The contrast still fascinates me. Back in the old country a prominent, conservative (ex) politician can write an article in The Times expressing the opinion that

if our political leaders cite faith as their political guide, then how do we distinguish ourselves from the religious extremists who wreak havoc in our world? It may seem harmless to “do God” a little in an essentially moderate country like ours. But once you claim that He is judging you or telling you what to do, there is no logical defence against another who claims that his God is instructing him to blow up discotheques or fly planes into buildings. If one God sent the Americans into Iraq, why shouldn’t another insist that by every means it be defended against infidel attack?

and criticise the would-be prime minister for claiming to have “genuine religious conviction”.

I tell you, it’s like whole different country over there.

Watching John Stewart…Laura Bush just bewailed the fact that with all the good news in Iraq, all we hear about on the news is the one bombing a day.

The same thing occurred to me that always occurs to me whenever I hear her speak.

Is she stupid or a liar?

Georgina says “Stupid”. I say “Liar”.

A couple of years ago, I set out to do an experiment very similar to this one.

The scientists then put the robots in a little arena with two glowing red disks. One disk they called the food source. The other was the poison source. The only difference between them was that food source sat on top of a gray piece of paper, and the poison source sat on top of black paper. A robot could tell the difference between the two only once it was close enough to a source to use its infrared sensor to see the paper color.

Then the scientists allowed the robots to evolve. The robots–a thousand of them in each trial of the experiment–started out with neural networks that were wired at random. They were placed in groups of ten in arenas with poison and food, and they all wandered in a haze. If a robot happened to reach the food and detected the gray paper, the scientists awarded it a point. If it ended up by the poison source, it lost a point. The scientists observed each robot over the course of ten minutes and added up all their points during that time.

Never finished it, sadly. One day I will.
Be sure to watch the cool video of the cooperating robots.

From Wikipedia:

Suet (/ˈsuː.ɪt/) is raw beef or mutton fat, especially the hard fat found around the loins and kidneys. It melts at about 21°C (70°F). It is a saturated fat.

The primary use of suet is to make tallow in a process called rendering, which involves melting and extended simmering, followed by straining, cooling and usually a repetition of the entire process.

Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without refrigeration. It is used to make soap, for cooking, as a bird food, and was once used for making candles.

How could you not love something that can be used for making both soap and pudding? It is the archetypal dessert topping and floor wax!

In case you are feeling peckish, here are some suet recipes:

• Haggis
• Windsor pudding
• Steak and Kidney pudding
• Dumplings
• Suet Crust Pastry
• Christmas pudding
• Suet Cakes (for birdfeeding)
• Mincemeat
• Spotted dick
• Kishka/Kishke
• Chili con carne
• Rag Pudding

I wonder if my grandmother uses suet in her minced pies?

The comments in my previous post made me come over all nostalgic for Navy food.

• Babies Heads
• Train Smash
• Shit on a Raft
• Niggers in the Snow
• Chinky Wedding Cake
• Cheesey-Hammy-Eggy
• Nicki Lauda cheese (smoked austrian)
• Herrings in

All these and more I have ate. Never had elephants feet.

There should be a law against web sites that underline words, make them blue or change color when you mouse-over them unless they are actually, you know, links.

For the second time since our children were born, my lovely wife and I ditched the little ones and had a night out alone…and what a fantabulous night it was! Dinner and a movie may not sound like much to the childless among you but it was rare treat for us.

Thank you, friends, for taking our little ones and thank you, wife, for a marvellous evening. I look forward to the next one which, if my calculations are not wrong, should be around 2012.

It has been my most singular joy this past age and more, to journey with Lucky Jack Aubrey and the good Doctor and to share their tribulations and their triumphs as they endured betrayal, shipwrecks, bereavement and battle intertwined with the most prodigious good fortune but sadly, our journey is coming to an end. Patrick O’Brian died a couple of years ago and Aubrey and Maturin died with him. And so, when I complete the two books on my nightstand, never again will I experience with Stephen the delight of a well-executed trephining nor hear the Commodore’s booming voice reading the Articles of War and when I turn that last sad, page by the Shakespeare of the Sea I will close the book on one of the finest chapters in English literature.

You can keep your truths, universally acknowledged; the sordid tales of the petty squabbling of the Bennet sisters do not rise to the significance of a single pudding from a single meal at the table of Captain Jack Aubrey.

“The French may say what they please, and Apicius, with his slave-fed Moray eels, was no doubt very well;, but, it seems to me that civilization reaches its very height in the glistening, gently mottled form of just such a pudding as this, bedewed with its unctuous sauce.”

The finder blogged about it here. It’s a neat story.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the 20 unsolved cards I have on my nightstand.

Doonesbury has been very good for the last few days.

Senator: Sir, I have been with you up until now but since the election I have been a bit torn…

President: I understand, Senator. You’re torn between victory for us or victory for the terrorists.

Just start here and work your way forward.