I’m still seeing this as an active posting, linked on other UN pages e.g.,

https://dppa.un.org/en/gazas-new-terror-booby-trapped-cans-of-food-unwary

However, a similar claim in January was found to be false by fact checking news orgs.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/feb/01/instagram-posts/no-viral-footage-doesnt-show-explosives-disguised/

I was thinking through what would happen should the OP follow the advice by another user which recommended baking the mortar and pestle.

Since it has a heavy film of fats,my thought is that baking at a low temp would create a finish similar to that on seasoned cast iron. I’m not thinking that would be a plus but others might think otherwise.

Baking it won’t eliminate the oils or old spices, more would give you your cast iron frying pan effect.

We use a super neutral dish detergent that washes or at least soaks out in rinse water. Not one of the national name brands.

Even were this cast iron, sometimes you get to the point that you have to clean and restart to build the finish.

But others may feel differently.

We may be heathens but we always just hand washed ours with a good grease cutting liquid detergent to get the rancid oils and spices out.

It’s a journey. You may find that a wide variety of neurological and muscle issues ease or vanish with a super strict GF diet. There’s also evidence that within 5 years of starting a true GF diet many with celiac find that other food intolerances wane or disappear.

I just bought a gluten free cookbook that comes highly recommended called ‘The Gluten Free Cook’ by Cristian Broglia, an Italian chef, who looked for naturally gluten free recipes from around the world. This seems to be the kind of thing that might be useful to you. (Haven’t really tried much in it myself yet.)

One cookbook that I find super reliable is ‘Healthy Gluten Free Eating’ by Davina Allen and Rosemary Kearney of the Ballymaloe Cooking School in Cork, Ireland. Ireland has the highest prevalence of celiac in the world and the Chef’s school there has been at the forefront of developing workable recipes.

Another cookbook that I rely on is ‘Gluten Free Flour Power’.

Last, ‘Baked to Perfection’ is a recent award winning GF baking book by a woman who was a PhD student in inorganic chemistry when she wrote it. She understands a great deal about making GF baking work and explains it in an understandable way.

Startide Rising is the best of them all.

Sundiver is quite good too.

The later books were deeply marred by Brin’s giving into pressure from his editors to centre them on a group of adolescent males of diverse species because his publisher was of the view that the average scientific fiction reader was a 14 year old male. Brin has written about this and how difficult it was for him to write outside his natural quite adult style. His fantastic characters from Startide Rising are pushed into the background and only get to step forward and shine again at the very end.

I’ve recently become aware of mulesing, an appalling practice used on Merino sheep in Australia and NZ due to a specific fly problem. The problem is that most merino wool is from those countries.

Also, most fabric generically labeled ‘wool’ is mostly merino from mulesinged sheep.

Ethics conscious knitters, crocheters and weavers are aware, and merino yarns certified as mulesing-free are on the market now.

Knowing country of origin and wool type is another reliable way to avoid endorsing this practice, but again most manufactured clothing or even fabrics will not give the necessary information.

Yoon Ha Lee really plays with fun math concepts. Great stuff. The Ninefox trilogy was a real entry point for me to begin to appreciate Korean mythology.

Yup, lack of advanced science concepts and an accumulation of errors despite a pretension to working problems for the audience.

Even some basic geography errors - early in the book, he claims that the sample had to be landed in Saskatchewan for a high latitude to match the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Baikonur is at 45 N latitude, about the same as the border between North and South Dakota. Everywhere in Saskatchewan is North of the 49th parallel and south of 60. Sigh.

I have to say that I just don’t get the hype about this book.

Project Hail Mary is really targeted at a middle grade reading and maturity level. I would have happily given it to our kids to read in middle grade (as I did The Martian).

It’s a Robinson Crusoe meets a buddy in space boys-own-adventure tale (although Weir insists on male gendering a hermaphrodite when ‘they/them’ is well understood). There are clear indications that the story was told to pull in immature readers - starting with the ludicrous scene where Grace has spent days waiting for zero G without stowing any of his lab equipment or supplies.

It’s a compellingly written ‘work the problem’ read but anything beyond high school science concepts isn’t really there. Once again, I feel like we’re seeing more overhyped STEM based on concepts that haven’t advanced beyond what a mid 20th century bachelors degree would cover.

It held my attention as an easy read while fighting a bug, I can’t see picking up another of his books for myself.

There are a few very odd ‘too much information’ references to sexual relationships and use of alcohol that seem almost awkwardly placed to bump up the level, but there’s not really enough in there to even warrant the ‘school edition’ treatment that ‘The Martian’ got. Otherwise nothing stretches past middle grade emotional maturity.

All told, I was expecting more.

Sorry no, it never was good. I couldn’t get through the first season even.

It had some potential. Knowing the first seasons of Star Trek are often the weakest, I gave it a solid try. But no.

I’d rather watch the second season of Space 1999 than any Andromeda if we’re looking for benchmarks of good concepts badly delivered.

In case you weren’t already aware, fan-favourite Star Trek tie-in fiction author shared the script credit for Only a Paper Moon.

His other DS9 script credit is for Starship Down.

If you haven’t tried Mack’s tie-in novels, you’re missing some of the best.

There are influencers and sellers consciously working to evade any transparency. Made are trying to be just too cute with their ‘see what I have here’ posts.

The crafting social media communities are struggling with this too. /c/knitting has a new mod trying to establish rules and boundaries. Just as the community was starting to take off, the sellers and influencers started to be evident.

There are some communities that feel garlic or regular onions are too strong, and substitute the white of leeks. It does affect the resulting taste, but if your wife tolerates them, it’s an option.

My own suggestions for recipes would include some classic Slavic dishes where onions aren’t essential. These do exist, 😁 particularly ones that mix sweet, sour and savoury flavours. e.g., Crepes/nalasnyky filled with farmers’ cheese and butter or cream, traditionally served with sour cherry or strawberry preserves on top, are a favourite. For a savoury version, try these nalasnyky with dill in the cheese filling.