I’ve gotten to try a handful of different air fryers at this point, and although the convection heating mechanism is the same, there’s still a somewhat overwhelming variety available. When the market is flush, brands try to tempt buyers with new designs. I’ve found that’s where cooks can lose themselves. In my experience, simple is usually best. I’ve been using the Instant Vortex 6-quart basket model for about two years, and it’s the one I keep coming back to.

Instant Vortex 6-Quart 4-in-1 Air Fryer

$99.00 at Walmart

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$99.00 at Walmart

$100.00 Save $1.00

Why this air fryer is special 

The Instant Vortex 6-quart has a simple basket design with two parts: the basket drawer, and the rest of the unit, which includes the heating element, fan, and touch display. In fact, what makes this air fryer special is how well it does the job while being completely basic. There’s no vertical configuration, no double heating zone, and no rotisserie feature. Just a basket, and it gets to work.

Mine is actually the older generation of the same model. The newer generation (linked above) has a sleeker look and displays both the time and temperature at once (this older one blinks between the two), but the functional parts are the same, and you can get the gist of the overall size and design here. The basket is wide and has plenty of depth. It functions just like a drawer that you slide in and out of the machine by grabbing the handle (which is massive and I think a bit extreme but that’s a trend with most air fryers), and giving it a good yank. The basket secures back into the appliance with a satisfying clack. 

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

There is a simple grate that fits into the bottom. My next comment borders on extreme air fryer-nerdom, but the grate is great. It’s mostly like any other air fryer grate, but the key difference is the center wire-pull. It’s thin, sits in a depression, and flips around so you can clean both sides. Who cares, you say? You’ll be thinking of me if you buy an air fryer that has a fixed pull. Food gets caught in it weirdly, and oils can get trapped underneath. It’s the small things. 

The display is digital with several touch-screen buttons to select the function (fan speed), and a control knob you can rotate to select your temperature and time. It’s an infinity control dial, which I’ve abused with aggressive spinning and it still works fine. This display is perfect for the type of person who unpacks an appliance and immediately throws out the instruction manual. You plug in the machine, the choices light up, and you press buttons. I believe anyone could air fry correctly on their first try with this Instant Vortex.

The pros and cons of the Instant Vortex 6-quart

The pros

• Simple to use

• Easy to move around

• Easy to clean

The Instant Vortex 6-quart boasts simple operation without losing control. It’s not that an air fryer can’t get more simple—some air fryers have preset controls or dials with temperature and fan settings, but the rub is that you have to work within their settings. The Instant Vortex pretty much lets you call the shots, but without muddying the waters with too many unnecessary options, buttons, and presets. Once you press start, you can count on consistent, even browning, and quick results. That's on account of how wide the heating coil is. You can see in the picture that the diameter is wide enough to cover most of the basket.

Pardon the cooking stains. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

I’m currently living the Brooklyn apartment life, and it features extremely limited counter space. My Instant Vortex lives on my fridge—which is a good six inches over my head. Oddly, it’s really easy to move around. I can grab the machine over my head and walk over to the counter when I need it a few times a week. Equally, I have no problem putting it back up there. I attribute this not to my rippling lats, but to its squat, boxy shape and lightweight interior engine. Furthermore, the weight feels evenly distributed because the fan and heating element are centered in the top of the unit.

That brings us to the less glamorous side of cooking: cleaning. “Love” is too strong a word, but I do not hate cleaning the Vortex. (I have hated cleaning other air fryers.) Once you lift out the grate, cleaning the basket takes no time. It’s wide open. Even if you have big hands or limited dexterity, it’s five wide, flat, easy to access panels. A soapy sponge and warm water takes care of that easily. For the grate, I recommend a soapy bristle brush. Both of these parts are also dishwasher-safe, if you have one of those treasures. 

The cons

• A bit large

• One-thing-at-a-time cooking sessions

Like most appliance cons, these rather depend on you. That said, the Instant Vortex does have a large footprint, which is why I have to store it off the counter. To avoid any problems, make sure you measure the space you want it to live in. According to the product listing on Amazon, the dimensions are 12.36"D x 14.92"W x 12.83"H. Account for a few inches of space behind the unit for ventilation during use. 

