Twitter evolved incredibly since it was launched. Actually (and ironically), the service itself hardly changed at all, unlike the way people have been using it.

Started merely as a “What are you doing now?” concept, the service has now such an overwhelming number of alternative uses that you could never believe it! You can use Twitter as a poll or a survey tool, as a money management tool and now also as a way to track weight loss.

But why use Twitter to track your weight?

Well, first of all, because it’s fun! Sometimes having some fun is the key to achieving your weight loss goals – this helps you to stay motivated and enjoy keeping fit.

And secondly, you are on Twitter anyway! Why not use it to get reminded of your weight loss stats? It can be an easy way to record and track your weight, so give it a try!

Now let’s take a look at the tools I managed to find:

1. Track Weight Loss With Twackit

Twackit is a fun tool I found through this post listing some cool Twitter apps for fitness. It allows you to use your Twitter account to track any metric (like your weight!) and watch trends over time with help of a Google-driven chart.

The good thing is that it needs no registration. Just tweet a numeric value and a hashtag to @twackit:

The bad thing is that the process is totally public. Everyone sees your weight and aside from that, everyone can go to the site to see your weight loss chart (just in case you are one of those who, quite understandably, thinks that this data should be private).

Once you’ve started twacking, view your report at

http://www.twackit.com/your-username/your-hashtag

Another similar tool that tracks various metrics you Tweet and requires no registration is gtFtr but it mostly focus on workouts and supports a limited number of hashtags/commands:

• Stats (or Day or Daily) – this has to come first so the parser knows it’s recording daily stats.
• Steps 9000 – How many steps did you take today? You can also use S or Step for short.
• Cals 800 – How many calories did you burn (that’s what it’s all about after all)?
• Dist 3.9 – How far you went?

2. Weight Loss Charts

Weight Loss Charts is another interesting Twitter-based tool which my friend, Eric of buildmuscle.org found for me. I don’t think I would be able to find it myself as it appears to be quite new.

It does require registration which went quite smoothly. On signing up, you are offered to add Twitter and Gtalk bots to your buddy list. After waiting a while, the bots add you as their friends. You will also need to set your preferred unit of measuring (I am using kilogram).

Now all you need to do is to send any of the bots your daily weight and the info will be recorded on the site.

One of the most useful features of the tool is its reminder because it is really not easy to remember to record your weight on a daily basis. If you forget to tweet your weight, the Twitter bot will remind you to.

You can access your weight loss (hopefully) chart any time after logging in:

Let me know if you would use any of those tools to track weight loss! Also, if you’re not already following MakeUseOf on Twitter, you really should.

• Canada privacy chief criticizes new Facebook changes

  Technology / Internet
  

  3 hours ago |
  1 / 5 (1) |
  0

  Facebook users may be targets of blackmail after changes that erode personal security protections on the world's most popular social network website, Canada's privacy czar warned Saturday.

• Israel reverses iPad ban

  Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
  

  3 hours ago |
  not rated yet |
  0

  Israel on Sunday reversed a ban on Apple's new iPad after initially confiscating the devices at its airports because the wireless signal was 40 times stronger than the legal limit.

• To build a cooperative society, is it better to punish or reward?

  Other Sciences / Mathematics
  

  Apr 19, 2010 |
  4 / 5 (21) |
  60
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  (PhysOrg.com) — One of the basic components of a functional, cooperative society is a code of law, where the laws are usually enforced by some kind of incentive. Social incentives can either be positive (rewards) or negative …

• JPL worker sues over intelligent design demotion

  Space & Earth / Space Exploration
  

  Apr 19, 2010 |
  4.6 / 5 (8) |
  75

  (AP) — A Jet Propulsion Laboratory worker who passed out religious DVDs on the job is suing the JPL for discrimination after he was demoted.

• 3D printer could build moon bases

  Technology / Engineering
  

  Apr 19, 2010 |
  4.9 / 5 (46) |
  46
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  (PhysOrg.com) — An Italian inventor, Enrico Dini, chairman of the company Monolite UK Ltd, has developed a huge three-dimensional printer called D-Shape that can print entire buildings out of sand and an …

• Magnesium: Alternative Power Source

  Technology / Energy
  

  Apr 23, 2010 |
  4.4 / 5 (27) |
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  (PhysOrg.com) — There is enough magnesium to meet the world's energy needs for the next 300,000 years, says Dr. Takashi Yabe of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

• How to identify chiral superconductivity in new materials

  Physics / Superconductivity
  

  Apr 22, 2010 |
  4.1 / 5 (12) |
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  (PhysOrg.com) — “Chiral superconductivity is the dream of mankind,” Carlo Beenakker tells PhysOrg.com. “All sorts of scientists are working on it, and there are many labs trying to create materials that are predicted to pro …

• Plan to use satellites to monitor British motorists

  Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation
  

  Apr 22, 2010 |
  2.7 / 5 (6) |
  20
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  (PhysOrg.com) — Britain may soon be using global positioning satellites and advanced speed cameras with number plate recognition technology to track speeding motorists, and according to a report released …

• Plans percolate to revive some SF native creeks

  Space & Earth / Environment
  

  18 hours ago |
  4.5 / 5 (2) |
  0

  (AP) — Riffling through old maps while researching a history project for San Francisco public schools, landscape architect Bonnie Sherk made a discovery: a century ago a creek coursed where two school campuses stand today.

• Russia launches US satellite into space

  Space & Earth / Space Exploration
  

  18 hours ago |
  3.8 / 5 (4) |
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  A Russian Proton rocket carrying a US AMC 49 telecommunications satellite was launched into orbit on Saturday, the Russian space agency said on its website.

 

Sourse :Seafood Salad Recipes

Chef Allison Sosna: doing it right for the kids. This is the second of three articles detailing how food made from scratch using local ingredients is served to students at the Washington Jesuit Academy in Northeast Washington, D.C. The first is here.

Allison Sosna is a young chef who fell in love with local produce. She remembers where: it was in a Washington, D.C. restaurant called “Hook,” working with celebrated sustainable seafood chef Barton Seaver.

“We would get amazing produce every day from farmers in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania,” Sosna recalls. “They would just walk through the back door into the kitchen and start unloading all of these ingredients that I had never seen before: candy-striped beets, purple bell peppers, black radishes, pom-pom mushrooms. And I got hooked. I wanted to know what else was out there, these ingredients I had never seen or heard about before–and right in my own back yard.”

Sosna is executive chef at Fresh Start, the
for-profit catering arm of D.C. Central Kitchen, a
social services innovator that provides much of the food for the city's
soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Fresh Start handles the cafeteria duties at Washington Jesuit School. To make her vision of good-quality local ingredients for Washington Jesuit's 71 students, Sosna and her crew have had to think hard about costs–and test their resourcefulness. What they've learned can teach us important lessons for how to bring healthy food to the nation's 31 million children who rely on the National School Lunch Program.

Lunch Lessons

Sosna's infatuation with locally grown food helps explain why cook Eraleigh Green was sorting  baby beet greens and mache the morning I arrived to check out the kitchen operation at Washington Jesuit Academy. Sosna insists local produce is not only fresher, more vivid, healthier, ”it allows the kids to see what real food is, where it grows, and to establish the connection that food comes from somewhere, and how special and delicious that somewhere is.”

While I looked on, Eraleigh Green carefully rinsed and sorted the ingredients for a diverse salad bar that later would be wheeled out of the kitchen and into the dining hall for lunch service. On the salad bar for the school's 71 middle-school boys to choose from were mixed salad greens, spinach leaves, sliced mushrooms, sliced radishes, carrots, raw broccoli florets, cucumber slices, red onion, red and golden pear tomatoes, diced beets, bean sprouts, baby beet greens, mizuna leaves, green apples and plums, and a chicken salad made from roasted local chickens.

The kitchen even made two dressings from scratch: Caesar and honey-mustard.

The selection–all of it locally grown–definitely reflects a restaurant chef's sensibilities and is miles away–about 3,000 miles, to be exact–from the salad I saw being prepared at my daughter public elementary school here in the District when I spent a week in the kitchen there. That salad arrives as plastic bags of processed iceberg lettuce from California, each containing smaller bags of processed carrots and shredded purple cabbage for mixing.

You might well ask whether 11- and 12-year-olds can possibly appreciate the difference between baby mizuna from southern New Jersey and iceberg lettuce from California. But there is more going on here, says Sosna, than designer greens.

Quite a bit of thought and effort has gone into selecting ingredients that aren't just different and interesting, but fit into the school's food budget. Specialty items such as the beet greans and mache are purchased when they are on sale, or when the produce distributor is having trouble selling them at all. In fact, provisioning Washington Jesuit Academy with local ingredients has taken months of legwork, endless conversations with farmers, and constant prodding of the Washington area's agricultural distribution network.

“When you work out partnerships with farmers by explaining to them–vividly–your expectations for deliveries, price points, and volume ordering, you can get local produce into schools,” Sosna says. “It takes time to build relationships, nurture them, and grow them. Through high volume and accurate inventory keeping, you can lower your price points and food costs and still buy local. This is not to say that every ingredient can make its way into your refrigerator. Local corn shoots and micro-greens are still going to be expensive because they take a lot of labor to produce.”

In the world of traditional restaurants, supermarkets and school kitchens, a vast distribution network easily delivers foodstuffs from California, Mexico, Florida and beyond with a simple phone call or the click of a computer mouse. Alas, no such system exists for local foods. Sosna and other enterprising food lovers like her are simply making one up to suit their own needs.

Recently I attended a conference here in Washignton where Doug Davis, the head of school food service in Burlington, Vermont, explained to a group representing school kitchens across D.C. how it has taken him eight years to incorporate local farm products into school cafeterias in Vermont. Making the connection between schools and local farms requires determination and persistence. Local family farmers are just begining to understand the needs of large institutions such as schools. 

“As a catering company, I had to ensure that we had inventory and access to all products within a 48-hours notice, and sometimes less,” Sosna explained. “So this requires me to have purveyors that can keep a steady and consistent product in-house and are able to get it to me with a relatively quick turnaround. Over the course of a year, I have been working to get more and more farmers and artisans set up so that I can buy from them consistently and in high volume.”

A year ago, D.C. Central Kitchen hit upon its own scheme for using local produce cost effectively in the 4,000 meals it cooks for the District's needy every day. The Central Kitchen positioned an employee in the Shenandoah Valley two hours southwest of Washington to start talking with farmers there. Soon, the kitchen was dispatching trucks once or twice a week to purchase “seconds”–produce blemished or otherwise unable to command top dollar–and haul it back to a new processing and storage facility in the city.

D.C. Central Kitchen now makes regular 145-mile trips to a produce auction in Dayton, Virginia, with access to about 100 Shenandoah farmers, to purchase large lots of wholesale fruits and vegetables, some of which is processed and frozen for future use in things like the corn chowder I saw being served to the students at Washington Jesuit Academy.

Sosna said that through the Virginia produce auction, D.C. Central Kitchen in the last year has used more than 50,000 pounds of local fruits and vegetables–50 percent of the kitchen's total requirement–and directed  10 percent of its total food budget into local products.

The Central Kitchen's facility is now viewed as a potential model for a proposed city-funded plant that could process local produce for the District's entire school system. “Healthy Schools” legislation pending before the D.C. Council includes a provision for just such a facility.

If Sosna seems thrilled by local vegetables, she is positively giddy over the organic dairy she's placed in Jesuit Academy cafeteria. She chose Trickling Springs Creamery, in Chambersburg, Pa., because the company “gets the struggle that chefs like I have with trying to get local produce and ingredients.” Grassfed, hormone-free milk from Trickling Springs is displayed in gallon jugs on the food line for Jesuit Academy students, and the kitchen uses butter and cream for cooking. But getting to that point wasn't necessarily easy.

“For two months, I worked with this local company to figure out price points, drop-off times, and an invetnory that made sense and ensured a smooth operation,” Sosna said. “This is just one exmple and we are currently using 12 purveyors, from which we use 15 farmers and local artisans.”

The day I visited the Academy, the kitchen had run out of milk. Chef Duane Drake said Trickling Springs only delivers once a week, and he doesn't have room in his walk-in refrigerator for all the milk the he needs. Instead, they were serving grape drink from powdered mix.

You get what you pay for

Okay, so getting local farm goods into school meals can be done, although not without some effort. But how much does all this cost?

Sosna figures the food cost at Washington Jesuit Academy for each student at around $3.50 per day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By comparison, the food cost for a typical lunch in a public school is estimated to be around $1, or a little less. But a significant portion of the food used in public schools consists of commodity products donated by the federal governement. Publich schools that participate in the federal meals program receive up to $2.68 in subsidies for each lunch served (about two-thirds of that amount goes to overhead, leaving just a dollar or less for ingredients). Washington Jesuit Academy does not participate in the program and does not receive commodity donations.

While Eraleigh Green was putting the finishing touches on the salad bar, Duane Drake stirred a spaghetti sauce he was making with local plum tomatoes in the kitchen's free-standing kettle cooker. He began peeling eggplants to add to the sauce, along with the meat from some leftover roasted chickens.

“We were getting organic chicken from a farmer in Pennsylvania, but it was expensive,” Drake says. “We're looking for a farmer who does his own processing.”

Drake peeled and sliced carrots, scattered these over sheet pans with snow peas to roast in the convection oven for a vegetable side dish. In just a few minutes, there would be a mob of hungry boys–and teachers–clamoring for lunch. It looked like we'd be ready for them.

Monday: why the administration at Washington Jesuit Academy committed to paying more for better school food.

