Polite Musings from a Timid Observer

Space Photography on a balloon

2009-09-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

This is one of the coolest things I've read about in a long time.

a bigger threat than China

2009-08-19T08:37:00.001-07:00

Taiwan's president said climate change presents a bigger threat to the island than China.

where I write

2009-08-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

An interesting collection of authors' workspaces. It's interesting that half of the authors have cats.

Alaskan blob

2009-07-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

I hope Monsterquest is moving on this.

Islam's blind spot

2009-07-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

It's interesting that only Muslims are only outraged about their fellow brethrens killed in the West while those who died in ethnic conflicts outside of Europe or the Middle East like India or China were ignored.

Cap-n-Trade

2009-06-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

Nate Silver's take on the prospect of last week's Climate Change Bill passing the Senate.

biodegradable plastics

2009-06-16T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is even cooler than Homer Simpson's aerodynamic nuclear power plant.

Iranian election fraud

2009-06-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Nate Silver applied his statistical mojo to the recent Iranian elections results and found tons of anomalies.

Final Destination

2009-06-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

This reads like the plot of that movie.

lost in transition

2009-06-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

I hope some thing can be done for these people.

research showed that cats contribute little to human society

2009-05-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

Further evidence that it is the cat who domesticated men than the other way around.

pretty pictures from Jamaica

2009-05-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

First, the bizarre food portion.
Jamaica was not as big of a haven for bizarre food as I thought. Their national dish, Ackee and Saltfish, is basically salted cod sauteed with a local fruit called ackee. It looks like scrambled eggs with mushrooms. The other famous Jamaican dish is the jerk barbecue, which is meat broiled over a type of wood. For some reason chicken is a lot cheaper in Jamaica than pork or beef.

One of the things that I found to be unusual is this drink I found in the local grocery store. It tastes like peanut butter with milk.

Another mild oddity I found is this bag of treats. It's salty and tastes more like potato chips than bananas. If you've eaten in a Brazilian restaurants before and had some of the fried plantains, that's what you can expect.

One of the common sights on a Jamaican beaches looks like this little fella. Don't worry. We didn't eat it.

The place we went to is called Montego Bay. It is the second largest city in Jamaica. As you can see from this hilltop view, that's not saying much.

However, there are pretty scenery to be found in Montego Bay. Here's a view from the famous Rose Hall Great House, home of the famous White Witch.

Here's a portrait of the famous White Witch Annie Palmer.

All in all, I found Jamaica to be a beautiful country with a fascinating history and interesting people. Its forest is rich in flora but somewhat limited in fauna. The only endemic bird species are the size of hummingbirds and the largest native mammal is a bat. Would I go back? Maybe in twenty years when I've visited Costa Rica and most of the major islands in the Caribbeans.

back from Jamaica

2009-05-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

I was literally swimming with the dolphins yesterday morning in Jamaica, and a mere six hours later, I'm back in from of my home office replenishing my Kindle. I love the 21st Century.

Move to India or lose your job

2009-05-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

I know I joked about this before but I didn't know that people are actually doing it.

Afghanistan's pig quarantined

2009-05-05T18:05:00.001-07:00

It's not a grammatical error. There is just the one pig in all of Afghanistan.

Age discrimination in IT

2009-04-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Yet another article about out of work senior programmers. This article didn't even take into account competition from H1B Visa holders. Maybe it's time to brush up on my Hindi and move to Bangalore :) I always liked Indian food.

Patient Zero

2009-04-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/28/swine.flu/index.html

leaving the fold

2009-04-23T00:32:00.000-07:00

A powerful story from the man who left the most hated family in America.

What stress test

2009-04-22T11:27:00.001-07:00

By now we've all heard about the so-called "stress tests" that the large banks will be put to. It turns out that the government doesn't really do anything to "stress" the banks, except for the psychological pressure. The test is more like an audit where regulators and bank officers assess the assets the banks have to determine whether it's enough to cover for contingencies like an economic downturn, large than expected defaults on loans, etc. I thought the regulators would do things like reducing the money supply or change the deposit rules to put pressure on the banks, like they would in the engineering world if they want to test something.

The next bestseller?

2009-04-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is the book that Hugo Chavez gave President Obama.

should've done something with my cat pictures

2009-04-18T20:43:00.001-07:00

It seems that it doesn't take much to get a book deal these days.

Keith Olbermann went after Obama on torture

2009-04-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

I wish Obama would listen to Keith more than that Rick Santelli guy.

Colbert got shafted

2009-04-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

NASA won't name a room in the International Space Station after him. Instead it will name a treadmill after him.

Creationist science fair

2009-04-14T00:43:00.000-07:00

I should've done this instead of AP Chemistry. I also need to show the result of the second place winner in the middle school level to my wife.

volunteer coast guards?

2009-04-13T07:41:00.003-07:00

The Somali pirates' side of the story. http://www.infowars.com/you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates/

My life with Kindle 2

2009-04-12T14:57:00.001-07:00

It's been a month since I got my Kindle 2 and I think I know enough about it now to assess its impact. Based on what I know about the Kindle and the Sony ebook reader my opinion is that while there's a market for them ebook readers will not revolutionize the way we read.

One of the first things that struck me about the Kindle 2 was how small and light it was. The screen area is the size of a paperback novel, while the keyboard buttons are about half the size of a typical cell phone. The screen is black and white, and doesn't always display charts, graphs, and pictures well. The words are easy enough on the eyes, but the lack of a built-in reading light can be restrictive.

I'll leave the technical reviews to the professionals, and instead talk about how the Kindle has changed my reading habit. The first thing I did is to load the Kindle with books that I would normally read. I added Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Suze Orman's Action Plan, a subscription to The Atlantic and Paul Krugman's blog. I also added books that I always wanted to read but didn't buy because I don't think I have either the time or the space for them: the collected works of Chekhov, a collection of Rumi's poetry, short stories by HP Lovecraft, Plutarch's Lives, and the Tolstoy novella Death of Ivan Ilych. In the past month I was able to finish all of the works in the first category and worked halfway through the second group.

