Eco Factor: Concept folding bicycle.
Designed by Eric Stoddard of SpeedStudio Design, the Zoomla is a folding bike that is designed to be a better alternative for those looking for quick, portable, around-town transportation. The bicycle features a TorqSteer mechanism that eliminates the conventional steering tube for better looks and performance.
I’m a scarf person. I love scarves and wear them three out of four seasons. Wish Wrap is a unique company that allows you to chose a “wish” to give with each gift.
So, let’s say you’ve selected a blanket as a holiday present for someone special. You may choose a wish like ‘warmth’ to go with it. But, that’s just one way to go. Perhaps the blanket represents ‘peace’ or ‘laughter’ to you. Pick your wish based on your relationship and what the gift means to you. Make it personal. When your gift is delivered, the blanket will be specially packaged to send the sentiment of ‘warmth’ or whichever wish you’ve chosen.
Wish Wrap offers many eco-friendly products, like Eco-Chic Bamboo Scarf. I absolutely love the colors of this scarf (my favorite is pistachio), and it is super soft and versatile.
Finally…an earth-friendly fashion accessory that the style-conscious can wrap their arms around! This lightweight, supersoft scarf is made of sustainably-grown bamboo plant fibers. At 30″x74″ its extra-long – wear it like a shawl or around your neck. It travels well, and even works as a cover-up for new moms.
Not only is the bamboo scarf exquisite, the unique eco-friendly packaging used by Wish Wrap is very cool and reusable. In fact, the jute bag is a gift alone!
Our packaging is truly eco-friendly. It’s made of jute – a fiber that grows faster and in less space than bamboo. It’s recyclable and biodegradable. All our gift bags and boxes fold flat to take up less room in shipping and storing. Less space means less energy, another environmental offender.
Disclosure: I was sent a bamboo scarf in order to complete this review. No prior assurances were given as to whether the review would be positive or negative.
Here’s some great releases from homebrew coder Izhido. Available now for download are the new builds of the homebrew ports of Quake 1, Quake 2 and QuakeWorld engine for the Nintendo Wii.
Download:
Do your youngsters give gifts to their pets at Christmas? This was a tradition in my family, when I was growing up, which my daughter also enjoyed with her dog and cat. The grandchildren find something for whatever pets they have…a rabbit, two hamsters and a dog. The dog even has her own stocking hung with the rest.
Image: sxc.hu
The gifts are food treats or a toy. But children in our family throughout the years have enjoyed sharing gifts with their pets. Seeing the dog, who senses there is something for her, ripping the wrappings and tossing the toys usually provides laughter for the youngsters…and picture taking opportunities.
These occasions create more holiday memories for the family, with photos to share in later years with children and grandchildren.
Do your pets enjoy the holidays with you?
Post from: Blisstree
Eco Factor: Zero-emission car powered by electricity.
Italian electric vehicle manufacturer, Tazzari, has launched a new vehicle at the Bologna Motor Show. Dubbed the ZERO, the all-electric car has a range of 88 miles and can hit a top speed of 56mph. The car’s onboard batteries can be recharged in 10 hours via a 220V wall socket.
This competition proved not that easy. On one side, it seemed not that evident to hunt down convincing examples that were exceptional in both the ‘ugly’ as ‘useless’ category. On the other side, the choice between the different entries was not obvious, also because some of my favorites were not submitted according to the guidelines.
At least 2 entries stood out, as they were already broadly popularized in the media: the deliberately useless Health Care Reform Chart and the algorithmically incorrect pie chart by Fox News, highlighting the support for Palin. Both are good examples of how data visualization can be misused, intentionally as well as unintentionally.
But for the winners of this competition, we (= FusionCharts + infosthetics) decided to also award originality. We liked the graph titled “Two circulating beams bring first collisions in the LHC“, as its uncaptioned, unlabeled, unsmooth labels with an unnecessary logo almost in the middle of the data visualization does not really help. What probably makes it a bit worse is how it is part of an official “press release” of an important event, and somehow gives you the impression it aims for some higher scientific purpose which ordinary folks like us do not have the permission or intellect to understand. However, we do note the nice implied data symmetry and warm color choice :)…
We also appreciated the graph titled “In-Chart Encryption“, as a demonstration of how the use of pixels in a data-chart can really mean… not much to nothing. For instance, it is almost impossible to connect the chart to the legend. The slight 3D-like fancy tilt to one side even succeeds in making the trend more obscure than it already is by the strange choice of the two axes. Somehow, this visualization looks more like it is trying to hide or manipulate data than trying to convey a truthful insight.
