Double Blind

I really enjoy reading court case verdicts. The level of analysis that goes into case law is something that makes for very interesting reading. Whether it is about the motor vehicle act, criminal cases, civil cases, etc., it is always a fascinating insight on how our judicial system works (and indeed, the judiciary is the most functional branch of the three in government).

A headline is making the news – B.C. judge tosses ecstasy case for rights violations (CBC, CTV, National Post). I spent about 90 minutes reading the case (R. v. Ho, Hou, Huang, Li and Zhou) from end to end – and this should be read before any media summaries.

Essentially the Richmond RCMP that were conducting a 14 month investigation on an ecstasy production/distribution scheme by a bunch of mainland Chinese immigrants badly bungled the search warrant operation on the suspects. The method the RCMP obtained the warrant was flawed (violated the Criminal Code) and the execution of the warrant was flawed (violated the Charter).

It is pretty clear, however, that these people were completely responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of ecstasy, but the RCMP will not have any evidence from this search warrant, which will make prosecution of these individuals much more difficult.

I completely agree with the line of thinking by the justice (P.R. Meyers). The only line of defense people have against improper police action are through the courts. A violation of rules concerning unreasonable search or seizure must not be rewarded, otherwise it will yield further erosion of our fundamental rights.

I noticed from a link that I had read earlier that the magic to making a Starbucks-type frap that doesn’t separate after you blend the thing is to use Xanthan Gum. I finally tried the recipe. Xanthan Gum is cheap and easy to find – Galloways is a place where you can get it (amongst other great items). Superstore might have it in the baking isle (haven’t checked).

I brewed two shots of espresso with about 200mL of water. I let the espresso cool down for ten minutes in the freezer before pouring it into a blender, along with about 200mL of 2% milk. I put in a tablespoon of granulated sugar and a tablespoon of vanilla syrup (not vanilla extract, but the syrup) and a 1/4 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum. I finally put in a whole bunch of ice (I didn’t measure, but it was a tray and a few extra cubes) and gave it a blend.

The final product came surprisingly close to the real thing – except for the sweetness. Starbucks has to be a ton of sugar into their fraps since while I found a tablespoon of sugar to be sufficient, the ones you get at the store are positively sweeter. Also, I believe 1/4 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum was too much – next time I will try to reduce this by half. The texture of the frap after shutting off the blender was quite bubbly and I believe this was caused by having too much Xanthan Gum into the mix.

The other funny problem is that I am going to try to source some decaffeinated whole coffee beans so that way I can experiment by making more of these things (e.g. mocha, java chip, etc.) without getting all giddy with caffeine poisoning. Realistically if I had more than a double shot of espresso per day, the caffeine really becomes disruptive to the functioning of my sleeping rhythm.

When I watch this video, I think “ecodensity” is what came to my mind.

I am looking at Anthony’s article called Practice and proposition and the first thing that came to mind was not religion, but rather parenthood.

Everything that I academically learned about early child care was not fully appreciated until after the baby was born. Then it became a lot more easier to distinguish between the authors that embellished various issues that would happen along the way vs. ones that actually knew what they were talking about.

Everybody also knows about sleep deprivation, but until one gets to experience it and the stunning lack of productivity that occurs as a result of it, it is very difficult to truly understand what the clinical consequence is.