Laundry Detergent Ingredients 1 bar of soap (e.g., Ivory™) 1 cup washing soda (sodium carbonate, sold in the laundry section or compare prices online) 1/2 cup borax (sold in the laundry section or compare prices online) Make Laundry Detergent Cut your bar of soap into small pieces. You can use a knife or you can grate the soap with a cheese or vegetable grater. Process the soap, washing soda, and borax together in a food processor or blender until it is well-mixed. You want to avoid breathing in the dust produced by mixing the ingredients, so be sure to put the cover on your appliance. Store your laundry detergent powder in a airtight container. Use 1 tablespoon of homemade laundry detergent per load of laundry. Notes You can add essential oils (e.g, lavender) to fragrance the detergent, if you like. Avoid using this laundry detergent on wool or silk, since it may damage these natural fibers. The homemade detergent will do about 48 loads of laundry. If you compare the cost of the soap, washing soda, and borax with what you would have paid for commercial laundry detergent, you’ll see you’re saving a lot of money (about $0.03/load for homemade laundry detergent versus about $0.30/load using Tide™ or about a tenth the cost).

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Place mushrooms in boiling water and allow to soak until softened, at least 15 minutes (but up to 1 hour).

Mix together olive oil, rosemary, and garlic to form a marinade. Rub marinade well over lamb steaks or chops; refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Pour off marinade and grill lamb until medium-rare, turning once (Alternatively: roast lamb in 350º oven until medium-rare, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to rest 10 minutes).

Drain soaked wild mushrooms, reserving 1/2 cup liquid. Saute button mushrooms in frying pan in olive oil over medium-high heat until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; whisk in rosemary, crumbled blue cheese, half-and-half, and 1/2 cup reserved mushroom liquid. Heat until sauce thickens; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour wild mushroom sauce over lamb, garnish with rosemary, and serve.

Yield: 6 helpings of lamb with hobbit sauce.

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Shut up! 

Anger

Simple Japanese Phrases Archives

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is Mary Beard’s introduction to the two and a half centuries of scholarly exploration of the ancient city of Pompeii, buried in volcanic ash in 79 AD. Beard combines a wealth of detail about the houses and people destroyed and preserved at this fascinating site.

The book is laid out in nine chapters: Living in an Old City; Street Life; House and Home; Painting and Decorating; Earning a Living; Who Ran the City?; The Pleasures of the Body; Fun and Games; and A City Full of Gods. Many color plates are included with the book–not in my copy, but I’m sure they add quite a bit to the text. Beard includes tips for the tourist as well as a thick 20 page annotated bibliography for those who wish to look further.The Fires of Vesuvius and Inspiration

Reading the book took much longer than I expected–not from any flaw in the book, but because the book inspired me to read further or find images of the specific sites Beard discusses. It also inspired me to reconstruct slices of the city, to apply the pieces she provides to specific pieces of the city. I can’t say I’ve ever been quite so inspired by a single text before.

Interestingly, I don’t think Beard has much use for archaeologists. In several places she dismisses archaeological interpretations as too much rebuilt from too little data. But, as Thoreau has said "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk," and, speaking as an archaeologist, I think that she’s a little too harsh on us.

But the text is lively, and deeply grounded in history. Beard does much to bring the city alive, and at the same time to bring to earth the various high-flown bits that everybody ‘knows’ about Pompeii: the graffiti, the numerous phalluses, the plaster body casts of the victims are all treated with pragmatic detail.

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"Clearly we need a stimulus that doesn’t undermine the incentive for businesses to be careful about their spending and making those correct investments," Gates told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an exclusive interview airing on The Situation Room on Wednesday and Thursday.

Gates, one of the world’s richest men and founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is also calling on Obama to increase investments in the nation’s education system and spur technological advances to improve agriculture, prevent disease, and promote economic growth in the world’s poorest nations.

"The key point I’d make is that in addition to that stimulus, you’ve got to fund the kind of scientific work and educational investments that could really have us be a much better country as we emerge from the recession," he said.

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David Nott texted his surgical colleague Meirion Thomas, who is one of only a handful of UK surgeons familiar with the difficult procedure of removing the collar bone and shoulder blade.

David Nott realized that teenager J, whose arms had been ripped off and was now gangrenous, had only a few days left to live.

