Posts

Showing posts from September, 2014

Random Facts About.... Tea

Image
WELCOME BACK EVERYBODY. Here for you another "Random Facts About". This should be added to the circle of most common food. So far we've snooped around  Chocolate ,  Coffee ,  Fruits ,  Sugar  and some other  Unexpected Ingredients , but now we will focus on the most English beverage ever known. Yes, my dear gentlemen... I'M TALKING ABOUT TEA. 1.   There are many different kinds of tea (up to 1500 types), but they are all derived from just one plant called  Camellia sinensis, plant that can keep producing tea for 50 years. The color and variety of the tea (green, black, white, oolong) depends, however, on the way the leaves are treated. Generally this treatment is an oxidation process. Black tea undergoes the longest process of oxidation. White tea undergoes the shortest. 2.  Tea is a natural antioxidant, and rich in vitamins: it contains vitamins B2, B1 and B6. Tea, however, is also rich in potassium, manganese, folic acid and calcium. 3.  Experts have alwa

Discovery Central - Morphine, Opium and Heroin

Image
Welcome back to all my Snoopers. This time I'll be giving you discoveries, mainly scientific ones. This new collection of articles called "Discovery Central" will be your link to the origins of the most common and used chemicals around. And the one I'm going to talk about this time is probably one of the most effective painkiller ever used. To be properly clear, Morphine (formula on the right) is an analgesic drug derived from opium but far more reliable and powerful. Like other chemicals of the same family, called opioids, morphine acts directly on the central nervous system (CNS) to relieve pain. As everybody know, it's highly addictive and the abuse can reverse the effects fairly rapidly, worsening pain through Hyperalgesia. The discovery of Morphine changed pharmacology and pain relief. But to start talking about it, we have to begin with the origins and use of opium. Derived from the seedpods of the poppy, opium (scientifically called Papaver somnifer

Urban Legends - Nessie, The Loch Ness Monster

Image
If you follow my blog, you’re now probably saying “What took you so long?”. And you’re right. This time I’m going to talk about the most mysterious and wonderful legend of all time: The Loch Ness Monster (Nessie for friends) and who started this myth. First of all, let’s start with a little bit of geography. Loch Ness is a long, narrow lake localized in the southwest of Inverness, a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the second largest in Scotland by surface area (holds more water than all of the other lakes in Great Britain combined)and the largest by volume. It is also the second deepest loch, at an astounding 755 feet (230 meters) at its deepest point. In fact, because of its depth, Loch Ness doesn’t freeze. Most of the water stays at a steady temperature of about 44 degrees Fahrenheit. Only the top 100 feet or so varies in temperature, but with so much warmer water beneath keeping things relatively hot, you’ll not get a chance to ice skate on it. The water is dark and murky

Relics 'n' Cultures : The Dreamcatcher

Image
Try to imagine a small ethnic shop in your town, maybe in a not frequented area. While you’re inside you find yourself in front of various trinkets, but one particular thing attracts your attention. A circle made ​​of light wood, a web and plenty of colorful dangling feathers and beads. You feel attracted to that object, to the point of buying it without thinking too much. That's why more than half of the world's population have one of these in the house, even if you don’t belong to one of the oldest cultures in history. Noone can deny that the Dreamcatcher is well known all around the globe, and there isn’t only one story behind its creation. Native American had different version, according to their different populations , but everybody knows its power: they use a special wood, very flexible, to create a circle that represents the universe and interlace inside a net, like a cobweb, which has to catch and keep all the dreams that the children have. If positive, the dreamcat