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Jamie Oliver: how to chop an onion Apr 28 2015
Chef and TV personality Jamie Oliver shows three different techniques for chopping onions, including the dead simple "crystals" method.
Chef and TV personality Jamie Oliver shows three different techniques for chopping onions, including the dead simple "crystals" method.
As the old saying goes, it is sometimes unpleasant to watch the sausage being made. But not as unpleasant as watching the olive loaf being made.
(via digg)
Whenever I watch videos of how things are made, I marvel at the cleverness of the manufacturing machines. Retired engineer Duc Thang Nguyen has created over 1700 3D animations showing how all sorts of different mechanisms work...gears, linkages, drives, clutches, and couplings. Here are a few examples to whet your appetite.
(via make)
As you know, I love videos of how stuff is made. (See below.) Well, I just discovered this treasure trove of more than 300 14-minute videos from a Japanese show called The Making: playlist #1, playlist #2. Each video shows how a different thing is made, from wires to sugar to trophies to cheese and all of them are dialogue-free. Here's the one on how golf balls are made:
I can't wait to show some of these to the kids. Their favorite online video, which they request weekly, is this one on how croissants are made.
When I was a kid, maybe 12 or 13 years old, I watched this program on PBS that showed how a snack food manufacturer came up with a new snack food, from design to manufacturing. The thing that stuck with me the most was that they showed a number of the missteps in-between...like they tried a certain shape with a certain filling and it didn't work out in taste tests, that sort of thing. I LOVED seeing that trial and error in action. I only saw the show once, but it's one of my most vivid childhood TV memories. Maybe it's why I ended up becoming a designer?
Wait, wait! Holy shit, holy shit! I found the show! It was a NOVA program called How to Create a Junk Food that aired in 1988, when I was 14. I couldn't find the video or even a clip, but here's a review in the LA Times.
The ultimate weapon is the flavorist, a 20th-Century alchemist who analyzes natural things like Danish blue cheese or barbecued beef, reconstructs them chemically in the lab and produces their essences to punch up the taste of bland fillings.
Marketing and technology co-produce a croissant-dough cone with a moist meat or cheese filling that appears perfect. But when they test it on the mouths of real consumers (English housewives), it's a bloomin' flop.
Undaunted, the technologists go back to their gizmos and test tubes. After doing such goofy things as gluing electrodes to a chewer's cheeks to get "chew profiles" of different fillings, they come up with a second prototype, Crack a Snack. The wheat-cracker wrapped "savory tube" is called a "triumph of food engineering," which, we're warned, if it is given the proper image, "there's little doubt we'll buy it."
New Scientist wrote about Crack a Snack around the same time.
So yeah, now you know I'm the sort of kid who gleefully watched food engineering documentaries on PBS at 14. But you probably already suspected as much. (via @go)
I've never looked closely at my dishwasher's instruction manual before, but apparently all the manuals tell you how best to load the dishwasher. Joe Clark went through a bunch these manuals and compiled screenshots of the "Loading Your Dishwasher" pages and put them on Flickr.
The first part of this video, the bit with the molten sugar and cooling table, is the most interesting, but the whole thing is worth a watch.
Reminds me of the lettered rock made at Teddy Grays.
I've read a lot about introverts and extroverts over the years (posted this back in Feb 2003 for example), but this list (found here) of how to care for introverts still hit me like a pile of bricks.
1. Respect their need for privacy.
2. Never embarrass them in public.
3. Let them observe first in new situations.
4. Give them time to think; don't demand instant answers.
5. Don't interrupt them.
6. Give them advance notice of expected changes in their lives.
7. Give them 15 minute warnings to finish whatever they are doing.
8. Reprimand them privately.
9. Teach them new skills privately.
10. Enable them to find one best friend who has similar interests & abilities.
11. Don't push them to make lots of friends.
12. Respect their introversion; don't try to remake them into extroverts.
It's just dawned on me that when something goes wrong in my life, it's often one of the things on this list that's the culprit, especially #4 and #6. And #2 pretty much explains my middle and high school experience. Has anyone read Susan Caine's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking? I've heard great things about it, but haven't had a chance to read yet. Thinking I should bump it to the top of my queue. Holy crap, it's only $2.99 for Kindle...BOUGHT. (via @arainert)
Wow, the art of making marbled paper, a short film from 1970.
Charmingly British, just like the film about the Teddy Grays candy factory or the putter togetherer of scissors. Super cool how the inks are placed on a water bath, swirled expertly to make patterns, and then transferred to the paper. Also of note: the segment on the conservation of old books starting at around 9:55...I never knew they took them apart like that to dunk the pages in water! Sadly, the Cockerell Bindery ceased operation in the late 1980s with the death of Sydney Cockerell and its contents were sold at auction. (thx, matt)
Gear Patrol visited 12 whiskey distilleries (including Buffalo Trace, Maker's Mark, and Jim Beam) to find out how bourbon is made.
Cool. Some of that I knew, and some I didn't. My favorite detail is how the placement of the barrel in the aging room can affect the flavor of the bourbon within. Just like cheese. (via digg)
In 2012, Joe Ayoob broke the world record for the longest distance paper airplane flight with a plane designed by John Collins. In this video, Collins demonstrates how to fold that plane, the Suzanne.
Directions for the design are also available in Collins' New World Champion Paper Airplane Book.
Christine Muhlke talks to several different chefs and writers about how they approach writing recipes.
The goal should be that the reader can make the recipe his or her own -- that the instructions are clear and good enough that after a few tries, he or she can improvise to please themselves. The chef gives ideas so that the cook can profit. It's not dictation; it's inspiration.
I wasn't expecting too much of this video about how to eat sushi, but it's actually pretty good. It features Naomichi Yasuda of the highly regard Sushi Yasuda in Manhattan making sushi for a newbie and telling him how it should be eaten.
This Old House + Jiro Dreams of Sushi = this video.
Update: Another perspective on how sushi should be eaten comes from Tom Downey, who shares the 10 commandments of the owner of Tokyo's Yajima Sushi.
There were open spots at the counter. But the chef, Susumu Yajima, instructed me to take a seat nearby and wait. Eventually I was summoned to a place directly in front of him, and the attack began: Piece after piece in rapid succession, as Yajima barked orders at me.
"Eat now!" he said, milliseconds after passing me a glistening slice of buri (amberjack) atop shari (the finger of rice that forms the base of nigiri sushi). "Use your hand!" he upbraided me, as I reached for my chopsticks. He even instructed me to half-chew one piece before washing it down with sake.
Tom Chiarella shares his rules for giving a eulogy.
It may hurt to write it. And reading it? For some, that's the worst part. The world might spin a little, and everything familiar to you might fade for a few minutes. But remember, remind yourself as you stand there, you are the lucky one.
And that's not because you aren't dead. You were selected. You get to stand, face the group, the family, the world, and add it up. You're being asked to do something at the very moment when nothing can be done. You get the last word in the attempt to define the outlines of a life. I don't care what you say, bub: That is a gift.
This rule surprised me:
You must make them laugh. Laughs are a pivot point in a funeral. They are your responsibility. The best laughs come by forcing people not to idealize the dead. In order to do this, you have to be willing to tell a story, at the closing of which you draw conclusions that no one expects.
From Grantland's Mike Goodman, a guide to nerding out about soccer, using the language already spoken by American sports nerds.
What exactly is a good shot in soccer? The nascent field of soccer analytics is hard at work trying to figure that out. It won't surprise anybody to learn that closer is better, and using your feet is much, much better than using your head. So, much like getting into the lane is of paramount importance in basketball, getting the ball at your feet in front of the goal is just about the best thing you can do in soccer. Getting to the byline (baseline) in the corner of the penalty areas (like where Maicon was in the above video) is a hot destination. That's where you can cut the ball back for a teammate to have one of those coveted close shots. Hey, look at that - it's like basketball again: Get to the goal or get to the corners.
There is all sorts of advice online about how to do things, but this piece on wikiHow on how to stop your beloved from marrying someone else is easily the best/worst I have ever seen.
If you were not able to contact her before hand, and you are sure that you want to proceed, find out the location of the wedding. Unless you have been invited, you will have to find out where the wedding ceremony is to be held, and the exact time. Ask family members or mutual friends if it doesn't appear too suspicious, or perhaps check the wedding notices in the local newspaper.
I have never seen something so batshit crazy described in such a calm methodical way. And the photos! The caption for this one is "Enjoy life with your stolen bride or groom":
(via @mrgan)
I haven't worn a watch in more than 25 years and I have no plans to wear one ever again, but I will watch videos on how to make watches until the heat death of the universe.
Plenty of tradition and handcraft -- combined with high-tech, where it outperforms handcraft.
(via daring fireball)
Jim Koch is the co-founder and chairman of The Boston Beer Company, brewer of the Sam Adams beers. Part of his job is to drink professionally and he does so without getting completely sloshed. What's his secret? Eating a packet of dry yeast before tying one on.
You see, what [expert brewer] Owades knew was that active dry yeast has an enzyme in it called alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH). Roughly put, ADH is able to break alcohol molecules down into their constituent parts of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Which is the same thing that happens when your body metabolizes alcohol in its liver. Owades realized if you also have that enzyme in your stomach when the alcohol first hits it, the ADH will begin breaking it down before it gets into your bloodstream and, thus, your brain.
"And it will mitigate - not eliminate - but mitigate the effects of alcohol!" Koch told me.
Could have used this tip last night. Does this mean no hangovers as well?
Update: I got two kinds of feedback about this post:
1) What's the fun in drinking alcohol if you're not getting drunk? (Good point.)
2) Yeast doesn't really work. What does seem to work is Pepcid AC and Zantac. From Shenglong on Hacker News:
Again, I'm not a chemist or a doctor, but from my preliminary internet research and anecdotal testing (though I have quite a few different data points), Famotadine (OTC) [Pepcid], and higher levels of APO-Ranitidine (can be prescription) [Zantac] seems to slow the rate of ethanol -> acetaldehyde, balancing out the drunkness effect more, and giving you more time to process the acetaldehyde -> acetic acid. I typically go from maxing out at 2 drinks / 3 hour period, to about 11 drinks / 3 hour period on Ranitidine, given favorable conditions. I've had lower levels of success with Famotadine.
