What to Do With All Those Easter Eggs? Make Egg Salad and Custard

With Easter only a few days away, who isn't thinking about eggs? When I was a kid I loved dyeing and decorating eggs. But instead of using hard boiled eggs, I thought it was infinitely cooler to de-egg my Easter eggs.

I remember using one of my mother's sewing needles to punch holes on either end of the uncooked egg. Putting my mouth against the egg, I'd huff-and-puff and blow until the raw egg dropped into a bowl.

Admittedly that was a lot of extra work and there were risks. Making the holes and blowing into the egg could crack the shell. Worse, all that huffing-and-puffing sometimes led to hyper-ventilating, so my mother kept an eye on me, just in case I got dizzy and fell off the chair.

In my child's mind, that extra effort was worth it because the feather-weight shells, brightly dyed and covered with decals, were so much more artful than the heavy hard boiled eggs.

So the raw eggs wouldn't go to waste, my mom made omelets or used them for baking. Ultimately I stopped making the feather-weight eggs.  They were just too much trouble. When I reverted to using hard boiled eggs, she'd turn those into egg salad.

Egg Salad with Crispy Bacon

The egg salad will taste better if you use the freshest eggs available. We're lucky to live near the Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades Farmers' Markets where Lily's Eggs sells their eggs. The yolks are bright orange, the whites clear and silky, the flavor naturally sweet.

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 40 minutes.

Ingredients

4 eggs, farmers' market fresh
1 tablespoon Italian parsley finely chopped
1 tablespoon capers, finely chopped
1 large shallot, peeled, finely chopped
1 slice of bacon, crisp, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
Sea salt and pepper
Olive oil

Method

In a saucepan cover the eggs with water and gently boil for 30 minutes. That may be longer than you're used to but cooking the eggs at a lower temperature makes the yolks moist and flaky.

Let the eggs cool, then peel and chop them by hand with a chef's knife. Mix together the eggs, parsley, capers, shallot, bacon, and mayonnaise. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with bread, crackers, or hearts of romaine.

The Easiest Custard You'll Ever Make
Yield: 4-6 servings
Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1 teaspoon sweet butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the eggs and 1/2 cup white sugar. Add the cream and (optional) vanilla and stir well.

Butter a large 8" round oven-proof baking dish or 6 porcelain ramekins. Pour in the custard. Prepare a water bath by pouring 1" of water to a large roasting pan.

Put the custard into the water bath and bake for 45 minutes (the ramekins) or 75 minutes (the baking dish). Every 15 minutes rotate the baking dish and ramekins so they cook evenly. If the custard is browning too quickly, lay a piece of tin foil over the top.

The custard is done when it doesn't jiggle when moved.

Serve at room temperature with whipped cream, ice cream, or fresh berries.

Variations

Add 1/4 cup golden raisins, roughly chopped

Add 1/4 cup dry roasted almonds, walnuts, pistachios, or hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Add 1/4 cup high quality chocolate, roughly chopped

Add 1/4 cup espresso, reduced to 1 tablespoon

Add both the nuts and chocolate

Add the nuts, chocolate, and reduced espresso

Browned Butter Easter Bars

A bonus post for you, brought to you by the Easter bunny ;)

With some Easter candy at home that I was all too tempted to eat in one sitting, I thought I should do something with them so that didn't happen.  And I ended up with Browned Butter Easter Candy Bars.  I mean, adding browned butter to Easter candy and I won't want to touch it, right?


Brilliant, Shannon.

Browned Butter Easter Candy Bars
adapted from Cook's Illustrated
Yield: ~24

14T unsalted butter, sliced into even chunks
2c + 2T whole wheat pastry flour (AP or white whole wheat)
1/2t salt
1/2t baking soda
1c unpacked brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2c evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)
1 lg egg
1 lg egg yolk
2t vanilla extract
2c chopped Easter candy (mine was a mix of mini eggs, chocolate covered peeps, lindt truffles, and creme eggs)
coarse sea salt, for the topping

Preheat the oven to 325deg.  Spray a 9x13" pan with nonstick spray and set aside.

Make the browned butter by heating a thick-bottomed pot or skillet over medium heat.  Add butter and swirl to the pan to ensure even cooking.  Whisk frequently as the butter begins to foam and then subsides.  As soon as you see browned bits beginning to form at the bottom of the pan, remove the pan from the heat and let cool.  It should smell deliciously nutty and start to drive you crazy.

Prepare your dry ingredients in a medium bowl; whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.

Once the browned butter has cooled to room temperature, add 3/4c to the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add brown and white sugars and beat until well combined.  Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.  With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Fold in the chopped candy.

Add the batter to your prepared pan and press into the pan evenly with a spatula.  Top with a sprinkle of coarse sea salt.  Bake for 25-30min, until the bars are slightly browned and edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into bars.  Store in an airtight container.

What's your favorite treat to bake up with holiday candy?

Your Fear of Rationality Makes Me Uncomfortable.

Is it possible that we've just gone too far? Have we invested our relationships with so much emotion that we've lost track of the purpose of dating and being with someone? What's going on here?

Like lots o' folks, I don't handle conflict particularly well, especially with the women, and more so when I'm "with" a woman. Painful as they are to face, breakups are moments of high stress, even if we're only a few dates in. However, why should it be a matter of tears or anger or recrimination or harsh words when the truth is spoken?:

Sorry, Lena, this just isn't working for me.

In the moment, I get that some emotion is right and fair. But that's why we date, to discover if there's more to "us" than a shared initial superficial attraction. When it becomes clear to one or the other things aren't working, the right/only/mandatory thing to do is to call "time" and do it in as nice a way as possible.


If you're on the receiving end of this, your job is to look beyond your emotion. When someone's being open and truthful, accept it as an act of real friendship. Only bums and losers continue on in something by pretending to themselves and others. False affection is the ultimate betrayal; another word for people like that is sociopath.

