Think Like A Jillian

Terra Australis

2011-09-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

Long before anyone ever went to Antarctica, scholars and yahoos already believed it existed. The thinking was, there’s all this land up in the Northern Hemisphere, but not a lot going on down South—there must be a giant hidden continent down there to balance everything out. In fact, even after Antarctica was located, map makers kept drawing it far larger that it truly is to get the right balance. These people were pretty into balance, I guess.

As we in the States were busy dumping tea into idyllic East Coast harbors and refusing to pay taxes to stuffy old monarchies, Captain James Cook was busy becoming the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle. His ships, the HMS Resolution and Adventure, came within 75 miles of the coast before being turned back by field ice. In 1820, Antarctica was spotted for the first time by an Estonian-born Russian Naval captain named Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshousen. It would be a year before someone set foot there--American sealer John Davis briefly landed on mainland Antarctica on February 7th, 1821.

In 1839, the United States Exploring Expedition (affectionately called the “Ex Ex”, which I love), sailed from Sydney Australia to do a bit of exploring on the new continent. A few years later, James Clark Ross sailed along a huge wall of ice that was later named the Ross Ice Shelf—Mount Erebus and Mount Terror are named after two ships from his expedition. Another explorer with a great name, Mercator Cooper, landed in and explored East Antarctica in 1853.

These were all minor expeditions compared to the Nimrod Expedition, led by the great Ernest Shackleton in 1907. Shackleton’s crew became the first to climb Mount Erebus and to reach the South Magnetic Pole. They were also the first humans to traverse the Ross Ice Shelf, the first to traverse the Transantarctic Mountain Range, and the first to set foot on the South Polar Plateau. For more on Shackleton (and on why it was called the Nimrod Expedition), talk to my husband.

A few words about the continent itself. It is the fifth-largest continent on the planet (larger than Europe and twice as large as Australia). About 98% of the continent is covered by ice that averages one mile in thickness. West Antarctica resembles the Andes mountain range in South America. East Antarctica is geologically varied. Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. The coldest temperature ever recorded on this planet was -128.6*F at the Vostok Station in July 1983. The entire continent is a desert, although some of the coastal areas are known to get snowfalls of up to 48 inches in 48 hours. Heavy winds (storm-force) are also common.

Antarctica has no permanent residents, but maintains a temporary population of around 1000 in winter and 5000 in summer at a variety of research stations. As of 2009, eleven children had been born in Antarctica. Several bases are now home to families with children attending school on the base.

With no permanent residents, Antarctica also has no government although several countries claim sovereignty over certain regions. New claims on the continent have been suspended since the Antarctic Treating of 1959 which classified the continent as politically neutral. It also set aside Antarctic as a scientific preserve, established freedom of scientific investigation and environmental protection, and banned military activity (including weapons testing) on the continent. The Madrid Protocol of 1998 bans all mining an Antarctica and designates the continent as a “natural reserve devoted to peace and science.”

If you want to go, ships sail from Ushuaia Argentina (mostly to the Antarctic Peninsula, not the mainland). There are also a few commercial flights from Sydney and Melbourne that serve the major research stations. On these flights, passengers in most seating classes rotate their position in the row halfway into the flight to give everyone a window or one-over-from-window seat for half the time. Major landing fields include Williams Field, Pegasus Blue-Ice Runway (really), and Annual Sea-Ice Runway. November-March is the best time to go. If you go, take me with you!

London Update

2011-09-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it’s been over four months since my trip to London, but I promised an update and I’ve finally found time and energy to post something. First, the basics: I traveled with my husband, sister, and mom for ten days in April. The reasons for the trip were as follows: a) Travel is Awesome; b) It had been a couple years since my last big international adventure, c) my mom wanted to give traveling a try, but wanted to start with an English-speaking place. London is so huge and there is so much to do, there was no way we could do it all. But we sure did try! Here are some highlights:

*The food! England isn’t known for its cuisine, but we didn’t have a bad meal there. For the duration of the trip, I’d given up my vegivore ways (what’s the point of traveling half-way around the world and not trying the local cuisine?). We tried bangers and mash, fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, and several varieties of meat pasties (they have become a favorite), as well as a variety of more unusual dishes—always delicious. Some nights we bought food at the local Greenwich market and cooked in our flat. And no meal in London seemed complete without an accompanying traditional beverage! We bought a British cookbook and I try not to drool too much on the pictures when I look through it. Back home, Gordon and I even created an excellent vegetarian version of pot pie that we just can’t get enough of.

*ART! I love original art and London has so much to offer! We spent hours wandering the halls of the National Gallery (da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Velazquez, Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet). We also took in the Tate Modern (Matisse, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Pollock, Rodin), the Wallace Collection (Rembrandt, Hals, Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Gainsborough), the Victoria & Albert Museum (collections of furniture, glass, jewelry, metalwork, paintings, photography, sculpture, textiles, and architecture), the Courtauld Gallery (Rubens, Botticelli, Cezanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Matisse, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec), the Queen’s House (Turner, Hogarth, Gainsborough), and probably a few others I’m forgetting. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what is available in London!

*Westminster Abbey. This is a classic part of any London tourist itinerary, so I didn’t expect too much. I thought it would be crowded and a bit underwhelming like some of the other major tourist sites (read: Tower of London). But I LOVED the Abbey. We were there in the off-season and at odd hours, too, so it really felt like we had the place to ourselves and could wander around at will. I’ve never seen a church quite like Westminster Abbey—so many famous historical figures are buried there, it takes your breath away. Poet’s corner--where Chaucer, Tennyson, Browning, and Dickens are buried--was a highlight. And of course, given that we were visiting in mid-April, preparations were well underway for the Royal Wedding just a few days away. Having just been there, it was very cool to watch footage of Catherine walking down the aisle and thinking, “I was just there, I walked right where she is walking!”.

*Our flat in Greenwich. We had struggled to find an affordable flat to rent in London, so we ended up staying a bit out of the city center in Greenwich. It the end, it was a great decision! After a long day in Central London, it was so wonderful to leave the noise and head out to Greenwich. Our flat was right on the Thames, so we were able to take the Thames Clippers to and from the sites most days rather than trying to squeeze into the Tube with the masses. The views from the boat (parliament and big ben, the Eye, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, the Gherkin….) were fabulous. Watching the sun rise and set from our balcony each day was wonderful. The flat itself was cozy and comfortable and perfectly aged—I don’t think I’ve ever slept better away from home.

*One of my favorite places was the Church of St. Bartholomew the Great (“Great St. Bart’s”). There are thousands of awesome churches and cathedrals scattered around Europe, but this one stole my heart in a new way. The church is truly a hidden treasure—you wouldn’t know from the entrance to the courtyard that such an amazing place lies just inside the walls. Inside the church was filled with burning incense and light coming in from high windows shined through the smoke in atmospheric rays. The stone walls were dark and cool and discolored with age. The cloisters were the best part. They had been turned into a small café, lined with amazing windows of thick colored glass. We sat in the cloisters for about an hour drinking monastic beer while we chatted with the waitress. It just so happened that she had some extra tickets to a burlesque show in Soho that evening and wondered if we would like to go. Can’t say no to that, right?! Gordon and I went to the show while Mom and Jaima went to see Stomp! in the West End. Walking through Soho after sunset was a cultural experience in and of itself, and the burlesque show was so wonderful and funny and surprising we kept dissolving into fits of giggles all the way home on the long Underground ride back to our flat. Unforgettable.

*The British Library. Inside there is an exhibit of incredibly old and significant manuscripts including original pages from Leonardo DaVinci’s journals, handwritten musical scores from George Frideric Handel, the sole surviving manuscript copy of the poem Beowulf, two 1215 copies of the Magna Carta, two Gutenberg Bibles, and the Diamond Sutra (the world’s earliest dated printed book, printed in 868 during the Tang Dynasty). It was absolutely amazing to see these with my own eyes! Added bonus: John Lennon’s original scrawled lyrics to Yesterday.

I could go on and on, but you’ll just have to go there yourself to experience the rest!

Fictional Fiction

2011-08-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

Like every other American student, in my senior year of high school I had to take a course called “Current World Problems.” One assignment in the class was to read a book of historical fiction that related to issues still being resolved today, then write an 8-page review. Plagued with senioritis and not a small dose of defiant attitude, I decided not to read a book, and instead make one up completely. In the end, writing a review of a fake book was almost certainly more work that writing a review of a real book would have been, but it turns out challenges are fun! The book I invented was about the city of Berlin and how it was recovering a decade after the fall of the Wall. I think my mother still has a copy of paper I wrote tucked away in a box somewhere. As I recall I got a 95/100 on the assignment. The only comment from my teacher, Mr. Mitchell, was that I had used a few too many direct quotes from the book.

I tell that story as an introduction to an author I’m just discovering, Jorge Luis Borges. Borges lived from 1899 to 1986 and was incredibly well-known and well-received. He wrote essays, novels, short stories, and poetry. I became interested in Borges’ work because I am traveling to Argentina soon and Borges is a much-beloved native son. I’m working my way through his entire collection of poetry at the moment (and loving it!), and will soon delve into his short stories. He is especially known for his reflections on Porteño culture, for fostering the beginnings of magical realism in Latin American novels, and for the spiritual and existential dilemmas explored in his work.

What I like best about him, though, are his hoaxes and forgeries. Along with publishing numerous legitimate translations, he also published original works and claimed them to be translations of works he had chanced upon. In one case, he added three falsely-attributed pieces into an otherwise legitimate anthology. He also wrote reviews of non-existent works. The best-known example is his “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” which tells the tale of a modern Frenchman attempting to write Cervantes’s Don Quixote verbatim, but without looking at the original text. Borges’ review of the imaginary Menard’s imaginary work, is glowing—he discusses how much richer Menard’s work is than that of Cervantes, even though the text is exactly the same. Of this unusual hobby of his, Borges wrote, “It is a laborious madness and an impoverishing one, the madness of composing vast books, setting out in five hundred pages an idea that can be perfectly related orally in five minutes. The better way to go about it is to pretend that those books already exist, and offer a summary, a commentary on them…A more reasonable, more inept, and more lazy man, I have chosen to write notes on imaginary books.”

Also, incidentally, today would have been Borges' 112th birthday.

Last Will and Testament

2011-08-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

I grew up in a sweet little farming and orcharding community where were death was accepted as a regular part of life and no one seemed to get too worked up about it. Attending the local Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), death was never presented as something to fear, so I developed what I believe to be a healthy outlook on life and death. As much as I love life, I’m not overly worried about ceasing to exist someday. My parents, too, are at peace with the eventuality of death. They keep a file containing ideas for their own funeral services, including favorite hymns and scriptures. The file is fairly regularly updated and is discussed openly by the family.

Yesterday I made a will; a first for me. I’ve always meant to make one, as it’s fairly well accepted that even if you have very little wealth to leave behind, it’s good to have a written document outlining any special bequests and your preferences regarding your remains. Of course, it’s mostly moot if my husband survives me. But on the off chance we die together (not a terribly unlikely scenario, given our propensity for adventure), this should make things pretty clear.

Wills are an interesting subject. It’s the only way, save ghosting and spooking, that the dead can affect the living, change behavior, make demands, or get a last word in. As you can imagine, there have been some pretty unusual bequests throughout history:

*Mark Gruenwald, executive editor of Captain American and Iron Man comics (Marvel), requested that his ashes be mixed with ink and then used to print coming books. He got his wish.

*Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, successfully requested that his ashes be rocketed into space to orbit the earth (the capsule has since burned in the atmosphere).

*Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, had a friend who always felt cheated that her birthday coincided with Christmas. In his will, he willed her his own birthday to use for the remainder of her life.

*Painter JMW Turner left his paintings to the nation of England and his fortune ‘for the support of the poor and decayed artists born in England.’ His relatives fought this will in court and were able to keep the money for themselves.

*Jeremy Bentham, philosopher of utilitarianism, offered his body for use and study. It remains on display at the University College London.

