Category: 40yrs

Zimbabwe, Yet Again

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I think that the reason that I cover this is because I really don’t care about it, but I know that I should. It’s kind of funny that way.

Its an important story, and one that should be engaging more of the world than it does, but it does not even engage me.

I’m not sure why, perhaps I’m dismissive of troubles in Africa because so little goes right there, or perhaps, it’s a subtle manifestation of my own bigotry.

In any case, we now have Robert Mugabe accusing Morgan Tsvangirai of treason, and, “of working with Britain to oust the President from power,” which is, of course, absurd, and it is not a welcome development.

However, there has been some good news, as South Africa is finally calling for the vote results to be releases. Government spokesman Themba Maseko has said, “When elections are held and results are not released two weeks after, it is obviously of great concern.”

The question here is whether this is a change in policy from Thabo Mbeki, or a reflection of the rest of the ANC deserting him.

It’s clear that Mbeki has been the second biggest impediment to any sort of resolution on this, after Mugabe himself, for years, so I believe that if he has had a “battlefield conversion”, it is only because he has seen the writing on the walls.

As to the deeper reason’s for Mbeki’s enthusiastic boosterism regarding Mugabe, I tend to favor Tapiwa Kapurura’s thesis, that Thabo Mbeki in some way finds a personal threat to him or to the ANC in developments in Zimbabwe.

What is going on with the elections in Zimbabwe is that ZANU-PF, a party that is still attached to its revolutionary roots, has lost to the MDC, which is largely a more conventional Labor-type party.

It should be noted that analogy could be made between ZANI-PF and MDC and the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, a junior party in the ruling coalition in South Africa.

Hot Jobs

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As I’ve mentioned before, I’m involved in working in nuclear power, specifically the cleanup/decommissioning side (Yes, I am Homer Simpson).

Well, I’m on a new project now, and it’s a hot one.

Normally, when I’m on a hot project, it means time constrained. In this case, it also means that we are talking higher levels of radiation in the material to be processed. (My earlier project was intermediate level)

It’s hot in the normal way too. The firm, or at least my division, is doing quite nicely, so we are time challenged on most things, and ramping up resources to meet the business needs.

Stock

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Well, this Friday, we finally had accumulated enough veal bones to make some stock.

I just got it done and into the freezer yesterday.

Took the bones, along with some onions and celery, and got it to a low simmer and kept it there for about 3 days.

Some notes on stock:

  • It’s easy to make, just low heat.
  • Do not add spices. Stock is a flavoring agent of its own, not a food. Stock with spices is “soup”.
  • You can add some onions and celery, and we do. The leafy bits of the celery, which one does not normally eat, is good for this.
  • Add the gristle. It has some flavor and the collagin adds a nice mouth feel and some flavor.
  • There is a trick to seeing if you have gotten all the “goodness” out of everything. Stock does not have much flavor at all unless you add salt, so take a spoonful, add a shake of salt to some stock in the spoon, and taste.
  • Finally, and most importantly, if you are freezing it, do it in small containers. Last time I did this, I had to use a hammer and screw driver to use some.

What you get will give you wonderful flavor and mouth feel for a sauce.

Rational Markets, My Ass

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Normally, I don’t comment on market daily moves, there is too much noise there, but today’s stock market rally, particularly in the morning, bears note, because much of it appears to have been driven by an April Fools gag.

Dedicated short fund manager Doug Kass, of Seabreeze Partners Short LP, put out an early morning, tongue-in-cheek commentary, titled Time to Buy the Bull? The long time Bearish market pundit and writer for The Street.com and Real Money announced that he was raising his year end price targets for the S&P500 to 1,666, which would reflect a yearly gain of 26%.

This was picked up by:

  • The Wall Street Journal
  • CNN Money
  • CBS Marketwatch
  • Barrons
  • Bloomberg

Mr. Kass subsequently apologized, “I apologize to my partners, and to my friends, and especially to the SEC, for whom I have the greatest possible respect. I never intended markets to be manipulated in this manner. I was only trying to make some traders, who have been having a tough year, break a smile.”

You gotta love Wall Street. I wish I had chosen it as my career. I would already have made my millions, gotten busted, done my 22 months at Club Fed, written a book about it, and now I’d have a 2 day a week job as a pundit on CNBC.

I already have a trophy wife though, so I can’t complain.

Guns for What?????????

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India is now giving firearms permits to men who get vasectomies.

A scheme that trades one male status symbol for another has achieved a large rise in the number of men undergoing vasectomies in a bandit-ridden region of central India.

