Posts from March 2012

I know e:kookcity wrote about the perfect stovetop popcorn but this is for busy times when you want popcorn and cannot be bothered to watch over the stove.

• Get a brown paper lunch bag
• Put in around 4 heaped tablespoons of unpopped kernels
• Set your microwave to 2-3 minutes and put the bag in
• When the popping slows to 1-2 per second take it out (this is crucial, burnt results are terrible).
• Empty the popped popcorn out over a big surface area (a generous bowl, perhaps).

And now is the step that no one on the net is sure about. How to make the seasoning stick to the air-popped or microwave popped popcorn:

• spray the popcorn with an ultra fine spray-mist of ... water!
• sprinkle on the seasoning. I love just plain salt.

That's it. Totally guilt free, perfectly seasoned popcorn without a stove, without toxic stuff, without preservatives, from kernels to perfection in under 5 minutes.

is grand.

So many reasons to love android and linux, and this beats them all! I was hunting around for a USB cable to transfer some snaps to my computer today and I found this instead. (This FTP application also helps transfers in the opposite direction: from linux to Asus transformer TF101 or any android device. See: @tinypliny #56232)

Motsha Wireless File transfer
(fork of swiftp)

It's so simple, it's amaaaaaazing!

Once you install the app.

1. Go to Setup
2. Input a username and password
3. check accept connections from wifi
4. check accept connections from net proxy
5. check keep phone awake (full cpu speed)
6. Tap Save
7. Tap Start
8. The wifi url will appear

On your linux:

• Open a console
• create a directory: mkdir somedirectorywhereyouwantthefiles
• and from that directory, do:

wget -m --user=username --password=password ftp: // 10.0.0.7:2121/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/

where username and password are the ones you set in Step 2
and the ftp address is the address that appears in Step 8.

Transfer speed: 54MB/s (the max on my router). No more hunting for USB cords!!! I know I keep whining about linux but once you step to linux windows seems infernal and complete paleolithic.

I am now able to confidently go in and make a completely whole wheat improvised bread with whatever without any recipes from scratch. And, more importantly eat the results without cringing or wishing I hadn't made the colossal mess. I know I said this already zillion moons back here: @tinypliny #53247 But that was banana bread. This is THE staple everyday bread bread.

I think that is progress.

Only, it's progress in the words of a frog in that arithmetic problem, you know, the one that lives in a slimy well and jumps up 4 steps to fall back 3.

I am sorely tempted to include one in my thesis:

You know your tea addiction has gone a bit far when:

1. You put the kettle on and when it boils, you immediately refill and put it on again because you know you will finish the current cup before it finishes brewing the next one
2. You distinctly remember having asked your archenemy in a nightmare if they would like a cup of oolong (poisoned) or a cup of cardamom tea (also poisoned, what did you think?)
3. You bid on auctions for green tea from ebay.com's authentic chinese sellers because the blurry pixelated pic looked like that one tea you had once upon a time that you could never find in stores later.
4. You lose the bid because someone sniped it at 4:00AM and you are bitter all day.
5. You drink coffee and think, ugh this is vile. Only the whipped cream redeems this mess.
6. You drink close to 27 16 oz cups of tea a day.
7. You don't drink any regular water anymore, only tea
8. You alternate between 7-8 different kinds of tea and have teas to match the hour and mood of the day.
9. The promise of tea is enough to enable you to weather minuscule work storms
10. You are known as the office tea pusher and have induced at least 5 other officemates to drink more tea than they ever did their entire lives.
11. You buy a kettle exclusively for the office and it is used so much, it develops scales within a month.
12. Your desktop is tea-themed
13. Your recycling is 10% or more teabag wrappers.

SCOOOOOOORRRREEEEESSSS!
Any 5 and you are one.
Any 7? have you taken the teaddiction test lately?
Any 10? Hmm.. and how does that make you feel?
Any 12? Have you put the kettle on yet?

Any 13? Welcome to my world.

Finally, a balanced meal that took 1/2 hour after weeks of eating 3-4 minute meals.

I used to hate that actress who is all teeth.. but not anymore. Tarsem has done it again. Made me want to actually see this movie.

Seriously, what?!

I keep hearing about how NSAIDs are projected as the next big thing for preventing cancer in combination with other drugs/supplements. I find it odd that it conflicts so directly with my background information from medicine and actual medical practice.

It's fine and all that we are desperate to find cures for cancer but it's also time to stop and think about what we know from the clinics. Do I think that people should start taking low dose aspirins (an NSAID) willy nilly because it might, at some vague point in the future, reduce their chances of cancer? In all good faith, I cannot support this view.

NSAIDs are no friends of your gastric lining. Doctors have known this for ages. They have the potential to induce gastric lining damage. Late last year, a study threw some light on the prospective dangers of chronic NSAID use (yes, not even abuse. I said, regular use.)

See ::READ PDF::

The study has been running for several years and women in the study fill out questionnaires and mail it back at regular intervals. The researchers looked at spans of use and followed up on these women, including who ended up with cancer and who didn't. They found that women who reported taking more NSAIDs in their daily life over several years were more likely to be diagnosed with renal cancer.

Why doesn't this surprise me? All that we know about the "good effects" of NSAIDS come from cross-sectional studies that take a snapshot of a section of population at any given time, ask them what they are eating and what disease they have. They are poor representations of what happens to our bodies over a long time. NSAIDs, among several other drugs are metabolized through our livers and kidneys - two main excretory organ networks in vertebrate living systems. Thus, long term use are more likely to impact these organs.

So short term or acute doses could damage your gastric lining. Long term use impacts your kidneys and livers. Do we still want to push this "golden drug" beyond the very rare as-and-only-when-really-really-needed basis? I think it's short-sighted at best. Sometimes, it's important to make reality-checks with medicine. In this particular situation, I don't see any of that essential precautionary measure.