As for my own will, it’s boring legalese for the most part. Although I did have a little fun with the disposal of my remains:

“In addition to the items granted above, I would like to specify disposition instructions for my remains. I would like my physical remains to be cremated. I would like my ashes to be scattered by my natural-born sisters, Jaima and Caitlin. The ashes are to be scattered as follows: 50% in Riga Latvia, 50% on the island of La Digue in the Seychelles. Feel free to skimp on the Memorial Service so there are more funds for ash-scattering. Feel free to skip having a service at all and just drink whiskey and tell stories and talk about how awesome it was to know me. Possibly around a campfire.”

I (heart) Words

2011-08-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

I've recently become addicted to a language/grammar/style blog over at The Economist , called "Johnson" (after Samuel, beloved dictionary-maker). The blog has multiple writers and is a wonderful haven for wordnerds such as myself. Saw this there and had to share:

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Some other favorite posts are linked below, but I suggest just starting at the current post and reading on indefinitely. : )

Color-Naming

Changes in Meaning

Presidential Pronouns

Summer Update!

2011-07-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Blogosphere! What a crazy-amazing-surprising summer I am having! Some updates....

*Work: I work for an educational travel organization and our students travel on six continents during June, July, and August. It's always a crazy-busy time at the office, but this year I applied for and got a temporary summer promotion to the position of Duty Officer. This means that I handle our most escalated incidents and am on hand during non-business hours in case any emergencies come up. Going into it, I was excited but also very nervous. In practice, however, it has been a blast! It's stressful, emotional work and there is lots of it, but there is a new challenge every day and never a dull moment. Also, my work schedule has been 4:30pm to 1:00am Tuesday through Saturday--totally awesome.

*Play: The summer work schedule has allowed me tons of free time for going to coffee with friends; playing badminton, ladder golf, bean bag toss, and bocce ball in the park; riding my bike; going to matinee movies (half-price!); brewing beer; reading my way through our local library; sewing aprons & quilts; and playing in weekly kickball games (my new favorite activity).

*Adventure: Through my work, I got some nearly-free airline tickets from Continental Airlines. It took weeks of staring at their flight map looking at all the possible destinations before deciding on Buenos Aires, Argentina for my next adventure! Buenos Aires, the Paris of the Southern Hemisphere, Tango capital of the world, and home to the best steakhouses on the planet! Looks like we are heading there in the Spring. Side trips to Uruguay and Iguazu Falls should round-out the itinerary nicely. Yay!

What Fun a Decade Can Hold

2011-05-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago to the day, Captain Awesome and I met for the first time. The story is here, if you are interested. I just can't get over what an amazing, adventurous, decade it has been! Here are some of the highlights:

*Camping trip through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Being in Yellowstone is like visiting another planet--too cool for words. But I especially remember waking early one morning in the Tetons to a scary-sounding rustling outside the tent. Gordon thought it was a bear. It was a bunny. On the 13-hour drive home, we played a marathon cribbage tournament, which I totally won. : )

*Kayaking the Alberton Gorge (class III/IV) on my first weekend on the river. Easily one of the highlights of my life thus far, partly because it was so beautiful, partly because it was so scary, but mostly because I have never done anything so awesome in my entire life. Full story here.

*Our first morning in Osaka, Japan. Gordon woke up well-rested and ready to go explore so before breakfast he and I went out for a walk around the neighborhood where our hotel was located, not knowing what to expect. Two blocks away we found ourselves standing in front of one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen! It was one of those moments when we were both like--"wow, is this really my life?!"

*A million memories around our parents' kitchen tables. When we go home, whether to Havillah or Eatonville, it is always a treat. Family is so important and what better way to celebrate it than by getting together every now and then to tell the same hilarious tall tales and laugh yourselves silly?! We have both been blessed with the best in-laws you could imagine.

*Sleeping in the bed of the old Ford pick-up in the middle of the desert in Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah. We were there with friends and had spent the day hiking up a slot canyon to a wonderful little waterfall. At night, we camped in the middle of nowhere. Laying in the truck and looking up at the bright, bright stars I felt gratitude to the universe like I had never felt before.

*Gordon talks in his sleep which would be annoying except that his dreams are--without fail--Hollywood blockbusters in which he is the star and has to save the day. Sometimes he is a ninja, sometimes he's fighting off the zombie horde, sometimes he's diffusing the nuke at just the last minute, or is a spy behind enemy lines or a rock star. So imagine my delight when he woke me very early one morning by shouting (out of a deep sleep): "I am NOT burying any more corpses for you!"

*In London last month, while drinking monastic beer in the cloisters of the Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, our waitress offered us free tickets to a burlesque show that her friends were dancing in that night. How could you say no to that? We were nervous about what to expect, especially as we walked the wild streets of Soho looking for the venue, but ended up loving the whole thing. Yes, there were nearly-naked women dancing and singing, but it was also so cheeky and hilarious and just completely unexpected that we about fell out of our chairs laughing and--in fact--giggled the whole way home on the London Underground.

*Hot-air ballooning at the Winthrop Balloon Round-up. We've been twice to see the festival and to float through the sky in a wicker basket attached to a balloon full of fire. This is something that is on so many folks' life lists, I'm always amazed that I've done it. Riding in the balloon is certainly great fun, but the beauty of the snow-capped mountains and quiet Methow valley are what really strike me.

*College and career. These two don't really make the list of most memorable moments, but it is true that in the last decade Gordon and I both graduated with Bachelor's degrees and have steady, lucrative, meaningful employment.

*Swimming on the backside of Raspberry Island at Isle Royale National Park. Isle Royale is one of the least-visited National Parks in America. It's an archipelago waaaay out in the middle of Lake Superior. The park contains over 200 islands and takes 6 hours by boat from the mainland of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We lived and worked at Rock Harbor Lodge for the summer and had the most amazing adventures. Since there are no roads or wheeled vehicles at Isle Royal, we spent the entire time in about an 8 mile radius from our dorm-style room. Nevertheless, amazing hidden getaways were not in short supply. One of the nearest islands from Rock Harbor was Raspberry Island. The backside of the island faced the wide open wilderness of Lake Superior. In the summer sunlight with the sunshine glinting off black rocks and green waves, it was paradise.

Coincidence? I Wonder....

2011-05-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed that the towers around the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul look just like the Saturn V rocket that transported our early astronauts to the moon?

I think something's fishy there....

*My London update is coming, I promise. I'm just letting the whole experience marinate a little bit. Right after travel, the details are too fresh in your mind and it's harder to find the larger themes and lessons of the trip. (Or anyway, that's the excuse I'm going with, so pipe down)

Bubble and Squeak*

2011-04-07T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'm having a bit of trouble containing myself today. I'm just a teensy bit excited. Tomorrow morning.......at 6am......I'm flying off to LONDON! This will be my fourth adventure to Europe, but my first in the United Kingdom. My traveling companions include mom, sister, and husband. We've rented an awesome flat on the River Thames (this flat, in fact!) and put together an itinerary so jam-packed with delight, it might just kill us dead. I can't even begin to think what I'm most looking forward to; whenever I look over the list of things we are going to do and see, I get woozy. : )

We'll be in London for about 10 days, coming back home about a week before the Royal Wedding. With Wills and Kate's upcoming nuptials on everyone's mind, I expect the atmosphere in London will be pretty celebratory.

I'll post updates as it goes.

*Bubble and Squeak is a traditional English dish made with the shallow-fried leftover vegetables from a roast dinner. Yum!

Garden Party

2011-04-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

I don’t think of it much these days, but as a little girl, I did a LOT of gardening. Far more than most people I know, anyway. We lived on a small farm, the primary focus of which was raising beef cattle. We always had a large vegetable garden (one at our place and another at Grandma’s, a mile away) where we grew potatoes, peas, carrots, salad greens, raspberries, onions, cabbage, and beans. We’d eat fresh vegetables all summer and fall, then eat canned and frozen produce all winter and spring. It was so delicious! Since moving away from home, however, I haven’t had much opportunity to eat fresh-from-the-garden produce. In the summers, Gordon and I make bi-weekly trips to the local farmers market, and Mom & Grandma always send us home with fresh or canned garden items (not to mention COOKIES) after we visit, but we haven’t ever attempted to have a garden of our own.

The apartment where Captain Awesome and I have lived for the past 8 years is an adorable living space in the top floor of a house on Spokane’s scenic South Hill. Our door is at the back of the house (bad feng shui, but it does keep the door-to-door religious kooks and hyper-committed politicos at bay) and we have a cute square of lawn out back as well. About four years ago we put in a little garden where I planted some bulbs, but other than that, we’ve never made any attempt to improve the space or use it for gardening. This year, however, Gordon has decided to add to his already-extensive list of hobbies by including growing his own vegetables. We’ve put in two more gardens in the rented space and Gordon built a sun box, as well. In addition, along with our friends from the Fancy Paper Plate Club we’ve started a community garden in another friend’s backyard. We spent this last weekend building and improving raised beds, turning the soil, and generally getting the space ready for some serious veggie action. It looks great out there; I can’t wait until its warm enough to start planting!

Meanwhile, Gordon and I have started a number of plants inside the house, some of which we will transplant outside when the time is right. We planted a bunch of herbs first (parsley, oregano, sage, cilantro, rosemary, chives, dill, and basil) then started the vegetables.

So far we are trying green beans, spinach, butter crunch lettuce, broccoli, scallions, zucchini squash, cucumber, roma tomatoes, bell peppers, poblano peppers, and jalapenos. Nearly everything has sprouted and is looking good! It’s fun to check the plants each morning for new growth. Gordon also built some window boxes which we installed outside our second-story living-room windows (and painted a summery light blue). We plan to keep a fresh rotation of herbs and salad greens in the window boxes throughout the growing season. I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.

"Real Change for Your Dollar"

2011-03-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Through a friend (Thanks, A!), I recently discovered GiveWell, an independent, nonprofit charity evaluator. GiveWell reviews information about charities and rates them based on how effective they are at solving the problems they claim to address in the world, how efficiently they use donor funds to achieve their goals, how they track their own successes and failures over time, and how transparent the whole process is. This information is posted in detail on their website so that people who are considering charitable giving can review before deciding where to give.

Most prospective donors make decisions about where to give their money based on their own personal feelings and interests. For example, if I feel strongly about the AIDS crisis in Africa, I will donate heavily to organizations who claim to be doing something about it. If I am or know a cancer survivor or victim, I might choose to donate to a group aiming to find a cure. Others may feel strongly about environmental issues such as clean water and air, global climate change, etc. Once we have made the decision to donate, most people look no further than the organization’s own website or printed materials to make our final decision. The folks behind GiveWell knew or suspected that many—if not most—charity organizations overstate their effectiveness, and this causes donor dollars to go down a black hole rather than getting to people who could actually make good use of the funds.

There is so much interesting information on the site, I can’t go into it all here. But I did want to touch on just one issue as an example, and that is water issues. Last summer I was reading Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari, his account of a personal overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town. Traveling through Africa, he came across a large number of aid workers purporting to be helping the African people in a number of ways, but he became convinced over time that they were having no effect or a negative effect on the people. This was a viewpoint I had never encountered before, being someone who is not too cynical and therefore assumed that most ‘aid’ organizations were effectively ‘aiding’ the people they said they were. Since reading Theroux’s book, I’ve come across similar arguments in other readings.

One of the examples I remember from the book were the large number of broken-down, useless water wells he came across in his travels. When asking the local people about the wells, he was told that the well had been put in by an aid organization and had worked for a few years, but when it broke down, no one was trained to fix it so the people went back to getting water from other sources. Based on GiveWell’s analysis, there are hundreds if not thousands of defunct wells in Africa right now. Only one aid organization they have located (and they really looked!) actually keeps information about the status of the wells after they have been dug. Another issue: sometimes wells are dug in places that are completely inconvenient to the people living there. If a person can get clean-looking water from a nearby source, they would not walk twice as far to get water from the new well. So…there are also a number of wells that no one has ever really used.

It’s not just a question of abandoned wells, however. You have to consider what it is that these wells are supposed to accomplish. Why did we decide the people needed a well in the first place? The answer, of course, is that clean drinking water reduces the spread of disease. Unfortunately, water is only one of the ways that disease is spread and not necessarily the main one. Take a look at the diagram below:

If our aim is to reduce the spread of diseases in Africa, we have to consider that providing new water wells all over the place is not necessarily the most effective way to address the problem, even if it does sound good to donors and makes for a great photo op. What if there are more effective ways to limit the spread of disease? What if we took all the money people are donating to build wells and put it towards this solution instead? Could the funds stretch farther and the solutions reach more people? Would it be more sustainable over time?

