Rebecca's Pocket

A non-toxic cleaning kit

Non-toxic cleaning recipes and a Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit [pdf]. Note that washing soda, while apparently non-toxic, is caustic. Wear gloves and keep away from your eyes! ((via lh)

Homemade preserves: thrift or artisan foodstuffs?

I leapt on the new craze for pickling and preserving. Is it a money saver in a busted economy -- or a luxury craft?

Designing spaces to manipulate people's moods

Fascinating: The Puzzle of Spaces That Soothe, a review of Healing Spaces by Esther M. Sternberg MD.

It is sobering to consider that among all the great minds who have explored these phenomena, Walt Disney was probably the most successful at the large-scale manipulation of the environment to soothe and cheer the brain. Even the scary rides at Disneyland -- Dr. Sternberg deconstructs the Pirates of the Caribbean ride from a scientist's perspective -- are carefully designed to click the brain's switches in all the right directions.

And so a new nursing home has a Disneyesque Main Street to calm the deteriorating neurons of its residents. Then it is only a small neurologic step to Lourdes in France, home of miracle cures, where a host of environmental cues may switch suitably prepared brains to a state of rapture, releasing a flood of potent neurochemical mediators that may well relieve suffering.

(via mamr)

Summer Reading 2009 - 07/06/09

This week's update includes the Newsweek top 50/100, an MBA reading list, video game fiction, disabled sleuths, 125 great Southern books, the Ultimate Teen Bookshelf, Best Beachbag Books, and great American biographies
For Adults:
Newsweek: What to Read Now
Newsweek: Top 100 Books: The Meta-List
NPR 3 Books: Red, White And True: The Great American Biography
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Five new baseball books capture the rhythms of the game, Ron Antonucci
Times Online: Val McDermid reviews the latest thrillers
Business Week: Getting In Summer 2009 Books: MBA Reading List
Wired to Care: A Dozen Books to Help You Reinvent Your Business This Summer
Santa Barbara Independent: S.B. Writers Share Their Top Summer Reading Picks
Examiner: A genealogist's reading list
Agee Film: 125 Great Southern Books
Crime Fiction Book List: Disabled isn't Unable: This crime fiction book list includes books and series featuring a character whose physical, emotional or mental limitations figure in the plot or character development of the stories or series
The Catholic Summer Reading Program
The Modesto Bee: Summer Reading: Mystery, action, romance await
MPN.com: Your summer reading list
The Greenwood Commonwealth: Three books for summer reading list
The Buffalo News Opinion: Natural history books make great summer reading
Kotaku's 2009 Summer Reading List great work of video game fiction: titles that excel at adding depth to the games they are inspired by, as well as a few that have inspired games on their own
The Capitol Fashionista: The 13 Fashion Books That You Should Have In Your Fashionista Library
An und für sich: Liberation theology reading list a list intended to gives students whole books instead of scattered essays; and not be suicide-inducing in the context of one quarter
The Satellite Sisters: The Best Beachbag Books
Going Green - A Resource for Today's Green Business: Summer's Here; Time to Get Started on Your Summer Reading List and General Reading List
Trent Hamm: My Summer Reading List for 2009
Roy Christopher: Summer Reading List book recommendations from RC, Richard Metzger, Cynthia Connolly, Steven Shaviro, Gareth Branwyn, Peter Lunenfeld, Gary Baddeley, Dave Allen, Patrick Barber, David Silver and Josh Gunn
Outside my Kitchen Window: Summer Reading List Christian Reading For Moms, Christian Reading For Women, General Christian Reading, and Just for Fun

Children and Young Adults:
Young Adults Library Services Association: Ultimate Teen Bookshelf
Tween Whisperer: Summer Reading for Tweens
Junior Fiction/YA Books
University of Maryland: Summer Reading List for Kids - Time to "Go Green!"
NYT: The Best Kids' Books Ever, Nicholas D. Kristof, plus his kids' and readers' suggestions

Bonus: 2009 Southern Reading Challenge

Cookbooks for Men: The Stag Cookbook

So far up my alley: The Stag Cookbook: Written for men by men, collected and edited by C. Mac Sheridan in 1922 includes recipes from Warren G. Harding, Houdini, Charlie Chaplin, John Philips Sousa, Rube Goldberg, Douglas Fairbanks, and Dr. Kellogg himself. If you want to examine implicit and explicit gender stereotypes for any given era, this genre is a terrific - and entertaining - starting point. (via rc3)

Butter King of Pop

Butter King of Pop! So, so awesome. I have a real fondness for butter sculpture, having grown up with a yearly visit to the butter cow. I once saw a butter John Glenn, but this is way butter, er, better. (via mefi)

13-year-old adopts Walkman, pities his parents

What happens when you convince a 13-year-old to trade his iPod for a Walkman? Scorn (peers), nostalgia (adults), and of course, hilarity.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. [...] Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

(thanks, jjg!)

