Friday, December 30, 2011

NYC subway progression over the years

via http://spacingtoronto.ca/

I may have moved out of NYC, but I still have an enthusiasm for the NYC subway. (There are bus-leaning NY'ers* and Subway-leaning NY'ers, I am definitely the latter.)

Another cool link with a video of the different NYC subway maps over the last 100 years. -> http://gizmodo.com/5871896/100-years-later-the-evolution-of-the-nyc-subway-map

Earlier links about the NYC subway that I've posted:
http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/10/nyc-metrocard-usage-by-origination.html
&
http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/01/musicalgraphical-interpretation-of-nyc.html

*eg insane people, why would I ever want to travel via a method that stops every 12' and is effected by traffic?


.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Hey Giada, lets hang out?

Yeah I know, 2 cooking posts in a row, who am I Kiss My Whisk?

Saffron risotto is likely my favorite prepared dish (warning I have a lot of favorite foods). The problem is saffron is so flipping expensive and doesn't go very far. But- other than online bulk buying, I may have found something locally(-ish) available at Costco. Honestly I don't remember what I paid but I think it was about $15/gram which is still far cheaper than the grocery store, if they even have it. The quality was great, and the color/taste was perfect. That was enough for about 4 saffron dishes (for 2 people with leftovers). 

Short version of risotto cooking directions:

1 cup of short grain white rice (arborio)
~1/3 of a large white or yellow onion chopped fine
3 cups of chicken or vegetable broth (I prefer chicken)
Heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
~1/4 cup of shredded Asiago/Pecorino/Romano/Parmesan cheese (I mixed all of them)
Black pepper
dried chopped parsley
large pat of butter
2-3 tablespoons of Olive oil (doesn't matter what kind, no matter what Giada says)
pinch of Saffron (I guess technically I used about a 1/4 ounce, but if you can measure that you probably already know how to cook risotto)

-In a large sauté pan, start sweating the onion & garlic using all of the Olive oil and butter, once they are about 1/2 of the way to the point that you'd call them fully done, add all the rice and cook until golden-yellow-brown. After adding the rice it shouldn't take more than about 2 minutes.

-Now add about 1/4 of a cup of the broth while stirring slowly, add all the saffron at this point. Turn the heat down to low.

-As it gets absorbed add another 1/4 cup at a time until you have about 1/2 a cup left. At this point add about half the cheese, a teaspoon each of black pepper and parsley

-Turn the heat way down and add the last 1/2 cup very slowly, stirring constantly.

-Once that is absorbed, serve and eat immediately, sprinkle the remaining cheese over the risotto after serving.

Honestly other than the constant stirring its really not that hard to make, and if you can buy the saffron in bulk (or otherwise cheaper) its not that expensive either.

Here are some pictures!

KEEP STIRRING!



Wednesday, December 28, 2011

More meals need to be in pie form

Buy one of these.



Here's what I made: word of warning, I don't really measure anything

Beef and root veges pie
Browned ground beef
Carrot
Parsnip
Potato
White or Yellow onion
Celery
Lots of minced garlic
Splash of Worchester sauce
Black pepper
Chicken broth

Spices
Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano and Sage (I used all dried) and a little bit of dried gravy mix (powder)

Lasagna Pie
Browned ground beef
Shredded Mozz cheese
Pre-grated Parmasean cheese
Marinara sauce

Spices
Basil, Oregano, thyme

Combine the ingredients and scoop into the lower circle on a pre-heated pie maker, spice to taste. For both of them I used crescent roll dough, one tube was able to make 8 total pies (so 16 circles, 8 top, 8 bottom). Moisten the top circle with a little bit of water, before closing the lid. I just smooshed it together and rolled it out. I'll let you read the instructions in the pie maker for the dough/pie specific ones.





Earlier link about meat pies -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/10/shepherds-pie.html

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Wait, I thought he had hook hands



I'm officially adding Jon Hamm to my "hey, lets get a beer sometime" list.

Source -> http://teamcoco.com/video/secret-santa-conan-blows-staffers-mind

Metal ball falls from the sky in Namibia, nobody knows what it is...

That's the gist of it.


From Pop Sci:
A large metallic ball has fallen from the heavens and landed in a remote region of Namibia, spurring a lot of speculation about its origins and spurring local authorities to get NASA and the European Space Agency on the horn. No one is sure where the hollow metallic object came from, but it definitely came down hard--it was found 60 feet away from its landing site, a hole more than a foot deep and 12 feet across.

