[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

occupy vs. black bloc controversy – or not

Chris Hedges: The Cancer in Occupy – “The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement. The presence of Black Bloc anarchists—so named because they dress in black, obscure their faces, move as a unified mass, seek physical confrontations with police and destroy property—is a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state.”

Hedging Our Bets on the Black Bloc: the Impotence of Mere Liberalism – “The black bloc is a tactic, not a group nor a movement. Its origins can be found in the Autonomism movement of 1970s Germany, where activists wore heavy black clothing, masks, and helmets to provide protection from the watchful eye of the authoritarian police state. Given the continued illegal actions of the Oakland Police Department – dealings deemed by the government has heinous enough to place the department under the oversight of a federal judge – it is no surprise that the residents of Oakland would want to protect themselves in this manner.”

Black Bloc – “On Feb 6, America author and Occupy activist Chris Hedges wrote a piece for Truthdig.com titled “The Cancer in Occupy.” In it he criticized the violent actions of Black Bloc operatives within the movement, saying they are the greatest threat to the future of Occupy. The article has generated a heated debate online about non-violence, political strategy and protest in America, and has garnered a response by Anarchist thinker Dr. Zakk Flash.”

#watch and

Every Apple Design Ever (ish) in 30 seconds – ish disclaimer, lol. nice music.

BDP > BPD – “Last week, Anonymous hackers modified the Boston police department’s website by replacing the homepage with the video for KRS-1 classic: “Sound of Da Police.” (Watch it above). In response, the cops made their very own YouTube clip.”

Russenkälte – streetarty adbusting, dressing up a nude model for winter.

oh yeah – this is what happens when david lynch makes a coffee ad

PressPausePlay – “The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities.”

Tracking the Internet Trolls – “The BBC tracks down a notorious Internet troll.”

EARTHMOVING: A Sierra Zulu Prequel (by monochrom) – “Another day at the United Nations Offices in Vienna. The Austrian Foreign Affairs Ministry invited members of the European Protocol Service, the UN Strategic Command Center for Central Europe, the United States Air Forces and a regional politician from Lower Austria to talk about the future of Soviet Unter-WHAT?!”

WTF!? Living Mobs Clean UBS and Credit Suisse – video of the mop action in zurich

#learn

Pasta recipes – “The sweet and salty combination of currants and capers is a Sicilian mix that’s both interesting and scrumptious.” scrumptious. really? anyway, it will be our dinner tomorrow night.

The following advertisement force quit unexpectedly. Your mind, money and time will no longer be affected. – brilliant adbust in nyc.

Crafting Azeroth in Minecraft – “My pet project has been to recreate a full-scale version of World of Warcraft inside Minecraft. The creation of the world is largely automated by custom software which I’ve been developing over the last few weeks. It’s just now reached a point where I can release some quality screenshots!”

Rewile | Filewile – “Filewile Rewile is a collection of remixes by Friends and Artists Filewile met during the last years of touring around the World.”

In Spite of Elections and and Camping Bans, Revolutionary Wave Grows – “But we aren’t dormant; we’re escalating. The only lull has been in the media coverage of our continuing struggle to create a more just world for all.”

Breaded Cats | Cat Breading | Breading Cats – “Cat Breading How To: 1) Take a piece of bread 2) Cut a hole approximately 1 inch larger than your cat’s head. This trips some people up. Remember: the bread has to fit around not just the cat’s head, but it’s ears, too. 3) Gently place the bread around your cat’s head. 4) Take a picture & post it! We love Cat Breading!”

Instagram Founder’s Girlfriend Learns How To Code For V-Day, Builds Lovestagram – “Trigger decided she wanted to be able to talk to her boyfriend in depth about the stuff he was working on. So the Yale political science major who “never took any computer classes” covertly downloaded “Learn Python the Hard Way” and began the Odyssey into programming, deadline Valentines’ Day.”

@BarnabyEdwards: And they say that irony is … – nothing to add to that

Famous Explosions From History Recreated With Cauliflowers – “Artist Brock Davis used cauliflowers to recreate three famous explosions from history: The Hindenburg disaster, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, and the Challenger disaster.”

Banksy in New Orleans – “I must not copy what I see on the Simpsons”

CRASS/MICHEY Tshirt – “Due to an overwhelming demand, the illegal CRASS/MICKEY t-shirt will now be available for a limited time (30 days to be exact) and will be removed from our store on March 9, 2012.”

What They Know – “Apps routinely send the information to marketing companies that use it to compile dossiers on phone users. This interactive database shows the behavior of these apps, and describes what each app told users about the information it gathered.”

bobby neel adams: agemaps – “new york-based photographer bobby neel adams addresses the affects of the passage of time with his recent project ‘agemaps’. a collection of photographs showing the same person at two points within their life demonstrates the affects of aging upon the human body, reminding us of our mortality.”

How to spot when someone lies – Lie detection guide – “Liars often maintain more eye contact than the average person “because they know it will help them ‘sell’ their story,” says Meyer. In a normal chat, people hold eye contact only 30-60 per cent of the time.”

Bungled attempts at bagging a Banksy – “the boutique hotel chain encouraged visitors to steal a work by Banksy from its walls. If anyone succeeded in pinching the work, No Ball Games, they could keep it”

All the Awesome Things You Can Do with a Long Press on Your iPhone, iPad, or iPad touch – “Long pressing—that is, tapping and holding down on a part of your screen—provides a lot of handy shortcuts on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.”

VW beetle from trash – “Indian artist haribaabu naatesan (hari) transforms over 2805 pieces of scrap metal in the lifesize ‘think blue beetle’, created for the like-titled ecological awareness campaign by volkswagen. the car utilizes 800 spark plugs, 200 bottle caps, 60 mother boards, audio cassettes, speakers, cans, keyboards, typewriters, and hundreds of other materials.”

Living Resistance – “these lovecrafty suckers are trying to turn you into a scrunched-up blood-drained pathetic crippled little cog in the death-machine of the human soul” hakim bey says it like it is.

Typewriter Boneyard: Hardback Book Lamps – lamps made from hardback books

http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html – mark jenkins website

Guy Fawkes mask stencil – “Here’s some handy, infringealicious clip art for the discriminating Anon who wants to make a statement without paying a royalty: a Guy Fawkes mask, suitable for urban art, dress-up, and silkscreening.”

bio solar power from grass clippings – “a team led by MIT researcher andreas mershin, continuing an 8-year research project of shuguang zhang, has developed a viable means by which agricultural waste– like grass clippings and leaves– can be used to create solar panels. within a few years, the technology could be used so that people in remote and developing regions can generate their own electricity with few materials and at low cost.”

Tyrannosaur / Out now on DVD & Blu Ray – “Paddy Considine’s award-winning debut feature, Tyrannosaur, has been released on DVD & Blu Ray from today.”

Whimsical Hidden Animal Teacups – “Product designer Ange-line Tetrault created the white ceramic fox, owl, and bear teacups to be “playful as well as thoughtful reflections of her life and surroundings.””

Reverend Billy Treibt UBS den Teufel Aus (4.2.2012) – “Reverend Billy, ein amerikanischer Aktionskünstler, treibt den Teufel bei der UBS aus — diese schützte ihren Eingang mit goldenen Holzverschlag, der nach der Aktion wieder abmontiert wurde.”

