foolfillment: the blog

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Row blows up over kilt ban move

They’re just jealous because they would look like this in National Dress:

John Broadhus Watson became adept at taming rats and found he could train rats to open a puzzle-box for a small food-reward. He also studied maze-learning but simplified the task dramatically.

One type of maze is simply a long straight alley with food at the end. Watson found that once the animal was well trained at running this ‘maze’ it did so almost automatically. Once started by the stimulus of the maze its behavior becomes a series of associations between movements (or their kinaesthetic consequences) rather than stimuli in the outside world. This is made plain by shortening the alleyway - the well-trained rats now run straight into the end wall. This was known as the kerplunk experiment.

Source: Universitat Wurzburg | Biozentrum

I think we are all a bit like a lab-rat. Gordon is talking about Information Design today and made this example:

if you were brought up in an environment where all the cold taps were on the left hand side of every sink, your own experience would subconciously baulk when confronted with a cold tap positioned on the right.

There are also some interesting comments. Watch someone who has only ever used Windows sit down and try to use an Apple, they’ll run straight into the wall like the trained rat. The only difference is that after the rat hits its wall it won’t throw the cheese about in a rage but the human will throw the Apple about.

3tbsp fruity green olive oil, or any other you have - you won’t notive the difference unless you try it with the good stuff first
2 chopped onions
2 garlic cloves crushed, and maybe some extra uncrushed cloves as well if you’re like me and can’t get enough of the stuff
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, chopped into rings
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
450g of peas shelled, fresh is best.
450g of fancy risotto/paella rice (Valencia or Arborio, that kind of thing)
450g of sea food, prawns are good but anything goes, if you use prawns try not peeling them all before cooking, unpeeled ones go a bit harder and crunchier and it’s good to have a bit of a mix
2pints of veg stock
1/2 pint of white wine
some saffron and fresh chopped parsley are good but not essential

other stuff you might chuck in are baby corns, runner beans, paprika, sunflower seeds some meats would work like ham…

heat the oil in a paellera, fry the onions and crushed garlic untill golden, add the peppers and fry for a couple of minutes, add the toms, peas and cook for a few more mintes. if you’re using uncooked seafood put it in now too, along with the garlic cloves if you want them.

add the rice and the wine, keep stirring and bring to the boil - don’t be scared to add more oil. add in the boiling stock and simmer for about 5-7 minutes. if you’re using cooked seafood add it now.

cover the pan, with foil or an oven proof plate or whatever and put in a preheated oven (gas mark 4 or 180C) for about 40 minutes, or untill the rice is soft ish and had absorbed the stock.

sit for a few minutes - just long enough to get that next beer from the fridge, then serve, preferably on a shaded veranda/terrace thing somewhere in Spain

I was using Spamminator but when I tried to comment this morning I found I was blocked, which obviously isn’t what should be happening. I also spent last night deleting a whole load of comments that had gone through.

So now I’ve switched to Spam Karma which allows you a reprieve if you get blocked with a Capcha. Let me know by email if you’re having any problems (my first name at my second name .org.uk, if I have to tell you anymore then tough)

UPDATE: It’s already caught three in the five minutes it’s been running.

Answers in the comments

At last I’ve managed to get round to setting up a linklog, where I’ve come across sites that don’t necessarily merit a post to themselves they get put here. Mostly it’ll be my own scribble pad for sites I want to look at more later, while it’s still in its infancy it’ll be full of nothing much as I pad it out to stop it breaking other things.

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So, the car wasn’t too expensive to fix, mostly because the mechanic used a part from an old car (apparently it’s a very rare thing to go) and it didn’t charge me the 200 quid he could’ve. I might well take it to him for it’s MOT. I wish I knew more about cars, it’d make me feel a lot more comfortable when I have to do anything about them.

It’s one of the things that it’d be so worthwhile knowing, just to save money and know I’m not getting ripped off.
I know enough about computers to know if I’m getting a good deal but I also know how intimidating it can be buying things when you know nothing. I remember the first time I went into Silicon Group to buy the bits I thought I’d need to build a pc and it was horrible, but now that I have a bit of a clue I feel fine. I’d like to get to that stage with cars.

A weblog for real beer. If only there were more blogs like this then blogmeets would certainly take off.

Real Beer Blog by the bagger man.

After spending the morning traipsing the city going into shop after shop asking for jobs I’m knackered.

It’s such hard work when you get nothing to show for your efforts. I’ve sent off a lot of CVs and application forms in the last few weeks and had nothing back from anyone, it’s just so dammned rude and a waste of my time. If a company doesn’t bother to reply then it signals to me that I’m lucky not to be working for them. But that doesn’t make me feel any better right now.

So, I don’t have a job to earn the money I need to go away this summer, I had another problem with the car on Friday which meant I didn’t get to go home for the weekend as planned and will need to get it fixed and to top it off I can’t get that stupid ‘Amorillo’ song out of my head.