De naam van de website is duidelijk: Dieren onder de wielen. Op deze bijzondere Belgische website kan iedereen doorgeven of er een nieuw verkeersslachtoffer is gevallen. Met in totaal meer dan 150.000 kilometer is België een erg ‘wegendicht’ landje. Omdat de wegen intensief worden gebruikt (en van belabberde kwaliteit zijn) vallen er ook veel slachtoffers. Vooral de dieren moeten het ontgelden.

Deze beren rijd je niet zo maar aan.

Vier miljoen slachtoffers
Schattingen gaan er vanuit dat op jaarbasis ongeveer vier miljoen grotere wilde dieren de dood vinden op en om de Belgische wegen. Het departement Leefmilieu, Natuur en Energie (LNE) van de Vlaamse overheid, Natuurpunt en Vogelbescherming Vlaanderen vonden dat de maat vol was. Er moest actie worden ondernomen. Dus zetten deze drie het project ‘Dieren onder de wielen’ op. Door eerst beter in kaart te brengen hoe veel faunaslachtoffers er vallen, welke soorten ‘verkeersgevoelig’ zijn en waar de belangrijkste knelpunten liggen, kunnen daarna gerichte verbeteracties worden bedacht.

Je ziet deze dieren aarzelen voordat ze gaan oversteken.

Verkeersslachtoffer Top-10
Het project staat of valt bij de medewerking van de verkeersdeelnemers. Zij worden opgeroepen hun waarnemingen door te geven. Momenteel is er al een ‘Verkeersslachtoffer Top-10′. De ongekroonde koning van de verkeersslachtoffers is de egel. Die moest het tot op heden 1.245 bezuren. Met 501 doden staat de vos op twee, op de voet gevolgd door de bunzing. Nummers vier tot en met tien zijn achtereenvolgens: de pad, de steenmarter, de eekhoorn, de das, het konijn, de bruine rat en de haas. Wat mij opvalt, is dat er helemaal geen vogels in de Top-10 staan. Als we zo’n ‘hitparade’ in Nederland zouden samenstellen, dan stond de duif er zeker bij. Zeker de kamikazeduif, die er een vreemd genoegen in schept om net op het juiste moment op te vliegen. Soms haalt-ie dat juiste moment niet…

Gelukkig en veilig aan de overkant!

Cool new work from Ryohei Hase.

Click here to see this work in full size on his website.

Funny detail: Hase is almost ‘haas’, which means rabbit in Dutch.

found via Archi

Nov.18 – The company announced to provide two of cloud services : White Cloud Shared HaaS and White Private HaaS. In addition, some of companies in Softbank Group will deliver any cloud services with brand name "White Cloud" on that infrastructure, the company added.

Regarding the prices of "Shared HaaS", it will be $45 per month for 1VM.

J <http://japan.internet.com/busnews/20091119/2.html>

Vor einiger Zeit haben wir mal aus ein paar Fotos, die während eines Fototermins entstanden sind, eine kleine Diashow zusammengestellt.

Den persönlichen Besuch hier in Trossingen kann so was natürlich nicht ersetzen. Wenn Sie also unsere Schleifmaschinen demnächst mal live unter die Lupe nehmen wollen, freuen wir uns immer über Ihren Besuch. Vereinbaren Sie einfach einen Termin mit uns.

Ihr Thomas Bader

Construction at the house continues, so I continue to wait to bake…soon, my pretties.  I have an excellent Pumpkin Loaf made with teff flour and almond meal in mind for the first available bake time!

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, commonly referred to as SCD, is based on the idea that certain health problems, and even some neurological conditions, occur in large part because of the food that we eat.  The diet iteself was first developed in the first half of the 20th century by Drs. Merrill P. and Sydney V. Haas. However, the diet has been largely popularized through the efforts of Elaine Gottschall in her book Breaking the Vicious Cycle. The diet itself is a somewhat complex set of rules that applies not so much to the nutritional value of the food but to how the food is absorbed by the intestitine wall.

The SCD works on the premise that it is the improper digestion of carbohydrates, or saccharides, that can lead to many digestive disorders or diseases, including (but not limited to) Celiac Disease, Crohn’s disease, and Irritible Bowel Syndrome.  Di- and polysaccharides, such as grains and sugars (like lactose), have been pinpointed as the root of the problem.  Monosaccharides, such as honey, can be fully absorbed by the intestine walls and therefore do not need to be avoided.  (For a full list of “legal” and “illegal” foods, visit http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/).

It is believed that damage to the intestine wall that makes it difficult to digest or absorb these saccharides, resulting in the build-up of “bad” bacteria in the gut.  This damage to the intestine can be caused by virtually anything, even from something as straightforward as the flu.  The damage generally starts off as relatively minor, and gets progressively worse over time. 

A summary of the “vicious cycle” therefore goes something like this: damage to the intestine occurs because of certain foods or stomach upsets; the continual ingestion of di- and polysaccharides never gives the intestine the necessary time to heal because they are never fully absorbed by the body, leaving behind “bad” bacteria.  This bacteria can severely affect the well-being of the gut, and ultimately wreak havoc on the digestive system. The more “bad” bacteria that is present in the gut, the worse the symptoms can become.  The problems, over time, can become exacerbated, debilitating, and sometimes even deadly.

The SCD completely eliminates di- and polysaccharides from the diet, thereby removing the difficulties people with digestive disorders experience with their digestion. The removal of these specific carbohydrates from the diet gives the digestive tract an opportunity to heal.  There are many websites detailing the success of people with a wide variety of disorders.

The SCD has helped people who suffer from problems such as Celiac Disease, Irritible Bowel Disease, and Crohn’s Disease, to name a few.  The medical community has been generally slow to acknowledge the benefits of the diet.  However, anecdotal evidence does suggest that the diet has proven beneficial to many people suffering from a multiple of disorders thought to be incurable by the medical community.

Somewhat more controversial is the use of the diet as a means of controlling the symptoms of autism.  Again, anecdotal evidence does seem to pinpoint some connection between food and certain neurological disorders.  It is conceded that there is no cure for autism, however, according to some parents the elimination of certain foods has led to drastic improvements in their children’s behaviour and attitude.  For more information about the possible connection between food and autism spectrum disorders, visit http://pecanbread.com

Still glowing after our silver Channel Elite Awards for Best Managed Services, Best Service Organization, and Best Enterprise Solution, we made our way to Orlando, Florida.  We attended the ConnectWise Partner Summit this week. This 3 day conference is an annual gathering of Elite Managed Services Providers from around the world.  Mike Dabner our Director of Managed Services, Vanessa Garner, our Managed Services and Professional Services Administrator, and I spent 3 days, discussing the latest trends, tools, and business processes with 1200 top notch peers from around the world. 