Paul Newman (who died in 2008) may have still been alive when this bottle of salad dressing was manufactured. Bridget in Minnesota told Consumerist that sge purchased it at her local Target. She got a refund from the store, but she's still a little alarmed that they would sell her such a thing.

Bridget writes:

I am writing to expose Target Retail for stocking on their shelves
expired salad dressing – severely expired salad dressing. I purchased
a bottle of Newman's Own Southwest Dressing, 16oz bottle on March
23rd. When I got back to work to use it, as I was opening it I
noticed the neck of the bottle had an expiration date, and at first I
thought I must be reading that incorrectly, because it said “20OCT09M”
I quickly got second and third opinions on the issue, and we all
decided it was from '09. I called the Target store I had purchased it
and asked them to verify this, I spoke with the grocery department,
and when the employee came back to the phone she confirmed that it was
expired and she apologized.

It's not even worth my time to return a $3 bottle of salad dressing
that expired 5 months ago. This dressing contains milk & egg, and
more attention should have been paid to expiration dates.

Let this serve as a reminder: expired food may not kill or even significantly harm you, but it's still a good idea to check labels before buying.

Material from:How To Get A Children's Book Published

As a special treat, I'm happy to present my friend Ellen Bari, one of the co-founders of Momasphere. (You might recall I interviewed the other co-founder, Melissa Lopata, back in October.)

Ellen was kind enough to share her experience with preserving those moments of our children's lives we want to keep forever, whether for sweet and sentimental reasons, or, like me, for what I lovingly refer to as the Juban Princeling's “Future Bar Mitzvah Slide Show.” (“So you hate me and you think I'm a rotten mother? Why don't I just show all your little school friends and GIRL friends these photos of your toushie from when you were a year old. That's right. Now go do the dishes.”)

Without further ado, the lovely Ellen Bari.

***

Catching Your Children's Precious Moments

My ex-husband recently gave me an old answering machine with 19 saved mystery voicemail messages. I turned the machine on, and was not only surprised, but also thrilled, to hear snippets of my own daughter's voice-almost ten years' worth. It was like listening to her grow up in the space of five minutes. The moments and days fly by and while we think we won't forget, inevitably we do. I started thinking about preserving family artifacts and stories and about how mothers are often uniquely positioned to record three levels of family history: our parents', our own, and our children's.

At the moment, personal memoirs, family histories and genealogy are all the rage. Perhaps this new obsession reflects our increased longevity or the precarious nature of our 21st century lives. Or maybe it's because the tools for recording family histories have become so ubiquitous. Just this month two programs on national TV hit the airwaves. NBC's, Who Do You Think You Are? and the PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. both explore the family histories of famous or renowned Americans, albeit with science and research tools not readily available to most of us. On the PBS website, ordinary folks are invited to share and upload their own not-so-ordinary stories.

Classes that teach memoir writing, photo scanning and interviewing techniques are everywhere. Whether you aim to create a scrapbook, video presentation or family website, local libraries, historical museums and community centers offer a plethora of expertise and instruction that focus on preserving family histories, usually highlighting the trials and tribulations of past generations. For family histories, one need only consult the internet for endless resources, including popular sites like Ancestry.com , Genealogy.com and MyHeritage.com. These days, mothers are encouraged to embrace journaling and the appropriately dubbed “Momoirs,” acknowledging that a woman's experience of motherhood is itself worth documenting. Resources include sites such as momoirs.com, TheMomoirProject.com and, for those just starting out on the motherhood trail, rookiemoms.com.

But what about preserving our kids' stories, and not just the ones they write for school? My daughter, the same little person whose squeaky voice on the machine gave way to a maturing young adult, cited the following quote from Tennesee Williams for her eighth grade graduation speech: “Life is all memory except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick, you hardly catch it going.”

So I've put together a few tips for catching those precious moments, but please view these as merely suggestions and not a mandatory list of archival exercises to burden you further. Pick and choose the ones that work for you and don't agonize over any of the choices- there are no wrong answers!

1. Write a yearly profile. Each year, perhaps at New Year's or on your child's birthday, set aside some time to write about her. Yes, a simple one page account that reflects who she is, what she is into, and perhaps some accomplishments- from first steps to first soccer goal- will prove invaluable in the face of muddled memory. If you don't like to write, make a simple bulleted list, fashioned after the Dewar's or Amex celebrity profiles highlighting her likes and dislikes: favorite drink (as in apple juice), toy, song, dance, friend, fashion statement, band, etc. As your kids grow, you will have a record of their changes from year to year and especially over time.

2. Choose one to five physical artifacts. Like everyone else, the population of Moms is pretty well divided into two groups: the hoarders and the tossers. I am suggesting that both personality types fight their natural tendencies and be selective about the few articles of clothing, stuffed animals or other physical artifacts that you hold onto. Keep a separate box, however simple or elaborately conceived, for each child. Don't stress about what goes in the box!

3. Record their voices. There is nothing like hearing the sound of your child's voice. Ideally, you can get her to say something delicious, but frankly, from my own experience, a simple “Hello, how are you mommy? How are you daddy?” is priceless. With digital technology, this can be as easy as saving a file on your computer, which you date and label and add to each year. I know you think you have this all on video, but when was the last time you actually sat down to watch those home videos you've been dutifully taping?

4. Make a physical or digital photo album. Don't sweat this. Once a year is a perfect opportunity to sort through images, before the piles or numbers become overwhelming and unmanageable. You can limit your selection to 10-20 images per year, and include all of your children in one album, which can reside on your computer, provided you have a good back-up system. You will be so glad you did this when it comes time for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, graduation, engagement or other life cycle event for which you are called upon to put together a presentation!

5. Sort and document art work, school work, etc. limited to 10 items. You do not need every scribble your child has ever done or every math test they've taken. But you will want to keep some drawings, writing assignments, social studies reports or other unique projects. Take this opportunity to photograph some art pieces that are too bulky to keep or those that just don't make the cut. Try to date everything as that kind of information definitely disappears over time.

Please don't spend so much time documenting that you don't enjoy life while it's happening. As your children get older, the process can become an enjoyable collaborative effort where they actively participate in selecting a few of their favorite things. And don't stop after your first child or at age three. While it seems like the big developmental hurdles are behind you at that point, there's a wealth of material ahead that's not to be missed. You may end up starting a family tradition that will serve generations to come. Who knows, your archive might even wind up on a PBS special hundred's of years from now!

Ellen Bari is the co-founder of Momasphere Consulting and Events, which creates innovative programs for moms in and out of the workplace. Ms. Bari is a freelance writer and creative consultant with years of experience developing programs for edutainment and corporate clients and curating thematic and historical museum exhibits on a wide variety of topics. Ms. Bari's upcoming children's book, Jumping Jenny, (Lerner Publishing, Spring 2011) is about a little girl whose buoyant bounce truly knows no bounds. Ellen@momasphere.com

STOCKHOLM — Belgian illustrator and author Kitty Crowther won the 2010 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children's literature Wednesday for her ability to express deep humanism in all her work.

