Want to know it | Answers to life's questions

Want to know it? This blog has a little bit of everything to challenge your mind and find answers to life's questions.

What Foods Are High in Fiber

December 3rd, 2008 at 09:03am Under Health

Some time ago I wrote a list of low carb foods for people on low carb diets. Now I am going to give you a list of foods that are high in fiber. You need between 30 and 40 grams of fiber everyday to maintain the best health. Most Americans only get 8-15 grams of fiber a day, not nearly enough. So eat more of the following foods…

Foods High in Fiber

1. Fruit and Vegetables

Apples (keep the skin on)
Apricots (dried are better)
Blueberries
Figs
Pears
Raspberries
Strawberries (most berries are good)
Grapefruit
Plums
Pears
Avocados
Cooked broccoli
Cook beet
Brussels Sprouts
Green Beans
Corn (popcorn is a good snack that is high in fiber- although microwave popcorn is not very healthy)
Cooked carrots
Bok choy
Chick peas
Celery
Cooked onion
Cooked spinach
Cooked zucchini

2. Cereals and Grains

Bran (cereals with lots of bran are terrific- add some fruit to get even more fiber)
Rolled oats
Wholemeal bread (avoid white bread)
Wholemeal pasta (again, avoid white wheat)
Brown rice
Barley

3. Nuts and Seeds

Almonds
Cashews
Flaxseed
Kidney beans
Lentils
Lima beans
Peanuts
Pumpkin seeds
Walnuts
Sunflower seeds

Some Ideas for High Fiber Meals

Salads with lots of different vegetables
Bran muffins
Oatmeal cookies
Muesli with All-Bran
Fruit Salads
Salad sandwiches
Chicken stir-fry
Tacos
Stews
Baked figs with yogurt

Increase Your Traffic- Using Wikipedia

November 27th, 2008 at 06:35am Under General

Apparently, nothing turns people off a site quicker than the word ‘Wikipedia’. However, it is still the eighth most popular website (according to Alexa- which is usually wrong but anyway…) and can offer a lot of traffic if you know what you are doing. Today, I am going to tell you just how to increase your traffic (and hopefully make some more money) using Wikipedia. This is perfect for niche site builders or affiliate marketers. I’ve added a little case study at the end so you can see that this works.

What to Do

If you’ve ever been to Wikipedia, you know that many of the articles are full of places that say ‘citation needed’. These are a dream for any webmaster. All you have to do now is write an article about the particular topic they want a citation for, or just edit an old page or post and include the information. Now go and edit the Wikipedia page and add the citation they are looking for- linking back to your site. Whatever your niche is, there is bound to be at least one Wikipedia page on it with a few ‘citations needed’. If there are no ‘citations needed’ then just add a little extra to the Wikipedia article and link back to your webpage (make sure your site is actually relevant).

Please Don’t Do These…

Add more than 1-2 links in Wikipedia a day. They will think you are a spammer. You may want to change the articles on different IP addresses.
Add a link to your site if it is not relevant- as it will just be deleted by the moderators.
Add a link back to the Wikipedia article if it has previously been deleted by moderators. This looks like spam.

Case Study

Many moons ago I wrote a post entitled ‘Who Discovered Popcorn‘. In the Wikipedia article there was a ‘citation needed’ for a sentence which stated that native Americans who discovered popcorn thought the popping noise was that of an angry god escaping the kernel. I decided to put it in my post and add my site as a citation. Well, in the last month I have received just over 3 hits a day from Wikipedia to this post. While you may say ‘is that all’, remember that this is a post about popcorn. I can’t imagine that it is the most popular Wikipedia article. But even if 3 a day is all you get, multiply that by 50-100 articles and you will have between 150-300 hits per day only through Wikipedia.

Is it Profitable?

This depends on what your niche is. If it is popcorn, you aren’t going to make much money. But, if you could get some links on pages about financial topics you could be making some good money off Wikipedia traffic. Just give it a go! It doesn’t take much time and could bring in huge rewards.

Other Interesting (Random) Topics:

How Does a Reverse Mortgage Work

How to Get Rid of Bats

Add comment

Quick Health Tips

November 22nd, 2008 at 04:43am Under Health

Here are some quick, simple and totally random tips to help improve your health.

