NYC Peace March, 4/29/06

Some great shots from the peace march on Saturday, courtesy of one of my favorite NYC photographers...

"Science Is About Disbelief"

Right on! Professor Steve Jones, in a lecture at the (British) Royal Society:

Science is about disbelief. It accepts that all knowledge is provisional and that any theory might in principle be disproved. Some theories are better established than others: the earth is probably not flat, babies are almost certainly not brought by storks, and men and dinosaurs are unlikely to have appeared on earth within the past few thousand years. Even so, nothing is sacred in 1905 classical physics collapsed after a seemingly trivial observation about glowing gases and the same is potentially true for all other scientific theories.

Watch the whole thing here, or read more on it from the Panda's Thumb.

Wow, the Brits are really getting it. Panda's Thumb also notes a statement (April 11) from the Royal Society "opposing the misrepresentation of evolution in schools to promote particular relgious beliefs":

[...]
Science has proved enormously successful in advancing our understanding of the world, and young people are entitled to learn about scientific knowledge, including evolution. They also have a right to learn how science advances, and that there are, of course, many things that science cannot yet explain. Some may wish to explore the compatibility, or otherwise, of science with various beliefs, and they should be encouraged to do so. However, young people are poorly served by deliberate attempts to withhold, distort or misrepresent scientific knowledge and understanding in order to promote particular religious beliefs.

Read the whole thing.

One-Time Other Thing

I'm not going to say I think much of ol' Anna Nicole, but what's with this opening paragraph from the NY Times?

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that one-time stripper and Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith could pursue part of her late husband's oil fortune.

What is this, the American Family Association?

"One-time coke addict President George W Bush today announced he is against bad things..."

"One-time 2-year-old Kobe Bryant hit a jump shot with 2 seconds left in overtime...."

(It takes the writer only 5 more paragraphs to then call her "the former stripper" - "greedy asshole," perhaps, but there's a clear suggestion here that as a former stripper she's more likely to be immoral. cute)

No Thanks

This advertising campaign has had a billboard up near my work. It's "strange obliqueness" doesn't interest me. It just grosses me out.

I Like It On Skin

One of the few in focus, originally uploaded by Ken-ichi.

I'm The Decider

You must now go listen to I'm The Decider, (Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo)!

Diplomatic Zen

I know I just posted some bunny zen, but this is too much to pass up.

Stare...see all of the picture at once...

Friday Quicks

Congratulations to Juan Franco, who became the oldest player to ever hit a home run in major league baseball, hitting a pinch-hit two-run homer for the Mets at age 47.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright can leg-press 400 lbs.

It's Fun To Trust In The...F E M A!!

Nauseating. How can you sleep at night pulling off this shit?

Update (4/20)
The General notes, on this topic:

Gosh, it feels good to finally beat the Soviets at their own game.

Loud and Clear

Columnist Marianne Means writes today in the Seattle Post-Intelligence

The White House is crumbling internally. President Bush seems bewildered, no longer in charge. He wanders around the country talking about health savings accounts and other small-bore projects that mean little to most people. Nobody is listening.

Bunny Zen

Just gaze....
(REUTERS/Jason Reed)

The List

An excellent list of "Stories We've Seen Too Often" - Fiction Submission Guidelines. Example:

6. The future is soulless.

a. In the future, all learning is electronic, until kid is exposed to ancient wisdom in the form of a book.

b. In the future, everything is electronic, until kid is exposed to ancient wisdom in the form of a wise old person who's lived a non-electronic life.

(via Bruce Sterling's Beyond the Beyond)

spidery

spidery, originally uploaded by xmastree.

!!!! My skin is tingling. What a beautiful creature.

Every Inch

P3297480, originally uploaded by urban_tank.

Okay, this one's creepin me out. I have no idea who these three people are, but this shot is of the walkway between the Cranbrook dining room and the parking lot.

For 10 years I ate many a dinner in this dining room (faculty and their families ate there for free) and this is part of the area where my friends and I would pass the time after we were done eating but while we awaited our parents to come out (there is also a huge open area behind the fotog and some courtyards to the left and right).

Wow. I can tell you that I remember every bump of rock on every brick in this shot. Weird.

Bad Dreamz

This week, in Shoot Myself in the Fucking Head™ (SMITFH), I bring you....

American Dreamz, opening april 21st.

