It's become a tradition of sorts to shoot the Christmas Tree at the Driskill Hotel. This is the 5th year I've done this. Every year, I tend to shoot it from about the same place. I get subtle variations since the shape of the tree changes and my post processing has also changed. But I didn't shoot close enough to get the details. The decorations that change every year tend to blend into a colorful texture.
This year, I decided to get closer and do multiple angles. While the cameras have changed, the technique remain the same. I shoot on tripod and with 3 exposures so that I have the option of doing HDRs. Despite the years of doing this, there are still two challenges.
First, I find it difficult to center my subject in the middle. Even with a level, which the Olympus E-PM2 does not actually have, getting the plane of the camera parallel to the subject is my biggest pain. I'm not going for perfection so I just eyeballed it. You think after all of these years, this would be easy.
The second challenge is to have patience. The Driskill is Austin's grand old hotel and there are many tourists that pass through. Creating a photograph without people takes a lot of time and some luck. Of course the easiest way is to probably go there around 3am when nobody is around. I met my friend Mike at 9pm, which was way too early. There was a steady stream of people posing and taking pictures in front of the tree.
People would typically take their photo and proceed to have a 5 minute conversation within my field of view. Of course, I didn't want to ruin their special holiday moment so I don't say anything and patiently wait for a chance for 3 clean exposures. I was lucky. I got a few quick breaks that allowed me to get my shots. Mike, on the other hand, probably waited nearly 30 minutes. By 10pm, it was a lot more quiet. Note to self, go there much later next year.
Finally, for something completely different, here is a lightly toned black and white. I purposely included a couple that was admiring the tree.
I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season.
My favorite is the shot from over the cash register and desk. It has texture and architecture. And wonderful detail. Merry Christmas!
Very nice job! I like the 2nd and 3rd photos the best.


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One Dead After Plane Crashes, Catches Fire at Houston Airport
One Dead After Small Plane Strikes Another Aircraft
Feb. 1, 201600:41
Feb. 1, 2016, 5:39 PM UTC / Updated Feb. 1, 2016, 8:12 PM UTC
By Elisha Fieldstadt
One person was killed and another was injured when a small plane that was taking off collided with a parked one and burst into flames at a suburban Houston airport Monday, authorities said.
The moving plane, which was carrying an instructor and a student, struck the unoccupied aircraft at about 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) at Southwest Regional Airport in Arcola, Texas, according to Erik Burse, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Two people were injured after an aircraft hit a landing strip near a hangar at the Southwest Regional Airport and burst into flames.Click 2 Houston
The instructor died at the scene, and the student was flown by air-ambulance to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Burse told NBC News.
A tweet from the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office posted at about 11 a.m. local time originally said the plane crashed and set nearby hangars ablaze, while local media reported the plane was under maintenance when it ignited.
The FAA was on scene and investigating the cause of the crash, Burse said.
Elisha Fieldstadt
Elisha Fieldstadt is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Dr. Larry DeLucas joined The Space Show guest family for this program to discuss protein crystallization in microgravity. Dr. DeLucas explained the basics to us, we spoke at length about both pharmaceutical and commercial interest and applications. We discussed space access and its costs in terms of doing something commercial in space regarding protein crystal growth. Dr. DeLucas explained the success ratio, compared it to growing proteins on Earth, talked about the need for a gentle re-entry and what that means, why the g-force will damage the proteins, and much more. We also spoke about science education, funding, NASA's role in this, and also the role of the federal government, NSF, etc. Dr. DeLucas is the expert in this field and this program is most informative about this promising commercial business, practically ready to go right now if we had reliable, routine, affordable space access. For further questions and comments, send what you have for Dr. DeLucas to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward them to him. Dr. DeLucas will certain return to The Space Show as a guest.


