Did You Know? Weight Loss

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People weigh less on Friday than any other day of the week.

If you are an ardent weight watcher, track your numbers after you weigh yourself every day. 

Within a few weeks you will notice that you are heavier in the beginning of your work week than you are at the end of your work week.

Researchers from Cornell University tracked 80 adults for a year.  When they weighed themselves every day, they were lightest on Fridays and heaviest on Mondays.  Their weekends were full of fun activities like going out to restaurants for dinner, drinking alcohol, and eating late night snacks. These pleasures were likely the reason for their high numbers they saw on Mondays.


 By working all week at a busier schedule, andby  eating a little more responsibly during the week, their weight hit a low point on Fridays, just in time to go out on the weekend for guilt-free dining and fun with friends.  


The study results may also indicate that the subjects were more careful to eat more responsibly during the week knowing they were going to overindulge on the weekend.


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Did You Know? History Repeats Itself

You have probably heard the phrase "history repeats itself" used in a number of different quotes.
   

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." 

The above quote is attributed to writer-philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952).  In its original form, it read, 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Sometimes the quote is changed around to make a particular point.

In 1948, Winston Churchill said: 

"Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it."

And sometimes it is so mangled that it doesn't even resemble the original quote.  This version is attributed to Mark Twain as researched by the Quote Investigator:

"History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes."

Here is a website that found ten of the worst ways that history has repeated itself.   

https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/10-worst-ways-history-has-repeated-itself.htm

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Did You Know? Almost Buried Alive

In 1915, a woman was late to her sister's funeral and told the undertaker she wanted to see her sister one last time. When the coffin was opened, the dead woman sat up and smiled, and she lived another 47 years.


Personal note: I would have died and taken her place in the coffin.


It's a true story! The 'dead' woman's name was Essie Dunbar and she really did live another 47 years.

You can read the story  here:

https://www.calebwilde.com/2014/05/true-story-essie-dunbar-lived-47-years-after-she-was-buried-alive/

Did You Know? Strange Laws Around The World

- In Birmingham, England, it is illegal for a man and a woman to have sex on church steps after sundown.

- In London, England, it is illegal to use a camera tripod, throw a stick for your dog or use an offensive powder like pepper on your jacket potato in any park.

- In London, England, wife beating is legal just as long as it is not after 9pm and it doesn't disturb the neighbours.

- In London, England, it is illegal to impersonate a Chelsea pensioner which once carried the death sentence in the 19th century.

- In Lebanon men are allowed to have sex with any other animal just as long as it is a female. If a man is caught having sex with a male animal then the penalty is death.

- Non-Christians have been banned from being within 20 metres of churches in Rovato, Italy. The move, instigated by the local government, has angered police because a major highway passes within 15 metres of one of the churches. Officers claim that they cannot be expected to stop motorists and demand to see a Baptism Certificate.

- North Carolina has a law to ban people from swearing in front of cadavers. The law also sets out guidelines transporting the recently deceased after one funeral firm was caught piling stiffs onto the back of a pick-up truck. It outlaws 'profanity, indecent or obscene language in the presence of a dead human body' making it technically illegal to say the 'f' word in front of a hearse!

- In Minnesota, USA, it is still against the law to hang male and female underwear together on the same washing line.

- In Indiana, USA, in the 1950's anything to do with Robin Hood was banned on the grounds that robbing from from the rich to give to the poor was a communist act!

- In England, in 1837, a law was passed that entitled a woman to bite off a man's nose if he kissed her against her will!

- The Egyptian government banned male belly-dancing in 1837 because of the enthusiastic riots that it caused.

- In Arizona, USA, it is illegal to hunt camels.

- In California, USA, in 1986, Judge Samuel King became so annoyed that jurors were absent from his court because of heavy rain that he issued a decree which stated "I hereby order that it cease raining by Tuesday." Amazingly it stopped raining on Tuesday and California suffered a 5 year drought. In 1991 the judge then decreed "Rain shall fall in California beginning February 27th." Later that day California had the heaviest rainfall in ten years.