Is this really happening?

I hate this movie in so many ways I can barely breathe.

Bonus: Is THIS really happening? FOX News calling the immigration marches "A Perfect Chance To Arrest Illegal Immigrants?"

Your Story Makes No Sense

Okay, bushie.

First we find that the Madrid bombing had no connection to Al Qaeda.

Now it is determined that the London bombers had no connection to Al Qaeda.

What's your story now? Would you say that we are fighting against All That Use Violence?

Bush speaking April 6:

[...]
The enemy has reminded them about the stakes. Remember that ours isn't the only country that's been attacked. There were attacks in Madrid, there were attacks in London, attacks in Egypt, there's been a series of attacks around the world -- Jordan. They go up -- al Qaeda goes in and blows up a wedding. These are cold-blooded killers now. These are people that will stop at nothing to achieve their objectives.
[...]

Good Old Days

Remember the Good Old Days? A special book

"Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin.

The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin."

Humans maintaining their civilization, eh?

light thru the trees

light thru the trees, originally uploaded by estimmel.

A nice picture from Cranbrook. I feel like if I squint hard enough, I will be able to remember the bark from that exact tree.

Maybe not.

light thru the trees

light thru the trees, originally uploaded by estimmel.

A nice picture from Cranbrook. I feel like if I squint hard enough, I will be able to remember the bark from that exact tree.

Maybe not.

BibliOdyssey

I've been greatly enjoying a (fairly) new blog that regularly scans and posts old book art. This one's from a post about medical doctor Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), whom you can read about more at the site.

Highly recommend for the "images and art" category of your blogroll...

There's even a nice chelicerata post about a clergyman that studied spiders and ants and then made fairy tale books about them!

Leggy McLegs

Oh, this little guy is so CUTE! Apparently he's now the record holder for faster bipedal robot relative to stride length.

Click through to read about him and watch a thoroughly mesmerizing long video of him walking in a circle, faster and faster, with a camera following him from the center of the circle. Wow.

Say It Loud

"A man who identified himself as Harry Taylor":

"I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administraiton,' Taylor said, standing in a balcony seat and looking down at Bush on stage. 'And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself"

Go, Harry!

(photo from Think Progress, who also has the video)

Staff Emails

I love that I work at a place where I get staff emails like this:

[AMNH-Staff]
The next meeting of the Linnaean Society of New York will be Tuesday,
April 11, 2006 at 7:30 pm in the Linder Theater on the first floor.

The speaker will be Dr. Mark L. Botton from Fordham University. Dr. Botton's topic is "Horseshoe Crabs and Avian Breeding Ecology."

Linnaean Society of New York meetings are open to all.

Excuse me? Did somebody say...Chelicerate?

Mother 3

I never played the old Nintendo game Mother, and - my god - i...can't....even....bring myself to go to Wikipedia to learn about it.

Many folks are freakin out about a new revision of it, Mother 3. Well, could these screenshots be any cuter? I'm hooked.

Religion <> Empiricism, You Dork!

OMG I fucking detest this kind of rancid shit

Jesus Could Have Walked on Ice, Scientist Says
Rare conditions could have conspired to create hard-to-see ice on the Sea of Galilee that a person could have walked on back when Jesus is said to have walked on water, a scientist said today.

Blech! Yeah, and hey, could that be the goddamn ARK i see from space?

Shoot Me in the Head™

Daily Kos: Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday

From the Late Night Snark list at Daily Kos

"We're now down to the final four. Not college basketball. The number of people who still think President Bush is doing a good job."
---Jay Leno

Good versus evil isn't a strategy - Albright

When I'm not going out on dates with Harry Reid, I'm usually out with former US Sec of State, Madeleine Korbel Albright - who tears the shit outta Bush in today's LA Times:

...
It is sometimes convenient, for purposes of rhetorical effect, for national leaders to talk of a globe neatly divided into good and bad. It is quite another, however, to base the policies of the world's most powerful nation upon that fiction.
...

Read it

Friday Chelicerate

LBM T. perijanensis 03, originally uploaded by epitope.

Click through to see a handful of other beautiful shots of this guy.

They Might Be Little Giants

Cutest EVER. If you know the TMBG song "Kiss Me, Son of God," here's a short cover for you.

