#by making purchasing locally produced goods

[beardedmrbean]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Friday to reinstate tariffs on solar panel imports from several Southeast Asian countries after President Joe Biden paused them in a bid to boost solar panel installations in the U.S., a key part of his climate agenda.

The 221-202 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where lawmakers from both parties have expressed similar concerns about what many call unfair competition from China. Biden has vowed to veto the measure if it reaches his desk.

The House vote would overturn Biden's action last year pausing threatened tariffs that had led to delays or cancellations of hundreds of solar projects across the United States.

Some U.S. manufacturers contend that China has essentially moved operations to four Southeast Asian countries — Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia — to skirt strict anti-dumping rules that limit imports from China.

A Commerce Department inquiry last year found likely trade violations involving Chinese products. Biden halted the tariffs for two years before the Commerce investigation was completed, saying he was responding to an emergency that threatened the availability of electric power to meet demands from U.S. homes and businesses.

Before Biden acted, the threat of tariffs from the Commerce Department inquiry had led to delays or cancellations of hundreds of solar projects in the U.S. as investors moved to protect themselves against potential penalties as high as $1 billion that could be imposed retroactively.

The U.S. industry argues that imports of solar panels are needed as solar installations ramp up to meet increased demand for renewable energy. Solar power is a key part of Biden’s goal to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Missouri, said Friday that restoring the tariffs would hold China accountable while protecting U.S. jobs and workers. Tariffs would protect American manufacturers who are facing unfair competition from China, which is subsidizing its products and selling them at low prices, Smith said.

"These trade abuses are well-known to all of us in this chamber,'' said Smith, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

“By shipping its products through Cambodia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, (Chinese officials) have set up a scheme that cheats American workers and consumers,'' Smith said. “We know there's wrongdoing going on. We know China is cheating, and that's precisely why members of both parties were stunned and disappointed when the White House made the misguided decision'' to halt the tariffs for two years.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said the House action would “punish U.S. workers” and the solar industry "and set us back on our climate goals.''

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said the two-year pause was “not a perfect solution,'' but offered “a short-term bridge" as the U.S. solar industry moves to produce more solar panels at home.

The White House said Biden’s action boosted an industry crucial to his climate change-fighting goals while not interfering with or shutting down the Commerce investigation.

[felinefractious]

I'm looking to get a purebred cat (scottish straight) for the first time and I'm worried about getting the perfect one from a good breeder who will have a long, healthy life. Do you have any tips or advice or questions to ask the breeder to make sure I get a good one? I'm not ready to pay what some breeders are asking for but I also don't want to end up with an improperly or unethically bred cat. I don't think I'll get scammed since I'm pretty good at identifying scottish cats and you can see when there are folds in the litter, but everything else worries me a little. Thanks!

This is not a breed which can be ethically purchased.

Unless you find a breeder who produces only straights, which I have yet to see, you will be financially supporting an individual who willingly produces cat destined to suffer. Your cat may be fine but his siblings would only know a life of pain.

The characteristic folded ears of the Scottish Fold are due to weak cartilage, but cartilage is found throughout the body and not just in the ears. The gene which effects the ears is not localized to that body part, the cartilage throughout the body is impacted.

Folds suffer from debilitating arthritis from a young age.

This condition is called osteochondrodysplasia and is well documented and understood in the breed. This isn’t a theory or speculation, we know it is universally present in cats with the folded ear phenotype and why. It cannot be avoided or bred out.

A Dominant TRPV4 Variant Underlies Osteochondrodysplasia in Scottish Fold Cats

Combined Surgical, Radiation and Medical Therapies for Osteochondrodysplasia in a Scottish Fold Cat

Incomplete Dominant Osteochondrodysplasia in Heterozygous Scottish Fold Cats

Osteochondrodysplasia in Felis catus (Domestic Cat)

Radiographical Survey of Osteochondrodysplasia in Scottish Fold Cats caused by TRPV4 Gene Variant

Scottish Fold Cats

Scottish Fold Disease - Osteochondrodysplasia

Scottish Fold Osteochondrodysplasia

I strongly recommend you reconsider your choice in breed.

The American Shorthair and British Shorthair have a similar phenotype and temperament and can be ethically bred and purchased.

[najia-cooks]

[ID: One puffy circle of bread, and three which have been halved to show an internal pocket, on a striped blue and white kitchen towel. End ID]

خبز الكماج / Khubiz al-kmaj (Palestinian flatbread)

Khubiz al-kmaj is a thin flatbread with an internal pocket. It is commonly eaten with breakfast to scoop up dips such as hummus, used to eat stews, served alongside main dishes, and used to make sandwiches and to wrap falafel. "خُبْز," pronounced "khubz" or (in Levantine varieties of Arabic) "khubiz," comes from the root خ ب ز (kh-b-z), which also produces the word "خَبَزَ" "khabaza" (Levantine: "خَبَز" "khabaz"), "to bake."‎

This bread is eaten across the Levant and in Greece, with slight differences in terminology and style. It is variously called "خُبْز العَرَبِيّ" (khubz al-'arabiyy; Arabian bread), "خُبْز "البَلَدِيّ (khubz al-baladiyy; bread from my country), or (occasionally) "خُبْز البيتة" or "البيتا" (khubz al-bita), a borrowing from "pita." ("Pita" itself is perhaps from Greek "πίτα" "pita," or the modern Hebrew "פיתה.") The bread is referred to as "khubiz al-kmaj" in Palestine, from the Turkic "kömeç" / كُمَجْ‎ ("bread baked in ashes"). The collective term for the bread in general is كماج (kmāj); each individual piece of bread is referred to with the singulative "كماجة‎" (kmāja).

Today, kmaj is frequently made with white flour; some people add olive oil or milk powder to ensure a very soft dough. Leila el-Haddad writes that a more traditional method omits milk and uses whole white spring wheat, a whiteish wheat grain harvested in late spring and ground without removing the bran.

Since the late 20th century, many Palestinian households have used an electric cooker (طنجرة الكهرباء; ṭanjara al-kahrabā') to cook kmaj, placing one kmaja inside of the chamber and one on top and allowing both to bake at the same time. These aluminum and tin cookers, which were invented in Gaza and became popular there during the first intifada in the late 1980s, are designed to route electricity through a metal pipe or spiral wire on the underside of their lids, heating both the top and the inside of the cooker simultaneously.

The cookers' popularity can be attributed in part to a curfew that Israel imposed on Gazan refugee camps during the intifada, supposedly in an attempt to restrict the movements of resistance fighters. Refugees in the Jabalia camp in the north, for example, unable to afford home stoves, and without the necessary outdoor space to make familial clay ovens, would have to wait in line for hours every day to get bread from shared ovens, risking curfew violations; household electric cookers were far more convenient. The success of local industry and innovation in the form of Gazan-manufactured technology was also symbolically and strategically important during the first intifada, in which Palestinians employed strikes and boycotts (largely organized by women) of Israeli companies and goods as a strategy of resistance to occupation.

An electric cooker is still today considered a very important tool, as it spares families the need to purchase kmaj (the price of which was soaring compared to the cost of flour in the 2010s, and which was often of inferior quality compared to what could be made at home). They are frequently given as wedding or housewarming presents. Lack of access to electricity, though, imposes a limiting condition on the usage of these cookers, as Israel has for over a decade strangled the flow of power to Gaza: Abier Almasri wrote in 2017 that tasks such as cooking and laundry had to be rushed during the four or so hours a day when electricity was available. In this environment, electric cookers are useful in that they can prepare a lot of bread in a short period of time. Fathia Radwan said in 2022 that she would wake up early, after the nightly power outage, to prepare more than 100 loaves of bread at a time for her family of nine.

Today, the taxes that Israel levies on imports of raw materials into Gaza makes the cost of new electric cookers, which sometimes exceeds 120 shekels (37 USD), too expensive for some families to afford. The difficulty and expense of importing materials, and the impossibility of exporting goods to foreign markets with the advent of the 2007 siege, also limit the number of factories in Gaza that are able to manufacture these cooking pots. The aluminum industry, introduced to Gaza in the 1960s and once the basis of a manufacturing and economic renaissance in the region, deteriorated as a result of the siege, as factories were no longer able to export goods to the West Bank and were newly reliant on imports of raw materials from Egypt. Even parts to repair electric cookers are expensive, due to a tax levied on items judged by Israel to have a "dual," i.e. a possible civilian and military, use.

