Antifragile

Although I am midway through Nassim Taleb's new book Antifragile, about the benefits of disorder on life, the universe and everything, I have already settled on my one sentence review of the book:
"I love Nassim Taleb, but not nearly as much as he loves himself."

The New York Times piles on, with a review in Sunday's paper:

At his best he serves up provocative theories that encourage us to look at the world anew. He reminds us of the limits of Enlightenment reason, goads us into thinking about why small might be less fragile than big (a rule, he implies, that applies to animals and corporations alike) and gives us a renewed appreciation of practical knowledge (of the sort possessed by engineers and entrepreneurs) as opposed to the sort of academic knowledge acquired in school.

Unfortunately he delivers such lessons with bullying grandiosity and off-putting, self-dramatizing asides.

The review goes on to assert that the book would have benefited from "judicious editing" but I can't imagine Taleb allowing anyone to meddle with his genius. Nevertheless, I think the book would have worked better as a Kindle Single: the concept is very interesting, but the tangential asides and endless self-congratulation get old fast.

I would recommend instead of reading the book, that if you're interested in the concept you listen to his discussion of the book with my boy, Russ Roberts.

What We Talk About When the Family Visits

My parents and brother, Young Jeezy were here this week, the former for the weekend, the latter for an entire week of board games and non-stop lightning round of entertainment and historical trivia. I made a very successful spatchcocked turkey on the grill, using the Mark Bittman recipe, augmented by a morning of brining. The bird turned out unusually moist, although it took more like 2 hours for me to get the temperature of the breast up to 165 degrees. Whether this was because of the size of my turkey (big) or the heat of the fire, I don't know, although I suspect the former. Nevertheless is was among the finest I've eaten.

This morning as Jeezy was checking his Ipad he commented on the desultory quality of his recent Internet searches. I married his with mine to give a flavor of our visit. The Internet is so much better than our former dispute resolution source--an out-of-date set of encyclopedias in the living room cabinet:

• Was Jenga a traditional game somwhere? (No. invented in 1978)
• What was in Uncle Jim's famous tomato butter? (Not sure, but we suspect brown sugar and vinegar or lemon juice).
• Where did Robert Graves end up living out his days? (Majorca)
• What was Cato's deal? (Staunch republican, Caesar opponent, played by Christopher Walken in a 2002 miniseries).
• Where is Easter Island and to whom does it belong? (South Pacific. Chile)
• Is skint really a word? (Yep. It means broke; busted tapped out).
• "Half hazardly," "upmost" and other eggcorns

Master Cookie Recipe

For Thanksgiving in Wisconsin, the theme was local and sustainable food, so we brought some artisan bourbon from Asheville, and I made peanut brittle with local groundnuts. It was my first time, and it went pretty well, although cutting it up did yield a small container of bits and pieces too small for serving, I saved them, thinking that they would mix well with vanilla ice cream (they did), but last week I had the idea of making peanut butter cookies with brittle chips.

I've never made a peanut butter cookie with any "wow" factor--they have always been solid but unspectacular. In leafing through my beloved Joy, I came across their "Master Cookie Recipe," which included a peanut butter variety, so I decided to try it, replacing half of the flour with whole wheat product from Lonesome Stone.

As I was stirring in the brittle, I realized that I had overlooked any baking powder or soda. I went back to the recipe, and to my great surprise, neither was called for. This made me nervous, but I decided to trust the Beckers and proceed as directed.

The results were incredible; a a chewiness from the wheat flour balanced against a peanutty taste and a nice crunch from the brittle. Even the OG--nigh impossible to impress--weighed in positively.

I made the version with chocolate and cinnamon this week, and after Worldwide tasted the first batch, her faint praise spurred me to stir in some chocolate chips, which produced the cookie I'd hoped for.

I'm not sure about the other versions (marble, lemon butter, lemon poppy seed, orange butter, orange-nut, coconut, ginger, butterscotch, spice and raisin)). but I think I may try the peanut version with chopped up peanut butter cups, which we usually have on hand. But try it. You'll be amazed at the toothsome result.

Master Cookie Recipe
Beat on medium speed until well blended: 2 sticks butter, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 cup of superfine sugar (or regular sugar processed for 30 seconds in a food processor). Add and beat until blended 1 egg yolk; then 1 whole egg and 2 tsp. vanilla. Add  1 1/4 cups all purpose flour and 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour and beat on low until just combined.

