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|How I Treat Violent Obsessions
|Written by Administrator
|Friday, 15 April 2011 12:30
How I Treat OCD
Killer Thoughts: Treating Violent Obsessions
By Fred Penzel, Ph.D.
There are dozens of categories of different obsessions and compulsions that make up the disorder known as OCD, and while these cover a wide range of differing themes, they all share many characteristics in common. These would include intrusive, unpleasant thoughts, unceasing doubt, guilt, fears of being insane, and crushing anxiety. While all forms of OCD can be painful, paralyzing, repulsive, and debilitating, one of the nastier and more startling is the type known as morbid obsessions. This is particularly true of those obsessions in this category that are violent in nature, and include thoughts of killing or injuring others or oneself, or of acting sexually in ways that are against society's norms. I include thoughts of acting out sexually in this category, as they really represent a form of violence, and have little to do with sex.
Violent thoughts may involve both mental images and impulses to act. These can include those in which people see themselves hitting, stabbing, strangling, mutilating or otherwise injuring their children, family members, strangers, pets, or even themselves. They may envision themselves using sharp or pointed objects, such as knives, forks, scissors, pencils, pens, broken bottles, letter openers, ice picks, power tools, poison, their bare hands, or even their cars. The urges they experience may involve pushing or throwing themselves or others into the paths of trains or cars, out of windows, or off balconies, buildings, or other high places. Some report thoughts of hitting pedestrians, ramming their cars into bridge abutments on the highway, or steering into the path of oncoming traffic. Others fear snapping or going berserk in public and harming people. One patient of mine would have thoughts of opening one of the exit doors aboard an airliner. In reaction, sufferers tend to fear being alone with anyone smaller and weaker they feel they could easily overpower, such as children and elderly people. They often avoid going to such places as train platforms, pedestrian-filled street corners, or being in crowded public places. Mothers may experience repeated thoughts of acting violently towards their infants or small children. Sexual thoughts in this category usually involve raping or sexually abusing children or other adults. Fears of acting out other sexually inappropriate behaviors may also occur.
Although the number of people who suffer from this type of OCD is still not exactly clear, it is probably more common than most people think. I would estimate that about a third of my patients suffer from some form of them. When most of my patients begin treatment, they believe that they may be insane, and that no one else could think as crazily as they do. I am usually able to convince them that neither of these things is true, and this is further confirmed for them when they attend a support group and hear others report the same types of thoughts. Another problem these sufferers seem to be burdened with is a nagging doubt that causes them to ask themselves," What kind of person am I that could think such thoughts? Why would I think these things if I didn't really want to do them. I must be a psychopath or a pervert." Not being able to resolve this doubt obviously results in a lot of anxiety. In years past, OCD sufferers who went for treatment via psychoanalysis were mistakenly informed that their thoughts actually represented repressed anger and that they unconsciously wished to do the things they were obsessing about. This only worsened the symptoms for these unfortunate people. Sad to say, treatment of this type still continues in many places. In one case I know of, a woman confessed her obsessive thoughts of hurting her child to a psychiatrist. She was rewarded by this professional reporting her to state protective services, who then promptly investigated her with an eye to removing her child from her home.
It is important for sufferers to understand that the thoughts are just thoughts, and do not cause anxiety, but rather the anxiety is caused by the views sufferers take of the thoughts. They need to overcome the idea that, "If I think it, it must be real." It should be noted that people who suffer from these thoughts have no history of violence, nor do they ever act out on their ideas or urges. Although OCD can project extreme and bizarre thoughts into people's minds, it is not the thoughts or the anxiety, as much as people's solutions to having the thoughts that represents the real heart of the problem. It is the compulsive acts that people perform to relieve their anxiety that cause the paralysis that they experience. Compulsions are seductive, in that they offer the illusion of immediate relief from anxiety, even if it only lasts a brief time. Compulsions paradoxically, start out as solutions, but eventually become the problem itself. They may grow from taking only a few minutes per day, to taking up hours at a time. Instinct tells people with OCD to avoid or run away from the things they fear, and they erroneously believe that this is possible. Unfortunately, the opposite proves to be true, and the avoidance only worsens the problem and increases the fear. A person's whole life may become oriented around never coming into contact with the things that make them anxious. In actuality, you cannot run from what you fear. It must be faced. People with OCD do not remain in the presence of what they fear long enough to learn the truth of things, which is that nothing would happen even if they did no compulsions. Regardless of the type of obsessions, treatment for OCD is all about getting sufferers to accept that their solutions do not work, and will never work, and that they have to finally face their obsessive thoughts while resisting their urges to do compulsions. Anything short of this will not be powerful enough to get the job done.
These principles are put into action in a treatment known as Exposure and Response Prevention (E&RP). This is a systematic way of confronting the violent (or any other) thoughts in a step-by-step manner. The actual exposure itself is very straightforward. Sufferers can be exposed to violent thoughts in a number of ways. These may involve assignments carried out under a therapist's direction in an office, or on one's own, at home. What all these methods have in common is that they don't reassure. Instead they are designed to provoke anxiety by essentially saying that the thoughts are true, that the feared consequences will really happen, and that nothing can be done to prevent them. Ideally, exposure should be done whenever and wherever the thoughts occur. Those who suffer from violent obsessions have various types of scripts they write for themselves, and it is important to understand these scripts in order to be able to use them in designing homework assignments. A typical script for violent thinkers runs something like, " I must be having these thoughts because I'm really psycho and want to do these things. Maybe I'll lose control and really do them. If I do act on my thoughts, they'll lock me up forever. That will be horrible for my family and me; they will suffer because of what I did, and I will suffer knowing what I did to them and to my victim. I won't be able to live with the guilt. I'll either die in prison, or kill myself." Scripts such as these are worked into a series of graduated assignments.
I usually prescribe assignments based on a hierarchy we create, which rates all of the person's feared thoughts and situations in terms of the strength of the anxiety they cause. We begin with only those items lowest on the fear scale, and gradually work our way up, going at the patient's own pace. No one is forced to do anything they are not ready to tackle. If a particular assignment cannot be done in a whole step, it may be broken down into smaller steps. Each hierarchy and group of assignments is tailored to each person's symptoms. Treatment is home-based (also known as self-directed treatment) and outpatient. Homework is given weekly in written form, and done outside the office, with instructions to call if necessary. Most people have between 4 and 12 different assignments per week. In the majority of cases, treatment is on a once per week basis, requiring one 45-minute session to debrief the past week's homework, to give the next series of assignments, and discuss other ongoing issues in the person's life that may need attention.
The assignments usually begin with things that are more general, and only provoke a moderate amount of anxiety. Over time, they gradually become more specific, and get people to expose themselves to more and more challenging things. It is here that therapists are called upon to show their flexibility and creativity. We go wherever we have to go, and do whatever it takes to create therapeutic situations that will help the person to confront their thoughts. Behavioral therapy cannot be done in cookbook fashion. It is usually suggested to the patient at first, that there are people out there who are capable of violent acts, and who may lose control and act without warning. The exposure then moves on to suggest that the patient, themselves, just might be capable of the sorts of things they may be thinking about. From there, we move on to confronting the idea that there is a real possibility that they will snap, and commit a violent act. Following this, the next step has the patient expose themselves to the thought that they will definitely do whatever it is they are obsessing about, and that it may happen at any time without warning. At this stage, if the patient is particularly doubtful, it may also be appropriate to suggest that they have even done the feared thing recently, or in the past. Moving through these various stages can span a period of months, and the whole process can take approximately 6 to 9 months overall. Those with the more serious and debilitating problems may need to come more than once a week or for a longer period. A few of the most serious cases may even need to work within a hospital setting, if they are unable to follow treatment on their own, although this is much less common and rarely necessary.
One good exposure technique is via audiotaped presentations of these feared ideas that run several minutes in length, and are used several times a day. Other methods could include reading books or news articles that provoke the violent thoughts, writing brief essays on why the thoughts represent true desires, visiting websites related to violent or sexual offenders, hanging up signs with phrases that evoke anxiety, writing feared words or phrases repeatedly, or voluntarily seeking out real-life situations likely to bring the thoughts on. With regard to this last technique, it can be quite helpful to set up little plays to help the person confront a feared situation in a somewhat realistic way. One example of this would be the case of a young man who had thoughts that he would stab his father. We set up a nightly exercise where he would sit next to his father on a sofa watching TV together, as the patient held a large kitchen knife in his hand. Periodically, his father would turn to him and say seriously, "Please don't kill me, son." An important factor to also build into these techniques is repeatedly exposing the person to the idea that the escape or avoidance maneuvers they typically use, cannot and will not work. Probably the most important assignment I ever give patients is for them to agree with each violent thought as it occurs, rather than trying to argue with or analyze them. They probably get more opportunities to do this assignment than any other.
When first considering E&RP, people tend to ask, "Won't this treatment make me feel worse?" The answer is that it may, at least to start. By staying with what you fear, you may feel more anxious at first, but you will gradually build up a tolerance to the feared thing. I like to tell my patients, "You can't be bored and scared at the same time." The ultimate goal is total immersion, so that exposure takes place in a variety of ways throughout the day. The more total it is, the quicker you will get used to what you have feared, and the sooner the fear will subside. This may not be as easy as it sounds, especially in the face of really repulsive, violent thoughts. Obviously, the real art of doing therapy involves getting people to trust what the therapist is telling them, and that the method will work for them. By the time we get to the end of a person's hierarchy, there is little left in it that can bring on anxiety. They can think the worst of their thoughts, but not feel that they have to react to them.
The following list is included to show what some typical behavioral assignments might look like. No list can be complete for all people, so this is just a sampling. Understand that some of these are advanced assignments presented in no particular order, and you would work up to doing them over time. Note that no one does assignments such as these until they are ready for them.
Thoughts of running into people with your car:
Thoughts of hitting people:
Thoughts of molesting children:
Thoughts of harming your infant:
Thoughts of stabbing yourself:
I like to make patients aware that many people they may encounter will not be particularly sophisticated or familiar with behavioral therapy or the purpose of its homework assignments that don't sound like your typical talk therapy. In discussing it with others, including family members or even physicians, they may get negative reactions. One psychiatrist gravely informed one of my patients that the therapy sounded very extreme and risky to him, and that he had his doubts about it. This obviously did little for my patient's motivation, and it took a bit of doing to get him to get back to work, while accepting that his physician just wasn't well acquainted with E&RP, and was commenting on something he knew little about.
Finally, I would like to share some rules that my patients find helpful in dealing with violent thoughts and other forms of OCD:
There is a common myth that violent obsessions (and even obsessions in general) are harder to treat than other types of symptoms. This is absolutely false. Regardless of your symptoms, you can be successfully treated if the correct techniques are used, if you accept that you cannot go on as you have, and if you are prepared to do whatever it takes to recover and regain control of your life.
You can contact Dr. Penzel at 631-351-1729, or e-mail him at email@example.com
Staff Articles
- Behavioral Treatment of Body Dysmorphic Disorder
- The Boy Who Didn't Know Who He Was (Teen Obsessions About Homosexuality)
- Acceptance and OCD
- Acceptance and OCD
- But I Love My Kids (Parents With Thoughts of Harming Their Children)
- Call Me Irresponsible (OCD and hyperresponsibility)
- Coming To Terms With The Lost Years
- Contamination and OCD ("Stronger than Dirt")
- Do-it-Yourself Therapy: Self-Directed Treatment
- Fight for Your Rights: Getting Insurance to Pay for an OCD Specialist
- Getting the Right Treatment (Finding proper CBT treatment for OCD and BFRBs)
- Here's Looking At You, Kid: People With OCD Who Notice Things Too Much
- How Clean is Clean? (Compulsive cleaning and ordering)
- How Do I Know I'm Not Gay? (Homosexuality obsessions)
- How I Treat Violent Obsessions
- How Much Is Too Much? (Taking a more humane approach to behavioral therapy)
- How to Manage Your Parents When You Have OCD (a guide for teens)
- In Search of the Elusive Behavior Therapist
- Inositol and OCD
- Intensive vs. Self-Directed OCD Treatment
- Langley Collyer: The Mystery Hoarder of Harlem
- Let He Who is Without Sin (Religious obsessions)
- Loves Me? Loves Me Not? (Relationship obsessions)
- Morbid Obsessions
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (General information)
- Obsessive Love (When People Become "Obsessed" with Other People)
- Panic Disorder (General information)
- Samuel Johnson: A Patron Saint of OCD
- Saving the World (Compulsive Hoarding)
- Teens With Morbid Obsessions
- Ten Things You Need to Know to Overcome OCD
- A Touching Story (Touching and movement compulsions)
- Treating Morbid Obsessions
- Very Superstitious (Magical and superstitious obsessions)
- What Do You Say After You Say You're Sorry (Coming to terms after you recover from OCD)
- What The Heck Is "Obsessive Slowness?"
- When Epidemics Collide: OCD and AIDS
- Your Number is Up! ("Magical" numbers and OCD)
- Advice for Significant Others (Dealing with a TTM sufferer)
- Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Trichotillomania
- Coming to Terms With Your Child's Hair Pulling
- Childhood Trichotillomania (Dealing with the reluctant child's pulling)
- Fight for Your Rights: Getting Insurance to Pay for Your Treatment
- Inositol and Trichotillomania
- A Stimulus Regulation Model of Trichotillomania (Why people pull)
- Trichotillomania (General information)
- Unconditional Self Acceptance and Trichotillomania
- What Cognitive Therapy Can Do for TTM
- Skin-Picking and Nail-Biting - Related Disorders
- Anxiety Disorders: More Than "A Bad Case of Nerves"
- Common Questions, Myths and Misconceptions About Psychiatric Medicine
- Medications that Treat OCD and OC Spectrum Disorders
- OCD and Managed Care
- PANDAS: The OCD - Strep Connection
- Depression: from Children through Adults
- How Do I Know I'm Not Really Gay - Part 2
- How To Defeat OCD By Surrendering
- Living With Your Loved One's OCD: Some Advice For Significant Others
- NAC and Trichotillomania
- Stimulation Substitutes for Trichotillomania
- To Be Or Not To Be. That Is The Obsession: Existential And Philosophical Obsessions
- 25 Tips For Succeeding In Your OCD Therapy
- My Parents Don't Believe I Have OCD
- Both Ends Against The Middle: When OCD Tries To Disrupt Its Own Treatment
- Driven To Distraction: Hit and Run OCD


