Beyond the Blue Horizon...

Ascended Master Gifts 20% Off

2010-11-26T20:48:00.001-10:00

Timeless teachings of the Ascended Masters from the hearts of Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet to you and those you love!

Looking for what’s new? Most Recent
Want something introductory? First Steps
Give the gift of beauty. (Cards, 5″x8″, 8″x10″ and up.): Artwork
Many merry multimedia: Audios and Videos
Books, and more Books

reposted from www.TSL.org

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Free Nov 13&14- 22 Countries - Saint Germain's Weekend Seminars

2010-11-06T20:02:00.001-10:00

WORLDWIDE EVENTS: Saint German’s Greater Way of Freedom, November 13 & 14

November 13 & 14 – Live presentations in 22 countries, 10 languages:

www.ICOpresentation.com

Do you want a better tomorrow? Do you desire positive change for yourself, your community and your nation? Then Saint Germain is the one to get to know.
Saint Germain is a master of wisdom who can teach you the path of soul freedom. He is known as a diplomat, expressing the godly qualities of dignity, grace, gentility, poise and true statesmanship.
Saint Germain teaches the science of alchemy (transformation and change) in his book Saint Germain On Alchemy. He brings us the gift of the violet flame—a miracle elixir of light that can transmute and lift your burdens.
The violet flame is an invisible spiritual energy that appears violet to those who have developed their spiritual vision. The violet flame revitalizes and invigorates us. The violet flame changes negative energy into positive energy. By transforming negative thoughts and feelings, the violet flame provides a platform for our healing.
Saint Germain initiates our souls in the science and ritual of transmutation through the violet flame. He is intimately tied to the destiny of America and the nations of the world. He is the sponsoring master of the United States of America and George Washington.
Saint Germain inspired the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He also inspired many of the labor-saving devices of the twentieth century. His goal is to liberate mankind from drudgery so that they might devote themselves to the pursuit of the path of the ascension.
Saint Germain says:
“You are mortal. I am immortal. The only difference between us is that I have chosen to be free, and you have yet to make the choice. We have the same potential, the same resources, the same connection to the One.”

WORLDWIDE EVENTS: Saturday and Sunday, November 13 & 14

For times, locations and languages go to www.ICOpresentation.com
Sponsored by The Summit Lighthouse.

reposted from http://tsl.org/2010/11/worldwide-events-saint-germans-greater-way-of-freedom-...

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NOW: Just say NO to FDA Frankenfish Salmon

2010-11-03T03:16:00.001-10:00

Labelled? Sure. But let's not have it at all! Playing with the food chain is risky business that will impact the planet (yours and mine!) for generations to come!

GE Salmon: Coming for Dinner? Tell FDA If GE Salmon Is Approved, It Must Be Labeled

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on August 25, 2010, that it will potentially approve the long-shelved AquAdvantage transgenic salmon as the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption. The GE Atlantic salmon being considered was developed by AquaBounty Technologies, and genetically engineered to produce growth hormones year-round, creating a fish the company claims grows at twice the normal rate. This could allow factory fish farms to crowd the salmon into pens and still get high production rates. To make matters worse, FDA argues that these GE salmon don’t even need to be labeled!

We have only a short window to tell FDA to reject these GE fish, and at the very least label them. Can you send a comment today?

Each year millions of farmed salmon escape from open-water net pens, outcompeting wild populations for resources and straining ecosystems. Any approval of GE salmon would represent another serious threat to the survival of native salmon populations, many of which have already suffered severe declines related to salmon farms and other man-made impacts. Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences notes that a release of just sixty GE fish into a wild population of 60,000 could lead to the extinction of the wild population in less than 40 fish generations. Wild Atlantic salmon are already on the Endangered Species List in the U.S.; approving these GE Atlantic salmon will be the final blow to these wild stocks.

The human health impacts of eating GE fish are entirely unknown, but some scientific research raises cause for alarm. For example, these GE farmed salmon will carry with them all of the health hazards of other farmed salmon, but transgenic fish may be more susceptible to disease than fish currently grown in aquaculture facilities because transgenic fish are identified as “macro-mutants” with a reduced ability to survive. Consequently, the amount of antibiotics given to transgenic fish may be higher than the amount currently given to farmed fish; already farmed salmon are given more antibiotics than any other livestock by weight, threatening the health of those who eat them and the continued efficacy of these antibiotics to treat human disease.

Tell the Food and Drug Administration not to approve GE salmon AND, if the Obama Administration insists on approving these genetically engineered fish, it should require the fish to be labeled when marketed to fish farmers, fish retailers and food companies, restaurants, and when marketed to consumers.

Please take action today! The comment period on labeling of GE salmon is only open through November 22nd

Share This alert:

http://truefoodnow.org/

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Gotta Love Karma Cooler

2010-10-31T10:22:00.001-10:00

http://www.karmacooler.com/

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Gotta Love Karma Cooler

2010-10-31T10:13:00.001-10:00

http://www.karmacooler.com/

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Supplements Banned? Not My Problem, Can't Happen Here

2010-10-08T04:14:00.001-10:00

Lynn McTaggart (The Intention Experiment and fictional heroine in Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol") weighs in on the ponderous plot to eliminate alternative medical treatments including time-honored Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese herbal medicine and homeopathy. Big Pharma is watching European consumers to see how much backlash there is to the WHO plan to stop all non-allopathic medicine. Unless there is sufficient opposition, within the next year or two, laws will come into effect in Europe that will drastically restrict the access of all Europeans to high-dose vitamins and herbal medicine. The near identical intern
ational laws that have been drafted within the United Nations suggest that a well organized and concerted effort is under foot to finish off any alternative to orthodox medicine.

Let's hope that they wake up AND speak up....because the USA is next! What are you doing to help? More on Codex here: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=162

"Not my problem"

Lynn McTaggart, August 6th, 2010

In 2002 my magazine What Doctors Don’t Tell You first learned about plans within the European Union to radically restrict natural medicine across all member countries, starting with laws that would create a very low ceiling of ‘safe upper limits’ in vitamins.
Although the laws were ostensibly to create a level playing field within the European supplement market, the proposals bore the heavy hand of Big Pharma.
At the time, the solution appeared simple. The majority of people in the UK use some form of natural medicine. All we needed to do was to band together, whip up a national protest, and the laws would be stopped in their tracks.
In early 2003, we invited all the heads of the largest vitamin companies and representatives from all the leading natural medicine organizations – homeopathy, herbal medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture and many others – to a meeting in central London.
Many of the organizations never showed up. Of the 50 or so who did, many groups felt that our concerns were alarmist. Others welcomed the new moves as good for business. A few attempting to fight the legislation were busiest fighting each other.
No group seemed able to see the bigger picture. Each organization was mainly concerned with whether their own business was under fire. If it wasn’t – and at the time it wasn’t for many of the disciplines – they weren’t interested. Not my problem.
Big Pharma had big plans all those years ago. Unless there is sufficient opposition, within the next year or two, laws will come into effect in Europe that will drastically restrict the access of all Europeans to high-dose vitamins and herbal medicine.
Most therapeutic herbal medicine, plus forms that are new to the West, such as Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese herbal medicine, will effectively be banned. And although homeopathy has emerged unscathed from future EU law, the British Medical Association is working to eliminate funding for NHS homeopathic hospitals.
This pogrom will not end in Europe. The near identical international laws that have been drafted within the United Nations suggest that a well organized and concerted effort is under foot to finish off any alternative to orthodox medicine.
The plan is to watch Europe closely to assess the level of consumer protest. Thus far, that protest has been minimal. The two consumer groups that have maintained any sort of consistent attack – the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) and Consumers for Health Choice who have challenged the law and lobbied parliament are starved of funds.
The individual organizations to this day remain isolationist. Not my problem.

This attitude reminds me a bit of the speech given by Pasto Martin Miemoller about the passivity of many German groups to the purging by the Nazis of group after group.

First they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me for me
and then there was no one left to speak out for me.

For all of us wishing to maintain alternatives to drug-based orthodox medicine, these laws are all of our problem, and every last one of us has an obligation to speak up now.

Here’s what you can do:
Right now, in the absence of collective consumer action, our best hopes in the UK rest with the CHC and the ANH. Both need funds desperately in order to continue their fight.

Contact information:
Alliance for Natural Health, The Atrium, Curtis Road, Dorking, Surrey RH4 1XA. Tel: 01306 646 600. Website: www.anhcampaign.org

reposted from http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/not-my-problem.htm

Lynne McTaggart, author of The Intention Experiment, Featured in Dan Brown’s New Book – The Lost Symbol “…human consciousness, as Noetic author Lynne McTaggart described it, was a substance outside the confines of the body. A highly ordered energy capable of changing the physical world. Katherine (Solomon) had been fascinated by McTaggart’s book ‘The Intention Experiment’, and her global, Web-based study – theintentionexperiment.com - aimed at discovering how human intention could affect the world.” - Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol (Random House, 2009).

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7 Image Searchers

2010-10-06T04:19:00.001-10:00

7 Image Search Tools That Will Change Your Life

Although Google has been playing with some fun image search toys in its lab and the official Google Image Search has recently significantly upped its game, some of its most hyped features — color search, instant scrolling, hover preview — are but mere shadows of sleeker, better versions that geekier, more sophisticated image search tools offer. Here are seven of our favorites.

OSKOPE

oSkope is a visual search assistant that lets you browse images and products from popular sites like Amazon, eBay, YouTube and Flickr in a highly intuitive way. You can skim thumbnails related to your search keywords and save search results from different services to a visual bookmark bar at the bottom of your browser screen.

COMPFIGHT

CompFight is a Flickr search tool tremendously useful for all your comp stock image needs but also doubling as a visual inspiration ignition engine. It lets you search based on tag or text, spitting out a pleasant wall of thumbnails. Particularly useful: The CreativeCommons search option, which filters results by image rights license type.

CompFight was featured in the Experimental category of this year’s Communication Arts annual.

FLICKR RELATED TAG BROWSER

You may recall Flickr Related Tag Browser from pickings past — a sleek web app retrieves Flickr images tagged with your search keyword in a neat grid, surrounded by a radial display of related tags. Clicking each related tag produces the same grid of images tagged with it, semantically leading you down the endless image tagging rabbit hole.

FRTB is the work of interactive designer Felix Turner, the Flash whiz who helped build the now-ubiquitous Brightcove video players.

TINEYE

TinEye is reverse image search — feed it any image, either by uploading or by pasting the image URL, and it’ll tell you where it came from. We were able to use it on a scan of an obscure German calendar from our childhood and TinyEye proceeded to promptly produce a
TinEye can be particularly useful for identifying the artist or original source of photographs and artwork that you happen to stumble upon on Tumblr or another all-too-often unreferenced photo bookmarking service.

COOLIRIS

We first featured Cooliris nearly three years ago, when it was still called PicLens. This fantastic free browser plugin offers an image search interface like no other. It works on the expected image search platforms — Google, Flickr, etc. — but we particularly like its use on Facebook, where the native image browsing is lacking at best.

Cooliris is available for Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer. Chrome for Mac is, unfortunately, not supported yet. Soon, they say.

RETRIEVR

From a previous post: retrievr is an experimental image search tool that uses color recognition to retrieve Flickr images that reflect the spatial color arrangement of a digital sketch you draw on a canvas.

It’s important to keep in mind that the algorithm doesn’t recognize shapes, but does color and space relationships — so if you doodle the outline of a wine glass in black, you’re more likely to get a lamp post, but if you go with an inverted triangle in blue, you may just get that Cosmo.

MULTICOLR SEARCH LAB

Easily the most useful color-based search tool yet, and also noted in a previous post, Multicolr Search Lab offers a simple yet sophisticated way of finding images based on a color or color combination you’re looking for. Images are pulled from more than 10 million of Flickr’s most interesting photos and you can add up to 10 colors as your search criteria, including multiple swatches of the same color to indicate ratio — say you want an image that’s almost entirely yellow with a bit of blue, you may select yellow four times and blue once.

Developed by Idée Labs in Toronto, the tool uses their proprietary Piximilar software which we’re utterly surprised Google hasn’t acquired yet.

from: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/10/01/best-image-search-tools/ By Maria Popova with thanks to Amrit, Communication Arts annual, Felix Turner, Idée Labs
Idée Labs

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New Privacy Policy: What Google Removed and Added

2010-09-21T04:20:00.001-10:00

To their credit, Google provides detailed information with track changes against the previous version of their Privacy Policy.

But here's some interesting factoids from their newest Privacy Policy effective October 3, 2010.

REMOVED: At Google we recognize that privacy is important.

REMOVED: The affiliated sites through which our services are offered may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

REMOVED: Google only processes personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and/or the supplementary privacy notices for specific services.

REMOVED: When you sign up for a particular service that requires registration, we ask you to provide personal information. If we propose to use personal information for any purposes other than those described in this Privacy Policy and/or in the specific service privacy notices, we will offer you an effective way to opt out of the use of personal information for those other purposes. We will not collect or use sensitive information for purposes other than those described in this Privacy Policy and/or in the supplementary service privacy notices, unless we have obtained your prior consent.

REMOVED: We may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information, such as the number of users who searched for a particular term, for example, or how many users clicked on a particular advertisement. Such information does not identify you individually.

REMOVED: Data integrity: Google processes personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected and in accordance with this Privacy Policy or any applicable service-specific privacy notice.

KEPT: We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent but REMOVED: and we expect most such changes will be minor.

ADDED: When you send and receive SMS messages to or from one of our services that provides SMS functionality, we may collect and maintain information associated with those messages, such as the phone number, the wireless carrier associated with the phone number, the content of the message, and the date and time of the transaction. We may use your email address to communicate with you about our services.

ADDED: You can use the Google Dashboard to review and control the information stored in your Google Account.

CAN YOU FIX IT? Hardly. But...you can download the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. It lets you choose not to send information about your website visit to Google Analytics from pages (via the Analytics ga.js script). http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/eula.html?hl=en

reposted from Google.com info pages

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Egg Sizes, Yields and Equivalents Leftover Egg Yokes - What's a Girld to Do?

2010-09-19T09:32:00.001-10:00

Egg Sizes, Yields and Equivalents

In Place Of	Use	Or
4 large eggs	4 extra-large	5 medium
5 large eggs	4 extra-large	6 medium
6 large eggs	5 extra-large	7 medium


Yields 4 tablespoons 2 2/3 tablespoons whites 1 1/3 tablespoons yolk	Yields 3 1/4 tablespoons 2 1/4 tablespoons whites 1+ tablespoon yolk	Yields 3 tablespoons 2 tablespoons whites 1 tablespoons yolk

Other Eggy Info - Total Volume
1 large egg, beaten =	3 1/4 tablespoons
2 large eggs, beaten=	6 1/2 tablespoons (1/4 cup + 2 1/2 tablespoons)
3 large eggs, beaten=	9 2/3 tablespoons (1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tablespoons)
4 large eggs, beaten=	12 3/4 tablespoons (3/4 cup + 1 teaspoon)
5 large eggs, beaten=	5

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Favorite Ice Creams Have Monsanto's rBGH

2010-09-13T17:20:00.001-10:00

Yuck... Okay, cross Breyer's, Haagan Daz, Edy's, and Dreyer's off my list. Monsanto (c) 1969 Agent Orange, (c) Roundup, and (c) 1994 genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH). What's wrong with this picture???

request is being processed...

Yuck... Okay, cross Breyer's, Haagan Daz, Edy's, and Dreyer's off my list

Favorite Ice Creams Have Monsanto's rBGH

Monsanto has been in the news this week, with a U.S. District Court Judge ruling that the USDA has to at least go through the motions of regulating the company's genetically engineered sugar beets. Monsanto, you may know, is not likely to win any contests for the most popular company. In fact, it has been called the most hated corporation in the world, which is saying something, given the competition from the likes of BP, Halliburton and Goldman Sachs.
This has gotten me thinking about, of all things, ice cream, and of how Monsanto's clammy paws can be found in some of the most widely selling ice cream brands in the country. These brands could break free from Monsanto's clutches. So far they haven't, but maybe this is about to change.
Ben & Jerry's gets all their milk from dairies that have pledged not to inject their cows with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Why, then, can't Haagen Dazs, Breyers and Baskin-Robbins do the same?
Starbucks now guarantees that all their milk, cream and other dairy products are rBGH-free. So do Yoplait and Dannon yogurts, Tillamook cheese, Chipotle restaurants, and many others. But ice cream giants Haagen Dazs, Breyers and Baskin-Robbins continue to use milk from cows injected with rBGH, a hormone that's been banned in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Australia and all 27 nations of the European Union. As if to add insult to injury, Haagen Dazs and Breyers have the audacity to tell us, right on the label, that their ice cream is " All Natural."
We have Monsanto to thank for rBGH. Monsanto developed the artificial hormone and marketed it aggressively for years, before selling it in 2008 to Elanco, a division of the Eli Lilly drug company. Of course, Monsanto (and now Elanco) wants us to think the hormone is in every way completely satisfactory and safe. Monsanto's party line has consistently been that there is "no significant difference" in the milk derived from cows who have been dosed with the hormone compared to those who haven't.
Pardon me for not swallowing Monsanto's hooey, but if that's so, why have so many countries outlawed rBGH? Are these countries all run by ignorant Luddites who oppose technology and progress? Or might there actually be compelling reasons?
There are, indeed. One of them is that injecting the genetically engineered hormone into cows increases the levels of a substance called IGF-1 in their milk. Monsanto's own studies found that the amount of IGF-1 in milk more than doubled when cows were injected with rBGH. Studies by independent researchers show gains as much as six-fold. (Scientific citations in support of the statements in this article can be found here.)
Does it matter whether there are excess levels of IGF-1 in milk? It decidedly did to the European Commission's authoritative international 16-member scientific committee. Their report said the excessive levels of IGF-1 found in the milk of cows injected with rBGH may pose serious risks of breast, colon and prostate cancer.
How serious is the increased risk? According to an article in the May 9, 1998 issue of the medical journal The Lancet, pre-menopausal women with even moderately elevated blood levels of IGF-1 are up to seven times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with lower levels.
As if these risks to human health weren't enough reason for nations to prohibit the use of rBGH, there are more. The artificial hormone is also notorious for causing the cows much pain and distress. It does this by increasing painful and debilitating diseases like lameness and mastitis in cows who are injected with it. And because it increases udder infections in cows, it has greatly increased the use of antibiotics in the U.S. dairy industry. If you wanted to design a system to breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria, you'd be hard pressed to do better.
Does the increase in udder infections have an effect on the milk, and thus any ice cream, cheese or other product made from it? Most definitely, according to Dr. Richard Burroughs, a veterinarian deeply familiar with rBGH. "It results in an increase of white blood cells," he says, "which means there's pus in the milk!" The antibiotic use, he adds, "leaves residues in the milk. It's all very serious."
How, then, was such a dubious and tainted product ever approved for use in the U.S.? The answer provides a glimpse of how successful Monsanto's efforts have been to exert control over our nation's food policies.
By all accounts, the FDA's 1993 decision to allow the use of rBGH was one of the most controversial in the agency's history. Made amid widespread criticism from scientists, government leaders and farmers, including many researchers and officials inside the FDA, the decision was overseen by Michael R. Taylor, the FDA's Deputy Commissioner of Policy from 1991-1994.
Was Taylor unbiased? Prior to holding that position, he was an attorney at King & Spaulding, Monsanto's law firm, where he presided over the firm's "food and drug law" practice. After the decision was made which gave the green light to rBGH, he left the FDA and resumed working directly for Monsanto, as vice president and chief lobbyist.
How significant was Taylor's role in getting rBGH approved? As of August 15, 2010, his Wikipedia entry said that he "has long been hostile to food safety," and "is widely credited with ushering recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) through the FDA regulatory process and into the milk supply -- unlabeled." (This statement was removed from Wikipedia immediately after I referred to it in a comment following an article I wrote last week for The Huffington Post on the topic. Apparently, if you can get your people in and out of key positions at the FDA, messing with Wikipedia is a piece of cake.)
Congressman Bernie Sanders was specifically referring to Taylor when he said "the FDA allowed corporate influence to run rampant in its approval of BGH." Documentaries including "The World According to Monsanto" and "The Future of Food" present Taylor's pro-Monsanto actions at the FDA as a dramatic example of the how corporate influence has exerted massive control over the FDA. Today, Taylor again works for the FDA, now as Deputy Commissioner of Foods.
Things have taken a different turn in Canada, but not for want of effort on the part of Monsanto. During Canada's scientific review of Monsanto's application for approval of rBGH, Canadian health officials said Monsanto tried to bribe them, and government scientists testified that they were being pressured by higher-ups to approve rBGH against their better scientific judgment. But in 1999, after eight years of study, Canadian health authorities rejected Monsanto's application for approval of rBGH.
In the U.S. today, Monsanto continues to wield massive influence over U.S. food policies. In spite of, or perhaps in response to, Monsanto's toxic and tenacious grip on our nation's food policy, a movement is afoot. Every day more and more people are refusing to buy ice cream and other dairy products made with rBGH. And every day another organization adds its name to the growing list of groups campaigning against Monsanto's influence, and calling for the FDA decision allowing the use of rBGH to be revoked.
Late last year, the prestigious American Public Health Association officially called for a ban on rBGH. The Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports has likewise taken an official position opposing rBGH. So has the American Nurses Association, Health Care Without Harm, Food and Water Watch, Center for Food Safety, National Family Farm Coalition, Family Farm Defenders and many other groups.
At this very moment, the plucky Oregon chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is leading a nationwide effort to persuade
Breyers (whose brands include Good Humor, Klondike Bars and Popsicle), and Dreyer's (whose brands include Haagen Dazs, Nestle and Edy's) to go rBGH-free.

