Monthly Archives: January 2011

food+drink, science

Beer is Better

And now for some real, if esoteric, scientific research. This from the February 2011 issue of Scientific American:

Beer Batter Is Better
How it makes a great fish ‘n’ chips

If you’ve ever sat down at a pub to a plate of really good fish and chips — the kind in which the fish stays tender and juicy but the crust is super-crisp — odds are that the cook used beer as the main liquid when making the batter. Beer makes such a great base for batter because it simultaneously adds three ingredients — carbon dioxide, foaming agents and alcohol — each of which brings to bear different aspects of physics and chemistry to make the crust light and crisp.

Beer is saturated with CO2. Unlike most solids, like salt and sugar, which dissolve better in hot liquids than they do in cold, gases dissolve more readily at low temperatures. Put beer into a batter mix, and when the batter hits the hot oil, the solubility of the CO2 plummets, and bubbles froth up, expanding the batter mix and lending it a lacy, crisp texture.

That wouldn’t work, of course, if the bubbles burst as soon as they appeared, as happens in a glass of champagne. Instead beer forms a head when poured because it contains foaming agents. Some of these agents are proteins that occur naturally in the beer, and some are ingredients that brewers add to produce a creamy, long-lasting head. These compounds form thin films that surround the bubbles and slow the rate at which they burst.

Foams also make good thermal insulators. When you dunk a piece of beer-battered fish into a deep fryer, most of the heat goes into the batter rather than into the delicate food it encloses. The bubbly batter can heat up to well over 130 degrees Fahrenheit — the point at which so-called Maillard reactions create golden-brown colors and yummy fried flavors — while the fish gently simmers inside.

The alcohol in the beer also plays an important role in moderating the internal temperature and crisping the crust. Alcohol evaporates faster than water, so a beer batter doesn’t have to cook as long as one made only with water or milk. The faster the batter dries, the lower the risk of overcooking the food. If the chef works fast enough, he can create a beautiful lacework in the coating that yields that classic beer-batter crunch.

[W Wayt Gibbs and Nathan Myhrvold]

amusements, science

A Cable Too Far

Clearly I’m not the only one capable of extracting the wee from things. This from the “Feedback” column of the current issue of New Scientist:

Almost three years ago Japanese electronics giant Denon offered hi-fi enthusiasts the chance to pay $499 for a short length of computer network cable, usually costing only a few dollars (23 July 2008). The claim was that the cable “thoroughly eliminates adverse effects from vibration”.

We never did get a clear explanation of how vibration can affect digits running through a cable. But it seems the price was a bargain, because the AKDLi cable is now on sale at Amazon.com at $9999 new or $999 used (plus $4.99 for shipping). Hi-fi fans have not been indifferent to the cable’s qualities. They have turned Amazon’s customer comments pages, at amzn.to/cablereviews, into a paean of ironic praise for these bits of wire, with well over 1400 reviews.

Recent postings include this from DMan: “I filled a large glass with ordinary tap water and carefully dipped the doubled-over cable in. The whole glass turned instantly dark, red and more viscous. A quick taste and both my friend and I agreed that it was the finest tasting red wine we’d ever encountered.”

This comes from jmf: “Ever since I started using the cable … my light sabre skills have improved dramatically, much to the awe of my Master. I am able to jump from an anti-gravitational car running at full speed onto another, all the time dodging a laser gun.”

Perhaps most startling is what happened when Philip Spertus connected his cable to an iPod: “After listening to the entirety of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony I went on to listen to his 10th, something that I have never been able to accomplish with the lower quality ethernet cord that I had previously been using.”

amusements, current affairs, quotes, sexuality

Quotes of the Week

Here’s this week’s selection …

Balian of Ibelin: [to the people of Jerusalem] It has fallen to us, to defend Jerusalem, and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made. None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy?
[pause]
Balian of Ibelin: The wall? The Mosque? The Sepulchre? Who has claim? No one has claim.
[raises his voice]
Balian of Ibelin: All have claim!
Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: That is blasphemy!
Almaric: [to the Patriarch] Be quiet.
Balian of Ibelin: We defend this city, not to protect these stones, but the people living within these walls.
[From the film Kingdom of Heaven; 2005]

When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties they lead their country by a short route to chaos.
[Robert Bolt]

It’s not about orgasm. Pay attention to your partner. Enjoy the sex you’re having.
[Emily Nagoski; ]

What is it with pathology journals and autoerotic deaths? Every other issue seems to have a case report of some heedless, autoasphyxiated corpse with ill-fitting briefs and a black bar across his eyes. Occasionally, they seem to be in there for sheer color, as in the case of the young Australian who perished from “inhalation of a zucchini.” This one raises more questions than it answers. Was he trying to intensify his climax by vegetally choking himself, or was it a case of overexuberant mock fellatio? (We do learn that the zucchini was from his wife’s garden, admittedly a nice touch.)
[Mary Roach, Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Sex and Science]

Michael called the purported rhesus pheromones “copulins,” a word I cannot write without picturing a race of small, randy beings taken aboard the starship Enterprise.
[Mary Roach, Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Sex and Science]

The bottom line is that men’s armpit secretions are unlikely to serve as an attractant to any species other than the research psychologist.
[Mary Roach, Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Sex and Science]

arts

In which Alice Meets an Angel …

Last evening we had a somewhat surreal experience: we ventured out to a slightly unusual theatre: a performance of “Alice” at Little Angel Theatre in Islington.

