Category: News

When things go perfectly, sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s because your design was perfect or because your design didn’t matter.

Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• Tofu
• Teriyaki Sauce
• 2 T chili powder
• 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3-4 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 1 small can mushroom pieces
• 1 can red beans, drained
• Roma tomatoes, sliced
• Cilantro, finely shopped
• V8 vegetable juice or canned crushed tomatoes or pasta sauce (optional)
• Vegan veggie burgers, chopped (optional)
  

METHOD:
Cut tofu into very small pieces and sprinkle liberally with teriyaki sauce and chili powder. Mix the pieces and sauce and powder together well with a spoon and let it sit there for at least 15 minutes to marinate in the fridge.

Get bell pepper, onion, celery, mushroom pieces, red beans, and roma tomatoes. You can also add some finely chopped cilantro at this point.

Add all ingredients together into a pot and turn on the flame. Only if necessary, add a *little* V8, canned crushed tomatoes, or pasta sauce to give it a little liquid. Don’t add very much at all because most of the liquid is going to come from the other foods and you’ll have to boil most
of it off anyway.

Boil the food together, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Make sure that almost all the liquid is boiled off or strained out before you serve the chili, because otherwise you’re going to end up with chili soup!

If you let it boil for about 15 minutes, it will taste and look like chili.

If you can find some vegan veggie burgers, it’s also good to add two of them chopped up into the mixture before you start boiling. It adds to the meaty flavor, but they’re not necessary.

Nice weekend reading material – recent news reiforcing emerging trends on physical, cognitive and emotional fitness, but with new twists.

Fit teens could be smarter teens

“Researchers from Sweden and USC examined data on 1.2 million Swedish men born between 1950 and 1976 who also enlisted for the country’s mandatory military service. They looked at the participants’ global intelligence scores as well as logical, visuospatial, verbal and technical scores. The greater the cardiovascular fitness, the higher the cognitive scores at age 18. The association between muscle strength and global intelligence, in contrast, was weak.”

 
UPMC Health Plan Offers Brain Fitness Software to Improve Health

“UPMC Health Plan announced today that it has signed an agreement to offer award-winning brain fitness software from Posit Science®, at no cost, to all UPMC for Life Medicare Advantage members. This brain training program is a new part of the UPMC Health Plan wellness services, which focus on both mind and body fitness.

The brain fitness software, known as the Insight(TM) Brain Fitness Program, is a suite of five game-like computer exercises that make brain training challenging and effective. The program engages the brain’s natural plasticity (the brain’s ability to rewire itself) to improve basic brain function.”

Brain-fitness industry grows as baby-boomers work to stay sharp.

“When we’re younger we’re learning quite intensively,” she said. “By middle age, we’re not learning intensively anymore and just using skills we’ve already mastered. That’s why it’s important to stretch your brain.”

Brain fitness games also have the potential to improve one’s emotional health, said Mark Baldwin, a psychology professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Baldwin has developed a number of computer games based on keeping a brain active physiologically, to improve it psychologically.

“It’s about practising or using games to train beneficial habits of thought, ” he said.

Technically there are a lot more than 12 chemicals you should aim to avoid but if you’re new to green living or just need a good place to focus, choosing 12 baddies is a smart way to start being more green with your personal care products.

Lots of toxic goodies!

Skin Deep notes that eight excellent toxic baddies in cosmetics and personal care items to avoid include:

1. DMDM hydantoin and Imidazolidinyl urea – linked to allergies, toxic contaminants and more
2. Fragrance and dyes – Skin Deep notes that allergies, cancer, and nervous system issues can arise with use of these, but my major problem is that the terms are so vague. If a company just writes, “Fragrance” on a bottle it could mean anything. Not cool.
3. Methylchloroisothiazolinone – allergies, problems with nervous system.
4. Parabens or “-paraben” – all of the paraben family has been shown to mimic female hormones, and linked to endocrine disruption, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), possibly cancer, and more
5. “PEG” and “-eth” – cancer, organ system toxicity, and more.
6. Sodium lauryl or laureth – Developmental/reproductive toxicity, cancer, and yup, more.
7. Triclosan and triclocarban – lots o’ issues.
8. Triethanolamine (TEA)

The ingredients above may be found in items like shampoo; conditioner; moisturizer; exfoliating scrubs; body wash/cleanser; styling gel/lotion; facial moisturizer/treatment; lip gloss; facial cleanser; anti-aging products; liquid hand soap; hair coloring products; bubble bath; shaving cream; mascara and oh so much more.

