Harvey Elsewhere

Been having fun - as it were - with the new Washington Post
interactive tool.It allows one to see what the effects of a Harvey
type rainfall would have (for a 6 foot person) anywhere in the U.S.
I asked for:

Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC

French Embassy, Washington, DC

Facebook, Menlo Park, California

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/08/30/what-the-harvey-deluge-would-look-like-where-you-live/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-low_bump-9am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.182290fdc360

The Low-down(Harvey)

For the tough-minded, click to see photos:

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/weather/florida/miami

                                                 *     *     *

 via GIPHY


                                         *     *     *

 https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/dsdt/cwtg/egof_tmap.html

Dessert

Be polite with yourself; the descent into disordered behavior
often begins with unrealistic expectations. Eating Nutella by the spoonful
is dessert.

The following makes 4 verrines (dessert glasses) of Nutella Cheesecake.
It has an Oreo crust and is sweetened with maple syrup. How sane!

One uses whipped cream cheese, which gives an airy texture. The butter
and crumb crust is sweetened with syrup. After it has cooled in the refrigerator, one
adds the cheese, Nutella and Greek yogurt layer, puts that in the fridge and adds the
whipped cream topping with chocolate swirls before serving.

Source: MSN

Midnight R

NK Ports

Been listening to a Facebook video interview by a Buzzfeed journalist:
the subject, North Korea, as seen by a French national who has made
a career of organizing visits to the country, and lectures as a university specialist.
Not sure what to make of it. Items that stand out for me:

- North Koreans are genuinely committed to developing nuclear arms; they see
it as their salvation.
- South Korean businessmen would like to get in on the current economic boom
in that country.
- The ports of North Korea are of strategic importance for world trade.
- North Korea is a transit economy for its powerful neighbors, and allows them to trade
with certain regions without leaving a trace. This serves to teach the North, who see
what is going through.
- North and South K need to work out a peace arrangement between themselves,
without their pachydermic allies.
- The North Korean language is a clean version of Korean, without American loan words.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/julesdarmanin/deux-specialistes-repondent-a-toutes-vos-questions-flippees?utm_term=.krzPOw8ZG#.xqAnbdvp2

The Race Question

The concept of race is a politically sensitive one. Certainly
racial divides by phenotype (appearance)  has been largely discredited,
or relegated to popular culture at best. Genotype is the thing today.
Problem is, knowledge of genes is at the service of medicine, not
political discourse. And would have to be twisted to serve that cause anyway.

Case in point, the epicanthic fold, or characteristic double eyelid we
associate with Asian populations. No, we are not blind; it really is there.
Ask around on the web and one learns that all fetuses have it - it is normal human
packaging - and it largely disappears in European populations because of the
prominence of the nose bridge, which pulls at the skin. So genetically speaking,
Europeans have more prominent noses.

And yes, there are ancient populations in Africa that do possess this eye trait, so that it is
not impossible to assume that the people going out of Africa in the first migration East
were...Asiatics 😎.

Value for k

 Hooke's Law - which dates from the 17th century - is a cornerstone on the
study of simple harmonic oscillators. Asking Google to explain it to me in French
brought up course notes from the  Collège Maisonneuve in Montreal (a
junior college with a lot of math students ).

Hooke's law describes the behavior of an ideal string which exerts a certain force
on a mass. It is a vector quantity, which can be plotted on the x axis for convenience.
On the hanging from the ceiling version, one ends up finding the elusive Hooke constant k,
in newtons per meter. Helpful!

Canadian Desserts

I know...

Big Ben

Read about Big Ben this morning - the landmark clock in London, England - originally
completed in 1859. It is up for renovation for four years and the characteristic bells will be
silent. (They normally chime on the hour, and lesser bells on the quarter hour.) I started to
wonder about how such a beast (with four faces) could be kept on time.

