It's so good to see you, imaginary reader! So many things have happened in the world, and I'm not going to comment on any of them. At this point you know how I feel about Obama, the US incursion into Syria, the financial meltdown, and the subsequent corrupt corporate smorgasbord. Let's talk about inconsequentials.
I credit my mom with making me into the good (and humble!) cook that I am today. She inbued me with a sense of experimentation, a love of flavor, and a general joy of being in the kitchen. She was a really good cook; there are recipes of hers that I still find myself fantasizing about. Her cheesecake was a cheesecake like you'd never had before. She made bulgogi and everyone wanted for their birthday dinner. I'm reminded every once and a while, however, how far past her I've gone with cooking.
She used to make pork chops with hominy, and I loved it! Hominy is not something I find often up here in the Northwest. I think it's mostly a southern food. According to Wikipedia, it's been around for 3200 years, having been invented by Native Americans in Guatamala. I wonder if they made the same recipe as my mom. Her recipe was simple; season some pork chops with salt and pepper, sear them on both sides, and then braise them in a couple cans of hominy. They were REALLY good. RN65 and I blew them out of the water last night, however. Throw in some homemade pancetta, sweat it with some shallot and garlic, deglaze it with some white wine, and then throw in some fresh herbs, and we made a plate of food that I think I could eat every day for a week. Okay, that's enough tooting my own horn. My point? Buy some hominy and try it. It's really good stuff, and better for you then eating plain corn.
I climbed Mt. St. Helens this summer with some friends from work. Gunhaver arranged the trip, and got us the permits, and took some amazing photos from the top. It was the first mountain I'd ever summitted, and I have to tell you, gentle imaginary reader...summitting mountains is hard fucking work. I don't know if it was worse because that particular mountain is covered in a fine ash (a remnant of its pyroclastic flow) that is like walking in sand, but when we got to the top I collapsed. Gunhaver, who looks like pasty white computer nerd that he is, had no trouble. I really need to get back out hiking.
Well, my imaginary friends, it's been nice rapping with you. Hope you have a good three months until I post again!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Who cares about FISA?
The US Senate passed H.R. 6304 today, the FISA Amendment Act of 2008. President Bush is expected to sign it right away, because it's exactly what he always wanted in a FISA Amendment Act. It allows the government to spy on Americans in "emergencies" as long as they file the required paperwork within a week, and we know how good the US Government has been about correctly judging emergencies and keeping track of their paperwork in the past.
Oh, and the Act also gives immunity to telecom companies that helped the Bush administration spy on Americans, even though they knew it was illegal. Nicely, this doesn't just protect the telecom companies, but it also protects the Bush administration. The civil suits of private citizens against the telecom companies was the best way in which to expose the crimes of the administration.
Looking into the way that my elected officials voted, I was happy to see that two of my three congress critters voted against the bill, but one of them still had to break my heart. Here's my message to Ms. Patty Murray, one of my senators to the US Congress from the state of Washington:
Just kidding.
But not really.
Oh, and the Act also gives immunity to telecom companies that helped the Bush administration spy on Americans, even though they knew it was illegal. Nicely, this doesn't just protect the telecom companies, but it also protects the Bush administration. The civil suits of private citizens against the telecom companies was the best way in which to expose the crimes of the administration.
Looking into the way that my elected officials voted, I was happy to see that two of my three congress critters voted against the bill, but one of them still had to break my heart. Here's my message to Ms. Patty Murray, one of my senators to the US Congress from the state of Washington:
Ms. Murray,I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Political courage is something that's in short supply these days. I guess if the rest of the country's representatives were as cool as Washington's, we still would have handily beaten the bill. Maybe Washington should secede.
While I was pleased to see that you voted for the amendment removing telecom immunity from the FISA Amendment Act of 2008, I was extremely disappointed to see that you voted to pass the bill anyway. Not only does your vote let giant corporations that callously disregarded US law get away unscathed, it also prevents the main legal recourse that the people of the United States have of unmasking the perfidy of the current administration. Not only are you helping a corrupt administration cover their tracks, but you are making it easier for them to commit the same outrages again, legally! You are helping to strip from me and the rest of your constituents our Fourth Amendment rights.