The drawback of such a simple design is that you can only cook one thing at a time in this type of basket-style air fryer. Sure, you could drop curly fries and shoe strings in together because they are about the same thickness and air fry at the same settings. However, if you’re air-frying multiple parts of a meal, like a pork tenderloin and phyllo wrapped crispy vegetables, you’ll have to cook one, wait, and then cook the other item and wait again before you eat. You might even have to clean the unit between cooking sessions depending on what you made first. 

Is this air fryer for you?

If you want your air fryer to just do the job and do it right, this is the best air fryer for you. It’s easy to use for a first-timer and for the instruction-manual averse. The big, wide basket is excellent for baking pies, cakes, or even casseroles. Likewise, the size of the basket is great if you cook multiple portions in one shot. I can perfectly fit four big turkey burgers into it, and I can roast four large red peppers in there at once. 

This may not be a good fit if you need an air fryer to cook multiple parts of a meal (requiring different temperatures or timings) in one session. Consider something like the Ninja DoubleStack XL for that. If your primary concern is efficiency, even browning, and maximum crisping, well then, you’ve found your match. 

The best part of spring is when all the bulbs you planted start emerging from the ground, painting your yard with color after a long grey winter. Unfortunately, you have to wait six months for those to bloom—but if you’re impatient like I am, you can actually grow those flowers indoors, starting now. The idea is simple, and you don’t have to be a seasoned gardener to pull it off: You can place bulbs in a pot or glass vase and allow them to bloom inside, like a living bouquet. Once they’ve bloomed, the bulb is spent, so you can toss it or compost it. (You can try to save the bulb to replant it, but I’ve generally found this to be an unrewarding endeavor.) 

Perhaps you’ve seen these arrangements in the pages of Pottery Barn or the aisles of Trader Joe’s. The good news is that you can purchase inexpensive bulbs and get the same effect for much less by doing it yourself. You can get bulbs almost anywhere this time of year, from major bulb retailers online like Eden Brothers to your local garden center, Home Depot, or even your grocery store. If you see a bag of bulbs on sale, grab them for this purpose. If you can find pre-chilled bulbs, that's even better, since it means you don’t have to wait until winter for your blooms (more on that below).

When you force bulbs, you’re tricking them into thinking it’s spring by keeping them inside. The key to this working is to mimic outdoor conditions by exposing them to cold for a few weeks. How long they need that cold depends on the type of bulb (and amaryllis and paperwhite narcissus actually don’t need to be chilled at all). You don’t want to chill your bulbs in your fridge, because you likely have fruit in there, and ripening fruit releases ethylene gas, which will tell the bulbs to grow. The best place to chill your bulbs is outdoors or in your basement. You can chill them already planted in your pots or leave them in the paper bag they ship in. 

How to plant indoor bulbs in pots

Most bulbs prefer to be planted in a pot in potting medium. At your garden center, look for soilless potting mix, which does a great job of holding onto moisture while allowing for optimum drainage. When choosing a pot, you’ll need three to four inches of growing space beneath the bulb, in addition to the height of the bulb itself. When you’re ready to plant the bulbs, allow the roots of the bulbs to rest in warm water overnight. In the morning, add the three to four inches of potting medium to the bottom of your pot, then place your bulbs in, pointy side up and roots down. You can plant the bulbs as close together as you’d like, even touching. Cover them with more potting medium, leaving the top inch of the bulbs uncovered. Tamp down the potting medium with your fingers—you want it to be pretty well compressed to hold your bulbs in place when they grow flowers. Water the potting medium until all the soil is moist, which means that when you have a fist's worth in your hand and squeeze it, the medium sticks together, but no water squeezes out. 

How to plant indoor bulbs in glass vases

There’s a second method of planting for bulbs like hyacinths. They can be planted in tall glass vases, rooted only in pebbles or glass marbles, which makes for quite a display. You’ll still want two-three inches of marbles or pebbles under the bulbs, but instead of covering the bulbs, you’ll add just enough to cover the roots of the bulbs, anchoring them.  Fill the vase with water only covering the roots, no more. 

Alternatively, you can buy small vases specifically for forcing hyacinths. You place the bulb on the top of the vase, and fill it with water to the root level.

