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June 29th, 2034
06:00 pm - Welcome to my Page!
I saw someone do this on another page and I thought it wasn't stupid. Since it's future dated it always stays on top. People can leave whatever random comments they want that don't pertain to any particular posts.
I am the FulhamFan. Don't look too much into the name. It is an artifact of what I was into at the time I created this. This is where I come to distill my thoughts on life, science, politics and humor. This is the most likely place to get exposure to soul no matter how ugly it is. Feel free to comment on anything I have written.
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January 28th, 2010
10:15 am - Hearding cats
So I totally missed my annual New Year's post. Don't worry though. It's coming. First I had to get this story down before I forget it.
So in the department we have these seminars every week along with the weekly colloquium. They're smaller and cater to the sub-disciplines of condensed matter, astro, particle and plasma. For the whole day the speaker talks to professors and has a lunch hosted by grad students. This time I'm in charge of lunch. It's not too exciting but it's not super boring either.
As I was walking back with the professor he told me some story about how he was part of some committee to do some changes at UT-El Paso in the 80's. The faculty was about 10 professors. After a few hours he figured out why they were called. Half the professors were creationists and had influence in the department.
Makes me wonder.
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December 10th, 2009
01:44 pm - public internet
The more I think about it the more I believe that the internet is better off as a public resource like highways. At least the network aspect of it. Storage of data like emails and webspace should remain private. But the pathway should be unrestricted and public.
This is essentially what we have with out streets and roads. Streets help connect houses and business which are private but the roads themselves are public and should remain so. The internet should function the same way where anyone can access whatever they want or host their own site.
Now of course this isn't without it's problems. But every problem I can think of could also happen on roads and no one calls for a privatization of roads or a massive shutdown. So unless you're an internet service provider, what's argument against this?
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November 23rd, 2009
06:13 pm - food on the other side
As much as I cook I never make anything Asian. It's not that I don't like Asian food but I really don't think I have the knack for it. With the French style I usually go with I can eat the individual ingredients and have a good idea what the sum of their parts will be. I don't feel that way with Asian food. Soy sauce or fish sauce on it's own is not a taste I particularly enjoy however the right amounts will completely transform a dish. In other words I think a French dish amounts to the sum of it's parts while an Asian one is greater then the sum of it's parts.
So last night I decided to break this by making pho for the first time. Pho is a really special case because I've been philosophically influenced by my dad to never make it at home. My mom is an amazing cook that can make just about anything Vietnamese and yet she has never made pho. According to my dad it's because pho taste best when made in large amounts and cooking all day. Pho restaurants are made for this and that is why it won't be better at home. However when I went to San Jose to visit my cousin, his wife told me that once I have pho made at home then I will change my mind.
I decided to start with pho mainly because it's the one I know the best and I know right away if I screwed up. I took a recipe from my cousin's wife and went about making it. I've had mixed luck when it comes to stews and braises but I thought I had most things figured out by now. I got 5 lbs of beef bones, ox tail and spices from an asian market around here and got to stewing. after 5 hours I checked and the tendons and cartilage were nice and soft by this point. However the bones still seemed strong and I was worried I didn't extract enough collagen from the bones.
After I got the garnishes ready I had some friends over to sample my first attempt. They said it tasted fine but I know it was lacking something. I didn't feel there was a beefy taste. I cooked the thing for 6 hours so I don't think time is a factor. I probably need to mess with the salt content and spices a little more to get something that I like. I put the leftovers in some containers and the next day they were solid blocks of gel. I did my job when it came to the collagen but I need to figure out how to get more beef flavor.
For a first attempt I think I did ok. The next time will be better.
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November 19th, 2009
12:39 pm - Texas is for singles
The great state of Texas has banned ALL marriage.
CBS link
In there zeal to ban gay marriage they wanted to be sure that civil unions didn't exist either. So they have wording to ban "institutions identical to marriage". The morons didn't realize that marriage is an institution identical to marriage.
Obviously they are scrambling to fix the language on this but I wonder if the hypocrisy circuits are firing off in their brain about their fundamental right to marry vs that of gay people.
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October 9th, 2009
12:22 pm - Thinking about insanely high taxes
I keep reading that the top tax rate before Reagan was 70%. Something that is insanely high. It's common sense to lower a tax rate like that even if it is for the rich.
I was thinking about the outrage over CEO bonuses for failing companies and just thinking about incentives and how to combat that. The way it's been structured is that the CEO screws over the shareholders for short term gain and he gets a fat paycheck off that. If he had a personal interest in the company then he would care more about how it runs instead of what he can get from it in the short term.
So what if we did bring back the 70% tax rate for the ridiculously rich? The income bracket would be for people that make 10 million/year. Or even 20 million a year as long as it's a rate that targets insanely high bonuses. They could still get their bonuses but Uncle Sam is going to take a huge chunk of that. In order to get as much as possible they would choose to receive compensation in stock or some sort of asset that's tied to the company that is immune to this 70% tax.
