June 27, 2013 ? Lying awake in bed plagues everyone occasionally, but for those with seasonal affective disorder, sleeplessness is routine.University of Pittsburgh researchers report in the Journal of Affective Disorders that individuals with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) -- a winter depression that leads to loss of motivation and interest in daily activities -- have misconceptions about their sleep habits similar to those of insomniacs. These findings open the door for treating seasonal affective disorder similar to the way doctors treat insomnia.
Kathryn Roecklein, primary investigator and assistant professor in Pitt's Department of Psychology within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, along with a team of researchers from Pitt's School of Medicine and Reyerson University, investigated why, according to a previously published sleep study by the University of California, Berkeley, individuals with seasonal affective disorder incorrectly reported that they slept four more hours a night in the winter.
"We wondered if this misreporting was a result of depression symptoms like fatigue and low motivation, prompting people to spend more time in bed," said Roecklein. "And people with seasonal affective disorder have depression approximately five months a year, most years. This puts a significant strain on a person's work life and home life."
Roecklein and her team interviewed 147 adults between the ages of 18 and 65 living in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area during the winters of 2011 and 2012. Data was collected through self-reported questionnaires and structured clinical interviews in which participants were asked such questions as: "In the past month, have you been sleeping more than usual?" and "How many hours, on average, have you been sleeping in the past month? How does that compare to your normal sleep duration during the summer?"
In order to understand participants' ideas about sleep, Roecklein's team asked them to respond to questions such as "I need at least 8 hours of sleep to function the next day" and "Insomnia is dangerous for health" on a scale from 0 to 7, where 7 means "strongly agree" and 0 means "disagree completely."
Roecklein and her team found that SAD participants' misconceptions about sleep were similar to the "unhelpful beliefs" or personal misconceptions about sleep that insomniacs often hold. Due to depression, individuals with SAD, like those with insomnia, may spend more time resting in bed, but not actually sleeping -- leading to misconceptions about how much they sleep. These misconceptions, said Roecklein, play a significant role in sleep cognition for those with seasonal affective disorder.
"We predict that about 750,000 people in the Pittsburgh metro area suffer from seasonal affective disorder, making this an important issue for our community and the economic strength and vitality of our city," said Roecklein. "If we can properly treat this disorder, we can significantly lower the number of sufferers in our city."
Roecklein's research data suggests that addressing, understanding, and managing these "unhelpful beliefs" about sleep by way of psychotherapy could lead to improved treatments for seasonal affective disorder. One of the most effective treatment options for insomnia, said Roecklein, is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (known as CBT-I), which aims to help people take control of their thinking to improve their sleep habits as well as mood, behavior, and emotions.
Roecklein's next research project aims to improve treatment for seasonal affective disorder by studying light perception and biological clock synchronization. Light from the environment synchronizes internal biological rhythms with the timing of dawn and dusk, which naturally changes with the seasons. This synchronization allows people to be awake and alert during the day and to sleep at night. Roecklein will examine whether people with seasonal affective disorder perceive this light from the environment differently because of changes in the function of neurological pathways from the eye to the brain. This could help uncover reasons why people suffer from seasonal affective disorder and could suggest new treatment options.
Roecklein's research team included, Peter L. Franzen and Brant P. Hasler of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, Pitt psychology graduate student Patrica M. Wong, and Colleen E. Carney from Reyerson University's Department of Psychology.
Their paper, "The Role of Beliefs and Attitudes About Sleep in Seasonal and Nonseasonal Mood Disorder, and Nondepressed Controls" was originally published online May 23 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.This work was partially supported by a National Institutes of Health grant.
Whole genome or exome sequencing: An individual insight
June 26, 2013 ? Focusing on parts rather than the whole, when it comes to genome sequencing, might be extremely useful, finds research in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Medicine. The research compares several sequencing technologies in the same individual with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), and shows that sequencing the coding regions alone at high depth of coverage can identify the genetic variation behind this disease, and was also able to resolve previous ambiguities.
