Genesis..

This is one of many depictions of the 'Garden of Eden'. There are also differing views regarding the location. You can see that this depiction shows the people as being 'white Caucasian', highly unlikely at best.

Every religion has its own 'Eden', and it always looks so good.

Darfur, 2nd Millennium A.D

Take A Walk Around Your Neighborhood..

.. before deciding what vehicle to buy or exchange for the one presently owned. Look at what others are driving. If you want to be different, get a similar model but in bright pink. A man living in a Washington DC area didn't heed this advice. In fairness to him, he probably was never given it, or considered it so important. Bright pink would not have saved his new vehicle.

It lasted five days on the street before two masked men took a bat to every window, a knife to each 38-inch tire and scratched into the body: "FOR THE ENVIRON."

Welcome to the land of the free, home of the brave..

Free Speech Zones.. Only In America..

Well, not only in America. Venezuela maybe? North Korea, China, and all of the countries where human rights are low on the agenda?

A 'Free Speech Zone' is an area that your local police department has set aside as being a safe place for you to speak freely. It will be set aside from the 'Free Speech Zone', maybe even hidden from general view.

Why two 'Free Speech Zones'? Simply because there is 'Free Speech' and there is 'Free Speech'. I can hear you say that 'Free Speech' is 'Free Speech', and you would be right on all counts.

Your government grants you 'Free Speech'. You feel better because of it. 'Free Speech' is good, and it is your constitutional right.

To get into a 'Free Speech Zone', you need to be in possession of something that makes a statement. You can wear something that has a slogan imprinted on it, or carry a flag or placard. The message being projected by any of these means will determine whether you get access to the 'Free Speech Zone' or the 'Free Speech Zone'.

Hmmmm. The constitutional right to 'Free Speech' is not what a 'Free Speech Zone' is all about. Remember the 'Animal Farm' wall slogan? 'All animals are equal'. The wall slogan was extended later to include 'but some animals are more equal that others'. The US concept of 'Free Speech' works in much the same way, where 'Free Speech is good, but some 'Free Speech' is better than other 'Free Speech'.

Content is what determines whether you are ushered to a 'Free Speech Zone' or a 'Free Speech Zone'. In the event that 'Free Speech' might not televise too well, or maybe give a bad impression to a public reasonably convinced that they have the right to 'Free Speech', your 'Free Speech Zone' will be set at a safe distance and out of camera view. Determined efforts at 'creating a bad impression' generally result in being moved to a far more claustrophobic 'Free Speech Zone', often with no view to the outside at all.

Countries not having formally designated 'Free Speech Zones' include Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, France, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

All of the above countries have laws in place to limit damage should they feel the need but, at the same time, they do not deliberately lie to the people about how free they are either. People in the above countries receive a much broader education that allows them to gauge their own personal freedom against the freedom of others. They are educated to think 'outside the box', not blindly accept the contents as being the 'be all and end all'

Wake up, America. The world needs you, but not in your present form.

Word of the day

Hope is the only good that is common to all men, those who have nothing else still possess hope.

Thales of Miletus

The Result Of An Excrutiatingly Bad Hair Day..

If You Are Wondering..

.. what happened to all of the ideas and to-do lists of the guy for whom you voted, look no further..

Questions For Creationists..

.. from a somewhat bemused resident of the North American continent.

When Noah and his wife visited Canada to pick up a male and female of each resident animal, the task was made easy in some instances because a male Moose, for example, has a large set of antlers and the female doesn't.

Skunks are a whole different ballpark, and one has to be brave to take on the job of 'sexing' one of these critters. Also, when he was dropping them back off after the great flood subsided, would it have been possible to have inadvertently mixed the country codes on the tags or inventory listing. Should Canada have gotten the Kangaroos, and Australia the Skunks maybe? What safeguards were in place, if any at all?

If the voyage to pick up all animals was a long one, how did he cope with the inevitable Moose rut? Nobody in their right mind gets within a mile or more of a male Moose intent on 'rutting'. And just one more question for now. How did he or his wife stop the beavers from eating their way out through the hull of the ark?

High Rise.. High Fear..

Do you have a natural fear of heights? Does your mind fill with ideas of the part where you are standing or sitting snapping off and falling? Some people get all giddy if they just lift one foot too high off of the floor, so do not be ashamed. The top part of all modern high structures move around a little bit. They are designed that way otherwise the top would indeed snap off.

One of the worst fears that any of us have is fire. In 1974, a movie was released called 'The Towering Inferno'. Badly constructed, using cheap 'below spec' materials, we watched the unfolding drama of people trapped high above ground level, some perishing, some not. Right at the end, the fire chief tells the buildings owners/designers that maybe they should get guidance from the fire department about constructing buildings where normal firefighting equipment is less than useless. It made me think at the time and, during subsequent visits to high rise buildings, the events of the movie lurked uneasily in the back of my mind. I found it difficult to shake the image of the burned out shell left standing.

We have all seen news reports of buildings around the world savaged by fire, and they all look the same, windows shattered, dark marks left by flames and smoke, eerily empty. The question as to what to do with what is left must be a problem. Is it cheaper to re-construct, or maybe to knock it all down and start over? Whatever the decision, it must first be established that the building is essentially in a safe enough state for any work to begin.

Modern design is such that construction materials used can withstand fires, wind, high impacts and even earthquakes, the weakest link being furnishings et al introduced by whoever uses the spaces inside the building. These items are generally not fireproof, and they are loose. In the event of an earthquake for instance, not only does the building shift, but so do all of the interior fittings and in a wild random manner.

If we can't prevent destructive events, what can we do to make the aftermath more easy? How would you feel about working or living in a high rise building if you knew that it had been rigged, such that in the event of a fire, it could be demolished within the hour, so saving days, weeks and months of either re-constructing or removal? It is way easier to 'rig' a building while it is still in a good state of repair. Moving debris from ground level has to be a better option than sending demolition experts and firemen into buildings where the general integrity may be severely compromised.

Fire damaged high rises never fall of their own volition because the fire is never hot enough to melt the steel used and could never be hot enough unless pure oxygen is fed directly into the fire. It has always been possible to fix the buildings afterwards.

The idea of rigging is insanity itself. Ask yourself honestly if anybody would ever sanction such a crazy idea. Lets face it, when was the last time you saw a high rise building suffer a fire and fall as a direct result of the fire damage?

Do you need help thinking back? How safe do you feel now?

Breaking News Friday, July 13, 2007..

An 23 year old Iraqi journalist working for the New York Times was shot and killed on his way to work.