It was interesting to analyze the backgrounds of our peers.  It seems out of the 90 or so big players that I had deeper discussions with, the vast majority were break/fix or dispatch support companies that had evolved into managed service providers.  The remainders—including IT Weapons—were consulting companies that have added Managed Services to their portfolio.  This puts us in an immediate and increasingly advantageous position. Our focus on TCO over the past 10 years (and 20 for me) has kept us business-centric; understanding that every process (or lack thereof) costs money.

We found that a common issue for our peers in Orlando was cost control. They all seem to be learning the hard way about standards, process development after the fact, automation, tools, and utilities.  All these things require investment…  A lot of investment.  To cheap-out up front and set your MSP pricing based accordingly…You’re asking for 2 black eyes later when you come around to implementing these things and you end up raising your prices.

Measure twice, cut once, right?

Anyway, I also noted that plenty of our MSP peers started their Managed Services practice with desktop, helpdesk, and server support located at customer sites. Less than 10 of them seem to realize that this philosophy is going the way of the dodo bird. For me, it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that centralized, offsite, outsourced, HaaS/SaaS/IaaS, or Cloud-based infrastructure is going to dominate the IT industry.  And for most of our peers, it’s going to be a VERY uphill battle to shift to a Cloud model.

When we were flying to Orlando, I was excited to hear about what the ‘big players’ were doing… But, after talking with them I realized we are very much in the top 10%, and we are definitely leaders in Canada.  Our job now is honing and optimizing.  It’s nice to be ahead of the curve.

This year will see IT Weapons adding a Data Recovery Centre, a 2nd Alternate Workspace, training and conference space, lab space, and a big helpdesk expansion.  With the new office in the works, we have room to spread our wings and realize all the ideas we have been holding back on.  It’s a very exciting year…

Você profissional de TI já deve ter ouvido falar em Cloud Computuing ou “Nuvem Computacional” definição sucinta e atual para o compartilhamento de ferramentas e recursos computacionais via internet.

Essa inovação está cada vez mais em alta e muitas empresas optam ou estudam a possibilidade de usar uma Cloud Computing offering, aposentando inteiramente ou parcialmente suas ferramentas hospedadas localmente, movendo seus recursos computacionais para a “nuvem”.

Cloud Computing não se resume apenas a diversos computadores interligados compartilhando recursos e processamento na internet. A seguir irei descrever alguns termos relacionados – SaaS, HaaS, IaaS e PaaS – que podem ser chamados de Cloud Computing Flavors, ou seja, diferentes terminologias/classificações com algumas especificidades, mas que ainda, bem lá no fundo, continuam sendo parte do céu.

SaaS a.k.a Software as a Service traduzindo para o bom e velho português “Software como Serviço” – é um offering que basicamente oferece um software (CRM e ERP por exemplo) como serviço on demand. Tudo que o end-user necessita para ter acesso ao software/aplicação é um browser e uma conexão a Internet. A cobrança desse serviço geralmente está vinculada a compra/aquisição de licenças de uso e o grande atrativo desse tipo de solução é custo já que a empresa que contrata o serviço não necessita de investimento em hardware/infra-estrutura; fica tudo por conta do provedor de serviços que aloca dados e recursos em um data center.

IaaS a.k.a Infrastructure as a Service ou “Infraestrutura como Serviço” (anteriormente conhecido como HaaS – Hardware as a Service) e o PaaS – also known as – Platform as a Service respectivamente “Plataforma como Serviço” – são offerings que basicamente seguem a mesma linha (existem particularidades apenas no tipo de deployment de cada um, sendo virtual machine no caso do IaaS e application package no caso do PaaS, e nos chamados Cloud Services – serviço disponíveis), a disponibilização de uma estrutura computacional completa (servidores, data center, rede, processamento, etc). O custo normalmente está atrelado ao consumo/utilização de recursos e sua aplicabilidade seria no caso de um empresa que possui um software especifico e gostaria de mover os serviços para mantenibilidada e disponibilização desse software para uma nuvem. Diferentemente do modelo SaaS, os modelos IaaS e PaaS não se resumem apenas a uma aplicação web acessada via browser, mas sim recursos computacionais disponíveis e utilizados como serviço.

Se ficou interessado e agora se pergunta quem exatamente oferece esse tipo de serviço; Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce.com e Oracle são apenas alguns dos vendors que oferecem soluções de Cloud Computing em diversos modelos. A verdade é, existe uma nuvem de possibilidades.

Obrigado pela atenção e bem vindo ao mundo as a service.

By Lucas Izaias

Anybody who knows me well (or knows my blog well) has heard me say that work experience is the most important part of your MBA admissions profile. By far. Honestly, nothing else is even close, and that includes the GMAT.

The GMAT, for what it’s worth, is a relatively small part of admissions. Most schools just use the GMAT to make sure that the tougher academic classes (particularly the quant stuff–statistics, microeconomics, macroeconomics) won’t make you go running home to your mommy. Other than that, the schools are concerned with the GMAT only insofar as it impacts their rankings. Unfortunately, GMAT scores are part of some rankings formulas, and, since the rankings are part of a program’s prestige, b-schools are forced to pay attention to their averages.

Other than that, nobody really cares about the GMAT. A 780 or an 800 gets you nowhere by itself. Haas, for example, rejects 86% of all students with a 750 or above. At most schools, a 780 doesn’t really get you much further than a 680 or a 700.

So one of the other questions I frequently field is this: how important are recommendations, and what constitutes a great recommendation?

In a way, I think that recommendations are a little bit like the GMAT in terms of the role that they play in the admissions process. The GMAT isn’t really an issue at all, unless your score is relatively weak. As long as your GMAT score is close to the interquartile range, you’ll be fine. Recommendations, similarly, aren’t much of an issue, unless they’re flawed in some way.

I’m pretty convinced that the vast majority of recommendations are solid-but-boring, and that’s probably good enough. Your boss will probably say “yup, this employee of mine is great,” without really putting too much emotion into the writing. This type of rec does almost nothing for you–good or bad. It won’t help you, but at least it won’t hurt. I suspect that somewhere between 60% and 80% of recommendations fall into this category, but that’s just a guess.

How might you get hurt by a rec? Well, your boss might secretly hate you. You might also make the mistake of choosing an irrelevant recommender. If, for example, your recommender is your supervisor from a job you had eight years ago, he or she might be completely unable to speak competently about your current skills and situation. Worse yet, the recommendation will make the adcom wonder why you can’t get a more recent colleague or supervisor to write a recommendation for you.

