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Eco Factor: Energy-saving mini desktop PC.

The fit-PC2i nettop is arriving on the market soon and is reportedly one of the most energy-efficient mini PCs, with a rated consumption of just 8W even at full load. Measuring just 4″ x 4.5″ x 1.05″ and weighing under a pound, the mini PC is also the world’s smallest dual gigabit Ethernet-equipped PC.

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For compelling economical, geopolitical, and environmental reasons, biofuels are considered an attractive alternative to fossil fuels for meeting future global energy demands. Melillo et al. (SCIENCE p. 1397, published online 22 October), however, suggest that a few serious drawbacks related to land use need to be considered. Based on a combined biogeochemistry and economic model, indirect land use (for example, clearing forested land for food crops to compensate for increased biofuel crop production on current farmlands) is predicted to generate more soil carbon loss than directly harvesting biofuel crops. Furthermore, increased fertilizer use for biofuels will add large amounts of nitrous oxide—a more effective heat-trapping molecule than carbon dioxide—to the atmosphere. Policy decisions regarding land and crop management thus need to consider the long-term implications of increased biofuel production.

This Week in SCIENCE Magazine, Volume 326, Issue 5958

Eco Factor: Concept faucet reduces water wastage.

With billions of people on the planet striving hard for a few gallons of fresh water, it becomes even more important for the privileged to try and save every drop. While there are many who love to thaw frozen food under a running tap, industrial designers are using their skills to make water wastage a thing of the past.

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Eco Factor: Sustainable treehouse powered by solar energy.

Lord, Aeck & Sargent Architects have constructed a sustainable treehouse that will serve as green living playground for kids with special needs. Dubbed the Wild Side, the treehouse is designed to be completely wheelchair accessible and provide a space where kids could seamlessly connect with nature.

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Are you looking for something different for a morning holiday meal? Check out this recipe from The Food Channel for their Egg Nog Rum French Toast — a perfect holiday breakfast or brunch for the adults in the family. This is wonderful with fresh fruit and can be complemented with toasted or candied nuts or even warm rum soaked sugared raisins. This recipe also can be done with 1/2 teaspoon of rum extract in place of the dark rum.

This is also a popular late-night breakfast for after Christmas Eve services or following the New Years Eve festivities.

Egg Nog Rum French Toast

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 3-4 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup egg nog
• 2 tablespoons Dark Rum
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 12 slices cinnamon swirl raisin bread (thick cut)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar (1 cup sugar to 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon)

Preparation

1. In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs with a wire whip.
2. Add egg nog, rum, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, whip to combine.
3. Heat heavy skillet. Soak bread slices in egg mixture for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Soak only as many pieces of bread as you can fit in your griddle at one time. Two batches of six or three batches of four. Add melted butter to the medium hot griddle.
4. Sprinkle each slice of soaked bread with 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar and lay sugar side down in the griddle. Sprinkle additional 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar on top of each slice in the griddle.
5. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes until French toast is a light golden brown and turn to cook other side.
6. Serve hot with creamy rum sauce or butter and maple syrup.

Creamy Rum Sauce

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

A perfect accompaniment to the Egg Nog Rum French Toast or any pancake or waffle brunch.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons cream cheese
• 4 ounces butter
• 1/4 cup syrup
• 1 tablespoon Dark Rum, Cruzan

Preparation

1. Warm cream cheese and butter to room temperature. This can be done in the microwave on 1/2 power.
2. Add syrup and dark rum.
3. Blend in a blender or food processor until smooth. Serve at room temperature.

These recipes are part of The Food Channel’s Holiday Morning Menu.

Post from: Blisstree

Egg Nog Rum French Toast

A new version of the highly addictictive homebrew game Super Smash Bros. Rumble DS has recently been released courtesy of homebrew coders Neeher, Diddy and PS991. The latest demo update has added s ton of features like

Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 large onion
• 175 g / 6 oz each turnip, sweet potato and pumpkin, peeled and cubed
• 1 t marjoram
• 1 1/2 t each ground ginger and cinnamon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 T chopped spring onion
• 1.2 L / 2 pints vegetable stock
• 2 T flaked almonds
• 1 fresh chilli de-seeded and chopped
• 1 t unrefined sugar
• 115 g / 4 oz creamed coconut

METHOD:

In a large saucepan heat the oil, add the onion and cook it gently for 4-5 minutes. Add the cubed vegetables and toss them over a medium heat for a further 5-6 minutes. Add the marjoram, ginger, cinnamon, salt and pepper and cook together over a low heat for 10 minutes stirring frequently.

Add the spring onion, stock, flaked almonds, chilli and sugar and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are just tender. Check the seasoning. Grate the creamed coconut into the soup and stir well. Garnish with chopped coriander or parsley and serve.