And it goes without saying, I don't recommend trying any of this at home.
At the local bar on the other hand Nope, not there either. (thx, @natebirdman)
The small village of Ciocanesti in Romania produces the most beautiful hand-painted Easter eggs I've ever seen. This video is a wonderful look at the process and tradition.
Here's how it works:
First, the (duck, goose, chicken, or even ostrich) egg is drained, through a tiny hole. Then, using a method akin to batik, it is dipped in dye and painted one color at a time, with the painter applying beeswax to those areas she wants to protect from the next round of dying. The painting implement, called a kishitze, is a stick with an iron tip. (Previously, egg-painters would have used thorns or pig bristles.)
And then the wax is melted and wiped off the egg, revealing the colors underneath. So cool. (via @colossal)
A cool short documentary about neon sign making, a dying industry in Hong Kong.
As Jonathan Hoefler notes, the letters are designed so that the designers don't burn their hands while bending the glass over an 800°C flame.
A master chef from a Hokkaido sushi restaurant shows how to make dashimaki tamago, a Japanese rolled omelette.
Watching people who are good at what they do never gets old. (via swiss miss)
Don't breathe. That's the first step to surviving if you fall through ice into near-freezing water.
(via mr)
John Siracusa shares how he became an Apple geek, an RC car geek, and a huge U2 geek.
You don't have to be a geek about everything in your life -- or anything, for that matter. But if geekdom is your goal, don't let anyone tell you it's unattainable. You don't have to be there "from the beginning" (whatever that means). You don't have to start when you're a kid. You don't need to be a member of a particular social class, race, sex, or gender.
Geekdom is not a club; it's a destination, open to anyone who wants to put in the time and effort to travel there. And if someone lacks the opportunity to get there, we geeks should help in any way we can. Take a new friend to a meetup or convention. Donate your old games, movies, comics, and toys. Be welcoming. Sharing your enthusiasm is part of being a geek.
David Munson, CEO of Saddleback Leather, gives some advice to those who want to rip off his high quality leather bags...basically how to save money by cutting corners, using cheaper leather, etc.
At Serious Eats, Kenji Lopez-Alt turned 32 pounds of flour and other ingredients into more than 1500 cookies and in the process discovered how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
You see, I've never been able to get a chocolate chip cookie exactly the way I like. I'm talking chocolate cookies that are barely crisp around the edges with a buttery, toffee-like crunch that transitions into a chewy, moist center that bends like caramel, rich with butter and big pockets of melted chocolate. Cookies with crackly, craggy tops and the complex aroma of butterscotch. And of course, that elusive perfect balance between sweet and salty.
Some have come close, but none have quite hit the mark. And the bigger problem? I was never sure what to change in order to get what I want. Cookies are fickle and the advice out there is conflicting. Does more sugar make for crisper cookies? What about brown versus white? Does it matter how I incorporate the chocolate chips or whether the flour is blended in or folded? How about the butter: cold, warm, or melted?
So many questions to ask and answers to explore! I made it my goal to test each and every element from ingredients to cooking process, leaving no chocolate chip unturned in my quest for the best. 32 pounds of flour, over 100 individual tests, and 1,536 cookies later, I had my answers.
Dang, this is like The Power Broker for baked goods, a cookie magnum opus.
Update: Back in 2007, my wife took a different approach to making the perfect chocolate chip cookie: she averaged the ingredients from 12 of the best cookie recipes she could find. The averaged recipe reads, in part:
2.04 cups all-purpose flour
0.79 tsp. salt
0.79 tsp. baking soda
0.805 stick unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
0.2737 stick unsalted butter, cold
0.5313 stick unsalted butter, melted
Ben Blatt sat down with a bunch of Where's Waldo? books and found a pattern to the striped beanpole's hiding places.
It may not be immediately clear from looking at this map, but my hunch that there's a better way to hunt was right. There isn't one corner of the page where Waldo is always hiding; readers would have already noticed if his patterns were so obvious. What we do see, as highlighted in the map below, is that 53 percent of the time Waldo is hiding within one of two 1.5-inch tall bands, one starting three inches from the bottom of the page and another one starting seven inches from the bottom, stretching across the spread.
This video dicusses three simple ways to travel through time (all of which you can do right now at home) and three not-so-simple time travel methods.
For more on time-travel, here are some works by physicist and time-lord Sean Carroll:
Rules for time-travellers - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cos...
Learn more about time and time-machines in his book From Eternity to Here - http://preposterousuniverse.com/etern...
Visualizations of the spinning universe - http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/1...
An engaging talk on the Paradoxes of Time Travel - https://vimeo.com/11917849
(via digg)
With $10 and a little elbow grease, you can turn your iPhone into a really nice digital microscope capable of 175x magnification, allowing you to take photos of plant cells:
Here's how you do it:
(via ★interesting)
On Quora, Yishan Wong shares his foolproof technique for parallel parking.
The directions for parallel parking (that you get from the DMV, or in your driver's ed course) are actually very precise and if you follow them exactly, you will park your car perfectly every time. You do not need to practice, you just need to fucking follow the directions.
This list of rules for the contemporary American male is both awesome and awful, seemingly written by a douchebag Dalai Lama. Some of the rules are thoughtful:
Measure yourself only against your previous self.
Staying angry is a waste of energy.
If you believe in evolution, you should know something about how it works.
And some are not:
Desserts are for women. Order one and pretend you don't mind that she's eating yours.
Yes, of course you have to buy her dinner.
Pretty women who are unaccompanied want you to talk to them.
In the 1980s, Charles Ehret developed an antidote to jet lag called The Argonne Anti-Jet-Lag-Diet.
After experimenting on protozoa, rats, and his eight children, Ehret recommended that the international traveler, in the several days before his flight, alternate days of feasting with days of very light eating. Come the flight, the traveler would nibble sparsely until eating a big breakfast at about 7:30 a.m. in his new time zone -- no matter that it was still 1:30 a.m. in the old time zone or that the airline wasn't serving breakfast until 10:00 a.m. His reward would be little or no jet lag.
The diet was adopted by US government agencies and other groups as well as Ronald Reagan, but it difficult to stick to. Recently, researchers in Boston have devised a simpler anti-jet lag remedy:
The international traveler, they counsel, can avoid jet lag by simply not eating for twelve to sixteen hours before breakfast time in the new time zone-at which point, as in Ehret's diet, he should break his fast. Since most of us go twelve to sixteen hours between dinner and breakfast anyway, the abstention is a small hardship.
According to the Harvard team, the fast works because our bodies have, in addition to our circadian clock, a second clock that might be thought of as a food clock or, perhaps better, a master clock. When food is scarce, this master clock suspends the circadian clock and commands the body to sleep much less than normally. Only after the body starts eating again does the master clock switch the circadian clock back on.
Totally trying this the next time I have to travel, although the Advil PM/melatonin combination my doctor suggested worked really well for me on my trip to New Zealand. (via @genmon)
I was poking around on YouTube for "how to" videos (one of my favorite video genres) the other day when I hit a small jackpot: a bunch of How Do They...? videos from the National Film Board of Canada. A favorite shows how chain link fences are made:
You can view all the videos at the NFB site as well. NFB produced one of my favorite "how to" videos ever: how to build an igloo.
This video seems like it was made specifically for kottke.org. In the first half of it, you learn how cranberries are harvested. In the second half, there's gorgeous HD slo-mo footage of wakeskating through a cranberry bog.
And with a Tycho soundtrack no less...it's all too perfect. (via ★interesting)
A short video about the ingredients that go into every can of Play-Doh:
Sadly, the composition of the amazing fragrance is not revealed, but Wired asked a perfumer about it a couple of years ago:
Hasbro's patent admits to vanilla, but that's just to throw us off the scent. The real formula for this iconic odor is guarded like the crown jewels. After talking with New York perfumer Christopher Brosius, who offers a Play-Doh fragrance, we suspect that it draws from the aromatic flowers of the heliotrope, aka the cherry pie plant.
And if you'd like Play-Doh as your signature scent, Demeter makes a Play-Doh cologne. (Off topic, but the word "cologne" always makes me think of this hilarious Twitter search.)
He's a witch! Burn him! See also how to fold a shirt in two seconds. (via ★interesting)
Steinway & Sons, the celebrated piano making company, recently produced this video of how their grand pianos are constructed. Their process for building pianos has changed so little that they were able pair 1980s factory tour audio from former chairman John Steinway to contemporary footage of their Astoria, NY factory.
You can see how little has changed as you watch this 1929 film of how a Steinway piano was made:
Some of the shots in the two videos are identical, e.g. the men pulling the piano rim out of the mold or choosing spruce for the sounding boards. It interesting to compare these two videos with Wednesday's video of how Telsa sedans are made. Together, the three form a view of the progression of automation in manufacturing. I wonder if the Tesla robots could construct a piano that sounds as good as a Steinway? (via open culture)
A nice video from Wired that shows how Tesla's sedan is made.
Tesla got the factory for a song from Toyota in 2010, spent about a year or so setting up tooling and started producing the Model S sedan in mid-2012. The automaker brings in raw materials by the truckload, including the massive rolls of aluminum that are bent, pressed, and formed to create the car. Those lightweight components are assembled by swarm of red robots in an intricate ballet that is mesmerizing to behold.
(via ★interesting)
Karen Cheng learned to dance in a year. Here's a video of her progress, from just a few days in to her final number:
Here's my secret: I practiced everywhere. At bus stops. In line at the grocery store. At work -- Using the mouse with my right hand and practicing drills with my left hand. You don't have to train hardcore for years to become a dancer. But you must be willing to practice and you better be hungry.
This isn't a story about dancing, though. It's about having a dream and not knowing how to get there -- but starting anyway. Maybe you're a musician dreaming of writing an original song. You're an entrepreneur dying to start your first venture. You're an athlete but you just haven't left the chair yet.
The interesting thing is, Cheng basically did the same thing in her professional life as well.
