Now THIS Is a Duck Parade!

I'm Feelling Better About My Chances Today!

Mr. Heater / Cooker to the rescue!

18 degrees to 50 in about 2 minutes.  Once the thermostat read 40 degrees the smoker fired right up.

Todays feature.

See ya in 5 hours.

Meanwhile, in China

When Deb and I visited China we walked the People's Square.

SHANGHAI (AP) - Large numbers of police - and new tactics like shrill whistles and street cleaning trucks - squelched overt protests in China for a second Sunday in a row after more calls for peaceful gatherings modeled on recent democratic movements in the Middle East.

Near Shanghai's People's Square, uniformed police blew whistles nonstop and shouted at people to keep moving, though about 200 people - a combination of onlookers and quiet sympathizers who formed a larger crowd than a week ago - braved the shrill noise. In Beijing, trucks normally used to water the streets drove repeatedly up the busy commercial shopping district spraying water and keeping crowds pressed to the edges.

Scary!

STS-133 - Discovery Final Launch

I'm saddened by this.

St Elmos Fire during Aerial Refueling of E-4 by KC-135

A USAF KC-135 Aircraft is preparing to refuel a USAF E-4. The same aircraft used as Air Force One. The weather that we were going through causes the differential static equalization between the two aircraft. Once the boom touches the receptacle of the E-4 the charges are equalized and the static stops. This is commonly known as St Elmos Fire.

Gallium Spoon Melting

Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?

The systematic lack of regulation has left even the country’s top regulators frustrated. Lynn Turner, a former chief accountant for the SEC, laughs darkly at the idea that the criminal justice system is broken when it comes to Wall Street. “I think you’ve got a wrong assumption — that we even have a law-enforcement agency when it comes to Wall Street,” he says.

How a Remote Town in Romania Has Become Cybercrime Central

Râmnicu Vâlcea has only about 120,000 residents, but among law enforcement experts around the world, it has a nickname: Hackerville. The town is full of online crooks who cruise the streets in expensive European cars.

The New Virology

Largely unseen by the world, two dangerous germs homed in on their targets in the spring and early summer of 2009. One was made by man to infect computers. The other was made by nature, and could infect man.

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Close Enough?

Why Didn't This Catch On?

The Great Jerky Experiment

So I decided to try and make Beef Jerky in the smoker for the first time...

I just need to cut the meat into strips...

Add the rub to the meat in a freezer bag...

Let it sit for a couple of hours...

Now at this point I headed out and fired up the electric smoker.  After about an hour it was time to load the beast.  I open the door to the smoker to find it ice cold!  It is plugged in, ice cold and there is an error message flashing on the control box: EAAF.

So I Google the code and this is what I get: If the internal temp is less than 40 F you will get this code. Warm up the heat sensing probe and it should work just fine.  Well this makes a ton of sense!  Who would EVER think of smoking meat when it is below 40 degrees outside. I check the temperature and it reads a balmy 27 degrees. I look all over inside the smoker but I can't find the sensor that I am supposed to heat up!

I finally give up and move the entire operation over to the Traeger grill. All is well.

After about an hour I head into the garage because the pellets are getting low.  Nope, we are out of pellets!  I figure I can nurse this thing along and get the job done if I'm very careful with the temperature settings.

I make several trips back and forth working the grill temperature settings between Smoke and Medium heat.  I'm into the 3rd hour of smoking and I come out to check the meat and it all goes to HELL!  I have accidently moved the temperature switch to the left instead of the right.  This means I have been cooking the meat on HIGH for the last half hour!

Result: One third of my strips have turned into charcoal.  Now I could have continued to smoke the rest had I not finished off the last of my pellets in an errant blaze of glory but it's over and I pull what I can save.

The meat that survived is great!  It didn't go as planned but there is always next time.

The Whirlwind Batting Technique!