Things that need to be invented, part III

Stove tops with motion sensors and timers connected to cut-off switches.

Believe or not twice during the holiday season the Clarion heard stories of stove tops left unattended starting fires. Fortunately, neither of these fires had disasterous consequences. The bearer of one of these tales also came with a suggestion. It sounded like a smart, practical idea to the Clarion.

Here goes, this reader and Illinois resident recommended that stove tops in new homes be installed with a motion sensor connected to a timer and a kill switch. And why not? The Clarion discussed it with our wise, young friend, whose idea it was, and we agreed that you might go away from the oven with it on for a very long time, deliberately. To put something in the oven and leave for a couple hours is common, but nobody puts something on the stove top for hours and leaves.

From another friend, a recent college graduate, we heard that their old roommate was actually known to come home drunk and wanting to cook. She would start the stove and pass out on a couch or a bed in another room in the middle of the process. She did start a fire once, and it is a small wonder the apartment wasn't burnt to the ground on more than one occasion the way we heard tell.

So why not? Install stoves with a basic motion detector, they are quite reasonable these days. Hook the motion detector to a timer and if the stove top has no one in front of it for more than 20-25 minutes, have it trigger an auto shut off. Sounds easy enough to this liberal arts, non-engineer.

Look out for UHD

Ladies and Gentlemen, new readers and old, please join in welcoming to the Clarion Content our first GUEST COLUMNIST!!!

A distinguished native North Carolinian and ardent TV watcher brings you the latest news on high-def technology...

UHD

One day when I am old and grey, I will tell my grandkids about the wonderful and exciting transition from standard definition to high definition (HD) television back near the turn of the century. My stories will probably sound similar to my parents telling me about the transition from black and white to color TV. But the biggest leap in technological advancement for video may be saved for our kids (or grandkids) as they live through the transition from HD to UHD.

Japan’s Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) first began working on the current high definition format in 1964. After approximately 40 years, HD has finally taken a strong foothold toward its inevitable rise as the new standard for TV broadcasting. On its heels is the next generation broadcasting video format being developed by NHK that would take movies and TV to an entirely different level.

Back in 2003, NHK introduced an experimental digital video format call Ultra High Definition (UHD) with a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels, compared to the 1920 x 1080 pixels of current full high definition (HD) format. Think back about the first time you saw high definition programming and how simply incredible the picture seemed compared to standard definition. The resolution of HD content is approximately 5 times the resolution of standard content. Compare that to UHD which is 21 times the resolution standard content! UHD also calls for 22.2 surround sound: (10 speakers at ear level, 9 above, 3 below and 2 for low frequency) compared to HD’s 5.1 surround sound.

The technology is billed as “total sensory immersion” to the level of physically being at the location of the broadcast, a literal electronic window to the world. Along with the development of hardware required for the technology, NHK is concurrently studying the physical and psychological effects of UHD. At one demonstration, a short film, shot in UD by placing the camera on the front of a car driving along a country road, was projected on to a large screen at a technology trade show. Viewing the film caused several audience members to experience nausea from the ultra realistic visual effect of speed without the usual physical sensation of movement. For some people, the brain could not tell the difference between the images on the film and the reality of being in the car.

Also known as “Super Hi-Vision”, the video format is still many years away from crossing the line from experimental to marketable. Currently the format requires a 450-inch diagonal screen to fit the 32 million pixels. NHK is working on how to apply the format to smaller screens. Another problem is the massive amount of data needed to create the signal. When tested, 18 minutes of UHD footage required 3.5 terabytes of storage (or about 750 DVDs). Even more challenging due to the signal’s vast size, is the speed required while transmitting. During demonstrations, the data had to be transmitted over 16 channels at a total rate of 24 gigabits per second, which is thousands of times faster than a typical DSL connection. NHK has made advances on compressing the signal in the last couple of years, but certainly the signal’s enormous size remains one of the biggest challenges to advancing the technology from drawing board and into the real world.

