Posts from — June 2008

The Pensacola Beach Blog has been tracking the local reaction to the budget problems caused by the mortgage meltdown, cratering house prices, and Amendment 1.

As the Republicans have a lock on political offices in Santa Rosa county, you knew that whatever they did, it wouldn’t be called a tax increase, and they came through with the old Reagan dodge of “user fees”.

Both the city of Milton and the city of Gulf Breeze are in the process of enacting emergency services “fees”, which essentially mean that if you call 911, expect a bill.

If you are planning to travel in this area, you might want to avoid those two cities, although I expect other areas will get in the act shortly. While the Milton ordinance isn’t as blatant as the Gulf Breeze version, years of living here tells me that local voters won’t be stuck with the costs, they’ll push them on to tourists or people from outside their voting districts.

I’ve been occupied with a couple of things, well, a couple of family things, and the normal “end of the annual major project” that unfortunately involves a major corporation that doesn’t think a price measured in thousands of dollars requires that the service be prompt and error free.

There are things that make “media consolidation” and “‘Net neutrality” extremely important to me, but that involve some of my clients, which means I can’t use the excellent, hard-fact reasons why they are important to everyone, because of non-disclosure agreements. I will say this, if we had real media competition and true neutrality regarding Internet traffic, a lot of you would have more available cash on a monthly basis.

One of the truism in computers is that real hardware advances are driven by games and their need for ever more resources [as well as M$ Bloat].

The BBC reports that the next milestone has been reached: Supercomputer sets petaflop pace

A supercomputer built with components designed for the Sony PlayStation 3 has set a new computing milestone.

The IBM machine, codenamed Roadrunner, has been shown to run at “petaflop speeds”, the equivalent of one thousand trillion calculations per second.

The benchmark means the computer is twice as nimble as the current world’s fastest machine, also built by IBM.

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This latest CBS/Associate Press report is just the latest example of the severe weather that has been ripping across the middle of the US lately: Midwest Storms Bring Flooding, Kill 3

(CBS/AP) At least three people are dead after severe weekend storms in the Midwest.

Two Michigan newspaper carriers drowned this morning when their car was submerged along a washed-out road.

Another person was killed in Indiana, where record flooding is continuing along several rivers.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated from Indiana homes, a hospital and a flooded nursing home.

In Nebraska, the National Weather Service has confirmed at least one category EF 2 tornado touched down in a neighborhood in west Omaha.

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The Associated Press reports on the latest 5.0 aftershock in China that is threatening the debris dams holding back large lakes before they can be safely drained, and the BBC reports on the 6.1 earthquake responsible for two deaths in Greece:

China: Aftershock hits quake lake, setting off landslides

JIANGYOU, China (AP) — A “relatively strong” aftershock shook a massive quake-formed lake Sunday that had been threatening to flood more than a million people, sending landslides tumbling down surrounding mountains, a state news agency reported.

The effect of the 20-second quake on the Tangjiashan lake was not immediately known, Xinhua News Agency said. The dam of unstable mud and rocks was under surveillance following the aftershock.

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Southern Italian Minestrone

Minestrone is one of those dishes with a thousand different recipe’s! It was originally a poor family meal made up of whatever ingredients could be found. This particular recipe has been used extensively through Southern Italy, though it’s probably used all over with some variations. 🙂

Ingredients:

1 kilogram soup potatoes
1 kilogram vegetables (onions, leeks, fresh or dried kidney and soup beans, green beans, carrots, celery, turnips, pumpkin, spinach) or whatever vegetables are in season or easily found. Fresh is best.
4 cloves of crushed garlic (or up to individual taste)
150 grams Swiss air-dried pig chest bacon (or similar thick, lean bacon)
1 pig trotter (secret ingredient #1)
1 Parmesan crust (secret ingredient #2)
1 large slice of pig skin (pork rind from the bacon) (secret ingredient #3)
4 Bay leaves
Fresh chopped parsley, basil, 1 twig of thyme and 1 of rosemary (proportions up to you)
6-8 Cloves (number of cloves up to individual taste)
6-8 Peppercorns (used for cooking soup beans)
Rock Salt, ground black pepper (Up to individual taste.)
Freshly grated Parmesan and Pecorino cheese. (again, amount depends on individual taste. however, Parmesan should be a wedge with the crust on for use later).

NOTE: 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds. No need to be exact in the measures for the vegetables. And it depends how big a pot you have and how much you want to make. Just try to keep all the proportions relative. 🙂

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When I read the article on the B-2, I knew that this wasn’t the first time that a problem about the B-2 and weather had been in the news. Sure enough, back on September 12^th, 1997 CNN had a piece on a GAO report about the situation, Air Force sticks up for its ‘fair-weather’ B-2

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Missouri (CNN) — The U.S. Air Force deployed its much-criticized, high-tech B-2 bombers on their most critical mission to date: countering the perception that they are multibillion-dollar, bat-winged boondoggles.

