Truffle of the Week

I love this combination of lemon and chocolate, really delicious.  Use good quality chocolate like Ghiradelli while making these, it makes a difference. 

Ingredients:

1-11 oz bag Ghiradelli white chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon lemon zest

2 tabelspoons fresh lemon juice

1-11 oz bag Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

1 cup of mini Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Preparation:

Put white chocolate chips in a medium size bowl. Heat heavy cream and lemon zest in a saucepan until hot but NOT boiling.  Pour hot cream and lemon zest over white chocolate and stir until melted.  Add fresh lemon juice to white chocolate genache and stir well.  If chocolate isn't melted completely pop bowl in microwave for 30 seconds and then stir until completely melted and smooth.  Cover genache and place in refrigerator for 2 hours to harden.  Once genache is set roll into small balls with your hands and place balls on a lined cookie sheet.  (It's best to portion out genache on the lined cookie sheet first and then roll into balls quickly before genache gets to soft.  Place cookie sheet with genache balls into freezer for 1 hour to harden.  Place chopped nuts in a small bowl and mini chocolate chips in another small bowl.  Melt semi-sweet chocolate and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments until completely melted.   Remove genache balls from freezer and dip into melted semi-sweet chocolate and then roll in chopped nuts or mini chips or leave plain and set back on lined cookie sheet.  When all truffles are dipped place cookie sheet back in freezer to set.  Enjoy!  I leave mine in the freezer and eat them cold.

Linked to  Sweets for Saturday

Linked to This Chick Cooks

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By Salman Hameed

I'm starting up a weekly post that will include a video loosely related to the topic of science and religion (of course, with room for flexibility). So if its Saturday, you can tune in here to see a video of something relevant to the topic. The clips will range from 5 minutes to an hour.

Since Nidhal's post What Makes Us Human generated a long discussion, I thought I'll start with this topic. PBS-Nova is a fantastic series - perhaps the best that is out there regarding science. Recently it did an excellent 3-part series on Becoming Human. Here is Part 1 - First Steps:

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I love this cake recipe. It is a rich chocolate cake that is easy to put together and almost impossible to mess up. I made this recently when I was invited over a friend's house for dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it before we cut into it, hence the huge gaping hole in the cake. Oh well, what can you do? It is also a pareve recipe which I love...no dairy needed in this one!

Ingredients:

2 C. sugar
1 3/4 C. all-purpose flour
3/4 C. cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 C. non-dairy creamer or soy milk
1/2 C. vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 C. boiling water

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the pan of your choice: one 13x9 inch pan, two 8-inch round or square pans or a Bundt pan. Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl, stirring until well blended. Add non dairy creamer, oil, vanilla and eggs; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Fold in boiling water with a spoon or rubber spatula. Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake for 25 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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By Salman Hameed

T2F is one of my favorite locations to give public talks. I love the atmosphere and the audience interaction is always exciting (see my 2009 post on it here). I will be there to give a talk on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) tomorrow (Friday, March 18th) at 7pm. You can find more details here. This will be my third Science ka Adda (Cafe Scientifique) talk at T2F - and I'm looking forward to it.

My talk will focus on the implications of the detection of an ET signal. This was also a topic recently discussed at the AAAS meeting (I still owe a post on that), and something that I find fascinating to think about (and have strong opinions about it :)). Plus, I'm teaching Aliens - Close Encounters of a Multi-Disciplinary Kind this semester (pdf syllabus here) - and so this talk is a good prep for me!

Here is the abstract of the talk:

What will be the impact on society if we detect a clear signal from an ET civilization?

Planets, planets everywhere … Just fifteen years ago, humans had confirmed detections of planets only in our solar system. Today, the number of candidate planets is pushing over fifteen hundred – with some located in the ‘habitable zone’. However, so far, there has been no confirmed detection of a signal from an extraterrestrial intelligence. What if we detect an unambiguous signal from an alien intelligence? What will be its impact on society, culture, and religion? While we may not be able to say much about alien sociology, we can certainly take a stab at guessing the reaction of our fellow human beings. 

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By Salman Hameed

Okay - this is hilarious and serves Fox News perfectly. They are so fixated on demonizing Muslims that they fell for an Onion-style Pakistani satire site, Roznama Jawani (tip from Zakir Thaver). From Salon:

Fox News website has picked up a hoax story about an Islamic council in Pakistan protesting the use of padded and colorful bras and presented it as fact.