The campaign focuses on Breyers and Dreyer's because they are the two largest ice cream producers in the country today.

If you want to strike a blow against Monsanto's efforts to control the world food supply, you can follow me on Twitter, post this article to your facebook page, spread the word and get engaged.

Monsanto and its allies have a grand vision. They are intent on controlling the world's food supply. Don't let them. And don't let them cram their genetically engineered products down your throat. Even in a product as tempting and sweet as ice cream, that's no treat.

John Robbins is the only son of Irvine Robbins, the co-founder and co-owner of Baskin-Robbins, and was groomed by his father to run what was at one time the world's largest ice cream company. But John walked away from the company and the wealth it represented in order to advocate for a healthier and more compassionate way of life. To learn more about his journey along his own "rocky road," see The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less.
John is also the author of The Food Revolution, Diet for a New America and six other books. For more info, see johnrobbins.info
John's father died in 2008, and there are no longer any members of the Robbins or Baskin families involved with the company.

reposted from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/is-your-favorite-ice-crea_b_686629...

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MP3 Download Sanctissima Music For World Peace at Amazon

2010-09-09T16:33:00.001-10:00

MP3 DOWNLOAD: CD Sanctissima Music For World Peace

Announcing TSL’s first MP3 download at Amazon.com: “Sanctissima, Music For World Peace”

Amazon MP3 Download: $6.99 for the complete album, or $0.89 per song track. Album Savings: $9.92 compared to buying all songs.
Buy MP3 Download “Sanctissima Music For World Peace” at Amazon $6.99
The Ascended Master Djwal Kul has spoken of this Sanctissima album as “a magnificent crystal chalice of music that comes from the heights of Elohim,” and Archangel Raphael and Mother Mary have said: “It is indeed a chalice into which the heavenly hosts pour their light unceasingly.”

Title, Minutes
1. O Sanctissima, O Piissima, 2:35
2. Ave Maria, 4:55
3. Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above, 3:40
4. Immaculate Mary, 4:10
5. On This Day, O Beautiful Mother, 2:28
6. The Hail Mary, 2:38
7. The Sacred Name of Mary, 4:35
8. The Magnificat, 3:06
9. Mary, 3:11
10. The Virgin of Guadalupe, 4:22
11. Mother, Dear Mother, 2:34
12. Beloved Archangel Raphael, 2:45
13. Mary’s Diamond Heart, 2:40
14. Christ–The Immaculate Concept, 3:12
15. Beloved Raphael and Mary, 6:20
16. What Child Is This, 3:38
17. Gesu Bambino, 3:49
18. O Holy Night, 5:26
19. The Bells of Saint Mary’s, 2:45

Total Time ~70 minutes.

**Download Sanctissima Music For World Peace at Amazon $6.99**

Sanctissima is also available on disc from The Summit Lighthouse, includes lyrics booklet. Sanctissima Music For World Peace on CD disc (#D92020)

resposted from http://tsl.org/2010/09/mp3-download-cd-sanctissima-music-for-world-peace/

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Elegant Mobile Web Designs

2010-09-08T04:58:00.001-10:00

p of is to learn new things day by day. Stay updated, follow interesting blogs and people on social media!

Showcase of well-done mobile websites

jaguars.com

wvutoday.edu

wansonvitamins.com

mandelgroup.com

esignbleach.com

marinayachting.it

vimeo.com

mashable.com

nike.com

flickr.com

nclud.com

google.com/finance

visitkc.com

vondicomm.com

reposted from http://wegraphics.net/blog/articles/a-step-to-be-ahead-start-designing-for-mo...

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Turn A Plant into an Air Purifier

2010-09-08T04:54:00.001-10:00

The benefits of keeping plants in living spaces have long been documented, both in science and in popular wisdom. But plants were not designed to handle, let alone counter, many of the environmental pollutants found in today's air. Enter ANDREA Air, an air filtration system that turns any household plant into an effective air purifier.

The sleekly designed system is engineered to greatly improve the natural filtration capacity of plants, offering up to 10 times the formaldehyde removal rate of plants. It requires no replacement filters, uses far less power than a traditional mechanical purifier, absorbs and metabolizes harmful chemicals, and even biochemically transforms waste.
As carbon emissions continue to plague today's urban epicenters, ANDREA Air offers an elegant solution to managing the air quality of our living spaces. Of course, a better solution would be to employ nature's less efficient but time-tested air purifiers on a larger scale, introducing more outdoor green spaces to cities and pushing for global reforestation. Our atmosphere is, after all, one connected system. Setting borders on clean air is a little bit like Eastern European restaurants, where smokers and non-smokers sit within a few feet of each other on respectively designated tables.

Maria Popova is the editor of Brain Pickings

reposted from http://bigthink.com/ideas/23897

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Rethinking Happiness via Architecture

2010-09-08T04:48:00.001-10:00

For the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale this year, Italian architect Aldo Cibic has embarked upon an architectural exploration of how space can impact and improve the happiness of a community. Rethinking Happiness is a research project that investigates how we can build new, happier communities as we face the two greatest pressures of our time: economic crisis and environmental emergency.

The economic crisis has revealed the limitations of a development model and, at the same time, the environmental emergency is forcing us to radically rethink our way of confronting the future. On their own, these two problematic areas suffice to make us understand that many things will no longer be as they were before; but if we decide to try to do something, to get a glimpse of hope, we realize we are faced with an incredible opportunity to redesign life, to trigger a process of mutation. We have to prepare ourselves to see with new eyes, to think about a tabula rasa situation in which to redefine needs, habits, activities, dreams in relation to new conditions of existence, to think about a more up-to-date idea of contemporary life.

The undertaking, which involves over 40 architects, designers, sociologists, agronomists, energetic consultants and models-makers, consists of four projects: Superbazaar, a new vision for a communal marketplace to buy, sell and trade; Rural Urbanism, an intersection of city and countryside; a campus in the fields, a concept for the Venice agri-techno valley; and new communities, new polarities, a business park and community center of sorts.

Altogether, the project presents an ambitious exploration of the touchpoint of physical aesthetics and social harmony. More importantly, it bespeaks the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration between architects, designers, urban planners, sociologists and beyond in order to really deconstruct happiness and reconstruct it into space.

via

Maria Popova is the editor of Brain Pickings, a curated inventory of miscellaneous interestingness. She writes for Wired UK, GOOD Magazine, Design Observer and Huffington Post, and spends a shameful amount of time on Twitter.

reposted from http://bigthink.com/ideas/23929

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COMIC: First Bored Networker

2010-09-08T04:46:00.001-10:00

reposted from http://geekandpoke.typepad.com

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NEW: Priority Inbox Gmail

2010-08-31T03:37:00.001-10:00

Interesting thing is that it could really help in getting you to see what you want and need to see. The rather scary thing is the algorithm. So, what does it do? Then feed Google with an incredible marketing mix...so it can later be used to develop a Facebook-like ad delivery?? *shudders*

Gmail Priority Inbox Launches: Your E-mail Will Never Be the Same

Today, Google will begin rolling out Priority Inbox for Gmail, a new feature for managing massive amounts of e-mail. Your inbox will never be the same again.Priority Inbox is Google’s () attempt to solve the e-mail woes of Gmail () power users. At its core, the feature is an algorithm; Priority Inbox uses information such as keywords, the people you e-mail the most and your e-mail habits to select the most pressing e-mails in your inbox. Those e-mails are brought to the top of your Gmail and marked as important so you deal with them first.
Priority Inbox is also an adaptive algorithm. Marking items as important or unimportant teaches the system what types of messages you deem the most urgent. You can also use Gmail’s filters to automatically mark certain messages as important (for example, from your boss or your spouse),
The new feature appears as a new menu item just above the “Inbox” link. Instead of indicating how many unread e-mails you have in your inbox, Priority Inbox only displays how many priority e-mails still require your attention. These appear at the top of Gmail as “Important and unread.”
The second layer of the new layout is your starred e-mails. These messages appear in their own section under the Priority Inbox. The goal is to get users to star important e-mails they have read but for whatever reason still need in their inboxes. Under the “Starred” section is “Everything else,” which contains the rest of your unarchived inbox.

The Impact of the Priority Inbox

During the many months of testing the feature internally, the search giant found that users spent 16% less time reading insignificant e-mail. If you do the math, that’s about a full week’s worth of time saved. According to Google, once someone switches to Priority Inbox, he or she never needs or wants to go back.
We can see why. We’ve had the chance to test out Priority Inbox for the last few days and discuss the new feature with Gmail Product Director Keith Coleman, and we’re impressed. Our inboxes get filled with hundreds of e-mails daily, but only a few of them require our immediate attention. Even with dozens of Gmail filters, important messages often get lost in the pile, leading to lost opportunities or missed meetings.
Priority Inbox, while not perfect, is a dramatic step toward solving that problem. Important messages bubble to the top, while e-mails that still require attention can sit in the Starred section until they’re addressed. It basically takes the Gmail Multiple Inboxes feature and adds a smart algorithm for cherry picking the threads that require your attention.
Coleman says that the company has been working on the feature for 18 months, but the original version of Gmail had something similar to this before it launched, but was removed because it simply wasn’t ready for mass consumption. Now it is refined enough for use by all.

reposted from http://mashable.com/2010/08/30/gmail-priority-inbox/

About 9 hours ago Ben Parr

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Free Printable Paper

2010-08-25T05:43:00.001-10:00

Free Printable Paper

More than 740 papers you can download and print for free. We've got graph paper, lined paper, financial paper, music paper, and more. (Or get them all on CD-ROM for $39.)
Printable Paper has been featured by LifeHacker, Kim Komando, Woman's World magazine, and elsewhere.

Here are the 15 most popular printable papers:

Lined Paper college-ruled on letter-sized paper in portrait orientation

Graph Paper with four lines per inch on letter-sized paper

Lined Paper wide-ruled on letter-sized paper in portrait orientation

Lined Paper narrow-ruled on letter-sized paper in portrait orientation

Cornell Note Paper

Yahtzee Score Card

Graph Paper with two lines per inch on letter-sized paper

Penmanship Paper with twelve lines per page on A4-sized paper in portrait orientation

Check Register

Basketball Score Sheet

Grade Book Paper

Lined Paper narrow-ruled on A4-sized paper in portrait orientation

Monthly Budget

Music Paper with ten staves on letter-sized paper in portrait orientation

Softball Score Sheet

reposted from http://www.printablepaper.net/

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Patdowns Brought to Your Airport by TSA

2010-08-25T05:13:00.001-10:00

TSA Experimenting With 'Enhanced Patdowns'

August 24, 2010 3:36 pm by Carl Unger

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is testing a new "enhanced patdown" technique at Boston's Logan Airport and Las Vegas' McCarran Airport. According to The Boston Herald, the new technique involves screeners sliding their hands over nearly every inch of a passenger's body and, unlike existing techniques that require screeners to use the backs of their hands on sensitive areas, screeners use their palms for the entire search. The new procedure, in general, is described as being more aggressive and invasive than the current one.
The TSA claims the new patdowns are necessary to maintain its "layers of security" approach. Spokeswoman Ann Davis told the Herald, "Patdowns are designed to address potentially dangerous items, like improvised explosive devices and their components, concealed on the body." The patdowns are conducted by screeners who are the same gender as the individual passenger, and passengers may request that the patdown be done in private. Patdowns would be used mainly when a passenger refuses a full-body scan or sets off a metal detector.

Still, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calls the new procedures part of a "seemingly constant erosion of privacy."
Indeed, these patdowns are just the latest in a series of incursions into passenger privacy made by the TSA in the name of safety. The most egregious, perhaps until now, is the growing use of full-body scanners, or "millimeter wave" scanners, which produce fairly detailed images of passengers' naked bodies. Controversy over those machines was reignited earlier this month when the U.S. Marshals revealed they had stored some 30,000 images on a single machine in use at a Florida courthouse. The TSA, which operates separately from the Marshals, had always maintained the devices could not store images. However, the machines can store images and must be able to, per TSA policy. The capability is simply turned off when in use at airports.
For me, the whole issue of patdowns and full-body scanners comes down to a simple question: Why? And, more usefully, why now?
There's an easy throwaway answer to the first: Security, obviously. But why must the TSA constantly push the boundary between privacy and intrusion? The TSA's newest ideas—full-body scanners and these invasive patdowns—provide nothing more than a fool's choice between one form of privacy invasion and another. One passenger who received an enhanced patdown told the Herald, "If anybody ever groped me like that in real life, I would have punched them in their nose." Why does our country's security braintrust seem to funnel all its energy into processes that strip away the rights to privacy few Americans would willingly forfeit?
Further, why is the TSA rolling out this new program now? It's not as if enhanced patdowns were borne of some new technology, as is the case with full-body scanners, that required years of innovation and testing. Switching to enhanced patdowns simply requires a decision and an order, so why now? If airport security over the past nine years has been adequate without these more invasive body searches, why on earth are they suddenly necessary?
A conspiracist may offer that it's all security theater to begin with, and new policies are implemented simply to remind people—innocent civilians and potential criminals alike—that the TSA has its eye on things. Problem is, since the TSA rarely offers meaningful explanations for its policies, we're all left to guess. Why do we still take our shoes off? Why do I still have to throw out that cup of coffee before security? Why do I have to get groped by a screener like I'm some shady character? The TSA answers in platitudes—"layers of security" being one of them—and expects us all to take it.
Look, there's no such thing as an entirely secure air travel system. For every advancement in security there's a criminal mind somewhere thinking of new ways to take down planes. This is an uncomfortable truth, but it's important to remember when considering what is worth sacrificing in the pursuit of something that does not exist, which is the idea that flying can ever be 100 percent safe from crime. Unfortunately, we as consumers have increasingly little say in the matter, and can merely choose not to travel if we mean to defend our rights to privacy and decency.

reposted from http://www.smartertravel.com/blogs/today-in-travel/tsa-experimenting-with-enh...

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QUOTE: Never Between You and Them Anyway

2010-08-25T03:38:00.001-10:00

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you.
Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway."

Mother Theresa

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HOWTO: Travel with No Baggage

2010-08-24T04:34:00.001-10:00

This should be interesting. I like the premise: experience is more important than things. And, he assumes that his needs will be met, by money or people, along the way. Primitive it's not, however. Taking your iPhone with you...well, as long as he doesn't behave like the tourists in another recent post of mine...

How to Travel 12 Countries with No Baggage Whatsoever

Written by Tim Ferriss Topics: Travel

Starting tomorrow, travel writer Rolf Potts will embark on a trip that will take him around the world without using a single piece of luggage. This post will explain how he’s going to do it, and there’s a kick-ass giveaway at the end…
For six weeks he will explore 12 countries on five continents, crossing the equator four times, without carrying so much as a man-purse. The few items he does bring will be tucked away in his pockets. Though he’s a seasoned minimalist traveler (famous from his book Vagabonding), he usually travels with a single overhead-bin-perfect backpack, the Eagle Creek Thrive 65L. It’s been his go-to bag for the last 3-4 years.
So why attempt to travel the world with no luggage at all?
Rolf sees his journey as a real-time experiment in traveling ultra-light, and “a field-test for a more philosophical idea — that what we experience in life is more important than what we bring with us.”
While circumnavigating the globe with no luggage sounds like a clear enough proposition, it can raise a few semantic issues. What, for example, counts as a bag? Rolf has set up a set of ground rules to guide his own journey, including:
- No bags on the journey (not even a man-purse or grocery store bag, unless the latter is used en route to a meal).
- No borrowing items from his cameraman or using his cameraman as a pack mule.
- Borrowing or buying items along the way is permitted but excludes bags.
Since most people don’t travel with a film crew, Rolf’s advice for the average no-baggage traveler is a bit broader than the rules he’s set for himself. Here are 8 key tips from Rolf on how to plan and execute a no-luggage journey.
In Rolf’s words…
1) Manage the journey from your mobile phone.
A smartphone could well be the most important tool for a baggage-less traveler. It can store your boarding passes and other important documents, make phone calls from virtually anywhere in the world (with a swappable SIM card) and even act as a miniature blogging tool.
I recommend an iPhone with a foldable Bluetooth keyboard, which allows you to fit your mobile office inside a single jacket pocket. The iPhone can be loaded with a series of applications to replace everyday day items carried on a normal trip. The Kindle app lets you leave behind bulky books, and Genius Scan lets you use you iPhone’s camera as a makeshift scanner so you can quickly save receipts and email them to yourself on the fly. Wikihood utilizes the phone’s GPS to serve location-relevant Wikipedia articles, which is a unique and interesting alternative to a guidebook. Throw in your favorite currency converter, phrase book, and flight tracker, and you’ve got a single device in your pocket more powerful than its dead-weight paper counterparts.
Some recommedations:
TripTracker by PageOnce
Lonely Planet series of phrase books (multiple links depending on language)
_blank">Currency converter: “Currency”
2) Keep your footwear simple and practical.
With no bags, the only shoes you’re going to want to bring is whatever you’re wearing from day to day.
I’m traveling with a pair of Blundstone boots I bought in Australia in 2006. I’ve worn these boots all over the world the past four years, from Paris to Ethiopia to the Falkland Islands, and they’ve served me great. They work for hiking in remote environments, yet they’re easy to slip off and on at airport security.
Some travelers might prefer Chaco or Teva sandals (if nothing else to save packing socks) — and I won’t fault them for that — but my Blundstones look nice enough that they will get me into places where sandals might seem too informal. You are on your feet constantly when you travel, of course, so whichever footwear you choose to bring (be it sandals or boots or running shoes), make sure you aim for comfort, simplicity, and durability.
(Note from Tim: I opt for darker-colored Keen Newport Bison Leather Sandals. If you use black or dark socks, since they have closed toes, you can easily get into restaurants or even pass for business casual if you tuck the tightening strings in.)
3) Buy or borrow certain items as you go.
An old vagabonding adage goes, “Pack twice the money and half the gear.”
The same notion applies to no-luggage travel — even if you’re only packing a tenth of the gear. If a journey takes you to a beautiful beach region, odds are you can buy rubber flip-flop sandals there for a few dollars. If a given city is rainy, cheap umbrellas should be in plentiful supply — and if you get sick, the world is full of pharmacies (many of which are better-suited to cure local ailments that whatever medicine you might have packed).
Should you travel your way into cold weather, thrift stores are a good place to buy a warm jacket (which can be given way to a needy person or left in a hostel swap-box when you leave). You can also borrow things from other travelers along the way. You don’t want to be obnoxious about this, of course, but most travelers don’t mind sharing a spot of toothpaste or a couple of aspirin, and asking for these kinds of things can be a great way to strike up a conversation at the hostel or on the hiking trail.
4) Be disciplined and strategic with what you choose to bring along.

