Kimbal's Blog

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Username:  Kimbal  http://twitter.com/kimbal

I have been spending the past few weeks on Twitter.  I thought I'd give it a real go after playing with it on and off over the past few years.

Turns out that I like it a lot more than I ever thought I would.  I think the difference is I now have a complete lack of shame. I am completely comfortable telling all my followers the nuances of what I'm eating, from cardboard Starbucks pastries, to hot stone seared toro at Matsushisa in LA.  That and commentary on the lighting in airport terminals really gives you a good idea of the amazing depth of my tweets.  :)

And what's even more amazing, once you dive in, you actually start to care about what other people think about their food and airport terminals.  It's somewhat competitive actually.  'Oh yeah, you think you can make some tiny inane thing worth tweeting about?  Just wait for it.  I can cover the struggles and joys of waiting in line in security better than Ernest Hemingway after 5 G&Ts.'

It's also the reason you've seen less of my blog posts.  I'll still post here, but I'll keep it to deeper insights (like maybe how they could improve the security screening process at airports!!).

So, in the meantime, I'll see you on Twitter.  

Techstars is coming up!

I'm excited to see a new batch of Techstars coming to Boulder this summer.  Last year brought an excellent crop of people and companies to Boulder.  My favorites last year were Foodzie and Travelfli. 

For those who are interested in learning about it, click the badge below:

Heli-Skiing. Yes, it is that good.

About 6 months ago a close friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join him with a group of friends to go heli-skiing this January.  I think I replied in the affirmative within 5 seconds.  I've always wanted to go, but I've never been able to convince enough friends to make it a full group.

Our motley crew

We booked our trip with the Selkirk-Tangiers Heli-skiing group in Revelstoke, Canada.  They rocked and made the trip great both on and off the slopes.  A quick nod to our guides Phil and Paul. You guys kicked ass.

 

Phil waiting for the helicopter to pick us up.  He waits with our equipment while we wait on the other side of the landing spot.

Having never been heli-skiing, I was quite intimidated by the idea.  The only reference I have are the Warren Miller films where you drop from the helicopter 20 feet above the powder, and then proceed to board down semi-vertical slopes with an avalanche following gracefully behind you.  I wasn't sure if I was up for the task, but hey, there are probably worse boarders out there that have heli-skiied, and what's the worst that could happen?  Frozen death by avalanche?  Fiery death by helicopter?  Pretty cool ways to go if I had to choose.

Actually looks pretty cozy doesn't it?

It turns out that the helicopter does land for us learner-heli-skiiers.  And the slopes are quite manageable.  The big deal, and most awesome thing in the world, is the sick amount of powder.  Since I've been a powder hound since I first put on my board, this was definitely not a problem.

The first day the helicopter was grounded because of icing.  Apparently the first heli went up and lost all vision out the front windows because of ice.  The pilot had to fly sideways, looking out his side windows, to get back home.  Not fun and understandable that the pilots didn't want to go out again that day.

The next day we were first up.  We got in the van and drove to the heli pickup point about 15 miles north of the hotel.  The sight of the heli waiting for us was awesome.  Parked right on the side of the highway next to Revelstoke lake. 

 

Heli waiting for us to take us up for the first time.

Loading into the heli.  It's tight in there, so you better like your buddies.

 

The view from the heli as we flew to our first stop.  Did I mention how awesome helicopters are?

Getting ready for our first run above the clouds

Oh yes, I like the powder.

Did I say there was a lot of powder?

Because there was a lot of powder.

Yours truly boarding in the powder

Sometimes the powder is so deep you get stuck.

A little traverse to the deep powder.  Did I mention that we liked the powder?

Heli waiting for us at the bottom.

 Loading the heli.

Another picture of the heli.  Ain't she purdy?

And yes, I did have a good time.

All in all, I found that heli-skiing is all its cracked up to be.  And more.  It also helped that we had a great group of guys and I look forward to making this trip happen again. And again.  And again.

 

The International Lego Crash Competition V

On January 9th, the fifth annual International Lego Crash Competition was held in Boulder, CO.  Sergi Gomis and Fanta Watson hosted the event and it was action, action, and more action.  It is part of the celebration of Three King's Day, and is dedicated to the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Yay Jesus!

Here's how it works.  You have one hour to construct your lego car out of many thousands of available pieces.  It's competitive and the pieces are first come, first serve.

It can look like anything you wish, and in fact one of the prizes is for aesthetics.  At the end of the hour, votes are tabulated for best looking car, and then they are crashed into each other at high speeds to see which car survives for the next round.

An example of an extreme Lego Crash Car

Here are the rules:
- your car must have a pilot. 
- If your pilot is thrown from the car, you lose the crash. 
- you can only have one pilot
- the car must be about 6 inches by 4 inches in size at minimum.
- you can rebuild your car, after winning a crash with a previous contestant, but it must be ready for the next round (i.e. no waiting around)

I'm sure there are other rules, but those are mostly ignored.  Drinking is encouraged.

The Americans went first...

Against other Americans...

The first crash was spectacular and American Team2 took the round.  Although it is important to noote that American Team 1 felt that they were robbed. 

The Spanish Team lining up.

American Team 3 came in looking ready for battle.

One of the best crashes of the night.  Spain went out after three crashes.  American Team 3 moved to the next round.

Sweeney looking like he has no idea how badly he is going to lose this round.

American Team 4 praying to the Sweet Jesus, our Savior.

Total destruction of one of the cars.  Not sure which as I don't remember. 

The Australian Team coming in strong.

Up against the South African Team (yep, that's me).  Note the beautiful aesthetics of our car.  We won the prize for best looking car.

But we did not win the prize for toughest car.  The Australian Team took our car down in three crashes to move to the next round.

At about this point I stopped paying attention, but I believe one of the American Teams won the final match up, but the Australians went home with the prize (since it was little bouncy balls and they had kids who could appreciate them).

By the end of the night we were all pretty tired.

So that's it for VILCC (Fifth International Lego Crash Competion).  We laughed, we cried, we prayed.  I love you Jesus.

And thanks to Sergi and Fanta for another great event.

How do you spell 1.6 Beee-ll-yee-an Dollarssss?

S-P-A-C-E-X, that's how.  Holy crap, Spacex just got awarded a monster contract from NASA. 

$1.6 Billion to for cargo resupply services to the International Space Station.  That's right, that's 'illion' with a B at the beginning. 

And if things go well, NASA has the right to order another $1.5 Billion worth of services afterwards.  Damn, that is serious sweetness.

For those that haven't been keeping up, SpaceX was previously awarded a smaller contract of about $300 million in 2006.  Back then it was huge (actually it's still huge), but now it looks like small potatoes.  The launch vehicle is Falcon 9 and the spacecraft that will dock with the ISS is called Dragon.  The first Falcon 9 has already arrived in Cape Canaveral in preparation for its launch in 2009.

A 3D rendering of the Dragon Spacecraft that will dock with the ISS.

Here's the link to the official SpaceX announcement on the NASA Award.

Chrysler shuts down their factories

Well, not really, but it makes for a nice headline for the media.  By announcing that they're shutting down production, what they really mean is that Chrysler is extending their usual two week factory closure over the week-end to four weeks.  The headline on the other hand is definitely intentional.  They're playing a game of chicken with Bush.  And the winner is who scares the shit out of the consumer more.

Global Warming Is Real

And finally, we have the proof...

The New York Times Needs Help

On Sunday, the NYTimes posted a backward-thinking, populist article decrying the use of federal funds for Tesla.  The argument was that it's only selling cars to the rich and the bailout should go to helping the masses not the rich.  It was a retarded argument because the technology Tesla has built is applicable to every level of car out there, and the loans they've applied for is for exactly the purpose of bringing the technology to a larger audience.

So I was pissed and I wrote a post about it getting it off my chest.  And then on Monday, they write an article saying that the loans should be used as intended, for alternative energy companies like Tesla.  Who is managing the content over there?  Mickey Mouse?

The Managing Editor of The New York Times, hard at work.

With a little homework that my 3 year old could have done, the guy writing the article on Sunday would have known that the program he didn't want Tesla to participate in was a $25 billion auto industry loan program, set up by the Department of Energy to quicken the development of fuel-efficient cars.  And he wanted to disqualify Tesla, the world's leader in alternative energy drive-trains.

And then the article on Monday comes out decrying the Big Three for attempting to co-opt the program to bail them out for all the gas-guzzling SUV's they've been producing all these years that no one wants to buy.  The article is right on point.  If the government want to bail out the Big Three, let them do it.  But don't use an alternative energy stimulus loan to prop up the very folks that have fought alternative energy solutions for decades. 

And they used Tesla as one of the main examples of where the funds should go?!?  I give up.

The only way it makes any sense is if I just back down and look at it from the perspective that they're just selling newspapers.  And writing whatever people want to read from day to day.  Even if that means doing 180 degree changes in position in 24 hours.

Pretty depressing.  I thought these guys considered themselves one of the voices of the nation

The New York Times and Tesla

It was a sad day when I realized that the media are basically just out to sell newspapers. I learned it about 15 years ago when I started building content management technology for them and found out that they were basically just a vehicle for classified ads. Every page of content was measured against the value it would bring in ads.

