Posts of interest to me: cooking, shaving, politics, science, cats, movies, books, ….
Years and years ago I was instructed to prepare artichokes for steaming by cutting off the top and then snipping off the pointy tips of the leaves that still had them. I have now learned that this prep is totally unnecessary. Just rinse out the artichoke well, pull off the worthless leaves at the bottom, cut the stem, and steam away. The pointy tips are no problem once the artichoke’s cooked.
This is pretty exciting, though they have found only about half the missing matter. And the half they found is normal matter (not “dark matter,” whatever that may turn out to be). The story begins:
Although the universe contains billions of galaxies, only a small amount of its matter is locked up in these behemoths. Most of the universe’s matter that was cooked up during and just after the Big Bang must be found elsewhere.
Now, in an extensive search of the relatively recent, local universe, University of Colorado at Boulder astronomers said they have definitively found about half of the missing normal matter, called baryons, in the spaces between the galaxies. This important component of the universe is known as the intergalactic medium and it extends essentially throughout all of space, from just outside our Milky Way galaxy to the most distant regions of space observed by astronomers.
The questions “where have the local baryons gone, and what are their properties?” are being answered with greater certainty than ever before. “We think we are seeing the strands of a web-like structure that forms the backbone of the universe,” said CU-Boulder Professor Mike Shull. “What we are confirming in detail is that intergalactic space, which intuitively might seem to be empty, is in fact the reservoir for most of the normal, baryonic matter in the universe.”
Much more at the link above.
Here are the most popular recipes. Before you can see the full recipe, though, you first have to register—free, and you can turn down the trial issues—here.
New York Times reporter Melody Petersen, who covered the pharmaceutical industry for four years, has now published a book titled Our Daily Meds: How the pharmaceutical companies transformed themselves into slick marketing machines and hooked the nation on prescription drugs. In her book, Petersen refutes the commonly-held notion that drug companies plow their profits back into research to develop life-saving drugs, and concludes instead that drug companies primarily put their profits into influencing medical science and marketing drugs. Petersen writes, “With their hoards of cash, the companies have readily handed money to patient groups, hospitals, universities, physician societies, government agencies and just about any organization they want on their side. … The industry’s cash-filled coffers have given it a stranglehold on medical science.” Petersen also exposes the problems with direct-to-consumer advertising and the drug industry’s portrayal of common conditions, like anxiety and urinary frequency, as illnesses, as a way to convince people they need medication.
This morning I bought a dozen more fresh sardines taken directly from Monterey Bay. Taking a cue from The Eldest, I cleaned them as soon as I got home and put them in a marinade until roasting them.
Cleaning went easier: cut the belly, pull out innards and pull off the ventral fin, twist off the head, and you have a cleaned fish. It would also be good to remove the dorsal fin, but I forgot—and none of them turned up when I ate the sardines (half of them), so perhaps removing the spine and ribs got rid of that fin. Removing the spine (filleting the fish) got progressively easier as I practiced.
Then the filleted fish went into a 1-gallon ziplock bag along with a marinade: olive oil, crushed garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, and black pepper, whisked together.
The fish rested in the fridge until 5:30, then I dumped the contents of the bag onto the rimmed baking sheet and arranged the fish in three rows of four, spread flat. Half I cooked skin side down, half skin side up. I squeezed out the last of the marinade from the bag so the fish were fully basted on the top.
Seven minutes in the oven at 450º and they were done. I salted them and ate the six. The other six are for tomorrow. The skin side up did better, I think, and that’s the way I’ll do them from now on—and for the rest of the season. 
This is an update to this post.
Via the Washington Independent, check out Mary Wheeler’s good post on the torture report, which begins:
I’ve just now finished reading the conclusion of the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on torture. I gotta say, I’m not surprised Alice Fisher chose this week to quit, nor am I surprised that Gitmo’s Convening Authority decided not to charge al-Qahtani, as both Fisher and Qahtani figure prominently in the report.
The other general comment I have about the report is about its scope: it was designed to protect the Administration and its method of legalizing torture. For example, the report notes:
We did not examine issues related to DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinions concerning the legality of several interrogation techniques the CIA sought to use on certain high value detainees. While senior FBI and DOJ officials were aware of these opinions, an assessment of the validity of the OLC legal opinions was beyond the scope of this review.
Similarly, the IG report apparently did not review what happened to complaints about torture once they got to Bush’s top aides (though the report doesn’t actually say whether this was because of a scope issue or because Bush’s aides refused to cooperate).
On a broader level, we were unable to determine definitively whether the concerns of the FBI and DOJ about DOD interrogation techniques were ever addressed by any of the structures created for resolving inter-agency disputes about antiterrorism issues. These structures included the Policy Coordinating Committee, the “Principals” Committee, and the “Deputies” Committee, all chaired by the National Security Council (NSC). Several senior DOJ Criminal Division officials also told us that they raised concerns about particular DOD detainee practices in 2003 with the National Security Council, but they did not recall learning that any changes were made at GTMO as a result. Several witnesses told us that they believed that Attorney General Ashcroft spoke with the NSC or the DOD about these concerns, but former Attorney General Ashcroft declined our request for an interview in connection with this report.
