Gleeful elf king of Little Shit Kingdom Justin Bieber has just out-Biebered himself: the most devious imp to ever don a flat-rimmed baseball cap made his bodyguards carry him up the Great Wall of China. As an uncouth, wild-eyed barbarian who has been known to urinate upon images of other nation's former leaders, Justin Bieber is the exact type of person that the ancient Ming dynasty hoped to keep out.
    
|
By Amanda Burrill
The next cutting-edge cancer treatment could come from the old Sweets Building on West 127th Street in Harlem’s Factory District.
Harlem Biospace aims to turn lab-based research and discoveries into businesses. The new life-sciences incubator, under construction and expected to open Nov. 1, is the first lab of its kind in New York City.
Samuel Sia, a Columbia University biomedical engineer, founded the project with funding from New York City’s Economic Development Corporation. Sia, a veteran startup pioneer, also launched Claros Diagnostics, a venture capital-backed company acquired in 2011 by Opko Health, and now owns Junco Labs, developing tissue therapies and sensors. MIT’s Technology Review named him one of the world’s top 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2010.
The idea for Harlem Biospace took shape when Sia couldn’t find affordable lab space near his Morningside Heights Columbia office.
“It turned out to be a commonly shared problem with a lot of investigators in the city,” he said. “One of the things about biotech research that has been a barrier for people starting to spin off companies is you really need a wet-lab bench to do experiments.”
When researches can’t find lab space, they leave the New York area or shift their research to information technology or software development. “One of the main reasons for doing this is to encourage health and biotech research. When medical research is limited or stopped at early stages by barriers like expense, everyone loses out,” Sia said..
New York has nine major academic medical centers and receives around $1.4 billion a year in National Institutes of Health funding, the second highest amount in the country. What New York City doesn’t have is space for biotech ventures to grow.
“Technology developed in this field is coming out of New York,” said Nathan Tinker, executive director of the New York Biotechnology Association. “We want to commercialize and build those companies here as well.” He said that because of the high cost of lab-space in New York, scientists often move their technologies and start businesses elsewhere.
Kyle Kimball, executive director of the Economic Development Corporation, says, “Harlem Biospace will fill a void that exists within New York City’s biotech sector, providing early stage companies with the tools they need to grow and solve important health issues.” The corporation provided approximately $626,000 for interior improvements, equipment, operations and programming.
Interior of Harlem Biospace under construction. (Photo by Amanda Burrill)
The facility occupies 2,300 square feet on the Sweet Building’s ground floor and will accommodate up to 24 early-stage biotech companies, each with its own desk space and shared lab bench. The cost for use of the space, utilities, Wi-Fi, printing and access to equipment like a cell-culture hood, a chemical fume hood, an autoclave, incubators, centrifuges, freezers and microscopy is $995 a month and requires a six-month commitment. Contracts can be renewed for an additional three months for up to three years, a bargain compared to the six-figure price a company would pay to outfit a lab.
Robert Jackson, City Council member from District 7, thinks the facility will contribute to Harlem’s ongoing renaissance. “The Harlem Biospace will be the newest addition in the revitalization of the Harlem community,” he said in a statement. “I applaud this project for boosting community partnerships, creating jobs and strengthening the economic development of the neighborhood.”
Sia, who has signed a 10-year lease, said there was a promising number of initial applications to Harlem Biospace, which will announce its first tenants within a week. There are no requirements that companies hatched at Harlem Biospace stay in New York, but Sia hopes they will.
“There is no industry sector more in need of innovation than health and biotech,” he said. “We are hoping to plug that gap between a university-based research and the point where they can build their own lab.”
(Featured photo by Amanda Burrill)
It’s a question that begs to be answered and worth delving into. In order to best answer this question we need to take a look at today’s modern families and their lifestyles. We are busier than ever before. Our days are longer than in the past. Today’s school children have longer days with more activities and more homework, perhaps, than those of previous generations. The greatest difference may be that today’s homes consist of, primarily, two working parents/partners.
