Your Conspiracy Theory of The Day

Why did the GOP of Washington stop counting when only 87% of precincts had reported, declaring McCain the winner with only 200 more votes than Huckabee?

Yay! Back!

Dreamhost seem to have got their act together again. So…if you sent mail in the past 24 hours, I probably didn’t get it. Also, my Mac power supply has died; I currently don’t have access to my main mailbox, so if you’re waiting on a reply there, you might have to wait until Apple deliver a new one!

But! Tonight! Caucuses! You know I just love a good caucus. Yes, it is a lonely life, thank you very much. Reports are coming in of precincts in Nebraska and Washington breaking for Obama in rather huge numbers. Meanwhile, Huckabee takes the delegates from the GOP vote in Kansas. They really don't like McCain in the south, you know...

Also! I would like to start a fund. A fund to buy a staplegun so we can staple the camera to the ground in Torchwood. And break the zoom function that they've discovered. I do not need to get motion sickness during a conversation scene!

(and this is sadly more entertaining than all of Series 2 so far)

currently playing:

Nine Months Of This

A few moments later, Coulter said that the best thing that had ever happened to the campaign of “B. Hussein Obama” was when he was born “half black.”

currently playing: M.I.A. – Boyz

And Now A Return To Our Programme

Mitt Romney, suspending his Presidential campaign:

If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

Ah, has it been so long since opponents of the GOP were classified as traitors?

Meanwhile, the new Attorney General won't be investigating waterboarding or warrantless wiretapping, even if it was illegal. I believe we're at 347 days and counting.

currently playing: Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma

A Mercy Killing

I was always a Gonch fan, myself.

currently playing: Sons And Daughters – Split Lips

Let-Down Wednesday

Well, I did warn you that it was probably going to be a non-event. After all the delegates have been handed out, both Clinton and Obama will get around 830 each, with at most 10-15 delegates between them.

That'll teach the states to try and make themselves more important. At this point, even North Carolina may turn out to be a pivotal race. And a brokered convention is looking almost certain at this point, barring something extraordinary between now and the end of the primary season.

For the rest of the month, the momentum is probably with Obama. He should win the Washington caucus on Saturday and take most of the primaries in Virginia, DC, and Maryland next Tuesday. Clinton's hopes pin on the Ohio/Texas contests at the start of March. Unfortunately, that may mean she spends most of February looking like a loser. And Obama has a lot more money than she does at this point.

Over on the Republican side, well...we know that Mitt Romney isn't going to be the nominee, but again we knew that on Monday. The big surprise is the resurgence of Huckabee. Winning most of the Southern states must now put pressure on McCain to take him on the VP slot. Which would put him a heartbeat away from the Presidency (there's no getting around McCain's age, unfortunately). I think the Democrats would be fairly happy facing this combination. Especially considering the right-wing blog response so far.

See you next Wednesday!

currently playing: Saint Etienne – Southern Train

Athens, Georgia.

Matt Frei: It’s like Quidditch! Meanwhile, Hitchens reaches for the rum.

There are rumours that Obama is winning New Jersey.

Ashes To Ashes still looks like a step too far.

Australians being racist. Heh. Basically, to sum up: never ask BBC website readers their opinion on anything.

Other hints: Is McCain suffering from Huckabee still being in the race (not in West Virginia, as the McCain group threw the contest to Huckabee to lock out Romney)?

Polls are about to close in most East Coast states. Here we gooooo!

Huckabee to possibly sweep the South: Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Georgia. CONAN, JON, STEPHEN!! WHAT HAVE YOU CREATED?

Please. Please get rid of Peggy Noonan. At least the Clintons didn't sell coke to blacks in New York to fund weapons for Iran like your wonderful President.

Exit polls are tying both MA and NJ for Obama and Clinton. No-one is winning here tonight...

Warren Ellis in completely misunderstanding what's at stake tonight shocker. Oklahome is called for Hillary. And Tennessee.

6% of the vote reporting in Alabama, and Obama is leading by 40 points. That won't hold, but it's promising...

Oh god, the Ron Pauliacs have invaded the BBC website.

