The Experimental Blog

Happy New Year 2012

2011-12-31T17:09:00.002+07:00

One year have pass by, one ahead will be come .......... so :
I' d like to say : Happy New Year 2012 to all of you, may the years come will be the success and blessing years by our GOD. Thank you very much for visiting my Blogsite.

Photo : Flickr, free download.

Tintin' s profile

2011-11-10T11:10:00.003+07:00

Hergé’s Timeline

Georges Remi was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1907.

Although he would go on to be one of the world’s most iconic cartoonists, Georges was not a particularly standout student as a young boy. Instead, he preferred to indulge in his love for adventure and games with his friends on the streets of Brussels. In secondary school, he joined the Boy Scouts. His drawing skills quickly caught the attention of the Scout leaders, and it wasn’t long before he was illustrating a Scout magazine and creating his first characters.

Herge’s Boy Scout character, Totor, was the inspiration for Tintin.

Although Tintin traveled around the world, Hergé stayed in Belgium for most of his life. In his later years, the artist and author managed to make trips to several countries and seefirsthand the places that inspired Tintin’s exciting adventures.

It was around this time that he decided to take the pen name “Hergé,” the French pronunciation of his initials in reverse. Georges left school at age 17 and eventually got a job helping create the children’s pages of a daily newspaper, Le Vingtième Siècle.

Hergé first drew Tintin in Le Petit Vingtième (the children’s pages of Le Vingtième Siècle) in 1929. The little reporter was an instant success in Belgium and beyond. By the 1950s, the Tintin adventures had become so popular that Hergé set up Studios Hergé. This not only supplied Hergé with a team of assistants and artists to expand the Tintin universe, it also freed him to do in-depth research for his stories, many of which took his characters to places that Hergé — and his devoted readers — had never seen.

Hergé’s Timeline

1907: Georges Remi is born in Brussels on May 22.
1921: Georges joins the college Boy Scout group, where he is given the name “Curious Fox.” He begins illustrating Scout magazines.
1924: From now on, he signs his drawings “Hergé,” a phonetic transcription of his initials (“G.R.”) in reverse.
1925: Upon finishing his studies, Hergé gets a job in the subscriptions department of Le Vingtième Siècle.
1926: Hergé creates a new character, Totor, for Le Boy-Scout Belge magazine.
1928: Hergé becomes the editor of Le Petit Vingtième, the youth-oriented supplement to Le Vingtième Siècle. The first issue comes out on November 1.
1929: On January 10, Tintin and Snowy are “born” in Le Petit Vingtième.
1934: Hergé’s meeting with a young Chinese student, Chang Chong-chen, marks a turning point in his career, and is central to the creation of The Blue Lotus. From now on, Hergé carries out extensive research before writing the Tintin stories.
1940: On May 10, Belgium is invaded by German troops. Hergé starts work on The Crab with the Golden Claws, which appears in Le Soir, a Brussels daily paper controlled by the occupying forces.
1946: On September 26, the first issue of Tintin, a new weekly youth-oriented magazine, is published.
1950: Having begun work on Explorers on the Moon, a story that requires detailed technical research, Hergé surrounds himself with assistants and founds Studios Hergé.
1961: A young Belgian, Jean-Pierre Talbot, plays Tintin on the big screen in Tintin and the Golden Fleece.
1969: Belvision Studios in Brussels produces a feature-length animated cartoon based on the book, Prisoners of the Sun.
1982: To celebrate Hergé’s seventy-fifth birthday, the Société Belge d’Astronomie gives his name to a newly discovered asteroid. The asteroid Hergé is located between Mars and Jupiter.
1983: On March 3, Georges Remi, better known as Hergé, passes away.; Source : tintin.com

Tintin on film

2011-11-03T14:48:00.001+07:00

Tintin 2: Horowitz says story 'still under discussion'

By Tim Masters Entertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News

The first Tintin movie was released in the UK last week

Writer Anthony Horowitz says there is still a question mark over which Tintin book will be adapted for the sequel to Steven Spielberg's chart-topping film.

Horowitz said earlier this year he had penned a script based partly on Herge's Tintin story Prisoners Of The Sun.
"That was true a few months ago," Horowitz told the BBC, "but I can tell you that I think the second film is not going to be Prisoners of the Sun".
"What it is going to be is still under discussion."
He added: "I've had meetings with the directors and producers and we've talked about ideas and action sequences.
"At the moment I'm trying to put together a story that will please everybody. It's a very difficult one to do."
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is currently top of the UK and Ireland box office.
The motion-capture 3D blockbuster stars Jamie Bell as Herge's young roving reporter, alongside a largely British cast that also includes Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis.
The screenplay for the first film was written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish.
Peter Jackson, who produced the first film, is set to direct the Tintin sequel once he has finished work on The Hobbit.
Earlier reports had suggested that the second film would be based on both Prisoners Of The Sun and its predecessor The Seven Crystal Balls.
Horowitz, whose Sherlock Holmes novel The House of Silk was published this week, confirmed that he would be writing the second film but was yet to begin work on the script.
He said: "I am a huge Tintin fan I grew up on him and I'm looking to getting stuck in on this, but we're a little distant yet from actually having a script...
"The good news is if [Prisoners Of The Sun] is not the second film it'll be the third film so actually I could end up with two Tintins under my belt."
Horowitz's TV writing credits include Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Robin of Sherwood and Foyles War.
He is also the writer of the Alex Rider series of spy novels, and adapted the first - Stormbreaker - for the big screen in 2006.

Source : BBC News on Internet.

US's economy trouble maker has revealed

2011-09-03T19:04:00.002+07:00

US sues 17 big banks over financial-crisis losses

By Alexander Osipovich | AFP News – 11 hours ago

It' s Yoyo' s time

2011-08-11T10:44:00.001+07:00

Stocks Dive Again on Europe, Economy Fears

Dow Sheds Nearly 520 Points; Investors Flock to Bonds Despite Record Low Yields; Rumors Swirl of Weakness in France.

By TOM LAURICELLA, MATT PHILLIPS and DAVID ENRICH

Stock prices tumbled Wednesday, led downward by some of the world's biggest banks. But bond investors offered a potentially more ominous assessment of prospects for the global economy, pouring money into the safety of U.S. Treasury bonds despite yields that are near their lowest levels in history.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 519.83 points, or 4.62% to 10719.94, more than wiping out the gains posted in Tuesday's sizable late-day rally. It was the Dow's fourth triple-digit move in five days and brings its declines since its April peak to more than 16%. The index is less than 500 points away from officially being in a bear market, defined as a decline of 20%.

Asian shares Thursday morning moved lower. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.6%; Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.4%; South Korea's Kospi Composite dropped 1.8% after slumping over 4% at the opening; and New Zealand's NZX-50 was 0.1% lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged to an 11-month low as investors were squeezed between fears of further contagion among European banks and the Federal Reserve's gloomy economic outlook. Paul Vigna has details.

.In Europe, rumors swirled about the health of French banks and the possibility that France could lose its AAA credit rating as the country's borrowing costs rise. The main indexes for stock markets in France, Germany, Spain and Italy each shed more than 5% of their value.

The market gyrations and clear worries about the health of the U.S. and European economies sparked a volley of phone calls between senior administration officials, including President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and European leaders. Mr. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also met with President Obama Wednesday, but no new steps were announced to address the market volatility.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been calling banks with increased frequency amid
the recent market tumult to ask them about the volatility in their stock prices, as part of their ongoing effort to monitor the situation, according to people familiar with the conversations.

In the Treasury market, bond buyers' bleak economic appraisals were evident in the day's auction of U.S. Treasury 10-year notes: Investors eagerly lent money to the U.S. government at an interest rate of 2.14%, a record low yield for a sale of 10-year notes. The sale suggests investors expect weak economic growth and below average inflation for the better part of the next decade.
."It tells you that the economy is expected to be weak for a pretty long period and that any rebound we get is probably not going to be very vigorous," said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., of the low-interest-rate environment.

Worries like these have been magnified by the Federal Reserve, which on Tuesday signaled its concerns about slow economic and job-market growth. While stock investors on Tuesday sent prices higher after taking heart in the Fed's comments—specifically that the central bank would use other tools at its disposal to help juice financial markets—investors have since concluded that the Fed's help still might not be enough.

The U.S. economy barely grew in the first half of the year, and now the European economy is under growing strain from its own debt crisis.

These factors, combined with stock-market chaos, are widening concerns of renewed recessions by depressing business and consumer confidence. Those concerns, in turn, have fed the exodus from stocks and bonds of European countries.

"It's a question of whether you start to have a negative feedback loop," said Laurent Fransolet, head of European fixed-income strategy research at Barclays Capital, where selling pressure begins "feeding on itself."
.The concerns have led to strong demand for Treasurys, despite the downgrade by Standard & Poor's of the U.S. long-term credit rating last Friday. The trend of falling Treasury yields gained steam following the Fed's announcement Tuesday that it would keep interest rates "exceptionally low" though the middle of 2013. Yields on 10-year Treasurys, which fall as prices rise, ended the day at 2.145%, near their lowest on record.

Wednesday's decline in stock prices, with its rumor-driven swings in bank stocks, was the latest in a remarkable string of wild moves in financial markets that harks back to the worst of the financial crisis in 2008.

It marked the fourth day in August that the Dow has closed more than 2% higher or lower. Only one of those sessions, Tuesday's, was a positive move. In contrast, there were only two days with moves of 2% or more in the first seven months of the year.

Stocks wiped out the previous day's gain, with the morning of Aug. 10 starting with sell-offs. The focus is also turning to Europe as questions emerge over France's credit rating. (Photo: AP Photo.)

.Amid the turmoil on Wednesday, gold prices surged to yet another record, gaining 2.4% to $1,781.30 per ounce.

There were some winners. Several corporations and other borrowers jumped into the market to take advantage of the tumbling interest rates. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co. led $9.2 billion in corporate bond sales. Mexico and the University of Southern California both sold bonds that mature in 100 years—an unusual but not unheard-of term—guaranteeing themselves a century of low rates.

In Europe, the stock selloff focused initially on French banks with heavy holdings of troubled European government debt. At one point, shares of France's second-largest bank, Société Générale SA, were down more than 20% before ending 15% lower on the day.

But by late afternoon, the fears had engulfed most major European banks. At least 11 saw their shares fall 8% or more, a grim sign considering that their stocks generally trade in relatively narrow bands during normal times. Outside France, the day's big losers included giant lenders in Italy, Spain and Germany. Credit Agricole fell 12% and BNP Paribas SA declined 9%.
One particular concern that has bubbled up in recent weeks is that it is getting harder for some banks to secure the funds that they need to run on a day-to-day basis.

Many analysts and other experts agree that the worries about European banks facing short-term liquidity problems are overblown. While it has become more expensive, and in some cases impossible, for some banks to obtain funding from investors or rival banks, lenders from euro-zone countries have a fallback option: the European Central Bank. Banks can tap essentially unlimited loans from the Frankfurt-based ECB, which accepts euro-zone government bonds as collateral.

The European banking worries helped propel U.S. stock prices downward. Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. all fell more than 10%.

U.S. financial stocks have also been hit hard by concerns about their mortgage exposure with the economy weakening and legal challenges piling up, many dating back to practices during the real-estate bubble. The stock price of Bank of America, the biggest U.S. bank in terms of assets, has dropped 17% since American International Group Inc. sued it Monday morning, seeking $10 billion in damages on its purchase of poor-performing mortgage bonds.

—Sudeep Reddy, Serena Ng and Damian Paletta contributed to this article.

Source : wsj.com

Stocks are on the sky again

2011-08-09T21:57:00.003+07:00

Stocks Rally Ahead of Fed

By STEVEN RUSSOLILLO

NEW YORK—U.S. stocks rose Tuesday morning in what is expected to be another volatile session as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's policy statement and any hint that the central bank will be able to calm markets and boost the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently up 228 points, or 2.1%, at 11037. The index briefly turned negative shortly after the opening bell, but has rallied since.

Bank of America led the measure higher, rising 4.8% after tumbling 20% in Monday's rout. J.P. Morgan Chase gained 4%. The Dow fell 635 points on Monday, the sixth-biggest point drop in its history, to close at a 10-month low.

The blue-chip index fell beneath 11000 for the first time since November in the wake of Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating. Jittery investors have fretted over government debt and the possibility that the economy could slide into another recession.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 26 points, or 2.3%, to 1145, led higher by financial and material stocks. Financial stocks were hit the hardest in Monday's drubbing. The technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite gained 61 points, or 2.6%, to 2418.

"We've been vastly oversold for the last three days," said Keith Bliss, senior vice president at Cuttone & Co., a brokerage on the New York Stock Exchange floor. "A little relief rally isn't unexpected. The absence of any bad news gave the markets a chance to come back a little bit."

Markets Hub's Paul Vigna and Shira Ovide watch the market moves on the opening bell after a day of historic sell-offs, as the markets digest new economic data and await a statement from the Federal Reserve. (Photo: Getty Images.) :

.Investors will be closely watching the Federal Reserve's monetary policy setting committee's statement, which is scheduled for release at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time. They want an indication of just how worried policy makers are about the market's recent slide as well as the slowing economy. Any indication that the central bank still has options to boost the economy could be interpreted optimistically.

Speculation has ramped higher that the Fed may need to come to the rescue again, including potentially launching a third Treasury bond-buying program, to stimulate the economy. The Fed finished its $600 billion Treasury bond buying program in June, known as the second round of quantitative easing. If "QE3" isn't a feasible option, investors will look for the Fed to announce some alternative to a full-fledged bond-buying plan.

"Everybody's looking for some sort of information or insight in terms of what the Fed's going to do in the near future," said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners. "We need to hear some sense of urgency and some sort of plan to stabilize markets and the economy. If we don't get anything specific, this rally could fade."