Gone are the days where the mother stayed home and tended to the house and greeted her husband and children when they came home at the end of the day. Gone are the days when the workday ended at 5:00pm. Today’s family members come and go at various times and into the late evening hours. Because of this it is not uncommon to have a staggered family meal, depending on what time everyone gets home. For those who do sit down and plan a family meal, this can take a great amount of coordination and effort and, does not often happen 7 days a week. What does this have to do with the dining room? A great deal!
Our lifestyles tend to be more casual today, and our homes are a direct reflection of this shift. Older homes, those built between 1920 and 1970s, with the smaller kitchen were outfitted with dining rooms just off the kitchen. Food was prepared in the kitchen and then transported into the dining room. Once a meal was finished, people would then relocate to another room… to the kitchen, perhaps, to clean and do the dishes, or to the common living area or to a bedroom.
Dining rooms, once used daily are not seeing much use at all these days. Some use them from time to time while others not at all. Whether a dining room is used or not really comes down to lifestyle. Very few of these rooms are used on a daily basis. Many are used for entertaining or for family gatherings and holiday meals. Some use this room but just once or twice a year.
Our kitchens see more traffic and more use, perhaps, than any other room in the house. This is especially the case with busy families. The kitchen has become central not only in our homes, but in our home life. We are spending more and more time in the kitchen. It is where we cook, congregate, work, entertain, discuss the day’s events, plan future engagements and pay bills. We also happen to eat in here. Our kitchens are outfitted with music and television sets and this space has become a true living room. Today’s kitchens are larger than those of years past and often have more than one seating area. It is not uncommon to see both an island surrounded with chairs and a separate space large enough to fit a table and several chairs. With two eating areas is there really a need for another?
Many formal dining rooms are sitting vacant, empty – gathering dust and cobwebs. Others, however, aware of this grand wasted space and have decided to turn these unused rooms into something that better fits their lifestyle. These unused dining rooms are being converted to accommodate today’s lifestyle. We are seeing them become dens, playrooms, offices, libraries,. craft rooms, art studios, exercise rooms…
Expanded spaces and open floor plans are very much in demand these days. Newer homes are built with this thought in mind, and older homes are being reconfigured and redeveloped so that they too can have this open feel. Even small Colonial and Cape style houses can have an open floor plan. As long as weight is redistributed properly, load-bearing walls can easily be removed. For many this is ideal. Not only does this open up the home, making it feel larger, but for those with young families, some feel it’s easier to keep tabs on everyone without having to be in the same room. Homes with open floor plans are hot commodities in the real estate market, in fact, Realtors often promote their listings as having an “open floor plan” to create interest among buyers. This isn’t, however, the case for every home.
Which is more desirable, the newer, open floor plan or the more traditional, dining room? There is no right or wrong answer here and people seem to be equally divided here. Some prefer the modern look and feel of a more open floor plan while others prefer the traditional setup with separate living areas. As with everything, the beauty here, too, is in the eye of the beholder. It comes down to family, living and lifestyle and perhaps even tradition.
Those who grew up with traditional dining rooms, with memories of great holiday meals, loud, boisterous and energetic family get togethers may want to continue with tradition and pass this down to future generations. While some view these rooms as a waste of valuable space, others prefer to hang tight to these rooms, even if they are only used a handful of times a year. It’s about preference, lifestyle and choice. In an informal poll, about half the people responded to preferring a separate, closed off dining room with the other half preferring a specified dining space, but not in a separate, closed off space.
Many Americans and most Europeans live in homes and apartments too small for separate dining areas. For those residing in apartments, lofts and smaller homes, the kitchen is, once again, the center of the home for entertaining as well as dining purposes. In lofts with open floor plans, large farm tables are often central to the space. Much in the same way a kitchen table has become multi-functional, these have as well, providing hours of family meals, and entertainment as well as a place for homework, crafts and board games.