Bill Keller, executive editor, said of journalists working in Baghdad, “Without them, Americans’ understanding of what is happening on the ground in Iraq would be much, much poorer.”

To Mr Keller: Could you please send a complimentary copy of your newspaper to the White House just so that the guys there know what is happening in Iraq too?

A Final Admission..

.. but isn't there something missing here?

The White House has admitted that it was 'behind the CIA leak'. At the time of the 'leak', G W Bush promised that the 'leaker' would be found and punished. So what happened next? Well, not a whole hell of a lot except that Lewis Libby was busted for obstructing justice. Whatever justice he was obstructing has still not been made public, as we still do not have the name or the head of the 'leaker'. Even that may not be true. Maybe we do have the name and the head but we just don't realize it!

To ensure better sleeps at night, G W Bush has pardoned Lewis 'Fall Guy' Libby. Meanwhile, the 'leaker' is still out there somewhere. All is ok though, because G W Bush says it is time to move on.

In my own opinion, and maybe that of a few others, it is a great pity that he didn't adopt the same attitude with Iraq's former leader. In his last speech to his indulgent audience, he talked of the progress made in Iraq. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I doubt that the man knows a thousand words, but here is a 'progress' picture anyway.

It Makes One Wonder..

How many people think that a 'Deer Crossing' sign at the side of the road is so that the deer know where to cross?

When a Customs Officer asks if anybody has put something in your luggage without your knowledge, how does he/she expect you to know?

When a child is having a tantrum in a public place, why does a mother invariably say 'stop acting like a child'?

When ordering a take out Bacon/Lettuce/Tomato sandwich, why are we asked if we want bacon, lettuce, and tomato on it?

Why do people always address the person pushing the wheelchair, never the person in it?

It's Time To Play Again..

The first picture shows a smoke plume. It's of the type you may have seen for real or on TV where there has been an explosion caused by an explosive device, maybe plastic explosive or dynamite. Notice how the smoke cloud is rapidly starting to 'detach' itself, that is to say, there is little follow up smoke or anything else directly below it. This is a very different kind of plume that comes from an explosion and subsequent fire at an oil refinery, airplane disaster or store fire, where a much blacker smoke and flames are seen rising to quite a height and for an extended period dependant upon the amount of combustible material at the site.
The second picture is of a site where, again, some destructive force has left its mark. There is evidence of smoke and heat, again left by some small explosion. Part of the ground looks a little charred, but grass directly around the area has suffered little or no damage. Some soil has been piled up, and it is plainly obvious that something has been 'going down' here.

The third picture is an expanded view of the second, and again does not show that much has happened here at all. There is smoke in evidence, but were you to take a quick glance at a place like this, you might consider at best that a small fire maybe gotten out of hand but has been put out.

OK. Time for the game. Looking only at the second and third pictures, can you spot anything in them that would lead you to believe that a full sized, twin engined Boeing airliner carrying passengers and luggage crashed here? If you are wondering why I am putting this question to you, the answer is simple.

These pictures are not just anyplace. These pictures are of the Shanksville, Pennsylvania Flight 93 crash site, taken not too long after the event. Have you ever seen an airplane crash site so devoid of wreckage? Cast you mind back to any news item where an airliner has crashed into a mountain, or anyplace other than the crash sites of September 11, 2001 and honestly tell me that they were the same as this.

The first picture of the smoke plume is so unlike any other emanating from a crashed airliner still with half of its fuel load onboard, and yet we are told that it was, and we are expected to believe what we are told. Do your eyes tell you the same story as you were fed at the time?

Flight 93, according to United Airlines, landed at Cleveland Airport a while after it apparently crashed at Shanksville.

If Flight 93 did NOT crash here, and did land where United believe it to have landed, then it follows that the passengers on board of Flight 93 did not perish at Shanksville either. So if they didn't die here, where was their place of execution.

More to the point, who were their executioners?

Time on the beach

While I waked along the beach today, a few words of Longfellow came to my mind:

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind

Thought of the day

Of all acts of man, repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

Thomas Carlyle

Next Time You Get Into Your Car..

.. think about what you are doing, or about to do.. the consequence can be tragic..

From Out Of The Mouths..

If ever you want a family secret made public, the one surefire way is to ensure that your kids overhear it. The innocence of youth precludes taking into account 'responsibility' and, in many ways, what kids say can be quite endearing but now and again, it can all go very wrong.

Take the case of the Matriarch and young son seeing off 'Pater'. All has not been well of late, but appearances are there to be kept, so the father gets into his car and backs out of the driveway, the matriarch waves just like everyday and half shouts 'Bye, see you later'. The young son follows up with 'Bye, loser'. No guesses for the source here.

It is a good thing that actions speak louder than words. In the next case, we have a Matriarch and young son who having been visiting grandparents, and are about to be met at the airport by 'Pater'. The final instruction to the young son before disembarking (no pun intended) was this. "Now, remember ... run to Dad first, THEN the dog."

Is it the same family? I am not telling..

The Answer Is Out There..

.. but is it the right answer, the answer we want to hear, or the answer that they want us to believe? The answer could be any combination of the three conditions.

OK. It's quiz time, but before you look at the questions, I would like you to view a video clip. If you live near an airport, or are a frequent flier, you will have seen something similar many times, but still take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEBNnJSq5KI

I will never cease to be impressed watching stuff like that. Now, you are ready to take the quiz. As with all questions, read them thoroughly, and not just once. Ensure that you understand each question before answering.

http://www.asile.org/citoyens/numero13/pentagone/erreurs_en.htm

So, how did you make out? 5 of 5? If you passed on any, I have some more for you to read and look through.

Some reading for you.. http://www.freedomfiles.org/war/pentagon.htm

.. and another video clip to watch.. http://www.pentagonstrike.co.uk/flash.htm#Main

For more on that day, visit our video bar in the basement, the second of the two.

The events of that day have changed the lives of everybody on the planet. There were events that happened behind the scenes before that day still begging the question "why did they do that?". There were events that happened after the initial strikes that beg the same question. If you come to the conclusion that I did, you are most probably scared too.

If all of the above was staged to get us 'in the mood' to accept the now discredited propaganda that took us to war with Saddam Husseins Iraq, it most surely worked. The worst is that it could work again, and maybe you or somebody you know will be on the next death roll.

Beef Wellington.. fit for a Duke..

An introduction:

Some say it was his favorite meal, and others claim it resembled the boots that he wore. Whatever the case may be, the Duke of Wellington has a grand dish named after him, which became the entertaining extravaganza of the 1960s.