I decided to become a designer, but I had no design skills. I thought about going back to school for design, but the time and money commitment was too big a risk for a career choice I wasn't totally sure of.
So I taught myself -- everyday I would do my day job in record time and rush home to learn design. Super talented people go to RISD for 4 years and learn design properly. I hacked together my piecemeal design education in 6 months -- there was no way I was ready to become a designer. But I was so ready to leave Microsoft. So I started the job search and got rejected a few times. Then I got the job at Exec.
The first few weeks were rough. Everyday I sat in front of my computer trying my damnedest and thinking it wasn't good enough. But everyday I got a little bit better.
(via hacker news)
Last month, we posted a video of Tim Knoll doing ridiculous and panic-inducing circus style tricks on his bike. In the video below, he explains how he does the bike limbo, riding under several semi trucks in a row. Just because he tells you how to do it, does not mean you should try it. In fact, it is the expressed opinion of this blog you should not try it. However, if you do try it and you do feel yourself falling -- which you will, because let's be honest -- don't try to lift your head up. Just fall, because as Knoll says, "scrapes are better than stitches."
(via ls)
Until fairly recently, recycled glass was not made into new glass bottles. But now recycling plants can use optical sorting to separate out colored glass from clear glass so the latter can be used to make new bottles. Here's how the process works.
Don't miss the glass gobs shooting down into the molding machine at around 2:13.
Tom Chiarella writing for Esquire:
Remember that the only representation of you, no matter what your station, is you -- your presentation, your demeanor. You simply must attend. Stand when someone enters the room, especially if you are lowly and he is the boss, and even if the reverse is true. Look them in the eye. Ask yourself: Does anybody need an introduction? If so, before you say one word about business, introduce them to others with pleasure in your voice. If you can't muster enthusiasm for the people you happen upon in life, then you cannot be gracious. Remember, true graciousness demands that you have time for others.
I remember tearing baseballs apart as a kid and seeing the rubber core, but I guess I had forgotten that a baseball is mostly a leather-covered yarn ball. See also how footballs are made and homemade soccer balls. (via @marklamster)
NPR's Planet Money talked to Ed Herr of Herr Foods about how potato chip manufacturing has changed since 1946, when the company was housed in a barn on his family's land.
Herr estimates that if they currently made chips the way they did back in the 1940s, they'd cost about $25 a bag.
Alex Cornell has constructed a handy infographic to help you decide where to sit at a restaurant or dinner party table.
7 Person Rectangle: It's very easy to get screwed in this scenario. While it may appear like you can sit anywhere except the ends, this is not so. You are at risk of sitting next to the lonely end-seat, which requires you to speak soley to that person for the duration of the meal.
Tyler Cowen gets the best email. Case in point is this advice from a former cab driver on the best way to get your stolen car back:
If your car is ever stolen, your first calls should be to every cab company in the city. You offer a $50 reward to the driver who finds it AND a $50 reward to the dispatcher on duty when the car is found. The latter is to encourage dispatchers on shift to continually remind drivers of your stolen car. Of course you should call the police too but first things first. There are a lot more cabs than cops so cabbies will find it first -- and they're more frequently going in places cops typically don't go, like apartment and motel complex parking lots, back alleys etc. Lastly, once the car is found, a swarm of cabs will descend and surround it because cabbies, like anyone else, love excitement and want to catch bad guys.
From Stack Overflow, a question about how to efficient sort a pile of socks.
Yesterday I was pairing the socks from the clean laundry, and figured out the way I was doing it is not very efficient. I was doing a naive search -- picking one sock and "iterating" the pile in order to find its pair. This requires iterating over n/2 * n/4 = n^2/8 socks on average.
As a computer scientist I was thinking what I could do? sorting (according to size/color/...) of course came into mind to achieve O(NlogN) solution.
And everyone gets it wrong. The correct answer is actually:
1) Throw all your socks out.
2) Go to Uniqlo and buy 15 identical pairs of black socks.
3) When you want to wear socks, pick any two out of the drawer.
4) When you notice your socks are wearing out, goto step 1.
There are plenty of resources available to help parents talk to their kids about violence against children, but don't feel like you have to.
So as a parent, you're left with the question not just of how to talk to your child about tragedy, but of whether you're talking to your child for your child -- or for yourself. There's the question of what to say, but also when, and if, you should say it. "If you're feeling panicked, and like there's no place safe in the world, then that's a good time to step back and get those thoughts in order," Dr. Rappaport suggested. "But if we try to wait until we've fully come to terms with something like this, then we'll never be able to talk. In fact, we'd never be able to get out of bed in the morning."
So far, I've found advice from Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. Any child psychologists reading today? Can you point me towards some other (possibly better) sources? Email me here: email@example.com. I will collect the best resources and post here.
In keeping with the very contemporary-seeming "advice from children's television" vibe, here's Reading Rainbow's LeVar Burton on talking with our children about the elementary school shootings.
Dr. Brené Brown shared several resources:
- Talking to children about violence from the National Association of School Psychologists
- Resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics
- Talking To Your Children About Violence Against Kids from the University of Minnesota
- Talking To Children About Death from Hospicenet.org
- Explaining the News to Our Kids from Common Sense Media
Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Violence and Disasters from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Talking to Kids About Tragedy by James Hamblin, MD at the Atlantic.
Tips for Talking to Children About the Shooting from the NY Times.
This article on getting the most out of your burrito-scarfing experience at Chipotle by William Hudson at Thought Catalog was better than I thought it could be.
1/2 meat + 1/2 meat = 3/2 meat. Forgetting is natural, like Chipotle meat, so let me remind you that when you add fractions you only add the top part, when the bottom part is the same number. Therefore, when you're asked what type of meat, and you say "half chicken and half steak", it should equal one serving of meat. But it never does. Because a scoop of meat is kinda just a scoop of meat, and nobody in Chipotle management has yet introduced new "half" scoops with which to more precisely address this perfectly legal request. So use it. IMPORTANT: Unlike with the beans, you should make your position on the half meats clear from the beginning, otherwise they charge you for "extra meat."
These options should all have names like the In-N-Out secret menu items: the Blinko, the Meat and a Half, the Jimmy Stewart's Bathtub, etc. (via digg)
Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay's master whisky blender, shows us the proper way to enjoy Scotch. It gets a little messy.
Here's another video from the same guy in which he demonstrates what to do when a bartender hands you a Scotch on the rocks. (via the new yorker)
My son thinks corks grow on trees...not sure whether to pop his bubble on this or not.
It all starts in the forest. Cork oaks are harvested every nine years, once they reach maturity. It doesn't harm the tree, and the cork bark regrows. Most cork forests are in Portugal and Spain.
The Victorian novel can present a daunting challenge to today's Twitter-addled brains, so Rohan Maitzen has some advice on how to read them.
Now that you're properly equipped, your next challenge is time! You're going to want to read, and read, and read-but modern life sometimes makes that difficult. What's to be done?
Take the book with you everywhere, that's what. Bank line-ups, buses, bathrooms, those precious 8 minutes while the pasta boils - you know what to do! A few pages here, a few pages there, and next thing you know, you're 500 pages in, with only another 200 to go.
Then there's all the time you'll save by not watching television. Remember: the most highly-praised shows in recent years are always compared to ... Victorian novels! Some of them are straight-up based on them! Just read the originals. They are always better.
In the spirit of conservation, Joe Smith shows us how to use a paper towel properly.
(via df)
From former call girl blogger Belle de Jour, a guide on how to publish online and maintain your anonymity.
You will need an email address to do things like register for blog accounts, Facebook, Twitter, and more. This email will have to be something entirely separate from your "real" email addresses. There are a lot of free options out there, but be aware that sending an email from many of them also sends information in the headers that could help identify you.
When I started blogging, I set up an email address for the blog with Hotmail. Don't do this. Someone quickly pointed out the headers revealed where I worked (a very large place with lots of people and even more computers, but still more information than I was comfortable with). They suggested I use Hushmail instead, which I still use. Hushmail has a free option (though the inbox allocation is modest), strips out headers, and worked for me.
(thx, fred)
From British Council film, a short film from 1945 that shows how a bicycle is designed and manufactured.
(via stellar)
Watch as legendary animator Chuck Jones draws Bugs Bunny, one of the many characters he helped create during his long career.
It's amazing how the drawing looks nothing like a rabbit and then with a few quick strokes, he draws those cheeks and, boom, there's Bugs. You can also watch Jones draw Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, Pepe le Pew, and Daffy Duck. These are fascinating. (via ★interesting)
Con man Victor Lustig shared a list of commandments written for aspiring con men. Among them:
1. Be a patient listener (it is this, not fast talking, that gets a con-man his coups).
8. Never boast. Just let your importance be quietly obvious.
Cocktail enthusiast Martin Doudoroff explains how to make an Old Fashioned without using any of the "various bad ideas" (e.g. "There is no slice of orange in an Old Fashioned") that have crept in over the years.
Sugar (and the scant water it is dissolved in) mellows the spirit of the drink. Not much is required, just a little, as the quality of today's spirits is so much higher than it typically was when the Old Fashioned was born. A little splash of simple syrup generally suffices. Gum syrup, rich simple syrup, demerara syrup, brown sugar syrup, sugar cane syrup (the variety filtered of molasses solids) all are great choices. Agave syrup or other neutral diet-sensitive sweeteners may suffice.
Honey, maple syrup, molasses or other strongly-flavored sweeteners do not belong in an Old Fashioned, which is not to say you cannot or should not create nice variations on the Old Fashioned with them.
(via ★kathryn)
If not for the photos, I would not have believed this story: a woman duct-taped a bunch of food to her body in order to attract raccoons. No, really:
Just before entering coon HQ, duct-tape your bounty of trash food all over yourself. Raccoons' propensity to enjoy garbage-can snacks, coupled with their shitty attitude and distinct facial markings, makes them the crust punks of the animal kingdom (without the heroin problem and terrible taste in music). And just like crusties, they'll approach without warning and snatch a turkey sub right out of your hands, so you can only imagine how appetizing you're going to look with two-week-old baguettes for arms.