Still, repairman Iyad Faraj estimates that over half the homes in Gaza have and use an electric cooker, as maintaining, repairing, and operating one is cheaper than having a gas pipe installed (at 68 shekels, 20 USD) and purchasing gas. Electric pots thus stand in many homes as both a utilitarian item, and a symbol of Palestinian ingenuity and resistance to Israel's attempts at impoverishment and starvation.

Support Palestinian resistance by contributing to Palestine Action’s bail fund or to Palestine Legal’s defence fund, by attending court or making a sign to support the Elbit Eight, or by buying an e-sim for distribution in Gaza.

Ingredients:

500g (4 cups + 3 Tbsp) white whole wheat (spring) flour

1/2 Tbsp (5g) active dry yeast

1/2 Tbsp (6.25g) vegetarian granulated sugar

1/2 Tbsp (7.25g) kosher salt

About 2 1/4 cups (530mL) room-temperature water, divided

Olive oil

White whole wheat flour is flour that has a white color once ground, despite the fact that it includes both the bran and the germ of the wheatberry. It is milled from white spring wheat (so named because it is harvested in late spring).

You may instead mix white all-purpose flour and brown whole wheat flour in your desired proportion. Keep in mind that whole wheat flour will need more water and more kneading than white flour. If you’re using all white flour, you will need about 1 1/4 cup (300mL) water.

Instructions:

1. Mix flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add water gradually until dry ingredients come together into a sticky dough.

2. Knead the dough on the countertop or in a wide, shallow bowl until smooth, about 5 minutes. (If using whole wheat or white whole wheat flour) continue incorporating water into the dough as you knead to maintain a tacky texture.

3. Fold the dough into a ball and return to the bowl, seam-side down. Pat the top of the dough with some olive oil, cover the bowl, and let rise for an hour.

4. Pinch the dough into about 8 balls of equal size (about 110g each). Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each ball of dough into a circle about 1/4" (1/2cm) in thickness. Set dough circles on a surface prepared with parchment paper and cover closely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Let rest and ferment for at least 1 and up to 10 hours.

An overnight rest is traditional in Palestine and will create a more complex flavor in the bread (see note below).

6. Remove each circle of dough from its resting place with a metal spatula and roll it out to a 1/4” thickness again. Preheat a baking stone or sheet in the top third of an oven at 500 °F (260 °C), and then cook breads in the oven for three minutes, until large bubbles have begun to form.

7. Flip bread over and cook for another 3 minutes on the other side, until golden brown and puffed up completely.

8. Wrap breads in a kitchen towel or tea towel and allow to steam for a few minutes while the others cook.

Notes

The climate where I live is dry enough that I have discovered a risk of my breads becoming crackers if I leave them out overnight. The dried-out flatbread does puff up in the oven, but the resulting product is not as nice and fluffy as it should be.

Through experimentation, I have found the best method of both preventing drying out and guaranteeing that the flatbreads will puff up during cooking the next day is:

1. Roll out the dough and place dough circles on a lightly oiled surface. Cover them closely with lightly oiled plastic wrap.

2. The next day, fold dough circles back into balls. Place seam-side down and roll out again on a lightly floured surface.

3. Bake as described above.

If you live in a humid environment, the first instructions given in the recipe above should work for you.

[thedovesaredying]

Monsters in the Dark | Nikto x Reader | Part 4

The long awaited part 4 of the Cowboy!Nikto series, set within the cowboy AU originally created by @ghouljams Sorry this took so long to get out, I've been really hecking busy these last few weeks with exams and assignments for uni.

A/N: Fun fact, during lectures, tutorials and even in the middle of exams we occasionally have students who have kangeroo joeys chilling in little joey bags at the end of the room since the babies need to be taken everywhere so they can be fed on time. It's just a normal, everyday occurance to have a baby marsupial hanging out in your bag or stuffed down your shirt, idk what to tell y'all, that's just how vet school be lmao.

Warnings: None.

Masterlist: CoD Masterlist

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Murphy’s store, from what little you’ve managed to gather of it during your few months living in the area, is often a rather busy place. It’s the nearest feed store for miles around, frequented daily by the masses of farmers seeking to keep their stock well maintained with only the best produce on offer. Not only is the feed, grain and harvest on offer top of the line, but everything can be purchased for a bargain deal if one knows how to barter. Even if the prices weren’t so good, it would be impossible to travel the long distance to the next town over, the price of the gas alone enough to send most bankrupt.  

You don’t need to go there often, just to pick up supplies for the animals being cared for by the clinic or collect orders for your coworkers while you’re passing through. However, since it’s such a hub of activity, the feed store is one of the best places in town to interact with the locals. It’s the center of gossip and the ideal way to gather new information on what’s happening.  

You’re almost done with collecting the items you need, several bags shoved under one of your arms and a bottle of pest spray in the other. The somewhat peaceful surrounds are disturbed by what sounds like a familiar voice. Curious, you head toward the front counter, poking your head around the corner of one of the aisles.  

Much to your surprise, it’s exactly who you thought it was, and you can only watch as Nikto continues to loudly argue with another man standing close to the front counter. On further observation, however, it seems less like an actual argument and more like a one-sided shouting match. The poor store owner, Murphy, is trying to separate the two agitated men to very little success.  

Partially wanting to save whatever poor soul is currently being torn to pieces, and partially wanting to find out what has the normally stoic Russian raising his voice, you quickly make your way to the front of the store. After depositing your purchases onto the counter, you cautiously approach the two men. 

“Nikto?” you call, almost jumping when his head snaps toward you with such speed that you briefly worry he’s given himself whiplash. His frigid eyes pin you in place, somehow seeming to burn with rage while also remaining ice cold. Yet, you can see the recognition as it passes through his gaze, his hard stare suddenly becoming calm between one blink and the next.  

“Are you okay?” you ask, ignoring Murphy as he starts dragging the other man away by the arm while Nikto is momentarily distracted. You don’t get a response other than Nikto blinking owlishly at you and try calling his name again. That seems to finally snap him out of his confused stupor, and he gives you a firm nod.  

“We are fine,” Nikto scoffs, sudden enough that you almost jump, “we can handle ourselves against a civilian.” He hefts up the bag of feed sitting at his feet, resting it over his good shoulder.  

“What happened?” you ask, frowning as you glance over to where the other man appears to be getting quite the chewing out from Murphy. Nikto just waves off your concern and places down a small handful of notes on the front counter. You quickly grab out your own wallet to start counting out your own cash, putting down a rather generous amount given you don’t think Murphy will be free to discuss anything for a while.  

You trot along after Nikto’s retreating form, only just managing to keep up with his lengthy stride while juggling your purchases. His body is rigid and you can tell something is bothering him, but he hasn’t complained about your presence yet, so you continue to follow him through the carpark.  

When he finally reaches his truck, he easily tosses the bag of feed into the tray with a small huff. He brushes the dust off his hand and onto the side of his jeans, giving them a firm slap to try and get rid of the excess. The sound causes movement from the inside of the truck and a moment later a black snout pokes through the small opening, wet nose rapidly sniffing away.  

Through the heavily tinted windows you can see Sputnik’s whole body excitedly wiggling at the sight of both you and her owner, doing her best to try and shove as much of her massive head through the tiny air gap as physically possible. Seemingly realising that she can’t get much more out of the crack, she starts whining rather loudly with a few sad little cackles. It pulls at your heartstrings just enough to make you lift your hand up for her to sniff at, only to earn some slobbery kisses from her eager tongue.  

Your giggle draws Nikto’s attention back from wherever it’s wandered and he blinks at the scene before him. “Спутник!” he grunts, trying to shoo her head away, but only ends up getting a lick of his own in return. His grumbling just has you snickering slightly, especially when the hyena starts trying to bite his gloves off.  

The laugher, however, disturbs something else, and a moment later there’s wriggling against your chest. The movement immediately draws Nikto’s attention to the space between your breasts and he seems to frantically switch between averting his gaze from your chest and blatantly starting at the weird motion occurring under the fabric of your shirt.  

