I was looking for a new salmon recipe that would be "quick and easy" and I came across this recipe on a great blog that I visit, A Spoonful of Thyme.  This is a Dorie Greenspan recipe that also can be found on Dorie's blog, In the Kitchen and on the Road with Dorie  It's such a delicious recipe and so super easy to prepare, not to mention that it's light and healthy too.  I only made slight changes (omitting the thyme and adding chives in it's place, also I used black pepper instead of white)

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (more to taste)
5-6 grape tomatoes, halved
About 6 basil leaves
One 5-ounce filet of salmon (skinless or not)
1/4 lemon
1/2 spring onion or 1 scallion (optional), finely sliced \
1 teaspoon chopped chives
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F and have a baking sheet at hand.  Cut a piece of foil that is large enough for you to lay out the ingredients, lift up the edges of the foil and seal the packet with an inch or two of air space above the fish.

Working in the center of the piece of foil, make a bed of basil leaves, keeping 1 leaf aside.  Sprinkle the leaves with a little salt and pepper, put the salmon over the leaves and season it with salt and pepper too.  (If the salmon has skin, lay it skin-side against the basil.)  Put the tomatoes on one side of the salmon and grate the lemon's zest over everything.  If you're using the spring onion or scallion, scatter the pieces over the fish and tomatoes.  Give the salmon a squirt of lemon juice, then cut two thin slices from the lemon and put them on top of the fish.  Top with one or two basil leaves and sprinkle with the chopped chives; moisten with olive oil.

Seal the packet, making sure it's airtight and that there's puff space between the fish and the top of its cocoon.  Put the packet on the baking sheet, slide the set-up into the oven and bake for 10 minutes, if you like your fish pink and slightly jiggly in the center (great for salmon); bake 2 minutes longer if you want your fish better done.

*You can either put the packet on a dinner plate and open it at the table, or  open the packet in the kitchen and arrange the ingredients on a plate.  If you plate the fish, you might want to finish the dish with a little minced basil or some snipped chives.


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This is my new obsession that I won from a giveaway! I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this thing. You have to put this on the top of your Christmas list. Once you see and feel a laminated product from this little miracle maker I promise you might never go back!

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Does anyone have any creative uses for these Filetastic Pocketcharts and File Folders? I soooo want to buy one of these but have no idea of what to use it for!

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Over the summer I saw an idea online about a growing brain that you could put in water and it would increase in size and once you remove the brain it would shrink. I have heard of some fun activities to do with the growing brain and I really wanted to get my hands on one. I found an online science mall that carried them and they were $5 plus shipping. As I was preparing to present for our district Science Back to School presentation, I thought of using the brain as an ice breaker activity for the training and as a notebooking activity in my kindergarten classroom. I contacted the company to see if they could give me a discount if I were to buy multiple brains. They were intrigued as to why I would want so darn many brains... The company originally wrote me back and asked some questions. A few days later I had not heard the final word and I went online to look at the brains I was now becoming obsessed with. Get ready for this part friends... The company had INCREASED the price from $5 per brain to $14 (plus shipping) per brain and never got back to me. Now I knew I could not afford to buy my growing brain.

I searched over the summer for an alternative and I came up with Grow Me's that are sold at the store I now LOVE called Dollar Tree. I know the Grow Me line has a brain but I have never found it. Through my quest for my little brain I have come to love GROW Me's because they come in all sorts of funny versions from animals to pirates and from cupcakes to entire farm scenes. At first, I was still disappointed about never getting a brain but I was happy to find Grow Me's with objects that could really grow. I kind of fell in love when I discovered Larry the Growing Lettuce Head. Larry has been everywhere this summer and he is the best companion because he always smiles and does not say a word. He does his job and grows and I do my job and observe him. So after a summer of just me and my favorite pal Larry I decided it was time to take him on the road.

