Thomas Puskailer

The song of the day is Make Believe from the 2012 album Make Believe by Dutch-born Slovak singer, songwriter and stage actor Thomas Puskailer. The song was written by Grammy award-winning New York producer Bill Grainer. Puskailer stars in the music video.

Bic Runga

The song of the day is Sway from the 1997 album Drive by New Zealand singer-songwriter Bic Runga (Briolette Kah Bic Runga MNZM).

Windows 10 Upgrade

Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 today. It’s a free upgrade to computers running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 if it is installed within one year of rollout. So I went to Windows Update and told it to install Windows 10. It did. It took 45 minutes to upgrade my Windows 8.1 machine to Windows 10. It took me less time than that to figure out upgrading was a mistake.

First problem: music and videos had no sound. The only sound the computer could produce was Windows system sounds. And those sounds went to my TV instead of to the computer speakers, even though the computer speakers were selected in the Sound applet. Searching on the Internet I found others having the same problem. It seems to be occurring with 64-bit machines.

Second problem: applications incompatible with Windows 10 had been removed. Calculator, a Microsoft app I use often, had been removed. I downloaded another Calculator from Windows Store. It worked with Windows 10 but it appeared radically different from the old Calculator; its new appearance was not an improvement, in my opinion. I’m guessing that Microsoft’s objective is to make apps on the Desktop look the same as, or similar to, the same apps running on a tablet or phone.

Third problem: every time I opened Firefox a message window announced Firefox wasn't the default browser and asked if I would like to make it the default. Each time, I responded in the affirmative. But it would ask the same question the next time I opened it. A checkbox in the message window was labeled, "Run this check every time Firefox starts." Un-checking the box had no effect; Firefox would always run the check. It’s possible that the default browser must be set some other way.

I’m sure these and other glitches will be resolved, but in the meantime I want a computer that simply works and not a project to debug. After upgrading to Windows 10, a user has 30 days in which to downgrade back to the original OS; I decided to downgrade. Restoring Windows 8.1 was easy. Click the Windows 10 start button, click Settings, then Update and Security, then Recovery. At that point there will be a “Go back to Windows 7″ or a “Go back to Windows 8.1″ option, depending on which OS was upgraded.

The downgrade took 15 minutes. After Windows 8.1 was restored, I noticed Calculator was still missing (the upgrade had removed it) and the charms bar had also been removed. Doing a system restore back to the previous day recovered both of those items.

I have a year to get the free upgrade, so I may try installing Windows 10 again in six months to see if the kinks have been ironed out. If they have not, I’ll obtain Windows 10 the old-fashioned way: by buying my next computer with Windows 10 pre-installed. Let the factory engineers figure out how to make the hardware and software play together. They get paid to do that.

Scott Hoying

The song of the day is Avicii’s Wake Me Up, covered by Scott Hoying of Pentatonix. Hoying plays all the instruments, including piano, kick drum, synthesizer, and even a little shake-shaker.

OMI

The song of the day is 2012’s reggae fusion Cheerleader by Jamaican singer OMI (Omar Samuel Pasley). This tropical house version is a 2014 remix by German producer Felix Jaehn.

Snotbots

I’ve been avoiding this topic for a week, but I have to admit: as blog topics go, this one is golden. A conservation group called Ocean Alliance is raising money on Kickstarter to implement a plan to collect whale snot. Okay, when I say it like that it sounds, well, stupid. But wait, there’s more.

In order to retrieve the whale snot, Ocean Alliance intends to build a fleet of drones called Snotbots. These Snotbots will hover above surfacing whales and collect snot when the whale exhales. (I’m not sure whether the idea of Snotbots makes this snot plan sound less stupid or more stupid.)

The snot samples will be returned to researchers who will analyze the snot for various kinds of biological data. This data will provide researchers information on the whale’s reproductive cycles and on their stress levels that result from human activity in the oceans. That information will help scientists protect the species.

Until the Snotbots are deployed, researchers will continue to get data samples from whales the old-fashioned way: by chasing them with a loud motorboat and then shooting them in the back with a dart from a crossbow. This method understandably annoys the whales and that skews the data the scientists are collecting.

In the immortal words of Star Trek’s Scotty, “Admiral, there be whales here!” And now Kirk can reply, in all seriousness, “Deploy the Snotbots!”

