Everything You Wanted To Know About Catering Equipment
Every type of business distinguishes itself from others with the help of tools and equipments required to move it smoothly. Food catering is one of those industries, which can’t be imagined without the presence of good catering equipment. With passage of time, these business tools gave been refined to meet the growing demand of catering business. Here is a complete discussion about these equipments, if you are about to enter the competitive market of catering business.
Catering Equipment – An Introduction
The equipment for catering business required to prepare food, while maintaining quality and time-effectiveness is not less than an asset for the business. Commercial catering equipment is the term used for a complete set of equipments, including ovens, refrigeration units and variety of cooking equipments. Apart from this, you can also include the tools like cutlery, utensils and tableware, required to serve the food, in the list of catering business equipment.
Why Do You Need Them
The equipments for catering business are not only required to prepare food, but also to make the business efficient in meeting the timelines. As obvious, the customers are intolerable in receiving their food orders with delay and this is a critical aspect of catering industry. To avoid this and keep the business on right track, you need good equipments for the catering business. Also, these equipments endow the catering business owner with safety while cooking and thus, act as valuable business assets.
Serving at Various Places
Catering industry has its roots spread at a number of places. Hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants and other similar spots obviously require these equipments. Apart from this, coffee shops, bakeries and supermarket stores represent other group of business owners, who can’t move without these equipments.
Schools, universities, hospitals and other such places are visited by hundreds of thousands of people everyday and thus require these equipments to run their cafeterias. Of course, the service providers for parties and occasions like wedding and conferences also require catering equipment for their business. Brands and Dealers
For purchasing ideal equipments for the catering business, one can depend upon a number of reputed manufacturers as well as dealers available locally as well as on internet. Taking the path of online shopping can help you find good quality commercial catering equipment at reasonable prices. Learn about the most appreciated brands for these equipments and you can add goodness to your business effectively.
In a nutshell, good equipments for catering industry can lay a strong foundation for the business and provide you with a competitive edge over others. Spending hours in searching for these equipments and making a thoughtful investment can assist a novice business owner to expect good returns in targeted time period.
About the Author
Catering equipment should be purchased after considering a number of factors. Visit http://www.garnersfoodserviceequipment.co.uk/ to learn about these factors and make a good purchase in this direction.
It’s a hot summer day and you want to plan a party. What should you do? Really, there is only one thing that you can do. Throw a barbeque. But what should you serve, how should you serve it and what will you need for your guests? Find out in this article.
First of all, you should really plan farther ahead than just one day. Realistically, you should start by looking at the weather and making sure that it isn’t going to rain or snow or something. After that, invite the best, most fun-loving friends that you have. If you don’t have any friends, then this is the perfect way to make some.
After the invitations have been sent it is time to decide on things to eat. You can’t have a barbeque without some sort of food. I would recommend that you have a least a few different choices for people. Things like hot dogs and hamburgers are simple, cheap and effective. If you want to get a little fancier, there are always kabobs or possibly fondue that you could make. Whatever you choose, be sure that your grill is ready to go and that you have enough propane or charcoal.
After the food is done, you will need a way to serve it. Obviously paper plates are a great thing for the bbq crowd, but you might want to consider heavy duty plates if you are serving items that could get messy like burgers or kabobs.
Seating is another thing you will want to look into. You can’t just have your friends all sitting on the ground. Be sure to invest in nice patio dining sets that will add to the atmosphere of your party. You wouldn’t want to have sets that are uncomfortable or ugly, so it is crucial that your patio set looks and feels great.
With these things all set up and in order, your job as host or hostess will be much simpler. In fact, you will probably get to know your neighbors really well if you do too good of a job at hosting a backyard barbeque as they will never want to leave.
So you want to purchase a bottle of wine for a gift. Do not just buy a bottle or two then wrap. Your gift should come with one or two wine accessories to make it more attractive. Anyway, you are giving this not to an ordinary person. This gift is for someone who has achieved so much in his life - your boss, your husband's boss, or your boss's husband. What are these wine accessories fit for a perfect personality?
Wine chiller Wine chiller is the most common accessory for wine. They are a perfect pair because the chiller makes a wine taste better; thus, appreciated more. Choose between an ordinary and a personalized or unique wine chiller. Are you up for an electronic chiller or manual placing of ice cubes? Decide between a single and double wine chiller. Your budget will dictate your decision, really. But, if you do not have a tight budget, consider buying an electronic chiller. This will be most appreciated.
Wine bag or Wine Tote Wine bag or wine tote will make your gift more appealing to the eyes of the receiver. In fact, it makes the bottle of wine, even emptied, something to keep. Wine bags come in different sizes, colors, and styles. You can buy from wine stores or local shops, but you can also make one out of an embroidered fabric. If you want a handmade bag, but do not know how to do one, then look for unique gift shops. Most likely, they have something for you.
Wine Goblet or Wine Glass Wine Goblets make drinking enjoyable. But, did you know that their sizes are not just for the sake of style and that they have certain purposes? Tall wine goblets are better paired with red wine. Because once you pour it in a tall wine goblet, the smell of the wine comes out of the goblet just in time for drinking; thus, holding its original taste. On the other hand, if you are buying a White Wine, choose the short glass.
