Just whatever

History
Coca-Cola was formulated by John S. Pemberton, originally as a cocawine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca, and originally sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in America due to a contemporary view that soda water was good for your health. The first sales were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8th, 1886, and for the first eight months, only thirteen drinks per day were sold. Pemberton then ran the first advertisement for the beverage on May 29 of the same year in the Atlanta Journal.

The drink and its advertising campaigns have had significant impact on American culture. The company is frequently credited for "inventing" the modern image of Santa Claus as an old man in red-white garments; however, while the company did in fact promote this image starting in the 1930s in its winter advertising campaigns, it was already common before that time [4]. In the 1970s, a song from a Coca-Cola commercial called "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" became a popular hit single.

In the 1980s, Coca-Cola attempted to change the formula of the drink with a highly publicized effort. Some authorities believe that New Coke was invented specifically to cope with a commercial competitor, Pepsi. Blind taste tests indicated that people preferred the taste of Pepsi to Coke. Pepsi has more lemon oil, less orange oil, and uses vanillin rather than vanilla. New Coke was reformulated to emulate Pepsi. In blind taste tests, most people favored New Coke to Coke, as well.

The commercial failure of New Coke was therefore a grievous surprise to the management of Coca-Cola Corporation. Quite possibly, if they had made the change either secretly, or gradually, no notice would have occurred and their brand loyalty would have been unchanged.

The new Coca-Cola formula caused a public backlash and the company was forced to return to the old formula under the name Coca-Cola Classic on July 10, 1985. The company was later suspected of playing this move as an elaborate charade to both introduce a new product and revive interest in the original. The company president responded to the accusation with "We are not that stupid, or that smart."

Meanwhile, the market share for the new product dwindled to only 3% by 1986. The company renamed the product "Coke II" in 1990, but sales falloff caused a severe cutback in distribution. By 1998 it was only sold in a few places in the midwestern U.S.

During the 1990s, Pepsi-Cola began running television advertisements showing people doing blind taste tests in which they preferred their product over Coke. Coca-Cola ran ads to combat Pepsi's ads in an incident sometimes referred to as the cola wars.

Today the drink is manufactured as a syrup and then supplied to various franchises that reconstitute, bottle and distribute it. The company produces many other soft drinks, including other varieties of Coca-Cola such as Diet Coke (which uses aspartame, a synthetic phenylalanine-containing sweetener, in order to reduce the sugar content of the drink), Cherry Coke, Diet Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, Diet Vanilla Coke, and the recent Coke with Lemon and Diet Coke with Lemon.

The Coca-Cola Corporation also produces a number of other soft drinks including Fanta, Sprite, Pibb, Mello Yello, and the bottled waters Dasani and Bonaqa.

Coca-Cola's greatest rival is Pepsi-Cola. Mecca-Cola has been marketed as a pro-Palestinian alternative.


Colombia Controversy
Coca-Cola is accused of having ordered crimes against of union leaders in Colombia, with the help of paramilitary groups. Coca-Cola admits that these crimes have occurred, but claims no part in the kidnappings, murders, and episodes of torture, and asserts a code of ethics which "vigorously condemn[s] all forms of violence and unwarranted use of force." However, critics allege an association between Coca-Cola bottling subsidiaries and the paramilitaries. Coca-Cola has, in fact, profited out of these misfortunes: the violent breaking of unions has resulted in reduced labor costs.

Several colleges and universities in the United States and Ireland have ended contract associations with the company. The students initiating these motions have felt that Coca-Cola has not been proactive enough in stopping the Colombian atrocities. Carleton College's student government, which has control over the college's vending contracts, voted to deny Coca-Cola renewal on March 8, 2004. This move is expected to precipitate further revocations in the months ahead.


Health-related and environmental accusations against Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola was banned from import in India in 1970 for having refused to release the list of its ingredients. In 1993, the ban was lifted, with Pepsi arriving on the market shortly afterwards. One study led by the Center for Science and the Environment (CSE), an independent laboratory in New Delhi, found that the sodas contained residues of dangerous pesticides, with one dose 36 times greater than the European standard for Pepsi, and 30 times greater for Coca-Cola. The presence of these products could provoke cancers, negatively affect the nervous and immune systems, and cause birth defects. No law bans the presence of pesticides in drinks in India.
In the state of Kerala, one agency reported that it found 201.8 milligrams of cadmium per kilogram in the mud coming from the factory, which is offered as fertilizer to farmers. This dose, four times greater than normal doses, could lead to cancer.

