Erica: June 2005 Archives

The development company in the Kelo case says to give up and shut up. You know, it could be that property rights advocates care more about what's right than what's law. Oh, and they also mention that those eminent domain "safe" states aren't so safe. Thanks for warning us.

So, yeah. If anyone (or a group of anyones) wanted to get me The Complete New Yorker Book and DVD Set, I totally wouldn't complain. (But get it from Amazon, boys and girls. $37 off is nothin' to shake a stick at.) Cleavage negotiable.

In case you hadn't had your fill of absurdist, super-cute antics for the day, here's Sam. In a tie. And a t-shirt. I convinced him to do this when I saw a picture of a guy pulling it off (rather more successfully than Sam's slap-dash attempt, I'm afraid.)

I think it's clear what he has to say on the matter. ^_^

Postscript: Sam's explanation for that (as Moof put it) stunning tie is this: he never has to worry about it clashing with anything, because it clashes with itself. That's my boy.

With this crazy-ass schedule we've got going, you probably think we spend our weekend relaxing. Nosiree - we spend our weekend grocery shopping, cooking and eating.

I cooked a yummy pot roast in the crock pot yesterday (Saturday); there's two nice big helpings of that left.

A(n almost) measurement free recipe for fantastic roast:

Cut up enough onion (in big chunks) to cover the bottom of the crock pot. Add a nice tall glass of water; no need to be exact. If you have it, add a splash of gin. (I use Tanqueray.) Throw in some chopped garlic. I use a rounded tablespoon, but my love for garlic is probably unmatched - at least, off the set of Buffy. Rip open a package of onion soup mix and add that in, too. Throw the roast in on top of the little onion-platform you made. This'll make sure it doesn't burn on the hot ceramic. You can throw it in frozen, and it won't do any harm. Set the crock pot to low, and walk away. Go outside. Visit a friend. Leave it alone for three or four hours, then come back. Chop up a bag of celery and a bag of carrots (again, big chunky slices are the way to go); toss them in on top, and pour on a glass of red wine. A cheap (but drinkable) merlot, about $5, works great. Turn the pot up to high and let her cook for another hour or two. Make sure to eat it at some point after this.

IMPORTANT: Never, ever cook with wine or liquor you wouldn't drink. It always comes out wrong. The one exception is beer; Sam likes Guinness, which doesn't work well in most recipes, but neither of us like the typical keg-beer, which works great for cooking chicken and turkey.

Today, I made the Evil White Chili of Doom, which met with Sam's approval even though he claims he's sick of soup. If you didn't believe me that I make a lot, check out the picture. That's Sam's third bowl plus the leftovers, after I had three bowls and Corby had two. The three gallon stock pot was about an inch from being completely full. I know y'all want the recipe, but I only give it away to people who come over and share some. (You have to taste it to know if you've got it right, hee!)

Oh, and there's a double-dish (like in the square tupperware in the picture) still in the fridge, full of the 15-bean soup I was raving about a few days ago. We should be good for the week, with the occasional slice of toast or turkey sandwich thrown in.

Senator Brown, It has come to my attention (via the Kelo vs. New London finding in the Supreme Court earlier this week) that while eight states (Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, South Carolina and Washington) forbid the use of eminent domain for economic development unless it is to eliminate blight, Nebraska does not. This is of grave concern to anyone in Nebraska who owns (or intends to own in the future) a home. Since the federal government clearly does not take property rights very seriously, it is time for Nebraska to step up and narrowly define eminent domain powers, and to protect the homes of its residents. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you introduce this issue in the legislature. Regards, Erica Tesla

(Read more about the Kelo vs. New London finding at the discussion area of SCOTUSblog.) Nebraskans: find your district (or check here if you're in Omaha, or here if you're in Lincoln. Then, find your senator, and email them. Let them know you care about eminent domain.