Larry the Growing Lettuce was revealed at the district Science staff development and he was pretty popular with that never ending smile. He did his job well and broke the ice and gave us some laughs because he didn't want to come out of his jar. And truth be told, I have searched the world over for a proper container for little Larry and all I had at the time was a Mason jar so that was his home. During the training several teachers said they had bought the Grow Me's for their children and someone gently suggested that I had stunted little ol Larry's growth because his habitat was not large enough. Someone even suggested to put Larry in the bathtub and see how big he gets. The thought of seeing my dear friend Larry floating around in the stagnant bath water at 5am each morning just wasn't what I had in mind.

Since the training I have had lots of emails and pictures sent to me by text of all the different versions of Grow Me's and I have laughed because I guess the ice breaker activity worked and got people excited about Notebooking in Kindergarten. I have been so busy talking about Larry that I never had time to think of the growing brain. Two days after the Science training I was in Michael's shopping for materials for my classroom. I decided to circle the store before leaving. Much to my surprise I ran right into a... GROWING BRAIN! You really would have thought I had won the Kindergarten Lottery. I had to stop myself from squealing in delight. Not only did they have growing brains but they had growing body parts in the Halloween section. Friends, I grabbed them and I grabbed them quick. And since I was feeling so darn chipper I grabbed a growing spider too. Now as you can imagine, I have quite the collection of growing things for my self created Science center. And if you thought my luck was over, it wasn't! I turned the corner and found the perfect container for Grow Me's. The container is about as big as a paint can and it is totally clear. I am still on the look out for something larger but right now who is complaining?

Now, I am sure you are asking yourself what in the world does this really have to do with Science? You will have to come back and see. I will give you time to capture some of your own brains and Larry's. If you find something good you have to email me and promise you will!

Until then... Kiss your brain!

 
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Lots of questions about the bell... I recently bought it at Dollar Tree and it came in the red color because it is an apple with tiny green leaves on top. I did not paint it. I added scrap booking stickers I found at Hobby Lobby. The stickers were not made on a machine but they look like they did come from one of those sticker machines. I added a bow because the gingham bow reminds me of my great grandmother and my mom and brings me back to my childhood. I have carried around gingham ribbons in my purse, toolbox or teacher bag for as long as I can remember. I have never had a need for a "shhhh" bell because I have really not liked hearing across the hallway teachers ringing the bell and then yelling "BE QUIET." When I saw it on Teacher Tipster it seemed like a more positive approach and something tolerable for me. Funny thing is that during teacher workdays, I have been banging on that bell when nobody has been in the room. HA!

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Tom Waits is always entertaining. But you bring in the Cookie Monster, and it takes everything to another dimension. Well, for a sleepy summer Saturday, here is the Cookie Monster Mash-up with Tom Waits' song God's Away on Business (lyrics here). I think the song provides a reasonable explanation for the problem of evil in the world. Tom Waits - the theologian? :)

First here is the Cookie Monster Mash-up (tip from Open Culture), and then below it is the Tom Waits video (if you are not familiar with Tom Waits - then be prepared for his unique voice. But he is an amazing performer, singer-songwriter, and even an accomplished actor!).


And here is the original video:

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We made these "I Love You" student handprint magnets this past week.  These will be given to my parents as a little gift at our First Grade Parent Meeting.

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This week theme for Sharing Sundays is MEXICAN!  We just recently cooked a Mexcican meal and would love some new recipes to try....especially desserts!  Please feel free to link up as many Mexican recipes as you would like both savory and sweet and anything inbetween.

Our Rules:
1.  Please become a follower of our blog.
2.  Please share a link back to your actual recipe post, not to your main blog page.
3.  Please link back to our blog so others can join in the fun.
4.  Leave us a comment about what recipe you are linking up.
5. Have fun!

