Archive for tortilla

Nature tidbits [15 Jan 2026]

Posted in Books, pictures, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 13, 2026 by xi'an

The cover of the 15 Jan issue of Nature is a blurry reconstitution of snapshots from the James Webb Space Telescope, which contributed to uncover these new astronomical objects, deemed to be young supermassive black holes. A notion I only came across recently, during a pre-defence lunch near the Paris Observatory.

Apart from that astronomical advance, Nature puts its focus on the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia. With a tribune bemoaning the insufficient investment of academics in the platform (with mentions of hypocrisy and betrayal). Which sounds rather unfair, since it requires an additional levy on research time, even though I did contribute to a few entries. And recognise the worth of most scientifics pages, as well as the parasitism by LLMs. And an interview of of Jimmy Wales’ about his Wikipedia memoir, Seven Rules of Trust. Kudos to his vision! He sounds rather optimistic about the chances of Wikipedia surviving the tsunAImi, but only if the users keep resorting (and indeed contributing) to the platform rather than accepting the LLM production at fa(r)ce value!

Other entries on

  • LLMs suffering (!) from “anxiety, trauma, shame and post-traumatic stress disorder”, although the arXiv reporting the experiment is criticized by others for anthropomorphising the machines. The danger is more in them inducing real trauma in vulnerable (human) users!
  • LLMs exhibiting aggressive behaviour (if trained accordingly)
  • the oldest evidence on human controlled fires using pyrite (in SE England), 400,000 years ago
  • the rise of academics being harassed (and not only in the US) and six recommendations for protecting our digital security (mentioning organisations such as Scholars at Risk Europe, Expert Voices Together, and Faculty First Responders)
  • a “Where I work” picture of a food scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico flipping a tortilla, with fermented ingredients to improve health and combat malnutrition in poor communities

a journal of the chaos, conquest, war, famine, and death mid’year

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, Wines with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 24, 2024 by xi'an

Read a third of (a physical copy of) T.J. Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets before giving up. Unbearably boring, predictable, dripping cheap sentimentality and cheaper robotic humour. Worse than the earlier House in the Cerulean Sea. That I already did not much enjoy. (I bought the book in Edinburgh while at SMC 2024, as a 3-4-2 deal, along another one I had to return because it was volume 2 of a series I had not yet started!, not so much of a deal in the end!!, even though I manage to exchange it for Naomi Novik’s The Golden Enclaves) Also read the silent BD Béatrice, by Joris Mertens,  set in the same imaginary city as Nettoyage à Sec,  a mix of Paris (mostly) and Bruxelles/Brussels (partly), except with a fantasy side. The 1960’s atmosphere, the asphyxiating weight of the city, the isolation of the young saleswoman, the large scale boxes make both BDs outstanding. And I started Don Quixote (in French), which reads surprisingly well (possibly thanks to the translation) and layered with many levels of irony and pastiche, never too late to discover classics I had not yet read!

Made heaps of rhubarb preserve and jam (with honey, lemon, maybe too much lemon, and chia seeds). And learned from friends how to make Guatemalan maïze tortilla and frijoles. Had a great meal with them at Ze Kitchen Galerie, on the eve of the Paris Olympics, which meant entering a maze of barriers installed along the Seine river (and Xing paths with the president of the local football club, not that I would have had the slightest clue of who he was without the excitement of passerbys). Alas missed a chance-in-a-decade opportunity to have dinner at Da Franz, due to my ospedale days.

Watched the first season of Travellers, a 2016 Canadian TV series about time travel agents arriving in the current era to save the future and the many paradoxes it induces. Soon spiralling into homely concerns and out of the slightest plausibility, if with enticing characters.

Tierras Centro Americanas [journal of the NYC weekend]

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 27, 2022 by xi'an

Upon my arrival at JFK, Queens, Andrew took me to have unbelievable tortillas in this Guatemaltec restaurant, soft and yummy, almost like pancakes! Along with great food altogether. We also had a pleasant stroll walking through Queens’ lively Jamaica district. Including coming upon a just extinguished fire in a row of shops! On the opposite, I did not see much of New Brunswick, apart from walking by the Harvest Moon brewery where I got a beer (and a tee-shirt) on my earlier visit there.

Read Truthwitch, another disappointment in the series (of recent books), as the universe building could have been great (despite being heavily inspired from Western Europe geography and culture, and in particular of Venezia. Again, I presume I was missing the YA label when I first picked this book! Scenario is rather terrible, full of last second rescues, new and convenient forms of magical powers, while interactions about characters are artificial and predictable, definitely not recommended. (And there are five books in the series!)

Watched The Silent Sea a short Korean TV serie taking place mostly in a Korean infected base on the Moon. While trying to solve the water crisis on a drying Earth (looking red from the Moon). The ending is quite disappointing while the original idea was most appealing. The science (fiction) behind the story is however terrible. (E.g., never use guns in space! And why would astronauts rely on cheap, handheld, lamplights to explore dark tunnels?! And how can you hide stealthy visits to a Moon basis from Earth?! &tc.)

a journal of the plague year [soon to turn one…]

Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 6, 2021 by xi'an

Read in a few Sunday hours Living proof by John Harvey, a 1995 novel that I had found in the book exchange section of our library. A very easy read but rather enjoyable with several stories within stories and books within books. The resolution of the main murder mystery was disappointing but I enjoyed the inclusion of real artists like Ian Rankin and Mark Timlin. With a pastiche of P.D. James. And plenty of jazz references. Plus two characters meeting while studying at Warwick. And some shared glimpses of Nottingham like the statue of Robin Hood and the troglodyte Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. where I was once  invited for a pint… The story takes place during and around Nottingham’s Shots in the Dark festival. I hence grabbed another volume in the library in prevision of another lazy afternoon!

Baked rather decent chapattis for a take-home Bengali dinner but ruined the pan and started the fire alarm! Also tried to bake tortillas but mixed up the proportions of flour and water, ending up with a type of galette or injera instead (which worked as a container for the fajitas!).

Eventually watched the last two episodes of the Queen’s Gambit, but found them somewhat disappointing, between the main characters’ attitude that did not feel in tune with the 1960’s, the French femme fatale who cannot pronounce Jardins du Luxembourg, and the somewhat rosy tale of two orphans achieving financial freedom and professional success before their majority. Also watched the Korean Space Sweepers after an exhausting day, with a very shallow plot and a complete disregard for physics.

Read the duology of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo, set in the same universe as the Grisha novels. Which I had read five years ago and somewhat forgotten than these novels were written as young adult books, with a resulting shallow plot, so full of sudden changes of fortune that any worry for the (caricaturesque) characters vanishes (till the one point when one should have) in a definitive suspension of suspense. (The Guardian reviewed Six of Crows in the Children’s book review section, which feels rather inappropriate given the degree of abuse the teens in the novels are submitted to, with two girls surviving sexual enslavement in the local brothels.) Just like the Grisha novels were set in a postcard version of Russia, these novels are taking place in a similarly thin (pannenkoek) version of Amsterdam (with waffles as the only culinary delicacy!). I do realise these series have a huge fan base, to the point of leading to an incoming Netflix series. But I found the more elaborate Ninth House much more enjoyable… (In tune with this series of reviews, the second book includes a plague episode with a modicum of realism, at least in its early stages.)