Saturday, October 31, 2015

Challenge


Thank you, Microsoft. That was challenging!






Wednesday, October 28, 2015

It's Coming...



The following video explains Halloween. I had never realized that the children originally wore costumes in order not to be spotted by the malevolent spirits of the night. A grand Halloween week-end in perspective...





Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Cleaner

European countries are experimenting with a new source for household electricity: a fuel cell from gas, from which one can generate - in a decentralised fashion -  enough electricity for heating and hot water in a home. This technology is already widely used in Japan.

It's cleaner 'n  coal!

http://agir-pour-le-climat.lefigaro.fr/initiatives-locales/engie-innove-grace-aux-piles-a-combustible_a-176-4716.html#xtor=AD-4

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Syria

I've long been curious about those Toyota trucks all all over war zones, like Syria. Here's an interesting article on the matter. And where do they get them?! I've also read the US left quite a few behind in Iraq.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/these-toyota-trucks-are-strangely-popular-with-terrorists-%e2%80%94-heres-why/ar-AAfgzn7?li=AAaeUIW





source: The Guardian, UK

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Crocodile (times)

Times for our crocodile will be the following:




Sunday, October 18, 2015

Crocodile

Le Monde yesterday published a problem from a UK exam that caused
some mystification. The crocodile wants to reach the zebra, and can use a
number of combinations of swimming across and walking. (It is slower to swim).
What are:

- his time crossing immediately
- his time crossing to the zebra
- his best time

I am showing Grapher takes on the formula.





The answer is 8. First one finds the derivative. Then, one sets it to zero and solves for the root.



Setting that equation to 0 gets 8. The trick lies in isolating the square root,
then squaring both sides to get rid of it...





Friday, October 16, 2015

World Food

Today is World Food Day. Looking through some dishes on MSM, I picked out two it would be nice to try.

The Frikadeller from Danemark seem familiar, but the idea of seasoning a meatball with nutmeg and sage could be pleasant. Worth a try.

The Martabak seem, in this colder weather, totally yummy. Might be beyond my culinary abilities; we'll see.





Thursday, October 15, 2015

Veganghetti

 
I was inspired to try for a vegan spaghetti from this Buzzfeed photo:
 
 
 
The realization was not quite so generous. Kidney beans, having soaked in water all night, then need to cook for a very very long time; or else they stay tough!! Should have tried following the recipe, instead of the picture... Live and learn!!
 
 




Fish Fat

Healthy eating information often comes in bits and pieces. Here is a little morsel for today:

All this business about fatty fish such as salmon being healthier because it contains
omega-3 oils does have an explanation. Some fish carry their fat in the liver
(Think cod); other fish, such as salmon have fat dispersed in their flesh. So we take
cod liver oil capsules and eat salmon for maximum health.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Diet On !

I have come to accept that my weight will fluctuate over a year; I spend the winter largely indoors, even if I try to go for a walk every day. Summers, I go for long walks and bike. In effect, 48 k is my jeans weight, the weight I aim for in the Spring when I know the good times are coming. I would like to try to not go over this point this winter, and I am happy to have found this very powerful diet.

What I like about the diet is that it mixes things up. And one has the choice to sticking to the diet as presented, or in a bold moment, making a substitution (Rather than nothing but 1/2 can of tuna last night, I had 1/3 can and a bit of left-over avocado with lemon. Delicious!) I am a veteran of many miracle diets and what was difficult about those boiled egg and grapefruit wonders of my youth was the boredom. One just reaches a point where 'You can keep that darn boiled egg for lunch, I'm a real person'. Things do get better with time.

On reflection, the improvement over those unitary diets might just be that there is now more information about nutrition readily available. Counting calories for weight loss was the bright idea of a female doctor with weight issues in the early 20th century, Lulu Hunt Peters. She was wrong, but she was so right. It was no longer a question of meeting calorie requirements during war, or in an industrial setting, but counting calories for appearance (and well-being). She would be, incidentally, my candidate for the US ten dollar note.

