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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Chocolate Martini | Food and Tools

Chocolate Martini

Make hosting a special dinner party for a couple of friends more special by serving pre dinner Chocolate Martini?s! Having a slight sip pre-dinner whets the appetite and gets the taste buds going and personally I think pre dinner martini drinks are best served in small 3oz-4oz martini glasses! A line quoted from Shakespeare?s Henry IV play sums that up?

Falstaff said? ?Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner.?

Cr?me de Cacao is a cacao (chocolate bean) flavoured?liqueur with hints of vanilla and comes in clear or dark varieties, both taste the same! This is not the same as a chocolate liqueur which is much sweeter and more syrupy! Rimming the glass with a touch of honey and chopped chocolate adds a touch of sweetness and a richer chocolate taste which counters the bitter taste of alcohol! You could also try using the clear cr?me de cacao and rim the glass with chopped white chocolate!

Ingredients:

honey, for rimming the glasses
finely chopped dark chocolate, for rimming the glasses
1oz vodka
3oz dark cr?me de cacao
a few ice cubes

How to make: Take two small plates and spread a light layer of honey on one and sprinkle the chopped chocolate over the other plate. Lightly stamp the rim of each martini glass into the honey and then into the chocolate, making sure the rim of the glass is coated with chocolate.?Pour the vodka and cr?me de cacao into a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes and shake vigorously for a few seconds. Strain the drink into prepared glasses and serve immediately.?Serves ?2.

Source: http://foodandtools.com/2013/02/09/chocolate-martini/

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Saturday, February 9, 2013

Reprogramming skin cells offers new hope to multiple sclerosis ...

A new study may lead to treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS), which is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that can progress to severe disability and death. Researchers affiliated with the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y. have converted human skin cells into brain cells and used them to treat mice with myelin disorders, which are a family of diseases that includes MS. They reported their findings on February 7 in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Multiple sclerosis is the most common myelin disorder. It is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheath, which surrounds nerve fibers. Loss of myelin results in the disruption of communication between cells and can cause problems related to muscle movement, balance, and vision. The new study represents an advancement in a procedure known as cell reprogramming. The technique returns mature cells a pluripotent state; these are embryonic-like cells, which have the potential to develop into many types of mature cells.

Myelin is made in cells known as oligodendrocytes. These cells are derived from oligodendrocyte progenitor (OPCs). One treatment for diseases such as MS is to transplant healthy, lab-made OPCs into the diseased brain, which could restore the lost myelin and reverse the damage from the disease. The researchers first reprogrammed human skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells. They then identified the cascade of chemical signals used by the body to turn pluripotent cells into OPCs; subsequently, they replicated that process in a laboratory dish. It took six years for the researchers to identify the chemical signals and then produce and purify enough OPCs that would yield sufficient myelin.

Leukodystrophy is a congenital condition in which the body is incapable of producing myelin. Each year, thousands of children are born in the US with some form of leukodystrophy. For the study, the researchers transplanted the OPCs into mice with leukodystrophy. A control group of mice did not receive the OPC treatment. These untreated mice displayed the typical symptoms of myelin loss as they grew older: They developed tremors, lost their sense of balance, and died prematurely, often from seizures. The treated group initially also developed tremors and other symptoms. However, once the transplanted cells began to produce sufficient myelin (a four month process), their symptoms improved and they did not die of seizures. Thus, the reprogramming technique developed by the researchers led to the re-myelination of the complete nervous system of diseased animals, improving their symptoms and prolonging their life.

The study falls on the heels of another study with pluripotent cells by UCLA stem cell researchers. The study was published on December 7, 2012 in the early online edition of the inaugural issue of the peer-reviewed journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine. The researchers reported that, by using a specially designed facility, they had reprogrammed human skin cells to be pluripotent and then differentiated them into neurons, using animal origin-free reagents and feeder conditions throughout the process. Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA also developed a set of standard operating procedures for the process, so other scientists can benefit from the derivation and differentiation techniques performed under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) protocols. GMP protocols are tightly controlled and regulated so the cells created meet all the standards required for use in human beings.

