I didn't know where to put this, just thought it was cool. Maybe I should add a recipe section? But for now I will put it under health and culture.[It does contain cultured milk ;-)]
Not too many people make real old fashioned whipped cream anymore because it can be so tricky to prepare and almost impossible to store. But for those of us who do prefer the real deal, these instructions will make the task so much easier.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
"The Prize" epic quest for oil, money and power
I put this in the economics and political sections, because energy is really what drives power and money. Those who control it control everything.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Speech Recognition Technology Inventors Lost Everything
"James and Janet Baker were the inventors of 'Dragon Systems' speech recognition software, and after years of work, they created a multimillion dollar company. At the height of the tech boom, with investment offers rolling in, they turned to Goldman Sachs for financial advice."
For a five million dollar fee, Goldman hooked them up with Lernout Hauspie, the Belgium speech recognition company. After consultations with Goldman Sachs, the Bakers traded their company for $580 million in Lernout & Hauspie stock.
But it turned out Lernout Hauspie was involved in cooking their books and went bankrupt.
Dragon was sold in a bankruptcy auction to Scansoft, and the Bakers lost everything. Goldman and Sachs itself had decided against investing in Lernout Hauspie two years previous to this because they were lying about their Asian sales.
The Bakers are suing for one billion dollars." - Full Article Source
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Presuppositional Apologetics-- Existence of God
I have just added a section on God's existence since I seem to have posted on this more than I thought I would.
This a protestant approach to the existence of God. It is called Presuppositional Apologetics. Pretty interesting. It takes some thinking. I don't agree that evidential proofs of God are useless but usually more helpful to believers.
video 1
This a protestant approach to the existence of God. It is called Presuppositional Apologetics. Pretty interesting. It takes some thinking. I don't agree that evidential proofs of God are useless but usually more helpful to believers.
video 1
All About SWEET
In other words will power is not a great weapon in the battle against sugar because the drive for sugar is built-in, it is hardwired into our brains from millions of years of evolution; and in the battle between hard wiring and will power, hard-wiring usually wins.
What we want to be able to do is understand the “habituation” mechanism. “Taste anesthesia” must be confronted. Our taste buds become numb to sweetness and gradually it takes more and more sweet for us to be satisfied. And, there is some literature that suggests that even the sweet taste can raise blood sugar and insulin levels, even without sugar!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Dismantling the New Atheism
These videos don't answer the new atheism. I think they want you to get the book for that. But I thought it was interesting to get the psychological aspects of the new atheism.
Friday, July 13, 2012
NASA: Insulating Paint Powder Turns Every Color 'Green'--keeps your home warmer or cooler.
like origunal
Thermographic image shows areas of high heat loss (red and yellow) from a home. The blue roof indicates good insulation and little heat loss. Image Credit: The Insuladd Company Remember that grade-school riddle, "What's black, white, and red all over?" Depending on who gave you the punch line, the answer was "a sunburned zebra" or "a newspaper."
Here's an updated version: What's every color in the world, but still always green?
The answer is paint that includes an insulating powder that originated at NASA. Widely used on commercial and residential structures, it transforms any color of paint into an environmentally friendly insulation barrier that saves energy and cost.
Thermographic image shows areas of high heat loss (red and yellow) from a home. The blue roof indicates good insulation and little heat loss. Image Credit: The Insuladd Company Remember that grade-school riddle, "What's black, white, and red all over?" Depending on who gave you the punch line, the answer was "a sunburned zebra" or "a newspaper." Here's an updated version: What's every color in the world, but still always green?
The answer is paint that includes an insulating powder that originated at NASA. Widely used on commercial and residential structures, it transforms any color of paint into an environmentally friendly insulation barrier that saves energy and cost.
Easy, easy homemade "Sour Cream"
Once you taste the magic of homemade sour cream, you'll have a hard time not repeating. Sure it takes a couple days, but the effort is minimal for such a marvelous payoff.
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream (aka whipping cream)--pasteurized, but not "Ultra-pasteurized" (update-7-17-12: I made it with Ultra-pasteurized. Because it is almost impossible to find just "pasteurized" also you might want to experiment with different butter-milks. Some have live cultures but it isn't labeled. I guess they don't want us making our own, since it is so easy., so they don't label it)
3 tablespoons cultured buttermilk--live culture
Mix together and leave in a warm spot (about 70-75 degrees F., which is normal room temperature) for 24 hours, or until thick. Refrigerate for; 24 hours before using. Should last a week or two. Best if jar and utensils are sterilized just before. Use coffee filter and rubber band to cover to keep away bugs etc...
