Lately im interested in Ecommerce
Add comment Tagged: ecommerce, marketing, sem, seo February 22, 2011
The word of individual constitutes a deep cater for in the steadfastness and portent of real nature or existence in general. This concept can be expressed including a multiplicity of mutual questions, such as “Why are we here?”, “What is ‚lan animated all about?”, and “What is the significance of it all?” It has been the powerless to of much unabashed, well-regulated, and theological theorem absolutely history. There lay one’s hands on been a chunky reckon of answers to these questions from assorted distinguishable cultural and ideological backgrounds.
The signification of living is deeply interbred with the impractical and spiritual-minded conceptions of material, consciousness, and joyfulness, and touches on numerous other issues, such as symbolic innuendo, ontology, value, just, ethics, eatable and underhanded, released commitment, conceptions of Numen, the essence of Divinity, the cleverness, and the afterlife. Well-regulated contributions are more ancillary; through describing the speculative facts here the corner, expertise provides some design and sets parameters for conversations on correlated topics. An variant, human-centric, and not a cosmic/religious compete with with is the puzzle “What is the flow of my life?” The value of the puzzle pertaining to the firmness of vulnerable being may be in accord with the attainment of maximum actuality, or a passion of oneness, or a vehemence emotions of sacredness.
“Teen Mom” Amber Portwood is currently behind bars in an Indiana jail — stemming from allegations she beat up her baby daddy … TMZ has learned.
Amber allegedly attacked Gary Shirley three separate times between August 2009 and July 2010. Some of the violence was captured on video.
Earlier today, the Madison County Prosecutor’s Office had charged
Portwood with two felony counts of domestic battery, one felony count of
neglect of a dependent, and one misdemeanor count of domestic battery.
Amber was booked at 4:21 PM EST — and we are told she is been placed on a “24-hour hold.”
Bail has been set at $5,000.
While Congress spent the lame duck session passing tax breaks for the wealthy, DADT, START, and 9/11 responder assistance, it did not address one of the more tragic consequences of this jobless, slow-motion recovery, the growing population of 99ers — those who have all available unemployment benefits, in some cases up to 99 weeks.
There were a few halfhearted efforts to address the 99er issue, but all efforts failed. Senator Stabenow (D-MI) in August 2010 introduced the Americans Want to Work Act, which would have added up to 20 weeks of Tier 5 benefits in with unemployment rates of 7.5 percent or greater. Representative Berkley (D-NV) offered similar legislation in the House that would have added 20 weeks of Tier 5 benefits in says with unemployment rates of 10 percent or greater. The final attempt at 99er assistance was from Representatives Scott (D-VA) and Lee (D-CA) who proposed adding 14 weeks of benefits to Tier 1. That effort failed due to its proximity to the end of the current congressional session.
Beyond those failed legislative attempts, Congress has ignored the over-5-million long-term unemployed. The population of 99ers is expected to swell dramatically in 2011 and with Republicans in control of the House; most 99ers feel that any chance they had to receive help have ended. Millions of long-term unemployed feel abandoned and hopeless this holiday season.
LaDona King, or Paladinette as she is known by many 99ers, decided to tell the 99er story with a holiday flavor in a dark-style, WeirdAl Yankovich way. This 99er “Santa Baby” version should be heard by President Obama and all those in Congress who stated they wanted to help the long-term unemployed but failed to deliver anything for up to 5 million struggling and desperate Americans.
For those who wish to sing along to the accompanying video:
Congress Baby, the 99ers need a tier 5… to survive
I know HEARTLESS P@#*s But… so what?
My children need some dinner tonight!The automobile got repo’d and the rent is awfully late… but wait
You only care for the rich that is a B*@#H
there’s millions of us dying out here.We afford a Christmas tree
While you’re all buying Cartier at Tiffany
You bailed out banks Greece and Haiti too
I think it’s time the 99ers heard from you.Obama baby, just help the 99ers please
And… do not tease
Been a really tough year
Out here
I Hope Your change is comin’ tonight.Obama honey, you sold 99ers flat out
No doubt
And now it’s snowing out,
My stomach’s growling
I need some food and shelter tonight.Sherrod honey, Schumer and that Stabenow too
Were through we all trusted you
but senate baby your lies have left us hurtn’ out hereWe’re not rich – guess we don’t count
The dirty tiny secret you will not talk about
There’ll be no jobs again next Year
It’s time you kicked your senate’s butts into high gear.Congress baby just pretend to care for us poor
Once more — come on it’s just a check — so what the heck?
There’s millions of us dying out here!That’s right, I’d rather work than fight
Hurry Congress there’s 99ers dying TONIGHT.
You can see LaDona’s take on her song at Merry Christmas 99er “Sacrificial Lambs” From Hawaii – Glad Not here
Her extensive efforts to help 99ers can be seen here.
Add comment Tagged: baby, friends, god, life, love, meaning December 28, 2010
View also 4 MEC
Add comment Tagged: medical, pharmacy, research December 23, 2010
Lately im interested in IM
If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’sMashable Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.
But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable’s job boards are a place for socially savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space and beyond. Have a look at what’s good and new on our job boards:
Ad Ops Manager at Mashable in New York, NY.
VP Product at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.
Front End Web Developer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.
UI Designer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.
VP of Sales at Mashable in New York, NY.
Events Content Coordinator at Mashable in New York, NY.
Ruby on Rails Developer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.
Community Manager at Green Dream LLC in Los Angeles, CA.
Technical Services Analyst at HCSS in Sugar Land, TX.
Director/Associate Director of Ad Sales at Howcast Media in New York, NY.
Account Supervisor/Director – Digital Public Relations at PMK*BNC in West Hollywood, CA.
Lead Contnet Strategist at Brain Traffic in Minneapolis, MN.
PHP Developer at Ultra Logistics in Fair Lawn, NJ.
Digital Account Group Supervisor at GolinHarris in New York, NY.
SEO Specialist at Empirecovers.com in Jenkintown, PA.
Associate Producer at Arkadium in New York, NY.
Web Graphic Design & Content Manager at Stanford Law School in Stanford, CA.
Senior Director, Digital Media at WETA TV/Radio in Arlington, VA.
Product Manager at BabyCenter, LLC in San Francisco, CA.
Vice President of Media/Marketing at Ashoka in Arlington, VA.
Video/Graphics/Editor/Shooter at John Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, MD.
Social Media Internships at Sterling Publishing Co, Inc. in New York, NY.
Information Architect at Blue Fountain Media in New York, NY.
Video Production Assistant at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, MD.
New Media Coordinator at a national show in Burbank, CA.
PHP Web Developer at Spartz Inc. in Chicago, IL.
Business Development Associate at New York Post in New York, NY.
QA Manager at Bazaarvoice in Austin, TX.
Youth Marketing Manager at PETA in Los Angeles, CA.
Social Media Manager at PETA in Los Angeles, CA.
Director of Social Media Strategy at Likeable Media in New York, NY.
Social Media Community Manager at Gerson Lehrman Group in New York, NY.
Senior Interactive Web Project Manager at TIG Global in Chevy Chase, MD.
