********** MUSIC **********
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The Best Albums of 2024
Mon, 02 Dec 2024 11:00:00 +0000
It’s possible that I listened to more music this year than any other. I lost interest in podcasts. I lost interest in silence. There was too much extraordinary work out there.
Match ID: 0 Score: 15.00 source: www.newyorker.com age: 1 day
qualifiers: 15.00 (best|great) album(|s)
Filter efficiency 99.892 (1 matches/928 results)
********** XKCD **********
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Second Stage
Match ID: 0 Score: 1000.00 source: xkcd.com
qualifiers: 1000.00 xkcd
Neutrino Modem
Match ID: 1 Score: 1000.00 source: xkcd.com
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Cold Air
Match ID: 2 Score: 1000.00 source: xkcd.com
qualifiers: 1000.00 xkcd
Advent Calendar Advent Calendar
Match ID: 3 Score: 1000.00 source: xkcd.com
qualifiers: 1000.00 xkcd
Filter efficiency 99.569 (4 matches/928 results)
********** FOOD **********
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Eleven children worked on Iowa pork plant’s ‘kill floor’, US labor officials say
Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:41:32 GMT
Federal investigators find children working at Sioux Falls meat processing plant for second time
Nearly a dozen children were working shifts cleaning meat processing equipment used at an Iowa pork plant’s so-called kill floor over a four-year period, the US department of labor announced.
Eleven children were using corrosive chemicals to clean as well as perilous “head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment” at a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, according to officials. This is the second time federal investigators have found children working at that particular Sioux Falls meat processing plant.
Continue reading...A caramelised cauliflower encased in pastry and served with a silky, cheesy sauce
A wellington makes a great centrepiece for a celebration. This one, in which the more traditional beef is swapped for a whole cauliflower, is the stuff of golden, buttery, flaky pastry fantasies. Roasting the cauliflower first, until it’s browned and a little caramelised, only adds to its delicious flavour. Serve with ladlefuls of the silky cheese sauce, and the carnivores are bound to have food envy.
Continue reading...A boldly flavoured traditional Christmas side that’s always a winner when paired with richer meats
Braised red cabbage is a relatively recent addition to my Christmas dinner, a contribution from the Scottish branch of the family, though I can’t find evidence it’s any more common in Scotland. Sweet and sour and festively spiced, it’s a long-standing favourite with richer meats such as goose, duck or pork, but, truth be told, its bold flavour makes it a hit on most winter menus.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Campaigners say company’s apparent abandoning of 2030 pledge is a ‘masterclass in greenwashing’
Coca-Cola has been accused of quietly abandoning a pledge to achieve a 25% reusable packaging target by 2030 in what campaigners call a “masterclass in greenwashing”.
The company has been previously found by researchers to be among the world’s most polluting brands when it comes to plastic waste.
Continue reading...This classic supper is full of sophisticated flavours but is actually really easy to make
A quick fish and potato supper that tastes like it required more effort.
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Bring a pan of water to the boil and salt it generously. Wash 350g of small potatoes, then cut them in half. Cook them in the boiling water for 15 minutes, then drain.
Continue reading...Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy report finds trade flows have shown no signs of returning to previous levels
Exports of British food to the EU have dropped by nearly £3bn a year since Brexit, a trade thinktank has said, with new physical and documentary checks at the border complicating trade.
A report by the Centre of Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP) has found that the export of UK food and agricultural products to the EU has fallen by more than 16% on average across the three years since Britain left the single market, when compared with the three years before the exit.
Continue reading...Need a generic but thoughtful gift? Here’s our inspiring list of affordable, and often useful, failsafe presents we buy time and again
We’ve all been there: royally stumped for a present for someone, be it a newly acquired father-in-law whose taste you don’t yet know, or a birthday you’d forgotten about. That’s when you reach for your fail-safes – the gifts you’ve bought time and again because, well, they’re a winner every time.
From a kids’ game and a box of iced biscuits to rejuvenating bath foam and a box of charity teabags, these presents have all been gratefully received by their recipients, over and over.
Continue reading...Actor and comedian Diane Morgan joins Grace for another helping of Comfort Eating. Diane is best known for playing mockumentary historian Philomena Cunk, droll antihero Liz in the critically acclaimed BBC sitcom Motherland, and Mandy in … Mandy. Diane reveals how she keeps a straight face when asking world experts very silly questions, why she was sacked from her waitressing job, and what happened when she tried to introduce hugging to the Morgan family.
