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Most pastry kitchens are tiny. A convection oven; a proofing rack; a giant Hobart mixer, looking like a squat, gunmetal-gray R2-D2; a long prep table (in marble for chocolate, if you're lucky) for tarts or laminated dough or maybe a few plated desserts; more speed racks, stacked high to make the most of any available space. Instead of imagining a French patisserie, think Das Boot. And that's if there's a pastry kitchen at all. Often there isn't: The space in any restaurant kitchen is at such a premium that the tables and ovens tend to be taken by the savory...

<p>Just Us Coffee Roasters Co-op in Nova Scotia isn’t the kind of business that seems ripe for an employee revolt. The worker-owned co-operative serves up fair-trade organic coffee, pays above minimum wage and offers employees perks such as health bene�ts, profit-sharing and money to buy shoes.</p>

Dear Friend, Jim Fitzgibbon, the head of the Highlander Fund, appeared on my radio show on Wednesday, August 7th, and went through chapter and verse about what is happening in the economy today. He used language we can all understand. The bottom line is that he predicts a massive drop in the stock market and the economy this month that will continue, with brief spurts upward, until the end of the year and beyond. His track record in predictions is extraordinary, having predicted the Japanese crash and, to the month, the 2008 meltdown. Please listen to this tape! It is...

Swiss investor and economic guru, Marc Faber, joins Rick from Hong Kong to discuss the “race to the bottom” that is the universal money printing by the world’s central banks and why he ultimately foresees the U.S. transitioning into a completely planned economy

Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to opt out of strict hygiene rules introduced by the NHS to restrict the spread of hospital superbugs.Female staff who follow the Islamic faith will be allowed to cover their arms to preserve their modesty despite earlier guidance that all staff should be "bare below the elbow". The Department of Health has also relaxed rules prohibiting jewellery so that Sikh members of staff can wear bangles linked with their faith, providing they are pushed up the arm while the medic treats a patient. The Mail on Sunday reported the change had been...

Sales of iPads jumped with the introduction of the iPad Mini, but are otherwise stagnant. Ritchie King/Quartz Apple sold 5.4 million fewer iPads in its most recent quarter than it did in the same three months a year ago. That’s despite having introduced a whole new iPad, the Mini, in the intervening year. The drop in iPad sales, from 17 million to 14.6 million, is all the more surprising because iPhone sales continued to grow, from 26 million to 31.2 million.Use of those iPads, however, is running in the opposite direction. Data just released from Adobe show that, as of...

The American Legislative Exchange Council released today a letter signed by nearly 300 state legislators from 39 states that expresses dismay over Senator Durbin’s letter inquiring into businesses and organizations’ participation in the American Legislative Exchange Council. The letter follows a statement released Friday by the American Legislative Exchange Council expressing concern over Senator Durbin’s inquiries. The letter, sent to all members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, can be accessed here.

The MinnowBoard community website reports that Intel is now shipping its MinnowBoard bare-bones PC. It's a bit heftier in price than the Raspberry Pi, costing $199 USD, and can be purchased at Digi-Key, Farnell, Mouser Electronics and Newark. Additional outlets will be added soon. Intel's MinnowBoard sports an Atom E640 SoC clocked at 1 GHz, integrated GMA 600 graphics, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, and 4 MB of SPI flash for system firmware memory. The I/O portion contains one microSD card slot, one SATA 2 (3 Gb/s) port, two USB host ports, one microUSB-B port, a serial (UART 0)...

Dear Carrie, My 75-year-old mother is pretty independent. She uses email and is comfortable online getting news and even making some purchases. Lately, she's been telling me about offers for things like insurance and investments, and I worry she'll be the victim of a scam. How can I help without seeming overly protective? --A ReaderDear Reader, There's no doubt that Internet usage by seniors is growing dramatically. A recent Pew Internet Survey showed 30 percent of people 75 and older use the Internet. Of that group, between 50 and 89 percent go online for email, searches, purchases, news and travel...

It’s not just the government that might be keeping tabs on you. Many retailers are tracking you, too—or at least your merchandise returns. The companies say it’s all in the name of security and fighting fraud. They want to be able to identify chronic returners or gangs of thieves trying to make off with high-end products that are returned later for store credit. Consumer advocates are raising transparency issues about the practice of having companies collect information on consumers and create “return profiles” of customers at big-name stores such as Best Buy, J.C. Penney, Victoria’s Secret, Home Depot and Nike....

Tom and Jerry fans accuse Warner Brothers of censorship after episodes which show the cat and mouse 'blacked-up' are pulled from new collection • The Golden Collection Volume Two was supposed to be uncut