Frank C. Mars

Frank C. Mars was born in Minnesota in 1884. He learned how to make candy from his mother as a young boy. She had used the candy making craft as a way to keep the polio-stricken Frank busy. Young Frank delighted in dipping his mother's homemade confections in chocolate as the final step in the process.

Snicker

In 1930, Frank C. Mars invented the Snickers bar by adding a chocolate coating to an already existing nougat, caramel and peanut snack. The treat was named the "Snickers Bar", in memory of one of the Mars family's favorite horses, which had passed away less than a month before the creation of the bar. Snickers, the horse, had been a winning race horse, raised on the family's Milky Way farm in Tennessee. It was Frank's wife, Ethyl, who had insisted on naming the candy bar after the horse. The original Snickers candy wrapper listed ingredients of white sugar, sweet milk chocolate, corn syrup, peanuts, milk condensed with sugar, coconut oil, malted milk, "whites of eggs" and salt. The first Snickers weighed in at 2 1/4 ounces. The original price of the Snickers bar, with all of its rich ingredients: one nickel.

Starbrust

   Opal Fruits was made by Peter Pfeffer (pe-fef-er) in 1961 when he entered a competition that won him $5000.00 which was a lot of cash back then, he called them Opal Fruits. The original flavors were Strawberry, Lemon, Orange, and Lime. He later shared it with the Mars Company who five years later shared it with the United Kingdom. A few years after the Mars Company shared the Opal Fruits with them the United Kingdom shared the Opal Fruits with the U.S who nicknamed them Starbursts. Starbursts were one of the most popular types of candy in the U.S. a few years later the U.S made new types of flavors: Kiwi Banana, Plum, Mango, Apple, Tropical Punch and Blue Raspberry. A few years back the Mars Company changed the lime starbursts with cherry starbursts. The Mars Company in honor of the new movie Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest, they switched Kiwi Banana and Tropical Punch with Royal Berry Punch! In 2007 lime flavored starbursts was introduced again and in 2009 starbursts worldwide. 
    All the starbursts flavors today are the originals: Strawberry, Lemon, Lime, and Orange. All the ones after them: Plum, Mango, Apple, cherry and Blue Raspberry. The last made but not the least is Royal Blue Raspberry which replaced Kiwi Banana and Tropical Punch inspired by the new movie back then Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest so those are all the flavors. Starbursts as you can imagine are mostly made of sugar in fact starbursts have over 40% is sugar! But starbursts have natural fruit too. There is over 15% of natural fruit juice in each starburst. Starbursts also have a good amount of Vitamin C. Starbursts have about 30% Vitamin C in them. That is about all there is in a starburst. - See more at: http://www.colonialschooltimes.com/non-fiction-project/2012/07/13/the-history-of-starbursts/#sthash.40DZu6mI.dpuf

United States invades Luzon in Philippines

   On January 9, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the American 6th Army land on the Lingayen Gulf of Luzon, another step in the capture of the Philippine Islands from the Japanese. The Japanese controlled the Philippines from May 1942, when the defeat of American forces led to General MacArthur's departure and Gen. Jonathan Wainwright's capture. But in October 1944, more than 100,000 American soldiers landed on Leyte Island to launch one of one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war-and herald the beginning of the end for Japan.
    Newsreels captured the event as MacArthur waded ashore at Leyte on October 20, returning to the Philippines as he had famously promised he would after the original defeat of American forces there. What the newsreels didn't capture were the 67 days it took to subdue the island, with the loss of more than 55,000 Japanese soldiers during the two months of battle and approximately 25,000 more soldiers killed in smaller-scale engagements necessary to fully clear the area of enemy troops. The U.S. forces lost about 3,500.
  The sea battle of Leyte Gulf was the same story. The loss of ships and sailors was horrendous for both sides. That battle also saw the introduction of the Japanese kamikaze suicide bombers. More than 5,000 kamikaze pilots died in this gulf battle, taking down 34 ships. But the Japanese were not able to prevent the loss of their biggest and best warships, which meant the virtual end of the Japanese Imperial Fleet.
   These American victories on land and sea at Leyte opened the door for the landing of more than 60,000 American troops on Luzon on January 9. Once again, cameras recorded MacArthur walking ashore, this time to greet cheering Filipinos. Although the American troops met little opposition when they landed, they lost the light cruiser Columbia and the battleship Mississippi, to kamikazes, resulting in the deaths of 49 American crewmen.
    The initial ease of the American fighters' first week on land was explained when they discovered the intricate defensive network of caves and tunnels that the Japanese created on Luzon. The intention of the caves and tunnels was to draw the Americans inland, while allowing the Japanese to avoid the initial devastating bombardment of an invasion force. Once Americans reached them, the Japanese fought vigorously, convinced they were directing American strength away from the Japanese homeland. Despite their best efforts, the Japanese lost the battle for Luzon and eventually, the battle for control over all of the Philippines.

