I know that monster!
I flip through a LOT of pictures online in the course of a day. Every once in a while, something turns up in an images search that makes me go what on earth is going on here?
Like the picture above. Goodness knows what I was looking up when this thing appeared in my search results. When I followed the link, though, turns out I know this beast! This is Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins sculpting a megatherium — a giant prehistoric South American ground sloth.
He’s one of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs (though a megatherium is a much later beastie than the thunder lizards). Uncle B used to live near this park and we went there a lot. This was the first attempt to make life-sized scale models from the big old bones that were all the rage in Victorian times. In the 1850s, would you believe?
Giant cement sculptures. They look all weird and wrong to us now, as paleontologists have re-imagined and re-re-imagined how the bones went together. Who knows? Maybe the Victorians were closer. We haven’t found too many giant corpses with the skin still on. Anyway, I loved that park. Even if the Crystal Palace itself burned down in 1936.
Right! Remember to come back tomorrow, 6 WBT, for DEAD POOL ROUND 107.
February 22, 2018 — 9:33 pm
Comments: 5
Weasel’s bug farm
I’ve since made a second batch of yogurt using a tablespoon of the first. After the cooling off, I decanted it into a Pyrex measuring cup and used the slow cooker for the long-term heat source. I was easily able to keep it between, say, 108° and 115° (just about optimum). It occasionally sneaked over, but that didn’t seem to do any harm. This is, honestly, one of the most forgiving processes ever.
After less than four hours, it was very hard set. I took it off heat and let it cool to room temperature overnight. The result was as thick as cream cheese, sweet, with almost no whey. It’s gorgeous. Some variation of this method will do me for the foreseeable. Though I really should get a better thermometer, I’m rather skint after my last self indulgence, so I’m trying not to by any new gear.
In the big supermarkets here you can still buy Jersey milk (I buy this one). It’s homogenized, so no separate layer of cream on the top, but it’s a lovely golden yellow from all the milk fat. And not at all expensive. Last batch I made with a pint of ordinary supermarket whole milk. It was very nice, but I decided to try the hard stuff this time. I don’t know if it contributed to the final product, but this stuff is really more dessert than breakfast.
I pinched the picture from this fascinating article (yeah, you didn’t think I put all that effort into a post, did you?). If you’re interested in yogurt-making, do read it. Upshot is, this woman decided to see what the optimum amount of the previous batch you needed to make the next batch. Much against my expectation, the less of an inoculation she used, the thicker the result with less whey (up to a point, naturally).
Even the 1/4 teaspoon (the smallest she tried) set to a firm yogurt, as long as she gave it closer to six hours than four. Can anyone think of the mechanism?
Well. Billy Graham.
My father sat next to Graham at a luncheon once. Not really his milieu, but my dad was a mid-level GOP fundraiser and fancy lunches with famous people is one way they thank the footsoldiers. He instantly took a dislike to Graham. A really intense one that he wasn’t shy about sharing. I shall withhold details in the immediate aftermath of the man’s death (and in deference to any readers who were admirers), but it’s naturally what comes to mind when I think of the man and I had been dreading having to write him up for the Dead Pool.
HOWEVER, I think I’m going to call Dead Pool 106 jointly for RushBabe (who picked Dr Graham) and Carl (who carled his way to another win with Morgan Tsvangirai). At this point, I owe Carl something like the Sistine Chapel Ceiling in dick drawings (there’s a sentence I never expected to type), and Graham was one of the epic picks. I think that needs some acknowledgment.
I reserve the right to be arbitrary and capricious like this. You guys are going to love it when I take over the world.
February 21, 2018 — 10:14 pm
Comments: 14
Babby’s first blackmail
I received this charming email at work this morning.
Subject: [Nothing personal, do not take to heart
Hello,
If you were more careful while caress yourself, I wouldn't worry you.
I don't think that playing with yourself is really awful, but when all
your friends, relatives, сolleagues receive video of it- it is
definitely for you.
I adjusted malisious soft on a porn site which was visited by you.
When the object press on a play button, device begins recording the
screen and all cameras on ur device begins working.