Start your day with some exercise. Just take a quick 15-20 minute walk!
Eat small meals every few hours. Don’t have too many snacks.
Use extra virgin olive oil instead of other, more fatty, oils.
Eat more fish! They are great sources of omega 3 fatty acids and protein. If you are a vegetarian, try eating flaxseed oil.
Eat more garlic. Garlic has heaps of amazing health benefits (way too many to list). It is especially good if you have the flu or the common cold.
Wash your hands after you use the toilet.
Keep your mind active by doing puzzles and simple problems. Studies have shown that people who keep their minds active are less likely to get dementia. Try our basic algebra problems!
Don’t share water bottles. If you share water bottles, you share germs!
Stay home if you are sick. Others don’t want your illness!
Drink more water. Aim for 8 glasses a day.
Drink less coffee and soft drinks. If you really don’t like drinking water try some herbal teas. I personally like chamomile tea with honey.
Wash your hands before you prepare food. Make sure you dry your hands well after washing them.
Adults need about 8 hours of sleep everyday. If you struggle sleeping for more than 6 hours a night, see your doctor and ask them what they can do.
Cut down on alcohol consumption. You can still have a beer or two, but do it in moderation. Avoid binge drinking!
Make sure you go out with friends (or have a night in with them) at least once a week. It is important for your health (especially stress levels) that you have some fun!
If you are feeling nauseous, try having some ginger. Ginger also works for motion sickness and sea sickness.

What are the Causes of Global Warming

November 15th, 2008 at 01:29am Under environment

Global warming is caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. For more information, see our post ‘Who Discovered the Greenhouse Effect‘. Therefore, anything that emits greenhouse gases into the air (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are the main problems) contribute to global warming. Here are the main sources of those gases.

Causes of Global Warming

Landfills (where we dump our rubbish) emit methane as rubbish breaks down.
Burning of fossil fuels and coal releases carbon dioxide. Fossil fuels and coal are burnt to produce electricity in power plants. Cars and airplanes also burn fossil fuels to make them run.
Agriculture (the production of food) causes methane and nitrous oxide to be released into the air. The farming of cattle is one of the major contributors, as cows fart a lot and methane is released when they fart. Growing rice also contributes to the emission of methane. The fertilizers that are used also cause more nitrous oxide to be emitted into the atmosphere.
Deforestation (the cutting down of trees in forests) also contributes to global warming as their are fewer numbers of trees to absorb the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants convert carbon dioxide to oxygen.
A bigger population. More people means more carbon dioxide is released during respiration (breathing). It also means more food must be produced, which means more methane and nitrous oxide will be released into the atmosphere. It also means more people have cars and more trees have to be cut down to make room for homes.
Methane, that is naturally stored underground, is released when we mine coal and oil.
Nitrous oxide is produced when nitric acid is made.
The production of products (such as cell phones and iPods) requires electricity, and the electricity is usually produced by the burning of fossil fuels and coal.

What are Platelets

November 14th, 2008 at 05:44am Under what are

This post will tell you exactly what platelets are and what they do. At the end of the post you will also find a few other interesting facts about platelets.

What Are They?

Platelets (sometimes called thrombocytes) are small bodies made out of cytoplasm. The cytoplasm is a gel-like liquid substance that holds all the parts of a cell together (except the nucleus). Just think of it as a gooey substance that keeps your cells in one piece. As they are made only of cytoplasm, platelets contain no genetic material (DNA or RNA).

What Do They Do?

Platelets are involved in hemostasis. This is just a big scientific word that means that platelets help stop animals and humans from bleeding. Whenever you cut yourself and start bleeding, platelets begin their work forming a blood clot so that the bleeding will stop. Without platelets we would all bleed to death when we got the slightest cut as there would be nothing to stop the bleeding.

Other Facts

Excessive bleeding occurs when platelet counts are low.
High platelet counts are even more serious. High counts can lead to blood clots which restrict the movement of blood and cause strokes or heart attacks. You may have heard of a condition known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). When people are constricted and do not move their legs very often, such as when they are on a long plane trip, clots can form in veins in the leg and cause strikes and heart attacks.
The lifespan of a platelet is around 8-10 days.
Old platelets are destroyed in the spleen and liver.
An average adult produces 100,000,000,000 platelets a day!

Basic Algebra Problems

November 13th, 2008 at 04:21am Under problems

Last week I wrote some fifth grade math problems. Today, I am going to put up a few simple algebra problems (of different types) with the answers at the end of the post.

Questions:

First Type: Solving Equations

Solve for x:

4x = 8
2x + 7 = 15
x + 6 = 6
5 - (x + 2) = 10
4x = 7 + 3x
2x = 14 + 3x
3x = 6 + 2x
7x = 49
2(x + 5)= 20
10(2x + 7) = 90

Second Type: Addition and Subtraction (remember only like terms can be added and subtracted).