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The good news is that you don’t always have to deal with garden moles. Many moles are actually useful garden pals. They munch on harmful bugs that will hurt your plants and they even improve soil through aeration. Plus to be honest, I think they’re kind of cute.

Some moles are a problem though. Here in the Northwest where I live a common mole is the Townsend’s mole (I believe the largest mole in North America) and this guy does eat quite a lot of garden goods and vegetation along with bugs.

Other problems moles may cause include eating up your beneficial earthworms, pulling up little seedlings, disfiguring your lawn – although make sure that a mole is your actual problem. Sometimes gophers and /or field mice cause damage and it looks like a mole did it.

To fix your mole problems:

First make sure you need to get rid of your mole. If he’s not being a problem – i.e not munching on your plants badly you may want him around. Mole damage is only really noticeable if you have a lawn so having only garden plots and no lawn is one way around this. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has an excellent piece on Practicing Mole Tolerance that I highly suggest reading.

If you like your lawn better than the mole though you can try planting hyacinths and castor oil plants which moles don’t like or try a castor oil repellent. Castor oil repellents only have a so-so success level, but it’s a non-toxic way to go so try it first. After that you can try wire mesh or let your dog cruise the garden. If using wire mesh (1/4-inch mesh) bury it about 20 inches deep around the perimeter of your garden plot or lawn. My local Oregon extension notes that people with dogs report fewer mole issues, so maybe dogs scare them off.

Lethal mole trapping, poisoning and stunning all seem extreme in my opinion plus in some states you need a permit from the Department of Wildlife and Fish to do so. PLUS you could catch an innocent animal or even a family pet. Lethal is lethal to all small animals not just moles so I’d think long and hard before going that route.

Do you have useful garden moles or pesky ones?

[image via wiki commons]

Post from: Blisstree

Deal with garden moles

I’ve discussed in the past why I’m not thrilled about the use of the word “piracy,” even as it has become rather standard for describing unauthorized file sharing. It’s inaccurate, and is used by the entertainment industry to paint a picture of pure evil, where a more nuanced and accurate view might help. At the same time, with the rise of “The Pirate Party” in various countries, a group of folks have tried to take the word back — but I still wonder if the name limits the party’s upside, even as it may have enabled some of the initial attention (and vote-getting ability).

That said, Nancy Baym points us to an interesting analysis of piracy in the context of “language of spectacle”, by Gabriella Coleman, and how that can help drive political messages and involvement:

But what keeps me interested in the politics of piracy is how it can speak the language of spectacle, which can be a powerful tactic and technique for broadcasting a political message. Here I’m just paraphrasing and cribbing the work of Stephen Duncombe, who has argued, I think quite persuasively, that we cannot rely solely on reasoned debate for building political programs. Duncombe does not argue that we must toss out rationality and truth seeking (these are absolutely necessary) but notes how on their own or if not clothed in some other cloak, they may not be enough to convey and compel, especially in this day of total media saturation. Or to put a but more poetically by him “Reality needs fantasy to render it desirable, just as fantasy needs reality to make it believable.”

Much (though not all) of contemporary digital piracy follows the logic of spectacle. It builds and conveys a fantastical drama of right and wrong, of new possibilities, of freedom from the noose of the law; it signals and speaks to the thrill and fun in twisting, even breaking, existing structures and constraints; and provides a window into another way of acting/behaving. In many cases what it provides is a commons (and I will be exploring it in depth in my class next semester on the commons) and many folks, I imagine, turn to piracy simply for the free stuff, and a number of them come out of the other side transformed into copy fighters willing to engage in a politics beyond sharing stuff and waving the pirate flag.

It’s an interesting thought, and it gets me thinking. Folks like Bill Patry make compelling arguments that the use of moral panics and folk devils with words like “piracy” distort the debate in negative ways, but Coleman suggests that by embracing that term, people may be able to build a stronger case on this particular issue. Which seems more compelling? Or is it a combination of both?

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But there is a more general impact by information providers in biasing the representation of the world one gets from the delivered information. It is a fact that our brain tends to go for superficial clues when it comes to risk and probability, these clues being largely determined by what emotions they elicit or the ease with which they come to mind.

In addition to such problems with the perception of risk, it is also a scientific fact, and a shocking one, that both risk detection and risk avoidance are not mediated in the "thinking" part of the brain but largely in the emotional one (the "risk as feelings" theory). The consequences are not trivial: It means that rational thinking has little, very little, to do with risk avoidance.

Much of what rational thinking seems to do is rationalize one’s actions by fitting some logic to them.
In that sense the description coming from journalism is certainly not just an unrealistic representation of the world but rather the one that can fool you the most by grabbing your attention via your emotional apparatus-the cheapest to deliver sensation.

