Technology Geekette
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Two out of three people in America today are either overweight or obese. That means every time you sit down in an airplane or a packed movie theater, more likely than not you’re going to wind up as the lean center of a fat sandwich. But as you look right and left and see nothing but heft, you can’t help but think, What happened?
How did we all get so darn fat?
Well, the simple answer is that we eat more calories. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that American men eat 7 percent more calories than they did in 1971; American women eat a whopping 18 percent more—an additional 335 calories a day! But the harder question is this: Why do we eat so many more calories? Are we suddenly more gluttonous? Do we have some kind of collective death wish? Is the entire country hellbent on qualifying for the next season of Biggest Loser?
No. There’s an even crazier reason: It’s the food!
We’ve added extra calories to traditional foods, often in cheap, mass-produced vehicles like high fructose corn syrup. These new freak foods are designed not by chefs, but by lab technicians packing every morsel with maximum calories at minimum cost—with little or no regard to dietary impact. Indeed, Eat This, Not That! 2011 has uncovered the truth about some of your favorite fast food and grocery store items and how they're causing you to pack on unnecessary pounds. It’s enough to kill your appetite, which—in these cases, anyway—would be a good thing.
Bonus Tip: Don't miss our year-end walk down The Restaurant Hall of Shame: The 20 Worst Foods of 2010!
THE FAST-FOOD HAMBURGER
The great American staple. Don’t worry, burgers really do come from cows—but have you ever wondered how those giant chains process and distribute so much meat so cheaply? And . . . are you sure you want to know?The Truth: Most fast-food hamburger patties begin their voyage to your buns in the hands of a company called Beef Products. The company specializes in taking slaughterhouse trimmings—heads and hooves and the like—that are traditionally used only in pet food and cooking oil, and turning them into patties. The challenge is getting this byproduct meat clean enough for human consumption, as both E. coli and salmonella like to concentrate themselves in the fatty deposits.
The company has developed a process for killing beef-based pathogens by forcing the ground meat through pipes and exposing it to ammonia gas—the same chemical you might use to clean your bathroom. Not only has the USDA approved the process, but it's also allowed those who sell the beef to keep it hidden from their customers. At Beef Products’ behest, ammonia gas has been deemed a “processing agent” that need not be identified on nutrition labels. Never mind that if ammonia gets on your skin, it can cause severe burning, and if it gets in your eyes, it can blind you. Add to the gross-out factor the fact that after moving through this lengthy industrial process, a single beef patty can consist of cobbled-together pieces from different cows from all over the world—a practice that only increases the odds of contamination.
Eat This Instead: Losing weight starts in your own kitchen, by using the same ingredients real chefs have relied on since the dawn of the spatula. (Here are the 15 best dishes for quick and easy weight loss.) If you’re set on the challenge of eating fresh, single-source hamburger, pick out a nice hunk of sirloin from the meat case and have your butcher grind it up fresh. Hold the ammonia.
BETTY CROCKER'S BAC-O BITS
We’ve all been there before: A big bowl of lettuce or a steamy baked potato is set before us and the sudden desire for a bit of smoky, porky goodness pervades. We try to resist, but we grab for the bottle anyway: Mmmmm . . . bacon.The Truth: Not quite. If it’s Bac-Os you grab for, just know that there’s not the slightest whiff of anything pork-like to be found in the bottle. So what are those little chips you’ve been shaking over your salads? Well, mostly soybeans. The bulk of each Bac-O is formed by tiny clumps of soy flour bound with trans-fatty, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and laced with artificial coloring, salt, and sugar. The result is a product that’s actually less healthy for your heart than the real thing!
Eat This Instead: Hormel makes a product called Real Bacon Bits, and as the name implies, it’s made with real bacon. And gram-for-gram, the real bacon actually has fewer calories than Betty Crocker’s Bac-Os. If Hormel can make a nutritionally superior product using real bacon, then why would you ever choose the artificial one that’s loaded with partially hydrogenated soybean oil?
PREMADE GUACAMOLE
When you buy bean dip, you expect it to be made from beans. And when you buy guacamole, it seems reasonable to expect it to be made from avocados. But is it?