Cheat sheet: Japanese color names

Japanese Color Names cheat sheet. (via br)

American Artisanal Ham

NYT: Bringing Flavor Back to the Ham, Harold McGee. Artisanal ham curers are rediscovering old techniques - and livestock breeds - to create American ham that rivals that of Spain and Italy.

European research found that the primeval fall diet of acorns and wild greens provided the ideal mix of fats and antioxidants for dry-cured hams, with the fat approaching the healthful composition of olive oil. Skeptical, Mr. Eckhouse compared hams from pigs fed on acorns, and on corn and soybeans. "It wasn't an instrumental analysis," he said. "I ate them. The differences were much bigger than I expected, especially in texture. The acorn-fed ham was creamy."

(via mamr)

Summer Reading 2009 - 06/29/09

This week's summer reading lists include Manga for Grownups, the best in Zombie Lit, the 2009 ALA Youth Media Awards, and the 1st Annual Summer Islamic Reading Challenge
For Adults:
NPR: Summer Nonfiction: True Tales Enlighten, Delight
Syracuse.com: Local authors offer a peek at their summer reading lists
Comment Magazine: A summer feast of books "Accessible starters for those who haven't quite learned to swim in the deeper waters of academia and the formation of the Christian mindset"
Poets and Writers magazine: Summer Reading List Poetry, Novels and Novellas, Classics, Short Stories, Nonfiction, and Memoir
Sacramento Bee: Summer reading list points the way to mystery, action and romance
Telegraph.co.uk: Summer reading: Melissa Katsoulis revisits the books that have most impressed our critics this year and compiles a list - from thrillers to biographies - to see readers through the summer
The News Star: Include these titles on summer reading list business titles
About.com: 12 Great Manga for Grownups
Angels On Your Shoulder: Ah, it's the weekend and summer reading books about angels, miracles and grace
Grimoire of the Hour: Zombie Lit Hit List
GreetQ: Summer Reading

Children and Young Adults:
2009 ALA Youth Media Awards Everything from the Newbery to the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
NPR: Great review of Peter Abrahams' Reality Check, with excerpt
Tacoma Public Library: 100 Books Your Child Should Hear before Kindergarten
Smithsonian: Our Story recommended books on American history

Bonus link: 1st Annual Summer Islamic Reading Challenge To encourage Muslim children (and interested non-Muslims) to read and review Islamic children and adult books

New study shows short, intense workouts might be as effective as endurance training

Can you get fit in 6 minutes a week? Um, actually, maybe you can. But it has to hurt. (via gs)

Moscow Cat Theater

Moscow Cat Theater! (via br)

Daily news from the 1930 WSJ, today

Here's an interesting project: News from 1930, a daily summary of the 1930 Wall Street Journal published on the day it happened. (via rte)

Kevin Kelly: Why Defaults Matter

Kevin Kelly has written another brilliant exploration of the interplay between technology and culture, this one on the Triumph of the Default. How should defaults work, what do they really affect, and most importantly, what are their cultural consequences? If that sounds dull or over your head, blame my description. Like so much of Mr. Kelly's work, this is a smart, accessible, and important piece.

[T]he privilege of establishing what value the default is set at is an act of power and influence. Defaults are a tool not only for individuals to tame choices, but for systems designers -- those who set the presets -- to steer the system. The architecture of these choices can profoundly shape the culture of that system's use. Even the sequences of defaults and choices make a difference too. Retail merchandisers know this well. They stage stores and websites to channel decisions in a particular order to maximize sales. If you let hungry students make their desert choice first rather than last, this default order has an impact on their nutrition.

Impact on language? Consider science fiction

On the vigor and poetry of Science Fiction.

It's perhaps natural that a genre that deals so specifically with science and technology should have come up with so many new terms. Science, after all, is the single biggest contemporary fattener of dictionaries. But these words also bespeak active imaginations and that curious form of literary finesse that enables writers to label an object, and readers to understand that label, even though both label and object have never before been encountered.