On the economic front, the Labor Department reported that U.S. productivity fell in the second quarter, while labor costs continued to rise amid a tepid economic recovery. Nonfarm business productivity fell at a 0.3% annual rate in April through June, after decreasing 0.6% in the first three months of 2011. The first-quarter figure was revised down sharply from an originally reported 1.8% rise.

Gold futures reflected continued extreme investor anxiety, as the safe-haven asset shot up above $1,743 an ounce, adding to Monday's record settlement on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude-oil futures fell below $81 a barrel after settling Monday at the lowest level of the year. The U.S. dollar lost ground against both the euro and the yen.

In corporate news, E*Trade Financial bowed to pressure from its largest shareholder, Citadel LLC. The financial company said its board formed a new special committee of independent directors, which hired Goldman Sachs, to conduct a review of strategic alternatives. Shares rose 1.1%.

Dow component Walt Disney is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results after the closing bell. Shares gained 1.6%.

Source : wsj.com - 09/08/2011.

US Stock Exchange bloodbath

2011-08-07T18:25:00.004+07:00

..World stocks slide further

By Ben Perry
AFP News – Sat, Aug 6, 2011.

Enlarge Photo.A display board showing the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong. Hong Kong shares dived …

Enlarge Photo.Closings for Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul and Taipei stock markets. Global stocks plunged …

AP - Sat, Aug 6, 2011.....Surprisingly robust US jobs data sparked only a brief rebound on Wall Street and in Europe on Friday, leaving investors scarred from a week of heavy losses brought on by slow growth and eurozone debt concerns.

European stock markets initially dived 3.0-4.0 percent after heavy falls in Asia, and rally quickly lost steam following the announcement that the US economy gained a net 117,000 jobs in July.

London's FTSE-100 index closed down 2.71 percent to 5,246.99 points for a weekly loss of 9.8 percent, wiping nearly Â£150 billion ($246 billion, 173 billion euros) off its total value over the last five days.

In Frankfurt, the DAX dropped 2.78 percent to 6,236.16 points, dropping 13.3 percent over the week.

In Paris, the CAC-40 slid 1.26 percent to 3,278.56 points to chalk up a record 10th consecutive daily loss. It lost 10.7 percent over the week.

In highly volatile trading, Madrid and Milan rebounded for part of the day on rumours that that the European Central Bank was preparing to buy hard-hit Spanish and Italian bonds, before falling back.
Madrid ended the day down 0.18 percent and dropped 10 percent over the week, while Milan fell 0.70 percent on Friday and lost 13.12 percent for the week.

Wall Street also opened higher on the surprisingly strong jobs data, but the rally quickly fizzled.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 1.9 percent to 11,168.17 points at 1600 GMT, and was down 8.03 percent from the previous week's close.
The broader S&P 500 was down 2.5 percent to 1,198.67 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped 3.4 percent to stand at 2,470.17 points.

"The reality of a global economic contraction seems to have finally kicked in as the markets continue to plummet," said Manoj Ladwa, senior trader at ETX Capital in London.
"Investors are pricing in a slowdown in growth and sovereign debt problems as equities drop across the board," he added.

China said that debt-reduction announcements in Europe and the United States, where the permitted ceiling was again raised, would not be enough to save their respective economies.
"Concrete steps" must be taken to rebalance the global economy, said a commentary published by the official Xinhua news agency.

Asian stock markets closed sharply lower on Friday as already-fragile investor confidence was hammered by more weak US economic data on Thursday and a warning from the head of the European Commission that the eurozone debt crisis had spread from peripheral countries to mainstay economies such as Italy.

Tokyo tumbled 3.72 percent, Sydney slumped 4.0 percent and Taipei dived 5.58 percent. Fear swept across Asia from the United States, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday suffered its worst one-day drop since December 2008.

"We're seeing the erosion and now the loss of confidence, confidence in the economy, confidence in the market, confidence in the policy makers. It's all showing up," said US-based Hugh Johnson, of Hugh Johnson Advisors.

The latest front cover of the Economist publication meanwhile carried the headline: 'Time for a double dip?' -- with the respected magazine questioning whether the US will fall back into recession.
A double-dip recession refers to a short-lived recovery from one recession and then a new plunge back into economic contraction.

"While we are not looking for a global recession, which is a surprisingly rare event, there is a lot of confusion out there," said Kathleen Brooks, an analyst at Forex.com traders.
"The markets staged impressive rallies over the last two years on the basis that global growth would bounce back. However, the recovery has been shallower than expected and now the markets have to re-adjust.

In the foreign exchange market, the euro rose slightly to buy $1.4157 at 1600 GMT from $1.4106 late on Thursday.
The dollar also slid against the yen, buying 78.48 yen against 78.93 late on Thursday.

Rumours that the ECB was buying Italian and Spanish govern bonds helped bring down yield and risk spreads, which had surged this week.

The yield on 10-year Italian bonds fell to 6.081 percent from 6.189 percent on Thursday, while the risk premium over safe-bet German bonds fell 375 basis points after hitting a fresh record at the beginning of trading.

Spanish 10-year bonds yielded 6.032 percent against 3.271 percent on Thursday, with the spread over German bonds dropping to 370 basis points.
The yield on 10-year German Bunds rose to 2.345 percent from 2.299 percent on Thursday.
French 10-year bonds yielded 3.255 percent, compared to 3.123 percent on Thursday, for a spread of 80 basis points above German Bunds...

Source : Yahoo News - World - 06/08/2011 - 07/08/2011.

S & P downgraded long term US debt rank

2011-08-06T11:45:00.002+07:00

S&P Strips U.S. of Top Credit Rating

By DAMIAN PALETTA and MATT PHILLIPS

A cornerstone of the global financial system was shaken Friday when officials at ratings firm Standard & Poor's said U.S. Treasury debt no longer deserved to be considered among the safest investments in the world.

S&P downgraded the U.S. government's AAA sovereign credit rating, an unprecedented action that could send shock waves through the global financial system. WSJ's Money & Investing Editor, Francesco Guerrera, reports. (Photo: Getty Images)

.S&P removed for the first time the triple-A rating the U.S. has held for 70 years, saying the budget deal recently brokered in Washington didn't do enough to address the gloomy outlook for America's finances. It downgraded long-term U.S. debt to AA+, a score that ranks below more than a dozen governments', including Liechtenstein's, and on par with Belgium's and New Zealand's. S&P also put the new grade on "negative outlook," meaning the U.S. has little chance of regaining the top rating in the near term.

The unprecedented move came after several hours of high-stakes drama. It began in the morning, when word leaked that a downgrade was imminent and stocks tumbled. Around 1:30 p.m., S&P officials notified the Treasury Department that they planned to downgrade U.S. debt and presented the government with their findings. Treasury officials noticed a $2 trillion error in S&P's math that delayed an announcement for several hours. S&P officials decided to move ahead, and after 8 p.m. they made their downgrade official.

S&P said the downgrade "reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics." It also blamed the weakened "effectiveness, stability, and predictability" of U.S. policy making and political institutions at a time when challenges are mounting.

"A judgment flawed by a $2 trillion error speaks for itself," a Treasury representative said.

LIVE BLOG: Reactions to S&P Downgrade

Follow live coverage, as the world reacts to the U.S.'s downgraded credit rating.

.The downgrade will force traders and investors to reconsider what has been an elemental assumption of modern finance. Since July 14, when Standard & Poor's warned it could downgrade the credit rating, analysts have struggled to determine how such a move could affect the financial landscape, given how Treasurys permeate Wall Street and the economy.
It's possible the blow in the short run might be more psychological than practical. Rival ratings firms Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have maintained their top-notch ratings for U.S. debt in recent days. And so far, U.S. Treasury bonds have remained a haven for investors worried about the health of the U.S. economy and the state of Europe's debt crisis. The pre-announcement spat could further undermine the impact of the downgrade.

The downgrade from S&P has been brewing for months. S&P's sovereign debt team had grown increasingly skeptical that Washington policy makers would make significant progress in reducing the deficit.

.But the move by S&P still could serve as a psychological haymaker for an American economic recovery that can't find much traction, and could do more damage to investors' increasing lack of faith in a political system that is struggling to reach consensus even on everyday policy matters. It could lead to the prompt debt downgrades of numerous companies and states, driving up their costs of borrowing. Policy makers are also anxious about any hidden icebergs the move could suddenly reveal.

A key concern will be whether the appetite for U.S. debt might change among foreign investors, in particular China, the world's largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasurys. In 1945, foreigners owned just 1% of U.S. Treasurys; today they own a record high 46%, according to research done by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Late Friday, federal regulators said the downgrade wouldn't affect risk-based capital requirements for U.S. banks—the cushion banks must hold to protect against losses. The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other federal banking regulators said in a statement the lowering "will not change" the risk weights for Treasury securities and other securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or government agencies.

Because S&P left the U.S. short-term credit rating unchanged, the downgrade is unlikely to have a big impact on money market funds that own U.S. Treasury bills.

Some investors believe Treasurys will remain a safe place in a volatile world, even without a solid triple-A credit-rating. Others believe the U.S. will be forced to pay higher interest rates, say about 0.5 percentage point higher, simply because they are seen as being slightly riskier than before. While only a slight gain, such a jump would increase the cost of a wide array of debt, from a home mortgage to the trillions of dollars in debt carried by the U.S. government itself.
.Lessons from other countries, such as Canada and Australia, suggest it can take years for a country to win back its AAA rating. At the same time, the economic impact of past downgrades has tended to be larger when multiple firms move to rate a country's debt as riskier, as opposed to a single firm acting unilaterally.

The downgrade from S&P has been brewing for months. S&P's sovereign debt team, led by company veteran David T. Beers, had grown increasingly skeptical that Washington policy makers would make significant progress in reducing the deficit, given the tortured talks over raising the debt ceiling. In recent warnings, the company said Washington should strive to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, suggesting anything less would be insufficient.
Negotiations to reach that threshold collapsed, and political leaders instead agreed to a last-second deal to cut the deficit by between $2.1 trillion and $2.4 trillion, making a downgrade almost unavoidable. When the $4 trillion deal fell apart, some Obama administration officials immediately warned that a downgrade from S&P was a real possibility.

S&P officials acknowledged the error Treasury pointed out but didn't believe it was so significant. It was a technical error, though it could have serious implications. It concerned the future ratio of U.S. debt to the size of the economy, with S&P officials projecting a larger share than many experts.

S&P conferred with a team from the Treasury Department earlier in the week to talk about the debt plan, and government officials tried to explain its scope. S&P officials ended their briefing with an air of mystery about what they might do, and Treasury officials were braced for an announcement later in the week, people familiar with the matter said.
The firm's conclusion "was pretty much motivated by all of the debate about the raising of the debt ceiling," John Chambers, chairman of S&P's sovereign ratings committee, said in an interview. "It involved a level of brinksmanship greater than what we had expected earlier in the year."

The full faith and credit of the U.S. was established by Alexander Hamilton's 1790 push to have the fledgling federal government assume and pay back debts that states incurred during the Revolutionary War. It has gone largely unquestioned since, with just the occasional hiccup, including a 1979 debt-ceiling argument that delayed a few payments.
Recent demographic and economic changes, in particular the aging population and ballooning health-care costs, have made the long-term U.S. picture an ugly one, a problem exacerbated by a deep recession, which cut tax receipts and prompted a flood of fresh debt-financed spending.

Forging an agreement to tackle these problems has been elusive, with bitter partisan disagreements about tax policy and entitlement programs such as Medicare taking center stage.
So far, economic turmoil in Europe and other parts of the world has continued to drive investors toward Treasurys, sparing the U.S. from a price usually paid by countries that can't get a handle on their debt problems. The phenomenon has kept interest rates paid on government debt very low, making it relatively inexpensive for the Treasury to finance the government's large deficits.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. analysts estimate some $4 trillion worth of Treasurys are pledged as collateral by borrowers such as banks and derivatives traders. If that collateral isn't considered as high quality by lenders, the borrowers could be required to cough up more cash or securities to put the minds of lenders at ease.

That could force investors to sell off other assets to come up with the money. In a worst-case scenario, credit markets could seize up, as they did during the Lehman crisis.

Write to Damian Paletta at damian.paletta@wsj.com and Matt Phillips at matt.phillips@wsj.com

Japan win women soccer world cup 2011

2011-07-18T13:30:00.001+07:00

Japan wins 1st World Cup title in penalty shootout

By NANCY ARMOUR, AP National Writer / 19 minutes ago

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)—Amid the sorrow that lingers throughout Japan, the determined women on its World Cup team may have brought a little joy.

Japan beat the Americans for the title in a riveting final Sunday, 3-1 on penalties after rallying from behind twice in a 2-2 draw. The star of the shootout was dogged goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori, who made two brilliant saves in the shootout.
All tournament the teammates poignantly reminded the world they were playing for their battered country, still reeling from the devastation of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Winning goalie Ayumi Kaihori of Japan made two saves in the shootout.

They held the gleaming trophy high above their smiling faces as confetti swirled around the podium, flecking their hair with gold.

“Before we went to the match tonight we had some commentary on television and we heard comments on the situation in Japan,” coach Norio Sasaki said. “We wanted to use this opportunity to thank the people back home for the support that has been given.”

This was Japan’s first appearance in the final of a major tournament, and they had not beaten the Americans
in their previous 25 meetings, including a pair of 2-0 losses in warm-up matches a month before the World Cup. But the Nadeshiko pushed ahead, playing inspired football and hoping their success could provide even a small emotional lift to their nation, where nearly 23,000 people died or were reported missing.

After each game, the team unfurled a banner saying, “To our Friends Around the World—Thank You for Your Support.” On Sunday, they did it before the match and afterward they had a new sign to display: Champion—the first Asian country to win this title.