I know that you're not the only Democrat to vote this way, but you are alone in the elected officials that represent me to do so, and I am thoroughly disappointed. I'm not sure if you voted that way because of a lack of political courage, because you have a misguided vision of what the security of our nation means, or if there something worse behind it, but I can assure you I will not be voting for you again in the future, and I will encourage my friends and associates not to do so.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You don't even have "Civil Liberties" as a possible topic in your email form.
Just kidding.
But not really.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Born into debt
I didn't get started on this line of thought because of Wikipedia; it actually started because of a link that Corky sent me about an Indian woman who gave birth to twins at the age of 70. "When do women go into menopause in India?!" I thought. Apparently, whenever they run out of oocytes, which aside from being my new favorite word, and aside from not being present in my spell checker's dictionary, is the term for an egg cell that hasn't dropped from the ovary yet. Guess she had a lot of egg cells! Maybe she just started late or something.
Reading into the article, however, it turns out that she didn't get pregnant naturally. Because she had in vitro fertilization (IVF), she didn't necessarily have to have her own egg, and the article didn't specify that was the case. It's possible that she was impregnated with an egg from someone else, which would permit her to be pregnant even after going through menopause.
The real reason that I'm interested enough in this article to blog about it, however, is not anything I read about it on Wikipedia. The couple, a 77 year old man and a 70 year old woman, decided that they needed her to get pregnant in order to have a male heir for their family farm. Never mind that they already have two adult daughters and 5 grandchildren, they need a male child of their own to pass on their belongings to. From the article:
Even that isn't why I'm blogging about. That's just one extremely poor choice for one unlucky kid. What really struck me about that article is that we're doing that to an entire generation with our deficit spending.
Reading into the article, however, it turns out that she didn't get pregnant naturally. Because she had in vitro fertilization (IVF), she didn't necessarily have to have her own egg, and the article didn't specify that was the case. It's possible that she was impregnated with an egg from someone else, which would permit her to be pregnant even after going through menopause.
The real reason that I'm interested enough in this article to blog about it, however, is not anything I read about it on Wikipedia. The couple, a 77 year old man and a 70 year old woman, decided that they needed her to get pregnant in order to have a male heir for their family farm. Never mind that they already have two adult daughters and 5 grandchildren, they need a male child of their own to pass on their belongings to. From the article:
“We kept no stone unturned and God has rewarded us. The treatment cost me a fortune but the birth of a son makes it all worthwhile. I can die a happy man and a proud father.”Nice. Because those daughters that you've had are just females. How much of a fortune did he spend in order to become blessed? He
"mortgaged his land, sold his buffaloes, spent his life savings and took out a credit card loan to finance the treatment."So now you have a male son and heir. You'll leave him your mortgaged land. He won't be able to farm that land because he doesn't have a buffalo, he won't be able to buy one because he doesn't have any savings, and he won't be able to get a loan because his credit's already maxxed out paying off your IVF treatment. Lucky him!
Even that isn't why I'm blogging about. That's just one extremely poor choice for one unlucky kid. What really struck me about that article is that we're doing that to an entire generation with our deficit spending.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Hubris
First off, let me apologize to any of my regular readers. Do you really exist? Are you just a figment of my pride? Regardless, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post. I'd like to say it's because I've been so dedicated to work, but really I just have a hard time making myself write. Once I get started, however, it's not too bad. Maybe if I got more comments...
Gadzooks called me "Faust" today. I really wasn't sure that was applicable to me, even though I was tempting him. I was just giving him an invitation to come see Tron at Cinerama next Tuesday instead of going to rugby practice. I realize that he was just calling me a tempting devil, but I still wasn't sure that Faust was appropriate. Faust, you see, is a classical story where an alchemist, possessed of his hubris, makes a deal with the devil. He believes that he has outwitted the devil (never a good bet!), but he ends up coming to a bad end. I wasn't tempting him with my services, I don't think that he would come to a bad end just from seeing Tron, and the only hubris that could possibly be involved is his own estimation of his rugby skills.
