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When looking at ancestors who have immigrated, it's good to realize that there are always reasons. Nobody ever packs up his entire live to go and live in a different country 'just because'. Sometimes, it's because they moved away from something, like bad economic circumstances, persecution or famine. Other times, it's because they moved towards something, like a new job, new opportunities or freedom. Most of the times, it's a combination of the two.
It's rare that we can ask the ancestors who moved to a new country why they did so. Sometimes they are still alive to ask, sometimes they left documents that state those reasons. But most of the times, we can only speculate. And maybe we come close to the real reason when we do this.
My grandfather Adolph Knura was born in Bottrop, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Nordrhein-Westfalen borders the Netherlands in the east and Bottrop is right in the middle of the highly industrial Rurh-area. My grandfather was born in 1914 and left Bottrop in 1932. He moved to Voorschoten, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands, all the way in the west. Today I take a look at the reasons he might've had to move away from Bottrop and the reasons he might've had to move to Voorschoten.
Away from Bottrop
The Great Depression begins in Oktober 1929 in the US, but quickly spreads across the world. In Europe, Germany and Austria are hit particularly hard because they have huge loans after World War I, due to having to pay damages. In March 1931, France demands all loans be payed back immediately, which causes the complete collapse of German industry. When 1932 begins, there are around six million people unemployed. In Bottrop, the economic crisis is also felt. One of the mines closed in 1930, causing a lot of people to become unemployed.
My grandfather might've had trouble finding a job, causing him to move in search of employment.
Another cause might be found in the mining industry. Bottrop and the surrounding area relied heavily on the mining industry to provide jobs. In fact, my grandfather's father and brothers were miners. But mining is very dangerous. Chronic lung diseases such as black lung were very common in miners in those days, leading to a reduced life expectancy. The mining itself also brought many dangers, like suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse and gas explosions.
According to my mother, my grandfather was very opposed to going to work in the mines. So this likely influenced his decision to move away from Bottrop.
The last reason he might've had to move away from Bottrop can be found in the politics of the time. In the beginning of 1932 a new government was elected, but the military refused to support the government, causing new elections to be written. It was these new elections, in July 1932, in which Hitler's party became the leading party.
My grandfather left in February/March of 1932 and the political unrest of those days, perhaps with a bit of foreshadowing of what was to come, could've contributed to his decision to move.
So, in summary, the move away from Bottrop was most likely economical in motivation. My grandfather didn't want to work in the mines and with the Great Depression, there were few other jobs in the area. The political unrest of the time might've been the final push to leave.
Towards Voorschoten
Now that we know why Adolph moved away from Bottrop, it's good to take a look as to why he moved to Voorschoten. He did not stop anywhere along the way, he came directly to Voorschoten, clear across the country from where he entered it.
There's a very good reason for that, and she goes by the name of Anna Knura; Adolph's older sister. She was already living in Voorschoten and was married to Lambertus van Aken, who owned his own painting company. Adolph moved in with her for the first few months he was in Voorschoten and went to work as a painter in Lambertus' company.
So, he came to Voorschoten knowing he had family here, a roof over his head for as long as he needed it, and a good prospect (if not a certainty) of a job.
Where there more reasons for this move? Perhaps.
Am I right in every reason I just mentioned? Very likely.
Will we ever know for sure? No.
Still, it's a valuable exercise, as it colors in the events surrounding one of the most important decisions in Adolph Knura's life.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining#Dangers_to_miners
2. Bingham, J., Chandler, F & Taplin, s. The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History. 2008.
3. Reader's Digest. Mijlpalen van de 20e eeuw. Amsterdam: The Reader's Digest, around 1980.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
2 comments:
Thanks for this thought provoking article. Having emigrated myself 11 years ago - and to the other side of the world - I too have pondered on such questions, and intend to explore them in due course on my blog La Diaspora Continua. The difficulty is that to discover the reasons for such migration, one needs to do an awful lot of background reading, in local, regional and global contexts. What a lot there is to learn!ReplyDelete
Regards, Brett
Yes, a lot of background research goes into such a seemingly small question. Lucky for me, I like history!ReplyDelete
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Health & Pregnancy
Excess Weight, Diabetes Raise Risk of Big Babies
Aug. 14, 2012 -- Women who are overweight or obese at the start of pregnancy are much more likely than healthy-weight women to deliver large babies, according to new research.
That's true, the researchers found, even if the women did not develop gestational diabetes, a known risk factor for delivering large babies.
In the past, researchers have focused on gestational diabetes -- diabetes that develops during pregnancy -- as a risk factor for having a large baby, says researcher Mary Helen Black, PhD, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente's Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation.
Now it appears that overweight and obesity play at least as important a role as gestational diabetes in the risk of delivering a large baby. "And that is important because infants born too large for gestational age are at all sort of increased risk for other complications, including obesity later in life," Black says.
The new research is published in Diabetes Care.
Weight, Diabetes, and Risks to Babies
For her study, Black looked at the medical records of nearly 10,000 women who got prenatal care and delivered their babies at a Kaiser Medical Center in Downey, Calif., from 2005 through 2010.
Nearly 60% of the women were overweight or obese, and more than 19% had gestational diabetes.
Of those who had gestational diabetes, more than 76% were either overweight or obese.
Black looked at how weight and diabetes affected the baby's birth weight. A baby is determined to be large based not only on birth weight, but on gender and race, Black says.
Compared to women of healthy weight and those without gestational diabetes, Black found those overweight, obese, or with gestational diabetes all had increased risks of having large babies.
- Overweight women without gestational diabetes had a 65% increased risk of having a large baby.
- Overweight women with gestational diabetes had a 177% increased risk.
- Obese women without gestational diabetes had a 163% increased risk.
- Obese women with gestational diabetes had a 447% increased risk.
Obese women who didn't have gestational diabetes but gained more than 20 pounds (the maximum recommended for obese women) during pregnancy were also more likely to have large babies, Black found.

subset: commoncrawl


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A 72-year-old Kansas man was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for shooting his granddaughter and her husband in November 2012.
Johnnie R. Kilpatrick was sentenced Monday for two counts of aggravated battery. He originally was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the November 2012 shootings of Emily Ramos-Powell and Jesse Powell.
The Powells were seriously injured in the shooting at their home.
The Salina Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1amP7dH ) court records say Kilpatrick went to the Powells' home and argued with them about where her 4-year-old son should live.
Jesse Powell and another apartment resident were able to disarm Kilpatrick and hold him until officers arrived.
Location, ST | website.com


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On the "Belgian Blond Ale" episode of the Jamil Show (podcast) it was said that you should do a 90-minute boil because of the pilsner malt.
Can someone explain this further?
The reason for the prolonged boil is to drive off the volatile chemical DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide). DMS give beer that cooked corn flavor and aroma. DMS is created as the wort increases above 140ºF (60ºC) from the precursor molecule SMM(S-methyl-methionine).
All base malts have some SMM, but during the kilning process post malting it is driven off. However Pilsner malt is kilned very gently at lower temps to get that low Lovibond/SRM rating. So more of the DMS precursor remains in the malt. The longer boil time ensures that most of the DMS created is boiled off as vapor. Its the reason why you aren't supposed to boil with a lid on; because the DMS condenses on the lid and falls back in the pot.
Pro brew kettles often have a mixing feature that helps drive off the DMS even faster and more efficiently due to the size of the kettles.


