handee

someone's done the maths on your drinking story - turns out it's journalists exaggerating again. who'da thunk it?

http://pyjamasinbananas.blogspot.com/2009/02/million-women-drinking.html

http://tinyurl.com/d4yov3

that is all.

On March 24, post an entry in your blog about an inspiring woman in computing:

http://findingada.com/2009/01/05/ada-lovelace-day/

Apparently, the highly paid stockbrokers will sod off to countries where the bonuses still happen - Mumbai, Shanghai - so the city has to keep paying bonuses.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/10/executivesalaries-creditcrunch

Well fucking let them go! It's not like they're doing a decent job here!!!!

David Byrne (my hero) and Bryan Eno (who is also, like, über cool) released a new album yesterday, available through download from http://www.everythingthathappens.com/

This website has been designed almost entirely using the latest version of flash. I've now tried to buy this using three browsers on linux (Firefox, Opera, Konqueror - yes I knew that last one was a long shot). I've rdesktopped into two windows machines, neither of which have a sufficiently up-to-date version of flash installed. And now I think I give up and go for a bootleg copy and wait till it hits a shop which can actually do e-commerce. Communications with the technical support of the company (one "topspin media") tells me they have "no alternative to a flash purchase flow". Disregarding the accessibility issues associated with using flash (screen-readers can't cope, so the partially sighted won't be able to buy this disk), it's a bit crap having a web only release which is implemented almost entirely on closed, proprietary systems.

This is particularly galling given David Byrne's political stance vis-a-vis issues like DRM (e.g. http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2006/01/drm.html). Given that there are open and accessible technologies which can do the job perfectly, why on earth use a system which closes out a sizeable minority of potential listeners?

Three peaks have been conquered. 11 hours 15, photos to follow. My camera died half way up peak # 1 so I'm having to wait for my cousin's photos to make it onto facebook:) The photos will be funny though, 'cause there was 5 metres visibilty on peak#1, 20 metres on peak #2, and about 40 miles on peak #3.

Anyone fancies chucking in some last minute sponsorship, go ahead: http://www.justgiving.com/hannah3peaks

And if anyone wants to chuck in a recommendation for a good point and click digital with reasonable optical zoom and decent ergonomics please do. Things that don't feel like they're made of plastic FTW, and it's got to use SD cards for storage 'cause that's what I've got built into my laptop.

Book meme....

Bold for read, italics for didn't finish, underline for read in school... no we didn't do much in school. However I'm fairly well read I think, must be having 2 english teachers as parents:-)

( reading list )

i'm thinking of getting a lot of these: http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=5306
if we get 20 they're 1.65 inc p&p; 40 they're 1.56. about the cost of a blank tape.
anyone interested in a handful?
(or know a supplier who can do cheaper?)

Full English breakfast, xmas lunch, crisps and cake at the departmental xmas party, and bier und wurst in the Deutsche Markt tonight. Yup, it's me birthday:-)

What's going on here?

I've had loads of completely pointless anonymous spam on one old LJ post.
W.T.F?

http://handee20001.livejournal.com/66627.html

I've just signed up for another 30 crediter, meaning that next year I'll be doing 60 (Exploring mathematics and Practical Modern Statistics). I've been planning to do exploring maths since I finished Using mathematics over the summer, and on a whim I signed up to the stats course too. It's more relevant to my work, and it doesn't look too daunting, but... now I'm a little concerned about the 60 credits thing. What do you seasoned OUers think? I'm guessing that two related 30 crediters are going to be slightly more work than one 60 crediter, as they'll not be coherent. Have I done something stupid?

There are over 1.5 million people of Japanese origin in Brazil. In Brazil, as you may have noticed from my previous entries, food is abundant and cheap. So what does this mean? It means SUSHI. I really really like sushi, but don't eat it often in England for various reasons (not least of which is the cost - I have never had sushi in England and not finished the meal slightly hungry). Here, mixed sushi and sashimi for two people means about 60 pieces. So it is abundant. Last time I went to a restaurant for sushi it came to 40 quid at the fanciest restaurant I have been in (for 2 person sushi, 2x miso soup, green tea, 4x water, the biggest glass of sake i have ever seen, another fish dish and 2x ice cream tempura in hot chocolate sauce (Oh. My. God.)). At a nice but not quite so amazingly flash place it was 20 quid for 2 person sushi and lots of beers. So yes, it fits the Brazilian model: abundant and cheap. And I have never been able to finish it.

