Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Fuzzy, while that may be partially true, it is more likely because they don't have the resources to pursue it. You have no idea (or maybe you do) of all the ways people are scamming other people and the government. Our office has a dedicated unit just for health care fraud (that's what I do, mostly), and we have to turn away cases because we don't have the manpower to do them. I just spent a significant amount of time on a financial fraud case involving upward of $10 million and 8,700 stolen identities: clickety.

Wow, Tatoosh, you sure know a lot about the mechanics of this scam, if there is a way to make illegal money, shady people will find it. Looking at your scenario a shady person can roll out a couple of these a year and make some decent money, he is the only one everyone else either puts in tons of labor and gets nothing for it, or business owners that just waste their money, much of them could use that money to really grow their business. Quite the modern world we have here. The internet is the most information driven mechanism since the printing of the first book and there are so many good things that have come from the internet and then there is the scum, who will make whatever they can off the misery of others.

Take care and take heed my cooking friends,
Barry

Right, but Mechanical Turk is a big fat target where 90% of the uses for it are criminal (it had legitimate uses when it was created, but not anymore). It's not like it would take more than one Justice Department lawyer to get Amazon to shut it down. The FBI certainly had personnel to spare when it came to shutting down MegaUpload, and that had substantial noncriminal uses. The difference is that Megaupload hurt billionaire corporations, whereas Mechanical Turk mostly hurts small businesses and individuals.

Good work on the fraud case, though.

Edited to Add: Wow! I just got past the pop-up ads and read the article. That's quite some case! A conspiracy among 29 Nigerian-Americans over 5 years. Clearly it's not over yet, though ... sounds like you'll be working on it for some time.

Does this mean I'll stop getting all those emails about millions of dollars in Nigeria?

If only we could just send a letter to Amazon and tell it to shut down that site. I'm afraid an agency has to bring it to us first, then we must have a bunch of concrete evidence, then research the applicable statutes; then get department/agency approval. Believe it or not, it's really hard to convince a federal judge to put an injunction on a business. Especially a business as big as Amazon. And it's even harder to convince Amazon to do so on its own. It took several murders to convince Craigslist to make changes. But as usual, I digress. I'd much rather talk about food!

Barry,

Quite a few of us (referred to affectionately by some as "the clique") did have a much more personal relationship with the powers that be at C.I., I have a can of beans signed by everyone from C.K. to the test cooks, we worked directly with them in putting on gatherings all over the Country of all BB participants who chose to attend (none excluded) to refine our cooking skills and form strong bonds that lasted to this day. We had considerable positive dialogue with them both on and off the board.

They supported us in many ways including financial support, and sending gifts and info to the participants, many of us are featured in various magazines with cooking tips, etc. We in turn supported and defended them. I made the Charter issue of Cooks Country. Tim was forever trying to score a free subscription and was quite vocal about being shunned. They were fun days! I think it hurt this group the most when CI would not listen to our futile pleadings in regard to the direction they went, we saw it coming but were seemingly powerless to stop it.

Crystal was shunned at a book signing, and on and on. Free I.T. support was offered and declined. We were vocal, perhaps to a fault about a place we considered home, at first not being maintained, but then it was clear that we had an absentee landlord that had no intention of maintaining the property. Now we see it being abandoned & razed and it’s imminent demise at hand.

Probably far more than you wanted to know, but I sure feel better having vented.

Barry,

Just to continue Frank's rant -

Crystal did more to support the positive experience on that BB than anyone else; she was the cheerleader, mom, babysitter and victim. She rode her mule for three days to get to Columbus, OH to drool at Chris Kimball. The bb managers told their master to look for Crystal. He hardly spoke to her.

A year later, CI negotiated greatly reduced kitchen rental from Sur la Table in Chicago. Then, I received a check to cover the remaining cost of that kitchen.

The following year they negotiated free use of a New Orleans community college culinary center for a day and sent two large boxes of books to be given away.

For a number of years a CI staffer named McSweety, or something like that, would send year end books as presents for some of the more obnoxious board members. Kimball's assistant was happy to provide the Website sign-in password to many of us quick tip winners and others.

Wait till you hear about the greetings the group received in Boston. That's a story for Darcie to tell.

cc

I will add...a "wonderful" C.I. Staffer (who would probably prefer to remain anonymous...no it was not Diane ) also sent my family an Amazon gift certificate to purchase regional cookbooks and such for our recently adopted Russian girls to help with the transition to America. This was out of (insert gender of your choosing here) own pocket and has never been forgotten!

In short...those were very, very, good days! There was a very real relationship and bond between the board and CI. I was difficult when the bond broke, it was not of our choosing...

Boy Tim, you guys were more in "The In" than I ever was. Mine was purely a use of the site, great people that had way more knowledge than I did or ever will I tried to contribute as much as I could but my knowledge was way below many of the better cooks. I found the site as an avid watcher of America's Test Kitchen which lead me to the website and eventually the forum. Some times if you learn too much it takes a lot of the fun out of something. If I knew as much as you guys I would probably have a totally different view.

Barry

Barry,

You are far too modest, I have seen your site, you possess more culinary knowledge than I, my contribution was mostly levity. I have learned much from many here. I chimed in with culinary knowledge where and when I could...defending real chile at every turn!! most have been very patient of my presence...others have been respectfully quite, others...well...I'll leave it there.. for that I am grateful

To summarize, together we all have much to offer, your contribution is very, very, valuable. I really like the way you are open to improvement, many including myself will benefit from what others have to teach. We just can't take ourselves too seriously.

Now...about that pizza recipe you taunt us with???

Da Bull, your much too kind. I have done so many pizza recipes over the years, I am back to basics, a great crust, Stone cooked, good sauce(al though I am still working on the sauce) and low fat Mozzarella. I spent my very early years on Revera Beach(Named for Paul Revere), a stones throw from the North End of Boston. There were so many of these small pizza places maned by true Italians and I am sure today you could go to the North End and get great pizza. The best pizza I ever had and I have tried in vain to replicate it. I just posted the pizza recipe so it could have some mistakes or omissions, I need to go over it.

http://barrysplace.yolasite.com/cheese-pizza.php
I do hope you make this pizza and let me know how it comes out for you.

Thanks,
Barry