9 UNUSUAL USES FOR VODKA

I came across these interesting little tidbits of household helpful hints and thought I'd share them with you.  Most people agree that vodka doesn't have a smell or taste.  However, to me it smells and tastes like rubbing alcohol.  Therefore, I find these uses for vodka far more viable than drinking it.  :)

Remove a Band-Aid

If you've got a Band-Aid you want to remove without the pain of ripping it off, dab some vodka over the adhesive part so that it comes off with more ease. This method also works with stickers.

Treat Poison Ivy

If you think your skin has come into contact with poison ivy, pour vodka over the affected area immediately. Some say the stronger the alcohol, the better. Rubbing alcohol can also be used.

Freshen Laundry

Spritz some vodka on your clothes to freshen them up. Vodka kills odor-causing bacteria and dries with no smell. Be sure to keep the clothing in a well-ventilated area.

Ease a Toothache

Got a toothache? You should go to the dentist, but until then swish some vodka in your mouth. It will help disinfect the affected area and also numb the pain a little.

Insect Repellent

Pour some vodka into a spray bottle to repel pesky insects. Spray near you or on you, but avoid the eyes!

Keep Flowers Fresh

Mix vodka with a spoonful of sugar or baking soda with water to keep your flowers fresher in the vase for longer.

Tame Frizzy Hair

Mix some vodka into your hair conditioner to tame any frizzy hair and make it shinier. It also might help reduce flakes.

Window Washing

Instead of buying that blue stuff, use vodka to clean your windows. Just mix some cheap, high-proof vodka with water and spray away.

Treat Jellyfish Sting

Stung by a jellyfish? Pour some vodka on it ASAP to disinfect it and calm some of the sting.

9 Weird Allergies

Allergies are caused by the body's defense system overreacting to some substance it comes in contact with. We're all familiar with the allergies to everyday things such as mold, pollen, specific foods, and animal dander. There are 40 to 50 million Americans allergic to these common bad guys. But you'd be surprised at the uncommon allergies people can develop.

Here's a list of 9 (in no particular order) weird and unusual allergies.

1)  Water Allergy

Water is absolutely mandatory for our survival, but there are those rare people who get the hives from water. The hives and itching usually go away in 15 to 30 minutes and antihistamines will relieve the symptoms.

2)  Exercise Allergy

This type of allergy has only been officially reported in medical journals about 1000 times since the 1970s. Of course, unofficially is a different story…at one time or another I imagine most of us have professed being allergic to exercising. :)  In mild cases the result is hives. But in more severe cases it can lead to anaphylaxis, a dangerous condition where the blood pressure drops suddenly and there is difficulty breathing. This is the same type of reaction as severe food allergies and is treated as a medical emergency, usually with injections of epinephrine.

3)  Sun Allergy

Solar exposure can result in hives with the itching and stinging symptoms relieved with antihistamines, but not prevented. Sun allergy is very rare. The hives appear within 30 minutes of exposure to the sun and will clear up within minutes of getting out of the sun. Needless to say, avoiding the sun can prevent this reaction.

4)  Electricity Allergy

Those who claim to suffer from electro sensitivity say they are sensitive to electric fields generated by products such as cell phones, microwaves, computers, and power lines. The symptoms include headache, ringing in the ears and fatigue among other complaints. The experts say this is one type of allergy that you don't have to worry about because it doesn't exist. There have been several studies done and almost all of them have come up empty.

5)  Shoes Allergy

A poison ivy-type rash on your feet after you've worn leather shoes could be allergic reaction to the chemicals used in the leather tanning process. This type of allergy is known as contact dermatitis and can be diagnosed with a patch test. Contact dermatitis is somewhat of a catchall term for a common skin condition resulting from contact with many possible irritants. The solution to shoe allergy? Wear socks or shoes made from something other than leather.

6)  Allergy to Money

Another type of contact dermatitis can be an allergic rash on your hands after handling coins. The culprit would most likely be the nickel metal in coins, also an alloy found in the manufacture of jewelry, zippers, and eyeglass frames among other things. The best treatment is to avoid the substance. Good luck with that one.  :)

7)  Allergy to Touch

This is known as dermographism and is another form of hives. The literal translation is skin writing and was named because with this type of allergy a person can write his name on his skin using nothing more than the pressure from a fingernail. That pressure on the skin causes an itchy hive reaction. This reaction can also be the result of tight clothing or even toweling off after a hot shower. The resultant itching can be controlled with antihistamines.

