American Expat Search Results

How To: Bake a pizzetta with your kids

Why should pizza shops have all the fun! Carrie shows her crew a new twist on how to toss a perfect mini pie. It smells like pizza, it tastes like pizza, but it looks like it's been zapped by a shrinking machine! It's the pizzetta! Follow along with this cooking how-to video to learn how to bake a pizzetta with your kids.

How To: Prepare a basic Peruvian ceviche (raw fish marinated with lime juice)

If you're a fan of sushi, then you have to try out this delicious raw fish recipe. It's not your typical raw fish. It's called ceviche, and it's a South American (in this case, Peruvian) dish of marinated raw fish. It's an interesting process where you don't cook the food on the stove or in the oven, but instead you marinate your ingredients in lime juice, which basically "cooks" the raw fish. A very fresh dish, perfect for anytime you want something a little lighter for a meal or a snack.

How To: Put a Cuban twist on classic BBQ pork ribs

Ribs are great on the grill, but skip out on the same ol' pork ribs this year, and add a little Cuban flavor to them for a surprisingly wonderful taste the whole family will be astonished by. These ribs, which are a merger of Cuban and American Country cuisines, are wonderful. The meat is so tender and flavorful. John Verlinden shares his technique for adding a flavorful rub, then roasting and grilling the ribs. Once you’ve had them, they’ll become a fixture on your cookout menus.

News: Friday Indie Game Review Roundup: Arcade Games Are Dead

If you're between the ages of 20 and 40, then video arcades probably hold a special place in your heart. Whether you all but lived in one (me), wished you could, or detested those with a liking for them, there's no denying that arcades were a ubiquitous part of American culture. They were everywhere, from big chains to little mom-and-pops, housing better systems than gamers had at home and with all the best games and newest titles.

News: Scrabble Dumbs Down Its Game with 3,000 New Words

Remember the firestorm SCRABBLE Trickster caused nine months ago? SCRABBLE enthusiasts across the world were outraged when Mattel created a game that would allow proper nouns to be acceptable words of play. Essentially, it was a dumbed down, youth-friendly version of the classic game they've all come to love. Luckily, it was just a spinoff game—not a replacement. The same can't be said of the new edition of Collins Official SCRABBLE Words.

News: Millenium Challenge

In 2000, the U.S. Joint Command Forces, a sort of think tank within the military, began planning a war game named Millennium Challenge. The scenario of the game was as follows: a rogue military commander had broken away from his government somewhere in the Persian Gulf and was threatening to engulf the entire region in war. He had a considerable power base from strong religious and ethnic loyalties, and he was harboring and sponsoring four different terrorist organizations. He was virulently ...

How To: Celebrate National Boss's Day to Get What You Want by "Managing Your Boss"

Boss's Day is on October 16th, and this year it falls on a Saturday— what better of a day to celebrate Boss's Day? More than likely, you won't be working in the office this weekend, and if you are, you probably don't feel like celebrating and thanking your boss for being so kind and fair. So, forget the cake and ice cream and instead, take the chance to develop a good relationship with your boss, because hating or kissing up to your boss just isn't the way to go.

How To: Effectively Play Hooky from Work

On average, about thirty percent of working Americans have called in sick at least once just to take a day off from work. If you are in the other goody-two-shoes seventy percent of the work force who've only called in sick for actual physical illness or have never actually used a sick day, consider giving yourself a mental health day if you ever feel like you really need it.

How To: Deep Fry Your Thanksgiving Bird

Looking for something a little more exhilarating this Thanksgiving? Something with a bit more kick? Forget traditional roasted turkey. If you've got the stomach for it, try turducken, a wonderful triplex of turkey, duck and chicken with sausage stuffing and Cajun seasoning. Or go for good ol' American fried food, the deep fried Thanksgiving bird.

How To: Make Hanging Dried Persimmons (Hoshigaki)

A seasonal tradition brought over from Japan to America by Japanese-American farmers, making hoshigaki (as they're called in Japanese) is a fun outdoor autumn project you can do before the winter season really kicks in. Hang a bunch of peeled persimmons on a string outside, wait for three to five weeks, and harvest yourself some naturally dried persimmons during the winter months. Though peeling the fruit and then regularly massaging the fruit every few days after hanging may be more labor in...

How To: Make a Human Blockade Lockbox

I'll admit it, yes, I support protesting. It doesn't matter what my opinions are about any individual protest—overall, it is a human right and the only way to avoid tyranny. We can't deify Ghandi and demonize American protesters. That shows a silly shortsightedness that we can't afford to dabble in.

Scrabble Bingo Weekly Roundup: Shlemiels, Cynosures and Yanquis

Bingo! No, this isn't the game where balls fly around in machines and players dab their cards with daubers. In a game of Scrabble, bingo refers to the bonus a player receives when emptying their rack in one turn, which gets them an extra 50 points on top of whatever their play was. Even if you had two blanks on your rack and didn't utilize any premium squares on the board, you'd still have an impressive 56-point turn (at least) by using all 7 of your letters.

News: Seize the Lightning! Carpe Fulgur Imports Japanese Indie Games to the U.S.