This is only a thought experiment and I'm sure there's a bunch of holes in it. But if these CEO's truly believe they deserve that much compensation then it should at least be tied to how well a company preforms.
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September 25th, 2009
11:52 am - UH football
http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings
Holy crap! How did UH become one of the top ranked teams in the country? I'm going to be following college football a little closer this year.
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September 14th, 2009
02:03 pm - addenum
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/a-clockwork-orange/murder-brian-benedict-rebecca/
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/woman-irvine-shooting-2563821-suspect-cns
According to these two articles it was agreed that he would pay $420/month in child support but the judge changed it to twice the amount based on his previous job which had a 6 figure salary. This increase would have forced him to dropout of graduate school to get a higher paying job.
Now I am not saying this is the judges fault. But imagine this happening to the average sane graduate student. Telling someone to drop out of a Ph.D program would undoubtedly cause a lot of stress. While I didn't know the suspect all that well I did know he was a 6th year student. He was easily within a couple years of graduating. The judge should have considered how much higher his income would have been with a doctorate. The judge was supremely stupid not to keep it at the agreed amount until he got his Ph.D and increase the amount later. Not only that but I would think it's much better for the kid to have a father with a doctorate and didn't drop out of school.
Not that it excuses anything he did. I just get pissed at how the legal system works sometimes.
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11:09 am - campus shooting
link
What the article doesn't say is that the shooter is a graduate student in physics at UCI. I didn't know him but I am good friends with his neighbor who is also in physics.
I don't know what to think about this.
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September 11th, 2009
03:25 pm - Shouldn't we be working less?
I was reading this article and just thinking about something.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/23/french-holiday-lazy-work
I'm not really going to comment against the article directly because 99% of the comments on the page defend France. I mean really, France and Germany are the only countries that had growth and he's saying they should be more like the British system which is tanking? There's an inherent contradiction in that.
But the main point I got from it is that work is a means in itself. While hard work is very important I don't believe for one second that someones purpose in life is to work. If all your needs are met with the amount you work then why should you work more?
The major thing though is that I truly believe working less is the future. If technology is expected to increase and more and more of our daily routines become automated then what will those people do? There is no doubt that our population will grow much larger then it is now. If we need less people to do the same work as before along with more people in existence then we will either have a large number of unemployed or everyone effectively works 20 hours a week or less. In discussions with my friend he believes there will be a very large retirement class and that people will only work for a few years.
But back to the point about working for the sake of work. I wish I remember the source but I read that for the first time is history, the top 10% are working more then people of lower income. If you go to the not too distant past just about everyone with disposable income enjoyed their leisure time. The people that worked a lot did it because they HAD to, not because they wanted to.
Now I'm not really advocating for people to work less. I'm just saying that it's inevitable that this is what will happen. I don't even think people will stop working. It will just change from people working on something because they have to, to people working on things because they want to. Some examples I can think of are Lord Rayleigh and other scientific aristocracy. Rayleigh built his own lab with his money and worked ridiculously hard and he didn't make money from his research. He did it because that's what he wanted to do.
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September 8th, 2009
04:05 pm - Republicans cannot be taken seriously
So Republicans are outraged that Obama is going to indoctrinate children with Socialism with his speech. Have they even read the freaking thing?!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/06_09_09_obama_speech.pdf
I would be on their side if he was advocating any of his polices but he isn't. He's emphasizing that they are in control of their own destiny and it's up to them to make something of themselves. Last time I checked individuality is a very Republican thing. Ronald Reagan also had a televised speech to children and he actually advocated smaller government and lower taxes. Whether you are for it or not it you cannot say he wasn't pushing his own policy.
This is one of many reasons why you cannot take the Republicans seriously. They have demonstrated to be against EVERYTHING Obama or the Democrats do even if it's something they agree with in principle. They don't care about policy one bit and only care if someone with a big fat 'R' next to their name is in charge.
But really this post isn't complaining about Republicans. They are essentially powerless. This is more about how Democrats and Obama are pussies. It's been reported that Obama has changed parts of his speech due to this pressure. Republicans made up stuff about death panels and it was actually removed from the bill to appease them even though the amendment was originally sponsored by Republicans. When Bush was in power they rammed whatever they wanted and they just had a simple majority. Obama has even bigger majorities and a filibuster proof senate and he still insist on compromising on the important parts?! Not only that but even if he pushes a weak sauce bill does he really think the Republicans are going to vote on it? Fat chance.
So what is someone like me suppose to do? It definitely isn't punishing the Democrats by voting Republican. That's cutting my nose off to spite my face. Third party doesn't get me anywhere either. I will have to take a long look at primary candidates and support the elusive non-pussy democrat.
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August 17th, 2009
09:25 am - Usain Bolt is the Current Bob Beamon
Last year while watching the Olympics I saw the most amazing performance I ever saw in the history of sports. Usain Bolt ran the 100m final and was the 1st person to ever break 9.7 seconds and he did it while celebrating early. I couldn't believe that someone could run so unbelievably fast while doing something like that. A picture of his shoes at the finish line showed they were untied as well. After that he followed it with a new world record in the 200m beating Michael Johnson's record from the 1996 games. Both looked effortless to him.