One comestible raccoons seem to find yucky, however, is broccoli. Use their aversion to your aesthetic and protective advantage by surrounding danger zones (i.e., your junk) with appropriate amounts of the leafy green stuff.
Hey Edith, Kreayshawn is nothing...join me in waving your cane at this girl in the food suit. The kids today, really.
Physicist Jason Steffen has discovered a possible method for getting passengers onto airplanes twice as fast as the usual method.
The fastest method is one of Steffen's own design: boarding alternating rows at the same time, starting with the window seats. The secret, he says, is that it leaves passengers elbow room to stow their luggage at the same time.
Even random boarding is faster than the back-to-front boarding the airlines currently use. (via jcn)
I'd been wondering if a video like this existed, but I'd never been able to find it before. "Most of us probably take our rolls of toilet paper for granted." I like seeing how the cardboard tubes are made.
From a NY Times article on how to disappear, a quick tip on how to effectively fake a fingerprint:
Are officials troubling you for fingerprints? "There's a nongreasy glue, like a mucilage," he said, that is more or less invisible once applied. "You put it on your thumb. You roll your thumb over your heel. Now, you've got a heel print on your thumb for no one who exists."
Frank Ahearn, one of the people quoted in the article, actually runs a business that helps people disappear...or at least he used to, until he disappeared.
Watch as magician Derren Brown beats a room full of grandmasters and other top chess players even though he doesn't really play chess all that well. At the end, he explains how he did it...it's a dead simple clever method.
Before embarking on writing his new book, Steve Silberman asked a bunch of authors (like Cory Doctorow, Jonah Lehrer, and Carl Zimmer) for their best advice about writing books.
A few things became clear as soon as their replies came in. First of all, I'll have to throttle back my use of Twitter and Facebook to get this writing done (and I may never rev up my idle Quora account after all.) Secondly, scheduling intervals of regular exercise and renewal amid the hours of writing will be essential.
A video from 1947 showing how books are made.
(thx, damien)
A little late for Memorial Day but useful for the rest of the summer: how to work the little stringie thing at the top of a bag of charcoal.
I'm talking about those rugged paper bags of hardwood charcoal that are bound at the top with a zipper-like string seam that looks as if it was made to cleanly unravel. Sometimes it doesn't and then you can yank and yank to no avail. And even when it does there seems to be some magic involved, like the gods of charcoal are smiling down on you.
Service journalism at its finest...now I won't have to tug on the string like an uncomprehending chimp and then just rip the bag. Ok fine, fail to rip the bag because I'm not strong enough and go inside and get the scissors and cut it. Like a fancy gentleman.
Footage from a Ford factory of assembly line workers making Model T cars.
(via product by process)
A three-minute film on how an hourglass is made.
Each hand made hourglass comprises highly durable borosilicate glass and millions of stainless steel nanoballs, and is available in a 10 or 60 minute timer.
(via ★robinsloan)
That's the title of a talk given by Austin Kleon on how to do good creative work. Most of it is of the no-nonsense "don't worry and just work" variety of which I am a big fan.
9. Be boring. It's the only way to get work done.
As Flaubert said, "Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."
I'm a boring guy with a 9-5 job who lives in a quiet neighborhood with his wife and his dog.
That whole romantic image of the bohemian artist doing drugs and running around and sleeping with everyone is played out. It's for the superhuman and the people who want to die young.
The thing is: art takes a lot of energy to make. You don't have that energy if you waste it on other stuff.
(via ★bryce)
Designer Jessica Walsh shares the photo setup she uses to document her work.
I cobbled together this set up out of the desire to properly archive my design work. Next thing I knew I started getting paid for it, and it became an integral part of my work. I am simply listing my equipment and a little bit about what I know to get some designers started in figuring out the best way to shoot their own work.
You can see the gorgeous results in her portfolio.
Jason Fried reveals how he got good at making money. I am not a full-fledged member of the Church of 37signals, but one of my favorite lessons from them is that a business needs to practice how to make money in order to get good at it...it's not something that you just turn on when monetizing mode strikes.
So here's a great way to practice making money: Buy and sell the same thing over and over on Craigslist or eBay. Seriously.
Go buy something on Craigslist or eBay. Find something that's a bit of a commodity, so you know there's always plenty of supply and demand. An iPod is a good test. Buy it, and then immediately resell it. Then buy it again. Each time, try selling it for more than you paid for it. See how far you can push it. See how much profit you can make off 10 transactions.
Start tweaking the headline. Then start fiddling with the product description. Vary the photographs. Take some pictures of the thing for sale; use other photos with other items, or people, in them. Shoot really high-quality shots, and also post crappy ones from your cell-phone camera. Try every variation you can think of.
Alex Blagg, social media 2.0 ideator, shares 15 top tips for crafting the perfect Twitter bio.
5. If you go out to bars like every night of the week, you're not alcoholic. You're a Foursquare Ambassador.
6. You can add "-ista" to the end of literally any word to make yourself sound approximately 47 times more stylish and savvy. (ex. Digitalista or Barista or Unemployista)
Hermes has a handy PDF file that shows you how to tie their famous scarves into all sorts of configurations, like so:
You can even fold some of the larger scarves into handbags.
Over at Serious Eats, Kenji Lopez-Alt shows how you can cut your onion caramelization time from 45 minutes to about 15 or 20 minutes.
Before we can figure out how to improve our end results, it's important to understand exactly what's going on when an onion browns. First, the onions begin by sweating. As they slowly heat up, moisture from their interior (they are roughly 75% water by weight) begins to evaporate, forcing its way out of the onion's cells, and causing them to rupture in the process. This breakdown of the cells is what causes onions to soften during the initial stages of cooking.
Maybe it's because I have an oddly intense interest in croissants, but I found this 10-minute video about how to make them fascinating. Watch at least until the 1 kg sheet of butter is placed on the dough to be folded over several times.
Spoiler: they turn out great, which was unexpected because so often croissants are more bready and dry than flakey and moist, even in France. (thx, aaron)
Mule Design's Mike Monteiro wrote a cracking guide on how clients can give better feedback to designers.
Let the design team be the design experts. Your job is to be the business expert. Ask them how their design solutions meet your business goals. If you trust your design team, and they can explain how their recommendations map to those goals, you're fine. If you neither trust them, nor can they defend their choices it's time to get a new design team.
This should be printed out and nailed into the forehead of every designer and their clients a la Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, you know, for easy reference.
One of the biggest challenges you're going to face in your life is how to fold a fitted sheet.
That's a pretty strong statement, but that domestic sorceress does know how to fold the hell out of a fitted sheet. Magical! (thx, neven)
Using statistical analysis, University of Central Florida professor Richard Quinn determined that dozens of students had cheated on a test, told them in a lecture (video below), and over 200 students confessed after the lecture.
I don't want to have to explain to your parents why you didn't graduate, so I went to the Dean and I made a deal. The deal is you can either wait it out and hope that we don't identify you, or you can identify yourself to your lab instructor and you can complete the rest of the course and the grade you get in the course is the grade you earned in the course.
From The Atlantic, twelve timeless rules for making a good publication.
3. Don't over-edit. You will often estrange an author by too elaborate a revision, and furthermore, take away from the magazine the variety of style that keeps it fresh.
7. A sound editor never has a three-months' full supply in his cupboard. When you over-buy, you narrow your future choice.
This was a lot more boring than I expected for such a magical food...way fewer rainbows and unicorns than I would have thought. (via devour)
I could watch viscous liquids pouring all day long. (via devour)
If you've got a Mac, the "droid" sound that Android phones make -- yep, the one from the commercials -- can be produced in the following manner:
1. Open Terminal.app
2. Type say -v "Cellos" "droid" at the prompt
3. Experiment: say -v "Cellos" "droid. sucks."
4. Or say -v "Cellos" "droid want to be iphone when droid grow up"
5. And finally, say "i am trying to unlock the mysteries of the universe, like how the big bang happened and where all the lost socks go after being in the dryer that really makes me mad"
(via @mikeysan)
Over at Serious Eats, Kenji Lopez-Alt assures us that while you can't make restaurant-quality Neapolitan pizza at home, you can come damn close. Best thing is, his technique doesn't involve lining your oven with bricks and is actually as easy as making regular pizza at home.
After cooking for around a minute and a half, the bottom crust achieved the perfect degree of char-even better than what I was getting on the stone. Interestingly enough, the pan was actually cooler than the stone I was using, maxing out at around 450 degrees. So how does a 450 degree pan brown better and faster than a 550 degree stone? It's a matter of heat capacity and density.
The heat capacity of a material is directly related to the amount of energy that a given mass of material holds at a given temperature. Even though stone has almost twice the heat capacity than steel (.2 kcal/kg C vs. .1 kcal/kg C), it loses in two ways: it is far less dense than steel, and it has a much lower rate of heat conduction than steel. The pizza cooking in a skillet is not just getting energy from the pan-it's getting energy from the burner below the pan as it gets rapidly conducted through the metal.
It's a clear demonstration of how when cooking foods, what matters it the amount of energy transferred, not just the temperature you cook at. The two are often directly related, but not always.
I have said it before but will repeat: I love Kenji's nerdiness about the science combined with the ability to come up with the solution that's easiest for non-nerds to appreciate and implement. It is a rare and wonderful thing to observe.
If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you've not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren't okay with it, then just wait. You'll find it's fine to be alone once you're embracing it.
We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books. You're not supposed to talk much anyway so it's safe there.
From Alan Richman in GQ, some no-nonsense guidelines for ordering wine at a restaurants.
14. I don't care if the restaurant is pouring Chateau Latour into Minnie Mouse mugs, don't walk into a restaurant carrying your own wine glasses. It's more pretentious than wearing a monocle and spats.
Somehow it became NSFW day here at kottke.org. So we're rolling with it, in the hay. Here's the Tron version of the Kama Sutra. It is so very NSFW even though everyone stays fully clothed in glowing blue garments.
To keep your bubbly bubbly, serve it cold and pour it like a beer into a tilted glass.
The beer-like way of serving champagne was found to impact its concentration of dissolved CO2 significantly less. Moreover, the higher the champagne temperature is, the higher its loss of dissolved CO2 during the pouring process, which finally constitutes the first analytical proof that low temperatures prolong the drink's chill and helps it to retain its effervescence during the pouring process.
