Bitter Chinese Medicine Tea

Since my family doctor couldn't stop my coughing, I went to see 中醫 after work today.
Well... The 中醫 said a whole bunch of terms... 氣虛血弱... 外感... 內感... which I don't really know what she is talking about...
She also mentioned that my body is very "濕". According to her, "濕" will make people feel tired easily.

In addition to drinking black bitter medicine tea , there are lots of food that I cannot eat :

• 上海白菜
• chicken
• duck
• chinese soups (those that boil for a long time)
• all fruits except apple
• etc... etc...
  

woo woo woo....

Yawning is a good thing!

I've always thought that yawning is caused by lack of sleep, which is not true.

Recent studies indicate that yawning is a good thing, because it cools the brain and increases our alertness.

The next time you are caught yawning in from of your boss or in meetings, you can tell them that yawning is a physiological mechanism designed to maintain attention. So, it is a compliment to their speech, just like clapping hands.... hahahaha...


More about the yawning research:

According to psychologists Andrew Gallup and Gordon Gallup of the State University of New York at Albany, we do not yawn because we are sleepy, bored, or need oxygen. Yawning is simply a brain-cooling mechanism. Yawning enhances the brain’s functioning by increasing blood flow and drawing in cooler air.

Not only that, brain-cooling explains why you can "catch" a yawn, says Gordon Gallup. "We think contagious yawning is triggered by empathic mechanisms which function to maintain group vigilance." In other words, yawn-catching evolved to help raise the attentiveness of the whole group.

The brain burns up to a third of the calories we consume, and as a consequence generates heat. The research volunteers were asked to watch a video showing people behaving differently (neutrally, laughing or yawning) while inhaling and exhaling in one of four ways: strictly orally; strictly nasally; orally while wearing a nose plug; or to just breathe normally. Researchers found that 50 percent of the people who were instructed to breathe normally or through their mouths yawned while watching other people yawn, while those told to breathe through their nose did not yawn at all.

In another experiment they found that subjects, who held a cold pack to their forehead or who were instructed to breathe through their nose, did not yawn, while those who held a warm pack or a room temperature pack to their forehead yawned normally.

Evidence shows that blood vessels in the nasal cavity and face send cool blood to the brain, and by breathing through the nose or by cooling the forehead, the brain is cooled, eliminating the need to yawn.


Links:
Science Daily
NewScientist.com
The New York Times

Toronto Ribfest

I went to the Toronto Ribfest today...


Toronto Ribfest is the largest Canada Day celebration, which held over the long weekend at Centennial Park in Etobicoke. It has live music, BBQ ribs, beer tents, and carnival rides for Children, etc.

Since it is the "Rib" festival, there are 12 Ribbers selling ribs. Their booths line up side-by-side in the park. This is the first time that I see so many rib booths!! The smell of BBQ ribs spreads across the whole park...




And of course, all ribbers have placed their awards in front of their booth to show off...


Since this is my first time going to Ribfest, I don't know which ribber is good. So, I've decided to follow the crowd. Out of all those ribbers, I notice that 2 ribbers have the longest line-up:
Turtle Jack's and Crabby's BBQ

In the end, Turtle Jack's was picked...
Turtle Jack's rib was good but a little bit dry...
Since this was a mass production, I guess I can't expect too much...




Other than ribs, there are other booths selling ice-creams, funnel cake, corns, lemonade, etc.
How can I miss the funnel cake?
I haven't had a funnel cake for a long time since I haven't been to Wonderland for a long time...


Since there were many people at the festival, every booth had a long line-up.
I noticed something interesting while waiting in the lines.

One booth had a few licence plates with short-form writings on it.
Can you guess what they are in long form?


Well... Here are my guesses:
DNT B SY CM TRI => Don't be shy! Come try!
GR8 CKN => Good Chicken? (I am not really sure about this one.)
C MILE UR N CMRA => Smile! You're on camera!

Also, there was a ribber called "Bad Wolf".


"Bad Wolf" is an interesting name since this gives a new ending to the "Three Little Pigs" fairy tale:

Once upon a time there was a mother pig who had three little pigs. Mother Pig sent her three little piglets out into the world to live on their own.

The first little pig built a house of straw, but a wolf blew it down and turned the pig into ribs.

The second pig built a house of wood, but the wolf also blew it down and turned the pig into ribs.

The third pig built a house of brick. The wolf somehow entered the house and turned the pig into ribs as well.

The end.

Do you like the new Three Little Pigs story??

World Heritage List

Congratulations to Canada!!
Rideau Canal is now a world heritage site!