Crowther, 39, has authored more than 30 titles, most which were first published in Belgium and France, the prize jury said.

The annual 5 million kronor ($620,000) award is named after late Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, creator of the Pippi Longstocking book series. It was established by the Swedish government in 2002 and will be handed out by Princess Madeleine in a ceremony June 1.

Crowther's principal works are picture books, including “L'enfant racine” (“The Root Child”) and “La visite de Petite Mort” (“The Visit of Little Death”).

“She maintains the tradition of the picture book while transforming and renewing it,” the jury said in its citation. “In her deeply felt empathy with people in difficulty, she shows ways in which weakness can be turned into strength. Humanism and sympathy permeate and unify her artistry.”

In an interview with the Associated Press, Crowther said she had found out she had won the award at a book fair in Bologna, Italy.

“It's fantastic,” she said by phone, adding she had grown up reading Lindgren's books.

Jury Chairman Larry Lempert called her “a master author,” applauding her way of combining text with illustrations to reach out to children, especially those experiencing hardship.

“She shows great respect for children. She has a way of reaching out to them,” he said. “She provides support for many by the type of subjects she chooses to cover.”

Material from:How To Publish A Childrens Book
LOS ANGELES – A former porn actress says she may reveal more potentially embarrassing information about Tiger Woods after releasing sexually graphic text messages that she claims prove her affair with the golfer.

Joslyn James told The Associated Press on Thursday that she disclosed the messages because she wants people to realize that she was honest when she came forth earlier this year and said Woods had avidly pursued her.

“I just wanted the public to know and the truth to be out there for me to have people see what I was being told and not just judge me for being with a married guy,” she said.

James posted more than 100 texts on her Web site Thursday, including some in which arrangements were made for her to meet with Woods at hotels where he was staying. Others stated a desire for rough sex, including messages dated Aug. 29 in which a person James says is Woods tells her he wants to slap her and that she should beg the next time he sees her.

James, whose real name is Veronica Siwik-Daniels, said she met Woods when she was working at a Las Vegas nightclub he frequented. She said he led her to believe she was the only woman in his life other than his wife.

“If I would have known everything that was going on, and wasn't being lied to, I would have done things differently,” she said.

A request for comment from a Woods spokesman was not immediately returned.

She has saved more than 1,000 texts Woods sent her, James said, and plans to release more in the days ahead.

She posted the first batch just two days after Woods announced he was ending his four-month, self-imposed exile to play at the Masters at Augusta National in Georgia. They could be a distraction to golf's greatest player as he prepares for his comeback.

The final three texts James released Thursday were dated Oct. 4 and indicate the sender became enraged with her, apparently after their relationship was nearly discovered.

“Don't … talk to me,” the final one said. “You almost just ruined my whole life. If my agent and these guys would have seen you there … “

She said the relationship didn't end, however, until several weeks later.

James is only posting messages she says are from Woods and none from herself to the golfer. She said that's because her cell phone quickly overwrites outgoing texts and she wasn't able to save them.

See Also:
20 Raunchy Text Messages Tiger Sent To Porn Star Lover
Is Attack-Lawyer Gloria Allred Behind The Release Of Those Tiger Texts?

Heyzap is liberating games from Facebook, allowing social game makers to publish them directly on the web.

The new platform will let game creators to maximize their audiences for games that have proven themselves on Facebook or the hi5 social network. It takes as little as an hour to half a day to adapt a Facebook or hi5 game for the web. That’s why 15 game publishers, with a monthly combined reach of 50 million users, have signed up already.

Heyzap uses Facebook Connect (which lets non-Facebook apps tap into a Facebook user’s friends list) to preserve the virality of Facebook games on the web. Anyone can take the social games and embed them on any other web site, blog or fan page — much like users embed YouTube videos in web pages with simple cut-and-paste embed code. Users can play with their friends, regardless of whether they are on Facebook or not.

Early Heyzap partners include Hi5, TheBroth, Gameduell and Aeria Games. These publishers will essentially double the reach of their games overnight to more than 150,000 sites in Heyzap’s network, said Jude Gomilla, c0-founder of Heyzap in San Francisco. Games going live this week are TheBroth’s “Hoop Fever Live,” and RacconX’s “FishStory,” among others.

“We think that every game developer could benefit from this,” said Gomila.

Heyzap works with Facebook Connect application programming interfaces. It simulates all of the viral features of Facebook, such as posting user updates to streams, sending gifts to friends, and inviting friends to join games. Heyzap has a couple of easy ways to make Flash or non-Flash games work on sites other than Facebook. And Heyzap will give the participating web sites a 15 percent share of the social game revenues. The converted games can use the startup’s payment system, but major game publishers can continue to use the same payment systems they are accustomed to on Facebook.

Heyzap’s existing network, which monetizes Flash games across the web, includes 25,000 games from 2,700 developers. The company, started by Gomilla and Immad Akhund, is in the middle of doubling its staff. It has raised funding from Y Combinator and Union Square Ventures.

Back in December, Facebook announced one in a series of features to make Flash games more social.

Next Story: Y Combinator presents 26 new startups Previous Story: DEMO: Yumit unites foodies with loads of mouthwatering photos

Sourse:Greek Salad Recipe

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Sourse:Seafood Salad Recipe

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Is the food in New Orleans Creole, or Cajun? Mary Goodbody offers up six things you probably didn’t know about the two cuisines.

Outsiders may know the food as being Creole…or is it Cajun? Does it matter? Aren’t they the same thing? It can be very confusing. While the two styles of cooking share a lot of ingredients and flavors, they are distinct from each other. Both are absolutely heavenly, full of flavors that dance on the tongue and waltz their way down the throat. They both rely on thick, flour-based roux, bell peppers, garlic, celery, onions, and chiles. Both can be hot and fiery, yet not all the food is spicy. Both include oysters, crawfish, crab, shrimp, and fish from the Gulf of Mexico, and pork, fowl, and beef. The Cajuns favor a spicy sausage called andouille, while the Creoles make chaurice.

Today, most New Orleans chefs cook “Louisiana food,” a term favored by Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme, who more than 20 years ago recognized that the two cuisines, while distinct, shared enough commonalities that they could happily come together. And yet it’s not just purists who know that the two styles have their own characteristics. Here are six ways the cuisines are alike and different.

“Creole food is greatly influenced by French settlers but also has significant traces of Spanish, Portuguese, German, English, African, and Native American cooking.”

1. How it all began.
Originating in New Orleans, Creole cuisine is the result of influences from the many nationalities who settled in the city. Creole food is greatly influenced by French settlers but also has significant traces of Spanish, Portuguese, German, English, African, and Native American cooking. Many think Creole food is a direct outgrowth of French cuisine, but it’s an amalgam of so many culinary styles that it is far less “French” than Cajun cooking. It is truly the cuisine of the city of New Orleans. It tends to be a little more sophisticated and refined than Cajun food. Some people label Creole food as “city food” and Cajun as “country food.”