You quickly toss the items you were carrying into your bag before shoving a hand down the inside of your shirt. “Sorry, I think he’s a little hungry, he’s due a feeding soon,” you explain, retrieving a tiny baby opossum from the inside of your shirt. It squeaks and tries to wrap its tiny paws around your thumb, yawning so widely that its tiny eyes squeeze closed.  

Nikto blinks at the baby opossum. The baby opossum blanks back.  

He looks at you and then back at the opossum again, looking to be searching for a single question that encompasses everything he wants to know. You decide to save him from the obvious confusion and offer him an explanation, “he was orphaned when his mother got hit by a truck the other day. The rest of his siblings didn’t survive the night, but this little fella seems to be quite determined to hold on.” 

Nikto just slowly nods, “and it is in the shirt because...?” His head tilts a little too the side when the opossum decides to nuzzle its tiny face into your hand and drift back off to sleep again.  

You feel a little stupid for not answering the obvious and snort to yourself before launching into an explanation, “well, normally I’d have my daytime joey bag for looking after marsupial babies since they like dark, warm places to sleep, but it’s in the wash currently and he’s too tiny to be put in any of my other bags so...” you trail off with a half-shrug, “seemed as good a place as any.”  

“This is a regular occurrence?” he asks, and even if you couldn’t see his eyes, you can practically hear the raised eyebrow.  

“No, I just have one in case something like this happens,” you gesture at the sleeping joey with a raised eyebrow of your own, “I’m taking him to a wildlife carer the next town over, tonight.”  

Nikto hums, thoughtful, but is yet to appear convinced. He tries to pet the head of the little opossum but gets only an angry hiss from the animal in return. He looks a little put out by that and squints at the little ball of fluff, “we are certain it is not rabid, да?”  

You just scoff at him, gently placing the animal back into your shirt, “I wouldn’t be holding him if he was rabid, besides, opossums don’t normally carry rabies, their body temperature is too low for it to survive.” The joey briefly pokes its head out of your shirt, squinting back at Nikto almost as fiercely, “he can probably just smell Sputnik on you, that’s all.”  

At the mention of her name, Sputnik starts yowling rather pathetically, whining and trying to gnaw at the window’s edge in an attempt to get through to you. Her eyes are round and wet, and her bottom lip is quivering like a toddler about to burst into tears. You’d love to give her a pet and a smooch on the top of her head, but you get the feeling she’d try to take a chunk out of your little friend.  

“How long will you be gone?” Nikto eventually asks, waving at Sputnik in a futile attempt at calming her distressed cries.  

You briefly pull out your phone, glancing at the time, “it’s a little late now, so I might end up staying there overnight, but I’ll be back sometime around midday,” you hum, tucking the mobile away again, “why, gonna miss me?” You grin at your companion, doing your best not to laugh at his rather dramatic eyeroll.  

“нет, but our спутник will cry,” he pokes at her nose, ignoring how she tries to lick his finger in return.  

You give in to the urge to coo at the heartbroken hyena, squeezing your fingers inside the truck to tickle at her chin, “well then, we can’t have this poor girl being sad, can we?” She has no idea what you’re saying, but that doesn’t stop her from fogging up the glass with her happily little huffs. “You’ll owe me for all the snuggles I’m going to have to give this little sweetheart when I get back.”  

“We will offer you a drink, for the suffering you must endure,” he nods sagely, and you laugh at his solemn response.  

You point a finger at him, raising an eyebrow, “I’ll be holding you to that, it’s impossible to get a good drink out here.” Heaving your bag up onto your shoulder and checking that your little opossum friend is still accounted for, you offer Sputnik a little pet on the top of her snout.  

“I’ll see you two around,” you chirp, offering Nikto a polite little wave, delighted when he gives you a stiff nod in return. He’s certainly far from the warmest of individuals, but he’s grown a little less frigid toward you in recent weeks and that only makes you more eager to break through his frosty exterior.  

You hope into your own truck and toss everything into the passenger side seat. You’ve got a long day ahead, and a tiny baby hankering for some food. With luck, your drive to the next town over won’t take too long and you’ll be able to enjoy some downtime without constantly being on call for what feels like every farmer for a hundred miles.  

You were only half serious with your demands for a drink, but for some reason you can’t quite stomp down the giddy feeling deep in your belly at the thought.

[rottenpumpkin13]

ASG visit a grocery store plz

Shinra has a system where groceries are delivered to the First's apartments upon order, however this time Angeal was inspired to explore the city and suggested they all take trip to the local grocery store for their shopping.

• Sephiroth is in the produce aisle, roaming over the fresh vegetables and rediscovering ones he forgot about—what is a romanesco and why does it look like that? *buys some because it looks interesting* —and then it happens: the sound of a thunderstorm as the vegetables get misted. Sephiroth is like a little kid as he watches, mystified, as the vegetables get showered to the sound of rain. Whoever invented this is brilliant. Sephiroth stands there, waiting for another show for a good 10 minutes before he walks off, disappointed. It should be voice activated.

• Genesis finds the cereal aisle and makes a beeline for the one thing he came here to find: Stamp Puffs: Limited SOLDIER edition! - Now with a miniature figure of your favorite hero inside!

• He grabs the box with his face on it, tears it open excitedly and......HUH? Where's tiny Genesis?? Why is there a SEPHIROTH figurine instead?? This is HIS CEREAL BOX IT HAS HIS FACE ALAKSJAJSHSJ

• Angeal is busy shopping around for the necessities—milk, eggs, yogurt, olive oil, those chocolate-filled snack cakes Sephiroth says are "meant for children and unfit for a SOLDIER's diet" but he ends up eating half a box worth of anyway....

*Angeal spots Genesis opening a cereal box in the cereal aisle. To his left is a pile of opened boxes, to his right is a pile of Sephiroth action figures*

Angeal: Gen, what are you—

Genesis: BLASPHEMY *sets a tiny Sephiroth on fire*

Angeal: I don't know you *walks away quickly*

• Sephiroth finds an entire watermelon. He has never purchased his own fruits before, let alone a watermelon. Sephiroth sees other shoppers slapping their watermelons. He thinks this is standard procedure and slaps his watermelon. He breaks the watermelon in half. Watermelon juice flies everywhere. People are staring. Sephiroth takes off with his smashed watermelon.

• Angeal is still going through his shopping list: garlic, tomatoes, toothpaste, those fun cookies he gives Zack whenever he performs a task successfully that Lazard says is immoral but Angeal will continue to give him anyway.

*Angeal finds Sephiroth looking at a jar of two-in-one peanut butter and jelly*

Angeal: Hey, bud! Having fun?

Sephiroth: This item is a prime example of inefficiency. They deliver a skewed ratio, with a significant percentage more peanut butter than jam, as if they fear exceeding a certain jam threshold, despite jam arguably being the superior component of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Not only that, but by mixing the two, it distorts the distinct flavor profiles achieved when spreading peanut butter and jam separately. And then they have the audacity to charge 8 gil for it. I am disgusted.

Angeal: Why is there a smashed watermelon in your cart?

Sephiroth:

• After opening 33 boxes of Stamp Puffs with his face on it and finding nothing but Sephiroth action figures, Genesis gives up. He starts to walk away when he sees a small child pick out a box with Sephiroth's face, open it, pull out a Genesis action figure, and exclaim "Cool, I got Genesis! He's my favorite one!" — Genesis is now sobbing into a bag of bread. He still has to pay for the 33 boxes of cereal though.

• They all regroup back at the checkout line. Angeal is standing there, mystified as Sephiroth's cart is filled with items such as a gallon of honey, 6 entire boneless sliced hams, several trays of frozen convenience dinners, bubblegum-flavored children's toothpaste, and purple shampoo.

Angeal: Pray tell what the purple shampoo is for.

Sephiroth: An elderly woman in the shampoo aisle informed me that this is very good for gray hair.

Angeal: But your hair isn't—oh never mind. Genesis, what on earth are you going to do with 33 boxes of cereal and 33 Sephiroth action figures.

Genesis: File a complaint to the marketing department. Can you believe all of the Genesis cereal boxes came with Sephiroth action figures? Every single one of them.