During WWII a man saved 8000 Jews by faking a typhus epidemic.

   Eugene Lazowski's generosity under the threat of execution is another reminder that not all human beings are terrible. Like many others, Eugene's actions during World War II helped save thousands of Jews that would have most certainly been executed in a concentration camp by the Nazi's. Eugene Lazowski was born and raised in a small town in Poland. When World War II came rolling around, Eugene, like many other brave young men around the world decided to enlist in the army.First, he was a second lieutenant on a Red Cross train, later becoming a medical doctor in the Polish resistance.

   Eugene Lazowski, with the help of his friend Dr Stanislaw Mateluwicz, created a fake Typhus disease and secretely spread it amongst all the civilians in the town.The fake Typhus epidemic wasn't lethal, but to the Nazi doctors, it appeared as if almost the entire population of the city had Typhus! As a result, the Nazi's quarantined the city and around 8,000 Jewish people avoided going to concentration camps as a result! Eugene Lazowski passed away in 2006.

Langston Hughes

   James Mercer Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a young child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in Lincoln that Hughes began writing poetry. After graduating from high school, he spent a year in Mexico followed by a year at Columbia University in New York City. During this time, he held odd jobs such as assistant cook, launderer, and busboy. He also travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D. C. Hughes’s first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, (Knopf, 1926) was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, (Knopf, 1930) won the Harmon gold medal for literature.
   Hughes, who claimed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in his book-length poem Montage of a Dream Deferred (Holt, 1951). His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Unlike other notable black poets of the period—Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen—Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself.
   The critic Donald B. Gibson noted in the introduction to Modern Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice Hall, 1973) that Hughes “differed from most of his predecessors among black poets . . . in that he addressed his poetry to the people, specifically to black people. During the twenties when most American poets were turning inward, writing obscure and esoteric poetry to an ever decreasing audience of readers, Hughes was turning outward, using language and themes, attitudes and ideas familiar to anyone who had the ability simply to read . . . Until the time of his death, he spread his message humorously—though always seriously—to audiences throughout the country, having read his poetry to more people (possibly) than any other American poet.”
  Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York City. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed “Langston Hughes Place.” In addition to leaving us a large body of poetic work, Hughes wrote eleven plays and countless works of prose, including the well-known “Simple” books: Simple Speaks His Mind, (Simon & Schuster, 1950); Simple Stakes a Claim, (Rinehart, 1957); Simple Takes a Wife, (Simon & Schuster, 1953); and Simple’s Uncle Sam (Hill and Wang, 1965). He edited the anthologies The Poetry of the Negro and The Book of Negro Folklore, wrote an acclaimed autobiography, The Big Sea (Knopf, 1940), and cowrote the play Mule Bone (HarperCollins, 1991) with Zora Neale Hurston.

Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives. She was elected in 1968 and represented the state of New York. She broke ground again four years later in 1972 when she was the first major party African-American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the United States.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

    Born on June 27, 1872, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African-American poets to gain national recognition. His parents Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar were freed slaves from Kentucky. His parents separated shortly after his birth, but Dunbar would draw on their stories of plantation life throughout his writing career. By the age of fourteen, Dunbar had poems published in the Dayton Herald. While in high school he edited the Dayton Tattler, a short-lived black newspaper published by classmate Orville Wright.

     Despite being a fine student, Dunbar was financially unable to attend college and took a job as an elevator operator. In 1892, a former teacher invited him to read his poems at a meeting of the Western Association of Writers; his work impressed his audience to such a degree that the popular poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote him a letter of encouragement. In 1893, Dunbar self-published a collection called Oak and Ivy. To help pay the publishing costs, he sold the book for a dollar to people riding in his elevator.

    Later that year, Dunbar moved to Chicago, hoping to find work at the first World’s Fair. He befriended Frederick Douglass, who found him a job as a clerk, and also arranged for him to read a selection of his poems. Douglass said of Dunbar that he was “the most promising young colored man in America.” By 1895, Dunbar’s poems began appearing in major national newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times. With the help of friends, he published the second collection, Majors and Minors (1895). The poems written in standard English were called “majors," and those in dialect were termed “minors.” Although the “major” poems outnumber those written in dialect, it was the dialect poems that brought Dunbar the most attention. The noted novelist and critic William Dean Howells gave a favorable review to the poems in Harper’s Weekly.

   This recognition helped Dunbar gain national and international acclaim, and in 1897 he embarked on a six-month reading tour of England. He also brought out a new collection, Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896). Upon returning to America, Dunbar received a clerkship at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and shortly thereafter he married the writer Alice Ruth Moore. While living in Washington, Dunbar published a short story collection, Folks from Dixie, a novel entitled The Uncalled, and two more collections of poems, Lyrics of the Hearthside and Poems of Cabin and Field (1899). He also contributed lyrics to a number of musical reviews.

    In 1898, Dunbar’s health deteriorated; he believed the dust in the library contributed to his tuberculosis and left his job to dedicate himself full time to writing and giving readings. Over the next five years, he would produce three more novels and three short story collections. Dunbar separated from his wife in 1902, and shortly thereafter he suffered a nervous breakdown and a bout of pneumonia. Although ill and drinking too much in attempt to soothe his coughing, Dunbar continued to write poems. His collections from this time include Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903), Howdy, Howdy, Howdy (1905), and Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905). These books confirmed his position as America’s premier black poet. Dunbar’s steadily deteriorating health caused him to return to his mother’s home in Dayton, Ohio, where died on February 9, 1906, at the age of thirty-three.

Galapagos Islands

  The islands, still uninhabited on a permanent basis by man and, hence, shrouded in mystery, soon came to be known as the Enchanted Islands because they disappeared into the fog at certain times of year and could not be seen by passing ships. In fact, some 17th-century Spaniards claimed that the Galapagos Islands were not islands at all, but mere shadows. But by the 18th century, British (and later, early American) whalers and sealers began to visit the islands regularly as part of an effort to set up an industry center in the Pacific Ocean.

  In the past century, the Galapagos Islands have been given the official name Archipelago de Colon ("Columbus's Archipelago"), in honor of Christopher Columbus, by the government of Ecuador. In 1934, the first legislation to protect the islands was enacted. The archipelago was later named a national park and is administered by the Ecuadorian National Park Service to this day. Since the 1964 establishment of the Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz, the Galapagos Islands have primarily become a site of increased scientific study and tourism. Today, scientific expeditions, like the Frontiers trip to the islands, are important sources of information on how to conserve the delicate Galapagos ecosystems -- and, ultimately, the whole planet -- into the next century.

