lickypickysticky:

Mari took some amazing pictures. Almost metaphorical.
This one is haunting. How in the hell did that wall stay up, while there’s nothing really holding it in place.

As many of you may know, she adores photography although it is not easy for her to take that wheelchair on a photographing journey outdoors. I would therefore appreciate it if her credits were not removed if you like this picture enough to reblog it. You know, just so she can at least get credit for those she manages to take.

jstn:

1968 Marcos Mantis XP

Like most Americans, I have adopted the concept that the first step to healthy cooking is to use extra virgin olive oil.  We hear about this from just about every chef on The Food Network, and Rachel Ray starts almost every dish by drizzling her “E-V-O-O” in the pan.  But did you know that heating olive oil is actually toxic?

used to be the host and Executive Producer of a food and wine show on NBC here in Chicago called “Taste”.  We were on the air for 12 seasons, which meant visiting a lot of kitchens for chef demonstrations.  From Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill to Grant Achatz at Alinea, we got tips from the best in the business.  
But there was one food expert named George Mateljan who forever changed the way I cook with olive oil.  George has written 5 books on healthy eating, including The World’s Healthiest Foods,and he told me that cooking with olive oil isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
“You never want to let olive oil get hotter than 200-250 degrees,” he warned as he poured it into a pan for our taped cooking segment.
When you first put room temperature olive oil into a pan, it’s green and vibrant- filled with vitamins and anti-oxidants.  But as the temperature rises, all those nutrients are literally burned out of the oil, along with the color, and toxic fumes start to rise from the pan.
“People are inhaling this smoke every day when they think it’s being healthy, but in reality, the smoke from heated olive oil is full of toxins,” George tells me.
So what’s a home chef to do??!!  
“Use an oil that can take the heat,” he explains.  
“Like canola oil?”  I ask.
“Use safflower oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil.  You can find all of those in the supermarkets today,” he suggests.

George spent 10 years doing research before launching his World’s Healthiest Foods book, so I trust he knows what he’s talking about.  The book is so large, it reminds me of that Riverside Shakespeare anthology I had to lug around in college.  An easier way to reap the rewards of George’s hard work is to go to his website.  Like the book, it is jammed with text, but this is an incredible resource for healthy recipes and scientific findings on nutrient rich foods that are easy to cook.
So does this mean no more olive oil?  Not a chance.  Research says that by ingesting more olives, you can even help prevent certain kinds of cancers- such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and skin cancer.  You just need to know how to correctly use your olive oil in order to reap the benefits.
“I drizzle olive oil on just about everything,” says George.  ”After I’ve cooked my meal, I put it on fish, vegetables, whatever you make- it’s like adding a handful of nutrients and vitamins to every dish.”
So after meeting George, I went out and purchased some of that safflower oil and coconut oil.  I must say, I have noticed much less smoke in the kitchen when making dinner, which is especially good since I have a three year old running around.  Now I drizzle my E-V-O-O on salads and cooked fish, and I find you can actually taste the olives when you don’t heat up the oil.
So spread the word, and save the olive oil for the END of the cooking process.  As Martha Stewart would say,  ”It’s a good thing!”  

lickypickysticky:

Old fashioned “dashboard”. The way the Boston Globe would break the latest news to the public.

Long before the Web, The Boston Globe had a “homepage” of sorts – its old storefront downtown. Taking advantage of its location in a heavily trafficked block of Newspaper Row, the young daily brought the news to Bostonians in a whole new way: handwritten signs.

If you’re reading this, Harold Camping’s predictions that the end of the world would start Saturday (May 21) failed to pan out.

That’s good news for most of us, but Camping and his followers were looking forward to the end. After all, they believed that they were likely to be among the 200 million souls sent to live in paradise forever. So how do believers cope when their doomsday predictions fail?

It depends, said Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal who studies the history of doomsday predictions.

“If you have a strong leader, the group survives,” DiTommaso told LiveScience. “Sometimes the group falls apart. Most often, the answer given by the group is that the prophecy is true, but the interpretation was wrong.” [Read: Why People Look Forward to the End]

In 1994, Camping predicted a September doomsday, but hedged his bets with a question mark. On his website (familyradio.com), Camping wrote that he had misunderstood a key biblical passage, but since that time, biblical evidence for a 2011 end had “greatly solidified.”