I hope this Kickstarter plan works. Snotbots are an idea whose time has come.

XYLØ

The song of the day is America by brother-sister duo XYLØ.

Pretty Lights

The song of the day is Finally Moving by Pretty Lights (electronic music artist Derek Vincent Smith). The song’s tune is sampled from 1968’s Private Number by Judy Clay and William Bell. The song’s vocals are sampled from 1962’s Something’s Got a Hold on Me by Etta James.

Space Blob

If you hear someone talking about giant, glowing space blobs, they aren’t talking about a 1950s sci-fi movie. Space blobs are real. Technically, they’re called Lyman-alpha blobs, or LABs, but I think “space blob” is more descriptive.

Space blobs appear to be enormous clouds of hydrogen gas filled with galaxies. They exist in the far distant reaches of the Universe, which means they exist far back in time. The first space blob was discovered in year 2000. Designated LAB-1, it is 11.5 billion light-years from us. That means it appears to us now as it looked 11.5 billion years ago.

For all we know, we could be inside a space blob or a former space blob. If we were, would we know it? If observers within LAB-1 pointed a telescope our way, our part of the Universe would appear to them as it looked 11.5 billion years ago. It’s possible our Local Group of galaxies is all that remains of an ancient space blob.

There might be a sci-fi story here. A long time ago, in a space blob far, far away… 

Ratatat

The song of the day is Abrasive by electronic music duo Ratatat (Mike Stroud and Evan Mast). The hand-drawn video was produced by Mast under his alias E*vax.

Christina Grimmie

The song of the day is Must Be Love by singer-songwriter Christina Grimmie.

Outrageouz

The song of the day is Never Should've Said Hello by Netherlands DJ duo Outrageouz (Johan Klaver and Geoffrey Gatete).

Deniers

They are called conspiracy theorists, or birthers, or truthers, depending upon what aspect of reality or settled science their group denies. They have in common a firm conviction that they are right and all the experts are wrong or that all the world’s scientists and researchers are members of a world-wide conspiracy. Because they deny reality as most people understand it, I call them deniers.

I suppose the original deniers were flat-Earthers who denied the planet was round. Today’s deniers include the Kennedy assassination’s lone-gunman deniers, moon-landings deniers, 9/11 truthers, anti-vaccination truthers, Obama birthers, and climate-change deniers. The list goes on.

The denial phenomenon is like a religion. Just as you can’t change someone’s religious beliefs with logic and facts, you can’t change a denier’s beliefs with logic and facts. Deniers will dismiss a mountain of evidence that points to a conclusion while embracing the weakest sliver of information (or misinformation) that might support their beliefs. Some deniers have resorted to threats, slander, and lies to promote their version of the truth (link).

America just flew a spacecraft called New Horizons past the dwarf planet Pluto, and new photos of Pluto and its moons have been all over the Internet. Naturally, a new group of deniers has risen to proclaim that it never happened.

This is interesting because the New Horizons program has a long history. There was mission planning, construction of the spacecraft, launch of the spacecraft, communication and course-corrections, and after nine years of flight across the solar system there was the encounter with the Pluto system. At what point did the mission become a hoax?

Anti-science nonsense may be our biggest threat to civilization. Despite the many benefits that science has brought to them, it seems more people than ever are rejecting scientific knowledge – especially when such knowledge conflicts with what is “convenient” for them. When science tells us we must change our ways or risk destroying our future, and our reaction is to bury our heads in the sand, then it’s likely that our future will be a lot shorter than we have imagined.

Emeli Sandé

The song of the day is 2012's Next to Me from the album Our Version of Events by Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé (Adele Emily Sandé).

Labrinth

The song of the day is Let It Be by English singer-songwriter and record producer Labrinth (Timothy McKenzie).

Rachel Platten

The song of the day is Fight Song from the EP Fight Song by singer-songwriter Rachel Platten.

Dog Star

These are the dog days of summer in central Virginia. The weather is sultry: hot and very humid. As I write these words, the time is about 1:30 PM and the temperature has climbed to 95° with a heat index of 110°. Being outside means having your clothes get damp from perspiration in 5 minutes, even if you’re standing in the shade. One can picture a farmhouse with dogs lying on the ground under a front porch, or lying in the shade of a big tree in the front yard, panting from the heat.