#lang:de

Im Selbstbedienungsladen – “Neininger und seine Zeitung haben letztlich nur das getan, was viele andere auch tun – egal ob Zeitungen oder Blogger. Zu einem Skandal taugt der Fall also schlecht. Die Kritiker sitzen selbst im Glashaus. Wer reinen Gewissens versichern kann, nie im Netz geklaut zu haben, werfe den ersten Stein.”

Vom Mythos des Realen – “Klar fände ich – und die ganze Kummer-Familie – es heute schön, wäre ich für irgendetwas Seriöses berühmt geworden, etwas, das die Menschheit weiterbringt. Aber ich bin berühmt, weil ich Interviews mit Stars teilweise inszeniert habe.” tom kummer

Interview mit dem Autor des Bio-Schmähs – “Wir alle haben romantisierte Vorstellungen, die zum Teil von unserem Bedürfnis nach einem „reinen Gewissen“ beim Einkaufen geprägt sind. Darüberhinaus kommen sie von der strategischen Selbst-Inszenierung der Konzerne in der Öffentlichkeit.”

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

Last week we spent a very nice week in Berlin, we had a fantastic time despite the super cold weather. We went to Berlin for the transmediale, but of course we were also on the look out for great hotels and vegetarian food. These are my notes:

Great

Hotel Mani
Torstrasse 136 10119 Berlin – Reservations +49 (0) 30 530 280 80

brandnew design hotel. great location, close to U-bahn Rosenthaler Platz and in walking distance to the trainstation. the rooms are small, but very sexy, with dark hardwood floors. free wifi. how idiotic to point this out, but the room had a really great shower. on the sixth floor we had this great view over the roofs of Berlin:

St. Oberholz
Rosenthaler Straße 72a 10119 Berlin – Öffnungszeiten Mo-Fr: 08:00-24:00 Sa-So: 09:00-24:00

just a few steps from our hotel, so we went there a lot. one of many such cafes in Berlin with free wifi, great coffee, croissants. they even provide electric outlets for the laptop armada that spends their days and evenings here.

Dada’s Falafel
Linienstraße 132 10115 Berlin-Mitte – Telefon: +49-30-27596927

ok. here I go. BEST! HUMMUS! EVER! and who would have thought that it would find it in Berlin. they add a little bit of mango-orange paste and some chili-paste, very exiting. the pitta they serve is not too great. but the falafel and the haloumi are also very nice. fresh leaf mint tea. we ate there 3! times.

Cookies Cream
55 Behrenstraße 10117 Berlin, Germany – Tue. – Sat. 7pm Tel: +(0)30 2749-2940

this restaurant tries a little too hard, but still manages to serve very interesting, creative vegetarian food. the location is fantastic, hidden in a back alley downtown. some nice ideas and combinations, but on the whole not even close to the best vegetarian restaurants i ever visited.

Kopps
Linienstraße 94 10115 Berlin – Tel 030 432 097 75

this vegan restaurant was right around the corner from us, yet we never ate dinner there. the breakfast was great though and the menu looked very good. we should have eaten dinner here instead of chasing down a mexican… (see bellow)

Not so great

Galao

this portugese cafe close to our hotel has a good reputation, maybe because it was sunday, but they didn’t have the pastel de nata, and the coffee was not too good either.

Dolores Burrito

these guys have quite a claim on their website, burritos as good as in the mission in san francisco. naturally we had to try it out. but sadly they do not even get close. the terrible, soggy burrito made me cry.

Las Marias Bonita

since the first mexican was such a fail, we thought we tried another one. yeh, stupid huh. this one was a little less attrocious than dolores, but still total crap.

Alpenstück

german through and through, home-baked bread, quality. it sounded pretty good on paper. but when you ask the guy if the have chai tea and he gives you that arrogant, superior smile, you start to question their intention somewhat.

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

Happy Flying Spaghetti Monster Day

Terry Gilliam – The Christmas Card – animation by terry gilliam from the 60s

Evil marzipan pig is evil – “This was meant as a Christmas present for two girls I know who are 5 and 7, but I don’t think I’ll give it to them actually. It turned out a bit too evil-demon-pig-from-hell-y for that”

Hey! Look at My Toys!: The 2011 Action Figure Nativity Contest is HERE! – “Action Figure Nativity contest and the call out to my dork horde brethren did not go unheard, with so many of you stepping up and really delivering some incredible, zany, original, brilliant and all-around awesome nativity scenes”

Braun-Weiße Weihnachtsgrüße 2011 – “Der FC St. Pauli wünscht fröhliche Weihnachten und einen guten Start ins neue Jahr”

Gingerbread Yoga Cookies – “Our best-selling yoga cookies, featured in “O” Magazine, come in a set of 10 different poses:”

Silent Night – festive greetings indeed

#watch and

Bradley Manning Had Secrets – “The story of Bradley Manning, not as a Wikileaks ‘hacktivist’, but as a young American soldier simultaneously going through a crisis-of-conscious and a crisis-of-identity.”

constant creak – try not to scream while watching putin’s uhm mashup

WTF IS A DDP? – Decentralized Dance Party

Crowdsourced anti-SOPA rap – “After I finished writing the song, I put a post on my Facebook wall asking people to take photographs of themselves presenting lines from the song.”

Official Occupy Wall Street Thank You Video – “This it the official OWS video to thank our supporters. This video was passed by consensus through the New York City GA on Tuesday, December 20.”

shitgirlssay’s Channel – “Shit Girls Say, Web Comedy Series Created From One-Liner Tweets”

Taxi Driver suédé par Michel Gondry – “Gondry has decided to join in the fun by creating his own “swede” version of Martin Scorsese’s classic film “Taxi Driver.”"

#learn

“Sneak Preview” of Mr. Brainwash’s Art Show 2011 – “The very hyped Mr. Brainwash show opens tomorrow at 1pm at his huge warehouse/studio on La Brea and Lexington in Los Angeles.”

Writers and artists design money fit for modern times – in pictures – “Global economic meltdown, the euro crisis and Occupy protests – this year has been dominated by financial issues. But what is money anyway? We invited writers and artists including Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood and Naomi Klein to invent new currencies and banknotes for a changed world”

Eco-Friendly Battery Runs on Old Newspapers – “This new tech relies on turning cellulose products (including, lest we forget, the paper greeting cards all you Earth-hating monsters are exchanging this time of year) into glucose sugar.”

Skull Style Trade Edition – “Formerly an emblem of evil and mortality, the skull has been transformed into an avant-garde design element used in the most cutting-edge art, chic interiors and vanguard style of the moment.”

Banksy – Inside – Caution Sir Wet Floor

Tetrahedral kite ‘Little Shining Man’ doubles as flying sculpture – “Little Shining Man is a kite which will reside in the atrium of a building in Jersey all year, except for one day where it will be taken down and flown in St. Aubin’s Bay.”

Occupy Wall Street: The Lego Set – “After months of demonstrations by the Occupy Wall Street movement, Slate V imagines a special edition Lego set just in time for the holidays.”

In WikiLeaks case, Bradley Manning faces the hacker who turned him in – “Lamo, who turned Bradley Manning into the FBI and Army for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, denied in his testimony that he’d violated a journalistic or ministerial promise of confidentiality”

kim jong-il dropping the bass – i loled

Zeitgeist 2011: How the world searched – “When looking at the data, it is fascinating to see the cultural fads and trends that took over the globe, from cupcakes (making top food lists in over a dozen countries) to the Dukan diet and high-profile weddings, but Google was used for much more than staying up to date on the sisters Middleton and Kardashian” I rather enjoyed the companion video

Occupy Everywhere, Tiny Protest Camps in San Francisco – Last night a group of prankster-activists installed miniature Occupy protest encampments around San Francisco. The encampments were made up of soft camping tent stress toys imprinted with the words “Support Your 99%,” and tiny cartoon protesters carrying miniature placards.

