Archive for August 4th, 2022
Colorful food and upcoming cooking
Above are pictured a purple cauliflower, cut up and resting before steaming, four heads of Ruffian red garlic, and a Chinese purple potato (cut so you can see the cross-section).
I’m assuming that the cauliflower, a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, should (like broccoli and kale) rest 45 minutes after being cut up before being steamed or sautéed. Looking at it resting on the cutting board reminded me of the Russian red garlic I still have left (I’ve already used a couple of heads).
The garlic heads are white until the outside leaves are pulled away and the red skin of the cloves becomes visible. Those are intensely red, as you see above for cloves where all the outside white skin has been peeled away.
The clove itself is white (and also large), the red color residing only in the clove’s skin.
The Chinese purple potato is not nearly so sweet as a Stokes Purple® potato, but its extremely dark color is quite promising vis-à-vis flavonoids.
I already steamed some broccoli, which will be refrigerated like the cauliflower and potatoes and then used (probably with those and some greens and onion) in a salad, with this dressing. I made the Asian variant, with a little more than 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame oil and then enough canola oil added to make a cup. I also used rice vinegar. The garlic in the recipe was, of course, Russian red garlic, which is sweet and not so pungent as common garlic.
I still have some garlic scapes, which I think I’ll cook with some gai lan I have on hand, and with that I might include a diced chayote squash, some mushrooms, a couple of cayenne peppers, and a couple of red Fresno peppers.
Other cooking coming up: 1.5 cups chana dal and 1.5 cups kamut to make a new batch of tempeh, and a kraut with a head of red cabbage, a ginormous red onion (I’ll be taking a photo), a red apple, a Nantes carrot (those, too, are ginormous), and a few dates. Probably a couple of cloves of garlic sliced thin on the garlic mandoline and some fresh ginger root sliced thin — and, of course, some peppers sliced thin.
Why Power Brings Out Your True Self
Lord Acton took the view that power corrupts, but it seems rather to reveal the corruption already present in the person. Matthew Hutson wrote in Nautilus back in 2017:
At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama told the crowd, “Being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.”
Growing up, Michelle said, she and Barack learned important lessons from their families about “dignity and decency” and “gratitude and humility.” “At the end of the day,” she said, “when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.”
Research in cognitive science reveals the former First Lady is right: Power exposes your true character. It releases inhibitions and sets your inner self free. If you’re a jerk when you gain power, you’ll become more of one. If you’re a mensch, you’ll get nicer. So if you happen to all of a sudden become president, or at least president of your lab or book club, what inner self will come out?
Psychologists generally define power as control over others, by providing or withholding resources, without social interference. Tapping your true nature, though, begins with feeling powerful. Getting the corner office boosts creativity and reduces conformity.
In a 2008 experiment, undergraduates were asked either to recall a time they had power over someone or to recall a time someone had power over them.1 Then they were asked to draw an alien creature. Some were shown an example creature that had wings. When feeling powerless, seeing a creature with wings increased the chance a student would add wings to his own creature, a demonstration of conformity. Those made to feel powerful, however, remained unaffected by the example, following their own creative urges.
Power also makes people more likely to act on their desires. In one experiment, those made to feel powerful were more likely to move or unplug an annoying fan blowing on them.2 When working with others, the powerful are also more likely to voice their opinions. In another experiment, students were paired for a joint task.3 The one assigned to be the leader of the pair typically expressed her true feelings and attitudes more than her subordinate did.
We are less deliberative and more persistent in pursuing our goals when we gain power. In one of a series of experiments, researchers asked students to recall having or lacking power, then asked how much time and information they would need to make various decisions, including which roommate to live with or which car to buy.4 Those who felt powerful said they’d need less time and information. In a second experiment, participants made to feel powerful spent more time trying to solve an impossible geometric puzzle. In a third, they were quicker to interrupt someone who disagreed with them.
Overall, power makes us feel authentic. In one study, participants recalled a time they had power or a time they lacked it.5 Then they rated their personality traits in three contexts: . . .
See previous post that lets us see the authentic nature of US Border Patrol agents.
Border Patrol Agents Are Trashing Sikh Asylum-Seekers’ Turbans
John Washington reports in The Intercept:
Gurjodh Singh was leaning against a rusted vehicle barrier — planted like a giant jack in the sand — at the end of the line of migrants. It is late July, and about 400 people seeking asylum are waiting alongside a gap in the border fence as dawn breaks over the sky in southern Arizona.
Singh is 22, fleeing India for America, without any family, to seek political asylum. Slipping off the vehicle barrier, he joined a huddle of five other Indian men, all Sikhs from the state of Punjab. A Border Patrol agent told Singh he had to move to the back of the line because he didn’t have papers. The rest of the men recovered their IDs after being robbed on a grueling monthslong trek across the jungles of Panama, but Singh still has no ID.
As the minutes tick by, the sky brightens, and the temperature notches steadily upward, reaching above 110 degrees that day. The men are waiting for the agents to begin their processing and load them onto buses heading to a nearby Border Patrol station.
Word has begun circulating among those seeking asylum in the Yuma area: Border Patrol is forcing everyone to throw away all personal belongings, except for cellphones, wallets, and travel documents. Agents are demanding Sikh men remove their turbans and are dumping the sacred religious garb in the trash.