Corkscrew Do not give the receiver of your gift a hard time opening up a bottle of wine all because he has no corkscrew and you do not know this. To make sure, pair your wine gift with a corkscrew. Again, your budget will tell you which type of corkscrew will you buy: an ordinary or a stylish one?
Wine rack Why not make your receiver start a collection of bottle of wines (if he is not yet doing it)? It is a cool idea, right? Give him a wine with a wine rack then. Choose between a wooden and a stainless wine rack, and a stylish or ordinary structure.
No matter what accessory you choose from among this list of wine accessories, your gift will surely be appreciated because of the time you spent looking for a wine and a wine accessory for him or her. No matter how much you spend, it is still rewarding when your gift is appreciated.
About the Author
Harrison Fray is a long time gift consultant. She has years of experience with helping other fulfill their gift giving wishes. Harrison can assist you in deciding which gifts for him will best fit his personality. He can help you pick out perfect personalized mugs for your guy friends also. Stop by http://www.mygiftsboutique.com/ to see what Harrison recommends.
The Best Fitness Solutions From Personal Training Sydney Based Fitness Center
Although people already know that exercising regularly is as important as eating meals three times a day, some just lack the motivation to commit to the added daily routine. NPMFitness understands the busy lifestyle of the people in Sydney, with their jobs and deadlines and that is why they provide personal training–Sydney based. This is a good solution for employees who do not have the extra time to sign up and come to regular gym sessions to suffice their daily exercise needs.
Most people who work in an office are often stuck in their chairs facing the computers or papers for the most part of the day. This means that during that time, the body is not getting enough movement and muscles are not being used as much as they need to be each day. This often leads to a couple of problems like lower back pains, weakened muscles, and fat around the belly. Sedentary lifestyle is just not healthy and will cause other problems in the long run as well. Instead of doing some exercise, some people opt to turn on the TV and sit on the couch as a form of relaxation. Although this is a good way to unwind, this is not good, especially for those who do this in excess. A worse scenario would be a lifestyle without exercise and unhealthy eating habits. This will definitely accelerate your ride to a lot of health disasters coming your way. But these can be prevented if you start personal training–Sydney based–today.
Did you know that exercise is a good way to refresh and rejuvenate yourself? You will soon find out that the more you exercise, the more refreshed and alert you feel even at the end of the day. NPMFitness understands that with your busy lifestyle, you most likely could not commit to a regular daily. With personal training–Sydney, you can still enjoy that chance to exercise away those tense muscles and joints.
NPMFitness also understands that driving to the gym each time you need to do your exercise routine can sometimes be too much to ask from a busy employee. That is why personal training in Sydney is offered so you can still do your exercises in your workplace or anywhere that is convenient for you during your meager, precious free time. With this, your training activity can still be facilitated by your personal trainer.
With personal training in Sydney, you can easily insert a time for exercise in your daily schedule. What’s more, your personal trainer can give you undivided attention which means that he can better see and analyze your fitness training needs. Because of this, a more suitable training program can be cooked up to ensure that every routine you do will not be wasted and not turn out to be ineffective for you.
NPMFitness also knows that after a long time of visiting a single gym, the look of the same equipment in the same position could get quite boring sometimes and make you lose the motivation to work out. Since personal training means a more customized and flexible training program, you can expect something new from time to time. This way, you will always be looking forward to some new exercise routines which you can learn and enjoy.
Man has been outdoors for many thousands of years, but the outdoor grill came along later with the iron age. Nowadays there are hundred of types available from permanent structures, portable barbeques, fire pits and even the disposable type that you pick up outside your local petrol station. Which ever type you use I can guarantee that food cooked out of doors tastes better than any cooked in an indoor kitchen - if cooked properly that is and not burnt on the outside an draw in the middle. The trick is to get your fire started early and cook slowly. If using charcoal it is ready when the coals are glowing under a grey layer to provide a constant heat, not when flames are leaping.
Fish Dinner
4 Fish fillets or steaks, Trout or other fish fillets, Salmon Steaks or Tuna Steaks
1 large sweet Bell Pepper, any color, deseeded and cut into thin strips
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2-3 largish potatoes, sliced thinly
1/2 cup chopped onions
4 Tablespoons of butter, low fat spread or Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper, to taste
You may also wish to add some herbs - thyme is good.
Divide the vegetables into 4 equal portions. Take half of each portion and place onto 4 sheets of heavy duty Aluminum Foil. Place the fish onto the bed of vegetables, and put the butter or olive oil on top of the fish. Herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Then add the other half of each portion of the vegetables on top of the fish. Roll the top down snug, and fold the edges in tightly to form a nice solid parcel. Place directly above hot coals for 8 - 10 minutes. Then turn the parcels and wait another 8 - 10 minutes. Remove from the grill, open with care as there will be lots of lovely juices.
Chicken Dinner
Similar parcels can be made using a chicken breast , onions, barbeque sauce, green beans and perhaps some mixed herbs. If the breast is very thick try and flatten it a little to ensure that it cooks right through. This can be accompanied by rice or pasta cooked in a Dutch oven placed in the hot coals.
Turkey Burgers for 4 or 5 people
These don't have to be made with turkey of course - chicken or pork will be just as enjoyable.