Ingredients:

• a 3 1/2-pound fillet of beef tied with thin sheets of larding fat at room temperature
• 3/4 pound mushrooms, chopped fine
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 pound pâté de foie gras (available at specialty foods shops) at room temperature
• 1 pound puff paste or thawed frozen puff pastry plus additional for garnish if desired
• 1 large egg white beaten to an egg wash made by beating 1 large egg yolk with 1 teaspoon of water
• 1/2 cup Sercial Madeira2 teaspoons arrowroot dissolved in 1 teaspoon cold water
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped black truffles (available at specialty food shops) if desired
• watercress for garnish if desired

Preparation:

1. Roast the beef in the middle of a preheated 400°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the thermometer registers 120°F.
2. Let the fillet cool completely and discard the larding fat and the strings.
3. Skim the fat from the pan juices and reserve the pan juices.
4. In a heavy skillet cook the mushrooms in the butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until all the liquid they give off is evaporated and the mixture is dry
5. Season them with salt and pepper, cool completely.
6. Spread the fillet evenly with the pâté de foie gras, covering the top and sides, and spread the mushrooms evenly over the pâté de foie gras.
7. On a floured surface roll 1 pound of the puff paste into a rectangle about 20- by 12- inches, or large enough to enclose the fillet completely, invert the coated fillet carefully under the middle of the dough, and fold up the long sides of the dough to enclose the fillet brushing the edges of the dough with some of the egg white to seal them.
8. Fold ends of the dough over the fillet and seal them with the remaining egg white.
9. Transfer the fillet, seam side down to a jelly-roll pan or shallow roasting pan and brush the dough with some of the egg wash.
10. Roll out the additional dough and cut the shapes with decorative cutters. Arrange the cutouts on the dough decoratively, brush them with the remaining egg wash, and chill the fillet for at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours.
11. Bake the fillet in the middle of a preheated 400°F oven for 30 minutes, reduce the heat to 350°, and bake the fillet for 5 to 10 minutes more, or until the meat thermometer registers 130°F. for medium-rare meat and the pastry is cooked through.
12. Let the fillet stand for 15 minutes.
13. In a saucepan boil the reserved pan juices and the Madeira until the mixture is reduced by one fourth. Add the arrowroot mixture, the broth, the truffles, and salt and pepper to taste.

The recipe is for a party of eight. Bon appetite!

A Maintenance Nightmare..

Next time your power or telephone is not working,

.. spare a thought for the guy who has to fix it..

Thought of the day

When one dreams, it is a dream. When two dream the same, it is the beginning of a reality

A New Look..

What can be nicer than sitting in a park on a warm Sunday afternoon, or a walk in a forest, or watching the sun go down over an azure sea. Well, it's all about to change. As fossil fuel resources run low, and use of them becomes more of a criminal act due to their effect on the world's ecosystem, we have to find new ways to power our world.

Welcome to the new look Central Park and Brazilian Corn Forest. Yes folks, this is how everywhere is going to look. I just hope that yellow is your favorite color. If we can get enough corn planted quickly, our reliance on fossil fuel will be over, and we can worry about converting carbon dioxide to oxygen later. The trees do it now but there will be other ways for sure. Nobody will feel left out either, because there is a nice crop just suited to back yards, window boxes and hanging baskets called rapeseed, and it has the cutest little yellow flowers you ever did see.
For those of you who live near the ocean or desert, your world will not be so yellow, and people in mountainous regions may even get to keep a few trees. Give a big welcome to your new noisy neighbors. If anybody told you that a high pole carrying a generator and three very large variable pitch blades was anything other than noisy, they were having you on, but you have to admit that they do look very high tech.


For the fauna and flora that we have grown to love so much over the centuries, it's a time for a quiet adios. We loved it, but it is just no use to anything anymore. Anyway, all we have to do is subscribe to the History Channel, and we will be able to watch movies of forests and all of the animals in high definition.

So bring on the yellow, whooshing world. We have a gas tank to fill.

The End of Freedom..

If you are not with us, you are against us. Us over here and you over there. Do not worry about the 'like I care' people in the middle. They say to us 'well, you know what the people over there are like'. They probably say it to you too. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us. Yes, we know that you are saying the very same thing, but we count for more than you. Our beliefs are better and more worthy than yours. The 'like I care' people in the middle say anything just to be liked. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us. Our color is more important than your color. The 'like I care' people in the middle are all colors and mixed colors. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us. We have more guns than you have. The 'like I care' people in the middle won't back you up because they don't like guns. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us. We have more people who hate you than you have people who hate us. The 'like I care' people in the middle say that they don't hate anybody, but they hate us and they hate you because you and we try to tell them what to think. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us........

This is what happens to the 'like I care' people in the middle..

Thought of the day

The most beautiful future will always depend on the need for forgetting the past. You will not be able to go from the past in life as long as you will not have overcome the errors of the past and all that hurt you.

We Just Don't Learn, Do We..

Seventy two million people died as a result of World War II. Half of the dead were civilians, killed either directly by being bombed or shot, and indirectly by starvation. Despite history documenting that nobody ever wins, and with each nation attempting to justify 'what happened and why', nations, religions, factions are still propagating war. Up until 1990, the Memorial for Peace in Caen (Normandy, Northern France) had documented a further seventy five events that could be classified as a war, all taking place AFTER WWII.

Recent declassified information amassed by US Intelligence has revealed that a war not unlike what we see now was to be expected.

Some people are not reading their history books. Some people seem to be under the impression that they are above all of their predecessors in history, that somehow they can win where all others have lost. Some people need to re-assess their own abilities before once more millions of people needlessly lose their lives. Many already have.

Are you listening?

The Runner..

A messenger boy was told to relay the following message to HQ by his commanding officer. The message was simple enough.

"Send reinforcements, we are going to advance"

The boy set off into the darkness, eager to do his duty, running almost as fast as the wind. He fell several times along the way, bruising and cutting himself, and finally arrived looking a little the worse for wear. He was offered time to clean up, but he insisted that the message be relayed immediately.

Still somewhat breathless, he was taken to the General. He stood to attention, saluted, and then blurted out the message.

"Send three and fourpence, we are going to a dance"

Sand and Stone..

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:

'Today my best friend slapped me in the face.'

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath.
The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

'Today my best friend saved my life.'

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "after I hurt you,
you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The other friend replied "when someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.

Leishmaniasis..

