For kitties who long for a little northern charm, check out the Loyal Luxe Chalet for Cats. Designed and made in Quebec, Canada, these cardboard creations are inspired by Canadian-style chalets. You can even customize the design on the facade by choosing the antlers, a fish, a bird, or a little sign where you can write kitty’s name.
Available from the Montreal Designers Online Store and also at www.LoyalLuxe.com for $24 CAD. Thanks to Goma’s mom Sachi for another great find!
Daily Random Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
Mix the broth, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil in a small saucepan and heat
until the sugar is dissolved. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool slightly
Spread a 12 x 6 inch (30 x 15 cm) piece of fine cheesecloth or thin white cotton sheeting
over a cookie sheet. Place a half-sheet of the fresh or reconstituted dried
yuba on the sheet.
Brush the yuba with soy sauce mixture. Cover with another piece of yuba and
brush. Repeat until all of the yuba and sauce is used up. If there is some
sauce left over, pour it over the yuba and brush evenly towards the edges.
Roll the stacks of sheets into a compact cylinder and wrap it in the cloth.
Tie ends with white string. Steam the roll, covered, over boiling water for 10
minutes.
Remove carefully and cut the roll into 4 sections, diagonally. Heat the oil
350F/180C in wok or skillet, or deep fryer. Drop in the rolls, standing back to
avoid splattering and deep fry until golden brown. This will take only a few
seconds. Drain the rolls on paper.
p>
To serve, slice diagonally into 1/2 inch / 13 mm rounds and serve hot or cold.
It hasn’t even been officially announced yet, and already, it’s been delayed. Take-Two CEO Ben Feder announced at a financial meting that they will be delaying a triple A, yet-to-be-announced title, from its supposed 2010 release schedule
Some Senators have introduced a bill that would limit early termination fees from mobile operators, saying they couldn’t charge more than the subsidy they provided for the phone itself, and that the rules for any early termination fee needed to be quite clear. Not surprisingly, the mobile operators and their lobbyists are saying this is “unnecessary” because (due mainly to gov’t pressure, not competition, as they claim) the operators have already made the ETF process less ridiculous by going with pro-rated fees based on how long is left on a contract. Of course, if it’s true that the law is unnecessary, then it’s not clear why they’re against it…
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
By Guest Blogger Dawn Meisch
Traditions are significant and an important part of the holidays. They help us connect with our families, create cherished memories, and make the holidays more meaningful. I have special memories of my own family’s holiday traditions from when I was a child. When my husband and I started our own family, we wanted to make new traditions of our own.
Each Christmas season, we add to the family holiday scrapbook which we have kept since our child was born. We have also bought her an ornament each year for the tree. Last year, we started a new tradition of buying holiday pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve.
Image: istockphoto
Starting your own family tradition is easy and fun. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Personal Ornament – Purchase a special ornament for each member of the family symbolizing his or her interests or accomplishments the year before. Many malls have Christmas stores open during the holiday season with a range of ornaments catering to almost any interest.
Holiday Pajamas – Each year either buy new or wear a favorite pair of special holiday-themed pajamas on the eve of your holiday. Sitting around in cozy Christmas PJs with a warm cider in our hands is one of our favorite things to do after our daughter has gone to bed on Christmas Eve.
Cookie Swap – Exchanging cookies and other treats is a great way to incorporate the giving spirit of the holiday season. Have your friends come over for a desert swap, bringing their own batches of cookies to share. Set up a special table with a festive tablecloth and some great holiday plates. Noritake has great holiday tableware, like the Aria Christmas and Palace Christmas patterns that will make your cookies look as good as they taste.
Holiday Volunteering – If you are looking for a way to bring meaning to the holiday season, helping out others is a good way. There are many opportunities to help those in need. Visit an nursing home to sing carols or just talk to the residents there, or bring toys to patients in a children’s hospital, or help serve food in a soup kitchen.
Holiday Movie or Story Night – Choose a favorite movie, wear your holiday pajamas, and watch it together. Don’t forget to make some hot cocoa and cookies. If movies aren’t your thing, have a family member read his or her favorite holiday story.
Festive Music – Whatever your holiday celebrations entail, be sure to include some favorites music during your holiday activities. Pandora.com has some holiday stations that play a variety of holiday music, from Christmas pop tunes to classical masterpieces.
Yearly Scrapbook – There are many ways to preserve memories for upcoming years. Save photos in one particular holiday book, or use a pamphlet stitch to bind holiday cards together into a booklet. Family members could write their favorite moments from the holiday that year or save their favorite recipes. Next year, pull out the scrapbook and reminisce about past holiday moments together.
Use one of these suggestions or come up with new holiday traditions of your own to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season. Togetherness and spending quality time with loved ones always creates special memories that will be appreciated for years to come.
Post from: Blisstree
Green living is good; great in fact. However, some green issues are more complex than others and require more thought than simply jumping on the bandwagon. Following are some simple green issue that sound good and easy to solve, but in reality there’s more to consider.
Green cars are good! Green cars do save money and reduce your CO2. That said there is a cost to the planet for each new car made; even highly efficient, small cars. If your old car is small, you don’t drive much, or you have a newer car it may not make sense to replace it simply to get a super efficient car. Tires, seats, the body, electrical parts and so on all take energy and materials to make. If you’ve got a big old gas guzzler that you drive non-stop, then yeah, a newer energy efficient car is likely worth it. But if not, you may be better off in the meantime simply using smarter green driving tactics.
Green homes rock! Green homes in general are a good goal. Using green building tactics can make your remodel a healthier experience and green homes can save you money. There are however difference between a healthy home and a green built home. Many of the aspects that go into creating a green home can be healthy – i.e zero voc paint but some green aspects such as solar panels or energy efficient appliances may be healthy for the earth (which is good for humans), but you need to go beyond that for total human health. You need to consider what’s inside your home both related to air quality and furnishings. You need to clean your home with green cleaners. Your home should have healthy HVAC, ventilation and filtration systems. Green and healthy do come together, but not in total. You need to consider both issues.
Energy efficient appliances save resources! They do to a point but human habits save more. For example if you have an energy efficient washer and dryer, and you always run hot water loads and dry everything, you’re not being as responsible as someone with an older set who washes on cold and hang dries. An energy efficient stove won’t save as much energy as a simple microwave. Energy efficient TVs are swell but watching one all the time is not as eco-friendly as the family with an old set who instead of watching TV gets out into nature for a hike. Along with considering your appliances also consider your actual use habits.
[image via stock.xchng]
Post from: Blisstree
The kids have spoken, and they say they belong to the group of “Gamers.” Children as young as 2 years old in the United States have been found to consider themselves as gamers, with 9.7 million of
Filed under: Concept Cars, LA Auto Show, Motorsports, Budget, Performance, Hatchback, Mazda
As cool as some of those custom Ford Fiestas are at the LA Auto Show, these even tidier Mazda2 customs really jumped out at us. Okay, maybe not all of the concepts so much as the “Mazdaspeed2” you see above. The Active2 Surf and Active2 Snow barely registered when we saw this green and grey fun machine. Dubbed the 2Evil Special and not really an official Mazdaspeed2 at all, this concept blends weekend track car with urban commuter in just the right proportions.
The other two concepts aren’t quite as eye-catching as the 2Evil, but are fun nonetheless. The Active2 Surf has a slightly restyled exterior, 17-inch wheels, an H&R coil over suspension and was painted a bright green with MINI-like white wheels and mirror caps. We really dug the carbon fiber surfboard in the Thule roof rack, too. The Active2 Snow gets similar bodywork tweaks, along with the 17-inch wheels and the H&R setup with another Thule roof rack sporting matching snowboards.. Both cars also wear Active2 graphics. These two cars look like they are going to be easily duplicated by accessing the Mazda Accessories catalog.
Meanwhile, the 2Evil sits even lower thanks to its H&R coil-over setup, and is visually lowered even more courtesy of the aggressive body kit with its curb-scraping front lip and deep side skirts. The 2Evil also includes a new diffuser and spoiler in the back, limo-black windows, Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B tribute graphics, 17-inch wheels wrapped in Yokahama Advan tires, and a Magna performance exhaust system. The green highlights really bring the whole thing together to make it look like a spec series racer. Now if Mazda could just shoehorn in the Mazdaspeed3 turbo mill, they’d really be onto something. We can just imagine Grand-Am adding a CC (commuter car) class for fun little runabouts like this Mazda2, the MINI Cooper, Fiesta, Fiat 500, Honda Fit and the like.
Gallery: LA 2009: Custom Mazda2 Concepts
[Source: Mazda]
Continue reading LA 2009: Custom “Mazdaspeed2” tops the fun-per-pound charts in LA
LA 2009: Custom “Mazdaspeed2” tops the fun-per-pound charts in LA originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Bologna, Italy | Museums and Collections
Monkeys with bared teeth and wild eyes, lumpy looking cheetahs, and a toothy looking polar bear are all residents of the delightfully unkempt Bologna Zoological Museum. Ferrets lay in taxonomic chaos next to mottled gray dolphins. The sleek design of the lobby gives way to rows and rows of cabinets filled with strangely shaped animals. But the enjoyably shabby museum disguises a noble past. It traces its roots all the way back to the very first curiosity cabinet.
