See those black bits scattered around this Boeing? It’s just part of a massive flock of starlings hitting its fuselage and engine as it was taking off at 200mph. About two hundred birds were sucked into the turbine.
The photographer, Juergen Kienast, said the sound of the engine as it sucked the birds was defeaning:
The pitch of the engine said it all. It was like sticking a bit of metal pipe into a blender.
PeerBlock was a “spin off” from PeerGuardian, a program that completely blocks access to certain IP addresses at the network level making it completely impossible to connect to them (or from people on those IP addresses to connect to you.) The reason I love this program so much is it blocks access to known spyware and adware computers making your PC that bit more secure.
PeerBlock 1.0 has just been released, marking the first “stable” version, and one big feature is Windows x64 (Vista and 7) now have a signed driver meaning you no longer have to go into “Ignore Driver Signature” mode at boot-up.
Of course it is also a great piece of software for people who use P2P networks with poor intent as it also can block access to/from known monitoring servers and government addresses.
It’s almost the end of September and so only a month to go until Halloween, that time of year where for a week kids want some nice treat like candy or are rude little gits and expect money – so they get the trick, permanent marker on the face.
There’s a site available with links to lots of DIY projects for Halloween so you can make it that bit more fun – it’s always more fun when you get into the spirit and make things – be it a costume, or a skeleton in a coffin. From a realistic mummy (it’s face looks unpleasant enough to scare even the most fearless little kid), to a falling ceiling with spikes so the nice little kiddies think they’re just about to be pierced by rusty spikes and die painfully; the site has plenty of stuff to keep everyone entertained over the ‘holiday’ period.
While I never really got into WoW (I have played, I have characters, I rarely touch it) I do love FFXI and have played many many hours on that game – less now, it just feels dated and that can ruin a game for me.
However, FFXIV is coming soon, sometime in 2010, and I can’t wait for it, a new MMORPG based in a Final Fantasy world, I’m a huge fan of the FF series so this is a no brainer for me. Below is the latest trailer for it. You’ll notice (if you haven’t read much about it yet, the characters look oddly similar to FFXI, that is something SquareEnix stated they wanted to do, keep the mithra, galka, hume and tarutaru styles in the new game so “veterans” of FFXI could transition easily and new players would just treat them as they would any new game.)
Yes I know it’s only September but Christmas Puddings are best if they’re made early. The reason for this is you can “feed” the pudding alcohol for months so by Christmas it’s absolutely delicious and is the perfect excuse to get everyone drunk without anyone truly realising why they feel so tipsy. Nothing like months of alcohol cleverly concealed inside a delicious Christmas pudding! There are lots of recipes out there, they all vary slightly but product similar results, I prefer the recipe below.
The situation that got me thinking about this was getting milk from Morrisons. My local store already has a full isle dedicated to Christmas food, gifts, advent calendars etc. But the part that stood out to me was the section devoted to ingredients to make a pudding with recipe ideas. So here you’ll find the recipe I did last year, the only difference is, this year it will be a lot more alcoholic.
225g/8oz golden caster sugar
225g/8oz vegetarian suet
340g/12oz sultanas
340g/12oz raisins
225g/8oz currants
110g/4oz candied peel, chopped
110g/4oz plain flour
110g/4oz fresh white breadcrumbs
55g/2oz flaked almonds
1 lemon, zest only
5 eggs, beaten
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
1 level tsp mixed spice
5g/1 level tsp freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
150ml/5fl oz brandy or rum (any alcohol you want to try really, these 2 work best)
Lightly grease 4×600ml/1 pint or 2×1.2 litre/2 pint pudding basins.
Mix together all the dry ingredients.
Stir in the eggs and brandy and mix well.
Spoon the mix into basins. Put a circle of baking parchment and foil over the top of each basin and tie securely with string. Make a string handle from one side of the basin to the other so it is easier to pick the basin out of the pan after cooking.
Put the basins in a large steamer of boiling water and cover with a lid. Boil for 5-6 hours, topping the boiling water up from time to time, if necessary. If you do not have a steamer, put the basins in a large pan on inverted saucers on the base. Pour in boiling water to come a third of the way up the sides of the pudding bowls. Cover and steam as before.
Cool. Change the baking parchment and foil covers for fresh ones and tie up as before. Store in a cool cupboard until Christmas Day.
Optional – feed alcohol to the cake every week or so, just a bit at a time so it fully soaks in.
To serve: steam for 2 hours and serve with brandy butter, rum sauce, cream or homemade custard
Without a doubt, the thing that makes this pudding recipe great is the constant alcohol feed – I know I’ve said it a few times but it’s the best bit!