Take the mad cow "threat" for example: Over a decade of hype, it only killed people (in the highest estimates) in the hundreds as compared to car accidents (several hundred thousands1)-except that the journalistic description of the latter would not be commercially fruitful. (Note that the risk of dying from food poisoning or in a car accident on the way to a restaurant is greater than dying from mad cow disease.)

This sensationalism can divert empathy toward wrong causes: cancer and malnutrition being the ones that suffer the most from the lack of such attention. Malnutrition in Africa and Southeast Asia no longer causes the emotional impact – so it literally dropped out of the picture. In that sense the mental probabilistic map in one’s mind is so geared toward the sensational that one would realize informational gains by dispensing with the news.

From

Fooled by Randomness
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Penguin Books/Random House 2007

Shocklee points us to an awesome little app that lets you type in whatever lyrics (or, well, words) you want, hit play, and whatever you type will be sung for you, using clips from various famous songs. It’s a really fun little app (though, I was amused that they have no clip for the word “lyrics” despite the service being all about lyrics) and can get pretty addictive. In fact, if you want to hear this entire post sung outloud via this system, just click here (please note, this will take a really long time to load, but it’s totally worth it). However, like with many other cool music projects, I’m left wondering whether or not some would consider this to be copyright infringement. All of the clips are tiny — one word, or in many cases, less than a full word, but they do seem to come from various popular and well-known songs. It’s not hard to identify some of them. I have no idea if the company behind this service cleared all the licenses (it’s possible), but if that’s the case, you’d have to imagine that this service would get ridiculously expensive very quickly. If a simple lyric of, say, 8 words, involves a dozen clips, with royalties needing to be paid for each, such a service would quickly become impossible. Doesn’t it say something when copyright law would effectively outlaw an awesome and fun app like this one?

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PRESS RELEASE – Health Canada

One Lot of Zaditen Tablets (for Asthma) Recalled Due to Potential Health Risks

OTTAWA – Health Canada is advising consumers that Montreal-based Paladin Labs Inc., the manufacturer of the prescription asthma drug Zaditen, is recalling lot #440494, which is packaged as blisters of 14 – 1mg tablets. Lot #440494 has been found to have less of its active pharmaceutical ingredient (ketotifen) than indicated on the label. An active pharmaceutical ingredient is a substance or mixture of substances in a drug that delivers the therapeutic benefit to a patient.

Use of product from lot #440494 could result in different adverse events due to decreased effectiveness. Individuals currently stabilized on Zaditen may notice a worsening of their asthma symptoms and could also experience side effects related to an unnecessary increase in the dose of their other asthma medications.

Canadians who are taking Zaditen tablets should check the lot number found on the blister packaging. If the tablets are from lot #440494, consumers are advised not to use them and to consult their pharmacist for replacement Zaditen tablets or their physician if they have new or worsening symptoms. Unused tablets from the affected lots should be returned to the pharmacist.

Zaditen is indicated as an add-on medication in the chronic treatment of mild atopic asthmatic children and comes in tablet or syrup form. Only tablets from lot # 440494 are affected by this recall.

To date, no adverse reactions from the use of this product have been reported in Canada.