I don’t claim to have an answer to this problem. I’m certainly not saying, “Don’t donate.” But I agree with the folks at GiveWell who suggest that we should put our money primarily into projects that can report some quantifiable positive result, not just anecdotes.

*For GiveWell's full analysis of water charities (interesting and readable, I promise), click here.

*For a list of charities highly rated by GiveWell, click here.

*For GiveWell's take on donations toward Japan earthquake/tsunami relief (interesting!), click here.

Going Veggie!

2011-03-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

I was spending Christmas with my wonderful in-laws last year. My mother-in-law is all gluten-free these days and she had been given The Moosewood Cookbook as a gift. I think I read through the whole thing about 3 times cover to cover in the lazy, cozy days after the holiday, and I decided (first) to buy my own copy or risk ruining Mom’s new one, and (second) to become a vegetarian for one year, starting on January 1st.
I’d never even considered being vegetarian before. Being raised on a small, all-natural, grass-fed beef farm (with easy access to fresh local chicken and pork as well), I didn’t think I would be able to give meat up. But I needed some kind of catalyst to get me thinking more about what I eat, and I do enjoy a challenge. Now here I am almost three months in and I am doing (and feeling) great!

The earliest known vegetarians were from the areas of current-day India and Greece and lived in the 6th Century BCE. These people made the conscious decision to avoid meat as an act of nonviolence toward animals. Today there are many reasons for going veggie. Some people just don’t like the taste of meat, some believe killing animals for food is cruel, some take up the lifestyle for its health benefits, or to make some kind of political statement, or to be “in” with a certain crowd, or to save money on food.

There are also many different types of vegetarians. Ovo-vegetarians eat eggs but not dairy products. Lacto-vegetarians eat dairy but not eggs. You can guess what ovo-lacto veggies eat. Someone who excludes ALL animal products including eggs, dairy, and honey is a vegan. As for me, I’m technically a pescetarian because I eat fish, but no other meats. I do eat eggs and cheese. As for the health of all these options, some early studies have shown that pescatarians and occasional meat-eaters (people who eat meat only once or twice a week) have the longest lifespan. Strict vegetarians (no fish) and meat-eaters tie for second, followed by vegans. These studies are young, so the outcomes may change as we continue to study the health effects of different diets.

Vegetarians tend to have lower body mass index, lower levels of cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and less incidence of heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, renal disease, osteoporosis, dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders. Some people wonder if a vegetarian diet can provide sufficient nutrition, but studies show most vegetarians have no noteworthy nutritional disadvantages. Protein is widely known for being a “meat” thing, but in fact protein comes from many vegetable sources as well and vegetarian diets easily meet these daily requirements (even for athletes who tend to need a lot of protein). Vitamin B12 can be a tough one for vegans, but is readily available in fish, eggs, and dairy. Vegetarian levels of iron, calcium, fatty acids, and other vitamins tend to be right on par with meat-eaters.

People always ask me if it is hard to be a vegetarian. It really hasn’t been too difficult for me, probably because I’m taking it as a personal challenge. My husband made the spur-of-the-moment decision to join me in veggie-land “in support”, and he’s been having a much harder time (and has cheated a couple times already I have to say, so thanks for the support, honey). : ) Mostly I’ve just been enjoying creating and cooking more meals at home, eating a lot more fresh produce, and trying out new recipes.

Here is a recipe I invented that is so good you won’t even realize it’s a meat-free dish:

Jillian’s Yummy Baked Ravioli

1 bag frozen ravioli, cooked according to package directions
1 large jar of pasta sauce (choose a yummy-sounding one like four cheese or basil garlic)
1/4 medium onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 cups fresh or frozen assorted veggies, cut into bite-size pieces (I used broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and peas, but feel free to use your favorites)
3 tablespoons cream cheese
1 cup grated cheddar
1/4 cup bread crumbs (flavored okay, homemade is best)
Olive oil

In large saucepan, heat a little bit of olive oil over medium-high heat. When heated, add chopped onion and garlic and sauté for about 4 minutes. Add additional veggies and sauté until they reach desired softness. You may want to add a little more oil to veggies. Pour sauce into veggie mixture and heat through. Add cream cheese and stir until fully melted in the sauce.

Place cooked, hot raviolis in a 9x13in glass baking dish. Pour sauce and mix in with ravioli. Mix grated cheese and bread crumbs together, sprinkle evenly over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Garlic bread and garden salad make great sides!

Enjoy!

MIKA

2010-08-27T17:16:00.000-07:00

Music I am currently (and probably temporarily) obsessed with:

(Yes, you have to watch all 3 videos. No, you may not just watch the first one. No, you may not just watch the first thirty seconds of each one and then comment as if you have an informed opinion. No, I don't care that you are trying to watch this at work and the third video happens to feature a guy dancing (prancing?) around in his underwear) : )

BTW, I love all these, but they are in order from best to not-quite-as-best. : )

Yearbook Photos

2010-08-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Troy and Laura (and my slow workdays) for these gems:

Ah, 1960. What a lovely year...

I was a good girl in 1966

1980, not quite fully into my crazy grunge period yet...

Ah, there it is. 1984!

I think I look just like Jaima in this photo (Jaima of 1992, not Jaima of 2010)

But things finally started coming together by 2000. Whew!

Solar Tsunami

2010-08-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

As many of you may know, this week held some pretty cool solar activity. Four large coronal mass ejections took place, allowing for fabulous aurora borealis viewing on Earth. Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are similar to and related to solar flares, but the relationship is not yet fully understood. Flares generally produce a visible, well…flare.., which shoots away from the sun. As you can see from this video, no flares were visible during these recent events, though you can glimpse the power of a large CME.

CMEs of this magnitude are cool because they cause such bright northern lights that folks in non-polar regions have a good chance of seeing them. Unfortunately, they also may knock out some unprotected parts of the power grid and mess with satellites.

Nevertheless, the sun is cool (figuratively speaking). Also check out this crazy-awesome photo:

This image is an extreme ultraviolet snapshot from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It shows the sun's northern hemisphere in mid-eruption. Different colors represent different gas temperatures ranging from ~1 to 2 million degrees K.

*Note: "Solar Tsunami" would be an excellent band name.

Otter Fodder

2010-07-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

On a hot summer day, there is nothing like an ice cold Otter Pop to cool things down. Otter Pops--frozen fruit juice in plastic tubes--were originally created in 1970 to compete with a similar product called Fla-Vor-Ice. Not having cute otters with funny names on their packaging, the good people at Fla-Vor-Ice knew they were fighting a losing battle. They bought out the Otter Pop brand and discontinued Fla-Vor-Ice in 1996.

Otter Pops come in six colors, each color assigned a “personality”:

Blue-- Louie-Bloo Raspberry (blue raspberry)
Red-- Poncho Punch (Tropical Punch) (originally Rip Van Lemon until the mid-1970s)
Green-- Sir Isaac Lime (Lemon Lime)
Light Red-- Strawberry Short Kook (Strawberry)
Purple-- Alexander the Grape (Grape)
Orange-- Little Orphan Orange (Orange)

One major event in Otter Pop history is the Sir Isaac Lime protest of 1996. The parent company had made plans to replace Sir Isaac Lime with Scarlett O’Cherry. However, a group of fourth-graders from California mounted a signature-gathering campaign and picketed the company’s headquarters. An email campaign was also put into effect (one Stanford University professor accused the company of “otter-cide”). Company executives relented after meeting with the children; they wisely decided to retain the Sir Isaac Lime flavor.

Per the Otter Pop website, each otter personality is also a member of a band called the Otter PopStars. Each otter has his or her own fan site complete with photos and bios. For example, here is the skinny on Louie-Bloo Raspberry:

Instrument: Upright Bass

Louie is a Jazz poet whose book of verse The Sweet Raspberry of Yesterday and Other Poems has been translated into twelve languages including Beaver and Cockatiel. Originally from New Otterleans, Louie met the Otter PopStars when they were just a band of street musicians playing for clams and rocks outside "Café Le Bloo" - the spot where Louie does his best writing. Their music touched him so deeply that he put down his pen, grabbed his upright bass and immediately joined in the fun. A friend to nature and all its creatures, Louie can often be found cultivating his window box garden of purple snap dragons and bandaging up the bite marks on his fingers.

Favorite things:
-Watching the waves crashing upon the shore
-Estuaries
-A warm café ole in the morning

Pet Peeves
-Confrontation
-Oil spills
-People who don’t know what an estuary is

Info on the rest of the Otter PopStars can be found here.

Going Dutch

2010-07-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

The phrase “going Dutch” is a slang expression that means each person on an outing will pay for his or her own food, drinks, and entertainment. This is in contrast to a date scenario where one person is likely to pick up the full tab or a group scenario where the total cost of an evening is evenly split amongst all participants.

The phrase may have originated based on the idea of a Dutch Door, which is one of those cool doors that is split horizontally so the top half or bottom half of the door can each be opened separately. However, “Going Dutch” has often been considered cheap and tasteless, so more likely is the possibility that the phrase originated as a derogatory jibe against the Dutch (which is stupid, of course).

Several other languages have similar phrases, however:
In some parts of Italy the phrase pagare alla romana (to pay like people of Rome) holds the same meaning as going Dutch.

In Turkish, hesabı Alman usulü ödemek means “to pay the bill the German way.”

In Egypt it is called Englizy, meaning “English-style.”

And, ironically, the Dutch phrase Amerikaans feest means American Party and holds the same meaning as going Dutch.

Green Drinkery

2010-07-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

I've been involved in GreenDrinks for over a year now, first as a volunteer organizer and now as a board member; not sure why I haven't written about it yet. Time to rectify!

First of all, GreenDrinks is totally awesome. Here is the deal: GreenDrinks is held once a month and is a forum for networking and socializing within the local green community. GreenDrinks clubs are active in over 600 cities and towns worldwide. All GreenDrinks clubs have their own local flair, but also follow the official GreenDrinks Code. The guidelines in the code shape the way that our events are run.

The code, in short:
1. GreenDrinks is open--all people and ideas are welcome
2. GreenDrinks is agenda-free (you will not be preached at)
3. GreenDrinks is not for profit. Though some cities charge a small fee to attend, most are free and drinkers purchase their own food and drinks.
4. GreenDrinks is local and decentralized--Though we all follow 'the code', each city also has the power to do things their own way.

In Spokane, we meet on the second Tuesday of every month at roving locations. Most months our event is held at a local bar or pub, although sometimes a local business or organization will sponsor us. For example, we have had a GreenDrinks in a Laundromat, a print shop, a building supply store, and an advertising agency. We always partner with a local business or non-profit, so each meeting has a focus. The organization is then allowed 2 minutes to talk to the group about what they are all about. The rest of the night is taken up with chatting, meeting new people, exchanging ideas, drinking, and laughing.

For more info about GreenDrinks International, click here.
For info on starting a GreenDrinks in your own city, click here.
For info about GreenDrinks Spokane, click here or here.

Sneak Peak: New GBS Out Next Month!!!

2010-06-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

Brains!

2010-05-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I fancy myself an armchair neuroscientist. I love thinking about the brain and learning about new discoveries. My curiosity was initially piqued by Mind Wide Open, and I haven't been satisfied since. There are so many new advances and discoveries in the area of neuroscience! Personally, my excitement stems from the idea that what we know about the brain gives insight into human behavior and ethics. We cannot know how best to live without first knowing how we function as human beings. It's hard to improve yourself when you don't know where you are starting from.

In any case, in celebration of the brain--and of thoughts and dreams in general--please enjoy the below images, via the Allen Brain Institute (link):

Art Heist!!

2010-05-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

I love art. And yet, I also love art heists. What is wrong with me?

In any case, here are the paintings that were stolen from Paris' Museum of Modern Art over the weekend. If your were coveting any of these, they are now officially available on the black market.