The non-governmental organization Greenpeace could also have found a rate greater than the standard criteria and asked for the closing of the production site.

In response to the news, numerous Indians burned bottles of these two brands of soda in the streets. The Indian government asked for a comparable study of soda bottles destined for markets in the United States.

On August 6, 2003, India asked for the withdrawal from circulation of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products.Coca Cola

Hey Edgar, how it is ......... I tried snorting coke once .... those bubbles just tickled too much for me
All I did was sneeze

I bet it eats the nostrils like battery acid.

Much as with the subtle influence of transference and projective identification, it can be easy to find yourself suddenly "reading" a personal attack where actually none was intended. This is less likely to happen in face to face interaction.
Since -even in the absence of face-to-face cues it will normally be very clear that a communicator has no wish at all to launch a personal attack! Nonetheless, I believe a large part of effective communication by e- transmission comes down to cultivating an awareness of the emotions and other reactions elicited by the experience of this e- transmission reading; especially when those reactions lead in the direction of taking something personally. When an "email" seems like a personal attack, it can be helpful to pause and reflect -- is this really what the person means? Is there anything else they could possibly mean? How might another person read this same message?

Jest

jackie, your gramma's poem was grand indeed. She must have been Irish.

Way back .... whatever

Remember these?

Mysteries of bog butter uncovered
Wax found in Celtic bogs is the remains of ancient meat and milk.
17 March 2004

PHILIP BALL

Peat cutters often stumble on chunks of butter in the bogs.
© Stockbyte

Chemical detectives have traced deposits of fat in Scottish peat bogs to foodstuffs buried by people hundreds of years ago. The 'bog butter' is the remains of both dairy products and meat encased in the peat, say Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol and colleagues.

Those who live in the countryside of Ireland and Scotland and dig up chunks of peat for fuel have long been familiar with bog butter. While gathering the compressed plant matter, which can be burned in fires, diggers occasionally slice into a white substance with the appearance and texture of paraffin wax.

This is thought to be the remains of food once buried in the bog to preserve it. Waterlogged peat is cool and contains very little oxygen, so it can be used as a primitive kind of fridge.

The question is what type of food was buried in the peat. Local lore sometimes says that the waxy stuff is literally the remains of butter. For example, the seventeenth-century English writer Samuel Butler remarked in one of his famous poems that butter in Ireland "was seven years buried in a bog".

Grave wax

But there could be an alternative source for the waxy material: dead animals. In the eighteenth century, French chemists discovered that human corpses often contain adipocere, a substance also known as 'grave-wax'. So bog butter could be the remains of carcasses rather than dairy products.

To find out, Evershed and his colleagues took a close look at the fatty acids in bog butter. The chains of hydrocarbons in these molecules differ between those derived from dairy and those from meat. The chains in dairy products tend to be shorter than those in animal fat. And there are also differences in the relative amounts of normal and 'heavy' carbon they contain. Most of the carbon in organic material is carbon-12, but about one percent consists of the heavier isotope carbon-13. The exact amount of carbon-13 depends in part on whether the fat came from meat or dairy products.

The team verified some of these differences by analysing artificial bog butters, which were made in the 1970s from mutton fat and butter mixed with soil and water. They then looked at nine samples of bog butter provided by the National Museum of Scotland, some of which are 2000 years old. Six of the bog butter samples come from dairy products, and three are from animal fat, they report in The Analyst1. So ancient Scots clearly used the peat to store both types of food, they say.

But there remains some mystery: researchers still do not know for sure if the food was buried solely to preserve it. Perhaps chemical reactions in the soil helped to transform the foods to more palatable products in a kind of primitive food processing, says Evershed. He plans to bury some modern fatty foods in peat to find out if anything interesting happens to them.
References

1. Berstan, R. et al. The Analyst, 129, 270 - 275, doi:10.1039/b313436a (2004).|Article|


© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Thank you, Kara... I think her relatives were from the Netherlands, or Germany.
Alabama gulfshores were her home, for some time.

