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Well, the fleas probably won't stay on you like they will a dog or cat, but they will use you for a blood meal until they find a more inviting host...
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Yep, geckos all over the place. I start sometimes if I see one move quickly past (thinking it's a roach usually), but they're fun to watch.
They aren't so smart about where they lay their eggs sometimes. I've found gecko eggs in very odd places around my house, and unfortunately they're quite fragile. I always feel bad when I squish one accidentally.
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Can we go back to talking about chocolate? This orange peel bar I've been nibbling on all day is perhaps the best chcolate bar I've had in my life. And that's saying a lot. Plus it has 39% of my RDA of Vitamin C!
Edit: It's the fleas sucking my blood talk I am avoiding. The gecko talk is kinda fun, although I've not had the pleasure of seeing them in the wild.
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I loved watching the geckos running around my guest house in Thailand. I found them cute, and it was really interesting to watch them hunt.
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I wanted a lizard for a pet once. I loved my brother's stories about the iguanas when we lived in Cuba. Well, I only lived there in my mom's belly. Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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These are the geckos we get here. I think they are wonderful. We didn't have any at our old house (because our landlady had regular pest control done ) - I was so jealous when I went to a friend's house the other night and she had 5 of them on the walls of her front porch. I hope at our new house we can get a ton of them. They're cute and very good at eating nasty bugs.
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That's an awesome gecko, ludosti. The ones here aren't that colorful usually. I tried to find a photo, but I'm not sure what genera or species they are. I do know that they have chameloid properties, so they take on the color of their background. We also have skinks, which are also cool.
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You haven't seen the hissing cockroaches, have you?
They're about the size of a woman's palm and can compress their exoskeleton to become even smaller in order to fit through cracks and crevices normal roaches couldn't pass.
Naturally, as the exoskeleton collapses, the internal gas is expelled, resulting in a "hissing."
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Two more dead mice when I got home. I shudder to think how many must be in my walls. I have to buy more traps, only one left.
I know y'all don't need the updates, but I need to type them. This squicks me out so badly it's embarassing.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote: quidscribis, I am considering it my random act of kindness for the week. [Wink] I can't think of anyone more deserving of kindness than someone cut off from good chocolate.
You want to send me chocolate for your RAK? Hey, who am I to argue? Send away!
Have I mentioned the quality of chocolate here? While we do have chocolate bars, and some that Canadians would recognize, as well as Smarties - the chocolate kind - most chocolate here is, oh, waxy. Like the baking chocolate. Waxy milk chocolate. No pure chocolate, no chocolate chips. Just slabs of waxy milk chocolate. Now that's a crime!
quote: Don't kill the geckos!!!!!! They are harmless and they eat the roaches. They are your friends.
Gecko poop! Gecko poop! I hate gecko poop!!!!!
quote: Wow! Around here we buy geckos as pets. Are you saying you guys have them running around free?
Yeah. You want me to mail you some? I can. I just won't guarantee that I won't kill 'em first.
quote: They aren't so smart about where they lay their eggs sometimes. I've found gecko eggs in very odd places around my house, and unfortunately they're quite fragile. I always feel bad when I squish one accidentally.
So now I need to be hunting gecko eggs? Although, I'm probably too late. I've seen a few young ones crawling around. Did I mention they're everywhere?
Ludosti, we don't get colorful geckos like that. Ours are a pale green or dar brown, solid color, sort of, except for their almost transparent bit.
I HATE GECKOS! I DON'T CARE WHAT Y'ALL SAY! I HATE 'EM! I HATE 'EM I TELL YOU. HATE 'EM!! <collapses in hysteria>
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I have now trapped 5 mice in 24 hours, and am out of traps. Will be buying more tomorrow. I honestly had no clue I had an infestation before this.
I DO have an infestation, and I'm under no illusions about it. They've built condos and have an open air market and everything.
KILL THE GECKOS!!!!!! Oh hey, maybe I can stomp on them to death. Will this work? STOMP THE GECKOS! STOMP THE GECKOS!!!!
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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There was one house we lived in when I was a kid that had mice. Meece? A brace of meese?
My brother, not the smart one but the "other" one, would catch them, then hang them by their tails over the toilet, then cut the tails off with his pocket knife. In front of me, a shy, innocent, freaked out four year old girl.
I've been scarred for life. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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The first one matches the room quite nicely. Nice of them to coordinate the geckos for you, hmmmm?
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They sell much larger amounts to bakeries and the like. When she asked one of her companies for a sample of cinnamon, we ended up with a 5 pound bag.
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Here's an interesting looking spider. Completely off topic, of course, but I came across it while looking for gecko pics, and thought it was unusual looking, and worth sharing.
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Hey Arthur I just realized you probably know the answer to this. What makes "english toffee" english toffee? Is it something you can buy as a bulk ingreedient like chocolate? I mean it seems substantially the same between Heath bars and Skor bars even though they are different brands.
