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Paul's Journal

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12/08/2010 11:30 #53223

Hubbard squash soup
Category: food
(E:terry) made some yummy Hubbard squash soup. What surprised me is that we bought he squash before Halloween (e:paul,52960) and it was still totally good. Terry read it can last up to six monts so that people would store them for winter.

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I stole this last picture from the wikipedia article about squashes

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paul - 12/09/10 09:55
This thing is much hardier than an acorn squash. The rind is much thicker and harder. I believe you would store stuff like this in a cool basement.
tinypliny - 12/09/10 03:46
I once tried out this 6-month storing principle on the acorn squash. When I checked 6 month later, the acorn squash looked intact from outside, but it was shocking that it had become as light as a ping-pong ball. It was COMPLETELY dried out and lost all its water content. I think storage for that long requires some careful humidity regulation and of course, there is always this concern that too much humidity can promote fungal growth and contamination... I don't know how exactly to store these squashes then, given the excessively dry air in Buffalo in the winters. It takes TOO much space to store in the fridge, besides being silly. Any ideas?
tinypliny - 12/09/10 03:42
Where is the recipé??

12/06/2010 19:18 #53218

For Tinypliny - Chocolate at the coop
Category: food
They didn't have the sharffen Berger but they had a bunch of other chocolates that I am sure are just as good.

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tinypliny - 12/06/10 21:24
Nice, I want to try G&B as well and most of the others in that list. I am halfway through the Trader Joe's unsweetened cocoa. Its exactly as the blog describes. I don't care for the "talc-like" aftertaste at all.... It spoils post-enjoyment of hot chocolate. I can detect this chalky feeling in both TJs and the Ghirardelli types.
heidi - 12/06/10 20:44
Thanks for that link, (e:tinypliny)! I want to try more of them! I have a can of the Green & Black's organic cocoa and really like it. I've been eating the G&B Maya Gold a lot lately - it's a spicy dark chocolate. Yum yum. "Live in the &" is the motto on the inside of the wrapper.
tinypliny - 12/06/10 19:26
Thanks, I will check them out! I already finished a tin of the Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa, it pretty good but I'd really like to try Scharffen Berger. According to this unsweetened cocoa analysis: :::link::: its among the best cocoas you can get...

12/05/2010 17:50 #53215

The end of the world
Category: buffalo
Coming in from Kenmore it looked like downtown might be the end of the world.

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metalpeter - 12/08/10 16:38
Great Shots (e:tinypliny) I was thinking more western though but those are cool...
libertad - 12/06/10 20:47
The clouds that come through this city can be so scary.
tinypliny - 12/06/10 18:24
You mean like this? --> :::link::: :::link:::

:-)

metalpeter - 12/06/10 18:04
You Just need some horses in the sky in front of the cloud and it would be perfect....

12/05/2010 13:19 #53214

Online Creative Suite
Category: web
I am so freakin impressed with this online creative suite at

The entire thing was made using Adobe Flex and I think more than anything else I have seen, this really makes it apparent what can be done with flex. While I am generally not a big fan of Flex based design, the fact that this web system is free to use online makes it quite amazing.

They have different online apps for vector and bitmap manipulation. Additionally they have an app for make color palettes and editing music and video. They even have tutorials on how to use the different apps

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You can then export your creations to your desktop.

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paul - 12/06/10 12:08
Apparently, it is integrated with google apps :::link:::
paul - 12/06/10 12:07
Not sure but maybe they are going with the pay to store and share your files online model? I am surprised google doesn't buy this up. Either google or adobe.
uncutsaniflush - 12/05/10 21:45
(e:paul) - thanks for sharing this. I've been poking around the audio side of things and it looks good. The interfaces are similar to existing software.

What is the business model? You have any ideas?

12/04/2010 11:12 #53205

One Step Away From China
Category: web
The government has now warned government employees to not look at the wikileaks site on either work or personal computers.

On one hand I get it, the data is still classified even though it has leaked. At the same time this is a slippery slope. I bet soon enough we will have a something close to the Chinese situation that American's so often criticize.
tinypliny - 12/06/10 15:54
Interesting commentary on Assange: :::link:::

" The WikiLeaks founder is an unscrupulous megalomaniac with a political agenda.
By Christopher Hitchens"

tinypliny - 12/05/10 16:40
More wikileaks revelations related to China and Google: :::link:::

uncutsaniflush - 12/04/10 21:38
Personally, I'd like to think the nation that put men on the moon could do better than a denial of service attack on Wikileaks.

But, as always I could be wrong.

Unfortunately, I think that all governments tend to act the same when facing threats real or imagined. It's what happens afterwards that highlights the differences between the styles of government.
tinypliny - 12/04/10 13:34
Oh, they are up at :::link:::

For all the talk about how the government is not controlling the internet, all those denial of service attacks against wikileaks points otherwise. Why would independent hackers be against wikileaks content? Seems more likely that the government is employing skilled hackers to sabotage wikileaks.
paul - 12/04/10 13:06
Wikileaks is up. You just need to visit it by IP addr as their domain names were revoked. If you search for it on google you can find the ip. Maybe google will be forced to censor them too. That would be truly insane.
tinypliny - 12/04/10 12:29
The Chinese government is not without its merits though: :::link:::
jbeatty - 12/04/10 12:15
Maybe the people high up in the government should worry more about who they give access to sensitive information than about prosecuting the messenger. Between this and the TSA the Obama administration is really starting to piss me off. I suppose it proves to me it really doesn't matter who I vote for.
tinypliny - 12/04/10 11:58
Wikileaks is offline anyway. No one is gutsy enough (or big enough to have resources) to host their content. They probably will need to set up their own servers - in which case, who knows... they might be a denial-of-service attack on them by the henchmen of the political scum they are exposing.
tinypliny - 12/04/10 11:54
The wiki on wikileaks is a fascinating read :::link:::

The way wikileaks is being treated is clearly a demonstration of how people in power (not only in the US but across the world) will react if their corruption and lies are exposed. Why we continue to elect these liars to power is a mystery. A completely aboveboard government is a myth nowadays.

People who want to bring in some responsibility and accountability for these scummy political actions get shot down ruthlessly through various coercive channels. For eg. do you think Amazon and Paypal withdrew support to wikileaks because they were opposed to the content? I don't think so. They probably were rushing to protect their own interests from the greedy fangs of political pressure in the future.

The freedom of information act in itself is a lie. Everyone is already a "China" but are hypocritical enough that they can't admit it.