They are:
Modigliani's "Woman with Fan"
Leger's "Still Life with Candlestick"
Picasso's "Dove with Green Peas"
Matisse's "Pastoral"
Braque's "Olive Tree near l'Estaque"

Which is your favorite? Or, rather, if you were the thief, which one would you keep for yourself? : )

A (Very) Brief History of Badminton

2010-05-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

The esteemed and highly-respectable sport of Badminton was invented in the mid-18th Century by English soldiers stationed in the India colonies. The inventors basically just added a net to an older British game called (I’m not making this up), “Battlecore and Shuttlecock”. According to early drawings, that game looks quite a mess, but Badminton was a gentlemen’s game from the start.

The sport was officially launched back in England in 1873 when the Duke of Beaufort opened the Badminton House at Gloucestershire, the first badminton club. Over the next 50 years, rules became more and more uniform and rigid. In 1934, the Badminton World Federation was established among Canada, Denmark, England, France, Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. This organization now governs international badminton and develops the sport on the global scene.

Some fun facts:
*To determine which side serves first, a shuttlecock is served and wherever the shuttlecock is pointing, that side begins.
*When playing repeated matches between the same players, each individual game is called a “rubber.”
*The most powerful stroke in Badminton is the “smash”, whereby a player hits the shuttlecock in an overhand manner, smashing it to the court just over the net. The world record for the fastest recorded game-time smash belongs to Fu Haifeng of China, whose shuttlecock was clocked at 206 miles per hour.

How It Happened

2010-05-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

It was a sunny, summer day in Paradise (nine years ago today!). He was tall (still is) and dressed all in black (I like to think I’ve improved his wardrobe). He was smoking (yick). I had no idea that one week later I would be falling madly in love with him and that before the year was out we would be married.

He was immediately useful. I promptly locked myself out of my dorm room (in the men’s dorm?!) and he helped me find someone to let me back in. And he lent me his copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide, which I’d been meaning to read for ages. He organized games of Trivial Pursuit in the evenings (when in doubt, “Abraham Lincoln” is always a good guess).

One week after our initial meeting, we went on our first date (summer romances have short timelines). We caught the shuttle down the mountain into the big city of Ashford, WA (population: 267). We walked and talked (at the same time!), stopping in at the General Store for a snack. He bought me a popsicle (multi-colored, but NOT red, white, and blue!) which we shared as we walked back to the shuttle to catch a ride back up to Paradise. All I remember about the ride back up the mountain is that I was trying desperately to get up the nerve to hold his hand. I was smitten (still am).

That was how it happened.

Picasso is not my friend

2010-05-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

My first 12 hours in Vienna were not very excellent. First we got lost trying to find the hotel in the dark after traveling by train from Hungary, then we slept (I was jet-lagged and kept waking up), then we went out into the beautiful Viennese morning and visited a Picasso exhibit at the Albertina. Not so great. Picasso is not one of those painters who painted just a few very good paintings. He painted a million paintings*, many of them less than awesome. After spending the morning looking at Picasso's strange rendition of sex in painting after painting after painting, I was ready to not eat lunch and go do something less disturbing. Luckily, Vienna had a lot more in store. All told, it is one of my very favorite cities.

This week, Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" sold at auction for a record $106.5 million. This one, I like. Not that it's worth that much, but at least is isn't disturbing to look at just after breakfast. : )

*Possible slight exaggeration

The Longer I Blog, the Crazier I Get...

2010-03-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

This is what brought it on:
The Bloggess (an avid blogger and twitterer (tweeter?)) started a bit of a ruckus yesterday when she randomly wondered what would happen if she started a random 15-minute zombie apocalypse over twitter. Well, results are here. Such fun!

In any case, it made me wonder if maybe I was missing something by not being a twitter-ite (twit? twitterererer?). So. I signed up. My twitterific name is thinklikeajill. Wouldn't let me have any more characters than that. Also, I have no followers.

For any readers who live in a cave somewhere, I should explain that Twitter is a social networking program that allows you to post 140-character updates around the clock. Anyone who wants to regularly read your updates would be a "follower". Twitter came to be in 2006. It was the result of a brainstorm session (isn't everything?) of Odeo company and was initially called "Status" and then "Twitch" before they settled on "Twitter" (seriously--they used a thesaurus).

I'll keep you updated on how this little social experiment goes.

Above: The Twitter FailWhale. This image comes up on your screen whenever Twitter's servers are so overwhelmed with tweets, they just can't take it any more.

My New Hobby

2010-03-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

I counted. Since the inception of this blog, I have written 16 entries about kayaking. I have used the words kayak or kayaking 41 times. I have made a lot of progress between the 03/05/08 entry, “With Friends Like These” an the 12/31/09 entry “10 Things I have loved about 2009.” And I am sure I will make further progress.

In the meantime, however, I seem to have acquired a new addiction: biking!

My dear cousin John (bike mechanic, world-class chef, and all-around renaissance man) helped me find a bike last weekend (thanks to Captain Awesome's constant nagging). It is a lovely black road bike with upright handlebars. I was not sure at first if I would love this new hobby, but now I can’t stop thinking about it! Last weekend I went on three separate rides, logging over 25 miles, and I am sure this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Happily Never After

2010-02-25T17:19:00.000-08:00

Seven months ago I posted this video. Just found a rebuttal, and thought I'd share. Yes, it's cynical and silly, but it's also well done. And it is true that happilyeverafter is a myth (except in my case, of course--exception to the rules, as ever). : )

New Blogs

2010-02-03T13:17:00.000-08:00

To keep track of life's adventures, some friends and I have put together a couple new blogs. Feel free to follow along with our various adventures!

This one you may already know about: www.theriverlog.blogspot.com
It provides updates of all our whitewater adventures.

New! www.madmileage.blogspot.com
This one will keep you updated on all the biking madness

New! www.fancypaperplate.blogspot.com
A blog about the FPPC, our local cooking club.

Enjoy!

The Master of Metaphor

2010-01-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

Let's get dangerous!

How to Have Yourself Cryonically Preserved

2010-01-18T14:17:00.000-08:00

Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals after death. Proponents of cryonics believe that what we consider legal death is really just an excuse for the medical community to give up on saving sick people. It is certainly true that death is a bit difficult to define by medical standards. It’s not terribly uncommon for hearts to stop and then start up again, or for brains to go dead, but hearts to go on a-beating indefinitely. Thus, figuring out exactly when a person is really dead is tough. After all, most of the time when a person is declared legally dead, nearly all of their cells are still living. For these reasons, hundreds of people have decided that the best thing to do is to have their bodies frozen immediately after their legal death, in the hopes that the technology to revive them and then heal them will someday be available.

Theory
The central premise of cryonics is that memory, personality, and identity are stored in the cellular structures and chemistry of the brain. Proponents claim preservation of this information is sufficient to prevent information-theoretic death until future repairs might be possible. Information-Theoretic Death is a counter-point to Legal Death. It is the destruction of the human brain (or any cognitive structure capable of constituting a person) and the information within it to such an extent that recovery of the original person is theoretically impossible. The concept of information-theoretic death arose in the 1990s in response to the problem that as medical technology advances, conditions previously considered to be death, such as cardiac arrest, become reversible and are no longer considered to be death.

Obstacles
There are three primary obstacles to cryopreservation at this time. The first is preservation injury. Though the preservation process is intended as a life-saving procedure, there are side effects. Damage from freezing can be serious; ice may form between cells, causing mechanical and chemical damage. Cryoprotectant solutions are circulated through blood vessels to remove and replace water inside cells with chemicals that prevent freezing. This can reduce damage greatly, but freezing of whole people still causes injuries that are not reversible with present technology. In addition to damage from freezing, further damage can be caused by ischemia, lack of oxygen-rich blood circulating in the body for the period of time before the preservation process can begin. Several cryonics organizations now utilize standby-teams who are on hand to begin the process of preservation as soon as possible after the heart stops. For legal (and ethical?) reasons, it is not permissible to begin the cryonics process before legal death has been declared.

The final—and perhaps most disconcerting—obstacle to cryonics is that we don’t currently have the technology for successful revival. Revival requires repairing damage from lack of oxygen, cryoprotectant toxicity, thermal stress (fracturing), freezing in tissues that do not successfully vitrify, and reversing the effects that caused the patient's death. In many cases extensive tissue regeneration will be necessary.

It has often been written that cryonics revival will be a last-in-first-out process. In this view, preservation methods will get progressively better until eventually they are demonstrably reversible, after which medicine will begin to reach back and revive people cryopreserved by more primitive methods. Revival of people cryopreserved by the current practices may require centuries, if it is possible at all. Survival would then depend on whether preserved brain information was sufficient to permit restoration of all or part of the personal identity of the original person.

Still Interested?
The cryonics field seems to have largely consolidated around three non-profit groups, Alcor, Cryonics Institute, and the American Cryonics Society. These are the folks you need to talk to if you want to pursue cryonics for yourself. Costs vary greatly, ranging from $28,000 to $155,000. To some extent these cost differences reflect variations in how fees are quoted. Some organizations don’t include “standby” (a team that begins procedures at bedside), transportation costs, or funeral director expenses in the quoted price, which must be purchased as extras.

While cryonics is sometimes suspected of being greatly profitable, the high expenses of doing cryonics are well documented. The expenses are comparable to major transplant surgeries. The largest single expense, especially for whole body cases, is the money that must be set aside to generate interest to pay for maintenance in perpetuity.

The most common method of paying for cryonics is life insurance, which spreads the cost over many years. Cryonics advocates are quick to point out that such insurance is especially affordable for young people. It has been claimed that cryonics is affordable for the vast majority of people in the industrialized world who really want it and plan for it in advance.

Very Bad Poetry

2010-01-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

From my friends at verybadpoetry.com, here are a few gems. Please feel free to share your own bad poetry in the comments. : )

The Story Of A Green M&M Juxtaposed With The Blue-Greenness Of Dill Weed
The M&M is small,
flying-saucer-like
the faded imprint of
the trademark "M"
glaring at the upper
portion of the room

Filamental crackly sort
of opaque plastic hovers
like an electric halo
over cardboard flaps:
Blue-green reeking
Kentucky-esque faux
landscape contained
within the static

Creeping up the wave
and frightening the M&M
into inferiority (it has
no smell) Dill Weed
in it's Rockfly-Nymph
imitation green facade
overpowers the room
and makes me think
of smalltown corner
stores in early September,
which brings me back
to the M&M.
~By Dolores Azul

Broken Television
Broken Television
We were more than just friends
O' baby
I feel the pain, without you
Broken heart, you know it's true
Set me free, heart to heart,
Kissing your lips makes me feel warm inside

Don't hide your love,
Goodbye my dove.

O'baby,

O'baby.
~by John Zodiac

The Boss, Part 1: The Early Years

2010-01-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

Who is the best musician/songwriter ever? Bruce Springsteen, of course. This fact is well-known and undisputed. Nevertheless, many people are ignorant about his early life and rise to fame. Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born in Long Branch, NJ. His parents were of Dutch/Irish and Italian ancestry, and his surname is actually Dutch for “stepping stone.” Springsteen was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school. He was at odds with his religious education early in life, but more recent musical output seems to show he has made some sort of peace with it. His high school teachers say he was a loner who never wanted to do anything other than play his guitar (feel free to hum “No Surrender” here). Though he completed graduation, he skipped the graduation ceremony.

His first small break was thanks to a couple named Tex and Marion Vinyard who sponsored young bands in town. They helped him secure a place as lead guitarist and lead singer of The Castiles. That band recorded two original songs and played a variety of local venues in Jersey. The Vinyards have said that they knew right away that Springsteen would make it big.

The Boss was inducted into the army at the age of 19, but failed the physical examination, so never had to serve in Vietnam. The way he tells the story, he suffered a concussion in a motorcycle accident at 17; that together with his ‘crazy’ behavior at the physical and his refusal to take any test was enough to earn him a 4F.