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Good blog posts vs bad blog posts
We all know that one key to a successful blog is quite simply to feature "good" quality posts. But, what is it that distinguishes the good from the not so good and even the downright horrible? It may seem like a complicated issue but it really is not.
As a person educated in journalism and sometimes working among my region's writers for hire, I've always prided myself on writing well. But when it comes to writing blog posts, the concept is an entirely different beast than pounding out an article for a newspaper or writing a report for a college class for example. In cyberspace, people want quick information delivered in an easy to digest manner that is also useful and valuable.
Good blog posts
The keys to a good blog post are:
1. Keep it simple and fairly short. No, I'm not saying to write something that is 200 words and suited to a 2nd grade audience. But, you don't have to write a novel either.
2. Even if your content is promotional, doing make it so obvious that you turn off your readers.
3. Avoid using large numbers of links in your posts, especially to your own content from another source.
4. Always make sure you use good language and grammar skills.
Bad blog posts
1. These are often either short on content or heavy on repetition and redundancy.
2. Nobody likes excessive self promotion and linking.
3. Poor language skills and grammar can undermine the quailty of even the most interesting posts.
4. These posts usually don't offer the reader very much at all.
And for those of you out there who either buy or consider buying articles or article writing services from someone else, be very selective. Sure many providers out there offer ridiculously inexpensive rates (like say 2 cents per word or several articles for $5.00), just remember, you get what you pay for.


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NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. (courtesy UMass Dartmouth sports information)- The Brandeis baseball team got the second home run of the season from senior RF Kenny Destremps (Mashpee, Mass./Mashpee) and a 2-for-3 peformance with two runs and a double from sophomore LF Brian Ing (Sandwich, Mass./Sandwich), but the Judges dropped their 11th straight game, 7-3, at UMass-Dartmouth today.
Junior right-hander John Quigg (Weymouth, Mass./Archbishop Williams) limited the Judges to one run and three hits during 5 2/3 innings of relief and freshman third baseman Ryan Medeiros (Acushnet, Mass./New Bedford) drove in four runs to lead the Corsairs.
Quigg relieved junior starter Tyler White (Westport, Mass./Westport) in the third inning and pitched into the eighth inning, when sophomore Tim Philips (Uxbridge, Mass./Uxbridge) replaced him with two outs.
Medeiros put UMass Dartmouth on top when he doubled home three runs with two out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning.
Brandeis came back with a run in the top of the second on an error by shortstop John Granahan (Hanover, Mass./Hanover), but the Corsairs scored once in the fifth on an RBI single by freshman left fielder Jimmy Cranston (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) and twice more in the sixth on junior catcher Matt Worden's (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) run-scoring double and an RBI single by Medeiros.
Senior designated hitter Dan DeMello (Taunton, Mass./Taunton) singled home a run in the seventh to extend the Corsairs' lead to 7-1. Destremps hit a solo homer in the eighth for Brandeis, his second of the season and the fourth of his career. Rookie shortstop Brian Allen (Salem, N.H./Central Catholic) singled home a run in the ninth, but senior right-hander Pat Lavey relieved Phillips with two out and two on and struck out freshman pinch-hitter Zach Bardwell (North Andover, Mass./Central Catholic) to end the game.
Quigg earned the win to improve to 2-0, while sophomore Colin Markel (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale), who started for the Judges, took the loss and fell to 1-4. Markel went 5.1 innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits, striking out three and walking two.
UMass Dartmouth improved to 10-6 with the victory, while Brandeis fell to 5-19 with the defeat. The Corsairs will return to action when they visit Bridgewater State Monday. The Judges will visit Tufts Tuesday.