Source -> http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-12/mysterious-metallic-space-ball-falls-earth-africa-baffling-authorities & http://news.yahoo.com/space-ball-drops-namibia-133326985.html

the 15 greatest gifts in history

I saw this on Mental Floss and thought I'd share. Click the source link for the entire list, here's the first 4. #2 is really interesting, I had originally read about it in this book, "Spycraft" highly recommended.

1. For Friends Abroad: A Statue of Liberty


You’re going to need a bigger tree. The official dedication ceremony for France’s gift of the “New Colossus” was in 1886, but the idea had been in the works since 1865, when French politician Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye decided France should do something to honor the U.S. after the Civil War. The statue was built overseas and shipped to the U.S. in pieces. If you’re leaning toward some large statuary like this for your brother from another country, you should probably warn him that he’s going to need to clear some yard space.

2. For Your Shifty Neighbor: The Great Seal of the United States (Bugged)




UN Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge shows off a replica of the Great Seal of the United States to the Security Council. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrey Gromyko smiles with amusement behind Lodge. © Bettmann/CORBIS (1960)
Think your neighbor is going a little Walter White on you? Before you call the DEA, try gifting him with a bugged Great Seal of the United States. In 1945, the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union presented U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman with a Great Seal, hand-carved from wood, as a gesture of friendship. Their definition of friendship was a little dysfunctional, though, because the gift contained a bug designed by famous Russian inventor Leon Theremin. The bug was hard to detect because it was extremely thin, gave off no signal and had no power supply (this was amazing technology back in 1945, mind you). Harriman hung it in his office at the Ambassador’s House, where the “Thing,” as it was later called, went undiscovered until 1952 — three ambassadors later.

3. For Your Friend Who Loves Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Savannah, GA


The only problem with this gift is that you’ll never top yourself. Next year, you’ll have to give your demanding pal a whole state. After that she’s going to expect everything south of the Mason-Dixon line. Actually, that’s sort of what happened in the first place.
General William T. Sherman had been working his troops hard to secure ports from the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After he captured Atlanta in September 1864, Sherman and some of his men disappeared for about six weeks; the White House received no communication from them and President Lincoln feared the worst. Then, on December 22, Sherman sent Lincoln a telegraph with the message: “I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton.”

4. For Animal-Lovers: A White Elephant

 

We all know people with pets that are slightly left of center. Hedgehogs, ferrets, pot-bellied pigs. To really impress one of these friends, follow in the footsteps of King Manuel of Portugal and give the gift of a white elephant. The unusual present was given to Pope Leo X in 1514; Leo was so enamored with the pachyderm named Hanno that he commissioned Raphael to paint his portrait.
Hopefully your animal-loving friend is a more responsible pet owner than Leo was. Believing that gold was the answer to everything, Leo supposedly had Hanno’s handlers feed him laxatives laced with gold when he got a little constipated. The gold proved too rich for poor Hanno, and he died at the young age of six.


Source -> http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/111157

earlier "gift" related links -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/11/oh-cheese-and-rice-i-really-didnt-want.html & http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/04/come-pick-up-your-free-gift.html & http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/10/spa-in-vancouver-offers-gift.html

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Earth (sometimes) has a 2nd moon

...is the theory being floated by Cornell Astrophysicists

From the Gizmodo synopsis (which I will shorten too):

In a research paper called "The population of natural Earth satellites", astronomers say that Earth has a second moon at any given time. While these moons are small, the scientific implications of this discovery are phenomenal. 

From the Technology Review article linked below:
image via http://www.inrumor.com/
Back in 2006, the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona noticed that a mysterious body had begun orbiting the Earth. This object had a spectrum that was remarkably similar to the titanium white paint used on Saturn V rocket stages and, indeed, a number of rocket stages are known to orbit the Sun close to Earth.
But this was not an object of ours. Instead, 2006 RH120, as it became known, turned out to be a tiny asteroid just a few metres across--a natural satellite like the Moon. It was captured by Earth's gravity in September 2006 and orbited us until June 2007 when it wandered off into the Solar System in search of a more interesting neighbour.
2006 RH120 was the first reliably documented example of a temporary moon.


-

 COOL!

