Blog & White

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Deuxième ouvrage de gastronomique moléculaire d'Hervé This, publié en 1995. Contrairement au livre précédent et aux suivants, il ne se contente pas ici de décrire les principes physico-chimiques qui font la cuisine, mais le livre est un livre de recettes où chaque étape de chaque recette est commenté du point de vue du scientifique.

One more completely-useless-therefore-indispensable quizz from Samuel's blog

If there ever was a need to confirm what we already all knew…

Your inner beast is a Bear. Your fierce side is shown emotionally.

The Good You're Caring, Down-to-Earth, Considerate, etc…

The Bad You are sometimes Moody, Snappish, Overreacting, etc…

People On Your Good Side Are smothered with affection and attention.

People On Your Bad Side Are avoided and kept at arms length because you are afraid you will let them hurt you again.

Take this quizz !

© Imdb.com

A.J., read the end of this post.

Zak Gibbs' father is a physicist who is working on a watch-shaped device, sent to him by Earl Doppler, a former student of his, capable of accelerating the wearer so much that averything else seems immobile. That's called hypertime. Zak takes the watch without knowing what it is, but soon discovers its powers. He then discovers that strange people are searching through his father's papers. He meets Doppler while trying to escape them, and soon learns that since Doppler managed to escape from the bad guys (whose boss is incidentally called Mr Gates), they have kidnapped his father in order to continue the work on a device that prevents people in hypertime to get older at an accelerated rate. With Doppler's help, they enter the secret lab, wreak havoc, free Zak's father and get the bad guys arrested by the F.B.I. who was on its way anyway (the cavalry is always late…)

I watched the movie because it looked like SciFi from the description. And also because it was directed by Jonathan Frakes. But this movie is not something to be proud of, Number One (especially the part where a room full of nitrogen explodes because of a naked flame).

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Without really controlling herself, Tiffany Aching, a thirteen years-old witch apprentice, stepped into the Dark Morris dance, replaces partly the Summer Lady, and catches the attention of the Wintersmith. The latter falls in love with her, for as much as an elemental god can fall in love with a mortal, and starts building itself a human body. Tiffany continues to learn witchcraft with Miss Treason, and after her death, goes on at Nanny Ogg's, sill trying to hide from the Wintersmith. Tiffany is also acquiring some of the powers of the Summer Lady. When winter the becomes very hard and extends when sprint should already have arrived, she returns to her parent's place. Meanwhile, the Mac Nac Feegles, who have sworn to protect Tiffany, their wee big hag, following the instructions of Granny Weatherwax, go find Roland, Tiffany's not-exactly-boyfriend and soon-to-be heir of the local castle, train him to be a hero, and lead him to the Underworld to bring back the real Summer Lady. While fighting the Wintersmith, Tiffany is taken by the Wintersmith who takes her to his castle. She manages to vanquish it by kissing it and melting its body and its castle, just at the same time as Rolands comes out of the Uderworld with the Summer Lady. Spring finally arrives, the Morris Dance takes place, and everything's well that ends well.

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An old priest is found dead, a note written in an ancient language tucked between his lips and arsenic impregnated grease under his fingernails. The curator of the Dwarf Bread Museum is found dead as well. And the Patrician is being slowly poisoned with arsenic. The Watch is investigating, while the head of the guilds scheme together to find a new ruler, a ruler they would control (and it seems that Nobby Nobbs is the right choice, since he is an (illegitimate) descendant of the Earl of Ankh). A bit later, the golems of Ankh-Morpork start to behave weirdly, some of them trying to destroy themselves, leaving notes about being ashamed. Three investigations are being led at the same time by Commander Vimes and his men. They finally discover that the golems had tried to build a king for themselves, they baked it in the large oven of the Dwarf Bread Museum and went to the priest for the words to put in his head. But they put too many commands and the golem became crazy, starting to get rid of evicence of his creation, hence the two first murders. He then had been sold to a candle maker who was involved in making arsenic candles sold the the palace of the Patrician; the candles where meant to be used exclusively by Lord Vetinaro in his office. The brain behind this scheme is a vampire, the head of the heraldic society of Ankj-Morpork. People are to him like cattle and his genealogy books like stock registers. He wanted to better control the breeding of the influencial families.

