Aces Full of Links

Rosemary Garlic Roasted Potatoes

It’s not hard to roast potatoes. Essentially, you toss them in a little oil, put them on a pan, stick them in a hot oven, and they roast. Check them once in a while for doneness, turn them so they cook evenly, salt and pepper them and you have roasted potatoes.

However, sometimes they come out better than other times, so it makes sense to write down the recipe so that it is repeatable. I worked from a recipe for 4 servings as a side dish, and it called for 2 lbs. of potatoes. I had 3 lbs. in the pantry, and we really like our potatoes, so this recipe will feed 6 people a side-dish portion or 4 people a little more with a bit left over. Leftovers = good.

While I didn’t have fresh rosemary, I had some frozen, left over from when we had a rosemary bush in the yard. This reminds me that we’ll have to plant one again this year.

Rosemary Garlic Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients

• 3 pounds of Red Bliss potatoes, scrubbed.
• 4.5 Tablespoons olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• 3 Tablespoons of fresh rosemary, chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic

Equipment

• large bowl
• aluminum foil
• large roasting pan

Turn the oven to 425 F. While it heats, halve the potatoes and cut them into 3/4” wedges. The wedge shape is key and gives you two sides to roast against the pan.

In a large bowl, toss the potatoes in the oil, and add salt and pepper generously.

Spread the potatoes in the roasting pan. If they cannot all be arranged flat in the pan, you’ll need to arrange them in 2 pans.

Cover the pan securely with aluminum foil. This will allow the potatoes to steam and cook through before we roast them.

Place them in the oven for 20 minutes.

During that time, chop the rosemary and put aside. Chop the garlic, then crush into a paste with the side of a knife and a little salt (just over 1/8 tsp). Spread the garlic paste in the bowl.

After the 20 minutes are up, remove the foil from the roasting pan and roast for another 15 minutes.

Remove the pan and flip all the wedges to their other side. Replace pan in oven for another 7 minutes.

Sprinkle the chopped rosemary over the potatoes. Replace in the oven until the skins look wrinkly and roasted about 3-5 minutes.

Remove the pan and transfer the potatoes to the bowl. Toss the potatoes to coat with the garlic. Serve immediately.

Enjoy.

If the No Votes Continue, Help Will Not Come

When Republicans decided to vote “no” on everything, I could see early on that their obstructionism was designed to make certain that Obama would fail to help the country. When Republicans heard me say these things, that there was a desire for the president to fail, they said I was misinterpreting. They said Republicans had valid concerns about issues like Health Care. Meanwhile, Democrats bargained away issue after issue in favor of conservative concerns. Only once in the entire process did they get a single Republican vote out of it, despite over a hundred Republican amendments to bills being considered before Congress.

If there was any doubt, you could see in the State of the Union audience that, until the president called them out on it, Republicans were sitting on their hands when applause accompanied fiscally conservative policies.

This is not an argument over fiscal conservatism or fiscal liberalism. This is an extended temper tantrum while the country is experiencing an economic Katrina. And if this continues when the super-majority is gone, it will absolutely represent an abdication of leadership responsibility during a time of crisis. It will represent the elevation of politics over your interests.

The evidence is no longer just “who was clapping at the State of the Union and who was not.” Republicans are voting “no” on proposals very similar to fiscal discipline proposals they supported before Obama was in office. A perfect example is this law just passed that would require that any new spending measure must be accompanied by funds that cover it, known popularly as “pay-go.”

Senate Democrats voted to adopt statutory pay-go rules for legislative business on Thursday, in what party leaders described as an affirmation of their commitment to budgetary discipline.

They received no Republican votes.

[…]Four Republican senators who opposed the measure on Thursday voted for nearly an identical measure in 2006.

Earlier this week, five Senate Republicans withdrew their co-sponsorships and support for a committee on debt-reduction, after loudly complaining about the debt.

Does this make sense to you? Do you think they should keep voting “no” hoping things get worse before the 2010 elections? Perhaps they can keep on doing it until 2012. If you’re a Republican, ask Republicans to engage in governing again. It’s the only way things will improve. And clearly they wouldn’t listen to me.

Thug Journalism

Remember the whole Acorn brouhaha last summer, stirred up by the questionable journalism tactics of James O’Keefe and his troupe of actors? It turns out he has less regard for journalism and the law than even previously thought.

New York Times is reporting: “After Arrest, Provocateur’s Tactics Questioned.” He was arrested trying to tamper with the phone system at Senator Mary L. Landrieu’s district office. It’s not yet been revealed what the nature of this tampering was, or whether they can prove there was wiretapping involved, but the fellow has definitely stepped into a mess that calls not only his tactics, but the trustworthiness of his journalism into question. Perhaps acting like a shock radio jock and putting it all in print is not the path to journalistic integrity after all.