Doomsdays without doom

The classic study of “doomsdays gone bad” took place in 1954. A Chicago woman named Dorothy Martin predicted a cataclysmic flood from which a few true believers would be saved by aliens. Martin and her cult, The Seekers, gathered the night before the expected flood to await the flying saucer. Unbeknown to them, however, their group had been infiltrated by psychologist Leon Festinger, who hoped to find out what happens when the rug of people’s beliefs is pulled out from under them.

Festinger’s study, which became the basis of the book “When Prophecy Fails” (Harper-Torchbooks 1956), revealed that as the appointed time passed with no alien visitors, the group sat stunned. But a few hours before dawn, Martin suddenly received a new prophecy, stating that The Seekers had been so devout that God had called off the apocalypse. At that, the group rejoiced — and started calling newspapers to boast of what they’d done. Eventually, the group fell apart. Martin later changed her name to “Sister Thedra” and continued her prophecies.  

Other failed doomsday prophets have struggled to keep their followers in line. One self-proclaimed prophet, Mariana Andrada (later known as Mariana La Loca), preached to a gang of followers in the 1880s in the San Joaquin Valley of California, predicting doomsday by 1886. But Andrada was not consistent with her predictions, and believers began to defect. Trying to keep one family from leaving, Andrada told them one of them would die on the journey. Sure enough, the family’s young son soon fell violently ill and passed away. The family accused Andrada of poisoning him. She was arrested and found not guilty, but never returned to preach to her followers.

Searching for explanations

How Camping’s followers will cope with a failed doomsday prediction depends on the structure of the group, said Steve Hassan, a counseling psychologist and cult expert who runs the online Freedom of Mind Resource Center. [After Doomsday: How Humans Get Off Earth]

“The more people have connections outside of the group, the more likely it is that they’re going to stop looking to [Camping] as the mouth of God on Earth,” Hassan told LiveScience. “Information control is one of the most important features of mind control.”

In his experience, Hassan said, about a third of believers become disillusioned after a failed prediction, while another third find reason to believe more strongly. The remaining group members fall somewhere in between, he said.

Doomsday groups in history have run a gamut of responses after failed predictions, said Stephen Kent, a sociologist at the University of Alberta who studies new and alternative religions. On occasion, a leader will admit he or she was wrong; other groups will come up with a face-saving explanation. Some groups may blame themselves, rationalizing that their lack of faith caused the failure, Kent told LiveScience. Other groups blame outside forces and redouble their efforts.

“One of the options is for the group to say, ‘Society wasn’t ready, Jesus felt there weren’t enough people worthy of rapturing. Hence, we’ve got to go out and convert more people,’” Kent said.

After the apocalypse

Often, a failed prediction leads to splinter groups and re-entrenchment. After Baptist preacher William Miller predicted the end of the world on Oct. 22, 1844 — a date thereafter known as “The Great Disappointment” when nothing happened — his followers struggled to explain their mistake. One subset decided that on that date, Jesus had shifted his location in heaven in preparation to return to Earth. This group later became the Seventh-Day Adventist church. [Infographic: Doomsdays Past and Present]

Sociologists and doomsday experts agree that Camping is likely convinced of doomsday rather than perpetuating a hoax or running a scam. A con artist, Hassan said, would never set himself up for failure by giving a firm date.

A belief in doomsday gives followers a clear sense of the world and their place in it, Kent said. Those comforting beliefs are difficult to maintain after the world fails to end.

“This could be a fairly sad day for these people,” Kent said. “There will be some greatly disheartened people who may be terribly confused about what didn’t happen.”

We all know this guy — or are this guy: in his 30s, affable, attractive, and yet he’s never been in a serious long-term relationship. And as his single status stretches into a third decade, one has to wonder: What’s the deal? Far from being undateable, this guy may simply not be ready to change his independent ways. Or, he may be all too willing to do so — but something’s blocking him. If you feel you may fall into the latter category (or know someone who does), stop worrying about what’s slowing you down and read on to learn about how five types of die-hard bachelors contribute to their perpetually single status and what steps to take to break the cycle.