Consumers requiring more information about this advisory can contact Health Canada’s public enquiries line at (613) 957-2991, or toll free at 1-866-225-0709.

~~~

Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Blisstree

Health Canada Recalls Lot of Zaditen Tabs

Just about a year ago, ABC TV exec Anne Sweeney was telling people at CES that they were in the providing good content business, and she wanted to see it delivered however people wanted to watch it, on whatever device they wanted. But, it’s a little more difficult to apply that message to her own family, apparently. In the opening to an article about the whole “web vs. TV” debate (as if there really is one) in light of the Comcast/NBC deal, the piece opens with a story about Sweeney forcing her daughter to bring a television to college, despite the younger Sweeney’s protests that she had no need for a TV:

“Mom, you don’t understand. I don’t need it,” her 19-year-old responded, saying she could watch whatever she wanted on her computer, at no charge….

“You’re going to have a television if I have to nail it to your wall,” she told her daughter, according to comments she made at a Reuters event this week. “You have to have one.”

Perhaps it’s time to recognize that more and more people don’t need a TV?

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Heads up, Madden fanatics! EA Sports has just released the second patch of Madden NFL 10. The patch is now available on the PlayStation 3 with the Xbox version sceduled to arive late next week. It includes

On November 26th (Thanksgiving), the Washington Post put up an article about the group Public Enemy and its efforts to help the homeless in DC. Nice enough. However, there was one oddity in the article. It claimed that the band’s famous song 911 is a Joke was about the attacks of September 11th. Yes, this is a song that was released in 1990. And if you’ve ever heard it, you know that it’s about the phone number you call for emergencies. I mean the first line of the song is “I dialed 911 a long time ago….”.

Now, I guess this is a mistake that anyone could make if they were totally unfamiliar with Public Enemy or its music — but you would think that someone writing an article about the band would at least learn a little about the music it released. Furthermore, we’re constantly told about how the mainstream press is important because they have fact checkers. Apparently, they took Thanksgiving off.

But, a bigger point is brought forth by Mathew Ingram who points out that people in the comments of the article pointed out the mistake really quickly and it took an entire week for the Washington Post to get around to making a correction.

Now, everyone makes mistakes now and again, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it does demonstrate a few things. Just claiming you have fact checkers doesn’t make you significantly more accurate at times. Separately, we’ve pointed out in the past how bad newspapers seem to be with actually engaging with commenters on their site, and this highlights why they’re making a big mistake. Yes, it’s work. Yes, sometimes there can be a lot of junk in the comments, but you can also learn a lot — such as when you’ve made a huge mistake.

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Filed under: LA Auto Show

Did you miss our coverage of the 2009 LA Auto Show? Don’t know where to look to find it? No worries. We’ve assembled the best parts for you below, and you can visit our LA Auto Show page to view every last piece of coverage we did.

THE CARS

THE NEWS

	LA 2009: Maximum Bob, Maximum Live Blog We’re here in the City of Angels to watch Fritz Henderson deliver GM’s keynote address to all us media types here at LA Auto Show. Only thing is, Fritz resigned yesterday, and for some reason interim CEO Ed Whitacre will not be delivering the keynote. Which can only mean one thing — GM’s Vice Chairman of Marketing and Communications Bob Lutz will be delivering the opening address.
	LA 2009: Ford Taurus and Volvo XC60 named International Car and Truck of the Year Hold onto your hats folks, because while magazine award ceremonies appear to be just about finished, the auto show trophies are just starting to be handed out. This time, it’s the International Car of the Year at the LA Auto Show, and we’ve got two winners from within the Ford empire. The Ford …
	LA 2009: Audi A3 TDI named 2010 Green Car of the Year in diesel repeat At the LA Auto Show this morning, the Audi A3 TDI was crowned the 2010 Green Car of the Year, wresting the title away from last year’s winner, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Even though three hybrids made this year’s list of finalists, the A3’s win marks the second year in a row that a TDI diesel car …
	LA 2009: Lexus LFA wireframe cutaway wows us Wow. Lexus brought their new LFA supercar to the LA Auto Show this year. That might not seem particularly wow-worthy, but it definitely becomes more surprising when you hear that they actually brought an LFA and a half. While a white LFA was happily humming along, spinning slowly on a rotating …
	“Viridian Joule” picked as winner of Chevy Volt Paint Color Contest The votes have been cast, the tallies tallied and the winner determined: Viridian Joule will be the official name of the silvery-green hue as seen on a slew of Chevrolet Volt marketing material for what seems like the last decade or so. So, um, what does Viridian Joule mean? We’ll let the winner …

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE…

2009 LA Auto Show Wrap Up originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader mick alerts us to a legal fight in Australia with Apple working hard to stop computer firm Macpro from being able to keep its name. The company has been in business since 1983, prior to Apple introducing the Macintosh (which happened in early 1984). In other words, Macpro should have priority on the name. When Apple tried to register a trademark on Mac Pro, Macpro opposed it and won, but Apple keeps fighting, and Macrpo’s boss thinks the company is just trying to force them into bankruptcy with legal bills (he’s already spent $200,000). He says he’s offered reasonable settlements to Apple, but gets no response. Again, given Apple’s early trademark fight with the Beatle’s Apple Corp., you might think that it would be sensitive to bullying other companies over trademark issues… but apparently Apple thinks different(ly).

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Filed under: LA Auto Show, Etc.

With the state of the economy, it didn’t come as much of a surprise that manufacturer presence was down at the LA Auto Show this year. The carmakers that did show up, however, brought their “A Game” – mostly. As much as that was true for new vehicle introductions, it also applied to the deployment of booth professionals as well.

Many booths didn’t hire models this year, unfortunately, and companies that have traditionally been reliable sources of model employment weren’t even here in 2009. We’re looking at you, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati. Still, it was nice to see even a few smiling faces while we scoured the darkened halls of the LA Convention Center trying in our obsessive search for postworthy material.

While we didn’t encounter many spokesmodels, we did find a lot of beauty in the City of Angels. We’ve assembled a small gallery of random shots and artsy-fartsy images to give all of you a taste of this year’s show from LA. Click below to see our small but satisfying high-res gallery.

Photos copyright (C)2009 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.

LA 2009: Random beauty in the City of Angels originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 12.4.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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