Cajun food developed separately from Creole and has a longer history. In the middle of the 18th century, the English exiled the French who originally settled in Nova Scotia (which at the time was called Acadia). Many of these uprooted people made their way to the bayou country of Louisiana, where they were free to speak French and practice Catholicism. Once there, they continued to fish and farm as they always had but had to learn about a very different climate and a host of unfamiliar natural resources available to them. Relying on fish, seafood, game, the vegetables they could grow, and domesticated animals they could raise, they created a distinctive cuisine with roots in the cooking of southern France. Because most Cajuns—which is a bowdlerized pronunciation of Acadian—were poor, the food tends to be hearty and cooked in one pot, which is an easier, more efficient way to feed many mouths and hard-laboring folks.

2. Only in Louisiana.
The most authentic Creole cooking is found in private homes. Today most restaurants in New Orleans serve a tasty marriage of Cajun and Creole cooking so that there is less distinction between the two than there used to be. Some restaurant food is strictly Creole: shrimp Creole, which is shrimp cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers, celery, onion, and garlic; pain perdu, which is New Orleans-style French toast; and bananas Foster, a popular dessert invented at Brennan’s restaurant years ago, to name a few. Peacemakers are Creole creations, supposedly developed for errant husbands to take home to their wives after a night of debauchery—because, the reasoning goes, what wife could resist a sandwich chock full of fried oysters, slathered with tangy tartar sauce, and wedged inside the French Quarter’s best, freshly baked bread?

3. The role of rice.
Louisiana residents eat more rice than most Americans, a fact that’s easily explained when you take into account that both Creole and Cajun dishes are cooled and tempered by the addition of white rice, either as a bed beneath the food (most often true of Creole) or an ingredient stirred into the dish (most often true of Cajun). Dirty rice, a Cajun dish made by mixing chicken gizzards and livers into rice, is rich and filling; calas, which are deep-fried rice balls, are very much Creole breakfast food and used to be sold early in the morning on the streets of the city.

Marquette, Mich., which has also been named one of the 100 “Best Art Towns in America,” was described as offering “wonderful views of the Lake Superior waterfront and an equally enchanting downtown.”

In Fort Collins, Colo., the Rocky Mountains overlook Old Town Square, which “epitomizes the ideal of a bustling American main street.”

Also on the list was Provincetown, Mass., a New England seaport town and popular vacation destination that offers art galleries and upscale restaurants along with stunning National Seashore dunes and beaches.

Simsbury, Conn., was highlighted for top-rated restaurants, historic sites and parks, and “real working farms that produce everything from wine to sweet corn to homemade ice cream.”

Rockland, Maine, is known for its “maritime past and present,” with great seafood, historic lighthouses and museums.

Chestnut Hill, Pa., features historic homes ranging from Federal to Modernist, a boutique shopping district, and nearby Wissahickon Valley Park.

Huntsville, Ala., preserves “the largest collection of antebellum homes” in the state, but is also famous for developing rockets early in the U.S. space program.

The Crooked Road, also known as Virginias Heritage Music Trail, celebrates the regions Appalachian heritage and unique music culture.

Bastrop, Texas, was cited for “traditional Texas charm and historic buildings set along the banks of the Colorado River.”

Sitka, Alaska, has a unique diverse culture that includes the heritage of native tribes, 19th century Russian settlers, and Alaska frontier history.

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust, encouraged travelers to seek out the designated communities. “These places have masterfully transformed colorful pasts and sustainable futures into the ultimate tourism experiences,” he said in a statement.

The winner of the “Fan Favorite” contest will be announced March 1.

Read the whole story: AP

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Muscle Relaxers For

Is it a good sign or a bad one for the American economy if Walmart's sales are down nationwide? Does it mean that the affluent are back on their feet and no longer forced to shop downscale, or that none of us has any money at all?

If you live in the real world, you probably guessed “the second one.” You are correct.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart stores, said during the call that the same-store sales decline was fueled by a “slight drop in traffic to Wal-Mart stores in the fourth quarter” as well as a decline in the total value of purchases that customers were making at Wal-Mart.

Grocery and consumer electronics were impacted the most by price deflation while sales of health and wellness, and pharmacy products were strong, said Castro-Wright.

Wal-Mart said it expects same-store sales to be flat to “plus or minus 1%” in its first quarter

.

So, people are buying fewer TVs and frozen chicken fingers at Walmart, but still buying ibuprofen and shampoo. However, as Walmart goes, so goes the nation (a scary thought.) If all consumer spending is down, not just Walmart, that is a bad sign for the rest of the economy.

Wal-Mart suffers sales decline in key quarter [CNN Money]

“An aspirin a day” has become a staple of conventional heart-health wisdom. But for millions, this deceptively powerful regimen could be causing irreparable harm.

Are you one of the 40 million Americans who take a low-dose aspirin every day (or every other day) to prevent a heart attack or stroke? Who gave you that idea? Your spouse, a friend, or maybe a TV or magazine ad telling you that aspirin protects your heart by “keeping your blood flowing freely?”

If it wasn’t your doctor, and you’re a generally healthy person who is taking aspirin because you hope it will keep a heart attack or stroke at bay, you should probably stop. Mounting evidence, reported recently in a number of leading medical journals, suggests doing so is a bad idea if you’re healthy and not at significant risk for a heart attack. Furthermore, these studies now show that the potential risk of cerebral hemorrhage, serious gastrointestinal bleeding, and ulcers anywhere from your mouth to your anus outweighs any heart benefits the aspirin might provide.

If aspirin was introduced as a new drug today, it would probably require a prescription.

Aspirin Is a Powerful Drug

The fact is we only think of aspirin as benign because it’s sold over the counter, it’s inexpensive, and it’s been around for a century. But if aspirin was introduced as a new drug today, it would probably require a prescription. This is a serious drug that can have serious consequences when used too casually. So as a preventative cardiologist, I urge you to keep the following points in mind before popping another one:

• Aspirin should not be taken regularly without a cardiovascular risk assessment by your doctor. Some doctors, including some cardiologists, routinely prescribe aspirin for every patient or base their risk assessment only on the conventional risk factors. They may not be up to date on the latest aspirin literature or on the value of the newer cardiovascular tests.

• Even small doses of daily aspirin—including baby aspirin at a dose of 81 milligrams—can increase your risk of ulcers and bleeding. Buffered and enteric-coated aspirin do not eliminate the risk of developing an ulcer. Your risk for bleeding is still two to four times greater than if you were not taking aspirin at all. Aspirin can also interact with other drugs, including other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), such as ibuprofen, naproxen, or Motrin; blood-thinning medications such as warfarin; and antiplatelet agents such as clopidogrel or ticlopidine.

