The Chicken or the Egg Mystery Finally Cracked

The Chicken or the Egg, Which Came First?

British scientists believe they have found the answer to an age-old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Scientists cracked the puzzle after discovering that the formation of eggs is possible only thanks to a protein found in chicken’s ovaries. That means eggs have to be formed in chickens first.

The protein — called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17)– speeds up the development of the shell. Researchers from Sheffield and Warwick universities in England laid out their findings in the paper”Structural Control of Crystal Nuclei by an Eggshell Protein.”

They used a supercomputer to zoom in on the formation of an egg and realized the protein is vital in kick-starting the crystallization process. It works by converting calcium carbon ate into the calcite crystals that make up the egg shell.

Dr Colin Freeman, from Sheffield University’s Department of Engineering Materials, said “it had long been suspected that the egg came first — but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first.”

“The protein had been identified before and it was linked to egg formation, but by examining it closely we have been able to see how it controls the process,” Freeman said.

“It’s very interesting to find that different types of avian species seem to have a variation of the protein that does the same job.”

It is hoped the discovery leads to the invention of new materials.

Glad the Brits spent their tax dollars on this and not the U.S.

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The author has been a writer/photographer for over thirty years. Specializing in nature and landscape photography, as well as studying native cultures.

His travels have taken him to most of the United States, as well as Australia, Belize, Egypt and the Canary Islands.

He has studied the Mayan culture of Central America as well as the aborigines of Australia. Photography has given him the opportunity to observe life in various parts of the world.

He has published several books about his adventures.

For more information, please consult his website,www.journeysthrulife.com.

Your comments are welcome

Improve your health, Increase your wealth

Each generation from the beginning of our country has contributed to what our country has become. By the same token, no one is perfect. Consequently, each generation has done and will continue to perform acts that it would have been better if some other course of action was taken.
The baby boomers have contributed much and have been blamed for the decline of America. What is the true story?

A Country Christmas

Christmas Goodies!
As I remember it Christmas was a special time when  I was  a child. It seems as though Christmas went on for weeks.
Mom would start baking cookies and making candy as soon as Thanksgiving was over. About two weeks before the big day it would be dad and my job to find a real live tree! Living on a farm, we would start scouting out a likely candidate about the 4th of July. The major obstacle would always be the fact that some trees would turn brown as soon as cold weather hit,  with ax in hand and battling the cold and snow ,  the idea tree would always be the brownest tree on the farm. Then it was off trudging through the cold and snow in search of another tree. What started out as a fifteen-minute job would always wind up taking  half of a day or more.
Cold, wet, and half frozen, we would finally return triumphantly with a perfect tree. The next task would be to find something to place the tree in, this was in the days before tree stands, so a bucket filled with rocks or coal would have to do.  It was always a major task, enough to try the patience of Job, to get the tree situated “just right” in the bucket without having the bucket, tree and coal fall all over the floor. It wasn’t uncommon to lose one’s religion several times during the ordeal.
After the tree was decorated, there was nothing much to do except wait for the  arrival of Santa.
A typical Christmas normally consisted of four events, the first of which would be the Sunday preceding Christmas. My Aunt, Uncle and Cousins lived in Indianapolis, they would come to my grandparents(mom’s side) and thus the first
celebration would begin. I automatically knew that if my most cherished present didn’t arrive, I still had three more chances.
Now the tension was building! Christmas Eve had arrived, first thing on the agenda was church, and Santa would normally come while we were at services. When we were ready to leave for church, I never could understand why dad and I would have to wait  in a cold car  for mom to come out, we never did that any other time.
As soon as church was over, it was time for Santa, normally one of my sets of grandparents would come over Christmas Eve and enjoy the evening, and unwrap gifts that Santa had brought while we were gone.
Christmas Day, all the grandparents would arrive just before dinner, and the rest of the day was spent eating, unwrapping gifts and playing with them. My grandpa Wonning was retired so he would start wrapping gifts about Labor Day. When the gifts they brought were put under the tree, it seemed they would fill a pickup truck.
Grandpa would take the smallest item, say  a pack of gum and start wrapping and wrapping and wrapping. Using string, tape, glue and lots of newspaper, that pack of gum would be the size of a basketball by the time he finished! My brother and I would spend hours unwrapping gifts, and when finished unwrapping, covered with newspaper we thought no one
had received more gifts than we had.
Each year the unwrapping became more difficult, soon my brother and I joined in and started returning the favor. Baling wire, twine string and glue became more common,
it finally ended one year as my brother nailed his gifts in a wooden box with spike nails! We decided no one could top that one, grandpa was getting older and could no longer spend the time wrapping, so a time honored tradition ended.
The final event of Christmas would be at my Great Grandmothers house, it would normally be sometime during the
week following Christmas. It would always be a huge affair as the whole family would show up, normally about 30 people. The gift exchanges were pretty much over by then, however, a lot of fun was had enjoying each
others company and grandmothers good cooking.

