Author Archives: Wendy Bateman

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Ruby Chocolate

A Swiss chocolatier has unveiled what it’s calling “Ruby” chocolate; a naturally pink-colored product that looks and tastes distinct from dark, milk or white chocolate brands.

It is the first new type of chocolate to be introduced since white chocolate was discovered 80 years ago.

Ruby chocolate has an intense taste and characteristic reddish color. The chocolate is not bitter, milky or sweet, but a blend of berry-fruitiness and luscious smoothness.

The new form of chocolate took years to develop, and is made entirely from cocoa beans, with no berries or artificial colors added.

Ruby chocolate will satisfy a desire for “hedonistic indulgence”, among millennials.

Barry Callebaut, producer of this rose-hued treat, claims it is first natural color for the foodstuff since Nestle unveiled white chocolate.

Pink chocolate has been developed by Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest cocoa processor.

Ruby chocolate, as it is being called, has been in development for 13 years since the company said it first discovered a new type of cocoa bean during experiments and refinements in their labs.

The “ruby” cocoa beans are grown in the Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Brazil. The beans are entirely natural and not genetically modified.

As the product has only just been revealed, the Zurich-based company is still working on making the chocolate available to consumers around the world. It is hoped to be available on shelves in between 6 to 18 months’ time.

Early market research has shown particularly high interest in China, but the company said there also was huge enthusiasm from customers all around the world.

This millennial pink chocolate is not artificially dyed with any pink coloring, which is what makes it so special; its actually made from a ruby cocoa beans, giving it an intense taste and rich color.

Valentines Day 2018is going to be all about the pink chocolate.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/swiss-reveal-fourth-type-of-chocolate-pink-hued-ruby-chocolate-1.3578807

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The Shoe that Grows

With shoes, kids are healthier, attend school more often, and are more confident.

The Shoe that Grows has 5 times the impact of ordinary shoes because it expands 5 sizes and lasts for years.

Without shoes, children are especially vulnerable to soil-transmitted diseases and parasites that can cause illness and even death.

Children who get sick miss school, can’t help their families and suffer needlessly. And since children’s feet grow so quickly, they often outgrow donated shoes within a year, leaving them once again exposed to illness and disease.

The Shoe that Grows can change all that!

The Shoe that Grows started when founder Kenton Lee was living and working in Nairobi, Kenya in 2007. One day while walking to church, he noticed a little girl in a white dress next to him who had shoes that were too small for her feet. That led to questions about why. And finally an idea. “Wouldn’t it be great if there was a shoe that could adjust and expand, so that kids always had a pair of shoes that fit”? And just like that The Shoe That Grows was born. These shoes are intended and designed for children living in extreme poverty that otherwise would not have access to shoes or only access to shoes in poor condition that will quickly be outgrown.

Kenton Lee, Founder, Because International started The Shoe that Grows in 2016. His mission of practical compassion, the belief that small things make a BIG difference.

Donors, supporters, and distribution partners empowered them to provide 40,000 pairs of shoes to children in over 80 countries.

They began a relationship with a local factory in Ethiopia to begin to produce the shoes in the places where they are being used the most to bring jobs and increased economy to these areas.

There are two main ways you can help The Shoe that Grows. 1. Take the shoe to kids who need it or 2. Donate so others can take the shoe.

They work with non-profits, churches, schools and individuals to get The Shoe to kids living in poverty.

Every $15 provides a child with a long-lasting pair of shoes.

World Vision, Love without Boundaries, Harvest Season Ministries, Carry the Future are partners that you can donate for the cause

http://www.theshoethatgrows.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0K7NBRC7ARIsAEaqLRFO9H_CKZkoCbDNFggxW-vbicliSQzl4mtjMVRhPMC18aH_GlMe6rMaApgUEALw_wcB

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Morgan’s Wonderland

A father builds a $35 million theme park for his daughter with special needs.

Gordon Hartman watched his then 12 year old daughter Morgan have trouble making friends during a family vacation at a pool.

Hartman searched for a public space where Morgan, who is on the autism spectrum and experienced a cognitive delay, could play with others who know how to interact with her. Hartman soon realized such a place didn’t exist. So, he made it himself.