Your Brain on Creationism

From the GreenvilleOnline.com opinion pages, March 22, 2006:

The theory of evolution does not and cannot explain so much about the universe that we know. For instance, when and how did water evolve? How does it happen that gravity can hold us to the Earth, and at the same time allow us to step up without any trouble? How did it happen that the Earth is spinning at the exact rate that keeps us from feeling that movement?

Fascinating.

I ripped this quote and the title of my post from reference to this on The Panda's Thumb. If you were to pick just one site to read about science and the protection of the brain development of American children, for Jesus Is Lord!'s sake, pick theirs and not mine.

Beauty

051030-016-Broken, originally uploaded by comatosed.

I think this guy was in my dream last night.

Tetrachromat Dreams

God, I'd love to be a tetrachromat....instead of an occasionial bichromat.

ovn-roasted alligatr

ovn-roasted alligatr, originally uploaded by Esthr.

(via Boing Boing)

Don't Start

If any other motherfucker even STARTS with the "pint-size apprentice" shit, I'll kill someone. That is UNacceptable copy, not matter what.

Right now it's only one...let's see how it spreads...

Psst...Hey, Joe...

Joe Morgan, tonight, calling the final game of the World Baseball Classic, between Cuba and Japan:

I think the one thing that fans should notice is the contrast in styles of these two ball clubs. I mean, the Cubans are real emotional, they play with a lot of fire, there's a lot going on. When you watch, you know, Japan play, they're calculating, they're more scientific, everything is calculated to make it work. And that's why you see so many players trying to bunt, you know, and taking pitches, and doing so many other little things. They do all the little things, it's kind of a science-like, to them. And, I think, the Cuban players show a little more fire, play with a little more emotion.

Hey, Joe...I generally like you. I like the sound of your voice. You seem to bring sunshine to the world around you.

But shut up for a sec, 'kay?

Mmm, can't do it. He continues later, referring in this moment to baseball players in Asia:

They developed their own style, because they were so far from us. If they were watching us on TV all the time, like the Dominicans, and the Venezualans, and all the Latin countries, then they would probably play similar, because we did invent the game, we made the game what it is today.

And now you see a lot of teams, playing baseball around the world, and a lot of them are doing it their own way. And a lot of it has to do with their physiques and so forth and so on. I think it's really because the Carribean is close, the Cubans are close, they've been able to, you know, kinda emulate the way the americans play.

..."their physiques" - like if you're too short, your culture gets good at violin and math?

..."the way the americans play" - you mean, like not getting to the semi-finals? Nope, they don't quite have that one down yet.

Lycosa godeffroyi with egg sac

Lycosa godeffroyi with egg sac, originally uploaded by lowerlighter.

Huzzah!

Cranbrook at Night

P3177396, originally uploaded by urban_tank.

I don't even consciously remember exactly where this is, but it's deeply embedded in my memory somewhere...

Beautiful architecture.

Let's Play A Game

I say:

President George W. Bush

You say....?

Straw and Bush

The AP posts a strong article against Bush's "Straw Man" approach towards speaking with the public.

Life In Tennessee

Coming through the windows! They're coming through the doors...

(AP) NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal appeals court today allowed Tennessee to offer anti-abortion license plates bearing the message "Choose Life."

Picture is an artist's rendering from Tennessee Right to Life, who called the ruling "a validation of our position all along." The judge of the federal appeals court had a different view:

"Although this exercise of government one-sidedness with respect to a very contentious political issue may be ill-advised, we are unable to conclude that the Tennessee statute contravenes the First Amendment," Judge John M. Rogers said in a 2-1 ruling.

Full AP story here.

John Dunleavy's An Asshole

Nauseating bigotry from John Dunleavy, head of the St. Patrick's Day Parade:

"If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?' the parade's chairman, John Dunleavy, was quoted as saying in an interview with The Irish Times.
'People have rights,' Dunleavy added. 'If we let the [Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization] in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?'

When the Daily News caught up with Dunleavy at a dinner at The Waldorf-Astoria yesterday, he refused to discuss his remarks.

'I'm not talking to you. This is a private party,' he said. 'I'll have you removed.'"

NY1, at least, was covering this this morning. Hopefully this quote will get lots of attention, especially as:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn - the first openly gay woman to lead the city legislature - blasted Dunleavy and reaffirmed her vow to skip the annual march up Fifth Ave.

Keep 'Em Separated

A quote to chisel in stone and hang over the door at our courts:

On Wednesday, March 1st, 2006, in Annapolis at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify.

At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?"

Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

The room erupted into applause.

Good luck, Mr. Raskin!

(via Pharyngula)

Pierce From the Heart

The President's nephew shares his thoughts with a national audience.

Hook 'Em, Horns!

Wil Gets It

Wil just keeps showing us how to do it in his post "delivery for i.c. weiner":

I absolutely love that one particular kind of pepperoni pizza that you get at the mini golf course.

You know the one: it's cardboardy, the pepperonis are usually burnt a
little bit, and the cheese burns the everlovingfuck out of your mouth
when you bite into it, just before it slides off in one whole piece and
sticks to your chin or falls onto your Journey concert shirt.

If I could eat that pizza while I listened to Hall & Oates and
played Space Invaders, I could be in fourth grade for the rest of my
life.

wilwheaton.net was the first blog I ever followed. Ethan recommended it to me about 50 years ago, and it's still charming as ever.

The Compassion of a Bush

What do you do when everyone hates you? Get back to your roots.

Hug an autistic athletic star that has captured the nation's attention, and include some really fucked up face mask (see the second picture in the article).

"Mr. Bush said he learned about McElwain from seeing him on TV.

'I wept, just like a lot of other people did,' he said, as McElwain beamed beside him."

What It Means To Be Human

Touching, Bushie:

"Through the challenges, the President has kept his human touch. Touring New Orleans last week, he met a man who had survived for days on canned goods before being evacuated to Utah. 'Were you the only black man in Salt Lake City?' Bush asked."

(via Dependable Renegade)

Assassin Spiders

Assassin spiders catch and eat other spiders by stabbing them with long poisonous fangs. More at Science Now.

(via Bruce Sterling's Beyond the Beyond)

Crystal Clear

If you want to see a crystal clear example of how the White House attempts to distort the debate on any of its failings, look no further than White House spokesman Scotty McClellan's response to the censure that Feingold is bringing against Bushie.

The illegal wiretap issue is that Bush did not get court approval to do the wiretapping, not that the wiretaps should not be used at all.

Yet, Scotty's spins it thusly:

"I think it does raise the question, how do you fight and win the war on terrorism?" McClellan said. "And if Democrats want to argue that we shouldn't be listening to al Qaeda communications, it's their right and we welcome the debate. We are a nation at war."

Do NOT be tricked by this. It's a textbook example of their sidestepping approach ("Look at the Looters!").

(via Hoffmania)

Dear God

PICT1917, originally uploaded by Camphor.

This picture scares the SHIT out of me. Apparently the dude's a vacation in thailand.

Here's another:

Nightmares, for sure.

Classroom Hijinks

Bush equates the world's objections to his crimes to kids saying not nice things to each other in the classroom:

If you're afraid to make decisions and you only worried about, you know, whether or not people in the classroom are going to say nice things about you, you're not leading

Picture source from the playground in India during Bush's recent recess fight.

Chelicerate, Um, Fridays?

VZZvwgSlovenie2004_SchorpioenSchrnWijd, originally uploaded by Meister Bockert.

Even scorpions deserve good lighting.

Singlehandedly

(from CNN)

Yeah, I can see that - generally speaking.

Watch Me and Learn

Cory Doctorow summarizes the concept of "myware," software that you intentionally install and run in order to monitor your own actions, and "teach" a computer to "server" you better.

I love this idea: people are good at making decisions and computers are good at counting them (and computers are bad at making decisions and people are bad at counting them). My computer should note, count and process every decision I make -- it should notice that I never answer emials from certain people, it should notice that I never click through certain stories in my reader, that I load certain pages every day, that I often search my mailbox for certain kinds of messages and so on. That's stuff I'm totally unqualified to keep track of, and that computers are really good at

Do not fear!

(via Boing Boing, tho' he's writing about the CEO of last.FM)

Kiwi hirsuta

Behold the beautiful new crustacean, the "Kiwi hirsuta," recently discovered "in hydrothermal vents of the Pacific Antartic Ridge, south of Easter Island." More at Yahoo! News.

Update: Larger pic at BBC!

Breeding Program

Georgia State Senator Nancy Schaefer shows her compassion:

Commenting on illegal immigration, Schaefer said 50 million abortions have been performed in this country, causing a shortage of cheap American labor. "We could have used those people," she said.

