March 23rd, 2012 admin
Do you eat breakfast cereal every morning? Do you think it’s packed with fortified vitamins, minerals, lysine and other crucial nutrients? The sad truth is: all the healthful ingredients in the cereal has probably been stripped away during processing.
Even if you eat dry cereals from a health food store or even an organic store, the way cereal is made is identical to commercial brands, and you will be better off knowing about this. You see, the process of creating cereals is called “extrusion.” The manufacturers first make a sort of mush of the grains. They then put that through an Extruder. The slurry or mush is forced out of little holes at extremely high temperatures, which gives shape to the individual pieces of cereal, whether they are woven squares, o’s, sticks, shreds, flakes, nuggets, round puffs (puffed rice or corn puffs), etc. A sharp blade cuts off each flake or cereal piece. Then all pieces are sprayed down with oil and corn syrup to make them crunchy and sweet.
You can read all about the process in Fighting the Food Giants
by Paul Stitt. In his book, he describes how the process of extrusion completely destroys nearly all of the nutrients in the grains. It destroys the fortified vitamins they add (why add them, you ask?). The fatty acids are also destroyed and whatever amino acids were inside, well, they become toxic in this extrusion process. It is utterly insane unless you are a greedy, capitalistic cereal manufacturer that only cares about making money at the expense of the public’s health.
Are you eating these boxed, dry cereals? Are your kids? Well, cut it out! You and your kids should be informed and should be eating healthy meals to avoid any kinds of diseases and cancers that are caused by toxic ingredients. To become more informed read Paul Stitt’s book. Click the link below.
Fighting the Food Giants
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March 21st, 2012 admin
I recently finished watching Weeds – Season Two
, which is entertaining and excellent, by the way, and I noticed that in many scenes where people are reading books, you’ll see a book called, “Rejuvenile
” by Christopher Noxon. It turns out that he is the husband of Weeds’ creator, Jenji Kohan.
Without a doubt, I am rejuvenile, not to mention too, that I have some weird connection with Weeds. There are just so many references that I can relate to, or that I already know about like the game “Carcassone,” which was incorporated into an episode. How many people even know or CARE about that? I know about it! And Dinah? They have free internet so I go there when I’m in town. Not too crazy about the food, however. Anyway, maybe it’s because I’m originally from L.A. that I simply see all of the stuff I grew up around. I haven’t lived in L.A. for a long time but it’s always fun to see my home town, a crazy wacko kooky village as it may be.
Back to Rejuvenile. Here’s an excerpt from Publishers Weekly: According to journalist Noxon, rejuveniles-adults who use childhood past-times as “a way of maintaining wonder, trust, and silliness in a world where these qualities are often in short supply”- are proliferating, and unlike other books on the topic of “kidults” (aka “twixters,” “boomerangers,” and “generation debt”), his book says this is largely good. Viewing the bright side of oft-bemoaned evidence showing increasing numbers of young adults living with parents and postponing marriage, Noxon has made an entertaining but incomplete read. In appropriately playful prose, he considers successful adults who play in rock n’ roll nursery rhyme cover bands, attend Disney World without kids, and happily plunk down 10 bucks to see Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie. Avoiding “The Downside of Now” until the end, Noxon almost admits that he isn’t telling the whole story of the rejuveniles: although it’s “nice to think of rejuveniles as freethinking romantics,” which he theretofore does, “it’s clear that outside forces also have a hand in shaping who rejuveniles are.” Those outside forces? Not crushing student loans, a stagnant job market or political age-bias, but “the media.” Of course, Noxon would probably just as soon leave worrying to grown-ups of the old school-he’ll be on the kickball field instead.
Want to get the book? Click the link below.
Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up
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March 5th, 2012 jeniii
As much as I love Thanksgiving and Christmas, my absolute favorite time of the year is Black Friday! Waking up at 3 A.M. to get a good parking spot at the mall; even better, camping outside of Best Buy for days to get the season’s greatest deals! Once inside your select stores, you literally have to shield yourself from claws and hair pulling, and that’s just from your best friend. But, if you’d rather stay home and miss the crazy retail madness, there are many retailers that offer Black Friday deals specifically for online shoppers. Check out sites like blackfriday.com and blackfriday.gottadeal.com. They list top retailers’ advertisements with the best deals. Also, for even more savings they provide you with some online coupon codes. Awesome, right? It gets even better, some companies offer free shipping with a minimum purchase. For example, Target.com offers free shipping for all orders over $50 and Nordstrom.com offers free shipping on orders over $100 (piece of cake!) So relax in the comfort of your warm home, perhaps with a glass of eggnog (don’t forget the rum, haha!) in front of your computer. Black friday isn’t that bad, right?