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The Auditors hire Mr. Teatime the assassin to kill the Hogfather. On Hogswatchnight, Death replaces the Hogfather, because someone has to fill the stockings, drink the sherry and leave sooty footprints in front of the fireplace. Meanwhile, at Unseen University, strange gods or fairies appear when someone mentions their existence, particularly the Verruca Gnome, the Eater of Socks and Bilious, the God of Hangovers. They appear because since the disappearance of the Hogfather, there is free belief around, materializing in any kind of plausible divinity. Susan, Death's granddaughter, meets Bilious while she's trying to understand why his grandfather is playing the role of the Hogfather. While investigating with his help the disappearance of Violet, one of the Tooth Fairies' employees, she discovers that Teatime has found a way to enter the world of the Tooth Fairy (following the man who delivers the collected teeth to the Tooth Fairy) and uses the childrens'teeth to control them (that's how, I suppose, he has made them disbelieve in the Hogfather and made him disappear by lack of believers). Teatime was trying to reach the real Tooth Fairy when Susan stops him and returns him to the real world. She then meets the Tooth Fairy who is actually the promordial Bogeyman, who reconverted in collecting children's teeth in order to keep some amount of control over them and continue to instillate fear in their hearts. Then Death comes to pick her up and asks her to save the Hogfather (gods never really die) before the Auditors delete him for good. Once she has saved him, Death takes her back to the real world, where she manages to kill Teatime before he kills Death (he planned to use Death's own sword that he stole form Susan in the house of the Tooth Fairy). After that, all the extraneous fairies disappear.

© Amazon.fr

Septième volume de la série Golden City, racontant le passé des plus jeunes protagonistes, ainsi que l'enlèvement du garçon sauvé par Banks des griffes de trafficants d'organes, puis la prise d'otage de Golden City par un groupe mystérieux.

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Huitième volume de la série De cape et de crocs où nos héros trouvent enfin le Maître d'armes, bretteur au long nez parlant en alexandrins, qui finit par accepter de reformer son régiment de cadets (ils sont seulement trois mais valent chacun dix hommes) pour aller défendre la capitale de la lune contre l'assaut prochain par les troupes du Prince Jean, aidé du capitan Mendoza. L'assaut est terrible et laisse nos héros dans une situation desespérée.

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Dix-neuvième et dernier album de la série XIII, Le dernier round voit les protagonistes rentrer aux États-Unis après la révélation par un journaliste de la véritable identité de XIII, des liens entre Giordano et l'ancien président. Giordano tente de les faire assassiner, mais la tentative échoue et c'est lui qui se fera assassiner, non sans avoir été auparavant entendu par une commission d'enquête.

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Dix-huitième volume de la série XIII, La version irlandaise est un aparté qui raconte la relation entre Seamus O'Neil alias Kelly Brian, membre de l'IRA et réfugié aux États-Unis et Jason Fly, son meilleur ami. L'IRA voulait forcer Brian à espionner pour eux à Cuba après avoir éliminé Fly (qui va se faire embaucher par le FBI et qui connaît trop bien Brian), mais c'est lui qui se fera tuer. Giordano, patron de la CIA force alors Fly à endosser l'identité de Brian (sous peine de le faire accuser du meurtre de Brian qui n'a eu pour témoin qu'une seule personne, elle aussi agent de la CIA).

3g de gomme de konajc dans 2dL de lait donne une substance épaisse, qui « colle » bien à ce qu'on y trempe. Elle est un peu astringeante en bouche.

“Barleywine-Style Ale”

Very sweet, very strong too, with a strong malt flavour. Otherwise just another ale. Made of barley, wheat, rye and oats.

Ridgeway Brewing, Oxfordshire, England. 10.5% alcohol.

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When the island of Leshp suddenly surfaces in the middle of the Circular Sea, it is immediately claimed by fishermen from both Ankh-Morpork and Klatch. Klatch sends very soon after to Ankh-Morpork a diplomat, Prince Khufurah, who is nearly killed by an unknown murderer. Vimes investigates and finds the assassin, but the latter is already dead, and the profusion of clues make it clear that it was a setup. Very soon, Ankh-Morpork and Klatch are preparing for war. The Patrician is evicted and replaced by Lord Rust, who reformes the regiments in order to invade Klatch, and disbands the Watch. Meanwhile, Vimes is still investigating the attempted murder and sails to Klatch with his faithfull ex-watchmen. At the same time, the Patrician enrolls Colon and Nobbs for manning a submarine made by Leonarod da Quirm. The Patrician discovers that the island is floating on a giant pumice, and is soon going to disappear into the sea once again. He then lands incognito in Klatch in order to gather intelligence about the situation. Meanwhile, Vimes catches the man he was following, 71-hour Ahmed, bodyguard of Prince Khufurah, who also happens to be a Klatchian copper. Ahmed tells Vimes that Prince Kadram, ruler of Klatch, had organized the assasination of Prince Khufurah, his brother, in order to provoke a war between his country and Ankh-Morpork. Ahmed cannot arrest his own ruler, that's why he attracted Vimes to Klatch, hoping the descendant of Old Stoneface would get rid of Kadram. Ahmed and Vimes finally manage to reach Kadram and keep him at point blank, undecided about what to do. Just at this moment, the Patrician appears and announces that Ankh-Morpork surrenders unconditionnaly before the war actually begins. He agrees that a treaty, containing numerous benefits for Klatch, will be signed on Leshp, a neutral territory. But Leshp disappears just before the treaty can be signed, suppressing all legitimate reasons for the war and making the treaty impossible to sign.