Don’t worry, if you can’t remember all these chemical names off the top of your head, Skin Deep offers a shopping guide (pdf) you can download for free then take along in your wallet.

Four more icky ingredients to avoid include…

• Talc – seems harmless enough but is a proven carcinogen (even the cosmetic grade talc). It’s been linked to ovarian cancer, possibly tumors in the lungs, and has caused tumors in research animals.
• BHA
• Formaldehyde
• Petrolatum – comes from nonrenewable crude oil – do you really want that on your body?

Sigh. The cosmetic and beauty care companies really don’t care about your health. Of that I can assure you. To see what I mean take the “How do your baby products stack up challenge“  – it’ll work for adult products too.

Learn more about safe products and habits:

• Eco-friendly makeup brushes & accessories
• Color your hair green!
• How To Choose Greener Body Products
• Less expensive organic beauty products

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

12 cosmetic ingredients to avoid

If you want to order a SnoozePal NOW so you can get it in time for the holidays, use coupon code G22 at checkout when ordering at www.catabove.com and get 20% off! That’s a savings of $7! Thanks, Cat Above!

UPDATE: BUMPED BACK TO THE TOP OF THE PAGE.  PICKS ARE DUE AT NOON TOMORROW.

That’s right loyal readers…the Bowl Pick ‘Em Contest is back for its third season.

It is simple to participate.  Simply reply to this thread with your picks.  You will need to pick both against the spread, as well as the over/under, so you will have two picks per game.  The spreads are LOCKED, so a movement in the line will not be taken into account.  The spreads are courtesy of bookmaker.com because…well…that’s the one I could find (and unless otherwise noted) They also represent where the lines were when they opened, which was a week ago (had to wait for Army/Navy to be played to determine Eagle Bowl and Texas Bowl line)

Our winner from last year is FSUncensored, who went 39-27 to win by three games over The Cool Alonzo and myself.  All time, MU 1839 (our first winner) holds the best two-year record at 18 games over .500 (74-56).  Of the “couples” category, The Beef and Tailgate Queen came out 3 game ahead of Bill C and Bill C’s wife last year, tying their annual battle at 1-1.   Overall, the contest generated a won-loss record of  1066-1244 for a not so good percentage of .461.  Over the two years, we currently sit at 1711-1879 for a winning percentage of .477.  Yes…I’ve kept track.

Picks are due by noon on Saturday, December 19th (since the first games are later that evening).  Picks are lined up after the jump.

As for prizes…1st prize will get you the Rock M Nation T-shirt of your choice, unless RPT (who somehow is the keeper of the purse strings around here) decides we want to pony up some additional swag.

Anyway, we had a good time with this last year with 35 participants (up from 20 the first year) and somehow I am thinking we are going to have a FEW more than that 🙂  Come one, come all (and that certainly includes non-Rock M regulars…anyone from SB Nation is welcome to participate)…make me work hard at this.  If you were here last season and have changed names, just let me know and I will do my best to give you your two or three-season score when all is said and done as well.  I will also be adding a couple set of special picks.  We will have the “coin-flip” picks, where each pick will be decided by heads or tails.  I will also compile the “Consensus” picks, which will be the most popular pick on each game, to see how RMN did as a community (in the majority at least).

New Mexico

Fresno State -10 1/2 vs. Wyoming

Over/Under - 55 1/2

St. Petersburg

Rutgers -2 vs. UCF

Over/Under - 44 1/2

New Orleans

Sothern Miss -3 1/2 vs. Mid Tenn St.

