Where's that waterboard when you need it?

They are turning the crotch bomber over to the ordinary criminal courts. He gets a lawyer, who will advise his client not to talk to anyone (except him). Critics maintain that the crotch bomber should have been called an enemy combatant and turned over to CIA or the armed forces for interrogation.
There a bunch of things we'd like to know that the crotch bomber knows. Like who gave him the bomb, and where that individual lives. Along with phone number, email address, work address, work phone and the rest of the contact information that would let the Yemeni authorities arrest him, or let a Predator strike snuff him.
Would CIA be able to extract this information? With several CIA interogators facing criminal prosecution for excessive roughness while interogating Al Qaeda suspects? CIA is not a very courageous agency in the best of times, and I doubt they have the stones to waterboard the crotch bomber in these days.
In these not so good times perhaps a tough DA will be able to squeeze the crotch bomber harder than waterboarding would. The DA could offer to reduce the sentence in return for co operation. "Talk and we let you off with five years in a nice low security 'detention facility'. Clam up and we give you life in an awful place."

Electronic With-it-ness

Which TV channels/networks are with it? Good question. The new digital TV sets can accept labels off the air (channel name, name of program currently broadcast) and display them to us couch potatoes as we surf up and down. Some channels (Fox News, TNT, Animal Planet, The Learning Channel) broadcast the labels, and they show up on the TV set. Other not so with it channels don't bother (WMUR, WPME, CSpan, SyFy, FX and more). Was I investing money in a TV station or channel, I'd invest in the with it ones, the ones that bother to broadcast their name and the program name. When channel surfing, most of us surf right by channels showing a commercial. Should instead a label show us that a nice program will appear after the commercials, we might stop surfing, and put up with the commercial waiting for the program to reappear.

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.