I'm totally jazzed. Now, before you join be in celebration, the subject line is not at all clever; I'm jazzed about beans. There's a company called HamBeens that makes a fantastic 15 bean soup. (It comes as dry beans and seasoning. Very cheap, great deal.) I was having some for lunch today, and I went to their website, and found out that they have great northern beans (and a related soup). Now, normally this would not be cause for any amount of elation, but I make this chicken chili that's just to die for (or at least, that's what everyone tells me). It gets kinda spendy, though, as all told it calls for 152 oz of great northern beans, which I can only find around here in cans at something like $2 per 19-oz can. Based on my calculations, I could use three or four 20-oz bags of dry beans (at about $2 a bag, still) and shave $8 or $10 off my chili recipe. (Incidentally, if you're reading this and thinking "who the hell needs 152 oz. of beans, keep in mind that this feeds Sam and I for something like a week, except for breakfast.) So anyway, this is a cause for great happiness - except they don't sell them around here. So I emailed HamBeens and asked them where I might be able to buy that variety, and not only are they willing to sell me cases of a dozen bags for $25 (including shipping), but they'd also be happy to send me a couple sample bags to see how the recipe works out with dry beans. (And they asked me to share the recipe, too.) Now, how cool is that? Most companies I know (food-wise, anyway) won't sell directly to consumers, and I can't think of a food company I've encountered that would send me free samples. Score one for HamBeens! (Oh, by the way - if you like beans but are worried about the, ahem, "adverse effects", take heart. Buying dry beans means you get to soak them yourself, and if you cold-soak them for longer as opposed to warm- or hot-soaking them shorter, it breaks down more of the gas-causing sugars. Or so I've read. It seems to work that way - we've had their original 15-bean soup (and leftovers) all week, with no problems.) (And now that I feel like an incredi-dork, I'm going to run off and take some international students to the doctor.)

