If only Japan's Kuchofuku recognize their potential, they could make a killing here in India. In a country where the temperature gets so hot, that some people save on cooking fuel by cooking their food right out in the sun - this Japanese company would have a huge, I mean HUGE demand for their products.

Kuchofuku is famous for products like their Air-conditioned Bed and clothing. And now, they've come up with an air-conditioned cushion to keep your butt cool. Seriously. I'm told its the latest rage in personal cooling.

Called the Suzukaze (which means "cool breeze"), the cushion keeps you elevated from the chair so cold air could come in directly from underneath. No more fretting uncomfortably with wet pants and wet chairs during summer. Using new materials and energy-saving fans, Suzukaze cools you in your seat without consuming much-needed power and emits almost no noise at all.

In regions with perennial summer, like most of India, discomfort during hot weather occurs with accumulating moisture on the seat, and Suzukaze helps dissipate this moisture and keep the seat fresh. Best of all, it really takes very little energy. One month of use, for eight hours a day, according to the company. will cost only five cents. You can't get cooling for any lower than that. The makers of this product hope that it will help lessen the usage of air-conditioners, thus saving energy and money.

A Super material
To promote free airflow, the Suzukaze uses a Super Spacer material that is soft and flexible, which transfers the comfy-ness of the seat you’re sitting on through the cushion to your...uhh...body. The built-in fan inside the cushion pumps over 170 liters of air per minute through the cushion, causing the dissipation of the heat and moisture around your buttocks that cause discomfort and sweating.

Three models to keep the butt cool
The company has three versions of the Suzukaze on the market.

1. The Standard version is the basic model, battery-powered with the Super Spacer material inside.

2. The High Grade version uses a more durable dual-layer Super Spacer and takes the power saving to...well...another level with just a flip of a touch sensitive switch that turns the fan on/off depending on whether you’re sitting there or not.

3. Finally, for those on the road, they have a model made purely for use in the car seat. It connects to the car’s power adapter. With gas prices fluctuating the way they are, the power savings of less A/C use will pay for this device in no time.

Specifications:
Models: Standard (S)/ High Grade (HG)


• ***High Grade model incorporates seat-sensitive on/off switch, plus dual-layer material for durability.***
• Super Spacer material
• Size: 41 x 56cm (16 x 22”)
• Belt length: 45cm (17.7”)
• Cushion weight: 272g (S) / 356g (HG)
• Battery pack weight: 44g
• Air flow: 108~198 (S) / 108~192 (HG) ltr/min
• Battery pack (AA x 4)
• Power consumption: 18 hours continuous use on “high”

Car Seat Model:

• Size: 41 x 61cm (16 x 24”)
• Belt Length: 60cm (24”)
• Weight: 310g
• Includes car power adapter
• Standard version material
• Air flow: 174 ltr/min

Most important of all, the Suzukaze butt cooler is Eco-Friendly. Even if you use it every day for 8 hours (on rechargeable Eneloop batteries), your monthly electricity use will be a mere 5 cents! Can you imagine that! You can save money on fuel as well by utilizing the Car Seat model instead of cranking up the A/C. Using the High Grade model for it’s seat-sensitive on/of switch saves even more power.

The unit can be powered via an AC adapter, car adapter or rechargeable batteries, and the built-in fan moves over 170 liters of air per minute in order to "dissipate heat and moisture around the buttocks that causes discomfort and sweating." Well, when you put it like that, $91 seems like a real bargain. If you still have doubts, watch the clip.



When you see the big picture, it is more economical and energy-friendly to always deal with climate matters on a personal level anyway. You know this is only the beginning, but don't you think you would prefer to control your own comfort level with your clothing or furniture, economically, rather than have one centralized source or everyone in the room, that gobbles up a humongous amount of power ?

Product Page :
You can buy the Suzukaze Air Conditioned seat cushion from the Japan Trend Shop.

-end of story-

You've got to hand it to the French. Not only do they have one of the most salivating cuisines, they have a way of making the most down to earth delicacies sound like the most wonderful things on earth. Its almost as if they are doing you a favor by letting you enjoy the food of the french. I daresay, the entire french cuisine owes a great part of its almost mythic status to the way the dishes are named.

When you say Chocolate Mousse, you get images of a delicious, chocolaty-creamy dessert. But when you say 'Mousse au Chocolat', you experience a classic french dessert that has all the alluring sensuality of the food associated with romance the world over, chocolate whipped up to make a delicacy with a texture 'lighter than air' and the smoothness of cashmere.

"Mousse" is the French word for "foam", while "Chocolat" is of course French for "chocolate". Consequently, "Mousse au chocolat" translates as "foamy chocolate", and is one of a number of foamy desserts (many of which are fruit based).

It never ceases to amaze me that the simplest things are usually the best. Chocolate Mousse is an extremely simple mixture of whipped cream, whipped egg yolks, and melted chocolate, yet it's a classic french dessert loved all over the world. The classic chocolate mousse does not have any cream. The traditional french version actually involves a bit of work, but there are a lot of recipes out there that turn out a light and creamy dessert with very little effort like this one. You can even find egg-free versions, though I don't particularly care for them.

In a traditional recipe for 'Mousse au Chocolat', you make a 'pate a bombe', which is created when you add a cooked sugar syrup to egg yolks while they're mixing, and a basic merengue, and adding the lot of them to melted chocolate. You can save a lot of that work making a good chocolate mousse with the recipe provided. You'll never even notice the time you've spent in your kitchen!

As for me, I like my flavors to be particularly intense. The recipe after the turn does exactly that - create a classic 'Mousse au Chocolat' that is intensely heavenly.

Recipe : Intense Mousse au Chocolat
Preparation Time: 20 Minutes
Cooking Time: 5 Minutes
Servings : 6

You need:
Dark Chocolate(70% chocolate) - 7 ounces (200 g)
Butter - 2 ounces (60 g)
Eggs - 2
Icing Sugar - 1.4 ounces (40 g)

You do this:
1. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and then melt it into gooeyness, using just enough heat to gently melt the chocolate. Keep stirring the chocolate with a wooden spoon as it is melting.
2. Slowly mix in the butter, stirring it in with the wooden spoon as it melts. Then dump the egg yolks of the 2 eggs, again stirring them in.
3. Separately, whip up the egg whites into a froth. Then gradually put in the icing sugar to the whipped egg whites, stirring the sugar in as you add it.
4. Slowly add the egg whites and sugar mixture to the chocolate and butter mixture, gently folding the egg white into the chocolate, using the wooden spoon.
5. Once the sugared egg white mixture has been mixed in fully, spoon the mixture into attractive glasses. Place the glasses in a refrigerator for at least an hour before serving, to allow the chocolate to cool.

You can serve the mousse as it is, but the real magic of the taste can be felt only when it is cooled.


Notes:
This recipe is for serious chocolate lovers. The taste is a very intense, dark chocolate variant which is enjoyed by some but will be found too strong by others. My tastes veer towards the more intense flavors.

For tips on avoiding common problems with Mousse au Chocolat, you can read the Guidelines to Making Chocolate Mousse.

Chocolate mousse or Mousse au Chocolat would make an easy and delicious dessert any day, night...whatever. Whenever possible, try scooping up the chocolate mousse with fresh pieces of fruits like apple, banana etc. Believe it or not, it tastes even better.

We've all had those moments - you know, where you try to plug in two electronic appliances next to each other, but they all use weird shaped plugs designed by idiot designers to make your life all the more difficult than it already is? Don't tell me you don't damn the manufacturers to hell for eternity when you get home after picking up a new electronic toy and you go to plug it in only to find out that the giant power adapter/plug that comes with it takes up more than its share of outlet space? Most electrical and electronic products come with giant plugs these days.

There is a perfectly fine extra outlet for your other equipments, but you can't use it since the damn giant plug is smack in the way. To top it off, there is a good chance that the wall outlet is the only one in the room that you can use.

A 360 Solution
It seems that 360electrical has been in this very situation and designed an outlet to take care of it. With 18 distinct positions, all you have to do is plug in your bulky plug and turn until it clicks into a position that provides enough space for the other socket.


360 outlets are actually very easy to install even if you’re a novice do-it-yourself-er. But double check you know what you're doing, you don't want to electrocute yourself, do you? Make sure you turn the power off at your breaker box or fuse box before attempting any installation. Check out 360electrical's installation instructions for a detailed step-by-step tutorial. We like the idea, it sure does promise to take care of the oversized plug situation.

Be sure to read the FAQ on the 360electrical website though.

The extremely functional, and wonderfully clever, outlet is available for a mere $10. It even comes in 3 colors; beige, white, and black!

360electrical currently has only the duplex outlet in production, but they are soon coming out with plug-in adapters and power strips.

You can buy 360 Electrical outlets online, at hardware stores that sell electrical products, and if you're a contractor or a builder, you can find 360 Electrical outlets through one of these great electrical distributors online or at a distributor near you.

-end of story-

You've really got to give a standing ovation. A long, loud, ovation standing on your two legs.

There has been a lot of talk going on about the great outpouring of gadgets for the demanding foodie-cook. I agree, hundreds of new products are launched every day, but I also stop to think, "Yeah! They are fancy, but are they really useful?". Among all this hype and hoopla, comes a kitchen product that takes your breath away by its sheer innovation.

The Single Person Cooker(SPC) by Alex Bradley shows us that its not all about Hi-tech electronics and fancy gadgets, but true lateral design. The SPC is one of 31 finalists in the Concept Products competition organised by the Daily Mail Ideal Home Show.

The Single Person Cooker is an ultra portable kitchen - a truly innovative design allows you to cook on the go or in a tight space. It really is neat form-follows-function design, somehow squeezing loads of useful, essential cooking items into one very small, yet stylish box. The lid doubles up as a Cutting board, and the unit makes space for pretty much everything you need to cook - Utensils, Heating Range(HOB), Bowls etc. Its all surprisingly low tech, the only thing that is high tech in this wonderful space saving, modular design is a WiFi connected screen to pull in recipes from the Internet. If there ever was a functional product that deserves its moniker "Kitchen-in-a-box", this is it.

The Single Person Cooker is a product, I as well as Mr.Bradley hope, that would be a great help for people living alone, in situations of space constraints, and especially for the ones who are always on the go. The concept prototype is great as it is, but future versions would most definitely include more items and more designs. Maybe now people would think about cooking for themselves and eating healthy, instead on solely relying on take out food. I tell you, wherever you order your take out, they always are unfailingly too salty and too greasy.

Whenever the product comes to our stores, I will buy one for myself instantly, cos' this is another great reason to remind my dear mother that I am gonna remain single for a long long time.

- end of post -

I know it is the age of the remote, but anyone will agree that it has reached ridiculous levels. Hah! I have to keep a separate side table for all my remotes. In this day and age, every electronic device and almost every appliance comes shipped with a small box (remote) that fits in your hand. Its almost as if there is a secret war going on vying for the real estate that is your palm. On an average, every household has a bare minimum of 4 remotes. Most times I find myself using the wrong remote for the wrong device. Even fans come with remotes ,sheesh!

The Universal remote was touted to be the solution for this quaint problem of plenty, but we all know how that turned out to be in practice. The Universal Remotes that are sold in most stores are next to useless, it is cheap, but what is cost when one cannot use the remote effectively. Yes, there are some sophisticated Universal Remotes that addresses this problem of plenty quite effectively, and some can even be programmed to accept and control new devices as and when you buy them, they can be programmed for every device that would possibly need a remote. But they are bulky, complex to use, and they are not exactly cheap either. That puts them out of us commoners' hands.

Till the day comes when the prices of these 'Universal Remotes' come down to acceptable levels, all we can do is keep juggling the remotes in our hand to find the right one to switch on that damn TV.

-end of post-

This is an article by Home Theater Enthusiast Steve Jenkins.

When I first starting enjoying the home theater experience, I noticed that my family and I frequented public movie theaters less and less. Now, we almost never go to public theaters - and when we do, I really miss being at home.

So I thought it would be fun to create a list of Reasons Why I No Longer Go To Public Movie Theaters to help those of you who are interested in building your own home theater (usually guys) convince anyone standing in your way why a home theater is a good thing.

So here it is, here are the reasons I no longer go to public movie theaters:

1. You show up 45 minutes early to find the perfect seat in the center of the theater, and someone taller than you shows up 5 minutes before the opening credits and sits right in front of you. If you're really unlucky, he's wearing a huge hat or he/she has a hairdo that blocks half of your line of sight to the screen.

2. The guy who shows up late looking for a seat in the dark and then asks you to move over one seat so he and his girlfriend can sit in your row - knocking you one seat away from the surround sound sweet spot.

3. The noisy girl right behind you who keeps asking her boyfriend "What's gonna happen next?". Sometimes, noisy girl keeps talking about things as important as 'What her friend said about her seating arrangements when SHE came with HER boyfriend'.

4. The noisy guy right behind you who keeps announcing what's going to happen next - even if he's not asked by his noisy girlfriend. Or the noisy guy who finds the movie theater, of all places to be romantic. Or maybe he is just in the mood for some groping.

5. The kid sitting one row in front of you who orders a sugar-high glazed donut with chocolate, lots of it, and it starts "kicking in" about half an hour into the movie.

6. The guy near the front of the theater who uses a camcorder to make a bootleg/pirated tape and keeps the bright back-lit viewscreen wide open.

7. Noisy teenagers who laugh, talk, whistle or make other noises at inappropriate points of the movie.

8. Grown men who assault the aforementioned teenagers instead of talking to the manager and/or asking for his money back.

9. Kids who sit behind you and kick the back of your seat.

10. Parents who let their kids kick the seat in front of them, and then who give you that "how dare you talk to my kid ?" look when you ask their kid to stop.

11. People who remain standing during the previews.

12. People who talk during the establishing shot (first few moments) of the movie.

13. People who ignore the "please turn off your cell phone" message during the previews and who think that bending over while taking a call will somehow magically render their conversation imperceptible to everyone else in the theater. This is even more annoying if they've added blinking lights to their phone's battery, case, keypad, etc.

14. What used to be enjoyable previews are now replaced by 30 minutes of commercials - which you can get at home.

15. The movie soundtrack sounds vastly inferior to a good home theater audio setup.

16. You can't adjust the volume in a public theater.

17. If you have to go to the bathroom at a public theater, they won't press PAUSE and wait until you return.

18. The guy who comes back from the bathroom and then wants to know (in graphic detail) what he missed, and then gets mad at his girlfriend for not being able to remember.

19. Unregulated 'I came first' gouging at the food counters.

20. The other line at the food counter always moves faster.

21. That awful sound your shoes make as you walk across a sticky floor.

22. The people in front of you who barely see 5 minutes of the movie because their faces are stuck together the entire time.

23. Public movie theater seats are nowhere near as comfortable as home theater seats - especially if you have leather recliners.

24. The awkward battle over who gets to use the shared arm rest.

25. While vacuuming under the chairs in your private theater, you'll often find spare change generously left by your guests!

26. For the price of going to a movie theater, you can buy one DVD or rent at least two.

27. Finding parking is much easier at home, and you don't have to navigate your family through the variety of "hazards" that frequently hang out in movie theater parking lots.

28. In your own home theater, you can tell people to quiet down without fear of it escalating into a fight.

29. In your own home theater, you can take your shoes off without having to worry that someone else will do the same.

30. You can't rewind in a movie theater if you missed something, didn't understand the dialogue, or simply want to see something again.

31. You can't turn on sub-titles to pick up unintelligible dialogue.

32. Parents who bring their 2 year-old baby to a scary movie and who don't leave when it starts crying during loud and/or scary scenes.

33. The inability to adjust the heat or air conditioning in a public theater.

34. The lack of somewhere convenient to put your coat in a public theater - if you drape it on the seat it's bound to fall on the sticky floor.

35. You don't have to take your wallet or keys to a home theater, so you can't lose them on the floor.

36. The mysterious bubble-gum based substances on the bottom of public theater seats that find their way onto your pant leg.

37. You can't guarantee that your favorite movie-time beverage will be available in a public theater.

38. Someone who sounds like they have Tuberculosis usually sits right behind you, and they never cover their mouth.

39. Public theaters don't calibrate their projectors with ColorFacts.

40. Having to save seats for people who are arriving later, and then constantly fighting off others to try to steal them.

41. One word (usually yelled loudly and then ignored by the kid in the projection booth for at least 5 minutes): FOCUS!

If you have an additional reason why you no longer go to public movie theaters, send it to me and I'll add it!