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So apparently Frank Newport (editor-in-chief of Gallup Poll, and recently author of God is alive and well: the future of religion in America) gave his book talk in Madison, NJ, and included a line he's been using for some time: "There are no atheists in retirement homes."
My mother-in-law is an atheist
In a southern retirement home
She reads Dawkins and Hitchens, and Dennett and Krauss,
And she sends me her thoughts on each tome
She's a volunteer, there, with the hospice
So she sits with her friends when they die
Since she has no illusions she'll see them in heaven
She just wants to tell them "goodbye"
She's aware that her days must be numbered
And that death will arrive for her, too
I suspect, if she met with Frank Newport one day
That she'd happily tell him… fuck you!
Yeah, actually, every bit of this one is true. She sends me clippings from atheist articles in the news, was practically giddy when she heard about the Brights (I think she's a card-carrying member), and read God Is Not Great before I did (actually, she sent me her copy when she finished).
On the other hand, she is a staunch Republican who favored prayer in public schools because Reagan did.
I think she has been an atheist for as long as I have known her. I'm not certain, though–I know that she has, in contrast to Newport's expert opinion, become more vocal in her atheism over the years, in part because she no longer feels obliged to keep her opinions to herself. Once you have a certain number of decades under your belt, in her view, you have earned the right to speak your mind.
Newport insinuates that the fear of death–whether in nursing homes, or in the foxholes his quip borrows from–drives religious belief. I have to say, very few outside of particular professions are more familiar with death than my mother in law. She has been a hospice volunteer for decades now, becoming friends with people she knew were going to die. Many, many times she was the only one–not family, not clergy–to stay with them in their final hours. My mother in law has no illusions about mortality.
The wording of a poll has tremendous influence over the answers that are given (I've written before about a researcher who claimed that Americans were very accepting of atheists… but his research chose not to use the term "atheist" because so many people were put off by the very word); it seems clear that Newport has A) a chip on his shoulder and B) a book to sell, when it comes to counting atheist numbers.
I know it was only a rhetorical exaggeration, but a universal claim is disproven by even a single example. My mother in law's existence is sufficient to prove Newport wrong. But I want more… I want the two of them in a cage match. Newport doesn't stand a chance.


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Since your UPnP example shows that Microsoft did not go back to update old devices based on new requirements, how does it prove that new requirements are retro-active and impact existing implementations ? These old devices were made non-conformant by the new draft – just like legacy IE's @font-face implementation became non-conformant ten years ago - and new conformant devices are being released i.e. new requirements were applied to newer implementations. Until you can: a) Provide evidence that draft implementors are *required* to retro-actively fix already fielded implementations to conform with new drafts (evidence should point to explicit conformance requirements in those specifications you object to) b) Provide use-cases demonstrating the requirement you object to be harmful to users of these prior implementations. …then I maintain your objection is neither pragmatic nor reasonable as stated. Regarding b), a prior implementation of css3-fonts will successfully load any page designed to conform to the new requirement; no existing implementation will thus be broken by it. This prior implementation certainly is no longer conformant, of course; if that is the problem then you are expecting draft implementations to remain conformant which is neither reasonable nor practical, especially if this non-conformance produces no harm in fact or practice. Last, if every response has to begin with something along the lines of 'you are putting words in my mouth', you may consider the possibility that you are communicating your issue poorly. The meaning and quality of communication is up to its recipients; when an overwhelming majority of them disagree with you in a similar manner, repeating the same points would certainly seem to be sub-optimal. From: firstname.lastname@example.com [mailto:email@example.com] On Behalf Of Glenn Adams Sent: Friday, June 24, 2011 5:36 PM To: Sylvain Galineau Cc: email@example.com; Levantovsky, Vladimir; StyleBeyondthePunchedCard; email@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; Martin J. Subject: Re: css3-fonts: should not dictate usage policy with respect to origin You are putting words into my mouth when you claim I am making this argument based on "Samsung CE Devices". I did not specifically cite Samsung implementations of the interactive television standards I referred to. In fact, a significant number of CE manufacturers have deployed those standards. Next, new drafts *do* affect existing implementations when the features implemented are subject to changes in draft specifications, such as css3-fonts, which have been in process for nearly ten years. Just like HTML5, implementers cannot afford to wait until it reaches REC state, and early implementations that are fielded may be difficult or uneconomical to update. As an example, Microsoft created the UPnP 1.0 specification based on MSFT's early implementation of XML Schemas; namely, upon XDR. Many devices were fielded using this work based on early drafts of XSD. Those devices are still in the field. Eventually, XSD was finalized, but those early devices remain dependent upon XDR, and are not conformant with XSD. Slowly, new devices are being fielded based on UPnP 1.1 which transitioned to XSD as finalized. Similarly, a variety of devices have been deployed based on earlier versions of @font-face in which same origin did not apply. Those devices may or may not be updated to support a final version of @font-face which does apply same origin. The change that introduces same origin thus impacts the interoperability and potential compliance of those earlier devices. Such non-backward compatible changes should be scrutinized and considered when making such changes. This is a simple, pragmatic argument, not based upon an ideal state of affairs in which implementers refrain from building products until a specification is complete. Of course, this is a risk taken by implementers, but it is also a risk faced by standardization efforts, particularly those that take a very long time to reach some level of finality. You may think Samsung's objection unreasonable, but Samsung does not. So we will have to disagree on that point. I have proposed alternative language that represents what we believe to be a reasonable compromise. The WG can either consider it, possibly adopting it, take it in part, or ignore it entirely. That is up to the WG to decide. I don't intend to elaborate our position any further, since it would merely mean repeating what has already been said. Regards, Glenn On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Sylvain Galineau <email@example.com<mailto:email@example.com>> wrote: First, there is no such thing as a 'retro-active requirement'. New drafts only affect future implementations. As there are no explicit or implicit requirements for you to go back and fix legacy devices every time a draft specification is updated, the claim that such an obligation is forcing you to object has no basis and thus no compromise seems necessary to resolve it. Since you point out that you have no objection to this requirement for new 'HTML5' devices, I wonder if you could elaborate on what makes you believe those devices that predate it must be updated to conform to it? Second, as some of us have successfully deployed this font access policy to hundreds of millions of users, we do have some understanding of its real-world impact and I am available to answer any questions you may have on the matter. In Microsoft's case, many of our users still run a 10 year-old browser on a 10 year-old OS (as you say, PCs *can* be updated more easily; it doesn't follow that they are…) running an implementation of @font-face originally based on a specification older than css3-fonts' first draft. We also support a legacy font encoding (EOT) and apply same-origin restrictions to resources in this format in our latest release; we do so despite the fact that no such requirement ever existed for EOT, never mind that EOT supports its own origin restriction mechanism. Our older releases (as well as emulations of these older releases) do, however, remain unchanged and still download EOT fonts from all origins; precisely because, yes, this would be a breaking change, because our customers expect older versions to remain stable i.e. compatible with our implementation of the standards of their time…and because there are no 'retro-active requirements' to update these older releases. By the way, since the change you request would likely conflict with deployed IE and Firefox implementations by making failure scenarios valid, wouldn't you expect Mozilla and Microsoft to object for the same reasons? Surely such a change would be as retro-active on our UAs as it is on yours? Shouldn't this impact also be taken into account? Third, I do not believe I made an unfair generalization of your argument; but I find it encouraging that you seem to disagree with a generalization of it. Maybe you believe your request justified because of its narrow and targeted nature, as you perceive it? It could explain part of the gap in understanding we're struggling with. To summarize, you are stating that the existence of Samsung CE devices implementing a prior draft of CSS3 Fonts requires you to formally object to those changes that are incompatible with these devices. In the absence of any concrete expectation or demand by the CSS WG or the Fonts WG that you update these products to conform with a requirement drafted after they were designed and released, and in the absence of any use-case demonstrating end-user harm – a UA that loads fonts from all origins will render all pages designed for UAs that enforce SOR - I consider your objection unreasonable as stated and see no further action that can, or should, be taken. I do, of course, welcome discussion of this requirement on its own merits or lack thereof, as it may be. From: firstname.lastname@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com> [mailto:email@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>] On Behalf Of Glenn Adams Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 1:22 PM To: Sylvain Galineau Cc: email@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>; Levantovsky, Vladimir; StyleBeyondthePunchedCard; email@example.com<mailto:email@example.com>; email@example.com<mailto:email@example.com>; Martin J. Subject: Re: css3-fonts: should not dictate usage policy with respect to origin One must recognize that (1) UAs deployed in CE devices are not the same category as PCs, which can be updated more easily; (2) css3-fonts has been under development for an inordinately long time and the need for @font-face implementations has existed since the beginning; (3) UAs *are* deployed that use @font-face and that do not support HTML5 or same-origin. These are facts that should be considered, and as a representative of a company that has deployed such UAs, Samsung will continue to object to a retroactive requirement on these UAs to support same origin. We do not, however, have the same position for HTML5 category UAs that are now appearing in the field. Of course, a WG is entitled to change a non-final spec in a non-backward compatible manner, but in doing so should take into account the impact of such a change. Finally, I did not suggest such a generalization as you state below. I am attempting to find compromise language that Samsung can live with. Are you interested in finding a compromise that can remove our objection or not? G. On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 2:11 PM, Sylvain Galineau <firstname.lastname@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>> wrote: As a *draft* specifications, css3-fonts and WOFF can certainly define new requirements for future implementations. Your entire argument would imply that once a draft has been implemented future versions of the spec must be compatible with those implementations. This is not the way CSS works; no implementation that implemented a given draft is guaranteed conformance with the next one. The main motive for vendor prefixes is to allow specifications to evolve without breaking implementations. That historical implementations did not prefix their @font-face implementation should not block us from achieving both interoperability and desirable runtime behavior in future implementations. From: firstname.lastname@example.com<mailto:email@example.com> [mailto:email@example.com<mailto:email@example.com>] On Behalf Of Glenn Adams Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 12:59 PM To: firstname.lastname@example.com<mailto:email@example.com> Cc: Levantovsky, Vladimir; StyleBeyondthePunchedCard; firstname.lastname@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>; email@example.com<mailto:email@example.com>; Martin J. Subject: Re: css3-fonts: should not dictate usage policy with respect to origin Samsung supports your suggestion below if it is expressed either as "should" or made conditionally mandatory, where the condition is expressed as follows or an equivalent: "If the use of WOFF occurs in a context where same origin access constraints are *already* present/supported, then that mechanism *must* be used to limit access to WOFF fonts; otherwise, such a mechanism *should* be provided for such use." We do not want the use of WOFF by itself, or css3-fonts, by itself, to trigger a mandatory requirement for same origin processing in contexts that don't already support such constraints. For example, in HTML4 or XHTML1 category UAs that already support @font-face or that wish to support WOFF. We note that the @font-face rule has been defined in css3-fonts since 31 July 2001, and that a variety of UAs have been fielded in the non-desktop environment (e.g., mobile, television, etc), which employ @font-face for accessing other non-WOFF fonts, and do so without same origin restrictions. This would argue against introducing a non-backward compatible change in css3-fonts to mandate same origin processing for prior fielded implementations that do not otherwise support same origin. WOFF similarly should not by itself trigger mandatory support for same origin in such UAs. G. On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Liam R E Quin <email@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>> wrote: The WOFF spec could say in its conformance section (right in the spec, not in a separate document) that for use in style sheets (not only CSS) an implementation-defined mechanism should (must?) be available to limit access to the WOFF resource outside of support for the style sheets, and maybe give same-origin as an example.Received on Monday, 27 June 2011 18:07:15 UTC
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Has Nintendo taken things too far? It's 1991, shoulder pads are in, and America's kids are NIN-TEN-PENDENT<. Yeah, that's right. Addicted video games thanks to Nintendo, which at the time controlled 80 per cent of the market.
The kids and parents who have been hypnotized and traumatized by cutting-edge '90s graphics and an Italian plumber's moustache and ability to grow twice his size after ingesting a mushroom are in group therapy. They struggle with the price of the console ($2US00!), the peer pressure (Sega isn't as cool, mom!), and the exploitative marketing (buy, buy, buy!).
You think it's bad, parents of 1991? Just wait until they discover the internet. [BuzzFeed]


