The dogma of crypto coins
**Yes, I am a holder, and here is why**
Image source : coindesk.com
These days I had a constructive discussion with a few of my friends about the crypto world. We are all in the crypto story less than the very beginning and our discussions are always about what the future holds for crypto. At one point we tried to analyze the whole story from a social perspective.
At this point we have a very short period of time in the existence of the world of cryptocurrencies so we can only make an assumption based on experiences with some other phenomena of a similar nature throughout human history.
If the scientific analytics of sociology were to be applied, one cannot help but notice that in the crypto world one kind of dogma is becoming more and more entrenched, which in its dissected form has large common parts like most religious dogmas.
**What is dogma?**
By definition, the term dogma is generally used to denote the fundamental principle of a religion, or those philosophically formulated beliefs that are laid down at the core of a given teaching.
More or less, our general conclusion boils down to the fact that the crypto world is still waiting for a bright future because the dogma, which appears in the crypto story, has so far proved to be able to mobilize billions of people for thousands of years in continuity. During all these years, there were ups and downs of individual gods, but the essence is that religion is something that has survived deep in the minds of the people, regardless of the fact that the deities have changed.
**What is it that makes the world of crypto money alluring?**
To begin with, we can say that there are three things in the dogma of almost every religion
- hope for a reward
- fear of punishment
- consolation for everything that we cannot change on the basis of which we draw strength to continue through life
So don't we find something like that in the world of cryptocurrencies? How else can we explain that group of people we call holders, than as someone who believes and hopes to be rewarded?
We could define all newcomers to the club as those who are there for fear of a missed opportunity (read fear of punishment)
**What is it that makes the world of crypto money sustainable?**
Realistically, the answer is very simple. The whole world of cryptocurrencies is maintained by those people we call holders. A common feature of all holders is faith in what they do. So the existence of the world of cryptocurrency is made possible by those people who, if we are talking about any religion, would call them believers. They are all great promoters of the whole story and thanks to that more and more people are joining this community every day. We all know that in the world of religion we have missionaries who spread their kind of faith among the people. Recent events prove just that. A direct influence on the strengthening of the world of cryptocurrencies was made a few days ago, and a few months ago, by Elon Musk, who recruited a very large number of new people in the crypto world. The site we are on plays a role, expanding the number of people in the world of cryptocurrencies, and it does that mission very well. A good number of people I meet on the site have not met crypto coins directly before. For myself, I can say that I am responsible for at least twenty new crypto holders, so all this is nothing but missionary work.
**Ordinary stories from life that become myths and legends as an indispensable part of every dogma**
Whether you are a religious man or not and no matter what religion you belong to, I am sure you know many stories that can be found in sacred religious books. They are there as a reminder to persevere in our faith and proof that our faith is not in vain. They are also there to warn us that we can expect punishment if we do not act in accordance with the expected norms.
We find the same in the world of cryptocurrencies. I honestly don’t know if any crypto holder with a track longer than a month or two days doesn’t know the story of a man who bought a pizza for 10,000 bitcoins. The conclusion that can be drawn is that he had no faith and that he repented very quickly because of his actions. So some kind of punishment reached him. Although this is a story with a sad ending, it has recruited a large number of people into the crypto world.
On the other hand, many positive stories about how cryptocurrencies have changed people's lives for the better are a very good inspiration for all those who have not yet started saving cryptocurrencies.
My life story is one of those, because thanks to crypto coins I managed something that I would not have succeeded without them. Thanks to crypto novices, my children today are highly educated people with respectable occupations and all this has been provided by the crypto world.
**How can the world of cryptocurrencies fail?**
Crypto coins can fail if all holders lose faith in them at the same time and try to redeem them at the same time. That, at least for me, is an amazing scenario.
The next way is for them to become banned globally, which is again a scenario that has already become unbelievable due to the large number of people present in the story.
The third way is to cut off electricity on the entire planet for a very long period of time. Also an amazing scenario, but if something like that happens, crypto money and everything else will be our least concern.
**Conclusion**
By analyzing the data, we can come to the figure that today at least 2% of the world's population has some contact with the world of cryptocurrencies. This world is no longer reserved for a narrow group of people in the IT sector and butchers on the stock exchanges, but most of those ordinary people like me, my wife, children, friends ... Thanks to the mentioned messiahs, many young people, even children, got involved. in swimming crypto waters about which I wrote a short article a few days ago. All this leads me to the conclusion that the crypto world has come into our lives and that it will most likely stay there forever. It would be very interesting to look to the future through some 5 or 10 generations when people will find themselves passing on their cryptocurrencies from generation to genre, as they pass on religious attitudes or fan passions.
How i dry meat and bacon in my apartment
I am a big meat lover. I love it in every form and in every way. Since I don't like to buy meat products in the markets (because I don't like what's in them) I like to prepare some specialties. Today I will show you how to make dried meat and bacon in my apartment. Of course these quantities are not large, but for me it is enough. To begin, take the meat and bacon and cut into strips 1x1 cm. Since all this is made at home, my recommendation is to make smaller pieces that we can quickly prepare or process.
Then we need to salt that meat and let it stand for a while. Take the most common plastic dish and arrange the meat in it, making sure that each piece is well salted.
Arrange the meat so that there is no space between the pieces in which air will be retained.
Leave the meat prepared in this way in the refrigerator for 48 hours to salt it nicely. After that time, the meat is ready for the next step in preparation.
So after 48 hours, take the meat out of the fridge and, depending on the place where we are going to dry, hang the meat. Since I dry it in a small oven, I use bamboo sticks.
When arranging the meat, care should be taken to make a large enough space between the pieces that they must not touch.
Then we arrange the sticks prepared in this way in the oven. You can use any combination for drying, the only important thing is to ensure a constant flow of air, as well as that there is enough space for lighting a fire whose flame will not reach what you are drying.
Here’s what it looks like when it’s all filled. I repeat, pay attention that the pieces are at a sufficient distance from each other, otherwise you may dry out badly.
Then comes the smoking. For smoking, you need wood that has been cut into small pieces. The essence is that by burning that wood, you provide the meat with a small amount of smoke and not heat.
I light a tree in a tin box of candy, and then put it in the oven. I do this to prevent the wood from burning quickly and at the same time to get a larger amount of smoke.
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Here’s what it looks like when we look through the furnace opening.
Here's what it looks like after 24 hours when we look down in the oven.
And here we are after 48 hours, it's time to take our product out of the space where we dried it.
As you can see in the picture, it looks great, and believe me, the taste is even more beautiful. As for the meat itself, it is perfectly dried, it could even take less time to dry. The bacon, although it is excellent, I decided to leave it to dry for a while, because it is not possible to dry it too much.
And of course why all this if it is not tried immediately. For lunch, I mixed wheat and corn cakes that go well with young cream and of course dried meat.
After the meal, I had no choice but to pay close attention to watching TV from my bed.
Vaccination in the race with mutations
What to do during vaccination? Follow all protection measures, because the corona-virus continues to mutate.
Corona-virus is different from influenza: the development of new strains requires a large number of infected people who serve as "incubators" for new mutations. The more infected, the more mutations, and therefore the greater the chance that a virus will stab the "winning combination" and bypass the acquired immunity - both the one developed in people who have had the disease and the one developed through vaccination.
*Measures to limit the spread of the virus and vaccinations are aimed not only at reducing the burden on the medical system, but also at preventing such further changes in the virus.*
**Vaccination does not mean that everything is over now.**
Immunity is built and vaccines help. However, while some have been vaccinated, there are many others who have not.
We face two problems:
**Unvaccinated people can become infected**, the virus can mutate in them, and a new mutant can endanger those who have been vaccinated.
**Some vaccinated people can become infected**, and with only a mild form of the disease, they transmit the virus to the unvaccinated and help create further mutations.
That is why it is important that as many people as possible are vaccinated and that mere protection (masks, distance) is respected in the meantime.
**New mutants are beginning to show effects**
New research has shown that the AstraZeneca vaccine is insufficiently effective against B.1.351 strains, giving barely 25% protection. South Africa has therefore canceled the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, and other countries are expected to reverse the strategy as the mutant spreads around the world. In other words, one of the world's players in the field of immunization is drastically weakened, until it manages to reformulate the vaccine and check this new formulation.
Loss of efficacy has not been seen with the AstraZeneca vaccine alone. The new vaccines, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax, are very effective against the primary strain (85–90%), but are much less effective against the new mutants (49–57%). There are currently no data on the effects of new mutations on Sputnik V and Sinofarm vaccines. Modern and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been shown to be effective against new strains of corona-virus. The question is how long their resistance against new, combined mutants will last if the spread of corona-virus is not slowed down.
**What does this mean for each of us, especially for those who would like to "wait a bit" with vaccination?**
In an ideal world, a vaccine would completely protect us from getting sick at all, especially in light of the fact that the virus can have consequences in milder forms of the disease. We are also looking for the most ideal (effective) vaccine, because it is important from the point of view of achieving collective immunity: the higher the efficiency, the faster we will be able to get out of quarantine. But in this pandemic situation, these are not the only essential items for the vaccine, and now the search for perfection is the enemy of success. It is necessary for a large percentage of humanity to acquire at least basic resistance, so that we can talk about stopping mutations.
***Waiting for the perfect vaccine slows down the vaccination process and the acquisition of collective immunity, and leaves extra room for the corona-virus to mutate.***
For now, *****all vaccines continue to prevent severe forms of the disease*****, which is especially important for the elderly and for people in risk groups. As more severe forms of the disease have a higher chance of leaving more severe long-term consequences, partial protection pays off at that level as well.
It is very important to understand that any reduction in the ability of the virus to spread helps, both to finally stop the pandemic and to remove the burden from the hospital system.
**Why is it important to get vaccinated as soon as possible?**
As mutations in new strains become an increasing threat, so does vaccination become even more important. It is necessary to limit the number of strains that can spread in parallel (and thus become the basis for further mutations). It is also necessary to produce basic resistance, even if it happens that it will require additional vaccines.
Restrictive measures to prevent the spread of the virus are becoming increasingly important. Wear masks. Because the fewer masks, the more infected, and the more chances for mutations.
**What can we expect in the coming months while the vaccination lasts?** We now see the first practical effects of mutations, but many unknowns remain. In the coming months, we will see the real results of the collision of new strains with the existing immunity in those who have suffered from corona-virus, as well as in those who have been vaccinated.
There are two directions, ie two possible "futures":
It can happen that the remaining immunity is still strong enough to limit the spread and effects of the virus. In that case, it will be possible to "open the world" during the summer or autumn of this year.
However, it can happen that the evolution of the virus continues, and we start to see an increasing number of re-infections. In that case, we are followed by additional vaccines that "cover" mutants, similar to annual flu vaccines. And we can expect normalization in 2022.
Which of these two directions will become a reality depends primarily on the effectiveness of vaccination and the implementation of protection measures. Wear masks. Keep your distance. And get vaccinated. Only in this way will we stop pandemics and corona-virus mutations.
As you may have already read, I received my first dose of the vaccine exactly 3 weeks ago and I am going to receive my second dose tomorrow.
I wrote about it in this article:
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/i-received-my-first-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-7acd18eb
Children as active traders in crypto exchanges
image source : Id tech magazine
All of us who follow the events in the crypto world, are familiar with last week's events on the crypto market. Apart from the fact that a real confusion was made with the actions (tokens) of the game stop store, there was also a very interesting event with DOGE coin. The whole story started with a few tweets of celebrities who started an avalanche of money trading. All this would be nothing strange or worth a deeper analysis if a new category of traders had not appeared in the whole story.
Crypto markets are certainly interested in attracting an increasing number of users and merchants, which is no secret, because the more massive the story, the better it will be for all participants and that is not in dispute. However, somehow from the shadows, all those markets were approached by generations from whom this was not expected. Namely, it is becoming more and more known that children aged 12 to 14 have started to enter the world of crypto markets more and more.
I found out all this quite unexpectedly today during a class I was teaching to children of that age. I noticed some unusual commotion with them, even though they are very careful in my classes, so I asked them what it was about. And then they explained to me that they were tracking the price of a dog coin and that they expected it to fall in order to buy them, because they sold at a good price yesterday.
Honestly, even after some 6-7 hours since then, I still don't know what to think about it and whether it's good or bad for those young children. In class, I tried to explain to them how it all works and that it is all a game in which in order for someone to win, someone has to lose and be very careful and not expect to get rich overnight.
They thanked me for caring for them, and told me that now a large number of their peers around the world are interested in this story, thanks to Tik Tok and Twitter, where the future of all cryptocurrencies is very positively talked about and the Doge coin is especially emphasized. and recommended for purchase.
All this trend that has emerged in children of this age is certainly partly caused by the current situation around the pandemic, so they were forced to transfer a large part of their activities to the virtual world.
Divorce and mutual friends
Ex-spouses often expect close people to decide, take sides and condemn the other. Sometimes this attitude is blackmailing: You are either with me or you are against me.
When people enter into a serious relationship or marriage, they "bring" their friends into that relationship. After a while, with perhaps a few exceptions, she and his friends become mutual friends. When, after a certain number of years, the two decide to break up or divorce, it emotionally "shakes" the network of mutual friends. Divorces and breakups are sad, which is why mutual friends often react with a feeling of sadness that a period of socializing and living together has ended. The typical result is that everyone "takes" their personal friends that they "brought" into their life together.
Every breakup of a deep emotional relationship, whether marriage or a serious relationship, is accompanied by numerous feelings, from anger, sadness, anxiety, all the way to contempt and hatred. Although people often say that they have agreed to separate, behind that "agreement" often lies the truth that one of them is leaving the other who would like the relationship to continue. Every divorce is the result of various forces, it is always a complex phenomenon, but people often want to simplify all that complexity and put things in black and white and clearly indicate who is "guilty" of divorce and who is not.
**Transfer of responsibilities**
The essence is in shifting the responsibility for the failure of the marriage or relationship to the other side, while denying any of one's own responsibility.