I doubt I could've made that much progress on paper. Is it because the novelty factor? I don't think so. I'm not really a gadget guy and rarely tries something just because it's new. The main advantages of reading on the Kindle is that it is lighter and easier to hold than many books, so maybe there's an ergonomic benefit. It is also a lot easier to switch between different books when you're ready to take a break from the book you're reading now. For me, the act of putting down a book and picking up another presents a sort of psychological barrier that sometimes keeps me from continuing to read. So, even though I would spend the same amount of time reading a piece, about twenty minutes, on the Kindle I am more likely to switch to another text with two clicks of the keyboard, rather than going to sleep or switching on the tv like I would do before.

While the Kindle has dramatically increased my reading time and speed, I don't see it as having the same impact on literacy as inventions like the paper or the printing press. First, most people read their news online nowadays. The Kindle is not likely to become the premier tool for news reading because its lack of color and limited capability to show pictures. Reading Newsweek without pictures is just not the same. The difficulty in making notes and highlights in the text in Kindle is another problem that will keep it from replacing books. If you read strictly fiction then that's probably not a big issue. The impact of this device on the publishing industry is hard to anticipate, and I'm also not sure how the Kindle can fit into the book tour culture.

Until the technical issues are straightened out and the economics of ebook publishing becomes mature, the Kindle is probably going to remain a niche product.

from House to the White House

2009-04-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

After White Castle and Guantanamo, it looks like Kumar is going to the White House.

the last post in a long time

2009-04-01T10:11:00.001-07:00

Dear readers, I have an important piece of news that's both good and bad. Let's start with the good part.

Recently I submitted an essay to the This I Believe segment ran by KUHF, the Houston affiliate of NPR. It was aired in February. Apparently, the good folks at KPFT Pacifica Radio, Houston liked my piece so much that they offered me a show. It's going to be a weekly program that runs on Thursday evenings between 7 and 8 PM.

I don't have a title for this show yet, but I told them it's going to be like This American Life, except it's for hyphenated Americans. I've long felt that the show I just mentioned, while entertaining and informative in its own way, does not truly represent America. There are lots of us who do not have two masters degrees, like David Sedaris, or read international news before local news. People who speak English with an accent, like American Idol, and read only manuals. I want to give my bully pulpit to this vast and underrepresented segment of America.

Now for the bad part. Since it takes a lot of time to prepare for a weekly show, even if it's only one hour long, I will have to leave my day job and cut back on writing for this forum. The next addition to this blog is going to be a donations box as Pacifica doesn't really pay me enough for food and mortgage.

It's been fun and I hope to talk to all of you on air soon.

out of touch

2009-03-31T20:08:00.000-07:00

Last week I heard from more than one sources (Bill Maher and somewhere else) that Cap-N-Trade is not gonna happen this year. Then I saw this on the news. I should check and see what the professional pundits have to say about this.

Another nominee for the Nobel Prize for Evil

2009-03-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

This guy is apparently the brain behind the whole financial crisis. The article claimed that to hold him responsible is like holding Albert Einstein responsible for nuclear weapons, but I think a more apt comparison is to Robert Oppenheimer. After all, he didn't publish this paper and then disappear, but chose to stay in the financial industry to promote a new way of doing things.

capsule film review - Watchmen

2009-03-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

Watchmen is a lavish, spectacular, and hugely entertaining film about the secret lives of costumed vigilantes. A deconstruction of the super hero, it's a forceful reminder that everything comes with a price. It's good to know that Hollywood still knows how to make great movies.

Houston BAPS Mandir

2009-03-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

Houston finally got some culture, although it came half way across the world from India. The Houston BAPS Mandir (temple) is the first temple in North America built using traditional Hindu design. The temple itself is not exactly open to the public; you need to arrange for a tour if you want to go inside. But there's an Indian grocery and cafeteria nearby where they serve vegetarian fare, and a museum of Indian culture next door.

I thought some of the exhibits inside the museum made claims of questionable authenticity. For example, it said that the first human organ transplant was done in India over 2600 years ago. I came home and checked online for verification, and what do you know it was true. Although I think it should've said autotransplant of the skin from forehead to nose, which sounds a lot more likely than a heart or liver transplant.

1/3 of China's greenhouse emission caused by the West

2009-03-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-pasternack/one-third-of-chinas-co2-e_b_169628.html

books that make you dumb

2009-03-02T15:47:00.000-08:00

I thought Atlas Shrugged would rank lower on this list. I swear I lost at least 10 IQ points reading that book.

another idea stolen

2009-03-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

I had witnesses who's willing to swear that I had ideas for websites like these.

Just finished

2009-03-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

Thomas Fridman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded. All in all a good read, but I think I waited too long to finish this one. I remember I first started reading this back in December, before Christmas. It's been so long that I have forgotten a lot of the details in the first third of the book.

In many ways, this book summarized what I read about the Green movement from other sources. Too much of the Green movement focused on the 10 little things that most of us can do to save the Earth, but was pretty deficient when it comes to paying the real cost. Too often we're treated like children by our leaders on this issue.

Friedman also did a great job exploring the incidental issues relating to climate change, like the geopolitical consequences of our addiction to oil. What this book can use more of is solutions. Friedman emphasized that political leadership is needed to create impact on this issue, but devoted very few pages to the politics of climate change. For example, the debate on whether a carbon cap and trade regime is better than an across the board Carbon Tax got only two paragraphs.

Bobby Jindal's unnecessary lie

2009-02-25T11:11:00.000-08:00

When will politicians learn to stop giving themselves leading roles in the stories they tell? The real story would've made his point just as well as the revised version he told.

late Oscar update

2009-02-23T21:01:00.000-08:00

I did manage to see all 5 best picture nominees this year. The last one I saw was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which I only managed to see on Sunday afternoon. The movie ended less than an hour before the start of the award ceremony. It's close, but a goal met is a goal met, right?

I'm not that crazy about the movie. David Fincher's movies tend to be about ideas rather than about people. His gift is in his visual flair and nimble editing, and given the right material he can make great movies. Films like Seven and Fight Club are among my favorites. However, his style is just not a good fit for the material in Benjamin Button.