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I've heard of people cooking bacon in an oven by laying the strips out on a cookie sheet. When using this method, how long should I cook the bacon for, and at what temperature?
I've always cooked it on top of aluminum foil, at 350°F (~175°C) for 20 minutes. Flipping it once at about the half way point. If you prefer crispier, go for 25 minutes.
Put on a cookie sheet. Use a high temp (375F+) for 10-20 minutes depending on desired crispness.
For easier cleaning of the cookie sheet, line it with aluminum foil.
To let the grease drain, corrugate the foil. (This is by far what I prefer.) If you do this, remember before you tear off your sheet from the roll, you'll need ~2x as much foil for the same area.
I set the oven to 400F, line a half sheet pan with aluminum foil, place a cooling rack inside the pan, and then put the bacon on top of the cooling rack. It takes between 20 and 30 minutes to reach the point that I like it, but you may want to stop it earlier.
Also good, blend some brown sugar and pecans until the pecans are well mixed with the sugar and then sprinkle the mixture on top of the bacon half way through cooking.
I place the bacon in a cold oven and then turn the oven on to 400F. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get slightly crisp bacon.
The short answer is "throw it in the oven, and make sure it doesn't stick."
You can use aluminum foil or silpat to accomplish the non-stick part.
Regarding temperatures, a lot depends on what you want. This is pork remember, a meat that cooks beautifully at low temperature, and fries nicely too when salt-cured.
So, if you want delectably smooth soft bacon that melts in your mouth, try it at 225 for a few hours. This is like slow cooking a pork shoulder.
300 and up will more quickly cook it; at that point you're aiming for crispy bacon. The hotter the heat, the faster it will get there, and the greater the danger you're going to burn it. I usually do mine at 375 for the family, it takes roughly 20 minutes.
I bake mine on a cooling rack (to drain excess fat) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with foil for easy clean up. I start in a cool oven, 400 degrees for about 20 minutes for crisp turkey bacon.
I place the bacon on a cooling rack set inside a baking pan, to keep the meat above the grease.
Generally speaking, lower temperatures result in less bitter compounds forming than higher temperatures. But you'll have to wait longer for your delicious, delicious bacon. If you're baking something else, then just put the bacon in at whatever temperature the other dish requires. It should be fine, anywhere from 325 to 425 or 450.
The bacon is done when it looks and feels delicious. You can judge by color. If you like it crispy, it should be dark but not burnt--it will still be a little soft until it cools a little.
I just cooked a pound of bacon yesterday....to make Blt Bites in cherry tomato halves. Not knowing any better, I spread it out in a single layer on a rimmed baking pan. And I cooked it for about a half hour at 300 (PRE=HEATED). It was perfect. No spattering. Easy clean-up. If you like it crisper, just cook it longer. If it smells done, it is.
I use tinfoil (non-stick kind works well) on any old baking sheet and for an added boost sprinkle dark brown sugar and coursely ground pepper on top side first. Cook at 350-400 for 10 min - no need to flip - watch at end it doesn't burn. My family / guests can't get enough of this candied bacon.
I have a special pan which has a second bottom with holes in it that allows the excess fat to drain away. With that I put it in about the middle or lower of the oven with the broiler on 500F on.
Use a baking tray with a decent lip to stop fat running away. Don't use foil or anything extra
Lightly rub required tray surface area with Olive oil
Roll each piece of bacon up into a tight tube (slight larger than a thumb) and place on tray. You can use a pencil sized dowel as a former
Balance each roll against the next to hold in place. Use a toothpick or similar to hold the rolls on the ends
Grill at medium to medium-high until done, around 20 to 30 minutes
Nothing gets burnt, and they are easy to handle once cooked. And a nice tidy look on the plate too
Because nothing got burnt, cleanup is simple. Just soak the tray
You can do more than 50 slices of bacon on one tray!
I have found the best method is to use parchment paper, put bacon on a rack that will fit in the pan to hold the bacon above the dripped fat, baked in a convection oven so no need to rotate or flip. about 20-30 minutes depending on thickness....thick sliced bacon works best.
Take two cookie backing trays that can be stacked into one another (just buy two non stick identical cookie trays): lay the first one's bottom with baking parchment. lay the bacon flat on it. put another sheet of parchment on top of the bacon stack the second tray on top and apply a good pressure to make sure the bacon is flat.
you should have from bottom to top tray-parchment-bacon-parchment-tray. (just to be clear)
bake at high temperature for 15 minutes (or until of the color you like it, raise tray to check and be careful of grease splashes). After baking absorb excess fat by laying on paper.
This will guarantee that your bacon strips will be cooking book picture perfect, crispy and delicious.
use silicone mats instead tinfoil or parchment paper. much easier cleanup


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I just got a new Mac Air for my wife. Every time she starts it up (after installing software, crashes, whatever), it starts up logged in as administrator. This confuses my wife no end (where did all my stuff go?)
How can I make it just go to the login screen?


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(If the title is unclear, I'm looking at infinite cartesian product of $\mathbb{R}$ indexed by $\mathbb{R}$.)
I thought that I had reasoned this rather well, as follows:
$\mathbb{R}^\mathbb{R} = \{f\mid f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\}$. Note that this includes functions whose range is not $\mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{R}$ here is just the codomain. Now consider an element $\textbf{x} \in \prod_{\mathbb{R}}\mathbb{R}$. This is an "uncountably infinite sequence," so to speak, so it does represent a function, where the index indicates the $x$ coordinate and the value at that index indicates the $y$ coordinate. (Consider a constant $x_i = 1 \;\forall\; i\in\mathbb{R}$, a straight line.) But this does not account for functions with vertical asymptotes, or functions which are not surjective (e.g. $f(x) = x^2$), so we conclude that $\prod_{\mathbb{R}}\mathbb{R} \subsetneq \mathbb{R}^\mathbb{R}$.
If we union in $\{+\infty, -\infty\}$, then we can get functions with vertical asymptotes, and if we allow coordinates $x_i = \emptyset$, then we get surjective functions as well. (If that even makes sense semantically).
This seems to make sense to me, and I find it a satisfying answer. However, I was reading this wikipedia article which states that:
An uncountable product of metric spaces need not be metrizable. For example, $\mathbb{R}^\mathbb{R}$ is not first-countable and thus isn't metrizable.
Which implicitly states that $\prod_{\mathbb{R}}\mathbb{R} = \mathbb{R}^\mathbb{R}$. So what am I missing? I feel like it must be something rather obvious.


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A friend wants to buy her first DSLR, and has identified the Canon 1000D (aka Digital Rebel XS) as a good option.
She has asked my opinion.
I think it looks great for the money, but I would like to give a more balanced answer, so can you tell me what are the comparable offerings from Nikon - or other manufacturers (I hear that Sony are very good)?


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Five Finger Death Punch are ready for battle. Their forthcoming sophomore album, War Is the Answer, is locked and loaded with twelve tracks of raw epic heavy metal. Releasing September 22nd 2009 via Prospect Park/EMI, the record's deafening battle cry will undoubtedly rattle the genre to its very core and pull listeners deep into this War.
Many were surprised to see the meteoric yet steady rise that 5FDP undertook in the last two years, and that was just the beginning. 5FDP have embarked on quite the journey to reach this point. The Los Angeles quintet's assault on heavy music began in 2007 with the release of their hit debut The Way of the Fist. After forming a "dream team" of metal musicians, the band self-funded the album - producing it entirely themselves. Death Punch eventually signed with The Firm/ Prospect Park. After months of relentless touring-including a show-stealing set at 2008's Mayhem Festival - Five Finger Death Punch became the hottest new band in metal. Hot as hell, in fact: sales for Fist have exceeded 335,000 in the U.S. alone, while Death Punch grabbed features in publications such as Revolver, Kerrang!, Guitar World, Billboard and Metal Hammer. Plus, Fist spawned three top ten singles on active rock radio-"The Bleeding," "Never Enough," and "Stranger Than Fiction." Each single grew very organically in popularity, inexplicably turning a metal band into one of the most-requested artists on rock radio. Capping off the Fist cycle in style, Five Finger Death Punch won the 2009 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Award for "Best New Band."
However, it's all been simply a prelude to War. Five Finger Death Punch has fine-tuned their songs more than ever, and their sound has progressed immensely on their latest offering. Guitarist Zoltan Bathory puts it best: "We've matured but we're still the same band. Maybe we've gotten closer to traditional metal on War Is the Answer." Looking to surpass their DIY debut record, 5FDP decided to enlist some big guns for War. The band produced the album alongside world renowned producer Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne), and attracted legendary mixer Randy Staub (Metallica) to the project as well. Also, the band had grown together as people, performers and songwriters. Singer Ivan Moody relates, "We tried to keep the basic ingredients but expand the sound at the same time. We spent two and a half years on the road together, and these guys have become closer to me than my biological family."
The result on War is an expansive collection of unbridled melodic metal. Tracks like "Bulletproof" illustrate Five Finger Death Punch's diversity, switching from spellbinding chorus to neck-snapping solo in a flash. "Burn It Down" is a nihilistic exploration in pure rage-a new storyline with the same popular characters from The Way of the Fist. Meanwhile, "No One Gets Left Behind" is an up-tempo crusher that leaves room for lyrical interpretation. "You can take it literally, or as an underlying theme we often talk about," relates Zoltan. "We are all soldiers in this human tribe. We used to fight together against the elements of nature to survive, but today that tribal bond is completely forgotten because there are six billion of us now. Does that devalue human life?"
The band has been known for their intense guitar playing since day one, and War kicks it up several notches. Jason Hook joined the fold in 2008, lending an uncanny repertoire to the fold. "Jason's rhythm playing is very similar to mine," says Zoltan. "We have our signature sound all over War Is the Answer. It's a heavy machine gun style of playing. There are more solos because we wanted to utilize Jason's talent. We still focused on writing great songs though because those stay around forever." The songs on War will certainly stand the test of time, and the emotions encapsulated in them are extremely tangible. Ivan confronted many of his own demons, waging war through words. The singer says, "It's a more personal record. On War Is the Answer, the band encouraged me to write from the heart. There is a lot of stuff, as painful as it may be, that I tried to project on this album that I didn't get a chance to on the first record." "Walk Away" is an especially poignant song. The band incorporates acoustic guitars for a haunting, heavy sound, and the track's infectious, heartfelt chorus makes it a surefire single. "On "Walk Away", I wanted to wash my hands of this particular relationship in my life that has gone sour. It's a cleansing. I really did put my heart and soul into this entire record-no matter how hard it was. You have to expose the most ugly and raw parts of your life to really convey anything."
Ivan conveys true pain in his lyrics across the entire album. He pulls no punches, especially on the powerful "Crossing Over." His touching, episodic narrative propels the song under melancholy, melodic guitars. The entire album plays out in cinematic fashion with drama and true tension in every note. He continues, "We wanted to make an album that was going to feel like a major motion picture and not just an artsy B-movie." "Hard to See" could be the soundtrack to that epic. Ivan goes on, "The politics of the music industry have baffled me since day one. "Hard to See" is me lashing out at the industry. I'm so tired of being pulled in every direction and being told what to do. The song is about melding into the industry and learning the politics so we can be freer as artists."
The band's live show is more incendiary than ever. At the start, Five Finger Death Punch destroyed stages alongside Korn and Atreyu on The Family Values Tour 2007 and with Slipknot and Disturbed on the Rockstar Mayhem Festival 2008. Since then, they've had numerous successful headline jaunts in the U.S. and in Europe, with many more to come. About their international appeal, Zoltan offers some insight. "If you really dig down to the roots of the music, American bands are groove-oriented and based on rhythm and blues. European bands grow up on classical music because it's very much embedded into that culture. Five Finger Death Punch has both of those roots because I'm from Europe, and Ivan and the rest of the guys are American. We're a truly international metal band, and that fact separates us."
The album's title sums everything up for the band right now. Zoltan elaborates, "War is the nature of man; it's always been, and it'll never go away. War has many different manifestations so it doesn't have to be taken literally, but that urge to conquer is embedded in our genes. We were not meant to live our lives caged in cubicles." Ivan follows, "I think everyone has their own personal battles whether they're religious, political or family-oriented. To us, The Way of the Fist was a swift punch to the face. War Is the Answer is the answer to that first album. You listen and you know we have to keep fighting. You can never just give up and throw it to the wayside. It shows a sign of weakness and we don't plan on doing that anytime soon."
In the end, this record is for the people. Ivan concludes, "I want fans to be as proud of War Is the Answer as we are. We're not going anywhere. I want people to realize that this is from our hearts. I want the younger generation of musicians to realize if you stick to your guns and put forward the militant foot, you can get there. This band isn't afraid of anything. We will go out there, sweat, bleed and experiment-that's everything I've looked for my entire life in a band. Mankind is nothing but a cluster of opinions and nobody knows the real answers. However you can move, even change people through music. That's power and real art>" Indeed, Five Finger Death Punch are poised to take over the landscape. When it comes to how, there is no question-War is the Answer.
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What does the Torah imply when it notes 'the Cannannites were then in the land' (Gen. 12:6)? It seems to suggest they were in the land then (when the tale took place) but not now (when the book was written). As there were Cannannites in the land during the entire lifetime of Moses, who wrote the Pentateuch, why does the text seemingly speak in the past tense?
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If the Canaanites occupied the land in Moses' day, why would Moses write that they were in the land then?
Rashi on the verse (Bereshit 12:6) tells us that Israel was part of the portion of Shem. At that time, the Canaanites (descendants of Cham) were conquering the land from them.
However, Rashi in Bamidbar 13:22 (and Devarim 11:10) says that Cham built Chevron for his son Canaan, which would seem to indicate that the land of Canaan was part of Cham's portion.
The Chumas Shai LaMorah brings a Chizkuni (to both the verses from Bereshit and Devarim cited above) that explains the southern part of Israel was given to Cham, while the nothern part was given to Shem. Apparently these northern lands were now being conquered by the Canaanites.
Two other answers are brought here:
I'm not sure I'm understanding it correctly, but the Chizkuni (Bereshit 12:6) also brings another explanation (seemingly not according to Rashi). He says that the word "Az" is future tense, telling us that not only were there Canaanim in the land during the time of Avraham, but there will also be Canaanim in the land when it comes time for the Jews to conquer it.


