• BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | B | Brighton | Slade sacked as Brighton manager
  Not too much of a surprise, considering.
  (tags: football Brighton news)
• Evacuation Game
  Not in the least addictive.
  (tags: flash game puzzle space)

• BBC NEWS | World | 'Twin Towers' warship to enter NY
  Swords and ploughshares, anyone? Surely, transforming from "something really twisted and ugly" into a machine designed to bring death and destruction is, in itself, twisted and ugly. Discuss.
  (tags: news 9/11 military)
• Faxtastic – Fax-to-Email, Email-to-Fax, Fax-to-mail, Mail-to-fax, Mail2Fax, Fax2Mail, UK Fax Mail Integration
  I'm tempted by fax-to-email services. I still have to use fax technology from time to time, but am getting fed up with the large fax machine sitting in the middle of our kitchen.
  (tags: fax faxtoemail email business work)

• Cat Face 17 – Weebl's Stuff
  Cat Face has wise advice for Guy Fawkes Night.
  (tags: cat_face cartoon flash humour)

This post seems to live on, with good comments going on. Maybe I should write more food posts….

• Strange Maps
  Excellent website about strange and unusual aspects of cartography, both current and historical.
  (tags: maps cartography geography politics history travel design)
• Wild Beasts – Live, Hoxton Hall – 6th August 2009
  Just about the best thing on Jools last week, although Ellie Goulding was good. Diana Krall murdered a couple of songs (and what's with the botox overdose?) and the Stereophonics were both bored and boring. This lot are clearly quite influenced by the likes of Grizzly Bear/Department of Eagles, but are generally more cheerful.
  (tags: Wild_Beasts music)

This recipe shamelessly stolen from Eat This Book: Cooking with Global Fresh Flavours by Tyler Florence – a book of recent discovery (by chance) in this house, with excellent recipes on just about every page. It’s quick to prepare (about 30-40 minutes), darned tasty and looks good too – so ideal for dinner parties or for impressing people, although I think it makes a pretty good Friday night dinner too.

INGREDIENTS:

For the sauce/dressing:

• 2 fl oz (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
• 2 fl oz (60ml) soy sauce
• Juice of 4 limes
• 2 good handfuls of fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped (use kitchen scissors unless you have amazing knife skills)
• 1 Jalapeno chilli (or other medium hot chilli), sliced complete with seeds (actually, I think this looks prettier with a red chilli, not a green Jalapeno)
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon crushed fresh ginger (I peeled a piece and then crushed it in a garlic press over the mixing bowl, so as to catch all the juice)
• Half teaspoon sugar
• Salt and pepper

For the main dish:

• good quality fresh tuna steaks (there is enough dressing/sauce for four steaks in this recipe or, do as we do, and use this quantity of dressing/sauce with just two steaks)
• 2 avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced
• extra virgin olive oil
• a bag of rocket (or fresh from the garden/allotment if you have it – how we miss summer! Our own rocket was miles better than any we have bought anywhere, ever. Period.)
• cherry tomatoes (allow around 6 per person)

METHOD:

First, make the sauce/dressing. This is easy. Shove everything in a bowl. Stir. Got it?

Next, scoot your tomatoes around a griddle pan in a little oil until they are slightly seared and split. Plate them up with a portion of the rocket on each plate.

Then, add a little more oil if necessary and, over a medium-high heat, sear the tuna for a minute or so on each side. Then spoon over roughly a quarter of the sauce and cook for another minute or two. Turn the steaks over and add another quarter of the sauce (or one-third of what remains, if you follow my maths).

Plate up the tuna. Arrange the avocado pieces artfully around the plate and then spoon over the rest of the dressing in a tasteful fashion. Serve with a long cold drink (gin and tonic, good Belgian beer, whatever – you need something long, as the sauce/dressing has quite a kick to it, particularly if (as we did) you make the dressing an hour or so in advance and let the chilli get to work on the other sauce ingredients).

Definitely the best new recipe I’ve tried for a while. Not that I’ve tried many new recipes lately. With everything else going on around here (I’ll write about it somewhen), the cooking mojo hasn’t been what it was. We need to get that back.