I have not read the original short story, but I can imagine that the author intended to explore the transitory nature of life through the central conceit of a man aging backwards. Whether we're aging forwards or backwards, we are always changing and how difficult is it to stay connected with the people in our lives when change is a given? The problem with Benjamin Button is that the eponymous character didn't change much through the movie. In fact, he never developed anything resembling a real personality. He is a cipher that's used to showcase life in New Orleans in the 20th century. This device worked well in Forest Gump because Gump is a likable guy whom the audience can root for, but it's hard to give a damn about someone who likes to drink and hang out with women and friends but otherwise has no interests.

I would put this movie below the other nominees except for The Reader which I liked even less.

Murakami in Israel

2009-02-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite authors has this to say when he was in Israel accepting a literary award.

Early movie review

2009-02-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

I went to an early screening of I Love You, Man last night. It's pretty much par for the course compared to other recent Paul Rudd/Jason Stegl collaborations. I would put it above Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall but slightly below Knocked Up. The first half is as brilliantly hilarious as The 40 Year Old Virgin's, but the second half is plagued by too many romantic comedy cliches.

All in all, an enthusiastic two-thumbs up for those who like to laugh out loud during movies.

Honor killing or domestic violence?

2009-02-17T15:38:00.001-08:00

I'm with "Faux New" on this one. Most of the mainstream articles I read about this story either downplayed the religious angle or ignored it completely.

AiiYahhh

2009-02-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

A woman missed her flight in Hong Kong and the rest if viral history. Loved the AiiYahh's at 1:30.

Was there a German Resistance?

2009-02-16T17:15:00.000-08:00

I just saw Sophie Scholl: The Last Days over the weekend and was somewhat disappointed. It's not that the movie's not well made and the story's not compelling, but because the film's been touted as the best about German Resistance to the Nazi Regime. I've even heard of the name of this particular group, which calls itself the White Rose.

So, what kind of heroic activities does this most well known of the Anti-Nazi groups engage in? why, printing pamphlets, of course. The entire "movement", as far as I can tell from the film, is about seven college students and one professor who wrote, printed, and distributed pamphlets (in secret) about the nefarious deeds of the Nazi government. One can almost dismiss the whole thing as a prank by one of today's fringe group (like PETA, for example), except for the fast that every last one of the them were executed by gullotine for the act of printing and distributing pamphlets.

However ineffective the White Rose group was, its members still showed more bravery than the conspirators in The Valkyrie; at least the players in Valkyrie were army generals who commanded valuable military assets. In a totalitarian society that keeps track of how many stamps you buy and registers every typewriter in existence, it is extremely dangerous to engage in covert printing operations. Even if the movement's entirely successful, its impact is bound to be minimal, as the offending pamphlets were quickly confiscated and the people who could've read them are powerless students anyway. These people were not in a position to make a difference, and therefore under no moral obligation to act, yet they decided to do so even in the face of certain death.

For every one of the symbolic gestures of resistance that's recorded, I'll bet at least two are forgotten. How can one sustain the belief that what you do is worthwhile, knowing that most of it will be unacknowledged and forgotten?

farm raised trouts - elusive prey

2009-02-15T20:09:00.000-08:00

Every year the Texas Fish & Wildlife releases thousands of farm raised trouts into ponds in state and municipal parks all over the state. Catching these should be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, right? Not when you showed up a week after the stocked the fish and it's raining cats and dogs. It's the fourth time in two years I bought a $10 one day fishing pass and not catch anything. The fifth time's the charm, I can feel it.

Oscar predictions

2009-02-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

This year I'm on the verge of having seen all of the Best Picture nominees. Here's my order of preference on who should win, from favorite to least favorite:

Revolutionary Road - perfect demonstration of Satre's maxim "Hell is other people." This movie shows that, as hard as we may try, it is almost impossible to do the right thing, especially in a family.

Frost/Nixon - an over-the-hill British talk show host interviews the only President in US history to resign in disgrace. When I heard this is what the movie's about I thought "who cares, it happened 30 years ago and I already know all the facts." But the movie managed to have me give a damn about what's happening on the screen for 2 hours so it must be well made.

Slumdog Millionaire - a disturbing and graphic depiction of hard life in the slums, told through an implausible story framed by the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I may give this film a higher rating if I haven't already seen lots of movies about India, poverty, and poverty in India. I bet most of the people who gush over this film have not read Oliver Twist or seen many movies about India.

The Reader - one of the worst movies about the Holocaust I've ever seen. It couldn't decide whether it's about how the postwar generation in Germany came to terms with the Holocaust, or about those who are complicit during the war. The only good thing was Kate Winslet's effective portrayal of the banality of evil.

I plan to see The Curious Life of Benjamin Button this weekend. I have a feeling that it will end up in the middle of this list.

places to live

2009-02-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

Houston is ranked the 19th most desirable place to live by the Pew Research center. That sounded about right to me until I saw that Phoenix is among the top 10. I've been to Phoenix and I can't imagine why anyone would prefer that hellhole over Houston.

Another shocker is that more people would rather live in a place with a lot of McDonalds than a place with a lot of Starbucks. Has this country been taken over by Sarah Palin clones?

overpaid

2009-02-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

The previous administration apparently overpaid for the assets purchased during bailout. The incompetence of the previous administration knows no bounds.

Obama admitted he screwed up

2009-02-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

It's refreshing to have a president who admits he's made a mistake before the last days of his office.

On Tom Daschle's tax problems, at first I thought it was pretty bad because the amount not paid is in six figures but then I found out that it's for a car and driver services loaned to him by a business associate. I could see how someone may not understand that a service loaned to you needs to be reported as income for tax purposes. That's too bad because he's probably the most qualified person to drive healthcare reform.

Chinese earthquake possibly manmade

2009-02-02T09:43:00.000-08:00

Another story about how fragile our planet can be.

coming of the snus

2009-01-29T16:20:00.000-08:00

I tried this Swedish version of chewing tobacco a couple of years ago and actually enjoyed it. It focuses your mind like nothing else and forces your brain to pump out creative juices by the gallon. Looks like it might become widely available in the states.

religion is the new class

2009-01-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

Compare this map to the electoral map in 2008.

What I want to know is, does any other country in the world vote this way?

Now reading

2009-01-19T18:44:00.001-08:00

I've been wanting to read this book after having read this review in the Atlantic Monthly. The review said that the author gave a thrilling and thorough account of the role corn plays in our food industry, and that's something I've been wanting to learn more about after I finished Fast Food Nation. The review was pretty critical of the book because of the way it justified men's position at the top of the food chain. While I share the reviewer's concern for animal welfare, I'm curious to see what a carnivore who chose to engage in ethical debates about eating animals with vegetarians would say.

