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10 years ago this postcard was used to attract students in Western Germany to study in Dresden, Eastern Germany. It reads "Students! Get International Experience in Dresden." Not only refering to their international cooperations, but rather the fact that Eastern Germany was still a foreign country to many Western Germans.

Apparently, the spammers are also trying to use the xmas mood to increase their sales. Sigh.

Embedded Video

In our media, we mostly hear about Japan when it comes to new gadgets, manga, anime or some crazy stuff going on there. It is not common here in Germany to get free water to drink from fountains or at restaurants (unlike in most other countries that I have been to outside of Europe) and although I have not been to Japan, I would assume that you can get free water there to quench your thirst as well.

But now there seems to be a new concept coming along so that you can even get your favorite sugar water for free (or at least a lot more subsidized): Some of the ubiquitous vending machines there might be upgrade to play commercials to you while you wait for your drink. Of course you only get your drink when the commercial has finished. I do believe that it would be a great way to deliver location based services, as in advertise new businesses in the area.

via japanprobe

I just wanted to watch a small documentary while eating my supper, but what I found by coincedence was quite interesting. Maybe when you were small, you tried once or twice to fold a simple origami figure. Maybe you had even memorized some of these patterns. And probably you have been wondering how long it takes to come up with a new pattern and that after hundreds of years, most patterns that make sense have been put into shape already.

Well... wrong. By adding mathematical principles (and having computers do the calculations, it is pretty amazing what one can do. Although the more complicated designs do take more than 1000 folds...

Click here to see the video.

via getdocued

I am still looking into different ways on how to update my blog design when time allows me to do so. One thing that I am unsure about it on what to do with the backgroud and whitespace of some areas in my blog.

While searching for examples, I came across patterncooler.com which not only offers a huge amount of repetitive patternsm but also has rather nice implementation of viewing the patterns and adjusting them. Check it out if you are into usability as well.

PatternCooler: Cool Seamless Background Pattern Designs for Blogs, MySpace, Twitter, Mobile Phone Wallpapers and Webdesign Projects

"We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist using technologies that haven't been invented in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."

via dotsub.com

Considerate Builder

via Ying

Usually I do not like it when there is too much ginger in a dish, somehow, I always feel there is a kind of soapy taste to it. The only exception to this is pickled ginger that is served along with sushi usually. I really like to snack on it. And even though it is probably easy to prepare, there is still a wide range of recipes out there (I filtered out the most fancy ones already).

Let's have a look at the suggested ingredients of various versions:

Ingredients
- Ginger:      100g         / 250g        / 100g        / 200g
- Salt:        1 teaspoons  / -           / 1 teaspoon  / 1 teaspoon 
- Sugar:       6 teaspoons  / 5 teaspoons / 6 teaspoons / 6 teaspoons
- Rice vinegar: 125 ml      / 90ml        / 125ml       / 100 ml
- Water:       60ml         / -           / 250ml       / - 

Good to know that Google can even convert the measurements tablespoon, teaspoon and cup. Looks like the amount of marinade is rather independent of the amount of ginger - just needs to be enough. Since there are some watered down versions, I guess it is ok to add water in case one needs more marinade.

1. Preparation:
- Pell the ginger
- Slice it into thin pieces

2. (optional ?)
- Cover with salt
- Leave it for 10 - 60min

3. Blanching
- Blanch the salted ginger for 30-60sec in boiling water

4. Mix
- Mix the vinegar with sugar and if applicable salt and water
- Stir till sugar has dissolved

5. Marinate
- Place the ginger and the marinade in a covered container for at least 1 - 48 hrs (let's just say one day)

6. Enjoy


I shall try the whole thing later tonight. Now I gotta get back to work.

While eating yesterday's sushi I noticed something weird on the lable:
...brewed and fermented according to IP Control Program?

What the heck does it have to do with
Internet Protocol?

Even googling was difficult, but apparently it has something to do with Identity Preservation which seems to be put in place due to genetically modified organisms.

Wonder if I should ramble about the ISO standards as well, cos they relate to the organisational structure of the whole process rather than to the recipe itself. Guess have to blame marketing about this list.

Anyway... finished all sushi, but feel like having more...