Raspberry/microwave sparks!

I thought I had posted this before, but apparently not. Not sure if this will gain as much press as the 'mentos in the diet cola' ones...

Back in late 2004 we were buying and using frozen raspberries for various culinary delights, and we found that when we tried to defrost them in the microwave that it caused sparks, arcing and burnt raspberries! It didn't happen with the other frozen products like blackberries or blueberries, just with the raspberries.

I sent an email to the company and asked if they were aware of it, and did we win the strange facts about XXX company's products award? No such luck, unfortunately.

A director of the company did email back to me and said that they tested the frozen raspberries in several different microwave machines and they all sparked. The manufacturers of the microwaves said that it could be the size and shape of the ice crystals. They were able to coax sparks from some frozen blackberries, but the raspberries always sparked.

I liked the opening sentence from the frozen raspberry supplier, 'Your email has certainly 'sparked' a reaction here...' Ha ha!

So, what is unique about the ice crystals in frozen raspberries that causes them to arc and spark in a microwave? Could this be a question for Dr Karl?

Rick Clise

P.S. Kids, don't try this at home - your parents will not be impressed with a scorched non-functioning microwave machine, and the smell of burnt raspberries in the kitchen!

Rick Clise - Sculpture exhibition Aug 3-19

Hi,

For those of you in Adelaide, next month is the 10th South Australian Living Artist (SALA) festival, and I will be exhibiting and selling new metal sculptures at The Perfumed Garden. The exhibition runs from 3 - 19 August, at 559 Portrush Road, Glenunga, open 9 - 5 daily. Please come along and buy a couple!

Rick Clise - www.rickclise.com

image: 'General Drawing 1A - Circle Practice' Rick Clise 2007, painted steel.

How much do you need to know about me?

I was reading the June 2007 issue of Wired magazine and found a couple articles that were interesting on their own, and more interesting when thought about together.

ONE: On page 073 is an article about Hasan Elahi, a 'Bangladeshi-born American' artist and Rutgers professor. In 2002 he was detained at the Detroit airport after arriving back in the US from the Netherlands, under suspicion by the FBI that he was 'hoarding explosives in a Florida storage unit'. He was given a lie detector test that proved he wasn't the person that the FBI was seeking, and he figured that it was his frequent air travel that raised concern with the US law enforcement folks - apparently he logs about 70,000 air miles annually attending conferences and exhibiting his art. And he figured that it would just be a matter of time before the FBI or other authorities detained him again under wrong information. He had the phone numbers of the FBI agents so he decided to call them and advise them of his flight details whenever he travelled anywhere.

As the article says, "So it dawned on him: If being candid about his flights could clear his name, why not be open about everything? 'I've discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away,'" said Elahi to writer Clive Thompson. The next step was for Elahi to start posting details about everything he does. he has a GPS device that 'reports his real-time physical location on a map. He photographs where ever he is, all his debit card transactions, and posts them on his website TrackingTransience.net . The article says that there are over 20,000 images on his website stretching back three years.

So that's the first Wired article that was of interest to me.

TWO: The second one starts on page 160 and documents a chilling situation where a hacker guessed the Mac.com password for Linkin Park lead singer Chester Charlie Bennington, and then proceeded to really mess with Bennington and his family by hacking into just about everything on-line that Bennington had anything to do with - email, eBay, PayPal, his wife's email, his ex-wife's website, his mobile phone account, Yahoo accounts, their bank accounts - basically, everything in their lives that is touched by technology. It's a good article, and I won't spoil the ending for you.

But here's a case of someone who prided himself on being accessible to his fans, the people who had bought more than 40 millions of Linkin Park's records. And someone gets into his private affairs and seriously messes-up his life and the lives of the people closest to him.

MORAL: So is the advice from these two separate articles in the June 2007 Wired magazine - control the information that the public can access about you? (And don't use easily guessed passwords!)

Rick Clise

Mike, Dave & Ray - interesting podcast!

My mate Mike ('Fang'), and Dave have an interesting podcast show called The Extraordinary Everyday Lives Show, hosted on The Podcast Network. Episode #029 was a chat with South African "Roy Blumenthal. Artist, writer, producer, cartoonist, Corporate Facilitator, Coach, Creative Thinking Specialist, Performer, published poet and general self-described ‘common-or-garden creative type’."

Mike, Dave and Ray talked about a wide range of topics, some which I'll comment about later, but I thought it was interesting that Roy now leaves his 6 or 7 year old red sports car unlocked, even when parking at the airport, thinking, 'if it's going to be stolen it will be stolen whether it is locked on not.'