(via the General)

And hey, a quick glance around th' place, and look at this goodie...Spoken in the State Senate Chamber:

I believe the element that called for the head of John the Baptist was the same element that crucified Jesus Christ.

It is also the same element that is taking the life of Terri Schiavo.

"Destined for Soup"

Scorpions, originally uploaded by Nicky in China.

I just can't get enough of scorpions as food...

Fafblog Explains Periodicity

Today's fafblog...

Q. There are more terrorists now than before the war. Is the occupation causing more terror?
A. Well, nobody can say for sure if that's a man-made terror increase. It may just be a periodic shift in the natural terror cycle.

Read the whole thing.

Your day could be worse

This is a recent post from a photo blog I love called A Test of Will. It's mostly unassuming manhattan images. This one notes clearly that Your day could be worse.

The Filename is spidernaut.jpg

OMFG!

Engadget notes the release of more info on a lil' something NASA's working on called the Spidernaut - and nails the proper human reaction:

We've heard tell of NASA's Spidernaut, a large robot designed to service spacecraft, but after finally seeing it in action we're not so sure humans are fully prepared to battle against robots in the coming rebellion -- this thing is pretty hardcore. Supposedly its current incarnation is only 1/4 of the final size, but the target is a 600 pound robot that can distribute weight evenly over its eight legs to avoid damaging the skin of the spacecraft or for scurrying across solar panels. NASA is even looking into a "web" deployment system for the bot, in which case we're hiding the women and children and locking the doors.

I can't get the damn video link to work, but I can't wait....If anyone finds another working link, let me know!

(via Engadget)

NY Post Weighs In

Perhaps this is why right wingers maintain power. In a story that's so embrassing - the fact that Cheney ran to FOX News to conduct his interview - they can turn it around into an attack. A totally infuriating piece of steaming turd, but an attack nonetheless, an attack that mobilizes some flicker in the brains of some segment of the population.

Does a real person actually believe what this cartoon says?

-------------

Update: Kos tears it up on the "Running to Mommy Fox" point..

Baked Tofu

One dish i love is baked tofu. It makes the house smell great, and is super easy to make. here's a way to make it.

+++++++++

I generally make a very simple marinade, but you can tweak it however you like. There are also a lot of simple good ones you can buy ready made, but it feels better to work from scratch.

- Block of Tofu (extra firm)
- Ginger
- Soy Sauce (tamari or shoyu both work)
- Garlic
- Sweet Onion (optional)


1. Take the tofu out, and drain it. Put it on a plate with paper towels on top and underneath, and balance another plate on top. This is not really necessary, but it's also very easy. Draining is more important when you stir fry tofu.

2. Make the marinade. I use a pyrex baking dish so I can eventually lay all the tofu pieces flat in shallow liquid. I just cut up 3 big cloves, grate a generous portion of frozen ginger, and some onion if you have tasty sweet kind, and add a bunch of soy sauce. I actually rarely use the onion, but it can't hurt. Mix it up a bit.

3. Cut the tofu in little rectangles - or however you like. I lay it flat, long side towards me, and cut down along the length of it, making little cross sections. I usually get eight rectangles out of it.

4. Put the tofu in the marinade. Doesn't have to be drowning in it. Half way up the pieces, I usually do, so less than half an inch deep. You can tilt the dish around to coat.

5. Cover and keep in the fridge, the longer the better. Overnight is best, but I tend to do it for 20 minutes when i get home from work. Flip at some point if you can.

6. Spray a baking sheet with Pam, and take the tofu out of the marinade and lay flat on the sheet.

7. Cook for about 25-30 mins at around 350. This step is actually the largest variable. I haven't found an ideal time, and I often end up with burnt, hard to get off marinade dribbling away from the tofu. But the tofu usually tastes great. I'm working on ways to improve this. If you want, you can flip it over halfway to crisp both sides.


I highly recommend pairing baked tofu with asaparagus or artichokes or broccoli, plus rice - white (with some shoyu) or brown.

Also, if you don't eat all the pieces, save them in the fridge. Two of them make a fantastic sandwich - even better than hot - with lettuce and maybe mustard.

(Picture from here, which has another run through of making baked tofu)

Winter NYC Is

DSCN3457.JPG, originally uploaded by cricketheron.

fullsize recommended.