Smarting from a recent General Accounting Office report which called the B-2 a “fair-weather jet” that can’t be based overseas without expensive climate-controlled hangars, the Air Force flew dozens of reporters and cameramen to Missouri for an unprecedented, close-up look at the bombers.

The media were given extraordinary access to the B-2, including a chance to sit in the two-seat cockpit (the power was turned off to hide classified aspects).

“We have a capability today that nobody else has,” Brig. Gen. Thomas Goslin said. But Goslin and the Air Force also have a public relations problem nobody else has.

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The Associated Press reports that the Air Force investigation has determined that Moisture caused $1.4 billion bomber crash

HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AP) — The Air Force said the first crash of a B-2 stealth bomber was caused by moisture in sensors and estimated the loss of the aircraft at $1.4 billion.

The crash probably could have been avoided if knowledge of a technique to evaporate the moisture had been disseminated throughout the B-2 program, Maj. Gen. Floyd L. Carpenter, who headed an accident investigation board, said Thursday.

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Bisignano Spinach

Ingredients

1½ lbs. fresh spinach, cooked and finely chopped (or 2 10oz. packages frozen chopped spinach, cooked)
1 16oz. ricotta (or cottage cheese) (reduced fat cheese may be used)
1 cup bread crumbs (or packaged herb stuffing)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup sliced fresh mushrooms (or canned sliced mushrooms, drained)
½ cup chopped green capsicum (pepper)
1 cup sour cream (light or reduced fat cram may be used)
¼ cup homemade (or bottled/canned) spaghetti sauce
1 lb. mozzarella cheese, thin sliced
1 tsp. chopped basil
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese.

Preparation

1. In a large bowl, combine spinach, ricotta or cottage cheese, bread crumbs, eggs, mushrooms, and capsicum (green pepper).

2. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

3. Pour mixture into a buttered 9×13-inch baking dish and spread sour cream on top.

4. Pour on a layer of spaghetti sauce, using most, but not all, of sauce. Cover with a layer of mozzarella cheese slices.

5. Spread remaining spaghetti sauce over cheese slices. Sprinkle with basil and Parmesan cheese.

6. Bake for 30 minutes.

Note that I have added alternatives in brackets to the ingredients to make it easier, but the original ingredient is best! 😉

In fairness I should mention that Pensacola’s Fiesta of Five Flags has also started. Next year marks the 450^th anniversary of the first attempt by the Spanish to settle in the area that has become the US. That attempt was interrupted by a hurricane, which is why St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city [founded by Europeans] in the US.

They still use the wrong flags, but they have gotten better. I did notice that they use the wrong British flag at their Fiesta site, but the correct one on the city’s flag poles. At least Earl Bowden got them to use the proper flag for the Confederate year.

“Over sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in then German-occupied France.”

The BBC has an article in their On This Day series and a Flash animation of the Allied landings.

Also on this day:

1966 – James Meredith, the first black man to enter the University of Mississippi, was shot and wounded after entering Mississippi on a civil rights march.

1968 – Robert Francis Kennedy died after being shot earlier following his primary victory in California.

“Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws–but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted–when we tolerate what we know to be wrong–when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened–when we fail to speak up and speak out–we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.”

Air Conditioning

Turn it off!

[Editor: I assume it is because of her age, but Dot really doesn’t like the AC, even though I have it at 78°. As you can see, if you are a cat owner, she has gone “rabbit”, as if she were freezing. She could just lay atop one of the system units, but she would rather nag.]

Friday Ark

Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

These crunchy hard cookies are used all over Italy and are perfect for dunking in coffee, tea, or hot chocolate! BTW, biscotti means “twice cooked” – the secret of their crunchy goodness! 😀

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened pure cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. (¾ stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips

(NOTE: Here & Europe, 1 cup = 240 milliliters).

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In Comments Kryten42 has been sharing his Grandmother’s recipes and they deserve to be seen by all:

Mediterranean Chilled Stuffed Tomatoes (Serves 4)

Fresh tomatoes are often prepared simply to bring out their natural flavor around the Mediterranean. To make this, use the reddest, juiciest, freshest tomatoes you can find (organic fresh picked have the best flavor). This is an excellent side dish, or snack, on a hot day.

Ingredients:

4 medium or large tomatoes
3 cloves fresh garlic
4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp. ground rock or sea salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
3 to 4 cups fresh parsley and/or basil, shredded or chopped (the proportions are up to the individual).

Preparation:

1. Cut the tops off tomatoes and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and pulp inside. Be careful not to break through the tomato skins.

2. Using a large mortar and pestle, or a medium bowl and the back of a spoon, mash the garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper together. Add parsley and/or basil and mash to combine well.

3. Fill tomatoes with garlic and herb mixture. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours and serve cold.

Bon apetit! 😀