What's Cookin' Wednesday: Bruschetta!

So there's a place near me that has a huge selection of wines and beers and I was there Saturday picking up some wine. I thought to myself, hmm... what would go great with a nice red wine? Answer: Bruschetta! So I picked up the ingredients and got to work making it on Sunday. I often make bruschetta when I'm having a party and it usually goes over pretty well. It's pretty simple and makes a great snack even without the party though.

Ingredients:

1/2 of a French baguette
2 large tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 large bunch of basil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
salt & freshly group black pepper (to taste)


So first preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Then cut up the baguette into 1/2 thick slices and set aside.

Chop up the tomato, and onion and put in a non-reactive bowl (since we'll be using vinegar, an acid.) All I had was metal bowls so I had to make due with a pound cake bowl. Chop up the basil and add it to the bowl as well, but put some of it aside for later. Add the balsamic vinegar and some salt, stir it so everything gets coated in vinegar and let it chill out for a bit.

Meanwhile, back to the baguette slices. Lightly brush the olive oil on one side and lay out on a baking sheet. (I don't have one of those little brush things so I had to make due with a paper towel. It was kind of a pain.)

Put them in the oven for about 5 minutes.

When they come out spoon the mixture in the bowl onto the bread. Make sure you are just scooping solids though. If you are scooping the liquid from the bottom as well then the bruschetta will come out soggy. (I failed at remembering that this time, and some of them got soggy, but still yummy.)

Put them back in the oven for about 4 minutes and then when they come out sprinkle the basil you set aside from before on top. Not cooking all of the basil makes it look brighter and taste a bit fresher I think.

A few twists of ground pepper and you are ready to go!

I enjoyed the bruschetta with an Iron Stone Cabernet Franc, which is lighter than the other red I had, a Shiraz. I didn't want the wine to overpower the bruschetta, so that's why I chose the Cabernet Franc.

Aside from some soggy pieces as I mentioned before, it was pretty delicious.

Newsday Tuesday: Virtual Seals Have Rights Too!

"Animal rights stunt-group PETA is protesting Canada's culling of adorable baby seals this year by hosting a battle royale in World of Warcraft.

This Saturday, PETA is calling on activist gamers to combat a team of Horde "seal killers" set on bashing soft, furry heads on WoW's Whisperwind server. The demonstration takes place in the high-level zone of The Howling Fjord on the glaciers where baby seals frolic unassumingly."

(Full Story)

So this strikes me as pretty ridiculous even for PETA. The whole premise of the game is to go around and kill stuff. The programmers put the seals in the game for that specific purpose. Aren't there some real life animals they could be protecting?

There was also a totally different story I found that I thought was worth sharing. Apparently due to a loop hole, the paper industry is being paid to pollute more.

"Thanks to an obscure tax provision, the United States government stands to pay out as much as $8 billion this year to the ten largest paper companies. And get this: even though the money comes from a transportation bill whose manifest intent was to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, paper mills are adding diesel fuel to a process that requires none in order to qualify for the tax credit. In other words, we are paying the industry--handsomely--to use more fossil fuel. 'Which is,' as a Goldman Sachs report archly noted, the 'opposite of what lawmakers likely had in mind when the tax credit was established.' "

(Full Story)

Now, I realize that lawmakers aren't perfect, and that it's hard to think of all the clever ways that one might abuse the spirit of a tax credit like this, but shouldn't these loopholes get closed pretty rapidly? It doesn't seem like that is happening anytime soon.

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully these were interesting. :)

I Love India Pale Ales

So as far as beers go I'm a big fan of India Pale Ales (IPA). They are high on the hops which I think gives it a really good flavor. I am currently enjoying a Lagunitas IPA. I was out at a local market that has a huge wine and beer selection and I picked it up there. While I was at the market I also picked up ingredients for bruschetta! I made that today, but I'll save the full details for What's Cookin' Wednesday, so stay tuned!