At root, this is about figuring out why we find ourselves in a place were emotion is the centre of all relationships. Look around: in boyfriend/girlfriend situations, in parent/child relationships, even at work, it's how you feel that counts. Of course, emotions are important, but should they supersede logic, intellect, practicality and clear-headedness?

I think not.

Fear, in my opinion, is the driver of all this reliance on the emotional response. We fear not ever finding the right person; we fear that the one we thought was the right person will leave; we fear how we look to the outside world. Of course, this more or less proves my point, because fear itself (in this sphere of thought) is the most irrational emotion, and allowing it to drive anything related to abstracts like relationships is the height of illogicality. We've translated fear of physical harm into fear of emotional harm - trust me, there's no bottom to our emotional pool. If you lose some emotion today, you can always turn on the spigot tomorrow.



Bottoms Up, Calm and Rational Exes.

Roasted Date Salad

As soon as I saw this salad I knew I'd be making it.  Warm, roasted dates?  Yes, please :)  I adapted it just a bit, based on what I had in my refrigerator and couldn't have been more pleased.  This is definitely one to add to your repertoire!

Roasted Date Salad
adapted from Spoon Fork Bacon
yield:  4 side salads

6-7 Medjool dates, pitted and cut in half lengthwise
2T balsamic vinegar
1t extra virgin olive oil, divided
3oz proscuitto
4-6c arugula (could also use mixed greens)
2oz goat cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375deg.

In a small bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Add dates and toss until dates are well coated.  Add to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for ~10min.  Set aside until they're cool to the touch.  Roughly chop the warm dates into smaller bite-size pieces.

Crisp up the proscuitto either in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat or in the oven along with the dates. Set crispy proscuitto on paper towels to cool.  Once cool to the touch, crumble the proscuitto.

Add greens to a large bowl and toss with 1-2T balsamic vinaigrette dressing (if you don't have some on hand, try this recipe).  Lightly season with salt and pepper, toss again and then divide greens between 4 plates.  Top with the chopped dates, crispy proscuitto bits and crumbled goat cheese.  Serve!

With my love of bacon-wrapped, goat-cheese stuffed dates, I'm surprised I hadn't tried warm dates on anything else!  Have you done anything fun with dates lately??

Who Is This Girl Next Door?

A cursory glance at some online dating profiles - the generalist sites, not those catering to, ahem, specialist tastes - shows that many women self-describe as "the girl next door".

Clearly, none of their childhoods were blessed with the Stannaford family as neighbors. Tanya and Lindy were...how shall I put this...adventuresome, and I don't mean in the building a tree-house sense. Tanya was my age, Lindy a few years older, and they were both scary in that way that wordly girls intimidate innocent young boys. For a start, they had bodies with curves, and boyfriends with attitude. They were fascinating and mystifying in equal measure. I spent a lot of time pondering them.

But I can only realistically assume that my model of girls next door is the exception. The mature woman of today looking for a date online obviously believes men are attracted to the memory of someone from their own childhood. Thought of like that, there's a not altogether wholesome infantilist tone to all this. What mental image are these women trying to send to attract men? Do they think we're looking for the playmate from twenty years ago all grown up and now with makeup and stockings?

I think I've inadvertently struck upon the magic word here, which is 'wholesome'. The archetypal GND is a wholesome gal who understands your background and the culture that raised you. You'll be able to connect on a familiar level, and talk a common language. Or, if you get lucky, you'll find Lindy Stannaford and have a really good time.


Bottoms Up, Neighbors.

Echo Boomer Ka-Boom

Depressing news for those of us who think children are the future (and not just an old song title.) In the United States, more than half ie: >50% of all live births to women under thirty are to unmarried mothers. The overall rate is 41%. And among college-educated women, that rate is rising fast.



So let's extrapolate a trend a couple of years, and just get it out in the open: By 2015 half of the children born in the US will be illegitimate. Bastards, in other words.

This fact was brought home to me yesterday, over coffee with a friend. A work colleague of his, a 28 year-old single woman, is six weeks pregnant. No, not to her husband - there is none - but to her "boyfriend" of six months. And, naturally, he's not in the frame of mind to marry her. Any bets on her becoming a single mother?

Frankly, I could care less about stupid adults who haven't the moral capacity to understand the responsibility of creating a new life. What worries me is the child, and his or her future. Arguments about marriage being "just a piece of paper" don't wash. We're dealing with not only an innocent life here, but, writ large, the future of our society. Not only do unmarried parents practically guarantee the child a life of poverty, the lack of role models and proper guidance leads to higher incidence of mental disease, addiction, anti-social activity, lower education levels and on and on.

The root of this selfishness is easy to find: current under-thirties are the children of baby boomers. Their "values" of "turn on, tune in, drop out" and "do whatever feels good" have been passed on to a new generation. Moronic males unwilling to stand up and face their responsibilities, and dopey females who seem unable to make their contraception work are blind to the fact active sex lives have consequences.

Here it is: Eventually, sex = babies. I hope that's clear.


Bottoms Up, hole-pokers in condoms.

Arctic Ice Breaks Up in Beaufort Sea

The NOAA image below gives an update on the temperature anomaly over Greenland, as earlier discussed in the post including Huge patches of warm air over the Arctic.

Below a NOAA animation showing a 30-day loop (up to March 19, 2013) of analyzed 200-hPa heights and anomalies. An eleven-day mean, centered on the date indicated in the title, of 200-hPa heights and anomalies from the NCEP Climate Data Assimilation System (CDAS), is shown for the first 25 days of the animation. 10-, 9-, 8-, 7-, and 6-day running means are shown for the last 5 days, respectively. Contour interval for heights is 120 m, anomalies are indicated by shading. Anomalies are departures from the 1979-95 daily base period means.