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MasterChef 4 recap: Huitlacoche and Walmart (S4E13)
Posted on July 11, 2013 | 35 Comments
(PLEASE NOTE: This blog is not endorsed or approved by MasterChef or Fox and they would probably rather you not read it. Contained below are the opinions and maniacal ravings of an MC2 survivor and should not be treated as fact or as inside information.)
After a blessed 2 week break spanning the 4th of July, MasterChef is back. I have sliced down the time I can spend on MasterChef recaps, so I'm blogging while I watch the episodes for the first time, so they may read a bit differently, especially since I don't know what's going to happen at the end of this episode as I type these words.
We're down to 11 contestants, and it's time for a Mystery Box. A huge one. We know that Eva Longoria is inside from the previews and commercials, but if I was competing, I'd be hoping it was a full cow carcass, ready to be broken down. And I'd want the short ribs!
Lots of folks must be wondering…Eva Longoria? She's an actress, what does she have to do with food? I thought the same thing until I saw her on a talk show last year promoting her new cookbook. Apparently she's been in the restaurant business since 2008, when she opened Beso (Spanish for "kiss") in Hollywood with noteworthy chef Todd English. (They have 3 stars out of 5 on Yelp.) Most of Todd's restaurants are in the northeast, but he and Eva have partnered up for Beso in Hollywood, along with an additional Beso location in Vegas, which recently filed for bankruptcy and closed. It was replaced early this year by Eva's new restaurant, SHe, in partnership with Landry's, a mega-chain restaurant conglomerate which owns Rainforest Cafe, Morton's Steakhouse, Saltgrass Steakhouse, and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., among many others. SHe is a steakhouse that is female-friendly, and is done up in true Vegas excess. Fashion shows commence nightly for the enjoyment of the diners. The back of the menus have mirrors on them so women can easily put on lipstick without having to dip into their purse. The steaks can be ordered in different sizes more appropriate for a "female appetite," so you can order HE-cuts, SHE-cuts, and WE-cuts for sharing. SHe has 3 and a half stars on Yelp, and the concept is interesting, but Vegas is a very fickle market. A restaurant has to be over-the-top to survive. (Just for reference, Gordon's BurGR has 4 stars, his Steak has 4 stars, and his Pub and Grill has 3.)
Regardless…Eva knows a few things about food. And her celebrated family history of home-cooked Mexican cuisine means her "hand picked" mystery box is likely to include ingredients that are common south of the border. I'm jealous. We really only had 1 mystery box with ingredients that could easily be transformed into Mexican cuisine, which is one of my favorites in all the world. In fact, if I had to name my single favorite cuisine, I would HAVE to say Mexican. I mean, I was conceived and born in San Antonio…I had Mexican food in the womb almost daily. And while the robust and complex flavors of Thai are a very, very close second…I gotta give it up to Mexican as my favorite.
Inside the box is pork tenderloin, tiger prawns, avocado, mango, corn, Mexican chocolate (an ingredient I love…it's a low-grade chocolate mixed with coarse sugar, milk powder, and cinnamon typically dissolved in hot water or milk to make hot chocolate, but I cook with it all the time, too), dried padilla chiles, and dried chiles de arboles, fresh jalapeno and Fresno chiles, hot sauce, tomatillos, cotija cheese (pronounced "coe-TEE-hah," a dry, salty cheese with a flavor somewhat similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano…we've used it at FRANK in a Mexican-style polenta), crema de Mexicana (Mexican sour cream), onion, garlic, lime, and the most exciting ingredient of all…huitlacoche.
Pronounced "wheat-la-COACH-eh," this ingredient is a fungus that infects corn while it's growing and turns some corn kernels into distended, dark, globular masses called "corn smut." In the US, when a corn field gets infected by corn smut, the farmer panics and burns everything down, and gets on his knees to pray that it doesn't happen again next season. In Mexico, when a farmer notices corn smut, he gets on his knees and thanks the good Lord for his fortune, because he can sell this infected corn for 100 times the price. Huitlacoche is delectable and rare. The new culinary movement is to call it "Mexican corn truffles" to make it easier on the American tongue and more attractive than "corn smut." I first tasted huitlacoche at a restaurant in rural Utah, of all places, Tarahumara. Click that link to read about my experience at that extraordinary restaurant and others in one of my favorite parts of my favorite state. Huitlacoche embodies all the flavor of corn, but with a mellow earthiness, vaguely reminiscent of truffles. (Note that the can of huitlacoche on the show is spelled "cuitlacoche" which is an acceptable alternate spelling, just like "chile padilla" has a more popular alternate spelling: "chile pasilla." True pasilla chiles, dried chilaca peppers, are nearly impossible to find in the US, and virtually all chiles sold here labeled "pasilla" are actually dried poblano peppers, which should appropriately be called "chile ancho." Nomenclature for Mexican chiles is a bewildering field which varies dramatically from region to region.)
WHAT a mystery box! I'd have loved to get this one. And I'd be making huitlacoche tamales, for sure…mash up the huitlacoche into a paste resembling masa, which is what tamales are traditionally made of, seasoned with some of the ground chile. I'd braise that pork tenderloin with the chiles, garlic, onion, and lime in the pressure cooker and use that for the tamal filling, wrap up the tamales in the fresh corn husks and steam them up, served with a salsa verde made from roasted tomatillos. If I had time, I might even do a sweet corn and huitlacoche tamal for dessert, drizzled with Mexican chocolate and topped with sweetened cinnamon crema de Mexicana. Oh MAN I'm drooling right now.
Eddie is doing a chile-rubbed pork tenderloin over creamed corn with cilantro verde sauce. Savannah, who grew up close to the border in San Diego and is very comfortable with the cuisine (which automatically makes me scared for her), is doing a crusted pork tenderloin which a chile sauce, along with elotes. If you've never had Mexican elotes, you haven't lived. It's becoming a much more popular street food around the country, so next time you see a cart with "elotes" on the side, stop by and just ask for everything. You can just say "todo, gracias." It's a corn on the cob with the kernels shaved off and mixed with crema de Mexicana and mayo, chili powder, lime juice, cotija cheese, and butter. It is DIVINE.
Fellow Texan James is doing roasted corn and shrimp ceviche with mango gastrique. (A gastrique, pronounced "gas-STREEK," is a sauce made with caramelized sugar syrup and vinegar.) Bri is also doing elotes but with grilled corn, with cilantro butter poached shrimp with a last minute sear on the grill.
None of the dishes highlighted use huitlacoche and I'm REALLY upset about that. I'm not sure if no one used it, or if they simply didn't feature the contestants that did.
The 3 dishes that get tasted are:
Bri! Her butter poached and grilled shrimp sit on top of an elote-inspired corn salad, topped with pico de gallo and a cream sauce. Gordon loves it and says it's the best dish she's put up in the competition. Eva loves her balance of flavor. The judges seem really shocked that a vegetarian would know how to cook shrimp, which is weird. But maybe not THAT weird, because most people don't know how to cook shrimp. Shrimp should be BARELY cooked. Still a bit translucent in the center when you cut into them. Brining them for 15-30 minutes before cooking helps prevent overcooking, as does allowing them to come to room temperature before cooking, so they cook more evenly. Cooking them in the shell gives them more flavor and more protection from overcooking. Shrimp should always be delicate and tender when you bite into them. If they are chew or rubbery, they are overcooked. When working with pre-cooked shrimp, NEVER add them until the very end of cooking, and always off-heat. Let the residual heat of the dish warm the pre-cooked shrimp to serving temperature, as additional cooking will turn them to rubber. (Precooked shrimp are already overcooked, so you'll always be serving an inferior product if you use them in any application.)
Eddie is next, with his chile-rubbed pork loin on roasted cream of corn with mango relish and a green sauce drizzled around the edge of the dish. (Not quite sure I like that sauce presentation for some reason, but I'm the last person to criticize anyone about presentation!) The judges are impressed, particularly Eva, who says his pork was cooked better than anyone else's. (The judges browse the kitchen while the contestants are cooking, tasting as things are coming together. And when time is called, the contestants actually vacate the set for an hour while their dishes are filmed and photographed, and during that time, the judges sample just about everything on the contestants' stations, so they already know what it tastes like before they taste it on camera…at which time it is hours old, cold, coagulated, and narsty!)
Savannah is the third choice, and her spice-crusted pork tenderloin perches on a bed of elotes, with a tomatillo avocado salsa. Her pork is quite pink in the middle, and on previous seasons, this would have gotten a contestant screamed at and possibly eliminated. (Though this is a perfectly acceptable way to cook pork in real life.) Eva is intrigued by her use of tomatillo in her guacamole, which I've never had before, but they pair well together, so why not? Eva also hesitates a little when she talks about how spicy the dish is…but, it's good? Give me as much spice as you can cram into a Mexican dish, if my mouth ain't burnin' it ain't Mexican food.
The winner is Bri! I'm super stoked for her. Bri is one of my favorites, not necessarily because they're showing very much of her (they aren't), but because I'm sort of intuiting that she and I are very similar based on our backgrounds in theatre. The producers aren't editing in many moments that truly reveal character this season, so it has been VERY hard to truly connect with ANY of the contestants on screen. And I'm having to resort to fantasy to sort of create what I think each cook is like in real life…so my own personal version of Bri is a truly delightful person, thank you very much, and I'm very happy that she won this challenge.
The next challenge brings back Walmart's bizarre sponsorship. I've talked enough about it, so I'll just point out that Ramsay never actually says "Walmart" and leaves that to Graham and Joe. There are 2 baskets. One basket will get assigned to 1 contestant. And the remaining basket will go to all the others. Bri will not have to cook.
One basket contains strawberries, a banana, 3 eggs, whole milk, baking powder, butter, sugar, strawberry gelatin, and a lemon, which, theoretically, costs under $5 at Walmart. (Though that must be prorated, because a bag of flour at Walmart is $2, a bag of sugar is $2.50, a package of butter is $2.50, a quart of fresh strawberries is rarely less than $2…and we're not through the box yet.) That basket comes with a time limit of 1 hour.
The other basket contains sweet potato, cauliflower, tomato, tri-colored mini bell peppers, collard greens, pistachios, cilantro, limes, and other ingredients that don't get announced…along with one of Walmart's legendary "choice premium" ribeye steaks. Remember…only 1 in 5 steaks is good enough to be called a Walmart steak! Graham reminds us that Walmart is certified by the USDA for quality. (Along with EVERY establishment in the entire country that processed or sells beef.) Ha ha ha… This basket supposedly costs $25 at Walmart…quite a pricey course for a single person cooking at home for themselves, since there's only 1 steak there. And the time limit for that basket is 30 minutes.
Bri, who is now automatically in the top 10, assigns the 1 hour baking basket to the entire group, with the exception of Natasha, who is an accomplished baker, and who gets the 30 minute steak basket. Natasha also has the advantage of getting to wait 30 minutes to start cooking, so she can use that time to conceptualize what she wants to make and plan out each and every step. Joe says she's not even thinking about her ingredients and is spending all her time glaring up at Bri, which is ludicrous. I guarantee you she's brainstorming like crazy.
If you have this episode on your DVR, fast forward to the spot where Krissi is worried about her muffins not rising (to which she has added strawberry gelatin). You hear Bri saying, "Krissi is not my target, but if she goes home, that's cool." This is a PERFECT example of how a contestant's words can get twisted into something they never actually said. Listen to the audio carefully. It is composed of 4 totally separate sound bytes stitched together. Bri says, "Krissi is not my target, but…" then they patch to a live interview segment where she says, "…if Krissi…" and then a VERY big change in the pitch of her voice when they edit in "…goes home…" and then another pitch change for "…that's cool." These four sound bytes could have been pulled from interviews ANYWHERE in the season and stitched together to make Bri sound catty at this particular moment. This happens ALL the time on reality TV, especially on MasterChef. (In your contract, you specifically permit them to twist your words this way, even if it causes public hatred of you.) There's also another dubious sound byte when Gordon is hollering at Bri to call out the name of the person who isn't going to make the top 10, and we get a shot of her in the balcony saying, "Ummmm…" and then the camera cuts away before the sound byte "…Krissi?" is edited in along with a shot of Krissi glancing up at the balcony. Could have come from anywhere.
Regarding Krissi's use of strawberry gelatin to her cupcake batter… Food scientist Harold McGee would be able to tell us exactly what's going on inside her cupcakes as they bake, and unfortunately, I don't have a fraction of the knowledge he does. Gelatin is an animal byproduct…a heat conversion of collagen, which is the connective tissue that holds together muscles, connects them to bones, and holds bones together. Gelatin is used to set liquids and prevent ice creams and sorbets and mixed drinks from freezing solid. (I use gelatin more often in cocktails than any other application.) In a batter, I would imagine that gelatin would perform a similar function to gluten, the substance in flour that links together after flour is hydrated and holds in the gas released from the baking powder, causing the muffin to rise. In gluten-free baking recipes, substances like xanthan gum are used to replace gluten, and I did see some recipes on the internet that relied on gelatin as a substitute for xanthan gum. However, in the presence of gluten-rich flour, I'm not sure what the gelatin would do to the final product. Some home cooks online seem to think that it makes the batter "springier" and less likely to crack on top as the cake bakes. This would be an interesting thing to experiment with. Krissi has used it simply to add strawberry flavor and color to the cupcakes.