HAPPY EASTER

WEB SITE WITH LINKS & WHATEVER

Crone poetry
Credits posted as available

Enjoy!



Renay
growing into my toes

I am waiting on the porch
of a house that isn't mine
for a woman I might be
related to. we have the same
toes, except mine are
presently painted a vile shade
of magenta

she is inside pulling yarn
from an afghan. I want
to go in, yell at her stop
unraveling things and
rewinding them again around
pieces of shoebox cardboard
cut square and solid as
headstones

but I don't go inside. instead
I wait out here for her to
finish unwinding. soon
she will come back out
maybe yelling go away,
get off her porch, leave
her alone. maybe she
won't know me

or maybe she will sit
beside me on the swing.
if so I'll kick off my shoes
and show her that, except
for the polish, our toes
are the same

------------------------

Crone

she mimes me
at the mirror
pulls crinkly lips
to yellow toothed smile
at my fear
no mercy from the crone
she spent herself on
spice perfume and
arrogant men
when I crave a lover
she jabs rabid hands
between my thighs
cackles our lust
then sleeps
little comfort
beside me
tattooed freak show old woman
pokes scaly broomstick legs
in my stockings
bony arms in my dresses
mocks me with her
scrawny ass, her pleated tits
she harps on the lovers
I never gave her
black lung bitches
her loneliness
keens for wilder days
hungry hands
one more man

--------------------

Soles

Bathing my own feet
Playing Mary to myself
The oil smells sweeter this way.
Touching each toe gentle
I am the Christ
Before memory hits
There is nothing but warmth and milk
Simple beat of heart
I cure myself a thousand times
Practicing for others
Remember to give thanks
Especially at that place
Where I touch planet
Soles meet in dust
Tiny puffs hydrogen
It will be quite some time
Before the violence comes
Until then, I teach water
How to hold me
Upright.

----------------------------
George
Romance is forever
So he is not alone
Gazes through the gentle flames of slender candle
White linen, a table for two
The simple elegance of an eighty-year love affair.
Til death do they part
They have not parted
He cannot see her, nor go on without her
She is with him still
In silence he feels her voice
Oh, for the love of Grace
A life of love and music
Art and philosophy
Children and laughter
Rewriting Shakespeare
"Then ten times happy we..."

---------------------------

Stringin beans

by 6:30 our fingers are hot numb crisscrossed
in friction ridges that will snag
and bleed within the hour,
dragging red stains along the twine.
two days of irrigation, sun, and hoe dust
will mute miles of bean string
to a shade of soft grey
like we never bled there at all

this year I am tall enough, quick enough
to sail a spool over lead wires,
catch it unwinding,
then pass it to my grandmother
who crawls on her knees beside me

she wraps the anchor wire with one hand
pitches the spool back to me with the other.
bean strings must be tight enough
for plants to climb, loose enough
not to snap when wind slaps at them

bean strings must be perfect.

I cannot be trusted yet
to crawl my aches alone
through dirt chunk acres
stitching a harvest yet months away

we clench words in our teeth
like drinking straws. it is too early to talk.
her breath huffs out silver by my hip.
five rows beyond us, grandpa's hammer
cracks morning open on new stakes

lost in the sizzle of sun on wet shoots
I break our rhythm
stumbling over fist sized knots of dirt.
the string is already dashed red in places
but my hands haven't bled yet

behind us, twine scrimshaws the field
like the face of the woman
on her knees in the dirt beside me

---------------------------------


Renay is a graphic designer and a Gemini, neither of which impresses anyone. She currently lives in Southern New Mexico, although, her heart belongs to the northern half of the state. She looks really good in red.

-------------------------------------------




Moondance

Here are the jokes judged funniest by people from different countries around the world.

TOP JOKE IN WALES. A turtle was walking down an alley in New York when he was mugged by a gang of snails. A police detective came to investigate and asked the turtle if he could explain what happened. The turtle looked at the detective with a confused look on his face and replied "I don't know, it all happened so fast."

TOP JOKE IN ENGLAND. Two weasels are sitting on a bar stool. One starts to insult the other one. He screams, "I slept with your mother!" The bar gets quiet as everyone listens to see what the other weasel will do. The first again yells, "I SLEPT WITH YOUR MOTHER!" The other says, "Go home dad you're drunk."