Reference: Cell Stem Cell

Source: http://www.emaxhealth.com/11306/reprogramming-skin-cells-offers-new-hope-multiple-sclerosis-patients

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Turn Fish Bones into Salt and Boost Your Food?s Flavor

Turn Fish Bones into Salt and Boost Your Food’s Flavor Fish is great for you, but once you're finished eating, there's no reason to throw out the bones: they're great for a lot of things. In this case, keep the fish bones from your last meal and use them to make a delicious savory salt that'll add umami flavor to any dish you sprinkle it over.

Making salt from your fish bones is easy: just scrape off as much meat as possible, boil the bones until the rest of the meat between the bones falls off. Let the bones dry for a day or two, then grind it up as fine as possible in a spice or coffee grinder. The result should be extremely powdery, and you can mix it with an equal amount of salt. That's all there is to it, and the video above even shows you how to clean the grinder when you're finished, a method we can vouch for.

When I hang on to fish bones, I usually keep them in order to make stock or to add a little richness to a seafood stew or soup, but this tip from the folks at CHOW is a different but equally fun application of what many people trash without a second thought.

Why You Should Turn Fish Bones Into Salt | CHOW

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/QDfCikHzcQ0/turn-fish-bones-into-salt-and-boost-your-foods-flavor

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Knockoffs can spark innovation, boost economy, law professor argues

(Phys.org)?Conventional wisdom holds that strong copyright and patent laws are necessary to encourage creativity. Without such protections, the thinking goes, competitors are free to steal ideas, create knockoffs and drain profits from innovators.

Yet a number of major industries ? fashion, cuisine, open-source software, finance, font design, stand-up comedy and more ? manage to thrive and innovate in the absence of legal protections for intellectual property.

In many of these industries, copying is widespread. And, in many cases, that's actually a good thing, according to University of Virginia law professor Christopher Sprigman.

Sprigman is the co-author of "The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation," a new book that explores how certain industries prosper without copyright and patent law, even amidst pervasive imitation.

"I'm not interested in intellectual property law. I'm interested in innovation. I'm interested in creativity," Sprigman said. "The typical story about IP law is that it's the handmaiden of innovation and creativity. That it's the way we incentivize people to engage in creative labor.

"But there's a whole world of creativity out there that is motivated by different things. The question is, can you sustain creativity at high levels without intellectual property, or with less IP than we have now? The answer for the book is 'Yes.'"

The book's inspiration arose from a conversation several years ago between Sprigman and co-author Kal Raustiala, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, about how the fashion industry manages to thrive despite the prevalence of knockoffs.

"Copyright doesn't cover fashion designs," Sprigman said. "And so fashion designers are free to copy and take inspiration from their rivals' designs. And there is lots of copying in the fashion industry, but there's lots of innovation and there's lots of profits. We wanted to understand how that was possible."

Sprigman and Raustiala figured out that copying actually allows the fashion industry to set trends and motivate consumers to buy more clothes.

"We don't know a trend until there are lots of copies. That's what makes a trend," Sprigman said. "Copying helps spread a trend and then it helps kill it when there's too much copying. The early adopters flee the trend and they adopt the next trend. So the trend cycle is fueled, in a sense, by copying, and this helps the industry as a whole, though it might in some instances hurt individual designers."

Other industries, such as cuisine, also thrive despite wide freedom to copy.

"You can't really copyright a recipe," he said. "You can't really copyright a dish as prepared, or patent it for that matter. But there's lots and lots of copying. Also lots and lots of innovation in cuisine."

A similar situation can be found in professional football, he said.

There's "lots of innovation in football offenses and defenses ? wide freedom to copy," he said. "In fact, these offenses and defenses are knocked off all the time. But that doesn't stop coaches from innovating, and we explore why."

The book also delves into the world of stand-up comedy, building on an earlier article written by Sprigman and U.Va. colleague Dotan Oliar. Without intellectual property law to prevent joke theft, comedians police themselves.

"In stand-up comedy, copyright doesn't really provide effective protection for jokes or comedic routines," Sprigman said. "But comedians have developed a system of social norms that discourages joke stealing."

Sprigman cited a 2007 incident at a Los Angeles comedy club in which comedian Joe Rogan publicly accused Carlos Mencia of stealing material from other comics. A video of the confrontation went viral.

