Category: General

Yes, I know. That title could be seriously taken out of context, and yes, I was scarred mentally by seeing Last Tango in Paris in High School, but in this case, I mean that statement as 100% literal. This is a blog post about butter. It might be my most trivial post ever – and it’s got lots of competition for that title.

Butter is nature’s perfect cooking material, it adds flavor from everything from a bacon sandwich to french onion soup… and don’t even try making a butterscotch pie with margarine!

I may love butter, but I’ve taken butter for granted until recently. Less than a year ago, Costco started carrying Kerrygold cheeses from Ireland. They’ve got a couple of subtle but tasty cheeses, especially Dubliner and Blarney Castle. I’m partial to them, and the kids can eat them by the block… which is good because I’d much prefer them to learn to enjoy “real” cheeses rather than processed American cheese.

One day, Costco had Kerrygold Butter, so on a lark I purchased some. It was very good, obviously made from happy cows munching all that green grass in Ireland. I did comparison taste tests between the Irish butter and the standard Costco butter. What I noticed was that the butter tasted basically the same, but without a certain harsh, almost chemical edge. It tasted higher more natural. Since then, we usually use the Irish butter for instances where the buttery flavor needs to shine, but I keep plenty of the “cheap stuff” on hand for cooking bacon and such.

So I mentioned we went to Fresh & Easy the other day, didn’t I? Yes. I’m sure I did. Most of their merchandise is Fresh & Easy branded, but, I was surprised that they carried the Irish butter and more. They also had Lurpak Danish butter and Butter of Parma, Italian butter. We were really well-stocked on butter, but I picked up the Danish butter just to give it a try.

When I got home and I tasted the butter, there was an instant sense of Deja Vu. I was overwhelmingly reminded of Taiwan. As best as I can tell, butter isn’t a natural part of the Taiwanese diet, and their butter all seems to be imported from dairy countries, like Australia and New Zealand. My in-laws purchase Australian butter in a radio-stabalized tin which reminds me more of petroleum hand cleaners used in auto garages than a dairy products. The stuff is awful.

But if you go to a bakery and buy any rolls, breads or garlic breads there’s a unique flavor that I could never really pin down. When you fly on the plane, they give you a roll and a pat of New Zealand butter. It has the same flavor. It’s good, but the taste is unique and one I’ve never tasted in the States.

Until now. The Danish butter is it. I have no idea what the reason is, but we know how the correct butter for attempting to make the various bakery breads from Taiwan.

So, this weekend we went back to try the Italian butter. Now I’m on a world butter tour. Who knows what other great butter flavors I might find?

It’s not the Italian butter. It’s a bit like eating lard. Irene couldn’t even swallow a bite. It cooked up OK for sauteing onions, but I wouldn’t put it on toast.

Why the differences, though?

Technorati Tags: Food

With the weather bordering on the phenomenal, we decided to get out of Phoenix for a day trip up to the Boyce-Thompson Arboretum, some thirty of so miles outside of the Phoenix metro area (depending on where you start measuring.)

Although I’m not particularly interested in botany, I’ve always liked the arboretum. It’s set in a stunning desert environment, along Queen Creek, and is an idyllic place to spend an afternoon. There is even a small picnic area on the grounds so you can take lunch and make a day of it.

On our last trip, before James was born, the statewide drought had rendered Queen Creek completely dry. Although the drought isn’t over, the recent rain and snowfall have the creek running again, and that just adds to garden ambiance of the arboretum.

After we were done at the arboretum, but while were in the area around the town of Superior, we decided to see if you could find any geocaches in the area. Superior is at the base of a cliff known as Apache Leap and above that a plateau known as Oak Flat. Many of the geocaches in the area require getting impractically close to the cliffs (if not actually scaling down them.) With the kids, we tried to identify one or two that would be “easy” to get to. I was only somewhat successful at my choices.

The first cache was easy to find. Located on level ground, not far from an access road, the GPS brought us right to it. This was a “traditional” cache, stored inside an ammo box and it was filled with toys, which delighted the kids no end. We swapped out one of their toys for something in the box, signed the log book and put the cache back in place.