Hubris, you see, is fatal pride. Unless the rugby game coming up is against the All Blacks, I don't think that there should be any fatalities; if the game were against the All Blacks, I don't think that one practice is going to save anyone unless we spend the whole time doing Duck and Cover. A much better example of hubris, I think, would be if someone were to assume that they wouldn't get in trouble for going to Cuba. If a US citizen, who is restricted from spending money in Cuba, were to then post pictures of their travels to Cuba, that would just be silly.
Why is there an embargo against Cuba, anyway? Mostly, it's in place because of the nationalization of foreign assets that occurred after the Cuban Revolution in 1960. The biggest losers in this nationalization of foreign assets were the United Fruit Company and ITT, two of the biggest and most corrupt of the American corporations involved in Central and South America. The United Fruit Company had extensive ties to both the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, and was involved in propping up corrupt dictatorships not just in Cuba, but also in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras. They also helped overthrow the democratically elected government of Guatemala, when it looked like they weren't going to continue to support the oppressive policies that allowed United Fruit to stifle competition. ITT was also an aggressively and oppressively monopolistic company with extensive Latin American holdings; they were involved not only in supporting Batista in Cuba, but also in the Pinochet coup in Chile.
Wow. No wonder Castro thinks it's best to continue to give the US the finger! He certainly has a track record of doing that. For example, when Carter said he would accept Cubans who wanted to leave the oppresive political climate of Cuba, Castro promptly sent the US 150,000 criminals. Nice move, Fidel. In fact, Castro has done things like that pretty much every time it looked like the relations between the US and Cuba might be thawing. I personally believe that he must be doing it on purpose, to keep Cuba isolated from the US, so that his personal agenda of revolution and social engineering can proceed without interference from the US. I wonder how long he is going to keep it up; it's been almost 50 years. Is that enough to reshape Cuban society into the image he wants? Will things change significantly under his brother Raul?
In truth things have already changed a lot in Cuba. Foreign investment is rapidly increasing as European companies invest in the tourist industry there. I wonder what it would take for the US to ease it's blockade. According to the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act, it would require free and fair elections, movement to a free market economy, and the possibility for opposition political parties. Even if the market controls the government has in place are eased under Fidel's successors, I don't see that happening anytime soon. It seems really strange to me that we're so restricted in our outlook to Cuba, but we don't have a similar outlook towards the oppressive policies of, say, Saudi Arabia.
Oh yeah, they have oil. Wait, guess what! Apparently Cuba recently found a bunch of oil in their territory. I expect a thawing of relations very shortly. I just hope the dollar is still worth something by the time I'm allowed to travel there.
Gadzooks called me "Faust" today. I really wasn't sure that was applicable to me, even though I was tempting him. I was just giving him an invitation to come see Tron at Cinerama next Tuesday instead of going to rugby practice. I realize that he was just calling me a tempting devil, but I still wasn't sure that Faust was appropriate. Faust, you see, is a classical story where an alchemist, possessed of his hubris, makes a deal with the devil. He believes that he has outwitted the devil (never a good bet!), but he ends up coming to a bad end. I wasn't tempting him with my services, I don't think that he would come to a bad end just from seeing Tron, and the only hubris that could possibly be involved is his own estimation of his rugby skills.
Hubris, you see, is fatal pride. Unless the rugby game coming up is against the All Blacks, I don't think that there should be any fatalities; if the game were against the All Blacks, I don't think that one practice is going to save anyone unless we spend the whole time doing Duck and Cover. A much better example of hubris, I think, would be if someone were to assume that they wouldn't get in trouble for going to Cuba. If a US citizen, who is restricted from spending money in Cuba, were to then post pictures of their travels to Cuba, that would just be silly.
Why is there an embargo against Cuba, anyway? Mostly, it's in place because of the nationalization of foreign assets that occurred after the Cuban Revolution in 1960. The biggest losers in this nationalization of foreign assets were the United Fruit Company and ITT, two of the biggest and most corrupt of the American corporations involved in Central and South America. The United Fruit Company had extensive ties to both the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, and was involved in propping up corrupt dictatorships not just in Cuba, but also in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras. They also helped overthrow the democratically elected government of Guatemala, when it looked like they weren't going to continue to support the oppressive policies that allowed United Fruit to stifle competition. ITT was also an aggressively and oppressively monopolistic company with extensive Latin American holdings; they were involved not only in supporting Batista in Cuba, but also in the Pinochet coup in Chile.