In that way, a simplified picture is created in which one side sees itself as a victim, and the other side sees itself as a traitor, exploiter, manipulator, dishonest, unfaithful, violent, etc. When someone creates such an image, he expects relatives and friends to accept and confirm it. Especially with those people who feel ashamed that they didn't succeed and who think that others might think that they didn't succeed because they are not good enough at something. That is why a person expects close people to decide, to take his side - the side of the victim and to condemn the other side. Sometimes this attitude is blackmailing: You are either with me or you are against me.
It is not uncommon for a person who is convinced that he is a victim of the other side to conduct a small propaganda campaign to denigrate the other side to all mutual friends. It is also not uncommon for friends to opt for and take the side of the victim, strongly condemning the other partner. The whole thing gains in intensity when the blackened partner opposes a similar counter-campaign with mutual friends, with his arguments according to which he is a victim of the other side.
The worst is when one of the partners asks the joint children to accept that he is the one who is the victim, and that the other partner is a bad person, and that the children should take sides and condemn the other partner - mom or dad. This forcing children to decide and condemn one parent creates fear in them that they will be rejected if they do not, but at the same time confusion about the emotional attachment to the other parent. It is often an introduction to relationship poisoning and the alienation syndrome by which the "victim" parent vindictively prevents the other parent from exercising his or her right to see the children as well as the children's right to communicate with the other parent.
While it is understandable that friends take the side of those they care about, taking sides is primitive and bad. If the divorce is already complicated and difficult, by getting a friend's confirmation that she is a victim, she becomes even more vindictively aggressive. That makes a difficult divorce even harder.
**Emotional support instead of condemnation**
Someone's mutual friends, as well as people who are divorcing or breaking up, should be aware of the problem of "taking someone's side" during or after the divorce. Friends should not take sides, but emotionally support a person who is divorcing in ways that do not involve denigrating the ex or ex. People who get divorced should not visit friends and expect others to accept their black-and-white proof that they are a victim by eating and taking out "dirty laundry".
An additional reason why the denigration of the other party should be rejected is that an unexpected turn of events can occur: for the two to reconcile and continue with the marriage or relationship. In that case, socializing after reconciliation can be so uncomfortable for everyone involved that the socializing stops. Although the practice of seeking to take sides is still widespread, it seems that more and more people are divorcing in a civilized manner, maintaining friendly relations as much as possible, which is especially important when children are involved in the divorce.
Regulation of pH value in the body
image source : synoxis
**Stories that certain foods can cause acidity in the body, and thus cancer, are stories for young children of those who either have nothing to do with physiology, chemistry, pH regulation or those malicious, who want to take advantage of the sale of drugs that claim to raise pH. alkaline.**
There are also some really incredibly untrue, not to say stupid, tables in which it is claimed that lemon is of a basic character, and dandelion even has a pH value of 26. Anyone who would take a pH-meter or ordinary litmus paper could determine that lemon juice of acidic character, which is also shown when water from rose petals is added lemon juice - it turns red, due to anticyclonic from rose petals which are an indicator of pH value. Anyone who knows anything about chemistry, and this is really elementary school chemistry, knows that there is no pH 26, but that it is a scale from 0 to 14.
**Also, the cause of cancer is not acidity**
The body has amazing systems of regulation of a favorable state, balance, which we call homeostasis. We cannot live outside of homeostasis. If our temperature regulation is disturbed - it is bad for us. The same with the acid-base status of the organism, blood sugar and many other parameters. Fortunately, the body has systems that regulate it. One of the systems of regulation of acid-base status is breathing. It also regulates the pH value of blood, which ranges from 7.35 to 7.45. Although this is only slightly higher than the neutral value and on the base side of the pH scale, 7.35 is considered acidosis (although narrowly it is not an acidic pH, but only a “more acidic” value than pH 7.4). 7.45 is the value going towards the alkaline side.
The respiratory system contributes to the balance of acids and bases in the body by regulating the level of Carbonic acid in the blood. CO2 in the blood reacts easily with water because there is an enzyme carbon anhydrous that accelerates and stimulates this reaction in which Carbonic acid is produced and the levels of CO2 and Carbonic acid in the blood are in balance. In other words, they pass into each other, when there is an excess of one:
image source : Human biology online
When the level of CO2 in the blood rises, for example when you hold your breath, excess CO2 reacts with water and produces additional Carbonic acid, lowering the pH in the blood. Increasing the speed, ie. breathing depth (which you can feel the “urge” to hold your breath, try to do it - something will make you hold your breath) allows you to exhale more CO2. The loss of CO2 from the body reduces the level of Carbonic acid in the blood and thus adjusts the pH to normal levels. This system also works in the opposite direction. Excessively deep and rapid breathing (as is the case in hyperventilation) removes CO2 from the blood and lowers Carbonic acid levels, making the blood too alkaline. This short alkalosis can be removed by re-breathing the air exhaled into a paper bag (“hyperventilation bags” in case of panic). Re-inhaling exhaled air will quickly lower your blood pH to normal.
Chemical reactions that regulate CO2 and Carbonic acid levels occur in the lungs when blood passes through the pulmonary capillaries. Smaller breathing adjustments are usually sufficient to adjust blood pH by changing the amount of CO2 exhaled. Doubling the breathing rate in less than a minute, removing “extra” CO2, would increase blood pH by 0.2 parts of the scale. This situation is common if you exercise hard for a while. To maintain the necessary energy production, the body produces excess CO2 and lactic acid if you exercise above your aerobic threshold, which you will later feel as muscle pain, due to the synthesis and accumulation of lactic acid. To balance the increased acid production, the respiration rate is increased which prevents acidosis.
The body regulates the rate of respiration using chemoreceptors, which primarily use CO2 as a signal. Peripheral blood sensors are located in the walls of the aorta and carotid arteries. These sensors signal the brain to immediately adjust its breathing rate if CO2 levels rise or fall. Changes in pH affect the respiratory center in the medulla, which can directly modulate the rate of respiration to bring the pH back to the normal range.
Hypercapnia or abnormally elevated levels of CO2 in the blood occur in any situation that impairs respiratory function, including pneumonia and congestive heart failure. Decreased breathing (hypo-ventilation) due to medications such as morphine, barbiturates, or ethanol, or even just holding your breath, can also result in hypercapnia. Hypocapnia or abnormally low levels of CO2 in the blood occur in the case of hyperventilation when CO2 is rejected, such as when the room temperature is elevated, in fever or in cases of hysteria.
**From this we see that the regulation of the pH value of the blood is a very subtle mechanism, and those who say that masks cause acidosis really do not know the physiology and will not know it. The reduction of the partial pressure of oxygen during prolonged wearing of masks is up to about 2%, which is not enough to cause the effects they are talking about, least of all acidosis. Which, I repeat, is not the cause of cancer.**
Youth and mental health in a changing world
And how is that actually changing the world? "The world has receded, children no longer listen to their parents." This statement sounds trivial today, but it was also written by an Egyptian priest about six thousand years ago. A similar statement is attributed to Socrates. The problems of the generation gap certainly resonate with social change and the "spirit of the times", but the eternity of this issue, as evidenced by this statement, probably has a foothold in some fundamental processes related to the development of personality and leading to certain disagreements between young people and those they are no more. Rebellion in adolescence can lead to extremes that go beyond the legal limits of acceptable behavior.
But, yes, the world is really changing; prices are changing, borders are being redrawn, municipalities are becoming cities, jobs that were unthinkable a decade ago are now becoming irreplaceable and indispensable ... Various parts of the planet are becoming connected in ways that open previously unimagined possibilities, and people build consensus on their topics globally. Strange things happen to young people as well, because we see signs of anxiety and difficulty adjusting like never before. It is not easy to answer the question of whether this is because we pay more attention to recognizing some changes, referring to criteria that were not even on our minds before, or because young people today are different in some way - and the question is whether we are in delusions like the intellectual of ancient civilization were, or are really different because we prepare them for life in a different way. And maybe the world is really changing too fast.
If you ask psychologists today to tell you something about the challenges that young people face growing up, one of the things they will not avoid is the so-called virtual world. It is possible today to lead some version of social life without a man crossing the threshold of the house. And this parallel life is not a special substitute for the reality that humanity has known so far, and even less appropriate preparation for coping with that, let's call it "classical" reality. From entertaining and / or informative video clips (in which not quite reliable information is served), and we like them to be shorter and shorter and we even play them quickly, I guess so that we don't miss something somewhere; to pornography that creates a distorted image of such an important piece of life, while at the same time arousing signals in the brain that distort the motives for participating in real relationships.
foto: ortodonticslimited.com
In a world with which touch is made through smaller or larger screens, bare information about what exists out there is crucial. The father of American psychology, William James (1842-1910), said that each of us carries two worlds: me, and what is not me. And now that rest of the world is becoming difficult to test by touch, smell, it is difficult to assess the price of contact with the world and the experience gained by sweating. Mostly it’s just a two-dimensional image, and the cost of the experience is measured in megabytes. In this world, the notion of others is most often a make-up, a projected illusion of the real life of others. And that’s hard to keep in mind. That is why a new challenge is to compare one's own life, about which the young person still has a realistic picture, with the picture of other people's lives, which is so easy to forget that.
Life has always been hard and the world challenging. So, there is nothing so new in the world. And even if there is news, every neurobiologist will tell you that it is the brains of teenagers that are best prepared to search for and react to news.
Researchers today often approach why adolescence is an age of risky behaviors by focusing on two functional systems, one concerning the processing of motives, the so-called. a socio-emotional system, which predisposes adolescents to respond positively to novelty; and others, the cognitive system, which puts the tendency to be exposed to potentially harmful activities under a kind of control. There are different variants of looking at the relationship between these two systems [ref.], But what they have in common is that they postulate that they stand in a significant gap in adolescence. The course of development of either of the two systems alone cannot explain the specifics of adolescent behavior that we consider typical. Of course, if we were to further atomize the view of individual functions and how they develop, it is certain that things do not flow evenly. And this coincides with the intuitive understanding of the layman; everyone knows how people at different stages of life can contradict themselves whether we look at them as intellectual or emotional beings, whether we look at their motives, dreams and wills. Both life experience and science will easily agree that in that respect, adolescence is the period of the greatest transition. But what science tells us through the study of the two key systems mentioned is that it is precisely this gap that opens up the possibility of the greatest transformation. This feature is also the root of the problems that the ominous think of when they talk about the challenges that await young people today, but also the foundation that needs to be built to build the world of the future. Because of this trait, young people sometimes give priority to risky activity compared to the possible harmful consequences, which most of those who are no longer young would be wary of.
In a way, it could be said that all the challenges that a developing person faces, ultimately relate to defining one's own identity and reconciling with what the person is. In this search, which is by no means limited in time to adolescence, although it is perhaps the most obvious at the time, the role models that people follow in shaping their behavior and their value system play a significant role. After all, most of people’s lives are spent investing in relationships with others, and a small number of those relationships make up that person’s definition as well; without these "significant others" one feels "empty", "unfulfilled", "incomplete" ...
Many people, who learn about life and think about it, are inclined to think that every moment has already been seen, so they err in the wrong conclusion like the Egyptian. But life is not a circle, but a spiral; an axis, one that always goes only and exclusively in one direction - towards the future, around which we all move, is the same for both young and old. Unlike a highway, life has no unit of measure. Some will make less of those twenty marks, some more; someone will go in one direction, someone in the other. Lives are incommensurable. The only measure and comparison that young people must learn to make is with themselves. The world around us is changing, but that’s largely because people are changing it. Young people must learn not to worry about a changing world, he will take care of it himself. Their job is to find a way to participate, how to change it. Life needs to find a way to change itself, and above all to find a reason why it needs to be made better and better without delay; for someone’s smile, for a feeling that awakens a good deed, and no one has yet found a way to send it over WiFi.
I received my first dose of Covid 19 vaccine
I want to brag to you and share my experiences about getting the vaccine. Yesterday around noon I went to the vaccination center to get the vaccine. I do not belong to the risk groups, but I was lucky that they sent a public invitation so that anyone could come and I responded.
Vaccination was performed in the sports hall, and I am very satisfied because all measures of social distance were respected. When I entered the facility, they measured my temperature, and then I received a form that I filled out. For all those who did not cope, there was a very friendly medical staff who helped everyone.
Then the doctor I talked to called me and that's it, they gave me the first dose of the vaccine.
As of this writing, it's been 30 hours since I received the vaccine and I can tell you that I feel great, I don't have any side effects. My wife also received the vaccine with me and she does not have any reactions either.
Today we were informed that the second dose will be given to us in 21 days. Honestly, I have to tell you that I am very happy to have had the opportunity to get the vaccine and I expect that mine and my family’s life will finally start to return to normal.
As for the scientific side, the vaccine I received was made with the technology used to make a seasonal flu vaccine. The production uses a dead virus that is divided into sequences. It is not possible to get an infection from a vaccine made in this way. As for the effectiveness of this vaccine, it has an efficiency of about 80% with the very important note that if you happen to be in that group of 20% of people who still get sick, the severity of the disease is very mild and does not produce serious consequences.
Thank you for reading my post, and I want everyone to stay safe and healthy and get rid of this virus as soon as possible.
DeFi - What is decentralized finance and what are its advantages?
DeFi comes from eng. “Decentralized finance” which means decentralized finance. By "DeFi" we mean all blockchain applications or protocols that offer us some kind of financial service using smart contracts, or a financial service that is not based on trust but code.
Since the main feature of cryptocurrency and blockchain is verify> trust, DeFi is based on a decentralized, distributed approach to the problem that is defined in the code and that is visible to all and cannot be changed.
So, just like Bitcoin or Ethereum, each transaction is publicly visible transparent, and the way the protocol works is strictly defined in the code.