"I knew that the only way to save this boy’s life was to do a forequarter amputation and I knew that Professor Meirion Thomas was really the expert" says Nott.

Nott, a vasuclar surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, who volunteers one month a year with humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, had never performed such an operation before.

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CNN takes a look at the competition, from electric vehicles to cars that run on hydrogen, solar power and even air.

SCIENCE THAT WILL CELL?

Hydrogen powered cars are emissions free — expelling only drops of water from the exhaust — and fuel-cell technology is proven. NASA has been using hydrogen to power space missions since the 1960s.

A fuel cell works by converting chemical energy into electrical energy which in turn powers the vehicle. Unlike electric cars, hydrogen-powered vehicles don’t need recharging.

Earlier this year, Honda became the first manufacturer to complete production of the first commercial hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle — the FCX Clarity — which is powered by a 100-kilowatt V Flow fuel-cell stack.

But they are expensive — "hundreds of thousands of dollars each," says Honda — and only 200 have been made (by hand). Honda is leasing out the FCX to a variety of hand-picked customers, including actress Jamie Lee Curtis and Japan’s Ministry of the Environment.

Dozens of motor manufacturers are currently designing new cars with fuel-cell technology.

As part of its 2009 centenary celebrations, the United Kingdom’s Morgan Motor Company is developing the LIFECar — a lightweight fuel-efficient car based on the chassis of the company’s Aero 8 model.

The LIFECar is powered by a small fuel cell (22 kilowatts) which has been built by British defense contractor QinetiQ. It has a set of ultracapacitors which helps it to accelerate a lot faster — zero to 60 miles per hour in six to seven seconds.

Malcolm McCulloch, leader of the Electrical Power Group at the UK’s Oxford University is helping Morgan with the electric motors and power electronics on the car.

"At the moment we are still doing tests on the car, but it looks like it will be emitting around 50 grams of carbon per km equivalent, which is five times better than most vehicles will do now," McCulloch told CNN.

As the most abundant chemical element in the universe, hydrogen isn’t about to run out, either.

Professor Rob Thring, Chair in Fuel Cell Engineering at the UK’s Loughborough University, told CNN: "If you go out a buy a bottle of hydrogen today it will almost certainly be manufactured from natural gas — which is not very green.

"But there is a better way. If you electrolyze water using electricity you’ve made from wind turbines, wave or solar, then you can say that you have completely carbon-free transportation."

VERDICT

Hydrogen fuel-cell cars aren’t ready to surpass the gas engine. They are currently very expensive to produce and Honda says a mass-production model is still a long way off. But in the long term they could be the best option. Fuel-cell cars are an incredibly clean and efficient mode of transport.

"We need to build up the infrastructure in the same way that we did in the 1900s with petroleum," says Professor Thring. "The time it takes to roll out the infrastructure will depend on the incentive, but I think a significant proportion of the total vehicle fleet will be hydrogen fueled in ten years time."

John Turner, Research Fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, U.S. says: "It’s going to take a long time to build up a fuel-cell manufacturing base. But for a species that wants to maintain the viability of the planet, hydrogen is perfect."

OUR FRIENDS ELECTRIC?

Historically, electric vehicles have been seen as the slow, fiendishly uncool cousins of the gasoline car. And recent additions to the electric family, such as the REVA G-Wiz, launched in 2001, have failed to erase the rather negative connotations of going electric.

But the latest advances in battery technology could dramatically change the fortunes of electric cars. Powering cars with lithium-ion batteries is transforming their capabilities. Lithium-ion batteries are lighter, require less maintenance and hold their charge much longer than old fashioned lead-acid batteries.

The Tesla Roadster, the much-hyped first fully electric sports car, is powered by a lithium-ion battery and is proof that the electric car has moved on.

With a full 3.5 hours charge, it will travel 250 miles. The Roadster will go from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 125 miles per hour. Less impressive is the price tag: around $100,000.

Hot on the heels of Tesla is the UK’s Lightning Car Company, whose Lightning GT is even prettier than the Roadster and comes with a similar spec. It is even more expensive — around $180,000 — but does come with the option of a NanoSafe lithium titanate battery which can be charged in just 10 minutes.

