From the category archives:

Just Links

Rather her than me

January 18, 2010

“Mrs Q” is a teacher eating school lunches with her charges every day. And blogging about it. Hang on; don’t teachers do that?

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Pandoro, Pan d’oro, let’s call the whole thing off.

December 17, 2009

Susan lays it on the line:

Like its cousin panettone, pandoro is an involved bread. It requires a carefully-planned schedule, some ingredients and equipment you might not have on hand (but are readily available), and close attention during the final mixing process. That said, I would not discourage beginning bakers from attempting this. If you can [...]

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Velo-city: a lot of fun

November 25, 2009

A network of plastic tubes, with blown air assisting cyclists in their direction of travel.
That sounds like a whole lot of fun, in a Futurama kind of way. I’d be there, for sure. Tom Turner says a similar idea has been proposed for Toronto. Wonderful notion, crap web site. But then, they probably have other [...]

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Low-salt bread ‘technologically feasible’, says study

August 27, 2009

Formulating breads with one quarter of current levels is possible without detrimentally affecting the rheological properties and the performance of the dough, says a new study from Ireland.
I expect bakers throughout Tuscany will be thrilled to hear that.

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Gnarly science

January 29, 2009

Whoa. Surfer Dude does History of Science. On TedTalks, like, seven years ago. Cosmic. And hey, the planet isn’t getting warmer, y’know.
I knew him when …

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Great headlines of our times

December 9, 2008

An occasional series:
Men are red, women are green, Brown researcher finds

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How to cook bamboo shoots

October 16, 2008

In celebration of World Food Day, I share with you Joi Ito (No, I didn’t know) showing Boing Boing TV how to prepare bamboo shoots, from scratch.

More evidence for the Smart Aliens Must Have Taught Us How To Do Stuff theory of human evolution.

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Some words to live by

September 9, 2008

Producing something that’s enjoyed by the people you admire and respect is the greatest reward a writer can imagine.

He’s not the first to say it, and he won’t be the last, but for now Merlin Mann has the conch.
And then there’s this:

Learning about the goals and values of Slow Foods and Gambero Rosso helps to [...]

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Hot links

September 4, 2008

Someone has adopted this little bottle of orange detergent and is trying to hide it from everyone else! This is just the most seductive tale of office life I have read in a long time. (I know, I don’t get out much.)
A friend marveled to me today how the Europeans pride themselves on choosing leaders [...]

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Oh Canada!

August 29, 2008

Adding to my list of Good Reasons to Live in Vancouver: the new Greenheart Canopy Walkway at UBC Botanical Garden.
Adding to my list of Good Things that Come from Canada: CBC Radio 2 Concerts on Demand.

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Something to keep you busy

August 27, 2008

How have we created a food system that requires irradiation in order to eat salad?
Dave Freeman, co-author of “100 Things to Do Before You Die,” a travel guide and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators, died after hitting his head in a fall at his home. He was 47. That’s really sad.
Can [...]

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Isabella Rossellini shows how it’s done

August 20, 2008

This whole series is worth a watch. But who was the consultant/advisor? The Cannibal Praying Mantis stuff is less than 100% correct.

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Magpie droppings

July 29, 2008

Hello, Sigma? 1998 called. It wants its camera back.
Right there, obediently and immediately, the dog relaxed all four legs and dropped flat, belly and genito-excretory organs in the pizza.
Is this a great country or what? Poor people in other countries starve, but ours get to have heart attacks and diabetes. Let’s toast our American food [...]

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European Baby Product of the Year 2007, and other essential reading

July 22, 2008

I dunno. I’m not generally the squeamish type, but “a doctor recommended nasal aspirator that removes mucus from your child’s nose” is not something I’ve noticed a lack of in my life. Via.
Listening to certain people with strategic pretensions is like listening to someone afflicted with a spontaneous, naturally occurring affliction of buzzword bingo.

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Unapologetic

July 4, 2008

If Malthus is wrong, then why is it necessary to prove him wrong again and again, every decade and every century?
Answers on a postcard, please.

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Music and development

June 18, 2008

It probably means something that the print can only be made while listening to a recording of a Herbie Hancock jazz standard being played on dobro. I just wish I knew what that meaning is.

One of the pleasures abandoned in moving into a digital darkroom.

This much is clear. Microsoft helped create an industry that is [...]

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Is it rolling Van?

May 29, 2008

Blue Girl found Crazy Love. Go. Watch. Listen. Tell me: is Bob singing along, or  what?

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A lot of learning

May 6, 2008

The problem is not that I am speaking from a position of ignorance. I am speaking from a position of knowledge to people who don’t know what knowledge would look like. I am talking to people who are afraid that other people who also don’t know what knowledge would look like will read the book [...]

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I feel my black eyepatch calling me

May 6, 2008

Screw Grant McCracken and his hoity-toity, head-in-the-clouds, ivory-towered objections. I want to see Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver in a TV series. But I probably never will.

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Let them eat videos

April 29, 2008

There is rice and there are hungry People. Why do we have to navigate through the “economic minefields” in order to get feed? My family just went to the food bank where they gave us free rice, but no one in our family eats it. I told my son, “Take all that government rice down [...]

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Happy to oblige

April 15, 2008

I’ve kept out of the atheism evolution silliness recently because I just don’t get any reward from it. But that doesn’t mean I think that the film Expelled should get any more exposure than it already has. So when PZ issues a call to arms, my arms are his arms, yea, unto the eighth.
And I [...]

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She’s at it again

April 14, 2008

Yay! The Communicatrix just launched another of her 21-Day Salutesâ„¢. This one seems to be focused on sucking less at life. Or maybe about figuring out why she sucks at somethings. Or maybe about feeling OK about some suckiness. Not very focused, I hear you say. Yeah, well, that’s my inability to nail it down.
I’ve [...]

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Incompetent? Moi?

March 20, 2008

“He did the Sunday Times crossword in ink.” Who did? You’ll never guess. (Thanks, Luigi.)
Oh, and another thing. I’ll be seeking a new life any day now, thanks to that saucy Bramble Rainbowfly, aka Queen of the Shagbuns.
Your fairy is called Tangle Elfglitter
She is a cheerful sprite.
She lives at the bottom of tangled gardens [...]

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Vive la difference

March 11, 2008

Philippe Starck knocks ‘em dead at TedTalk 2007. And all the time I’m watching, I’m thinking, “is this possibly how Eddie Izzard comes over in France?”. Laughs, yes, and pathos too, but somewhere, deep beneath the surface, some rather stimulating ideas.

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