20 things you didn't know about nothing

1-There is vastly more nothing than something. Roughly 74 percent of the universe is “nothing,” or what physicists call dark energy; 22 percent is dark matter, particles we cannot see. Only 4 percent is baryonic matter, the stuff we call something.

2-And even something is mostly nothing. Atoms overwhelmingly consist of empty space. Matter’s solidity is an illusion caused by the electric fields created by subatomic particles.

3-There is more and more nothing every second. In 1998 astronomers measuring the expansion of the universe determined that dark energy is pushing apart the universe at an ever-accelerating speed. The discovery of nothing—and its ability to influence the fate of the cosmos—is considered the most important astronomical finding of the past decade.

4-But even nothing has a weight. The energy in dark matter is equivalent to a tiny mass; there is about one pound of dark energy in a cube of empty space 250,000 miles on each side.

5-In space, no one can hear you scream: Sound, a mechanical wave, cannot travel through a vacuum. Without matter to vibrate through, there is only silence.

6-So what if Kramer falls in a forest? Luckily, electromagnetic waves, including light and radio waves, need no medium to travel through, letting TV stations broadcast endless reruns of Seinfeld, the show about nothing.

7-Light can travel through a vacuum, but there is nothing to refract it. Alas for extraterrestrial romantics, stars do not twinkle in outer space.

8-Black holes are not holes or voids; they are the exact opposite of nothing, being the densest concentration of mass known in the universe.

9-“Zero” was first seen in cuneiform tablets written around 300 B.C. by Babylonians who used it as a placeholder (to distinguish 36 from 306 or 360, for example). The concept of zero in its mathematical sense was developed in India in the fifth century.

10-Any number divided by zero is … nothing, not even zero. The equation is mathematically impossible.
11 It is said that Abdülhamid II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s, had censors expunge references to H2O from chemistry books because he was sure it stood for “Hamid the Second is nothing.”

12-Medieval art was mostly flat and two-dimensional until the 15th century, when the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi conceived of the vanishing point, the place where parallel lines converge into nothingness. This allowed for the development of perspective in art.

13-Aristotle once wrote, “Nature abhors a vacuum,” and so did he. His complete rejection of vacuums and voids and his subsequent influence on centuries of learning prevented the adoption of the concept of zero in the Western world until around the 13th century, when Italian bankers found it to be extraordinarily useful in financial transactions.

14-Vacuums do not suck things. They create spaces into which the surrounding atmosphere pushes matter.

15-Creatio ex nihilo, the belief that the world was created out of nothing, is one of the most common themes in ancient myths and religions.

16-Current theories suggest that the universe was created out of a state of vacuum energy, that is, nothing.

17-But to a physicist there is no such thing as nothing. Empty space is instead filled with pairs of particles and antiparticles, called virtual particles, that quickly form and then, in accordance with the law of energy conservation, annihilate each other in about 10-25 second.

18-So Aristotle was right all along.

19-These virtual particles popping in and out of existence create energy. In fact, according to quantum mechanics, the energy contained in all the power plants and nuclear weapons in the world doesn’t equal the theoretical energy contained in the empty spaces between these words.
20-In other words, nothing could be the key to the theory of everything.

Creating Balance In Your Life

1. Know what matters to you most
It is important to know what your priorities are. Not what you think they are, not what you think they should be, not what you think others would like them to be for you.
What matters to you is what is most important.

2. Identify what you can do without
Go through your day, your home, your relationships, your job and your life. What’s sapping your energy? What are you doing that doesn’t need to be done?
Identifying what you can do without is a major step toward freeing yourself up to focus on the things that do matter.

3. Eliminate the tolerations in your life
Tolerations are those things that we put up with, that we accept and take on, and that drag us down. This includes other people’s behavior, difficult situations, unmet needs, crossed boundaries, unresolved issues, frustrations, problems, and even your own behavior. These are energy zappers-the things that wear you out.
Cross off items when you have worked them out of your life, it will do wonders for your commitment to finding balance.

4. Define your clutter
To gain balance, you have to define and eliminate the clutter in your life. This may be physical stuff, emotional baggage, mental images, etc. Clutter takes up space in your mind, heart, home and life. Begin to make space for what you want by getting rid of what you don’t.

5. Be Where You Are
Every day, our minds race ahead to think of the things we need to do or haven’t done right. There’s so much to see when we focus on being present. There are people to be with and share joy with. So much is missed when our minds leave our bodies and go somewhere else. Look down at your feet and ground yourself in the moment.