Little Angel is the home of possibly this country’s première puppet theatre. And it is certainly a different experience. The theatre is tiny, with the auditorium seating only about 90 adults on church pew style benches. The stage is equally minuscule.

“Alice”, one of Little Angel’s current productions, is a puppet musical loosely based on Alice in Wonderland. I use “loosely” in the loosest sense of the word – “imaginative” is the word Little Angel use to describe it! Yes, it was certainly different and rather fun, if not entirely to my taste.

The puppets were brilliant (Alice, the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat especially), as were the four puppeteers. It was certainly an extremely clever production with many amusing little touches. The Cheshire Cat was excellently played with a Cheshire accent and much purring and chirruping; the White Rabbit was suitably and visibly terrified. But northern accents on the Mad Hatter and the March Hare didn’t work for me. The other thing which didn’t work for me was the musical element; the songs were cleverly written but often too detached from the real Alice story – although such is the way of the musical. And, especially towards the end, some of the production was a bit shouty for such a small space. After 1¾ hours (with an interval) the puppeteers must have been exhausted; it was non-stop and all four were on stage most of the time.

Here’s a YouTube video trailer for the production:

Despite the reservations, we’re glad we went. It was certainly different and as a long-time fan of Lewis Carroll it was well worth seeing. Little Angel only rarely do evening performances, which is a shame, choosing to concentrate more on daytime shows when children and schools can attend but most adults can’t. Consequently their productions tend to be more orientated towards children. “Alice” would be excellent for any child over the age of about five – it was in a way a bit like children’s TV – although it is by no means inaccessible to adults.

If you like the Lewis Carroll books, “Alice” is certainly worth seeing. And if you like excellent puppetry Little Angel Theatre run productions through most of the year usually with two shows running in parallel for 2-3 months before the repertoire changes. They also have touring shows, so you may find them popping up in the provinces.

“Alice” runs until 30 January.

people, personal

Just Another Day

Today, at least in the annals of history is just another day. Very little of great substance has happened over the years on 11 January; about the best being:

  • First recorded lottery in England was drawn at St Paul’s Cathedral, 1569
  • James Paget, surgeon, born 1814
  • HG Selfridge (yes, founder of Selfridges) born 1858
  • Charing Cross Station opened, 1864
  • Maurice Durufle, composer, born 1902
  • Ambrose Bierce, writer, died, 1914
  • First use of insulin to treat diabetes, 1922
  • Mick McMannus, wrestler, born 1928
  • Thomas Hardy, novelist, died 1928
  • Arthur Scargill, Miner’s leader and UK politician, born 1938
  • Ben Crenshaw, golfer, born 1952
  • John Sessions, Scottish actor, born 1953
  • Bryan Robson, English footballer, born 1957
  • Brian Moore, England rugby player, born 1962
  • Richmal Crompton, writer, died, 1969
  • Barbara Pym, novelist, died, 1980

For me today is a strange day as I have to come to terms with the fact that I am now officially a granny. For, yes, today we are 60! Eeekkkkk!

Many thanks to all those of you who have sent me birthday greetings. I am truly touched (yes, in the head!) by all your kind thoughts.

beliefs, freedom of speech

Freedom of Blasphemy

2 Comments

I don’t normally delve into international politics, but this situation – see also here, here and here – is an absolute disgrace.

  • A Christian woman (Asia Bibi) is in jail, pending appeal against a death sentence for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
    [And yet Islam is supposed to be a tolerant religion.]
  • Her death sentence is being endorsed by the Pakistani media, and by implication if not in fact, by the government.
  • Her case cannot properly be tried in open court because to do so would mean repeating the alleged blasphemy, thus compounding the offence.
    [Clearly contrary to all the accepted rules of justice.]
  • A senior politician has been murdered by his bodyguard for supporting her.
    [Islam, just like Christianity, forbids murder.]
  • The murderer is being fêted by the Islamic community as a hero.
    [Is this not a sinful as the actual murder?]

That any country, or any (supposedly tolerant) religion, can allow such a state of affairs to come to pass is, at the very least outrageous. And every right-thinking government must surely put the utmost pressure on Pakistan to not just resolve this particular situation but to put in place safeguards against any repeats.** I just don’t know what more I can say and preserve some semblance of normal blood pressure and dignity.

As Heresy Corner says: What we are seeing in Pakistan – established under Jinnah as a secular country, but one explicitly for Muslims – is precisely what happens when you let religion (above all this particular religion) form the basis of political organisation.