Oddly enough, I occasionally get requests to write recommendations for my students. That’s a terrible, terrible idea. I’m just a consultant and tutor who gets paid by the hour. I could write a great rec for you, but it would be blisteringly obvious to the adcom that I have an economic stake in your success, and that I am a long ways from being an unbiased colleague or supervisor with legitimate knowledge of your talents. Similarly, I think it’s a mistake to ask career coaches, mentors, or friends to do the recommendations. Stick very strictly to people who met you in a professional context, and you’ll be okay.

That said, what can you do to make a recommendation great? If a good rec doesn’t really help or hurt… well, is there a way to engineer a recommendation that stands out in some way, and really helps your candidacy?

First of all, you want to be 100% sure that your recommenders know exactly what your plans are for business school and beyond. Give them your CV or resume, and a full rundown of your plans. Give them your essays, if you can. If your recommender can specifically address your goals and strengths, it makes the recommendation much more credible and powerful.

The very best recommendations are the ones that grab the adcom by the collar, stare the adcom in the eyes, and force them to listen. For example, an outstanding recommendation for somebody named Sarah might feel a little bit like this: “Listen, butthole. I know everything there is to know about Sarah. She’s applying to your school, and she is a fucking amazing human being, and she’s an unbelievable employee with senior management written all over her, and you’re a goddamned fool if you don’t get down on your knees and beg her to attend your school. She’s the best. You hear me, asshole! She’s the best. Now, get down on your knees, and BEG her to come to your school. You’ll be glad you did… on your knees, NOW!… ” The swearing is unnecessary, but if your recommender can write with that sort of spirit, you’ll catch the adcom’s attention.

(A little side story: back when I was a teaching assistant in the economics department at Stanford, one of my macroeconomics students asked me if I would be willing to serve as a reference for a VC job he’d applied for. I didn’t really know him all that well, and I don’t think that he was a particularly great student. On the other hand, I knew that he probably had almost no access to his professors in giant Stanford economics lectures, and understood that I was his best option. All I knew about him was that he probably asked more questions than any of my other students, and I respected him for it. And he was very polite and well-spoken, if not brilliant.

When the VC firm called me, I had nothing else to say, but I kept going on and on about how unusual it was to meet an undergraduate who was so unashamed to ask questions, and who was so persistent and likable all at the same time. I rambled on about how great he was, without offering any real detail–I didn’t even remember what his grades were, so I couldn’t talk about those–until the VC lady made me shut the hell up. My student got the job. I’m sure that he deserved it in other ways, but I’m also pretty sure that my effusiveness and wordiness helped at least a little bit.)

Let’s be honest: not everybody can (or will) write an enthusiastic, engaging, energetic recommendation. But if you have any colleagues, clients, or supervisors who can go to bat for you like that, beg them to write your recs.

But if you don’t know anybody who is that persuasive, no worries. Just don’t screw it up, and you’ll be fine.

Last Friday we had the good fortune to get a head’s up from Lord Christopher Moncton. If you haven’t seen that video yet, start here: http://wp.me/pxG9Z-cf Then we learned from him on Monday Maurice Strong played a vastly important roll in all this http://wp.me/pxG9Z-cn and http://wp.me/pxG9Z-cv  which lead to an epiphany http://wp.me/pxG9Z-cz involving Agenda 21, which was discussed earlier here  http://wp.me/pxG9Z-8X . Thursday we learned about the Club of Rome, a powerful group of people including American ex-presidents and other world leaders, top business people and other “trusted” figures, and saw a video that spelled out their agenda and how it morphed into Agenda 21. You may watch the video here http://wp.me/pxG9Z-cH  Referred to in the video were two books. These books were controversial when published, but over time the authors, The Club of Rome, were able to “mainstream” them through lies, fake science, and indoctrination of our youth. I have provided free copies, as available, for you here:

Limits to Growth (”cliff notes” version – could not find full version in pdf)

 http://tinyurl.com/yk97v6e

Limits to Growth Revisited (30 year update)

 http://www.sustainer.org/pubs/limitstogrowth.pdf

The First World Revolution

http://www.archive.org/details/TheFirstGlobalRevolution

Other important documents I have offered along the way this week:

Here is the Minority Report, paid for by our own government, and given to our Congressional Members telling them why this science is bogus. Arm yourself with the real facts.  http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=83947f5d-d84a-4a84-ad5d-6e2d71db52d9

Here is the UN Document on Agenda 21 : http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/

Here is the Cap & Trade legislation (HR 2454) which passed in the House: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2454/show 

This is a chart from Liberty For Life detailing how insidious undue influence from these shadow organizations really are. You must print this .pdf chart and refer to it as we go through learning about what’s really going on. http://www.libertyforlife.com/nwo/2009Chart.pdf  This will illustrate the connections between The Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission and Bilderburg Group, showing how much they have infiltrated our government and educational institutions and just who these people are - many of whom, you already know.

Friday we learned about the impact of the Trilateral Commission on Agenda 21 and COP 15: http://wp.me/pxG9Z-d3  where we learned the following:

President George H.W. Bush later talked openly about creating a “New World Order”, which has since become a synonymous phrase. This paper attempts to tell the rest of the story, according to official and unofficial Commission sources and other available documents….  http://tinyurl.com/35vtw2 

“The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities. “  - Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1972, from book ”Between Two Ages” – free pdf of book: http://tinyurl.com/yhsfo3x

Sovereignty.net illustrates the timeline toward Global Governance with clickable links and is a very good resource for learning more about what got us to this point in our history. Timeline to Global Governance  http://www.sovereignty.net/timeline.html

Another of these groups is the Bilderburg Group- Here an introduction from The History Channel:

The Bilderburg meeting for 2008 was held in the US. Remember during the campaign when candidate Barack Obama ditched reporters who he had herded on his plane, then turned up missing along with Hilary Clinton? Well, that is because they wanted to attend the Bilderburg meeting without the press knowing about it. They are both members. From HongPong.com comes the following: http://tinyurl.com/yhry4nf

LiveLeak.com – Bilderberg Attendee List 2008
Chantilly, Virginia, USA
5-8 June 2008

CURRENT LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Honorary Chairman
BEL Davignon, Etienne Vice Chairman, Suez-Tractebel