The Truth: Most guacamoles with the word “dip” attached to the label suffer from a lack of real avocado. Take Dean’s Guacamole, for example. This guacamole dip is composed of less than 2 percent avocado; the rest of the green goo is a cluster of fillers and chemicals, including modified food starch, soybean oils, locust bean gum, and food coloring. Dean’s is not alone in this offense. In fact, this avocado caper was brought to light when a California woman filed a lawsuit against Kraft after she noticed “it just didn’t taste avocadoey.”
Eat This Instead: Avocados are loaded with fiber and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. Trading the good stuff in for a bunch of fillers is cheating both your belly and your tastebuds. Either look for the real stuff (Wholly Guacamole makes a great guac), or mash up a bowl yourself. Scoop out the flesh of two avocados, combine with two cloves of minced garlic, a bit of minced onion, the juice of one lemon, chopped cilantro, one medium chopped tomato, and a pinch of salt.Bonus Tip: Unlike packaged-food manufacturers, fast-food and sit-down restaurants don't typically rely on chemicals to enhance flavor. Instead, they pack in sugar and sodium, calorie counts be damned. Beware of The 10 Worst Fast Food Meals in America!
FRUIT ON THE BOTTOM YOGURT
It seems like the ideal breakfast or snack for a man or woman on the go—a perfect combination of yogurt and antioxidant-packed fruits, pulled together in one convenient little cup. But are these low-calorie dairy aisle staples really so good for you?
The Truth: While the yogurt itself offers stomach-soothing live cultures and a decent serving of protein, the sugar content of these seemingly healthy products is sky-high. The fruit itself is swimming in thick syrup—so much of it, in fact, that high-fructose corn syrup (and other such sweeteners) often shows up on the ingredients list well before the fruit itself. And these low-quality refined carbohydrates are the last thing you want for breakfast—Australian researchers found that people whose diets were high in carbohydrates had lower metabolisms than those who ate proportionally more protein. Not to mention, spikes in your blood sugar can wreck your short-term memory, according to a study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Not what you need just before your urgent 9 a.m. meeting with the boss!
Eat This Instead: Plain Greek-style yogurt, mixed with real blueberries. We like Oikos and Fage brands—they’re jacked with about 15 to 22 grams of belly-filling protein, so they’ll help you feel satisfied for longer. And blueberries are another great morning add—scientists in New Zealand found that when they fed blueberries to mice, the rodents ate 9 percent less at their next meal.Bonus Tip: Daily e-mails (or tweets) that contain weight-loss advice remind you of your goals and help you drop pounds, according to Canadian researchers. We're partial to our own Eat This, Not That! newsletter, and to the instant weight-loss secrets you'll get when you follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/davezinczenko).
TURKEY BACON
Pork bacon’s got a bad rap for wreaking havoc on your cholesterol. But is turkey bacon really any better?
The Truth: Stick with the pig. As far as calories go, the difference between “healthy” turkey bacon and “fatty” pig is negligible—and depending on the slice, turkey might sometimes tip the scales a touch more. Additionally, while turkey is indeed a leaner meat, turkey bacon isn’t made from 100 percent bird: One look at the ingredients list will show a long line of suspicious additives and extras that can’t possibly add anything of nutritional value. And finally, the sodium content of the turkey bacon is actually higher than what you’ll find in the kind that oinks—so if you’re worried about your blood pressure, opting for the original version is usually the smarter move.
Eat This Instead: Regular bacon. We like Hormel Black Label and Oscar Mayer Center Cut bacon for some low-cal, low-additive options.
REDUCED-FAT PEANUT BUTTER
Nothing makes a PB&J feel less indulgent like a scoop of low-fat Jif. It’s low fat, so it must be better for you . . . right?
The Truth: A tub of reduced-fat peanut butter indeed comes with a fraction less fat than the full-fat variety—they’re not lying about that. But what the food companies don’t tell you is that peanut oil—the fat in peanut butter—is a heart-healthy monounsaturated fat that can actually help fight weight gain, heart disease and diabetes! Instead, they’ve tried to cash in on the “low-fat” craze by replacing that healthy fat with maltodextrin, a carbohydrate used as a filler in many processed foods. This means you’re trading the healthy fat from peanuts for empty carbs, double the sugar, and a savings of a meager 10 calories.
