This was taken in July, 2006 on an excursion to look at albatrosses. They were interesting but nothing like these marvels.

Planted eight cloves of shooting garlic in two pots. According to http://www.garlic.com.au/growing.html, this is the wrong time to plant but I like to experiment with these plantings. As I continue to find sprouting garlic, will continue to plant. The garlic has a purple husk and originates from the USA.

Steak last night, rump at $9.95 a kilo and excellent: accompanied with microwaved Royal Blue potatoes from Woolworths. which were delicious, and the snow peas and mushrooms described below.

Snow peas and mushrooms with soy

Serves four

Ready in 25 minutes

Preparation      15 minutes
Cooking           10 minutes

Ingredients

• One tablespoon Cumin seeds
• Olive oil
• 250 gm snow peas
• 125 gm cup mushrooms thinly sliced
• Two cloves garlic –- crushed
• Soy sauce

Process

• In a wok over medium heat, cook the seeds stirring frequently until light brown. Remove and set aside.
• Heat oil in the wok and add garlic until light brown.
• Add snow peas and mushrooms, stir constantly and cook until tender.
• Dash of soy sauce and add seeds

Adapted from http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/1820/teriyaki-snow-peas.aspx

Mushrooms

From Stanton, R. (2007), Foods that harm: Foods that heal, Readers Digest, p269

Yesterday’s Media Tosh

“Jesus saves, but shattered Anglicans regret not having that luxury”, SMH, 20 October, http://www.smh.com.au/national/jesus-saves-but-shattered-anglicans-regret-not-having-that-luxury-20091019-h4zn.html.

THE shaken Anglican Archbishop of Sydney admits he has wondered whether God had decided to punish his diocese.
Peter Jensen confessed yesterday to being grief-stricken by the size of the diocese’s $160 million financial loss and called on his faithful not be panicked or paralysed by the money crisis but to turn to God in ”active faith”.

They’ve blown $160m, gambling with high-risk investments, and he wonders if god is punishing them? High-risk gambling, promoting schism, homophobia, misogyny, fundamental craziness and now god has told him his radical ratbaggery is OK.

Today’s Podcast

Artworks, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/artworks/, 18 October.

“Performance in Place of War”

Performance in Place of War is the title of a book out this month that’s the result of a long field project by three researchers. Their task was to record the thoughts and experiences of people in conflict zones around the world who’ve been involved in making theatre performances and to look at why in such dangerous and unstable situations, people want to make performances for each other.

“A Kick In The Arts”

At the Brisbane Festival last month, a series of public discussions was held called A Kick In The Arts. They were deliberately provocative in intention and questioned things we often take for granted. The topic today: The End of Funding: do government handouts help or hinder the arts?

Both items are absorbing. I have recently discovered Artworks, hosted by Amanda Smith who set up The Sports Factor on ABC RN and so far, consistently interesting.

Today’s Website

The New York Review of Books, 5 November, http://www.nybooks.com/

• “Which Way for Hamas?”, by Nicolas Pelham and Max Rodenbeck
• “Who’s in Big Brother’s Database?”, by James Bamford
• “How It Must Have Been”, by Stephen Greenblatt. A review of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel which won this year’s Man Booker prize.

Some fine writing in these three articles. My thanks to Ken Cameron for recommending the NYRB.

Uluru, 2005

Yesterday’s Media Tosh

Prominent in both The Australian and the SMH were full-page ads. promoting the Myer share float. There has been some analysis on why this is overpriced (“Myer shares too expensive: analyst”, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/28/2698776.htm). The new owners haven’t really turned this retailing fossil around; all they have done is cut costs to get short-term profit. If you look at http://www.myer.com.au/, the first image is of some woman touting the float followed by the ‘mid-season sale’. Whenever I glance at the Myer ads., they are constantly in ‘sale’ mode which makes me wonder what market they are targeting. Time will tell if this is a profitable share to buy.

Yesterday’s Newspaper-Useful Information

“Scans show that Googling is good for the grey matter”, The Australian–Media, 19 October, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,26226723-5018008,00.html

GOOGLING is good for grandparents. Internet use can boost the brain activity of the elderly, potentially slowing or even reversing the age-related declines that can end in dementia, researchers have found. Using brain scans, they found the internet stimulated the mind more strongly than reading, and the effects continued long after an internet session had ended.

I would like to see this result extended beyond the twenty-four respondents in this study. Yesterday I was frustrated trying to track down some information. This morning, my first search came up with what I was looking for, in the first entry. Is my brain stimulated? Without using a portable brain scanner strapped to my head as I search, I won’t know.

Search ‘text strings’ are hit or miss; sometimes the required result is in the first ten results, other times there is nothing until the search words are changed around, and sometimes there is no result. I understand that we need to use Boolean logic (BL) to be more accomplished but I have a ‘mind goes blank’ experience whenever I attempt to introduce a touch of BL.

But, with the continuing improvements in searching, the internet has:

• Made library book catalogue searches more accessible –- I can do them at my desk. And then I usually find the required information on the web; I haven’t been to a library for years.
• Made our shelf of cookbooks almost redundant –- I hardly use them now when I can search ‘cauliflower recipes’, select one, print it out and have a single sheet of paper on the bench instead of a falling-apart book.
• Changed the way I follow up the information on a specific piece of music. Instead of hunting through the CDs or LPs for the artist or track details, typing the album name into Google returns much richer information.

I am fond of Google but don’t know if regular use is warding off the crazies.

