Cool, thanks guys.
I have to be in town at 18:30 tonight, so I’ll be sure to get there by 17:30.
Want to have something to sip on while I watch NASA’s live stream tonight ;D
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Thanks for the heads up! Grabbed some wine for the lady. She will be pleased
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Good morning! 
It’s Friday, 19 February 2021 (W7/D50/315 rem)
Today is 
International Tug-of-War Day
Under normal circumstances getting enough people together for a bit of a competitive tug off is a challenge. That’s why tug-of-war is typically an event found at primary school sports days, school camps, and the local church bazaar. How you manage to celebrate the day with social distancing restrictions in place is your problem. My job is just to let you know that it is International Tug-of-War Day! Huzzah!
No specific indication of the who, when, where origins of International Tug-of-War Day, other than historical records that show the “sport” has been practiced in some form or another since the early Chinese Tang Dynasty, where it was initially used in the military for strength training.
In typical manly man fashion, it wasn’t long before the soldiers, with the support of their higher ups, turned their simple training exercise into something competitive. Emperor Xuanzong is known to have organized great competitions, with ropes over 150 meters in length and more than 500 participants in each team. Each side was encouraged by their own drumming team. (There may also have been fire involved somehow, but my translation services failed me at that point of the story.)
Many other ancient cultures have references to competitions of strength that involve pulling in opposite directions which can be found on stone carvings, in ancient texts and legends.
In modern times, despite being dropped from the Olympic Games in 1920, tug-of-war still remains a popular sport and many nations have their own governing bodies. Aside from formal competitions, ‘pulls’ feature at many fairs and festivals.
Contests often take place over bodies of water or muddy areas so that the losing team suffers the indignity of falling in, which is preferable to the Viking version of tug-of-war when teams competed over a pit of fire.
The number of people taking part can vary from just a few to a large crowd, with the world record for a single tug-of-war standing at 1,574 participants.
Heave! a fabulous Friday! 
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For all the single people out there who don’t have anyone to have a tug of war with, you can always tu…
…
Actually, better not go there.
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It’s Saturday, 20 February 2021 (W7/D51/314 rem)
Today is World Pangolin Day
Today is the tenth annual World Pangolin Day! World Pangolin Day, celebrated on the third Saturday in February, is an opportunity for pangolin enthusiasts to join together in raising awareness about these unique mammals — and their plight.
Pangolins are unfortunately one of the most heavily trafficked mammals in the illegal wildlife trade.
Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate in World Pangolin Day! The aim of World Pangolin Day is to draw as much attention to pangolins as possible, since they are still relatively unknown outside of Africa and Asia.
12 things you can do to help pangolins on World Pangolin Day (and beyond!):
- TWEET using the hashtag #WorldPangolinDay.
- LIKE the World Pangolin Day Facebook page.
- BLOG about pangolins on World Pangolin Day.
- SHARE pangolin information on your social media networks.
- CREATE pangolin art — paint, draw, sculpt.
- EDUCATE by giving a presentation about pangolins at school.
- SUPPORT organizations which are working to protect pangolins.
- HOST a World Pangolin Day party or event (post your photos on the World Pangolin Day Facebook page!).
- BAKE cookies or a cake in the shape of a pangolin (post your photos on the World Pangolin Day page!).
- REQUEST full enforcement of laws and penalties for smuggling pangolins (and other wildlife).
- INFORM traditional medicine prescribers that the use of pangolin scales is illegal (and there are no proven health benefits to consuming scales — they are made of keratin, just like fingernails and hair!).
- NOTIFY the authorities if you see pangolins for sale at markets or on restaurant menus, or if you know of anyone capturing or possessing pangolins.
Pangolins, also known as scaly anteaters, are unique creatures that are covered in hard, plate-like scales. They are insectivorous (feeding nearly exclusively on ants and termites) and are mainly nocturnal. Their name, “pangolin”, is derived from the Malay word “pengguling”, which loosely translates to “something that rolls up”. Together, the eight species comprise their very own Order: Pholidota.
There are a total of eight species of pangolin on our Planet, and all pangolin populations are declining, due to the illegal trade for meat (it’s considered a delicacy in China and Vietnam) and scales (used in traditional Chinese medicine, despite no evidence of medicinal properties).
Four pangolin species live in Asia:
- Indian Pangolin (also called Thick-tailed Pangolin), Manis crassicaudata
- Phillipine Pangolin, Manis culionensis
- Sunda Pangolin (also called Malayan Pangolin), Manis javanica
- Chinese Pangolin, Manis pentadactyla
Four pangolin species live in Africa:
- White Bellied Tree Pangolin (also called AThree-Cusped Pangolin, African White-Bellied Pangolin and Tree Pangolin), Phataginus tricuspis
- Giant Ground Pangolin, Smutsia gigantea
- Ground Pangolin (also called Cape Pangolin and Temminck’s Pangolin), Smutsia temminckii
- Black Bellied Tree Pangolin (also called Long-Tailed Pangolin and Black-Bellied Pangolin), Phataginus tetradactyla
Hug a pangolin, and have a most excellent Saturday!
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It’s Sunday, 21 February 2021 (W7/D52/313 rem)
Today is 
World Whale Day 
We’ve got back to back world animal days. Today it’s the turn of the giants of the ocean that are celebrated on World Whale Day, which aims to raise awareness of these magnificent creatures.
The annual holiday was founded in Maui, Hawaii, in 1980, to honour humpback whales, which swim off its coast. It’s the main showcase of the Maui Whale Festival.
Every year (but perhaps not this one so much 
), crowds flock to the island to join in the free all-day event, organised by the Pacific Whale Foundation. The fun starts with a parade including floats, costumed characters and children’s events, plus music from Hawaiian and international stars.
However, you don’t have to visit Maui to mark this special day. Whales need support from wildlife lovers everywhere to meet conservation threats such as loss of habitat and pollution, so a perfect way to celebrate the day would be to take part in a fundraising event wherever you live.
Some of the most fascinating creatures live in our big blue oceans. Whether the mammoth blue whale or the enchanting narwhal, whales create mystery wherever they go. For centuries they’ve been hunted for their meat and oil, but today they face pollution and loss of habitat.
World Whale Day raises awareness of the growing need to protect these diverse and majestic mammals.
While whales belong to the cetaceans order, there are two suborders – baleen and toothed. Bristles replace the teeth on baleen whales. Made of keratin, the bristles act as a filter collecting krill and other small invertebrates from the sea.
World Whale Day reminds us of the challenges faced not only by whales, but in oceans across the globe in general.
Learn more about whales on World Whale Day. Dispose of your waste properly and recycle when possible. Watch videos of whales breaching (and share your favourites here!) Use #WorldWhaleDay to share them on social media.
And have yourself a whale of a wonderful Sunday!
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I got a whale in my house 
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It’s Monday, 22 February 2021 (W8/D53/312 rem)
Today is Single Tasking Day
We all know about multitasking, but today is all about the opposite - the beauty, the simplicity, the focus of doing just one task at a time. Importantly, it’s also about finding the joy in giving our attention to a single thing and appreciating that thing fully. It’s Single Tasking Day!
Single tasking is about creating a more minimalist lifestyle with more thought behind each action. It’s a deliberate attempt to declutter our actions, habits and daily routines in much the same way as we do our desks and our kitchen cupboards.
Today all we hear is the lauding of multitasking, and how getting as much done in as many areas as we can in one day. This often leads to a pile of half-finished tasks, or ones that are complete but have been finished in a less than optimal form. Single Tasking Day encourages us to take a break from multitasking, and to rather focus on getting one task done at a time, to the best of our ability.
Single Tasking Day arose in response to the preponderance of multitasking habits existing in today’s society. The dangers of multitasking have been well documented, and have repeatedly shown to cause our work to be sub-par and to leave us even more exhausted while having accomplished far less than we could have if we had just focus on one task.
There’s something about focusing in and cutting out all other distractions that has the power to let us perform at our very best.
Single Tasking doesn’t mean just doing one thing and having it done, and going about our day. It means that we take one task, and break it down into its parts, and completing each one thoroughly and with pure attention to detail. It’s even possible, if you’re having a particularly productive Single Tasking Day, to complete more tasks than when you multitask. The trick is to do them one at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed or lost in the details. Don’t let the pressure to multitask impact you doing your very best. Instead, take it all one step at a time, and complete that task to the best of your ability.
Set 20 minutes on the Pomodoro clock, and have a super productive and focused Monday!
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Aah… my kinda day.
If Pomodoro doesn’t work for you, try Eat The Frog, or an Eisenhower Matrix.
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I think I’m going to do a single task of getting myself a coffee!
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It’s Tuesday, 23 February 2021 (W8/D54/311 rem)
Today is Banana Bread Day 
I’ve avoided food celebrations for a week or two now, but it is time to get eating again! It’s Banana Bread Day.
Bakers know that to make sweet and delicious banana bread, they need to use fully ripe, mashed bananas. The resulting quick bread is moist and almost cake-like. And while some recipes call for yeast, most don’t. Either way, the finished product makes a tasty sliced snack. Toast it and add butter for an even more satisfying treat!
In the 1930s, baking soda and baking powder made banana bread and other quick breads standard features in American cookbooks. Pillsbury’s included banana bread recipes in its 1933 Balanced Recipes cookbook, too. The release of Chiquita Banana’s Recipe Book in 1950 further secured the banana bread’s acceptance.
Surprisingly, bananas first made their appearance in the United States in 1870. For a long time, Americans saw the tropical fruit as merely that – a fruit, not an ingredient. It would take a few decades before they started seeing the banana’s potential.
One early recipe came from The Vienna Model Bakery. It advertised banana bread as something new in the April 21, 1893, edition of St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A new restaurant/bakery chain owned by Gaff, Fleischmann & Company, The Viena Model Bakery was known for its baked goods and was likely one of the first to produce banana bread in the United States. The recipe was made with banana flour, made by drying strips of the fruit, then grinding it to a powder. This process had long been used in the West Indies.
In Hawaii during World War I, a surplus of bananas resulted from very few ships available to export the fruit. To prevent waste, alternative uses for bananas were developed. For example, bakeries started incorporating the fruit into their bread.
Cultural historians suggest that resourceful and creative housewives of the era created the recipe as a way of not wasting over-ripe bananas. In fact, the riper the bananas, the better the taste of the banana bread, so it ended up being a very clever creation! It is traditionally known as a “quick bread”, but is actually more like a cake in both texture and flavor.
Extremely easy to make, banana bread is still a favorite way to quickly bake up a special treat for the family. Modern-day bread also include the addition of chocolate chips, nuts, or even dried fruit. Why not experiment and come up with a bespoke banana bread recipe that everyone will love?
Mash up your over ripe bananas, and get to baking!
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Bananas never last long enough in my kitchen for me to have overripe ones. I’ve only got whole wheat flour at the moment too. Maybe I can use some ghost peppers, which kinda look like banana peppers and make a loaf 
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If only I had some banananas.
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Dankie ma nee dankie
bananas = gross
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totally agree… though I do love 'em fried, and made into bread. I lurve Vidas toasted banana bread. But I cannot eat them neat.
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What’s is it about them that makes them “gross”? I know one or two people who just don’t like the taste of bananas, but they aren’t grossed out by them.
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No banana - even the smell of it makes me naar.
I stay away from it
Its the smell, the texture the mush the everything.
Its the same why I cannot handle avo’s that texture is really not for me.
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I can understand that. I personally like 'em raw, but not cooked. Banana bread is fine, or bananas sliced on toast, but anything else, no way.
And anything banana flavoured can go straight to the trash. I think it stems back to the time as a kid I had to take liquid penicillin which was banana flavoured.
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Don’t get me started.
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OMG! Avo is awesome!
Now I’m going to have to find out when 
Guacamole Appreciation Day is, and will be sure to tag you both in all of the recipes I can find.
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