But that halcyon scene is not the origin of the phrase Dog Days. The phrase comes from ancient Rome, when the bright star Sirius rose with the sun in summer months and became associated with the heat of the summer sun. (Sirius no longer rises with the summer sun due to precession of the equinoxes.) Sirius is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog) and was called the “Dog Star.” Its official name was Canicula, “little dog.” The Dog Days of ancient Rome ran from July 24 through August 24. Traditionally, the Dog Days last 40 days. The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11.

There is a tribe of people living in West Africa called the Dogon. They are believed to be of Egyptian descent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. According to their traditions, Sirius has a companion star that is invisible to the human eye. The Dogon say that this companion star orbits Sirius once every 50 years, is extremely heavy, and rotates on its axis. Two French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen, recorded this story which they heard from four Dogon priests in the 1930s.

That might have been the end of the story, except that in the 1970s astronomers discovered that Sirius has a companion star which orbits it once every 50.4 years. Astronomers named the companion star “Sirius B” and the “old” Sirius was renamed “Sirius A.” Sirius B was determined to be an extremely dense “white dwarf.” One teaspoon of matter from Sirius B would weigh 5 tons on Earth.

The Dogon say there is a third star (Sirius C) in orbit around Sirius A. Thus far, a third star has not been found. However, perturbations in the motions of Sirius A and B have led some astronomers to suspect there may be a third star.

How did the Dogon acquire their astronomical knowledge? They say it was given to them thousands of years ago by the Nommos, a race of beings living on a planet orbiting Sirius. According to the Dogon, the Nommos will return.

Frankly, I believe in coincidence. I believe in cross-cultural contamination of mythologies. But if one day astronomers do find a third star in the Sirius system, perhaps we should consider preparing some “Welcome Back” signs. Just in case.

Rebourne

The song of the day is Field of Dreams by hardstyle artist Rebourne (Timon van Merriënboer).

Ella Henderson

The song of the day is Yours from the album Chapter One by British singer-songwriter Gabriella Michelle "Ella" Henderson.

Bacon-Flavored Health Food

I read an article online titled “Finally, Bacon-Flavored Health Food Has Arrived.” Researchers at Oregon State University have created bacon-flavored crackers and bacon-flavored salad dressing. Guess what this health food is made of: it’s made of dulse – a kind of red alga or seaweed that grows on northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Are you kidding me?

First, I’d like to express my doubt that any kind of seaweed tastes like bacon. These researchers need to pick up a package of bacon, fry a few slices, and refresh their memories of how bacon tastes. There is no way any normal human will taste bacon and say, “Hmm, this reminds me of seaweed.” If it does remind you of seaweed, you should spit that bacon out and cook fresh bacon.

When I want food that tastes like bacon, I eat bacon. In a world that has bacon, why eat something that tastes like bacon? Especially if that something is seaweed.

There is also this: the alleged bacon-like seaweed, after being harvested and dried, sells for $90 a pound. Then of course it has to be processed and packaged and transported and stocked and so on. That’s going to go over big. Let’s picture someone standing in a grocery store and musing, “Should I buy this package of bacon for four dollars or this package of bacon-flavored seaweed for $150?”

And if you’re a vegan, why would you even want to eat something that tastes like bacon? Just go back to chomping on your raw carrot sticks.

Magic!

The song of the day is 2013's Rude from the album Don't Kill the Magic by Canadian reggae fusion band Magic!.

Brave New World

Just got my Jeep inspected. It’s golden through next July. While I was sitting in the “lobby” of the small garage waiting for the inspection to be completed, a television was turned on to a random morning talk show that was showing pictures of Caitlyn Jenner. I couldn’t hear what was being said on the TV, but the conversation among the men in the room where I sat was definitely a mixture of bafflement and disapproval.

But I don’t care what Jenner does. A man wants to be a woman, I’m okay with that. A woman wants to be a man, I’m okay with that, too. A man says he’s a giraffe, I won’t argue with him. Live and let live. Everyone deserves a chance to be happy. As long as your being happy doesn’t interfere with my being happy, you can be a man, a woman, or an android named Data for all I care.

The Roman philosopher Cicero would say (in fact, did say), “O tempora! O mores!” (Oh the times! Oh the customs!) I’m sure many people feel like saying something similar.