8)  Cold Temperature Allergy

This allergy is very rare, but potentially dangerous. It can be life-threatening if a person with this allergy is suddenly exposed to extreme cold, such as diving into very cold water. This can cause a massive release of histamine, which can severely drop the blood pressure. Handling this kind of allergy is to focus on prevention such as avoiding exposure of large areas of skin to the cold.

9)  Allergy To Pollinated Fruit

Millions of Americans have allergies to pollen and some of them could also experience a type of allergy known as oral allergy syndrome. This happens when someone allergic to pollen eats a fruit that contains the same protein as the pollen. This is a cross reactivity and can happen between such things as ragweed and bananas, grasses and tomato, and birch trees with apples, plums, or peaches. The symptoms are itchy mouth and throat and sometimes swelling of the lips and will go away if you swallow or spit out the fruit with treatment usually being unnecessary.

19 Things That Kill More People Than Sharks

And by things that kill, I'm not referring to crime, war, disease, or natural causes. Some are bizarre and others more common place. A recent survey provided a list of cause-of-death statistics that I found interesting and thought I would share with you. I actually found two lists, one a list of 10 Incredibly Bizarre Death Statistics and the other a list of 20 (all the 10 items from the first list plus 10 more, not necessarily in the same order).

Sharks reportedly kill an average of 5 people annually in unprovoked attacks. 2020 was an unusually deadly year with sharks killing 10 people around the world in unprovoked attacks. This number does not include provoked attacks and shark bites that were not fatal. But that's a small number compared to other bizarre causes of death.

Roller Coasters are responsible for 6 accidental deaths annually. Overall, the risk factor for injury while riding a roller coaster is very low. In the U.S., people take about 900 million rides a year.

Vending Machines kill 13 people a year. What? A crazed vending machine out on a killing spree? Nope, the deaths are a result of the vending machine toppling over and crushing the unfortunate person who happened to be in the way.

High School Football is responsible for 20 tragic deaths annually.

Ants kill 30 people annually. There are over 280 different species of ants that can kill with the fire ant and siafu ant, both found in Africa, among the most deadly. Ants live in colonies that can reach 20 million ants in a single colony. Once an attack begins, ants can easily overpower their prey.

Dogs kill 30 people annually in the U.S. There are approximately 4.7 million dog bite victims in the U.S. alone with 1000 of those treated in emergency rooms. Most of those victims are children who were bitten in the face.

Jelly Fish are responsible for 40 deaths annually. Most jelly fish are not deadly, but some can cause anaphylaxis which can be fatal.

Tornadoes kill an average of 60 people annually, with some years having more tornado outbreaks than other years as attested to by the outbreaks of extreme weather the last few years.

Hot Dogs are responsible for 70 deaths annually, primarily from choking.

Icicles kill 100 people a year in Russia. This happens when sharp icicles fall from snowy rooftops and land on unsuspecting victims on the sidewalks below.

Deer are responsible for 130 annual deaths (I, personally, was attacked by a deer as a child but the injuries were very minor).

Bathtubs account for 340 annual deaths, primarily from people slipping and falling. They die either from a fatal blow to the head or knocking themselves out and drowning.

Falling Out of Bed results in a surprising 450 deaths a year. According to the Center for Disease Control, falling out of bed produces 1.8 million emergency room visits and over 400,000 hospital admissions each year. The very young and very old are most at risk with people over 65 faring the worst.

Shopping On Black Friday gives us 550 annual deaths. A U.S. phenomenon, that mad scramble for bargains the day after Thanksgiving which has traditionally been the busiest shopping day on the year. The name Black Friday referring to a financially good economic situation, the day that retail businesses operate 100% in the black for the rest of the year (all income being profit, rather than the loss after deducting expenses related to being in the red). However, with online shopping becoming more and more popular, especially during the pandemic years, this figure is decreasing.