Cauliflower with Saffron

Serves four

Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• One onion finely sliced
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Medium cauliflower cut into florets
• 40 tips Saffron in 2 tablespoons hot water — optional
• Vegetable stock — we use Vegeta powder
• Three tablespoons toasted pine nuts
• Three tablespoons sultanas soaked in warm water to soften

Process

• Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan.
• Add the sliced onion with a little salt and fry for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
• Add the cauliflower, together with the saffron and stock, plus water to reach about one-quarter of the way up the cauliflower.
• Leave the cauliflower for about 5 minutes to cook and allow the juices to reduce down.
• When the juices are low, add the pine nuts and sultanas with pepper to taste.

Problems

• Unable to ‘reduce the liquid’ without overcooking the cauliflower. I recommend less liquid.
• Saffron simply added some expensive colour strands –- not needed for the nutritive benefits.
• Pine nuts very rapidly turn from white to inedible black –- too expensive to leave for a second.
• This dish should be cooked after the guests arrive which deprives the cook of company. The others are quaffing the wine while the cook is sweating over a reputation.

Adapted from http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/308/cauliflower-with-saffron

Comment on recipes

The quality of writing in cookbooks is often mystifying. ‘Cook for 30 minutes at 200C, or until cooked’ is a classic. Published recipes offer initial guidance and internet recipes allow users to comment which can be useful. One that I came across was,” Too much curry powder — even the dog refused to eat this”, tells me to ease up on the spices. Recipes are the outcome of someone’s cooking adventure and should be treated as such. I begin with the published recipe and then shape the process to my imagination and available ingredients. The saffron in the above recipe cost $17, was used in two meals, did very little so is now abandoned.

Oils ‘aint’ oils — continued

We bought certified extra-virgin oil at Aldi on Sunday –- three litres for $20. The blend we previously bought was four litres for $20. This is $1.60 a litre more for the certified virgin: is it worth it? Probably not because we rarely taste the raw oil (in a salad perhaps). I shall report back later.

Today’s Podcast

“The 2009 Griffith Lecture with Mary Robinson”, Big Ideas, 18 October, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigideas/

Ms Robinson was the first female president of Ireland (1990-1997) before becoming the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002). She has a long history of fighting for liberal causes, from contraception and homosexual law reform in Ireland, to Anglo-Irish relations.

She stands alongside Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Aung San Suu Kyi, Kofi Annan and Desmond Tutu as one of the Elders, an independent group of respected world leaders and champions of human rights.

Her newest project, Realising Rights: the Ethical Globalisation Initiative, established in October 2002, supports and promotes equitable trade, corporate responsibility, the right to health, human migration policies, gender equality and global accountability.

It was with enthusiasm that I began listening to this talk, which rapidly turned to disappointment as she spent the first twenty minutes listing all the committees she was on.

• She was addressing a Brisbane audience who wont do much to shorten the poverty gap.
• What was she really saying? Other than ‘how many committees’, I had no glimpse of anything other her traversing the world attending meetings.
• And then there was the introduction by that self-opinionated fart, Philip Adams.
• And as for ‘standing alongside’ Nelson Mandela, definitely not.

Following the ‘raindrops’ theme of yesterday is this web in the back garden, 2006.

Keith Jarrett

A talented pianist but I wish he would stop groaning and grunting while playing. I bought The Köln Concert almost as soon as it was available in Canberra (about 1976) and have continued adding to the collection.

I listened to these albums yesterday to refresh my memory.

• The Goldberg Variations is excellent. I listened to both Jarrett and Leonhardt (LP, 1978) and enjoyed both. My favourite though is Andre Tchaikovsky on the piano (an LP bought second hand in Melbourne a long-time ago).
• My Foolish Heart is schmaltz plus groaning.
• Bregenz 1 and 2: I recorded off Late Night Jazz,  ABC Classic FM, and it is classic unaccompanied Jarrett (with some moaning).
• Bridge of Light is frightful. Saw this second-hand at Ashwoods and should have just thrown my $5 into the street.
• Köln Concert: Both LP and CD are the classic and definitive Jarrett. Perhaps my judgment is shaped by sentiment, but I enjoy both pressings.
• La Scala is unaccompanied improvisation and excellent, especially the encore.
• Personal Mountains, Jarrett, Christensen drumming, Danielsson bass and the sensational Jan Garbarek on sax; this is exceptional music. A live recording from 1979.
• Solo Tribute is fairly bland after listening to Personal Mountains.
• Standards DVD was bought in Hanoi which was a mistake; visually Jarrett emulates an ape at the keyboard, grunting. grimacing, wriggling and squirming. The music is tolerable.
• Arbour Zena is unforgettable despite Jan Garbarek’s presence.
  
• My Song: Interesting. Garbarek is not his most innovative and there is much grunting from the pianist.
  
• Tales of Another: Excellent. Jack DeJohnette is the star on this album.

To catch up on his recent life, I began reading “Keith Jarrett: Heartache spoken here” (see reference below in ‘Today’s Website’). I quickly tired of this tosh; if he is so solitary and sensitive, why allow this guff to be published?

Today’s Website

“Keith Jarrett: Heartache spoken here”, Timesonline, http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6847633.ece

I initially read this article in either The Australian or the SMH but was unable to track it down using their primitive search  engines. What surprised me about this Times page was that Rupert Murdoch was pimping ‘Ukrainian Women’: the ad. on the right has since been deleted. The design of the site is like Madeleine’s barf after too many cat biscuits. If this is the old and venerable The Times, it makes our Daily Telegraph (a well-known Murdoch rag), staid.

