All soldiers take photos, some of them are not pretty. If I said that only Germans enjoyed taking especially cruel and gruesome photos, I would not be very honest, having seen some of the images from the wars that followed, including Iraq. When I saw a link to an expired Ebay auction where these photos were sold for over a $1000, I just thought I’ll do my part of posting them for nothing. No matter how ugly, they have some historic value and for many people in them, these photos may have been their one chance to be seen by the future generations.

Caution: Some of the photos below are gruesome, it’s your choice to look at them.

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This recipe is really easy and results in a spread or a dip, name it as you wish. Eggplant is delicious and good for you in a variety of ways including weight loss:

Don’t include too many eggplants in your diet if you’re interested in: Weight gain.

In other words, if you stay with the eggplant diet you will finally be able to attain that figure you were dreaming about, all the while consuming tasty eggplant recipes.

This recipe contains 2 eggplants, dill, garlic and mayonnaise – if you don’t like these ingredients separately or in combination, please move along.

Remove green ends from the eggplants and place them in a pot of boiling salted water.

Sometime during the cooking process try to turn the eggplants over, they will resist and try to flip back, one of you will eventually win, hopefully not the eggplant. You may want to use the lid for that purpose. Check periodically,when a toothpick goes through the eggplant without much effort, they are done. Time depends on the size and shape of your eggplant (if you know what I mean) but definitely over 20 minutes. Just keep checking. Remove from the pot. The next step is to press the eggplant. Place a cooling rack into the sink. Cut multiple slits into the skin of the eggplant lengthwise.

You need some weight to extract as much moisture out of the eggplant as you can. One possible way to do it is to place a cutting board on top of the eggplant and weigh it down with a pot of water.

Two hours later the eggplant should look fairly flat.

I use the meat grinder to chop the eggplant, you can use the food processor, just don’t pulverize it, you are not making toothpaste, it should retain texture. Add plenty of chopped dill, a little mayonnaise and as much garlic as you deem appropriate. Some salt and pepper to taste.

The final product looks like this and can be consumed with crackers or bread, in sandwiches, or on its own.

Warning: In case of extreme weight loss please discontinue.

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Citizen journalism in this town is celebrating a huge victory and I am here to take all the credit. My recent ground-breaking report on a possible contender for the biggest pothole in the State of Missouri sent seismic waves through the City Hall and the solution came swiftly – a bigger barrier.

Parts of the previous orange obstacle that weren’t swallowed by the pothole were recycled…

…and replaced with the state-of-the-art early warning system.

City geologists used the circular cracks around the barrier to size up a new commemorative steel plate which will be placed over the pothole in the near future.

The City Council ordered the City Attorney to draft a letter to BP demanding reimbursement for the repairs (mostly for the barricade) since the appearance of the pothole is directly related to the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

On behalf of myself and many residents of the nearby property tax-free building I’d like to thank the City for paying attention and quick decisive action.

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About a month ago I posted my views on the “social media” and it became the most discussed post I ever wrote. Several people replied with comments and their own posts with their takes on the subject. So I thought it was only fitting that I write a short follow-up to the discussion.

The opinions split and I was happy that I am not alone in my dislike of the further intrusion of the annoying marketing into our lives. I realize that in the age when the dream of manned space flight an ability to skip TV commercials became our everyday reality, the businesses still need to find a way to influence consumers: product placement, sponsorships, online ads, viral infomercials and other venues are constantly being tested for their legitimacy and effectiveness. I feel that my responsibility as a consumer is to avoid these things as much as I can and, while enjoying the entertaining parts, completely ignore the marketing message. After all, the marketing people are not well-known for being concerned with the consumers, their job is to make any product look good from cigarettes, to fattening foods, to medicines that cause anal leakage and sleep-driving; I don’t feel the need or obligation to tolerate any marketing in my life.

After my post and the follow-up discussions I thought about the reasons why the social media marketing annoys me so much. Long time ago when my daughter was a toddler I used to take her to a nearby playground. On one of these days another guy was watching his kid play with mine and we had a usual playground conversation parents have – about the kids, about the weather, etc. Then for no particular reason® he started pitching some shady MLM business to me. I had to cut it short, tell him I wasn’t interested and leave to avoid further uncomfortable silence. That guy was not carrying a sign or handing out fliers, he created a personal connection with me and attempted to use it to sell something unwanted to me. This, in essence, is what’s wrong with the social media marketing: they catch you when you don’t expect it, they barge into a conversation, they pretend to be your friend while trying to influence your behavior; you have to cut your activities short and leave, unfollow, unsubscribe, add a spam filter, etc. Just to show that I am not making this up here is a quote from an email I got inviting me to a “free marketing webinar”.

Businesses now have the power to leverage the Internet – search engines, blogs, social media – to reach customers more effectively. This includes connecting with customers where they hang out online and engaging in conversations about the topics most important to them. Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is all about joining the ongoing conversations our customers and prospects are already having and not trying to control them. It’s realizing that people like doing business with people they like and love doing business with people they trust.

In other words: find people having conversations, barge in, sell, force the people to prevent you from intruding in the future. It was all fun when people just shared opinions online, now it’s all a “Social CRM”, the key word is “management”. To quote the rant-master himself:

Then the Marketing (bleep)tards catch up to us. They see all of this free and open communication occurring. And, being Marketing (bleep)tards, their first thought is “How can we piggyback on this (bleep) and manipulate it, without people knowing we are manipulating it, and use it to sell our useless (bleep) to people for $19.95 (But wait! There’s more!) so as to make the rich (bleep)ers we work for even richer?”*

*censored.
I am not saying that everyone is doing it, there are still plenty of independent and honest opinions to be found on the internet, but this trend casts a shade of distrust on many. Not that I was very trusting before.
In conclusion, here are some immortal words from George Carlin:

UPDATE: After this was written, I found another post (apparently private so it was an accident) on the subject discussing how my (and other’s) blogging caused at least one organization to try and become more transparent with their social media promotions. My issue was not with overall transparency or lack thereof; what I don’t like is a trend of creating positive coverage by stroking the “social media’s” ego, whether by preferential treatment, creating a feeling of exclusivity or giving away free stuff. I do realize that for many people being a part of an exclusive group is worth more than a free ticket or a drink.

Coincidentally, via The Food Section another thread discussing the conflict of interest and conflict in general between the wine industry, wine bloggers and professional wine critics. Many of the same sentiments expressed and the reactions range from agreement to ridicule, pretty much in the same way the opinions split in this case.

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Continuing with some photos I take during my walks around downtown Kansas City.

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