The story, which is still featured on Fox News' Fox Nation website, was illustrated with a picture of a woman's mid-section and carried the headline "Pakistan: Islamic Clerics Protest Women Wearing Padded Bras as 'Devil’s Cushions.'" (UPDATE 9:30: Fox has now pulled the story. See the original here.) The lead of the Fox Nation story, which sources the piece to the Indian news website sify.com, reads:

The Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistan has protested the use of padded and colourful bras by Muslim women, and recommended that Pakistani Muslim researchers should try to invent an innerwear that makes female assets unnoticeable.

The problem is, if one takes the time to track the story back to its source, the whole thing is an obvious Onion-style satire -- a fact first pointed out by Arif Rafiq of the Pakistan Policy Blog.

The sify.com story linked by Fox cites a "report" from yet another site called Roznama Jawani.

Roznama Jawani, in turn, appears to be a Pakistani version of the Onion, featuring such stories as "Karachi Preparing a Huge Ass Bat to Beat the Shit Out of Kamran Akmal," "Altaf Hussain Challenges Imran Khan to a Rap Battle to Settle Differences," and "Man From Peshawar Sues Red Bull. Says he has no wings!"

The bra story on Roznama Jawani features a crudely photoshopped image of an Islamic council meeting with a large sign that says, "Future of Padded Bras." The story quotes an anti-padded bra protester saying that "Padded bras are evil as they make the breasts look bigger and perky ... Only devil women show off private parts."

Read the full story on Salon here, read the original story on Roznama Jawani here: "Padded Bras are Devil's Cushions" says Council of Islamic Ideology. By the way, Roznama Jawani are claiming that they are now "Fox News' authentic news source".

[P.S. Some Saudi fatwas are indeed beyond parody: For example this one where Saudi clerics advocate adult breast feeding. Fantastically, this fatwa was also used by women in their bid to get driving rights: Women threaten to breastfeed drivers if they aren't allowed to drive. Brilliant - and this serves these clerics right]. 

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Ceasar salad is one of my husbands favorite salads and until recently I never tackled making it the traditional way.  It was very easy and the taste was so much better than just buyimg some ceasar dressing to put over romaine lettuce.  I like this recipe by Tyler Florence.  It makes a HUGE amount of salad so I would suggest using one head of romaine lettuce and  half the dressing or as much as you would like for your taste..  When I made it I used one head for dinner with friends on Staurday night and then saved half the dressing and used the 2nd head of lettuce and the rest of the dressing for for dinner for my family on Monday night.

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic, smashed with a pinch of salt and a little olive oil

4 anchovy fillets

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon dijon mustard 

2 lemons, juiced

2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan, plus extra for garnish 

Freshly ground black pepper

2 heads romaine lettuce

Preparation:

Make the dressing: Smear the garlic paste over the inside of the salad bowl. Put the anchovies, egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, and water into a blender and process for 30 seconds until the mixture is smooth. With the blender running, pour the olive oil in slowly for the dressing to emulsify. Stir in the Parmesan, a pinch of salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper; set aside. (Refrigerate the dressing if you will not be using it right away.)

Assemble the salad: Tear the lettuce into a large bowl. Add enough dressing to coat the salad to your liking. Add some extra Parmesan and toss the salad well. Serve immediately.

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The content of this post can be found by clicking here:
http://www.inspiremeasap.blogspot.com/2011/03/fat-test-part-two.html



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I was at a friend's house today and we decided to cook dinner together.  I used her husband's marinade for skirt steak which is delicious.  We found whatever vegetables were on hand which happened to be peppers and onions and decided to add some frozen shrimp and together we created these really yummy surf and turf kabobs.  It was great to grill for the first time this season even if it's still pretty chilly out. 

Can't wait for summer!

Ingredients:

2 lbs of skirt steak cut into large cubes

24-30 small shrimp

1 green bell pepper cut into large chunks

2 small onions cut into large chunks

3/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup worcestershire sauce

2 cloves of garlic crushed or finely minced

1/4 cup prepared BBQ sauce

Coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper

Preparation:

In a large ziploc bag add soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, garlic, 1 onion sliced in chunks, fresh ground black pepper and BBQ sauce.  Mix all ingredients and add steak and marinate for 2 hours or up to overnight.  Leave tails on shrimp and coat with olive oil and season with coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper.  Skewer steak, onion, shrimp, and green bell pepper alternating until all ingredients are used.  Grill on BBQ until cooked through and steak is seared on all sides and shrimp is pink.

