Coffee Klatch

If you’ve read any of my posts about BlogThings, you’ll know that I like to take the same tests a couple of times, modifying my answers when it was a close call between two of them. Today it’s about what painter should do your portrait, and I came up with these two. (And it was really no surprise to me.)

Who Should Paint You: Alfred Gockel

All American yet funky, you inspire an artist’s imagination And while not everyone will understand your portrait, you will!

Who Should Paint You: Salvador Dali

You’re a complex, intense creature who displays many layers. There’s no way a traditional portrait could ever capture you!

From a blog called Right Wing Nation, we read the following news excerpt (disregard the politics, this is just about this one issue in education):

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The only adjective that can adequately describe this news from Los Angeles:

In the fall of 2004, 48,000 ninth-graders took beginning algebra; 44% flunked, nearly twice the failure rate as in English. Seventeen percent finished with Ds.

. . . Among those who repeated the class in the spring, nearly three-quarters flunked again.

The school district could have seen this coming if officials had looked at the huge numbers of high school students failing basic math.

Reading down, I see this — which doesn’t surprise me in the least:

At Cal State Northridge, the largest supplier of new teachers to Los Angeles Unified, 35% of future elementary school instructors earned Ds or Fs in their first college-level math class last year.

Some of these students had already taken remedial classes that reviewed high school algebra and geometry.

I can tell you that “college-level” doesn’t mean what you think it does. Actual college-level math is reserved for math and science majors; non-majors take watered-down, idiotized courses. “Calculus for non-majors” often gets to the concept of derivatives at the end of the semester.

Worse, math departments often reserve their most dumbed-down math courses for education majors.

Certainly, passing students on is a problem — but why are these education majors allowed to get a degree?
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He’s got a point.

Since the Federal tele-file option has been eliminated, they’ve decided to allow FREE e-filing if you meet certain criteria. According to the IRS, 70% of U.S. taxpayers will be eligible for free e-filing through partner companies. You should go to those sites THROUGH the IRS site to make sure you get the free version. Visit Free File to see if you qualify and to get links to sites that will process your filing for free.

I’d already filled out the paperwork, double-checked it all, and was ready to print it all out and send it in (the PDF forms from the IRS can be typed in and saved/printed!), when I checked on the free filing. After going through the process, which was just a series of questions and typing numbers into boxes, I ended with exactly the same info as I had on the paper version. Whether that says I did the paper stuff right or that the online version covered everything, I was pleased and I got my federal taxes filed tonight. Online!

It’s rather ironic, don’t you think, that we push to bring democracy to the Middle East, and then the Palestinians have elections and the winners are the Hamas, who have pledged to get rid of Israel and who have been recognized as a terrorist organization.

First we say that we won’t support Hamas or fund them, then we help make it possible for them to have elections, and that same group comes to power. Go figure.

It will be interesting to see what happens. The Palestinian organization is bankrupt and relies totally on outside funding. And many have said that they won’t finance Hamas. Should be interesting.

Today was the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, arguably one of the greatest composers of all time. Here are some other things that happened on this day in history.

Birthdays: Albert, Duke of Saxony (1443), Abbas I “The Great,” Shah of Persia (1556), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756), Edouard Lalo (1823), Lewis Carroll (1832), Samuel Gompers (1850), Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1859), Jerome Kern (1885), Harry Ruby (1895), Elmore James (1918), Ross Bagdasarian (1919), Donna Reed (1921), Sabu (1924), James Cromwell (1940), Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948), Chief Justice John Roberts (1955), Mimi Rogers (1956), Frank Miller (1957), Bridget Fonda (1964), Alan Cumming (1965), Rosamund Pike (1979),

Events:
1343 - Pope Clement VI issues the Bull Unigenitus, officially ratifying indulgences
1629 - Death of Michael Praetorius
1671 - Pirate Henry Morgan lands at Panama city
1710 - Czar Peter the Great sets the first Russian state budget
1785 - University of Georgia is founded
1825 - U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) for relocation of Eastern Indians
1851 - Death of John James Audubon (Audubon Society)
1880 - Thomas Edison files a patent for an electric incandescent lamp
1888 - The National Geographic Society is founded
1901 - Death of Giuseppe Verdi
1910 - Death of Thomas Crapper
1918 - “Tarzan of the Apes” (the first Tarzan movie) premieres at Broadway Theater
1926 - John Logie Baird demonstrates the first television broadcast
1926 - U.S. Senate agrees to join World Court
1927 - Harlem Globetrotters play their first game
1945 - Red Army discovers and liberates Auschwitz and Birkenau
1948 - First tape recorder sold
1951 - U.S. Air Force begins nuclear testing in the Nevada desert
1964 - “Introducing the Beatles” album released in the U.S.
1967 - Death of the crew of Apollo I in fire on launch pad
1973 - Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War
1976 - “Laverne & Shirley” premieres on ABC TV
1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons most Vietnam War draft dodgers (10,000)
1984 - Carl Lewis beats his own indoor world jumping record by over 9 inches (jump was 28′ 10-1/4 inches)
1984 - Michael Jackson burned while filming Pepsi commercial
1986 - Death of L. Ron Hubbard
1993 - Death of André the Giant
1994 - Death of Claude Akins
2004 - Death of Jack Paar

It is also U.K.’s Holocaust Memorial Day and Italy’s Memorial Day. Oh, and Chocolate Cake Day! And Punch the Clock Day!

It’s also National Toilet Day (erroneously named Thomas Crapper Day, who did not actually invent the modern toilet).

