One of the country's best cheeses is letting its hair down. Normally relegated to expensive cheese plates and elegant cocktail spreads, the renowned blue cheese produced at Oregon’s Rogue Creamery is now available in a new, more accessible form: powdered. To make the Blue Heaven powder ($10 for 3 ounces), navy-veined curds are dehydrated and pulverized, resulting in a feathery, flavorful dust that resembles the stuff you’d find coating Cheetos. Rogue’s cheese is known for its creamy texture and robust, earthy taste. Dehydrated, these milky, dank flavors are amplified, delivering a powerful punch to the taste buds. We suggest you dust the powder over hot fried chicken wings and set out some cold beers, or toss it with popcorn for a glorified movie snack. The powder also works wonders on a basic baked potato. It’s a black-tie taste dressed down in jeans.

From our past: Jackie Robinson's March 9th, 1965 telegram to LBJ demanding the president take federal action to stop violence in Selma. See the telegram after the jump ...

h/t National Archives

Sign Painters is a documentary about the art of sign painting in America. Filmmakers Faythe Levine and Sam Macon look at the history of the trade, from its pre-1980s dominance to its decline in the face of cheaper digital technologies. They’ve also published a companion book. The documentary will be released later this year—check the site for screenings.

There was a time, as recently as the 1980s, when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards, and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade.

via The World’s Best Ever

“The problem here is not the message. The problem is the messenger. More specifically, it is the messenger using his own life as supporting evidence for the message. Were Graham Hill to simply write a fact-based essay arguing that Americans should cut down on material possessions in order to save the environment and gain peace of mind, he would doubtless hear a chorus of support. But for Graham Hill, a young millionaire who was fortunate enough to sell his “pre-Netscape browser” at the high point of the internet bubble, to say to the average American, “My journey through the perils of great wealth has bestowed me with wisdom that is directly applicable to you” is simply false. It is no wonder that Hill loved the recent TED talk by millionaire musician Amanda Palmer, in which she argued that it was perfectly fair for her to, for example, accept a free night of lodging in the home of poor Honduran immigrants and not pay them for it, because the beauty of her music is payment enough. Both are insulated enough from the realities of personal finance to forget about them entirely.”

- It Would Be Great if Millionaires Would Not Lecture Us on ‘Living With Less’

jeffrey milstein


jeffrey milstein


jeffrey milstein


jeffrey milstein

Looking up

What we’re wearing

Прекратить милитаризацию космоса! / Stop the militarization of outer space!

In the last few years, many of my favorite things that were once rare and only available in thrift stores and junk shops have been reissued. First there were the Pint & Half jars that came back last winter. Then Dansk from back their classic Kobenstyle cookware (according to The Kitchn, there’s more to come in that product line this season!). Now Ball has brought back blue glass canning jars. Be still my heart!

These Heritage Collection Pints are a limited edition jar, that has been issued to mark the 100th anniversary of the Perfect Mason, the original jar designed and produced by the Ball brothers. They’re not exact reproductions of those first jars, but do a lovely job at evoking an earlier age of home food preservation.

The shape of these new jars is identical to the regular mouth Ball pint jars currently on the market. They have measure marks along the sides in both cups and milliliters, come in sets of six, and are absolutely safe for home canning. As you can see from the photo above, the color is not an exact match to the jars of yesteryear, but it’s quite close. They also have a little commemorative note embossed on the back.

One thing to note about these jars is that they truly are limited. When they’re gone, they’re gone. If you want to add these to your pantry, make sure to pick some up sooner rather than later. You can currently order them from Fillmore Container. The Fresh Preserving Store and Amazon have them available for pre-order and should be fulfilling orders soon. I’ve not seen them in the wild yet, but I’ve heard that they will be stocked in brick and mortar stores.