1 large mild onion
3 cups fresh ground turkey
1 tsp garlic powder or a finely chopped clove of garlic
2 teaspoons of dried parsley flakes or a little fresh cilentro
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Hamburger buns, barbeque sauce and salad to serve.
Method
Peel and chop onions quite small. Heat of olive oil in skillet and Add onions, a pinch of salt, garlic powder, and black pepper to taste. Stir onions and allow them to sweat then continue cooking until a light brown edge forms on the onions. Remove pan from stove and set aside. Add garlic powder, parsley flakes or other herbs, and salt then mix thoroughly together with ground turkey. Add the cooked onions to the ground turkey mix. Form the meat mix into 4 to 5 patties of about 1/4 pound each. Spray skillet with cooking spray and allow to re-heat, then add the burgers. Make sure they fit in the skillet without touching. Cook about 5 to 6 minutes on each side until clear juices run when pressed with a spatula. Serve in buns with salad and barbecue sauce.
Variations - you may want to add a chunk of cheese into the middle of each burger.
Pork or chicken burgers can benefit from the addition of a little chopped bacon.
Barbeque pit, as you all know, is a compartment where charcoal or wood is burned to make a bed of hot coals that is suitable for grilling meat. It plays a very important role in every grilling activity, but to tell you honestly, it's not the point of focus here. I am using the term "barbeque pit" to refer to those restaurants who offer the best barbeque in the world. They bear the name "pit barbeque" as they are considering themselves as the exact place where the best barbeque is prepared to satisfy the hunger of every barbeque addict. See the analogy? If so, then great!
Okay! So what specific restaurants are currently bearing the term "pit barbeque"? Well, there are a lot of them. These pit barbeque restaurants can be found anywhere, from Texas to Colorado and even outside the United States. A few of them are mentioned below, so please read on.
The Pit Barbeque Restaurant
The Pit Barbeque Restaurant is said to be the exact place where the best barbeque in Texas is prepared. Well, this barbeque restaurant is currently owned and operated by Neal and Janie Tucker and Son and is based in Georgetown, Texas. They offer their specialties for catering and custom cooking, but you can also contact them for party orders through their hotline number 512-930-2333 or 866-580-2333. Their specialty includes barbeque beef brisket, with combinations of potato salad, coleslaw, pinto beans, and all the fixings. They also offer desserts and side orders for those who wish to have it.
Dickey's Barbeque Pit Restaurant
Here is another well-known and visited pit barbeque restaurant operating in Texas and in other states in the US. Well, Dickey's Barbeque Pit is actually considered as one of the largest operating pit barbeque restaurants in the US with branches in major states like Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, South Carolina, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Delaware, Ohio and Oklahoma. Aside from that, they have been serving up some of the most mouth watering barbeques since the year 1941. They offer catering services, delivery orders, and even custom cooking for their guests. It is further nice to know that Dickey's Barbeque Pit was then voted as one of the nation's fastest growing restaurant chains.
Andy Nelson's Southern Pit Barbeque Restaurant
Andy Nelson's Southern Pit Barbeque Restaurant is well-known through Baltimore area and across the South of America. This restaurant is currently offering a wide selection of barbeque styles that range from pulled pork, to Texas beef brisket, and even to Maryland's pit beef and Memphis-style ribs. They also offer baked beans that are meld of sweet and smoky flavors, plus family-style meals are available for orders. Perhaps what's great about this pit barbeque restaurant is that it offers a great ambiance for every barbeque enthusiast. The dining rooms are well-decorated and well-ventilated, making Andy Nelson's Southern Pit Barbeque Restaurant a dining place worthy of visit.
So you want to have a great barbeque experience? If so, then get ready and head to The Pit, Dickey's, or Andy Nelson's pit barbeque restaurant and have a good time.
"The greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people!" -Senator James Inhofe
Thanks to an outspoken American Senator, the world is being set straight on climate change. Working tirelessly to block Al Gore's Capitol Hill celebration as part of a seven-continent "Live Earth" concert tour intended to rally the planet in cheerfully addressing runaway global warming, Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe speaks with the conviction of a Holocaust denier when he calls climate change "The greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people!"
A least since the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, WMD in Iraq, the Iranian threat, Bush’s Terror War On Terror, and the constitutional curtain-closing Patriot Acts 1, 2 and 3. [The Hill Mar 28/07]
Apparently unafraid of facing future Nuremberg-style environmental trials, Climate Change Deniers such as the National Science Teachers Association have refused 50,000 free DVDs of Gore's Oscar-winning "An Inconvenient Truth" in fear of alienating heavy corporate funders like Exxon and the American Petroleum Institute, which publishes expensive ads in newspapers ridiculing melting glaciers, while also helpfully providing "teaching aids" such as coal coloring books and classroom videos asserting, "You Can't Be Cool Without Fuel."
That means you, Mr. and Mrs. Penguin.
