Nice video from Treehugger. More at the link.

Browse and read.

As we sat around the table talking last night, birthdays came up (it was a birthday party) and it turned out that two of the people present were born on November 5. We knew of several other people born on that same day, so of course we immediately tried to figure out what date was 9 months previous to that. We came up with Valentine’s Day. But, alas, a morning-after calculation showed that 270 days before November 5 is February 9, not 14. Still, it’s a tempting coincidence. Maybe we just know a lot of 5-day preemies.

Looking for other possible coincidences of significant dates, I looked for a chart showing number of births by Month-Day. No such chart seems to exist…

He’s older than the Mt. Rushmore statues. When asked if they were interested in possibly being McCain’s VP, three GOP Senators said that they wouldn’t want it because they are too old. They are all younger than McCain. And then, there’s this:

It’s showing up everywhere. Adam Hadhazy in the Scientific American reports:

Starving polar bears are eating one another in the Arctic. Flowers are blooming too soon and dying. The ice caps are melting so swiftly that rising water levels will threaten coastal towns as far away as Florida within several decades. These are just a few examples of the dire consequences of climate change supported by a new analysis in Nature that paints a dark portrait of what a warming world will look like in the years to come.

The researchers assessed 829 geologic phenomena—including melting glaciers—along with nearly 30,000 changes in plants and animals (from bird migration patterns to plummeting penguin populations), and found that about 90 percent of them are in sync with scientists’ predictions about how global warming will alter the planet.

In the past three decades, average global temperatures have risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degree Celsius) and are projected to jump by about 3 degrees F (1.7 degrees C) by the end of the century, says study lead author Cynthia Rosenzweig, who heads the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University in New York City. “We’ve already seen that a relatively low amount of warming,” she says, “can result in a broad range of changes.”

The unnatural warming spurred on by man-made greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide spewed by cars and coal-powered plants, spell trouble for entire ecosystems. In North America alone, scientists have identified 89 species of plants, such as the American holly, that have blossomed earlier in the spring. In Spain, apple trees bloom 35 days ahead of schedule in response to the higher temperatures. Other wildlife, like the insects that use certain plants for food and the birds that feed on the insects, must then move forward their seasonal stirrings and mating patterns to survive.

To try to compensate for this time shift, some birds such as robins, the classic symbol of winter’s thaw, are returning to Colorado from their migrations some two weeks earlier than in years past. All these changes can throw a food chain out of whack. To wit: some bird species that arrive before the insects reappear may starve to death.

“Around the world, plants and animals are waking up to an earlier alarm clock than they used to,” says study co-author Terry Root, a biologist at Stanford University’s Center for Environmental Science and Policy.

The new research, a compilation of the findings of about 80 previous studies from around the world, also confirms that man—not nature—is to blame for global warming. “Overall, this study adds more meat to the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) conclusions” that people are causing the world to heat up, says Michael Mann, an associate professor and the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.

“This study really speaks to the fact,” Rosenzweig says, “that we need to respond and adapt to what’s happening.

These sound really terrific:

Looking for a way to spice up a summer barbecue? Try these hamburger patties, seasoned with a homemade Jamaican jerk spice mixture of Scotch bonnet peppers, allspice, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, green onions, and garlic. Scotch bonnets, or their habanero cousins, are insanely hot, so you don’t really need much, half a 1 1/2-inch long pepper, seeds removed. Some people substitute jalapenos, but the flavor really is different, so I would stick to Scotch bonnets or habaneros if you can get them. Cool off the chili heat with a citrus, mayo-based coleslaw. The oil in the mayo helps to absorb the spicy chili, to take the edge of the heat.

Recipe here.

In Victorian times, a game of genteel oneupmanship was played using silverware: new utensils for a specific purpose would be discovered as the guests sat down to dinner or luncheon or tea, and the host and hostess knew the purpose. The guests could ask (faux pas) but generally observed carefully.

When I started collecting a bit of silverware (the Fairfax pattern by Durgin—I don’t much care for the Gorham version of the pattern), I started to learn about the amazing array of specialized tools: bread forks, potato forks (both serving pieces), ice-cream forks (which are great for eating ice cream), olive spoons, asparagus servers, and on and on. They’re delightful—and, often, quite useful. If you’re going to eat marrow, for example, there’s nothing better to use than a marrow spoon (and I do have one from long, long ago—the 18th century, if I remember correctly).

So, a little test, via Slashfood.

The Guide to Gourmet Shaving is now in the top 500 Lulu.com titles: no. 483 at present. Little by little…

From TalkingPointsMemo, this interesting piece on a Senate race. Collins is a solid Bush backer, so I’m hoping she’s defeated. I particularly like attacking her on the lack of oversight over the Iraq war and “reconstruction.” I’m hoping Lieberman, when the time comes, will be similarly attacked for providing no oversight at all.

Tom Allen (D) is running against Sen. Susan Collins (R) in Maine. Until the Democrats took over the senate, Collins was the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee — the analog of the Waxman committee in the House, the body’s main investigative committee. And now Allen is charging that Collins’ failure to hold any oversight hearings on contracting fraud and abuse in Iraq led to massive waste and even the loss of lives.

Here’s a story on it from the Portland Press Herald and a video segment on it from a local news station:

My contribution to the dinner was my first attempt at Romesco sauce, using the recipe at the link. It’s both very easy and very tasty, and if you have a food processor, give it a go. My changes for the next time:

Before coring the tomatoes, cut them in half and squeeze out and discard the seeds and water. Then core the halves, put them skin side down, and drizzle the olive oil over the cut sides. Reason: if you don’t do this, roasting will extract a lot of water from the tomatoes. I discarded that water, but it would be easier to discard it before starting. I suspect the roasting will still produce a certain amount of juice, but if you’ve seeded the tomatoes as described, I would just use that juice in the recipe. I think the cut surfaces also might caramelize better.

Second thought concerns stripping the skin from the tomatoes. It wasn’t so easy as it sounded, and my inclination is just to process the whole tomato, skin and all. Why not?

It’s great stuff, and as noted at the link, it has many uses:

This garlicky sauce, which originated in the city of Tarragona, has tons of variations and many uses — it’s served with salads, grilled vegetables, meat, chicken, or fish, or stirred into fish stews. Try it tossed with pasta or as a sandwich spread. It keeps in the refrigerator for at least a week.

We had a very pleasant evening last night, driving up to Santa Cruz for a leisurely time with friends (old and new), including a wonderful dinner. Back home rather late for me, and then some time at the computer. Today will be perforce be a lazy day.

The conversation ranged widely, and I told the anecdote of Robert Mitchum’s on-set encounter with the rather prissy Loretta Young, as told in Lee Server’s biography Robert Mitchum: “Baby, I Don’t Care”:

We also somehow talked about songs made up of names… can’t recall how it started, but I mentioned both Danny Kaye’s wonderful “Tchaikovsky” from Lady in the Dark and this terrific song by Earl Pickens and the Band Named Thunder:

You can also download an MP3 of the song.