Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:28 PM

DrinkBoston presented this video clip for a laugh. It purports to teach how to make a "Woodford Reserve Mint Julep":

After the wincing stopped, Ian was reminded of a quotation we heard at Tales of the Cocktail.

It took me a little while to track it down, but here are the words of Irwin S. Cobb from 1934:

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:00 AM

The New York Times has some cool UI for navigating the 90 minute video and transcript.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:05 PM

Planning on catching the vice-presidential debate tonight?

If so, you can play a dedicated Palin Bingo or download general Debate Bingo cards from Mother Jones or Grist.

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:35 PM

In news reports on the current financial crisis, I've heard several reporters state that Ben Bernanke's wrote his doctoral dissertation on the causes of the Great Depression -- implying that the Fed Chairman understands what went wrong and is uniquely qualified in preventing another.

For example, Forbes writes:

Anyone concerned about an economic catastrophe along the lines of the 1930s need look no further for reassurance that it will not happen than Ben S. Bernanke's 1979 doctoral thesis from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Long-Term Commitments, Dynamic Optimization and the Business Cycle."
...
In Bernanke's view, the trigger for the Great Depression was a weakening of America's banking system by worried depositors who withdrew their money, which caused a severe panic and the failure of numerous banks. It was more the instability of financial institutions than the reduction in the money supply that toppled the U.S. economically and kept the stock market from regaining its 1929 highs until the the 1950s.

Well, I've found a copy of Bernanke's dissertation online thru the MIT libraries.

And while I may not know much of graduate-level economics, this document does not appear to cover the Great Depression in the way experts are claiming. For example, expected terms like Depression, Federal Reserve, 192* or 193* don't appear anywhere in the full text.

Bernanke did write a book, titled Essays on the Great Depression. Maybe reporters were thinking about that instead.

Anybody more knowledgable in economics care to flip through Bernanke's dissertation and check on its relevance?

Thanks!

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:40 PM

Happy Rosh Hashonah, in Stephen Colbert's own inimitable style:

If that's not enough, fast-forward this video clip to 2:50 to watch Stephen Colbert blow a shofar.

Meanwhile, it's time to make my annual offer:

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:47 AM

Courtesy of SomeEcards:

           

See you on the other side...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:48 PM

The active component which gives chili peppers their "heat" is capsaicin. Hotness is measured in Scoville units. Whether people wish to indulge or avoid extreme sensations, Scoville units are a useful informative tool.

But there are other kinds of spicy foods based upon different components. For example,

• Horseradish and mustard get their sharpness from isothiocyanate.
• And gingerol is what gives ginger its bite.

So do any measurement scales exist for those foods? If not, why not -- and how do we go about establishing one?

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:56 PM

From Paradox of plenty: a social history of eating in modern America by Harvey Levenstein, my current read:

During the 1920s the previously praised Pilgrims came to be derided as pleasure-hating Puritans.

Is this true?

If so, how much of this change in perception has to do with the backlash against Prohibition.

For what it's worth, the Puritans were the ones who stayed in Great Britain to purify the Church of England. The Pilgrims are more accurately called Separatists.