Time is called and it's time for tasting.
Luca is first, and he's worried that his cake is undercooked, but it turns out it's cooked banana that looks like raw batter. His banana cake with strawberry glaze is "not bad for $5" according to Graham. The other judges give him a bit more praise.
Lynn comes down next, having just been dubbed "King of Plating" and "Mr. Finesse" by Gordon, and Lynn cringes because he's not happy with his plating. He's made pavlova (an Australian/New Zealand classic of baked meringue) topped with strawberries, a dark grey banana puree (maybe he didn't get enough acid in there and it went dark as it sat for an hour or two before being tasted, which is technically not supposed to count against him) and crisp banana chips. Lynn is not happy and offers no excuse for the failure of the dish…a tribute to his integrity. Gordon dubs it the worst dish in 4 years of MasterChef. Not sure if that's true, but he says it anyway. Joe scrapes the dish into the trash and hands the empty plate back to Lynn, saying it can be a memento of his MasterChef journey.
Savannah is next, with a banana cream pie and meringue on top. It looks pretty nice, but Graham says her pastry cream is undercooked (ie, floury), and her meringue is weeping. (Savannah immediately confessed to her meringue having "broken" when she set down the pie.)
Up next is Jessie, with a shortbread tart, caramelized banana, meringue, and caramel glass. It's pretty impressive, and the only fault I can see is that the meringue was beaten a little bit beyond stiff peaks, so it didn't go on smoothly and is more "chunky" in appearance (which means a slightly coarse texture.) Gordon is impressed, but does not discuss the meringue's texture (or at least it doesn't get edited in).
James is next, and he has crispy deep-fried banana, strawberry puree, macerated strawberries, and a thin custard. "Macerated" means something that is marinated in its own juices, so get your head out of the gutter! The custard is a little dark, it probably has banana in it, and not enough acid to keep the banana from oxidizing and turning brown. Joe says, "Calling that a custard would be a very, very generous description for what it is," and isn't impressed…though I will say that, except for the dark custard, the dessert looks pretty darn good.
Krissi's strawberry gelatin cupcakes are next, and she fesses up immediately about the unorthodox addition and says they're "disgusting." Joe says, "Of all the people, you'd have nailed a $5 bake sale," and Gordon says they all expected her to be on top in this challenge. We get a clip of Natasha grinning from ear to ear after hearing this, but this is another one of those edits where she was actually laughing at a joke the judges made earlier, and it gets edited into this position to make her look mean.
Natasha brings her main course up to the judges. She has a pretty stunning sear on the ribeye, and sweet potato fries, which Gordon says is "difficult to nail." He's right. The high sugar content in sweet potatoes makes them darken considerably when frying, to the point where they can be downright ugly by the time they are cooked through. (The solution is to pre-cook them, either in boiling water, by steaming, in the microwave, or sous vide, then do a quick flash fry at a lower temp than regular potatoes, to crisp up the outside without causing too much caramelization.) She also has roasted cauliflower and 3 different dipping sauces. Her steak has a perfect rare cook on it, good girl! The judges are impressed.
Jessie is the winner, making this her 3rd bout as team leader, up against…no one, apparently, because there's only going to be 1 team captain in the next group challenge. Weird.
The bottom 3 are James, Lynne, and Krissi…3 of the strongest competitors in the competition so far. Very strange. The axe falls to Lynn…a big shocker. Always first to be picked for team challenges. Plates that look like they came from a Michelin-starred kitchen. You can tell the judges are upset about this elimination, and his fellow competitors are stunned.
Lynn has been busy since MasterChef wrapped. He has dishes on the menu at Urban Solace, one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego. (The dishes are being featured at least through the 14th, so head over there quick!) Better yet, all the proceeds from the sale of his menu items go to Mama's Kitchen, a food related charity that feeds those battling AIDS and cancer. (I LOVE seeing MasterChef contestants giving back!!!) He also helps produce The Sam Livecast, an online show with the famous Sam the Cooking Guy, and they just produced their 300th episode! Lynn has some VERY serious talent, and I fully expect to see a prominent and successful career in food for his future. Follow Lynn Chyi on Facebook and Twitter and be sure to send him a message of support! Also, check out his impressive website, and if you're looking for an expert photographer or web designer, he may be your guy.
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Tagged Bri, Chyi, cupcakes, elimination, Eva Longoria, gelatin, Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsey, Krissi, Lynn, Master Chef, MasterChef, Mexican, mystery box, Natasha, pavlova, pork tenderloin, shrimp, sweet potato fries, Walmart, who got eliminated
MasterChef 4 recap: Gordon's Box and Boxes of Cupcakes (S4E6)
Posted on June 11, 2013 | 57 Comments
(PLEASE NOTE: This blog is not endorsed or approved by MasterChef or Fox, and they'd probably rather you didn't read it. The opinions contained within this blog post are my own pathetic, uneducated, and uninformed opinions and should not be treated as factual. While I bore witness to the filming of the entire second season of MasterChef, I do not have any inside information about the filming of Season 4. …well…not much, anyway…)
We're back to the mystery box, and this time the contestants will be cooking alongside a famous chef. There is much speculation over who it might be. Bime is thinking Bobby Flay (who I had the privilege of cooking for in 2007 on the Rachael Ray Show) or Mario Batali or Anne Burrell. Howard wonders if it'll be Rachael Ray or Wolfgang Puck. And…of course…it is Gordon Ramsay. They pulled this prank on me in Season 2. After winning the mystery box ground meat challenge with my Shepherd's Pie, I went back into the MC pantry to learn my advantage. Ramsay said, "Today you'll be replicating a dish from the restaurant of one of the world's greatest chefs." And I'm running through the list of greatest chefs alive…Grant Achatz, Alice Waters, Ferran Adria, Martin Picard, Carrie Nahabedian, Eric Ripert, Alain Ducasse, Jose Andres, Joel Robuchon, Guy Savoy, David Chang, Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, Susan Spicer…and Gordon steps forward and offers his hand to me. "Hello, Ben…I'm Gordon Ramsay."
I've been hearing from fans recently who have intuited from my blogs that I don't respect Ramsay as a chef, so let me set the record straight:
I think Gordon Ramsay is one of the most brilliant chefs alive.
Did I believe this when I left to go on MasterChef? No. I had never even watched more than a full episode of a Gordon Ramsay show. (Because I DO NOT watch TV. And neither should you.) I landed on the MasterChef set thinking of Gordon Ramsay as an actor. True, he might have once been a chef. But if you think about all the TV shows Gordon has in production all around the world, does he EVER get time to cook any more? Of course not. He's a star. An actor. So even if he WAS a great chef at one time…now he's a TV personality. So promised myself to take everything he said as sensational TV fluff.
And while Gordon DOES occasionally spout complete untruths with vehement conviction…(in an eggs Benedict challenge in my season, he asked me if I was flavoring my Hollandaise and I said, "No, Chef, only lemon juice and a little cayenne," and he said, "But true Hollandaise has shallot and vinegar in it," and I said, "No, Chef, that's Bearnaise," and he proceeded to scream at me, purple-faced, "Hollandaise has a reduction of vinegar and shallot in it, BenStahh, how dare you challenge me, who are you to know about classical cuisine"…yada yada…)…that's all borne from the fact that, as a TV chef and judge, he has to fill an endless vacuum of television time with critiques and comments. So sometimes, he's just wrong, for the sake of a tantrum that the audience will love, because he has to come up with SOMETHING to be angry or excited about. It's the nature of making television.
I learned, over the 2 months that MasterChef was filmed, that Gordon Ramsay is actually something of a savant when it comes to cooking. Sometimes I tell folks that I think he may border on Asperger Syndrome, in which a large portion of the brain that is normally given over to processing the infinitely complex nuances of social interaction, instead focuses itself on a different area…famously mathematics or memory recall…but I think, in Gordon's case, it's the culinary arts. Sometimes, in social situations outside the studio, Gordon seems to me to be rehearsing a practiced set of responses that he has learned is appropriate. But put ingredients and a stove in front of him, and he becomes this artist the likes of which I've NEVER seen in person, and probably exists in only a handful of humans at any given time. And the audience is about to catch a glimpse of that, and I'm a little peeved that it took MasterChef so long to feature this. It is high time Ramsay cooks alongside the MasterChef contestants.
Inside the mystery box is a TRULY stunning black cod fillet. Cod is historically one of the most common and popular of the fishes, due it its mild flavored, steaky, white fillets, but is now in imminent danger of overfishing. Also in the box are black and white sesame seeds, shiitake mushrooms, baby beets, fresh ginger root, cauliflower, soy sauce, rice vinegar, panko bread crumbs, and miso paste…a popular Japanese ingredient made from fermented soy beans that's so delicious I can eat it by the spoonful. Also in the box, but not announced, appear to be shallots, sugar snap peas, mixed fresh berries, long grain rice, and something that appears to be white chocolate, but may be hearts of palm, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, or some other similar round white disk.
I love the look on Ramsay's face when he's examining the box. I secretly wonder if he knew the contents of the box before lifting it. The jaded reality TV survivor in me says, "He's had this menu planned out for a week, and has probably practiced it several times." The Gordon Ramsay lover in me says, "He refused to be told the contents of the box and he's playing this game totally fair." Only Gordon and the producers know the answer.
I would do a miso-marinated cod fillet, crusted in panko and sesame seeds, on a crispy rice cake with oven-roasted cauliflower, beets pickled in rice vinegar, and beet green salad.
The constants have an hour, but Ramsay says he doesn't need that much time… "Honestly, there's no great rush," so he strolls up to the balcony to take in an overview of the contestants, then he pours himself some tea, and only after more than half the time has expired does he waltz up to his station and start cooking. While we never see "beauty shots" of the contestants cooking, we get plenty of mind-boggling shots of Gordon, who handles knives and pans as if they are an extension of his body. I'm telling you folks, YOU cook more often than Gordon Ramsay does. He spends more time on an airplane than anything else. The fact that he still has this kind of finesse NOT being in a kitchen 10 hours a day is truly astounding. I am filled with utter glee watching Ramsay cook.
And Graham FINALLY gets to poke fun at Gordon's accent as he narrates his dish. "Mint in the dressing…and bahhzill," says Gordon. Graham whispers to Joe, as if Gordon was a lowly MasterChef competitor, "Bahhzill is actually pronounced 'BAY-sill' here. I think he's gonna go for the 'orr-ray-GAH-noe.' " And Joe can't resist chiming in, "Oh, but he has no 'toe-MAHH-toes.'" And I had to pause the DVR to laugh for about 10 solid minutes. They could have gone on. "Fill-it is pronounced 'fill-EH' here." And straight on until morning. Good stuff.
Time is called, and the contestants are still scrambling to finish, having had an hour to prep, while Gordon has plated 2 full portions in less than 30 minutes. His dish is sesame seed crusted black cod on a bed of "fragrant rice" which appears to have peanuts in it (didn't see those in the box), with caramelized cauliflower, and a roasted peanut "misoooo" sauce. The contestants get to taste…what a treat!
Only 3 folks are gonna get tasted, like usual, and there are some really beautiful plates. But before they announce the top 3, they have a "worst plate of the day" to announce. And this brings back memories. Because in the first two mystery box challenges, the judges bestowed that "worst plate of the day" upon no other than…me. First for my roasted salmon with balsamic strawberry reduction, and second for my rice pudding with peach stone white wine sauce and walnuts candied in salted caramel brulee. Both of which were, according to them, the most revolting things ever cooked in the MasterChef kitchen.
Today's dis-honor is bestowed upon Howard…who seems to be shaping up to be the BenStarr of this season. In touch with his emotions, so eager to please the judges that he overextends himself beyond his abilities, and very, very attractive. Ha ha ha ha ha… No, Howard, if you're reading this, it's obvious to all of us that you know what you're doing, you're just being ridden hard by the judges. They did that to me, too, and I know EXACTLY how you feel.
And, for the record, what's wrong with raw fish? The BEST way to eat fish is COMPLETELY stone cold raw. The more heat you add to fish, the worse it becomes. The NEXT best way to eat fish, (behind stone cold raw), is BARELY seared on the outside, so you get that nice browned crunch, and stone cold raw on the inside, so you get superior flavor and texture. Joe gets a chance to throw a tantrum and chunk Howard's plate in the trash, but that's ALL for the camera, folks. There's nothing wrong with EVER plating raw fish, unless your menu reads "well done fish." The rarer the fish, the better. (As long as it's fresh. And if it's not, no amount of cooking will fix it. Don't ever cook fish that's not fresh enough to eat raw. And if it's fresh enough to eat raw, you'd better eat it raw! Or just barely kissed with heat.)