Eat This Instead: The real stuff: no oils, fillers, or added sugars. Just peanuts and salt. Smucker’s Natural fits the bill, as do many other peanut butters out there. We especially like Peanut Butter & Co. Original Smooth Operator and Original Crunch Time.Bonus Tip: The average American drinks 450 calories a day—a quarter of the calories you're supposed to consume during an entire day! Beware of The 20 Worst Drinks in America, 2010 Edition.
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EAT RIGHT RULE: If your food can go bad, it's good for you. If it can't go bad, it's bad for you. FOLLOW DAVE ZINCZENKO RIGHT HERE ON TWITTER and get FREE health, nutrition and weight-loss secrets like this one every day! You'll lose weight and get healthy faster than ever!
Check out these cutting-edge guides to fast and easy weight loss, the brand-new Men’s Health Big Book of Exercises and Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises.
Get more nutrition, health, and fitness secrets from Men's Health: Subscribe today with this special offer and save 50% off the cover price.
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Santa's Personalized Video Message
Give your child a thrill this Christmas— put them on Santa's Nice List! Just upload his or her name and photo and receive a personalized video message from Santa! Create your video now!
- Santa's List
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Santa Claus and his amazing PNP (Portable North Pole) console will be online during the entire holiday season. With just a few clicks, this technological marvel will let your loved ones receive a personal message from Santa Claus, sent directly from his village in the North Pole. Rediscover Christmas with this immersive and unique experience that brings the holiday magic back to life.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Total lunar eclipse
2010/12/21 [2]
(Future event)Saros (member) 125 (48) Recent <S <T < > T> S>
The moon passes right to left through the earth's northern shadowGamma[1] 0.3213 Duration (hr:mn:sc) Totality 1:13:12 Partial 3:29:22 Penumbral 5:38:22 Contacts P1 05:27:43 UTC U1 06:32:17 UTC U2 07:40:21 UTC Greatest 08:16:56 UTC U3 08:53:34 UTC U4 10:01:39 UTC P4 11:06:04 UTC
At descending node in TaurusA total lunar eclipse will take place on December 20/21, 2010.[2] It will be visible after midnight Eastern Standard Time on December 21 in North and South America. The beginning of the total eclipse will be visible from northern Europe just before sunrise. The end of the total eclipse will be visible rising at sunset for Japan and northeastern Asia, it also appears very visible to the Philippines just after sunset (as in a partial lunar eclipse). It will be the first total lunar eclipse in nearly 3 years, the last being on February 20, 2008. [3]
It is the second of two lunar eclipses in 2010. The first was a partial lunar eclipse on June 26, 2010. It is also called the Christmas lunar eclipse. It will be the first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Winter Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere; Summer in the Southern) since 1638, and only the second in the Common Era[4].
Contents
[edit] Visibility
Times of over North America
Event PST
(-8 UTC)MST
(-7 UTC)CST
(-6 UTC)EST
(-5 UTC)Start penumbral (P1) 9:27 pm (*) 10:27 pm (*) 11:27 pm (*) 12:27 am Start umbral (U1) 10:32 pm (*) 11:32 pm (*) 12:32 am 1:32 am Start total (U2) 11:40 pm (*) 12:40 am 1:40 am 2:40 am Greatest eclipse 12:17 am 1:17 am 2:17 am 3:17 am End total (U3) 12:53 am 1:53 am 2:53 am 3:53 am End umbra (U4) 2:02 am 3:02 am 4:02 am 5:02 am End penumbral (P4) 3:06 am 4:06 am 5:06 am 6:06 am (*) before midnight on Monday night, December 20
These simulated views of the earth from the center of the moon during the lunar eclipse show where the eclipse is visible on earth.[edit] Appearance
This simulation shows the approximate appearance of the Moon as it passes through the penumbral and umbral shadows of the Earth. It combines the subtle red glowing light inside the umbral shadow with the smaller dimming in the penumbral shadow.
[edit] Related eclipses
The previous lunar eclipse on June 26, 2010 was partial. The previous total lunar eclipse occurred nearly three years earlier, on February 21, 2008.