The Americans found it all too hard to grasp. They believed they were meant to be World Cup champions after their rocky year—needing a playoff to qualify, a loss in group play to Sweden, the epic comeback against Brazil. They simply couldn’t pull off one last thriller.

“The players were patient. They wanted to win this game,” Sasaki said. “I think it’s because of that the Americans scored only two goals.”

While the Japanese celebrated, the Americans stood as a group and watched.

“There are really no words,” America’s Abby Wambach said. “We were so close.”

After Wambach scored in the 104th minute of overtime to give the Americans a 2-1 lead, Homare Sawa converted a corner in the 117th to level it. It was the fifth goal of the tournament for Sawa, who was playing in her fifth World Cup.

“We ran and ran,” Sawa said. “We were exhausted, but we kept running.”

Hope Solo (R), and Abby Wambach (L) both were awarded performance trophies.

The Americans had beaten Brazil in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals, but they didn’t have the same touch Sunday.

Shannon Boxx took the first U.S. shot, and it banged off Kaihori’s right leg as she dove. After Aya Miyama made her penalty, Carli Lloyd stepped up and sent her shot soaring over the crossbar. As the crowd gasped, Lloyd covered her mouth in dismay.

Solo saved Japan’s next shot, but Kaihori made an impressive two-handed save on a Tobin Heath attempt.

“This is a team effort,” Kaihori said. “In the penalty shootout I just had to believe in myself and I was very confident.”

Solo came up with a save, and Wambach buried her penalty, leaving Saki Kumagai to convert the decisive kick.

It’s been 12 years since the United States has won the World Cup, and this team was certain they were the ones to break the drought. They’d needed to beat Italy in a two-game playoff just to get into the World Cup, then lost two games in a three-month span, an unusual “bad streak” for the defending Olympic champions.

After easy wins in their first two games in Germany, the Americans lost to Sweden—their first loss ever in World Cup group play.

But they rallied with one of the most riveting finishes ever in a World Cup game—men’s or women’s—against Brazil in the quarterfinals. Down a player for almost an hour and on the verge of making their earliest exit ever from a major tournament, Wambach’s magnificent, leaping header in the 122nd minute tied the game.

The Americans beat Brazil on penalty kicks and, just like that, a nation was hooked. Even President Barack Obama was a fan, taking to Twitter himself on Sunday morning to wish the team well.

“Sorry I can’t be there to see you play, but I’ll be cheering you on from here. Let’s go.—BO.”

But, of course, it was not to be.

“Considering the current situation in Japan, I can say that we still have some weak points,” Sasaki said. “Nevertheless this has been an outstanding tournament for us.”

The Americans finally broke through in the second half, with Morgan scoring her second goal of the tournament in the 69th.

But with just nine minutes or so before they could claim the title, the Americans gifted Japan a goal. Rachel Buehler tried to clear the ball in front of the goal and knocked it to Ali Krieger, who botched her clearance. The ball fell to Miyama, who poked it in from five yards to equalize.

Japan player Aya Miyama scores a tying goal past USA goalie Hope Solo (right).

(US Presswire)

“If any other country was to win this, then I’m really happy and proud for Japan,” Lloyd said. “Deep down inside I really thought it was our destiny to win it. But maybe it was Japan’s.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great story of this year 2011

2011-07-04T10:41:00.002+07:00

Police: Train ticket helps crack 1957 Ill. killing

By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ - Associated Press
AP – Sat, Jul 2, 2011

...The grave site of Maria Ridulph at Elmwood Cemetery is shown in Sycamore, Ill., on …

....SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) — Charles "Chuck" Ridulph always assumed the person who stole his little sister from the neighborhood corner where she played and dumped her body in a wooded stretch some 100 miles away was a trucker or passing stranger — surely not anyone from the hometown he remembers as one big, friendly playground.

And, after more than a half century passed since her death, he assumed the culprit also had died or was in prison for some other crime.

On Saturday, he said he was stunned by the news that a one-time neighbor had been charged in the kidnapping and killing that captured national attention, including that of the president and FBI chief. Prosecutors in bucolic Sycamore, a city of 15,000 that's home to a yearly pumpkin festival, charged a former police officer Friday in the 1957 abduction of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph after an ex-girlfriend's discovery of an unused train ticket blew a hole in his alibi.

Jack Daniel McCullough, 71, has been held in Seattle on $3 million bail. A judge overseeing a Saturday court appearance for him said he had been taken to a regional trauma center but did not elaborate. She rescheduled his bail hearing for 12:30 p.m. Monday.

"I just can't believe that after all these years they'd be able to find this guy," Chuck Ridulph told The Associated Press at his duplex in Sycamore, about 50 miles west of Chicago.

A 65-year-old minister who mainly serves his area's senior citizens, Ridulph once shared a bedroom with his sister and already has his headstone placed on a burial plot next to her grave. With McCullough's arrest, he worries about a drawn-out legal process that will dredge up bad memories but also perhaps answer some nagging, stomach-churning questions about what happened to the little girl who loved to play dress up.

"It's in my every thought, even in my dreams," he said of his sister's death. "It was just like it was yesterday. It comes up all the time in conversation."

Sycamore Police Chief Donald Thomas was reluctant to discuss the case when found at home Saturday. But he said, "we believe we know who did it. We believe we have a strong case."

His department's breakthrough was a long time coming.

Maria disappeared Dec. 3, 1957, while doing what kids in Sycamore did then — playing. Maria's friend, Kathy Chapman, who was 8 at the time, recalled that she and Maria were under a corner streetlight when a young man she knew as "Johnny" offered them a piggyback ride. Chapman, now 61 and living in St. Charles, Ill., told the AP she ran home to get mittens and that when she returned, Maria and the man were gone.

"She was my best friend," Chapman told the AP on Saturday. "We played every day. We were always together."

The search for Maria grew to involve more than 1,000 law enforcement officers and numerous other community members, ultimately catching the eye of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who requested daily updates.

"Things never went back to normal," Chapman said. "It was always a struggle. I didn't have a normal childhood after that."

Christmas came and went, with a pogo stick wrapped as a gift for Maria remaining unopened, her brother remembered. Then in April 1958, two people foraging for mushrooms found her remains.

Police suspected McCullough, who lived less than two blocks from the Ridulphs and who fit the description of the man said to have approached the girls, Thomas said Friday. But McCullough seemed to have an alibi, claiming he took the train from Rockford to Chicago the day of the abduction.

His story fell apart last year after investigators reinterviewed a woman who dated him in 1957 and asked her to search through some personal items, the Seattle Times reported, citing court documents. She found an unused train ticket from Rockford to Chicago dated the day the girl went missing.

"Once his alibi crumbled, we found about a dozen other facts that helped us build our case," Thomas said.

The Times reported investigators also determined a collect phone call McCullough purportedly made to his then-girlfriend from Chicago actually came from his Sycamore home the day Maria vanished — and he gave a ride to a relative when he should have been on the train.

Chapman said police never showed her a photo of McCullough in the days and months after Maria was kidnapped. But in September of last year, she said investigators came to her with a photo of a teenage McCullough. She identified him as the "Johnny" who approached her and Maria the night her friend vanished. At the time, McCullough's name was John Tessier.

Chapman was shocked to learn the case was still being investigated. She said she had received information some years before about it being closed.

When she got the news that McCullough was charged, she said she was "just ecstatic, could not be happier."

"We've been waiting a long, long time for this," said Chapman, who has three children and three grandchildren.

By Saturday, word of McCullough's arrest had swept throughout Sycamore, its main street adorned by American flags tethered to parking meters and lined by mom-and-pop shops. The prospect of reliving one of the most upsetting moments in the town's history during a trial was already weighing on Dick Larson, a rural mail carrier who went to school with Chuck Ridulph.

"It breaks my heart to think we have to go through this again. This is 54 years ago. It just brings back a whole river flow of memories," the 65-year-old said before crying.

He doesn't believe a conviction will bring closure or help the town heal.

"That's a standard way of thinking, that there's justice and closure," he said. "The people who go through it, they deal with it forever."
___
Associated Press writers Jim Suhr in St. Louis and Donna Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this report.
...
Source : Yahoo news.com - July 4, 2011.

Some photos from Jakarta city

2011-05-17T12:52:00.001+07:00

The clouds for Cloud lovers ( left ) - Views of Jakarta city from centre to Southern ( right ).

At the Annual Grand Meeting of a Government Gas company in Four Season Hotel (left) - Views from Ritz Carlton Hotel, Rasuna Said (right).

- To the port we go, trucks / containers goes to the harbour to export on the toll bridge.

Traffic in General Sudirman Avenue, Central Jakarta at peak hours, views to Northern ( left ) - The clouds for Cloud lovers ( right ).

I have a lot of work recently until 2 months later ( July 2011 ), so I brought you some photos when I go to do that works. See you next time !..... Bye !.

Last US WWI veteran dies at 110

2011-04-03T22:07:00.002+07:00

BY MAURICE SCARBOROUGH

America’s last remaining World War I veteran has passed away at age 110.

“Frank Buckles enlisted in the Army at the age of 16, and then served as an ambulance driver. He was captured by Japanese forces in the Philippines during World War II. Buckles was held as a prisoner of war for more than three years, before being freed by U.S. troops.”
KSBW
Buckles was the last of America’s Doughboys - and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki called him a - quote - “living link to an important era in our nation’s history.” But the New York Times explains Buckles almost missed his chance at making history.

“The Marines turned him down as underage and under the required weight. The Navy didn’t want him either, saying he had flat feet. But the Army took him in August 1917 when he lied about his age, and he volunteered to be an ambulance driver, hearing that was the quickest path to service in France.”

While Buckles’ military service ended after the war, his service to honor those who fought continued. During his life he actively advocated for a National World War I memorial in the nation’s capital.

“Buckles wanted the existing World War I memorial on the national mall in Washington to be restored and rededicated as a national memorial to all the veterans who died in that war.”
Fox News

Buckles’ wish for a national memorial in Washington has yet to come true, but his dream of being buried next to fellow service members and friends will become a reality.

“...with no wounds or medals for bravery, he was eligible under Arlington National Cemetery protocols only for inurnment in a vault for cremated remains. In March 2008, however, the Bush administration ordered a rare exception... Mr. Buckles wanted a grave site at Arlington and a traditional white marble headstone. And he will get his wish.”

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Transcript by Newsy

Source : http://www.newsy.com/ , February 28, 2011.

This post appear for honouring Mr. Daniel P, who send me a message via my e-mail address. Thank you.

Happy New Year 2011

2011-02-16T10:33:00.007+07:00

May our life journey on this Earth happily .............. Happy New Year 2011 for everyone !!!.

Photo credit : Flickr.com / Satyajit Basu.

Henrietta Lacks - Pioneering the Cure Cancer

2011-01-12T11:07:00.001+07:00

‘Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ Tells a True Story of Science, Ethics and Family

20 July 2010

Photo: nih.gov HeLa cells as seen through a powerful microscope

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: And I’m Fritzi Bodenheimer with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the most important scientific discoveries of the last century -- the development of HeLa cells. Reporter Rebecca Skloot explores this in her book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” The book is a history of science, professional morals and the human story behind a famous line of cells.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: For much of his career, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland had been working to find a way to grow human cells outside the body. George Gey and his team of researchers wanted to grow cancer cells in a laboratory. They believed scientists could study this illness to understand its causes and find a cure.
Dr. Gey tested many different human cells in many kinds of liquid. But the cells always died quickly. However, one day in nineteen fifty-one, his search came to an end. Cancer cells from a patient at the university’s hospital were more than just surviving. These cells were growing faster than anyone had ever seen before.

Dr. Gey discussed his findings with other scientists. He provided them with some of these HeLa cells to use in their own research. He began giving the cells to researchers across the country, free of charge. Soon, scientists in labs around the world were using these cells. Later, the production of this line of cells by companies would grow into an industry worth millions of dollars.
FRITZI BODENHEIMER: This kind of cell-line is called “immortal.” This means the cells can keep growing and reproducing indefinitely. Normal cells reproduce for a limited time before dying.
For the first time, scientists around the world had a limitless number of cells they could use to test the effects of diseases, medicines and chemicals.
Jonas Salk used these HeLa cells to test the first vaccine for polio. HeLa cells have gone to the moon to test the effect of zero gravity. They have been used to study cancer, AIDS, genetic testing, and drugs for illnesses including influenza, herpes and Parkinson’s disease. And, these HeLa cells are still being made, sold and used in research today. One scientist estimated that if all the HeLa cells ever grown were gathered together, they would weigh more than fifty million metric tons.
STEVE EMBER: At this point, you may be wondering just where these famous HeLa cells came from. The first clue is in the name, HeLa. The cells were taken from the cervix of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. The word HeLa uses the first two letters of her first and last name.

Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who was a cancer patient at Johns Hopkins University hospital. These cells were taken from her tumor without her knowledge or permission. Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in nineteen fifty-one leaving behind a husband and five children.
FRITZI BODENHEIMER: It was not until the nineteen seventies that Henrietta Lacks’ family learned that her cells had been taken and used by scientists. Learning about the existence of these HeLa cells was an emotional and difficult experience for the family.
For the scientists who used these cells, HeLa was just a name. But for the family, Henrietta Lacks was a real person whose absence they continue to feel deeply. It was also not easy for the family to accept that her cells had fueled an industry worth millions of dollars. Yet the Lacks family had very little money, education or health insurance.
STEVE EMBER: Henrietta Lacks’ husband and children found out about the experiment done on her when scientists contacted them. The scientists wanted to do research on the family to learn more about the HeLa cells. The scientists conducted this research without their informed permission.
The case of Henrietta Lacks brings up several moral issues. Henrietta Lacks did not give her permission for the cells to be taken from her tumor. And the question remains whether her family had a legal or moral right to receive payment after something of monetary value was made from their mother’s cells.
(MUSIC)

rebeccaskloot.com

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: Rebecca Skloot is a science reporter. She first learned about HeLa cells in a biology class when she was sixteen years old. She became very interested in Henrietta Lacks and wanted to know more about her life. But there was almost no information about the person behind these famous cells.
Years later, Ms. Skloot began research for a book about Henrietta Lacks, her cells and their influence on medical and scientific history. The book would take her ten years to research and write. She interviewed many doctors, scientists, lawyers, reporters and experts on medical ethics. She also became very close friends with the Lacks family.
Rebecca Skloot tells this complex story by going back and forth between subjects and time periods. Her book involves three stories. One is an explanation of science, medicine and professional morality. Another is the story of Henrietta Lacks’ life. And the third is the reporter’s story as she becomes close to the Lacks children and helps them learn more about their mother’s influence on medical science.
STEVE EMBER: One story line in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is like a history lesson.
Rebecca Skloot explains about scientific and medical developments. Readers can better understand how informed consent and the question of morality in medical experiments have changed over time.
Today, there are laws in the United States that protect a patient receiving medical treatment. Doctors are required to fully inform a patient about his or her illness. The patient must agree to any treatment. But this practice of informed consent is relatively new.
FRITZI BODENHEIMER: In nineteen fifty-one, Henrietta Lacks did agree to be treated for her cervical cancer. But she was not told that a doctor had taken cells from her body for testing. Rebecca Skloot points out that this was not an unusual medical practice during this period.
Johns Hopkins hospital provided care for poor people who could not pay for medical treatment. She says the common belief among doctors at the time was that they could use their patients in their research in exchange for free treatment.
STEVE EMBER: Rebecca Skloot discusses several well known cases where doctors failed to use moral judgment. One famous example is the Tuskegee syphilis study, which began in the nineteen thirties. The United States Public Health Service and Tuskegee Institute in Alabama studied the effects of the disease syphilis on a group of poor African-American men.
The men were not fully told why they were being studied or what tests were being done to them.
Later, when penicillin was widely available, the researchers denied the men the drug that could have cured their illness. The study lasted for forty years. Most of the men died from syphilis, or problems from the disease. The study was finally shut down after an employee told a reporter about the experiment. The reporter then informed the public.
(MUSIC)

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: Rebecca Skloot also did careful research to describe Henrietta Lacks. She writes about Henrietta’s childhood on a tobacco farm in Virginia, her marriage and her move to Baltimore, Maryland. She learned from Henrietta’s friends that she loved to dance and to paint her fingernails and toenails red.
Ms. Skloot had a difficult time gaining the trust of the Lacks family. But she slowly became friends with the family, especially Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah. She helped the family understand the importance of the HeLa cells and accept that the scientific community has gained so much from their use.
Rebecca Skloot says the Lacks family tested everything she thought she knew about faith, science, reporting and race. Ms. Skloot says her book is a result of what she learned along the way.
STEVE EMBER: Rebecca Skloot has established an organization called the Henrietta Lacks Foundation. She has donated some of the money she has earned from the book to the organization. The aim of the foundation is to provide money for family members of Henrietta Lacks. The money will help them get a good education and health care insurance – things that Henrietta herself never had.
Rebecca Skloot says she hopes that scientific companies that have gained from HeLa cells will give back to the family whose ancestor changed the history of medicine.
FRITZI BODENHEIMER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Fritzi Bodenheimer.
STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. You can comment this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Bird are dying - fell from the top

2011-01-08T10:33:00.003+07:00

Birds are dropping in droves. The thing is, it's perfectly normal.
In recent days, 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead in Arkansas. Dozens of jackdaws in Sweden fell from the sky as well. So did a few hundred turtle doves in Italy.

View Full Image

Associated Press

Hundreds of dead birds cover the Morganza Highway in Pointe Coupee Parish, La., on Monday.

The natural questions: Are these deaths somehow linked by a common cause, a sign of an impending apocalypse or the result of a common environmental trigger? Biologists say it's unlikely.
"Large mortality events in wildlife aren't that uncommon," says Paul Slota, spokesman for the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., which has been tracking mass animal deaths since the 1970s. "In the last 10 years we have logged 188 cases just involving birds with mortality exceeding 1,000 animals per event."
The causes vary. Some animals starve. Others eat toxic food or get poisoned by people. Many die in severe weather, or succumb to pollution or bacterial and viral illnesses. In many causes, though, the cause remains a mystery.

For example, one prevailing theory holds that the blackbirds in Arkansas were startled out of their roost by fireworks set off on New Year's Eve, which disoriented them and caused them to slam into buildings, trees and the ground. But some scientists say fireworks aren't the likely cause; if so similar bird deaths would be reported every New Year's Eve, but they aren't.

Louisiana Experiences Mass Bird Kill (01/04/2011)
Mystery of the Dead Blackbirds Continues (01/04/2011)
Loud Noise Likely Caused Birds' Deaths (01/03/2011)

On average, between 160 and 200 such "mass death" events in wildlife are reported to the federal government each year, according to the USGS.
The Associated Press also noted that there have been much larger die-offs than the thousands of blackbirds in Arkansas; twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada.
So why the sudden surge in public interest, plus the accompanying fear in some quarters that something sinister might be afoot?
"There's much greater exchange of information nowadays" thanks to the Internet, says Mr. Slota. "The more such events get reported, the more people take interest" and see links that aren't necessarilythere.
Some wildlife declines are truly worrisome but aren't as attention-getting, says Mr. Slota.
For example, in the past three years or so, more than one million bats in the U.S. have died from a fungal affliction called white nose syndrome.
The bats are important pollinators for several plant species, and "the mortality is astoundingly greater" than the blackbirds, says Mr. Slota. But public interest is meager.

Write to Gautam Naik at gautam.naik@wsj.com
Source : wsj.com - January 8, 2011.

Place the clock

2010-11-07T12:22:00.000+07:00

This day I try to place the Clock onto my Blogsite, I learned it for several weeks before, try it several times and get failed, but now I can place it on my Blogsite with safe.

Growing Trees in the desert, with the aid of " Waterboxx "

2010-10-13T18:16:00.003+07:00

Photo : groasis.com

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Pieter Hoff used to export lilies and tulips from the Netherlands. He retired from the flower export business seven years ago. Now, he is trying to help people grow trees and plants in the desert -- and save water.
In many places, much of the freshwater supply is used for irrigation. Yet most of that water may be lost through evaporation into the air. So Pieter Hoff has invented a simple plastic device called the Groasis Waterboxx. He says he got the idea from nature.

PIETER HOFF: "If you look at nature, and I give an example in your own country, if you look to the Rocky Mountains of the Sierra Nevada, you find trees all over the mountains. So trees are actually able to grow on rocks. They have very strong roots."
Mr. Hoff says the trick is that nature does not dig a hole like we humans do to plant seeds. Nature plants the seeds through birds or animals on top of the soil. Their waste then acts as a cover. It prevents the humidity in the soil from evaporating.

The Dutch inventor says he is simply copying that system. The Waterboxx is a round device about the size of a motorcycle tire. It sits flat on the ground with the bottom open to the earth. Seeds or a young planting grow out of a hole in the center.
Some people call the Waterboxx a water battery because of its ability to collect and store water.
The cover has deep ridges. These collect rainwater. But the device is designed to collect water even when there is no rain. The cover gets cold during the night and creates condensation.
The water is collected through two holes and in the holes there is a siphon to carry it to the soil. Pieter Hoff says the nice thing about the siphons is that, once collected, the water is not able to evaporate anymore.
The roots of the plant may have to grow several meters deep to reach groundwater. Once growth is established, the box can be removed and used to start another planting. The company also makes a version for one-time use.

Researchers at Mohammed the First University in Oujda, Morocco, tested the Waterboxx for three years in the Sahara. They said close to ninety percent of the trees planted with the device survived. Without it, they said, only about ten percent survived.

Pieter Hoff says he is now doing experiments with twenty thousand Waterboxxes in countries including Pakistan, Ecuador and the United States. The reusable box now sells for about fifteen dollars.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, by Jerilyn Watson and Bob Burns. I’m Steve Ember.

Trio shares Nobel Prize for Chemistry

2010-10-07T17:10:00.002+07:00

Scientists Imitate Life, Melding Carbon Atoms for Uses From Cutting-Edge Drugs to Electronics

Nobel Prize Winners: Past and Present

View Interactive

Associated Press, AFP/Getty Images (2)

From left: Akira Suzuki, Ei-ichi Negishi and American Richard Heck won the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a chemical method that has allowed scientists to make medicines and better electronics.

The approach works fine when concocting simple molecules, but for complex molecules, it generates too many unwanted byproducts. That's where palladium comes in.
The lustrous, silvery-white metal plays the vital role of catalyst. The three Nobel laureates showed that when the carbon atoms meet on a palladium atom, it can spark the chemical reaction.
"Palladium is a sort of matchmaker. It helps the atoms join hands and form a carbon bond," said Jeremy Berg, an inorganic chemist by training and director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The NIGMS has funded Dr. Negishi's research with $6.5 million since the 1970s. It also supports other scientists involved in similar experiments.

Trying Move & Stop

2010-10-04T17:51:00.013+07:00

I want to make a picture move & stop if I point to it & move and so on

Influencing yourself and others to achieve results

2010-09-27T13:13:00.004+07:00

DELVING DEEPER
Joseph Grenny on influencing yourself and others to achieve results
Over the past 20 years Joseph Grenny has taught and advised more than 100,000 leaders from all over the world. His experience – combined with the latest research – has led Grenny to develop what he calls “six sources of influence.” In this exclusive interview, Grenny discusses these six sources and how they can give you the power to change anything.

Over the past 20 years Joseph Grenny has taught and advised more than 100,000 leaders from all over the world on how to get the best out of themselves and others. His experience – combined with the latest research in behavioral economics and the social sciences – has led Grenny to develop what he calls “six sources of influence.” He contends that these sources of influence – if carefully and consistently nurtured – will provide you with a systematic strategy for executing on influence and give you the power to change anything. Read on to learn more.
Interview by Chris Stanley

Why is influence so important to business leaders?If you think of problems like an iceberg, business leaders face problems both above and below the water line. Those above the water line are the visible problems of setting strategy and policy, developing new products, creating processes. These are the visible, tangible, tactile challenges that they need to generate solutions to. The problems below the water line tend to deal with behavior in the organization - things that are not always visible and apparent, but that profoundly affect the ability to execute on the elements that are above the water line. Of the two, the below the water line problems tend to be the more profound, persistent, and the most resistant to change. And leaders tend to have the fewest tools for solving them.

So what would you say are the typical characteristics of a great influencer?There are two big things that people need to do to be effective at influencing change.
Firstly they need to have a robust and proper way of understanding today’s behavior. For example, if they need to improve service quality, the first thing that leaders do is they start rolling out a change strategy without deeply understanding the behavior that they are confronting. If employees are lethargic, disinterested or resistant, leaders tend not to have a very robust way of thinking about the root causes of that resistance.
Secondly they need to have a robust way of creating an influence strategy. We’ve spent 25 years studying the best that social science has to offer and also looking at the best practitioners on the planet to see how they create effective, rapid, profound and sustainable behavior change across an organization. We found that the measure of the potential effectiveness of an influence strategy is the degree to which it reflects six sources of influence.

What are these six sources of influence?There are two big reasons people do what they do - because they want to do something and because they can do something. What leaders tend to do is develop motivation strategies that do very little on the ability side. They also tend not to understand that there are three types of motivation and ability: personal, social and structural.

Personal motivation and ability looks at ‘Do I want to" and "Can I?" When leaders are creating change strategies, they tend to focus on just personal motivation. They are trying to convince people that they ought to something. What they don’t understand is there are social and structural factors that profoundly affect whether people want to do something and whether they are capable of doing it.
Social motivation looks at whether my leaders, peers, direct reports and others are encouraging me and praising me or discouraging me and getting in my way. On the social ability side, the same is true - are people throwing up barriers or providing me with the help and resources that I need?
Finally there"s structural motivation - rewards and incentives; and structural ability - the design of the organization and the resources that are systematically made available.
All six of these affect any behavior. They enter into your choices about what you are going to eat today or whether you stick with the diet or not. They enter into whether you show up to work on time or not and whether you stay engaged all day long. If leaders don’t know how to think about all six of these systematically and most importantly draw upon all six of them, they fail more often than not in affecting the problems below the water line. We have found that leaders who use all six of these sources of influence were ten times more likely to see change succeed.

So let’s talk about some of these sources in a little bit more detail. The first one you mentioned is personal motivation. So how would you go about motivating someone to do something they don’t want to do?
Generally positive behaviors are less common than negative behaviors. So how do you get people to engage in positive behavior? The answer is that leaders have to help people make an experiential linkage between the behavior that is being asked of them and their own core values. When we say experiential we mean that it does not require a lecture or some sort of verbal persuasion. Leaders need to use engaging stories or recreate powerful personal experiences to help people to anchor the new behavior, and they tend not to be very comfortable with that.

Can you give me an example of this working in practice?
Yes, absolutely. We looked at supervisors in a fast food chain who were just trying to get employees to pick up a broom and brush up the dining area during slow periods. You would think that this is a particularly insignificant behavior and that it would be difficult to create a sense of vigor and passion about it. We found that those who were successful in counseling employees and changing behavior did so by describing customer experiences that were particularly dissatisfying in a way that was quite animated to the employee. So for example a manager spoke to an employee who was not very engaged in brushing up the dining area and described how twenty minutes earlier he had seen a mother come in with her two year old daughter. The mother had gone to order food while the two year old daughter sat at the table sweeping her arm across all of the debris and smears of ketchup that the previous guest had left, putting her hand to her mouth and licking it off. This created such a sense of disgust in the 17 year old employee that he didn’t need to be told to go out and clean the dining area; he felt a moral compulsion to go out and do it. So even with mundane behaviors like that, using stories can create a sense of moral motivation that profoundly affects people’s choices.

What are some of the challenges that leaders face in harnessing social pressure in a positive way, that doesn’t create resentment within teams?
The first mistake leaders make is that they don’t target their influence towards the opinion leaders. They tend to try to just diffuse their attention across the entire employee population. But the leader’s job is to persuade ten per cent of the organization, and the opinion leaders will bring everybody else along. Leaders ought to focus their attention on this unique population.
The second mistake is that when leaders do try to engage opinion leaders, they usually work with suck ups rather than real opinion leaders. For example if you are rolling out a big new quality program or a customer service program, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is go out and ask for volunteers. The people who volunteer tend to be the ones who are least socially credible in the organization, and that is the death of your effort.

Have you any evidence of the effectiveness of employing these six sources of influence?Yes, we have studied over a thousand organizations and their attempts to bring about change. This very broad systematic strategy showed differences of an order of magnitude of 1000% when organizations started to employ all six sources of influence. These aren"t marginal differences that made some incremental change. The six sources of influence describe the physics of change. If you are not using all of these elements you shouldn’t expect to see real significant behavior change occur.

We’ve talked a lot about influence within businesses and organizations and change management in organizations. How does influence work on a more personal level? If I want to convince my boss that I want a pay rise for example, how might that work, how might I go about doing that successfully?
The first is that you need to realize that your boss will decide to give you a raise not just when he or she is motivated to do it but also when he or she is able. So you will have to be able to deal with both the motivational and the ability side. Often when we try to influence our boss we are just thinking about making him realize they should give us the pay rise but not realizing that they can’t. The people who are the most persuasive are the ones that make arguments that deal with the ability side as well. So if my boss says he’s only got budget for a 2 percent pay increase across the entire team, I have to deal with the ability side of that as well. I either have to add additional value or demonstrate where additional money is. Thinking in this way opens up other avenues that help me to be more persuasive and effective with others as well.

How do you view the internet and technology in general as a tool for influencing people’s behavior?
In general technology over the past 20 years has done more to feed impulses than values. In spite of the fact that it has been a wonderful enabler of information access, the kind of personal behavior that it has promoted has largely been negative. It has caused people to be more isolated at times. We are using social networking rather than social get-togethers. In many cases we respond to the impulses of text messages or cell phones and email as opposed to organized thought. Yet I think that the potential is there for technology to be profoundly helpful in helping people to create self-directed change. This is one of the next big projects that we are involved with the support of Dr. Albert Bandura at Stanford who stands as quite a pioneer in this field. Our next big project is to try to harness all six sources of influence through the use of technology to help people to create more self-directed change.

Source : HSM Global

2 Different kind of provider

2010-09-26T10:20:00.001+07:00

Hello Folks, my blog appearance maybe not to neat to read / see ( see below - Kaastengels cake ), because the sentence is not composed properly, it cause I need to print my blog to Print Friendly service, if I follow Blogger style composing, the result in Print Friendly service is not good in construction, so it is 2 different kind provider program which have 2 different kind of basic language.
I want to print my posting then I have to set my post similar like the Print Friendly wants, therefore it looks like not neat in appearance, that' s the reason.

Kaastengels

2010-09-26T09:15:00.008+07:00

from : Majalah Sekar

Kaastengels

Jumat, 24/9/2010 | 13:44 WIB

Bahan :
150 gr margarin
1/4 sdt garam
1/4 sdt kaldu ayam bubuk
1 kuning telur                                                                                         Bahan olesan ( aduk rata ) :
1 sdm susu cair                                                                                        2 kuning telur
100 gr keju cheddar parut halus, diangin-anginkan agar kering              1 sdt susu cair
200 gr tepung terigu protein sedang                                                    Bahan taburan :
1/4 sdt baking powder                                                                           100 gr keju cheddar parut

Cara membuat :
1. Kocok margarin, garam, dan kaldu ayam bubuk sampai lembut selama 1 menit. Tambahkan kuning telur dan susu cair. Kocok rata.
2. Masukkan keju cheddar parut. Aduk rata. Tambahkan tepung terigu dan baking powder sambil diayak dan diaduk rata.
3. Pulung adonan memanjang. Potong-potong 4 cm.
4. Letakkan di loyang yang diolesi tipis margarin. Oles dengan bahan olesan. Tabur keju parut.
5. Oven 45 menit dengan suhu 140 derajat Celcius sampai matang.
Untuk 372 gr
Tips: Untuk rasa lebih gurih, sebagian margarin boleh diganti dengan mentega.

Editor: Dini

Test caution

2010-07-19T23:02:00.004+07:00

Caution, Caution !

Easy steps to improve your PC' s

2010-06-27T20:43:00.002+07:00

Unless your computer is fresh out of the box, it's probably not running as fast as it used to. Our PCs fill up with all sorts of good stuff -- documents, music, videos, programs, games, downloads -- and bad stuff like viruses and spyware, too. Over time they can get bogged down.

Much like oil changes for your car, a little periodic maintenance can help extend your computer's lifespan. And in a tight economy, it's smart to take a few simple steps to help keep your PC running like new, instead of buying a new one.

We've collected a series of tips and tricks to help your computer run more smoothly and broaden its useful life. They are easy enough that anyone, even a novice, can run them -- but they can all help bring that “new car smell” back to your computer.

Computers with Windows XP and newer operating systems come with several simple utilities to check, clean and de-clutter your hard drive. Doing so will free it up to access your programs and files more quickly. Disk Check identifies and removes hard disk errors caused by crashes or power failures. It's a good idea to run it every few months to make sure the drive itself is functioning properly.

My Computer

C drive

Properties

Tools

Check Now

all

Start

Disk Cleanup removes temporary files and unnecessary detritus from your hard drive, freeing up space. For example, when browsing the Internet your computer collects thousands of temporary files to help Web sites load more quickly. But over time these files create clutter, so it's a good idea to clean them out. We recommend running this around once a month.

My Computer

C drive

Properties”

Disk Cleanup

The Disk Defragmenter improves hard drive performance and speed by piecing together parts of files that have been broken apart. As you use your computer, files are constantly added, changed and removed. Over time, these files and folders are broken into chunks of data, so when you want to access the file your hard disk has to work harder and look in more places to find all of its contents. This is known as fragmentation. The more full your hard drive becomes, the more likely it is your files will be fragmented. The Defragmenter pieces those chunks of data back together, so your hard drive can load them more quickly.

We recommend using this utility at least once a month -- and it's best to run when you're finished using the computer for the day, as it can often take over an hour to complete.

My Computer

C drive

Properties

Tools

Defragment Now

Windows XP and higher can automatically check to see if it needs to be updated. Microsoft often supplies patches, updates and security fixes for Windows (as well as Office and other Microsoft programs) that should always be installed to keep your PC up-to-date. The beauty of Automatic Updates is that it checks with Microsoft on its own and lets you know when you need to do something. So just make sure that Automatic Updates are on:

Start

Control Panel

Automatic Updates

Automatic (recommended)

Though it sounds counterintuitive, dropping an unwanted file in the Recycle Bin doesn't actually remove it from your hard drive. To prevent accidental deletion, a file can remain in the Recycle Bin and continue to take up space. Periodically emptying the Recycle Bin helps free space for the files you want to keep.

By the way, if running all these individual fixes doesn't sound like your cup of tea, there is software available that can optimize your computer in a few simple steps -- cleaning our your hard drive, speeding startup and shutdown, and repairing errors. AOL offers two that are worth checking out: PerfectSpeed and System Mechanic.

Finally, perhaps the most common causes of computer sluggishness are viruses and spyware. You may already have computer security software installed on your computer, but with so many new threats created every day, it must have updated definition files to be of any use.

If you don't already have security software on your PC, make sure you install it and keep it updated. Paid AOL members can download security software from McAfee for free, as part of their membership, at safety.aol.com. If you're not a paid AOL member, you can still find special deals on McAfee software at this site.

Source : aol.com

To : Mr. Lee Williams

2010-06-06T23:55:00.003+07:00

Dear Sir,

Thank you very much for become " my followers ", I just open this / my blogsite ( at 00.01 ) and try to set print friendly service ( the print service not operate properly, I don' t know why, perhaps I must wait several days to see the result - not instant ? ), then I notice that you join my blog - experiment blog, I cant' t find your blog, where is it ?, I want to see your blogsite too if you pleased, when I try to see your blog, my view profile / fake photo connected to " my followers " service ........... and I can' t erase it .........., The Blogger Team seems forget how to make erase service on our followers photos.
By the way, please write down your email address or blogsite on my right side bar - Chat Box , I' ll try to contact you via those media later.
Thank you very much for your attention.

Yours sincerely,
Hadi

Hidangan dari Tepung Ganyong

2010-06-06T22:46:00.002+07:00

SERABI GANYONG KUAH
Untuk : 15 buah
1 buah : 111 kalori

Bahan :
- 150 gr tepung terigu
- 100 gr tepung ganyong
- 2 btr kuning telur
- 250 ml air......................} campur jadi satu
- 250 ml air daun suji....}
- 2 btr putih telur
- sedikit garam
Kuah :
- 350 ml santan
- 75 gr gula merah
- 1 lbr daun pandan
- 1 sdt tepung maizena
- 100 nangka masak dipotong dadu jika suka
- sedikit garam
Cara Membuat :
1. Campur tepung terigu, tepung ganyong, dan kuning telur. Tuang air sedikit demi sedikit sambil diaduk rata.
2. Kocok putih telur sampai kaku lalu tuangi adonan tepung sedikit demi sedikit sampai habis, aduk rata beri garam.
3. Panaskan wajan dari tanah liat, tuangi adonan lalu ditutup, api jangan terlalu besar, setelah masak angkat dan sisihkan.
4. Buat kuah
Rebus santan dengan gula merah dan daun pandan, masukkan tepung maizena yang sudah dilarutkan dengan sedikit air, aduk rata, masak hingga mendidih sambil diaduk, beri potongan nangka setelah mendidih angkat, dinginkan.
5. Serabi dihidangkan dengan kuah nangka.

BAKPAO GULUNG TEPUNG GANYONG
Untuk : 10 buah
1 buah : 165 kalori

Bahan :
- 150 gr tepung terigu
- 50 gr tepung ganyong
- 30 gr tepung thamien
- 1 sdt yeast instan
- 80 ml air es
- 1 sdm susu bubuk
- 1 btr putih telur
- 25 gr gula pasir
- 15 gr mentega putih
- ½ sdt baking powder
- ¼ sdt garam
Bahan isi :
- 50 gr bawang bombai cincang
- 3 siung bawang putih cincang
- 150 gr ayam giling
- 100 gr wortel dipotong dadu kecil
- 1 sdm tepung ganyong untuk pengental
- 1 blok kaldu instan
- garam merica secukupnya
- 2 sdm minyak untuk menumis
Cara membuat :
1. Buat adonan isi
- Panaskan minyak, tumis bawang bombai dan bawang putih cincang hingga harum, masukkan daging ayam giling dan wortel, aduk rata.
- Masukkan kaldu instan, garam, dan merica, aduk rata kembali.
- Tambahkan larutan tepung ganyong untuk pengental, aduk, masak hingga matang, angkat, sisihkan.
2. Semua bahan dicampur, aduk dan uleni sampai kalis, lalu tutup dengan plastik, biarkan selama ± 30 menit.
3. Adonan bakpao dirol melebar, letakkan adonan isi di atasnya lalu digulung, padatkan, potong menjadi 10 bagian.
4. Gulungan bakpao diletakkan dalam kertas mangkok/paper cup lalu kukus hingga matang selama ± 15 menit, angkat.
5. Hidangkan.

Source : Kompas.com - kompas cetak

Building a Website : 5 Things you need to know

2010-05-16T17:23:00.003+07:00

Every business needs an online presence today. How to build a website that will bring in new customers -- and keep them coming back.
By Julia L. Rogers - Posted 5/ 10 10 at 3:30 PM

We no longer live in a world where entrepreneurs can stay offline and still be competitive in the marketplace. Every business, no matter how small, must have a professional Internet presence, starting with a well-designed, easy-to-navigate website that communicates its brand and is consistent with other marketing materials. No matter which type of business you own, prospective customers are going to get a very distinct impression of your business based on your online presence. Your website is essentially your online storefront or business card, so you need to ask yourself, "What does my website say about my company?" Want to build a new website or improve the one you already have? Here are five things you need to know.

1. Choose your domain name carefully.
Ideally, you should select your domain name at the same time you are naming your business, because you want it to match your company name exactly -- so people can find you easily online. The experts at IT consulting firm Catalysoft agree that a domain name should be intimately connected to your company's brand. The next best option is a domain name that is related to the key product, service, or benefit you provide. When you follow these rules, your site will be more likely to appear at the top of Web search results, because potential customers will be searching specifically for what you offer. Previously, the three-letter extension after the domain name or "top level domain" was very important, because each type -- ".com," ".org," or ".net" stood for a different entity. Now that the Web has exploded as a business medium, these domain names have essentially become interchangeable and can be used for any purpose.

2. Keep it simple.
One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when setting up their websites is getting too fancy with design and using large images that slow down loading times and make navigation impossible. Simple navigation and graphics can let more visitors view Web pages and keep them on your site longer because the pages load faster. To simplify your website layout:

•Create the content first, which can often be the most difficult part of creating a website
•Use small-but-striking graphics that can be reused on multiple pages
•Make the navigation of your website easy to understand
•Use the same template to create the layout of each page of your site so you can cut production time and make the site easy to read.
Often, the most simple websites are the most effective. Clever visual design, animation, or other surface features will never impress as much as simple language and to-the-point statements about the benefits the company provides.