Back to the top 3…the first home cook has been "consistently in the middle of the pack" according to Joe, and it's James! My fellow Texan. He's got 3 fillets of pan seared crispy skin black cod with toasted sesame cauliflower puree and shittake mushroom salad with miso vinaigrette. The cook on James' cod is perfect. "Moist and glistening" according to Joe, two adjectives that are shamefully repeated throughout the rest of the episode. (I'm not entirely sure I want to refer to ANYTHING I eat as "moist and glistening.") Joe says he has a great salt/acid balance, which is the biggest trick any chef has to master. If you taste a dish and it's missing "something," the amateur reaches for the salt. The master chef reaches for the vinegar. Good for James…I think this guy is pretty brilliant and I can't wait to meet him. (I almost did last weekend! Blog about my Houston MasterChef trip coming soon…)
Next in the top 3 is a dish similar to Ramsay's dish, and it's Beth. She's got a sesame crusted, pan-seared black cod with caramelized beets and cauliflower, with miso vinaigrette. And let me say first of all that her cauliflower just MAY be better than Ramsay's. (Forgive me, Gordon.) She's got 1…count it…1 piece of cauliflower on her plate, but it's probably the single most beautiful piece of cauliflower I have EVER seen. It is, for lack of better words in the English language, pure perfection. It could be framed. (But it's TOO pretty to talk about, apparently, because it's prettier than Gordon's, so it doesn't get attention.) Beth apparently knows the secret to "glistening" cod, as well, according to Ramsay. He goes further to say that Beth's fish is "One of the best dishes I've ever tasted in this competition so far." WOW, Beth!
The final top 3 dish has a glaze that the judges liken to a glaze in one of the "best Japanese restaurants anywhere in the world, which is shocking considering this glaze was made by an Italian." Truly. In fact, it's one of the most shocking things I've EVER heard. (Sarcasm inserted here…as if Italian people are genetically incapable of cooking Japenese food.) So Luca heads down with his stunning plate of pan seared black cod (fillets carefully stacked in leaning-tower-of-Pisa fashion) with butter braised shiitake mushroom, and sugar snap peas on top of a puree that isn't narrated for us. There is much talk about Luca's miso sauce, and I'd love to taste it. Miso is yet another ingredient that packs an incredible umami punch. "Umami" is the Japanese term for the 5th flavor that the human tongue can distinguish, in addition to salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. In the English language, the best word we've come up for it is "savory." Discovered by Japanese scientists in the early 20th century, but still strangely not taught in Human Biology class in the US, the human tongue can distinguish only 5 flavors…the 4 taught in grade school (sweet, salty, sour, bitter) and the 5th type, glutamates. (ALL other flavors are distinguished by the nose.) Asian cuisine gave birth to the now-maligned flavor enhancer "monosodium glutamate" or MSG. But there are natural sources of glutamates, particularly the byproducts of natural fermentation. Miso is one of them. As is fish sauce, Vegemite/Martmite, anchovy paste, soy sauce, "nutritional yeast," Worcestershire sauce… The skilled chef can combine these sources of intensely savory flavors into sauces that are supremely exquisite. And Luca has apparently done this. So congrats, Luca, for playing outside the Italian box and scoring big with the judges!
And the winner is…LUCA! And he heads back into MasterChef kitchen to discover his advantage in the elimination challenge. And this challenge will be all about dessert. Again. This MasterChef season has been very dessert heavy. (I guess I was cast in the wrong season!) He has a choice between cookies, cupcakes, and layer cakes (the example Gordon presents is frosted with a disgusting puke-green icing). Luca is safe from elimination and doesn't have to cook, and he chooses cupcakes as the challenge for his competitors.
I gotta take a second and say that, while I love to bake desserts and it's probably what I'm best known for, I just don't get the whole cupcake thing. I don't get Cupcake Wars. I don't get why people are so obsessed with them. That is all.
In addition to Luca's many challenges, he gets to steal a mixer from someone's station.
Okay, producers…really? This is what we've descended to? Now we're going to actually let contestants penalize other contestants that they don't like, by removing their most fundamental baking tool? Granted, cookies, cupcakes, and cakes were baked LONG before there were electric mixers. During the airing of my breakout episode in season 2 where I baked my now-famous pumpkin carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and candied hazelnuts, I actually baked the cake for a watch party in a home in Seattle that had NO electric mixer (hand or stand) and had to whip the egg whites by hand, cream the butter and sugar by hand, whip the frosting by hand…but still. This is encouraging unfair advantage, animosity, and is basically promoting cheating. As Marie Porter, a season 4 contestant who you don't know because she wasn't featured at all, so wisely said: "We need to be encouraging people to have empathy for each other… not training the masses to lack it." Some of you may love this surprising move by the producers. Personally, it disgusts me.
Luca pulls the mixer from Jordan. Luca says that it's payback for Jordan saving himself in the previous team challenge pressure test. (Is it ANYONE's position but "God" to penalize someone for their transgressions? I didn't like Jordan's decision any more than the next guy, but I'm in no position to punish him for his actions.)
Immediately, the group is divided into the over-achievers who are gonna make 50 different varieties of cupcakes in an hour and a half…and those amateur bakers who are gonna be lucky to churn out a single type of cupcake in that time. If Jordan has baked alot, he probably knows that he can produce a perfect cupcake without having to whip egg whites or cream butter and sugar. There are plenty of acceptable cupcake recipes where you simply stir the ingredients together and rely on the power of baking powder to give you a light-textured cupcake. But he may be relying on education from the show which taught him the creamed-butter-and-sugar method…or the folding-in-whipped-egg-whites method. But anyone who has ever made a box of storebought cupcakes knows that all you need to make a great cupcake is a bowl and a spoon. Nevertheless, Jordan is frantically creaming butter and sugar together by hand, and Jordan…I know what a workout that is. It's not fun.
There's a friendly-fire exchange between the two, and Luca reveals to us, "I'm not the joker everyone thinks I am. I'm here for business."
I have to pause at this moment and apologize to Luca, who I'm dead certain couldn't care less about my blog and isn't reading it, for knowing both the way the show is editing you, and for knowing what your fellow competitors think of you based on your actions on set. One of the drawbacks to being a warm, welcoming personality is that, as soon as the show is finished filming, almost EVERY contestant contacts me to vent and decompress. Luca couldn't be more adorable when you watch the show. Heck…even *I* want to marry the guy. But the way he is edited, compared to how he allegedly behaved on set, are very, very, very different. So if I'm a little extra harsh on you in my blogs, Luca, blame your fellow competitors! Ha ha ha…
Howard is first to be judged, and he has Tahitian vanilla bean cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream. Howard's cupcakes are frosted appropriately, despite their lack of impact on the screen. I'm fed up with the indulgent excess of frosting on television cupcakes. Let's exercise a bit of restraint, people! Joe torments poor Howard at first, and we think he's going home. Then he reveals that Howard's cupcakes are pretty much perfect.
Malcolm is next, whith his buttermilk cupcakes with mascarpone frosting and rum-banana cream. Malcolm, you're speaking my language with "buttermilk." It's my favorite ingredient next to pumpkin, and I can't live without it. The instant I run out of buttermilk, I freak out. I can't cook without it. One other pet peeve that I HAVE to stop and mention, because it's a pervasive error that even professional chefs make: the pronunciation is "MAH-scar-PONE-eh." There is no other pronunciation. Only that one. Anyone who pronounces it "MAR-ska-pown" is in glaring error. Slap anyone who says that. It's time we teach people that it's not okay to say "expresso" (ahem, Joe) or "marscapone" or "sherbert" or "chee-POLE-tay." (If you think of any other rampantly mispronounced ingredients, please post them in the comments below.) Graham notes that the texture isn't quite right: "It looks and feels like they were made out of Saltines or something." Malcolm put the rum-banana cream on the inside of the cupcakes, and any time you stuff a cupcake before it's baked, you're walking a fine line. Gordon tells Malcolm they're "gross" because they have a weird tart/acid flavor on the inside. (That could be just for the camera. Malcolm could tell us. On camera he claims the blame himself, which is incredibly noble.)
Bime is next, with his vanilla cupcakes. He's got 2 frosting presentations, one where chocolate frosting dominates, and one where vanilla frosting does. His cupcake box looks pretty professional. The judges are impressed.
Kathy is next, and she has gone all out. She's got 4 types of cupcakes…vanilla, vanilla with peanuts on the bottom, and vanilla with chocolate peanut butter on the bottom…and then apparently a 4th variety that doesn't get narrated. Her frosting is colorful, to say the least, but nothing that I'd consider out of the ordinary after a visit to any local bakery. Joe is puzzled by her "flavors on the bottom" technique, and doesn't like her frosting, but we don't hear Graham or Gordon's opinion.
Next up is Bethy, and she's an overachiever, too! Bethy's got an infinite variety of cupcakes in her box. One is a "Bananas Foster" cupcake with banana cream on the inside of the cupcake, with caramel and "MAR-sca-pone" frosting. (Come on, Bethy, you're smarter than that!) One is a "Raspberry Limeade" cupcake with lime buttercream frosting. (THAT sounds like a cupcake I would eat. And I never eat cupcakes.) One is an "Almond Chocolate Cupcake" with hazelnut liqueur and toasted hazelnuts. Gordon is literally blown away by the presentation and the taste.
Jessie is next, and due to problems in the challenge, she had to start over…but without enough time to bake normal-sized cupcakes, she had to resort to a mini cupcake pan. So when her box is opened, she has dwarf cupcakes hiding in the box, which Graham likens to the old "Whack-a-Mole" game. Joe tries to challenge her on the size, and she boldly says, "There's 12 there!" Good girl. Despite the diminutive size, Jessie has 2 different types of cupcakes: vanilla bean with cream cheese frosting, toasted hazelnuts, and while chocolate; and a chocolate coffee liqueur cupcake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate covered espresso beans. The judges have a largely negative response, claiming a dry, dense texture. (For the record, they look like every other cupcake I've seen cut open.)
Now the judges are dying to taste Jordan's cupcakes, which were made without any electrical support. He's got vanilla bean cupcakes with basil on the inside, and strangely enough, he's also got this weird frosting I'm not familiar with called "MAR-sca-pown." (I am literally about to gouge my eyeballs out of their sockets with a chopstick if I hear that mispronunciation one more time.) His cupcakes are topped with a miniature chocolate cayenne truffle, a slice of strawberry, and some basil chiffonade. A VERY interesting play on flavors, and I can't venture a guess as to how it would taste without actually tasting it. (Jordan, please come to my house to make these cupcakes for me. I promise you can use my Kitchenaid.) Gordon invites Luca to taste the cupcakes before anyone, and he is an honest good sport. "100% safe," he says, "They are delicious. Can I keep it?" If you have a DVR, though, go back and compare the texture of Jordan's cupcake to the textures of the cupcakes the judges complained about and called "dry." Indistinguishable texture. They ALL look dense. Another reason we can't always be entirely certain that reality TV food critiques are totally genuine. The audience can't taste the food, so the critique can really be anything they want it to be.
The 2 best cupcake presentations will be team leaders in the next challenge, and the lucky winners are Bime and Bethy (who is deemed the ultimate winner).
This is an elimination challenge, and they have to axe someone. The 3 worst are called forward: Malcolm, Kathy, and Jessie. And after much agonizing reality TV angst…the axe falls to Malcolm. And strangely enough, 2 out of 3 eliminations in the season thus far have been African Americans, all 3 were people of color. Which I find very, very bizarre.
Cupcakes are tricky, and easy to misjudge based solely on appearance. So I can't say if Malcolm's elimination is justified. But I can say that we didn't seen enough of Malcolm to really get to know him. He hails from Jamaican descent, and I can without a doubt say that the Jamaican culture has produced some of the greatest cuisine in the Western Hemisphere, and I look forward to seeing what Malcolm shows us next. Follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook.
So I'm FINALLY caught up on MasterChef blogging, and I can assure you, there are exciting things to come, including my next installation of MasterChef: Where Are They Now?…featuring the astonishingly talented Sharone Hakman from season 1 of MasterChef. Subscribe to my blog near the upper right corner of your screen so you don't miss a thing, and chime in on the comments below to let me know what you thought of this episode!
Tagged behind the scenes, black cod, cod, cupcakes, elimination, Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsey, Luca, Malcolm, Master Chef, MasterChef, mystery box, secrets, where are they now
Cheesecake-Stuffed Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins
The easiest way to turn a whole pumpkin into food
Sicilian Sunday Lunch
One-Bowl No-Mixer Pumpkin Muffins
Perfect Homemade Fortune Cookies
Hatch Green Chile Peach Pie
Crispy Cheese-Crusted Omelet
A FRANK Tale: Side B
Savory Goat and Wild Mushroom Hand Pies
Cinnamon Masa Pancakes (with gluten-free option)


