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10/23/13

Uncommon Uses for Bananas

Uncommon Uses for Bananas


Eat a Frozen “banana-sicle”
Uncommon Uses for Bananas Post Image
       
     
Different uses for Bananas. Learn about the benefits of bananas and its uncommon uses.
As a summer treat for friends and family, peel and cut four ripe bananas in half (across the middle). Stick a wooden ice-cream stick into the flat end of each piece. Place them all on a piece of wax paper, and then put it in the freezer. A few hours later, serve them up as simply yummy frozen banana-sicles. If you want to go all-out, quickly dip your frozen bananas in 6 ounces (170 grams) melted butterscotch or chocolate morsels (chopped nuts or shredded coconut are optional), then refreeze.

Tenderize a Roast

Banana leaves are commonly used in many Asian countries to wrap meat as it’s cooking to make it more tender. Some folks in these areas say the banana itself also has this ability. So the next time you fear the roast you’re cooking will turn tough on you, try softening it up by adding a ripe, peeled banana to the pan.

Polish Silverware and Leather Shoes

It may sound a bit like a lark, but using a banana peel is actually a great way to put the shine back into your silverware and leather shoes. First, remove any of the leftover stringy material from the inside of the peel, then just start rubbing the inside of the peel on your shoes or silver. When you’re done, buff up the object with a paper towel or soft cloth. You might even want to use this technique to restore your leather furniture. Test it on a small section first before you take on the whole chair.

Brighten up Houseplants

Are the leaves on your houseplants looking dingy or dusty? Don’t bother misting them with water — that just spreads the dirt around. Rather, wipe down each leaf with the inside of a banana peel. It’ll remove all the gunk on the surface and replace it with a lustrous shine.

PlanTree – The Plant Tree


The award winning PlanTree is exactly as it sounds- a tree of plants! This hydroponic plant cultivator system was designed for compact urban spaces where full-fledged gardens aren’t possible. The vertical system allows nutrients and water to circulate through each plant-containing pod as they trickle down. Users can have fresh, organic veggies no matter where they live.
Seeds or seedlings are placed in pot-like cups that are filled with soil substitutes such as rockwool or coco fibre. A simple interface lets the user control and monitor pH, moisture, light and more. Plants are grown in a cultivated and controlled microenvironment with water, nutrients and humidity.
Designer: Nur Yıldırım
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What A Dumbbell!

Banking on gyroscope and centrifugal force to add weight to its being, the Power Dumbbell is a unique option in weight training tech. Essentially, you don’t end up buying an array of weights for training but use only one set that can modify its intensity by gyro tech. Pretty impressive!
Designer: Jun Young Choo
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10/17/13

Home | World | Why do we kiss?

Why do we kiss?

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Why do we kiss?
Kissing is fun and it feels nice. But -- why do we do it?
The research, conducted by scientists from Oxford University, also explores the link between kissing and relationship quality, and differences in the value of kissing between men and women. The findings are published in two studies in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior and the journal Human Nature.

"Mate choice and courtship in humans is complex," study researcher Robin Dunbar, a professor at Oxford, said in a statement. "It involves a series of periods of assessments where people ask themselves, 'Shall I carry on deeper into this relationship?' Initial attraction may include facial, body and social cues. Then assessments become more and more intimate as we go deeper into the courtship stages, and this is where kissing comes in."

For the study, researchers asked 900 people (308 men and 594 women), about half of whom were in long-term relationships at the time of the survey, what they thought about kissing and its importance in relationships, both short- and long-term. They found that in general, women were more likely than men to think that kissing is important in a relationship. People who rated themselves as attractive and people who had more casual or short-term romantic encounters were also more likely to assign kissing a high importance to a relationship.

Interestingly, the importance of kissing changed when looking at a short-term relationship versus a long-term relationship. Women were more likely than men to say kissing was more important in long-term relationships.

And what about timing of kissing with regard to sex? Researchers found that kissing was generally most important before sex, but then its importance decreased thereafter (it was rated as less important during sex, even less important after sex, and the least important during non-sex times). However, when researchers asked about kissing in the context of a committed relationship, it was rated as equally important before sex and during non-sex times.

Past studies have also affirmed the idea that smooching is a way to vet future mates. CNN Health reported on research showing that kissing provides sensory clues -- including taste, sound and smell -- that can help a person decide if he or she wants to kiss that person again.

"Kissing is not just kissing. It is a major escalation or de-escalation point in a powerful process of mate choice," Helen Fisher, a professor at Rutgers University and author of Why Him, Why Her: Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type, told CNN Health. 

10/16/13

Melody Gardot - Who will comfort me

Most Amazing Tiny Homes


 
This 78-square-foot living space may be one of the smallest apartments you will ever see. Located in the midtown Manhattan neighbourhood of Hell's Kitchen, it's the home and office of architect Luke Clark Tyler.
 
Tyler, a graduate of Cornell University, actually lived in a 96-square-foot space previously and decided to downsize even further by moving to this apartment. To make it livable, Tyler designed and hand-built his own transformer furniture out of plywood and 2x4's to make the most out of what might have been a tight space.
 
It's barely wider than a hallway, but thanks to the high ceilings and thoughtful design and conscious lifestyle changes, Tyler is able to gain in savings: he pays $800 a month in rent -- cheaper than the shared housing in the same area. In addition, rather than purchasing expensive furniture, his customized build-out only cost him $170 at Home Depot.