Isle of Palms, South Carolina

    Originally named Hunting Island and then Long Island, it's thought to be at least 25,000 years old, and first inhabited by the indigenous Seewee Indians. The Seewees were said to have greeted the first English settlers to the area by swimming to the ships and carrying the travelers to shore. Whatever contributions the English made to the Seewees reportedly inspired some of them to try and reach England in their canoes-all lost at sea in storms.
   Legend has it that the only other occupants of the island were the pirates who buried their treasures for safekeeping in the deserted dunes and woods, although none has been found so far.
During the Revolutionary War a British Army contingent of 2,500 men attempted to raid a colonial encampment on adjacent Sullivan's Island. Many men drowned and the attack failed when the force attempted to cross the treacherous waters of the Breach Inlet between the two islands. The area was of significance again during the Civil War, as a point of departure for the CSS Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. After successfully sinking the USS Housatonic, the Hunley and her crew were lost at sea, probably as a result of the encounter with the Union ship. Amazingly, the wreck of the Hunley was recently discovered offshore of Sullivan's Island, and will soon be recovered for posterity.
   The island remained without permanent inhabitants until the late 19th century when the island became recognized by locals of the area as a refuge from the summer heat and tempo of Charleston. The island was purchased in 1899 by J.S. Lawrence, who renamed it the Isle of Palms. In 1906 a 50 room resort hotel was built to offer the first permanent accommodations. By 1912, James Sottile constructed a spacious beach pavilion and an amusement park with Ferris wheel. Accompanying transportation developments enabled residents of Charleston to catch a ferry to Mt. Pleasant, and from there catch a rail trolley car to Sullivan's Island and the Isle of Palms. Access became even easier in 1929 when the ferry across the Charleston harbor was replaced by the Grace Memorial Bridge. A bridge link to the islands was established in 1946, and at that time most of the Isle of Palms was purchased by developer J.C. Long of The Beach Company.
As he began development, J.C. Long provided low-cost housing to veterans returning from World War II. The Isle of Palms slowly developed into a residential bedroom community of greater Charleston while still maintaining its charm, natural beauty, and desirability as a summertime getaway destination.
    In the 1970's the rest of the world discovered the joys of the Isle of Palms, and real estate development blossomed. In 1975, the Sea Pines Co., one of the major developers of now renown Hilton Head Island, established a similar resort enterprise on 900 acres of land at the northeast end of the island. Originally named The Isle of Palms Beach and Racquet Club it was renamed The Wild Dunes Beach and Racquet Club in 1984 and today is simply called Wild Dunes. With nationally recognized golf courses and other resort amenities, Wild Dunes has become a major vacation locale on the South Carolina coast.
In spite of the changes wrought over the last 20 years, with its six miles of white, sandy beaches, the Isle of Palms remains as much a place of beautiful serenity for residents and visitors today, as it was for the Seewee Indians and the colonists who followed.

Brunswick, Georgia

The area’s first European settler, Mark Carr, arrived in 1738. Carr, a Scotsman, was a captain in General James Oglethorpe’s Marine Boat Company. Upon landing, he established his 1,000-acre tobacco plantation along the Turtle River. The Royal Province of Georgia purchased Carr’s fields in 1771 and laid out the town of Brunswick in the grid style following Oglethorpe’s Savannah Plan. The town was then named after the duchy of Brunswick - Lüneburg in Germany; the ancestral home of King George II of Great Britain. Brunswick was abandoned during the Civil War when citizens were ordered to evacuate. Our city, like many others in the South, suffered from post-war depression. After one of the nation’s largest lumber mills began operation on nearby St. Simons Island, economic prosperity returned. Rail lines were constructed from Brunswick to inland Georgia, and unlike many other southern cities during the Reconstruction period, Brunswick experienced an economic boom.

Roanoke Island, North Carolina

In 1584 an English fort and settlement with more than 100 men was established on the north end of the island, but it was abandoned the following year due to weather, lack of supplies and poor relations with the Native Americans. The colonists and natives didn’t get along despite the fact that the two local chiefs, Manteo and Wanchese, had been taken to England in hopes of forming good relations.

