Stray Thoughts

Cookies are used to identify you to sites that you visited, so that you don't have to identify yourself again when you get back. At least, that's the non-malicious use. Sometimes you find yourself hitting the Purge button when trying to fix a problem, and sometimes the capacity of the PC to maintain cookies runs out (apparently, its 'only so many' files'). In these cases, there ought to be a way to say 'when I purge, don't purge these sites unless I explicitly say so'; and as for wrapping, they should be saved in a non-wrappable location. In that light, IE's Password Manager is a good idea, because -- so far as I know -- it saves passwords in some place other than a cookie. Okay, being Microshaft, who knows what else they're saving, but its still a good thing.

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Why is it that when you put four or six sausage patties on a frying pan, one or two will cook notably darker or lighter than the others? I used to think that it was related to heat conduction at specific points, but we bought some new pans a few months ago, and the patties slide around quite easily on them -- so the odds of them just happening to be in a hotter or cooler than normal site are less. Unless the ones that cook up at an extreme just happen to occur because there's always variations, and they happened to be in the right place for that?

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I read this morning that the federal response to Rita shows that Katrina was 'an aberration'. I don't agree with that. If Katrina hadn't happened, the effect of Rita would have been worse. Not as bad as Katrina, but worse than did happen. Put another way, FEMA and Bush aren't getting off that easily.

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The King Arthur Flour Bakers Catalog is pornography for bakers. Its awesome. I leaf through each issue slowly, reading about all the wonderful things that I could bake if I bought their stuff. Not to say it can't be done without, say, their Double Rise Yeast, but with it, baking nirvana could be mine.

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Antiwar slogan from an article today: "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam."

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I don't like the phrase, or even the concept, of 'protesting'. It makes me think of a three year old who is loudly proclaiming the injustice of the world as he is packed off to bed or make to eat green beans. Speaking out against disliked or hated actions, acting solely or in groups to vote for change, yes, by all means. Protesting, no. It needs a better word.

And as for the people who set fire to something to indicate their displeasure -- well, I don't believe in sympathetic magic.
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A doctor complained that he volunteered for assistance in Katrina and found that, essentially, he and the tons of other medical people weren't needed. In true Washington form:

"I called one of my patients back in Washington who is chief of staff to a member of Congress from the Gulf region. Perhaps he could iron out any red tape. The next thing I knew I was escorted to the nerve center of the entire rescue operation. I met the governor's chief of staff, the head of the federal Health and Human Services team, the coordinator of the state hospitals and a FEMA representative. They were all trying desperately to find a place for a physician with my skills."

Poor baby. But isn't it nice that he had strings to pull?
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