Most Creative Tattoo Ever ?!
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10 Creepiest Food Facts.
Please don't read this post if your hungry right now because you won't feel same after reading these mind blowing creepiest facts .
1.THE AVERAGE FAST FOOD PATRON EATS 12 PUBIC HAIRS IN A GIVEN YEAR.
"we all get rare occasional hair in our food but Ingesting unwanted hair is more likely to occur at fast food restaurants."
2.A STRAWBERRY MCDONALD'S MILK SHAKE CONTAINS 50 ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS
"Apparently, real strawberries are expensive. So fast food companies like McDonald's choose to use a ridiculous concoction of 50 chemicals to effectively imitate the flavor of one real-world food. These chemicals include ethyl acetate, phenythyl alcohol and solvent."
3.THIS IS WHERE CHICKEN NUGGETS COME FROM.(updated on 28 december 2012)
"Before reshaping, foods like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, bologna and pepperoni look like a disgusting sludge of pink paste. This is done through a process called mechanical separation, which is a cost-effective way to "smooth out" bone remnants left after the de-boning process. The process results in excessive bacteria, which is fixed by washing the meat in ammonia. To cover up that delicious ammonia flavor, the meat is then re-flavored artificially and dyed to resemble to type of meat it once was."
McDonald's Chicken McNuggets are typically offered as an example of a popular MSP-based food, since 2003 that product has been made with all white meat rather than MSP.
4.THERE ARE BUGS AND RODENT HAIR IN YOUR PEANUT BUTTER.
"FDA laws allow for an average of 30 insect fragments per 100 grams of peanut butter. In that same half cup of peanut butter, you'll also find at least one rodent hair (on average). Yum! Now that's good eating!"
5. SHELLAC IS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT IN JELLY BEANS.
"Shellac is a type of finishing product that is typically used to improve the shine of wood and furniture. However, it can also be used to improve the shine of certain foods, such as jelly beans. Where does shellac come from? Why, it's secreted by an insect in Thailand called the Kerria Iacca of course!"
6.VARIOUS VIRUSES CAN BE FOUND ON PROCESSED LUNCH MEAT
"Food production companies have long sought ways to combat unhealthy microbes found on processed foods such as lunch meat and hot dogs. A few years ago, the FDA approved the use of bacteriophages (a.k.a. viruses) that help kill these dangerous microbes. So, basically, viruses are purposely being added to your food to improve shelf life."
7.IF NOT FOR ONE INGREDIENT, DRINKING A CAN OF COKE WOULD MAKE YOU VOMIT.
"While cocaine was long taken out of Coca-Cola long ago, the current formula is still formulated to get you high. Each can of Coke contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. This is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake. In normal circumstances, the extreme sweetness of this much sugar would immediately cause you to vomit uncontrollably. However, since all that sugar is addictive and keeps you coming back for more, Coca-Cola adds phosphoric acid -– an ingredient that cuts the sweetness to manageable levels."
8.FAST FOOD SALADS CONTAIN CHEMICALS USED IN ANTIFREEZE.
"Choosing to "eat healthy" at a fast food restaurant isn't necessarily a good idea. To prolong crispness, packaged salads are dusted with Propylene Glycerol, a chemical commonly found in antifreeze. In its concentrated form, the chemical has been known to cause eye and skin irritation"
9.CHICKEN MCNUGGETS CONTAIN BEEF.
"Many fast food chicken items contain beef additives used to enhance flavor and juke health stats. Chicken McNuggets, the Wendy's Grilled Chicken Sandwich, and KFC Grilled Chicken Sandwich are a few examples. Check the ingredients, and you'll see no sign of such atrocities. That's because such beef additives are listed as "extract" or "essence.""
10.PROCESSED CHEESE IS LESS THAN 51 PERCENT CHEESE.
"A more accurate name for Kraft Singles and other packaged cheeses is "cheese-like substance." Any cheese product labeled as processed or pasteurized includes additives, chemicals and flavorings that account for up 49 percent of the total product. As a result, that cheap cheese in your grocery store has just enough real cheese in it to allow companies to call it cheese."
VIDEO (Top 10 Most Disgusting Meals)
Doctors regularly give in to patient pressure to prescribe brand-name drugs
Doctors who reported marketing relationships with pharmaceutical companies were significantly more likely to report having yielded to such requests.
