Monthly Archives: April 2007

While eating a very late night (or early morning snack) I was thinking about common foods I’ve never eaten.
These are foods I never have even tried. Most are because I am allergic to eggs and tree nuts, but others, not sure why I have never tried them. Here is a list in no particular order:

1. McDonalds Big Mac. The secret sauce has always scared me. I know I can order it without, but I never tried.
2. Meat Loaf. Partially due to possible egg content, partially due to the fact that is hamburger baked in a pan.
3. Coffee Cakes. A church staple, and loaded with eggs and they look gross to me.
4. Snickers Bar. I believe it has nuts.
5. Hamburger Helper. Looks like vomit and smells like ketchup.
6. Custard. Eggs holding hands.

I am sure there are more than I can’t think of right now. Let me know what you have NEVER tried. Not foods that you have tried and hated. If you can’t think of anything, let me know what common foods make you gag.

Common foods that make me gag are:

1. Ketchup. I know it is tomato and vinegar, but it makes me gag. Mustard I can stand, but it dominates any food it is put on.
2. Yogurt. I can never get past the smell. The taste is OK, but the smell is gross as hell to me.
3. Cottage cheese. See Yogurt.
4. Mushrooms. (Some are OK) but most taste like dirt and feel like rubber.

So, if you are bored, comment on foods you’ve never tried or will never eat again.

Got everything up for the Glenn Monster.

Week 39 Updated
Week 40
Week 41
Week 42

Been working on a ‘real’ non blog entry for the web site.  I will post it here for comments before putting it into the Words section.

I realized, at 5:00 a.m., that I really never use Windows applications anymore, and all Crossover Office/Wine was doing is wasting space, so I un-installed them.  Freed up about 10 gigs of space and my computer is running much faster now.  The wine preloader was using up too many resources and the Windows applications were the ONLY programs that ever crashed.  So, goodbye Windows or Windows API layer.  I don’t miss you.
There is nothing I can’t do as well or better with a Linux native application. 

In other news, Kurt Vonnegut died, which is about the most depressing death of a famous person since Fred Rodgers.  I think the public deaths that saddened me the most were Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan.   Both wonderfully intelligent men whom I admire.  Kurt was a Humanist, which is just the basic idea humans should be kind to each other for their own sake.  It is sometimes hard to live to that ideal, but the world would be a better place for it.  Ditch these ancient, silly religions and just be kind to one another.   

Saw this article in the Chicago Tribune. Notice how it has no author. It sounds like it was written by the White House to me. I would guess fall of this year or spring of 08 will be when we attack.

EDITORIAL

Now, two nuclear deadlines

April 10, 2007

For years now, the Iranians have ignored deadlines to stop their nuclear program. They’ve been masterful at playing for time, stringing along the Europeans, the Russians and the United Nations Security Council with negotiations that went nowhere, threats of retaliation about the country’s “right” to nuclear energy. The most recent example of Iranian misdirection: the British hostage crisis.

It’s been a bravura performance. And apparently it is paying off. On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad crowed that Iran has begun enriching uranium on an industrial scale.

If true, that’s a milestone for Iran — and another blazing-red warning flag for the so-far ineffectual UN Security Council.

You might figure a country that faces yet another UN-imposed deadline — and, possibly, more sanctions — would be a bit more circumspect about trumpeting its nuclear prowess to the world. But, hey, why change a winning formula? Iran’s strategy is to establish itself as a de facto nuclear power, similar to North Korea. Its program is irreversible, Tehran says.

There are two deadlines in play here. First, there’s the most recent deadline that the Security Council has imposed on Iran, set to expire next month. The second deadline faces not Iran, but the U.S. and other countries that have vowed to defuse Iran’s program. That deadline expires the day Iran announces that it possesses enough highly enriched uranium to make a bomb, or several. That deadline is also approaching rapidly, although no one in the West can say exactly when it will be. Despite some continuing technical difficulties, Iran is “making steady progress” in enriching uranium, a path to building a bomb, according to analysts at the Institute for Science and International Security.

Intelligence officials have estimated that Iran won’t have the wherewithal to build a bomb for five to 10 years.

But there’s a wide margin for error: Nuclear experts say that 3,000 centrifuges — which Iran claims it will have operating soon — would be able to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb within nine months or so.

It’s a guessing game because Iran is stonewalling the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA would like to know about the technical problems the Iranians are encountering and how close they are to solving them. Western analysts would like to know if the Iranians can manufacture all the parts for their centrifuges themselves or still require foreign suppliers. Intelligence officials would like to know how reliable the centrifuges are and how long they can operate continuously. The IAEA would like to have cameras monitoring the Natanz facility 24/7.

Of course, Iran isn’t cooperating. The longer Tehran can keep the world guessing, the longer it can stall for time by ranting about the consequences of confrontation, the longer it can divert attention by meddling in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere, the better its chances of joining the nuclear club.

Deadlines mean nothing to Tehran, except as pesky annoyances to be overcome.

But they should mean something to the rest of the world.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Ahh, over 500 new Glenn Photos:

Week 33
Week 34
Week 35
Week 36
Week 37
Week 38
Week 39