Sephiroth: I apologize for coming inside of you.

Genesis:

[cathkaesque]

I went to the Ethical Consumer conference last week (I know they sound wanky but they're good people, been working with them support farmworkers unions for ages) and they did it on the theme of degrowth. I went to the economics of degrowth session and my god it drove me up the wall, one of the speakers basically saying economics is twaddle, impossible to understand because it is too mathsy (actual quote), it's all pale male and stale, and most the audience came away more confused than when they started. They didn't even define growth! I know a quite hippy magazine is not going to be a hub of political economy but economics understanding is so lowwww at the moment, especially compared to 10 years ago at the height of the anti austerity movement.

I was lucky enough to speak briefly on a panel and I used the 8 mins i had to speak to just set out the basic degrowth premise. Growth is defined as the increase in gross domestic product, the sum of all transactions, wages, investments, purchases in an economy in dollars. It is important because if you are seen as growing, your currency will be more valuable, it will be easier to borrow money on the world market, and attract foreign investment. If you are a poor country, with a weak currency (I.e. not pounds, euros, or dollars), you need to bring in a flow of foreign hard currencies in order to important the things you need (e.g. oil) from abroad.

This has several adverse effects. One is that the sale of goods produced in poor countries on the high streets of rich countries adds more to the rich country's growth than making it does to the poor countries. The selling of a t-shirt made in Bangladesh in an H&M in the UK will add more to the UK's economic growth than Bangladesh's (Sale price of: £4.95; £0.95 paid to the Bangladeshi factory; £3.94 pays for retailer, wholesaler, VAT and 60p profit for H&M; worker gets an 18th of a penny per shirt). The selling of bananas grown in Costa Rica in a UK supermarket will add 20.7p to Costa Rica’s GDP while 74.3p will be added to the UK’s GDP. The UK grows richer at the expense of poorer countries, by consuming the labour and resources of poor countries.

This approach also encourages poor countries to turn over their land from peasants, who produce food for their communities, over to large agroindustrial cash crops like coffee, bananas, and palm oil which bring in dollars at the cost of local people and the environment.

I was quite pleased that people came up to me afterwards telling me that they understood what I was saying and thanked me for explaining it to them. I don't understand why people who are meant to be experts in this are so bad at communicating economic ideas to people, it is not impossible to understand.

[escaping-samsara]

No-Nylon Sock Yarn

This might be the hardest task for knitting without plastic. I’ve gone to some local stores and snooped around online looking for sock yarn and every time I do I get the same canned response.

“You know those will wear out, right?”

It’s easy to find 100% wool yarn, even non-superwash (yes superwash yarn contains plastic), but you’ll be darning them often if you wear them very much.

So is it fruitless? Well no, there are non-plastic alternatives to nylon that can give a yarn strength, such as mohair and silk. There are construction techniques too that a good sock yarn should have regardless. High ply-count and longer fiber strands, for example. BFL wool is notorious for its longer staple length, so does corriedale and targhee. And if the ply is 4 or more it will make for a better sock yarn foundation.

The most trouble I’ve run into now has been finding yarns that can fit this bill.

I’ve spent the past week trawling through Ravelry’s advance search for yarn, and the process has been slow and insightful. The more particular I search, “silk OR mohair, AND wool, AND NO manufactured fibers, 4-ply OR 5-ply+, AND NO superwash, AND not discontinued”, the less results I get. But still, there are results.

One would expect, with a search this tailored, you’d have at least a list of options, but I’ve still hit roadblocks. These come in two main forms: insufficient tagging or unavailable for purchase.

I cannot count how many times I’ve found a yarn that got me excited, only to click on the about page and read “80% SW Wool”. ‘SW’ meaning superwash. Or even worse, no mention of superwash on the about page, and then finding out the yarn is in fact superwash when I went to a retail listing. It makes me ask, if you’re using superwash wool, why not tag that as part of the care instructions so it can be searched through Ravelry? Why use superwash wool at all if you’re just going to recommend people handwash only?

The other pitfall is that these small dyers (as the majority of them are) don’t have the stock or have all together discontinued dying, yet haven’t updated their yarn’s about page to show it’s no longer available. Or, equally sad, when there’s simply no buying option available at all. Ravelry doesn’t always find every online store, so I try to look up the producer by name, and this sometimes gets me to an Etsy shop--But still, some yarns just seem to exist on their about page but nowhere else.

Still, I’ve managed to make a short list of yarns that pass the inspection and have some method for purchase. And honestly, all you need is one good product line for a lifetime of knitting if it fits all the bills. But I look at the number of yarns I could otherwise choose but are now discontinued (1/4th of them!) and wonder how long my current list will last.

So remember to support small dyers and yarn makers, and do your due diligence to make sure you’re getting the right product.

[youryurigoddess]

Aziraphale’s wine

It is a truth universally acknowledged in the Good Omens fandom that an angel in need of a drink turns to his secret stash of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the back room. He picked up a dozen cases in 1921, and a whole century later there's still some left… for special occasions.

Just to put things in perspective, a standard case contains 12 750ml bottles, for a total of 9 liters of wine. A dozen cases equals 144 bottles, or 108 liters of wine. That’s quite a lot for a single purchase, so Aziraphale — the established sherry and sweet drinks connoisseur — must have had a good reason for it.

One potential explanation is the aura of grandeur around this particular wine. The papal connection, rich history of the region, and recognition of high quality products give Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines a very luxurious status, considerably influencing their price tags. And Aziraphale is known to have standards.

Another one is the way in which their taste differs from Aziraphale’s usual choices: Châteauneuf-du-Pape reds are often described as earthy with gamey flavors that have hints of tar and leather. The wines are considered tough and tannic in their youth, but maintain their rich spiciness as they age.

Since everything in Good Omens has a meaning, it never hurts to run through a quick Strong’s Concordance search whenever a date pops up in a dialogue or, even more importantly, somewhere on screen. More often than not the result seems to match the researched topic, as it’s the case here:

1921: to know exactly, to recognize.

Provided examples: I come to know by directing my attention to him or it, I perceive, discern, recognize; I found out. The general usage of the word usually refers to knowing someone aptly, properly, thoroughly, even biblically. Which might be either a wishful thinking on Aziraphale’s part or just another layer of subtext in this already romantically charged scene. The table dressing, multiple candles, and focus on the lamps with Auguste Moreau’s Young Lovers statues in the background seem to successfully communicate what the angel left unsaid.

Too bad that Crowley remained so adorably oblivious for the next eighty years. At least when he finally came to the realization, he responded with an attempted temptation to another vintage red wine @vidavalor already analyzed.

But back to Aziraphale’s wine. To be exact, it’s a 1921 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from the domaine de Baban. An actual French vineyard from the Rhône region that still exists to this day, even though a few decades ago it got merged with another estate into what is now known as domaine Riché-Baban. According to the local guides, the 11 hectares on the estate are located in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape designation area in the Bois Lauzon and Mourre de Baud districts. At the moment 90% of the wines produced there are sent to wine dealers.

1920s were quite an interesting time for this region, but not because of the flapper cabarets or drag shows usually associated with the era on the Old Continent. To the horror of European oenophiles, right after World War I the whole of France found itself awash with fake wine. One of the worst outrages was the use of lead that magically transformed cheap, acid wine into something deceptively rich and sweet on the outside and one of the most powerful neurotoxins on the inside. People were already well aware of its effects — the poisoning from drinking sweetened wine probably made Handel go blind and Beethoven go deaf, but it shows how desperate for sweetness they were before sugar became available to the masses.

Admittably, it wasn’t a new practice. Far from it — the Romans liked it so much that they even advised to pack lead pans on travels to boil local wine in them to make it sweeter, especially in colder provinces like Britannia. But Aziraphale didn’t buy twelve cases of counterfeit wine for the sake of some good memories of Rome and its many health hazards. No, the fussy angel made sure to get the actually good stuff from the other side of the English Channel.

