“Anyone who thinks the Large Hadron Collider will destroy the world is a twat.”

Recently I downloaded all of the TED Talks from iTunes onto my iPod. The TED Conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an annual conference that defines its mission as “ideas worth spreading”. The lectures, also called TED talks, cover a broad set of topics including science, arts and design, politics, culture, business, global issues, technology and development, and entertainment. Speakers come from a similarly wide variety of communities and disciplines and have included such people as former U.S. president Bill Clinton,Nobel laureates James D. Watson, Murray Gell-Mann, Al Gore, Internet entrepreneur Jimmy Wales,notable architect and urbanism critic James Howard Kunstler, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. I enjoy watching them every year, and some day hope to attend the conference. What good I may do there, I don’t know; but I think it would be an interesting experience.

Anyway. I was watching the lecture by Professor Brian Cox (below) about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that was “switched on” on 10 September of this year. I now have a new hero of science. He is an advocate for raising the the awareness of science in the public eye, and is not afraid to call the naysayers out when they try to spread rumors about what the LHC is trying to accomplish (see the title quote). There is something about having particle physics explained to you in a Lancastrian accent that makes it…accessible and understandable. Granted, the lecture’s only about 16 and a half minutes long, and I don’t have to sit through university lectures and work out the Standard Model of Particle Physics, but I am a visual learner so I’ll take what I can get.

Cookie Zen

I would like to introduce you all to our new cookie jar, Darius Rucker. We picked him up at (shudder) Urban Outfitters on the cheap. He was on what I call the “Death Table”, in other words, the table of merch that is “so last season”. I wanted him for even cheaper, and surprised Vanessa by trying to haggle with the cashier to try and lower the price. She didn’t budge. No worries. He is now in a loving home. We also picked up 3 coasters of beaded birds on the cheap too! I will get some images of them later.

So. Cookies. Cookies and I have an intimate relationship. Ever since graduation, I have come to the realization that being an adult is boring. The smell of repetition is heavy on me, and making cookies (be they for Vanessa’s classes, or for pleasure) has become a kind of weekly “zen session” for me. Whatever money problems, world problems, political grumblings…anything that has been grinding my gears…goes away. It’s just me and my tiny Oven Children.

Who is the mother of these Oven Children? Who else? Martha Stewart.

Picked this little baby up for 18 bucks at Safeway a few weeks ago. It has been making heads explode with amazing cookies in both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. I recommend you pick it up. It has tons of great tips, equipment Q&A (like the difference in pastry bags), and is plump with something like 172 cookie recipes all with wonderful accompanying photographs. Here are some photos of what may be my favorite cookie

These cookies are Chocolate Chocolate Chunk with White Chocolate Chips. I am calling them “Brownie Blowouts” or something because they are pretty much flat brownies with tasty chunks o’ choc in them. By the way, no, these are not all for me. Most of them went to Vanessa’s class for birthday celebrations, and a dozen and a half or so went into the stomachs of my coworkers at Edelman. They like cookies too.

Christmas List:

1 Wire cooling rack
1 Silicone Oven mitt to supplement this guy: Otherwise known as Angry Evil Reindeer Oven Mitt. He’s a good boy, he just…frightens the cookies.

Vincent Willem van Gouda van der Rijn Oranje Boom, Ik hou van je:De Dag van het huisvuil

Okay. so.

I have been a cookie-making-machine lately. I will post some pictures (and the recipe to these Chocolate Chocolate Chunk with White Chocolate Chips Cookies [aka Brownie Bites]) in a bit. Yes, read that name correctly. There is a ton of chocolate in those babies, and they-are-marvelous. For those of you that may be unaware, I got an extension for my internship! Hooray!

I get to spend the Christmas and New Year Season hustling around Washington, D.C. For some reason I get psyched when I think about winter in DC. I don’t know why. I have seen the “National Christmas Tree” in the summer, and it is not as majestic as you may think. I actually think there are larger evergreens in my mom’s yard. Stranger still: I always think about the painting George Washington Crossing the Delaware. I know the Delaware River is nowhere near DC. I think it’s just the fact that Washington crossed it around Christmas that makes me think of it. Even with its inaccuracies I think that painting is pretty sweet.

Okay, so Vanessa and I had a pretty interesting discussion last night. I don’t know how many of you think about this, but it’s a great critical thinking activity: NAME THREE (AND ONLY THREE) ITEMS THAT YOU WOULD BRING BACK IN TIME WITH YOU, AND NAME THE TIME PERIOD. Now you may think, “Well, this is easy!” but I urge you to really think about it. If you something uber-technical, you are going to need to bring any support items. That can cut your list pretty quickly. Also, if you are a woman, think about the fact that in some time periods you legally did not exist. Take that into account. It won’t be like Back to the Future where people look at you strange, and then go about their business. I am curious to see what people would bring. I am not going to list mine just yet, as that may influence some answers. Please, leave a comment below as to what you would bring, and when you would go to.

Also: Here is another brain teaser: You get three items, but you are going to the future. Do you bring the same things? Or have you seen Terminator too many times and are brushing up on how to defeat an 800-Series? (I am so sad that I know that) Leave a comment with that response as well.