Most of DeFi is currently on the Ethereum blockchain, so we can say with certainty that Ethereum dominates in that sector. We also find some DeFi services on the Matic, Polkadot and Waves blockchain, as well as in L2 (2nd layer) Ethereum solutions such as xDai / Stake and Arbitrum. We believe this will change drastically over time as we are in the very early stages of DeFi.
As some of the first DeFi projects, we would mention the DEX (decentralized exchange offices) of Etherdelt and Forkdelt, which had several million dollars in daily traffic at the beginning of 2018, and the Maker / Dai ecosystem, but before we go deeper into all this and what are the benefits and risks.
**What are the benefits of DeFi?**
You must be wondering what benefits the average user gets from this, so to name a few.
**Anyone with a suitable wallet can use or participate in DeFi protocols.**
Example for DEX:
You cannot or do not want to make a KYC (User Identification) on an exchange, but you want to change your ETH to USDT.
If you use DEX (decentralized exchange offices), you are not obliged to account to anyone for who you are, to give a name or information for the transaction you want to make. All that will be visible is that you have sold ETH for USDT and that you have communicated with the smart contract.
Likewise, no one can stop your transaction or prevent you from doing what you want.
**DEXs work non-stop, 24 hours a day.**
Because DeFi protocols are built on networks like Ethereum, they will provide the service as long as Ethereum operates, and due to the decentralized nature of the network itself, it is unlikely that they will ever be inaccessible to users.
So here we avoid a problem like “The exchange office is not working! I just wanted to sell ETH! ”
**No one keeps coins or tokens in trust.**
As we said earlier, all it takes to use DeFi services is a wallet, and from that same wallet we perform transactions.
The transaction is performed within a smart contract, and your coins or tokens leave the wallet only if they communicate with the smart contract or do the transaction.
The exceptions are coins or tokens that you lock in a smart contract - so you make a deposit, but the difference is that you do not give your coins to someone you trust but lock them in a smart contract, and if that contract has no flaws in the code we can say that you are safer than when keep them on the exchange.
**Earnings through participation in DeFi.**
Everyone in DeFi can participate as a user and as part of the infrastructure, ie they can offer their liquidity (coins and tokens) for use in smart contracts and be rewarded for it. Plenty of DeFi services offer a very affordable APY (annual return on investment) for liquidity providers.
So, in case the smart contract has no problems and is not subject to attacks it is possible to make a profit on your capital.
**What are the disadvantages and risks?**
Since DeFi is a fairly new concept in the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchains, there are certainly disadvantages and risks. The first problems appeared already in August 2020 during the first DeFi madhouse.
**DeFi application fees**
We have learned that every use of DeFi services also means communication with a smart contract, ie the network on which the service is built - most often Ethereum.
Ethereum is currently capable of digesting 16 transactions per second, which means it simply does not tolerate excessive network traffic without making transactions very expensive.
So, at the moment, Ethereum is not able to withstand that pressure without irrationally expensive transactions, unless you buy or sell large amounts of cryptocurrencies, in which case the transaction price of 10 or 100 US dollars is still negligible.
The solution to this problem is currently Ethereum 2.0 - a version that will be able to handle significantly more transactions per second, but due to slow development, many are looking at L2 / second layer (solutions on the second layer) as an option.
It also makes sense to mention xDai / Stake with its Uniswap clone - Honeyswap.
The same transaction on Honeyswap costs less than $ 0.01 as opposed to Uniswap where it can cost well over a few dollars, depending on the current network saturation.
It will be interesting to see which of the L2 networks will be dominant for DeFi, and which other blockchains will compete with Ethereum in this branch.
**Problems in the code**
The next problem is the so-called "rug pull" or problem in the code.
Like any program, any DeFi can have some problem within the code that can be exploited by hackers or thieves. Most DeFi protocols have their code publicly available on Github, which makes it easier to find a problem, but also to use that problem to your advantage.
Whether it’s due to poor code design, or the dependence of smart contracts on external factors such as the price of a coin or token in the market. Such attacks often occur - "oracle" attacks using flash loans (quick loans) which are used to liquidate users.
DeFi services like Aave and Synthetix that use Chainlink for price feeds have not had such problems, as their price feed (source of pricing) is decentralized and almost impossible to manipulate.
**Types of DeFi applications**
DEX (decentralized exchange offices) - Exchange offices are used to exchange some coin or token for another coin or token. An exchange office is a platform where supply and demand meet. The difference between a regular exchange office and a decentralized exchange office is that on decentralized exchange offices, transaction users work directly on P2P without intermediaries. Each transaction is recorded in a blockchain and takes place using smart contracts on the blockchain.
As an example, it is definitely worth mentioning Uniswap, which was practically the main topic in the summer of 2020. It is also interesting that in September 2020, Uniswap had more traffic than one of the dominant exchange offices - Coinbase.
Coinbase monthly turnover in September $ 13.6B.
Uniswap monthly turnover in September $ 15.4B.
**Decentralized stablecoins** - One of the most popular decentralized stable cryptocurrencies is DAI. Its value is based on the Maker / Dai protocol. Ethereum is used as collateral to create DAI stablecoin.
**Lending platforms** - Lending platforms allow us to borrow a certain amount of money in the form of coins or tokens in exchange for a capital deposit (which is repaid in full after the loan is disbursed) in a fully decentralized manner. For example, Aave allows us to borrow up to 75% of the value of the invested capital.
Example of Aave:
We have 100 ETH and we don’t want to sell a single coin, and we need capital for some short trade or a good investment opportunity. We deposit ETH in Aave, under “Lending,” and borrow stablecoin (such as USDT). We are still owned by ETH, but under the guarantee that we will repay the debt.
In addition, we must be careful that our "health factor" does not go too low as this could liquidate the borrowed ETH.
Tokenized goods - DeFi services that I think are important to highlight are securely tokenized goods such as “Wrapped BTC” (wBTC), renBTC, and Synthetix goods of the “sBRENT” type.
Take wBTC as an example:
When we "wrap" a part of a bitcoin, it switches from a Bitcoin blockchain to an Ethereum blockchain, ie it becomes a "wBTC" which is actually an ERC-20 token that represents the same bitcoin locked in a smart contract. The advantage of "wBTC" over BTC is that then we can relatively easily use "wBTC" in DeFi.
Thus, the relatively useless “BTC” becomes capital that can be used in DeFi protocols built on other smart contract platforms, the main Ethereum for now.
**Yield farming** - is a term for participating in a DeFi protocol in order to profit from it.
For example. a USDT deposit in AAVE for use gives some 20% APY (current APY approximately), which means that we get 20% annual interest on your USDT.
**Conclusion**
DeFi is a new branch in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and offers us something we have not yet had through new types of financial services.
Like any "young" technology, there is great risk and potential for profit. At the moment, even more experienced DeFi cryptographers have something new and unexplored, so we suggest beginners to research what it is about and how it works before pouring the entire portfolio into DeFi.
With DeFi we enter a phase where we begin to see the full potential of the blockchain, which means more than ordinary transactions. So, this is the next step in the development of blockchain technology and it is important to be informed about the crypto market branch which alone is currently worth around $ 21.8B.
Antibiotic resistance and the COVID-19 pandemic: how much are we exacerbating the problem?
In a little over 30 years, antibiotic-resistant bacteria could become more deadly than cancer worldwide. In America alone, about 23,000 people die each year from the effects of an antibiotic-resistant infection, and some experts estimate that there may be more.
Antibiotic resistance is often referred to today as a "silent pandemic", and refers to the phenomenon that many pathogenic bacteria acquire resistance to existing antibiotics. The World Health Organization has declared this phenomenon one of the 10 greatest threats to humanity, a problem that must be addressed urgently. Antimicrobial resistance - AMR - that is, "antibiotic resistance" occurs as a result of the evolution of bacteria that gives them resistance to the hitherto known drugs that destroy bacteria in various ways. Such bacteria, which have drug resistance, are called "superbugs". . We do not have new antibiotics and little is being invested in finding new antibiotics, so now the only way to fight is the rational use of existing drugs.
Some of the diseases caused by bacteria are tuberculosis, whooping cough, tetanus, a number of bacterial sexually transmitted diseases and plague. Today, there are already several types of tuberculosis agents that are resistant to antibiotics, and this disease is becoming increasingly difficult to treat. Tuberculosis, but also some other diseases such as diphtheria and whooping cough, can be prevented with vaccines, but while the diphtheria vaccine is quite effective, the tuberculosis vaccine mostly protects children and prevents more severe forms of the disease, but it does not prevent infection.
**Bacterial disease vaccines help reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance**
The whooping cough vaccine also protects children, but its effectiveness declines after a few years, and in our country there is no possibility of vaccination ("boost" doses) of adults. Therefore, it is not uncommon for whooping cough to circulate in the elderly population. There are also infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), pneumococcal and meningococcal infections. However, there are vaccines against both pneumococci and meningococci, and in fact vaccines partially reduce the problem of antibiotic resistance.
**How antibiotic resistance develops**
Until recently, we were able to successfully treat bacterial infections with various antibiotics, however, the intensive and improper use of these drugs has led to some bacteria gaining resistance. The evolution of bacteria happens much faster than the evolution of more complex living beings, and bacteria that acquire mutations that make them resistant to antibiotics survive therapies and form new colonies.
Namely, during cell divisions, random mutations and changes in the genetic code can occur in bacteria. Many of these mutations do not change the characteristics of bacteria, but sometimes there are mutations that give bacteria an advantage for survival, which is the essence of evolution. One such advantage is antibiotic resistance, and those bacterial cells that have that resistance survive therapies and continue to divide, transmitting this property to those cells that arise in division.
One of the sources of this phenomenon is the excessive use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry. Some of the antibiotics used in veterinary and medical practice can be diluted through sewage into natural streams. In this way, bacteria living in these ecosystems are naturally exposed to a very small and dilute amount of antibiotics, to which they can form resistance. **Practically - we "immunize" bacteria on our drugs.**
image source: shutterstock
Sometimes the bacteria are exposed to a lower dose of antibiotics or the person does not complete the listed therapy. In this way, instead of destroying bacteria, we actually "train" them to become resistant. This can also happen if we take an antibiotic from someone else on our own or if we have not spent the previous therapy, and on some occasion we take the antibiotics that we have left.
Antibiotics are not supplements, nor can they be taken to prevent bacterial infection. However, especially in our country, they are given to patients even before the finding arrives. This happens in gynecological practice in family medicine and many other branches.
The WHO emphasizes that the priorities in the fight against this problem are the rational use of antibiotics, only when necessary, and hygiene and increased access to clean water and adequate sanitation, which is usually not the case in many parts of the world. Let's not forget that in our country there are places where there is no running water and sewage. Also, experts emphasize the need for better sanitation and hygiene in hospitals.
The cost of antibiotic resistance is significant for the economy. In addition to mortality and disability, long-term illness also results in longer hospital stays, the need for more expensive medications, and financial challenges for those affected.
The WHO emphasizes that there is a problem that pharmaceutical companies do not invest in research and development of new antibiotics, because it is not so profitable for them and therefore no new antibiotic has been created for almost 30 years.
**WHO position on the treatment of patients with COVID-19 antibiotics**
At the session of the World Health Organization, experts were asked about the practice of giving antibiotics to patients treated with COVID-19. In the world, especially in our region, it has become common for almost all patients with COVID-19, including those on home treatment, to receive antibiotics. Sometimes people manage to get this broad-spectrum antibiotic on their own without a prescription and have it as a "reserve" in the house in case they get sick. We have often had the practice of sharing therapy tips via social media, and these tips also mention taking antibiotics.
This is not the first time we have encountered this problem, that antibiotics are used in the treatment of viral infections in order to treat secondary bacterial infections.
This practice should be limited to hospitalized patients, if there is a risk of bacterial infection and antibiotics should not be taken by those on home treatment.
Doctors often complain that they do not have time to assess whether a patient has a single bacterial infection that needs to be treated, and even with proven viral infections, they blindly give antibiotics to prevent the spread of a potential but unproven bacterial infection. It seems that work will still have to be done to strengthen the capacity of health systems to effectively detect bacterial infections and to educate doctors about what antibiotic resistance really means for the health system, in order to make better decisions. The WHO insists on the careful use of antibiotics in the therapy of COVID-19.
**If the existing antibiotics become completely ineffective, it brings into question surgical procedures, childbirth, as well as cancer therapy and many other medical procedures. In other words - we would go back to medicine from a hundred years ago.**
Science in the service of beauty: glycol acid
Glycol acid is an organic acid of general formula C2H4O3 which is better written in this form: HOCH2CO2H. It is the simplest AHA acid (alpha-hydroxy acid), which also includes citric, malic, lactic and some other organic acids. These are organic acids which, in addition to the carboxyl (-COOH) group, also have a hydroxyl group (-OH). If there is only one carbon atom between the carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, then these are also alpha-hydroxy acids. If there are two carbon atoms between them, then they are beta-hydroxy acids (BHA):
These acids occur in nature, but can also be synthesized in laboratories. By the way, AHA acids have long been known as an ingredient in cosmetic treatments - namely, at least according to legend, Cleopatra used sour milk for the face, and sour milk contains lactic acid. However, glycol acid is the most widely used in cosmetics for a simple reason: due to its low molecular weight, it penetrates best through the upper layers of the skin and is therefore the most effective. Also, the action of glycol acid is the most researched and is the safest to use.
Glycol acid has recently become a very popular ingredient in preparation cosmetics because it is a chemical peel, exfoliate: glycol acid penetrates under the horny, dead parts of the epidermis (upper layer of skin) and causes the separation of that part from the layer of young cells. Simply put, glycol acid releases young skin and speeds up the process of removing old cells, which give our skin a slightly tired, gray complexion. In this way, the skin becomes visibly smoother, shinier and softer, as the dead layers are removed, which thicken slightly in the area of the wrinkles, so the wrinkles are smoother after the glycol acid treatment. Because dead cells clog pores, regular use of glycol acid prevents your pores from clogging. Clogged pores become wider due to improper sebum secretion, and thus more visible. This means that regular use of preparations with AHA acids, especially glycolic acid, can improve the appearance of skin and pores to some extent.
