Category: News

Here are some great ideas for homemade gifts from the kitchen, including the totally retro and awesome Russian Friendship Tea (it has Tang!) with cute free downloadable labels.

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If you’re looking for a rocking horse for the holidays that’s outside of the rocking horse box then why not go with a more cheery holiday moose!

The EKORRE Rocking Moose from Ikea is made of eco-friendly rubberwood and birch but at just $$39.99, this toy costs much less than most rubberwood toys. Of course rocking is one of those great developmental skills for kids – working both their sense of balance and allows them to sort out sensory impressions. Plus rocking is soothing for many kids.

This toy is not available online though. If you’d like this cheerful red moose for the holidays check at your local Ikea store.

Post from: Blisstree

Eco-friendly EKORRE Rocking Moose

A bunch of folks have sent in Matthew Lasar’s excellent look back at some of the early days of the telegraph system and how it parallels some questions that we face today over things like net neutrality. The basic story is that Western Union worked out a way to gain a monopoly on the telegraph, and then worked out a deal with the Associated Press, whereby all AP papers would use Western Union, and none would support the creation of a competing telegraph company. From all of this, there is even the suggestion that a presidential election was stolen. It’s a worthwhile read.

Of course, the parallels are not perfect, and there are lots of other questions to be raised, but there are some good points to think about, when you’re dealing with a communications system that is, effectively, a natural monopoly. As the FCC suddenly seems open to the concept of line sharing again, after being down on it for so many years, it’s at least worth looking at the history on things like the telegraph, to understand why competition really is a good thing, especially when it comes to the major means of communication.

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These cookies are very impressive. Though they might take a little longer to prepare than most, they are well worth the time. They look magnificent and taste even better!

When I made these shortbread cookies, I substituted vanilla extract for the almond extract (just because I didn’t have almond on hand). They turned out divine!

Image: BHG.com

Prep: 40 min
Bake: 10 min per batch
Stand: 30 min

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained and finely chopped
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup cold butter
• 12 ounces white chocolate baking squares with cocoa butter, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 drops red food coloring (optional)
• 2 teaspoons shortening
• White nonpareils and/or red edible glitter (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spread cherries on paper towels to drain well.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in drained cherries and 4 ounces (2/3 cup) of the chopped chocolate. Stir in almond extract and, if desired, food coloring. Knead mixture until it forms a smooth ball.

3. Shape dough into 3/4-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar, flatten balls to 1-1/2-inch rounds.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until centers are set. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

5. In a small saucepan, combine remaining 8 ounces white chocolate and the shortening. Cook and stir over low heat until melted. Dip half of each cookie into chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. If desired, roll dipped edge in nonpareils and/or edible glitter. Place cookies on waxed paper until chocolate is set. Makes about 60.

6. To Store: Layer cookies between waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 87, Total Fat (g) 5, Saturated Fat (g) 3, Cholesterol (mg) 9, Sodium (mg) 28, Carbohydrate (g) 9, Fiber (g) 0, Protein (g) 1, Vitamin C (DV%) 0, Calcium (DV%) 0, Iron (DV%) 0, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Image and Recipe Courteay of BHG.com’s 100 Days of Holidays.

Be sure to visit BHG.com this week to find out the big winner of their America’s Favorite Better Homes and Gardens Cookie contest.

Post from: Blisstree

White-Chocolate Cherry Shortbread

The discovery of malformed frogs in the Minnesota River watershed in the 1990s touched off field and lab research on endocrine disrupters that is continuing to yield findings.

Minnesota, the state that made national headlines with the discovery of malformed frogs in the 1990s, has found endocrine disrupting chemicals and traces of pharmaceuticals even in some of its most remote and otherwise cleanest waters.  Armed with substantial state funding, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has released a new report and is now continuing field work to determine the aquatic range of endocrine disrupting chemicals that can mimic hormones and cause changes to the reproductive system or development of organisms.

