Sunday, December 20, 2009

Come senators, congressmen please heed the call...

I was very sad to hear that the outcome of the summit on climate in Copenhagen ended with what seems like no result at all. I think this teaser from the WSJ's website sums it up nicely:
"The United Nations summit on climate change ended Saturday with a fractious all-night debate over an agreement brokered by China and the U.S. that has no legal force, and is vague on crucial details."

The key words here, are "no legal force" and "vague". The full article is here. Now I haven't read a whole lot of on the details of the accord, but the German news reports that I did consult, are much harsher in their criticism than the Wall Street Journal (who point out as a negative, that the accord will make it hard for companies to make investments in carbon-reducing technologies, since it's not legally binding; take that however you want to). The German reports call it a "fiasco" and the "miserable end" of the summit, which approximates my opinion pretty well.

I could go on a big rant on how China should really not be considered a developing nation any more, or how the Western countries should lead the way much more affirmatively by setting good examples, but really, I just wanted to communicate the sense of hopelessness this leaves me with.

Labels: , ,

 | Talkers (0)

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Ice, ice baby.

Do you like ice cream? Well I love it. And Christina loves it. And we have it way too often. Or not often enough, depending on how you look at it. One thing's for sure though, we're living the dream. And that dream just got a whole lot sweeter because we have found ice cream scoop bliss.

When I was a kid, my parents had, and still have I believe, one of those scoops with the mechanical handle, where a piece of metal would release the ice cream from the scoop and into your bowl of waffle. It was nice, but of course the mechanical part is not that easy to operate sometimes, and has the potential of breaking. When we moved to the US, we thought we'd get a nice scoop, and went with Kitchenaid. The scoops they had looked nice and we thought we were getting great quality. It made pretty round scoops too, but to get the ice cream out of the scoop I had to use a teaspoon to help it. And not before long, the shiny chrome-looking coating was nicked and started to come off. Huge letdown. Then Christina got another nice scoop from a company named Wilton, that makes all kinds of great baking tools and accessories. It worked pretty well, but because of it's shape it was really difficult to get into the corners of the ice cream containers and impossible for me to make anything that even resembled a nice round scoop. Might as well have used a simple spoon. We've looked around some more, but none of the ones we saw really looked any better. They either had that chrome coating or a funny shape.

And then we went to the city last weekend, to witness some of the madness and get a few last gifts. And inside the MOMA store, we found a scoop that very much appealed to us: a great shape, made out of aluminum alloy (so even if the ice cream sticks, using a spoon wouldn't hurt it) and made in the USA since 1935. Oh, it also uses a scientific principle to help the ice cream come out, namely a heat-conductive fluid. I assume that your hand warms the fluid in the handle, which then provides heat to the scoop part and melts the ice cream into your bowl or cone. And best of all: It really works! I am amazed by this ice cream scoop and it was well worth the price. Beautiful round scoops that come out of the scooper absolutely effortlessly. Ladies and gentlemen: Zeroll Original Ice Cream Scoop.

Well, that pretty much reads like a comment somebody who's being paid by the scoop's manufacturer would leave on an online shopping site or review page, but I just had to share the great news.

Labels: , ,

 | Talkers (3)

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Spreading it on too thin

Pantyhose are not the same as regular pants. This becomes especially obvious when the sun is out. And people can all too clearly see the tattoos on your butt as you walk into a fast food restaurant.

Labels: , ,

 | Talkers (4)