Later On

Very fine shave today using a previously used Feather blade. Maybe that’s again a best blade for me.

I got a version of Creamy Lather, but it really is more difficult with badger brushes. OTOH, it was a fine lather, and the Mühle brush performed well. Brushes that carry a ring of metal around the handle at the base of the knot can make chilling sounds on glass/pottery shaving mugs, though: thus the invention of the Marvy hard-rubber mug.

Lather well applied, three smooth passes of the Edwin Jagger DE89 with the Feather blade, then a splash of Klar Seifen and I’m ready for the day: getting a bike helmet and taking a hard look at the Bianchi Cortina are on the agenda. (The Brompton is fine, but rather touchy in the steering due to the small wheels and shorter wheelbase—at least that’s what it feels like to me.)

A minor note: I was pleased to see that the eggs from the little PG produce stand were much fresher than supermarket eggs, whose quality suffers from (I assume) the length of the supply chain. Tomorrow I’ll try the Farmer’s Market for fresh eggs as some readers suggested.

Five very tasty recipes from Mark Bittman.

Clever utilization of social norms to gain benefit at no cost to other. Definitely a Cool Tool. Take a look.

Interesting item from today’s The Week magazine:

Deadly blast: Barrels of confiscated Iranian explosives caught fire and blew up at a Cypriot naval base this week, killing 2 people, including the head of the Cypriot navy, and destroying the island’s main power plant. The 98 barrels, seizd in 2009 from a ship that was smuggling them from Iran to Syria, had for more than two years been carelessly stored in the open, baking in the hot sun. Opposition lawmakers said the poor storage amounted to “criminal negligence.” The government initially claimed that it had asked the United Nations, in vain, to take the explosives off its hands, but cable revealed by WikiLeaks showed that Cyprus actually rejected offers for help in disposing of the weapons. The defense minister and head of teh national guard have already resigned.

So long as governments lie to the citizens for whom they work, we need things like WikiLeaks and strong enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act. Governments, of course (and I’m looking at Barack Obama and all within his adminstration) disagree and fight for secrecy viciously: they have much to lose if the truth becomes known.

Regarding the sprain:

1. A sprain can result in a fracture: the ligament can pull loose a chip of bone. Operational implication: X-ray, but now not until Monday.

2. Should have gone to doctor sooner.

3. After a bad sprain avoid ibuprofen and aspirin (and acetaminophen, I imagine, but I wouldn’t take that stuff on a bet: special request from my kidneys, who hope to last me through retirement). They are anticoagulants, so if you take them your toes can turn an interesting shade of blue.

4. He recommended an “air splint”: a little plastic doohickey that costs close to $50 but keeps the ankle rigid. He specified “Left” since it was my left ankle, but he’s out of touch: they are now universal (fit left or right). I got one with gel liners, which the package suggested could be placed in the fridge for 20 minutes to cool the sprained place.

5. Ordway Drug Store in downtown Monterey is marvelous: it’s a real drugstore, with a focus on medical needs, including braces, shoes, crutches, and an enormous staff of busy pharmacists. This is one of two places in town that will actually compound medicines (using a little pill press to create pills), and they also accept old meds for proper disposal (rather than flushing them into the water supply or dumping them for the landfill). AND they are locally owned. So now I’m transferring my Bank of America account to Monterey Credit Union, and all my Rx from Safeway to Ordway. (This lesson will not have so much utility as the others, but it struck me as quite good to know. For me.)

Back from my little outing. I killed two birds with one stone fed two birds from one bowl: I went out on the Brompton to do the errand, and I opened my Monterey Credit Union account…

Paul Krugman has a good, albeit depressing, column today. And indeed the political landscape seems filled with people who are operationally if not clinically insane.

Human Rights Watch has a new report that draws attention to the US as embracing torture and protecting torturers. I found this via Ed Brayton’s post. It’s a hard hitting document, describing in some detail the war crimes committed within the Bush Administration. Obama is also breaking the law by blocking any investigation of the war crimes: an accessory after the fact. Here is the outline/TOC:

Getting Away with Torture
The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees

Summary

Recommendations

I. Background: Official Sanction for Crimes against Detainees

II. Torture of Detainees in US Counterterrorism Operations
The CIA Detention Program
Secret Detention Sites
The Case of Abu Zubaydah
Growth of the CIA Program
The CIA Rendition Program
Coercive Interrogations by the Military
Abuses by Military Interrogators in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Iraq
Approving Illegal Techniques for Military Interrogation
Migration of the Approved Techniques

