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November 27th, 2009
misscake
 | 03:12 pm
A little over four years ago, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) foldingstar and his boyfriend were visiting me and since they would not be here for Thanksgiving, I decided to make a "traditional" American Thanksgiving dinner for them. We had the usual dishes (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and veg), including what, for us, has become a holiday staple. We call it green jello, but it's really lime-flavored and has sour cream and bits of pineapple in it.
Honestly, it tastes much better than it sounds.
But, the point is that we had to explain to them how this dish was NOT traditional at all, but had become a traditional part of OUR our holiday menu (short story: my mother first made it back in the '70s when jello molds were the height of suburban cuisine -- everyone liked it and came to expect it and there you have it).
So, of course, we had it yesterday and I just had a little spoonful and it got me wondering: do you have any unique family dishes at your holiday table that might baffle other people?
In other news, Thanksgiving has been cleaned up and put away and the Christmas tree is up (but undecorated).
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v518/Danijo/merlin%20mood%20theme%20animated/curious.gif) curious
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politicalbet
| 07:33 pm - UPDATED: Sorry folks - We’ve been subject to an elaborate hoax
http://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/11/27/another-poll-does-not-support-ipsos-mori/ http://politicalbetting.com/?p=25389 CON ????
LAB ????
LD ????
OTHERS ?????
Only detail so far - “Tories 16% ahead”
According to the blog of the Independent’s political editor, Andrew Grice, there’s a Comres poll in his paper tomorrow that will have the Tories 16 percent ahead. That compares with the C39-L25-LD17 from the most recent survey from the firm where the fieldwork finished a fortnight ago. (HAT-tip Planetnokia)
So it looks as though ComRes is in the same broad area as PB’s exclusive Angus Reid poll on Monday that had a 17% lead.
What this means is that the only two full voting intention poll published since the Ipsos-MORI “Labour on six points behind” have both recorded increases in the Tory lead
This post will be updated as we get more details.
Mike Smithson
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politicalbet
| 06:26 pm - Stand by all you punters on northern seats
http://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/11/27/stand-by-all-you-punters-on-northern-seats/ http://politicalbetting.com/?p=25383 
Is Labour improving on the PH marginals poll?
Thanks to Wibbler on the previous thread for spotting this - which looks intriguing particularly because the last major marginals poll that had a lot of detail from the north, the PoliticsHome one in September, showed a disproportionate move from Labour to the Tories.
It had LAB>CON swings of around the 10% mark in the North-West, West Yorkshire and the North-East and suggested that at least 31 seats could change hands.
It’s trying to work out what Brogan means by “fascinating”.
The other big issue, of course is to see whether the Ipsos-MORI poll with the Tory lead reduced to six points is being supported by others surveys. PB’s Angus Reid poll on Monday suggested that it wasn’t - what will YouGov have to say?
Mike Smithson
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googleblog
| 10:34 am - This week in search 11/27/09
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/c8gN_AFWJ4o/this-week-in-search-112709.html This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
This Thanksgiving week, and just in time for the holiday season, we give thanks to you, our users, with two new search features.
Holiday Interfaces
Last Friday, we started showing off our seasonal spirit with holiday-themed result pages. For the weeks surrounding various holidays in late November and December, results for seasonal queries will be adorned with decorative dividers. Try searching eid-ul-adha sometime in the next week, and your results will be separated from right-hand ads by a chain of crescent moons. In a few weeks, a search for [hanukkah lights] or [christmas trees] will also result in delightful holiday-themed pages. Put a cuddly knit sweater on your browser when you search!
Mobile Movie Results
For those of you who who plan to head to the movies this week, we've launched a mobile version of Google Search results for movies, making it even easier to find the latest holiday blockbuster playing in your area. From the web browser on your iPhone, Palm WebOS, or Android-powered device, simply search for [movies], and then tap on the "More movies" link. From there, you can either browse a list of movies or select the "Theaters" button to view a list of the ones near you.
With the added functionality to play trailers right on your phone, access movie ratings, find the closest theatre, and view upcoming showtimes, this new search feature is sure to make entertainment options on the go much easier. Here's a 1.25-minute video about it:
Hope you enjoy these new features. Stay tuned for more next week!
Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow
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playthisthing
| 06:07 pm - Life
http://playthisthing.com/life Rohrer's Passage has always polarized gamers; either you appreciated its attempt to elevate the medium past primal urges or you thought it was pretentious fluff. Developer Lurk falls into the latter camp, and did the most indie thing you could do in response: make a parody game poking fun at it. While Rohrer's piece is heartfelt and earnest, Lurk's anti-Passage is absurd and nihilistic -- and elicits a chuckle or two as well. While he claims that games can never be art he inexplicably made a game that would qualify as such, albeit in a satirical Dadaist sort of way. If you've ever participated in one of those "iz gaimz aart" arguments in a forum (or here!) you'll get a chuckle from this.