Over/Under - 59

Las Vegas

Oregon State - 1 1/2 vs. BYU

Over/Under - 60 1/2

Poinsetta

Cal -3 vs. Utah

Over/Under - 53 1/2

Hawaii

Nevada -14 vs. SMU

Over/Under - 73 1/2

Little Caesers

Ohio -2 vs. Marshall

Over/Under - 50

Meineke

Pitt -3 vs. UNC

Over/Under - 44 1/2

Emerald

USC -9 vs. BC

Over/Under - 45 1/2

Music City

Clemson -7 vs. Kentucky

Over/Under - 52 1/2

Independence

Georgia -7 vs. Texas A&M

Over/Under - 64

Eagle Bank (LSVC odds)

UCLA -4 vs. Temple

Over/Under - 46 1/2

Champs Sports

Miami (FL) -3 vs. Wisconsin

Over/Under - 56

Humanitarian

Bowling Green PK vs. Idaho

Over/Under - 68 1/2

Holiday

Arizona -1 vs. Nebraska

Over/Under - 41

Armed Forces

Houston -5 vs. Air Force

Over/Under - 61

Sun

Oklahoma -9 1/2 vs. Stanford

Over/Under - 56 1/2

Texas (LVSC odds)

Mizzou -6 vs. Navy

Over/Under - 54  

Insight

Minnesota -3 vs. Iowa State

Over/Under - 48

Chick-Fil-A

Va Tech -4 1/2 vs. Tenn

Over/Under - 50 1/2

Outback

Auburn -8 vs. Northwestern

Over/Under - 54 1/2

Gator

West Virginia -2 1/2 vs. Florida St.

Over/Under - 60 1/2

Capital One

Penn State -3 vs. LSU

Over/Under - 44

Rose

Oregon -3 1/2 vs. Ohio State

Over/Under - 51 1/2

Sugar

Florida -10 vs. Cincy

Over/Under - 55 1/2

International

South Fla. -6 1/2 vs. No. Illinois

Over/Under - 50

PapaJohns

South Carolina -4 1/2 vs. UCONN

Over/Under - 53

Cotton

Ole Miss -3 vs. Okie State

Over/Under -  50 1/2

Liberty

Arkansas -7 1/2 vs. East Carolina

Over/Under - 63 1/2

Alamo

Texas Tech -7 vs. Michigan St.

Over/Under - 60 1/2

Fiesta

TCU -7 vs. Boise St

Over/Under - 54

Orange

Ga Tech -4 vs. Iowa

Over/Under - 51

GMAC

Central Mich -4 vs. Troy

Over/Under - 64

BCS Champ

Alabama -5 1/2 vs. Texas

Over/Under - 45

There’s a fascinating, and well sourced, editorial over at Hypebot by Kyle Bylin, suggesting why the major record labels have had so much trouble adapting to these changing times. Bylin argues, convincingly, that a big part of the problem was that as the record labels got bigger and bigger, they focused solely on the “music as commerce” side of things, ignoring the role of “music as culture.” Obviously, music as commerce is an important part of the music business, but if you ignore the cultural importance of music (except, of course, when lobbying the government for more protections) you miss what’s actually happening in the marketplace: how people are connecting with the music, and what they’re doing (and want to do) with the music. Here’s a snippet:

As the record industry moved through this stage there was a decline in learning orientation — in learning what fans actually wanted — both in terms of how they consumed music and what they were willing to pay for. So to, they began to discount the role that luck played in their success, to assume that the mass-marketing successes that occurred near the end the CD boom, which sold 3-4 million copies, applied to the natural laws of the universe, rather than that of a relatively short-lived phenomenon. This addiction to blockbuster artists is what characterizes the second stage of decline, which Collin’s deemed The Undisciplined Pursuit of More. Here, the record industry started out on an unsustainable quest, and, because of their huge successes, they were pressured to grow.

Having reached the peak of the CD boom in 1999, the record industry had become a nearly $15-billion-a-year juggernaut, but under the pressure for more growth they collapsed, and, in the process, a vicious cycle of expectations had been set that strained the artists, the fans, the culture, and their systems to the point of breaking. Since record industry was unable to deliver new music with “consistent tactical excellence,” they began to fray at the edges. Disruptive technologies were released, an epidemic of file-sharing proceeded, and, at this critical juncture, vested interests of music executives struggled and competed to achieve repetitive consumption through obsolescence. But these executives were too late, as the record industry, by externalizing the blame for their decline in sales, had already started to show symptoms of stage three, Denial of Risk and Peril.