Armament, Human Heart-Shaped Glass Molotov Cocktails – “I created this work, inspired by the Egyptians and the so called Arab spring. The visual starting point is the molotov cocktail that has been the weapon of choice for the protesters. There is a connection in any conflict between the combatants.”

The return of the Radical Chic evening – Occupy Wall Street – “The Occupy movement seemed like it was doing just fine before the celebrity bandwagon showed up. So what do these people have to gain from association with the first genuine counter-culture to show up in a generation?”

What are you doing after the apocalypse? – Musée d’ethnographie de Neuchâtel – “Tandis que les médias charrient un flot ininter-rompu de nouvelles apoca-lyptiques, l’équipe du MEN invite à se pencher sur la question de l’après, en colla-boration avec des artistes et des chercheurs en sciences sociales.”

Occupy Hand Signs Cheatsheet – “If these aren’t correct, let me know.”

target bookshelf by mebrure oral – “each ‘target books’ shelf is produced in three pieces via injection molding of recyclable ABS plastic”

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

A few weeks ago i finished reading Lierre Keith’ book The Vegetarian Myth – food, justice, sustainability – a powerful and very angry manifesto against the vegetarian/vegan diet. While I still have trouble digesting some of the information, I have to say, she does a great job collecting lots of facts, that I might already have read somewhere or other, but in their combination these facts form an argument that makes a very strong case.

I have been a vegetarian for 25 years, and as far as health, at least anything to do with food and nutrition, i am doing perfectly fine with this diet. I am fully aware that for some people (very often for women) it is not the most healthy choice to go vegetarian, I remain convinced that it is possible for many of us to eat lacto-ovo vegetarian diets and have no health issues what so ever. This would be a first point, where i disagree with Keith. She argues that this is inconceivable, anyone will start to run into health issues on this diet. If we limit her claim to the vegan diet, i would agree with her. But a smart vegetarian life style, eating local, seasonal food, supplemented with b12 vitamins, enough raw milk products and eggs, no problem.

I still believe, as has been my conviction for the last 25 years, that if more people would move towards a vegetarian diet, this would be beneficial for our planet from an ecological point of view. I would not impose strict vegetarian diets on anyone, but i think to limit meat intake to a few times per week, would help our planets ecosystem. For me personally, even if i wanted to get back to eating meat, i simply could not do it. I gag even thinking about it, the smell of burned meat repels me, the sight of it as well. I just do not like meat nor fish. Nor does my body seem to miss it. So why force myself?

Keith makes a compelling argument that big agriculture is just as harmful, if not more so, than the loathed meat industry. Of course it is horrendous how big agriculture depletes our top soil and how it bases its succes on fertilizer made from fossil fuels. When and if fossil fuels run out, our top soil will turn to dust. After reading her book, soy and corn/wheat are definitely no longer a valid option. This is where here argumentation holds up strongest. From an ecological point of view soy and corn do not make sense at all, the ecological foot print they produce is huge. and many vegans and vegetarians do base their diets on soy and wheat, thus contributing to the negative effects they have on our environment.

Where i have a real problem with her argumentation is when she seems to suggest that the solution would be for everyone to go back to keeping some live stock, to use their manure to build up the top soil and eat the meat. We simply do not have the space for this model to work, the planet is much too crowded. She ignores the green house effect associated with live stock and the water wasted to raise them. But i agree with her that the statistics we often hear quoted by vegetarians, how many calories in grains are used to produce calories in meat, these are based only on meat industry practices, while live stock kept to eat grass would show very different numbers.

So where do i stand? Much less soy. Much less corn (except my dear, lovely, home grown sweet corn). I am still vegetarian. But i would never ever blame anyone for a reasonable meat consumption.

I want to finish by quoting a small excerpt from the book [page 266 -267]:

So if you need your personal fix, here are the three most effective things you can do.

Refrain from having children. That’s far and away the single most powerful lifestyle choice you can make for the planet. Understand there are at least six billion more people than the plant can support already here. I’m speaking as someone who likes children. I’ve got a green card in Narnia [...]. I’ve had the longing that feels like a physical ache. Never mind my mother’s craven lust for grandchildren. Yes, it’s sad, but what humans are doing to the planet, the endgame of ten thousand years of human entitlement, is much worse than sad. The children of polar bears are now starving to death on the shrinking ice. The children of amphibians as a genera are about to go extinct. The nonexistant children of the already extinct flowering plants in Szechuan are gone because humans have eradicated their pollinators. That’s 130 million years of evolution we’ve wiped from the planet. We have to measure our personal longings against the damage to our home and we have to let that damage be real to us, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. It’s hard to do this when our immediate needs are being met: the lights are on, the cupboards are full. Still, that is our adult knowledge now, and our final adult task.

Number two is to stop driving a car. You’ll quickly discover the structural impediments to car-free living. The entire built environment has been rearranged for the demands of the automobile, demands that are completely at odds with the needs of human community. Us Americans use much more fossil fuel than Europeans, not just because we are fixated on our individual entitlements, but because we were foolish enough to let suburbs, with their segregated distances between home, work and material goods like food, become our dominant living pattern. This pattern, with all its immense investment in infrastructure , will collapse as the oil age dribbles to a close. [...]

Number three is to grow your own food. The two thousand miles that your average bite travels has to shrink to walking distance before the oil runs out and the temperature rises any higher. Your backyard is as good as it gets. When you’re hungry enough, your dogs and cats will be replaced by pigs and chickens, and your sterile monocrop of lawn will become a polyphonous and intimate tumble of food. You’ll learn what i did about nitrogen and soul, animals and plants, or eventually be left with dead dust. Teach yourself, your friends, your neighbors: a few of them are nervous. The rest will join soon enough.

That i’ll subscribe.

if you ever had a zucchini plant in your garden you know this: inevitably there will come a time when the yield just gets to be almost too much.
what a proficient plant. omg zomfg it’s amazing.

so it’s quite possible to get sick of eating zucchini, IF you don’t vary the ways you eat it.

it also helps to take the zucchini when they are small and tender…

AND any zucchini will taste much much better if you sprinkle it with salt and let it “sweat” for a while before cooking it.

here’s my collection of zucchini (courgette) recipes, enjoy ;p

raw

grated in salad

a very simple recipe

grate the zucchini on a medium cheese grater
add to the salad dressing in the bowl to marinate it for a while
add the lettuce and everything else you eat with your salad
eat.

my rating: 5 [on a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being best]

sticks with herbed sour cream

80′s pool party, anyone?

use tender zucchini sticks
cut them to sticks about french fry size
create a dip with quark or sour cream and any herbs you can get a hold of
dip away.

my rating: 4

cooked

zucchini mash with thyme

this only sounds horrible, but is actually one of my favorite ways to prepare zucchini. and very fast.

grate the tender zucchini on a medium cheese grater
add olive oil to a frying pan, warm to medium heat, add the grated zucchini and some salt
turn the zucchini until they pull water and get soft, about 2 – 3 minutes
sprinkle with lemon juice, olive oil and some fresh thyme (lemon thyme is best)
enjoy

my rating: 9.5

fried with pine nuts and currants

i recently found this in the moro cookbook. it is brilliant and simple.