text:
Q: Compatibity Mode for IE 10 using meta tag Basically I have this website that has been working very well in compatible mode IE7 for all versions of IE(I have used meta tag in IIS for this).
Now issue is with IE10 where document mode is changing to IE Standards but Browser mode is not changing to be compatible.
Can you please guide me to a solution for this.

A: Meta tag would change document mode for you whereas you still need to have fixed your application or server, this is a known issue.
This would fix browser mode and combining it with meta tag below would do the job for you.
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" >

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


1973 Fender Precision Bass an all original example w/a rare Jazz Bass Nut Width.
1973 Fender Jazz Bass an all original example that is simply gorgeous !
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Fender 1973 Jazz Bass "Black Block Marker"
vintage? Fender Jazz bass pickup bridge 9.33k 1973?


the contract employees working with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the West Bank.
The movement's position came in light of the dismissal of 130 contract employees of UNRWA staff in the West Bank.
The department charged that this decision affects one of UNRWA's functions, as it is responsible for finding work for the Palestinian refugees at a time the number of university graduates is increasing amidst a lack of employment opportunities.
The department called on UNRWA to strive to provide the necessary funds to carry out its work in accordance with its mandate by the United Nations, stressing that there is no excuse for UNRWA officials to reduce services under the pretext of the reduction in donor funding.
It added that the continuation of the budget deficit will lead the refugees to make serious changes to this "laggard" administration, according to the statement.
The department called on UNRWA headquarters to rationalize spending millions on foreign staff, and to replace most of them by Palestinian staff who receive a third of foreign employees' wages.
The department called on the People's Committee of the refugees in the Gaza Strip to carry out a protest in front of the agency's headquarters in Gaza city on Tuesday, January 8, 2013, at 11am, to protest the dismissal decision.


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As college students, we tend to be nearsighted and hardly think of where our careers will head five or ten years down the road. The rare few have had their entire college and post-college careers mapped out since high school, but most students live on a week to week basis, having a vague idea of where they'd like to end up after college but rarely having a clear picture. Asking yourself a few important questions, while being realistic about key life goals can help hone in on the picture of your post-college life.
First consider what you're passionate about, and what subjects you excel in. If you have any interest that require specific skills, this can also lead to a career path. For example, if you love team sports you may do well working with an organization where tasks are part of a team effort. If you've always excelled at math and science courses, then a career path along these lines may prove successful for you. Find a balance between what you are good at, and what you enjoy to find the best possible career path for you.
Once you have evaluated the degree subjects that you excel in, conduct some research to determine what careers are available within those subjects. After narrowing your list down to a few occupations, research the educational requirements of each job, as well as the earning potential on sites like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Compare these notes with your lifestyle goals (income, location, etc.) and find the best career path that combines your skills as well as your goals. You can even take your research a step further by speaking with professionals holding a career in the field you're interested in to learn as much as possible about that career.
Keep in mind that college career counselors are available on-call at most schools nationwide to assist you with career placement. This includes refining your resume, preparing you for an interview, and helping you define possible job prospects. If you are a prospective or current college student, know that you will always have a resource to get on the right career track.