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream (aka whipping cream)--pasteurized, but not "Ultra-pasteurized" (update-7-17-12: I made it with Ultra-pasteurized. Because it is almost impossible to find just "pasteurized" also you might want to experiment with different butter-milks. Some have live cultures but it isn't labeled. I guess they don't want us making our own, since it is so easy., so they don't label it)
3 tablespoons cultured buttermilk--live culture
Mix together and leave in a warm spot (about 70-75 degrees F., which is normal room temperature) for 24 hours, or until thick. Refrigerate for; 24 hours before using. Should last a week or two. Best if jar and utensils are sterilized just before. Use coffee filter and rubber band to cover to keep away bugs etc...
Monday, July 9, 2012
Tips for Making Liver Eatable
[Update: Sept. 19. 2013-- Another way to get some liver in you is to eat liverwurst or liver pate. I made some pate a few days ago. It was great and I hate the taste of liver. Experiment I used sausage, garlic, onion and cumin. Experiment]
[Update July 10, 2012: There has been some concern if liver is dangerous
Despite the fact that traditional practices and scientific evidence support the many health benefits accrued by eating liver, many modern people express ambivalence about eating liver or express an outright refuse to eat it because they’ve been told that the liver stores toxins. This view has become popular among many conventional nutritionists and natural foods advocates.
The “liver is toxic” belief stems from a misunderstanding of what the liver actually does. The liver does not store toxins, rather it neutralizes toxins (e.g., drugs, chemical agents, and poisons). Toxic compounds that the body cannot neutralize and eliminate are more likely to lodge in the fatty tissues and the nervous system, not the liver.
What about the risk of vitamin A toxicity?
Studies linking vitamin A consumption to toxicity relied on doses of synthetic vitamin A, which was found to cause problems and even contribute to birth defects. But natural vitamin A found in liver is an extremely important nutrient for human health and does not cause problems except in extremely large amounts,
Other than unusual cases, such as Arctic explorers eating polar bear or seal liver and taking several million units of vitamin A at one time, the risk of vitamin A toxicity in people eating one or two reasonable servings of liver per week are highly unlikely.
Taking megavitamin supplements containing vitamin A over a long period of time has been known to induced acute toxicity (e.g., 100,000 IU synthetic vitamin A per day taken for many months); however these go away upon cessation of taking such unusually high does of A in supplemental form.
How much liver is safe to eat?
A good recommendation for liver is one 100-gram serving of beef, lamb, bison or duck liver (about 4 ounces) once or twice a week, providing about 50,000 IU vitamin A per serving. Chicken liver, which is lower in vitamin A, may be consumed more frequently. If you experience headaches or joint pains at this level, cut back until the symptoms go away,]
A previous post on Catholic Data said what a superfood liver is but most people don't like the taste, nor do they know how to cook it. I don't like Liver so I felt bad telling people how healthy it is and didn't follow up with some tips to get it down.. Liver once a week or every couple of weeks should be enough for health.. Here are some suggestions that may help with a suggested recipe at the end. A simple; recipe that your family actually might liked.
1.Soak It In Acidic Water
I read this in several places, one of the toughest (pun intended) things to get past about liver is the texture, which is more dense than other meat. The acidity seems to break down the liver and make it more palatable. (Another suggestion I read was to soak it in milk for a several hours in the fridge. I am not sure how this helps.. One idea I had, although I haven't tried it yet, was to soak it in Blue Cheese salad dressing with a little milk. This could be the best of all worlds, acid, milk, and a strong 'masking flavor".)
To Do: Simply place your cut up liver in a bowl, barely cover with water and add the juice of a lemon or a tablespoon or two of vinegar. Soak for a few hours before cooking, drain and pat dry.
[Update July 10, 2012: There has been some concern if liver is dangerous
Despite the fact that traditional practices and scientific evidence support the many health benefits accrued by eating liver, many modern people express ambivalence about eating liver or express an outright refuse to eat it because they’ve been told that the liver stores toxins. This view has become popular among many conventional nutritionists and natural foods advocates.
The “liver is toxic” belief stems from a misunderstanding of what the liver actually does. The liver does not store toxins, rather it neutralizes toxins (e.g., drugs, chemical agents, and poisons). Toxic compounds that the body cannot neutralize and eliminate are more likely to lodge in the fatty tissues and the nervous system, not the liver.
What about the risk of vitamin A toxicity?
Studies linking vitamin A consumption to toxicity relied on doses of synthetic vitamin A, which was found to cause problems and even contribute to birth defects. But natural vitamin A found in liver is an extremely important nutrient for human health and does not cause problems except in extremely large amounts,
Other than unusual cases, such as Arctic explorers eating polar bear or seal liver and taking several million units of vitamin A at one time, the risk of vitamin A toxicity in people eating one or two reasonable servings of liver per week are highly unlikely.
