jsolomon

Smaller crosshatches on the skin, grasshopper.

Honestly, one of my favorites is fettucine tossed with olive oil, nuts, red pepper flake, garlic, and parmesan cheese.

Two-minute egg

fifi, do you have a regular oven, or does it have convection properties? I do have to admit, I feel your pain. But, I also must say, that I've had good luck with B. Kafka's recipes. I wish I could offer help!

Photographs?

I have a school deadline tomorrow, and I'm feeding myself with port and spiked hot chocolate.

My biology, chemistry, and biochemistry background says otherwise about the sodium acid pyrophosphate. Actually, the sodium acid pyrophosphate isn't that bad for you. It just sounds all chemical-y, so people say "eww, I don't want to eat tha-AAA-at".

The best information that I can give you is that they don't seem to own a lot of productive farmland in Nebraska. They contract with a lot of farmers, and they have many operations in Nebraska, but to my knowledge, they don't own much, if any, farmland here--research land exempted. ConAgra would be another large one I would place under that. The position of those behemoths (who usually get really good tax incentives from states to create jobs by building plants) is that they really appreciate the low price they have to pay for agricultural raw materials that they can turn into much higher-priced products. Believe me, when it comes to Kelloggs, that's not $2.49 worth of corn in your corn flakes. I think the largest amount of the price goes to advertising. But, we're still raking farmers over the coals.

Do you deny that the agricultural lobby is one of the most influential and effective lobbies in Washington? ← Wholeheartedly and completely. If the agricultural lobby were anywhere near as effective as you say there would be 2 things you would notice. 1: Farm programs wouldn't leave everyone scratching their heads saying "What the fuck is happening this year?" 2: Farm programs would be as silent as tax breaks given to the private defense contractor industry, or large businesses like General Electric. The "farm lobby" that you speak of is not nearly as well organized as you seem to be implying. There is a corn lobby, soybean lobby, wheat lobby, pork lobby, mutton lobby, beef lobby... ad nauseum, but do you think they actually work together effectively? If they attempted to be truly organized like you think they are, they would infight every bit as bad as deans at a University. Ranchers and farmers have fundamental differences in thinking. Corn farmers and bean farmers have fundamental differences in thinking. Edible and industrial farmers have fundamental differences in thinking. Do you see where I'm heading with this? The point of the analogy that you are so deftly ignoring is that farmers are very nearly completely powerless. They may control the means of production, but there are so many that are so different that there is very little they can do effectively as spread out as they are. That time was in my lifetime, too. But what you're talking about is a significantly smaller number of farmers over a significantly longer period of time. Certainly it was several tens of thousands of farmers and ranchers, possibly even a couple of hundred-thousand, but this era that you are speaking of was actually over a period of about 15 years. Without these subsidies, I would predict that 80% or more of the farmers would be foreclosed on. The better part of a million people. That's a lot no matter how you cut it. More than the textile industry has lost. More than any one sector has lost that I can think of. That's a lot of out of work people. There are a superbly large number of reasons why it didn't help some of these small farmers. Remember, the government is very poor at being proactive, so a lot of them lost the farm before the government even recognized what was happening. Many others were beyond help by that point. I find it interesting that you keep thinking that this is all a concerted effort by all of these people. Are you that suspicious of your cheap food? This is your free market at work, here.

There's nowhere for the bubbles to nucleate on non-stick surfaces, so they superheat.

I resort to traditional methods.

What do you do with your emptied wine bottles? Recycling is certainly an option, but many of them are really quite nicely tinted glass. I'm currently considering setting a bunch of them neck-side down in some cement and using them to create a raised flower/herb bed. What do you do?

I'll be finding out about one of my Army buddy's experiences this weekend as he just returned from Iraq. Mmmm... beers with Timmy.

When I make hot chocolate (from scratch, naturally) I heat the milk in the microwave while I'm boiling the sugar, water, salt, and cocoa so I don't have to stir so long at the stove. Then, I dump in 2 jiggers of hazelnut liquor and get soused.