While these cars aren’t exactly within reach of most people, there are plenty of new companies — including Chevrolet, with its forthcoming Volt — that are lining up to sell motorists an affordable electric vehicle.

Founded in 2006 by two former Lotus engineers, Julian Wilford and Evert Geurtsen, the Nice Car Company has a fleet of two-, four-passenger and commercial vehicles, including the Mega City and the Mega MultiTruck.

The Mega City costs around $18,000 and has a range of 60 miles on a full charge of eight hours. That’s perhaps a bit too pricey for the performance, but costs should come down as technology improves.

VERDICT

Oxford University’s McCulloch says electric cars look like they might dominate the market in the coming years. "The advantage of batteries is that there is a ready infrastructure there," he said.

Renault’s electric vehicle project director, Serge Yoccoz, told the International Herald Tribune recently that he expects electric vehicles to represent as much as 20 percent of the European market in 10 years.

And the UK Government’s Committee on Climate Change has predicted — perhaps rather boldly — that 40 percent of cars on British roads will be electric by 2020 if tough greenhouse emissions targets are met.

But John Turner from the NREL isn’t convinced that electric cars are the way to go in the long term.

"Batteries are a material intensive technology. As you buy more batteries, the costs don’t necessarily go down," he said. "The nickel metal hydride battery they use in the [Toyota] Prius is a classic example. If the demand for nickel goes up, the price goes up."

Toyota is still losing money on the Prius because of the cost — close to $5000 — of the battery.

Click here to read what the experts say about air and solar powered vehicles

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Now, Harper said, the government should immediately get to work on measures to aid the nation’s economy.

Had Governor General Michaelle Jean — who represents Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state — denied the request, Monday’s vote would have likely brought down Harper’s government, less than two months after his Conservative Party strengthened its minority position in federal elections.

Harper, speaking to reporters outside of the governor general’s residence in Ottawa, Canada, said Parliament would resume on January 26.

"The first order of business will be the presentation of a federal budget," Harper added, and he called on the opposition to work with his administration in boosting the economy.

"Let’s get on with actually working on a[n economic] package. That’s what I think Canadians want us to do, is work on the economy and work together, work together in the interest in Canada."

He added, "Those who were elected here to serve the interest of Canada as a whole,should work together — at least to some degree — on planning an economic plan for Canada."

On Wednesday, Harper had appealed directly to Canadians for support, vowing in a nationally televised address on the economy that he would do all he can to halt his opponents from carrying out a no-confidence vote in Parliament and forming a coalition government that would replace his own.

"Unfortunately, even before the government has brought forward its budget, and only seven weeks after a general election, the opposition wants to overturn the results of that election," said the prime minister, whose Conservative Party strengthened its minority position in federal elections on October 14. iReport.com: Outrage brewing in Canada

The Liberal Party and the leftist New Democratic Party announced plans earlier this week to form a governing coalition with the support of the Bloc Quebecois, which supports independence for French-speaking Quebec.

Leader of the Liberal Party Stephane Dion, the man who would replace replace Harper under the planned coalition, said the coalition would look to replace Harper unless he makes "monumental change."

"For the first time in the history of Canada, the prime minister of Canada is running away from the Parliament of Canada," Dion said. He said the premier has "placed partisan politics ahead of the interest of all Canadians."

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Is Santa Claus Really American?

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3. Thomas Nast and Santa Claus

Many aspects of the American Christmas celebration were imported from Europe, and Germany in particuar. The Dutch may have given him his English name, but Santa Claus owes most of his current image to an award-winning German-American cartoonist.

Thomas Nast was born in Landau in der Pfalz (between Karlsruhe and Kaiserslautern) on Sept. 27, 1840. When he was six years old, he arrived in New York City with his mother. (His father arrived four years later.) After art studies there, Nast became an illustrator for at the age of 15. By the time he was 19, he was working at and he later traveled to Europe on assignment for other publications (and paid a visit to his hometown in Germany). Soon he was a famous political cartoonist.

One of Nast’s 1860s
Santa Claus images.

Today Nast is best remembered for his biting cartoons aimed at “Boss Tweed” and as the creator of several well-known U.S. icons: Uncle Sam, the Democratic donkey, and the Republican elephant. Less well known is Nast’s contribution to the image of Santa Claus.