How to chill your bulbs

In either case, now you take the potted bulbs and expose them to the cold for the right amount of time per the list below. The ideal temperature is around forty degrees, and during the cooling period, you want to be sure to check moisture levels of the rooting medium or water (for hyacinths) every few weeks to ensure the potting medium is still moist.  

I like to set calendar alerts for each of my pots, so I know when to go rescue it from my garage. By that time, you should see small shoots for each of the bulbs, and you know it’s time to bring them inside and continue the forcing. Your potted bulbs will want to stay around sixty five degrees for this part, and you still want to check for moisture of the potting medium. 

How long to chill these bulbs:

• Anemone: 8 weeks

• Crocus:  8 weeks

• Snowdrops: 10 weeks

• Hyacinth: 12 weeks

• Dwarf Iris: 10 weeks

• Daffodils: 15 weeks

• Narcissus : 15 weeks

• Tulip: 14 weeks

How long the blooms last will vary by flower, but you can generally expect them to bloom for a few weeks.

How to care for spent bulbs

When these bulbs bloom, they are single blooms, so you don’t want to cut them. If you do, they won’t grow back. Once the flowers start to die back, you can try to plant the bulbs outside, but I’ve generally had little luck with this, as bulbs can be finicky. If you’d like to try it, cut off the stem of the bloom above the leaves, but you must leave the leaves. This is where all the bulb's nutrients are stored. Allow the soil in the pot to dry out completely. Dust off the dried bulbs, and store until fall in a cool, dry place. You can plant them outside once the summer is over. 

Today is the final day for members of federal labs to submit nominations for the 2025 FLC awards. The FLC stands for the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer which is a network of over 300 federal laboratories and research centers with the mission of accelerating federal technologies into the marketplace. To find out how they choose their best and brightest, Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke with Jesse Midgett on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin who’s a technology transfer professional for NASA, but also the FLC awards chair.

Interview transcript:

Jesse Midgett FLC Awards program was established in 1984 with 17 categories. And this was driven by the Stevenson-Wilder Technology Transfer Act of 1980, the Bayh-Dole Act 1980 and the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986. And throughout the years, it’s morphed and expanded to reflect the changing landscape of tech transfer and the types of technologies that are getting moved out. Technology’s changed quite a bit since the 80s. In 2024, we had 32 award winners we recognized from eight federal agencies. And this was a 25% increase over the 2023 award period. I did pick up right before the 2024 awards judging, so that’s when I came on duty. The Federal Laboratory Consortium is promoting this for everybody so that it’s another avenue to get our stories out, and also to compare and maybe be competitive and with people that do the same things that we do. And as well as that they have a large training arm that lessons learned and techniques are shared across the government. There’s about 300 federal labs all doing their best to transfer their technologies.

Eric White And what is it that the judges are looking for when they try to award an individual for being in this field and showing excellence in it?

Jesse Midgett Sure. So we actually have several categories, and there is one called the Excellence in Tech Transfer. And that one, we want to recognize that outstanding work in tech transfer has been done during the past ten fiscal years. You would find that an actual tech transfer case, describe how it started. What makes it exceptional versus routine tech transfer. And then you’re going to name the players and their role and the outcomes. And you really do want to show, with any of these award nominations, you want to show what the best possible measurable outcome is and the benefit to that commercial environment outside of government, or sometimes they are between labs. But the excellence in technology transfer work is a very popular one. We also have an impact award, which is more about, Hey, maybe it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary as far as a transfer, but the impact it had made a tangible and lasting impact on the population and the marketplace, locally or globally. We also have a inter agency transdisciplinary partnership award that honors partnership across at least two agencies, especially when the collaboration bridges different technology sectors. So you might have massive technology that gets shared with the military. And you also would like to have a commercial partner in that. So those sorts of things make your nomination stronger.

Jesse Midgett There’s a state and local economic development award. What did you do in your backyard at home versus reaching across the country? And how did you leverage being there and making excellent tech transfer? There’s the Tech Transfer Innovation Award. What did you do differently to get the technology transfer? Did you establish a new tech transfer mechanism, a new license type, a new organization to help you get the technology transferred, that sort of thing. Tell us the trick that you invented to make that happen. We also have outstanding research or small research team awards. So sometimes these technologies really require a level of effort that is not always seen in the course of a government job. And sometimes these researchers really do, we call them their babies or their children, their inventions,  and they really do have to bring them to life and then find them a new home outside of what we do. Within the government we’re never going to crank up a factory and make a product. We want to see a technology have that kind of life as the various acts we outlined earlier tell us that we have to get a commercial partner to take up the torch from us and carry it further.

