what tomatoes and shower curtains have in common (MySpace 6/18/2008)

Subject	what tomatoes and shower curtains have in common
DateCreated	6/18/2008 11:24:00 PM
PostedDate	6/19/2008 5:18:00 AM
Body	Witness the recent parade of public health scares in the news ... tomatoes, shower curtains, baby bottles, etc.  Have you been following these stories, particularly for info. to avoid getting sick? Have you been noticing that they often seem to be missing the most critical info? Google News is one of several digests that allows you to read the same story as published in different media. As you read through multiple accounts, you will occasionally encounter a new and different angle - an aspect of the story that may be so significant, that it seems appalling that the other media would omit covering it. What follows is a short list of crucial "missing" parts of popular stories - not secret info - but amazing how often they get left out. (Many readers will know other examples.) E. coli and salmonella from fresh vegetables - Would the media please spend more time explaining how and why our produce is being contaminated by feces? Baby bottles bad for your health? - This topic is so old!  Maybe, just maybe, the bottles are o.k. when they are new. But it's a long known fact that they start leaching harmful substances as they age and wear out. Would the media kindly warn the public to discard milky-discolored baby bottles and similar containers, and caution the public about cleaning them with hot water and harsh detergents? Shower curtains - Is it the vinyl itself or the additives that are problematic? Why do some vinyl products stink real bad, while similar ones don't?  Maybe because some plastics factories add an extra dose of  softeners (to extend shelf-life)?  Food irradiation - Consider these missing story angles: 1 - Do manufacturers see irradiation as a panacea for the current lapses in food sanitation? 2 - Google "evisceration machine," and discover perhaps the main reason why chicken from the supermarket should be thoroughly cooked. 3 - A light dose of radiation may not affect the flavor of meat, but neither does it kill all the bacteria.  A suitable dose will cause a significant and very obvious change in the flavor.

my worst phone company experience - the 'drop' (MySpace 5/23/2008)

Subject	my worst phone company experience - the 'drop'
DateCreated	5/23/2008 7:45:00 PM
PostedDate	5/23/2008 6:43:00 PM
Body	Today, while doing a Google search re. my cell phone, I serendipitously encountered a forum thread titled, "Your worst phone company experience" - a chain of little personal stories-from-hell. I didn't stay there long, but it brought to mind an experience from long ago. I was living in a house in East Oakland - one phone and several roomates. One day, just before hanging up the phone - my other party had already hung up - I heard some giggling. Strange. Somebody else was on the line. A bit later, outside the house, I noticed that there was a phone linemen up on a pole next to the house. I called up to him about the giggling. He asked my number and said he'd check it out. Back outside a few minutes later, he looked down at me and said, "You've got a 'drop'". What? He said it was likely that the last location to have our phone number was still connected to our line. Did we still have our old phone bills? "If I were you, I'd check all your bills and ask the phone company for a refund for any numbers you don't recognize. And don't tell them I said that." I located the old bills, 6-8 months worth, passed them around the roommates - and sure enough, we'd been billed for a lot of odd calls. So I called up the phone company, and told the rep. - let's call her "Mrs. Beasley" - that we had another party connected to our phone line. No, that was not possible, since we had a private line. And the giggling meant that someone was on an extension - though I told her we had no extensions. And the strange calls were ones we'd forgotten we'd made. Then I added that a lineman had told me there was another connection. "A telephone company employee told you that?" Different tune. She'd have someone look into it and get she'd get back to me. But she didn't. A week later, I called back.  Mrs. Beasley said they'd checked it out, and nothing was wrong. She made it sound like she thought I'd been trying to pull a fast one. A few days later, during a phone conversation, I heard some whispering in the background. Hell!  I rang up the phone company, determined to demand that they immediately send an inspector. But Mrs. Beasley was out for the day.  The rep. I was talking to asked if she could help instead. Oh, damn - I'd have to start over from the beginning! But I agreed, and gave her my name and number. Instantly, she said, "Oh! You're the gentleman with the 'drop'!" She told me they were going to refund everything we were asking for. For some time afterwards, I'd occasionally recall this incident with the phone company, and wonder about "Mrs. Beasley's" part in it, and how it turned out for her.

