Gardening: if you know how to grow food, you know how to feed your family

Today, I wanted to share a link about local farming. Basically, back yard gardening. If you know how to grow food, you know how to feed your family when money/work/lack there of won't. Russians are doing this  on large scale and feeding their country in excess. If you think about the amount of land we as Americans have individually (those who owns houses, of course) and how much of it is used on growing lawns that don't provide us anything, it becomes interesting. What if all that land were used to grow vegetables? Really, why are there starving people when we have land we've cleared out and is just sitting there growing vegetation we can't eat that we keep cutting away at for fear it will become unrully?

It's bizarre when you think about it really.

But that topic can go pretty deep. On the surface though it makes sense, and I personally think when I have a lawn of my own or land of my own, I will maximize it to grow all kinds of fruits and vegtables. Hell, I may even get to growing barley and hops to brew my own beer as fresh and natural as possible.

Second is a link talking about mixed cropping, or growing multiple plants in the same area to aid each other in growth and maximize the utilization of land for better yeild. An interesting idea I plan to look further into.

Finally is a interesting little video I found here about making an African style raised bed garden. I think the idea is pretty interesting and could make an interesting focal piece, as well as growing more veggies. Another thing I plan to try out

Shared Recipe: Doenjang jjigae (Korean miso stew)

So I've occasionally been going to Waba, a local Korean restaurant on Hillsborough st here in Raleigh. From time to time they add new items that aren't on their normal menu. Yesterday, I was informed of one such new item that hadn't been posted or anything, a Miso stew. It had a load of vegetables including cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic, zucchini, and tofu, as well as beef. So I figured I'd give it a shot. When it came out it had a really weird smell to it.

But when I ate it, it was absolutely delicious.

Apparently the staff was worried that Americans wouldn't like it because of the smell. I guess, knowing how finicky other Americans are, that would make sense. But to me, if it's supposed to taste good I can get past the weird smells or looks. And this didn't disappoint.

So the above video is the closest aproximation to the one done at Waba. obviously there's some differences, like shrimp instead of beef and no cabbage from what I can tell, but for those willing to try out a weird smelling food that tastes great, this should be worth it.

I'll go soft with the beer recommendations here and say it would go well with a pale ale or a IPA because it's a bit of a spicy stew. In fact, might not be bad to try with a Rye PA like Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye.

The lessons of a ton of rice in Thailand

http://thediplomat.com/2012/11/10/rice-piles-how-thailand-lost-its-spot-as-worlds-top-rice-exporter/

This I figure is an interesting read. It deals with a government's attempts at price fixing, and how it has horribly went wrong.

I mean, there are many comments that can be made about this, mostly in the political field of view. My purpose here is not to make political posts, but perhaps bring a current event to the forefront of people's minds, and perhaps to ask "How could this have been avoided?" or "how could this have been done better?"

For my own input, I would like to say that this is a lesson that there are many facets that need to be taken into consideration in politics, and the nature of economics is one of the most important that is most sorely overlooked.

Beyond that, I think one should look at this very objectively. Not from their own perspective or beliefs, but rather very analytically to try and understand why this didn't work and how this could have been done better to ensure the desired results while also not harming others in the process.

What is a "luftbaloon"?

So when I showed the Psy video "Gangnam Style" and theorized about how it, being an international song not in English, managed to do so well here in America when many others do not, I knew there were other songs that have done remarkably well in American charts that were not in English. Most notably German songs.

The first song that came to my mind was Rammstein's "Fuer Frie". It was featured in the opening of Vin Diesel's xXx and became a huge success, making them one of the biggest international industrial metal bands.

I don't listen to the radio that much, but as recent as a few years back I remember the rock radio still playing "Du Hast". I still listen to their albums from time to time.

What surprised me, though, was another song, also in German, beat it to the punch by somewhere around 20 years. It's a song most people have heard, but probably few people know what it's about.

99 luftbaloons

Apparently, the German version of this song was a chart topper in the 80's and was more popular than the English version in America. Mind you, this is according to Wikipedia so take it as you will.

I never really thought much about this song until I heard a punk cover of the song in English

Given the time period, if you know anything about the cold war this song makes alot more sense in English. It just goes to show how tense the cold war was, how close to nuclear war we all were, and how popular the anti-war sentiment was.