Hartman is the founder of Morgan’s Wonderland, an ultra-accessible theme park in San Antonio, Texas, where people with or without disabilities can play together. It is a place of total inclusion, a park where there are no barriers from keeping anyone from playing with each other.

The 53 year old father began his pursuit of helping those with disabilities when he founded The Gordon Hartman Family Foundation after selling off his homebuilding business in 2005.

Hartman held dozens of meetings to raise money and collaborated with architects, engineers, doctors and therapists to design the $35 million Park.

Morgan’s Wonderland includes a fully-accessible train, playground, and Ferris wheel. The water park features a wheelchair accessible river ride and areas with warm water to help those with muscular conditions. The park also provides special wrist bands that can track the whereabouts of visitors, which is handy for those with autism, who are often considered flight risks.

Morgan’s Wonderland has had more than a million visitors since it opened, and one third of its staff includes people with special needs.

Admission is free for anyone with a mental or physical disability.

Today Morgan is 23 and is a true inspiration to the entire organization and that is why they named the water park, “Morgan’s Inspiration Island”.

Hartman was successful in building a theme park that incorporated people with and without special needs like no other place before it.

http://people.com/human-interest/father-builds-a-35-million-theme-park-for-daughter-with-special-needs/

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Panda Green Energy Group

The Panda Green Energy Group have an innovative idea to use the Panda Bear as actually a Solar Farm and it’s saving China.

The adorable creature is the new face of the solar energy initiative.

As China’s national animal, pandas are everywhere in China.

And now, the beloved bear will make an appearance in a new field, quite literally; solar energy farms.

The Chinese energy company Panda Green Energy Group is building 100 panda-shaped solar energy farms across the country. From above, the assortment of panels will look like a cartoon panda smiling up at the sky.

Built with darker crystalline silicon and lighter-colored thin film solar cells, the plant resembles a giant panda from the air.

The first farm in Shanxi China spans 250 acres and produces 50 MW megawatts of solar energy. Once completed, the two 50 MW solar farms in the province will supply enough energy to power 10,000 houses annually.

The plan to build 100 panda-adorned farms is part of a larger effort by the Chinese government to open new trade, energy, and business opportunities.

Titled the “Belt and Road” initiative launched in 2013, 68 countries have signed up to participate. China continues to spearhead the project and is investing $150 billion per year toward the program.

China is one of the world’s worst offenders for pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

China is quickly catching up to the world’s top solar energy producers.

With the installment of its smiling panda farms, China is taking a step in the right direction to help the fight against global warming.

Chinas 250 acre giant panda-shaped solar farm will replace burning 1 million tons of coal in the next 25 years.

Panda Green Energy Group is currently in talks with Canada, Australia, Germany and Italy to launch more panda-shaped power stations.

 

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/panda-shaped-solar-farms-popping-up-in-china/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=global&utm_ca

 

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A Food Poisoning Expert Reveals the 6 Foods to Avoid

Bill Mailer specializes in litigating food poisoning cases and he has learned a lot from the hundreds of cases he has tried.

6 Foods to avoid to prevent food poisoning are:

  1. Raw oysters: Oysters are filter feeders, so anything bad that passes through them stays in them. The warmer the water, the more bacteria thrives. So until global warming is reversed, expect raw oysters to be off limits
  2. Precut fruit: Cutting fruit increases its surface area, which means more of it gets handled and comes in contact with bacteria or other contaminants. Buy your fruit whole. Then cut and eat in a few days to minimize the likelihood of listeria.
  3. Raw sprouts: In 20 years, sprouts have caused 30 bacterial outbreaks.
  4. Rare steak: Meat needs to be heated to above 160 degrees throughout to kill bacteria causing E.coli or salmonella. Rare meat often doesn’t cross that temperature.
  5. Raw eggs: The chance of getting food poisoning from runny eggs is low, but it’s not worth the risk. As recently as 2010, 2000 cases of salmonella were reported from egg consumption.
  6. Unpasteurized milk and juices: There is no benefit enough to take away the risk of drinking products that can be made safe by pasteurization.

Food poisoning can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites.

Certain foods are more likely to harbor harmful agents.

Your chances of getting food poisoning are higher in the summer.

When in doubt, throw it out, to prevent food poisoning.

