Innovative Travel Mug

While searching for a good travel mug to accommodate my newly acquired obsession with tea, I came across the BRŨGO™ mug. I haven't actually tried this myself but was impressed by the concept and I also like the layout of the website.

Tea Brewing Tips

Generally speaking, loose-leaf tea brewed in a tea pot or cup infuser will taste the best. Here are some guidelines to get you started.

Step 1 - Use one heaping teaspoon of tea per 6-8 oz. of water.
Step 2 - Start with cold filtered water and heat it to just below the boiling point. Black tea actually doesn’t mind boiling water, but green and herbal teas don’t like it so hot. The leaves actually get cooked, which makes them taste, well, kind of dull and cooked.
Step 3 - Warm your tea pot or mug with a hot water rinse so the tea doesn’t immediately cool while steeping.
Step 4 – Cover the tea with the water and let it steep (1-4 minutes for green, 3-5 minutes for black and 10-15 minutes for herbal). The long steep time on herbal blends is especially important to ensure proper infusion of all the healthy good bits. For green and black teas, the main rule is to not over-steep since they are known to turn bitter and nasty in no time.

Tips provided by sassafras
    Monthly bloating and cramps can turn even the nicest girl nasty. We understand. That’s why this blend’s for you.

Herb Glossary
· Blueberries –excellent source of vitamin C; delicious!
· Chamomile –anti-inflammatory; aids digestion; relieves stress, anxiety, insomnia and headache
· Dandelion leaf –good source of iron and vitamins A & C; reduces water retention without depleting potassium; aids digestion
· Echinacea purpurea –strengthens immune system; antibacterial and antiviral
· Fennel seed –relieves intestinal gas; aids digestion
· Ginger root –antioxidant; anti-inflammatory; antibacterial; stimulates digestion and circulation; relieves nausea and headache
· Green tea –high polyphenol content with strong antioxidant properties; helps fight free radical damage caused by dietary and environmental toxins
· Hibiscus –good source of vitamin C; may lower blood pressure and cholesterol
· Lavender flower –relieves anxiety, stress, headache, and exhaustion; restorative
· Lemon balm –relieves digestive upset, intestinal gas, mild depression & headache; calming
· Lemongrass –aids digestion; promotes perspiration; relieves headache; pleasant, lemony flavor
· Licorice root –antiviral; anti-inflammatory; strengthens immune system; helps synthesize action of all other ingredients; adds natural sweetness
· Nettles –excellent source of digestible iron & calcium; reduces water retention; helps restore energy
· Orange peel –aids digestion; strengthens immune system; supplies vitamin C; adds sweet, bright flavor
· Passionflower –relieves mild anxiety and insomnia
· Peppermint –antiviral; relieves intestinal gas and cramping; oil and vapor act as nasal decongestant
· Raspberry leaf –good source of iron, calcium & potassium; tones uterine muscles to relieve cramping
· Skullcap –revitalizes central nervous system; relieves headaches and stress; offers mild pain relief

Green Tea vs. Oolong Tea Benefits

Comparing the Benefits of Tea Types
  Oolong tea is produced by allowing the tea leaves to oxidize for a short time after picking. Oxidation is the process which makes the leaves turn dark on exposure to oxygen.
  Oolong is semi-oxidized; black tea is fully oxidized; and green is un-oxidized.
  Fresh tea leaves are high in catechins. Processing the tea reduces these levels, so the more the tea is oxidized the lower the catechin levels. This means that white tea has the highest levels of catechins closely followed by green tea.
  Catechins are the media darling of green tea promoters and usually receive the most coverage when discussing the health benefits of tea. There is one point, however, which is often overlooked: As the levels of catechins decrease during oxidation, the levels of theaflavins and thearubigins increase.
  These two substances are found in higher concentrations in oolong and black tea than in green tea and have anti-allergy, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. A 2001 Chinese study indicated that the antioxidant properties of green tea and black tea are equal.
  So it appears that oxidation does not eliminate the health properties of tea, but simply reduces one type of antioxidant while increasing other health-promoting compounds.

Making a Case for Oolong Tea
  It is safe to say that all tea is good for you. Oolong in particular has been getting a lot of attention in medical literature. Consider the following
    ★ Diabetes - Oolong tea may be an effective adjunct to oral hypoglycemic agents in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
    ★ Eczema - Japanese researchers reported that patients with a form of eczema improved after drinking a liter of oolong tea daily.
    ★ Allergies - Two catechin derivatives (C-1 and C-2) with potent antiallergic activity were isolated from Taiwanese oolong tea.
    ★ Bacterial infections - Oolong tea polyphenols strongly inhibited the enzyme activities of some types of streptococci.
    ★ Cavities - Oolong tea polyphenolic compounds could be useful for controlling dental caries.
    ★ Obesity - Consumption of oolong tea stimulates both EE and fat oxidation in normal weight men.
    ★ Cancer - Oolong tea extract has a chemopreventive action against hepatocarcinogenesis.

· Wu-Long Tea ... Oolong Tea
· White Tea Benefits
· Black Tea: An Overview
· Health Benefits of Green Tea
· Pu-erh Tea
· Wu Yi Tea
· Rooibos Tea

VB Script Reference

Found this handy reference site for VB scripting today: http://www.w3schools.com/Vbscript/default.asp
There is an 'Examples' section on a lot of the pages with links that let you test out the code, this is very cool.

Using 'Run as...' w/Explorer

I finally found this information today on how to run Explorer as a user other than the one logged on. Very handy for administrators who don't like to log on with their full rights accounts. Hope someone out there finds this a useful as I do... :)

Posted Feb 27, 2008
I know this is an old thread, but in case someone else like me comes along later via search engine...

If you're running IE7 under WinXP, in order to run Windows Explorer with the runas command, it must be run as a separate process. A quick way to do this, without having to change your Folder Options settings, would be to run an instance of Explorer with the undocumented parameter /separate, like this:

runas /user:domain\username "explorer /separate"

...where domain is the domain name or local computer name of which username is a member.

Hope this helps.
Michael

Making a Glowing Neon Sign

Download YouTube Videos as MP4 Files

This article explains how to convert YouTube videos to MP4 files so they can be viewed in-world. Drag the little bookmarklet "Get You Tube video" to your links bar.

Here's a detailed video from Torley Linden