cut the zucchini into sticks, 1 cm x 6cm
drop into a colander and sprinkle with some salt
soak some raisins in a cup of water
fry a red onion (with some salt) on low heat until it caramelizes (about 15 – 20 minutes)
remove the onions, set aside
lightly toast the pine nuts, remove them too
now quickly spray the zucchini with some water, and fry them in olive oil for 2 – 3 minutes
drain the water from the raisins
mix everything together
nom nom nom

my rating: 10

tempura

this takes some more effort, and works best combined with some other veggies (carrots, carrot greens, sugar snaps, younameit) and your favorite tempura sauce.

create the tempura batter by combining beer, flour, salt to get the right consistency
heat sunflower oil to high in a frying pan (it takes quite a lot of oil)
turn the veggies in the batter and fry them until they are crispy, y’all had tempura before…
dip in tempura sauce and tip your hat to japanese genius

my rating: 9

deep fried with pesto

a very fast way to prepare it and make it stand out

cut the zucchini to small 1/2 cm slices
fry it in medium heat in olive oil
when they are nice, crispy, brown, put them on paper towel to get rid of some oil
in a bowl add pesto and turn
eat with pasta

my rating: 7.5

pie

i <3 pie

spread the dough on a baking sheet
grate or slice the zucchini
optionally add some cherry tomatoes, herbs, caramelized onions
bake at medium heat for 20 – 30 minutes (by eye)
a batter of eggs and milk can be added 15 minutes into baking it
eat with salad

my rating: 8

stuffed

a great way to deal with jumbo zucchini, it will happen…

cut the zucchini lengthwise down the middle
with a spoon take out the central parts, the seeds first and then some flesh
sprinkle with salt and set aside
prepare your filling (most people use meat, i use the flesh i scraped out earlier, some nuts, raisins, spices, and sometimes an egg, some bread crumbs, rice leftovers, cheese, whatever)
add the filling into the zucchini boat
bake for 15 – 20 minutes at medium heat
don’t burn your mouth

my rating: 6.5

conserved:

grilled zucchini in olive oil

the classic.

cut the zucchini lengthwise, salt, let it sweat for 30 minutes
dip off the water with a paper towel
after rubbing some olive oil on both sides grill them on high heat
let them cool
add to a glass container, add rosemary, thyme and/or oregano, garlic is an option
top the glass with good quality oilve oil, and seal it
eat it with bread or as an appetizer.

my rating: 6

pickled zucchini with curry or not

i already wrote a detailed recipe for this here.
it can be an excellent way to deal with some huge zucchini that went out of hand.
i have to admit i am a little tired of the curry flavor, we still have many containers from last years batch.
trying to think of a different way to spice this… hmmm

my rating: 4 (but this was a 7 – 8 not too long ago)

recipes i have not tried yet:

summer squash, borlotti beans & roasted pepper soup with basil chilli oil (cotter)

cornmeal pancakes with salsa

and of course there’s also:

ratatouille, pizza, risotto, pasta dishes … and we have not even gone near the flowers!

so this should give you some options to deal with the yearly zucchini invasion.

edit: recipes tried since

penne with zucchini, butter and mint from River Cafe Cook Book Easy

a solid dish, the butter and mint is almost as great as gnocchi with butter and sage

cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, cut 1 cm pieces, salt, set aside
start to cook your penne or other pasta (we used fusili)
take as much butter as you can handle
melt half of the butter in a heavy pan
fry the zucchini until soft, mash some, leave some whole
add some onion or garlic, mint and the other half of the butter
drain the pasta, add to the zucchini
eat with parmesan

my rating: 7

Spaghetti with Zucchini and Capers from River Cafe Cook Book Easy

Another unusual yet great combo, works great to use bigger fruits

Cut the zucchini into spears, drizzle salt, let rest
Slice Tomatoes, squish out some of the juice juice, add capers. chili, oregano, olive oil and white wine vinegar, leave to marinate for 15 minutes
Cook the spaghetti
Meanwhile, in a heavy pan fry the rinsed zucchini in olive oil until golden brown
Add to the sauce and pour over spaghetti
<3

my rating: 7

Zucchini scapece from River Cafe Two Easy

mint again, this recipe comes from the napoli region, tasty stuff, fast to cook

Wash and slice zucchini into spears, salt, let sit for 30 minutes
Fry the rinsed zucchini to a dark brown, add mint leaves for a quick stir, add chili, red wine vinegar
done

my rating: 8

Grilled courgette & fennel salad with apricots, almonds and feta from wild garlic, gooseberries …and me

suddenly we remembered this recipe we cooked last year, this is a very very nice salad by one of my favorite cooks, denis cotter

soak apricots in warm water for 20 minutes
slice fennel and blanch in boiling water 30 seconds, drain, cool in cold water
toss red onion, fennel with olive oil, grill in oven for 3 – 4 minutes
brush zucchini with oil, grill them
toss all vegetable, with the apricots, cumin seeds, fresh coriander and lemon juice
roast almonds and sprinkle over the salad with feta
nomnomnom

my rating: 9

note:
i will add some photos, and maybe some more recipes later.
please please feel free to let me know how you cook them in comments.
or how you enjoyed my recipes.
thank you.

after two failed attempts I finally managed to make a very nice elderflower jelly.
in my previous attempts the jelly had turned out much to liquid, unusable with bread and butter, we just used it for some deserts and drinks.
the trick seemed to be to add some apple juice, the pectin from the juice seemed to help to reach the right consistency.

harvest 7 – 9 elderflower stems
carefully pluck flowers from the stems
place elderflowers in 1 liter of cold water
leave it in a sunny spot for 24 hours
filter using a cheese cloth
this should leave you with about 0.8 liter of infusion
add the juice of one lemon
add 0.4 liters organic apple juice
in a large pan bring to a boil
add 50 g. unigel
keep boiling for 1 minute
add 1 kg of organic white sugar
bring to a boil again, while carefully stiring with a wooden spoon.
done.

when you fill the jelly into clean jars you can add a few elder flowers, careful not to add any stems, to make it look truly awesome.

because of some health issues i had to look into probiotic drinks.
it is beyond me why there is no organic such product to be found in switzerland. or at least i have not found it yet. i cannot comprehend why people would consume their probiotic supplements in yogurths made from non-organic milk, which as we know may very well contain antibiotics that the farmers feed their cows.

just saw this at my friend andreas house:

- in a glass jar mix 1/4 vinegar with 3/4 orange juice – apparently fruit flies like acidic stuff
- add a few drops of dish washing liquid – this changes the way the surface of the juice/vinegar behaves and makes them drown
- cover the glass with plastic wrap, tighten the edges to create a smoothe surface, poke 4 or 5 small holes in the surface

watch and enjoy… well, who has time for that. but you could…

i’ll keep you posted if this works. at the moment the fruit flies seem intrigued, but too shy, since f. is cooking and moving about in the kitchen too much… i searched the internet and some people just place some fruit in a jar and then do the plastic wrap thing, since it seems they can’t get out once they flew in.

edit: it works! the fruit flies are currently taking numbers in the cue to go in. and die a horrible death in vinegary OJ, muhahahahaha.

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

online video killed the …

How to pull out a tooth with a rocket… – apparently the son wanted to pull his tooth this way, the question remains, should you let him…

MIA — Paper Planes Brentwood Redux – "All I want to do is watch this video and so will you when you realize M.I.A. has lost her cred and she's living in Suburbia now." nice spoof

cows & cows & cows – coreographed cowbubbles… lololol

OLD SPICE REMIX: by Mike Relm – bitchin'

schmooze and abuse

One-pan wonder recipe – "I continue the tahini theme from last week with an unusual use of tahini as a raw paste rather than the more common diluted sauce." and another yumm.