• Having diabetes does not necessarily mean you need to take preventive aspirin. Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease and for years the American Diabetes Association recommended low-dose aspirin for every diabetic patient over the age of 40. Now, in new guidelines issued this month, the ADA has changed that recommendation to consider aspirin as a primary-prevention strategy only in those with diabetes at an above-average cardiovascular risk. This includes men over 50 or women over 60 with at least one additional major risk factor. In other words, according to the ADA, younger patients without associated risk factors appear not to benefit from taking aspirin.

• Know your real risk. If you have known risk factors for heart disease—family history, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking—ask your doctor if you are a candidate for a carotid artery ultrasound and a CT scan for coronary calcium to determine the real age of your arteries—more on that below.

That said, if you’ve already had a heart attack or stroke, or if you’ve been told by your doctor that you’re at high or moderate risk for one (and the benefit is likely to outweigh the dangers), aspirin could save your life. I like to tell my high-risk heart patients that the cholesterol-filled soft plaque that has built up in their arteries is like a ticking time bomb, and that once it goes off (or ruptures) aspirin can be their best friend. That’s because aspirin acts as both an anti-inflammatory and an inhibitor of blood clotting. And it’s the blood clots that form at the site of a ruptured soft plaque that can suddenly block blood flow to the heart muscle, causing a potentially fatal heart attack.

Sourse:Seafood Salad Recipe

Pensacola man accused in seafood conspiracy involving Gulf Coast restaurants arrested in Connecticut

By

Press-Register staff

February 11, 2010, 8:48PM

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A Pensacola man indicted in Mobile, Ala., on charges he took part in an international conspiracy to illegally
smuggle and sell mislabeled seafood to Gulf Coast restaurants was arrested Monday in
Connecticut, the Pensacola News Journal reports.

John J. Popa, 57, was one of 3 people named on a 28-count
indictment, which was returned by a federal grand jury in Mobile on
Jan. 28. Popa's co-defendants — Karen L. Blyth and David H.M. Phelps,
both of Arizona — pled not guilty to the charges Wednesday in U.S.
district court in Mobile, the News Journal reports.

Not
present at the arraignment was Popa — former owner of Reel Fish &
Seafood on Copter Road and New England House of Seafood on Gulf Beach
Highway — who was arrested at his new residence in Plainfield, Conn. on
Monday, according to U.S. Department of Justice officials.

• Read the complete Pensacola News Journal report.
  

WKRG.com News

All anticipation converges today at the Olympics opening ceremonies held at BC Place. In honor, I saved the conclusion for the best of Vancouver for today. Rather than just where to eat, this final feature centers on how to experience our culinary scene to the fullest.

Vancouver proudly ranks as the world's most livable city and is certainly among the most beautiful. Surrounded by scenic beaches and snow-capped mountains, we never run out of outdoor activities. Further more, mother nature has blessed us with plenty of fertile farming soil to produce superb produce, wines, and meats.

This top 10 celebrates the most prized and cherished aspects of our food culture as a salute to British Columbia. Keep your eyes open; here's also how to spot our local favorites when you're dining and shopping about.

Oyama Sausage Co. [Photograph: Melody Fury]

1. Local Markets: Explore our colorful array of organic and heirloom produce and distinguished artisanal products such as roasted hazelnuts, Verjus and Balsamic, honeycomb and wild mushrooms. Granville Island Public Market is the real deal. Unlike other tourist-centric markets *coughPikePlacecough,* locals actually shop here for groceries, fine foods, and specialty goods.

Be sure to visit Oyama Sausage Company. These meat artisans with honest farm-to-table principles have been making premium sausages, hams, pâtés and cured meats for five generations. Terra Breads and Stuart's Bakery fills the market with the smell of freshly baked bread. La Baguette, located just outside the market, specializes in authentic French breads.

Stuart's Bakery [Photograph: Melody Fury]

Farmer's Markets run throughout the city in the summer but they don't quit during the Winter. On February 13th and 27th, the Winter market will take place at Wise Hall, 1882 Adanac Street at Victoria Drive (map).

2. Sustainable Seafood: Located just off the Pacific shores, it's no secret that BC has some of the finest seafood and sushi in the world. However, take care to confirm whether your sashimi is actually from our waters. Our favorite local shellfish include Qualicum Beach scallops, BC's blue mussels, littleneck clams, and the prized geoduck. We also have a huge assortment of oysters off BC's shores (Chef's creek, Pacific Rim Petites, Stellar Bay, Kusshi, Effingham…). Learn more about our oysters.

When dining out, look for the Ocean Wise symbol on menus. Ocean Wise is the Vancouver Aquarium conservation program to “help restaurants and their customers make environmentally friendly seafood choices.” Some sustainable fish varieties they recommend are rainbow trout, tilapia, channel catfish, sturgeon, and Arctic char.

Fresh Local Oysters [Photograph: Melody Fury]

3. Local Wine and Beer: Quality wines from BC's Okanagan Valley and Vancouver Island gained increasing International attention. No longer confined to Ice Wine alone, our province now is bursting with everything from deep Syrahs to complex Cab Sauvs. Blasted Church, Road 13, Township 7, Burrowing Owl—the list goes on and on so be sure to sample some with your next meal. They can also be purchased at any BC Liquor store or independent wine store.

Local Wines [Photograph: Melody Fury]

BC's microbreweries deserve just as much love. Granville Island Brewing's assortment of beers can now be found in nearly every bar and restaurant. Numerous craft ales and lagers from our own backyard such as Red Truck, Bowen Island, and Okanagan Spring are also great companions for the games.

4. Artisan Sake: This clean and crisp rice wine merits its own category because it's an alcohol rarely brewed outside of Japan. Located in the center of Granville Island, Osake brews three Junmai Nama sake, two Junmai Ginjo sake, and even a sparking sake. Masa Shiroki, the dedicated sake maker, has gone as far as harvesting his own rice! Stop by to sample three styles of sake for only $5 and to learn more about this ancient craft.

Osake, Granville Island [Photograph: Melody Fury]

5. Handcrafted Cheeses: In the skilled hands of cheesemakers, the milk from grass-fed animals blossoms into a medley of delicious, natural cheeses. Farmhouse Natural Cheeses from Agassiz and Salt Spring Island's goat cheeses are among my favorites. I can't get enough of Salt Spring's Blue Juliette. Look for those and many others at these independent cheese shops: Les Amis du Fromage, Mount Pleasant Cheese.

Long Communal Table at Salty Tongue [Photograph: Frank Lim]

People gets sick once in a while. Itis expected. That's why people have sick time at work. Therefore there are doctors and insurance organizations. But here are a lot of general stuff to make sure you stay in principal perfect health. You should wash your hands. In general, not enough they do this. When taking the lavatory. Studies have been shown and a shockingly low percentage of people wash their hands after using the restroom or before meals.

