IOPList.Org

Tuesday 17 May 2016

World Hypertension Day



The WHD was first inaugurated in May 2005 and has become an annual event ever since. The purpose of the WHD is to promote public awareness of hypertension and to encourage citizens of all countries to prevent and control this silent killer, the modern epidemic.

The theme for World Hypertension Day is Know Your Numbers with a goal of increasing high blood pressure (BP) awareness in all populations around the world.

And

National Pack Rat Day



Pack Rat Day is celebrated on May 17, 2016. A pack rat is a who engages in compulsive hoarding and on Pack Rat Day is a chance to celebrate them, because they may use the collected items someday.

The day is also an opportunity for hoarders to reflect their acquisitiveness - are the collected things really needed?

Packratting has been associated with health risks, impaired functioning, economic burden, and adverse effects on friends and family members. When clinically significant enough to impair functioning, hoarding can prevent typical uses of space so as to limit activities such as cooking, cleaning, moving through the house, and sleeping. It can also be dangerous if it puts the individual or others at risk from fire, falling, poor sanitation, and other health concerns.

Wednesday 18 May 2016

International Museum Day



May 18 is International Museum Day, which makes it the perfect day to visit your local museums and learn about what they offer and the role they play in society.

The point of Museum Day is to raise awareness of museums and keep the public informed on what challenges museums face as non-profit institutions.

Each year has a specific theme for the day, and for 2016 it's "Museums and Cultural Landscapes." More than 30,000 museums all over the world participate, many offering free exhibits and activities that revolve around that theme.

[b]

National Golf Day



The perception of golf for too long has been that golf is an elitist sport, enjoyed by a privileged few. As a consequence, the thought was that golf can take care of itself. It's our job to educate members of Congress and members of their staff about golf.

Before this, there wasn't anyone advocating for golf on Capitol Hill. The first year, it was very much about the economic impact. People viewed golf, in term of people making a living from it, as Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, who are getting fabulously wealthy from it, which is fine and more power to those guys.

The reality is that the backbone of golf is the person who is working on the superintendent's crew, or working for the club manager in the clubhouse, working for the professional pulling clubs out of trunks, putting them on carts, cleaning them and then putting them back on trunks. And none of those people are getting rich, trust me. And that's the backbone of golf. It's that person getting up at 5 a.m. to work. So those are the sort of things that are being communicated.

Thursday 19 May 2016

May Ray Day



Celebrating today is easy peesey…just take a moment to celebrate the beginning of warmer outdoor days due to the sun’s longer rays. If it is not warm and the sun is not shining wherever you may be…I prepared a plan B: Just find someone named Ray and say, “Happy May Ray Day, Ray.”

And

National Devil's Food Cake Day



W a n t t o k n o w w h y i t ’ s s o ‘ d e v i l i s h ’ ?

The dark brown batter turns a deep red/ brown color when baked.

D i d y o u k n o w …

01. Devil’s food cake is considered a counterpart to the white or yellow angel food cake.

02. Devil’s food cake is generally more moist and airy than other chocolate cakes, and often uses cocoa as opposed to chocolate for the flavor as well as coffee.

03. Devil’s food cake was introduced in the United States in the early 20th century with the recipe in print as early as 1905.

04. A similar cake, the red velvet cake, is closely linked to a devil’s food cake, and in some turn of the century cookbooks the two names may have been interchangeable.

05. Devil’s food cake incorporates butter (or a substitute), egg whites, flour (while some chocolate cakes are flourless) and less egg than other chocolate cakes.

Friday 20 May 2016

National Endangered Species Day



An Endangered (EN) species is a species which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as likely to become extinct.

"Endangered" is the second most severe conservation status for wild populations in the IUCN's schema after Critically Endangered (CR).

In 2012, the IUCN Red List featured 3079 animal and 2655 plant species as endangered (EN) worldwide. The figures for 1998 were, respectively, 1102 and 1197 Many nations have laws that protect conservation-reliant species: for example, forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creating preserves.Population numbers, trends and species' conservation status can be found in the lists of organisms by population.

