens are low in calories and fat and high in proteins, magnesium and other vitamins. Especially spinach, which is known to be Popeye the Sailor's favourite vegetable, is rich in iron, calcium and other nutrients. Also cabbage is good for your digestion and heart and is believed to lower the risk of cancer. Generally speaking, leafy greens are very low in calories. One-half cup of cabbage, for instance, contains only 15 calories.

Tip: If you're not really fond of leaf vegetables, try to add them to dishes that you like. You might also want to try out new vegetables like Swiss chard, mustard greens, bok choy, celery, watercress, ...

8. Garlic

Health benefits: Relieves common colds, protects blood cells, prevents sexual dysfunction

Garlic, also known as "the stinking rose" due to its pungent smell, reduces the chance of catching a cold and also helps to recover from a cold. What's more is that garlic boosts your mood and improves sexual performance. Besides, garlic is a great source or vitamin C and able to keep your blood pressure under control. By protecting your blood cells and vessels it prevents you to suffer from inflammatory.

Tip: It's most effective when you eat garlic raw.

9. Fish & Seafood

Health benefits: Relieves common cold, relieves migraine, prevents sexual dysfunction

Fish and seafood strengthen your immune system and lessens the frequency of catching a cold. When having a cold or the flu, oily fish like salmon, mackerel and tuna help a lot. Fatty fish like sardines, herrings and trouts, however, reduce the frequency of migraines. Since Inuits have low levels of heart diseases, eating fish regularly might protect the heart and lower the amount of cholesterol. As you might know, fish contain Omega 3 which lowers the chance of inflammations, protects against Alzheimer and recudes the symptoms of ADHD.

Shellfish: By containing a great amount of vitamin B12 and zinc, shellfish reduce the risk of miscarriage.

Oysters: Oysters are rich in zinc and therefore also considered as a aphrodisiac.

10. Nuts

Health benefits: lessens sleep problems, prevent coronary heart diseases

Nuts are loaded with vitamins which reduce the chance of suffering from a coronary heart disease. Most nuts might possibly be able to lower the risk of cancer, but that's not scientifically proven yet.
Walnuts: Especially walnuts improve the quality of sleep. Additionally, the fruit helps the body to protect itself against Parkinson, Alzheimer or type-II diabetes. Some important vitamins in walnuts cannot be found in any other food, which makes this kind of fruit quite special.
Almonds: While being rich in vitamin E, magnesium and calcium, almonds lower cholersterol and the risk of suffering a heart disease.

Tip: It's healthier to eat them raw and with the skin as more than 90% of the vitamins are found in the nuts' skins.

-

image source (1): http://www.deltalabsusa.com/assets/client_files/images/Photos/Food%20and%20Drink/green-tea.jpg
image source (2): http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/dark_chocolate.jpg
image source (3): http://romanlosangelez.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/banana2.jpg
image source (4): http://www.jessainscough.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/wholegrains.jpg
image source (5): http://cdn1.scdlifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/how-to-make-yogurt-1.jpg
image source (6): http://www.organicmeetsgood.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/maca-2.jpg
image source (7): http://www.supergreenlandmarket.com/1/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/leafy-greens.jpg
image source (8): http://detoxforlife.biz/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/garlic.jpg
image source (9: http://instantpot.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/sea-food.jpg
image source (10): http://www.nutstop.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/e/deluxe-mixed-nuts-roasted-unsalted.jpg

We love Pizza! But what about Pizza Cake?

Have you ever heard of the Pizza Cake? Neither have I - until I read an article about it some hours ago.

The Canadian pizza chain Boston Pizza launched a voting called The Pizza Game Changers. Their purpose is to invent a new creative dish that is somehow related to pizza. People can go to the Pizza Game Changers' website and vote on an invention they like. The product that wins the competition will be produced by Boston Pizza. You should definitely check out their website. They have a lot of crazy ideas, and one of them is the Pizza Cake.

