finished converting the rescued trek elance frame to a fixed-gear singlespeed today, after 2 hours of sawing and then grinding a steel drop handlebar salvaged from another trash bike to turn it into bullhorns. without derailleurs and with a single gearing ratio (kept the smaller chainring on, in case), it is a light and addictive ride. sold.
only downside: have to stop ragging on fixie-riding mission hipsters.
Jul 29, 2009
singlespeed
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Labels: cambridge, execution success, neat, san francisco, technology
histories and stories
History is first and foremost a tangled net of events. Each event lies in dozens of stories, determined and overdetemined by the causes flowing through them, yet ever open to new directions and twists. Indeed, given happenings may be seen as parts of different events within different stories. Because people and groups construct their future by interpreting their causal environment, the very knowledge of the past itself shapes the future, even though aggregate regularities and structural necessity simultaneously oblige it … But plot is a chimera. History does not happen in stories, even if we usually talk about it as if it did. The storylike element enters history itself only because we as historical actors frame our future intentions relative to a past understood in stories. The past stories we consider do assume thereby a special causal importance, although not an importance that can overwhelm either structure or direct determination.
andrew abbott, the system of professions
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Labels: books, epistemology, history, sociology, theory
Jul 28, 2009
le whif
We have never been taught to make little look like much, make much out of little, in a mystical combination of ascetic and aesthetic as well as animal satisfaction ... [but this new acceptance], no matter how unwitting, of the intrinsic asceticism of Oriental cooking, is suspected by some observers to be a kind of intuitive preparation for the much leaner days to come to all of us who live on a polluted planet. What is now a stylish fad, or an "awakening," depending on both pocketbook and chronology, may become in the future an exotic recollection of the Good Old Days, when carrot curls and cashew nuts were eaten by caprice and not necessity. A latter-day MacLuhan might argue that out current preoccupation with culinary simplicity is really an instinctive recognition of our diminishing supplies of food ... of our need to accept austerity as the rule, after a long time of heedless Western glut.
from the introduction to japanese cooking: a simple art
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Labels: agriculture, craft, food, scalefree, stuff, technology
Jul 26, 2009
tara donovan at lever house
about a month ago, i passed by lever house on the way up to the park avenue armoury to see anthropodino with ami.
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Labels: art, execution success, nyc
Jul 25, 2009
projects left behind
from life work, by donald hall
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Labels: decisions, execution success
tolerance
A group's tolerant attitude toward, and encouragement of, the efforts of another group to raise its power and social standing requires that the first group's secure social status is not endangered by these efforts. There is something smug about tolerance, despite best intentions, since it implicitly asserts one's own superiority ... Intolerance is an admission of weakness that acknowledges the power of another, just as tolerance is a sign of strength that confirms the other's inferiority.peter m. blau, exchange and power in social life
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Labels: execution success, power, sociology, theory
Jul 24, 2009
moving on
Although it is easy to fit any given segment of the past neatly and intelligibly into the patterns of world history, contemporaries are never able to see their own place in the patterns. ... He no longer felt that he was among equals in his school and his town. He was no longer in the right place. Everything he had known has become permeated by a hidden death, a solvent of unreality, a sense of belonging to the past. It has all become a makeshift, like worn-out clothing that no longer fitted. And as the end of his stay at the Latin school approached, this slow outgrowing of a beloved and harmonious home town, this shedding of a way of life no longer right for him, this living on the verge of departure--interspersed though the mood of parting was by moments of supreme rejoicing and radiant self-assurance--became a terrible torment to him, an almost intolerable pressure and suffering. For everything was slipping from him without his being sure that it was not really himself who was abandoning everything. He could not say whether he should not be blaming himself for this perishing and estrangement of his dear and accustomed world. Perhaps he had killed it by ambition, by arrogance, by pride, by disloyalty and lack of love. Among the pangs inherent in a genuine vocation, these are the bitterest. One who has received the call takes, in accepting it, not only a gift and a commandment, but also something akin to guilt.
hermann hesse, the glass bead game
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Labels: books, education, epistemology, intuition, sustainability
the academy of ham
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Labels: execution failure, execution success, technology
Jul 23, 2009
aerogel

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tool library
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Labels: execution failure, execution success, libraries
Jul 22, 2009
sourdough success
after a few false starts, i've figured out the activation schedule on this starter that's been growing for almost two weeks. last night, a nice sourdough loaf; today, a killer grilled cheese sandwich.
