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January 1, 2012
by Spider
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Grandma’s Potato Soup

 

grandmas-potato-soup

Grandma’s Potato Soup

Grandma’s Potato Soup
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Recipe type: Entree
Author: Scott Giffin
Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins
Total time: 1 hour 55 mins
Serves: 4
Home made potato soup is so comforting and perfect when you are trying to capture some of those familiar feelings of childhood. Potatoes, milk, and other fresh vegetables make for a delightful pot of soup.
Ingredients
  • 4 potatoes (Idaho or Russet potatoes are recommended) (This is a total of 5 potatoes)
  • 1 potato for the pot
  • 1 large can evaporated milk (at least 15 oz.)
  • Whole Milk
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1 celery stalk (no leaves), chopped
  • 1 medium to large onion, peeled & quartered
  • 1 tbs. garlic juice
  • 1 tsp. Sea Salt
  • 1/2 tsp. finely ground black pepper
  • bacon bits
  • Kraft Three Cheese Blend
Instructions
  1. Peel and chop potatoes into bite-sized chunks and place into medium-sized stock pot.
  2. Add evaporated milk and fill up empty can with each whole milk and water.
  3. Add stick of butter, allow to melt.
  4. Add chopped celery, onion, chopped garlic, sea salt and pepper. Stir until well blended.
  5. Cook on low or simmer until potatoes are soft. DO NOT allow soup to boil.
  6. Top with crumbled bacon, chopped scallions and a sprinkle of Kraft Three Cheese Blend.
 
Notes

I calculate how many potatoes for soup or mashed by counting the number of people I am serving, assign one potato each, “plus one for the pot;” i.e. just a smidgen more to make sure I have enough but not too much. You don’t put it in whole, it’s prepared along with the other potatoes. it’s just an aid to figuring out how much to make. For instance, I have three people coming for dinner, plus myself and my spouse. That’s five people, so I’d fix mashed potatoes with six potatoes – one for each of the five people eating plus one for the pot.
The flavor of potato soup is enhanced by any buttered sweet roll or dinner roll.

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August 27, 2011
by Spider
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Airline Humor

After every flight, pilots fill out a form called a gripe sheet, which conveys to the mechanics problems encountered with the aircraft during the flight that need repair or correction. The mechanics read and correct the problem, and then respond in writing on the lower half of the form what remedial action was taken, and the pilot reviews the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews and engineers lack a sense of humor.

Here are some actual logged maintenance complaints and problems as submitted by Qantas pilots and the solution recorded by maintenance engineers. By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an accident.

(P = The problem logged by the pilot.)
(S = The solution and action taken by the engineers.)

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what they’re there for.

P: IFF inoperative
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

July 2, 2011
by Spider
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Fractals

Create your own 2D and 3D fractals with these fractal generators. Some are free, some are shareware and some are commercial pay for programs, some have trial periods.

 
Apophysis
Apophysis is a freeware windows application made in delphi for creating, editing and rendering fractal flames. Fractal flame is an extension on the IFS fractal.

http://processing.org/
Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions. Initially developed to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing also has evolved into a tool for generating finished professional work. Today, there are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning, prototyping, and production.

Cynthia Lanius’ Fractals Lesson
A fractals lesson unit for elementary and middle school children with special notes for teachers.

Double Fractal (Win)
Fast and easy to use fractal generator. Freeware.

Easy Fractal (Mac)
Generate graphics and pictures of Mandelbrot and Jullia’s Set fractals. Shareware, $20 US.

Fractal Art FAQ: Contents
Frequently asked questions and answers about fractal art.

Fractal Domains (Mac)
Shareware fractal generator for Power Macintosh. Features generation of Mandelbrot and Julia sets, editable color maps, anti-aliasing, and more. Exports to PICT, PNG, TIFF, and JPEG format. $20 US.

Fractal Explorer (Win)
Generate fractal images and animations. Freeware.

Fractal eXtreme (Win)
Explore fractals with intuitive point and click zooming. Features a unique palette editor, ability to create fractal zoom movies, an automated explore function, and much more. $34.95 US. 15-day trial available.

Fractal eXtreme Plug-ins (Win)
A set of plug-ins for Fractal extreme: Apolloian Packed Circles, Four Recursive Circles, and Sierpinski’s Triangle.

Fractal Science Kit – Fractal Generator for Windows
The Fractal Science Kit fractal generator is a Windows program to generate a mathematical object called a fractal. The site includes a gallery of fractal images, tutorials and examples, general information about fractals, and full documentation for the Fractal Science Kit fractal generator.

Fractals, in Layman’s Terms
What are fractals? Get the answer here in simple language without the technical jargon.

Fractalus
Offers nearly four hundred fractal images in various galleries, fractal info, fractal merchandise, downloads, and more.

FractalWorks (Mac)
“FractalWorks is a high performance fractal rendering program for Macintoshes running OS X version 10.4 or later. It is universal, and runs best on multi-core intel Macs.”

Fractint (DOS)
A freeware fractal generator with deep zooming feature. Ports in development for Windows, NT, Mac, and BeOS.

Fractovia.org: Fractal Art
This fractal fan site offers galleries, tutorials, software, fractal discussion, and more.

HOP – Fractals in Motion (DOS/Win/OS/2)
HOP draws images and real-time animations that can be displayed as a screen saver or manipulated and saved as GIF files or as collections of parameter sets. $30 US.

Infinite Fractal Loop
A Web ring with hundreds of sites dedicated to fractal art.

Makin’ Magic (DOS)
Author description: Generates both 2D and 3D fractal images and features a large number of formulas and colourings, many of the colourings being “smooth”, as well as Mandelbrot/Julia/Newton fractals. It also does landscape/plasma fractals which can be viewed as a 3D landscape and flown over in realtime. Freeware.

Pomegranate Software – Fractals for iPhone and iPod Touch
Fractals is the first fractal app for iPhone that renders as you move and pinch to explore fractals in real-time!

Pocket Fractals (Windows and Pocket PC)
“Pocket Fractals is a free fractal program created by SpaceTime Mathematics, the makers of SpaceTime 3.0. Explore Mandelbrot fractals in real-time on your computer and mobile device at never before seen graphing speeds!”

Sterling2 (Win)
“Sterling2 is based on Sterling, a fractal-generating program written in 1999 by the redoubtable Stephen C. Ferguson.” Free.

The Infinite Art of Kerry Mitchell & Janet Parke
Several galleries of fractal art and information about how it is created. You can purchase infinite art prints or send fractal e-cards.

Ultra Fractal (Win)
Advanced fractal software featuring multiple layers with merge modes, custom fractal formulas, custom coloring algorithms, gradient editor, formula editor, and more. Exports to BMP, JPEG, PNG, PSD (with layers) and TGA formats. US $35.

XaoS (DOS/OS/2/BeOS/Amiga/Unix/Mac)
Real-time fractal zoomer which displays the Mandelbrot set and other escape time fractals. Supports high frame-rate zooming, autopilot, palette changing, GIF saving, and fractal inversion. Freeware.