Basically, the Pizza Cake is a multilayered cake made of pizza. According to the Pizza Game Changers, their invention is "great for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, weddings and even lonely nights watching infomercials". By having more than 22,000 votes, the Pizza Cake is on the very top position in the Pizza Game Changers' ranking. The fame of the Pizza Cake even resulted in a crash of the Pizza Game Changers' website. How bizzare is that?

The cake is six inches high (15.2 cm) and has more than 5,000 calories. Despite the calories, I would like to try it. In the first place, the amount of calories sounds shocking but it's not that surprising since the cake has six tiers. What about you? Does it look appealing to you? I think it's well worth trying. As soon as it's produced, of course!

image source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1782774!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg

Spanish in the United States

Spanish is the most spoken non-English language in the United States. Some 37.6 million Americans speak Spanish. Among these Spanish speakers, there are 34.8 million Hispanics while 2.8 million are non-Hispanics who still speak Spanish at home every day. The next most spoken non-English languages in the U.S. are Chinese, Hindi and French.

History

The Spaniards set foot in what is today the U.S. long before the English did. In 1565, they founded a colony in Florida which is nowadays considered as the first permament Spanish colony in North America.

Between 1803 and 1804, when Louisiana was sold to the U.S. (the Louisiana Purchase), its Spanish (and French) inhabitants became citizens of the States, but continued to speak their mother tongue.

In the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Mexico lost almost half of their territory to the United States, including today's Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, California, Nevada and Utah. The Mexicans, who were Spanish-speakers, became U.S. citizens. The constitutional convention of 1872 wanted the very little remaining Spanish-speakers to learn English and therefore published all official documents only in English.

In 1898, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam became American territories (Spanish-American War). A few years later, Cuba became independent again, while Puerto Rico remained a territory of the United States. Today, the most-spoken language of Puerto Rico is Spanish, although its inhabitants are U.S. citizens.

The number of Spanish immigrants to the United States has skyrocketed within the recent years. The Spanish-speakers have especially settled in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and the southern part of Florida. During the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1917, a number of Mexicans flee to the U.S. Also Cubans immigrated to the U.S. due to Cuba's political instability around 1959. In the 1970s and 80s, lots of Spanish-speaking Nicaraguans moved to the U.S. because of the political instability of Nicaragua. Due to economic and political problems in El Salvador, a great number of Salvadorans relocated to the U.S. Also Venezuelans settled in the U.S. as they were hoping for a better education.

American words derived from Spanish

• Cafeteria (cafetería; in Spanish there's an accent on the "i")
• Chocolate (from Nahuatl xocoatl [Nahuatl = the most-spoken indigenous language of Mexico])
• Guitar (guitarra)
• Peninsula (same word in Spanish)
• Bodega (a New Yorker would use this word to describe a corner store)
• Canibal (Christopher Columbus came across an indigenous group called the Caribs (who gave the Caribbean its name). He pronounced their name wrongly by calling them caniba. Caniba became caníbal in Spanish and cannibal in English.)
• Cargo (derived fom the Spanish verb cargar which means to carry)
• Cilantro (Americans might also call it coriander)
• Ranch (derived from the Spanish word rancho)
• Rodeo (same word in Spanish; derived from the verb rodear, meaning to encircle)
  

• Florida (means land full of flowers in Spanish)
• California (the word was first used to describe the North American territory in the 16th century)
• Montana (a mispronunciation of montaña which means mountain in Spanish)
• Nevada (means snow-capped peak in Spanish)
• Alcatraz (is the Spanish name for a bird; in English known as the Northern Gannet)
• Colorado (means colorful in Spanish)
• And so on and so forth...

Spanglish

Spanglish is a mixture of Spanish and English and very common among Hispanics, especially in North- and Central America. Still, Spanglish is not considered an official language as it is used in spoken and informal conversations. There is a number of dialects which differ from one another.