With the rising costs of living and a poor economy, many young people cannot afford to live on their home. It is becoming more and more common for today’s youth, after finishing university, to move back home while they look for work and to try to save a little money. In addition to this, as our population ages and is living longer, many elders are moving in with their children as well, making many homes multi-generational and redefining the term modern family. For these families more living space is therefore needed as opposed to the need for a separate dining area.
Whether or not a formal dining room is wanted or needed depends a great deal on tradition, lifestyle as well as size of the home. Those who view the space to be antiquated and unnecessary opting to turn these spaces into offices, bedrooms and libraries. Some, however, are choosing to have a room that is multi functional – a room that can best be served for different purposes – a room that could be converted from office or library to dining area, and if designed properly, this conversion is easily done. Maximizing the use of a home’s square footage is most important all around.
You're reading Are Dining Rooms Becoming Obsolete? originally posted on Freshome.
The post Are Dining Rooms Becoming Obsolete? appeared first on Freshome.com.
Barticehow nice
If you like fishes and planning to buy an aquarium then you must go for- Aquarius Aq 15005 Aquarius 5 Rounded-5 Gallon Aquarium Kit as it is specially designed for beginners. Also, it can be a perfect gift for your friends and colleagues who like fishes and aquarium.
|
|
Barticehopefully it will come to the u.s. soon
...Because when you think of Britain, you think of sunny skies. Ikea has started selling solar panels for residential rooftops at its stores in the United Kingdom. The furniture outfit's move into home solar systems (as opposed to sun-powered lighting) was apparently made attractive due the the drop in cost for solar panels, and Ikea's initial offering will set you back £5,700 (about $9,300). For your money, you get a 3.36 kW system, in-store consultation, installation, maintenance and energy monitoring service. Ikea's got plans to sell solar panels in other locales, but according to Ikea Chief Sustainability Officer Steve Howard, such expansion will be done market by market (so don't expect a worldwide rollout). Hey Steve, might we suggest your next store to start selling solar be someplace with more than two weeks of sunshine per year?
Filed under: Household
Source: Business Insider
1. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
2. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
3. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
4. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
5. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
6. For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.
7. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
8. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
9. Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
10. Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
More after the break…
11. Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
12. Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
13. Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
14. Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can’t see easily.
15. No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
16. Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.
17. Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
18. Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and … guess what! … static is gone.
19. Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out. (Or spray the measuring cup or spoon with Pam before using)
20. Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
21. Re-opening envelopes
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
22. Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair.
23. Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2′ with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
24. Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it ‘home,’ can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
25. Dryer Filter
Even if you are very diligent about cleaning the lint filter in your dryer it still may be causing you a problem. If you use dryer sheets a waxy build up could be accumulating on the filter causing your dryer to over heat. The solution to this is to clean your filter with with a toothbrush and hot soapy water every 6 months.
Thanks Lisa & Joni
Barticeugly kitchen but the view wow
After picking up a Batman mask while shopping for toys with his children, Atlanta's father of four kids Blake Wilson has been having a lot of fun as his alter ego BatDad, a concerned parent-slash-superhero who tells his kids what to do in the iconic Batman voice of Christian Bale. In an email interview with BuzzFeed, Wilson admitted that his family were at first annoyed by his attempts at comedy on Vine, but they have since come around to embrace the BatDad character, not to mention millions of people on YouTube who've seen this video in the past week.
Submitted by: Unknown (via YouTube)
In 2012, asuperchicken posted a video of his sweet one-year-old little girl getting upset and crying after he shaved off his winter beard. The poor kid didn’t recognize her dad without facial hair.
via reddit, Daily Picks and Flicks
At the Shocktoberfest amusement park in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, visitors can take the Naked and Scared Challenge, which dares them to navigate the park’s Unknown Haunted House in the nude. Before entering the haunted house, participants must verify they are over 18, sign a waiver, and disrobe in the disconcertingly named “semi-private preshow building.” Also, there’s this warning from The Management:
Disclaimer: Shocktoberfest has created this experience so their customers can explore a new level of fear. This is about fear and pushing oneself out of their comfort zone. This is not about sex. No sexual misconduct, inappropriate or disrespectful behavior will be tolerated.
