Rotundus.com

How often do foodies need to be reminded that uber-nitpicky meals may not be the best way to go? What do those who might be considered some of the world's best chefs have to say?

Here, for example, is Thomas (not Timothy) Keller:

Mr. Keller, who throws dinner parties at home about six times a year, likes to pick "comforting, recognizable" dishes. "Cutting-edge or avant-garde should be saved for a restaurant experience," he says.

Mr. Keller stresses that he doesn't "plate," or formally arrange, foods for serving at home. (Source: WSJ)

Then there's Jean Georges:

"At the restaurant, everything is plated," he said. "At home I try to put everything in the middle of the table and have everybody dig in."

Still, depending on whether you take Mark Bittman's approach or Ferran Adria's home cooking may not be all that simple. In Mark Bittman's words:

My position was that you can’t call a dish “simple” if it requires things like premade stocks, sauces and condiments. His (as best as I could interpret it; we were arguing in French) was that anyone who really wants to cook has to have these things around anyway.

I sorta wonder how willing either of them might be to use store-bought versions of some of the above? My guess is probably not. Still... I've never made homemade (e.g.) mayo and don't really see myself doing so anytime in the near future either.

Not seeing the forest for the trees?

"I'm hoping that environmental policy produces very few green jobs. This would indicate that businesses have found low cost ways to achieve clean air and water."

Quebec’s new secular norm: $144 fines for religious worship

Life in Quebec post-Quiet Revolution: "The fine print of her rental agreement, which she says she was never shown, spells out some restrictions: no smoking, no confetti inside or out, no propane tanks inside the building. Then it cites a zoning bylaw to declare that no activities of worship — “prayer, religious song and religious celebration” — are permitted."

Quotes from "How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings?"

Seems that small class sizes aren't really improving long term income outcomes of the students.

An Immodest Proposal: Domestic Violence Groups Claim the Use of Logic by Men is Abuse

It's an article with perhaps an annoying tone - but they seem totally right in declaring it entirely ridiculous that that's an organization out there is making such claims. (I'm guessing they'd justify this by their use of quotes around the word logic).

Back in October, the NY Times decided to dub as contrarian a particular study at UC Berkeley that duplicated global warming experiments suggesting a human cause. Their argument that this panel is contrarian simply doesn't seem to be valid.

First question: what does the project lead (Richard Muller) think about the whole idea of human-caused global warming? Back in 2004 he said:

If you are concerned about global warming (as I am) and think that human-created carbon dioxide may contribute (as I do)

He seems to buy human activity as a cause of global warming, but just seems to think that some of the research that's been done has been a bit shoddy. Isn't a scientist one who tests and retests hypotheses rather than accepting them just because they agree with your conclusions?

The second question: who's paying for the research? They're getting some funding from a Koch Foundation, known for campaigning against human-caused climate change. Seems pretty clear... obviously they must be deeply biased. But wait... who else is on that list of donors? Bill Gates, whose views on climate change don't exactly jive with those of the Koch Foundation. Seems to cancel out the Koch influence.

To go back and quote a few more of Muller's words:

A phony hockey stick is more dangerous than a broken one--if we know it is broken. It is our responsibility as scientists to look at the data in an unbiased way, and draw whatever conclusions follow. When we discover a mistake, we admit it, learn from it, and perhaps discover once again the value of caution.

I'd make a fairly similar argument about a Republican "war on science". What do you know... Democrats do much the same.

Given that the network is named The Onion, it must obviously be dedicated to food.

Celebrity Chef Ted Allen Cooks His Favorite Pretentious Foodie Bullshit Meal

Still not quite sure what to think about the term foodie. Sometimes it gets used; sometimes not. And sometimes it can get rather pretentious...