3. Pay attention to search engine optimization, or SEO.
SEO is a way of analyzing and creating individual Web pages and entire sites so they can be discovered, analyzed, and indexed by search engines like Google. SEO is critical for small-business websites, because it makes the content of pages more relevant, more attractive, and more easily read by search engines and other indexing software. Paying attention to the keywords your potential customers will use when looking for your company and the services or products you provide is critical to creating the right text for your website. Without SEO, a site can become virtually invisible. Optimizing your site means creating a site map and paying attention to details like title tags, headers, and site description. Improving your search ranking -- whether on your own or with the help of a hired SEO consultant -- should be an ongoing part of your marketing efforts. In today's complex online world, ignoring SEO is like failing to put a sign on your storefront.

4. Design is important, but content is still king.
When setting up a website, the overall appearance is important, of course. People coming to your site will be enticed to stay if the look and feel is appealing -- just as they will be turned off by an unprofessional looking website. However, content is what will get potential customers, clients, and partners to stick around. Once visitors are convinced to stay, the content of your site, and particularly the copy, needs to keep their attention. It has to be relevant and answer questions they have. Copy on the site has to lure visitors to your marketing message and products, and give them "calls to action" that will engage them.

5. Your site should reflect your company's personality.
Small businesses are not faceless corporations -- and that's a big advantage they have in the marketplace. Your website should convey your company's unique story, without generic business jargon and stock photos. Try using straightforward language, starting a company blog, and including real photos of your company and staff, to help enhance your online persona. You want to keep it professional, but authenticity resonates with customers, and anything you can do to spread that is bound to be good for the bottom line. Creating Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts, and including links and widgets on your own website, can also help create a personal, one-on-one connection with customers.

Source : aol.com - small business

Jajanan dari Ubi & Singkong

2010-05-16T11:53:00.005+07:00

Penganan berbahan ubi dan singkong mempunyai citarasa yang khas sehingga jajanan murah meriah ini tetap disukai baik oleh orang tua maupun muda. Sentiling: Mungkin banyak di antara pembaca yang tidak mengenal penganan ini. Betul sekali, jajanan ini sudah hampir terlupakan. Mari kita buat bersama.

SENTILING
Keperluan :
- 1/2 kg singkong kupas, parut
- gula pasir semanisnya
- sedikit garam
- kesumba berwarna merah, kuning, dan hijau
- kelapa parut yang sudah dibubuhi garam bungkus daun lalu kukus.

Cara membuat : Parutan singkong dibubuhi sedikit garam dan gula semanisnya, lalu bagi 3. Tiap bagian diberi warna merah, kuning, dan hijau. Sediakan langseng, alas daun pisang, taruh adonan sedemikian hingga tidak tercampur satu sama lain, ratakan lalu kukus sampai matang. Jika sudah dingin potong-potong, gulingkan pada kelapa parut, hidangkan.

KELEPON UBI
Keperluan :
- ubi rebus yang warnanya putih
- gula jawa
- tepung kanji
- kelapa parut
- garam
- pewarna hijau.

Cara membuat : Ubi panas-panas dikupas, lalu haluskan, bubuhi tepung kanji sampai adonan cukup lempas untuk dipulung. Beri warna lalu ratakan. Pulungi bulat-bulat sebesar telur puyuh isi dengan gula jawa yang sudah diiris-iris, bulatkan pula. Jika semua pekerjaan sudah selesai, didihkan air, bubuhi sedikit garam. Kelepon direbus dalam air tersebut. Jika sudah terapung, tiriskan, lalu gulingkan ke dalam kelapa parut yang sudah dikukus dan dibubuhi sedikit garam, hidangkan.

LAPIS SINGKONG
Keperluan :
- 1/2 kg singkong, kupas, parut
- 2-3 sendok makan air gendar (semacam air ki, jika tidak ada, boleh pakai air ki > air abu, cukup +2 sdm)
- kelapa parut yang sudah dibubuhi sedikit garam dan dikukus,
- juruh gula jawa.

Cara membuat : Parutan singkong dibubuhi air dan garam sampai cukup asinnya, aduk-aduk sampai rata, bungkus panjang-panjang dengan daun pisang seperti bungkusan lontong, lalu kukus sampai matang betul. Jika sudah dingin dipotong-potong setebal jari. Taburi kelapa parut lalu alirkan juruh gula jawa di atasnya.

Juruh Gula Jawa : - 300 gr gula jawa direbus dengan 100 cc air, sampai larut, lalu saring.

BOLA - BOLA UBI
Keperluan :
- 1/2 kg Ubi
- 1/2 butir kelapa yang agak muda, diparut
- 1/2 sdt garam
- gula jawa semanisnya
- tepung kanji
- minyak goreng.

Cara Membuat : Ubi rebus sampai matang, panas-panas dikupas lalu dilumatkan. Bubuhi kelapa parut, garam, dan irisan gula jawa, ratakan, tambahkan tepung kanji sampai adonan cukup lemas untuk dipulung. Pulungi bulat-bulat sebesar buah dukuh, gulingkan ke tepung kanji. Goreng sambil dibolak-balik sampai matang.

Aneka Hidangan yang digoreng

2010-05-16T10:26:00.005+07:00

Asuhan : Nyonya Rumah
Gorengan tidak terbatas pada pisang goreng ataupun ubi goreng, tetapi dapat juga tampil menarik berupa gorengan yang diisi daging dan bumbu lainnya. Dengan sedikit kesabaran, Anda dapat membuatnya sendiri.

BAKWAN UDANG

Keperluan : 100 gr udang, pilih yang kecil, buang kepalanya, 200 gr taoge, 2 btg daun bawang iris halus, 100 gr tepung terigu, ½ sdt baking powder, ½ sdt garam, ¼ sdt merica, 3 siung bawang putih, gerus, 1 btr telur kocok lepas, 150 cc santan. Minyak untuk menggoreng, 2 buah sendok sayur.

Cara Membuatnya : Tepung dicampur dengan baking powder, bubuhi santan dan telur yang sudah dikocok, aduk-aduk sampai rata, bubuhi bahan lainnya kecuali udang. Panaskan banyak minyak di wajan, celupkan sendok sayur ke dalam minyak sampai cukup panas, angkat, isi dengan adonan bakwan, taruh di permukaan 3-4 udang, celupkan kembali di minyak panas. Jika sudah ½ matang, lepaskan dari sendoknya, goreng sampai matang, angkat. Sisa adonan digoreng seperti tersebut. Bakwan dihidangkan dengan cabe rawit.

PASTEL GORENG

Keperluan : Untuk Kulit: 250 gr tepung terigu, 3 sdm minyak goreng, 1 btr telur ayam, ½ sdt garam, air hangat kuku secukupnya.

Untuk Isi : 1 dada ayam, rebus, potong-potong, 2 wortel parut kasar, 50 gr buncis muda, iris tipis bulat, 25 gr suun, rendam, iris-iris.

Bumbu : Garam, merica, penyedap, 4 bawang merah iris tipis, 2 siung bawang putih cincang, 2 btg daun bawang iris halus, 1 sdm tepung kanji larutkan dengan 2 sdm air, 3 sdm minyak untuk menumis.

Cara Membuatnya : Kulit: Semua bahan disatukan, ratakan, lalu bubuhi air hangat kuku sampai adonan cukup lemas untuk dipulung. Pulungi bulat-bulat sebesar buah duku, lalu tipiskan. Usahakan supaya bentuknya tetap bulat. Isi dengan isian yang sudah disiapkan, tekuk, lalu bagian sambungan dipulas air supaya merekat. Rapatkan dengan dipilin-pilin. Goreng sampai kuning keemasan.

Isi : Dua macam bawang ditumis sampai harum baunya, lalu masukkan bahan-bahan lainnya, kecuali suun. Bubuhi bumbu-bumbu, aduk-aduk sampai wortelnya matang. Masukkan suun dan larutan tepung kanji, ratakan, lalu angkat. Pada isi dapat ditambah seiris telur rebus jika dikehendaki.

MARTABAK MINI

Keperluan : Untuk Kulit: 50 gr tepung terigu, 2 butir telur ayam, ½ sdt garam, 1/3 sdt merica, 500 cc air, minyak atau margarin untuk memulas wajan.

Untuk Isinya : 250 gr daging giling, 4 btg daun bawang, iris halus, 1 bawang bombai yang sedang besarnya, cincang, garam, merica secukupnya, 6 btr telur ayam, kocok lepas, margarin.

Cara Membuatnya : Telur dikocok sebentar, campurkan kepada tepung, aduk-aduk sambil dibubuhi air sampai merupakan adonan yang rata dan cair, bubuhi garam dan merica, saring. Buat dadar tipis-tipis dengan wajan Teflon berukuran 12 cm.

Isinya : Panaskan 2 sdm margarin, tumis bawang bombai sampai layu, masukkan daging cincang, aduk-aduk sampai berubah warna. Campurkan ini ke telur kocok, bubuhi irisan daun bawang, dan bumbu-bumbu, ratakan.

Menyelesaikannya : Ambil 1 lembar kulit, isi dengan isian yang sudah disiapkan, lipat menyerupai amplop. Goreng sampai kuning kecoklatan. Dihidangkan dengan acar ketimun dan bawang merah.

Sumber : kompas.com - kompas cetak

It works again !!!

2010-05-14T11:20:00.001+07:00

Woooww, it works again !!!; Now I can print and manage / customize any of my download articles from another website again, the print service from Print Friendly repaired successfully.
But I can' t stand any longer, because I have to go now, next time I' ll tell you another things, this time I have many works / job to do, therefore I don' t make any posting yet, include on my main blog, this is because of my tons & tons of works is waiting since early last month ( April ), I' ll tell you my mentioned job later OK ?, Bye !.

Can' t print any of articles from here

2010-04-30T17:16:00.001+07:00

I can' t print any of my articles in this blog now, why ? ............... as I know I can print an article from here ( my blog site ), why ? .............. Is Google banned the print service ?. Why ? ............... is there anything wrong that I do ?.
Why Google not inform me about this ?; Is there anything wrong that I do ?.

Survey with Blogger Team - Google

2010-04-05T12:08:00.001+07:00

So, I have several times checking by Google, my blog have been checking by Blogger Team; It noticeable with my Feedjit traffic visitor, you can see from around Europe and California region, ........... yes I always use / make practice to my blog every Blogger in Draft made ( if I see their new draft form is suitable to my blog / me ).

And there is an error in uploading image on Blogger in Draft user if they want to use it, the image won' t coming up. I read in Blogger Team information they still try to fix it. OK.
When I write this posting the rain' s coming, we have spring time too start from last March, many flowers are blooming now.

Makan Bersama dengan Masakan Buatan Ibu

2010-04-04T16:25:00.003+07:00

Sorry again my Folks, this time I want to print an article in my language, so I borrow this weblog to do this. Many Thanks for your attention. I use Jump Break service to hide the article.
Minggu, 4 April 2010 | 03:37 WIB

Nyonya Rumah

Menyantap hidangan bersama keluarga adalah suatu momen istimewa yang pada masa sekarang merupakan barang langka. Waktu yang terbatas dan kegiatan yang padat jaringan dijadikan alasan untuk tidak dapat memasak untuk keluarga dan makan bersama. Resep-resep yang praktis dan mudah dibuat di bawah ini boleh dicoba.

Kare Jawa
Keperluan:
- ¼ kg daging kerewet
- 1 ons tempe, potong-potong
- 5 lombok hijau
- 4 btg daun bawang
- 3 lbr kol, santan dari ½ kelapa
Bumbu:
- 2 lombok merah
- 1 pt terasi
- 3 bawang merah
- 3 siung bawang putih
- Asam garam secukupnya
- 2 peres sdt bubuk ketumbar
- 3 butir kemiri
- 1 ruas kunyit
- 1 iris lengkuas
- 1 iris jahe
- 3 lembar daun jeruk
Cara Membuat:
Daging direbus sampai setengah empuk, lalu iris-iris lombok hijau diiris menyerong. Daun bawang diiris 2 cm panjangnya. Bumbu-bumbu kecuali daun jeruk digerus, lalu tumis dengan sedikit minyak sampai harum, tuangi air daging, lalu masukkan irisan daging, tempe dan lombok hijau. Setelah mendidih, kecilkan apinya, sampai bumbu-bumbu meresap dan dagingnya empuk, masukkan kol, daun bawang dan santan. Didihkan beberapa saat, lalu angkat.

Udang Asam Pedas
Keperluan:
- ½ kg udang ukuran besar
- 100 gr cabe merah
- 5 bawang merah
- 1 buah tomat iris kasar
- 1 sdt garam
- 2 sdt garam
- 2 sdm air jeruk nipis, minyak goreng
Cara Membuat:
Udang dicuci bersih, buang kepalanya, lalu gurat punggungnya, keluarkan kotorannya. Goreng udang dengan banyak minyak sampai matang, angkat, tiriskan. Bumbu digerus kasar-kasar, bubuhi irisan tomat lalu tumis sampai harum baunya. Bubuhi air jeruk, ratakan, masukkan udang goreng, ratakan sampai semua udang terbalut dengan bumbu, angkat.

Perkedel Kentang
Keperluan:
- ½ kg kentang
- 1 sdm bawang merah goreng haluskan
- 1 sdt penyedap
- ½ merica ¼ sdt pala
- 1 sdt gula, garam secukupnya
- 2 batang daun bawang, iris halus
- 2 btr kuning telur ayam, minyak goreng
Untuk Pencelup:
- 2 putih telur
- 2 sdm tepung terigu, larutkan dengan sedikit air
Cara Membuat:
Kentang dikupas, potong kasar lalu goreng sampai matang, segera haluskan, bubuhi bahan-bahan yang sudah disiapkan, aduk-aduk sampai rata, lalu pulungi bulat-bulat agak dipipihkan, goreng sampai matang, angkat, tiriskan.
Bahan Pencelup:
Putih telur dikocok sebentar, campurkan, larutkan tepung terigu, ratakan. Perkedel satu per satu masukkan pencelup, goreng sebentar sampai kering, angkat.