DEU Ackermann, Josef Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank AG
CAN Adams, John Associate Deputy Minister of National Defence and Chief of the Communications Security Establishment Canada
USA Ajami, Fouad Director, Middle East Studies Program, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
USA Alexander, Keith B. Director, National Security Agency
INT Almunia, Joaquín Commissioner, European Commission
GRC Alogoskoufis, George Minister of Economy and Finance
USA Altman, Roger C. Chairman, Evercore Partners Inc.
TUR Babacan, Ali Minister of Foreign Affairs
NLD Balkenende, Jan Peter Prime Minister
PRT Balsemão, Francisco Pinto Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister
FRA Baverez, Nicolas Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
ITA Bernabè, Franco CEO, Telecom Italia Spa
USA Bernanke, Ben S. Chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
SWE Bildt, Carl Minister of Foreign Affairs
FIN Blåfield, Antti Senior Editorial Writer, Helsingin Sanomat
DNK Bosse, Stine CEO, TrygVesta
CAN Brodie, Ian Chief of Staff, Prime Minister’s Office
AUT Bronner, Oscar Publisher and Editor, Der Standard
FRA Castries, Henri de Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, AXA
ESP Cebrián, Juan Luis CEO, PRISA
CAN Clark, Edmund President and CEO, TD Bank Financial Group
GBR Clarke, Kenneth Member of Parliament
NOR Clemet, Kristin Managing Director, Civita
USA Collins, Timothy C. Senior Managing Director and CEO, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC
FRA Collomb, Bertrand Honorary Chairman, Lafarge
PRT Costa, António Mayor of Lisbon
USA Crocker, Chester A. James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies
USA Daschle, Thomas A. Former US Senator and Senate Majority Leader
CAN Desmarais, Jr., Paul Chairman and co-CEO, Power Corporation of Canada
GRC Diamantopoulou, Anna Member of Parliament
USA Donilon, Thomas E. Partner, O’Melveny & Myers
ITA Draghi, Mario Governor, Banca d’Italia
AUT Ederer, Brigitte CEO, Siemens AG Österreich
CAN Edwards, N. Murray Vice Chairman, Candian Natural Resources Limited

DNK Eldrup, Anders President, DONG A/S
ITA Elkann, John Vice Chairman, Fiat S.p.A.
USA Farah, Martha J. Director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
USA Feldstein, Martin S. President and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research
DEU Fischer, Joschka Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
USA Ford, Jr., Harold E. Vice Chairman, Merill Lynch & Co., Inc.
CHE Forstmoser, Peter Professor for Civil, Corporation and Capital Markets Law, University of Zürich
IRL Gallagher, Paul Attorney General
USA Geithner, Timothy F. President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
USA Gigot, Paul Editorial Page Editor, The Wall Street Journal
IRL Gleeson, Dermot Chairman, AIB Group
NLD Goddijn, Harold CEO, TomTom
TUR Gö?ü?, Zeynep Journalist; Founder, EurActiv.com.tr
USA Graham, Donald E. Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company
NLD Halberstadt, Victor Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings
USA Holbrooke, Richard C. Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC
FIN Honkapohja, Seppo Member of the Board, Bank of Finland
INT Hoop Scheffer, Jaap G. de Secretary General, NATO
USA Hubbard, Allan B. Chairman, E & A Industries, Inc.
BEL Huyghebaert, Jan Chairman of the Board of Directors, KBC Group
DEU Ischinger, Wolfgang Former Ambassador to the UK and US
USA Jacobs, Kenneth Deputy Chairman, Head of Lazard U.S., Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
USA Johnson, James A. Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC
SWE Johnstone, Tom President and CEO, AB SKF
USA Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
FRA Jouyet, Jean-Pierre Minister of European Affairs
GBR Kerr, John Member, House of Lords; Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc.
USA Kissinger, Henry A. Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
DEU Klaeden, Eckart von Foreign Policy Spokesman, CDU/CSU
USA Kleinfeld, Klaus President and COO, Alcoa
TUR Koç, Mustafa Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
FRA Kodmani, Bassma Director, Arab Reform Initiative
USA Kravis, Henry R. Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
USA Kravis, Marie-Josée Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Inc.
INT Kroes, Neelie Commissioner, European Commission
POL Kwasniewski, Aleksander Former President
AUT Leitner, Wolfgang CEO, Andritz AG
ESP León Gross, Bernardino Secretary General, Office of the Prime Minister
INT Mandelson, Peter Commissioner, European Commission
FRA Margerie, Christophe de CEO, Total
CAN Martin, Roger Dean, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
HUN Martonyi, János Professor of International Trade Law; Partner, Baker & McKenzie; Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
USA Mathews, Jessica T. President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

INT McCreevy, Charlie Commissioner, European Commission
USA McDonough, William J. Vice Chairman and Special Advisor to the Chairman, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
CAN McKenna, Frank Deputy Chair, TD Bank Financial Group
GBR McKillop, Tom Chairman, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
FRA Montbrial, Thierry de President, French Institute for International Relations
ITA Monti, Mario President, Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
USA Mundie, Craig J. Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation
NOR Myklebust, Egil Former Chairman of the Board of Directors SAS, Norsk Hydro ASA
DEU Nass, Matthias Deputy Editor, Die Zeit
NLD Netherlands, H.M. the Queen of the
FRA Ockrent, Christine CEO, French television and radio world service
FIN Ollila, Jorma Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc
SWE Olofsson, Maud Minister of Enterprise and Energy; Deputy Prime Minister
NLD Orange, H.R.H. the Prince of
GBR Osborne, George Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
TUR Öztrak, Faik Member of Parliament
ITA Padoa-Schioppa, Tommaso Former Minister of Finance; President of Notre Europe
GRC Papahelas, Alexis Journalist, Kathimerini
GRC Papalexopoulos, Dimitris CEO, Titan Cement Co. S.A.
USA Paulson, Jr., Henry M. Secretary of the Treasury
USA Pearl, Frank H. Chairman and CEO, Perseus, LLC
USA Perle, Richard N. Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
FRA Pérol, François Deputy General Secretary in charge of Economic Affairs
DEU Perthes, Volker Director, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik
BEL Philippe, H.R.H. Prince
CAN Prichard, J. Robert S. President and CEO, Torstar Corporation
CAN Reisman, Heather M. Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.
USA Rice, Condoleezza Secretary of State
PRT Rio, Rui Mayor of Porto
USA Rockefeller, David Former Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank
ESP Rodriguez Inciarte, Matias Executive Vice Chairman, Grupo Santander
USA Rose, Charlie Producer, Rose Communications
DNK Rose, Flemming Editor, Jyllands Posten
USA Ross, Dennis B. Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
USA Rubin, Barnett R. Director of Studies and Senior Fellow, Center for International Cooperation, New York University
TUR ?ahenk, Ferit Chairman, Do?u? Holding A.?.
USA Sanford, Mark Governor of South Carolina
USA Schmidt, Eric Chairman of the Executive Committee and CEO, Google
AUT Scholten, Rudolf Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG
DNK Schur, Fritz H. Fritz Schur Gruppen
CZE Schwarzenberg, Karel Minister of Foreign Affairs
USA Sebelius, Kathleen Governor of Kansas
USA Shultz, George P. Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