Our first white Hippeastrum which according to Wickipedia is a Hippeastrum-Lemon-Lime amaryllis, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippeastrum). Beryl bought and planted the bulbs several years ago and we always had the red Hippeastrum-Amaryllis Susan blooms. This white one is a surprise.

Photo 1: Hippeastrum-Lemon-Lime amaryllis

Technical details

Nikon D100, ISO 400, 1/320 sec at F4.5 (program mode), 90 mm on the 28-105 Nikkor macro zoom lens, tripod. A sucker for raindrops, I couldn’t resist taking this at 06:30 before the wind came up and the sun broke through the clouds. This lens was bundled with the F100 that I bought 10 years ago; I sold the body but kept the lens which is superb and works well on the D100s.

Pasta Sauce

There is no ‘tradition’ in this sauce other than ‘local’ to our household. It’s evolved over the years and gets the most votes over others that we have made. Diced steak received the thumbs down after I used mince one night.

Makes enough for four. Leftover pasta and sauce is used in various other dishes.

Ingredients

• 500 gm premium mince
• Two sliced onions
• Four or more cloves of chopped garlic
• Handful of dried Italian herbs
• Chopped celery –- use your own judgment on how much
• Two diced carrots
• Three bay leaves
• Teaspoon paprika
• Teaspoon chili powder. Hotness of chili powder can vary — we use Chillie Long Ground from Fiji Market, Newtown
• 400 gm can diced tomatoes
• 500 gm jar retail pasta sauce
• Olive oil
• 500 ml water
• 500 gm pasta of your choice
• Parsley –- fresh and chopped for garnish at the table
• Grated cheese –- optional; we don’t use it

Preparation

• Slowly cook onions in oil –- we use a cast iron casserole pot.
• When slightly brown add mince until that browns
• Add garlic, celery, carrots, paprika, chili and mixed herbs and mix well
• Add bay leaves, tomatoes and pasta sauce
• Rinse jar into mixture –- I usually add 500mls water. Mix in well
• Lift heat until simmering then turn down to lowest heat. Simmer for two hours.

Cooking Pasta

• See the detailed instructions below. We just boil a large pot of water, tip in the dried pasta and keep it boiling until cooked.
• Strain the water and serve from both pasta and sauce pots according to your requirements
• Garnish with chopped parsley.

Extracted from “Pastas”, Alfalfa House eNews, August 09.

To cook pasta, boil water in a large pot, making sure it’s big enough to allow the pasta to move around and expand. As a general rule use a litre of water for every 100g of pasta. As unsalted water boils faster than salted water –- and salt raises the boiling temperature of water –- it’s best to add any salt once the water has boiled, but given salt toughens the protein; it would be best to use it sparingly.

Some people add a tablespoon of olive oil to the cooking water to prevent the pasta sticking together and the water from boiling over, however, this results in the pasta becoming slippery and thus unable to absorb the sauce. Ensure the water has returned to a rapid boil before adding the pasta, short shapes should be added all at once while long straight pasta is best coiled into the water as it softens.

Cover with a lid and quickly bring the water back to the boil before removing the lid, reducing the heat slightly, and stirring occasionally to prevent the pasta from sticking together. Cooking times vary depending on the shape and type of pasta used. Whole meal pasta takes longer to cook than regular wheat pasta and extra care must be taken with gluten-free pastas as they can go gluggy very quickly –- some sources suggest steaming rather than boiling to help avoid the dreaded glug.

Dried pasta should be firm to the bite or al dente but still tender and it’s best to always taste the pasta toward the end of the recommended cooking time to avoid overcooking it –- this can make the difference between a good and a great pasta dish. Once cooked, drain the pasta and immediately turn it back into a pan with the sauce, a heated dish or back into the cooking pan. Don’t over-drain the pasta or leave it sitting in a colander where it could stick together. For the sauce to coat it well, pasta needs to be slippery and slightly wet so reserving a little bit of cooking water to spray the pasta with in case you over-drain it is a good idea. Similarly, aim to have the pasta sauce ready by the time the pasta is cooked, particularly if using fresh pasta as this will continue to cook if left sitting around.

If you plan to use the pasta cold in a salad, rinse it in cold water to remove excess starch and toss it with a small amount of oil before covering and refrigerating for use later.

To serve, according to the purists, the sauce should only lightly coat the pasta so there’s no extra sauce left at the bottom of the pan once the pasta and sauce have been tossed. While the amount of sauce is highly controversial and non-Italian cooks most commonly add too much sauce, ultimately the amount is a matter of personal taste. As for serving sizes per person, as a general guide allow 60g of fresh pasta for starters and 125g of fresh pasta for mains per person. As dried pasta contains less moisture and is thus lighter than fresh pasta, 90g should be used for starters and 150g for mains.

The full article contains much useful information of the different pastas.

Today’s Podcasts

Book Reviews With Simon Mayo, http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/books/

We’ve been reading Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger — author of the Time Traveller’s Wife — and Lustrum by Robert Harris. Both authors are here with me as are our reviewers, Joel Morris, Tony Bradman and Nick Brownlee.

Far from erudite but usually entertaining, Book Reviews With Simon Mayo is a ‘must listen’ since I heard them pan Tim Winton, who, in my opinion, is much over-rated.

“A Dash of Punctuation”, Grammar Girl – Quick and Dirty Tips For Better Writing, http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com.