• Baarle Nassau and Baarle Hertog
  Everything you ever wanted to know about the barmy Belgian enclaves within the Netherlands at Baarle.
  (tags: maps geography netherlands belgium europe politics history)

• EU Bookshop
  The official place to purchase/download EU publications. The EU and its offices (including the CPVO) are moving to paperless (and free-of-charge) publication of most documents.
  (tags: eu europe books publications reference)

• BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | B | Brighton | Brighton appoint Poyet as manager
  Hmm. We'll see. I hope they give him a good scrub first, since he has spent time at Spurs. Ick.
  (tags: football Brighton news)

• BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Changing times in Russia
  Russia might reduce number of time zones. Of course, if Britain went over to CET…
  (tags: time news Russia Europe politics)

I once wrote the following on this blog about Brooke, having read an article she wrote about autopsy on Barbelith:

As it turns out, that’s not half of what you wouldn’t have guessed!
I rather suspect that the media storm is only just beginning.

• Netherlands to levy 'green' road tax by the kilometre < Community News | Expatica The Netherlands
  With a charge for "foreign vehicles". Hmm.
  (tags: tax travel roads Netherlands Europe environment)
• BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Cordoba, the city with many faiths
  Our next short break destination.
  (tags: Cordoba Spain Europe history politics FOOC)
• Art By Logovend.com. Logo Design, Print Design, eBay Templates, Web Design, Stationery Design, Portraiture & Other Artwork
  I rather like this stuff.
  (tags: art logo design digital)

• virus 2- the popular virus Flash game is back
  The original game that Drench is clearly based upon.
  (tags: flash game puzzle free)
• BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Call for demolition of Polish palace
  I've stayed in a hotel (Soviet era) next to this building. It certainly is massive and I can understand why they might wish to demolish it. And yet, I hope that they don't. It is a part of European history, even if not a particularly glorious part, and it would be a shame to rob future generations of it.
  (tags: Warsaw Poland architecture politics)
• It was the Sun wot done it. Or was it? | Stuart Clark – Times Online
  The influence of the Sun on our climate.
  (tags: climate environment space science)

• Delphic
  Official website.
  (tags: music uk delphic)
• BLACK JOE LEWIS | OFFICIAL SITE
  Excellent on Jools. Real classic blues and R&B.
  (tags: music blues)
• delphic. on MySpace Music – Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos
  Excellent on Jools this week.
  (tags: music uk bands Delphic)

Some cheeky blighter has used my work Visa card for nefarious purposes.

Apparently the cunning chaps use new fangled computer thingies to put bunches of random 16-digit card numbers and expiry dates into iTunes to purchase songs. When one works, they know that they have a valid card number/expiry date combo and can go shopping.

Thankfully, those clever boffins at the NatWest also use them there computing machines and spotted that, with my work Visa, I’m unlikely to purchase songs on iTunes and then go shopping for t-shirts from a luxury Japanese clothing company. (Of course, with my personal Visa, anything is possible). Consequently, when I was trying to make a purchase this afternoon, I had to get on the blower to convince the NatWest that I am the real me. They kindly suggest that I feed my current card to a pack of wild dogs and await the delivery of a shiny new card. Meanwhile, they’ve refunded the undesired transactions to my account, made sure that the cheeky blighters can’t make any more transcations (apparently they had already tried, twice) and have been awfully helpful.

Dastardly scamps! They should be hung by their thumbs from the nearest mighty oak!

• Duvel – Brands: Maredsous
  Quite possibly some of the finest (Belgian) beer we've tasted.
  (tags: beer Maredsous Duvel Belgium drink)

• Census of Marine Life Image Gallery
  Simply amazing images from the Census of Marine Life. I particularly like the Christmas Tree Worm.
  (tags: photography science nature environment)

• Ryobi Spares
  Crappy website without online ordering, but certainly the best place to get Ryobi spares (such as a replacement chain oil filler cap – crappy, flimsy thing has finally snapped – replacement is princely sum of ten pence, plus VAT and delivery). EDIT: take care as the key to some of the exploded parts diagrams is incorrect.
  (tags: powertools spares parts Ryobi)

• BBC News – The Netherlands leads battle against rising sea levels
  Profile of improvement works to Dutch sea defences.
  (tags: Netherlands environment sea_defences)
• Boots: 'we sell homeopathic remedies because they sell, not because they work' – Telegraph
  A fine admission. Will they now label the products as "not proven to do anything for you"?
  (tags: debunk homeopathy medicine Boots marketing retail UK)

• Home | Mediane Packaging
  Pot sleeves and flower sleeves for horticulture.
  (tags: plastics printing horticulture)
• BBC – Mark Mardell's America: Getting to grips with Thanksgiving Day
  I'm hungry.
  (tags: Mardell America food Thanksgiving)