Now let's see the featured CUPCAKE recipes from last week

Best Vanilla Cupcakes and Best Coffee Buttercream
by The Kitchen is My Playground


Pink Lemonade Cupcakes by Amy's Cooking Adventure



Mocha Tiramasu Cupcakes by U Try It


4th of July Cupcakes by Meg's Everyday Indulgence


Cookies and Cream Cupcakes by A Spoonful of Thyme





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by Salman Hameed

If this were the 1890s, Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, would come off as a pretty smart candidate. Global Warming: There is no definite scientific evidence that humans are responsible for it. Evolution: It is a theory with many gaps. Age of the Earth: It is quite old. But no one knows exactly how old it is. Smart answers as science was much uncertain about all of these issues in the late 19th century. The issue of age of the Earth was particularly in flux (though, no serious scientists thought that it was less than 10,000 years old. The question was whether it was tens of millions of years old - as the physics of the time suggested - or billions of years old. The discovery of radioactive materials and nuclear fusion resolved those issues permanently). Therefore, a presidential candidate would have been wise not to fully commit to any of these ideas - in the 1890s. Unfortunately, this is 2011, and his proclamations are just embarrassing. Although it would be cool, if he also argued for the presence of aether as the medium for light.

Rick Perry for President (1896)!

Here is the clip of his answers for age of the earth and evolution:

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I really love tomoatoes but I especially love heirloom tomoatoes.  I think they are so pretty and I love how they all have a different level of acidity and flavor. This is a super light summer salad that is a perfect side dish for a quick dinner.  We served this along grilled hamburgers so dinner was ready in about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 - 2 cups heirloom cherry tomoatoes sliced in half

1 avocado cubed

1 tablespoon seasoned rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

6 basil leaves chiffonade 

Preparation:

Place tomoatoes and avocado in a bowl.  Mix vinegar, oil and soy sauce in a small bowl and pour over tomoatoes and avocado.  Sprinke with chiffonade of basil and toss to coat.

Linked to This Chick Cooks

Linked to Cast Party Wednesday

Linked to Melt in your Mouth Monday

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by Salman Hameed

Here is an interesting interview with magician Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller's Bullshit! fame). He has a new book out, God, No! Signs you may already be an atheist and other magical tales. He takes the stance that there isn't much difference between atheists and religious folks when comes down to issues of morality, etc. He differs from those militant atheists who argue that primarily religion is, and has been, a source of evil in the world. Yes, there are crazies out there who act in the name of religion, but Penn believes that those are outliers, and it is a mistake to fixate on them and generalize from there. Penn takes a universalist approach to morality in humans (indeed, a huge subject...), and thinks that atheists and religious people make similar sorts of moral decisions - irrespective of what religion tells them to do - and have a lot more in common than they realize (by the way, in US the public is least likely to vote for an atheist President than any another denomination including Muslims).

This is not an academic book. Nevertheless, he is engaged with these debates at the ground-level. He understands the need and the desire to have a community, and the fact that religion fills up this niche quite nicely. In the interview there is also a nice little conversation about performing magic in the age of science, and the difference between magic and a performing a trick.

Oh - and he seems to be a local of western Massachusetts. In fact, there is even a mention of Northampton in the interview!

Listen to the full interview here (it is about 16 minutes long). 

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Never needed a bell before but after seeing this I just had to have one!

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To read the contents of this post, please click on the link below:
http://www.inspiremeasap.blogspot.com/2011/08/throwback-thursday-wild-about-learning.html

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Sunday morning, around 9:00 am I was watching TV with Carly and Ina Garten was making ginger cookies which is Carly's favorite. Carly jumped out of my bed and begged me to bake cookies with her immediately. My family was getting together later that day to say goodbye to Susan's daughter Ariel who is leaving for her first year at Cornell this week. So, I thought it would be a nice treat to bring to her house, especially since the recipe is Pareve and they keep a kosher home. So we printed out the recipe and got started. I didn't have crystallized ginger and also thought that the amount of clove that she used was a little excessive so I tweaked Ina's recipe ever so slightly. These cookies came out fantastic!!!! It was a fun and different breakfast. It made 3 1/2 dozen so plenty to bring to Susan's house later.


Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup molasses
1 extra-large egg, at room temperature
Granulated sugar, for rolling the cookies

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper or a silpat.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and salt and then combine the mixture with your hands. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar, oil, and molasses on medium speed for 5 minutes. Turn the mixer to low speed, add the egg, and beat for 1 minute. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula and beat for 1 more minute. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Scoop the dough with 2 spoons or a small ice cream scoop. With your hands, roll each cookie into a 1-1 1/2 inch ball and then roll in granulated sugar. Flatten them lightly with your fingers. and place them on the sheet pans. Bake for exactly 11 minutes. The cookies will be crackled on the top and soft inside. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 1 to 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
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by Salman Hameed

Saw The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It sucks! No need to waste time on this crap.