Simplify the Following:

2x + 3y + 3x + 9y
2x + 7xy + 12x
3a + 3ab + 3ac + 3ad
2a + 2b - 8b + 7ab + 5b
3a + 4a + 5b
3abcd + 3abc - 5abcd
5 + 7a + 2 + 3a
a - a
x + 4 - 5x + 1
y + 2 + y

Third Type: Linear Equations

What is the slope and y-intercept of the following lines. Note, you do not have to draw them. Just get them in the form y = mx + c, where m = slope and c= y-intercept

y = 2x + 4
y = 5x -2
2y = 8x -4
3y = 6x - 7
10y = 170x + 650
x + 6 = y
y + 3 = x
2y + 6x = 1
y = 5 - x
x - y = 3

Answers:

Type One:

2
4
0
-7
7
-14
6
7
5
1

Type Two:

5x + 12y
14x + 7xy- could be written as 7x(2 + y)
3a + 3ab + 3ac + 3ad- cannot be simplified as there are no like terms unless you factorize it to 3a(1 + b + c + d)
7a + 7ab - b
7a + 5b
3abc - 2abcd- could be factorized to abc(3 - 2d)
7 + 10a
0
5 - 4x
2y + 2- factorize to 2(y + 1)

Type Three:

slope = 2, y-intercept = 4
slope = 5, y-intercept = -2
slope = 4, y- intercept = -2
slope = 2, y-intercept = 7/3
slope = 17, y-intercept = 65
slope = 1, y-intercept = 6
slope = 1, y-intercept = -3
slope = -6, y-intercept = 1/2 (or 0.5)
slope = -1, y-intercept = 5
slope = 1, y-intercept = -3

Please leave a comment and tell me how you went or suggest some more algebra problems I could add!

How Does a Reverse Mortgage Work

November 12th, 2008 at 12:45am Under finance

Reverse mortgages (called lifetime mortgages in the UK and sometimes called home equity loans) are basically the ‘opposite’ (or ‘reverse’, hence the name) of ordinary mortgages. Here is how a reverse mortgage works.

How It Works

Seniors (over 62 in the United States and 60 in Australia) are the only people allowed to apply for reverse mortgages. Basically, seniors can borrow money against the value of their home. That is why it is the reverse of an ordinary mortgage, as you are borrowing against your home instead of borrowing to buy the home. You do not have to pay anything off the mortgage until it comes to an end, although the interest and fees on the loan continue to accrue. Reverse mortgages come to an end in the following circumstances:

The house is sold
You permanently move out from your home
Death

Once the loan is ended, you (or, if you have passed away, whoever you left the house to in your will) only have a set period of time (12 months in Australia) to pay back the loan. Hopefully, the sale of your house will be enough to cover the loan.

A Brief Look at the Pros and Cons of Reverse Mortgages

So, reverse mortgages can be useful for people who want to go traveling, buy a new car or just need money urgently. However, they can also be very dangerous. When interest rates are high, the value of the loan can increase rapidly and the sale of your home may not be enough to cover the mortgage. Even if it is, you may be left with very little money from the sale of your house after you pay back the mortgage. Taking out reverse mortgages can also impact welfare payments. If you are going to take out a reverse mortgage, you need to consider whether you will be able to pay it off with the sale of the house.

What Causes Acid Rain

November 11th, 2008 at 10:07am Under environment

After talking about the advantages of nuclear power last week, I decided to do another environmental topic this week, acid rain. To look at the causes of acid rain, you need to know all the steps involved in the formation of acid rain.

Formation of Acid Rain:

Firstly, the burning of fossil fuels and coal causes sulfur impurities in the fuel to be oxidized to sulfur dioxide. In air, sulfur dioxide is converted to sulfur trioxide. There are very few natural sources of sulfur dioxide. 99% of sulfur dioxide in the air comes from human sources.
Sulfur trioxide readily reacts with water to form sulfuric acid, which is one of the two main components of acid rain.
Nitrogen is a very stable element due to the presence of a triple bond (see our article ‘Who Discovered Nitrogen‘). Hence, nitrogen can only break down and react in limited circumstances. In nature, lightning strikes are capable of breaking the triple bond, and the nitrogen reacts with oxygen to produce nitric oxide. The nitric oxide further reacts with oxygen to form nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen dioxide reacts with water to form both nitric acid (a main component of acid rain) and nitrous acid (only a small component of acid rain as it is a weak acid). Also, the high temperature in car exhausts cause the oxidation of nitrogen to nitric oxide (which then forms nitrogen dioxide and nitric acid).