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February 26th, 2012 admin
From nyt:
“Four months after acquiring an e-book retailer, Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest chain of bookstores, is starting its own mega e-bookstore on its Web site, BN.com.
In an announcement on Monday, Barnes & Noble said that it would offer more than 700,000 books that could be read on a wide range of devices, including Apple’s iPhone, the BlackBerry and various laptop or desktop computers. When Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise in March, that online retailer had about 60,000 books in its catalog.
More than 500,000 of the books now offered electronically on BN.com can be downloaded free, through an agreement with Google to provide electronic versions of public domain books that Google has scanned from university libraries. Sony announced a similar deal in March to offer the public domain books on its Reader device.
Barnes & Noble is promoting its e-bookstore as the world’s largest, an implicit stab at Amazon.com, which offers about 330,000 for its Kindle device. Currently, Google’s public domain books cannot be read on a Kindle.
The number of e-books available on BN.com compares with 1.2 million in stock that can be bought in print form from the company’s Web site.
A further one million books can be ordered from BN.com in the print-on-demand format.
William J. Lynch, president of Barnes & Noble.com, said the company would continue to sell e-book versions of…”
Read the rest of the article (free registration required)
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February 2nd, 2012 admin
First published in the Czech Republic, where it quickly became a bestseller, Third Wish is a sweeping, lavishly plotted novel in five parts, bound together by a profound love story that spans the globe. It is at once a classic quest novel and a rich parable for our times, inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll
, Milan Kundera, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, among others. Presented in a boxed set as two richly illustrated paperback volumes with an accompanying CD musical soundtrack, this is a true one-of-a-kind novel.
Get Third Wish Now
Remember Robert Fulghum?
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January 19th, 2012 admin
I absolutely love Malcolm Gladwell
. I don’t know how anyone would not. He’s smart, funny, and makes sense to a point where you can’t really argue anything with him. Plus, he offers little tidbits of information that are fascinating, stuff you’ve never heard before. You will no doubt learn quite a bit from this man. He’s tops in my book but let’s get on with this post. I wanted to recommend this particular book since it’s the beginning of a new year and reading it will inspire you to achieve whatever it is you need to achieve. You have practically a whole year and more to do it.
About the book
Amazon Best of the Month, November 2008: Now that he’s gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”
Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots’ culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. But there’s more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples–and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps–Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential.
Order now: Outliers: The Story of Success
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January 1st, 2012 admin
The book that started a contagious phenomenon is now available in a deluxe collector’s edition, so check it out and find out WHY everyone wants to get their hands on it. Featuring a ribbon bookmark, cloth cover, ragged edges, new chapter opener designs, and a beautiful protective slipcase, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.
The story: Bella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.
Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.
Click here to find out more about Twilight
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December 30th, 2011 admin
From amazon:
“Out of the thousands of new releases that came into our cubicles this year, we’ve chosen our 100 favorites, from an elegant pop-up alphabet and a deliciously dishy guide to fragance to an enthralling biography of an iconic leader and an encyclopedic history of a sport and the world that plays it. Here they are, so click below.”
Best Books of 2008
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December 22nd, 2011 admin
Now that the elections are over and there was a worldwide sigh of relief, it’s back to shopping! Appropriately, here’s a book that is a bestseller and is an amazing read written by our soon to be commander in chief, Barack Obama.
Barack Obama, the first black President in the history of the U.S, is a man raised by his white mother and grandparents, decided to journey to Kenya to learn more about his African father after receiving news of his death. This memoir is not about his father’s life, but about Obama’s, and he brings that home with an intimate tone rather than that of his public speeches. (His 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address is included at the end.) Throughout the book, the U.S. Senator looks at race from the point of view of someone who has seen and been part of a variety of cultures, and he explains how his perspective shaped his views. The book, written in 1995, before his election to the Illinois Senate, gives listeners a chance to learn more about a young senator who made news by speaking out on the Patriot Act and President Bush’s next Supreme Court nomination.
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
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