Of course, there is no Inspector General function for the NSC–it’s one big executive privilege black hole in which complaints about torture can be buried. Make no mistake, though, the implication is that Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, Dick Cheney, and Rummy did nothing apparent to resolve the inter-Agency tensions about torture.
Continue reading—it’s worth it.
The Smarter Fitter Blog has a good post with tips on packing lunches, along with photos of some very nice looking lunches. And check out this paean to Indian food.
We know how the coal industry is contributing heavily to global warming—more than any other industry. But that’s at the end, when the coal is burned. The environmental destruction is also heavy at the other end, when coals is mined. The Independent tells a part of the story. (Click image to see better the devastation.)
The road slicing through the thickly forested hills of eastern Kentucky used to be called the Daniel Boone Parkway. It was named for the controversial American folk hero who fought his way across Indian country to settle a state where many of his descendants still live.
That was before the coal industry began blowing up the Appalachian Mountains as a cheap way of getting at the black stuff below, behaviour decried by the environmental group Appalachian Voices as “one of the greatest human rights and environmental tragedies in America’s recent history”.
Daniel Boone’s road is now the Hal Rogers Parkway, named after one of the Kentucky coal industry’s closest friends in Washington, a Republican Congressman of 34 years. It passes through a mountain range older than the Himalayas and is blanketed in broadleaf forests rivalled only by the Amazon basin in its biodiversity.
But the canopy of trees which lines the parkway as it rises from the bluegrass horse country to the mountains is a trompe l’oeil. The lush forest gives way to scraggly trees along the ridge-line, and behind those trees is evidence of unspeakable ecological violence. In a process known as mountaintop removal an upland moonscape is being created, which is incapable of regenerating trees. As far as the eye can see, the land is grey and pockmarked with huge black lakes, filled with toxic coal slurry.
Physics courses for free—and more articles at the link.
#1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT’s OpenCourseWare site should be the first stop for self-learners looking for free physics courses. There are more than 50 full-length courses available. Most include lectures, assignments, readings, labs and much more.
#2 UC Berkeley
The University of California at Berkley provides nearly 20 free physics courses and more than 20 free physics lectures to self-learners around the world. Courses and lectures can be viewed as videos or downloaded as audio files. New webcasts are added each semester.
#3 Tufts University
Like MIT, Tufts University has an excellent OpenCourseWare program. The University only offers two physics courses at this time, but they are both very good. Each free physics course includes lectures, readings, assignments and other educational materials.
#4 Carnegie Mellon University
The renowned Andes Physics course from Carnegie Mellon University is now available online through the school’s Open Learning Initiative. The 27-module introductory course offers more than 500 physics questions suitable for college students.
#5 Utah State University
The USU Physics Department offers a fantastic physics course with an emphasis on quantum mechanics. The course includes readings, lecture notes and homework assignments. Anyone who completes the course will have a working knowledge of quantum mechanics and the ability to explain the topic to others.
I dropped AT&T for both long-distance and cell-phone service, switching to CREDO (formerly Working Assets). AT&T still billed me. I called them, got a recorded message telling me that I would be in the queue to talk to a person for about 3 minutes. It’s so far been more than 30 minutes…
And it’s taken forever… Thanks to The Eldest for pointing out this story:
The U.S. discriminates against blind people by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish among the bills’ varying values, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling upholds a decision by a lower court in 2006. It could force the Treasury Departmentto redesign its money. Suggested changes have ranged from making bills different sizes to printing them with raised markings.
The American Council for the Blind sued for such changes but the Treasury Department has been fighting the case for about six years.
This is pretty cool. If you already have Wifi in your house, then this device will play the Netflix see-it-now movies through your TV. Tim Gideon’s review at the link is pretty thorough. It begins:
As a confirmed Netflix addict, I was immediately intrigued by the new Netflix Player by Roku, an on-demand video streaming device that works with the popular movie rental service. How does the Roku box compare with the Netflix device of my dreams? My dream device wouldn’t require a PC, just like Apple TV—Check. It would be diminutive and discreet, yet have excellent connectivity (HDMI with surround sound, S-Video, standard composite and component ports)—Check. It would be incredibly easy to set up and would update available films on the device whenever I updated my queue online—Check. I’d pay an upfront cost—say $100—for the box, but my monthly subscription fee wouldn’t increase—Check. Lastly, it would have full access to the entire Netflix library—No check there. Well, four out of five ain’t bad—in fact, that’s pretty fantastic.
Bandwidthmeter will test your bandwidth—mine is 2.87 Mbps, but that was after a couple of retests, which seem to be important.
Mama Bear’s Tuscan Memories produced a fine fragrance and a great lather with the Rooney Style 3 Size 1 Super, and a NOS Gillette NEW with a used Astra Superior blade gave me a great shave, which I further refined with an oil pass using Total Shaving Solution. Then I finished with the great old-timey fragrance of Pinaud’s Clubman. I remember one shaver commenting that when he first used that aftershave, his wife came up to him and sniffed and then teared up because it reminded her of her grandfather…
Written for the man who wants to enjoy his shave. User comment: "I bought this as a gift for my fiancé, along with a wet-shaving starting kit and a safety razor. He DEVOURED this book, and finds himself reading it again and again. He finally enjoys shaving. This book has helped him figure out so many things about wet shaving, and has recommended it to all of his friends and family. Truly a great source of information for any man."