This latest transgression is bad enough that prominent conservative movement media folk are distancing themselves from his recent work after cashing large paychecks last summer riding the wake of his Acorn story and generalizing wildly on it, weaving scary liberal boogieman campfire stories.

Campus Republicans can be an angry bunch, but they That NYT story reveals O’Keefe’s narrow view of journalism:

“James always said, ‘Journalism is putting a camera in someone’s face until they do something stupid,’ ” said Cain Barry, who worked with Mr. O’Keefe at The Centurion, a conservative publication at Rutgers, until Mr. O’Keefe graduated in 2006. “A lot of people wanted to follow what he did.”

In this case, nobody even had to put a camera in the guy’s face before he did something really stupid. We just had to wait a few months.

Health Office and Stuff

What’s up with me? I’ve recently gone on antibiotics to defeat a nasty sinus infection. I exhausted myself so much during the semester that during break I had an on and off respiratory infection (a cold) which became a sinus problem. Yuck! Thank goodness for antibiotics. I’ll be well by the time the semester starts (Tuesday).

One problem, though: the doctor told me my blood pressure was high. I suspect it’s because of the illness and the cold medications. This has happened to me before. Only weeks ago I had my yearly, and my blood pressure was fine then. But when I get sick and take Sudafed, up the blood pressure goes.

I was advised to get mine re-checked after a few days. I was on campus today to drop off some student paperwork. It’s the sort of paperwork that you have to drop off, then return the next day to pick up so you can walk about 10 yards down the hall to hand someone else. No, they cannot inter-office mail it there for you.

Since I was on campus, I called the Health Office to see if they would take my blood pressure. I told them I was an employee.

“No,” I was informed. “We’re not licensed for that.”

Not licensed to take my blood pressure?

“Not licensed to treat employees. Only students.”

Oh! I’m a full-time student as well.

“Well that’s different! I didn’t know you were a student.”

That’s why I told you.

“We can treat students, but we don’t begin treating people until Monday.” (When classes start)

Ah. So not actually different in a practical sense.

So I didn’t get my blood pressure taken. Why didn’t she tell me they were closed right at first? I guess she wanted me to know they don’t treat employees. After talking to Ryan later, I recalled that they certainly do treat employees. They give flu shots. Why they can give a flu shot but not take my blood pressure I can’t imagine.

They probably make you sign a waiver for the flu shot. I would willingly sign a waiver for the blood pressure measurement. It’s the usual only-barely-makes-sense-if-at-all policy of the university.

So, I’ll probably just go to the town nurse next week, or stick my arm in one of those machines at the Stop & Shop like I did last time they told me my blood pressure was too high.

Blog Neglect

I have sorely neglected my blog, of late. I hope to be a little better this year, even with classes. Of course, by now anyone who was accustomed to coming here and reading regular updates has probably taken me off his list of frequent reads.

That’s OK, the blog is partly for my own catharsis and the posts get cross-posted to Facebook, so they’ll get some exposure. I think I get more discussion on blog posts there than I do here anyhow.

At the very least, I’m sure I can muster some occasional griping…

Piña Colada Banana Smoothie

Ryan and I met at 5 Guys this week to discuss our collaboration on a new course we will be proposing at the university. Next door is a Tropical Smoothie Cafe’ which has gotten his attention lately with their peanut butter cup smoothie. I decided to indulge in their version of the Piña Colada - the Tropi-Colada Smoothie. It was pretty awesome. They have many different flavors to choose from; it’s a smoothie-lover’s paradise.

However, when I’m stuck hope on a rainy day, and I have lots of homework to do, I NEED MY SMOOTHIES. I have to make them myself. Making my own version of this smoothie was not all that difficult, so until Tripical Smoothie Cafe delivers, I’ll be making these for myself.

Piña Colada Banana Smoothie

• 2 oz coconut milk
• 6 ice cubes
• 1 frozen banana, chunked
• 6 oz of pineapple juice (a 6 oz can, for example)
• 10 chunks of frozen pineapple
• 2/3 cup of nonfat vanilla yogurt
• 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp coconut extract (or imitation)
• 2 tsp dried egg whites (or approx 3 Tbsp pasteurized egg whites or egg substitute)
  

Place all the above ingredients in a good blender. Blend continuously on a medium speed for 10 seconds and then pulse 5 times for a half second each. Repeat 4 times. Or use whatever method your blender recommends for smoothies.

Makes enough for 2 smoothies.

The last 2 ingredients are optional. The egg whites fluff up the smoothie for a better texture. Egg substitute is egg whites, essentially.

