Microblog: A very long article Wikipedia article on the orientation of toilet paper [Jun 7th, 22:52] [R]

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

Highgate Old Ember

Categories: [ Beer/Highgate ]

Highgate_Old_Ember

“This rich, dark beer is brewed using a blend of pale, crystal and black malts complemented with the purest honey. English grown Fuggle and Progress hops provide the bitterness. […] complex palate of malt, chocolate, citrus fruits and hops…”

Quite sweet, very slightly bitter. I didn't notice any chocolate or citrus fruits, but rather something fruity-ish, maybe cherry-ish, but definitively just “-ish”. Contains malted barley.

Highgate Brewery, Walsall, England. 6.5% alcohol.

[ Posted on February 23rd, 2008 at 18:49 | no comment | ]

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

Highgate Old Ale

Categories: [ Beer/FAVOURITES | Beer/Highgate ]

Highgate_Old_Ale

“A strong rich dark ale. Brewed since 1896 to the original Victorian recipe.”

Very sweet. Just another ale, but a sweet and good one. Contains malted barley.

Highgate Brewery, Walsall, England. 5.1% alcohol.

[ Posted on February 17th, 2008 at 18:49 | no comment | ]

Friday, February 15th, 2008

Poele en fonte

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking ]

Hier, j'ai acheté une poêle en fonte (de la série Hackman Brasserie, qui a eu la meilleure note dans le test effectué par Kuningaskuluttaja. Le fait que la poêle en question soit la seule qui soit d'une marque finlandaise n'a probablement rien à voir avec ça).

J'y ai fait cuire des oeufs sur le plat, qui ont attaché au fond malgré une dose respectable d'huile, mais ils étaient bons. Ce soir j'y ai fait cuire des crêpes, et le résultat était au moins aussi bon qu'avec la poêle anti-adhésive (les crêpes n'ont pas attaché, même lorsque je n'ai pas rajouté d'huile pour voir ce que ça donnerait).

Par contre, une bonne utilisation de la poêle nécéssite d'une part un bras gauche musclé (ce qui n'est pas mon cas, mais ça ne saurait tarder si je continue à utiliser cette poêle), et d'autre part une clé de 19 pour reserrer le manche qui a tendance à se dévisser.

[ Posted on February 15th, 2008 at 10:41 | no comment | ]

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

Manifold: Space

Categories: [ Books ]

ISBN: 0345430786

© Amazon.fr

Second volume of the Manifold trilogy, Time has been published in 2001 by Stephen Baxter.

2020. Reid Malenfant, a former NASA astronaut discovers with the help of Nemoto, a Japanase astronomer living in a lunar colony, the presence of aliens in the asteroid belt. A probe sent there proves their presence, and Malenfant conjectures that they must have arrived into the solar system through a gateway, which is most probably located at the focal point of the Sun's gravity field. He launches a solo mission to this point, where he actually finds a gateway, goes through it, and meets the aliens called the Gaijin. They take him for a long journey across a large portion of the galaxy, using the network of gateways to show him many worlds, most of which have either a rudimentary form of life, or have been sterilized by an unknown cause. A gateway jump is no faster than lightspeep, and Malenfant therefore spends hundreds of years travelling. Meanwhile, on Earth, Nemoto charges Madeleine Meacher, a weapon smuggler, to be the next star traveller with the Gaijin. The Gaijin again take her to many worlds, without her really understanding what they want to show her. Most of the story decribes the evolution of the solar system, first the lunar colony finding oxygen and other vital elements by digging to the core of the moon, the Earth regressing and eating up most of its resources while the Gaijin fiddle with DNA to re-create extinct species. Some time later, the Earth suffers from a new ice age, while the moon colony is dying. Meacher takes australian aboriginals to colonize Triton. Malenfant comes back to Earth where he discovers that Nemoto is still alive and manipulating him again. Malenfant ends up on Io with a colony of Neanderthal before disappearing again. Finally, Meacher is contacted by Nemoto (now 1700 years old) to warn the inhabitants of the solar system that another alien specie called the Crackers are on their way to turn the Sun into a supernova, their way to get enough energy to expand and fly to the next star, where they will do the same and so on. Now the remnants of human descendants (and Nemoto) are on Mercury, the last human colony, and manage to defeat the Crackers before they distroy the Sun. Meacher leaves to Io and finally finds Malendant. They are both (along with Neanderthals) dematerialized and stored on a 10 cm long ship heading for the center of the galaxy. The Gaijin have discovered that binary star systems turning into neutron stars explode at more or less regular intervals, delivering a huge amount of gamma and cosmic rays, sterilizing all life in a radius of thousands of lightyears, preventing any life form to evolve enough to actually become able to colonize the galaxy. Before a previous sterilization took place, an unknown species had started to build a device that would prevent one specific binary star to sterilize this quadrant of the galaxy. A coalition of current species is working on the device, but internal dissensions prevent them to complete it. The Gaijin need human's sense of self and therefore of self sacrifice for a greater good in order to unite the coalition long enough to complete the task.

[ Posted on February 10th, 2008 at 21:39 | no comment | ]

Friday, February 8th, 2008

Flan au chocolat sans oeuf

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking/Chocolate cream ]

Ingrédients

  • 6dL lait
  • 200g chocolat noir fondu
  • 60g sucre
  • 3,5g k-carraghénanes

Préparation

Faire fondre le chocolat.

Mélanger à sec les k-carraghénanes avec le sucre, les mélanger au lait et faire chauffer en remuant constament au delà de 70 °C. Verser le chocolat fondu dans le lait et mixer (par exemple avec un mixeur plongeant). Verser rapidement dans des ramequins et laisser refroidir.

Remarques

  • 3 minutes au micro-ondes à 900 W c'est trop (le chocolat brûle sur les parois).
  • Essayer de faire chauffer le lait avant de verser le mélange sucre-carraghénanes.
  • La consistance est trés épaisse, trop compacte pour un flan. Ça ressemble davantage à un gateau contenant peu ou pas de farine. Essayer avec par exemple 3 g de carraghénanes.

[ Posted on February 8th, 2008 at 11:25 | 2 comments | ]

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Being John Malkovich

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/

© Imdb.com

Craig Schwartz, an unemplyed puppeteer, discovers at his new job place a door leading to John Malkovich's head. With Maxine, his new colleague with whom he just fell in love, he starts a business for people who want to be someone else for 15 minutes. His wife Lottie also tries the door and becomes immediately addicted to being a man. This happened while Maxine was dating Malkovich, and the two women fall in love in a strange fashion, leavin Craig out. But Craig sequestrates his wife at home and forces her to invite Maxine to meet Malkovich more often, while himself being John Malkovich and pretending to be Maxine. Craig soon discovers how not to get expelled out of Malkovich's mind after only 15 minutes, and becomes a permanent resident. Meanwhile, Lottie is adopted by Craig's former boss, who knows about the door, being himself a mind living in someone else's body. Malkovich changes his career from acting to puppeteering, but Maxine, pregnant, drifts away from home. Eventually, Maxine and Lottie meet again, Craig leaves Malkovich's head so that his former boss can continue his quest for immortality through renewed bodies. Craig wants to go back into Malkovich, but it is too late, and his mind goes into Maxine's baby instead, trapped forever.

[ Posted on February 5th, 2008 at 23:59 | no comment | ]