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by Salman Hameed

Yesterday's Dawn had a letter urging a focus on science & technology. I was already thinking about this while watching the plethora of cable and satellite channels here in Pakistan (a list from Wikipedia).

There are countless news talk show programs on more than 10 24-hour news channels. In fact, while arriving in Karachi yesterday, we were stuck at the airport traffic because there were about 8 television vans taking up space in the exit lane (they were there to cover the arrival of a federal minister). There are 8 24-hour music channels. I haven't seen these yet, but there are 3 fashion and lifestyle stations. There are 6 24-hour religious channels, and perhaps not too surprisingly, there are three food channels! Oh - and then there are about 10 regular channels that run soaps.

But science is missing. I'm not referring to a 24-hour science channel - which would be very cool. But even just an hour-long local program on science would be beneficual. There are are primetime programs on astrology (for example, here on Geo). But no science.

There is indeed interest and curiosity about science. As I have written multiple times before, the amateur astronomy scene is booming here. Whenever I have given talks here, I have encountered a lively audience interaction and a genuine interest in the topic. I'm sure if there were regular science programs on TV, there will be an audience for it, and if done well, the programs can serve as a vehicle for critical thinking.

By the way, just having science-sounding programs is not enough. Perhaps, there is no bigger disgrace than the Discovery channel or the History channel in the US. They lend credibility to completely wacky programs - from UFOs to the end-of-times documentaries. Whenever a student start by saying "I saw it on the Discovery channel" and you go "uh-oh". This is such a shame. Just think about it. In Pakistan, I'm lamenting the lack of any science programs. In US, there are couple of 24-hour science channels - but they mostly show crap on it, or worse, bad science (In case you are wondering, yes, bad science is worse than crap). NOVA is perhaps one of the few science havens left.

Some of it is also personal. I got into astronomy after watching Cosmos on TV in Pakistan in 1984. The first episode - especially the Cosmic Calendar - was enough to change the direction of my life. Television is an amazingly powerful medium. You never know how science programs are going to affect people.

Lets have some (good) science shows on TV.

By the way there have been some efforts at producing science programs in Pakistan. For example, Pervez Hoodbhoy had an excellent 12 part series for kids about 7-8 years ago. And more recently, Zakir Thaver has also produced some science-related episodes. These need to be aired on channels such as Geo, ARY, PTV etc. 

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Please view the content of this post by clicking here:
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This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.


From 21 to 23 June 2011, a big conference will be held at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in the UAE, jointly organised by the British Council (BC) in partnership with AUS and in association with the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR). The conference forms part of the British Council’s “Belief in Dialogue” initiative, which is intended to foster closer inter-faith dialogue on matters of common cultural interest, including religious belief and the place and significance of the sciences in various worldviews.

The conference is titled “Belief in Dialogue: Science, Culture and Modernity”.  In addition to plenary lectures and discussions, parallel sessions will be devoted to the exploration of three broad themes running through the conference:

·      Science and Religion: Two Cultures?

·      Cultures of Belief in Modern Societies

·      Ethical Values and Human Responsibility. This theme will explore ethical issues in relation to the environment, to questions of sustainability and to problems arising from new technologies – including such controversial matters as stem-cell research.

A further stream within the conference will comprise a series of seminars specially designed for about 50 selected student participants.

One or two public debates are also planned and will likely be broadcast by the BBC World Service and BBC Arabic TV, along with other media activity. 

Thirty outstanding invited speakers have confirmed their participation, including HE Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the Turkish scholar who is currently the Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), who will be giving the opening keynote speech, Tariq Ramadan, the well-known scholar of Islam and Philosophy, and many others from around the world.

A list of plenary speakers also includes Paul Davies, Zia Sardar, Munawar Anees, Andrew Briggs, John Hedley Brooke, Philip Clayton, William Grassie, Nidhal Guessoum, Salman Hameed, Aref Nayed, Jean Staune, Mehdi Golshani, and Ronald Numbers.

I would thus like to invite anyone interested in such topics to submit an abstract for the conference, and to encourage students and young researchers to apply for participation in the students seminar.

