Selecting a Juice Extractor

November 17, 2009

By now you’ve probably heard of the health benefits of eating raw foods. The nutrients in fruits and vegetables are largely destroyed by cooking, thus rendering them only marginally more nutritious than straw. Shipping produce long distances is another factor in vitamin loss. Unless you eat local food with the seasons, there are times when vegetables from California or oranges from Brazil aren’t as nutritious.

I’ve been looking at juicers off and on for the last year, ever since trying the “cold-fighter” drink at the local Juice Zone Healthy Cafe. The drink, by the way, is a mixture of carrot, orange and ginger juices and whether it really helps fight colds I cannot say. However, it’s juiced to order and tastes like the nectar of the Gods.

According to ConsumerSearch, Inc., a service of About.com, there are two types of juicer extractors that are of interest to users who wish to juice hard vegetables such as carrots. They are the centrifugal juice extractor and the single-auger masticating juice extractor.

A centrifugal juice extractor is similar to a home blender. It has sharp blades to pulverize the raw food. The difference is that it also rotates the collector to squeeze the juice out of the pulp, sort of like the washing machine spin cycle. A higher quality centrifugal juice extractor will extract a larger percentage of the juice, leaving drier pulp for your compost pile.

A single-auger masticating juice extractor is similar to a wood chipper and is better at chewing up fiberous leafy greens. The auger crushes the raw food before squeezing out the juice. The single-auger juice extractor may come with attachments for making fruit spreads and nut butters. It is quieter than centrifugal juicers.

In general, unless you plan on extracting wheat grass, the centrifugal juice extractor is adequate.

Juice extractor power is measured in Watts. A high-powered juicer will be able to handle harder vegetables in larger chunks and will extract the juice more quickly. However, the higher the power, the more expensive. Restaurant-quality extractors are 2000W or higher.

For reference, 1000W is about a horsepower. Compare a juicer to typical non-self-propelled lawn mower, about 6 hp. This is not at all what you want in a countertop unit.

In a centrifugal juicer, the spin speed helps determine the yield. A faster spin extracts a higher percentage of juice. Though a faster spin is more expensive, a more expensive model may produce up to 35% more juice. Depending upon how much fresh juice you drink, the savings may be significant over the life of a more durable model.

Durability is desirable. Less expensive juicers have more breakable plastic parts. An all-metal juicer will last longer but will be more expensive.

If using a masticating juicer, the available attachments enable grinding nut butters, pureeing homemade baby food, etc.

Another feature to take into account is the size of the feeder. A wider feeder saves time because the veggies don’t have to be cut up first.

Dishwasher-safe parts are desirable for ease of cleaning.

I have chosen the Breville 800JEXL Juice Fountain Elite 1000-Watt Juice Extractor based on the consumer reviews on ConsumerSearch.com and on Amazon.com.


Mind Manager: Non-Linear Thinking

November 23, 2008

MindManager: Linear Thinking takes you straight to the expected.”

Email about using mapping software to create linear procedures for engineering processes.

—– Original Message —–
From: Leslie
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 7:21 PM
Subject: mindthingy

This application is for hierarchies. The design process is linear-sequential. What you need is a simple checklist.

1. Draw preti pixchrs
2. add part nubmers
3. etc

Mind Manager: Linear Thinking takes you straight to the expected.

“Say hello to free-form thinking. Your brain doesn’t process in a linear fashion. Neither does Mindjet. Now you can think visually with dynamic layers of information displayed in a limitless arrangement that lends clarity to any project.”

Ontology software maps interrelationships between objects and concepts in a given domain in ways that aren’t intuitive to a linear-sequential mind. I’m not sure how Mind Manager will help write a procedure because procedures are by definition linear and sequential.

If you want to bring in resources like test equipment or people then a scheduling program like Microsoft Project Standard 2007 is more in order.

I was evaluating different mind mapping software at home. I set it up so that as I ran through my Saturday morning web work it would remind me of related tasks in case I wanted to work by tool or by priority instead of running through them in sequence. As the weeks went on I found I was adding children and siblings and dropping files and links onto it, but the license ran out and I was too cheap to buy it.

Mind mapping software is easier to use from the start of a project. If you input an existing data set and impose a well-thought-out rational structure on it, you’re totally missing the point. The creative process doesn’t have a rational structure. If it did, it would be called engineering. Oh *snap!*

There is a Mind Manager viewer so that users can only view the mind map. Mind Manager also can export to pdf, html, word, ppt, etc.

There are lots of available Mind Manager maps. No matter what you need to do with a mind map, you can probalby adapt an existing map to do what you want.

Don’t forget Microsoft Office templates. I think this one, “To do list for projects,” will work just fine for a test procedure.


StressEraser

March 5, 2007

The [tag]StressEraser[/tag] is a handheld [tag]biofeedback[/tag] unit. Unlike my favorite computer game, [tag]Journey to Wild Divine[/tag], The StressEraser is small enough that I can carry it around in the laptop bag that is too full of other [tag]gadgets[/tag] to hold my laptop.

The StressEraser has a simple, no-nonsense user interface. It is really easy to use. You put your finger in the sensor, hit the “on” button, and the unit starts graphing. Once it figures you out, it starts printing pointers near the end of each inhalation. All you do is synchronize your breathing to the pointers. It helps you breathe deeply and evenly, and this, my [tag]caffeine[/tag]-guzzling [tag]geek[/tag] friend, is [tag]relaxation[/tag].


Journey to Wild Divine

February 20, 2006

Updated 3/6
Journey to Wild Divine is a biofeedback program disguised as a computer game. In the game you use your autonomic responses/breathing/emotion to perform tasks such as levitating a ball, spinning a lotus-like mandala, and other tasks that I haven’t reached yet. It’s something like a graphical version of the old adventure games, but with a New Age appeal. I hear that you get to play chess against the Grim Reaper on Level 7.
The biofeedback unit plugs into the USB port, and consists of a “[tag]light stone[/tag]” control unit with three finger sensors that measure heart rate and skin resistance. The optional graphing expansion pack lets you view your EKG. Quite fascinating, really.
I had a world of trouble installing the software because of a bad install CD. It took me several tries and some trickery. However, the good folks at Wild Divine sent me out a replacement CD right away.

Deleted technical description of installing from a warped CD.

Once I got things working, playing the game was like being in one of those dreams where I’m sure that I can fly, if only I can allow it to happen. The feeling was absolutely delightful. I’m looking forward to setting aside time to start playing the full game.

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