ESP Spain, H.M. the Queen of
CHE Spillmann, Markus Editor-in-Chief and Head Managing Board, Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG
USA Summers, Lawrence H. Charles W. Eliot Professor, Harvard University
GBR Taylor, J. Martin Chairman, Syngenta International AG
USA Thiel, Peter A. President, Clarium Capital Management, LLC
NLD Timmermans, Frans Minister of European Affairs
RUS Trenin, Dmitri V. Deputy Director and Senior Associate, Carnegie Moscow Center
INT Trichet, Jean-Claude President, European Central Bank
USA Vakil, Sanam Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
FRA Valls, Manuel Member of Parliament
GRC Varvitsiotis, Thomas Co-Founder and President, V + O Communication
CHE Vasella, Daniel L. Chairman and CEO, Novartis AG
FIN Väyrynen, Raimo Director, The Finnish Institute of International Affairs
FRA Védrine, Hubert Hubert Védrine Conseil
NOR Vollebaek, Knut High Commissioner on National Minorities, OSCE
SWE Wallenberg, Jacob Chairman, Investor AB
USA Weber, J. Vin CEO, Clark & Weinstock
USA Wolfensohn, James D. Chairman, Wolfensohn & Company, LLC
USA Wolfowitz, Paul Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
INT Zoellick, Robert B. President, The World Bank Group

AT THE MEETING:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAR20090526&articleId=13738

 

Shortly after the meetings began, Bilderberg tracker Jim Tucker reported that his inside sources revealed that the group has on its agenda, “the plan for a global department of health, a global treasury and a shortened depression rather than a longer economic downturn.” Tucker reported that Swedish Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister, Carl Bildt, “Made a speech advocating turning the World Health Organization into a world department of health, advocating turning the IMF into a world department of treasury, both of course under the auspices of the United Nations.” Further, Tucker reported that, “Treasury Secretary Geithner and Carl Bildt touted a shorter recession not a 10-year recession … partly because a 10 year recession would damage Bilderberg industrialists themselves, as much as they want to have a global department of labor and a global department of treasury, they still like making money and such a long recession would cost them big bucks industrially because nobody is buying their toys…..the tilt is towards keeping it short.”

 

After the meetings finished, Daniel Estulin reported that, “One of Bilderberg’s primary concerns according to Estulin is the danger that their zeal to reshape the world by engineering chaos in order to implement their long term agenda could cause the situation to spiral out of control and eventually lead to a scenario where Bilderberg and the global elite in general are overwhelmed by events and end up losing their control over the planet.”

On May 21, the Macedonian International News Agency reported that, “A new Kremlin report on the shadowy Bilderberg Group, who this past week held their annual meeting in Greece, states that the West’s financial, political and corporate elite emerged from their conclave after coming to an agreement that in order to continue their drive towards a New World Order dominated by the Western Powers, the US Dollar has to be ‘totally’ destroyed.” Further, the same Kremlin report apparently stated that, “most of the West’s wealthiest elite convened at an unprecedented secret meeting in New York called for and led by” David Rockefeller, “to plot the demise of the US Dollar.”

  

Bilderberg’s Plan in Action?

 

Reorganizing the Federal Reserve

 

Following the Bilderberg meeting, there were several interesting announcements made by key participants, specifically in regards to reorganizing the Federal Reserve. On May 21, it was reported that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner “is believed to be leaning heavily towards giving the Federal Reserve a central role in future regulation,” and “it is understood that the Fed would take on some of the work currently undertaken by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.”

On Wednesday, May 20, Geithner spoke before the Senate Banking Committee, at which he stated that, “there are important indications that our financial system is starting to heal.” In regards to regulating the financial system, Geithner stated that, “we must ensure that international rules for financial regulation are consistent with the high standards we will be implementing in the United States.”

 

Bloomberg reported that, “The Obama administration may call for stripping the Securities and Exchange Commission of some of its powers under a regulatory reorganization,” and that, “The proposal, still being drafted, is likely to give the Federal Reserve more authority to supervise financial firms deemed too big to fail. The Fed may inherit some SEC functions, with others going to other agencies.” Interestingly, “SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro’s agency has been mostly absent from negotiations within the administration on the regulatory overhaul, and she has expressed frustration about not being consulted.”

It was reported that “Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was set to discuss proposals to change financial regulations last night at a dinner with National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers [who was also present at Bilderberg], former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker [also at Bilderberg], ex-SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt and Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard University law professor who heads the congressional watchdog group for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.” The Federal Reserve is a privately owned central bank, owned by its shareholders, consisting of the major banks the make up each regional Fed bank (the largest of which is JP Morgan Chase and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). This plan would essentially give a privately owned bank, which has governmental authority, the ability to regulate the banks that own it. It’s the equivalent of getting a Colonel to guard a General to whom he is directly answerable. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. It is literally granting ownership over the financial regulator to the banks being regulated.

Are things beginning to make a little more sense to you yet? Have you printed the pdf chart from Liberty For Life yet?

Have you seen, then that Barack Obama and Bill Clinton (Hilary too) are members of Bilderberg? Did you notice that Bill Clinton is also Trilateral and Council on Foreign Relations groups as well.  George HW Bush and Jimmy Carter belong to the Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations. Gerald Ford was Bilderberg and Council on Foreign Relations.  Those are just the recent presidents complicit in the purposeful demise of our sovereignty.

Are you also aware, that just like the history of the Bilderburg, our Federal Reserve began the same way. Allow me to once again recommend the book Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin. Amazing the similarities. And you do know “The Fed” is a banking cartel and not an agency of our federal government, don’t you? More on them in the weeks ahead. Back to the article linked above:

Following the Bilderberg meeting, “President Obama has asked Congress to authorize $100 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help create a $500 billion global bailout fund,” which would give the IMF the essential prerogative of a global treasury, providing bailouts for countries in need around the world. Further, “the bill would allow the IMF to borrow up to $100 billion from the U.S. and increase the U.S. fiscal contribution to the IMF by $8 billion.” Elaborating on the program, it was reported that, “World leaders began on the global bailout initiative, called the New Arrangement for Borrowing (NAB), at the G-20 summit in early April. The president agreed at that time to make the additional funds available.” Obama wrote that, “Treasury Secretary Geithner concluded that the size of the NAB is woefully inadequate to deal with the type of severe economic and financial crisis we are experiencing, and I agree with him.”