Moreover, my virus makes a remote desktop supplied with key logger
function from your system , so I could save all contacts from ya
e-mail, messengers and other social networks. I've chosen dis e-mail
because It's your corporate address, so u must read it.
I suppose that 300 usd is pretty enough for this little misstep. I
made a split screen video(records from screen (u have interesting
tastes ) and camera ohh... its funny AF)
So its your choice, if u want me to erase this сompromising evidence
use my bitcоin wallеt аddrеss: [redacted]
You have one day after opening my message, I put the special tracking
pixel in it, so when you will open it I will see.If ya want me to
share proofs with ya, reply on this letter and I will send my creation
to five contacts that I've got from ur device.
P.S... U can try to complain to police, but I don't think that they
can solve ur problem, the inquisition will last for several months-
I'm from Latvia - so I dgf LOL
I detect the fine literary influence of Google Translate.
Poking around the internet, I found more about this one. It’s a common scam, but this is the first time it’s hit the UK. It arrived in a number of inboxes just today, always to a business address. Slightly different bitcoin accounts, slightly different amounts demanded, slightly different wording and claiming to be from different (but always Eastern European) countries. There was no tracking pixel.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that I felt not the slightest twinge of anxiety when I read this, for the obvious reason. That’s right – my computer doesn’t have a camera! ha HA!
But I wonder how many English butt-cheeks slammed shut over coffee this morning.
February 20, 2018 — 8:52 pm
Comments: 23
Q: what do you call a thermometer with no numbers?
A: a stick.
This is our jam thermometer. I can read the 100° mark and the 400°, so math and a Sharpie gave me close enough approximations to make yogurt. I hope.
I ordered a few sachets of starter on Saturday, and they came this morning. Sometimes eBay comes through!
First time out, I’m sticking as close as I can to the instructions on the packet, though I don’t really have a good low heat source for the ferment. One recipe suggested putting the hot mixture into a thermos, so I put it in a steel thermos and put that in a saucepan full of hot water. I’ve changed the hot water on the hour, but I have a bad feeling it’s losing temp too fast. I’m at about the three hour mark, so I’ll go check again in a minute.
One site I read said, “don’t worry, the milk can’t spoil – you’ve already spoiled it!
Ha! Little does she know my skill for spoiling the unspoilable!
Update: IT WORKED! IT WORKED! And it’s honestly the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted (though the starter sachet I used has rosa damascena in it; subsequent batches sill taste different). I thought it would never set, as I could not keep the temperature near 110°, but I did manage to keep it just over 100°. It was a sad and thin business after six hours, but I put it in the fridge. It was lovely, thick and creamy by morning. Lots of whey, though. We have a bread maker, a slow cooker and a dehydrator. I’m’a have to experiment.
February 19, 2018 — 9:17 pm
Comments: 23
Woof! Woof!
Chinese New Year begins today. ‘Tis the Year of the Dog.
Thanks for your input on the fermentation thing. I knew I’d have pickling and fermentation geeks on the blog!
I’ve had the old, old problem with researching stuff on the web: too much information, some of it contradictory. Some sauerkraut recipes, for example, insist that the shredded cabbage be kneaded vigorously to express the water (this must be the ‘elbow grease’ p2 was talking about). But some people just dump brine over it.
Nobody talks about sterilizing containers first. This makes the jam maker in me cringe. Yeah, I get it — you’re trying to grow bugs. But surely only the right bugs.
Unlike canners and picklers, I get the impression fermenters are a freewheelin’ bunch. It either works, or you’ll know it hasn’t, and it usually works.
I think it’s too cold in the kitchen to start experimenting just yet. We don’t have much heat in that part of the house and, this time of year, it’s hovering in the low sixties (or even high fifties) at night. I think I saw seventy as the recommended temp for getting the cultures going initially.
So I’ve just ordered a couple of different yoghurt cultures to play with while we wait for warmer weather. I love yoghurt, but I will have to work out how to scale down the recipe. I can’t eat a liter every 72 hours!
Pro tip: if you search eBay for “starter culture” you’re going to see a LOT of worms. Have a good weekend, everyone!
February 16, 2018 — 8:22 pm
Comments: 11
I guess I get it.