In the late ‘60s, he performed briefly with a group called Earth, still playing gigs around New Jersey. At this time he acquired the nickname “the Boss” because he took it upon himself to collect the nightly pay and distribute it amongst the other band members. For the next several years, Springsteen played with a variety of different acts, including Steel Mill, Dr Zoom & Sonic Boom, Sundance Blues Band, and finally, the Bruce Springsteen Band, which eventually morphed into the E Street Band.

Springsteen signed his first record deal with Columbia Records in 1972. His debut album was Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ and was a success among critics, though sales were slow. The follow-up album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was also critically acclaimed, but had little commercial success. Later, however, songs from these albums such as “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” and “Rosalita” would become fan favorites.

In the May 22, 1974, issue of Boston's The Real Paper, music critic Jon Landau wrote about a show he had recently seen: "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time.” The band’s next album was Born to Run. The record was an epic struggle to produce, but an epic success as well. It peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200.

More to come!

10 things I have loved about 2009

2009-12-31T12:31:00.001-08:00

1. Falling in love with Swedish pop music
2. Eating a “classic” club sandwich (with curry!) at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen
3. Pulling off a sick combat roll amidst the 7-foot waves that make up Triple Bridges Rapid in the Alberton Gorge (the later swims at Tumbleweed and Fang do not make this list).
4. Riding “The Daemon” at Tivoli – sans shoes.
5. Camping with the Warner family in Montana, under the parachute, in the rain.
6. Eating deep-fried dill pickles in Eatonville for the first (but definitely not the last) time.
7. Beating my Bloomsday personal best!
8. Flying home from Europe in a nearly-empty plane (Lots of leg room, great customer service, and we saw Greenland!)
9. Watching hours and hours of fireworks on the beach July 2nd-4th.
10. Getting caught in the craziest downpour I’ve ever seen…while up on the roof (or lack there-of) of my parents house.

My Favorite Song of the Moment

2009-12-19T19:33:00.000-08:00

Don't go making assumptions about my relationships, just 'cause I like the song. For some reason, I just can't stop grinning whenever I hear it!

Thanks to Mom and the Bloggess for turning me on to the Mountain Goats.

The Great Canadian Flag Debate

2009-12-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

What most of you probably don’t know (because you have very busy and exciting lives that, unfortunately, inhibit the amount of useless historical factoids you can accumulate), is that the classic Canadian flag—complete with signature maple leaf—was only adopted by the Great White North after a bitter, 6-month debate in the House of Commons, which ended in cloture on December 15th, 1964. For much of its post-Confederation history, Canada used both the Royal Union Flag (Union Jack) and the Canadian Red Ensign (somehow both cluttered and empty—see below). The Royal Union flag was the premier national flag until the mid-1920s; it was the heavy favorite of the pro-imperialists. In the 1940s, however, the Red Ensign became the national flag. Still, there were several national political movements over the years that were built specifically around the idea of creating a unique Canadian flag. In 1958, an extensive poll was taken of the attitudes that Canadians held toward the flag. Over 80% of people polled wanted a national flag entirely different from that of any other nation, and 60% wanted their flag to bear the maple leaf.

Finally, after much ballyhooing and whatnot, a committee was formed to come up with a new Canadian flag. During the next six weeks the committee held 35 tormenting meetings. Thousands of suggestions also poured in from the public.
3,541 entries were submitted, many containing common elements:
• 2,136 contained maple leaves
• 408 contained Union Jacks
• 389 contained beavers
• 359 contained Fleurs-de-lys

At the last minute, a flag designed by historian George Stanley was slipped into the mix. The design put forward had a single red maple leaf on a white plain background, flanked by two red borders, based on the design of the flag of the Royal Military College. The voting was held on October 22, 1964, when the committee’s final contest pitted the Pearson’s Pennant (see below) against Stanley’s design. Assuming that the Liberals would vote for the Prime Minister’s design (Pearson’s), the Conservatives backed Stanley. They were out-maneuvered by the Liberals who had agreed with others to choose the Stanley Maple Leaf flag. The Liberals voted for the red and white flag, making the selection unanimous (14–0).

Since the adoption of the flag, some have pointed out that by the process of figure-ground reversal, the flag design can be seen as a profile picture of two angry men, who have been nicknamed Jack and Jacques in an allusion to Canada's linguistic and cultural duality.

Why Adventure is Good for You

2009-12-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

Hello World!

Welcome back to Think Like a Jillian (honestly, I can’t believe you are still checking this blog. Don’t you have life??). Yes, I’ve been off-line for awhile. There was a minor blip in my professional life that has since been worked out and I am back to being your favorite blogger!

As many of you know, travel is one of my favorite hobbies. I recently read a fabulous article about travel and the science of travel. Excerpts are below. (Via Jonah)

It's 4:15 in the morning, and my alarm clock has just stolen away a lovely dream. My eyes are open but my pupils are still closed, so all I see is gauzy darkness. For a brief moment, I manage to convince myself that my wakefulness is a mistake, and that I can safely go back to sleep. But then I roll over and see my zippered suitcase, bulging with too many little tubes of toothpaste. I let out a sleepy groan: I'm going to the airport.

The taxi is late. There should be an adjective (a synonym of sober, only worse) to describe the state of mind that comes from waiting in the orange glare of a streetlight before drinking a cup of coffee. And then the taxi gets lost. And then I get nervous, be- cause my flight leaves in an hour. And then we're here, and I'm hurtled into the harsh in- candescence of Terminal B, running with a suitcase so that I can wait in a long security line. My belt buckle sets off the metal detector, my four-ounce stick of deodorant is confiscated, and my left sock has a gaping hole.

And then I get to the gate. By now, you can probably guess the punch line of this very banal story: my flight has been canceled. I will be stuck in this terminal for the next 218 minutes, my only consolation a cup of caffeine and a McGriddle sandwich. And then I will miss my connecting flight and wait, in a different city with the same menu, for another plane. And then, fourteen hours later, I'll be there.

Why do we travel? It's not the flying I mind--I will always be awed by the physics that get a fat metal bird into the upper troposphere. The rest of the journey, however, can feel like a tedious lesson in the ills of modernity, from the predawn x-ray screening to the sad airport malls peddling crappy souvenirs. It's globalization in a nutshell, and it sucks. And yet here we are, herded in ever-greater numbers onto planes that stay the same size. Sometimes, of course, we travel because we have to. Because in this digital age there is still something important about the analog handshake. Or eating Mom's turkey on Thanksgiving. Or seeing the girl- friend during her semester break.

But most travel isn't non-negotiable. (In 2008, only 30 percent of trips over fifty miles were done for business.) Instead, we travel because we want to, because the annoyances of the airport are outweighed by the visceral thrill of being someplace new. Because work is stressful and our blood pressure is too high and we need a vacation. Because home is boring. Because the flights were on sale. Because Paris is Paris.

Travel, in other words, is a basic human desire. We're a migratory species, even if our migrations are powered by jet fuel and Chicken McNuggets. But here's my question: is this collective urge to travel - to put some distance between ourselves and everything we know--still a worthwhile compulsion? Or is it like the taste for saturated fat, one of those instincts we should have left behind in the Pleistocene epoch? Because if travel is just about fun then I think the TSA killed it.

The good news, at least for those of you reading this while stuck on a tarmac eating stale pretzels, is that pleasure is not the only consolation of travel. In fact, several new science papers suggest that getting away—and it doesn't even matter where you're going--is an essential habit of effective thinking. It's not about vacation, or relaxation, or sipping daiquiris on an unspoiled tropical beach: it's about the tedious act itself, putting some miles between home and wherever you hap-pen to spend the night.

Let's begin with the most literal aspect of travel, which is that it's a verb of movement. Thanks to modern engine technology, we can now move through space at an inhuman speed. The average walk covers three miles per hour, which is two hundred times slower than the cruising speed of a Boeing 737. There's something inherently useful about such speedy movement, which allows us to switch our physical locations with surreal ease. For the first time in human history, we can outrun the sun and segue from one climate to another in a single day.

The reason such travels are mentally useful involves a quirk of cognition, in which problems that feel "close"--and the closeness can be physical, temporal, or even emotional--get contemplated in a more concrete manner. As a result, when we think about things that are nearby, our thoughts are constricted, bound by a more limited set of associations. While this habit can be helpful--it allows us to focus on the facts at hand--it also inhibits our imagination. Consider a field of corn. When you're standing in the middle of the field, surrounded by the tall cellulose stalks and fraying husks, the air smelling faintly of fertilizer and popcorn, your mind is automatically drawn to thoughts that revolve around the primary meaning of corn, which is that it's a plant, a cereal, a staple of Midwestern farming.

But now imagine that same field of corn from a different perspective. Instead of standing on a farm, you're now in the midst of a crowded city street, dense with taxis and pedestrians. (And yet, for some peculiar reason, you're still thinking about corn.) The plant will no longer just be a plant: instead, your vast neural network will pump out all sorts of associations. You'll think about high-fructose corn syrup, obesity, and Michael Pollan; you'll contemplate ethanol and the Iowa caucus, those corn mazes for kids at state fairs and the deliciousness of succotash, made with bacon and lima beans. The noun is now a web of tangents, a loom of remote connections.

…

Of course, it's not enough to simply get on a plane: if we want to experience the creative benefits of travel, then we have to re-think its raison d' ètre. Most people, after all, escape to Paris so they don't have to think about those troubles they left behind. But here's the ironic twist: our mind is most likely to solve our stubbornest problems while sitting in a swank Left Bank café. So instead of contemplating that buttery croissant, we should be mulling over those domestic riddles we just can't solve.

The larger lesson, though, is that our thoughts are shackled by the familiar. The brain is a neural tangle of near infinite possibility, which means that it spends a lot of time and energy choosing what not to notice. As a result, creativity is traded away for efficiency; we think in literal prose, not symbolist poetry. A bit of distance, however, helps loosen the chains of cognition, making it easier to see some-thing new in the old; the mundane is grasped from a slightly more abstract perspective. As T. S. Eliot wrote in the Four Quartets: "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

(There’s more! [here])

A thought on health care reform

2009-11-04T10:22:00.001-08:00

The Reason for the Season

2009-10-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

Halloween is awesome! I couldn't resist posting this. : )

30 Second Bunnies

2009-10-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a film comes out and the previews look good, but you never get around to seeing it. With so much to do each day, it can be hard to find two hours to spare to sit around watching movies. Realizing this (and also realizing that just about anything can be improved with bunnies), Angry Alien Productions has begun producing 30-second versions of all the hit films, only with all the characters replaced with bunnies. Sounds like the perfect solution, right? My favorites are below. More are here.

Time to Update Our Currency?

2009-10-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Countries around the world (and in Europe, especially) have recently been updating or redesigning their paper currency for a more unique, modern look. Though we in the States have made some small changes to our larger bills over the past few years, our dollars still look awfully old-fashioned. Designers around the world have suggestions for us, however. What do you think of these designs?

Colorful?

Upright?

My favorite:

More info and designs are here.

Fun with Fonts!

2009-10-05T13:37:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of fonts. Of the classic Microsoft Word package, I’ve always loved Goudy Old Style, Perteptua, and Century Schoolbook. Most of the rest, however, are either too ridiculous to ever use or just plain boring after all these years. So I’ve taken the time to discover some new ones available on the market.

I usually find script fonts to be obnoxious, either because they are too small to read or too flowery. But these are delicious:

I’ve also found I prefer serif to sans serif:

But here are a couple sans serif fonts I like:

And a few funs ones for you:

More new fonts are here. Enjoy!

Silly Research that I Love

2009-10-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

1) Do Dead Fish Think?
Researcher Craig Bennett and team recently did a very interesting study regarding the emotional and cognitive capacity of dead fish. The researchers took a dead pacific salmon and put it in an fMRI machine. They then proceeded to show the dead salmon photos of people in social situations with specific emotional outcomes. After allowing the dead fish to examine the photo for several seconds, the researchers asked it to determine what emotion the person in the photo was experiencing. The salmon didn't speak, of course, but thought processes were recorded on the fMRI. The researchers found that the fMRI did, in fact, light up several times when the dead fish was considering emotions (photo below). The conclusion to be made, however, is less about the thought processes and brain activity of dead salmon, and more about the limitations of fMRI research.