Snow Night

DSCN3427.JPG, originally uploaded by cricketheron.

The snow has stopped, and the city is beautiful. Tomorrow it will start turning grey and dirty, but tonight...

A few more pics.

Nowcasting

Today's new word comes from Janice Huff, meterologist for NBC4 in NYC. When discussing how The Blizzard produced way more snow even than they had predicted, she talked about how hard the weather is to predict. She talked about how it's easier to predict what's going on closer to the actual time it happens. She referred to this as "nowcasting."

Give Up Simian Secularism!

It's Charles Darwin's 197th birthday!

So, here's an excellent text book for you from Matt Bors. Ever wondered how souls in hell cause global warming?

End Out Fly Purpose

Yay, blizzard!!!

Today's extracted spam message:

end out fly purpose. night friends companion,
mentioned reference news.
turning embarrass least love tying, immediate commit off,
steps prison off carefully nothing here,
steps beautiful few a miserable. teach night here here

Kinda Like a Bake Sale

If you slash money for education, then you have to cover that money in fucked up ways.

Scorpion Satay

Beijing 163, originally uploaded by spasdoutin.

To round things out from last week's fried spiders...

Now I just need Horseshoe Crab Soup poppers.

Different Rewards for Different Folks

EH pointed this guy out, and I just had to share this little snippet:

I love helping people make money online. I love teaching them and I love seeing results. It's incredibly rewarding to hear someone tell me that they have increased their income as a result of my ebooks. I set up an audio testimonial line so that people could call in and share their success stories.

And how.

cranbrook with snow

cranbrook with snow, originally uploaded by estimmel.

Another glorious shot.

He Won't Stand For It

Oh, Gawker, good eyes my friend!

Gettin My Pregelatinized Smile On

I was getting my smile on with some fake Pringles known as Lay's Stax this evening, browsing the ingredients as I often do (people like me sometimes do that - check out carmine!), and what do I see but something beautiful called

Pregelatinized Starch

Blech! I swallowed quickly so as not to think about it too much and ran crying to the internet. Never fear, i found out, pregelatinized food starch is not food starch that they've already added gelatin to - no, i was being too literal (and naive).

It's just a pretty name for Improving on Nature. From the industry site Food Innovation's FAQ page:

Q/ How do I choose among the various pregelatinized starches for instant puddings and cheese sauces?
A/ The first question to ask is: How quickly do you need the starch to hydrate? Pregelatinized starches with fine particle size hydrate faster than coarser ones, but those who use fine-particle pregel starches may want to take steps to prevent lumping. Coarse ground starches disperse easily but hydrate slowly.

Oops - that wasn't very helpful. That assumes I already know. And maybe i ENGINEER velveeta competition or something. Let's try another.

Ahh! Here we go. From the site Food Product Design:

Instant improvements
Pregelatinization is a processing technique where the starch is manipulated so that it swells to some degree in cold water, unlike ordinary starch, which requires heating. The most-common method involves heating a starch paste to its gelatinization temperature, drying on a drum dryer and grinding the dried starch to a powder. Upon reconstitution with water, pregelatinized starch has less thickening power and tendency to gel than pastes of the parent starch. Pregelatinized starch works in applications requiring more rapid hydration or room-temperature preparation, such as instant dessert mixes and soups.

"Our partner, Emsland GmbH, manufacturers a line of GMO-free, kosher-certified, pregelatinized potato starches called Emjel," says Mel Festejo, chief operating officer, American Key Food Products, Closter, NJ. "The line is extensive, with each ingredient possessing its own set of superior functionalities."

For example, one of these ingredients binds and thickens and gives good texturing and stabilizing properties in bakery products, instant puddings and desserts. It also works as a coating agent for nuts, and as a binding and texturing agent with good expansion-regulating properties, mainly for extruded, indirectly expanded snack products. Another acts as a binding and texturing agent in frozen foods, dressings, mayonnaises and creams. It provides good stabilizing, freeze/thaw and baking properties. "As a thickening and stabilizing agent with good texturing and foam-stabilizing properties, this starch can be used in instant sauces and dressing powders," adds Festejo.

Now back to Chip parties in the Park!

Where It Comes From

In the last few days, I've seen comments show up here from someone named "Sam" and someone who goes by "Ray."