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Now that hurricane Sandy has moved on, leaving in its wake a whole lot of damage and lost productivity, we can look at it as a pretty loud reminder that business owners need to be prepared for unexpected interruptions in their work day. One such interruption is a loss of power; it's something that can strike even in the clear blue sky. But for businesses that rely on their electronic computing devices to be productive, a power out of even a few hours could be extremely costly.
So how can you plan to stay productive when the electricity goes out? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Get a UPS for your essential computing devices. UPS stands for uninterrupted power supply. It keeps your computer temporarily running even if there's a blackout or other electrical disturbance such as a brownout. UPSs are available at any major office supply store, and they used in much the same way as a power strip or surge protector. Some sockets on the UPS will provide both battery backup and surge protection. These should be used for your PC, monitor, modem, and perhaps one or two other devices you want to protect from a sudden power loss. Additional slots may be available that provide only surge protection without battery backup. But keep in mind that the more devices that are connected, the less time you will have access to this form of backup power.
2. Consider using a UPS with a fuel generator. Another popular backup power option is a fuel powered generator (typically gasoline is used). Since fuel generators are notorious for producing inconsistent energy outputs, you will want to use it together with a UPS so your devices will be protected from any sudden surges.
The major downsides to using a generator is that they tend to be noisy to operate and expensive. Moreover, they are prone to accidents and should be used with caution. Here is information on how to safely use a portable generator from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
3. Have smaller devices ready to conduct essential work. You could ensure that you have a smaller device ready with a fully charged battery that will allow you to do some essential work- ie a laptop, a tablet computer, or a smartphone. If you store documents and other important data in the cloud, then your ability to be productive increases significantly.
4. Have backup batteries ready with a full charge. It's a good idea to invest in a spare battery pack that you keep fully charged. These "super batteries" plug into your laptop and can provide up to four or more hours of extra power. While they won't charge your laptop's original battery, they do offer an reliable option for alternative power.
5. External battery chargers. There are several products on the market that promise to recharge the battery in your phone, laptop, or other device. Usually, these rechargers are relatively cheap and they can easily be placed in a backpack, briefcase, or a small purse. A couple of good examples include: GearPower from IOGEAR and the Mojo Removable Power Card.
6. Power inverter. If you need to use something a little bigger than a phone, such as a laptop or desktop computer, then you may want to consider getting a power inverter. The inverter can be used to convert DC power from your car battery into AC power for devices that are usually plugged into a wall outlet.
7. Alternative energy chargers. If you have access to sunlight then a solar powered charger may come in handy. The problem is that these devices tend to be pricey. A solar-powered battery charger will typically cost from $250 on the low end, to $800-$900, for a higher end device. Power output among devices typically ranges from 10 to 25 watts. From pocket-sized devices to briefcases, the weights of these products can range from a few grams to several kilos. In addition to solar power, many chargers can also be charged from a wall outlet or a USB port so you can use it like a regular external battery charger mentioned above. Some models even sport a wind turbine.


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Ravi Belani: Insightful and Helpful
Fund: Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Posted by Anonymous on 2008-07-21
I recently met with Ravi to discuss a nascent new business concept that's promising but still a bit fuzzy in the details. Ravi got it immediately. He quickly began offering very creative insight that helped me flesh out the concept, explore related ideas, and understand my most important next steps. True to DFJ's reputation, Ravi was particularly insistent that I 'think big' and consider ways to turn this concept technology into a platform. He was also very considerate to my position as the entrepreneur and respectful of my role as the keeper-of-the-vision. Overall I came away very impressed with Ravi's intellect and creativity. I would be very pleased to have Ravi on my board and I'm looking forward to formally pitching DFJ.PRIVATE: Members Only


