February 2012
26 posts
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac (1799 - 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon. Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in...
Sriracha Hot Sauce
Sriracha (pronounced SIR-rotch-ah) is a type of Thai hot sauce, named after the coastal city of Si Racha, in the Chonburi Province of central Thailand, where it was possibly first produced for dishes served at local seafood restaurants. It is a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. Traditional Thai Sriracha tends to be tangier, sweeter, and runnier in texture than...
Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me Deadly is a 1955 film noir drama produced and directed by Robert Aldrich starring Ralph Meeker. The screenplay was written by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer mystery novel Kiss Me, Deadly. Kiss Me Deadly is often considered a classic of the noir genre. The film grossed $726,000 in the United States and a total of $226,000 overseas. It also withstood scrutiny from...
Fred Wilson
Fred Wilson (born 1961) is a New York-based venture capitalist (active since 1987) and a prominent blogger. Due to his successful investment track record and community involvement, he is recognized as a leading voice of the venture capital finance community in New York. TheFunded.com, a social networking site for technology entrepreneurs, rated him their favorite venture capitalist in 2007. Wilson...
Jackson Pollock Fractal Theory
Famous artist Jackson Pollock was one of the most influential abstract painters of the 20th century. Jackson Pollock drip paintings were developed during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, and they are believed to contain a mathematical, yet natural, concept called a fractal. The word fractal is derived from the Latin term “fractus” meaning broken or fractured. It is a rough, geometric object that...
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is a two-day, all-breed benched conformation show that takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City every year. The first Westminster show was held in 1877. The Westminster Kennel Club staged its 135th Annual All Breed Dog Show on February 14–15, 2011. Its entry limit of 2,500 dogs featured all 179 breeds and varieties recognized by the American Kennel...
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein (1907 - 1988) was an American science fiction writer. Often called the “dean of science fiction writers,” he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre’s standards of literary quality. He was one of the first science fiction writers to break...
Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey is a British television period drama series, produced by British media company Carnival Films for the ITV network. The series is set on the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in North Yorkshire, and features an ensemble cast. It was created and principally written by actor and writer Julian Fellowes, and premiered on ITV on 26 September 2010. Reception of the programme was...
Wagyu Beef
Wagyu (literally Japanese cow) refers to several breeds of cattle genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat. The meat from wagyu cattle is known worldwide for its marbling characteristics, increased eating quality through a naturally enhanced flavor, tenderness and juiciness, and a high market value. In several areas of Japan, beef...
Thomas Bayes
Thomas Bayes (1701 - 1761) was an English mathematician and Presbyterian minister, known for having formulated a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes’ theorem. Bayes never published what would eventually become his most famous accomplishment; his notes were edited and published after his death by Richard Price. Bayes’ solution to a problem of “inverse...
The Card Players
It is a painting of startling simplicity. Two farm labourers contemplate their cards above an empty table, their expressions as blank as the austere background against which they are posed, little more than objects in a human still life created by the artist Paul Cezanne. Yet in the crazy 21st-century world of billionaire plutocrats and sovereign wealth funds fighting over the world’s few...
Canter's Deli
Canter’s Deli is a famous Jewish style delicatessen in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California, near the border of West Hollywood. The Canter family originally opened up a delicatessen in Jersey City in 1924. They came west along with many Jews from the northeastern United States in the early 1940s, and opened a delicatessen in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, which at that time had a...
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin (born 1961) is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Social Network, and Moneyball. After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre in 1983,...