The answer is absolutely charming (from Wikipedia):

On top of the pendulum is a small stack of old penny coins; these are to adjust the time of the clock. Adding a coin has the effect of minutely lifting the position of the pendulum's center of mass, reducing the effective length of the pendulum rod and hence increasing the rate at which the pendulum swings. Adding or removing a penny will change the clock's speed by 0.4 seconds per day.
                                                                 *     *     *
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero, or the point where if a force is applied it moves in the direction of the force without rotating. The distribution of mass is balanced around the center of mass and the average of the weighted position coordinates of the distributed mass defines its coordinates. Calculations in mechanics are often simplified when formulated with respect to the center of mass. It is a hypothetical point where entire mass of an object may be assumed to be concentrated to visualize its motion. In other words, the center of mass is the particle equivalent of a given object for application of Newton's laws of motion.
                                                                *     *     *

Hoora for physics. Just completed the tutorial from Khan Academy on simple pendulums
yesterday. The formula for the period T of the pendulum is given by:

where L is the length of the arm, g the force of gravity. Obviously, then, reducing the length of the
arm increases T, the length of time for a cyclic restore.

https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/you-can-now-get-sadiq-khan-big-ben-and-tube-roundel-emojis-080416

Eclipse

Inspire

Plato the Probe

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/meet-the-british-scientists-looking-for-earth-20?utm_term=.nkwKeEJOB#.fxwAYV3p0

Got a new desktop wallpaper this morning: from a Buzzfeed article
detailing Plato, the new space probe to look for a habitable planet similar
to earth. Love the animation, and the new planet quest. But I do have some
reservations about what might be pay dirt results for us.

The formation of planets results from physical processes, but their evolution often
involves accidents of one kind or another. Was reading just this week that dark holes
are no longer considered to arise from galaxies clumping together, but rather they form
from imploding stars and galaxies form around them. That sounds more like an accident.
Indeed those holes aren't holes at all but aggregates of debris, (like that spot on a
pair of white jeans).

Our own solar system formed from coming together of chunks around the sun, and many
are wondering if water and life-building molecules didn't smash into the planet on a blind
date with fate. So what constitutes a find out there needs to be thought about pro-actively.

And of course - at astronomical distances - we are always looking out into the past. We don't
know what has happened since our observation, (like with cousin Bert who lives in Oregon,
whom we last saw on a wedding picture).

What is even more challenging is how life itself can interfere with planetary evolution. If
dinosaurs disappeared by accident, one could well imagine that extra-terrestrials are closer to 
Worf than Mr Spock. In all seriousness, carbon-based life has a long history of interaction with
itself and its environment, down to climate change today. It made a difference, to itself, and its
atmosphere. Things surely took a quite different turn elsewhere, if at all.

So good luck with that. It is a fascinating matter.

Biscotti Squares

It's starting already: the season when the Internet is full
of hyper-caloric but oh so yummy-looking treats. Our
candidate below, biscotti and marshmallow chocolate squares.
Only 200 calories each.

I'm no fool: that recipe makes 16 squares in an 8 x 8 pan,
for a grand total of 3200 calories. Beats a cheesecake!!
Here goes:

First, a can of condensed milk, 250 grams of chocolate and 1/3 cups
of butter are melted together. then one mixesin 1 1/2 cups of biscotti
and 2 cups of  marshmallows. Freeze for 1 to 2 hours.

👍👍😋

Militarism

 It is always extraordinary to me, that young individuals can engage in
terrorist acts that are extremely violent. And knowing one can reasonably expect to
die as a result. What can possibly motivate such behavior, because youth is all about
wanting to live, and enjoying life. So at a total lost for explanation, I have been
scanning the Web for I can find about the Sociology of War.

There isn't much in the public sphere, all being hidden under security studies and
the like. And these things are close to useless anyway, because they are so tinted with
the view that terrorism is a form of deviance (like drug-taking or prostitution). It can't be;
it is too linked with calls to action from ISIS, too eager to learn and evolve, too appealing to
otherwise solid young men.