If you are filming a Girls Gone Wild video or are in the late stages of a wedding reception, pouring champagne directly into a person's mouth is also an effective bubble-preservation technique. (via @matthiasrascher)
Today in the excellent Food Lab series, Kenji Lopez-Alt reverse engineers the In-N-Out burger.
According to the In-N-Out nutrition guideline, replacing the Spread with ketchup results in a decrease of 80 calories per sandwich. I know that ketchup has about 15 calories per tablespoon, so If we estimate that an average sandwich has about 2 tablespoons of sauce on it (that's the amount that's inside a single packet), then we can calculate that the Spread has got about 55 calories per tablespoon (110 calories in two tablespoons of Spread minus 30 calories in 2 tablespoons of ketchup = 80 calories difference in the sandwich). With me so far?
It just so happens that relish has about the same caloric density as ketchup (15 calories per tablespoon), and that mayonnaise has a caloric density of 80 calories per tablespoon. Using all of this information and a bit of 7th grade algebra, I was able to quickly calculate that the composition of the Spread is roughly 62 percent mayo, and 38 percent ketchup/relish blend.
Here's the recipe to make your own at home. Pairs well with make-at-home McDonald's french fries. See also make-at-home Shake Shack burger.
A two part (one, two) series on using psychological techniques to improve your creativity.
Interviews with 22 Nobel Laureates in physiology, chemistry, medicine and physics as well as Pulitzer Prize winning writers and other artists has found a surprising similarity in their creative processes (Rothenberg, 1996).
Called 'Janusian thinking' after the many-faced Roman god Janus, it involves conceiving of multiple simultaneous opposites. Integrative ideas emerge from juxtapositions, which are usually not obvious in the final product, theory or artwork.
Physicist Niels Bohr may have used Janusian thinking to conceive the principle of complementarity in quantum theory (that light can be analysed as either a wave or a particle, but never simultaneously as both).
(via lone gunman)
Hair, makeup, and style tips from an ugly girl about "creating a human optical illusion".
(via clusterflock)
Really disturbing piece about how to make someone dependent on you...i.e. "creating a sick system". Here are the four basic rules:
1. Keep them too busy to think.
2. Keep them tired.
3. Keep them emotionally involved.
4. Reward intermittently.
Then the author provides a number of techniques you can use to achieve those goals. Like:
Keep real rewards distant. The rewards in "Things will be better when..." are usually nonrewards -- things will go back to being what they should be when the magical thing happens. Real rewards -- happiness, prosperity, career advancement, a new house, children -- are far in the distance. They look like they're on the schedule, but there's nothing in the To Do column. For example, everything will be better when we move to our own house in the country... but there's nothing in savings for the house, no plan to save, no house picked out, not even a region of the country settled upon.
Can't get enough of the Leidenfrost effect? I know! Me either! In addition to helping with nonstick cooking, the L. effect also allows you to stick your hand into an 850° pot of molten lead without injury.
Skip to 1:55 for the good stuff. Bananas! Absolutely bananas! Oh, and this also works for liquid nitrogen as well. (thx, kyle)
This blog post and accompanying videos show you how to preheat your frying pan to the precise temperature at which your food won't stick. It involves waiting until a small splash of water in the pan forms a single mercury-like ball that floats (literally!) around the pan. Too hot and the water will disperse into smaller balls; too cold and it'll just boil off instantly.
The water "hovering" over the stainless steel pan like mercury happens due to the phenomenon known as the Leidenfrost effect. You can read more about it on wikipedia, but the basic idea is this: at a certain temperature known as the Leidenfrost point (roughly around 320F for water, but varying with surface and pressure), when the water droplet hits the hot pan, the bottom part of the water vaporizes immediately on contact. The resulting gas actually suspends the water above it and creates a pocket of water vapor that slows further heat transfer between the pan and the water. Thus it evaporates more slowly than it would at lower temperatures. At the proper temperature, a similar effect happens with the food you place in the pan, preventing the food from sticking.
This is possibly the best kitchen tip I've ever heard. (thx, jim)
There are seven main features of a Malcolm Gladwell book.
5. Give things names and remember Douglas Adams' rule of capital letters. Capital letters make things important. For example, in The Tipping Point, Gladwell conjures up the following important concepts: The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, and The Power of Context. In Outliers, there's The Matthew Effect and The 10,000-Hour Rule.
And totally unrelated but related, here's an awesome photo of a 14-year-old Gladwell running the 1500 meters. (thx, nick)
It involves finagling some uncooked frozen fries from a local McDonald's under the ruse of a scavenger hunt. Kenji Lopez-Alt explains.
I've been literally giddy with the quality of the fries that have been coming out of my kitchen for the last two days. My wife won't hear the end of it. Even my puppy is wondering why his owner keeps exclaiming "Holy s**t that's good!" every half hour from the kitchen. I've cooked over 43 batches of fries in the last three days, and I'm happy to report that I've finally found a way to consistently reach crisp, golden Nirvana.
Here's the full recipe/instructions. BTW, Kenji's series of posts on Serious Eats is one of the best things going on the web right now (you might remember his sous-vide in a beer cooler hack). Passionate down-to-earth writing about cooking and food backed by some serious skills and scientific knowledge...it's really fun to read.
Don't let the title of the article ("How to be a food snob") throw you off; it offers solid advice for anyone who wants to enjoy eating more.
Keep a food diary not of what you eat but what you experience. She says, "There's a pretty big difference between eating and tasting."
What she means is considering and taking note of the entire experience of tasting: The way the food feels in your mouth, what your beer smells like cold and if it's different when it's lukewarm, what you notice with the first piping-hot bite of sauce compared with the last chilled streaks you scrape up before the server takes the plate. Do you feel one sensation more than others as you chew, a citrusy tingle at first, followed by rush of sweet?
(via @tcarmody)
NATO's Michael Ruehle lays out how a non-nuclear nation might acquire a bomb or two. It ain't easy.
You will get caught, either by a US spy satellite (as in the case of North Korea), a disgruntled defector (as in the case of Iraq), or even an indigenous human rights group (as in the case of Iran). So what should you do if you get caught? First and foremost, do not overreact. Deny. Should the evidence become too powerful, then, change tack. Create a distraction. Argue that the uranium particles found in your country were purposely scattered by a hostile nation. Challenge the credibility of the information provided to the IAEA. Bring up Israel again.
A nice primer for the home cook on cooking steak with the sous vide technique.
With traditional cookery, when you are exposing your meat to temperatures much hotter than their final desired temperature (say, cooking a steak to 130°F in a 550°F skillet), timing is crucial. The center of your steak is getting hotter and hotter, and it's your job as cook to take it off the flame at precisely the moment that it reaches the desired final temperature. Miss that precise moment, and dinner is ruined.
The beauty of sous-vide cooking is that since you are cooking your steak in a 130°F water bath to begin with, there is absolutely no chance your meat will ever get above that temperature. Guests are an hour late? No problem -- leave the steaks in the water bath, and they'll be exactly the same an hour later.
The Guardian asked a bunch of writers to share their tips for writing fiction. The responses appear in two parts. Elmore Leonard:
Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said"... he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances "full of rape and adverbs".
Here's Philip Pullman's response in full:
My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work.
(via mr)
Or: how to talk someone into buying a $30,000 watch.
Flattery sells, so to further those positive emotions, he insists that sales associates compliment the customer's own watch, even if it's from a competitor.
(via lone gunman)
The NY Times' Frugal Traveler blog has a detailed post on how to go about searching for cheap flights online. Saving this mainly for my own information, for 10-15 years from now, when frequent travel becomes an option again.
A butcher's advice on choosing a knife and how to wield it. On cutting yourself:
I am an expert. I have sliced off thumb tips and fingernails. I have shaved paper-thin wafers of my knuckle and buried a breaking/cimeter knife an inch and a half into my forearm. If it weren't for the stainless steel chainmail "butcher bra" that Josh from Fleisher's bought me for Christmas last year, I might not be alive to write this essay, having perhaps bled out from one of the many horrible chest wounds averted by its Mithril magic.
I've posted about hikaru dorodango a couple times before but they're always worth another look. Dorodango start out as sloppy mud balls but through careful shaping and polishing with dirt and sand, they end up perfectly round and shiny. Here is a particularly beautiful and unusual example, made from some yellow soil in New Mexico:
That totally looks like leather! Here is a more traditional (and shiny!) example:
Both of these were made by dorodango artist Bruce Gardner. Here's some video of how the balls are made:
This video is good as well but if you want to create your own, these detailed directions will be a better guide.
And not just any soccer ball...the official match ball for the 2010 World Cup.
Here's the first part in a series of five videos from the 1960s that show how Porsches are made:
From 1970, this video shows how Eames fiberglass shell chairs were made.
Greg Allen says:
The idea of design has been so thoroughly associated with computers in my mind, I'd forgotten the essential sculptural processes it used to involve: carving, modelmaking, molding, pouring... How design and art ever stayed separate in those days, I cannot imagine.
If I ever wanted to buy anything on eBay, I would probably use this advice.
I am continually amazed at how many people incrementally bid up an item they want six days before an auction is over. It's like watching someone walk around with a switch unknown to him flipped permanently to stupid.
I tried the messy, tiring, and time-consuming kneading method and the not quite effective leave-it-damp-in-the-container method. After months of tinkering, I have discovered the best and easiest way to restore dry Play-Doh to its perfect state (besides Hasbro's former suggestion that you buy a new can). Here's what you do:
1. Break the hard Play-Doh up into pieces the size of shelled peas and put them into a one-quart Ziploc bag.
2. Sprinkle some water in, enough to get all the pieces damp but not enough to leave a lot of excess water. Seal the bag.
3. After a few minutes, smoosh all of the Play-Doh into one corner of the bag. Let it sit this way overnight.
4. Open the bag in the morning and hand the Play-Doh to a delighted toddler. It's as good as new! (And then rinse the bag for reuse.)