Jolly Old Saint Nick
Many people helped create the Santa Claus we know today. In many ways St. Nick is quite international. After all, he is a man without a country, living at the North Pole (an idea that comes from a poem by George P. Webster in a book of Nast’s Santa illustrations published in 1869), and his name is a corruption of the Dutch . Today Santa is a familar figure around the world, even in unexpected places like Japan.

When Nast published a series of drawings of Santa Claus for each year from 1863 (in the midst of the Civil War) to 1866, he helped create the kinder, more fatherly, plumper Santa we know today. His drawings show influences of the bearded, fur-cloaked, pipe-smoking Pelznickel of Nast’s Palatinate homeland. Later color illustrations by Nast (see below) are even closer to today’s Santa Claus image, showing him as a toy maker. Here are some more Santa history highlights…

Contributors to the Santa Image and Legend:

Washington Irving - 1812
Irving, under the name “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” publishes a revised edition of his satirical history of New York in which Santa “rides over the tops of trees” in a horse-drawn wagon. He is described as a “jolly Dutchman” who smokes a clay pipe.

Clement Clarke Moore - 1822
Moore publishes his poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” better known as “The Night Before Christmas.” The poem is the first mention of a sleigh powered by “eight tiny reindeer” and mentioning their names. It describes Santa as jolly and rotund.

Nast’s later 1890 color
version of Saint Nick.

Thomas Nast - 1863
publishes the first in a series of Nast’s Santa illustrations on January 3. One drawing shows Santa distributing gifts to Civil War soldiers from his sleigh.

Thomas Nast - 1866
publishes the fourth and last installment of Nast’s Santa drawings, now in color (with Santa in red).

Thomas Nast - 1890
Nast publishes a book entitled “Christmas Drawings for All Mankind” with his latest Santa illustrations including Christmas symbols from around the world. Nast drew Santa walking on rooftops and going down chimneys.

Haddon Sundblom - 1931
Sundblom creates a series of Santa Claus ads for Coca-Cola. His Santa image is very close to Nast’s, updating it with a slightly more modern look. The popular magazine and billboard ads help to standardize Santa’s grandfatherly features. But, as we can see by this timeline, the legend that Coca-Cola created the Santa image is not true.

Montgomery Ward’s - 1939
As part of a Christmas ad campaign, Ward’s introduces “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The song of the same name eventually becomes a worldwide hit.

Thomas Nast - 1902
Six months after Teddy Roosevelt sends him to Quayaquil, Ecuador as American ambassador, Thomas Nast dies of Yellow Fever on December 7, one day after St. Nicholas Day ().

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NIKOLAUS > Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

WEB > Der Vater des Weihnachtmanns
“Der politische Karikaturist Thomas Nast erfand 1890 den weltbekannten ‘Santa Claus’” - von Oliver Bentz und der Wiener Zeitung.
WEB > Santa Claus aus der Pfalz - Die Zeit

Advent and Christmas
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German Christmas Word Search
An online word search with German Christmas vocabulary.

Christmas graphics courtesy Brigitte Haag

Nikolaus Glossary
An annotated glossary of all the German names for Santa and his helpers.

Advent and Christmas
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Saint Nicholas Glossary
Das Nikolaus-Lexikon

An Annotated German-English Glossary

The many German names for Saint Nicholas and his escorts…

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Nikolaus-Namen

The following alphabetical list includes most of the many different German names used for Nikolaus/Saint Nicholas and his helpers (). Click on any linked name for more information about that term. Also see the related entries below.

MALE: Ale Josef, Ascheklas, Aschenmann, Bartel/Bartl, Beelzebub, Belsnickel, Belsnickle (Amer.), Belznickel, Boozenickel, Bornkindl, Bullerklaas/Bullerklas, Burklaas, Butz, Butzemärtel, Düsseli, Düvel, Hans Muff, Hans Trapp, Heiliger Mann, Kinnjes, Klaasbur, Klapperbock, Klas Bur, Klaubauf, Klaus, Klawes, Klos, Krampus, Leutfresser, Niglo, Nikolo, Pelzebock, Pelzebub, Pelzemärtel, Pelznickel, Pelzpercht, Pelzprecht, Pulterklas, Rauklaas, Rugklaas, Ruhklas, Rumpelklas, Rupsack, Samichlaus, Satniklos, Schimmelreiter, Schmutzli, Schnabuck, Semper, Storrnickel, Strohnickel, Sunner Klaus, Swatter Pitt, Zink Muff, Zinterklos, Zwarte Pitt, Zwarter Piet

