Long ago I read that families tend to rotate only about 10 recipes, even if the ten change from time to time. So I’ve been working on finding ten or so vegetarian main dishes that I really like as a way of increasing the number of vegetarian meals we eat. I decided to put the ones I am using regularly online. (Not the prettiest interface, but simple and functional like the food – I couldn’t bear the thought of a foodie socnet!).
miscellaneous
Happy New Year
I’m getting a lot of pleasure from growing some veges this summer. The beautiful subtle colours in these red cos lettuces are amazing. The camera only captures some of them.
Crow time
A crow was casting a hopeful eye at our ducks yesterday, and said I thought it was too early for it to be expecting any eggs yet, with spring still some weeks away. This morning, there was the first egg of the season. Crows are most amazing! I brought the egg inside and then managed to drop it on the floor.
Hmmm
Not the best look when you are coming up to 54. So much for mopping the kitchen floor.
Aww, thanks Amy
My dear friend Amy has linked me into Ken Newsome’s experimental rebuilding of his reading list. Thanks, Amy. It’s strange to think its just coming up to 9 years – 9 years! – since I was setting off with such overwhelming excitement and sense of adventure to visit Amy and other online friends in the US. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. These days Amy’s blog is usually the first stop in my daily online reading.
Breakfast reading 5.05
- Turnbull says IPCC report backs government position: The government asserts black is white (again). Breathtaking. Peter Garret, the Opposition Environment Minister, is not hitting back hard enough with things like this. I’m not sure why, because he is articulate and knows his stuff. On present form his predecessor, Anthony Albanese would be better. I was quite impressed with how well Albanese had a handle on global warming before he was replaced.
- Turnbull’s hypocrisy on climate: Ian Dunlop (formerly a senior international oil, gas and coal industry executive; Chair of the Australian Coal Association in 1987-88; and the Australian Greenhouse Office Experts Group on Emissions Trading from 1998-2000) pulls no punches.
- Schwarzenegger signs a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Victoria to share environmental expertise. “Sometimes if the federal government is a little slower than the states are, then we have to step up to the plate and we have to create the leadership. It is common that a lot of times the states provide the leadership and then eventually the federal government picks up with it and carries it on. So, what we are doing basically is in California we want to show the leadership and we want other states to join us in the United States, but also overseas.”
- To treat the dead: An intriguing new theory that after a heart attack people don’t die from irreversible cell damage due to lack of oxygen, but rather from an active biochemical event triggered by the resumption of oxygen supply. The cellular surveillance mechanism cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a cell being reperfused with
oxygen, and triggers the death of the cell. - In a flat world imagination is the key: edited version of a speech by Thomas Friedman (from The New York
Times) to the Sydney Institute. “The world is flat – it has been flattened. We are going from a
world of vertical silos of command and control to a world where value is created horizontally by who you connect and collaborate with… In this new flat world, there is one iron rule of business and one rule only. When The World is Flat, whatever can be done will be done. The only question is will it be done by you or to you.” - Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace: Danah Boyd (2006) looks at how and why kids use MySpace, a welcome voice of reason amid the hyped MSM coverage of MySpace following the tragedy of the Victorian girls. I like her analysis that relates it to public and private space.
Breakfast reading 4.22
- Dickens World will open in May. I wonder how it will pan out? And what the state-of-the-art animatronic show is? Wasn’t there someone developing a virtual world, a la Second Life, based on Dickens, or did I dream it up? I can’t find it on Google.
- Amy gives us an interpretive reading of a 1907 text on novelty, fads and herd mentality. I’m sure I’m one of the ‘social derelicts’! Isn’t it noticeable how patriachal the writing is? Maybe I will record a reciprocal reading from Christina Hardyment’s book Dream Babies: Childcare from Locke to Spock, which traces the fashions in childcare over the last few centuries, based on her theory that ‘what we are told to do with our children is very much a reflection of the times we live in, and the prevailing social and psychological theories’. This book influenced me greatly: I can remember being quite shaken that something as fundamental as how one brings up children could be so deeply subject to fads (and again, often in the past generated by ‘knowledgable’ men), but it’s really worth knowing. I should read some of Hardyment’s newer books, as they look interesting, too.
- Princess Mary of Denmark, (our Mary ;P), has given birth to a daughter. She and Frederick have all the sense, joy and grace that is lacking in the English royals; wouldn’t it be nice if we could swap? His wedding speech was worthy of a Darcy.
Breakfast reading 4.21
- Doctor making her mark: an encouraging piece about a program that is creating awareness and a platform for culture change in attitudes towards women within the Australian Footbal League. A similar program has been implemented by National Rugby League:
KAREN WILLIS: The NRL has said, “We don’t accept violence against women, and we think this is wrong,” and they are a large male dominated organisation who’s stepped up to the mark and said quite clearly, “We will be doing something about this, we will be changing our culture. We will be educating our players. We will be setting protocols in place, and we will do everything we can to stop violence against women within our game.”
- Bush’s Shadow Army: a scary look at the privatization of the military by the US in Iraq. Private contractors are also becoming active domestically.
“Private contractors like Blackwater work outside the scope of the military’s chain of command and can literally do whatever they please without any liability or accountability from the US government,” Katy Helvenston, whose son Scott was one of the Blackwater contractors killed, told the committee. “Therefore, Blackwater can continue accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money from the government without having to answer a single question about its security operators.”
- Australia’s Own Mount Olympus: the discovery of ‘the most amazing rock engraving site in the whole of south-eastern Australia’ in the Wollemi wilderness region of NSW.
Don’t know much biology
Here are three biology-related stories that I have found interesting in the last few days.
Great Turtle Race: up-beat site championing action to save the critically endangered leatherback turtles. The turtles have been tagged and you can monitor online their swim from Costa Rica to The Galapagos Islands. Only 59 turtles came to the beach this year as compared to 1,500 in 1988… shocking! Sand temperature determines the gender ratio in turtle nest: the warmer the sand the more females, the cooler the sand the more males. Bring in global warming… if the sand temperature goes over 89.5 degrees, they will all be female…
Bee Hive Colony Collapse Disorder: A comprehensive run-down on possible causes for the worrying disappearance of bees from hives resulting in deaths of whole hives on a large scale. The suggestion that its likely to be the impact of imidacloprid, a nicotine-based pesticide marketed under the names Admire, Provado, Merit, Marathon and Gaucho, looks more plausible
than most to me. Apparently its designed to make termites disoriented and lose memory, among other things, so maybe it does the same with bees.
G Spot and related matters: The ABC’s Health Report has audio download and transcript of a great interview with Professor Beverly Whipple of the College of Nursing at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She is a pioneer in the scientific study of female sexual physiology and in particular the female orgasm.