I don’t know about this image. It was the header pic for a FaceBook group called “Chicken Keeping for Assholes” that I was invited to join. For some reason.
As you might expect, there are tons of chicken keeping groups on social media. What you may not know is how bloody and acrimonious they can be. The main divide is between those who see chickens as livestock and those who keep them as pets. It usually comes to a head over culling sick birds. I’m going to guess the “Assholes” group is in the pro-culling camp.
But I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about fermenting food. Have you ever?
Sauerkraut? Pickles? Kimchi? Kefir? I’m talking ferment in brine, not pickle with vinegar.
From what I’ve read recently, the vinegar thing is a fairly modern imitation of food that has been fermented naturally — it tastes similarly sour, but is more controllable and consistent for commercial production. Even most of the stuff that has been fermented traditionally in brine is apparently zapped before packaging to kill the bacteria.
Yeah, that’s right. I’m still on my gut bacteria kick.
Don’t get me wrong — I love me a good ol’ kosher dill pickle. But I’m looking to brine stuff at home and eat friendly bugs. The produce season will soon be upon us!
February 15, 2018 — 9:46 pm
Comments: 20
It’s my Blogiversary!
Today is my eleventh blogiversary! In that time, there have been damn few weekdays that I failed to squeeze out something on these pages. Often something extremely lame and bad, but those too are things.
It was easier at first. There was so much new stuff to post about, what with the immigration and the moving and England and all. I fear it’s getting repetitious now. The seasons and events come ’round the same every year. It’s what I love about them, but there’s not much new to say.
But I would miss it if I didn’t have it. It’s been such a part of my daily ritual for so long. Also, I’d miss you guys terribly. So here’s to another year of low effort Summer fete posts and stories of Merry Olde. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
p.s. Oh, and I got married nine years ago today.
February 14, 2018 — 9:24 pm
Comments: 29
The Flintstones’ cartoons
Moving images, prehistoric style. They’ve found a bunch of these things and the current thinking is that they were toys. The current thinking.
I really liked this article in Science News.
Thousands of objects, some over 20,000 years old, have been traditionally explained as having some nonobvious ritual or religious significance, because they were…weird and inexplicable. More recent analysis of some of the clay objects have shown tiny fingerprints: they were made by children. Others may well have been made by adults for children.
I’m sure our ancestors would seem super religious to us, or at least terribly superstitious, but not EVERYthing was a ritual object, for crying out loud. This buttresses nicely with my personal thesis that the Willendorf Venus (and her sisters) were porno.
Think about carrying that object in the pocket of your…caveman suit. It would be pretty, erm. Tactile.
February 12, 2018 — 9:39 pm
Comments: 6
It sounds worse than it is
At last, I got my caput mortuum! I didn’t order it specifically, it was part of a package of pigments. Cheapest way I could get my hands on a sample of all the colors I wanted.
But I have found it! The holy grail! The pigment that best matches color of a chicken’s comb with the sun shining through it! It is cadmium vermilion and I am inexpressibly chuffed.
It looks brighter when you mix it up.
Have a good weekend, everyone, and may all your chickens have bright and shiny combs.
February 9, 2018 — 10:32 pm
Comments: 11
Bad elf
Poundland is the British equivalent of the Dollar Store. Not a place that greatly appeals, but they won our undying custom after the 2017 Elf on the Shelf incident.
In the runup to Christmas, they tweeted a series of photographs of an elf on the shelf doing…things. Naughty things. Double entendre things.
And some very sour pusses indeed complained to the ASA – the Advertising Standards Authority. And they have now sent a formal complaint to Poundland, a thing they were not obliged to do. Especially since, as it turned out, it wasn’t 84 people with a credible complaint, it was 23. Poundland’s formal answer is here.
So how naughty was the Poundland elf? Welllll…this is the image that drew the most fire. But he was a pretty naughty elf, indeed.
From the response, it looks like the idea didn’t come from an agency, but from somebody inside the organization. That makes it even better, somehow. I promise you, they made thousands of friends for every enemy. Britons love their smut.
February 8, 2018 — 10:29 pm
Comments: 10