We Put Up The Tree Today

Hear

Following on from the list of podcast highlights I thought I would do the egotistical thing give the full gory breakdown of my podcast listening habits.

Astronomy Cast

The Bugle - As recommended by Dan. Very funny and as it comes from the Times it's England-centric.

Friday Night Comedy from Radio Four - it depends on which series is occupying the slot, but so far it's been The News Quiz and the Now Show.

In Our Time - Another Radio Four product, I learn something new with every podcast, even when I don't understand the half of it.

Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews - Going straight to the heart of the periphery every time.

Science Talk: The Podcast Of Scientific American

SETI: Science and Skepticism - Because I'm bit of a geek.

The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures - Because I'm a bit of a geek who loves astronomy.

Skepticality - Good skeptical podcasting.

The Skeptics Guide To The Galaxy - the champs at skeptical podcasting.

Christmas Meals

Top tips

1. don't hold them in bars that fancy themselves as a cross between a Harvester restaurant and Studio 54

2. Or anywhere that serves their drinks in plastic cups, all the time.

3. Where the other customers would require beer goggles of incredible thickness if you were inclined to go on the pull afterwards.

4. Where they can't recover from getting half the table's food order wrong.

Otherwise we had quite an enjoyable evening in a perverse sort of way.

Not Good

This is such bad news

"Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom "stroke"."

Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's. Awful for anyone it seems particularly cruel for someone who lives by words and their intellect.

Via Selina's Universe.

Cooking With Teh Internets

We had a curry tonight, Rogan Josh with Sag Aloo, healthy style which meant I cut down on the oil. Although I have many cook books they are mostly written by people who have many assistants and forgotten what it is like to cook a full meal without someone to do the chopping and washing up for you. This is where teh internets comes in. Google on any type of food and a plethora of recipes will come up, catering for all whims and requirements: vegan meat loaf - bloody pages of recipes I tell you!

I hit gold for my Rogan Josh with Route 79's recipe, it was delicious and very simple to do if you are not allergic to a bit of chopping of herbs and vegetables, I will be going back to try more of his recipes as they look lovely. Sag Aloo is thanks to a recipe website I found, I just looked of a version that I liked the look of and more importantly I had the ingredients too!

lol science

Muwahaha

seen in bad astronomy and found here

Going Backwards.

Pope Benny seems to be going backwards again. Abusing indulgences got the Catholic Church a bad name back in the 1500's and quite rightly too. Implying that pilgrimages to Lourdes will cut off time in Purgatory in order to up the visitor number can't be very good theology. As an ex Catholic I don't believe in Purgatory, the "miracle" at Lourdes etc now, actually I don't think I ever believed in them especially not Lourdes, even as a young un I was left pretty cold by the Marian apparitions and how they were spun to us at school. But, but the thing is - if you've "sinned" or felt you've done wrong either on an internal scale or to someone else the best way to make that good isn't to traipse off to France it's to make good to the person you've hurt.