Jesse Midgett We have a Rookie of the Year award, someone who’s only been in tech transfer a couple of years but is really getting a lot of technology transfer you can submit them for that. There’s outstanding Technology Transfer Professional award, someone who’s got a rookie been in there, but they’re still doing it outstanding compared to what one might expect in some regard. You can submit them for that. There’s a Lab Director of the Year award. That one we want to see that the lab director has been personally involved with technology transfer and has fostered an environment that enables the tech transfer professionals and the researchers to transfer their technology. A lot of times I see people nominated, and he ran this lab during this time, and the lab did these things. And what we really want to hear is what did the director do to make these things happen, and how was he hands on involved? Not that he was simply at the helm and tech transfer was happening in the caboose behind him, but that he was actively involved. There’s also the Harold Metcalf Service Award. This is a tech transfer professional fellow who’s volunteer with the FLC and has done significant contributions to the FLC in the process of this, because we know we all have our regular jobs and maybe your management doesn’t see this as something you can take a lot of time away from your main deliverables for your day job. And it requires a lot of work beyond that sometimes to get the job done. So we want to recognize those individuals who’ve made that sacrifice and pushed out beyond 9 to 5 work. There’s also the last one I’ll talk about is Regional Technology Transfer Award. Again, we want to talk about how things happen regionally. We leverage our regional locations and influence to get tech transfer done, and then like to follow up like that on the national stage.

Eric White Obviously got a lot of different categories there recognizing different aspects of federal technology transfer. As a technology transfer professional yourself, what is it that someone can do to stand out in the technology transfer world?

Jesse Midgett Well, it helps if you know the technologies that you’re marketing. There are many people in tech transfer that are not experts in the fields of the technologies they’re marketing. But if you can buckle down and learn it, and have conversations with the inventors, read up and survey literature, etc., you can become conversational the point where you can tell a commercial entity enough they can determine if they want to license it. And then you can also bring in the technology transfer inventor to talk to them on an interview. So it’s good to have relationship with the inventors so that you can do that readily and they’ll support you when you need more information than you’re able to absorb in a short amount of time in your portfolio full of varied types of technologies. You need to be able to figure out value a company to see if they can take the technology. And there’s a lot of vetting that goes on when talking with external entities to see if they’re going to be good licenses or not. Also, it’s good to be involved in the regional activities. That’s where I am today. I’m at a regional event for entrepreneurs who are looking to license or bring all the resources together in one place for them and talk to them about how you might take government technology and turn it into a business.

Eric White Today is the last day to nominate somebody. Can you just give us a brief overview of how someone might go about doing that? What is the address for the web page they need to visit to make sure they get it in in time.

Jesse Midgett You’ll want to Google Federal Labs or otherwise use a search engine .org. And you’ll want to spell it out because the acronym is used by many different entities. So type out Federal Labs, and then when you go there, right at the very top of that home page, that title says 2025 Awards, Don’t miss your chance to win. Start your submission. You click on that and start your submission. Now, the one thing that FLC does is they like the labs to coordinate within so that only one person from the lab is submitting. So they have a representative and either that person or a designee under that person who will do the actual submissions. It’s not willy nilly open to the general populace per say at the center.

The post Get your nominations in for the Oscars of federal technology transfers first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Federal Trade Commission took action against several companies it accused of making deceptive AI claims to consumers, the agency announced. The five targets of the law enforcement sweep — dubbed “Operation AI Comply” — include multiple companies that promised to use AI to help consumers build passive income-generating online storefronts.

Also targeted was DoNotPay, a company that made headlines last year when it tried to get a defendant to use its service — hooked up via wireless headphones and smart glasses — to fight a traffic ticket in court. The FTC accused the company of misleading consumers with its claim to offer “the world’s first robot lawyer.” The company agreed to pay nearly $193,000 to settle the case.