The new study found the hormones androstenedione in 64 percent of sampled lakes and 50 percent of sampled rivers, estrone in 55 percent of the lakes and 75 percent of the rivers, and 17β-estradiol in 55 percent of the lakes and 38 percent of the rivers. “These may be of human origin, naturally occurring, or both,” MPCA observed.  Bisphenol-A was found in 45 percent of the sampled lakes and 38 percent of sampled rivers.

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We love the looks of just about every recipe in Pasta Sfoglia (see our review here). But we decided to reprint one of the simplest, most elemental recipes in the book: Fusilli al Telefono.

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We’ve been working our way through a few more books that we think would make good gifts this holiday season. Here’s the next in our lineup: the gorgeous, mouthwatering pages of Pasta Sfoglia. “Sfoglia” means an uncut sheet of pasta, and as soon as you open this book you’ll want to run to the kitchen and make your own sheets of pasta so you can get to work on this book’s recipes.

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Q: I’m working on my holiday shopping and would like to get an onion chipper for my boyfriend, who won’t cook with onions because they make him tear up. I looked on Amazon but many choppers seem to be flimsy or difficult to clean.

Any recommendations?

Sent by Neon

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We are total suckers for this kind of story! Recently our hometown alternative rag asked two local chefs to take a bag of cheap (read: not nice) groceries and turn them into something gourmet. The results were pretty impressive, and while we might not go to the same lengths (separating frozen vegetables?) it is an inspiring look at turning unappetizing ingredients into something more interesting.

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•Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and offer useful feedback. It’s also a good way to give back to the community if you have useful articles to share with others.

•Post in Asian social networking websites or forums. Some webmasters have suggested that East Asian web users are big Alexa toolbar fans, judging by the presence of several Asia-based websites in the Alexa Top 500. I suggest trying this only if you have the time or capacity to do so.

•Get Dugg or Stumbled. This usually brings massive numbers of visitors to your website and the sheer amount will have a positive impact on your Alexa Rank. Naturally, you’ll need to develop link worthy material.

•Use PayperClick Campaigns. Buying advertisements on search engines such as Google or Exact Seek will help bring in Traffic. Doubly useful when your ad is highly relevant to webmasters.

•Buy banners and links for traffic from webmaster forums and websites. A prominent and well displayed ad will drive lots of webmaster traffic to your website, which can significantly boost your rank.

•Optimize your popular posts. Got a popular post that consistently receives traffic from the search engines? Include a widget/graph at the bottom of the post, link to your Alexa post or use Alexa redirection on your internal URLs.

•Hire forum posters to pimp your website. Either buy signatures in webmaster forums or promote specific articles or material in your website on a regular basis. You can easily find posters for hire in Digital Point and other webmaster forums.

•Use MySpace . This is a little shady so I don’t recommended it unless you’re really interested in artificially inflating your Alexa Rank. Use visually attractive pictures or banners and link them to your redirected Alexa URL. This will be most effective if your website has content that is actually relevant to the MySpace Crowd.

•Get friends to review and rate your Alexa website profile. Not entirely sure of its impact on rankings but it might help in some way.

•Create a webmaster tools section on your website. This is a magnet for webmasters who will often revisit your website to gain access to the tools. Aaron Wall’s webpage on SEO Tools is a very good example.

•Try Alexa auto-surfs. Do they work? Maybe for brand new sites. I think they are mostly suitable for new websites with a very poor Alexa rank. Note that there be problems when you try to use auto surfs alongside contextual ads like Adsense. They aren’t also long term solutions to improving your Alexa Rank so I suggest using with caution.

http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/time/topstories&source=imag&val=3

id Software is confident that Rage will “blow past any expectations” that Doom and Quake fans may have. Creative Director Tim Willits boldly makes this statement in an interview with Now Gamer, exclaiming that Rage will definitely

It’s December, a month when people start thinking about their New Year’s resolutions. This year you might want to cut out all the losing weight, eating better, and saving money resolutions and just choose one good resolution that takes care of all of these issues – grow a garden.