So the main causes of acid rain are…

Natural Sources:

Lightning strikes (cause nitrogen molecules to be oxidized)
Combustion of hydrogen sulfide (hydrogen sulfide is formed from the breakdown of sulfates in organic matter in the absence of oxygen- anaerobic conditions). This reaction forms sulfur dioxide.

Human Sources:

Combustion engines (car, airplanes etc.)
Burning of fossil fuels and coal
Some mineral ores contain sulfur dioxide, and this is released when the minerals are processed.

Facts about Wolves

November 7th, 2008 at 02:56am Under facts

Here are some cool facts about wolves.

Wolves eat a lot of meat, including sheep, goats, horses, pigs, deer, antelope, seals and even beached whales.
Like other dogs, wolves lay down their scent to mark territory.
Wolves generally live in packs, although single wolves have been observed occasionally in the wild.
Packs of wolves usually contain 2 to 20 members, although a pack of 36 wolves was once observed.
Pups are born completely blind and deaf at birth. They depend solely on their mothers.
Wolves mate between January and April.
Studies have shown that wolf saliva reduces the amount bacteria in wounds.
Wolves can run as fast as 65km/h (6mph) when they are chasing their prey. In fact, one female wolf was found to make seven meter bounds when chasing prey.
Females weigh 20% less than males.
Wolves share a common ancestor with dogs.
Wolves can live in a variety of environments, including forests, deserts, mountains and grassland.
Some people hunt wolves for sport.
Wolves can carry many deadly diseases, including foot-and-mouth disease and anthrax.
Many myths from different cultures feature wolves in their stories.
In Israel, the two middle toes of wolves are fused together. This is a unique characteristic of wolves which isn’t found anywhere else in the world.
The heaviest wolf weighed in at 79kg (175lb).
In early summer, wolves molt much of their coat.
Wolves are often portrayed as preying only on weak and sick animals, although there is little evidence for this.
In some parts of the world where there is limited prey, wolves will forage around in garbage dumps to find their food.
Wolves prefer to hunt in packs to ensure that they catch their prey.

Other Facts:

True Facts about Global Warming

Who Invented YouTube (with facts at the bottom of the post!)

Add comment

Advantages of Nuclear Power

November 5th, 2008 at 11:30pm Under pros and cons

Everyone knows that nuclear power plants are, potentially, very dangerous. But what are some of the advantages of nuclear power? That is what this post will cover.

Advantages (Pros):

Nuclear power plants are more efficient than ever before. New technology has made them more reliable (they break down less often) and safer. People for nuclear power argue that this is evidenced by more and more nations (such as China) building nuclear power plants.
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is a contentious issue. Proponents of nuclear power argue that, as no coal or fossil fuels are burnt, no carbon dioxide is released into the air. However, uranium has to be mined and transported to the nuclear plant. Both these activities require burning of fuels, so carbon dioxide is released. Also, producing nuclear fuel from the uranium requires a lot of energy, which also contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases.
Although the initial cost of building nuclear plants is high, the running costs are relatively low.
One reason the costs are low is that nuclear plants need only a small amount of uranium to produce a lot of energy. In fact, if the cost of uranium doubled, costs would only be increased by 7%. 1 truck of uranium produces as much energy as 1000 trucks of coal!
Reduces dependence on foreign oils and natural gas (like biofuels). America, for instance, imports a lot of oil and natural gas from other countries. The price of these products is volatile, and change very quickly. If the price increases quickly, consumers have to pay more for their electricity (which they may not be able to afford). Building more nuclear power plants means that Americans will not be susceptible to price rises in oil and gas. President Barack Obama supports this idea of ‘energy independence’.
Nuclear wastes can be safely stored underground (another debated issue).

Want to Know it? Answers to life’s questions

What Foods Are High in Fiber

Increase Your Traffic- Using Wikipedia

Quick Health Tips

What are the Causes of Global Warming

What are Platelets

Basic Algebra Problems

How Does a Reverse Mortgage Work

What Causes Acid Rain

Facts about Wolves

Advantages of Nuclear Power

Want to know it? Subscribe to the feed.

Recent Blog Posts

Want to know it archive

Friends of this blog

Find want to know it here:

Contact Us

Privacy Policy