- In Alexandria, Minneapolis, USA, it is against the law for a man to make love to a woman with the smell of sardines on his breath.

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ARE YOU A BELIEVER?

Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 after Nazis discovered her and her family hiding in an attic in Amsterdam because they were trying to avoid persecution for being Jewish.  According to two sisters who witnessed Anne and Margot's burial in a mass grave, Anne and Margot died from typhus sometime in August 1945.

Nine years later, a little girl named Barbro Karlen was born in Sweden on May 24, 1954. 

From the time Barbro Karlén was three years old (around 1957), she told her parents her name was not Barbro, that it was Anne Frank.  She began telling her parents strange stories about events that happened to her when she was named Anne Frank. 

Barbro had terrifying nightmares of men kicking in the door of her home, of hiding in a closet with her relatives and of soldiers taking them all away after they were found. 

Her parents didn't believe her. They had heard of Anne Frank but they didn't think that Anne was a real person. They didn't believe the Holocaust stories, so they thought Anne Frank was a fictitious character. 


Barbro Karlén's young parents were Swedish parents who were raised as Christians and they intended to raise their little daughter as a Christian too.  They didn't believe in reincarnation.  

But they do now.

At three years old, Barbro couldn't yet read and it wasn't likely that she had read about Anne Frank in a newspaper, magazine, or book.  It also wasn't likely that her parents or visiting family members would have spoken about a little German girl named Anne Frank who met her death in a concentration camp.  That's because up until Barbro started talking about her, the family of both Barbro's parents also did not believe there had been a Holocaust and thought Anne Frank was not a real person.  

Tracing the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank shows it was published in Germany and France in 1950 and in the United Kingdom in 1952.  By 1953, it was out of print because of low sales.  When Barbro was born in 1954, the book was out of print.


   

Anne Frank and Barbro Karlen at age 13 and adult

After Anne Frank's death, the detailed descriptive book Anne Frank penned - "The Diary of a Young Girl" - declared her to be a child prodigy.  Her father Otto Frank was the lone survivor.  He was given Anne's diary and after he read it, he decided in 1950 to have it published. It was published in Germany and France in 1950, and in 1952 in the United Kingdom. 

However, it was out of print by 1953 because of low sales and when Barbro was born on May 24, 1954, the book was out of print.

A small portion of the diary was excerpted in a small German newspaper in 1946 for three days, long before Barbro was born.  

In 1960, the book also became required reading in many school systems around the world. But Barbro had already been saying she was Anne Frank when she was three years old in 1957, which was before the book appeared in schools.


At age 16, Barbro was already an accomplished author of several books and she was also declared a child prodigy by age 12.  

When she was being bombarded with memories of a past life, her parents took her to a psychiatrist. Because she was afraid of being labeled crazy, she didn't share what was going on with her memories and dreams. The psychiatrist pronounced her "normal."

Since early childhood, Barbro had a fear of men in uniforms and it got to the point where she had bad anxiety attacks which continued into adulthood. To get over them, when she came of age as an adult she became a mounted police officer. She remained in the job for ten years and her fear has abated.

To this day, Barbro has an aversion to showers and will only take baths.  She attributes this to the fact that the Nazis herded everyone into a room and told them they were getting showered, and they were exterminated with poisonous gas.

There are a lot of people who don't believe in reincarnation and do not believe the Holocaust ever happened. 

But there are a lot more people who DO believe the Holocaust happened and it was a real event. Some also believe in reincarnation.

Are you among those who believe in reincarnation?

You can read much more about Barbro Karlen's fascinating story here. 

https://www.energytherapy.biz/2016/10/27/did-anne-frank-reincarnate-as-barbro-karlen-unbelievable-past-life-memories-prove-life-after-death-is-real/

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Interesting Facts About Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley was an Old West sharpshooter who gained fame appearing in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Tour, a traveling show.  But as much as she was considered a Western star, she was not born in the Old West.  Here are some interesting facts you might not have known about her.