The Chalet Nobilia kitchen range is a modern cottage style kitchen that uses high quality processing, finishing and workmanship to create exquisite, sophisticated matt-finish lacquered framed doors for timeless lasting value.
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This range is available in 3 colours.


text:
	#define new DEBUG_NEW
#endif

using namespace PBD;
using namespace Eigen;
using namespace std;
using namespace Utilities;

void initParameters();
void timeStep ();
void buildModel ();
void createBodyModel();
void render ();
void reset();

DemoBase *base;

const Real width = static_cast<Real>(0.4);
const Real height = static_cast<Real>(0.4);
const Real depth = static_cast<Real>(2.0);

// main
int main( int argc, char **argv )
{
	REPORT_MEMORY_LEAKS

	base = new DemoBase();
	base->init(argc, argv, "Generic rigid body demo");

	GenericConstraintsModel *model = new GenericConstraintsModel();
	model->init();
	Simulation::getCurrent()->setModel(model);

	buildModel();

	initParameters();

	Simulation::getCurrent()->setSimulationMethodChangedCallback([&]() { reset(); initParameters(); base->getSceneLoader()->readParameterObject(Simulation::getCurrent()->getTimeStep()); });

	// OpenGL
	MiniGL::setClientIdleFunc (50, timeStep);
	MiniGL::setKeyFunc(0, 'r', reset);
	MiniGL::setClientSceneFunc(render);
	MiniGL::setViewport(60.0, 0.1f, 500.0, Vector3r(6.0, 1.0, 15.0), Vector3r(6.0, -3.0, 0.0));

	glutMainLoop ();

	Utilities::Timing::printAverageTimes();
	Utilities::Timing::printTimeSums();

	delete Simulation::getCurrent();
	delete base;
	delete model;

	return 0;
}

void initParameters()
{
	TwRemoveAllVars(MiniGL::getTweakBar());
	TweakBarParameters::cleanup();

	MiniGL::initTweakBarParameters();

	TweakBarParameters::createParameterGUI();
	TweakBarParameters::createParameterObjectGUI(base);
	TweakBarParameters::createParameterObjectGUI(Simulation::getCurrent());
	TweakBarParameters::createParameterObjectGUI(Simulation::getCurrent()->getModel());
	TweakBarParameters::createParameterObjectGUI(Simulation::getCurrent()->getTimeStep());
}

void reset()
{
	Utilities::Timing::printAverageTimes();
	Utilities::Timing::reset();

	Simulation::getCurrent()->reset();
	base->getSelectedParticles().clear();
}

void timeStep ()
{
	const Real pauseAt = base->getValue<Real>(DemoBase::PAUSE_AT);
	if ((pauseAt > 0.0) && (pauseAt < TimeManager::getCurrent()->getTime()))
		base->setValue(DemoBase::PAUSE, true);

	if (base->getValue<bool>(DemoBase::PAUSE))
		return;

	// Simulation code
	SimulationModel *model = Simulation::getCurrent()->getModel();
	const unsigned int numSteps = base->getValue<unsigned int>(DemoBase::NUM_STEPS_PER_RENDER);
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < numSteps; i++)
	{
		START_TIMING("SimStep");
		Simulation::getCurrent()->getTimeStep()->step(*model);
		STOP_TIMING_AVG;
	}
}

void buildModel ()
{
	TimeManager::getCurrent ()->setTimeStepSize (static_cast<Real>(0.005));

	createBodyModel();
}

void render ()
{
	base->render();
}

// Compute diagonal inertia tensor
Vector3r computeInertiaTensorBox(const Real mass, const Real width, const Real height, const Real depth)
{
	const Real Ix = (mass / static_cast<Real>(12.0)) * (height*height + depth*depth);
	const Real Iy = (mass / static_cast<Real>(12.0)) * (width*width + depth*depth);
	const Real Iz = (mass / static_cast<Real>(12.0)) * (width*width + height*height);
	return Vector3r(Ix, Iy, Iz);
}

void loadObj(const std::string &filename, VertexData &vd, IndexedFaceMesh &mesh, const Vector3r &scale)
{
	std::vector<OBJLoader::Vec3f> x;
	std::vector<OBJLoader::Vec3f> normals;
	std::vector<OBJLoader::Vec2f> texCoords;
	std::vector<MeshFaceIndices> faces;
	OBJLoader::Vec3f s = { (float)scale[0], (float)scale[1], (float)scale[2] };
	OBJLoader::loadObj(filename, &x, &faces, &normals, &texCoords, s);

	mesh.release();
	const unsigned int nPoints = (unsigned int)x.size();
	const unsigned int nFaces = (unsigned int)faces.size();
	const unsigned int nTexCoords = (unsigned int)texCoords.size();
	mesh.initMesh(nPoints, nFaces * 2, nFaces);
	vd.reserve(nPoints);
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < nPoints; i++)
	{
		vd.addVertex(Vector3r(x[i][0], x[i][1], x[i][2]));
	}
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < nTexCoords; i++)
	{
		mesh.addUV(texCoords[i][0], texCoords[i][1]);
	}
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < nFaces; i++)
	{
		// Reduce the indices by one
		int posIndices[3];
		int texIndices[3];
		for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++)
		{
			posIndices[j] = faces[i].posIndices[j] - 1;
			if (nTexCoords > 0)
			{
				texIndices[j] = faces[i].texIndices[j] - 1;
				mesh.addUVIndex(texIndices[j]);
			}
		}

		mesh.addFace(&posIndices[0]);
	}
	mesh.buildNeighbors();

	mesh.updateNormals(vd, 0);
	mesh.updateVertexNormals(vd);

	LOG_INFO << "Number of triangles: " << nFaces;
	LOG_INFO << "Number of vertices: " << nPoints;
}

void createBodyModel()
{
	GenericConstraintsModel *model = (GenericConstraintsModel*)Simulation::getCurrent()->getModel();
	SimulationModel::RigidBodyVector &rb = model->getRigidBodies();

	string fileName = FileSystem::normalizePath(base->getDataPath() + "/models/cube.obj");
	IndexedFaceMesh mesh;
	VertexData vd;
	loadObj(fileName, vd, mesh, Vector3r(width, height, depth));
	IndexedFaceMesh meshStatic;
	VertexData vdStatic;
	loadObj(fileName, vdStatic, meshStatic, Vector3r(0.5, 0.5, 0.5));

	// static body
	const unsigned int numberOfBodies = 6;
	rb.resize(numberOfBodies);
	Real startX = 0.0;
	Real startY = 1.0;
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
	{
		rb[3 * i] = new RigidBody();
		rb[3 * i]->initBody(0.0,
			Vector3r(startX, startY, 1.0),
			computeInertiaTensorBox(1.0, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5),
			Quaternionr(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
			vdStatic, meshStatic);

		// dynamic body
		rb[3 * i + 1] = new RigidBody();
		rb[3 * i + 1]->initBody(1.0,
			Vector3r(startX, startY - static_cast<Real>(0.25), static_cast<Real>(2.0)),
			computeInertiaTensorBox(1.0, width, height, depth),
			Quaternionr(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
			vd, mesh);

		// dynamic body
		rb[3 * i + 2] = new RigidBody();
		rb[3 * i + 2]->initBody(1.0,
			Vector3r(startX, startY - static_cast<Real>(0.25), static_cast<Real>(4.0)),
			computeInertiaTensorBox(1.0, width, height, depth),
			Quaternionr(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
			vd, mesh);

		startX += 4.0;

		if (i == 3)
		{
			startY -= 5.5;
			startX = 0.0;
		}
	}

	Real jointY = 0.75;
	model->addGenericHingeJoint(0, 1, Vector3r(0.0, jointY, 1.0), Vector3r(1.0, 0.0, 0.0));
	model->addGenericBallJoint(1, 2, Vector3r(0.25, jointY, 3.0));