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Cooking For Engineers
Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 16776765
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:01 am
Post subject: Sous Vide: An Introduction to Sous Vide Cooking
Sous vide (pronounced SOO-VEED) cooking is the preparation of food by submerging ingredients in a temperature controlled water bath (often while the ingredients are enclosed within a vacuum sealed plastic bag). Until recently, this method of cooking has been limited to restaurants and industrial food service, but it is becoming increasingly easy to prepare sous vide food at home. Like all methods of cooking, there are benefits and disadvantageous to sous vide cooking which we'll also discuss below.
In most cases, cooking sous vide simply involves two steps: the sealing of foods in plastic bags and submerging the bags into hot water baths for a period of time to heat through. The water is typically regulated at the desired final temperature of the food or just above. The food is held in the water bath until it reaches the same temperature as the water (and then held at that temperature until service or a final cooking step takes place such as searing). In many ways, this is similar to simmering (such as in a
poached fish recipe
), except the sous vide water is usually at a lower temperature and food is kept from making direct contact with the water by a barrier (such as a plastic bag or eggshell in the case of sous vide eggs, thus minimizing flavor and nutrient loss of the ingredients to the cooking liquid).
Let's walk through what happens to the food while in the water bath with a concrete example. I'll use the example of a rib eye steak which I intend to cook to medium-rare. For the purposes of this example, I've vacuum sealed the steak after lightly seasoning with salt and pepper. The bagged steak is then deposited into a water bath set to 55°C (131°F). Its temperature starts off at refrigerated temperature of 5°C (40°F) and slowly rises over time as the heat from the water transfers through the bag and into the steak. Eventually, the entire steak will reach equilibrium at 55°C (131°F) - the exact time depends on the thickness of the steak. For most large rib eye steaks, one hour is sufficient for the entire steak to be at 55°C. At 55°C, the proteins we consider to be tough in raw beef have denatured (unraveled). (Raw beef is chewy because these proteins, called myosin, are intact. By cooking at temperatures higher than 50°C/122°F, myosin begins to break down making the beef more palatable.) There are other proteins in beef which, when denatured, are tough to chew. These proteins (actin), when denatured, also squeeze out a lot of water which causes the steak to become dry. At 55°C, the actin are more or less intact, thus preserving the tenderness of the beefsteak. At this point, the steak is "cooked" since it's reached the desired temperature and texture, but not necessarily safe to eat. Holding the steak at 55°C for an hour pasteurizes it making it safe to eat. (This pasteurization process kills most Listeria pathogens; however, at this temperature and time, salmonella can still be alive, but salmonella is not common in beef steaks. Salmonella can be an issue with ground beef which should be cooked longer to fully pasteurize. Had we set the water bath to 60°C (140°F), pasteurization time would have been only a few minutes - so sous vide cooking meats to higher levels of doneness takes less time than lower levels of doneness due to food safety concerns.)
At this point, the entire steak is at our desired final temperature - from edge to center to edge. Unlike other cooking techniques, there is no noticeable temperature gradient. When you grill a steak, the meat is placed over an extremely hot heat source and the outside layer of meat reaches temperatures in excess of 175°C (350°F). Under that layer is a layer of extremely well-done beef (much greater than 70°C/160°F which looks like grayish colored beef and is dry and chewy) which gradually becomes well-done, medium-well, then medium, and, finally (if the steak was flipped at the right time and pulled from the grill at the right time), a center which is medium-rare. If you like your steak medium-rare, then grilling a steak over high heat really doesn't produce much medium-rare beef. So, many techniques have been created to solve this problem - the two that work the best for me is to sear the outside of the steak (since the brown exterior is very flavorful and desirable) and move it onto a cooler (but still warm) part of the grill or placing the steak into an oven (even though the temperature of the oven is relatively high compared to the target temperature, air is a really inefficient conductor so heat transfers slowly into the meat providing more even cooking than a hot grill would have). This minimizes the amount of well-done beef in the medium-rare steak. Sous vide gives us an easy alternative to the oven, because, since we set the temperature of the water bath to the final internal temperature of the steak, it is impossible for the steak to overcook to medium-well or well-done. In fact, we can leave the steak at 55°C (131°F) for hours without being able to detect a difference in taste, texture, or flavor.
The only problem with sous vide steak is that the temperature never goes above our water bath temperature, so no surface browning can occur. That brown crust is one of the joys of eating a steak, so a quick sear on the hottest burner possible is all that is needed to finish the steak. This can be achieved with a very hot charcoal grill, a searing burner on a gas grill, infrared searing burner, a pan (people generally prefer cast iron) that has been superheated on the range, or a blowtorch (the medium sized ones from hardware store work much better than the small expensive kitchen torches). The hotter the heat source, the faster the steak can be browned, the more abrupt the temperature gradient you'll have in the steak. It should look something like: browned, medium-rare, browned with almost no discernable areas of well-done or even medium.
Sous vide cooking can be used to cook all types of proteins: fish, fowl, lamb, beef, etc. However, each type of meat has some differences in the proteins and denaturing temperatures. For example, in most fish, myosin begins to denature at around 40°C (104°F), while in mammals (beef, lamb, etc.) myosin doesn't denature until 50°C (122ˌF). The difference in protein denaturing temperatures in fish from other animals is one of the reasons why the tenderest fish is cooked at lower temperatures than beef or chicken. In fact, there are protein denaturing differences between types of fish - if we cooked salmon to 60°C (140°F), its proteins would have unraveled and tightened up so much that it would taste dry and perhaps even a little grainy. However, Mediterranean sea bass (also called branzino or dace) can be cooked to that same temperature without producing unsavory textures. In some meats with lots of connective tissue (such as beef ribs), long cooking times can be used to break down collagen into gelatin without bringing the meat up to the relatively high temperatures of 77°C (170°F) and above used when smoking ribs or braising short ribs. I'll cover the specifics of cooking various types of foods, the health concerns (which pathogens or parasites need to be considered or dealt with), and which proteins we're aiming at denaturing and which ones we want to avoid overheating in future articles.}?>
Eggs are of particular interest in sous vide cooking due to their complex composition of different proteins which denature at distinct temperatures. They can be cooked in their shells, so it's one of the easiest foods to experiment with once a temperature controlled water bath is set up. Just drop (well, place them gently so the shells don't break) them into the heated bath and wait one hour. Each one C° temperature change can alter the consistency of the egg white and egg yolk. My personal favorite is 65°C (149°F) where the yolk has thickened into a gel and the whites have taken on a custard-like consistency.
Vegetables can also be prepared sous vide, but the goal is the breakdown of starches. In general, this occurs around 85°C (185°F). For the most part, steaming, blanching, or sautéing vegetables produces almost the same result as sous vide. Because of this, I don't often bother to sous vide vegetables except for carrots, beets, and potatoes. When those vegetables are sliced or cubed, bagged, and cooked sous vide, you can get consistent texture through the entire piece without any liquid or nutrient loss to boiling water.
Disadvantages of Sous Vide Cooking
Cooking sous vide requires a temperature controlled water bath. This can be approximated on the least expensive end with either a large ice chest filled with hot water (measured with an accurate thermometer) or a large pot with a thermometer attached and a diligent cook adjusting the flame / heat source (potentially $0 cost if you already own a thermometer). On the expensive side, you can get what the professionals use - a piece of scientific laboratory equipment called an immersion circulator which regulates the water temperature and keeps it circulating to maintain a precise temperature within 0.1C° (these run at about $1000 and up). There is now a consumer water bath appliance on the market called the
Sous Vide Supreme
that runs about $450. In a future article, I'll discuss all the options from the $0 to the immersion circulator.
In addition to the water bath, a vacuum sealer is needed (although using Ziploc brand bags should work when starting out - they are supposedly safe up to about 76°C/170°F). FoodSaver is the most popular brand and has offerings starting just under $100 to about $200. Chamber vacuum sealers are often used in restaurants and generally start at around $2000.
It takes a lot of time to cook sous vide. Because heat transfers gradually from the surroundings into the ingredients, cooking always occurs at a faster rate when there is a large delta between the cooking environment and the food and slows down as the two temperatures get closer together. For example, placing a steak on a pan heated to over 500°F will transfer a large amount of heat (assuming the pan doesn't cool down too fast) into the steak rapidly. It only takes a few minutes to cook with such a heat differential. The same steak takes longer in the oven for two reasons: the temperature in the oven is usually lower and air is a poor conductor (when compared to metal cooking pans or water). Luckily, cooking sous vide is not as slow as the equivalent process in an oven (if both were set to the same temperature) because water is excellent at holding heat and imparting it (that's why we can stick our hand in a preheated oven at 175°C (350°F) for a while before feeling extremee discomfort while a few seconds at 85°C (185°F) in simmering water would give us severe burns). Unfortunately, the low temperature delta between food and heat source leads to long cooking times. In addition, since the food is often cooked at a lower temperature than flash pasteurization temperatures, once the food has reached its target temperature it should be held there for a period of time to ensure the destruction of pathogens, thus extending the total cooking time. (For foods cooked sous vide for short amounts of time with fresh ingredients, it is not necessary to pasteurize before eating by healthy adults.) For foods where connective tissue breakdown is desired, the cooking time could be days. (Of course, for some of these foods there are no alternative cooking methods that yield the same results.)
Temperature Limitations.
You can't sous vide cook near the boiling temperature of water, so all cooking has to take place significantly below the temperatures needed to brown foods (Maillard reactions and caramelization all occur well above 150°C (300°F).) Also, no significant temperature gradients (which can be an advantage as previously mentioned) are present in the cooked food, so pan-seared salmon where the skin is crispy and textures range from well-done to rare are not possible. Another example where gradients are preferred is when soft boiling an egg such that the whites are solid and the yolk is running or gelled. Eggs cooked sous vide results in a uniform temperature and at 65°C the yolk has gelled and conalbumin (one of the major proteins in the whites) has denatured, but ovomucoid has not denatured which results in partially runny layers of whites. This can be solved with two water baths - one set to 75°C (high enough to denature ovomucoid but not ovaalbumin which causes whites to become rubbery) and another at 65°C. Setting the eggs in the first bath for just long enough to set the whites and then transferring them to the 65°C to be held for service.
Another limitation related to temperature is that for any particular water bath, you can only have one uniform temperature. So, if you need to cook two things at the same time at different temperatures, you'll need multiple water baths. With some planning though, you can cook the hotter items first and lower the temperature and cook the lower temperature items while keeping the high temperature items warm at the lower temperature. For short periods of time (a few hours) this is usually not a problem.
Advantages of Sous Vide Cooking
I previously mentioned that the amount of time it takes to cook sous vide was a disadvantage, but the type of time it uses can be seen as an advantage. For most of the cooking time, the cook is not
. You bag the food, heat the water bath, stick the bag in, and walk away for an hour (go to the gym, chat with guests, etc.) or a day or two (live your life normally - go to work, sleep, etc.). The food is safe and ready when you are to eat. With sous vide there is a large amount of flexibility. Eggs hold for a couple hours as do steaks. If the meat is done early, but you're not ready to eat - leave it in the water bath (unless it is fish or shellfish which contain enzymes which will work to soften the texture until it becomes mushy). If it's food that is cooked across multiple days, holding it another half day probably won't have any noticeable effect. If you changed your mind (or are working with fish or shellfish), shock the food down and refrigerate to be reheated in the same bag (properly shocked down and refrigerated most sous vide foods can be stored for a month in the refrigerator - indefinitely, in the freezer).
Temperature Control.
Being able to target a specific temperature allows the cook to handpick which proteins should denature and which should not. This allows incredible control over texture. This control allows for the ability to cook foods in a way that are not possible through other means - gelatin rich medium doneness short ribs or medium doneness chicken breast. Another benefit of a temperature controlled water bath is the ability to pasteurize eggs in the shell at 57°C (135°F) and use them in place of raw eggs in recipes for the immune compromised (homemade mayonnaise, buttercream frosting, or even raw cookie dough).
Temperature Gradient.
The slow cooking process and 0 difference between heat source temperature and desired food temperature means there is essentially no temperature gradient within the food maximizing the quantity of food at the desired temperature (and therefore the desired texture). No temperature gradient also means there is no carryover cooking and less of a need for food to rest.
Quantity Cooking.
With an immersion circulator and a large water vessel, you can sous vide cook a LOT of food at once. Large bags of beaten eggs can be heated in a water bath to make scrambled eggs (a technique often employed at emergency shelter facilities). Chicken or turkey breasts can be vacuum sealed and cooked to produce large quantities of tender meat for use in salads or to be sliced with a rotary slicer (many industrial poultry breasts prepared for use by delis are cooked sous vide in the very bag they are sold to the deli or supermarket in).
Reduced product loss.
Due to the vacuum sealing and a lower cooking temperature than most other cooking techniques, there is usually significant reduction in water and fat loss to the environment when cooking sous vide. Chicken, when cooked at 60°C (140°F) loses less than 20% of its weight (while frying, roasting, or grilling typically results in water loss of about 30%) resulting in more juicy chicken. The liquid isn't really lost either since it's captured in the bag and can be used for the basis of a sauce or gravy. In fact, it is rumored that the origins of sous vide cooking in restaurants began in France during the 1970's where George Pralus pursued this technique as a way to reduce product loss when preparing foie gras.
In future articles, I'll discuss the particulars of how to sous vide cook different ingredients as well as how to put together your own sous vide setup at home.}?>
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Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 3:08 pm
Post subject: Good to see this article!
My girlfriend, never having heard of sous vide, thinks I'm nuts. I am building two separate devices for use in sous vide cooking though.
Build a simple PID controller for electric cooking devices. I'm planning on using this on my 18 qt Nesco roasting oven.
This DIY immersion circulator is next on the list.
Having never tasted, to my knowledge anyway, sous vide cooking, I am really looking forward to getting it under way. I'm waiting for the last few parts from eBay on the second link. Then I plan to build both devices. I had planned to do it last spring... got side tracked by brewing beer :-)
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Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 5:14 pm
Post subject: Searing with a deep fryer
Would a deep fryer work well to provide the searing effect quickly? Since only the surface needs to be browned, it should probably take 30 seconds or less.
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Michael Chu
Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:49 pm
Post subject: Re: Good to see this article!
Pyrofish wrote:
Build a simple PID controller for electric cooking devices. I'm planning on using this on my 18 qt Nesco roasting oven.
This DIY immersion circulator is next on the list.
Having never tasted, to my knowledge anyway, sous vide cooking, I am really looking forward to getting it under way. I'm waiting for the last few parts from eBay on the second link. Then I plan to build both devices. I had planned to do it last spring... got side tracked by brewing beer :-)
Keep us updated on your progress! It's always fun to have a project to work on and even better when the project enables you to produce amazing food.
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Michael Chu
Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:53 pm
Post subject: Re: Searing with a deep fryer
SirisC wrote:
Would a deep fryer work well to provide the searing effect quickly? Since only the surface needs to be browned, it should probably take 30 seconds or less.
Deep frying is a perfectly reasonable finishing step, but it'll come out a little different than if you seared, grilled, or blowtorched the finish on. Since you can control the frying oil temperature and the food will be completely immersed, deep frying may be able to produce a more satisfying brown crust around the food than any other means. Great suggestion!
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another Josh
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:51 pm
Post subject: Avocados
I once saw (on some cooking show, I think) that sous vide techniques can be used to bring avocados up to a temperature that prevents the browning that happens when the flesh is exposed to air. I've always wanted to try this, but the expense of the sous vide equipment and the cheapness of lemon juice always prevented me. As I recall, it did not require plastic bags, but unfortunately I can't remember the water bath temperature.
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Nick Smolinske
Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:46 pm
Post subject: Deep Fryers
Speaking of fryers, would a modern electric deep fryer filled with water be a decent substitute for an immersion circulator? Obviously there wouldn't be circulation of the water (although you could jurry-rig something), but they do have temperature control. If the temperatures can be set low enough, and some kind of pump (perhaps from a fish tank?) to keep it circulating, it could work. And be really cheap.
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Michael Chu
Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)
Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 12:23 am
Post subject: Re: Deep Fryers
Nick Smolinske wrote:
Speaking of fryers, would a modern electric deep fryer filled with water be a decent substitute for an immersion circulator? Obviously there wouldn't be circulation of the water (although you could jurry-rig something), but they do have temperature control. If the temperatures can be set low enough, and some kind of pump (perhaps from a fish tank?) to keep it circulating, it could work. And be really cheap.
Are we talking about a home fryer or a commercial (restaurant fryer)? The problem with the home fryer is that most of the ones I'm familiar with has very little volume. In addition, I'm pretty sure the controls don't allow for holding water at the 130°F to 185°F.
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Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:41 pm
Post subject: Deep fryer
mmm, why deep fry to finish off the steak, when a hot pan will do fine? if you are already frying stuff and are up for an experiment I suppose go for it, but I can't imagine it being any better, and could go sour depending on the oil or whatever else you've been frying. Also, if you finish it off in a pan, you will have bits of fond with which to make a pan sauce.
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Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:47 pm
Post subject: My other favorite foody Blog...
Chef John over at Foodwishes posted this video on a very low tech sous vide approach.
A heavy pot, a low flame, a ziplock bag, and a good thermometer. It's worth watching just to see that delicious rare duck breats... <drool>
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:05 am
Post subject: Deep Fryer for Sous Vide
I just ordered a Butterball Turkey Fryer that can fit a 14 pound turkey. The lowest temperature is 125 F.
I was using an old kitchen gadget called "The Galloping Gourmet". It has a confectionaire function but the water level is very low, so nothing can be submerged that is bigger than a steak or a pork chop. Plus I found the temperature was not as precise as I needed.
I wanted an appliance that can accomodate a roast or baby back ribs, so after a lot of research, decided upon the Butterball Turkey Fryer. I got it for under $85. The heating element is on the bottom of the unit, so it should hold the temperature.... I hope.
I'll keep you posted on how it works.
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Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 4:36 am
Post subject: More sous vide!
I have made a controller using the CD101 as referenced earlier in the seatlefoodgeek blog. Works great- after you go through all the hassle- great learning project but took way longer than I expected. I'd happily pay the $150 for the sous vide magic unit if I had to start over.
All said and done- I love using it. The steak, chicken, and eggs are fantastic.
I am surprised that this site does not cover more sous vide recipes. This is a perfectly nerdy process for cooking- failure would be hard to do this way.
I encourage you to do more
sous vide now that the process has been documented. Thanks!
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Joined: 26 Dec 2011
Posts: 2
Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2011 10:58 am
Post subject: Hi..
I had been sous viding aside, from being a great appliance yielding results impossible with any other device, the people working for Sous Vide Supreme are amazing. They will help you and in my case, mine had a slight problem and they are sending a new one, trusting me to send back the other. I am still smiling from the experience working with, these guys.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 6:16 pm
Post subject: Deep Fryer for Sous Vide
I bought a Butterball Turkey Fryer and an Auber PID controller.
Total cost was $200. It works great! It stayed +/- 1 degree f.
for a 48 hour brisket at 135 f. I put my "Kill-a-watt" watt
counter on it and it used 1Kwh/day which for me is about $.10/day.
It has all the capacity I need. It's big enough for a 14lb turkey,
so it can do a lot of smaller pieces like steaks and breasts. It also is the best deep-fat fryer we have used.
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Joined: 26 Dec 2011
Posts: 2
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:45 am
Post subject:
Sous vide machine is a no-brainer to use. Its construction is simple it is basically a large, square water bath, with a rack that holds pouches of food, and a simple control panel to program temperature and, if desired, a timer.
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Winter Fantasy Cupcakes
Total TimePrep: 1 hour
- 1 to 2 cans vanilla frosting (16 ounces each)
- Cupcakes of your choice
- Coarse sugar
- Chocolate wafers
- Semisweet chocolate chips and miniature semisweet chocolate chips
- Orange candy slices
- Additional vanilla frosting
- Blue food coloring, pearl dragees, blue jumbo diamond sprinkles and edible glitter, optional
- Frost cupcakes, reserving some frosting for decorating as desired.
- For snowmen cupcakes: Dip the top of each cupcake in coarse sugar; gently shake off excess sugar. For stovepipe hats, microwave chocolate wafers for a few seconds to slightly soften as needed. Use a serrated knife to cut two narrow strips from opposite sides of each wafer. (Large center piece will form crown of hat; one strip will form the brim.)
- Add chips and mini chips to cupcake to form eyes and mouth. Cut a small piece of orange slice to form the nose.
- Stick brim of hat, rounded side up, into top of cupcake; insert hat crown into the top edge. Secure with additional frosting. Color frosting if desired; place in a resealable plastic bag. Cut a small hole in corner of bag. Pipe a decorative hat band; add dragees and sprinkles if desired. Sprinkle cupcakes with glitter if desired.
Recommended Video
Jan 27, 2016
so cute love snowmen
Jan 26, 2011
I made these for my grandson's class at school. (36 of them). I finally found the chocolate wafers and because I wanted the cupcakes to look "like the photo", I paid dearly for the wafers (almost $5 for 42 wafers). But, my grandson was worth it. PROBLEM: I heated the wafers as recommended in the directions but they were still very hard to cut without breaking. Tried several different knives and different times of warming but "lost" many of the cookies to breakage. (Bought another box of wafers.) Finally got enough cut wafers for all the hats I needed. I decorated the cupcakes on Sunday for him to take to school Monday morning. They all looked very, very good! I was pleased. Monday I packaged the cupcakes for transport. The wafer top hats began to break from the cupcake. At this point it was a quick replace of top hats. I would NEVER use the chocolate wafers again unless I was serving immediately. I would use something else, maybe a peanut butter cup cut in half and just set on top of the cupcake. With all this effort I was well rewarded by the smiles of the children and a big hug from my grandson. Priceless.
Dec 14, 2009
Made these for a birthday party this weekend. Fun and easy to make , everyone enjoyed them.
Dec 14, 2009
I could not find the chocolate wafers, so I used girl scout thin mints. I got alot of compliments on them.
Dec 7, 2009
Such a cute idea and fairly easy.
Dec 5, 2008
These cupcakes are a hit with the kids and the adults around Christmas time! I use homemade frosting it tastes better. N.Y.