The premise of the original book (and the original movie) is awesome. One can address some really interesting ethical and moral issues with the topic. Can we keep fellow apes in cages or zoos? How do we balance out the benefit of medical research on our closest cousins? And of course a broader range of moral and ethical issues regarding animals in general. The original Planet of the Apes played on our fears of a nuclear war, and that was quite appropriate for the time. The new film tries to bring in issues of medical benefits and the treatment of apes. Unfortunately, the screenplay is stupid and there is no effort to breath life into any of the characters.

Spoilers ahead (but really, nothing is really surprising or earth shattering):
Worst is the idiotic portrayal of science and scientists. The drug company, of course, is the real evil (oh and sooo evil they are). Scientists are just dumb and playing into the hands of the company. But there is one unintentional good thing from the movie: The happenings in the film make a strong case for adhering to a peer-review system, replication of results, as well as seeking permission from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) for experiments on humans and animals. If the scientists in the movie were mimicking anything close to science in practice, then we would not have any takeover of the apes - at least in this version of the film. But then the lead scientist in the film (played by James Franco who seemed to have been inspired by Keanu Reeves' wooden acting style) is not so smart and had to be told about chimp behavior (hmm...that a pet chimpanzee at home may not be a good idea) by his girlfriend.

Oh - and the movie definitely does not believe in nurture. The apes, after being bestowed with more intelligence, could immediately work out superior battle strategies and could figure out how to disable security cameras, etc. Who needs training or education? All we need is intelligence! And the humans, it seemed, tried to play even with the apes by sending only one helicopter to attack them - conveniently placing the really bad company guy on board. Yup - no one saw that helicopter going down in fire and explosions towards the end of the fight. C'mon!

Two somewhat good things in the film (and I'm trying hard to find positives here): It is actually cool to see different apes together - especially the orangutan looks great! (but why would different types of apes want to lead the rebellion together?). Second, there is an excellent use of end-credits to explain how most humans would be wiped out from the planet, and there was a subtle hint during the film that there is a human mission to Mars in progress. This is a smart way to set it up for a sequel. I just hope they get better writers for the next film.

My biggest disappointment is from the fact that the movie could have been really good with minor tweaks. For example, instead of an evil drug company, they could have had a true dilemma of a sincere effort to cure Alzheimer's (without money motivation) with the issue of experimentation on apes. Similarly, the captivity conditions could have been less horrific and could have raised issues of fundamental rights for apes and that of freedom in general.

But no. Here we have a film that appeals to the lowest common denominator. One of the apes from the film could have done a better job of writing than the buffoons who wrote the screenplay and made the film (sorry - no offense to the buffoons either). 

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Well, school starts on Monday and the classroom looks a little better than this but still work to do. It is hard to have time to work in the room when you are pulled here and there and everywhere for training. And during back to school training we hear a lot about building relationships with kids and parents and how that can shape a year. It's kind of funny how we do not talk much about building relationships with each other. Teacher to teacher relationships are critical to the success in a year and also in a career. I started this blog and that was one of my main goals... to connect with teachers. I have to say today was a great day to remind me of that goal. As teachers were walking in for training, it was energizing. As teachers were talking about plans and goals, it was inspiring. As teachers were talking about all the things that need to be done before Monday, it was reassuring and I realized I am not alone.

If you were in one of my sessions today I want to say thank you for the support, kind words and laughter. I really, really want you to know that. And if we exchanged emails and promised to keep in touch, I really, really want you to know I meant that and I hope we do. If you stayed after a session just talking I want you to know I learned new things from you. And if you walked the extra mile with me to my car in 108 degree heat carrying all my props, I want you to know you are a dear "teacher friend" and you just might already know that.

