Recipe: Espresso cake

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2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup raw cane sugar (Turbinado)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup brewed coffee, cooled

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray. Line bottom of pan with waxed paper; spray paper. Dust bottom and side of pan with cocoa powder, tapping out excess; set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flours, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In another bowl, combine oil, eggs, vanilla and coffee. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients and pour into prepared pan.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes.

Recipe: Olive Oil Brownies

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I’m not sure where this recipe came from– it arrived in my email today, and Googling doesn’t find a source– but it’s an interesting idea.

Yield: 16 small brownies

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate and whisk in the oil. Let cool.

Mix the flour and salt. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. Fold in the vanilla and chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour and optional nuts. Pour into the prepared pan and distribute evenly.

Bake for 22-26 minutes The top will be dry and crackly, but a toothpick inserted in the center should still be a little wet. Cool completely.

Bumper cars

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Don’t ask. I have absolutely no idea.

For what it’s worth, I believe this was taken in Holland. Those look like Dutch license plates and road markings.

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

Stupid terrorists

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A foiled plot by some terrorists to blow up the petroleum around JFK airport has been int he news lately.  When the news first hit the airwaves. I remember thinking “that could never work”.  Bruce Schneier has addressed this in more detail:

Portrait of the Modern Terrorist as an Idiot

The recently publicized terrorist plot to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport, like so many of the terrorist plots over the past few years, is a study in alarmism and incompetence: on the part of the terrorists, our government and the press.

Terrorism is a real threat, and one that needs to be addressed by appropriate means. But allowing ourselves to be terrorized by wannabe terrorists and unrealistic plots — and worse, allowing our essential freedoms to be lost by using them as an excuse — is wrong.

Bruce nails it.  The only thing dumber than the recently discovered terrorists is the US government’s response.

Amazon weirdness

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JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank 
What are people shopping for right now?

Would you believe a $20,000 land cruiser/tank? (Only 2 left in stock, order soon!)

Check out the reviews and “people who viewed this item also bought…” sections.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

America’s Cup

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The Louis Vuitton Cup is a series of match races that lead up to the America’s Cup.  So what do you get when you send a team that has an unlimited supply of money, all the experience that money can buy, a venue that’s made for sailing, and arguably the fastest boat on the water? 

You get a bunch of losers.  There won’t be an America in the America’s Cup this year– BMW Oracle, the USA’s entry, got eliminated by the Italians today.

Just what the U-T needed

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My local paper’s website has started allowing users to comment anonymously on stories.  Yeah, that’s just the clever, edgy thing to improve their flagging circulation.  As evidence I give you today’s story on the grocery workers’ contract talks.  The story itself is fine, but scroll down to the comments. 

Hey, U-T!  get a clue: I don’t read the paper to get silly, bigoted comments from mouth-breathers who think the way to add emphasis to their words is to add a whole bunch of exclamation points!!1!11!!!!!  Yeah, nothing says “rational discourse” like run-on sentences in all caps saying that what we need is more and bigger Wal-Marts.  I’d accuse them of being poorly thought out, but thinking is obviously a skill they haven’t learned.

Huh

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I can’t believe that none of you geeks bothered to let me know the “comments” function wasn’t working. (it is now.)

Then again, I can’t believe that I didn’t test it after migrating to the new host either.

Welcome to Corporate America…

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… where it is illegal for you to know this number: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0  (For the non-technical, that’s a hexidecimal number.  We programmers prefer that notation.  In decimal, it’s 13,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,640.)

Why is this number special?  It’s the encryption key that controls the DRM (Digital Restriction Management) for every high definition (HD-DVD and BluRay) DVD sold to date.  If you are a very talented programmer, you can use that magic number to decrypt and back up your original DVDs.  A consortium of media companies claims they own it, and under the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act, they can censor anyone who publishes it.