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VS2008 Training Kit: Introduction to Silverlight
- Posted: Nov 26, 2007 at 9:18AM
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Hi and welcome to another Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit screencast.
This session was presented by Adam Kinney and is the from the
Visual Studio 2008 training kit available from http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7602397.
Silverlight is a cross platform UI framework for creating compelling Web experiences. Come learn the high-level architecture of Silverlight and the tools that are available to build Silverlight applications.
Recorded September 2007.
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5 Reasons Modern Life Is Driving Manliness to Extinction
#2. Hot Water Is a Sperm Killer
Traditionally, baths hold little to no value in the Ledger of Manly. Historical manliness involved avoiding bathing, much to the chagrin of historical womanliness. The only acceptably manly way to fraternize with water is a cold shower, if only because it's the third best cure for an inconvenient boner.
There's a reason behind this: Hot water murders sperm.
Which is why "teabagging" is actually a pretty ironic term.
It's really efficient at it, too -- overt hot-tubbing can and will do its level best to lower sperm count to the point of infertility. Researchers spent three grueling years figuring this out by giving dudes 30-minute hot baths, then taking sperm samples and measuring the sperm count after the baths. All of this was done at the University of California in San Francisco, and there are no jokes to be made on that subject whatsoever.
So what's the deal? Well, we've known for a long time that in order for sperm to develop, it needs temperatures lower than your normal body heat -- that's literally the only reason testicles are placed in insanely vulnerable skin-sacks outside the body. Nevertheless, until this study, there was little to no hard evidence for the adverse effects of hot baths on man parts.
"Leave me alone, it's not funny! They're not supposed to fall off like that!"
But before you jump out of the tub screeching in horror, know that it's not all bad news -- after the researchers fished their test subjects out of the hot tub for the last time, over half of them were able to increase their sperm counts back to something approaching normal.
#1. Modern Sleep Patterns Are Less Manly
Be honest: If you had to name an absolutely essential thing for testosterone production, would sleep even be on the list? The connection between resting and manliness isn't immediately obvious, but it's definitely there: Researchers have found that otherwise healthy and vigorous guys who sleep too little per night have the sucky testosterone levels of a man up to 15 years older.
"Ah, I remember those days. Sleeping until 3 p.m., then unleashing Nutpocalypse all night long."
It all boils down to how we're used to dealing with our environment. Even the most starry-eyed nostalgic must admit that when it comes to nightlife, the olden times pretty much sucked. Before electricity came along and enabled clubbing, you worked during the day ... and that's pretty much it. When sunset came, you were left in pitch black with precisely jack shit to do. People solved this issue by indulging in hefty amounts of sleep -- after all, dreams are free and readily available entertainment for princes and paupers alike. Modern technology, with all the procrastination possibilities it has to offer, has rendered all this excess sleeping more or less nonexistent.
Today's man goes to sleep whenever he remembers and does his level best to murder the alarm clock in the morning. This is bad news, as the body produces most of its testosterone during the REM sleep phase, which is hard as balls to achieve if you get just a few hours of shut-eye. What's more, sleeping too little can also mess with your ability to have a boner something dreadful.
"Hey, we could try shining a flashlight at my junk. The Internet says that might work."
So, to recap: Our forefathers got manlier merely by going to bed, while today's men neglect sleeping in favor of ruining their ability to maintain erections with drunken 2 a.m. porn marathons. Such is progress, ladies and gentlemen.
And now learn why people act like dicks in 5 Douchebag Behaviors Explained by Science. Or check out 6 Obnoxious Old People Habits (Explained by Science).
If you're pressed for time and just looking for a quick fix, then check out The 6 Least Intimidating Military Logos Ever.
And stop by LinkSTORM because the week is just starting and we can kill the pain.
And don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to get sexy, sexy jokes sent straight to your news feed. Are you on Google+? So are we!
Do you have an idea in mind that would make a great article? Then sign up RIGHT NOW and pitch your first article today! Do you possess expert skills in image creation and manipulation? Mediocre? Even rudimentary? Are you frightened by MS Paint and simply have a funny idea? You can create an infographic and you could be on the front page of Cracked.com tomorrow!


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Fresh AirWritten by Jeff Smith on February 1, 1997 Convert That Old Mechanical-Fuelie Manifold To EFI
It's the first decent weekend of spring. You've had your hot rod hidden in the garage all winter while you planned your image assault on the drive-in crowd. The usual suspects have been milling around at the local drive-in telling each other new lies, but you waited for this moment to make your appearance. Dusk approaches as you slowly pull into the driveway to make one quick loop around the cruise site. Almost in unison, everyone looks.
Sticking triumphantly out of the hood of your righteous ride is a killer calliope collage of eight injector stacks contributing to a lumpy idle that just reeks of horsepower. A couple of knowledgeable rodders pass immediate judgment saying,"Yeah, that's a mechanical-fuel-injection setup. The problem is they don't work on the street. Too bad, it sure looks cool."
That's when you stake out a parking spot and pop the hood. An eager crowd quickly gathers to eye your new induction. Then someone in the crowd exclaims,"Hey, that's an electronic-fuel-injection setup! That's too cool. How'd you do that?"
If you're looking for the hottest new trend, it doesn't get any better than this. Our pals at Blower Drive Service (BDS) are riding the crest of a new wave that's converting '60s-style mechanical-fuel-injection manifolds to electronic fuel injection (EFI). This is pure image horsepower and promises to be the hottest thing since Dare To Be Different.
Think about it. Everyone wants an exotic induction system, but the penalties are always poor driveability, no power, fouled plugs and terrible gas mileage. In the past, hot rodders were willing to put up with a skewed version of Billy Crystal's line,"It's better to look good than it is to run good!" According to Don Enriquez at Hilborn,"We don't recommend that anyone try mechanical fuel injection on the street. The average guy can't make it work." The typical mechanical-fuel-injection system is an individual-runner-style intake, which is generally difficult to set up properly for part-throttle operation. This is because mechanical fuel injection was originally designed for racing with an emphasis on wide-open-throttle metering. Unfortunately, street operation is practically all part throttle. All these limitations are eliminated with EFI.
Mechanical devices like a carburetor or mechanical fuel injection rely on a manifold vacuum signal or crude mechanical controls to meter fuel at part throttle, and therefore are a compromise throughout most of the engine's part- and full-throttle rpm range. Most EFI systems, on the other hand, utilize a fuel map that controls the engine's entire load and rpm range with specific fuel-metering commands. Therefore, the tuner has more control over the fuel curve to detail exactly the amount of fuel the engine needs with EFI. To put this into perspective, Craig Railsback at BDS says even the most basic EFI fuel map has a metering capability equivalent to between three and five million jetting combinations. Try that with your Holley carburetor!
Add the advantage of digital spark timing to precise fuel control and the tuning power of EFI is far superior to any mechanical system. In addition, most aftermarket EFI systems allow the tuner to run the engine in"closed loop" using an O.E.M. oxygen sensor in the exhaust. Closed loop runs even serious performance engines with big cams, heads and a wild intake at 14.7:1 air/fuel ratio at part throttle for excellent throttle response and mileage.
But enough tech, let's take a look at the fun part of all this. The barriers to creating a wild-looking induction system have just been torn down."The only limitation," Railsback says,"is your imagination." Right this minute hip hot rodders are buying used Hilborn, Crower and Enderle mechanical-fuel-injection manifolds and converting them to EFI. A typical used Hilborn intake with linkage and stacks is selling for between $200 and $500. Often these manifolds will need to be rebuilt with new throttle shafts. Hilborn, for example, will rebuild a used unit, but the cost can add up to more than the price of a new unit. Currently, a new Hilborn manifold with stacks for a small-block Chevy sells for just under $1100.
But the basic intake is just the beginning. The next step is to take the unit to BDS, where new or used mechanical-fuel-injection manifolds are converted to EFI by adding bungs to mount the electronic injectors. To this you must add a complete EFI wiring harness, sensors and a computer control such as an ACCEL/DFI system, BDS's system of choice. All of this isn't cheap, because a total conversion by BDS could run from $3500 to $5000, depending on added options. Compared to a $500 manifold-and-carburetor investment, EFI is unquestionably expensive, but high fashion has never been cheap.
Of course, there are less expensive ways to go. BDS offers a complete do-it-yourself EFI conversion kit that features everything you need to convert any kind of manifold into an electronic-fuel-injection system. The kit includes a complete ACCEL/DFI computer, a wiring harness, injectors, a fuel pump, fittings, sensors and all the rest for $2500, excluding the stainless-steel tubing that connects the fuel block to the individual injectors. BDS also offers the stainless-steel fuel-line kit for roughly another $100. Of course, if you can find a used EFI computer and wiring harness, that would reduce costs somewhat.
While it is possible to combine a stock GM or Ford EFI computer and wiring harness with a converted mechanical-fuel-injection intake, Railsback doesn't recommend this as an option. The problem for the end user with factory EFI is the lack of tuning ease once (or if) the system is up and running. Factory fuel and spark maps are burned into dedicated chips that cannot be reprogrammed easily, and while it's certainly possible to customize a chip to make the system driveable, this should be left up to only the most EFI knowledgeable.
The key to making any nonemission-hot-rod EFI package work is integrating an ACCEL/DFI, Haltech, Motec, Electromotive or other programmable EFI computer with your trick manifold so you can fine-tune the system. This usually requires a laptop computer, which can be rented or borrowed for the short time needed to tune. How well can you make one of these systems work? As an example, Railsback recently finished an Enderle mechanical-fuel-injection manifold conversion on Mike Hurley's 467ci Hemi-powered '34 Plymouth. Harv's Automotive, next door to BDS, did the EFI installation, and then Railsback spent a few hours tuning the spark and fuel curves. With the tuning accomplished, Hurley drove his '34 from San Diego to Pleasanton, California, for the annual Goodguys street rod show and knocked down more than 14 miles per gallon on top of wowing the crowd with his too-trick induction system.
There's far more to trick EFI inductions than we can possibly detail in a short story like this. Perhaps even more exciting is the creativity that should soon spring from the street rod/street machine artists once they embrace this idea. While this may be bold new territory, it's also classic hot rodding to combine the aesthetics of a killer-cool induction system with '90s technology to produce a too-hip hot rod that's also a ton of fun to drive. You can't ask for more than that!
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
This exotic induction helped Troy Trepanier win a HOT ROD Top Ten spot in 1994. Troy started with a Mooneyes cross-ram intake originally designed for sidedraft Webers and used an ACCEL/DFI system to convert the intake to EFI with the help of TWM throttle bodies. This manifold is still available through Mooneyes U.S.A.Another Mike Adams–built example of auto-exotica is Danny Bryant's '57 Nomad, featured in the August '95 HOT ROD. Here Adams combined another wild Kinsler mechanical-fuel-injection manifold converted to EFI with ACCEL/DFI electronics.Kevin Zaske sent us this photo of a big-block Chevy he recently built for an early Camaro. The 430ci Rat uses a '60s-era Pete Jackson mechanical manifold that he converted to electronics. Note also the nitrous plumbed into the top of the injector stacks. These will be covered up with a hoodscoop/air-cleaner setup. Sneaky, no?Mike Hurley had the Enderle mechanical injection converted to EFI and bolted it on the 467ci stroker Hemi in his '34 Dodge. Hurley says the car runs fantastic and is capable of 14 mpg on the highway and a 700-rpm idle in gear with the air conditioning on. It won the Bad To The Bone award at the Goodguys event in Pleasanton, California.Imagine bolting this calliope-stack intake on your Rat motor. You can still find these old Crower intakes at swap meets, or you can purchase these manifolds new from Ron's Racing Products in Tucson, Arizona.This is a new Hilborn mechanical intake converted by BDS to EFI. Railsback has moved the electronic injectors to the inboard side of the throttle bodies to make them less visible. Imagine this motor stuffed between the fenders of your '32 Ford highboy or '68 Camaro. This is what boulevard legends are made of.Here are a couple of older Hilborn intakes that BDS has converted to EFI. The one on the left is for a Hemi.
The biggest hurdle to clear with these conversions is fitting the injectors to the manifold. BDS uses a custom die to thread the bottom of the injector. A matching bung is welded into the intake, and the injector threads are welded into the bung. Then a special BDS AN fitting adapts the injector to a stainless-steel hard line. This makes custom installations much easier than building custom fuel rails.How about this for an idea? Use the base and runners from an ACCEL SuperRam intake and adapt four TWM throttle bodies for a different look. Your creativity is your only limitation.Fred Moore's Eagle Productions makes a killer wiring harness for the ACCEL/DFI EFI system available through BDS. The harness is less bulky than the standard ACCEL harness and looks much cleaner. There's also a trick optional 31-pin connector that separates the harness at the firewall for engine swaps.


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I need an efficient algorithm to find the ellipse with the smallest possible area which encloses two given ellipses. The given ellipses are constrained to have coincident centers at the origin but can have any orientation. The problem is limited to two dimensions. Any ideas?
Yeah, there is a shear transformation that takes one of the ellipses to a circle. The least area ellipse enclosing the resulting figure is now evident by symmetry. Then use the inverse of the shear.
Now that I think of it, you can just shrink along the major axis of one of the ellipses and expand on the minor axis to get the circle.
All manipulations involved are with 2 by 2 matrices. The hypothesis of coincident centers is crucial.
Below is an example to illustrate Will Jagy's solution.
(Caveat lector: I did not preserve scale from image to image.)
First, it is no loss of generality to rotate so that one ellipse $E_1$ has its major
axis along the $x$-axis:
Here is Will Jagy's drawing as he mentions in his comment below:


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New York Nears Gun Limits
Tighter Weapon Law Passes Senate, Assembly With Bipartisan Support
ALBANY, N.Y.—Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers in both chambers of the Legislature agreed on a series of new gun-control laws that would make New York the first state to put new restrictions on firearms after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in mid-December.
The state Assembly approved the legislation on Tuesday afternoon by 104-43, less than a day after passage in the state Senate during a late-night vote with a 43-18 margin. The legislative package included nearly everything sought by Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat who has exhorted state lawmakers to lead the nation on the issue, and the governor was expected to sign the bill later Tuesday.
The measure, which would tighten the state's ban on what it defines as assault weapons, would include a ban on ammunition magazines holding more than seven bullets, increased penalties and prison sentences for some gun crimes and a requirement that mental-health providers report potentially dangerous patients to authorities.
New York already has some of the nation's most-restrictive gun laws. The legislation would close what Mr. Cuomo has called loopholes in the ban, including a provision that allows what it deems assault weapons made before 1994 to be sold. The state currently bans ammunition magazines larger than 10 bullets, except on weapons made before 1994.
The legislation would also expand background checks for most gun owners and require them to renew their license every five years, among other things.
"This is one of the greatest problems facing the state," Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference in the Capitol on Monday night. "It's one of the, if not the most comprehensive responses to this crisis. I think it will go a large way toward making a difference."
Most of those who voted against the bill hailed from the state's rural regions north of New York City.
"I voted no, and I only wish I could have done it twice," said Sen. Greg Ball, a Republican.
Seen by political pundits as a potential presidential contender, Mr. Cuomo has leapt into the national debate over gun control, responding to the school shooting in neighboring Connecticut and the deaths of two firefighters who authorities said were lured to a burning house near Rochester, N.Y., and fatally shot on Christmas Eve. The suspected gunman in the firefighter shootings took his own life as well, authorities said.
Mr. Cuomo and his aides have been in negotiations with lawmakers over gun control for weeks, people familiar with the matter said. He is expected to sign the legislation if it passes.
New York's efforts come as the White House attempts to push new federal gun legislation through Congress. In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy has formed a commission to examine new firearms restrictions, and the state's legislative leaders are preparing their own measures.
In Newtown on Monday, several victims' parents and their neighbors said they had formed a nonprofit group to promote policies that deter gun violence.
The parents, some speaking publicly for the first time since the tragedy, said they hadn't decided which policy prescriptions they would support, saying they wanted to first start a national dialogue.
The nonprofit is called Sandy Hook Promise, named after the school where 20 children and six adults were slain.
At a news conference, some parents sobbed as they listened to one another speak about their lost children. Some held up photographs of the young victims, all of whom were first-graders. "As citizens of a community, it is our responsibility to take action to ensure this doesn't happen again," said Jeremy Richman, whose 6-year-old daughter Avielle was a victim.
As lawmakers debated gun-control legislation in Albany, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took his national campaign for stricter guns laws to Baltimore, where he accused Congress of bowing to the gun lobby. At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the mayor said he had been speaking with Vice President Joe Biden about making seven changes to federal guns laws, including requiring background checks for all gun sales. Mr. Bloomberg said the Newtown shooting would represent "the straw that has broken the camel's back" that would lead to new gun laws.
"This is not a constitutional question," Mr. Bloomberg said, referring to the Second Amendment. "It's a question of political courage."
The National Shooting Sports Foundation didn't return calls for comment Monday. That group and other gun-rights groups have lobbied against firearms restrictions.
News of a vote on the gun-control measures in New York drew about 40 union workers from a nearby Remington Arms Factory to protest at the Capitol here. The factory employs about 1,250 people and produces the AR-15 Bushmaster rifle used in the Newtown shooting and in the Rochester shooting.
The rifle, as it is currently configured, couldn't be sold in New York under the laws being considered Monday because it would be deemed an assault weapon. The current law in New York bans all rifles that had two features of assault weapons—a pistol grip and a bayonet mount, for instance. But the new laws would ban all rifles with at least one assault-weapon feature, prohibiting the AR-15's pistol grip.
"Any ban they would put on firearms would hurt our business, hurt our jobs," said Fran Madore, the vice president of United Mine Workers of America Local 717, which represents many employees at the Remington plant in Ilion, N.Y. "This is not about products…this is about our jobs."
—Will James contributed to this article.