The workaholic
For the guy who makes work priority number one, a relationship can seem like a hindrance for which he hasn’t the time or energy. It’s likely that he’s set lofty career goals for himself — perhaps finishing medical school, rising to make partner in his law firm or starting his own business — with personal deadlines (say, by age 35). Take it from Doug, 31, of Washington, D.C.: “My main focus is getting to a point in my career where I am stable and accomplished enough to move on to a job that I really want to do,” he says. “I can’t sacrifice or compromise my career path for anyone yet.”

Reality check: Waiting for the “right time” isn’t the solution, according to Ian Kerner, Ph.D., author of DSI: Date Scene Investigation. “This guy needs to understand that life doesn’t start when he schedules it,” Dr. Kerner points out. And it needn’t be a lonely climb to the top: rather than derail his career, a supportive mate could provide stability, encouragement and an attentive ear. And for the guy who is working to become husband material, consider this: 91 percent of women in a Match.com survey reported that they tend to fall in love with a moderately successful career person with a balanced life rather than a very successful workaholic.

The partier
For this guy, weekends in Vegas and hitting up the newest parties and clubs has too much appeal to entertain the possibility of settling down. Says self-described “committed bachelor” Sean, 30, of Brooklyn: “I go out to have a good time — mingle, dance, have fun — and not to meet someone.”

Reality check: As the Seans of the world mature, they may notice that their party-hearty peers are becoming fewer in number or that the average age of his social circle — and of his dates — remains constant as he ages. Another warning sign? More numbers in his cell phone for “friends with benefits” than those belonging to actual friends. The bottom line is, for all the fun of casual encounters and late nights out, a partier would do well to understand that a committed relationship has its own joys, too — even excitement and novelty. “These guys are adrenaline junkies, and they fear that a commitment to one person will be no fun,” says Dr. Kerner. “But really getting to know one person in a relationship can be a source of passion and adrenaline, too.”

The shy guy
It’s a fact: Meeting women requires conversation — which can be problematic for a shy guy and can stunt his relationship prospects. “I go out with the express purpose of meeting people, but I hardly ever screw up enough courage to talk to strangers,” admits Alex, 31, of Raleigh, NC. “Even if I do, I wuss out and leave before I get anywhere.”

Reality check: Rather than forcing social behavior in a high-stress situation, like at a loud nightclub, shy guys may be better off searching for potential mates who share the same affinities. “The shy guy doesn’t have to walk up to someone cold,” says Dr. Kerner. “Instead, he should put himself in situations that present opportunities for easy conversation.” Dr. Kerner suggests theater clubs, team sports or anything else with expectations for regular participation, like volunteering. Or, if you do start dating someone, suggest making it a double date or an activity date, thereby reducing the pressure of a one-on-one outing.

The too-picky guy
For all his many, many first dates, this guy is resolutely single, never having met anyone who quite fits his mold for the ideal mate. He is convinced that there is someone out there and is alternately determined to find The One or frustrated by his inability to do so. Says Andrew, 30, of Scarsdale, NY: “It’s impossible for me to compromise. I can’t settle for someone who doesn’t attract me physically, emotionally, intellectually and so on.” Compounding this inability to compromise is the belief that perfection in another personal really exists — a notion that could lend itself to fantasies of discovering love at first sight. “A guy with impossibly high standards may fall for someone, but then he’ll see this person’s flaws and imperfections and become disappointed,” says Dr. Kerner. Unfortunately, this can lead to discounting potentially great matches, as the picky guy may be unwilling to give a date with, say, a tendency to use emoticons in emails or “too short” hair a chance.

Reality check: What these guys need to accept is that no one’s perfect — and include themselves in that statement. And, in Dr. Kerner’s opinion, “There is no such thing as a soul mate,” he says. “Rather, it’s the journey of building a great relationship over time that leads to a ‘soul mate’-type of closeness.” So the next time you’re iffy about a girl, give her more of a chance before you write her off.

The none-of-the-above guy
Of course, there are guys who might not fall into (just) one of these categories, who are comfortable with themselves, outgoing and trying to meet someone to share their lives with — but for whom it just hasn’t happened yet. Guys like “chronically single” Greg, 30, of Boston, explains: “I’m ready to give my heart to someone and to do some hard work to find her, but I have yet to find that person.”

