BD Presents

A shot of a couple of gifts I picked up on by BD - a nice and sharp 8" chef's knife and a cast iron skillet.  Mmm!  The knife cuts like a dream - I love it!

Pollster

This blog is hardcore.  Predictions about the presidential elections, complete with highly detailed poll figures.  Bordering on insane.  The link: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

 

 

 

NBA Player Out of Line?

People are bent out of shape about Black professional basketball player Josh Howard remarking how he doesn’t care about the national anthem.  Here’s how I break this down:

 

White western Europeans explore and settle the New World, killing, betraying, and taking land from the “inferior” natural inhabitants.  Then the wealthiest of these white landowners imported “inferior” slave labor from a faraway land to work their farms, treating them in less than hospitable ways, to put things mildly.   After some time they were liberated from bondage, grudgingly given the right to vote, alienated from mainstream society, and marginalized by public policies.  They now experience ongoing underemployment, inferior education and income, and high incarceration rates.  Now, how would you feel about “your” country’s feel-good song if you happen to be Black?

 

Hey, America has some great things, and America has offered some great things to Black American descendants of slaves.  I’m glad we’re all here in this country.  But I don’t think Howard deserves to be lambasted over his hard feelings.  

 

Video report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BqG9kjknVw

 

(Blog Photo Found At: http://www.answers.com/topic/african-american-photography-to-c-1960)

Eat Meat, Keep Your Brain Intact?

Apparently, eating meat helps avoid brain shrinkage!  OMG!!  Eat a cheeseburger, quick! 

 

Just kidding.  Well, not totally.  Research is so easy to overblow, but take a gander at this article that adds fuel to the debate.

 

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24336544-23272,00.html

 

 

Born to Run (and Eat Meat?)

Evidence found by scientists (http://discovermagazine.com/2006/may/tramps-like-us) seems to confirm we were born to run long distances.  It doesn’t define long distances, though.  Long enough to wait for whatever animal we were planning to eat to get tired, is what I understand from the piece.

Cars Escaping from Hurricane Ike

Photo of cars heading from Houston on Highway 290 into Austin the day before Hurricane Ike is scheduled to make landfall.

Soda, Pop, Coke: Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

What do we American’s call carbonated drinks?  This blog post solves it once and for all: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/308-the-pop-vs-soda-map/

 

And if you’re interested, here’s my suggestion on such beverages: Don’t drink it.

 

 

Consolation Prize

I never thought I would be bummed out when receiving $1,000 cash.  However, since our deal to sell our home and then buy another one has fallen through, we will receive $1,000 in earnest money from our former buyers.  But, we have lost the house we shopped endlessly for and for which we ourselves spent $400 inspecting.

 

Reversible Raincoat

Great, short article on a speaking technique commonly used in the political arena these days: The Reversible Raincoat.

 

Slate.com describes it like this: “…the nickname speechwriters have given to the rhetorical device in which words are repeated in transposed order, as with Churchill's famous line: "Let us preach what we practice—let us practice what we preach.")”

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2199536/

 

Chef's Story

Just finished reading this book about 27 chefs and how they got into cooking.  These chefs are all at the top of the field: Anthony Bourdain, Jaques Pepin, Bobby Flay, etc.  Many have copies of their most successful restaurants in Las Vegas, many have TV shows.

 

The common themes in the stories: lots of hard work, long hours, and personal connections that helped them progress.  Kinda like real life. 

New Mexico

We went to Albuquerque and Santa Fe Labor Day weekend. Beautiful weather (dry, low 80s during the day), beautiful scenery (mountains, clouds, huge skies), and beautiful architecture (adobe style) were all in abundance.

Birthday

Patty made a key lime pie for my birthday. Yum!

---

In home selling/buying news, our sale is on tenuous ground and hence so is our purchase. We are waiting for word from our buyers to tell us if this deal is going to go down.

Living Dangerously

No, I don't smoke.

Photo taken in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Ear Wax

Don’t take out your ear wax. 

 

Read article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26443394/

 

That’s all.

 

 

Lyrics

I enjoy this song by the RX Bandits.

"Overcome (The Recapitulation)"

We've had enough
We've had enough
We've had enough of the politicians
We've had enough yeah
Of these politician's wars
All we need right now is love
We've had enough of these military scoreboards
What we need right now is love, come on
We've had enough of these politician's wars
All we need right now is love
We've had enough of these military scoreboards
All we need right now is love
We've had enough of these politician's wars
All we need right now is love
We've had enough of these military scoreboards
All we need right now is love

Turn it up
The future is held in the hands
Who right the textbooks
Ignorance is bred when falsified thinking is taught
To the youth instead of
Past mistakes and mind elevation,
Like the graves that manifest destiny has created
So we can build our
Capitalist consumer based economy,
To build, market,
And sell commodities we don't need
But we are trained to believe like celebrity imaging
Well I'm here to take my feelings back and I hope That you will be with me

I can't wait for that day
When I hear us all screaming.
Ahhhhhhhhh,
I can't wait for that day
When I hear us all singing together,
Ooooohhhhhh
I can't wait for that day
When I hear us all screaming.
Ahhhhhhhhh
I can't wait for that day
When I hear us all singing together,
Ahhh,

I can't wait for the day
When I hear us all screaming,
HERE COMES THE REVOLUTION.
When every race color
And creed of militant human beings stand up
With fists together for substance and true meaning
Because right now we got our feet stuck in cement
We're too caught up in
A material status quo punishment
And one thing is for sure
And that's the sun will always set,
Darling you can bet our moon is quite the opposite
So baby take an axe to your makeup kit
Set ablaze the billboards and their advertisements
Love with all your hearts and never forget
How good it feels to be alive
And strive for your desire
Just cause you can't see
Your cage doesn't mean that you are free
When there are laws against nature
But its ok for you to be
Addicted to over the counter prescriptions
And magazines dictate all our human relations

I'm not buying, no I'm not giving in
To a culture that objectifies all of our women
I'm not buying, no I'm not consuming
The apathetic dribble on the news media's chin
I'm not buying, no I'm not giving in
The lies that are sold through textbooks to children
I'm not buying, no I'm not consuming
Cause the positive will
Always overcome the negative right

And we stay inside, its right outside,
We stand in line
We all enjoy the fences to keep it at bay
But I'm not giving in

Opposing Views

I found this great website, OpposingViews.com, which features debates between knowledgable experts on controversial issues. Users can vote, comment, and read the pros and cons of each debate.