Although I've been devoting more and more portions of my waking hours in the acquisition and creation of good food, I still shy away from wearing the label "foodie." For a long time, the gourmand's appetite for more seems like an addition, while his insistence on being specific in the choice of ingredients and methods of preparation struck me as a little dandy. I used to think back in college that since everything we put in our mouth comes out the same, it's almost criminal to spend too much time on eating. I got into cooking mainly because I needed a hobby that doesn't require too much brain power while at the same time has a relatively quick payoff.

The first chapter was interesting. Pollan promises to trace every element of the three food chains that we have today: industrial, organic, and primitive (hunting and gathering your own food). Can't wait to finish it.

Inauguration fever

2009-01-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

I have a colleague who's taking tomorrow off to watch Obama's inauguration ON TV. She's a black woman in her late fifties who didn't talk about politics a single time in the two years I know her. Barack's my man and I'm glad that he won, but it looks like I underestimated the effect of his win on the average African-American.

surprise

2009-01-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

I took the cat to the vet over the weekend and found out that my cat is in fact a neutered MALE. I don't really know how to react to this. The person I adopted Kitty from and the first vet who saw Kitty all thought she's a female cat. Do cats change gender over their life time? Or maybe I took the wrong cat home that time in the cat hotel. Oh well, I guess now that she's a he I can get off Kitty's case about losing weight.

Just Finished

2009-01-14T19:59:00.000-08:00

American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips. An excellent read IMHO. The author used to be a Republican strategist who used to work for Nixon, but has since became critical of the GOP. In this book, he slammed three core constituency of the modern Republican Party: big oil, the Christian Right, and the Financial Services industry.

The third section was the most prescient one. This book was published in 2006, when the DOW was over 13000 points, but the author predicted a catastrophic crisis caused by novel financial instruments like CDOs and CDS's. I wish more people in Washington had read this three years ago, when it might've made a difference.

The middle section about religion was the main reason I bought this book, and it did not disappoint. Phillips described, in painstaking detail, the rise of the radical religious right and what it means to our country. Backed by numbers and graphs on almost every other page, this is by far the most thorough account of this recent chapter of our history.

The part about the dominance of the oil industry was also enlightening. Most of us already knew that US foreign policy in the Middle East was dominated by Big Oil, but most didn't know that the history of this entanglement goes back to the turn of the 20th Century when the British and the French were the ones invading the Middle East.

In each of the three sections Phillips drew analogies between the challenges the US faces today with those faced by former imperial hegemons - Spain, the Netherlands, and Britain. Each of these three powers became successful through early adoption of a new energy source, were weakened as financial activities replaced manufacturing and commerce, and each of these nations turned to a form of religious radicalism as its fortunes decline. Not all of these comparisons were apt, as history doesn't repeat itself perfectly, but there's enough force in these analogy to make me worry. Let's hope that Phillips will write a book about what can be done about these problems.

Cool Map of US States renamed with countries with same GDP

2009-01-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

http://i42.tinypic.com/qxou4g.jpg

condensed Medical drama

2009-01-08T18:22:00.000-08:00

I used to watch ER, House, and even Grey's anatomy pretty regularly, but now I get my weekly medical drama requirements from these little pills.

pita pizza

2009-01-07T20:36:00.001-08:00

I was reading a magazine at the doctor's office and I came across a recipe that uses Pita bread to make pizzas. These are my very first attempt. The one on the right is anchovies, the other mushroom and pepperoni. They taste as good as they look.

Boy do I feel like a kid locked inside a candy store.

60 second film reviews

2009-01-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

Quantum of Solace - there's nothing Bond-like about this film at all. There's nothing original here - the action sequences were lifted from the Bourne series, the "grit" from the rebooted Batman films, and even the plot was based on a true story.

Milk - interesting biopic about the life of Harvey Milk. I was surprised that as late as forty years ago the gays have no right, not even in San Francisco. An interesting coda to events in the film led to the infamous "twinkie defense" case.

Encounters at the End of the World - this movie is supposed to be about the quirky characters that inhabit the southern continent, but the most interesting scenes of the movie are shots of the landscape above and below the ice. In one of them, an ocean floor full of giant starfish "danced" to the currents while bioluminescent jellyfishes flutter around. Even the reefs of Maui and Cozumel could not hold a candle to its beauty.

My top-secret Coq au Vin recipe

2008-12-31T18:09:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you have so much leftover wine that you can't finish, and tons of frozen chicken in the freezer? Why, you make some good old Coq au Vin (Chicken in Wine), of course.

I have experimented with this French classic over many years. Back in my bachelor days I probably made this every other month because 1. it's easy to make, 2. you can make a lot of it at one time, and 3. it helps me use up the red wine that I couldn't finish.

First, you'll need some chicken. I prefer to use breasts that can be cut up into cutlet, but thighs, drumsticks, or even whole chickens will do.

Next, you'll need some wine, specifically red wine. My experience is that you tend to get better results with the drier varietals, but I've had success with Merlots and Carb's too. About two glasses are needed.

This is the full list of ingredients.

chicken (2-3 lbs)
red wine (2 glasses)
pearl onions (about 10)
carrots (about 1 cup, peeled and cut to small pieces)
mushrooms (1 box, around 4 oz.)
can of tomato paste (the small 7 oz. can will do)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bay leaf
parsley, about 1 tbs
savory and thyme, a pinch of each
salt (2 tsp)
pepper (1/2 tsp)

First, you brown the chicken in a skillet. This part is optional, but I like a little crunchiness in my chicken. Remove chicken to a plate, then use the same skillet to brown the carrots with garlic.

Put the carrot and garlic mixture into a pot over high heat. Stir in the wine, until well blended. Next, stir in the tomato paste, then add the spices. Put browned chicken into the pot, then add the mushrooms. Keep stirring until everything is mixed.

After the mixture came to a boil, reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes.
That's it. You now have enough chicken to feed yourself for the week, or to serve four guests if you're having a dinner party. The wine sauce goes pretty well with mash potatoes, but also works with rice and pasta.