Henry Tacussel, whose name is mentioned on his wine label, was a French viticulturalist and a close friend of Baron Pierre Le Roy of the Chateau Fortia nearby, a trained lawyer and fellow winegrower from Châteauneuf-du-Pape who established the Winegrowers' Union of the Rhône Valley. Together with the Baron he became one of the founders of Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), a labeling system intended to protect regional products and technologies that is still in use in France and serves as an inspiration to similar solutions worldwide. Their efforts were deliberately centred on Châteauneuf-du-Pape because with such a beguiling name even in comparison to other labels it seemed to attract an undue share of fraudsters at the time.

Soon after Aziraphale’s shopping spree, the local wine producers led by Le Roy and Tacussel began a very long campaign to establish legal protection for the wine from their commune. The delimited area and the method of wine production were finally awarded legal recognition after a decade, in 1933, but it wasn’t the end of the criminal activities on this front. An undercover investigation by The Sunday Times discovered that most of the “Châteauneuf” in the 1960s Britain was actually blended and bottled in Ipswich.

One question remains: was it a purely human affair, or maybe one requiring a demonic or angelic intervention?

[our-lady-of-the-forest]

Many Small Steps

This is the list written by Andrea Cohen-Kiener in her book "Claiming the Earth as Common Ground". It is her list of how to join the Ecology Action Alliance. There are no dues, or any requirements for membership other than to choose three things from the list to begin immediately, and to add one item from the list each week until you are living the most ecological lifestyle possible FOR YOU.

I highly recomend reading this book.

I will recycle whatever I can through my municipality.

I will buy snacks and other foods in degradable (paper) containers whenever possible

I will avoid buying/using clothes that require dry cleaning

I will choos food and other products in the most ecological packaging availible(Paper, cotton and glass as opposed to plastic).

I will not buy/use Styrofoam products

I will not buy/use aerosal cans.

I will start/expand my garden

I will reduce/eliminate toxic pesticides in my lawn and garden.

I will purchase clean, renewable energy through my electric utility (www.gocleanenergy.com)

I will join a gardening club.

I will establish a bartering relationship with a neighbor.

I wil set a radius (two blocks/two miles?) and make a commitment to walk everywhere I need to go within that radius.

I will choose one day a week to refrain from driving.

I will buy/repair/use a bicycle.

I will make a serious and sustained effort to carpool and combine driving errands.

I will prioritize my neighborhood merchants.

I will repair and reuse major appliances whenever possible.

I will donate or finds a use for items I no longer wish to use whenever possible.

I will patronize the used goods market whenever possible.

I will buy/utilize hand-powered appliances and tools whenever possible.

I will become an urban livestock keeper (bees, eggs, poultry).

I will copy this list and encourage one persona week to become a member of the Ecology Action Alliance.

I will reduce/eliminate toxic cleaning supplies and replace them with nonpoisonous cleaning supplies in my home/workplace.

I will make a sustained effort to turn off appliances and lights that are not in use.

I will encourage retailers and manufacturers to reduce/simplfy packaging material.

I will contract for a home energy audit (contact your utility company for details).

I will use natural light and ventilation (windows!) whenever possible.

I will use simple measures (massage, tea, rest) when dealing with common ailments.

I will ask friends to consider natural products and materials when choosing gifts for me.

I will bring my own cloth or paper bags for shopping trips.

I will eat the most wholesome and unadultered diet possible.

I will support bussinesses that promote environmental awareness.

I will join/contribute to an environmental group.

I will buy/use recycled paper whenever possible.

I will ask my grocer to carry local/organic produce.

I will ask my grocer to carry alternatives to Styrofoam products.

I wil lobby political representatives to make the enviorment a priority.

I will petition my civic groups (school, business, congregation) to conserve, recycle and consume responsibly.

I will enjoy moments outside each day.

I will learn about the vegetation and wildlife in my area.

I will study and be a resource for my community for one aspect od the enviornmental agenda (solid waste, conservation, the charitable network, ecology legislation, whole foods, alternative healing, etc.).

[the-exercist]

Healthy New Year's Resolutions That Don't Involve Weight Loss

Instead of focusing on the same tired weight loss goals for 2023, let’s think about habits that could actually improve our lives. What has slipped during the past year? What are you missing? How could you better address your own needs, or the needs of those around you? Take this opportunity to really address the parts of your life that could improve and consider some of these healthy resolutions for the new year:

Reduce your alcohol consumption

Get more quality sleep/limit your sleep to 8 hours per night

Bring reusable bags when you shop

Eat vegetables at every meal

Wash your bed sheets weekly

Actually eat your fruit before it goes bad

Don’t watch tv or use your phone during meals

Support local food producers through farm shares

Donate to your local food bank

Take vitamins

Learn to knit or sew

Stretch and improve your flexibility

Volunteer as a caller for political campaigns

Concentrate on improving your posture

Set up a weekly board game night with your family

Replace your toothbrush

Educate yourself on basic home care and maintenance

Clean your kitchen and dishes after each meal

Stop biting your nails

Wear sunscreen every day you’re outside

Clean your pantry and throw out expired food each month

Quit smoking

Reduce impulse online shopping by creating a weekly budget

Put your laundry away

Cut down on the amount of plastic you use each day

Re-try foods that you hate, but haven’t eaten in years

Make your bed

Moisturize and remove your makeup before going to bed

Keep a journal

Tip service workers generously

Floss

Focus on purchasing goods from small business owners, not Amazon

Join a pen pal exchange

Set up that therapy appointment

Text your friend that you haven't talked to in a while

Small, actionable goals are key here. What can you start doing today to improve your life, and the lives of those around you?

[wolfliving]

It starts with him

What was once a promise of technology to allow us to automate and analyze the environments in our physical spaces is now a heap of broken ideas and broken products. Technology products have been deployed en masse, our personal data collected and sold without our consent, and then abandoned as soon as companies strip mined all the profit they thought they could wring out. And why not? They already have our money.

The Philips Hue, poster child of the smart home, used to work entirely on your local network. After all, do you really need to connect to the Internet to control the lights in your own house?  Well you do now!Philips has announced it will require cloud accounts for all users—including users who had already purchased the hardware thinking they wouldn’t need an account (and the inevitable security breaches that come with it) to use their lights.

Will you really trust any promises from a company that unilaterally forces a change like this on you? Does the user actually benefit from any of this?

Matter in its current version … doesn’t really help resolve the key issue of the smart home, namely that most companies view smart homes as a way to sell more individual devices and generate recurring revenue.

It keeps happening. Stuff you bought isn’t yours because the company you bought it from can take away features and force you to do things you don’t want or need to do—ultimately because they want to make more money off of you. It’s frustrating, it’s exhausting, and it’s discouraging.

And it has stopped IoT for the rest of us in its tracks. Industrial IoT is doing great—data collection is the point for the customer. But the consumer electronics business model does not mesh with the expected lifespan of home products, and so enshittification began as soon as those first warranties ran out.

How can we reset the expectations we have of connected devices, so that they are again worthy of our trust and money? Before we can bring the promise back, we must deweaponize the technology.

Guidelines for the hardware producer

What we can do as engineers and business owners is make sure the stuff we’re building can’t be wielded as a lever against our own customers, and to show consumers how things could be. These are things we want consumers to expect and demand of manufacturers.

Control

Think local

Decouple

Open interfaces

Be a good citizen

1) Control over firmware updates.

You scream, “What about security updates!” But a company taking away a feature you use or requiring personal data for no reason is arguably a security flaw. 

We were once outraged when intangible software products went from something that remained unchanging on your computer, to a cloud service, with all the ephemerality that term promises. Now they’re coming for our tangible possessions.

No one should be able to do this with hardware that you own. Breaking functionality is entirely what security updates are supposed to prevent! A better checklist for firmware updates:

Allow users to control when and what updates they want to apply. 

Be thorough and clear as to what the update does and provide the ability to downgrade if needed. 

Separate security updates from feature additions or changes. 

Never force an update unless you are sure you want to accept (financial) responsibility for whatever you inadvertently break. 

Consider that you are sending software updates to other people’s hardware. Ask them for permission (which includes respecting “no”) before touching their stuff!

2) Do less on the Internet.

A large part of the security issues with IoT products stem from the Internet connectivity itself. Any server in the cloud has an attack surface, and now that means your physical devices do.

The solution here is “do less”. All functionality should be local-only unless it has a really good reason to use the Internet. Remotely controlling your lights while in your own house does not require the cloud and certainly does not require an account with your personal information attached to it. Limit the use of the cloud to only the functions that cannot work without it.