In 1587 another party of 110 English colonists, including women and children, set sail for the New World, reaching Roanoke Island in July of that year. On August 18, one of the colonists, Eleanor Dare, gave birth to the first English-speaking child in the New World, Virginia Dare. A week later, the baby’s grandfather, Capt. John White, was forced to return to England for badly needed supplies. Due to Spanish attacks on England, White was waylayed in England for three years, and when he returned to Roanoke Island in 1590 there was no sign of his granddaughter or the other colonists. Their houses were gone, and the only sign of human presence was the letters “CRO” and “CROATOAN” carved on two trees. This led some people to believe that the colonists had sought the help of the Croatoan Indians on Hatteras Island, but they were not there. The fate of the lost colonists is as much a mystery today as it was then, and their story has been retold in the outdoor drama The Lost Colony since 1937.

Roanoke Island was permanently settled in the mid-1600s, and many of the original family names — Etheridge, Baum, Daniels and others — are still very much alive on the island. In 1870 Dare County was formed, with the county seat and courthouse established on Roanoke Island at a site along Shallowbag Bay, now Manteo. The government center became known as Manteo in 1873 when the post office was established, but the town wasn’t incorporated until 1899. By then it had become a bustling center for business and trade as well.

Between 1984 and 1987, Roanoke Island and Manteo played a large part in America’s 400th anniversary celebration. Manteo’s downtown area was renovated and revitalized, and the centerpiece of the celebration, the Elizabeth II, a representative 16th-century sailing ship similar to what the colonists arrived in 400 years before, was constructed on a site at the Manteo waterfront. On July 13, 1984, Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne attended the dedication of the ship, which is now berthed in Shallowbag Bay at Roanoke Island Festival Park.

In 1999 the Town of Manteo celebrated its centennial birthday with many events, the publication of a coffee-table history book, Manteo, A Roanoke Island Town by Angel Ellis Khoury, and the establishment of a centennial clock on the corner of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh streets downtown.

For a town that preserves its history and charm so well, Manteo has changed exponentially in the past couple of years. More shops, galleries and restaurants fill the downtown area than ever before, and Manteo has evolved into a destination for overnight stays and daytrips from the beaches. Some of the most popular Outer Banks attractions are found in Manteo and on Roanoke Island — the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, Roanoke Island Festival Park and the Elizabeth II, the NC Aquarium, the Elizabethan Gardens and, of course, The Lost Colony outdoor drama.

Boats docked at the waterfront, sailing and kayak tours leaving the docks, tourists dining on a patio or sipping a latte as they poke in and out of shops, kids licking ice cream cones at the waterfront park, bicyclists leisurely pedaling along side streets, quaint inns, restored historic homes with flourishing gardens, crabbers tending to their daily operations — all this and more is seen on a daily basis in Manteo.

Yet the small-town flavor of the town has remained. City folk often find it unsettling, but here nearly everyone says hello as they pass you on the street and asks about your health and chats about the weather before they get down to any business, like taking your lunch order or selling you a stamp. Manteo residents are all on a first-name basis, and visitors get the feeling that if they stayed a couple of days, they’d all be on a first-name basis too.

Sea Land, Georgia

Sea Island is an unincorporated area of Glynn County, Georgia, and is part of the Golden Isles of Georgia, including Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island, and Little St. Simons Island. The seaside island is located along the Atlantic Coast near Historic Brunswick, and is a well-visited resort island. Sea Island Acquisitions, LLC owns the island, operating two resorts, limiting most public access. The island sits about 60 miles north of Jacksonville, FL and about sixty miles south of Savannah, GA. The surrounding marshland, through which visitors are able to drive, was immortalized in 'The Marshes of Glynn' by Sidney Lanier in 1878.^[1]

Sea Island houses two well-visited resorts, the "Sea Island Beach Club" and "The Cloister", each operated by Sea Island Acquisitions. Both are located across the street from one another, connected by a roundabout in the middle of Sea Island Dr., Sea Island's main connecting road. The Beach Club lies by the ocean-side, providing visitors who sit on the beach with accommodations and access to pool areas. The resort contains restaurants, a game room, an ice cream shop, a bar, and two pools. The Cloister (commonly referred to plurally as either "Cloisters" or "the Cloisters") sits south-west on the island along the Black Banks River and functions as the main hotel of the resort island, containing restaurants, several hotel rooms, a spa, tennis and squash courts, an exercise facility, and a pool. Sea Island Acquisitions also owns property on St. Simon's Island, including a shooting school, and two other golf courses.