I wish you the best year ever. And I can't wait to see your Larry the Lettuce! If you promised to send pictures... I am so waiting to see them. As for my friend Larry... he going in a bigger container because I think I stunted his growth!

And if you were in Math... rapid assessments... you are gonna love them!

Have a great year and keep in touch!

 

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This is a great fresh salsa recipe that goes great with any grilled fish recipe.  Susan served it with grilled halibut on fish tacos. 

Ingredients:

2 mangos, cubed
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cilantro, chopped
Juice from 1 lime
1/2 jalapeno, finely chopped

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to meld flavors.
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by Salman Hameed

There was always division within the Obama administration about how to approach Pakistan. People like John Kerry and others were advocates of a deeper socio-economic involvement, whereas others in the administration have been arguing for taking a harder stance. There was a profile of John Kerry in the NYT Magazine and it talked about his anger after hearing of an American drone attack soon after he left Islamabad after fruitful negotiations. The article was not about US foreign policy in Pakistan, but it demonstrated the fissures within the Obama administration.

The post Bin-Laden postures clearly show that the Kerry faction has lost influence - at least for the time being. All nuance towards Pakistan, including the acknowledgement of a deeply complex and intertwined history of US and Pakistan involvement in Afghanistan, has now been set-aside. The discussions in news media now usually focus only on the fact that the US is giving so much money to Pakistan and is only getting betrayal in return. No mention of how Pakistanis view US drone attacks and civilian casualties, the costs of maintaining a sizable fraction of the army on the Afghan border, the retaliation attacks by the Taliban inside Pakistan since the US invasion of Afghanistan, and the impact of regional politics. Yes, Pakistan's domestic policies are in shambles, and the army and the ISI have also been playing with fire in continuing to harbor militant groups that have been working against India. Nevertheless, this is a complex picture in a very complex region (see an earlier post: Popular Science as a Guide to Popular Geopolitics)

It is therefore rare to see an article in NYT that takes a sensible approach to the issue of drone attacks and to the region as a whole. The issue of drones has come up again as CIA has made a ridiculous claim that for a year there has not been a single civilian casualty in drone attacks in Pakistan (by the way, even if this fairytale was true, we still have to address the legality and ethics of drone attacks to begin with). I think this strategy may be effective in the short run, but will end-up alienating the larger segment of Pakistani population. It will be a losing strategy if US exchanges turmoil in Afghanistan (population 30 million) with turmoil and anti-Americanism in Pakistan (population 180 million). And this is roughly the point of this oped in NYT:

Over the past two years, America has narrowed its goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan to a single-minded focus on eliminating Al Qaeda. Public support for a counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan has waned. American officials dealing with Pakistan now spend most of their time haggling over our military and intelligence activities, when they should instead be pursuing the sort of comprehensive social, diplomatic and economic reforms that Pakistan desperately needs and that would advance America’s long-term interests.

In Pakistan, no issue is more controversial than American drone attacks in Pakistani territory along the Afghan border. The Obama administration contends that using drones to kill 10 or 20 more Qaeda leaders would eliminate the organization. This is wishful thinking.

...

 Moreover, as the drone campaign wears on, hatred of America is increasing in Pakistan. American officials may praise the precision of the drone attacks. But in Pakistan, news media accounts of heavy civilian casualties are widely believed. Our reliance on high-tech strikes that pose no risk to our soldiers is bitterly resented in a country that cannot duplicate such feats of warfare without cost to its own troops.       

Our dogged persistence with the drone campaign is eroding our influence and damaging our ability to work with Pakistan to achieve other important security objectives like eliminating Taliban sanctuaries, encouraging Indian-Pakistani dialogue, and making Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal more secure.

Reducing Al Qaeda to a fringe group of scattered individuals without an organizational structure will only succeed if Pakistan asserts control over its full territory and brings government services to the regions bordering Afghanistan.

Washington should support a new security campaign that includes jointly controlled drone strikes and combines the capabilities of both countries. Together, the American and Pakistani governments can fashion a plan that meets the objectives of both without committing to broader joint campaigns that would not be politically viable at the moment.

