A little bit bored, I went looking for any web links to my short-term life in physics, for inclusion in a tech post on web server configuration for dummies. I didn't find what I was looking for — the University of Texas finally took down my old website — but I did discovered that I've been published. And no one bothered to tell me.
We've been big fans of the Burton Batman films and the first one from Nolan, so we had high expectation going into the theater for The Dark Knight today. We were not let down. I won't be the first to observe that the violence was quite indirect (thankfully), that the pacing was strange, and that the human/social analysis was fascinating without slapping you in the face.
Responding to and expanding on Al Gore's recent speech and plan for moving completely to renewable energy sources over the next ten years, Alex Steffen of WorldChanging has recently written about our need to redevelop not only our energy systems, but also our cities, our industries, our farms, our food and clothing. In short, "We need a massive wave of innovation, right now, in every single part of America's material civilization."
We also need a massive wave of socialization, right now, in every community across America and the rest of the world. We need to learn to see with each other's eyes, to feel what the other feels — especially when the other does not look like us. We need to step beyond national loyalties into a loyalty to the world, for "the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" (Bahá'u'lláh).
Somehow over the years I had never once encountered this in person; I had only been told about this happening. On a walk this evening up to the park, a guy leaned out of the passenger side of an SUV and yelled "hey sexy!" at my wife. Some would see this as a compliment. No. It is potentially-threatening verbal abuse, and we have to do better at educating society to cut this crap out. It ain't Egypt, but I'm not entirely convinced that this country is much better about public harassment of women.
Speaking of improper respect for women... with the caveat that I find Senator Hillary Clinton's press release a too partisan for my tastes... she and Senator Patty Murray have an insightful analysis of some ridiculous new proposed rules from the Department of Health. Major media coverage from ABC. Sadly this is the type of thing that it is nearly impossible to find reported without partisan overtones. I'm sorry, but a woman's access to contraception should not be impinged on by the whims of government policy or the religious beliefs of the local pharmacist. There is nothing partisan about that.
Start with AllRecipe.com's Carrot Cake III. Substitute apple sauce for all of the oil (one-to-one). Add a cup of raisins. Consider using pumpkin pie spice instead of just cinnamon. And ditch the frosting. Good stuff, but way too many calories to be able eat more than a thumb-sized portion. Cut your cake into 16 sections. Dollop on a half-serving of neufchâtel cheese, and throw into the microwave for a few seconds to help spread. Top off with a teaspoon of sugar to get a more icing-like experience. Result: a cake nearly as good as the "real thing" with fewer than half the calories. Oh, and we used half brown sugar, which adds a few calories.
Nutritional result: 290 calories, 6.6 g fat, 4.9 g protein, 42 g carbs. Compare that to the original recipe, with smaller servings (only 19): 583 calories, 35.6 g fat, 5.2 g protein, and 63.9 g carbs.
I survived class! And now I can "officially" read French proficiently :-).
By the way, now I've ridden my bike twice to Whole Foods, but this weekend I had too long a list and had to skip. But I did get my longest ride ever in on Wednesday — 5.5 miles down to St. Paul's West Side (which is in the south central). Yeah, I know, 5.5 miles is kind of pathetic. But not for me!
In this opinion piece in the New York-area Jewish newspaper The Forward, an Iranian Jew writes about the relative treatment of Jews and Bahá'ís in Iran. Despite the harsh rhetoric against Israel, the Iranian regime actually protects the rights of Jewish minorities. At one and the same time, the Bahá'ís are treated as infidels and apostates, denied rights of education, inheritance, assembly, and so forth.
The Holy Qur'an says of the followers of the Israelite prophets and of Christ: "Say, 'We believe in God and what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and what Moses and Jesus and all the prophets were given by their Lord. We do not differentiate between any of them. We are Muslims submitted to Him.' (Qur'an, 3:84)