China's green zeal

2008-12-26T11:52:00.000-08:00

Like I stated in a previous post, one of the most pleasant surprises from my recent trip to China is that the country's surprisingly green. While the most salient signs are in the area of energy conservation, there is also an increasing awareness of the need for pollution control and biodiversity. I believe I even heard a couple of mentions of climate change on CCTV (the state owned TV stations).

One of the most common sights in Northern China is the solar water heater. On the train ride from Beijing to Qingdao, I can see one of these on just about every building. They look like this

At first I thought this is only used by poorer folks who can't afford gas, but I was able to find a lot of these in the cities too.

In addition to widespread use of solar power, the locals adopted a wide variety of power saving measures that I thought are both simple and effective. For example, the windows of many Chinese high rises can be opened, saving money on heat and air condition.

Another innovation is that appliances that don't need to be on are shut off. In many malls in China, the escalators have sensors that detect movement, and when there's no one around it shuts down. Similarly, the lights on the hallways of most apartment buildings have sound detectors that switches them off when not needed. This can present a slight inconvenience for people who don't talk all the time, but is a small price to pay if you consider the kilowatts that can be saved.

I also detected a high level of awareness for the importance of biodiversity. Here's a poster of Yao Min promoting a boycott of Shark Fin Soup. Since that's mostly a Cantonese delicacy, I'm not sure if such a campaign will make a lot of difference in Beijing. I hope this campaign is also taking place in Southern China.

Thomas Friedman said in his new book that we're entering a Climate-Energy Era, and the country that can take the lead in developing new green technologies will dominate this new era. If President-Elect Obama fails to follow through on his promise to invest heavily in green technology then the US will surely lose its leadership position to China.

Bizarre Foods - China Edition

2008-12-17T21:03:00.000-08:00

It seems like no trip to China is complete without pictures of the assortment of critters that passes for food there. So here is, without further ado, the list of items that I tried, or almost tried, on my China trip, in order of edibility.

First on my list is crispy-fried scorpion. According to Chinese medicine, scorpions are good for your immune system, and as someone who's prone to colds and flus it would be stupid of me not to take advantage of it.

These scorpions are on average about two inches long. The vendor peddles her ware live on the street. Once you placed your order, she picks up the scorpions you designated with chopsticks and dropped them into a bowl of water. After letting them stew for a minute she drops them into a pot of boiling oil, which smells like a combination of peanut and sesame oil.

They're actually not bad. Since they're so small and deep fried they felt crunchy throughout and have none of the mushiness that most people fear about insects. The texture is similar to the skin of fried chicken.

If you don't like your scorpions deep fried you can try them roasted. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to.

Since Qingdao is a coastal city, it's known for its seafood. One of the local favorites is octopus, which you can get super-fresh (think squirming) at the local supermarket.

You can also get roasted silkworm pupa at the local supermarket, shrinkwrapped like sushi.

These are, without a doubt, the foulest smelling things I have placed in my mouth. The mashed-potato-like texture didn't help.

Call me narrow minded, but I had to draw the line at echinoderms. In fact, the only places that sell these things are found in tourist areas. Maybe an enterprising local fisherman came up with this scam where he gets to dispose of his bycatch while at the same time separate gullible foreigners from their hard earned cash.

disturbing new technology

2008-12-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

I thought we're at least ten years away from this. Frankly the idea that we can't even keep what's in our head private scares me.

Random observations from my trip to China

2008-12-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

- For a country with such a poor image in environmental issues, China is surprisingly green.
- There really is a lot of cultural difference between northern and southern China.
- The Chinese people sure love banquets.
- They have really nice cell phones over there.
- If you think the sales rep at Radioshack are too eager, it would be best if you stayed out of any store while in China.
- The country that invented paper is apparently suffering from a paper shortage, especially napkins and toilet paper.
- Winter is not the best time to visit northern China.
- Apparently more people in China knew that Obama is not a Muslim than in the US.
- There are cities in China that are less bike-friendly than New York.

Going on vacation

2008-11-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

The Polite Observer will be on vacation for the next two weeks. Stay tuned for a barrage of photos and insights.

Things I learned from Newsweek's post election special edition

2008-11-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

Hillary Clinton had the most dysfunctional campaign team in history. One thinks she might've taken the Team of Rivals concept too far.

McCain's campaign team deserved more credit for defeating him than Obama's. They copied straight out of the Bush 04 playbook even though their candidate has a completely different set of strengths and weaknesses.

McCain really had no idea what he's doing when he "suspended" his campaign to work on the bailout package. Even members of his own party didn't want him to get involved.

A "foreign agent" launched a cyber attack on both campaign's computer network. The FBI seems to know who did it, but would not disclose that. My money's on Russia or China.

The only person who seemed to genuinely enjoy the process of running for national office is Sarah Palin.

what not to do

2008-11-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

I was gonna make this blog one entry per page. Well, looks like I got to find some other way to get traffic.

Kyoto update

2008-11-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

Japan is having trouble meeting its Kyoto Treaty obligations. If the Japanese are having a hard time, most of the other signatories probably are too.

books on the reading list

2008-11-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to comment on Obama's selection of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff, but everything that I know about what the White House Chief of Staff does I learned from The West Wing, so I guess that topic is better left to the pros.

It's been a while since I updated my reading list here. Here are some of the volumes I'm working through.

Looks like a how-to guide to how this transition business works.

Thomas Friedman laid out a compelling case of why green is the new red, white, and blue. Could be a little more technical, but it's not really that kind of book.

I bought this book about five years ago, after I read the author's The American Political Tradition and the Men who Made it, but has not managed to make any significant headway due to the small font and the exceedingly dry writing style. But, based on what I've read so far, this is the book you must finish if you want to understand Sarah Palin's appeal.

This one hits a little too close to home

2008-11-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

carnivore's dilemma

2008-11-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

Those of us who eat meat should all eat at this restaurant at least once.

election withdrawl

2008-11-05T15:12:00.001-08:00

It sure is nice to know who the next president is before the night is over. I almost forgot what that feels like.

Went to Starbucks to snag a copy of the New York Times to keep, but looks like a lot of other Houstonians got the same idea. Maybe I'll have better luck in a redder part of town.