Thanks to the nice folks at Ball, I have one box of these pretty jars to give away to a lucky Food in Jars reader (make sure to follow the Ball Facebook page and Pinterest account to be the first to know about future limited edition jars). If you want to enter, here’s what to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post and share a blue glass jar memory or experience. If you don’t have any fond remembrances about blue glass jars, share how you’d use these new jars in your home.
2. Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Friday, March 15, 2013. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog over the weekend.
3. Giveaway open to US residents only (so sorry, my further-flung readers).
4. One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: The publicist for Jarden Home Brands gave me a box of these jars to review and is providing a second box for the giveaway. They did not pay for inclusion on the blog and my opinions remain entirely my own. 

Related Posts:

• Links: Waffles, Parfaits, and Pickle-brined Chicken + a Blue Jar Winner
• National Can-It-Forward Day + Giveaway
• Canning 101: How to Use Pint & Half Jars

Times reporters covering the papal transition answered readers’ questions on the conclave process, the future of the church and the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

For her senior project, she is living in a 130-square-foot house to explore the realities and benefits of living small.

Jen St. Louis has added a photo to the pool:

Taken during a photo shoot at Mountsberg Raptor Centre - controlled conditions. Jazz, this lovely barn owl, is fed four or so mice every day in the winter. This one was very dead before it was given to her, don't worry. ;-)

Jen the Bird Nerd: a birding blog | www.jenstlouisphotography.com | Facebook | Twitter

cecilramsey has added a photo to the pool:

sophies-starlight:

From BBC One’s twitter :-) https://twitter.com/BBCOne/status/311105500215406593

I got loaded and sad, and nostalgic as I often am for you. As I never cease to love you and crafted you a wooden dachsund as token of forigiveness and letter. And didnt think much of it.was embarassed next day when realization sinks in hallucination [...]

Rua Goncalo de Carvalho: Most Beautiful Street in the World via Amusing Planet

By Megan Farokhmanesh on Mar 10, 2013 at 10:35a

Game developer and father Mike Mika hacked a 2010 Nintendo ROM of Donkey Kong to give his daughter the chance to save Mario instead of playing as him.

Mika posted a video of the new "Pauline Edition," where Mario patiently awaits rescue from the game's original damsel in distress, Pauline.

"My three year old daughter and I play a lot of old games together," Mika wrote in the video's description. "Her favorite is Donkey Kong. Two days ago, she asked me if she could play as the girl and save Mario. She's played as Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2 and naturally just assumed she could do the same in Donkey Kong. I told her we couldn't in that particular Mario game, she seemed really bummed out by that."

To solve this, Mika swapped palettes, redrew frames and replaced Mario with Pauline. Check out the video above to see Pauline hop into action.

Donkey Kong isn't the first game to get a role reversal from a loving father. Last year, Mike Hoye transformed The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's Link into a girl for this daughter by hand-editing the game's dialogue.

Garance Franke-Ruta hails Columbia, “the feminine historic personification of the United States of America, who has since the 1920s largely fallen out of view”:

[S]he was as recognizable to Americans of yesteryear as the man in the top-hat and tails remains today, and when the suffragettes donned robes and armor, they garbed themselves in her rebel warrior’s spirit. From the 18th century until the early decades of the 20th, Columbia was the gem of the ocean, a mythical and majestic personage whose corsets or breast-plates curved out of her striped or starred or swirling skirts with all the majesty of a shield. She was honored from the birth of the nation — “Hail, Columbia!”, whose score was first composed for the inauguration of President Washington, was an unofficial anthem until the “Star-Spangled Banner” displaced it as the official national one in 1931 — to the birth of the recording and film industries, which is why we have had Columbia Records and Columbia Pictures. Yes, that lady with the torch at the start of the movies isn’t just some period-costume-wearing chick — she is a relic of this earlier personification of America, immortalized forever by the most American of industries.

America was Columbia in the same way that England was Britannia and France was Marianne. America’s capital is the District of Columbia; New York City’s great early private university was Columbia College (now University).

Why did her star fade? Garance’s view: “Female national personifications in general fell out of vogue as women took on a growing role as emancipated citizens.”

(Photo: A suffrage pageant in 1913 via Wikimedia Commons)

“Look, it’s no secret that my vice president is still ambitious. But let’s face it, his age is an issue. Just the other day, I had to take Joe aside and say, ‘Joe, you are way too young to be the pope.’”

- President Obama, joking at the Gridiron Dinner in Washington.

The post Quote of the Day: President Obama appeared first on Religion News Service.

(RNS) Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley celebrates Mass for American seminarians in Rome on Monday, one day before the start of the conclave to elect a new pope. Photo courtesy George Martell/The Pilot Media Group.

(RNS) At some point this week, French Cardinal Jean-Louis Touran will step out on to the Vatican balcony and announce “Habemus Papam!”, or “We have a pope!”

The new pope’s first name is actually announced in Latin (this is the Vatican, after all), so if you want to be fully prepped, our friends at Catholic News Service have prepared a list of all the cardinals’ names in Latin:

– Raimundum (in case its hard-liner Raymond Burke of St. Louis)

– Marcum (Canadian front-runner Marc Oullet)

– Timotheum (New York’s own Timothy Dolan)

– Patricium (for Boston’s Sean Patrick O’Malley)

While you’re looking around for other cool pope stuff:

• Will Cardinal O’Malley win because he looks like a kindly grandfather type? Maybe, says a new study.
• CNS has an hour-by-hour timeline for the cardinals who are huddled inside the Sistine Chapel
• CNS also has a handy hour-by-hour timeline for when to watch for smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney
• NameThePope.com is taking bets on the pope’s new name. Currently in the running: John Paul III.
• Vote in the final round of our Sweet Sistine bracket to pick who becomes the Peoples’ Pope

 

The post Habemus Papam: Idiot’s Guide to Latin appeared first on Religion News Service.

Parliamentary Chambers by Ana Filipovic via Deconcrete

Parliamentary Chambers, by Ana Filipovic, 2012, within Cultures of Assembly, Architecture + Critical Spatial Practice, Städelschule Frankfurt:

‘The word parliament derives from the French “parlement”—the act of speaking, the discussion. The chamber in which parliamentary assemblies meet is therefore a spatial setting for that very discussion. The comprehension of the nature of this discussion should hence inform the architectural design.

The spatial organization of formal assemblies has not substantially changed much from Athenian assembly to the modern concept of prime ministerial government that goes back to the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) and The Parliamentary System in Sweden (1721–1772) that coincided with each other. Classical democracy not only influenced the formation of later constitutions, it also created an architectural legacy which has dominated both the form and style of parliament buildings to the present day. [Sudjic, Deyan, “Architecture And Democracy”, Laurence King Publishing, 1992]

The most appropriate form remained to be hemicycle—semicircular, or horseshoe shaped, debating chamber (plenary chamber), where members sit to discuss and pass legislation.

The circular shape is one, which was primarily designed to encourage the politics of consensus among political parties rather than confrontation. The design is used in most European countries (and hence was adopted by the European Parliament) and the United States. The equality in its shape—the equal distance from the speaker, for example—is being used whenever democratic dialogue is anticipated. In contrast, the Westminster system, in which the government and opposition parties face each other on opposing sets of benches, points at an interesting potential: the exploration and exacerbation of spatial confrontation and conflict as a form of agonistic ground condition. This research questions the seemingly causal relationship between the spaces of parliamentary chambers and the system they represent.’

You know, it kind of does, when you think about it.

State Rep. Ernest Hewett of Connecticut (D-New London) has been under fire for a while now because of a comment he made during a hearing last month. The hearing had to do with funding for the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford, and a high-school girl was testifying about her great experience as a "teen ambassador" there for the past two years. Among other things, she said this:

I'm usually a very shy person, and now I'm more outgoing... I was able to discover that I really love working with children. It was so much fun for me. I was able to teach little children about certain things, like snakes that we have.... And just the kids — they're just great.... And I never liked snakes, but I ended up loving them.

The committee's co-chairwoman then said this:

That's very good. you're a great spokeswoman for the Connecticut Science Center. It seems like a good investment for the state. Are there any questions? Yes, Representative Hewett.

And Representative Hewett then said this:

If you're bashful, I've got a snake sittin' under my desk here.

Um.

Some have suggested that this was a sexual innuendo, which he denies. He was just making an analogy, he says, along the same lines as: "if you believe that, I've got some land in the Everglades I'd like to sell you." (He doesn't actually have land in the Everglades.) In other words, according to him he meant something like this:

If you're bashful, [then] I've got a snake sittin' under my desk here.

And, taking the absence of a real snake here as a given, then it follows that all will understand the actual import of my remark to be that I believe you not to be bashful. Or, where B represents the state of you being bashful and S the presence or non-presence of any member of the suborder Serpentes beneath my desk, the relationship can be expressed thusly:

B ⇒ S ↔ ¬S ⇒ ¬B

and therefore I was not talking about my penis. Yes, I'll yield the remainder of my time, Madam Chairwoman. Thank you.

This explanation might actually make sense, but only if he put the stress on the word "you're" in the sentence above when he said it. Because so far no one has sent me the audio (I'm looking at you, Connecticut Republicans), I can't say whether he did or not. [See update below.] 

But unfortunately for the possible truth of that explanation, Hewett has what Rep. Mae Flexer described as a "history of bad behavior," though "primarily verbal," involving females. "I get along with everyone" was Hewett's response to that, which is not quite a denial. And he explained that the reason he doesn't choose female interns (which he doesn't) is just because—well, here's his explanation: 

"I purposely will not have female interns. My intern now is a male. I want to keep it like that. I've had female interns in the past that sit in my office all day. I thought it was totally weird and I didn't want another.

"As a matter of fact, I went four, maybe six years without having an intern at all because of stuff like that. I have a male intern, the last two I've had were male."

Asked if he chose to only have males, he said, "I don't get to choose. That's why I was so leery about staying away from interns. I don't know what they're going to give me. They may give me a female, but I don't want a female intern. That may sound sexist but I really don't. That way that keeps me good and that keeps everybody else good."

Emphasis added. See, you started out by saying female interns are lazy and male interns aren't, and that already sounded sexist. Then you followed up by appearing to suggest that you don't choose female interns because if you did you might harass them. Your dim intuition that this also might be sexist was correct.

In fact, Hewett doesn't "choose" not to have female interns at all. According to Rep. Flexer—also a Democrat, and a former chair of the Assembly's Internship Committee—due to his "history," they won't assign him any. She said his suggestion to the contrary was "ludicrous" and "ridiculous." (Also "sexist.")

The Democrats are said to be planning a "sexual harassment refresher course" in the wake of Hewett's snaky comment, a course that should probably include a definition of "sexist."

UPDATE: Having now listened to the audio (available here), I think it actually supports his explanation of what he was trying to say. Not that it was a good idea to say it, but I don't think he meant it the way it looks on the page. Judge for yourself, though. The remainder of the evidence, of course, is unaffected by this.

THE REAL WEIRD TWITTER IS THE ESPIONAGE TWITTER:

kadrey:

criminalwisdom:

Is Twitter being used as a numbers station?

‘GooGuns posts nothing but strings of letters and numbers, like b39e65fa00000000 in intervals of about five minutes on average. The string of characters always ends with zeroes, occasionally with the location service turned on, so you can see that 554705fa00000000 was allegedly tweeted from the “Region of Khabarovsk.” This has been going on all day and all night, for years, with more than 318,000 tweets posted since 2009. But why?’

(Source: Linkmachinego)

Number stations in social media? 

20lightyearsaway:

wolf-in-the-fold:

Faber Castell’s 250 Year Anniversary (1761-2011) Art & Graphic Case
(x)

why is there porn on my dash!?

there are children on this website

After last week's threat to call off their armistice with South Korea, officials disconnected the hotline built to avert disaster. Because the two countries are officially not speaking to each other—they have no embassies or diplomatic relations—the only formal communication line between Pyongyang and Seoul is a Red Cross telephone line that was set up in 1971. They test the line twice a day, but when the South called the North at 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning, nobody picked up.

No need to panic just yet. The North has done this before when it's been ticked off at the South. (The last time was in 2010.) But the message is clear that they are not backing down from their recent saber-rattling over the joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises. They also aren't pleased about the new U.N. Security Council resolutions that were placed on them last Thursday. Even though they haven't acted on it yet, the North is still talking as if the cease fire agreement (that dates back to 1953) is kaput, and that the two countries are once again in a state of open war. They even got a few thousand friends together to "celebrate" the military for tearing up the armistice. (Here's the full version of that picture.)

However, those military exercises that have upset them so much actually makes it a bad time to go messing around with the U.S. Navy. There are nearly 30,000 American troops stationed in the South Korea on a permanent basis and they are all on heightened alert right now.

That's also probably why the South's highest-ranking generals weren't sweating the prospect of doing battle this weekend. Instead of preparing for all-out war, they reportedly spent the weekend playing golf.

In a bid to increase oversight of web usage among its citizens, Iran is reportedly clamping down on Encrypted Virtual Private Network (VPN) systems. According to Reuters, Iranian web users are reporting that various VPNs — which normally help evade the government's draconian internet filters — are no longer accessible. Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, who leads parliament's information and communications technology committee, has confirmed that the regime is currently weeding out unauthorized VPNs. "Within the last few days illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked," he told a local news agency. "Only legal and registered VPNs can from now on be used." As you'd expect, those preferred VPNs are subject to surveillance by officials.

Private web access is becoming all but impossible in the country as Iran approaches June's presidential election. The timing isn't surprising: in 2009, its citizens protested election results en masse. The revolt was met with severe internet censorship with sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube blocked from public view. Iran's regime is reportedly working on solutions that would grant restricted access to those social networks, but in the meantime its citizens have had to make do with homegrown (and monitored) substitutes. China has also sought to cut off VPN workarounds as part of its own efforts to control internet access within its borders.

• Source Reuters
• Image Credit Nick Taylor (Flickr)
• Related Items iran censorship vpn encrypted virtual private network

I don't know your name. We had a small conversation, few words, before and after the presentation, but I thought you were really cute. We meet during one of the last presentations on Friday, March 8. You had awesome poufy side swipe hair and a beauti [...]

The US Department of Justice has filed a brief in a Maryland court case defending citizens' rights to photograph and record police officers in the course of their duty. The DOJ, in fact, goes beyond what it had said in a previous case by arguing that citizens are protected by the First and Fourth Amendments. In fact, the DOJ argues that using "discretionary charges, such as disorderly conduct, loitering, disturbing the peace, and resisting arrest" to try to stop people from recording police actions "chills protected First Amendment speech."

The court cases involves an incident that occurred in 2011. Photo journalist Mannie Garcia was taking photographs of police officers who were arresting two other men. The officers then arrested Garcia and seized the memory card from his camera — in the process putting Garcia in a choke hold and injuring him. The result was a disorderly conduct charge, for which he was acquitted, but before he went to trial Garcia temporarily lost his White House press credentials due to the charges. After his acquittal, Garcia went on to seek damages for the incident. The court case the DOJ is responding to is this latest one, where it is arguing that it should not be tossed out.

Courts have viewed and should view discretionary charges brought against individuals engaged in protected speech with considerable skepticism.

In its brief, the government also said that seizing Garcia's memory card constituted not just a violation of his Fourth Amendement rights, but also his First Amendment rights. The government argues that "action intended to prevent the dissemination of information critical of public officials, including police officers" is an attack on First Amendment rights. The DOJ was clear that Garcia's status as a journalist had no bearing on its arguments, but that instead they applied to all citizens.

• Via PoliticoArs Technica
• Source US DOJ brief (Politico PDF)
• Related Items department of justice doj rights mannie garcia