The world has changed much since I was born. In the immortal words of Aldous Huxley, we are living in a brave new world. It’s not entirely clear what this new world will look like, but let’s hope it turns out to be an improvement on the old one, the one that gave us fanaticism and crusades and world wars and racism and oppression and zealotry and homophobia and witch burnings and slavery. A lot of us are tired of that one.

Skylar Grey

The song of the day is Wear Me Out from the album Don't Look Down by singer-songwriter Skylar Grey (Holly Brook Hafermann).

New Horizons - Postscript

New Horizons has phoned home. Just before 9 PM Tuesday, the spacecraft radioed back engineering data that said, essentially, “mission accomplished.” Which is to say, the “collecting data” part of the mission has been done. It remains to get all that data back to Earth.

New Horizons blasted past Pluto at a speed of over 30,000 mph and kept on going. It’s headed for the Kuiper Belt where, it is hoped, the spacecraft will make more observations. During the Pluto encounter, the spacecraft took photos and pointed science instruments at Pluto and its satellites. So far, only a few images have been sent back, as sending images is a very slow process. The spacecraft is almost 3 billion miles from earth and that number is, of course, continually growing. The spacecraft’s radio transmitter has just 12 watts of power. By comparison, a nightlight bulb typically consumes 4 to 7 watts of power. Imagine trying to detect two glowing nightlights at a distance of 3 billion miles.

By the time the signal reaches Earth, it is so faint that a giant radio dish is necessary to detect it. Even so, New Horizons must “speak slowly” to be heard, so the data rate is only about 1,000 bits per second. (A 1980s digital fax machine could send 14 times as much data each second.) Because of the slow data rate, a single image will require over three hours to send. Even if highly compressed, an image will still require 20 minutes to send. The spacecraft will be busy sending images and data for the next 16 months. Then, as it hurtles through the darkness of empty space, it will likely be told to hibernate until it gets close to its next encounter.

The New Horizons mission is on Twitter and also has a Facebook page. The NASA website has a New Horizons section.

George Ezra

The song of the day is Budapest from the EP Did You Hear the Rain? by English singer-songwriter George Ezra.

Jake Owen

The song of the day is Real Life by country music artist Jake Owen. Even if you’re not a fan of country music, this one may make you smile.

New Horizons

Today is July 14, 2015. Yesterday the New Horizons spacecraft was a million miles from Pluto. Today, New Horizons will buzz the dwarf planet far faster than any bullet. At 7:50 AM EDT (11:50 UTC), New Horizons will be 7800 miles from Pluto.

New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006, at a velocity of 36,373 mph. It is the fastest spacecraft to ever leave Earth orbit, 100 times faster than a jetliner. The spacecraft proceeded to Jupiter where the giant planet’s enormous gravity boosted New Horizons’ speed to over 52,000 mph. The boost in speed shaved three years off the travel time to Pluto.

The spacecraft has been climbing out of the Sun’s gravity well, and that means it has been slowing down ever since it left Jupiter. But it still has a lot of speed; it is traveling, even now, at over 30,000 mph.

New Horizons hibernated for most of its journey to Pluto. It was brought back online on December 6, 2014. It is awake now and sending back photos of the dwarf planet as it approaches its encounter. The piano-sized spacecraft will be hurtling past Pluto so fast it won’t have time to send images back to Earth during the flyby. The spacecraft will be busy taking photos and doing other science; aiming its antenna at Earth and sending back data would take precious time that could be used to take photos. Sending all the data back to Earth will take months. We will have to wait until after the encounter to get images of Pluto. That is, if New Horizons survives its encounter with Pluto.

There are five moons of Pluto that we know of, and there may be more that are too small for us to see. At 30,000 mph a piece of space rock the size of a grain of rice would blast a hole all the way through New Horizons. All we can do now is cross our fingers and hope that New Horizons will phone home. If it does, and if it is in good shape, the little spacecraft will continue on to the Kuiper Belt where it will make more observations. Its mission is scheduled to end in 2026 – twenty years after its launch.

Heart Health

I’ve read more than once, usually in books on diet and nutrition, that a century ago heart disease in America was virtually unknown and now, because of our poor lifestyle choices – especially what we eat – heart disease is rampant. Is this true? Or is this an oft-repeated myth? I decided to look at the numbers.