For further info, including the submission process, please visit the AUS conference website (http://www.aus.edu/conferences/BIDAUS2011/ -- note that the deadline for abstract submissions will be extended) as well as for the students seminar (http://www.aus.edu/conferences/BIDAUS2011/student.php).

Finally, please do circulate this announcement around you, particularly at universities, around the world.

Hope to see some of you here…

 

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You can find the content of this post by clicking here:
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by Salman Hameed

I haven't yet encountered a female cab driver here, but it is refreshing to see this story on BBC about Zahida Kazmi: Paksitan's ground-breaking female cabbie. She has been driving the cab since 1992 and at one point she even became the chairperson of Pakistan's yellow-cab association. So once again, thankfully, Pakistan is not Saudi Arabia. In case, you are wondering - no - women still can't drive in Saudi Arabia nor can they vote in municipal elections, even though municipal councils have no power any ways.

Back to Zahida Kazmi:

In 1992 at the age of 33, newly widowed Zahida Kazmi decided to take her fate in her own hands and become a taxi driver.

Born into a conservative and patriarchal Pakistani family, she flew in the face of her family's wishes but with six children to support, she felt she had no choice.

She took advantage of a government scheme in which anybody could buy a brand new taxi in affordable instalments. She bought herself a yellow cab and drove to Islamabad airport every morning to pick up passengers.

In a perilous and unpredictable world, Zahida at first kept a gun in the car for her own protection and she even started off by driving her passengers around wearing a burqa, a garment that covers the entire body.

Her initial fears soon dissipated.

"I realised that I would scare passengers away," she said. "So then I only wore a hijab [head covering]. Eventually I stopped covering my head because I got older and was well-established by then."

Exposing herself to the hot, bustling city streets of Islamabad and by driving to the rocky and remote districts adjoining Pakistan's tribal areas, Zahida says she learned a lot about the country she lived in and its people.

The Pathans of the tribal north-west, despite a reputation for fierce male pride and inflexibility, treated her with immense courtesy on her journeys.

But then there is also an interesting acknowledgment of the change within Pakistan in the last two decades:

But had Zahida been starting out now, things would be quite different as she would be entering the workforce in a country torn between the forces of liberalism and Islamic radicalism.

Pakistan in 1992 was a more moderate place: it was opening up to the world; the dish antenna had been introduced; Pakistan had won the cricket world cup. Zahida says society felt fairly open to her.

The article provides just a glimpse of the class and gender struggles in Pakistan. But then again, Pakistan has a history of amazing women leading from the front on issues of human rights and gender equality, and now even the blasphemy law (for example, the indomitable Asma Jahangir, Mukhtaran Mai, Shereen Rehman, etc.). There are also Pakistani female fighter pilots (now - this should really put Saudis to shame) and also a bank for and run-by women.

Read the full article on Zahida Kazmi here.

On a different note (ha!), I was struck by the music and video of Usman Riaz's "Fire Fly". Damn - he can do a lot with just a guitar. And the quality of video is also quite exceptional. Enjoy!

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by Salman Hameed

I have just arrived in Pakistan for a few days. On my way here, I had a brief stop-over in London. Just before boarding, I was standing in line for coffee where I could see television screens in the background. BBC was showing live pictures of the tsunami that hit Sendai. This was one of those instances where my jaw just completely dropped. We are now increasingly seeing disasters take place in real time - rather than seeing the pictures of the aftermath. This is horrible and incredible at the same time. Seeing a huge wave passing through the ocean is at once awesome and frightening.

Hope the death toll stays low.

I had a post about my views on Natural disasters after the earthquake in Pakistan. You can read the post here: Nature and Natural Disasters - On Pakistan's earthquake in 2005.

Will the live coverage of such large-scale natural disasters increase our sensitivity or eventually desensitize us as 'just another event on television'? I don't know. But I'm still awestruck by some of the images of the tsunami (video below).

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First of all, I want to start on a somber note. As everyone here at SXSW is waking up, an eight foot tsunami wave is about to hit my hometown of San Francisco. All signs point to a minor event, but our friends and colleagues in Japan have not been so fortunate. The earthquake and tsunami have caused untold devastation, destabilized nuclear power plants, and who knows what else. My prayers are with everyone who's been affected. I ask all of you who are reading to do what you can to help. Take it from George Takei:

The show must go on, so we're still working hard on an epic event on Saturday at the AT&T Center for SXSWi. I do need to clear one thing up, though. Apparently, my blog post yesterday caused some confusion. Unfortunately, buying the Appsumo Lean Startup SXSW Bundle will not get you into the SXSW event. Only SXSW badge holders will be able to get in. Believe me, we would love to have you there - but SXSW rules are very strict. We've had to negotiate to get our own event staff into the room. If you want to come, you will need a SXSWi badge.