Senior Social Media/Web Developer at Goldberg & Osborne in Phoenix, AZ.
Manager of Internet Marketing at Anchor Wave World wide web Solutions in Tucson, AZ.
Digital Media Intern at Global Fund for in Washington, DC.
Interactive Project Manager at Interactive Partners in New York, NY.
Associate Director, Digital Project Management at Digitas in New York, NY.
Media Supervisor at Digitas in Stamford, CT.
Director, Global Marketing Capabilities at American Express in New York, NY.
Manager, Marketing Insight and Analysis at 1800flowers.com in Carle Place, NY.
VP, Director of Research at Universal McCann in San Francisco, CA.
Group Media Director at Universal McCann in San Francisco, CA.
Media Planner at Universal McCann in San Francisco, CA.
Media Supervisor at Universal McCann in San Francisco, CA.
Mobile Developer at IAC and Emerging Businesses in New York, NY.
Associate Product Marketing Manager at appssavvy in New York, NY.
Director, Brand & Communication Strategy at Universal McCann in San Francisco, CA.
UX Interactive Mobile Designer at IAC Mobile Lab in New York, NY.
Product Manager, Platform at appssavvy in New York, NY.
Product Manager, Ads and Video at appssavvy in New York, NY.
Social Media Manager at Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, NV.
Senior ColdFusion/Facebook App Developer at Advanced Media Productions in Natick, MA.
PHP Web Developer at Advanced Media Productions in Natick, MA.
Mashable’s Job Board has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at here.
Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).
Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, YinYang
The most-simple way to cross channel is that it’s the inverse of a multi-channel, siloed approach where plans and actions occur in relative isolation. This is happening today in many businesses, where separate teams aligned to mobile, social media and email collaborate little, if at all.
Explained to any digital marketer, the logic of cross channel resonates yet it’s also acknowledged that the current state was unavoidable. The pace of innovation in digital marketing has been such that adding trumped more time consuming integration considerations.
If you are a digital marketer, you know first-hand how this played out. A lot of brand marketers jumped to the conclusion they required an iPhone app or marketing leaders prioritized building a following on Twitter or Facebook because the competition had done so first. Another marketer may have tacked a text message call to action to the end of a promotional project as an afterthought. Services companies and point products for digital marketing have done admirable jobs creating urgency to move on anything “mobile” lest you permanently fall behind the curve.
Before disconnected efforts become too entrenched however, marketing leaders should recognize some challenging byproducts of marketing silos. First, separate people, products, databases and processes all pointed at driving desirous consumer behavior effectively compete with one another. The inefficiencies of such an environment should be also apparent.
Second, consumers are exposed to some 3,000 marketing messages every day from various sources and different channels (per Symphony/IRI research). A “message quagmire” drags down the performance of everyone’s marketing efforts.
Thirdly, consumer adoption of smartphones increases daily and the devices are used for all manner of activities, at any time or place. In fact, you could state the mobile device is becoming the primary digital interface between consumers and business on a mass scale.
Inefficiencies in digital marketing efforts beget real redundancies in consumer touches, which in turn fight for attention with marketing messages from other sources. Response rates and campaign ROI suffer over time. Given expertise in how consumers use mobile devices, mobile marketers are uniquely positioned to steer their companies to superior outcomes.
With expertise in how consumers use mobile devices, mobile marketers have a chance to lead their companies in the right direction. Soon every business will need a “conductor” to orchestrate customer relationship strategies targeting the mobilized consumer. The mobile marketer could be that person.
Cross channel marketing is neither an abstract business school concept nor a rip and replace technology solution. It simply makes sense, but getting started requires a step-wise approach that begins to unwind siloed digital marketing efforts. Fortunately, there are a number of ways mobile marketers can demonstrate the value of cross channel marketing as a step toward broader adoption.
Start and end with customer Experience: Cross channel marketing creates experiences for consumers by recognizing everyone has channel preferences and that different channels bring strengths and weaknesses to the task. Two examples of easy-to-implement cross channel approaches include leveraging the email subscription to build the mobile subscriber base, and taking advantage of the reach of text messaging combined with the viral qualities of social media. Even though simple to execute conceptually, these efforts require specialized software optimized for mobile interactions and that have value added ties to other channels.
Leverage the email list: Most companies have long established and huge lists of opted in email subscribers. These customers deserve an opportunity to opt into mobile communications, offers and other calls to action. Adding a link in an email update that takes consumers to an opt in form is often all necessary, along with an incentive such as registering for mobile alerts, offers or finding the nearest location to make a purchase. This form should be tied directly to the mobile marketer’s system to automatically build up the mobile opt-in list.
What’s in it for the email team? Email communications are challenged by competition with other messages in jammed-up email in boxes, and a tie to mobile can alert subscribers to look out for a message. Later, the email and mobile teams can work together to develop higher response marketing campaigns that take advantage of the ideal attributes of each channel (email as visual/explanatory, mobile and text as timely, portable and universal).
Create a mobile/social campaign: Cross channel campaign management systems optimized for mobile interactions take advantage of the large reach afforded by text message communications and the viral qualities of social media. Sweepstakes are a popular text message campaign-type that can be deployed to Twitter followers in such a way that contest posts may be forwarded or retweeted. In the process, followers broadcast the promotion to many consumers outside the marketer’s social network, who may be influenced to follow the marketer’s brand and also participate in the promotion. The mobile marketer creates a higher performing promotion while the social media team grows its base of followers.
Photo by clix
See also marketing internetowy
Add comment Tagged: ecommerce, marketing, sem, seo December 9, 2010
Lately im interested in IM
Interested in joining Mashable’s growing editorial team? With offices in New York City and San Francisco, we’re always looking for talented writers and editors.
Read on to learn more about our job openings and how to apply.
The weekend editor is responsible for overseeing MashableMashable’s editorial content and community over the weekend, reporting directly to Mashable’s Editor in Chief. As such, the editor will write and edit content being published on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as work in-office with the NYC staff Monday, Tuesday and Friday to ensure continuity.
This role requires:
– 3+ years editing experience
– A thorough knowledge of the digital space, with experience writing tech for a mainstream audience, in addition to knowledge of Mashable’s broader coverage areas, including social media and business & marketing
– Excellent writing, editing and communications skills
– Strong grasp of grammar and AP Style
– Ability to multitask and work in a fast-paced environment
– Strict attention to detail
– Self-starter with an entrepreneurial spirit and ability to create winning projects
– Terrific community engagement skills
– Strong knowledge of WordPressWordPress, HTML and social media tools like TwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebook, etc.
– Excellent understanding of Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics
Benefits: Health insurance
Apply here.
With so much happening in the business and marketing realm relating to social and digital, Mashable is looking for an experienced editor to oversee our coverage of the space and take our growing business & marketing section to the next level.
This role requires:
– 3+ years editing experience
– ExperienceeXperience managing others
– A background in reporting on the digital and social side of business and marketing
– Excellent writing, editing and communications skills
– Strong grasp of grammar and AP Style
– to multitask and work in a fast-paced environment
– Strict attention to detail
– Self-starter with an entrepreneurial spirit and ability to create winning projects
– Terrific community engagement skills
– Strong knowledge of WordPress, HTML and social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
– Excellent understanding of Google Analytics
Benefits: Health insurance
Apply here.