If you liked this, you may enjoy some of my other household hints: how to unshrink a wool sweater, how to make tator tot hotdish, how to make the world's best pancakes, and how to slow-poach eggs. Look out, Heloise!
How Aaron Swartz hires programmers.
To find out whether someone's smart, I just have a casual conversation with them. I do everything I can to take off any pressure off: I meet at a cafe, I make it clear it's not an interview, I do my best to be casual and friendly. Under no circumstances do I ask them any standard "interview questions" -- I just chat with them like I would with someone I met at a party. (If you ask people at parties to name their greatest strengths and weaknesses or to estimate the number of piano tuners in Chicago, you've got bigger problems.) I think it's pretty easy to tell whether someone's smart in casual conversation. I constantly make judgments about whether people I meet are smart, just like I constantly make judgments about whether people I see are attractive.
(via df)
A guide on how to enjoy going to the zoo. Tips include bringing no children, walking, taking your time, and going early or staying late:
Many animals are more interesting at dawn and dusk, so the earlier or later you can arrange your visit, the better. If you ever find yourself in Singapore, don't miss the famous Night Safari. You haven't lived until you've felt your way along a jungle path in utter darkness, rounding a corner and spotting a pack of hyenas in a pool of light twenty yards away, with no apparent fence between you.
(thx, roger)
The most striking feature of the H1N1 flu vaccine manufacturing process is the 1,200,000,000 chicken eggs required to make the 3 billion doses of vaccine that may be required worldwide. There are entire chicken farms in the US and around the world dedicated to producing eggs for the purpose of incubating influenza viruses for use in vaccines. No wonder it takes six months from start to finish. But we'll get to that in a minute.
The most commonly used process for manufacturing an influenza vaccine was developed in the 1940s -- one of its co-inventors was Jonas Salk, who would go on to develop the polio vaccine -- and has remained basically unchanged since then. The process is coordinated by the World Health Organization and begins with the detection of a new virus (or rather one that differs significantly from those already going around); in this instance, the Pandemic H1N1/09 virus. Once the pandemic strain has been identified and isolated, it is mixed with a standard laboratory virus through a technique called genetic reassortment, the purpose of which is to create a hybrid virus (also called the "reference virus strain") with the pandemic strain's surface antigens and the lab strain's core components (which allows the virus to grow really well in chicken eggs). Then the hybrid is tested to make sure that it grows well, is safe, and produces the proper antigen response. This takes about six to nine weeks.
[Quick definitional pause. Antigen: "An antigen is any substance that causes your immune system to produce antibodies against it. An antigen may be a foreign substance from the environment such as chemicals, bacteria, viruses, or pollen. An antigen may also be formed within the body, as with bacterial toxins or tissue cells." So, when the H1N1 vaccine gets inside your body, the pandemic strain's surface antigens will produce antibodies against it.]
At roughly the same time, a parallel effort to produce what are referred to as reference reagents is undertaken. The deliverable here is a standardized kit provided to vaccine manufacturers so that they can test how much virus they are making and how effective it is. This process serves to standardize vaccine doses across manufacturers and takes four months to complete. WHO notes that this part of the process is "often a bottleneck to the overall timeline for manufacturers to generate the vaccine".
Once the reference virus strain is produced, it is sent to pharmaceutical companies (Novartis, Sanofi Pasteur, etc.) for large-scale production of the vaccine. The companies fine-tune the virus to increase yields and produce seed virus banks that will be used in the bulk production.
And this is where the 1.2 billion chicken eggs come in. A portion of the seed virus is injected into each 9- to 12-day old fertilized egg. The virus incubates in the egg white for two to three days and is then separated from the egg.
For the shot vaccine, the virus is sterilized so that it won't make anyone sick. This is the magic part of the vaccine: it's got the pandemic virus antigens that make your body produce the antibodies to fight the virus but the virus is inactive so it won't make you ill. For the nasal spray vaccine, the virus is left alive and attenuated to survive only in the nose and not the warmer lungs; it'll infect you enough to produce antibodies but not enough to make you sick. Either way, the surface antigens are separated out and purified to produce the active ingredient in the vaccine. Each batch of antigen takes about two weeks to produce. With enough laboratory space and chicken eggs, the companies can crank out an infinite amount of purified antigens, but those resources are limited in practice.
[Side note. You may have noticed that the H1N1 vaccine has been difficult to find in some places around the US. The vaccine manufacturers have said that the Pandemic H1N1/09 virus when combined with the standard laboratory virus does not grow as fast in the eggs as they anticipated. The batches of antigens from each egg have been smaller than expected, up to five or even ten times smaller in some cases. Hence the slow rollout of the vaccine.]
The purified antigen is then tested against the aforementioned reference reagents once they are ready. The antigen is diluted to the required concentration and placed into properly labelled vials or syringes. Further testing is performed to make sure the vaccine won't make anyone ill, to confirm the correct concentration, and for general safety. At this point clinical testing in humans is required in western Europe but not in the United States. Finally, each company's vaccine has to be approved by the appropriate regulatory body in each country -- that's the FDA in the case of the US -- and then the vaccine is distributed to medical facilities around the country.
Sources and more information: WHO, WHO, WHO, WHO, CDC, Time, Washington Post, The Big Picture, Influenza Report, NPR, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Wikipedia.
Update: Included in a recent 60 Minutes segment on the H1N1 vaccine is a look at the manufacturing process. (thx, @briandigital)
In today's installment of Cooking with the Awl, Choire Sicha shows us how to make his famous Nonchalant Smoker's E-Z Pie Crust. Baking has never been less precise!
3. Put something more than a teaspoon but something less than a tablespoon of salt in the flour. That is like "three pinches." It doesn't really matter how much! Saltiness offsets sweetness! People, who are animals, like salt!
4. Put about the same amount of sugar in the flour! Give or take! IT DOESN'T MATTER.
Choire also notes at one point that the crust "should look sort of gross".
(via merlin)
If you've ever wanted to see someone shoot an anvil 200 feet into the air, you should watch this video. (And not just someone...a world champion anvil shooter.)
With gunpowder and a fuse. Just like Wile E. Coyote! (thx, rob)
With a bit of research and social engineering, an enterprising burger enthusiast has figured out the recipe for the infamous Shake Shack burger.
Exclamation point interlude: !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Upon tasting it, my immediate thoughts are mayo, ketchup, a little yellow mustard, a hint of garlic and paprika, perhaps a touch of cayenne pepper, and an elusive sour quality that I can't quite pinpoint. It's definitely not just vinegar or lemon juice, nor is does it have the cloying sweetness of relish. Pickle juice? Cornichon? Some other type of vinegar? I can't figure it out. This was going to take a little more effort.
Totally doing this for dinner one of these nights. We'll probably cheat on the ground beef...we've got some Pat LaFrieda patties stockpiled in the freezer.
Ted Kaye has compiled some advice for designing flags.
1. Keep it simple.
2. Use meaningful symbolism
3. Use 2-3 basic colors
4. No lettering or seals
5. Be distinctive or be related
In a nutshell:
The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
The best flag in the world follows all of these rules.
One of Kurt Vonnegut's eight rules for writing short stories:
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Ayup. See also How to Write With Style.
A quick how-to summary of the daring and thus-far successful robbery of a Stockholm cash depot by helicopter last week. Sounds like something out of a movie. From the CNN report, this is the best part:
Swedish police couldn't pursue the thieves because a bag marked "bomb" had been placed outside the police heliport, and officers had to deal with the bag before they could enter the heliport. It is unclear whether the bag contained a bomb.
Unclear? Really? I'm surprised the bag didn't say ACME on the side of it.
Hack 2 Work is a series of tips and tricks for designers from Core77. Looks good so far. Check out Liz Danzico's How to Learn About Your Clients From Their Table Manners (to be taken with a grain of salt, I'm sure):
When the food arrives, does your client salt and pepper the food before he or she tastes it? If so, this is a clear sign that your client is potentially closed-minded, not open to new ideas, or set in his or her ways. If your client first tastes the food, and then adds salt or pepper, tremendous. This suggests your client has opinions, and is not afraid to exercise them-but only after the voice of the "creator" (in this case the chef) has been fairly given a chance first.
and How to Make Your Client's Logo Bigger Without Making Their Logo Bigger from Michael Bierut:
Like all con games, this one is based on the illusion that the sucker has the advantage. In this case, it's the conviction that this kind of client always has that it's your job to do as they say. Little do they realize that your final allegiance is not to them, but to the quality of the work, something that you cannot in good conscience permit them to jeopardize with their lack of taste.
Update: James Grimmelmann shares his similar tip for lighting designers:
The lighting-designer version of this is to tell the director that yes, you can make the lights brighter, but you'll need to turn off the power for a few minutes while you change some of the wiring. Turn everything off, wait fifteen minutes while the director's eyes adjust to the dark, then turn everything back on. It sure does look brighter now, doesn't it?
Ben Leventhal on how to become a regular at a restaurant.
Restaurants may be the only place on earth where the last impression is the most important. Admit it: Your opinion can be swayed, or at least rescued, by excellent desserts. Similarly, it's true for the house, and if you make a strong exit, they'll remember you next time on the way in. So, in addition to the aforementioned good tip, this means a few things: When you sense the restaurant wants the table back, give it to them (once you're a Regular, you'll have the corner booth for as long as you need it). Thank your server by name if he or she is in earshot when you get up to leave.
As noted in the comments, it's best not to try all of these at once, but this is pretty solid advice.
A few weeks ago, I wrote the foreword for Infinite Summer, a summer-long collective read of Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace's big-ass novel and one of my favorite books. That piece was actually my second draft. My first attempt was a list of advice on reading the novel...the submission of which prompted InfSum's dungeon master, Matthew Baldwin, to write back with a frowny face and a pointer to this piece published -- unbeknownst to me (I have the Time Machine backups to prove it!) -- the day before I submitted my draft.
Anyway, here's that first draft on how to read Infinite Jest:
1. If you haven't already, buy the book, get it from your local library, or download to your Kindle. I got my copy in 2001 at a local San Francisco bookstore; I bought it used along with a used copy of Don DeLillo's Underworld (which I started but never finished). I was upset at something that day and purchased the books as a sort of Fuck You to whatever it was that was pissing me off. "Oh yeah? Well, I'm gonna read both of these huge books. Fuck You!" Best $10.80 I ever spent.