In 1900, the death rate in the US was 1100 per 100,000. Of all the people who died in 1900, one in eight died of heart disease (12.5%). To say that a century ago heart disease in America was virtually unknown is clearly inaccurate.

In 2010, the death rate in the US was 600 per 100,000. Of all the people who died in 2010, one in three died of heart disease (33%). Are we less healthy now than we were then or has something else changed?

In 1900, most people died from pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal infections. Modern medicine has these diseases largely under control, and that leaves heart disease and cancer as the big killers.

In 1900, doctors couldn’t do much to treat heart disease. Today, doctors have drugs to combat heart failure, emergency rooms are prepared for heart attacks, defibrillators are in every ambulance, stents can open arteries, and coronary bypass surgery is well established. We can transplant hearts and we even have artificial hearts that a person can use while awaiting a transplant. In short, we have an arsenal of treatments that didn’t exist in 1900.

In 1900, people died on average at age 47 – before they were old enough to develop serious heart disease. During the 20th century, the number of Americans under 65 tripled, but due to advances in medicine the number of Americans living to 65 and beyond increased by a factor of 11. In 2010 there were 40.3 million Americans age 65 and older compared to just 3.1 million in 1900.

Death from heart disease occurs mainly in the 65 and older population. In 2010 there were 13 times as many elderly as there were in 1900. In 2010, one would expect 13 times as many deaths from heart disease as in 1900, in the absence of anything to push the number up (such as poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle) or anything to push the number down (such as better treatments for the disease). In 1900, America’s population was 76.2 million and deaths from heart disease numbered 137.4 per 100,000 people, or about 104,700 annually. A statistician in 1900 might have projected that at some time in the future when there were 13 times as many elderly, the number of deaths from heart disease would be 13 times larger, or 1.36 million annually.

In reality, America’s population in 2010 was 309.3 million and deaths from heart disease numbered 192.9 per 100,000 people – just under 600,000 annually. Despite our fast food, sugar addictions, and couch-potato lifestyle choices that would seem to push the number higher, only half as many people (per capita) died of heart disease. Heart disease may – or may not – be more prevalent today, but certainly fewer of us die from the disease.

The truth is that heart disease seems more widespread today because deaths from infectious diseases have been curtailed and because many more people are living long enough to develop the disease.

Natalie Imbruglia

The song of the day is 1997's Torn by Italian-Australian singer-songwriter, actress and model Natalie Jane Imbruglia. The song was written by a nearly unknown American alternative rock band named Ednaswap. The song has been covered several times. Imbruglia’s version was a worldwide hit.

Tina Arena

The song of the day is 2013's You Set Fire to My Life from the album Reset by Italian-Australian singer-songwriter, actress and record producer Tina Arena.

Brooke Fraser

The song of the day is 2010's Something In The Water from the album Flags by New Zealand singer-songwriter Brooke Fraser.

Tess Parks

The song of the day is Somedays from the album Blood Hot by Canadian artist Tess Parks.

Wendiceratops

Illustration by Danielle Dufault

There’s a new dinosaur in town. It’s a newly discovered horned dinosaur that lived at least 79 million years ago. It has been named Wendiceratops  pinhornensis after fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda. The Wendiceratops was 20 feet long and weighed about one ton.

When I read this, I was immediately reminded of two other items recently in the news. The first news article that sprang to mind was an announcement by Montana State University researcher James Horner (the inspiration for Jurassic Park’s Alan Grant) that in about ten years we may be able to create chicken-sized dinosaurs (many dinosaurs were small). After we learn to create small dinosaurs, how long can it be before we create a full-size Wendiceratops?

The second news recollection was the announcement that two companies that make giant fighting robots are arranging for their robots to battle it out in a duel. The 12,000 pound American-made Megatronics Mark II will battle the 9,000 pound Japanese-made Suidobashi Kurata.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? We definitely need a 3-way melee here – the Mark II versus the Kurata versus the Wendiceratops. The Wendiceratops is lighter than the robots, but it’s big and strong and I bet it’s faster. My money is on the dinosaur.

Pay-per-view, are you listening?

Calvin Harris & John Newman

The song of the day is Blame from the album Motion by Scottish DJ and producer Calvin Harris featuring vocals by English singer John Newman.