I bought the pdaPhoneCameraVoicerecorderBrowser (MySpace 4/26/2008)

Subject	I bought the pdaPhoneCameraVoicerecorderBrowser
DateCreated	4/26/2008 1:10:00 AM
PostedDate	4/26/2008 1:16:00 AM
Body	... a followup to 1-15-08 I was carrying too much gear around. I had two address books, one on the Palm, one on the cell. Then, recently, the eleven year old Palm started doing "spontaneous hard resets". Yes, it was time for a change. So I went shopping on eBay for a Treo 650. Dozens are being sold daily, but it's still a sellers' market. I silently waited for a gap in the frenzy, and then - with only seconds to go - pounced on an under-hyped, poorly photographed, and under-bid unit. (heh, heh, heh) Ten days later it arrived, and, yes, the screen was pristine - no scratches or blemishes. Yeah! Then I noticed that the stylus was missing. Noooo, the seller hadn't specifically mentioned a stylus. And, funny, the unit was being held together with only two screws. Such a deal? But it worked. After several weeks, I really can't find anything wrong. Back to eBay. Accessories for "Fred," the phone: five tiny screws, stylus, data cable, case, cradle, new battery, screen protector, mono-headset for driving, stereo headset for music, installation CD. Maybe low-balling wasn't such a good idea. PROS - The screen is bright, I can read it clearly. - Google Maps ... yeah! CONS - No WiFi. - I'm supposed to type with my thumbs?

Plant Communicator, science or hoax? (MySpace 3/26/2008)

Subject	Plant Communicator, science or hoax?
DateCreated	3/26/2008 1:52:00 AM
PostedDate	3/26/2008 1:40:00 AM
Body	The Plant Communicator is a goofy-looking device with two parallel prongs. You shove them into a flower pot. If the Communicator purrs, the plant is happy. I found one for cheap at a thrift-store. And it really works. O.k.  I admit that it doesn’t really measure happiness. It’s a soil conductivity tester - that purrs. Or clicks like a geiger counter, or whines, or screams - depending on how much current can flow between the tips of the two prongs. Even with no instruction sheet, it was pretty easy to figure out how to use. It’s a tool for comparison, not for numbers. You use it to spot the oddballs - such as the pots that are getting missed during watering, or are drying out too fast. Occasionally, a pot screams. Pour on extra water, and the drainage will scream, too. A sign of either too much fertilizer, or salt accumulation from irrigation. Fix is the same - flush until it sounds normal. Likewise, if you want to avoid over-fertilizing, skip the pots that purr with a higher pitch. Don’t confuse these babies with the readily available single prong "moisture meters" with a meter but no battery - the principle is completely different, and many people consider them next to worthless. it really works

at the risk of seeming ridiculous (MySpace 2/28/2008)

Subject	at the risk of seeming ridiculous
DateCreated	2/28/2008 10:22:00 PM
PostedDate	2/28/2008 10:38:00 PM
Body	"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." When I first saw this quote on a poster dedicated to it's author, Che Guevara, it immediately struck a personal chord - even without knowing his original intent.  For the first time, it occurred to me that some of our would-be revolutionaries seemed more motivated by hatred of the "Ruling Class," than by love of the "People". ---- This insight based on Che's quote came to mind again, after reading an angry political essay that is being passed around on MySpace, written by an American left-wing author in response to Kosovo declaring its separation from Serbia. If you are hip to left-wing political themes, all I need say is that the essay is "anti-NATO" and "anti-Bill Clinton," and you would already know much of the rest of the rap.  It's a reasonable guess that the author, and those who share his opinions, have never hung out with Kosovo Albanians, and have no expectations of doing so.  I've been hearing this particular analysis periodically since 1999, mostly from American lefties who feel righteously pissed about NATO, the Pentagon, the Media, and hypocrisy.    And coincidentally, during the same time, I've been hanging out with folks who enjoy the music, dance, and food of the peoples who live in the Balkans - in and around Kosovo. From the start, what seemed weird to me, was that few of the American lefties I heard vocalizing about "NATO" and "Clinton" and "Kosovo," ever showed at Balkan culture events. Most of them didn't seem to know much about the people over there. And they didn't particularly seem to want to learn. Which is a shame, because they were - and I guess still are - missing a lot. Including learning how to frame political beliefs in a way that doesn't dis some of the people who might be sitting at your table. [Wikipedia on the Kosovo War]

driving on the left side of the Lord (MySpace 2/21/2008)