	model->addGenericSliderJoint(3, 4, Vector3r(4.0, jointY, 1.0), Vector3r(1.0, 0.0, 0.0));
	model->addGenericBallJoint(4, 5, Vector3r(4.25, jointY, 3.0));
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
A protozoan parasite that causes abortion in cattle
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Neospora caninum in Cattle
Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite primarily causing abortions and reproductive problems in cattle and disease in canids (mainly dogs, but also foxes, coyotes, dingoes and grey wolves). Calves that are infected in utero that do not abort may be born weak, underweight and with neurological symptoms such as ataxia, decreased reflexes and exophthalmia (Reichel et al., 2014). However, they can appear normal but are more likely to abort later in life. Transmission of N. caninum is regarded as either vertical or horizontal. Horizontal transmission is from animal or group to another i.e., dog to dog, or dog to cow, or cow to dog (dog eating meat or placenta) and vertical transmission is from one generation to another i.e., dam to calf transplacentally (See disease transmission diagram below).
Diagnosis of Neospora caninum
Impact on Production
Control and Prevention
Neospora caninum is spread either vertically from one host to another (i.e., dog to dog, or dog to cattle), or horizontally from one generation to another (i.e., dam to calf). Vertical transmission of N. caninum is considered to be the principle route of infection in cattle.
Dogs (canids) are definitive hosts to N. caninum, this means they are required in order for the parasite to complete its whole lifecycle. Oocysts are shed in the faeces of an infected dog, and after as little as one week under the correct climate conditions they develop (sporulate) and become infective. Dogs can shed infectious oocysts for a variable period of time after infection and it is unclear how long these survive in the environment. These sporulated oocysts are thought to contaminate feed and water supplies of cattle. Infection from dog to dog via oocysts in faeces, or from dog to cattle via the same method is horizontal transmission.
When a cow becomes infected from dog faeces, the infection spreads (as tachyzoite) to other tissues in the cow, and if pregnant to the placenta, where damage to the placenta or vertical transmission through the placenta to the foetus can occur. Vertical transmission of N caninum is considered the principle route of infection in cattle, with the same cow able to pass infection to multiple offspring. Abortion may be a result of both the primary damage and the immune mediated inflammatory response of the cow (Maley et al., 2003). As a result of the immune response generated, the tachyzoite can transform into bradyzoites (a slowly dividing 'dormant' stage). They remain latent until the immune system of the cow is suppressed, when infection then can recrudesce (Haddad et al., 2005). Bradyzoites in tissue cysts can be consumed by dogs and then complete the life cycle of the parasite.
Additional hosts of N. caninum also include other wild canids such as foxes, with evidence of infection in goats, sheep, horses, deer, badgers, polecats, ferrets, and mink implying that wildlife may be a potential reservoir of infection (Bartley et al., 2013; Gondim et al., 2004; Haddad et al., 2005)
The stage in a dams pregnancy that she is first infected with Neospora caninum is crucial in defining the calf's outcome. The calf will always be born seropositive but often with congenital defects.
The outcome of new infection or recrudesce of infection in a cow depends on the stage of pregnancy. In a non-pregnant animal, infection results in seroconversion and persistent infection. Although seropositive animals may conceive at the same rate as seronegative animals (López-Gatius et al., 2005), infection/recrudesce in the first trimester of gestation may result in early embryonic death. Infection/recrudesce in the middle trimester can result in abortion or the birth of a weak or brain damaged live calf (characterised by incoordination), whereas infection in the last trimester will result in a seropositive weak or brain damaged calf or a normal calf. It is an important feature of the epidemiology of this condition that, apparently healthy calves can be born to infected dams. These calves are however, congenitally (vertically) infected and are seropositive to N. caninum antibodies. Due to the greatest risk of abortion occurring in mid to late gestation, pregnancy diagnosis only undertaken before 5 months in endemically infected herds may lead to an overestimate of the number of animals that are due to calve (Weston et al., 2005).
There is some suggestion that probability of vertical transmission may decrease with age of dam (Haddad et al., 2005). The incidence of horizontal transmission is generally low. However, specific farms may undergo abortion storms attributed to N. caninum, which may be through the sudden increase in the incidence of horizontal transmission (infection from contaminated feed and water with canine faeces containing oocysts), although in many cases, the point source in unknown (Crawshaw and Brocklehurst, 2003; Dijkstra et al., 2001; Sager et al., 2005). The presence of canines on a farm are a risk factor for infection in cattle. Recently, N. caninum DNA has been reported in bovine semen, which may act as another route of infection into herds (Ferre et al., 2005), although there is no evidence of horizontal transmission yet from infected rams to ewes (Syed-Hussain 2013)
The prevalence of infection in the UK was estimated at 18% of aborting dairy cattle and 6% of normally calving cattle in 1997 (Davison et al., 1999), but is unknown in beef herds. Reports from Canada estimate herd level N. caninum seroprevalences of 5-25% in dairy herds and 6-9% in beef herds (Haddad et al., 2005) and in Sweden of 6-65% in dairy herds (Frössling et al., 2005). The prevalence of N. caninum infection of UK dogs in unknown. A bulk milk antibody survey in UK dairy herds carried out in 2012 found evidence of neospora in 51 % of herds (www.checs.co.uk)
The risk factors for infection are largely unknown, although evidence suggests that close contact of cattle with dogs and high stocking densities may be a risk factor (Dijkstra et al., 2002a, 2002b; Otranto et al., 2003). Whilst transmission by dogs has been considered of relatively minor importance, a Dutch study showed that seropositivity to N. caninum in farm dogs was strongly correlated with a high prevalence of N. caninum antibodies in the cattle (Wouda et al., 1999). Dogs that have close contact with cattle and that are fed raw bovine meat are at greater risk of being seropositive (Kramer et al., 2004) with dairy or beef farm dogs having a much higher seroprevalence of N. caninum infection compared to urban dogs (Antony and Williamson, 2003; Basso et al., 2001). Management factors or concurrent diseases that lead to immunosuppression may also be important (Reichel and Ellis, 2002).
An ELISA (Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) commercially available and used routinely to test serum samples for Neospora-specific antibodies. The ELISA results are expressed as a percentage of a positive control included in each test (so-called per cent positivity [PP] values): results are negative if less than 20 PP; inconclusive if between 20 and 25 PP, and positive if greater than 25 PP. All serological results should be interpreted with caution as antibody levels have been reported to fluctuate (Fischer et al., 2003; Sager et al., 2001). Consistent results from multiple tests should ideally be used if making decisions on culling or re-serving (Haddad et al., 2005). Typically, in infected animals, antibodies are highest in late pregnancy or soon after calving or aborting. Infected yearlings may test negative, which has implications for testing bought in animals.
With abortions, routine investigations generally include examination of foetal fluid for N. caninum, using an IFAT (immunofluorescent antibody test). If positive, fixed foetal brain (or cardiac tissue if brain is unavailable) is examined for lesions. The combination of foetal serology and lesions is used to make a diagnosis. As N. caninum transmission is vertical, many healthy foetuses will be antibody positive so the presence of other abortifacient agents (such as BVDV) should be considered as the primary agent of abortion if found (Innes et al., 2000). Clinical diagnosis may involve consideration of the whole herd's health status, with confirmation of N. caninum as the cause of abortion only in the absence of other agents.
Neospora caninum and effects on production
Neospora caninum infection is thought to reduce milk production through its effects on fertility.
It has been estimated that 12.5% of abortions in dairy cattle in England and Wales, i.e., about 6000 per year, may be attributable to N. caninum although some abortions due to N. caninum may be undetected (Boger and Hattel, 2003; Davison et al., 1999). Most abortions occur either sporadically on farms with annual abortion rates of less than 3% or as more frequent abortions on farms with annual abortion rates of 5 to 10 per cent (Haddad et al., 2005; Taylor, 2000). Occasionally, abortion storms may occur, where rates may reach 60% of cows at risk and may be associated with introduction of infection (horizontal transmission) or by recrudescence of infection in endemically infected herds (Haddad et al., 2005). It is possible for cattle that have previously aborted due to N. caninum infection to have a repeat abortion, with seropositive cows two to 24 times more likely to abort than seronegative cows (Haddad et al., 2005; Hall et al., 2005; Hernandez et al., 2002; López-Gatius et al., 2004; Pfeiffer et al., 2002; Weston et al., 2005). The factors that enhance the likelihood of a seropositive cow aborting remaining largely unknown, although stress and concurrent disease have been suggested (Haddad et al., 2005).
Infection is thought to reduce milk production in adult dairy cows through its effects on fertility as cows which have aborted often produce a lower milk yield and are more likely to suffer retained foetal membranes (Hobson et al., 2002). Seropositive cows that do not abort may not have lower yields though. A high abortion incidence in the herd may lead to an increase in involuntary culling. N. caninum infections in young calves have been reported to cause neuromuscular disease and may affect growth rate of finishing animals (Barling et al., 2001).
The overall economic impact of N. caninum infection has been estimated as US$35 million per year to the Californian dairy industry. N. caninum abortions are incurring losses in excess of AUS$100 million per year in Australia, and €9.7 million per year in Switzerland (Reichel et al., 2014). Direct losses are also suffered due to, infertility, returns to service and loss of milk yield and indirect costs through replacements.
Control and Prevention of Neospora caninum
Neospora caninum and uninfected herds
With uninfected herds, strict biosecurity should be maintained to prevent disease entry. This should form part of the biosecurity component of the Herd Health Plan. Bought in female breeding animals should come from herds known to be free or tested before they calve for the first time. Additionally, risk factors for horizontal transmission should be minimised, so that access to feed and water areas by dogs should be prohibited. A monitoring program should also be undertaken to examine all abortions (including maternal serology) to monitor herd disease status.
Neospora caninum and infected herds
Selecting seronegative heifers as replacements and culling serpositive ones has been shown to reduce disease transmission in Australian herds (Hall et al., 2005)
Neospora caninum-infected cattle are assumed to be infected for life. With infected herds, the aims are to prevent abortion and to reduce the risk of both horizontal and vertical transmission, such that prevalence is reduced in the long-term (Haddad et al., 2005). Ideally, a control policy would be based on knowing the herd seroprevalence of infection and this may be considered if the abortion rate is high. It has been suggested that control of N. caninum infection can be achieved in infected herds by blood testing all dams pre-calving or calves soon after birth and identifying the dams of the seropositive calves as infected animals. These cows can either be culled or bred for beef production only (Penny, 1999). Mathematical modelling has shown that culling of infected cows annually and not breeding replacements from the seropositive offspring will reduce the infection in a herd rapidly if the horizontal transmission by dogs can be limited to a minimum (French et al., 1999). However, N. caninum infected cattle should not be culled automatically as there may be other factors that influence a culling decision such as milk production, genetic merit, udder health (Peregrine et al., 2004) or lameness and not all pregnancies in a seropositive cow will end in abortion despite the increased risk. Farmers should be aware that a seropositive cow while no direct threat to her herdmates acts as a potential reservoir of infection after calving to dogs which can then infect other breeding animals (Haddad et al., 2005; Weston et al., 2005). Based on a modelling approach in beef herds, only breeding from seronegative cows or heifers appears to be a reasonable control strategy (Larson et al., 2004).
Contaminated water with oocysts from dog or other canid faeces may be the source of infection in cattle.
Embryo transfer has been shown to be effective in breaking the lifecycle for cattle with high genetic value (Campero et al., 2003).
Methods of preventing horizontal transmission:
Prohibit access of dogs to feed storage areas and feeding troughs
Dispose of placentae and foetuses carefully and promptly after all calvings and abortions
Do not feed raw bovine meat to farm dogs
Minimise access by dogs onto pastures (public footpaths) – where unavoidable put up notices for dog owners to pick up dog faeces
Don't allow hunts on pastures grazed by breeding stock
A vaccine was available to help control neosporosis called Neoguard™ but it has been withdrawn from global sales due it its questionable efficacy.
Treating Neospora caninum in Cattle
There is no effective treatment for this condition, although aborting cows should be given symptomatic supportive treatment and isolated until a diagnosis is made or veterinary advice given if no diagnosis is reached.
However, dogs can be treated for N. caninum if diagnosed early but you need to consult your vet.
Neospora caninum and Welfare
There are no specific welfare considerations associated with the condition, although efforts should be made to minimise the incidence of abortion in a herd as aborting animals often have subsequent disease problems of retained foetal membranes and endometritis.
Investigate all cases of abortion in order to identify causes (See Abortion) – In the UK it is statutory to report all abortions to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)
If N. caninum is detected on the farm as a result of an abortion investigation, monitor all calves that are born for seropositivity and try to keep seronegative calves as replacements
Consider culling infected animals. Do not rear seropositive offspring and/or offspring of infected dams for breeding
Prevent cows' access to dogs
Prevent dogs from soiling pastures, animal feed and water supplies
Prevent dogs' access to potentially contaminated material, i.e. afterbirth, aborted materials
Follow good biosecurity practices to avoid N. caninum coming onto your farm in imported stock
Keep on top of concomitant infections such as IBR and BVD
Consider formal eradication or monitoring programme such as the Cattle Health Certification Standards Scheme in the UK which recently included Neospora
Good biosecurity measures are crucial in keeping Neospora caninum out of your herd. If you have fields that have public access, you should put up a sign to remind dog walkers to pick up dog faeces.
Image sourced from www.cumbriacrack.com
Neospora caninum References
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The city of Cambridge, Ohio, USA, in Southeastern Ohio, decks itself out in Victorian splendor in the weeks leading up the the Christmas holidays. Then, following Christmas, on the weekend of January 8 -10, they host a Sherlock Holmes weekend. It is centered around a mystery written by local playwright Anne Chlovechok, titled The Case of the Taylor Tontine.
This is one weekend before the BSI Holmes weekend in New York City. McMurdo's Camp has no relationship with the event or organization, but we think it looks interesting. Additional information can be found at www.visitguernseycounty.com. Or you can call them at 800-933-5480.