Red List


The Siberian tiger is an Endangered (EN) tiger subspecies. Three tiger subspecies are already extinct



Blue-throated macaw



Brown spider monkey



Siamese crocodile



Malayan tiger



Kemp's ridley sea turtle


The IUCN categories, with examples of animals classified by them, include:

Extinct (EX)

Examples:

aurochs Bali tiger, blackfin cisco, Caribbean monk seal, Carolina parakeet, Caspian tiger, dodo, dusky seaside sparrow, eastern cougar, golden toad, great auk, Japanese sea lion, Javan tiger, Labrador duck, passenger pigeon, Schomburgk's deer, Steller's sea cow, thylacine, toolache wallaby, western black rhinoceros, California Grizzly Bear.

---

Extinct in the wild (EW)
Captive individuals survive, but there is no free-living, natural population.


Examples:

Barbary lion, Hawaiian crow, Père David's deer, scimitar, oryx, Socorro dove, Wyoming toad.

Critically endangered (CR)
Faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future.


Examples:

addax, African wild ass, Alabama cavefish, Amur leopard, Arakan forest turtle, Asiatic cheetah, axolotl, Bactrian camel, black rhino, blue-throated macaw, Brazilian merganser, brown spider monkey, California condor, Chinese alligator, Chinese giant salamander, gharial, Hawaiian monk seal, Javan rhino, kakapo, Leadbeater's possum, Mediterranean monk seal, mountain gorilla, northern hairy-nosed wombat, Philippine eagle, red wolf, saiga, Siamese crocodile, Malayan tiger, Spix's macaw, southern bluefin tuna, South China tiger, Sumatran orangutan, Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran tiger, vaquita, Yangtze river dolphin, northern white rhinoceros, hawksbill sea turtle, Kemp's ridley sea turtle,

Endangered (EN)
Faces a high risk of extinction in the near future.


Examples:

African penguin, African wild dog, Asian elephant, Asiatic lion, Australasian bittern, blue whale, bonobo, Bornean orangutan, common chimpanzee, dhole, eastern lowland gorilla, hispid hare, giant otter, giant panda, Goliath frog, green sea turtle, loggerhead sea turtle, Grevy's zebra, hyacinth macaw, Humblot's heron, Iberian lynx, Japanese crane, Japanese night heron, Lear's macaw, Malayan tapir, markhor ,Malagasy pond heron, Persian leopard, proboscis monkey, purple-faced langur, pygmy hippopotamus, red-breasted goose, Rothschild's giraffe, snow leopard, South Andean deer, Sri Lankan elephant, takhi.

(near Critically Endangered) Toque macaque, Vietnamese pheasant, volcano rabbit, wild water buffalo, white-eared night heron, fishing cat, tasmanian devil.

Saturday 21 May 2016

National Learn To Swim Day



It's a Swimming Celebration! Founded by Swimways in 2012, National Learn to Swim Day is dedicated to educating parents and children about water safety and the importance and benefits of learning to swim.

Held on the third Saturday of May each year, Swimways encourages parents and caregivers nationwide to celebrate in their own way.

National Learn to Swim Day can be any day you want – there's no time limit on learning to swim!

And

World Whisky Day



It is World Whisky Day today and if you still haven’t tried the ultimate modern day somras, go ahead and grab a drink with your friends right away! Be it an expensive khamba of Scotch Whisky or a quarter of Imperial Blue, if you are a regular whisky consumer, someone who drinks occasionally or if you have never tried whisky ever – today is the day, and one doesn’t simply not reap it’s chance!

To make the WWD a bit more fun, here is some whisky trivia that is mostly unheard of or just get smart and know your whisky business. Cheers!



01. Two of a Kind

Whisky is spelt as ‘Whisky’ and ‘Whiskey’. ‘Whisky’ being more exclusive to Scotland, Japan and Canada, while ‘whiskey’ being prominent in the US and rest of the world.

According to popular Scottish belief, they spell whisky without an ‘e’ because more vowels waste good drinking time!



02. The Water of Life

Whisky literally means the ‘water of life’ in Gaelic. Need we say more?



03. A Process 4,000 Years Old

The process of distillation which literally produces alcohol, was first established about 4,000 years ago in Babylon and Mesopotamia.



04. Types of Whisky

The single malt kind of whisky has over 5,000 types! Now, that’s a lot of alcoholic variety.



05. The Whisky Angels

The Angel’s steal which is typically the evaporation of alcohol in barrel storage of whisky for the aging process is taxed heavily by some governments. At least 4% of whisky gets evaporated each year.



06. Alcohol – The Real Deal

When stored in casks or barrels prepackaging and dilution, Raw Whisky contains anywhere between 50-75% of alcohol content in it. Yes, the neat alcohol in your bottle is diluted.



07. Varying Distillation

What makes Scotch Whisky and Irish Whiskey what it is, is their process of distillation which is unique to them. The Scottish distill their whisky twice and the Irish, thrice!



08. Once Liquid, Always Liquid

When some polar explorers carried whiskey during their journey to the South Pole, the drink didn’t freeze even at -30 C. Whisky may solidify in the extreme of extreme weather, something probably worse than the South Pole.



09. Fire Measurement

As per Scottish beliefs, if whisky is set on fire, the alcohol content can be spotted in accordance to the kind of flames that conjure.

Apparently, many distilleries in Scotland still practice the flame test, and the drinks with lower or higher alcohol content are sold to workers at cheap rates.



10. Whisky May Not Kill Everyone

The production of whisky requires large amount of grains and corn, thus excess corn and grains left over is oftentimes (mainly in Scotland, which has dairy and whisky production largely) served as fodder to the cattle!

---

---

Sunday 22 May 2016

International Sherlock Holmes Day



A holiday by Sherlock fans, for Sherlock fans. International Sherlock Holmes Day (ISHD) falls on the 22nd of May, as this happens to be the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Celebrate by reading Sherlock Holmes books, watching Sherlock on TV, watching a Sherlock Holmes movie, dressing up in a costume, solving a mystery, etc.

And

Goth Day



World Goth Day originated in the United Kingdom in 2009. BBC Radio 6 was looking at a number of music subcultures throughout a week in May, including Goth music.

Goth DJs Cruel Britannia and Martin OldGoth got an event up and running. It was decided that May 22 would be the day when this event would be held regularly.

The tradition continued and spread outside the United Kingdom, with a website being initiated to coordinate and advertise events worldwide.

World Goth Day celebrates the sub cultural aspects of the Goth subculture. Aspects of the culture like fashion, music and art are celebrated by fashion shows, art exhibitions and music performance.

Many of the events feature local Goth bands, and some have taken on a charity aspect with events in the United Kingdom and Australia supporting favoured charities like the UK Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a charity that tries to curb prejudice and hatred against subcultures.

Goth HomePage

Monday 23 May 2016

Title Track Day



Some albums are defined by a single track, ones that tie the entire album together and will be the banner for the sound it brings, and often the best of these are the title track of the album.

Title Track Day is a day to dust off and break out those albums whose artists have nailed it, and placed the most iconic of a collections music right there on the label.

Title tracks are, simply put, the song on an album that shares the name of the album itself. Occasionally you get a brilliant trifecta that sets off a chain reaction that goes on to define a band.

Black Sabbath produced an album that was self-titled, with a track of the same name that went on to define the band itself. The deep sonorous tones implemented the “diabla in musica”, or the devil’s chord, a discordant set of notes used to represent satanic influences since time immemorial in western music. The band was off to a running start in its desire to create the ‘horror movie’ equivalent of music.

Title tracks tend to be the most memorable of an albums songs, as Quiet Riots “Metal Health” album demonstrates beautifully. While not quite as popular as the second track on the album “Cum on feel the noize”, the song Metal Health makes you want to Bang Your Head within the first few bars. While they went on to produce many more albums after this, this song and the album it came from is by far one of their most memorable.

When a title track really shines and does its job, it sets the theme for an entire album, and this is the case with Metallicas “Master of Puppets”. As an album “Master of Puppets” speaks of control and abusing power, and is far and away the magnum opus of this particular band.

The title track is specifically referencing the way a drug addiction can rule a person’s life, pulling their strings so that everything is about the drug, and serving the addiction.