Ulisse Aldrovandi’s interests ranged widely from botany to zoology to geology, a word he is thought to have coined. At the young age of 31, after serving out a sentence for heresy, Aldrovandi began collecting anything of natural interest he could get his hands on. Aldrovani also had a taste for the bizarre and wrote a compendium, the Monstrorium Historia, of all known human and animal monstrosities of which he was constantly seeking for collection.
Aldrovandi would eventually assemble over 18,000 “diversità di cose naturali” creating the first great cabinet of curiosity and one of the first natural history museums, though open only to scholars and aristocrats. Ole Worm, who was to create one of the most famous cabinets of curiosity modeled his after Aldrovandi’s, and Linnaeus, who created the system of taxonomy, called him the father of natural history. Today the Bologna Zoological museum contains many of the original zoological pieces collected by Aldrovandi and maintains a wonderful cabinet of curiosity atmosphere.
This afternoon’s rumor about Japan dumping $100 billion worth of Treasuries was great for raising the hair on traders’ backs, but it never made sense.
Japan is freaked out about its soaring yen, and the last thing they want to do is make a move that would hurt the US Dollar, which is all dumping Treasuries would do.
Alas, the government is now explicitly denying the reports, according to Reuters.
Remember, if anything they’re going to print yen, and buy Treasuries.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
A quick update to my post yesterday on the bill to repeal mandatory minimums in Massachusetts. I wrote that the bill died on the way to the House. An important correction: the House did recess without acting on the Senate bill, but Barbara Dougan of Families Against Mandatory Minimums points out in the comments that the bill isn’t dead — the House can pick it up in the new year. She also added the link to the full Senate bill, which is here.
Today also saw the release of a report from the Boston Foundation, detailing Massachusetts’ spiraling spending on corrections — and the negligible payback for the millions of taxpayer dollars spent to lock people up.
The report shows that corrections spending in Massachusetts is higher than spending for higher education, social services or public health. In the last decade, the Department of Corrections budget grew 12% and spending on probation grew 163%. During the same period, the budget for higher education dropped by 7%.
The report says these staggering numbers point to “the state’s willingness to pay nearly any amount for criminal justice policies currently in place without evidence of better outcomes” and raise some important questions, such as:
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is off to 3D land. Will it live up to the expectations of solid Castlevania fans? David Cox of Konami sits down with the Official Xbox Magazine UK to reveal the new gimmicks
Filed under: Etc., Technology, Audi, Electric
When introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, Audi boasted its all-electric e-tron was fitted with four electric motors producing “230 kW (313 horsepower) and 4,500 Nm (3,319.03 pound-feet) of torque.” While the e-tron’s styling may have raised a few eyebrows, we were notably moved by the quoted torque figure – especially when we considered that the twin-turbocharged Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, one of the most powerful vehicles on the road, makes 738 lb-ft in comparison. We were stupefied by the number, and it set off more than a few debates among our group, but Audi made no attempt to clarify…
The team at Automobile Magazine, initially duped like everyone else, has recognized that Audi was quoting torque measured at the wheels, not at the output shaft – the industry standard. Measuring torque at the wheels takes the multiplication effect of the transmission and final drive gears into account. The resulting figures are generally ten-fold of what they would be at the crank (meaning cars like a 3.6-liter Chevrolet Malibu packs a similar 3,115 lb-ft of torque). Audi’s e-tron torque figures are not exactly dishonest, but they are using a completely different evaluation without making mention of it in the press release. Long story short, Automobile estimates the e-tron makes about 252 lb-ft of torque, or a bit less than the Tesla Roadster’s 273 lb-ft.
Gallery: LA 2009: Orange Audi e-tron
Gallery: Frankfurt 2009: Audi e-tron concept
[Source: Automobile]
REPORT: Audi twists e-tron concept’s 3319 lb-ft torque rating originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Luca Leonardi alerts us to the news that at least some politicians in the UK are pushing back against Peter Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill, with Lord Lucas specifically pointing out that the real problem seemed to be one of the entertainment industry’s own making:
“We need to bear in mind that the problems now facing the industry are, to quite a large extent, of their own creation,” he said. “The industry has been extremely slow to listen to the demands of its customers, and has had something of an abusive relationship with them, seeking to punish them before thinking of how to serve them better.“It has taken a decade for the industry to produce sensible alternatives to illegal file-sharing, and the fact that a generation of people have become used to an illegality comes down to the industry’s sluggishness. It is still slow.”
