Karaoke Beatles
Having a bad day? Try karaoke
beatles.
posted at: 11:04 |
path: /living |
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Tents and Stoves
I like the idea of camping in cool weather, but I’m not really up for
efforts to stay warm using only my body heat. I just don’t have that much
to go around. I think humans are essentially tropical animals, and my
philosophy is- when the weather gets cold, bring on the fire (or other
heat source). Preferably next to where I’m sleeping. Which is why this site
interests me. It sells walled tents, and stoves that fit in to the walled
tent.
posted at: 12:22 |
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And a few more videos while I’m at it
Feist
counts to 4. And, you’ve got to love rogue muppet skit creators who have
Beaker meeping Ode to
Joy and Beaker, Chef and Animal doing Habanera
(Thanks to Dan for this one).
posted at: 22:45 |
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Hey- Where my bees at!
This was a
featured YouTube video- the Bee-Boy dance crew, spreading the word about
disappearing honey bees. Love it. And some of the comments are funny too!
posted at: 21:23 |
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Soccer Stategy
I’m trying to learn more about soccer strategy, particularly with respect
to attacking. Here’s
a nice page with basic principles for attacking and defending. And here’s a
page from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America that talks
about different systems and how to match them to your team.
posted at: 11:45 |
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Consensus vs Robert’s Rules
Here’s
an interesting article on consensus and Robert’s rules. And here
is an excellent page that compares three different approaches- Robert’s
rules, Consensus and Dynamic Feedback.
posted at: 10:09 |
path: /living |
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That’s a lot of beef
I’m looking into buying a side (half a cow) of beef. Originally I was
thinking a whole cow but… well… that’s a lot of beef. Here’s a blog entry about one
guy’s experience buying an entire side of beef for him and his wife.
posted at: 22:32 |
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Volume to Weight food conversion
There are some things, like butter, that I much prefer to measure by
weight. Here’s
a useful volume to weight conversion chart. Unfortunately it isn’t in
metric, but it’s still useful.
posted at: 14:39 |
path: /living |
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Vietnamese Desserts
I saw a picture of a dessert on the LJ food blog that Colin subscribes to
and had to learn more about it. It turns out that there are a whole slew
of wonderful sounding Vietnamese Desserts called ‘che’ something- for
example Che Ba Ba, or
Che Ban Lot, or Che Thap Cam. This
blog has a nice explanation of what’s involved. Coconut milk. That’s
what’s involved. And lots of gummy, chewy stuff.
posted at: 00:26 |
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Social Role Valorisation
I’m quite interested in the fact that different people are valued
differently in society and that certain properties of individuals
influence their value in one direction or another. Here’s
the wikipedia entry on Social Role Valorisation, a theory which seeks
to explain how valuation occurs and what the effects of being assigned low
societal value are on individuals.
posted at: 18:04 |
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Oh yes- I love pasta
Here’s
an all encompassing page on how to do what with all different kinds.
posted at: 16:42 |
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Carbon/Silicon- The News
I heard this song
on an indie internet radio station, and there was something about the
chorus that really got to me.
Good morning here’s the news- and all of it is good.
Good evening here’s the news- and all of it is good.
And the weather’s good!
What can I say, I have a soft spot for old school punk, and punk rockers.
Keep an eye out for the slipper shot.
posted at: 13:17 |
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Making International Calls
For some reason the details of making international calls occassionally
elude me. Or sometimes the person who supplies you the number gives you
extra digits or information that you need to drop when you call
internationally. While looking for information to call Colin, I found
this neat
website. You put in where you’re calling from, where you’re calling to
and it gives you the proper codes, up to the city code. It also gives you
time zone information. Nice!
posted at: 18:58 |
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Major Cities and Agglomerations of the World
What are the major
cities and agglomerations of the world? Sometimes I wonder about these
things.
posted at: 13:04 |
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More information on grains
This
article on grains edible by people with celiacs has a very
comprehensive list of grains consumed by humans. By the way, according
to wikipedia, cereals or grains can be defined as “mostly grasses
cultivated for their edible grains or fruit seeds (i.e., botanically a
type of fruit called a caryopsis).”
posted at: 10:06 |
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Tasty wheat alternatives
Always nice to mix it up when it comes to food. I eat a heck of a lot of
wheat. Nothing wrong with wheat, per se, but a diet composed largely of
wheat might be going a bit too far. Here
are some tasty wheat alternatives.
posted at: 09:55 |
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Red fish, blue fish
I wasn’t sure whether or not to put this in the school or living
categories. Here’s a story
about using animated fish schools to understand cultural differences.
