Despite the “new anti-semitism” Bill Clinton seems to think the world is undergoing with regards to muslims…

The Palestinians are always being championed by their Arab and Muslim brothers, those nations that are practically swimming in oil and oil revenues. Meanwhile, they denounce the United States as “puppets of the Jews” and enemies of the Palestinian people.

But the numbers tell a different story.

Of that 1.06 billion, 368 million comes straight from the US. Another 338 billion comes from the European Union collectively, while five EU member nations pony up a total of $159 million. That’s roughly 85% of the total money from the West.

Meanwhile, the Arab League kicks in under $200 million dollars a year.

Think Bill ever read the stats before he opened his cakehole?

Nah, me neither.

Technorati Tags: arabs, muslims, racism, palestinians, aid

Boing Boing has historically come out repeatedly against RFID tags (see here), but when Christians do it, their reasoning is suspect and they are subject to ridicule:

The US State Department has said that RFID-chipped passports will not be issued to travelers “until privacy-related concerns have been addressed.” Initial public feedback was overwhelmingly negative, and much of it was posted in entirety on the State Department’s website — including name, email address, and phone number of objectors who submitted comments by snail mail or email. Boing Boing reader Aaron Peterson says, “Way to go, thanks for addressing our privacy concerns by posting the personal information of everyone that had feedback on the subject!”

But buried within those many citizen comments is this gem:

No mark of the beast for me you Luciferian beehivers. You can take all those RFID chips wrapped like a burrito in the HR 4(6+6+6) national id bill and stick it up yor own arse!

Jesus is the way, not the antichrist of the beast system. Read God’s words in the Book of Revelation lest your soul is burned in hell. The great test is upon us all…

That’s a “gem.” That’s subject to ridicule.

Meanwhile, the Vacuous Hole and her cohorts love donning their tin-foil chapeaus everytime they discuss RFID.

I guess something is cockamamey crap only depending upon the side of the aisle from whence the remark comes.

You know what? Some Christians believe RFID is the mark of the beast. So f’ing what? Some of the people featured on Boing Boing believe they’re vampires.

Technorati Tags: vacuous hole, boing boing, rfid

Woops…

The article is a commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz…

The ad’s tagline says, “E.ON provides today for the gas of tomorrow”

Woops

via Consumerist

Technorati Tags: holocaust, add, e.on

Go to the Dell Outlet

Select Color Laser Printers

Select the 3100cn

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Yawn… Tomorrow’s headline is gonna be, “Google to take a crap. Call it Goo-poo,” and the subhead will read, “Beta expected until ‘Poo is ready for production”

Google is preparing its own distribution of Linux for the desktop, in a possible bid to take on Microsoft in its core business - desktop software.

A version of the increasingly popular Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution, based on Debian and the Gnome desktop, it is known internally as ‘Goobuntu’.

Google has confirmed it is working on a desktop linux project called Goobuntu, but declined to supply further details, including what the project is for.

It’s possible that it’s just one of the toys Googleplex engineers play with on Fridays, when they get time off from buffing the search engine code or filtering out entries about Tiananmen Square.

It could be for wider deployments on the company’s own desktops, as an alternative to Microsoft, but still for internal use only.

But it’s possible Google plans to distribute it to the general public, as a free alternative to Windows.

So today’s Google non-news is that Google may be tinkering around with a custom version of Ubuntu, an “easy to install” version of Linux. Yeah right. First of all anyone who’s gonna dare to run Ubuntu already has it installed, or has installed it and deleted it.

Secondly, and here’s the big one… Linux sucks ass.

There, I said it.

Don’t hand me some shit about it being stable, secure, blah blah blah blah blah. What the hell ever. While propeller-heads rush out to recompile their kernel everytime they want to plug in a thumbdrive, I’m using my stuff. I’m editing video. I’m editing photos. I’m editing audio. I’m writing posts for my site with W.Bloggar. I’m doing whatever the hell I want to do while chatting on Trillian with other folks.

But I’m not using Linux.

There’s only one desktop-worthy version of Unix that exists in the world right now, and it’s commonly known as Mac OSX. The only people who use Linux on a home desktop are people who think it makes them some super 133t hacker who can show off how they shoehorned it onto their 15 year-old PC cobbled together with parts that came out when George H. W. Bush was president as if having a 15 year old PC was something to be proud of.

