Tags
brain, cake, chocolate, evolution, fruit, fundamentalism, GOP, jelly, John McCain, Princess Diana, psychology, tart, torture, waterboarding, world history
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American Revolution Blog has a nice entry on the juxtaposition of the American and French revolutions. Trying to put yourself back into that time period and examining how both we and the French viewed the two events is interesting to say the least. Explore the similarities and differences between the two seminal events.
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Baking Delights offers you the opportunity to make your own wedding cake. Now, perhaps most of you have no need to do such a thing, but some no doubt do, and these instructions would work equally well for a major anniversary party or birthday party for that matter. If you need to feed a lot, here is the beginning of a two-parter which will take you through the entire process, with tons of individual choices for you to consider.
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Oh boy this recipe sounded good, and it’s from Epicurious so you can expect that it’s excellent. This one is from Bon Appetit and is a Chocolate Honey Tart. Now that sounds elegant and delicious.
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Oh it’s always a good day when we have a Garrison Keillor post. Today he tackles a rather pressing point, American soldiers, and what it means and doesn’t mean to support the troops. I say a big thumbs up on this one. Read it!
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Okay, I often present you with science information, and the weirder the better in my opinion. I mean, I love the stuff that makes you go, wow, I don’t have a clue how that could happen but I’m bowled over that it does. I’ll scratch my head for days, and give up with a shrug. I’ll never understand how that happens. Well, it seems that our brains are wired to define left from right. I guess that makes some crude sense, in some kind of way, but that’s not all. We are wired to do so right down to the cellular level. Can you beat that? I’m sure you already knew that zebrafish are good models for the human brain. Why of course! It seems that the left brain neurons have spiral axons, while these are mostly missing in the right brain. They have flat, shallow spirals on the right, and again, there are few of these on the left. Got that straight. What does it mean? I haven’t a clue, but I sure know you can use this ammunition to complain that your other half is simply wired wrong.
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Well, this next one sure was no surprise to me. We are paranoid! Yep. Most all of us, and most of the time. No one has been willing to admit this. Too paranoid it seems. No, I am not thinking that they are monitoring who reads this post, and putting me on a list. I am not prone to such paranoia, that would be the Contrarian. Drat, now I suppose I have to go and tell him he’s normal. And so I lose another edge. . . .sigh. . . Just after I told him he was wrongly wired.
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We have a humongous crabapple tree up on the hill. And I have made crabapple jelly before. It’s a bit tedious but very good. Here is a nice recipe, should you be so endowed with the same good fortune as me.
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Glenn Greenwald gives us all the dirt on the newly released memo by Yoo that sparked the inferno about waterboarding and torture. Mr. Yoo, then employed at the State Department, asserted in his famous writing that the President, under his War Powers, could pretty much do as he wished. He certainly was not required to follow military law. Unbelievable as it may seem, Mr. Yoo is now employed as a professor at Berkeley of all freaking places. So much for morality in America! So much for the Anti-war 60’s at Berkeley!
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If you are addicted to all things Princess Diana, Scandalous Women has a detailed post of the latest goings on at the inquest, latest of several thousand now, about her death. This part deals with her past boyfriend, Hasnat Khan, and his take on what her relationship with Dodi Fayed was. Lots of inside information if you are a royal follower.
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I find it hard to understand but some states know their kids are dumber than the rest of the country and are doing their damnedest to keep it that way. Louisiana has tried plenty of schemes to keep their school children ignorant of any science that might impinge on bible teachings. So far, all have been struck down as unconstitutional. Now they have a new tact: A piece of legislation is now up in the state that would require teachers to “examine all sides” of “controversial” issues, like evolution, climate change, and cloning. (Climate change, in the view of the wacko right is considered an insidious attempt to violate God’s order to “go forth and multiply” in favor of contraception–this is really big with the ultra right Catholic group.) Read all about it at Talk2Action.
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If you like decoupage, and are interested in learning some glazing and texture techniques, then the Artful Crafter has some ideas for you.
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