Source -> http://gizmodo.com/5869840/ via Cornell & https://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27425/

Earlier links about the Moon -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/11/moon_19.html & http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/08/was-our-moon-result-of-2-smaller-moons.html

The Vampires of Physics, not the tw*light kind

Everything you'd every want to know about Neutrinos in 1:25

THIS is the lab they're talking about at 0:44


Clickable link -> http://youtu.be/lAAmAbJvvJg

See? Learning Physics doesn't HAVE to be long and boring...

Source -> http://gizmodo.com/5869387/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-neutrinosin-less-than-two-minutes

Earlier link about Neutrinos -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/search/label/IceCube%20Neutrino%20lab%20NSF

I thought I was excited about a new level being unlocked each day until Xmas...

This guy clearly has my affinity for this Finnish phenomenon beat...


clickable link -> http://youtu.be/JqeSFdV-M2E

Source -> http://www.happyplace.com/12988/angry-birds-now-available-on-iphone-droid-and-insanely-creative-mans-christmas-lights-display

Earlier Angry Birds link -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/03/interesting-take-on-north-africa.html

Just in case its not a white christmas...

but you have the temperature for it (and you have a power washer).


Short version, you combine a power washer and an air compressor, let that mofo fly in a cold back yard and enjoy! (click the source link for the actual instructions).


Clickable link -> http://youtu.be/xuviX086dPs

Source -> http://www.instructables.com/id/Home-Snowmaker-Snowgun-internal-mix/ via lifehacker

Monday, December 19, 2011

Stonehenge Inner stones' source have been located

From Wired UK:

A team of geologists from Britain have pinpointed the exact quarry that Stonehenge’s innermost circle of rocks came from. It’s the first time that a precise source has been found for any of the stones at the prehistoric monument. Robert Ixer of the University of Leicester and Richard Bevins of the National Museum of Wales painstakingly identified samples from various rock outcrops in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
For nine months the pair used petrography — the study of mineral content and textural relationships within rocks — to find the origins of Stonehenge’s rhyolite debitage stones. These spotted dolerites or bluestones form the inner circle and inner horseshoe of the site. They found the culprit on a 65-metre-long outcropping called Craig Rhos-y-Felin, near Pont Saeson in north Pembrokeshire. It lies approximately 160 miles from the Stonehenge site.

Having said all that, how the F*** did these people get these rocks from point A to point B over 5,000 years ago using a method that we haven't been able to definitively figure out 5,000 years later.


Source -> http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/stone-henge-rocks-origins/

Earlier Stonehenge link -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/11/newly-discovered-pits-add-mystery-to.html

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Its been a hard days night...

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands.

Short version:

The opening chord of the Beatles song "A Hard Day's Night" has always been a bit elusive as to what it actually was.

From Gizmodo:
CBCRadio host Randy Bachman, visited Abbey Road Studios where they've got all of the Beatles' master tapes converted to digital, [truncated] Bachman listened to each of the tracks played back one at a time to reveal the underlying root chord played by George Harrison.

(Audio only)


Full (awesome) song


Clickable link -> http://youtu.be/cD4TAgdS_Xw

Source -> http://gizmodo.com/5868409/software-reveals-the-clanging-first-chord-of-a-hard-days-night

MIT builds a camera fast enough to capture the motion of Light

In keeping with this webpage being random as hell, now a science post!

From MIT's website:
MIT researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion exposures per second. That’s fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a one-liter bottle, bouncing off the cap and reflecting back to the bottle’s bottom. Media Lab postdoc Andreas Velten, one of the system’s developers, calls it the “ultimate” in slow motion: “There’s nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera,” he says.

Particles of light — photons — enter the camera through the slit and are converted into electrons, which pass through an electric field that deflects them in a direction perpendicular to the slit. Because the electric field is changing very rapidly, it deflects the electrons corresponding to late-arriving photons more than it does those corresponding to early arriving ones. 


The image produced by the camera is two-dimensional, but only one of the dimensions — the one corresponding to the direction of the slit — is spatial. The other dimension, corresponding to the degree of deflection, is time. The image thus represents the time of arrival of photons passing through a one-dimensional slice of space.



"B*tches LOVE high speed cameras!"