‘Yes Men’ Use BitTorrent To Avoid Censorship – "The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo who expose the lies and social problems caused by governments and corporations. In their much awarded films they impersonate people in power to bring out the truth. Because the US Chamber of Commerce is suing their asses, they have now turned to BitTorrent to get their message out."

BP Photoshops Another Official Image Terribly – "This week it came to light that BP had photoshopped—poorly—an official image of their crisis command center. Apparently, that wasn't an isolated incident. Let's take a closer look at this view from a helicopter, shall we?"

osymyso: New tracks on Do Or D.I.Y. session. – "I recently made a 10 minute session for the brilliant show, Do Or D.I.Y. presented by People Like Us. The session is 10 minutes long and is comprised of all new osymyso goodness, I've never uploaded any of the bits contained in the mix before" and it’s all good again. osymyso must be the greatest music maker who never made it big. yet.

As Lindsay Lohan heads to jail, other famous faces who've had mugshots. – "The actress, 24, who turned up for prison looking more like a starlet than a jailbird, isn't the only well-known person to have seen the inside of a cell, as a new book highlights."

Fart-operated TV remote – "On Instructables, Schmidtn posted how-to instructions for his Fart Operated Random Channel TV Remote." this, sir, is a must-have!

The DJ Shadow Remix Project- Limited Edition CD – "The DJ Shadow Remix Project began as an experiment to see if we could engage and empower the online remixing community. Initially, Mike (Fiebach, of DJShadow.com) and I figured we'd award a prize through the site, stream a few winning mixes, and leave it at that. Eighty or so submissions later, I started thinking 'Hmm, maybe we should open this up a little.'

Ian Bogost – Cow Clicker – "Cow Clicker is a Facebook game about Facebook games. It's partly a satire, and partly a playable theory of today's social games, and partly an earnest example of that genre."

'The Breakup 2.0:' A look at how new media is used to end relationships – "I was interested in the ways in which people were using new media to break up with each other and also the ways in which new media — which is designed to create connections — creates all sorts of problems when you're using it to disconnect,"

The Physical Transformations Of Maradona & Dunga – pretty cool morphing job

Invaders to Tetris – made in lego now

Jessica Harrison – 2010 – splatter porcelain [via rebel:art]

Patti Smith — Dream Of Life — A film by Steven Sebring – my friend laura plotkin really recommends this documentary, tempted to order it.

Crime Scene : San Francisco's unluckiest thief – "the 31-year-old city resident rode a bicycle up to a woman Monday afternoon in the South of Market neighborhood, snatched an iPhone out of her hands, and then pedaled away. Problem was, the woman was carrying the phone as part of a company's demonstration of a real-time GPS tracking program. If the bandit would have taken a peek at the screen, he would have seen himself traveling across a map of San Francisco."

Ryan Babel’s intriguing story about swimming trunks – "find out exactly what happens when people like Ryan Babel start twatting on Twitter, convinced that other people actually give a tupenny ha’penny about their “hilarious” shopping anecdotes." another total babel fail

Football versus the vuvuzela – "The majority of football clubs look set to jump on the anti-vuvuzela bandwagon by banning the controversial instrument from games next season. Ryman Division One South side Whyteleafe became the first club in the country to officially prohibit the vuvuzela and, since then, others have followed suit." oh boy, this had to happen

Accaspokenword pema yo – acapella rap asking for some producer to work it

Taking Web Humor Seriously, Sort Of – "Goofy pictures of cats, Hitler screaming about Kanye West, Sad Keanu Reeves – these are the products of vast Internet collaboration. And we should take them seriously. Sort of." article might be locked now … ffs

Bill Murray on Ghostbusters 3, Get Low, Ron Howard, and Kung Fu Hustle
– "he is also a man beholden to no one, not the studios, not the audience, not even an agent."

English Premier League clubs ban vuvuzelas – "Fans hoping to replicate that famous vuvuzela World Cup drone back in England face disappointment after several Premier League clubs banned the deafening trumpets from their stadiums." thank god for that…

Glimpse – "Passing through the everyday spaces we inhibit, the door half opened always stirs up a sense of seduction and curiosity within us. Inspired by these ordinary yet inexplicable moments in our daily lives,I designed a mirror that gives an illusion of a door opening on any given surface."

Sergio Ramos: Charity Win, Follicular Fail – "We never want to mock or scorn footballers who take time out from their holidays to do charity work. That’s why we’re saying nothing. Nothing at all. Not a corn-rowed, plaited, braid of a word about Sergio Ramos and his head game situ in Senegal while working with UNICEF."

OFM vegetarian recipe special – "This Sunday’s Observer Food Monthly is a vegetarian special, guest edited by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney."

The Ghosts of Facebook – "When you die, what happens to your Facebook profile? That’s a question that most Facebookers don’t really think about, but with 500 million members, the problems of death and ghost accounts are becoming very real for the website" might be locked now… ffs

crap at my parents house – "The goal of Crap At My Parents House is to pay homage to all of the weird crap that everyone's parents have. Please help in this project by submitting anything you deem funny, weird, odd, unique, strange, absurd, ridiculous or just plain terrifying."

Why Do Anonymous Geeks Hate Scientologists? – "NYU professor Gabriella Coleman opened this profoundly profanity laced academic talk with a question: why have internet enthusiasts been drawn to denounce Scientology so vehemently for two decades? Scientology, she explained, has provided a perfect nemesis for geekery."

Invisible Paris: Victims of Fashion – "On the Rue du Faubourg du Temple, an original shop sign stands witness to a period when men literally killed for a pair of shoes. These men were known as the Apaches, and they took their clothing very seriously!"

Ricky Gervais takes control – "But why weren't you trying? Was it fear of failure? "Honest answer: I think it was laziness." But you're so unlazy now. "I'm a workaholic." So what happened? "I found something I really loved."

swiss focus

Petition :: Zollgebühren – www.stopp-zollgebuehren.ch

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

ha. confi/gelee saison startet heute, dies sind die sorten die wir normalerweise machen:

holunderblüten/zitronen gelee

meertrübeli gelee

aprikosen mit limettenschale

pflaumen mit verveine oder
zwetschgen mit verveine

brombeeren mit rosmarin

feigen mit ingwer und zitronenschale

—–

woot, jam and jelly season has startet. these are the flavors we usually make:

elderflower/lemon jelly

red currants jelly

apricot with lime rind jam

plums with verveine jam

blackberry with rosemary jam

figs with ginger and lemon rind jam

sage, the kitchen herb, has a really unique flavor, that i absolutely love. yet while there are many meat and some fish recipes that use sage, for vegetarians the options seem rather limited – or so i thought – pasta with butter and sage was all that came to mind. this year, however, i discovered a few other recipes, that use this very special herb.

[all these recipes use fresh green sage. never tried the, with the dried herb]

salbei müsli – sage mice (this is a recipe from zurich, switzerland)

create a batter the way you like it. we use flour, oil, soymilk, salt, pepper, no extra spices, trying to keep it as simple as possible.
take the biggest sage leaves you can find, clean them, leave a good stem on the leaf – this will be the “tail” of the mice ^^.
turn the leaf in the batter, fry till golden brown on both sides in olive oil. enjoy!

sage pesto

instead of basil, use sage and parsley for your pesto – 50/50 – parsley is added mostly to tone the sage flavor down just a little, but don’t worry sage will still be the dominating flavor. we only use olive oil, pine nuts and parmesan in our pesto. garlic might be a little too strong for this mixture. but give it a try, if garlic is your thing.