Mashable is looking for a talented tech reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area to join its local team. The best candidate is passionate about technology and the digital realm, entrepreneurial with a record of successful editorial projects and has his or her own set of contacts.
This role requires:
– 2+ years professional online technology reporting experience
– Excellent writing and communications skills
– Strong grasp of grammar and AP Style
– to multitask and work in a fast-paced environment
– Strict attention to detail
– Self-starter with an entrepreneurial spirit and capability to create winning projects
– Terrific community engagement skills
– Strong knowledge of WordPress, HTML and social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Benefits: Health insurance
Apply here.
If you don’t fit these roles but feel you might fit a future role that could benefit Mashable, please go ahead and introduce yourself by e-mailing careers mashable com. We advocate including a tiny information about yourself and why you’d like to work at Mashable, as well as links to relevant recent work, your social profiles and an updated resume.
Digital marketing budgets are expected to increase steadily during the next few years, according to Datran Media’s Annual Marketing & Media Survey, which reaches out to more than 5,000 marketing executives from Fortune 500 brands, top publishers, and leading advertising and media agencies.
This is good news for those of you hoping to break into the digital marketing industry. Whether you’re passionate about search, affiliate, social media, or another area of marketing, there are a few things you can do to prove your worthiness to prospective employers.
We asked five industry insiders about their top tips for aspiring digital marketers. Find their recommendations below and add your own in the comments.
A degree in marketing or communications can take you a distance, but most employers are looking for candidates with marketing experience, whether that’s from a previous job, internship or side project. If you already have work experience in the marketing world, congratulations. For the rest of you, internships or other projects will be key.
“Any hands-on involvement with campaign creation, analytics, or optimization can be extremely beneficial to aspiring digital marketers,” states Traci Kuiphoff, online marketing manager at BareNecessities.com. “If you’re in school or a recent grad, the way to gain experience is to do an internship at a company or that has a department or focus in online or digital marketing. Not only do you get real world hands-on experience, but it’s also great to put on your resume when you’re ready for a full-time position.”
If you are in college, look for paid or for-school-credit marketing internships at your college’s job fairs, via job search sites, and on social media sites. You could even land your next gig through Twitter.
If you don’t land an internship or find a position of interest, create your own project or enter a marketing contest. While studying marketing and international business at NYU Stern’s Undergraduate School of Business, a classmate and I entered the John Caples Student Campaign of the Year contest and created a digital marketing campaign for Pentel. Our campaign included a mix of digital, social and direct marketing communications, along with thoroughly gathered success metrics. Not only did we triumph first place, which included summer internships and a cash prize, but we also met industry experts who have acted as mentors to us.
Being able to examine marketing campaigns and what worked or didn’t is the key role of a digital marketer — in order to do that, you’ll need to know (and love) the industry jargon.
“Understanding metrics on the web is key,” Naishi Zhang, assistant marketing manager at Barnes & Noble. “The provides so many ways of user behavior, and knowing how to gather and interpret data is important for success. Read widely and learn the lingo, so when someone asks about the CTR of a banner ad or the number of page views a landing page received, you’ll be ready.”
Mastering marketing terminology and metrics, and knowing what they mean, will take time and practice, but you can get a basic knowledge by picking up a marketing 101 textbook or attending an introductory course. Check out local college or continuing education courses. If that isn’t an option, the InternetInternet is at your disposal. About.com’s glossary of marketing terms and HubSpot’s glossary of social media marketing terms are both very useful for beginners, and you should also read some of the top marketing blogs to get your daily fill of information.
Rick Bakas, director of social media marketing at St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery said he believes a person’s on the web presence can be a major deciding factor on whether an aspiring digital marketer makes the cut for a job. “If an employer is deciding between two candidates,” he notes, “they might go with the person with the strong following online. Build your personal brand online. You have to show you can build your personal brand if you’re going to build someone else’s.”
Your personal brand is value-added in the job market.
“Your on the web clout is sometimes referred to as ’social currency,’” he continues. “In other words, there’s a value associated with your online personal brand. Increased value carries as much weight as a great resume. A high Klout.com score for example, will help you stand out and validate what your resume states about you.”
Your Klout score is a number between 0 and 100 that measures the size of your engaged audience, the likelihood that they will amplify your messages, and your overall influence within your network. Larger isn’t always better. Bakas explains, “Aspiring marketers would do well to grow an engaged following, not necessarily a huge on the web following. Again, Klout.com is a great tool to evaluate the strength of your presence.”
There isn’t just one career path in marketing. You can to work for an agency, with an in-house team, or your own firm. There are multiple marketing disciplines, including affiliate, search, social media, e-mail, mobile, and display marketing, to name a few. Teams come in all sizes — some in which teammates specialize in certain areas, and others where a team can be composed of just one stellar know-it-all.
The way to get a taste of all of the options is to dabble in a bit of everything. “Digital marketing bureau experience can be extremely valuable — at an bureau you can be exposed to all avenues of digital marketing from paid search, social media, mobile and everything in between,” Kuiphoff advises. ”Most likely, you’ll touch a number of different accounts which can help you choose a vertical focus or specialty.”
Once you have a base knowledge in each area of marketing, you’ll be better equipped to choose a more specific path of focus. Having a specialty enables you to hone your skills in that area and become an expert, which is a valuable asset to potential employees.
“Put the ’social’ in social media and spend time engaging with people in the real world,” Bakas says. “Go to lots of events to create or nurture quality interactions that can later continue online. Use plancast.com to see which upcoming events are worth going to. These experiences are ripe with opportunities to meet other digital marketers. The strongest relationships are the ones nurtured on the internet and offline.”
Kuiphoff adds, “Digital marketing conferences not only provide a great networking opportunity, but most offer in-depth workshops that can enhance your skill set.”
Some worthwhile conferences to consider include SXSW, Search Marketing Expo, Web 2.0 Expo, Ad Age Digital Conference, ad:tech, Search Engine Strategies and Pivot.
If you’re not into the hustle and bustle of industry conferences, you can a more toned-down approach by attending or organizing your own Meetups. There are thousands of marketing Meetups around the world. The NY Entrepreneurs Business Network and San Francisco Entrepreneur Meetup are two of the largest.
Because of the nature of the Internet, digital marketing is ever-changing. If you don’t keep up with the latest trends and news, it shows in interviews and on the job. Sarah Hofstetter, SVP of emerging media and client strategy at digital marketing bureau 360i, says it well:
“Remember that standing still is going backwards. Yes, it’s an adage that has been used for years to inspire ambition, but it is blatantly obvious in the digital landscape. Not only does that technology evolve at a lightening pace that transcends Moore’s law, but consumer behavior is shifting at a radical pace, and media consumption becomes more and more fragmented.
“Being on top of consumer behavior –- understanding what they’re doing online, what motivates them and their social and mobile behavior –- and staying ahead of that by learning what’s in the market and what’s on the come, will help ensure you don’t get stuck on the sidelines when interviewing for jobs in digital marketing.”