I'm through seven days of summer madness - physics in the morning from 7:30 to 9:45am, physics lab in the afternoon from 3:00 to 5:20pm, and calculus in the evenings from 6:15 to 8:15pm (with Fridays off, for calculus). A physics test every Friday morning, a lab report (which take something like two to four hours to prepare) due every day, and calculus tests... whenever he (the professor) feels like it. Needless to say, I don't have time for much else. I do my homework between physics and physics lab; today I forgot to eat until 2:30pm, because I was trying to get the damn report done. One might wonder why I'm doing this to myself. The answer: the prerequisite flowchart for Architectural Engineering (my major) resembles nothing so much as a diagram to invoke Cthulu. If I don't have Calculus II, Physics I and Physics I lab (MATH 1960, PHYS 2110, and PHYS 1154, on that flowchart, respectively) finished by the end of summer, I can't take the series of courses prescribed by the flowchart. Since I'm behind a chemistry course, and because I'm already taking physics and calculus this summer, I thought I'd ease things by taking Physics II and Physics II lab (PHYS 2120 and PHYS 1164, respectively) in the five week session following this one. And you know, it's not as bad as all that. My physics professor is really awesome (which I'll get back to). All the physics tests are open-book (which doesn't quite help as much as it sounds like it might). My physics lab will be over in a week and a half (a full two weeks early). My calculus professor is out of town this week, so no class - and he's going to give us our first test as a take-home. This substantially lowers the stress. Still, those labs are a lot of work. It's all a lot of work. And it's all because of that flowchart. You know, if you squint your eyes and tilt your head, you might notice that there aren't any electives on there. Not any real electives, anyway. You know - they kind where you elect to take something you enjoy, without the nature of the course being dictated by someone else? The "electives" they have on there all have to fulfill at least one requirement - like, for example, your social science elective has to fulfill the U.S. Minority and Racial Studies (aka how to hate yourself if you're white) requirement. It looks suspiciously like a tech school. The only difference is, tech school kids graduate in two or three years. There's a year that doesn't even show up on that flowchart - a one year master's (which is what they sell it as, even though it's three semesters) is tacked on the end. You can't get licensed as an engineer without it. So, five and a half years of micromanaged existence. Hey, it's what I signed on for. I knew it, going in. I'd be fine with it - if I were enjoying the AE classes. The truth is, I'm not. At least - not yet. There's a chance that there are courses down the line, there'll be classes I enjoy. In particular, the lighting and acoustics classes in the last year, and the later social classes (microeconomics and a class on sensation and perception) look like fun. But you know what? I'm having fun right now. In my egg-head physics and calculus classes. After struggling last semester with calculus taught in a completely incomprehensible manner, I finally feel like I get it. My professor glared at me in that "you're too smart for your own damn good" way the other day when I integrated a problem in my head. It felt great. And I sit in physics class at 7:30am - 7:30am! - and the pieces fall into place, click, click, click. I feel like I'm learning again, and the stuff that I'm learning - I can see how I can use it down the road, and it excites me. Unlike a lot of the AE classes in my future. That's a very long prelude to what is probably a foregone conclusion for anyone who isn't up past their bedtime. I'm seriously - very seriously - considering switching majors, to physics. I had a discussion with my physics professor today, and the things he had to say made a lot of sense - not in the generic, high school counselor sort of way, but specifically they made sense to and for me. It's really easy to do just about anything with a physics degree. A lot of times you can say, "Lookee me! Physics degree!" and people will hire you for stuff that has nothing to do with physics, because a physics degree indicates mental discipline and analytical thought. And if you want to keep going with school - into engineering, for example - it's a lot easier to go the physics-to-engineering route than the other way around. It's the gist of the Paul Graham "staying upwind" argument - put off specialization as long as you can. Maximize your options by learning skills and hard ideas that are widely applicable, regardless of what happens tomorrow. (Computer science hasn't always been around, but those math nerds sure had a leg up on the competition when it all started, now, didn't they?) The question I asked my professor was, "What sort of career paths are open, with a physics degree?" He didn't want to go on and on and on, so he asked me what sorts of directions I might consider taking it. I gave him a couple of rather broad fields (sound and optics) as the things I found most intriguing, and he was off - dropping directions within those sub-fields that I'm actually interested in, myself. The fact that he narrowed in on my interests was very encouraging. Then there's the overall advantage of having a liberal arts education. Yeah - like the title suggests, there's an instinctive flinch whenever I come within two miles of the word liberal (I once used calamine lotion that exhorted me to "apply liberally"; I itched worse after using it). Goodness knows I've done my share of putting down the liberal arts experience as, well, fluffy. My opinions on the merits of learning a broad range of ideas have changed a lot over the past few years, though; I have a lot of fun (and see a lot of value in) learning even bad ideas. (They're still ideas, and the fact that someone takes them seriously teaches you valuable things about people.) Paul Graham suggests treating high school like a day job, and finding something you really enjoy to work at and invest yourself in. I suppose I realized at some point late in the spring that I was treating the AE stuff like a day job. And why? Because honestly, it doesn't stir much enthusiasm in me. I picked it because it seemed like the most marketable career move that I could make, limited to UNO for school. I didn't think they offered anything I could really get passionate about. I don't come home and have dirty thoughts about the Next Big Thing in structural engineering or bar joist fabrication. But maybe physics could be that. I do get rather excited when I read about the Next Big Thing in physics, after all. (String theory? I sure as hell don't understand it yet, but it seems awfully conceptually sexy. Branes? WTF? Yum, BRAAAAANES!) And since the physics department is much less likely to invoke fascists or Lovecraft's tentacle demons, maybe I can diversify a little, learn a broader subset of Everything, and enjoy college a little. I'm not going to let me sell myself short, based on some misguided idea that changing paths (or majors) equates somehow to failure. I'll keep you guys posted on what I decide. I'm going to be smart and at least not make a decision until after I'm done with Physics I. (Would hate to get another week in and find out I hate everything but the basics!)