The survey was send to 3,500 physicians across the United States, 500 each from the specialties of anesthesia, cardiology, family practice, general surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics and psychiatry. The researchers received nearly 1,900 responses.
Doctors were asked whether, in the past year, they had "prescribed a brand-name drug when an equivalent generic was available because the patient asked for the brand-name drug specifically." Physicians were able to answer "never," "rarely," "sometimes" or "often."
Almost 40 percent of respondents answered either "sometimes" or "often."
"The good news is that 63 percent of physicians indicated they never or rarely prescribed a brand-name drug instead of an equivalent generic simply because of a patient request," lead researcher Eric G. Campbell said. "However, our data suggest that a substantial percentage - 37 percent or about 286,000 physicians nationally - do meet those requests.
"Since generics are from 30 to 80 percent cheaper than the brand-name versions, that would represent a significant source of unnecessary health costs."
Pharmaceutical companies exert strong influence
Upon analyzing the data, the researchers found that doctors who had been practicing for more than 30 years were significantly more likely than others to fulfill patient requests. Doctors in solo or two-person practices were also more likely to give in. The specialties in which doctors were most likely to give were internal medicine and psychiatry.
Doctors who had received food, beverages or drug samples from the pharmaceutical industry were significantly more likely to prescribe brand-name drugs. The study did not find any connection, however, between prescribing practices and larger gifts from drug companies, such as speaking or consulting fees, gifts, or travel reimbursements.
"While we cannot prove a cause-and-effect between industry marketing activities and prescribing practices, at the most basic level these data suggest that industry marketing works," Campbell said. "Our results also raise serious doubts about the desirability of meeting with drug company representatives to 'stay up to date'."
"Reducing or eliminating this practice represents low-hanging fruit in terms of reducing unnecessary spending in medicine," co-author Christine Vogeli said. "However, doing so will likely be unpopular with some patients, physicians and certainly with the drug industry."
Measures to reduce unnecessary prescribing of brand-name drugs could include programs to educate patients, who are often influenced by drug-company advertising. The authors also suggested that hospitals and health-care systems could ban industry gifts of food and beverages, and require the dispensing of drug samples only through their pharmacies rather than directly from doctors. They also suggested that the United States adopt the system already in place in the Veteran's Health Administration, where pharmacists decide whether to dispense a brand-name or generic drug, except under special circumstances..
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038772_brand-name_drugs_doctors_patients.html#ixzz2V4khE1x6
"Can I Have a Hug?" Helping Children with Hello and Goodbye
Q. My 5 year old is not big on hellos or goodbyes.
Most of the time, I have been okay with this, but there are times when it seems inappropriate. For example, last summer we visited my family on the East Coast. My daughter didn't connect with my dad too much despite having spent a lot of time in his house. When he took us to the airport, my dad tried to give my daughter a hug goodbye but she refused. Of course, I felt bad but didn't push her. But I did express to her that that didn't feel good to Grandpa and that he's her grandfather (implying that she "should" have given him a hug). How do you suggest handling these situations?
A. Great topic to think through with you! Here are my thoughts, and a few ways to use Listening Tools to loosen things up for your child and others. It's an issue that every self-respecting child has with ritual interactions with adults.
First, we need to support our children to give affection when they feel like it, when it comes from the heart. If we force our children to give affection in ritual ways, or on demand, to adults who "deserve" it, there may be unintended consequences.
If they have to be affectionate with adults when we want them to, will they able to stick up for themselves under other circumstances? Will they feel strong enough to say “no” under the pressure to agree to someone’s touch in order to please that person, or to "prove themselves?” I think that compliance with adult wishes for affection is not what we want for our children. We want them to experience real relationships, with a genuine show of affection that’s mutual and fulfilling.
So, my personal policy is that no child of mine (and no grandchild) has to give any particular kind of affection to relatives, guests, friends, or even to me as mom or grandma. I recommend this policy. That way you and others will receive real affection on your daughter’s timetable. You’ll have to be surprised as to when and where her affection will be expressed.
On the other hand, it's easy for children to feel so isolated that they can’t be tender, reach out, or show caring. When they are upset, this is how they are (and so are we, come to think of it). They need our help to relax, get connected, and to at least acknowledge the presence of others around them. It's a good idea to help them with saying hello or goodbye to relatives and friends. We need to find a way to nudge them toward a bit of contact, a way that's not coercive. We want to help them defend their integrity.
