Cycling. Health. Covid. Diet.

[guerney]

I seem to recall that's how I stumbled on Natto in the first place. Its the K2 MK7 that was supposed to help de-calcify your arteries. I think the juries still out on that one, but the general health benefits of Natto (and K2 MK7) are hard to ignore, so its a bit of a no brainer to take it. (Although one of the reasons I've not been so religious with the Natto in the last year or so, is that the Vitamin D supplement I take has K2 MK7 added)

I've not had a CAC scan done, but after doing my research, I kind of guessed that as I'd been eating a 'normal' diet for decades, like most blokes, I was probably well on the way to a heart attack if I didn't radically change my lifestyle.

Anyway. The chickpeas are cooked, a cube of frozen Natto has been defrosted and stirred in, and they are in the multi-cooker thing on the yogurt setting
I've also covered them with pierced foil this time to try and keep some of the moisture in. We'll see if that makes a difference.
How long to leave them? Did you say 20 hrs ??

If you leave the beans to cool within the liquid you cooked them in, they re-absorb some while cooling, then they're less likely to be too dry during fermentation.

 

[guerney]

na it wont

If you don't feel better after vaccination, you could get a refund!

 

[soundwave]

DWP Response
The DWP has the information you have requested.
The Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme (VDPS) provides a one-off tax free payment,
currently £120,000, to those people who are severely disabled as a result of vaccination
against a specified disease, within the meaning of the Act.
It is not compensation.

Vaccine Damage Payments - a Freedom of Information request to Department for Work and Pensions

Please can you provide the following: 1) The number of claims made under the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme for all COVID-19 vaccines. 2) Of the number of claims in part 1, how many resulted in granting the payment? 3) The number of claims made under the Vaccine Damage Payments scheme for all...

www.whatdotheyknow.com

 

[guerney]

DWP Response
The DWP has the information you have requested.
The Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme (VDPS) provides a one-off tax free payment,
currently £120,000, to those people who are severely disabled as a result of vaccination
against a specified disease, within the meaning of the Act.
It is not compensation.

Vaccine Damage Payments - a Freedom of Information request to Department for Work and Pensions

Please can you provide the following: 1) The number of claims made under the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme for all COVID-19 vaccines. 2) Of the number of claims in part 1, how many resulted in granting the payment? 3) The number of claims made under the Vaccine Damage Payments scheme for all...

www.whatdotheyknow.com

Perfect... then move to Peru, change your name, have your face altered to look like Tarantino, and spend the rest on a truly epic ebike to go zooming up and down Machu Picchu, just like the aliens did (or still do):

Machu Picchu - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[guerney]

p.s. All aliens look like Tarantino, it's how they discern real alien sightings from fakes.

 

[guerney]

A report on how Singapore are coping while removing restrictions, with around 82% vaccinated - the UK has vaccinated about 73%:

Can we live with COVID-19? Singapore tries to blaze a path

New daily cases reach highest level in 17 months after curbs relaxed for highly vaccinated population.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[guerney]

New longer lasting vaccine:

Late but longer-lasting? Israel’s COVID jab aims to ‘find its place in market’

Chairman of NRx, pharmaceutical company completing trials for BriLife, suggests vaccine may even work better against variants

www.timesofisrael.com

 

[guerney]

Insects including flies exist down to below what we can see with the naked eye, so that is what they eat. To give some idea, a square metre of woodland soil recently minutely examined revealed, apart from major creatures like worms, the following:

Over 1600 larvae of microflies.

Over 15,000 springtails.

Over 20,000 mites.

So they don't have to go far for a meal. In fact spiderlings are born with around a week of food in their abdomens and many spider mothers stay with their young and like the Nursery Web Spider, even provide them with a protective web which catches things for them.

This link may interest you.
.

You institutionalised a spider? Great photos too - what lens did you use?

 

[flecc]

You institutionalised a spider? Great photos too - what lens did you use?

Just the one built into that Konica pocket camera. I had better cameras but with the difficulty of photographing into the mouth of a jam jar I wanted the minimum of intrusion and size to avoid frightening the spider unnecessarily.

