Nature's Kevlar

I love watching certain television series because someone makes a weird claim that turns out to be based in reality.  Imagine being able to make light weight bullet proof vests made out of very natural fibers!  Imagine it being made out of sustainable fibers!

Scientists have discovered the silk produced by this spider is at least twice as strong as normal spider silk and ten times stronger than Kevlar.

This particular spider was discovered in the jungles of Madagascar on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of the Species".  Thus the name Darwin's Bark Spider.  The spider creates the largest circular shaped webs of up to 30 feet square over lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water in order to catch its food.  Yet the female's body is about one inch long while the male's body is about a quarter that size. 

The web is built by sending a single thread across the body of water to attach on a tree on the other side by using wind currents.  Once that strand is secure, the spider crawls to the center of the strand and begins spinning the traditional circular web until it spans the whole body of water.  

The silk used in the web appears to be twice as elastic as that made by other spiders, almost twice as strong and at least ten times stronger than Kevlar. It appears the strength of the silk is an evolutionary development when the spiders moved inland so they could place the webs over water, take advantage of the air currents to catch dinner. 

Scientists have yet to determine why such as small spider needs such large webs.  They are also not sure why the strands are so strong.  They theorize that the spiders may be using a different type of protein or it might be the way the silk is spun that gives it its strength but they already see technological possibilities once they decode the how and why of the spun silk.

Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to raise these spiders in captivity because they are cannibalistic and if in the same container would eat each other. It is possible to splice the gene into silkworms to produce the silk but that has had only limited success because its very difficult to reproduce the proteins form spider silk.  In addition, they still have to figure out how to spin the spider silk into thread.

There is at least one company out there claiming success but it is not commercially successful.  Yes the silk could be used to make lighter weight protective vests but could also be used in aeronautics,  civil engineering, wound healing and a variety of other uses.  So at this time, its still in the research stages but there is potential for commercial development once certain problems are overcome.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

  

Temporary Warm Spell.

Rumbles and Thumps.

3 Well Known Companies Who Collaborated With The Nazi's

  Throughout history, companies worked with the government in power.  Its one way to stay in business even if the company didn't agree with the government's philosophies.  Most all of the companies mentioned here are familiar to most people.
 

1.  Hugo Boss Clothing - founded by Hugo Boss who was a fashion designer and founded a textile factory in 1923.  His company was awarded a contract to supply uniforms to the SA troopers, also known as Brown Shirts.  Once Hitler came into power, he joined the party and ended up providing additional uniforms to the SS, Hitler Youth, rail workers, postal workers and all the members of the German army, navy and air force. 

Unfortunately, he used slave labor from Poland and France to meet the demands of World War II.  When the war ended, Hugo Boss ended up paying fines for working with the Nazi's and had to transfer ownership of his business to his son-in-law because he was prohibited from owning and running a business.  In 1999, the company contributed money to be distributed to former slave workers.

2.  Volkswagen came about due to World War II and Germany.  Most cars at that time were luxury cars out of range of the average German consequently only two percent of the population own one and there was need of a car for the people.  In 1933, Mr Porsche of Porsche racing cars, created his concept car, named the Volksauto.  It had the basic bug shape with the air cooled engine in the rear. 
When Hitler came into power the same year, he began campaigning for a "Peoples car" that would transport two adults, three children, go 62 mph and cost only 990 RM or about $400.

Porche's car met the criteria but because none of the car manufacturing plants in Germany could produce this car, Hitler built a state fun factory to make the car.  Hitler even arranged for people to purchase it by paying 5 RM per week.  Soon after the plant came into operation, the war began and the factory was soon producing war materials.

At the end of the war, the factory was offered to Allied car manufacturers free of charge but no one wanted it so it kept producing and by 1948, the car became a German icon.  The plant in Wolfburg has continued to grow, making it one of the richest cities in Germany.

3. Fanta is also attributed to the War.  Prior to World War II, Coca-Cola was well liked in Germany to the point that sales records were set year after year.  Coca-Cola's German division had 43 bottling plants with over 600 local distributors when World War II broke out in 1939. The manager of the plant communicated with the parent company they would try to keep everything going but they could not get certain ingredients since they had to be imported from overseas.

This caused production to halt for a short time while the company tried to formulate a new formula using whatever they could use such as apple fiber left over from making apple juice, whey left over from making cheese and beet sugar.  Although Fanta is normally orange, it's flavors varied according to what they could get during wartime. 

Since it was a new soft drink, employees held a brainstorming session and someone shouted out "Fanta" which was accepted and production started again.  Germans loved the drink so much that they consumed over three million cases in 1943 alone ensuring the company continued to produce the drink.  During this time, the German plants lost contact with their American parent company but the manager kept extensive records and refused to join the Nazi Party.  At the end of the war, he turned over all profits and the recipe for Fanta.

I hope you enjoyed reading about these companies.  I'll report about some more in the future.  Have a great day and let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.

4 Early Women Entrepreneurs.

If you look at history, you'll find several businesses started and owned by women, long before it became standard.  At the time, most of these women lived, women were expected to be wives, raise children, and be their husbands property. They were not expected to found businesses in a male dominated world.

