MATTEO BECHINI likes this.
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My shiny new¹ #solarOven, waiting for the sun to reach it.
Sadly I only have direct sun in the afternoon, so I can't cook lunch with it, but I'm making solar cooked apples for dessert this evening.
It's made of lasercut plywood with aluminium foil on one side, plus acrylic glass to completely close it, and easily disassembles flat. I still need to make a fabric cover (with a mylar layer sandwitched in) for added insulation, to make it perform a bit more like a box oven, while still having the portability advantages of a panel one.
¹ FSVO new: I've had the panels laser cut just before the lockdown, but it took me quite some time to fix some model errors and apply the tinfoil.
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I read about that and assumed that it was using the 32 bit microcontroller variant of RISC-V, not the one that runs a full OS etc.
So not very different from the TS-100?
I didn't look into the details, however.
Dear #rpg playing fediverse,
I haven't played any rpg for more than a decade because of LackOfGroupError, and now I've been vaguely thinking it could be a good time to try to start one campaign via jitsi/videoconferencing.
Any recommendation on a game system we could use? Is Fate the current freely licensed cool things to do? (also, where does one start from for that? core? accelerated? condensed?) or is there anything else I should look into?
Tobias likes this.
Thanks for both answers!
We have a jitsi server (where we do turn the webcam off for regular chat nights), but then I realized that on the same server there is also mumble, we've just not really used it :D
OTOH, I think that the ability to turn the webcam on as needed can be useful.
For dice, it depends on how much the people involved will be fine with going for a storytelling-heavy approach (then we could keep the fun of rolling physical dice with the webcam on and trust each other); if they prefer a more D&D approach we'll probably need an app.
I'll look also into fiasco
Apparently, this is one of the exercises you're supposed to do when learning #watercolour
My current (and first and only :D ) set: a student-grade pre-assembled one that a) suits me just fine, since I'm still at the stage of “first attempts” b) costed about 1 eur less than a similar empty box from the same store, and appears to be practical and of good quality.
(The pink looking thing in the upper right corner is copper, and while it's technically watercolour I've bought it for calligraphy.)
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I've been looking for an #origami document folder (two sides with flaps, and the covers have an internal space for more sheets) that I found a few ages ago, but seems to have disappeared from the internet :(
instead, I found this #envelope for #snailMail, which looks extremely cute :)
I wonder how practical it would be for a real letter :)
Blagh is the Umbrian reflex of the Greek βλωγοσ, both ultimately from Indo-European *bʰleh₁-, “to blow, be vapid; to be wrong on the internet.”
tanadrin.tumblr.com/post/62173…
via allthingslinguistic.com/post/6…
please read the whole post (if interested in #linguistics, of course), it's worth doing so (and pretty short anyway)
yasuki_baba likes this.
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How pandemics past and present fuel the rise of mega-corporations
theconversation.com/how-pandem…
Also of related interest to you:
"The Wealthy in Florence Today Are the Same Families as 600 Years Ago"
independent.co.uk/news/world/e…
More detailed sources are all pay-walled, so that's what I'm linking you instead.
Family project for this weekend: a light box.
The box is made of corrugated cardboard, covered in a nice packing paper from the last time I ordered stuff from the internet (and one sheet of white paper for the inside); the “glass” is a leftover from a door. The light part comes from my SO's Secret Stash Of Things That Produce Light.
It… works
(while looking at it from the top the individual LEDs aren't as visible as in the picture, so I don't think they are going to be an issue)
Next step: trace all the things!
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I've just realized that warm colours are those with less energetic wavelengths, and cool colours those with more energy.
My life will never be the same.
I mean, I've “always” know that red = warm, blue = cool from school art lessons, and that red = low energy, blue = high energy from school science lessons. It just took decades before I thought about the two things together.
Also, a friend with a background in astrophysics commented “yeaaaah, like stars. hot stars are blue, like the universal label for cool water taps!”
Sigh, today we found the second commercial flyer in our post box since the start of the lockdown (and the first was a request for donations from a charity that is in the next block from us).
This is a bit of normality that I wasn't looking forwards to have back.
(OTOH, yay, free paper to protect the working surfaces while crafting, I guess...)
Jacopo Girardi likes this.
pins, following the instructions on katafalk.wordpress.com/2013/04…
made with 0.6mm copper wire, because that's the one I already had plenty of. I also have some huge 1.2mm brass wire that I want to try (but probably will only be suitable for things like coarse wool?) and silver plated copper wire that I'm not sure would survive the hammering part.
