Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are some facts about the heart on this ever so heart friendly day!

The average human heart is about the size as two fists.

Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times.

Give a tennis ball a good, hard squeeze. You're using about the same amount of force your heart uses to pump blood out to the body. Even at rest, the muscles of the heart work hard--twice as hard as the leg muscles of a person sprinting.

As an adult, your pulse rate is an average of 72 beats per minute.

The aorta, the largest artery in the body, is almost the diameter of a garden hose.

Your body has about 5.6 liters (6 quarts) of blood that circulates through the body three times every minute. In one day, the blood travels a total of 19,000 km (12,000 miles)--that's four times the distance across the US from coast to coast.

The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifetime--that's enough to fill more than 3 super tankers. 

If nothing else, you are now a little more heart smart today and have some conversation starters for your next party!

1,000,000,000

That is 1 billion. The next time you hear a politician use the word “billion” in a casual manner, think about whether you want the “politicians” spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

• A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
• A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
• A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
• A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
• A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in your brain, take a look at New Orleans. Amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is asking Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean?

If you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528, OR
If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your would get $1,329,787, OR
If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Here are a few things we are taxed on: land, wage, bed in which you lay, tractor, mule, cow, goat, pants, coat, ties, shirts, work, dirt, tobacco, drink, booze, beers, bills, gas, notes, cash, grave, even the plot!

Then there is inheritance TAX, Accounts Receivable Tax, Building Permit Tax, CDL License Tax, Cigarette Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Dog License Tax, Federal Income Tax, Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA), Fishing License Tax, Food License Tax, Fuel Perm it Tax, Gasoline Tax, Hunting License Tax, Inheritance Tax, Inventory Tax, IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax), IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax), Liquor Tax, Luxury Tax, Marriage License Tax, Medicare Tax, Property Tax, Real Estate Tax, Service charge taxes, Social Security Tax, Road Usage Tax (Truckers), Sales Taxes, Recreational Vehicle Tax, School Tax, State Income Tax, State Unemployment Tax (SUTA), Telephone Federal Excise Tax, Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax, Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax, Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax, Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax, Telephone State and Local Tax, Telephone Usage Charge Tax, Utility Tax, Vehicle License Registration Tax, Vehicle Sales Tax, Watercraft Registration Tax, Well Permit Tax, Workers Compensation Tax.

Some facts:
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

Foot Fact!

A friend from Michigan told me this crazy sounding fact, and then I did it and damn if it aint right!

Your foot is the same length as the distance from your elbow to your wrist! I know it looks huge but if you put your foot along your arm putting your heel at your elbow, your big toe will reach your wrist!

So now you know what big feet mean. . .longer sleeves!