And long-range, we need to find ways to use Listening Tools to help children when they have come to hate ritual kinds of contact, so they can regain their ability to acknowledge and connect with the people in their lives. What I like to do is to set the expectation that they will do some kind of acknowledgment of people at hello or goodbye. Exactly how they do that is up to them.
So when grandpa comes, you could set this up by saying, "Honey, Grandpa is here. How do you want to say hello?" If she runs away, you then say, lightly, "Oh, that’s how you say hello! I see! You run away. Hmmm, I wonder how Grandpa is going to say hello to you? Let's see if he can find you!" You then prompt Grandpa to give big generous air kisses when he finds her. Maybe this turns into an affectionate chase game for a little while. You would hope for some laughter (if your tone is pleased and surprised enough, laughter will come), and some good will from grandpa.
Or if she buries her head in your shoulder, then you say, "Hmmm, we have a buried girl here. Let's see if her foot can say hello," and you move her foot. She withdraws, of course, because she is showing you a place where she can’t feel safe. But you continue, lightly, "Oops, Grandpa, no foot-hello today. Maybe she can do a trotting hello. Stay there, Grandpa, we're coming!" and you back away, then trot toward him with her in your arms, bounce, bounce, bounce, then bonk into his shoulder. You're hoping for laughter. If not, I would try that again, saying, "Hmmm, didn't work this time, but I bet it will work if we do it again. Get ready for your trotting hello, Grandpa! We're coming!"
You might get a good cry. You might get some laughter. You might, if she's really locked into withdrawal, have to move toward gently prying her away from you an inch or two, and letting her cry about not wanting to say hello. You have to explain this situation to Grandpa, of course. “Sorry she’s feeling shy. Her feelings come up when she’s with people she feels safe with, so this is actually a complement to you, Dad. When she’s cried, she’ll be able to connect better with you. She’s getting some barriers out of the way.”
It may be that you won’t be able to use Listening Tools right then and there, because of judgments that will come down on you and on her from a Dad who can’t understand children’s upsets. In that case, let her sit there awhile, and say, "Grandpa, She's going to say hello to you in her own way. Let's be on the lookout for how she does it." Your daughter will find a way--every child wants to connect. Find any excuse, and call it "Her hello."
Here are some games you can experiment with that can help children connect better with those they don't know well:
Hold-a-gaze hide and seek: While doing pillow fights, when you are down and have been "gotten" by a pillow, hide your face, and say, "Oooh, is she out there? I don't want to look!" then, slowly, peek out, saying, "Ohhh, I hope no one is looking at me! I don’t want to see anyone’s eyes!" Peek, squeal, and hide again. Often children who have a hard time connecting love this game. You've reversed the roles, and it's hilarious to them. They burn into you with their gaze, and you keep hiding, timidly come out, and show that you’re still afraid to be caught by her gaze.
I'm going to give you 100 kisses: Take a big-hearted but slow and goofy stance. Hold your arms out, and say, "I have great big kisses for you. Here I come!" and then walk toward her, but walk straight into the wall instead, or run into the sofa and plop down. She is yards away. You missed! Try again, but fail to hug her. Then, full of consternation, try backing towards her, thinking that your hugs might be able to find her if you go backwards. You get the idea.
Put out lots of effort to hug, lots of goofy tries, while she gets to dance away and laugh at your silliness. Beg and plead for just one kiss, and as you lurch toward her, kiss the air with your eyes closed, or kiss a chair or the doorjamb. Then open your eyes and see that you’ve lost again! She's not there. Whatever gets the most laughter is the thing to keep doing.
No huggie, no kissie: A version of the above, which can become a frequent game upon arrival and departure. You try to hug or kiss, and your child runs. You make as much eye contact as you can—that’s the acknowledgment and the connection that matters. Everything else is frosting on that cake—it’s not necessary, but you can playfully try for more. You spend 3 minutes trying hard for a hug or a kiss, and when you decide you're done, you say, "Great! I got no hugs. no kisses. But someday, someday, someday, I'll get one! I'll just have to try again next time! Thanks for a good run around the house!"
In these games, you do need to make physical contact, playfully, sooner or later. If you don't, your child will feel, deep inside, like there's something wrong with her. The contact you make should be playful, physical, possibly very brief if your child tenses or freezes when you come that close. Watch what promotes laughter, and keep at it. Some children need lots of physical wrestling to promote laughter and eye contact. Others need you to stay across the room most of the time for them to feel safe enough and in charge enough to laugh. You'll see what works. If your child screeches, you're coming on too strong.