Annie Oakley starred as a sharpshooter in
Buffalo Bill's Wild West traveling show

Annie Oakley was her stage name. Her birth name was Phoebe Ann Mosey, but her family called her Annie. Some historians show the family name as Moses or Mozee, but the census records show as Mosey.

A historical marker at the cemetery
where the Mosey family is buried

Annie's father died when she was four. She first started shooting at age six and by age eight was expertly hunting and killing small game.  She learned to shoot once to the head so the body and skins would be clean so she could sell them to local shopkeepers.  The money she earned helped to support the family until her mother remarried. 

A young Phoebe Ann Mosey (Annie Oakley),
around six years old

The farm where Annie was raised in Darke County Ohio

After contracting pneumonia at age ten, Annie and her sister were hospitalized in an infirmary that was also a home for indigents - the poorhouse. With so many children to take care of, Annie's mother told the infirmary that it was best if they stayed in the state-run home. When her sister recovered, she wanted to go home. But the childless owners of the infirmary took Annie into their home. The wife was hoping to tame her wild ways and teach her ladylike tasks like sewing and embroidery. One day, the owners got a visit from a farming couple who said that they needed a live-in caregiver for their baby son while they worked on their farm. They said they would pay a handsome salary of fifty cents a week ($9.77 in 2019 dollars) and they promised to provide a formal education to whoever was chosen for the job.

The owners immediately agreed to give up ten-year-old Annie.  Shortly after Annie went to live with the farming couple,  they began to physically and mentally abuse her. She tried to run away many times and was beaten when she was caught.  

Two years after she went to live with them, she escaped during the night. Her mother and her new husband took Annie back to live with them on the farm, and Annie went back to hunting and selling her kills.  

Annie around age 16

    

 

At age 15, Annie earned enough money from hunting and selling fresh game that she was able to pay off the mortgage on the family farm.  

Annie met Frank Butler, her future husband, after 
beating him in a shooting contest and winning $100 on a bet ($2300 in 2019).

A young Frank Butler, preparing to marry Annie Oakley

After a very short courtship, she began living with him. It turns out he couldn't marry her because he was still married to another woman.  Even though Frank claimed in public that he married Annie on August 23, 1876, Frank wasn't divorced from his first wife until 1881. He married Annie in 1882.

Proof of marriage in 1882 

Annie appeared with her husband in traveling shows for nine years and was billed as a teen sharpshooter.  After they were working for a while in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, they started to downplay her age.

Graham and Butler toured traveling shows
demonstrating their shooting prowess

For sixteen seasons, they traveled around the world, with Annie as billed as an expert female sharpshooter.  Annie wowed audiences with her one of a kind act that many tried to duplicate but few succeeded, especially the trick where she hit targets by aiming backward using a hand mirror to look over her shoulder.

Annie Oakley shooting over her shoulder
at a target while using a mirror

William Randolph Hearst, Newspaper Owner

Annie Oakley sued millionaire newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst for reporting a horrendous and false story in two of his newspapers that Annie Oakley was a cocaine addict who was arrested for stealing a black man’s pants.  When more than 50 other newspapers picked up the story,  Annie Oakley went into attack mode trying to clear her name.  

It turned out that a burlesque performer using the stage name of Ann Oakley was the one who was arrested.  Most of the newspapers printed retractions, but William Randolph Hearst refused to do so.  Instead, he went into his own attack mode and hired a private eye to get any dirt that could be found on Annie Oakley. He found only that her marriage date was in question, but nothing else.  

Annie sued 55 newspapers for libel and by 1910, she had won settlements from 54 of them.  She did win a $27,500 settlement from Hearst (which is 741,318 in 2019), but the total of her legal expenses outweighed all of the settlements she received so that she lost money trying to clear her name.