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There is a minimum order of 36 pieces to order personalized stickers with this item.
Stickers do not come attached to your favors, some assembly is required
If ordering this item with Personalized Stickers, please allow 3 to 4 business days before this item ships.
Please note this item is considered a Personalized Product and cannot be returned. All sales of Personalized Products are final. If there was an error on our part with the personalization, we will reprint and reship for free.
Please note: Due to the nature of all personal care products, that this item cannot be returned for sanitary reasons. All sales of this item are final. If you would like to see the product before placing a large order please contact us to order a sample.
Step 1: Click to Design Your Label
Step 2:


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2 Nov 2010 11:17 AM #1
[FIXED-502] List created by Select field is never destroyed if hidden on mask tap
Select field has createList function that creates List of options, which is configured with hideOnMaskTap: true. If a user taps one of the items in this List, it gets hidden and destroyed properly. However if a user taps on a mask, the list gets hidden but is never destroyed and therefore stays in DOM forever.
Proposed solution in Select.js (the changes are highlighted in red):
createList: function() { return new Ext.List({ store: this.store, tpl : [ '<tpl for=".">', '
', '{' + this.displayField + '}', '', '
', '</tpl>' ], cls : 'x-select-overlay', itemSelector : '.x-list-item', floating : true, stopMaskTapEvent: true, hideOnMaskTap : true, singleSelect : true, listeners: { selectionchange: { fn: this.onListSelect, scope: this }, hide: function() { this.destroy(); } } }); }, onListSelect : function(list, node, records) { var me = this, selected = records[0]; if (selected) { me.setValue(selected.get(me.valueField)); me.fireEvent('select', me, me.getValue()); } me.list.hide({ type: 'fade', out: true // This is not needed because the list gets destroyed by its own hide event // after: function() { // me.list.destroy(); // }, // scope: me }); },Eugene
Ext.Direct for ASP.NET MVC
2 Nov 2010 2:26 PM #2
12 Nov 2010 7:13 PM #3
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
- Posts
- 18,336
- Vote Rating
- 854
The Select class has since been refactored and this issue has now be resolved. Marking as fixed.Evan Trimboli
Sencha Developer
Twitter - @evantrimboli
Don't be afraid of the source code!
25 Aug 2012 2:46 AM #4
How to take control over multiple x-select-overlay classes ?????????
This is Vijay. I have a doubt. In my application there are more than one select fields. I need to configure each select field with different styles say colors, width, height. The id generated for x-select-overlay is not unique or is there anyway we can give an id to the x-select-overlays individually ?. Can anyone suggest a way to style the x-select-overlay classes individually. Is the createList function in this thread defined by Sencha or user defined ?? can we override this funciton in our code to take a control of x-select-overlay classes ???? Kindly reply with a solution asap. !!! Thanks in advance.............
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Agriculture & Food
Nothing is more basic to human well-being than having enough nutritious food to eat. Yet one in every eight people in the world — 842 million — are trapped in a cycle of hunger and poverty.
The reality is that most of the world doesn't have the benefit of picking up food from the corner store — they grow it themselves. Hunger is a crisis when disaster ruins the harvest. It is a cycle when families cannot grow or buy enough to lead healthy, productive lives, and when the effects of malnutrition are passed on to the next generation.
When food shortages occur due to drought and conflict, Mercy Corps helps prevent hunger and treat malnutrition in the most vulnerable — children, pregnant women, the elderly and the displaced. We distribute vouchers, cash or emergency rations, working with local suppliers to speed delivery, save money and boost local economies.
In addition to emergency responses, we focus on long-term solutions that build future food security.
Mercy Corps helps farmers manage their land, increase their harvests and diversify crops to produce a larger, more nutritious, and stable food supply. By teaching nutrition and hygiene, we ensure families can utilize their resources to boost their health. And we connect farmers with new markets and introduce more efficient methods of tending productive livestock and processing and storing crops to increase incomes for years to come.
All stories about Agriculture & Food
Kyrgyzstan: Cash to improve food security in southern Kyrgyzstan
On a recent crisp spring day in Osh, I was milling about one of our distribution sites in the Alymbek-Datka neighborhood, chatting with program participants.
Guatemala: Guess who's cooking tonight in Guatemala?
"Bienvenidos. "Loq ` le k`ulumnik. Welcome" to PROCOMIDA's final male recipe competition!
South Sudan: Realizing South Sudan's food potential
Many people are aware of the oil wealth in South Sudan, but it is less well known that my soon-to-be-independent country is incredibly fertile with huge agricultural potential.
Great minds think alike: farmers deserve our support
Farmers are on people's minds these days, and they deserve to be.
Indonesia: From Seattle to Jakarta, food carts are hot stuff
In Seattle, the popularity of food carts has exploded in recent years.
Libya: Got chicken?
Two weeks ago, we walked into the grocery store here in Benghazi, Libya to look for chicken.
Guatemala: The different sparks of a cooking recipe
Part of the health and nutrition strengthening strategies used by Mercy Corps' PROCOMIDA program with Guatemalan communities consists of recipe demonstrations to beneficiary mothers.
Nepal: Bamboo and bio-engineering interventions for mitigation of riverbank erosion
Floods are a major hazard in Nepal contributing to endemic poverty, an occurrence that is likely to increase and magnify due to climate change.
Guatemala: Traveling the roads of resilient children
I recently went to visit the communities of Yalchactic I and Salvador Chizol, near the city of Cobán in Guatemala's mountainous Alta Verapaz region. A large portion of the access roads to these communities are in very bad shape.
Timor-Leste: Sharing the responsibility to grow more food
After a bumpy six hour drive from our head office in Dili, we finally reached our first destination on my recent field visit in Timor-Leste: the village of Maununu.


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A study of rhythmic styles of contemporary salsa music, including characteristics of instrumentation and the unique clave rhythmic pattern. Specific rhythmic styles analyzed will include mambo, son montuno, guajiro, bomba, merengue, and songo, among others. Musical scores of Eddie Palmieri, Juan Luis Guerra, Oscar D'León, Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D'Rivera, and many others will be analyzed. Students will create melodies as well as piano, guitar, bass, and percussion rhythmic patterns; they will write brass instrumental sections using the clave rhythmic pattern.
Survey of the mallet, membrane, and accessory groups of the percussion instrument family. Demonstration and discussion of notation, range, techniques, and effects. Scores from Broadway shows and studio, orchestral, chamber, and solo pieces.
A study of the flute, clarinet, and double reed families based on intensive listening, transcription, live demonstration, and composition. Compositions will include: visual imagery, storytelling, non-Western based concepts and forms, sound exchange, layering sound, and techniques for composition that include improvisation.
Alternative approaches and concepts to writing that can be used in various aspects of songwriting, arranging, and composing for contemporary broadcast media, such as film and TV scores, that will supplement other writing approaches. Using compositional concepts pioneered by George Tremblay and Jack Smalley, the course explores writing techniques based on the use of the 12-tone row concept and the process of extracting consonant melodic components from the rows that are then applied to writing for contemporary musical styles and forms and commercial clients. Some writing projects will be realized through sequencing and live performance.
Study of orchestration in musical theater and the role of the orchestra in a theater piece. Students will arrange and orchestrate songs with a focus on supporting a vocalist, telling the story, and creating a theatrical sound. The class will explore how orchestration can be used as a dramatic element to establish a period, create a mood, and support the narrative. Written projects focus on typical instruments and ensembles used in various theatrical situations. Listening will include songs from a wide variety of musical theater recordings, with examples of piano scores and individual parts from shows.
The advanced student will learn to utilize digital audio workstations (DAW) to create arrangements of either original or existing musical elements. This course focuses on the creative use of technology in music production. Topics covered include signal flow of MIDI and audio signal within the DAW sound processing plugins, choosing appropriate sounds and combining elements from software synthesizers, alternate approaches to quantizing and refining rhythmic grooves, hybrid production techniques (audio and MIDI), use of the DAW for scoring to picture and basic synthesis techniques. In addition to using their own laptops in the Professional Writing Technology Lab students are expected to have the CWP major bundle.
Viewing music production from the writer's perspective, this course explores how knowledge of compositional elements including melody, harmony, arranging, and orchestration help provide the foundation and focus of contemporary production styles and techniques. Study and analysis of great producer/musicians will include George Martin, Quincy Jones, Phil Spector, Daniel Lanois, Peter Gabriel, Prince, Don Was, Robert John Mutt Lange, and others. Focus will be on how producers utilize their background as accomplished musicians to create the aural landscape of the artists they produce. Course projects will include analysis papers on different producers in a variety of styles, and one recording project.
An orchestration/arranging course that focuses on the techniques and concepts of writing for big band. Content also includes the arranging process and how to adapt and modify the musical elements of a composition into an effective arrangement. The course deals with notation, voicings, and combinations of the various sections comprising the large ensemble: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, selected woodwinds, and rhythm section. Extensive use of recorded examples and extracts from scores.
Emphasis on arranging techniques that apply specifically to recording situations in various contemporary music settings and idioms. Arranger's function, current market trends, and contemporary recording techniques are discussed.
Arranging for strings behind a vocalist or lead instrument. Emphasis is on contemporary string writing approaches in the styles of rock, Latin, funk, ballads, and jazz, and the feels of even and shuffled eighths and sixteenths for string sections (with rhythm section accompaniment) using specific arranging techniques of closed and open voicings, clusters, three- to six-part writing, use of primary melody and countermelody, and guide tone lines. Production approaches from the writer's perspective are also covered. Projects may include arrangements for live performances, recordings, or commercials.
The course focuses on mixing techniques through the use of sound processing as it pertains to the writer who engineers and produces his or her own pieces. Through the use of plug-ins, the understanding and artistic application of ambient effects (e.g. reverbs, delays, flangers, harmonizers, and choruses) and dynamic processing units (e.g. compressors, noise gates, equalizers, and limiters) the course explores how writing can be enhanced at the recording and mixing stage through the effective use of sound processing equipment. The student will have the opportunity to understand how to enhance their recordings with these effects through in-class demonstration, listening analysis, and assigned projects using specified equipment.
This course provides students a one-semester overview of approaches to scoring for video games. Beginning with a short history of interactive music, the content includes typical game music workflow and approaches to scoring video games. Assignments include scoring projects using different interactive music techniques. Students will be able to describe the history, theory, mechanisms, and basic approaches to writing music for video games. They will be able to write simple to moderate interactive scores using the most commonly used methods in the industry. In addition students will discuss and learn about specific industry issues related to working in this field.