This is an old one, #167, but it made me aware that my ‘m-dashes’ were not copying across from Word to WordPress so that I need to add an additional ‘n-dash’ when proofing.

Photo 1: North-east Vietnam near the Chinese border, 2007

Legumes

I eat soybeans (Glycine max), chickpeas (Cicer arietinum), and less frequently, a range of lentils (Lens culinaris). All have acclaimed health benefits but, especially soybeans, generate some controversy. Worth reviewing are the Wickipedia entries but the most significant issue is the GE manipulation of soybeans in North and South America. Japan will not import soybeans from these continents, which has caused a surge in Australian exports.

There were some excellent tips on cooking these in “Peas and Pulses”, Alfalfa House eNews, July 2009. Some extracts:

Soya Beans

Soya provides high quality protein, dietary fibre, a range of minerals, some B group vitamins and starch although they also have a high amount of fat as polyunsaturated oil. As they are extremely dense, soak them for up to 12 hours before cooking and boil for at least 10 minutes to remove anti-nutritional factors.

Chickpeas

Chickpeas require soaking and lengthy cooking because they’re extremely hard. They contain B group vitamins and many minerals including copper as well as providing a source of good quality vegetable protein and dietary fibre…. Soak for 12 hours. Pressure-cooking takes 15 minutes. When buying, look for smooth, even-coloured skins.

Flatulence

An unfortunate potential side effect of eating beans is flatulence. Pulses contain oligosaccharides that can’t be processed by enzymes present in the human digestive system, which means these sugars remain unchanged until they reach the lower intestine where they are metabolized by bacteria, creating gases in the process.

To avoid or at least reduce the effect, try these tips:

• Never cook beans in their soaking water as it contains indigestible sugars. Use fresh water.
• Add “digestive” spices such as dill, asafoetida, ginger and caraway to cooking water.
• Skim off any scum that forms on the surface of the water during cooking.

Asafoetida is from Fiji Markets in Newtown. “It has a pungent, unpleasant smell when raw, but in cooked dishes, it delivers a smooth flavor, reminiscent of leeks”, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asafoetida).

Soybeans are a daily ingredient in my lunchtime vegetable curry –- a handful thrown in with the rest of the mix. Chickpeas are used in side dishes when cooking a meat curry. When I make hummus, I usually buy canned Lebanese chickpea and tahini mix; processing hummus in our Kenwood blender is tedious.

Twitter

A recent email to a friend:

I starting using Twitter to check out the 100 Symphonies extravaganza on ABC Classic FM — it was more responsive than their web. The best comment was, “You talk too much — play more music”. A very ordinary lot of symphonies but represent Australian taste. Otherwise, Twitter’s popularity escapes me.

But in Richard Ackland’s, “A simple Twitter brings down the mighty cone of silence”, SMH, 16 October, http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/a-simple-twitter-brings-down-the-mighty-cone-of-silence-20091015-gz2m.html, there is an excellent example of Twitter’s use. Too complicated to paraphrase or extract, I recommend reading the article.

Conclusion: I must look more carefully at this communicator.

Book Review

Sue Turnbull, “Nail-biter mixes action with sex and politics”, SMH-Spectrum, 17 October, pp28-29.

Don’t even think of reading this book unless you have read the first two in the series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire). Volume three of the trilogy…picks up exactly where volume two left off, with Lisbeth Salander shot but alive, having just hacked a few hunks off her Russian father with an axe. Only readers familiar with the tale will know that this is a “good thing”.

Turnbull writes a good review of Stieg Larsson’s, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Maclehose Press. I read this last week only putting it down at 2:00am because my eyes were failing, and I hadn’t finished. Then I couldn’t sleep thinking about the intricacies of the plot. A great read.

Today’s Podcast

Following up on my recommendation of the Rear Vision podcast on Afghanistan 0n 15 October is this candid talk followed by questions from the audience.

“Wednesday Lunch at Lowy – Prof. Anthony Cordesman”, http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Publication.asp?pid=1151

The war in Afghanistan and instability in Pakistan have become the defining foreign policy challenges for the Obama Administration. At this week’s Wednesday Lowy Lunch Club, Professor Anthony Cordesman considered these challenges in a discussion of US policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Photo 1: Hanoi, 2007

Social-Media

And old friend, Brendon, renewed the link on Wednesday, through Facebook, and despite it acting as the medium to reconnect, we both pondered its popularity and utility.

• I initially joined to see a friend’s photo gallery.
• I can follow a son’s travels and look at his photos.
• My brother was badgered by his grandchildren to join but we still email and phone each other.
• I may connect if I get an email from a Facebook member; otherwise I rarely use it.

Bernard Salt, “Facebook friends and survival of the twittest: an evolutionary theory”, The Australian-Primespace, 15 October, p29, writes on ‘social-media and the need for friends’ but as usual with Salt’s writing, I miss the point. I think he is saying that women live longer because they have more friends: he is a demographer so he should know but I cannot see the connection with internet ‘social-media’. Are my English analysis skills waning, or are these specialist commentators not spending enough time polishing their commentary?

On reflection and after some discussion, Facebook is another form of media democratization, like the invention of the printing press. Once the Bible became accessible to the newly literate, the influence of the Church waned. Will Facebook and Twitter reduce the influence of Murdoch and Fairfax? As more people drift from television and the print media to other forms of entertainment, probably ‘yes’. I did read some month’s ago of a Facebook user deleting his account when he received the widely broadcast, “Good luck with your colonoscopy tomorrow”.