Shivpuri district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, an overpopulated area renowned for its machismo culture, has started to offer fast-tracked gun licences for those who agree to be sterilised.

There has to be a crude joke here, but I’m not seeing it.

Great Prank

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This is a great way to protest, and an inspired prank, and I approve of this message.

Root beer keg party doesn’t amuse officials

By Brian Reisinger
Wausau Daily Herald
breisinger@wdhprint.com

The Zebro home in Kronenwetter showed all the signs of an underage drinking party March 1: cars blocking the road, dozens of rowdy kids and a keg.

And yet, every partyer’s breath test revealed an alcohol-free gathering.

Dustin Zebro, 18, and his friends said they threw the party after D.C. Everest High School administrators suspended their friends from sports.

….

Best Telecommunications Regulation Joke Ever!

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Courtesy of Harold Feld’s Tales of the Sausage Factory

The intervention of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which is celebrated by getting drunk until you cannot tell the difference between Verizon winning the C Block and Google winning the C Block, kept me from posting sooner.

OK, there aren’t that many great telecommunications regulations jokes, but still, this is really funny….If you are Jewish…..and if you have been following the FCC’s C Block auction.

OK, it’s a limited audience….but I find it funny, OK?

Carole Channing is Biracial?

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From the wiki:

According to Channing’s memoirs, when she left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont, her mother informed her that her father, a journalist whom she had believed was born in Rhode Island, was in fact born in Augusta, Georgia to a German American father and an African American mother. According to Channing’s account, her mother didn’t want her to be surprised “if she had a black baby”. Channing kept her heritage secret so she would not be typecast on Broadway and in Hollywood, ultimately revealing it only in her autobiography, Just Lucky I Guess, published in 2002 when she was 81 years old. Channing’s autobiography, although containing a photograph of her mother, displays none of her father or her son.

Cramming for My Drug Test

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Well, Purim starts Thursday night, and so Sharon*, got us our favorite hamentashen†.

Mine is mohn, a sweet poppy-seed filling, so I were I to have to pee in a cup in the next couple of days, I’m sure that I’d show metabolites of opiates right now.

Homey don’t do that stuff no more, though as to the use of legal intoxicants, such as that marvelous output of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, I’ll be doing some of that.

The rabbinic ruling on Purim is that one should drink enough that they confuse Hamen (the villain of the story) and Mordehai (the hero of the story), though I won’t be taking it that far.

In any case, my Sharon* will most certainly be driving.

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
†A three sided stuffed pastry eaten as a part of the celebration.

Lunch Meeting at Work.

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I got free food, but I still hate meetings with a passion.

Basically, we’ve got a lot of work, and we look to have more coming in.

Most of the discussion was on profits and bonuses, which don’t really involve me, because I am a contractor.

One interesting thing is that our division does a lot of internal work for other divisions, but doesn’t get credited for the profits derived from the plan.

I guess that one of those problems with profit sharing plans is identifying whose profit it is.

Additionally, they went over a controversy over some work involving wfrom Italy being brought here (see here, here, here, here, here, and here), but this part of the discussion was pretty low key, just a quick rundown of the bullet point arguments.

Obviously as per any industry that regulation heavy, there was some discussion of politics and the election, but it was fairly low key, mostly in terms of uncertainty in the market.

Wish that it hadn’t been Domino’s pizza. It’s OK, if you ask for ½ the normal amount of sauce, but the Domino’s owner is still a right wing turd.

I Don’t Think that I’m a Real Blogger

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I just discovered that both Matthew Yglesias and Duncan “Atrios” Black really hate making phone calls.

Personally, I’ve never done a whole bunch of phone calling for social purposes, except for when I was away from various girl friends, but I have used the phone to communicate information effectively.

I ran a bloody Science Fiction Convention with most of my staff on the other side of Massachusetts in 1990 and 1991, before meaningful email was common.

I would make phone calls, communicate my information, and get off. I wasn’t elegant of sparkling, but I worked the phone well.

I don’t understand “hating the phone”, any more than I understand hating postal mail, or email.

I do hate junk mail of all forms, that is content, rather than medium based.

He’s a Bush Appointee, Doncha Know

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Judge Robert Somma, a Federal Bankruptcy Judge, was pulled over for DUI, while reportedly wearing a woman’s dress, heels and stockings, and carrying a purse.

And not just any dress, but a, “Somma was wearing a cocktail dress, fishnet stockings, women’s heels and fumbled through a purse for his driver’s license.”

FWIW, he blew a BAC of 0.12%.

Yes, George W. Bush appointed him. Quel surprise.