Wow. No wonder Castro thinks it's best to continue to give the US the finger! He certainly has a track record of doing that. For example, when Carter said he would accept Cubans who wanted to leave the oppresive political climate of Cuba, Castro promptly sent the US 150,000 criminals. Nice move, Fidel. In fact, Castro has done things like that pretty much every time it looked like the relations between the US and Cuba might be thawing. I personally believe that he must be doing it on purpose, to keep Cuba isolated from the US, so that his personal agenda of revolution and social engineering can proceed without interference from the US. I wonder how long he is going to keep it up; it's been almost 50 years. Is that enough to reshape Cuban society into the image he wants? Will things change significantly under his brother Raul?
In truth things have already changed a lot in Cuba. Foreign investment is rapidly increasing as European companies invest in the tourist industry there. I wonder what it would take for the US to ease it's blockade. According to the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act, it would require free and fair elections, movement to a free market economy, and the possibility for opposition political parties. Even if the market controls the government has in place are eased under Fidel's successors, I don't see that happening anytime soon. It seems really strange to me that we're so restricted in our outlook to Cuba, but we don't have a similar outlook towards the oppressive policies of, say, Saudi Arabia.
Oh yeah, they have oil. Wait, guess what! Apparently Cuba recently found a bunch of oil in their territory. I expect a thawing of relations very shortly. I just hope the dollar is still worth something by the time I'm allowed to travel there.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Regrouping
For those of you who know me (and why else would you be reading this blog?!), you probably know that I've had a few chronic pains and bothers over the last couple of years. Repeatable neck pains, intermittent persistent cough, leaky gut, blow outs, etc. Well, I decided that maybe it's time I changed my lifestyle around a bit. I like to think that I'm not getting older, I'm getting wiser, and maybe it's time I took a little bit more direction and discipline to my life. An easy way to do this, I thought, would be a detoxifying fast. I did a little research, and despite the numerous devotees to the "Master Cleanse" fast, otherwise known as the lemonade diet, I decided that I would do a full on water fast. I actually started prepping for this fast on Monday of this week, and have put nothing in my body except water for over 36 hours now. Here's a few reasons that I decided to do this fast in the first place.
Detoxification
First off, it seems to me that if I want to truly get stuff out of my body, I should put into my body the absolute minimum. I've been running myself pretty hard in the last year. I'm sure the lemonade diet would have given me many of the same benefits when it came to cleansing, but I figured that if I'm going to do this, I'm going to DO this. Really, I just wanted to do some sort of a fast that would give my body a chance to kick start back into gear, to reset from a healthy baseline. In addition to only drinking water on my fast, I'll also be doing a daily "salt water cleanse", which is essentially a enema you give yourself by drinking body temperature salt water. It's like flushing the pipes. I'll get more into that later.
Redefine relationship with food
I realize that I have an over indulgent relationship with food. I actually spend a good portion of each paycheck's leisure money on eating well; perhaps a little too well. A fast is a good way for me to again reset a baseline. Coming off of the fast I plan on being careful and picky about what I eat for a few weeks, and try to form some new healthier habits about what I consume. I've tried to form these habits with varying degrees of not-success before, but I'm hoping that this will give me a way to start anew. If nothing else, the last few days have certainly been full of meditation about food and the way I eat.
Spiritual connection with my totem
I know it may sound kooky, and I've seen the way some people look at me when I state this, but I really do feel a connection to my totem, Bear. I often feel like I'm hibernating in the winter, and this year I'm just taking it a step further. During this time when I feel like I need to regroup, I've been hiding in my cave, sleeping a lot, and working on projects that will pay fruits in the spring. In this way I feel like I'm following the path set down for me by my spirit archetype, and getting back to a root that I've been too busy partying to pay attention to.
