William Shatner has cemented himself into geek science fiction lore forever. Yesterday, he began his ninth decade on this planet – yes, Captain Kirk is now 80 years old.
Category: uncategorized
Happy Pi day
It’s 3/14, so it must be Pi day!
There is – FINALLY – no more cake!
As a follow-up to this post, I am happy to annouce that it took us two weeks but we’ve finally eaten all of that damn cake. Even after giving lots away, bringing some to the office (twice) and eating it way to often, we’ve finally managed to get rid of all of it.
It was good.
But no more!!!!!!!!!
New addition to the family
We thought long and hard and we’ve asked the breeder if we can adopt Annie.
It might be a few days of fun while everybody, especially the cats, get used to each other but we think we’re up for the challenge. She’s a really gorgeous girl and she seems very sweet-natured. Hopefully all will go well. Watch this space.
Reason #425,896 why I don’t want to go to the US anymore
In a case against a New York website owner, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is claiming that merely linking to copyrighted material is a crime. DHS, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seized Brian McCarthy’s domain, channelsurfing.net, in late January. The site has now been replaced with a government warning: “This domain has been seized by ICE – Homeland Security Investigations, Special Agent in Charge, New York Office. It is unlawful to reproduce copyrighted material, such as movies, music, software or games, without authorization… First-time offenders convicted of a criminal felony copyright law will face up to five years in federal prison, restitution, forfeiture and fine.”
[…]
The advocacy group Demand Progress has claimed that McCarthy never reproduced copyrighted material, and that his website simply linked to other sites. While the criminal complaint alleges that McCarthy did engage in the “reproduction and distribution” of copyrighted material, it is never clear that he actually reproduced any of the specified broadcasts.
“Under that sort of thinking, everyone who’s sent around a link to a copyrighted YouTube video is a criminal,” Demand Progress warned, calling the prosecution a “radical shift” in the way the government polices the Internet.
Seriously, shit like this makes me scared. If only to avoid the potentiality of trouble, I’m temped to relocate my website away from US soil. I wonder if Sealand is still running a web host…
One of my more random impulse purchases
I love the for-sale list on campus. The amount of weird and wonderful shit that people routinely buy and sell is simply fantabulous. Just today, this came up for sale:
Beautiful Hand Made 4 Tier Celebration Cake for Sale
The cake is here on campus.
Freshly baked, chocolate and baileys flavour.
Basically, it was for sale because the chef is going to make a wedding cake for a family member and this is the practice run.
So I bought a cake that would normally be sold for £180 for a fraction of the price :D
EDIT: Oh, and as a side-note, I’m told that the topmost tier would give 8 large portions. We might have cake for a while…
EDIT:
[14:33:24] Joe Foster: heheawesome [14:33:40] Joe Foster: looks like its about to topple over, or is that the design? [14:33:49] Richard Cote: by design, doofus [14:34:23] Joe Foster: i have no idea about wonky cake design [14:34:44] Joe Foster: i am a victoria sponge man, anything more is voodoo to me. [14:36:18] Richard Cote: I should have Katy give you a course in the proper nuances of cake :) [14:37:37] Joe Foster: nuance schmuance, its victoria sponge or gtfo. [14:41:19] Richard Cote: what about lemon? chocolate? chocolate and orange? [14:41:42] Richard Cote: there's a whole world of cake out there to be explored [14:41:43] Richard Cote: philistine!
EDIT: Crap, it has marzipan in it. I was specifically told that it didn’t contain any nuts :(
EDIT: Well, ok. After some cake surgery, I was able to remove the marzipan and shave off the outside layers of the cake. It was a hell of a job and took all of our tupperware to store the results. Jaysus, that’s about 30 pounds of cake!!!
Quote of the day
ADHD isn’t a disease, it’s the description of an entire generation.
I need to channel the Dude more often.
“The Dude abides. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’ ‘er easy for all us sinners.”
Most random email of the day
From Peggy, the EBI receptionist:
I have three packages with no name on, they contain:
An umbrella
Some toothpaste
A navy blue capIf you are expecting these
Please come and collect them
:)
[Recipe] Lemon scones
Zest and juice of one lemon
450g self raising flour
80g unsalted butter, cubes
3 tbsp caster sugar
300ml whole milk
Preheat oven to 200c. Sift flour with a pinch of salt and Sdf the finely chopped lemon zest. Rub butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and a few tbsp of lemon juice. Gradually mix in the milk until you have a rough dough (not all the milk might be necessary). Mix or knead as little as possible. Turn into a floured board and roll to a thickness of 2cm. Cut out rounds with a 6cm cutter. Put on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool on a rack and serve with cream and jam.