Annie Oakley endorsed some products early in her career

While Oakley was dealing with her libel suits against William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, Frank Butler became a spokesperson for the Union Metallic Cartridge Company. (an ammunitions company) and Annie continued to lend her name to products.  When Annie retired in 1913 from her last Wild West Show, the couple settled into retirement and helped to raise money for the Red Cross for World War I.   Annie did occasional demonstrations but her professional performing ceased.

Canada Dry was only one of many food products Annie Oakley endorsed.

 

In 1912, the Butlers built a brick ranch-style house in Cambridge, Maryland. It is known as the Annie Oakley House and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. In 1917, they moved to North Carolina and returned to public life. Until she became too ill to do so, Annie continued to go hunting with her dog whenever possible.

Signed by Annie Oakley, she enjoyed hunting with her dog.

Working in a man's world, Annie Oakley played to very rowdy audiences.  However, she never lost sight of her femininity and made it a point to appear in embroidered skirts and blouses. What most patrons didn't know was that the stitching on her costumes was by her own hand during down times between cities. It was a skill she most likely learned in her youth from the infirmary owners.  

Annie personally did all the embroidery on her clothes

 Annie Oakley died on November 3, 1926, at the age of 66, after a three-year illness of pernicious anemia, which is caused by a lack of Vitamin B-12.   She was cremated according to her wishes and her ashes were placed in one of her shooting trophies, then given to her husband, Frank.  Some say that to go on without her was too much for Frank Butler to bear. He died 18 days later on November 21, 1926.  The trophy was placed next to his body in his coffin and was buried with him. He is buried near the Mosey family plots. 

Annie Oakley, around 62 years old

Annie Oakley with her husband Frank, and their dog.
This is one of the last public pictures of Annie Oakley

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The meaning of generosity

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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Human Chess Game

In 1924, there was a rather unconventional chess match being played in Leningrad Square (St. Petersburg, Russia) by Peter Romanovsky and Ilya Rabinovich, who were two popular chess masters of the 1920s.



The players used the telephone to call each other to say what the moves they had made.  Then humans on horses acting as chess pieces were directed to move across a huge chessboard covering Palace Square.  



Members of the Soviet Union's Red Army served as the black pieces; members of the Soviet Navy were the white pieces.   


Each match lasted a laborious five hours. With relaying moves using the telephone and instructing humans to make the moves, it's a wonder it didn't last much longer than five hours. 

The game was primarily designed to promote interest among Russian youth that would ultimately lead to world-wide competitions. This human chess game was so popular that it became an annual event.  




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https://nowyouknowthis2.blogspot.com/2019/06/human-chess-game.html

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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Divorce Vending Machine

An idea that was far ahead of its time

Infant Seat for Flying

Infant seat attached to overhead compartment 1953

Back in 1953, BOAC supplied skycots, a hammock type of carrier, that clipped onto the lip of the overhead baggage compartment just above the heads of the parents sitting in the seats below.  Skycots were supplied free to parents of infants who were not able to crawl or turn over yet.  

Although the child had to be held in the arms of a parent for liftoff and landing, for the duration of the airplane trip, the child lay snug and secure in the skycot above them. Its scoop-like sides evidently were all that was needed to keep the child from falling out.  

So I guess they didn't have any turbulence back then?

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https://nowyouknowthis2.blogspot.com/2019/05/infant-seat-for-flying.html

The World's Tiniest Diamond Heist

A New York City gem dealer almost immediately discovered that the diamond thief was an ant because he had traveled only a few feet away.  The dealer filmed as the ant managed to steal one diamond, which is almost as big as he is, from a pile of very small diamonds that we can see on the desk. The camera zooms in and follows the ant carrying his glittering booty across the table. 


It's an interesting but short video, 47 seconds. Take a look. 

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The Deadly Dare

In 2010 Sam Ballard, a 20-year-old aspiring Australian rugby player, was at a party with friends. He was dared to swallow a live slug from the garden, and Sam took the dare. His friends later said he seemed unaffected because he didn't get sick or act any differently after swallowing the slug.  