Every day, I get news from an RSS feed. Every day, I see some report about a person or group of people who are needlessly suffering. From the many pictures I could have picked, this one seemed the most poignant. It was taken back in 2002, and shows a seven year old Afghan girl suffering from a disease called Leishmaniasis. It is spread by sand flies, and is a direct result of bad sanitation. Take a good look. This is no freak show picture. This is a seven year old Afghan girl, called Mohboba, sitting against a bullet riddled wall, awaiting treatment at a clinic close by, her face badly disfigured. Even if the disfigurement didn't hurt, can you imagine the psychological damage that she must have?

This could be your little girl, but aren't you glad that your daughter doesn't look like this? Can you see any joy in Mohboba's eyes? Do you think that she has ever had the joy of opening a present, watching a Disney movie, going out on an Easter egg hunt? She doesn't go to sleep at night to the sound of a lullaby sung by her mother. This little girl hears gunfire and bomb blasts. Can you see the wall behind her? She looks this way because some idiots decided that war was more important. She is a casualty of greed and power. She is one of a long line of people who have had to grow up in a war torn hell hole. The people who make the decision to go to war don't live on her street. They make sure of that.

This is what happens when somebody decides that their 'god' is better, more worthy than somebody else's.

By the way, the disease is curable, but much of the disfigurement stays.

What a mess..

The 'surge' in Iraq is looking more like backwash. A town in Kansas was almost entirely wiped out by a tornado. Thirty two people were shot dead on the Virginia Tech campus. A British driver ended up parking a Mercedes SLK in a river, courtesy of directions given by the built in GPS navigation system. Canada was accused of having 'spy' money in circulation, a novelty colorized 'quarter' suspected of having layered nanotechnology affixed to it.

Growing the crop to enable enough Ethanol to replace gasoline will see millions of acres of forest possibly disappear. Global warming will see more than a few animals consigned to extinction, and wholesale changes to the way that millions presently live. Petfood was found to be contaminated to the point where almost all had to be removed from sale, and once again, animal feed used by farmers has come under scrutiny because it too was found to be contaminated, and had most likely found it's way into the human food chain.

France welcomed the newly elected President by rioting in the streets, and a wingless Boeing 737 was left parked on a busy street in Mumbai after the driver lost his way and decided to run off.

Welcome to civilization!!

The Twilight Zone..

The oceans of the world are amazing places, where all kinds of weird forms exist. It is said that all terrestrial life started off in the oceans, some having crawled out a very long time ago, and plant life by virtue of the fact that some got used to being above the surface in air. The color and diversity of sea life is almost beyond comprehension.

We create environments where we can watch and study fish, in bowls, tanks, aquariums and sea-quariums, but we can't see everything in this way because some are too large, and those that aren't require very deep water indeed.

Watching fish can be quite relaxing, as they glide around in three dimensions, and even the not so pretty are fascinating, like Conger eels, Stonefish and the Octopus. The rest we have to see on TV, brought to us by submersibles that can descend way further than any diver with a camera. One has to be prepared though, because some of the real deep sea creatures are just not pretty at all.

Three examples here are the Angler Fish (top left), the ViperFish (middle right), and the Fangtooth (middle left). All three are active predators that either wait for food to fall to their level or rise at night to where live food is more plentiful. You will be pleased to know that they live deeper than 200 metres so don't panic when splashing about where shore meets water, not however applicable to the Stonefish. It doesn't bite, but is armed with highly poisonous spines, and it lurks in the shallows of tropical waters.

For the sea fisherman, rules change a little, and sometimes he may come face to face with a denizon of the deep as in the last picture, where both fisherman and Giant Squid were sharing prey.

Whatever became of Renaissance Man?

This is a town in Tuscany, Italy, and it looks like many other towns in that area. A pretty place, yes? It has a claim to fame that will be more obvious when I tell you the name of the town which is fairly close to Firenze (Florence). This is the town of Vinci. Not far from this place was born (1452) the man we know as Leonardo Da Vinci (Leonardo of Vinci). No, it was not a family name. He is known as Renaissance Man, but he was not the only person with that title. There were one or two others who displayed that same kind of talent across a wide range of subjects, but maybe not to the degree of Leonardo.

He wasn't just multi talented, but regarded as a genius, and not only in his day, but for centuries after. His most famous achievements were in art, he being the procurator of the 'Mona Lisa', and 'The Last Supper', but he was also a skilled engineer among other things. He made drawings of more than a few things, laying down a variety of principles, one being that of the helicopter. Yet this man received little credit for much of his work, albeit mostly unpublished at the time, and left surprisingly little art, despite being one of the all time greats in the same league as Michelangelo.

So what was the 'Renaissance'? Basically, it was a revivalist movement in the period between the 14th and 17th century, primarily in Italy but across Europe generally, dedicated to classical culture, invention, science, and the pursuit of knowledge. Leonardo Da Vinci was a major player almost at the beginning of the period. Notwithstanding the fact that the Renaissance came to something of a stop after the 17th century in favor of going to war for gains that were and still remain in the abstract dimension, is there still such an animal as Renaissance Man?

The 19th century saw the Industrial Revolution take over. This was no renaissance, more a quantum leap in engineering, and it saw the rise of many great men, only this time there was much more a leaning towards specialization in one field. So, did Renaissance Man go the way of the dinosaur, becoming just one more entry in the book of time?

Absolutely NOT!! Renaissance Man is alive and well, and he/she lives in suburbia, relatively unknown, no particular claim to greatness, and he/she can fix the car, the computer, the plumbing, the stove, the hairdryer, the mower and a whole host of other things, and in his/her spare time designs custom mouse traps for the garage, plays stuff on a guitar or keyboard, helps the kids set up all of the Halloween stuff up outside. And unlike Leonardo, he/she also has a full time job, working in an office, foundry, factory, store, park, forest, mine, school, hospital, or Emergency Services.

You can't be much more talented than Renaissance Man/Woman 2000..

Caveat Emptor..

.. or put more simply, 'BUYER, BEWARE'

When you go into a store to buy something, how much do you know about the product you intend to buy? What criteria do you apply to your purchase? Are you looking for the best, or do you think that 'value' is the primary consideration? When faced with a list of features, have you really thought about which are most important to you and which, if any, can be sacrificed?

At the auto dealer showroom, you can look around a vehicle, sit in it, open everything up, go for a test drive. In all probability, you will be looking at the top of the range model on display which has every option and embellishment, and the model you pick may not have the leather seats, GPS mapping, or extra driving lights, but you have a good idea of what you are getting for the outlay. There are some things you simply can't tell by looking, one of them being how you will feel after maybe driving for 500 miles in one session!