The following two lunar eclipses are also total, on June 15, 2011 and December 10, 2011.
It will be followed two weeks later by the partial solar eclipse of January 4, 2011.
This eclipse is part of a Metonic cycle that includes another total lunar eclipse 19 years later, on December 20, 2029, as well as a preceding partial eclipse on December 21, 1991 and a final penumbral eclipse on December 20, 2048.
[edit] Lunar year series
The lunar year series repeats after 13 lunations or 354 days (Shifting back about 10 days in sequential years). Because of the date shift, the Earth's shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.
Lunar eclipse series sets from 2009–2013
Ascending node Descending node Saros Date
ViewingType
chartSaros Date
ViewingType
chart110 2009 July 07
penumbral
115
2009 Dec 31
partial
120
2010 June 26
partial
125 2010 Dec 21
total
130 2011 June 15
total
135 2011 Dec 10
total
140 2012 June 04
partial
145 2012 Nov 28
penumbral
150 2013 May 25
penumbral
Last set 2009 Aug 06 Last set 2009 Feb 9 Next set 2013 Apr 25 Next set 2013 Oct 18 [edit] Metonic cycles (19 years)
The Metonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents a Saros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the earth's shadow will be in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.
Ascending node Descending node
- 1991 Jun 27 - penumbral (110)
- 2010 Jun 26 - partial (120)
- 2029 Jun 26 - total (130)
- 2048 Jun 26 - partial (140)
- 2067 Jun 27 - penumbral (150)
- 1991 Dec 21 - partial (115)
- 2010 Dec 21 - total (125)
- 2029 Dec 20 - total (135)
- 2048 Dec 20 - partial (145)
[edit] Tritos series
The tritos series repeats 31 days short of 11 years at alternating nodes. Sequential events have incremental Saros cycle indices.
This series produces 20 total eclipses between April 24, 1967 and August 1, 2167, only being partial on November 19, 2021.
Tritos eclipse series (subset 1901–2100)
Descending node Ascending node Saros Date
ViewingType
chartSaros Date
ViewingType
chart115 1901 Oct 27
Partial
116 1912 Sep 26
Partial
117 1923 Aug 26
Partial
118 1934 Jul 26
Partial
119 1945 Jun 25
Partial
120 1956 May 24
Partial
121 1967 Apr 24
Total
122 1978 Mar 24
Total
123 1989 Feb 20
Total
124 2000 Jan 21
Total
125 2010 Dec 21
Total
126 2021 Nov 19
Partial
127 2032 Oct 18
Total
128 2043 Sep 19
Total
129 2058 Jun 6
Total
130 2069 May 6
Total
131 2080 Apr 4
Total
132 2091 Mar 5
Total
[edit] Saros series
Lunar saros cycle series 125, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has 26 total lunar eclipses. The first was on June 17, 1704 and the last will be on March 19, 2155. The longest totality occurrence of this series (7th) was on August 22, 1812 when totality lasted one hour and 42 minutes.[5]
This is the 18th of 26 total lunar eclipses in series 125. The previous occurrence was on December 9, 1992 and the next will occur on December 31, 2028.
[edit] See also
- List of lunar eclipses
- List of 21st century lunar eclipses
- June 2011 lunar eclipse
- December 2011 lunar eclipse
- File:2010-12-21_Lunar_Eclipse_Sketch.gif Chart
[edit] Notes
- ^ Gamma is the minimum distance of the Moon's shadow axis from Earth's centre in Earth radii at greatest eclipse.
- ^ 2010 Dec 21 chart: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
- ^ http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/eclipses/80386602.html
- ^ [1]
- ^ Listing of Eclipses of cycle 125
[edit] External links
- Worldwide viewing times for the December 2010 Total Lunar Eclipse*
- How to Photograph the Lunar Eclipse from the NY Institute of Photography
- Full & Last Lunar Eclipse Of 2010 On December 21st
- NASA: Total Lunar Eclipse: December 21, 2010
- Hermit eclipse (Ian Cameron Smith) Total Lunar Eclipse: December 21 2010
- Animation of the December 21 2010 eclipse at shadowandsubstance.com
- Astronomical Society of the Pacific eclipse times and questions & answers
This article related to the Moon is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2010_lunar_eclipse"
Welcome to NORAD Tracks Santa
All the preparations for this year are in place! Come back each day to receive updates from the North Pole and to discover new surprises in the Kids' Countdown Village.