III. Individual Criminal Responsibility
The Illegality of the Underlying Abuses
Forms of Liability
Waterboarding
Interrogation Techniques
CIA Secret Detention Program
OLC Legal Guidance
Duty to Investigate and Provide Redress
The Four Key Leaders
President George W. Bush
Vice President Dick Cheney
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
CIA Director George Tenet
Other Officials

Appendix: Foreign State Proceedings Regarding US Detainee Mistreatment
Germany
France: Complaint against Rumsfeld
Spain: Investigations of US officials
The “Bush Six”
Investigation into Torture by US officials
Diplomatic Intervention by the United States

Acknowledgments and Methodology

This is extremely weird: Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has thrown up his hands, walked away from his desk, and has asked God to take over his job. Ed Brayton comments on this.

This idea raises all sorts of interesting questions.

Walk into a bar bathroom… no, this is never going to work as a joke. Here’s the setup:

This is today’s setup: a nice little Edwin Jagger boar brush, just getting started on the break-in, a bowl of Creed’s Green Irish Tweed soap, and a gold-plated Gillette Slim, one of the several razors named “Aristocrat” by Gillette. This one holds a previously used Astra Keramik blade.

A very good lather—as close to Creamy Lather as makes no difference—three smooth passes, and a splash of the Acqua di Parma. Whatever else happens today—I’m going out on the bike—at least the shave was a pleasure.

Take a look at the Shavemac brush pictured above (sent by Dandaman, for which I thank him) and the Thäter brush in this post. They do indeed look identical to me, though Phil of BullgooseShaving.net reports that Lee Sabini (of Rooney fame) did tell him that the Thäter and Shavemac brushes were made by different companies. But they do indeed look identical. Fine brush, in any case.

First, the Filmjölk culture seems to make a yogurt softer than I like. I should have noticed the description: “Generally less sour than yogurt, Filmjolk makes an excellent substitute for buttermilk. . .” Yeah: too soft for me. Not bad, but not what I was going for. This culture contains Lactococcus lactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides.

The Buttermilk culture really does make a nice buttermilk and—even better—terrific crème fraîche. That one’s a keeper, and I’ll always have some buttermilk and/or crème fraîche on hand. This culture uses only Streptococcus Lactis.

The Villi culture, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris, didn’t do well, but then I noticed in its description: “Originating in Finland, Viili is a thicker yogurt which thrives on cream.” Aha. I should have used cream instead of milk for this one. I’ll have another go.

The Yogourmet culture did a fine job and produced a solid, substantial batch from skim milk (heated to 180ºF and then cooled to 110ºF), though it does require that the temperature be held at 110ºF. The Yogourmet 2-qt yogurt maker does a fine job, and I like the 2-qt batch size and the fact that I can have extra tubs. (I’ll be making yogurt for The Wife as well.) This culture uses Lactobacillus Bulgarius, Streptococcus Thermophilus, and Lactobacillus Acidophilus

The best of all: the Greek yogurt culture. I’m a little surprised at how many people have told me that making Greek yogurt is easy: you just drain regular yogurt. Well, no: Greek yogurt has its own distinct bacterial culture, which greatly influences taste in addition to texture. [UPDATE: This is true, but it's also true that much of the yogurt sold in the US uses the same cultures as used by Fage in the US: L. Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilius, and L. Acidophilus---the same three strains used in the Yogourmet starter.]

The Greek yogurt culture I used contains Lactobacillus Bulgaricus and Streptococcus Thermophilus—same as the Yogourmet [and Fage] except lacking Lactobacillus Acidophilus, [which Yogourmet and Fage include]. Since all these use S. Thermophilus (“heat-loving”) strain, they also require the incubator.

The technique Steve’s aunt used—placing a towel atop the finished batch to soak up excess whey, wringing it out, replacing, and doing that for a day or so—really does thicken the yogurt admirably and is the only way to handle the 2-quart tub conveniently. You can use paper towels or a clean tea towel.

Still to try:

Cultures for Health’s Traditional yogurt culture: Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifdobacterium longum, Bifdobacterium infanti.

Their Bulgarian yogurt culture: Lactobacillus Bulgaricum, Streptococcus Thermophilus. But since these are the same strains as their Greek yogurt, why bother?