You can still get caught out is the point here. If you went into a showroom looking for a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and came out with a Jeep Liberty, I hope you tipped the salesman well because he did a great job on you. When you walked out of the dealer showroom, did you take a look down the side to see how many unsold silver 'great deal' Jeep Libertys were sitting for the last six months in all kinds of weather?

The computer store is also a showroom, but here you will find a range of products for the most part looking very similar in exterior appearance. They will all have the same Operating System installed, and the display on the screen will look the same. Nobody will show you the inside because there is little point really. A circuit board is a circuit board to the uninitiated. So is the 'shouter' card in front of each unit. Most understand what is written on the cards as much as they understand the list of ingredients on the side of a food package. What the hell is all of this crap?

Best talk to a salesperson, eh. They will know. From a management stand point, a great computer salesperson is not judged by what he/she knows about the product. It is all about the ability to talk the potential purchaser into leaving the store with a purchase. Why doesn't it matter that the salesperson knows much? Simply put, there is a 99% chance that the purchaser knows a whole lot less.

I stood in a store one time and heard a salesperson talk a potential purchaser into buying a system that in no way, shape or form would do what the customer wanted, based upon the fact that the customer did not have much to spend and knew less than Jack about computers. He just knew what he wanted the computer to do. The salesperson outright lied about the capability of the machine, and he must have known that he was lying because, if he had been trained or knew anything at all about using computers, he could not have honestly fed the customer with crap.

The salesperson would have gotten commission for the sale, but the customer's woes were only just starting. I have no doubt that there would follow multiple calls to some idiot in a call center, each call generating commission for the operators.

Regardless of what you purchase today, or any day, do your research. Talk to people who really know about stuff, not somebody who is paid just to sell. If you see a 'good deal' or the salesperson keeps trying to steer you to a particular product, ask yourself the following questions.

1. Will the product do what I want and expect it to do for a reasonable period?
2. Is the product about to be replaced by something that I might desire more?
3. Is the store/garage trying to dump a product that is overstocked and has been declared useless by magazine reviews?

Do not rely on the integrity of the salesperson who is most likely under pressure to sell what he is told to sell or face dismissal. Do your homework, and do it well because at the end of the day, it is your responsibility.

Good Luck..

England Expects..

.. that every man will do his duty. This does not appear to apply to the Captain and crew of F99, HMS Cornwall, all of whom seemingly sat and watched 15 members of the ships complement get taken by two small Iranian vessels.

I have to tell you that I am no advocate of war, especially this one being surely the most contrived war ever, but there are limits. We are told that the ship to be searched was 1.7 nautical miles within Iraqi waters. OK, not much of a margin for error, but where was HMS Cornwall? I have yet to see a news item that shows the position of the British Frigate. This ship was built in 1985 for use in the North Atlantic. It is just one ship in a once proud navy that truly did rule the waves. F99 is a commissioned warship of the British Royal Navy, not a cruise ship out for a jaunt in the sunny waters of the Gulf.

If radar can't detect the approach of small vessels, surely the ships watch would have maybe seen something. Radio contact? Helicopter cover? The 15 sailors are now getting bad press for the video shows put on for us all by the Iranians, but the blame for this really lies on board HMS Cornwall.

For the benefit of all, I will remind you of a message hoisted up the mizzen mast of HMS Victory on October 21, 1805, prior to a sea battle where the British Royal Navy, hopelessly outnumbered, managed to rout the combined Naval force of both France and Spain.

The Most Popular 'YouTube' Video..

It is easy enough to see why..

Beef Stroganov.. From Russia with Taste..

Beef Stroganov, as the name suggests, hails from 19th century Russia. It was popularized in China by those who escaped the Socialist Revolution of 1917, and subsequently made popular in other parts of the world by escapees from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Essentially, it is a dish based on sliced beef, but any meat can be used. In Brazil chicken is substituted, and in Northern Europe it is not uncommon to find types of sausage used. The simple truth is that you can use whatever you prefer. It is also a recipe that lends itself to easy production in large quantities.
This is the ingredient list:

• ½ pounds beef fillet, sirloin or porterhouse steak
• Salt, ground black pepper to taste
• 3 Tbs butter
• 2 Tbs Olive Oil
• 1 Tbs four
• 1 can of drained button mushrooms (the liquid of the mushroom maybe used for thinning the sauce if necessary)
• 1 cup beef broth or canned consommé
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
• ¼ cup sour cream, more can be used according to taste

.. and this is how you prepare it:

1. Remove all fat and grizzle from meat, cut into narrow strips about 2" long and half an inch long, season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. In a saucepan, add the olive oil and then melt 1½ Tablespoons of butter, add the flour and stir with a wire whisk or wooden spoon until well blended, heat the consommé and add all at once to the flour/butter mixture (called a roux), stir until well blended and add the mustard.
3. In a separate saucepan heat the remaining butter, add the meat and brown quickly all around.
4. Add the sour cream to the sauce and heat well, constantly stirring.
5. Add the mushrooms.
6. Pour the sauce over the meat, adjust salt and pepper according to taste. Stir it reasonably well.

It would traditionally be served on a bed of rice or noodles, but would be as fine a treat with potatoes, Duchess perhaps, and green vegetables.

Please note that your finished product may not look exactly like the picture.

Trains and Records..

TGV V150 of the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer), France's national railway system, has set a new record of 357.4 mph on track between Paris and Strasbourg. The engine was uprated to 25000 hp, and larger wheels were fitted for the attempt. It was hoped that the record set by a Japanese MagLev train of 361 mph could have been equalled or broken, but unfortunately fell just short of the target. Unfortunate it may have been, but when one considers that it was running on rails, and picking up off of an overhead Catenary wire, overcoming all of the friction induced by the rails, wire and air, it was a huge achievement. The French are not new to rail speed records, having first set the record back in the '60's for electric locomotives on specially prepared track between Paris and Lille. Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain and Japan all have their own high speed railway networks, proving that there is still life in the railroad.

There is a speed record which has never been broken, that of a steam hauled train. On July 3rd, 1938, the London North Eastern Railway LNER 4468 Mallard, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, set a record of 126 mph. Notice that the front end design has not changed too much!

One more record that deserves a mention is that of the 'Rocket', designed by George Stephenson. In the year 1829, there was a competition for all railway locomotive builders. It was called the Rainhill Trials, and was sponsored by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials successfully, weighing just less than 6 tons while pulling a 20 ton load at a speed of 10 mph. It became the railway locomotive to haul the very first passenger service.

I Can Read this. Can You?

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Three Lakes..

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

This is Lake Windemere, Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is the largest of the lakes that make up the most beautiful and enchanting 'Lake District'. The opening words to this piece were written by William Wordsworth, and this was 'his' country. You can tell that he loved the area, you can see the flowers and you can hear the breeze. This is an area where love can flourish.