6. Please Yourself
We’re taught at an early age to do our best to please others. Many of us walk around trying to please everyone else. If we try to make everyone else happy, we set ourselves up for failure. Find the things that please you and make you happy.
It’s time to shift the focus from pleasing others to pleasing ourselves.

7. Go for the Joy
When we smile, we actually tell our brains that we’re happy and our whole body and being responds accordingly. As the old saying goes “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”.
If you put your focus on something that brings you joy, you’re liable to have and feel more joy in your life.

8. Ask for what you want
You need to be very clear about what you want. You need to know it, live it, breathe it, expect it, and ask for it. Ask for what you want from the universe. It doesn’t matter how it comes your way, just that it does. When you ask for something and it is delivered, you start to believe that life can and does work out.

9. You can have it all
You CANNOT do it all. Having it all comes after you live your life based upon that notion. When you make a commitment to yourself to not do the things that aren’t in your best interest or aren’t worth your time and effort-you give yourself room to enjoy where you are and what you have.
And you realize that you already have all you need.

10. The Rest is up to YOU!
It is up to you when to take the plunge and begin applying these steps to your life. You’ll realize you had more balance than you thought you did. You’ll begin to define balance in a way that encompasses the realities and constraints of your life as it is now

Quote of the day

“You have to activate the mind because most people are asleep. When they look at something they don’t see it. But when ambiguity is present, they try to figure it out. So the use of ambiguity is about moving the brain to action, making something happen, because our species is a problem-solving species.”
~ Milton Glaser

Clutch chair made from 10,000 drinking straws

his photo was taken by photographer Jack Bradley and depicts the exact moment this boy, Harold Whittles, hears for the very first time ever. The doctor treating him has just placed an earpiece in his left ear. Date unknown.

Street Art of the Day: A nifty homage to The Wizard of Oz, spotted on the streets of Verona, Italy.

Red Velvet Nutella Cake-in-a-Jar

* 1 box chocolate cake mix, prepared according to package directions
* 1 teaspoon red food coloring
* 1/2 cup Nutella
* 1 jar cream cheese frosting
* 3 pint-sized canning jars

Thoroughly wash and dry the inside of each canning jar. Spray the inside of each jar thoroughly with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Stir the red food coloring into the prepared cake batter. Spoon about 1 cup of cake batter into each jar. Cook one jar at a time in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until the cake is cooked through. Allow jars to cool slightly, then scoop the top half of cake from the jar. Spoon a tablespoon or so of Nutella into the center of the jar, top with a dollop of cream cheese frosting, then replace the top half of the cake back in the jar, add another layer of Nutella, then enough frosting to fill the rest of the jar.

Serve immediately or cover with a lid and store in the fridge or pop into the mail & surprise someone you love! Cakes should stay fresh in the fridge for up to 5 days, and can be mailed so long as they are topped with a canning jar lid and arrive at their final destination within 3 days.

Nutella Breakfast Muffins

Nutella Breakfast Muffins

* 1 egg
* 1/3 cup oil
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 3/4 cup flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Nut & Butter flavoring (optional)
* 1/2 cup buttermilk
* 1/2 cup Nutella
* 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt with 1 tablespoon sparkling sugar

BabbleNutellaMuffin3 150x150 Nutella Breakfast MuffinsPreheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together the egg, oil, sugar, flour, baking powder, soda, and vanilla flavorings until smooth. Beat in the buttermilk, then spoon a small amount of the batter into the bottom of a muffin tin lined with a cupcake wrapper. Spoon a tablespoon or so of Nutella into the center of the cup, then cover with a second spoonful of batter. Sprinkle a small amount of the salt & sparkling sugar mixture on top of each muffin.

Bake in preheated oven for 17-19 minutes, or just until the center of the muffins spring back when touched lightly with your finger. Remove and cool. Drizzle warm Nutella on top of each muffin, if desired, before serving. Enjoy!

Non-news:
Lilly Collins, daughter of Phil Collins, bears a striking resemblance to Audrey Hepburn.

Rainbow Cake in Jar

Rainbow Cake in Jar

* 1 box white cake mix made according to package instructions
* Neon food coloring in pink, yellow, green, turquoise, and purple
* 3 one-pint canning jars
* 1 can vanilla frosting
* Rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly wash and dry the inside of each canning jar. Spray the inside of each jar thoroughly with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Scoop about 1/2 cups of cake batter into five small bowls. It doesn’t have to be perfect, don’t panic if you get a little more of less of one color than another. Tint each bowl of cake batter with the food coloring until very vibrant.

Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the purple batter into the bottom of each jar. Spoon equal amounts of turquoise batter, then green, yellow, and pink. Place the jars in a shallow baking dish, add about 1/4″ in water in the baking dish. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Remove jars and allow to cool completely before scooping a small portion from the top of your cake and adding a hefty dollop of vanilla buttercream to the top. Sprinkle & serve, or cover with a lid and store in the fridge or pop into the mail & surprise someone you love!

POST EDIT: Several commenters have indicated that the cake is not cooking all the way through in the 30-35 minutes indicated in the recipe. This was enough time for our cake, but I’m cooking at high altitudes, and my oven tends to bake hot. So, I’d recommend baking the cake for 40 minutes, then return it to the oven if it still doesn’t spring back to the touch when you check to see if it’s finished. As for the cake puffing up and out of it’s bottle, ours did that a bit, as well. Easy fix. We just scooped a bit of the cake out to make room for the frosting and wiped the outside of our jars clean. Several people have indicated that the wide-mouthed mason jars work a little better for this purpose. I’ve not yet baked with wide-mouthed. What you see above is what was baked in my kitchen according to the recipe instructions, and what came out of the oven when it was all. Of course, if you’re feeling wildly impatient, you can also zap the cake in the microwave for 2 minutes. It’s going to bubble up, for sure, but you can scoop the top part of that cake out, frost it, and no one will ever be the wiser. Good luck, everyone! This is such a fun cake. My kids went nuts over it, and I hope it works as beautifully for you as it did for us!

Lago di Olginate, Italy

A layer of low clouds covers the alpine valleys of northern Italy, just south of Lake Como. The clouds are just dense enough to hide uniformly the valley and also filter the artificial lights below like they were an opaque blanket. Above the layer, moonlight and high cirrus clouds make the night less dark. You can recognize the round shape of Lago di Olginate and the lights of the villages all around its banks.

Don’t let society form a sculpture for you, form it yourself. Form your own personal rules, boundaries, opinions, personality. You know what they say - Freedom of Expression.

Jin Juhua kisses her husband Zhong Weiqiao at a gathering of 60 couples who have been married to each other for over five decades, in Kaihua village of Zhuji city, Zhejiang province, China, on Feb. 14. Jin and Zhong have been married for more than 60 years.

Nutella Mug Cake

Ingredients

4 tablespoons self rising flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 tablespoons Nutella
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
Method

Combine all ingredients in a large coffee mug.
Whisk well with a fork until smooth.
Microwave on high for 1 1/2 – 3 minutes. (Time depends on microwave wattage. Mine took 1 /2 minutes.)
Top with whipped cream and a little chocolate sauce if desired.

Fun With Facebook of the Day:

French artist Alexandre Oudin has some Magritte-inspired fun with the new Facebook profile page.

Techcrunch provides a how-to:

For anyone who wants to copy his style, all you have to do is block the other photos you’re tagged in and upload photos to your profile pictures album that are the exact size (yes, down to the pixel) of the display on Facebook and voilà!

The libyan revolution

If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary. - Malcolm X

The Libyan people are going strong against the government!
Almost 100 people have died for freedom in the past 3 days! These people died to see a change! They died to give the rest of us hope! And even though they are no longer a part of this world…we need to keep them in our hearts. The Libyan people need to keep fighting for their freedom! Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.

Please reblog and tweet about Libya to raise awareness. Please, I am begging you! Help my people! One tweet and one blog post will not affect your life, but it will affect theirs! The people need help: the media can’t get in, the phones are all monitored, the hospitals are overcrowded and are in desperate need of blood, people are hurt and dying, the army is ruthless, and Gaddafi is still there…but the people are not giving up hope! That means, neither can we! Hope for all!

Left brain: I am the left brain. I am a scientist. A mathematician. I love the familiar. I categorize. I am accurate. Linear. Analytical. Strategic. I am practical. Always in control. A master of words and language. Realistic. I calculate equations and play with numbers. I am order. I am logic. I know exactly who I am.

Right brand: I am the right brain. I am creativity. A free spirit. I am passion. Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter. I am taste. The feeling of sand beneath bare feat. I am movement. Vivid colors. I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas. I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel. I am everything I wanted to be.

Blue Holes

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation - leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.

James Rosenquist

Amazing sea phenomenon. from Quran Alfurqan verse (53) “And He it is Who hath given independence to the two seas (though they meet); one palatable, sweet, and the other saltish, bitter; and hath set a bar and a forbidding ban between them. (53)”قال تعالى في سورة الفرقان” وهو الذي مرج البحرين هذا عذب فرات وهذا ملح أجاج وجعل بينهما برزخا وحجرا محجورا “

eagle species from the Philippines.

