I’ve often said that “capitalism will eat itself,” referring to how capitalistic progress will inevitably lead to self-defeat, which I hope will lead to a post-scarcity economy and greater personal freedoms for everybody.
I never thought much about the wording, but now I’ve realized it was oddly prophetic, and I have photographic evidence. Yes, that is the vice-chairman of the Independence Party (minister of education) with toast with the logo of the Independence Party, Iceland’s most right-wing ultra-capitalist party.
It was a silly joke we had at the office the other day. Frosti suggested that we make her some toast with the laser, and the mayor was going to give it to her. We churned out a few slices and made, we hope, a lasting impact.
Being silly is important, and the ability to be silly should not be taken for granted. A lot of people are feeling very unsettled these days, specially in Reykjavík where the spectre of bankruptcy and unemployment is overshadowing many or most happy thoughts. Being able to have a good laugh with one of the most stressed out people in the country over a piece of sliced bread kind of means that we’re all still human at the end of the day and we shouldn’t worry too much about imaginary organizational structures like the economy.
So take this as a suggestion: Go outside and be silly. Get a funny hat. Wear a pink track suit to work. Scuba gear to the cinema, your coat on backwards, or use a novelty oversized cucumber in place of a cellphone. We all deserve a good laugh. Let’s laugh at the economy, let’s laugh at being serious, let’s laugh at the situation our collective greed has landed us in, let’s laugh at capitalism and all the other stupid ideas that people hold on to.
I’m normally not a bad cook. I rather like cooking and take great pleasure in accomplishing a good meal. Tonight was not my night though, despite the utter simplicity of the meal at hand. I managed to not boil the potatoes, underboil the rice, burn my hand on scalding water and overload the entire thing with green olives (which must be handled with far more care than the black).
A thought did strike my mind though, during all of this.
I must ask: What are the technological prerequisites for Swedish Meatballs?Wikipedia defines meatballs like so:
So far removed from more simple culinary tactics as grilled lamb or the like, we actually need:
Meat, or something functionally similar (vegitarian meatballs exist, frequently consisting of pecan meal or cracker crumbs)
A method of mincing the meat
Eggs, or something that has a light adhesive structure
Spices
A method of frying them.
This gives us a bar: We need the ability to hunt (to gather meat and collect eggs), smelt/sinter metals (to make a heatable surface for frying), an understanding of spices, an understanding of animal anatomy, and - the key ingredient - the ability to make sharp knives with which to mince the meat.
Other options with meat would be Chinese style meatballs such as Lion’s heads or your run-of-the mill dim sum, or perhaps the English style faggots, which require less precise mincing and simply more adhesive (soy or meat fat). One could also go as far as to accept broiled meat in sacks such as haggis, but that would be pushing it.
Using a vegetarian recipe lowers the bar somewhat:
1 c. cracker crumbs
1/2 c. cottage cheese
1/2 c. ground nuts
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 onion, diced & sauteed
Sm. amt. garlic salt
1 can cream of mushroom soup thinned with 1 can water
Sm. amt. vegetable fat
Crackers are essentially a sweet bread. Baking of bread dates back to the neolithic era, which is contemporary with development of elementary metalworking techniques in Europe, although in the Americas and Oceania societies did not develop metalworking despite achieving vaguely post-neolithic technology. So given the pan to fry it on, bread can also be a given.
Vegetable fat can be collected by pounding vegetables between stones. Given the technology of pottery, this can also be collected. Cream of mushroom soup is harder to acquire, but this is probably used in this recipe for its adhesive quality first and foremost, and therefore you can easily substitute for eggs (which are also included), which, to a neolithic person, is easier to acquire. I suggest adding more spices to compensate for the lack of the mushroom flavor though.
Cheese is difficult, although its origins predate known history - possibly cheese and bread were developed simultaneously, necessitating cheese sandwiches. I dream! But not all meatballs contain cheese. Albanian meatballs, Qofte të fërguara, contain feta cheese. You can also add milk (as the Finnish do) for a similar texture. It’s also fairly likely that the early cheeses were hard curd cheeses, somewhat like Parmesan or an old Edam in texture and flavor - fairly hard to use for baking without proper instruments for fine-grained carving of the cheese, which would also make mincing meat a possibility.
I think it’s safe to assume that, contrary to what G’Kar claimed, sentience is not the only prerequisite for having Swedish Meatballs (or Breen!)… neolithic-level technology and potentially metalworking will suffice, but that’s a whole host of technologies, none of which are given.
An obverse question here is: Can a civilization develop manned space flight without having invented meatballs?
Last night I was out at Sprangan with a couple of friends. Sprangan is a local sport in Vestmannaeyjar wherein you climb up a cliff face and jump off, hanging onto a rope. The goal is to swing back and forth in a coordinated manner without dying.
My nephew and a friend of his made a monkey swing from the top of the Spranga, which is about 30 meters high, down to a concrete factory which is about 50 meters away. Then they took turns sliding down. After they’d both had a go my friend Gunnar Friðberg had a go. Here’s the video:
The problem is that both my nephew and his friend are far lighter than Gunnar… and he had never gone before. So of course the impact.. well. Everybody was laughing like crazy when he landed, but still a nervous laughter, because for a few minutes we weren’t sure if he was seriously injured.
It turns out he might be, but probably isn’t. He can still walk. Fair enough, eyy?
FSFÍ’s awareness campaign leading up to our conference on the 5th of July was accidentally started today, six days early, with an extreme amount of impact.
In fact, the impact was so great that at 15:45 UTC we had a fairly major earthquake near Ingólfsfjall, not far from where the conference is to be held. USGS reports it to have been 6.7 magnitude (Ms/MLs), with local sources stating it to have been 6.1 ML. (ML scale ends at 6.0 so I’m expecting revised numbers later on).
Anyway, what a great way to set off a campaign! Go freedom!
From the country of madness, from the makers of Star Wreck, from the depths of the Digital Freedom revolution, comes Iron Sky, a new movie with the best tagline ever.
“In 1945 the Nazis fled to the moon. In 2018 they are coming back.”
Out of risk of dropping off the radar, I here post something, just to let you know I’m alive, and I really want to read Cory Doctorow’s new book, Little Brother. Currently chomping through Charlie Stross’ Glasshouse, and doing quite a bit of my own writing too. More blogs later!
The social implications of E=MC², or, what does relativity say about people.
The buoyancy of liquorice and it’s potential effects on attempts to traverse the interstellar medium.
A correlation study on electromagnetic field dynamics of cumulonimbi and ice cream sales.
The economical implications of a potential ketchup shortage due to bird flu.
Corporate managerial decisions as a key factor in suicides of low level white collar workers.
How Moore’s law may be applied to the fast food industry.
Panspermia as a religious foundation: How prostitution can be legitimized by the existence of extraterrestrial life
A summary of postmodern hermeneutic schemata of the biography of Richard Milhous Nixon.
Breast feeding as text: Towards a poststructuralist interpretation of neonatal nutrition and mother-neonate social bonding.
The application of NP-complete algorithms to the solution of NP-complete problems, and other interesting meta-problem classes.
Language-like grammatical structures in fluctuation harmonics of carbon nanotubes resonating close to 60 Hz.
A atom-for-atom description of the molecular structure of an asparagus, and the importance of such descriptions to future innovation in nanotechnology.
Analysis of the contamination of rural agricultural workers’ genepools by interloping law students on spring break with nothing better to do.
Common psychological features of Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, George W. Bush, and a carrot cake.
Bondage as an Olympic event: an anthropological feasibility study.