I always say: Consume water. Liquid cures all sickness. Dehydration is the culprit of many common ailments like headaches and even bloating. Eight cups of water is the minimum so make sure you're getting at least that much. Keep in mind that fruits and vegetable juices count towards your daily dose of hydrating drink. Physical activity. Sport does not have to mean hours on the treadmill sweating away to emaciation. Sport can be as easy as walking across the parking lot to the grocery store or doing housework. That's right! Airless burns calories intake! The more active in basic you are the more exercise you're doing. Think getting a passometer. Passometer's have shown that people who wear pedometer's are more effective than those who do not.

There are so many diet supplements you can't decide which works and which ones don't. It's hard complicated and confusing to choose which is perfected at helping you accomplishing your weight loss goals. I've been hearing a lot of things about the diet supplement called Resveratrol Select and I've heard a few about Dietrine. I think they both are safe and effective weight loss products.

Resveratrol is produced and marketed by Ultra Herbal LLC. It is a member of the Natural Products Association. This fat burning product has numerous benefits besides weight loss. It can help lower cholesterol, boost your immune system, boost your metabolism and improve your skin's appearance.

What's In It?

Resveratrol is a compound found in red wine that helps to burn fat and give you many health benefits. It works by burning fat quicker than other weight loss products. This product has the ingredient polygon cuspidatum root extract; this has high concentrations of Resveratrol. It contains Chromium which is use to stabilize your metabolism blood sugar. EGCG which comes from green tea and it is loaded with antioxidants to give you more energy to burn more fat.

It also has Caffeine in it It has L- Thiamine a amino acid found in green tea and some mushrooms.

Advantages

Resveratrol Select has many health advantages, it has the beneficial ingredient Resveratrol which burn fat more quickly, it has a high potency of EGCG which helps with the immune system and gives your body more energy and antioxidants that helps and protects the body from viruses, diseases and other health conditions. Antioxidant also fights the damaging effects of the free radicals in your body that causes early signs of aging and health complications. Another ingredient is Chromium, which helps aid in the fat burning properties of the other ingredients in the product. Another advantage is that you don't have to drink red wine that has alcohol in it to get the full benefits of Resveratrol.

The Side Effects

Since this product has high concentrations of caffeine it is recommended that you don't consume other foods and beverages that contain caffeine. So it might not be suitable for every individual.

It can cause, nervousness, irritability, insomnia and rapid heart beat. Resveratrol shouldn't be use by pregnant or lactating women, people that are on medications, especially heart medicines contact doctor before taking this product. In no way shape of form should children take this supplement.

Dietrine is for carb lovers. If you love your French fries, cakes, cookies, breads, pastas and etc then this weight loss product is the one for you. Dietrine does one thing and one thing only if focuses on your carb consumption. It allows you to eat your favorite foods with gaining the extra pounds.

What's In It?

Dietrine is safe and all natural 100%. It's pure and simple it contains a combination of botanical ingredients that supports a low-carb diet. It has a neutralizer called Phase 2 starch. It is caffeine free and it is an all natural substance that came from kidney beans.

The Advantages

This wonderful supplement controls your appetite, prevents your body from absorbing the carbohydrates and kicks your metabolism into high gear. The Phase 2 Neutralizer stops the process of starch into its glucose form which is then transformed into fat. It also gets rid of the calories from the starch.

Disadvantages

During the digestive process the enzymes turns the carbs into sugar. This is sugar or calories and can be burned through physical activity or it will be stored as fat for future use. If you are not active the fat cells can build up and that can lead to weight gain.

This is one of the safest weight loss products I've seen so far because it is 100% all natural, you can still eat your favorite foods and there are no harsh side effects to the body. One thing, you do have to do your part in achieving your weight loss goals

Lorna Darden

This is the time of year when many lucky high school seniors have the opportunity to select a hat of their next school and pledge to don that prestigious university's colors for the next four years. But for Arizona State, the time for winning is not four years down the road—the winning must commence immediately. 

The coach's hot seat has begun to simmer, and the grumblings of displeased alumni and loyal fans in Phoenix have started to rain down on the sun-drenched campus. So Dennis Erickson and his staff set out on a mission to find the best possible athletes in the country to drive this program in the right direction, once again. 

Many times the casual fan who likes to follow his local school or beloved alma mater tends to just look at the rankings of ESPN, Scout.com, and Rivals for his recruiting fulfillment. 

As coaches and staff members evaluate talent, you can be sure that they don't care about how many stars a player received. The 40-yard dash, bench press, overall weight room numbers, and the aptitude and final product the athlete shows on the field—those are the numbers and ratings that the Arizona State coaching staff has analyzed precisely in recruiting.

A top 25 recruiting class does not happen overnight, or in seven days. The recruiting process is nearly a two-year marathon of evaluating thousands of possible players to then narrow that field down to about 20 or 25 future student-athletes. 

This past year for ASU was a rocky one, to say the least. Constant ups and downs, speed bumps, and virtual road blocks found their way onto the Sun Devils' schedule, and the recruiting efforts were affected both positively and negatively through every single step. 

But now is the time of year when coaches sell their respective programs, and for Arizona State, there are plenty of positive selling pitches. The most important and resounding might include playing time and future success, because recently there has not been much past success in Tempe on the football field.

However, this class might turn the tide and catapult this “sleeping giant” in the desert to future Pac-10 success.

Erickson and his staff have addressed their glaring weaknesses thus far in recruiting, and the best might be yet to come.

Erickson has already signed and enrolled three talent-rich junior college transfers, including highly touted, game-changing receiver George Bell. Bell also drew offers from Nebraska, Oregon, Colorado, and in-state rival Arizona, among others.

Accompanying Bell in Tempe will also be Chris De Armas, an offensive tackle from El Camino College in California. De Armas (6'4″, 295 pounds), who originally committed to play at South Florida in 2005, will attempt his second stint at a Division I university.

Now, ASU's third early enrollee happened to be stolen right out from Arizona's Mike Stoops' grasp. Eddie Elder, a 6'0″, 190-pound safety from San Mateo College, originally committed to play for the Wildcats up until a recent official visit to Tempe.

In all three of these commits, the Sun Devils filled massive holes with players that can contribute early and will have the experience of going through spring drills with the team.

ASU's offense was bland to say the least, but that vanilla style of offense might have been due to the lack of a consistent downfield threat. The four-star wide receiver can stretch the defense with his size and speed, being clocked at 4.42 seconds. In 2008, Bell had 80 catches for 1,263 yards and 12 touchdowns.

The loss of Ryan McFoy and Jarrell Holman in the secondary will hurt, but, once again, Erickson and his staff addressed this weakness and signed Eddie Elder to compete for the job in the spring. 