These games help relieve children’s paralysis when affection is expected of them, but not felt by them. And they can help undo big feelings about those adult expectations, which often look automatic, and therefore unappealing, to children. They’ll help you set up interesting, fresh, never-before-experienced hellos and goodbyes, in which your child can play at connecting, and succeed, sooner or later, when laughter has bestowed its very special effect on the hearts of young and old.
You also might consider introducing your father to the idea of Grandpa Time. It’s a simple idea, but can really help awkward grandparents begin to build a relationship with their grandchildren on the grandchild’s terms. You set up something interesting and unusual to do: play dough in 4 colors; gluing buttons to art paper; playing with pipe cleaners; or taking the dog for a walk with a kerchief around his neck. It’s not Special Time, per se, but it’s something you set up to ease them into contact and connection. You can hover a bit, to keep your daughter feeling safe, but stay in the background, so your father can be the featured adult.
Let us know what you try, and how it works out!
Source : http://www.handinhandparenting.org/
Market Minute: HMO Stocks Rise on Medicare Advantage News
The Dow and the S&P 500 retreated yesterday from record highs. The Dow edged lower by five points, the S&P lost seven and the Nasdaq fell 28 points.
Shares of health insurance provider Humana (HUM) jumped yesterday and are set to gain more today. This follows an apparent change of course by Medicare, which is now calling for an increase in reimbursement rates on its Advantage plans. UnitedHealth (UNH), Aetna (AET) and Wellpoint (WLP) are also on the rise.
Another supporter falls off of the Apple (AAPL) bandwagon. Goldman Sachs (GS) dropped Apple from its conviction buy list, and lowered its price target on the stock. But Goldman still expects Apple to hit 575 dollars a share within the next 12 months. It's now around 429 a share.
A former Anheuser-Busch (BUD) employee claims the company has filed suit against him in order to silence him. The employee charged last week that the company is selling watered-down beer. Anheuser-Busch rejects those allegations.
The major automakers report domestic sales for March, and analysts are looking the recent strong sales trend to continue. Edmunds expects the best annual sales rate in almost six years. Yesterday, General Motors (GM) launched a new front in its battle with Ford over pick-up trucks. GM claims its Sierra and the soon-to-be released 8-cylinder Silverado get better gas mileage than Ford's top-selling F-150.
Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) are reportedly working on a plan to break-up Vodaphone. According to a Financial Times blog, Verizon would acquire the U.S. assets and AT&T would take the overseas assets. The deal would value Vodaphone at 245-billion dollars.
And shares of Nuance Communications (NUAN) are set to rally on word that billionaire investor Carl Icahn has taken a nine percent stake. It's described as a passive stake, which means he's not seeking a takeover of the speech recognition firm.
Source : http://www.dailyfinance.com/
More than 1,700 people apply for just EIGHT jobs at Costa Coffee shop
More than 1,700 people applied for eight jobs at a new coffee shop, in an indication of how tough the jobs market remains.
Coffee shop chain Costa said it received 1,701 applications for the posts at their new branch in Mapperley, Nottingham, after advertising in early December.
It comes ahead of new unemployment figures published by the Office for National Statistics tomorrow.
A spokeswoman for Costa said the firm was shocked at the response for the three full-time and five part-time posts at the shop, which is due to open on Woodborough Road on Friday.
She said applicants for the posts, with wages between £6.10 and £10 an hour, ranged from new graduates to former managers who were clearly overqualified for the positions.
The applicants included employees of music chain HMV and Clinton Cards, which have both been among a number of high street stores forced to call in the administrators due to the tough economic climate.
More than 1,000 jobs are to be lost at HMV as administrators announced it is to close 66 of the music chain's 220 UK stores over the next two months. Hundreds of jobs were also lost when Clinton went into administration last year but many were saved when the brand was bought by a US firm.
The spokeswoman for Costa said: "We were shocked at the response - I don't think we expected anything like the number of applications we received. Applicants ranged from new graduates to ex-shop managers among others, and we've been really encouraged to see so many people wanting to work at their local Costa store."
Source : http://www.independent.co.uk/
What Hasn’t Changed: The Internet Keeps Getting Bigger.