Very flowery smell, but I can't put a name on the flowers. Very sweet and quite bitter. Made of barley, wheat and oats.

Ridgeway Brewing, Oxfordshire, England. 6.0% alcohol.

Just another ale, slightly bitter. Made of malted barley and wheat.

Jennings Castle Brewery, Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. 4.2% alcohol.

Wikipedia.org

From Wikipedia:

When an high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer defects to the West with a story of an agreement between the Russians and Cubans and the existence of a “mole” within the French intelligence service, CIA agent Nordstrom enlists the aid of his friend and French agent André Devereaux, encouraging him to accompany his daughter Michèle on her honeymoon with journalist François Picard as a premise to get him to New York. André accepts, but his wife Nicole is worried for him.

After managing to get hold of some seriously damning papers from the visiting Cuban official Rico Parra, in New York to appear at the United Nations and staying in Harlem to show solidarity with “the masses”, sneakily of course, a concerned Devereaux jets off to Cuba and catches up with his mistress Juanita de Cordoba, who is now secretly involved with a local underground movement whilst also being involved in another way with Parra. Parra finds out and kills Juanita. Devereaux then is recalled to Paris, where he attempts to get to the bottom of this whole leak problem. Michèle wants to reconcile her parents.

Nicole cheats on André after his Cuban affair with the man who proves to be the leader of the spy ring, “Topaz”, Jacques Granville, their old friend from their days together in the French Resistance. François goes on to find out who “Topaz” is by interrogating NATO official Henri Jarré. A short time late Michèle finds the murdered Jarré and François is missing. A short time later François arrives at Michèle and her parents and shows her a drawing of Jarré. Nicole knows him and tells André, that Granville is the head of “Topaz”.

© Amazon.fr

A compilation of ghost stories by Roald Dahl, originally for a TV series project that was finally aborted.

W.S. (L. P. Hartley) Walter Streeter is a novelist. His hateful character, William Stainforth, comes to him as a ghost to take his revenge from having been created so bad a person.

Harry (Rosemary Timplerley) Christine is an adopted daughter. Her brother, who loved her and died saving her life when she was a baby comes as a ghost to take her back.

The Corner Shop (Cynthia Asquith) A man buys for a low price a very valuable object at a gloomy antique shop, from a very dusty looking shop owner. He wants to return part of the money to the owner, but the shop actually belongs to the daughters of the owner, and their father has been dead a long time.

In the Tube (E. F. Benson) A man sees the ghost of another one in the London underground, meets the real man later, and learns about his death in the underground some time later.

Christmas Meeting (Rosemary Timperley) A woman spends Christmas with a neighbor who disappears strangely, and happens to be a ghost. The neighbor, before dying many years ago, had mentionned spending Christmas with a female neighbor who disappeared strangely.

Elias and the Draug (Jonas Lie) Elias is a fisherman who had injured the Draug (a sea demon) confusing him with a seal. Years later, the Draug kills Elias and all his family but his son and adopted daughter.

Playmates (A.M. Burrage) A lonely, adopted girl lives in a former girl's school. She plays daily with the ghosts of the girls who died there of disease years ago.

Ringing the Changes (Robert Aickman) A couple spends their honeymoon in a small village just the day when the villagers ring all the bells to wake the dead. The bride is taken away by the crazy villagers/risen dead and saved by an old sailor who lives there.

The Telephone (Mary Treadgold) A man divorces his wife to go with a younger girl. Later, the ex-wife dies, but the man manages to reach her ghost on the phone at their old house. The new wife asks the ghost for forgiveness and peace and obtains it.

The Ghost of a Hand (J. Sheridan Le Fanu) A ghost of just a hand frightens a whole household.

The Sweeper (A. M. Burrage, as Ex-Private X) Years ago, in order to earn some food, a tramp died sweeping the alley leading to a lady's house. Since then, his ghost comes back sweeping every autumn, each time closer to the house, when he reaches the house, he takes the woman with him.

Afterward (Edith Wharton) A couple lives in a haunted house where the ghost is never to be seen. Only long afterwards one knows it was the ghost. One day, a man comes to the house, and the husband disappears. The man was the ghost of a businessman who commited suicide because he was ruined by the husband. Only long afterwards does the wife understand it was a ghost.

On the Brighton Road (Richard Middleton) A tramp meets a young boy along the road. The boy claims to have died many times already. He's sick, taken to the next city by a driving-by doctor, dies at the hospital. The tramp meets him again on the road the next day.

The Upper Berth (F. Marion Crawford) The upper berth of cabin 105 on the Kamtschatka is haunted by the ghost of a drowned man, driving to suicide all the passengers who sleep in the berth. A man on the lower berth wants to solve this mystery, but the ghost is a real ghost.

“…beans selected and hand roasted by our friends at Union Coffee Roasters… distinct chocolate and vanilla notes. Each serving is equal to one cup of coffee.”

A distinct smell and taste of coffee, quite sweet, and surpisingly good (even though I don't like coffee at all). The taste is slightly salty, which was quite unexpected. Made with barley and wheat.

Meantime Brewing, London, England. 6.0% alcohol.

I bought some time ago Die Nacht der Magier, which is a board game with phosphorescent pieces, played in the dark. I read on the Web (therefore it has to be true) that phosporescent paint is getting “recharged” much faster with UV light than with white light. So I had to build a UV lamp. I bought UV LEDs at LSDiodes.com, and I finally built the device.

It has 10 LEDs, connected in parallel two by two with an 18 Ω resistor for each pair of LEDs, and is powered with a 4.5 V alkaline battery. Each diode is supposed to draw 20 mA and to have a forward voltage of 3.6 V, while the battery, providing 200 mA, sees its voltage drop to 4.3 V. In practice, it seems that the battery is not always able to do so, and during the first test after building the lamp, it provided only 80 mA. Another time, it was 130 mA.

UV do recharge the phosphorescent paint quicklier than while light. Also, I discovered that teeth are fluorescent, as well as soap (but not fluor toothpaste), white paper, many colored plastics in children's toys and white cloths (including those which have been washed with washing powder supposed not to contain optical brighteners). Also, the UV lamp allows to see the pattern of the mattress through the bedsheet. UV light is lots of fun.

© Prathamam.com

Un film d'Ang Lee (1994).

Chu est le meilleur cuisinier de Taipei, mais il souffre d'anosmie depuis longtemps, et c'est son collègue et ami Wen qui lui prête son nez. Chu a trois filles, une qui est prof de chimie, l'autre est cadre dans une compagnie aérienne et la troisième travaille dans un fast food. Les trois filles sont célibataires et vivent chez leur père, mais elles rencontrent toutes les trois un homme : pour la première, il s'agit d'un prof de sport, fraîchement arrivé au lycée où elle travaille, la deuxième (qui a un ex copain qu'elle revoit régulièrement), un collègue qui était auparavant en poste à Amsterdam, et la troisième récupère le copain de sa collègue qui n'avait pas l'air d'y tenir tant que ça. Quant au père, veuf depuis 16 ans, il tombe amoureux de la voisine, mère d'une petite fille à qui il prépare chaque jour un repas somptueux qu'elle emmène à l'école (la mère de la voisine avait bien essayé de lui mettre le grappin dessus, mais elle était vraiment trop insupportable).

“… malty taste, biscuity flavours. Liberty hops give a zesty character and fruity bite, whilst Saaz hops add gentle bitterness…”

Flowery smell, but otherwise just another ale. Contains malted barley and wheat.

Fuller Smith & Turner, London, England. 4.2% alcohol.

Wikipedia.org

Too much to summarize. Check the Wikipedia article.

Vendredi dernier, j'ai enfin reçu ma commande de chez Kalys (ça devrait plutôt s'appeler kallis d'ailleurs) :

• alginate de sodium (entamé)
• chlorure de calcium (entamé)
• citrate de calcium (entamé)
• k-carraghénanes
• agar-agar
• gomme de guar
• gomme de konjac (entamé)
• gomme de xanthane
• gomme de tara
• gomme arabique (entamé)
• farine de caroube
• methyl-cellulose (entamé)
• sirop de glucose

Je me suis empressé de faire des expériences…

Gel de Cola

Alginate + citrate de calcium. L'alginate a été mal mélangé, il aurait fallu le mixer avec le cola. Le gel était fragile (trop faible concentration d'alginate je suppose) et plein de bulles (ça, c'est le cola). Le goût est acide/affreux, la consistance est désagréable sur les dents, crayeuse (le calcium précipite en carbonate de calcium), probablement une réaction entre l'acide (citrique ?) du cola et l'apport de citrate qui change radicalement le pH.

Caviar de Cola

Gouttes à l'alginate, solution de CaCl₂. 8 g de CaCl₂ dans 1dL d'eau, prise trop rapide et gélification quasi totale des gouttes. Les gouttes étaient peut-être aussi trop petites. La pissette est un bon outil pour les gouttes. L'ajout de 0,3 g de Konjac a rendu la solution plus épaisse, mais n'a pas donné de gouttes plus grosses. Le goût n'est pas terrible, probablement parce que les molécules sapides sont prisonnières du gel.