Gardens are healthy, encourage smart eating habits, and can save you money. For example…

A study (pdf) done at Texas A & M University shows that patients in hospitals with gardens gain major benefits simply from looking at the garden. The study points out that simply “Viewing nature settings can produce significant restoration within less than five minutes as indicated by positive changes, for instance, in blood pressure, heart activity, muscle tension, and brain electrical activity.” Furthermore people exposed to exposed to plants and nature settings experience ower levels of fear and anger, and report far higher levels of positive feelings.

Gardening is an active task and when done correctly can be a workout but it’s also been shown to be a relaxing active activity that can significantly lower blood pressure in people with hypertension and prehypertension and even fights osteoporosis.

Other experts note that fresh produce is superior to frozen or non-local because over time, vitamin stability decreases. Temperature changes, air and artificial light exposure all rob fruits and vegetables of nutrients which is why your homegrown garden produce is going to be a healthier bet than the stuff sitting around at the supermarket.

Youth who garden grow stronger nature appreciation skills which can lead to smarted green living. Youth also gain hands on skills, gain engaging connections to academics, introduces them to healthful foods, plus research has shwon that kids who spend time in green spaces have reduced symptoms of attention-deficit disorder, obesity and ADHD. Community gardens provide a great way for kids to  improve and give back to the community.

Based on the above it makes sense to put a stop to all the other resolutions and just have one simple garden resolution. If you’ve got a little bit of land why not plan on growing a garden this spring?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Your New Year’s Garden Resolution

Applications
The series is used for many applications; it can be fitted under trolleys and charts of any kind, with standard and high carrying capacity.
Typical usage: trolleys for indoor industrial handling, electrical transpallets, AGV charts, elevators, motor-sweepers.

Technical features
LOAD CAPACITY: 220-850 daN
WHEEL TREAD: TR polyurethane tread; hardness 95+/-3 Shore A; excellent rolling resistance and elasticity, highly resistant to wear and to tearing
CENTRE: aluminium

Usage conditions
Suitable for environment with atmospheric agents, alcohol and glycol; not suitable for applications where mineral and organic acids, base solutions and saturated vapour are present.

WE ARE SEARCHING FOR DISTRIBUTORS FOR EGYPT AND SAUDI ARABIA COUNTRIES. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE CONTACT US.

The K range is a mix and match of power rocker switches and indicators. Standard panel cut-out for the K range is 21.08×36.80mm.

Any product within the K range can now be mounted into a 22.1×44.1mm panel cut-out. Two versions are available, depending on how this accessory is removed from the panel:
U3062 (black) can be extracted from the front of the panel
U3072 (black) requires a secure access to the rear of the panel

This accessory will also be available in 8 other colours (mid October).

Dormer has added a new range of Universal coated cutters to its rapidly expanding portfolio of solid carbide rotary tooling.

Designed to promote a highly competitive milling operation, the S922 (2 flute), S933 (3 flute) and S944 (4 flute) cutters are recommended for use in a wide range of machines, applications and material types – including steel, cast iron, titanium, nickel, copper, aluminium and synthetics. Consequently, they offer the significant added benefits of reducing inventory and saving time on tool changeover.

Maurizio Tardivo, development manager for cutters at Dormer, explains: “The rationale behind the new universal end mills was to develop a range of extremely versatile milling cutters. Providing a stable design for contouring – both semi-finishing and finishing – ramping and slotting operations, they will help users improve production efficiency in an increasingly competitive marketplace.”

All cutters feature a Titanium Aluminium Nitride (TiAlN) surface treatment that provides improved stability to the cutting edges and offers outstanding protection against wear. Combined with high toughness properties and oxidation stability, the coating brings not just improved tool life but also higher productivity compared to uncoated cutters of the same design.

The flute geometry has been designed to facilitate swarf evacuation and promote a continuous, trouble-free machining operation, while reinforced end teeth reduce chipping, particularly important on materials with low machinability.

Each cutter is available from 2.0mm – 20.0mm and also as a 6 pc set containing 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 8.0 & 10.0mm diameters.

The product launch is supported by a comprehensive brochure that includes full range details, dimensional data and optimum operating conditions.

Further information is available by contacting your local Dormer office or by visiting the website

Top Line TE Series electric actuators provide unsurpassed quality, reliability and value to your automated system.