Kuiphoff recommends subscribing to industry blogs and newsletters to stay on top of the latest news. Some of my personal favorites include Ad Age, ClickZ, eMarketer, BrandWeek and AdWeek.
You won’t be coding programs or building full websites as a digital marketer, but you will need to work with developers and designers or other web specialists to communicate your marketing design needs. A basic knowledge of how the web works, HTML, and one or two programming languages, such as PHPPHP, JavaScript, CSS and Ruby, will help you comprehend the current boundaries and opportunities that will affect your marketing campaigns.
“It’s important for anyone working in the digital world, whether it’s marketing or designing features for a product, to have a basic understanding of coding,” Dharmishta Rood, a research assistant at Harvard Business School and fellow at the Center for Future Civic Media at MIT. “There are great experiential benefits from understanding the underlying technologies that shape what we do — it’s easier to comprehend how users can interact with content, what is possible for design with things like CSS and JavaScript, and comprehend the nuances of basic technical terminology.”
Everyone needs a resume; what you do with it is up to you. To help you stand out, here are a few tips from our digital marketing experts:
- “Demonstrate that you can produce results and work in a fast-paced environment, whether you’ve had previous digital experience or not. Don’t be afraid to include things about yourself that may not be directly related to the job. Resumes get scanned quickly, so it always helps to inject something creative and clever.” — Naishi Zhang, assistant marketing manager, Barnes & Noble
- “One way you can make your resume stand out is to get certified. GoogleGoogle has a certification program for Adwords. If you have a paid search marketing focus this can help assure a client/employer that you’re proficient in the system.” — Traci Kuiphoff, marketing manager, BareNecessities.com
- “I’m a big believer in making sure your resume is on LinkedInLinkedIn, and to have on LinkedIn. Begin asking for suggestions soon. LinkedIn is like your digital resume. Make sure the facts match up. Also, Google your name to see what comes up — your prospective employers will.” — Rick Bakas, director of social media marketing, St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery
- “Use keywords to describe your previous experience that make sense for the specific job you’re applying for — if the job description or department does ’social media outreach’ and your description of all those TwitterTwitter @replies, FacebookFacebook messages and moderated blog post comments is currently called ‘customer service,’ this does not play up your strengths as a digital marketer. Use common sense though. If their keywords don’t match your experience, don’t write anything untruthful, and consider doing things to get the types of experience for the jobs you want, such as volunteering to help with the social media of a non-profit whose cause you support.” — Dharmishta Rood, research assistant, Harvard Business School
To showcase your skills alongside multimedia and other assets, check out some digital alternatives to the paper resume, including video resumes, VisualCVs, social resumes and LinkedIn profiles.
“Sure, it’s great to know about Facebook, iAds and whatever is coming next from Silicon Valley,” Hofstetter points out, “but when we’re looking for key talent at 360i, nothing matters to us more than intellectual curiosity and passion…In a business where answers and solutions aren’t always obvious, you need to be innately curious (about everything) and obsessed with the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’ ”
It may sound cheesy at first, but she has a point. Without inquisitiveness and zeal, we’re just work drones on a mission to take over the Internet. Plus, these traits have a positive effect on the way we work, Hofstetter says:
“People who have these qualities can innovate and identify trends from seemingly ordinary data — they’re the first to try new things (platforms, tools, technology) and think about how marketers can benefit from them. They don’t always have the answers, but when you’re being asked to do never-been-done-before things, there isn’t a rulebook. That’s why when we’re recruiting, we look for people who know how to ask the right questions.
Staring at a personal screen all day long can take a toll on your body, mind and social life. Get away from that monitor and breathe for crying out loud!
Bakas getting out every once in a while to work on who you are as a person outside of work. “Because transparency is important, it’s important to be a good person in the real world,” he says. “It’ll translate into the digital world — you can’t fake being a good person if you’re a jerk in real life. Unplug for your own sanity, but also to continue growing as a person in life.”
I second that. Now, get out of here and get a job.
Every week we put out a of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the digital marketing jobs from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
- 5 Tips for Aspiring Social Media Marketers
– 10 Tips For Aspiring Community Managers
– 5 Tips for Aspiring Copywriters and Art Directors
– HOW TO: Land a Career in Digital Public Relations
– Top 5 Tips for Aspiring Music Bloggers
Image courtesy of RICEinteractive; iStockphotoiStockphoto, track5
View also marketing internetowy
Add comment Tagged: ecommerce, marketing, sem, seo November 3, 2010
Science educators often skim off the top, as it were. They regale young minds with the marvels of science while remaining silent about the problems to which it has contributed.
When I was in grade school as a member of a different younger generation, we had routine drills in which we took cover under our desks. This was to prepare us to act quickly in case the Russians decided to nuke our playground. No one ever explained how this pathetic maneuver would save us, but it seemed to make the teachers feel better. Today's youngsters are treated to a different menu of menaces. Their nuclear hazard is more likely to come in the form of a dirty nuclear device detonated by a terrorist instead of from a Russian plane or missile. Then there is global warming, nuclear waste, environmental degradation, polluted air, water and soil. There are acidified oceans, melting polar ice, oceanic dead zones, dying coral reefs, vanishing species, on and on, all of which are due in some measure to the downside of science and technology. The mantra that only science can save us from these perils rings hollow to many youngsters, since it was largely science and technology that bequeathed them in the first place. As anthropologist and educator Loren Eiseley put it,
We have lived to see the technological progress that was hailed in one age as the savior of man become the horror of the next. We have observed that the same able and energetic minds which built lights, steamships and telephones turn with equal facility to the creation of what euphemistically is termed the “ultimate weapon.” It is in this reversal that the modern age comes off so badly.
The usual defense from the science community toward views such as Eiseley's is that it is technology, not science itself, that has made a mess of things. This is no doubt true to a certain extent. But scientists sometimes take risks in their research that appear breathtakingly irresponsible and reckless, which they usually justify in the name of pure or basic science. Some of these risks are so obvious they draw fire from scientists themselves. Consider a recent editorial in the respected British publication New Scientist titled “The Scary Business of Tinkering with Life”:
“By tinkering with the cell's natural machinery …[the research team] has found a way of making proteins with entirely new properties, opening up a future of exotic designer organisms…. This is a fundamental advance that could lead to new drugs, materials and energy sources. But tampering with life's operating system will inevitably raise safety concerns — and it's true that we have no way of predicting the fallout of this work. Synthetic biologists need to confront openly and honestly public fears that they are “playing God [emphasis added].”
Science boosters should wake up. Kids aren't dumb. To borrow novelist Ernest Hemingway's term, they have excellent “built-in bullshit detectors.” And nothing triggers the warning more than when those in charge present only one side of a story.
Must Science Be Depressing?
Why would anyone who is psychologically healthy pick a career that demands a view of the world that is morbid, pessimistic and depressing? That's precisely the worldview advocated by some of the most outstanding scientists of our day. This can be a turnoff to any optimistic, questing, curious, intelligent kid who stumbles onto it. Perhaps that is why the advocates of science education almost never acknowledge this prevailing view when promoting the wonders of science to youngsters.