Taking megavitamin supplements containing vitamin A over a long period of time has been known to induced acute toxicity (e.g., 100,000 IU synthetic vitamin A per day taken for many months); however these go away upon cessation of taking such unusually high does of A in supplemental form.
How much liver is safe to eat?
A good recommendation for liver is one 100-gram serving of beef, lamb, bison or duck liver (about 4 ounces) once or twice a week, providing about 50,000 IU vitamin A per serving. Chicken liver, which is lower in vitamin A, may be consumed more frequently. If you experience headaches or joint pains at this level, cut back until the symptoms go away,]
A previous post on Catholic Data said what a superfood liver is but most people don't like the taste, nor do they know how to cook it. I don't like Liver so I felt bad telling people how healthy it is and didn't follow up with some tips to get it down.. Liver once a week or every couple of weeks should be enough for health.. Here are some suggestions that may help with a suggested recipe at the end. A simple; recipe that your family actually might liked. 1.Soak It In Acidic Water
I read this in several places, one of the toughest (pun intended) things to get past about liver is the texture, which is more dense than other meat. The acidity seems to break down the liver and make it more palatable. (Another suggestion I read was to soak it in milk for a several hours in the fridge. I am not sure how this helps.. One idea I had, although I haven't tried it yet, was to soak it in Blue Cheese salad dressing with a little milk. This could be the best of all worlds, acid, milk, and a strong 'masking flavor".)
To Do: Simply place your cut up liver in a bowl, barely cover with water and add the juice of a lemon or a tablespoon or two of vinegar. Soak for a few hours before cooking, drain and pat dry.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Courtship or Dating--Tradition? Practical Opinion
also see this article on the same subject here
[editor: I found this while surfing and forgot where its from. I found it very practical but I would like to add my two cents. While "Virtue, Industriousness, Beauty, Piety" are good they are a little too flowery for an otherwise very practical straight speaking article. I would simplify it, although, not rejecting the above criteria, by saying, 3 things help in making a choice:
1.) How he/she handles money--are they responsible and does the man have a job to support a family?, If not, and you are a woman of childbearing age--- skip him!
2.)World View--- same religion, political opinions, similar interests outside of religion and politics
3.) Psychological---is he/she sane? Are they suffering from depression...alcohol...drugs etc... I'd say no don't even think of dating them in 98% of the cases.]
This is a post that is a response to an inquiry by a long time reader of this blog. The basic question was this: what is my opinion on courtship, on dating, on how a young Catholic man should go about wooing a woman and about acceptable courting practices. This is going to be a very in depth answer, and it is going to be hard to disentangle it from my own subjective experiences in this matter, but as a man married for almost eight years who has not “dated” for almost ten, I think I can reflect on it with some type of objectivity. But I must stress two things before I launch into this topic:
(1) All of the following is my opinion only. I do not profess it to be the Church’s ideas or even anybody’s ideas but my own. They are just my opinions, formed by a historical study.
(2) I have to warn everybody, my opinions on this issue may diverge from several commonly accepted notions, even notions accepted within the Traditionalist and Homeschooling communities. My opinions on courting/dating and marriage are simply part of a larger worldview, which I am not at this time able to clearly articulate for various reasons. However, because I am going to in this post threaten some sacred cows, I anticipate getting some disagreement. So be it.
So first, let’s come to terminology. Wooing a female. Well, it does not matter one bit to me what you call this process. Some homeschool parents get all bent out of shape about the terminology. My child will not “date”; they will “court.” Okay, well what really matters is the substance of what is going on at these liaisons, not what you call them. You can call it courting, dating, keeping company, going steady, (or, my mother’s annoying phrase from the 1960’s, “going with”), or whatever you want. Don’t get all upset about the name. I know of some families who don’t let their kids “date,” but allow their daughters to be in situations with other boys that would be tantamount to dating, but they for some reason allow it because it’s not called dating and because “we know their family,” as if that makes concupiscence and passion any less intense!
[editor: I found this while surfing and forgot where its from. I found it very practical but I would like to add my two cents. While "Virtue, Industriousness, Beauty, Piety" are good they are a little too flowery for an otherwise very practical straight speaking article. I would simplify it, although, not rejecting the above criteria, by saying, 3 things help in making a choice:
1.) How he/she handles money--are they responsible and does the man have a job to support a family?, If not, and you are a woman of childbearing age--- skip him!
2.)World View--- same religion, political opinions, similar interests outside of religion and politics
3.) Psychological---is he/she sane? Are they suffering from depression...alcohol...drugs etc... I'd say no don't even think of dating them in 98% of the cases.]
