"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
As part of my own lil Jólabókaflóðið (“Christmas book flood”), I started an ebook that was supposedly 800+ pp in length. Opened it. Every line is double-spaced. Double that between paragraphs. Does NOT improve the reading experience, just fakes up a 400pp book into a supposed 800+pp. *smh* That doesn’t even count the times I caught the writer padding the word count in the first few pages. Setting aside. Not even written all that well.
Moving on. . .
No. In fact, this site is not “secure” in any real sense, and some PII about me can be gleaned via various means from this site. So? NO PII online is secure. There is no such thing as personal data security online. There is only the possibility of LESS insecurity. While one can improve one’s data security, absolute security is a chimera. Knowing this is the first step to better security practices, IMO, which includes whatever controls one can put on what data one allows online to begin with.
For example, while I use a password manager for low-value sites (sites where little PII accrues, for various reasons*), I use enhanced memory techniques and memorable pass phrases derived from hobbies not noted online or in emails or other such communications) for sites with more sensitive (or accurate *heh*) PII. (And yes, I know I won’t be around forever, so such passphrases are also secured on an encrypted flash drive and stored in a safe which only two people have access to besides me. Maybe it’s just me, though. . . ) That, plus two-factor authentication, are good things to do, but do not, of course, assure any real security, because once data is online, means of compromising the site storing it proliferate beyond one’s control.
And yes, I take a lot of other steps, and STILL my data is not secure. Never will be. Neither will yours be secure, because once it’s online anywhere, it’s really beyond your control. All one can do is–hopefully–limit access as much as possible.
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*There are a lot of diverse sites on the web that interest me that also require registration I view as intrusive and unnecessary, so I obfuscate and often outright lie in registering, as well as offering throwaway email addresses (also registered with obfuscated data). *shrugs* I’m not a good mark for con artists, either. 😉 For most such places, I also invoke a foreign IP address via one of several different VPNs. TOR helps, as well.
. . . with the loss of a loved one.
After her “sudden cardiac death” experiences, I used to wake up every night just checking to make sure my Wonder Woman was still breathing. I do so less often, now since, she has managed to live another 23 years, and thrive. This AM, I got a reminder of those “SCD” experiences and the aftermath was in my FarceBook feed (yeh, there are some folks I seem to only be able to stay in contact with that way. *shrugs*). A writer, former actual rocket scientist, whose books I have enjoyed and whose conversational abilities have lightened FarceBook, let folks know that she awoke this AM to find her husband’s body cold and lifeless beside her.
My sympathy for her loss was colored by a reawakening of those memories of nightly checks to make sure my Wonder Woman was still breathing. Those memories in no way lessen my sympathy for her circumstances. On the contrary, I feel the weight of her loss perhaps more greatly.
Processing. . .
So,
I devised this recipe about 18 years ago and have made it now and then for special times (like holidays). Since I have brewed no hard apple cider this year, I thought I’d resurrect it.
Javascript Cookies
Ingredients:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup finely ground coffee powder1
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened2
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chop your own from your fav semi-sweet chocolate)
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts or sliced almonds, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar for coating
Instructions:
1. Whisk together flour, coffee powder, baking powder, and salt in a bowl until combined.
2. Beat together butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed (or get movin’ with your wire whisk!) until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes in a stand mixer or 4 minutes with a handheld. Add egg and vanilla, beating until combined. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until combined well. Add chocolate and nuts and mix until just combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 325°F.
4. Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into a 1-inch ball, then flatten slightly with palm of your hand to form a 1/3-inch-thick disk and coat with confectioners sugar. Make more cookies in same manner, arranging them 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
5. OK, that was the original recipe directions. this is easier, and the cookies taste just as good. Put 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar in a bowl (I used a soup bowl/LARGE mug with a handle). Drop the appropriate amount of dough in the bowl and swirl the bowl to roll it around. Pick the doughballs up and flatten them onto the ungreased baking sheets. No (or less) messy hands, quicker and easier.
6. Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until they puff up and tops crack slightly, 8 to 10 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Recoat cookies with confectioners sugar, if you want (they’re sweet enough for me without the extra, but I have one tester who likes ’em that way). Oven times may vary. Add time if you make your cookies larger, of course.
N.B. I have had some success making a keto-friendly version of this using almond and coconut flour and sucralose.
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1 As fine as you can grind it; as close to flour texture as possible
2 Depending on your microwave oven, could take as little as 30 seconds to soften a stick of butter enough to use. YMMV, of course, depending on both the temperature you store your butter and your MW’s power rating.
From Ghost by John Ringo:
“I do odd jobs,” Mike replied, sitting in one of the forward seats.
“If you’ll pardon me, sir,” the pilot said, still curious. “You don’t get the money to charter a jet, much less have it sit around on call, by digging ditches with a shovel.”
“I’ve used a shovel in my time,” Mike said, smiling broadly. “But I usually prefer to find the local guy with a backhoe. Quicker and easier to hide the bodies. You ready to go?”
Sometimes — just sometimes — I’d not mind being “Mike’s” backhoe operator. . . Well, a guy can still dream, can’t he? 😉
For example, the Standard British English pronunciation of “echidna” is much more mellifluous than the Standard American English pronunciation.
Offhand, that’s about all I can think of that makes more sense in BrE. *heh*
(OK, OK, I suppose one could argue that the BrE silliness of calling a kitchen oven a “cooker” makes at least some sort of sense. . . in a rather vulgar sense — and I do mean “vulgar” in the nontechnical linguistic sense of “language of a lower order,” not in the vulgar, actually degraded, and flat-out wrong contemporary sense of “profanity” — which is also most often used in a degraded, and flat-out wrong sense nowadays. *sigh*)
. . .the subliterate drunk who thought he wasn’t drunk if he could spell “sophisticated,” but was so drunk he forgot he couldn’t spell it when he was sober.
Two words that say, “Check your wallet. ‘Trust me guy’ has probably already picked your pocket.”