The coolest part of that photo is not that Laika has a statue. It's that someone put roses up for her. That's pretty darn cool.

Okay, Scott, I tried reading it. While I like your style, the large amounts of self-surgery got to me at chapter "Wake We Hungry" (well, that plus what the chapter heading references). That's truly some disturbed stuff, man. While the story seemed good, that was just too much for me. I skipped to the end to get some closure. Sorry, man. Looking at some reviews, it seems like you're more on the "horror" end of Sci-Fi, and the only horror I read is Lovecraft.

I'll check a couple of the other books mentioned here and see if there're any that are more my speed. Thanks for the effort - it got me to read you. :)

M

Anybody else misread that as "erroneous", instead of "enormous"?

Isn't that anatomically incorrect? I thought it was that one half pumped, then the other. This is the entire thing at once.

Very cool - but I'm more of a Frantics fan. Let me know when _they're_ on tour near me (Texas), and I'll camp out for tickets.

This is great news, but not for the reason you think. As a techie I'm one of those people who, after turning off a computer, let it sit for a minute or two. There is another group that immediately turn it back on, since "it's not like the RAM holds anything after it's off". So, my superstition turns out to be practical. Awesome.

This is on their DVD as well.

Obviously, you've never had good borscht, then, or you wouldn't want them wasting perfectly good beets on that.

And, since my Baba ("grandmother") just taught me how to make hers last week, here's the recipe. Pardon that it's not all cleaned up - still in the middle of cleaning it up. But hey, consider it Open Source and post a better version. ;) FWIW, this is not the vinegar-infused variety, nor are there red hunks in the soup, nor does it taste like beets. My grandmother tells me that she was always considered the go-to person by the local church, since her borscht was the best. Either way, I enjoy it a lot. Long live beets!

Olga's Borscht
Meat: purchase both bone-in (1.5lb) and boneless (1 lb) beef short ribs. (probably choice, but I don't think it matters). However, make sure it's not too fatty.
The boneless provides the meat, but you really need the bone to add substance.
Vegetables:
3 Beets, fresh. If you wind up with light-colored ones, don't cook as long.
1 leek
1 head cabbage
7 medium potatoes
3 stalks celery
4 big carrots
1 medium onion
1 green bell pepper

Cooking:
Cover beef with water in medium-large cookpot. Heat on med high. Let boil one minute then pour out. This gets rid of the "crud". Clean bowl, rinse off meat, then stick back in pot.

Peel beets, slice fairly thin (think thick potato chips) then into strips. Let sit in cold water for a few minutes, then pour out. Do this a few times. You're trying to get some of the red out.

Add water to meat (more than covering, probably 2/3 of pot - remember that this determines how much broth there is, but also that it will have to hold all the veggies), along with one onion (whole but "skinned") and beets. Simmer for 75-90 minutes (until a knife no longer holds onto a piece). Remove onion. (Use slotted spoon as the onion will fall apart). The soup will have acquired a reddish hue, and the beets should be pink instead of red, and possibly whiter than that.

Chill overnight to make it easy to skim the fat, as well as enhance the flavor.

Day 2:
Skim fat.

Remove meat.

Cut bell pepper in half, deseed, and add to pot.

Peel and chop four big carrots (cut end in half then slice - you want small pieces).

Add to pot, set on medium high (we need to get it to a boil so it can simmer with the vegetables)

Chop three stalks of celery (split in 3 to ensure small pieces) - add to pot.

Clean leek well, cut into quarters, then chop very fine. As you get to the end of the white, remove the outer leaves, since there's still some white to be had on the outer leaves, whereas the inner ones will already be brown.

Set pot to medium low to simmer for a while - you want to get all the vegetables cooked. Also important as the flavors are mixing from all the vegetables.

Peel seven medium potatoes - after peeled, soak in a separate bowl of water, to keep them from browning.

Cut meat into small, bite-sized bits, removing the excess fat and bones. You won't be able to get much meat off the bone-in.

Cut potatoes into small pieces (half, then strips, then dice)

Turn up heat to high then add potatoes and remove the green pepper. Leave on high until boiling then turn down.

Add 2 knorr vegetable buillion cubes

Slice cabbage in half along core, then again into quarters. Shred by cutting perpendicular to first cut, but cut around core (we don't want core). Cut strips in half - don't want them too long.

Check potatoes for doneness - this will only take a few minutes, since the pieces are so small.

Crank heat so that it's boiling again. High, since it has to recover from....
Add cabbage (about 1/2 cabbage) and beef

Add 1-2 beef bouillon cubes, crushing up then adding. If you need more salt, add more cubes.

Add 1 15oz can of tomato sauce (you can add more if it's watery, but that should be rare)

Cabbage boils for one minute, no more.

Remove from heat. Add 1-2 teaspoons of dill (optional). Serve with Sour Cream (optional)

Cory, designing music for MP3s is ignorant. It's like designing movies for VHS - sure, works great in the short term. But then Laserdisks come out and your movie doesn't look any better, and then DVDs come out.... and then.....

If nothing else, it's like back when LAME had a "hiccup" of a particular frequency when encoding at 160. If you designed your albums around that, your album would be forever crippled.

Is there any equivalent for mechanical pencils? And, does it smear if you're a lefty?