Science. And food.
Nov. 18th, 2005 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsAmerica's views on science are bizarre at best. On one hand, we are fighting outbreaks of virulient anti-science as fundamentalist creationists Intelligent Designers try to take over schools. Kansas has redefined science to permit for supernatural explanations of physical evidence. (Charles Pierce has written a brilliantly stinging Esquire article called "Greetings from Idiot America" about this.)
But on the other hand, this is the country that adores real science, and rewards it with vast amounts of attention on the most pervasive media we have. Science shows rule. Not just on the science and Discovery networks, but in every area. Alton Brown, darling of the Food Channel, is a scientist. For the children there was Bill Nye The Science Guy, plus Beakman and Jax used to have a Sunday strip as well as their show.
Even fictionalized science is hot stuff - we keep CSI at the top of the ratings and its offspring in the top 10. CSI may deal with sensationalist crimes, but the underlying science is always there and it's always real and it's almost always explained so that everyone in the viewing audience can "get" what's going on and how they determined what happened. No other show, not even the forensics fiction, has had the ratings or the social impact that CSI has.
Because let's face it - science is cool!
Which is a very long and somewhat tangential leadup to this link - The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles. Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars—it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color
I love their descriptions of the testing and the failures... and the picture is really worth 1000 words!
Had to pass that one on.
As for food, the resolutions I continually fail to complete are all food related. I haven't put myself on the Polydiet. I haven't organized my recipes in a shadow version of Nanowrimo. I haven't really cut down on the calories and amount of takeout I eat.
So... like the guy who's redefined color, I'm going to try, try again. My main problem is that although I like to cook, I don't want to spend time doing it when I've just gotten home from work or am buried in a project. Nor do I want to eat the same thing for the rest of the week by making a batch of whatever on Sunday. My interests change, often so fast that the food I bought in good faith rots on the counter before I'm in the mood again. (As a consequence, I eat a LOT of chicken and rice or chicken and potatoes - the rice and potatoes are shelf stable, the chicken comes prefrozen, and it all goes into the steamer at the same time, requiring little effort on my behalf.)
I've flirted with Once A Month Cooking (google it) but all of the recipes that they suggest are either tomato or cheese based, and really aren't that good for you either.
Soooo... my mother wants a vacuum sealer for Christmas; it's out in the car. Which has made me start thinking about ways of optimizing my own sealer. It's about time that I did indeed do once-a-month cooking, but not in the way they originally envisioned. I'm not going to do their cassaroles. I'm going to do my food, foods I like... and I'm going to seal and freeze it in individual portions. Heck, I'm going to do my best to seal it all in individual meals, so all I have to do is come home and think "Salmon? Chicken? Soup & bagel?" and yank out the appropriate dish.
Wish me luck. Like I said, of all my resolutions, food ones are the most honored in the breach.
But on the other hand, this is the country that adores real science, and rewards it with vast amounts of attention on the most pervasive media we have. Science shows rule. Not just on the science and Discovery networks, but in every area. Alton Brown, darling of the Food Channel, is a scientist. For the children there was Bill Nye The Science Guy, plus Beakman and Jax used to have a Sunday strip as well as their show.
Even fictionalized science is hot stuff - we keep CSI at the top of the ratings and its offspring in the top 10. CSI may deal with sensationalist crimes, but the underlying science is always there and it's always real and it's almost always explained so that everyone in the viewing audience can "get" what's going on and how they determined what happened. No other show, not even the forensics fiction, has had the ratings or the social impact that CSI has.
Because let's face it - science is cool!
Which is a very long and somewhat tangential leadup to this link - The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles. Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars—it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color
I love their descriptions of the testing and the failures... and the picture is really worth 1000 words!
Had to pass that one on.
As for food, the resolutions I continually fail to complete are all food related. I haven't put myself on the Polydiet. I haven't organized my recipes in a shadow version of Nanowrimo. I haven't really cut down on the calories and amount of takeout I eat.
So... like the guy who's redefined color, I'm going to try, try again. My main problem is that although I like to cook, I don't want to spend time doing it when I've just gotten home from work or am buried in a project. Nor do I want to eat the same thing for the rest of the week by making a batch of whatever on Sunday. My interests change, often so fast that the food I bought in good faith rots on the counter before I'm in the mood again. (As a consequence, I eat a LOT of chicken and rice or chicken and potatoes - the rice and potatoes are shelf stable, the chicken comes prefrozen, and it all goes into the steamer at the same time, requiring little effort on my behalf.)
I've flirted with Once A Month Cooking (google it) but all of the recipes that they suggest are either tomato or cheese based, and really aren't that good for you either.
Soooo... my mother wants a vacuum sealer for Christmas; it's out in the car. Which has made me start thinking about ways of optimizing my own sealer. It's about time that I did indeed do once-a-month cooking, but not in the way they originally envisioned. I'm not going to do their cassaroles. I'm going to do my food, foods I like... and I'm going to seal and freeze it in individual portions. Heck, I'm going to do my best to seal it all in individual meals, so all I have to do is come home and think "Salmon? Chicken? Soup & bagel?" and yank out the appropriate dish.
Wish me luck. Like I said, of all my resolutions, food ones are the most honored in the breach.