If you are not sure whether a food is safe, do not eat it.

Reheating food that is contaminated will not make it safe.

Do not taste suspicious food. It may smell and look fine, but still may not be safe to eat.

http://twentytwowords.com/a-food-poisoning-expert-reveals-the-six-foods-he-refuses-to-touch/

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Internets 14 most Popular Culinary Life Hacks

  1. Life Hack: To cut all of your cherry tomatoes in half at once, put them between two flat plates and slice through the gap with a sharp knife. Result: Cutting tomatoes this way is very cumbersome. This life hack might work if you use a very sharp knife, but even then you’ll hardly succeed in slicing the fruit in half. Conclusion: This doesn’t work
  2. Life Hack: To make sure your milk doesn’t over boil, put a wooden spoon on top of the pot. Result: The milk still over boils and the wooden spoon did nothing to prevent it. Conclusion: This life hack is complete nonsense and does not work.
  3. Life Hack: A quick and easy way of making delicious cupcakes is to put the ingredients in a mug and place it in microwave. Result: The cupcake turns out somewhat rubbery. Conclusion: It works, but the results may not be to everyone’s liking.
  4. Life Hack: To make peeling your eggs easier, place them in cold water after boiling. Result: Placing eggs in cold water really makes them easy to peel. Conclusion: Works like a charm.
  5. Life Hack: Frozen grapes can be used to chill wine. Result: Frozen grapes do not dilute the drink. They cool your wine just as effectively and look beautiful as well. Conclusion: This definitely works.
  6. Life Hack: To avoid “onion tears”, sprinkle your cutting board with salt. Result: This life hack does save some tears, but by no means all of them. Result: It works, but poorly.
  7. Life Hack: Wrapping an ice cream package in a plastic bag before putting it in the freezer make the ice cream softer and easier to scoop. Result: This life hack helps ice cream retain its softness. Conclusion: This really works.
  8. Life Hack: If you slice an avocado in half but only intend to use one of the halves right away, make sure you select the half without the pit. The half that contains the pit has a much better chance of remaining fresh in the fridge. Result: After 2 days, both halves looked far from fresh. Conclusion: This doesn’t work.
  9. Life Hack: To quickly peel garlic, put in a jar and shake well. Result: A useful life hack if you want to peel several heads of garlic at once. Conclusion: It works.
  10. Life Hack: Freezing olive oil in ice cube trays make it last much longer. Result: The success of this tip totally depends on the quality of oil you use. Conclusion: Works only if you use quality oil.
  11. Life Hack: Lemon juice can help freshly cut apple slices from browning. Result: Sprinkling sliced apples with a small amount of fresh lemon juice produces a great effect. Conclusion: This works.
  12. Life Hack: Wrapping plastic film around banana stems will help the fruit remain fresh longer. Result: After 3 days, bananas became inedible. Conclusion: This doesn’t work.
  13. Life Hack: You can cook an egg “inside out” using a pair of stockings and some sticky tape. Result: This life hack is a difficult and exhausting task and once cooked the egg proves extremely difficult to peel. Conclusion: This does not work.
  14. Life Hack: Help your greens remain fresh by tying them in a bundle, put them in water and cover them with a plastic bag. Result: This method really helps to preserve the greens freshness 100%. Conclusion: This works.

https://brightside.me/creativity-cooking/we-test-the-internets-14-most-popular-culinary-life-hacks-320910/?utm_source=fb_rc9679435894b&utm_campaign=e7adea

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14 Surprising Things you Didn’t Know you Could Recycle

  1. Running shoes: When your old running shoes get too worn out or need a new pair, don’t throw them out. A number of different organizations, including NIKE, Running Wild and the MORE Foundation, accept used sneakers for recycling and reuse
  2. Holiday Lights: Do you have burned out holiday lights? Take them to a Home Depot, which launched a recycling program for lights in 2014
  3. Crayons: Crayola alone produces 3 billion crayons per year. Save them and recycle them to the National Crayon Recycle Program
  4. Compact fluorescent light bulbs: Because these light bulbs contain mercury, which can leak into the ground if the bulbs are not properly disposed of. The Environmental Protection Agency advises that consumers recycle the lights. Visit search.Earth911.com to find out where
  5. Toilets and other porcelain fixtures: Toilets and other porcelain fixtures are accepted by fill yards, which crush them for use in sidewalks and roads
  6. Wine Corks: Corks made for pretty decorations, but organizations like RECORK collect them, grind them down and repurpose them for other consumer uses
  7. Cigarette Waste: Recently a cigarette butt recycling program was launched, which collects cigarette waste and ships them to Terracycle, a speciality recycling business. The butts are then separated into their plastic, paper and tobacco parts. The latter two are composted, while the former is melted into plastic pipettes that are cut into pellets, which can be resole
  8. Solo Cups: Terracycle also take a whole range of different items, including red solo cups, which can be difficult to recycle
  9. Artificial Christmas Trees: There are recycling centers such as The Fountain Recycling Center that will recycle old artificial Christmas trees
  10. E-Waste: Each year, people around the world throw away millions of tons of electronics, and much of it ends up rotting in landfills. Instead, take your electronics to certified waste facilities where they are sorted, refurbished, resold and broken down for parts
  11. CD-ROMs: Recycling is better than tossing them in a landfill. You can donate your old CD-ROMS at E-Waste facilities such as CD Recycling Center
  12. Tights and Stockings: Women’s stockings are usually made from nylon which takes years to decompose. Enter No Nonsense, a hosiery company that takes stockings and turns them into park benches, running tracks, car insulation and playground equipment
  13. Diapers: A Canadian company called Fast Company has come up with a way to strip up to 98% of the plastic and fiber from absorbent hygiene products and reuse the material to make products such as roof tiles, plastic components, tubing and recycling paper
  14. Empty or Used Makeup Containers: Brands like MAC, Aveda and Origins all have recycling programs in place for responsible disposal

Cosmetics, footwear, baby products, lighting, household equipment and art supplies can all be disposed of responsibly for future use.

https://mic.com/articles/129880/15-surprising-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-recycle#.fbTv3MuBz

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Tertill

Tertill is the solar powered weeding robot for home gardens.  It is a solar powered and weatherproof robot that weeds your garden every day.

With Tertill, gardeners can now enjoy weed-free vegetable and flower gardens, without the monetary and frustration of weeding.

Organic gardeners can breathe easy and enjoy a weed-free, chemical-free garden all season long.

Created by roboticist Joe Jones, the inventor of the Roomba, Franklin Robotics Tertill is designed to live in your garden and take care of the weeding, come rain or shine.

Tertill lives in your garden and prevents weeds from being established, using unique design elements and a variety of sensors, Tertill patrols the garden daily, avoiding plants and obstacles while looking for weeds to eliminate.

Tertill has a very simple method; weeds are short, plants are tall. A plant tall enough to touch the front of Tertills shell activates a sensor that makes the robot turn away. A plant short enough to pass under Tertill’s shell, though, activates a different sensor that turns on the weed cutter.

Because Tertill’s approach is height-based, put one of the provided plant collars around short plants until they are tall enough for Tertill to recognize when Tertill approaches the collar, it will recognize it and turn away.

Tertill whacks weeds using a spinning string trimmer, which cuts the weeds off near the ground. Because Tertill lives in your garden and goes looking for weeds every day, weeds are always small when the robot finds them.

Tertill uses four-wheel drive, this helps Tertill move through soft soil, sand and mulch and also helps Tertill climb slopes.

Advantages of a weeding robot:

  • No herbicides, chemical free
  • Diligence
  • Productivity
  • Gardening limitations
  • Robotic Awesomeness
  • Solar powered
  • Water proof
  • Bluetooth Tertill uses Bluetooth to talk to your smartphone

Franklin Robotics the creator of Tertill has come to Kickstarter so that they can place a large enough order to produce the robots cost effectively. So far, 1.267 backers have pledged $312,810 through Kickstarter to help bring this project to life.

I love my Roomba, and I think that Tertill is a genius invention that many will purchase to weed our gardens.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rorymackean/tertill-the-solar-powered-weeding-robot-for-home-g

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Adult Colouring

There’s never been a better time to feel like a kid again.

For as long as there have been mortgages, taxes, jobs and speeding tickets, there have been adults who wish they could turn back the clock to simpler times. Including ME!

Adult colouring is my new favorite hobby.