Jazzed on our success, we headed for the next one. I knew we were in trouble when we pulled up. I knew it was on a pullout as you approach the top of Oak Flat along the Queen Creek canyon, but I (wishfully, perhaps) though it would be on the road side, not the opposite side of the creek. The canyon isn’t very deep at that point, but it was too rough for the kids. I proceeded on my own, first climbing down one side, then crossing and beginning to climb up the other side.

The clue indicates that the cache, which is the size of a film can, is located in a rocky crag. The problem is: that’s like placing the cache in a forest and saying it’s “in or near a tree.” Everywhere you look is a rocky crag along the canyon wall. I dug around looking at crag after crag, cautiously checking them for animals, but eventually had to give up. The kids, sitting in the parking lot, had gotten tired, and since the parking lot was busy and the highway next to it was bustling with high-speed traffic, I gave up and returned.

Someday, I shall return to find this one.

Technorati Tags: Arizona, Geocache, GPS

While going through my backlog of unfinished posts, I found this one.

New World’s Hotel/Casino Breaks Ground

Las Vegas, NV Ground was broken today at what some people consider the most ambitious construction project ever undertaken in the 20th century. MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) owners of The Mandalay Bay, Circus Circus, Luxor and other theme-based hotel casinos has begun construction on what will be both the largest hotel in the world and the largest inhabited structure ever built. Stretching for a total of 31 miles, the Great Wall of Nevada hotel will recreate a scaled-down version of the Great Wall of China.

My first thought was, “Wow, why didn’t I post this one? This is too good. What will they have for theme entertainment dinners at the buffet? A re-enactment of Mao’s Great Leap Forward?”

I thought it odd that I hadn’t included in my notes the original source for this article, so I went looking. It doesn’t exist. It’s a complete hoax that I wrote and completely forgot to finish. Pity, I think it would have been a good one.

Technorati Tags: Blog

Apart from being able to laugh at the country western singer, this clip from Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? gives me the perfect opportunity to expound on what scares me about our civilization: celebrities.

I don’t recognize this person in the video, but it would appear she’s some form of celebrity, or she wouldn’t be playing for charity. (Comments on YouTube indicate her name is Kellie Pickler. Never heard of her.)

The problem is, this appearance on TV notwithstanding, there are probably kids who look up to her, perhaps even idolize her. Worse: Want to grow up like her. She puts on a performance here that clearly indicates she’s a candidate for the hypnotic sharks.

Why do people automatically attribute positive attributes to celebrities? Why do people listen to them when they give their opinion on politics or the environment or any number of topics? It’s not like you need any qualifications whatsoever to be a celebrity.

Technorati Tags: Rant

BBC News => Shark ‘kills swimming kangaroo’

A kangaroo met an unlikely death after it bounded into the surf in southern Australia and was mauled by a shark, according to eyewitnesses.

I’ve been watching a fair amount of Australian TV lately, and I’m amazed at how often the subject of sharks snatching animals and people comes up. There was one story about a man swallowed head first, down to his chest, by a great white earlier in the year. Luckily he got out.

Doesn’t sound like Skippy was quite as lucky. Perhaps the shark hypnotized him and lured him out to sea. If so, maybe we’re in luck. If sharks have evolved the ability to hypnotize and lure their prey off land, perhaps we’ll get rid of all the Creationists and most of the Republican candidates for President? They haven’t got nearly the mental power of kangaroos.

Technorati Tags: Australia

I’m of quite mixed emotions about the One Laptop Per Child project. Even in charity there is injustice, so I suppose this might be a good thing, but I can’t help thinking there are better ways to help children.

This article sums up my initial thoughts beautifully.

The Daily Mash => The Daily Mash – AFRICANS DISAPPOINTED TO DISCOVER $100 LAPTOPS ARE NOT FULL OF FOOD

COMMUNITIES across Africa have revealed their disappointment that the new $100 laptops contain no nutritional value.

A bit chewy
The scheme, organised by western technology companies, is designed to give young Africans the chance to play Tetris before their village is burned to the ground.

Meanwhile, as broadband is rolled out across the continent, millions of Africans have been surprised to discover it is a sophisticated communications network rather than a big pipe full of rice.

Fourteen year-old Lizzie Matumba, from Ivory Coast, welcomed the laptop initiative but said the early models did not look very tasty.