As a bonus, less networked functionality means fewer maintenance costs for you.

3) Decouple products and services.

It’s fine to need a cloud service. But making a product that requires a specific cloud service is a guarantee that it can be enshittified at any point later on, with no alternative for the user owner. 

Design products to be able to interact with other servers. You have sold someone hardware and now they own it, not you. They have a right to keep using it even if you shut down or break your servers. Allow them the ability to point their devices to another service. If you want them to use your service, make it worthwhile enough for them to choose you.

Finally, if your product has a heavy reliance on the cloud to work, consider enabling your users to self-host their own cloud tooling if they so desire. A lot of people are perfectly capable of doing this on their own and can help others do the same.

4) Use open and standard protocols and interfaces.

Most networked devices have no reason to use proprietary protocols, interfaces, and data formats. There are open standards with communities and software available for almost anything you could want to do. Re-inventing the wheel just wastes resources and makes it harder for users to keep using their stuff after you’re long gone. We did this with Twine, creating an encrypted protocol that minimized chatter, because we needed to squeeze battery life out of WiFi back when there weren’t good options.

If you do have a need for a proprietary protocol (and there are valid reasons to do so):

Document it. 

If possible, have a fallback option that uses an open standard. 

Provide tooling and software to interact with your custom protocols, at the very least enough for open source developers to be able to work with it. This goes for physical interfaces as much as it does for cloud protocols.

If the interface requires a custom-made, expensive, and/or hard-to-find tool to use, then consider using something else that is commonly available and off the shelf instead.

5) Be a good citizen.

Breaking paid-for functionality on other people’s stuff is inherently unethical. Consider not doing this! Enshittification is not a technical problem, it is a behavioral one. Offer better products that are designed to resist enshittification, and resist it yourself in everything you do.

Nothing forced Philips to do what they are doing: a human made a decision to do it. They could have just as easily chosen not to. With Twine’s server lock-in, at least we chose to keep it running, for 12 years now. Consider that you can still make a decent living by being honest and ethical towards the people who are, by purchasing your products, paying for your lifestyle. 

We didn’t get here by accident. Humans made choices that brought us to this point, and we can’t blame anyone for being turned off by it. But we can choose to do better. We can design better stuff. And we can choose not to mess things up after the fact.

We’re putting this into practice with Pickup. (We also think that part of an IoT reset is giving users the creative freedom of a general-purpose device.) If you’re looking for something better and our product can fill a need you have, consider backing us. We cannot claim to be perfect or have all of the answers, but we are absolutely going to try. The status quo sucks. Let’s do something about it.

Published October 15, 2023 By Jeremy Billheimer

[bmbochangetales]

Orgasms just hit better when your dumb.

It was one line and yet it bothered her. It couldn’t be true. She enjoyed her orgasms and she was highly intelligent. She had to test the theory. But how? It had to be measured in a way that she could tell the difference. She had to make herself dumber so she could feel which orgasm was better. How to make her self dumber though?

She rushed in and ask her male co workers.

“Not showing off her degrees. Smart girls want to prove they are smart. They hang them like art work. Have some sexy pictures or some basic mass produced artwork ”

Down all her hard work came off the wall. Up went something from the local store. The night she hit a new high in orgasming. This has to be a fluke, so she asked again the next day.

“Lots of make up and bleached hair.” One commented well checking the stocks. “They always turn out to be ditzy, even if they try to come off as intelligent and well educated. You do that to you hair, you definitely aren’t the smartest and add a lot of make up, you spend a lot of time just fixing yourself up, that’s not time to study.”

She booked an appointment at a salon for that evening. Well her hair was done she watched make up tutorials learning how to emphasize her features. Seeing herself with her new blonde hair even she thought she looked a bit more empty headed. Very cute but maybe not all there. She tested her skills at the make up when she got home. Sultry and it took a while to do, it was nearly bed time, she’d have no time to read. But she had time for two orgasms. It was only because the first one was so fast. It was just so good that she had to do it again just to make sure.

“Just by looking at a girl, what makes you think she is dumb?”

“I mean I know people will yell at me, but when she has for a huge set of boobs, especially if she is showing them off, she is probably not the brightest bulb in the house. It’s hot anyways”

Vacation boobs. A few injections and she would have a temporary set to help her experiment. She would get rid of them later. She walked out of the doctor’s office with a new huge rack on display. She loved the stares she got. She had spent 3 hours getting ready this morning with an extra 30 minutes to masturbate before she left. Now she was ready to see if sex with a partner was better. She called her favorite FWB. He commented on her new look

“I’m trying to look dumb for an experiment, what makes a girl look dumb?”

“Girls who look in the mirror a lot and watch reality tv. They look so dumb.” He added as you went down to start round two wanting another great orgasm.

Three days of having these tits and fucking a ton of guys. She had been watching only reality tv and was having trouble spelling. She began dressing like the girls on TV. Her boss threatened to denote her if her work didn’t improve. But the orgasms were just so good. They kept getting better. There was something here, she knew it.

She was staring at herself in the mirror. Big but not big enough. She wanted them to be huge. Bigger is so better when it comes to tits. Just 3 or 4 more cup sizes. She’d look so dumb then. She scanned her body down. Maybe she needed some other improvements.

Like this ass needs some nice high shoes to make it even better. She quickly went to the nearest shoe store and purchased several pairs making sure to get all the highest heels to emphasize her body.

Oh yea, like the expiri…expuri…like that idea thingy test. That like means it’s totally time to get fucked! Fucking is like sooo much fun! She had to find some partners. She strut into the nearest club and found a couple who were interested in going home with her.

The red head under her and the body builder with his cock deep in her cunt fucking her from behind. Oh yeah this was the life. Being sexy and just finding partners to fuck. Lapping up the beautiful girls cunt as she came on her tongue over and over. Having a cock ducking her deep and filling her with the best cum. Now that her IQ was down even more, this orgasm would be earth shattering. Maybe she could still get dumber yet.

[omgsuperstarg]

Market Day- Toto Wolff x Black! Caribbean Reader

Author's Note: This one shot is based on another function of Caribbean Life. Going to the Market or Farmer's Market to get fresh food for the household is a normal occurrence and Toto decides to tag along with you and assist.

Saturday mornings are usually a staple of your household. That's the day when you head down to the local farmer's market and pick up the much-needed fruits, produce (ground provisions), & seasoning herbs for the meats and fish. Today, you wake at the crack of dawn to get ready. Toto was fast asleep during the summer shutdown taking the much-needed rest from flying for weeks at a time. This is usually a solo trip, so going out and returning in record times is an art form for you.

All that you needed was in your car, you proceed to leave a note so that he knew your whereabouts and with that, you're off for another fruitful Saturday morning.

Mini time skip..........

You're already halfway through your list when your phone begins ringing.

Hello

"Good Morning darling, I see you've left me all alone", your love speaks playfully.

"Morning to you as well Toto. I decided to let you sleep in because GOD KNOWS you need it and market trips have always been a solo task for me. Plus, I'm getting all the ingredients for SOUP SATURDAY!!", you state matter of factly.

"So where are you?", you inquire.

Turn around.

What!?!?", your voice

In doing what's instructed, you observe your boyfriend in some dry-fit shorts, a t-shirt with silver arrow logos, and some aviator shades with sneakers completing his relaxed outfit. Knowing Toto he always wore the love for his team on his sleeve in both figurative and literal senses. He jogs up to you with a bright smile on his face, one that you've come to love in your three years together.

"Im surprised to see you here, I thought you would be sleeping in since Saturdays' are usually my day", you profess as you hand him one of your market bags.

"Well, I couldn't let my darling do her shopping unaccompanied. Not only that it's a perfect way to catch up and spoil yourself with the florals you admire soo much", the statuesque man states with his accented speech seeping into your bones.

"Well, there's still a few more things that need to be purchased and since I already have meat seasoned for cooking, I say when we arrive home I can make us some soup. Judging the clouds it's going to be a heavy rain shower." you speak observing the bleak sky.

"Ahhh yes, soup is always comforting on a rainy day," he says smiling.

