Tax day, April 15

Happy Tax Day everyone,
It is a chilly morning with a frost warning for tonight. Those pretty fruit tree blooms may get nipped! I understand the strawberry growers are scrambling to save the berries. Yesterday afternoon I noticed even the lawn foliage was looking droopy from the storm and cool weather.

Stay warm and take care.
Until tomorrow,
Dr. Janet

Too cool.....

App creates 3-D maps while walking

By STEVE ALEXANDER MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

The view from the basement laboratory is breathtaking. Not the one out the tiny windows of the half-underground office. This view is on a smartphone that computer science professor Stergios Roumeliotis is using while walking around the depths of the University of Minnesota's Walter Library. On the screen, a three-dimensional map of a nearby hallway has taken shape. The map was made by holding the smartphone's camera while moving. The camera and the phone's motion sensor worked together to create a grid of data points that became a 3-D image. It's a radical new ability for smartphones and promises to allow consumers to create 3-D maps on the fly. The software development is being handled by University of Minnesota graduate students who are funded by a $1.35 million grant from Google Inc. The work is part of the company's recently announced Project Tango, a cellphone optimized for 3-D mapping. We will soon be able to get smartphone directions for how to go from one place to another in a building, such as how to go from the entrance to my classroom, Roumeliotis said. We'll also be able to ask the phone questions, such as, 'Where is the closest place within the airport where I can get coffee? In addition, homeowners could use the software to create a virtual tour of their houses before putting them up for sale, Roumeliotis said. The software could also help the blind walk through a building or aid a drone aircraft in navigating. While the software is being designed to work on a prototype of the new Google smartphone, it will also work on existing smartphones. Notably, it doesn't use much processing power, about as much as the game Angry Birds, Roumeliotis said. I think this is as big a revolution as when Google Maps first came out or even bigger, said the professor, who is 43 and has been working on map technology since 1995. It has the potential to become the Google Maps of the indoor world, and this is where we spend most of our time. Scott Strawn, senior Google analyst for Massachusetts research firm IDC, said Roumeliotis may be right about the significance of 3-D mapping. Besides its use on smartphones, the University of Minnesota software is likely to play a major role in 3-D imaging for Google Glass, the company's wearable computer that has a tiny display above the right eye, Strawn said. For Glass, the software could create much better 3-D augmented reality, a name used today for overlaying a camera image with explanatory information. One of the key features of the University of Minnesota software is that it creates a map almost instantly without slowing down the phone's other operations or drawing much battery power, Roumeliotis said. To do that, the University of Minnesota team had to try some novel design ideas. For example, unlike most smartphone maps, the new software doesn't rely on global positioning system data because satellite signals aren't typically available inside buildings. It also does more with less by combining data from the phone's built-in motion sensor with just a fraction of the images produced by the phone's camera. We pick which information to process, Roumeliotis said. That way we don't choke the phone's processor chip or drain the battery. The technology is built on some of the university's earlier work with NASA to create navigational software for Mars landing vehicles, Roumeliotis said. His group got involved in Google's Project Tango after one of his former students went to work at the company and recommended the researchers. The university signed a contract with Googlelast spring. Roumeliotis said the software that his group is developing for Google will be ready within less than a year. But Strawn thinks Google won't offer the University of Minnesota software as mainstream product for several years. That would give app developers time to come up with 3-D applications that can take advantage of the technique. It will be introduced in the same way that Google released Glass, years before it anticipated the product would be broadly distributed, Strawn said. It's not unusual for Google to reach out to universities for help in creating new technology, Strawn said. There's a lot of valuable brainpower in the university system, and that's what Google needs to move these projects forward, he said. We're on the frontier of this kind of mapping, Roumeliotis said. You could map the inside of the Mall of America today using a computing center with a lot of processing power and a lot of time. Our plan is to do that on a cellphone in almost real time, with the time lag getting smaller and smaller.

Monday, April 14

Happy almost tax day!
I decided we should laugh today because tomorrow most of us will be crying as we separate from our hard earned dollars! I am posting this early as I have a big day planned for Monday. Ms. Helen and I will be at Woodland to share our google tech tips.

I posted several really great sounding recipes. Hopefully you good cooks will try and let me know how they turn out. The breakfast meal sounds good but I want to caution everyone about sleeping with a crockpot plugged in.

