From Newton to crouton: the science of cooking

Mon, 05/08/2017 - 21:03

Most people who cook take a practical approach: watching to see when a sauce thickens up, when bread rises perfectly and how long it takes to scramble eggs. We learn by trial and error, from each other and from recipe books. But how many of us know what is really going on when we cook, in scientific terms? Some famous chefs, most notably Ferrán Adria of top restaurant El Bulli and Heston Blumenthal, have taken a scientific approach to cooking, turning the kitchen into a laboratory and producing some novel and astonishing results.

New kid on the block: Minecraft Code Builder

Wed, 05/03/2017 - 18:20

Minecraft is a fun, blocky, Lego-like virtual environment in which to build anything you want, or play as a survival game. Each procedurally-generated world is a unique place to explore, mine for materials, and acquire ever more sophisticated tools. The catchy combination of immersive reality and alchemy has had child and adult geeks hooked since its first release in 2009.

Welcome to the All You Can Eat Coding Buffet

Mon, 04/24/2017 - 20:02

Still paying piecemeal for your coding classes? Locked into a long academic IT course? Get with it. A new style of pay-once-and-study-all-you-want training offer has hit the web, and here we’ll look at two examples that cost just $50 for a lifetime subscription. Welcome to the All You Can Eat Coding Buffet where you can come in any time you like and snack to your heart’s content, then come back again and again, all for a one-time payment of $50.

How to avoid event planning nightmares

Tue, 04/18/2017 - 22:01

Events make the modern world go round. Corporate awards ceremonies, annual parties, charity fundraising events, concerts, school fetes, weddings, political rallies, sports events, product launches, exhibitions and conferences all need someone to organise them. Bars don’t just pop up out of nowhere, performers don’t turn up randomly and play for free, food doesn’t materialise out of thin air. At large events, professional management companies organise every facet and ensure it all goes smoothly.

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Most Read

  • To think big, we must think small
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    If we really want the cool stuff we see in Science Fiction Movies, we are going to have to train more people in nanotechnology: the manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular and supramolecular scale. We’ve already got graphene, bendy screens, hydrophobic coatings and bandages infused with silver nanoparticles to help heal wounds faster. Those are cool. But where is Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak? Where are the sci-fi chairs that grow out of the floor and disappear when you stand up?

     

  • A chip on your shoulder: wearable tech
    A chip on your shoulder: wearable tech
    Creative / 08 Apr 16

    In 2010, Katy Perry walked into the MET Costume Institute Gala wearing a dress that constantly changed colour. 3000 shimmering LEDs created the effect, with Perry lighting up like a rainbow in the couture dress designed by wearable tech company CuteCircuit. Back in 2009, Sony Ericsson and the London College of Fashion ran a contest to design digital clothing, and the winner was a Bluetooth-enabled cocktail dress that lit up when a call was received.

     

  • Would you like flies with that? Food safety training
    Would you like flies with that? Food safety training
    Business / 22 Aug 16

    When we go into a restaurant, we put our trust in its staff to give us food that’s in tip-top shape. Our health and happiness depend on procedures like maintaining the cold chain, cleaning surfaces, sterilizing utensils, checking cooking temperatures and a lot of other details that can make the difference between healthy and dangerous. A chef can kill a customer with a bad scallop, and even if everything is impeccably clean, you can still kill an allergy sufferer with a fragment of peanut. Hence the need for a tightly-regulated catering industry.

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    The macros function within Excel is such a powerful feature that only the initiated can handle it. You are ready to enter the realm of Excel macros when you are a confident and experienced use of Excel and comfortable creating formulas and manipulating spreadsheet data. A little experience in Visual Basic won’t go amiss, either. You will have mastered most of the functions that come as standard with Excel and be ready to create your own.

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    If you are into comic books, it can seem that their creators are so far beyond the rest of us in skill and imagination that only they have the divine right to produce comic books. The fantastic epics that roll off the presses and into comic book stores seem to be born in another realm to which mere mortals have no access. Yet if you stop to think about it, those people had to start somewhere and were once shaky novices producing forgettable work.

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