Look at the hot, buttery potato. In its simplest state — with just a little butter and some kosher salt — that thing is going to be completely delicious. Now add herbs, cheese, meat, veggies, and you've got a great (and probably cheap, sequester-friendly) dinner on your hands. Before we get into all the topping possibilities, here's how to make a baked potato:
• Use a russet potato — the dirty-looking brown kind, not the waxy kind — because it's starchy and works best for this kind of thing.
• Preheat an oven to 400 degrees.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
• Scrub the potato clean under water, dry it with a towel, then poke a few holes through to the center of it with a fork.
• Bake the potato for one hour or until tender.
• Slice into it, fluff it up inside with a fork, then add butter, salt, and pepper.
Now you know the basics. Here are some other ideas.
1. Sweet Potato With Roasted Grape, Goat Cheese, and Honey
A new Twitter service will allow users to carry on their stream of consciousness in 140 characters or less from beyond the grave. LivesOn will analyse users' Twitter feeds to learn their 'likes, tastes, [and] syntax' to continue posting similar messages, updates and links after they've passed. The service, due to launch in March, promises: 'When your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting.'
LivesOn is being developed by London-based advertising agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine. Dave Bedwood, a creative partner at the firm, told the Guardian he was ready for negative responses to the service. 'It divides people on a gut level, before you even get to the philosophical and ethical arguments,' he said. 'It offends some, and delights others. Imagine if people started to see it as a legitimate but small way to live on. Cryogenics costs a fortune; this is free and I'd bet it will work better than a frozen head.'
Although it is similar to the plot of last week's episode of Channel 4 sitcom Black Mirror, in which a woman uses social media to talk to her dead boyfriend, the developers claim they came up with the service in 2011. Posts on the LivesOn Twitter feed explain how the 'idea was born a couple of years ago. been getting tech partners together. '[T]hen black mirror themes were in the press and it seemed the perfect time to get something up. But we are genuinely doing the experiment.'
LivesOn uses artificial intelligence algorithms to analyse users' online behaviour and their style of writing. This allows it to scour the internet to post the kinds of links its users like, as well as mimic their manner of communicating and favourite appropriate tweets to create a personal digital afterlife. An early post on the LivesOn Twitter feed pronounces: 'God doesn't exist, servers do. Sign up to the real after life.'
But as bizarre as it might seem, LivesOn is only the latest service to offer to continue your social media life after death. DeadSocial, launched last April, and If I Die, launched in January 2012, offer users the ability to send predetermined messages from beyond the grave to selected Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. DeadSocial can be scheduled to post social media updates for long after users have passed away, while If I Die posts a single video or text message to the Facebook wall of any user after three friends confirm their death. LivesOn is the first service to offer to automatically continue posting in the style of the dead user, however. One person who has registered interest in the service is Mia Smith, a businesswoman in her mid-40s, who said she wanted the chance to have a 'kind of ironic legacy'. Speaking to the Guardian, she admitted, however, that 'in the cold light of day, it is a very conceited thing to do.'
The Cost Of Putting On The Oscars Ceremony from the Journal Sentinel
The Academy of Motion Pitcures Arts and Sciences earns a reported $89.6 million from the Oscars, $75 million of which comes annually from ABC, which has a contract to telecast the affair through 2020.
ABC is charging from $1.6 million to $1.8 million for a 30-second Oscar ad.
The ceremonies cost about $21 million to stage.
The producers - this year, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan - receive an estimated $100,000 honorarium.
The host, Seth MacFarlane, receives a union-mandated fee in the range of $15,000.
The set cost $1 million.
The red carpet costs about $1.50 per square foot, or about $25,000.
The Governors Ball after the ceremonies costs about $1.8 million.
The guests at the ball will drink about $87,000 in champagne and $58,000 in wine.
The white truffles used by chef Wolfgang Puck cost about $34,000
Chocolate at the ball costs about $20,000.
A chandelier Liberace would die for was designed at a cost of $1 million.
INGREDIENTS: 7 rashers of rare breed pig bacon, sliced truffles, saffron, a free range egg, and most importantly, edible gold dust.
The sandwich was made by Tangberry coffee house in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, U.K. It's called The Bacon Bling Sandwich and it's being called the world's most expensive sandwich according to The World Record Academy, but NOT the Guinness World Records (record drama). It's currently being sold for charity, with proceeds going to SKRUM, a British charity which helps children in Swaziland learn to play rugby, and the Regular Forces Employment Association.
Have you ever been offered money, or any other reward for deactivating your Facebook? Would you if you were given the opportunity? Well this daughter can cash in if she stays off Facebook for 6 months. Paul Baier, a vice president for Boston energy firm Groom Energy Solutions, drafted up a legal agreement for his 14-year-old daughter Rachel. The contract agrees to award Rachel $200 if she can stay off Facebook for six months. She gets $50 in April and another $150 in June. The funniest part is that it was her idea. She wanted to get a job and focus more on school.
This is Panasonic's new 152 inch tv worth $500,000. The 4K2K plasma display (4,096 by 2,160 pixels) is equivalent to nine 50-inch screens and weighs 1,272 pounds. A forklift is needed in some instances to mount the screen. So, how big is too big??