2. Warning! This book contains several footnotes. Hundreds, in fact. They run on, at a very small point size, for almost 100 pages at the conclusion of the main text. One of the footnotes, which contains the complete filmography of a fictional filmmaker, goes for more than 8 pages and itself has 6 footnotes. Every single oh-my-God-this-thing-is-a-doorstop review of IJ since 1996 has trumpeted this fact so you're probably already up to speed re: the footnotes but I didn't want you to be caught unawares or pants down.
3. You're going to want to but don't skip the footnotes. They are important. Yes, even the filmography one.
4. Physically, Infinite Jest is a large book: 2.2 inches thick and, according to Amazon.com, has a shipping weight of 3.2 pounds. Some readers have found it useful to rip the book in half for easier reading on the subway or on the beach. If you do this, you also need to tear the footnotes from the back half and tape them to front half. This technique has the side effect of giving you the appearance of A Very Serious Reader of Infinite Jest, which will either keep onlookers' questions to a minimum or maximum, depending on the onlooker.
5. If you opt not to destroy your copy of IJ, you should use the three bookmark method. One bookmark for where you are in the main text, another for your current footnote location, and a third for page 223, which lists the years covered by the novel in chonological order, from the Year of the Whopper (which corresponds to 2002) to the Year of Glad (2010). To say that IJ skips around quite a bit chronologically is an understatement, so keeping the timeline straight is important.
6. Along with the footnotes, another thing that most reviews mention w/r/t Wallace is his use of words that appear rarely outside of dictionaries. If you get stuck, keep a dictionary handy or consult one of the following online collections: the David Foster Wallace Dictionary, Words I Learned From Reading David Foster Wallace, and the Infinite Jest Vocabulary Glossary.
7. Get a copy of Greg Carlisle's Elegant Complexity, *the* reference book for Infinite Jest. Reading EC's notes for each IJ section after you finish will greatly increase your understanding and enjoyment of the book. Here's an informative review of the guide. As a bonus: "The book is 99% spoiler-free for first-time readers of Infinite Jest."
8. Finally, you may have heard or read that Wallace committed suicide last year. He was 46 and left a wife and dogs and at least one unpublished novel and a vast literary legacy. This will be difficult, but try not to think too much about the suicide and Wallace's life-long struggle with depression while reading Infinite Jest. The book is undoubtably autobiographical in some aspects -- tennis: check; addiction: check; depression: check; grammar: check -- but a strict reading of IJ as a window into Wallace's troubled soul is a disservice to its thematic richness.
The great thing about Infinite Jest is that it begins at the end, so even though you're only a few pages in at this point, you already know how the whole thing is going to end. So get to it, it'll be easier than you think. I wish you way more than luck.
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text:
I am looking at exercise DVDs for Emily. Do any of your Preschoolers have a favorite?
Exercise DVD for a 3 year old
Posted 06/04/2012
Tracey - Emily 4/09 (T21, AV Canal repaired 8/27/09, g-tube removed 1/2010, TMD resolved)
Comments (1)
Posted 06/04/2012
Adeline loves these on You Tube, I stream them onto our TV
Here is a link to one of her favorites:
Loving my girl,

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Fayetteville kids learn financial responsibility
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) � Several teams of young entrepreneurs in Fayetteville are selling beverages that they developed as part of a financial education project.
The teams of children ages 9 to 12 will sell their products Saturday at three locations, according to The Fayetteville Observer (http://bit.ly/1rYvhR0).
The project is a partnership among Fayetteville State University, the Fayetteville Regional Chamber of Commerce and Morgan Stanley and includes the involvement of Nancy Anderson, wife of FSU's chancellor. The 82nd Airborne Division also participated.
They recruited 55 children ages 9 to 12 from three programs: the Boys & Girls Club of Cumberland County, Great Oaks Youth Development Centers and Fayetteville Urban Ministry.
Over four weeks, the children learned about money and financial responsibility by developing a business plan for a beverage such as the lemonade sold by five children who named their drink Lemon Devils.
Tiqual Washington, a fifth-grader, came up with the name. "It tastes good and sweet and sour," he said.
Fourth-grader Arrion Wade brainstormed the advertising slogan: "Step into the underworld of flavor." And sixth-grader Roberto Contreras provided some good advice. "I understand money because my dad owned a restaurant," he said.
Third-graders Jessie Southern and Nick Taylor added enthusiasm.
"We're going to get our own T-shirts and sell our lemonade," Nick said.
Students chose their beverages, learned the cost of each element of the product, then set a sales price and presented a business plan to "bankers" from the local Morgan Stanley office to see if they could win a loan from funds put up by sponsors. All eventually did.
Information from: The Fayetteville Observer, http://www.fayobserver.com


text:
50% off the Avios on selected long haul flights
Get 50% off the Avios for selected flights departing London Gatwick between 18 January 2015 and 19 March 2015 and returning before 2 April 2015.
- 25,000 Avios + taxes, fees and surcharges**
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Terms and conditions
50% off the required amount of Avios on the selected destinations as stated for British Airways economy flights from London Gatwick only. Sale ends 4pm Friday 23 January 2015.
*Lines open Monday-Friday 8am-8pm, Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday 10am-4pm. Calls may be monitored and recorded. Calls cost 5.2p per minute plus a 13.1p one-off connection charge from BT unlimited weekend plan. Mobile and other providers may vary.A £15 per person booking fee will be applied to any stand alone flight booking, which could've been made online.
**The full airline taxes, fees and Carrier charges will apply per person, which are approximately: Antigua – £348, Barbados – £321, Dominican Rep – £379, Mauritius – £386, Tampa – £325 and Orlando – £325.
All prices are correct as of 12 January 2015 but are subject to change. Changes are not permitted; cancellations will be subject to the standard Avios terms and conditions. All flights are subject to Avios Terms and Conditions and the carriers conditions of carriage. Flights are strictly subject to availability which may be very limited or not available on some routes and will not be available at all on some dates. This offer cannot be combined with any other offer.
All information correct at time of going to press but subject to change or withdrawal.


text:
Contact My Account
Download eBooks to your PC, smartphone or eBook reader.
* Getting Started
* What ereaders work with OverDrive?
* Newly Ordered eBooks
* Need help returning an eBook before its due date? Go to Help/FAQ and search "return."
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* Get the Overdrive Nook App to download direct to your Nook
* Want to know more about our digital collection? Read A Tale of Digital Books.
Download audiobooks for your PC, smartphone or listening device
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* What listening devices work with OverDrive?
* Newly Ordered audiobooks
* Need help returning an audiobook before its due date? Go to Help/FAQ and search "return."
* Need more help? Contact Overdrive Support
* Help your library with Overdrive Win
Beanstack by Zoonbean, Inc. provides free personalized recommendations of children's books and apps. Personalizations are matched to your child's interests and age group.
eBooks covering many different subjects, including some classic fiction titles. All titles are available to multiple users at the same time. Titles can be read through the browser on mobile devices.
Note: Our subscription for this database will end on 8/31/2015. Review our other eBooks for similar content.
Browse, borrow, and read popular e-books on multiple devices.
* OneClick Support
* Create a OneClick account.
A great site for kids K- 4! Interactive, animated stories, puzzles and games. There are stories by well-known authors, original stories, classic fairy tales, puzzles and games in English, Spanish, French and a mobile version. Some bilingual stories are also available. You can have stories play automatically, or click through at your own pace. Most users will not need to log in, but if you see a login screen, enter the username arapahoe and the password libra.
BookFlix is an online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks from Weston Woods with related nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to build a love of reading and learning. Using an engaging way to link fact and fiction, BookFlix reinforces early reading skills and introduces children to a world of knowledge and exploration.
Spiderman, the X-men and other superheroes from Marvel Comics are available to read through your browser. If you are reading outside of a library building enter the first 5 numbers on your library card as the username and password.
Author read-alikes, book discussion guides, booktalks, and feature articles. For school media specialists and teachers there are Picture Book Extenders and articles on Teaching with Fiction. Search Tips: Take the 5 minute tour, or click on Tour NoveList when you visit the site.


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last summer i spilled something on my wiimote i pulled the bats right away, i just got the tool to open it the solder points near the front were coated in the goop, beer or cola, i rinsed with rubbing alcohol dried as fast with cotton swabs. now it works, next stop learnin to solder leds on the same wiimote
wish me luck i will take pics so i can keep updates on my slow progession, any good recomenditions for a noob on solder irons and leds, i like the blue of the wii drive and would like to try solder 1 into a wiimote
Noob Saves Wiimote?!?
Started by a6a6a6 , Jul 08 2008 06:00 AM
3 replies to this topic
Posted 08 July 2008 - 06:00 AM
Posted 12 July 2008 - 02:22 AM
Starting to learn to solder LED's on a wiimote is abit if you will stupid..They are soo small... 1.6 x .8 mm small the SMD led's are i think, Your are better of getting a soldering iron with a very small tip, Mine is .5 mm but people use smaller! and its a 20w, Then practice on a spare dvd drive/pc motherboard or anything that has SMD componants which you dont need, Practice taking them of, then soldering them back on!
Good luck learning
Good luck learning
Posted 12 July 2008 - 11:25 PM
are you trying to add a new LED under the A button or some such? if so use a 3mm (i believe you want to solder to TP1 and TP2 on the wiimite board)
if you are talking about replacing the LEDs that are already there, then see kirky's post
if you are talking about replacing the LEDs that are already there, then see kirky's post
Posted 13 July 2008 - 07:20 AM
smds are pretty easy i use a 15 watt soldering iron from radioshack with the 1mm thick tip it comes with and im very new to soldering, i think he's trying to replace possibly burned out leds with new ones
and is it tp1 and 2 because ive been trying to find out for myself cuz i wanna light the a and b buttons up?
and is it tp1 and 2 because ive been trying to find out for myself cuz i wanna light the a and b buttons up?
Edited by adrian089, 13 July 2008 - 07:21 AM.