In terms of election coverage Fox News was by far the most entertaining last night. Not only are they usually the first to call a state, the commentary from demoralized conservatives like Willaim Kristol and Karl Rove takes the cake. A bit schadenfreude perhaps, but we deserved it after eight years of Bush.

turnout is key

2008-11-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

The early voting numbers have been through the roof and they heavily favor Obama. He's ahead by double digits among voters who said they've already voted. This is a reversal from past elections where early voting tend to favor the GOP.

So, the fewer the people that vote tomorrow, the greater the margin for an Obama victory. Tomorrow is not a bad time for a thunderstorm in Ohio, Florida, and Virginia.

Houston after dark

2008-11-03T20:27:00.001-08:00

To celebrate Halloween, last weekend I joined a group of riders for a leisurely 11 mile ride through abandoned cemeteries. The only thing better than riding a bike in the city is riding with a big group after dark, with police escort.

This grave belonged to someone who was born in the 18th century.

Abandoned cemeteries are ripe for vandalism.

poll addiction

2008-11-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

I thought I was the only one addicted to daily tracking polls.

film review - Bill Maher's Religulous

2008-10-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of Bill Maher's ever since the days of Politically Incorrect. I like not just his politics, which with its moderate stance on social issues and the belief that government is needed to curb the excesses of the private sector matches mine closely, but also his sharp, sacred-cow slaying wit that he uses to pillory groups both on the left and the right. Fans of Bill Maher are familiar with his views on religion. On his show and when he does interviews interviews, Bill often repeats his opinion that religions are neurological disorders. While many books were published in the recent years stating exactly the same thing, the secular viewpoint has been woefully underrepresented in film. That's why Religulous has been on my must see list for a long time.

Since Bill is a political satirist and not a professional documentary filmmaker, I walked into the theater expecting an irreverent Michael Moore style expose on organized religion, instead of a sober piece of journalism like An Inconvenient Truth. The main thesis of the film, which one can infer from its title, is that religious ideas are inherently ridiculous. To show that, Bill traveled around the world to interview people of varying degrees of sanity. Some of the interviews are funny beyond belief. My favorite is an interview with a senior Vatican priest, who basically said, in front of the camera, that the stories in the Bible are fables not to be taken literally. I can't believe a guy who works down the hall from the Pope would admit that.

Another interesting scene is a tour through the laboratory of inventions intended to skirt around various no work rules of the Sabbath. For example, since it's not kosher to start a fire on the Sabbath, the inventor created a wheelchair that runs on compressed air. When asked why he went through so much trouble to jump through scriptural loopholes, instead of just following the rules, the inventor said that the reason these loopholes were included in the scripture is so that someone can take advantage of them one day. I hope he's not going to be our next attorney general. Also memorable was an exchange between Maher and an actor who played Jesus at a Christian theme park, who managed to stay with Bill quip for quip.

However, a lot of the interviews were not as edifying or entertaining. Too much time was spent talking to folks on the fringe, like the barely coherent Arab-British rapper who sang about Jihad, the Orthodox Rabbi who thinks the Holocaust didn't happen, or a guy in Amsterdam who apparently founded a religion based on smoking pot.
These scene make me wish that this film had a more sobering focus.

The film began at Megiddo, the site of the battle of Armageddon as predict by the Book of Revelation. The reason this site was chosen was to show that when the Book of Revelation was written, only God had the power to destroy the planet, but now Man has that power too. The fire and brimstone prophecies found in Abrahamic religions became self-fulfilling as humanity brought Armageddon upon itself. This is a point that I don't think was made often enough, but Bill Maher did not spend too much time fleshing it out. Although the film's narrative is peppered with images of pollution, climate change, and nuclear holocaust, but he never quite connected all the dots. For example, he interviewed a neurologist to discuss recent findings that while the brain is undergoing a religious experience, it is in a state that is similar to a brain in the midst of an epileptic seizure. That's an interesting point deserving in-depth coverage, but Bill spent no more than a minute with this researcher. It didn't help that the interview took place in the Grand Central station in New York, instead of a laboratory where the researcher can show us results of PET scans.

I think Bill Maher's point was that religious belief promotes, noncritical, faith-based thinking which leads to bad policy decisions. However, a condition as universal as stupidity has so many causes that religious faith-based thinking is only one of its many enablers. For example, one of the most vocal supporters of the Iraq war is a high profile agnostic, while several prominent Creationists can see the need to implement measures to halt climate change. In the grand scheme of things, it may be more useful to learn how to talk to the believers in their language to get their support, instead of trying to convince the faithful to abandon their belief system which is not likely to be met with success.

Maher also made a good point that the 16% of Americans who want nothing to do with religion need to join the debate and be recognized. However, besides lacking a belief in the supernatural, people in that group have nothing else in common. It's easier to herd cats than to create an interest group that does not really have an agenda except for not having creationism taught in biology classes.

Maybe the government should sit on the banks' boards

2008-10-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

We need to find some way to make sure the banks use the bailout money for its intended purpose, which is to free up credit, not to acquire other banks.

The technology that drives future cars

2008-10-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

was invented in 1839. Maybe all the technology we need to reduce our carbon footprint has already been invented, and we just need to make them better.

McCain got a couple of endorsements

2008-10-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

The first one if from a well-known international nongovernmental organization.

The other one is from a prominent US politician.

Is Sweden Lucifer's red herring?

2008-10-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Saw an interesting article in Salon about
Scandinavia. It describes a place that many red-state Americans have trouble wrapping their brains around: an advanced and just society of people who don't believe in God.

This reminded me of an interesting science fiction novel I read before. In the book, a group of scientists explored an alien world populated by dinosaur-like beings. The aliens have a society that appear to be ideal - their world is without war, crime, ignorance and poverty. They aliens also have no notion of God or an afterlife. One of the scientists in the expedition, who came from a Catholic background, recommended that the entire planet be quarantined, because he believed, get this, that this planet was created by Satan to deceive Christians. There are many of those from the Abrahamic tradition who believe that all morality is derived from religion, and so it is inconceivable that a society of peace, logic, and understanding can exist in the complete absence of God.

Of course, the idea that monotheism gave birth to morality is hardly new. I don't think it will go away, even if the rest of the world turns into Sweden. After all, apologetic scholarship has had thousands of years of development.

