Adventures in baking: Soda Bread

I'm trying to develop my 'thing' which is baking bread. I haven't done much for a while due to the demands of life and parenting but now I'm beginning to find the time again.

My previous efforts have been mixed, but I'm determined to get it right and a book my mum lent to me has some useful guidance on this gluten-based dark art.

One of the recipes in the book is for soda bread, which is so fantastically and stupidly easy any fool could make it. This is primarily because it doesn't involve kneading. You just bung all the ingredients together and let the chemistry do its thing before chucking it in the oven.

I was pretty happy with it. My only disappointment was the slightly dough-y bottom which is a problem I always seem to have. Not sure if it's the temperature of the oven or my kneading (or mixing in the case of the soda bread) that's an issue.

Oh well, must keep trying - I'm sure I'll crack it eventually!

The Gall-Peter's Projection

I was amazed when, many years ago, I first saw the Gall-Peter's projection map. I couldn't believe how different the world was compared to how I'd always imagined it.

Here's a funny and interesting clip from the West Wing that explains things pretty well and gets at the heart of the problem with the traditional Mercator projection map.



We have a map of the world in our kitchen which we use with the kids for educational purposes. I really tried to get a Gall-Peter's projection but the only kids-friendly map was a pseudo-Mercator, which was frustrating.

Amazingly Google uses a Mercator projection, which admittedly is actually more useful for navigation, but this helps to continue to reinforce the message that Western countries are bigger (and therefore 'greater') than they actually are.

It's the Friday video post! A Lego man builds a Ferrari

Watch a Lego man build a Lego Ferrari in this mesmerizing time-lapse.
Posted by Business Insider on Thursday, 27 August 2015