The effect of glycol acid depends on how long the preparation has been on the skin and on the concentration of glycol acid in the product. Concentrations of 75% (usually 20-70% glycol acid) can also be used in dermatology, but in preparations for home use, the acid is found in much more reasonable concentrations of 4 to 20%. These preparations must be such that the skin can be neutralized after use after use or are easy to rinse off.
For those who are afraid of the use of glycol acid on the skin, I must say that even concentrations that are far higher than those in cosmetics do not have some terrible consequences for the skin, and that you should not be afraid of this substance just because it is acid - it is not hydro-chloric or sulfuric acid to "fry" your face. Concentrations of 35% and 50% are safe to use and apart from mild irritation which passes quickly and manifests itself as a burning sensation on the skin and redness, there are no other consequences.
Since the cells of our skin are constantly dividing and a layer of dead cells is constantly forming on the surface of the skin, the effect of chemical peeling, like any peeling, is temporal and the product should be applied frequently. Some preparations with glycol acid are designed so that you apply them every day for a certain period, for example, within a month, while others you can apply depending on the need, say, optimally, twice a week. However, you should keep in mind that this substance can be destabilized and if you do not use the product every day, but occasionally, it is better to keep it in the refrigerator and try to consume it as soon as possible. In that sense, products that make you use them every day within a certain period are much better for those people who are prone to “forgetting” - this recipe of use disciplines you to use the product every day while it is maximally effective. New formulations of preparations in which glycol is found in combination with the amino acid arginine enable the gradual release of the active ingredient, which reduces irritation and a burning sensation. Glycol acid does not help with deep wrinkles.
**What not to do when using glycol acid products:**
Since glycol thins the skin, your skin will be more sensitive to the sun, so do not use these products during the day, and if you are afraid or your skin is very sensitive, do not do it in the summer, but leave the product for autumn or spring. However, I use glycol acid for years and in the summer, but, of course, in the evening, after removing makeup. When the glycol stands on my face for a while, I rinse it well and that’s it. I have never had a problem with preparations that have glycol acid and I have only words of praise for those products. The biggest irritation I feel when applying is a slight burning sensation, as if you are being stung by lemon juice. Some people may also experience short-term redness, which passes quickly. Of course, be careful not to get the product in your eye. If you decide to use glycol acid during the summer, then use it in the evening, and during the day, never forget the cream with a protective factor.
**Do not use dermal-abrasive preparations while using chemical peels with glycolic acid. So - no scrubs.**
**If you have melanoma or problems with hyper-pigmentation, it is better not to use products with glycol acid because they can make your condition worse.**
**There are many preparations based on glycol acid and if you decide to treat, be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions !!**
Winter cake from my mom & granny
I developed a love of cooking as a small child. Due to the bad relationship between my parents from the very beginning of their marriage, I spent most of my life with my grandmother. She was dedicated to cooking, and as a little boy I always hung around her legs in the kitchen. Although I am a boy, she did not prevent me from helping her whenever I wanted, which was relatively unpopular in patriarchal society at the time for boys to cook.
It quickly turned out that I had great talent, which developed and improved over time. By my choice of a life vocation in the direction of chemistry and technology, it only deepened and improved my culinary skills, because you know how they say about chemistry, that it is a kitchen only in which one should not lick a spoon.
This cake has been prepared in my family for winter holidays since I know it for myself, and today my mother regularly prepares it every year. Since the first snow has finally fallen on me, it's time to treat ourselves to this cake. The cake is ready, now we just need another glass of mulled wine.
image source is Google image, but cake look same
Without milk and fat.
Few ingredients
Ingredients:
- wheat flour of the highest grade of 80 grams
- Whole wheat flour 70 grams
- Powdered sugar 60 grams
- 4 eggs
- Cedar of one orange
- Salt, cardamom 1 tsp, cinnamon 1 tsp
- Baking powder 0,5 tbs
- Nuts 200 gr (I have almonds 100 gr, peanuts 50 gr, Walnuts 50 gr)
- Dried fruits (candied mix 200 gr, dried apricots 200 gr, dried cranberries 100 gr)
Preparation:
Mix nuts with dried fruits.
Then add to them all flour, spices and baking powder.
Beat eggs with powdered sugar and a pinch of salt until thick foam.
In three steps, add the beaten eggs to the dry mixture.
Spread in a silicone mold.
Bake first for 20 minutes at 160 g, then cover the cake with parchment and at 150 g for another 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness.
Immunity as a riddle
It was initially said that the crown march would be stopped when 60 to 70 percent of the population was vaccinated, but now that percentage is rising to 80
As much as our citizens were annoyed by the announcements of the medical part of the Crisis Staff for the suppression of the pandemic that the next two weeks are crucial in the fight against the corona, it is now confusing that their chief epidemiologist is gradually increasing the percentage of vaccinated population needed to provide the nation with collective immunity. When 60 to 70 percent of the population is vaccinated or gets over covid, the virus will be stopped, epidemiologists said at the beginning. The World Health Organization continues to cite that range, but most other epidemiologists are quietly moving that percentage up.
People around the world are aware that it is impossible to know with certainty what limit the collective immunity needs to reach in order to breathe freely again, but everyone would be calmer with a good assessment. And, for now, no!
**Interest for the vaccine**
A month ago it was said that it was enough for 70 to 75 percent of the population to be vaccinated to create collective immunity, last week it was said that it was between 75 and 80 percent, and even more. It is possible that with this truth he hesitated to come to light, because it seemed to that many were hesitant to receive the vaccine, but when the first interest in the first vaccines was seen (at least in some countries), they decided not to hide that the return to normalcy could take longer than expected.
Now we can hear some comparisons of covids with smallpox. And that is that it will take immunization of close to 90 percent of the population to stop the virus, almost as much as it takes to stop smallpox (measles).
We remind you that measles is the most contagious disease in the world: the virus can survive in the air in one room for hours and infect anyone who is in it, but has not been vaccinated. Some studies have found that when an epidemic of smallpox breaks out in a crowded military barracks and dormitory, the virus is transmitted until more than 95 percent of residents are infected. Such scenarios are stopped only by the collective immune wall, ie. sufficient number of vaccinated.
Well-known epidemiologists are ready to agree with this announcement, because earlier predictions that 60 to 70 percent would be enough were undoubtedly too optimistic: the virus is transmitted more easily and faster, so stronger collective immunity will be needed to stop it. They warn that these are just assumptions, no one can know the exact numbers.
Later findings became much more important than the original ones from Italy and Wuhan, first that when it comes to the corona virus, there are asymptomatic cases and examples of supertransmitters: when only one person infects dozens of others. Experts warn that at mass gatherings, such as parties, sports matches or theater performances, where no one wears masks, the mentioned reproductive number can increase to 4, 5 or even 6. In such places, the collective immunity must be at least 80 percent. to slow the spread of the virus.
Scientists agree that another detail complicates the story with collective immunity: the virus itself is more transmitted, to a larger number of people. The "Italian strain" with the mutation known as D614G spread much faster than the original Wuhan variant. Recently, a new strain (also called N501Y) was identified, first in Britain and South Africa, and then quickly spread around the world. The more transmissible the pathogen, the more people must become immune to stop it.
**How dangerous is one infected**
The first assumptions that 60 to 70 percent of the immunized population would be a sufficient "shield" were based on early data from China and Italy. Subsequent epidemiological monitoring of how much the number of people infected with the corona virus doubled or tripled a new light on the reproductive number, which is denoted by R0. It determines the average number of people to whom the infection is transmitted by one infected person in the susceptible population, and it is three.
So, two out of three potential victims would have to be immune (if they have been vaccinated or have already contracted covid) for an infected person to infect only one, because then the infection subsides. When one infected person infects two more with the corona, the percentage of collective immunity that would stop it should be 66.7 percent (thus reaching the range of 60 to 70 percent).
The study of French military doctors, who studied what happened to the crew members of the "Charles de Gaulle" aircraft carrier at the end of March, which became the focus of the corn virus, also helps in understanding this number. It was determined that 1,064 out of 1,568 sailors on board had a positive test, or about 68 percent, but the study also has shortcomings. Among others, life on a ship is quite different from the free movement of people on land.
**It is easy to measure in a herd**
The only really accurate measures of collective immunity are obtained in real herds (hence the phrase herd immunity) and come from the study of infectious diseases in animals.
- When cattle are in a barn or barn, it is easy to measure how fast the disease spreads from one animal to another. People move, so studying the spread of the disease among them is much more difficult.
Fast breakfast
I woke up very early today and I couldn't sleep again. So I decided to use that time to prepare a nice breakfast for my family. I decided to make rolls with different fillings. In the photos you can see the detailed procedure for making these rolls. To prepare the dough you can take a look at my second post at this link.
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/bread-best-recipe-for-beginners-6ddf18da
The dough is the same as for making bread. You can make it this way and you can make it the way you normally knead bread.
I personally love dough made this way because it is easy and quick to shape.
Take a piece of dough, spread it with your hands as you can see in the picture.
Coat the dough with the filling as desired. I'm showing you raspberry filling here. Please note that you can put any filling you want.
Roll out the dough
Cut it as in the photo
Put it in a baking sheet. You can put it as I put it and you can put it upright. It's all a matter of how you prefer.
Bake for 15 minutes at a temperature of 200 C
You will notice that my filling has not changed color, this is because for these pastries I use a **thermostable** cream used in the baking industry. It can be found in stores if you put in a little effort. Its advantage is that it will not burn the sugar in the filling and thus spoil the taste.
Roll the pastry in powdered sugar while it is warm and that’s it.
This pastry is with meat
This pastry is with cheese
It is important to note that it is best to eat this pastry while it is warm, however if you want to keep it for later, be sure to wrap it in a cotton cloth to keep it fresh. It can also be heated in the microwave.
Enjoy, and thanks for read :)
Same dough i use to make foccacia, and many other pastry, you can see how it looks on this my post
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/focaccia-topped-bread-on-italian-way-with-home-made-tomato-paste-455e84d0
You can find some other my favorite breakfast food on this link
Meet pie baked in toaster
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/meals-from-toaster-meet-pie-2e6fbb28**
Scrambled egg and bacon from oven
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/scrambled-egg-with-bacon-from-oven-bbd55efa**
Sweet fillin pastru baked in toaster
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/meals-from-toaster-sweet-filling-pastry-step-bu-step-in-picture-36693e76**
History and Science behind chocolate
image source : Google image
Those who follow me know that chocolate is one of my great loves. So I can tell you a little bit about what it all looks like from a historical point of view and a little bit about the science that is there.
Spanish conquerors of Latin America found the natives of this area enjoying a drink made from the cocoa beans. The Maya made chocolate as a drink with water and the addition of chili peppers, and they got the foam on the drink by pouring the drink from one bowl to another.
The Spaniards liked the smell of the drink, but not the taste because it was bitter to them. So they came up with the idea to add sugar to the drink and - the rest is history. The Olmecs, Mayans and Aztecs knew about chocolate, and the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl was associated with chocolate. According to Aztec legend, this deity gave chocolate to humans.
Chocolate is a solid mixture, consisting of cocoa, cocoa butter ("cocoa parts"), milk, sugar, emulsifiers such as lecithin and possibly some other components. Highly priced dark chocolates have a lower proportion of milk and sugar, while the amount of cocoa parts ranges from 60 to even over 90%, although some of the most common dark chocolates on the market are those of 72%, 75% and 85% cocoa parts. Milk chocolate has only about 30% cocoa parts.
Theobroma cacao is the scientific name of the cocoa plant that bears the fruit from which cocoa is made. The name "theobroma" itself comes from the ancient Greek language, namely the words θεός (theos), meaning "god, deity", and βρῶμα (broma), meaning "food". So, cocoa and chocolate are "food of the gods", which is quite close to the truth, if we take into account the fact that chocolate makes us happier because it causes increased secretion of oxytocin, a neurotransmitter of happiness. Cocoa is a native plant for the tropics of Central and South America, but it is also cultivated in Africa, especially in Tanzania, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, and cocoa production in these countries exceeds production in the areas where cocoa originates.
image source : Google image
One of the interesting things about cocoa is that its flowers grow directly on the tree, and not, as we usually expect, on the stems on the branches. This phenomenon is called cauliflower. The plant itself belongs to the mallow family (Malvaceae) and its closest relatives are marshmallow, black and nutmeg and hibiscus. The fruit is a type of pod that contains cocoa beans. These grains were used as a currency in pre-Colombian civilizations.
Cocoa flowers, source: World Cocoa foundation
Cocoa cells have 10 pairs of chromosomes, or 20 chromosomes, and the genome has 28,798 genes, which is more than the number of genes in the human genome (about 23,000). Many of these genes encode proteins required for the synthesis of a number of non-protein compounds that include terpenes, flavonoids, theobromine, and a number of other substances such as polyphenols. Theobromine itself is an alkaloid, and the closest in composition is caffeine. Theobromine is a heterocycle, which means that there are not only carbon atoms in the ring structure, but also nitrogen atoms. Both caffeine and theobromine belong to xanthines, a type of alkaloid that are derivatives of xanthic acid, and essentially belong to purine bases, close to adenine and guanine, compounds that represent the "letters" of the genetic code. Theobromine stimulates the heart, but is also responsible for the aphrodisiac properties of chocolate. It is toxic to those animals that metabolize this substance more slowly and harder, such as dogs and cats, with the difference that cats are less likely to have problems with theobromine poisoning because they do not have receptors for sweets and therefore are not "eager" for chocolate. sweet.
image source: Google image
The aromas of chocolate also contribute a lot to the ingredients of cocoa butter because butter, otherwise a mixture of different fatty acids, melts at our body temperature and thus actually helps aromatic substances to come into contact with taste receptors. Also, some of these fatty acids themselves contribute to creating a unique chocolate flavor. Butter consists mainly of palmitic, stearic and oleic acids and some linoleic, arachidonic and some other fatty acids in small percentages. Cocoa butter is obtained after fermentation and roasting of cocoa beans. The change in the ratio of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids is reflected at the melting point of chocolate: a higher percentage of unsaturated fatty acids in the composition will also affect the lowering of the melting point of chocolate. Higher quality chocolates do not melt so easily: the amount of saturated fatty acids will raise the melting point and these chocolates will melt only in the mouth, which is a desirable feature. On average, a bar of chocolate contains 350-540 kcal, depending on the type of chocolate.