Online Dinner Reservations

So a friend just sent this link: www.opentable.com

You can use it to make restaurant reservations online! I kind of hate calling places so this is excellent for me. I went ahead and tried it out and it seems to have worked fine. We'll see when I show up. :)

I can't believe that I used to think it was scary that you could do stuff like this from a computer. Now I think it's awesome!

Exalted RPG: Collaborative Creative Writing

So one of the players in my Exalted RPG, and I wrote a story for what our characters were up to between sessions. We did most of the writing together in Google Docs. Google Docs allows multiple people to view and edit a document at the same time. So we were able to start from an outline, each work on different sections, watch the changes being made by each other in real time and adapt and shift our own parts of the story accordingly. It was an interesting and fun experience in collaborative creative writing.

Here's the story we ended up coming up with (I've added [bracketed explanations] for some of the terms and places from the Exalted world setting):

Going by the information discovered from Marlina's trips to The Neck [The Neck = medium cluster of islands in the middle of the West], Li is investigating the rumor that Wavecrest ships [Wavecrest = large island nation to the south of The Neck] have been capturing slaves from The Neck to give as tribute to the Realm [Realm = continent in center of Creation controlled by Dragonblooded Exalts]. As a former slave himself, Li feels obligated to stop this. Unfortunately, he is a little too late and the islanders have already been rounded up and placed on the slave ship.

Knowing that he alone can't take down a fleet of armed men, Li transforms into a small gray mouse and boards the ship. From listening in on conversations and from reading the captain's log, an entire fleet of slave ships is preparing to leave Wavecrest in two months. Li knows that this would be the perfect opportunity to end the slaving operation and to harm Wavecrest, the only real Realm bastion in the West.

***

In the guise of a sea gull, Li flies back off the ship and back to Suryadvipa [Suryadvipa = small newly created, and populated island on the Western edge of the Wyld; also, our base of operations]. He brings this information to the circle. Light and Dorean are too busy working on plans for an artifact, but Marcus and Leggit are both interested. Marcus, being a defender of humanity, would love to get the chance to bring justice to Realm slavers. Leggit is interested in the operation for more political reasons. By disrupting the slave trade, he hopes to bring tension between the Realm and Wavecrest. Perhaps enough tension that the Wyld Hunt teams [Wyld Hunt = Dragonblooded Exalted teams that kill other types of Exalts like us] will retreat from the West for a bit.

The group plans to ambush the slaver fleet. Leggit will lead the ships while Li and Marcus will free the prisoners and slay the captains.

***

On the night of their voyage the Wavecrest slaver fleet sets out for the Realm. Unbeknownst to them, waiting in their path is the Suryadvipa fleet. Under cover of night, Leggit walks out onto the water (using the hearthstone borrowed from Light) leading a group of water elementals to create a dense fog bank between the slaver fleet and the Suryadvipa forces. Li, Marcus and Leggit's familiar Ati set out through the night fog in a small boat heading for the slaver ships. Marcus goes from ship to ship, drops off Li, then finds and assassinates the crew's leadership.

As a tiny mouseman with streaking silver across his body, Li sneaks down into the slave holds of the ship. As he picks the locks of the manacles he says, "I am Asdon, God of Mice. The gods do not want you to become slaves of the Realm, so I have come to rescue you. Ships are on their way and they will take you back to an island paradise if you choose. When you hear a horn blow three times, you must storm the decks and take out the crew. Be strong and brave, for the gods are with you this night. Now I most go and free your friends." After that, Li moves up and on deck to find Marcus. Marcus picks up Li and jumps to the next ship to continue freeing the slaves. Ati follows Li iand Marcus immaterially and when the last of the ships have been reached Ati uses Hurry Home to return to Leggit's side. Leggit organizes the fleet into battle positions and at the blow of his horn a coordinated ambush on the slaver fleet begins.

Caught surprised in the night fog, without leadership, and with the slaves revolting, the slaver fleet quickly surrenders. Those who are willing to start a new life in Suryadvipa are welcomed. The freed slaves who do not come are returned to their homes, the slavers who do not are killed, and the slaver ships are added to Suryadvipa's fleet with some modifications.