As discussed in earlier posts (see below), changes to the jet stream are making extreme weather events increasingly likely to occur, which spells bad news for the sea ice.


Below a NASA video with satellite images showing the Arctic sea ice breaking up in the Beaufort Sea.

A series of intense storms in the Arctic has caused fracturing of the sea ice around the Beaufort Sea along the northern coasts of Alaska and Canada. High-resolution imagery from the Suomi NPP satellite shows the evolution of the cracks forming in the ice, called leads, from February 17 -- March 18 2013. The general circulation of the area is seen moving the ice westward along the Alaskan coast.

Finally, the Naval Research Laboratory animation below shows the thickness of the sea ice over the past 30 days.

Related posts

- Huge patches of warm air over the Arctic
- Polar jet stream appears hugely deformed
- Hurricane Sandy moving inland

- Greenland is melting at incredible rate
- Diagram of Doom
- From Heat Wave to Snowstorms, March Goes to Extremes (at ClimateCentral.org)

That's Not a Killer Whale, Tommy, That's An Orca.

Married male friends enjoy it when I ask:

So, how's life in captivity?

The usual response is some form of personal insult.

Now, I'm not foolish enough to think that married men are unhappy, because the evidence is that they're not. They're wealthier, healthier and likely enjoying a more fulfilling sex life than any singleton. And if they're not benefiting from better and more regular sex, it's their own fault.

My captivity jibe contains just a tiny amount of truth, in that the natural enemy of the single man is his married friend's wife. Wives dislike and discourage single buddies for the same reason men obsess over chickweed in the lawn - exotic species are insidious reminders of the wild kingdom.

The way this tension often resolves is that men gradually give up single buddies. Given the choice between justifying a night out with single men and avoiding explanations to the wife, most will choose the latter. It's a mistake, to the extent that man's mental health is improved by the companionship of other men. The decision to avoid single guys altogether can lead to a decline in all kinds of male friendships; obviously a bad idea.

I think the real trick is to keep the single guys on a restricted venue basis. No titty bars, no big boozy nights, no questionable fellow travelers - and that's up to married guy enforcement. I'd suggest that finding a way to graft a prior single life onto married life before you actually get married is worthy of serious thought. Otherwise you'll find yourself feeling as if you're an exhibit at Seaworld, pretending to enjoy living in a bathtub eating frozen mackerel.



Bottoms Up, Seaworld Dwellers.

Dessert Sliders

When Marx Foods put out the call for bloggers looking to turn dinner into dessert I had to think twice-- this wasn't going to be easy!  But I can't say no to a challenge, so I considered it accepted :)

The goal:  take a sample of cocoa penne (provided by Marx Foods) and make an original dessert recipe that looks like a dinner.  My first thought was to cook up the pasta, top with with a fruity sauce that looked like marinara, and top it with a goat cheese cream.  But that seemed a little to straight-forward.

I decided to transform the pasta by grinding up the cocoa penne and using it as cocoa powder to make... a burger!  Easily dinner-fare :)  I dressed it up for the pictures with appropriate attire- a sesame seed bun, cheese, lettuce and ketchup.  Bon appetit!

Cheeseburger Sliders
Yield:  9 sliders

For the Cocoa Penne Burger:
6 Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
1/4c almond meal
1T melted coconut oil
2T ground + sifted cocoa penne
1t honey
pinch sea salt

For assembly:
your favorite macarons, sprinkled with sesame seeds (the bun)
White Chocolate Buttercream dyed orange (the cheese)
Shredded coconut dyed green (the lettuce)
Strawberry Jam (the ketchup)

To make the cocoa penne burgers, add all of the ingredients to a food processor and blend until well combined.  Divide into 9 portions and form them into "patty" shapes.  Refrigerate at least a few hours to firm up (will be good for a few days).

To assemble the sliders, add a burger to one macaron and top with a smear of buttercream, some coconut and some jam.  Top with another macaron shell to complete the burger.  Repeat with remaining burgers and serve!

What would you have made with the cocoa penne??

Huge patches of warm air over the Arctic

Over the past month or so, huge patches with temperature anomalies of over 20 degrees Celsius have been forming over the Arctic.

The three images below show such patches stretch out from Svalbard to Novaya Zemlya (top), north of Eastern Siberia (middle) and over West Greenland and Baffin Bay (bottom).

How these patches with warm air developed is further illustrated by the animation below, which goes from February 12, 2013, to March 18, 2013.

This is a 2.3 MB file that may take some time to fully load. 

Paul Beckwith, regular contributor to the Arctic-news blog, comments:

Paul Beckwith,
B.Eng, M.Sc. (Physics),
Ph.D. student (Climatology)
and Part-time Professor,
University of Ottawa 

"The problem with this type of pattern is that there is a tendency for what is termed the AD (Arctic Dipole) consisting of exceptionally high pressures over Northern Canada to Greenland. When the air leaves this region heading for the low pressure regions (winds) it curves to the right (due to Coriolis force) and is thus driven from the Bering Strait region to the North Pole and then out Fram Strait, this conduit is like flushing the toilet on the ice. Warm water is pulled to the cold North Pole and the ice is driven out the Fram Strait into the warm Atlantic where it is melted."

"But the really big problem is that this high pressure area over Northern Canada is a ridge (blocking) that stays pretty stationary over the summers and is directly causing the heat waves and drought in the western US (2003, 2011, 2012). Another really big problem is that the part of the ridge over Greenland (or large GBI = Greenland Blocking Index); as discussed by Overland, Francis, et. al. in 2012 causes excessive melt in Greenland (as we saw in July, 2012 when 97% of Greenland was melting on the surface instead of the usual 40%). This is sending the Greenland albedo into a steep drop, causing even more heat absorption and melting."

To illustrate this further, Paul adds the animation below, from weather.unisys.com.