The Shocktoberfest amusement park is open on select dates from September to early November.
via 98.1 The Hawk, Geekologie
BarticeI love that powder blue on the hallway walls
76 Main beach style. Rachel Reider Interiors, Boston.
People examine the wooden sculpture of giant hare by artist Florentijn Hofman displayed near the St.Peter and St.Paul Fortress in St.Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, September 15, 2013. The public art installation “Sunbathing Hare”, part of the cultural program of Russia – The Netherlands Bilateral Year 2013. Florentijn Hofman is a Dutch conceptual artist. He is known for playful urban installations such as the Rubber Yellow Duck sculpture.
15-meters long by 8-meters wide and standing at 2.5-meters high, the huge sculpture has been covered with plywood strips. The work is part of the cultural program of Russia – The Netherlands Bilateral Year 2013, on display until 13 October 2013. (Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky/AP Photo)
|
|
BarticeI can't see the whole article.
|
|
In what has become a tragic turn of events, a 5-month-old baby has died after his mom placed him on an airport luggage carousel for oversize luggage. Police say that after a flight from London to Spain, the mom put her son on the conveyor belt when she tried to reach for something. But before she could pick him back up again, the belt began moving, he was carried away to the drop portal where the bags merge, he got entangled in the apparatus, and he died.
To hear more, read the whole story on The Stir.
BarticeThis is awesome
Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier decided to make an unconventional pitch on the House of Representatives floor Thursday to defend food stamps. Speier used a cooked steak, a bottle of vodka, and a can of caviar to point out members of Congress who had large numbers of SNAP program recipients in their districts but opposed the program. The Congresswoman pointed out many of the same members of Congress took trips around the world with large stipends for food and lodging.
“In my district, California 14, we have about 4,000 families who are on food stamps, but some of my colleagues have thousands and thousands more,” Rep. Speier said. “Yet, they somehow feel like crusaders, like heroes when they vote to cut food stamps. Some of these same members travel to foreign countries under the guise of official business. They dine at lavish restaurants, eating steak, vodka and even caviar. They receive money to do this. That’s right, they don’t pay out of pocket for these meals.”
Speier went on, using particular examples of members of Congress who went on sponsored trips and spent large amounts of money on food and lodging.
“Let me give you a few examples: One member was given $127.41 a day for food on his trip to Argentina. He probably had a fare amount of steak,” she said.
“Another member was given $3,588 for food and lodging during a six-day trip to Russia. He probably drank a fair amount of vodka and probably even had some caviar. That particular member has 21,000 food stamp recipients in his district. One of those people who is on food stamps could live a year on what this congressman spent on food and lodging for six days,” she added.
Congresswoman Uses Steak, Vodka And Caviar To Hammer Republicans On Food Stamp Cuts
“Watch Brad Pitt survive an unsurvivable apocalypse thanks to a constant stream of life-saving coincidences.”
Screen Junkies released an honest movie trailer for the 2013 apocalyptic horror action film World War Z. Previously, we’ve written about Screen Junkies’ ongoing series of honest trailers.
‘World War Z’ is one of the most anticipated book adaptations this summer. Sometimes things are better left on the page.
Powered by NEW YORK DESIGN AGENDA – Design Trends from the City that Doesn’t Sleep
An industrial gas station in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City has been transformed into a sculptural sheep pasture — an urban creative intervention from art collector michael shvo and paul kasmin gallery, NYC. Debuting to the public since September 17th, ‘sheep station‘ is a pop-up, surrealist landscape which sets dozens of sculpted farm animals fixed amongst gas pumps and fire extinguishers in a grass-filled getty station. 25 of late french artist françois-xavier lalanne’s epoxy stone and bronze sheep sculptures graze within the white picket fence bound rolling lawn. The installation showcases the largest flock ever shown together of lalanne’ iconic ‘moutons’. The station will be host to a new public art program in the center of the high line arts district and will showcase rotating exhibitions as a temporary art space.