Yesterday’s Newspaper-Useful Information

This really isn’t useful but it is entertaining:

Elizabeth Farrelly, “Crocodile tears flow for the rich kid who dropped his lolly bag”, SMH, 15 October, http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/crocodile-tears-flow-for-the-rich-kid-who-dropped-his-lolly-bag-20091014-gxc4.html

Some excerpts:

Suddenly we’re all feeling sorry for wee Jamie. Maybe not all. I mean, maybe not David Leckie, after the public Packerooing that made him the main floor show at Sam Chisholm’s Opera House transplant-party last week.

But others spring gallantly to the dauphin’s defence. “It’s tough being the son of the legend,” says Greg Tingle, “even if you’re a billionaire.” Weep. Sniff.

What’s really sad, though, is how much attention we lavish – column inches, pixels, airwaves – on a man who’s done, well, nothing actually. Less even than the Prince of Wales, on whose life (the jackaroo year, the polo, the patent unfitness for the job) Packer jnr’s is clearly modelled. At least Windsor jnr stood for something. … he’ll leave us some memorable quotes (carbuncles, Luftwaffe), a brand of organic jams only 25 times the normal price, a glimpse into the secret life of plants and tampons, and some truly awful buildings to remind us just how wrong good intentions can go.

Certainly, there’s the scale and speed of James’s achievement; to lose so much, so fast, and with such cliche – the jets and gin palaces, the breasty swimwear models and south-of-France weddings.

You can understand that having a dad who looks like an Ood and acts like a Dalek could leave a kid Scientologically predisposed. But Scientology is a belief system for the epistemologically vacant, so although you might sympathise with Jamie for buying in, you have to admire him for buying out, if buy out he did.

Today’s Podcasts

“The Candid Frame #81 – Richard Newman”, The Candid Frame, 20 September, http://thecandidframe.blogspot.com/2009/09/candid-frame-81-richard-newman.html

A useful discussion on the merits of video and still photography. I have video capability in my Canon G9 but my results are awful. I currently have enough applications to learn without taking on video editing, but after listening to Newman and Perello, I should persevere.

I notice that The Candid Frame is hosted by Google’s Blogspot and my early conclusion that this service is too limiting has to be revised. It’s good!

Yesterday’s Cartoon

Cartoon 1: Moir, SMH, 15 October

Lots of honey bees working the Banksia Rose blossoms this morning: I wonder where their hive is? Made another batch of Dijon style mustard — doubled the ingredients and bottled one kg. No point waiting four weeks to test; I need to stock up.

Olive Oil

We use olive oil in our food preparation and last week this article caught my attention; I returned to it today and read it more carefully. “Oils ain’t oils, extra virgin tests show”, SMH, 3 October, http://www.smh.com.au/national/oils-aint-oils-extra-virgin-tests-show-20091002-ggj4.html.

Some excerpts:

The results of comprehensive tests conducted earlier this year by Modern Olives Laboratory in Melbourne showed a failure rate of 80 per cent for imported extra virgin olive oil, the World Congress of Oils and Fats was told in Sydney this week.

The results showed that more than 40 imported olive oils had either been adulterated with cheaper oils such as canola, had gone through a refining process or had spoiled due to age or poor storage techniques.

But while most of the major local extra virgin oil producers were already adhering to the association’s certification standards and its code of conduct, Aldi had been the only big supermarket chain so far to demand certification of all its extra virgin olive oil.

For some time we bought one-litre bottles of Woolworth’s Home Brand extra virgin until I discovered Syrian oil at the local greengrocer – four litres for $26 and it looked extra-virgin and smelt and tasted good. Then one day at Aldi we bought 20 litres of Oroysol for $20, a blend of refined and extra virgin oil, which we have continued to use. Next trip to Aldi we will check the price on their extra virgin.

We have a thriving olive tree at Hyams Beach and our neighbour harvested the crop last summer for pickling — when he gets back from Italy we must get a jar.

Yesterday’s Media Tosh

Genetically engineered food reared up yesterday in “Panel voices fears as unlabelled GE canola hits shelves”, SMH, 14 October, http://www.smh.com.au/environment/panel-voices-fears-as-unlabelled-ge-canola-hits-shelves-20091013-gvqg.html. GE food is, apparently, banned in the European Union and Japan. It appears that one significant part of the GE problem is based on hostility of Monsanto who have been heavy-handed in protecting their patents. Another is the effect of GE plants on the world’s seed pool — GE could lead to a shrinking of plant diversity.  This viewpoint comes from Deconstructing Dinner podcasts; they are opposed to GE cropping due to the pollution of non-GE canola, hence its impact on seed diversity, and the behaviour of Monsanto. I have followed the struggle of Percy Schmeiser who was persecuted by Monsanto when his canola was contaminated by GE canola (http://www.percyschmeiser.com/). But hostility does not equate to knowledge and I am left puzzling why so little research. As a consumer. I am interested in the health aspects of GE canola and it is from this view I comment on the SMH article and Greenpeace’s stance.

Here are selected quotes from the SMH article and my comments.

From oils to margarine, baby food to snacks, muesli to dairy products, GE canola oil can be found in many processed foods, but consumers are oblivious to what food it is in.
This is not unusual in Australia where food-labeling practice is slipshod

Ms Porteous said the risk of locally grown GE canola becoming part of Australia’s oil supplies was a critical issue.
The major ‘risk’ is loss of export markets.