Not too far away from here there is another lake. No romantic name this time, I am afraid. It is known as B30, and it contains 1.3 million tonnes of Plutonium. Nobody is quite sure what happens at the bottom of B30, but there are no fish, and birds landing on its surface have to be shot for fear of spreading radiation. Apparently, B30 has leaks and the authorities say that this is to be expected with a tank 50 years old. Did I forget to tell you that it is a tank? B30 is not like Lake Windemere in any way at all. This is as good a picture of B30 as you will ever want to see. This lake is part of the Sellafield Nuclear complex.

Across the world, is another lake up in the mountains of the Ukraine. This lake is no B30 in appearance. It is more akin to Lake Windemere, except that it, like B30 is one of the most radioactive sites in the world. It is Lake Karachai, and is in close proximity to the old USSR Mayak weapons plant. I could find no picture of this lake, but I do remember seeing a picture years ago. It was not a pretty picture like the one of Lake Windemere.

You will not find love in or around either of these lakes. The contents are what is left of fear, mistrust, and hatred. Nothing good ever comes out of those feelings. Nothing good ever can.

Here are two links relating to B30 and Lake Karachai..

http://www.logtv.com/films/chelyabinsk/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3877343.stm

A Police Officer Pulls Over A Speeding Car

The officer says, " I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir."

The driver says, "Gee, officer I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating." Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: "Now don't be silly dear, you know that this car doesn't have cruise control." As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, "Can't you please keep your mouth shut for once?

The wife smiles demurely and says, "You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did." As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, "Dammit, woman, can't you keep your mouth shut?

"The officer frowns and says, "And I notice that you're not wearing your seat belt, sir. That's an automatic $75 fine." The driver says, "Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket."The wife says, "Now, dear, you know very well that you didn't have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you're driving." And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket, the driver turns to his wife and barks, "WHY DON'T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??

"The officer looks over at the woman and asks, "Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma'am?"

The wife says "Only when he's been drinking."

Blog Writer's thought of the day

Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough, but not baked in the same oven; a Yiddish proverb

The Hunt Is On..

"Better to be poor and have health, than be rich and have none"

Have you ever come across a more loaded statement than the one above? How many times have you heard somebody say something similar? Nobody wants to be poor in any sense of the word. It is a get-out statement used by those who are not exactly desperately poor, but are not in a position to ever get rich.

There were two things that always immortalized poor for me. Poor Brits invariably had three 'porcelain' Mallard ducks, in loose flight formation, hanging on one wall of their houses, and a picture known as the 'Blue Lady' hanging on another. The 'Blue Lady' had Oriental features, and wore a yellow outfit of the type seen in Japan. Her face was blue, hence the name, and she had quite the most un-Oriental hairdo. The picture was produced by the thousand, and had zero value, material or aesthetic. Rich people prefer the classic oil painting, and in place of the flying ducks, a fine 'real porcelain' or alabaster column atop which sits the 'bust' of Genghis Khan perhaps.

It matters not that all of them were probably produced by some poor, overbearing drunken old faggot, who by virtue of his/her countenance was probably out of work more than he/she were ever in. And on the subject of poor and art, poor old Michelangelo was threatened with death unless he did a darned good job on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The same applied to the great composers of 'classical' music, all of them having to come up with something better for the birthday party of some drunken old Duke who wanted to upstage his rivals.

Somebody once said that the real difference between rich and poor was that being rich enabled one to eat better. How true!! Everybody appreciates a good hearty meal, except for the nitpicking, finicky mob who are invariably the same people who see more merit in the smile of the 'Mona Lisa' than that of the 'Blue Lady'.

We all search for our personal 'Holy Grail'. The question is this. What does it look like? Is it a beautifully handcrafted, jewel encrusted chalice, or is it just a simple wooden drinking vessel? Does it really matter? Surely the promise that it can bring eternal joy, happiness, or whatever is enough. Can a simple wooden drinking vessel ever be worth as much as the beautifully handcrafted, jewel encrusted chalice? Not if owned by you or me perhaps, but were it the one in which some famous movie star kept his/her teeth, then it may be.

What strange values we place on objects, and were it that it was only limited to objects. So very often, it also applies also to our fellow man/woman.

ET Phone Home..

From the point where you are standing, nowhere on this planet is further away than 12,000 miles. It seems like a long way, yet the world is very much a global village these days. Television, satellite transmissions, video conferencing and e-mail can bring all four corners of the globe right onto the screen you are looking at now. It is a small world. The photograph on the right shows just how small. This is one of the famous three pictures of 'Earthrise', and is seen here as originally aligned.

And if you think that is small, compare our relative size to some of the other babies in our Solar System. Note that size is relative, and not distance. We are the third rock from the left.

Our Sun is 93,000,000 miles away from us, and Pluto is at a distance of 3573,000,000 miles. The nearest star to our Solar System is Proxima Centauri, the smallest of a three star group known as Alpha Centauri. This group is 4.3 light years distance away, where one light year represents 5,865,696,000,000 miles.

We see Alpha Centauri as it 'was' 4.3 years ago. Incidentally, we believe that the Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light years away from us!
All of the above is truly awe-inspiring, but what I find so strange is that we know more about space than we do about what is in our oceans and forests.

All distances approximate..

How to Brew a Cup of Green Tea, and more..

Producing the perfect cup of green tea is a tricky process. If not handled properly, those same polyphenols that provide health benefits can ruin the flavor, making the tea taste "gassy." It's particularly important not to over-brew. While it's best to follow the manufacturer's instructions for each variety of green tea, here are some general instructions:

1. Use one tea bag, or 2 - 4 grams of tea per cup (one to two teaspoons, depending on the variety of green tea you are brewing).
2. Fill a kettle with cold water and bring to a boil.
3. After unplugging the kettle, allow it to stand for up to 3 minutes.
4. Pour the heated water over the tea bag or tea, and allow it to steep for up to 3 minutes. If using a tea bag, remove the bag.
5. Allow the tea to cool for three more minutes.

OK, so now you know how to do it. Let us move on to why you should do it.

Green tea is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate which is a powerful anti-oxidant. It inhibits the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. It is also effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots. The formation of abnormal blood clots is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke. Green tea consumption can help with:

• cancer
• rheumatoid arthritis
• high cholesterol levels
• cardiovascular disease
• infection
• impaired immune function

Red wine contains an anti-oxidant called resveratrol, a polyphenol that limits the negative effects of smoking and a fatty diet. The French and Spanish like their red wine, and it has served them well. There is far less incidence of health problems related to an over-rich diet in France, the home of over-rich food, than there is in the USA.