Sirop de Cola

0,3 g de konjac dans 1dL de cola. Après mixage à la girafe, le mélange est effectivement sirupeux, c'est surprenant, mais pas agréable à boire (goût du konjac ?)

Glace chaude

D'après cette recette. J'ai remplacé le sirop d'agave par un sirop de fructose (40g fructose et 40g eau, j'aurais dû utiliser 60g fructose et 20g d'eau qui est plus proche du vrai sirop d'agave). Le fromage frais était salé, j'ai ajouté une quantité suffisante de sucre glace pour essayer de cacher le goût. Le mélange a reposé toute la nuit sur le balcon. Le pochage fonctionne, à condition de laisser la cuillère à glace (en plastique) assez longtemps à la verticale dans l'eau, et de ne pas utiliser la languette pour tenter d'en détacher la boule (sinon la languette s'enfonce dans la préparation et crève la boule) ; il faut plutôt tapoter la cuillère au fond de la casserole jusqu'à ce que la boule se détache. La glace chaude, c'est pas terrible, c'est dense et lourd à digérer, pas comme de la vraie glace (qui est une sorte de mousse compacte). Trop de méthyl-cellulose (c'est un épaississant)? Trop de fromage? Pas le bon type de fromage frais? Aussi, la glace chaude ne devient pas liquide en fondant comme de la vraie glace, elle revient très lentement à une crème très épaisse.

Décevant en fin de compte (ou alors davantage d'expérimentation est nécessaire).

Lait d'amande

J'ai d'abord expérimenté cette recette, mais je n'ai pas assez moulu les amandes (jusqu'à en faire une pâte, afin de maximiser la surface d'échange avec l'eau). Il s'agit davantage un sirop que d'un lait, c'est lourd et très sucré, pas terrible.

J'ai ensuite essayé la recette de Ginette Mathiot (30g amandes trempées 15 min dans l'eau tiède puis égoutées, 15g sucre, réduire en pâte au mixer, finir au morier, puis incorporer 1L d'eau et filtrer). Ça ressemble davantage à du lait, peut-être qu'un peu de gomme arabique aurait pu aider à stabiliser le mélange, il ressemblait à du lait non homogénéisé. Très bon, bien plus léger que l'autre recette.

Conclusion

Doucement sur les additifs. C'est sympa, mais ça a sérieusement troublé ma digestion. À qui la faute, je ne sais pas. Méthyl-cellulose ? Abus de glace chaude ? (il fallait bien finir les restes).

Reste à expérimenter le volcan chocolat à l'orange bleue, la sauce à tremper sans graisse, les pâtes de fruits, et les tuiles parmesan-chocolat.

La gomme xanthane a l'air intéressante pour faire du Choco-Noursy sans trop de graisse. Et il faudrait que je fasse quelque chose de ce gros pot de gomme arabique (nounours en gomme ?)

Ce soir, j'ai essayé le volcan chocolat à l'orange bleue. Autant c'était rigolo à préparer, autant le goût était horriblement amer. La recette prévoit d'utiliser 4g de CaCl₂, ce que j'ai fait, mais le gout amer du calcium est très net. Pour être franc, on ne sent rien d'autre que le goût du calcium. J'ai alors ajouté deux grosses cuillères à soupe de sucre glace et un peu de sel (ce dernier est censé cacher l'amer et renforcer le sucré), mais on sentait toujours l'amertume très présente, bien plus notable que le goût d'orange. Je reconnais que le fautif pourrait être l'arôme d'orange qui est passablement amer lui aussi, je ne me souviens plus si j'ai goûté la préparation avant d'y ajouter l'arôme.

La sphérification en revanche fonctionne bien, à condition d'avoir une cuillère à soupe assez profonde (j'ai dû en sortir une de l'argenterie pour ça, celles de la cuisine sont presque des spatules). Mon erreur a été de laisser les sphères (enfin les patatoïdes, quoi) dans le bain de trempage au lieu de les en sortir pour les tremper dans l'eau. Ils ont fini par coller entre eux, et à la fin il était impossible de les séparer sans les percer. Finalement ce n'était pas une grande perte, parce que de toutes façons, ce n'était pas mangeable, tout est parti dans les toilettes.

Si je trouve un moyen de cacher le hideux goût du calcium (en réduisant la concentration ? En changeant de sel de calcium ?) j'essayerai peut-être de nouveau avant dimanche (je comptais en faire pour ma fête d'anniversaire, mais je vais peut-être me rabattre une une charlotte chocolat-poires). La recette en anglais donne 4g de chlorure de calcium ou de lactate de calcium, mais les concentrations en Ca²⁺ sont différentes, environ une fois et demi inférieure dans le cas du lactate par rapport au chlorure (en supposant que mon chlorure de calcium est dihydraté).