A bilingual speaker can either switch between English and Spanish within a sentence (code switching) or create new words and idioms by adopting words into another language. wikipedia gives the following two examples:

1. code switching: "I'm sorry I cannot attend next week's meeting porque tengo una obligación de negocios en Boston, pero espero que I'll be back for the meeting the week after" (I'm sorry I cannot attend next week's meeting because I have a business obligation in Boston, but I hope to be back for the meeting the week after).
2. adaptation of words: the Spanish verb llamar (to call) becomes telefonear (telephone+ar) or almorzar (to eat lunch) becomes lunchear (lunch+ar). wikipedia gives other examples like: watchear, parquear, emailear, twittear, etc.

image source (1): http://www.pewresearch.org/files/2013/08/FT_Non_English1.png 
image source (2): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Spanish_in_the_United_States_by_countr.gif/800px-Spanish_in_the_United_States_by_countr.gif 
image source (3): http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/322446/slide_322446_3046050_free.jpg
image source (4): http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/322446/slide_322446_3043041_free.jpg

Happy Easter, Everyone!

Every country has their own traditions and ways of celebrating Easter. Some have a huge feast at home, some have to search for their Easter eggs in a basket somewhere outside and some play funny games. The White House in Washington, D.C organizes a very amusing game, for example...

The White House Easter egg roll

The White House Easter egg roll is a game played on Easter Monday on the lawn of the White House. The goal of the game is to push hard-boiled eggs down a track made of wooden sticks very quickly. The contestant who has pushed their egg fastest is the winner. Children and their parents use a sizable spoon for pushing the eggs. Unless the eggs are broken, they are eaten after the game.

The White House Easter egg roll was introduced in 1814 by the wife of President James Madison, Dolley Madison. Originally, they played on the grounds of the United States Capitol until President Rutherford B. Hayes brought the event to the lawn of the White House. Franklin D. Roosevelt forbid the games during his term in office. Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of Dwight. D. Eisenhower, revived the games and even opened the event to black children for the very first time. Same-sex couples were first invited to join the games by Barack Obama in 2009.

During the game, there are famous persons of the White House in the guise of various movie characters strolling around and Cabinet secretaries are reading to the children.

The tradition of egg rolling also exists in Denmark, Germany, Lithuania and Egypt. Yet every tradition is individual. In Denmark, for instance, the eggs are rolled down a hill. Whose egg rolls furthest wins the game.

Legend relates that Egg rolling became a symbol of the rolling away of the rock from Jesus' tomb before he resurrected. The Easter egg roll was brought to North America by the European settlers.

These were the highlights of the White House Easter egg roll of 2013:

Wish you all a very Happy Easter,

a joyful time and looots of chocolate and candies!

image source (1): http://www.wh.gov/sites/default/files/image/eer/eggs_0.jpg
image source (2): http://www.thedesertreview.com/wp-content/upLoads/2013/03/white-house-egg-hunt-eg-01_photoblog900.jpg
image source (3): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Barack_Obama_at_this_2009_White_House_Easter_Egg_Roll.jpg

Walt Disney's greatest food movie

Hey guys,

How's it going with your blogging?
You may have noticed that I'm an enthusiastic and devoted Disney admirer. I just love love love Disney movies and their cartoons, animations, tales, ... Anyway, since I am such a great fan of Walt Disney, I decided to write about one particular Disney movie. Considering we've learned a lot about food this semester, I am going to emphasize on how food occurs in the film. So let's have a look at one of Disney's masterpieces: Ratatouille.

Ratatouille

The movie tells the story of a tiny rat who happens to have a highly developed sense of smell. The father makes use of his son's gift and obliges him to sniff at all the garbage first before the other rats eat it. The tiny little rat called Remy feels used, but can't really escape from his duty. One day he's accidentally seperated from his family. In the first place, Remy is really unhappy and sad about his loss. After a while, however, he realizes that this is his chance to finally pursue his passion. He finds himself in Paris' most eminent restaurant: Gusteau's.
After sneaking into Gusteau's kitchen, Remy tries to get an overview by watching all the kitchen staff from a cupboard. Remy catches Linguini, who's only duty is to wash the dishes, secretly adding random herbs and spices to a soup. On account of the rat's unique sense of smell, the animal tries to save Linguini's a** by adding some other herbs. Linguini, the dishwasher, spots the rat adding the ingredients, which is how they get to know each other:

As the rat is the one with the highly developed sense of smell and Linguini's not, they begin to work as a team. Initially, Linguini is quite sceptical and uncertain about cooperating with a rat, until one day Remy prepares French Omelette for both of them for breakfast. Mixing eggs, butter, cheese and herbs is not that simple for a tiny rat like Remy. Linguini realizes that Remy knows a lot about cooking and that his gift might be useful for him working at Gusteau's.