Enoki

The cultivated variety of these crisply delicate mushrooms comes in clumps of long, spaghetti like stems topped with tiny, snowy white caps. (In contrast, the wild form has orangy-brown, very shiny caps.) Enoki mushrooms have an appealingly crunchy texture and mild—almost fruity—taste, unlike the bosky flavor of most mushrooms. They're available fresh year-round (depending on the region) in Asian markets and many supermarkets. They can also be purchased canned. Choose fresh mushrooms that are firm and white. Refrigerate, wrapped in paper towel then a plastic bag, up to 5 days. Before using, they should be cut away from the mass at the base of the stems. Enoki are particularly good raw in salads. They may also be used to garnish soups or other hot dishes. If used as part of a cooked dish, they should be added at the last minute, as heat tends to make them tough. These tiny mushrooms provide a good source of vitamin D, as well as small amounts of the B-complex vitamins. The enoki is also called snow puff mushroom, golden mushroom and velvet stem.

Though of the Day

Life just is. You have to flow with it.
Give yourself to the moment.
Let it happen. 

-- Jerry Brown

Quote for the Day

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

Though for the day

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Og Mandino

Daisy Bates

Daisy Bates was an American civil rights activist, publisher and writer who played a leading role in the Little Rock integration crisis in 1957. Before that, Bates and her husband started their own newspaper in 1941 called the Arkansas State Press. The paper became a voice for civil rights even before the nationally recognized movement. Bates worked tirelessly until her death in 1999. After moving to Washington, D.C. in the 1960s, she served on the Democratic National Committee and also served in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, working her magic on anti-poverty programs. In her home state of Arkansas, it has been established that the third Monday in February is ‘George Washington’s Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day,” an official state holiday.

Betta Fish

      The betta was first discovered in Southeast Asia.  Making its home in rice paddies, drainage ditches and the warm flood plains of the region, the betta became accustomed to frequent storm flooding and devastating droughts.  The cyclic, drastic changes in its environment helped the fish to adapt - becoming a true labyrinth fish.  A labyrinth fish has the unique ability to breathe oxygen directly from the air and also take in oxygen from its gills.  As a result, bettas and other labyrinth fish can survive for short periods of time out of water and if needed, can inhale the air around them (provided they stay moist.)  This also explains why a betta can sustain itself in stagnant, oxygen-deficient water.  Although bettas can tolerate small spaces and poor water quality, they do best in small aquariums (at least two gallons) with regular water changes.  The preferred water temperature for a betta is 76-82 degrees F.

Stone Fish

The most poisonous fish in the world is the stone fish. Its sting can cause shock, paralysis, and even death if not treated within a few hours. It is a  mottled brown-greenish in color (which gives them Stone Fish camouflage) with many venomous spines along its back. It lives primarily above the tropic of Capricorn, but it main habitat is on coral reefs, near and about rocks, or can be found dormant in the mud or sand. It feeds on small fish and shrimps. The sting causes excruciating pain and a great deal of swelling rapidly develops causing death to tissues. The severity of the symptoms depends on the depth of penetration and the number of spines penetrated. The symptoms of the venom are muscle weakness, temporary paralysis and shock, which may result in death if not treated.

 Do not attempt to restrict the movement of the injected toxin.

Bathing or immersing the stung area in hot water may be effective in reducing the pain.  transport the patient to the nearest medical center. Hospitalization for intravenous narcotic analgesia, local anesthetic infiltration or regional block may be required.Definitive management consists of administration of stone fish antivenin. Indications for antivenin include severe pain,  systemic symptoms or signs of  (weakness, paralysis) and injection of a large amount of venom.