A couple things came to mind: would he do this if his car was brand new rather than 6 or 7 years old (before it gets that first scratch in the paint or parking lot dent)? Does faith in human nature have a 'value adjuster factor'? and secondly, Roy's faith in the general good of human kind made me think that a lot of the legislated restrictions on our collective 'freedoms' are the result of the evil/bad/inappropriate actions of the few. I tend to agree with Roy about the general good of people, although my insurance company doesn't and it encourages me to lock my car/house/whatever as their coverage doesn't exist if I don't take reasonable steps to protect my property that they insure.

I thought of being in Paris last year and travelling on the trains and Metro, and how the actions of a tiny percentage of people travelling on those systems left me with a bad impression of the whole experience - pickpockets! Completely unfair attitude towards the 99% of good people travelling with me.

On another topic, Roy's description of what he called 'industrial theatre', I think it was called, was very exciting. The idea that small groups of performers would go by truck from village to village, find-out the dominant problem facing the village, do an impromptu three minute long performance where the lead character does acts out his role and ends-up failing/dying/not succeeding (Roy put it better than I can remember). Then the play stops, and the audience is invited to interrupt a repeat performance of the play when they see the lead character doing something wrong and the audience can jump up onto the back of the truck and change the plot, resulting in a good ending. Roy described it as teaching people to look for options rather than looking for a solution. A nice idea, and apparently very empowering for the people who participated in the theatre shows. 'Giving back a voice' is how I think Roy described the outcome.

Made me think of a corporate example - Roy also talked about doing this work as a writer director of 'industrial theatre' in going into corporations with management's support, and helping the employees act-out what, for example, changing the company's mission statement might mean. Interesting comment by Roy that he warns management before the event that they might not like what they hear during the process, but if they can act on what they learn it is beneficial.

... ramble on ... How many businesses pretend that they are listening to their employees but have already made a decision about something? I think of local examples where a brainstorming session was called between management and workers to 'work through' the various options of a situation. After a few less than satisfying examples of this process happening, someone (worker) asked (management) before contributions had been solicited if the decision had already been made. And, not surprisingly, it generally had already been made. So that leaves the workers feeling that their involvement is a total waste of time - management evidently wanted the workers to sell themselves on the decision that management had already made.

I used to go to a small gym, run by a very nice woman and staffed by other women. (The clientele was both male and female in case someone thinks I was crashing a women's only gym!) Someone suggested that the gym owner put in a suggestion box, which was done and promoted to the membership. I, naturally, had LOTS of constructive suggestions about how small things could be improved to make the customer experience there even better - as it was it was a great gym. So suggestion after suggestion was stuffed into that dowdy wooden box, but never was any acknowledgement made of it. As time went on I wondered if anyone was actually reading the suggestions so in an attempt to provoke a response I started submitting more and more outrageous suggestions. Nothing inappropriate, just crazy ones. Finally, the gym owner took me aside one day and said that I was beginning to frighten the staff, and that no, they wouldn't consider doing a Pilates calendar with all the staff. So I think the staff began to feel that I was bit, creepy, when all I was trying to do was get some response to my damned suggestions. Ended-up leaving that place - it was time to move on. Next gym won't have a suggestion box, or if it does I'll submit mine in Latin.

So if you ask for field/worker/client feedback or suggestions, you better be prepared to listen to them and acknowledge them. Otherwise a good idea becomes a demoralising one. ... ramble off ...

Rick Clise

Muso to watch! Kate Miller-Heidke!

We had a family outing today - spent an hour on the 'behind the scenes tour' of the Adelaide Festival Centre, which both Beth and I found interesting. Not sure how much the kids enjoyed it...

Then a quick lunch in the AFC, then listened to music. The Festival Centre puts on a free musical performance each Sunday from 2:00 - 3:30 pm. Today Kate Miller-Heidke from Brisbane, and her band, played in the piano bar at the Festival Centre.

What a great show! I'm not a muso, but the place was absolutely packed, and the audience really got into the show. I overheard one fellow listener describing Miller-Heidke as 'kinda Bjork, kinda Kate Bush, but it works when you see her in person.' I couldn't help comparing her singing with that of Ute Lemper. Wonderful voice, huge range. Apparently she was going to be an opera singer but folk/pop won-out! Lucky us.

Her songs were funny, emotional, entertaining. I told the kids, 'she had passion in her performance!'

She has released a CD, and one of her songs is getting played regularly on the radio. My feeling is that really good things are going to happen for her. She certainly deserves it with such talent!

Go Kate!

Rick Clise