I just wanted to acknowledge them, cuz without the comments - and the stuff I put up myself - this thing wouldn't even be here.

Gracios!

(Thanks, SaVa and RaJo. Um. I think)

ExxonbMobil To Bush: "You're Naive"

Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Stuart McGill said on Tuesday:

Americans depend upon imports to fill the gap,' McGill said. 'No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term.'

Scorpion Trumps All

Scorpion Macro, originally uploaded by pongboy.

Nope.

I'm steering away from Boo-Boo the chicken, Gonzales's claim that Al Qaeda forgets we're after them if they're not reminded by media, and the 24 old Bush appointee George Deutsche - journalism major, never graduated from A&M, now resigned - to tell NASA scientists how to communicate its message....

...and just posting this beautiful beast.

Cooking Mama

These are shots from a new Japanese gameboy DS game coming out soon, called Cooking Mama, and I'm smitten. There is currently no assurance that this is ever coming over here, but I can dream!

Many screenshots here and here at 4 Color Rebellion (first two screenshot links).

Fried Spiders Friday

La piccola venditrice di ragni, originally uploaded by luisa27266.

Fried Spider Friday, #2

Philip the Arachnivore, originally uploaded by Spud McDoug.

Bush and His Little Buddy "Humility"

Today at the National Prayer Breakfast, speaking after Bono, Bush said this:

We are united in our dedication to peace, tolerance, and humility before the almighty.

Uh-huh.

Rumsfeld Speaks

At a National Press Club speech today that i just watched on CSPAN:

"Think if we hadn't perservered in the revolutionary war. They wanted to fire George Washington!"

Cute. Among other reactions....

Are you really, um, comparing George Washington to, um....GWB? Yourself? Tom DeLay?

If I can find a full transcript, i will post it.

Update:An AFP story notes that at the same Press Club talk, Rummy "acknowledges surveillance of civilians in US."

This C-SPAN live stuff's great.

No, I Don't Have an Oil Problem

This is exactly what stank about the State of the Union comments on weaning the US off of oil. They don't mean it and they don't understand the topic. From the Times:

But when asked why Mr. Bush had not called on the public to sacrifice to reduce oil consumption, Samuel W. Bodman, the energy secretary, said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday that 'many Americans believe they're already sacrificing by paying the prices they're paying for gasoline and heating oil and natural gas.'

Having and Eating the Science Cake

Bush last night:

We need to encourage children to take more math and science, and make sure those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations.

Well, you can start by not suggesting we put "I Give Up, Must Be a Deity" approaches in science class, you hypocrite.

More on this particular education hypocrisy right here.

Unbearable

It is excruciating irony that Dear Leader is chiding the nation for it's Addiction (ding!) to Oil (ding! ding!).

Swing a dead cat or click here.

Update:This New York Times editorial nails him to the wall for his meaningless "laundry lists" of things to do and be concerned about: I'm reproducing it in full in case it falls behind the curtain.

President Bush devoted two minutes and 15 seconds of his State of the Union speech to energy independence. It was hardly the bold signal we've been waiting for through years of global warming and deadly struggles in the Middle East, where everything takes place in the context of what Mr. Bush rightly called our "addiction" to imported oil.

Last night's remarks were woefully insufficient. The country's future economic and national security will depend on whether Americans can control their enormous appetite for fossil fuels. This is not a matter to be lumped in a laundry list of other initiatives during a once-a-year speech to Congress. It is the key to everything else.

If Mr. Bush wants his final years in office to mean more than a struggle to re-spin failed policies and cement bad initiatives into permanent law, this is the place where he needs to take his stand. And he must do it with far more force and passion than he did last night.

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American overdependence on oil has been a disaster for our foreign policy. It weakens the nation's international leverage and empowers exactly the wrong countries. Last night Mr. Bush told the people that "the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons," but he did not explain how that will happen when those same nations are so dependent on Tehran's oil. Iran ranks second in oil reserves only to Saudi Arabia, where members of the elite help finance Osama bin Laden and his ilk, and where the United States finds it has little power to stop them.

Oil is a seller's market, in part because of America's voracious consumption. India and China, with their growing energy needs, have both signed deals with Iran. Rogue states like Sudan are given political cover by their oil customers. The United Nations may wish to do something about genocide in Darfur or nuclear proliferation, but its most powerful members are hamstrung by their oil alliances with some of the worst leaders on the planet.

Even if the war on terror had never begun, Mr. Bush would have an obligation to be serious about the energy issue, given the enormous danger to the nation's economy if we fail to act. His own Energy Department predicts that with the rapid development of India and China, annual global consumption will rise from about 80 million barrels of oil a day to 119 million barrels by 2025. Absent efforts to reduce American consumption, these new demands will lead to soaring oil prices, inflation and a loss of America's trade advantage. It should be a humbling shock to American leaders that Brazil has managed to become energy self-sufficient during a period when the United States was focused on building bigger S.U.V.'s.

Part of the answer, as Mr. Bush indicated last night, is the continued development of alternative fuels, especially for cars. The Energy Department has addressed this modestly, and last night the president said his budget would add more money for research. That's fine, but hardly the kind of full-bore national initiative that will pump large amounts of money into the commercial production of alternatives to gasoline.

When it comes to cars, much of the research has already been done — Brazil got to energy independence by figuring out how to get its citizens home from work in cars run without much gasoline. The answer is producing the new fuels that have already been developed and getting cars that use them on the lots. There are several ways to make that happen. The president could call for higher fuel economy standards for car manufacturers. He could bring up the subject of a gas tax — the most effective way of getting Americans to buy fuel-efficient cars, and a market-based tax on consumption that conservative lawmakers ought to embrace if they are honest with themselves and their constituents. But Mr. Bush took the safe, easy and relatively meaningless route instead.

There is still an enormous amount to be done to find new sources of clean, cheap power to heat homes and create electricity. But regrettably, the president made it clear last night that he would rather spend the country's resources on tax cuts for the wealthy. The oil companies are currently flush with profits from the same high prices that have plagued consumers, and the president might have asked the assembled legislators whether their current tax breaks might be redirected into a real energy initiative.

Simply calling for more innovation is painless. The hard part is calling for anything that smacks of sacrifice — on the part of consumers or special interests, and politicians who depend on their support. After 9/11, the president had the perfect moment to put the nation on the road toward energy independence, when people were prepared to give up their own comforts in the name of a greater good. He passed it by, and he missed another opportunity last night.

Of all the defects in Mr. Bush's energy presentation, the greatest was his unwillingness to address global warming — an energy-related emergency every bit as critical as our reliance on foreign oil. Except for a few academics on retainer at the more backward energy companies, virtually no educated scientist disputes that the earth has grown warmer over the last few decades — largely as a result of increasing atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels.

The carbon lodged in the atmosphere by the Industrial Revolution over the last 150 years has already taken a toll: disappearing glaciers, a thinning Arctic icecap, dead or dying coral reefs, increasingly violent hurricanes. Even so, given robust political leadership and technological ingenuity, the worst consequences — widespread drought and devastating rises in sea levels —can be averted if society moves quickly to slow and ultimately reverse its output of greenhouse gases. This will require a fair, cost-effective program of carbon controls at home and a good deal of persuasion and technological assistance in countries like China, which is building old-fashioned, carbon-producing coal-fired power plants at a frightening clip.

Mr. Bush said he would look for cleaner ways to power our homes and offices, and provide more money for the Energy Department's search for a "zero emission" coal-fired plant whose carbon dioxide emissions can be injected harmlessly into the ground without adding to the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. But once again he chose to substitute long-range research — and a single, government-sponsored research program at that — for the immediate investments that have to be made across the entire industrial sector.

That Mr. Bush has taken a pass on this issue is a negligence from which the globe may never recover. While he seems finally to have signed on to the idea that the earth is warming, and that humans are heavily responsible, he has rejected serious proposals to do anything about it and allowed his advisers on the issue to engage in a calculated program of disinformation. At the recent global summit on warming, his chief spokesmen insisted that the president's program of voluntary reductions by individual companies had resulted in a reduction in emissions, when in fact the reverse was true.

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The State of the Union speech is usually a feel-good event, and no one could fault Mr. Bush's call for research, or fail to applaud his call for replacing more than 75 percent of the nation's oil imports from the Middle East within the next two decades. But while the goal was grand, the means were minuscule. The president has never been serious about energy independence. Like so many of our leaders, he is content to acknowledge the problem and then offer up answers that do little to disturb the status quo. If the war on terror must include a war on oil dependence, Mr. Bush is in retreat.