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Thursday, January 22, 2004

RIAA Nabs Cheney For Illegal File-sharing   Veep can only respond with a random pattern of zeroes and ones   (okay, no real story here, just free associations on today’s news…)       6:12:30 PM    comment []

Who Said That?   “The highest professional level, resistance to stress and an inborn high radiation protection will be the main criteria to choose candidates for the Mars expedition. Alongside high requirements to professional skills, physical and psychological health, significant attention will be paid to choosing people with a maximum ability to adjust to extreme pressure and high resistance to stress, he pointed out. It is very important to find candidates who have a higher immunity protection against ionizing radiation, as the crew will be under its influence during both the flight and the work on the Mars surface.  It seems expedient that the crew should comprise six men, three of whom will land on the surface of the Mars. The expedition is expected to comprise two pilots, a flight engineer, a doctor and two engineers.”   The director of the Russian Medical and Biological Problems Institute academician Anatoly Grigoryev said it. He is one of the leaders of the project preparing the piloted expedition to the Mars. The quotes were lifted verbatim from Pravda, 12/22/2003. Of course Pravda also has pseudo-scientific baloney like a report that the War In Iraq causing the earthquake in Bam, Iran (it did it by means of “strong negative logo-emotional currents” – this is a must-read article!), so caveat emptor. Still, plans of a Russian trip to Mars in December may have caused “logo-emotional currents” in the Oval Office, and maybe even a disruption in the space/time continuum. 5:42:49 PM    comment []

Be careful…   My unvoiced wish to visit the Ramen Jiro featured in 0n NPR's All Things Considered the other evening has apparently come true. If my job does not go to India this year, my ass will go to Tokyo not once but twice,  I dread the daylong travel, 14 hours on two flights, followed by a 3-hour bus trip to the hotel, but it’s a wonderful city once you’re there. With any luck, we will stay at the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku –  a prefecture with a Ramen Jiro. If not, we’ll stay at the New Otani in Akasaka, which is only a 10-minute subway ride away. The restaurant picture at the site linked above does not match the one in the Andy Raskin piece on NPR, but a quick trip to WorldRamen gives me the impression that Ramen Jiro is a mini-franchise. All the Jiro links lead to the identical storefront and bowl of noodles pictures. 600 Yen for a small bowl, 800 Yen for large. That converts to $5.66 and $7.54 US$. Not bad for lunch in Tokyo. According to WorldRamen, Jiro opens at 11:30am and closes when they run out of noodles. 4:57:49 PM    comment []

Andy Gilligan Is Back!   And now he’s got a potty mouth…. Andrew Gilligan today launched a four-letter tirade at BBC journalist John Ware after Panorama criticised his Iraq dossier report. Gilligan called the programme "fucking outrageous" and launched a counter-attack on Ware's journalistic standards, saying Ware had not even put Panorama's claims to him. What could drive a man of words and letters, such as Mr. Gilligan, to resort to profanity? Well, in this case it was what Andy feels is a poorly chosen metaphor: He went on to rubbish Ware's claim that he had been "hauled over the coals" by Mr Sambrook, but admitted he had been criticised in one meeting. "It was a meeting to say how well I had done in Iraq and I was criticised over one matter. It was 95 per cent praise. In no sense could it be described as a hauling over the coals," said Gilligan. Point taken. We all need to be more careful in our choice of fucking words. 5:49:05 AM    comment []

Happy New Year!   It’s the Year Of The Monkey!   Our President is celebrating by visiting Roswell, New Mexico, to deliver a speech on terrorism (he's against it) and rights for illegal aliens (he's for them). The truth is out there. 5:37:50 AM    comment []

A batch of spontaneous salsa made the other night came out extra tasty. This recipe is an attempt to catch the gist of it:   INGREDIENTS   2 14 ½ ounce cans of diced tomatoes 7 cloves garlic, finely chopped 9 jalapeno peppers, roasted, skinned, diced, but not seeded or cored 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, ground 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, ground 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2 teaspoons picante pimenton (or regular paprika)   PROCEDURE   Bring tomatoes to a boil over medium heat and reduce to low heat. Add remaining ingredients as they are prepared, stirring as necessary. Simmer approximately 2 hours, adding water if the mixture becomes too thick. The reduced mixture should be approximately one quart in volume. Chill in refrigerator overnight and process to desired consistency.   At first taste, this salsa hits you with 9 rounds of jalapeno, then kisses you with the garlic. Once that’s done, it just plain tastes good. 5:23:44 AM    comment []