They women braved societal views to do what they needed to.  Let's look at some of them.

1.  Eliza Lucas Pinckney was born in Antigua, grew up in London before her family moved to America where her father bought three plantations.  At the age of 16, Eliza took over running the plantations near Charles Town, South Carolina when her mother died and her father returned to the West Indies.  

She realized America had a growing textile industry so she began growing indigo to produce indigo dyes.  By 1739, she was successful and indigo dyes were second only to rice as exports.  In addition to introducing indigo, she introduces flax, hemp, silk and figs.  Although she died in 1793, she was inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame in 1989.

2.  Mary Katherine Goddard who was born in New London, Connecticut before moving to Providence, Rhode Island in 1762.  Four years later, she became America's first woman publisher.  Nine years later, she became the first female Postmaster in Baltimore, Maryland but she is most famous for being the person who printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence with all the names of the signers.  

3. Lydia Pinkham took her herbal home remedies and in 187, created a business based on them.  Her "Pinham's Vegetable Compound" became one of the best selling patent medicines of the time.  Furthermore, as she marketed her compounds to women, she also educated them about health female health issues.  She crusaded for women's health at a time when the medical community paid little attention to the topic.  Her company was bought out in 1968 by Cooper Laboratories but you can still find pills and liquids with her name on them at some stores.

4. Madam C.J. Walker is well known for starting a successful business from nothing.  She was the daughter of two former slaves and orphaned at the age of 7.  Her first product, released in 1905, was a scalp conditioning and healing formula developed because she had a scalp ailment that caused her to loose all her hair.  Soon she expanded her business to South America and the Caribbean and became one of the first self-made millionaires. 

Furthermore, as her business expanded, she trained beauticians who sold her product and shared her philosophies within the African American community. In 1917, Madam C. J. Walker organized and ran the first national meeting for business women in Philadelphia.  Aside from founding the first African American hair products and cosmetics company, she also opened the way for women entrepreneurs.  

Each of these women broke a glass ceiling of the time by running a successful business at a time when few women could.  let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

A Drink? But Not In This Form!

  When I was a teenager, the usual way my friends had alcohol was via a drink from a bottle of wine or beer.  Apparently, people have discovered a new way of imbibing it without it every passing their lips. 

You don't drink it, you inhale it.  You read that right.  Someone created a machine which takes liquid alcohol and changes it into a mist you can inhale.

Unfortunately when alcohol is consumed this way, it tends to be absorbed into the blood stream faster and reaches the brain sooner so you get drunk quicker.  If the alcohol fumes are heated or poured over dry ice, they can damage the lungs.

The way it works is alcohol is turned into a warm mist that people inhale into their lungs.  It is instantly absorbed into the lungs causing a quick and intense "high" because it is almost instantly delivered to the brain.  This means that people only need a small amount of alcohol to get drunk and its easy to become drunker than by drinking the alcohol.

One of the claims advertisers use for this method is that you can enjoy alcohol without absorbing the calories but that is not true.  A person will get the calories weather in liquid or mist form but the claim of no calories appeals to people who want the buzz without the calories and there is no hangover.

Some of the problems in consuming alcohol in this manner are:

1.  It can damage the brain which is not good in teenagers and young adults because the brain does not finish developing until around the age of 25.

2.  Normally, alcohol can irritate the stomach and cause vomiting which limits the amount of alcohol that is absorbed but when its in mist form, it bypasses the stomach and there is not vomiting so the amount of alcohol being absorbed is not limited. 

3. The inhalation of alcohol can damage the lungs, and the brain.

4.  The alcohol potency is not diminished when delivered in this manner.

5.  The chances of alcohol poisoning and overdosing increases.

6.  You don't know exactly how much alcohol you are taking into your system because you cannot measure it.

Although there are no definitive human studies out on this yet, the studies done on rats have shown several disturbing things.

1.  After inhaling alcohol, rats displayed more alcohol seeking behaviors.
2.  They displayed more anxious behaviors.
3.  Alcohol in this form becomes addictive
4.  As rats consumed alcohol in this form, they needed more and more to get the same buzz because the brain was changing.
5.  They also exhibited alcohol withdrawal symptoms when they didn't get the alcohol.

I guess this is one of the "new" ways of getting drunk but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone and just for the record, I do not drink and am not interested in drinking but I felt this topic was important enough to cover it here.  It is worth a chat with your kids just so they know what could happen.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Even the Mafia Contributed to the War Effort.

 
It reads like a fiction plot from a book on World War II.  The main characters are the United States Government and the Mafia. The mention came in the movie Suicide Squad in which the boss lady stated the United States hired the Mafia to protect seaports.

Of course, it sounded like something out of a book so I had to look it up.  Back in 1942, after Pearl Harbor and after the suspect destruction of the cruise ship Normandie in Manhattan , the government became concerned about German or Italian infiltration of the docks.

 They'd lost over 20 vessels about 60 miles off Long Island.  They thought the people supplying the patrolling German U-boats were either disgruntled rum runners who'd been put out of business or agents living in New York.

Thus they began sending agents down to talk to dock workers but none of them were willing to talk to the government so they went  to Lucky Luciano, one of the early Mafia bosses, about shortening his prison sentence in exchange for his organization providing intelligence to the Navy.  Due to this agreement, he was released early in 1946 and deported back to Italy.

Their contact for Luciano came via a Jewish mobster who went after Nazi sympathizers in the states. He made the proposal and used Luciano's name to get everyone on board on the waterfront.   It is not known, how much information this agreement provided to the government but Luciano used his drug smuggling contacts to find associates who draw maps and find photos of the Sicilian coastline to assist the United States Navy prepare for the Allied invasion of Sicily also known as Operation Husky.  By the time of the invasion, the United States had a map filled with airstrips, navel bases, and power plants, so the Navy had accurate information for the invasion.

At about the same time, the government spoke with Lanza who ran the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan.  He controlled the fishing up and down the east coast and anything he said was done. The government asked him for help so he and an associate worked with local fishermen to find the enemy.  In addition, they provided work cards so agents could infiltrate and even provided coded information.  Furthermore, all fishermen kept an eye out for any unusual activity.

It was all of the connections and help provided by these mobster which helped protect the docks in this country and helped make Operation Husky a success.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.


 It reads like a fiction plot from a book on World War II.  The main characters are the United States Government and the Mafia. The mention came in the movie Suicide Squad in which the boss lady stated the United States hired the Mafia to protect seaports.

Of course, it sounded like something out of a book so I had to look it up.  Back in 1942, after Pearl Harbor and after the suspect destruction of the cruise ship Normandie in Manhattan , the government became concerned about German or Italian infiltration of the docks.

 They'd lost over 20 vessels about 60 miles off Long Island.  They thought the people supplying the patrolling German U-boats were either disgruntled rum runners who'd been put out of business or agents living in New York.

Thus they began sending agents down to talk to dock workers but none of them were willing to talk to the government so they went  to Lucky Luciano, one of the early Mafia bosses, about shortening his prison sentence in exchange for his organization providing intelligence to the Navy.  Due to this agreement, he was released early in 1946 and deported back to Italy.

Their contact for Luciano came via a Jewish mobster who went after Nazi sympathizers in the states. He made the proposal and used Luciano's name to get everyone on board on the waterfront.   It is not known, how much information this agreement provided to the government but Luciano used his drug smuggling contacts to find associates who draw maps and find photos of the Sicilian coastline to assist the United States Navy prepare for the Allied invasion of Sicily also known as Operation Husky.  By the time of the invasion, the United States had a map filled with airstrips, navel bases, and power plants, so the Navy had accurate information for the invasion.

At about the same time, the government spoke with Lanza who ran the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan.  He controlled the fishing up and down the east coast and anything he said was done. The government asked him for help so he and an associate worked with local fishermen to find the enemy.  In addition, they provided work cards so agents could infiltrate and even provided coded information.  Furthermore, all fishermen kept an eye out for any unusual activity.

It was all of the connections and help provided by these mobster which helped protect the docks in this country and helped make Operation Husky a success.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.
  It reads like a fiction plot from a book on World War II.  The main characters are the United States Government and the Mafia. The mention came in the movie Suicide Squad in which the boss lady stated the United States hired the Mafia to protect seaports.

Of course, it sounded like something out of a book so I had to look it up.  Back in 1942, after Pearl Harbor and after the suspect destruction of the cruise ship Normandie in Manhattan , the government became concerned about German or Italian infiltration of the docks.

 They'd lost over 20 vessels about 60 miles off Long Island.  They thought the people supplying the patrolling German U-boats were either disgruntled rum runners who'd been put out of business or agents living in New York.

Thus they began sending agents down to talk to dock workers but none of them were willing to talk to the government so they went  to Lucky Luciano, one of the early Mafia bosses, about shortening his prison sentence in exchange for his organization providing intelligence to the Navy.  Due to this agreement, he was released early in 1946 and deported back to Italy.

Their contact for Luciano came via a Jewish mobster who went after Nazi sympathizers in the states. He made the proposal and used Luciano's name to get everyone on board on the waterfront.   It is not known, how much information this agreement provided to the government but Luciano used his drug smuggling contacts to find associates who draw maps and find photos of the Sicilian coastline to assist the United States Navy prepare for the Allied invasion of Sicily also known as Operation Husky.  By the time of the invasion, the United States had a map filled with airstrips, navel bases, and power plants, so the Navy had accurate information for the invasion.

At about the same time, the government spoke with Lanza who ran the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan.  He controlled the fishing up and down the east coast and anything he said was done. The government asked him for help so he and an associate worked with local fishermen to find the enemy.  In addition, they provided work cards so agents could infiltrate and even provided coded information.  Furthermore, all fishermen kept an eye out for any unusual activity.

It was all of the connections and help provided by these mobster which helped protect the docks in this country and helped make Operation Husky a success.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.