"That is a rather public example of what comedians do a lot, which is, they confront each other when they think a joke has been stolen," Sprigman said. "It effectively reduces joke stealing to a level low enough that there is no market failure and comedians feel secure enough in their rights that they will author new material all the time."

One of the biggest proponents of copyright law has been the music industry, which Sprigman says has witnessed a "collapse of social norms against stealing" in little over a decade, with the rise of Napster in 1999 and its successor peer-to-peer networks in subsequent years.

"This has hurt the record companies tremendously. I have no doubt about that," Sprigman said. "The question is, has it hurt music? There's a huge amount of music these days, of very high quality, available to people at a relatively low price. So in some ways we're living in a very fertile period for music even as the record industry is declining."

The book suggests a path forward for the music industry that relies less on tough copyright law and more on some of the strategies employed by other industries covered in the book. One possibility, Sprigman said, would be to rely more on social norms. There is a model for this in the music industry, one pioneered by the Grateful Dead.

The Grateful Dead allowed fans to record their concerts and trade the recordings for free. In return, fans agreed not to share the studio recordings. Other jam bands and their fans followed this model.

"When fans share live recordings on peer-to-peer networks, they actually police the sharing of recordings ? typically studio recordings ? that the band has reserved for themselves for sale."

As a result, fans enforce a social norm that the bands would have a difficult time enforcing through copyright, Sprigman said.

"The music community, as a whole, as it changes, might become more like the jam-band community," he said. "The record label executives would certainly be wise to start looking into that."

While some, including the music industry, argue that more copyright laws are needed, Sprigman said the "world is shifting against them."

As evidence, he pointed to the recent defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act in the United States and the European Union Parliament's rejection last month of an international treaty to crack down on digital piracy and counterfeiting.

"There's a growing awareness around the world that copyright and patent aren't a one-way street, that more copyright and patent aren't always good for society, that there are costs associated with copyright and patent," he said. "There are those who argue that more copyright and patent are necessary. I'm open to these arguments. If I see empirical evidence of it, I'm open to it. I just haven't seen it."

Provided by University of Virginia

Source: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-knockoffs-boost-economy-law-professor.html

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Friday, February 8, 2013

Hunter Walk Leaves Google After 9 Years To Start VC Firm With Satya Patel Called Homebrew

Earlier today, CNNMoney broke the news that well-known Googler/YouTuber Hunter Walk and former Googler Satya Patel would be starting a new VC firm called Homebrew. What wasn’t known was whether Walk would be leaving Google to pursue Homebrew full time, but he has confirmed that to be the case. The last time that we spoke with Walk, he was passionately explaining all of the things he gets to work on with the YouTube For Good team, which was a team that I didn’t know existed. It consisted of people with all types of skill-sets, including forward-thinkers and leaders like Walk, who would help out non-profits and organizations with spreading their message and raising awareness for their programs using YouTube. In a blog post, which is the email that Walk sent to his colleagues at Google, he thanked those who brought him into the company and gave a glimpse into the Google culture that you hear from those who have “re-entered the mainstream” after leaving the Mountain View company: After nine years, two months it’s time for me to figure out how to make lunch for myself. Yup, I’m leaving Google and it’s my year-old daughter’s fault. You see, when I look at her I think about the values my wife and I want to instill. Among the most important is the belief that you should pursue all your dreams, think big, lean into your fears and keep building. The best way for me to teach this is by example, so I need to step away from Google’s comfort. No next adventure to announce yet – this is about feeling there’s more for me to do, but also knowing I need some space to figure it out. Google has changed my life. The chance to work with so many smart and creative people – thank you for letting me learn from you. There’s no university in the world which could have supplied equal education. Because of my time at Google I truly look at the world in a different way, one of problems waiting to be solved rather than insurmountable obstacles or indelible truths. I’m especially appreciative of Joan Braddi, Susan Wojcicki, Chad Hurley and Salar Kamangar – leaders who took me into their teams and, when it was time, encouraged me to find new challenges. Selfless, intelligent and loyal to Google. While being inside of Google is special, passing through

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/VwiyRPJw4vo/

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