Santa’s elves have been busier than usual this year preparing. Visit Santa’s Village to see what’s been going on, and join in on the fun!
NORAD teamed up with a local school district to bring more holiday cheer. Learn more.
See Santa on your mobile phone
This Christmas eve, join NORAD to track Santa's flight from your phone. On December 24th, open
Google Maps for mobile
and do a search for "Santa" to see his latest location.
Top 10 Registry Tweaks that Power Up Windows
The Windows registry is a mysterious place, but if you're comfortable editing it, you have the power to tweak nearly every Windows setting you can imagine. Here are 10 of our favorite registry tweaks that make life easier.
All of these hacks work in Windows 7, even if not labeled as such. Many may work in Vista or earlier versions of Windows, but varies, so be sure to read up more on the tweak before you go meddling in Vista's registry. And, of course, be sure to make a backup of your registry before you start hacking away.
10. Hide Pre-Populated Items in Windows Explorer's Sidebar
Windows Explorer is pretty easy to navigate, but that sidebar can easily get cluttered with features you don't use. For example, if you're the only computer on your network, you probably have no need for the Homegroup or Network trees. Each item in the Explorer sidebar has a registry key, and with just a few minor tweaks, you can have them hidden in no time.
9. Disable Libraries in Windows 7
The new Libraries feature in Windows 7 is, in our opinion, one of its best underhyped features—but if you can't get over the annoyance of having multiple folders grouped together, you can get rid of them with a simple registry tweak. Note that, while you can hide them from the Explorer sidebar using #10, the feature itself is still around, and will likely pop up in other applications. So if you really don't like Libraries, this tweak wil get them out of your sight for good.
8. Change Your User Profile Location
Whether you've bought an SSD and need to move your home folder to another drive or you just don't like how long it takes to navigate to your documents, the registry has a few options for moving your user profile folder. It's not something you want to do if you've been using your computer for awhile (since many places will reference the profile's old location), and it isn't for the faint of heart—since it involves a good 21 steps—but in the end, it may very well make your life a lot easier.
7. Customize Windows Explorer's "Open With" Menu
The context menu is great for performing tasks quickly, but as you install more programs, that "Open With" menu can get incredibly unruly. To get rid of those "Open With" entries that never seem to serve any use, you can manually edit which programs show up for which file extensions in the registry. It's a bit more time consuming than other registry tweaks, but it's far from difficult, and you're sure to be happy with the end result. If, on the other side of the coin, you want a program permanently docked in the "Open With" menu, you can add it yourself through the registry too.
6. Speed Up the Windows 7 Taskbar
The Taskbar is no doubt one of the best features in Windows 7, but it isn't without its tiny annoyances. The Taskbar popups (along with the associated Aero Peek functionality) require you to hover your mouse over the taskbar for a second before they appear—a delay that gets old quickly. If you'd like to speed up the thumbnail delay, all you need to do is tweak a simple key in the registry. You can also get rid of the Aero Peek delay, for super-fast window management. If the Taskbar thumbnails and Aero Peek aren't your style, you can use this registry hack to cycle through windows quickly with mouse clicks instead.
5. Disable Annoying Notification Balloons
The notification balloons in Windows' lower right-hand corner can be helpful, but if you have a number of things going on at once, they can get pretty annoying. It's an extreme measure, but if you'd like to turn them off altogether, all it takes is a very simple registry tweak. Of course, if you find that disabling them completely is too extreme, you can always turn them back on.
4. Change Your PC's Registered Owner
Whether you've acquired a used PC from someone else, or you just don't like the name you registered anymore, you can change the registered owner and registered organization of your PC with a quick registry tweak. It may seem useless to some, but when you inherit an office computer or end up changing where you work, it's a pain when your computer automatically adds incorrect information to everything.