Heal aches and pains
Fasting, from what I've read, gives your body time to heal and recover from the pains it's built up and just glossed over. A lot of the work that our cells do throughout our lives is spent dealing with the things we put into our body, both beneficial and harmful. Fasting gives the body time to do its own internal housecleaning. That's what I've heard, and I'm hoping for, anyway. Once the body reaches ketosis, where it's feeding off of fat stores instead of sugar, I've heard that the body will start pushing out toxins and knitting wounds that it's been putting aside. Supposedly I'll become aware of the old wounds as my body tends to them. I'm expecting a nice outflux of mucous from my lungs from smoking and running in the cold, a severe pain in my neck from playing rugby, some wicked hangover headaches, and some nice IBS. I just hope that heartache isn't something I can expect; I feel like I've had plenty of that in the last couple of years.
Get a little grounded
All in all, I'm expecting this to be an experience I can use to recalibrate my internal compass. Already, I'm feeling much more lucid and conscious about myself and the direction in which I've been going. I'll write more tomorrow or the next day about my actual experiences with it so far, just in case any of you wackos out there actually think I'm doing something interesting. Personally, there's a voice in my head that's giggling the whole time, calling me a dork. Ah well, little voice, I might be a dork, but I'm the captain of this particular meat ship, so shut the hell up. Anyone else, not currently on board my meat ship, is allowed to laugh all they want.
Detoxification
First off, it seems to me that if I want to truly get stuff out of my body, I should put into my body the absolute minimum. I've been running myself pretty hard in the last year. I'm sure the lemonade diet would have given me many of the same benefits when it came to cleansing, but I figured that if I'm going to do this, I'm going to DO this. Really, I just wanted to do some sort of a fast that would give my body a chance to kick start back into gear, to reset from a healthy baseline. In addition to only drinking water on my fast, I'll also be doing a daily "salt water cleanse", which is essentially a enema you give yourself by drinking body temperature salt water. It's like flushing the pipes. I'll get more into that later.
Redefine relationship with food
I realize that I have an over indulgent relationship with food. I actually spend a good portion of each paycheck's leisure money on eating well; perhaps a little too well. A fast is a good way for me to again reset a baseline. Coming off of the fast I plan on being careful and picky about what I eat for a few weeks, and try to form some new healthier habits about what I consume. I've tried to form these habits with varying degrees of not-success before, but I'm hoping that this will give me a way to start anew. If nothing else, the last few days have certainly been full of meditation about food and the way I eat.
Spiritual connection with my totem
I know it may sound kooky, and I've seen the way some people look at me when I state this, but I really do feel a connection to my totem, Bear. I often feel like I'm hibernating in the winter, and this year I'm just taking it a step further. During this time when I feel like I need to regroup, I've been hiding in my cave, sleeping a lot, and working on projects that will pay fruits in the spring. In this way I feel like I'm following the path set down for me by my spirit archetype, and getting back to a root that I've been too busy partying to pay attention to.
Heal aches and pains
Fasting, from what I've read, gives your body time to heal and recover from the pains it's built up and just glossed over. A lot of the work that our cells do throughout our lives is spent dealing with the things we put into our body, both beneficial and harmful. Fasting gives the body time to do its own internal housecleaning. That's what I've heard, and I'm hoping for, anyway. Once the body reaches ketosis, where it's feeding off of fat stores instead of sugar, I've heard that the body will start pushing out toxins and knitting wounds that it's been putting aside. Supposedly I'll become aware of the old wounds as my body tends to them. I'm expecting a nice outflux of mucous from my lungs from smoking and running in the cold, a severe pain in my neck from playing rugby, some wicked hangover headaches, and some nice IBS. I just hope that heartache isn't something I can expect; I feel like I've had plenty of that in the last couple of years.