She said there were concerns about health problems, sustainability and biodiversity, apart from agricultural contamination. ‘’There hasn’t been any long-term tests on the impact on human health,’’ she said.
Ms Porteous is correct; there have been no long-term studies on the health impact of GE canola. Why?

‘’There have been a number of studies that have shown GE food to have serious health impacts on the immune system.
I can find only one conducted trial; on rats by Monsanto, which caused liver damage to 15 per cent of the test animals. This is significant so wonder why Greenpeace and others have not encouraged or funded follow-up research.

The author of Good Health in the 21st Century, Dr Carole Hungerford, said there could be health implications for gut bacteria if GE food was consumed regularly.
“…there could be health implications for gut bacteria…”, but she doesn’t know. Guessing is not knowledge. On checking Dr Hungerford’s web site (http://www.carolehungerford.com.au/index.htm) there are no references to any research she has conducted to support her comments.

”The genes from GM foods can get into the gut bacteria and the gut bacteria is the most critical thing.
Speculation is not knowledge.

A search for “GE canola” on http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/ returned 100 plus responses. Looking at the first ten, I could find no reference to health implications other than ‘speculation’.

1. Australia, learn from Canadian mistakes with GE Canola … Planting GE canola cost Canada valuable export markets, writes Canadian professor, Dr Rene Van Acker. www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and…/australia-learn-from-canadian.
   Nothing about the health hazards from GE canola.

2. Greenpeace Australia Pacific » Blog Archive » Would you sow GE …30 Jan 2009 … Remember when trials of genetically engineered (GE) canola were … GE canola yielded 17% less than non-GE herbicide-tolerant canola ….www.greenpeace.org.au/blog/energy/?p=396
   Nothing about the health hazards from GE canola.

3. Greenpeace finds honey contaminated with genetically engineered …1 Oct 2009 … Geelong, Australia — Greenpeace has found commercial beehives contaminated with genetically engineered (GE) canola pollen near Geelong. …      www.greenpeace.org/australia/news…/greenpeace-finds-honey-contami
   “This means that people buying honey from this hive will be eating GE food without knowing it, and before it has been properly assessed that it’s safe to eat,” said Greenpeace GE campaigner Louise Sales.

   Melbourne restaurateur Duré Dara has come to the site to express her concerns: “We need our governments to be more responsible to think about genetically engineered food in a much more considered way. Food protection is an issue that affects tourism, our world image and the health of our citizens.” Ms Dara co-manages the Nudel Bar and Residential restaurants and is one of nearly 200 leading chefs and restaurateurs who have signed the GM-free Chef’s Charter.

   But no one yet knows the health hazards from GE canola.

4. Greenpeace Australia Pacific » Blog Archive » WA Divided on GE …24 Apr 2009 … The WA Senate this month passed a motion to disallow field trials (the stage before commercial growing) of GE canola. …     www.greenpeace.org.au/blog/energy/?p=475
   Nothing about the health hazards from GE canola. And do they mean the Legislative Council? There are no State Senates.

5. GE Canola – out of control in Canada | Greenpeace Australia Pacific      17 Dec 2007 … Why contamination by genetically modified canola is inevitable in Australia if the current GM crop bans are lifted.      www.greenpeace.org/australia/resources/…/GE/ge-canola-out-of-control-in
   Nothing about the health hazards from GE canola.

6. Canola | Greenpeace Australia Pacific      Australia is the world’s second largest producer of the oilseed crop known as canola (Brassica napus), after Canada.      www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/GE/overview/problem/…/ge…/canola
   Nothing about the health hazards from GE canola.

7. Why this Canadian farmer stopped growing GE canola | Greenpeace …Canadian farmer Ross Murray used to grow genetically engineered (GE) canola. That is until he discovered the GE canola wasn’t delivering on its promise and …www.greenpeace.org/australia/resources/videos/GE/farmerstour1-110309
   Nothing about the health hazards from GE canola.

8. Genetically Engineered Canola: The Reality Behind the Myths …In 2008, Australia’s first commercial genetically engineered (GE) canola crops were grown in NSW and Victoria. In this briefing we take six of the GE …www.greenpeace.org/australia/resources/fact-sheets/…/gecanolamyths-jan08GE canola poses a serious threat to the environment, animal and human health and will cost farmers their GE-free reputation and their markets.Reality: There have been no long-term studies looking at the impacts of GE food on human health. Studies that have been done raise serious concerns.
   Why no further studies?

9. Japan rejects GE canola | Greenpeace Australia Pacific   12 Feb 2008 … Japanese activists have projected a warning to Australia on a grain silo and a ship carrying genetically engineered (GE) canola: “Australia …      www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and…/japanese-activists-tell-austra
   Nothing about the health hazards from GE canola.

10. Japanese set to reject genetically engineered canola | Greenpeace …1 Sep 2009 … The change of government in Japan is likely to have a significant impact on Australia’s canola exports, since the Democratic Party of Japan …      www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and…/japanese-set-to-reject-genetic
    Nothing about the health hazards from GM canola but speculation that Australia’s exports will be effected.
    

We rarely use canola oil so I am assuming that unlike the Monsanto rats, our livers will not be affected. This hectoring by well-intentioned NGOs diminishes their power. I was once an admirer of Greenpeace but this ill-informed lobbying practice does nothing to restore my respect. It would also be useful if Kelly Burke, the author of the SMH article, did some basic research instead of reproducing a PR handout.

This photo is of canola in WA (http://contribute.abc.net.au/_Canola-Crops/photo/5242078/32422.html) .