3. Take Ownership of Any File From the Context Menu
If you don't have ownership permissions of a file or folder in Windows, it can be difficult to work with it—and taking ownership of a file is no easy task. Thankfully, with a small registry hack, you can add a "Take Ownership" option to the Windows Explorer context menu, making you the owner of the file in just two clicks. We briefly mentioned this tip before, but you can find the full hack over at our friend The How-To Geek.
2. Stop Windows Update from Hijacking Your PC
Windows' automatic update system is convenient for those of us that would rather not deal with manual updates day in and day out, but when it forces you to reboot your computer (or forces you to install updates when you put your computer to sleep), it can make you want to pull your hair out. Thanks to the registry, however, there are a few different registry tweaks that will keep Windows Update from getting up in your business: one to keep it from forcibly rebooting your computer, and one to keep it away from your shut down and sleep buttons.
1. Enable God Mode to Quickly Access Any Setting You Want
If there's one thing that bugs me about Windows 7, it's that the new Control Panel takes forever to navigate, with seemingly infinite levels of buttons and links to click through just to activate one setting. The Windows 7 "God Mode" hack (which is one of our five favorite Windows 7 tweakers) puts every setting in the Control Panel at your fingertips through a magical folder in Windows Explorer. You don't actually need to enter the Registry Editor to create this beast, but it certainly qualifies as a registry hack, as you're essentially using the registry's Globally Unique Identifiers to create a desktop shortcut to all those settings. While the God Mode folder is the most popular use for this method, its also worth noting that you can use it to create (or re-create) other system places like the Recycle Bin, My Computer, Libraries, and others.
Send an email to Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com.
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If it’s clear where you are on Monday night, bundle up, head outside and look up. One of the best meteor showers of the year will peak on Dec. 13.
The Geminid meteor shower, which returns every December as the Earth passes through a debris trail from asteroid 3200 Phaethon, is usually one of the year’s best celestial shows. Between 11 pm local time Monday and sunrise Tuesday morning, you may see one or two shooting stars per minute under clear dark skies. Even in areas with a lot of light pollution, the brightest meteors should be clear and sharp.
Part of what makes the Geminids so spectacular is that they travel more slowly than meteors from other showers. They can take several seconds to blaze across the sky, and sometimes leave a brief trail of glowing smoke.
The Geminids get their name because they appear to fly from near the stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini. From the northern hemisphere, Gemini is in the eastern sky in the evening and high overhead after midnight.
Other famous meteor showers, like the Perseids in August and the Leonids in November, have been observed for hundreds or thousands of years. But the Geminids showed up suddenly in the 1860s. It took astronomers another 120 years to figure out that the asteroid 3200 Phaethon was the shooting stars’ source. Most meteor showers are linked to the debris left in the wake of a comet, but the Geminids were the first to be connected to an asteroid, suggesting that 3200 Phaethon may actually be an extinct comet.
To check when the best viewing times are in your area, check out this flux calculator applet developed by two meteor hunters at the SETI Institute.
If you want to photograph the meteor shower, head away from city lights and check out our how-to wiki on where to look and how to take photos. Send us your best shots — if we get enough good ones, we’ll compile them into a gallery.
Image: Flickr/St0rmz
See Also:
- How to Watch the Leonid Meteor Shower
- Video: Meteor Explodes Over New Mexico
- New Super Close-Up Images From Comet Flyby
- Reader Photos: Ghostly Green Comet Approaches Earth
- New Evidence of Ice Age Comet Found in Ice Cores
- Comet Contains One of Life’s Precursors
Follow us on Twitter @astrolisa and @wiredscience, and on Facebook.
Technology Geekette
ITILv3, MCSE, MCTS
HP ASE, HP Master ASE
Citrix, Altiris, Kofax
ITO Sr. Solutions Architect
WorldWide Tech Services
Hobby: Travel and Photography
www.padalecki.com
@sondrapadalecki - Twitter
Technology Geekette
ITILv3, MCSE, MCTS
HP ASE, HP Master ASE
Citrix, Altiris, Kofax
ITO Sr. Solutions Architect
WorldWide Tech Services
Hobby: Travel and Photography
www.padalecki.com
@sondrapadalecki - Twitter
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