Next generation sequencing for understanding human DNA variation and genetic disorders is advancing in leaps and bounds. Whole genome sequencing reads all of an individual's DNA, whereas exome sequencing captures only the parts of the DNA which code for proteins. Exome sequencing is faster and cheaper, but concerns have previously been raised that it misses important information.
A team from Baylor College of Medicine led by Prof. James Lupski and Prof. Richard Gibbs compared several different exome and whole genome sequencing technologies on DNA from the same person with CMT. Prof. Jim Lupski explained, "Both methods were able to find the same 12 variants which affect cellular response to specific drugs such as betablockers, warfarin and the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel, and identify novel CMT-associated mutations in SH3TC2 that encodes for a protein with a role in peripheral nerve myelination."
Exome sequencing had fewer false positives, and a greater sensitivity due to the higher coverage achieved when focusing only in a small fraction of the genome. Consequently it was able to correctly identify nucleotides which were ambiguous when using whole genome sequencing at lower coverage, and so clarify whether they were associated with CMT or not.
Prof. Richard Gibbs commented, "The higher coverage afforded by focusing on the exome at approximately 120x for clinical exomes allows greater precision of exome sequencing making this a superior approach, rather than a shortcut, to find which people might respond to a particular therapy or to define who has a specific disease."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited.
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Journal Reference:
James R Lupski, Claudia Gonzaga-Jauregui, Yaping Yang, Matthew N Bainbridge, Shalini Jhangiani, Christian J Buhay, Christie L Kovar, Min Wang, Alicia C Hawes, Jeffrey G Reid, Christine Eng, Donna M Muzny and Richard A Gibbs. Exome sequencing resolves apparent incidental findings and reveals further complexity of SH3TC2 variant alleles causing CMT neuropathy. Genome Medicine, (in press)
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Mad scientists turn roaches into cyborgs, control them with Kinect, laugh at nature
We'd love to tell you that the researchers at North Carolina State University aren't monsters who implant circuits on living things so that those living things do their bidding, but we'd be lying. They totally do that, roaches are their primary victim, and now they're using Microsoft's Kinect to help them control the insects. Sure, why not!
As Dr. Alper Bozkurt of NCSU says in today's new release, "Our goal is to be able to guide these roaches as efficiently as possible, and our work with Kinect is helping us do that." Apparently the researchers are employing Kinect for data collection as well, determining how effectively the cyborg survivors respond to electrical impulse-motivated control. They say the end goal is to use the partially mechanized arthropods to, "explore and map disaster sites." For now, there's some very weird stuff happening in South Carolina. Head below for a video of the roaches in action.
New theory: Emotions arise through the integration of perceptual and cognitive information
June 25, 2013 ? A life without feelings -- unimaginable. Although emotions are so important, philosophers are still discussing what they actually are. Prof. Dr. Albert Newen and Dr. Luca Barlassina of the Institute of Philosophy II at the Ruhr-Universit?t Bochum have drawn up a new theory. According to this, emotions are not just special cases of perception or thought but a separate kind of mental state which arises through the integration of feelings of bodily processes and cognitive contents.
They describe the model in the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
Earlier theories of emotion
Around the turn of the 20th Century, the psychologists William James and Karl Lange proposed that emotions are nothing other than perceptions of bodily states. According to the James-Lange theory, we do not tremble because we are scared, but rather we are scared because we tremble. "This theory does not, however, consider the cognitive content of many emotions," says Albert Newen. If a student is anxious about an exam, then he is experiencing this anxiety because he thinks, for example, that the exam is important and that he will have a blackout. The so-called "cognitive theory of emotions" therefore says that emotions are essentially an assessment of the situation based on reason: this dog is dangerous because he is baring his teeth. "This theory is also unsatisfactory," says Newen, "because it forgets the feelings as a central component of the emotion." A person can realistically judge that a dog is dangerous and at the same time have no fear because he is an expert in handling dangerous dogs. So the cognitive assessment does not necessarily determine the emotion.