***

Wavecrest finds their main tie to the Neck (the slave trade) abruptly severed and must scramble to come up with the realm tribute which was to be the large shipment of slaves. Wavecrest's ability to investigate the incident or retaliate is delayed due to their dealings with the Realm.

In the meantime Dorean and Li spread anti-slaving propoganda to those barbarians in the Neck who actively traded slaves to Wavecrest. Thus providing a further barrier for Wavecrest in re-establishing their interests in the Neck.

Too-deep-for-a-Monday: Raging Force

So it's getting late and I was trying to decide whether I was going to skip Too-deep-for-a-Monday and just post something about the news for Newsday-Tuesday but as I was looking through my poems it occurred to me that a had one that is vaguely relevant to two current news stories. The flooding in the Midwest and the G20 protests in London. It's not exactly the same, but close enough. I figure it's fitting for a Monday post so close to Tuesday.



The prompt for this poem was 'extended metaphor'. I tried to weave the metaphor through the whole thing, and I think it worked out well. Hope you like it.

Raging Force

The demonstrators march peacefully through the streets
Like the steady flow of a quiet river.
A sudden storm arises in the skies;
The crowd’s anger surges
Then breaks open like the floodgates.
The quiet river runs rampant.

Waves of punches flow through the crowd.
The waters smack violently against the sandbags;
The policemen each armed with nightsticks and barrier shields
Strain to keep the swelling rioters back.
The sandbags become saturated;
A weak point collapses under heavy force.
A torrent of rioters rush though the police line.
Someone throws a rock through a shop window;
The looting begins.

Boarded up houses offer little resistance
To the barrage of water permeating through every crevice.
No sofa, no bed, or television is safe.
Teargas canisters shoot into the mob;
The rioters’ resolve begins to weaken.
Finally the floodwaters crest.
Left with no other options the police open fire;
The mad river begins to recede.

Settlers of Catan, and Web Comics I Like

Yesterday a friend sent me this article from Wired Magazine about a board game of German origin called Settlers of Catan. Each player is a tribe that collect resources and build roads and cities on an island called Catan. From the article I discovered that you can play the game online for free at playCatan.com. (You do have to download the game client software though.) So I thought I'd give it a try, and it was really fun. It involves some strategy but the rules aren't too complicated. Also, unlike some board games that take FOREVER, this one can be played in just about an hour.

I had actually heard of the game before. There was a reference to it in a comic I read called Questionable Content. I looked up Settlers of Catan then, just briefly, but I hadn't discovered I could play it online until now. I'm really glad I heard about the game again.

And on the subject of comics, I found a new comic today through my Google Reader suggestions. (I love you Google!) It's called Anti-Heros, and is a humorous comic about a troupe of villains in an RPG game. It's based off a comic that I've been reading for quite a while called The Order of the Stick.

I'm a big fan of web comics, so if any of you out there know some good ones you should recommend them to me. I am always looking for fun comics to read when I should be doing more important things.

RPG Friday: Exalted Game Update and RPG Links

So today is RPG Friday and I have a couple of things to share. First, I discovered from reading RPG Blog II an RPG forum which I've joined and has been kind of fun. It's called The RPG Haven.

Second, I had another game day of my Exalted table-top RPG. The person running the game (the 'storyteller' or 'ST' in Exalted terminology) is unfortunately going to stop so we'll be switching to a different ST. I hope the game survives the transition as it has been a lot of fun.

Last time we had just saved a newly Exalted Solar from dual threats of a rival barbarian island and a Wyld Hunt team. This time we managed to convince the Wyld Hunt team to join us. (We made them an offer they couldn't refuse... namely sinking their ship if they didn't cooperate.) And all of us together went into the volcano to fight the Raksha (a chaos entity) inside and cleanse the volcano of the chaos-taint. My character very nearly died (should have actually, but the ST was nice) though he did manage to hit the Raksha with an Arrow of Reason before he went down, which allowed the rest of the group to actually damage the Raksha. (yay!) Unluckily for us, cleansing the chaos from the volcano triggered a violent eruption and we just barely were able to evacuate the island in time.

