Article: Researchers call this effect "tonic immobility." When a chicken or another animal with this tendency becomes frightened, its heart rate lowers and it stops moving. This may be an attempt to play dead, discouraging predators that prefer live prey. Unlike an opossum, the chicken gives an unconvincing act, as it continues to blink and breathe in an obvious way. While it's not uncommon to transport a chicken by its feet, this upside-down hold risks breaking the chicken's hip. Hypnosis techniques that involve laying a chicken on its back may "succeed" by cutting off its air supply. This can cause the chicken significant discomfort, leading to fainting or even, rarely, death. It's not completely clear how much stress this hypnosis causes. Even if it does, the chicken shouldn't suffer as long as you let it go soon afterward. Hours of stress, or regular exposure to stressful situations, can cause serious health problems. Chickens cope with stress better if they are used to contact with humans. Even prolonged eye contact seems to have an effect. Living in stimulating environments with new objects may also help. Hens raise in battery cages stay "hypnotized" longer, possibly because of greater fear. Abnormal feathering, constant preening, or delays in egg-laying are all signs of a stressed chicken. While hypnotizing is unlikely to cause serious harm, any type of stress is more damaging to a chicken in this state.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Understand the hypnotic effect. Keep the chicken upright or on its side. Keep hypnosis short and infrequent. Get your chickens used to humans and novelty. Watch for signs of stress.
Article: While it's probably impossible for you to spend every day in the pool, you can create a regular routine that will provide you with the experience needed to swim faster. Set a goal of swimming for one hour per day, at least three days a week. Set time aside before or after work or school. Spend part of a weekend day swimming. One of the most important factors in swimming faster is pushing yourself to beat your old records. As a result, you should constantly push yourself to improve the number of yards you swim for any given amount of time. If you swim 1500 yards an hour, challenge yourself to eventually move up to 3000 yards an hour. While this may seem like a big increase, you'll be able to do it over time. Use a timer to challenge yourself to go further in a certain mount of time. Instead holding your hand out flat or cupped as you swim, make a fist. This will lessen the momentum you make with your hands, and force your arms to work harder. This will help train you to use your forearms more than you normally do. Swim underwater just as you would above water. This will get you used to having much more resistance as you swim. As a result, when you return to above water freestyle, you'll be able to swim faster. Mix up your normal routine by swimming underwater for some laps. Instead of tilting your head underwater as you swim, keep it above water the entire time. This requires you to kick harder and faster to move straight and quick. After doing it for a while, you'll find you have better control of your body. Try this for a few of your laps when you practice swimming. Move your hand out to create some resistance in the water after you've made your big stroke. After doing this for a while, you'll feel much more power when you swim normally. Try dragging your hand periodically when you swim. Dolphin kicks are when you move both of your legs together as if they are the fin of a dolphin. This works because it'll get you used to a certain rhythm. Try swimming with dolphin kicks for half an hour at least once a week.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Create a routine. Increase the number of yards you swim per week. Do some closed-fist swimming. Try underwater freestyle. Swim with your head up. Drag your hand during the recovery phase of normal freestyle. Use dolphin kicks.
Article: After a season outside, they'll have mildew and dirt on them. Use warm water and a scrub brush to scrub dirt and debris from the stems until they're completely clean. The stems will be quite stiff, so a meat cleaver is a better tool for the job than a knife. Chop the stem into small sections, then chop those in half so you have a pile of small pieces of sugar cane. If you had a commercial sugar cane press, chopping the stems wouldn't be necessary. On large farms, juice is extracted from sugar cane using huge, heavy presses. There is no equivalent machine suitable for home use, so the chop-and-boil-method is used instead. The sugar is extracted through a long process of boiling the pieces down for about two hours. The sugar water is ready when it has the same flavor as a piece of raw sugar cane. You'll have to taste-test it to determine when it's ready. Another clue is to look at the sugar cane pieces. After a few hours, the color will turn to a light brown, which indicates the sugar has been extracted. Check the pot every half hour or so to make sure that the pieces are still covered with water; if not, add more. Use the strainer to catch all the fibrous pieces of sugar cane. You don't need these anymore, so you can discard them. Boil the sugar water until it cooks down significantly and takes on the texture of thick syrup. This can take anywhere from one to two hours, so be sure to monitor the pot to make sure you don't overcook it. To test whether the syrup is ready, dip a cold spoon in the pot and check the texture. If you like your syrup on the thin side, you can remove it from heat when it still easily slides from the back of the spoon. For thicker syrup, remove it from heat when it coats the back of the spoon instead of slipping right off. Place a lid on the jar and allow the syrup to cool completely before storing it in a cool, dry place.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Scrub the stems. Chop the stems into one-inch sections. Boil the sugar cane pieces in a large stockpot filled with water. Pour the sugar water through a strainer into a smaller pot. Cook down the sugar water to turn it into syrup. Pour the syrup into a glass canning jar.