Integrative embodiment theory of emotions
Bochum's philosophers call their new model the "integrative embodiment theory of emotions." The emotional level is -- as postulated by William James -- the central starting point. An emotion only comes into existence, however, when the perception of bodily states is integrated with other aspects. The brain has to combine at least two components here: the perception of our own bodily states in a given situation, for example trembling, and the intentional object, such as the dog, which triggers the fear. Moreover, in "cognitive" emotions, typical thought content can also play a role, for example, with regard to a bull terrier: "bull terriers are particularly strong and dangerous." The result is a separate kind of mental state, namely an emotion that we conceive as a complex pattern of distinctive characteristics.
Emotions for things that do not even exist
According to Newen and Barlassina, the new theory is also superior to Jesse Prinz's most sophisticated theory of emotions so far, because this does not take into account that an emotion can also be directed at an object that is not present or does not even exist. A case study: Karl goes with his girlfriend Antje to a new bar. Because Karl has already been served by the barkeeper Fritz, Antje waits alone at the bar. Karl hears that she is insulted, but does not see by whom. He assumes it is Fritz. In the meantime, however, Fritz has left the room and John, an employee, is at the bar. He passes the insult and then leaves immediately. When Karl comes to the bar to vent his anger at the insult, Fritz is back. Karl is angry with Fritz although the cause of his bodily states associated with the feeling of anger was the utterance by John. The cause, John, and the object of the anger, namely Fritz, do not coincide. The object of anger is also known as the intentional object of anger, because it does not have to exist. People can even experience emotions about things that aren't real, for example, fear of vampires. While all feeling theories of emotion overlook the intentional object as an essential part of the emotion, the cognitive theories do tend to forget the feeling dimension of the emotion. Only the integrative embodiment theory takes all these components into account as constitutive of the emotion.
Vertu TI now available in red or blue limited editions, only 1,000 of each made
It's been almost half a year since Vertu launched its first-ever Android phone, the TI, and now the company's decided to throw in a couple of limited editions to lure the big spenders. As pictured above, the new Vertu TI Colours collection is wrapped in either "Sunset Red" or "Midnight Blue" calf leather, and only 1,000 units are made for each color. As per typical Vertu style, there's a unique number etched on the back to indicate which of the 1,000 units yours is.
The rest of this hand-crafted, matt grey titanium phone remains unchanged otherwise, namely its 3.7-inch tough sapphire screen, Android 4.0, 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4, 64GB storage plus an 8-megapixel camera. And of course, the phone still comes with the famed Vertu Concierge, a "100 percent independent" service that CEO Perry Oosting is very proud of. To join this exclusive club, you'll have to somehow fork out a whopping HK$90,000 or €8,900 (about US$11,700) -- just a tad more expensive than the TI Titanium Pure Black edition, but also more flamboyant. This author already spotted these new phones at Vertu's Hong Kong Airport store, and he's currently accepting donations.
{Virtual Book Tour} Pump Up Your Book Presents Self-Help Stress ...
Now there?s a way to get rid of the harmful effects of stress on your body and spirit. Our Self-Help Stress Solution Series tells you how aromatherapy, walking, nutrition, time management, money management, gardening, camping, and many other natural self-help methods, can be the cure you?re looking for.
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How Can Our Self-Help Stress Relief Series Help Get Rid of Stress?
It?s not magic ? nor is it a big secret! The calming effects of aromatherapy, when combined with other stress-relief techniques, can rejuvenate your mind, body and soul and literally lift away the stresses of the day. Eating healthy foods and engaging in a healthy lifestyle can fortify your body to fight off stress successfully. Developing the happy of taking a brisk walk a few times each week, strengthens your body as well as helps you sleep better at night, which are all essential factors in overcoming stress. Spending time outdoors gardening or camping works wonders for body, mind and spirit.
This Self-Help Stress Solutions Series will blow you away with information that you might not have known about relieving stress in your life.
Learn how to develop a life plan for stress relief.
The ?Self Help Stress Solutions? Book Series will teach you how to systematically reduce or rid yourself of stress symptoms that permeate your life. This is imperative for your well-being. Health concerns are nothing new, and many develop a diet and exercise plan to deal with them.
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HP announces Slate 21 AIO, 21.5-inch Android tablet with Tegra 4
What do you do if your home turf of PC sales is being eroded by tablets? If your answer is "sell tablets as desktops," then you're on Meg Whitman's wavelength. At an event in Beijing, HP announced a 21.5-inch, Android-powered tablet that's expressly designed as a desktop unit. The HP Slate 21 AIO comes with a full-HD touchscreen and NVIDIA's Tegra 4 internals, running Android 4.2.2. Prospective owners won't need to purchase an artists' easel, however, as there's a handy rear kickstand that'll let you stand it upright or at a 30-ish degree angle (pictured after the break), making us hope that its digitizer is sensitive enough for pen-based drawing. There's no word on pricing or availability, but there's a press release, translated from Chinese, after the break, if you'd like to know more.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Funeral services for actor James Gandolfini will be Thursday at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City.
An HBO spokeswoman speaking on behalf of the family says the funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m.
The 51-year-old star of "The Sopranos" died Wednesday in Rome. Family spokesmanMichael Kobold says Gandolfini died of a heart attack.
Port Authority of New York & New Jersey spokesman Steve Coleman tells the Star-Ledger of Newark that a Signature Airlines flight carrying Gandolfini's body arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport from Rome Sunday night. The body was taken from the airport around 11:20 p.m. but Colman did not say where.
The actor had been headed to Sicily to appear at the Taormina Film Festival, which paid tribute to him Saturday.
ROGERS, Ark. (AP) ? Stacy Lewis has made no secret about her desire to earn a championship in front of her adopted hometown fans.
The world's No. 2 golfer has also been open about how that internal pressure has caused her to struggle in recent years at the LPGA NW Arkansas Championship.
Lewis put all distractions aside on Saturday, shooting a 6-under 65 to join a group of four players atop the leaderboard at 10 under overall after the second round of the tournament at Pinnacle Country Club.
The round was a welcomed bit of excitement for a surging and vocal gallery that followed Lewis' every shot. It was especially gratifying for the former world No. 1, who played collegiately at nearby Arkansas ? and who has struggled to contend in recent years at the tournament.
Lewis earned an unofficial win at the rain-shortened event as an amateur in 2007. Since then, however, the former Rookie of the Year and last year's Player of the Year entered this week having finished in an average of 23rd place in front of her many fans ? including a 49th-place finish last year.
Back-to-back wins earlier this year briefly vaulted Lewis into the top spot in the world rankings, a position she said prepared her for the hectic schedule she faces this week.
"It's everything I deal with this year with the week that I became No. 1 in the world. It was just chaos," Lewis said. "Dealing with that pressure of being No. 1 in the world, I learned a lot from that.
"I honestly think that's why I've come here this week and it doesn't seem so busy anymore, doesn't seem too hard to play with all the fans."
Chie Arimura and Beatriz Recari both equaled Lewis' 65 on Saturday and are tied entering the final round with So Yeon Ryu.
I.K. Kim and defending champion Ai Miyazato tied for the lowest round of the day, each shooting a 7-under 64.
First-round leader Mika Miyazato shot a 70 and is three shots back, while top-ranked Inbee Park leads a group of three players two shots back at 8 under.
They will all be chasing Lewis on Sunday, at least in terms of the attention from the galleries to begin with. She will be paired with Recari in the final grouping of the day, and she is well aware of the excitement she will feel.
"I think the harder part is I'm going to want it so bad, and I know the fans are going to want me to get it really bad," Lewis said. "So, it's going to be hard. The hardest part is going to be staying patient and not trying to force putts and running them four feet by (the hole)."
Lewis was as low as 11 under after 17 holes on Saturday, thanks in large part to needing only 27 putts for her round ? a number that included several near misses and a three-putt on her final hole. The 28-year-old Lewis, who played during the morning, thrilled her pro-Arkansas gallery with four straight birdies on her first nine holes.
After starting on the back nine, she birdied holes 14-17 to reach 8 under before the par-5 18th took its toll. Lewis' approach on her third shot came up just short and rolled to the bottom of the hill in front of the green. Her following chip did the same.
Fortunately for Lewis, she managed to save bogey with an up-and-down ? thanks to her fifth straight one-putt. She then reached 11 under after four more birdies later in her round before bogeying her final hole of the day.
Lewis will have plenty of challengers Sunday on a leaderboard that features seven players within two shots of the lead, including Park ? with two major wins this year.
Arimura, the rookie from China, also needed only 27 putts on Saturday in shooting a bogey-free 65. She tied for the lead with birdies on her final two holes. Ryu birdied the par-5 7th hole ? her 16th hole of the round ? to reach 10 under in the final tournament before next week's U.S. Open.
Recari also posted a bogey-free round, birdieing four of her first seven holes before making the last of her six birdies on the par-5 14th. The Spanish golfer already has one win this year, the Kia Classic in March.
"I think overall I'm pretty happy and proud of how I handled myself the last two days," Recari said. "I have a very clear idea of what I have to do mentally, so I feel very confident and very good for my last round."
Kim, Pornanong Phatlum and Ji Young Oh are each at 8 under along with Park, while amateur Lydia Ko and Miyazato are at 7 under.
Juli Inkster followed an opening 71 with a 6-under 65 on Saturday.
Lewis, meanwhile, said she planned to play a round of golf with her nephew on Saturday afternoon before relaxing for the rest of the day in anticipation of what she hopes is a hometown celebration on Sunday.
"I'm definitely going to use the crowd some, but then I need to also just kind of scale it back and just stay in what I am doing right now because it's working," Lewis said.
U.S. files espionage charges against Snowden over leaks
By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has filed espionage charges against Edward Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor who admitted revealing secret surveillance programs to media outlets, according to a court document made public on Friday.
Snowden, who is believed to be in hiding in Hong Kong, was charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person, said the criminal complaint, which was dated June 14.
The latter two offenses fall under the U.S. Espionage Act and carry penalties of fines and up to 10 years in prison.
A single page of the complaint was unsealed on Friday. An accompanying affidavit remained under seal.
The charges are the government's first step in what could be a long legal battle to return Snowden from Hong Kong and try him in a U.S. court.
Two U.S. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was preparing to seek Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong, which is part of China but has wide-ranging autonomy, including an independent judiciary.
The Washington Post, which first reported the criminal complaint earlier on Friday, said the United States had asked Hong Kong to detain Snowden on a provisional arrest warrant.
There was no immediate response to requests for comment from Hong Kong's security bureau.
Snowden earlier this month admitted leaking secrets about classified U.S. surveillance programs, creating a public uproar. Supporters say he is a whistleblower, while critics call him a criminal and perhaps even a traitor.
He disclosed documents detailing U.S. telephone and Internet surveillance efforts to the Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper.
The criminal complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Snowden's former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is located.
That judicial district has seen a number of high-profile prosecutions, including the spy case against former FBI agent Robert Hanssen and the case of al Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui. Both were convicted.
'ACTIVE EXTRADITION RELATIONSHIP'
Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of Internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies such as Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.
They also showed that the government had worked through the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gather so-called metadata - such as the time, duration and telephone numbers called - on all calls carried by service providers such as Verizon.
President Barack Obama and his intelligence chiefs have vigorously defended the programs, saying they are regulated by law and that Congress was notified. They say the programs have been used to thwart militant plots and do not target Americans' personal lives, they say.
U.S. federal prosecutors, by filing a criminal complaint, lay claim to a legal basis to make an extradition request of the authorities in Hong Kong, the Post reported. The prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment and can then take steps to secure Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong for a criminal trial in the United States, the newspaper reported.
The United States and Hong Kong have "excellent cooperation" and as a result of agreements, "there is an active extradition relationship between Hong Kong and the United States," a U.S. law enforcement official told Reuters.
An Icelandic businessman linked to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Thursday he had readied a private plane in China to fly Snowden to Iceland if Iceland's government would grant asylum.
Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden.
It's easy enough to describe the Galaxy S4 Zoom, since it's essentially a Galaxy S4 Mini with a 10x zoom lens stuck on the back. But that sort of summary doesn't do it justice. When you hold the phone-slash-camera and when you look at the optically stabilized image captured by its 16-megapixel, point-and-shoot grade sensor, you begin to realize that -- at least for those who do a lot of snapping and sending -- this combo of components holds some serious power.
Just like the first Galaxy Camera, it's all about fun and immediacy: the ability to edit, organize and share decent-quality images using Android apps and cellular data connectivity. The key advantages are that the GS4 Zoom can work as a regular phone for voice calls, and that it's just about portable enough to be used that way, whereas the Galaxy Camera was a lot bulkier. With these gains, the smaller zoom (10x instead of 21x) and lower-res screen (qHD instead of 720p) don't overly phase us, so long as the final selling price takes it all into account. Ultimately, our only hesitation is the impending arrival of the so-called Nokia EOS, likely due on July 11th, which takes a totally upside-down approach to smartphone photography and is likely to be much more pocketable as a result. Those are two devices we can't wait to put head to head, especially in terms of image quality, but our hands-on gallery (and impending video) might help to tide you over in the meantime.
How to Make Chocolate Ganache: A Craftsy Food & Cooking Tutorial
What is chocolate ganache?
Chocolate Ganache (ga-nosh) sounds so darn fancy, doesn?t it? It actually is quite fancy as it puddles over cold ice cream, turns regular ol? milk into an incredibly rich hot chocolate, glazes or frosts towering cakes, sandwiches itself between cookies and floods into thinly lined chocolate shells to make handcrafted chocolate truffles. Ganache is just fooling you with it?s fancy name, incredibly indulgent taste and versatility because although it may sound complicated ganache is made with only two ingredients; chocolate and cream.
How to make chocolate ganache
Before we begin let?s quickly talk chocolate. Because this recipe only uses two ingredients the deliciousness (we?re going to call that a word for now, however terrible it may be) of your ganache is dependent upon the quality of your ingredients. Buy good chocolate here is what I?m saying. The kind that requires a serrated knife to chop it (or buy the best quality feves or chips). The kind that wakes you up in the middle of the night to tip-toe to the cupboard to have one more taste. It?s rich, full of complex flavors, can be a bit pricy but will be totally worth it. Your future hot chocolate drinking self with thank you.
What you plan to do with your ganache in the end will determine how much chocolate and cream you will use. Some people suggest two parts chocolate to one part cream but I tend to use equal parts, by weight (very important) chopped bittersweet chocolate and heavy cream. Bring a pot of cream to a gentle boil over medium heat. Watch the pan closely as cream bubbles up quite viciously and does a number on your stove if it spills over the edge of the pot. Put the finely chopped chocolate in a large bowl and pour the hot cream over the chocolate. This is where I throw in a pinch of salt to boost the chocolate flavor. You can also add a bit of coffee, liqueur, or spice to the mix.
Let the cream sit on the chocolate for a minute or two before whisking to combine. Whisk until smooth and glossy. If the ganache isn?t coming together there are a few things you can do. Add a splash of cream or mix with a stick blender or throw the whole batch into the food processor and blend until completely smooth.
Now, what do I do with it?
Now that you have a bowl of ganache a plethora of rich and deeply satisfying sweets are nearly yours.
Mix a couple of tablespoons of ganache with hot milk and top with whipped cream for the best mug of hot chocolate. Add a bit of cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne for a spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate. Or use it to make a crazy good mocha by add a shot of espresso (or two) to the mug.
Combine some of the ganache with a bit of corn syrup or brown rice syrup for an intense hot fudge sauce that will turn a boring scoop of vanilla into a dessert worthy of a crowd.
Pour the liquid ganache over a cake for a sleek glaze or whip the ganache for a mousse-like frosting or cake filling. You could also let the ganache firm up until it is the consistency of frosting and pipe or spread onto a cake.
Refrigerate the ganache until firm then scoop a teaspoon size ball and roll between your hands to form a rough ball. Roll in cocoa powder to create decadent truffles. You can also rolls these in chopped nuts or melted chocolate.
Sandwich the ganache between your favorite sugar cookie.
Eat it with a spoon or on graham crackers.
You can easily flavor your ganache by adding in some spices as I mentioned earlier or you can steep vanilla bean, fresh herbs, or spices into the cream to impart a delicate flavor in your ganache. I love steeping fresh mint and vanilla bean in the cream to make a floral mint hot chocolate around the holidays, or who am I kidding ? I?d drink that now.
Ganache isn?t just for dark chocolate lovers ? you can also make a creamy ganache using milk chocolate or white chocolate.
Need more chocolate? Try your hand at these stunning cakes in the online Craftsy class Decadent Chocolate Cakes taught by Alice Medrich. Or if you?re craving more sweets, learn how to make caramel.
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Say hello to the Sony 13.3" Vaio SVT13112FXS Laptop PC without compromises. Designed from the ground up to deliver intense performance and extreme mobility, it's the ultimate travel companion. The beautifully full-flat, brushed aluminum shell conceals the latest storage technologies for ultra-fast boot-ups and long battery life.
Sony 13.3" Vaio SVT13112FXS Laptop PC: ? Key Features and Benefits:
4GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory (expandable to 8GB).? Gives you the power to handle most power hungry applications and tons of multimedia work.
500GB hard drive and 32GB solid state drive.? Store 354,000 photos, 152,000 songs or 279 hours of HD video and more.
10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN.? Connect to a broadband modem with wired Ethernet or wirelessly connect to a Wi-Fi signal or hotspot with the 802.11b/g/n connection built into your PC.
13.3" HD LED-backlit display.? Intel HD Graphics 4000.
Additional Features:
Bluetooth 4.0 HS
1.3MP HD webcam with built-in microphone
2-in-1 memory card reader
1 x USB 3.0 port, 1 x USB 2.0 port, 1 x headphone jack, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 1 x VGA port, 1 x HDMI port
4050 mAh lithium-ion battery, up to 7 h 30 min battery life
Software:
Genuine Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition (To learn more about the features of Windows 7, click here)
Microsoft Office Starter 2010: Includes reduced functionality versions of Microsoft Word and Excel, with advertising. PowerPoint and Outlook are NOT included. Purchase Office 2010 today and get the most out of your new PC. (To learn more about the features of Office 2010, click here)
Kapersky Internet Security (30-day trial offer)
Backup and Restore options built into Windows allow you to create safety copies of your most important personal files, so you're always prepared for the worst
Support and Warranty:
1-year limited warranty
Restore discs are not included (unless specified by supplier). We recommend you use the installed software to create your own restore and backup DVD the first week you use the computer.
What's In The Box:
Power cord
Lithium-ion battery
Quick Start Guide
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1 x USB 2.0,1 x HDMI,1 x DC-in,1 x Headphone,1 x VGA,1 x USB 3.0,1 x RJ-45 Ethernet
Operating System:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Accessories Included:
Power Cord,Lithium-ion battery,Quick Start Guide
Bus Speed:
1333 MHz
Model No.:
SVT13112FXS
Shipping Weight (in pounds):
5.45
Product in Inches (L x W x H):
17.52?x?3.11?x?11.61
Walmart No.:
550582072
Rated 4.2 out of 5 by 5reviewers.
Rated 5 out of 5 by andriska good for the price I wanted to buy a macbook air, but when I saw the sony, and the price tag, I couldn't resist to try it. It is 400 dollars cheaper, but lacks of backlit keyboard, uni body frame, and although the design is pretty cool and solid, it is not comparable to a macbook. If sony could loose these leds, and some of the ports (who needs a vga outlet on an ultrabook anymore?) it could be a more serious alternative to the macbook air. On the other hand you got a 500 gb hdd with a small ssd to make it faster, I think this is a better compromise than a 128 gb ssd and an external drive.Also I'm happy with it and will keep it for a long time probably. 07/21/2012
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