Category Archives: General

General, General Science, Space

First Poppy

2 Comments

With all the rain they’ve had in southern California this winter, I would expect the poppy season to be gorgeous up in Lancaster. This is a good harbinger of that:

Overlooking the first poppy at the reserve would have been easy. The stem was only a couple of inches high and wind gusts bent the young flower almost sideways. The flower was just off the exit road beyond the park’s kiosk.

“I hope it’s a sign of a good bloom that’s coming,” Scott said after she learned of the sighting.

Elgin said she hopes to pass on poppy updates to enthusiasts who phone the information center.

“I figure in the next couple of days there will be five or six more poppies show up, and each day a few more until the full bloom,” Elgin said.

“There’s indications we’ll have a decent season, but I can’t really predict one that will be exceptionally good because Mother Nature can turn right around and prove me wrong.”

Elgin said the only thing predictable about poppies at the reserve is that they’re unpredictable.

I’m going to Space Access in about three weeks, in Phoenix. When I was looking for tickets, it turned out to make a lot more sense to fly into LA, for schedule and ticket price, and I have other business there anyway, so I’m going to fly out, drive to Phoenix and back, and then fly back to Florida. But I’ll probably be going up to Mojave, so I think I’ll take a still and videocam with me, and make the little side trip in Lancaster to the preserve. And hope that it’s both sunny and not windy (an intersection of conditions that’s unfortunately rare that time of year), because that’s the only time that the flowers are really open and in full bloom.

General, Philosophy, Political Commentary

RIP WFB

23 Comments

While I’m not a conservative, and never have been, I came to appreciate William F. Buckley much more as I grew older and started reading National Review (though not consistently–I’ve never had a subscription) back in the Reagan years. An intellectual giant has passed.

The Corner is (not surprisingly) all WFB all the time right now.

[Update at 2:30 PM]

A tribute from Mario Cuomo:

I was privileged to know William Buckley for more than 20 years and was in fact his opponent in his last public debate.

He may not have been unique. But I have never encountered his match. He was a brilliant, gentle, charming philosopher, seer and advocate.

William Buckley died … but his complicated brilliance in thought and script will survive him for as long as words are read. And words are heard.

[Early evening update]

Bob Poole weighs in, with a libertarian perspective:

By creating National Review in 1955 as a serious, intellectually respectable conservative voice (challenging the New Deal consensus among thinking people), Buckley created space for the development of our movement. He kicked out the racists and conspiracy-mongers from conservatism and embraced Chicago and Austrian economists, introducing a new generation to Hayek, Mises, and Friedman. And thanks to the efforts of NR’s Frank Meyer to promote a “fusion” between economic (free-market) conservatives and social conservatives, Buckley and National Review fostered the growth of a large enough conservative movement to nominate Goldwater for president and ultimately to elect Ronald Reagan.

In many ways, this is a loss for the conservative (and libertarian) movements even greater than that of Reagan. But due to his influence, which is immeasurable, he leaves behind many to pick up and carry the torch for freedom forward.

[Evening update]

Ed Kilgore has further thoughts:

Buckley once said he offered his frequent polemical enemy Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a “plenary indulgence” for his errors after Schlesinger leaned over to him during a discussion of the despoilation of forests and whispered: “Better redwoods than deadwoods.” And that’s certainly how a lot of us on the Left feel about the legacy of William F. Buckley, Jr. (see progressive historian Rick Perlstein’s tribute to WFB’s decency and generosity at the Campaign for America’s Future site). He made us laugh, and made us think, and above all, taught us the value of the English language as a deft and infinitely expressive instrument of persuasion. I’ll miss him, and so should you.

It’s a shame that I have to suffer pea-brained feces-flingers in my comments section on the occasion of his passing. That person will clearly never be able to use the English language as an expressive instrument of persuasion, infinitely or otherwise. It’s sad that he’s unable to realize how unpersuasive, and deserving of the contempt of all, that he is. It’s equally sad that he has no sense whatever of shame, no matter how deserving.

[Update early Thursday morning]

The Washington Post says that Buckley will be missed. Well, not by certain scumbags in my comments section, of course. But who cares about them…?

[Update early morning on February 28th]

Here’s a huge compendium of encomia from all points on the political spectrum. Sadly, the only unbonum words that I’ve seen have been expressed in my own comments section. But then, I don’t deliberately go to the wacko leftists web sites.

Administrative, General

Sore And Sunburned

1 Comment

Yeah, no posting today. Some long-time (over three decades) friends from Michigan were down for the weekend, and we went canoeing/kayaking today, seven miles round trip, on the south fork of the St. Lucie River, up in Stuart. I sunblocked my arms and upper portions, but forgot to do my legs. I’m just not used to wearing shorts, even in Florida.

I may post some pictures later, if after looking at them they seem worthwhile. We were a little disappointed at the wildlife. Only saw a couple gators, and no manatees. We saw several slider turtles though, and a sandhill crane walking through someone’s front (on the river side) yard. And no one fishing, which seemed a little surprising.

General, Popular Culture, Technology and Society

Frying A Turkey Without Oil?

17 Comments

Not exactly, despite the claim of this post:

Deep frying is a form of convection heating. Instead of hot air, you are using hot oil to transfer the heat. Depending on the oil used in the fryer, the temperature is usually about 375 degrees to keep the food from absorbing a lot of oil.

The Big Easy uses infrared energy to “bathe” food. It excites the proteins, not the water. Thus, you are literally frying it. It’s just like sitting in the sun all day. The infrared energy will “fry” your meat’s skin. The Big Easy doesn’t need a lid because it’s better to let the hot air escape. That way your food doesn’t dry out and there’s no basting necessary. Unlike conventional turkey fryers there is also no warm-up period. Just drop your thawed turkey (stuffed or unstuffed, injected or not, sugar-less rubbed or not) into the chamber and turn the Big Easy on. Infrared energy starts cooking it immediately and the cooking time for 12-14-pound turkey will be cut almost in half.

Without expressing an opinion on the relative merits of cooking a turkey this way, it’s not equivalent to deep-fat frying. As it says, it only radiates the skin, whereas a deep fryer gets hot oil inside the bird as well, which has to speed up the cooking time considerably. And if the oil is sufficiently hot, there’s no reason that it has to make the bird greasy, or any more so than it would be naturally from its own fat.

The Big Easy™ is $165 at Amazon, whereas serviceable friers are available for less than half the price. Of course, with the former, you don’t need any oil, which might save you ten bucks or so per turkey preparation, so it might pay for itself over time if you do a lot of turkeys. But considering the time value of money, I think that you’d have to be a real turkey fan to make up the difference. Of course, it might be good for other meats as well.

[Update late evening]

Contrary to Glenn’s comment, I don’t call “foul.” The proper spelling is “fowl.”