Still, it’s hard to debate a destabilizing 10,000-foot thick glacier. With sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets already at the upper limits of 30 year projections, another 500,000 square miles of Arctic sea ice melted, and Alaska’s glaciers threatening to turn off the winter-warming Gulf Stream by decanting more than 13 trillion gallons of meltwater into the world ocean each year, and Greenland’s fast-melting 2,000 kilometres of solid ice increasing its melting rate over the past five years from a metre a year to a metre a month, and polar bears drowning a hundred miles offshore while looking for ice floes retreating another 300 miles out, and thousands of Canadian harp seal pups experiencing 100% mortality from the same lack of ice, and with the first month of 2007 3.4°F hotter than the any January ever recorded, and the snowpack serving drinking water to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest shrinking toward bare rock, and more than a quarter of the American West in either severe or exceptionally severe drought and Arizona cactus dying from lack of water… it is undeniably clear that the Inhofe is right: the planet can’t be heating up! [Reuters Mar 23/07; CBC Aug 3; Aug 20/04; BBC Radio 4 Aug 7/05; Independent Oct 2/05; Knight Ridder News Service July31/03; New York Times Mar 10/06; www.cejnewsviews.blogspot.com; www.realclimate.org]
On the other hand, an 18-inch rise in sea level would see salt water flowing into the Sacramento River Delta, destroying the drinking water for 23 million Californians. A 20-foot ocean level rise will put half of Florida under water— including Miami, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville—along with the new WTC memorial in Manhattan, and much of Washington DC, where Senator Inhofe is busily blocking climate change-inspired discourse, dancing and music. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer Mar 11/07; BBC July28/04]
In more than 180 countries, one out of every ten people on the planet could soon be chuckling over the climate change hoax while swimming inland. Fortunately for U.S. legislators like Inhofe, only one of these countries is the United States. The rest—China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, Thailand and the Philippines have mostly expendable non-white populations who don’t buy much stuff from the United States, which today primarily produces bullshit, weapons and wars. [Inter Press Service Mar 28/07]
Meanwhile, the rapidly melting and slip-sliding Greenland ice sheet does not know it is a hoax and is set to raise world sea levels 20 to 30 feet, while far to the south, inland Western Antarctic glaciers uncorked by the calving Larson ice shelf are rushing to add another 20-feet or so to the rising sea level hoax. As for the melting Eastern Antarctic… think about relocating to a mountaintop with a dock in your front yard.
OCEANS ‘R’ US Onboard a planet that is much more Ocean than Earth, the gigantic saltwater buffer covering 70% of its surface is absorbing half of our carbon folly every day. This is not so good, because all this hot water is helping to create vast fishless Dead Zones off the coast of California and Oregon every year for the last five years. Dead zones are also blooming in the waters off Chile, Namibia and South Africa. Nearly 50% of the world's fisheries are in these areas. [BBC News Feb 17/07]
Even worse, in contributing to a 25 million ton carbon deposit into the One World Ocean every day, we are seeing a resulting carbonic reaction that is rapidly turning this whole big watery wilderness acidic. [www.earthfiles.com Aug 13/04; Agence France-Presse July 20/05]
And those 25 million daily acid-making tons are increasing rapidly.
Meanwhile, the global warming hoax so stridently opposed by Senator Inhofe means that temperatures in Eastern Europe are not averaging 8° Fahrenheit above normal, even though they are. Canada on average is more than 5 degrees warmer than normal, and hoax-ridden Siberia is 9°F hotter than usual. [Agence France-Presse Feb 16/07; AP Feb 16/07]
THE HEAT IN PEAT This is a scream because the world’s largest frozen peat bog stretches for a million square kilometres across western Siberia’s once permanently frosty permafrost. Warming faster than almost anywhere else on Earth, this time bomb tundra contains several hundred billion tons of methane that—if thawed by a few more cheap flights to Mexico—could be burped like a giant cow fart into an atmosphere already dangerously overloaded with fast-food bovine flatulence. [NewScientist.com Aug 11/05]
Thing is, each teeny molecule of methane released into the atmosphere destroys millions of sunshielding ozone molecules. And despite the hoax of ozone layer depletion, last year’s 11 million square miles ozone hole over the Antarctic was the biggest ever recorded, with local ozone absence often reaching 99%. No more ozone means no more plankton means no more oxygen and no more fishies. [National Science Foundation Press Release Dec 17/03; www.greenguerrilla.com/om.htm; Agence France-Presse Dec 26/06]
Another thing is, one molecule of methane also traps 21 times more heat than a measly molecule of carbon dioxide. [EPA]
Suddenly—hopefully—that next drive to Burger King may not seem as urgent as leaving the key unturned in the aptly-named ignition. Because about another two or three degrees rise in global temperatures could release more heat-trapping tundra methane all at once than all the carbon released over the past 100 years. [Baltimore Sun Dec 16/04]
THE IPCC HOAX But as Inhofe urges, relax and throw another log on the fire. The good news is that the latest alarming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections showing an "upper range" temperature increase of about 11°F by this century’s end based on carbon burning trends in places like the USA, Canada and China turn out to be baloney.
The bad news is that 1,200 of the world’s best atmospheric scientists at the IPCC forgot to factor in land-based methane releases, which are "emptying at an alarming rate," according to Chris Freeman of the University of Wales. Apparently uninformed that methane levels already rising three-times faster than CO2 are a hoax, a frightened Freeman exclaims, "It’s a vicious circle. The problem gets worse and worse, faster and faster" as more methane heats the atmosphere releasing more methane and so on. [National Science Foundation Press Release Dec 17/03; NewScientist.com Aug 11/05]
Even with the terrible tundra factored in, panicked oceanographers are warning that just a few degrees more ocean warming could release another 2,000 billion tons of methane gas into the atmosphere. That’s a lot. In fact it’s enough to trigger a sudden "destabilization event" even worse than a jilted spouse.