Reality check: Keeping adages such as “Love happens when you least expect it” in mind may not totally assuage feelings of “What the heck is going on here?” Suffice to say that this still-single guy is not alone — and won’t be for long if he keeps an open mind, gets active in organizations that provide opportunities to meet others and gives luck (or some effort) a chance to work. “Regardless of his circumstances, the important thing for a single guy in his 30s to do is to put himself in situations where he’s meeting women — whether it’s making time to join in activity groups, dating online or signing up for singles’ events,” says Dr. Kerner. So, single guy, keep your chin up and continue taking those leaps of faith into the dating pool. Sooner or later, you’ll find someone who sees you for the catch you truly are.

Judgment Day is coming today, beginning at 6 p.m., according to Harold Camping, the president of the Christian broadcaster Family Radio. Could he be wrong? He wouldn’t be the first. Here are five failed Judgment Day predictions:

Oct. 22, 1844

Who: Samuel S. Snow, a preacher in the Millerite movement, led by the Baptist preacher William Miller

How he came by this date: A prophesy in the Book of Daniel states “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (Dan. 8:14). If you convert the days into years, and if you start in the year 457 B.C. — the year that Artaxerxes I of Persia decreed that that the city government of Jerusalem shall be re-established — then this takes you to 1844. Using the Karaite Jewish calendar, Snow pinned the date down to Oct. 22.

What actually happened: Thousands of people gave away all their posessions, only to be surprised when the world did not come to end, and the day came to be known as “The Great Disappointment.” The Millerites splintered into several religious groups, the largest and most mainstream being the Seventh-day Adventists, and the smallest and most unconventional probably being the Branch Davidians. Millerism has also influenced the Baha’i Faith.

1806

Who: The Prophet Hen of Leeds, a domesticated fowl in Leeds, England, who in 1806 began laying eggs that bore the message “Christ is coming.”

How she came by that date: As you will see in the next paragraph, the answer is “the hard way.”

What actually happened: Charles Mackay’s 1841 book, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” describes it thus:

“Great numbers visited the spot, and examined these wondrous eggs, convinced that the day of judgment was near at hand. Like sailors in a storm, expecting every instant to go to the bottom, the believers suddenly became religious, prayed violently, and flattered themselves that they repented them of their evil courses. But a plain tale soon put them down, and quenched their religion entirely. Some gentlemen, hearing of the matter, went one fine morning, and caught the poor hen in the act of laying one of her miraculous eggs. They soon ascertained beyond doubt that the egg had been inscribed with some corrosive ink, and cruelly forced up again into the bird’s body. At this explanation, those who had prayed, now laughed, and the world wagged as merrily as of yore.”

Dec. 21, 1954

Who: Dorothy Martin, a Chicago housewife and student of Dianetics, a set of practices developed by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.

How she came by this date: Through automatic writing, Martin came in contact with beings from the planet Clarion, who told her that the world would be destroyed by flood and that the faithful would be rescued at midnight by flying saucers.

What actually happened: Martin’s followers, many of whom quit their jobs and gave away their possessions, gathered in her home to await the aliens. (Martin’s husband, a nonbeliever, slept upstairs through the whole thing.) To avoid being burned by the flying saucer, her followers removed all metal from their persons, including zippers and bra straps. Midnight came and went, and the group became increasingly agitated. Finally, at 4:45 a.m., Martin said that she received another message from Clarions informing her that God was so impressed by her group’s actions that he changed His mind and decided to spare the earth.

The group was infiltrated by a psychologist named Leon Festinger, who used his observations to develop the theory of cognitive dissonance.

2000

Who: Hal Lindsey, who continually has been predicting the end of the world since his 1970 book “The Late, Great Planet Earth,” and who, in his 1996 book “Planet Earth 2000 A.D.: Will Mankind Survive?” wrote that Christians should not make any plans after the year 2000.

How he came by this date: Probably the same method he used to calculate the date of the end of the world in his book “The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon,” which is now out of print.

What actually happened: Despite his less-than-stellar track record, Lindsey is still at it. In 2008, he wrote a column for the conservative news site WorldNetDaily suggesting that Barack Obama is the Antichrist.