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Jul 19, 2009
the 17th vermont brewers' festival
- dogfish's chicory stout and raison d'etre
- harpoon's munich dark
- allagash's tripel
- dieu du ciel's route des epices, rosee d'hibiscus, and aphrodisiaque
- north coast's pranqster
- ommegang's rare vos and hennepin
- magic hat's brown rice lager
- long trail's blackbeary wheat
- rock art's belgo-american ipa and the sunny and 75
- vermont pub and brewery's epinette and forbidden fruit
- trout river's double time and whitewater
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Labels: drink, execution success, food, pancakes
Jul 15, 2009
summer reading, 1 of 7
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Jul 14, 2009
terroir: a critical analysis
going through the files, i found a paper from several years back analysing the relationship between subjective wine quality and underlying vineyard physiography (soil type, site exposure, etc). i recently updated it and reworked the figures, though the original dataset appears to have vanished. the physiographic components of a vineyard site are elements commonly associated with the concept of terroir: in various forms, the unique combination of physical characteristics of a vineyard have become associated with quality and thus with price. the french legal system of denominations d'origine contrôlée (DOC) is perhaps the best known of the type, though there are similar systems of spatial classifications in germany, italy, spain, and other traditional winegrowing regions, as well as in the US. if it's not from burgundy, you can't call it burgundy, even if it's pinot noir. in any case, opinions vary about the degree to which terroir is detectable in wine and the strength of the connection between quality and terroir. this paper is a first analysis of terroir in the american context (indicated by AVA, american viticultural area, classification) and its relationship with subjective quality (as measured by robert parker's wine score over a period of several years). flaws aplenty, but a good place to begin conceptually (i hope).
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Labels: complexity, drink, execution failure, sociology, theory
Jul 13, 2009
little gidding
We shall not cease from exploration(on which, also see ithaka)
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
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Labels: complexity, epistemology, nostalgia, poems, theory
Jul 12, 2009
RIP kaguya
after some time in orbit, JAXA's kaguya lunar orbiter crashlands on
the moon, as planned, taking HD video until the last moments.
>
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Labels: craft, execution success, technology, transient
Jul 11, 2009
love+butter
i made it out of wyss in time for dinner at love+butter, my first time back in over a year. they've moved into a new apartment with a massive kitchen, and their custom-made table is arriving within the month--frame welded by a supplier of aerial acrobatic equipment and top made by a cabinetmaker somewhere close by. there are also new toys: a vacuum sealer and an immersion circulating heater. they served:
the final two courses were particularly awesome. red bean, lapsang souchong, and coarse salt? yes. i like it when people demonstrate restraint with chocolate. it is such an easy crowd-pleaser that i can't help feeling that desserts that depend too much on chocolate demonstrate a lack of serious intent.fava pate with rye and whole wheat sourdough breads
spring salad (frisee, roasted zucchini, turnip, red carrot, and beet) on sardinian couscous in an arugula pesto
soft-boiled egg with miso, dashi (non-traditional variety, made with kombu, dried scallops, dried mushrooms), a sugar snap pea, and shavings of bottarga from their loaner fancy deli slicer machine
beef heart tortelloni with pea shoots (i think)
lamb tongue and lamb cheek with pan-roasted new potatoes, scallion, and a quivering pale fragment of mint jelly
cucumber jelly with preserved lemon granita
cherry compote and cherry preserve with a (possibly almond-meal) sponge and pine needle ice-cream
earl grey truffle, jasmine tea panna cotta with honey, and a square of lapsang souchong infused red bean pastethroughout: a salice salentino (epicuro 2005; it costs less than a 6-pack of bad beer!)
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Jul 8, 2009
good agriculture
- farm labourers (often illegal, living in horrendous conditions, and exposed to high pesticide loads) go without healthcare which they cannot afford and then tax emergency care systems,
- fertilizers run off into local water bodies and cause algal blooms and aquatic die-offs that require expensive remediation often funded by federal or state bodies,
- pesticides and herbicides damage local ecosystems (also expensive to restore) and additionally often disrupt the biochemistry of humans that consume them even in trace quantities (see this list of foods frequently contaminated with chemicals used in production). this latter health impact constitutes a potentially enormous distributed cost which magnitude is not yet clear.
- transportation-intensive agriculture relies on heavily subsidized fuel and systems (like the interstate freeway), both funded by the taxpayer.
- the workers tend to be paid (slightly) better and have better access to healthcare,
- fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide use is much reduced or nonexistent (discounting judiciously-applied manure or compost), and
- produce is transported much shorter distances.