Read the full article here.

Also see earlier posts:
Ethics, Morality, and Legality of Robotic Wars
Sorting through some of the post Bin Laden mess in Pakistan
Drone Strategy in Pakistan Being Questioned
Obamas's blind spot in his Pakistan-Afghanistan Strategy

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Tanpa disedari, ia datang lagi.

Tanpa disedari, ia kembali menyapa diri.

Namun,

Tanpa disedari, ia bakal pergi.

Tanpa disedari, ia hanya tinggal kenangan lagi.

Maaf atas penyepian selama ini.

Seribu satu permasalahan menerjah diri,

Demi mengislah ummah yang kucintai,

Jemari ini akan terus menari.

Insya-Allah momentum Ramadhan kali ini akan saya manfaatkan sebaiknya untuk berkarya buat ummah.

Selamat Memanfaatkan Ramadhan yang masih berbaki!

Mari hayati lagu ini:

Harapan Ramadhan 

By: Raihan

Ku mengharapkan Ramadhan

Kali ini penuh makna

Agar dapat kulalui

Dengan sempurna

Selangkah demi selangkah

Setahun sudah pun berlalu

Masa yang pantas berlalu

Hingga tak terasa ku berada

Di bulan Ramadhan semula

Puasa satu amalan

Sebagaimana yang diperintahNya

Moga dapat ku lenturkan

Nafsu yang selalu membelenggu diri

Tiada henti-henti

Tak ingin ku biarkan Ramadhan berlalu saja

Tuhan pimpinlah daku yang lemah

Mengharungi segalanya dengan sabar

Kita memohon pada Tuhan diberikan kekuatan

Ku merayu pada Tuhan diterima amalan

Selangkah demi selangkah...

Dengan rahmatMu oh Tuhanku...

Ku tempuh jua

~End Of Post~

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The crazy me and my friend were sooo curious when we heard people talking about Bruce Lee cemetery in Seattle. "Really?" "In Seattle?" We're curious so although we had to take several buses on a long journey to the north of Seattle, we did the trip.

"Doesn't look like cemetery!" I told my friend as we hopped off from the bus that brought us to a beautiful park. It was a nice day and people
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This is an absolutely delicious recipe that is non-dairy.  Susan made this for a Mexican meal we had at her house and since she keeps kosher we weren't able to serve any desserts made with dairy.  We were all amazed at how beautiful and delicious this flan was.  I told her there is no reason to ever make a dairy flan when this one is perfect!!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped (reserve seeds)
2 1/2 cups plain soy milk (parve)
1/2 cup non-dairy whipping cream (parve)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large whole eggs plus 1 yolk

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Place and 8-inch souffle dish in the oven to warm.  Place 3/4 cup of the sugar in a heavy saucepan on med heat.  When the sugar starts to melt, stir occasionally until the sugar becomes an amber caramel color and starts to thicken.  Remove from the stove.  Use oven mitts to remove the souffle dish from the oven and pour in the caramel, using oven mitts to hold the dish and tilt so the caramel coats the bottom and the sides.  Set aside.

Place the vanilla seeds and bean in a medium saucepan.  Add the soy milk, whipping cream, and vanilla extract and set over medium heat.  When the mixture is hot, but not yet boiling, remove from the heat.

Place the eggs and yolk and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer on med-high speed or whisk for 2 minutes until thick.  Slowly strain the hot soy milk and cream mixture into the eggs while whisking.  Discard the vanilla bean.  Pour this mixture into the souffle dish on tip of the caramel.

Place the souffle dish in a larger roasting pan and then add enough boiling water to reach 2 inches up the sides of the souffle dish.

Bake for 1 hour.  Carefully remove the souffle dish from the hot water and let cool to room temperature. Cover the souffle dish with plastic and place in the refrigerator until chilled, 8 hours or overnight.

To serve, run a knife along the sides of the dish, place a serving plate that has a rim on top (like a glass pie plate) on top of the dish, and then turn the flan onto the serving dish along with the caramel.  Cut into wedges and serve and serve with the caramel sauce.