Get a little grounded
All in all, I'm expecting this to be an experience I can use to recalibrate my internal compass. Already, I'm feeling much more lucid and conscious about myself and the direction in which I've been going. I'll write more tomorrow or the next day about my actual experiences with it so far, just in case any of you wackos out there actually think I'm doing something interesting. Personally, there's a voice in my head that's giggling the whole time, calling me a dork. Ah well, little voice, I might be a dork, but I'm the captain of this particular meat ship, so shut the hell up. Anyone else, not currently on board my meat ship, is allowed to laugh all they want.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
All the Free Phenylalanines You Can Drink
Free Drinks
In an effort to keep their geeks around the office more, and going home less, my work place offers all you can drink sodas in each of the kitchens. In each kitchen in each building, you'll find the same selection of sodas, fruit juices, sparkling waters, and milk. We also have these giant Starbucks machines that will freshly grind, over steep, and dispense a fresh steamy cup of mediocre Starbucks coffee in a minute for you. The beverage service is actually pretty cool, I really like it, and I take advantage of it a lot.
I learned a few years ago, however, that drinking 6 Mountain Dews a day, while it will drastically increase your productivity, is also a quick trip to fatty-ville. If you figure each Mountain Dew is about 200 calories of pure sugar (which it is) and you multiple that by 6, that's a full meal of empty calories for you to convert into lard. Years ago, therefore, I switched to diet sodas, and I've also cut back from 6 to a moderately disturbing 2 or 3 a day. My personal poison of choice is Cherry Diet Coke, because it's sweet enough to cover up that "Just for the taste of it" swill taste.
Phenylalanine
One day while I was sitting in my riveting daily meetings, chugging my third Cherry Diet Coke of the day, I noticed a line on the can that said "Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine". WTF, I thought? What is that stuff? I assume it must be great for me, if the FDA requires it's labeling on the side of products containing them.
A quick diversion; has anyone else noticed that chemical posts on Wikipedia were obviously written by people who know chemistry, for people who know chemistry? It can be really tough for my small brain to wade through one of those chemical posts.
But back to it: it turns out that phenylalanine is a naturally occurring amino acid that is one of the 20 amino acids our DNA uses to create proteins. It can also be metabolized into a couple of other amino acids we need. Phenylalanine is also used in sweeteners, like aspartame. Phenylketonuria is the inability to metabolize phenylalanine, a condition that affects in about 1 in 15,000 births worldwide. This is why, in the US and Canada, all products that contain aspartame, or Equal, or whatever, have to label their packaging with "Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine". It's because people with Phenylketonuria, abbreviated PKU, have to closely monitor their intake of protein, so as to avoid excessive amounts of phenylalanine.
Strangely, a type of monkey called a macaque recently had its genome sequenced, and it was found that they naturally have a mutation found in humans have PKU.
Macaque
Does this mean that all macaques are inable to drink Diet Coke? I hope not, because they already have quite enough stacked against them already.
In an effort to keep their geeks around the office more, and going home less, my work place offers all you can drink sodas in each of the kitchens. In each kitchen in each building, you'll find the same selection of sodas, fruit juices, sparkling waters, and milk. We also have these giant Starbucks machines that will freshly grind, over steep, and dispense a fresh steamy cup of mediocre Starbucks coffee in a minute for you. The beverage service is actually pretty cool, I really like it, and I take advantage of it a lot.
I learned a few years ago, however, that drinking 6 Mountain Dews a day, while it will drastically increase your productivity, is also a quick trip to fatty-ville. If you figure each Mountain Dew is about 200 calories of pure sugar (which it is) and you multiple that by 6, that's a full meal of empty calories for you to convert into lard. Years ago, therefore, I switched to diet sodas, and I've also cut back from 6 to a moderately disturbing 2 or 3 a day. My personal poison of choice is Cherry Diet Coke, because it's sweet enough to cover up that "Just for the taste of it" swill taste.
Phenylalanine
One day while I was sitting in my riveting daily meetings, chugging my third Cherry Diet Coke of the day, I noticed a line on the can that said "Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine". WTF, I thought? What is that stuff? I assume it must be great for me, if the FDA requires it's labeling on the side of products containing them.
A quick diversion; has anyone else noticed that chemical posts on Wikipedia were obviously written by people who know chemistry, for people who know chemistry? It can be really tough for my small brain to wade through one of those chemical posts.