Face it folks. Linux is never ever going to be a Windows killer, or a realistic Windows alternative because it’s not geared for 99.9999999% of the people using PC’s, has crappy software (anyone who compares Gimp to Photoshop should be shot), and never keeps up with current hardware; when it does, it requires recompiling your kernel.

Weeeee. Sounds like fun. I mean, if you want to spend more time tweaking your system than actually using it, enjoy. If squeezing 1 more instruction out of my cpu means I have to do it with Gimp, GAIM, KDE, Open Office, and other community developed crap, screw it. I’ll stick with what works. A Mac or a Wintel machine.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, google, linux

“Beetlejuice” is more than just a movie name — foodmakers regularly use crushed female cochineal beetles to dye food, particularly certain yogurts, juices and candy, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

While shocking, it’s perfectly legal, the paper reports. Foodmakers don’t have to list the bug-based ingredient, because beetles are part of nature. Only man-made dyes, like FD&C Red No. 40, have to be listed.

But that may change soon. The Food and Drug Administration may recommend that companies list beetle additives as “carmine” or “cochineal.”

Why? Using beetles in food proves problematic for vegetarians, people who keep kosher and for those with certain food allergies.

I had no idea about this, and I consider myself pretty knowledgable when it comes to crap they put in food, but crushed beetles?

I’ll tell ya one thing. The day this becomes law, I’m gonna check every label of every product I normally buy and summarily dismiss anything that’s concocted from bug guts.

Yuck.

Technorati Tags: beetlejuice, bugs, dye, beetles

From UPI via Dvorak:

British school bans raising hands

LONDON, Jan. 28 (UPI) — A school in London has banned children from raising their hands in class and teachers from calling on students with their hands raised.

“It is every child’s instinct and every teacher’s instinct as well because it is ingrained in us,” said Andrew Buck, the school’s principal.

“Some pupils are jiggling so much to attract the teacher’s attention that it sometimes looks as if they need the lavatory, then when it is their turn they often don’t know the answer. Boys — and it is usually boys — are seeking attention, so they put their hands up before they have had time to think about the question.”

Buck said the same children often wave their arms in the air, but when teachers try to involve less adventurous pupils by choosing them instead, it leads to feelings of victimization, the Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

To spare embarrassment of the students who do not know the answer, the school has incorporated a “phone a friend” system, allowing one child to nominate another to take the question instead.

You know, I was going to write some long post about the dumbing down of modern kids and how nothing is expected of them and how schools are catering to failing students and are more interested in kids feeling good than educating them.

Why bother?

This story says so much more than I ever could.

Technorati Tags: education, uk, england

From Rolling Stone:

Howard’s End
Stern’s show puts the “um” in “tedium”

Like most people who aren’t from New York, I have always found it hard to pry my eyes open while Howard Stern is talking. In theory, I approve of the whole offensive/obscene/outrageous shock-radio shtick, but the only thing that’s ever offended me about his show is how slow it is — the guy sure does like to take his time between punch lines. When he was the king of terrestrial radio, he was more fun to catch on E!, with the hours of chitchat boiled down to a half-hour’s worth of dick/fart/stripper jokes. Everybody assumed that he’d go wild on Sirius, since now he could swear all he wanted with no FCC or corporate suits butting in. Yet after just a couple of weeks on the air, his show already puts the “um” in “tedium.” He sounds like he no longer has to deal with anybody who doesn’t kiss his ass, and as a result he sounds like a bored, gloomy fifty-two-year-old man. How did this happen?

The bright spot of the show’s opening week was Star Trek’s George Takei, hired as the new announcer, sharing his gay-Hollywood memories with a constant “oh my” giggle. But he was live in the studio for just one week — maybe not the shrewdest move, since he was the best new idea the Stern crew came up with in their holiday vacation. Howard spends most of the mornings talking about how famous he is, how loyal his listeners are, how many millions of people are running out to buy Sirius radios, while his studio monkey-boys crowd around the mike to say, “Right on, Howard. You still the king.” Fans call in to remind him he’s still got it. Howard shares fun facts about his personal life (he wears gloves to industry functions because he’s nervous about shaking hands; he’s had a nose job and liposuction under his chin). He tries to play Allman Brothers songs on guitar (they’re too hard) and has phone sex with Jessica Hahn (he doesn’t enjoy it). He talks a lot about how bad his New York replacement, David Lee Roth, is. If you thought his sidekicks were useless suck-ups before, get a load of them now. Robin compares him to Martin Luther King Jr. Artie says the main reason he wishes his father were still alive is so he could hear him on The Howard Stern Show. “We’re making history,” he gushes. And this was the first seven days. By next month, Howard will only be able to keep himself awake ordering the staff to do tag-team ass-to-ass action.