If you are at SXSW, there is absolutely no excuse for missing out. Just ask Tim O'Reilly:

However, you do not need to be at SXSW to enter the Lean Startup SXSW tournament and win our crazy smorgasbord of equity investments and prizes. For example, wouldn't you like to attend this year's Startup Lessons Learned conference (sllconf 2011) as my personal guest and join our VIP speakers dinner the night before? So if you can't join us, don't feel bad. While all the talkers and drinkers are inside the building, you can get outside and make something incredible happen. We can't wait to see what you come up with.

At SXSW, I'll be on stage bright and early at 9:30AM. I hope to see you there. To help you fight off the  effects of your SXSW hangover, we'll have some bonuses waiting for you. The first 100 people to show up will get a 50% discount on the Appsumo Lean Startup SXSW bundle (and you thought we couldn't make the deal any better). Noah Kagan will also apparently be handing out tshirts, stickers, and other stuff while supplies last - he promises you'll like them, but he hasn't made me any such promise.

But what I'm most excited - and nervous - about is that my publisher is bringing an exclusive printed sneak peak of my new book, The Lean Startup. They'll be giving them away at the Lean Startup SXSW event as long as supplies last. Apart from a handful of test readers, this is the first time the manuscript will be available to the public. Did I mention my love/hate relationship with customer feedback? Come get your copy and send me your thoughts. I can't wait to hear what you think.

And if you happen to be at SXSW for any part of the event, do come say hello. It's always a thrill to meet people who read this blog. Thank you for your continuing and overwhelming support.
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I just got this recipe from a friend of mine and when I read the recipe I thought it sounded delicious and it is!  It's also so super easy to make with only a few ingredients that most people always have on hand.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 lb boneless, skinless thin chicken breast fillets
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked fresh pepper
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock
1 tablespoon dijon mustard

Preparation:

Combine cranberries, apple juice and chicken stock in a small bowl. Set aside.  In a gallon-sized plastic bag with zip top, mix flour, salt and pepper. Toss chicken breasts into bag and shake well until each breast is coated evenly with flour. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot add chicken and cook for 5 minutes each side. Remove chicken to a plate and keep warm.
Pour soaked cranberries with juice and stock into the hot pan, reduce heat to low and scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Stir in mustard and add chicken back into pan.
Cook for another 6-8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and sauce has thickened. Serve chicken with sauce atop.

Linked to Everyday Moms Meals
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Today's theme is "with a little help from my friends." You all know I am busy writing The Lean Startup Book. So none of what I am about to announce would have been possible without a tremendous amount of help.

A few months ago, I began planning an event at SXSW with my friends at 500 Startups (their glamorous frontman is Dave McClure but everyone knows Christen O'Brien does the real work). The original plan was to do our own standalone event. But when the organizers of SXSW got wind of it, they asked us to join forces with them and become an official part of the SXSW Interactive program. So we have put together a program that you do not want to miss. It will take place at the AT&T Center on March 12, 2011. If you have a SXSW badge, you'll get in for free, but please do RSVP on our plancast page (and help us become the most popular event in their awesome SXSW events guide).

We have an amazing agenda full of case studies lined up with amazing speakers:

David Binetti
Steve Blank
Bill Boebel
David Cancel
Jason Cohen
Sean Ellis
Janice Fraser
Andres Glusman
Stacey Higginbotham
Laura Klein
Pascal Louis-Perez
Dan Martell

Ash Maurya
Dave McClure
Ian McFarland
Farb Nivi
Eric Ries
Manuel Rosso
Robert Scoble
Hiten Shah
Jeff Smith
Wendy Tan White
Parker Thompson
check the complete list...

