text: ORIGINAL FINE ART PRINTS « Previous Next » ORIGINAL FINE ART PRINTS / NATURE >>> / CLOSE-UP / Spring flowers Spring flowers Share Image Return to CLOSE-UP Add to Favorites Select Product Type ART-PAPER PHOTO PRINT PHOTO PRINTS - also known as fine art archival prints. The paper used is either of Fuji or Kodak. The expected life of those prints is calculated to be up to 300 years. CANVAS CANVAS PRINTS - Although more expensive than the fine art prints, you need to consider that you get a product ready to hang on the wall and no frames needed. FILE DOWNLOAD Select Product Regular size (R) 30cm x 20cm - 55.00 € Middle size (M) 45cm x 30cm - 75.00 € Large size (L) 60cm x 45cm - 115.00 € eXtra Large (XL) 75cm x 50cm - 200.00 € Small size (S) 30cm x 20cm - 75.00 € Regular size (R) 40cm x 30cm - 100.00 € Large size (L) 60cm x 40cm - 300.00 € eXtra Large (XL) 75cm x 50cm - 140.00 € XX Large (XXL) 150cm x 100cm - 370.00 € LOW-RES 800px FILE - 12.00 € Details Low-Resolution Photographs for decorating websites. 800px is just enough for an online gallery 10% discount for buying 5 pictures 20% discount for buying 10 or more pictures HIGH-RES 1080px FILE - 30.00 € Details High-Resolution Photographs for decorating websites. Can be used as a background, slideshow or banner 10% discount for buying 5 pictures 20% discount for buying 10 or more pictures Quantity Comments You have characters left


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(HealthDay News) -- Exercise is a great way to stay fit, and to reduce stress.
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America offers these tips about exercising to relieve stress:
- Get aerobic exercise (jogging, dancing, biking or walking) for at least 30 minutes at least five days per week.
- Be active consistently, setting small, attainable goals. Take a 15-minute walk now instead of waiting until you have the time for a 2-hour walk.
- Find the exercise that you find most relaxing, pleasant and enjoyable.
- Listen to music, an audio book or a podcast while you exercise. Find an exercise buddy to work out with.
- Don't expect instant results.
This article: Copyright © 2014 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Vim text editor is not the only piece of ancient software still popular today. After all, Microsoft Word was first released in 1983, a full eight years before Vim. But today's Word bears little resemblance to its original version, while text editor Vim looks and feels almost the same. And yet, Vim has a vibrant community of developers and evangelists working to keep it alive and kicking, with projects like the game Vim Adventures to bring new users into the fold.
Currently in prototype form, the Vim Adventures game teaches you to use Vim's unique keystrokes. Right now only two levels are available for free play, and both focus on cursor movement. The first teaches the essential hjkl keys for moving left, down, up, and right. The second lesson has you jumping between words with e, w, and several other keys.
The game itself is a retro-looking tile maze, implemented in HTML 5 (so no Flash is required to play). You're not really a character: Whatever tile you're currently standing on just blinks, a bit like the caret in a text editor.
At the beginning of the first level, Vim Adventures shows you what hjkl do. You then need to use those keys to successfully navigate a tricky maze. As you move through it, you need to collect keys, backtrack, cross one-way passages, and more. And if you don't make it through the maze in 45 seconds, Vim Adventures teleports you back to the beginning. This is frustrating, but it also ensures that by the time you make it to the end of the level, you have some muscle memory for hjkl movements.
Vim Adventures took me about ten minutes from start to finish, and serves as a nice introduction for Vim's unique motion keys. Rounded out with more levels, it can become an excellent way to master Vim basics.


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Special Agent Oso VideosFree
Special Agent Oso Show is a free app that provides the best series of Special Agent Oso in one video application! Let your kids watch their favorite Special Agent Oso cartoons in a safe environment, without other harmful videos. All the best series of Special Agent Oso in one small video app! *Please note that this app is not official and all videos are shortcuts to the free videos of YouTube DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this application is hosted on YouTube and is available in the public domain. We have not uploaded any videos to YouTube. This application is just an organized way to browse and view YouTube videos in another way. This app is unofficial and is simply a shortcut to the free information offered by Youtube. Any problems or suggestions, please contact us via email.
Downloads: 557+ (for Android)Report app for spam or abuse!
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CashApp Screenshot Maker Free
Deactivated. Kindly search Cashapp Screenshot Maker on the Google Play Store and download the App.


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This is Thane's story, to be released April 29, 2014.Pre-order at:
New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter returns with a sizzling Angels of the Dark tale about a winged warrior renowned for his ruthlessness, and the woman who becomes his obsession...
A tormented past has left Thane with an insatiable need for violence, making him the most dangerous assassin in the skies. He lives by a single code: no mercy. And as he unleashes his fury on his most recent captor, he learns no battle could have prepared him for the slave he rescues from his enemy's clutches--a beauty who stokes the fires of his darkest desires.
Elin Vale has her own deep-rooted scars, and her attraction to the exquisite warrior who freed her challenges her every boundary. But Thane's unwavering determination to protect her means she must have her greatest fears--and enter a world in which passion is power, and victory means breathtaking surrender.


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MIAMI – A federal judge has ordered a South Florida man held until his arraignment Friday for allegedly conspiring to launder tens of millions of Medicare fraud dollars that authorities say were eventually funneled into the Cuban banking system.
In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami, prosecutors said Oscar Sanchez, a 46-year-old U.S. citizen and native of Cuba, provided cash to the masterminds behind the alleged fraud in exchange for a fee. They also said Sanchez conspired to send money from the Medicare fraud first to shell companies in Canada before it was passed on through a Trinidad bank and eventually onto Cuba.
Sanchez's attorney, Peter Raben, said his client was in federal custody and would be arraigned Friday. Raben declined comment on the charges.
According to a motion signed by the U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer, "evidence shows that Sanchez was intimately involved in the vast laundering operation while it was occurring."
Prosecutors are seeking more than $22 million in property from Sanchez. If convicted, he could face 13 years in prison.
The case is part of a much broader health care fraud investigation.
In the mid-2000s, 70 companies in South Florida billed for items such as HIV-related drugs and medical equipment, and Medicare deposited more than $70 million into those companies' corporate bank accounts, according to prosecutors. Nearly half of that money was then moved overseas, authorities said.
Authorities have already filed cases against half a dozen individuals who controlled companies that allegedly sent money through Canadian banks in connection with the case.
In the motion filed Monday, prosecutors called Sanchez a flight risk, noting he has made nearly 80 overseas trips in the last decade, many to the places where they allege the money was being laundered.
Miami has been a hub for Medicare fraud. Last year, three Miami brothers, made the top of the list of the nation's most wanted health care fugitives. Prosecutors say the three fled to Cuba.
Some Cuban exiles have alleged that the Cuban government has been taking a cut of money allegedly sent to the island.
The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Sanchez case.


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Presidential Age
Updated February 23, 2017 | Factmonster Staff
The Question:
Do you have to be 35 to be the president?
The Answer:
The U.S. Constitution sets out the following requirements for the presidency.
"No person except a natural-born citizen, or citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."
So yes, the minumum age is 35.
-The Fact Monster
Sources +


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Diana Nyad swam up to the beach just before 2 p.m. EDT, about 53 hours after she began her journey in Havana on Saturday. As she approached, spectators waded into waist-high water and surrounded her, taking pictures and cheering her on.
"I have three messages. One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you're never too old to chase your dream. Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team," she said on the beach.
"I have to say, I'm a little bit out of it right now," Nyad said. She gestured toward her swollen lips, and simply said "seawater."
Her team said she had been slurring her words while she was out in the water. She was on a stretcher on the beach and received an IV before she was taken by ambulance to a hospital.
"I just wanted to get out of the sun," she said.
It was Nyad's fifth try to complete the approximately 110-mile swim. She tried three times in 2011 and 2012. Her first attempt was in 1978.
"It's historic, marvelous," said Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich, the Hemingway Marina commodore who helped organize the Cuba side of Nyad's multiple attempts.
"I always thought she could do it given her internal energy, her mental and physical strength, her will of iron," said Diaz Escrich, whom Nyad has described as a longtime friend.
"More than the athletic feat, she wants to send a message of peace, love, friendship and happiness ... between the people of the United States and Cuba," he said.
Her last try was cut short amid boat trouble, storms, unfavorable currents and jellyfish stings that left her face puffy and swollen.
This time, she wore a full bodysuit, gloves, booties and a mask at night, when jellyfish rise to the surface. The new silicone mask caused bruises inside her mouth, making it difficult for her to talk, she told her team when she was about 2 miles from land.
Doctors traveling with Nyad were worried about her slurred speech and her breathing, but they didn't intervene, according to Nyad's website.
Nyad's journey began Saturday morning when she jumped from the seawall of the Hemingway Marina into the warm waters off Havana. She stopped from time to time for nourishment, but she never left the water.
The support team accompanying her had equipment that generated a faint electrical field around her, which was designed to keep sharks at bay. A boat also dragged a line in the water to help keep her on course.
Sumaya Haddin, of Miami, had been tracking Nyad's swim before her family's trip to Key West this weekend. She was surprised to see Nyad's flotilla from a parasail off Smather's Beach on Monday morning. She thought Nyad wasn't due for another day.
"You couldn't see her, you could just see the boats. It was very exciting," she said.
Haddin said Nyad still had her fighting spirit when she got to the beach. "Getting into the ambulance, she had her peace sign up, her fist up. She was still fired up."
Australian Susie Maroney successfully swam the Strait in 1997 with a shark cage, which besides protection from the predators, has a drafting effect that pulls a swimmer along.
In 2012, Australian Penny Palfrey swam 79 miles toward Florida without a cage before strong currents forced her to abandon the attempt. This June, her countrywoman Chloe McCardel made it 11 hours and 14 miles before jellyfish stings ended her bid.
In 1978, Walter Poenisch, an Ohio baker, claimed to have made the swim using flippers and a snorkel. Critics say there was insufficient independent documentation to verify his claim.
Nyad first came to national attention in 1975 when she swam the 28 miles around the island of Manhattan in just under eight hours. In 1979 she swam the 102 miles from North Bimini, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Fla., in 27.5 hours.
Nyad is also an author of three books, a motivational speaker and has been a reporter and commentator for NPR.
Associated Press writer Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana contributed to this report.


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True Tabloid Headlines -- Or Are They?
Tabloid Headlines Can Be Literally True But Very Misleading
By JOHN ALLEN PAULOS
Nov. 1, 2009
I must admit I read tabloid headlines while in line at supermarkets.
Often the headlines and stories are true enough in a literal sense, but seriously misleading. In this regard they're not always that different from some cable or mainstream media stories.
In any case, here are five possible tabloid stories followed by five brief explanations. You might want to figure out your own explanations before reading the ones here.
Can You Spot the Misleading Headlines?
1. Thousands to Die After Swine Flu Vaccination
Many public health authorities privately fear that there will be many heart attacks among older people and miscarriages among pregnant women occurring soon after these people are inoculated with the H1N1 vaccine.
In fact, they expect there to be thousands of cases of this sad combination of events. Autism activists may take this as further reason to skip not just the H1H1 vaccine, but other childhood immunizations.
2. New Birther Claims About Obama Well-Documented
A new birther group has come up with incontrovertible evidence that President Obama was, in fact, born overseas and not in the contiguous United States. The documentation this time is rock solid, and there are reports that Obama himself has privately acknowledged the group's claim.
3. Otherworldly Properties of Metal Found at Roswell
A new discovery was announced recently in Roswell, N.M., an area believed by many to have been the site where an alien spacecraft crashed in 1947. A strange piece of metal found there has been subjected to exactingly precise measurements and has been found to have a quite amazing property.
It exerts a minuscule physical attraction on every information-processing instrument so far tested, and, within experimental error, this attraction is nine times as strong 1 foot away from the metal as it is 1 yard away.
Many wonder what to make of the fragment's seeming resonance with our system of measurement, but it can't be easily denied.
4. Math Formula Links Your Social Security Number to Your Age
Mathematicians have devised a simple formula linking your social security number's first digit and your age, and the startling connection holds only for this year. The Social Security Administration has not commented on what looks to be yet another path to identity theft.
Check it out yourself by doing the following elementary calculations. a.) What is the first digit of your social security number. b.) Multiply this number by 2. c.) Add 5. d.) Multiply it by 50. e.) If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759, and if you haven't, add 1758. f.) Now subtract the four-digit year that you were born.
You should have a three-digit number whose first digit should be the first digit of your social security number, and whose next two digits are your age. And, as mentioned, 2009 is the only year this will ever work.
5. Roswell UFOs Foretold in Bible
Researchers have found that embedded in the Bible are equidistant letter sequences (ELSs) spelling out the words "Roswell" and "UFO." That is, within the Bible, there is a sequence of letters, each letter separated from the next letter in the sequence by a fixed number of other letters that spells out these words.
These sequences come from the second part of the following line of Genesis 31:28: "And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Thou hast now done foolishly in so doing."
For "Roswell" start with the bolded R, move ahead three letters to the O, and continue. For "UFO," start with the u and move ahead eleven letters, and continue. "daughteRs? thOu haSt noW donEfooLishLy in so doing." How unlikely is this?
Check Your Answers Against the Explanations
1. The claims in this story are entirely true, but shouldn't be surprising or alarming. Annually there are approximately 1 million heart attacks and 1 million miscarriages in this country. Let's assume there will be 100 million or more people inoculated against the H1N1 flu over a six-month period.
Then, since there are almost 3,000 heart attacks and 3,000 miscarriages daily and there will be at least 200 times that many flu shots daily, it is a certainty that there will be very many people who will have a heart attack or miscarriage shortly after receiving the shot.
How many and how soon depends on further assumptions, but nobody should attribute the medical crises to the shots unless there's real evidence.
Watch Out for Nonsense in the News
2. The mistake here is, for most people, quite obvious. President Obama was born in Hawaii, which is overseas, although not over the seas that might be suggested. Moreover, he was not born in the contiguous United States, but many people may not know the meaning of the word "contiguous."
Likewise, many don't realize that the claim that there are UFOs is a true and uncontroversial one simply because UFO is an acronym for unidentified flying object, of which there are many. That they're spaceships manned by extraterrestrial aliens is what there is no reason to believe.
3. Any two objects attract each other with a force inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, which explains the attraction differential between a foot and a yard (i.e., between 1 and 3). This is simply Newton's law of gravitation, and its relevance is on a par with other laughable "evidence" from Roswell.
4. Let x be the first digit of your social security number. Then doubling gives you 2x, adding 5 gives you 2x+5, multiplying by 50 gives you 50(2x+5) or 100x+250, and then adding 1759 yields 100x+2009. If you subtract the year you're born from 100x+2009, you get a three digit number, 100x+your age, the hundreds digit being x, the first digit of your social security number and the last two being your age. Same with 1758 if your birthday this year hasn't occurred.
The connection holds, no matter what your first social security digit is and offers no new path to identity theft.
5. Although the language isn't Hebrew and the associations aren't religious, this example refers to the infamously fraudulent Bible codes. These and many other ELSs are present in the Bible (the one quoted above was discovered by debunker Dave Thomas) and any particular one of them has a minuscule probability of appearing in any particular place.
The right question, however, is not "How unlikely is it that a particular sequence occurs at a particular point." Rather it is, "How unlikely is it that something vaguely suggestive or meaningful appears somewhere," and the answer to the latter question is that it is quite likely.
If one looks hard and long enough, one will discover many, many such seemingly significant ELSs, not only in the Bible but in "Moby Dick," "War and Peace," and even Harry Potter books.
Don't forget to inoculate yourself against the flu and, as much as possible, against nonsense as well.
John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, is the author of the best-sellers, "Innumeracy" and "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper," as well as (just out in paperback) "Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up." His "Who's Counting?" column on ABCNews.com appears the first weekend of every month.


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Ideas para smoothies... no debes solo ir a Cosechas o cualquiera de esos lugares que venden jugos de frutas, ¡también los puedes hacer en casa!
Smooth Starts: Combine and create your own orginal smoothie.
Start with: 1 cup milk or 1 cup yogurt
Fruit: How about creating your own "cool smoothie" using 2 or 3 of your favorite fruits: try banana chunks, strawberries, raspberries, melon cubes, oranges, sliced peaches, pineapples, kiwi, papayas or mangoes....any combination of fresh, frozen or canned fruit. Frozen fruits add a nice, thick consistency.
Flavorings: Vanilla extract, nutmeg, cinnamon, cocoa, malt powder like Ovaltine
Sweetners: Honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, fruit spread
Protein: Powered milk, cottage cheese, peanut butter or add a splash of yogurt, milk, soy milk, or silken tofu. Blend until smooth and enjoy!
*You can replace fresh fruit with unsweetened frozen fruit or canned fruit (packed in juice).
*When using ice, crush cubes so they are smaller than fruit pieces.
*A blender will provide a smoother consistency than a food processor.
And even more wholesome additions:
1. Wheat germ is an excellent source of fiber, folate and the antioxidant vitamin E. Top smoothie with one to two tablespoons.
2. Roasted or toasted nuts can provide extra protein. Add one tablespoon.
3. Soy milk is rich in isoflavones, phytochemicals that may protect against certain cancers. Soy provides your body with top quality protein, and includes all the essential amino acids. In fact, soy protein is equivalent to the protein in meat, milk, and eggs. Soy protein has been show to decrease risk of heart disease.
Soybeans and many foods made with soy, contain a number of naturally occurring compounds that are beneficial to our health. These include antioxidants known as isoflavones. Isoflavones may provide long-term benefits such as maintaining and even improving lifelong bone health and helping to protect us against certain forms of cancer.Use in place of yogurt or milk.
4. Nonfat dry milk powder is an excellent source of fat-free, high-quality protein. Add two to four tablespoons.
5. Ground flaxseed is rich in omega-3 fatty acids that promote heart and artery health and may protect against cancer. Add one to two tablespoons.
Tomado de: http://www.healthy-kid-recipes.com/smoothies.html


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President Obama is still getting it wrong. Nevertheless, we keep hearing that he is such a clever politician. Count me among those who believe that the Republicans are setting Obama up for failure and a loss to whatever goofball happens to win the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012 – solely because of a deteriorating economy. Obama had the chance to really save the economy and "right the ship". When he had the opportunity to confront the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, President Obama violated Rahm Emanuel's infamous doctrine, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste". The new President immediately made a point of squandering the opportunity to overcome that crisis. I voiced my frustration about this on October 7, 2010:
The trouble began immediately after President Obama assumed office. I wasn't the only one pulling out my hair in February of 2009, when our new President decided to follow the advice of Larry Summers and "Turbo" Tim Geithner. That decision resulted in a breach of Obama's now-infamous campaign promise of "no more trickle-down economics". Obama decided to do more for the zombie banks of Wall Street and less for Main Street – by sparing the banks from temporary receivership (also referred to as "temporary nationalization") while spending less on financial stimulus. Obama ignored the 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, who warned that an $800 billion stimulus package would be inadequate. At the Calculated Risk website, Bill McBride lamented Obama's strident posturing in an interview conducted by Terry Moran of ABC News, when the President actually laughed off the idea of implementing the so-called "Swedish solution" of putting those insolvent banks through temporary receivership.
In September of 2009, I discussed a fantastic report by Australian economist Steve Keen, who explained how the "money multiplier" myth, fed to Obama by the very people who caused the financial crisis, was the wrong paradigm to be starting from in attempting to save the economy. The Australian professor (Steve Keen) was right and Team Obama was wrong. In analyzing Australia's approach to the financial crisis, economist Joseph Stiglitz made this observation on August 5, 2010:
Kevin Rudd, who was prime minister when the crisis struck, put in place one of the best-designed Keynesian stimulus packages of any country in the world. He realized that it was important to act early, with money that would be spent quickly, but that there was a risk that the crisis would not be over soon. So the first part of the stimulus was cash grants, followed by investments, which would take longer to put into place.
Rudd's stimulus worked: Australia had the shortest and shallowest of recessions of the advanced industrial countries.
On October 6, 2010, Michael Heath of Bloomberg BusinessWeek provided the latest chapter in the story of how America did it wrong while Australia did it right:
Australian Employers Added 49,500 Workers in September
Australian employers in September added the most workers in eight months, driving the country's currency toward a record and bolstering the case for the central bank to resume raising interest rates.
The number of people employed rose 49,500 from August, the seventh straight gain, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. The figure was more than double the median estimate of a 20,000 increase in a Bloomberg News survey of 25 economists. The jobless rate held at 5.1 percent.
Meanwhile, America's jobless rate has been hovering around 9 percent and the Federal Reserve found it necessary to print-up another $600 billion for a controversial second round of quantitative easing. If that $600 billion had been used for the 2009 economic stimulus (and if the stimulus program had been more infrastructure-oriented) we would probably have enjoyed a result closer to that experienced by Australia. Instead, President Obama chose to follow Japan's strategy of perpetual bank bailouts (by way of the Fed's "zero interest rate policy" or ZIRP and multiple rounds of quantitative easing), sending America's economy into our own "lost decade".
The only member of the Clinton administration who deserves Obama's ear is being ignored. Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, has been repeatedly emphasizing that President Obama is making a huge mistake by attempting to follow the Clinton playbook:
Many of President Obama's current aides worked for Clinton and vividly recall Clinton's own midterm shellacking in 1994 and his re-election two years later – and they think the president should follow Clinton's script. Obama should distance himself from congressional Democrats, embrace deficit reduction and seek guidance from big business. They assume that because triangulation worked for Clinton, it will work for Obama.
They're wrong. Clinton's shift to the right didn't win him re-election in 1996. He was re-elected because of the strength of the economic recovery.
By the spring of 1995, the American economy already had bounced back, averaging 200,000 new jobs per month. By early 1996, it was roaring – creating 434,000 new jobs in February alone.
Obama's 2011 reality has us losing nearly 400,000 jobs per month. Nevertheless, there is this misguided belief that the "wealth effect" caused by inflated stock prices and the current asset bubble will somehow make the Clinton strategy relevant. It won't. Instead, President Obama will adopt a strategy of "austerity lite", which will send America into a second recession dip and alienate voters just in time for the 2012 elections. Professor Reich recently warned of this:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor recently stated the Republican view succinctly: "Less government spending equals more private sector jobs."
In the past I've often wondered whether they're knaves or fools. Now I'm sure. Republicans wouldn't mind a double-dip recession between now and Election Day 2012.
They figure it's the one sure way to unseat Obama. They know that when the economy is heading downward, voters always fire the boss. Call them knaves.
What about the Democrats? Most know how fragile the economy is but they're afraid to say it because the White House wants to paint a more positive picture.
And most of them are afraid of calling for what must be done because it runs so counter to the dominant deficit-cutting theme in our nation's capital that they fear being marginalized. So they're reduced to mumbling "don't cut so much." Call them fools.
If inviting a double-dip recession weren't dumb enough – how about a second financial crisis? Just add more systemic risk and presto! The banks won't have any problems because the Fed and the Treasury will provide another round of bailouts. Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns recently wrote an essay focused on Treasury Secretary Geithner's belief that we need big banks to be even bigger.
Even if the Republicans nominate a Presidential candidate who espouses a strategy of simply relying on Jesus to extinguish fires at offshore oil rigs and nuclear reactors – Obama will still lose. May God help us!


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I love testing new gadgets and products. It's an obsession.
For The 4-Hour Chef alone, I tested well over $100,000 worth of gear. OCD + Amazon Prime = expensive.
Why on earth do I do it? Simple–I love sharing the 5-10 things out of 500-1,000 that really work. Strange fetish, perhaps, but I get off on it. Readers seem to enjoy it, too.
In the first ever 5-Bullet Friday newsletter, I recommended my favorite all-purpose sandals, and more than 100,000 people clicked on the link within the first 48 hours (!). This type of click-through assault was nicknamed "the hug of death" by one Facebook fan. It crashes websites, wipes out inventory (e.g. Mizzen+Main, sardines at Whole Foods), creates nutty pricing spikes (e.g. used books going for $1,000 after the Sacca podcast), etc.
Below are 10 recent purchases that have given me—and continue to give me—value, joy, or both.
They are from a handful of 5-Bullet Friday newsletters (here's a full sample). For the data nerds out there, I've listed the below products in descending order of click-through rate.
I've provided two sets of links for each. The first link (usually the name of the item) is often an Amazon affiliate link, if you'd like to chip in a few pennies to support my compulsive gear-testing habit. The second link, labeled "non-affiliate link," is exactly that—a plain old link where Uncle Tim gets to fend for himself in the wild. I'm cool with either. Some items lack affiliate links altogether, as I was too lazy to search.
Here we go… (and what the hell is it with you guys and shoes?)
Vans Unisex Classic Slip-On (Gumsole) Skate Shoe (Non-affiliate link)
This makes me seem like one of the grups, but I love these shoes. Not for skating. My criteria: great for airports, zero-drop soles for restoring Achilles mobility, usable at semi-casual but nice dinners, and small enough to pack in carry-on luggage. I've worn these for everything from business meetings to canyon hiking (in a pinch), and they've held up beautifully.
My elixir for warm-weather sipping
Here's one of my favorite rosé wines in the US, perfect for summer sipping: The Wolffer Estate Rosé from Long Island (many years are good).
[I'll also give you a cold-weather alternative: YakTrax, for modifying normal shoes when you need to walk on snow and ice. They are amazing and fit in a jacket pocket. I bought the basic "Walk" model, but there are many options.]
My preferred oddities…
Many of you have asked, so here's my favorite gear for podcasting, coffee, everyday carry, and survival gear (some ridiculous).
Rumble Roller (travel size) (Non-affiliate link)
I've tried every foam roller imaginable, but this is my new favorite for opening up hamstrings and IT band prior to AcroYoga and other gymnastics practice. That front lever is still eluding me, but I'll keep at it. WARNING: This will smash you 10x more than smooth rollers. I got overzealous my first session and, the next day, felt like I'd been leg kicked by Buakaw (my fave kickboxer, BTW).
Mini parallettes ("p-bars") for travel (Non-affiliate link)
These are small enough to stick in carry-on luggage. I use them primarily for pushups, planche leans, and L-sits for time. If you want to make a homemade version out of PVC that can live in your garage or living room, here's another option.
Original Buddha Board (Non-affiliate link)
A zen-minded Etch-a-Sketch. Use the included brush to paint designs onto the board with water. As the water evaporates, your image fades, all within 30-60 seconds. This is a great tool for learning to let go… or rekindling your artistic side. If you have 60 seconds a day, you have time for the Buddha Board.
Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB mic (Non-affiliate link)
I had to highlight this one. This is the best bang-for-the-buck USB mic I've found. I use it for all phone interviews for my podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show. It's traveled with me around the world. With this, ear buds, and ECamm Call Recorder, you're set. For my more complete gear list, see the podcast bullet above from Kit.com.
Wild Planet Canned Sardines in Olive Oil (Non-affiliate link)
I'm sitting in the Bahamas as I type this [back in December, at least], and 24 cans of sardines are sitting next to me in my suitcase. That's my MO. I open one can upon waking, drizzle about half the oil over my dog's kibble (which she sometimes refuses to eat dry), and then consume the fish myself. My skin and her coat have never looked better. Hat tip to the incredible biochemistry beast Dom D'Agostino, PhD for intro'ing me to these beauties.
Epsoak Epsom Salt (39.5 Lbs.) (Non-affiliate link)
I take hot baths every night when at home in SF. Nearly always, I add epsom salt (typically 4-8 cups), which facilitates muscular relaxation and recovery. Rather than buy small boxes at CVS or Safeway, I buy in bulk and store it in rolling dog-food containers. This is a good use of Amazon Prime.
Nayoya Gymnastic Rings (Non-affiliate link)
These are super portable (easily fit in a small backpack) and incredibly durable for the price. I'm using them for mostly dips and muscle-up progressions. The Nayoya allow me to leave the rings outdoors. BUT: If you're going to travel without chalk, I highly suggest wooden rings.
So… do you enjoy these types of recommendations?
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The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 900 million downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.


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Yew Wood Square Travel Spray Refillable Holder
Yew Wood Square Travel Spray Refillable Holder
This is the everyday product for your eau de toilette, perfume or after shave that will be preserved at its optimum away from the light in a perfume glass bottle inserted into a precious wood. Looking fabulous in your bathroom but also ideal when travelling or for carrying in your handbag
- Pump made by a great perfumer of Paris
- Size: 95mm - Diameter 58mm
- Yew Wood. All the items are in the natural colour of wood, no dye is used. They are protected by two layers of polyurethane varnish and require no special maintenance
- Each piece is handmade and unique meaning that the product you receive may differ slightly from the photographs featured on the site. This is the main characteristic of wood. Each piece will have its own veins, colour, for the joy of everybody!
- All products are tested and guaranteed against defects. The possible defects are only the characteristics of the type of wood used. A certificate of guarantee will be provided with your order
- All woods are imported legally, some species are protected and thus replenishment may take longer


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Whether your state is one of the 26 that legalized marijuana in some form as of April 2017 or you're just planning ahead for when the "green" laws hit your area, you've probably heard more and more about the benefits of pot and the different types of cannabis oil for sale.
New users and old veterans will have questions about how to use and incorporate cannabis oil into their lives. Before you smoke up, read on.
Cannabis Oil 101
Cannabis oil, also known as CBD oil or CBD-rich or Cannabidiol, come from one of the different types of cannabis plants that are grown around the world. The University of Washington's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute is called the most potent cannabis product, but that's not an insult, it's just a tribute to the oil's ability to transform your mindset.
Although cannabis oil has "cannabis" in its name, not all of the oils have even one percent THC (marijuana) in their mix.
Cannabis Oil for your Health
Studies and studies and studies are being made on cannabis oil. Not just for recreational purposes, but in fact, to treat very serious illnesses, including:
Treating seizures
Aiding pain after spinal cord injuries
Providing palliative assistance for cancer patients
Sickle cell illnesses (Georgia signed a bill to approve cannabis oil for this disease, but only in severe or end stages)
Other benefits that spread over more of the main spectrum of cannabis oil users include:
Reduced stress, anxiety, and insomnia
Increased appetite (beneficial for people struggling with anorexia as well as from medicine-induced loss of appetite)
Anti-inflammatory aspects help dilate bronchial tubes to help asthma sufferers
Improved heart circulation and lowered blood pressure
Stimulate skin shedding of older / dead skin cells and promote new growth (when applied topically)
How to Use It
CBD oil is often sold as a tincture (dropper bottle), but you can also find it as hard candies, beverages, edibles, and gel caplets.
Effects vary depending on the way you consume the cannabis oil.
When you inhale it using a vape pen, you may feel the effects within just a minute or two.
If you consume the oil in pill form or tincture, remember it's just like any other type of medicine, it takes your body some time to swallow and – where applicable, digest the pill casing – before you begin to absorb the oil and feel its effects . This could take between 30-90 minutes and can last up to four hours.
Which Type to Choose
There is not just one type of cannabis oil.
The different oils are split along their potency lines, and what you choose is governed by the type (or if at all) high you want to have.
High THC oil will give you, well, you guessed it, a big high. You'll experience the stereotypical psychoactive effects, so do not use this oil if you plan to be driving, etc.
High CBD oil does not give you the traditional high. You may actually not feel any of the floaty, munchies-induced effects of regular pot. High cannabis oil is often used to treat issues with depression, anxiety, head trauma, and chronic pain. It is especially useful because someone who is in chronic pain can ingest cannabis oil but continue to perform his or her regular job.
Then there's a mix. Called 1: 1, there's no real way to judge how this type of cannabis oil will affect you how to do it (so try it in a safe place where you can lay down, rest, and see what happens). Your personal tolerance for cannabis as well as your body's internal makeup determines how the effects of this type of oil will come out.
THC and CBD (such as the 1: 1), the CBD acts as a bit of a damper or a blanket on the THC. So whatever psychoactive results you may get from the pure THC are taken down a notch when combined with the CBD.


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Lululemon yoga pants lawsuits dismissed
A U.S. judge has issued final dismissals of lawsuits accusing Lululemon Athletica Inc and various company officials of defrauding shareholders by concealing defects in yoga pants.
NEW YORK - A U.S. judge has issued final dismissals of lawsuits accusing Lululemon Athletica Inc and various company officials of defrauding shareholders by concealing defects in yoga pants.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan had on April 4 issued "draft" decisions dismissing a shareholder lawsuit against Lululemon, and two lawsuits accusing 11 executives and directors of missing red flags about poor quality control.
The judge issued a final, longer ruling dismissing the proposed shareholder class action on Friday, after having done the same in the other two lawsuits last week.
Shareholders accused Lululemon of failing to disclose how its black Luon yoga pants were too sheer, culminating in an expensive March 2013 recall.
They also accused the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company of overstating its ability to ensure good quality control and of concealing plans to replace its since departed chief executive, Christine Day.
But Forrest wrote on Friday that the plaintiffs' "narrative requires the court to stretch allegations of, at most, corporate mismanagement into actionable federal securities fraud."
"This is not the law," she added.
The lawsuits had sought damages for an estimated $2 billion decline in Lululemon's market value. Lululemon has denied wrongdoing.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs and representatives for Lululemon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The cases are in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. They are In re: Lululemon Securities Litigation, No. 13-04596; Canty v. Day et al, No. 13-05629; and Federman v. Day et al, No. 13-05977.


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MIAMI -- A man identified by prosecutors as the greedy organizer of a bungled 2007 Miami-area burglary that ended with the fatal shooting of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor was convicted Tuesday of murder and burglary, and immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole.
A 12-person jury deliberated nearly four hours before finding Jason Mitchell, 25, guilty of first-degree felony murder and armed burglary. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dennis Murphy swiftly imposed the mandatory life sentence for murder, plus 40 more years for the burglary conviction.
Although trial testimony showed Mitchell did not fire the fatal shot, prosecutors say he is equally responsible for the slaying under the law.
Assistant State Attorney Reid Rubin said Mitchell hatched the plot that eventually involved five Fort Myers-area men after spending time at Taylor's home near Miami, where he saw the player giving friends and relatives thousands of dollars in cash. Rubin said Mitchell initially tried and failed to burglarize the home alone in mid-November 2007, returning with the group on Thanksgiving weekend to finish the job.
"It doesn't matter whether they planned to kill him (Taylor) or intended to kill him, he died as a result of that burglary and they are all responsible for it," Rubin told the 12-person jury in closing arguments. "At the center of it all was Jason Mitchell."
Mitchell did not testify in his own defense but he did confess to police in a sworn, videotaped statement. The man blamed for shooting Taylor, Eric Rivera Jr., was convicted last year of second-degree murder and sentenced to 57 years behind bars. Mitchell's lawyer, Robert Barrar, said Mitchell should be held responsible only for burglary, not for Rivera's actions.
"Sure Jason Mitchell was there. But Eric Rivera did it on his own, on a whim," Barrar said. "Jason Mitchell was not a part of any plan to kill anybody."
Mitchell showed no emotion when the verdict was read.
Taylor, 24, was shot in the upper thigh after confronting the group of burglars with a machete outside his bedroom door. The bullet severed Taylor's femoral artery, causing him to quickly bleed to death. In the bedroom when the shooting happened were Taylor's girlfriend and their infant daughter.
Police say the burglars thought Taylor would be out of town at a Redskins game, but he was home nursing a knee injury.
Aside from the confession, investigators found shoe prints at Taylor's house that matched Mitchell's sneakers and had cell phone evidence showing that Mitchell phoned another member of the group in the vicinity of the slaying that night.
Three other men were charged in the case and two are awaiting trial. Venjah Hunte, 25, previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and burglary charges in a deal that calls for a 29-year prison sentence.
"He had everything to live for," Rubin said. "Sean Taylor was on top of the world."
Copyright 2014 by The Associated Press


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Over at the Tax Policy Center's blog, TaxVox, my colleague Roberton Williams examines the pitfalls that afflict some efforts to measure a person's tax rate:
Investment manager James Ross last week told New York Times columnist James Stewart that his combined federal, state, and local tax rate was 102 percent. No doubt, Ross did pay a lot of tax to the feds and the two New Yorks, city and state. But did he really pay more than all of his income in tax?
No, he did not.
As Stewart made clear past the wildly misleading headline ("At 102%, His Tax Rate Takes the Cake"), Ross's tax bills totaled 102 percent of his taxable income, a measure that omits all exclusions, exemptions, and deductions. Using that reduced measure of income inflates Ross's effective tax rate far above the share of his total income he paid in taxes.
Deeper into his column, Stewart explains that Ross's tax bill was just 20 percent of his adjusted gross income (AGI), a more inclusive measure that does not subtract out exemptions and deductions. Because he took advantage of many preferences, Ross's taxable income was only a fifth of his AGI, resulting in that inflated 102 percent tax rate. But even AGI doesn't include all income. Among other things, it leaves out tax-exempt interest on municipal bonds, contributions to retirement accounts, and the earnings of those accounts. Ross almost surely paid less than 20 percent of his total income in taxes
Stewart's article demonstrates the common confusion about effective tax rates, or ETRs. There are many ETRs, depending on which taxes you count and against what income you measure them. Including more taxes drives up ETRs. Using a broader measure of income drives them down. And interpreting what a specific ETR means requires a clear understanding of both the tax and income measures used.
In short, you need to be careful with both the numerator and the denominator when measuring someone's tax rate. And you need to be doubly careful when comparing tax rates across individuals or groups.
TPC released a short report today that illustrates that point for taxpayers of different income levels. Rachel Johnson, Joe Rosenberg, and Bob Williams show how including different taxes and using different income measures (AGI versus a broader measure of cash income) can have big effects on ETRs.
As Bob concludes his blog post:
The bottom line is you can use these numbers to tell many different stories, some more valid than others, depending on the taxes you include and the income measure you use. The broadest measure of income provides the most meaningful gauge of the relative impact of taxes on households. Narrower measures can yield absurd results—James Ross didn't pay 102 percent of his income in taxes—and ignore important differences in households' ability to pay.


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For a Q&A with Rose George, click here.
The flush toilet is a curious object. It is the default method of excreta disposal in most of the industrialized, technologically advanced world. It was invented either 500 or 2,000 years ago, depending on opinion. The ancient inhabitants of the mighty Indus Valley, in present-day Pakistan, had privies above channels of running water, whereas King Minos's palace on Crete, 4,000 years ago, fed rainwater through terra-cotta pipes to flush privies below. Toilet historians, of which there are few, attribute the modern flush toilet to Sir John Harington, godson of Queen Elizabeth I, who thought his godmother might like something that flushed away her excreta and devised the Ajax, a play on the Elizabethan word "jakes", meaning privy.
The golden age of the toilet, though, only occurred in the later years of the 18th century and the early years of the next, due to the trio of Alexander Cumming (who invented a valve mechanism), Joseph Bramah (a Yorkshireman who improved on Cumming's valve and made the best lavatories to be had for the next century), and Thomas Crapper (another Yorkshireman who did not invent the toilet but improved its parts). In engineering terms, the best invention was the siphonic ush, which pulls the water out of the bowl and into the pipe. For the user, the S-bend was the godsend, because the water that rested in the bend created a seal that prevented odor from emerging from the pipe. At the height of Victorian invention, patents for siphonic ushes were being requested at the rate of two dozen or so a year.
Nevertheless, although contemporary inventions like the telephone have gone through profound changes, the modern toilet would still be recognizable to Joseph Bramah. He could probably x it. And he most likely would be astonished that we haven't substantially improved it.
The modern toilet has probably added a decade to the human life span (and was voted the biggest medical advance of the last two centuries by the readers of the British Medical Journal). But it is flawed. Seating us high—the average American toilet now measures an astonishing 16.5 inches (42 centimeters) from rim to floor—it is ergonomically questionable, as it squeezes shut the colon and in fact hampers the process of evacuation that it is designed to aid. But the Western world is happy with it.
Marketers call toilets a "distress purchase," only replaced when necessary. One country treats the toilet differently: In Japan, the toilet is modified, improved on, innovated. It is a design object, a must-have, a desirable product. Enormous sums are spent on improving its smallest parts. Japanese toilets can, variously, check your blood pressure; play you music; wash and dry your anus and "front parts" by means of an in-toilet nozzle that sprays water and warm air; suck smelly ions from the air; switch on a light for you as you stumble into the bathroom at night; put the seat lid down for you (a function known as the "marriage-saver," and one that also prevents fine particles of fecal matter being sprayed around the bathroom with every flush); and flush away your excreta without requiring anything as old-fashioned as a tank. These devices are known as high-function toilets, but even the lowliest high-function toilet will have as standard an in-built bidet system, a heated seat, and some form of nifty control panel.
The Washlet, originally a brand name for a toilet seat with bidet function, has become a generic word for a high-function toilet (usually translated as Washeretto). Since 1980, TOTO, Japan's biggest and oldest toilet manufacturer, has sold 20 million Washlets to a nation of 160 million people. According to census figures, more Japanese households now have a Washlet than a computer.
It is easy—for anyone who has not used one—to dismiss a Washlet as yet another product of Japanese eccentricity: Robo-toilets. But the stunning success of the high-function toilet holds lessons for anyone—from public health officials to marketing experts—whose work involves understanding and changing human behaviour and decision making. It is instructive because only 60 years ago, Japan was a nation of squatting pit latrines. Today, the Japanese sit, use water and expect a heated seat as a matter of course. In less than a century, the Japanese toilet industry has achieved the equivalent of persuading a country that drove on the left in horse-drawn carriages to move to the right and, by the way, to drive a Ferrari instead.
I arrange to visit the TOTO Technical Center in Tokyo. It is a low, sleek building, oddly located on a residential street. The Center is described as "[a place] where architects come to get ideas about designs." Sample bathroom sets gleam in the distance; a row of toilets automatically lift their lids as I walk past, in a ceramic greeting ceremony. Photographs are forbidden. The toilet industry in Japan is a highly competitive business, and the top three—TOTO, Inax and Matsushita—keep their secrets close. My requests to visit TOTO's product development laboratories were politely refused.
The world's biggest toilet manufacturer was founded in 1917, when a man called Kazuchika Okura, then working for a ceramics company, thought it might be a good idea to manufacture toilet bowls. It was not the most obvious business plan in a nation that used squat latrines. Progress was slow at first. Then came World War II, which left Japan with a damaged infrastructure and a determination from planners to build superior housing connected to sewers. By 1977, more Japanese were sitting than squatting.
The new ceramic sitting toilet had disadvantages. Visiting an outhouse during Japan's freezing winters could never have been pleasant, but at least with a squat pan there was no contact between skin and cold material. The new style changed that: Now, flesh had to sit on icy ceramic for several months of the year, a situation worsened by a national resistance to central heating that persists today.
TOTO spotted a flawed design that could use some innovation. In 1964 the Wash Air Seat arrived in Japan. Produced by the American Bidet Company, this detachable seat featured a nozzle that sprayed warm water and also blew hot air for drying purposes. In the U.S., the Wash Air Seat had been aimed at patients who had difficulty using toilet paper or reaching round to wipe themselves. It was a niche item that TOTO thought had mass appeal. After all, water is better for cleansing, something that cultures who wash rather than wipe know well. For water cultures, using toilet paper to clean the dirtiest part of the body makes as much hygienic sense as rubbing oneself with a towel instead of taking a shower.
But TOTO's version failed. It was too expensive. The bidet function was too foreign. And Japanese also didn't know they wanted better toilets. The privy was neither talked about nor acknowledged, a cultural convention demonstrated by the common proverb Kusaimono ni futa wo suru (to keep a lid on stinky things). The toilet could not be advertised. So the Washlet languished in obscurity for years.
At TOTO I am joined by Ryosuke Hayashi, a senior engineer and important man. Of the 1,500 patents that TOTO has filed in Japan (and 600 internationally), the Restroom Department is responsible for half. Rick finds my interest in the Washlet quaint. I say that for any non-Japanese person used to a cold, ceramic toilet that does nothing but flush, the Washlet is extraordinary. He's unconvinced.
He'd rather talk about the Neorest, TOTO's top of the line toilet and, in his engineering eyes, an infinitely superior combination of plumbing and computing. Certainly, the Neorest looks gorgeous. It should, when it retails in Japan for $1,700, and in the U.S. for $5,000. Rick thinks that the price is a bargain, considering that "it has a brain." The Neorest takes two days to learn its owner's habits, and adjusts its heating and water use accordingly. It knows when to switch the heat off and which temperature is preferable. It has sensors to assess when the lid needs to be put down or when the customer has finished and the nozzle can be retracted.
All this technology has come from years of research, billions of yen and many great minds (TOTO has 1,500 engineers)—and a visit to a strip club. I persist in asking about the genesis of the Washlet and how it changed Japan, and Rick finally humors me. To sell the Washlet to an unwelcoming public, it had to work properly. The Wash Air Seat and the early Washlet operated mechanically. It took several minutes for the spray to spray and for the water to heat. TOTO solved this by making the workings electronically operated, the spray instant, and the angle perfect. The Washlet nozzle extends and retracts at exactly 43 degrees, a position precisely calibrated to prevent any cleansing water from falling back on the nozzle after doing its job. (This is known as "backwash".) Determining the angle was a long, careful process, Rick says. I ask him how the research was done. He says, "Well, we have 20,000 employees," and stops. I wait for enlightenment.
The answer lies in a comic book. This is a 48-page TOTO history published by Weekly Sankei magazine in 1985, five years after the company had relaunched the Washlet. Its heroes are Mr Kawakami, a TOTO engineer, and his portly, cheery colleague, Mr. Ito. Kawakami and Ito are entrusted with improving the Washlet. The nozzle has to be accurate, and to make it so, they need to know the average location of the human anus. Facts like this are not easy to find, so they turn to the only source material available, which is anybody on the company payroll. Their workmates aren't impressed. "Though we are colleagues," one says with politeness, "I don't want you to know my anus position."
But Kawakami and Ito eventually prevail. Three hundred colleagues were persuaded to sit on a toilet—in private—and to mark the positions of their anuses by fixing a small piece of a paper to a wire strung across the seat. The average is calculated (for males, it comes to between 27 and 28 centimeters, or 10.5 and 11 inches, from the front of the toilet seat), but that's only the first hurdle. Mr Kawakami is now tasked with improving the Washlet's ability to wash "the female place". He needs to know how many centimeters separate a female's two places, and is initially at a loss. Obviously the best place to research female places is in a place with females, preferably naked ones. That's where the strip club comes in, though most strip club clientele are unlikely to react as Mr. Kawakami does, by shouting, "Three centimeters!"
By 1995, 23 per cent of Japanese houses had some kind of Washlet, according to a Cabinet Office survey, and by the end of the next decade, the figure had doubled. The obvious business plan was to go global. In toilet terms, the wealthy consumers of the United States are the next frontier. TOTO opened its first U.S. office in 1989. Its current premises in New York City are in downtown SoHo, where the window display—a glossy, sleek Neorest—somehow fits in well on this street of designer shops.
TOTO's initial success in the U.S., though, had nothing to do with aesthetics. In 1992, after it was noted that a flush toilet uses 40 percent of a household's water, the United States government passed the Energy Policy Act (EPAct), requiring all new toilets within two years to use only 1.5 gallons (5.5 liters) for each flush, when the average was an astonishing eight gallons (30 liters). The toilet industry was wrong-footed. Two years was barely enough time to change production lines, let alone reconfigure a toilet design that relied on a set volume of water to function. Consequently, the next several years are still known as the time of clogging.
American manufacturers' loss was initially TOTO's gain. TOTO's success in Japan had come through clever advertising and marketing, but it was also due to a brown, gloopy material called gi ji obutse, which translates as "fake body waste". It is, TOTO staff in Japan tell me, "a key part of TOTO," and so key, the recipe is top secret, though they will reveal that it involves soybean paste.
Soybean paste (miso) is a lethal weapon in the battle for toilet market victory, because toilet-makers need to test ushes, and they need test media to do it with. A ush is a chaotic event. Various media bounce around trying to get through one small opening. The more realistic the test media, the closer its properties—buoyancy, density—to human feces, the better the ush. Toilet engineers have always known this: When George Jennings's Pedestal Vase won a gold medal at a Health Exhibition in 1884, it had successfully ushed 10 apples, one at sponge, three "air vessels" (crumpled paper) as well as cleaning the "plumber's smudge" smeared on the bowl's surface.
When the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) published a survey in 2002 testing toilets for ush performance, TOTO models were ranked rst, second and third. This helped TOTO's reputation and sales: Since 2003, annual U.S. sales have doubled (from 14.4 billion to 30.1 billion yen, or $257 million). TOTO won't release sales gures—beyond saying unhelpfully that the company is "the recognized leader in the toilet category," which would puzzle industry leader Kohler—but, at least temporarily, gi ji obutse helped to give them the ushing edge in a clogged nation.
Also, TOTO had successfully sold its toilets on the concept that they could keep the consumer clean, rather than the other way round. It would do the same in America. In 2007 the expensive "Clean is Happy" campaign was introduced to the American public. There were viral Internet ads and a lavish Web site featuring disturbingly cheery people telling you what Washlets could do in language Americans could understand. The deodorizer, one cheery person explained, "is kind of like the catalytic converter in your car." It is "a hands-free clean," said another. It uses water, and what's so scary about that, when "we wash our faces and hair with water! Humans love water!" It will be a hard sell in a county that still associates bidets with louche behavior and Parisian debauchery. Anal washing still means dirty naughtiness, as many Muslim-Americans revealed in a 2005 show called Lota Stories, where Americans recorded their experiences of using a lota—a cupful of water—in their toilet habits. One contributor left some useful advice gained from several years of trying to use water in a culture content with "the complex, ridiculous thrones" (as described by philosopher Alan Watts) and unsatisfactory paper-cleaning methods. Keep a plant in the bathroom, the contributor wrote, to explain away the watering can or cup. Above all, use discretion. "Ignore the impulse to explain what you are doing, even to friends. Unless people have been using a lota all their lives, the benets completely escape them, and they will view you as a freak with a freakish bathroom custom."
TOTO won't admit sales figures, but its American reach is nothing like back home. Perhaps the robo-toilet revolution is simply taking its time. But Tomohiko Satou of TOTO's archrival Inax is noticeably lacking in TOTO-style optimism. He spent time posted in Inax's San Francisco office, where sales, he admits, were "not so much." "Japanese people," he tells me, "understand that our product is very sanitary and clean." But years of trying to explain that to Americans taught him a painful truth. "Americans just don't want to use it. They're not scared. They're just not interested."