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The synopsis and commentary for this episode are currently unavailable. I'm sorry for any inconvienence, but check back as I should have it done soon. If you enjoy my site please email me with your comments or questions.


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Richard Willey, MathWorks
Stuart Kozola, MathWorks
Engineers and scientists face a variety of challenges when analyzing data. Time and cost constraints often limit the amount of data that can be acquired. In many cases, the quality of the data makes it difficult to extract trends or estimate uncertainty. Sometimes there is too much data and identifying the most significant explanatory variables can be troublesome. Specifying which model best describes the data often requires a choice between competing models that initially appear to have similar goodness-of-fit measures.
Computational statistics provides a variety of applied quantitative methods that help solve these challenges including:
This webinar highlights how the interactive analysis tools in MATLAB®, Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox™, and Curve Fitting Toolbox™ support computational statistics.
Previous knowledge of MATLAB is not required for this webinar.
Recorded: 8 May 2008


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OAKLAND, Calif. [url=https://www.packersrookiestore.com/Packers-Jace-Sternberger-Jersey/]Jace Stern
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OAKLAND, Calif. Jace Sternberger Super Bowl Jersey . -- Jed Lowrie insisted he calmly asked Houston second baseman Jose Altuve why the Astros were trying to hit him with a pitch in the third inning. Lowrie had tried to bunt in the first with his Oakland Athletics already leading by seven runs, yet said it was because the defence had shifted. Oh, the debates of baseballs unwritten rules. Alberto Callaspo hit a three-run homer and the As went deep four times Friday night to back Sonny Gray in an 11-3 rout of the Astros. In an unusual move, Houston manager Bo Porter left the dugout in the third to yell at Lowrie moments after the No. 2 hitter flied out following two inside pitches. "Nothing happened," Porter said. "The game takes care of itself." Lowrie said the situation dictated that he try to put a bunt down, and the first inning is far too early not to look to add on runs. "Ive seen crazier things happen than a team come back from seven runs. I dont know what the big deal is. If they want to hold a grudge, thats their decision," he said. "I just asked Altuve a question in about this tone and Bo came running out of the dugout yelling at me. I just dont understand why he came out in such a rage. ... I just dont get it. I dont know what it shows, but not a lot of confidence in his own team. Point blank." Josh Reddick and Coco Crisp each added a two-run shot for Oakland. Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo homer in the second inning to follow up his two-run single in the first against Jarred Cosart (1-2). Cespedes single came one batter before Callaspo connected for his second home run of the season. John Jaso drew Cosarts fourth walk of the first inning before Reddick hit his first homer with his own towering drive to right field. That chased Cosart, who retired only one batter before being replaced by Paul Clemens. Gray (3-0) gave up more than one earned run for the first time this season. He allowed RBI singles to Dexter Fowler and George Springer in the fifth along with Chris Carters sacrifice fly before Crisp homered in the bottom half. Oakland won its ninth in 11 games after going 7-2 on the clubs first road trip. The As had their four-game winning streak snapped Wednesday at the Angels, but are the only team in the majors yet to lose back-to-back games. Cosart received a mound visit in the first after consecutive one-out walks to Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss loaded the bases. After a high pitch near Cespedes head, the Cuban slugger lined a single into centre field. Cosarts quick exit ended a solid stretch in which Astros starters posted a 3.00 ERA over the previous seven games. Grey allowed nine hits, struck out four and walked two in six innings as the As handed Houston its fifth straight loss and sixth in seven games. Springer went 2 for 5 while batting cleanup for the first time, two days after making his major league debut. Porter said he would have preferred to avoid putting the prized prospect in that position in his third game, but the manager wanted to shake up the lineup to get the Astros going. Oaklands eight runs in the first two innings were more than the seven Houston totalled in its previous four. "More than anything for us it was the early runs," As manager Bob Melvin said. "We hadnt been doing that lately." Astros left fielder Alex Presley was a late scratch with flu-like symptoms and was replaced by L.J. Hoes. NOTES: Reddick homered for the first time in 87 at-bats since Sept. 15. It was his fifth hit of the year. "Actually helping the team for once felt really good," he said. ... As LHP Scott Kazmir (2-0) is set to start Saturday after experiencing arm trouble in his last outing. ... Springer got his first stolen base. ... The Astros went 3-7 at the Coliseum last season and 4-15 overall against the As. ... Oakland pitcher A.J. Griffin, sidelined since the start of the season with an elbow injury, is yet to begin a throwing program and Melvin isnt sure when that will happen. ... Gray is 5-1 in nine career games against AL West teams. Josh Jackson Super Bowl Jersey . Hes coming back to fulfil them. One of Europes top coaches, Blatt was hired Friday by the Cavaliers, who ended a sweeping, 39-day search with an out-of-the-box selection they hope changes their fortunes. Tony Brown Super Bowl Jersey . Louis, MO (SportsNetwork. https://www.packersrookiestore.com/Packers-Elgton-Jenkins-Jersey/ .Y. -- The New York Islanders were merely content with a lopsided victory.TEMPE, Ariz. -- Kurt Warner, the quarterback who led the Arizona Cardinals to their only Super Bowl appearance, will become the 14th person inducted into the teams Ring of Honor. Warner, with the Cardinals from 2005 through 2009, directed Arizona to NFC West titles in his final two seasons. The 2008 team advanced to the Super Bowl, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers on a touchdown in the final seconds. He had 222 career 300-yard passing games with Arizona and 22 consecutive games with a touchdown pass. Tramon Williams Super Bowl Jersey. He completed 65.1 per cent of his passes for the Cardinals with a 91.9 passer rating, both franchise records. The induction will take place at the teams season opener against San Diego on Monday night, Sept. 8. Warner also quarterbacked the St. Louis Rams to two Super Bowls, winning one of them. ' ' '
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UC Berkeley Professor to Head White House Council of Economic Advisers
President-elect Barack Obama announced Monday that he had chosen Christina Romer, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley and a resident of Oakland, to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Romer will join Timothy F. Geithner—whom Obama nominated as Treasury secretary—and former president of Harvard University Lawrence H. Summers —who will head the White House Economic Council—to become one of the key members of the president-elect's new economic team.
The Council of Economic Advisers is comprised of three members who recommend policy options to the president.
As chair of the CEA, Romer, along with the director of the National Economic Council, will play an important role in creating the president's policy plans.
Calling the current economic climate a "crisis of historic proportions," Obama introduced his new economic team at a press conference in Chicago Monday morning, describing Romer as both a leading macroeconomist and a leading economic historian, "perhaps best known for her work on America's recovery from the Great Depression and the robust economic expansion that followed."
Romer has also served as co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research Monetary Economics program since 2003 and is a member of the Bureau's Business Cycle Dating Committee, which is responsible for officially determining when a recession has started and ended, experience Obama said would come in handy when she advised him on the challenges of the current economy.
The president-elect also mentioned Romer's groundbreaking research on topics the new administration was likely to confront, ranging from tax policy to recessions, and said that her "clear-eyed, independent analyses have received praise from both conservative and liberal thinkers alike."
Romer is the Class of 1957-Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, where she teaches economic history and macroeconomics, and has served as vice president and a member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association.
Before joining the university's faculty in 1988 and getting promoted to full professor in 1993, Romer received her Ph.D from M.I.T. in 1985 and was an assistant professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1985 to 1988.
Her research interests listed on the UC Berkeley website include the effects of fiscal policy, identification of monetary shocks, the determinants of American macroeconomic policy changes in short-run fluctuations over the 20th century and causes of the Great Depression.
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award at the UC Berkeley, Romer is the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.
"This is a superb appointment," said Maurice Obstfeld, a UC Berkeley economics professor and an expert on monetary and international economics, in a statement released by the university. "Given the economic challenges we are facing, the country need a top macroeconomist heading the CEA. I can think of no one more qualified than Christy Romer."
UC Berkeley professors who have chaired the CEA in previous years include Laura Tyson who headed the council during the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1996 and Janet Yellen, who served as chair from 1997 to 1999, and is now president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.
In an e-mail to colleagues, Gérard Roland, chair of UC Berkeley's economics department, wrote: "These are exceptional times where economists can do so much to help protect the livelihoods of millions of people."
Romer, along with her husband David, who is the Herman Royer Professor in Political Economy at UC Berkeley, have studied the history of the U.S. monetary policy from the Great Depression to today and have also provided consultation for the Obama campaign, including writing talking points for one of his speeches on the economy.