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6 Extreme Sports You Won't Believe Anyone Survives
#3. Swimming Jumps ... With a Human Catapult
Maybe it's been a while since you've cannonballed into a pool on a hot summer day, but one whiff of chlorine and coconut sunscreen can usually bring it all back. It wasn't enough to sit on the hot concrete and daintily lower yourself into the water feet first -- at least not if you wanted to be respected by those punks you called your friends. If you were serious about summertime fun, you had to jump. And if you were dead serious, you had to make a splash so big all the grownups would go home on account of rain.
In other words, how you got into the pool has always been serious business. Today it just got seriouser.
Allow us to introduce you to the bone-breaker of your dreams. It's called the AirKick, and it's exactly what it sounds like: a giant commercial catapult designed for the sole purpose of launching you 26 feet into the air. Its driving force is about six buckets' worth of water, shooting through a rocket nozzle with enough pressure to fling a fully grown human.
Baller House
Or a man-child.
Of course, where you land is your own business -- the manufacturer names swimming pools and foam pits as potential landing sites, but if you're the sort of person who purchases a goddamn human catapult for recreational purposes, chances are you can afford to get a lot more creative about your destination. (Vanilla pudding.)
Jochen Schweizer
Or a carpet of floating strippers.
#2. Freestyle Jumping ... With a Giant Kite
For people who want to get in the air but aren't coordinated enough to attempt hang gliding or the process of buying plane tickets, kite jumping is probably the best start. Because anyone can jump, right? Sure. But jumping is the easy part.
The recipe for kite jumping is as simple as the recipe for disaster: A comically oversized kite and you, trying not to die when it inevitably snatches you up into the sky.
Ian B., College Humor
This is the final picture of at least one of these kids.
It is considered one of the riskier forms of kiting, an achievement that may seem comparable to being the most hardcore knitter in the Woolly Sock Club ... until you actually see it in action.
Like we said, you are by no means in for a smooth ride: you are at the mercy of the wind, which can fling you to the ground in a screeching, crushing arc.
"I'm beginning to regret several specific life choices."
And of course, while you're up there, you do tricks. Because how else would it be extreme?
Could there be a stupider way to get airborne?
Yes, actually.
#1. Surfing, Snowboarding/Skiing ... While Hang Gliding
Aviation is never a simple thing. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than with hang gliding, which is basically just a dude leaping off cliffs wearing a giant wing thong and trying not to die. Yet the sport of hang gliding somehow manages to have some of the strictest safety standards around, with more controls, harnesses and safety measures than a moderately equipped bondage dungeon.
But then there's the Kitewing, which is an unholy cross between a hang glider and a kite that's stripped of every single conceivable safety feature. What it has instead is a handle, for you to better hang-on-for-dear-life with.
"I like a morning glider shark hunt before my afternoon volcano skiing."
Technically, the Kitewing can be used safely, as a sail-like propeller to extreme sports vehicles such as roller skates, surfboards and snowboards. But Kitewing is also specifically designed to provide lift, in order to gain the extra element of uncontrollable flight to sports that are strictly surface-based.
And so we have these guys snow skiing with Kitewings ...
... and using them to fly right the hell off the side of the mountain:
"The handles count as a safety feature, so I don't really need a helmet."
And then we have this guy ...
... using it to kite himself right across a frozen lake at breakneck speed:
"I'll take imminent, gory death over coffee any morning."
Damn it, people. If God wanted people to fly via kite, he would have given us kite heads.
For more ridiculous sports, check out The 10 Most Insane "Sports" in the World and 6 Ancient Sports Too Awesome For the Modern World.


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STEM Research
Microbiology of the Built Environment
Jessica Green at TED: Are We Filtering the Wrong Microbes?
Microbiologist, TED Fellow, and Director of the Sloan-funded Biology and the Built Environment Center at the University of Oregon, Jessica Green talks about "good" and "bad" microbes in the indoor environment, and how our attempts to filter out "bad" air might be doing more harm than good.
Why architects should let the microbes in Science Daily
- Call For Proposals: 2016 MoBE Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Accepting Applications Through Sept 1
- 2014 MoBE Postdoctoral Fellows
- MoBE Postdoc FAQ
- MoBE Journal Articles
- Biology and the Built Environment Center at the U. of Oregon
- Microbiomes of the Built Environment Data Analysis Core
- Microbiology of the Built Environment Network
- Read the microBEnet blog
- Visualization and Analysis of Microbial Population Structures (VAMPS)


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I studied computer science near the end of 1980s, and wasn't taught OOP that formally.
With Pascal or C, when I understand the top-down design of functions, and the idea of black box, then everything just seem to make sense, as if there is a "oh I get it!" -- some kind of totally getting it and enlightenment feeling.
But with OOP, all I know was the mechanics: the class, instance, method, inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation. It was like, I knew all the "this is how it is", but never had the feeling of "I totally get it", the enlightened feeling.
Would somebody be able to describe it, or point to a chapter in some book or paper which talks about OOP so that the reader can feel: "I totally get it!" on OOP?