TOP JOKE IN SCOTLAND. I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

TOP JOKE IN NORTHERN IRELAND. A doctor says to his patient, "I have bad news and worse news".

"Oh dear, what's the bad news?" asks the patient.

The doctor replies: "You only have 24 hours to live."

"That's terrible," said the patient. "How can the news possibly be worse?".

The doctor replies: "I've been trying to contact you since yesterday."

TOP JOKE IN UK. A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!" The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me!" The man says: "You go right up there and tell him off - go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you."

TOP JOKE IN USA. A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer. His friend says: "Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man." The man then replies: "Yeah, well we were married 35 years."

TOP JOKE IN CANADA. When Nasa first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, scientists spent a decade and 12 billion dollars to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C. The Russians used a pencil.

TOP JOKE IN AUSTRALIA. This woman rushes to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattles off: "Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What's WRONG with me, Doctor!?"

The doctor looks her over for a couple of minutes, then calmly says: "Well, I can tell you that there ain't nothing wrong with your eyesight...."

TOP JOKE IN BELGIUM. Why do ducks have webbed feet? To stamp out fires. Why do elephants have flat feet? To stamp out burning ducks.

TOP JOKE IN GERMANY. A general noticed one of his soldiers behaving oddly. The soldier would pick up any piece of paper he found, frown and say: "That's not it" and put it down again. This went on for some time, until the general arranged to have the soldier psychologically tested. The psychologist concluded that the soldier was deranged, and wrote out his discharge from the army. The soldier picked it up, smiled and said: "That's it."

Worth the repost .....................








GREAT TRUTHS



GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:



1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.

2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.

3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.

4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.

5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.

6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.

7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.

8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.

9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.

10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.



GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:



1) Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.

2) Wrinkles don't hurt.

3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.

4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.

5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.

6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.



GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD



1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.

2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.

4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.

5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.

6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.

7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.



THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:



1) You believe in Santa Claus.

2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.

3) You are Santa Claus.

4) You look like Santa Claus.



SUCCESS:



At age 4 success is . not peeing in your pants.

At age 12 success is . . . having friends.

At age 16 success is . . . having a drivers license.

At age 20 success is . . . having a girlfriend that thinks you a really good looking

At age 35 success is . . . having money.

At age 50 success is . . . having money.

At age 60 success is . . . having a girlfriend that thinks you are really good looking

At age 70 success is . . having a drivers license.

At age 75 success is . . . having friends.

At age 80 success is . . not peeing in your pants.

This is amazing. Try to read the paragraph below, then consider what It actually says. The brain is a wonderful thing isn't it?

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe and the biran fguiers it out aynawy. . WOW![/size]

Subject: Two Mirrors


Two Way Mirror

A policewoman who travels all over the US and gives seminars and techniques
for business women passed this on.

Do you know how to determine if a mirror is 2-way or not?

This is not to scare you, but to make you aware.

This is really interesting. Try it with a 'regular' mirror, and you can
easily see what the gap means. This is a MUST read!!

When we visit toilets, bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc., how
many of you know for sure that the seemingly ordinary mirror hanging on the
wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror? (i.e., they can see you,
but you can't see them).

There have been many cases of people installing 2-way mirrors in female
changing rooms. It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by
just looking at it. So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty
what type of mirror we are looking at?

Just conduct this simple test: Place the tip of your fingernail against the
reflective surface and if there IS A GAP between your fingernail and the
image of the nail, then it is a GENUINE mirror.

However, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail, then
BEWARE, BECAUSE IT IS a 2-WAY MIRROR!

REMEMBER ... every time you see a mirror, do the "fingernail test." It
doesn't cost you anything, it is simple to do, and it might save you from
getting visually raped!"

REMEMBER ... "NO SPACE, LEAVE THE PLACE!"

Ladies: Share this with your girlfriends, sisters, daughters, etc.

Men: Share this with your wives, daughters, daughters-in law, mothers,
girlfriends and/or friends.

That paragraph in red is amazing. So tell me again...why do we need spellcheck?

Nott evry won duz ....

A great resource from The New York Public Library.

Just start clicking.




Click me