No wonder he’s bored — he’s got nobody to piss him off anymore. He’s on his own network, with two whole stations mainly devoted to “Howard 100 News,” including post-show recaps and a “Superfans Round Table.” His new bosses have even cleared the way for him to sell off $200 million worth of shares in Sirius stock. But he’s already dreaming of the next gig, musing that he should form a supergroup with Bubba the Love Sponge, Rush Limbaugh and other talk-radio giants. “You know, a supergroup,” he explained to Robin. “Like Blind Faith — they were a really great supergroup.” But on the first day he was already back to railing against the FCC and corporate censors — nostalgic for the good old days when he had enemies, reminiscing about how badass he used to be.

Roth’s show is more interesting just because it’s so skin-crawlingly awful. In these days of bland Clear Channel/Infinity corporate radio, it’s bracing to hear a guy who has no idea what he’s doing. He can’t remember too many of the wild sex and drug stories from his Van Halen days, so instead he talks about being an EMT (he’s delivered babies: “I’m on my fourth,” he says) and interviews his eighty-eight-year-old Uncle Manny, who used to book Bob Dylan. It’s the voice of an archetypal American loser, refusing to admit his eat-’em-and-smile days are over. Listening to Roth, you feel actual physical pain. I bet Howard must be jealous.

ROB SHEFFIELD

Posted Jan 27, 2006 3:23 PM

And he isn’t the first person to write things like this, either. Oddly enough, most of the people (Like Buzzmachine’s Jeff Jarvis, who is one of my favorite bloggers, honestly) who were jumping all over themselves to get their 8-pound Sirius radio haven’t said much about Hoo Hoo since his debut. I have to wonder if maybe… Just maybe… Deep down in the recesses of their sycophantic brains they’re not a bit disappointed that Stern, who now wants to do a mere 4 days a week and 9 months a year instead of a full-time full-year show due to a lack of material, is not the edgy cutting edge guy he used to be or promised to be.

In fact, so devoid of ideas is he that he’s re-recording old bits from his K-Rock days. Since Infinity Broadcasting won’t allow him to have his tapes from the oldern days, he’s re-doing his old bits so he can keep a copy (think Stripper Spelling Bee and Lesbian Dating Game… Yawn…)

How very cutting-edge of him.

Technorati Tags: stern, sirius, rolling stone

From the Washington Post:

CHICAGO — At least five Midwestern states are considering legislation to ban protests at funerals in response to demonstrations by the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, who have been protesting at funerals of Iraq war casualties because they say the deaths are God’s punishment for U.S. tolerance toward gays.

Though the soldiers were not gay, the protesters say the deaths, as well as Hurricane Katrina, recent mining disasters and other tragedies are God’s signs of displeasure. They also protested at the memorial service for the 12 West Virginia miners who died in the Sago Mine.

“The families weren’t able to bury their loved ones in peace,” said Kansas state Sen. Jean Schodorf, who has proposed legislation. “We felt pretty strongly that we needed to do something about it.”

Kansas already has a law banning demonstrations at funerals, but Schodorf said the existing law is vague and hard to enforce. The proposed bill would keep protesters 300 feet away from any funeral or memorial service and ban demonstrations within one hour before or two hours after a service.

Legislators in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Oklahoma are looking at similar bills. Proposed legislation in Indiana would keep protesters 500 feet from funerals, and make a violation a felony punishable by a three-year prison term and a $10,000 fine.

Let’s not kid ourselves here. Anyone who goes to a soldier’s funeral to protest and express their anti-war rhetoric is usually the type of scumbag who takes pleasure in the death of a soldier to begin with. One less cog in the american militaristic imperial regime. Surely you’ve heard it all before. And surely you agree, if you’re any kind of rational human being, that soldiers (and everyone else on earth for that matter) have a right to a dignified and peaceful burial after their death.