---

But that's not all, not by a long shot. You see, my friends at Appsumo were not content to let 500 Startups have all the glory. So I asked them to put together the mother of all bundles, to make sure that everyone who comes to our event at SXSW - and everyone who wishes they could come, too - has the tools they need to take these ideas and put them into action. So they created The Lean Startup Bundle for SXSW, and it's unbelievable. I asked a few more of my friends to help out, and they came through in a big way: twillio ($50 of credit), Pivotal Tracker (a full year of service), KISSmetrics ($100), Ask Your Target Market (3 months of 30 surveys per month), Sauce Labs (1000 minutes of testing), and over two dozen other companies. And things just snowballed from there. Jason Cohen's awesome hardcore WordPress hosting at WPEngine, $200 credit with Chargify, $1000 off at uTest. You'll get books, too: a preorder of my book, my Startup Lessons Learned ebooks, Ash Maurya's excellent Running Lean, and the Venture Hacks bible. But that is not remotely all. You will get a ticket to any Startup Weekend event anywhere in the world. You will get more than $5000 worth of stuff for only $99. You will get so much stuff that I challenge you - nay, I dare you - to try and use it all.



Actually, I really do dare you. You see, when my friends at Pivotal Labs got involved, they wanted to do more. Sure, you can come to our amazing SXSW event and get inspired. You can buy the Lean Startup Bundle and get everything you could possibly need to get started. But then what? The Lean Startup movement is all about doing, and so we wanted to give a reason to get started now. Maybe you already have a new startup, but maybe you've been thinking about that side project. Maybe you need a little nudge to get out of the building and start talking to customers?

Forget the nudge. We have put together a sledgehammer-sized tournament to see who can create something amazing while everyone else is just getting drunk at SXSW. I told you we'd make it worth your while, though. Perhaps you'd like a $50,000 investment from 500 Startups and a spot in the amazing 500 Startups Incubator? Or maybe you'd rather get the full Pivotal Labs treatment, along with a $50,000 investment from Band of Angels? There are seven prize packages you can win. Naturally, one includes a Microsoft Xbox and a Kinect.

We'll choose ten finalists, who will get mentoring from our all-star cast: including me, Hiten Shah, Dave McClure, Brad Feld, Ramit Sethi, Dharmesh Shah, Andrew Chen, and more. I'm just getting started: go ahead and look at the complete list of prizes. You have until the very end of SXSW (March 20th) to impress the judges and your peers. The SXSW Lean Startup Bundle is your entry ticket; you don't have to be at SXSW to be eligible.



I think we've managed to pack a lot of value into that $99 ticket, but I don't want anyone to feel excluded. Every time I offer something for sale here, I get emails from bootstrappers, students, and others who can't afford it. So - as they say on TV - wait, there's more. The first 100 people who come to our SXSW program will get a heavily discounted bundle from Appsumo (they'll be passing out cards). And if you can't be there, and you really can't afford the $99, there's still a way. Maybe you have a few friends who are planning on buying The Lean Startup Book when it comes out. Maybe you can give them a little nudge to preorder. If you can get 10 to do so, I will buy your bundle for you. Just go create your own http://lean.st URL using Facebook or Twitter. Get your friends to use that URL to preorder. You'll see a count of how many books you've sold. When that count hits 10 or more, email me your lean.st URL and your bundle's on me.

Special thanks to Dave McClure, Christen O'Brien, Noah Kagan, Parker Thompson, Ian McFarland and all of our many, many sponsors. You are all amazing.
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Who doesn't like lasagna?  I like the idea of adding a veggie to it for some more nutritional value.  That way I don't have to serve a separate veggie if I am feeling lazy.  I can make some garlic bread and be done.  You don't even need to defrost the spinach.  Just sprinkle the frozen chopped spinach on each layer and it cooks down inbetween the layers the oven.

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 jar marinara-style pasta sauce
1 box of no-boil lasagna noodles
3/4 of a bag of frozen chopped spinach
2-3 teaspoons of garlic powder (to taste)
1 teaspoon black pepper, cracked
pinch of red pepper flakes

Preparation:

Combine 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, beaten egg and garlic powder, and red and black pepper. Set aside.