FEMALE: Berchte/Berchtel, Budelfrau, Buzebergt, Lutzl, Percht, Pudelfrau, Rauweib, Zamperin

der Ascheklas northern German term for Knecht Ruprecht - See Ruprecht

B

der Bartel/Bartl term for Krampus or Ruprecht in Styria/Steiermark (Austria)

der Belsnickel, Belsnickle, Belznickel

All three terms above are related to Pelznickel and are variations of the name found in the Palatinate along the Rhine, the Saarland, and several other northwest German areas. Belsnickle is a term used by German-Americans from those regions and their descendents.

C

das Christkind/das Christkindl Christ Child

The Christmas gift-bringer in Protestant regions of Germany. Luther’s original concept was more like the baby Jesus, but the was gradually transformed into an adult angel dressed all in white. But today, the Weihnachtsmann has pretty much taken over the role, even in northern Germany.

der Christkindlmarkt/der Christkindlesmarkt Christmas market/fair

Also called der Weihnachtsmarkt, Christmas markets are set up in a town square during the Advent season (the four weeks leading up to Christmas). Some have Web sites during the Christmas season. - See our Christmas Links page.

D

der Düsseli Swiss German term for Knecht Ruprecht - See Ruprecht

H

der Hans Muff (”der muffige Hans” = “grumpy Hans”) Lower Rhine/Niederrhein term for Knecht Ruprecht - See Ruprecht

J

Jesus (YEA-zoos), Jesulein Jesus, Baby Jesus

K

Klos Swabian name for St. Nicholas’ helper - See Ruprecht

Knecht Ruprecht North German name for St. Nicholas’ helper. - See Ruprecht below.

Krampus Austrian/Bavarian name for Knecht Ruprecht. - See Ruprecht below.

N

Nikolaus Nicholas/St. Nicholas

Although the Roman Catholic Church struck it from its official calendar in 1969, many Austrians and Germans continue to celebrate the feast day of St. Nicholas on December 6. The patron saint of children, St. Nicholas (der Heilige Nikolaus) is a blend of at least two saints named Nicholas: Nicholas of Myra (4th century) and Nicholas of Sion (6th century). The gift-giving tradition is based on a legend about Nicholas leaving three bags of gold in the room of three poor girls in order to save them from being orphaned. (Also see “Weihnachtsmann”)

Nikolo St. Nicholas (Upper Bavaria/Oberbayern)

R

Ruprecht, Knecht Ruprecht, Krampus

A demonic figure who used to accompany St. Nicholas to punish bad children with his Rute (switch); based on mythical winter figures going back to pagan times. Also known as Hans Muff, Krampus, Nickel, and other names. In some regions, Ruprecht or Krampus is good - just another Weihnachtsmann.

S

der Sankt/der Heilige saint

Once the Protestant Reformation took place, saints were out and a replacement for Saint Nicholas (Nicholas of Myra) had to be found. Enter the German Christkindl and later the Weihnachtsmann. - Also see “Ruprecht” above.

der Schimmelreiter “white horse rider”

This north German term for St. Nicholas refers to the white horse that Nicholas rides in some parts of Germany and in Alpine regions.

Schmutzli Swiss German name for Knecht Ruprecht or Krampus

W

der Weihnachtsmann Santa Claus, Father Christmas

Martin Luther had introduced das Christkind to replace Saint Nicholas for the Protestants. But sometime after about 1847 the custom of as the Christmas gift-bringer began to change over to the more secular - a compromise made up of a mixture of Catholic, Protestant, and pagan figures. The old demonic, rathful Knecht Ruprecht who had scared children to death with his evil looks and switch, was blended with Saint Nicholas (himself a mixture of several saints) to create the . The Austrian-born painter Moritz von Schwind (1804-1871) is generally credited with helping to create the prototype with his “Herr Winter” series of woodcuts for the magazine.

Z

der Zinterklos St. Nicholas (northern Rhineland/nördliches Rheinland)

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GAME > German Christmas Word Search

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