This animation is a 1 MB file that may take some time to fully load

Paul adds: "The Greenland high could reach 1070 mb in next few days; that will bring huge temperatures! By comparison, the world record highest was 1085 in Mongolia in December 19, 2001".

The 1070 mb high over Greenland is further illustrated by the image below, from weather.unisys.com.

Indeed, as the jet stream slows down and becomes more wavier, such patches of warm air can be expected to extend more regularly into the Arctic. The result can be a huge melt of Arctic sea ice, as well as a huge melt of snow cover in Greenland, which also dramatically lowers albedo, as occurred in 2012 and as discussed in the earlier post Greenland is melting at incredible rate.

This spells bad news for the Arctic sea ice, which may well disappear altogether this summer.

Paul further adds: "For the record; I do not think that any sea ice will survive this summer. An event unprecedented in human history is today, this very moment, transpiring in the Arctic Ocean. The cracks in the sea ice that I reported on my Sierra Club Canada blog and elsewhere over the last several days have spread and at this moment the entire sea ice sheet (or about 99% of it) covering the Arctic Ocean is on the move. Clockwise. The ice is thin, and slushy, and breaking apart."

"This is abrupt climate change in real-time. Humans have benefitted greatly from a stable climate for the last 11,000 years or roughly 400 generations. Not any more. We now face an angry climate. One that we have poked in the eye with our fossil fuel stick and awakened. And now we must deal with the consequences. We must set aside our differences and prepare for what we can no longer avoid. And that is massive disruption to our civilizations."

The animation below, from genomewiki.ucsc.edu shows cracks in the sea ice with the Wikipedia image underneath showing the location.

Related posts

- Polar jet stream appears hugely deformed
- Hurricane Sandy moving inland

- Greenland is melting at incredible rate
- Diagram of Doom
- From Heat Wave to Snowstorms, March Goes to Extremes (at ClimateCentral.org)

Nothing Is What It Seems.

Boston's Best Single Girl gets to the nub of the matter: why do we categorize relationships?

To me, the answer is simplistic, if not simple: Because that's the way we are. Knowing in which mental room to place our relationship furniture gives us comfort. That's all. It's housekeeping.

However, something about her post unsettled me. Relationships come in all shapes and dynamics. Each one will by definition be different from all the others, because the sum of two individuals will be itself individual. But why is it that so many liaisons end up in the way she describes, with one side unbalancing things?

Maybe that is the nature of people interacting sexually and intellectually . Perhaps these things are unstable until they reach a common energy level, which can only be found with time and raw feedback. The instability will either resolve or not. I don't know.

What I do know is that mismatched motives are the hidden time-bomb in most relationships, of any length. That's because we so infrequently acknowledge the whats and whys of what we're looking for in another, and even less frequently state them out loud. Partly this is because we're not taught that self-examination - self-observation if you like - is a valuable art, but our biology doesn't value it either. Reproduction and everything surrounding it is Mother Nature's only concern. She's a pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap kind of life retailer, interested only in getting as many new bodies out there as possible.

On the other hand, we have created the culture of relationships. They're an intellectual pursuit in that they rely on more abstract ideas than "wow, she's/he's sexy, I'm horny, let's do it". Unfortunately, we impute the latter criteria as a starting point for the former, which is a little like trying to construct a nuclear weapon by throwing rocks.

The good news is that we can immediately change the way of the future. If you say to yourself (and everyone else):

Okay. What I'm looking for right now in a person is a sexual relationship that has a smattering of conversation about books and wine...

...then that will tell the other person something of the clarity and the specificity of your thinking.

I think what most of us do is to attempt to find the one person who will complement all of our current and future needs. That's the ideal, and a good one. Whether it's practical or not is another question.

That's unsettling.

In any case, go read the Boston Girl. She has a gift.




Bottoms Up, New Englanders.

Tipping Points

Aaron Franklin

By Aaron Franklin


Tipping point one: Complete global deglaciation. 

This looks like it happened in the last Interglacial 120 000 yrs ago.

The Arctic Sea ice went completely. Most if not all of Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets went too. Theres 30m above current sea level ancient beaches all around the world proving that.

With recent observations of coastlines receeding by Thermokarst/coastal erosion (wave action and warm water melt the coatal land permafrost layer, accelerated by thermokarst lakes drilling with warm water through the coastal tundra permafrost) in Siberia, Alaska, and Nth Canada by up to 200m, mostly in the last 10yrs, and accelerating...

Example of Coastal Thermokarst lakes on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf coastline:

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=71.063363,152.105713&spn=1.765191,10.821533&t=h&z=7

View Larger Map

Pan around, Zoom in, its quite scary.

I think its fair to say that most, if not all of the ESAS, and most of other arctic basin continental shelves may have been created by this process in that last interglacial.

International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean - from: ibcao.org

Evidence for this is that there is only traces left of glacial channels carved into the edges of the continental shelves around Norway, Greenland, Nth Canadian Archipelago, and Svalbard.

Shelves in these places are flat, 40-100m below sealevel, flat, the glacial channels mostly filled with sediments from the eroded coasts. Some of this erosion has happened in the last 10 thousand years around Norway, Greenland, and to a lesser extent Nth Canadian Archipelago, and Svalbard.

But its unlikely that prior to mans intervention, that much coastal permafrost got melted in the ESAS, because the surface seawater stayed -1.8C to 0C probably up until the last 30 years.

The reason the arctic shelves, and particularly the ESAS are the most dangerous pieces of geology on the planet is, that while they have been frozen for at least the last 90 000 years. They have been collecting methane produced by baking oil shale layers, subducted under the edges of the continents, mostly as water-methane crystal hydrates in their bottom layers.

If this happens under land permafrost, its more porous and there isn't enough pressure for hydrates to be stable. Under not frozen submarine shelves the temperature isn't low enough for hydrate stability.