The 202-kilometre Rideau Canal (from Kingston to Ottawa) became Canada's 14th internationally recognized World Heritage Site yesterday as the United Nations inscribed the landmark on its list of global treasures.


The Rideau Canal may be better known now as the world's longest skating rink, but it was born from a struggle of superpowers as Britain and the United States wrestled for control of North America.

The canal was built by Lieutenant-Colonel John By. It used a technology was called "slackwater". A large number of embankments and high dams were used to inundate shallows, swamps, and rapids, thus creating a series of impoundments deep enough to navigate the full length of the canal.

"It is the best preserved example of a slackwater canal in North America demonstrating the use of this European technology in North America on a large scale," UNESCO said in its letter of designation. "It is the only canal dating from the great North American canal-building era of the early 19th century to remain operational along its original line with most of its original structures intact."


The complete World Heritage List can be found at:
http://whc.unesco.org


I have only visited a very small percentage of sites in the World Heritage List.
Will I be able to visit all of them before I die??


Source:
Globe and Mail
Toronto Star
CTV

Sanrio Dessert Shop

日本玩具商Sanrio在大阪開設首間甜品店，精心炮製出圖中的吉蒂貓牛奶蛋糕（右）及用吉蒂杯盛載的慕絲。


I can't find any more information about this Sanrio Dessert Shop in the internet.

It would be nice if Sanrio opens the same shop in Canada. I would like to try the Hello Kitty desserts!!

Source: HK Yahoo News

Zorse

Q: What is a Zorse?
A: It's a zebra and horse hybrid.

Meet Eclyse - the amazing zorse!!
Wow... You can easily tell that she is a zebra and horse hybrid!!

Eclyse is the result of a holiday romance between German and Italian. Her mother is a white horse, called Eclipse, from German safari park. Her father is a zebra, called Ulysses, from a ranch in Italy.

Eclipse's owner sent her to a ranch in Italy for a while. There she was able to roam freely with other horses and a number of zebras, including Ulysses. When Eclipse returned home, she surprised her keepers by giving birth to the baby zorse.

While most zorses have stripes across their whole body, Eclyse only has two blocks of stripes – on her face and her rear. Now she's become a major attraction at a safari park at Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland.

Ranch spokesman Udo Richter commented: 'She is usually relatively tame like a horse but occasionally shows the fiery temperament of a zebra, leaping around like one.'


Source:
Daily Mail
Metro.co.uk

桑拿殺人事件

藍天一事件簿 之 桑拿殺人事件...

時間: 06月 27日 早上 近十一時
地點: 葵涌華景山莊會所桑拿室
人物: 一名患有感冒數日的55歲女死者張敏蓉

桑拿浴室指引上出現死亡預告…！為了醫治感冒，一名患感冒婦人欲借用桑拿浴熱力，以古法「焗汗」治感冒, 遭到熱力的侵襲…！ 悲傷的死亡片上演，「慘劇」化為現實生活…！

Hahahaha.... Does this sounds like 金田一少年之事件薄??
Well... This is a real case!
Never 焗桑拿 when you are sick!!


一名患有感冒數日的中年婦人，先後向明愛醫院、私家西醫及中醫求診，但屢醫未瘉，前日到住所會所焗桑拿後，感到病情好轉，昨晨遂再焗桑拿，被發現暈倒桑拿室中，送院搶救後不治。

張婦被感冒困擾，欲以古法「焗汗」方式，焗出一身汗來醫治感冒。她「焗汗」後向家人稱感到身體較為鬆弛及舒服，希望再度「焗汗」能早些治好纏擾多時的感冒病，昨晨近十一時遂再到會所桑拿浴室「焗汗」，卻不適暈倒。約半小時後，一名女職工見張婦過時仍然沒有走出浴室，遂入內查看，赫見張婦昏迷，即救出張婦及報警。

伊利沙伯心臟科高級專科醫生何鴻光指出，感冒時焗桑拿肯定會影響到心臟，當感冒菌未清便進入桑拿房，高溫會令心跳加快、血液循環加速、心臟壓力急升，猶如患感冒卻拼命跑山，引致心律不正、心肌發炎，隨時昏倒，若本身正在服藥或有潛在嚴重隱疾，亦可能一命嗚呼。至於死者初次焗桑拿後精神轉佳，可能只是幸運避過一劫而已。

焗桑拿無論「乾焗」或「濕焗」都不應超過10分鐘，因為長時間焗桑拿會令身體缺水，嚴重者會有生命危險。

Sources: HK Yahoo News