I long ago gave up on SLRs and the like for my entomological photography since I prefer to work in extreme close up for the fine detail I need for identifications. Then even using a small pocket camera like the Panasonic TZ70 I've just used for the photo below I get that detail without using a huge camera that scares off the insect (click to enlarge):

 

[guerney]

Just the one built into that Konica pocket camera. I had better cameras but with the difficulty of photographing into the mouth of a jam jar I wanted the minimum of intrusion and size to avoid frightening the spider unnecessarily.

I long ago gave up on SLRs and the like for my entomological photography since I prefer to work in extreme close up for the fine detail I need for identifications. Then even using a small pocket camera like the Panasonic TZ70 I've just used for the photo below I get that detail without using a huge camera that scares off the insect (click to enlarge):

View attachment 44112

It's amazing how much lens variation they can fit into compacts these days - to get the same on a DSLR would require at least three lenses, especially for 30X zoom. The lens on that Panasonic is impressive, and it's such a small portable package... I can certainly see the appeal. Are insect spotters also called "Twitchers"?

 

[guerney]

Just the one built into that Konica pocket camera. I had better cameras but with the difficulty of photographing into the mouth of a jam jar I wanted the minimum of intrusion and size to avoid frightening the spider unnecessarily.

I long ago gave up on SLRs and the like for my entomological photography since I prefer to work in extreme close up for the fine detail I need for identifications. Then even using a small pocket camera like the Panasonic TZ70 I've just used for the photo below I get that detail without using a huge camera that scares off the insect (click to enlarge):

View attachment 44112

I'd love to be able to use a compact for work, but they're not there in terms of what I need, unfortunately. The Sony RX series is also pretty good, but that won't do either which is very annoying - general purpose lenses on compacts just are not good enough yet, but I wish they were - I'd have less backache! Bloody big sensitive sensor on the Sony RXs too, maybe they'll improve sufficiently over time.

What rights do you give away when you upload nice photos on this website anwyay? Must look carefully at the terms and conditions... Theoretically I can sue customers after a year of limited use for anything I sell the use of, but I never do. Automatic copyright scanning and litigation is all the rage these days, with computers scanning worldwide 24/7; they can demand £50 (or more) for every every time it's been viewed, and servers keep logs... usually people who use photos without the copyright holder's express permission settle out of court... and it happens a lot more often than one might assume.

 

[flecc]

It's amazing how much lens variation they can fit into compacts these days - to get the same on a DSLR would require at least three lenses, especially for 30X zoom. The lens on that Panasonic is impressive, and it's such a small portable package... I can certainly see the appeal. Are insect spotters also called "Twitchers"?

It seems insects spotters/bug hunters are too rare to have gained a special name yet. Twitchers is for Birders but calling Bug hunters Buggers would be misunderstood !

I rarely use the long zoom, but here's the two extremes of my Panasonic TZ70 lens illustrated, the Parakeets at 30 times, the Aphid at 2 cms from the lens front:

 

[guerney]

It seems insects spotters/bug hunters are too rare to have gained a special name yet. Twitchers is for Birders but calling Bug hunters Buggers would be misunderstood !

I rarely use the long zoom, but here's the two extremes of my Panasonic TZ70 lens illustrated, the Parakeets at 30 times, the Aphid at 2 cms from the lens front:

View attachment 44118

View attachment 44119

Well Flecc, this website can take your lovely photos and:

"You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content. "

...you've given them pretty broad rights over your photos! And while retaining copyright! For all the good that does. I advise posting links to photos on your own website instead...

 

[flecc]

Well Flecc, this website can take your lovely photos and:

"You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content. "

...you've given them pretty broad rights over your photos! And while retaining copyright! For all the good that does. I advise posting links to photos on your own website instead...

I've long been an Open Source advocate for the internet so I'm not worried about others freely using my photos. Pedelecs doesn't have exclusive rights on the photos since they are all previously published, mainly on the nature reserve organisation website I'm on the committee of.

And anyway, Russell Scott, the founder of this pedelecs website I regard as a friend. We were into this from the beginning and I'm the first ever member here from 2006.

