580 - Calories are Dangerous Numbers

Q - A Big Mac has more calories than 3 Mars Bars - true or false?  Read on....

When God created us he forgot one thing that would be very handy and that is a built in calorie counter . Wouldn't it be very convenient if our brain had a little counter that could tell us, in real time, how many calories we have taken in over the last 24 hours and how many we have burnt up - and maybe a food shut down control if we are over the limit. Health and diet issues would be so much easier. But he didn't so we have to educate and apply self discipline.

What is a calorie? In nutrition terms what we refer to as a calorie is actually a kilocalorie and in scientific terms it is the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 Kg of water by 1 degree celcius. For this blog that's it as far as the science is concerned.

Why are we showing you a Big Mac? Well todays blog is a snapshot of some numbers that we should know about our daily diet and the Big Mac has 580 calories and that, as we will see, is a significant chunk of the daily calories that our bodies need. If you go for bust with a Big Mac Meal (large fries and Coke) that will be 1350 calories. 

What does that mean?

The average male requires a daily calorie intake of about 2,800 while the average female needs about 2,000. Now it's easy to see where this is headed if you are a regular Big Mac Meal customer - nearly half your daily needs if you're male and nearly 70% for females and you will be like our friend in the boat.

But it's not all about about Big Macs - that's only to make a point. It can all go wrong without ever looking at the big M.

• 2700 = Average calorie needs for a male
• 2000 = Average calorie needs for a female
• 1700 = Our bodies burn up calories even we we are asleep or do nothing ( BMR calculator ) and as a rough rule of thumb you can multiply your weight in pounds x 10 to get a ballpark figure e.g. 170 lbs weight x 10 = 1700 calories your body will burn naturally. Any activity will burn up extra but lack of activity you got a problem! Check the calculator above

Ok - so you're feeling smug because you don't indulge in Big Macs.
But any of the following is the 580 calorie equivalent of a Big Mac

29 - Linking Buckingham Palace to California to ABBA to Liverpool to GAA

Q - There is a town in California called 29 Coconuts - true or false ? Read on ....

The big event of today is the royal wedding of William and Kate - it can't get more newsworthy than that!

It may be a coincidence that they are getting hitched on the 29th and the fact that they were both born 29 years ago in 1982. Kate ( or Catherine Duchess of Cambridge as she will be titled) is older as she was born on Jan 9th so she is in her 30th year. William is 29 as he was born on Jun 21st so he is 163 days younger than his bride.

A few other numbers you will hear about todays event:
1500 - the number of guets invited to the wedding cermony in Westminster Abbey
650 - the number of guests invited by the Queen to lunch in Buckingham Palace
300 - the number of guests invited to dinner, in the evening, by Prince Charles
9 - the number of years the couple have been in a relationship
5 - the number of horse drawn carriages in the procession from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace
3- the bells of Westminster Abbey will ring for 3 hours after the wedding
150,000 - the number of souvenir programmes of the event that will be printed and sold
100 - the number of members of the public who will get to attend the wedding in the Abbey. They were chosen by random draw.

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Other trivia (non-royal) on the number 29

• We live on just 29% of the earths surface - yes the earth is 29% land and 71% under water.
• The Scandanavian (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish) alphabets have 29 letters - the regular 26 plus what are known as diacritic characters examples of which are  é, è, ê, ó, ò, â (basically letters with a glyph).
• A heads up (pun) - the human skull has 29 bones
• Who was Lt. Hiroo Onoda? He was the last soldier to drop his arms after WW2. A Japanese soldier, he spent 29 years on a remote Philippine island,  failing to heed communications that WW2 ended and continuing to hide in the jungles and serve his country until 1974 when he finally surrendered. More
• 29 Palms - the name of a town, sorry, city in California which is home to The Joshua Tree National Park. The Joshua Tree  was made famous by the U2 album of that name. The actual Joshua tree (not sure if it was in the Park) that was photographed for the iconic image for the album became a tourist attraction but actually fell in 2000. It's still an attraction and an entrepid fan has marked the spot with a plaque with the inscription ' Have You Found What You're Looking For?" How cool is that?

Behind The 8 Ball

If you are in a tough spot with little chance of success or escaping then 'behind the 8 ball' is an apt description. It is derived from the the game of pool and there are different explanations of it's exact reference but basically it means you are 'snookered' (to borrow another realated term).