Kierkegaard and Nietzsche would have loved this. You play as a nondescript little dude that flails his arms and legs about -- tweaking out I presume -- and maneuver him through a bleak and bizarre landscape. There are women NPCs in this game, but unlike Passage these chicks will run away from you if you approach them. Keys and familiar chests are present, but they blip in and out of existence at random. Because of this you'll invariably be lead on many a wild goose chase before tracking one down. When you do you might pick up some cash... but those previously indifferent floozies will swoop down upon you and steal it. You'll get some action, though. All throughout a prick in a suit spouts mindless prattle like "I don't usually do" and subliminal pictures of toothpaste ads and nuclear explosions flash on the screen. As the game progresses the top and bottom walls close in on you; eventually you'll get squished and the game ends. And if you're like me you'll smile.
As a satire on life it's great, and it works well as a counter-point to Passage too. Lurk made Life ironically and it reflects his view of Rohrer's game, namely pointless with minimal interaction. I don't agree with the man, but I gotta give kudos for the lulz.
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wickedchops
| 06:35 pm - Evelyn Ng Has Given Up Smoking
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WickedChopsPoker/~3/HJuzvpFfaQE/ http://wickedchopspoker.com/?p=7190
Watch Evelyn Ng Quits Smoking And Spends Time With Lex on RawVegas.tv In her latest vlog, Evelyn Ng tells us she’s finally taken steps to quit smoking.
To this we said, “Evelyn Ng smoked?”
We’ve talked to Evy many times. Most smokers we know have smoker’s breath. Typically pretty rancid. Evy did not. Perhaps her shits smell like roses too.
She also says that her boyfriend, Lex “Evy’s Boyfriend” Velduis was on High Stakes Poker in what should be an “interesting” broadcast.
No related posts found
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pokerati
| 05:50 pm - Confirmed: UIGEA Delayed until June 1, 2010
http://pokerati.com/2009/11/27/confirmed-uigea-delayed-until-june-1-2010/ http://pokerati.com/?p=13882 From the Federal Reserve and US Treasury:
Agencies Extend Compliance Date for Final Rule to Implement Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
The Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced the release of a joint final rule to extend the compliance date for their joint regulation implementing certain provisions of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act by six months to June 1, 2010.
Related Posts
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pokerati
| 05:43 pm - Donald Trump bets and Andy Beal raises.
http://pokerati.com/2009/11/27/donald-trump-bets-and-andy-beal-raises/ http://pokerati.com/?p=13885 An Atlantic City newspaper reported that Donald Trump and Andy Beal are battling for control of three Trump Casinos. I have to admit if I had the chance to rail bird this match live, I’d be wearing my “Go Andy Beal” T-shirt and maybe a great big button of his face, too.
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pokerati
| 05:09 pm - Passport Poker
http://pokerati.com/2009/11/27/passport-poker/ http://pokerati.com/?p=13861 I like PokerNews’ globetrotting on-camera chick Gloria Balding’s Top 5 thingies …
This go-round she tackles some of the challenges of international travel that are unique to poker players jetsetting into and out of action … and specifically the need for a good poker face when moving through Customs.
Related Posts
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motris
 | 08:48 am - No Friday Puzzle #25! Really?
Over this holiday weekend, I thought I would take a break from the usual Friday puzzle and instead reflect on the many things I am thankful for this year and make way for the things to come in the next.
I'm thankful for the New York Times for adding the somewhat popular logic puzzle Sudoku to their newspaper this year, which inspired me to new heights of puzzle construction.
I'm thankful for this past year's MIT Mystery Hunt, where after a longer time than expected people finally got to escape from Cambridge and return to the real world. Despite its flaws, it had a lot of phenomenal puzzles and allowed me to construct and solve with so many cool friends.
( Read more... )
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amnewsboy
 | 10:29 am - Friday TPiRness: Hot Guys From The Price Is Right
It's all about the bonuses this week - including a couple from Family Feud!
Poll #1491124
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13
Current Mood: flirty
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bateleur
 | 04:20 pm - Wave So Far
So, various milestones passed:
[X] Started checking Wave every day.
[X] Used Wave for a conversation that's not just about testing Wave.
[X] Seen real-time editing taking place (although zandev tells me it made his machine very sad).
[X] Managed to stop using the thing like forum software.