Have you all heard about the X PRIZE? (I'd assume so, but you know what they say about assumptions - they make an ass out of u, and mption.) Alrighty, then. Did you know that 7 UP is giving away a free ride on one of the first commercial space flights? It's one seat, it's sub-orbital, and the fine print says you have to sign a waiver (and possibly, a lot more forms) emblazoned with the fact that acceptance of the prize includes HIGH RISK TRAVEL (because it's not just high risk travel, it's HIGH RISK TRAVEL). Knowing you couldn't go with your ( best friend | husband | wife | child | source of moral support ), that it is sub-orbital, and that it is in fact HIGH RISK TRAVEL - would you go? (I would!)

Gene change alters sex orientation in fruit flies

Altering a single gene in a fruit fly can turn its sexual orientation around, causing male flies to lose interest in females, and females to display male mating rituals to other females, according to a study published in the journal Cell on Friday.

Story tip-off via Avdi (link Googled; I don't like linking the NY Times.)

This has got to hurt.

PC World: The 100 Best Products of 2005: Naming the “100 Best Products of 2005,” PC World highlighted iPod photo, iTunes and the iTunes Music Store in the Consumer Electronics category, Mac mini as one of the best small PCs and Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger” as the best operating system, putting it into the number three slot on the top 100 products list. [Jun 02, 2005]

via Apple Hot News.

I'm sure you've all heard about the ever so scandalous homosexual pheromone studies. Actually, maybe you haven't. I didn't see anything about it on Instapundit, so who knows what the bloggy-world is saying about it. For those who are impatient or hate ABC News (I won't ask), the story is this: the brains of homosexual men have been found to respond similarly to heterosexual women, when exposed to male pheromones. (Analogous studies with lesbians and female pheromones are in the works, but not complete.) The gay-rights boys and girls are claiming this as a huge victory, clearly evidencing that homosexuality is a product of biology. I've also heard people on the other side saying that this proves nothing, with regards to whether homosexuality is a choice or a product of biochemistry. It could be a learned/trained response! they say. As far as the whole question of whether sexual preferences are determined at birth, the right is actually... well, right. The fact that gay guys get hot-'n'-bothered sniffing boy-pheromones only really says that yes, there is a biochemical facet to our attraction - which I don't think was really in dispute, anyhow. The question of whether sexual preferences are determined at birth is, in my very humble (in this case) opinion, fairly irrelevant, and silly, besides. For further information, ask a five-year-old boy if he likes girls. (In other words, we aren't sexually active at birth, so who gives a rip?) Anyway, here's an odd hypothetical question, and I'd really love to have y'all answer. Set aside questions of whether homosexuality is determined at birth or later, whether it's a choice or biochemistry or a combination. Say you've got a homosexual man who, for religious, psychological, or personal reasons - or say, any reason, wished to end his attraction to males and stimulate an attraction to females. Say this study, in this hypothetical universe, allowed advances in pheromone blocking and reception, much like anti-histimines, and such a thing were possible through drugs or some sort of medical treatments. (I am neither a biologist nor a doctor. Blame any and all bad science on reading too many Michael Crichton novels. Then hit yourself over the head. This is hypothetical, damn you!) Would you support that man's right to effectively change his sexual preference? Alright, round two. Same situation, but the guy starts off heterosexual. Would you support his right to, pardon the phrase, "go gay"? Are there any conditionals you'd place on either answer? Also, just for my own demographic-related amusement: how do you feel about transgenderism (or gender-queer-ism, or whatever you want to call it), on the clothing (cross-dressing), lifestyle (living life as the opposite gender), and operation (surgical alteration) levels? Are you religiously or politically inclined, and do those play into your answers? (Flame free zone; I'm purely curious, and I won't get a good range of answers if people scare people off. Comment away! Oh, and if you're reading this via some other sort of service, come visit the original post to comment. Thanks!)

It poured for hours and hours and hours today. If we do move into a house, the one thing I'll miss about these apartments is the tree outside the window, with its week-a-year blossoms and the way the leaves smell, when it rains like this.

It's too bad the cats have to rip up the damned screen whenever we leave the window open. Sigh.