331

Food / Re: Crockpot Cider Beef Stew

« on: March 07, 2016, 06:10:42 AM »

After my first reaction it seems we are walking around on tip toes. So let's clear the air here. I am in no way upset. I had mentioned I would use the experience as a learning one. Such as here is one of those.

As to some background on this from me, for years now, I try every day to become informed on some manner that the industry that uses Intellectual Property as a way to protect their kingdom. On nuances I like to consider that I am probably better informed on these matters than my average peer.

It was in the nature of being informative, rather than expressing any sort of displeasure that the post was made.

332

Other topics / Re: Art

« on: March 07, 2016, 03:33:22 AM »

The art of mine is simple and a kind of paradoxal...

My mother was at one time an art teacher. She had trained in college as an artist and then went on to Paris to learn dress design. She did not further her ambitions in this field as she became pregnant with me and got married instead. I was taught the value of reading at a young age with an appreciation of art as a side bonus.

During my younger years, I did learn somewhat to draw. But I never stayed at it and my drawings and doodles would look much the same as MSL's. Plus my interests diverged in other directions.

What I am saying here is I can draw no better than MSL. He has the advantage he's willing to show his... I'm not.

333

Other topics / Re: Those who have questions about the USA...

« on: March 07, 2016, 03:23:01 AM »

I can't miss the chance to mention one kind of religious freaks

Yep, that's my view too. Some people tend to take things too far and excess is not always a good thing. These religions that use the serpent in their worship are too far out there for me. They tend to keep to themselves about such. Just as well, I want no part of it. Most of these religions that use some sort of worship that is not accepted by the majority tend to keep to themselves and be secretive. Think terrorists as another example of the same reaction of extremism.

If they exist in my area, I am not aware of them and if I did know of them, trust that I would not be part of them and would hold my distance. This is not something I believe in nor support.

The predominate religion is Christianity. It breaks out into different sub branches depending on the area of the country and what differing individuals believe. I myself, am not religious.

Creationism, which is what you mention in the idea of removing the topic of evolution from schools, is one of those subjects I have a few things to say about.

• One of the difficulties with religion is showing real effects on life and why you should support this particular branch over another. Every branch wants you to believe their's is the one true way.
• When valid proof fails to support belief, often groups will attempt to jimmy the results (the equivalent of putting a thumb on the weight scale).
• Texas is one of the largest states in the US. So large that often other states use what it has approved of as text books as their state text book so they don't have to spend the money developing their own text books for students from their own budget.
• Despite all you hear, Creationism is not accepted by a wide majority and can not stand up to the main credo of science, that of test and repeatability of an experiment to show it is not accident nor a one time thing. So instead of being accepted by the science community as a valid hypothesis, the only way to get it into the school system was by political means.
• Texas has a state committee that determines what should or should not be included in student text books and this committee was stacked with creationism supporters which got the topic into the education system through text books.
• When you want to change a societies belief system, you start out with the young in school and in a generation or so, it becomes the accepted knowledge.
• Creationism is still around but it isn't fairing as well as the religious groups had hoped and is being rejected by both the science community as well as much of the student bodies around the nation.

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Other topics / Re: Art

« on: March 07, 2016, 02:58:30 AM »

Maybe one of the ways to shed light on the creations is this series of images where I am making a glass that is used in a different image I will show you later.

The same process was used to create the jug in the final image in this post. A couple of times it's been asked if some part of the image is from a real photo. I do at times use backgrounds from a real photo, or use high detailed images to create the look of water, wood, or other items. But there are parts that the graphics programs themselves will recreate as far as the look of something. Glass is one that they will create without having to have an image to do so yourself.

Here is the first step, creating an out line.

Here the outline is filled out to create a full 3D subject.

Here the object has been textured to give it that 'look'.

335

Food / Cole Slaw

« on: March 07, 2016, 02:26:27 AM »

Cole Slaw

Ingredients

1/2 c mayonnaise
1/3 c granulated sugar
1/4 c milk
1/4 c buttermilk
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
8 cs finely chopped cabbage (about 1 head)
1/4 c shredded carrot (1 medium carrot)
2 tablespoons minced onion

Directions

Be sure cabbage and carrots are chopped up into very fine pieces (about the size of rice). Combine the mayonnaise, sugar, milk, buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and beat until smooth. Add the cabbage, carrots, and onion, and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Buttermilk Substitute

Put 1 tbs lemon juice or white vinegar in a cup. Add enough milk to nearly fill the cup. Stir. Wait 5 minutes before using. Use however much is needed for your recipe.

336

Food / Re: Crockpot Cider Beef Stew

« on: March 07, 2016, 02:12:39 AM »

As a side note, had I thought this was an important note to accredit the author, I could have just taken a picture of my crockpot for the image. Since it came from Wikipedia we are again at the Creative Commons copyright licensing, which unless otherwise specified, is similar to public domain.

If you are not aware, Creative Commons came about due to the 'ownership' theme constantly associated with Intellectual Property. (Intellectual property being a debate all in itself.) Due to changes in the law, anything is copyrighted at the moment of its' creation. So how do you get people to share something without breaking the law if they don't wish to keep the copyright? That's what  Creative Commons addresses.

337

Food / Re: Chicken Stew (Slow cooker)

« on: March 07, 2016, 02:06:25 AM »

Lots can be done with chicken meat. It's flexible as far as using it as a meat. Cultures often come up with reasons why not to eat or even do something and as a society they all see it the same way.

