Thanks for the LJ Cuts!

A quick "Thank You!" to those LJ writers who use LJ cuts on their longer posts.  It's not so bad if you get a non-cut lengthy tome now and then but if you have a couple of them in a row it pretty much nukes the easy reading snippet part which makes LJ so much fun, at least for me, in the first place.  I know I get off the rails now and then on this but I do try to keep it brief where possible or cut it.  Sometimes retroactively.

Thanks for the LJ Cuts!

A quick "Thank You!" to those LJ writers who use LJ cuts on their longer posts.  It's not so bad if you get a non-cut lengthy tome now and then but if you have a couple of them in a row it pretty much nukes the easy reading snippet part which makes LJ so much fun, at least for me, in the first place.  I know I get off the rails now and then on this but I do try to keep it brief where possible or cut it.  Sometimes retroactively.

Dishwashing Agent or Flavorful Drink? No! It's Both!

While mentioning Tang, the orange juice-like substitute drink of astronauts in the 60s (and perhaps even today) I ran across this tidbit in its Wikipedia entry.  Tang was developed before the space program and was a flop until it was associated with that popular television series.

• A household tip says Tang is an excellent dishwasher cleaning agent due to its high citric acid content, although Kraft does not recommend it or advocate such use. Kraft's web site says:

  "We have heard that some consumers have used TANG Drink Mix to clean their dishwashers. TANG does contain citric acid which can act as cleaning agent. TANG Drink mix is intended to be a food product and Kraft Foods does not advocate its use for any other purpose."^[7]

• At one time, Philadelphia authorities attempted to deter addicts from misusing doses of methadone by packaging it in combination with Tang^[8]; this was carried out under the reasoning that nobody would be foolish enough to intravenously inject the combination. This was not the case ^[8]. There was also at least one reported case of accidental methadone overdose from family members who found a jar of mixed Tang in the refrigerator. ^[9]

• Tang is a featured ingredient in Instant Russian Tea (a variation of Wassail), a hot drink mix popular in the Southern US made with Tang, instant tea, ground cinnamon and cloves, and sometimes instant lemonade. Instant Russian Tea is often given as a holiday hostess gift.

Dishwashing Agent or Flavorful Drink? No! It's Both!

While mentioning Tang, the orange juice-like substitute drink of astronauts in the 60s (and perhaps even today) I ran across this tidbit in its Wikipedia entry.  Tang was developed before the space program and was a flop until it was associated with that popular television series.

• A household tip says Tang is an excellent dishwasher cleaning agent due to its high citric acid content, although Kraft does not recommend it or advocate such use. Kraft's web site says:

  "We have heard that some consumers have used TANG Drink Mix to clean their dishwashers. TANG does contain citric acid which can act as cleaning agent. TANG Drink mix is intended to be a food product and Kraft Foods does not advocate its use for any other purpose."^[7]

• At one time, Philadelphia authorities attempted to deter addicts from misusing doses of methadone by packaging it in combination with Tang^[8]; this was carried out under the reasoning that nobody would be foolish enough to intravenously inject the combination. This was not the case ^[8]. There was also at least one reported case of accidental methadone overdose from family members who found a jar of mixed Tang in the refrigerator. ^[9]

• Tang is a featured ingredient in Instant Russian Tea (a variation of Wassail), a hot drink mix popular in the Southern US made with Tang, instant tea, ground cinnamon and cloves, and sometimes instant lemonade. Instant Russian Tea is often given as a holiday hostess gift.

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World

Recently Samantha Power got into some political hot water for calling Hillary a "monster" and thus had to leave as an adviser to the Obama campaign.  Here she is with Azar Nafisi, author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" at the New York Public Library.  It's about 98 minutes long in total and requires RealPlayer (and probably broadband). 

I'd say it's a must see for folks who are interested in human rights and what kinds of foreign policy Obama might present should he win.  This presentation was before the dust up but there are mentions of how much opposition work was being done trying to get to Obama through her already at that point in the game. It sounds like a companion volume to "Power and the Idealists" by Paul Berman which also notes de Mello's work all the way up to him and his U.N. team being blown to bits in Iraq.

Berman claims that de Mello's death was the end of of the story of the generation of 1968. I'm not so sure.

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World: Author: Samantha Power - BookTV.org

"Samantha Power talks about the life and work of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in Iraq in August 2003.  Prof. Power is interviewed by Azar Nafisi, author of 'Reading Lolita in Tehran,' at an event hosted by the New York Public Library." "Samantha Power is a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is the author of 'A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,' which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award."

(Viewing hint: If you want to watch the program full screen (at least in Windows XP) you have to put your cursor over the little viewing window that first starts up and click on the [X] looking symbol that presents itself.  This will open up the Realplayer in "theater mode" as a separate program.  Once that fires up, hover the cursor over that window and click on the next [X] presented for the full screen display.  To bail out of that, if necessary, use the Escape key.)

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World

Recently Samantha Power got into some political hot water for calling Hillary a "monster" and thus had to leave as an adviser to the Obama campaign.  Here she is with Azar Nafisi, author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" at the New York Public Library.  It's about 98 minutes long in total and requires RealPlayer (and probably broadband). 

I'd say it's a must see for folks who are interested in human rights and what kinds of foreign policy Obama might present should he win.  This presentation was before the dust up but there are mentions of how much opposition work was being done trying to get to Obama through her already at that point in the game. It sounds like a companion volume to "Power and the Idealists" by Paul Berman which also notes de Mello's work all the way up to him and his U.N. team being blown to bits in Iraq.

Berman claims that de Mello's death was the end of of the story of the generation of 1968. I'm not so sure.

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World: Author: Samantha Power - BookTV.org

"Samantha Power talks about the life and work of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in Iraq in August 2003.  Prof. Power is interviewed by Azar Nafisi, author of 'Reading Lolita in Tehran,' at an event hosted by the New York Public Library." "Samantha Power is a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is the author of 'A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,' which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award."

(Viewing hint: If you want to watch the program full screen (at least in Windows XP) you have to put your cursor over the little viewing window that first starts up and click on the [X] looking symbol that presents itself.  This will open up the Realplayer in "theater mode" as a separate program.  Once that fires up, hover the cursor over that window and click on the next [X] presented for the full screen display.  To bail out of that, if necessary, use the Escape key.)