Buncis Saus Tiram
Keperluan:
- ± ¼ kg buncis, pilih yang muda
- 1 sdm ebi, rendam sampai lunak
- Gerus, 2 siung bawang putih, memarkan, iris halus
- 1 sdm saus tiram
- ½ sdt kecap asin (ciocing)
- 1 sdt gula pasir
- ¼ sdt merica
- 2 sdm air
- ½ sdt minyak wijen, minyak goreng
Cara Membuat:
Buncis dibuang kedua ujungnya, potong menjadi 2. Goreng dalam banyak minyak panas sampai berwarna hijau tua, angkat, tiriskan. Angkat minyak sisa menggoreng, sisakan kira-kira 2 sdm, tumis bawang putih sampai harum, masukkan ebi, aduk-aduk sebentar, bubuhi air, saus tiram, dan bumbu-bumbu lainnya, masukkan buncis goreng aduk-aduk sampai rata, angkat, sajikan.

Source : Kompas.com - kompas cetak

I just fix my blog

2010-03-30T13:15:00.001+07:00

I just fix my blog after I failed to use new template from Blogger Team, I want to use New Blogger draft form but I forget to look at preview service first, I directly click to Apply Blog .............. then ............ crushed ............ my blog crushed into pieces ............. Oooohh !! my !.
Start from several days ago I try to build / repair my blog again. Well .......... here we go again.
This blog isn' t my main blog, it is for my experiment blog only, I usually try some new model from Blogger Team - draft to this blog first.

Mmmh ........ where' s that food ad ?

2010-03-29T00:50:00.010+07:00

Hei ! ...................... where' s that food ad eh ? ...................

Source : funnypic

Broadband across US.

2010-03-19T23:10:00.008+07:00

Special English

Plan Aims to Expand Broadband Across US

One-third of Americans do not have high-speed Internet at home. Other countries offer faster, cheaper service.

Dana Demange 18 March 2010

Photo: AP

A mother in Aurora, Colorado, uses the Internet with her children

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

A newly released proposal calls for almost everyone in the United States to have high-speed Internet service at home within ten years. On Tuesday the Federal Communications Commission sent its National Broadband Plan to Congress.

The F.C.C. wants one hundred million homes to have inexpensive Internet service at ten times current speeds. Another goal for twenty twenty is to have the fastest and most extensive wireless network of any nation.

The United States invented the Internet. Yet a recent study placed it sixteenth in broadband access. F.C.C. Chairman Julius Genachowski says the service available is slow and costly compared with other developed countries.

Currently, about two-thirds of Americans have broadband at home. But almost one hundred million do not. The government says fourteen million of them cannot get broadband even if they wanted it.

The United States built a national highway system to expand transportation. Now President Obama says a similar effort is needed to expand broadband networks.

His administration says expanding access is an economic development issue. Fast connections, it says, are important to business and job creation, and to other areas like education and health care. The government proposes to spend up to sixteen billion dollars on a wireless network for public safety agencies.

Most Americans get broadband service through their cable television provider or telephone company. There are rules for companies that supply utilities like electricity and water to let competitors use their wires or pipes. But some experts point out the lack of such "open access" rules for telephone and cable companies. This is unlike some other countries with better broadband access.

Expanding service to some areas of the country will require wireless transmission. But there is a limited amount of radio frequency spectrum available.

To help pay for the plan, the F.C.C. wants to sell five hundred megahertz of spectrum. But it says the plan will require ten times more unused spectrum than it can now offer. TV stations are worried that they will be forced to give up some of their frequencies.

Some members of Congress have questioned the costs of the F.C.C. plan and how it may affect competition. At the same time, a court case has raised questions about the agency's legal powers to regulate broadband service.

And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember.

9 Things Highly Successful Business Owners Do Differently

2010-02-10T12:06:00.011+07:00

Building Lessons Learned in 2009: What Highly-Successful Small Business Owners Are Doing that You Can Do Too

by Stacy Karacostas

I've talked to plenty of entrepreneurs who are just barely eking by right now. One of the most common complaints I hear from long-time business owners is "referrals alone are just not enough anymore".

What's really interesting is that most of them aren't doing anything different to market and grow their businesses, even though the marketplace has clearly changed.

On the other hand, I know other small business owners who've experienced unprecedented growth this year. I'm talking growth that would be considered stellar in a good economy. Even my own revenues have almost doubled again this year.

So, what are successful entrepreneurs doing differently? Based on my experience and observations here's a list of 9 things successful small business owner are doing that you can do too…

1) Forget about the state of the economy.

Pay attention to how it changes your prospect's buying behavior, but don't let the gloom and doom get you down. If you sell products or services that are truly helpful or useful there will always be people willing to buy.

2) Offer something new.

If people aren't buying what you're currently selling, but they used to, that's a sign something needs to change. The knee jerk reaction is to simply cut prices. But that devalues what you offer.

Instead try adding value by creating new packages out of products and services you already have. Or updating a current offering. Even better, bring something completely new to the table… Hold a workshop, write an ebook, sell a new product or product bundle, offer training programs, delve deeper into a specific aspect of what you already offer.

3) Stop guessing.

Find out what your prospects, clients and customers want then give it to them. Do this by surveying your people in person, by using a short, written evaluation, or via email using a no-cost service like surveymonkey.com.

4) Embrace technology.

The World Wide Web is no longer the Wild, Wild West, but there's still plenty of room to make your mark. And all the social networking tools make it super cheap to market your business effectively. So get out there and give it a go. You'll expand your reach, get your wisdom further out into the world, and maybe even discover it's fun.

5) Build your list.

Even before the Internet, business gurus said "The money is in the list". In other words, you need a list of past and current customers, as well as a list of prospects, that you keep in touch with. That way get to know, like, trust and remember you.

You can do this the old fashion way by collecting contact info over the phone or in your office or store, then sending out print materials. Or, you can do it the modern way by having an awesome offer and sign up system on your Website, then staying in touch via email. Or use a hybrid of the two.

6) Provide value.

The days of the pushy salesperson are going…going…gone. Nowadays people don't have extra cash burning a hole in their pocket. So they expect good value for their time AND money.

Focus less on selling your products and services and more on how you can be a helpful problem solver in all your marketing and you'll get better results.

7) Embrace mixed media marketing.

Silver bullets don't exist when it comes to marketing. Instead of focusing on one media or tactic, create a strategy and plan that uses as many as you can to reach your people.

For example, I send postcards, letters and gifts, write a weekly e-newsletter, host monthly teleseminars, post articles, audios and video online, write a blog, go to live networking events and more.

8) Keep learning.

Times and technology are changing fast. It's up to you to stay on top of what's new and what's working now. But you can't do that if you're always buried in your business.

So read a new book, attend teleseminars (I host a free one each month, for example), and get yourself out to at least one non-industry specific conference each year. I attended two this year and they were so valuable I plan to go to at least that many—if not more—next year.

9) Stop doing it all yourself.

This is a biggie. The people I know who have successful, growing businesses and fulfilling lives have figured this out. And it's even truer in the Internet age.

Face it, you don't have time to become skilled at doing everything it takes to market, grow and run your business—especially online. Eventually you'll hit a wall, business growth will stop, and you'll be exhausted and burned out.

The solution? Even if you don't have the money to hire an employee you CAN afford a Virtual Assistant. Get one now and have them help you revamp your Website, set up and manage your blog or email newsletter, handle your social networking, automate your marketing and much more.

Practical Marketing Expert Stacy Karacostas specializes in taking the stress, struggle and confusion out of growing your small business. She's the author of "Putting Your Business on the Road to Success", "The Small Business Website Bible" and more than 200 articles on marketing, copywriting, sales and success. For more information, visit Success-Stream.com.

Source : Business Week - Business Exchange, businessweek.com, businessknowhow.com

7 Small Business Marketing Tips

2010-02-09T13:01:00.005+07:00

by Bob Leduc

Here are 7 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help any small business find customers and generate sales quickly.

1. Don't Advertise Like a Big Business
Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business can't afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales ...now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising - and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.

2. Offer a Cheaper Version
Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.

3. Offer a Premium Version
Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service ...or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.

4. Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods
Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

5. Trim Your Ads
Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that some of your short ads generate a better response than their longer versions.

6. Set up Joint Promotions with Other Small Businesses
Contact some non-competing small businesses serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their products or services to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This usually produces a large number of sales for a very low cost.

7. Take Advantage of Your Customers
Your customers already know and trust you. It's easier to get more business

from them than to get any business from somebody who never bought from you. Take advantage of this by creating some special deals just for your existing customers ...and announce new products and services to them before you announce them to the general market.

Also, convert your customers into publicity agents for your business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising - and it is much cheaper.

Each of these 7 marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way for any small business to find customers and generate sales quickly.

Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales Consultant. For more information about *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper, visit his web site at http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 after 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

Source : Business Week - Business Exchange; business week.com

Traditional drinks

2010-01-07T17:23:00.005+07:00

SORRY FOLKS, this time I want to post an article from my own language ( it tells about how to make some of our traditional drinks ), I take this way because I want to print it out ( for my files ), if I print directly from the site ......... there' s an object that I do not want to print ( it pictures too large, too much ink will do ) .......... therefore I copy and place that article to here.

DAPUR KITA

Minuman Tradisional

Minggu, 3 Januari 2010 | 03:33 WIB

NYONYA RUMAH

Berbicara tentang minuman, memang banyak macamnya dan bervariasi tampilannya. Tetapi aneka minuman tradisional yang terbuat dari rempah-rempah Indonesia di bawah ini, selain rasanya khas Indonesia, membuatnya pun sangat mudah. Marilah kita mencoba resep aneka wedang (minuman hangat) yang sangat nikmat diminum pada sore hari, apalagi selagi turun hujan.

Wedang Ronde

Keperluan:

2 peres cangkir tepung ketan

2 sdm makan muncung tepung kanji

Air panas setengah mendidih

Kesumba warna merah dan hijau

Isi ronde:

Kacang tanah disangrai, buang kulit arinya lalu gerus agak kasar, bubuhi irisan gula jawa secukupnya, mencampurkannya sambil diperciki air sampai dapat dipulung. Pulungi bulat-bulat sebesar kacang tanah.

Cara membuat:

Dua macam tepung disatukan, tuangi air panas secukupnya sampai adonan cukup untuk dipulung. Uleni sampai rata, lalu bagi tiga, yang sebagian dibiarkan putih, yang lainnya diberi warna merah dan hijau. Pulungi bulat-bulat sebesar kelereng, isi dengan 1 butir bulatan kacang, lalu bulatkan pula. Sisa adonan dipulungi bulat-bulat kecil tanpa diisi. Jika semua adonan sudah dipulungi, masukkan ke dalam air mendidih. Masak sampai rondenya terapung lalu tuang ke dalam saringan, siram air dingin, tiriskan lalu masukkan ke dalam air gula supaya tidak melekat satu sama lain.

Kuah Ronde

Keperluan:

Jahe kira-kira 3 ibu jari

3 batang sereh

3 lembar daun pandan

Gula pasir semanisnya

Cara membuat:

Jahe dibakar, kupas lalu memarkan. Sereh juga dimemarkan pada batangnya. Masak kira-kira 2 liter air masukkan jahe, sereh, dan daun pandan, didihkan lalu kecilkan apinya. Masak terus dengan panci tertutup kira-kira 1/2 jam lagi supaya meresap, bubuhi gula semanisnya lalu saring.

Menyajikan: Taruh beberapa butir ronde di mangkok, tuangi kuah jahe yang panas, taruh sendok lalu hidangkan.

Wedang Sekoteng

Keperluan:

1/2 ons sekoteng

2-3 sdm kolang-kaling diiris tipis

2 lembar roti tawar potong persegi 1 cm

Sedikit kacang goreng

Kuah:

50 gr jahe

2 batang sereh

3 lembar daun pandan

Gula pasir semanisnya

Cara membuat:

Didihkan 1 liter air, masukkan jahe yang sudah dibakar, dikupas, dan dimemarkan. Sereh juga dimemarkan bagian pangkalnya dan daun pandan. Bubuhi gula pasir semanisnya, didihkan pula, masak seterusnya dengan panci tertutup sampai aroma jahe terasa, angkat lalu saring.

Menyajikan:

Taruh sedikit sekoteng yang sudah direbus dan lain-lain bahan di cangkir lalu penuhkan dengan kuah jahe.

Wedang Bajigur

Keperluan:

4-5 sdt kopi

1 cangkir santan

Sedikit garam

Gula jawa

Gula pasir

Kolang-kaling

1/2 sendok teh kapur sirih

Cara membuat:

1 liter air didihkan, masukkan kopi bubuhi gula jawa dan gula pasir, masukkan santan, garam, dan kapur sirih, didihkan pula. Rasakan, tambah gula bila kurang manis, angkat lalu saring. Disajikan dengan ditambahi irisan kolang-kaling.

Source : kompas.com

SORRY FOLKS, this time I want to post an article from my own language ( it tells about how to make some of our traditional drinks ), I take this way because I want to print it out ( for my files ), if I print directly from the site ......... there' s an object that I do not want to print ( it pictures too large, too much ink will do ) ......... therefore I copy and place that article to here. Thanks.

Small business

2010-01-05T00:59:00.005+07:00

It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million.

(Fortune Small Business) -- In 2001, Sean O'Connor was a co-owner of Thee Parkside, a San Francisco club that served up punk bands alongside yak burgers and bear-meat chili. When the dot-coms collapsed, he pared down the menu to focus on cheap, creative snacks. During an experiment with whipped cream canisters and funnel cake -- a project that failed miserably -- he stumbled on a better idea: putting pancake mix in pressurized cans for quick and easy breakfasts.