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If you are a fan of cooking you can look at my other recipes about chocolate on the links:
Chocolate bars
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-bars-72b2e010
How to make chocolate box
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/how-to-make-chocolate-box-step-by-step-8d3b7f60**
Two color chocolate egg & box
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/two-color-chocolate-egg-and-box-aka-kinder-egg-instruction-how-to-made-c23ff0a0**
Decorated chocolate box
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/decorated-chocolate-box-perfect-gift-9d4417d4**
Chocolate and rice decoration
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-rice-8fec1782**
Chocolate sticks
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-sticks-f668c995**
Homemade sprinkles
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/homemade-sprinkles-domace-secerne-mrvice-eaac40fe**
Fast chocolate banana
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/fast-chocolate-banana-e031cfba**
Chocolate cherry bars
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-cherry-bars-2d8942d8**
Sweet pizza
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/sweet-pizza-f1f2e91f**
Some idea how to decorate your donuts
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/some-idea-how-to-decorate-your-donuts-eb73efe2**
Punk: one search for identity
image source : svilenebube.com/fashion-punk
Punk: from the avant-garde to the shelves of shops - a search for identity This post will try to dedicate itself to one very interesting cultural issue - the nature of the punk movement and the reasons why this movement, in its narrowest form, very quickly disappeared from the subculture scene and became consumerism, ie, became its antithesis. The paper will deal with this, the "narrowest form", and the term "punk" will mean punk in the United Kingdom in the period 1976-1978, focusing mainly on the cultural phenomenon of the so-called. "Classic punk" and the punk groups Sex Pistols and Clash. Also, the paper will comment on the SFK punk scene, its similarities and differences in relation to punk in the UK. Punk-rock is a sub-genre of rock music, which appeared in the second half of the seventies of the last century, in response to the political and social scene of the countries in which it appeared, as well as to the mainstream trends in rock music. Punk was at the same time a scream of the political establishment, but also of something we could call a "dominant subculture." In the song "1977" by the punk band Clash, the singer of the band, Joe Strummer, sings "No Elvis, Beatles, or the Rolling Stones in 1977", which is somewhat reminiscent of the cry of the Russian avant-garde "Let's throw the classics [1] off the steamer of modernity". Punk was recognized as an avant-garde music movement and a kind of excess on the music scene in the seventies, when it was dominated by performers like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and still felt a strong influence of musicians who died in the early seventies ( Janis Joplin, Jimy Hendrix and Jim Morrison).
There was an opinion that glam-rock, alternative rock, psychedelic rock were too mainstream and too ornate style, so punk was a rebellion against this type of "baroque" in rock music. Punk is a very reduced musical subgenre, which includes only electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and voice, and completely rejects keyboards, wind instruments and all percussion instruments except the rhythm section of the drum. Songs are often very short, usually lasting only 2 min, rarely 3 minutes, they are very aggressive, fast-paced, while the lyrics absolutely avoid any kind of metaphor and conveyed meanings, rather than usually images from life. Punk music itself was the center of a whole subcultural movement that included a certain worldview, fashion expression, the behavior of a whole special class of young people - working class children who lived in the suburbs. These youths, in their teens, were lost - they did not come from wealthy families, from the aristocratic class or from the middle class, but they were not newcomers from the former British colonies either. They were both domestic and foreign at the same time. A great example of this, the image and opportunity of this class is John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), lead singer of the Sex Pistols. He was of Irish descent and experienced as a child mobbing and assaults due to his Irish accent in speech, he came from a poor family where the father worked on a construction site and the mother could not take care of the children because she was very ill, and the burden of caring for the family fell on Lydon as the oldest child.
image source: BBC.com
These young people had no one and nothing to identify with - many came from dysfunctional and poor families, families of drunks, mercenaries, from neighborhoods known for crime and gangs, and could not identify with the figure of their father or someone successful from their environment. Most of them were sentenced to a life without a future, and the "no future" attitude of punk is a reflection of that situation.
At the same time, they could not identify with any movement that was offered as an alternative to the dominant, ie. ruling culture: rock bands that were popular at the time promoted everything that was foreign to these young people - wealth, glamor, expensive drugs and a slightly distorted spirituality. All this seemed to the working children to be a lie and insincerity, and punk itself began not as a rebellion against the regime, against the British Queen and the organs of the system, but precisely as a rebellion against what was the alternative. John Lydon himself was noticed by Malcom McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols) in a T-shirt with Pink Floyd's trademark on it, and above that sign Lydon wrote "I hate" in his own handwriting. The image of a punk is an image of an outsider, a marginal, someone whom society has rejected and forgotten, and he is doomed to exist. The whole image of the members of this movement seemed to be based on a deep inner scream addressed to a world that doesn't care: "We are young, ugly and poor, but we are here and what are you going to do with us now?"
Out of punk emerged "irony, pessimism and amateurism of the musical style which had open social and political implications". Punk marked a new aesthetic - the aesthetics of the proletariat, the despised mass that was not talked about and exploited. It is interesting and important to add that 1976, the founding year of the Sex Pistols, is taken as the starting year of British punk, marked by perhaps the biggest labor, economic crisis in the United Kingdom since 1940: in June of that year, about 5.5% were unemployed. The then population of the UK (about 1.5 million people were unemployed), while the pound fell to only $ 1.7. Punk originated as a social cry and commentary of this age. After the Sex Pistols' first major appearance in February 1976, the media labeled the band "vulgar and untalented." It was this bad label that was attached to them by members of the dominant culture that contributed to the Sex Pistols soon becoming famous and coming out of the shadows. Their song "Anarchy in the UK" released on November 26, 1976 was banned on radio stations after only 5 performances, and their song "God Save the Queen", released on May 27, 1977 will be banned very soon after its release. To the BBC. However, despite the censorship, these songs will quickly gain their audience because, obviously, they "hit" kairos - the spirit of the time. Almost a year after "Anarchy in the UK", on October 27, 1977, the Sex Pistols will record the album "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" which will present these and some other songs (Holidays in the Sun, Bodies, Pretty Vacant and others).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqrAPOZxgzU&feature=emb_logo
The etymology of the name "punk" is very complex. Namely, it is a very old English word, which was also used by W. Shakespeare as a synonym for the word "prostitute" in his works "Merry Women of Windsor" and "Measure for Measure". Also, this word meant "homosexual", but also "gangster", "street person", "bastard" and "hooligan". Precisely the meaning of "bastard" is the meaning of this word in the context of the then popular police series "Kojak".
Today, the term "punk" means "a policy that declares itself anarchist" and a raw, fierce minimalist musical style.
image source: medium.com
Punk is a movement that will later, after the first wave of "classic punk", unite both ultra-rightists (skinheads, often associated with OI! Punk) and ultra-leftists (neo-leftists) precisely because both of these oppositions are marginalized groups. The original punks expressed all this by the way they dressed - they dressed in what they would get into, often in very torn things, and the tears, instead of mending them, were joined by safety pin. As jewelry, they used items from everyday use or very cheap decorations: razor blades, chains made of bath stoppers, badges. Their footwear was cheap and, for them, very affordable - work-orthopedic boots by Dr Martens and a little later, the cheapest canvas sneakers All Stars, but also SM clothes from brothels.
image source : obucagazela.rs
Today, it is practically the uniform of all those who are, at least declaratively, punks.
The irony of the punk movement is that these are some not-so-cheap image additions today. This very moment - when punk is moving from a marginalized cultural phenomenon to the shelves of shops, in the niche of the society it was fighting against, is marked by the famous maxim "Punk is dead".
Why did classic punk, just like many other avant-garde movements, die so quickly, moving into the category of mainsteam? The reasons for this are multiple. The Sex Pistols themselves were a construct, an artificial creation of their manager Malcom McLaren and his then-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood. They often took the original fashion expression of youth from the street (whose typical representative was none other than John Lydon himself) and transformed it into things that could be sold. Of course, they did so much more cautiously than did the youth who showed their anger and disappointment in the generation of World War II veteran fathers.
Ignorance against oneself
We are witnessing an increasing number of untruths circulating in various forums on the Internet that loudly call out chemistry as the biggest problem of unhealthy life. Is that really the case, and do these people have a basic knowledge and education at all about the topics they discuss so fiercely. As a chemist myself, I have encountered many such prejudices, the only justification for their claims being that what they claim sounds good or frightening, so it must be true. I will give you a few examples from ordinary life where ignorance of some claims has been divided to a comic level. Or should we worry about that?
The words "chemical" and "chemistry" in colloquial speech have become synonymous with something bad, something dangerous, destructive and unnatural. "Don't eat it, it's full of chemicals," is a warning that some foods are bad for your health. For this fear of chemistry, chemical compounds and mixtures, there is also the term "Chemo phobia", which, in essence, does not represent a phobia in the medical sense, but rather refers to a kind of non-clinical aversion and prejudice.
**Joke who was taken too seriously**
When 14-year-old Nathan Zohner, a student at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls, did a school project warning of the dangers of di hydrogen monoxide (DHMO), he wrote that di hydrogen monoxide is a colorless, odorless substance thousands and thousands of people die each year, mostly due to DHMO inhalation, and that symptoms of DHMO ingestion include sweating, increased urination, bloating, and even vomiting and nausea, and electrolyte imbalance in body fluids.
However, even before Zohner's project, there were warnings on DHMO: on April 1, 1983, a local newspaper in Durand, Michigan, reported that there was a substance called dihydrogen monoxide in the city's water pipes that could be fatal if inhaled. . People signed petitions against DHMO, called local authorities to react and panic began to spread. Why?
*image source imgur.com
Indeed, why, if a dihydrogen monoxide compound is composed of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, better known as water? The whole story about DHMO was an April Fool's joke that was repeated several times and people, due to ignorance, more precisely insufficient knowledge of natural sciences, always fell for it. Some other names for water are hydrogen oxide and oxide, but none of these names sound familiar or instill the trust of ordinary citizens, who are laymen for chemistry. Nor does the danger of drowning and the accompanying occurrence of water consumption sound as terrible as the name dihydrogen monoxide. This name sounds like the name of some corrosive acid for dissolving limescale or the name of some toxic organic compound.
*image source imgur.com
However, it is not the only name for a harmless chemical compound that sounds terribly dangerous to humans. Imagine eating something that contains eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), octadecatrienoic acid, phenylacetaldehyde, hepta-2-enal, glutamic acid, valine, arginine, leucine, pentan-2-one and additives E160 . Would you eat that? If you are not vegan, it is possible to eat it - it is an egg. Ascorbic acid is vitamin C, and acetylsalicylic acid is aspirin.
The hemophobia movement advises its followers not to eat anything if it contains ingredients they can't pronounce the name on and not to eat what sounds "too scientific" and none of us should eat any of the aforementioned compounds, as well as sodium chloride, drink tea containing (1R, 2S, 5R) -2-isopropyl-5-methylcyclohexanol (scientific name for menthol) nor anything containing ethyl ethanoate or 3-methyl butyraldehyde (compounds that give aroma to wine and beer). We are advised that “we should not eat what our great-grandmother could not recognize as food,” and “not to eat what has more than 5 ingredients or ingredients we cannot pronounce.” Therefore, in my country, we should not eat avocados or pineapples , and especially not something that contains ingredients whose names one cannot pronounce.The impossibility of pronouncing the name of a compound here is an argument against chemistry.
All this has led to the creation of very vague marketing phrases "natural", "100% natural", "chemical-free" and organic, implying that everything that is "natural" or "organic" is united and healthy, and "without chemicals. " These marketing phrases take into account the fact that not all consumers have completed their studies in chemistry, biochemistry, biology, physics or some of the applied sciences, and then they shy away from scientific terminology. In these cases, it is forgotten that, for example, the green bud (Amanita phalloides) is a 100% natural but deadly poisonous fungus, and that the adjective "organic" is mentioned in the context of organic carbon compounds. Most of the compounds we find in our food, other than water and mineral salts, are precisely organic carbon compounds, regardless of the way those foods are produced. However, in an era of fear of science and fear of chemistry, these attributes are commercially attractive.
And in the end I can only say education is the key to everything. Don't take things for granted that you supervise on the Internet, especially from unverified authors.
Holiday depression
We expect the holidays, and especially the New Year's holidays, as a time for rest, fun or long-delayed meetings. It should be a time to relax and gather strength for an energetic start to the new season. For some, the holidays are really a time of enjoyment, and for others just bitter pills of despair, disappointment, sadness and betrayed expectations. As numerous psychological studies show, they are more and more often a source of stress and a trigger of depressive feelings for more and more people, and fewer and fewer days are filled with pleasure, joy and relaxation.
**Triggers of holiday depression can be divided into three groups:**
**Relations**
Interpersonal relationships can be tense, conflicted, or stressful at any time, but tensions are usually elevated during the holidays. The holidays are, somehow, the right time to be together. Family misunderstandings and conflicts can intensify - especially if they are all directed at each other for a few days. It is enough that so many different personalities, needs and interests are gathered. On the other hand, if you are waiting for a holiday without anyone particularly close, you will probably find that you are extremely lonely or sad.
**Finance**
Like relationships with people, the financial situation can be a source of tension throughout the year. However, increased spending on gifts, travel, food or entertainment can increase the experience of stress if you are trying to make ends meet and it is important for you to satisfy everyone on your gift list. You may find yourself in a financial predicament that brings symptoms of depression - hopelessness, sadness and helplessness.