To Meat or Not To Meat

VS.



I started this post hoping to settle the dispute forever one way or the other: Ethics of animal consumption aside, can eating meat be as healthy, or even healthier, than a vegetarian diet?

Naturally, I scoured the internet for information to point me to the answer. The problem is (a) to really answer this question, serious scientific inquiry is necessary (b) much of the research may not be sound and (c) I don't have the time to sift the scientific wheat from the chaff, to use an agricultural analogy.

Some of what I expected to find related to humans' ability to handle meat biologically. I found disagreement on this issue. And even if we are able to merely process it, is eating meat detrimental to our bodies? There wasn't a lot out there, backed by science, to suggest that eating meat HAS to be a bad thing.

Although some would disagree, I am going to take it as fact that industrially produced meat sources (e.g., grain and anti-biotic fed beef from packed feedlots) are less desirable for our bodies and our environment than pastured animals.

Taking the above for given, I don't find the evidence particularly compelling either in favor of vegetarianism or meat consumption. If one does choose to eat meat, it seems that eating naturally-raised meat in moderation, cooked without heavy browning over high heat, and accompanied by high levels of physical exertion (exercise) would be required. I am struggling to find solid, science-backed information to support that eating meat responsibly (as described above) will shorten your life or lower its quality. My guess is that a "flexitarian" diet is the most healthful.

Here's some of what I found:

Here is an excellent webpage by westonaprice.org, with research citations, debunking myths of a meat-free diet.

Here's an argument supporting that it's natural for us to eat meat, from straightdope.com.

A quote from emagazine.com:

Cardiologist William C. Roberts hails from the famed cattle state of Texas, but he says this without hesitation: Humans aren’t physiologically designed to eat meat. “I think the evidence is pretty clear. If you look at various characteristics of carnivores versus herbivores, it doesn’t take a genius to see where humans line up,” says Roberts, editor in chief of The American Journal of Cardiology and medical director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

I recommend an excellent book, Real Food, which makes the case in favor of meat and dairy products (from naturally raised animals). The book cites many scientific research sources and I feel it's very credible.

From National Geographic: Humans evolved not only to eat meat, but to eat cooked meat. This explains our smaller mouth structures and lack of typical carnivore's teeth, which is often cited by anti-meat folks to support their case.

A note on my problem with the scientific research:

Scientific studies can be very deceptive if you do not understand the method that was used to gather the data and which factors were accounted for in the research. Did the study account for how the meat was cooked? Did the meat come from pastured animals spared of unnatural levels of anti-biotics and other chemicals? Was the meat unadulterated or was it processed into lunch meat or some other concoction? Were lifestyle factors accounted for, such as whether the subjects smoked or exercised. What was the measure of success? Long life? Cholesterol levels? Quality of life? Who paid for the study? Argghhh....

For those who argue that prehisoric man ate meat, it's possible that our ancestors merely died from other causes (sabre-toothed tiger, influenza, angry neighboring tribe) before the ill effects of meat consumption were able to strike them down. It's also possible that our bodies aren't even designed to last us far past age 40 anyway.

Perhaps it has not been our eating of meat that has caused the purported increase in heart disease and cancer, but instead our choice of industrially produced meat and lack of the strenuous physical exertion our ancestors were required to engage in to survive.

The debate goes on...

If you have any strong evidence either way, please share!

Monkeying Around

Went to the San Antonio zoo this weekend. Here are some sights.

Hot Sauce

Today was the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Fest in Waterloo Park, which is here in Austin. Imagine a park-full of hot, sweaty people listening to hot, sweaty music and standing in long lines to taste hot (but not sweaty) salsa - what some call "hot sauce."

There seems to be a discrepancy out in the world about the meaning of the phrase "hot sauce." I have heard many people refer to what I'd call salsa as "hot sauce." Salsa and hot sauce are not the same! Perhaps this is a regional distinction (like "coke," "soda," and "pop" all referring to the same thing depending on where you find yourself). Allow me to clarify:

SALSA: Mushy combination of solid ingredients which are not homogenized or emulsified. Made from chunks of tomato, onion, peppers, and other stuff. Very dippable with a tortilla chip. Photo below:



HOT SAUCE: Soupy emulsion of liquids/liquefied ingredients. Made from peppers, vinegar, salt, and other stuff. Not particularly dippable with a tortilla chip. Photo below:

Tasting: Honey Boy Pink Salmon

I tried Honey Boy Pink Salmon (canned) today, and I spooned in a few bleu cheese crumbles to add another dimension. It was pretty moist, but I'd say it was lacking in salmon flavor, which was present but not distinctive. Also, the color was a bit less than pink - more of a tan, I'd say (see below).



Overall I'd say it's passable and not offensive whatsoever. If you're craving salmon and you can't get fresh salmon, this will certainly do. Just don't serve it to your guests.