Century egg
A Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, and thousand-year-old egg, is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavor or taste. The transforming agent in the century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of the egg from around 9 to 12 or more. This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats, which produces a variety of smaller flavorful compounds.
Boliviana negra
Also known as supercoca or la millionaria, Boliviana Negra is a relatively new form of coca that is resistant to herbicide Roundup, or the isopropylamine salt of glyphosate. The coca plant is the precursor to the addictive stimulant cocaine, one of the most widely consumed illegal drugs in the world and the source of large amounts of money to various criminal organizations. Since Roundup is a key ingredient in the multibillion-dollar aerial coca eradication campaign undertaken by the government of Colombia with US financial and military backing known as Plan Colombia, increasing popularity of Boliviana negra amongst growers could have serious repercussions for the War on Drugs.
The herbicide resistance of this strain has at least two possible explanations: that a “peer-to-peer” network of coca farmers used selective breeding to enhance this trait through tireless effort, or the plant was genetically modified in a laboratory. In 1996, a patented Roundup Ready or glyphosate-resistant soybean was marketed by Monsanto, suggesting that it would be possible to genetically modify coca in an analogous manner. Spraying Boliviana negra with glyphosate would serve to strengthen its growth by eliminating the non-resistant weeds surrounding it. Joshua Davis, in the Wired article cited below, found no evidence of CP4, a protein produced by the Roundup Ready soybean, suggesting Bolivana negra was not created in a laboratory but by selective breeding in the fields.
Friendly Fire Executive Branch Confidentiality Interests
The White House has refused to give Congress documents about the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding saying that certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting “implicate Executive Branch confidentiality interests.”
Bicycle rollers
Bicycle rollers are a type of bicycle trainer which makes it possible to ride a bicycle indoors without moving forward. However, unlike other types of bicycle trainers, rollers do not support the bicycle. . .
Roller racing was popular in 1950s Britain, often preceding films at the cinema or taking place in between dances at dance halls.
Furnas Filter Cleaning
I got a memo from building management today.
Furnas Filter Cleaning
Maintenance will be entering your apartment Thursday May 17th between 8am-5pm to clean your Furnas filter. Please move any items that may be in the direct path to the Furnas.
Thank you for your cooperation!
Management
I don’t really know what to say.
are-you-for-real computer-forensics idiotic link security usb
by Wayne
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You can sell anything with a USB plug.
EDIT:I feel like I just lost at the internet. I wrote this on Saturday, and set it to post in the future so I’d have at least one link everyday. Imagine my delight when Cory Doctorow posted it Monday afternoon on Boingboing.
Some company is selling a USB dongle that makes your mouse wiggle. They’ve come up with a bunch of highly-implausible scenarios in which to use this dongle and explain one using this awesome dialog:
“It’s a WiebeTech Mouse Jiggler. Not all of them are this caffeinated and hyper – we use the slow version so we can keep using the computer while it’s plugged in. You barely notice it’s there.”
“Why would someone need these?” someone said from the growing crowd now gathered around the USB 1.1/2.0 peripheral.
“Any time we don’t want a screen saver to come on,” the IT guy replied. “Which is more often than you’d think. Many Computer Forensics professionals swear by these to keep a password dialog box from popping up on a seized computer, so they can gather evidence. They come in handy when we’re trying to download an update for a computer. Even though office policy requires our workstations to have a screen saver – they can mess up an installation.”
If you are a computer forensics professional, and you use a USB dongle to wiggle the mouse so dialogs don’t pop up, you are probably an idiot. If you’re not, I’d like to conduct an interview with you for Wayne and Layne, so feel free to contact me using the contact form.