Now, Earths vulnerable Carbon stores are:

Carbon in the Arctic

ESAS:
500 Gton C organic
1000 Gton C hydrate
700 Gton C free methane
total: 2200 Gton C

+other submarine arctic permafrost:
2200/0.8=2750 Gton C

+1700Gt in land permafrost= 4450 Gton C

A large part of this is Vunerable to being lost rapidly into the Ocean/Atmosphere system if the Arctic defrosts, polar ocean warms, heavy rainfalls hit the Tundras.

Carbon in soils and Living Biomass:

Total organic C in soil and living biomass is approx: 1000 Gton C living + 1500 Gton soil.

= 2500Gton C

A large part of this is Vunerable to being lost rapidly into the Ocean/Atmosphere system if the Arctic defrosts, Global weather systems change, Rainforests and/or peat deposits burn, desertification and/or heavy rainfalls hit the Tropical, Temperate, Boreal forests.

So thats the vunerable surface Carbon stores. Total about 7000 billion tons of carbon.

There's never been this much in the history of planet earth, that we know of.

Carbon in Deep sea Clathrates:

estimates range from 5000 Gton C to 78000 Gton C

A large part of this is Vunerable to being lost into the Ocean/Atmosphere system if the oceans warm a few degrees, reaching the bottom in a few hundred to a few thousand years, causing the stability to be lost.

There's never been this much in the history of planet Earth, that we know of.

Now if Mankind hadn't got in the way by dumping 500 Gton C of Organic carbon from soil and living biomass into the Ocean-Atmosphere system before the Industrial revolution, and most particularly by dumping a further 500 Gton C of fossil fuels there as well since, what might have happened is this:

The Arctic sea ice would have gone slowly, over a period of centuries, and the Arctic shelf methane would have fizzed off slow enough to be all converted into CO2, without raising methane and its product ozone levels in the atmospere significantly.

The Weather patterns wouldn't have changed much so the tundras wouldn't have melted fast, and the prospect of heavy rain there wouldn't be looming. The ecosystems would have had time to shift the boreal forests north onto the tundras as they slowly got wetter. The frozen Tundra peats would have been stabilised by roots, and the tundra permafrost methane, would have fizzed off slowly, all safely converted to CO2 and a little organic carbon/nitrogen would have been decomposed into safe CO2 and soil Nitrates.

The Release of CO2 would have been slow enough for the biological ocean system to bury it on the sea bottom, the 300 year duration of carbonate/silicate weathering getting it on the way to safe limestones, and clays.

We probably would have been up for a hundred odd million years of no ice on the planet. Subduction techtonics around the polar shelves would have gradually broken off the ESAS etc, and a lot of the ex-permafrost peats, turning them thru submarine landslides into polar basin sediments. As that happened slowly, the carbon would have all been buried and turned to stone. The CO2 would have stayed high enough throughout this time to keep the planet ice free.

Eventually in maybe 100 million years the earth might have gone back into a glaciation.

Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/All_palaeotemps.png (click to enlarge)

Instead, Mankind got in the Way. 

Now we have today this:

Adapted by Aaron Franklin from image at Wikipedia - radiative forcing

This chart showing the present day situation, the effect of an extra 4.5 Gton C methane in the atmosphere, and the tipping point line for "super-greenhouse/Anoxic ocean" mass extinction events like the end Permian 252 million years ago, and the more recent PETM 56 million years ago. About 20 of those we know about in earths history. 

Unfortunately it doesn't stop there. 

It looks like Nature has conspired to set up a perfect Eco-Geospheric beartrap, that we have sprung by slamming together a WHOLE LOT of tipping points into such a short space of time that what we have probably done is created a perfect planetary environmental storm, and lined ourselves up for, in a few decades from now THIS:

And with water vapour feedback kicking in, the Megacyclones kicking vast quantities of warm moist air high into the stratosphere, warming it from -40C to well above Zero.... 

It doesn't look like stopping there. 

The good news though is that we have all the knowledge now, just in time, and all the tools to stop it quickly and reletavely easily. Provided we act within the next few months. 

If we don't, We might have no chance whatsoever of stopping this cascade of tipping points.

Madrid in 36 Hours, 1 Cooking Lesson, 1 Tapas Bar and 2 Pastries from the Mercado de Maravillas

Most trips, jet lag doesn't bother me. Today it did.

Yesterday I spent the day with Kathleen Berger, an opera singer, and her chef-husband Manuel Alba Garrido. I tagged along with Kathleen when she had a music lesson with voice coach Tony Madigan. What fun to hear her practice scales and phrasing in preparation for a performance in a week.

In the apartment they share with their four cats, Manuel showed me how to make an authentic Spanish dish, one served in most tapas bars: a tortilla de patata.

Made with a potatoes and eggs with onions (or without onions the barbarian way, as Kathleen explained; whether one puts onions in a tortilla de patata is a topic of debate in tapas bars, fueled by glasses of red wine) and a lot of loving skill, the tortilla does not have tortillas.

Similar to a frittata, but not a frittata. Similar to a quiche, but not a quiche. The tortilla is light but filling, deliciously comforting.


Manuel made a tortilla with a filling of thinly sliced Spanish ham and fresh tomatoes in the middle. The filling is added after the tortilla is cooked, much in the way a baker slices a cake in half and then spreads frosting in between.

That evening we ate a light meal at Asturianos, their favorite tapas bar. My favorite tapas was the big bowl of Brittany mussels in spicy tomato sauce with lots of freshly baked sourdough bread for dipping. Delicious!

In bed by midnight, jet lag woke me at 4am. Wide awake, I watched the BBC and did some work until I crashed at 8am and slept until noon. With only a few hours to explore Madrid, I got directions from the concierge, figured out how to use the Metro which is easy, efficient, clean, quiet and inexpensive.

