6.26.2010

chaat: to lick

Vik's Chaat Corner

2390 4th Street
Berkeley, CA 94710-2402
(510) 704-0485

Chaat literally means "to lick." Traditionally, this road side snack was served on a leaf and was so tongue-tickling that one could not resist licking the last morsels from the leaf before discarding it.

Five years ago my friend Nikki took me to Vik's Chaat. She says it's the best Indian fast food around. She's from India, so she should know, right? Recently I asked Bipin and Savita, two more expert Indian food aficionados, what they thought of Vik's. They agreed, it's the best. So of course I was anxious to take my husband, who loves eating so much he claims to have a food disorder. I was sure he would love Vik's too. Well, the opportunity arose this week, after a trip to IKEA. Now, I should have known that would sour him from the start since he'd rather die a slow death than go to IKEA (what's the difference, he would say), but I figured I'd give it a shot. Throughout this gastronomical joyride he had next to nothing to say. Still, I thought, that's not necessarily a bad sign with him. He'd just rather eat. The verdict came a few hours later as we were munching down the Indian sweets we brought home. Yep, he loved it. It's the best.

Here's how others loved it on Yelp, and a review from SFGate.

See more of my photos from Vik's Chaat Corner here.


Melanie Renn

Melanie Renn

6.24.2010

dream stuff

LOVE STITCHING RED



Yesterday the new outdoor sofas were delivered and, for the first time in the twelve years I've owned this house, I fell asleep on the porch. Pure heaven. Here's what came to me in my dreams...



Hot House



The Hamishsphere via Vogue



Robert Powers



vintage-green



Trancoso



Kara Mann



fluitenkruid55



fluitenkruid55

6.21.2010

Sumer Is Icumen In

June 21st is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.
Sumer Is Icumen In is the oldest known counterpoint song, written 1240.


Midsummer Eve ~ bonfires and a magical herb


Sumer Is Icumen In

Sumer is a-coming in,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
Groweth seed and bloweth mead
And springeth wood anew.
Sing, cuckoo!
Sing, cuckoo! Sing, cuckoo! Sing, cuckoo!



SUN

Sumer Is Icumen In


KOMOS

Lumina Vocal Ensemble

Randy Tandy

Hummelpiper

Circulus

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

The Sea Nymphs

Nat King Cole


Hypericum perforatum

6.20.2010

in good taste

Melanie Renn


Sorry, I just polished off the last bite. Accompanied by capers, a light drizzle of toasted sesame oil, a splash of fresh lemon, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, and a bit of coarse ground salt, this is one easy dish. Too fattening, you say? Not so bad, I say. And in very good taste, as in delicious.
Next to the olive, the avocado is the second fruit with the highest monounsaturated fatty acids content at 20%. This amounts to almost twenty times that of any other fruit.

Weight-watchers often stay away from avocados specifically because of the fats content of the fruit. But that's a myth. The monounsaturated fats and the wholesome nutrition helps the basal metabolic rate, and reduce overeating.

A majority of the fats content is the health-promoting monounsaturated fats, followed by smaller amounts of polyunsaturated and saturated fats.

The potassium content and calories of an avocado is three times that of a banana. Other essential minerals are iron and copper for the blood, phosphorus and magnesium.

The sodium content in avocados and its low sugar content and absence of starch make it an ideal fruit for diabetics and hypoglycemics.

It is also one of the richest source of fiber among all fruits and vegetables. Packed with vitamins A, several B-complex, especially B3 (folic acid), powerful anti-oxidants like vitamins C and E, calcium, iron, potassium, etc.
Juicing-for-Health

Nutritiondata.com

Nutrition for the Naive

6.16.2010

poorch

It ain't much, but it's my ain't much. Although my To Do List has run off the paper, some things simply take priority. With the new wooden rugs still unpacked and stacked in the carport, and the outdoor sofas scheduled for delivery in less than a week, somehow I have to find room for it all. I'll be working at a fever pitch, literally, since I'm home sick with bucking bronchitis.

All I really have to do today is get my studio completely cleared out haha so Goodwill can get in and pick up all the furniture donations I've stockpiled there. We gave them three full carloads of stuff last week, but we couldn't see that it made a bit of difference. There is, however, this...

Melanie Renn

Maybe I'll just take it easy...

6.14.2010

Stuff

enough already!

The posts I've been doing lately on Stuff are really about my desparation to regain control of my own house life. I can't do much painting and decorating until I get rid of the stuff. Tons of it. Right now I'm tackling this porch dump, ponderings of which were shared with you here. I suspect most people would look at this and think "horrors!" but I look at it and think "what I couldn't do with this!" Problem is, I've been thinking that for a few twelve years already. It's time.

Melanie Renn

Melanie Renn

6.10.2010

Stuff

you've got junkmail

-=


Fact:
More than 183 billion unwanted messages clog computer networks every day.

Fact:
It's all my fault. I hoard. Emails I get, emails I send, emails I have yet to send, and tons of stuff I've filed in my Drafts folder for future use. What a pile of stuff. I'm as guilty as an oil rigger in slick water.

At this point in time I have precisely 604 email drafts and I'm keepin em all. There is, however, another kind of email stuff I don't want - the kinda stuff I'd love to stuff. Spam. Clutters things up, slows things down, and some of it can cause a hella damage. Some of it's cute, but it's all a bucket of bullstuff. Plug your nose...

Wikipedia: Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.

In addition to wasting people's time with unwanted e-mail, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth.

Spam can be used to spread computer viruses, trojan horses or other malicious software. The objective may be identity theft, or worse (e.g., advance fee fraud). Some spam attempts to capitalize on human greed whilst other attempts to use the victims' inexperience with computer technology to trick them (e.g., phishing).

The European Union's Internal Market Commission estimated in 2001 that "junk e-mail" cost Internet users €10 billion per year worldwide. The California legislature found that spam cost United States organizations alone more than $13 billion in 2007, including lost productivity and the additional equipment, software, and manpower needed to combat the problem. Spam's direct effects include the consumption of computer and network resources, and the cost in human time and attention of dismissing unwanted messages.

In addition, spam has costs stemming from the kinds of spam messages sent, from the ways spammers send them, and from the arms race between spammers and those who try to stop or control spam. In addition, there are the opportunity costs of those who forgo the use of spam-afflicted systems. There are the direct costs, as well as the indirect costs borne by the victims—both those related to the spamming itself, and to other crimes that usually accompany it, such as financial theft, identity theft, data and intellectual property theft, virus and other malware infection, child pornography, fraud, and deceptive marketing.


Horsey
David Horsey


Most of it is crap advertising. But, to be honest, you and I generate a good deal of it ourselves. So there's a good deal you and I can do about it.

At the very least, we could make an effort to hide or remove personal addresses when emailing. Before re-forwarding, always highlight and delete the headers that contain the addresses. Don't miss the embedded ones (those emails that open one within another within another) every one has a header. Open them all the way to the original message, forward that one, but highlight and delete the personal addresses first. It's that simple.

Whenever you send an email to multiple recipients, hide their addresses by sending blind copies (BCC); otherwise every single address will go to every single recipient, multiple times over, leaving them vulnerable to spammers. Spammers love that stuff. They want it bad.

Or stop forwarding altogether. Especially an email that tells you to send it to everyone you know. Don't. Just don't. That's a honkin bright red flag.

If, however, you can't resist forwarding something - maybe because it sounds really really important - then check it out first. There are a number of reliable and perfectly lovely websites devoted to fact checking this stuff. Most email claims are totally bogus and these sites can prove it. They've already done the work for you, so cut to the chase and use them. Within moments, you can return a highly intelligent, brilliantly informed response before the sender even arises from his computer. Or just Google a few words from the email. There will be an answer. Let it be.

One good fact-checking website is Snopes, the oldest on the Internet. Snopes has become a legend unto themselves and so effective at busting hoaxes, the hoaxsters have tried to hoax Snopes. Read Snopes Under Fire. Funny stuff.

Here are the sites I've saved to my own Favorites for verification or general information. I use them all for cross-checking and for varying points of view.

Snopes
Truth or Fiction
About.com: Urban Legends
Break the Chain
FactCheck.org
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Wikipedia: E-mail Spam
Spam Abuse
BACN - SPAM: The Next Generation
ChoiceMail - 100% of Junk Email Gone
Damn Spam

I could go on and on about this stuff, but I'll save you the ordeal by turning you over to those who know their stuff.


Randy Glasbergen
Randy Glasbergen


How to Deal with an Email Hoax or Urban Legend

By dcole at eHow

I love my friends and I appreciate that they want to pass on information that might keep me safe. But oh how I dislike those mass forwarded emails of internet hoaxes that masquerade as important information. You get them too, I'm sure. Do you forward them on? Please don't! Here's the responsible thing to do when you get one of these hoax emails that seem to be information.

1. Learn to recongize the signs of a hoax.

Does the email seem urgent?
Is some expert quoted?
Is your health or safety (or your family's or your computer's) threatened?
Is a seemingly helpful solution to a problem (one you didn't even think of) suggested?
Are you encouraged to send it to everyone you know?

Red flag alert! One of the reasons these hoaxes are perpetuated is because they sound so likely. There is often a grain of truth in the story, or if not, it sounds like it could be true. That's no reason to believe it, nor is your trust in your friend a good reason to believe it. If your friend jumped off a cliff would you follow him? (Do I sound like your mother? well she was right about this!)

2. Check it out. Never, and I mean NEVER forward an email of this type without checking out the information yourself. Even if it has a quote from Snopes in it, don't believe it. Go to Snopes.com or Google a few words from the email and see if it has been reported as a hoax or urban legend.

It is amazing how few people take the responsibility of checking on the information that they so eagerly pass on to their friends. This is how rumors, gossip, and viruses spread. These emails are an information virus and you don't want to be one of the perpetuators who spread it around. There's no excuse for this, honestly.

3. Reply all. Now that you've discovered that the forwarded email is a hoax, don't just ignore it. Think of all those gullible, well-meaning and (yes) lazy people who your friend sent this to who are now passing it forward. This must be stopped. Go to the email, and choose Reply All (not just reply to your friend). Write a friendly (really try not to be hostile, superior, accusatory or spiteful now) little note about the falsity of the information and include a link to Snopes.com, preferably the link to the page debunking this particular false claim.

"Hi hon, Thank you for the email but it raised some red flags with me so I checked it out at Snopes.com [place URL here] and found that it's a hoax. You might want to spread the word back to the person who sent this to you so that hoaxes like these can be stopped. Your friend,"

4. Feel good. You've done a good deed today, debunking falsity and promoting responsibility. Yay you!

5. Once in a while you may get one of these and not find it on Snopes (highly unlikely but let's say it's possible). Consider carefully before forwarding it. Does it help your friends to know this if it IS true? If it is false, will it hurt your friends to believe it's true? What about that coughing for a heart attack thing? Would it save a life or could it make things worse? Check it out, then use some common sense. If you've received this as a forwarded email, chances are so has Snopes and there's a report.

6. And what if it's TRUE? What about not using cruise control in the rain? (this one is true). Check it out, and if it turns out to be true, go ahead and share it. You can even mention that you've checked it out with Snopes and give the link for your not-so-lazy friends. If you exercise this kind of responsible action, your friends will learn to trust the information you pass on, which will be good for all of us.


Scott Stantis
Scott Stantis


Understanding E-Mail Hoaxes

The University of California: Educational Computing

In general it is considered very bad form to forward a message on to a large number of people. Many Internet Service Providers will go so far as to remove your account if you do this, even if you believe it is for a good cause. If just one person responds to you they will respond to the entire list! We have seen this create thousands of angry e-mail messages in a matter of hours.

Any e-mail that is from an organization trying to effect a change should refer to a specific URL where you can go to sign a petition or to make your voice heard. The problem with the Internet is that even if the request is legitimate the message is likely to circulate for months, if not years, after the messages intended date has passed.

Symantec's Anti-Virus Research Center Virus Hoax Page
A Big List of Hoax Sites from Yahoo
US-CERT Vulnerability Notes Database
About.com's Urban Legends and Virus Hoax Pages



Joel Pett
Joel Pett


How to Confirm an Email's Authenticity

By Paul Gil, About.com Guide

There are four common kinds of email hoaxes:

Fake Photos (Hands of God, sharks eating helicopters, monster cats)
Chain Letters (threats, requests, promises of money)
Mythical Stories, (public warnings, shocking narratives, outlandish claims)
Outright Scams ("phishing" and phone schemes attempting to access your finances)

In all cases, your response should routinely be:
Be skeptical.
Resist the urge to click the link or forward the message.
Do your homework and confirm the message.

For email stories, photos, and chain letters: do not forward the email. Even if the nature of the email story makes it seem urgent and time-sensitive, resist the urge to forward it. As compelling as that mermaid photo or that Microsoft promise of $400 can be, take 10 minutes and confirm it first. You will save yourself embarassment in front of your savvy friends, and you will help stop the spread of damaging email rumors.

For emails that ask you to confirm your bank or ebay identify: never respond or click the link. A legitimate bank would never ask for your identity via an email link. Instead: immediately close all browser windows, and then use either a newly-launched browser, or pick up the telephone, and check your bank personally to confirm the identity request. This kind of cautious response is very important to thwart these clever email scammers. Whenever you receive a "phishing" email (fake email attempting to lure you into giving your eBay or bank account and PIN), NEVER click on the link. These scammers are trying to lure you into typing your account number and password!
Read more about phishing scams here.

Free resources for researching/confirming an email's authenticity:

Phishing and Email Scams (banking, eBay, Paypal)
The Top Reported Email Hoaxes and Viruses This Month
The Top 25 Urban Legends This Month
Current "Netlore" Hoaxes and Myths
The Top Fake Photos This Month
Snopes: Scam and Phishing Schemes Report
The Straight Dope: Search The Myth Archives
DOE - Computer Incident Advisory Capability
"Google" the Email Subject


Brian Farrington
Brian Farrington


There's one more thing I've learned about email stuff. Forget about sending it if it's political, no matter how accurate, to people of another persuasion. Nothing enters a closed mind. The tiniest crack might crumble their entire world. You can't expect people to give up everything they've ever believed in.

But there's one thing I think we can all agree on - politicians tell whoppers. FactCheck.org is a site that focuses specifically on the claims that politicians make. During campaign time this site is smokin'. This is the site you'll see quoted by the media after televised political debates.

Wikipedia says about it: FactCheck.org is a non-partisan, nonprofit website that describes itself as a "'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." It is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation. Most of its content consists of rebuttals to what it considers inaccurate, misleading, or false claims by politicians. FactCheck has also targeted misleading claims from various partisan groups.

On that note, I'll leave you with a recent article from Salon.com that compares Democrat and Republican mud-slinging. Interesting stuff.


Pat Oliphant
Pat Oliphant


The Party of No ... Credibility

A look at Snopes.com shows rumors about Obama to be more numerous and vicious than the ones about Bush were.

This post originally appeared on J.L. Bell's blog
Oz and Ends.
Salon.com Apr 23, 2010

American right-wing leaders are responding to complaints about their adherents’ insults, threats, and acts of violence by claiming that such problems occur on the left as well. Of course, they don’t dare to compare and quantify such behavior. That would mean acknowledging that, for example, Congressional historians find
no precedent for Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouting at the president during a joint session of Congress. Or that there was a disturbing spike in death threats to the president in the months after President Barack Obama took office.

To keep on top of urban myths of all kinds, I subscribe to the Snopes.com update list, and I noticed a pattern there that I thought deserved to be examined more arithmetically. It struck me I was seeing a lot more rumors about President Obama, and a lot more false rumors, than I remembered from earlier years. So I ran the numbers, as of this week.

After eight years in the White House (with Snopes.com around all that time), George W. Bush has been the subject of
47 internet rumors. After less than two years in office, Barack Obama has been the subject of 87, or nearly twice as many.

Even more telling is the relative accuracy of those stories. For Bush, 20 rumors, or 43%, are true. Only 17, or 36%, are false. The remainder are of mixed veracity (4), undetermined (4), or unclassifiable (2).

In contrast, for Obama only 8 of the 87 rumors, or 9%, are true, and a whopping 59, or 68%, are whoppers. There are 17 of mixed veracity and 3 undetermined.

I delved down to the stories that the site designates as a mixture of truth and falsehood. For Obama, in many cases the truth is innocuous while the lie reflects poorly on the President, particularly
photographs that are misrepresented or show behavior that produced no complaints when his predecessors did the same. In contrast, in this mixture of truth and falsehood about George W. Bush praying with an injured soldier, the lie reflected well on that President from the perspective of the religious person spreading it.

I looked on
Snopes’s Politics page for another pair of politicians in parallel situations, and found the losing candidates of the last two presidential elections. Snopes’s page on Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., lists 22 rumors, and only 3 are true (14%). Its page for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., lists only 11 rumors, and 4 are true (36%). There are far more rumors about the Democratic candidate, and fewer true ones.

This evidence accumulated over ten years shows a shameful but undeniable fact of American politics: Our right wing now contains a lot more liars, and a lot more folks who spread lies out of gullibility or wishfulness, than our left wing.


Mike Luckovich
Mike Luckovich