By 2005 O'Connor, now 38, had left the restaurant business and filed patents for Batter Blaster, an organic pancake-and-waffle mix in a pressurized can with a point-and-shoot nozzle.

Through word of mouth, social networking and publicity stunts -- traveling 180,000 miles in an Airstream trailer to visit county fairs; rallying a team to cook 76,382 pancakes in eight hours to set a Guinness World Record -- O'Connor and his 16 employees have gotten Batter Blaster into 13,000 outlets nationwide, including Costco (COST, Fortune 500) and Whole Foods (WFMI, Fortune 500) stores.

"We aren't feeling the recession like everyone else is," he says. "We are one of the few truly innovative products to come out in the egg and dairy set."

In 2008 Batter Blaster's annual revenues hit $15 million. O'Connor expects the total for 2009 to surpass $19.5 million.

"It sells incredibly well. It's a convenience item and great for the elderly, who make single servings, along with parents, single people and campers," says Jeff Mejia, director of perishables for DPI Specialty Foods, which distributes the product to Albertsons, Bristol Farms and Jensen's stores. The product retails for $4.99 a can.

There's no denying the lowbrow reputation of sprayable foods. (Think Easy Cheese and Reddi-wip.) O'Connor argues that what Batter Blaster lacks in cachet, it makes up for in a hassle-free, fun-to-use design that appeals to families.

That sounds about right to chef Manuel Trevino of the newly opened Travertine restaurant in New York City. "I would most likely only use it when cooking for my kids," he says. "You will undoubtedly be sacrificing a little flavor for fun, but utilizing a spray makes it easier to master the art of creative pancake-making, which children tend to love."

O'Connor is banking on kid-friendliness. His plans? More versions of the product that add new flavors, along with brightly colored batters, in the mix.

Source : cnnmoney.com

Other way ( I )

2009-11-19T18:28:00.008+07:00

Testing Moving Text in other way .........

Other way

2009-11-13T16:20:00.030+07:00

Testing moving text in other way ..........

Roll Text

2009-11-13T15:29:00.020+07:00

I' m testing to roll the text.

Testing moving text to this side ........

Copy from other web

2009-10-29T22:55:00.002+07:00

Copy from : Holland America Line

Posting a canvas picture

2009-10-28T01:06:00.005+07:00

Rice field scene by S. Sudjojono, 1976, oil paint on canvas.

It ' s Blogger birthday !!!.

2009-09-08T17:55:00.002+07:00

I didn ' t recognize that this day is the 10th of Blogger website birthday, I just read the announcement after I make this posting - Blogger Buzz, first I saw there ' s something on the Blogger logo, but I see something like a front part of a boat ( ? ) or a ship ( ? ), I can ' t imagine that ' s a piece of cake !, ooh ! ......... my.
I realize this day is Blogger - Google birthday after that, I see a paper hat on the B logo.
I would like to say : HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Blogger !!, may your service always on the top score.
Cheers.

Scanning from picture

2009-09-08T17:21:00.003+07:00

Picture : The Power of Music by William Sidney Mount ( 1847 ), Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund, Ohio.

Source : VOA 2004 Calendar.

Our Bus photo

2009-09-01T16:48:00.005+07:00

This is sample of our bus park in the station.

Please call this ..................

2009-08-17T00:52:00.002+07:00

Hello Nicole, this is the telephone number of RCI, please call this station with free, you can mention my name, the announcer name is : Mr. Ian Jones, Mr. Mark Montgomery; You can ask about immigration, jobs, etc. You can request a song for me, I will be happy if you send me one, they will play it on Sunday or Monday ( in my region ), a song from a Canadian singer, don ' t forget, send me a song OK ?!. Thanks.

Dear Sir:

Thank you very much for your e-mail of the 30th.

The toll-free number, from within Canada, for the English service is 1-866-202-0145.

Yours very truly,

Bill Westenhaver
Audience Relations/Relations avec l'auditoire
Radio Canada International
http://www.rcinet.ca

- Next time I ' ll be busy again but I will contact you on this blog if I can. Bye !.

These are the samples for you.

2009-07-30T18:03:00.006+07:00

Hi Nicole, these are the samples for you from Radio Canada International ( RCI ), so please open their website : www.rcinet.ca , I still ask their free toll phone no.( inside Canada ), I 've to wait for a while I'll write to you if the answer arrived, next week I think I'll get busy again because I already arrange to meet a Secretary from one government company, I propose / I request I can make their new Annual Report ( for 2009 year ).

There are some works for you Nicole but I'll tell you in my next posting. Bye ! and don't forget to read all of this ( below ) useful information - your area only :

Canada

Citizenship and Immigration Canada
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp

Alberta

Ministry of Employment, Immigration and Industry
http://employment.alberta.ca/cps/rde/xchg/hre/hs.xsl/4305.html
Service Alberta
http://www.services.gov.ab.ca/cps/rde/xchg/sa/hs.xsl/9066.html?topnav=living&audience=763

British Columbia

This website has all the information you need to discover what it's like to live in, work in and enjoy British Columbia.
http://www.welcomebc.ca/en/index.html

Ministry of Economic Development
http://www.ecdev.gov.bc.ca/ProgramsAndServices/BusinessImmigration/index.htm

Manitoba

Ministry of Labour and Immigration
http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/immigrate/index.html

New Brunswick

Business New Brunswick, Population Growth Secretariat
http://www.gnb.ca/immigration/index-e.asp

Newfoundland and Labrador

Ministry of Human Resources, Labour and Employment, Immigration Branch
http://www.hrle.gov.nl.ca/hrle/immigration/english/index.htm

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia Office of Immigration
http://www.novascotiaimmigration.com/en-page7.aspx

Ontario

Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration
http://www.citizenship.gov.on.ca/english/

Prince Edward Island

Immigration Services, Island Investment Development Inc.
http://www.gov.pe.ca/immigration/

Quebec

Ministère de l’Immigration et des communautés culturelles
http://www.micc.gouv.qc.ca/fr/index.asp

Saskatchewan

Ministry of Advanced Education and Employment, Immigration Branch
http://www.gov.sk.ca/services/immigrants/

Yukon

"This website is for people who want to immigrate to Yukon or who want to learn more about Yukon. "
http://www.immigration.gov.yk.ca/

Ottawa

The City of Ottawa, Canada’s Capital, is one of the first Canadian municipalities to have an immigration web portal to encourage trained immigrants to settle in Ottawa.
http://www.ottawa.ca/immigration

This is my answer to Nicole.

2009-07-18T18:20:00.002+07:00

About your job : I got information from RCI like this : In Canada there is an association for Teachers ( you can check it by yourself or you can search in yellow pages - telephone number ), this Teacher Association have place - office to work for : Making education regulations, solving teacher's problems include student's, teachers meeting /agenda, etc. This is same as a society work.
OR you can go to one school ( near your home ) and ask about this Teacher Association address / phone number in your area to their Secretariat office.

OR another way out is : You can apply as a volunteer first then after several years you work as a Teacher volunteer you can add your teaching capability via take many teaching courses ( I heard if someone take this courses they can have income / salary allowance from Canada government ).
After you have basic from this all you can apply to get a full time Teacher as a formal Teacher.

OR you can ask by phone to RCI - free from your area or visit to their web : www.rcinet.ca .

OR you can hear their program via web.

If there is a question from you, just write to the cbox ( max. = 200 characters, very sorry I'm not telling you ). I have problem with my internet connection - its too slow to move, I already send them a complaint but it looks like same as before.
The blog's different now, I have mistake / error when I try to erase its basic programing, next time I will try to correct it again. Bye Nicole.

This is your e-mail.

2009-07-18T18:07:00.004+07:00

Hello Nicole, this is your e-mail that I copied & pasted to my web Blog.

Buddy ,

Nicole's here! I appreciate the color you choose for me.That is a great coincidence.Blue color is my favorite.It would be perfect if the color was little darker.I'm a mature madam now...I appreciate that you are concerned about my job.Could you please release more details about what you mentioned? IT's been a while since I visited here last time.Now it's updated and more interesting.Your blog interface could be more pretty with addition of colorful patterns.I prefer to a vivid impact style.But people have different tastes.Plain and simply way is their top choice.Gotta go! see u!

I tried to make a comment on your blog with the first paragraph ,But it didn't work out.My words could be more than 300 words.I didn't count.I guess this is the reason.So,I have to access gmail.

Hope to talk to you via your blog website.

Take care.

Nicole

I have information

2009-07-11T22:10:00.002+07:00

Nicole, I have an information ( from Radio Canada International ) for your job, you have to meet your local teacher association ( near your home ) and you can ask about your problems, I hope this information can help you.

How about now Nicole ?.

2009-07-07T12:32:00.002+07:00

Hello Nicole, how about now - the appearance, I add a new template from The Cutest Blog on The Block ( TCBOTB ) - Blue dots, do you like this color ?, please tell me.
What is your favorite color ?, I ' ll try to make its color suit with you.
Another time I ' ll change with Sassy dots, so please inform me next Ok ?.

Yes Nicole, ..........

2009-06-18T19:07:00.005+07:00

June 18th, 2009

Yes Nicole, I'm still busy now, I just come to this blog for a while and added a new widget ( Feedjit ), Thank you very much for you and other bloggers who visit my ( experiment ) blog.

And I write this after that ( because you ! and others willing visit this site ).

If you want to learn English ( again ) please go to Radio Australia web : www.radioaustralia.net.au, look for Learn English ( up side ), click it, and you can read all about grammar, you can hear the voice how to speak too, etc, etc, or you can save the content with your disk and learn later.
I recommend this web is very useful and good for our. Learn English language start from that site and you certain not regret it, believe me.

Another news : My camera is still not work well ( the blitz's not working ) I returned it, they will repair it.

If you write in the Chat box, please write as long as you want, don't afraid this box service can not fill of your long text.

Tomorrow I will go to another company and request / bring their financial report which from that report I have to learn it and give them some advice / question if there are any. So I'm still in busy condition, but I leave you with home work to learn English via web which I mentioned.
Bye Nicole. Oh ya, we still have rain in here on Tuesday ( 16/06 ) we have three times raining from rather hard until heavy from noon until after midnight but with interval.
Bye Nicole see you in the next, next weeks.

http://rainbowbiz.blogspot.com

2009-05-21T15:52:00.024+07:00

Jakarta, May 21st, 2009.

Dear Nicole, your name is in my blog now, how are you ? and how is your family ?, hope you all in nice life. About the pics or video you just mentioned, I'll try to upload the pics / photos from my camera next next time, but about the video ..................... I'm so sorry, I do not have a video camera, perhaps next time I have to learn how to import film from other web then you can see a complete blog.

My camera ( photo ) had just repaired, I hope it will works properly, and still have 5 shoot left, I took several scene from a long way I go to attend the meeting that I told you before ( in my e-mail ), hopefully all the pics will appear in good condition ( after I print next time ).

This blog / web is still under construction and will always like that, because this web I use for my experiment only, before I get experienced about this all, after that I will practice it to my real blog ( in other name blog ), if you want to see you can browse to :

http://rainbowbiz.blogspot.com like the Title name, just click on it.

I take this way because I do not hire a domain name ( buy a website ), so I have to have many many experiment, learn learn much by myself to build a nice looking web / blog ............... ( I hope).

But these time I have to prepare myself to meet other top managements ( like I told you), therefore I think I can't post / write many aspect.

If I have time I use the time to learn / read reports from them ( like I told you before), it will take several months, from one company to other company, from the government companies to private group companies - all are big companies - 10 companies.
I hope I'll tell you and other viewers in my blog too ................ with photos ( hope this camera will works good ).

About learning English, you can open / browse to : www.radioaustralia.net.au you search to learning English, other web is : www.english-friends.info you can save it / copy with your USB flash disk or in a regular disk, and learn later if you have time. It's Free, Thanks to them.

OK Nicole until next time, you can send / write an e-mail to my e-mail directly ( click beside the comments word ) .

The Cbox will show you all of your writes and mine and other viewer replies and other viewer needs / notes if they want to use my Cbox to chat to their friends via my blog; But if you still want to write directly to me you can use e-mail sign ( do you see it, an envelope with arrow sign ? ).

Thank you very much for your help and your attention. See you !. Have a nice Summer time ! ( but in here we still have rain - for end of rainy season I think ). Bye Nicole !.

Expand the blog

2009-05-14T17:20:00.004+07:00

May 14th, 2009.

This day I tried to make my blogsite widen like the web and I tried with changes model, and I success.
I add counter board and short message / chat box too, you can see by yourself.
Time now is : 17.29 my local time.

Hello Nicole.

2009-05-02T01:29:00.001+07:00

Hello Nicole, do you see it now ?.

Try Arial

2009-03-23T00:33:00.004+07:00

Try Arial for my best font, georgia is too bold.

Try Courier, etc.

2009-03-23T00:06:00.001+07:00

This time I use Courier font and want try to import another web to my web.

First day / step : Experiment with Font.

2009-03-22T22:32:00.001+07:00

This day is Sunday, March 22nd, 2009. Time is 22.40 my local time ( Jakarta ).

This blog I'll use for my experiment appearance on the blog because without this I think I 'll find more difficulties for making this blog, so now for Font, which one is the best ?, there is some font in here : Arial, Courier,georgia, lucida grande, times, trebuchet, verdana, webdings.

I'll try to use : Georgia.

After this first step I'll go to make background on my name blog.

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This is my answer to Nicole.

This is your e-mail.

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How about now Nicole ?.

Yes Nicole, ..........

http://rainbowbiz.blogspot.com

Expand the blog

Hello Nicole.

Try Arial

Try Courier, etc.

First day / step : Experiment with Font.