Some of the key standard features and benefits of the TE Series actuators are:

•Multiple voltages available : 24VAC, 24VDC, and 115VAC single phase to fit your process needs
•Nema 4, 4X & IP67 lightweight polyester powder coated aluminum housing
•External manual override so you won’t need to worry in a power failure
•Four limit switches – two for operation / two auxiliary dry contacts
•Anti-condensation space heater for reduced downtime and increased reliability
•Visual position indicator for your convenience
•Captive cover bolts for your convenience
Optional Features:

•Integral modulating card for full PLC control
•Position Indication (Potentiometer) for continuous position monitoring

Advantage:
•Multiple voltages available : 24VAC, 24VDC, and 115VAC single phase to fit your process needs
•Nema 4, 4X & IP67 lightweight polyester powder coated aluminum housing
•External manual override so you won’t need to worry in a power failure
•Four limit switches – two for operation / two auxiliary dry contacts
•Anti-condensation space heater for reduced downtime and increased reliability
•Visual position indicator for your convenience
•Captive cover bolts for your convenience

Rising barrier Manual OF/Industry Tertiary

* Great robustness
* Balanced boom with bearings
* Up to 5 meters
* Wild range of options and accessories
BCA is the leader of the French manufacturers of rising barriers.

Thanks to a long experiment, our company is capable to meet all your needs as regards equipment for pedestrian and access control vehicles (barriers, housings, bollards, road blockers, full height turnstile, tripod turnstile, proximity cards & readers, magnetic loop detector, photoelectric cel, radio remote control, intercom, traffic lights, …)

BCA, the engagement of a team to satisfy you in full safety.

Sensortechnics’ new CLW series detects point levels of liquids and granular or pulverised materials without contacting the media. The user can easily adjust a high and low switch point with a hysteresis of less than 25 mm. The CLW device uses a new non-invasive capacitive sensor technology and allows for complete media compatibility and sterility. Due to its miniature size these level switches can be perfectly integrated into OEM devices.

The CLW sensor can be mounted to the outside of a container or vessel and is able to measure through almost any non-metallic wall material. The level switch is highly flexible and can be easily calibrated to measure to the desired levels, media and application set-up. The CLW series achieves a very high accuracy and reliability due to an additional reference electrode which compensates for all changes in ambient environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity. Additionally, Sensortechnics can also provide continuously measuring level sensors based on the same contact-free capacitive technology.

Important features of the new CLW series are:

– Contact-free capacitive sensor technology
– Point level monitoring of liquids, granular or pulverised materials
– Adjustable hysteresis of less than 25 mm
– Miniature size for easy integration into OEM devices

Due to its new contact-free capacitive technology Sensortechnics’ CLW level switch can be used in many level monitoring applications within medical, laboratory and analytical technology, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, also biotechnology as well as food and beverage.

Our product line has evolved to a new level of outstanding peformance and value in analytical instruments: the Ultrameter II series.

While priced like affordable single-parameter instruments, the Ultrameter II does the job of three, four or even six instruments.

Both Ultrameter II models deliver performance of ±1% of reading (not merely full scale). This high level of accuracy has been achieved through advanced four-electrode conductivity cell technology, a unique pH/ORP sensor and powerful microprocessorbased circuitry. With displayed values of up to 9999, the full four-digit LCD ensures resolution levels never before
possible in such affordable instruments.

Factory calibrated with NIST traceable solutions, each Ultrameter II may be supplied with both certification of traceability and NIST traceable solutions for definitive calibration.

Beyond their affordable purchase price, Ultra-Fast, Ultra-Easy, Ultra-Powerful Ultrameter II‘s save both time and money. Measure for measure, Ultrameter II‘s give you a better return on your investment than any other handheld instrument.

A gift of spices for mulled wine and cider, Rena Tom’s lovely grey kitchen, a great tip for cushioning holiday food gifts in the mail, and ten favorite tea towels. Plus, the difference between braising and stewing, a quick dinner of pasta with creamy tomato sauce, money-saving meat-buying tips, a hot pink homemade wedding cake, and ten techniques every cook should know.

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