I’m torn on this, it has some great ideas (updating interface with dynamic search – real time search Ben?) and it has some big failings (updating interface with resizing objects.)For example, the login screen, rarely seen but those little changes with the moving/scaling image is a great idea; the live search with an updating UI (something as simple as “x items” with each click); and several other things.
Hopefully some of this ideas will be seen and developed for Windows 8.
It’s been 5 days since I became ill and two days since I found out it was H1N1 and after taking tamiflu for the 3rd day now, I am feeling a lot better, it really clears up the symptoms very well; actually it just hides the symptoms like most over-the-counter cold/flu remedies but it’s stronger! I did find out after I received them you’re supposed to try and get them within 24 hours of contracting the virus as they’re most effective then, I was only 48 hours out. Annoyingly though my nose is still driving me nuts, it’s better but it’s still all flu-like – should be enough detail to explain what I mean there.
On other news, the American government, on the same day Obama stated to the UN “… Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone …” has self-declared themselves the regulators of “net-neutrality” and whatever that may mean now: more specifically, it’s the FCC wing of the government.
But what is net-neutrality now? Part of the speech yesterday actually turned into a debate about what it means; the phrase has been thrown around so much since 2006 when it was first used in the public domain that its actual meaning seems to have been lost. So much is the abstraction around the statement now that it was actually brought up to mean Apple cannot restrict apps in its own App Store.
I hate colds, they make you feel lethargic and depressed and make you want to stay in bed for 12 hours at a time even though you spend more time tossing and turning and getting up to blow your nose than you do actually sleeping.
I’ve got a cold at the moment, I blame Dan at work, told him I’d get it on Friday but he stood over me, and now here I am, ill and moaning more than I should! Fortunately on Saturday as I was getting ill I was busy re-working our living room entertainment centre so now I can very comfortably lay on the sofa and still clearly use the PC without having to struggle as much as I used to. The re-working of the living room took about 8 hours in total, the last 4 hours of which involved excessive sneezing and burning up, I ended up finishing the job in nothing but a pair of boxers I was that hot, not due to the manual labour, that was effortless, the heat was due to the sneezing, I was burning up more and more as the day went on. The reward of being able to collapse on the sofa and watch Carry on Cabby was worth it though.
So now, stuck at home, watching Catchprase, sneezing constantly, I though I’d rant a bit on a blog about home remedies for the common cold and what I’m going to try and do to get rid of the symptoms sooner!
Chicken Soup
The classic “solution” to a cold, basic chicken soup, supposedly containing chemicals that act as an anti-inflammatory.
Yogurt
You know those adverts for Actimel and the whole “good bacteria” concept? Well it works with yoghurt too, apparently the bacteria in yogurt can help when you’re not your best.
Hot and Sour Soup
Or any soup with Tabasco and chili’s. Reported benefits include antimicrobial, anticoagulant, or anti-inflammatory properties and the ability to increase circulation or to relieve cold symptoms by clearing the sinus.
Lemon Tea and Honey
Lemon improves the immune system (supposedly) and honey contains antioxidants.
Dinner with Garlic and Ginger
Stir fry tonight with lots of fresh garlic and ginger! Garlic is a natural anti-biotic and ginger helps with respiratory infections.
Drugs, drugs and more drugs!
While I’m all for natural home remedies, I’m also stock-piling my body with Lemsip, decongestants and various other tablets that can be taken together.
I watched Derren Brown – How to Control the Nation last night as I wanted to see how his subliminal video (or as he calls it, PWA) would really work and while I know subliminal messaging can be easily ignored if you expect it, I wanted this one to work (it’s always more fun when things like this work for you than to rant about how cool you are that you could ignore it – you just miss the fun!)
Anyhow, the result for me was it did work but only a little unfortunately. After the video ended and the second flash happened (don’t question the flash if you see it until after you’ve tried the video in full – just go along with it all, it’s important to the effect) I tried to stand up and it took longer than it should have done, it felt like my muscles just did not want to pull me up, very weird but very cool. I didn’t feel like I was bound to the chair like a lot of people seemed to do which is a shame, but nevertheless, actually having a response to the video at all was a great feeling and I hope many of you can experience it too and won’t be too stuck up your own to just let it happen (after the video, just search Youtube for “derren brown control fail” and see how childish some people really are.)
You can watch the video on Youtube here. Remember, go with it, don’t question anything and do as he says. If you’re with someone with a big mouth (probably your partner sitting near you right now), tell them to leave the room or stay and try it too, quietly.
225g/8oz golden caster sugar