Packing light can be enough of a challenge when you have a small backpack, let alone when you have to keep all your gear in your pockets. This in mind, don’t bring anything you’re not going to use every day.
Nail clippers can be borrowed along the way; rain ponchos can be purchased on rainy days. I left my razor out of the equation (it was better to let my beard grow and then get a hard razor shave in Morocco), and before the trip I cut my hair so short I won’t ever need shampoo. Any big-box retailer should have bins of tiny deodorants and collapsible toothbrushes to keep your toiletries micro-sized. Camping stores will sell 3-ounce snap-top storage bottles that work well for toting concentrated laundry detergent or multipurpose liquid soap. Err on the side of minimalism; you can buy or borrow items along the way.
5) Wear travel gear with strategically located pockets.

If you travel without any bags, this means whatever gear you bring will have to fit in your pockets. My journey is co-sponsored by ScotteVest, an Idaho-based sportswear company that specializes in travel clothing with multiple pockets.
Most of my gear fits into the ScotteVest Tropical Jacket, which has 18 pockets of differing sizes. A majority of these pockets are accessed from the inside, which (a) is a nice deterrent against pickpockets, and (b) saves me the “dork factor” of looking like I’m traveling the world dressed like a confused trout fisherman. I can carry a majority of my gear in this jacket without looking ridiculous — plus the sleeves zip off, so I usually wear it as a vest. I’m also wearing a pair of Ultimate Cargo Pants from ScotteVest, though I’ve packed light enough that I rarely have to use the large cargo pockets. ScotteVest isn’t the only company that makes travel gear with utility pockets, of course; your local camping outfitter or travel-specialty store should provide you multiple gear options, and you can choose the clothing that best fits your needs.
6) Use a minimal rotation of clothing.
Essentially, you’ll want to travel with little more than the clothes on your back — but you will want to bring a few spare clothing items to keep things fresh and ensure you won’t get too stinky.
Given that I wear cargo pants, a travel vest, socks, underwear, and a short-sleeved t-shirt under a long-sleeved shirt on a typical day of my trip, I keep one spare t-shirt, two extra pairs of socks, and two extra pairs of underwear in my pockets.
Each night I wash the day’s socks, underwear and t-shirt in the hotel/hostel sink, and these items are dry enough to pack by morning. I’ve been washing the cargo pants about once a week (and I have yet to wash the travel vest). Some people take short no-luggage trips with even fewer clothes, but my arrangement isn’t bulky and ensures that I always have a rotation of fresh socks, underwear and t-shirts.
(Note from Tim: Here what I pack for an uber-light trip, in this example less than 10 pounds total. ExOfficio underwear are a lifesaver.)
7) Utilize the postal system for souvenirs and extra gear

With airlines baggage fees quickly spiraling upward, many travelers these days are saving money and hassle by mailing certain items to one or more destinations along their itinerary.
If, say, you’re traveling from warm climates into cold climates, you can mail your warm clothing to the first cool destination (just make a pre-arrangement with the hotel you’ll be staying at in that location). On that same token, traveling without luggage doesn’t mean you have to forgo buying souvenirs — if just means you won’t be able to carry them. To solve this problem, just hit the local post office and mail that Balinese mask or Latvian amber or Syrian silk home.
This is actually a strategy that can be employed when you’re traveling with luggage: The souvenirs you find along the way might be nice, but there’s no sense in dragging them along with you. It’s worth the expense to ship them.
8) Remember: Travel is about the experience, not what you bring with you.

In the end, that remember that going without luggage and packing ultra-light need not be an extreme act. It isn’t a contest, or a rite of travel-superiority: It’s just a great way to eliminate distractions and concentrate on the experience of the journey itself.
Freed of baggage, there’s little to forget or lose on the road. You don’t have to stow anything, guard anything, or wait for anything (aside from the occasional train or bus): You can just throw yourself into the adventure and make the most of your travels.
###
Afterword: So how’s Rolf doing? How’s he actually holding up? Check out his progress here, in real-time on the RTW (Round-The-World) blog.

Debra

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Remembering the Dogs of Sputnik 5

2010-08-23T04:12:00.001-10:00

Belka and Strelka. Canine volunteers for that famous space jaunt. Adventurous or not? Guess we'll never know, what happens in space stays in space.

Happy 50th Birthday to Sputnik 5, Proof That Space Travel Is Survivable (And Adorable)

Fifty years ago today, the Soviet Union launched the Korabl-Sputnik 2 spacecraft—known as Sputnik 5 in the west—carrying two dogs named Belka and Strelka, along with mice, rats and flies into space. More surprising? Everyone came back alive.

The success of Sputnik 5 came at a time when space didn't seem particularly welcoming to anything with a heartbeat. Three years earlier, Sputnik 2 had sent Laika, a not so fortunate canine passenger, to an orbital death within mere hours. Not exactly confidence-inspiring. But Sputnik 5 defied doubts over putting living organisms into space—which were significant enough that the exact circumstances of Laika's demise were concealed from the world until 2002—making seventeen full trips around the earth within 25 hours. Suddenly, space wasn't deadly. Video monitors and electrodes hooked up to the dogs had monitored their in-flight condition, providing reassuring proof that space could be survived. And survive they did—even the forty mice. Belka and Strelka became national heroes. The mice probably all died alone, drunk in a gutter somewhere, and the flies were last seen driving towards a cliff in a 1966 Ford Thunderbird.

A tag attached to the capsule, intended for anyone who might have accidentally stumbled upon the vessel after it landed, warned passersby not to open the craft (we can only imagine what it would have been like to let loose what must have been two very, very freaked out dogs).
After her traumatic voyage, Strelka went on to have a healthy litter of puppies, one of which was delivered to President Kennedy as a gesture of Cold War diplomacy, and what must have been a gratifying little in your face moment for spacefaring Russia.

Sam Biddle, author, republished from http://gizmodo.com

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IMAGES: Space-Eyed View of Algae Blooms

2010-08-23T04:03:00.001-10:00

Awesome images...be sure to click through the gallery.

Magnificent Marine Algae Blooms Seen From Space

By Betsy Mason August 23, 2010 7:00 am

<< previous image | next image >>

When microscopic marine organisms known as phytoplankton multiply into a dense population at the ocean’s surface, massive blooms can spread so far that they can only be seen from space. These algal blooms create beautiful patterns that can stretch for hundreds of miles and trace the ocean’s swirling currents.
Phytoplankton are the foundation of the ocean food web and are critical to the health of nearly everything that lives there. They contain chlorophyll to perform photosynthesis and turn sunlight into energy which feeds their predators, and their predators’ predators, all the way up through the food chain to large fish, mammals and birds such as sharks, sea lions and penguins.
Recent research suggests the fear that warming oceans could hamper phytoplankton growth may be real. The organisms depend on mixing of ocean water to bring nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates to the surface. As the ocean warms, it becomes more stratified, with the warmer water remaining at the top where the organisms need to be in order to do photosynthesis.
A big reduction in phytoplankton could threaten marine animals and the fisheries humans depend on. And it could create a climate feedback loop that would increase temperatures further. These organisms absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and take it to the bottom of the ocean when they die, where it stays for thousands of years. So as their numbers decline, they will do less to keep global temperatures down.
In addition to capturing amazing images of the phytoplankton blooms, satellite data is one of the only ways to study them. Different species of phytoplankton change the way the ocean reflects light in different ways. The chlorophyll in the tiny organisms causes the ocean’s surface to reflect green. Other pigments can make the water look red or brown. Some phytoplankton called coccolithophores are coated with white calcite that makes the water look bright turquoise when billions of them get together.

More on phytoplankton from NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Click on any image in this gallery for a high-res version.

reposted from http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/phytoplankton-blooms-gallery/

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HOWTO: Gmail Undo Send

2010-08-23T03:44:00.001-10:00

You could do this before. Now, it's better...if you're quicker than 30 seconds that is. If it takes you longer than that, perhaps exercising restraint before hitting send is your better strategy.

HOW TO: Undo “Send” in Gmail

Posted: 22 Aug 2010 06:25 PM PDT

Did you know you can undo a sent e-mail in Gmail? It’s a lesser known feature, but Google just made it even better than it was before. When it first launched, you were given a 5-second window during which you could hit “undo.”Now that’s up to 30 seconds, Google Operating System discovered.
The feature is hidden from most users who don’t know where to look, so here’s a quick guide to avoiding social and workplace faux pas with the click of a button. Be aware that the feature is part of Gmail Labs, though. That means it’s still in testing and it might not always work as intended.

Go to Gmail Labs

Since the Undo Send feature is part of Gmail Labs, you’ll have to navigate to the Gmail Labs page to activate it. Load up Gmail and look in the top-right corner of the page. Between your e-mail address and Settings you’ll see the green Labs icon. Give it a click.

Enable “Undo Send” and Save Your Changes

You’ll be presented with a list of features Google is testing in Gmail. Some are very useful and some are just fun. We’ve gone into more depth on all Gmail Labs has to offer in previous articles, but this time we’re here just for the Undo Send feature.
You’ll usually find it close to the bottom of the list. We’ve included a picture of it above so you know what you’re looking for. Just select Enable then scroll down and save your changes.

Customize Undo Send’s Duration

By default, Gmail gives you a 10-second window of time in which you may undo a sent e-mail. You can change that to five, 20 or 30 seconds by going to Settings (in the top right corner of the main Gmail page, right next to the Labs icon) and finding the Undo Send section inside the “General” tab.
There you can enable or disable Undo Send and change the duration with a drop-down selection box as pictured above.

Write and Send Your E-mail

Now that Undo Send is enabled, it works each time you send a new e-mail. You don’t have to do anything unusual beforehand to make it possible to use Undo Send with that e-mail.

Click the “Undo” Button After You Send

Now you have either five, 10, 20 or 30 seconds to undo your sent e-mail, depending on what you selected under Settings.
As soon as you hit Send, a subtle line of text will appear above your Inbox saying “Your message has been sent.” It will be accompanied by a few extra options. Among them is “Undo.” Click that within the allotted time and your faux pas will be prevented.
Note that you can hit “Z” on your keyboard, the Gmail shortcut for undo. Just don’t navigate away from or close this page, because once you do, you’ll lose the opportunity to undo your sent message forever.

“Sending Has Been Undone”

You’ll immediately be taken back to the e-mail composition page, and your e-mail will be in draft form, unsent and ready for further editing — or deletion, if writing it was ill-advised to begin with!
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, budgetstockphoto

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iPhone Rediscovers Classic PC Games

2010-08-23T03:11:00.001-10:00

For those who remember and loved the originals, or not....

10 Classic PC Games That Found New Life on the iPhone

Posted: 21 Aug 2010 12:20 PM PDT

http://mashable.com" target="_blank">

Apple’s iPhone may mark a second golden age of computer gaming for a lot of reasons. The open marketplace means anyone can create a game; from major companies to just a couple of talented people in a garage. The result is a new boom in innovation, the likes of which we haven’t seen in about 20 years.Even with all the potential for innovation, maybe you still want to relive that first golden age of gaming. If you’re excited for how new tech can update the classics, then this list is for you: 10 of the greatest, most influential, straight-up classic computer games ever made, all available on and completely remastered for Apple’s handset, and in most cases also playable on the iPod touch and iPad.
There are so many phenomenal PC game ports for the iPhone that we had a hard time narrowing it down to just 10. We couldn’t help but sneak in a very special bonus at the end. Flip through the gallery below for the list and be sure and tell us about your favorites too.

1. Doom Classic

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doom-classic/id336347946?mt=8" target="_blank">Doom Classic</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/doom-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

The mother of all first-person shooters, this game is so iconic that it spawned a web community dedicated to getting other devices to play it. As for the iPhone, we can safely say: "It plays Doom." Price: $6.99

2. Myst

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myst/id311941991?mt=8" target="_blank">Myst</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/myst-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

A masterwork of interactive storytelling, this game was unlike any that came before it. Blatant imitators have been making games for more than 15 years now.
Price: $4.99

3. The Oregon Trail

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-oregon-trail/id307519882?mt=8" target="_blank">The Oregon Trail</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/oregon-trail-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

An educational game that became part of an entire generation's zeitgeist, The Oregon Trail got a radical renovation for the iPhone. The graphics are improved, and there are a lot of fun mini-games to now play during your journey. Price: $2.99

4. The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-secret-monkey-island-special/id324741347?m... target="_blank">The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/monkey-island-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

One of the funniest games of all time, The Secret of Monkey Island was made by the illustrious LucasArts adventure game studio. You can play the game as it originally appeared, or you can play the voiced and redrawn version. The iPhone remastering of the sequel just came out, too.Price: $7.99

5. Plants vs. Zombies

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plants-vs-zombies/id350642635?mt=8" target="_blank">Plants vs. Zombies</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/plants-vs-zombies-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

It's not very often that a game comes out that can be called a classic just over a year after its release. Few would dispute that Plants vs. Zombies is deserving of the title. It's hard to believe that the game originated on the PC, though, because once you play it on a touchscreen, you won't want to go back.Price: $2.99

6. Beneath a Steel Sky: Remastered

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beneath-steel-sky-remastered/id331733638?mt=8&... target="_blank">Beneath a Steel Sky: Remastered</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/beneath-a-steel-sky-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

Not as well-known as The Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky was a point-and-click, cult hit adventure game. Solve the mysteries and meet the strange characters of a post-apocalyptic world in this one.Price: $2.99

7. Prince of Persia Retro

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prince-of-persia-retro/id373984189?mt=87" target="_blank">Prince of Persia Retro</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/prince-of-persia-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

The PC wasn't known for its platform jumping games. But Prince of Persia was a uniquely PC take on the console-dominated genre. This remastered version is faithful to the original, including its unforgiving difficulty. Watch yourself. Price: $0.99

8. Rogue

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rogue/id298113808?mt=8" target="_blank">Rogue</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/rogue-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

Rogue is the great grandfather of World of Warcraft. Until that hugely popular MMO hits the iPhone, this is one of your best bets. As with Monkey Island, you can play either the remastered version or the original (in this case an ASCII-text only affair). Yes, Rogue is really that old, but its influence is strongly felt even today. Price: Free

9. Sim City Deluxe

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simcity-deluxe/id380017992?mt=8" target="_blank">Sim City Deluxe </a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/simcity-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

Everyone knows SimCity. This iPhone version is basic compared to some of the later offerings in the series, but when you're playing on the go, that's probably okay.Price: $6.99

10. Worms

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/worms/id321369231?mt=8" target="_blank">Worms</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/worms-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

Another cult hit, Worms was the final evolution of an obscure genre of games that involved calculating angles and wind speeds to deliver lethal volleys at friends. Worms was more action-oriented and hilarious, and the franchise has been a staple for gamers for a long time now. Price: $4.99

BONUS: Frotz

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/frotz/id287653015?mt=8" target="_blank">Frotz</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/10-classic-pc-games-that-found-new-life-on-the-iphone/frotz-iphone-640.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

Frotz isn't a game on its own, but we had to include it because it's one of the most exciting classic PC gaming apps for the iPhone.
It's kind of like an iBooks or Kindle for interactive fiction. Text-based adventure games were immensely popular in the late 70s and early 80s; if you remember those times, you won't want to miss Frotz. It runs many of your old favorites, plus new adventures made by enthusiasts who are still being creative today. Price: Free

reposted from www.mashable.com

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Technology and Park Idiots

2010-08-22T07:11:00.001-10:00

As a long-time observer of tourists of all races, nationalities, religions and what-not, some tourists just shouldn't go into our National Parks. There's no way to idiot-proof them (parks and people). While technology makes rescues more timely, there are idiots who waste taxpayer money for non-emergency issues. With rescue helicopters up to $3400 an hour, people like that ought to pick up the tab.

Technology Leads More Park Visitors Into Trouble

NY TIMES

John Moore/Getty Images, The Grand Canyon, where hikers sent out an emergency signal because their water “tasted salty.”

By LESLIE KAUFMAN

Cathy Hayes was cracking jokes as she recorded a close encounter with a buffalo on her camera in a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park.

A visitor at the Grand Canyon.

Rangers responded to a cellphone call for help from climbers on Grand Teton who were injured in a lightning storm. Sixteen people were evacuated, and another died.

In a video on YouTube, Cathy Hayes showed her injuries and recounted being charged by a buffalo at Yellowstone National Park while filming a companion.

“Watch Donald get gored,” she said as her companion hustled toward a grazing one-ton beast for a closer shot with his own camera.
Seconds later, as if on cue, the buffalo lowered its head, pawed the ground and charged, injuring, as it turns out, Ms. Hayes.
“We were about 30, 35 feet, and I zoomed in on him, but that wasn’t far enough, because they are fast,” she recounted later in a YouTube video displaying her bruised and cut legs.
The national parks’ history is full of examples of misguided visitors feeding bears, putting children on buffalos for photos and dipping into geysers despite signs warning of scalding temperatures.
But today, as an ever more wired and interconnected public visits the parks in rising numbers — July was a record month for visitors at Yellowstone — rangers say that technology often figures into such mishaps.
People with cellphones call rangers from mountaintops to request refreshments or a guide; in Jackson Hole, Wyo., one lost hiker even asked for hot chocolate.
A French teenager was injured after plunging 75 feet this month from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon when he backed up while taking pictures. And last fall, a group of hikers in the canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers explained that their water supply “tasted salty.”
“Because of having that electronic device, people have an expectation that they can do something stupid and be rescued,” said Jackie Skaggs, spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
“Every once in a while we get a call from someone who has gone to the top of a peak, the weather has turned and they are confused about how to get down and they want someone to personally escort them,” Ms. Skaggs said. “The answer is that you are up there for the night.”
The National Park Service does not keep track of what percentage of its search and rescue missions, which have been climbing for the last five years and topped 3,500 in 2009, are technology related. But in an effort to home in on “contributing factors” to park accidents, the service recently felt compelled to add “inattention to surroundings” to more old-fashioned causes like “darkness” and “animals.”
The service acknowledges that the new technologies have benefits as well. They can and do save lives when calls come from people who really are in trouble.
The park service itself has put technology to good use in countering the occasional unruliness of visitors. Last summer, several men who thought they had managed to urinate undetected into the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone were surprised to be confronted by rangers shortly after their stunt. It turns out that the park had installed a 24-hour camera so people could experience Old Faithful’s majesty online. Viewers spotted the men in action and called to alert the park.
In an era when most people experience the wild mostly through television shows that may push the boundaries of appropriateness for entertainment, rangers say people can wildly miscalculate the risks of their antics.
In an extreme instance in April, two young men from Las Vegas were killed in Zion National Park in Utah while trying to float a hand-built log raft down the Virgin River. A park investigation found that the men “did not have whitewater rafting experience, and had limited camping experience, little food and no overnight gear.”
“They told their father that they intended to record their entire trip on video camera as an entry into the ‘Man vs. Wild’competition” on television, investigators wrote.
Far more common but no less perilous, park workers say, are visitors who arrive with cellphones or GPS devices and little else — sometimes not even water — and find themselves in trouble. Such visitors often acknowledge that they have pushed themselves too far because they believe that in a bind, the technology can save them.
It does not always work out that way. “We have seen people who have solely relied on GPS technology but were not using common sense or maps and compasses, and it leads them astray,” said Kyle Patterson, a spokesman for Rocky Mountain National Park, just outside Denver.
Like a lot of other national parks, Rocky Mountain does not allow cellphone towers, so service that visitors may take for granted is spotty at best. “Sometimes when they call 911, it goes to a communications center in Nebraska or Wyoming,” Mr. Patterson said. “And that can take a long time to sort out.”
One of the most frustrating new technologies for the parks to deal with, rangers say, are the personal satellite messaging devices that can send out an emergency signal but are not capable of two-way communication. (Globalstar Inc., the manufacturer of SPOT brand devices, says new models allow owners to send a message with the help request.)
In some cases, said Keith Lober, the ranger in charge of search and rescue at Yosemite National Park in California, the calls “come from people who don’t need the 911 service, but they take the SPOT and at the first sign of trouble, they hit the panic button.”
But without two-way communication, the rangers cannot evaluate the seriousness of the call, so they respond as if it were an emergency.
Last fall, two men with teenage sons pressed the help button on a device they were carrying as they hiked the challenging backcountry of Grand Canyon National Park. Search and rescue sent a helicopter, but the men declined to board, saying they had activated the device because they were short on water.
The group’s leader had hiked the Grand Canyon once before, but the other man had little backpacking experience. Rangers reported that the leader told them that without the device, “we would have never attempted this hike.”
The group activated the device again the next evening. Darkness prevented a park helicopter from flying in, but the Arizona Department of Public Safety sent in a helicopter whose crew could use night vision equipment.
The hikers were found and again refused rescue. They said they had been afraid of dehydration because the local water “tasted salty.” They were provided with water.
Helicopter trips into the park can cost as much as $3,400 an hour, said Maureen Oltrogge, a spokeswoman for Grand Canyon National Park.
So perhaps it is no surprise that when the hikers pressed the button again the following morning, park personnel gave them no choice but to return home. The leader was issued a citation for creating hazardous conditions in the parks.

reposted from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/science/earth/22parks.html

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HOWTO: Find Free Online Tutorials

2010-08-22T06:33:00.001-10:00

Here's a site that's done some of the work for you: Finding tutorials.