On the flipside, various problems still remain:
[ ] "Copy Wave" copies only a Blip, not the whole Wavelet. I want to copy Wavelets.
[ ] The system for showing unread content needs to integrate better with playback so you can watch changes to the Wave since you last visited it change by change.
[ ] More access control features are needed. Any participant being able to add anyone they like is not always appropriate.
I also haven't tried writing any gadgets or bots yet, but there are already some promising ones in development. For example: Fighty!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://heffalumps.org/usr/dom/lj_mood/ok.gif) working
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politicalbet
| 02:44 pm - Has Johnson made the wrong decision over Gary?
http://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/11/27/has-johnson-made-the-wrong-decision-over-gary/ http://politicalbetting.com/?p=25374 
BBC News
Could there be an electoral price to pay?
If the Radio 5Live phone in that I was listening to this morning is anything to go by then home secretary and former Labour leadership favourite, Alan Johnson, has provoked a mass of anger over his decision to allow the extradition to the US of hacker, Gary McKinnon.
He’s the man with Asperger’s syndrome, who is accused of breaking into US military computers in his search for evidence of UFOs.
Johnson’s problem is the new extradition arrangement with the US which at the time of it going through was seen as very one-sided.
Gary’s lawyers are looking at other avenues to stop the extradition taking place and whichever way that goes it’s now become a lose-lose situation for the home secretary. If Gary goes then Johnson is to blame - if the legal moves to prevent it succeed then Johnson looks foolish.
You can now bet on whether this is going to happen. The issue of whether McKinnon goes or stays is one of a number of political markets that a new betting exchange, Matchbet, is opening up.
Another is on whether Tory communications boss, Andy Coulson, will survive following the industrial tribunal case that has awarded one of his ex-reporters at the News of the World, nearly £800,000 in damages for bullying.
I think that Gary’s prospects are bleak but that Coulson will survive.
Mike Smithson
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googleblog
| 09:25 am - The new Black (Friday)
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/5Tr80Ai3cSQ/new-black-friday.html The traditional kick-off to the holiday shopping season, Black Friday, has arrived. If you're anything like us, you'll be seeking out the newest, coolest products and best deals today as you make those special holiday purchases.
Using Insights for Search, we took a look at some of the holiday gifts that were most searched for this year: Zhu Zhu Pets, Nerf N Strike, Mindflex and the "Twilight" soundtrack were at the top of kids' wishlists, while netbooks, mini notebook computers and mp3 players will (hopefully) fill our "bigger" stockings.
But it's not just about keeping up with the latest and greatest this holiday. The Internet can be a great holiday shopping resource, making it easy not only to find information on the hottest items for this year's holiday shopping season, but also to track down the best prices for those items. You can see this as holiday shoppers are searching more than ever for deals online. Search terms like coupons, promo codes, free shipping and black friday sales have all increased recently. And, as more people turn to their mobile devices to search for deals, coupons are now also available on the go.
In recent years, we've also seen the proliferation of websites dedicated to Black Friday deals — these sites saw a 21% increase in visits during the week of Thanksgiving last year. You can find these sites easily with a search on Google for [black friday sites].
Retailers are increasingly responding to these deal-seeking shoppers. In fact, 60% of retailers report that they are increasing their promotional efforts during this holiday shopping season.* JCPenney, for example, is already promoting their 4 a.m. doorbuster sales and even offering wake-up calls from Cindy Crawford, Rascal Flatts and Kimora Lee Simmons to ensure we don't sleep through the savings. We also love their YouTube homepage ad today, and hope that it encourages some happy holiday purchases (and keeps some significant others out of the proverbial doghouse).
And in-store sales are not the only places to save this year. Many of us will opt out of crowded malls in favor of cuddling up to our laptops, and retailers are taking their sales to the web during this traditionally in-store focused weekend. In fact, 40% of retailers are increasing free shipping offers during this holiday shopping season* — so watch for those deals both in-store and online!
If you're interested in reading more about the holiday shopping season, including what shrewd retailers are doing and how you can take advantage of the same, check out the Google Retail Blog for insights from the Retail industry team.
Now after all this talk of shopping, it's time to get started!
* OTX/Google 2009 Holiday Retailer Survey, May 2009. (Q20) Which of the following advertising tactics has your company used or does your company plan to use in 2009? n=600
Posted by John Mcateer, Managing Director, U.S. Sales 
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xkcd_rss
| 05:00 am - Christmas delivery from the xkcd store
http://store.xkcd.com/ Hey! A note to anyone interested in buying Christmas gifts from the xkcd store: the deadline for Christmas delivery of domestic orders is December 14th. We'll continue to ship after that, but won't guarantee by-Christmas delivery. (If you haven't been to the xkcd store lately, you might want to check it out. I've got some some new stuff there!)