If you buy a can of coconut milk, put the remaining liquid in an ice cube tray. Once frozen, transfer the cubes into a freezer bag and use them any time you want a smoothie. Ice cubes are usually around 1 ounce.

Make sure you peel your bananas before freezing them. Buy extra bananas and as they start to get too ripe, throw them in a freezer bag for your next smoothie.

Highlighter Raw Data

Have not done any analysis on that highlighter survey data, but here is the raw data from the survey, if you’re interested:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tytFhIuDnNbqQ5cAlYIffUA&output=html

Analysis to come at some point.

Please Take My Highlighter Survey

Won’t you please take my survey about highlighter colors?

No, I’m not doing formal research on highlighters. This is just for fun and because it’s easy to do in Google Forms. But I am also curious.

Facebook Group Hysteria

Facebook is a place where you can join groups to tell people about things you like and dislike, things that you want and want to avoid. But group-joining is sometimes more than that. Facebook groups sometimes seek to cause change, usually by promising some effect for some critical number of followers. Witness these real Facebook groups:

If this group Reaches 500,000 members I will name my son Batman

Think of the children!

For Every 1,000 that join this group I will donate $1 for Darfur.

It’s a worthy cause (er, what was the specific charity again) but I think my clicks are worth more than a tenth of a penny!

I love JESUS! If you love JESUS join this group.

Wait - you wouldn’t be exploiting people’s religious beliefs just to see how many people will join your group, would you? No.

If a billion people join this group Mark is allowed to get a Labrador

I dunno, Leah. If you don’t want Mark to get that Labrador, you might want to set the goal a little higher than a sixth of the world population.

Facebook: SWITCH BACK TO THE OLD NEWS FEED!!!

As far as Internet emphasis goes, three exclamation points is not all that many; however I’m pretty sure this cause doesn’t even warrant that many.

Here are some groups that have yet to be created, but they are clearly inevitable:

• If 5 people join this group, my wife will get off the couch and get me a beer
• For every pi people who join this group, I will donate the square root of negative one dollars to mathematics education
• If 666 people join this group, the Lord of Darkness will trade your souls for my 15 minutes of fame on a reality TV show
• If billions of people join this group, McDonald’s will bring back the McDLT!!!!!!!!!!!!
• JOIN THIS GROUP IF YOU DON’T WANT ME TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE
• If this group reaches 3,000,000 people, unicorns will be real

That Song Must Die 10

I have to knock the balloon boy story off the top of my blog. What better way to do this than with a new “That Song Must Die!”

But… oh no! One of these songs is growing on me!

1) “It’s Me, Bitches”

This might actually be a decent song if it weren’t for the singing/rapping. And the weird whooooooop! noise. Which means I guess I think the drums are OK. Not safe for work language in this one. Don’t people get bored with this stuff. “It’s me, bitches” is essentially a rap version of “Pop goes the weasel.” It even has a kid dancing. To profanity. Charming!

2) Take U to Da Movies

What the…? If you listen to just one Sudanese rapper today, listen to this one. BANGS is his name, though he inexplicably does not wear them in his hairstyle. There is something compelling about the innocent title and refrain, and the electronic tune played on a $20 Casio keyboard from 1983.

Maybe I’ve been working too hard, but now I feel like a trip to the movies. “YEEEAH.” Lord help me, but this song is starting to grow on me. But it is not for me to say which song must die — that’s your job. Tell me: WHICH SONG MUST DIE? And why?

Unrelated Bonus: While searching for “bangs” I found this picture, and I’m pretty sure this girl is made of a space age polymer.

Bad Headlines: People Don’t Even Need Help

My last post expressed my unhappiness with the idea of headlines being chosen by the number of people who click the headline. my opinion on that is that headlines become part of the story and so click-based headlines is not going to get you more accurate headlines, just more sensational headlines.

But bad headlines are not new, and you don’t need robots to create them. I thought I’d post this example from the recent “balloonboy” silliness.

Sheriff: No indication balloon ordeal was hoax

That’s the headline.

Here’s what it says in the story:

The sheriff’s office said it does not believe at this point that the balloon episode was a stunt, but investigators planned to question the family again Saturday.

“The sheriff’s office doesn’t believe” is different from “no evidence.” The sheriff has a responsibility to be very conservative in his accusations. He may find some scant evidence but find it is not enough to move forward with, in which case he would make a statement such as you see here. And perhaps follow up with some more questions. (The additional questions certainly indicate he still believes there is a possibility it was a hoax)

Heck — people have already seen plenty of evidence that satisfies a much lower criteria than law enforcement must meet. The father is an attention-seeking jerk. The parents are willing to put the whole family on TV hours after this ordeal, waking the kids up at some ungodly hour in the morning mountain time to get on a nationwide morning show. They let their kid vomit on national TV and don’t ask to stop the interview; the interviewer had to suggest it. The kid keeps referring to everything as being “for a show” — indicating that this instruction came from his parents. And then there’s the possibility that the family called the media as well at 911.