Typical of the gloomy perspective is that of Nobel physicist Steven Weinberg in his 1977 book The First Three Minutes. In a now-famous passage, he writes,
It is almost irresistible for humans to believe that we have some special relation to the universe, that human life is not just a more-or-less farcical outcome of a chain of accidents reaching back to the first three minutes, but that we were somehow built in from the beginning… It is hard to realize that this all [i.e., life on Earth] is just a tiny part of an overwhelmingly hostile universe. It is even harder to realize that this present universe has evolved from an unspeakably unfamiliar early condition, and faces a future extinction of endless cold or intolerable heat. The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.
By the time Weinberg unveiled his gloomy view, the notion of a purposeless, meaningless universe was already on a roll in science. One of the most influential supporters of this perspective was the Nobel molecular biologist Jacques Monod (1910-1976), whose 1972 book Chance and Necessity powerfully influenced a generation of scientists. For Monod, purpose and meaning in nature were outlaw concepts; for a scientist to believe in them was unbecoming at best and a moral failing at worst. As he confidently proclaimed, “The cornerstone of scientific method is the systematic denial that 'true' knowledge can be got at by interpreting phenomena in terms of final causes–that is to say, of 'purpose.'”
Cognitive scientist and philosopher Daniel C. Dennett of Tufts University has joined the chorus of meaninglessness by dissing free will. “When we consider whether free will is an illusion or reality,” he says, “we are looking into an abyss. What seems to confront us is a plunge into nihilism and despair.”
Although prevalent, this depressing verdict on the status of meaning, direction and purpose in the world is not unanimous, and kids who intuitively reject this view have a few strong shoulders to stand on, as we'll see in the next blog.
References
Eiseley L. The Man Who Saw Through Time. New York, NY: Scribner; 1973: 106.
The scary business of tinkering with life. Unsigned editorial. New Scientist. February 20, 2010; 205(2748): 3.
Geddes L. Rewriting life in four-letter words. New Scientist. February 20, 2010; 205(2748): 14.
Hemingway E. Quoted in: Thinkexist.com. http://thinkexist.com/quotation/develop_a_built-in_bullshit_detector/204440.html. Accessed February 17, 2010.
Weinberg S. The First Three Minutes. New York, NY: Basic Books; 1993: 154.
Monod J. Chance and Necessity. New York, NY: Random House; 1972:21.
Dennett DC. Quoted in: “Overbye D. Free will: Now you have it, now you don't.” New York Times online. January 2, 2007.
@(Unverified)
OK first, everyone wants to cry about sub fees for MMO's. So I'll break it down. Say you bought Call of Duty and there were no glitchers or cheaters, the game ran pretty flawless, and they gave you LARGE amounts of new maps, guns, acheivements, etc. every few months or so. And in order to allow them to do that, you needed to subscribe for $15/month and they provided support and consistently give new content. Considering the amount of people who bought the map packs at $15 each, I bet a lot of people would pay that for their favorite game that they play every day.
That is how an MMO works. You aren't just paying for the right to play. You are paying for a persistant online world, with servers running all the time with people playing on them, even when you are offline. You are paying for updates, additions, patches, banhammers for cheaters, and so on. Plus most MMOer's play that as their primary game. $180/yr. + $60 to buy the game is the same as buying only 4 games at full price all year. Most non-MMO players (and even some MMOer's too) buy more games than that in a year, right? Not such a bad deal when you look at it that way.
{
|
|
Add comment Tagged: god, moon, sun June 25, 2010
My wife and doorman have got a pretty sweet deal. All they have to do is nothing, and they get hot, fresh food delivered to them several times a day. Of course, they do have to be content with eating, say, fried chicken and nothing else for a month as I test a recipe, and of course there's the never-ending supply of burgers, but all in all, they've pretty much got it made.
So you can imagine my surprise the other day when I walked into the kitchen and saw my wife cooking, and my even greater surprise when I realized she was cooking pasta—in our smallest pot—at a simmer. The water was barely covering the noodles as she stirred them to keep them submerged.
“You can't do that!” I exclaimed before launching into a diatribe about how when cooking pasta, there's always got to be at least one thing rolling, and you'd probably prefer it to be the boil of a large pot of water, and not the Italian grandmothers in their graves.
She, being the smarty-pants that she is, of course came back with the best question she could have asked: “But why?“
Obviously, my dear, you haven't cooked a lot of pasta in your time. The pasta will stick together. The starch will become too concentrated. It will cook unevenly. It will become mushy. It will be nine different sorts of horrible, each one worse than the one before. It is scientific fact that you will end up with an inedible starchy, sticky blob.
That you are reading this now is a good indicator that none of that happened. In fact, in an incredible blow to my ego, and seemingly defying the unbreakable laws of physics, the pasta came out totally fine.
(Of course, I politely—make that sulkily—declined to eat any more than a single tester piece, citing potential paradoxes in the space-time continuum as my reason).
SPOILER ALERT: It turns out that not only do you not need a large volume of water to cook pasta, but in fact, the water does not even have to be boiling.
Wait. What? Let me explain:
I, and every other trained cook I know, have been taught that when cooking pasta, you need to have a large pot of boiling water. If my wife turned out to be right, just think of the pastabilities!* This could turn my whole pasta-cooking regime on its head. Some serious testing was in order—I called downstairs and told my doorman that I hope he likes noodles, cause that's gonna be his lunch for a few days.
*Thorough apologies for that and any other horrible pasta puns that may or may not appear in this article
This actually wasn't the first time I had heard of this concept. Harold McGee wrote about it in the New York Times about a year ago. His conclusion? It works, but requires constant attention. Stirring a pot of pasta constantly for 12 minutes isn't my idea of fun, so I mostly ignored his findings. But did I judge too soon? Do I really have to stir the pot?
Here are the most common reasons I've heard for why you need to use a large volume of water:
Those are some bold claims indeed. I decided to take a closer look at them, one by one.
To do this, it's important to first consider exactly what happens to a piece of pasta as it cooks the traditional way, in a large pot of water.
Pasta is made up of flour, water, and sometimes eggs. Essentially, it's composed of starch and protein, and not much else. Now starch molecules come aggregated into large granules that resemble little water balloons. As they get heated in a moist environment, they absorb more and more water until they finally burst, releasing the starch molecules into the water. That's why pasta always seems to stick together at the beginning of cooking—its the starch molecules coming out and acting as a sort of glue, binding the pieces to each other, and to the pot.
After this stage, the starch eventually washes away into the water (assuming that you separated the pieces of pasta by stirring), and the pasta pieces become individuals again. As the pasta cooks, the starches gradually absorb more and more water, becoming softer and more edible, while the proteins begin to denature, adding structure to the noodle (something that is much more obvious when cooking soft fresh egg-based pastas). When the stars are aligned, you'll manage to pull the pasta from the water just when the proteins have lent enough structure to keep the noodles strong and pliant, and starches have just barely softened to the perfect stage—soft, but with a bite—known as al dente.
For my first test I used gemelli. It's a nice, medium-sized pasta that I figured would give a good indication of how both thick and thin pastas would fare.