And also, to quote Inayat: The truth is that Muslims in power are every bit as prone to abusing that power as non-Muslims. Only, most ‘Islamic states’ or ‘Islamic republics’ do not have anywhere near the same legal safeguards and restrictions on power that most modern secular states do. (And, heaven knows, ours are far from foolproof.) Inayat also describes it as the moral collapse of a nation.

Much as I am personally areligious, I would never deny anyone their right to believe and worship as they wish providing they live within the moral precepts agreed by society at large (which in this day and age means globally!). Should the state, therefore, not be a mechanism for living together rather than promoting or securing an ideology? Thus it seems to me all this whole situation does is to reinforce the argument for secularism of both state and individual.

Wither now free speech and justice?

** Note I do not say “It must never happen again” because whatever safeguards are put in place cannot ensure 100% effectiveness. That, my friends, is life.

memes, personal

Ten Things – January

This is the first of a monthly series “Ten Things” which I plan will run all year. Each month I’m going to list one thing from each of ten categories which will remain the same each month. So at the end of the year you have ten lists of twelve things.

  1. Something I Like: Sex
  2. Something I Won’t Do: Play Golf
  3. Something I Want To Do: Visit Japan
  4. A Blog I Like: Katyboo
  5. A Book I Like: Anthony Powell; A Dance to the Music of Time (Well you knew I’d say that,didn’t you? And anyway it’s 12 books really!)
  6. Some Music I Like: Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
  7. A Food I Like: Curry
  8. A Food or Drink I Dislike: Egg Custard
  9. A Word I Like: Cunt
  10. A Quote I Like: If you don’t concern yourself with your wife’s cat, you will lose something irretrievable between you. [Haruki Murakami]
books

In which I Convince You I'm a Philistine

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:– Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
[Shelley; Ozymandias of Egypt]

I know there are a number of first class literarists who read this blog, so can any one of you please explain to me, in words I stand a chance of understanding, why this piece of Shelly is supposedly great poetry? For apart from the one line which is always quoted, it seems to me that it says little, if anything, of any interest or ornament. I understand the words and I see the symbolism, but I get not the point. Can anyone convince me otherwise?

amusements, beliefs, books, history, sexuality

Quotes of the Week

Lots and lots to choose from this week, mainly because I’ve been reading Brad Warner’s books on Zen as well as his website and lots else besides …

Imagine, for a moment, what the world would be like if we took the same approach to money as we do to sex. Imagine trying to hide all evidence of money from children, telling them that it’s not something they should know about. Imagine shaming them for asking questions about it, for expressing an interest in it, and for wanting to experiment with it. Imagine that you never explained how budgets work, or how to balance a checkbook, or how to pay for anything. Then, imagine that when they turn 18, handing them a credit card and saying “good luck with that.”

In essence, that’s what we do with sex.

Would you be surprised if those young adults didn’t know how to responsibly handle money? Would you be shocked if they ended up in crisis because they didn’t have the skills to take care of themselves? Would you think that their parents and schools had done their job?

If you answered “no” to these questions, then maybe you can also ask yourself why it should be any different when it comes to sex.
[http://www.scarleteen.com/blog/scarleteen_guest_author/2010/10/22/why_we_need_scarleteen]

Albert R Shadle was the world’s foremost expert on the sexuality of small woodland creatures.
[This could easily be the opening of a Douglas Adams or a Terry Pratchett novel, but it’s actually from Mary Roach, Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Sex and Science]

Our life is just action at the present moment. The past is nothing more than memory, and the future is nothing but dreams. At best, past and future are no more than reference material for the eternal now. The only real facts are those at the present moment. You cannot go back and correct the mistakes you made in your past, so you better be very careful right now. You can dream about your future, but no matter how well you construct that dream, your future will not be precisely as you envisioned it. The world where we live is existence in the present moment.
[Brad Warner, Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen’s Treasury of Right Dharma Eye]

The Paris Peace Conference [of 1919] dispensed recipes for war. The powerful nations dished out independence: which meant it was not independence. Something which has been given you through the benevolence of a higher power is not true independence: it is a sign that you are not strong enough to stand on your own.
[AN Wilson, After the Victorians]

Virginia Woolf’s prose was as beautiful as her face, but like many twentieth-century English writers, she had nothing to write about.
[AN Wilson, After the Victorians]

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
[Andre Gide]

These ambiguities, redundancies, and deficiencies recall those attributed by Dr Franz Kuhn to a certain Chinese encyclopaedia entitled Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge. On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel’s hair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that resemble flies from a distance.
[Borges; Essay: “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins”]

Action and its results are one and the same. Time, the thing which makes us see them as separate matters, is the illusion. Time is no more than a clever fiction we humans have invented to help organize stuff in our brains.
[Brad Warner; ]

Boredom is important. Most of your life is dull, tasteless and boring.
[Brad Warner; ]

I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.
[Whoopi Goldberg]