Found one interesting document, about a university conference on militarism held in 1994.
Below, a quite insightful paragraph which defines militarism itself.

Michael Mann addressed the 50 conference participants with a talk entitled “A Macro-Sociological Approach to the History of War.” Mann focused on militarism, which he defined as “the persistent use of organized violence in pursuit of social goals,” as it related to the different development patterns of modern authoritarian and liberal states. He contended that militarism was central to the historical experience of both types of societies, while the inherently different material and ideological structures of each state determined the form which that militarism would take. Authoritarian states, such as Germany and Russia/Soviet Union display what he called “militarism of the neighborhood” because their security concerns resided almost totally on their immediate borders. As a result, they had large standing military establishments that were extremely visible in the lives of the domestic population. In contrast, Mann ascribed “militarism of the globe” to liberal states such as Britain, it former colonies, and the United States. Their militaries were generally stationed abroad and globally oriented, both removing the armed forces from daily contact with the population and engendering what Mann called “spectator sport militarism.”

I've referenced the entire article below. The analysis is dated, but the stance is objective an
insightful. What kind of militarism is jihadism; we think of terrorists as immigrants who should be
relieved to find themselves in a free society, but what is their experience of swimming with the
crowd in European Cities; and what reinforces their move into combat status for the jihadist
cause. We are far from having a grip on some of these issues.


http://tiss-nc.org/sociology-and-war/

                                                          *     *     *

 http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2017/08/18/en-espagne-le-profil-type-des-apprentis-terroristes_1590728

Happiness is...

'Happy as a little fish in water' is an old French expression; but this is happiness
at the next level: as a pig at the beach. I've been having a Khan Academy
summer, and all the slogging I've done on vectors, calculus and matrix
algebra in years past are coming together for me. Very thankful!!

source: from yesterday's UK Reuters

L. Intolerance

Lactose intolerance is a thing, no doubt about it. The World Lactose Intolerance
map below shows just how widespread it is. Yet one needs to get clear about what
it is. According to the Mayo Clinic, primary lactose intolerance is not an absolute
inability to digest milk products - after all the human infant's first nourishment comes
from mother's milk - but rather occurs later in life, when lactase (the enzyme that deals
with milk in the small intestine) is produced in diminishing quantities.This fall-off is
genetically determined. It can also be caused by illness, or for a small number,
intolerance can be total when both parents pass on an intolerance gene.

China currently imports dairy products from Australia, but it is marketed for children.
I have seen on the web that yogurt and aged cheeses - already partially broken down -
are easier to digest, and might still be consumed by the intolerant.

                                          source: Oxford presents, 2010

                                               *     *     *
A2 milk??

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/trouble-with-dairy-a-new-type-of-milk-could-provide-a-solution/2017/08/10/67b8730a-7bb7-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-lifestyle%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.981d8e400915

Avocado Season

Again this morning, some poor soul on MSN was singing the avocado
blues: how to keep an avocado from turning brown once it has been
cut into. The classic answer is lemon juice and plastic, but anyone who
has tried this knows the results are imperfect, and browning occurs anyway,
especially if one waits more than one day to go back to the leftover.

What works at 100% - in my experience - is white vinegar. Soak the exposed
piece in the vinegar, and wrap in a plastic bag; it will be spotless when you go back.

There is one drawback, though: a lingering taste of vinegar, which is stronger
than a hint of lemon. Even if one tries to rinse it off. But if that avocado
is going into a salad with a vinegar and oil dressing, go for it. This works!!
(One can even make the dressing with lemon juice instead of vinegar🙋).

Pho Champion

For those intimidated by large Pho challenges, here is the low-down!!

Cheeses

One is told - on the Web -  that the essence of a cheese platter is bringing
together cheeses from various cheese families, and serving these with crackers,
breads, nuts, grapes. The quantities are meant to  vary whether it is a cheese
dessert course, or a just cheese offering.