2) The Topography of Breakfast
Researcher Mark Fonstad and team also put together some interesting research recently. They set out to determine if Kansas really is--as many people assert--"flatter than a pancake". Researchers purchased a well-cooked pancake from a local IHOP and collected macro-pancake topography through digital image processing. They then measured a west-east profile across Kansas taken from merged 1:250,000 scale digital elevation model data from the United States Geological Survey. Upon comparison of the two topographies, it was clearly visible that, although both pancakes and Kansas are very flat, Kansas is most definitely the flatter of the two.

I like my wikipedia stir-fried, with pimientos...

2009-09-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is longish (20 mins), but it's a fabulous talk about kindness and connectivity on the internet. I love it because it relates much more closely with my own experience on the interwebs than do the usual reports that google is making us dumber or that twitter and facebook are giving us all ADD. Also, it's funny!!

A Public Service Announcement

2009-09-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers, please watch this important safety announcement.
Listen and learn--your life maybe the next to be saved.

A Hot Dog Primer

2009-09-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

Who doesn’t love a hot dog? Even though the ingredient list is a little scary, we still can’t keep from eating them every once in awhile (or in Gordon’s case, constantly). But how much do you really know about hot dogs? Aren’t there are some vast gaps in your knowledge of hot dogs just crying out to be filled? Well, today is your lucky day!

A hot dog (also, frankfurter, frank, wiener, etc) is a moist sausage of soft, even texture and flavor. Typically made from mechanically separated meat (known in the business as “meat slurry”), hot dogs are always sold pre-cooked, cured, or smoked. Hot dogs are usually placed inside a hot-dog-specific soft, sliced bun and eaten with your hands. These fine delicacies are often accompanied by an array of condiments, including mustard, ketchup, onion, mayo, relish, cheese, and chili. The flavor of the hot dog varies from bland bologna to spicy German bratwurst varieties. They are usually made from beef, chicken, or turkey, although vegetarian hot dogs, made from meat analogue (a good name for an uber-feminist punk rock band, no?), are also available.

It is difficult to assess just when and where the hot dog was invented, in part because various stories assert creation of the sausage, the placing of the sausage in a bun as finger food, the popularizing of the existing dish, or the application of the name “hot dog” to the sausage and bun combination.

The word “frankfurter” comes from Frankfurt, Germany, of course, where sausages in a bun originated. These were similar to hot dogs, but were made from pork. “Wieners” refers to Vienna, Austria (Vienna’s German name is “Wien”), home to a mixed sausage of beef and pork. The creation of the hot dog has also been ascribed to the wife of a German named Antonione Feuchtwanger (go ahead and say that name out loud, you know you want to), who sold hot dogs on the streets of St. Louis in 1880. Apparently, street vendors used to sell hot sausages and provided little white gloves that customers could wear to keep the treat from burning their fingers. However, when too many customers began making off with the gloves, Mrs. Feuchtwanger (say it!) had the idea of putting the sausages in a bun instead.

The first recorded usage of “hot dog” in reference to the sausage/bun combination appeared in 1893 in the Knoxville Journal:

“It was so cool last night that the appearance of overcoats was common, and stoves and grates were again brought into comfortable use. Even the weinerwurst men began preparing to get the ‘hot dogs’ ready for sale Saturday night.”

I can only assume it was a slow news day in Knoxville.

Hot dogs are prepared commercially by mixing the ingredients (meats, spices, binders and fillers) in vats where rapidly moving blades grind and mix the ingredients together. This mixture is then forced through tubes into casings for cooking. Most hot dogs sold in the US are called "skinless" as opposed to more expensive "natural casing" hot dogs. Natural casing hot dogs, of course, are cooked inside of the thoroughly cleaned small intestines of sheep, however, this type of casing is unusual in the US markets. The more-popular skinless hot dogs are cooked inside a casing of thin cellulose, but that casing is removed prior to the sale of the hot dog. Skinless hot dogs have a softer bite than natural casing hot dogs and are more uniform in size and shape.

Hot dogs may be grilled, steamed, boiled, barbecued, pan fried, deep fried, broiled, or microwaved. Regarding condiments, in the US, the National Sausage and Hot Dog Council conducted a poll in 2005, which found mustard to be the most popular condiment (32 percent). Twenty-three percent of Americans said they preferred ketchup. Chili came in third at 17 percent, followed by relish at 9 percent and onions at 7 percent.

There! You learned something new today! Now don’t you feel better??

Summer Reading Reviews

2009-09-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

When I left my job for the summer, I fully expected to spend my whole summer filling up the blanks in my time by reading book after book after book. After all, I’d just completed my first quarter of grad school and was sure to need continuing intellectual stimulation throughout the summer, right? Not so much. I didn’t even want to touch a book for the first month. In August, I read my way through about ten Agatha Christie novels, not exactly an academic endeavor. Finally, with only about two weeks left of my summer vacation, it hit me. I was finally hungry for some high-quality, educational non-fiction and I couldn’t get enough of it. Luckily, I found two books to devour during those weeks and both turned out to be fabulous.

1. The Billionaire’s Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace

Reading The Billionaire’s Vinegar is like stepping into another world, the world of old and rare wines and the eccentrics worldwide who clamor for them. The book is primarily an account of the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold, a 1787 bottle of Château Lafite Bordeaux that was found perfectly preserved in a hidden cellar in Paris and was believed to have been owned by none other than our own Thomas Jefferson. The bottle was purchased at a Christie’s auction in London in 1985 after a quickly-escalating bidding war. It was purchased for about $156,000 by the Forbes family, and remains the most expensive bottle ever sold. The story doesn’t end there, however. Wallace traces the myriad scandals and mysteries surrounding this bottle and others found in the Jefferson cache, which range from theories about thieving Nazis to insurance fraud to wine counterfeiting. It’s a delicious read (with a mild bouquet of blackberries, persimmons, and burned charcoal!); I suggest reading it with a glass of wine on hand, otherwise you will end up drooling on the pages!

Oh yes, and the question on your mind right now, I assume, is “So? Did they drink it? Did it still taste like wine?” But the answer is disappointing. The Forbes family brought the bottle—which had been perfectly preserved for two centuries—home to the States and displayed it in their showroom in New York. Standing upright. Under a spotlight. In a matter of weeks the old cork had shriveled and fallen in the bottle and the wine was spoiled.

2. The Canon by Natalie Angiers

The Canon purports to be a “whirligig tour through the beautiful basics of science” which, though laudable, did not necessarily intrigue me. I love science, but I have always felt that Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything pretty much had the bases covered on the subject. But I picked up Angiers' challenge at a bookstore and started browsing the pages—and was soon hooked. Where Bryson is a master storyteller, Angiers is a master of metaphor and elucidation. Rather than smooth over the complicated theories and formulas of difficult science, she finds a way to unlock them so the reader can understand. I feel like I understand electricity now, even at the atomic level. In fact, now I realize that without appreciating how electricity works at the atomic level, you can’t really fully grasp it at all. Not that I drew a complete blank on the subject before reading Angiers' explanation, but I certainly couldn’t have explained it to anyone else with clarity or certainty. Now I can. Angiers wrote the book for all of us adults who love learning and science, but barely passed our high school science classes and then left the topic behind for good (I got a C in Genetics, which I thought was pretty good considering I had actually paid another classmate to complete my stupid drosophila melanogaster project).

My absolute favorite part of this book, however, is Angiers’ enlightened account of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. I am not even kidding. She somehow weaves this law into the very fabric of existence, explaining both the tragedy of it and the ultimate hope. It nearly moved me to tears. You have to read this book.

Train Station Silliness

2009-08-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

What is it about crazy impromptu dancing in train stations that just makes me smile? This one comes to us from Belgium. Enjoy!

More Swedish Music

2009-08-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

My friend Lonny got me on a Swedish music kick, but my sister Jaima found this particular band. I love this song! Tell me what you think (and yes, Troy, there is more funny dancing for you).

Best. Wedding Video. Ever.

2009-07-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

A couple dear friends just got engaged yesterday, so maybe that's why I have weddings on my mind. In any case, I hope (and suspect) theirs will be as much fun as this:

Yet Another Paddlesports Post (I need a new hobby)

2009-07-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

Here are the promised photos from the Second Annual Ross Lake Canoe Extravaganza 2009!

Wow, just wow. Gordon after a swim near Big Beaver Creek. Okay, ladies, that's enough staring, move on.

One of the most beautiful camp spots in the world, yes? At Tenmile Island.

Jillian paddling with North Cascades views.

A rapid on Big Beaver Creek that Gordon wanted to try running in the canoe. Jillian said...um...no.

What we did when we weren't paddling, hiking or swimming. Gordon reading Agatha Christie. Note: The murderer wasn't who we thought! Damn red herrings!

I HAVE A NEW BOAT!!!

2009-07-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you who hadn't heard, my beloved Wavesport EZG 50 developed a crack last week and had to be warrantied. I had only owned it for 10 months, so there were no problems. Four days later I received a new boat (thank you Lonny @ Mountain Goat!). The best part is, because the EZG was discontinued earlier this year, I received the newer, better, awesomer, smarter, and more handsome version: the Wavesport Fuse 48! I was worried about the color--I didn't get to choose and I would have hated to get puke green or something. But, my new boat is beautiful sunshine yellow just like my beloved old one! Photos are below.

Also, just a side note: Captain Awesome and I have been keeping a written log for the past year to track all of our river time, but just yesterday we finally ran out of space in the dang thing. So we've decided to start an online version. I am sure no one will find this an interesting read other than the two of us, but nevertheless, if you want to follow along with our crazy whitewater adventures, The River Log is the place to find us.

Kayaking Photos--Finally!

2009-07-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

I have been kayaking on the river for about a year now, but we had yet to get any photos of the event. We finally got a few yesterday, thanks to my sister Cait who followed along with us whitewater 'yakers in an inflatable kayak (IK). Unfortunatly, we didn't notice the camera settings were off a bit until we were nearly done with the run (hence the blurry ones). Still--enjoy! I am in the orange kayak with blue gear. Gordon is in the yellow kayak with red gear (with or without a paddle!). And that is Caitlin in the IK.

Absolutly Priceless

2009-07-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

My friends El and Curtis are raft guiding on the Clark Fork river this summer and had a great treat last week taking a group of nuns down the river. This picture...there just aren't words : ).

Life Update

2009-06-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

First: Kayaking. When I first started kayaking on the river last summer, it terrified me. I was so scared going through rapids that I had a hard time remembering to paddle! Even after doing about 15 river runs last fall, I still had The Fear. I stopped paddling around Halloween last fall, which limited my kayak time to the Wednesday night Open Pool sessions at Eastern. Over the course of the winter, I perfected my roll, got a pretty solid off-sides roll, and even learned a couple tricks. I was still very nervous to get back on the river the first time this spring, but it has turned out to be great! Somewhere between October and June I developed some serious river confidence—I have no idea where it came from! Gordon doesn’t have to drag me out on the river anymore; I am always excited to go. I can read and run rapids on my own now instead of following Gordon through everything. It’s been a very fun spring! So far I have just been paddling the Upper Spokane—a Class II river—but it sounds like I will be trying out some Class III stuff and maybe even a IV or two before summer’s end. Seriously, you guys have to try this sport!

School: I finished my first quarter of grad school earlier this month. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed myself. I took two classes, Public Administration Research Methods and Public Policy Cycles. Both classes were amazing—I had a great professor and met some really fun folks. There was a ton of reading to do each week and several major presentations and papers, but I got through without too much stress. Actually, considering the fact that I missed a week and a half of class while traveling in Europe, I guess I should feel pretty good. I am really looking forward to starting up again in the fall. I will be taking Concepts and Values of Public Service, Personal Assessment, and Public Personnel Management. I have heard great things about the professors I will have.

Work: Only 2.5 days left and I am off for the summer!!! It still feels a bit crazy; I haven’t had a summer off in a long time. I wonder what I will do with myself. Hopefully, I will get a lot of reading and kayaking done. I have had this job for 10 months now and I really love it. I work with a great team of people and the atmosphere is very warm and friendly. I am sure that I will be itching to get back to work long before I am due back in September.