Think Tutorial is a database of simple, easy to follow tutorials covering all aspects of popular computing. Technology is fantastic, but it can be difficult to keep up with at times. Think Tutorial's strength resides in its very intuitive approach and design. Every inch of web estate is used wisely keeping everything simple and organized.

Free, easy, straight-to-the-point stuff? That's what people want.

We posted about 130 tutorials a month for the past three months. There is currently 383 tutorials available.

Our objective is to keep listening to your needs and provide you with the highest quality of tutorials. Our weekly schedule includes minor UI changes, and continuous updates of tutorials.

TOPICS:
Adium Apple Mail Bebo Blog Browsers Communication Tools Facebook Google Chrome Beta Google Mail Google Talk Hotmail iCal Internet Explorer 8 iTunes iWork LinkedIn Microsoft Excel 2007 Microsoft Office Microsoft Outlook 2007 Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Microsoft Windows 7 Microsoft Word 2007 Mozilla Firefox 3 MySpace Numbers Operating System Pages Safari Skype Social Media Twitter Windows Live WordPress Yahoo Mail Yahoo Messenger

reposted from http://thinktutorial.com/

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HOWTO: Despommier's Vertical Farming Video

2010-08-21T17:14:00.001-10:00

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EGGD: Free-range, Cage-free and Organic

2010-08-21T17:11:00.001-10:00

Did you ever wonder what's the difference between free-range, cage-free and organic eggs. The FDA has some very specific rules for what can be labeled what.

August 20th, 2010

11:30 AM ET

Got eggs on the brain? In light of the salmonella-based recall of 380 million eggs from Iowa's Wright County Egg, we've hatched up a primer on a few common terms.

Free-range:

The USDA does not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside or the amount of space available to them, and there is no mandate that the chickens are fed organically or are hormone and antibiotic-free.
For a chicken - and their eggs - to be labeled "free-range" or "free-roaming" the USDA regulations state, "Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside." According to the Egg Safety Board, outside the United States, free-range "denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals are allowed to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner."

While some egg producers are truly free-range, and the chickens remain outdoors for a good deal of the time, there is nothing preventing a factory farm from labeling eggs as free range, merely because the structure in which the chickens live has a door to an outside yard.
As author Michael Pollan notes in The Omnivore's Dilemma –his 2006 treatise on the origins of several modern foods–"Since the food and water remain inside the shed, and since the little doors remain shut until the birds are at least five weeks old and well settled into their habits, the chickens apparently see no reason to venture into what must seem for them an unfamiliar and terrifying world." There's a very good chance that a free-range chicken, raised for either eggs or meat, has never seen the light of day.

Cage-free:

There isn't a legal designation eggs as cage free. Many factory farms keep their laying hens in so-called "battery cages" - typically rows and rows of wire cages in which chickens are given insufficient room to accommodate their wingspan.
In a study by the Humane Society of the United States, Dr. Suzanne Millman, Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, Canada reports that "The recommended space allowance for laying hens in some countries is 60-80 square inches per hen, barely enough for the hen to turn around and not enough for her to perform normal comfort behaviors; however, many hens are allowed less than even that meager amount."
In a cage-free facility, battery cages are not used, and typically a hen will have enough room to walk around and extend her wings, but the facilities may still be crowded, and birds may still be "debeaked." This entails the trimming of a portion of a bird's beak in order to combat cannibalism and feather pecking that may occur among birds kept in close quarters.
In July, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 1437 into effect, making California the cage-free state in the US. The bill requires that starting in 2015 all whole, in-shell eggs sold in California must come from hens that are able to stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their limbs without touching one another or the sides of an enclosure.

[..."stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their limbs without touching one another or the sides of an enclosure." And you think you're claustrophobic!]

Organic:

For eggs to be labeled "organic," they must come from farms that meet the USDA's National Organic Standards and are routinely inspected to ensure compliance. Hens must be fed organic feed - no animal byproducts or genetically modified or "GMO" crops - produced on land that has been free from the use of toxic and persistent chemical pesticides and fertilizers for a minimum of three years.
The hens themselves must be maintained without hormones and other intrusive drugs and antibiotics may only be used in cases in cases of outbreak or disease. They're also kept in a cage-free environment and allowed access to the outdoors.

Consumer's best defense
However, none of this ensures that the eggs produced by any given methodology are safe. New York University professor Marion Nestle, who maintains the Food Politics website tells Eatocracy, "It’s less likely for small flocks to carry Salmonella, but it is by no means impossible."
Salmonella bacteria, generally contracted from contaminated poultry, meat, eggs, or water, affects the human intestinal tract. It's often transmitted to laying hens when rodents get into the flocks' feed, and their feces transmit bacteria to the birds.
A consumer's best defense is to wash all egg shells, store eggs at 40F or below, in the interior of the refrigerator, rather than the door, which is subject to variable temperatures, and cook eggs - yolks and all - to a temperature of 160F.
Consumers with questions should visit www.eggsafety.org or call Wright County’s toll-free information number (866-272-5582 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 866-272-5582 end_of_the_skype_highlighting), which contains a message outlining recall instructions for consumers. Consumers who believe they may have purchased the recalled shell eggs should not eat them but should return them to the store where they were purchased for a full refund.

reposted from http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2010/08/20/egg-splained-free-range-cage-free-and-org...

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EGG INFO: What is free-range, cage-free and organic eggs

2010-08-21T16:33:00.001-10:00

Did you ever wonder what's the difference between free-range, cage-free and organic eggs. The FDA has some very specific rules for what can be labeled what.

August 20th, 2010

11:30 AM ET

Got eggs on the brain? In light of the salmonella-based recall of 380 million eggs from Iowa's Wright County Egg, we've hatched up a primer on a few common terms.

Free-range:

The USDA does not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside or the amount of space available to them, and there is no mandate that the chickens are fed organically or are hormone and antibiotic-free.
For a chicken - and their eggs - to be labeled "free-range" or "free-roaming" the USDA regulations state, "Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside." According to the Egg Safety Board, outside the United States, free-range "denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals are allowed to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner."

While some egg producers are truly free-range, and the chickens remain outdoors for a good deal of the time, there is nothing preventing a factory farm from labeling eggs as free range, merely because the structure in which the chickens live has a door to an outside yard.
As author Michael Pollan notes in 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' – his 2006 treatise on the origins of several modern foods – "Since the food and water remain inside the shed, and since the little doors remain shut until the birds are at least five weeks old and well settled into their habits, the chickens apparently see no reason to venture into what must seem for them an unfamiliar and terrifying world." There's a very good chance that a free-range chicken, raised for either eggs or meat, has never seen the light of day.

Cage-free:

There isn't a legal designation eggs as cage free. Many factory farms keep their laying hens in so-called "battery cages" - typically rows and rows of wire cages in which chickens are given insufficient room to accommodate their wingspan.
In a study by the Humane Society of the United States, Dr. Suzanne Millman, Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, Canada reports that "The recommended space allowance for laying hens in some countries is 60-80 square inches per hen, barely enough for the hen to turn around and not enough for her to perform normal comfort behaviors; however, many hens are allowed less than even that meager amount."
In a cage-free facility, battery cages are not used, and typically a hen will have enough room to walk around and extend her wings, but the facilities may still be crowded, and birds may still be "debeaked." This entails the trimming of a portion of a bird's beak in order to combat cannibalism and feather pecking that may occur among birds kept in close quarters.
In July, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 1437 into effect, making California the cage-free state in the US. The bill requires that starting in 2015 all whole, in-shell eggs sold in California must come from hens that are able to stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their limbs without touching one another or the sides of an enclosure.

Organic:

For eggs to be labeled "organic," they must come from farms that meet the USDA's National Organic Standards and are routinely inspected to ensure compliance. Hens must be fed organic feed - no animal byproducts or genetically modified or "GMO" crops - produced on land that has been free from the use of toxic and persistent chemical pesticides and fertilizers for a minimum of three years.
The hens themselves must be maintained without hormones and other intrusive drugs and antibiotics may only be used in cases in cases of outbreak or disease. They're also kept in a cage-free environment and allowed access to the outdoors.

Consumer's best defense

However, none of this ensures that the eggs produced by any given methodology are safe. New York University professor Marion Nestle, who maintains the Food Politics website tells Eatocracy, "It’s less likely for small flocks to carry Salmonella, but it is by no means impossible."
Salmonella bacteria, generally contracted from contaminated poultry, meat, eggs, or water, affects the human intestinal tract. It's often transmitted to laying hens when rodents get into the flocks' feed, and their feces transmit bacteria to the birds.
A consumer's best defense is to wash all egg shells, store eggs at 40F or below, in the interior of the refrigerator, rather than the door, which is subject to variable temperatures, and cook eggs - yolks and all - to a temperature of 160F.
Consumers with questions should visit www.eggsafety.org or call Wright County’s toll-free information number (), which contains a message outlining recall instructions for consumers. Consumers who believe they may have purchased the recalled shell eggs should not eat them but should return them to the store where they were purchased for a full refund.

866-272-5582
reposted from http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2010/08/20/egg-splained-free-range-cage-free-and-org...

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VIDEO: 3 yr old recites long adult poem

2010-08-21T16:17:00.001-10:00

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HOWTO: Protect Your Data from Wireless Hackers

2010-08-21T07:29:00.001-10:00

Don't think that just because you've password protected your network, that you are secure. Here are some hacker techniques that may be new to you: Sniffing, Spoofing and Encryption Cracking. And...even better, what you can do to protect yourself and your data (and all those downloads you've got on that 1TB drive....). While these are the most common, new ones are found every day. Keeping your software up to date is important. So is not making exceptions for why it doesn't matter just this once...

How People Are Hacking Wireless Networks & How To Protect Yourself

Sniffing

The simplest of all attacks, sniffing is the simple process of intercepting wireless data that is being broadcasted on an unsecured network. If you are at home, and your network is secured, you don’t have to worry too much about sniffing attacks. However, most networks that are in the wild are not secured, including many of them at hotels and coffee shops.
It is easy to take a “It won’t happen to me” attitude, particularly when you’re using the free WiFi at a favorite coffee haunt. Here’s the thing – the sniffer may not be one of your coffee sipping cohorts. Sniffers can just as easily be somewhere outside of the shop, merrily picking information off the airwaves. There is even an activity known as Wardriving that involves driving around a city picking up wireless data.
Google was recently busted for this activity when it was revealed that some of their Google Maps vehicles had also been picking up data from unsecured wireless networks as passed by. Google claimed it was accidental and that they meant no harm. Most Wardrivers also claim to be benevolent, often stating that they’re only trying to map out wireless networks. Still, it is easy to see how a malicious person could use this technique to try and steal sensitive data.

Full protection can only come from not using unsecured wireless networks. That may not be practical however, so your second best defense is to be careful about what information you send on an unsecured network. Before entering any information, be it a password or a comment on a blog, ask yourself – would I care if a stranger obtained this information?

Spoofing

If you’ve set up a wireless network you’ve probably noticed that your computers no longer need to be told to access your network. Instead they access it automatically as soon as they move within signal range.
This is a very convenient feature, but it is also prone to exploitation. Hackers often attack a wireless network by simply creating a new network with a stronger wireless signal and a copied SSID in the same area as a legitimate network. This causes unsuspecting computers to automatically connect to the spoofed network instead of the real one.
Setting up your computer’s security settings so that it does not automatically connect to networks is the best way to counter-act this threat. You can also try to protect your home network by using a free network mapping tool like Spiceworks. A sudden change in your network map is a sign your wireless network may is being hit by a spoofing attack.

Encryption Cracking

In a perfect world, you could set up your wireless network with an encryption key and be protected for life, but the real world simply doesn’t work that way. As encryption keys become more advanced hackers also increase their skills and develop new tools for penetrating even well protected wireless networks.
There are numerous ways to crack a wireless network’s encryption, but even simplistic methods can work. The website WPA Cracker, for example, can be used to hit a network with a brute force dictionary attack that simply throws random words at a secured wireless network to try and crack it. This method can take a long time, and sometimes requires luck on the hacker’s part, but it is often effective.
The first step in protecting yourself people hacking wireless networks is to use WPA encryption. WEP, the older encryption technology, has been completely de-constructed by hackers and is now considered quite easy to crack. The second step is the use of a long, highly randomized encryption key. Long, random encryption keys are a pain in the butt to remember, but they’re much harder to crack.

Conclusion

These are the three most common methods of hacking a wireless network, but they’re not the only ones. New exploits are found constantly, making it difficult to ever ensure that you are 100% protected.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that, unless you happen to be a corporate CEO or a senator, you’re unlikely to ever be targeted by a cutting-edge attack. Most attacks are tried-and-true methods that rely on the target’s negligence rather than the hacker’s advanced knowledge. Simple steps – such as making sure your encryption key is long and highly randomized and never accessing system websites over wireless while in the wild – will protect you from most threats.

by Matt Smith on Aug. 20th, 2010
reposted from http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/people-hacking-wireless-networks-protect/

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VIDEO Dubai Fountain Like Bellagio

2010-08-18T18:19:00.001-10:00

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NYC: 4Food - Opens Sept 7

2010-08-18T04:48:00.001-10:00

Fast food is awful for us, dreadful for the environment, and one of modernity’s most gruesome addictions. Yet in a culture of constantly shrinking time budgets and an ever-increasing marketability of convenience, it’s increasingly difficult to reconcile our moral and nutritional ideals with our fast-paced workaholism. But it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation, at least not if it’s up to 4food — an innovative restaurant concept aiming to de-junk fast food for the digital age.

On September 7, fast food hopes to fast forward to the Jetsons era when the doors of 4food open on East 40th St. and Madison in NYC. The new restaurant concept, founded by former music exec and Urban Box Office CEO Adam Kidron and Michael Shuman, banks its success on hyper-connectivity and healthfulness.

Customers place their orders through iPads—or online, before they even walk through the doors. The food promises to be healthier, "dejunked" versions of basic fast food staples, (no hydrogenated fats, no artificial sweetners, nothing fried), and the restaurant itself boasts environmentally friendly practices too, like recycling and in-store composting.
But the big fun is in the customization. Menu items can be tailored infinitely to customers' choice. The restaurant's signature product, the donut shaped W(hole)burger (available in beef, turkey, lamb, salmon, pork, veggie or egg), features a gap in the middle that can be filled with a "Veggiescoop" of eaters' choice. Once a customer comes up with his special mix, he can name and save his creation and even broadcast it through Facebook or Twitter. Others will then be able to order that recipe, and for every one that does, the inventor will receive a $.25 4Food credit while his burger rises in the ranks of an actual in-store scoreboard.

Here's their Credo:

   1.      De-junked fast food is made of quality, natural ingredients and customizable to your taste and nutrition goals.
   2.      Our foods don't contain any hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats or oils.
   3.      No artificial sweeteners. No preservatives. No artificial flavor enhancers.
   4.      None of our food is fried.
   5.      If it's soy, it's not Monsanto*—wherever possible we purchase whole ingredients that have neither been genetically engineered nor modified.
   6.      Our chefs use simple and straightforward cooking techniques to prepare and cook your food to order.
   7.      Our cows, pigs, and sheep are humanely raised while grazing and eating vegetarian diets.
   8.      Our poultry and fish are fed heritage foods with no artificial growth hormones or antibiotics.
   9.      You know (because we tell you) where all of our ingredients come from.
10.      We provide personalized nutrition facts, advice, and menu recommendations every day in—store, at www.4food.com, and printed on every receipt.
11.      We charge reasonable prices, when the rights of farm workers to earn a living wage, the integrity of our food preparation, and the quality of our ingredients are taken into account.
12.      Your purchases provide real world job training to individuals transitioning back into the work force—to earn more than minimum wage.
13.      We compost in-store and recycle. We employ sunscreen systems, LED lighting, and purchase renewable energy credits from alternative energy generators. We're committed to increasing our use of sustainable power as we grow.
14.      We incentivize you to market your custom W(hole)burgers™ online, so that we don't have to. The money we save on marketing enables us to purchase better quality ingredients and keep our prices down.

OPENING DAY: September 07, New York City 40th and Madison

Thanks to: http://creativity-online.com/work/4food-4food/20993, http://4food.com, http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/08/18/4food/

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TWEETS: Who can see your "replies" & "mentions"?

2010-08-18T04:39:00.001-10:00

Ever since Twitter changed the @ retweet function, I've been wondering why some retweets have annotation and some do not. Here's a good article that answers that question. Yay!

Who can see your "replies" & "mentions"?

The rule of thumb on who among your followers can see your replies and mentions, in their "home" or "all friends", feed, is this:

1. If the first character of your tweet is a @, then it can only be seen by (a) the recipient and (b) any of your followers who are also following the recipient.
2. If the @ or @'s are preceded by any other character, even a space, then the tweet can be seen by all your followers.

This distinction has no real logic to it, since the following forms of a reply are synonymous and of equal validity. Note the placement of @HappinessBook in each of the examples below.

[a] Dear @HappinessBook I enjoyed "Up Above My Head" sung by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
[b] I really enjoyed "Up Above My Head" sung by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, @HappinessBook
[c] @HappinessBook I really enjoyed "Up Above My Head" sung by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
[d] I'll tell you, @HappinessBook I really enjoyed "Up Above My Head" sung by Sister Rosetta Tharpe

BUT, the placement of the @HappinessBook determines how Twitter treats them.

(c) will be visible only to those of your followers who also follow @HappinessBook. So if you have a follower who loves you, loves Rosetta Tharpe, and but never heard of @HappinessBook, that person will NOT see your tweet.

AND: (a), (b), and (d) will be visible to all of your followers.

This distinction comes about only because of an historical anomaly. Here's the story:

Once upon a time Twitter offered an option in "settings" on how to treat replies and mentions [in those days they were all called replies, even if they weren't replying to anything]. You could elect to see all replies and mentions, or only those which were addressed to people you were following.

One day, in an effort to save bandwidth, Twitter removed that option, and prevented us from seeing any replies or mentions unless the person to whom they were addressed was also being followed by us.

When people became aware that many, sometimes most, of the tweets they'd been reading were now unavailable to them, and that they were unable to see conversations, there was a great uproar... one reason being that it's much more meaningful to hear both sides of a conversation than just one side.... another reason being that for many of us, these conversations were a primary means of expanding our social circle in Twitter, since they offered a way of meeting people known to our friends, but not yet known to us.

Example 1: A, whom I follow, and I, are both interested in healthcare reform. One day I see A engaged in a conversation with B about healthcare reform. I might start following B at that point, knowing that (a) B is someone who is also interested in healthcare reform, and (b) B is someone who is valued and respected by my friend A.