With the G20 decision to increase the usage of IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), forming a de facto world currency, it was recently reported that, “Sub-Saharan Africa will receive around $10 billion from the IMF in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to help its economies weather the global financial crisis,” and that, “As part of a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the world economic downturn agreed at April’s G20 summit, the IMF will issue $250 billion worth of SDRs, which can be used to boost foreign currency reserves.”

Recent reports have also indicated that the IMF’s role in issuing SDRs goes hand in hand with the Bilderberg discussion on the potential collapse of the US dollar, and, “Transforming the dollar standard into an SDR-based system would be a major break with a policy that has lasted more than 60 years.” It was reported that, “There are two ways in which the dollar’s role in the international monetary system can be reduced. One possibility is a gradual, market-determined erosion of the dollar as a reserve currency in favor of the euro. But, while the euro’s international role – especially its use in financial markets – has increased since its inception, it is hard to envisage it overtaking the dollar as the dominant reserve currency in the foreseeable future.” However, “With the dollar’s hegemony unlikely to be seriously undermined by market forces, at least in the short and medium-term, the only way to bring about a major reduction in its role as a reserve currency is by international agreement.” This is where the SDRs come into play, as “One way to make the SDR the major reserve currency relatively soon would be to create and allocate a massive amount of new SDRs to the IMF’s members.” This is, interestingly, exactly what is happening with Africa and the IMF now.

In this very recent video, G. Edward Griffin, author of Creature from Jekyll Island, explains to us how the Fed is complicit with the demise of the dollar and the reason behind it. As well, he discusses HR 1207 “Audit the Fed” and while noble, may help whitewash the actual goal to abolish the Fed. Bill shown here: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1207/show  This is pertinent to the discussion of Agenda 21 and One World Order in that all of the layers of betrayal are working together to the demise of our sovereignty.

One website mentioned in the video http://www.realityzone.com/  has a lot of resource and learning material on it and may be of use to you. An hour long free audio synopsis of the book Creature From Jekyll Island can be found here: http://www.rzyoutube.com/  (in seven segments).  

  Now, allow me to introduce you to the Council on Foreign Relations. This portion is to help you understand why the media is complicit. JP Morgan Chase, founding member of the Federal Reserve, and whose chairman, David Rockefeller is on the Trilateral Commission, Bilderburg Group and yes, Council on Foreign Relations. This video will help explain:    

 Want to know why you aren’t hearing about this on FOX? Now you know. Rupert Murdoch owns Fox. You’ve also learned that much of this revolves around a very few central figures. David Rockefeller, Maurice Strong, George Soros (Bilderburg and Council of Foreign Relations).  

http://www.cfr.org/publication/9903/sovereignty_and_globalisation.html#  

 Author:

 Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations

February 17, 2006
Project Syndicate

The world’s 190-plus states now co-exist with a larger number of powerful non-sovereign and at least partly (and often largely) independent actors, ranging from corporations to non-government organisations (NGOs), from terrorist groups to drug cartels, from regional and global institutions to banks and private equity funds. The sovereign state is influenced by them (for better and for worse) as much as it is able to influence them. The near monopoly of power once enjoyed by sovereign entities is being eroded.

 

As a result, new mechanisms are needed for regional and global governance that include actors other than states. This is not to argue that Microsoft, Amnesty International, or Goldman Sachs be given seats in the United Nations General Assembly, but it does mean including representatives of such organisations in regional and global deliberations when they have the capacity to affect whether and how regional and global challenges are met.

Moreover, states must be prepared to cede some sovereignty to world bodies if the international system is to function.

 

This is already taking place in the trade realm. Governments agree to accept the rulings of the World Trade Organisation because on balance they benefit from an international trading order, even if a particular decision requires that they alter a practice that is their sovereign right to carry out.

Some governments are prepared to give up elements of sovereignty to address the threat of global climate change. Under one such arrangement, the Kyoto Protocol, which runs through 2012, signatories agree to cap specific emissions. What is needed now is a successor arrangement in which a larger number of governments, including the United States, China and India, accept emission limits or adopt common standards because they recognise that they would be worse off if no country did.

 

All of this suggests that sovereignty must be redefined if states are to cope with globalisation.

At its core, globalisation entails the increasing volume, velocity and importance of flows within and across borders of people, ideas, greenhouse gases, goods, dollars, drugs, viruses, emails, weapons, and a good deal else, challenging one of sovereignty’s fundamental principles: the ability to control what crosses borders in either direction. Sovereign states increasingly measure their vulnerability not to one another, but to forces beyond their control.

Globalisation thus implies that sovereignty is not only becoming weaker in reality, but that it needs to become weaker. States would be wise to weaken sovereignty in order to protect themselves, because they cannot insulate themselves from what goes on elsewhere. Sovereignty is no longer a sanctuary.

 

This was demonstrated by the American and world reaction to terrorism. Afghanistan’s Taliban government, which provided access and support to al-Qaeda, was removed from power. Similarly, America’s preventive war against an Iraq that ignored the UN and was thought to possess weapons of mass destruction showed that sovereignty no longer provides absolute protection. Imagine how the world would react if some government were known to be planning to use or transfer a nuclear device or had already done so. Many would argue correctly that sovereignty provides no protection for that state.

 

Necessity may also lead to reducing or even eliminating sovereignty when a government, whether from a lack of capacity or conscious policy, is unable to provide for the basic needs of its citizens. This reflects not simply scruples, but a view that state failure and genocide can lead to destabilising refugee flows and create openings for terrorists to take root.

 

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s intervention in Kosovo was an example where a number of governments chose to violate the sovereignty of another government (Serbia) to stop ethnic cleansing and genocide. By contrast, the mass killing in Rwanda a decade ago and now in Darfur, Sudan, demonstrate the high price of judging sovereignty to be supreme and thus doing little to prevent the slaughter of innocents.

 

Our notion of sovereignty must therefore be conditional, even contractual, rather than absolute. If a state fails to live up to its side of the bargain by sponsoring terrorism, either transferring or using weapons of mass destruction, or conducting genocide, then it forfeits the normal benefits of sovereignty and opens itself up to attack, removal or occupation. The diplomatic challenge for this era is to gain widespread support for principles of state conduct and a procedure for determining remedies when these principles are violated.