Recent articles by the WSJ, Fred Wilson, & others are noting a shift in investor interest to enterprise and away from consumer. If true, this is a huge error… at least for entrepreneurs, angels, and smaller funds. There is no better time than the present to build cheap & scalable software-based businesses that make money. And while there is lots of new potential for using consumer marketing techniques in the enterprise, let's not be too hasty in digging an early grave for the Interwebs, shall we?
Having been in the valley for over twenty years, and an investor in startups for almost ten, I've seen at least 2 investor cycles of switching back & forth from consumer to enterprise. While i agree with Fred it’s helpful to know what themes downstream investors are funding, IMHO most VCs switching from consumer to enterprise are clueless about why they’re doing so. For the few VCs who do have their shit together and have some domain-specific expertise, i am quite confident they will continue to invest in areas they know well whether the market is up, down, or sideways.
As the saying goes: if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.
Regardless, though I respect Fred greatly, let me state my position for the record – consumer and small business internet opportunities are FAR from “over”, and any such commentary is foolish, narrow-minded, and simply dead wrong (altho, it may indeed be “over” for most large funds attempting to do seed-stage investing at any scale similar to YC or 500). In addition, i most certainly take issue with the statement that it’s “harder than ever to build a large audience”… nothing could be further from the truth. Almost every possible internet distribution channel has MORE users than ever before – whether it be search, social, mobile, video, local, SMS, email, chat, etc. And for those of us who invest outside silicon valley and new york, the global consumer opportunity is huge as well in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and other fast-growing internet and mobile markets.
In fact, the assertion that consumer is “tougher” is so absolutely incorrect and provably wrong that i’m puzzled why anyone would even say such a thing. The number of recent internet services that have grown from nothing to hundreds of millions of users is frankly rather astonishing – Pinterest, Instagram, Groupon, Zynga – all of these took less than a few years to get to hundreds of millions of users and in some cases billions of revenue. While Groupon & Zynga have certainly fallen Icarus-like from higher heights, it’s still the case that both are amazing for how fast they grew and acquired users via search, social, and other channels. Perhaps mobile app distribution can be challenging sometimes, due to Google and Apple still learning how best to offer organic or paid distribution on mobile. But regardless we've invested in several startups that have gathered millions of users quickly, and in a few cases tens of millions of users in under a year (ex: 9GAG, PicCollage, Cubie).
But i think most of this discussion is missing the main point. Historically, the venture capital industry has been used to finance high-risk business where significant capital is required to get companies off the ground, usually in two key areas: building product, and acquiring customers. But in today's world, it's certainly MUCH cheaper & faster to build product than ever before, and due to the explosion in adoption of consumer platforms, it's also cheaper to acquire customers than ever before (altho here is where larger VC can be helpful in scaling up fast). This is why it's such a great time to be an internet entrepreneur – it's REALLY EASY to bootstrap most internet and mobile businesses to at least the operational stage on a very small amount of cash. But in the early days, capital is nowhere near as important to the company as domain expertise. VCs who don't have operational experience in building product or internet marketing probably shouldn't be active investors in early-stage consumer and small business internet services. And clearly this is what we are seeing with the smarter funds – they're waiting until Series A or B when companies have clear traction before they jump in, when they may require larger amounts of capital to finance growth. However, later-stage investors are also aware many companies can get to break-even without raising big rounds of venture capital, and may simply choose to operate on their own cashflow, or perhaps debt-based financing. Thus, bigger funds may miss out on many “small” deals that break out early and/or get to profitability early.
Lastly, there is one other big trend that is likely to force larger VC funds out of consumer and small business internet services: monetization keeps getting better and better, and exits are getting earlier and more often. Altho internet payment services are still a big pain in the ass, in most of the US and EU it's taken for granted you can pay online and have goods delivered to your door. While this isn't the case yet in many big markets in Asia, India, Latin America, and Eastern Europe & the Middle East, give it another few years and it will become commonplace. And as online payments and monetization improves, again we will see less need for venture capital to finance customer acquisition for successful internet businesses. It just won't be cost-effective for big VC to finance all the “little” startups that are going to be built on consumer commerce and small business services. There will be thousands of small wins, but larger funds can't handle the scale required to do so many small investments. Maybe we need something like the SBA small business loan equivalent, but on the the equity side.
So for all of you folks ready to call it a day on investing in consumer internet, i'm happy to see you go… that just means less competition for those of us ready to really dig in and invest at scale in all the millions of new “small” businesses that will emerge and dominate the globe in coming years.
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