Current music: Fires at Midnight, by Blackmore’s Night

ThinkGeek has a very cool game available. It’s called Deflexion Laser Game and is described as an ancient game of laser tag. The style is ancient Egyptian, but the technology is lasers and mirrors. Here’s an excerpt from their website.

There are four types of playing pieces, and two of them have mirrors. Game play is simple, and easy to learn, as there are only 3 movement choices. The goal is to eliminate your opponent’s Pharaoh. And, you eliminate the Pharaoh just like they did in olden times - by firing a red laser! Each side of the board is equipped with its own laser, which you press after your turn. The laser bounces from mirror to mirror (always shooting off at a 90 degree angle). If the laser hits any piece on a non-reflective surface, that piece is removed from play. If you eliminate your opponent’s Pharaoh, you win. If you eliminate your own Pharaoh, you will be mocked for all time.

It’s very tempting, but it’s a little pricey for me. Check out the link for more info and more pictures of the game.

Here’s a cool new device available at ThinkGeek.com.

Shuffling around files between various computers can sometimes be a pain, especially sans network. Maybe you have a flash drive or USB hard drive and those will usually get the job done but not necessarily very well. The USB Data Transfer Device is a new product that offers the perfect solution - simply plug it in and start transferring your data between two computers. It automatically displays the entire contents of each PC enabling you to quickly drag-n-drop files and file folders from one machine to the other. The device will support data transfer at speeds up to 25Mb/Sec and has a 4 foot retractable USB cable. Copy stuff here:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7f0c/

Here’s an article that I came across today. It’s from PCWorld and it looks at the biggest myths about computers and technology that can waste your time and money. They even include a Bogus-O-Meter (from 1-5), so you can see how true/false the concept is.

You can read the article here. Or you can get yourself a copy of the August 2004 issue of PC World, from whence this article was taken.

In the end, it’s not about how much money is spent; it’s about HOW the money is spent.

“Not enough money for education? It’s a myth. The truth is, public schools are rolling in money. If you divide the U.S. Department of Education’s figure for total spending on K-12 education by the department’s count of K-12 students, it works out to about $10,000 per student. Think about that! For a class of 25 kids, that’s $250,000 per classroom. This doesn’t include capital costs. Couldn’t you do much better than government schools with $250,000? You could hire several good teachers; I doubt you’d hire many bureaucrats. Government schools, like most monopolies, squander money. America spends more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that outscore us on the international tests. But the bureaucrats still blame school failure on lack of funds, and demand more money.” - John Stossel

After talking with a representative from a reputable coffee manufacturer/distributor, I’ve come to a conclusion that will astound many “coffee connoisseurs” who have always thought the opposite. If you’re buying coffee by the pound or 1/2 pound, you will probably get better results if you buy it ground instead of whole bean.

Whoa!! That’s smacking of heresy in the coffee world! But it’s true. Why? It’s the method of grinding.

There are three primary methods of grinding coffee because there are three basic types of coffee grinders: a blade grinder (this is what most people have), a flat-plate burr grinder, and a conical burr grinder.

By far the most common type of coffee grinder has a couple of blades that spin. You dump your beans in and hold the button down until you think it’s done grinding. Sometimes you can tell by the sound whether or not there are still any big pieces left floating around. The problem with this method? It chops or tears the beans, resulting in your grounds being all different sizes. Some pieces are larger (maybe an eighth or a tenth the size of a bean), while others are practically powder.

Burr grinders use spinning elements that crush the bean into pieces that are all the same size. The flat-plate grinder has one of these elements next to a flat plate (go figure!), while the conical burr grinder just has the spinning metal cones. The result of using a burr grinder is that you don’t get powder and chunks, yet you can usually control the size of your grind, thus making the perfect grind for whatever type of coffee you’re making.

When the pieces are different sizes, then the oils are not extracted at the same rate. Some are over-extracted, while other are under-extracted. This will greatly affect the taste of your coffee.

Speed is also a factor. Speed creates heat and heat burns off some of the oils, resulting in a less flavorful cup of coffee. Burr grinders tend to use lower speeds for better heat control, but there are some blade grinders that are built to have slower spin rates to help reduce the heat.

The most critical element in making a quality cup of coffee is first the bean, of course, but then it’s the size of the grind and the speed of the grind. Last is the extraction method, which affects the taste as much as the grind does. Even more, depending on how you’re brewing it. But back to the grinding issues….

If you only have a blade grinder at home, you just might have a better cup of coffee from getting it ground at the store or at the factory. Many packagers are now using a nitrous-mixture or vacuum packaging for bagging up their ground coffee. As long as the coffee is not exposed to air, it will stay fresh for a long time. Once you open it, the coffee will begin to get stale. Heat, moisture, light, and air will cause the coffee to lose much of its flavor in 7 to 10 days! Be careful about storing your coffee in the refrigerator or freezer, because it can pick up the odors of the things stored around it, plus frequent movement in and out will result in condensation in your storage container, and that would easily negate the benefit of the refrigeration.

The best solution? Buy your coffee right from the roaster and get it whole bean. Then use a conical burr grinder to grind only as much as you need for each day. Then use a cone-filter coffeemaker or French press to get the best cup of coffee possible.

If you don’t have a burr grinder, then take advantage of the roaster’s or store’s burr grinder and store it in an air-tight container. Don’t stir it up much and keep it someplace cool and dark. (Even better, get one of those cool vacuum coffee containers with a pump!) That should produce a noticable improvement in your coffee.