This craze was started in 2013 by the “Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book”, and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. There are many more like it burning up the bestseller lists.

Adult colouring is a new phenomenon that has taken publishing by storm, and they are having trouble keeping up with the demand.

It doesn’t look like this colouring book train is slowing down any time soon, so here are 3 reasons you need to get on board. Here are 3 reasons why all the adults you know have started colouring again.

  1. A good colouring session can relieve stress and anxiety. When someone is colouring, their mind and body are operating in a more integrated way, like a meditative process. Carl Jung was a big fan of art therapy, and he used colouring as a relaxation technique back in the early 1900s. Mandalas or spiritual geometric shapes are the foundation of a lot of the most popular stress- relieving colouring books today.
  2. No paper? No problem. Now, you can colour on the go. You know the rule: It’s not an official craze unless it is integrated into social media. You can now colour on your smart phone or tablet with just a few swipes of your finger, and you can easily tweet or Instagram your creations, too. Colourfy, the most popular colouring app on the market, has been a huge hit with the mobile crowd. Colourfy is a really great app that lets you pass the time in a calming, yet creative way. But, maybe the best thing about a colouring app is that it’s easy to erase your design, start over, and create something completely different.
  3. Colouring creations make perfect gifts. I enjoy colouring cards and envelopes and mailing them to the special people in my life. It makes me feel good and the receiver feel special. Colouring books intended for adults are not the average book you would buy for your child. They feature a higher quality of paper, intricate designs and a wider selection of themes. Whether you’re a big fan of Doctor Who, Harry Potter, cities, swear words, flowers, animals, celebration cards or mandalas, we guarantee there is a colouring book for you.

Here are top 7 benefits of colouring for adults.

  1. Your brain experiences relief by entering a meditative state
  2. Stress and anxiety levels have the potential to be lowered
  3. Negative thoughts are expelled as you take in positivity
  4. Focussing on the present helps you achieve mindfulness
  5. Unplugging from technology promotes creation over consumption
  6. Colouring can be done by anyone, not just artists or creative types
  7. It’s a hobby than can be taken with you wherever you go

Whether you are colouring to relax or just have some fun, there is a colouring book out there for you. Colouring has become my favorite hobby…. again.

http://www.upworthy.com/3-reasons-why-all-the-adults-you-know-have-started-coloring-again?c=ufb7

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Cover Blubber by Fusion Brands

Cover Blubber is the food saver for use in the refrigerator or freezer.

Move over plastic wrap, the Cover Blubber is here! It’s the super stretchy food cover for use inside the refrigerator or freezer. Cover Blubber is made of food safe Sticky Rubber, a safer alternative to plastic wrap, that you can place directly on food or containers of various shapes and sizes.

The Cover Blubber is the perfect food storage solution, it stretches and clings and form fits to fresh cut food and just about any container.

Cover Blubber should not be left on countertop, only for use in refrigerator and freezer. It is not microwave safe and should be hand washed only and let air dry and not dishwasher safe.

Cover Blubber is available in 4 color coded sizes. Small/fuchsia set of 2, fits up to 3 inches/8cm. Medium/green fits up to 5 inches/12.7cm. Large/blue fits up 7 inches/17.8cm. X Large/purple fits up to 10 inches/25.4cm.

Tips:

  • Cover Blubber works best when hands and items to covered are dry
  • Use both hands to stretch Cover Blubber and place on item
  • Works best on items that are uniformly shaped (circles, squares) and do not have exaggerated sides (rectangular baking dishes)

Cover Blubber are an innovative, super-stretchy food savers that offers a reusable, safe alternative to plastic wrap.

Constructed from a sticky rubber that offers five times the flexibility of silicone.

Cover Blubbers stretch over plates, serving dishes and glassware as well as directly over many foods.

Completely food safe, Cover Blubbers seal out air, and will not transfer tastes and are BPA and phthalate-free and FDA/EU food safe Sticky Rubber.

Bottom line: Plastic wrap may or may not be safe, the jury is still out. However, using Cover Blubber is often times easier ( as it is far stickier than these newer plastic wrap) and it doesn’t fill our landfills with tons of hard-to-degrade plastics.

https://www.fusionbrands.com/products/coverblubber