I brought three separate pots of water to a boil. One with 6 quarts of water, one with 3 quarts, and one with a mere quart and a half. After the pots came to a boil, I added the pasta. Immediately, I noticed that despite claims that a large pot of water will hold its boil better, the difference in the time it took for each pot to come back to a full boil was no more than a few seconds at most. In fact, the pot with 3 quarts actually came back to a boil faster than the one with 6 quarts!.
Fact is, when you are adding an equal amount of pasta to each pot, it may cause the temperature of the smaller pot of water to drop more drastically, but bringing the smaller volume back to a boil requires the exact same amount of energy as it does to bring the larger pot back to a boil.
Since a burner puts out energy at a fixed rate, your pot will return to boiling temperature (212°F) at the same rate no matter how much water you have. Indeed, since a large pot of water has greater surface area (and thus more places for it to lose energy to the outside environment), it may actually take longer to bring a large pot of water back to a boil.*
*Case in point: at my old apartment in Cambridge, the burners were so weak that a large pot of water would not boil at all unless I put a lid on it.
Granted, during the time it takes for the water to come back up to a boil, the smaller pot will be at a lower temperature than the bigger pot, but it's only for a short period of time—is that enough to make a difference in the finished pasta?
Nope. Tasted side by side, all three noodles were indistinguishable from each other.
I've heard it said that cooking pasta at a higher temperature also ensures textural variance throughout the piece—a firm core supplying the al dente bite, surrounded by softer, more fully cooked layers around the outside. I took a close cross-sectional look at a cooked noodle, and found that once again, in all three cases, the difference was unnoticeable. It's tough to make out in a photograph, but you can actually see the al dente core—it appears as a slightly chalky looking white ring right in the center of the noodle.
To confirm what my mouth was already telling me, I also weighed each batch of pasta before and after cooking. If the batches in the smaller pots were really cooking more slowly and thus getting waterlogged as has been suggested, you'd expect them to absorb more water, when in fact, all three batches had absorbed exactly the same amount (roughly 75% of their dry weight).
Clearly, it's time to say “pasta la vista” to Reason 1.
So what about that other little problem—pasta sticking to itself or the pan as it cooks? Well, it's true. Drop the pasta in the water and just leave it there, and it will indeed stick to itself. But you know what? It'll do that even in a really big pot with lots of water
The problem is that first stage of cooking—the one in which starch molecules first burst and release their starch. With such a high concentration of starch right on the surface of the pasta, sticking is inevitable. However, once the starch gets rinsed away in the water, the problem is completely gone.
So the key is to stir the pasta a few times during the critical first minute or two. After that, whether the pasta is swimming in a hot tub of water or just barely covered as it is here, absolutely not sticking occurs. I was able to clean this pot with a simple rinse.
“Impastable!” you cry? Try it for yourself!
That's goodbye to reason 2.
Here's where things get really interesting.
I spent a couple years working the pasta station at a restaurant known for its pasta. We did at least a hundred covers a day, and at least three-fourths of them would have at least one pasta course. That's an awful lot of pasta to cook. I cooked it all in a large, six-slot pasta cooker that held about 15 gallons of water at a constant boil.
Now at the very beginning of the shift, the pasta water was completely clear. Obviously, as the night wore on, the water would get cloudier and cloudier, until by the end of the night, it was nearly opaque. This cloudy, starchy pasta water is the line cook's secret weapon. You see, pasta water consists of starch granules and water—the exact same ingredients that go into a cornstarch slurry.
You know—the kind you use to thicken your sauces? Well, aside from just thickening a sauce, starch also acts as an emulsifier. It physically gets in the way of tiny fat molecules, preventing them from coalescing. This means that with a bit of pasta water, even an oil-based sauce like say, aglio e olio, or cacio e pepe will emulsify in to a light, creamy sauce that is much more efficient at coating pasta, making your dish that much tastier. Think of pasta water as the diplomat of the pasta world—he's the guy who's there to help your sauce and your noodles get along.
N.B. Of course, this means that go into any restaurant that serves a lot of pasta, and chance are, the later in the night you go, the better the consistency of your sauce will be!
Following that logic, my goal should be to get the water as starchy as possible, the more efficiently to bind my sauce with. I took a look at the water drained off from the batch of pasta cooked in 1 1/2 quarts against the one cooked in 3 quarts, and the picture above is what I saw.
Notice how much cloudier the one on the left is? All the better to bind you with, my dear…
Taking this concept to the logical extreme, I tried cooking my next batch of pasta with just enough water to cover it. Granted, I had to stir it as it cooked because the water level dropped and the pasta was poking up over the top, but in the end, my pasta was still perfectly al dente, not sticky, and provided me with the liquid on the right—that's all the liquid that remained after draining it, and it was extraordinarily starchy. If that now doesn't prove conclusively to you that the whole idea of pasta getting too sticky because of the starch dissolved in the water is poppycock, then I can only imagine that you are not a man of science.
Reason 3: debunked
Now that I was completely satisfied that I could cook pasta with less water with no problems at all, I decided to run one last series of tests. I knew that when cooking, starches start to absorb water at temperatures as low as 180°F or so (that's why a cornstarch-thickened sauce will begin to thicken well below the boiling point). If we've already proven that having a rolling boil is not necessary to cook pasta, I wondered: is it actually necessary to have a boil at all? Could I not just make sure my water was above 180°F at all times?
I brought one last small pot of water to a boil and dumped in my pasta. After allowing it to come back up to a simmer, I stirred it once to ensure that the pasta wasn't sticking to itself or the pot, immediately threw a lid on the thing, and shut off the burner, knowing that in the ten to twelve minutes it took the pasta to cook, my pot would lose at most four to five degrees, keeping it well within the 180+ comfort zone.
I have to admit: even I was a little skeptical on this one. I mean, cook pasta without even boiling it? As my timer slowly counted down, I tried to list off noodle shapes in my head alphabetically just to pasta time away. If this really works, it'd be huge, I thought. I'd never cook pasta the same way again! All that wasted heat bringing a huge pot of water to a boil and maintaining it there! Think of how cool my kitchen would stay in the summer! This method could solve our energy crisis! Or at the very least, save me a couple bucks on my gas bill each month. I'd no longer have to be such a, ahem… penne pincher.
When the timer finally went off, I opened the lid and poked around a little. So far so good. The pasta sure looked cooked, and tasting it revealed al dente perfection. Success!
Thanks to my wife, I am now a changed man (at least as far as pasta goes—I still demand that I get control at least over how the burgers are cooked around here)
Oh—and as for Reason 4? It doesn't apply to me. My grandmother was Japanese. Those times that she cooked spaghetti? She was just being an impasta.
Finally, just a few quick tips regarding both this method, and cooking pasta in general:
If you're really keen on saving time and energy, you can do what I do: put half the water in the pot, and heat the other half in an electric kettle as the first half heats up. Add the two together, and you've got boiled water in half the time. Then all you have to do is dump the pasta, bring it back to a boil, stir, cover, and wait. Now that's using your noodle!
Read the recipe below for exact instructions on how to cook pasta with this method.