But if I never saw the tweet, I would never even know B] [example 2: A, whom I follow, has tweeted about an exhibition of an artist whose work I like. I then see A thanking someone named B for retweeting about that art exhibition. I know that B is someone who (a) probably shares my admiration for that particular artist, and (b) is someone who values and respects my friend A.

But if I'd never seen the tweet, I would never know of B's existence] [example 3: I love giving my friend A a hard time. One day I see A engaged in a conversation with his friend B, who is also giving him a hard time. I might follow B, so we can both give A a hard time together :)].

In order to satisfy our complaints, Twitter narrowed its definition of "replies" to tweets that begin with a @. We continued to be unable to see those unless we were following the recipient as well as the sender.

But if the @ appeared anywhere other than as the first character, we could see it, since it was no longer classified as a "reply".

So while the viewer or follower can no longer elect to see all of the sender's replies and mentions, the sender has it within his or her power to control which of his or her replies and mentions will be visible to all of his or her followers.

If you've ever wondered why some people will start a tweet with a "." or a ">", now you know why.

Thanks to RayBeckerman http://rays20.blogspot.com/2010/06/who-can-see-your-replies-mentions.html

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IMAGES: Brain Pollution

2010-08-16T18:39:00.001-10:00

Fascinating article about something I've suspected for a long time. Finally, pics to prove it. Short, occasional and long-term use of Marijuana, Heroin & Methadone, Cocaine & Methamphetamine and Alcohol.
I especially liked his note, "how vulnerable a particular brain is." Somehow I think that many people believe that we're all alike. Well, yes, and no. The human body is a peculiar instrument. Where one has foibles, another has strength. For a lot of things, you have to be the scientist in your own body laboratory to find out how things affect you.

In this case, however, I'm going to assume that I'm more vulnerable than some others, and keep my brain in working order. :)

Brain Pollution and the Real Reason You Shouldn’t Use Drugs

Studying the effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain has clearly been one of the most informative and fascinating parts of my work. I had a sense growing up that drugs and alcohol weren’t helpful to my overall health. I might add, this notion was helped along by getting drunk on a six pack of Michelob and half a bottle of champagne when I was sixteen years old – I was sick for three days. After that, I’ve been lucky enough to stay away from drugs and alcohol. After doing this work there’s no way you could get me to do marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, PCP, inhalants or any more than a glass or two of wine or beer. These substances damage the patterns in your brain, and without your brain you are not you.
There is really quite a bit of scientific literature on the physiological effects of drug abuse and alcohol on the brain. SPECT Scans have demonstrated a number of abnormalities in substance abusers in brain areas known to be involved in behavior, such as the frontal and temporal lobes. There are some SPECT similarities and differences between the damage we see caused by the different substances of abuse. I’ll discuss the differences in drug abuse patterns below. There tends to be several similarities seen among classes of abused drugs. The most common similarity among drug and alcohol abusers is that the brain has an overall toxic look to it. In general, the SPECT Scan studies look less active, more shriveled, and overall less healthy. A "scalloping effect" is common amongst drug abusing brains. Normal brain patterns show smooth activity across the cortical surface. Scalloping is a wavy, rough sea-like look on the brain’s surface. I also see this pattern in patients who have been exposed to toxic fumes or oxygen deprivation. My research assistant says that the drug brains she has seen look like someone poured acid on the brain. Not a pretty site.
SPECT can be helpful in evaluating the effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain. On 3D surface brain images, several substances of abuse appear to show consistent patterns. For example, cocaine and methamphetamine abuse appear as multiple small holes across the cortical surface; heroin abuse appears as marked decreased activity across the whole cortical surface; heavy marijuana abuse shows decreased activity in the temporal lobes bilaterally and heavy alcohol abuse shows marked decreased activity throughout the brain. These findings tend to improve with abstinence, although long term use has been associated with continued SPECT deficits seen years after abstinence. SPECT can be helpful in several ways in drug and alcohol abuse. First, 3D surface SPECT brain images of drug and alcohol abusers can be used in drug prevention education. Second, SPECT studies can help break though the denial that often accompanies substance abuse. When one is faced with their own abnormal cerebral perfusion it is hard to remain in denial. Third, SPECT may help evaluate if there is an underlying neuropsychiatric condition that needs treatment.

Effects of Smoking Marijuana

In our experience, the effects of smoking marijuana use typically cause decreased activity in the posterior temporal lobes bilaterally. The damage can be mild or severe, depending on how long a person used, how much use occurred, what other substances were used (nicotine is a powerful vasoconstrictor) and how vulnerable a particular brain is. For more information see Dr. Amen’s article High Resolution Brain SPECT Imaging in Marijuana Smokers with AD/HD, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Volume 30, No. 2 April-June 1998. Pgs 1-13.

18 y/o – 3 year history of 4 x week use underside surface view decreased pfc and temporal lobe activity		16 y/o — 2 year history of daily abuse underside surface view prefrontal and temporal lobe activity
38 y/o — 12 years of daily use underside surface view decreased pfc and temporal lobe activity		28 y/o — 10 years of mostly weekend use underside surface view decreased pfc and temporal lobe activity

Side Effects of Marijuana Off and On

underside surface view, off THC decreased pfc and temporal lobe activity		underside surface view, on THC severe overall decreased activity
underside active view, off THC increased deep left temporal lobe activity		underside active view, on THC overall calming of activity
top-down active view, off THC patchy increased uptake		top-down active view, on THC overall calming of activity

This 57-year-old physician had abused marijuana for 30 years. We performed this SPECT series because he had been unable to stop using without feeling very angry, irritable, agitated and anxious.
The first study (those images in the right column) was performed after he came to the clinic intoxicated from 3 straight days of heavy usage. The second study (those images in the left column) was performed after he abstained from marijuana usage for 1 month.
Notice the study without marijuana shows decreased temporal lobe activity (likely from the chronic marijuana usage), but also patchy increased uptake, especially increased activity in the deep left temporal lobe (often associated with anger, irritability and anxiety). The study with heavy marijuana usage shows marked overall decreased activity, especially in the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes (associated with attention, memory and motivational problems) but also there is a decrease in the overactive areas noted in the "off marijuana" study.
This scan series argues for the possibility of "self-medication," but unfortunately this medication has the side effect of causing the potential for long term damage to his brain.

Long Term Effects of Heroin & Methadone

Normal view top down surface view full, symmetrical activity
39 y/o — 25 yrs of frequent heroin use front on surface view marked overall decreased activity		40 y/o, 7 yrs on methadone heroin 10 yrs prior top down surface view marked decreased overall activity

Long Term Effects of Cocaine & Methamphetamine

52 y/o – 28 yr hx frequent meth use top down surface view multiple holes across cortical surface		24 y/o — 2 yr hx of frequent cocaine use top down surface view multiple holes across cortical surface
28 y/o – 8 yrs heavy meth use front on surface view marked overall decreased activity		36 y/o, 10 years frequent meth top down surface view multiple holes across cortical surface

Effects of Long Term Alcohol

38 y/o – 17 years of heavy weekend use

top-down surface view		underside surface view
front on surface view		right side surface view
marked overall decreased activity

Alcohol Abuse and Brain Trauma

underside surface view		front on surface view
48 y/o — 22 years of daily use with history of past head injury marked scalloping overall decreased activity
44 y/o — 18 years of daily use underside surface view marked overall decreased activity		45 y/o — 25 year history of daily abuse underside surface view marked overall decreased activity

Hope for Healing Alcohol, Drug Abuse, Cocaine & Meth On and Off Drugs and Alcohol

Effects of drug abuse and alcohol abuse vs one year substance free

top-down surface view during substance abuse		top-down surface view a year drug and alcohol free
underside surface view during substance abuse		underside surface view a year drug and alcohol free
notice the overall holes and shriveled appearance during abuse and marked improvement with abstinence

Effects of Heavy Nicotine & Caffeine Abuse

45 y/o — 27 year history of heavy use
Smoking 3 packs of cigarettes and drinking 3 pots of coffee daily

underside surface view
marked decreased overall activity

reposted from http://www.amenclinics.com/brain-science/spect-image-gallery/spect-atlas/imag...

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HOWTO: Art and Science of Tweetable Presentations

2010-08-12T04:06:00.001-10:00

How do you create twitter bytes? Interesting survey material here to think about.

HOW TO: Get Tweetable Moments from Your Presentations

Twitter () is here to stay but there is some science to creating a perfect, “tweetable moment” during a presentation. That is, a memorable moment that sticks in the mind of your audience long after the presentation is over.

How do you get those moments to happen? How do you get an audience to tweet it? How do you fit it into 140 characters or less?

A few months ago, I started to analyze why people share content from presentations and how marketers can leverage those motivations to deliver more contagious talks. I conducted a survey, gathered data from a huge webinar, talked to a bunch of celebrity presenters and extracted some data from the SlideShare API.

From that information I’ve collected the essential elements you need to create Tweetable moments in your presentations.

Priming

Before you deliver your Tweetable moment, you should spend some time priming your audience to get them ready to Tweet your ideas.

1. ExpectationsOver the past few decades, psychological researchers have been successfully experimenting with a behavior modification technique called “expectancy manipulation,” similar to the placebo effect. Essentially, if you tell an audience to expect something, they will often look for that same outcome.
For example, if you can establish the expectation that sharing your content will somehow benefit you audience, you may be able to increase the amount of sharing that occurs. In fact, many survey takers told me that they were motivated to share presentation content by the potential benefit to their reputations.
2. IngratiationMany respondents said they were motivated to Tweet about a presentations if they liked the presenter. Ingratiating yourself is a strategy to persuade a person based on their positive feelings towards you. In the 2008 edition of Introduction to Social Psychology, the authors highlighted two types of ingratiation that may be useful to presenters: Flattery and self-presentation.
By flattering your audience you may be able to positively influence their feelings about you and encourage them to share your content. Most people can tell if you’re being honest, so don’t just throw out compliments at random. Be genuine with your flattery and you’ll be rewarded with tweets.
3. Calls-to-Action
As with any form of marketing, calls-to-action are extremely important. You have to tell people exactly what action you want them to take. If you ask your audience to Tweet, they’ll follow suit.

Delivering “AHA”

Now that you’ve primed your audience to be ready to share your Tweetable moments, you need to actually deliver a moment that induces an “AHA, I need to Tweet that” feeling.

1. NoveltyIn my survey, many respondents cited novelty and newsworthiness as a key motivator to sharing presentation content. People want to share ideas that they and their audience have never heard before.
Novelty doesn’t have to be something no one on earth has ever heard before, only something that members of your audience haven’t heard in quite that way. Be sure to put your own spin on things, and avoid saying things that people have heard many times before.
2. Delayed OrientationLike jokes, a key aspect of contagious content is delayed orientation. This means that the audience is following your setup, but then a “punch line” shows the audience a piece of information they didn’t previously know.
A good Tweetable moment using delayed orientation will walk the audience through a commonly understood situation, but climax with the new idea or piece of information you’re delivering to them in a powerful punch line.
3. Humor
Writing jokes can be very difficult and fail badly. If you’ve given presentations about a topic a few times, you may have identified several quips that tend to get a good audience reaction, so you can polish these up and use them to deliver the “AHA” you need to create a great Tweetable moment.

The Sound Bite

You’ve primed your audience, and setup the context to deliver “AHA.” Now you have to craft the actual quote you want your audience to Tweet.

1. Length
You have to create a sound bite that is less than 140 characters if you want your audience to be able to fit it into a Tweet. You’ll actually want to aim to keep it under 100 characters so that they can add your user name or a hashtag.
2. Understandable Out-of-Context
Not only does your sound bite have to fit into a Tweet, but it has to make sense to people who aren’t in your audience, since your audience’s Twitter followers might not be in the room with you. Think about your quote outside of the context of your presentation, can it stand on its own or does it need further explanation?
3. Stats or Rules of Thumb
Concreteness is best for Tweetable soundbites. While opinions are sometimes retweeted, most often people share concrete ideas, like statistics, data or rules of thumb. Use whatever interesting numbers or elegant rules of thumb you have.
4. Pause
After you deliver your Tweetable soundbite, the most important thing to do is to shut up for a few moments. Let it sink into your audience, let them feel the “AHA” and give them some time to actually Tweet it for you. Many survey takers said that they didn’t Tweet about presentations they really liked because they were too busy trying to focus. Give your audience time so they don’t feel like they’re missing something else great.

[Note: the above graphs were compiled from 400 survey respondents and a webinar with 13,000 registrants, 5,700 attendees and 3,900 tweets.]

About 3 hours ago Dan Zarrella Dan Zarrella is a social media and viral marketing scientist. You can read his blog and follow him on Twitter. Please take his ReTweet Survey and spread it on to your followers (ReTweeting works well).

reposted from http://mashable.com/2010/08/12/tweetable-moment-presentations/

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Tech Q&A - APP Icon Standards for iPad and iPhone

2010-08-12T04:01:00.001-10:00

Technical Q&A QA1686

App Icons on iPad and iPhone

Q: How are the icon files in my application bundle used on iPad and iPhone?

A: Below are guidelines for handling icon files for iPhone-only apps, iPad-only apps, and universal apps.

IMPORTANT: Icons marked with "Required" must be supplied in your application bundle.

iPhone-only Apps

Include the following in your application's Resources group in the Xcode project:

Table 1 : iPhone-only apps icon requirements.

Image Size (px)	File Name	Used For	Required Status	Notes
512x512	iTunesArtwork	Ad Hoc iTunes	Optional but recommended	File should be in png format, but name it without the .png extension
57x57	Icon.png	App Store and Home screen on iPhone/iPod touch	Required	<None>
114x114	Icon@2x.png	Home screen for iPhone 4 High Resolution	Optional but recommended	<None>
72x72	Icon-72.png	Home screen for iPad compatibility	Optional but recommended	<None>
29x29	Icon-Small.png	Spotlight and Settings	Optional but recommended	<None>
50x50	Icon-Small-50.png	Spotlight for iPad compatibility	Recommended if you have a Settings bundle, otherwise optional but recommended	<None>
58x58	Icon-Small@2x.png	Spotlight and Settings for iPhone 4 High Resolution	Recommended if you have a Settings bundle, otherwise optional but recommended	<None>

Your Resources group should look similar to Figure 1:

Figure 1: Add files to Resources group

Except for iTunesArtWork icon, list the names of each of these files in the Icon files entry in the Info.plist, in the order shown in the table. Follow the steps in "Add Icon files in Info.plist" section below. See Figure 4.

iPad-only Apps

Include the following in your application's Resources group in the Xcode project:

Table 2 : iPad-only apps icon requirements.

Image Size (px)	File Name	Used For	Required Status	Notes
512x512	iTunesArtwork	Ad Hoc iTunes	Optional but recommended	File should be in png format, but name it without the .png extension
72x72	Icon-72.png	App Store and Home screen on iPad	Required	<None>
50x50	Icon-Small-50.png	Spotlight on iPad	Optional but recommended	<None>
29x29	Icon-Small.png	Settings on iPad	Recommended if you have a Settings bundle, otherwise optional but recommended	<None>

Universal Apps

Include the following in your application's Resources group in the Xcode project:

Table 3 : Universal apps icon requirements.

Image Size (px)	File Name	Used For	Required Status	Notes
512x512	iTunesArtwork	Ad Hoc iTunes	Optional but recommended	File should be in png format, but name it without the .png extension
57x57	Icon.png	App Store and the Home screen on iPhone/iPod touch	Required	<None>
114x114	Icon@2x.png	Home screen for iPhone 4 High Resolution	Optional but recommended	<None>
72x72	Icon-72.png	App Store and Home screen on iPad	Required	<None>
29x29	Icon-Small.png	Settings on iPad and iPhone, and Spotlight on iPhone	Recommended if you have a Settings bundle, otherwise optional but recommended	<None>
50x50	Icon-Small-50.png	Spotlight on iPad	Optional but recommended	<None>
58x58	Icon-Small@2x.png	Spotlight and Settings for iPhone 4 High Resolution	Recommended if you have a Settings bundle, otherwise optional but recommended	<None>

Add Icon files in Info.plist

To add the Icon files entry you will need to manually edit your Info.plist.
Open your Info.plist in Xcode, and locate the "Icon file" entry. Click on the plus (+) button at the end of the entry to make a new key entry. as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Add a new entry under "Icon file" key

Then, type "Icon files" in the key column (notice the "s" added), or choose "Icon files" from the drop down list, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Add "Icon files" key in Info.plist

Next, turn down the disclosure triangle on "Icon files" and add the entries for the icons for your application, as shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5:

Figure 4: Add icon file entries for iPhone-only or Universal apps.

Figure 5: Add entries for iPad icon files.

Note: If you don't provide one of the listed optional icons, the system will automatically scale one of your existing icons to an appropriate size. However, it is strongly recommended that your application supply all the icons listed with specific sizes needed.

Document Revision History

Date	Notes
2010-07-14	Fixed outdated "Add Icon files in Info.plist" section.
2010-07-12	Updated for iOS 4 requirements.
2010-04-09	New document that explains how the icon files in an application bundle are used on iPad and iPhone.

reposted from http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/qa/qa2010/qa1686.html thanks to

@smashingmag

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5 steps for Persuasive Web Copy

2010-08-12T03:37:00.001-10:00

Loved the Venn diagram! Want your website to work? Put yourself in your peeps shoes...

How Persuasive Is Your Website’s Copy? A Simple, Five-Step Checklist

Written by D Bnonn Tennant, On 9th August 2010.

As a web designer, you’re probably accustomed to obsessing over the layout and visual appearance of your designs. And if you’re like most, a site’s content is something you’d rather not worry about. But being able to identify weak web copy allows you to offer greater value to your client. By spotting major problems and helping him to solve them, you can position yourself as an expert who works with him…rather than as a labourer who works for him.
And if you know some basic principles for identifying and fixing weak copy, you not only increase your value to your clients—you increase your chances of getting them. Your own website will have stronger copy; more likely to persuade prospects to hire you.

So how can you tell if copy is weak? And what can you do about it if it is? Here are five foolproof questions to get you headed in the right direction.

1. Who is it talking about?

Whoever copy is talking about, that’s also who it’s talking to. Why? Because people are largely concerned with one thing: themselves. Thus, if you want to sell a chap on something, you need to talk about him. His problem, which you can solve. His needs, which you can fulfil. His desires, which you can help him achieve.
If your copy only talks about you (or your client), it will only be engaging to you. But if it talks about your prospect first, and then about how you can do something for him, it’s likely to be much more persuasive.
A good rule of thumb is that there should be lots of words like “you” and “your” for at least the first couple of paragraphs—and relatively few words like “I” and “me”.

2. What is it talking about?

Many websites talk about things their prospects just have no interest in. XKCD gives us a recent example. It’s funny because it’s true—but not so funny if you’re in charge of designing sites like that. Not funny at all if your own site is like that.
For example, many web designers talk about their “passion” for web standards (passion? Really?), their ability to produce valid HTML and so on. But do their prospects care about—or even understand—these things? More likely they care about how adhering to web standards produces websites which get more customers, by ranking higher in search engines; and sites which get more conversions, by working across all browsers. If possible, ask your ideal prospects what they care about. Then tailor your message to that.
Remember that you need to not only talk about the benefits you can offer your prospect, but also give him reasons to believe you. Proof is very important in persuading someone that you’re a good, safe choice. The three strongest types of proof are:

Testimonials. In most instances, nothing is stronger than the words of a satisfied customer. If you’re not sure how to go about getting some good testimonials, check out Sean D’Souza’s article, ‘Six Questions to Ask for Powerful Testimonials’.
Case studies. A case study is a story of how you helped a client become more successful. Many designers have portfolios which show a lot of their prior work, but with little explanation. Showing fewer examples, but with more explanation, is typically more powerful. (To get started writing case studies, check out Simon Townley’s article on the topic.)
Articles. Nothing says “I’m an expert” like practical, high-quality articles about your area of expertise. Ideally, pick problems your prospects can relate to, and demonstrate how to solve them. As you give away more and more useful information, people assume you know more and more; and your value increases in their eyes. You don’t have to write often to use this tactic—even just once a month is plenty as long as you’re producing quality content. It’s even better if you can get published on sites which are recognized as authorities in your field (like this one). Whitepapers and free reports are great variants on the basic article.