So all in all, it was a fun session.

On a regular life note, I've been dealing with having my door repaired for the last two days and have been busy trying to get research finished so I have missed some posts. I didn't cook anything this week so no "What's Cookin Wednesday" anyway. :( I'll probably make pesto and chicken again tonight, like I did for St. Patrick's Day since it was so yummy, maybe I'll get a better picture this time.

Well, my equipment has probably finished sterilizing in the autoclave so I should probably go check on it, so that's all for now. Take care!

Newsday-Tuesday: Internet killed the newspaper star

The chain that owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune is in bankruptcy. Other papers, large and small, are teetering on the brink.

On Monday, the Ann Arbor (Michigan) News announced that it will publish its last edition in July. Taking its place will be a Web site called AnnArbor.com.

Full story

So on this Newsday-Tuesday I thought I'd look at what is happening to newspapers across the country. It seems that the internet and the recession are becoming a one-two punch for the newspaper industry and local papers are dropping like flies. Now, personally I never really read the newspaper, but I do read news on the internet. I don't know if online journalism can attract the same amount of revenue and thus the same amount of talent.

This concerns me because I think journalism plays an important function in a democratic society. Without it corruption can take root and spread without anyone taking note. (Not that this doesn't happen with a healthy media, but it at least reduces it somewhat.) I hope something will be able to fill this void, but I fear that nothing will and an important check on corporate and government behavior will be lost.

Too-deep-for-a-Monday: Altruism - Why?

(Image source)

So I decided for today's Too-deep-for-a-Monday I would discuss a philosophical issue I've been pondering lately. (I'm rapidly running out of my stock of poems and I figured this would be a good alternative.) The issue is the phenomenon of Altruism.

Altruism is behavior that benefits others over oneself. I have been contemplating for a while, why does such behavior happen? It seems like people should want to look out for their own interests if they can, and thus altruistic behavior is backwards.

Here's my thoughts thus far, feel free to comment and add your own if you'd like.

My first thought is maybe it is just a moral imperative. Altruistic behavior is what we "should" do, so we do.

But for this to be true, who's keeping score? For those with religious beliefs that's an easy answer, but what about those without religious beliefs? Surely they can still have a moral code. What motivates them? (I guess in retrospect this proposed solution just shifts the problem from the question of why altruism to why morals. But I had a thought on morals anyway.)

Perhaps morals are a defense mechanism.

The logic might be like this, "the world is crazy and unpredictable, but if I follow this moral code then there's a semblance of order and predictability and that makes me feel better" or perhaps, "I can't directly control the behavior of others, but by having a public moral code, with disincentives to breaking it, maybe I'll gain some protection even if it limits my behavior." Friedrich Nietzsche had an idea kind of similar to this.

Perhaps morals have nothing to do with it, maybe Altruism is simply done out of the expectation of future rewards. For the religious there is the concept of reward in the afterlife for good deeds now, but the rewards don't have to be that far out to still motivate. Social image can be a future reward that works in this life. Perhaps Altruism benefits an individual by building a good reputation with others, maybe even by building a good reputation to oneself (we like to think we are good people, right?)


It occurs to me though that animals can be altruistic too, so at least part of the motivation has to be pretty fundamental.

Perhaps along the lines of the future rewards thing, it's just simple reciprocity - I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine.

Another possibility is that it is simply hard wired behavior in our brain (i.e. it just makes us feel good) - how would this have come to be? There's an easy answer from creationist/intelligent design perspective (it's just the way the Creator/Designer wanted it), but what about from an evolutionary perspective? For altruism to be hard wired, it would have to have been a successful trait. Altruism would seem to make an individual less fit (by using resources for the benefit of another, rather than oneself), but perhaps groups of altruistic individuals fare better than groups of selfish individuals.