This is a post that is a response to an inquiry by a long time reader of this blog. The basic question was this: what is my opinion on courtship, on dating, on how a young Catholic man should go about wooing a woman and about acceptable courting practices. This is going to be a very in depth answer, and it is going to be hard to disentangle it from my own subjective experiences in this matter, but as a man married for almost eight years who has not “dated” for almost ten, I think I can reflect on it with some type of objectivity. But I must stress two things before I launch into this topic:
(1) All of the following is my opinion only. I do not profess it to be the Church’s ideas or even anybody’s ideas but my own. They are just my opinions, formed by a historical study.
(2) I have to warn everybody, my opinions on this issue may diverge from several commonly accepted notions, even notions accepted within the Traditionalist and Homeschooling communities. My opinions on courting/dating and marriage are simply part of a larger worldview, which I am not at this time able to clearly articulate for various reasons. However, because I am going to in this post threaten some sacred cows, I anticipate getting some disagreement. So be it.
So first, let’s come to terminology. Wooing a female. Well, it does not matter one bit to me what you call this process. Some homeschool parents get all bent out of shape about the terminology. My child will not “date”; they will “court.” Okay, well what really matters is the substance of what is going on at these liaisons, not what you call them. You can call it courting, dating, keeping company, going steady, (or, my mother’s annoying phrase from the 1960’s, “going with”), or whatever you want. Don’t get all upset about the name. I know of some families who don’t let their kids “date,” but allow their daughters to be in situations with other boys that would be tantamount to dating, but they for some reason allow it because it’s not called dating and because “we know their family,” as if that makes concupiscence and passion any less intense!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Are there Health Benefits from Liver?
source:http://health.yukozimo.com/benefits-of-liver/
When you are looking to make a meal that is delicious and exquisite, you usually overlook some foods that are healthy for you. There is one food in particular that one would commonly overlook in this case. That food is one that is known to be liver. Yes, liver, it is not a food you would normally consider “tasty”. However, some of you might do so, and even if you don’t, it should be known that liver can be very beneficial to your health. You are able to prepare liver in various different ways to have it go with your dish and support your health with the rich vitamins and minerals that is in liver.
Graphene: Can Improve Desalination Efficiency by Several Orders of Magnitude... It Can Do Pretty Much Anything
When water molecules (red and white) and sodium and chlorine ions (green and purple) in saltwater, on the right, encounter a sheet of graphene (pale blue, center) perforated by holes of the right size, the water passes through (left side), but the sodium and chlorine of the salt are blocked. Graphic: David Cohen-Tanugi
Graphene--The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"
It can be stronger than steel and thinner than paper. It can generate electricity when struck by light. It can be used in thin, flexible supercapacitors that are up to 20 times more powerful than the ones we use right now and can be made in a DVD burner. It’s already got an impressive track record, but does it have any more tricks up its sleeve? Apparently, yes. According to researchers at MIT, graphene could also increase the efficicency of desalination by two or three orders of magnitude. Seriously, what can’t this stuff do?
Urban Gardens
This idea shows the impotence of promoting access to education and technology in third world countries. This Swahili born inventor, now living in the USA, exhibits the creativity that can be achieved by letting local intelligentsia to develop. People are our greatest resource.
While this isn't technically a "low tech" innovation some of the basic principles are. The use of fish as a "hyper-composter" has potential.
Eric Maundu is farming in Oakland. There are no open fields in this concrete jungle, and even if there were the soil in his part of town is contaminated and not a suitable place in which to grow food.
But he’s not using farming methods of old. In fact farmers of a century ago wouldn’t recognize anything he’s doing. His technique uses fish, circulated water, and gravel to grow vegetables in whatever space he can find; a farming method called aquaponics.
The video after the break gives an excellent look at his farm. The two main parts of the system are a large water trough where fish live, and a raised bed of gravel where the fish waste in the water is filtered out and composted by bacteria to becomes food for the vegetables.
More parts can be added into the mix. For instance, once the water has been filtered by the stone bed it can be gravity fed into another vessel which is being used to grow lettuce suspended by floating foam board. But the water always ends up back in the fish trough where it can be reused. This ends up saving anywhere from 90-98% of the water used in normal farming.
But Eric is also interested in adding some automation. About seven minutes into the video we get a look at the control systems he’s working on with the help of Arduino and other hardware
Aquaponics
About Aquaponic Systems
- recirculating water system
- uses bacteria to compost fish waste into plant nutrients
- grows plants on gravel and water: NO SOIL!
- produces BOTH FISH and plants
Advantages Of Aquaponics
- uses ONLY 2-10% of the water used in regular farming
- 10 times as much PRODUCE as CONVENTIONAL FARMING
- food GROWN anywhere
- a secure source of fresh healthy vegetables and fish
- NO WEEDS or soil based bugs
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