Photo 1: Paddocks of Canola can be seen in WA's South at present. Spectacularly beautiful – Maggie May

Technical Note

Google Webmaster Tools are now installed on hyamsbeach.org, which will launch the search engine spider to index the site. Theoretically, when someone searches for onion recipes, preserving, Ansel Adams and other matters that I have written on, the blog should be somewhere in the results. So far all I can see is that there is an error in ‘parsing’. Have no idea what this means.

I have moved the Hyams Beach web site to the root directory of http://hyamsbeach.org/ and the result is sloppy. Pages and photos don’t open but correcting these problems is within my ability whereas dealing with Coogle and WordPress leaves me mystified.

FatCow have been active on the slow response time; “The issue you have reported should now be resolved, please check from your end and let us know if you need additional assistance”. Time will tell. Earlier today any editing became unstable and I lost much formatting.

Today’s Podcast

“Afghanistan: the unwinnable war”, Rear Vision, 14 October, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/stories/2009/2707617.htm

As the Obama administration carries out a major review of strategy in the increasingly unpopular war, Rear Vision traces eight years of conflict in Afghanistan.

Today’s Blog

Dudu Diaries: Notes from the world of an insect lover, http://dududiaries.wildlifedirect.org/

INSECT BLOGGING IN KENYA
Dino Martins is an entomologist in Kenya who as well as making a study of insects in Kenya, keeps an up-to-date blog of his activities. Dino Martins takes the listener on a field trip through insect habitat in Kenya. Digital Planet, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004hhnr

Some excellent photos and well worth listening to him on the Digital Planet podcast.

The first hydrangea this year and it seems to be early.

Photo 1: Hydrangea by the back door.

The “Home Preserving” Starter Kit arrived today and this was on the first page opened:

Cartoon 1: Tennant in Ward, K. Canning & Preserving for Dummies, Wiley, 2003, p5

I made the Dijon style mustard but will leave the recipe until it has been tested – takes four to six weeks to mature.

Rissoles

This is one way to use up the remnants of a loaf of bread. We have been buying Premium Mince from Aldi but will begin using ‘budget’ steak, trimming the fat and mince it in the Kenwood. More work but we will know what’s in the finished mince.

Ingredients

Makes about 12 rissoles, 30 minutes to prepare, mature in the fridge for at least one hour, and 20 minutes to cook.

• 500 grams mince
• 1 onion chopped – I use the Zyliss chopper
• 4 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs – from the leftover bread. I use the Kenwood blender to convert crusts to crumbs.
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 eggs
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato sauce – gives a surprisingly subtle flavour to the cooked rissoles.
• 1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Bunch chopped Coriander or Parsley

Preparation and Cooking

• Mix all of the ingredients and leave in the fridge for at least an hour. Mould into patties and cook.
• We use a Breville Grill and Sandwich Press and any fat drips into the tray, but there is little with this mince.

Today’s Newspaper-Useful Information

“Beef row: new rules to protect shoppers”, SMH, 10 October, http://www.smh.com.au/national/beef-row-new-rules-to-protect-shoppers-20091009-gqwi.html

‘Budget’ meat at Coles and Bi-Lo is old cow. We don’t mind eating ‘old cow’ as it probably spent its life in a paddock instead of a feedlot and had a calf or two. The budget steaks we have eaten have been tenderish.

Today’s Podcast

“Joy, terror and calling the unknown”, The Night Air, 4 October, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/nightair/stories/2009/2607399.htm

Taste the joy and terror as we chomp into some very Dark chocolate – mixing Willy Wonka with child slavery.

Always interesting, often wacky, this episode of The Night Air focuses on child slavery to grow cocoa in Africa and the collusion with major chocolate manufacturers. Cadbury is specifically mentioned. Googling ‘chocolate child slavery’ brings up several pages of outrage, which must have had impact on Cadbury because from 2010 they will only use Fairtrade cocoa (http://www.fairtrade.com.au/cadbury-announcement/). I checked the back of Moser Roth chocolate that Beryl buys from Aldi and their cocoa is grown in South America.

Silverbeet is cheap – $1.49 a bunch at Woolworths on Sunday; two bunches came home. Looking up recipes on the web I modified one:

Caramelized Onions with Silverbeet

Ready in 30 minutes and enough for four.

Ingredients

• 4 large onions chopped (I use a Zyllis chopper – no onion fumes in the face)
• 4 cloves garlic chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 bunch silverbeet, rinsed and chopped (this from the original recipe but I used an extra half bunch)
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (optional but increases the caramelization of the onions)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon – juiced
• 4 cardamom pods – crushed

Cooking

• In a large pan, cook onions, garlic and crushed cardamom pods in olive oil over medium high heat until they begin to brown. Turn down to low and cook for a further 15 to 20 minutes until onions are well caramelized, adding sugar if desired.
• When onions are ready, stir in silver beet and cook until it is completely wilted – about 5 minutes. Season with black pepper and squeeze lemon over the top.

Delicious with a leg of lamb and roast potatoes and all eaten – we had Fergus and Carly for dinner last night.

Garage Roof

The final coat slopped on today and I am increasingly impressed with Cromseal. It is thick and has sealed the old loose fibres. I still have to finish the inside but can dawdle over this.

Blog

I have just edited every entry and added categories and shrunk the earlier photos. It is often very slow to respond and have a current help-ticket with FatCow but they seem unable to resolve this random problem. Once a day, my editing access times-out yet the ping is acceptable. This points to the server hosting my blog so if I keep up the whinging, they may track it down.