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Aj - it's actually pretty much the same stuff in the bars- English toffee is characterized by being hard and brittle. It's really easy to make - Take 3 parts brown sugar (molasses and white sugar works) 5 parts glucose (corn) syrup 1-1/2 parts butter 3 parts milk (sweet condensed milk) and a bit of salt
Ideally, add the butter first, next the milk and glucose, and fully emulsify before you add the sugar. Stir constantly as you boil to a high heat (295 degrees). Scraping the sides often and mixing continuously are critical to a good toffee since toffee mass does not conduct heat well and the mixture readily burns in the kettle. The mixture carmelizes as it reaches the 295 degree temperature. You can use a thermometer or do a "crack test". A crack test is to take a small sample of the toffee on a spatula and immerse in cold water. The confectioner judges the degree of cooking by the texture of the mixture. This method is quick and reliable.
Remove toffee mixture immediately from pan to prevent further carmelization. Pour into a tray, cut into bars as it is cooling or pour mixture into rubber molds or a pan covered in waxed paper and cooking spray.
Once the bars are cooled they can be dipped in chocolate and covered with nuts.
The most commonly diced nut used is the peanut because the rich peanut flavor compliments the butterscotch taste of the toffee and chocolate. The almond is the second most common for this application for similar reasons and the almond is considered a more expensive nut than the peanut so the product is more upscale using almonds.
A number of manufacturers use an assorted diced nut which has a combination of peanuts, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, and pecans.
It can be bought in bulk, but it is so easy to make.
[ October 22, 2004, 11:25 AM: Message edited by: Arthur ]
Posts: 153 | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote: Have I mentioned the quality of chocolate here? While we do have chocolate bars, and some that Canadians would recognize, as well as Smarties - the chocolate kind - most chocolate here is, oh, waxy. Like the baking chocolate. Waxy milk chocolate. No pure chocolate, no chocolate chips. Just slabs of waxy milk chocolate. Now that's a crime
Chocolate is something I know a little about - There are three basic things that must be done by the chocolate maker to make a chocolate bar:
Adding ingredients - The chocolate that we eat contains sugar, other flavors (like vanilla) and often milk (in milk chocolate). The chocolate maker adds these ingredients according to his or her secret recipe.
Conching - A special machine is used to massage the chocolate in order to blend the ingredients together and smooth it out. Conching can take anywhere from two to six days.
Tempering - Tempering is a carefully controlled heating process. According to this Chocolate FAQ, tempering is "a process where the chocolate is slowly heated, then slowly cooled, allowing the cocoa butter molecules to solidify in an orderly fashion." Without tempering, the chocolate does not harden properly or the cocoa butter separates out (as cream separates from milk).
These three steps, along with the blend of cocoa beans chosen at the start and the way they are roasted, are the art of chocolate making. The steps control the quality, taste and texture of the chocolate produced, and are often closely guarded secrets!
Types of Chocolate Baking Chocolate Pure cocoa liquor with nothing added Cocoa Powder Cocoa bean solids; cocoa liquor pressed to remove the cocoa butter Semisweet Chocolate Pure cocoa liquor with extra cocoa butter and some sugar Milk Chocolate Pure cocoa liquor with extra cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids; more milk than chocolate liquor White Chocolate Cocoa butter with sugar and milk; no cocoa bean solids
Most confectioners for mass consumption add wax and a lot of cocoa butter to give their bar a longer shelf live and it enables them to use less cocoa, therefore giving you a waxy tasting chocolate.
Posts: 153 | Registered: Aug 2002
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oooh no wonder I like toffee, I love brown sugar too. I'll eat spoonfuls of it as a guilty pleasure from time to time.
I'll have to try your recipie.
Who knew that engineering knowledge about steel would come in handy with chocolate making? I'm going to have to use that "tempering" bit sometime on the guys here.
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though cooking for me can be disastrous... I probably should ask Steve if he thinks its safe first. Unfortunately half the time the Mac N Cheeese fights me if I try to cook. The chex mix debacle is still in recent memory too... Good thing Steve cooks or we'd starve.
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We have geckos here like those in Noeman's first picture too. I think they're really cute. And I also think it's neat that they're translucent....
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote: A special machine is used to massage the chocolate in order to blend the ingredients together and smooth it out. Conching can take anywhere from two to six days.
I would like to be massaged for anywhere from two to six days.
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Yeah Tick, isn't Hatrack a cool place? Thread evolution is something I love to watch.
Arthur, you said
quote:These three steps, along with the blend of cocoa beans chosen at the start and the way they are roasted, are the art of chocolate making.
From what I've been reading, the way that the beans are dried after being harvested also makes a big difference. Whether they're laid out on leaves (and I expect that the type of leaf matters too, but the articles I've read haven't gone into it), or directly on the ground, whether they're constantly exposed to the sun, or periodically shaded, and stuff like that all has an impact of the character of the chocolate that is eventually produced. It's an art really.