Robot Duel

This had to happen; it was only a matter of time. An American robotics company called MegaBots, Inc. has thrown down the gauntlet to their Japanese counterpart, Suidobashi Heavy Industries. They’ve challenged the Japanese company to a duel using giant fighting robots.

Giant fighting robots. Awesome. And the duel is great PR for both companies.

The battle will pit the 12,000 pound MegaBots Mark II against the 9,000 pound Suidobashi Kurata.

The Japanese company was quick to accept the challenge. Here is their response.

I was once employed at a robotics company, and our robots were pretty cool, but they weren’t giant fighting robots. They were 6 feet tall, not fifteen feet. They carried cameras and sensors, not weapons. They had wheels, not treads. They were mild-mannered, non-violent robots, not giant fighting robots. Unlike these human-controlled fighting robots, our peaceful robots were autonomous – they self-navigated. However, those robots and the company that built them are long gone. There was just too little demand.

Giant fighting robots. Now we know what the marketplace wants.

DJ Krush

The song of the day is Song 1 from the album Zen by Japanese hip hop producer DJ Krush (Ishi Hideaki).

Random News

First, we have this photo from Twitter. https://twitter.com/HfxRegPolice/status/617650885305479169/photo/1

A Canadian policeman tickets this toddler for illegally parking his motorcycle by the ferry terminal – even though the motorcycle is plastic and doesn’t have a motor. Love the kid’s expression – it’s tough to be three. Of course, it’s a “pretend ticket.” That’s what you get when you park a “pretend motorcycle” in the wrong place.

Next, also from Twitter: https://twitter.com/tomwarne/status/617866054476259328/photo/1

Again in Canada, a man sailed in the sky above the Calgary Stampede (an annual annual rodeo, exhibition and festival) in a lawn chair tethered to 120 helium balloons. Eventually he parachuted back to earth where he was promptly arrested (of course) on one charge of “mischief causing danger to life”.

“Mischief” – it seems rather vague; one of those laws that can mean whatever the law wants it to mean. Police say he could still face “aeronautics” charges – piloting a lawn chair without a license, presumably.

In Virginia Beach, Virginia, a 13-inch baby dogfish shark fell out of the sky and landed in a family’s backyard. Speculation is that it was probably dropped by a large bird. The shark is now in the family’s garage freezer, next to some homemade applesauce. What a coincidence – that’s where I keep my baby sharks, too.

And finally, in Berlin, Germany, a 34-year-old man broke into a restaurant and drank half a bottle of Tabasco sauce. He told authorities he was thirsty. He was also intoxicated. Police speculated he may have mistaken the Tabasco for a tiny bottle of liqueur that is popular in Germany. Perhaps he did, but really – it took chugging half a bottle for him to figure out he was drinking hot pepper sauce?!

And that’s it. Nothing else newsworthy happened today. If it had, I would have told you.

Emancipator

The song of the day is Dusk to Dawn from the album Dusk to Dawn by electronic producer Emancipator (Douglas Appling).

Blackmill

The song of the day is Child by Scottish artist Blackmill (Robert Card).

No-Oil Frying Fail

I’ve been noticing, and occasionally reading, articles about the health benefits of cooking without oil. Cooking oil is a processed food, high in omega-6 fatty acids. The typical American diet already contains too much omega-6 so why add more? Oil is also high in calories, more than double the calories in maple syrup. And most oils are processed using heat and chemical solvents which negatively impact the oil’s taste and nutritional value.

I like to fry eggs in butter. It doesn’t require a lot of butter. It takes only a thin coating to lubricate the pan and prevent sticking. I wondered if it was even possible to fry an egg without some kind of fat in the pan. I had a feeling it wasn’t, but a feeling is not definitive. I decided to experiment.

I put my 10 inch non-stick pan on the stovetop and set the burner element to medium. I allowed the pan to heat up, then cracked two eggs into the pan. I waited until the egg whites had set and then attempted to slip my plastic spatula under one of the eggs to flip it over.

It was like the egg was glued down with epoxy. The spatula hit the edge of the egg white and stopped. No matter how much force I applied to the spatula, I was never going to get it under that egg. I ended up scraping the two semi-fried eggs off the pan and scrambling them. The eggs were quite tasty. But the frying pan’s non-stick coating was left with two fried-egg-shaped blemishes which, even after soaking and scrubbing, refused to completely disappear.

