Watching the end of a documentary about the Weather Underground makes me want to say “and how would you do it differently next time?” in an effort to have a teachable moment…

If you were intrigued or horrified by the “spherical olives” on Top Chef, you should take a look at this assortment of recipes involving high tech gels, hydrocolloid recipe collection.

Updated numbers on the impressive voter turnout in Washington state this year. Though it looks like historically, Washington has been pretty participatory.

In Japan, ramen is an art form you can dedicate your life to perfecting, in some tiny shop in the warrens of the city. And in my hometown, it’s a 10 cent lunch. But outside my fevered faux poetic brain it is also 10 cents in Japan and can be had at some fairly greasy spoons in the warrens of the city.

I like instant ramen because it is very pre-lingual: fill bowl to fill line with boiling water, wait 3 minutes, eat. There are more complex ones, but you can only go so far wrong. The most difficult are the bowl-less, where you have to find the number next to cc and thank your stars for the metric system.

I just had the swankiest instant ramen I’ve ever eaten: there was a photo of the shop and famous chef on the lid! Or perhaps he was a very cheflike sponsor? It was delicious and full of exotic ingredients that I’m sure I didn’t properly appreciate.

And after recent complaints about the dearth of flying cars, I must point out that ramen is your ideal food for space stations, plankton farming villages on the ocean floor, and cloud cities. Just add hot water!

The AP reports “Mothers in Kenya have marked Barack Obama’s historic win in the U.S. presidential elections by naming their newborns after him and his wife. More than half of the babies born in a Kisumu Hospital on the day after the election were named either Barack or Michelle Obama.”

I didn’t celebrate in the street, but I’m happy to see the pictures of everyone who did (and hear about the celebrants in Seattle who picked up other people’s litter after, and were thanked by the friendly police people who had been indulgently watching the hoo-ha. That’s Seattle all over, I must say).

I am also happy to hear that this election had the highest national voter turnout since 1908 (!!!!!), when not everyone could vote, you know, so it should count as the highest turnout ever!

We get a new president and Sasha and Malia get a puppy. Huzzah!

If more than 30 percent of the student body pledges to abstain from sex, it doesn’t work, again showing that evangelical Christians need to feel persecuted.

A telecoms-based order of nuns answers phones at the Vatican (except at night).

A Newfoundland specialty, the Jiggs Dinner!

I have a posting on the back burner regarding Top Foods’ completely missing the point of “Natural”, and a larger project somewhere in the pantry involving an investigation of just how many of the calories in the American diet are derived from corn (between cow feed and HFCS—to say nothing of using it for fuel). In the meantime, it’s nice to see that the ridiculousness is getting some attention.

Wondermark is usually pretty entertaining.

Scott Simpson points out the usefulness of the word genki and short history of its fluctuating meaning.