3. Who is doing the talking?

The strongest copy has a single, clear personality. It’s not written as if a committee were speaking to a general audience. Rather, it sounds as if a single representative were speaking to a particular prospect. Your copy should read exactly as if you were having a conversation with a customer about his needs—about how to solve them.
Sadly, this style of writing is used by few businesses. And in a way, this poses a challenge for freelancers. We feel as if we must sound “professional” and “impressive”—and we think this means using the same style as most corporate websites. Speak like an Oxford professor writing a dissertation. Say “leverage” or “utilise” instead of “use”. But how appealing do you find that language? Oh, you think it sounds pompous and stupid? Damn right it does. So speak naturally instead, like I am right now. Advise your clients to do the same. If they dare, it’ll lift their response rates a lot.

4. How does it start?

You probably already know that your prospect will make a snap decision within a couple of seconds of opening your site: either stay and look, or close and move on. After that, you’ve still got only a few seconds more to persuade him to stick around long enough to be converted.
Although there are obvious design considerations which affect your prospect’s decision, the overriding factor is the headline. It’s the first thing your prospect usually reads—and what it says decides whether he’ll continue into the copy or not. So it goes without saying that the headline should be as compelling as possible. Yet many designers settle for big friendly welcomes that really don’t speak to a prospect’s needs or desires.
How do you tell whether a headline is good—without being a copywriting expert, and without just relying on your own (possibly unreliable) intuition? There are four simple questions you can ask. If the answer is “no” to one or more, the headline is weaker than it should be:

Is it useful? Does it offer or imply a clear benefit for your ideal prospect (not some other guy) if he keeps reading? Does it speak to the issue which is foremost in his mind—the issue he came to your site to solve? Headlines which start with “how to” or “why” are usually very successful, because they imply that the copy will be useful. For example, the headline Why most new websites fail will probably be very interesting to someone thinking of building a new website. He wants to succeed—so he really wants to know how to avoid being one of the “most” who fail! But we can make it even stronger by adding more usefulness: Why most new websites fail…and how to ensure yours doesn’t.
Is it urgent? Does it get your prospect wanting to read on by appealing to his self-interest? Does it suggest some kind of undesirable outcome if he doesn’t immediately read what you have to say? Or some kind of desirable outcome if he does? Urgency often comes naturally with usefulness—but you can increase it by trying to find the strongest way of saying what you want to say. For example, our headline can be made to sound more urgent by adding a bit of visual imagery: Why most new websites go belly up…and how to keep yours afloat. Check out thesaurus.com if you’re stuck. That’s what I do.
Is it ultra-specific? Specificity increases both the credibility and the curiosity factor of a headline. Like, a lot. Watch what happens when we add some specificity to our imaginary headline: Why 78% of new websites go belly-up…and how to keep yours afloat. That figure is pretty intriguing, right? “Most” could mean a lot of things…and we suspect it’s probably a bit of an exaggeration. But 78%? That’s clearly a figure based on some kind of research. A study must have been performed to find it out. We’re a lot more inclined to believe it straight up. Plus, it’s pretty high! Not only do we really want to know why so many websites fail, but we also realize that the odds are against us if we don’t read the copy.
But wait—there’s more! Specificity stacks: we can add more in to get even more credibility and curiosity. Like this: Why 78% of new websites go belly up within 18 months…and three simple steps to keep yours afloat. (Notice how I also added to the usefulness factor by specifying “simple steps”.)
Is it unique? It doesn’t matter how useful, urgent or ultra-specific a headline is…if it’s not saying something your prospect hasn’t heard before. For example, if it’s common knowledge that 78% of websites fail within the first 18 months, our headline is never going to make much impact. Even worse if everyone knows the three steps to take to avoid this. (By the way, this is all totally fictitious—I don’t think 78% of websites fail, and I don’t know three ways to avoid it!) So make sure you have a unique angle. Be sure you know what your competitors are saying—so you can say something different.

If you’re interested in learning more about writing magnetic headlines, check out Brian Clark’s excellent tutorial series on Copyblogger.

5. How does it end?

Sandy Blum said, Take a great beginning and a great ending…and put them as close together as possible! You now know what a great beginning looks like—so what makes a great ending?
It’s pretty simple really. Once you’ve drawn your prospect in, talked about his problems, and proved how you can solve them, you need to make an offer. Tell him exactly what you’d like to do for him—and what he has to do to accept. Generally, this means encouraging him to contact you. In doing this, make sure you stick to three vital rules for getting good conversion rates:

Make it clear. Now that your prospect is convinced he wants the amazing benefit of your services which he’s just learned about, you need to be sure there’s absolutely no doubt in his mind as to how to make it happen. Make a strong offer, and issue a clear call to action. Make sure the CTA starts with a verb (an action); make sure it encourages him not to delay; and make sure it uses language he is expecting. The old classic, Click here to contact me now, is still hard to beat in terms of raw conversion rates.
Make it easy. Surprisingly, a lot of businesses (including web designers) still only offer their phone numbers and email addresses on their websites. You definitely need to include those, because some prospects will want to use them. But an inline contact form makes it far easier for a prospect to convert. It also encourages immediate action; thus pushing conversion rates up. Be sure to only ask for information you absolutely need, though. People are very disinclined to fill in forms that ask for information that’s obviously not necessary.
Make it a no-brainer. Your prospects are way more likely to convert if they literally cannot lose. Even more so if they get an obligation-free benefit. Strong guarantees, free gifts and the like will always increase conversion rates. Few designers offer any kind of guarantee—possibly because they don’t want to get taken advantage of. But it’s definitely worth considering. Similarly, although many designers offer free initial consultations (it’s hard not to as part of the sales process), few of them position this as a unique benefit. Rather than talking about a free initial consultation, why not take your existing evaluation process and turn it into a checklist—then offer a free site audit worth $97 or similar?

Conclusion

This is by no means the final word on spotting (and writing) strong copy. It’s just an introduction to some of the basics. But it should give you sound principles to rely on—principles you can use to add extra value to your services, and extra oomph to your own website. And hey, if that works out for you, there’s plenty more to learn. I’ll be following the comments here, so feel free to ask questions—or check out my website for a lot more information on writing better and more persuasive copy.

Like the article? Be sure to check out the author’s bio page.

reposted from http://designshack.co.uk/articles/business-articles/how-persuasive-is-your-we...

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VIDEOS: Happy

2010-08-12T03:34:00.001-10:00

Happiness is truly in the eyes of the beholder. Some people just need their eyes adjusted ;)

HAPPY: A Documentary

By Maria Popova

From swamps to slums and why owning nothing can mean having everything.

What makes people genuinely happy? The nature and origin of happiness is something we’ve been exploring for a while, across a variety of projects and media — from Charles Spearin’s The Happiness Project to Gretchen Rubin’s’s identically titled but radically different yearlong experiment to the neurological underpinnings of happiness.
Now, an ambitious feature documentary is on a quest to probe deeper and go further to find what it is that truly makes people happy. HAPPY, from Oscar-nominated director Roko Belic (Genghis Blues), treks the globe from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata to unearth the sources of the world’s most precious natural resource through ordinary and extraordinary human stories and powerful interviews with the leading neuroscientists and psychologists researching the science of happiness.

HAPPY seeks to share the wisdom of traditional cultures and the cutting edge science that is now, for the first time, exploring human happiness.”

Inspired by Belic’s insight that the United States is among the world’s wealthiest nations yet reports some of the lowest happiness levels, HAPPY aims to examine this disconnect between wealth and well-being, indentifying the true currency of happiness.

I went to Africa when I was 18 and I had a very shocking experience. I met literally hundreds of people over the course of a few weeks who owned absolutely nothing. And yet they genuinely were exuding happiness.” ~ Roko Belic

WGSO has an excellent interview with Belic, revealing much of the inspiration for and insights from the film:

The film, a nonprofit project, was funded entirely through Kickstarter, of which we’ve been longtime proponents as one of the most potent platforms for crowdfunding creative ventures.
HAPPY is currently in post-production and we’re counting down to its inevitable awards sweep at Sundance.

reposted from http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/08/12/happy-movie/via Swiss Miss

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DIAGRAM: Social Media Cartoon Map

2010-08-12T03:23:00.001-10:00

Reminds me of Middle Earth.

XKCD-Inspired Cartoon Maps the World’s Social Networks

This cartoon map shows the relative sizes of social networks based on real 2010 user data, and does so in a quirky and amusing way.

The quirky and amusing aspect is hardly surprising, because this map — titled the “2010 Social Networking Map” — was inspired by geeky-yet-popular web comic XKCD’s once sort-of-viral “Map of Online Communities.”
The original was made based on the whims of XKCD’s author, but marketing firm Flowtown took the idea and ran with it for this 2010 variation, sizing the various regions (each named after a social network) based on info collected or published by USA Today, Alexa, Compete and other sources.
The firm also provides commentary on trends with its humorous names — for example, the “Former Kingdom of MySpace (),” the “Receding Glaciers of AOL and Windows Live,” the “Rising Island of Google Buzz” and the “Land of Defunct Social Networks.”

reposted from http://mashable.com/2010/08/11/2010-social-networking-map/

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What "Three Cups of Tea: Means

2010-08-11T04:57:00.001-10:00

You've heard of the book, but do you know what "Three Cups of Tea" means? Greg Mortenson explains:

...Haji Ali spoke. “If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways,” Haji Ali said, blowing on his bowl.

“The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die,” he said, laying his hand warmly on Mortenson’s own.

“Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.”

“That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in my life..."

From Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin

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Diets Around the World

2010-08-11T04:50:00.001-10:00

What an interesting trip around the world in an arena we all find enjoyable.

What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets

By Maria Popova

From Bangladesh to Brazil, or what photojournalism can reveal about food and cultural context.

xIn case you ever wondered, the most popular Brain Pickings post to date is our review of photographers Peter Menzel and Faith D’Alusio’s Hungry Planet — a grounding portrait of what the world eats, from the $376.45 an Australian family spends on food per week to the $1.23 weekly budget of a same-sized family in Chad’s poorest refugee camp.

This week, Menzel and D’Alusio are back with their much-anticipated new book, What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets — a fascinating project telling the global story of our relationship to food through portraits of 80 people from 30 countries and the food they eat in one day.

I want people to understand their own diets better — and their own chemistry and their own biology. And make better decisions for themselves.” ~ Peter Menzel on NPR

38-year-old Maasai herder, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 103 lbs, typical daily caloric intake: 800 calories. Food staples: Maize meal and milk.
Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

40-year-old Egyptian camel broker, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 165 lbs, typical daily caloric intake: 3,200 calories. Some food staples: Eggs with butter, fava beans, country bread, potato chips, feta cheese, soup, rice, black tea.
Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

From a Japanese sumo wrestler to an American competitive eater to a Massai herdswoman, the book offers an exploration of demography through photography, contextualized by compelling essays from some of today’s leading food activists and thinkers, including indispensible voices on the issue like Brain Pickings favorite Michael Pollan.

20-year-old US Army soldier, 6 feet 5 inches tall, 195 lbs, typical daily caloric intake: 4,000 calories. Food staples: Mostly instant ready-to-eat meals.
Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

36-year-old Latvian vocal teacher and composer, 6 feet tall, 183 lbs, typical daily caloric intake: 3,900 calories. Some food staples: Egg, rye bread with ham, cheese and butter, chicken, potato with mayonnaise, cookies.
Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

Alongside each of Menzel’s photographs, text by D’Alusio outlines the specifics of the daily diet depicted and places it in a cultural context that explains why, for instance, a Brazilian fisherman of average build can consume 5,200 calories per day and an American truck driver who consumes a comparable amount is clinically obese. Ultimately, the project aims to illuminate the relationship between food and where we are, in life and in the world.

16-year-old Chinese acrobat, 5 feet 2 inches tall, 99 lbs, typical daily caloric intake: 1,700 calories. Some food staples: Yogurt, pork ribs, noodles, eggs, broth, green tea.
Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

45-year-old Tibetan head monk, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 158 lbs, typical daily caloric intake: 4,900 calories. Some food staples: Butter tea, dried cheese curds, barley flour cake, noodle soup with potato.
Image copyright Peter Menzel, menzelphoto.com

Part Food, Inc., part FridgeWatcher, the project is a potent antidote to Neil Burgess’s recent rant about the death of photojournalism — What I Eat: Around the

World in 80 Diets is a bundle of storytelling and humanity that unravels itself before your eyes, leaving you hungry to better understand the correlation between food, environment and quality of life.

reposted from http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/08/11/what-i-eataround-the-world-... via NPR

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DIAGRAMS: Storyboarding by Kurt Vonnegut

2010-08-10T04:33:00.001-10:00

Kurt Vonnegut at the Blackboard

I want to share with you something I’ve learned. I’ll draw it on the blackboard behind me so you can follow more easily [draws a vertical line on the blackboard]. This is the G-I axis: good fortune-ill fortune. Death and terrible poverty, sickness down here—great prosperity, wonderful health up there. Your average state of affairs here in the middle [points to bottom, top, and middle of line respectively].
This is the B-E axis. B for beginning, E for entropy. Okay. Not every story has that very simple, very pretty shape that even a computer can understand [draws horizontal line extending from middle of G-I axis].

Now let me give you a marketing tip. The people who can afford to buy books and magazines and go to the movies don’t like to hear about people who are poor or sick, so start your story up here [indicates top of the G-I axis]. You will see this story over and over again. People love it, and it is not copyrighted. The story is “Man in Hole,” but the story needn’t be about a man or a hole. It’s: somebody gets into trouble, gets out of it again [draws line A]. It is not accidental that the line ends up higher than where it began. This is encouraging to readers.
Another is called “Boy Meets Girl,” but this needn’t be about a boy meeting a girl [begins drawing line B]. It’s: somebody, an ordinary person, on a day like any other day, comes across something perfectly wonderful: “Oh boy, this is my lucky day!” … [drawing line downward]. “Shit!” … [drawing line back up again]. And gets back up again.

Now, I don’t mean to intimidate you, but after being a chemist as an undergraduate at Cornell, after the war I went to the University of Chicago and studied anthropology, and eventually I took a masters degree in that field. Saul Bellow was in that same department, and neither one of us ever made a field trip. Although we certainly imagined some. I started going to the library in search of reports about ethnographers, preachers, and explorers—those imperialists—to find out what sorts of stories they’d collected from primitive people. It was a big mistake for me to take a degree in anthropology anyway, because I can’t stand primitive people—they’re so stupid. But anyway, I read these stories, one after another, collected from primitive people all over the world, and they were dead level, like the B-E axis here. So all right. Primitive people deserve to lose with their lousy stories. They really are backward. Look at the wonderful rise and fall of our stories.
One of the most popular stories ever told starts down here [begins line C below B-E axis]. Who is this person who’s despondent? She’s a girl of about fifteen or sixteen whose mother had died, so why wouldn’t she be low? And her father got married almost immediately to a terrible battle-axe with two mean daughters. You’ve heard it?
There’s to be a party at the palace. She has to help her two stepsisters and her dreadful stepmother get ready to go, but she herself has to stay home. Is she even sadder now? No, she’s already a broken-hearted little girl. The death of her mother is enough. Things can’t get any worse than that. So okay, they all leave for the party. Her fairy godmother shows up [draws incremental rise], gives her pantyhose, mascara, and a means of transportation to get to the party.
And when she shows up she’s the belle of the ball [draws line upward]. She is so heavily made up that her relatives don’t even recognize her. Then the clock strikes twelve, as promised, and it’s all taken away again [draws line downward]. It doesn’t take long for a clock to strike twelve times, so she drops down. Does she drop down to the same level? Hell, no. No matter what happens after that she’ll remember when the prince was in love with her and she was the belle of the ball. So she poops along, at her considerably improved level, no matter what, and the shoe fits, and she becomes off-scale happy [draws line upward and then infinity symbol].

Now there’s a Franz Kafka story [begins line D toward bottom of G-I axis]. A young man is rather unattractive and not very personable. He has disagreeable relatives and has had a lot of jobs with no chance of promotion. He doesn’t get paid enough to take his girl dancing or to go to the beer hall to have a beer with a friend. One morning he wakes up, it’s time to go to work again, and he has turned into a cockroach [draws line downward and then infinity symbol].

It’s a pessimistic story.
The question is, does this system I’ve devised help us in the evaluation of literature? Perhaps a real masterpiece cannot be crucified on a cross of this design. How about Hamlet? It’s a pretty good piece of work I’d say. Is anybody going to argue that it isn’t? I don’t have to draw a new line, because Hamlet’s situation is the same as Cinderella’s, except that the sexes are reversed.
His father has just died. He’s despondent. And right away his mother went and married his uncle, who’s a bastard. So Hamlet is going along on the same level as Cinderella when his friend Horatio comes up to him and says, “Hamlet, listen, there’s this thing up in the parapet, I think maybe you’d better talk to it. It’s your dad.” So Hamlet goes up and talks to this, you know, fairly substantial apparition there. And this thing says, “I’m your father, I was murdered, you gotta avenge me, it was your uncle did it, here’s how.”
Well, was this good news or bad news? To this day we don’t know if that ghost was really Hamlet’s father. If you have messed around with Ouija boards, you know there are malicious spirits floating around, liable to tell you anything, and you shouldn’t believe them. Madame Blavatsky, who knew more about the spirit world than anybody else, said you are a fool to take any apparition seriously, because they are often malicious and they are frequently the souls of people who were murdered, were suicides, or were terribly cheated in life in one way or another, and they are out for revenge.
So we don’t know whether this thing was really Hamlet’s father or if it was good news or bad news. And neither does Hamlet. But he says okay, I got a way to check this out. I’ll hire actors to act out the way the ghost said my father was murdered by my uncle, and I’ll put on this show and see what my uncle makes of it. So he puts on this show. And it’s not like Perry Mason. His uncle doesn’t go crazy and say, “I-I-you got me, you got me, I did it, I did it.” It flops. Neither good news nor bad news. After this flop Hamlet ends up talking with his mother when the drapes move, so he thinks his uncle is back there and he says, “All right, I am so sick of being so damn indecisive,” and he sticks his rapier through the drapery. Well, who falls out? This windbag, Polonius. This Rush Limbaugh. And Shakespeare regards him as a fool and quite disposable.
You know, dumb parents think that the advice that Polonius gave to his kids when they were going away was what parents should always tell their kids, and it’s the dumbest possible advice, and Shakespeare even thought it was hilarious.
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” But what else is life but endless lending and borrowing, give and take?
“This above all, to thine own self be true.” Be an egomaniac!
Neither good news nor bad news. Hamlet didn’t get arrested. He’s prince. He can kill anybody he wants. So he goes along, and finally he gets in a duel, and he’s killed. Well, did he go to heaven or did he go to hell? Quite a difference. Cinderella or Kafka’s cockroach? I don’t think Shakespeare believed in a heaven or hell any more than I do. And so we don’t know whether it’s good news or bad news.
I have just demonstrated to you that Shakespeare was as poor a storyteller as any Arapaho.

But there’s a reason we recognize Hamlet as a masterpiece: it’s that Shakespeare told us the truth, and people so rarely tell us the truth in this rise and fall here [indicates blackboard]. The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.
And if I die—God forbid—I would like to go to heaven to ask somebody in charge up there, “Hey, what was the good news and what was the bad news?”

reposted from http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/voices-in-time/kurt-vonnegut-at-the-blackboar...

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Violence When Free Cable Shut Off?