We won’t like it. A NASA study confirmed that 55 million years ago a similarly tremendous underwater methane burp instantly heated Earth’s atmosphere by up to 13° F within a few decades. This messed up a lot of finned, feathered and furred lives, disrupting climate worldwide for more than 100,000 years.
Some 200 million years before that, another series of methane releases came close to wiping out all life on a lone space colony called Earth. As oxygen levels plummeted and organic life teeter-tottered on the brink of extinction, more than 94% of marine species headed for off-planet dimensions. It took between 25 and 100 million years for coral reefs and forests to regrow into their former diversity.
For those of us who don’t like waiting for anything, such an interruption could be extremely aggravating.
NOT ALL CYCLES ARE BICYCLES These Big Extinction Events—and other periodic warming and cooling episodes—are what people like Inhofe and your neighbors and coworkers mean when they say that climate change is "cyclical". They’re right. But not in the way they mean.
For example, about 12,700 years ago average temperatures in North Atlantic region abruptly plummeted nearly 5°C and remained that way for 1,300 years. The Younger Dryas is named after a cold-loving Arctic wildflower that flourished during this era in the US and European regions, where icebergs extended as far south as the coast of present day Portugal.
Another abrupt warming took place about 1,000 years ago that allowed Norse voyagers to settle a northern green land. Three centuries later, the Norse abandoned their Greenland settlements when the climate chilled abruptly—with even more profound agricultural, economic, and political impacts in Europe. In the USA, the American revolution was nearly aborted by rapid climate shift as Washington struggled to get his thinly-clad troops across the icebound Delaware.
"Rapid changes in ocean circulation are linked to these abrupt climate changes," Robert Gagosian, President and Director Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2003. "A growing body of evidence demonstrating linkages among ocean-related climate shifts, ‘megadroughts’ and precipitous collapses of civilizations, including the Akkadian empire in Mesopotamia 4,200 years ago, the Mayan empire in central America 1,500 years ago, and the Anasazi in the American Southwest in the late 13th century."
Now a lot more people could experience that excitement again. In May 2005, climate change researcher Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, aimed sonar upwards beneath the Arctic ice cap from Royal Navy submarines and correlated ships’ measurements across the Greenland Sea to detect that one of the two "heat pumps" driving the Gulf Stream had weakened to less than a quarter of its former strength.
"Until recently we would find giant ‘chimneys’ in the sea where columns of cold, dense water were sinking from the surface to the seabed 3,000 metres below, but now they have almost disappeared," Wadhams said. "As the water sank it was replaced by warm water flowing in from the south, which kept the circulation going. If that mechanism is slowing, it will mean less heat reaching Europe."
Today, the powerful Gulf Stream that bathes Britain and northern Europe in warm waters conveyed from the tropics has slowed by 30% in the last dozen years. According to UK newspapers, "The Gulf Stream delivers the equivalent of 1 million power stations-worth of energy to northern Europe, propping up temperatures by 10C in some regions. Ireland, Britain and northwestern Europe lie on the same latitude as Siberia." The shut down of this Gulf Stream "radiator" could lead to a century or more of no frost-free days on the northern European, UK and US Atlantic seaboards—at a time when the end of cheap oil sends fuel oil and food transport costs skyrocketing. [Sunday Times (Ireland) May 8/05; Guardian Dec 1/05]
While unusually violent solar flares are not linked to these major climatic events, cold northern meltwater and methane releases caused by mass volcanic eruptions are. On a Gaian world driven by intricately interconnected feedback mechanisms to maintain narrow margins of mammalian habitability, volcanism may somehow be cyclical.
But humans are cynical. And our denial is much more dangerous. As U.S. government geologist John Atcheson observes, "Humans appear to be capable of emitting carbon dioxide in quantities comparable to the volcanic activity that started these chain reactions." According to the U.S. Geological Survey, burning fossil fuels in cars, jets, ships, wood stoves and power plants releases more than 150 times the amount of volcanic carbon dioxide—"the equivalent of nearly 17,000 additional volcanoes the size of Hawaii’s Kilauea." [Baltimore Sun Dec 16/04]
Inhofe says that more than 700 million cars and trucks running their motors an eggshell-thin atmosphere as enclosed as any garage are not affecting anything. [Independent Dec 6/03; Globe and Mail Apr11/98]
Atcheson, says, "Once these methane releases really get cooking, it’s likely to play out all the way." [Independent Dec 6/03]
BUY LOCAL—HELP OIL TANKERS RETIRE NOW Carbon dioxide emissions from shipping are increasing at an alarming rate and could rise by as much as 75% in the next 15 years unless we stop shopping for cheap junk at Wal-Mart and similar Chinese coal-plant prodding consumption emporiums. All this shipping traffic to deliver consumer toys and oil is nearly double Britain's total emissions and more than all African countries combined.
For anyone who still believes in leaving their personal responsibility and children’s’ future to governments governed by corporate interests, more than 200 million tons of carbon emissions from 70,000 perpetually steaming ships do not come under the Kyoto agreement or any proposed European legislation. Few studies have been made of the vehicles that transport 90% of our not-so-goods over thousands of sea miles.