**Increased physical requirements**
The race for shopping, attending social gatherings and preparing holiday meals can be exhausting, which increases stress. Recreational activities and good sleep are usually neglected, and exhaustion becomes the main ingredient of the holiday illness. During the multi-day holidays, we eat a lot, drink intensively or sleep irregularly. We know that during the holidays, many indulge in overeating and that the main focus of many holidays is on food. A lot is prepared, bought and brought with the expectation that, of course, it will be eaten. It is almost rude if you do not serve yourself, if you eat only a little or you do not really want to eat something that someone has prepared especially for the occasion. After a good meal on the principle of "little by little" (which usually means a fairly large portion), it's time for coffee and / or a cigarette. Should we emphasize that, even with a glass or a bottle of alcohol, this is a special stress for the body?
A holiday in which the family is in the first place, many are faced with the truth that the warmth of home and family closeness have been lost somewhere. It is worth reminding that most families spend only a few hours a day together, because of work, school or recreational activities that each member plans for himself. During the holidays, the members' familiarity with each other throughout the day can be very irritating. Despite that, holiday rituals take place, a holiday table is prepared and an unrealistic, idealistic image of a harmonious family is heated. Alienation, and perhaps conflicts that have been pushed under the rug all year round, are covered by excessive consumption of alcohol and high-calorie foods. It burdens not only the stomach, but also the psyche, so emotional stress is impossible to avoid.
The holidays are the hardest for those who lost a close person between the two New Years and Christmas, who divorced or sent an adult child on their way. If in the end they are left completely alone between the four walls - sadness and hopelessness prevail, directing them to the question of the meaning and content of their life, which only intensifies self-pity, often provoking the thought of suicide. A special experience of loneliness and suffering exists not only when it comes to these but also all other holidays when the family usually gathers. We need to go through at least one annual cycle in order to, after spending those same, once differently designed holidays, learn to spend or at least more easily tolerate after parting, losses or changes.
We know that not everyone understands problems or pleasant things in life in the same way, nor is the "breaking point" for everyone in the same place. Reducing the negative effects of stress is significant, whether someone is an introvert or an extrovert because stress affects physical health. For especially shy and closed people, the holiday season is often anything but a period filled with love, serenity and pleasure. If we ask ourselves how not to make these days bitter for ourselves, but to give ourselves days of courage and optimism, there are only global guidelines that should strengthen positive and suppress negative feelings, and everyone practices individual models of overcoming.
Goofy french fries
Those who have been following me for a long time know that I have grown children who have not lived with me for a long time, but in another city. The New Year is the period when he comes on vacation to me and then we remember all those beautiful memories from their childhood. Today, my younger daughter asked me to make her goofy fries just the way I often made her when she was a little girl. I was very glad that it remained as a beautiful memory for her. the french fries themselves are nothing special, but the time we spent making it together is priceless.
Since it's been a long time since I've done this, I've rusted a bit so it didn't turn out very well, but you can see the general idea of how to entertain your kids with goofy fries. You can apply the same to the carrot. It is possible that it is even more effective, but I did not have a carrot with me at the moment, so I did not make it from it.
For goofy french fries, you need plain potatoes, a sharp knife, a flat kitchen cutting board and something that will serve as a cutting edge.
To begin with, peel the potatoes, wash them and cut them into thick plates.
Place the potatoes on a board and place the stoppers on both sides, as in the photo.
Cut the potatoes with a small gap to the stoppers.
When you have done that turn the potatoes and do the same on the other side only now make cuts at a different angle. In the photos you can see the position of the blade in relation to the stoppers.
Cutting first side
Cutting second side
If you’ve done everything right when you catch the potatoes and sound them, you should get something like a net. I didn't do the best this time, but it's all a matter of exercises.
Fry the potatoes in deep oil and it is best to lower them by keeping them stretched. I failed a bit because I wanted to take photos and do at the same time, which I didn't do very well.
You can certainly use sticks to try to stretch the net a bit.
When done it should look like the one in the photo or better yet.
In addition to french fries in the shape of a net, you can also make it just sliced on one side. Keep in mind that for this you need a longer potato than I had, because as you can see in the picture I failed to bend it the way I wanted, it cracked. In order to keep this shape when frying, it is necessary to pull the toothpick to the beginning and end.
And finally the third way of goofy french fries is the one on a long toothpick. Cut the potatoes into long pieces measuring 1x1 cm and chop them as in the first example. Then thread a toothpick through it and stretch it and fry it that way.
The science of champagne
It has long been a tradition that no celebration can pass without champagne. So we can take a peek into the bottle from a scientific point of view and see what happens in it to give us pleasure.
What makes this champagne so exclusive? I believe you know that only those sparkling wines from the French region of Champagne have the legal name “champagne”. The rest are sparkling wines, "sparkling wines", even those that are very high quality, but come, say, from Italy. Also, there are sparkling wines that are naturally sparkling and one to which carbon dioxide has been added. These are the cheapest ones. Here we will have a little fun with the science of champagne (and sparkling wines).
**1. Chemistry of gases dissolved in a liquid**
Champagne is a mixture of a large number of substances in a liquid. However, the most significant and striking part of this mixture are the carbon dioxide bubbles dissolved in the liquid. There is a chemical law, Henry's law, which determines how much gas can be compressed and dissolved in a liquid. In addition to explaining how many bubbles can fit in a bottle of champagne under pressure, this law also explains why decompression sickness occurs - due to different solubilities at different depths (ie at different pressures) of oxygen and nitrogen in the blood.
In an unopened bottle of champagne, the gas in the liquid is in equilibrium with the gas above the liquid, ie. gas between the cork and champagne. When that equilibrium is disturbed - the plug flies. We can disturb it by shaking the bottle, releasing more carbon dioxide bubbles or heating the bottle. Equilibrium is re-established when we manage to drink into a glass. However, do not be peasants - champagne does not open violently, the rule is that the cork must not fly. We open it slowly, removing the metal wires that hold the plug. The less violence - the more you will enjoy champagne. You will find out why this is so below.
**2. Gas pressure in the bottle**
Before opening, the pressure in the champagne bottle is about 5 atmospheres. One atmosphere is 101,325 kPa and that is the air pressure at sea level. That is the pressure at about 50m in the sea.
**3. Bubbles**
Bubbles in champagne are formed naturally, by fermentation, when glucose and fructose from grape juice with the action of specific enzymes produce ethanol and carbon dioxide. Fermentation occurs due to the existence of microorganisms on the skin of grapes, which produce fermentation enzymes. This was discovered by Louis Pasteur and proved that sterilized grape skins will not cause fermentation. All wines and alcohols are made in this process, but with champagne, it’s a special art: here’s a secondary fermentation, “bottled,” which actually represents an effort to keep the carbon dioxide bubbles formed in the first fermentation in the bottle. Manufacturers of champagne and real sparkling wines even have their own yeast blends that cause fermentation and take great care in the juice pressing processes to macerate the skin well. In fact, the carbon dioxide bubbles naturally formed during fermentation carry the aroma of champagne towards your nose. Somewhere it says there are about 15 million of those bubbles in the bottle. I don't know, I didn't count.
**4. Glass**
There have been major paradigm shifts in which glasses to drink champagne from. Once upon a time, champagne was drunk from wide, conical glasses. Today it is drunk from narrow, “flute” glasses, or even from wine glasses (this is not a sin). The thing is that the bubbles that bring the aroma of champagne evaporate faster from a wide glass and so you lose on the aroma. A good champagne raises bubbles from the bottom of the glass for quite a long time.
**5. Serving temperature**
There is no coincidence with champagne: the temperature of champagne must be ideal for trapped carbon dioxide. It must be neither too hot nor too cold and 8-10o C is the ideal temperature.
**6. How is champagne poured?**
The glass should be tilted slightly, and not pour champagne into a glass that stands straight. This is most likely because a larger surface is created for the formation of bubbles.
**7. Aroma**
Champagne contains about 600 types of molecules that give this writing a unique aroma. Our sensory papillae on the tongue can also feel “fizz” - the very bubbles that burst as we drink champagne.
**8. Speed and acceleration**
If you open the champagne in a way that it should not open, you should also know that, due to the pressure in the bottle, the cork can reach a speed of about 22 km / h. Perfect for eye injury.
**9. What grapes are they made of?**
Champagnes are mostly golden-transparent. There are also rosy ones. There are also sparkling red wines. Still, when we imagine champagne, we imagine something pale golden in color, transparent, right? Does that mean that champagne is made from white grapes? Not. Practically only three grape varieties are used in the production of champagne: Pinot noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. The first two are black grapes and Chardonnay is white. Champagne made from black grapes is called Blanc de noirs (literally, “white from black”), and champagne made from white grapes Blanc de blancs. The first ones are a little yellower. Both are high quality champagnes if produced by pe-es.
**10. Plug**
When you open the champagne, the cap has the shape of a mushroom. However, it is not the shape of a cork when placed in a bottle and sealed. A completely normal cork stopper is placed, which later takes on a specific shape. By the way, cork is the bark of one species of oak, Quercus suber, which grows (and is grown) in southwestern Europe, mostly in Spain and northwestern Africa.
**Be carefully**
Never stand near the person opening the champagne. Globally, about 24 people die each year from this "missile".
Global warming and 15 degree weather in December
I have written about global warming before and we agreed that it is very much present. However, today I can show you a concrete example of what a day was like in my city. The pictures you see were taken from my window at 10 AM
Today, on the 30th of December, one day before New Year, my small town that’s located in the Balkans in the Northern hemisphere saw an exceptionally warm day, very untypical for this time of year.
During the afternoon, it was 15 degrees Celsius outside and the sun was shining just like it were a spring day and people were walking in the street in their t-shirts. This made me think about global warming and how the Earth’s temperature is rising every year.
It now makes me sad when I remember the winter days of 20 and 30 years ago when the snow covered the streets for months at a time and children would go out to play, build snowmen, and sled down the hill. Even though I like spring and summer, I don’t think this kind of warm weather should be seen at the very end of December.
Now is the time for snow, bliss, and crackling fireplaces, not for t-shirts and ice cream. I know it may sound extraordinary, but I took pictures from my living room window which I will attach here.
One day, I hope that I will once again see a winter’s day that will be just like it was when I was a young man or a boy. I want to walk in snow-covered streets and see children playing in that snow, just like I and my friends did so many years ago.
I'm happy at least that my two daughters were lucky enough to experience winter days similar to mine when they were little children. Whenever the snow would fall, they would put on the warmest clothes they had, grab their sleds, and pull my sleeve until I agreed to bring them to the nearby park. Then, they would laugh and play together before one of them hit the other one in the face with a snowball and playtime would have to be cut short.
Even though this warm weather was pleasant and a lot of people went outside to enjoy the sun, I still don’t think this is good for our planet and our health.
If all the ice caps melt and the North and South pole become without snow and ice, a lot of cities, countries, and islands will be underwater.
However, if I look on the bright side of things, I can at least say that if that happens, my small town will be unaffected even though a lot of my neighboring countries will be. And then, I can go to the beach whenever I want to.
Mini PC the future of desk top computers
*image source google - bajtbox.com
Slightly older people, like me, have had the opportunity to witness the development and evolution of home computers, from the very beginning to the present day. My first home computer, if it can be categorized as a home computer at all, was the Commodore 64. For me and my friends at that age, it was a great gaming platform. Over time, as technology evolved, home computers began to enter our homes, as they are today. My first such computer was the pc 386, then it was the turn of the 486, the pentium, and so on to this day, as computers progressed so did I procure new and more powerful models. One of the significant leaps in the use of computers was the appearance of laptops at affordable prices.
As far as I can tell from their children, who are already adults with their jobs, their generation is mostly turned to laptops. Personally, I have always preferred to work with the help of classic desk top computers. The advantage that laptops have over desk top computers is primarily in their size and high mobility, as well as autonomy in operation. However, from my point of view, their disadvantages are that their price is much higher than desk top computers, as well as their lifespan, so in my opinion it is more economical to work on a desk top computer if there are conditions for such a thing. You can find a simple example of this in my family. My wife and I work on desktops and my children have been working on laptops since they started working. Our desk top computers are 7 years old and still work great, while my children changed 3 laptops during that time. This is not a small expense, especially if we take into account that in our country laptops are 2x more expensive than desktops. It is important to note that here we are talking about computers that are not faced with demanding tasks such as image processing, graphics, etc .. but ordinary tasks that include excel word and google services.
For all these reasons, I was very pleased with the progress of technology in the direction of the production of mini PC desk top computers.
I believe that in about ten years, the standard size of the case will remain only with some particularly demanding computers and maybe not even.
**Mini PC Buying Guide**
For anyone planning to get a new desk top computer, these guidelines may be helpful
**Why a mini PC?**
The Mini PC has a number of advantages over a classic desktop computer or laptop.
In addition to taking up **drastically less space**, less than laptops and notebooks, it also consumes **less power** and produces **less noise**. The Mini PC is more powerful than a laptop because it has **no worries about battery storage**.
In addition to the fact that **you can use a TV instead of a monitor**, some models of mini PCs and monitors support mounting a mini PC on the back of the monitor. So your monitor **looks like an all-in-one PC**.
The Mini PC can offer the average user everything like a classic desktop computer - only in a smaller and quieter edition.
**Unfortunately, for now, you can forget about hardcore gaming and perfecting advanced Photoshop skills on a mini PC until the technology advances a bit.**
**Types of mini PCs**
There are 3 types of mini PCs:
ready mini PC
so-called *bare bones* to be assembled
mini PC in a stick
If you don't have the experience or nerves to stack your little box, a mini PC is ready for you. It has all the components and the OS installed and is ready to use as soon as you take it out of the box.
The Bare bones mini PC comes with a case, motherboard and processor, and the hard drive and RAM must be purchased and assembled separately. You can buy new components or use old ones. This kind of mini PC is cheaper than the finished one in the beginning, but the final price should also include the costs of other components. Bare bones mini PC provides a little more freedom because you can decide what kind of hard drive and RAM you want to put and you can adapt them to your needs and habits of using the computer.