I also need a better surface to do the hammering on; the scrap of wood I used is probably too soft and didn't enjoy the process :D
Definitely something I need to get better at (and will probably try to).
Second batch (the ones on the right). The silver plated copper is too thin to be really useful, and the brass is nice, but too thick. I do plan to buy thinner brass, the next time I have a chance to.
I also found a better surface to do the hammering on: one of my multifunction heavy washers / fabric weights (placed on top of the wood scrap).
Apparenty I've discovered that: a) sewing reusable masks stresses me out b) sewing reusable masks by hand relaxes me.
I'm not sure whether it's the pattern I'm using being full of nice features, but also a bit fiddly, making the same thing multiple times or the guilt over having had two months of quarantine and not having managed to make masks even for my close neighbors.
Sewin by hand while on confcall and the like is not really different from sewing by hand random things, apparently (at least for the first mask I'm making, maybe I'll need a break from this too).
Anyway, doing them by hand is slower, but probably faster than leaving a big pile of cut mask pieces near the sewing machine and avoiding watching in that direction :D
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it! could! work!

(a picture of a somewhat crumbly dough in a glass container)
I've successfully reproduced baker's #yeast following the instructions (in Italian) on vivalafocaccia.com/ricette/ric… (web.archive.org/web/2020041907…) and the linked videos youtube.com/watch?v=VeldxQHZ1V… (invidio.us/watch?v=VeldxQHZ1VY) plus youtube.com/watch?v=7abLyLKIk1… (invidio.us/watch?v=7abLyLKIk1A).
The basics are: mix 25 g fresh yeast (or 8g dry, which is what I used) and 25 g water, add 60 g flour, knead a bit and put in the fridge (low temperature is important) in an airtight container (low oxygen is the other important factor) for at least 24 hours. Use in the following week, and start again from the last 25 g.
It smells definitely like baker's yeast (as opposed to sourdough) and the bread I've made with it has risen as expected.
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David de Groot 𓆉 reshared this.
It depends on the recipe: the proportion between dry and fresh is about 1:3 (but my 7g dry packets are marked as equivalent to one 25g block of fresh yeast).
I'm also used to dry yeast, so I don't really have an idea of how much that would be in volume. In the picture the container is a bit less than 10 cm wide, if that can help.
Also, I tend to make a lot of bread with pre-ferments, so I may be using as low as 2-4 g of fresh yeast (around 1g dry) for 400-500 g flour. The highest I routinely go is one 7g dry packet (i.e. 25g fresh) per 1000g flour.
Starting from a particular strain and trying to prevent anything else from growing.
I don't think I'm going to keep this alive long-term for a few reasons.
Between the low amounts of yeast per dough and the fact that I also have an active sourdough, this is making more yeast than I use (and it only keeps for a short time between feedings — although it can keep in the freezer for slightly longer and I could try to experiment with drying like I do with sourdough).
While sourdough grows with time and gains flavour, with baker's yeast the idea is to have something that is consistent, so one would want to remain pretty close to the original, and I suspect that after a few generations mutations may start to change the way it behaves. I believe that this reason alone makes it worth restarting the batch from commercial yeast periodically (maybe every few months?)
And then there is the bit where dry yeast is soooo convenient, while this is a bit of a hassle to get the same results, and I'm basically lazy…
OTOH, it's an excellent way to get more yeast from a package now that it has disappeared from the supermarkets (and this means that I'm currently in the 1% or less of italians that have more yeast than they can use, and I can't even share it with other people in a reasonable way :( (at least not outside the building where I live))
SlowRain
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •My first test with water got to about 80°C, but the conditions weren't ideal (and I hope that more insulation will help). I've read about other people going above 100°C (with different ovens, this one is my own experimental design).
The apples are my staple solar oven recipe (I've had a cardboard one for a few years, already): they are able to cook even on marginal days and I like them even more than apples baked in a regular oven.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
Unknown parent • •how late does the sun arrive? the best times to cook are between 10 and 14 (solar); if you completely miss that range you probably will only be able to use days that are fully sunny, and only during the summer.
My first attempt was with ovens made from cardboard boxes, so the initial “investment” isn't high, even if you discover that it doesn't work.
(also, I'm still using glass jars covered with black fabric, because I still haven't found a good pot to use.)
Elena ``of Valhalla''
Unknown parent • •This is the model I used before I started designing mine
solarcooking.fandom.com/wiki/F…
David de Groot 𓆉
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to David de Groot 𓆉 • •David de Groot 𓆉
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.