Par contre la couleur bleue (j'ai trouvé le colorant en pharmacie, étiqueté E132 indigocarmin) est chouette, j'en mettrai dans une sauce à tremper les crudité :)

© Allocine.fr

« Les contes de Terremer » est un film de Goro Miyazaki, le fils de Hayao Miyazaki, d'après un roman d'Ursula K. Le Guin.

Sans raison apparente, le prince Arren tue le roi son père, s'empare de son épée et s'enfuit à travers le pays. Il rencontre en chemin un magicin, Épervier, qui l'accompagne jusqu'à une grande ville, qui est le royaume des traficants d'esclaves. Arren sauve la vie de Therru, une jeune fille traquée par les trafficants, mais il est lui-même pris un peu plus tard. Épervier le délivre et l'emène se cacher à la ferme de Tenar, une amie de longue date, chez qui habite (comme par hasard) Therru. Cette dernière a peur d'Arren, car elle voit le mal qui l'habite, mais ils finissent par devenir amis après que Therru aide Arren à prendre conscience qu'il a peur de la mort que cette peur est devenue partiellement indépendante du corps d'Arren. Quelques temps plus tard, les traficants d'esclaves arrivent chez Tenar, et prennent cette dernière en otage pour attirer Épervier chez Cob, un autre magicien, de qui il veut se venger. Cob est obsédé par la vie éternelle, et il est persuadé qu'Arren (qu'il a fait prisonnier et soumis à sa volonté) est la clé qui la lui donnera. Finalement, Therru part au chateau de Cob apporter son épée (magique) à Arren, et ensemble ils parviennent à défaire Cob. On apprend aussi que c'est Therru l'immortelle (et qu'elle est aussi un dragon, allez comprendre).

After a lot of sanding, I finally glued the pieces together, and it's not even very much crooked. Sanding surfaces so that they are flat enough to be glued is not an easy task, but thanks to two new techniques I invented (or rediscovered), it was a bit easier. I first tried cocoametry, where you brush cocoa on the surface, then scrape it with a straight tool, and look at the mess: where all the cocoa has been scraped there is a hill, and where there is still cocoa, there is a valley. You just need to sand the hills a bit more. The second technique is pencilometry, where you apply with a pencil a lot of graphite on both surfaces you want to glue, and then thrust the two surfaces together. Where the graphite concentrates, there are hills that you need to sand.

Now I “just” need to put some wall around the core. Either cardboard (but that's going to be ugly I think) or transparent plastic (but much less easy to work with).

Smells of flowers and red fruit (maybe strawberry). The taste has a faint hint of chocolate. Contains malted barley.

Adnams, Southwold, Suffolk, England. 4.5% alcohol.

I discussed today with Matthieu Fritz about how the act of reading was processed in the brain, and he reminded me of a chain e-mail containing text where the letters of the words were scrambled, except the first one and the last one, and which was still surprisingly readable. He wondered if it worked with any text, or if the text in the e-mail was carefully composed. I quickly hacked a Perl script doing the job, and in the middle of writing it, I was wondering how I could scramble the letters of a word without writing too much code. The the solution popped into my mind: use sort, unsing rand instead of a comparison function. Here's the resulting script:

sub scramble {
  my $s = shift @_;
  my @letters = split //,$s;
  my $first = shift @letters;
  # Do not scramble words starting with an uppercase letter
  return $s if $first =˜ /[A-Z]/;
  my $last = pop @letters;
  my $rand = int(rand(2));
  # $rand == 0 means that the letters won't be exchanged, but we want as much
  # scrambling as possible, therefore we discard the use of 0
  $rand = -1 if $rand == 0;
  my @l = sort { $rand } @letters;
  return "$first".join("", @l)."$last";
}
 
while (<>) {
  # Scramble the words composed of lowercase letters and accentuated
  # characters
  s/([a-z\xa0-\xff]+)/&scramble($1)/ge;
  print;
}

Verdict: it works with short and common words, but not with longer or rarers ones.

Just another ale, a bit bitter. Contains Marris Otter malted barley, torrefied wheat, crystal malt, English grown hops.

Wooden Hand Brewery, Truro, Cornwall, England. 4.3% alcohol.