Lounge Area, United Nations General Assembly Hall, New York, USA.

A Saudi-gifted former cover of The Holy Kaabah (The “Kiswah”) adorns the walls in a large ornate frame.

Differences, borders, lines, surfaces, and boundaries do not really divide things from each other at all; they join them together. All boundaries are held in common. When you understand this, you see that the sense of being ‘me’ is exactly the same sensation as being one with the whole cosmos. You do not need to go through some other weird, different, or odd kind of experience to feel in total connection with everything. Once you get the clue, you see that the sense of unity is inseparable from the sense of difference. The secret is that what is ‘other’ eventually turns out to be you. That is the element of surprise in life - to find the thing that is most alien is you. If you go out at night and look at the stars you will realize that they are millions and millions and billions of miles away - vast configurations out in space! You can lie back and look at that and say, “Whew! Surely I hardly matter. I am just a tiny peek-a-boo on this weird spot of dust called Earth, and all that out there was going on billions of years before I was born, and will still go on billions of years after I die.” Nothing may seem stranger to you than that - more different from you. But there comes a point when you will say, “Why, that’s me!” And when you know that, you know you never die.

I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom.

Fact: we only dream of what we know. Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts – did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces – they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember? The evil killer in your latest dream may be the guy who pumped petrol into your dad’s car when you were just a little kid. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces throughout our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.

Nutella Chocolate souffles

Ingredients

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened special dark cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 large eggs
1 egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons Nutella
How-To

Preheat the oven to 350°.
Spray four 7 ounce ramekins with canola oil.
Get a roasting pan out and ready. Also, get some water boiling in a kettle (or pot).
In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa and baking powder together.
In a small microwave-safe bowl, cook the chocolate and butter for 1-2 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds to stir. Whisk until smooth.
Finally, in a bowl with an electric mixer handy, beat the eggs, vanilla, sugar and salt until pale yellow (about 5 minutes).
Beat in melted chocolate mixture.
Stir in the flour mixture.
Spoon enough batter to fill the ramekins half-way.
Drop a tablespoon of Nutella into the center of each.
Cover with the remaining batter.
Transfer the ramekins to the roasting pan and bake until the cakes have risen and are cracked on top (about 30 minutes).
Let cool for 5 minutes.
-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-

Then, I modified it to see about making it a little less bad.

However, the version below was more of a mini-cake and didn’t have that ooey-gooey inside. Boo. But, it was still so good.

If I were to make them again, I would make the first version and just splurge on the health factor. Delicious!

Nutella Chocolate Soufflés: Healthier Version

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup unsweetened special dark cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup cane sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons Nutella
How-To

Follow the same instructions as the above recipe.

How soon is too soon?

Not soon enough.

Legendary Hollywood photographer Leo Fuchs just released a new book entitled ‘Special Photgrapher.’ The gang’s all there…

You live your life in Spanish and you’ve suffered and enjoyed and had pleasures and pains in Spanish. Words have an emotional resonance in you, huge emotional echoes, when you’re speaking in your own language. You don’t think about what you’re saying; the words come out of a need to express yourself. When you’re speaking in a foreign language, there’s like an office in your brain, where people are throwing the words at you. “Give me that word — I need a verb! I need an adjective!” There’s a lot of people working in there, and you have to live with that.

Javier Bardem

Black Swan by Courtney Thomas

Swearing is a really important part of one’s life. It would be impossible to imagine going through life without swearing, and without enjoying swearing. There used to be mad, silly, prissy people who used to say swearing was a sign of a poor vocabulary. It is such utter nonsense. The people I know who swear the most tend to have the widest vocabularies, and the kind of person who says swearing is a sign of a poor vocabulary usually have a poor vocabulary themselves. The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just a fucking lunatic. I haven’t met anybody who’s truly shocked at swearing… really. They’re only shocked on behalf of other people. Well, you know, that’s preposterous. Or they say, “It’s not necessary,” as if that should stop one doing it. It’s not necessary to have coloured socks, it’s not necessary for this cushion to be here, but is anyone going to write in and say, “I was shocked to see that cushion there, it really wasn’t necessary”? No. Things not being necessary is what makes life interesting. The little extras in life.

MegaMind mega-thumbs up

This film will not just be enjoyed by kids, but by adults as well because of the story line. The scenes are witty and funny. The animation is cool. I love the way the hair and water move in the movie. It was enjoyable but not very memorable compared to it’s contemporaries.