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Deep Drawable Steels: Part One
Thermo-Mechanical Treatment (TMT) of Non-Ferrous Alloys: Part One
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Most groups of alloys can exhibit failure by cracking in circumstances where the apparent applied stress is well below that at which failure would normally be expected. Steels are no exception to this, and probably exhibit a wider variety of failure mechanisms than any other category of material. While ultimate failure under excessive stress must occur and can be reasonably predicted by appropriate mechanical tests, premature failure is always dangerous, involving a considerable element of unpredictability.
Most groups of alloys can exhibit failure by cracking in circumstances where the
apparent applied stress is well below that at which failure would normally be expected.
Steels are no exception to this, and probably exhibit a wider variety of failure
mechanisms than any other category of material. While ultimate failure under excessive
stress must occur and can be reasonably predicted by appropriate mechanical tests,
premature failure is always dangerous, involving a considerable element of
However, a detailed knowledge of structure and of the distribution of impurities in
steels is gradually leading to a much better understanding of the origins and mechanisms
of the various types of cracks encountered. Furthermore, the now well-established science
of fracture mechanics allows the quantitative assessment of growth of cracks in various
stress situations, to an extent that it is now frequently possible to predict the stress
level to which steel structures can be confidently subjected without the risk of sudden
This behavior would appear to be an intrinsic characteristic of iron but it has been
shown that iron, highly purified by zone refining and containing minimal concentrations
of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, is very ductile even at extremely low temperatures. For
example, at 4.2 K reductions in area in tensile tests of up to 90 % have been observed
with iron specimens of the highest available purity.
As the carbon and nitrogen content of the iron is increased, the transition from ductile
to brittle cleavage behavior takes place at increasing temperatures, until in some steels
this can occur at ambient and above-ambient temperatures. Clearly, the significant
variables in such a transition are of great basic and practical importance.
In either case, the conditions are suitable for the localized rapid movement of
dislocations as a result of high stresses, which provides a favorable situation for
the nucleation of cracks by dislocation coalescence.
The nucleation and the propagation of a cleavage crack must be distinguished clearly.
Nucleation occurs when a critical value of the effective shear stress is reached,
corresponding to a critical grouping, ideally a pile-up, of dislocations which can
create a crack nucleus, e.g. by fracturing a carbide particle.
In contrast, propagation of a crack depends on the magnitude of the local tensile
stress, which must reach a critical level. Simple models of slip-nucleated fracture
assume either interaction of dislocations or cracks formed in grain boundary carbides.
However, recently it has been realized that both these structural features must be taken
into account in deriving an expression for the critical fracture stress. This critical
stress does not appear to be temperature dependent. At low temperatures the yield
stress is higher, so the crack propagates when the plastic zone ahead of the crack is
small, whereas at higher temperatures, the yield stress being smaller, a larger
plastic zone is required to achieve the critical local tensile stress.
This tensile stress has been determined for a wide variety of mild steels. The scatter
probably arises from differences in test temperature and carbide dimensions. This is
conclusive evidence for the role of finer grain sizes in increasing the resistance to
crack propagation. Regarding grain boundary carbide size, effective crack nuclei will
occur in particles above a certain critical size so that, if the size distribution of
carbide particles in particular steel is known, it should be possible to predict its
critical fracture stress.
Therefore, in mild steels in which the structure is essentially ferrite grains
containing carbide particles, the particle size distribution of carbides is the most
important factor. In contrast, in bainitic and martensitic steels the austenite grains
transform to lath structures where the lath width is usually between 0.2 and 2 im. The
laths occur in bundles or packets with low angle boundaries between the laths. Larger
misorientations occur across packet boundaries. In such structures, the packet width
is the main micro structural feature controlling cleavage crack propagation.
The phenomenon of brittle fracture became particularly prevalent with the introduction
of welding as the major steel fabrication technique. Previously, brittle cracks often
stopped at the joints of riveted plates but the steel structures resulting from welding
provided continuous paths for crack propagation. Added to this, incorrect welding
procedures can give rise to high stress concentrations and also to the formation of
weld-zone cracks which may initiate brittle fracture.
While brittle failures of steels have been experienced since the latter half of the
nineteenth century when steel began to be used widely for structural work, the most
serious failures have occurred later, as the demand for integral large steel structures
has greatly increased, e.g. in ships, pipelines, bridges and pressure vessels.
Spectacular failures took place in many of the all-welded Liberty ships produced
during the Second World War, when nearly 1500 incidents involving serious brittle
failure were recognized and nineteen ships broke completely in two without warning.
Despite our increasing understanding of the phenomenon and the great improvements in
steel making and in welding since then, serious brittle failures still occur. Brittle
fractures of thick-walled steel pressure vessels are reminder that human error and lack
of scientific control can be disastrous. Bearing in mind the temperature dependence of
the failure behavior, and the widening use of steels at low temperatures, e.g. in
Arctic pipelines, for storage of liquid gases etc., it is increasingly necessary to
have steels with very low transition temperatures and high fracture toughness.
While there are many variables to consider in achieving this end, including the detailed
steel-making practice, the composition including trace elements and the fabrication
processes involved, the most important is probably grain size refinement.
The development of high strength low alloy steels (HSLA) or micro-alloyed steels, in
the manufacture of which controlled rolling plays a vital part, has led to the
production of structural steels with grain sizes combined with good strength levels and
low transition temperatures. In these steels, to which small concentrations (<0.1%)
of niobium, vanadium or titanium are added, the carbon level is usually less than 0.15 %
and often below 0.10 %, so that the carbide phase occupies a small volume fraction. In
any case, cementite, which forms relatively coarse particles or lamellas in pearlite, is
partly replaced by much finer dispersions of alloy carbides, NbC etc.
Addition of certain other alloying elements to steel, notably manganese and nickel,
results in a lowering of the transition temperature. For example, alloy steels with
9 % nickel and less than 0.1 % carbon have a sufficiently low transition temperature
to be able to be used for large containers of liquid gases, where the temperature can
be as low as 77 K. Below this temperature, austenitic steels have to be used.
Of the elements unavoidably present in steels, phosphorus, which is substantially soluble
in an iron, raises the transition temperature and thus must be kept to as low a
concentration as possible. On the other hand, sulphur has a very low solubility, and
is usually present as manganese sulphide with little effect on the transition temperature
but with an important role in ductile fracture. Oxygen is an embrittling element even
when present in very small concentrations. However, it is easily removed by deoxidation
practice involving elements such as manganese, silicon and aluminum.
Finally, the fabrication process is often of crucial importance. In welding it is
essential to have a steel with a low carbon equivalent, i.e. a factor incorporating the
effects on harden ability of the common alloying elements. The main hazard in welding
is the formation of martensite in the heat-affected zone (HAZ), near the weld, which
can readily lead to micro cracks. This can be avoided, not only by control of
hardenability but also by preheating the weld area to lead to slower cooling after
welding or by post heat treatment of the weld region. However, in some high strength
steels, slower cooling may result in the formation of upper bainite in the HAZ,
which encourages cleavage fracture.
Attention must also be paid to the possibility of hydrogen absorption leading to
embrittlement. The presence of hydrogen in steels often leads to disastrous brittle
fracture, e.g. there have been many failures of high strength steels into which hydrogen
was introduced during electroplating of protective surface layers. Concentrations of a
few parts per million are often sufficient to cause failure. While much hydrogen escapes
from steel in the molecular form during treatment, some can remain and precipitate at
internal surfaces such as inclusion/matrix and carbide/matrix interfaces, where it
forms voids or cracks. Cleavage crack growth then occurs slowly under internal hydrogen
pressure, until the critical length for instability is reached, and failure occurs
rapidly. Hydrogen embrittlement is not sensitive to composition, but to the strength
level of the steel, the problem being most pronounced in high strength alloy steels.
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NEW Bamboo Interchangeable Needles
That's right everyone! We FINALLY have Bamboo Interchangeable Needles again!
Steve & I have been working on this project for what seems like forever! Many of you may remember that at one time we did carry a bamboo interchangeable set but had to discontinue it for a variety of reasons. We've searched long and hard to find a partner to produce the set for us at the level of quality we expected. Needless to say, we saw a lot of crappy needles along the way, but we couldn't be more thrilled with our new set. Let me give you tour:
Included in our set is the following:
Nine sets of tips in sizes #4 to #11. We will also have size #3 available seperately. The tips are made from high-quality, hard bamboo and won't split or splinter. Sizes #4-#6 have a gold-tone base while sizes #7-#11 have a black base, which indicates which diameter of cable should be used.
Four sets of cables in three different lengths (16″, 24″, 32″) – that's two cables in two diameters in each of the three lengths are included. The cables themselves are soft and flexible. Our joins are smooth and secure and do not require a tool of any sort. Just simply screw on your tips and start knitting!
The set also includes two adaptors (one in each diameter) that allow you to combine cables up to 64″. There are also two pairs of knobs so you can remove your tips from any active project and use them on a different project.
We've also included a Knitter's Gauge made from durable plastic that will assist you with tracking your gauge and determining needle sizes. It also has a handy cutting edge!
The set is presented in a gorgeous silk case that folds up for easy storage or travel. It's light weight and the construction ensures that everything has a place and stays in their place securely.
Our Bamboo Interchangeable Set, with everything I've listed here retails for $109.99. We think this is a dynamite price considering all of the parts and pieces included. Additional tips ($6.99) , cables ($3.99 for a pkg of 2), adaptors ($1.00 each) and knobs ($2.00/pair) will also be available separately, along with the #3 tip.
We're taking preorders now for the sets. We'll have some advance sets shortly and will have significant stock within 2-3 weeks. Open stock will follow later this fall.
I hope you are all as excited as we are. I know there are many of you who lamented over the demise of our previous set. We think this one is even better and well worth the wait.
I'd love to hear what you think or answer any questions in the comments!
P.S. It appears that the software I use for comments and WordPress are having an issue. I was wondering why nobody was commenting! I was feeling very sad. I'll be looking into this and will post back as soon as the glitch is fixed!
- Top 20 Finalist in the "This Is Retail" Video Contest! - April 3, 2012
- Knitter's Pride Needles & More - September 12, 2011
- Pilgrimage to Portland - July 27, 2011


