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Saturday, September 08, 2001

For a cool look at glowing fungi,
visit fungi.com and follow the links to
mushroom info, scroll down to the bottom and select Click Here to see Something that will Blow Your Mind!.
(I would link directly, but apparently they don't allow that.)
posted by Duncan Stewart 9/8/2001 11:28:28 AM

Thursday, September 06, 2001

Fuel cells and fullerenes ... synchronicity at work.
posted by Duncan Stewart 9/6/2001 04:32:20 PM

Sunday, August 19, 2001

Having survived the finalist beach day at Salisbury Beach (and various other locations along the north shore), I discover that Bruce has created a new blog called Schism Matrix consisting of links of interest, beyond the Viridian and Dead Media realms. And did he mention it to anyone? Not the die-hard groupies, apparently.

On another note, it's about time I learned some new web skills - or even some old ones. It's xml to the rescue, and a redesign for finalists.org and probably the blog, too.
posted by Duncan Stewart 8/19/2001 03:15:42 PM

Sunday, August 12, 2001

The heat wave has been broken in Boston, thank you very much, and so the following recipes may not be as attractive as they would have been, but they're still pretty good, I think. (just mixed up some water kimchee meself).

The salsa is a baseline model - - improvise!
posted by Duncan Stewart 8/12/2001 01:34:15 PM

The recipes below were added to my site eons ago, and I only recently revisited them and found a few errors(?).
One, the water kimchee left out the part about adding the water (d'oh!), and the margarita is for serious drinkers
only. As I mentioned many posts ago, reducing the ratio of tequila to 1 1/2 parts still makes a quite respectable beverage,
and you're not so wasted after one round that you can't enjoy another.

Oh, and feel free to substitute 100% agave - - cuervo just reminds me of my yout'.

later
posted by Duncan Stewart 8/12/2001 01:32:20 PM

MARGARITA:
3 parts Cuervo Gold (or other brand)
1 part Grand Marnier liqueur
1 part lime/lemon juice

Combine all three, without ice (yet). If you have a pitcher that strains the ice, keep it at the ready. Chill the glasses ahead of time, run a wedge of lime around the outer rim only, and turned them tail-skyward for the salt (so that as little as possible ends up inside the glass). A wedge of lime, either circular or lengthwise, can be either floated or hung on the rim. Pour the mix over the ice, shake it around briefly, then strain out the ice and pour.

Tomatillo SALSA
About 9 tomatillos, peeled, washed & cut to about the same height (so that they don't cook unevenly under the broiler). Place on a sheet at the top of the oven 'til brown. Less time will yield more consistency, as they tend to mush fairly quickly, but the flavor is great either way. You can use either roasted or fresh garlic; to roast, you need a covered oven-proof container. Remove the excess paper, slice off the top, and cover lightly with oil (and spices - salt, pepper, cumin(?)). For garlic that mixes in smoothly, roast at 275, 1 hr.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix

3 lg. tomatoes, diced,
1/2 lg. Bermuda onion,
1 Tb. fresh chopped cilantro (the soapy herb of the South),
salt, pepper,
and 1 (formerly) dried habanero pepper, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and then de-seeded & stemmed (with rubber gloves) and minced. Add the garlic and tomatillos once they have cooled.
Moisture content increases as it sits; invite some appreciative friends.

Water Kimchee (kimchi, gimchi, etc..)
A cool, refreshing side; not as spicy as regular kimchee, because there's no crushed red pepper in it. Made with daikon (mu), fresh peppers, garlic, water and salt. As always, amounts are approximate, and improvisation is expected. How much daikon? That depends on your largest wide-mouth jar. Essentially a pickle, you need to make it ahead of time, preferably a few days, so that the flavors can blend.

Daikon (2 to start)
2 Jalapeno or other hot, green pepper
Garlic, 2-3 cloves, minced.
Salt to taste
(for a quart, ~1 1/2T)

Wash the daikon (or peel if you prefer), trim any roots and remove the top. Slice into manageable, 1/8" thick slices - big enough to crunch, not so big you need to hold onto it. Set them off to the side in a large bowl; you will need to be able to mix in the other ingredients. Slice the peppers into thin strips and remove the seeds, or not. Add these to the bowl, with the garlic, and mix. You can add the salt now, too, or wait and add it to the mixture once it's in the jar. It needn't be too salty; the peppers and daikon add a nice kick, and you can drink the juice to clean the serving bowl.

One useful piece of kitchen equipment is a wide-mouthed stainless steel funnel with a wide throat; it will sit on top of a pint- or quart-sized jar by itself, freeing your hands to hold a bowl and guide the mix in. At any rate, leave the top 1/3 of the jar to allow for 'float'; you want to have plenty of juice to serve with the vegetables. Now add water to fill the jar (or bowl) to the top. Give it some time in the refrigerator to blend.