That being said, the idea of legislating how much someone or some group is allowed to say at a soldier’s funeral seems counter to the very thing soldiers are fighting for in the first place.

I get angry when I read stories like this, just like you do. I get angry that someone would pick the moment when a family is most grieved to show up and act like assholes, but the last thing I think we need to start doing is legislating behavior that’s otherwise legal. It’s legal to protest outside a funeral. It’s legal to sling nasty words at families and insult the ones that are being buried. It’s also protected under the constitution as long as it’s on public property.

So why the sudden burst of interest in controlling protesters?

Popularity. One Illinois blogger is happy to see this sort of thing happening:

I don’t usually like to stand behind many of the laws created here in Illinois as they are mainly liberal in nature. However, I stand behind this law fully and completely. I was born and raised in Illinois and the longer I live here, the more disgusted I become with the politics of this state. Granted, I understand Chicago is a major city in the U.S. and is driven by democrats. What sickens me is how silent the conservative Republicans are about issues like this. Chicago is also the home of the NAACP and Operation Rainbow Push which is headed by Jesse Jackson. Where are you Conservative Illinoisians?!?!?

And don’t even get me going on the comments section. It would seem that many so-called conservative voices have no problem letting nanny decide what speech is okay as long as they’re apparently on the side they want to “win.”

The government should not be legislating where you’re allowed to exercise your constitutional right to free speech. I’d hazard a guess that most of the people who are supportive of this type of legislation believe that making protesting outside abortion clinics a punishable offense is a great tragedy in our time.

What was that saying about glass houses and stones?

via Camp Katrina

Technorati Tags: funerals, soldiers, free speech, aclu

Be careful if you criticize Howard Stern.

Steppin’ Out mag editor Chaunce Hayden has learned that you might get death threats.

Now the Bergen County (N.J.) district attorney and Computer Crime Unit are investigating Stern acolytes who threatened Hayden with fatal violence on an online fan site after he took part in Neil Cavuto’s Fox News Channel show last Monday and slammed the Sirius Satellite Radio jock.

Hayden was responding to reports that the subscription radio network plans to censor the potty-mouthed personality. “Howard spent a year marketing Sirius as uncensored radio,” Hayden declared. “There is something so unethical about this that it is making me sick.”

The next day, Stern slammed Hayden — once a frequent guest on his K-Rock show — and berated Cavuto for having him on.

Then the enraged fans weighed in. A typical comment posted on the Stern Fan Network: “I pray that Chaunce gets killed in a horrible and painful way very soon. … die ya scat lovin’ [homophobic epithet].”

Another Stern fan vowed to “jump the curb with my SUV and squash him like a bug.”

Bergen County Detective Sgt. Andrew Donofrio told me: “We’re not trying to stifle anybody’s free speech, but it’s against the law to threaten a man’s life or threaten him with bodily harm. … It’s serious, and it’s not something that can be tolerated.”

Donofrio added that no arrests have been made, but said the New Jersey criminal code classifies a “≠terroristic threat” as a third-degree offense, the equivalent of a felony.

Hayden told me: “It’s totally frightening. For a lot of these people, Howard is a religion, and it only takes one person who’s the real deal.”

Like washed up has-been, like fans…

Technorati Tags: stern, sirius, hayden

TWU dissident allegedly beat aide as ‘a message for Roger’
By PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A burly transit union dissident has been charged with beating a union staffer aligned with Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, the Daily News has learned.

“This is a message for Toussaint,” assault suspect Christopher Magwood, 46, allegedly told victim James Mahoney during the incident at a Manhattan bus depot, Mahoney said yesterday.

Magwood - who is about 6-feet-3 and weighs around 300 pounds - was arrested this month on misdemeanor assault and harassment charges, Manhattan prosecutors confirmed yesterday.

He is a bus driver who sits on Local 100’s executive board. But Magwood has ties to a previous administration that lost power when Toussaint was elected, and he regularly opposes the union boss.

Mahoney - about 5-feet-5 and 180 pounds - works on retiree issues for Toussaint and organized protests leading up to last month’s illegal three-day transit strike.

The alleged TWU smackdown is among the topics the executive board is expected to discuss today at its first meeting since workers rejected a tentative contract deal by just seven votes this month.

Ironic that after all the outrage over Mayor Bloomberg calling the union a bunch of thugs for stranding 7 million commuters during the height of the holiday season that they’ve taken to actually being more thuggish. I wonder if someone calls a 300 pound ox who beats up a little guy a thug.