Thanks to our long-term sponsor FusionCharts, these 2 winners will each receive a FusionCharts Developer Bundle, worth US$499. Fusioncharts specializes in interactive Flash charts, gauges and maps, and is used by companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Dell, HP, GE, and many more. The Developer bundle comprises one license each of FusionCharts (animated Flash charts for web apps), FusionWidgets (data visualization widgets for dashboards), PowerCharts (interactive charts for specialized domains) and FusionMaps (interactive online maps).
Explore all the submitted entries below. Did the right ones win?
Eco Factor: Seawater-cooled buildings will reduce air conditioning electricity usage by up to 75%.
In an effort to relieve stress on Honolulu’s grid and reduce the use of ozone-depleting refrigerants, Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning LLC is undertaking a $240 million project that estimates to reduce air conditioning energy use by up to 75%.
fast forward to October 1st, i took my blood glucose reading again and was tired of never seeing the number go up or down. so that was the last time i touched the thing.
Then this past Saturday i decided to try it again. only because i recently i was really really thristy, and thought maybe the number moved up? saturday night the reading was slightly over 500. that was due to a day of eatting anything and everything, soda, cookies, pasta. But int he morning after a long sleep my number dropped to 350.
today i went to the doctors since i called him and told him the reading from Saturday and he wanted to see me right away. now he has me on metformin, and says i have type 2.
I’m quite upset with my self. i can’t believe i did this. i asked the doctor why this happened, and he said my pancreas must have just stopped wanting to make as much insulin as it was for all those years.
so in response I’ve started to eat simple meals, mostly protein, and veggies with very little sugar if any and low carbs. I’ve also started working out again (3rd day in a row now!)
I just took my reading and its 420, not a low as i was hoping.
i have questions, such as what should i do next? am i eatting correctly? how quickly will this metformin start working? what are the chances that i’ll beat this with weight loss and exerise?
please any an all info is welcome. so far i’ve just been told I’m diabetic and given drugs, and the name of an endocrinologist to see in a few weeks to see how I’m doing. i’m hoping to have some forward progress quickly. what do i do?
Thanks again for any and all info in advance.
LiveTweeting | Real-Time Crowdsourced Translation
Live Tweeting is a real-time interactive web application for multi-language live coverage, based on the popular micro blogging service twitter.
A group of live tweeters will be covering the event in its Native Language, for example English, and at the same time multi-lingual tweeters will crowdsource translation of the coverage to a second language, for example Arabic. All that will be presented in real-time on LiveTweeting.com.
You can participate by rating both the coverage and translation tweets with stars right on LiveTweeting.com
Anyone can watch and rate; just point your browser to LiveTweeting.com!
Live Tweeting was launched on Dec 9th 2009, just in time to cover Le Web 2009 in English and crowd sourced Arabic! Le Webs theme for 2009 just happens to be The Real-Time Web!
Le Web 2009s Middle East highlights:
– Speaker: Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah
– Panel: The Middle East Panel
Live Tweeting is a transnational crowdsourced effort. Samer Karam (Beirut, Lebanon) invented the concept as a solution to his impending problem of live tweeting – from Le Web 2009 – in English to a predominantly Arabic speaking audience in the Middle East. Immediately thereafter, Samer Karam stumbled into Beshr Kayali (Damascus, Syria) on Twitter – the brother of a Twitter friend – who offered to co-develop the concept in-time for Le Web. Over Skype and Twitter, and with the help of infamous designer and illustrator Maya Zankoul (Beirut, Lebanon), Live Tweeting was pulled together successfully within the span of one week.
Live Tweeting is the first web application to implement crowdsourced real-time translation. We believe this to be the future of live grassroots multi-language journalism.
Special thanks to:
* Maroun Najm, Omar Christidis, Habib Haddad, Emile Cubeisy, Elie El Khoury, The Meedan Team
tags: live tweeting, le web, real-time, twitter, crowdsource, translation, english, arabic,
This flourless cake recipe calls for only a few ingredients — chocolate, eggs, butter, sugar and the optional black coffee — and the results are a chocoholic’s dream come true. This rich, decadent cake is dense, moist and super-chocolatey. This recipe is part of The Food Channel Christmas Dinner Menu.
Foodie Byte: Although the cake may not appear to be done, remove it from the oven when an instant-read thermometer registers 140 degrees F. It will continue to firm up as it cools.