Music executives began discounting negative data, amplifying positive data, and putting a positive spin on ambiguous data. In stage three, Collin’s argues that those in power start to blame external factors for setbacks — “or otherwise explain away the data” — rather than accepting responsibility and confronting “the frightening reality that their enterprise may be in serious trouble.” Right away, the Internet and file-sharing became easy scapegoats for the decline in sales that the record industry faced.

There’s nothing all that surprising in the essay, but it’s nicely written and explained. Well worth reading the whole thing.

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5 years ago to this day, the very first post [web.archive.org] appeared on infosthetics.com. It was a short description of how the name of this blog came to be. This was then followed by an entry detailing some sort of funky Bluetooth Christmas tree, but quickly turned into more relevant posts highlighting still timeless visualization pieces like Ecotonoha, Ten by Ten and the still impressive Degree Confluence Project. Much has happened since then. Or to be more precise, about 1950 published entries, almost each linking to a unique project, which in turn generated about 4309 (hopefully non-spam) comments.

What started out as a simple, small, personal project motivated out of pure frustration (“Why can I not find a webpage with beautifully designed visualizations?“) seemed to have sparked the interest of more than 37,000 daily feed subscribers today. It would actually be nice to track down the first subscribers, if I would only know how. While back then infosthetics was the ‘only’ weblog focusing on the topic of data visualization, there now exist a wide range of specialized viz- and infographic blogs, and any self-respecting popular design blog now features some sort ‘infographic best-of’ list. The fact at least 4 beautiful books have been published around the theme of aesthetic data visualization makes it all the better. Hopefully, some day, this all might culminate into a sparkling, creative and self-directed community, as I feel many of the interesting visualization works are still shown, discussed and appreciated in disparate fields without much cross-disciplinary discourse.

The reason why this site is still up and running is truly because of your continuing interest, for which I wish to thank you deeply, my faithful reader. Although I often need to juggle the blog between my professional and family life, it does actually help this blog is exactly what I “want” it to be (well, in terms of content that is, as I try to ignore the many website bugs and missing features…). Therefore, I feel quite amazed each single day that other people find the things I personally feel very passioned about worthwhile to read. I also want to thank the site’s sponsors (i.e. FusionCharts, Loop11, Morae and InstantAtlas), most of which have featured here for many, many months, and those readers who have ordered stuff through clicking the commercial links or the information aesthetics shop, for making this endeavor somehow financially viable.

As a typical “link”-blog, I have no way to experience the true “effect” of my own posts. I can only imagine how a visualization I did post suddenly gets thousands of hits, sometimes manages to appear on Digg, Reddit or StumbleUpon, or gets a press request, simply through the mentioning on this blog. If I occasionally hear about this, it makes me very glad.

Sometimes, blogs like Engadget make me jealous, in how they are provided with important scoops, products to review, or relevant press releases well ahead of time. While I do get many reader suggestions, of which most are very useful, I still need to conduct an almost daily personal hunt for that “perfect” post that will eclipse all others. For instance, the fact I had to discover the somehow quite relevant book “Data Flow” through pure coincidence well after it was released, still makes me wonder, sometimes. I also do often question how I could increase the engagement and commenting on this blog.

For those who are still reading this self-indulgent post, there might be a reward. To celebrate this occasion, I will be giving three books away: The Visual Miscellaneum, We Feel Fine and Data Flow. To participate, simply add a comment below, describing why your read information aesthetics, or how it has changed some aspect of your life, or how it could become a better blog. On Monday 14th December, I will choose the 3 most original comments and let the winners choose what book they want.

Good luck!

When we’re so focused on food, we can sometimes forget that what we put on our bodies matters almost as much as what we put in our bodies. After all, skin is the largest organ, and it absorbs everything: the smog from your morning commute, the sodium lauryl sulfate from your body wash, the methylparaben in your body cream. In a nourished home, it’s critical that we not only focus on the foods that nourish our bodies, but also our environment and how we care for our bodies. Wellness extends beyond the kitchen table.

This week Nourished Kitchen has teamed up with Actual Organics to offer a Health Beauty Kit featuring Miessence certified organic soap, travel toothpaste, travel intensive body lotion and a lip balm. Miessence is a company that started in a kitchen in Australia and became the world’s first certified organic skin care range in 2003. Joanna found it through searching for genuinely ‘good enough to eat’ skin care ingredients and, having suffered from acne for many years, realized that what she used on her skin mattered as much as what she ate. Advising and promoting this extensive range of products seemed like a logical next step to compliment her wellness coaching. Many products are certified organic, to food-grade standards, by Australian Certified Organic and the USDA.