Autoerotic Asphyxiation kills 600 people annually. This is the act of strangling or suffocating (most often by hanging) yourself to heighten sexual arousal. Depriving the brain of oxygen gives a person a dizzy, high feeling, however it's all too easy to make a mistake and accidently kill yourself while practicing this dangerous sex act.

Volcanoes kill 845 people annually.

Airplanes are responsible for an average 1,200 annual deaths.

Hippos come in on the survey with 2,900 deaths annually. Many experts believe that the Hippopotamus is the most dangerous animal in all of Africa. They weigh up to 8,000 pounds and can gallop at 18 miles per hour. They have been known to upset boats for no reason and bite passengers with their huge, sharp teeth. They are aggressive, unpredictable and have no fear of humans.

Texting while driving is responsible for 6,000 deaths each year. A survey by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute reports that a driver's risk of collision is 23 times greater when they are texting while driving.

Lightning, the final cause of death on our list, kills 10,000 people annually.

Jobs That No Longer Exist—part 2 of 2

Last week we talked about jobs from the past that have already gone by the wayside or in some cases are almost gone. And this week in part 2 of 2, we're going to talk about jobs many of which are predicted to be nearly gone in the next 20 years or at least out-of-date.

What education should you get to best position yourself for the coming decade? What line of work should you be in, and which professions have no future and will disappear? What does the brave new world have to offer? Here is a list I came across of jobs predicted to be obsolete in 20 years—some logical, some surprising, some frightening, and some seem a little far-fetched.

Actor: Actors in film and television will be replaced by completely realistic looking animations. CGI (computer generated images) are already fully integrated into movies, television, and even commercials. And we can't forget the current focus on AI (artificial intelligence) changing entertainment, the art world, news, and other facets of everyday life. What's real and what isn't? Will the AI performers be able to project the same emotion into a role that real people do? Real people actors will, of course, exist for a while longer and will probably be performing in many parts of the world simultaneously, through the anticipated widespread use of holograms and similar technology.

Cashier: Many grocery stores, big box stores, and large discount stores already have self-check stands, but that’s just a tradeoff between a cashier doing the job and you doing it yourself, with the claim that it makes your purchasers cheaper. However, the self-check stands do not provide you with a discount for your purchases. Remember when ATMs first became available and we were encouraged to use those machines and told it was a good thing because it would save money? Yet in today's world, we're charged ATM fees if our bank isn't in that ATM network.  In the future, check stands will be fully automated. Just leave your groceries on the conveyer belt and let the robot scanner tally it up many times faster than a human ever could. As a consequence, or so it's claimed, lines will be much less of a nuisance as they become increasingly non-existent.

Construction worker: Construction work can be hazardous, so why should humans risk their lives doing it? In the future, insurance companies certainly won’t cover a construction firm that takes such unnecessary risks. Robotics are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and they’ll be constructing buildings cheaper, and far more rapidly than humans. But will they be as good or as safe?

Soldier: Compared to sophisticated robots, humans are relatively susceptible to mental deficiencies such as nervousness, pride, stupidity, miscalculation, slow reaction time, and basic fatigue. In other words: they say computers can do the same job more efficiently, without risking human life, and without apprehension. This one is surely going to be dependent on perfected artificial intelligence…that instant response to a totally unexpected situation. But at what cost? How can a computer replace any and all instant decisions that require a human input? Not everything is a mathematical calculation.

Security guard: Buy a strong, obedient robot that can see in the dark, never falls asleep on duty, and won’t accept bribes, to protect your home or your business. But again, sometimes that split second response requires a human touch.

Car mechanic: Cars will become too technically complex to repair for humans. Computers and robots will take care of it. Eventually, cars will fix themselves. They've already started driving themselves, but not yet successfully enough to make them truly viable or street legal.

Trash collector: Instead of two unhappy guys tossing trash from a receptacle into the back of the truck, a single fast, strong and highly motivated robot will complete the process in five seconds. [my trash pickup has recently been reduced to a one man operation and that one man is the driver—newly issued trash receptacles, instructions about where/how they are placed at the curb, and trucks with automatic arms that pick up the receptacle and dump the contents into the truck then return the receptacle to the curb except it sometimes ends up in the street on its side]

Assembly line worker: Automakers, textile producers and furniture factories (to mention just a few of the industries) around the world are cutting costs by reducing their number of salary, pension and insurance absorbing employees, and shifting focus to robotic solutions.

