Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Peanut Butter Cups Soooooo… you know that episode of Sex and the City where Miranda has to dump dish soap on top of chocolate cake just so she will stop eating it?? Uh. Yeeeeeah. These are like… of that caliber. And that totally almost happened to me. I ate what felt like a million, then had a plate of 5-day old green bean fries from the fridge and called it lunch. I definitely recommend those. For lunch. Face? Inhale. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Peanut Butter Cups [cookie dough adapted from cookie dough dip] makes 24 cups 2 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter 3/4 cup powdered sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips In a small saucepan, heat butter until melted. Line a mini muffin with with liners. Remove muffin tin and cookie dough, then place 1 teaspoon of cookie dough (I somewhat rolled mine) into the chocolate cups. Sigh.
This 1,400-Foot Desert Citadel Would Be A Self-Sustaining City Of Tomorrow It may look like Immortan Joe's Citadel from Mad Max: Fury Road, but this abstract desert obelisk isn't a citadel of the post-apocalypse. It's a self-contained city—also called an arcology—that French firms Nicholas Laisné Associés and OXO Architects propose to build in the Saharan desert. Although it's just a concept right now, La Ville Tour Des Sables (translated: "The Sand Tower Town") would stand over 1,400 feet, if completed. Designed to resemble an outcropping of stone—or, at least, Bjarke Ingels' idea of what an outcropping of stone might look like—the arcology would contain everything needed for a self-sustaining city, including living quarters, agricultural units, factories, and more. According to OXO's official description of the project, the Sand Tower Town would have a total floor space of around 192 acres. Another big aspect of the design involves making maximum use of the desert's resources. [via io9] [Images: via OXO Architects]
& Overclock Your Reading Speed This is a guest post from Kim Roach of The Optimized Life. In today’s Information Age, reading is now a prerequisite for success in life. In fact, many presidents, including Kennedy, have required their staff to take speed reading lessons. Brian Tracy, a best-selling author, points out that just 1 hour per day of reading will make you an international expert in your chosen field within 7 years. If you’re looking to increase your learning rate while decreasing your effort, speed reading is a method you should consider studying. By simply learning how to process information at a more rapid rate, you’re not only going to be able to move through books more quickly, but you will also be able to comprehend and process more of what you have read. The Brain’s Power Speed reading actually began as part of military training to identify enemy war planes. What many people don’t realize is that the mind becomes bored when it’s not constantly stimulated. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
40 free things to do in New York City Seeing the bulk of New York City's biggest attractions can mean spending a hefty chunk of a trip's budget on tickets. Empire State Building? $27. The Met? Free New York travelers, get busy! 1. One of Lower Manhattan's most fascinating, and controversial, stories of recent years circulates around the new African Burial Ground National Monument site. 2. Brooklyn Brewery. Free tours of Williamsburg's Brooklyn Brewery run on the hour from 1-5pm Saturday, 1-4pm Sunday. 79 N 11th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 3. Imagine mosaic. It doesn't take brilliant travel minds to tell you that a park is free to visit – most parks are. 4. New York's most concentrated area for a gallery crawl is in Chelsea, mostly in the 20s Streets between 10th and 11th Avenues. 5. City Hall. Home to New York City's government since 1812, City Hall tours take in its cupola-topped marble hall, the governor's room as well as the spot where Abraham Lincoln's coffin lay in state briefly in 1865. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
LEED 101: A Syllabus Supplement for Green Building Coursework - BuildingGreen This syllabus supplement provides professors and students with content on LEED from BuildingGreen, LEEDuser, and other relevant resources. Transamerica Pyramid, San Franciso, California Courtesy architect William Pereira Intended for design professionals, BuildingGreen provides an independent “living textbook” that integrates perfectly with green building courses while exposing students to the most cutting-edge sustainability strategies and real-world green building case studies. Here we offer an Intro to LEED curriculum especially formulated for institutions that have access to the following articles through a campus-wide BuildingGreen subscription. Don’t have a subscription yet? Learning Objectives Week 1—What Is LEED? Intro to LEED U.S. LEED Rating System Selection Guidance Guide to the LEED Certification Process Green Building Certification Institute LEED Frequently Asked Questions Guide to LEED Professional Credentials Week 2—Development of LEED LEED Rating System Lurches Ahead First U.S.
Turn Your Home Router Into a Super-Powered Router with DD-WRT Wireless is everywhere and routers are the force that makes it happen, so why not supercharge yours to take proper advantage of it? DD-WRT will let you boost your router’s range, add features, and more. DD-WRT has a ton of features—more than we can cover in this guide, which is focused on helping you get your router upgraded. What Is DD-WRT? Here’s our router. DD-WRT is an open-source alternative firmware for routers. Router Support Turning your home router into an almost professional-level tool is a great project that has one major caveat: support. For our purposes, the important spec to consider is NVROM, or ROM. Preparation The most important thing in any project is research. DISCLAIMER: Changing your router’s firmware can result in unintentional consequences, such as “bricking.” As mentioned above, start with the Supported Devices page to see if you’ve got a DD-WRT-friendly router. The friendly forum gave us some useful info for our particular model. The Process
How to Travel Full-Time for $17,000 a Year (or Less!) Wise Bread Picks For the last five years, I've been traveling the world full-time, and for less money than I've ever spent (and I'd wager less money than most people would spend) to live in one place. My worldly possessions fit into one bag (just larger than carry-on size) and a backpack containing my laptop and computer gear. In 2011 alone, I traversed 13 countries and over 45,360 miles. What if I told you it wasn't? Believe it. How to Keep Your Travel Costs Low Of course, I could travel for way more than $17,000/year. Here are a few of my secrets. Don't Pay for Accommodations In the entire year of 2011, I paid $173 for accommodation. Work-Trade/Volunteer There are lots of creative opportunities to work in trade for your accommodation (and sometimes food) and enjoy a more immersive travel experience. Hospitality Exchange Got a few nights to kill at a given destination? House/Pet-Sitting Crew on Sailboats Don't Pay for Flights Travel Slowly Your Travel, Your Style
Virginia SUN | Citizens for Solar Take typing lessons, test your typing speed and practice typing for free! This is keybr.com, a web application that will help you teach touch typing. Touch typing is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. A person possessing touch typing skills will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory. It can improve any individual's typing speed and accuracy dramatically. This is a short tutorial that will explain how does this application work. You can use the left and right arrow keys to navigate through these slides. This tutorial is based on these few principles: No boring, repetitive exercises. Initially it starts generating words from a small subset of the most frequent letters of the alphabet. When you are typing these words, keybr measures time to type a key for every letter in that subset. Once you familiarize yourself with the current subset of letters, the algorithm expands it, including more and more letters to it. So at any time, you will by typing the letters you are least familiar with. This is the text board. ? ? ? ? ?
One can dream Once upon a time there were some very well-off folks in Vancouver who wanted big new homes. They called upon a builder by the name of Keystone Projects Ltd. and asked them to build the homes of their dreams. They asked for fancy kitchens and bathrooms and rooms for their pool tables and views to die for and a car lover's garage.