"Buying local" takes on new urgency and appropriateness with 20,000 new ships on order and shipboard emissions heading toward more than a million tons a day by 2020. [Guardian Mar 3/07]
STATES OF UNION Apparently still clueless that climate change is a hoax, 409 mayors have signed a climate-protection agreement requiring cities to reduce greenhouse emissions, and 29 states have already passed legislation limiting greenhouse gases. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is also seeking to terminate global; warming by imposes the first state cap on greenhouse gas emissions that will reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Last Monday, the governors of Washington, California, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico announced a regional agreement on climate change.
On Thursday—as temperatures rose to the highest level ever for March at 11 locations across Japan—Senate hearings examined these state and local programs as models for federal legislation. [Kyodo news Mar 30/07]
On Sunday, Vice President Al Gore won an Academy Award for his must-see documentary on global warming.
As astonished Japanese hauled out their Saki for cherry blossom-viewing in a Tokyo sweltering under July-like temperatures, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, "We are making tough choices. We are investing our taxpayers' money. We are transforming our cities into laboratories for climate protection. In short, we are making a difference, and laying the groundwork for strong federal policies and programs."
Calling on Congress to pass a plan "that calls for a hard and declining cap on emissions," Nickels insisted that cities and states should be eligible for federal grants that underwrite innovative programs and research. "We need the federal government to take on a leadership role now so that we move beyond the grass-roots innovation that is blossoming in every state in the country," he said.
But blowing up Iraq and Afghanistan, and getting ready to blow up Iran, Syria, North Korea and possibly Canada if we don’t fork over the rest of our natural gas, oil and fresh water for SUVs and desert golf courses, continues to vacuum nearly every shekel—er, dollar—from the U.S. economy. As Truthout’s Environmental Editor Kelpie Wilson points out, the anticipated cost of the Iraq slaughter "will be at least a trillion dollars. The installed cost of solar power is currently about $9 a watt, so $20,000 would buy a 2.2 kilowatt solar power system. That is enough power for a household with modest needs to spin the meter backward a good portion of the time. A trillion dollars would put a system like that on 50 million roofs." [Truthout.com Mar 29/07]
SURGES With the real surge taking place not in Baghdad but across the globe, as current levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere leaped higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years and worldwide carbon fuel emissions surged past 900 tons each second, the doughty Senator Inhofe said he would fight any proposal based on California's model that is already reducing traffic, de-stressing people’s lives and putting more saved fuel dollars in their pockets.
"Let's be honest about what these programs, and their companion proposals here in Congress, really are," Inhofe said. "They are the biggest tax increase in U.S. history. In fact, they are worse than taxes." [Seattle Post-Intelligencer Mar 2/07]
Was the Oklahoma senator perpetrating his own hoax? By becoming the first local government in the United States to deal with climate change back in 1993, the city of Portland has already achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions below 1990 levels—while booming in smiles, improved health and cash savings.
"People have looked at it the wrong way, as a drain," Mayor Tom Potter patiently explained after parking his Prius hybrid. "Actually it’s something that attracts people. It’s economical. It makes sense in dollars."
Portland has led the way into a more fun, less carbon future by installing two light rail lines and a streetcar system, and 750 miles of bicycle paths. As a result, another 10 out of every hundred residents have left their dangerous cars chained up and are happily commuting by foot or on bicycle. [Guardian Mar 5/07; Washington Post Feb 27/07]
FLIPPING THE OTHER SWITCH The "DO NOT CROSS" threshold of a further two degree temperature rise must be avoided at all costs—even if it means turning off computers, TVs and other appliances in tens of thousands of showrooms—and similar gadgets not actually in productive use in the office or at home.
Why not switch off global warming now?
And put the cash savings in your jeans?
And maybe not work so hard to keep all these machines turned on. Even when you think they’re turned off. Which could be the biggest hoax of all.
"Number one is to turn things off when they are not in use," Wilson suggests. "Seventy-five percent of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Across the US, this equals the annual output of 12 power plants and costs consumers over $1 billion each year. Buy some power strips so you can take back control over these ‘vampire loads.’ Light bulbs are also crucial. Lighting is about 25 percent of US electricity use. Compact fluorescent light bulbs use about one-third the energy of incandescent bulbs. [Truthout.com Mar 29/07]
Another big blind spot is that we in North America are too often locked by our media mesmerizers and cultural conditioning into thinking that what we see and hear around us is the way things are everywhere.
Not!
Flip on the Internet, buy a copy of the New Economist, chat up a visitor and the great and joyous news is that 95% of global humanity do not live here—and are not subjected to the ignorant bleating of Senators like I’m-a-foe, and presidential pretenders like Cheney, I mean Wolfowitz, I mean Perle, I mean JINSA, I mean Bush.
Europe is moving fast fast fast to wean itself off a species limiting carbon addiction. So is Scandinavia. Even Big Bad China, in the midst of its coal-fired-power-plant-a-week frenzy, is acknowledging planetary peril and attempting to put on the carbon brakes while rolling out windmills, electric bicycles and paradigm-changing Lithium Ion batteries in truly Chinese quantities.
