Musings

Weak attempt to cleanse the negativity inherent in this entry….

Downer alert!

Let’s face it; there’s plenty that happens in this world that is way too depressing or unproductive to spend time contemplating—where that crap on the floor of the car came from, how the inside of the fridge/closet accumulated so much detritus, how Geo Bush can face himself in the mirror, what dark matter is (for most of us), and the like. Of course, we can’t be ostriches either, and refuse to acknowledge the icky, the heartbreaking, and things that are Just Not Right, meaning, here, deliberately inconsiderate of the rights of others.

Some people are clueless as to how to draw that line, sometimes because of how they were socialized by others and sometimes because of how they arrived at their own personal set of standards. On this list are pederasts, and most people in most cultures, present and past, would agree with me. I am sadly enlightened by this NYTimes article, about how sexual abusers use the internet to encourage each other (among other things). I have also learned to scrutinize heart and butterfly jewelry and symbols for the insider message: I like little girls or I like little boys.

Shiver.

Posted at 5:03 PM | 2 Comments »

Charleston Lighthouse, Morris Island, SC, ca. 1863, by J.R. Foster (Accession #1994.91.52)

Our Smithsonian has a slew of historic photos online for perusal and inspiration. This photo isn’t a bad place to start, or you could begin with all the flashy intro stuff here. Beware the visitors’ keywords, although the Smithsonian’s own keywords are inconsistent, too.

Here’s the Washington Post’s take on the photo web site, courtesy of a $500,000 gift (half a million smackers; I’m in the wrong biz!), and more info….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Old photos

This is fact:

…formerly fat people need to eat less than never-fat people to maintain exactly the same weight. In other words, a 150-pound woman who has always weighed 150 might be able to get away with eating, say, 2,500 calories a day, but a 150-pound woman who once weighed more—20 pounds more, 200 pounds more, the exact amount doesn’t matter—would have to consume about 15 percent fewer calories to keep from regaining the weight.

But, why? I know this NYT article was posted last week, but the idea/notion/fact that your digestive flora makes a difference in the efficiency at which your body absorbs nutrients, including straight-out calories, is worthy of mention. Consider it hereby mentioned. Now I’m waiting for “efficient�? microflora like Bacteroidetes to be available over the counter…. (Or Firmicutes, if that’s the direction you need to go—and some people do!)

I’m reminded of how long it took ecologists who modeled the life cycle of a forest, for example, to include soil microbes. Big error, there!

I mean—we’re considering a complex interaction between food and nutrients put in the mouth, and what happens after. Part of it is called infectobesity—the role of infection—yes, infection affects digestive efficiency.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Here’s an observation: traditional French food doesn’t have much crunch—it’s just not a feature of the cuisine.

Maybe that’s why it’s winter food for me (stews, especially)….

Which are crunch cuisines? Any fried food, I guess, brings crunch. But also many raw foods feature crunch—think carrots, some apples.

So, lots of Asian cuisines—at least those available from purveyors, although maybe less so in home cooking….

Sometimes, I crave crunch, more than a particular taste. Time for chips, roasted almonds, maybe even a dark chocolate M&M (have you tried them? you have to look; most are peanut or milk chocolate)….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Got crunch?

Two leetle technology “breakthroughs�? this week…. One, I learned how to set up RSS feeds; wow! liberating! Two, we have a new little boxlet (with its own remote!) that gets digital TV pictures from the air! Wheeeeoooo!

Posted at 10:03 PM | 3 Comments »

Is this the trajectory of life? A Fibonacci curve of sorts?

(Not to be confused with Tribonacci numbers….)

Posted at 9:30 PM | Comments Off on Sculptural curl

More Chihuly from ABG, 2004.

We hear about imminent extinctions from logging, bulldozing, and other land-altering activities. Here’s another. And the extinction, while due to human intervention, is not moderated by being a side-effect of some other behaviors—here, the intent was extinction. You see, some species are parasites of other species, and when the last wild whatever gets put in the safe-keeping hands of a jailer (aka conservationist, zoo-keeper, veterinarian), any attendant parasites will probably be obliterated in the interests of the health of the whatever. Since they’re a niche species, poof, no more parasites. And a species is gone. Extinct.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Playing god

Chihuly glass installation at Atlanta Botanical Garden, 2004.

Happy news today from the Middle East: truce in Lebanon! (And interesting interactive graphics, too.) Read here for some insights on what it’s been like to live through what’s been going on in northern Israel. Kudos to Leah for making these entries, and I breathe a sigh along with her that she can now move on to another topic….

Posted at 5:48 PM | 6 Comments »

It works. Somewhere recently I came across this tidbit: when stretching, don’t do it for longer than three seconds. Never. Be prudent and count two seconds and relax. Then, repeat, if you like. And it works. That muscle will not be stressed or overstretched, or become sore. I’d been doing my stretches for ten counts. Unhappy muscles, then. Now, a lovely glow!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Stretching optimization

Bottle cap art from Mexico (thanks SAK/JS).

Sometimes you have to let me get away with a picture and no comment….

Posted at 10:27 AM | 4 Comments »