Fabulous Flourless Chocolate Cake
Serves: 12
Ingredients
Preparation
Recipe and image courtesy of The Food Channel
Post from: Blisstree
Earlier this year, the FTC started going after those annoying and misleading car warranty robocallers, and I’ve noticed that — for the most part — I’ve stopped receiving such calls. Instead, I’ve been getting lots of robocalls about credit card “interest rate reduction” programs. So, it’s nice to see the FTC is cracking down on those as well (noting, in case you didn’t know, that most of those offers are total scams). Now we’ll see what sort of robocallers show up next. Still, it does feel like the FTC is starting to respond to these types of things much more quickly, which is a good thing.
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Since I am seeing a rather notable change (mostly in preventing spikes, not so much with lower numbers) when I take fish oil, I’m curious if anyone else is also seeing the same.
It is quite possible that the fish oil and my consistency in taking it has nothing to do with what I’m seeing, but the two times I have seen my numbers go from a bit wild to very smooth have coincided with taking the fish oil constantly for at least a few days.
The other day I was talking about my ability to kill off houseplants with ease by forgetting to water them and some ideas I came up with that might help me beat this issue. Then I told an offline pal about this and they mentioned another solution – a terrarium. I’ve seen terrariums but never tried them and had no clue that they’re almost maintenance free because they look involved. However, after a little research I found out that they’re not THAT involved and better yet, if set up correctly, a terrarium can go months without you remembering to water it.
Basically, in case you’re new to the idea, a terrarium is it’s own little ecosystem inside a glass container with plants or a single plant, rocks, pebbles, potting mix, and other nature items. The closed glass system is why it’s low water. Condensation from the water you add when you make it builds up on the glass and cycles back (a little like rain) into the soil over and over so you won’t have to water again for a good long while.
You can make your own homemade terrarium or buy one – see some examples of store-bought ones below…
Terrarium.com has a bunch of good info about terrariums to get you started. From this site I learned that there are open and closed options plus they’ve got a list of plants that do well in a terrarium; for example Miniature African Violets, Moss, Creeping Charlie, Ardesia and many others.
I looked around for a book about the topic and the most recommended I found is The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature. I haven’t read this book yet, but it looks really nice. There are tons of chapters on all things terrarium and the pictures are lovely.
If you’re interested in creating your own terrarium but don’t want to get a whole book on the topic check out Real Simple’s guide How to Create a No-Fuss Garden which covers various terrarium projects from start to finish and offers care tips and beautiful images.
I think my son might like to make one; since he’s on holiday vacation soon it might be a great holiday project. Have you ever planted a terrarium? How did it turn out?
Post from: Blisstree
Daily Random Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
Homebrew coder Gokudo Zerotsuken has released a new version of Super Smash Bros Clash, a portable adaptation of the highly popular Super Smash Bros. game for the Nintendo DS.
Download: Super
Harper College’s Alexandra Mason was named an NJCAA Div III All-American Volleyball player for the 2009 season. This is a prestigious honor as only 18 players are selected for All-American honors each year.
Alex led the nation in kills and blocks for the season.
With this latest honor, Harper College has been recognized with a total of 10 All-American Volleyball players from head coach Bob Vilsoet’s program.
My first two night shifts were not bad. I slept ok, not great, but just ok. Also, I never hit that “wall” people talk about in the middle of the night when you just get so tired. I think I was mostly just running on adrenaline of being in a new situation combined with critical care patients. So far, the people are nice and awesome, too, so that’s a plus.
I feel like the night shift could give me a nice, slow pace to learn, but truthfully, I feel I would learn better on days because I feel I benefit a lot from seeing all of the different disciplines who come to see patients. And rounds? C’mon, the MDs in the ICU are quite smart and I always learn something new about my patient and their process when they round and everyone talks.
But, I am giving it a chance.
In other news, I have decided that I have a facebook addiction and it is not good. And so, I have logged out and removed the direct link to my account from my bookmark bar. I think I just need a break. I feel like facebook is just one big facade. I cannot explain it.
This article kind of explains how I feel: https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/80/quit_facebook.html
I just think I might be more productive or clear mind without it for awhile…and for awhile, I mean about a week or a few days at least. I mean, I’m almost 25, it just seems like a juvenile thing to be doing all the time, haha
As another side note, I’m currently reading this book: http://www.halftheskymovement.org/
You may have seen it on Oprah. Anyone read it?
Some lovely things in today’s Delicious Links: unusual yet intriguing poached pear fritters, along with some handmade things for giving (or keeping).
