I am home, but Patty doesn't get home until the weekend-ish, so all is not quite right with the world yet.
There will be some interesting, accessible to the public, outgrowth of the conference stuff available soon. Soon, of course, as regards academic timelines, which I find to be geologically slow. More about that from my own perspective later, but for now, soon there will be stuff for you, also I will still post my notes.
Also need to write about the Martin Carthy gig.
I have to say, Virgin Atlantic handled the gluten-free meal requests MUCH better than Delta. I did get a roll yesterday that contained "gluten-free wheat starch" that I was too scared to eat, because gluten-attack on an airplane? NO WAY IN HELL DO I WANT THAT EXPERIENCE. Do any of the other celiacs reading this have any insight into "gluten-free wheat starch"? Is it derived from clean oats (which I can't eat anyway) or is it some other bizarreo process?
Thank you to everyone who posted auction items to graduate_maria while I was away. I'll try to check up on and update tags and stuff tonight, and bidding will open in a few days. People who have asked me to post items for them or host pictures, I will also try to get that in order tonight. Sorry for the delay, things have been overwhelming.
That damn writing meme going around. It told me it thought "Because Men Once Went West" is written like Stephen King. That would be no.
Since I can tell it's going to be that type of morning, and I've other stuff to do: Yes, I've seen the purported Torchwood casting sheet; no, I don't have anything to say about it at this time.
WHEAT starch: By-product of WHEAT processing in which the carbohydrates (starch) are separated from the gluten (protein) in wheat flour by means of a complex process of washing, agitating, sieving, centrifugation and use of hydrocyclone, then drying. Sometimes added to food items during processing to thicken and stabilize. WHEAT starch is not considered a risk-free choice; gluten content of WHEAT starch varies greatly. Both the Codex Alimentarious and the proposed FDA definitions for "gluten-free" allow the use of WHEAT starch and other ingredients "specially processed to remove gluten" in foods labeled "gluten-free" so long as the gluten level does not exceed 20 parts per million in total based on the food as sold or distributed to the consumer.
Glad you're back with minimal travel misery. IMO Heathrow is only in the two-thirds horrible if you don't have to go through customs/immigration, but one of the most horrible in Europe if you're not an EU national or citizen. (I passed out in their passport line once from lack of oxygen and nearly got interrogated.)
I was just reading the Economist article on wheat rust and wondering whether celiacs were feeling a little ironic about wheat endangerment.
I look forward to the NAN vs. Homeland Security arguments, and hope like hell that the team gets to go play in good time. Normally I don't mess with the passport office people, but I am also a NAN partisan.
Goose deterrent is becoming a big business, and Canadas are a serious pest problem. I personally think they should get turned into food, but I have no idea if they are safe to eat. They're particularly drawn to grassy areas and water, which is an awful lot of airports, and they're big and fat. The darn birds have stopped migrating and settled into being full-time grass-eating hazards to indigenous wildlife as well as airplanes, and with a lack of predators of anything their size in most settled places, something's got to get done. (And anyone who thinks they're cute has never been attacked by a goose.)
That said, "gluten-free wheat starch?" My knee jerk reaction is that I don't trust any company to actually get that process right, but apparently there's been a couple of small studies that say that a majority of celiacs can tolerate it just fine. I remain skeptical.
Yes. Many celiacs have skin-reaction to wheat contact. Additionally, trace amounts of gluten can remain on the hands and be ingested or get into the mouth during shampooing. Ingesting gluten doesn't just cause immediate, unpleasant digestive tract reactions but any amount ingested increases the odds of a celiac developing bowel cancer, epilepsy or a number of other diseases. All gluten is bad.
Maybe someone knows, but does the US ever guarantee citizens will be able to enter the country? I thought not, but I couldn't turn up anything on google (only stuff about de facto refusals via the no fly list). Of course, if that were the case, the State Department could just say that, rather than mumbling about a rule change.
There's a book called Airport about JFK that has some stuff about bird control, but I've forgotten most of the details. But basically they end up killing birds because there isn't an across the board solution, including killing the birds.
Does the gluten free meal bear a suspicious resemblance to, say, the kosher meal or the vegetarian meal? I'm always amused that there are three or four vegetarian/vegan meal options on the website, but, in reality, there's only the one. (Of late, it seems that the Asian vegetarian meal, theoretically not available on flights between the US and Europe, was made vegan if it wasn't already and they've killed all the birds with one stone. On the plus side, I'd rather have the Asian meal.)
While trying to read every webcomic ever, I stumbled across this strip and thought I would share. It has all the elements of absurdity that make it seem like a real TV show on ABC or something. Right down to that annoying phrase that probably sets off a laugh track.
I have eaten Canada Goose. A butchers near Rye, UK that does the best free range meat on the planet (IMO) had some. It is like tough game bird (e.g. pheasant) but quite yummy (and safe, of course).
We live on a lake which has a small flock of Canadian geese that the neighborhood association brought in with clipped wings, and another small flock of Canadian geese that showed up on their own and stay because people feed them (along with some ducks and a swan.)
Most of them are nervous enough around humans that they'll back off when they see you coming, but there's this one goose which we refer to as "The Goose That Hates The Earth" because it obviously does. This goose hisses at people, it hisses at the other geese, it hisses at the swan, which is bigger that it is and can kick its angry little goose butt. And you would think, okay, geese will fight over food and chase each other away to get at food, but this goose will hiss at you when you're feeding it, chase all of the other geese away, and then NOT EAT THE FOOD.
When I went to the last neighborhood meeting, someone suggested that we have a goose cook-off; the menfolk'll go hunting and then the womenfolk'll cook 'em. They were joking, but we may decide to go through with it eventually.
That damn writing meme going around. It told me it thought "Because Men Once Went West" is written like Stephen King. That would be no.
houseboatonstyx did an experiment and posted the results (http://houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com/95712.html) over in his own journal, which I will now repeat for you here:
Jane Austen writes like Jane Austen Henry James writes like Jane Austen Nabokov writes like Nabokov Norman Maclean writes like Defoe Defoe writes like Shakespeare Howard Kurtz writes like Stephen King (well, that could have been the content) Sagan writes like Poe Poe writes like Doyle Doyle writes like Doyle
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graduate_maria while I was away. I'll try to check up on and update tags and stuff tonight, and bidding will open in a few days. People who have asked me to post items for them or host pictures, I will also try to get that in order tonight. Sorry for the delay, things have been overwhelming.
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stardragonca.livejournal.com
2010-07-13 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
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houseboatonstyx did an experiment and posted the results (http://houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com/95712.html) over in his own journal, which I will now repeat for you here:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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