A fruitful trip was completed, you both were now home and cutting up vegetables for a hearty lunch. Dancehall and Soca music is blasting throughout the kitchen which is typical of a Saturday Morning. Toto observes you dancing along to the music and even finds himself nodding along to its infectious beat.

"So its always this noisy when you're back home?", he inquires as he sits near the granite countertop.

"Yes, this is a pretty normal vibe for a Caribbean household. Sometimes I would do my Saturday chores on a Friday so I wouldn't have to and the second Saturday or whenever the funds arrive would be market day. After coming home, I would assist my grandma in making soup, my favorite is Chicken foot and I would add ramen noodles to it as well. Early afternoon we would either bake homemade bread or coconut bake'', you profess wistfully as you think of your island home.

"I think that's quite sweet and I'm glad that you're able to share this part of your life with me,'' he confessed.

"I hope I can drag your butt for Trinidad & Tobago Carnival, get some seasoning in you as well as a little more colour, the fangirls I know would appreciate it, me being a major one," you say as you shut the stove off and begin to distribute the food.

The rain finally came down as you both began to eat, the warmness of the soup filling your soul, and the man sharing his love making you feel even more cozy.

[najia-cooks]

[ID: Five large, enclosed bao piled on a plate. The topmost bao has been opened to show a bread-like dough texture and a vegetable filling. The bao are garnished with chopped chives. End ID]

Bánh bao chay (Vietnamese vegetable dumplings)

Bánh bao are an iteration on the Chinese da bao (大包) brought to Vietnam by Cantonese immigrants. Like da bao, bánh bao are commonly filled with some combination of minced meat, Chinese sausage, and hard-boiled eggs; however, some versions of bánh bao are also made with Vietnamese vegetables, herbs, and flavorings. Vegetarian bánh bao (bánh bao chay) may have no filling, a filling consisting of a variety of vegetables, or a filling of sweetened beans or sweet potato.

This recipe combines Vietnamese vegetables, herbs, spices, and sauces with Vietnamese meat substitutes to make a well-rounded filling that's equal parts umami and fresh. The yeasted, enriched dough is tasty, fluffy, and light, but still has enough structure to hold up against the filling.

Recipe under the cut!

Patreon | Tip jar

Makes 16-20; serves 6.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

4 cups + 2 Tbsp (500g) all-purpose flour

2 tsp (7g) active dry yeast

7 Tbsp (90g) granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp (10g) baking powder (optional)

2 Tbsp (16g) cornstarch (optional)

1 - 1 1/4 cup (135-295 mL) lukewarm soy or oat milk, or water

1 Tbsp cooking oil

The basic components of this dough are flour, yeast, sugar, salt, oil, and milk. The baking powder is added to help with leavening; the cornstarch works to create a light, fluffy dough that will not become soggy when filling is added.

For the filling:

1 large carrot (100g)

4-inch piece (120g) cassava root / yuca

1 cup (100g) shiitake or wood-ear mushrooms, diced

4 large pieces (50g) sườn non chay, or 1/2 cup diced or crumbled chả lụa chay

1/2 cup water + 1/2 tsp vegetarian 'chicken' broth concentrate (optional)

50g tofu skin (đậu hủ ky)

1 red onion, minced

5 cloves garlic, chopped

4-5 chives or scallions, finely chopped

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp sugar, or to taste

1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

2 tsp bột nêm chay, ground to a powder (optional)

1 1/2 tsp fermented bean paste + 1/2 tsp light soy sauce (or 2 tsp vegetarian fish sauce)

2 tsp vegetarian oyster sauce

1/4 cup soybean oil, peanut oil, or other cooking oil, divided

Sườn non chay (roughly, “vegetarian ribs”) is a meat replacement made of textured soy protein. It may be found in bags online or in the pantry / dried goods section at your local Asian grocery store—the bags will be labelled “sườn non chay” as well as “vegan meat slice,” “textured soy bean protein,” “vegetarian food,” or “vegan food.” Most sườn non chay are large and pale in color, but they sometimes come in "beef" or "pork" styles—the difference is not the flavoring but rather the size, shape, and coloring of the pieces. In my experience, the "beef" ones are more darkly colored, and both "beef" and "pork" styles are smaller in size and thinner in shape than the non-specific ones, which I often use to replace chicken.

Chả lụa chay is a vegetarian version of a Vietnamese pork sausage. It can be found in the form of a large loaf in the refrigerator section of a Vietnamese or Asian grocery store. It will be labelled "chả lụa chay" or "gio lụa chay," as well as "vegetarian pork roll," "wheat meat," or "vegetarian food."

Đậu hủ ky, or tofu skin, is prepared by taking the film off of a batch of tofu as it sets. Tofu skin may be purchased fresh or dried, in sheets or in sticks: for the purposes of this recipe, any kind will work! Chinese tofu skin produced for sale abroad may be labelled "dried beancurd sticks."

Bột nêm is a Vietnamese seasoning sold in powder or granule form. Vegetarian ("chay") versions of the seasoning may contain shiitake mushroom, lotus seeds, carrots, tomatoes, and kohlrabi, as well as salt and MSG. It can be purchased in pouches or boxes from an Asian grocery store, or you can use any other vegetable stock powder.

Fish sauce and oyster sauce are common inclusions in pork fillings for bánh bao but are often simply omitted from vegetarian ones. I've used vegetarian substitutes for these ingredients—if you don't have vegetarian imitation fish or oyster sauce, just increase the amount of salt, sugar, and bột nêm to taste.

Instructions:

For the dough:

1. Heat 1 cup (135mL) non-dairy milk to lukewarm in a saucepan or in the microwave. Stir in the yeast to dissolve. if you’re not sure your yeast is alive, proof it by allowing to stand for 10 minutes—it should foam.

2. Add the baking powder, sugar, and salt and whisk to dissolve.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour and cornstarch. Pour in the milk mixture and mix well to combine. Add additional milk 1 tsp at a time if it remains too dry to combine. The dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky.

3. Add oil and knead by hand until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for about 3 hours until doubled in size. If you live in a cold climate and don't have a proofing drawer, heat your oven on the lowest setting for a few minutes, turn it off, and then proof the dough in the oven.

For the filling:

1. Prepare the proteins. Soak the tofu skin (if you're using dried) and sườn non chay in cool water for about half an hour until rehydrated (or simmer them for a shorter amount of time). They are fully hydrated once flexible and a couple shades lighter. Gently squeeze the water out. Dice tofu skin; rip sườn non chay into small pieces lengthwise and then dice widthwise.

2. Prepare the vegetables. Peel cassava root and carrot. Cut both into a fine julienne, or grate them. Dice the mushrooms; mince the red onion; chop the garlic.

3. Cook the filling. Heat oil in a large skillet on medium. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant.

4. Add the red onion and continue to sauté until fragrant and slightly softened. Add black pepper, bột nêm, and salt and allow to cook another 30 seconds.

5. Add carrot, cassava, mushrooms, chả lụa chay (if using), and tofu skin and stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring often, until tender. Remove from pan.

6. If using sườn non chay: in the same pan, fry sườn non chay in 3 Tbsp of cooking oil on medium until they’ve absorbed the oil. Whisk 'chicken' stock concentrate into a small amount of hot water, then add the stock into the pan. Cook until mostly dry.

Soaking in water, deep frying in oil, then simmering in a flavored broth is the typical Vietnamese preparation of sườn non chay. The simmering in stock could potentially be skipped if you're including vegetarian oyster and/or fish sauce, but personally I find that dried soy products benefit from being soaked or simmered in something other than water.

7. Mix sườn non chay in with other filling ingredients, salt, sugar, sauces, and chives.

To assemble:

1. Turn dough out from its proofing bowl and gently divide into two even parts. Cover the half you're not using and gently roll the other out into a log of even width. Use a dough cutter or sharp knife to divide the log into 8 or 10 even pieces.

2. Place each disc of dough on its side and roll it out into a circle about 5" (13cm) in diameter. The edges of the circle should be much thinner than the center, since the edges will be bundled up and folded together.