 

The goal should be to redefine sovereignty for the era of globalisation, to find a balance between a world of fully sovereign states and an international system of either world government or anarchy.

 

The basic idea of sovereignty, which still provides a useful constraint on violence between states, needs to be preserved. But the concept needs to be adapted to a world in which the main challenges to order come from what global forces do to states and what governments do to their citizens, rather than from what states do to one another.

A 2008 list of members, along with other details can be found here: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/cfr-members.htm .

You will notice Colin Powell appears on the list. John McCain is a member as well. So you see, we actually had no choice in the last election. Glenn Beck caused quite a stir when he boldly stated there was no difference, other than the speed to which we were hurled into Marxism. Glenn Beck was correct.

We will learn more on this next week. Again, I will post bit by bit daily with a synopsis on the weekend post. There is a lot to absorb here. Take the weekend to go over the information contained in this column and on the links provided. Save the pdf files to your computer as reference material. You will need it to understand what they are doing to us as this progresses.

Whether you love drawing up charts or abhor matrices, Google Squared is a tool you will find useful. Do you want to see which type of dog you want to adopt or see on one page all the information about various cities in Spain? Better still, do you want all the information about all BSchools that you are checking out on one page? Then here it is. I have inputed values for most top tier BSchools here with information from various sources on the web. If you want to add more schools to the list, just append it and see if your table gets made for you.

Check this one out and save it as your own square.

http://www.google.com/squared/table/agjiyF057YcfCwK9rrP_BXzg

I have finally had a successful attempt at baking a bit of bread! Randomly deciding to have another go at it the other day, I found that the only recipe I had on hand was the Brioche in my copy of the French Laundry Cookbook, and so that’s what I made. Above is a photo of all the ingredients required, with the exception of the yeast, which I didn’t realize had been excluded from the photo until deep into the rising process. It’s OK, though, as it was just your run of the mill yeast. In the past, I have tried and failed to make a decent loaf of bread approximately once a year, for the past five years, and have previously been so dismayed by the results that it would take the ensuing year for me to build up the courage to try again. However, that epoch has now passed. As can be seen below, it is basically perfect– the crumb, the crust–what more can I ask for? This is the bread that the Croque Madame is intended to go on, but in the past instead of just biting the bullet and making my own, I would spend hours trying to find a decent loaf at some bakery or another (a surprisingly difficult item to find.) Nevermore!







Well on Sunday, I had to come up with something to do while the bread was rising, so Gabrielle and I decided to venture on over to Mississippi Ave. (Portland, OR). We were delighted to happen upon the new food cart village, the Mississippi Marketplace that has sprung up over there. I had heard about it peripherally because a lot of folks were stoked about Jesse Sandoval’s cart Nueva Mexico being there, but I didn’t really give it much thought beyond that. However, the digs are pretty sweet. There’s a huge canopy tent down the center with tons of tables for adults and children, and the whole lot is out-fitted with some pretty incredible looking carts. I ordered the Carne Adovada Sopapilla from Nueva Mexico, because the suspense was killing me, and I just had to get it over with. Naw! The real reason was that last winter I tried to use ’sopa’ as a word for a kind of sandwich in a game of Scattagories and was denied by a one Christy Linden who stated, if I remember correctly, that it was soup! Honestly, I didn’t know what a sopa(pilla) was either, but now I have to say that it could pass for a type of sandwich in a game of Scattagories. It’s basically a piece of fried, lightly sweetened dough that’s filled with things. It might depend on what your definition of bread is. I hear someone around here has a cheeseburger on on a glazed VoodooDoughnut, so where does that argument end? Anyway, it was a pretty good plate, all and all, but what really made it for me was the pinto beans. Those were killer. What happened was that now I’m going to have to chill out on all these canned beans and get off my duff and make some fresh beans from scratch. Simply incomparable.



Gabrielle visited the cart named Ruby Dragon. They served up a pretty awesome never-ending cup of maté, and the special that day was very tasty—ginger quinoa blueberry gluten-free pancakes with a side of yammies. However, I have to say that if circumstances dictate that your costumer will have to wait upwards of 30 minutes (1 of 3 costumers at the time), and then only receive a single pancake (for $8), thus rejecting almost everyone’s idea of the term ‘pancakes’, then in my opinion a bit of a strategic overhaul is in order. Gabrielle thinks that what happened was that they had run out of her first choice, and then she decided on the special as her second choice, and that they didn’t want to admit that they had run out of her second choice also, and therefore scrambled to make more, instead of simply admitting that they were out of the pancakes as well. My take is that if you are out of something, at least as a food cart, then that is a good thing. It means that people are buying your food in numbers greater than you expected them to, which is a totally awesome scenario for a couple of reasons, but one that stands out in these circumstances is that you will be able to exuberantly tell costumers that arrive after you have sold out that they were so popular that you SOLD OUT of them! Anyway, it was really good, but took way too long to arrive, and we were expecting at least two. That, and excellent maté.







Next we meandered down Mississippi weaving in and out of specialty shops, reading menus here and there, wandering through the ReBuilding Center (which helped us realize that we know nothing about houses, among other things) with our ultimate destination being The Meadow. Ahhh, where to begin with this one. Gabrielle is still mulling it over. We learned many things about salt on Sunday at The Meadow, a salt specialty shop, but specifically we discovered that the universal acceptance of kosher salt (an agent of dessication) as Salt was equivalent to the universal acceptance of, say, “infanticide”. When asked if that might be a bit of a stretch, Mark Bitterman, owner, Selmelier, and crusader for overexageration replied with a “hmmm. . . I don’t think so.” Later on we learned from a second source, a one General Patrick Ripton, that “people who use kosher salt are indeed not like Hitler, but in fact are Hitler.” I’d like to remind everyone that we’re talking about salt here, or rather, Salt and Sodium Chloride. Where does that leave us? From now on, every time I blanch vegetables or boil pasta will I have to face the consequences of essentially being a baby killer? That’s a lot of guilt, and I’m so desperate that I actually bought some of the fancy salt.