Actual Organics is the vision of Joanna, who feels that balance in life is fundamental to health, wellness and happiness. What we eat, breathe, use on our body and how we think affects us, thus Actual Organics’ wellness coaching is guiding individuals to switch from the standard American diet to one that focuses on nutrient-dense foods, as well as adopting simple changes in the home that can assist in “Detoxing your body & our World.”

The Winner

Gena of Girl Gone Domestic won this giveaway and will receive a Health Beauty Kit from Actual Organics. The kit contains a certified organic geranium & coconut oil cleansing bar, mint travel toothpaste, travel intensive body lotion & a jaffa lip balm. (Valued at $29.00 Canadian).

For those of you who didn’t win this won, keep in mind that Actual Organics is offering FREE SHIPPING on orders over $100. It’s a great way to stock up on some high quality skin care products. Remember, what you put into your body is only part of the story; what you put onto your body matters too.

We also have some more great giveaways scheduled for this month!

A couple of times in the past we’ve looked at the question of copyright on jokes, noting that there generally isn’t “copyright” on jokes, but that copying jokes can potentially hurt someone’s reputation if called on it. In other words, even without making use of protectionist laws, creative types figure out social norms for punishing those who just “copy.” Yes, some of the copying still occurs, but it can seriously hurt someone’s reputation. At the same time, for those who do copy, it pushes them to actually do much more with a joke to actually stand out.

The more you think about this, however, the more interesting it gets. Michael Scott points us to discussion by Mike Madison concerning copyright and jokes, where he points to a short snippet from a NY Times article on the very famous “2,000 year old man” sketch done by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner. The snippet that interested Madison was this one:

REINER We did [the 2000 Year Old Man routine] out here in Los Angeles at what you would call a Class A party. One by one people came over to us. George Burns came by with a cigar and said, “Is there an album?” I said no. He said, “Well, you better put it on an album, or I’m going to steal it.”

BROOKS That’s true, he said he was going to steal it.

REINER Edward G. Robinson, who was there, said: “Write a play. I want to do it on Broadway.” And the one who came up to us and really made sense was Steve Allen. He said you have to make an album.

As Madison notes:

The standard rap says that you make an object and people might copy it (“steal” it), so you have to have rights to go after the thief. Here, the rap is turned inside out: You make an object in order to keep people from copying it. Social norms are still important, because they have something to do with why and how making an album would keep George Burns from becoming the 2000 Year Old Man. But they aren’t everything.

Madison’s argument is that social norms alone aren’t enough to keep people from copying in the absence of copyright — but that setting the work in some sort of fixed form helped do the trick. Still, I’d argue this is a part of the “social norm,” because it was a way of planting the flag by Brooks and Reiner that this was something they had created — such that if anyone else copied it, people could easily point to the album and say “George Burns copied that,” such that Burns would have less credibility. Burns, then wishing to avoid the loss of credibility, has less reason to copy.

Now what I find most interesting about all of this is that it runs entirely counter to the arguments made by many copyright maximalists, who say that without the incentive of copyright, creators would have little incentive to create such a recording, for risk that it would then be “pirated.” But, what this shows (in an admittedly anecdotal fashion) is that there are additional incentives for putting the work into a fixed form: such as planting a flag for the sake of reputation and to ward off copying.

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One of my all-time favorite scenes in a play and movie, is the scene in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead where every coin toss comes up heads, leading to a bit of a philosophical discussion on probability. Of course, the randomness of the coin toss is the quintessential example of a random event and is used regularly for a variety of situations in which randomness is required, let alone expected. Except… it turns out the common wisdom may be wrong. Paul Kedrosky has the news of a test that showed that if you ask people to try flip a coin and get more heads than tails, they will, and not by a small margin either. In the test, 13 people were asked to flip a coin 300 times, trying to get as many heads as possible. All 13 participants got more heads than tails. Seven out of the thirteen had statistically significant margins of heads over tails (meaning almost certainly not a matter of chance). The highest was one individual had 68% of the coin flips land heads. In other words, a coin toss isn’t particularly random.

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