Have a great Monday!
Dr. Janet

Crockpot Oatmeal

{Slow Cooker} Overnight Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal
Yield: 4 Servings
Serving Size: 1 cup prepared oatmeal, 1 tablespoon dried fruit,
Adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients

Non-stick cooking spray
2 large tart apples (such as Granny Smith or Pink Lady), chopped
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup whole grain oats
3 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon cinnamon (more or less to your taste)
2 tablespoons milled/ground flaxseed
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Additional Toppings
1/4 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries)
1/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans)
Instructions

Spray a 3 1/2 quart or larger slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Combine chopped apples, milk, water, oats, sugar, butter, and flax- stirring to combine. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours (overnight). Stir in 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt into the oatmeal just before serving.
If desired, serve with additional toppings (1 tablespoon dried fruit and 1 tablespoon chopped nuts, each)
Nutritional Information:

Calories: 321; Fat: 13 g; Carbohydrate: 46 g; Fiber: 6 g; Protein: 7 g

Chicken and broccoli crockpot meal

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Crockpot Recipe

Ingredients needed:

* 1 can cream of mushroom condensed soup
* 2 cooked chicken breasts, cubed
* 1 cup of long-grain rice
* 4 oz. reduced-fat Cheddar, shredded (about 1 cup)
* 1 bag of frozen broccoli florets, thawed

Preparation steps:

* Coat crockpot with cooking spray.
* Add all ingredients except broccoli. Stir in 3 cups of water.
* Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. For faster cooking time, cook on high for 2 hours.
* Stir in broccoli and cook for 30 minutes longer.

Enjoy
(Serves 4)

Carrot Cheesecake

This is too much work for me but sounds wonderful.

Ingredients

• To make the carrot cake:
• ¼ Cup Coconut flour, sifted (37 grams post sifting)
• ½ tsp Baking soda
• ½ tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• ⅛ tsp Nutmeg
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 2 Eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 Tbsps Coconut oil, melted
• 2 Tbsps Non fat, plain Greek yogurt
• ½ tsp Vanilla extract
• ¾ Cup Light brown sugar, packed *
• 1¼ Cups Grated carrots (about 4 small carrots)
• For the cheesecake topping:
• 1 8 oz Package Reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
• ¼ Cup Sugar
• ½ tsp Lemon juice
• ½ tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 8 oz Package Light Whipped topping
• 1 Tbsp Unsweetened Coconut flakes
• ½ Cup Toasted pecans, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate with parchment paper, spraying the sides with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the sifted coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well combined. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, microwave the Greek yogurt for 10 – 15 seconds, just until slightly warmed. If you add cold Greek yogurt right into the mixture, the coconut oils solidifies, leaving you with a chunky cake.
4. In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer, beat together the eggs, coconut oil, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Stir in the coconut flour mixture, and then beat it to make sure that the lumps are completely gone.
6. Stir in the grated carrots until all the carrots are mixed in and coated in the batter.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and let stand 5 minutes before baking.
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the top is lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Let cool completely.
10. Spray a 10 inch pie plate with cooking spray and set aside.
11. In a large bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla until soft and fluffy.
12. Beat in the whipped topping.
13. Cut the edges off the carrot cake and break up the remaining cake into large chunks**.
14. Drop the chunks all over the bottom of the prepared 10 inch pie plate, leaving gaps between each piece.
15. Pour the cheesecake filling over top and gentle smooth over to the cover the carrot cake pieces.
16. Sprinkle with the coconut flakes and place the toasted pecans along the outside edge.
17. Cover the top with tinfoil and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours.
18. To serve: Let thaw for about 5 minutes and then cut. It is easiest to cut, and get out of the pan in one pieces, when the cheesecake is still quite frozen.
19. Let thaw an additional 5 minutes once cut and DEVOUR.

Tick time in Arkansas

SUNDAY, April 13, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- With spring's arrival, many Americans will begin enjoying outdoor activities such as hiking, camping and gardening -- and they need to protect themselves from tick bites, an expert says.
"There aren't any vaccines for tick-borne diseases like Lyme, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis, so the only way to prevent infection is to not get bitten in the first place," Dr. Christopher Ohl, a professor of infectious diseases at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, said in a Wake Forest news release.
Ohl, who is also the medical director of communicable diseases for the Forsyth County, N.C. Health Department, offered the following tips:

• Use an insect repellant containing DEET on exposed skin, and treat clothing and footwear with a permethrin-based repellant that provides weeks of protection and remains through several washings.
• Tuck your pants into socks to reduce the amount of exposed skin. When hiking, stay on well-worn paths and out of tall grass or bushy areas.
• Check for ticks immediately after being outdoors. The longer a tick is attached, the greater your risk of infection.
• If you discover a tick, use tweezers to remove it as close to the skin as possible. Don't grab it with your fingers and squeeze it. That injects the tick fluids into you and increases the risk of infection, Ohl warned.
• If you suffer a tick bite and develop a fever one to two weeks later, see a doctor. The incubation period for tick-borne diseases is eight to 14 days, he said.
• Protect your dog with tick collars or monthly treatments. This will prevent ticks from being brought into your home by the dog.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/topics/HealthDay686497_20140413_Prevent_Tick_Bites_While_Enjoying_the_Outdoors.html#d7jimeIWEIXshIi5.99