Technorati Tags: Commentary, Technology

Speaking of Satan, how’s this for a terrible abuse of technology? I mean, sure, it’s quite a technological achievement, and I can’t think of a better book to make unreadable, but couldn’t they just make it 0.5sq-mm smaller?

BBC News => Bible put on a pinhead-size chip

Researchers in Israel say they have succeeded in putting a version of the Bible on a chip smaller than a pinhead.
Its 300,000 words in Hebrew were inscribed on a silicon surface at the Haifa Institute of Technology.

Scientists say the aim of the project is to increase young people’s interest in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

The record for the smallest copy is held by a Bible measuring 2.8×3.4x1cm (1.1×1.3×0.4in), weighing 11.75g (0.4 ounces) and containing 1,514 pages.

The 0.5sq-mm (0.01sq-in) nano-Bible was written on a silicon surface covered with a thin layer of gold (20nanometres thick – 0.0002mm).

Am I the only one amused by the use of the words “bible” and “pinhead” in the same headline?

Technorati Tags: Loonies, Technology

Seems like we’ve been getting an increasing number of “soft tissue” dinosaur fossils lately. Is it luck? Some improvement in the way fossils are found? Or is it Satan just trying harder trick people into believing in evolution?

BBC News => Flesh wound reveals dino secrets

A fossil unearthed in China has given scientists a rare glimpse of what dinosaurs were like in the flesh.

The plant-eating Psittacosaurus had a thick layer of shark-like skin hidden under scales or feathers.

Palaeontologists believe this tough outer coating supported the dinosaur’s organs and protected it from predators.

Tooth marks suggest the dinosaur was torn open by a scavenger, giving a unique insight into their biology, 100 million years after this one’s death.

Technorati Tags: Dinosaur, Dinosaurs, Paleontology, Science

Back in ’07, I started a “year in review” blog post, and promptly failed to finish it.

While working on it, I discovered a whole bunch of other posts I never finished. Guess it’s time to clean house.

Technorati Tags: Blog

A brief bit of background… I’ve been using a GPS since 1995, when I purchased a (now) vintage old Garmin GPS 40 for my father.

I had been convinced for some time that I really wanted one and, equally, was convinced that I had no practical use for it. I rarely got the opportunity to go hiking and car navigation GPSes were still the thing of science fiction. On the other hand, I was positive that my father, who, at that time, went camping and hiking some 25 weeks out of the year, was a perfect candidate for one.

The problem: He wasn’t at all convinced they had any use.

After several attempts, over several months, to talk about the technology and get my dad interest had completely failed, I decided to buy him one, anyway. I figured if he decided he didn’t like it, I’d keep it. After he took the GPS out for his first trip, there was no chance I was going to get to keep it.

My dad can be stubborn, but he’ll usually admit when he’s wrong (except about global warming), and he came back from the first trip raving about how much fun it was to have a GPS. He wouldn’t dream of going out to the woods without it anymore.

I could hardly have chosen and more appreciated or successful birthday gift for me father. Picking gifts for my father is historically almost impossible to get right. I’ve only ever gotten him three gifts that I genuinely feel he’s enthused after (Two GPSes and one Apple Mac) so I was pleased with his reaction, but I still didn’t have my own GPS.

In 2000, I purchased a Garmin eTrex for my father to replace the aging GPS 40. The eTrex was still a basic unit, but expanded to a 12-channel receiver (up from the GPS 40’s 8 channel receiver.) The improvement in signal acquisition and accuracy was as dramatic as night and day.

In 2001, I took this newer unit with us to Japan and Taiwan and I loved it. It’s really a comfort in a place like Japan where we had no knowledge of the area, no locals to help up and only my incompetent Japanese skills and my wife’s ability to read Chinese characters. Even if it is miles and miles away, there’s something reassuring about having a “fix” on your hotel, or the subway station you arrived at.

I’ve logged quite a few hours using both my dad’s GPSes over the years, but they were both “basic” units without any of the cooler bells & whistles available on higher end models. If I was ever going to get a GPS of my own, I had different requirements than my dad…

[Stay tuned for part two.]

Technorati Tags: GPS, Technology