The plot is really creative like I mentioned it is about a super villain so you get the other side of the story and learn about how not all villains are bad people. Some people just are natural at succeeding at bad things. The movie develops really well and tells a fun and enjoyable story. I don’t want to give anything away about the plot but I’ll leave it at this.

The movie has great graphics with a good plot and it’s just fun to watch, so definitely check this out, it’s funny, it’s got new creative super powered beings, and those are always fun. duh. Not as good as Despicable me but in my opinion, better than Toy Story 3

Opposition supporter waves flags after a senior army general addressed the crowd inside Tahrir Square in Cairo February 10, 2011.

after the long 18 days of protests, the egyptian people have finally taken back their country and forced the president (Mubarak) to resign. a beautiful story to wake up to today, proving that as long as we stand united, anything is possible.

Egypt will rise - poster

“ I died for beauty but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
when one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth, the two are one;
we brethren are,” he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
I Died For Beauty

april-1993:

On bended knee is no way to be free


Lifting up an empty cup, I ask silently
All my destinations will accept the one that’s me
So I can breathe…

Circles they grow and they swallow people whole
Half their lives they say goodnight to wives they’ll never know
A mind full of questions, and a teacher in my soul
And so it goes…

Don’t come closer or I’ll have to go
Holding me like gravity are places that pull
If ever there was someone to keep me at home
It would be you…

Everyone I come across, in cages they bought
They think of me and my wandering, but I’m never what they thought
I’ve got my indignation, but I’m pure in all my thoughts
I’m alive…

Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting
I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me

Guaranteed- Eddie Vedder

Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there’s a tomorrow. Maybe for you there’s one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through you fingers. So much time you can waste it. But for some of us there’s only today. And the truth is, you never really know.

Cairo’s Graffiti

"Small Girl on Army Track, She was chanting: Freedom, Freedom"

Photo credit: Ramy Raoof

Photo credit: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

praying beside the tanks

The Million

Protesters are out en masse again today, in the seventh day of protests. It would appear there are even more in the streets than before. A “march of millions” is being planned for Tuesday in the hopes of finally ousting Mubarak.

Soft Pretzel Bites

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt

Directions
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Rainbow Cake

Things You'll Need:

1 box of white cake mix
1 - 12 oz can of Sprite
Gel food coloring
1 - 8 oz tub of whipped topping
1 package of instant vanilla pudding

Instructions

1-Pour one can of Sprite into one box of white cake mix. You do not add eggs, oil or water to the mix as the package will indicate. It will be lumpy.

2-Separate the batter evenly into 6 bowls. Stir in color to each bowl using an separate spoons for each color.

3-Start putting in the colored batter one at a time in the middle of the pan using a measuring spoon. One thing people love to do is one pan with the beginning of the rainbow (yellow, orange and red) and the second pan with the the end of the rainbow (purple, blue and green). This will help it so that each pan will have roughly the same amount of batter in them.

4-Cook the cakes as directed on the box.

5-Use this time to mix up your frosting for your cake. Mix together one 8 oz tub of whipped topping with one box of pudding mix. You can also color your frosting with the dye previously used.

*Cool your frosting until needed.*

6-After the cake has cooled - frost, serve and enjoy!

Spinach-Mushroom Pasta Sauce

This sauce is creamy, thick, earthy, fresh, sweet, and bitter all at the same time. It’s one you’ll definitely want to make! It seems like a lot of ingredients, but we just made this with leftovers from things we always buy anyway.

Put the pasta on to cook while making this sauce. Mix all of these in a large food processor:

two handfuls of baby portabello mushrooms
one handful of spinach leaves
three or four dandelion green leaves
a thin slice of red onion
two spoonfuls of vegan butter
two dollops of vegan sour cream
two teaspoons of minced garlic
a sprinkle of dark brown sugar
When combined as much as humanly possible (we used our largest food processor), put in a sautee pan and pour in 1/2 a teaspoon of molasses and two tablespoons of olive oil. Mix together, then add in oregano, thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper. Serve hot over freshly cooked pasta!

Makes four servings :)

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.

DOUGLAS ADAMS (THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY)

Crispy Chocolate-Marshmallow Treats

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter or margarine

5 cups miniature or 40 large marshmallows

5 cups rice crispy cereal

How to make Krispie Marshmallow Treats

In large mixing bowl, melt butter (30 sec).
Stir in marshmallows to coat with butter.
Cook, uncovered, 30 seconds; stir well and Cook 15 seconds (30 sec for large marshmallows).
Stir until smooth.
Add cereal; mix well.

Sharks Up Close: ‘shark shepherd’ Jim Abernethy photographs the fearsome predators - Telegraph