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Visit to the Peace Barn

We took a trip recently to visit Falling Water. Along the way we had a chance to visit the Peace Barn in the Bruderhof community in Farmington PA.

A friend had told us that there might still be a community there and a little research before the trip alerted me to look for Spring Valley Signs. We saw a sign for that company and a welcome to the Peace barn just off of Route 381 a little way from Route 40. in Farmington, PA. The Peace Barn is a project of the 5-8 grades at the commune school. It has exhibits dealing with “heroes of flight 93 and all the victims on September 11, http://familiesofseptember11.org/resources.aspx?s=10. The Peace Barn also contained several exhibits dealing with war (all against war as a concept and practice) and natural disasters, created by students in grades 5-8 as part of their school work. Some of the exhibits highlighted work done by members of this commune or community with the earthquake victims in Pakistan, Tsunami victims in Thailand, and Katrina victims in Mississippi.

We were greeted by a member of the group when we stopped in front of building that appeared to be used in manufacturing for the sign company. She had another take us to the Peace Barn where we were met by one of the students who gave us a guided tour of the exhibits. One of our guides said there were about 320 members of the community who were living there. There’s a nice photo essay of the community at http://photovoyage.auroraquanta.com/pv/bruderhof.

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2006 07 22 ernie Travel Comments (0) Permalink

Prawns in Garlic Sauce with Sweet Red Peppers

This recipe is from The Catalan Country Kitchen, by Marimar Torres. We are making it for a party on Thursday night.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
18 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
3 large red bell peppers seeded and cut into thin strips lengthwise
2 pounds medium prawns, peeled but with tails attached
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add garlic, pepper flakes, and red peppers; cook over low heat until peppers are soft, about 10 or 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season with salt.
Turn heat to high and toss prawns in; stir and turn them over for 1 minute.
Pour lemon juice and wine over and saute quickly 1 or 2 more minutes, until the prawns are cooked through.
Serve immediately, sprinkled with parsley.

—
And today’s special is ..
All we are saying, is give peace a chance. – John Lennon
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2006 06 28 ernie Recipes Comments (1) Permalink

Names of the dead as reported June 26, 2006

From the New York Times:

The Department of Defense has identified 2,509 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans over the weekend:

BAKER, Riley E., 22, Cpl., Marines; Pacific, Mo.; Second Marine Division.

BEYER, Paul A., 21, Pfc., Army; Jamestown, N.D.; 101st Airborne Division.

BIEVRE, Mario J., 34, Staff Sgt., Army; Constantinople, Ill.; 101st Airborne Division.

The number of dead, 2505, is 40 more than was reported 24 days ago on June 2, 2006.

Other information available at Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

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2006 06 26 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink

Blue Ginger Cracker Dough

This is the recipe for the excellent crackers that we make and serve for company. They always get lots of positive comments, once people get over the fact that we make our own crackers sometimes. It’s not hard to make the crackers, and Lynn is the master at getting them thin enough for baking.

The recipe is from Simply Ming by Ming Tsai and Arthur Boehm with photographs by Alan Richardson. It contains several other great recipes in addition to this one.

“Make 4 pounds of dough. Lasts about 1 week, tightly wrapped and refrigerated, 3 to 4 weeks frozen.” We’ve kept the dough frozen longer than that and it has been fine.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 ounce (2 packages) active dry yeast
6 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Steps:
1. using a motar and pestle, grind the cumin, coriander, fennel, and peppercorns and combine them in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In a 5-quart mixing bowl, combine in this order the yeast, 2 1/2 cups cold water, the flour, oil, garlic, and salt. Using a dough hook, mix at a low speed until the flour’s gluten is fully developed and the dough is smooth and doesn’t tear easily when stretched, about 15 minutes. Remove the dough from the machine and knead in the spices.
3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap. If using immediately, allow the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Otherwise, refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

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2006 06 25 ernie food
Recipes Comments (0) Permalink

The Blue Ginger Cracker

This is the recipe for the excellent crackers that we make and serve for company. They always get lots of positive comments, once people get over the fact that we occasionally make our own crackers. Lynn is the master at getting them thin enough for baking. You’ll need the recipe for the Blue Ginger Cracker Dough hat I posted earlier .

The recipe is from Simply Ming by Ming Tsai and Arthur Boehm with photographs by Alan Richardson.

2006 06 25 ernie Recipes Comments (0) Permalink

Hive Mind

Jason Lanier has written an interesting essay DIGITAL MAOISM:
The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism in which he addresses some of the issues related to the hive-mind collectivism of Web 2.0 phenomena. In my work I think about the effect and use of collective software. I also find myself justifying it, explaining its benefits to my colleagues. This essay and the responses on Edge is an excellent starting point for an amplification of some of the issues related to the use and reliance on collective software.
Here’s a quote

“No, the problem is in the way the Wikipedia has come to be regarded and used; how it’s been elevated to such importance so quickly. And that is part of the larger pattern of the appeal of a new online collectivism that is nothing less than a resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise, that it is desirable to have influence concentrated in a bottleneck that can channel the collective with the most verity and force. This is different from representative democracy, or meritocracy. This idea has had dreadful consequences when thrust upon us from the extreme Right or the extreme Left in various historical periods. The fact that it’s now being re-introduced today by prominent technologists and futurists, people who in many cases I know and like, doesn’t make it any less dangerous.”

—

And today’s special is ..
But the point is not to transform the world into an immaculate place; it is to sweep with a sincere heart. – Gary Thorp

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2006 06 14 ernie Commentary
web2.0 Comments (0) Permalink

Names of the Dead as reported June 12, 2006

From the New York Times:

The Department of Defense has identified 2,485 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the death of the following American on Saturday:

CRABTREE, Daniel B., 31, Sgt. First Class, Army National Guard; Canton, Ohio; Second Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group.

The number of dead, 2485, is 18 more than was reported 9 days ago on June 3, 2006.

Other information available at Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

2006 06 12 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink

Computer Science tutorials

I received a “Dear Faculty” email today from Jessamy Hoffmann asking for recommendations of Web resources for the Web page “UMW – On-line tutorials by subject” published by Academic Services at Mary Washington. The page has links to several tutorials in a variety of subject areas. The current one listed for Computer Science is

Computer Science Tutorials and Applets, University of Saskatchewan – a combination of interactive applets and tutorials students can drill down through to learn more about their subject.

Here are a few others that I recommended as I’ve found useful:

—
And today’s special is ..
The web of our life is of mingled yarn, good and ill together. – Shakespeare
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2006 06 08 ernie Interesting Web Sites Comments (0) Permalink

Names of the Dead as reported June 3, 2006

From the New York Times:

The Department of Defense has identified 2,467 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday:

BUCKLIN, Brock L., 28, Specialist, Army; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Fourth Infantry Division.

MEJIA, Benjamin E., 25, Sgt., Army; Salem, Mass.; Fourth Squadron, 14th Cavalry, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

Other information available at Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

2006 06 03 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink

stolen election

There is an interesting article in Rolling Stone, “Was the 2004 Election Stolen?” by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The lead is “Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted — enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. ” The article is an analysis of how that happened and how the main stream press had essentially ignored it. It concludes with “Voting, as Thomas Paine said, ‘is the right upon which all other rights depend.’ Unless we ensure that right, everything else we hold dear is in jeopardy.

Give it a read and stay vigilant.
—
And today’s special is ..
We cannot all be masters.
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2006 06 02 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink