The Perfect Curve

Tax in Panama

simon gray - 2016-04-05, 08:46:03

So the question is, is a prime minister inheriting ambiguously taxed wealth the kind of thing which brings down a government? #panamataxcanal

iOS updates

simon gray - 2016-04-04, 18:00:51

Minor iOS updates seem to be coming along with the same tedious regularity of iTunes updates these days. 

Potatoes fondante

simon gray - 2016-04-03, 14:53:36

If you want the best potatoes you've ever had, try these:

Take a load of waxy potatoes (eg Charlotte), peel them, and cut them in half lengthways. 

Put them in a pan just big enough to hold them all as one layer, together with a massive blob of ghee (or butter if you live somewhere that doesn't know what ghee is). Heat the pan to melt the ghee, then add enough water to cover the potatoes - and crumble in a vegetable stock cube. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are cooked, adding some Herbes de Provence towards the end. The water will boil off, leaving them continuing to cook in the ghee.

Optionally, after cooking and before serving, put them in an oven at 220°C for a few minutes to crisp up the surfaces. 

#cheatcuisine

Antisocial pedestrians

simon gray - 2016-03-22, 08:57:46

Standing by the button on a busy pedestrian crossing and not pressing it - there really should be a law against it. 

Comedians, prostitutes, and webteams

simon gray - 2016-03-18, 17:44:39

Stewart Lee likens being a comedian to being a prostitute - providing a service people crave yet are despised for. 'At least people don't write in to prostitutes to say they could have done it better'. Sounds like being part of a webteam, really.

Wordpress security

simon gray - 2016-03-07, 08:00:00

Seen on Twitter last night - a company selling insurance against one's Wordpress installation being hacked. If the Wordpress security landscape has got so bad that people need insurance to pay for recovery after a potential hack, I'd say it's time to stop using Wordpress. #internet #webdev

Zika virus

simon gray - 2016-02-04, 09:02:30

So given that

• this Zika Virus thing is panning out to be something of a big deal, and
• it's an especially big deal for pregnant women and their to-be-born children, and
• there's a developing body of evidence of it also being sexually transmitted,
• with in the worst case scenario the potential to pose an existential threat, and
• currently a problem which is particularly affecting Catholic countries the worst,

wouldn't it be a good idea for this great supposedly progressive pope lots of people speak so highly of to issue an encyclical updating Humanae Vitae to be a bit more progressive on the topic of birth control?

Baby food

simon gray - 2016-02-02, 19:46:32

That moment when you’re making the separate dinner for the deBaby because yours can’t be babified & think ‘i wouldn’t mind that for myself’.

(cabbage, red pepper. onion, cumin seed, and caraway seed, since you were wondering)

#cheatcuisine