Did you know?

• The Ancient Greeks and Chinese used an optical device called the ‘camera obscura’ to project an image of the surroundings on to a screen. This invention played an important role in the development of cameras and photography.
• Although designs existed earlier, it wasn't until the 1800s that practical cameras were developed.
• The ‘Kodak’ camera was developed by George Eastman and went on sale in 1888, pioneering the use of photographic film. It was simple box camera with a single shutter speed and fixed focus lens.
• Around the year 1913, a German optical engineer named Oskar Barnack made a prototype compact camera that used 35 mm film. Named ‘Lecia’, it was put into production in 1925 after further developments.
• Reflex cameras became popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
• Single lens reflex cameras (SLR) use a mirror and prism system to allow photographers to accurately see the image that will be captured. This system uses one optical light path whereas previous cameras had two, one through the lens to the film and the other to the viewfinder.
• Polaroid cameras hit the market in 1948, allowing photographers to produce images instantly. A special chemical process was used to used to produce prints from the negatives in under a minute.
• The popularity of instant cameras took off in 1965 with the introduction of the Polaroid Model 20 Swinger, one of the top selling cameras of all time.
• Despite the technology being around in 1949, disposable cameras didn't really catch on until the 1990s when Kodak models became popular. They are cheap alternatives designed to be used once, perfect for one off events such as birthdays and vacations.
• The first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor was made in 1969 by Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith. In 2009, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions which paved the way for digital photography.
• The first commercial DSLR (digital single lens reflex) was launched by Kodak in 1991.
• Photos on digital cameras are typically compressed using the JPEG standard and stored on memory cards.
• The popularity of digital cameras exploded in the 2000s as technology improved and the costs of production decreased.
• Modern digital cameras produce detailed photos made up of a huge number of pixels.
• The technology behind cameras is improving all the time with additions such as touch screens and electronic viewfinders.

Ring Pop

Ring Pop were invented by Frank Richards in 1979 as an alternative to thumb sucking, because Frank Richards' daughter was prone to thumb sucking. It is a brand of fruit flavored lollipops manufactured by Topps. They are in the form of a wearable plastic ring with a large hard candy "jewel" and come in an assortment of flavors. The flavors are berry blast, watermelon, blue raspberry, raspberry lemonade and strawberry.

Did you know?

• In 1912, toy surprises were first put into every Cracker Jack box, since then over 17 billion toys have been put into boxes (1986 estimate).
• "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," written in 1908 by Norworth and Von Tilzer contains a reference to "Cracker Jack" in the lyrics.
• The boy on the Cracker Jack box image (left) is Sailor Jack and his dog is called Bingo.
• The Sailor Jack character, and his dog Bingo, were introduced as registered trademark logos in 1919 and in use as early as 1918. They were modeled on F. W. Rueckheim’s grandson, Robert, and his dog.
• The Cracker Jack Company was sold to Borden in 1964.
• In 1997, the current manufacturers Frito-Lay purchased Cracker Jack from Borden.

Cracker Jack

A German immigrant named Frederick William Rueckheim invented Cracker Jack. Rueckheim came to Chicago in 1872 to help clean up after the famous Chicago fire. He also worked selling popcorn from a cart. Together with brother Louis, Rueckheim experimented and came up with a delightful popcorn candy, which the brothers decided to mass market. Cracker Jack was first mass-produced and sold at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. (The Ferris Wheel, Aunt Jemima pancakes, and the ice cream cone were also introduced at the event.)

The treat was a mixture of popcorn, molasses, and peanuts and the initial name was "Candied Popcorn and Peanuts." Legend has it that the name "Cracker Jack" came from a customer who upon trying the treat exclaimed "That really a cracker - Jack!"  and the name stuck. However, "crackerjack" was also a slang expression at that time that meant "something very pleasing or excellent" and that is more likely to have been the origin of the name. By 1896, the company devised a way to keep the popcorn kernels separate, the mixture had been difficult to handle because it tended to stick together in chunks. The wax-sealed, moisture-proof box was introduced in 1899. Immortalized in 1908 in the lyrics of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," Cracker Jack added surprises in each package in 1912.