2010-08-10T04:30:00.003-10:00

August 10, 2010, 9:30 am — Updated: 9:31 am -->

TV and Crime

By FREAKONOMICS

An East Baltimore citizen suggests a freaky explanation for recent violence in the city: “Check the date they cut off free cable, and watch the next day the murder rates go crazy. The moment they stopped it the kids were on the street 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning. No stories, no cartoon network, nothing to do. That’s the real problem,” says Eric Brockton, the founder of a group called No More Guns. (HT: Chuck Amos)

reposted from http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/tv-and-crime/

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No More MS Discount Licensing

2010-08-10T04:30:00.001-10:00

Microsoft terminates discount licensing of Office for businesses

August 10, 2010

Microsoft announced the end of its discount licensing program that has been very popular among companies’ workers wanting cheaper copies of Office products. The Redmond said its Employee Purchase Program (EPP) terminates in November after 7 years.
EPP has been available to customers buying Microsoft's products under its volume licensing programs.
Microsoft cited declining customer demand for its decision to kill EPP, but noted the vast majority — 90 per cent — of licenses purchased were for its Office suite.
As an alternative, Microsoft encourages users to avail its Home Use Program, which delivers Office over the web through a download at a price of around $10 per employee — in local currency. HUP has been expanded to include the latest version of Office: Office 2010, Professional Plus.

http://ecommerce-journal.com/node/29256

Must mean it's time to finally switch to Mac, hmmm?

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Good Dribble Site Designs

2010-08-10T04:26:00.003-10:00

Dribbble is show and tell for designers, developers and other creatives. Share sneak peeks of your work as “shots” — small screenshots of the designs and applications you’re working on. Posting is by invitation only.

Here are some Dribbles I like:

from www.dribble.com

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5 Website Design Trends to Watch

2010-08-10T04:26:00.001-10:00

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.The importance of having an attractive website that converts visitors into buyers and helps cleverly promote your small business is essential in these fiercely competitive times.
Your website has to capture a visitor’s attention, entice him or her to stay and browse around, create an interest in your product or service, and result in sales. For small businesses with limited time and budgets, design is an essential factor in both attracting and converting potential customers.
With this in mind, here are five current design trends that most small businesses can utilize to great effect.
Let us know in the comments below about any additional design trends that you have spotted in the small business world.

1. Minimalism

While this web design style has been popular for some time, it’s worth revisiting as no small business owner wants to turn visitors away with a cluttered, overbearing and hard to navigate website.
Minimalist design effectively strips away the excess and helps the user concentrate squarely on the content. If a page has too many elements, the user will easily become confused about where to focus on, with many elements vying for attention.
With page weight now affecting your Google () search engine position, it’s the perfect time to reassess how streamlined your design is.
There are several principles and steps you can follow to create a more minimalist design:

Go through your site and prune any unnecessary widgets or elements which aren’t serving a real purpose.
Make good use of whitespace, which is the space between different elements of a design. Used well, it will allow for easier scanning of your site and help frame the elements on each page.
With fewer elements, choosing the right color palette or accent color is critical. As color has great significance and meaning, it’s best to test how certain colors interact with each other.
Browse your site through the eyes of your visitors, evaluating if there is too much information, confusing or off-putting elements, or sufficient calls to action. Answering these types of questions truthfully will help you prioritize the essential elements.

A minimalist design doesn’t have to be bland and boring; it can easily be modern, fresh, sophisticated, elegant or refined, based solely on the details within the design.

2. Unique Photography

Two men shaking hands, a group of people in suits sharing a joke, the call center girl: these are all tired, clichéd images that litter thousands of business websites. These types of images fail to convey either information on the company or a sense of the site’s character, and are essentially meaningless.
Using custom photography or artwork whenever possible is recommended, though for small business owners, both time and budget are limited and stock photos are a relatively cheap and accessible resource.
So when choosing stock imagery, it’s best to keep in mind these four tips:

Research your competitors and industry and take note of the images used. You can then find a unique way to represent your product or service.
Avoid being too literal in your choice of imagery as abstract compositions often give a more dramatic and memorable effect.
Don’t always opt for the cheaper low-res image, as pixelated imagery devalues your overall design and looks unprofessional.
Veer away from the bland and predictable and let the images ‘break out of the box’.

Imaginative imagery will reinforce your brand message and add greater character to your website. So, when you must use stock imagery, do so with great care and take the time to find the right piece that will convey the true personality of your service or product.

3. Bold Typography

Web design at its core is about communication, and typography is a vital component of that. Great web typography helps bring order to information and creates a coherent, visually satisfying experience that engages the reader without their knowing.
A recent trend is the use of big, bold typography which helps to create contrast between other text while grabbing a user’s attention. Oversized text can help create hierarchy and ensure users understand your message loud and clear.
In order to utilize typography to create a bold statement, keep in mind the following tips:

Determine the single most important message you want to emphasize, as too many messages can lead to choice paralysis. Understand the qualities of the message you are trying to convey, and then look for typefaces that embody those qualities.
Choose a typeface that will match the character of your work. For instance, if your company embodies the feel of an Old Style font, you should consider Bembo, Garamond and Sabon. It will also greatly depend on what you want to convey with the type, because legibility is as important as the character of the type.
Give the typography the prominent position it deserves by surrounding it with a generous amount of whitespace. This will add emphasis and create even more focus on the typography.
Test () out some of the various font replacement options such as Typekit or Typotheque. These allow you to license fonts to embed within your site, and help you to experiment with beautiful typography.

Typography is an art and the decisions you make are subjective; however, carefully selecting a typeface can make a huge difference to the quality of your design.

4. Clear Calls to Action

As a small business owner you want your visitors to complete a certain task when they land on your page. It could be to download, sign up or checkout, but these calls to action are one of the most important (and overlooked) elements in a small business website.
You want to grab your visitor’s attention and move him or her to take action. Crafting a clear, concise call to action is essential.
Here are four tips to keep in mind when designing a call-to-action button or advertisement:

Language: Keep the wording short and snappy (always start with a verb), but also explain the value behind the action the user is taking. In some instances it also helps to create a sense of urgency using words such as ‘now’, ‘hurry’ and ‘offer ends,’ with ‘free’ being the number one incentive.
Positioning: Ideally, calls to action should be above the fold, and be placed on every page of the site in a consistent position. For instance, Squarespace () (shown above), not only has a large call-to-action button at the top of the page, but also has a slightly smaller button in the footer of every page.
Color: The color should make the call stand out from the rest of the design. Brighter, more contrasting colors usually work best for smaller buttons. For larger buttons, you may want to choose a less prominent color (but one that still stands out from your background), so as to balance out its size.
Size: The call-to-action button should be the largest button on any given page. You want it to be large enough to stand out without overwhelming the rest of the design

It’s vital you test different combinations of call-to-action buttons and see how each affects your conversion rates (see A/B Testing below). It’s also best to make sure they fit within your overall design.

5. A/B Testing

With competition growing fiercer online, it’s important for small businesses to have a website that converts visitors to buyers and creates a competitive edge. That’s why it is important to continually measure and improve site performance, usability and conversions.
One of the foremost ways of optimizing your web design is via A/B testing (sometimes referred to as split testing). An A/B test examines the effectiveness of one landing page over another. The two versions are randomly shown to site visitors to see which generates the best results. You then evaluate the performance of each and use the best version.
Various elements can be tested, including, layouts, copy, graphics, fonts, headlines, offers, icons, colors and more. Here are a few tips for A/B testing:

Clearly define your goal before beginning any test. For example, if you wanted to increase sign-ups, you might want to test the following: type of fields in the form, length of the form, and display of privacy policy.
Start with elements that will have the biggest impact for minimum effort. For instance, you could tweak the copy on your checkout button to see if conversions can be improved.
Don’t use A/B testing in isolation as this alone won’t give you a well-rounded picture of your users. Instead, use other feedback tools, such as Feedback Army or User Testing, in conjunction with A/B testing to get in-depth analysis of user behavior.

A/B testing won’t make a bad design great, but it will prove an effective aid in optimizing your current design’s usability and conversions until you decide to overhaul your website design completely.
These are just five web design trends that small businesses can take part in to enhance their websites.

reposted from http://mashable.com/2010/08/10/small-business-design-trends/

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COMIC: Flash an Entire Website

2010-08-10T03:34:00.003-10:00

reposted from http://media.smashingmagazine.com/cdn_smash/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/smashi...

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HOWTO: CSS3 for Mobile Sites

2010-08-10T03:34:00.001-10:00

How To Use CSS3 Media Queries To Create a Mobile Version of Your Website

By Rachel Andrew July 19th, 2010

CSS3 continues to both excite and frustrate web designers and developers. We are excited about the possibilities that CSS3 brings, and the problems it will solve, but also frustrated by the lack of support in Internet Explorer 8. This article will demonstrate a technique that uses part of CSS3 that is also unsupported by Internet Explorer 8. However, it doesn’t matter as one of the most useful places for this module is somewhere that does have a lot of support — small devices such as the iPhone, and Android devices.
In this article I’ll explain how, with a few CSS rules, you can create an iPhone version of your site using CSS3, that will work now. We’ll have a look at a very simple example and I’ll also discuss the process of adding a small screen device stylesheet to my own site to show how easily we can add stylesheets for mobile devices to existing websites.

Media Queries

If you have ever created a print stylesheet for a website then you will be familiar with the idea of creating a specific stylesheet to come into play under certain conditions – in the case of a print stylesheet when the page is printed. This functionality was enabled in CSS2 by media types. Media Types let you specify a type of media to target, so you could target print, handheld and so on. Unfortunately these media types never gained a lot of support by devices and, other than the print media type, you will rarely see them in use.
The Media Queries in CSS3 take this idea and extend it. Rather than looking for a type of device they look at the capability of the device, and you can use them to check for all kinds of things. For example:

width and height (of the browser window)
device width and height
orientation – for example is a phone in landscape or portrait mode?
resolution

If the user has a browser that supports media queries then we can write CSS specifically for certain situations. For example, detecting that the user has a small device like a smart phone of some description and giving them a specific layout. To see an example of this in practice, the UK web conference dConstruct has just launched their website for the 2010 conference and this uses media queries to great effect.

The dConstruct 2010 website in Safari on a desktop computer

The dConstruct 2010 website on an iPhone

You can see from the above example that the site hasn’t just been made smaller to fit, but that the content has actually been re-architected to be made more easy to access on the small screen of the device. In addition many people might think of this as being an iPhone layout – but it isn’t. It displays in the same way on Opera Mini on my Android based phone – so by using media queries and targeting the device capabilities the dConstruct site caters for all sorts of devices – even ones they might not have thought of!

Using Media Queries to create a stylesheet for phones

To get started we can take a look at a very simple example. The below layout is a very simple two column layout.

A very simple two column layout
To make it easier to read on a phone I have decided to linearize the entire design making it all one column, and also to make the header area much smaller so readers don’t need to scroll past the header before getting to any content.
The first way to use media queries is to have the alternate section of CSS right inside your single stylesheet. So to target small devices we can use the following syntax:

@media only screen and (max-device-width: 480px) {        }

We can then add our alternate CSS for small screen and width devices inside the curly braces. By using the cascade we can simply overwrite any styles rules we set for desktop browsers earlier in our CSS. As long as this section comes last in your CSS it will overwrite the previous rules. So, to linearize our layout and use a smaller header graphic I can add the following:

@media only screen and (max-device-width: 480px) {                div#wrapper {                        width: 400px;                }                div#header {                        background-image: url(media-queries-phone.jpg);                        height: 93px;                        position: relative;                }                div#header h1 {                        font-size: 140%;                }                #content {                        float: none;                        width: 100%;                }                #navigation {                        float:none;                        width: auto;                }        }

In the code above I am using an alternate background image and reducing the height of the header, then setting the content and navigation to float none and overwriting the width set earlier in the stylesheet. These rules only come into play on a small screen device.

My simple example as displayed on an iPhone

Linking a separate stylesheet using media queries

Adding the specific code for devices inline might be a good way to use media queries if you only need to make a few changes, however if your stylesheet contains a lot of overwriting or you want to completely separate the styles shown to desktop browsers and those used for small screen devices, then linking in a different stylesheet will enable you to keep the CSS separate.
To add a separate stylesheet after your main stylesheet and use the cascade to overwrite the rules, use the following.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)" href="small-device.css" />

Testing media queries

If you are the owner of an iPhone, Android device or other device that has a browser which supports media queries you can test your CSS yourself. However you will need to upload the code somewhere in order to view it. What about testing devices you don’t own and testing locally?
An excellent site that can help you during the development process is ProtoFluid. This application gives you a form to enter your URL – which can be a local URL – and view the design as if in the browser on an iPhone, iPad or a range of other devices. The screenshot below is the dConstruct site we looked at earlier as seen through the iPhone view on ProtoFluid.

The dConstruct 2010 website in ProtoFluid

You can also enter in your own window size if you have a specific device you want to test for and know the dimensions of it’s screen.
To use ProtoFluid you need to slightly modify the media query shown earlier to include max-width as well as max-device-width. This means that the media query also comes into play if the user has a normal desktop browser but using a very tiny window.

@media only screen and (max-width: 480px), only screen and (max-device-width: 480px) {        }

After updating your code to the above, just refresh your page in the browser and then drag the window in and you should see the layout change as it hits 480 pixels. The media queries are now reacting when the viewport width hits the value you entered.
You are now all ready to test using ProtoFluid. The real beauty of ProtoFluid is that you can still use tools such as FireBug to tweak your design, something you won’t have once on the iPhone. Obviously you should still try and get a look at your layout in as many devices as possible, but ProtoFluid makes development and testing much simpler.
Note that if you don’t want your site to switch layout when someone drags their window narrow you can always remove the max-width part of the query before going live, so the effect only happens for people with a small device and not just a small browser window.

Retrofitting an existing site

I have kept the example above very simple in order to demonstrate the technique. However this technique could very easily be used to retrofit an existing site with a version for small screen devices. One of the big selling points of using CSS for layout was this ability to provide alternate versions of our design. As an experiment I decided to take my own business website and apply these techniques to the layout.

The desktop layout

The website for my business currently has a multi-column layout. The homepage is a little different but in general we have a fixed width 3 column layout. This design is a couple of years old so we didn’t consider media queries when building it.

My site in a desktop browser

Adding the new stylesheet

There will be a number of changes that I need to make to linearize this layout so I’m going to add a separate stylesheet using media queries to load this stylesheet after the current stylesheet and only if the max-width is less than 480 pixels.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="only screen and (max-width: 480px), only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)" href="/assets/css/small-device.css" />

To create my new stylesheet I take the default stylesheet for the site and save it as small-device.css. So this starts life as a copy of my main stylesheet. What I am going to do is go through and overwrite certain rules and then delete anything I don’t need.

Shrinking the header

The first thing I want to do is make the logo fit nicely on screen for small devices. As the logo is a background image this is easy to do as I can load a different logo in this stylesheet. I also have a different background image with a shorter top area over which the logo sits.

body {                background-image: url(/img/small-bg.png);        }        #wrapper {                width: auto;                margin: auto;                text-align: left;                background-image: url(/img/small-logo.png);                background-position: left 5px;                background-repeat: no-repeat;                min-height: 400px;        }

Linearizing the layout

The next main job is to linearize the layout and make it all one column. The desktop layout is created using floats so all I need to do is find the rules that float the columns, set them to float: none and width:auto. This drops all the columns one under another.

.article #aside {                float: none;                width: auto;        }

Tidying up

Everything after this point is really just a case of looking at the layout in ProtoFluid and tweaking it to give sensible amounts of margin and padding to areas that now are stacked rather than in columns. Being able to use Firebug in ProtoFluid makes this job much easier as my workflow mainly involves playing around using Firebug until I am happy with the effect and then copying that CSS into the stylesheet.

Testing the site using ProtoFluid

Testing in an iPhone

Having created my stylesheet and uploading it I wanted to check how it worked in a real target device. In the iPhone I discovered that the site still loaded zoomed out rather than zooming in on my nice readable single column. A quick search on the Safari developer website gave me my answer – to add a meta tag to the head of the website setting the width of the viewport to the device width.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />

After adding the meta tag the site now displays zoomed in one the single column.

The site as it now displays on an iPhone

This was a very simple retrofit to show that it is possible to add a mobile version of your site simply. If I was building a site from scratch that I would be using media queries on, there are definitely certain choices I would make to make the process simpler. For example considering the linearized column orders, using background images where possible as these can be switched using CSS – or perhaps using fluid images.
Our desktop layout features a case studies carousel on the homepage, this wasn’t easy to interact with on a touch screen device and so I checked using JavaScript if the browser window was very narrow and didn’t launch the carousel. The way this was already written meant that the effect of stopping the carousel loading was that one case study would appear on the screen, which seems a reasonable solution for people on a small device. With a bit more time I could rewrite that carousel with an alternate version for users of mobile devices, perhaps with interactions more suitable to a touch screen.

More resources

This is a relatively new technique but already there are some excellent tutorials on the subject of media queries.

Providing support for Media Queries in older browsers

This article covers the use of media queries in devices that have native support. If you are only interested in supporting iPhone and commonly used mobile browsers such as Opera Mini you have the luxury of not needing to worry about non-supporting browsers. If you want to start using media queries in desktop browsers then you might be interested to discover that there are a couple of techniques available which use JavaScript to add support to browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 (and lower versions) and Firefox prior to 3.5. Internet Explorer 9 will have support for CSS3 Media Queries.

More inspiration

To see more interesting use of Media Queries have a look at Hicksdesign where Jon Hicks has used Media Queries to not only provide a better experience for mobile device users, but also for regular web browser users with smaller windows. Also, have a look at Simon Collison’s website and Ed Merritt’s portfolio for other examples of this technique.

Try it for yourself

Using Media Queries is one place you can really start to use CSS3 in your daily work. It is worth remembering that the browsers that support media queries also support lots of other CSS3 properties so your stylesheets that target these devices can also use other CSS3 to create a slick effect when viewed on an iPhone or other mobile device. If you have implemented media queries on your site, or try this technique after reading this article, let us know in the comments.

Rachel AndrewRachel Andrew is a front and back-end web developer and Director of edgeofmyseat.com, a UK web development consultancy and the creators of the small content management system, Perch. She is the author of a number of web design and development books including CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks (3rd edition), published by SitePoint and also writes on her blog rachelandrew.co.uk. Rachel tries to encourage a common sense application of best practice and standards adoption in her own work and when writing about the web.

reposted from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/19/how-to-use-css3-media-queries-to-c...

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COMIC: Facebook Dog

2010-08-10T03:20:00.001-10:00

I dunno, a two-way web cam?

reposted from http://mashable.com

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COMICS: Social Media a la 1950s

2010-08-10T03:18:00.001-10:00

reposted from http://www.dikobras.ru

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VIDEO: Unboxing a Phone

2010-08-09T04:05:00.001-10:00

reposted from http://mashable.com/2010/08/08/funny-unboxing-videos

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VIDEO: A Werner Herzog Poke

2010-08-09T03:59:00.001-10:00

A little poke at the dark German director Werner Herzog who is endlessly eccentric.

A "brilliant blend" of humor and philosophy reflecting on today’s infographic culture. Inspired by Jessica Hagy’s blog, another Brain Pickings favorite, it’s narrated by a (rather excellent) Werner Herzog impersonator who nails Herzog’s characteristic monotonous snark with a degree of precision and an ounce of caricature that only adds to the dark charm of the piece.

reposted from http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/08/09/werner-herzog/

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HOWTO: Map Budget Travel and Fun

2010-08-09T03:55:00.001-10:00

Travel dreaming with point and click.

Kayak Explore: Where To Travel: Budget, Activities & More

Kayak Explore is a pretty interesting web based travel planning tool which lets you explore places based on the airfare you can afford, activities you intend to do, the temperature you like and much more. It’s a Google Maps mashup which lets you select your preferences and automatically updates the map marking the places you could visit.

Once you’ve narrowed down the destinations, you could click on them on the map, and check latest airfare and nearby hotels. The map updates accordingly, and finally you can check the reviews of a place and more information on Kayak’s main site. The results could also be shared with others via the webpage link.

Features

Show where to travel based on budget, activities you want to do and the weather of the destination.
Powered by Google Maps.
Also select places based on languages spoken.
Latest airfares and hotel reviews available.
Share the results via a link easily.
www.kayak.com/explore

reposted from http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/kayak-explore-where-to-travel/ Thanks to Lifehacker by Abhijeet from Guiding Tech)

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45 Swap and Freebies Sites

2010-08-09T03:45:00.001-10:00

Probably works best in larger cities, but it might be fun to check out a few of these.