Serve in a small bowl (per person).

Whassa matta'; you no' hungry?
Return to

@
posted by Duncan Stewart 8/12/2001 01:29:17 PM

Saturday, August 11, 2001

Another saturday evening, listening to Prairie Home, and getting ready for a marathon read
of Harry Potter #3, The Prisoner of Azkaban. One or two chapters is a workout; the goal
tonight is three (there are six left in the book). Big deal, you say...okay, you read a couple
of chapters aloud and get back to me.
posted by Duncan Stewart 8/11/2001 07:47:56 PM

Tuesday, August 07, 2001

Star Wars is the talk of the office, what with the new title and all.
If you need to know, here you go.
'Terrible name', is the general feeling, although it is usually phrased more harshly than that.
posted by Duncan Stewart 8/7/2001 05:10:13 PM

blogdext
posted by Duncan Stewart 8/7/2001 05:06:32 PM

Saturday, August 04, 2001

An article on Nytimes.com
(you need to be registered to read it, I'm afraid) talks about disposable cell phones, which, as you know, are near and dear to my heart.
posted by Duncan Stewart 8/4/2001 07:41:57 AM

Tuesday, July 31, 2001

[Attention Conservation Notice* - More self-aggrandizement, which I thought more appropriate to this venue than to finalists.org]
(*tip o' the hat to Viridian email practices)

After a month of waiting, the summer issue of Whole Earth is on the newsstands - at least, on those few that carry the magazine. I picked up a handful last week, leaving a couple copies for itinerant B.S. groupies or non-subscribing casual readers. Whereto next, Utne Reader?
posted by Duncan Stewart 7/31/2001 02:27:34 PM

Monday, July 09, 2001

Whole Earth Magazine
posted by Duncan Stewart 7/9/2001 11:00:08 PM

I've been published in an honest-to-god national (albeit small-footprinted) magazine, and the copy (and check!!)
are in my hot little house as we speak. Whole Earth, man, Whole-Freaking-Earth. I remember when 'the catalog'
came out, back in '69 or '71 or whenever the hell it was - - classic cars, vintage mind-expanding magazines, sometimes
I lose track, I admit it. But hey, I remember lying on a lawn in suburban New England very drunk from drinking home-brewed
rice wine, the recipe found within Whole Earth's very pages...I drank one or two ice tea glasses of the stuff, and I was down!

'Hello, connection please?'

Fine. Well, no, I don't have a cogent connection 'cept that that was Whole Earth, and now I'm in Whole Earth, freaking published,
man! $200.00, signed, sealed and delivered. No, it won't buy me a new G4 with cinema-aspect screen, but it'll buy me a handful
of books from Zeising Books and clear the local shelves of the Summer 2001 edition
of the magazine as I send it out to friends and family.

I've only mildly perused the issue, having just returned from a Wired sponsored screening of Final Fantasy (cool special effects - go
see it in a new theatre), and there are some heavy articles in there about design, karma and Viridia, and it's worth a look.


Do I get tenure now?
posted by Duncan Stewart 7/9/2001 10:58:27 PM

Friday, June 01, 2001

More mantises! One bagful down, four to go.
posted by Duncan Stewart 6/1/2001 11:32:59 AM

Thursday, May 17, 2001

I, for one, think hybrid cars (part gas, part electric) are very cool, and if I needed a two- or four-person sedan, I would buy one.
But I don't. I need (and you have to understand, this is tough to admit)....a minivan. Most SUV's are still designed for 4 people,
not 5, and the ones that hold five are MASSIVE. To what end? A hybrid minivan would be perfect. And Honda's got one; of course, it will only be available in Japan. Rats. Read on...Easing Off the Gas: Unsure of Demand, Big 3 Move Slowly on Hybrid Cars
posted by Duncan Stewart 5/17/2001 09:43:41 AM

Monday, May 07, 2001

Inuit elders say climate change is altering old rules of the Arctic
posted by Duncan Stewart 5/7/2001 02:39:32 PM

Sunday, April 29, 2001

It's been nearly a month since my last login, and I've just completed a weekend-long
workshop at the DeCordova on 'sketchbooking' (Barbara Stecher's own term) - - processing
can be painful.
posted by Duncan Stewart 4/29/2001 06:52:02 PM

Monday, April 09, 2001

Broke ground over the weekend at the ol' homestead, removing all shrubbery over ~ 8" high,
and pulling out the roots (hacking, actually) of 4 of them. Unfortunately, I think that leaves
7...Gotta love the mattock, though -- loads of fun,
and it burns fat, not gasoline.
posted by Duncan Stewart 4/9/2001 11:26:52 AM