The mini PC in the stick is characterized by maximum mobility - you can transfer and use it simply as a USB stick. Part of the mini PC in the stick is based on the Android operating system, while others use Windows or some of the other alternative OSes. And while such a device has its advantages, do not expect great power from it.
**Peripherals**
You can connect all the peripherals to the mini PC - keyboard, mouse and monitor. All peripherals and other accessories are purchased separately, even with ready-made mini PCs. This is the case with every desktop computer, so it makes no sense to look at it as a drawback. What you need to watch out for are the exits. The Mini PC typically comes with USB outputs and a mini HDMI output for connecting monitors. The keyboard and mouse must use USB, so if you have versions with PS / 2 output, you will need a USB adapter. When buying, be sure to check what outputs the mini PC has, what the outputs are on the monitor and what cables you need to connect the monitor to the mini PC. As long as you know what and how you can connect, there are no limits. Wired or wireless mouse and keyboard, speakers, headphones, FHD monitor ... let your imagination run wild.
Xmas chocolate bars decoration
Unfortunately, due to obligations, I did not arrive earlier to publish this post, I know that I am at least 2 days late, but it doesn't matter, it can be used next year.
Today I will show you how to make a Christmas bar out of ordinary chocolate. For starters you can make plain chocolate bars as I described in the recipe or you can even buy ready-made ones.
You can see how chocolate bars are made in my post.
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-bars-72b2e010
So for starters, make chocolate bars to your liking.
Don’t think you’ve done something wrong and that your bars are useless if they look like this. This is quite a regular occurrence and you can solve it very easily. Take a paper towel, moisten it a little with vegetable oil and rub your bars.
This photo clearly shows the difference before and after.
To decorate the Christmas chocolate bars I used ground peanuts (you can use any other nuts). To start, take two shallow plates and pour melted chocolate into one and ground nuts into the other.
The melted chocolate should be very shallow, so that only the lower part of the bars is dipped into it.
Then roll the bars in the ground nuts.
Transfer the bars to baking paper to harden what you added.
After that, it's time to prepare the decoration that will go on top. I used white dressing (specially prepared for decorations in the bakery). You can take plain white chocolate. To begin with, when a part of the decoration has cooled and hardened, spread the bars a little. Lightly pour the melted white chocolate over the bars.
While the topping is still melted over the bars sprinkled with red and green sugar crumbs. This time I used industrial because I didn't have homemade. If you want to see how you can easily make homemade sugar crumbs you can take a look at the link to my post where I described it.
Link to article how to made sugar sprinkles at home:
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/homemade-sprinkles-domace-secerne-mrvice-eaac40fe
After that, all that was left was to give our Christmas bars a little sparkling effect. Glitter powder is used for this, which can be in various colors, although in my opinion, the most effective is silver and gold. I used silver powder for Christmas decorations.
The best way to apply this powder is with an ordinary brush, as in the picture. The brush must be dry, and it is advisable not to use it elsewhere. Fortunately, they are not expensive, so you can certainly afford a brush that will only be used to apply powder. The powder is applied by dipping the brush in the powder, and then gently tapping it on the surface of the surface you want to sprinkle with the powder.
In this way, you will have a great decorating effect, and you will not consume more powder than you really need.
That would be all about decorating in the Christmas spirit of our chocolate bars. You can decorate other cakes in the same way.
As a post festum I would like to tell you something else. Many of my friends complain to me that they failed to do some things even though they followed the recipe and preparation instructions. Don't despair. It’s all a matter of practice and experience. If something fails you in the first attempt, it will succeed in the second, fifth, tenth ... Just be persistent and learn from your mistakes and in the next attempt avoid the mistakes you made in the previous attempt. As proof that no one is perfect, I show you a photo of my failure today. Although I did this many times, even though I followed the work procedure, the product turned out to be bad. You can see in the pictures how.
Frauds in the crypto world, new but also old ones
Ever since man began living in the community, individuals have invented ways to get without effort and work what someone has earned with great difficulty. Nothing has changed to this day. With the advent of the Internet and later cryptocurrency, it has conditioned fraudsters to adapt to new ways of fraud.
Since it is impossible to make scams go away, we must learn how not to be scammed.
I will try to list these and explain all the ways that fraudsters use today to get your crypto money.
**Scams known as Ponzi schemes**
This type of fraud was named after Charles Ponzi almost 100 years ago. Although he did not invent it, he definitely made it one of the most popular types of scams.
Its structure is very simple - part of the money of new investors is paid to the old ones while the new ones wait. Everything works until it reaches a critical point when it is no longer possible to find enough new investors to pay off all the old ones. Then the founders and people at the top disappear without a trace.
Old investors are encouraged to invite new investors by getting a certain percentage from their investments. In that way, different levels of investors are formed. The closer the investor is to the top, the more he will potentially earn, but potential earnings can never justify a certain loss of funds when the size of the scheme becomes critical.
Since Ponzi's scheme is divided by levels, we can see that its shape is pyramidal, which is exactly the reason why these types of scams are also called pyramidal schemes.
Ponzi's scheme never makes a profit, but only the illusion of a profit. This illusion is supported by the redistribution of funds from the bottom to the top. This means that this scheme may initially pay out earnings in order to create a false impression of sustainability for new investors and lead them to invest even more funds in fraud.
In order for the Ponzi scheme to justify its existence, it is often disguised in some other business so that the pyramid is not obvious. Note that a large number of pyramid schemes use the term multi-level marketing because pyramid schemes are illegal in the vast majority of countries. Lyconet has been declared a pyramid scheme in Norway, Poland, Italy and many other countries. We leave it to the reader to assess whether it is a fraud or not. Due to the lack of applicable regulations, Ponzi schemes are much easier to perform in the world of cryptocurrencies, especially due to the current influx of a large number of new people who want to deal with cryptocurrencies. They usually hide behind the screen of the
**landing platform**,
**cloud mining companies**
**trading bots**
**What are the "red flags" when it comes to this type of fraud?**
The first and most obvious red flag is the word "**guarantee**". We are witnesses that nothing in the world is guaranteed, so in case someone offers you any kind of secure income, you can be sure that it is a scam. Another typical phrase is "**no risk**", there is a risk. It is present in every aspect of our lives, let alone on the internet.
Another sign that this is a Ponzi scheme is the way in which new members are invited to join the project. If you are offered a **large percentage** for each person you invite and you are promised that you will earn well if you invite enough members it is a Ponzi scheme.
The third sign is the mention of levels in **referral programs**. A good number of legitimate businesses rely on a referral system to attract more customers, but no business will be concentrated around referral programs, nor will they offer you different levels depending on how many people you call or how much you pay.
The fourth red flag is the mention of **Multi-Level Marketing**, or any variation on the theme. It is just a synonym for a pyramid scheme with the help of which it tries to justify the existence of a level or level when calling users.
**You don't have to notice all these signs to know that this is a scam, just one is enough. Keep in mind that pyramid schemes will always try to be as complex as possible so that it would not be obvious that it is a scam.**
**Crypto giveaway scam**
Unlike the previous type of scam, this one is much simpler and easier to perform. While the previous one would require a team of people, this scam can also be reported by an individual. It is a scam that "offers" you to double or triple your funds by sending your coins to a specific address and they will return more.
The reason for this amazing opportunity is said to be a giveaway. The reasons for a giveaway can be various. The latest version of this scam states that the reason for the giveaway, that is, the gift of coins, is that this person wants to help his companions due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
All of this was mostly published from the fake profile of some celebrity, crypto project or billionaire to make the scam more convincing.
It happened that hackers managed to access the real profiles of celebrities and to place this type of fraud from them. That's how we got the giveaway crypto fraud advertised by Joe Biden, the newly elected president of the United States.
In addition to Joe, there are some other celebrities such as Tesla CEO **Ilona Mask**, rapper **Kanye West** and **Kim Kardashian**.
Fraudsters also tailor their ads to a local target group so that many local celebrities can be seen in them. This type of fraud is very widespread due to the ease of its occurrence, and the fact that they still exist is proof that they are more than successful. All it takes is for the scammer to create a fake profile of a famous person and start posting the scam. **Vitalik Buterin**, the founder of Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency in the world, had to change his official Twitter profile to "Vitalik Non-giver of Ether" to create fake profiles with his character.
You can find this type of scam mostly on Twitter, but it has also started to appear on You tube in the form of a live broadcast of an interview with a celebrity. Some of these broadcasts use You tube’s advertising system, so it’s possible to see some of them as an ad before starting the video you want to watch.
**Phishing scams**
The goal of any phishing scam is to extract sensitive information from you. This information is most often passwords, private keys, PINs, seed words and all other information relevant to your login to a service such as electronic banking, web wallet or stock exchange.
This type can be simple, but also very sophisticated depending on the skill of the fraudster. There are several ways a scammer might try to get to your essential information.
**Imitation sites**
In the case of cryptocurrencies, the sites of popular exchange offices and web wallets are imitated. They use similar web addresses as the original site and look like an identical copy of the real site in every way. A moment of inattention is enough to enter your login information on the fake site of the service that you use regularly, so always check the address bar of your browser before entering the code of your account. Scammers try to make the addresses of fake sites as similar as possible to the original ones. Most often, sites with a changed top-level domain or extension appear. Instead of .com at the end of the site you can see .io, .net .xyz and many other extensions. You can also see another www added after the one already printed www.
If all domains are already occupied, fraudsters will subtly change the name of the site in the hope that you will not notice it.
Links to these sites can reach you in a variety of ways. One of the variants is that you receive a notification to your email address to set something up on your account with a link to a malicious site. The email must also be fake and will be similar to the company's official email. That is why it is important to compare the email address from which you received the email with the company's email on the official website, which you can manually type in the address bar. You may see a fake site as the first to be offered when you do a Google search for a service. This is because Google uses the first few places as advertising space and anyone who wants can set up the desired site if they pay enough. This is used by fraudsters to put their fake site ahead of the real thing. **You can identify these results by the fact that it is written in small letters "ad"**, emphasizing that it is an advertisement.
image source : BleepingComputer
It is a good practice that even if you get a real site as an advertisement, always click on the one that is not advertised. This reduces the risk of accidentally entering a fake site at some point. Another good way to check if a site is real is to check it with a service called Wayback Machine. On this service you can see all previous versions of a site. In case there is only one version of the site that has recently been created, it can be a sign that it is a fake site or some kind of scam. On the other hand, it is a good sign if you can see that a service has been working for many years.
**Wallet phishing scams**
In the case of software wallets, there are apps that look like your wallet, but in fact only forward your private key or seed words directly to hackers. You can find these malicious applications on all variations of the official sites of a wallet. Fake sites are complete copies of the originals, they even contain fake comments and ratings. Like fake login pages, these sites often use Google ads to appear as the first result of your search. When downloading the software wallet, make sure the site address contains suspicious characters and is nicely written. Also, download updates to your wallet exclusively through your wallet or from your wallet's official website.
**Personal approach**
Some scammers will try different ways to get in touch with you. From email, via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp and Youtube comments. If you have anything related to cryptocurrencies posted on your social media profile, there is a chance that you have already been contacted by so-called fund managers with an offer for some kind of cooperation. These profiles send earnings offers, and all you need to do is share your login information, seed words and private key with them. As soon as you do that, your funds will disappear and your profile will block you. Do not correspond with them. As soon as you see what the profile is about, log in and block. It is important that you report your profile so that the social network can react and remove the profile as soon as possible.
**ICO scams**
If you were involved in crypto 2017, you must have noticed a large number of ICO projects. Many of these projects were scams, and the projects would disappear as soon as a certain amount of money was collected. The nature of cryptocurrencies makes the return of funds almost impossible, and finding the culprit even more difficult. Some of the ICO scams managed to steal more than a few million dollars. In the last few months, we have had a new variation of this scam. These were DeFi projects that promised huge and unsustainable interest rates. If enough funds were raised for a smart contract, the funds would disappear along with the entire project. The best way to avoid investing in a bad project is to research it as well as possible. Make sure the team behind the project is made public. See if there are profiles with the same names on LinkedIn and other business platforms. Investigate if the same team already had a project and what is happening with that project now.
**Don't trust online ads Anyone can rent advertising space online.**
Sites that offer advertising space try to filter the content that is displayed on their pages, but there are omissions. The fact that a project has managed to be advertised on a well-known crypto portal does not mean that it is not a potential fraud. A site that offers advertising to such projects is not responsible for their actions. So take every ad with a grain of salt. One option is to simply install an adblocker on your browser if you don’t already have one. This way you will solve the problem of advertising potential scams, and at the same time you will avoid advertising fake phishing sites during searches.
**A few more tips**
Use 2FA (two-factor authentication) on all accounts and on all services that support it. This is an important thing because it additionally protects you in case your code for a service becomes compromised.
Avoid SMS authentication, if possible, due to the possibility of SIM swap attacks. With this attack, hackers can gain access to your phone number as well as incoming messages that are used to log in to a service.
Among the applications for 2FA, Google Authenticator and Authy are popular. If for some reason you want to use another 2FA application, make sure it is safe by checking the ratings and comments on the Play Store or AppStore.
2FA means that you will have one more step when logging in to your favorite services, which can sometimes be irritating, but if you care about the security of your accounts, 2FA is absolutely necessary.
Focaccia - topped bread on Italian way with home made tomato paste
Focaccia
Focacca is a dish that someone can call a type of pizza because it looks like it, but it is certainly different from it. In essence, this dish is made from a dough over which the filling is placed at will, so it is similar to a pizza, but it is not. This dish is quite common, you can find it from Italy to Central Asia. It is very often represented as street food.
To prepare this dish, I use the basic bread dough that I prepare according to the recipe you can find in this previous post of mine.
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/bread-best-recipe-for-beginners-6ddf18da
While I wait for my dough to rise, I prepare a stuffing of minced meat and onions. There is no need to cook the ingredients too much, it is enough just enough for the meat to change color slightly, because after that it will be baked in the oven. I fill the filling with salt and pepper, and you can add other spices as desired.
I cut the onion into strips, because according to my taste, it is desirable to see it later.
Meat can be of any kind, I leave that choice to your imagination, taste and possibilities.
When the meat is done, I flatten the dough that I put in the backing tray and put the meat filling over it.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and set to bake at 200 C degrees. It takes about 15 minutes to bake, but you will definitely see you when it’s done.
While the Focaccia is baking in the oven, I prepare the homemade tomato sauce. For it, I use 100% tomato juice that can be found in every store.
I prepare the sauce in the same bowl in which I prepared the onion and meat filling, there is no need to wash it, nor to use a larger number of dishes. Practical isn't it?
I add oil to the pot, and chopped 2-3 garlic cloves. I fry it slightly and set the bow aside. What is very important to me is that I then put 2-3 tablespoons of tomato juice and wait for it to reduce and burn slightly. This gives the sauce a great taste.
After that, I add the rest of the tomato juice. I buy juice in half-liter packages, so this is a recipe with that amount of juice.
I wait for the juice to reduce with occasional stirring. The sauce is ready when you see the bottom at the bottom of the pot when you pull with a spoon.
During this time our Focacca is baked and we can take it out of the oven. I make sure to cover the tin with a cotton cloth until it cools down a bit.
I transfer the finished tomato sauce to an adequate dish and breakfast can begin.
What I would like to emphasize is that a dish prepared in this way can be eaten cold because it retains its freshness for a long time. it is very important to me because in my house we all get up at different times because of our daily commitments. It can also be preheated in a microwave or hot oven without losing quality.
Enjoy, and thanks for read :)
You can find some other my favorite breakfast food on this link
Meet pie baked in toaster
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/meals-from-toaster-meet-pie-2e6fbb28
Scrambled egg and bacon from oven
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/scrambled-egg-with-bacon-from-oven-bbd55efa
Sweet fillin pastru baked in toaster
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/meals-from-toaster-sweet-filling-pastry-step-bu-step-in-picture-36693e76
Bread - Best recipe for beginners
Bread. The basic foodstuff eaten around the world. Although only flour, salt and water are needed to make bread, there are countless types of bread. I often hear from my friends how they like homemade bread, but they don't know how to make it well. Also some of them don’t like the fracture they have left after making. Some of them do not like to touch the dough with their hands, which is necessary when kneading bread in the usual way. In such cases, I always advise them to make bread this way.
You only need one bowl to prepare it. Pour lukewarm water into it, add yeast and salt.
For the preparation of homemade bread, it is very difficult to give the exact quantities of food because their quality varies greatly, so it takes a little feeling and experience. This time I used 0.5 l of water and about 0.5 kg of flour. But it is very important to pay attention to the density of the dough. For this bread, dough must have density something like child toy slime.
Dissolve yeast and salt in water
Add flour
Mix well until you got this density of dough,
if the dough is not thick enough add a little flour until you get the desired density
when you reach a satisfactory density, pour the dough with oil and let the yeast do its thing, until the volume doubles
When the yeast has done its job and the dough rises, it needs to be kneaded well again
Then divide the dough into several parts and put it in a baking tray, the effect will be even better if you have a baking tray with recesses, I have it, but this time I wanted to show you what it all looks like in an ordinary baking tray.
Don’t worry if the dough looks bad to you. It will all bake nicely. See how ugly it looks in my picture before baking. You can also sprinkle the dough with sesame seeds, cumin, or some other spice. I always sprinkle with sesame seeds.
This kneaded bread is baked at 200 C degrees. The bread is baked when it changes color.
The finished bread looks like this. I made small ones this time.
After baking, the bread prepared in this way should be covered with a textile cloth to cool slightly. The big advantage is that it keeps freshness for a long time. You can reheat it in the oven or microwave if you wish. You can also use this dough as a base for pizza as well as various types of stuffed bread, which I will show you in my next recipe.
Things to know about the mRNA corona vaccine
The first vaccine based on informational ribonucleic acid RNA (mRNA) began to be administered after a record fast production in order to end the covid-19 pandemic.
Although this technology is not new, it is the first time that such a vaccine has been approved for use, so there are still concerns about its safety. Stories that the vaccine based on mRNA changes human DNA are scientifically unfounded and that, although the vaccine was obtained faster than usual, the way to check its safety has not been shortened.
Some vaccines, such as polio or most flu vaccines, use a weakened virus that causes a reaction in the immune system. Other vaccines, such as against hepatitis B, contain a viral protein to which the body responds by making antibodies.
The vaccine based on mRNA contains information, ie instructions for building a viral protein that the organism makes itself and thus causes an immune response.
Although the vaccine start use those days is the first mRNA vaccine to go through all phases of a clinical trial and get permission to use it, that technology has been studied for some time. Tests of cancer vaccines using the same technology have been conducted since 2011, and if there is a problem with that technology, it has certainly been seen so far.
One of the concerns raised by the covid-19 vaccine is that the mRNA vaccine may alter human DNA. that idea is "completely wrong" and has no scientific basis.
"The mRNA-based vaccine will not enter the cell nucleus, where our DNA is located."
When the inserted mRNA enters the human cell, it decomposes quickly and remains in the body for only a few days. Therefore, it is necessary to receive two doses of the vaccine in order to develop the best immune response.
mRNA vaccines are very specific.
The new coronavirus, sars-kov-2, has a complex structure and different parts of the virus activate the immune system to produce different antibodies that neutralize the virus.
If an unvaccinated person becomes infected with the virus, they will produce antibodies that prevent the virus from entering the human cell. It can also produce antibodies that do not have a great effect. And in some cases, a person can make antibodies that actually help the virus enter the cells. Vaccines based on mRNA are much more specific. They are designed to elicit an immune response only to the S protein of the virus, which is only one component of the viral membrane and allows the virus to attack human cells.
Previous research has shown that the vaccine does not elicit an unwanted immune response, but that it is important to ensure that the immune response elicited by the vaccine is concentrated on the S protein of the virus.
Many are concerned about whether there have been omissions in the production of the vaccine in the procedures that are mandatory because it is a process that requires much more time. The process was faster because researchers had already created an mRNA platform, a way to insert viral mRNA into the body, for other vaccines being tested. Also, private companies and governments took the risk and started producing vaccines before the first phases of the experiments were completed, meaning they were ready to begin testing on humans as soon as the results were obtained.
The vaccine partially works by causing local inflammatory reactions to activate the immune system. This means that it is normal for many to feel pain at the injection site, and sometimes fever and discomfort one or two days after vaccination.
The main concern is that people will use possible side effects as an argument not to get vaccinated. The biggest risk right now, especially for vulnerable groups, is not getting the vaccine.
Finally, my new working space
The whole situation with the corona virus has changed the lives of a large number of people a lot. My family is no exception. My wife and I are lecturers at the school and we are again forced to work from home. In addition to the fact that it requires a lot more time, our problem was also how we will organize ourselves. Since we got into a situation where our obligations overlapped, we had to work a good part of the time at the same time. Since this involves working on two computers, there was also a problem with how to organize the space in our living room without making it a big space problem for us. One day we sat down and agreed to create jobs for the two of us that would not have much of an impact on life in our living room.
It was necessary to provide space for two monitors, two cases, two keyboards, a mouse and a printer, so that everything was at hand. There is also a TV as a permanent device in the living room.
The revolutionary solution that turned out to be great was that I came up with the idea of using a table that is normally used in the living room at the same time as a computer desk. Simply, while we are doing the one that is underlined under the shelves where the monitors are, and when we are not doing that, we simply pull it out in the middle of the room where it normally belongs.
The most interesting thing is that I am very satisfied with the drawer that is under the printer shelf, which I placed there without any special purpose. It turned out to be a very useful place for all the little things that would otherwise be all over the table.
Also what is good, I used the rest of the space to set up useful drawers and shelves. Although we haven’t filled all the space yet, I can tell you that I am very pleased with how all this has been done. Now we can work without any problems. The only thing left for me is to buy wireless devices in the next period to get rid of cables as much as possible.
Maybe someone will ask why we use desk top computers and not laptops. This is for several reasons. The first is that we are in front of the screen for twelve hours, which is a big load for a laptop. The second is that we need a mouse and a keyboard to work. So we would have to organize ourselves in such a way that we need the same space for laptops as we do for desktops. And if we take into account that the price of desk top computers that we have from before, investing in laptops would be a cost that would be unjustified at this time.
If someone likes it, and would like to make something the same or similar, here is the drawing that was used to make it.
Finally, I would also like to thank @Read.Cash , like all my friends, who partially made this project possible.
Old school cookie from my homeland
These are cakes that housewives made very often in my hometown in some earlier times. What is very good about them is that they can stand fresh for a very long time, so that whenever someone suddenly stops by, you have something to serve them.
**basic ingredients :**
125 g butter
50 g sugar
150 g flour
1 spoon of milk
**to improve dough i use :**
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs cocoa
5 tbs shredder walnuts
**for decoration :**
chopped walnuts
icing sugar
you can use everything you like, to improve dough, ginger, honey, almonds... and also you can frost with colorful sugar glaze, melted chocolate ...
**Preparing** :
Add all ingredients in bowl and mix well to get sticky dough (butter need to be on room temperature)
Make a ball from dough and put on non stick paper on tray
Dip dough in chopped walnuts and gently press
Bake in heated oven on 150 C about 40 min. You know your cookie is done when you cut one on half and see thin line unbaked dough
Hot cookie frost in icing sugar and that is all
I must also mention that you need a little practice for this recipe. To make you feel exactly how the dough should be before baking. Sometimes it can happen that the balls spread and sometimes they do not change shape. The real thing is when they get a little on the width.
If you like this you also can take a look on my other recipe
Chocolate bar
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-bars-72b2e010
How to make chocolate box
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/how-to-make-chocolate-box-step-by-step-8d3b7f60**
Two color chocolate egg & box
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/two-color-chocolate-egg-and-box-aka-kinder-egg-instruction-how-to-made-c23ff0a0**
Decorated chocolate box
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/decorated-chocolate-box-perfect-gift-9d4417d4**
Chocolate and rice decoration
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-rice-8fec1782**
Chocolate sticks
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-sticks-f668c995**
Homemade sprinkles
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/homemade-sprinkles-domace-secerne-mrvice-eaac40fe**
Fast chocolate banana
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/fast-chocolate-banana-e031cfba**
Chocolate cherry bars
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-cherry-bars-2d8942d8**
Sweet pizza
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/sweet-pizza-f1f2e91f**
Some idea how to decorate your donuts
**https://read.cash/@milanlukic/some-idea-how-to-decorate-your-donuts-eb73efe2**
Chocolate bars
The most common treat he makes in his chocolate workshop are chocolate bars.
They are made very simply and each of us can make them without any problems.
The only thing you need from the tool is a pouring mold that you can find in almost every "Everything for $ 1" store. The ideal casting container is a plastic mold for making ice. Here's what mine looks like.
When it comes to chocolates, we distinguish between two basic types, those that have a shell from chocolate and those that do not.
Before you embark on your first attempt at making chocolate bars, it wouldn’t be bad to know what the volume of your mold is. You can do this by filling it with water and measuring the amount of water with a measuring cup. Another way is to measure the empty container, then reset the scale, fill it with water and read the weight. This will allow you to know how much ingredients to take for preparation. My mold that you see in the photo receives 300 grams of material.
**Chocolate and peanut bars**
These bars are one of my favorites and at the same time they are very easy to make. To make them, you only need 200g of chocolate and 100g of roasted, unsalted peanuts. You can also change the ratio, but up to a maximum of 150g of peanuts and 150g of chocolate. Don't put more peanuts than chocolate because you will get a product that will not be able to keep its shape, it will crumble a lot. Instead of peanuts, you can use any other nuts, nuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds ... and you can also make a mixture of them. I also add a teaspoon of honey, for seasoning. You can add whatever you like, or combine two or more seasons, like cinnamon, vanilla and so on ...
When i make this for myself i like to add hot chilly powder, because i adore chilly chocolate.
The making process is really simple. Chop the peanuts, melt the chocolate, mix well and pour into a mold.
Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes for the chocolate to harden and that’s it.
**Filled chocolate bars**
Making these chocolates takes a little more time. To start, you need to make a chocolate shell. They will do this by melting the chocolate, filling the mold, waiting a few minutes and then pouring. Then leave the mold in the fridge for 10 - 20 minutes for the chocolate to cool and harden. You can fill the shells prepared in this way with whatever you want. My favorite variant is to fill them with vanilla cream and raspberry jam. Care should be taken not to fill them to the top as it is necessary to close the shells with melted chocolate.
The trick I use when I want to make fruit chocolates is to heat the fruit jam and mix it with melted chocolate. Very simple but very effective.
I hope you liked the recipe, if you are a fan of cooking you can look at my other recipes about chocolate on the links:
How to make chocolate box
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/how-to-make-chocolate-box-step-by-step-8d3b7f60
Two color chocolate egg & box
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/two-color-chocolate-egg-and-box-aka-kinder-egg-instruction-how-to-made-c23ff0a0
Decorated chocolate box
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/decorated-chocolate-box-perfect-gift-9d4417d4
Chocolate and rice decoration
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-rice-8fec1782
Chocolate sticks
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-sticks-f668c995
Homemade sprinkles
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/homemade-sprinkles-domace-secerne-mrvice-eaac40fe
Fast chocolate banana
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/fast-chocolate-banana-e031cfba
Chocolate cherry bars
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/chocolate-cherry-bars-2d8942d8
Sweet pizza
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/sweet-pizza-f1f2e91f
Some idea how to decorate your donuts
https://read.cash/@milanlukic/some-idea-how-to-decorate-your-donuts-eb73efe2
@milanlukic