There is definitely some evidence that it was a hoax. Enough evidence to prosecute? I don’t think so. But indications? Certainly. The man has an absurd lack of judgment and is an attention-seeker. That’s not evidence, but it’s enough for people to judge him harshly. And I don’t think that judgment is unfair.

The headline is in conflict with the facts (and even the story itself). Considering the headline as part of the story, the story is self-contradictory. And the least accurate part is in giant, red type.

It may well be that “Sheriff doesn’t believe balloon ordeal was hoax” is less compelling than “Sheriff: No indication balloon ordeal was hoax.” But, so what? Well, it is a big deal if it means the difference between your story getting clicked and you getting paid.

Is this the tip of an iceberg? I’ve always taught the kids that commercials were essentially institutionalized (and adult-approved) lying for the sake of making money. But what happens as these principles are applied to our information sources? I guess we know what happens: trading accuracy for dollars becomes a science and sensationalism wins.

Accuracy and your brain lose.

Argue, if you like, that the truth can still be discerned from this story. Fine. Then we can talk about percentages of people who are able to come away with an accurate message, or about the the trade-off being increased cognitive load required to make the news useful vs. dollars. In the latter case, this would be the informational version of shrinking the contents of a box of cereal as a sneaky way to raise the price of the cereal.

I think it’s no good.

Robots Ate Your Brain: Marketing and Headlines

This Fast Company article proves that the humans have given up and are going to allow the robots programmed by marketing experts to eat our brains. It’s about The Huffngton Post using an algorithm to decide what headlines stories will run with.

The idea is simple; for the first five minutes that a story is posted, two separate headlines are randomly displayed to readers. the one that gets the most clickthroughs is considered the better headline, and so that one is shown to all the readers after that.

It’s true, a headline is important for bringing readers in. A headline is also important to framing an article and informing people who are just browsing the headlines.

Is optimizing clickthroughs the same as optimizing the value to the reader? Reader value is in how quickly and accurately the headline informs the reader. This algorithm only cares about clicks.

We can guess that what gets people to click: sensationalism. Subtly sacrificing value for attention is one of the ways your world becomes dumbed down, replacing expertise with algorithms. I am not opposed to algorithms that attempt to capture, recreate or enhance expertise, but this one cares nothing about value or meaning.

Apple Butter

My first attempt at canning happened yesterday. I cooked down about 20 apples into 3 pints of what approximates apple butter. It’s really a thick, spiced apple filling. I think it would be excellent spread on shortbread, or heated and placed on top of vanilla ice cream.

In any case, I went to the trouble of canning 6 half-pints of this stuff. Gave them the 10 minute boiling water bath and all. But Maggie is still afraid they would breed botulism, so they’re sitting in the fridge.

They’re flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and a tiny bit of ginger. Sweetened with caramel squares and some brown sugar. It’s tart, strongly apple-flavored and good stuff.

Do Your Disney Research!

I couldn’t help but comment on this New York Times review (from Seth Schiesel) of Dead Space Extraction for the Wii:

You know the Disney theme park rides, like the Haunted Mansion, where you climb into one of those little clamshell contraptions, and it moves along a track while swiveling and tilting to show you different scenes? Well, what if you gave all the riders some sort of paintball-style infrared rifle and put targets to shoot at in each scene? Something along the lines of “Shoot the vampire with the silver bullet before he eats Sally Sue.” […]

I want full credit when such attractions start popping up at amusement parks around the country in the next few years.

Wait, you mean like this?

That would be Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. It’s been around for over a decade.

So I don’t expect credit will be coming your way any time soon, Mr. Schiesel. It’s good for video game reviewers to leave the house once in a while, or even do their research.

You can even download an online game that says it allows you to collaborate with theme park visitors.

Best Spam I’ve Gotten This Year

I got some spam this morning that was non-offensive. It was such a refreshing change from usual spam that I thought I would share it.

From: Mr. Dany

Hi Sir,
How are you.
I make a new bollywood movie and I want a actor. If r u interested please reply me immediately.

Regards
Dany

I don’t want to encourage spammers, but I would love to write this back:

To: Mr. Dany

Hi Sir, right back at you!
I am fine. How are you?
I would love to be in a new Bollywood movie! However, I am a little busy at the moment with school and work. Also, I am nowhere near India, so commuting might be a problem. Other than that, I am pretty keen and so I would wonder if it’s OK if I get back to you on this after June of 2013?

Warmest regards,
James