Kathleen recommended I visit the Mercado de Maravillas on Bravo Maravillas, a cavernous central market with row after row of vendors selling fresh meat, produce, fruits, poultry and seafood. Racks of Spanish hams invitingly (and threateningly) hang above the customers who lean close to the glass cases filled with great looking meat.

With no time to eat lunch, I grabbed two pastries and rushed back to the Metro, eating them while I waited for the train.

Tomorrow we start our 8 day tour of the small towns along the Atlantic coast in Northern Spain with Insight Vacations. I can hardly wait.

Tonight I'm going to bed early so if that jet lag thing happens again and I wake up at 4am, I'll have gotten some rest.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Record Methane in Arctic early March 2013

The image below, produced by Dr. Leonid Yurganov, shows methane levels for the first ten days of March 2013.

Methane levels for this period are at record highs in the Barents and Norwegian Seas, i.e. the highest levels ever recorded by IASI, which is is short for Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer, a Fourier transform spectrometer on board the European EUMETSAT Metop satellite that has supplied data since 2007.

The record levels are indicated on the image below at the top right, while the geographical location of the four domains distinguished in the image are illustrated on the image further below.

The image at the top of this post displays average methane levels for the period March 1 to 10, 2013, at 600 mb. On individual days and on specific locations, methane levels could be much higher, as illustrated by the NOAA image below showing methane levels reaching a high of 2237 ppb on March 6, 2013, at 742 mb. The empty image further below is added to help distinguish land contours.

The earlier post Dramatic increase in methane in the Arctic in January 2013 showed that high methane levels lined up closely with the contours of land and sea ice. The same is the case for the record levels of methane in early March, as illustrated by the animation below.

IASI methane levels March 1-10, 2013 against
NSIDC sea ice concentration map March 12, 2013.
Note: this is a 3.09 file that may take some time to fully load. 

Finally, two maps showing temperature anomalies. The NOAA image below shows Sea Surface Temperature anomalies of over 8 degrees Celsius on March 8, 2013.

Air temperatures are more volatile than sea temperatures, as the wind can quickly change the situation. The image below shows how, as the jet stream weakens in speed and becomes more wavier, large patches with over 20 degrees Celsius surface temperature anomalies can extend into the Arctic.

BTW, the above image also shows large temperature anomalies in Antarctica, which has also shown high levels of methane recently. This will be discussed in more detail in a post elsewhere soon.

Friday Fluffer - Sex In Space

On the off-chance that you have nothing whatsoever to worry about, consider this: there's an uncertain future for humans planning to reproduce in space.

As if punting off to other planets isn't scary enough, space-kids might be even more pesky than their earthling cousins.

Space Sex Could Kill Us. Safe for work.


Bottoms Up, Weightless Doggies.

Key Lime Pie

Just in time for Pi Day... I have pie!

Image Source

Inspired by a recent trip to Key West, I wanted to make a key-limed treat to share with my lab.  The natural choice was key lime pie, but I wanted to add some of my own twists to the classic.

Instead of a traditional graham craker crust, I used toasted coconut cookies that I found at Trader Joe's and added in some shredded coconut for good measure.  While delicious, the crust was a bit crumbly, so beware when you're serving slices!

I topped the pie with some white chocolate whipped cream... holy moly this was delicious.  I should've used more to decorate the pie, but I misplaced it in my mouth somewhere.

Key Lime Pie
adapted from Browned Eyed Baker

For the Crust:
1 1/4c toasted coconut cookie crumbs (graham cracker, ginger snaps, or even chocolate cookies would also work)
1/2c unsweetened coconut (mine was reduced-fat)
2T evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)
6T unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling:
3t grated key lime zest
4 egg yolks
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk (fat-free if you like)
3/4c freh key lime juice

For the White Chocolate Whipped Cream:
2oz white chocolate, chopped
3oz heavy cream, chilled

Preheat the oven to 325.

Start by making the filling; add the lime zest and egg yolks to the bowl of a stand mixer.  Whip egg yolks until fluffy, 5-6min.  Gradually add the sweetened condensed milk and whip until thick, 3-4min.  Lower the speed and slowly add key lime juice, continuing to mix until incorporated.  Set aside while you prepare the crust.

If you don't have a stand mixer, you should do the following:  Add the lime zest and egg yolks to a medium bowl and whisk for 2min.  Whisk in sweetened condensed milk, then key lime juice.

To make the crust, stir together cookie crumbs, coconut and evaporated cane juice.  While stirring continuously with a fork, slowly drizzle the melted butter into the mixture.  The mixture should look let wet sand, and a little crumbly if using the same coconut cookies.  Transfer the crumbs to a 9" pie plate and evenly press the crumbs to form a crust.  Bake until fragrant and beginning to brown, 12-15min.  Cool on a wire rack until it reaches room temperature.

Once cool, pour the filling into the crust.  Bake 15-17min, until the center is set yet still wiggly when jiggled.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  Refrigerate until well-shilled, at least 3 hours.

Add the chopped white chocolate to a small bowl and set aside.  In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream over medium heat.  As the cream comes to a simmer, remove from heat and pour over the white chocolate.  Stir until smooth.  Refrigerate with the pie until completely chilled.

When white chocolate cream is cold and you're ready to serve the pie, whip the white chocolate cream.  Decoratively pipe on the pie or spread evenly over the filling.  Garnish with lime slices, if desired (I figured people wouldn't eat these so I left them out).  Serve!  Any leftovers can be covered in an airtight container (or covered in plastic wrap) and refrigerated for a few days.

Coconut and white chocolate were a natural fit, and I'd highly recommend you go make this to celebrate any day of the week!

In The Trenches

Connecting with new people has a fancy modern name: networking. As far as words go, it's not sexy - too many reminders of Chamber of Commerce mixers and awkward Meetup groups. Blech.