Refrigerate dough for an hour, then roll tablespoonfuls into balls and press onto parchment lined sheets into 1/4 inch thick disks with the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in flour. Bake 6-8 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Note: The peanut butter version includes 2/3 cup of peanut butter with the butter, sugar and salt, and I stirred in about a cup of brittle bits at the very end. The Chocolate cinnamon variation adds 1 ounce of melted unsweetened chocolate to the butter and 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon to the flour. I then stirred about a cup of chocolate chips in at the end.

Predictions

From Popular Mechanics, via the Browser. 110 predictions for the next 110 years:

WITHIN 20 YEARS...Self-driving cars will hit the mainstream market.
Battles will be waged without direct human participation (think robots or unmanned aerial vehicles).
The first fully functional brain-controlled bionic limb will arrive.

WITHIN 30 YEARS...
All-purpose robots Battles will be waged without direct human participation (think robots or unmanned aerial vehicles).The first fully functional brain-controlled bionic limb will arrive. 

WITHIN 30 YEARS...All-purpose robots will help us with household chores. Space travel will become as affordable as a round-the-world plane ticket. Soldiers will use exoskeletons to enhance battlefield performance. 

WITHIN 40 YEARS...Nanobots will perform medical procedures inside our bodies. 

WITHIN 50 YEARS...We will have a colony on Mars. Doctors will successfully transplant a lab-grown human heart.We will fly the friendly skies without pilots onboard.And renewable energy sources will surpass fossil fuels in electricity generation. 

WITHIN 60 YEARS... Digital data (texts, songs, etc.) will be zapped directly into our brains. We will activate the first fusion power plant. And we will wage the first battle in space. 

WITHIN 100 YEARS...The last gasoline-powered car will come off the assembly line.

Lunch Special

I've written before about the BG's lunch of a lifetime. Last week, she asked me if we could celebrate the numerical symmetry of today (12/12/12) with a special lunch. She presented me with her order a few days ago, so I had plenty of time to prepare. She also arranged to trade lunch boxes with her friend for the day, to add even more to the occasion.

I told the OG what we were doing and asked if she had any special requests. "No thanks." she said. "The usual is fine."

These are my girls. Here is what's in the BG's backpack:

• Chips
• Milk
• Apple slices in lemon juice
• Pasta with red sauce
• Leftover cupcake
• Fruit Snacks

Hidden Costs

Part of the preparation for the BG's birthday party Saturday at a local trampoline place was making sure that all the guests' parents had signed a waiver absolving the hosts of all liability and turning over a bunch of personal information to boot. I don't worry too much about such waivers, partly because I support assumption of risk, and partly because I believe that they will not do much to shield the establishment from liability for actual negligence. Still, it's a waste of time, and the project manager in me is annoyed at the need for this bit of political theatre every time I or my daughter want to do anything. Yesterday's Times had a slightly more apocalyptic take on the practice, but what I found most interesting was the fact that several countries have actually outlawed the practice, which seems to me to be the proper direction. I just can't believe that such an action would make this country any more litigious than it already is.

On the privacy side, I didn't like that they asked for a host of personal information, including my drivers license number. The aforementioned Sunday Paper fans the flames of my uneasiness with an article about how app downloaders are giving away access to all kinds of personal information when they accept the user agreement prior to installation. As the Gs load up their phones with "free" games and the like, I wonder what and who exactly we are allowing to share our network. Yuck.

Update
It gets worse. As I suspected, children are often targeted, and data is being sold to marketers. An FTC report issued today has the details.

Too Short

Listening to Saturday's WeFunk, a guest DJ played Too Short's Money in the Ghetto, a song that was in Heavy Rotation when we were watching the Box on Independence Avenue Southeast in 1993. Some of the lyrics came in handy later, when I was teaching a young OG who those faces on the bills were. She can still recite the rhyme:

On the one dollar bill if you look on the front
You'll find the face of George Washington.
Make money baby, that's all I do,
That's why I know Thomas Jefferson is on the two.
Abraham Lincoln got shot and died,
Freed the slaves, so they put him on the five;
And Hamilton, my old time friend,
They put his face on the front of the ten.

Not as historically informative as you might like, but memorable nonetheless.