Which brings us to…
Vacations: I have three planned so far. This week I leave for a girls’ weekend on the Washington Coast. My sisters, a few friends, and I will spend the 4th at a beach house in Ocean Park. I am looking forward to sitting in the sand, reading some great summer books, and watching fireworks on the beach! Two weeks later, I am heading to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. I’ve always wanted to go. We will go camping, see all the cool geographic sites, and explore the lave tube caves!! It’s a long drive to get there, but I am sure it will be worth it. Finally, at the end of July, Captain Awesome and I are planning to head to Ross Lake again for our second annual backcountry canoe trip. We had such a wonderful time there last year; we are really excited to go back!

Well there you have it: my life has been updated. : )

Science Scouts!!

2009-06-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

I am waaay into science. Love reading about it, anyway—-never been very good at actually doing it. So here’s the club for me and all you other science geeks: The Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique. It’s just like Boy Scouts but with way more interesting badges! Here are a few you can earn:

The “quantum mechanics… I soooo get it” badge.
And not afraid to make fun of those who don't!

The “I’m a marine biologist and, to be honest, I kind of f***ing hate dolphins” badge.
A more common sentiment than you would think.

The “broken heart for science” badge.
In which the recipient's passion for science has led to their significant other leaving.

The “I’ve eaten what I study” badge.
Recipients have prepared their object of study as a cuisine item for eating. Hopefully, the minority of MD’s are ineligible for this one.

The “somewhat confused as to what scientific field I actually belong to” badge.
Also known as the transdiscplinary, interdiscplinary, multidisciplinary, or intradisciplinary badge.

The “I work with way too much radioactivity, and yet still no discernable superpowers yet” badge.
…Although not for lack of trying…

The “destroyer of quackery” badge.
In which the recipient never ever backs down from an argument that pits sound science over quackery.

The “totally digs highly exothermic reactions” badge.
Might be best to keep an eye on such recipients.

The “sexing up science” badge.
In which the recipient has had experience with things such as selective breeding, crossing, mate selection, prokaryotic conjugation, fertility studies, STD related microbiology, and/or any other acceptable interpretation of the badge.

And my personal favorite:

The “I blog about science” badge.
In which the recipient maintains a blog where at least a quarter of the material is about science. Suffice to say, this does not include scientology.

More hilarious badges are here.

Dancing is Contagious

2009-06-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

It's not just illness and laughter that is contagious. Humans are social beings and sometimes we just can't help ourselves : ). This just in from The Frontal Cortex:

This reminds me of the classic Milgram study on social conformity. In this study, Milgram had "confederates" stop on a busy city street and look upwards at the sky. He demonstrated that when one person was looking up, 40 percent of passerby also looked up, just in case something interesting was happening. (There was nothing to look at, just sky and buildings.) When two people were looking up, 60 of passerby looked up. When there were three people, the percentage jumped to 65 percent, and when there were four people nearly 80 of strangers stopped and stared upwards.

This dance worked the same way. At a certain point, the group of awkward dancers becomes undeniable - they can no longer be ignored. And that is when the contagion begins. Once we start to wonder whether the dance is fun - or what that cluster of people is looking at - then it's only a matter of time before we too start to dance. Jane Jacobs, in other words, was right: "Life attracts life".

Here's the video--watch til the end:

The Gaslight Anthem

2009-06-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

If you are not already in love with Gaslight Anthem, you will be after watching this:

Seriously, if Brian Fallon flashes that amazing half-smile one more time, I'm going to pass out. : )

Improv Everywhere

2009-06-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have already heard about Improv Everywhere—it’s a cultural phenomenon (though not one that’s touched the NW much). Here’s how it works: Word gets around on the internet and through word of mouth that there is going to be an improv event. Regular folks show up at the appointed time—with the appropriate props, if necessary—to participate, usually not knowing what to expect. Once there, they are given instructions, which they carry out and then continue on their way. The most well-known event is the Central Station Freeze event in which over 200 people walking through New York’s Central Station froze simultaneously for five minutes, then walked away. It’s random for sure, but therein lies the fun!

A more recent event had over 3000 participants. Folks were instructed to show up at a NYC park wearing a specific color of tee-shirt. Before heading to the park, they were supposed to download an MP3 file to their MP3 players (but not listen to it). Once in the park, at exactly the appointed time, everyone hit “play”. They then played silly games of Simon Says, but silently. To any onlookers, it looked as though they were randomly acting in unison.

Here’s a video of the Central Station event, my personal favorite:

Literacy is cute

2009-06-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Couldn't help but share this one : )

glumbert - Literacy is cute

The Realm of Possibilities

2009-05-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Below is a wonderful essay written by one of TLaJ’s favorite guest-bloggers, Jaima. Enjoy!

I grew up in a small town. Actually, I grew up 15 miles outside of a small town. On a farm. In a log house. We did have electricity and indoor plumbing so it wasn’t exactly like Little House on the Prairie (although even now in the 21st century, my parents are trying to figure out how to survive in a high speed world when all they can get out there is very slooooooow dial-up). I didn’t mind it too much though. I didn’t know any different, and I’m kind of a homebody by nature anyway – I prefer staying home and reading books to socializing and shopping. In fact, when I moved to Idaho to go to college that was only the third state I’d ever been to and only the second time I’d been to Idaho. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. First, I had to get out of that small town. After graduating from high school, I took a big first step (at least for me) by moving to Wenatchee and attending Wenatchee Valley College. Neither of my parents had gone to college so I was what we now call a “first generation” college student. It was all new: applications, FAFSA, registration, renting an apartment. And to me Wenatchee was a big town! It was great; I met lots of new friends, took classes in subjects my small high school never had the resources to offer, and survived on less sleep than you’d think would be humanly possible. After getting my AAS degree, I spent a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer at my old grade school helping kids improve their reading skills. Then I moved to Idaho.

Part way through my first year at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa Idaho, I heard that one of the history professors was organizing a three-week study-abroad to Europe in the summer. I had a friend in high school who had vacationed in France with her family one summer, but her parents were doctors. I knew that traveling the world wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities - lots of people travel – it just never occurred to me that I could be one of those people. It never occurred to me that I might get the chance to travel. Or, rather, that it wouldn’t be chance. That I might actually make it happen.

I dragged my roommate along to the informational meeting, hoping she’d decide to do it and then would try to talk me into going with her. But she wasn’t really interested – she already had plans for the summer. I didn’t know very many of the other students who were going. And I had heard that this history professor was one of the toughest. The trip was going to cost a lot. I didn’t even speak a foreign language (my high school Spanish was a joke) and how could anyone get around in foreign country if they didn’t speak the language?!

But… I really wanted to go. I wanted to go to the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa and the other famous works of art I studied in my sophomore art history class. I wanted to see the Tuscany countryside that I’d read about in Frances Mayes’ book Under the Tuscan Sun. I wanted to see Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescos with my own eyes. I wanted to visit castles and cathedrals that were older than almost everything in the United States. A few weeks later, when the deposit was due, my reasons for wanting to go finally outweighed my worries and anxieties. That summer, those three weeks, everything I saw, everything I did made me realize my “realm of possibilities” was much bigger than I could imagine.

If I hadn’t taken that trip in college, I never would have learned that no, you don’t have to speak the language to survive in a foreign country (a smile and few choice words are handy though); you don’t have to know exactly what you’re eating to enjoy a meal (although goat cheese really shouldn’t be added to pizza); and any amount of heat, jet lag, and long lines is totally worth it (especially to finally get to see Michelangelo’s larger-than-life marble sculpture of David).

And if I hadn’t taken that trip I probably would never have traveled to Spain a few years later and stood among the 850 columns topped with red and white striped arches that fill the dimly lit Mezquita Cathedral in Cordoba; or experience iftar, the meal served to break the Ramadan fast, in Marrakesh’s Djemaa el-Fna square in Morocco; or sipped Hungarian wine at a café with views of the evening sun sparkling on the Danube river and Parliament building in Budapest; or kissed the Blarney stone in Ireland; or really learned the difference between a temple and a shrine by walking through the torii-filled Fushimi-inari Taisha shrine complex in Kyoto Japan, or ridden the Demon rollercoaster in Copenhagen's sparkling Tivoli amusement park in Denmark.

And if I hadn’t taken that trip, I would have lived my life without knowing I could do it.

Wednesday Night Madness

2009-05-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

So, this is where you'll find me every Wednesday night: at open pool at the EWU aquatic center. Captain Awesome runs things, teaches folks to roll, etc, while the rest of us just fool around. Some photos:

(Captain Awesome is in the maroon shirt)
(I am in the yellow boat, blue shirt)

Denmark/Sweden Photos

2009-05-01T07:50:00.001-07:00

Wind Machines in the Oresund Sound

Oresund Bridge to Malmo, Sweden

Palmhus

Statens Museum for Kunst

Getting friendly with the art

Famous Nyhaven Canal

Lattes in the small town of Helsingor (where Hamlet's castle is)

Fredericksborg Slot

Fredericksborg Gardens with views of Hillerod

Entrance to Tivoli, amusement park from the mid-1800s

"The Demon" (Yes, we rode it)

Tivoli at night

Danish Chair Designs

Copenhagen Views

Flying over Greenland

The Swedish Pop I Promised : )

2009-04-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

The band is Gyllene Tider. Song is "Sommartider" which means "Summertime."

Last Post from Denmark

2009-04-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

We've had some great final adventures here in Denmark. Yesterday we went to the Dansk Architectural Center and saw an incredible exhibit on building design called "Yes is More!". The design of the exhibit had a comic book feel to it. We really loved the futuristic building designs.

We also climbed to the top of a tall church dome here in the city. I've never been in such a long, narrow stairway--it was a bit scary, but lots of fun. The views were wonderful, of course. This city is very photogenic.

We finished up the day at the Christiansborg Ruins and Palace. This is the building where the Danish Parliament meets and the Queen has offices here as well. The current building dates from the early 1900s, so it isn't very old. However, this is the sixth castle to be built on this site. The first one, built in the 1100s was torn down by an invading army, another one was torn down on purpuse to build a bigger, better one. Two of the grandest versions burned in huge fires, within 60 years of each other. But, they just keep rebuilding the dang thing right back up on the same site. The current version is lovely.

Today we are off to catch a bit more art and hike up another church spire. We will be back stateside tomorrow!

The Little Mermaid

2009-04-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know, one of Denmark's favorite sons is Hans Christian Andersen, writer of semi-questionable children's tales such as The Little Matchstick Girl, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, and The Red Shoes. On that note, today we went to see one of Copenhagen's most famous landmarks, Den Lille Havfrue (the little mermaid). The statue sits on a rock on the edge of a canal, is just over life-sized, and is widely considered to be entirely underwhelming. In 1998 in the middle of the night, someone took a saw and decapitated the bronze statue. The next day international news services spread the gory scene around the world as divers search waters around the statue for clues to no avail. Three days later the severed head turned up in a box outside a Copenhagen TV station--and it was speedily reattached. That wasn't the first time the statue had been attacked. In 1964, the original head was lopped off and in 1983 an arm was sawed off, neither of which were found again. Both had to be recast and welded back on. Various paint+splashing episodes have also taken place over the years, and in 2003 she was 'loosened' from her mooring and shoved into the harbor. All that said, we thought she was alright.

Now we are going into rest before heading out to Tivoli, Copenhagen's famous amusement park.

Greetings from Sweden!

2009-04-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Lund (pronounced Lewnd) and Mälmö, Sweden. In Lund we saw a cathedral with a fancy clock and a giant in the crypt (who apparently helped build the church?). Then we went to an open air museum and got to tour around some authentic old Swedish homes. In Malmö we went to another castle. This one was made of brick and looked a bit like an old factory. It was used as a prison for many years after it stopped being a castle. Inside the castle was the strangest set of museums I have ever seem. There were exhibits on castle history, complete with grisly stories of beheadings (with recorded sound effects), an aquarium, a dinosaur exhibit, and something involving a scary black cat that talked to us in Swedish and was quite frightening. We will probably have nightmares. Also in Malmö, we saw another beautiful church and a cool old apothecary.

In other news, I bought a Swedish pop cd today. I will post some music later, so you will all be subjected to it : ).