Nevertheless, here we are a few hundred thousand years on, trying to find juuuuust the right one. But  we're not alone. Married friends of singletons are big on changing our single status, even a little bit. Which explains why I received this email, reading in part...

"I’m reaching out to make an introduction.  Not for a date, but for a connection.  You’re both single, well read, well traveled and fun.

Maybe you can get together for drinks and giggles...."

This came from a married (naturally) female friend whom I thought understood that her focus should be on finding me potential lerv interests, not a book-club buddy. 

Spot the subtext in the email with one swift reading, ie:


...Not for a date, but for a connection...

Translation: Either I'm too ugly for her, or she's a beast.


...single, well read, well traveled and fun...

Translation: Hopelessly unavailable, set in our ways or just plain ornery, we are both destined to be a confirmed bachelor or an unavailable spinster.


...drinks and giggles...

Translation: Because the thought of sex between you two is laughable.


Yes, I know, I'm an ungrateful ingrate. We can never have too many friends. Blah, blah.

Still. It's brutal when you gain insight into others' perception of you. 






Bottoms Up, High Opinion Holders.

The worst-case and - unfortunately - looking almost certain to happen scenario

Aaron Franklin

By Aaron Franklin

I have asked for the world leading climate and arctic scientists I have been working with at AMEG, and Arctic-News to review this, and if they don't agree with any part or the end conclusion to please inform me immediately.

As yet no-one has come forward, with any criticisms whatsoever, only agreement that this is what we are very likely facing.

If we don't act very fast and the Arctic sea ice goes...

Up till now the sea ice, and the pool of low salinity meltwater left on the surface of the arctic ocean from it melting has blocked the warm Gulf stream from getting any further than the strip of coast with a shallow continental shelf seabed, around the north of Europe and western Russia as far as the islands and peninsulars that jut north from the west Siberian coast.

High salinity, warm gulfstream water of tropical origin does not mix freely with cold low density low salinity meltwater. It mixes and sinks in a sheet current at the boundary between these two bodies of water.

This has not caused any big problems so far as it has been happening along a fairly short boundary above shallow continental shelf and the downwards mixed flow is slowed by flowing over the the shelf before it sinks into the deep polar basin.

However... the meltpool on top of the Arctic ocean has been getting smaller every year and if we let the gulf stream get any further than it has to date then it will most likely continue all the way along the east Siberian coast, combine with the warm bering strait inflow, encircle the whole polar basin. Or at least most of it, if there is still enough multi-year sea-ice damming up against the west coast of the north Canadian archipelago to stop it getting to the extreme Canadian side of the arctic ocean.

There probably isn't enough multiyear seaice left to do this anyway and it won't make any differency to the overall outcome anyway, which is....

Encouraged by the anti-clockwise, low level Arctic atmospheric wind vortex (the low pressure system that is usually in place over the nth pole) the gulf-stream loop will accelerate, forming a mixing vortex (whirlpool), first sucking down any remaining surface meltwater pool to deep polar ocean, along a long circular front above the deep polar basin.

As this is happening the Gulf stream and Bering strait warm water inputs will accelerate dragging ever warmer water in, and the entire Arctic ocean near surface region will flood with warm high salinity water at up to 12C or even higher.

This will eliminate any chance of the arctic ocean refreezing in winter. And:

The average 12C temperatures of the upper layer of the polar ocean will be sending a big thermal pulse down through the East Siberian Arctic Shelf and other shallow submarine permafrosts in the arctic. This pulse propagating fast through liquid water in cracks and methane eruption vents. The hydrate layers containing over 1000 billion tons C of methane at the bottoms of these permafrosts will be destabilising, bottom up, when that thermal pulse pins them between itself and rising geothermal heat.

The ESAS and other Arctic shelf Methane Hydrate reefs will be fizzing like an alka-seltzer in a glass of warm water, and the wind-turbulated open water will mean lots of that methane getting into the atmosphere and spiking global warming.

As the sun has set for the north polar winter at this point, the northern Alaskan, Siberian, and Canadian tundras will cool rapidly as usual. But this time the warm surface of the polar ocean will be releasing water vapour and this warm low density air/water vapour mixture will rise, accelerating the polar low into a very deep arctic storm system, very likely far stronger than any we've ever seen.

This will erupt warm water vapour bearing air high into the troposphere, and stratosphere above the pole and this will suck in the cold air from over Alaskan, Siberian, and Canadian tundras, drawing in air from further south and causing heavy winter rainfall rather than light snowfall. (usually in winter polar highs are dominant and descending cold dry air from these flows out over the Alaskan, Siberian, and Canadian tundras).

The tundra permafrosts will now be drenched in large volume rainfalls. The warm lakes and bogs all over them will be drilling through the permafrost, and lots of the around 1700 billion tons C of organic carbon locked up in the land permafrost will be flooding into the Arctic Ocean from Siberia, Alaska and North Canada. And getting sucked down the polar plughole. Lots will be getting released into the air as methane and carbon dioxide, and spiking global warming.

The donut-shaped circulation pattern sitting like a crown over the Arctic circle will start drawing down stratospheric air from further south.

Sometime soon, very probably in the nest northern summer monsoon season...

-At this point the extra methane, ozone, water vapour, and the loss of sea ice reflecting sunlight back into space will together be producing about 3x present day global warming effect.

and...

The jetstreams that are formed by warm moist air rising from the equator, dumping that moisture as heavy tropical rain in the tropics usually descend in the subtropical desert belts that circle the globe. They like cogs intermeshing will connect with the polar donut, drawing the summer monsoon north over the subtropical desert belts and building rapidly to tropical rainfall levels over the worlds deserts.

The dry descending air from the equatorial and north polar origin tropospheric flows and jetstreams will turn the temporate zones of the northern hemisphere into deserts in one year.

The ex tundra boglands will start to dry out. Its been learnt that when you thaw and soak permafrost peats, waking up the frozen bacteria. Then drain them....

