*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@social.cleverlibre.org

@freemo Lol, Thanks for the good chuckle to start the day!! 😜

Need something to read? The Guardian has this page with 25 Long Reads suggested.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/mar/30/looking-for-a-distraction-here-are-25-of-our-favourite-long-reads

@IOcase @freemo Just used some of the paprika I purchased (supermarket generic branding) and it was a big let down; nothing like the Spanish Smoder Pimentón I enjoyed so much (which adds a true smoked flavour to any dish with a little sprinkilng of it).

The real mcKoy is "Pimentón de la Vera".

This is the one I used and now miss..,

@IOcase You should ask @freemo as he's into Eletronics and could probably give some suggestions and advice.

@freemo
Reminds me of an incredible spices store I visited in Cordoba, Andalucia, Spain a couple of years ago. Unbelievabe variety and quality. The aromas were exquisite.

Misss my Spanish Pimentón powder, the can is finished, sadly. It was the smoked kind, I did purchase a bit of Paprika to replace it but don't think it wil be rich as the Pimentón.

A good page with details on the various types and flavours. https://everydayfoodblog.com/spain/spanish-paprika-pimenton/

@IOcase

@freemo OMG. Really? Amazing patience, well done!

@darwish
Nice post, thank you. These two vessels are arriving at their destinations very soon, and will help a lot -- providing treatment for other needs that are not being accepted into the regular hospitals right now due to the virus contagion risk for the patients.

@freemo @zleap

* Vintage Bicycles - Restoration or Preservation *

I posted an article here yesterday about a Humber 1925 British bicycle which was quite lovingly maintained. The blog post was quite neat, great photos, a well cared for bicycle.

And I spent sometime reading other posts in the same site; he has many, many nice pages with some incredibly nice bicycles, including René Herse models from the 1930's to the 1980's.

I enjoyed the articles, he frequently mentions his views on how we should handle those, which are really precious cultural artifacts (his Herse bikes are Constructeur, hand built frames and bicycles, pinacle of the art).

There's one post in particular that explains his approach to this -- Preservation is the way to go, and I liked it a lot.

I hate the Trailler Queen type of thing we see sometiems in car or bicycle Vintage shows, where something is polished to hell and painted with modern finishes that have much higher gloss than the originals. Turning into something that in fact, never existed. Demented, imo.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in #cycling, #vintage, #Randonneur bikes and cultural preservation policies.

Deserving of #QotoJournal mention as well.

https://vintagebicycle.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/vintage-bicycle-restoration-1-restoration-or-preservation/

@freemo You watching Fox News again? 😜

@freemo I remember reading recently an article about the usage of Jackfruit and Durian, a related species, can't recall exactly what for. Scientific related.

Digging thru the memory, it was for producing nano carbon particles I believe, and it was a lot cheaper than the usual processes.

Found it : https://patents.justia.com/patent/10090117

"
Method of making a porous nano-carbon electrode from biomass
Jan 16, 2018 - KING SAUD UNIVERSITY

The method of making a porous carbon electrode is a chemical activation-based method of making a porous nanocarbon electrode for supercapacitors and the like. Recycled jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) peel waste is used as a precursor carbon source for producing the porous nanocarbon. A volume of jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) peel is collected, dried and then heated under vacuum to produce precursor carbon.

The precursor carbon is mixed with phosphoric acid (H3PO4) to form a mixture, which is then stirred, dried and heated to yield porous nanocarbon. The porous nanocarbon is mixed with a binder, such as poly(vinylidenedifluoride), acetylene black, and an organic solvent, such as n-methyl pyrrolidinone, to form a paste. This paste is then coated on a strip of nickel foil to form the porous carbon electrode."

@freemo You are welcome.

Worth noting that in that thread someone mentioned that Fedilab has a built in translator -- something that can be quite useful, in the thread itself there's a number of replies in Cyrillic, Russian language that completely baffles most of us.

"COVID-19: the biology of an effective therapy
We already know lots about coronavirus biology."

An extensive article at Ars Technica that in my opinion deserves mention and inclusion as a reference in our own #QotoJournal -- so people can find and read it if interested.

Long Read, lots of Biology details. But a good reference, imo.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/covid-19-the-biology-of-an-effective-therapy/

@freemo Keep an eye out, new incoming migration wave. Troubling the mothership already.

Por los amigos que hablan Español, el original está a https://www.abc.es/ciencia/abci-como-observar-atlas-brillante-cometa-suicida-desconcierta-astronomos-202003262226_noticia.html

A comet was always perceived as a major event, astrologically, since Antiquity.

We have one called Atlas coming our way now, and it seems it will put in a big display.

Bing translation from an original Spanish article.

https://www.translatetheweb.com/?ref=TVert&from=es&to=en&a=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.es%2Fciencia%2Fabci-como-observar-atlas-brillante-cometa-suicida-desconcierta-astronomos-202003262226_noticia.html

The Economist gives Brazilian idiotic president Jair Bolsonaro a fitting nickname -- "BolsoNero" (as in the Roman emperor who fiddled with his harp as Rome burned.)

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2020/03/26/brazils-president-fiddles-as-a-pandemic-looms

Washigton Post has a good article too : https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/brazils-bolsonaro-channeling-trump-dismisses-coronavirus-measures--its-just-a-little-cold/2020/03/25/65bc90d6-6e99-11ea-a156-0048b62cdb51_story.html

I find it really worrisome, knowing the country and how poorly funded the public health system there is (basically a last resort for anyone who can't afford private health insurance plans a la Americana).

Worse yet is the neighbouring Venezuela, which was already in shambles before this pandemic arrives.

@freemo Yes, the Users post from 9 hours ago already had 10,007 users listed and I noticed it. 😃

https://qoto.org/@users/103904831377042389

Averaging about 30 new accounts per day now it seems.

@freemo Ah, I see, understand. Hope all goes well for you and the family. 👍

@freemo Forgot to mention that it is a real nice connection, plus you have The Beast of all personal computers running there too. Well done. 😄

@freemo Uhmmmm.... Does that mean you are planning to stay in the USA for the near term?

I am quite alarmed by the news coming out of the country.