Cool. Here’s a quote: “Ellsworth proposed a hypothesis of “universal
contingency”—if people from different cultures or roles appraise a
situation in the same way, they will feel the same emotion. If they feel
different emotions, it is because they have interpreted the situation
differently in one way or another.”
posted at: 08:15 |
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Proper Disposal for Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
I have some reservations regarding compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Without saying any more about that, I encourage everyone I know to follow
these
safety guidelines if you break a CFL. The main one you need to know
right off the bat is: “Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or
more.” Another important one to know is: “Do not use a vacuum cleaner to
clean up the bulb (even if it lands on carpet).” Read on for more on how
to deal with a broken CFL.
posted at: 21:59 |
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Comparative Calorie Burning
I found this
nice calculator that calculates how many calories you burn for a
particular activity. It lets you put in your weight and how long you’ve
done the activity. What I find most interesting is comparing activities.
In particular, I find it interesting that doing pretty much *anything*
other than simply sitting burns way more
calories than sitting. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought there would be
more of a gradual curve. But simply switching to typing burns 50% more
calories than just sitting alone (or sitting on the bus, or sitting reading). Standing burns 225% more calories than
sitting. Walking burns 375% more calories. This explains why, when you’re
lost in the woods with no food they say- don’t move! Stay still until you
are found. And no typing!
posted at: 15:20 |
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Clear Sky Clock
So- I’m on this little quest to see the moon when I’m outside at night. So
far, I haven’t had success. Where is the moon? I’m sure it’s out there.
Colin pointed out that part of the problem might be that the sky is
cloudy when I’m looking. Good point. So here is the Ottawa
Clear Sky Clock.
posted at: 00:47 |
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Implicate and Explicate Order according to David Bohm
Read all about it right here.
posted at: 00:44 |
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The Elf Project- Divine Comedy, Wizard of Oz and more
Every once in a while I come across a website that makes me go- “Wow, the
internet is really, really cool.” Not that there isn’t a lot of cool stuff
on the internet regularly, but there are some things that seem really
unique to, and made possible by the technology of the internet. This week
I’ve stumbled across two sites like this- the first being the zebrafish
imaging site, and the second being the Electronic Literature Foundation
website. I came across ELF when I was looking for an online verison of
Dante. The website’s Dante section has 3 different English versions (along
with Italian, German and Finnish) and lets you compare all the different
translations side by side. The ELF site has a host of other authors’ works
available as well, including The Arabian Nights (two English versions) and
The Wizard of Oz.
posted at: 00:06 |
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International Association of Color Consultants
I think I wrote a while back about how I liked colour and thinking about
how different colours go together, and affect things. I may have already
linked to this already, but if not: the International Assocation of Color
Consultants page (linked to their blog).
posted at: 14:37 |
path: /living |
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Moon Rising Info and other events
I like to keep track of when the sun rises and sets, and since we checked
out the moon in my dad’s telescope I’ve been interested in moon rising and
setting as well. I realised the other day that although I often know when
the moon is rising and setting, I’ve never thought about where it rises
and sets. I noticed this when I was looking for it the other day. Here’s
some info on where it rises and sets. I also came across this
page, which has a calendar of astronomical events that are visible to
the naked eye and binoculars. I’ve become more aware of such things since
my dad is into astronomy these days, and keeps buying binoculars.
posted at: 17:27 |
path: /living |
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Diagram of zebrafish eye
this
article has a diagram of a zebrafish eye. I’m not sure how useful it
will be, since it’s just a picture of the eye, not where it is in the
head, but it could be useful.
posted at: 14:58 |
path: /living |
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CERN FAQ on book Angels and Demons
Andrew (Hi Andrew!) showed me this really entraining faq put out by CERN, answering questions
generated by the popular fiction book Angels and Demons. Hilarious!
posted at: 10:18 |
path: /living |
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UMMS Health Calculators
Happy New Year! I love little calculator applications on the internet. I
love being able to type in some little piece of information (or a couple)
and have a webpage calculate something for me and give me an answer. Here is a whole page of
Health Calculators from the University of Maryland Medical Center. I found
it when I was looking for a calculator that would tell me my recommended
daily intake of carbs, which I have looked up in the past, and even
calculated myself, but can never remember.
posted at: 17:51 |
path: /living |
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Yeast Starter
Here’s a page with
information on how to create and maintain a yeast starter.
posted at: 17:12 |
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link
Even more on culturing yeast
This web
page is even better than the last one.
posted at: 17:02 |
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Yeast- crossing over into Colin’s beer territory
Speaking ofleavening, here’s
an article on how to keep and grow yeast cultures. I’d really like to get
over the mystique that I feel towards this critter and get into trying to
do some baking with it. Maybe this article will help.
posted at: 16:48 |
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What counts as cake?