(we ate this at by pietro leemann’s fantastic restaurant joia in milano. in one of his books we also discovered a version that uses celery leaves. we tried that as well and it’s amazing as well)

bean paste with sage

take very ripe green beans, open the pods and take out the beans.
cook till soft in milk, we use soymilk, which works fine.
in a bowl add the soft beans, splash with some olive oil, add salt, pepper and some sage. blend.
this paste works well on foccacia, bruschette or toast.

(this recipe is from one of vour cook books, but i can’t currently find which, will update it later)

this is an excellent recipe for a pickle, that goes well with just about everything. macrobiotic kitchen will probably snide at the curry spice in the mix, but who cares. a pickle is a pickle is a pickle.

this recipe is especially great to make use of the huge zucchini, that always seem to grow on these madly productive plants. the preparation is a four day process.

1. day

3 kg Zucchini
1 cup Chopped Onion
1/2 cup Salt

add all these ingredients to a bowl and let it sit for one day.

2. day

wash away any extra liquid that may have appeared.

add the following ingredients to a pan and bring to a boil:

4 cups White Wine Vinegar
4 cups Water
4 cups Sugar
6 Teaspoons Curry
Pepper

pour this over the zucchini while hot.

3. day

drain off all the liquid, bring it to a boil in a pan, pour over the vegetables once again.

4. day

bring everything to a boil, and keep it boiling on low for 10 minutes.
conserve in clean glass chars.

’tis the season! or well, it’s almost over. elder trees are blooming and this means it’s time to make my favorite drink. ever! nothing!!! compares.

here’s how to make it:

5 liters of water
0.1 liter vinegar (we use apple vinegar)
700 g. white sugar
1 lemon in slices
15 elderflower stems

remove the stems from the elder flowers. (try to pick only the flowers off the stems, with very ripe flowers just shaking them off might work; the better you manage the more delicious the lemonade)
mix all the ingredients in a big bowl (it’s a good idea to dissolve the sugar in the water first).
place the bowl in a sunny spot, cover and let it do the magic for 24 – 72 hours (some recipes call for 6 – 7 days in the sun, i have not dared to leave it out that long yet. it gets more and more alcoholic).
stir daily several times with a clean spoon.
filter the lemonade into clean bottles (don’t know what these bottles are called, see photo).
place the bottles in the sun for 6 – 8 days (if the lemonade is already quite bubbly from the previous process this might be too much, you can however add some ting to a pretty mellow lemonade).

the result is a delicious, slightly fizzy lemonade. niammmm.
when you open the bottle it might bubble quite a bit, depending on how alcoholic it got.

the lemonade can also be made with lime-blossoms. (i have never tried that yet, but it says it can be done in the recipe and it does sound delicious)

holunderblüten limonade

5 l wasser
1 dl essig (apfelessig)
700 g zucker
1 zitrone in scheiben
15 holunderblüten

die blüten lösen (je weniger grünzeugs desto besser, am besten ist es die weissen blümchen abzuschütteln).
mit wasser, essig, zucker und zitronenscheiben in eine grosse schüssel geben.
es empfiehlt sich den zucker zuerst im wasser aufzulösen.
die schüssel 24 – 72 stunden in der sonne stehen lassen (ein paar rezepte fragen nach 6 – 7 tage in der sonne, ich habe es bisher noch nie solange gewagt. die limo wird immer alkoholischer).
täglich mehrmals mit sauberem löffel umrühren.
die limonade filtern und in saubere flaschen mit patentverschluss geben.
die flaschen 6 – 8 tage in der sonne stehen lassen. (je nachdem wie alkoholisch die limo bereits ist, kann die sonne es übersäuern, auch können flaschen zerspringen. andererseits kann jetzt bei schwachen limos noch ein bisschen fermentierung reinkommen).

beim öffnen können die flaschen überschäumen, je nachdem wie alkoholisch die limonade geworden ist.

die limonade kann auch mit lindenblüten gemacht werden (selbst noch nie probiert, steht aber im rezept drin und tönt gut).

teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version.

online video killed the …

Fiver to Bigwig video – "This week I have a video to share with you. It's a 2003 remix of Fiver to Bigwig that was released in 2002."

Flooded McDonald's – "Flooded McDonald's is a film work in which a convincing life-size replica of the interior of a McDonald's burger bar, without any customers or staff present, gradually floods with water."

Kid on Drugs – "Is this real life? Why is this happening to me? Do you have four eyes? Is this going to be forever?" you try to be disgusted by this parent who filmed his kid high on drugs after a dentist visit, but it’s fantastic and hilarious.

2009 Oscars Interactive Photo Hunt! – "A recap of most of the nominees for the 2009 Oscars in the first ever interactive photo hunt on YouTube!"

schmooze and abuse

Digital Overload Is Frying Our Brains – "The high-speed, hyperconnected world we live in may be eroding our ability to pay attention. Our brains are being trained to expect distraction, and the results could lead to an attention-deficient future society." yay, we has a nice new excuse.

Fútbol por la libertad de prensa – "El Palau Robert de Barcelona inaugura la exposición 'Fútbol por la libertad' que han realizado conjuntamente Reporteros sin Fronteras y la Agencia France-Presse." a foto exhibit focusing on football and the freedom of the press.

Why Digg's MrBabyMan is the king of all social media – "Andrew Sorcini is the Michael Phelps of Digg." interesting article trying to explain digg and power users.

Wtf: Bill Gates Unleashes Mosquito Swarm – "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates released a swarm of mosquitos into the crowd." TED speech made more stingy with mosquitos.

Free Ecofont reduces ink use by 20 percent – "how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? Apparently punching little circles out of each letter is the answer, resulting in a font that uses up to 20 percent less ink." toxic ink is just as much of an environmental issue as cutting down trees for the paper? printing stuff on paper just sucks in every way you cut it.

Because everything's funnier. In The Butt. – is it?

UNIQLOCK – fancy music dance clock

Welcome to finerday – social networking site for family and elderly folks.

Helbotica for Men – "Designed by Jonathan Yule. Helbotica is part of a series of typographic illustrations based on Yule’s favourite sans-serif fonts."

Melon mouth – melon tongue and teeth more like [via bb]

Crackulous Allows for App Store Piracy – "Are you serious? This isn't a joke? You're seriously trying to stop an app designed to pirate apps from being pirated? – No but I need people to support my work… I deserve appreciation." tsk tsk, some people

See Through Breaker Boxes – "Artist Joshua Callaghan came up with a clever way to beautify the streets of Playa Vista, California by painting over unsightly breaker boxes"

Elephant – "Wherever that red sign is pointing, that is we are NOT there! I do not know how to get the d****d thing to point at the blue dot, but it seems to move all over the map with no guidance by me! The blue dot is us. No matter where the sign points, that is where we are." a map with a mind of its own at the website of the english bookstore in barcelona.

Google says whole web may be harmful — for 40 minutes – "Today, some searchers found every site in Google's search results carried the warning that: "This site may harm your computer". "

The Wovel: Literary Alternative To Browsing Blogs – "A wovel is a Web novel," Blake says. "There's an installment every Monday. At the end of every installment, there's a binary plot branch point with a vote button at the end."

food stuff via barcelona

Panqueques con dulce de leche gratinados – "Quemar con una planchita o gratinar unos minutos en el grill del horno, para dorar el azúcar y entibiar el dulce. Servir de inmediato." best. desert. ever.

Dulce de leche – "El dulce de leche o manjar es un dulce tradicional en Argentina"

Burrata – "Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream." the mothership of cheeses.

Paella vegetariana – some people will say a vegetarian paella is absurd, but …

Paella vegetariana – y otro mas

swiss focus

Knit-kit: Umfrage – survey – “Help us decide! What animal would you like to see as a new Knit Kit ? On the top left you can vote for your favorite animal.”

Anyone Can Swiss – "This project suggest that perhaps Helvetica posters are so extremely formulaic that perhaps a monkey (or a computer) could do it? This is an experiment in design discourse."

Coiffure Hänsel & Gretel – a hairdresser for kids in bern's lorraine neighborhood. webdesign by lopetz BD.

Lied "E Rägetag am Meer" (Polo Hofer, Schifer Schafer) – silly swiss german song from the 70's about a rainy day on the seaside, that i had stuck in my head these last days.

delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed – with all the typos.

ordered from the most appealing to the most appalling (no offense plz)

also check out: Flickr Fantasy cake

i am trying to launch a new urban graffiti symbol, comparable to the wifi graffiti symbols aka warchalking, indicating that a place – restaurant, takeout or other – that is selling food as vegetarian is actually lying.

non-vegetarians please feel free to just smirk this one off, but if you are vegetarian you must know the situation: you buy food claimed to be vegetarian, but when you start eating it you notice distinct traces of fish or meat in the dish. it’s very upsetting because it involves a breech of trust. you want to trust that people actually sell you a vegetarian dish when they claim they do. this happened to me last night at a thai takeout here in bern. the food just reeked of fish oil and ended up spat out in the sink and got thrown into the garbage can.

what to do about it? well you could go the long way, because there are actually laws protecting people from this. but who wants to go through the trouble? even going to talk to the guy, who runs the place, seems like a bummer, he will just deny it. much easier would be an urban annotation system, where you tag the place in question with a symbol, that the people in the know will recognize to stay clear of the place, while others just ignore it.

i am thinking of the dynamic v, that we often see when vegetarian food is depicted, but traced across. i will try to draw one later and post it here.

[teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week - the edited version]

ok, ok, i might be the only one who likes cuil. yeh, for the privacy thing

:flash: How to Add Cuil to your Firefox Search – "You don’t even have to fill out anything in the form, just click the button and Cuil will be added! If you check the box, you can set it as your default search engine."

:flash: Ex-Google engineers debut ‘Cuil’ way to search – "Finally, Cuil is hoping to attract traffic by promising not to retain information about its users' search histories or surfing patterns – something that Google does, much to the consternation of privacy watchdogs." cool, or cuil that is…

smellympics in beijincorship

:flash: Web curbs for Olympic journalists – "Journalists covering the Beijing Olympic Games will not have completely uncensored access to the internet, Chinese and Olympic officials say."

:flash: Slow internet major problem at Olympics – "INTERNET connection is proving to be a major problem at the Beijing Games, despite Olympic organisers promising uncensored access."

online video killed the …

:flash: Get Your War On: The Watch List – animated get your war on: "that's right…whether you're a terrorist, non-terrorist, or simply a neglected unlisted terrorist, you still get a new GYWO episode every week."

:flash: Large Hadron Rap – "the flow is halfway decent, and it accurately covers a lot of knowledge related to particle physics and the LHC. Its by AlpineKat, alter-ego of a science writer currently working at the LHC."

:flash: DRAMATIC CAT – "this kitty cat loves watching TV gives a funny dramatic look once it realizes it's being recorded"

:flash: Banned Condom Commercial – hilarious condom commercial [via sex-blo.gs]

:flash: Meet Monkey – "BBC Sport is using the traditional Monkey King character in the marketing campaign for their Olympics coverage. Produced by Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn."

:flash: W. Teaser Trailer – "The teaser trailer for W. which based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. It is directed by Oliver Stone and stars Josh Brolin as George W. Bush."

schmooze ande abuse

:flash: delicious.com – what’s new? – “Delicious has a bold new design that is more powerful and easier to use, along with a revamped search that’s faster and more robust.”

:flash: Caregiver robots to take care of Japan's elderly? – "In Japan, they're developing robots to care for the elderly, in anticipation of the aging of the population, which will be 40% elderly by 2055." in my head i am debating if sex-robots would be more pathetic or not…

:flash: 50 Top Blogs analysed – Further Findings – "we used Technorati Top Blogs and analyzed 50 most popular blogs which appear there. We have identified important design problems and considered solutions for each of the problems separately."

:flash: 13 – an age to remember (or not) – Not! Lyndon Wade's portraits of pimply teenagers.

:flash: どこでもラストガイ – the last guy – generator turns any webpage into a gamemap. why not try my blog ^^?

:flash: Lazy Beggars – "We ask for Food, Wine, Joints and Cocaine (the original version) or for Beer, Wine, Whisky and the Hangover (the light version) – at least we're honest! " and you can give them money using paypal. [via rebel:art]

:flash: iPirates risk jail time in customs frisk – "MUSIC fans might soon have their iPods searched by Customs officers at airport checks and face jail if a large amount of pirated music is found on them." mamma mia.

:flash: Ondertussen – a sign from god! true story.

:flash: 'FailWhale' Gives Frustrated Twitterers Something to Smile About – "Twitter's "FailWhale," the cutesy symbol that surfaces when the microblogging site goes down, is turning into a pop culture icon for the Web 2.0 crowd." that is so fail.

:flash: What the World Needs Now: Another Dell MP3 Player – "Back when the MP3 market was young, Dell tried to be a player with the Dell DJ. But it crashed and burned while Apple sewed things up to the point where even Microsoft's Zune is a distant also-ran. So, naturally, Dell wants back in now, five years later."

:flash: Baguette Keyboard Wrist Cushion – "Mmmm…baguette. If working at a computer is your bread and butter, then you owe it to yourself to upgrade to this deliciously plush baguette." [via swissmiss]

:flash: Anti-Bush Graffiti: 25 Countries, Six Continents – "As President George W. Bush nears the end of a mostly disastrous eight-year term, he too should be given credit for public appearances overseas." i should go through my flickr stream to check for anti-bush graffiti in bern. cause there is, trust me, there is …

:flash: The "Hug" That Killed A Blog – "For the supreme Goddess of the Universe, Ammachi seems somewhat overly concerned with her less-than-glowing online press, because it appears that Blogger has pulled the plug on the Cult of the Hugging Saint blog."

:flash: HOW TIE – "No problem…relax, take a deep breath, remember your days in the boy scouts, and study the oh-so-easy knot-tying instructions printed right on Fred’s handy How Tie." cool, but it’s still a tie, man. and i aint into auto-asphyxiation fashion. [via neatorama]

:flash: A Single Serving Site Pioneer Keeps Keeping it Real – "Rozendaal is a forefather of the current single serving sites explosion, and it shows in his work's standout beauty and interactivity." yeh nice, but think of the outrageous url-bill this runs up…

:flash: 75_SolidSteel_-_Podcast.mp3 – another fantastic strictly kev solid steel mix, this one is from 2002, re-published as part of their way-back-in-time series.

:flash: 20 Album Covers Recreated in LEGO – gotta love windowlicker. and some others aint half bad either.