Toll booth operator: Many developed countries have already successfully implemented money-and-time saving automatic toll booths with video detection and post payment/subscriptions.

Prostitute: The completely lifelike robot girlfriends will satisfy the demand for carnal services in the future. [the movie Westworld has become reality?]

Nature photographer: Close-ups from inside the lion's cave and year-long stakeouts without the need for food or shelter are the advantages of photographic robots. [but does all this robotic perfection replace the creative and artistic eye contributed by the human element?]

Surgeon: Why let a nervous, shaky doctor with poor eyesight cut you with knives and fool around inside of you, when a steady handed, ice cool and accurate robot can do it instead? Medical malpractice lawsuits cost the American health providers some $30 billion each year. They say that will end.

Pilot: Computerized pilots are not like regular pilots in that they are not prone to human error, i.e. they won't spill coffee on the instrument panels in the cockpit or miscalculate their landing angle. Nor do they need good visibility to fly, as their millimeter-accurate GPS and sensor systems will guide them blindly to their destination. Obviously, they will have to prove their merit before plane passengers, and by extension airlines, can trust them.

Film processor: Even today it seems absurd to have a full time employee engaged in nothing but processing film. In fact, it has become difficult to find a local place to process your film and equally difficult to find a place to purchase 35mm film for your old film camera. And also along those lines, most modern movie theaters are rapidly moving away from film which makes a projectionist also on the track toward being obsolete.

Librarian: Libraries will soon look very different. Why have a library containing 50,000 paper made books when you can have 50 million of them in virtual form, which you can access with your library card and download to your electronic e-reader device in numerous formats. There will not be any need for humans to process the lending of books.

Call center operator: By 2029, when computers are scheduled to match human intelligence, a microchip will call your house and argue that you do, in fact, need flood insurance or to purchase an extended warranty for your car or household appliances. Computer generated robo calls are already a daily nuisance.

News anchor: No mispronunciations, no misunderstandings, no Freudian slips, just a perfectly articulate teleprompter with an attractive face. [some more of the 'no actor' technology of item number 1?] But it does not guarantee that the news will be accurate.

 

Mailman: Who sends snail-mail these days? Mostly nostalgic pen pals. While we may have a small segment left of the paper mail industry, most of the things we use the mail for are transitioning to or have already moved completely online: Bills, public notices, and business-letters. Although, we’ll still need package delivery at least until nanotechnology enables us to send and download material objects like we send files today, in 30-40 years. [or at such time as we all have 3D printers so we can purchase the article via the internet and print out the item in our homes or everything is delivered by drones regardless of where you want it delivered such as NOT in the middle of the front yard in the rain or in the middle of the driveway or at the curb where it will certainly be stolen. Apparently if you have a covered porch where your front door and mailbox are protected from weather, the drone won't be dropping it there.]

Waiters: Robots don't have an attitude, won't spill your food, and don't need tips. They can work tirelessly around the clock and don't call in sick, be ultra-efficient, and be called upon by clicking a button on your menu.

Receptionist: Artificial intelligence and robotics sciences are approaching a point where the robots we can match humans in terms of intelligence. These robots will be our faithful servants who perform the menial tasks, so humans can focus on developing themselves. But can they be personable rather than strictly business? And when you call a business or government office now, you're inundated with the 'press 1 for this, press 2 for that' etc., which usually leads you to yet another menu of 'press 1 for this' etc. I find this an extremely frustrating and irritating thing.

Extra: Jobs that will be outsourced to countries with inexpensive labor. Yes, these jobs will still exist, but will be performed by workers in countries that can offer inexpensive, skilled labor.

Accountant

Auditor

Web designer

Engineer

Customer service (much of this has already happened)

Many high-tech jobs

It seems that job predictions for the future usually include the explanation about freeing us up to have more leisure time to enjoy and spend with family and friends.  However, they don't say how someone whose job has just been make obsolete is supposed to support themselves and a family. Or how an ever increasing world population is supposed to earn a living in an arena of decreasing jobs.

An interesting problem to ponder.