In a 9x13 inch baking dish coat the bottom of the dish with marinara sauce. Place single layer of no-boil lasagna on the sauce, covering with another thin layer of the sauce. Layer with half of the frozen chopped spinach, then half of the cheese mixture over the spinach. Repeat layers of lasagna noodles, sauce, spinach and cheese mixture. Finish with more lasagna strips and cover with remaining sauce.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for one hour. Uncover and top with a layer of mozzarella cheese during last 15 minutes of baking.
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Ingredients:

1/2 - 3/4 lb raw stringbeans (preferably Hericot Verts)
1/2 cup of sliced almonds
2 tablespoons unsalted margarine
2 teaspoons of Krazy Janes Mixed up Salt (you can use coarse salt as a substitute)

Preparation:

Clean String beans, snapping off end that is not pointed place in a microwave bowl and set aside.  Melt 1 tablespoon of margarine in a small frying pan, once melted add the Krazy Janes mixed up salt and stir until combined, add almonds and continue to stir over medium heat until almonds are lightly toasted.  Take pan off heat and let almonds cool.  Right before ready to serve, place string beans in the microwave and cook on high for 3-4 minutes until steamed but still crunchy.  Add 1 tablespoon of margarine to steamed string beans and toss to coat.  Top with prepared almonds and serve immediately.
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by Salman Hameed

It seems that Dalai Lama wants to change the tradition of a reincarnate successor and the Chinese government is insisting on sticking with this metaphysical transition - as long as the reincarnation is approved by the Chinese government. Of course, all of these issues are deeply political, and the deeper question is about who has the authority to direct the future of Tibetan Buddhism. Nevertheless, I find it interesting the way bureaucracy is bring brought in the issues of paranormal/metaphysical. From the New York Times, China Says Dalai Lama has to Reincarnate (tip from Laura Sizer):

It is unclear how the 76-year-old Dalai Lama, who lives in India and is revered by many Tibetans, plans to pick his successor. He has said that the succession process could break with tradition -- either by being hand-picked by him or through democratic elections.

But Padma Choling, the Chinese-appointed governor of Tibet, said that the Dalai Lama had no right to abolish the institution of reincarnation, underscoring China's hardline stance on one of the most sensitive issues for the restless and remote region.

...

The Chinese government says it has to approve all reincarnations of living Buddhas, or senior religious figures in Tibetan Buddhism. It also says China has to sign off on the choosing of the next Dalai Lama.

Oh - and did I mention that there is already a controversy of the previous reincarnation candidate?

In 1995, after the Dalai Lama named a boy in Tibet as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama, the second highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, the Chinese government put that boy under house arrest and installed another in his place.

Many Tibetans spurn the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama as a fake.

In all of this, I don't think that most Tibetan Buddhists think about the "physical evidence" for the reality of the claims of reincarnations. I think there are there are two different questions: Is their any evidence of reincarnation ("no"), and Do people believe that reincarnation happens and that it serves a particular role in their lives ("yes")? And in the latter case, physical evidence may even be irrelevant to the discussion.

In any case, read the full story here.

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This is an old recipe I resurrected recently when I had my sister Ellen's family over for Shabbat dinner. My brother-in-law does not like chicken on the bone so this was perfect as it uses chicken cutlets. It was a big hit...even with the kids!

Ingredients:

1/2 C red wine vinegar

1/2 C plus one T olive oil

handful of dried oregano

1/4 C fresh parsley

1 head fresh garlic pureed

salt and pepper

1 cup olives (I used a small can of sliced black ones)

3 bay leaves

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 C red wine

8 shallots

1 T margarine

1 C sun dried tomatoes

2 16 oz. cans of artichoke hearts

8 boneless chicken breasts

Preparation:

Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Mix vinegar, 1/2 cup olive oil, oregano, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper, bay leaves and olives. Marinate the chicken overnight in this mixture.

Next day, transfer chicken and marinade to a baking dish and sprinkle brown sugar and red wine on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 -60 minutes.

Meanwhile slice and saute' shallots in margarine and 1 T olive oil. Pour boiling water over sun dried tomatoes and let sit for 2-3 minutes. Then drain off water and add tomatoes to pan with shallots and artichokes. Saute' another few minutes. Then pour that mixture over the chicken and cook for another 10 minutes or so.

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This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.

At the end of my recent stay in Washington, DC (the AAAS Meeting), I decided to spend the half day I had left on some of the great museums that the city hosts (the Mall area).

In addition to the Air and Space Museum, which I had visited many times, I went to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), where someone had told me there was a special exhibit about human origins (details of the exhibit can be found here). The NMNH is a fantastic museum, and no one should miss it when visiting Washington. I could have spent the whole day there, if not more, but since I had less than 2 hours, I spent most of my time in the special exhibit (and the store).

The exhibit area is not very large, though still of a decent size, and it is very nicely laid out, with great sculptures and reproductions of ancient and modern humans, their tools, their art, and so forth. There were also several video displays and interactive computer programs to help people learn and appreciate various topics, and many museum staff were available to provide explanation and help to everyone, particularly the scores of children who were there with their parents (it was the President Holiday).