Across the warming ocean in the other direction, to avoid a further 2 degrees centigrade temperature rise, further polar melting, and catastrophic methane releases—the woman-led German government is calling on industrialised countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 20% by 2020, and 60% by 2050. [Independent Dec 6/03]
That would help. A rapid 90% low-carbon diet might stave off calamity.
With targets—and incentives—like this, the opportunities for personal creativity, long wished for lifestyle changes, and entrepreneurship are boggling!
"Now is our chance to develop the American low-energy lifestyle. The Japanese use half the energy we do, yet still maintain an affluent lifestyle. Many European countries do the same. We can look to Japan and Europe for models, but we can also do it our own way," Kelpie Wilson says—while powering her family’s fully but carefully equipped Oregon home with solar panels and a micro-stream generator for 11 months of the year.
REURGENCE AND REBIRTH After thousands of hours of meticulous research, this writer can say definitively that climate change is not happening.
Forget "climate change". The gradual warming of the Earth—which actually sounds inviting to shivering Northern Hemispherians—is nonsense.
We are actually well past climate change. We are now experiencing rapid Climate Shift.
And if we don’t flip off unneeded car and plane trips, appliances, light switches, deadbeat politicians, and consumption-driven network television right now—we could trip the switch on Climate Flip.
This means us, Mr. and Mrs. North America. As Flavia Nunes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California points out, the key finding from ice core samples and the geological record is that "the Earth is a system that can change very rapidly"—once an enclosed, recirculating atmosphere is saturated with the heat-trapping effluence of our affluence. [Christian Science Monitor Jan 26/06]
The heartening news is that Climate Shift is causing a concomitant Consciousness Shift. A lifeboat mentality is beginning to displace our misplaced "me first" conditioning as the realization sinks in that we could all sink down if our spaceship Earth founders on the reefs not of carbon and methane, but our own denial.
The answer to the biggest motivator for transformation yet enjoyed by challenge-loving and ultimately cooperative hominids is as simple—and immediate—as changing our minds.
So why not pull those plugs, jump on your bike, and visit a friend or your local farmer’s market right now? The liberating lesson of climate shift is that we can move just as quickly away from fear, guilt, loneliness, and the treadmill stress of credit card serfdom to enjoy true "freedom" as masters of our destiny in a supportive and approving community.
[The author has clicked off his nonessential electrical power bars, scrapped his old pickup, and is converting his recumbent bike to electric power.]
About the Author
WHO IS WILLIAM THOMAS?
I am an award-winning Canadian author, reporter, photographer and filmmaker. A former Vancouver Sun “photog” – his feature writing and accompanying photographs subsequently appeared in more than 50 publications in eight countries, including translations into French, Dutch and Japanese.
My 30-minute video documentary Eco War won the 1991 US Environmental Film Festival award for “Best Documentary Short”. Excerpts from this “front-lines” chronicle of a three-man environmental emergency response team in Kuwait aired in an eight-part CBC Gulf War mini-series, and have been shown on CNN and NBC television, as well as Noam Chomsky’s feature film, “The Corporation”.
During and immediately after the Gulf War, I served five months in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as a member of a three-man environmental emergency response team.
Winner of four Canadian feature-writing awards, I am the author of Days Of Deception: Ground Zero and Beyond; All Fall Down: The Politics of Terror and Mass Persuasion, Scorched Earth, Bringing The War Home, Alt Health, Stand Down, Dialing Our Cells: Cell Phone Health Hazards and the recently updated Chemtrails Confirmed.
A former pilot, ocean sailing master and frequent radio talk-show guest, I currently live and work in the Gulf Islands off Canada’s west coast.
Visit my investigative reporting website: willthomasonline.net
Visit my photography website: willthomasphotography.com
Heidi Klum Diet Secrets Revealed – How She Quickly Lose Weight After Pregnancy
Two months after giving birth to her son, Heidi Klum was out and fabulous to grace the runway for Victoria Secret Lingerie show. Earlier, just barely two months after she delivered her son, she had cat-walked gracefully on the red carpet to attend the Emmy Awards. Her secrets? Read on because she has just revealed how she quickly lost weight after pregnancy.
She admitted on The View that she needed the services of a personal trainer. David Kirsch, never disappoints Heidi as the trainer puts her on a strict diet and exercise regimen. She taught Klum to stock her fridge with foods that she should eat. Along with that, Kirsch also taught Heidi how to prepare and cook healthy dishes.
German by birth, she was used to fried foods. Nevertheless, David had her shift to grilled foods. Her diet consists largely of salads and vegetables. She now takes 3 or 4 cobs of corn a day and plenty of skimmed milk. Heidi Klum followed David Kirsch’s the Ultimate New York diet that consists of three phases. The first phase is the initial stage that lasts for two weeks. The second phase allows more healthy carbohydrate while the last phase includes cheat meals every week.
Heidi Klum was put on a strict diet plan. She avoided foods and beverages that can interfere with her Weight Loss goals after pregnancy. David defined the foods and beverages to be avoided as the ABCDEF, which stands for alcohol, bread, starch-rich carbohydrates, dairy, extra sweets, fruits and most of the fats.
To give you a bird’s eye view of what Heidi Klum eats, listed below two sample menus.