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text:
more recipes like:
"Six bean stew with pork sausage and BBQ sauce."
Pile it into a tomato half, load it into a wrap, or spread it on bread. Chicken salad does it all.
Broccoli salad makes a great side dish or a light main dish on a warm night.
Delicious recipes, party ideas, and cooking tips! Get a year of Allrecipes magazine for $7.99!
Read our allrecipes.com blog


text:
Helping the poor could be a new mission
CORPUS CHRISTI - Helping a woman end a problem she has literally hammered at for years led Good Samaritan Rescue Mission to a plan for helping homeowners; and a man gets three electric bills.
Retiree Rosa Ornelas, 71, didn't know who to call, and couldn't pay someone, she said. So for years she chiseled at a concrete block foundation between her shed and fence and piled up hunks she broke loose because she had no way to haul them to the dump.
Facing another summer working, Ornelas called Troubleshooter for help. I called on some good Samaritans.
Rafael Ortiz, labor force manager for Good Samaritan Rescue Mission's day workforce, sent workers Wednesday to Ornelas' Alameda Street home. They found she had hacked away about 1.5 tons of concrete.
It took several hours for workers using a pickax to break apart and clean up the remaining foundation. The mission's director Carole Murphrey paid for it to be taken to the landfill.
"I felt such empathy for the sweet lady," Murphrey said. "I could see how this old wall was causing her grief, so we took it upon ourselves to haul it all off."
Ornelas was overwhelmed by the hours of help she received.
"I'm going to tell everybody to send donations to Good Samaritan, they will be getting mine," she said.
The experience sparked an interest in another program, or ministry, Murphrey said.
"Lots of people are too old or too poor to handle a similar situation," she said. "And there is no one who will do this kind of labor for free."
"Help the Helpless" is Murphey's proposed plan.
"If I present a program to the public and to our donors where they would donate into a designated Help the Helpless Fund, then the money could pay our day laborers to do these rescue projects at no charge to recipients such as Rosa," she said.
Send Murphrey feedback about her Help the Helpless concept at firstname.lastname@example.com.
How about an electric bill times three?
Larry Ramsey thought he was getting triplicate billings from TXU Energy for his apartment in a Laredo Street complex until his girlfriend noticed they had different apartment numbers.
Ramsey quibbled with customer service representatives who insisted he owed for electricity at three complex apartments.
Troubleshooter reached company spokeswoman Sophia Stoller.
Stoller arranged for the two other accounts to be placed on hold until service request audiotapes were reviewed and an investigation is completed. Ramsey agreed to a payment schedule for his apartment bill and was asked to file a police report, Stoller said.
"It seems to be some type of identity theft," she said. "We don't think it's him on the tapes."
For help with a problem contact Mike Baird at 886-3774 or firstname.lastname@example.com
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Printable View
Originally Posted by Falcon7
Only watched 16 innings of baseball tonight, instead of 21 last night. What to to do the rest of night???
I'm drinking with the wife & getting ready for the hotub --- 27 holes of golf & that will put me down for the night.
Got to be something you can come up with!


text:
Cell-ELISA using beta-galactosidase conjugated antibodies.
Citations & References
- Authors: Liu Z, Gurlo T, von Grafenstein H
- Journal: J Immunol Methods (2000) 234:P153-P167
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Need to know: CV cliches Why you can`t find a jobHF interviews
By Megha Bahree
The Indian stock market has begun to rally of late and the rupee seems to have halted its free fall. Yet some say it's too soon for investors and companies to heave a sigh of relief.
If 2011 was a tough year for companies across several industries, 2012 won't be a whole lot better, industry insiders say.
Deal Journal India is a one-stop destination following deals, deal-makers, private equity and venture-capital activity in India. The real-time blog is updated throughout the day with breaking news, exclusive analysis, commentary and profiles. Edited by The Wall Street Journal's Vibhuti Agarwal, Deal Journal India features contributions from the South Asia bureaus of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in Mumbai and Delhi as well as bureaus around the world. Reach our Editors at email@example.com or follow Deal Journal India on Facebook and Twitter.
FINS has become a part of DHI in order to improve your job search experience. eFinancialCareers will provide you with the best possible service, the best job opportunities and editorial content and the best talent. With our long track record of helping finance professionals develop their career, from graduating to landing top positions in the industry, we will continue to deliver.
For technology jobs outside the financial industry users can visit Dice.com


text:
|4 posts found
Runes of Magic Correspondent
Joined: 7/31/08
All this is, is a temporary block. It's like, "We found a major bug, so we'll shut servers down for a few days to fix it".
The difference here, is that Frogster has had fraud problems, on and off since open beta. Pretty much anyone who's been following the game updates have seen this since a year ago.
They've announced several times that it is just until they can find a better 3rd Party company for fraud protection. It happened before, then they turned it back on. So now, again, they are turning it off, and will turn it back on when the problem is rectified.
This is nothing new.
It's simply unfortunate that so many players commit fraud. It is a problem both with goldbuyers/sellers, and with players.
We wouldn't have goldbuyers, if they didn't have anyone to sell to. This is a bad practice, and is "illegal" according to any games terms of service. For good reasons too. It ruins game economies. Bringing in an outside unlimited source into the game economy will make it unstable.
This is a major problem, and no one is talking about it because everyone is a closet case. Many do it, and of course none of them are going to say anything. So goldspammers continue to plague games, because the players continue to buy. The goldsellers wouldn't continue to spam if there was no market(I.E. buyers), and no one is happy with the garbage spam in game yet the players will never own up to it.
I find it humorous. It seems rather sad that players are actually going this route instead of just playing a game. It says a lot about how pathetic you have to be to do this, along with all the hacking and botting. Yet of course, everyone will stay quiet, because it's a major player-side caused problem.
Blizzard, and Massively have both covered this topic extensively. So rumors abound, but they are all false, and the only real problem is simple. It's because players are buying the gold.
On top of that Blizzard found an alarming and direct correlation between account hacks and gold buyers. In almost every case of a player saying they were hacked, it turned out they had recently bought gold from a goldseller.
So really, most of the time players in game forums cry about it, the most likely reasons are, they shared their account info, or bought gold form a 3rd party goldseller.
I honestly don't care what's said in opposition to my rant about it, because it is very alarming to me, and it is all the truth, and nothing but the truth.
Advanced Member
Joined: 7/28/05
True, but it's so much more fun to just say "Frogster sucks" and whine about them on gamer forums.
MMO games would be pretty cool if it weren't for the people.
Runes of Magic Correspondent
Joined: 7/31/08
Originally posted by Sixpax
Yes, Thank you for being the one to give me the refreshing take on things. I guess I, like many, end up getting a little upset, and not always staying focused.
In light of that, I guess I can't be made if anyone said "I suck" lol.
Oh, the ups and downs of gamer forums(or any forum, for that matter).
Novice Member
Joined: 2/26/08
I would not expect this judging from history. Let's see, first you could use freely diamonds bought via cc or paypal, you could even sell/transfer CS items, you could sell diamonds on AH, but after some time Frogster put 30 days block for diamonds bought using cc/paypal (no selling diamonds on AH on that time) and all CS items are bound, so not tradeable anymore, later all diamonds bought via cc/paypal are locked forever. Will it be reverted? Till now, all changes were to made just more restrictions, not less. I would not put false hope for fast change.
But what about players, who have money, but have limited time, when can play. Gathering gear and stats (which are needed for high lvl places) takes lots of time on instances grind, so if you have money, why not just use this money to buy some items from other players and than use your gaming time for more interesting things, than grinding for gear?


text: Cambrian Genomics says that what it calls a DNA printer is essentially a DNA sorter — it quickly spots and collects the desired, tailored stretch of DNA. Courtesy of Cambrian Genomics hide caption itoggle caption Courtesy of Cambrian Genomics Shots - Health News DNA 'Printing' A Big Boon To Research, But Some Raise Concerns May 7, 2015 Companies are assembling and churning out tailored stretches of DNA faster and more cheaply than ever before. The tool speeds research into diseases of plants and people. But what about eugenics? Listen Loading… 6:24 Playlist Download Embed Embed Close embed modal <iframe src="http://www.npr.org/player/embed/404460240/404994340" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">


text:
Padmas Plantation Outdoor Gulf Shore Dining Arm Chair with Cushion
Special Offer:
12 Issues of Food & Wine
Included with purchase ($20 value).
Padmas Plantation Outdoor Gulf Shore Dining Arm Chair with Cushion
Weights & Dimensions
|Product Type: Arm chair
|Style: Contemporary
|Finish: Black
|Powder Coated Finish: Yes
|Primary Material: Wicker/Rattan
|Frame Material: Aluminum
|Woven: Yes
|Number of Items Included: 1
|Weather Resistant: Yes
|Water Resistant: Yes
|Mildew Resistant: Yes
|Rust Resistant: Yes
|Cushions Available: Yes
|Cushion Included: Yes
|Arms Included: No
|Glider: No
|Rocker: No
|Commercial Use: Yes
|Eco-Friendly: No
|Product Care: Wipe with a clean dry cloth
|Country of Manufacture: Philippines
|Assembly Required: No
|Additional Parts Required: No
|Product Warranty: 3 years
About the ManufacturerFounded in 1997, Padma's Plantation™ is known for its use of natural materials. Every chair's seagrass weave, every rattan curve in a table is an echo of nature brought indoors. The emphasis on indigenous elements insures a unique look for each piece. Along with their trademark pieces—like the classic Borneo Chair and other traditional favorites—they have expanded their line to include more contemporary styles as well, like their brand new Loft Collection. The Plaid Picnic Table redefines the genre, making the familiar new again, while maintaining the subtle elegance and comfort our clients have come to expect from Padma's Plantation.
Padmas Plantation Outdoor Gulf Shore Dining Arm Chair with Cushion
Customer Reviews
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Tell us what you think about this product. It will help us provide you with better products in the future and help your fellow shoppers make better purchases.Write the first review
OUR SKU # PDP1690Outdoor Gulf Shore Dining Arm Chair with Cushion is also sometimes listed under the following manufacturer numbers: OL-GLF01