This past weekend Usain Bolt destroyed his own record by running 100m in 9.58 seconds! He beat his own record by a tenth of a second!? Does anyone know how unbelievably insane that is! He is now the only person ever to run faster then 9.70 and 9.60! Until last year I thought the best track athlete of all time was Carl Lewis and his record was 9.86. It took a long time to get that down to 9.85 and it seemed like all new records would be determined in hundredths of a second.
The only comparison I can think of is Bob Beamon of the 1968 games in Mexico City. At the time the world record for the long jump was 27'4". People were sure they were reaching the peak of human abilities and new records would be determined in centimeters. Bob Beamon makes a jump and flies 29'2"! He broke the world record by nearly 2 feet! He was simultaneously the first person to ever jump 28 AND 29 feet! It was so long that they didn't ever have the equipment to measure it and had to borrow stuff from the shot-put.
I just really hope he's not on drugs but I wouldn't be shocked if he is.
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August 8th, 2009
10:47 am - Musings
In Britain spaz is an offensive term however faggot is not.
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August 2nd, 2009
01:16 pm - Musings
You know how to blow the mind of someone in 1860? Not only say that we voted for a black president but that he's also in the Democratic party.
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July 29th, 2009
05:14 pm - something doesn't make sense...
You know these stories about how someone paints their house pink or has a weird structure on their lawn? There always a common complaint that it brings down the property value of the houses in the neighborhood. Why is this a bad thing? I mean if you're looking to sell your house then I get it. However even if that is the case it usually doesn't happen for awhile. But a lower property value means less property tax.
So do people just want to pay higher taxes or are they constantly looking to sell their house? Maybe I just don't get it because I'm not a home owner.
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11:08 am - Which is better?
BBC-No Benefit to Organic
The article goes on to state that there is little nutritional difference between organically grown produce and those grown with synthetic fertilizers. This is something I've been tackling with myself. I mean we do need to feed a growing population so we can't outright reject advances in farming innovations. However my bullshit meter was set off when they said the same was true for meat, dairy and eggs. Factory farmed meat is nowhere near a grassfed animal with exercise.
I believe the discrepancy is the definition of "organic" in this case. I mean if you take you average factory farmed cow and feed it organically grown corn you're going to get the same garbage except you get to slap on the "organic" label and charge a couple extra bucks.
Or maybe I'm being a luddite and I just have to accept this study.
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July 24th, 2009
11:41 pm - TRON
I got an erection watching this.
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July 23rd, 2009
11:41 am - slow cooking
I have a crockpot. Now I need to figure out stuff to cook in it. On the agenda is curry, chili, calmar a l'americaine(despite the name it is French) and an honest attempt at confit. I open the comments to whatever recipes you want to share.
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July 21st, 2009
05:47 pm - Sometimes you have to fight for what's right
Article about my grandmother and great aunt
This is a photo of my grandmother receiving la Legion d'honneur for what she did in WW2. She's the one wearing the glasses. Next to her is my great aunt. Both are amazing people.
My translation of the article:
"We are gathered here to recognize Thérèse Castel and Marie-Renée Castel-Cellier for their service to the country and their heroic actions during the Resistance.", announced the mayor in his preamble addressed to the public in attendance on July 8, 2009.
These two delightful ladies were young women in the spring of 1944. Thérèse was 20 years old and Marie-Renée, 23 years. They lived with their parents in a large middle-class house."This house functioned as a place for meetings of resistance members in network OR 14. It was also a hideout for French paratroopers and British pilots. The entire family was at risk of German retaliation from the soldiers that controlled the village." Both of them, message couriers, transmitted messages between resistance members in the county by bicycle. "Their actions,which risked their lives...", were lead by a"network under the orders of Félix Veillet des Landelles et d'Edouard Martin... " Along with other members, these two were "killed or captured at the farm des Salles by Germans warned about one of the parachuting missions. Félix died under torture by Nazis at Uzel", said the mayor.
The Germans looked for the two sisters in vain. They took Joseph Castel,their father, as a hostage as well as their younger sister Geneviève who was 15 years old. Fortunately they were liberated August 6, 1944 when the Americans arrived.
Mr Jean-Louis Fargeas, préfet des Côtes-d'Armor, awarded the medals of chevalier de la Légion d'honneur to Ms. Thérèse Castel et Mrs. Ceillier born Marie-Renée Castel, which were awarded for "accepting the danger on their lives so France could be liberated. Today the nation recognizes what they did and honors their service."
Now you know why I'm not a fan of surrender "jokes".
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/green/happy_sg.gif) enthralled
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July 18th, 2009
12:40 pm - I am more animal then man!
I just made bacon mayonnaise.
How? Take your recipe for mayonnaise and use liquid bacon fat instead of oil.
Soon to come:
Best BLT ever
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