Source -> http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/trillion-fps-camera-1213.html via http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/13/dnp-mit-builds-camera-that-can-capture-at-the-speed-of-light-vi/ via https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/science/speed-of-light-lingers-in-face-of-mit-media-lab-camera.html?_r=2&ref=technology

Another physics post -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/07/god-particle-close-to-being-discovered.html

The Dictator

Sacha Baron Cohen, known for Borat, Ali G and Brüno (and other things but those are the big 3) has a new movie coming out that may or may not be inspired by real people recently deposed...

Here's the first trailer:



Love him or hate him (I'd be surprised if there was ANYBODY who was luke warm about him) I think this looks really funny...

Source -> http://video.aol.com/video/the-dictator-trailer-no-1/825289193

Seal pup wanders into a New Zealand house... adorable ensues

From the New Zealand Herald:

A wandering baby fur-seal wriggled through the cat-door of a Bay of Plenty house - and made himself at home on the couch. A stunned Annette Swoffer thought she must have been hallucinating when she found the young pup hanging out with her cats in her kitchen on Sunday night. Ms Swoffer called the SPCA.

"They were giggling away and I'm saying 'I'm not drunk, I'm not lying', there's a seal in my house."

The SPCA contacted the Department of Conservation, which was already looking for a seal reported hopping along Welcome Bay Rd. Ms Swoffer said the pup was "really friendly" and not aggressive in the slightest - which is unusual for seals.

------

Click the source link below for the rest of the pictures.



Source -> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10772980

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I'm honestly leaning towards House Targaryen...

The (former?) Khalessi really became a badass. Plus now SHE HAS DRAGONS?!*

Season 2 trailer




Clickable link -> http://youtu.be/sBrsM_WlfV8


http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Targaryen

*Spoiler alert, oops.

Joffrey sucks (I get that this is a fantasy world, but thats the ugliest name I've ever heard)

Pfft, I've done this

One thing about living in NYC (with a car) besides the sheer insanity of "tandem parking*" is learning EXACTLY the dimensions of your vehicle...



Source -> http://teamcoco.com/video/conan-parallel-parking

*When you use 2 or more people, 1 being the driver in the car communicating via cellphone (HANDS FREE OF COURSE) or walkie-talkie to drive around the neighborhood in order to scout/acquire elusive parking spots

Earlier link -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/01/that-audi-will-be-there-for-while.html

slow-mo of dogs in cars

...because I love this


Dogs in Cars from keith on Vimeo.

Source -> http://vimeo.com/33219961 via gizmodo.com/5867561/slow-motion-video-of-dogs-in-cars-is-five-minutes-of-pure-happiness

Friday, December 9, 2011

I'm not really a fan of Grapefruit either

Just heard this guy (Gary Gulman) on "Preston and Steve" this morning. It was one of the best radio interviews I've heard in a while. Too bad he seems to re-use material a lot.






Because Davenport Iowa is an Old Milwaukee kind of town

From the source (below):

For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Will Ferrell approached the the Pabst Brewing Company last September and asked if he could make a series of commercials for their Old Milwaukee beer. For free. The only catch was, he wanted to do them in Davenport, Iowa. Why that is remains unclear, as Pabst is a Wisconsin company, and more mysterious is the fact that Old Milwaukee is a terrible beer. Seriously: Hobos will turn down Old Milwaukee: “No thanks, I’m fine with this cough syrup.”

That sounds about right







Source -> http://warmingglow.uproxx.com/2011/12/will-ferrell-mysteriously-shills-for-swill

Thursday, December 8, 2011

British soldiers didn't have a mall nearby

I'd want to be the guy in the "plane" at 3:35, haha


Source -> http://youtu.be/SDZcGz4vmJc

Earlier (related) link -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/12/its-love-actually-time-of-year.html

Double Amputee soldier skydives with his wardog

I love dogs, I love how excited he is right before the jump, then how he springs back into playing right after they land.

http://www.anysoldier.com


clickable link -> http://youtu.be/2xgjYAYJtrE

Source -> http://gizmodo.com/5866064/double+amputee-solider-skydives-with-his-war-dog

Earlier dog links -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/10/i-love-puppies.html
http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/03/dogs-are-better-than-people.html
http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/10/i-always-knew-huskies-were-smart.html
http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/09/22-year-old-woman-punches-black-bear-in.html

SAVE COMMUNITY (continued)

"Because we can't legally call it an education"



Source -> http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6664700/save-greendale-with-the-cast-of-community

Earlier links -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/11/save-community.html
http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/07/alison-brie-might-be-too-hot.html

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Ke$ha's “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single

True story.
The world is over.
Make sure to stock your bunkers.