3. The folding method is the same as for baozi and momos. Hold a wrapper in the palm of your non-dominant hand and add a couple tablespoons of filling (if you’re not experienced with making dumplings, it may be easier to add less). While pressing the filling down with your non-dominant thumb, use your other hand to pinch pleated folds in the dough all the way around the circle of the wrapper. Remove your thumb and make one last fold to close the bao. Pinch firmly at the place where all the pleats come together (where the drawstring would be if it were a drawstring pouch) and give a small twist to seal.

4. Set each finished bao on a small square of parchment paper on a baking sheet or in a steamer and lightly cover with plastic wrap or a light kitchen towel. Continue folding until you have formed all of the bao.

To steam:

1. Place a bamboo steamer in the bottom of a wok or large pot, and fill the wok with enough cool water to cover the bottom rim of the steamer by ½". If you've added baking powder to your dough, you may add a splash of vinegar to the water to help neutralise the dough's pH and combat yellowing of the dough.

If you’re using a metal steamer, tie a kitchen towel around its lid to prevent condensation from dipping back down onto the dumplings. Carefully place the bao, along with their parchment paper squares, into the steamer, leaving an inch or so between each one. They will expand as they steam!

If you don’t have a steamer, place a small bowl in the bottom of a wok or large, deep pan or pot. Place the dumplings, with their parchment paper squares, on a plate and place the plate on top of the bowl–the plate should fit inside your pot. Make sure that you can cover the plate and dumplings with a lid. If your lid is domed, there is no need for a kitchen towel, since the condensation will run down towards the outer rim. If your lid is flat, tie a tea towel around it just as you would with a metal steamer. Fill your cooking vessel with 2 or so centimeters of cool water.

2. Raise the heat to high and allow the water to come to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium-low and cover your steamer or pot. Steam the dumplings for about 8 minutes, until the dough is tender and cooked through. Keep finished bao warm in a covered casserole dish in an oven on low while you steam the others.

[ask-annamary]

Do you make your tuna sandwiches correctly? As in, devoid of those dreadful pieces of celery, properly salted, and with the right mayo-to-tuna ratio?

I have an inkling as to who you are, Anonymouse... but I will not make any assumptions.

To be completely honest, it is actually quite easy to keep tabs on what you consume and how your perchases impact the world around you. If you wish to have a tool around to help be more mindful of your food, I highly recommend https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ , it is an immensely helpful resource and I even used it to formulate this response. You can even contact them for printed guides on what you should and should not eat. I personally carry around a few cards for myself and to share with-

Ah... I have noticed a good number of you expressing interest in hearing more about my "infodumps", so I surpose it wouldn't hurt to indulge every now and again. Many of my coworkers have commented about how verbose I can be, so I try to scale down my words from time to time. This will not be one of those times.

Ah yes... the world of industrial fishing. To be as clear as water, I am fully aware of how flawed that system is as a whole. Certain practices are downright devastating to oceans, but alas it is what these companies do to "make ends meet." If you asked me I'd believe the only end they're meeting is the deep end.

Now, where should I begin... ah, let's tackle Bluefin Tuna as a whole. The reason behind this strict avoidance is shrimple: it's overfising. The rate at which these fish are being collected far exceeds the rate at which they can reproduce, meaning that if current practices continue on these fish will not be able to make up for all the numbers lost to fishing.

The method of which these fish are caught can also be quite problematic. Methods such as FADs and drifting longlines can be detrimental not only to tuna, but to many other ocean going creatures. Drifting longlines for example, have a dire habit of getting other creatures ensnared by their hooks, such as various sea birds and sea turtles. FADs, fish aggregating devices, are floating structures created to attract the attention of Tuna, but they bring along other fish that are not intended to be caught like various species of sharks. The phenomena of animals other than the target species being caught is called bycatch, and many of these animals needlessly perish in this process.

Now, one may think farming these fish will be the shorefire solution to this conundrum. Many fish can be sustainably farmed, but one must keep in mind that tuna are gargantuan predators with appetites to match their size. It can take up to FIFTEEN TONS of fish caught from the wild to just produce one ton of tuna meat, meaning more fish are hunted for a mere fraction in return. On top of that, these farms produce a great amount of... er... effluent into the surrounding waters, which then throws the local ecosystem off its balance.

Truly the best way to avoid these issues in fishery is to focus on Tuna whose species are not threatened by over fishing, and more importantly to make sure the fisheries you are purchasing them from are not practicing harmful methods of fishing. One more thing to keep in mind is which ocean they hail from. While species such as Skipjacks and Yellowtails are by no means threatened in the Indian Ocean, many fisheries do not follow rules put into place to prevent over fishing.

Did I cover everything? Or... most of everything? That must be a lot to take in at once, but I am not quizzing any of you on anything. Again, if you are feeling unshore about what youre buying, whether it be tuna, trout, tilapia, or really any seafood, don't hesitate to consult a Seafood Watch guide.

The Deep Diver's excitement slowed to a stop as he remained silent for a moment, realizing how long he had gone on and on and on about... what, something that had initially begun as a debate on tuna sandwiches? Lights within the dark of his helmet began to glow dimly... as if she were... blushing!

... Thank you for listening. I have work to dive back into. Goodbye.

[desertdollranch]

It has become an annual tradition for me to help Antonia put together her farmer's market booth, where she sells all of the fruits, vegetables, and homemade goods that her family's community farm has produced over the past year. Every year, the harvest brings more and more goods. But this autumn, she has outgrown the farmer's market, and is now selling at a roadside stand!

Antonia is ten years old in 1978, when she is inspired by the American Indian Movement to help establish a community farm on land her family owns. It's been a huge success. It has strengthened bonds between friends and neighbors as they all care for each other and make sure that nobody goes hungry.

Whatever is left over after everyone is fed, is then sold at the roadside stand. Antonia is also supplementing with a few special handmade extras that help bring in a little more money. The money will help pay for everything needed to help Snow Mountain Farm grow bigger and better.

Antonia is so proud of what the fields and orchards have grown.

Just look at the size of some of these pumpkins!

Under the cut, Antonia will give you an up-close look at what she's selling....

Everything seen here was either made by me, harvested from the wild, or purchased. (See if you can guess which ones were handmade/bought/gathered!)

The gourd and squash harvest was abundant this year. Antonia managed to coax the garden into producing a few giant pumpkins.

Lots of other fruits thrived as well!

Pears are new this year.

Beautiful pink plums are also new.

Apples are a returning favorite. There are three varieties this year: sweet yellow apples, tart green apples, and a red striped variety that has its own unique flavor.

In the front row are apples, plums, chiles, and pears. On the shelf there are fresh flowers and packaged seeds, various fruit jams, honey, apple cider, dried ground herbs, potted herb seedlings, packaged seeds, and bottles of apple cider.

Up on the shelf there are several varieties of jam: rose petal, peach, grape, prickly pear, and strawberry. Next to them is honey that the farm's bees made from the local wildflowers. The apple cider is made from apples grown in the farm's orchard.

One particular farmer is very gifted in the art of raising flowers. Here you can buy fresh cut flowers, or seedlings for your own garden.

Fruit and vegetable seedlings or seeds are also for sale.

On the checkout counter, Antonia is selling popcorn and apple cider donuts. Directly below the donuts are cartons of eggs, which include white, brown, and speckled eggs.

Below the checkout counter is the small shelf offering some smaller items. In the plastic bags are freshly made tamales, which are like dumplings of meat, veggies, beans, or cheese mixed with a corn dough and steamed inside corn husks. To the right are two wheels of goat's milk cheese. In the middle are skeins of yarn dyed with natural sources, like prickly pear fruits and cabbage leaves. Next to those are bars of soap, in sagebrush or rose petal scent. And on the right end of the shelf are bagged pine nuts, gathered from the wild.

Below that is more produce! On the left, colored corn. In the crates there are potatoes, cherries, strawberries, tomatoes, peaches, and cauliflower.

Antonia is especially proud of the fancy colored corn she has grown. It's fun to open the ears and see what colors the kernels are!

Next to that are giant sunflowers. Above that are the pretty gourds and squashes.

On the bench are some lovely watermelons. And surrounding those are even more pumpkins and squash!

These, too, emerged in all sorts of different colors and shapes. Antonia lets the different varieties cross pollinate, so that the appearances of the resulting pumpkins are a surprise.

Thanks for stopping by! Here, take a sunflower home with you!