Thanks to Niko's help, I managed to measure the current drawn by the Yepp while playing an MP3. The trick was to use a voltage source set to 1.2 V, and then read the current from the power supply's display. The first method I tried, using a simple amperemeter, doesn't work, unless the meter is set to measure 10 A currents. According to Niko, this reduces the amperemeter's internal resistance and minimizes the voltage drop it provokes, allowing the Yepp to get enough power to boot, but it also reduced the precision of the measurement to 10 mA steps. Here are the measurements:

• 60 mA with no headphones or volume set to 0.
• Between 60 and 70 mA with 13 Ω impedance headphones and volume to maximum.
• 20 mA when paused.
• slightly over 100 mA with the LCD backlight on.

From these values, one can easily calculate that while running, the Yepp consumes about 72-84 mW, and only 24 mW while paused. Moreover, with a 2500 mAh NiMH battery, it should run 35 hours.

However, NiMH batteries have a high self-discharge rate of 5-10% the first day and 0.5-1% the following days, so my 2300 mAh battery used over approximately 6 weeks (charge it, store it charged for 3 weeks, then use it to replace the old battery and use it for 3 weeks) has an actual capacity equivalent to 1400 – 1800 mAh, which in turn should give about 20 – 25 hours or usage.

“Cock a Hoop was a long established tradition at our brewery on the banks of the River Cocker, where the master brewer revoved the cock from the barrel and rested it on the hoop of the cask prior to tasting.”

Just another ale, not bitter. Made of malted barley and wheat.

Jennings Castle Brewery, Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. 4.6% alcohol.

Je suis passé au magasin asiatique dans la galerie marchande du Citymarket de Seppälä, et par curiosité je suis allé voir les thés qu'ils vendent. J'ai hésité à prendre un pu erh en vrac, jusqu'à ce que je me rende compte qu'il provenait de l'Anhui, ce qui n'est pas vraiment la région d'origine du pu erh. En revanche, j'ai acheté un wu long du Fujian. J'aurais pas dû.

Il est très fortement torréfié, en fait beaucoup trop. J'ai l'impression de boire une infusion de pain grillé beaucoup trop grillé tellement le goût de quasiment brûlé occulte tout le reste. On distingue un goût légèrement sucré, et absolument rien d'autre. Enfin bon, à 3,20 EUR la boite de 125 g, on a ce qu'on a payé.

Wikipedia.org

From Wikipedia:

“Two brilliant aesthetes, Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan, plan the perfect murder inspired by lectures on the art of murder once made by their erstwhile housemaster, Rupert Cadell. They invite a former classmate, David Kentley, to their apartment for drinks, strangle him, and hide his body in a chest, thus, they believe, demonstrating their superiority. Straight afterwards they throw a party in their apartment. Among the guests are the victims father and aunt, his fiancee and her former boyfriend. Rupert Cadell also attends.

To impress Rupert and to gain his approval, Brandon subtly drops hints throughout the party about the murder of David, and begins a discussion on the art of murder. David, his connection to the guests and his curious absence forms much of the conversation during the evening.

In contrast to Brandon, Phillip gets more and more nervous throughout the party. Rupert quizzes him over Davids absence and some inconsistencies that have been raised: Phillip denied strangling a chicken at the Shaws farm when Rupert knows that he did. Phillip later complains to Brandon that he had a rotten evening (a reference to Ruperts probing, not Davids murder).

At the end of the party Rupert is handed another persons hat by mistake. In it he sees the initials D.K. (as in David Kentley) and becomes rather uneasy. Highly suspicious Rupert returns to the apartment after everyone has departed, claiming he has misplaced his cigarette case. When he arrives back in the apartment, he plants his cigarette case, finds it, but then stays to theorize about the murder of David, encouraged by Brandon who seems eager to have Rupert discover it. When Rupert lifts open the chest to reveal the body still tucked inside and realizes that his two former students have indeed murdered, he is horrified and ashamed of his own rhetoric that had led them to perform the morbid deed. He then takes Brandons gun and fires several shots into the night in order to attract police attention.”

© Amazon.fr

Fourth and last book of The Dreamers series, The Younger Gods was published by David & Leigh Eddings in 2006.

The Vlagh has decided to attempt a last time to take over the world, this time launching all her bug-children through the Long Pass in Aracia's domain. In order to keep Aracia out of their way, the allies pretend that the attack is going to take place on her temple, and Sorgan and his Maags are sent there to build makeshift forts, while Narasan and the Trogites build real forts in the Long Pass. Sorgan discovers that a woman-looking bug has become a priestess very close to Aracia, and discovers that she tries to compell her to kill her dreamer. Aracia eventually complies, but ceases to exist, because she tried to break the Law forbidding her to kill living being. Meanwhile, Omago discovers that he is not a simple farmer, but a God, the mate of Ara (who is also a Godess), and has erased his memory and started to live as a human to try and understand mankind. In order to get rid of the Vlagh once and for all, he takes Rabbit and Longbow with him to the nest of the Vlagh, impersonates her Voice, and tells all her bug-servants to eat her newborn children, while preventing her to procreate anymore. The Vlagh will then cry the loss of ther children forever. Finally, Omago and Ara change the past so that Longbow's girlfriend is not killed by the Vlagh's servant, and erase the whole story from History.