The author has been a writer/photographer for over thirty years. Specializing in nature and landscape photography, as well as studying native cultures.

His travels have taken him to most of the United States, as well as Australia, Belize, Egypt and the Canary Islands.

He has studied the Mayan culture of Central America as well as the aborigines of Australia. Photography has given him the opportunity to observe life in various parts of the world.

He has published several books about his adventures.

For more information, please consult his website,www.journeysthrulife.com.

Your comments welcome

Cincinnati Reds Spring Training

 

After many years, the Cincinnati Reds are leaving their roots behind and moving to Arizona for spring training.
Having grown up in southeastern Indiana, I remember listening to the “Reds on Radio” with Joe Nuxhol, from the time I was knee-high to a grasshopper.
It was always nice to hear how warm it was in Florida while we were enjoying our last blizzards of the season in the mid west. It gave us hope that spring would be coming soon.

The Reds have been coming to Florida for as long as I can remember, with the last several years being spent in Sarasota, Florida.

I had the opportunity to attend their last game which was played on March 29th, 2008.

There is nothing like a spring training game, it has a personality of it’s own, there is a small town atmosphere that isn’t available at the larger parks.

Ed Smith stadium has a picnic area adjacent to the ball park, where the opportunity is found to enjoy a hot dog, hamburger,and soft drink while meeting folks with ties to the Cincinnati area,  Northern Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Many conversations included  comments that it just wouldn’t be the same in Arizona, many expressed the opinion that they would not go to Phoenix, many of the fans have winter homes in Florida and it just wouldn’t be practical for them to make the journey to Arizona.

So, while 4,500 loyal fans enjoyed a 8 to 4 victory over the Tampa Devil Rays,  and a spring training record attendance of over 90,000, the Reds bid farewell to Florida and headed north to begin the season in Cincinnati, with next year’s spring training slated for “The Valley of the Sun”.

Travel Articles and Photos!

The Colts Demise

Sunday turned out to be a day of rest, nothing much was accomplished except cleaning the pool and watching the Colts, Chargers playoff game.

I have to congratulate the Chargers on a job “well done!” The Colts just didn’t have it, although Peyton Manning performed some of his usual magic, he really didn’t receive much help from his teammates.

A couple of interceptions near the goal line didn’t help either, but Manning can’t be faulted for those because they were deflected passes.

All in all the Colts has a good season considering the injures they sustained, can’t wait for next year!

Poker, an American Institution!

Today Poker is enjoying a tremendous rebirth in not only the United States, but the world as well! With high stakes games on television and tournaments on line.
 
If we had been alive during the early days of our country it would have been hard to imagine how the game would evolve in 200 years!

Poker has been in America as long as there has been an America. Believed to be a very old card game, with roots stemming from the 16th century, it made it’s way in to the United States and became very popular, especially in the “Wild West”.

The first western saloons were hastily thrown together lean-to’s or tents, as the towns grew, the saloon would prosper and take on the traditional trimmings of the Old West, where a cowboy could strike up a deal, the traveler might quench his thirst, or a miner might try for a little while to forget about his life in the mines.

The whiskey served in those hard days was a far cry from what we have today, it would normally be brewed from raw alcohol, burnt sugar, and chewing tobacco, with such names as Forty-Rod, Red Eye, and Coffin Varnish! Sometimes the barkeep would add such delicacies as turpentine, ammonia, cayenne and gun powder to make the concoction more tasty! No wonder Sarsaparilla became popular!

Along with all this, a good game of poker was a necessity, many stories and legends evolved from this period, adding to the mystic of the period.

Since spas and hot tubs hadn’t been invented yet,  gambling became a popular way to spend the time while traveling by riverboat from port to port

Legend has it that it was during these riverboat gambling heydays that an interesting story occurred in 1832. On a Mississippi steamboat four men were playing poker, three of which were professional gamblers, and the fourth, a hapless traveler from Natchez. Soon, the young naive man had lost all his money to the rigged game.
 Devastated, the Natchez man planned to throw himself into the river; however, an observer prevented him from his  suicide attempt, he  joined the card game with the “sharps.” In the middle of a high stakes hand, the stranger caught one of the card sharks cheating and pulled a knife on the gambler, yelling, “Show your hand! If it contains more than five cards I shall kill you!” When he twisted the cheater’s wrist, six cards fell to the table. Immediately, the stranger took the $70,000 pot, returning $50,000 to the Natchez man and keeping $20,000 for his trouble.
Shocked, the Natchez man stuttered, “Who the devil are you, anyway?” to which the stranger responded, “I am James Bowie.”

Such was the life and times of our early west!

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