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Natural World: 75/100 of 933
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Bee collapse is the result of their enslavement in industrial monocultures
Allan Stromfeldt Christensen
2nd May 2015Bee 'colony collapse disorder' cannot be ended by easy technofixes, writes Allan Stromfeldt Christensen. The real problem is the systematic abuse of bees in vast industrial monocultures, as they are trucked or flown thousands of miles from one farm to the next, treated with insecticides and antibiotics, and fed on 'junk food'. more...
Earth Day on the River of Grass
Grant A. Mincy
25th April 2015President Obama Earth Day appearance on the Florida Everglades' failed to disguise the truth, writes Grant A. Mincy - that governmental and corporate domination of ecosystems brings their all too predictable destruction. It's not national parks that will save our nature, but restoration of the commons and their management by local communities. more...
Living beings as our kith and kin - we need a new pronoun for nature
Robin Wall Kimmerer
25th April 2015Calling the natural world 'it' absolves us of moral responsibility and opens the door to exploitation, writes Robin Wall Kimmerer. To make our kinship with all life on Earth a life-affirming daily reality, we need a new pronoun for our fellow beings. more...
Making our votes count for wildlife and animals!
Joe Duckworth
21st April 2015If you care about the wildlife in our countryside and the welfare of animals, then make your vote count in the general election, writes Joe Duckworth. Backed by Cameron himself, 'country sports' enthusiasts are getting organised to support pro-killing candidates. We must be even more effective in opposing them. more...
Nearby wild - how I turned my lawn into a mini-meadow
Jo Cartmell
27th April 2015Decades of regular mowing left my front lawn looking bare and sterile, writes Jo Cartmell. But in fact, the exhausted, infertile soil made it the perfect place for a host of wild flowers to take up residence - some from planted seed, others blown-in, or from long buried seed lying dormant in the soil. And after that, the butterflies ... more...
Strong marine protection works for fisheries and wildlife!
Bryce Stewart & Leigh Howarth
20th April 2015The strongly protected marine reserve in Lamlash Bay, Arran, has been a huge success, write Bryce Stewart & Leigh Howarth, with abandant life returning to the once denuded waters. The government's refusal to expand such protections represents a huge wasted opportunity for both fishing and the marine environment. more...
Lake Baikal: World Heritage ecosystems at risk from Mongolian dam
Anson Mackay
19th April 2015Russia's Lake Baikal is under threat by a massive dam and pipeline on the main river that feeds into it, that would supply mines with power and water, writes Anson Mackay. In line to fund the project? The World Bank. more...
To protect our seas, first we must reclaim them from 'Big Fishing'
Horatio Morpurgo
10th April 2015There's strong public support for protecting marine wildlife, writes Horatio Morpurgo - so why aren't politicians championing the cause? Labour and Tories alike fear to challenge the big fishing companies that have come to believe they own Britain's offshore waters and seabed. Now it's up to use to prove they're wrong. more...
Shark-counting divers off Costa Rica show marine reserves need active protection
Julia Baum & Easton R. White
24th April 2014A Pacific island paradise 340 miles from Costa Rica's coast should be the ideal place for marine conservation, write Julia Baum & Easton R. White. But while its waters are indeed teeming with life, steep population declines in key shark and ray species show that stronger protection is badly needed. more...
Neonicotinoid link to Monarch butterfly decline
Jonathan Latham
9th April 2015Monarch caterpillars are vulnerable to neonicotinoid toxicity at concentrations as low as 1 part per billion, writes Jonathan Latham, and that makes them vulnerable to residues from commercial crops - and even more so from horticultural use in plant nurseries! more...
Saving Lamlash Bay - and over-exploited seas everywhere
Howard Wood
20th April 2015A coveted award has put the campaign to protect and recover marine life in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, into the international limelight. Goldman Prize winner Howard Wood explains how Arran Islanders' efforts to keep scallop dredgers out of Lamlash Bay has brought life, and fish, back to the sea. more...
The scientific case for badger culling - an organic farmer writes
Charles Mann
9th April 2015Organic farmer Charles Mann, aroused by The Ecologist's anti-cull stance, makes an evidence-based case for culling badgers in areas of high TB incidence - together with other measures including enhanced testing in apparently 'low risk' areas that present a high risk of disease spread. more...
Natural World: 75/100 of 933
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Ice melt endangers Arctic mammals
Tim Radford
2nd April 2015A survey of threatened Arctic mammals highlights melting sea ice as a prime threat to eleven keystone species, writes Tim Radford - meaning that efforts to conserve them may be doomed to failure unless we also tackle the causes of climate change. more...
Man on an Antarctic mission - taking a plunge for the Ross Sea
Yannic Rack
1st April 2015How to campaign for the world's biggest marine protected area in Antarctica's freezing seas? If you're Lewis Pugh, the answer's a simple one: swim there! And before your hands have even recovered from the frostbite, fly off to Moscow to persuade the Kremlin to back the idea. Yannic Rack met the intrepid swimmer in a cosy London pub ... more...
EU turns fire on invasive species already costing €12 billion a year
Yannic Rack
25th March 2015A new EU Regulation aims to limit the spread of invasive species through 'pathway controls' and bans on possession, transport and trade, writes Yannic Rack. But will it be up to the most important task - keeping the most hazardous aliens out, before they ever get the chance to become a nuisance? more...
Lake Powell is dead! Long live Glen Canyon!
Grant A. Mincy
28th March 2015Drought is returning Lake Powell, impounded behind the Glen Canyon dam on the Colorado river, back to desert, writes Grant A. Mincy - and a fine thing too! As nature turns billions of dollars of infrastructural abomination to junk, this creates the chance to reclaim our commons and recreate ravaged ecosystems. more...
Canned hunting is not protecting wild lions!
Dominic Dyer
25th March 2015Two thirds of Africa's lions have been lost in 35 years, and would-be hunters are increasingly shooting captive, farmed and often tame lions in 'canned hunts'. Claims are that this helps to preserve wild lion populations - but Dominic Dyer fears the reverse is the case. more...
Letter from Ecuador - where defending nature and community is a crime
Carlos Zorrilla
25th March 2015Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, has personally attacked eco-defender Carlos Zorrilla in TV broadcasts for resisting a vast new copper mine in a precious area of pristine cloud forest, and opposing the advance of oil exploration into the Amazon. Fearful for his life, Zorilla is now seeking international support for his, and his community's, battle for land, water and the natural world. more...
World's greatest marine reserve around Pitcairn Islands
The Ecologist
19th March 2014The UK is to create a fully protected marine in the South Pacific more than three times bigger than the UK itself, covering some 830,000 square kilometres. The move may herald further huge designations in the UK's 'overseas territories' which encompass over 6 million square kilometres of ocean. more...
Will the badger cull cost the Tories the election? It certainly should!
Dominic Dyer
16th March 2015David Cameron has called the badger cull is 'probably the most unpopular policy for which I am responsible', writes Dominic Dyer. But unable to break his pledge to landowners and the NFU, he has left Environment Secretary Liz Truss to fudge the issue until election time. Electorally fatal? So events may prove. more...
The joys and sufferings of plants as sentient beings
Martin Spray
10th April 2015Is it 'morally reprehensible' to arbitrarily decapitate roadside flowers? Yes it is, writes Martin Spray - at least in Switzerland. And now we know that plants have both senses and physiology, why not awareness and emotions too? Even legal standing to have their rights defended in court - at least if they are trees? more...
Saving the wild Rockies
Jeffrey St. Clair
26th July 2015In the battle to save America's real wild west of unlogged forests, grizzly bears, mountain goats, Bull trout, free flowing streams and roadless wilderness, a single person stands out, writes Jeffrey St Clair, for her dedication, courage and remarkable success: Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan, Montana. more...
The roots of life and health: Elaine Ingham's theory of the living soil
Lynda Brown / Sustainable Food Trust
31st March 2015Modern agriculture - even among organic farmers - is often seen as a matter of soil chemistry, writes Lynda Brown. But an alternative view is gaining ground: that it's really about soil life. Nurture your soil-dwelling micro-organisms, and your crops look after themselves. more...
Wildlife protection depends on enforcement
Angus Nurse
10th March 2015The Labour Party has launched a new manifesto for wildlife protection, writes Angus Nurse - and a good thing too! But turning the tide for nature will take more than stricter laws and penalties. Ultimately it's about enforcement. And that means prioritising wildlife crime, committing expert officers, and providing resources. more...
Beavers are saving California's wild salmon
Miria Finn / onEarth
1st March 2015With California's wild Coho salmon populations down to 1% of their former numbers, there's growing evidence that beavers - long reviled as a pest of the waterways - are essential to restore the species, writes Maria Finn. In the process, they raise water tables, recharge aquifers and improve water quality. What's not to love? more...
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The 6 Most Accidentally Creepy Movie Romances
Hollywood is no stranger to creepy romances: We've seen movies about aliens doing it with human women, 100-year-old vampires dating high school teens and Woody Allen hooking up with young starlets, among other unlikely atrocities. And yet, somehow, the writers always find new ways to top themselves, coming up with new and more disgusting ways to creep everyone out without even meaning to.
Here are six more famous movies where the filmmakers tried to add a little romance and ended up unleashing unintentional nastiness at best, pure existential horror at worst.
#6. Source Code -- Jake Gyllenhaal Kills a Man, Then Steals His Life and Girlfriend
The Movie Romance
Source Code is about a time-altering device that can't send a person's body back, but can transport his mind. He just has to inhabit (that is, possess) the body of someone who was there.
Time travel, brought to you by math and the color blue.
So the plot is that Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) uses this device to go back and take over the body of Sean Fentress, a victim in a train bombing, and relives the last eight minutes of Sean's life over and over until he manages to catch the bomber (think Quantum Leap multiplied by Groundhog Day). In the process, Colter, wearing the body of Sean, asks out Sean's hot co-worker Christina (Michelle Monaghan), and the two live happily ever after, presumably.
Why can't Jake Gyllenhaal just travel through time like normal people?
The Creepy Implications
Except that there's one small thing Colter hasn't mentioned to Christina by the end of the movie: Namely, that the co-worker she's had a crush on for weeks is dead, and he's actually some other guy who possessed the dead dude's body.
Basically, Colter has stolen another man's life, and the end of the movie gives no indication that he'll ever tell Christina what's going on -- how could he? She'd probably just assume he had a psychotic break. This "happy ending" is actually a terrible situation for everyone involved: Colter is walking around in the body of a man he knows nothing about, and Christina is now dating a complete stranger pretending to be Sean. There's a name for that, by the way, and it's called "rape by fraud."
"We don't have those laws in the future. Uh, I mean Minnesota. Where ... I come from."
Say Colter does the right thing and stops seeing Christina -- he still has to deal with the man's other friends and family and with his job as a teacher. Colter is a soldier, so unless he's also been getting a degree in education on the side, we're pretty sure that he's about to engage in some Kindergarten Cop-style hijinks. He's going to have to fake his way through basically every interaction he has with everyone, like the guy from Memento, but with fewer tattoos.
Our finest team of mathematicians were paid to whip an intern while he calculated the film's precise genetics.
Add this to the fact that, per the movie's ending, the Source Code (the machine that allows Colter to quantum-leap into Sean's body) was actually creating alternate timelines with every attempt to save the train. This means that, in theory, an infinite number of Jake Gyllenhaals will be creeping out an infinite number of Michelle Monaghans in an infinite number of universes, forever.
#5. Blade Runner -- Harrison Ford Forces Himself on a Replicant
The Movie Romance
In the future, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is tasked with finding and killing four escaped replicants, robots that look like humans. At one point, Deckard makes out with another replicant named Rachael, and the two go off together at the end of the movie, knowing that she only has a few years left before her expiration date arrives.
"So let's get busy."
The Creepy Implications
Sure, a case could be made that Deckard macking on a robot is sorta creepy on its own, but that depends on whether you believe that Deckard himself was a replicant, and we're not going anywhere near that can of worms here. Nope, the scene where they hook up is disturbing for different reasons. Rapey reasons.
Seriously, here's the scene where Deckard makes his move on Rachael (relevant bit starts at 3:05):
Watch that scene again without the sound on and it's infinitely creepier. Deckard starts kissing Rachael and she gets up and tries to leave, but Deckard stops her, forcefully, by slamming the door shut when she opens it.
Not off to a good start here, guy.
Rachael looks worried/terrified/not in the mood for loving and backs up against the wall, but Deckard throws her against the window ...
... kisses her, and makes Rachel tell him to kiss her. She doesn't want to, but he insists.
"I'll take that borderline mental breakdown as a yes."
At no point does her expression change from worried/terrified/not in the mood for loving, despite what the romantic lighting and sexy saxophone music might trick you into thinking. And then, of course, sex ensues.
So, uh, that's rape, right? And if you think we're taking the scene out of context, it's actually even worse in context: The scene takes place immediately after Rachael suffers a massive emotional trauma -- she has just killed a replicant, found out she is one herself and learned that her entire life is a lie. Oh, and then there's the whole "I'm going to die in a couple of years" thing. It's kind of hard for her to argue with Harrison Ford's dick at that particular moment, as it would be for anyone in that situation.
You can't say no to that. Not until he puts down the gun, at least.
So for once, this is a Ridley Scott movie where the rape symbolism is represented by actual rape. We're not sure if that's better or worse.
#4. Tron: Legacy -- Flynn's Son Hooks Up With a Computer Program
The Movie Romance
Twenty-seven years after the original Tron, Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has gone missing, and his son, Sam, goes into the computer world to find him. While he's there, Sam hooks up with a hot warrior chick called Quorra and ends up bringing her into the real world.
Thankfully, we were spared a montage of her learning the wonders of pooping.
The Creepy Implications
The movie never hides the fact that Quorra may look like a human female, but she's actually a computer program. She's an ISO, a program that appeared spontaneously, but she's still a program. In other words, Sam is now dating a bunch of lines of code.
The guy is a freak.
Sure, Quorra learned a bit about the real world from Flynn (and a few books he brought with him in the '80s), but that doesn't change the fact that "she's" as human as an MP3 file. And we put "she" between quotes because the only thing that makes Quorra female is that it has a female-shaped body; in actual fact, it's just as genderless as, say, HAL 9000, or this very webpage.
And yeah, Sam manages to bring Quorra into the human world at the end of the movie, but that doesn't mean it stops being a program -- after all, when Sam himself was digitized into the computer world, he didn't stop being human (the villain realized this when Sam started bleeding). Basically, Sam has brought into the real world a sexless computer program with little understanding of how to be human or behave socially. She's as out of place here as Sam was in the land of neon bodysuits and condom helmets.
"We're gonna eat these things called habanero peppers. Just shove as many as you can at once in your face."
For the sake of argument, let's say she does become real at the end of the movie: Well, that only makes things worse. Quorra was born out of the programming created by Sam's dad, who also acted as her father figure for years, meaning that she's essentially his daughter, too. So, Sam hooked up with either a bunch of soulless lines of code or his sister.
You'd still do it, wouldn't you?