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WASHINGTON (AP) — He calls himself Sen. Tea Party.
That almost says it all about Sen. Jim DeMint's role on the nation's political scene in these nervous days of debt limit warfare and pre-election posturing.
But unlike the fractious movement as a whole, DeMint is specific and focused on what change, exactly, he wants: passage — not just a vote — of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. Without it, he says, no consideration should be given to raising the nation's borrowing limit. Even, he says, if the country runs out of money for paying all its bills after Aug. 2.
The larger problem for DeMint is the government's $14.3 trillion debt, the equivalent of $46,580 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
"That is the threat, not a debt ceiling, but the debt," the South Carolina senator told a tea party audience this week at a Capitol Hill rally.
DeMint's preference for conservative principles over compromise — and his success last year getting tea partyers nominated over some GOP party favorites in last year's elections — have vexed Republican leaders. Some in the GOP complained that while DeMint's activities may have won like-minded conservatives several seats in Congress, they also enabled Democrats to keep some vulnerable seats and maintain their majority.
His insistence on a balanced-budget amendment as part of any debt deal was the inspiration for several House Republicans — some of them also from South Carolina — to force Speaker John Boehner to pull his own debt-ceiling proposal and amend it to their liking so it could win passage in the House Friday evening. Within two hours, the Senate rejected it. Six Republicans joined all of the majority Democrats in doing it.
Earlier in the week, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, the Republicans' presidential nominee in 2008 and one of the party's biggest maverick, disparaged the tea party by name and DeMint implicitly for acting is if a balanced-budget amendment could be passed as part of a debt-ceiling increase under such a tight deadline.
"Maybe some people (who) have only been in this body for six or seven months or so really believe that," said McCain, a balanced-budget amendment supporter himself. "Others know better."
DeMint's support for like-minded candidates in GOP primaries has boosted his influence in the party since his election to the Senate in 2004. Earlier this month, moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine co-authored an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal with DeMint, giving her re-election campaign some conservative credibility in the face of a challenge from the right. Sen. Orrin Hatch, who watched his fellow Utah Sen. Robert Bennett fall to a tea party challenge in 2010, is actively courting the populist movement more than a year out from Election Day.
And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, long an unapologetic defender of the special spending "earmarks" that DeMint deplores, switched and embraced the earmark ban now in effect.
The man behind the revolutionizing is a 59-year-old grandfather who used to play drums in a band called Salt and Pepper but now sticks to the guitar. His mother once ran a school of dance and decorum out of his boyhood home in Greenville, S.C. He has little use, however, for many Washington rituals — backslapping, small talk, Sunday shows or fancy dinners with other political players.
The former marketing executive, educated at the University of Tennessee and Clemson University, has been in Washington since 1999 but says he dislikes politics and will not run for a third Senate term. Washington's titans have not embraced DeMint, either.
In his new book, "The Great American Awakening," DeMint writes of feeling unwelcome for years after his arrival in the Senate, including at a 2009 GOP caucus meeting in which he urged his colleagues to shake up the institution's cherished seniority rules.
More-senior senators got better shots at inserting federal dollars for home state projects into spending bills. DeMint was opposed to earmarks. Many of his GOP colleagues shunned him.
"'You can't change the Senate,'" a colleague told DeMint.
Frustrated, DeMint formed a fundraising committee for supporting candidates he considers true conservatives — and outing those he considers weak-kneed Republicans. His Senate Conservatives Fund ranks his colleagues on their positions. He considers the years of George W. Bush's presidency an embarrassment because, even with a Republican in the White House and the GOP in control of both houses, the government drove up spending and debt.
"I decided my work could no longer be with other senators," DeMint wrote. "I would have to work with the American people to elect a new class of senators who would help me to stop the spending, debt and the expansion of the federal government."
He began building up GOP primary candidates who embraced his view of true conservative values: free trade; opposition to earmarks; a commitment to cut spending. The result was that these tea party (Taxed Enough Already) candidates took out some veterans in the primaries. Sen. Robert Bennett in Utah was defeated in a party convention by now-Sen. Mike Lee; Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, a former governor, was defeated by Christine O'Donnell.
McConnell's preferred candidate for Senate in Kentucky, Trey Grayson, was defeated for the GOP nomination by DeMint's pick, now-Sen. Rand Paul.
Not all of the candidates backed by DeMint won Senate seats. O'Donnell lost to Democrat Chris Coons in Delaware. Underdog tea party candidate Joe Miller upset incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska's Republican primary, but Murkowski came back as an independent candidate and kept her seat in the November general election.
DeMint said he didn't care that some candidates he helped catapult to primary victories lost the general election, or that perhaps, as his Senate colleagues bitterly noted later, that those losses cost Republicans a Senate majority. He says he'd rather be in the minority than an unprincipled majority.
So when the House on Friday passed Boehner's debt limit bill with changes that would require Congress to pass a balanced-budget amendment before the next time Congress has to raise the debt limit, DeMint still voted against it in the Senate. The change also wasn't good enough for four of South Carolina's five Republican House members, who, like DeMint, insisted that Congress first pass the constitutional amendment as a condition for any debt-ceiling increase.
"Principled conservatives may disagree on this matter, and I respect their opinion," DeMint wrote, "But I believe America cannot wait any longer before we get serious about balancing the budget."


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How to cook Azure Mobile Apps (node.js): "50 records" limit and lazy loading
Code is available here: https://github.com/sbaidachni/XamarinMobileAppsDemo
In the previous posts we discussed how to create and setup node.js Azure Mobile Apps backend and how to start using .NET Standard libraries with Xamarin applications. Now, I am waiting for my next flight, and it's time to build a basic interface using Xamarin.Forms.
I am going to work with records from the SalesLT.Product table. So, I need to make sure that my backend contains the MS_TableSchema application setting with the SalesLT value there, and my Product.json file contains autoIncrement property in true due to integer primary key there.
But there is one more problem: as we discussed in the first post, Azure Mobile Apps (node.js) service requires id name for the primary key rather than ProductID. In general, it's not easy to change any column name, and even in our simplest case, we cannot do it using just sp_rename. You will be able to see that the database contains lots of dependencies to ProductID. So, I would recommend to create a new view rather than redesign the whole database. We will be able to work with the view like with the table, and we will be able to define new names for our columns.
CREATE VIEW [SalesLT].[vProductList]
p . [ProductID] as id ,
. . . . .
FROM [SalesLT].[Product] p
Prior to create the view, you have to make sure that SalesLT.Product already contains version,createdAt, updatedAt and deleted columns. You can simply create Product.json and Product.js in your backend environment to force the framework to create these columns for you and after that you can rename Product.js and Product.json to vProductList. Once you finish, you will be able to use Easy Tables functionality and review your data in the portal:
Of course, if you create any additional column in the view, you will fail because views don't allow you to alter associated tables.
Let's go back to our Xamarin application and implement something simple.
I will not implement a really perfect MVVM approach, but we will need to create some classes in any case. First of all, we need to create a class that will represent our table. It's exactly a model and we will implement all needed properties there. You can manage name-column relationships using attributes, but if you use identical to your db names in your class, you have to do almost nothing. So, you can find my class below:
You can see that I used vProductList as a class name and Id, Name, ProductNumber, Color and Size are my columns from the table.
Now, we need to implement a view-model class that will prepare all data to show UI. I am going to use an ObservableCollection to store our items to make sure that our UI will be updated automatically in the case of new items there. I am using the singleton approach to make sure that we have just one view-model in time and I will implement the Product class that will satisfy our needs better, compare to our vProductList. Of course, the Product class doesn't have any specific things now, but later we will be able to add some UI-related features to it.
You can see that we use MobileServiceClient class to get a reference to our service, and once we need some data, I am using ToListAsync to download everything. At the same time you can find that I am using a strange property RecordCounts. It's still not clear why I need it, but later we will be able to see why it's important if you want to show all data from your table.
Let's implement our UI:
You can see that there is a ListView that just displays Id and Name fields from the table. Additionally, there is a label that shows number of records that we just downloaded.
Below you can find associated with the UI code:
We are just getting a reference to our view-model and download data once our UI is appearing.
Let's start our application and you will be able to see that the UI displays just 50 records:
It's happened because node.js implementation doesn't allow you to get all records. By default, you can get just 50 records, but there is the pageSize parameter that you can provide in your app.js file.
In any case, if you change the parameter, you will be able to download fixed number of records only. That's why we need to implement something on the client side to display everything.
In order to do it we can use ItemAppearing event handler for our ListView. The ItemAppearing event fires for every item before it will be displayed. We cannot guarantee exactly when, be it will fire in advance. So, we can use this event to download more and more records, implementing some sort of lazy loading approach. Just look at the following code:
protected async void ListView_ItemsAppearing(object sender, ItemVisibilityEventArgs e)
var itemTypeObject = e.Item as Product;
if (model.Items.Last() == itemTypeObject)
await model.LoadDataAsync();
You can see that if ItemAppearing fires for the last element in the list, we will be able to download more. The most important thing there that if ListView implements RecycleElement caching strategy, we will download more elements just if a user scrolls the list far enough.
If you run the application, you will be able to see that there 100 or 150 records in the list (depends on your monitor and other parameters), but once you start scrolling down, the list will download more and more items (by 50 records in our case).
So, now you know how to deal with big table and aware about "50 records" limit. Next time we will discuss how to implement continues integration with GitHub.