Slugs are not meant to be eaten

A few days after swallowing the slug, Sam started getting pains in his legs. He was vomiting and he complained of dizziness.  His family took him to the hospital where he only got worse and worse. After doctors ran tests, it turned out that it wasn't just any old slug that he swallowed. 


This one had a parasite called rat lungworm which the slug probably picked up from eating rat droppings. 


Rat lungworm infection can progress into bacterial meningitis, causing symptoms like dizziness, headaches, nausea, weird sensations in arms and legs, brain damage and, eventually, paralysis.  


Within a few hours after arriving at the hospital, Sam lapsed into a coma. He was placed in a nursing home because he required 24/7 care.    While in a coma, Australia's National Disability Insurance cut off his benefits. 


His family took his story to the media and they requested donations to pay for his care. The donations trickled in. When Sam finally woke up from coma 420 days later, he learned his career aspirations to be a rugby player were crushed because he was permanently paralyzed from the neck down.  

After much media publicity, the Australian government reversed their decision but they only approved him for half the money of what his previous benefit had been. 

On the left, Sam Ballard at present day. On the right, Sam Ballard during his heyday.

After 8 years of dealing with seizures, infections, paralysis, pressure sores and other symptoms, Sam Ballard died on November 2, 2018, at age 28. 


Your takeaways from this story: 

1 - Teach your children to use common sense when accepting a dare.  

2 - If the dare calls for eating something that isn't on your regular diet, don't do it. 

3 - Never eat, swallow or handle anything that could be carrying a parasite - like slugs, snails, land crabs, freshwater shrimp, or frogs to name a few.  

4 - Don't eat or handle vegetables that are grown in a slug's environment.  

5 - Wash your hands often if you come into contact with any of the above mentioned.

6 - Inspect your eating utensils and make sure they are thoroughly clean when they have been in contact with frogs, snails, slugs, etc. 


Sources: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/11/05/young-rugby-player-ate-slug-mates-dare-now-hes-dead



The boys who dared Sam
https://www.mamamia.com.au/sam-ballards-life-changed-after-slug/



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Legally Married To A Dead Person

A person can legally marry a dead person in France and it's legal! This type of marriage is called a posthumous marriage or necrogamy. Similar forms of marriage are also permitted in Sudan and China.

Legally marrying the dead is called necrogamy

During World War I, there were women who used a proxy to marry soldiers that had died weeks earlier. For civilians, posthumous marriage originated in the 1950's, when 400 people were killed in France after a dam broke. 


André Capra was killed in the disaster and he was engaged to Iréne Jodart.  Irene pleaded with French President Charles de Gaulle to let her continue with her marriage plans even though her fiancé had died. She had huge support from the media and within months, she was allowed to marry her dead fiancé. 

After the dam tragedy, France’s parliament made these marriages legal with their own law and since then, literally hundreds of women have formally filed for as postmortem marriages.


As with anything, there are Rules:

1 - Anyone in France who wants to file for posthumous marriage must send a request to the President of France, who forwards it to the Justice Minister, who forwards it to the prosecutor for the surviving member’s district.


2 - If the couple had originally planned on getting married and if the family of the deceased approves, the prosecutor sends the application back to the President. One out of every four applicants for posthumous marriage is rejected.


3 - Examples of ways to legally show good intentions are for the man to have posted banns (official wedding announcements) at the local courthouse or written permission from a soldier's commanding officer.


4 - Requests also include records that show a serious cause for the marriage - such as the birth of a child or the death of the fiancé.


5 - Pregnancy alone or a letter that promises marriage is not enough, partly because such letters have a reputation for being illegitimate.


6 - The marriage date always goes back to the day before the deceased spouse died.


7 - Even if the couple were engaged and had published banns, a posthumous marriage won't automatically happen, partly because living engaged couples can (and do) change their minds at the last minute.


8 - A posthumous marriage can also be denied based on the testimony of a trustworthy individual. The judge’s role is to make sure that the paperwork has been properly filled out. The judge cannot change or question the authority of the documents.

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