The King
Arthur Flour Company also has nice page that discusses what counts as
a cake. Their definition: “A “traditional” cake contains flour and an
equal amount or more, by weight, not volume, of sugar with a little salt
to intensify flavor. From there, the variation in ingredients is
infinite.”
posted at: 16:36 |
path: /living |
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Old School Cake Recipes
I’m interested in baking mechanics, and also in how people baked things
before modern food inventions like baking soda. This article has a nice
amount of information in it about pre-baking soda cakes.
posted at: 16:33 |
path: /living |
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FAQ on Paleo Diet
As I do from time to time, I’ve delved back in to the dietary morass
because I’m trying to add more fiber to my diet. While doing some reading
on that, I came across this interesting FAQ on one
person’s version of ‘the paleo
diet’- a FAQ which, for once, seems to address many of the questions I
have had
about it, among them: Isn’t a high protein diet bad for your kidneys?
(Answer: possibly, if you already have kidney problems), Isn’t a paleo
diet unsustainable on a large scale? (Answer: Yes) and Isn’t there
evidence that pre-agriculture humans did in fact eat grains (Answer:
Maybe, they might have eaten them, but not in very many places or very
often).
The main thing I like about the version of the ‘paleo diet’ presented on
this website is that the person says basically “Realistically, you’re
going to buy your
food from grocery stores. Okay, how do you adapt that food so that it is
more in line with my ideas about good diet.” This makes much more sense
than some paleo diet sites that basically advocate getting some kind of
bird of prey and using it to kill pigeons and rabbits in your friendly
neighbourhood field.
posted at: 13:06 |
path: /living |
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Chemistry fun with nitrite
Yay chemistry! Here’s
still more info on the chemistry in a fish tank, including the atomic
weight of nitrogen, and some more information about how tests measure
nitrogen levels.
posted at: 11:28 |
path: /living |
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Yet more on the chemistry of nitrite and salt
Here’s
a link that has even more precise information. Yay chemistry.
posted at: 14:30 |
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More on salt for nitrite toxicity
Here’s some more details on
the chemistry, and why the chloride ion helps.
posted at: 14:15 |
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Salt water to counteract nitrite poisoning
We’re currently trying to establish a new tank without exposing our fish
to too much nitrite. The problem, as people who own fish tanks know, is
that you need a certain amount of nitrite in order to get nitrate
producing bacteria, which will then remove the nitrite for you. We’ve been
doing numerous water changes to keep the nitrite low, but at this point it
seems we’ve kept it so low that the nitrate bacteria can’t even get
started. It seems like we’re going to have to let the nitrite
shoot up at least a bit. Apparently, adding salt to the water can help
protect fish when this happens. Here’s a
nice page that talks about the chemistry involved, and how much salt you
actually need to add to help out.
posted at: 11:19 |
path: /living |
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Bruised Fruit
I’m on a fruit eating kick at the moment. I’m not generally a huge fan of
fruit eating, because in that area I’m kind of a picky eater. I realized
that the main reason for this is I don’t know if it’s okay to eat bruised
fruit. Is it okay, or bad for you, or what? According to Tuft’s
univerisity it
is perfectly okay. (This
scientific american article has a bit more of the chemistry). I also
came across this cute fruity faces website,
which makes cute inflatable containers to help cushion your fruit on the
way to school or work.
posted at: 20:35 |
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Or how about canoeing?
Of course, in addition to biking, I like canoeing. These
guys managed to canoe across Canada, although I don’t think I’d want
to do quite that much canoeing. Also, I can’t say that their description
of canoeing through 10 foot waves is that appealing to me. I didn’t think
that was even possible to do in a canoe. Other names also pop up- Ilya
Klvana, Joe
O’Blenis, Joanie
and Gary McGuffin, these Scottish folks (Abigail
Baldwin-Thomson and Duncan Thomson). And here’s
an interesting discussion group page on the topic with more information.
posted at: 22:04 |
path: /living |
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A trans canada trail book?
One good thing about waiting around for a while on this topic is that I
think they are finally going to have a book out on the trans canada trail.
Finally! here’s the page of the
author who spearheaded it. It looks like they still don’t have the whole
trail book together, but they have a bunch of provinces done up as
separate books.
posted at: 11:22 |
path: /living |
link
All material copyrighted by Jen Schellinck. All rights reserved.