Or is it racist to use the word thug?

I also notice they fail to mention the respective races of the people involved. I’m not too uncertain about Mahoney’s race. Magwood, on the other hand, could be anything. Makes you wonder…

Technorati Tags: mta, twu, nyc

Xeni Jardin: Regarding recent news that the Justice Department issued subpoenas for user search data to AOL, Google, MSN, and Yahoo — and all but Google complied in one form or another — EFF co-founder John Gilmore says:

If Yahoo, MSN, and AOL didn’t reveal any personal info to DoJ, let’s see them publicly post the results that they sent back to the DoJ.

They sent “a generic list of aggregate and anonymous search terms, and not results, from a roughly one day period” (AOL)? Let’s see it. The public can decide whether there are privacy violations in there.

They sent “a random collection of page URLs that we had web-crawled”? Let’s see them.

No need for barrels of ink to speculate with, let’s just look at them. There can’t be a problem with looking, if there’s no personal privacy issues involved. There’s no trade secrets here — these are queries typed by end users, and web pages set up by end users. Right?

Here at Boing Boing, we can’t write subpoenas — but we would like to know.

So, America Online, Microsoft, and Yahoo: will you please release the data publicly — or show us where it already exists online? This way, everyone who uses your services can take a look for themselves, and evaluate whether they believe the information shared was privacy-violating.

Thank you,
Cory, Xeni, Mark, and Pesco.

I’d like them to turn that data over also. If there’s no identifiable information in the information they provided the government, there should be no problem making it public and putting it on one of their corporate sites or something. Hell, since they can’t trace anything back, they’d might as well put it right there on the front page of their main sites.

I mean, no harm no foul, right? No need to worry about the info revealing anything about anyone if it doesn’t do that anyway.

Right?

Something tells me they’ll never share that information, and something else tells me that there’s a lot more in it than they’re willing to tell you.

Technorati Tags: privacy, eff, google, msn, yahoo, aol

Oh wow. I thought Angelina “My Lips Are Like Toilet Seats” Jolie’s wearing Billy Bob’s blood in a vial around her neck was weird. This is 10 steps beyond that:

What is a LifeGem®?

The LifeGem® is a certified, high-quality diamond created from the carbon of your loved one as a memorial to their unique life.

The LifeGem diamond provides a way to embrace your loved one’s memory day by day. The LifeGem® is the most unique and timeless memorial available for creating a testimony to their unique life.
Your LifeGem memorial will offer comfort and support when and where you need it, and provide a lasting memory that endures just as a diamond does. Forever.

via Pirillo

Technorati Tags: lifegem, jewelry, ghoulish

Steve Safran caught a particularly nasty and vindictive little snipe in the New York Times today, and it didn’t really surprise me that they felt it, only that they dared say it:

I hardly know where to begin with all the things offensive with that headline. “LATEST BLOW TO NETWORK”? Is that really the concern here? “Field Reports Were a Ratings Strategy”? So reporting from a war zone is just fine for newspapers, but if it’s on TV it’s a “Ratings Strategy?” The body of the story is mostly about ABC News and its ratings troubles. That’s what the NY Times takes away from the attack?

When I read this story, I was somewhat skeptical. At the time Steve put it up on Lost Remote, he didn’t have a scan of the paper. Later on, he added it. That’s exactly what it said. That the field reports were a “ratings strategy.” What’s most offensive is what’s implied here. As Steve accurately notes, you never hear a newspaper say, “reporting from field is a circulation enhancing strategy.”

Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine has written numerous articles about the dire straits that tree media is in, and this is yet another demonstration. Newspapers around the country are hemmorhaging readers and this is a textbook example of why. A prominent national news anchor is attacked in a war zone, and the most the New York Times can worry about is the fact that the coverage was a boon to ratings.

Typical slime from the slimiest national paper we have.

Technorati Tags: ny times, slime, newspaper, media, woodruff

Nah… He’s a Democrat… They don’t do that sort of thing…

Article Launched: 01/27/2006 11:37:00 AM
Rewriting history under the dome
Online ‘encyclopedia’ allows anyone to edit entries, and congressional staffers do just that to bosses’ bios
By EVAN LEHMANN, Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The staff of U.S. Rep Marty Meehan wiped out references to his broken term-limits pledge as well as information about his huge campaign war chest in an independent biography of the Lowell Democrat on a Web site that bills itself as the “world’s largest encyclopedia,” The Sun has learned.

The Meehan alterations on Wikipedia.com represent just two of more than 1,000 changes made by congressional staffers at the U.S. House of Representatives in the past six month. Wikipedia is a global reference that relies on its Internet users to add credible information to entries on millions of topics.

Matt Vogel, Meehan’s chief of staff, said he authorized an intern in July to replace existing Wikipedia content with a staff-written biography of the lawmaker.

The change deleted a reference to Meehan’s campaign promise to surrender his seat after serving eight years, a pledge Meehan later eschewed. It also deleted a reference to the size of Meehan’s campaign account, the largest of any House member at $4.8 million, according to the latest data available from the Federal Election Commission.

I found this story originally on Digg. Oddly enough, on a site known for its relentless conservative and Bush bashing, this story got a few diggs and some comments but none of the rhetoric from the diggers that regularly occurs on a Bush-bashing post. And it’s really interesting that this story has gotten zero attention from the normally piling on media outlets. I mean, it’s interesting, and abusive. Remember Adam Curry’s little fiasco with the edit button? That was front page news immediately, and to most people Adam Curry is utterly irrelevant.

Technorati Tags: wikipedia, altering, marty meehan, meehan

I can’t believe that, in New York City, there’s a growing buzz that Omar Minaya is signing only Latino talent to play for the Mets, and therefore he’s biased in that direction.

Omar Minaya was terrific this week, doing his best, in a cool and understated and graceful way, to dismiss an issue about the racial makeup of his ballclub that should never have been an issue with his fans in the first place, at least not the reasonable ones.

Just because the number of Latins on the 2006 Mets is part of the conversation now in sports doesn’t mean it is an important one. If it is, then we better spend more time on it. We can’t just look at the major league roster, we need to look at the entire organization, top to bottom, count up the number of white players, African-American players, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans.

Puerto Rico is practically the 51st state. So do we count guys like Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran as being as absolutely as Latin as Pedro Martinez, a Dominican? You can see how tricky this all can get, especially in the city of New York in the year 2006, where there are more Dominicans, for example, in Washington Heights than in any place outside of Santo Domingo.

Nobody is suggesting that a conversation about racism is necessarily racist, whether it is on the radio or in a bar. But Mets fans who actually worry about this, who worry that Minaya, a Dominican raised a few blocks from Shea Stadium, a splendid New York success story, is loading up on Latin players because he is Latin himself, need to take a look at themselves. Because what they are talking about is racial quotas. They are talking about that.

Yesterday, on our way home from Starbucks, Beth and I listened to caller after caller after caller talking to Steve Somers, a local sports-talk host, talking about this issue. One guy even told Somers that he needed to “own up” to the fact that WFAN is scared to talk about the “problem” of Minaya signing so many Latino players.

Problem?

As Somers said, I don’t care if the players on the team are blue. If they win games, they win games, and in the end, that’s all that matters. You have to wonder what goes on in the mind of someone who’s so racist they can’t bear the thought of a mostly hispanic team (something the Mets are nowhere near the top of the league in, by the way; they rank in the mid twenties). For years, Mets fans have been dying for a GM that will bring big name talent to the Big Apple and not let it slip away to the Bronx. For once, the Mets have that guy. They have a GM who can woo the big name talent to play in the dump that is Shea. Can you imagine this sort of thing happening under Steve Phillips?

Mike Lupica makes an awesome point at the end of his piece regarding the “issue.”

Omar Minaya stood above it all this week. He did not act defensive. He did not get angry, even though he has a right to ask if other general managers are being asked these sorts of questions. There was one championship Minnesota Twins team, back in 1987, that had three black players on the roster. I’d be thinking now that the Twins were pretty white. Except they won.

As with most of these things, as with the way Isiah is being evaluated now, in all matters, because of the performance of the Knicks, Omar Minaya will be judged the same way. On results. In the end, strip everything away, sports is always a results business.

“What we are trying to do,” Omar Minaya says, “is put the best players on the field.”

That is the real conversation for people who have jobs like his. That is always the issue. That is where the real counting is supposed to take place.

For true fans, it always was.

Technorati Tags: mets, minaya, lupica

East of Central Park is the Upper West Side, home to a dynamic array of creative types pursuing the arts, such as actors, artists and writers. To the west of Central Park is the Upper East Side. This area maintains its reputation as home to Old Money, or, actually, money in general. It is also the home of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as upscale boutiques, fabulous dining, and the ritziest of the ritzy.

Something tells me the copy editor was out drinking too late the day before this came out…

Source: New York for Sale via Vidiot

Technorati Tags: nyc, new york city, new york, upper east side, upper west side

Okay, maybe this isn’t the comprehensive resource you would think it is, but I have so much to share with you on the things I’ve learned about making a good shot of espresso that I just had to share for the benefits of others who don’t have someone to teach them.

1. Make sure you have all the “stuff” you need. “Stuff” is a general word, but in making espresso, there are a few things you need to have on hand:
- A stainless steel steaming pitcher for frothing / steaming the milk made cold by putting into the fridge first (needed only for making milk-based drinks).
- A tamper (instrument used for pressing the coffee grinds down in the brewing basket).
- Coffee ground specifically for an espresso machine (you CANNOT use regular coffee grinds; it’ll taste like crap).
- A Thermometer (for the milk)
- A Shot glass (2 oz espresso shot glasses work best; you’ll over shoot the 1 ounce you need a few times. Practice).
- Flavored syrups / powders depending on preference.
- COLD milk (cold cold cold cold cold milk. Can’t say the word COLD enough)
- Clean clear fresh water (bottled if you have it, filtered if you don’t, tap if it’s exceptionally good)
- A halfway decent espresso machine (duh)
- A 2 tablespoon coffee scoop (don’t use a regular tablespoon, they suck)
- A 1 tablespoon measuring spoon (for syrups, etc)

2. The first step to making espresso is steaming the milk, not brewing the coffee. Milk will hold its temperature for up to 5 minutes. Espresso flavors start changing based on stagnation at around 15 seconds, which is why its best to brew espresso one shot at a time. Place the steaming wand of your espresso maker just below the surface of the milk to create the foam you want on top. Then, once you have sufficient foam, place the wand all the way into the steaming pitcher until the milk hits 160 degrees; the sweet spot for hot milk. DO NOT go above 170, as the milk will scald, burn, and taste awful (not to mention it’ll stink to high heavens). This takes a ton of practice, but you’ll know when you get it right. Don’t get frustrated. DO NOT use a huge pitcher. You should only be steaming enough milk for two drinks at a time (8 ounces of milk steams up to 16). Never steam more than this unless you have a high-end professional machine that can handle it.

3. Use 2 tablespoons of coffee grinds for each 3 - 4 (4 is honestly stretching it; 3 is more realistic) shots of espresso. After you get three out (not counting the first one, which you should always throw away immediately) empty the brew-basket, and put two more tablespoons in and start over, dumping the first shot and using the remaining 2-3 for your drinks. After brewing, do not let the espresso sit. Make your drinks quickly, as the taste of espresso changes the longer it sits. Starbucks, as an example, has a 10-second rule on all espresso shots. When brewed properly, your espresso should have a bit of golden-brown foam on the top of it, called crema, which is the sweetest part of the espresso and definitely worth savoring. In fact, for a traditional European drink, take a shot of espresso, and sprinkle sugar on top of the crema and enjoy. It’s strong, but it’s interesting. Hopefully you can tolerate a massive dose of caffeine!

4. When making your drink always do it in the order the recipe says. Flavors are meant to mingle in a certain way. Milk, for example, is heavier than coffee, and will sit on top of the coffee if poured in afterward.

5. Always clean the machine immediately after use. Disassemble any removable parts, and clean each one. Make sure your milk steaming wand is clean (the best way to ensure this is to wipe it down with a damp cloth immediately after your milk reaches temperature).

6. There’s a reason the $400 machines are $400. I loved my $40 machine until it fell apart at the absolute most inopportune time. I remedied that problem by buying the Starbucks Barrista Espresso Machine. Worth it. The damned thing is built like a tank and is idiot simple to use. And, it goes from water to steaming milk in 20 seconds, and can brew its first shot in 23 seconds from power on. You can churn out drinks at an amazing rate with that kind of speed.

7. DO NOT FORGET TO TAMPER YOUR GRINDS. Buy a tamper for about $4.00. It’s a great investment. You use it to pack the espresso grinds into the brewing basket before you attach it to the machine.

And now for the fun part. Actual drink recipes.

When you buy Starbucks syrups and powders, they give you the recipes on the cannisters and bottles. However, those recipes are wrong. Beth and I have tried following the recipes to recreate the taste from actual Starbucks stores, and after experimentation, I can tell you that they’re very close if not dead on, but my recipes come a hell of a lot closer to what you’re going to get at their stores than what they give you on their supplies. Without further adieu, here are my recipes. All are made with Starbucks Espresso Roast ground for an Espresso machine. You can substitute your own coffee for theirs, but if you’re trying to recreate theirs, it’s obviously better to use their ingredients when possible…

My Favorite: The Cafe Mocha

3 Tablespoons of Starbucks Mocha Powder
3 Tablespoons of HOT water
1 Shot of Espresso
8-10 ounces of Steamed Milk

Building the drink: In a 10 ounce cup, mix the mocha powder and hot water. Stir until it makes a smooth syrup. Do not use chocolate syrup, though. Starbucks mocha powder is semisweet and has a bit of sugar in it. First, put the shot of espresso in and mix it with the syrup you just made, then pour approximately 8 ounces of steamed milk into the mug. Top with foam.

Difference from their recipe: I use 3 tablespoons of mocha. They use 1. With 1, you barely taste the mocha at all, and it just comes out like a dark latte.

White Chocolate Mocha

2 Tablespoons of DaVinci brand White Chocolate Syrup (Starbucks doesn’t sell theirs)
8-10 Ounces of Steamed Milk.
1 Shot of Espresso

Building the drink: In the bottom of a 10 ounce cup, pour two tablespoons of DaVinci White Chocolate Syrup. Add the steamed milk, drop the espresso straight down the middle, and top with foam.

Difference from their recipe: I use 2 tablespoons, they say one. One tablespoon does not taste like Starbucks at all. Two is perfect and should require no sugar if your espresso isn’t too strong.

Caramel Macchiato

I was so scared of this one I put off trying it, but I did get it right on the first try:

2 Tablespoons of Starbucks vanilla syrup (I only say theirs because we’re trying to replicate their drinks and I’ve only used theirs)
8-10 ounces steamed milk
1 shot of espresso
Starbucks Caramel Sauce

Building the drink: In the bottom of a 10 ounce cop, pour two tablespoons of Starbucks Vanilla syrup. Add the steamed milk, then the foam. In the middle of the foam, pour the shot of espresso straight down. Decorate the top with the caramel sauce. When you reach the middle, the caramel should fall straight through the hole in the foam and into the coffee. At that point, stop. You don’t want to overpower the drink with caramel sauce.

Difference from their recipe: Amount of vanilla. I should note that this is one of Beth’s favorite drinks, and on the first try, I did it so well she said it was Starbucks calibre.

Vanilla Latte

2 Tablespoons of Starbucks vanilla syrup (I only say theirs because we’re trying to replicate their drinks and I’ve only used theirs)
8-10 ounces steamed milk
1 shot of espresso

Building the drink: In the bottom of a 10 ounce cup, put two tablespoons of Starbucks vanilla syrup, and the shot of espresso. Give it a quick stir, and then pour the steamed milk in and top with foam. For an iced latte, take the entire mixture and pour it into a cup that’s half filled with ice. Do not put the syrup into an iced cup; it won’t blend.

Difference from their recipe: The amount of Vanilla syrup (they say 1 tbsp. I think it’s too weak that way)

Starbucks Hot Chocolate

8-10 ounces of hot milk (125 degrees is fine; doable in a microwave at about 1-1 1/2 minutes)
3 tablespoons of Starbucks mocha powder
3 tablespoons HOT water

Building the drink: Mix the hot water and mocha powder in the bottom of the cup. Pour in the hot milk and stir it for about 20 seconds.

Difference from their recipe: They suggest only one tablespoon of the syrup mixture. That’s ludicrous. 3 is a bit “chocolatey,” though, so you may want to experiment with less if you want a less “rich” taste.

I’ll add more to this post as I learn more. Hopefully this is a good enough guide to get you all going. Remember, this is my experience, which is not to be confused with any kind of formula or catch-all guide. This is just stuff I’ve learned.

Happy brewing!

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