So the number 8 is one that can be wheeled out by all of us, I'm sure, on a regular basis. Could be a work problem, a clash of social engagements or a caught in the bus lane by a vigilant garda.

The number 8 has a very high profile in everyday life and 'stuff'.

• We might be more used to litres as a measure these days but we will always remember that 1 gallon = 8 pints.
• Our favourite insect, the spider, has 8 legs as do scorions while an octopus must be the only living creature that has 8 arms.
• Do you listen to or play music? Then be aware of the 'octave' or 8 notes.
• The number 8 is considered a lucky number by the Chinese as it sounds similar to the Chinese words for wealth and fortune. A telephone number comprising of 8's only was sold in China for €270,000.
• The opening cermony of Beijing summer Olympics of 2008 started at precisely at 8 seconds after 8 minutes after 8pm (local time) on 8th day of the 8th month in '08.
• Even airlines flying in and out of China make use of the number 8. KLM from Hong to Amsterdam is KL888, UA888 is United Airlines from San Francisco to Beijing and Air Canada use AC88 from Toronto to Shanghai.
• Our universe has 8 planets. It used to be 9 up until 2006 when Pluto was re-catagorised as a 'dwarf planet''. The 8 Planets are - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

And Todays Number is 4,239,848

Relevent because we have just completed a census in Ireland from which we will shortly get some interesting facts and figures. The number 4,239,848 is the recorded population of the Republic of Ireland (26 counties) according to the census of 2006 and we await the 2011 census reports with great interest to see how our population has changed since then and during the recession of the last 3 or 4 years.

- Republic of Ireland (26 counties)     4,239,848
- Northern Ireland (6 counties)          1,576,000 (approx)
- Total                                           5,815,848

What about counties by population - biggest to smallest - all 32

1	Dublin	1,187,176		17	Mayo	123,839
2	Antrim	563,000		18	Louth	111,267
3	Cork	481,295		19	Clare	110,950
4	Down	454,000		20	Waterford	107,961
5	Galway	231,670		21	Kilkenny	87,558
6	Derry	213,000		22	Westmeath	79,346
7	Kildare	186,335		23	Offaly	70,868
8	Limerick	184,055		24	Laois	67,059
9	Meath	162,831		25	Cavan	64,003
10	Tyrone	150,000		26	Sligo	60,894
11	Tipperary	149,244		27	Roscommon	58,768
12	Donegal	147,264		28	Monaghan	55,997
13	Armagh	141,585		29	Fermanagh	55,000
14	Kerry	139,835		30	Carlow	50,349
15	Wexford	131,749		31	Longford	34,391
16	Wicklow	126,194		32	Leitrim	28,950

• The population of the Republic was at its lowest in 1961 at just over 2.8m.  In the 45 years from then till 2006 the numbers grew by 1.5m or 50%.
• In terms of worldwide population size the Republic of Ireland is similar to New Zealand, Lebanon, Croatia and Georgia.
• In European comparisons, the whole of the island population is about 1m larger than Norway, about 500k larger than Finland and about 300k larger than Denmark.  
• Holland, on the other hand, is only about half the land area of the island of Ireland but has a population of over 16.6m. By population density we enjoy, on average, 5 to 6 times more space per individual than the average Dutchman has!
• A USA comaparison - Ireland is about the same land area as the state of Indiana which as over 500k more inhabitants

Starter for 26

It's Blog day 1 so lets' get started ....

As today is the 26th it seems appropriate to start with the number
                 26

No where do we come across the number 26 in our everyday lives?

To Communicate ....Well it can't get any more relevent as 26 is absolutely present in everything we say and everything we read (including this) because to communicate we depend on the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Amazing to think that with as few as 26 'pictures' assembled in different ways we can describe anything on earth and beyond.

... Games and Tricks

A deck of cards has many unique charactersitics, one being that it is made up of 26 red cards and 26 black cards.

Walking ...
There are 26 bones in the human foot and ankle.


.. and Running
If we ask what sport would is usually be associated with 26 the Marathon springs to mind, even though strictly it's some yards longer than 26 miles.

...and Not Forgetting Where We Live
Yes, The Republic of Ireland has , of course, 26 counties