- if we assume that everyone must eat as much as they currently do (anywhere from 10% to 40% more calories than they need, hence the obesity epidemic in the US),
- if we assume that foods will be eaten throughout the year regardless of whether or not they're in season, and
- if we assume that the majority (over 90%) of the $50+ billion spent annually on farm subsidies continues to go to industrial agriculture,
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Labels: agriculture, execution failure, execution success, food, government, sustainability
today's discovery
it is difficult, awkward, and time-consuming, but not impossible, to char-grill an entire marinated chicken over a gas burner.
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Labels: execution success, food
google chrome OS
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Jul 5, 2009
droit, or some things are wrong
in our relentless pursuit of making everyone happy with "doing their best," i find we often lose sight of how there are often right ways to do things and thus, conversely, wrong ways to do things.* someone who is adroit follows an elegant and effective course of action, like odysseus, whose cunning and shrewdness led him to do the right thing (not a coincidence that droit in the original means right or law, per the motto of the windsor crown). a good printer, a good builder, a good furniture maker--they are all adroit in their practice. the same holds for the cook. i found this passage from zhuang zi in the most unlikely of places (fuchsia dunlop, for those who care):
庖丁为文惠君解牛,手之所触,肩之所倚,足之所路履,膝之所倚,fortunately for you (and me), here is the least egregious of the translations of this passage from zhuang zi:砉然响然,奏刀豁然 ,莫不中音。合于桑林之舞,乃中经首之会。文惠君曰:“嘻, 善哉!技盖至此乎?” 庖丁释刀对曰:“臣之所好者道也,进乎技矣。始臣之解牛之时, 所见无非牛者。三年之后,未尝见全牛也。方今之时, 臣以神遇而不以目视,官知止而神欲行。依 乎天理,批大郄,导大髋,因其固然。技(枝)经肯綮之未尝, 而况大骨乎!良庖岁更刀,割也;族庖月更刀,折也。 今臣之刀十九年矣,所解数千牛矣,而刀刃若 新发于硎。彼节者有间,而刀刃者无厚,以有閒入无厚, 恢恢乎其于游刃必有余地矣,是以十九年而刀刃若新发于硎。虽然, 每至于族,吾见其难为,怵然为戒,视 为止,行为迟,动刀甚微,然已解,如土委地。提刀而立, 为之四顾,为之踌躇满志,善刀而藏之。” 文惠君曰:“善哉!吾闻庖丁之言,得养生焉。
His cook was cutting up an ox for the ruler Wen Hui. Whenever he applied his hand, leaned forward with his shoulder, planted his foot, and employed the pressure of his knee, in the audible ripping off of the skin, and slicing operation of the knife, the sounds were all in regular cadence. Movements and sounds proceeded as in the Dance of the Mulberry Forest and the blended notes of the King Shou. The ruler said, 'Ah! Admirable! That your art should have become so perfect!' (Having finished his operation), the cook laid down his knife, and replied to the remark, 'What your servant loves is the method of the Dao, something in advance of any art. When I first began to cut up an ox, I saw nothing but the entire carcase. After three years I ceased to see it as a whole. Now I deal with it in a spirit-like manner, and do not look at it with my eyes. The use of my senses is discarded, and my spirit acts as it wills. Observing the natural lines, (my knife) slips through the great crevices and slides through the great cavities, taking advantage of the facilities thus presented. My art avoids the membranous ligatures, and much more the great bones. A good cook changes his knife every year; (it may have been injured) in cutting. An ordinary cook changes his every month; (it may have been) broken. Now my knife has been in use for nineteen years; it has cut up several thousand oxen, and yet its edge is as sharp as if it had newly come from the whetstone. There are the interstices of the joints, and the edge of the knife has no (appreciable) thickness; when that which is so thin enters where the interstice is, how easily it moves along! The blade has more than room enough. Nevertheless, whenever I come to a complicated joint, and see that there will be some difficulty, I proceed anxiously and with caution, not allowing my eyes to wander from the place, and moving my hand slowly. Then by a very slight movement of the knife, the part is quickly separated, and drops like (a clod of) earth to the ground. Then standing up with the knife in my hand, I look all round, and in a leisurely manner, with an air of satisfaction, wipe it clean, and put it in its sheath.' The ruler Wen Hui said, 'Excellent! I have heard the words of my cook, and learned from them the nourishment of (our) life.'
dôgen wrote some instructions for chef monks (actually, "as instruction for accomplished practitioners of the way in the future"); these tenzo kyōkun are worth reading.from the inner chapters, translation by james legge
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another perfect sandwich
thin-sliced roasted cauliflower, grilled zucchini, tomato, and charred green onions, with black pepper and olive oil, on toasted ciabatta.
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Jul 4, 2009
fireworks and good weather
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Labels: boston, cambridge, execution success, history