Looks like Hillary is going to hold MA. Considering she had a 20 point lead two weeks ago, that's not too surprising, but you would have hoped the Kennedy connection would have narrowed it somewhat. On the other hand, Delaware and Connecticut are trending Obama, if only by very slim margins.

Kansas and Alabama called for Obama.

Shotgun wedding, anybody?

"The Republicans are terrible at running the country, but they're very good at winning elections" - Howard Dean sums up the American paradox rather well, I think.

North Dakota goes to Obama.

Huckabee is now looking like a prime VP candidate. Now talking about how free markets work wonderfully. We won't mention the Dow today…oh God, and now about eliminating the IRS. He really is the proper conservative candidate, isn't he?

Obama is projected to win Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado? A promising sign that California will be a close-run thing. And add in Minnesota.

The Republican race in Arizona is apparently too close to call. Which is a bit of a problem for Senator McCain (R-AZ)

Romney vows to continue. So the result of the night? Nothing changes. Heh. Okay, going to bed now...

The Nightmare Scenario

The Democratic Party: Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory Since 1968.

On the day before Super Tuesday, the only thing that can be said is: nobody knows anything. Polls have Obama up in California, other polls have Hillary in the lead; heck, some even have Romney leading McCain. California has gone Weird once more.

For Hillary Clinton, tomorrow needs to be a convincing victory across the board; the rest of the month has a series of small primaries where Obama has a commanding lead. Without enough momentum from California, she may become battered further in the eye of the media, even if the delegate count from these contests is small in relation to the March contests of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. For Obama, all he has to do is get as close to Hillary's results as possible. And if he wins? He still won't get much of a delegate advantage, but it will completely derail the opposition, giving him almost a clear run in February. And the more people see him, the more they seem to want to vote for him...

currently playing: Luna – Motel Bambi

FoodScience!: Spheres of Failure

Spherification is a trick discovered by the El Bulli restaurant a few years back. It involves taking a liquid (drink, puree, whatever, really) and using two chemicals to create a thin shell around the liquid. This shell/sphere can be heated, picked up, covered in chocolate - whatever takes your fancy!

My plan was to try and recreate the Junebug cocktail from Lantern, presenting it in a spherical form rather than the old-hat idea of pouring it into a glass. Pshaw. I call it the Doodlebug. I'm sorry.

I actually went wrong from the start. Although Lantern say they use a 'ginger and lemon soda', I have a feeling that lemonade is probably the better substitute than my choice of ginger ale. Anyway, I added xanthum gum to the cocktail to thicken it up a little, and a tiny amount of calcium gluconate for the chemical reaction which would make the shell. After that, I poured the mixture into half a jelly egg mold to make the sphere shape. These were then put into the freezer to solidify.

Doodlebugs!

The other part of the spherification process is a solution of sodium alginate and water. I did this on Friday night, simply mixing the chemical into the water (which took a lot longer than expected) and leaving it for twelve hours as recommended by El Bulli.

Once you've got all that, all that's left to do is to make the spheres! Simply push them out of the mold and drop one into the solution like this:

Dipping the sphere in

Then after about two minutes or so, take it out and put it into the water bath. This will prevent the spheres from sticking to each other.

Into the water bath!

And that's it! One sphere!

One sphere!

Of course, there's always a hitch. In my case, I'm not sure what exactly went wrong; I think perhaps the freezing may not have been the best idea, because every single sphere sprang a leak as it was defrosting. Which was rather disappointing.

Not wishing to give up just yet, I made a small mixture of orange juice, a shot of vodka, and some xanthum gum. This time, I used a squeezy bottle to shoot the thickened juice into the sodium alginate solution. This worked a lot better:

The drink you can hold in the palm of your hand!

By this time, the alginate solution was pretty much spent, so I had to call a halt to proceedings (I also had to make real food after all!) So although I didn't so well with the Doodlebugs, I think I've made some progress for the ultimate aim: an edible snow globe!

currently playing: Hole – Jennifers Body

This is February

12/02/2008 BLACK KIDS / SONS & DAUGHTERS 23/02/2008 VAMPIRE WEEKEND 26/02/2008 YELLE

(plus Long Blondes in April and Broken Social Scene in May).

It's a busy few months already!

currently playing: KLF – What Time Is Love (wandaful mix)