How to cook Globe Artichoke?

I normally don't buy exotic vegetables that I never tried. When I was shopping late the other day a strange vegetable lying on the reduced shelf was only 10 pence. It was a globe artichoke, like a torch.

I threw it into my trolley without a single idea how to cook it. The next day when I tried to cook it, I studied the label on which cooking instructions print:
Remove stem and tough outer leaves, cut off the top 3cm of leaves, and immediately rub all cut surfaces with lemon juice to prevent discolouration. Place in a pan and cover with water, add lemon uice, a pinch of salt and a bay leaf. Bring to the boil and simmer or 3 minutes, until the leaves can be easily pulled away from the globe. Remove the central core of purple leaves and the inedible hairy choke. Eat by pulling the leaves out and sucking the flesh out of the bottom of the leaves.

Usually I just ignore cooking instructions and cook all vegetables using stir-and-fry technique. I did same this time. I washed and plucked leaves for cooking. Not until I saw the delicate inside white-purplish 'leaves', I realised that so-called 'leaves' in the cooking instructions are really petals and the whole thing is a flower bud. Indeed a hairy choke was revealed after all petals were plucked. I removed the hairy choke and the stem except a small portion of inner most white part which I think edible.

When I was eating it, I felt that this is the most difficult vegetable to eat. I had to hand-hold each petal and dealt with them one at a time by drawing the base of the petal through my teeth to scrape off the soft portion, discarding the rest of it. Now I understand why the cooking instructions advise cuting off the top 3cm of leaves and boiling it. Boiling should be better than stir-and-fry to cook artichokes because they are full of fibres.

On Wikipedia, I found a description of artichokes: The edible portion of the buds consists primarily of the fleshy lower portions of the involucral bracts and the base, known as the "heart". The inner most white portion I saved is the 'heart' and indeed it was the best bit of the whole globe.

The globe artichoke I bought was produced in Spain, other main producers are Italy, France, and some states of US.

If you prefer to keep it green during cooking, follow the instructions to rub all cut surfaces with lemon juice and leave lid open when you boil it. Covered artichokes can turn brown due to the acids and chlorophyll oxidation.

Artichoke stems, which are often thrown away like I did, are actually edible and taste like the artichoke heart.

How to save YouTube, Google videos?

Found a great site savevid.com which can download Youtube and Google videos onto local disk without installing any software. I tried a couple of youtube videos and it works just fine.

accountability

今天开了一天的会，是关于 management 和 leadership 的主题。除了 在小组讨论中认识了一些其它部门的中层 和 蹭了顿免费午餐外，最大的收获便是学了一个新单词 accountability. 这个词在今天的会议上是个热门词，我当时琢磨了好一会它的意思。从词根 account 来看，它好像跟‘解释/说明’有关，但是从上下文来看又不大像。

回来一查，原来 accountability 就是 responsibility 的意思，还有 liability or answerability for something。它的同义词有 liability, answerability, culpability, responsibility，看来它的词根 account 跟 answer 还是有点关系的。

Tips: To account for something is to take responsibility or to answer for something. When you are accountable for something, you must answer for it, account for it, or take responsibility for it.

例句：
We don’t have enough accountability in the creative department; no one wants to take responsibility for unacceptable ad concepts. (answerability, responsibility)

How can we account for all the business we lost last month when we meet with the board of directors next Monday? (answer) verb

You're not my boss; I'm not accountable to you. (answerable) adjective

The consumer advocacy group demanded greater accountability from the big energy company. (liability, answerability)

The first recorded email

The first recorded message ever to be sent across the Internet transmitted at 10.30PM on October 29 1969. The message was written by Charley Kline and supervised by UCLA Professor Leonard Kleinrock and consisted of the letters 'lo'. The transmission was supposed to read 'Login' but due to a system crash only two letters made it through! The message was successfully resent an hour later.

Windows live

I have several hotmail and windows live ID, now I can link them all together. It's really cool function.

Google search experience

Same keyword, same google, but different search results every time.

Some people are continually complaining about not finding things on Google, a common one is "I searched xyz yesterday and found a cool site, searched that again today and can't find it again why?"

I would like to ask too, but why?

What's the difference between ghosts and ghouls?

This two words have same initials and even the first three letters, "Gho", both refer to a kind of spirits. What's the difference between ghosts and ghouls?

Ghost-A ghost is said to be the apparition of a deceased person, frequently similar in appearance to that person, and usually encountered in places he or she frequented, or in association with the person's former belongings. The word "ghost" may also refer to the spirit or soul of a deceased person, or to any spirit or demon. Ghosts are often associated with hauntings, which is, according to the Parapsychological Association, "the more or less regular occurrence of paranormal phenomena associated with a particular locality (especially a building) and usually attributed to the activities of a discarnate entity; the phenomena may include apparitions, poltergeist disturbances, cold drafts, sounds of footsteps and voices, and various odours."

A ghoul is a monster from ancient Arabian folklore that dwells in burial grounds and other uninhabited places. The English word comes from the Arabic name for the creature: ghūl, which literally means "demon". The ghul is a devilish type of jinn believed to be sired by Iblis.

Ghoul- Ghul is also the name for a desert-dwelling, shapeshifting demon that can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyena. It lures unwary travellers into the desert wastes to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children, robs graves, and eats the dead. Because of the latter habit, the word ghoul is sometimes used to refer to an ordinary human such as a grave robber, or to anyone who delights in the macabre.

I now know how to say "ticks" in English

It's always a trouble to express what you know in another language. Cow ticks, for instance, I am so familiar with this parasite, when I started herd my buffalo as early as I was seven. I pressed my face on the buffalo's large stomach while it was grazing on the grass. I was so fond of doing this that a tick went into my ear, and died there. several weeks later, I felt uncomfortable in my ear and went to barber, he dropped some vegetable oil into my ear and picked it out using an ear picker.

But I never know how to say in Mandarin, that is different with my mother tongue which is also a Chinese dialect. When I moved to England, this creature always sneaks through my thought, keeps me wondering how to say it in English.

To day I went to shopping, read a leaflet from Sainsbury's Pharmacy counter, which tells you how to treat pet lice,flea and ticks. Wow!