Wearing the rat under his hat, Linguini does the actual cooking while the rat guides him by pulling his hair. Their plan works perfectly until the chef notices that Linguini's not the one with the great knowledge of cooking. Though, the chef has no evidence to proof that Linguini is cooperating with a rat.
Linguini finds out he's Gusteau's son and therefore the legal heir of the restaurant. When he becomes chef of the restaurant, Linguini reveals his big secret. He tells the kitchen staff about Remy being the actual cook, whereupon his colleagues disappointedly abandon the restaurant and leave the successful duo behind...

Why the movie is called Ratatouille

One of the main characters of Ratatouille is the critic. Every now and then he pays the restaurant a visit in order to test their food and thereupon write a review. When Linguini finally takes over the restaurant, his goal is to serve a unique and delightful meal to the critic.

Linguini can't really think of something, but Remy (called little chef) has an excellent idea. They prepare Ratatouille! Ratatouille is a vegetarian dish and consists of zucchini, eggplant, pepper, tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, onion and olive oil. Just look at the photo on the left where little chef is wearing a toque and pours sauce over the dish. Doesn't that Ratatouille look delicious? Do you think the critic will like the dish? If so, whom will the critic congratulate if the actual cook is a rat?



image source (1): http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/kafka-on-the-shore/150418645/1/hFiUi53rXqfamdswd9MGoXMF
image source (2): http://moviesfilmsmotionpictures.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/ratatouille-making-omelette-hd-desktop-mobile-wallpaper.jpg
image source (3): http://girleatsgreen.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/picture-21.png

How to Place Someone in Recovery Position

Hey guys,

Are you making good progress with studying for PC1? I'm getting on well, but I'm definitely out of practice when it comes to giving advice and instructions. In order to do well on this part of PC1, I am now going to give you instructions how to place someone in recovery position. In case you're not familiar with that phrase at all, maybe the image on the right hand side will be a help. Doens't ring a bell? Maybe you'll remember while reading through the instructions.

image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Recovery_position.svg/800px-Recovery_position.svg.png

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Introduction

The recovery position is a basic first aid treatment that you've certainly come across in a first aid course. You might remember the recovery position as an easy practice. There are a couple of niceties though that I'd like to make you aware of.

Indication

A person that is unconscious must be placed in recovery position in order to avoid the person from suffocating. When someone becomes unconscious, their muscles are no longer able to let the person swallow. As a result, the person would swallow their own vomit in case he or she throws up. Additionally, someone can suffocate from the tongue falling back into the airway. Surely we don't want that to happen, which is why we place the person in recovery position.

First approach

The best thing to find out if a person is unconscious is to address the person by asking if everything is alright. In case the person doesn't answer, you can assume that he or she is either asleep, unconscious or, in the worst case, not breathing at all. In former times people used to lightly hurt someone by pinching their hand. Please note that this practice is no longer in use. Instead, it would be a good idea to grab the person's shoulder and simply shake it once or twice. If they are still not responding, call 144 (or 9-1-1 in the U.S.) or tell someone else to do so. Subsequently, knee down next to the person in case you haven't done that already. Before checking if the person's still breathing, you need to use a certain technique that is called the head-tilt chin-lift maneuver. The clue is in the name. To make use of this maneuver, place one hand on the person's forehead and your fingers of the other hand on the chin. Push the forehead down and lift up the chin. By doing so, you ensure that the patient's airway are not obstructed by their tongue falling back. Please remember that the head-tilt chin-lift maneuver can unly be used if you are a 100% sure that the patient does not have any neck injuries.
Come closer to the person's head in order to hear whether they are breathing or not. At the same time, look towards the person's stomach so as to make out any breathing movement. It would be adivsable to do that at least for 10 seconds. If there is no breathing at all, start with a CPR immediately. In case the person is still breathing, place him or her in recovery position.