This technology can produce images that are more palpable and vibrant than anything you can currently imagine. Is this level of clarity and realism always a good thing? One demonstration of the technology showed clips of sumo wrestlers which many in the audience agreed was much too clear for comfort! And as mentioned earlier, some people may have a difficult time both physically and psychologically contending with an image that is as life like as being there.

NHK expects the format to be available by 2015. How long it may take to be applied to film or TV is anybody’s guess.

Things that need to be invented, part II

Someone needs to invent a built in recording unit on the steering wheel of your car.

The Clarion can take no credit for this, other than for showing up at the right kind of parties, where people are batting around brilliant ideas like this one. This particular bright idea is rooted in preserving other bright ideas. How many times have we all been in the car driving along when inspiration struck? The Clarion has tried to scribble notes on everything from the back of a checkbook to the owners manual of the car. They usually come out looking like they were written by a dyslexic on Psilocybin. Not to mention the risk to other drivers caused by careening all over the road while trying to scrawl a coherent thought.

Now here comes a genius answer.



Invent a voice activated or push button recorder. Either way, drop in a recording unit. The technology has to be out there already. The steering wheel and the dashboard of a modern car already encompass a range of computers that can do just about anything you want to do. If you can control the cars speed, the radio-CD player and use your Bluetooth through the buttons on the steering wheel and the dash, how hard can it be for the car companies to drop a flash drive or a tiny cassette tape into the steering wheel.

Roll tape. Let the brilliance begin.

Things that need to be invented, part I

Doesn't it seem like all radio stations should simply have a link so that one can buy whatever song they just played?

Obvious, nu?

They should have their website constantly updating what track it was they just played. This would be nice in and of itself, right? (Some stations do this, already.)

But then the playlist should link to i-Tunes, Napster, or directly to the four major record lables, Sony-BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner and for a standard fee one could purchase the track one just heard on the radio.

Record companies would sell a lot of music on impulse buys. Radio stations could get a tiny cut of each transaction and they would have something else to show their own advertisers about listeners and their spending habits, besides specious Arbitron ratings.

Vegan Trifle Recipe

A little bit of research effort and experimentation allowed the Clarion to develop a Vegan Trifle recipe this week. We have been enjoying trifle for many years, since it was first introduced to us by Foster's Market of Durham, North Carolina. The picture above is of the preferred shape trifle bowl.

Our typical non-Vegan trifle consists of bite sized chunks of white cake, pound cake or for a splurge, Krispy Kreme donuts, layered with fresh fruit, and Cool Whip or whip cream. The fresh fruit mix is simply seasonal. Strawberries are a stand-by. Blueberries and raspberries are great. Pineapple is lovely, peaches and kiwis are a fun experiment.

The Clarion has done almost no Vegan cooking, and absolutely no Vegan baking. Of late however, we have become fascinated with Vegan culture. Long radical Gaians ourselves, we see perhaps close cousins in the Vegans. Digging some into Vegan culture has inspired us to dig more. There are many voracious Vegan bloggers to devour.

Brainstorming the bloggers and other web sources yielded this nummy, nummy Vegan Trifle recipe.

First, bake the cake, then make the vegan whip cream equivalent. Refrigerate it for a minimum of three hours, if you have the space, chill the fruit and the trifle bowl, too.

the Cake

Banana-Flavored Vegan Cake

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup soy milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 to 2/3 of a medium sized banana

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a cake pan. In large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Combine remaining ingredients in a blender and puree, then add to flour mixture. Beat for 2 minutes. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out dry.

After the cake cools, cut it into 1" x 1" chunks.


Whip Cream Equivalent

In a blender, combine:

two 10oz packages of silken style tofu
3 Tbs of maple syrup (optional substitute-coffee flavoring syrups)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup white sugar

pour into a container and refrigerate for several hours before using (ideally better to prepare and refrigerate the night before.)


Fruit (suggestions)

1 lb. of strawberries (cut them into halves or quarters depending on their size)
1 pint of raspberries or blueberries (just wash)
1 pineapple (cut into bit sized chunks)

After preparing all the fruit we like to combine it in a mixing bowl and add a couple of healthy dollops of honey, then stir gently. (if you are very confident that your blood sugar is low, along with the honey, add a couple of heaping spoonfuls of sugar in the raw.) You don't want to mush the fruit, just get it mixed evenly, so you don't later have a layer of all strawberries.