Smoking is almost a national pastime in France, Spain and Japan, and yet the health related problems in these countries are substantially lower than almost anywhere else.

There are a few web sites that cover the above topic. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. I will say this though. Of all the places I have travelled, I have seen less amounts of obviously infirm people in France or Spain than I have seen anywhere else. I have not travelled the Orient, so do not have first-hand experience of the area, but I understand that people there live to be older and healthier a whole lot more than in other parts of the world.

An Austrian Dessert - Linzer Torte

Kaffee-Trinken is a social ritual at a Konditorei, Kaffeehaus, or in the relaxed atmosphere of one's own living room around a Kaffeetisch laid with flowers and the hostess's elegant porcelain especially designed for such cherished afternoon get-togethers. What better than to serve up this most delicious pastry.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 sticks butter plus 1 tablespoon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, star anise)
• 1 egg
• 5 ounces of hazelnuts, toasted and ground
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup raspberry jam (or your favorite type of jam)

Directions

1. In a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and add honey, zest, cinnamon and spices. Continue mixing for one more minute. Scrape down the sides and add egg. Mix again until well blended.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together. On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture and continue to mix until a dough is formed.
3. Remove the dough from the mixer, wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
4. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with wax or parchment paper. Remove dough from the refrigerator and divide in two. Dredge the work surface with flour and with a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/2-inch thick, forming a 12-inch circle. This will be for the bottom of the torte. Line the bottom and sides of the prepared cake pan with the circle.
5. For the top of the torte, use the second half of dough, roll it to 1/2-inch thick to create a 9-by-12-inch rectangle. Refrigerate both the top and bottom for about 20 minutes.
6. Remove from refrigerator and fill bottom half with raspberry jam.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
8. Create a lattice with the rectangular piece of dough by cutting 12 9-inch strips. (Use a piece of cardboard to build the lattice to make it easy to slide the lattice onto the bottom of the torte.) Slide the lattice onto the jam-filled bottom. Fold the edges of the dough up and over the top of the torte.
9. 9. Bake in oven for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown.

For a holiday accent, sprinkle with confectioners sugar. And of course, Linzer Torte is always served with whipped cream!

Fantastisch!

Cats, and yet more cats..

Anybody visiting this blog will have noticed that there are more than a few pictures of cats. They are intriguing creatures in that they all look very cute and cuddly when small, growing to be the most regal of animals in later life. All cats, regardless of size, have very similar structure and behaviour, are carnivorous, and have amazing control over movement and senses. The only determining factor in where a cat can or can't go is it's size.

Of the 'big' cats, only four can roar. The Tiger, largest of all cats, prefers forested areas and is an adept swimmer. The Jaguar lives in dense tropical rain forest, is also an adept swimmer, and can run as fast through forest as a Lion can manage on the open plain. The Leopard is an extraordinarily adept climber, and has to be to avoid being picked off by Lions. The Lion differs from the other three in that it lives and hunts in social 'prides' and it requires open spaces with some cover in which to hunt.

Cheetahs, like Lions, need wide open spaces with some cover, and are the fastest of all land animals. The Cougar lives in mountainous country, ranging from Canada way down into South America, having the largest range of any big cat. It can climb, jump, swim very well, and is known to be able to jump well enough to catch birds in flight! Medium sized cats include the Lynx and Bobcat, living in forested areas and both good snow hunters. The Ocelot, Caracal and Serval make up the medium numbers, living in forested areas mainly, and are most closely related to the original 'cat'

Now we come to the real stars, the Domestic cats. Long and short haired, some with no hair at all, they come in all shapes, sizes and coloring. They have every attribute of their larger cousins, yet remain cute throughout their lives. They are aloof, next to untrainable, and can more or less go where they please. They see humans as servants, and everything else as entertainment.

Cats can operate as well in the dark as in daylight. It is not true that cats can see in total darkness, but they have enough other acute senses to make up for lack of vision. It is even said that they can pick up vibrations with their eyes, They are all essentially wild, making the decision at an individual level as to how well they will co-exist with humans.

Cats have very little fear of anything particular, which can make for a very amusing house pet, and a very dangerous and unpredictable predator. Even so, people directly involved in the study of cats in the wild have had incredible bonding with some of the larger types. Large or small, the cat is a silent, stealthy and very graceful hunter. It embodies grace and power like no other land animal, and continues to entrance all with whom it contacts.

A Tale of Two Peas..

Once upon a time there was a mad rush to eat peas. Not any old peas mind you. These were special peas in that they were picked early. Approximately three inches long these early pickings were known as 'Mangetout' in Europe and 'Sugar Snaps' in North America. So what was wrong with the standard pea? This rhyme sums it all up..

"I eat my peas with honey
I've done it all my life
It makes the peas taste funny
But it keeps them on the knife! "

The British developed the art of mixing in peas with copious amounts of mashed potatoes. Youngsters added Tomato Ketchup for reasons only known to themselves. Gravy was often thickened to the point where it would hold peas together in molecular forms, while others would try to balance peas on top of whatever else was on the fork. From serving to eating peas were messy. But of all vegetables peas are the most universally accepted. Even the most ardent vegetable hater can usually manage peas.

There was a minor revolution starting in the 1970's and '80's. This was the era of 'Nouvelle Cuisine' where food had to be light and tickle the taste buds. It had to be visually appealing too. Paté transformed from the usual murky brownish colours to something akin to Neapolitan ice cream. Thick gravy was replaced by 'sauces', delicately applied with 'icing bags'. Tomato Ketchup was a no-no and the majority of vegetables were far too ugly to adorn a plate of this new style cooking.

All of course, except for the venerable pea. Not loose peas rolling around uncontrollably, landing on table cloths, the laps of diners, and the floor. This was a new pea, a young pea, so young that it could not easily be removed from it's pod, but still having the fresh, light taste of a good podded pea. Peas without all of the mess. Peas that could be arranged in pretty patterns.

Anyway, a supermarket chain in the UK was employing Africans in various villages to grow and pick these 'new' peas. Nouvelle Cuisine had popularized these things to the point where it was the 'in' thing to eat with almost any meal. The Africans were so pleased with getting paid for growing and picking these peas, that they made up a song such that every time Mr Tesco (a company representative actually, but they cared not) paid them a visit, they would perform it along with normal tribal dances.

