http://unusual-architecture.com/

Many unusual buildings, 3 pages of thumbnails with links to larger images.

Tags: art, links to share

This is very interesting indeed. I may try it after the new year, although I am very happy with what comes out of our bread machine.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

This is highly excerpted from the introduction, so you'll know the basic idea:

Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread

I was trained as a scientist, not as a chef. That helped in developing a new process for homemade bread, but I never could have brought the recipes to this level without the rigorous standards of a professional. We found how to subtract the various steps that make the classic technique so time-consuming, and identified a few that couldn’t be omitted.



By pre-mixing high-moisture dough (without kneading) and then refrigerating it, daily bread baking becomes easy; the only steps you do every day are shaping and baking. As the dough ages, it takes on sourdough notes reminiscent of great starters.

A one- or two-week supply of dough is made in advance and refrigerated. Mixing it takes less than 15 minutes. Every day, cut off a hunk of dough and quickly shape it without kneading. Allow it to rest briefly on the counter and then toss it in the oven.

The link has the whole process, recipes, and so on. The recipes are: basic boule, pizza dough, whole wheat sandwich bread, pecan caramel rolls, naan, onion & herb dinner rolls.

Tags: food, links to share, science

While looking for info on a recent issue, I went looking to find out how much of the USA watches PBS, with an interest in how many people watch what PBS is calling "news and information." (NOVA, news programs, etc.)

That figure is something you can argue about, because although 53% say they are "familiar" or "somewhat familiar" with such programming, only 17% could name specific programs. My guess would be that 17% actually watch such programs fairly regularly and the remaining 36% think they should do so, or that it would be a good idea, but don't really do so.

Also I was interested to note that although more than half identified themselves as "conservative," a small percentage thought that PBS had a "liberal bias." "Just 24% of those surveyed say that PBS news and information programming has a liberal bias, a score that is markedly lower than those garnered by the major television networks. What’s more, just 22% of the population would say that the news and information programming on public radio has a liberal bias."

Here's the report I have been reading; this is the "quick look" view of a PDF.

Tags: civics, radio, tv

• 09:24 Listening to the melting blocks of snow careen off the roof here at work. Sounds like someone's hammering up there! #
• 14:40 @WFANGiannotti Want some candy, little boy? #
• 20:18 As of 1240 this afternoon, Christmas shopping is done. Wrapping begins Wednesday night, the 23rd. #

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Over at http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/12/20/girls-as-an-afterthought is a look at "here's this cool toy... and girls will like it too!"

it does make a valid point, but an alternate very good point is made in the comments:

I work in marketing at a toy company so I’d like to talk about this.

I’m fairly new, and at a lot of meetings I’ve brought up the gendering of toy products. A lot of toys I see as gender neutral, we are marketing towards boys and then we discuss making a girls version — which inevitably ends up being something to groom girls into being housewives, like a shopping cart vs. a boat or something.

The issue is, this is what a lot of mothers want for their daughters too, and they won’t buy “boy toys” for their girls. So when we do make an effort to produce something for both boys and girls, we don’t see any return on that. From a business perspective, it doesn’t work for us.

I’ll keep fighting against sexism in the toy industry … it’s one of the things I hate most about what is generally a pretty cool industry. But parents have to want it, too, and I don’t think they do in large enough numbers. And in the end, we’re a business.

Tags: civics, links to share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qcPS-J0HTg&feature=player_embedded

"Ring out solstice bells" by Jethro Tull; animated.

If you like sunlight, it's a holiday everyone can get behind! Er, under. Something.


And my friend Bill wrote:

Personally, I’m tired of these people trying to take Saturn out of Saturnalia. When you go to the Forum, what do you hear from merchants? Not “Io, Saturnalia.” No, now it’s “merry christmas.” This is a Roman nation, and we worship Roman Gods. If the christians don’t want to celebrate Saturnalia, let them exile themselves back to the Provinces where they came from.

... Although I first read that as Providence, which might explain a few things.

Tags: history, links to share, music, religion, science

> Dear Stiles Designs,
>
> My family loves the treehouse I built following your book. Thank you for such a great resource!
>
> I made a short video for my friends; it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTTE-VTugGc if you'd like to see it.
>
> Regards,
>
> Cynthia

Dear Cynthia,
We LOVED your video. What a great treehouse plus accessories and your kids did a terrific acting job. We love the bell. How did you set it up? Did we ever send you a treehouse building certificate? If not, send us your real mailing address and we'll put one in the mail. Thanks for crediting the books at the end of your wonderful video.
All the best,
Jeanie & David

Stiles Designs wrote:
> Dear Cynthia,
> We LOVED your video. What a great treehouse plus accessories and your kids did a terrific acting job. We love the bell. How did you set it up?

The bell is an elephant bell that the kids' grandmother sent, and I pried open a section of rope and put the "button" of it in the rope and twisted it up even tighter. There's a picture here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7805112@N03/3862347421/

The main consideration was finding a way they could ring it without whacking themselves or each other in the head -- it must weigh 2 pounds at least!
> Did we ever send you a treehouse building certificate? If not, send us your real mailing address and we'll put one the mail. Thanks for crediting the books at the end of your wonderful video.

A certificate would be great, thanks:

[etc]

Your book (I used Treehouses & Playhouses You Can Build) was so useful. I looked at at least six different books from my library (some ILL) before deciding on that one. I loved all the drawings, and the color photos of people's treehouses.

Tags: treehouse

A big day for everyone out there with S.A.D. -- happy longest night of the year. From here, it only gets better. Well, until June....

Did you know on Solstice, eggheads can do handstands?

Tags: weather

• 08:14 I think it might've snowed. Some of these snow totals are very impressive. #
• 12:17 Out at the diner. Cube was fairly easy to extract - the Taurus will be more difficult. #
• 17:45 Spent a lovely hour with @bpende and family at B&N before venturing out for bread, gift cards, and gifts. #
• 17:47 @choochus Maybe the President can give us the whole week off, rather than just the 4 hours of Christmas Eve. That'd be a nice gift for us. #

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http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/43/34853/should-you-be-shoveling-snow.html

Tags: health, weather