I’ve always had a geeky appreciation – and awe – of mathematics. I have spent countless hours tinkering with programs that create math-based designs like fractals and Spirograph-style curves. As a young teenager I spent hours playing with an oscilloscope making sound waves dance on the tiny screen. But I
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Scripturient: More Pasta Making
My first attempt at ravioli was, I admit, a disaster. But you learn from trying what you need to do the next time. And you also learn from reading what tools you might need to do better. Sure, you can make ravioli and other stuffed pasta by hand, but what
Continue readingThings Are Good: A New Documentary Looking Into Food Production
Voices of Transition is a new documentary film with limited release but you can buy it online now! The film examines how we grow our food and ideas around how to make the whole agriculture system make more sense. The film deals with community building, resilience and sustainability through urban
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Soylent is here, and its not green
Soylent Purple is purple people? They’d be purple people eaters. It’s an actual meal replacement product that you make the day before, put into your fridge, and eat as liquid meals the next day. “I wouldn’t eat you, cause you’re so tough!”
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Shared Knowledge Conference – Regina
These videos are from the second day of the Shared Knowledge Conference at the Core Ritchie Centre, the second weekend of June. Jim Elliott with many interesting (and terrifying) facts about Regina’s watershed system. We are on the Plaza @MarketRegina today. Find us beside @TrogiFoods #honey #salsa pic.twitter.com/wGd2bYiBVB — Zee-Bee
Continue readingScripturient: Resting, Relaxing and Rising
I’ve been reading of late about gluten. How it works, how it develops, why it matters. Gluten is the key to good bread and pasta (the gluten-free fadists notwithstanding, gluten-free anything is an aberration that should be shunned by anyone not diagnosed with celiac disease*). I’m learning more about how
Continue readingScripturient: Update: expanding my pasta making
I’ve just ordered a pasta extruder – the Marcato “Regina” pasta machine, which I expect to arrive in another week. This will allow me to make hollow pasta types like penne and rigatoni, not just the flat varieties I’ve been making to date. The machine got fairly good reviews online
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Boom With the Bomb Train Boom
CBC is a funny beast now. Along with their story parroting what the latest Canadian Energy Research Initiative report says, is RBC/tarsands shill Amanda Lang staring at you from the sidebar. Also we learn about “Dollarama’s winning formula” of selling Chinese mass produced garbage to Canadians, a “retail success story”,
Continue readingScripturient: The Paleo-Fantasy
Perhaps the best – and certainly the funniest – description of what happens to your life when you pursue pseudoscience fads like the “paleo” diet is here on Popsugar. It’s laugh-aloud funny and too good not to be shared. I loved so many lines it’s hard to pick one or
Continue readingScripturient: Late Spring Pastas
I’m still working on a formula for the perfect pasta dough, trying different mixes of flour and other ingredients to get both the best consistency and taste. And to experiment with texture so the pasta has the best mouth feel. I make fresh pasta once or twice a week now.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Agricultural Land Commission CEO fired by BC Liberal govt
Peace River Valley farmland (Damien Gillis) Read this May 14 story by the Richmond Review on the BC Liberal government’s decision to fire Agricultural Land Commission CEO Richard Bullock after he pushed back on the province’s erosion farmland protections. The B.C. government has fired Agricultural Land Commission board chair and CEO
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: American and Canadian Food Waste Both Staggering
Here’s a very interesting and instructive blog post about American food waste. See Stunning Photos of What Rob Greenfield Finds After Dumpster Diving Across America http://t.co/vXbwgqi5Is pic.twitter.com/OALsW3lT0n — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) April 30, 2015 As my last blog entry on food waste, Rob Greenfield brought the previous link to my attention.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: New interactive map reveals largest farmland exclusion in ALR history for Site C Dam
Screen capture from www.arcgis.com “On April 8, 2015, with the stroke of a pen, the BC Government made the largest exclusion of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve in BC history,” said Hudson’s Hope Mayor Gwen Johansson, upon the release of a new interactive map which visualizes the enormous loss. “Without Agricultural Land
Continue readingThings Are Good: Seoul Starts Vertical Farming
Vertical farming is a possible food production solution as suburban sprawl consumes arable land. The new style of farming essentially is a farm in a skyscraper; they have yet to demonstrate commercial value but it’s inevitable that these farms will be normal fixtures in urban centres; Korea wants to be
Continue readingreeves report: Toronto Fish Health Improving – But You Can’t Eat Them Yet
Local man fishing in Toronto Harbour. THE LATEST STUDY from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and the University of Toronto analyzed government data on mercury, dioxin/furans and polychlorinated biphenyl(PCB) in local and migratory fish populations from 1975 to 2011. What they found was not surprising, per se, but it did
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Grocery Wars: Lessons from Canada’s Changing Retail Landscape
As Target Canada tumbled into bankruptcy, Loblaw announced that its fourth-quarter profits more than doubled. What can be learned from this tale of two retailers? The main reason for Loblaw’s surge was its acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart last March, which turned it into Canada’s largest grocer and pharmacy chain.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Drinking Coffee Regularly Decreases DNA Damage
I start my day with coffee and writing a post about good news. Today those two things merged rather well: it turns out drinking coffee regularly can lower the chances that one’s DNA will get messed up. DNA is always doing bizarre things and if those things get too bizarre
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Hobbit Ends
I saw the last Hobbit [8/10] movie on Friday, with Jeri. We had food at Montana’s just before. I had the veggie feta burger and it was very good, it tasted just like a meat burger. My distant cousin ended up being seated at the table next to us. The
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Veggie Diet Could Prolong Your Life
There are tons of benefits from having a vegetarian diet from improved individual health to having less of an impact on the environment. Now there’s one more reason to have a vegetarian diet, or at least something close to one, it’ll help you live longer. Scientists have long believed that
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: ‘Tis the Season to Rethink Our Charitable Giving
This op-ed by yours truly was published in The Province. The examples are BC-specific, but the message is much broader: donating to charity is not enough, we also have to change the status quo that forces so many people to turn to charity in a rich country like Canada. —
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