Misleading AI claims have been on the FTC’s radar for some time — as we covered last year, the agency warned companies to “keep [their] AI claims in check” and outlined the types of deceptive marketing practices it was on the lookout for. FTC Chair Lina Khan continues to cite AI as one of the areas her agency is watching most closely, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see similar crackdowns take place in the future.

This newsletter excerpt is from the October 17, 2024, edition of policy.ai — CSET’s newsletter on artificial intelligence, emerging technology, and security policy, written by Alex Friedland. Other stories from this edition include:

• Governor Newsom Vetoes Sweeping AI Regulation, SB 1047
• OpenAI Raises $6.6 Billion — But Departures Point to Difficult Transition
• Tech Giants Tap Nuclear Power for Their AI Data Centers
• Commerce Considering Country-Specific Chip Export Caps
• DOD Announces Replicator 2 — Counter-Drone Defenses the Focus
• OMB Issues Guidance on Responsible AI Acquisition

Read the full newsletter and subscribe to receive every edition of policy.ai.

The post FTC Cracks Down on AI Over-Promising appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

The vast majority of decluttering tips and methods expect you to pick a time, settle in, and make hard choices about whether to keep or get rid of every item in a closet, drawer, or room. Sometimes, you do need a little urgency to be productive, but I've always found that buckling down too hard is stressful. In fact, I tend to procrastinate if I know I'm supposed to be sitting down and going through all my stuff, making quick decisions on what stays and what goes. What's helped me a lot more is an alternative method: I just use a bag and declutter over time.

All you need is a garbage bag

Of all the cleaning and organizing techniques I've written about, the one I believe most strongly in is cleaning in spurts. It's my job to write about cleaning. I also really hate cleaning, which is what makes me such a great judge of which methods work best for people like me. There are people out there who love tidying, scrubbing, mopping, and organizing, but those people don't need my articles!

It's hard to do a task you dislike for a long period of time and even if you manage to stick with it for hours, the quality of your work will surely decline as you go. Working in quick, 15-minute blasts takes longer overall, since you won't see results for at least a few days, but it keeps your motivation high and your output efficient. It's probably best to use a schedule and accomplish these bursts on some kind of structured, daily timeline, but sometimes, I just clean when the mood strikes me. If I'm sitting on my couch and notice a shelf is in disarray, I'll pop up and give it a 15-minute workover. My bathroom, my kitchen—nothing is safe from my sudden bursts of inspiration and motivation.

That's worked great for me, but it always left a noticeable gap in my results. I wasn't decluttering much, since I wasn't going to take a single shirt to the donation center every day. Thus, I started keeping a garbage bag in my closet. When, in the course of my cleaning, I happen across something that could be donated, I just toss it in the bag. Once the bag is full, I scan to make sure nothing in there is pure trash, then donate the rest.

Why this approach to decluttering works

This works for me because I find it a lot easier to assess items on a one-by-one basis than I do all at once. If I'm sitting down to actively declutter a drawer, I start making excuses about why I should hold onto certain things I come across. I get burned out, overwhelmed, and annoyed—and don't end up tossing out stuff that really should get the boot. But if I come across something in the course of a normal day or cleaning cycle, I can objectively analyze it without any stress. More often than not, I get rid of it.

The bag is especially helpful when it comes to clothes, which is why I recommend storing it in the closet. Getting ready, I try on all kinds of outfits and, typically, find at least one thing that doesn't even fit me anymore. Having a designated bag where I can toss those things is perfect. If I were actively decluttering my closet, I probably wouldn't try on every single thing, so I'd miss a lot of the ill-fitting garments and probably keep them. When I put them on with the intention of wearing them, I can discard them the moment I realize they don't fit. Most of the time, my decluttering bag is comprised largely of clothes, with a few other household goods tossed in when I come across one that should be gotten rid of.

I recommend keeping the bag around until it's full. You can set a timeline if you want, taking it to the donation center every two weeks or so, but it will fill on its own at its own pace, so it's better to just commit to bringing it to the drop-off location as soon as it's ready. The longer you do this, the more you can pay attention to what usually gets tossed out, so you can start to keep the bag in a location that works best for you. Mine stays in my closet now, since that's where most of my donation items are coming from, but if I noticed a heavier concentration of kitchen items going in there over time, I might move it to the cupboard under my sink, for instance.