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Maui babe, do you know anything about diseases that might be transmitted through gecko feces? I'm thinking of something like the four corners disease (whose actual name escapes me at the moment) that is transmitted through rodent feces.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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While we are on the subject, I'll make a bid for fair trade chocolate products. Same issues as sparked the interest in fair trade coffee.
quote:In 2001, The US State Department and the ILO reported child slavery on Ivory Coast cocoa farms, the origin of 43 percent of the world's cocoa. Subsequent research by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture indicated that though child slavery is thankfully very limited, other egregious forms of child labor are unfortunately widespread. Hundreds of thousands of children work in dangerous tasks on cocoa farms. At least 12,000 child cocoa workers have come to their present situation through trafficking. Most child cocoa workers in the Ivory Coast do not have the opportunity to attend school. The same investigation identified poverty as the cause - West African cocoa revenues average $30-$108 per year per household member. These impoverished producers have no choice but to keep their kids out of school to work in dangerous tasks on cocoa farms, or even use child slaves.
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Damn. Good information Sara, thanks. What is the link exactly? My workplace's smart filter is blocking it, so I'll have to wait to read it until I get home tonight.
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Right, Hantavirus. Thanks kat! Out of curiosity, why did you choose to make the word "the" the hypertext link?
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The link is for http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/ . "Global Exchange is an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political and social justice. Since our founding in 1988, we have increased the US public's global awareness while building partnerships worldwide."
You can find other links on Google ("fair trade" chocolate) that might not be blocked.
Yeah. I love chocolate, but I can't buy it without thinking about other issues too, now. Same for coffee. Luckily Madison has a definite bias towards providing the fair trade products.
We still buy the non-fairtrade stuff sometimes, but I make a real effort to spend my money for suppliers that enter into this sort of agreement.
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:why did you choose to make the word "the" the hypertext link?
Because I was trying to be subtle in hopes that you'd click on it, but the general population would overlook it, because while it's a paper that's not bad for an undergrad, it doesn't hold up the professional standards of this crowd. I then panicked and deleted the post altogether. Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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And another bid from me, this time for our children in the States.
I am humbled -- and I chose that word deliberately -- by the intensity and passion of our children for justice. Somewhere after gradeschool and by the end of college, we tend to expect that the world will suck, to accept that there is nothing we can do about it, and to learn to tune out injustice. Burnout is very real.
On the other hand, most children seem to still be outraged about something, anything, that is "not fair." They burn with that outrage, and yet they often feel impotent to do anything -- all around them are people and systems who tell them that their ideas are not meaningful, that they have nothing to offer, and that they essentially have to wait until something dies inside them before anything that children do or say will be listened to.
Not true. And given that we are pretty sure that being a part of something bigger and meaningful to you (be it sports, or music, or activism, or what have you) is an important part of developing grounded self esteem and resisting peer pressure, why not tap into some of that passion for justice and watch them have at it?
Pretty cool stuff from the above link:
quote:Producer poverty comes at the hands of large chocolate corporations, such as M&M/Mars and other members of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association of America, that manipulate the market to keep profits high while producer incomes stay low. The industry has developed a Protocol to end abusive child labor, but it doesn't guarantee the minimum price producers need to meet their costs and thus cease needing child labor. Without a stable and sufficient income, producers will remain trapped in poverty and forced to rely on child labor against their heartfelt wishes to do otherwise. The Protocol also unjustly lays the blame on producers and their strapped governments instead of admitting the role and responsibility of the industry in exacerbating poverty and child labor problems.
The solution is FAIR TRADE (denoted by the "Fair Trade Certified" or Fair Trade Federation labels) , which ensures that producers earn enough to send their kids to school and pay their workers. Since 2002, Global Exchange has been demanding that the US chocolate industry, solve this crisis by selling Fair Trade chocolate. M&M/Mars and its industry partners have refused the demands of over 200 organizations, thousands of K-12 students, and thousands of concerned adults who have contacted them to demand Fair Trade.
We need to come together in even larger numbers make it clear that we will accept nothing less than Fair Trade from M&M/Mars and the US chocolate industry. We also need to work to make existing Fair Trade chocolate and cocoa products available in our communities through school/youth-club fundraisers, stores, campuses, community groups, faith-based groups, and more. Join us today to make chocolate as sweet for cocoa producers as it is for you. You can get involved wherever you are:
Links to projects for K-12 graders follows.
And if you or your kids aren't bitten by the chocolate bug (though this is usually a relevant one, as kids both tend to like chocolate and to empathize with other children in slavery), there are other areas to feed that flame. Take, for example, some tobacco companies' own internal documents which detail both plans for hooking kids on nicotine early (nicotine-laced candy was proposed) and demostrate the gall of laughing at kids' gullibility.
I love to see kids go to town on that one. They are sharper than the industry thinks.
Regardless, Halloween is a great time for discussing chocolate with your kids. If you want a project to keep that passion alive, this is a good one.
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) - I was so jealous when I went to a friend's house the other night and she had 5 of them on the walls of her front porch. I hope at our new house we can get a ton of them. They're cute and very good at eating nasty bugs. ![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
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Will this work? STOMP THE GECKOS! STOMP THE GECKOS!!!!
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Arthur, you're my hero! ![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
