May 30, 2008

Eating Locally

To help you out Epicurious gives you a Seasonal Ingredient Map:

Use our interactive map to see what's fresh in your area, plus find ingredient descriptions, shopping guides, recipes, and tips
Eat well, eat local.

Via The Knowledge Problem.

Posted by Steve on May 30, 2008 | Comments (2)

Enjoy Those Bananas While You Can

The ones that many of us ate as children are not the ones we are eating now.

The ones we are eating now may disappear soon:

Introduced to our hemisphere in the late 19th century, the Gros Michel was almost immediately hit by a blight that wiped it out by 1960. The Cavendish was adopted at the last minute by the big banana companies - Chiquita and Dole - because it was resistant to that blight, a fungus known as Panama disease. For the past fifty years, all has been quiet in the banana world. Until now.

Panama disease - or Fusarium wilt of banana - is back, and the Cavendish does not appear to be safe from this new strain, which appeared two decades ago in Malaysia, spread slowly at first, but is now moving at a geometrically quicker pace. There is no cure, and nearly every banana scientist says that though Panama disease has yet to hit the banana crops of Latin America, which feed our hemisphere, the question is not if this will happen, but when.

This is not just a minor problem for US breakfast and lunch menus. Consider Uganda: according to this article bananas account for up to 80% of the local diet.

Part of the answer may be genetically modified bananas. Would you eat them?

Also, should you be reconsidering your Chiquita investments?

Posted by Steve on May 30, 2008

Friday Ark #193

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Birds

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

Dogs

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Posted by Steve on May 30, 2008 | Comments (1)

May 29, 2008

There's A Party At Uncle Merl's

You are all invited!!

Join your hostess, Wanderin' Weeta, and flocks of birders and birds at I and the Bird #76.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Posted by Steve on May 29, 2008

May 28, 2008

bush Says Iraq/Afghanistan Wars Will Be Over By The November Election

(Erratum: Well, no bush didn't say that. The quote below turns out to be from ghwb in 1992. My failure to read the source close enough!! Too bad the Title isn't true. I'll leave the original post intact below... (Thanks to Alison for pointing this out!)

And, apparently, he won't be starting another one in Iran.

Can you see any other way to read this?

But let me tell you this. I am quietly confident about the election this fall. In sum, I am absolutely convinced as this economy moves back, as we sort out where everybody stands on these highly complex issues, when the country assesses the fact that we are at peace and that our children go to bed at night with less fear of nuclear war -- and that is a major accomplishment of which I am very proud to have been a part -- ..., I am absolutely convinced we're going to win this election.
...assesses the fact that we are at peace... seems quite clear.

Via Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Posted by Steve on May 28, 2008

May 23, 2008

Sweet

Lionel Loueke at the Blue Note



There is more here...

Via Mindles

Posted by Steve on May 23, 2008

Friday Ark #192

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Birds

Dogs

Invertebrates

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Posted by Steve on May 23, 2008 | Comments (3)

May 22, 2008

Why Is That Video Missing?

I bet you've clicked on a YouTube video more than once and been disappointed when the No Longer Available message popped up.

To relieve your frustration just a little bit you can now find out why it is missing:

When YouTube videos are removed by the site’s administrators—in many cases the pulled videos allegedly violate copyright—they vanish without a trace. YouTube officials erase all data about such videos, including the title, author, and how many times the video had been viewed.

A new Web site by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is preserving information about removed videos, and analyzing what kinds of clips are taken down.

Sorry, YouTomb does not archive the missing videos.

At the time of this posting YouTomb statistics are:

YouTomb is currently monitoring 224618 videos, and has identified 4482 videos taken down for alleged copyright violation and 13783 videos taken down for other reasons.

Posted by Steve on May 22, 2008

May 21, 2008

Another Book Meme

It has been some time since I did one of these book meme things. So, as I haven't been writing much lately I thought it only appropriate that I spend some time that should be spend reading or writing having some fun with this.

These introductory words are blatently stolen from Vermont's Own who likely took them from elsewhere:

What we have below is a list of the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing users. They took the trouble to catalog them -- but their owners admit to not reading them. They sit on the shelf though, perhaps to make their owner feel smart or well-rounded.

The meme comes with these instructions: Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

As of today there are nearly 10000 links to the top 106 unread books.

Going through this list provided a stark reminder of the truth in the saying use it or lose it. Once upon a time I had a working knowledge of quite a few of these. A knowledge built upon multiple readings, lot's of thinking, analysis and frequent discussion. Alas, it would take at least one if not two rereadings to get most of that back.

As for the once read books. Well, the more recently read the more likely I can do a mental scene review...even if I can't remember the characters names. The long ago read...maybe it still evokes an emotional sense of the book but, for the most part, details are not handy...


Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations

American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West

The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Posted by Steve on May 21, 2008

How About A Revolution!

This is the best campaign video I've seen!! Watch it no matter who you currently prefer:

Yep, it is time for some real change.

To bad ron paul, even though he is not really a libertarian, is not a viable candidate. None of the other candidates represent any kind of real change.

As usual we endorse NO ONE for president.

Video link via Blond Sense.

Posted by Steve on May 21, 2008

May 20, 2008

The mccain Wafffling

While we expect some consistency from those who want to be president if it seems to be missing from time to time it just might be because these folks are more interested in power than truth:

What runs consistently through John McCain’s lifetime of discourse on the use of his country’s military might is his own desire to win—not any war, but his own, personal battles. And, since the early 1980’s, those battles have been for higher and higher public office. If there appear to be inconsistencies in McCain’s positions, it is because deep down, at his core, John McCain is a man that wants above all else to be president—and his positions need to serve that ambition.
The closer it gets to election time the more politicians seem to exude this behavior.

Sometimes verbally, sometimes by their actions.

Posted by Steve on May 20, 2008

May 18, 2008

Is obama Morphing Into An Articulate Bush?

Both clinton and obama have regularly played the faith card that colored so much of w's time in office. Now obama has added a page out of the huckabee playbook to his campaign.

As the NPR article linked above shows, obama has been preaching this message throughout his campaign. It really shouldn't have taken the Kentucky flier to quell PZ's support a bit. Really, the dems have been pandering to this demographic for years now.

Regular readers know I place little faith in government and none in politicians. Nevertheless, I will admit to attending a democratic caucus and voting for obama. Why? Because of his opponent's early and long support for the Iraq invasion and ongoing debacle. Failure to see through the bush veil of lies should itself preclude someone from this office.

Now, while obama still says he will end the war quickly he has started wearing the adornments of the bush administration war machine:

Obama%20closeup%20with%20flag%20pin%20Sterling%20Mich%20small-thumb-160x195.jpgbush%20flag%20pin.jpg


Really, his uniform was just fine without the lapel pin.

BTW, it might be reasonable for voters to trust democrats more than republicans however trusting politicians of any ilk is much like the chickens trusting the fox. Both parties are interested in taking care of the citizens voters only to the extent necessary to maintain power.

Posted by Steve on May 18, 2008 | Comments (1)

May 16, 2008

The Milky Way

A way cool rendering of the Milky Way:

Milky%20Way.jpg

A laser was used to etch around 80,000 of the stars in the Milky Way, using three-dimensional data from the Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory.

It can be yours for a mere 80,000 Japanese Yen...somewhat less than $800 at today's exchange rates (shipping and taxes not included).

Via The Conspiracy Factory

Posted by Steve on May 16, 2008

Friday Ark #191

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Dogs

Invertebrates

Birds

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Posted by Steve on May 16, 2008 | Comments (4)

May 15, 2008

Book Prizes at Bird Carnival!

Answer more than a few questions for a chance to win some very interesting books at I and the Bird #75 hosted by Gallicissa.

Really, the quiz is quite easy if you spend the requisite amount of time enjoying and learning from the great posts collected at this carnival!

Posted by Steve on May 15, 2008

May 12, 2008

mccain's Running Mate?

That mccain might choose someone like huckabee isn't totally out of character I do concur 100% with Drezner's reaction.

Posted by Steve on May 12, 2008

May 10, 2008

Do It Again






See tuaw.com for the artist and the source of the cool OS X backdrop.

Posted by Steve on May 10, 2008

May 9, 2008

Friday Ark #190

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Birds

Dogs

Invertebrates

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Posted by Steve on May 9, 2008 | Comments (3)

May 5, 2008

Who Was Mildred Loving?

Why you should care.

Posted by Steve on May 5, 2008

May 4, 2008

Kent State





Is this why students don't protest the Iraq War?

And, perhaps, because:

Second, the mainstream media these days ensures that even the most succesful protests get little air-time.
But why put all the burden on students? Where are all the protest tested boomers? Oh, yea, they are part of the establishment now and have too much at risk to take to the streets again.

Via Crooks and Liars Via Avedon.

Posted by Steve on May 4, 2008

May 2, 2008

Friday Ark #189

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

ALERT: The Blog Carnival entry form is down: please use comments, email or trackbacks.

Cats

Birds

Invertebrates

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Posted by Steve on May 2, 2008 | Comments (12)

May 1, 2008

Birds and Brains

Two great courses but not a breakfast order!

Consworld is hosting a song fest at I and the Bird #74.

To help integrate your new found birding knowledge head over to Cognitive Daily for Encephalon #44, a selection of the best neuroscience and psychology blog posts.

Yes, you really must consume both courses!

Posted by Steve on May 1, 2008 | Comments (1)