Shared from WordPress – Garlic Bread of the Revolution

Garlic Bread of the Revolution – http://wp.me/p5MCkF-1Lo

I’ve made bread today because of this post from Gods&Radicals; as ever it’s made from whatever I had in the cupboard. This one has dried rosemary in it, a bit of rapeseed oil, honey, salt, dried yeast, flour and water. Not much in the way of measures since I do everything by eye and touch – I know when the dough is right.
The bread is rising at the minute, and the butter for the garlic butter is softening on the side. I will be making garlic bread later 🙂

Going out to tidy the back garden now and consider what I need to do to get it productive this year.

My brain is a bit wobbly today so I think being outside will be good for me but I’m not up to walking the dogs. They’re fine with that, they’re sunbathing in my bedroom 🙂

Edit: the bread is almost cooked and looks lovely. The garlic and herb butter is made. The loaf is so big I’ll have to cut a piece off to make the garlic bread with.

Further edit: I have garlic bread, it is amazing. Bow before my culinary skills.

Actually, don’t bow down to me, or anybody else. It’s bad for your back.

Gravitational waves

Since I’m writing about science at the minute it might seem like a good idea to write about the LIGO discovery earlier this week of gravitational waves, the final prediction of Einstein’s 1916 Theory of General Relativity to be confirmed. This could be tricky, I only have a glancing understanding of relativity, I’ll have a go though.

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The niece wanted to know

How glow sticks work. It’s quite handy that I happened to write my dissertation, way back in 2003, on the subject of luminescence since that’s what we’re talking about. Unfortunately, I can’t find my dissertation or my OHP slides – yes we were still using overhead projectors at Durham University in the early 2000’s – so I’ve actually had to look things up, mostly Jablonski diagrams. I had a really good one that I used for my dissertation, but like I said, I can’t find them.

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Short story: The Dress

Hello, it’s been a while since I inflicted my story telling abilities on you, my dear readers, but today I found a marvellous prompt on todaysauthor.com’s Write Now post. http://todaysauthor.com/2016/02/09/write-now-prompt-for-february-9-2016/

This is my at least five minutes of writing. Once I’m finished I’m going back to the novel, book two. I finished the first draft of book one yesterday! I’m very happy with myself.

He considered his options carefully as he stared across the desk at the unhelpful customer service agent.

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Review: ‘How English became English’ by Simon Horobin

How English Became English
A Short History of a Global Language

Simon Horobin

From amazon.co.uk
From amazon.co.uk

Published by: Oxford University Press                                                                                                                       Publications date: 28th January 2016                                                                                                                       Edition: Hardback                                                                                                                                                             ISBN: 9780198754275                                                                                                                                                     Price: £10.99

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Review: ‘Benjamin Franklin in London’ by George Goodwin

Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of America’s Founding Father

George Goodwin

Publication Date: 16th February 2016
Edition: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780300220247
Price: $32.50

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Review: ‘Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World’ by Tim Whitmarsh

Battling the Gods

Atheism in the Ancient World

by Tim Whitmarsh

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Review: ‘Witches Protection Program’ by Michael Phillip Cash

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Chelshire Inc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members’ Titles                                                                                                                                                                      Published: 14th May 2015                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Paperback                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ISBN:9781511411349  
Blurb
 Witches Protection Program is filled with adventure & suspense Michael Phillip Cash creates a tongue-in-cheek alternate reality where witches cast spells and wreak havoc in modern day New York City.

Michael Phillip Cash is an award winning and best selling author of horror, paranormal, and science fiction novels. Michael currently resides on Long Island with his wife and children.

My Review

Firstly, the plot; it has a great deal of potential and could be extended from this novella in to a full novel or even a series. I was disappointed with certain aspects – such as the explanation for Bernadette’s great conspiracy, and the reason Wes lost his original position. They just weren’t ambitious enough. If that was all I wouldn’t be too bothered but the insistent and weakly developed romantic plot irritated me.

Secondly the writing: not bad, although tension would drop in all the wrong places.

Characters: All the men are heroes of one sort or another, and all the women are horrible (either physically or psychologically) or weak. Returning to Bernadette, all her actions are predicated on the assumption that the romantic rejection by her sister’s husband would make her hate all men and want to lock them up in internment camps. Or Scarlett, who’s jealousy of Morgan should somehow drive her mad with power lust. It all tickled at something, and then I realised what it was. Straw-feminist arguments advanced by misogynists include ‘feminists hate men’, ‘women hate each other’, and ‘women compete for male attention’; I’m sure the author isn’t a misogynist, but his book read like an MRA fantasy, complete with the handsome white man coming in to save the day and get the, equally white, younger, pretty girl.

I really hope that is the ‘tongue-in-cheek’ aspect of the book.

Overall, I was underwhelmed by this book, although the idea itself has a lot of potential.

2/5