Signs of Spring (2012)

The radio is warning us to take in the bird feeders, 'cause the bears are coming out of hibernation.
And it's raining, not snowing.

Corned Beef

There it was on the meat counter for $1.48 a pound. Such a deal in an age of $3.99 for hamburger. So I bought one. About 3 pounds. I/ve never cooked corn beef before. I have memories of Mom doing New England Boiled Dinner in a pressure cooker, but they are not fond ones. So I googled for a recipe. As expected, there were a lot of 'em. They fell into two groups, the braise and the oven roast. Most of the oven roast recipes attracted a blizzard of negative comments.
So, we will braise. I opened the package and dunked the corned beef in fresh water for about a half an hour to rinse off excess salt. Corned beef is a tough cut of meat that is soaked in brine to tenderize it. If you proceed immediately to cooking, it will come out VERY salty. Then I put Mr. Corned Beef into a Dutch oven with enough water to cover his bottom half, and the spice packet that comes packed with him. Bring to a boil on the stovetop and then simmer an hour a pound to tenderize it more. If you don't cook it enough, it comes out chewy as an old tire tube. Added carrots and potatoes an hour before it was done. They were nice red skin potatoes so I didn't bother to peel them.
Delicious. And cheap.
Left over corned beef slices and makes tasty sandwiches.

"The President has little control of gas prices"

I hear this bit of disinformation hourly on NPR, and even on Fox. It isn't true. Obama could resume permitting drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. He could OK the Keystone XL pipeline. He could lease oil sands in Colorado. He could issue off shore leases for the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast. He could start drilling in the "Alaska National Wildlife Refuge" a bit of frozen tundra on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. He could scrap the boutique gasoline blending rules which prevent selling gasoline across state lines. He could stop closing gasoline refineries in the Caribbean.
Drilling does lower prices. The price of natural gas dropped from $12 a thousand cubic feet in 2008 to $3 today. That's a 75% reduction in price in just four years. All done by drilling.
And the price reductions come even faster. Oil and gasoline are traded on commodities markets world wide. Those markets are future oriented. Prices are set by trader's expectations of the price in the future. If suppliers expect to get better prices next year, they don't sell, they wait for next year. If buyers expect to higher prices next year, they will pay more this year to avoid getting ripped off next year. If the markets were convinced that the Americans were serious about increasing production, prices would fall. It would only take a few months for the markets to decide the Americans were serious.

Whither Afghanistan?

Last week's Koran burning and this weekend's shootings have done a lot of damage to US relationship with the Afghans.
There is a reason for US involvement in the Afghan snake pit. The locals are incapable of maintaining civil order. Left to their own devices, they allowed Al Quada to plan and execute 9/11 from their soil. There is little evidence that things are any better after nearly ten years of US liberation. When we pull out of Afghanistan, Al Quada and the Taliban will move back in.
Dispite the terrible events of this month, there is a chance of straightening things out. We should look at the American involvement in the Philippines, which started back in 1898 and lasted thru WWII. We had to suppress a bloody Filipino uprising at the turn of last century, but after 40 years of a decent American administration, the Filipinos took our side, rather than the Japanese side, in World War II.
Of course, for that to happen, we have to stay in Afghanistan, rather than pull out.

Will a 1% change in the unemployment rate matter?

The TV news is full of stories about the improving economy, unemployment rates dropping by fractions of a percent, and it's effect upon the voters. Personally, I think the voters are going on gut feel, their own employment status, the prospect of a layoff, the price of gas and groceries, and their prospects of a raise in judging Obama's performance on the economy. None of those indicators is very favorable. I don't think anyone pays much attention to a fraction of a percent change in unemployment. If the unemployment rate were to drop from 8% to 6%, that would get their attention, but that ain't happening.
Certainly, no one (except democratic activists) really thinks the economy has improved much.

Must be a slow news season

This is the second big talk about solar flares. Probably brought on by new satellites that give nicer images. The Sun has been flaring thru out geological time, and will doubtless continue to do so. It doesn't seem to do anything bad.
The power and phone lines are all hardened against lightning strikes, they shrug off thousands of lightning hits a day. Solar flares don't pack the punch of a lightning bolt.
Could the newsies be looking for an attention grabbing story that isn't a story?

JOhn Carter,I saw the movie last night

It was opening night in Littleton, and I got my brother and my sister-in-law to come along for the fun. There was a good crowd at the Jax Jr. The movie is pretty good. On a scale of 1 to 10, where the original Star Wars is a 10, and the Jar-Jar Binks movie is a 1, John Carter is a solid 6, maybe a 7.
I've been waiting for this movie ever since I read the book as a boy. A Princess of Mars was Edgar Rice Burroughs first published novel, coming out as a magazine serial in 1911. Burroughs went on to write a lot more Martian stories. He didn't invent Tarzan until later. I always thought Burroughs Mars stories were cooler than his Tarzan stories, although I read most of the Tarzan books too.
Tarzan, requiring less special effects, made it into the movies early on, and had a long and successful run, both movies and TV. There was an effort to do a Princess of Mars movie in the 1930's (animated) but it didn't pan out. If it had, it would have been the first feature length animated film, instead of Snow White.
Anyhow, John Carter, the movie, is better than the Tarzan movies out there. So call it a success. Forbes magazine thinks John Carter will make a bundle of money and lead to profitable sequels. The movie is "live action" in that the hero and heroine are real actors, photographed in costume. The background is full of CGI Martians, exotic riding animals, ferocious monsters, fantastic aircraft, Martian cities, and marvelous terrain features such as the River Iss.
The movie takes substantial liberties with Burrough's original text, but that is nothing new. Movies never follow the book very closely. True believer fans will whine about this, but it doesn't bother me much. Had I been directing it there are a lot of things I would have done differently, but I wasn't directing, and so things are as they are.
If you are a Burroughs fan, this is a must see. It's a good action adventure story, lots of action, lots of strange places and creatures, it moves fast enough that you don't notice the two hour length.