The recovery position

Unless the patient has an obvious neck injury, he or she MUST be placed in recovery position. To do so, be sure the patient lies on the back. Place one arm 90° away from the body. Then, grasp the patient's second arm as well as the leg of the same half of the body. By holding arm and leg, gently turn the person onto the side where the other arm lies. If I were you I'd ask someone to grasp the patient's head and turn it to the same side and at the same pace you turn the patient's body. Make sure the leg you just moved is bent. We don't want the patient to roll onto the stomach, do we? Not only should you bend the leg, the arm you just turned to the side should be bent as well. Following that, use the head-tilt chin-lift maneuver one more time with the aim of letting the patient inhale and exhale properly. Additionally, you can place the hand that's lying on top under the patient's cheek. Consequently, the patient will be in an absolute stable position.

The best thing to do while waiting for the ambulance is to stay close to the patient. You might want to check the breathing every three or four minutes. In rare cases the patient's condition may deteriorate, which is why checking whether the patient's still breathing is a must. Generally speaking: Take care not to become anxious or even panicky. There's nothing that could go amiss, so try to stay calm and think clearly.

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Any questions on that? Feel free to add a comment or ask me in person.

May I introduce Walter Elias Disney?

Walter "Walt" Elias Disney is one of the founders of the world-famous Walt Disney Company. It all started in 1901, when Walt was born in a city called Chicago, Illinois.

At this point, let's have a closer look at the state Illinois, so we can trace back Walt's roots more easily.
Illinois is located in the Midwest Region of the United States. While Chicago is Illinois' largest community, Springfield is home to the Illinois State Capitol, which makes it Illinois' capital city.

As you can see on the map, Illinois borders Iowa, Wisconsin, Lake Michigan (which belongs to Michigan), Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. The latter was a very significant place in Disney's life. When he and his family relocated to Marceline, Missouri, Disney found out he was a passionate and talented draftsman. Walt carried four years on his back when he realized he would become a cartoonist one day!

In 1917, Walt moved back to Chicago. After being rejected by the army, Walt joined the American Red Cross where he was sent to France to conduct an ambulance car. For me as a  voluntary paramedic this was really interesting to read!

First steps

Disney and his friend Ubbe Iwerks formed a company named "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists" in 1920. The company soon ceased to exist, whereupon Walt joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company in Missouri. Eventually, Walt launched his own business. With his very first employee, Fred Harman, Walt wrapped up a deal with Frank L. Newman (I'm not kidding!) who was the owner of the local theater in Kansas City. There, Walt and Frank presented their cartoons ("Laugh-O-Grams") for the very first time.
In 1923, Disney signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies. This year is considered as the beginning of "The Disney Brothers Studio". Unfortunately, their costs exceeded their returns, which is why they soon declared bankruptcy. Roy O. Disney, Walt's brother, invited him to come to Hollywood, CA. Once again, Walt launched the Disney Brothers Studio together with his brother Roy.

Does anyone of you remember this cartoon on the right hand side? Do you know how this "sort of Mickey Mouse" was called back then? Well, here's the answer: Published in 1928, this cartoon was the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon created by Walter Elias Disney. He was called the "Steamboat Willie". Doesn't ring a bell?
Some of you might have heard that the story of Disney started with a lucky rabbit. This is absolutely true: Before Walt made some early drafts on the Mickey Mouse, he drew a rabbit called "Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit".

Walt Disney's Masterpieces

Over the years, numerous things happened: Walt Disney's first full-color cartoons are introduced, Donald Duck appears, the Disney Studio relocates to Burbank, California and the first Disney park ("Disneyland") is opened in Anaheim, CA. What's more is the release of several films which are nowadays considerer as The Walt Disney Masterpieces. For example:

1937: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the very first animated film in Walt Disney's history
1940: Fantasia, one of today's classics
1950: Treasure Island, Disney's first live-action movie is released
And so on and so forth... 

