This is the opening/trailer for Food, Inc.:

The film opens June 16 at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, for those of you local to Boston…

(h/t: Boston Locavores blog)

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes with Apple Aioli
4 to 6 servings

½ c.mayonnaise
4in.x31/2 in.x1in. thick piece of French bread
2 lbs. Baby white skin or fingerling potatoes, cut lengthwise in half
10 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp chopped, fresh rosemary
1/3 c. plus ¼ c. extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp. applesauce
salt and pepper
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Blend mayonnaise, bread, 2 cloves garlic, and lemon juice to coarse puree in processor or blender. With machine running add 1/3 c. oil in thin steady stream. Transfer to small bowl. Mix in applesauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Aioli can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.
Preheat oven t 400f. Toss potatoes with remaining ¼ c. oil, 8 garlic cloves, and rosemary in large bowl. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Spread potatoes in a single layer on large rimmed baking sheet. Bake potatoes until tender, golden brown, and crisply, turning occasionally, about 40 minutes.

Watermelon Gazpacho
8 servings

6 cups cubed seeded watermelon
1 cup coarsely chopped seeded English cucumber
½ c. yellow bell pepper
1/3 c. chopped green onions
3 tbsp. chopped fresh mint
3 tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
¾ tsp. salt
½ tsp. hot sauce
1 garlic clove minced
1 cup cran-raspberry juice. (optional)

Combine first ten ingredients. Place half of watermelon mixture in food prossesor. Pulse three or four times until finely chopped. Spoon into large bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining watermelon mixture.

F-your-I, blog readers: I’ve disabled hotlinking of any images hosted on noiselabs.com/blog … if you’ve been hotlinking those images on a page hosted somewhere else, you’ll now see a “broken image” icon.

If you need any of those images for your own website, I suggest you download them from one of our legitimate pages, and upload them to your own hosting provider.

Thank you for your attention :)

Once again, our man IOZ in Pittsburgh makes it plain:

Obama Calls for Something, Anything in Speech in Egypt

CAIRO – Speaking before a large crowd at Cairo University in Egypt’s sprawling capital city, President Barack Obama urged the Muslim world to “look over there,” causing several dozen in the audience to turn their heads to see what he was pointing at in the vague middle distance.

“But seriously,” Mr. Obama continued. “The time of the past is in the past, and the future is that which lies before us.” Pausing for effect, he added, “The present is now,” drawing applause.

Read the whole thing!

Professor Chomsky, writing for TomDispatch, takes apart the common notion among mainstream liberals that GW Bush took America “off course,” noting a history of torture and barbarous expansion that dating back to 1630. Throughout, he touches on the widely-held understanding that America sees itself as unique in the world:

The reigning doctrine of the country is sometimes called “American exceptionalism.” It is nothing of the sort. It is probably close to a universal habit among imperial powers. France was hailing its “civilizing mission” in its colonies, while the French Minister of War called for “exterminating the indigenous population” of Algeria. Britain’s nobility was a “novelty in the world,” John Stuart Mill declared, while urging that this angelic power delay no longer in completing its liberation of India.

Similarly, there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Japanese militarists in the 1930s, who were bringing an “earthly paradise” to China under benign Japanese tutelage, as they carried out the rape of Nanking and their “burn all, loot all, kill all” campaigns in rural North China. History is replete with similar glorious episodes.

As long as such “exceptionalist” theses remain firmly implanted, however, the occasional revelations of the “abuse of history” often backfire, serving only to efface terrible crimes. The My Lai massacre was a mere footnote to the vastly greater atrocities of the post-Tet pacification programs, ignored while indignation in this country was largely focused on this single crime.

Watergate was doubtless criminal, but the furor over it displaced incomparably worse crimes at home and abroad, including the FBI-organized assassination of black organizer Fred Hampton as part of the infamous COINTELPRO repression, or the bombing of Cambodia, to mention just two egregious examples. Torture is hideous enough; the invasion of Iraq was a far worse crime. Quite commonly, selective atrocities have this function.

Historical amnesia is a dangerous phenomenon, not only because it undermines moral and intellectual integrity, but also because it lays the groundwork for crimes that still lie ahead.

You know something’s up when their web page flashes a logo like that.

It gets worse: they very carefully rip off the WGBH program tag and the “Zoom” look in the below, twisted, video about Pi:

See if you can discern the principle at work in these two news reports below.

First, from yesterdays’ National Post:

The [Canadian] federal Department of Finance has flagged several prominent Crown corporations as “not self-sustaining,” including the CBC, VIA Rail and the National Arts Centre, and has identified them as entities that could be sold as part of the government’s asset review, newly released documents show.

Second, from today’s Globe and Mail:

The [Canadian] federal and Ontario governments are receiving 12 per cent of the common shares in the new GM in return for $10.6-billion (Canadian) in financial assistance. The governments also receive about $1.3-billion in debt and some preferred shares in the new company.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper held out almost no hope Monday that the bulk of the money will be repaid.

“Clearly, taxpayers will get some money back when the day comes that we begin to sell our equity share, but to be frank, we are not counting on that,” Mr. Harper told reporters. “We are not factoring that into our budgetary plans.”

I’m certainly not a mind-reader, but if I had to guess, here’s what I’d propose as the operative principle: “We will give taxpayers’ money to wealthy industrialists, shareholders, and friends, with little promise of return. We will NOT give taxpayers’ money to any organization which fails to benefit those same wealthy industrialists, shareholders, and friends…even if that organization actually provides valuable public services.”

What’s your guess?