Erickson did not stop there with his defensive recruitment, either. The Sun Devils have already gained commitments from Devan Spann, an undersized cornerback from Gardena, Calif., and, among others, Nduka Onyeali, an impressive athlete from Denver, Colo., who will ideally fill the void of the departed Dexter Davis.

Onyeali is 6'1″ and 240 pounds, and, to couple with his size, he also runs a 4.5 forty-yard dash. His speed and size will be an added element to ASU's already daunting defense; the question is whether is an outside linebacker or a defensive end.

Onyeali might be a safety blanket for a future commit the Sun Devils have lined up down the road.

The Sun Devils have been eying that instant replacement for Davis at defensive end; however, ASU might have to wait until signing day to hear from All-American Jackson Jeffcoat from Plano, Texas.

As many might question, “Why would possibly the best athlete in the whole class choose ASU over the nation's elite?” Well, Jeffcoat's father played at Arizona State, and the appeal to play on a potentially dominant defense at ASU and to produce instantly are also positive selling pitches to Jeffcoat.

Jeffcoat would not be the only player in recent years to have so much hype and commit to ASU in hope of rejuvenating the program, though. Just last year, Vontaze Burfict committed to play for Erickson and the Sun Devils, and that turned out pretty good in year one.

Now this recruiting season, Jeffcoat could join the aforementioned Bell, a four-star tight end in Josh Fulton, a highly sought-after running back from recruiting hotbed Norco, Calif., in Deantre Lewis, and quite possibly the top offensive tackle in California, Brice Schwab. Schwab originally committed to play for USC, but once Pete Carroll jumped ship and went north to lead the Seattle Seahawks, Schwab opened up his recruitment, and the Sun Devils landed a 6'8″, 320-pound offensive line anchor.

There is no doubt that the Sun Devils have holes to fill. No one is going to say a 4-8 record was good season, and the coaches are not settling on average talent. Erickson and his staff have established their recruiting hotbeds all over the southwest, ranging from California, the Great Northwest, and into Texas and Colorado.

As of right now, Arizona State has 22 commitments from athletes all over the country; three of them are signed and enrolled, and don't be surprised if there are a few more tricks up ASU's sleeves to pull in some more top-tier talent come signing day on Feb. 3.

As we head down the final stretch toward UFC 109 in Las Vegas over Super Bowl Weekend, it's clear the Ultimate Fighting Championship still has a comfortable edge on its biggest domestic competitors as far as technical practitioners are concerned.

Yet, the 800-pound gorilla's reign as the sole purveyor of relevant MMA in the United States of America is officially gathering cobwebs.

Most fans of combat sports will tell you that polished excellence is only part of what makes a scintillating blood sport and it's not a required element.

Exquisite technique certainly improves the product and vastly at that, but it's still not a constituent of every great gladiatorial endeavor.

This simple truism should be remembered when considering the sloppy, yet satisfying card put on by Strikeforce in Miami—sophisticated and advanced artistry do not equate with excitement, but excitement does equate with survival in this game.

Survival means relevancy.

I didn't get the pay-per-view, so my observations are limited to what Showtime aired, i.e. the main card. Nevertheless, I'm gonna recklessly extrapolate from what I did see because I don't imagine the lesser members of the Strikeforce stable offer refinement (for the most part).

What I did see were some very marketable names buffered by some very marketable storylines. Oh, and I saw a couple thoroughly entertaining fights.

“Ruthless” Robbie Lawler spent 99 percent of his fight with “Marvelous” Melvin Manhoef getting obliterated. I'm not sure how he was still putting weight on his front leg by the end of the massacre.

Of course, I'm really at a loss to explain the three gnarly shots that came out of nowhere and brutalized the Dutch fighter.

Manhoef would probably agree, since the trio left Lawler with the only functioning brain in the cage.

In the main event, Nick Diaz used his typical arsenal of pepper shots to rattle Marius “The Whitemare” Zaromskis (who deserved to lose for the nickname alone). The Lithuanian fighter showed he wasn't totally out of his depth as Strikeforce's Welterweight Champion, even managing to throttle the Stockton native on one occasion.

Ultimately, though, the more accomplished American asserted his boxing supremacy and settled the matter convincingly.

As far as names for the bright lights, Strikeforce trotted out most of its headliners, and the roster has become an impressive array, if for adrenaline more so than elite, well-rounded competition (in no particular order):

1.  “Dangerous” Dan Henderson

The UFC and PRIDE FC veteran is a known quantity amongst MMA aficionados. You can't ride any Hendo flamboyance to the promotional promised land; instead, you must make do with a resume glittering with legendary names and a propensity to deliver nuclear right hands.

 

2.  Gegard “The Dreamcatcher” Mousasi

This beast is finally emerging from Fedor Emelianenko's considerable Red Devil Sport Club shadow.  The current Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion is no joke; there is no doubt he'd be a serious source of anxiety even in the UFC's most stacked division.

 

3.  Nick Diaz

Whether you enjoy his teasing punches and bad-boy posturing or not, you must acknowledge the new Strikeforce Welterweight Champion has a knack for bringing the crowd to its feet.  Either in victory or defeat.

 

4.  Brett “The Grim” Rogers

Like I said, technical excellence isn't the selling point here. Regardless, anyone who gets in the cage with Fedor and dishes out some punishment before the inevitable happens is someone on whom to keep an eye.

If Rogers can improve as age and raw ability suggest, this is a sincere problem at heavyweight.

 

5.  Herschel Walker

Consider me impressed. Granted, it's an insult to aluminum to call Greg Nagy a tomato can, but Walker still looked competent out there.

A decent grappler probably would've submitted the ex-NFLer quickly with some type of leg lock, but Walker did enough to guarantee eyeballs for his next appearance.

 

6.  Bobby Lashley

In contrast to Walker, I'd say Lashley underwhelmed against an embarrassingly out-of-shape Wes Sims.

Still, the sheer physical magnetism of another former professional wrestler and the unblemished record will conspire to make Lashley an ongoing phenomenon. He's a far freakin' cry from Brock Lesnar at this point, but that's no great condemnation.

 

7.  Melvin Manhoef

If you saw the striking exhibition the Dutch fighter almost completed, you know this dude will draw a crowd.

Even though Lawler caught him to shut off the lights, Manhoef is a savage striker, and those always put bottoms in seats.

 

Toss in respectable names and genuine up-and-comers like Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem, Middleweight Champion Jake Shields, Muhammad Lawal, and Scott Smith, and you've got a strong nucleus from which to expand.

Not to mention the Last Emperor. Fedor Emelianenko, considered by many to be the best and most terrifying fighter on the planet, makes for a nice little avenue of expansion as well as emergency plan.

Nope, Strikeforce's cupboard isn't bare by any means.

It's probably not going to be producing the world's best MMA combatants too frequently. Nor can it compete with the obscene depth and overall superiority of the UFC.

But it doesn't need to as long as it keeps the fans cheering.

And Strikeforce appears to have the tools to do just that.

 

**www.pva.org**