When we got back home the brioche was bursting over the rim of the bread pan, begging to be baked, and so I obliged its need. For the next 35 minutes I drank a cup of coffee, and did a lot of nail biting. You’d think I’d reinvented the zipper or something, I was so ecstatic to pull such an awesome loaf from the oven. To celebrate, I made this Grilled Ham & Cheddar Sandwich on it:







1 This isn’t actually the first full slice from the loaf it’s the 3rd. With the first full slice I tried something that had intrigued me when I saw it on the daily board at Addy’s Sandwich Bar: Chocolate, Sea Salt, and Olive Oil. While the bread was still warm, I broke off 3 pieces of a Chocolove Toffee & Almonds 33% Milk Chocolate bar (a brand of bar which comes packaged with a love poem), laid them out width-wise along the bottom of the slice, drizzled them in Olive Oil, and sprinkled a bit of the fancy salt, namely the Fleur de Sel de Guérande from my Finishing Salts starter kit from the Meadow, folded it in half, and ate, polishing the half-sammy off in three bites, one for each chocolate square. The experience was sweet, and savory with just the right amount of textural crunch from the toffee bits and salt. Addy prepares hers on a small baguette from Little t bakery, which I suspect is probably a better bread match for the combination, being that baguettes are much chewier and crustier than a brioche could ever hope to be, the chewiness and crustiness of which I can’t help but think would lend a textural component that would be unparelled in this paricular combination of ingredients.



2 The cheese used here is Black Diamond White Cheddar, the sharpest that was for sale at Pastaworks. It was good, but not any different than Tillamook, really, which I think I’ll stick with in the future because it has a better price point, and is a bit more local than Canada.



3 The onion slices are from a Purple Torpedo, which I could not help but try because of it’s fantastic shape. Surely, these must be a cross between a shallot, and a red onion, because indeed it resembled a shallot multiplied by a factor of 4 or 5, and sported a coat somewhere in between the purple skin of the red onion, and the bronze skin of a shallot. The flavor profile leaned more towards that of a shallot, however, being quite strong, and pungent. Recommended for those who truly love a powerful onion.



4 A good smoked ham is hard to find. I can’t even count on three fingers the times that I have eaten truly unforgettable ham, and here I’ve been able to purchase some of the best caliber from the butcher at Pastaworks, just across the street from me, and I hadn’t even realized it. In the past I have bought Boar’s Head, which is fine, I guess, but nothing special. It’s your basic deli meats. The difference is that the ham pictured above is extrordinary, and it is less expensive. It’s sourced from Voget Meats in Hubbard, OR, a mere 30 minutes outside of Portland. I’m tempted to make a trip down there on my next day off work, but I’d be hard pressed to eat a 16 lb smoked ham on my own. But still, I am indeed tempted.



5 I try not to buy too many products sourced from other countries (with the exception of salt, haha), but in the case of this avocado, I was hoodwinked. The sign said it was of Californian variety, but later on as I peeled off the ‘Purity’ tag I read there in tiny font that the source was instead Chile. I’m don’t feel as much guilt about this misstep as I do about my decidedly suspect support of infanticide, but there is a pang, meaning that I think about it, but then let it fall from concioussness, and try to do better next time. I did a search in order to try and find the correct term for the outer layer of the avocado, be it the skin, or peel, or what have you, and came upon this page, hosted at avocadosource.com, “dedicated to the dissemination of avocado knowledge” (this being the type of statement which always kills me, because it never ceases to amaze that there is always someone to disseminate any information that you could ever dream of.) In the article they refer to the avocado as a berry, which surprised me a great deal, and that the scientific term for the outer layer is the exocarp, but the skin or rind are acceptable for layman’s terms. What struck me most in the article (from the 1940’s) was that there was a participant by the name of Haas A.R.C., and what I thought was, well, Haas, that is the leading seller of avocado’s right? The Haas Avocado. But right now, I’m having trouble coming to terms with the idea that a ‘Haas’ Avocado doesn’t exist, and that I am just one of many, many people who have fallen for the common misspelling, as the ‘Hass’ Avocado wikipage, and website are leading me to believe. There is an incongruity here that I need to solve, and only close observation at the grocery stores will be able to solve this for me. In any case, I web searched the ‘Haas’ avocado, a search I made because the study lists 5 varieties of avocados that were included in the research, and in my mind, I can only think of one variety by name (the Haas), and the first hit was the Hass site, a company whose flippant motto (for any one who cares about seasonality, or at least the grossly absurd idea of a winter tomato) , or slogan, is “Always in Season.” Is it? Are they. . . always in season? They can’t possibly be, and if they are, at what cost? The avocado season is spring. That means that in the Northern hemisphere they fruit and ripen sometime around April, give or take a few months. I just learned that myself, so we’re together here, unless of course you are a seasonality wonk. For the normal, everyday grocery shopper, the idea of seasonality doesn’t exist. If it’s in the store, it means that it’s growing somewhere, and that’s the end of the thought process–it’s available, so lets eat it. Which brings us around to the fact that the avocado I bought was shipped here from Chile, a distance of 5,500 miles by sea, where it is Spring now, so that I, and many others in this hemisphere, could eat one in the fall. Is all that matters is that it is in season somewhere?



6 More cheese, with a sprinkling of fancy salt.



7 I butter the bread before it goes in the pan. I did the same with the first slice, too. I used to heat the pan up and butter it just before I laid the sandwich into it, but those days are gone. It always led to inconsistent toasting, and to rebutter the pan in between the flip was always a pain to me. Once I discovered the joys of spreadable butter, that antiquated technique fell from the repertoire.



8 The consistent result of pre-buttering is pretty evident in this photo



9 Sometimes I have trouble deciding what I’d like to go with my sandwiches. In this case, I went with a handful of Kettle Chips, and fresh black radish chips paired with a sprinkling of Turkish Black Pyramid salt. I think that in reality it should be one, or the other. Choosing both is a product of my inability, at times, to make simple, sound decisions, instead opting to bounce between one option and the next until they become so blurred and indistinct that the only course is to choose either all or nothing. So I’m left considering all my choices in an interminable debate with inconsequential results. Gabrielle thinks that this carries over into a lot of my blog posts, her prime example being the one concerning our cat, Rigel. In other words, she called me long-winded. So in response, I decided to footnote this post so that I could further articulate some of the things that were on my mind without them impinging on the general trajectory of the post-prime. I think that there are readers who read footnotes, and readers who don’t, which is surely an important distinction in readers, and an important decision that those individual readers have made for themselves. I had a roommate who read Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and skipped all the fancy parts, and loved it, where as I found the book an unreadable bore, and I’m a fan of footnotes. One of the reasons that I’m doing this, I think, is that I just read The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, and it renewed my admiration for the footnote. I had been living under a false assumption (perhaps the second that I’ve recognized this week!) that David Foster Wallace revolutionized the use of footnotes, but how untrue. While he certainly didn’t invent the footnote, it would seem that Baker is reponsible for elevating them to a higher status as a literary devise. DFW simply took it and went fucking crazy with the idea.