If you liked this episode then have a listen to Grace’s conversations with Aisling Bea, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, and Jamie Demetriou
New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday
Continue reading...Tommy Banks urges those who stole van packed with 2,500 pies to ‘do the right thing’ so food can go to people in need
A Michelin-starred chef has appealed to thieves who stole his van which had 2,500 pies inside to “do the right thing” and give them to people in need.
Tommy Banks, who owns two restaurants and a pub in North Yorkshire, announced on Instagram that his van carrying £25,000 worth of stock had been taken. The refrigerated vehicle was due to make a delivery to the chef’s pop-up pie stall at York Christmas Market, but staff found it had disappeared from Barker business park in Melmerby, near Ripon, on Monday morning.
Continue reading...By drawing attention to the troubling behaviour of a male celebrity, Kirsty Wark recalls the spirit of #MeToo
Famous men should not take advantage of their status to engage in sexually inappropriate behaviour, or make explicit remarks, at work. If and when this happens, their bosses should ensure that it is stopped. This might seem obvious. But in an interview for BBC News last week, Kirsty Wark, the former Newsnight host, described how when she was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef in 2011, she complained to the production company about the show’s co-presenter Gregg Wallace. She thought a sexualised monologue he delivered early one morning on set was so ill-judged that it made her angry, and worried that staff on short-term contracts would not feel able to object.
BBC News also heard from 12 other people making various allegations. That it has taken so many years for these claims to emerge strongly suggests that the impunity enjoyed by celebrities is an ongoing cultural problem in the media industry. Mr Wallace has apologised for a video made at the weekend, in which he suggested the complaints against him came from “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”. He is cooperating with an investigation by MasterChef’s production company, Banijay UK.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Readers respond to an impassioned plea for understanding by Clare Wise after the government made farms subject to inheritance tax
Clare Wise’s emotional representation of the family farm offers an excellent insight into the importance of maintaining generational continuity (My family has grown Britain’s food for 140 years. Here’s what politicians don’t understand about farming, 27 November). She rightly condemns the potentially devastating effects that inheritance tax (IHT) on farmland will have on many family farms. Enforced sales will accelerate the break-up and loss of smaller and medium-sized farms, favouring accumulation of land owned as investments and for tax avoidance.
I support IHT and other forms of tax on wealthy estates, investment properties and farmland sold off for development. But this tax is misplaced, introduced without due consultation and pays no attention to the effects it will have on many farming families who will be unable to afford to pay it from farm income. The government needs to listen to the many voices of protest and have the courage to review this tax.
Continue reading...From actor Stephen Graham on his childhood heroes to the best Christmas gifts for foodies: the best original photographs from the Observer commissioned in November 2024
Continue reading...From alcohol-free prosecco to dealcoholised wine, here are our top picks for no-booze bubbles with plenty of sparkle
Party season is around the corner, but that doesn’t have to mean overdoing the booze until we try to undo the excesses in Dry January.
If you’re avoiding alcohol, there are plenty of good alternatives to sparkling wine that still feel celebratory and make that great sound when you pop the cork. And, for once, we can toast to “our good health” and actually mean it.
Continue reading...Draconian new laws allow mass incarceration of women and children forced to beg because of work ban
Destitute Afghan women arrested for begging under draconian new Taliban laws have spoken of “brutal” rapes and beatings in detention.
Over the past few months, many women said they had been targeted by Taliban officials and detained under anti-begging laws passed this year. While in prison, they claim they were subjected to sexual abuse, torture and forced labour, and witnessed children being beaten and abused.
Continue reading...Australia’s children account for a tiny portion of users but tech companies worry about the law setting a precedent
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Happy belated Thanksgiving to my American readers, and I hope everyone enjoys a good holiday party this weekend. I’m excited to bake Grittibänz for the Feast of St Nicholas. This week in tech: Australia incites a panic, Bluesky poses the question of custom feeds, and the online things that brought me joy on holiday.
If every country in the world boots its young people from social media, social media companies would face an uncertain future
Continue reading...Biden said that the truce could be a prelude to a ceasefire in Gaza. Netanyahu’s actions seem to indicate otherwise.
The post Israel Agrees to Stop Bombing Lebanon — So It Can Keep Bombing Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas
Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.
Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.
Continue reading...From spices to seeds, coffee to candles, we opened the doors of some of this year’s more inventive countdown-to-Christmas offerings – with varying results
Advent calendars filled with everything from beauty products to chocolate, Lego to tea, are as much a staple in the run-up to Christmas as drinking too much and listening to Last Christmas for the 1,237th time.
So, we’ve sniffed, tasted and drunk our way through 12 of them, rating them by their contents, value for money, sustainability and festive factor. And for those who want to swerve products altogether, we’ve rounded up the most beautiful, feelgood paper Advent calendars we could find.