Al the shoe salesman responds to Joe the plumber

2008-10-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

new corollary

2008-10-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

There ought to be a corollary for the infamous Godwin's Law to include using the word "Socialist" as an epithet.

Simply stated, Godwin's Law states that "as a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." In practical terms, it means that if someone brings up Nazis in a conversation when it
wasn't necessary or germane, that person has demonstrated that he doesn't have the maturity and intelligence to continue an adult conversation, so that it's fair for the other side to end the thread and declare victory.

The latest lines of attack from McCain-Palin seemed to consist of calling Obama a socialist. Now, there are people, perhaps from Scandinavia, who might ask what's wrong with socialism, but that's risky gambit in this country. It would be better for progressives to throw it right back at the guy who wants to buy up bad mortgages.

you can have all the worms you want

2008-10-21T17:42:00.001-07:00

Looks like I'm not the only one sick of morning birds bragging about how much work they got done as I saunter in at 10.

I wish this was something The Onion made up

2008-10-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.injesus.com/index.php?module=message&task=view&MID=CB007FA2&GroupID=2A004N9G&label=&paging=all

Sign of the Times

2008-10-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

Recently the national debt has crept up beyond the 10 trillion threshold. The famous National Debt Clock in Time Square ran out of space for all those zeroes, so they had to squeeze a 1 into the same space as the dollar sign.

more on Joe the plumber

2008-10-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

Making my view that there are too many pundits on tv, the panel of "experts" in all the news channels I watched all proclaimed as the winner of the last presidential debate in 2008 Joe "the plumber" Wurzelbacher. Joe is a plumber who talked with Obama for a few minutes earlier this week in Ohio. He claimed, during the exchange, that Obama's tax plan will keep him from buying a plumbing business.

During last night's debate, McCain and Obama both mentioned Joe's name no fewer than ten times. Since this morning, we got to learn a few more things about Joe.
First, he admitted that he does not yet make enough to cross the $250,000 threshold. In fact, he will end up getting a tax cut under Obama's plan.

He doesn't have a plumbing license, but said he doesn't need one because he works for someone else.

He also said in an interview that, he felt that Obama tap-danced like Sammy Davis, Jr instead of answering his questions directly.

Looks like the McCain campaign did as good a job vetting Joe as they did Palin. Nice try, though.

still alive

2008-10-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

The Polite Observer has been sick. It was a cold that sort of evolved into a severe case of acute bronchitis. I'm still in the process of getting my breath back, so in the mean time enjoy this write up of one of my favorite NYT columnist, Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in economics.

How can one tell if the financial market is healthy again?

2008-10-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Does the DOW, the S&P, the consumer price index, or the unemployment tell you anything about the state of the financial market? Well, it turns out they don't. The only useful metric when assessing the health of the financial system is the TED Spread. In short, it is the difference between the three-month T-bill interest rate and three-month LIBOR (London Inter Bank Offered Rate). TED is the acronym for the T-Bill and ED, the ticker symbol for the Eurodollar futures contract.

The TED Spread is an indicator of perceived credit risk in the general economy. This is because T-bills are considered risk-free while LIBOR reflects the credit risk of lending to commercial banks. The size of the spread is usually denominated in basis points (bps), which is the value of the difference multiplied by 100. The best way to check its current value is on Bloomberg.
In a good year, where the risk is low, the TED spread hovers below 50 bps, but as of now it is at its all time high at 414.

When the TED spread drops to two digits then that means the financial system is showing signs of life and it might be time to invest again.

so much for my "BRIC" firewall

2008-10-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

Between 2006 and the early part of this year I have been diligently building up an investment portfolio based on BRIC stocks. I had thought, perhaps a bit naively, that by investing overseas I can insulate myself from the turmoils on the US stock market. Well, guess what, the so-called Credit Default Swaps (CDS) that were responsible for the near-collapse of the US financial market were also used to finance oversea investments in Russia and South America, and so my holdings in these regions are in as deep of a hole as their US counterpart.

Palin - another Quayle?

2008-09-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

Given that the McCain campaign has bent over backward in hiding Sarah Palin from press scrutiny, instead of unleashing the self-described "bulldog" to attack Obama, comparisons have been drawn between Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle. How much water does it hold?

Like Quayle, Palin is prone to making gaffes in front of the press. Just watch her disastrous interviews with Katie Couric, the repercussions of which has not yet played out. In addition, her campaign's reluctance to give the press any kind of access to her reinforces the perception that she's a lightweight who needs to be treated with kid gloves, like Quayle was.

However, unlike Quayle, who many easily dismissed as harmless, the idea of a President Palin with access to the nuclear codes send a chill down the spines of many Americans. The majority of the population is simply not going to be comfortable with a woman who believed that humans once walked with dinosaurs, who as mayor tried to ban books in her town's library, who wants to outlaw abortion even in case of rape and incest, and who is facing and will be facing more investigation once the McCain camp is gone.

The latest polls have shown that whatever "game changing" dynamic she has introduced to the race is all but gone. Sure, the religious right is fired up, and a handful of former Hillary supporters might vote for her just to spite their party's nose, but at the end of the day she'll end up scaring away more moderates and independents with her extreme views and her incompetence than the social conservatives she's gained for McCain.

Does that mean that the Quayle analogy apply? Well, in a sense, some of the dynamic of the 1992 race is already in play. Because Dan Quayle was considered too much of the lightweight, he was not able to perform the traditional "attack dog" duties usually assigned to vice-presidential candidates. In the current election cycle, McCain had gone on the offensive against Obama himself many times, instead of letting Palin do the job. Unless Palin performs exceptionally well in the vice-presidential debate, she will be relegated to the sidelines for the rest of the campaign.

Ultimately, the Palin candidacy will end up having as much impact as the Quayle candidacy, which is not much. The time the vice-presidential nominee materially change the outcome of ONE state was when LBJ helped JFK carry Texas in 1960.

Radio Musing

2008-09-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

The Timid Observer has been invited to give his two cents on air at KUHF, the Houston affiliate of NPR. The "This I Believe" essay that will be played on air was recorded last Friday. The essay took about twenty minutes to record, even though the essay took only two and a half minutes to read. The whole thing was done digitally, where even individual syllables could be cutted and pasted to form the perfect sentence. I hope the producer got all that he's needed.

I wish I had taken pictures inside the radio station, but I wasn't sure if they're allowed. The main impression I got from the tour of their facilities is how ordinary it looked. Aside from a live-music studio which is about the size of the aerobics room in a gym, nothing in the office looks that different from an ordinary office suite. I had expected the set of Frasier, where shows were done in studios that resembled a command center, with producers and call screeners sitting behind a side booth. At KUHF, the host just sits behind a normal L-shaped executive desk in front of eight LCD screens, talking into what appears to be a Bluetooth mouthpiece.

Stuff people like

2008-09-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

I've been following those "stuff XXX like" blogs and here's one that I didn't expect to find - a site poking fun at Christians, that was written by a Christian, that was actually funny.

hmmmm - MREs

2008-09-20T16:44:00.001-07:00

I've been hearing good things about the MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) that they've been handing out at FEMA PODs (Points of Distribution), so I went to get me a box yesterday. The POD I went to is in a Mall, and all I had to do was to pull up, pop the trunk, and the team of volunteers automatically deposited a big box of MRES and three bags of ices. The whole process took less than ten seconds. If only the rest of FEMA were so efficient.

Anyway, I was planning on grabbing at most two bags of these MREs for novelty's sake, since I already have power and can buy groceries, but the box they gave me contained twelve. Each bag contains the following: a vacuum-sealed pouch containing the entree, a nutrition bar, two large (3x3) crackers, a pack of jelly, a pack of peanut butter, a napkin, a spoon, a packet of coffee with condiments, a packet of vitamin water additive, and last but not least, a bag containing a chemical heater.

The MREs were designed for astronauts who're tired of sucking food out of a toothpaste. Since starting a fire to cook your food may not be possible in outer space, the NASA engineers developed a chemical water heater. What you do is put the pouch containing the main course into the pouch containing the heater, then add about two tablespoons of water into the second pouch. The water will heat up almost instantly so you have to fold the top half of the bag over the food pouch, then lean the heater pouch at 30 degrees angle on a rock or something like that. In five minutes your food will be ready to eat.

I was hoping that I can get a mixture of different flavors, but all I can find in my box are Beef Pot Roasts. In terms of taste it's about the same as what you would find in an 8 oz can of Campbell Soup of the same flavor.

I'm back

2008-09-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

As you can probably tell from the last post, this blogger lost power last Friday and had to evacuate to Austin. Made a nice little long weekend out of it. Note to self - make sure the watch you're wearing is water-proof before going kayaking in Lake Travis.
After I found out from a neighbor that power was restored yesterday we made the trip back to Houston with a cooler full of meat and produce. Things are not that bad in my part of town; gas stations are open, as are some of the grocery stores. Now that internet access is back I'll be working from home today, which means I'll surf the web all day and send out emails every hour or so.

Rita part deux?

2008-09-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Depending on Hurricane Ike's severity, this forum will either see an unprecedented level of activity starting tomorrow, or go into a week long blackout.

Given my experience with hurricanes in the Bayou City, I think Ike will veer north at the last minute and spare Houston from the most severe winds. Even if it doesn't, my own neighborhood has withstood winds of up to 100 mph without suffering power outages, so there's a good chance that this will turn into a bonus long weekend like Hurricane Rita was.

hmmmm - raw beef on cracker

2008-09-10T11:56:00.001-07:00

At the risk of letting this blog devolve into just another food porn site, I need to share the latest addition to my list of culinary conquests.

I was at an alumni event for my college. It was held in a swanky restaurant with lounge type atmosphere. The waiters were walking around with plates of what appeared to be raw tuna. I took one, found it to be good, and then grabbed two more. A few minutes later the waiter walked by again and the person I was talking to asked what's on the plate. "Steak Tartare", he replied. "As in completely raw beef?", "Yes", said the waiter.
I grabbed another piece and smelled it for a second. The onion and the cheese flavor on the cracker completely masked the smell of raw meat. I don't regret eating it, but I won't go out of my way to try it again either.

my new workout partner

2008-09-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

I have changed my workout regimen from a cardiovascular program to a fat burning program. I used to get on the elliptical machine, warm up for two minutes, and then switch the resistance all the way up to the point where I almost run out of breath for the next twenty minutes, followed by a five minute cool down period. This short workout is more than enough to help me stay in shape, but it isn't much help in getting rid of the spare tire around my waist. So I went online to find a program more suitable for fat burning.

It turns out that the secret to getting rid of excess body fat is to increase the duration of the workout. You body starts to metabolize fat after it is finished using up the glycogen stored in your liver, but only if there's adequate amount of oxygen in your blood. So, the key to burning fat is to lower the intensity while increasing the duration of your workout. I had to stay on the machine for a whole hour.

Back when I was training really hard for the 5k or 10k I had no problem exercising for an hour. Time tends to fly by when you're almost out of breath, but when you're strolling on a treadmill at a leisurely pace ten minutes can feel like an eternity.

First, I tried to read a magazine, but that doesn't work as the magazine does not stay on top of the machine very well. I can't just watch the television in the gym since I have no control over the channel. I also can't listen to music for an entire hour, so the only option left are podcasts of radio shows. The one that I find works the best with my workout routine is This American Life. Each episode of the show is composed of segments made up of essays, interviews, and the rare soliloquy organized by a theme. They are usually well balanced between the serious and the comedic, the grand and the petty, and the quirky and the introspective. At an hour long program, it's just the right length. I just got into the show but I'm hooked. Sometimes I find myself wanting to go to the gym just to listen to another episode.

Impressions of Sarah Palin's speech tonight

2008-09-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

That baby must be either fake or drugged.
She needs more variety in gestures. Still better than McCain, though.
She mentioned her son who's about to go to Iraq and her new baby who has Down's Syndrome. More than once. Can a male politician get away with spending so much time talking about his family?

Before you download Chrome

2008-09-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

make sure you read its License Agreement first. Pay special attention to item #10, which makes anything you posted through Chrome available to Google for free.

McCain VP a Separatist?

2008-09-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

Just read a story alleging that Sarah Palin, McCain's VP running mate, was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group advocating for Alaskan independence.

A long time ago, another democracy voted a politician with Separatist ties into office. Let's just say it did not end well for them.