Linked to This Chick Cooks
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Linked to Cast Party Wednesday
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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.

We humans have a strong tendency to find correlations where oftentimes there are none, and to blame external factors for serious events when most of the time they are entirely human induced.

A few months ago, when the super earthquake and tsunami in Japan came within a week or so of a “super full moon”, the latter was almost predictably blamed in a number of news stories, and I wrote a newspaper column titled “Don’t blame the moon”. In it, I mentioned that the moon used to be thought of as the reason for a variety of things, ranging from severe weather to pregnancies, but nowadays only the full moon is cited as a principal reason for increases in crime rates (during those “white nights”) to tsunamis. I explained why this is all nonsense.

These days, however, it’s the sun’s turn to be blamed. Since we’ve had major drops and wild swings in stock markets worldwide as well as extreme weather across the globe, one could almost predict that the sun, with its increase in magnetic and flare activity, would be blamed. (And let’s not forget the riots in England.) And indeed, there are articles to that effect, including one on Reuters and one on the Arabic-BBC website, though in both pieces “various views” are presented, without a clear rejection of the solar-activity “theory”. A year ago, an Algerian pseudo-astronomer predicted that Ramadan would be tough because the upturn in solar activity would make temperatures significantly higher than usual…

What’s the story exactly? Well, we know that the sun undergoes a cycle of magnetic activity every 11 years or so, resulting in greater numbers (or very few) sunspots, solar flares, and prominences. The graph on the side shows the variation of the sunspot number since 2000, with the upturn in late 2009 and the expected activity over the next several years. To what extent this affects the earth’s climate is an important issue; the short answer is “not much”; and the solar cycle can even less be called upon to explain any local or regional increases in temperatures.

But then how would anyone cite this as an explanation for the stock market’s wild ride (mostly downward) of the past few weeks? Well, people noticed that in the past week or so, several strong solar “coronal mass ejections” occurred and “coincided” with the big drops in world markets. Secondly, people noted that just like the sun goes through cycles of activity, the market seems to go through similar phases, and moreover, there seems to be some “correlation”. These people, who tend to be smart, if scientifically and methodologically challenged, explained it as a solar psychological effect on investors. They cite a 2003 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta that found that such storms could affect the stock market.

OK, that’s a testable hypothesis, so someone should check. Indeed, someone (Alexander Pakhalov of Moscow State University) recently published a study titled “The Influence of Solar Activity on the Investors' Behaviour in the Stock Markets”, in which he concluded that “based on the analysis of extensive historical data, connection between solar activity and the stock market was not found.” (OK, the source is an open-access repository of papers, not a bona fide refereed journal, and I am not an expert to vouch for this research, but it’s a statistical study, and it can be checked.)

Now, here below are graphs of both the sunspot number variation and the Dow Jones Industrial average for most of the last century, so you can take a look for yourself. Of course, we don’t do correlation studies in this “take a look” way, but it is often useful to see (by eye) what the data are showing before feeding them into statistical-analysis programs.

Last but not least, it is important to reflect on how we humans are quick to correlate phenomena and to believe that “we don’t know everything, so the connection is possible…” We humans evolved a capacity to notice patterns because that served us well in our long and difficult history, but we also have a tendency to overdo it, to see patterns where there are none and correlations that do not exist. As we scientists keep repeating, just because certain events occur at the same time or one after the other, does not mean they are related in some way, especially in a causal way. And because life is too difficult (for most people) already, it’s comforting to blame external factors, especially ones that we can do nothing about. It’s our “fate”, so let’s accept it, be strong, and move on.

But it is in fact only when we refuse to accept such reasoning that we make progress and truly move forward. We need to instill in our children and students the habit of asking for evidence, of questioning “received wisdom”, of searching for explanations that can be checked and confirmed. Anything else is superstition, irrational behavior, and just primitive thinking.

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There is actually a craft organizer that fits all of the letters with room to spare. So, come on friends and wrangle up those letters, get those wiggle little s's and run away z's because this little organizer goes together like a breeze. Found at JoAnn Fabrics. And I didn't straighten all the letters for the picture because you know it is going to look more like this inside the classroom...