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peterbirks
 | 11:20 am
Well, I was going to write something about Dubai, Mohamed Al Makhtoum (who, you might be interested to know, did not take too kindly to journalistic enquiries a few weeks ago about how solid were the finances of DubaI) and what a pile of mess it all was, but I suspect that this matter has some way to run, so I'll leave it for the moment.
Except... this is an interesting example of how the markets can sometimes work well. Unlike politicians, or newspapers, the markets have no moral compass and no hidden agenda. This might appear to be a bad thing and, in some cases, it may well be just that. But in this instance, it's a good thing. While the UK government fiddled the rules with Saudi Arabia and BAE for what were called "economic" reasons, in this case the economic forces have shown the UAE, Abu Dhabi and Dubai that you can't treat the markets like you treat visiting politicians or your subjects. Fuck around with the markets, and they will fuck you back, and they are a lot bigger than you are and they don't give a shit about Abu Dhabi's oil (they just go short or long on that as well, and make the money back that way!)
Al-Makhtoum is today getting a lesson in just that, with credit spreads on Dubai debt now wider than Iceland's. Expect a tail-between-legs pull back in the not-too-distant future.
+++++++++++++++++++
ANCESTRY
I finally got around to doing a short bit of genealogical research yesterday. A sort of Birks "Who Do You Think You Are?" and, in line with that TV programme, it threw up some interesting facts in just an hour's work.
Putting the 1911 census online was the thing that made it easy for me, because I knew the name of an uncle and an aunt on my father's side, who were born in the first decade of the last century. I found them, and thus found my grandfather and grandmother (Harry and Beatrice, it transpires) and the address in Crewe (Goddard Street, still there, although the house is long gone). By a stroke of luck, the mother in law was living there as well in 1911, which gave me a great grandmother on that side, as well as another surname (the rather tedious "Wood").
I knew that my grandfather had worked in Crewe's railway manufacturing industry, but I hadn't known that he came originally from Middlesbrough. My maternal grandmother, meanwhile, was born in Shropshire.
But more interesting facts emerged on my mother's side. Here the hunt fixed on an address that I had. Once again, by a stroke of luck, this threw out the names of not just my maternal grandmother (who died in the late 1940s) but also my great-grandfather and great-grandmother on that side.
It's that great-grandfather -- Alfred James Starkey, born 1853, who is the real bit of interest. He was born either in "London Lukes" (a parish near Old Street, where I work now) or in Bethnal Green -- the records differ, but are not necessarily contradictory. This gives me the satisfaction of putting my heritage back within London as far as the mid-19th century, although unhappily it is north of the river!
Even more of a black mark on my name is his job -- London City Missionary. Yep, my great-grandfather was an urban evangelist.
The London City Missionary movement started in Hoxton in 1835 -- you can read about it on Google.
My great-grandfather was eventually assigned to an area just south of the Elephant and Castle, where he would go from door-to-door spreading the Word Of The Lord. His wife's family had money and a property off the Camberwell New Road -- it was they who bought the two houses in Handforth Road, in one of which my great grandfather and great grandmother lived (I was brought up in a part of the other house). If I were minded, some research of earlier censuses could, indeed should, produce information on the previous generations, both in Bethnal Green and in Camberwell.
Anyhoo, Alfred James Starkey was one of the people interviewed by the Salvation Army in its survey of London at the turn of the century, and the originals of that interview are still available in the Charles Booth Archive in the London School of Economics. These interviews (the map and the sociological classification of London at the time is particularly interesting) often had descriptions of the interviewee, as well as details of what they said.
But what is interesting is the surname. While "Birks" can trace its English heritage back to Yorkshire in the 16th century and quite probably some way beyond, "Starkey" is a Jewish name, and Bethnal Green is old working-class Jewish territory. And yet Alfred James Starkey was a Christian evangelist. Odd indeed. Did his parents convert? Did HE convert? Aftwer all, the London City Mission was Hoxton-based and it was there that they started their hard evangelical work. My curiosity is piqued.
Of course, details of one's own family tree are a bit like holiday photos -- of far greater interest to oneself than to other people. But I did find all of this stuff fascinating, and it was incredible how much information I managed to garner, from the few facts that I knew, in such a short time. Good old interweb!
_________________
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nmg
 | 10:02 am - Dealing with critical reviews
Yet another Downfall parody, this time on the travails of academic publishing.
(shamelessly pinched from lionsphil)
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