What is your favorite disney movie? Which ones did you watch when you were a kid? Tarzan? The Lion King? 101 Dalmations? Beauty and the Beast? I watched so many Disney films in my childhood, I could never list all of them. Today, I watch a Disney movie every once in a while. Aren't they just amazing? I admire all the cartoonists and graphic designers who put so much work into this. Lately I found some early drafts of several Disney cartoons. I am going to show you two of them, but if you would like to see more, click here.

Do you recognize these two films?

Walter's private life

Walt got married to Lillian Marie Bounds at the age of 24. He had met her while Lillian worked as a secretary at the Disney Studio. His wife gave birth to a daughter in 1933, Diane Marie Disney, although Walt had always dreamed about having a son. The couple adopted a second daughter, Sharon Mae Disney, who was born in 1936.
By the way: It was not Walter who named his most famous cartoon character "Mickey Mouse". At first, Walter wanted to give him the name "Mortimer Mouse", whereupon Lillian told Walt it sounded "too pompous". His wife then suggested the name "Mickey Mouse".

His whole life, Walter had been chain smoking. In 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and soon afterwards died because of it. After his death, Lillian Disney gave a $50 million to the Walt Disney Company so as to construct a new concert hall. Six years after Lillians death, the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in Los Angeles, CA.

Some facts you surely didn't know about Disney

• Opinion polls show that Mickey Mouse wasn't the most famous cartoon, but Popeye the Sailor.
• Mickey Mouse was the first animated cartoon to talk. His first words were "Hot dog"!
• In some Disney movies, classic characters are hidden somewhere in the background. E.g. in the opening scenes of The Little Mermaid you can make out Goofy, Mickey and Donald. See for yourself in the picture on the right. If you want to see more scenes where other Disney characters are hidden, follow this link.
• Donald Duck's voice, Clarence Nash, created the dog barks for 101 Dalmations.
• Walt Disney's personal favorite character was Goofy.
• Bahlu (Baloo) is Hindi and means "bear".
• Lots of Disney films such as The Jungle Book or Pinnochio do not have a mother-character. Some say that's because of the early death of Disney's mother.  
• They used tiger roars for the Lion King as lions weren't loud enough.
• Simba is Swahili and means "lion".
• Originally, they wanted to name the film Lion King "King of the Jungle" until someone noticed that lions actually don't live in the jungle.
• Wall-E, the rubbish-compactor, was named after Walter Elias Disney.
• Sulley from Monsters Inc has more than 2.3 million individual hairs. It took the producers twelve hours to produce one single frame of Sulley.
• Cinderella's Castle was designed after Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, Germany.
• The correct plural form of "dwarf" is "dwarfes". The title "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" still says "dwarfs" because back then, "dwarfs" was grammatically right.
• There is a club called Club 33  within Disneyland. Opened in 1967, the club has a list of 487 members who are allowed to enter. Good luck with trying to get onto the list; the waiting list is of around 14 years.
• The Disney World resort is about the same size as San Francisco.
• Steve Jobs was a member of the board of Disney's directors. If you ever watched the film Cars, you might have seen a white racing car with the Apple logo and the number "84" on it (the first Macintosh computer was released in 1984). See for yourself on the picture below.

You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.

- Walt Disney

sources: thewaltdisneycompany.com, disney.wikia.com/wiki/, wikipedia.org, www.empireonline.com
image source (1): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walt_disney_portrait.jpg
image source (2): http://www.map-of-usa.co.uk/images/illinois.gif
image source (3): http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/sites/default/files/styles/775x/public/timeline-image/1928_11_18_3%20%282%29.jpg
image source (4): http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal05/2012/10/6/19/enhanced-buzz-32109-1349567318-4.jpg
image source (5): http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/10/6/18/enhanced-buzz-9106-1349562614-0.jpg
image source (6): http://izismile.com/2013/06/10/disney_characters_that_are_hidden_in_other_disney_27_pics.html
image source (7): http://bdd.worldofcars-forum.fr/bddcars/images/personnages/apple_car.png

How much money do you spend on food?

Have you ever thought about how much money you spend on food per week? Well, I did. And it's not that much, compared to what a family of four or five would spend. Additionally, there's a yawning gap between the amount of food an American family, for example, and a family in a rather poor country consumes.