For a long time I don't think this applied to the (previously) great institutions like the New York Times, but that has obviously changed over the past few years. They're screwed because people don't want to read paper anymore and classified ads are a thing of the past in newspapers.

From cow-towing to the Bush administration when it was all WMDs all the time, to going for the jugular when WMDs were not found, The New York Times basically prints what people want to hear. And sadly they've been doing it with Tesla as well.

For the past couple of years The New York Times kept writing about how great things were at Tesla and how it was the future of the automotive industry. Frankly, they should have been more balanced in their viewpoints, but as we have seen, they have lost their ability to be balanced.

Now, with the economy at a stand-still and Tesla asking for government support to continue to build it's next, more affordable, version, they've gone for the jugular.

And not in the Opinion section. No-sirree, they printed an article as if it was news?!? Have they lost all their integrity? I mean, if they really feel that way, put it in the editorial section. They're wrong, and using false facts, but they're used to doing that.

Instead they wrote an article in the main newspaper, by someone who claims to be a technology journalist, basically telling the government to support the welfare jobs at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, instead of supporting a company that could actually make a difference in the future of the country.

I never thought we'd see the Bill O'Reilly style of journalism in The New York Times. It's a sad day indeed.

Thankfully there have been strong responses in the blogosphere tearing apart this guy's logic.  Jason Calacanis takes it blow by blow.

I for one am going to find my news elsewhere.

Cooking Turkey: Brine vs. Marinade

Being a 'Furriner', someone who has moved here from another country, I have always been fascinated by the idea of eating turkey, and not in a good way.  It's a large, mostly flavorless bird that is very difficult to cook well.  It's size makes it hard to season (salt stays on the outside only) and hard to cook (the bigger the object, the harder it is to cook it evenly without drying out the outer parts).  The fact that it is a bird makes it especially harder because the breasts are going to cook about twice as fast as the legs and thighs.

Turkeys on the farm...

So what you get at the end of a day of slaving over the stove is a extra dry meat that only survives the day by being covered in gravy and cranberry sauce.  Not a bad solution, but I believe there has got to be a better way.

Looks tasty?  It's probably drier than ritz cracker in the desert. 

So last night I tried a few things to test some theories out.  We bought two turkeys.  One smaller (~16 pounds) and one larger (22 pounds).  We brined the large one overnight, and covered the smaller one with a salt and olive oil marinade over night. 

I cooked both turkeys at 500 degrees for 90 minutes, then turned it down to 400 degrees.  I took the smaller one out after 2 hours, and the larger one out after 2 hours and 30 minutes.

(btw, one of the great fallacies of cooking turkey is that you need to cook at 350 degrees for 5 hours.  Crank your oven as high as it can go, throw the turkey in, and turn the temp down when it gets to the right amount of brown-ness.  Your turkey will be cooked in 2 hours and 30 minutes MAX!  And it will not be a dried out carcass with meat that tastes like chalk.)

Conclusions were interesting:

1.  I could have taken the turkeys out 30 minutes earlier.  The thighs might not have been cooked through, but the breast meat would have been much, much better, and I could have cooked the thigh meat some more separately.
2.  The brined turkey tasted juicier.  It could have been because it was bigger and held it's juice better, but I think the brine really did help.
3.  The brined turkey and the salted turkey were about even in flavor.  So the marinade worked as well as the brine in getting the seasoning through the turkey.

Bottomline:  Brine your turkey.  It will make the meat juicier and well seasoned throughout.

 
Put the brining bag in the roasting pan to keep it stable in the fridge

Recipe for Brine:
- Buy a brining bag.  Put your turkey in the bag and fill with water to cover the turkey.  In a separate bowl, mix a cup of salt with two tablespoons of ground pepper, a few sticks of rosemary and four tablespoons of dried Herbs de Provence (mixture you can buy in the store).  Add water to the bowl to dissolve the salt and add to the brining liquid.  Taste the liquid to make sure it's salty.  Imagine tasting gravy.  How salty should your gravy be?  That's how salty your brining liquid should be.  When in doubt, add more salt.  Finally, chop up a head of garlic and throw it in the brine.  Leave overnight in the fridge.

Recipe for marinade:
- if you don't have a brining bag, try the marinade option.  It works well, just not as good as brining.  In a bowl, mix half a cup of salt with half a cup of olive oil.  Add two tablespoons of the Herbs de Provence to the mixture and 1 tablespoon of ground pepper.  Chop up 6 cloves of garlic and mix with the marinade.  Rub the marinade all over the turkey, including the cavity.  Let it sit overnight in the fridge.  Before cooking, wash the marinade off the turkey. 

Any other opinions/ideas out there?  Let me know!  I have made it my lifelong mission to figure out the best way to cook this damned bird.  If I'm going to have to eat it, I'm going to find a way to make it taste good.