Truly Minimalist Pepper Oil Sauce

Materials:

- 2 handfuls red chili peppers (dried, whole)
- 1 clove
- hot oil (corn or canola, not olive oil -- high flashpoint preferred); approx. equal vol. to the peppers before they are ground.
- coffee grinder
- glass jar (enough to store oil + spices)

Methods:

1. Grind spices in coffee grinder. (Play around with proportions to find your favorite combination.)
2. Heat hot oil in a saucepan until almost at its flashpoint.
3. Turn off heat.
4. Put in spices. Stir and immediately close lid.
5. Allow to cool to room temperature. Store in jar. Or serve mixed into rice/noodles with a touch of soy sauce.

Notes: Crushed pepper seeds will take on a sesame-like aroma after being fried--that's the best part about this insanely easy sauce.

Current music: Bonobo - Scuba

Objects in Space

There needs to be a non-governmental international entity for monitoring our friendly skies, tracking objects in space. This is why. All nations with space programs or who have satellites up there should subscribe to this service, provided by a responsible provider with lots of computing power.

Like Google. :P

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believe it, river.

Now available in North America. $3.49 at Jerry's. Unfortunately, the dark chocolate variety has not been observed.

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littered with white gloves

b 8 1 13 19 10 13 1a 7 11 7 17 7 12 6 11 7 17 13 11 7 5 a 13 5 13 10 3 18 7

first one to solve this gets a prize. i'm waiting. <3

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An Immodest Proposal: how to pay for the bailout and help people at the same time

The bailout is going to cost taxpayers, both present and future, a huge amount of money, something for which we'll be scrambling to turn out our pockets for generations. So, here's an immodest proposal.

Issue a special-issue low-yield bailout savings bond, available in 500K or 1 million USD denominations, marketed at potential immigrants to the U.S. If you are a permanent resident (green card holder), and you purchase a 500K bond, you get expedited U.S. citizenship, and if you are a non-permanent resident, the purchase of a 500K bond will get you expedited permanent residence status. Or you could buy 1 million and go straight to citizenship. The usual residency requirements will still apply (which would have a large positive impact on the housing market).

The population of the United States is a little over 300 million. The increase in population would be a drop in the bucket. Moreover, this would be a self-selected population, evidenced not only by the willingness to pick up and leave their country of origin (thus entrepreneurial in spirit), but also in shelling out half or one million US dollars. The individual who can afford to shell out/lock in 500K or 1 million USD, given a residency requirement, will very likely be spending significantly in the U.S. economy, thereby speeding up the economic recovery even more.

Of course, you might ask, who is the target market here? There are wealthy parents in China who easily spend a couple million dollars for their child to go to school in the U.S. (housing costs, navigation of bureaucracy, etc.), some to escape the grueling examination system which still suffers from a low number of slots for the number of students, others because they wish to seek a long-term existence in the U.S. anyway. So, grant them citizenship. Make life easier for everyone. It'll be worth a couple million to them, and the economy needs it.

Current music: Bon Iver - The Wolves (Act I And II)