Back on the advantages of pocketable cameras, another advantage I use to the full is one handed operation, often necessary when subjects are easiest photographed when placed on one hand:

Information Link
.

 

[GLJoe]

ARE YOU RUSSEL BRAND?!?!?!?

No.
But I've just realised you must be the resurrected 'pentiumofborg' !

 

[guerney]

But I've just realised you must be the resurrected 'pentiumofborg' !

What's that?

 

[guerney]

I've long been an Open Source advocate for the internet so I'm not worried about others freely using my photos. Pedelecs doesn't have exclusive rights on the photos since they are all previously published, mainly on the nature reserve organisation website I'm on the committee of.

And anyway, Russell Scott, the founder of this pedelecs website I regard as a friend. We were into this from the beginning and I'm the first ever member here from 2006.

Back on the advantages of pocketable cameras, another advantage I use to the full is one handed operation, often necessary when subjects are easiest photographed when placed on one hand:

Information Link
.

Those insect photos are impressively sharp, but cameras with small apertures are. Cellphone cameras are absurdly sharp too, but all small sensors suffer from excessive noise and colour discrepancies, compared to cameras with larger lenses and apertures... and that's why you usually don't see cellphone snaps on billboards. If you'd taken those with a DSLR (somehow, I know DSLRs are unwieldy), you could be selling them. Mind you, that's not usually something to count on as an income stream... unless you sell them as Non-Fungible Tokens, where it seems any old set of blocky pixels can sell for millions (at the moment).

Non-fungible token - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

People are spending millions on NFTs. What? Why?

NFT WTF FAQ.

www.theverge.com

 

[guerney]

No.
But I've just realised you must be the resurrected 'pentiumofborg' !

That's a nice attempt at distraction tactic, but YOU ARE RUSSEL BRAND! Don't worry, I won't be asking for an autograph, but I may ask for Capoeira tips...

 

[flecc]

Those insect photos are impressively sharp, but cameras with small apertures are. Cellphone cameras are absurdly sharp too, but all small sensors suffer from excessive noise and colour discrepancies, compared to cameras with larger lenses and apertures... and that's why you usually don't see cellphone snaps on billboards.

Agreed, in fact in an earlier life I was in the photographic trade for four years and later with a French engineering company worked with the advanced optics of specialised photo composing machines, so all this is familiar.

But everything I take now is destinated for the web and reduced for that purpose, hardly any is ever printed and never large. To avoid the problems you mention I avoid high pixel count small sensors. That's why I stick to my ageing 12 megapixel TZ70 instead of upgrading to the later 20.3 megapixel TZ models with noisier performance.

This FSW web page directs to the online photos, you'll find most of my work under the two Invertebrate links, credited to TFl. Click on any of those photos and you'll see the full attribution and details of the subject.
.

 

[guerney]

Agreed, in fact in an earlier life I was in the photographic trade for four years and later with a French engineering company worked with the advanced optics of specialised photo composing machines, so all this is familiar.

But everything I take now is destinated for the web and reduced for that purpose, hardly any is ever printed and never large. To avoid the problems you mention I avoid high pixel count small sensors. That's why I stick to my ageing 12 megapixel TZ70 instead of upgrading to the later 20.3 megapixel TZ models with noisier performance.

This FSW web page directs to the online photos, you'll find most of my work under the two Invertebrate links, credited to TFl. Click on any of those photos and you'll see the full attribution and details of the subject.
.

Noise is the bane of my photographic life, which is why most shoot at ISO 100 to 50 (if available)... but for the odd indispensible shot snapped unintentionally noisily, I recommend this:

ON1 NoNoise AI Versus Topaz DeNoise AI: Noise Reduction Throwdown

Noise reduction throwdown!

petapixel.com

Topaz is not perfect, but has saved my hide on many an occasion! In use, you can use it as an intermediary layer to reduce noise in specified areas, rather than simply applying it to the whole photo, and there are a great many controls available in photoshop besides, to further fine tune. It's enabled me to salvage photos for magazine prints.