EcoFreek: Search for free & swappable items on 45+ sites at once

Do you look around for free items online or trade items with your friends? If you do, then EcoFreek is the search engine for you. This web app searches 45+ sites for items that are free or available for swap from people who no longer need them.

Simply type in the item that you are looking for in the search box. To narrow down your search, choose a location on the drop down menu beside the search box. You can also check the box that says “Also show swap items” below the box to see stuff available for trade. Click on the results to see the details on where to pick up the item if it is still available.
You can click the small car icon to get directions through Google Maps, the ‘x’ icon to mark the item as taken, and the thumbs down icon to mark the item as a scam or a fraud. When browsing for items, you can also sort the results according to your preference. What more, you can sign up by clicking the “Alerts” at the bottom of the page and readily receive notifications on your mail or mobile phone.

Ecofreek is a useful app for bargain hunters, item traders, and just about anyone who want to contribute to the environment by making use of things not needed by others.
Features:

Allows you to search for items that are free or for trade from people who no longer need them.
Only covers the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
Indexes the web for listings.
Free; no sign up required.
You can also read 10 Search Engines To Help The Environment.
www.ecofreek.com

reposted from http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/ecofreek-free-items-online/

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HOWTO: Find Recent Earthquakes Pacific NW

2010-08-09T03:42:00.001-10:00

Free tool for finding earthquakes using your zipcode as base.

PNWQuakes: Shows Recent Earthquake Activity In Pacific Northwest

The tool doesn’t require anything except your zip code and it provides you information about the most recent seismic activity along with the magnitude, depth and exact location on Google Maps. You can also call or SMS to get automated information.
It is a great tool to make sure if what you felt was really an earthquake or just the garbage truck passing by. Too bad it only covers activity in the northwest of the United States.

Features:

Find recent earthquake activity around you.
Provides magnitude, distance, location and depth of the shock.
You can also call or text to get the information.
No registration required.

www.pnwquakes.com

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NEW Posterous Themes

2010-08-09T03:00:00.001-10:00

I love Posterous...but I'm guessing that you knew that... More themes, for newbies or just a change of scenery.

7 Perfect Posterous Themes for Multimedia Blogs

Posted: 08 Aug 2010 06:13 PM PDT

Posterous has been around since 2006, but the super-simple blogging platform is still relatively unknown when compared to blog giants like WordPress and Tumblr. If that sentence didn’t mean anything to you then, ironically, Posterous was designed for you.The platform takes all the functionality and impressive visuals from (sometimes complicated) services like WordPress and distills the tech side of things to let you focus on sharing content. Posterous allows you to write blogs from your own e-mail and auto-formats your media to fit.
While it can all be hands-off, there are a number of ways to personalize the way your Posterous blog looks. For the would-be-designer, Posterous has put up some great tips and short-cuts for modifying their code. For the more casual users (read: most of us), there are some great, pre-made themes to update the look of your blog. We’ve collected seven elegant, functional themes that you can apply from the get go.

1. My.List

http://www.obox-design.com/themes_page.cfm/theme/mylist" target="_blank">My.List</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/7-great-free-posterous-themes/mylist.jpg" height="400" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

This is a great theme for photographers, as each post is prominently displayed like an online portfolio. Word to the wise: Make sure you have enough posts and high quality images to fill up your front page, otherwise this theme will just leave them blank.

2. Colourise

http://posterous.smartcode.cz/download/colourise-template" target="_blank">Colourise</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/7-great-free-posterous-themes/colourise.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

This is another theme great for showing off photographs and multimedia, with a smooth dark background and some nice detail formatting.

3. Tabby

http://www.posterize.us/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=6" target="_blank">Tabby</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/7-great-free-posterous-themes/tabby.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

One of the originals from designer Cory Watilo, this theme will automatically create new pages based on your post tags. Good for simple use and those not trying to blow out their SEO with a thousand tags per post.

4. Mad Men

http://www.obox-design.com/themes_page.cfm/theme/mad-men" target="_blank">Mad Men</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/7-great-free-posterous-themes/madmen.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

Connoting the cool clean calm of Don Draper, this theme aims for a polished, magazine vibe. The high contrast helps both your pictures and blog posts stand out.

5. Contra

http://www.posterize.us/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=5" target="_blank">Contra</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/7-great-free-posterous-themes/contra.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

Contra is a theme best used by web video folks. Because the layout focuses on one post at a time, it's a good way to showcase a current project or inspiration.

6. Indicator

http://posterous.smartcode.cz/download/indicator-theme" target="_blank">Indicator</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/7-great-free-posterous-themes/indicator.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

This is one of the cleanest, simplest themes on the list - perfect for people who need their blogs organized and easily searchable.

7. Tabby 2

http://www.posterize.us/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=9" target="_blank">Tabby 2</a>" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/7-great-free-posterous-themes/tabby2.jpg" style="border: medium none ;" width="400" />

Tabby 2 is the older brother to Tabby. Don't let its sparsity fool you. This theme is fully customizable from background down to font - perfect for the DIY crowd and nitpicks.

reposted from www.mashable.com

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HOWTO: Vote Smart

2010-08-08T11:43:00.001-10:00

Vote smart. Easy to say, sometimes tough to do. Especially with special interest lobbies. So what will help us to vote smart? Access to abundant, accurate, and relevant information. Meet VoteSmart, free to all Americans.

OUR PROBLEMS
ARE THEY REALLY THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND?

Point our fingers where we will. Perhaps our problem isn't the congress, the president, the republicans or the democrats, but us.
We want stuff, we elect people to get us stuff, and we make certain they know we won't pay for stuff.
So they get us the stuff and since no one will pay for the stuff, they borrow stuff.
Voila! We get stuffed. Exactly what we asked for.
Vote Smart. It is what is important.

So different in background, so opposed in interest, you would not find our kind elsewhere on the earth or anywhere in human history. As a nation we have succeeded, not because we struggle with one another, but because we somehow have learned to recognize that the single issue that will always call us to arms is one that requires the defense of each other - a defense against the aggression that strikes at the heart of the American experience and endangers our freedom and ability to self-govern.

On common ground at a unique research center high in the Montana Rockies, a struggling group of Americans, who you are unlikely to know and will probably never meet, have begun a battle. A battle to protect all of us from the selfish interests that strip us of the most crucial component in our struggle to self-govern -- access to abundant, accurate, and relevant information.

Here at Project Vote Smart, Americans young and old volunteer their time, take no money from special interest groups, and have committed themselves to an extraordinary effort that, if successful, will provide their fellow citizens with the tools for a reemergence of political power not known for half a century. Their idea is one you may have thought of yourself. It is a deceptively simple concept but enormously difficult to achieve and would not be possible without the collaboration of citizens willing to lay their partisan differences aside for this one crucial task.

Picture this: thousands of citizens (conservative and liberal alike) working together, spending endless hours researching the backgrounds and records of thousands of political candidates and elected officials to discover their voting records, campaign contributions, public statements, biographical data (including their work history) and evaluations of them generated by over 100 competing special interest groups. Every election these volunteers test each candidate's willingness to provide citizens with their positions on the issues they will most likely face if elected through the Political Courage Test.

This project is an historic undertaking. Citizens come together, not in selfish interest or to support one candidate over another, but to defend democracy. It is an extraordinary gathering of people committed to one purpose: to strengthen the most essential component of democracy -- access to information -- even as it suffers grave attacks from candidates and political parties, many who are now willing to manipulate information and deceive voters.

In essence, what Project Vote Smart's interns and volunteers have done is ensure that tolerance will no longer be the only option available to the millions of us who are tormented by the issueless rhetoric and often misleading attacks that define contemporary American politics.

Most of us at Project Vote Smart are not paid and those who are receive only minimal salaries to cover living expenses. We will not accept funding from corporations, PACs or any organization that support or oppose candidates or issues. This effort will be financed by you and other Americans or not at all. Although we could sure use your help, YOU DO NOT NEED TO HELP US IN ANY WAY. Our programs and services are free to all Americans.

All of us realize that the mudslinging tactics once associated only with the crudest kinds of local politics now characterize virtually all campaigns and have stripped us of the most crucial component in our struggle to self-govern: access to abundant, accurate and relevant information about those who govern us and those who wish to replace those who do.

HELP US IF YOU CAN

An Extraordinary Organization Has Some Extraordinary Rules

No one can join the Project's board without a political opposite. People as diverse as former Presidents Carter and Ford, former Senators McGovern and Goldwater, former Governor Dukakis, former Congresswoman Ferraro and current Senator McCain have served on the Project's board, supporting the efforts of the Project's students and volunteers, and ensuring balance and strict impartiality in PVS programs and services.
The Project refuses financial assistance from all organizations and special interest groups that lobby or support or oppose any candidate or issue.
The Project operates much like the Peace Corps -- of the over 5000 people who have come to help by working at the Project, ninety percent received no pay and those who did received only minimal salaries to cover basic living expenses.
Unlike other organizations, the Project strictly protects its members and supporters. We never sell or provide names, addresses, or other contact information of any supporter or contributor to anyone, at any time, for any reason.

http://www.votesmart.org/

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India May Realize $35 Tablet

2010-08-08T07:16:00.001-10:00

This is a followup from an earlier report on the $35 Tablet computer in India.

OLPC’s Negroponte Offers To Help India Realize $35 Tablet

By Ryan Paul, ars technica August 8, 2010 10:30 am

In an open letter to the government of India, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project founder Nicholas Negroponte expressed enthusiasm for the country’s recently announced $35 tablet effort and offered to assist by making his organization’s technology and expertise available.
The offer of collaboration is the latest odd twist in OLPC’s erratic relationship with India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). The real significance of Negroponte’s offer, however, is that it reflects OLPC’s evolving views about the value of collaboration.
OLPC designs low-cost education computing devices for developing countries. The project aimed to produce a ubiquitous $100 laptop that would bring constructivist learning theory to the developing world. The project has fallen far short of fulfilling its initial goals due to serious setbacks, ranging from technical and logistical failures to divisive ideological conflicts. OLPC was forced to reorganize and downsize much of its development staff last year as its funds dwindled. Despite these cuts, the organization was able to continue moving forward by narrowing its focus and pursuing a less ambitious strategy.
When the OLPC project first launched, Negroponte argued that OLPC’s agenda could only be achieved by harnessing economies of scale. The laptops would be sold to governments in massive quantities in order to reduce overall manufacturing costs. Negroponte contended that competing efforts and alternative low-cost laptop products were harmful to OLPC’s vision because they would fragment the market and undermine OLPC’s ability to achieve the level of scale that he believed was necessary for success.
This became a contentious issue that isolated OLPC from potential partners—particularly Intel, which parted ways with OLPC and built its own competing Classmate PC. Intel frowned on OLPC’s one-size-fits-all approach and argued that diverse offerings were needed in order to encourage adoption of low-cost educational computing.
In the long run, Intel’s approach proved to be more viable. Classmate PCs have shipped in far greater numbers than OLPC’s laptops, and few governments were willing to make the high-volume orders that Negroponte hoped to sign.
Negroponte’s views on competition appeared to have softened substantially when he announced OLPC’s XO-3 tablet project earlier this year. OLPC is working with chip-maker Marvell to build a low-cost touchscreen device. Instead of insisting on an exclusive partnership, Negroponte is open to collaborating with a broader ecosystem of hardware vendors who will build their own competing tablet products with the same underlying reference hardware. Negroponte’s open invitation to India’s MHRD reflects OLPC’s departure from its prior obsession with scale and exclusivity.

India and OLPC

OLPC has had a rocky relationship with India’s MHRD. After briefly evaluating OLPC’s first XO laptop, the MHRD completely rejected the idea of using laptops for education—describing it as pedagogically unsound and potentially detrimental to student health. Despite this harsh rejection, the country later announced its own independent project to produce an unprecedented $10 laptop.
The MHRD’s $10 laptop effort launched with much media fanfare but never really materialized. The estimated price per unit was later adjusted to $100, but the project eventually vanished. Last year, India dropped the pretense of having its own laptop project and bought 250,000 OLPC laptops.
India’s new $35 tablet announcement is likely to prove just as ephemeral as the $10 laptop. Critics say that it’s yet another in a long line of empty politically motivated promises from the MHRD. Viewed in the context of India’s nationalistic desire to have its own internal low-cost computing technology, Negroponte’s request for collaboration takes on a new dimension.
“The world needs your device and leadership. Your tablet is not an ‘answer’ or ‘competitor’ to OLPC’s XO laptop. It is a member of a family dedicated to creating peace and prosperity through the transformation of education,” Negroponte said in his letter. “[I offer] full access to all of our technology, cost free. I urge you to send a team to MIT and OLPC at your earliest convenience so we can share our results with you.”
Negroponte is offering to assist the MHRD, but it’s obvious that he has carefully phrased his offer in a way which implies that India has something of value to contribute back to OLPC and the broader education computing community. This is politically savvy because it gives the MHRD a way to buy OLPC’s upcoming XO-3 and still save face.
If the $35 tablet project someday disappears, the Indian government can simply buy OLPC’s product and frame it as a project developed in collaboration with the OLPC.

reposted from http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/olpcs-negroponte-35-tablet/all/1

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Breast Removal for Nothing?

2010-08-07T08:39:00.001-10:00

What if it was all unnecessary — the surgery, the radiation, the drugs and, worst of all, the fear? 17 percent of D.C.I.S. cases identified by a commonly used needle biopsy may be misdiagnosed.

In 2006, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an influential breast cancer survivors' organization, released a study.

While it is exceedingly difficult to determine the incidence of incorrect breast cancer diagnoses in the United States,
our consultants estimate that the error rate could be as high as 2% to 4%. If accurate, as many as 5,000 to 10,000
patients diagnosed with invasive or in-situ breast cancer each year may have been misdiagnosed and inappropriately
treated.. More than 90,000 people currently living with breast cancer may, in fact, be living (or dying)
with an incorrect diagnosis.

Those women who received a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (D.C.I.S.) or invasive breast cancer either did not have the disease or received incorrect treatment.

Advances in imaging technology over the past 30 years have meant that pathologists must render opinions on ever smaller breast lesions. Discerning the difference between benign lesions and early stage breast cancer is a particularly challenging area of pathology.
Diagnoses of D.C.I.S. have a history of confusion, differences of opinion, undertreatment, and overtreatment.

excerpted from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/health/20cancer.html and http://ww5.komen.org/uploadedFiles/Content_Binaries/PathologyWhitePaperB2.pdf.

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Scientific Mind-Body-Spirit Medicine

2010-08-07T08:25:00.001-10:00

"In this interview, Dr. Larry Dossey, author of Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, discusses the inherent wisdom of premonitions -- the topic of his third book The Power of Premonition.
"He is trained in internal medicine and is the former Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital, and has lectured in medical schools and hospitals throughout the US. In 1988 he delivered the annual Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, India. He’s the only physician ever invited to do so. He has also served as the co-chairman of the Panel on Mind/Body Interventions, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.

The Re-Emergence of Mind-Body-Spirit Medicine

:In 1993, only three of the United States' 125 medical schools offered any sort of course work exploring the area of spirituality and medicine.
Today over 90 of these medical schools have formal courses where they explore randomized controlled studies and the effects of spiritual practices on longevity and health outcomes – a sure sign that what was once considered taboo is beginning to receive the discussion and serious investigation it deserves.

"I think we're opening up," Dossey says. "I'm sure you remember, about 40 years ago when meditation burst upon the scene in medicine, it was put down. It was called California Woo woo. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with it. But now nobody raises an eye about meditation and yoga, even in medicine.
We're in the same place with spirituality that we were with meditation about 20 years ago. People know you can't ignore it. The correlation between spiritual practice and health outcomes is just too strong.
For example, the data shows that people who follow some sort of spiritual path in their life… live on average seven to 13 years longer than people who do not follow a spiritual practice."

The Power of Premonitions: How Knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives

"Yes, the more we learn about energy and physics, the more impossible it becomes to avoid addressing the impact of consciousness and spirituality on your physical health.
Most ancient cultures knew this, and there are few lines dividing spirituality; the mind, and medicine in these cultures. Ironically, modern science now allows us to rediscover these ancient truths, which fell by the wayside with the advent of medical science and its narrow focus on individual parts as opposed to investigating the connections within the whole.
There are now a couple of dozen major human studies showing the correlations between healing intentions and improved health outcomes.

"The data is so strong," Dossey says. "It's strong not only in human beings but in non-humans [as well]. You can show the same effects in biological systems such as rats and mice; even in microbial cultures in test tubes.
So we have a huge spectrum of data that shows, I think compellingly, that your thoughts really matter when it comes to someone/something else getting well."

"Dr. Dossey is clearly not alone in this field. Other modern-day researchers who are having a dramatic impact and slowly but surely are helping to turn conventional dogma on its ear include Dr. Bruce Lipton, one of the foremost experts in the field of epigenetics, and Gregg Braden, a true pioneer who bridges science and spirituality with clear-spoken ease, just to name a couple.

"In 1988, Dr. Dossey wrote a book called Recovering the Soul: A Scientific and Spiritual Approach, in which he introduced the term "non-local mind." Dossey explains:

"The old idea that your consciousness is produced by the brain; that it's confined to your cranium and to the present moment and can't operate outside your own brain and body in the present, is an idea that just doesn't fit with the data anymore.

Studies, for example in remote healing -- where someone can affect the clinical outcome of someone else who is on the other side of the earth… are forcing us to create a new image of consciousness.

… Non-locality is the term borrowed from modern quantum physics. It's a synonym for the term "infinite."

If something is non-local with respect to space and time, it's infinite in space and infinite in time. Well, this is the way consciousness behaves in these experiments.

For example, it doesn't matter how far away from the object of your healing intentions that you happen to be. Healing intentions work as effectively at the bedside and the other side of the earth. Spatial separation doesn't matter.

We have evidence now that consciousness can work outside the present. It can anticipate things to come and it also appears to be able to work into the past."

Recovering the Soul: A Scientific and Spiritual Approach

"One of these quantum physics concepts is Bell's theorem, which shows that two 'entangled' electrons will continue to operate as one, simultaneously, even when separated by vast distances.

"Einstein is often quoted here, famously referring to this phenomenon as simply "spooky action at a distance."

"Erwin Schrödinger introduced the term 'entanglement' in the 1930s, and as Dossey states, we do seem to have ample evidence that "things cannot be separated, even though they appear to be separated in space."

"We have to go with the data," Dossey says. "The explanation usually comes later, as it often does in medicine and science in general. But we have profound evidence that there is some strange unity connecting people, even at a distance, and that unity seems to be mediated by concepts such love and compassion."

"Dr. Dossey goes on to tell a fascinating story about one woman's incredible encounter with premonition related to the health of her son that truly defies explanation. I highly recommend you listen to the entire interview so as not to miss this and several other anecdotal stories.
Premonition certainly appears to be a natural part of human consciousness, and these stories serve as vivid examples of how this 'non-local connectedness' operates within the lives of individual people."

I think that the anecdotal stories, from ancient times up to the teachings of the ascended masters as explained by Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet (www.TSL.org), are true. It's just that it's taken science years to try to convince the sceptics.

Thanks to mercola.com

Posted via email from PrePosterous...or Not

New Microneedle Flu Vaccine "Bandaid"

2010-08-07T08:19:00.001-10:00

As a dear friend of mine would say, "What a plot!"

New Technology Makes it Easier for System to Force Vaccines on You

A microneedle flu vaccine "patch" is in the works …
Image Source: Georgia Tech

Developing nations are not the only ones being subjected to increasing numbers of vaccines.
In the United States, researchers are trying to develop a vaccine patch with microneedles that you self-administer as though you're putting on a Band-Aid. Worse still, the vaccine "patches" could one day be sent to you in the mail!
Since there are no sharp needles involved and you can stick the patch on right in your own home, researchers are hoping vaccine patches will catch on … and ultimately more people will get vaccinated.
Not surprisingly, the vaccine that's slated for patch form first is the dangerous and completely unnecessary flu vaccine.

excerpted from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/08/07/global-alliance...

Posted via email from PrePosterous...or Not

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