We are planning to go for sushi later, I think, so I may try to get a photo like a proper tourist.

There is one dish that any diary of Brazilian cuisine has to cover, and that is the national dish Feijoada. Feijoada is hearty peasant food at its most peasanty and most hearty: it involves black beans, salt beef, and all those chewy bits of pig that other countries throw away. It's a rich salty meaty beany stew (but not spicy), and it is possibly the heaviest dish you will ever come across. The lanchonettes here (and nearly all other restaurants) do feijoada on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It takes too long to cook to offer it every day but it is so popular everywhere does it at least twice a week. So I will be eating it for lunch tomorrow as the kilo restaurant at the uni serves it every Wednesday just like everywhere else. If you actually order feijoada you end up with so much food that you cannot move at all afterwards, but at a kilo restaurant you are in control of portion sizes.

Typically you serve feijoada with... white rice; kale sauteed in salty garlic; manioc flour (toasted, I think); fried pork rind (sort of like pork scratchings, but not so spicy); spicy tomato salsa stuff; and slices of orange. If you look at the google image search for feijoada you will realise how important the side dishes are - it is all part of the feijoada ritual. I particularly like the kale.

Açaí is a berry that comes from an amazonian palm. They harvest them in the amazon and freeze them right away (or juice them right away) as they don't travel or preserve well otherwise. So down here in the south you can only get the berries as frozen pulp. They contain LOADS of healthy vegetable fat though, and the texture is such that you would think you were eating a sorbet or an icecream rather than just frozen fruit pulp. You can get it in juice form too, but the frozen pulp is the best, typically served with pulped or sliced banana (I prefer sliced) and about a tablespoon of granola which gives it a nice crunchiness. It is great when it is hot - the coldness of the fruit really brings down your body temperature.

Obviously I am not entirely sure about the whole eating-the-amazon thing. My colleague tells me that rather than develop the amazon there is a move to exploit whilst preserving - so the berries are harvested in a sustainable way and the funds go to preserving the area and habitat. As a pseudo-greenie¹ I am skeptically in favour of such schemes and my Portuguese is really not good enough for reading up on the details. So I take his word for it and have another bowl of Açaí na Tigela with sliced bananas. I mean, they sell it in the lancheonette between my office and the university gym, how am I to say no?

¹ Everyone has their own hypocrisies: I am a cycle-riding lentil-eating public-transport-using recycle-everything buy-secondhand-stuff don't throw anything away composting cars-are-evil low-food-miles vegetable-growing INTERNATIONAL TRAVELLER WITH MORE AIR MILES THAN MADONNA. Or something.

An ad-hoc pineapple shop

I mentioned a few posts back about the Brazilian obsession with meat... and the eat as much as you like (or eat as much as you can, depending on your mindset) barbecue joints.

Anyway, they let you tour the kitchen if you ask nicely.

( Vegetarians, look away now... )

On the street you can pick up all sorts of tasty food. There are VW vans converted with stoves in the back, selling barbecued meat and cheese (I have been a coward and not eaten any of this yet). There are people selling various corn (sweetcorn) products - a sort of jelly, and a sort of paste, as well as boiled corn. There are many many fruit sellers (pineapple, orange, papaya, melon seem to be the popular choices, peeled or not peeled as you please). And there are the coconut milkers. They just chop the top off the things and hand you it with a straw. You throw away the pulp (who'd wanna eat that?). At the markets, you can also get sugar cane juice (with lemon or pineapple) which is the biggest sugar rush you can imagine.

On top of this there are the water sellers ("agua agua-agua-agua-agua!") and ice creams, if you like that sort of thing.