But back to it: it turns out that phenylalanine is a naturally occurring amino acid that is one of the 20 amino acids our DNA uses to create proteins. It can also be metabolized into a couple of other amino acids we need. Phenylalanine is also used in sweeteners, like aspartame. Phenylketonuria is the inability to metabolize phenylalanine, a condition that affects in about 1 in 15,000 births worldwide. This is why, in the US and Canada, all products that contain aspartame, or Equal, or whatever, have to label their packaging with "Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine". It's because people with Phenylketonuria, abbreviated PKU, have to closely monitor their intake of protein, so as to avoid excessive amounts of phenylalanine.
Strangely, a type of monkey called a macaque recently had its genome sequenced, and it was found that they naturally have a mutation found in humans have PKU.
Macaque
Does this mean that all macaques are inable to drink Diet Coke? I hope not, because they already have quite enough stacked against them already.
Monday, November 12, 2007
A few things from India
Bhut Jolokia
One of the first times I hung out with Nubbins, he brought a small chili pepper over to my house that I'd never heard of, a Fatali. "Do you like hot food?" he asked. DO I? "Let's chop this up and put it on your leftover pizza." Sure, I thought, I can handle hot food just as well as the next guy. "Be careful," he said as we were getting ready to eat the pizza with tiny bits of Fatali chili on it, "there are probably several hundred thousand Scoville units on that slice right now."
Anyone who knows me knows that this is like telling me that I HAVE to eat the slice of pizza. I had no idea what a Scoville unit was, or how hot that slice was going to be. After a couple of glassfuls of milk I was willing to admit that I wasn't prepared, but that Fatali was my new favorite chili.
Nubbins and a few of the other guys have been growing super hot chilis for a few years now, so when a new hottest chili in the world was announced, he bought some seedlings and has been growing them this year. They're a north eastern Indian chili called Bhut Jolokia or Naga Jolokia, which means Ghost chili. What's not clear is whether they're called that because they were previously hard to find, or because when you eat them you die. The previously hottest chili in the world was the Red Savina Habenero, which clocked in at about 580,000 Scoville units. What does that mean about the hotness of a Red Savina? Just think about this...the hottest jalapeño you've ever eaten would have had a Scoville rating of about 8000 Scovilles. That means that a single Red Savina, which is about a third the volume as a jalapeño, is about 60 times as hot. A bell pepper is 0, a jalapeno is 8000, a Red Savina is 580,000, and a Bhut Jolokia is 1,040,000. Holy crap.
What am I going to do with a pepper that ridiculously hot? I'm going to chop it up and eat it on a pizza, of course. That's what I know how to do. I'm planning on sharing it with my Sikh friend Obiwan, because he has previously seemed to be completely impervious to the scourge of capsaicin. We'll see how he handles the ghost chili.
Dawali
Also from India, although not confined to the North Eastern area, is a holiday called Diwali. It's celebrated all over India by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs alike. A bunch of the people I work with came back from this weekend waddling around like they'd just eaten Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners combined, and I guess it's because of this festival. Each of the major Indian religions seems to have their own reasons for celebrating Diwali, but it seems to be universally regarded as a celebration of the Goodness in people triumphing over the Evil in people. I can agree with that! Happy Diwali! It seems to be the Indian version of Christmas. Everyone, both secular and devout, celebrates the holiday, and people send out massive mailings of Diwali cards. They eat tons of food, play with firecrackers, and greet everyone with warmth and cheer. I wonder if they also have rampant consumerism, nauseating music, and silly sweaters.
Fasting
To round out this post about the subcontinent, I've been thinking about doing a fast before Thanksgiving this year. "Zart," you ask, "why does fasting have to be from the India? What about Catholics?" What about them, smartass? They abstain from meat one day a week during one season of the year. They've got nothing on the Buddhists or Hindus ascetics. I'm just kidding, the Indians certainly have no corner on asceticism, but they're pretty good at it. I wouldn't really be doing it for spiritual enlightenment, although I assume the discipline required to abstain from food for a few days will show me something about myself. I'm more interested in doing on to clear my body of some of the junk and gunk and toxins that I commonly poison it with. I figure that now that rugby season is over would be a good time.