Lucas, who considers himself a libertarian, also questioned the use of IP addresses as identifying who was doing something online:
“I am not at all clear that we have the technology to go beyond the IP address, which comes into my router, to identify which user of perhaps one or two dozen who have access, has done the illegal downloading,” he told the peers.“We need to be very clear that we do not tip people into losing their internet connection, or worse, on a technically fallible basis.”
Nice to see at least someone pushing back on the reasoning behind the bill.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Filed under: Aftermarket, LA Auto Show, SUV, Wagon, Etc., Crossover, Honda, Specialty
Honda certainly can’t be accused of running a dog and pony show here at the LA Auto Show, because there were no ponies. They did, however, have the adorable Luna and Toby on hand to demonstrate their clever Dog Friendly system on this Honda Element. It’s essentially a collapsible ramp and pup tent (couldn’t resist) with tethers that keeps dogs secure in back while protecting the interior of your vehicle from stains and pet hair.
We’ve shown you this Dog Friendly setup before, but couldn’t resist snapping a few pics of the system in action, especially now that it’s available. The Dog Friendly package is available on any 2010 Honda Element model for an extra $995. besides the nylon kennel and ramp, the system includes a cushioned bed, a spill-proof water dish, a small 12-volt ventilation fan, seat covers for the second row, and rubber floor mats with a bone motif. Seems like a reasonable price for keeping one’s pets safe and secure, especially considering it’s a custom fit package from the people who actually build the vehicle itself. There’s a full press release after the jump and some more pics of Toby and Luna in our high-res gallery below.
Gallery: LA 2009: Dog Friendly Honda Element
[Source: Honda]
Continue reading LA 2009: Luna and Toby model the 2010 Honda Element Dog Friendly package
LA 2009: Luna and Toby model the 2010 Honda Element Dog Friendly package originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
HP has done it again. They have release a new laptop HP Pavilion Entertainment DM3. One of the best things about this new HP Pavilion Entertainment laptop is it is lightweight, a solid build quality and Good Battery Life.
Although there are some few not so good like the having no optical drive, multi-touch trackpad may need to learn and get use to using it and the annoying trial ware which you can disable later on but overall it’s a solid laptop.
HP Pavilion Entertainment DM3 made a feature set that is aimed at maximizing battery life and portability, the dm3-1011tu is a stylish and competent ultra portable for those constantly on the go. This is perfect for those who can’t charge their battery anytime. You can see the review Damine Virulhapan on HP Pavilion DM3.
************
HP Pavilion dm3
Design
When HP was designing the dm3-1011tu, it’s obvious the company had one goal in mind — to make an ultra portable as sleek as possible. Weighing in at 1.9kg and less than 1 inch thin with the lid closed, the dm3-1011tu is well suited if you’re after an ultra portable notebook that has style to boot.
The 13.3-inch glossy widescreen LED supports a maximum resolution of 1366×768. The hinge of the screen, as well as the overall build quality of the notebook, is solid — a good sign for an ultra portable notebook.
The keyboard of the dm3-1011tu looks very similar to that found on Apple’s range of Mac Books, where the keys are embedded into the casing of the notebook. Due to the size of the notebook, HP has dropped the in-built numpad, and the size of the up and down arrow keys has been split in half.
The mouse buttons aren’t as soft to the touch as we would have liked, and does feel a tad sticky when in use. The multi-touch trackpad, coated in a fingerprint attracting glossy silver, can be frustrating to get used to if you aren’t too familiar with the finger gestures to scroll and re-size windows. But to save your sanity, there’s always the tried and true method of using your index fingers.
Features
The 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium Edition is the operating system of choice for the dm3-1011tu. HP has strangely decided to install 4GB of DDR3, meaning that 1GB will go to waste, as only 3GB will be detected.
In keeping with the ultra portable angle, an Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) SU7300 processor running at 1.3GHz is installed, while video processing is handled by Intel’s GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics.
Due to space restrictions an optical drive is missing, but there are four USB ports should you feel the need to invest in an external optical drive. Other connectivity options come in the form of a multi-card reader, VGA connector, a HDMI connector, a 10/100Mb Ethernet port and Intel 5300 802.11n wireless LAN.
Unfortunately, HP’s pre-installed trialware version of Norton Internet Security loves constantly letting you know that it’s looking for a special place on the 320GB hard drive. Another annoying piece of software that’s managed to find itself onto the dm3-1011tu is HP’s Media Dock which sits on your Windows desktop. It functions similar to the media hotkeys found on many other notebooks and gives you quick access to your media, as well as HP’s Advisor if you need help with configuring your system.
Performance
The battery lasted for just over a respectable three hours and 42 minutes while playing our XviD encoded test video on the Maximum Performance profile with brightness and volume pushed to the limit.