Now you're ready to move on to the Trifle bowl. The Clarion recommends the base layer be whip cream equivalent. Just cover the bottom of the bowl. Then throw in a layer of your bite sized cake chunks. Next a layer of your fruit mix, then a layer of whip cream equivalent, back to cake chunks, back to fruit mixture, another layer of whip cream, and repeat. The Clarion prefers the very top layer to be whip cream, with just a few decorative pieces of fruit and perhaps a mint sprig.

Delightful Watts Grocery

The Clarion found the new Durham restaurant, Watts Grocery, on Broad Street just west of downtown, a wonderful experience. In an older building, just a couple of doors down from the legendary Durham pool hall, The Green Room, Watts Grocery has converted what used to be Pars Oriental Rugs into a beautiful space. They have maintained the rugged exposed brick and duct work that give the place an urban, older Durham feel.

Beneath duct work and beside the brick, the other colors are soft, easy hues, that make the place feel comfortable and welcoming, not trendy and over the top. The bar is a L shaped. It is highlighted by the short side of the L which does double duty as a display case filled with owner, Amy Tornquist's memories, from her grandmother's handwritten recipes, to family photos, to Durham headlines and momentos from her youth. The bar service continues right over the top of this display and this is in fact where the Clarion and friend ate last week.

The service was terrific. The bartender was a wit and handled getting us dinner and drinks with cool aplomb. Occasionally in a nice joint it is a risk to get waited on over the bar, occasionally it is a treat, this was a case of the latter. We ate the bar because when we called for reservations we found they were booked. It is a small intimate space, probably no more than 12 to 15 tables. This intimacy melds perfectly with the rest of the warm atmosphere.

The food was good, too, bordering on excellent. The truth is the entrees were far superior to the appetizers. The Clarion's delightful dinner company had a mixed green salad tossed with tomatoes, red bell peppers, pecans and roasted garlic. It was good, but standard fare in these kind of restaurants now a days. The dressing no act of culinary bravery either, was the usual balsamic vinaigrette. This was unfortunate because we were mildly disappointed with our own appetizer, also. It was an oyster stew with bacon, thyme and fresh spinach. It was inoffensive, but rather too mild and bland. The Clarion loves spinach and bacon, so perhaps hopes were too high, but within moments after the first spoonful we were instinctively going for the salt and pepper, never a good sign for the chef. (Neither appetizer was bad, both were, in fact, pretty good, in the damning with faint praise kind of way.)

The entrees, however, were superb. Our friend had a organic salmon glazed with molasses chile, served over collard green risotto. We both love risotto. Though the Clarion is more of a collard green fan than our friend, both of us loved the texture and taste of the risotto. The salmon was cooked perfectly and the molasses chile was supremely savory. Ironically, neither of us anticipated chili as a theme, but the Clarion had a chili accented entree, too. It was a beautifully presented plate of chili braised short ribs, tender as could be, the meat just fell off the bone. They were served with a celery root puree and brussels sprouts. The brussels sprouts, which are easily under or over cooked were the ideal consistency and firmness.

The pace of the meal was just what we had hoped. Leisurely and relaxing, sometimes a restaurant with a lot of reservations will try to push folks through, or at minimum ignore the folks appear to be going slowly, so as to focus on turning other tables. That was never the case here, not once did the Clarion feel rushed or ignored. We had a before dinner cocktail and finished off with a good cup of coffee. Two more thoughts, it really was good coffee, the Clarion is a stickler and a coffee snob. Both of which explain our final thought and why Watts Grocery is an A- work in progress, not quite an A just yet. With this wonderful coffee, despite a clearly voiced request for a half and half, we were served whole milk. When we reiterated our request, as coffee aficionados we appreciate the difference, we were told they didn't have any half and half. Oh well, it was a great meal, anyway, ended with a good cup of coffee. They left something to strive for; all and all, Watts Grocery was great service, wonderful, authentic atmosphere, excellent entrees, and reasonably priced for the experience.

