Facebook Privacy Concerns Are Overblown

Now that the backlash seems to be subsiding, I gotta say that I don't share the recent concern that a lot of people have expressed about Facebook's privacy practices.

First and foremost, FB is a free service, if you don't like it, nobody is forcing you to use it.

Second, the whole point of FB is to share info with a sizeable audience.

2010 is turning into "2012"

Devastating earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, and China, plus other significant quakes in Mexico and Indonesia, and now this volcano in Iceland seizing up airline routes and freight flights (imagine no FedEx!) and shutting airports throughout Europe, all in 2010, which is only 3.5 months over. If this pace of natural disasters keep up, the premise of the movie "2012" won't seem so ridiculous after all.

Pasta with a Fresh Tomato Sauce From Scratch

Tonight, I cooked up angel hair pasta with a fresh tomato sauce made from scratch, inspired by the Chef Scott Conant segment of last week's Anthony Bourdain No Reservations "Techniques" special episode. For my first time ever, I blanched fresh tomatoes, removed their peels, removed the seeds and watery sections. I did Conant's high heat, hot olive oil, generous salt, potato masher technique with the tomato segments. Also, I did the extra virgin olive oil infusion with garlic, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes. I then cooked the pasta and finished it in the sauce, with parmessan cheese, the infused and strained oil, fresh basil bits, and butter. I mistakenly overcooked the pasta, in part because I seldom cook with fresh pasta, but the overall flavors worked out well. But I gotta say, it was a lot of work for only a small improvement in flavor from my usual quick and dirty spaghetti sauce. Perhaps I shouldn't have used ordinary supermarket tomatoes, since a couple were kinda mealy to start with, but my hope was the techniques would bring the best out of ordinary ingredients.