  • 1. Creed has sold more records in the US than Jimi Hendrix

    Creed has sold more records in the US than Jimi Hendrix
  • 2. Led Zeppelin, REM, and Depeche Mode have never had a number one single, Rihanna has 10

    Led Zeppelin, REM, and Depeche Mode have never had a number one single, Rihanna has 10
  • 3. Ke$ha's “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single

    Ke$ha's “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single
  • 4. Flo Rida's “Low” has sold 8 million copies – the same as The Beatles' “Hey Jude

    Flo Rida's “Low” has sold 8 million copies – the same as The Beatles' “Hey Jude”
  • 5. The Black Eyed Peas' “I Gotta Feeling” is more popular than any Elvis or Simon & Garfunkel song

    The Black Eyed Peas' “I Gotta Feeling” is more popular than any Elvis or Simon & Garfunkel song
  • 6. Celine Dion's “Falling Into You” sold more copies than any Queen, Nirvana, or Bruce Springsteen record

    Celine Dion's “Falling Into You” sold more copies than any Queen, Nirvana, or Bruce Springsteen record
  • 7. Same with Shania Twain's “Come On Over”

    Same with Shania Twain's “Come On Over”
  • 8. Katy Perry holds the same record as Michael Jackson for most number one singles from an album

    Katy Perry holds the same record as Michael Jackson for most number one singles from an album
  • 9. Barbra Streisand has sold more records (140 million) than Pearl Jam, Johnny Cash, and Tom Petty combined

    Barbra Streisand has sold more records (140 million) than Pearl Jam, Johnny Cash, and Tom Petty combined
  • 10. People actually bought Billy Ray Cyrus' album “Some Gave All…” 20 million people. More than any Bob Marley album

    People actually bought Billy Ray Cyrus' album “Some Gave All...” 20 million people. More than any Bob Marley album
  • 11. The cast of “Glee” has had more songs chart than the Beatles

    The cast of “Glee” has had more songs chart than the Beatles
  • 12. This guy exists.

    This guy exists.
    I'm a girl! tee hee!

     

source -> http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/12-extremely-disappointing-facts-about-popular-mus

Friday, December 2, 2011

Top 15 unseen TV Characters

I really think Bob Sacamano needs a bigger representation here... I mean, he can get these Russian hats down by battery park whose difference is negligible from Sable, $40.


Clickable link -> http://youtu.be/MVFxtopN0EI

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Daniel Craig calls it like he sees it

From British GQ:

Look at the ["family who the middle girl got peed on*"], they’re worth millions. Millions! I don’t think they were that badly off to begin with, but now look at them. You see that and you think, ‘What, you mean all I have to do is behave like a f*cking idiot on television and then you’ll pay me millions?’”

"Its weird, that gigantic one put up the weakest fight"

--

Source -> http://bit.ly/vcq1vP via http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/

*still not posting their name, ha!

Earlier related links about these idiots -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/09/another-celebrity-post.html & http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/11/joel-mchale-doesnt-get-along-with.html

Earlier Bond link -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/01/bond-23-back-on.html

Oh Cheese and rice, I really didn't want a collar-less "collared" shirt, no wait I mean a shiny collar-less "collared" shirt

...you know who you are.


Honestly I'm fine with not getting a whole lot for Christmas. I think the charade of getting something for the sake of giving something isn't really for me. If you have a great, generous, well-thought-out gift for somebody, by all means go for it, I'm going to do that for the people that I'm getting gifts for. But a set of salt and pepper shakers that don't actually hold any salt and pepper shaped like a fat woman's butt cheeks (can provide proof). Honestly a handshake would've been better. Yeah yeah yeah, I sound very cynical here. But do you really want something like that too? What ever happened to cards? Sure that's also a charade, but at least you didn't waste more than a dollar or 2.

George really isn't an example to live up to, but you've got to admit this is funny...


Clickable link -> http://youtu.be/X_z3RTwIWOw



Now for the feats of strength!




Source -> http://consumerist.com/2011/11/give-your-loved-ones-the-holiday-gift-of-not-having-to-buy-you-crap.html

I want to know who is in those little gaps near the center


Source -> http://www.happyplace.com/12559/venn-diagram-summarizes-steve-miller-song

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Newly discovered pits add mystery to Stonehenge

In keeping with the randomness of this page, let's talk about Stonehenge.


Recently, 2 pits were discovered believed to be connected to the famous rock structure.

Excerpt from the MSNBC article below:

These exciting finds indicate that even though Stonehenge was ultimately the most important monument in the landscape, it may at times not have been the only, or most important ritual focus, and the area of Stonehenge may have become significant as a sacred site at a much earlier date," Vince Gaffney, an archaeology professor at the University of Birmingham, said in a news release issued over the weekend.


The pits, which measure about 16 feet (5 meters wide) and at least 3 feet (1 meter) deep, have been covered over for centuries and can't easily be spotted on the ground. But they showed up in a survey that was conducted using non-invasive mapping techniques such as ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry. The survey is part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, which was initiated last year with backing from the University of Birmingham's IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Center and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna.


The placement of the pits is intriguing: They were found on the eastern and western sides of the Cursus, a racetrack-style enclosure north of Stonehenge itself that spans 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) from east to west and is up to 100 yards (meters) wide. From the perspective of an observer standing at the Heel Stone, a massive upright stone just outside Stonehenge's main circle, the sun would rise just above the eastern pit on the day of the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. The same observer would see the sun set that evening in line with the western pit.
---------

I love stuff like this! Science! Archeology! Anthropology! History!

click the source link below for the whole article!

Accurate portrayal of Stonehenge in the movies -> http://youtu.be/Ri791tauGmU


Source -> http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/28/9074269-pits-add-to-stonehenge-mystery

"If you're camping out on the sidewalk to save $150 on a TV, you probably can't afford it"


Clickable link -> http://youtu.be/t5wGox16HWQ


Source -> http://www.thehighdefinite.com/2011/11/the-gentlemens-rant-shopping/ via http://bit.ly/ut8t0C

Monday, November 28, 2011

Thanksgiving wrap up

Yes I stole the title from a friend of mine's similar post, get over it.

-------------

We deep fried a turkey again this year. I couldn't possibly recommend that method any more. As long as you have a fire extinguisher, aren't an idiot, actually measure the amount of oil needed and do it far from the house I don't see any danger. The turkey turns out moist and then you have leftover WVO to settle/filter then use in your biodiesel Land Rover. There are plenty of sets of instructions to not burn down your house making thanksgiving here, here's one -> http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-SAFELY-fry-a-Turkey/

About 2 weeks before you can prepare your herb-infused oil for it. Here's an instructable I wrote a few years ago on how to do that -> http://www.instructables.com/id/Sage-Infused-Oil-for-Frying-specifically-deep-fry/


Everything turned out absolutely great. As the turkey was cooking we pulled it out every 10-15 min or so and injected a mixture of bacon fat, sage butter, white wine and saffron*.
First have a beer, I love Celebration Ale time of year!
Here's what I started with, pre-herbs
One last filtering of detritus (herb leaves and such)
setting up the cooking area, at least 15-20' from the house

after getting the oil up to temp, some potato-based appetizers. We are Irish...
dropping in the first batch of food

After 90 seconds from frozen

The color has changed significantly after cooking anything, mostly the remaining herbs having burned a bit
Shutting off the burner to drop the Turkey in, wow the sun went down fast. Fire extinguisher ready just in case.

Already smells incredible
I want to bottle that steam/smoke

Wifey had to grab the dog who came out to investigate

after about 45 minutes (16lb turkey) breast and thigh temp at 170°F (rounded up just in case from 165°F)
resting for about 15 min

Go!

*We collected bacon fat after making a 2-3 weeks worth of breakfasts, storing the grease in the freezer. About an hour before it was needed, put the (unbelievably gross when coagulated) paste into a small sauce pan, add about half as much sage butter, a few splashes of white wine (I don't measure and the type of wine doesn't matter), a tablespoon or so of fine salt and as a healthy pinch of saffron. You can't really use too much saffron as its so expensive...get that to a nice thin liquid and use with your meat injector a few times into each large part of the meat during the frying process.

Earlier Thanksgiving posts -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-dinner-family-dynamics-aka.html
http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-differences-between.html

Last year -> http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-pies.html