Running 3DMark06 on default settings resulted in a paltry score of just 792, which was really no surprise on a notebook such as this. The combination of the ULV processor and the integrated graphics restrict what you can do, but it’s the price you pay for portability. PCMark05 sadly refused to run.
With a feature set that is aimed at maximizing battery life and portability, the dm3-1011tu is a stylish and competent ultraportable for those constantly on the go. While it’s not going to set the world on fire with its feature set, it’s perfect for those that can’t get enough of the brushed aluminum look.
**********
You can get this at Amazon for $ 699.95. HP Pavilion DM3-1040US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop – Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)
A meta-analysis looking at protein intake and bone health was published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1).
In terms of bone mineral density (BMD), the authors reported:
“Overall, there was very little evidence of a deleterious influence of protein intake on BMD, with most cross-sectional surveys and cohort studies reporting either no influence or a positive influence. Thus, 15 cross-sectional surveys found a statistically significant positive relation between protein intake and at least one BMD site. However, 18 studies found no significant correlation between protein intake and at least one BMD site.
“The cohort studies also identified little evidence of any deleterious influence of protein intake on bone. … [N]o studies showed a significant increase in BMD loss with increased protein intake, and only one study showed a significant decrease in BMD loss with increased animal and total protein intakes.”
In terms of bone fracture rates, the authors reported:
“Overall, the [seven] cohort studies indicated either a benefit or no effect of protein intake on hip fracture relative risk, with only one study reporting a significant increase in risk with increasing animal protein intake and increasing animal to vegetable protein ratio. Three studies found a decreased relative risk of hip fracture with increasing animal, total, and vegetable protein intakes. Two studies found no significant association of animal protein with fracture risk, whereas 2 studies found no association of total protein with fracture risk. Last, 2 studies found no relation between fracture risk and vegetable protein.”
In summary:
“Overall, the weight of the evidence shows that the effect of dietary protein on the skeleton appears to be favorable to a small extent or, at least, is not detrimental. However, the long-term clinical importance of the effect is unclear, and a reduction in fracture risk was not seen. More research is required to resolve the protein debate. In the meantime the protein intakes and balance of different protein sources as indicated in the current healthy eating guidelines represent appropriate dietary advice.”
Reference
1. Darling AL, Millward DJ, Torgerson DJ, Hewitt CE, Lanham-New SA. Dietary protein and bone health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Dec;90(6):1674-92. Epub 2009 Nov 4.
This week on PlayStation Store Update, we’ve got the classic Call of Duty to remind us what made the world war franchise the hit that it is today. And that’s on top of the usual add-on game
Hello readers, I am here to give you a little preview of what is to come each night of the week. Each day of this week I will have a comparison each of these devices, the droid, the Eris, the storm2 and the touchpro2. At the end of the week I will be doing a post about my favorite alternative to the Touchpro2, so look forward to those things coming up this week.
Filed under: Budget, Sedan, Marketing/Advertising, Hatchback, Ford
Ford finally unveiled the U.S. version of its B-Segment Fiesta yesterday at the LA Auto Show, and thanks to some clever marketing, the Blue Oval’s newest small car is already well-known to prospective buyers. Ford’s ingenious “Fiesta Movement” marketing initiative, which put 100 Euro-spec subcompacts in the hands of socially advanced “agents,” resulted in over six million YouTube views, 740,000 Flickr views and 3.7 million Twitter impressions. All that traffic has apparently resulted in a 60-percent vehicle recognition score in Ford’s survey findings – a number that would be good for a vehicle that has already been on the market a few years.
The first Fiesta Movement was created to get the Fiesta in front of the car-buying public while engaging in customer-driven dialog. Connie Fontaine, Ford brand content and alliances manager, says that wave two will focus on “driving unparalleled consideration.” In other words, Ford wants customers to be excited to buy a new Fiesta. Given the fact that Ford generated 80,000 “hand-raisers” with Fiesta Movement number one, another group of Fiesta agents probably isn’t a bad idea.
Ford is looking now for 20 teams of agents to participate in getting the word out about its new small car. Interested parties can apply via video on fiestamovement.com between now and January 31. Round two begins in mid-February. Winning contestants will need to be “socially vibrant” and “in-tune with the latest happenings in their neighborhood.” Winners will be chosen based on public reaction to their video presentations… though it probably wouldn’t hurt to look young and Millenialish. Hit the jump to check out Ford’s official press release.
Gallery: LA 2009: 2011 Ford Fiesta
[Source: Ford]
Continue reading Ford accepting applications for Fiesta Movement 2
Ford accepting applications for Fiesta Movement 2 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