Cotton Candy

      Cotton candy is a popular food at carnivals, amusement parks, fairgrounds or circuses. Its fibrous texture makes it unique among sugar confectioneries. Sugar confectioneries have been made for thousands of years, but the invention of cotton candy is a relatively recent event. Sweet gold rings which resembled molten glass in appearance, the predecessor to cotton candy, were developed by European chefs. They were sticky and could be made in many shapes. Cotton candy was introduced when the sugar industry advanced. The first electrical cotton candy machine was invented in 1897 by William Morrison and John C. Wharton, candy maker from Nashville and they presented cotton candy to a wide audience at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair as Fairy Floss with great success, selling 68.655 boxes at the then-high 25$, which was half of the cost of admission to the fair. They obtained a patent to protect this machine. A year later, fairy floss machines were being sold to candy stores. Since the invention of modern day cotton candy, very little has changed with regards to this device. It operated much like cotton candy machines today by heating the sugar to a liquid state and push the liquid through a screen to create the strands of sugar. There have been improvements in the design of machine and to increase reliability, because early cotton candy machines rattled and broke down constantly, but the concept remained the same. In the 1920s fairy floss was renamed to cotton candy.

     In 1900, Thomas Patton received a separate patent for his work with caramelized sugar and forming long threads of it with a fork. He later used a gas-fired rotating plate to spin the threads. In 1949, Gold Metal Products of Cincinnati, Ohio introduced a cotton candy machine with a spring base that helped tremendously. Today, it manufactures almost all cotton candy machines. Due to the lack of automated machines that could produce enough products for widespread distribution prior to the 1970s, cotton candy was only produced on a small scale. Then, in 1972, a cotton candy machine for automatic manufacture and packaging was patented. It allowed the mass production of cotton candy. Tootsie Roll of Canada Ltd., the world's largest cotton-candy manufacturer, makes a fluffy stuff, fruit-flavored version of cotton candy. Today, cotton candy is available in many different flavors including banana, raspberry, vanilla, watermelon, and chocolate. Both artificial and natural flavors may be used for the production of these flavors. The National Cotton Candy Day is a day dedicated to cotton candy in the United States which is celebrated on December 7.

Candy Cane

Around the seventeenth century, European-Christians began to adopt the use of Christmas trees as part of their Christmas celebrations. They made special decorations for their trees from foods like cookies and sugar-stick candy. The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes back to 1670, when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar-sticks into canes to represent a shepherd's staff. The all-white candy canes were given out to children during the long-winded nativity services.
The clergymen's custom of handing out candy canes during Christmas services spread throughout Europe and later to America. The canes were still white, but sometimes the candy-makers would add sugar-roses to decorate the canes further. The first historical reference to the candy cane being in America goes back to 1847, when a German immigrant called August Imgard decorated the Christmas tree in his Wooster, Ohio home with candy canes.
The Stripes
About fifty years later the first red-and-white striped candy canes appeared. No one knows who exactly invented the stripes, but Christmas cards prior to the year 1900 showed only all-white candy canes. Christmas cards after 1900 showed illustrations of striped candy canes. Around the same time, candy-makers added peppermint and wintergreen flavors to their candy canes and those flavors then became the traditional favorites.
Sweet Secrets of the Candy Cane
There are many other legends and beliefs surrounding the humble candy cane. Many of them depict the candy cane as a secret symbol for Christianity used during the times when Christian were living under more oppressive circumstances. It was said that the cane was shaped like a "J" for Jesus. The red-and-white stripes represented Christ's blood and purity. The three red stripes symbolized the Holy Trinity. The hardness of the candy represented the Church's foundation on solid rock and the peppermint flavor represented the use of hyssop, an herb referred to in the Old Testament. There is no historical evidence to support these claims, quite the contrary, but they are lovely thoughts.