Links posted in August 2009
August 28, 2009
Chimps falling down and eating boogers! If you like to watch those things then you may enjoy this video of chimpanzee outtakes I made at my company. This is what I call "work"
August 18, 2009
A friend from high school edits this website, I figure y'all would enjoy. Enjoy.
August 11, 2009
While I ate my Trader Joe's frozen burrito for lunch, I read a great NY Times Magazine article by Michael Pollan, "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch". Pollan discusses the decline of cooking in the American household and how cooking shows are somewhat at fault. Prime time cooking shows are all about cooking as a spectator sport, and not about turning off the tv and getting into the kitchen. He also discusses a link between obesity rates and the time spent cooking. If the only way to get a cookie is to bake it yourself, you are less likely to eat it. So the food industry is also to blame for making all yummy, bad for you food so cheap and easily available.
In theory I am not in the norm since all the food network shows I've watched have inspired me to cook more and quite a few of our favorite recipes came from Emeril Lagasse, Guy Fieri, and Rachel Ray. There's something gratifying about accomplishing at least one major feat in the day. But now that we've added a baby into the mix, we have a lot less time and we are tending to have fewer steps in our cooking. We would love to eat healthier and even make our baby's food. But we are just so pressed for time nowadays.
Anyway, it's a good read. Enjoy.
August 10, 2009
In the midst of this editorial from a conservative attacking health care reform, there is this gem:
One year in perfect health gets you one point. Deductions are taken for blindness, for being in a wheelchair and so on.
The more points you have, the more your life is considered worth saving, and the likelier you are to get care.
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
Great fact-checking there, guys!
Thanks to Top Chef, I know all about this apparent movement in food culture called "molecular gastronomy" which mostly entails using a little science about how food processes work to create unexpected tastes and textures that really hadn't been explored before. Or, to most people, it probably just means "foam" because that is mostly how it was used.
Anyway, I came across the very stimulating blog Cooking Issues run by some chefs at the French Culinary Institute in NYC. Their interests range far and wide but the topics never fail to be interesting. They answer questions like "What is the best apple to use for cider?" by going to a university/government orchard and trying 200 varieties. They answer questions like "Why do the parts of the cocktail shaker stick together?" by (gasp!) doing math...and then an experiment to see how close the math was. They ask "What can you do with a centrifuge (and which one should I buy?)" and then do a bunch of stuff with a centrifuge. Oh yeah, also foam.
August 04, 2009
August 02, 2009
Today was the final day of the World Swimming Championships in Rome and the biggest stories were one dude's suit letting him down and Phelps crushing Cavic in the rematch of the 100m fly that you may remember from Beijing 2008. The most interesting sideline, however, has to be the decision by the world swimming authority to ban most of the new high-tech suits starting next year. (Indeed, part of the Phelps/Cavic drama was when Cavic said Phelps should get the newest 100% polyurethane suit if he wanted to win. Guess it doesn't make the difference in every case.) As a result, world records set at this event are expected to stand for a very long time once swimmers lose full body synthetic suits.
This is unprecendented in sports, as far as I know. Too many records have fallen in the last few years and people have started to feel it devalues athetic ability over simply having the newest and greatest suit. But hasn't this been happening in almost every sport? I'm certain that every year sees new shoes, kayaks, bicycles, etc.... will any other sports follow suit (ha!) and ban further innovation? (By the way, I'm sort of for this announcement. It seems weird to me that every world wide swim meet breaks almost every event's record. Shouldn't it be harder to break than that?)