Continue reading...Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday
Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you
Continue reading... |
Imagine a world in which you can do transactions and many other things without having to give your personal information. A world in which you don’t need to rely on banks or governments anymore. Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what blockchain technology allows us to do.
It’s like your computer’s hard drive. blockchain is a technology that lets you store data in digital blocks, which are connected together like links in a chain.
Blockchain technology was originally invented in 1991 by two mathematicians, Stuart Haber and W. Scot Stornetta. They first proposed the system to ensure that timestamps could not be tampered with.
A few years later, in 1998, software developer Nick Szabo proposed using a similar kind of technology to secure a digital payments system he called “Bit Gold.” However, this innovation was not adopted until Satoshi Nakamoto claimed to have invented the first Blockchain and Bitcoin.
A blockchain is a distributed database shared between the nodes of a computer network. It saves information in digital format. Many people first heard of blockchain technology when they started to look up information about bitcoin.
Blockchain is used in cryptocurrency systems to ensure secure, decentralized records of transactions.
Blockchain allowed people to guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data without the need for a third party to ensure accuracy.
To understand how a blockchain works, Consider these basic steps:
Let’s get to know more about the blockchain.
Blockchain records digital information and distributes it across the network without changing it. The information is distributed among many users and stored in an immutable, permanent ledger that can't be changed or destroyed. That's why blockchain is also called "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT.
Here’s how it works:
And that’s the beauty of it! The process may seem complicated, but it’s done in minutes with modern technology. And because technology is advancing rapidly, I expect things to move even more quickly than ever.
Even though blockchain is integral to cryptocurrency, it has other applications. For example, blockchain can be used for storing reliable data about transactions. Many people confuse blockchain with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
Blockchain already being adopted by some big-name companies, such as Walmart, AIG, Siemens, Pfizer, and Unilever. For example, IBM's Food Trust uses blockchain to track food's journey before reaching its final destination.
Although some of you may consider this practice excessive, food suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the policy of tracing their products because bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella have been found in packaged foods. In addition, there have been isolated cases where dangerous allergens such as peanuts have accidentally been introduced into certain products.
Tracing and identifying the sources of an outbreak is a challenging task that can take months or years. Thanks to the Blockchain, however, companies now know exactly where their food has been—so they can trace its location and prevent future outbreaks.
Blockchain technology allows systems to react much faster in the event of a hazard. It also has many other uses in the modern world.
Blockchain technology is safe, even if it’s public. People can access the technology using an internet connection.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had all your data stored at one place and that one secure place got compromised? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to prevent your data from leaking out even when the security of your storage systems is compromised?
Blockchain technology provides a way of avoiding this situation by using multiple computers at different locations to store information about transactions. If one computer experiences problems with a transaction, it will not affect the other nodes.
Instead, other nodes will use the correct information to cross-reference your incorrect node. This is called “Decentralization,” meaning all the information is stored in multiple places.
Blockchain guarantees your data's authenticity—not just its accuracy, but also its irreversibility. It can also be used to store data that are difficult to register, like legal contracts, state identifications, or a company's product inventory.
Blockchain has many advantages and disadvantages.
I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about blockchain in this section.
Blockchain is not a cryptocurrency but a technology that makes cryptocurrencies possible. It's a digital ledger that records every transaction seamlessly.
Yes, blockchain can be theoretically hacked, but it is a complicated task to be achieved. A network of users constantly reviews it, which makes hacking the blockchain difficult.
Coinbase Global is currently the biggest blockchain company in the world. The company runs a commendable infrastructure, services, and technology for the digital currency economy.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It’s a chain of distributed ledgers connected with nodes. Each node can be any electronic device. Thus, one owns blockhain.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is powered by Blockchain technology while Blockchain is a distributed ledger of cryptocurrency
Generally a database is a collection of data which can be stored and organized using a database management system. The people who have access to the database can view or edit the information stored there. The client-server network architecture is used to implement databases. whereas a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, stored in a distributed system. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, timestamp and transaction information. Modification of data is not allowed due to the design of the blockchain. The technology allows decentralized control and eliminates risks of data modification by other parties.
Blockchain has a wide spectrum of applications and, over the next 5-10 years, we will likely see it being integrated into all sorts of industries. From finance to healthcare, blockchain could revolutionize the way we store and share data. Although there is some hesitation to adopt blockchain systems right now, that won't be the case in 2022-2023 (and even less so in 2026). Once people become more comfortable with the technology and understand how it can work for them, owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs alike will be quick to leverage blockchain technology for their own gain. Hope you like this article if you have any question let me know in the comments section
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