Walking Around Lucky

Did you ever hear the old saw, "You might be walking around lucky and not even know it." Some would tell you every day you get is a lucky one, others believe the world is samsaric. The Clarion has been known to espouse both points of view.

The Clarion had an experience that was distinctly more lucky the other night. We dropped by a friend's house, for an early evening for a happy hour beer on the way home. Unfortunately for her, but fortuitously for the Clarion, said friend's girl called out sick on the dinner he was preparing for her. Now the Clarion knows any number of great amateur chefs, but it just so happened, it was our luck, or perhaps our karma, we were at the residence of one of the professional ones. A person who had been preparing a delightful dinner for two when the girl came up ill.

After long hours over low heat on the stove the Clarion witnessed our pal combine his butternut squash stock, delicately seasoned, with heavy cream in a new Hamilton Beach blender. After some slow blending this mix was poured back into the soup pot and placed back over low heat. Its rich aroma wafted into every nook and cranny of chef's place.

We settled back into another episode of Entourage. (commercial free.) The Clarion isn't sure when chef cooked the pork tenderloin, by the time we became aware of it, it was on a cutting board. It had already been roasted and looked mouth wateringly moist. But what was chef doing? He was slicing it up into just bigger than bite sized pieces and tossing it into a warm bowl with raw spinach. When served this produced spinach of an other worldly texture, not raw, not cooked, just ever so slightly softened by the heat of the meat. The pork's heat had shaped the spinach leaves, too, curling them, bending them, inward, folding them around individual pieces of the meat.

Chef plated this rich green and brown mix on smallish, bright, white plates, the butternut squash soup was served in a matching white coffee mug, using said plate as a saucer. The soup's reddish orange hue complimenting, lightening the mix of other colors perfectly. The tastes meshed even better.

The Clarion was sorry she was sick. She is a good egg, and a kick to hang out around. But some days, you are walking around lucky and don't even know it. Other days you gotta remind yourself that be able to walk around and able to access clean water out of a tap at will makes one pretty lucky. Problems, everybody's got a few. Other days you walk into a wonderful meal and forget about them for a while.

Uber local Durham: Rue Cler

Had dinner at a terrific, small restaurant in Durham last weekend, Rue Cler. The service was solid, efficient without being intrusively ominpresent. The Clarion and friend each ordered from the Prix Fixe menu. First course options included a delicious marinated mushroom plate with a sharp side of greens slathered in Crème Fraîche. It was the first, but most certainly not the last of the superb, thoughtful, flavor combinations. My pal had a first course mixed green salad with oranges and candied pecans, also lovely. Both dishes had tantalizingly wonderful plate presentations.

For the second course, both of us got a pear tartlet baked with a scrumptious cheese mixture, and garnished with warm dates. Again, it was a brilliant flavor profile with an excellent plate presentation. The only down side, and perhaps we should have assumed it, but was no warning from the waiter that the tartlet might be a very hot temperature. Fortunately, no taste buds were scorched.

For the main course, we were both delighted with our selections. The Clarion’s friend had an amazingly wonderful dish of Kobe beef strips with little medallions of potatoes and hearty brown lentils. The lentil seasoning which was rich, meaty, peppery and warm, was out of this world. The beef was tender and cooked perfectly to order. The Clarion had a sumptuous, buttery soft piece of halibut, lightly breaded. The fish was served in a citrus sauce, over a bed of cabbage and sweet vidalia onions. Again, the initial reaction might be to think it a strange combination, but instead a couple more ingredients gave it a strikingly vibrant flavor profile; tiny, sharp, salty, black olives and capers, mixed with the sweet citrus sauce and buttery fish for a fantastic dish.

Normally, hard to talk into desert the Clarion had such a grand time, that arms barely had to be twisted before a banana chocolate chip ice cream appeared, accompanied by French Press coffee and real half-n-half. All and all, it was one of the best meals of ten years of living and dining in Durham.