Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Miscellaneous stuff

A quick round up from this morning's browse of the web:

Daniel Pipes and Janet Albrechtsen in the Australia : both good reads.

The Economist gave George W a tick for education reform (it seems to be working).

Christopher Hitchens points out that the legislation at the core of the Plame/Rove debacle was always a bad idea.

An academic in The Age suggests the forced closure (or take over by the government?) of all private primary schools as a way of forcing all children to learn the "civic values" of Australian society. I can imagine the State Treasurers rolling their eyes at this one. Get real, Dennis.

In Indonesia, they take their cricket farming very seriously (it sounds like something being discussed on Landline):

"He added that the association would not accept crickets bred outside its membership because their quality could not be assured.

"We tried buying crickets from common farmers once. The crickets they bred had a very high water content. Only 1 kg of dried crickets was derived after roasting four kg of them, whereas only 2.5 kg of live crickets bred through the program could produce one kg of dried crickets. Besides that, due to inferior feeding techniques, their protein content was found to be lower too," said Bayu, who comes from Gunung Kidul.

Dried crickets can last for six months after being vacuum packed. Before being packed, live crickets are immersed in hot water at 70 degrees centigrade.

They are then roasted in an oven for seven to 12 hours. A one-kg pack of dried crickets can be sold at Rp 110,000.

"These crickets are also delicious, crispy when fried and eaten immediately," said Bayu, while offering a plate of fried crickets."

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