Subject	driving on the left side of the Lord
DateCreated	2/21/2008 8:43:00 PM
PostedDate	2/21/2008 8:37:00 PM
Body	The streetcars were at a standstill, so I walked an extra block and caught a bus. I got off at my stop, and walked back to the streetcar line. Right there was the problem. A little car was blocking the tracks, all four tires flat, with one side pushed in where the massive Boeing-Vertol tram had collided broadside. A large crowd had gathered. Someone speculated that the driver was probably English, and had been looking the wrong way. The next day's Chronicle said there had been several fatalities - and yes, the driver was from Britain. I live in Humboldt now.  My experience over the years has taught me to be more cautious at intersections.  When you see another driver approaching from a side street, you hope for the best.  But it's hard to say what will happen, if all you see is the back of their head. If you want to know why the guy in the white Subaru just honked - it's because he thinks you might be British.

the cheese that refused to die (MySpace 2/18/2008)

Subject	the cheese that refused to die
DateCreated	2/18/2008 11:49:00 PM
PostedDate	2/18/2008 11:20:00 PM
Body	this blog entry is dedicated to anyone who has ever had cheese go moldy in the refrigerator The original point of cheese - the reason why people made it - was to preserve the food value of milk. But in the modern age, the common wisdom is to put cheese in the refrigerator. To keep it from spoiling. Go figure. "That's a lot of cheese!," grinned the guy behind me in the checkout line at the Grocery Outlet.  I smiled, but didn't let on that I was going to use the five pound rubber mozzarella as a kitchen ornament. For the last ten months, hanging next to the range hood and the kitchen towels has been an oblong block of cheese, wrapped in ... cheesecloth. I finally took it down this afternoon, and carved off a slice. Not bad. Look, I'll be the first to admit that I have no real expertise with aging cheese. I don't know about proper temperature or humidity. Or wax coating. Or cheese moths. Maybe I've been lucky. But what I DO know, is that cheap, natural cheese (not "pasteurized process") will improve in texture and flavor, if taken out of its store wrapper, kept cool, but not refrigerated, and with air allowed to circulate on all sides.  Even five days makes a noticible difference. Furthermore, it shouldn't go moldy - at least not where I live in coastal northwest California. I accidentally discovered the "durability" of natural cheese soon after I arrived in Humboldt County. I was a grad student, and to save money, I moved into a beat-up trailer in Fieldbrook. For some reason I was using an ice chest instead of a proper refrigerator. Short-sighted me, I didn't figure that my little block of Monterey Jack would slide off into the not-so-clean ice water and become a shapeless, goopy mass. Having just spent $3, I couldn't bring myself to simply chuck it, so I wrapped it in a paper towel, poked and prodded it back into shape, and left it on the counter to dry.  I was not optimistic. But after a few days, it turned back into something that looked, smelled, and (do i dare?) tasted like the original. No sign of the dreaded cheese mold. I was impressed. If cheese could survive such abuse - maybe it really doesn't need refrigeration. So I started leaving my cheese out, on a rack. That was about 16 years ago. Since then, I've continued to leave cheese out. Mold has been rare, except after accidents, like dropping it on the floor. But it's been an easy fix - wipe off the mold, apply a thin film of vegetable oil, and it doesn't return. So what's with these refrigerators? Why are they so deadly on cheese? I think it's because most people wrap their cheese in plastic - which causes moisture to condense. Water films are a lovely environment for mold. We use these bags, wrappers, and containers to keep food from drying out - but ironically, often end up creating a "mold-incubator". Bread and vegetables are similarly affected. UPDATE 2/21 - "All I am saying - is give cheese a chance."