Trouble for me was that I was unclear on what the cheese 'families' were. From
the French language Wikipedia, one finds the following:

Cheese is made from milk which has been acidified (with the aid of bacteria);
one then adds acetic acid or vinegar to curdle the milk, obtaining cheese curds and a
residual liquid called 'whey'. The origins of the milk - the animal, what it is fed - will
influence the product as will the additions of different substances and spices; in
particular whether mold is used to produce a crust.  In terms of preparation, it matters
whether the milk is raw, heated or pasteurized, more or less drained, and the time of
maturation.

The origins of cheese making is lost to history, but it was first and foremost a way of
preserving milk. Hotter climates needed to salt the product heavily, but Europeans
could afford more variety.


Hard cheeses (Les pâtes pressées) :
            Uncooked hard cheeses, where the curdled milk is pressed and refined
            e.g. Cantal, Gouda
            Semi-cooked hard cheeses
             e.g. Cheddar
            Cooked hard cheeses where the curdles are cooked at  50 °C then
            drained, salted and refined
            e.g. Emmental, Gruyère

Soft cheeses, to which one adds mold to develop - during maturation - a crust,
divided as to:
            Soft cheeses with a flowery crust
            e.g. Brie, Camembert
            Soft cheeses with a washed crust
            e.g. Munster, Pont-l'évêque
            Soft cheeses with a natural crust
            e.g. Crottin (goat cheese)

Fresh Cheeses :
           Fresh Cheeses, more or less drained
           e.g. fromage en grain, Cottage Cheese
           Kneaded cheeses, mixed and drawn out
           e.g. Mozzarella
           Melted Cheeses, made as an industrial product
           e.g. Cream Cheese
   
Cheeses with a 'parsley' crust or with internal mold
           e.g. Blue Cheese

Dreaming

Like Schubert, been dreaming of distant lands. And have been looking at pictures
of North Korea on the Web...

North Korea is on the Eastern seaboard of Eurasia. Pyongyang is roughly the
latitude of Atlantic city, with the same average temperatures of 55 °F( at 39°
North latitude).

Things are different in that a peninsula will have sea waters on both sides.
Aesthetically, the dominant hues are pastels and this is reflected in the capital's
architecture. Some of those trees look awfully familiar to me!

Below, a photo taken at the border with China.

source: Eric Hevesy, Postcards from China

                                                    *     *     *

NK News

North Korean news is  available in English. From Australia:

http://www.northkoreatimes.com/news/254302946/trump-has-a-vague-plan-but-north-korea-has-a-specific-one

                                                     *     *     *

From Pyongyang itself:

http://www.naenara.com.kp/en/order/pytimes/?page=Home

Preemptive

See what is going on here? Kim's people are threatening Guam with a show of force
attack. It puts the US in the silly position of acting to defend Guam, which is it's
base for offensive action, that very action which the  Kim team purports to be
defending against with its development of nukes.. Should the US order such a preemptive
move, North Korea would have no other choice but to arm their Guam-pointing missiles.

And all this would happen fast: 24 minutes for the bombers from Guam, 14 for missiles
towards Guam.

Indeed, one sees that North Korea - which was heavily bombed from there in the Korean
war - has been through the mill. There is a basis for opening talks, and this is it. Nothing happens,
from or towards Guam.

Defcon

https://www.morningledger.com/defcon-warning-system-how/13112135/

Guam is reportedly at DEFCON 4.

Stopping type 1 Diabetes

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/hopes-rise-for-diabetes-patients-as-trial-jab-brings-the-disease-to-a-halt-w2fn28jvd

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-diabetes-immunotherapy-20170809-story.html

C-Rolls

Cinnamon rolls are pretty yummy; in point of fact,  the sweetness comes primarily
from a brown sugar and cinnamon streusel interspersed in the paste. The pastry itself is soft
but airy with some sweetness, but 'good' because it  breaks down rapidly en bouche.

One should not follow a recipe like it is voodoo, and one sacrifices as one goes along.
Substitutions are also dangerous in this mind-set.. A good recipe is strategy applied to food
chemistry. Let us examine the 90minute C-rolls below.

There is yeast involved, and the whole thing is going to take 90 minutes. This tells me there
will be some sweet hot liquid involved to power the yeast, some kneading because
rolls are a bread, and some wait time (indeed, there are two wait periods). There is
milk but not that much butter involved, so the product won't be a puff, but a roll.
Finally, it tells me to add the one egg with water, because at that point the pastry is warm, and
I don't want the egg to start cooking before it is mixed in. A rumba recipe, which I will
have to pace myself through.

Notice as well that the small rolls are in a muffin tins, and touch the sides; one is
instructed - for a one pan version - to have the rolls touch. This is what gives height as well
as spread. And of course one adds oven time, because it takes longer for heat
to reach the middle. Voilà!

Just for comparison, one might buy a ready to cook roll in a can. One knocks open the can
and the dough springs out. This is an exercise in elasticity!!

http://allrecipes.com/video/2636/ninety-minute-cinnamon-rolls/?internalSource=picture_play&referringId=17006&referringContentType=recipe

Oatmeal

It was 13°C outside this morning, and the hearty breakfast is back,
if only for a few days. I know oatmeal is a great favorite but, in my experience, it
is often lumpy if not altogether rubbery, and the mess in the pot to clean up,
too much. So I have hit upon a reasonable alternative.

The idea is to mix a half recipe of quick oatmeal, with a half of oat bran.
It plays out as below:

2 3/4 cups of each cereal; between  3/4 and 1 cup boiling water.

Must be well mixed initially.

While it cooks for three minutes; prepare fruit, yogurt, milk, almond butter.

Consistency is light; pot not too difficult to clean!

The final product.

Tastes fine; warmish and satisfying...

Hey, it's oatmeal, folks!😉

Seme

I'v been trying to solve a non-existing problem; time to move on.
I am, of course, a total newbie when it comes to the Chinese language.
China is about as far as it gets for me geographically. And going to beginner
Chinese sites has gotten me into all kinds of stuff about Chinese being a 'tonal'
language, and how I have to master those tones.

But here is the thing: accented vowels are part and parcel of French, and it is
those very accents one finds in pinyin Chinese: aigu, grave, circonflexe (albeit
upside down) and high tone (which is conveyed by vowel groups in French).
So why all the blah blah: accents are said to enrich the lot of semes available in
the language (these being indivisible units of meaning of a language).
As explained in Wikpedia, seme (related to semiotics) is a key concept in 'comparing
languages for the purpose of instruction'. A native speaker of anything doesn't worry
about semes as such...

ahem, Fine!

The heart of the language, and its pictograms, should be a hurdle yet; but I
probably have those to thank for the fact that the verbs don't conjugate and the
adjectives don't gender or plural. I no longer find it amusing to hear an Asiatic person
drop an s of mispronounce: I've got your back.

Pinyin Chinese, using the Roman alphabet, developed in the Modern Era in China,
as did an appreciation of rhyming poetry. I am told newspapers are now in pinyin, and
often omit those pesky accents, leaving the reader work with context to decipher meaning.

Looking forward to finding my way around.

source: Yangyang Cheng

                                               *     *     *

Pinyin

 Nǐ hǎo                                   Hello
(you good)

Nǐ hǎo, ma                           How are you
(ma turns anything into a question)

Wǒ shì Louise                     I am Louise

Nǐ shì Random                    You are Random

(shì fulfills some of the functions of the verb to be; there are others.
Verbs are not conjugated for either person or time...)

Wǒ shì jiānádà rén              I am Canadian

Nǐ shì zhōng guó rén          You are Chinese
(you are middle kingdom person)

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/pinyin-editor.html