October or November 1982

Who: Pat Robertson, who in a 1980 broadcast of “The 700 Club” said, “I guarantee you, by the end of 1982, there is going to be a judgment on the world.”

How he came by that date: Robertson has said that God told him about pending disasters on numerous occasions (including a West Coast tsunami in 2006, and a terrorist attack in 2007 — neither occurred). “I have a relatively good track record,” he has said. “Sometimes I miss.”

What actually happened: The world didn’t end in 1982, but “WKRP in Cincinnati,” did.

Pointing and clicking with a mouse is easy, but computer pros take the fast lane: Keyboard shortcuts. In this week’s Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News’ Becky Worley shows us some easy-to-learn shortcuts that can save you a lot of time!

Show your desktop

If you use a Windows 7 PC, you probably already know you can mouse into the lower-right corner of the screen and click, to minimize all the windows you have open. But you can also do that just by holding down the Windows key, and then pressing D! This also works in Ubuntu.

For Mac users, minimizing and managing windows is actually easier to do through mouse shortcuts called Hot Corners:

Hot corners

On a Mac, you can assign “hot corners,” that trigger when you move the mouse to the corners of your screen. Just open System Preferences, then click on “Desktop and Screen Saver” (or “Dashboard and Expose” if you’re using Mac OS X Tiger). Under the “Screen Saver” pane, click on “Hot Corners,” then you can assign an action to each corner of the screen. Becky has her Mac set up so when she mouses into the upper-left corner it shows all her open windows, while the lower-right corner minimizes all windows.

Windows PC users can try the aptly-named program Hot Corners, if they want to do this themselves. Ubuntu users will have to install the Compiz Config Settings Manager from the Software Centre, and may need to play around with the options a bit.

Instant search

On a Windows or Ubuntu PC, press the Windows key all by itself and start typing. Your computer will automatically search for apps or files that match what you type. Mac users can press Command+Space, to activate Spotlight search.

Open “My Computer”

On a Windows PC, hold down the Windows key and press E (that’s “Win+E”) to open My Computer in the Windows Explorer. This is a great way to jump straight to managing your files!

Web browser shortcuts

In most major web browsers, you can press Control+D to bookmark a site, or add it to your Internet Explorer favorites. Meanwhile, Control+F lets you find anything on a page. (Mac users should use Command+D and Command+F instead.)

Another neat trick that works in most browsers is to just type the name of a site, then hit Control+Enter. It will automatically fill in the “www.” and the “.com” for you. Most modern browsers have an address bar that works like Spotlight instant search, though, so you can also use the up and down arrow keys after typing something, in order to select the website you want.

Take screenshots

On a Windows or Ubuntu PC, just press the “Print Screen” button — it may be labeled “prt sc,” or something like that. It’s an actual key on Windows keyboards that copies an image of the open screen to your clipboard, and lets you paste it into Paintbrush or Photoshop. (Ubuntu just asks you where to save it.)

Mac users can press Command+Shift+4, and a screenshot will automatically be saved to your desktop.

Facebook shortcuts

Facebook has a whole ton of keyboard shortcuts. If you’re using Google Chrome, you can press Alt+1 for your news feed, Alt+2 for your profile page, Alt+3 for your friend requests, Alt+4 to see all your messages and Alt+5 to read your notifications. Alt+? does a search, and Alt+M lets you write a new message.

If you’re using Firefox, try Shift+Alt, then the number. Internet Explorer users will need to hit Enter after each shortcut, while Mac users will need to hold down Control+Option instead of Alt. (Mac users of Firefox need to press Fn+Control.)

And many more

Microsoft has a huge list of keyboard shortcuts that work with all their versions of Windows, Office, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. Not to be outdone, Apple has a list of keyboard shortcuts that work with Mac OS X, while a dedicated Ubuntu user created an Ubuntu shortcuts wallpaper.

Google lists shortcuts that work with Chrome, Mozilla has shortcuts that work with Firefox, and Apple lists shortcuts that work with the Mac version of Safari. Don’t see your favorite app on the list? Many apps list their keyboard shortcuts next to the button you click on to do the same thing with the mouse, especially Mac apps in their menus. But if all else fails, just type the name of the app into your favorite search engine, followed by “keyboard shortcuts”.

Original article by Jared Spurbeck, published on May 16, 2011.