Notes

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  • : preg_replace(): The /e modifier is deprecated, use preg_replace_callback instead in /home2/melancon/public_html/includes/unicode.inc on line 311.
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  • : preg_replace(): The /e modifier is deprecated, use preg_replace_callback instead in /home2/melancon/public_html/includes/unicode.inc on line 311.

Red Kidney Beans Curry

http://www.syvum.com/cgi/online/serve.cgi/recipes/srcpv19.tdf?0

Cooking time (approx.): 30 minutes
Style: North Indian Vegetarian (Punjabi)

2 cup(s) red kidney beans soaked overnight
4 cups water
2 medium onion(s) finely chopped
2 bay leaves (optional)
1 tablespoon(s) each of finely chopped ginger and garlic
½ teaspoon(s) each of asafoetida and turmeric
powders
1 teaspoon(s) cumin seeds
2 teaspoon(s) red chilli powder
2 big tomato(es) finely chopped
1 teaspoon(s) each of hot spice mix (garam masala) and cumin
powders
2 tablespoon(s) coriander powder

Charge for value not time - idea

Charging for Value vs. Time
Posted At : October 1, 2008 9:59 AM | Posted By : Peter Bell
Related Categories: Agile Development
I've never been a big fan of charging for project work on an hourly basis - you can make a living, but there's no real upside, and because the variation in hourly pay between great and average programmers is (to my mind) less than the variation in the value they can provide, the better you get at adding business value as a programmer, the less the compensation matches the value you are capable of adding.

Two decades in a powerful appointed position? a sign democracy ain't working

Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman from 1987 to 2006 (fearless defender of wealth inequality and chief architect of the global finance meltdown of the late 2000s), is a symbol of plutocracy (rule by the rich).

Presidents are limited to serve eight years, and are (theoretically) elected every four. If chief lackey to billionaires, and economic overlord to the rest of us, can serve for nearly twenty, while the presidency shifts three times between the two (allegedly oppositional) parties, there's a problem with our democracy.

Less hierarchy better for companies creating wealth?

two people in the next slot over where I'm working at Harvard, one arguing that flatter, less hierarchical companies create most of the wealth, the growth

and that Google's 20% of your time on whatever you want concept is a hierarchy flattener. Maybe I'll buy that.

How to cook Basmanti rice

[Friend and certified Indian person who therefore must have his identity shielded]
hey how did you cook the basmati rice

like times and protions?

i ruined it

benjamin melançon:

pour the rice into a pot, corningware works

measure the height with a finger

put in twice as much water as there is rice, so if it's up to the first knuckle on the pinky, up to the second knuckle on the pinky

bring to a boil (can keep covered to get hot faster, but then let it come to the final boil uncovered)

People Who Give a Damn, purpose restated

People have always needed something better than mailing lists— or other communication tools as they exist now. We need something that can reach millions of people (or billions– everyone) and still be open to everyone on an equal basis. Reaching everyone means filtering to reduce quantity and increase quality. Staying open to everyone means that the filtering must not be controlled by any group, must in some true sense belong to everyone.

Veganism Is Not Virginity

This is just a public service announcement to those members of the general public who like to think that the life's worth of a vegan is undone by taking a bite of steak or eating a slice of cheese pizza.

Being a vegan is not defined by the same rules as being a virgin. It's not once you're not you never are again.

Should 'C' be a letter? A C.A.T.S.U.P. question for the ages. Also, double-spaces after sentences!

Is the letter C a useless letter? (Bob, arguing that it is useless, and Brian, arguing that it is good and necessary, nearly came to blows and the end of a friendship over this. They are true heroes of the Corporation.) This must be debated endlessly.

The 56-foot deep bottomless pit from FailBlog is pretty good too.

And of course the need to enforce that every sentence must end in with two spaces after the final punctuation (period, question mark, exclamation point, colon) must be a project of C.A.T.S.U.P.

Wanted to say to a girl in a Music is My LIFE t-shirt

"... and your life is my music"

Maybe I've been sitting outside Union Station in the sun too long.

Because cold warrior billionaires are notorious for their far left tendencies

Now there is no question that the far left controls some American politicians. And that is dangerous. I don't want a radical like George Soros running this country.

Bill O'Reilly on the July 30 edition of The O'Reilly Factor

Ah Bill... I so look forward to the day when your mind has to grasp the concepts of people with actual, not imagined, far left radical perspectives.

Me trying to plan

Maybe this will help me next time.

mountain map massachusetts
mountain relief online map New England
New England mountains

http://home.earthlink.net/~ellozy/ne-hundred-highest.html

http://wawa.wachusett.com/mountain_info/default.cfm

Pridefest parade Provincetown, MA August 21
Pride fest parade Provincetown
Pride day parade Provincetown

http://www.ptown.org/Carnival.asp

Health care around the world

Sick around the world - PBS Frontline series that's very good

Watched it with Ian's social policy class while I was in St. Louis.

I hate public school and highways. How can I be called the socialist?

The Down Side of Tribes

[posted first at the closed-off triiibes.com]

I am very much in favor of people's self-organization, especially to meet common needs and dreams, in fact it's the point of People Who Give a Damn. To the extent that this, and building communities, is part of what we mean by tribes, that is great. But there's also an aspect of human progress where tribes are bad.

In that order: Exercise, discipline, affection

Finally saw Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer. He says his formula is:

Exercise.
Discipline.
Affection.

In that order.

Interesting.

Good stuff, his show. Trying to figure out how to apply it to clients.

But not sure where to apply using your hand as a mouth, to bite/grab, not push. Nor holding the tail up to help get over fear.

And I love the disclaimer every episode:

"Do not attempt these techniques without consulting a professional."

Murder and Profit: Chiquita in Colombia

The massacres allowed them to take apart the systems of social assistance negotiated with the unions.

http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/article.php3?id_article=1364

Career advice from an advocate of not working for anyone

my unsolicited advice: you should go to a place [with a dozen or more people] at a fairly high level-- a lead consulting role, a lead design role. If it's a "we hire you and you prove yourself and move up / to different things" attitude (usually unspoken), that doesn't seem a good fit

you shouldn't have to prove yourself and more importantly you WILL prove yourself, but not necessarily in a manner, style that will be recognized

Invasion of Iraq report: Language and visualizations

Posted at Amy Gahran's Poynter blog, commenting on a post about Many Eyes. (I lost concentration somewhere through this...)

The visualization of "problems" mostly shows, I think, that the reports are written in such unclear, fuzzy, let's-not-talk-about-what's-really-happening language that no visualization or linguistic tool will get much information out of it.

Every branch off every word seems to peter off into meaningless phrases.

In trying other words, there were just two hits for "mistakes", and none for "oops" ;-)