Carpe Fulgur translates to something along the lines of "Seize the Lightning" in Latin. Sometimes that is enacted with golf clubs by idiots. But the three intrepid indie video game localizers who work under that name are trying to do it the right way: metaphorically. They are translating and publishing Japanese games for the Americans market—games that have seldom been seen before because every other company thinks it's mad to release them here.

News: Did George Plimpton Make a Falconry Game for ColecoVision?

George Plimpton may be one of the most interesting Americans ever. Foremost a sports journalist, he was also a novelist, Fireworks Commissioner for New York City and host of Mouseterpiece Theater. Some of you may also recognize him as one of the men who tackled Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan. But most of you probably remember him as the pitchman for products like Pop Secret Popcorn and the Intellivision video game console. Actually, his most appreciated work would probably be a s...

Fantasy Food: The $1,000 Popsicle & More

From Fox News, the Marquis Los Cabos resort in Baja California Sur, Mexico is now offering a $1,000 Popsicle made from 24 ct. gold flakes and Tequilas Premium Clase Azul Ultra—a premium liquor that goes for $1,500 a bottle. You can enjoy the gold-laced ice pop as you're lounging by the pool.

News: Bat Cave in San Francisco

What do you do when you desperately need to put a parking garage into the bottom floor of your Victorian apartment building, but the city's Department of Planning says "No". The simple and expensive answer: Create an elaborate secret garage door. If you own a pretty building, it is well within the jurisdiction of the Landmark Commission to inform you that even though you own the piece of property, you cannot remodel it any way you want. Seems un-American. But in San Francisco, specifically th...

Privacy Is So 2001: An Anime Video Game Novel About Social Media

Japanese people are into many things Americans find weird—like YouTube's beloved canine-hosted cooking show or Daito Manabe's light up LED grills or even more insane, a vending machine that distributes live crabs. In light of these cultural oddities, the Japanese phenomenon of visual novels (NVL, or bijuaru noberu), seems relatively normal. A meeting place of books and video games, visual novels are a sort of "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" for the new generation.

Printable Tactile Astronomy: How to "See" Outer Space if You're Blind

Have you ever felt the desire to reach out and touch a galaxy? Or "feel" those stunning nebulas and planets you see in Hubble photos? As alluring as it sounds, it's safe to say the odds of your whim coming true are nonexistent. You'd have to travel about 6 earth years and spend millions of dollars building your own personal spacecraft to get close enough to actually wave your hand through one of Saturn's rings. But in an attempt to help the blind "see" what they're missing, some semblance of ...

News: 5 Ways You Can Help Japan's Tsunami Victims Right Now, From Your Couch

A devastating tragedy occurred in Japan on Friday when a monstrous 8.9-magnitude quake hit, causing a 10 meter (33 foot) tsunami to engulf the northeastern coast of the country. There are reports of over 1,000 people who have lost their lives, tens of thousands evacuated, and massive damage. Whether you have a lot or a little to give, here are five ways you can aid in the relief effort this very moment, without even leaving your couch.

News: Are You Typical? The Planet's Most Archetypal Face Composited

Does this man look vaguely familiar? A neighbor or former co-worker, perhaps? You might think you recognize him, but this individual is actually the face of 7 billion. Composited with endless photos taken from the world's massive population, he represents an analytically deduced median: a 28-year-old Han Chinese man. The Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing has drawn data for the past ten years to come up with this archetypal image, as well as the following stats:

News: The Cheap Thrill of Flirting With Death On Stage

From an episode of the Frank Sinatra Show in 1951, Larry Griswold performs death defying stunts in the name of entertainment. Griswold, an American gymnast, entertainer, and co-inventor of the trampoline, proved again and again that flirting with death is sure to please a crowd. Meanwhile, in the parallel universe of Julie Taymor's accident prone Spider-Man musical, the New Yorker makes a similar case in point. The production has been plagued with injury after injury- broken wrists and ribs, ...

News: The Importance of Xavier Becerra

Born in Sacramento, CA on January 1, 1958 and raised by two Mexican immigrant parents, Xavier Becerra was the only Hispanic on the House Ways and Means Committee. He was elected vice chair of the Democratic Caucus for 111th Congress and was a reprensentative from California's 31st district. From 1987-90, he was the California Deputy Attorney General. Xavier Becerra was part of the California State Assembly (1990-92) and has been a member of the U.S. State House since 1993.Xavier Becerra is a ...

News: why people should vote no on Proposition 23

Proposition 23 is the act where they would suspend AB 32, the global warming act of 2006. If proposition 23 is enacted by voter this would pause the porvision of AB 32 until California's unemployment rate drops to a 5.5%. The unemployment rate at this current point is as high as a 12% and has been like that for the exception of 3 times since 1980. supporters call it California Job Anitiative and opponents call it the Dirty Energy Proposition.In this article it states the reason proposition 23...

News: Rear End Illusions

Let's take a look at the softer side of illusions! Check out the images below and see if you can crack what's really behind these photos. This type of optical illusion is usually referred to as an ambiguous image. Your brain tries to make quick sense out of the information coming in, and sometimes an interpretation of one image gets preference over the other.