Now, the most fascinating feature of the whole display was its emphasis on the theme “What Does it Mean to be Human”, for which you can find a rich website here. Indeed, instead of the usual emphasis on humanity’s evolution being part of the “tree of life” and its commonness with other species, the main trend that seemed to run through most of the exhibit was “human characteristics”, what makes us human. (The biological part was certainly there, like the percentages of genes shared with chimpanzees, gorillas, and even chicken, but that was not the main idea.)

For example, here’s the way the evolution of humans over the last 6 million years is presented:

-     6 M yrs (ago): walking upright on short legs

-     2.5 M yrs: making tools and eating meat from large animals

-     2 M yrs: longer legs; travel to new regions

-     500,000 yrs: rapid increase in brain size

-     ~ 350,000 yrs: speech (though it is not known when exactly this emerged)

-     250,000 yrs: communication with symbols

-     160,000 yrs: longer childhood and adolescence

-     130,000 yrs: building social networks

-     100,000 yrs; plant and animal domestication + expressing identity by wearing beads and putting colored materials on faces and bodies

-     65,000 yrs: burying the dead (first in Iraq)

-     60,000 – 30,000 yrs: paintings, sculptures, and music tools

One interactive screen drew my special attention. It asked the big question “what does it mean to be human?” and gave a series of words to choose from: imagine, weep, create, write, beauty, believe, understand, giving, pray, sing, mortality, struggle, become, rituals, altruistic, responsibility, consciousness, empathy, chin, brain. (It was not clear to me whether those words were proposed by the program’s creators or were chosen from the participants’ responses.) The program then asks the participant to give one’s answer either by choosing one of those words or by typing in a new word or complete sentence.

Last but not least, I was very impressed to find out that the exhibit creators had set up a Broader Social Impacts Committee to try to examine and include such issues as the religious viewpoints or sensitivities on the topic of human origins. The committee was made up of 15 scholars and religious figures, including, for the Muslim side, Dr. Mustansir Mir, who is a University Professor of Islamic Studies at Youngstown State University in Ohio, USA.  Here’s the ‘personal statement’ posted by Dr. Mir on the question of human origins:

In the phrase “human origins,” the crucial word is “human” rather than “origins.” A scientific account of human origins is, primarily, biological; a religious account of human origins is, primarily, moral. In Islam, as in the other so-called monotheistic religions, God is the creator of all things—minerals, animals, and humans. From a scientific standpoint, minerals are not immoral, and humans are not more moral than animals—all three being equally worthy subjects of study and investigation. But religion might call a certain type of human being “stone-hearted” or “worse than an animal.” The essential difference between religion and science, then, consists in the different valuation system employed by each. If it can be established beyond a shadow of a doubt that human beings evolved from monkeys, then, Islamically, so be it. But while science might say that monkeys, following a linear and irreversible path of evolutionary development, evolved into humans, who now run no risk of relapsing into monkeyhood, religion might say that human beings may—morally—degenerate back into monkeys, just as, on the flip side, they may—morally—reach sublime heights and become superior to angels. In brief, science looks at human beings with reference to the horizontal axis of history, whereas religion looks at human beings with reference to the vertical axis of morality. If this argument is accepted, then, essentially, no conflict need exist between science and religion on the issue of human origins.

I am sure this interesting statement will bring about a series of comments from the readers of this blog, and I look forward to everyone’s reaction.

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I had Shabbat dinner at Susan's on Friday night and she made a delicious meal and this was one of the side dishes that she served, it's an Ina Garten recipe.  I was happy to be put to work in her kitchen and make this one for her.  It's so easy and absolutely delicious.  2 cups of cous cous makes enough for a small army so I would halve the recipe if I was making it for my family of 5.   My kids really liked it too although I did find all the pine nuts from my 3 year old's plate neatly stored inside her napkin ring.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

2 cups chopped yellow onion (2 onions)

3 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups couscous

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

Preparation:

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender but not browned. Add the chicken stock, salt, and pepper and bring to a full boil. Stir in the couscous, turn off the heat, cover, and allow to steam for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, stir in the pine nuts and parsley, and serve hot.

To toast pine nuts, place them in a dry saute pan and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, tossing often, until lightly browned.

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