:flash: Keira Knightley Refuses Breasts Enhancement For "The Dutchess" – "Keira Knightley has refused to allow any enhancement of her cleavage on publicity photos for her upcoming movie, "The Duchess," Britain's Daily Mail reports." me likee, small tities rule!!!

:flash: Twitter Cookies – “famous” tweets turned into fortune cookie.

:flash: The siren that broke my heart – "I'm not gonna pretend that you having two fish tails wasn't a bit weird at first, but I came to love you for it. I envisaged us laughing like children, living like lovers, rolling like thunder under the covers. I wanted to explore those fishy bits" quite an erotic hommage to the starbuck siren. loool

:flash: Back to the Grind in WoW — and Loving Every Tedious Minute – "And what do we do with this second life? We behave like obedient workers in a Soviet collective outside Stalingrad. Comrade, your job is to collect potatoes. For seven years. We pay $20 a month for this privilege. What the hell is wrong with us?"

:flash: Seen On The Streets Of Ann Arbor, MI – string cup phone.

:flash: RU Kidding Me? – "I am now asking any and all who know RU Sirius by name and (for better or worse) reputation, to send a note to Facebook explaining to them that I should be listed on their site under the name that will be recognizable to weird people" RU F[aceb]ooking Nuts?

recipe of the week [in german]

:flash: Johannisbeerkuchen vom Blech – looks delicious. [via habi]

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

[via neatorama - sheet - ...]

and maybe this: NSFW! so you wanna be artistic with vegetables NSFW?

ok, here’s an embbarassing one to admit, when we were in cork, ireland we did go to search for the apple campus. on a scale of geekiness, if such a thing existed, this would be pretty high up, a 9.35 i suppose. btw. the campus sucked: no factory outlet, no goodies, no inside scoops for spontanous visitors, plus a rather hostile climate tbh. they must getting weirdo apple fans like us often, oh the shame …

for anyone wondering, the campus is on hollyhill in the industrial area called hollyhill industrial estate on the outskirts of cork.

but this morning (19.4.) in dublin i saw one worse. a group of drunk englishmen, yes drunk, or still drunk, at 9 am, wearing black tshirts saying “stagparty for dan” and there was even a guiness logo on the shirt. and now please take a guess what they were looking for … aha, easy one, huh. the guiness factiry of course. as an aside they were looking in the totally wrong area. we drove past guiness by accident. impressive. huge. they must be brewing some beer there still besides all the gadgets they sell, the bottleopeners, mugs, tshirts, fridge magnets …

later, when we saw a huge heineken logo right smack in the center of dublin, we wondered, if this was perceived as a provocation.

for the last 6 days we stayed at the green lodge, a self-catering vegetarian accomodation about a 10 minute drive from bantry near ballylickey (i know *chuckle*) and kealkill (kill again). btw. the word “kill” is featured in quite a few names here in ireland. one of the first places we visited was called kill, plain and simple, see my previous post. of course we wanted to spend the night in kill, but since we didn’t find a b&b there, we pretty much just drove through. since then we’ve encountered quite some variations of names containing “kill”. killarney comes to mind; a fugly tourist town that got its name almost right (hell yeah, kill arnie, the governor). on the other hand killkenny (sometimes spelled kilkenny) is just plain wrong (omg they killed kenny). but the deepest we’ve seen is a small place called killbrittain; if you take just one i out the thinly disguised anti-brit sentiments have found their capital.

but i digress, the green lodge was amazing. we rented a two room cabin with a full featured kitchen, the rooms were spacious and offer a view of the lucious garden. the 6 nights cost us 180.- euro. they also sell a nice selection of vegetarian foods, home made bread and organic vegetables (in season). i have rarely stayed in such a quiet place. ever. after 6 nights of deepest, undisturbed sleep i am fully relaxed; so relaxed that i am sure most people wouldn’t even recognize me now. but we didn’t go fully lowtech, we watched one episode each of battlestar galactica and 24 every day (on the laptop), went to check our email two or three times at the cafe organico in bantry (1.- euro/15 min.) and took daytrips to nearby locations [mizen head (not that great, crookshaven is sweet though), ring of berea (a very beautiful drive), killarney national park (avoid! full on tourist trap)]. one of the main attractions were our daily walks to a nearby sheep grazing field, where we watched the lambs frolicking and tumbeling about – before their meeting with the butchers soon …

now we are staying at the cafe paradiso in cork for one night, happy birthday to me. cafe paradiso is a pricey place – one night here costs almost as much as the 6 nights we spent at the green lodge, but it is really amazing. the food downstairs is to die for and the rooms are very comfortable, roomy and offer alot for the price: great location at a 5 minute walking distance from cork center, spacious room in a tasteful design interior, super commfy bed, best shower ever, tea and coffee as well as some delicious snacks and sweets provided in room, free wifi, and of course the most exquisite, creative breakfast menu i have ever seen …

f. hast posted an embarassing video of me enjoying the food at cafe paradiso …

other vegetarian accomodations in ireland (that we haven’t tried):

- gort-na-nain in nohoval, kinsale, co. cork (we wanted to go there, but it only opens may 1.)
- cussen’s cottage in ballgreenan, bulgaden, kilmallock. vegan! (we might try to stay there tomorrow night)
- mont bretia in skibereen, co. cork
- eco friendly guesthouse on clare island in ballytoughey, clare island, co. mayo

edit: we drove to the area where cussen’s cottage is located, couldn’t find it though. later we reached them on the phone, but the b&b was closed.

travel

bern – pembroke
eurotunnel
irish ferries

vegetarian food

irishvegetarian
vegetarian.ie

cafe paradiso, cork
organico bantry

accommodation

green lodge
mont breia
cussens cottage

art

Hotel Ballymun: A unique place to stay – “from 31st of March to the 27th of April 2007 the top floor of the Clarke Tower, one of the last remaining tower blocks in Ballymun, will open its doors to the public in the form of a unique short stay hotel.”

[via wmmna - digg - shey.net]

download: pieceocast078.mp3 [8:43 | 8 MB | 128kbps]

title: kartoffeln und fleisch
two germans, brothers from another mother, sing about potatoes and meat plus a few food related samples make up today’s pieceocast.
jan delay compares himself to a potato, bland and without taste, and asks: “if this comparison holds true, how can i be so incredibly cool?”
and the bo marley singer sings, he loves meat, meat is the best, despite that fact he only ever eats pasta.

enjoy this podcast, if it occasionally reappears, produced despite being a vegetarian…

playlist: music borrowed [with all due respect]:
1. pieceocast intro: a loop from squarepusher: rotate_electrolyte; fred, the voice in my computer, samples from movie ”
2. jan delay: kartoffeln
3. bo marley: fleisch

playlist: samples borrowed:
the island – proof

listen:

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to find the earlier pieceocasts please check this list with links and stuff.

copyleft:
all music and audio is borrowed with the utmost respect for its creators. however, i do consider this to be fair use. this material is created purely for fun, to share with my online friends. there is no commercial transaction involved. as a long-time dj i own 5’000+ albums in vinyl and quite a few cd’s. all the music i use for these mixes, i either own a copy of or it was released under a CC-license to begin with.
i release all my work, the dj work as well as all my other coding and creating, under a creative commons license, hence i treat this material as if it was under CC license. i attribute it and i do not use it for commercial gain. don’t try to sue me, i am broke anyway.

all rights remain with original right holders. this mix makes fair use of copyrighted material. this mix is distributed non-commercially only.