Sculpted farm animals are fixed amongst gas pumps and fire extinguishers
the getty station turned pop-up sheep pasture
sculptures graze within the white picket fence bound lawn
|
|
Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal headline the thriller Prisoners, about a pair of little girls who go missing and the desperate measures their parents take to find them. When the young daughter of Keller and Grace Dover (Jackman and Maria Bello) disappears along with her friend, the daughter of Franklin and Nancy Birch (Terrence Howard and Viola Davis), Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) devotes himself to finding the girls. The child abduction plot has been done before, but the sharp Prisoners freshens up the genre. There are lot of elements that make it a must watch, so keep reading to find out what they are.
The first mystery of the movie is the lack of evidence linking the super obvious prime suspect, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), to the girls. Frustrated by this, Keller decides to turn the tables on Alex to get answers, but if you think the movie is just a revenge saga, you would be wrong - and pleasantly surprised. As Prisoners gets going, different mysteries unspool, and you're trying to connect the dots while scratching your head. If you love a good mystery, this is the movie for you. Sure, there may be a couple plot holes on the way to unraveling it, but it's so entertaining that you won't care.
We know what a good actor Jackman is, but the revelation about his acting here is how he continues to show more dimension. You waver between judging Keller when he lashes out at Alex - and being sympathetic for him as a grieving father. It takes a great performer to walk the line, and Jackman is up to the task.
The supporting cast has lots of talent too. Gyllenhaal's role is a little outside his wheelhouse - Loki is tattooed, tough, maybe a little lonely, and Gyllenhaal is impressive and convincing. He does give his detective character an unnecessary facial tic, but at least he's giving it his all. Dano is also fantastic - Alex is impossible to figure out, and, as with Jackman, you don't know how to feel about him. As if it couldn't get any better, Davis, Bello, and Howard are each affecting in their unique, smaller roles.
Prisoners might be a little too intense for some - I felt like had white knuckles and gritted teeth for the much of the movie - but it adds to the overall tone and style of the movie. It's creepy, visceral, violent, and sometimes hard to watch - but you won't want to look away.
Perhaps placing Amazon lockers right within the confines of a couple of its toughest competitors might not have been such a great idea after all. Several months ago, Staples and RadioShack agreed to add the online retailer's lockers inside a few brick and mortar locations so that Amazon customers could choose to pick up their goods at the store instead of missing a delivery, with the host retailer getting a small fee in exchange. According to Bloomberg however, Staples and RadioShack have now decided to yank the lockers from their stores. Staples claimed the Amazon deal "didn't meet the criteria" that was set up, while RadioShack stated that the lockers "didn't fit with its strategy." We can't say we're terribly surprised to see the rivals part ways, but hey, at least you can still find an Amazon locker in select 7-Elevens.
[Image credit: Adam Matan, Wikimedia Commons]
Source: Bloomberg
BarticeI have always envisioned a kitchen with a green house look to it. Not the entire kitchen but still. If I has tons of money.
Sunrooms are a perfect way to soak in the rays without having any harmful effects, and with a sunny glass encased room you can feel the positive effects year round. [View More Photos at Inthralld.com]
|
|
Exposed during the Burning Man festival, Truth is Beauty by Marco Cochrane is a superb sculpture 16 meters high from his Bliss project. Built with steel rods welded together and about 3000 multicolored LED, it changes appearance constantly offering an intense reflection on the feminine woman.
|
|
BarticeI love this but only on one wall and with lighter colors
|
|
BarticeI love the color but not the style
Calamus Circle residence, Minneapolis. Martha O’Hara Interiors.
Like this Room for Color 2013 contest entry? Favorite it below! 