This is what the education system in Kenya is currently grappling with.
Students who are unhappy with strict measures recently introduced by the Education ministry to prevent cheating in exams across the nation's secondary schools are burning down schools and beating up teachers, including principals, most of whom were newly sent to the schools to curb wide-spread cheating.
As the attacks intensify, students have torched seven boarding schools in that country in the last week while protesting against the introduction of tough new measures to prevent cheating in examinations due in three months, education minister Amina Mohammed has said, at a press conference.
According to Mohammed, in one of the incidents at one school, students demanded an undertaking from the principal that he would facilitate cheating in the examinations.
Police in Kenya have intensified efforts to end the unrest, arresting 125 students, a statement by the ministry said.
Intense investigations are being carried out with a view to arresting the situation.
According to the report prepared by the Ministry's Quality Assurance and Standards, students in most of the affected schools wanted their principals to make a commitment that they would help them to cheat in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, slated for October and November.
The principals and teachers in the affected schools reported that they were being put under pressure to abet cheating, failure to which the students take to strike.
New investigations commissioned by the Education Ministry reports that at least 30 secondary schools have been attacked by unhappy students since the beginning of the year.
According to Daily Nation, most of the affected schools have new principals, some of who had been tasked to stop rampant cheating in the institutions following a survey of "marked" schools based on reports on examinations in previous years.
In one instance, Form Four students in Ortum Secondary School went on strike in May because their newly-appointed principal failed to guarantee to assist them to cheat in the exams.
"Students wanted the principal to declare that he will assist candidates during the KCSE examinations," the report said of the Ortum unrest.
This is really not good times for the education system in Kenya.


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Highlights of the BMC-series: December 2013
Simon Harold 6 Jan 2014
Definitions and DSM-5 • Sunshine and strength • Rethinking honeybee history • High altitude horses • Polar bear consuming a seal • Causes of academic burnout • Useful urine? • The Agouti and the ecstasy
Psychiatry: Definitions and DSM-5
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of psychiatry has been described as the 'bible' of disease definitions for the field of mental health, providing a standardised framework for classifying and discussing mental disorders. However, the recent publication of its fifth edition (DSM-5) by the American Psychiatric Association has proved controversial, with the National Institute of Mental Health in the US proposing an alternative framework "from genes to neural circuits to behaviors", that they argue is based on less subjective criteria. In a new Debate article published in BMC Psychiatry, Professor Dominic Sisti and colleagues discuss these controversies and argue that subjective values affect all medical classification systems, and this may not necessarily be to their detriment.
Maternal health: Sunshine and strength
Vitamin D deficiency can affect many aspects of physical health, including muscle strength, but how this might affect pregnant women is not well known since this group are often excluded from medical studies. Now, a cross-sectional study comparing vitamin D levels and physical strength in pregnant Somali immigrants versus native Swedish women finds that both measures are lower among Somali women, possibly due to less exposure of the skin to UVB radiation. The authors caution that health professionals should take these factors into account when managing the care of non-native patients.
Conservation genetics: Rethinking honeybee history
Honeybees can be divided into four major evolutionary lineages based on their morphology, with distinct divisions between West Mediterranean, North Mediterranean, African and Oriental lines. However, a major new genetic analysis comparing honeybee populations from Syria, Lebanon and Iraq with reference populations from the Old World now finds strong support for a fifth major genetic lineage in this species, and suggests an independent African origin for the group. These new findings therefore highlight the need to re-assess conservation efforts aimed at preserving the genetic diversity of the honeybee and its subspecies in the Middle East.
Evolution: High altitude horses
A high-altitude lifestyle can be also be a high-stress lifestyle, exerting strong evolutionary pressures on populations through hypoxia and exposure to ultraviolet radiation. A genome-wide association study among feral horses introduced to the Andean mountains by Spanish conquistadors in the 1500's finds more than 100 candidate genes for adaptation to living at high altitudes, including significant signals in hypoxia-induction-pathways that have previously been discovered in humans. Other genetic signals related to the nervous system, and highly endemic vegetation in high-altitude environments, highlights how selection to this unforgiving environment has played out over relatively short evolutionary time scales.
Image of the month:
Polar bear consuming a seal. From "Dietary composition and spatial patterns of polar bear foraging on land in western Hudson Bay" Gormenzano & Rockwell (2013) BMC Ecology, 13:51
Occupational health: Causes of academic burnout
Prolonged exposure to stress in the workplace can cause "burnout", resulting in exhaustion and under–performance. To investigate the causes of this is an academic environment, researchers from the University of Zaragoza, Spain, combined both qualitative and quantitative methods to assess workplace-based stress among individuals, and associations between different sub-types of burnout. They find that the majority of burnouts can be attributable to the structure and function of organizations, illustrated by one respondent who lamented the "feudal structure of the departments".
Pediatrics: Useful urine?
Pancreatic disorders are routinely diagnosed and managed by measuring the serum level of amylase in blood. For pediatric patients in particular, frequent blood draws can be a distressing experience, and so a less invasive method of sampling for biochemical markers could prove a great relief. Now, after analysing 14 years-worth of samples, a team of Japanese researchers from Chiba University have found that it may be possible to use the amylase/creatine ratio in urine to manage the pancreatic disorder hyperamylasemia, since this correlates strongly with levels of serum amylase.
Neurogenomics: The Agouti and the ecstasy
Black Agouti rats given a single dose of the drug MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy, still show neurotoxic effects on the brain three weeks afterwards. Although some recreational drugs are known to impair cognitive functions involved in memory, mood and behaviour among long-term users, this latest study highlights the vulnerability brain regions like the hippocampus that displayed reduced gene expression of 'memory', 'cognition', 'dendrite development' and 'regulation of synaptic plasticity' gene sets. Understanding the neurogenomic consequences of exposure to drugs on brain function could provide a much better understanding of both the risks involved in their use, and their potential benefits as therapeutic agents for psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress.
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