Bhupinder, an 18-year-old Sikh man wearing a purple turban, said, simply, “I can’t take it off.” An important expression of Sikh men’s faith is not cutting their hair, and covering their head with a turban.
The forced removal and confiscation of turbans violates Border Patrol policies that are meant to respect religious freedom. It also violates policies that require agents to track and return personal belongings.
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona sent a letter to Border Patrol documenting dozens of cases of agents confiscating and discarding turbans, explaining the significance of the item, and how the actions “blatantly violate federal law,” Border Patrol policy, and protections of religious freedom.
A month earlier, a third Sikh man seeking asylum said Border Patrol ordered him to turn over his belongings — including two sacred symbols of his faith.
“They told me to take off my turban. I know a little English, and I said, ‘It’s my religion.’ But they insisted,” the man said, speaking through an interpreter in a July phone interview.
The man pleaded with the officers, who forced him to remove his turban and tossed it in a trash pile. He asked if he could at least keep his turban for when he was released from custody. They told him no. “I felt so bad,” he said.
The Border Patrol’s Yuma sector did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
In addition to keeping uncut hair, maintained in a head covering, Sikhs, according to their faith, carry a comb; wear a bracelet; wear custom cotton underwear; and carry a small, curved sword or knife.
Border Patrol agents also cut a ribbon that was holding up the third asylum-seeker’s traditional Sikh underwear. Since there is no elastic on them, he was unable to continue wearing them.
“They said it was to prevent suicide,” he said, “but you can use pajamas to commit suicide if you want to. You can use socks. This underwear is important to us.”
Violating Policy [and human rights – LG]
Despite complaints that Border Patrol agents are violating their own policies that say they must “safeguard” personal property not deemed to be contraband or dangerous and “should remain cognizant of an individual’s religious beliefs,” Yuma’s Border Patrol has confiscated at least 64 turbans this year, according to the ACLU of Arizona and the Phoenix Welcome Center. In just the last two months, the organizations have documented at least 50 such confiscations.
The turban confiscations have ramped up in recent months, said Maria Jose Pinzon, a program manager for Phoenix Welcome Center, which is run by the International Rescue Committee that offers a few nights of rest and humanitarian assistance to asylum-seekers.
Because the Welcome Center is only able to record self-reported cases, and many asylum-seekers are scared to register a complaint, Pinzon is confident the number is much higher.
In June, according to Pinzon, a Department of Homeland Security ombudsman visited the Phoenix Welcome Center, promising to address the issue with Border Patrol. Yet the confiscations continued, with at least 11 documented cases as of July 20. Homeland Security’s Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman did not respond to requests for comment.
There are currently no regulations that require Border Patrol to document and publicly report the number of people its agents removed turbans from in violation of their own policy. . .
The only way to fix this, I fear, is to complete replace current US Border Patrol Personnel.
The following post provides some insight into what happens to Border Patrol agents to make them that way.
Long COVID comes in three forms
Despite public behavior — no masks or distancing in most stores, people unmasked in crowds — Covid has not gone away, and for some the Covid experience has been long-lasting. Now scientists are getting a better picture of long Covid (aka post-Covid syndrome, or PCS). The Hill has a brief report, with video at the link, that begins:
- New research from scientists from King’s College London supports the idea that there are three different types of long COVID, each with their own symptoms.
- Researchers studied more than 1,000 people suffering from post-COVID syndrome and found that there are three different subtypes of the condition.
- The first subtype consisted of respiratory symptoms, the second neurologic and third autoimmune.
There are three different kinds of long COVID, and all have their own set of symptoms, according to researchers.
In a new preprint study — which means it has yet to be peer reviewed — on MedRxiv, a site that distributes unpublished research in the health sciences, scientists from King’s College in London analyzed the experiences of thousands of people across the U.K that were infected with the virus.
Researchers focused on 1,459 people living with post-COVID syndrome — which study crafters defined as having symptoms for at least 12 weeks after being infected with the virus — and were able to place patients into three main “symptom profiles.”
PCS patients — which are also referred to colloquially as long COVID patients — placed in the first group suffered from respiratory symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath or palpitations.
The second group was made up of long COVID patients who experienced neurological symptoms like . . .
FWIW, I continue to wear a mask in stores and in crowds. No Covid so far, knock on wood.
Institute Karité
I realized when I last used my Institut Karité that I had too long neglected it — not to its detriment, but to my own: it’s very good stuff. Very mild, “clean” fragrance — like a good soap, which after all is what it is — and a good thick and lubricating lather. (The shaving soap, like the aftershave, is 25% shea butter.) With the Wet Shaving Products Prince, lather came easily and felt good on being applied.
The razor is an Edwin Jagger head on a Maggard Razors handle, an excellent combination. I say it’s an Edwin Jagger head — it certainly looks like it — but Edwin Jagger decided, in what can be best described as an act of generosity, that it would not mark the head with any brand identification whatsoever. Perhaps they thought the design itself would serve as brand identification, but then, of course, China sees the excellence of the design and they send in the clones. Still, I’m pretty sure this is a true EJ head, and it shaved very well indeed: very comfortable and very efficient.
After 3 passes, I rinsed, dried, and applied just a small dot of Institut Karité’s aftershave balm. What a fine way to start a day.
The tea this morning is Murchie’s Victoria Garden: “Notes of jasmine, lavender, sweet pea, and bergamot are combined with strawberry and vanilla in this smooth and well-rounded blend of green and black teas.”
Later On 