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by Salman Hameed

We have been trying to understand the reception of evolutionary biology and modern science in different Muslim societies, including Muslims in Europe. From an academic standpoint, the European landscape is equally fascinating and complex as that of the Muslim majority areas from Morocco to Indonesia. Last month I had posted a link to an excellent article that looked at adjustment issues for Muslims in UK and Germany. Today there is another article in NYT that looks at multiculturalism in the Netherlands. Here is the key bit from the article:

If part of the Dutch anxiety is about identity, there are similar concerns among Muslims here. There are two parallel sets of identity crises, said Ahmed Marcouch, 42, son of an illiterate Moroccan immigrant and now a Labor member of Parliament. Most Muslims came from poor, less educated parts of Morocco and eastern Turkey, and clung to traditional values and the mosque as bulwarks against a secular society that promoted individualism, gender equality and gay rights.

“They didn’t speak Dutch, they didn’t know Holland, and they saw the sexual revolution, feminism and youth anarchism as a provocation, as part of a decadent society,” Mr. Marcouch said. He remembers his father saying with contempt, “Women are the bosses here.”

Their children, fluent in Dutch but not readily accepted, were even more at risk. A significant number, he concedes, turned to crime. They had their own identity problems, Mr. Marcouch said, asking: “Who am I? Where am I really from? Can I be Dutch?” He described his own son, 22, discussing these questions with his 10-year-old sister. “They won’t recognize you as a full citizen,” his son told her.

At the same time, Mr. Marcouch said, Dutch politicians were promoting economic integration — language training, job training. “They didn’t understand the importance of religious identity among the immigrants,” he said. They dismissed it as backward even as they failed to understand the anger a growing immigrant population was creating. “The fear,” he said, “is on both sides.”

While similar identity issues are playing a prominent role in several European countries, the way they manifest themselves are dependent on the policies of the host countries - and these policies can vary quite drastically from one country to another. It gets further complicated by the fact that some of these immigrants are from former colonies (for example, Pakistanis in UK), and in other cases, they have been part of the crucial post WWII work force (for example, the Turks in Germany or Algerians in France). Unfortunately, this article in NYT does not address the policies of the Dutch state clearly, but towards the end it does bring up an interesting issues of one of the former colonies and the question of the Dutch identity in general:

In the United States, citizenship once granted is never questioned, said Mr. Overbeek of VU University. “But in Europe it’s never quite established, no matter how long you’ve been here. Here it’s still, ‘When did you get here, and when are you going back?’ ”

East of Amsterdam, in Almere, the youngest city in the Netherlands, 30 percent voted for Mr. Wilders.

Shopping in the city center, Raihsa Sahinoer, 24, born here of Surinamese immigrants, was not surprised. “Wilders says we all have to go back even if we were born here,” she said. “It’s not only about Muslims, it’s about colored people, too.”

She lives as the Dutch do, she said. “But they tell us if you’re colored, you’re not Dutch.” Does she feel Dutch? “No,” she said, then paused, then asked: “What is Dutch?”

Read the full article here.        

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When I think of the beginning of Kindergarten and especially the beginning of Math in Kindergarten, I think of Mouse Count. If you use Investigations I bet you are thinking the same thing too. I found some cute cat toys at Dollar Tree and snatched them up to put in my love of all loves... my counting jar. I have loved to count things since I was in Kindergarten. Which brings me to my next point, the now famous penny stamps. I have had so many emails about what I call a penny stamp. Basically a penny stamp is a small craft foam shape stuck on the top a a bottle top. Since you can get a bag of foam shapes at Dollar Tree with over one hundred pieces in it you can make 100 stamps. I call them penny stamps because they cost about a penny to make and I just love them! Which brings me to the last point. If you have the book and read it, have your mice and count them, use your stamps and make a mouse penny stamp then you gotta go the extra mile and record what is inside of that counting jar, right? Yep, so I made a handy recording page and you can get it right here at TpT for free!

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