“cask ale in a bottle … naturally enhanced with a late addition of aromatic Cascasde Hops. Malts: Pale & Caramalt; Hops: First Gold & Cascade.”

Fruity taste, very slightly bitter. The empty glass smells of flowers, maybe violets, and slightly like pee (well…).

O'Hanlon's Brewing Company Ltd, Devon, England. 4.2% alcohol.

© Amazon.fr

Eighteenth volume in the Discworld series, Masquerade has been published in 1995 by Terry Pratchett.

Agnes Nitt (who'd rather call herself Perdita X. Dream) doesn't want to become the third witch along with Granny and Nanny (although she has the necessary talent) and leaves to Ankh-Morpork, where she finds a position in the chorus of the Opera. Recently, the phantom of the opera has started to kill people, but even though people are frightened, the Show Goes On. Meanwhile, Nanny and Granny come to Ankh-Morpork in order to recover royalties on Nanny's cookbook. They notice the presence of Agnes in the city, go to the opera, notice that something is wrong, and decide to meddle. Thanks to the money the witches took from the publisher, Granny buys posh clothes and pretends to be a patron of operas, donating a small fortune. They soon discover that the odd job man, Walter Plinge, who is simple minded, actually becomes the ghost as soon as he wears a mask. But the killer is another person and actually the director of music who has been embezelling money for years (which explains why the opera never makes any benefit) and started to get rid of people who discovered his scheme. The witches unmask the killer during a performance, while the audience still thinks it is part of the show. Walter had written musicals while he was hiding in the cellars, the manager loves them, and decides to change the orientation of his opera. The two witches go back to Ankh-Morpork, and Agnes joins them soon and becomes the third witch.

I tried to make a block (12x12 cm) of polyurethane foam with a cardboard shape, but what I got was this mushroom full of air and wet on the inside. Moreover, it leaked during the night, so some amount of the PU inside came out, increasing the size of the inner cavity. I'll let it dry a bit before throwing it away, but I'll have to find another way to make my blocks of foam. Maybe making a 6x6 shape out of wook? Note to self: don't fill the shape up to the rim, the foam expands about twofold. Less foam would dry quicklier.

I've decided to build a dice tower. Not the same as everybody else is building (not that it's not good, I'm just being posh there), but a tower where the dice roll in every direction, instead of in only one vertical plan. Drawing the plan took two evenings and a bit of a headache for the middle part, but it's done and the plan looks correct. The core is going to be 36cm tall with a 12x12cm base.

For the building, I've decided to carve it out of polyurethane foam. I've bought a can of liquid PU foam, and I'll have to make three cubes out of it. I'll use a cardboard box as a form, and carve the cubes with saw and knife. The I'll glue the cubes together and add side walls and a tray at the bottom for the dice to roll into when coming out of the tower.

The theory:

« The Gematriculator is a service that uses the infallible methods of Gematria developed by Mr. Ivan Panin to determine how good or evil a web site or a text passage is.

Basically, Gematria is searching for different patterns through the text, such as the amount of words beginning with a vowel. If the amount of these matches is divisible by a certain number, such as 7 (which is said to be God's number), there is an incontestable argument that the Spirit of God is ever present in the text. Another important aspect in gematria are the numerical values of letters: A=1, B=2 … I=9, J=10, K=20 and so on. The Gematriculator uses Finnish alphabet, in which Y is a vowel.

Experts consider the mathematical patterns in the text of the Holy Bible as God's watermark of authenticity. Thus, the Gematriculator provides only results that are absolutely correct. »

The results:

Tämä suklaakastike on oikeasti sokerisiirappi, jossa on kaakaota. Kaakaon maku vaikuttaa voimakkaasti kastikkeen makuun.

Ainekset

• 2-3 rkl kaakaojauhoa
• 2-3 dL sokeria
• ripaus suolaa
• kuumaa vettä

Valmistaminen

Laita kaakaojauhot ja suola mukiin. Lisää vähän vettä ja sekoita hyvin. Jos kaakaojauhot eivät ole vielä liuenneet, lisää vähän enemmän vettä ja sekoita uudelleen, jne. Laita sitten sokeri kattilaan, kaada kaakaoliuos sen päälle ja sekoita vähän. Kuumenna kunnes lämpötila nousee 103 °C asti. Korkeammassa lämpötilassa (esim. 105 °C tai 107 °C) siirapista tulee paksumpaa. Anna jäähtyä. Säilytä jääkaapissa.