Continue here for Gemelli with Asparagus, Ricotta, Arugula, and Lemon Zest »
About the author: After graduating from MIT, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt spent many years as a chef, recipe developer, writer, and editor in Boston. He now lives in New York with his wife, where he runs a private chef business, KA Cuisine, and co-writes the blog GoodEater.org about sustainable food enjoyment.
Favorite this! (9)
Courtesy of Universal Studios
Before the park’s grand opening, Harry Potter expert Melissa Anelli was magically granted access into Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter for a “chill-inducing” walk through the gates of Hogwarts and a taste of some genuine “butterbeer.”
I will never get over the bizarre feeling of strolling through a snowy British town in air so hot and so humid I could boil pasta in the palm of my hand. Nor will it ever feel natural to gaze upon Hogwarts, flanked by its iconic boars—and the palm trees that surround it—from afar. But (sorry, mayor of London), there really isn’t a better place than Florida for the wedge of Harry Potter paradise that is Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter. After a few minutes, the superb detailing of the attraction fully distracts from the environmental ironies.
Months ago, I attended a press preview of the theme park on behalf of my website, The Leaky Cauldron. During that preview we were given a quick tour of the still-under-construction park and offered samples of food from its Three Broomsticks restaurant. After all the deliciousness that ensued, I started joking that we fans were going to enter the park, which officially opens this week, as our normal selves, but walk out fat and poor.
Fast-forward to Memorial Day weekend, when all three hosts of The Leaky Cauldron’s PotterCast—John Noe, Frank Franco, and I—gained entrance to the park during its soft opening period. We get a lot of tips in our inboxes, and quite a few of them indicated a soft open around the end of May. Nothing was certain, but we knew there would be a theme park “experience” for people who had bought a certain vacation package, so we figured, why not just spend Memorial Day in Orlando… just in case? The gamble paid off. It turned out that a guest at one of the Universal Resort hotels could get into the park an hour before it opened to everyone else—and that was how we got into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It closed after a few hours, but we spent those hours making the most of everything and my wisecracking prediction came true inside two hours. Three butterbeers, five souvenir pins, a Hog's Head Ale, a pumpkin juice, a Cauldron Cake, a set of wax seals, a Hogwarts shirt, and an annual pass later, my stomach had grown as my bank balance diminished—and I can honestly say it was the happiest I've ever been under such conditions.
At 7:30 a.m. sharp on May 29, we stood on line with roughly 400 other people, awaiting entrance to the Promised Land. Every last person there was part of the largest human train I’ve ever seen, speed-walking like ducks all the way to the back of Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure theme park to get into Hogsmeade. We squealed like children as the arch, with its wrought-iron sign that reads “Please respect spell limits,” drew near, and almost ran to get right into Hogwarts and onto the Forbidden Journey ride, the park’s signature attraction.
Sadly, we never got on: As we were reminded, the soft opening was like the technical rehearsal for a show. We instead spent 20 minutes wandering around the magnificently built Hogwarts, ogling the so-real-looking moving portraits and trying to restrain ourselves from hopping into a seat next to the Gryffindor common room fire, before the queue came to a standstill and a mild-voiced announcer evacuated us.
Who cared? We had all of Hogsmeade to explore—a life-size recreation of the world I’ve immersed myself in for nearly a decade. We moved on to Ollivanders, the wand shop from the franchise, where a wand master carefully selected two young children from our group and performed tests on them to determine their wands. Of course, in true theme park tradition, this meant they would have to buy them in the neighboring shop.
Add comment Tagged: lasagne, pastamitalian food June 15, 2010
For the second time in 12 months, Phoebe Price got into a vehicle crash, which left Mama Cutlets laid up in the hospital with injuries. PP was rattled something serious, because she did not even strike one signature pose for the paparazzi! Shit got real.
I mean, there were several firefighters there just waiting to be posed with, and PP ignored them completely. Usually when PP hears the click of a camera, her eyes light up like a drunk on Mardi Gras, her cutlets pop and she gives the paps everything she has! But not yesterday. Hmmm.
You've probably been releasing good thought balloons all day, so send one more to Mama Cutlets! Or at least stick a candle in a frozen cutlet.
[Photographs: Caroline Russock]
During Jewish holidays when I was growing up, Matzo Ball Soup was always the number one topic of conservation. Coming from a family that wasn't too concerned with food on an everyday basis, I found it strange that everyone automatically turned into a critic when the soup was served. First the soup itself was discussed: Too salty? Not flavorful enough? Or perhaps there was a tiny too much dill?
After dissecting the soup, it was time to about the matzo balls. One of my grandmothers made golfball-sized matzo balls that were dense and sunk to the bottom of the bowl, while my other grandmother's were softball sized, so light that they fell apart in your spoon. I enjoyed them both, since choosing between them would be like picking a favorite grandmother.
But it's been a while since I've had a bowl of grandmother-made matzo ball soup and with Passover coming up I figured it was time that I made a batch of my own. I chose the recipe from Bromberg Bros. Blue Ribbon Cookbook, the eagerly anticipated cookbook from Bruce and Eric Bromberg, the masterminds behind the Blue Ribbon family of restaurants in New York.
Their recipe starts with a flavorful stock made of a whole chicken cooked with plenty of aromatics. Once the chicken is cooked through, it's taken out and the meat is stripped from the bones. The bones are placed back in the stock and cooked for an additional hour. The stock is left to cool overnight so that a layer of chicken fat, or schmaltz, forms on the surface.
The Bromberg Brother's matzo balls contain two secret weapons for ultimate matzo ball deliciousness: schmaltz and seltzer water. The seltzer water lightens the matzo balls and the chicken fat gives them flavor. Since the matzo balls are cooked in water instead of chicken broth they retain a flavor of their own instead of just soaking up the stock.
Is Blue Ribbon's matzo ball soup than either of my grandmother's? I'd rather not say. What I will say is that it lived up to the title of “excellent”—the stock was beautifully flavored, and the matzo balls were the ideal weight and density and tasted of chicken fat in the best possibly way.
- serves 6 to 8-
Adapted from Bromberg Bros. Blue Ribbon Cookbook by Bruce Bromberg and Eric Bromberg.
Chicken Broth
1 whole chicken (3 to 4 pounds)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
5 celery stalks with leaves, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled
4 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 sprigs of fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 dried bay leaves
Matzo Balls
4 eggs
1 cup matzo meal
2 tablespoons schmaltz (rendered chicken far reserved from making broth) or duck fat
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup seltzer water
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds (about 1 cup)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
1. To make the broth: Rub the chicken with salt inside and out. Let rest on a plate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Rinse very well under cold running water and then pat dry with paper towels.
2. Put the chicken in a huge stockpot and add enough cold water to cover by 3 inches. Bring to a boil, them skim off any foam that rises to the top. Add the celery, carrots, onion, garlic, parsley, dill, peppercorns, and bay leaves, and return the liquid to a boil. Skim again.
3. Reduce the heat and let simmer uncovered until the chicken is cooked, about 45 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a massive bowl and, when cool enough to handle, take the meat off the bones (reserve the meat for another purpose). Return the bones to the pot and simmer for 1 hour more. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve, discarding the solids. Cool the broth slightly, then refrigerate until cold, overnight or up to 3 days.