During the Middle Ages, it was common knowledge that you didn't eat a tomato. The reason? It was poisonous or at least that was the society's view on the tomato.

Many cultures have the same types of viewpoints on various foods. What one thinks as food another doesn't even class as food. For instance, squid and octopus are not widely accepted as food here in the states. Yet we all know it is considered so in the Asian countries. My point here is not to say that a particular food is or isn't food but rather to point out it's public perception as a society that often colors the viewpoint.

338

Food / Re: All Day Chicken (Slow cooker)

« on: March 07, 2016, 01:56:49 AM »

Baby carrots aren't really young carrots. It's marketing foolishness. Carrots weren't selling all that well and some guy came up with a way to use partially broken and damaged carrots as well as make them sound attractive. All baby carrots are, is pieces of carrot, cut and ground down to a uniform size. With marketing it became a fad.

I make marinades all the time for soaking meats in for a while. Typically I mix them, put them in a  ziplock bag, put the meat in, and put it on a plate in the fridge. Every so often (when I think of it) I'll flip the bag.

Sauteing vegetables is a very basic cooking skill. Lots of them require this as a step in preparation. The slowcooker is an appliance. It is made to put food in and forget it till time to take it out. It doesn't get really, really, hot like a stove top or oven would. It's an excellent way to tenderize tough meats, with long cooking times.

I'm not a chef but I'd think nothing of tackling this recipe as far as making it goes.

339

Food / Re: Homemade Food

« on: March 07, 2016, 01:46:30 AM »

Then sometime today I will post the recipe and you can make some and try it out if you wish. It will be the southern style, that uses buttermilk. Often here, it is served with fried chicken at the fast food places, with BBQ at places that specialize in making smoked meats or BBQ, as a side dish.

I like it and as it is nearly always hot, it's a good food for that type weather.

340

Food / Re: Homemade Food

« on: March 06, 2016, 04:23:47 AM »

Looks good.

I've just finished making some cole slaw which will now chill in the fridge to mingle the flavors of the sauce that goes with it.

Takes awhile cutting up the head of cabbage into rice size grains. The carrot I shred. The onion I slice to be one sided. Sliced so thin they only have one side.... the outside. *chuckles*

341

Drinks / Re: Water produced from 100% seawater

« on: March 06, 2016, 04:17:40 AM »

Somewhere I have the plans on how to make a homemade water condenser. It's not on my HDs so that means I've transferred it to a NAS. Might take me some time to find it but if I do and you are interested I could host it for download if you want it.

342

Drinks / Re: Water produced from 100% seawater

« on: March 06, 2016, 03:14:05 AM »

They've been doing seawater to fresh water conversions for a long time now. You just don't hear of it because you haven't been exposed to it.

The first  thing you should know is that compared to getting fresh water from the ground table, a stream, or artesian well, making fresh water from salt water is expensive as a process. You do it when you don't have a choice in the matter of where the water comes from. When expense is not as important as the availability of water. The main methods for extracting fresh water are either vacuum or osmosis.

There is another method that has been used called the condenser method but it's not as popular a method as it is slower to obtain a volume of fresh water. The advantage of the condenser method is it doesn't need a water source to start with. It pulls the water out of the air.

No matter if you use the vacuum method with a heat source or if you use the osmosis method, chemicals and maintenance are involved. In the osmosis method, there is a further expense of the membranes that are essential to the conversion. They aren't cheap. One such unit I used to work on took 6 membranes for the unit and were to be changed out every 3 months. The chemicals are for back flushing to prevent a buildup of minerals found in the seawater. It's a must if you expect your water maker to continue to produce the same volume. Ignoring maintenance means that the water maker will make less and less water until it fails.

343

Other topics / Re: Art

« on: March 06, 2016, 02:41:12 AM »

...you may edit/re-do this and your old images? Or once done it's not easy to be improved anymore?

Once I have created something, I never save anything beyond the images. Even the images are sizable taking sometime up to 10 megs just for the original image.

It simply takes too much data space to store multitudes of these on the hard drive. So you make your thing, delete the all the program's data in each graphics program and start again with something else. There's not a lot you can do image wise with the image other than photoedit. It takes the data in the graphics programs to change it. The data files for each image, in each program are usually sizable.

Most of the time it isn't worth the effort.

344

Other topics / Re: Those who have questions about the USA...

« on: March 06, 2016, 02:32:53 AM »

Aren't there some government or local government measures against the rattlesnakes?

Hmm, yes and no. We also have the copperhead snake, another poisonous snake.

But they are rarer to find around this drier area. And one more vile little spider the Brown Recluse that is particularly nasty.

This one too, is rare in this dry climate but they do exist.

These snakes are wild. They are not pets. Over such a large country there are not enough people to catch them all if they could find them. The snakes hibernate over the winter, usually in holes in the ground. During the heat of the day they will find some rock or something to hide under. It is mainly at night they come out when it is cooler to hunt for prey.

There are some places that do rattlesnake roundups but even here, there are only a few gotten and those catching these snakes stand a high chance of getting bitten in the process.

> In Texas, up to 125,000 snakes could have been removed annually from the wild during the 1990s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

And yet there is no appreciable dent in the rattlesnake population in the wild. Oklahoma is another state that is big on these rattlesnake roundups.

345

Internet / Re: Strange pictures

« on: March 06, 2016, 02:13:47 AM »

Nothing like hiding well to catch the unwary.