The Tea Party

Lot's of talk about the Tea Party rising up and smiting Democrats and Republicans. Might happen, but not just yet. Around here we have a lot of Tea Party folks, but it's a protest movement. The Tea Party doesn't have candidates for office, and until that happens, it isn't a political party.

Note to remote control designers

Hand held remotes for TV's and such. Always make the case ASYMMETRICAL allowing users to tell which way round the remote is pointed by touch. New TV remote is symmetrical, and I get it backward in the hand, point the wrong end at the TV, and nothing happens. PITA.
While we are on industrial design, DON'T mold tiny little labels into black casework. Nobody can read them. Mold the labels standing up from the case and paint the tops of them white. That's readable. As it is, the back of the TV has fifty plugs, all of them with unreadable labels. Makes hooking up the VCR and DVD so pleasant.

Green Jobs are make work

What's green? Wind power and solar power apparently. If either technology would work, at an affordable price, investment would flow into the business and people would get hired. Trouble is, neither technology makes money. Wind power leaves you in the dark when the wind doesn't blow. Solar power leaves you in the dark when the sun goes down.
There is no technological fix for either problem. No power is no power. I'm looking at two feet of snow on the ground and below freezing temperatures. If my juice goes out my furnace doesn't run and my pipes freeze. I can't use power that goes off when ever it feels like it. Neither can anyone else.
We can build a vast green industry, producing mountains of unsalable stuff. Train people to work in the industry. But it's just make work, the industry is producing stuff that cannot be sold.
The Soviets used to do things like that.

Glacier on the porch

The geology books say that glacier ice comes from snow, packing down into ice. It's happening on my porch as I write. I had 25 inches (real inches, measured with a yardstick) Sunday when the snow stopped falling. That has settled over the past few days. It's only 18 inches today. That's all compression and settling of the light powder snow, it ain't melting, it hasn't been warm enough to melt.

Home made turkey soup

I did it. Rather than pitching the Christmas turkey carcass after doing the dinner, the sandwiches, the left overs, and more sandwiches, I made it into soup.
It's dirt simple. Break the carcass up small and boil it in your largest kettle. Throw in any leftover gravy and stuffing. Spice to taste, Bell's Poultry Seasoning is good, thyme, sage, pepper and salt. Cook at a low boil (just the occasional bubble) for four hours.
At this point the turkey meat has cooked off the bones. Fish out the bones and discard. Add chopped onion, celery, and carrots. The carrots add a lot of eye appeal and flavor. A little rice and simmer for another 45 minutes to a hour, or until the rice and veggies are soft.
That's it. Makes a LOT of very tasty soup.

Avatar

Got to see it last night in Lincoln. Fun flick. It's set in the lush and colorful jungles of Pandora. The jungle night is filled with deadly beasts, gorgeous glowing super fireflies, and the Nahvi, a race of noble savages, all tall, lean, and beautiful despite blue complexions and thick noses. The Nahvi ride on "horses" and fly on dragons, hunt with bow and arrow, and except for being blue, look a lot like American Indians. They dwell in/under/around a humungeous and sacred tree that reaches up many stories into the sky. The scenes of jungle travel on foot, hunting, riding, flying and living in the jungle are fantastically well done and keep your attention.
The charm of this movie is in the excellence of the sets, scenery, and Nahvi. The acting is difficult to assess, when you suspect all the Nahvi facial expressions come from the depths of a computer. In fact this is not an actor's movie. The main characters are all Nahvi and are computer generated/augemented/whatever. The Nahvi are done with bits and bytes and pixels, not makeup and costuming. It's well done, the Nahvi are very believable. Give the CGI folks a few more years and we won't be able to tell live actors from CGI ones.
The plot is pure space opera, the good guys (Nahvi) and the bad guys (earthmen) clash in spectacular fashion. Characters are cardboard, who cares about the bad guys motives, we just enjoy watching the fight.
Lots of electrons have been spilled on the web about the deep inner meaning of this flick. Me, I don't think there is one, the movie puts on a great show, I enjoyed watching it. It's like Westerns or Bond movies, fun but not serious. Enjoy it. I did.

First Purchase a Piggy Bank

Front page story in the Saturday Wall St Journal explaining how economists are cheapskates. Children of economists recall how tight fisted their parents were. Things like keeping the thermostat set so low the wife threatened to move into a motel, private label groceries, off-brand tennis shoes, and a 1995 Subaru with a piece of electrical tape covering the "check engine" light.
Wow. I must be an economist. I do all those things and more, like buying at thrift stores.