They use MySQL database server and I was never impressed with it when it ran our billing system at Unilodge but it responds quickly to any ‘searches’ I make on the blog. The results are whole days and the search term isn’t highlighted so that some searches bring up six plus days and it is tedious reading all of these to find the relevant entry. Something to put into my future programming development. Google use MySQL and the response time to queries is impressive.

Today’s Photo

Photo 1: Monument Valley, 2003

Yesterday’s Media

“Liberals sinking with a corpse at the helm”, SMH, 12 October, p4 and Moir on p12.

Cartoon 1: Moir, SMH, 12 October, p12

Today’s Podcast

“Controlling corruption”. Background Briefing, 11 October, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/

Out of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, the National Integrity System was born, and is now used by governments and authorities in most countries around the world. The latest is Kurdistan. Corruption, like death and taxes, is inevitable. Ian Townsend explores ways in which it can be managed and minimized.

The latest estimate of global corruption this year is $1 trillion. This programme reviews the development of anti-corruption activity, including the origin of Transparency International (I can’t find the reference now but I read earlier this year that TI was considering nominating NSW a ‘failed state’}.

Today’s Website

This caught my eye yesterday, “Lonely Planet goes into new orbit”, The Australian – Media and Marketing, 12 October, p27. Lonely Planet is now owned by the BBC and on checking out LP’s website found a new and pleasing design (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/). We have always traveled with the relevant LP guide and found the information usable. When we went to Vietnam I left our book behind but in Ho Chi Minh City, bought a pirated copy the night we arrived. The legitimate version has been used by friends and now sits on the travel book shelf. We like Lonely Planet.

Blog Software and Editing

I want to import a graphic into the header and liven up the right-hand column which is barely readable. WordPress – the blog software – is written in php and I searched WordPress for clues on making these changes. On inserting the apparently correct code into the heading, the screen went blank. Much tweaking and cutting and pasting later I was able to revert to the original bland heading.

After studying the php Manual at http://au.php.net/manual/en/index.php I succeeded in getting my home page on http://www.hyamsbeach.org/hello.php to write “Hello World”. It’s 40 years since I have written such basic code so learning php will test the head.

I learned yesterday, from a podcast which I cannot recommend (http://www.pixelcorps.tv/twip) because like Ramona they are completely unfocused, that WordPress is difficult software to manage and customize. I have tinkered with Blogspot on Google and while there are some advantages, for my style it is constricting, so will muddle along with php.

Today’s Photo

The continual rain brought this image to mind. Handheld as I drove across Anzac Bridge, Nikon D100 with 10mm ultra-wideangle, ISO 1600, 1/1250 sec, f/18 with camera on program mode (automatic).

Photo 1: Anzac Bridge

Notes from Xanadu

Parrots have returned in numbers to the Banksia serrata out front. We harvested the English Spinach for a salad last night; no handsome leaves left after three cuttings so we need more plants. On the search for stronger garlic we found purple bulbs from the USA and fresh at Metro Grocers, Marrickville Metro. I can taste the difference from the cheap white we have been buying.

Large tadpoles in the back pond are growing larger which, hopefully will bring on another generation of Striped Marsh frogs (Limnodynastes peroni). Our population has shrunk since the major vegetation clearance in August 2008 but with Beryl’s three tadpole ponds and increased calling at night, the numbers should build up again. We find them useful in the garden but:

A large wetland-dwelling frog and voracious hunter, this frog eats almost any animal smaller than itself, including small frogs. Its distribution extends along the east coast from Queensland to South Australia. It is most commonly associated with wetlands and permanent water and shelters among reeds and other debris (http://frogs.org.au/frogs/species/Limnodynastes/peroni/ ).

Photo 2: Striped Marsh Frog (http://frogs.org.au/frogs/species/Limnodynastes/peroni/)

Once the tadpole to frog metamorphoses occurred (this took three years), they quickly cleaned up the cockroaches and snails. However, the dark side is that they (hopefully not ours) devoured all the Golden Bell frogs (Litoria aurea) that Marrickville Council carefully nurtured at their plant nursery.

The frog pond at the Nursery was specially constructed for research into the endangered Green and Golden Bell Frogs. A number of these frogs were released into it in 1998 as part of a study into whether these frogs can survive in backyard habitats. This study has been completed, but the pond remains and is home to any number of frogs, mainly the more common local Brown Striped Marsh Frog (http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/environment/communitynursery.htm ).

Now that I know their ‘tok-tok’ call, I hear Striped Marsh frogs all over this area and some may have migrated from our place. They were indigenous to this part of Sydney so along with their increasing numbers and the expanding varieties and numbers of birds, the Inner-West is richer. If you want to explore frogs further in NSW, the Frog and Tadpole Study Group NSW is the place (http://www.fats.org.au/Welcome.html ).

I talked to Philip across the road who has three Isa Red hens, which regularly lay five eggs a day. He bought these off RentaChook (http://www.rentachook.com.au/index.html) so have sent an inquiry pointing out that we have a heavily vegetated garden that we don’t want denuded.

Today’s Podcast

If interested in the Blake Prize, Piss Christ and a discussion on contemporary religious art, listen to “Art for God’s sake”, Encounter, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/stories/2009/2701677.htm

FOR Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s leading prize for religious art is attracting work that is kitsch, anti-religious and sometimes only tenuously connected with spirituality.http://www.smh.com.au/national/blake-prize-art-antireligious-says-pell-20090821-etst.html 22 August.