 
When Christian Schallert isn't cooking, dressing, sleeping or eating, his 24-square-meter (258 square feet) apartment is an empty cube. To use a piece of furniture, he has to build it. To sleep, he rolls his bed out from under the balcony, his stairs become bedside tables and he can even swing his TV out from the wall. 

To dine, he lowers a plank from the wall, his flower stand becomes a support and his stairs become a bench. To cook, he clicks a spot on his vast wall of clickable furniture, and a spring-loaded door swings up to reveal an instant kitchen with double-burner, dishwasher, sink, countertop and microwave oven. The full-sized refrigerator and freezer click open alongside the other appliances.

Located in Barcelona's hip Born district, the tiny apartment is a remodeled pigeon loft. Christian, a Barcelona-based photographer, says its design was inspired by the space-saving furniture aboard boats, as well as the clean lines of a small Japanese home. While there's undoubtedly more work involved in constructing and deconstructing your dining room/kitchen/bedroom every day or meal, Christian claims that it helps keep him in shape.

Check the video below to see Christian showing his amazing LEGO-style home.


 
Who says you need a big house with an expansive yard to achieve the American Dream these days? One Washington State resident has found her perfect home in the 140 square feet of living space she's built herself. Located in Snohomish, WA, Apartment Therapy reader Melissa submitted her teensy abode as part of the site's Small Cool 2013 contest.
 
It's a basic bungalow-style house with an elevated sleeping loft over the kitchen. The wood slat construction gives the home a rustic feel, which is nicely countered by the super-sized flat screen in the living room. 

 
Not many couples could live in complete harmony in a space that the New York Post calls the “smallest apartment in the city,” but Zaarath and Christopher Prokop — with their two cats — live in a 175-square-foot “microstudio” in Manhattan's Morningside Heights.
 
Purchased for $150,000 three months ago, the co-op is 14.9 feet long and 10 feet wide and is on the 16th floor of a building on 110th Street. But, get this — it's only accessible by a staircase from the 15th floor. The couple has:
 
• A queen-size bed (about 1/3 of their living space)
• Mini-fridge and hot plate (they don't eat in very often)
• One kitchen appliance (a cappuccino maker)
• Closet-sized bathroom with shower with sink and toilet (no long, luxurious baths here)
• Kitchen cabinets that are used for their clothing (they don't eat here, remember?)

With a space this small, they jog to work, picking up their clothes along the way at various dry cleaners around the city and some clothes are kept in their offices.
 
The Prokops plan to pay off their mortgage in two years and then plan to remodel by installing a Murphy bed and larger windows. Their only cost at that point will be a maintenance fee of $700 a month.

 
This article is all about pretty tiny apartments, but we were absolutely blown away when we came across New Yorker Felice Cohen's itty bitty, teensy weensy, 90 sq. ft. studio on the Upper West Side. The 12 by 7 foot apartment definitely isn't for the claustrophobic, but we think Ms. Cohen managed to live there in high style. Plus, if you consider that she only used to pay $700 a month for her miniature pad (in a neighborhood where monthly rents average about $3,600), you can see how her decision allowed her to live large in other ways.
 
After 5 years, she finally saved enough money to move to an apartment five times bigger. 

 
Polish architect Jakub Szczesny claims to have built the world's narrowest house, just 122 centimeters across at its widest point. The Keret House is squeezed into a crevice between two buildings in the center of Warsaw and will provide a temporary home for travelling writers.
 
Szczesny, who is one of the co-founders of the arts group Centrala, approached Israeli writer Etgar Keret to get involved in the project and the pair started developing a triangular house with just enough space for a single inhabitant to live and work.
 
The body of the house is raised up on stilts and a staircase leads inside from underneath. At its narrowest point the house is no more than 72 centimeters wide.

 
How do you make a tiny New York City apartment into a livable 240-square foot space with a sleeping loft? You enlist the help of Brooklyn architect Tim Seggerman, who renovated this Upper West Side brownstone studio into what it is today.
 
The space was in poor shape to begin with, so they incorporated blond woods to build the interior out, including the loft over the kitchen. A nook creates a cubby-like library to crawl into.
 
Can you believe they were able to fit a washing machine in there?! 

 
Airplane interiors engineer for Boeing, Steve Sauer combined custom furniture from Ikea and West Elm to get the most out of his 182-square-foot home. Inspired by boats, Sauer's tiny Seattle home is pretty remarkable. 
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Most Beautiful Crater Lakes in the World

Most Beautiful Crater Lakes in the World
 

1. Crater Lake, Mount Mazama – Oregon, USA

2. Quilotoa Crater Lake – Ecuador

3. Crater Lakes in the Albertine Rift – Africa

4. Kelimutu Crater Lake – Flores Island, Indonesia

5. Crater Lake, Mount Pinabuto – Luzon, Philippines

6. Crater Lake (Okama), Mt. Zao – Honshu, Japan

7. Crater Lake, Mount Katmai – Alaska, USA

8. Vulcan Point within Crater Lake, Taal Volcano – Luzon, Philippines

9. Deriba Crater Lake, Jebel Marra – Darfur, Sudan


10. Crater Lake, Mount Ruapehu – New Zealand

Grand Canyon Skywalk



The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a transparent horseshoe-shaped cantilever bridge and tourist attraction in Arizona near the Colorado River on the edge of a side canyon in the Grand Canyon West area of the main canyon. USGS topographic maps show the elevation at the Skywalk's location as 4,770 ft (1,450 m) and the elevation of the Colorado River in the base of the canyon as 1,160 ft (350 m), and they show that the height of the precisely vertical drop directly under the skywalk is between 500 ft (150 m) and 800 ft (240 m).