A lesser known definition of title track is a song that shares the name with the movie it is a part of. There have been many movies which were made more memorable by a song as powerful as the movie itself.

One well-known example is the movie “Never-Ending Story” and the song of the same name that was on the lips of fans even now. This song captures the spirit of the film perfectly, and draws the viewer into the magical adventure to follow.

Sometimes you see these two coming together into a glorious union, such as Princes “Purple Rain” which is the Title of an Album, the name of a movie, and the title track from that movie. This movie falls under a rare sort of film known as the “American Rock Drama”, and is the perfect example of a title track.

So on Title Track Day, get out your movies, your old albums, and build a soundtrack for your day entirely from title tracks! If you’re feeling particularly brave, dress up as your favorite character from a film with an awesome title track and watch it with a group of friends.

Or if you’d rather get out on the town, go down to a local Karaoke bar and belt out some of your favorite tunes! Whatever you do, don’t let Title Track Day go by without enjoying some of the best music of the ages!

And

Lucky Penny Day



"See a penny pick it up, all day long you have good luck."

Finding a penny is sometimes considered lucky and gives rise to the saying, "Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day: you'll have good luck." This may be a corruption of "See a pin and pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck" and similar verses, as quoted in The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore and other sources.

What is this Holiday for?

This Holiday is set aside for people around the world to appreciate the good luck of the penny. So today make it a point to look on the ground everywhere that you go and see if you can find a lucky penny. They seem to magicaly show up everywhere.

On this fun Holiday get together with your friends and take a walk. Make it a point to walk for pennies and see how many you can find. see pictures of pennies

An excellent place to look for a penny is when your getting in or out of a car at a parking lot. Look on the ground. There's a good chance that you will find one. Another excellent place is at festivals, fairs, parks, public gardens and sport stadiums. Oh and..... don't worry if the country your in does not have pennies. It doesn't matter at all.

Pennies seem to pop up everywhere.

Tuesday 24 May 2016

National Escargot Day



Escargot, meaning "edible snail", seems to date from 1892 and derives from the word escaragol (Provençal) and thence escargol (Old French), ultimately from Vulgar Latin coculium, from Classical Latin conchylium, meaning "edible shellfish, oyster".

The Online Etymological Dictionary writes, "The form of the word in Provençal and French seems to have been influenced by words related to scarab."

Not all species of land snail are edible, and many are too small to make it worthwhile to prepare and cook them. Even among the edible species, the palatability of the flesh varies from species to species.

In France, the species Helix pomatia is most often eaten. The "petit-gris" Cornu aspersa is also eaten, as is Helix lucorum. Several additional species, such as Elona quimperiana, are popular in Europe

And

Brother's Day



Brother’s Day celebrates the bond between brothers – an amazing gift and should be cherished.

Take this day to make contact with your brother and tell him how much he means to you. Why not arrange to take your brother out for a meal and discuss your family memories?

Brother’s Day should not be confused with Wright Brothers Day, which is observed in the USA in December to celebrate the iconic brothers who worked together to create the first heavier than air flying machine. This example of successful brotherhood shows just how amazing the brotherly connection can be.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Towel Day



Towel Day is celebrated every year on 25 May as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans. On this day, fans openly carry a towel with them, as described in Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to demonstrate their appreciation for the books and the author. The commemoration was first held 25 May, 2001, two weeks after Adams' death on 11 May.

The original quotation that explained the importance of towels is found in Chapter 3 of Adams' work 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.

"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost."

What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

And

Senior Health and Fitness Day



2016 Theme: “Improve Your Health for a Better Self!”

100,000 older adults will participate in activities at more than 1,000 locations throughout the U.S. on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 as we celebrate the 23rd annual National Senior Health and Fitness Day.

The common goal for this day: to help keep older Americans healthy and fit. Always set for the last Wednesday in May, National Senior Health and Fitness Day is the nation's largest annual health promotion event for older adults.

National Senior Health and Fitness Day is organized as a public-private partnership by the Mature Market Resource Center, a national information clearinghouse for the older adult market.

I've got mine

Ice