1. Sun-dried tomato-crusted baked Halibut - To prepare, the ingredients consist of 6 ounces of Halibut steak, 2 tablespoons of chopped sun-dried tomatoes and a cup of water. The steps include:
a. Prepare the oven by pre-heating it to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
b. Coat the fish with cooking spray.
c. Spread one tablespoonful of tomato onto the fillet.
d. Put the fillets in a glass microwaveable dish with water.
e. Bake for 20 minutes. This recipe can be served with sautéed spinach. It makes two servings.
2. Warm Salmon and Lentil Salad - The ingredients include 1 cup of lentils, 1 canned sockeye or wild salmon, ¼ cup of chopped shallots and ½ cup of chopped red bell peppers. To prepare:
d. Add Salmon and cook thoroughly for 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
e. Add lentils to salmon batter while stirring mildly.
f. Season the dish with salt and fresh ground pepper.
Klum revealed that her secrets to weight loss are the Ultimate New York diet and proper exercises that David himself prepared for Klum. After pregnancy, Heidi involves herself moderately in cardio and resistance training workout. She does lunges and squats.
About the Author
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Digital scales are used for various purposes like cooking, checking your weight etc. You have to remember certain important points in mind when you are planning to buy a digital scale. First of all see to it that you can read the numbers clearly in your digital scale. If you are buying a bathroom digital scale, make sure that you can stand on it properly and read out the numbers clearly. If you are thinking of purchasing a kitchen digital scale, make sure that you can read the numbers clearly when you place a large bowl or platter on top. While purchasing a kitchen digital scale, make sure that the scale can weigh smaller and larger quantities accurately. If you are measuring pounds of flour and sugar, see to it that the digital scale can handle that much weight. If you’re using digital scale for smaller recipes, you won’t need much range, but a scale that is accurate to a smaller unit of measurement.
If you are using kitchen digital scale to measure small quantities, make sure that it is accurate and precise. Check that digital scale can accurately measure small quantities i.e. 1 gram or 1.5 grams. For smaller recipes, the difference between 1 gram and 1.5 grams of cinnamon could make a big difference in the final product. A high level of accuracy in your digital scale means that if you measure the weight of ¼ cup of salt, and then measure the weight of a second ¼ cup of salt, both measurements will be the same. You should not purchase a digital scale that is inaccurate, because it will prevent you from precisely reproducing your recipes.
One benefit of this digital scale is it has the ability to tare. This will help you to measure several ingredients in the same container. When you tare a scale, it considers what is already there to weigh nothing, and only weighs what is added. For example, if you have 5 grams of salt on the digital scale and tare it, the reading will be 0. If you add 3.5 grams of pepper in it, you will get a reading of 8.5 grams on the scale instead of 3.5 grams.
Finally, select a digital scale that has units with which you are familiar or one that allows you to use a number of different units. If your recipe is in grams but your scale weighs only in ounces, you have to calculate it on your own. Keep all these things in mind, and you will find the digital scale that is right for you. Other features like price and appearance are also important, do check those factors before buying.
About the Author
RonVictor is a Expert author for digital floor scales and counting scale. He has written many articles like weighing scales, platform scale, bench scales and bagging scale. For more information visit: http://www.perryscale.com contact me at ron.seocopywriter@gmail.com
Get the Most Out of Your Barbeque Grill This Summer
Charcoal barbeque grills are the most popular kind of outdoor grill in the UK, since they double as a heat source. Propane and natural gas-based grills have yet to attract much of a following, likely due to their expense, but they nonetheless offer a number of significant advantages over traditional charcoal.
Gas grills are easier to operate and clean, and their relative lack of harmful emissions (smoke, etc.) means they pose less of a health risk than old-fashioned charcoal grills. For those who still don't see a need to change, however, here are some tips to ensure a successful and safe barbeque experience:
-Always clean your grill well in advance of your next barbeque; it should be the first thing on your mind when planning one. Make sure you get rid of any old ash, first and foremost; it might rust the grill pan if it comes into contact with water.
-Make sure you carefully follow the instructions that came with your grill before lighting it; failure to do so might damage your grill or result in injury. Also, don't mistake the charcoal-like lava rocks used in gas grills for actual charcoal: they look the same, but expect a nasty surprise if you try to treat them as such.
-Make sure your grill is placed on a heatproof surface far away from anything that could catch on fire: buildings, overhanging trees, foliage, etc.
-You might be tempted to try using your grill indoors. This is a mistake, and you're likely to burn your house down if you try it.
-A damaged grill is a painful accident, property damage, or both waiting to happen. Make sure you thoroughly inspect your grill before cooking: the racks should be clean, the cover should fit correctly, and any holes or cracks in the grill pan should have you looking for a new grill immediately.
-The lava rocks used by gas grills can be used multiple times before needing replacement. They look like charcoal, but they're used for absorbing and radiating heat, not generating it. Think twice before trying to burn them.
If you're looking for competitively-priced service for your home's boiler, heating, plumbing, drains, electrics or home appliances, please visit: ibuybarbeques.com.
About the Author
iBuyBarbeques.com the best in Barbeques Grills and Grilling Accessories. You will find a wide variety of home Electric Grills, Gas Grills, Charcoal Grills and Burners available at affordable prices. For more information also visit our blog
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