Then one day, Mr Tesco arrived and told them that they would only get paid for peas of a certain length because equal sized peas looked better in the customer packaging. They still sang their song, not fully understanding the implications of demands being made. When it came time to pack the harvest most of the peas were not acceptable, and the people of the villages were hardly paid a 'bean' for their efforts. The words to the song were quickly rewritten, and instead of reflecting praise and adulation for Mr Tesco, the words gave some ideas as to what Mr Tesco could do with the peas, regardless of size.

At about the same time, diners were also getting tired of paying big bucks for tidbits of food and hellishly over-priced table wine. The honeymoon was finally over. The 'new' peas can still be seen in food stores, but only the more adventurous still eat them. Like fries they are more easily eaten by hand, being too thin for a fork to get a hold. They are positively disgusting when eaten with honey, and they do not mix well in mashed potatoes. Mangetout are the last vestige of an attempt at healthy eating that went seriously wrong way back in some African villages.

Words of a Wise Man..

"We did not ask White Men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. We do not interfere with you, and again you say, why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization. We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them."

------------------------

"A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky. I was hostile to the white man. We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers came and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came. They say we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape but we were so hemmed in we had to fight."

These are just a few words from the man known as Tashunkewitko to his people, the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, and Crazy Horse to the rest of the world. Born circa 1842, he was killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in 1877.

Blog Writer's 'Motto of the Day'

Life is short; Break the rules,

Forgive quickly; Kiss slowly,

Love truly; Laugh uncontrollably,

And never regret anything that made you smile

Famous Walls..

The longest wall is the Great Wall of China. It is a little over 4000 miles in length, and is the largest construction project undertaken by man. A survey was carried out a few years ago, and it was determined that only 30% of the wall still remains intact. Many of the current pictures seen of the wall show the parts made of stone, but some was built of earth and timber, essentially whatever materials were handy to the site, and have fared less well. The entire structure was built to keep the Huns at bay, and had forts and towers along its length. It is has been in existence for over 2000 years.

Across the other side of the world is another defensive wall. Hadrians Wall is 78 miles in length, and was constructed to keep the tribes at bay of what is now Scotland. Like the China Wall, large sections of it are missing, mostly due to the stone being used for local building projects. After the evacuation of all things Roman, the locals had no thoughts about preserving it, seeing the entire length as a material store. This wall is a little under 2000 years old.

The two walls are unique in their way, yet share a common raison d'être, and even common construction methods. There are, however, walls that are truly something else. They are not defensive walls, just walls as you might find in any room.

The picture to the right is one of many decorated walls to be found in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt. These tombs date from as early as 1539 BC, almost 3,500 years old. The effort that had been put into not only the general construction of the tombs, but the decoration too, is awe inspiring.

There is one wall for which we do not have a picture. It could actually be any wall in a castle or Manor House. The kind of wall I describe here is not to keep people out. It is specifically constructed to keep people, or a person, in. The type of person who may be contained by this wall would invariably have been female, and relatively young, in her teens or early twenties perhaps.

She would have made the mistake of getting romantically involved with a man deemed to be an enemy of her family, or maybe a man born below her position in life. The unfortunate female would be given a chair, and a small quantity of food and water. The wall would be constructed around her very quickly and very well. She would also have known the men who constructed the wall, as they would have been workers employed by her parents on the family estate.

From behind this wall, no cries or screaming would be heard. The building of this wall would preserve the integrity of her family forever. One doubts that any female would willingly agree to an end such as this. The wall that I describe is the 'Wall of Silence'.

And believe me, walls of this type were no myth.

A Couple of Observations..

This is a reference to the recipe for a simple, easy to prepare, yet very tasty meal, Shrimp Creole. For those not 'au fait' with some terminology, I will explain.

The term 'Creole' as understood in the Southern US is an English word derived from the Castillian-Spanish and French words 'criollo' and 'crèole' respectively. Creole people are essentially those born of either Spanish or French parentage in a Spanish or French colony. Creole people tend to try to hold on to their ancestral heritage by whatever means, and cuisine is but one facet.

Creole is also a term used in other parts of the world, and has now become the way of describing anybody born in a colony, essentially a person of such mixed heritage as makes it impossible to determine exact and original roots.

Now to the second observation.

You may notice that there is reference to a sauté pan in the recipe. A sauté pan is a shallow sided cooking pan where the sides of the pan are vertical to the base, and the base is heavy (often copper) and very flat in order that heat distribution across the base is as even as possible.

Frying pans have sloped sides such that food can be moved around in and out of the high temperature zone in the middle of the pan. The most extreme version of the frying pan is the 'Wok' used in the preparation of Oriental cuisine.

Note that in the US, the word 'skillet' is used. This has become a generic term for all of the pans mentioned.

Shrimp Creole..

This is a popular and easy Southern US dish.

Ingredients required..

• 2 lb shrimp, shelled and de-veined
• 3 red peppers, cut into pieces
• 3 onions, cut into small pieces
• 3 large tomatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
• ¼ cup of good olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and white pepper
• Chopped parsley
• Enough boiled rice to serve 4

.. And this is how you prepare it..

1. Heat the oil in a sauté pan
2. Add onions and cook until golden
3. Add peppers, cook until soft, about 10 minutes
4. Add the tomatoes, heat and stir until hot enough to add the shrimps
5. Keep stirring until shrimps are cooked, about 2 minutes
6. Adjust flavor with salt and pepper
7. Sprinkle with parsley
8. Serve in a dish along with the rice and soy sauce and plenty of French bread to soak up the delicious sauce.

Enjoy..

A Restaurant for the Brave..

Hilton have opened a new restaurant called 'Ithaa'. I know what you are thinking, because the very same thought passed through my mind too. 'Who cares'? Unless it is within easy driving distance, I don't go there, and this one most definitely isn't just down the road from me. It is at the Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa, Rangali Island in the Maldives.

Of course, distance is not the only barrier. This is no 'tuxedo and bow tie' establishment or, for that matter, casual dress. This is 'scuba gear and flippers' dress if you ask me. The restaurant is 16 feet below sea level, access gained by a spiral staircase. If you don't kill yourself just getting into it, your waiter or waitress could while trying to get the various courses to you.

They say that the menu is typical of high class city 'joints', but that the view will probably take your mind off of the food anyway. Excuse me? It would take more than a few fish and a five star menu to take my mind off looking for leaks.

This restaurant is reputed to have cost $5 million, and it only seats 14 at any one time! Somebody should have told them that it would be possible and cheaper to build a 14 seat diner on land, place four underwater cameras in a small glass bubble, and transmit the pictures to large plasma screens affixed to all of the walls.