So simple and yet I imagine extremely effective: cardboard egg-carton bottoms, with the little cardboard cups filled with dryer lint, over which you pour melted candle stubs. Once the wax cools, tear the cups apart: a dozen little firestarters. Here’s the source of the idea with a better description.

This is a terrific house. (Here’s a slide show of the builder’s work.) This is the sort of house that I would love to have, but it’s not in the cards.

Today I went for simplicity: no experiments. Well, one.

D.R. Harris soaps make great lather, and their shave sticks are especially nice. Lavender is a classic fragrance, and with the Wee Scot I quickly got a great lather—and a great deal of lather. After I finished the shave, I started applying “passes” of lather: lathering my entire beard area, rinsing, re-lathering, and so on. I gave up the effort after a total of 6 passes of lather from the Wee Scot: 3 for the actual shave, then 3 more before I realized that a 6-pass shave is highly unlikely. There was plenty left for another pass and probably two. Suffice it to say, the Wee Scot holds more lather than you’ll need for a shave, plus it is highly accurate: a laser-pointer of a brush compared to the boxing-glove precision of the typical big brush.

The Gillette Slim Handle, introduced in 1963, did a fine job with the Schick Platinum blade: the three passes left a pefectly smooth face ready for a splash of Pashana.

Off to San Francisco for the day. Restaurants: lunch at Zuni Cafe, dinner at Millennium.

Ed Brayton has an excellent post discussing a man’s decision that he will not wait until the bitter end of his disease (ALS), but take his departure at a good time. Epictetus famously wrote, ”If the room is smoky, if only moderately, I will stay; if there is too much smoke I will go. Remember this, keep a firm hold on it, the door is always open.”

I have used Bank of America since I moved to California in 1984. But based on this story and on the many reports of the Bank of America foreclosing on houses for which it did not hold a mortgage (generally because the mortgage had long since been paid off), it occurs to me that I need a second bank account, preferably a local and conservatively run bank—my local credit union seems a good choice. I’ll be applying soon.

Interesting email from the Marijuana Policy Project:

Imagine there’s no Drug Czar. It isn’t hard to do …

For more than 20 years, the federal government has spent lavishly on its own Ministry of Drug Propaganda with virtually nothing to show for it. Our illustrious Drug Czars have crisscrossed the country spreading lies and misinformation while pouring more than a billion taxpayer dollars into an Anti-Drug Media Campaign sinkhole.

But U.S. Reps. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Ron Paul (R-TX) have a great idea: Defund the Drug Czar’s office entirely! And they are introducing an amendment to do just that in the next few days.

The Marijuana Policy Project, which for years has taken on the Drug Czar’s office directly through formal complaints at the state and federal levels and through lobbying to decrease funding for the Media Campaign, fully supports this amendment and hopes you do too.

If you want to see the Drug Czar and his gross exaggerations about marijuana tossed out of the executive branch for good, please take a moment to urge your U.S. representative to support the Polis-Paul amendment to the Financial Services Appropriations bill. We have pre-written e-mails all set to go.

Given all the cuts the Right wants to make in government spending, I would say that drug decriminalization and, in the case of marijuana, outright legalization, regulation, and taxation is the rational course.

The system seems now to work: Jamie Leigh Jones was finally able to get her day in court (and we have legislation now, thanks to Senator Franken, that does not allow companies with Federal contracts to force cases of rape and sexual harassment to be settled only by binding arbitration (with arbitrators specially hired by the company). Instead, such cases can be decided in court.

In this case, the plaintiff lost in the trial, and the jury found that she was not raped and KBR did not engage in fraud in inducing Jones to sign her employment contract. See this article by Stephanie Mencimer in Mother Jones for more of the story.

Cleaning ladies here and gone. The Niece finally arrived—her flight into San Francisco arrived there after the (last) flight to Monterey had left—in fact, after the last flight to Monterey landed in Monterey. United Airlines told her that they could not find a hotel, but she was welcome to sleep on the floor of the airport—which indeed many people had to do. Renting a car wasn’t a good idea: Monterey is a tourist destination so in addition to the $100 rental there would be a $200 charge to leave the car in Monterey.

So she spent the night in the airport and is now sleeping. Fortunately, what’s hard to endure is sweet to recall, so in future years it will make a good story.

But it did mean that we had to cancel the Pilates session. In talking with the instructor, I reported on sprain progress. She suggested I lie on the floor with my legs up the wall to reduce the puffiness of the ankle and foot and aid circulation. I did that, and it does seem to help.