I looked fasting up on Wikipedia because I always go there to learn surface knowledge about new topics. I've never done a fast before, so I don't really know too much about how to prepare, how to do it, what to expect, etc. I know that at its core, it's just the practice of not eating anything, but my friend Mabooti did one before and it was much more involved. Unfortunately, almost all of the information I found on Wikipedia about fasting dealt with religion, something that I'm fascinated with but averse to. I found a spot where Wikipedia is lacking! If you can find info on there I'm missing, feel free to leave it in the comments.
One of the first times I hung out with Nubbins, he brought a small chili pepper over to my house that I'd never heard of, a Fatali. "Do you like hot food?" he asked. DO I? "Let's chop this up and put it on your leftover pizza." Sure, I thought, I can handle hot food just as well as the next guy. "Be careful," he said as we were getting ready to eat the pizza with tiny bits of Fatali chili on it, "there are probably several hundred thousand Scoville units on that slice right now."
Anyone who knows me knows that this is like telling me that I HAVE to eat the slice of pizza. I had no idea what a Scoville unit was, or how hot that slice was going to be. After a couple of glassfuls of milk I was willing to admit that I wasn't prepared, but that Fatali was my new favorite chili.
Nubbins and a few of the other guys have been growing super hot chilis for a few years now, so when a new hottest chili in the world was announced, he bought some seedlings and has been growing them this year. They're a north eastern Indian chili called Bhut Jolokia or Naga Jolokia, which means Ghost chili. What's not clear is whether they're called that because they were previously hard to find, or because when you eat them you die. The previously hottest chili in the world was the Red Savina Habenero, which clocked in at about 580,000 Scoville units. What does that mean about the hotness of a Red Savina? Just think about this...the hottest jalapeño you've ever eaten would have had a Scoville rating of about 8000 Scovilles. That means that a single Red Savina, which is about a third the volume as a jalapeño, is about 60 times as hot. A bell pepper is 0, a jalapeno is 8000, a Red Savina is 580,000, and a Bhut Jolokia is 1,040,000. Holy crap.
What am I going to do with a pepper that ridiculously hot? I'm going to chop it up and eat it on a pizza, of course. That's what I know how to do. I'm planning on sharing it with my Sikh friend Obiwan, because he has previously seemed to be completely impervious to the scourge of capsaicin. We'll see how he handles the ghost chili.
Dawali
Also from India, although not confined to the North Eastern area, is a holiday called Diwali. It's celebrated all over India by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs alike. A bunch of the people I work with came back from this weekend waddling around like they'd just eaten Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners combined, and I guess it's because of this festival. Each of the major Indian religions seems to have their own reasons for celebrating Diwali, but it seems to be universally regarded as a celebration of the Goodness in people triumphing over the Evil in people. I can agree with that! Happy Diwali! It seems to be the Indian version of Christmas. Everyone, both secular and devout, celebrates the holiday, and people send out massive mailings of Diwali cards. They eat tons of food, play with firecrackers, and greet everyone with warmth and cheer. I wonder if they also have rampant consumerism, nauseating music, and silly sweaters.
Fasting
To round out this post about the subcontinent, I've been thinking about doing a fast before Thanksgiving this year. "Zart," you ask, "why does fasting have to be from the India? What about Catholics?" What about them, smartass? They abstain from meat one day a week during one season of the year. They've got nothing on the Buddhists or Hindus ascetics. I'm just kidding, the Indians certainly have no corner on asceticism, but they're pretty good at it. I wouldn't really be doing it for spiritual enlightenment, although I assume the discipline required to abstain from food for a few days will show me something about myself. I'm more interested in doing on to clear my body of some of the junk and gunk and toxins that I commonly poison it with. I figure that now that rugby season is over would be a good time.
I looked fasting up on Wikipedia because I always go there to learn surface knowledge about new topics. I've never done a fast before, so I don't really know too much about how to prepare, how to do it, what to expect, etc. I know that at its core, it's just the practice of not eating anything, but my friend Mabooti did one before and it was much more involved. Unfortunately, almost all of the information I found on Wikipedia about fasting dealt with religion, something that I'm fascinated with but averse to. I found a spot where Wikipedia is lacking! If you can find info on there I'm missing, feel free to leave it in the comments.
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