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Mothers groups offer the mothers of sponsored children a support system, both financially and emotionally. Dan Pearson of international programs says mothers groups allow the women to demonstrate their strength, which society, as a whole, does not always recognize. But perhaps one of the most important benefits of mothers groups is that the mothers themselves become strong, female role models for their daughters. Part four of four videos
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/4244663 w=500&h=350]
Mothers share their talents to improve their community (Part 3)
Support in a time of need (Part 2)
Watch an introduction to mothers groups (Part one)
What do we mean by "empowerment?"


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Canada's Human Rights History
Canada's Human Rights History is a site dedicated to documenting the history of human rights in Canada. The site includes histories of human rights activism and human rights law, as well as two events: the Gouzenko Affair (1945-46) and the October Crisis (1970). The Gouzenko Affair was a blatant abuse of civil liberties by the federal government to weed out Soviet spies. The federal government also employed wartime powers to suspend civil liberties in 1970 in response to a terrorist crisis. The site includes sections on main events, biographies, and activism with brief descriptions and suggestions for further reading. There are lists of human rights historians in Canada as well as recent publications. The archives section is a database of all the primary documents on this site. It is a portal to a vast array of original materials, including statutes and laws, documents produced by social movements, briefs presented to the constitutional committee (that led to the patriation of the Constitution), and more. The site also provides regular updates on research funding and scholarships, conferences, publications, new resources, research centres, and initiatives such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Canada's Human Rights History is unique: it is regularly maintained and updated as the author's scholarship evolves. Unlike other historical websites, this portal is constantly expanding. New material is added every year. Please visit again in the future.


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A very bright and conventional Worklight with the bonus of being fully portable with its cordless feature as well as having the option to attach a magnet to the light under cars, in dark spaces, or wherever you need your workspace illuminated.
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Westerly, R.I., received two MIOX-501 and four MIOX SAL-80 systems
MIOX Corp. has partnered with the town of Westerly, R.I., installing two MIOX-501 and four MIOX SAL-80 mixed-oxidant systems to prevent microbial contamination.
The town of Westerly chose MIOX following a study conducted by C&E Engineering Partners, Inc., which found mixed oxidants helped maintain water distribution system chlorine residuals and improved water quality taste while improving corrosion control and lowering the formation of disinfection byproducts typically associated with more standard chlorine-based water treatment processes.
"We analyzed MIOX's mixed-oxidant system using approved EPA methods and found the chlorine residuals could be more easily maintained in the primarily unlined cast iron distribution system without the inherent issues of chlorine taste and odor associated with sodium hypochlorite. Distribution testing for the Lead and Copper Rule also indicated lower concentrations of copper and lead and that the MIOX system was less likely to generate trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs)," said Thomas B. Nicholson, P.E., president/chief engineer at C&E Engineering.
MIOX's clean technologies treat water using only salt, water and power to generate a dilute disinfectant on site.
"The MIOX system eliminates the need for the town of Westerly to store and transport chlorine gas, reducing the potential for accidents and better protecting employees, nearby residents and businesses," said Brian Hyde, northeast regional sales manager. "Our mission was to provide Westerly residents with a safe, environmentally friendly and cost-efficient way to treat the town's drinking water. With the cooperation and support of Westerly Town Council, we were successful."
MIOX mixed-oxidant technologies enhance the quality of drinking water by eliminating biogrowth in pipelines, reducing the formation of disinfection byproducts, preventing recontamination with a protective disinfectant residual and improving odor and taste.
"Water quality has been identified in Westerly as a quality-of-life issue," adds town council member Chris Duhamel, P.E. "We have found the MIOX system to meet the requirements for high safety without the associated chlorine bleach taste or odor. Our constituents are in great support of the MIOX system over the previously mandated sodium hypochlorite system. In addition, there are reduced maintenance costs and improved handling safety associated with MIOX. Westerly is pleased with the result."


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Squid Stuffed with Boudin.
In a concerted effort to minimize the appalling waste generally (and unabashedly) generated by restaurants while expanding a culinary repertoire and practicing practical classical techniques, fish trimmings have been saved and with the addition of orphaned egg whites and lobster roe, cream, a few shrimp, vegetables, starch (corn starch, eventually bread crumb and possibly tapioca as a binder), busted up lobster knuckles and some effort produced a pleasantly plump, savory, harlequin (multicolored) boudin. Essentially an emulsified silken seafaring sausage generated from scraps. Resourceful, technical, efficient -and with a cost of $0.70 per 3oz link- quite economical when supplemented by thrifty shellfish.
Many prototypes were tested with the type and percentage of binder varying, offering different texture and firmness results though the other amounts of ingredients (fish, shrimp, egg white, cream, cooked vegetable garnish) remained consistent. While corn starch made for a firm sausage (something our male readership might be able to relate to and what the female readers might yearn for in the morning after dreaming about this blog) bread crumbs seems like a more efficient and wholesome use of leftover bread baked in the restaurant. Tapioca starch might relieve me of any guilt passed on to consumers by government subsidies to the corn industry which artificially devalues our nation's food quality.
Rather than stuffing the boudin mixture into casing, I picked up some large squid (not pig rectum imitation calamari) from the venerable Bestworld over in Mt. Pleasant along with California asparagus and bulb onions; the hallmarks of spring. Boudin was stuffed into the squid, roasted stove top in a cast iron dutch oven and basted with roasted lime. Upon resting, the tubes were sliced and garnished with some manicured asparagus and spring onions glazed in olive oil. The tubes were tender and the delicious boudin rendered pastel red from the cooked lobster roe. Carrots, fennel, lemon zest, leek red pepper and dill provided additional texture, flavor and colorful contrast. A later version found the boudin cut into thick coins, browned in olive oil and composed with the vegetal ingredients in larger forms as well as a particularly creamy Carolina Gold & spring onion soubise; the sublime, old timey French purée of butter, onions, rice, sour cream (blanched onion tops for a soothing vermillion color) which so nicely compliments the feathery light boudin. Past and future versions include and are not limited to internal garnishes of tuna, cured salmon, striped bass belly, capers, green M&M's, mermaid nipples and manatee peduncle.


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Latest Developments
The fact that the Netanyahu government decided to fast-tracking construction in this particular settlement – a settlement that was established by Netanyahu post-Oslo (in his previous term as prime minister), over the strenuous objections of the Palestinians and the international community – is doubtless perceived by the Palestinians as a deliberate provocation. For the Palestinians, Har Homa is the "flagship" of Israeli unilateral actions In East Jerusalem. Finally, as we reported previously, this plan for the expansion of Har Homa previously received approval (one of the last of the interim approvals before final approval could be granted) from the Regional Planning Board on May 19, 2011 – the same day that President Obama delivered a major foreign policy speech and the day before Obama met with Prime Minister Netanyahu. This approval took place with the full advance knowledge and consent of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Indeed, it occurred after the Regional Planning Committee had previously twice delayed consideration of the plan, at the Prime Minister's direction, apparently in order to avoid causing an "incident" coinciding first with a scheduled meeting of the Quartet and subsequently with Netanyahu's visits to London and Paris. Apparently with respect to this visit to Washington, Netanyahu was not concerned about causing such an incident. The recent acceleration of East Jerusalem settlement schemes, including this latest approval from the Ministry of Interior likewise could not have taken place receiving a green light from the Prime Minister. Given recent noises to the effect that Netanyahu may be preparing to accept a return to negotiations based on the 1967 lines (although with reservations and preconditions that may well render this "concessions" a poison pill for the Palestinians), it seems possible that Netanyahu is once again proving his reputation as a serial recidivist when it comes to Jerusalem. As in, anytime he even appears to be giving anything on the peace process writ large, he feels compelled to offset it with a flagrant provocation in Jerusalem – a provocation that, from the Palestinian perspective, overshadows and effectively cancels out anything positive he may (or, in reality, may not) have offered. This step takes place against the backdrop of two dramatic events that are taking place this summer: the anticipated vote next month at the UN General Assembly, and the mass demonstrations taking place in Israel, calling for "social justice". The approval of Homa C is pertinent to both.
The UNGA resolution: In its efforts to thwart the UN General Assembly resolution on Palestinian statehood, Israel as been arguing, with a fair measure of success in Washington and European capitals, that the Palestinians must refrain from unilateral actions that prejudge final status issues, and return immediately to negotiations. In approving Har Homa C, Israel appears to be asserting that UN resolutions are "unilateral", while border-altering settlement expansion is not; and that nothing will be more conducive to encouraging the Palestinians to return to talks than the massive expansion of the most sensitive of East Jerusalem settlements.
The mass demonstrations: The settler movement has been largely hostile to the mass protests unfolding in Israel, correctly suspecting that the unbearable burdens placed on the Israeli middle class derive in no small part of the distorted priorities embodied in the massive governmental support of the settler enterprise. But some settlers have been trying to co-opt the protesters message, asserting that the Israeli housing crisis does not derive from settlements, but rather can be "solved" by settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The approval of Har Homa C is a clear indication that the Israeli government will now attempt to deflect the pressures of the protesters by settlement expansion, using the genuine concerns of the Israeli middle class to justify settlement expansion both domestically and in the international community.