As someone now more literate on nutritional matters, I can make a judgment call that my water-packed tuna is perhaps lower in healthy oils than the diet called for, and add a bit of avocado. Voilà, power dieting.




 http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/magazine/articles/29-1-counting-calories.aspx?page=1

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Military

So here I am, on day 3 of the Military Diet. This is very popular on the Net, and
YouTube is full of ladies giving this one a try. Full points, for the diet: it pulls in
those struggling with cravings and gives them hope. The 3-day, below:


I can do that, the innocent think. Indeed, it is eminently doable, and one does loose 
weight. The diet goes on to suggest more generous menus, for the next four days. 
Then back to the 3-day... until one is at goal weight.


And yes, the maintenance days menu is quite appealing. Except for one teeny
weeny little detail: THE ICE CREAM DISAPPEARS! No, my friends, there is no
dessert on the maintenance page. At best, a snack allowance for unflavoured yogurt
and berries. Makes Weight Watchers appear like Party Time. So there it is, effective
but brutal, this diet marches one back to healthy eating. And it works!

Monday, October 12, 2015

Quote_of_the_Day


                                                                                                 . . .


                                             . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/opinion/paul-krugman-trump-is-right-on-economics.html?WT.mc_id=2015-OCTOBER-OTB-INTL_AUD_DEV-0928-1101&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=IntlAudDev

Happy Thanksgiving

Happens to me all the time: as a holiday approaches, I start tasting the various goodies beforehand and end up eating boiled eggs alone on the actual holiday because I am dieting. Yo Thanksgiving.

To stay in the spirit of the holiday, here is a recipe from Ricardo on the French language MSN. It is a lunch dish.




The chicken on one side, and the veg on the other are broiled 15 minutes. Both hoisin sauce and Sambal Oelek are added to the shredded meat before serving on a bed of rice, which has been cooked in chicken stock.





It does seem a bit strange to mix both the Chinese and Malaysian in the one meal, but these sauces are not condiments but more cooking sauces. From the comments, this dish is a boyfriend favourite.

Meanwhile, it's day 2 of the Military Diet for me!!

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Potato(10)

 
Adding potato to soup, once again; this time, minestrone.
 
 

Morning!

 
The light deficit is doing its work: trees are changing regardless of temperature (although Meteo Media reports that things have slowed a bit, because we now get more sunshine hours).
 
 
 





Friday, October 9, 2015

Degree Symbol

If I am on Word Pad with a Surface Pro, or on a blog entry, and I would like to use the degree symbol:


 I need to call the Character Map from Search ( and not Run), or call Fonts from Search.



Once I have it, I first Select the symbol, then Copy.


It is now available as a Paste.


Mars Colony

source: The Guardian
 
REALLY!!

                                                             ComicCon15, on MSN UK

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Mexican Border

The hail was large enough to damage a car. Children and pets!?


Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Potato (9)

Potato and bean salad for dinner; vegetarian meals sometimes seem bizarre. Whatever! It was  warmish out today, and I am happy for a cold supper.
 
Read  that potatoes are a resistant starch, and possibly aid in burning fat. ( The article argues that they were good for weight loss. Part of the great nutrition advice soap opera!?)  The reader has been warned.
 
 

Mr Monopoly


Nobel

I'm pretty stoked to know that all that work on neutrinos in that mine in Sudbury has paid off; Canada is getting a Nobel prize in physics on the confirmation that neutrinos change form, and one can thus infer, have mass (although very very little).

What this all means is not clear, but it is touted as opening a new era in Physics. The three recognized forms of the neutrino are each a product of a certain lepton breaking up. (Leptons are particles subject to the weak force i.e. radioactive decay).That one can eventually have the signature of the other is akin to ending up with a Pepsi stain drinking Seven-Up; it does open up some questions.

Congratulations to Dr  McDonald!

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

It's science, folks!

At last, somebody said it:

source: MSN, UK

And, I might add, with ice cream best of all:


Potato(8)

Egg salad meets potato, gives potato salad:
 
 
 

Monday, October 5, 2015

Potato(7)


Bought a perfect cauliflower this morning; am having boiled vegetables in pea soup for dinner. Yes, there is a potato.




Guns, you said?

http://news.yahoo.com/weapons-common-oregon-college-campus-despite-gun-free-131617428.html

ZBread


Made the Paula Dean recipe for Zucchini Bread (actually half the two-pan recipe, which is for a family). I used the highest quality Brazilian nuts, and didn't cut back on either the sugar or the oil.




I am not making any excuses. Just put me on a diet when it's all over.



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