Uhh, JayBassin, you've got some fundamental errors in your understanding due to the fundamental errors in the Wikipedia article. 2450 MHz is not the fundamental frequency of water vibration. Water vibrates in the infrared range. Microwaves operate in the rotational energy range. Also, they operate at fundamental frequencies of light, not matter. So, we're talking about nu = E/h where frequencies absorbed depend on the energy of the transition. Read the blue text.

Are there a bunch of well-connected corn farmers that you can show me? The subsidies continue so that corn can be used as political leverage, and to keep several hundred thousand people from all being out of work in the same year--something that hasn't happened since the Great Depression, if my research is correct. Also, I don't understand what you mean by "paid to be inefficient" when there is a surfeit of grain. They are too efficient, actually. Even between the mid-'80's when most farms un-diversified to now, corn yields per acre in my area have come significantly higher. I think you're using some definition of "inefficient" that I'm unfamiliar with. And, when you're speaking of them being bailed out about the time of Chrysler, it's not a one-time thing, and it won't be until there is either better price equity for corn, or there is a better set of crops for them to grow, i.e. crops suited to their climate that are used in that large of an amount. Essentially what the subsidy is meant for is to help the farmer pay the loan that he took out on the crop that year. So, the next year rolls around, and the farmer has to take out a loan for this next year's crop, and get a subsidy payment to pay off that loan. Think "Company Town" or "Company Store" from the mining days, and you'll be more correct on how the economics work.

spinach salad

Since the creation of the FDA effectively removed real street food from America, doesn't that really mean that McDonalds is de facto USA street food?

Actually, that's not true. Because microwaves oscillate at a frequency specific to being absorbed by things like water molecules, they penetrate less far than thermal radiation. There is actually some very elegant theoretical dealings with how far various energies of electromagnetic radiation penetrate matter based on their wavelength. Since microwaves are longer wavelength than radiant heat (infrared), they penetrate less far. This is doubly so because they are at fundamental frequencies which interact with the molecules based on quantized energy levels (booyah quantum mechanics). So what are microwaves good for? Popping microwave popcorn, making Kraft Eezy Mac, heating Cheez-Whiz (why would anyone purchase something with "whiz" in the name is beyond me), melting generally anything that is fully liquid once heated (you can't melt a boiled egg no matter how you try), blowing up eggs...

Hunh. I love that book and use it regularly.

Certainly not, I was on a roll and I didn't want to stop until I blew off the steam I needed to. I also completely agree with you on the change is inevitable point. I think you'll agree with me on the farm subsidy programs that they generally try to shoehorn all agriculture (or at least subsidized agriculture) into a theoretical treatment that fits no area of the nation, and there are a lot of different climates, subclimates, and microclimates to go over, ditto crops. Whenever I speak with my father about the sorts of hoops that are being jumped through this year to make sure that his farm is eligible, I feel like I'm reading those bizarre English -> Chinese -> English translations of classical literature. And then, after having my sensibilities abused, I hear people blaming the farmers for these programs. That's like people blaming the Jews for the Holocaust. Where you say that hidebound farmers need to be more entreprenuerial, I agree with you 100%. My mushroom growing example came from a suggestion I gave to a high school classmate about what to do with his $1.50 corn. I keep scratching my head trying to come up with alternative crops--especially ones that won't require a nearly complete retooling of the major equipment of a farm. But, it's damned difficult. That, and I have things like my own life to live, so I don't spend uncounted hours poring over different useful plant types to figure out what to use. But, I'm still born and bred from a farm, and I will defend my background tooth and nail. I learned a lot of great lessons from being a farm kid, and I'm not going to do them a dishonor.

Google says...

I must see that to believe it.

As long as Bud light is in my fridge, I'd be a hypocrite to not allow myself to discuss McDonald's on this website.

I know it as both an appendectomy and a Appaloosa horse. Isn't it also Cockney for happy?