I suppose it’s possible that a brand-new nonstick pan that had never been used for cooking might have fared better, but that’s an experiment for someone else to try. I’ll be using butter.

Reki

The song of the day is Amber Light by French musician Reki (Pierre Nguyen).

Bombay Bicycle Club

The song of the day is Feel from the album So Long, See You Tomorrow by English indie rock band Bombay Bicycle Club.

DJ Okawari

The song of the day is Encounter by Japanese artist DJ Okawari. The picture, in 1920 x 1080 resolution, is available here.

Monsters

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

Monsters are real. Sometimes they look like the rest of us, and sometimes they brag about being monsters. Sometimes they don’t know they are monsters and they become confused about who is a monster and who is not. Sometimes they know very well that they are monsters but it doesn’t matter to them.

Sometimes those who are not monsters must face monsters, must struggle with them. It’s a serious struggle; it’s a struggle to the death. In the long run, the monsters lose. In the short run, the monsters can do a lot of damage.

There is a saying, “fight fire with fire.” Those who battle monsters must be tempted to fight fire with fire, to fight evil with evil. That is a dangerous path. One can walk the edge of the abyss only so long before slipping into it. When one falls into the abyss, a monster is born.

The Naked And Famous

The song of the day is Serenade from the EP This Machine by New Zealand indie band The Naked And Famous. Since 2012, the band has been based in Los Angeles, California.

Hass

I love the taste of avocado. The store where I shop sells the Hass variety. Most grocery stores sell Hass avocados. There are dozens of avocado varieties, but Hass is the most common variety. The Hass avocado tree produces fruit year round and accounts for 80% of cultivated avocados in the world. You may have never thought about it, but why is it called a Hass avocado? Who or what is Hass?

According to Wikipedia,

All 'Hass' trees are descended from a single "mother tree" raised by a mail carrier named Rudolph Hass, of La Habra Heights, California. Hass patented the productive tree in 1935. The "mother tree", of uncertain subspecies, died of root rot and was cut down in September, 2002.

Rudolph Hass quit school after finishing the 10th grade and went to work. He tried to enlist in the Army during WW1 but was rejected due to a heart murmur. In 1923, he got a job selling men’s socks and ties door-to-door. In 1925, he got a job with the Pasadena, California post office for 25 cents an hour.

In 1925, after reading a magazine article about growing avocados, Hass used all his money plus a loan from his sister to buy a 1.5 acre avocado grove. The trees were a mixture of varieties: Fuerte, Lyon, Puebla, Nabal. Fuerte trees were considered the best at the time. Hass purchased and planted avocado seeds and when the seedlings were strong enough, he hired a professional grafter named Mr. Caulkins to take cuttings from the Fuerte trees and graft them onto the new trees. All but three grafts “took”. The three failures were re-grafted. One tree rejected the second graft. Hass asked Caulkins to cut it down, but Caulkins advised Hass that it was a strong tree and he should “leave it alone and see what happens.” And Hass did.

The seed that produced that avocado tree had already been cross pollinated by nature before Hass acquired it, so the subspecies of avocado is not known. When the seedling was only 14 inches tall it began producing walnut size fruit. Fuerte trees rarely produced fruit that early. The seedling grew more rapidly and produced more fruit than the Fuerte grafts. The Hass family agreed that the new variety tasted as good, if not better better than the Fuerte avocado.

Hass patented his “Hass” avocado tree and made arrangements with a nursery to sell seedlings, but the patent was widely violated. Growers would buy one tree and use it to graft all the trees in their orchard. Hass made less than $5000 over the life of the patent (17 years).

So the next time you’re sitting at your favorite bar sipping a cold beer and noshing on tortilla chips and guac, consider raising a toast to a California mailman named Rudolph Hass for discovering and cultivating the Hass avocado – the principle ingredient in that oh-so-tasty guacamole dip.

Chvrches

The song of the day is The Mother We Share from the album The Bones of What You Believe by Scottish electronic band Chvrches (pronounced as “churches”). The group consists of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, and Martin Doherty. The song was featured in the opening video for the 2014 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland.