Tip 1. Whether you live a hectic city life or out in the country, you don’t have to go without fresh veggies.

This system window farm can churn-out a salad per week. The window farm described in this How-To is a reservoir system. A water pump on a timer periodically pumps water and liquid nutrients from the bottom reservoir to the top reservoir. There are small holes drilled into the underside of the top reservoir. Small drip emitters with valves let out a constant drip of water and nutrients into a column of plants. Each plant sits in a grow medium in a net cup (a perforated plastic cup commonly used in hydroponics), within an inverted plastic water bottle. The cap of each water bottle has a hole in it so that the water and nutrients can drip from one bottle to the next, from the top to the bottom of the column of plants. The bottom-most bottles are connected to tubing that takes the water and nutrients into the bottom reservoir, where it sits until the pump turns on again.

Water pump systems are a little more finicky and are susceptible to clogging. Most of the community has moved toward the airlift design so unless you are very comfortable with tools and handy, we suggest trying the airlift how-to.

IMPORTANT ELECTRICAL SAFETY INFO!! Please remember to include a drip loop on electrical components of this system. Make sure the cord hangs down below the outlet and then goes back up to plug in. Make sure you do not have an outlet directly under your reservoirs.

Download the How to PDF from windowfarms.org

via windowfarms.org

Like many confirmation numbers we use daily, from bus tickets to software purchase codes, Social Security numbers are assigned based on a formula that uses two inputs to generate a code. The inputs for SSNs are state of birth and date of birth, two things that most people have made available on social networking sites. That alone isn’t dangerous.

The government enables the other half of the caper by making the SSNs of deceased Americans available publicly in a database called the Death Master File. This file was created to help institutions detect bogus Social Security numbers on tax and benefits forms, but it also provides a massive test dataset for someone trying to reverse engineer SSNs. Using the Death Master File, CMU engineers were able to determine which parts of the numbers correlated to which of the facts about a person’s birth. When they applied their algorithm to SSNs in the DMF that they hadn’t tested, they could accurately guess the first five numbers of a given SSN with up to 90% accuracy in smaller states, where the pool of numbers is smaller.

According to ArsTechnica, cracking the last four digits of an SSN, which are seemingly assigned at random, cuts the rate of accuracy considerably; the authors of the study were able to get a number right only after about 10 tries, more than enough failed tries to lock out an IP address on most banking sites. But they note that a botnet working in concert could attack smaller states with alarming alacrity–a virally-controlled network of 10,000 machines could crank out the identities of residents of the State of West Virginia at around 2,800 a minute, based solely on basic information from Facebook. It might be time to abandon the SSN as our primary credential in favor of something more comprehensively secure.

newsletterPromo(”Technology”,
“right”);

[Via ArsTechnica]

Following up on the release of Issue. 0051, The Arkitip Chronicles present a short video with a behind the scenes look into the creation of a Shepard Fairey piece. The acclaimed artist is in his most natural form, creating one of his stencil masterpieces in a Los Angeles studio.

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1 cup butter or margarine (softened)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg, beaten (See no-egg Substitute)
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

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*no-egg substitute :
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
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Directions:

Sift dry ingredients together. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg, molasses, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Add dry ingredients a little at a time. Make dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough 1/8″ to 1/4″ thick. Cut cookies. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 8 to 10 minutes until almost firm. Do not overcook if you want them to stay soft.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup chopped raisins
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

Cream shortening and sugar together. Add applesauce and blend into mixture. Sift flour. Add baking soda, salt and spices to flour. Sift again. Add sifted dry ingredients to shortening and stir until smooth. Add raisins and nuts. Drop onto a greased baking sheet spacing approximately 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 12 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• if desired, 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix sugar, brown sugar, butter and egg in a large bowl by hand. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. The dough will be very stiff. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown. The centers will be soft. Let cool for one minute then remove from cookie sheet and place on wire rack to finish cooling.

• 2 cups butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups of flour

Directions:

Bring butter to room temperature. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter until it is the consistency of whipped cream. Beat in sugar. Add salt. Add flour in 4 portions (one cup at a time) mixing well after each addition. Turn out onto a floured board and pat or roll to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shape desired with cookie cutter. Place on an ungreased cookies sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Keep your on eye on them, shortbread burns really fast.

1 cup flour
3/4 cup granulated Sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable Oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup brown Sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups boiling water

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, 3 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt. With a fork, mix in milk, oil and vanilla.

Spread the batter evenly in a lightly buttered 9-inch square baking pan. Combine brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle over the batter. Slowly pour boiling hot water over the batter and brown sugar-cocoa mixture. Bake chocolate pudding cake for 40 minutes. Let chocolate pudding cake stand for 5 minutes. Spoon into dessert dishes or cut into squares. Top chocolate pudding cake with ice cream or whipped topping.