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Mushroom Salad
You can make this mushroom salad in a snap. Try to use cremini mushrooms if you can, because their strong, woodsy flavor makes this salad special.
Preparation time: 15 to 20 minutes
Cooking time: None
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
Fresh oregano
Fresh Italian parsley, or 1 teaspoon dried parsley
Approx 2/3 pound cremini (or regular) mushrooms
Salt and pepper to taste
40 arugula leaves
1 head radicchio
3 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano
Finely chop the oregano and parsley.
If you're using dried parsley, you don't need to chop it.
Clean the mushrooms and then slice them.
In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, 2 teaspoons oregano, and 1 tablespoon parsley.
Add 4 cups mushrooms.
Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.
Wash the arugula leaves
Slice the radicchio into long strips.
Arrange arugula and radicchio on a large serving plate or on 4 to 6 salad plates.
Neatly mound the mushroom mixture on top.
Shave the Parmigiano-Reggiano into thin strips and sprinkle on the mushrooms.


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Children's Health
Laundry Packs Tempting to Children
Sept. 5, 2012 -- For the second time this year, doctors are sounding the alarm about the dangers of laundry pods and gel packs to kids.
Brightly colored, with a gummy texture, researchers say children appear to be mistaking the powerful cleaning agents for candy.
In some ways, this is nothing new. Poison control experts say curious kids have always gotten into household cleaners. What's different this time, they say, is how severely kids can get injured in a relatively short amount of time.
A bite into the packs can cause drooling and vomiting and may burn the mouth, throat, eyes, and lungs.
"Certainly, the children we've seen have had pretty severe injuries from chemical contact with the soaps," says Lyndsay Fraser, MD. Fraser is an ear, nose, and throat doctor at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, Scotland.
Children Biting Laundry Soap Packs
In the new report, Fraser and her colleagues describe the cases of five children treated in the emergency room after biting into laundry detergent capsules.
All the children were younger than age 2. The oldest was released after treatment with steroids and antibiotics. The others needed breathing tubes to prop open their swollen and damaged airways. One needed surgery. All eventually recovered.
The report is published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Fraser says these are not isolated cases. "There are some data nationally to suggest that these cases are on the increase," she says.
That mirrors a similar rise in the U.S.
According to the National Association of Poison Control Centers (NAPCC), there were 2,950 reports of kids coming into contact with laundry gel packs from January through August.
The NAPCC sent out an alert about the problem in May.
"You have these unexpectedly severe outcomes that we weren't really seeing with the liquid detergent preparations," maybe because the new packs are far more concentrated than liquids, says Michael Beuhler, MD, medical director of the Carolinas Poison Center in Charlotte, N.C.
In response, Tide promised to make its Pods container, which looks like a cookie jar, more difficult for kids to get into. The new container has two latches that have to be pushed at the same time before the lid can be opened.


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Back when I posted my recipe for Grilled King Oyster Mushrooms, Shohga suggested grilling the mushrooms brushed with ponzu and then using them in sushi. I thought that sounded like a great idea, so I filed it away in my brain to try later. The other day I went on the hunt for some ponzu, but couldn't find any without bonito (a type of fish). So, I decided to use some mirin instead. Since my grill was out of propane, I tossed the shrooms into a pan over medium heat and kept splashing them with mirin until cooked. I put them in the sushi roll with some chopped bok choy that I briefly pan fried in a little light soy sauce. The shrooms were slightly sweet and the bok choy added a light crunch. Dipped in some soy and wasabi, it was some mighty good sushi.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Oyster Mushroom Sushi
16 comments:
- Nadia said...
Oh, these look delicious! I love making sushi, but your post made me realize that I've never had sushi with any kind of mushrooms involved. Something to try.
- October 1, 2009 at 10:12 PM
- Chelsea said...
That looks delicious! And nicely rolled - mine still look all lopsided :)
- October 1, 2009 at 11:03 PM
- chow vegan said...
Yum! That is a great idea for a sushi roll! Looks delicious!
- October 2, 2009 at 1:13 AM
- The Voracious Vegan said...
I have been eating vegan sushi like crazy lately! Thanks for this great idea, can't wait to give it a try.
- October 2, 2009 at 3:59 AM
- Several tips said...
Good post.
- October 2, 2009 at 4:03 AM
- Oraphan said...
YUM! Those sushi look so inviting and delicious! What a fantastic idea!!! I'd LOVE to try some:)
- October 2, 2009 at 4:43 AM
- Anonymous said...
i've found ponzu in food basics or a&p,here in the great white north we are fortunate to have both:).i've seen it in both stores in the international sections
- October 2, 2009 at 8:59 AM
- Vegan Dad said...
I did find ponzu, but it had fish (bonito) in it. Is your brand bonito-free?
- October 2, 2009 at 9:12 AM
- Kelly said...
Sounds delicious vegan dad. I'm guessing the texture of the mushrooms is perfect for a meaty stand in.
- October 2, 2009 at 11:05 AM
- Beret said...
OMG, I had lots of good sushi today, but that looks marvellous! Must try it out.
About the ponzu: why not make it yourself? Here's a recipe, although I didn't fancy it much with sushi, I guess if you glaze the vegetables instead of using it as a dip, it should work
75ml lemon juice
1 Tbsp rice or white wine vinegar
75ml dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp Tamari
1 Tbsp Mirin oder 1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp instant dashi powder or substitute with a piece of bouillion cube, if you can't find dashi without bonito.
- October 2, 2009 at 4:14 PM
- Veg-In-Training said...
I so love this sushi! Fantastic!
- October 2, 2009 at 5:21 PM
- Anonymous said...
Oh my god I just want to marry you!
Our 5th child is taking up all my cooking time, I'm in a pasta rut, my hubby doesn't cook (well he *tries*) & i look on here & I'm devastated - come & cook for me! LOL
ALL your food looks WONDERFUL!
- October 2, 2009 at 10:51 PM
- Knit - R - Done said...
My favorite veg sushi is avocado. It just adds something.
- October 3, 2009 at 3:38 PM
- Fayinagirl (means Free One) said...
The sushi looks great.
- October 3, 2009 at 6:44 PM
- Scott, The Active Daddy said...
Looks really good! My children would love this.
- October 15, 2009 at 10:24 AM
- juanknowsspanish said...
Whenever my roommate in college and I would make gyoza I (being vegetarian) just mixed some soy sauce, lemon juice and rice wine vinegar. I found that to do the trick, even my roommate came to prefer the fresh version over the bottled fishy one.
- November 3, 2009 at 12:40 PM


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I bought an app called "Air Display" which allows me to use my iPad as a second monitor. I've noticed that while I am on my second monitor whatever is on the other monitor will minimize after about 30 seconds.
Being new to Macs I'm not sure if this is some known behavior or a side effect of the Air Display app. Is this because of how I have my mac setup? If so, is there some setting I can change to stop this from happening?