-Significant quantities of Nitrous Oxide (N2O) start being emitted. Another "super-greenhouse" gas, with its own special radiative absorption band.

-With even more water vapour, more methane, more N2O, more ozone being produced by the methane, less SO2 forming clouds because methane destroys it....

Global warming will start to spike very high.

What happens maybe very quickly now is that an equatorial origin jetstream will either detach from its mode of descending at the new temporate zone deserts and form a new anticyclone most probably over greenland, or the anticyclone from that jetstream will migrate north from the subpolar tundras over North Canada.

Either way this special anticyclone with a very big future, will winch its way around the polar low in the new easterly "tradewinds belt" where the tundras and boreal forests are now. It will probably end up over the Beaufort sea, north of Alaska and recruiting more stratospheric jetstreams of Equatorial origin, quickly grow in strength. It will start a new clockwise ocean surface vortex in the Beaufort sea region, and if any iceflows and cold meltwater are still trapped against the west coast of the Canadian Archipelago.....

They will get sucked into this new clockwise vortex and it will love feeding on them and growing just like in the first anticlockwise vortex described above.

The new polar super anticyclone will out compete the previous polar super cyclone by one by one recruiting all the equatorial and tropical origin jetstreams, and become a, for any relevance to us, permanent, extremely powerful anticyclone over the whole polar ocean.

The new clockwise polar ocean vortex will be accelerated by the clockwise anticyclonic low atmospheric vortex. There will likely be lots of Glacier calved icebergs from Greenland, stuck against the west coast of the Canadian Archipelago. It will love gobbling, melting, and feeding on those.

It will steal the deep subduction from, and outcompete and swallow the previous anticlockwise polar ocean vortex.

Powering up this vast whirlpool, will suck in ever increasing flows of Atlantic and Pacific water, flooding the Arctic ocean with more and more tropical water. It will shovel more and more warm surface water like a wedge into a new intermediate temperature, high salinity layer, building between the tidal mixed zone and the surface mixed layer .

This intermediate layer is said to be the mechanism that produces anoxic oceans in past super-greenhouse/ anoxic ocean events. And this will happen fast because....

The tundra permafrosts will be seasonal deserts, but much warmer now. In summer they will be drenched by tropical temperature and volume rainfalls, hammered by cold fronts, supercell storms and tornados spitting off the high lattitude Megacyclones. The warm lakes and bogs all over them will be drilling through the permafrost, and more of the around 1700 billion tons C of organic carbon currently locked up in the land permafrost will be flooding into the arctic ocean from Siberia, Alaska and Nth Canada. And getting sucked down the polar plughole. More methane and CO2 will be making it into the atmosphere

In winter the ex tundras will dry out. Releasing yet more N2O and CO2.

Global Warming will spike through the roof.

And...

The by now over 20 degrees Celsius temperatures of the upper layer of the polar ocean will be sending a massive thermal pulse down through the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) and other shallow submarine permafrosts in the arctic. This pulse propagating fast through liquid water in cracks and methane eruption vents. The hydrate layers containing over 1000 billion tons C of methane at the bottoms of these permafrosts will destabilise fast, bottom up, when that thermal pulse hits them. Quite possible the pressure building up under these shelves, most particularly the ESAS will shatter them and release most of the hydrate methane, free methane, and undecomposed organic carbon, they are holding very fast indeed. Best estimate around 2750 billion tons C total in shallow submarine arctic permafrosts.

Kinda like a warm well shook champagne bottle when you pop the cork.

Lots of this methane will hit the atmosphere.

With even more water vapour, more methane, more N2O, more ozone being produced by the methane, less SO2 forming clouds because methane destroys it....

Ballpark Chart for near filling of all relevant Radiative Absorption bands

We'll have a greenhouse effect like the earth has not seen before in its 4.5 billion years of existence.

What REALLY concerns me looking at this chart is how much it would take going from this point to the Tipping Point for the Venus syndrome.

The situation in this chart would lead to a lot more stratospheric water vapour feedback. That could start to run away until the equatorial oceans boil, and there's no stopping things from there.

Lots of methane will get sucked down the Arctic plughole into the new anoxic intermediate ocean layer.

Archer 2007 states that 1000 billion tons C of methane (and/or other dissolved organic carbon) is sufficient to remove all oxygen from the worlds oceans. That won't take long.

• The polar ocean vortex might eventually stop. The momentum in ocean circulation, both deep and in surface gyres, combined with wind driven surface currents won't let this happen fast.
•  In maybe 300-1000yrs a second even larger methane release will occur, as the heat from the surface reaches the deep sea bed. The deep sea Methane hydrates are estimated as between 5000 and 78 000 billion tons C of methane. That will not be nice at all, but there may be nothing left but bacteria well before then anyhow.
•  The tropical/subtropical origin MegaCyclones to polar Mega AntiCyclone jetstreams with low atmosphere return system will most probably stick around for at least 100 000 years. 
• The previous anoxic supergreenhouse/anoxic ocean events did have stalled ocean circulation, and the only way that they could have had 27C polar ocean temps like they did is by the Equatorial-Polar jetstream circulation mode described above. 
• The most serious previously, the end-permian had no polar basin, oceanic/ atmosphere circulation, turbine pump "beartrap" for the planetary eco-geosphere to put its foot in. Neither did the PETM and Elmo supergreenhouse/anoxic ocean events, the most serious of the last 100+ million years, the polar basin was landlocked for those. 
• Never before could the earth have had as much polar permafrost methane and carbon as it does now. 

I hope this explains to everyone the urgency and seriousness of the current situation, and why we need to act with overwhelming force to stop the arctic sea-ice going this year.

If we don't act fast now all this could very well unfold unstoppably in the next year or two. Can't see it taking much longer than 10 or 20 at the most.