So yeah, those are my thoughts on Altruism thus far. And that's it for this Too-deep-for-a-Monday. As I said before, feel free to comment if you have any thoughts. Maybe we can get a good discussion going about this. :)

What's Cookin' Wednesday - It's not Irish but it's Green!

So I decided to make a green themed meal for St. Patrick's Day, and unfortunately it had mixed results. I started it with a spinach and artichoke dip (not shown), but I accidentally got a bunch of the liquid from the jar of artichokes into it, which gave it a really briny off taste. I'm going to have to give it another try soon though. I got some aged Asiago cheese to go in it which was really yummy and I'd like to get it to work nicely. The rest of the food was awesome, though the picture doesn't do it justice. I will have to remember to be careful how close I take pictures with that camera. On the left is thin-sliced chicken breast with a poultry rub. On the right is spinach and egg angel hair pasta with a basil pesto. Full disclosure, these elements were just store-bought, but I did have a final exam on Tuesday and today, so I didn't have a ton of time.


Today I went out for food and the place was still serving green beer so I figured what the heck, why not? I think it was just Miller Lite underneath the green though, which I'm not really a huge fan of, but oh well.

A while ago a friend showed me a recipe for Beer Cupcakes, which I tried and were delicious! I was tempted to try to come up with a recipe for Green Beer Cupcakes, but again, I didn't have tons of time. I'm still milling it over though and I may try it this weekend. It would be easy to just do the same recipe and add green food coloring, but for one, green beer is typically not made from a dark beer like Guiness (which the recipe calls for) so it's kind of a cop out, and two, it's a chocolate cupcake, and green food coloring might just make it a really gross color. I guess I could just do the icing green, though. Anyway, if anyone has suggestions on what might work for a green beer cupcake let me know and perhaps I'll give it a try.

Newsday-Tuesday - Crazy Japanese Technology

So I found two stories about technology stuff from Japan. I'm not sure which is weirder. The first one is about a female robot fashion model. I would like to point out that this is usually the first step towards giant robots destroying Tokyo in your typical anime movie. Careful Japan!

The second is this bizarre Karaoke mic that is supposed to be for singing discretely. The rationale is that walls are thin in a lot of apartments in Japan and thus people have been hesitant to have crazy karaoke sing-a-long parties... until now. What pray tell is the motive to sing karaoke if you can't actually hear it? You might as well just lip sync and save yourself the money.

Anyway, I thought those were interesting/funny. Hopefully you agree. :) Everyone be on the look out for robotic doppelgangers with trendy threads and people singing really bad karaoke really quietly.

What's Cookin' Wednesday - Shrimp and Red Pepper in Vodka Sauce

So continuing with my next theme day... Wednesdays shall be "What's Cookin' Wednesdays" where I talk about something exciting I've cooked, or food and drink that I just find yummy or interesting. I figure it'll also motivate me to cook something fun at least once a week, which is always a good thing.

So today I made Shrimp and Red Pepper in Vodka Sauce.

10 oz jumbo shrimp (frozen)
1 medium sized red bell pepper
1 jar vodka sauce
12 stalks of asparagus
1 good handful of thin spaghetti (I'm not really sure how much that is, I always sorta just guess... enough for two or three servings)

I cooked the pasta as normal but took it out a bit before it needed to and put it in a pan with the vodka sauce and the red pepper to cook a little more. Cooked the shrimp in boiling water as per the instructions on the bag, then added them to the pasta and stirred. Steamed the asparagus for about 8 minutes over low boiling water.

Not too complicated really, but it turned out decent. I had the idea that rings of the pepper would look neat and be fun, but it turned out that they were hard to cut up while eating. If I did it again I'd probably chop them up more. Some fresh grated Parmesan cheese would have really put it over the top, I wish I would have thought of that at the store.

I paired it with a Chateau Ste. Michelle dry Riesling that I've been wanting to try. I tend to go for reds but I like a good white wine every once in a while. Rieslings are my favorite as far as whites go.

Anyway, it was fun, and now I have leftovers for lunch at school tomorrow. (Yay!)

News-day Tuesday - Embryonic Stem Cell Debate

So I'm going to try to take Breeze's advice and have "theme days" to organize what I post about. I've decided that Tuesdays will be "News-day Tuesday" where I give my take on issue(s) currently in the news. So here goes:

"President Barack Obama will reverse the U.S. government’s ban on funding stem-cell research today and pledge to 'use sound, scientific practice and evidence, instead of dogma' to guide federal policy, an adviser said. ..."

I'm sure this story is old news to most of you by now, but I feel I'm in a unique position to comment on it since I actually DO research on embryonic stem cells. (From mice in my case though, not humans.)

First, some points of clarification.

Stem cells are an area of interest becaue they can turn into different cell types and thus might be used to treat degenerative diseases or restore damaged tissue.

There are different kinds of stem cells. Some are adult stem cells, the kind we all have in our bodies. These can be used to turn into a large variety of cell types, but normally not all cell types.

Embryonic stem cells (ES cells), are those from an embryo (as the name suggests) and those can turn into ANY cell type.

Also, it is my understanding that there are already government approved ES cell lines but that they are not as good as others being used in private research.

Another important point is that researchers have successfully transformed adult stem cells to give them similar morphing power to ES cells. They call these iPS cells (induced Pluripotent Stem cells). Unfortunately they still haven't worked out all the kinks in these cells, and the genes they use to transform the cells are also involved in tumor/cancer formation.


Ok, now on to the current story:

My gut reaction is to be in favor of Obama reversing the ban. This is in line with my "I want science to cure death so I can live forever" philosophy, as it potentialy removes a road block to life extending research. But, as many have pointed out already, there exists the ethical question of "does using ES cells sacrifice innocent human life?" Since I work with mouse ES cells every day, it's easier for me to justify in my head that ES cells are "just cells." Though in the case of human ES cells there's still a nagging uncertainty in the back of my head. On one hand, yes, given the right conditions an embryo can develop into a fully functioning human being, that's where we all came from, but on the other hand, the embryos people want to use are destined to be disposed of anyway, so perhaps using that potential life for good is better than letting the life die in vain. So even if I consider the ES cells human life and not "just cells" I still am uncertain.


From a different perspective, the use of ES cells versus iPS cells both have technical advantages and disadvantes.

For ES cells, you are probably going to be dealing with cells from one person being used in another person's body (this can work, like in organ transplants and whatnot) but the body recognizes cells with a different genetic make up as foreign and the immune system tends to attack them. This is overcome with transplants by trying to find close matches and also by using immunosuppressants while the organs are being integrated. The immune response may limit the utility of ES cell usage to the point that it's not really feasible. Who knows?

For iPS cells, you have the advantage of being able to harvest them from the same person who will be recieving them, thus immune response is not an issue. However, there's still the threat of possibly giving the person cancer based on the current form of iPS cell technology. Also, iPS cells may not behave quite the same way as ES cells, so their response in the body might not be as good.


In the end I think that even if ES cells do not end up being used for therapy, the basic research with them will give us a better understanding of how stem cells work and is likely to result in research results faster. As I said, there is a nagging concern in the back of my head, but it hasn't been enough to totally change my mind.

If I am ever in a position where I'll be working with actual human ES cells, I'd probably have to do some soul searching to decide if I really truly think that this is ok.

Sag Bashers: Exposing the misguided war on saggy pants

"... In December, the Jasper County Council in South Carolina passed an ordinance making it illegal to wear your britches three inches below your hips and expose your underwear—or worse—to innocent bystanders. In January, South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford introduced a bill that would make saggy pants a crime throughout the entire state. ..."

Full article here: http://www.reason.com/news/show/132019.html

So a friend of mine showed me this article and I thought I'd pass it on. Apparently wearing saggy pants is illegal in some places... wtf?!? I'm not a fan of the fashion personally, and I think it'd be really hard to walk around like that, but illegal??? Come on...