To illustrate, I'd like to show you some photos of families of various countries, all presenting how much food they need per week. Likewise, I will try to name some groceries and foods that are shown in the photos. At the very end of the post, I will tell you how much money the families have spent on the foods they show in the pictures. Try to guess the amount of money first when you have a look at the photos.

At this point I would like to express a big THANKS to Peter Menzel who came up with this idea and shot these gorgeous photos. If you are interested in his work, click here.

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Our journey starts in Europe. This is the Melander family from Germany. Look at all the food they have! There's frozen pizza, lots of sausage, milk (I guess that these are milk cartons in the back), some bread, cheese, vegetables like pepper and tomatoes, lots of salad,... There is very little fruit, though, just bananas and some citrus fruits. It seems that they spend some money on drinks like beer and wine. They have, however, very little soft drinks. At least I can't make out any soft drinks, can you?
How much money did they spend on this amount of food? Can you guess?

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Say "Ciao" to the Manzo family living in Sicily, Italy. This family of five obviously consumes a lot of bread per week.  There is also lots of fruit like bananas, plums and pears. Can you guess what these red fruits are? They look similar to pomegranates, but I'm not sure. It looks like they have a lot of tinned food and some soft drinks in the back. Have you had a look at the shelf behind the family's father? There are some cereals and I think a glass of Nutella. What else can you make out?
Do you think this family spends more money on food than the family from Germany? In theory, they would spend more than the German family as they are five people. We will see...

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Going back west: North Carolina, United States: The Revis family.
All these groceries look so colorful, don't you think? What can you see there? What is different to the preceding families?
For the first time we have McDonalds and Burger King food. They also had pizza delivered. Unfortunately, there seem to be very little vegetables and fruit, except some tomatoes, apples and grapes. What's more is that they have this huge Coke bottle (or whatever that is) in the back. Can you see it? They also have crisps, tinned food, lots of sauces and some meat.
What would you say about their diet? Do you think they spend a lot of money on that kind of food?

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We're taking a trip to a country in Central America: Mexico. The Casales family says ¡Hola!
As you can see, this family of five has a great variety of fruit: bananas, lemons, limes, watermelons, pineapples, oranges... They have very little sweets, but lots of soft drinks instead. Would you say this family has a healthy diet? Why?

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We're now travelling to the western part of South America. These Ecuadoreans seem to have very little food compared to how many people the family consists of. What do you think is in these large white sacks? Do you think all this food will be enough for nine people for one week?

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Aren't you interested in what Asian people tend to eat? And how much money they spend on food weekly? Here's the Ukita family from Japan. Admittedly, there are several foods that I can't recognize. I can, however, see that there is a variety of seafood and very little vegetables and fruit. Can you recognize what all these foods are on the right handside? Do you think the seafood is expensive for them?

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Going from Japan to the western mainland: Mongolia. The Batsuuri family, consisting of four family members, seems to consume very little food in one week. There are plenty of eggs and potatoes and some bread and meat. Do you see any sweets on this photo? Can you guess how much money they spent on this amount of food?

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And this is the Aboubakar family living in Chad. No comment.

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So how much money did they spend?

It's really hard to take a guess, isn't it? You must be curious about the answers on how much money each family spent. So here's the solution:

German family (1): € 375.39 or $500.07
Italian family (2): € 214.36 or $260.11
American family (3): $341.98
Mexian family (4): 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Ecuadorean family (5): $31.55
Japanese family (6): 37,699 Yen or $317.25
Mongolian family (7): 41,985.85 togrogs or $40.06
Chadian family (8): $1.23 (!)

I assume you were as shocked as I was when I first saw these photos. How can a family of six people (African family) survive with so little food and water? For me, it's quite hard to imagine to do without all the food that we're used to eat. Do you think you could manage to live with so little food?

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If you found this article both intriguing and shocking, please don't thank me for providing this information and photos to you. Be grateful to the man who came up with the idea and made all these amazing photos.

source of information & photos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/26/102458/137/70/522670/#