4. Using a slotted spoon, skim off the solidified chicken fat from the broth. Save for making matzo balls or another purpose.
5. To make the matzo balls: In a huge bowl, stir together the eggs, matzo meal, schmaltz, salt, and baking powder. Add the seltzer and use a rubber spatula to mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
6. Fill a large, wide pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Fill a small bowl with cold water and have nearby to keep your hands clean and wet. Working gently, without pressing, use clean, wet hands to form 1/2-inch-round matzo balls. As they are formed, drop them into the boiling water. When all of the matzo balls are formed, cover the pot with a round of parchment paper to keep them submerged (or partially cover the pot with a lid if you don't have parchment paper) and simmer very gently (don't let the water boil again) until cooked through and tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from the cooking liquid with a slotted spoon, and arrange in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. If not using that day, let cool to room temperature, then store the matzo balls in a single layer in an airtight container filled with cooled cooking liquid to cover for up to 2 days.
7. To serve, gently reheat the matzo balls in a pot filled with matzo ball cooking liquid or fresh water to cover (when the water comes to a simmer, taste a matzo ball to see if it's hot enough, and either use immediately or continue to simmer until warmed to taste).
8. In a separate pot, bring the chicken broth to a boil. Add the carrot rounds and simmer until soft, about 7 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then add the dill.
9. Ladle the broth into individual serving bowls. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the warmed matzo balls into the soup and serve piping hot.
Favorite this! (10)
Add comment Tagged: chicken, cooking, food, recipes April 13, 2010
LOS ANGELES — SunLust Pictures has released “Sunny HD Porn 2.”
“Sunny HD Porn 2” is shot in high-definition and stars Leone along with Melissa Lauren, Tory Lane, Missy Stone, Jessica Lynn, and Brittney Amber.
“I had so much fun putting together the first installment, that I couldn’t wait to get right to work on the second one,” Leone said. “There’s nothing like watching a girl in raw action on a big-screen TV and seeing every droplet of sweat on her body in high-def. This is definitely how porn should be watched!”
“Sunny Loves HD Porn 2” is available from SunLust Photos through Vivid Entertainment. It is available for at SunLustProducts.com.
For wholesale, email howard@pulsedistribution.com, or call (818) 435-1600.
Your Name:
Your Email Address:
Friends E-Mail Addresses (You do not have to use them all)
Optional Message:
Check out this funny page!
Get the funnyjunk newsletter e-mailed to you four times a week.
Contains the newest funny junk. Spam free and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Fine is not it ? 
Add comment Tagged: photography, pics, pix March 31, 2010
i have those pix. Nice huh ?
Drama is set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island.
First, allow me to give you a “brief” rundown of the 2006 season for your Chicago Cubs. Terrible.
Now, allow me to give you a “Cubs fan’s” rundown of the 2006 season for your Chicago Cubs.
C-Michael Barrett: A guy who started with Montreal and eventually became one of the majors’ better offensive catchers with the Cubs(while in his prime). Missed time in ‘06 due to injury, but still posted good numbers. Fell off in ‘07, and was traded to the Blue Jays.
IF-1B Derrek Lee, who in 2005 had one of the best all-around offensive seasons of all-time, broke his wrist in April, and was shelved. The wrist gave him problems later in the season, shelving him again. (Some of my nerd friends think that’s why his power numbers have been nowhere near what he produced in 2005. SUCKY TRAINERS, see Mark Prior, Kerry Wood) 2B/SS Ronny Cedeno, Ryan Theriot, Tony Womack, Todd Walker(Why are we trusting Millar, when a much younger, better Walker didn’t bring any of the damn ‘04 “magic”?), Neifi Perez, and there are a few I’m sure I missed. It’s sad that out of this group, Theriot EASILY outperformed them. I thought Riot was going to be Dustin Pedroia before there was a Dustin Pedroia, seriously. Cedeno, as fashionable as he looked on the field, SUCKED, and the rest were random bums. 3B Aramis Ramirez had an excellent season, but again they were empty numbers. Do it down the stretch, ARam.
OF-LF Jacque Jones had a good, but not great season, and RF Matt Murton would’ve probably looked better in right in a Cubs uni than Fukudome and Bradley. Yes, he was part of the deal that enabled the Cubs to trade for Rich Harden, but again…Fukudome and Bradley. CF Juan Pierre did exactly what was expected of him. Steal 50+ bases, get on base at less than a 35% clip, and have his arm taken advantage of as if someone had injected roofies into it before every game.
SP-RHP Carlos Zambrano was the majors’ best 200K/100BB pitcher. RHP Kerry Wood? “Hot Tub”. No comment. RHP Mark Prior came back from a freakish elbow fracture in 2005 to post pretty good numbers, but his 2006 season was atrocious. After that, it went completely downhill for our Trojan friend. Oh, and if you wanted to see “terrible”, you should’ve seen Carlos Marmol. There were countless times in 2006 when I called for him to be traded for a case of root beer. RHP Greg Maddux was…not good. LHP Rich Hill irritated me then, when he was actually pretty decent, and, as much as I loathed Marmol, I detested the soft-tossing LHP Sean Marshall.
RP-Yes, the lame Ryan Dempster. The guy, who like about 1,000 comedians/comediennes(yes, I’ve seen women, too)in CHICAGO, does a Harry Caray impression. He was Kevin Gregg, just in Canadian form. I went to about every Cubs home game that summer, and I let him have it, all the way from Aisle 425. I really can’t badmouth the bullpen too much, because that was basically the strength of their pitching staff, sad to say. Yes, that includes Bob Howry and Steve Ire.
Manager-Dusty Baker was a lame duck. Point. Blank. Peri-ahd. Dusty Baker was/is responsible for getting Cubs fans away from using the “Lovable Losers” label for their team. All of a sudden, this was what was expected. Unlike the atmosphere after the ‘98 season, when Cubs fans were just happy to be able to call Sammy Sosa and Kerry Wood their own. Cubs fans got away from the “happy to be here” tag right after the 2003 NLCS. The Cubs were in playoff contention in ‘04 before choking down the stretch, and they were a team that lost Wood and Prior for stretches. It was the same with Wood and Prior the next season(this was before the Cubs realized they had two glass-armed aces and put together contingency plans), and the Cubs finished a few games under .500. The 2006 Cubs were just BAD, and Dusty Baker was the fall guy.
And now, on to December, 2006.
Watching Baseball Tonight, as per usual, I saw a story about Cubs general manager Jim Hendry signing free agent LHP Ted Lilly. ‘Nice’, I thought. For four years and $40 million. ‘Dumb’, I thought. What made this signing sound even dumber at the time were the circumstances under which it took place. Jim Hendry, a man who had signed free agent LF Alfonso Soriano to a “sizable” deal and re-signed ARam to one as well, completed the deal with Lilly while in the hospital, hooked to an EKG. For Steve Carlton? Yes. For Ted Lilly? Yahoo IM me if you want to sign. All I knew about Lilly was that he was a stoic-looking lefty that had gotten into a confrontation/altercation with Blue Jays manager, John Gibbons. I personally thought it was awesome.
Add comment Tagged: kids, mascot, teddy bear March 22, 2010