Art, History, and Sparkly Things...

2009-04-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the botanical gardens and saw the tiniest frogs ever. Then on to the crown jewels! We went to Rosenborg Slot (castle) to view the stately rooms, royal trinkets, and funny old-fashioned portraits (seriously, why don't they ever smile?). Drew, we saw one old Danish king that looked just like you! Underneath the castle we toured the royal treasury where the queen's crown and jewelry are kept when she's not wearing them. So sparkly.

We spent the afternoon with Jens Juel, C.K. Eckersberg, Edouard Munch, Anne & Michael Ancher, Christian Kobke and other bigwigs in the Danish art world at the Statens Museum for Kunst. Also had a great time at the Geologisk Museum, though the displays were all in Danish, so we had to make up stories to go with them. Good times.

Having a great time here in Copenhagen. Wouldn't say no to a blog comment or two though. If you miss us that is.

Love to all,
Jaima and Jillian

Hello from Wonderful Copenhagen!

2009-04-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

First of all, for those of you who didn't hear, our trip was delayed for two days due to airline incompetance. So, we have only been in Copenhagen about 24 hours now. (For those of you with a color-coded itinerary, you can through that out the window--we had to rewrite the whole thing). But we aren't complaining because we now get to stay an extra full day here.

The weather has been gorgeous. Yesterday we explored the area around Tivoli and the Radhuspladsen. We stepped into city hall to view the Jens Olsen Clock. This clock displays not only the local time, but also solar time, sidereal time, sunrises and sunsets, firmament and celestial pole migration, planet revolutions, the Gregorian calendar and even changing holidays such as Easter. Of the many wheels, the fastest turns once every ten seconds, while the slowest will finish its first revolution after 25,753 years.

Today we are visiting the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek to see Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Etruscan sculpture and art, plus paintings by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Pissaro, Monet, and Renior. We will also visit the National Museum to see displays on Danish history.

It seems we aren't able to upload photos from here, so you will have to wait until we are home to see them. I will upload some next week.

Caitlin, thanks for the letter. We are working on our assignments.

Love to all,
Jaima and Jillian

A Little Denmark Primer

2009-04-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

People of Denmark are relaxed, casual, and modern. Copenhagen usually scores in the top 5--if not number 1--on "most live able cities" lists. Fewer than 5% of the Danes are regular church-goers, but the country has a state-supported national church called the Danish People's Church which is a sort of Evangelical Lutheran affair. About 50% of the population goes on to higher education after high school. Danes have a high degree of social responsibility and are involved in many social clubs and organizations. They take health and fitness very seriously. The classic Danish meal is smorrebrod--an open-faced sandwich on rye bread topped with meat or fish and an endless variety of garnishes. The Danes drink often, but not usually to excess. Citizens enjoy a high standard of living. Denmark was the first European country to legalize same-sex marriage, in 1989. The Danish government is a constitutional monarchy. The Queen, Margarethe II, has been ruling since 1972. Her signature is required on all legislation. Copenhagen is at a similar latitude to Moscow, central Scotland, and southern Alaska, but has a relatively mild climate.

A Heartfelt Easter Blessing for You

2009-04-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

Dreaming I am More Important than I Really Am

2009-04-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I dreamt that Gordon and I were at a church in our neighborhood. It was Sunday, so we were there for the regular service, but we were really just there to hear the sermon, which was going to be given by some famous visiting civil rights speaker. We are waiting for the service to begin when I get a text message on my phone. It’s from Michelle Obama. She says they (she and Barack) are in town and were planning on attending a different church service, but are now considering coming along with us to hear the civil rights lecture. She wants to know if we would be okay with them dropping in. Of course, I am pleasantly surprised to be receiving text messages from the First Lady and I tell them to come on over. They do, we all hang out. It’s very cool.

So I plugged all that into an online dream dictionary, and here is what I can make of the interpretation:

*To see the inside of a church in your dream, signifies that you may experience some minor setbacks. However, what seem to be nuisances will turn out to be a blessing in disguise. (Sounds ominous, but not entirely unpleasant)

* To dream that you are in a lecture may serve as a continuation of your intellectual thinking carried over from your waking hours. (I am just heading into my second week of grad school, so this makes sense)

* To see or use a cell phone in your dream, indicates that you are being receptive to new information. It also represents your mobility. (My mobility?)

* To dream that you are pleasantly surprised, indicates that you are open in acknowledging and confronting your unconscious feelings. (I think the fact that I am trying to interpret a funny dream through a cheesy online dream dictionary pretty much confirms that I am open to acknowledging and confronting my unconscious feelings)

* To see the president of your country in your dream symbolizes authority, power and control. It may also represent your own personal views and opinions of the president and his actions. (Wait, does it mean I have authority, power and control or someone else has authority and power and control over me? Seems like a pretty important distinction. Oh, and my views and opinions of the president? Love him.)

Addition

2009-04-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here are photos of the new addition to the family, my sister's kitten Cassius!

43 Things

2009-03-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jaima and Claudia for tipping me off to this website: www.43things.com. It’s basically a site that gets you thinking about your lifelong goals. You create a life list (“bucket list” is the term currently in vogue), then track your progress. You can also connect with other people who have similar goals and find out how they went about or are going about achieving them. The site isn’t perfect—I was annoyed that I couldn’t search for another specific user; you can only search for other goals—but it is fun and thought-provoking. If you decide to sign up (it’s free, of course), let me know and I will follow your progress. Or, feel free to leave some of your own life goals in the comments.

Here is my list so far:

See Bruce Springsteen in concert
Complete a Master’s degree
Learn to dance
Visit all 50 states
Become a solid Class III whitewater kayaker
Live in a foreign country for at least 3 months
Learn to scuba dive and dive the world’s best reefs and ship wrecks
Go whale watching
Summit a big mountain
See Africa—including the wilder parts
Write a book
Explore South and Central America
Volunteer more for the environment
Become good at yoga
Start taking at least one international trip per year
Organize my photos
Go to Antarctica
Visit the California National Parks
Go to Carlsbad Caverns
Do a multi-day solo hike
Explore Alaska
Read more of the classics
Floss regularly
Learn to be a better networker
Recycle
Fill up a whole passport before it expires
Plant a garden
Cook more international cuisine
Spend more time outdoors
Take my parents to Yellowstone National Park
Go on one of Dad’s summer high country adventures
Make my own beer and wine
Get a bike and use it.
Memorize all of the countries so I have a mental map of the world
Go back to Isle Royale
Learn to knit
Sail across an ocean

OMG Oatmeal Cookies!!

2009-03-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

What better way to follow up a post about dental hygiene than with a recipe for a sugary treat? These cookies are INCREDIBLE. Make them, eat them, love them.

1 c. butter
1 c. peanut butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 c. old fashioned oats
1 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. semi-sweet mini choc. chips

Cream butter, peanut butter, vanilla and sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Combine oats, flour, soda and salt. Once mixed, add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into 1" balls, place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 400* for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool a moment on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire cooling rack. Makes about 5 dozen. Eat, share, enjoy!!

(Thanks, Mom!)

Interesting Dental Hygiene Stuff

2009-03-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I work in a Dental Hygiene setting, however, I have no previous experience or interest in that area. The job is a good one and I like it, but it is not at all what I expected to be doing. I’ve learned a lot about the field of dentistry and am finding it more interesting than I ever thought. Today, for example, we had a faculty and staff in-service in which a few of our students gave presentations on a variety of topics related to the field. Here’s a sample of what I learned:

1. Reversing Anesthesia
Dentistry has a new tool—Phentolamin Mesylate. This drug has been in use for a long time for other things (hypertension maybe? I didn’t take good notes!), but was only recently approved by the FDA for use in dentistry. Basically, it reverses the effect of the anesthesia, cutting the length of time you are numb in half! In fact, if the injection is timed just right, you could leave the dentist’s office without being numb at all. Generally, when you are numbed for a dental procedure, the numbness lasts about three hours (it depends on the type and amount of anesthetic used). With this new drug, you could have the option of only being numb for one and a half hours. This is especially helpful in children and mentally-handicapped patients who are more likely to accidentally bite themselves when they are numbed up. Also helpful if you are heading out to a real estate showing or business presentation right after your dental visit.

2. Maxillo-facial Prosthetics
There have been some incredible advances in facial reconstruction and prosthetics in the past ten years. You may not know about it because the prosthetics are so good, you can’t tell them apart from a natural face! People generally need these prosthetics due to oral cancer or throat cancer. Both the cancer and the therapy can weaken or destroy bones, which would then need to be replaced. We looked at pictures of some people who had lost their noses and had prosthetic noses attached—very cool stuff. I love science!! One of the faculty members is also a maxillo-facial prosthodonist. He told a story of a girl he worked on awhile back. She had two different noses made for her: one for winter and one for summer. This way her nose will match her face whenever she gets a tan : ).

3. Stem Cells and Oro-Facial Regeneration
Scientists are making huge advances in a wide variety of health care fields with the use of stem cells, so why not dentistry? Researchers are currently working on using adult stem cells to regenerate gum tissue and even re-grow entire teeth! This research is still in the animal-testing stages but has been highly successful in pigs. We haven’t managed to re-grow an entire missing tooth using stem cells yet, but we can re-grow a healthy root, which can then be completed with a crown. Obviously, we have a way to go yet with this research before anyone tries it on humans, but it is probably not more than ten years off. There is already at least one company that provides a kit for harvesting cells from your child’s mouth to be frozen for use later, if needed.

I hope you find those as interesting as I did. And remember: FLOSS! : )

My Weekend in Books

2009-03-15T16:06:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time since I've taken the time to sit down and absorb some good books, and my "to read" pile was getting pretty out of hand, so I spent most of this weekend catching up. And I read some wonderful things! Some quick summaries:

1. "Inner Game of Tennis" by W. Timothy Gallway.
I heard about this book through eavesdropping on my boss. Her office is across the hall from mine and she was on the phone with someone, telling them about the book. I went to the university website right away and requested it from the library. The book is basically a how-to book for tennis players, but is more about the psychology of the game than the actual tactics. As such, it is widely applicable in other areas. The thing that my boss said that made me go out and order it right away, is that even though it is a sports book, it is being assigned in Dental Hygiene classrooms (oh, btw, for those that don't know, I work in the Dental Hygiene department at Eastern) to help first-year students build confidence, focus, and visualization skills. Sounded like just the thing I needed for my kayaking! I am about half-way through the book and it is wonderful. Gallway talks about how we need to learn to trust our bodies and not second-guess ourselves so much. He also talks about the disconnect between our mental "self" and our physical "self". The mental self likes to take charge of the physical, but often the physical self performs better without the mental interference. The book is really about learning to calm yourself and get that kind of focus that can only come from having a clear mind. I really recommend this book for anyone trying to learn, well, anything. I will let you know if it improves my kayaking :).

2. "The Invention of Air" by Steven Johnson
Steven Johnson is one of my very favorite writers. He is the author of "Mind Wide Open" and "The Ghost Map" and "Everything Bad is Good for You", all of which I love. "The Invention of Air" is his newest. In it, he tells the story of Joseph Priestly, a contemporary of founding fathers Benjamin Franklin and John Adams and the man who discovered carbonation, among other things. He was the first to discover that air is a collection of gasses and not just blank nothingness. He then worked tirelessly to discern the different gasses. As a child he had put a spider in a closed jar and noticed that after a time, the spider died. He supposed there was something about the air in the jar that became polluted after awhile. Later in life, he tried the same experiment with a plant and was shocked to discover that the plant never died. This is how he discovered that plants create air. It's a fascinating book. I am about half-way through.

3. "God Laughs and Prays" by David James Duncan
Finally, here's a book I actually finished! DJD is one of my very very favorite authors in the whole entire wide world amen. He wrote "The Brothers K" which is, without a doubt, the best work of fiction ever penned. This book, however, is not fiction. It's a collection of essays about religion, the religious right (particularly under the Bush Administration), and nature/fishing/rivers. I have dabbled in all these areas myself, so I found the book fascinating. There are too many great parts to mention, but I will say that his ideas about organized religion are astounding and refreshing. He talks about a back-to-basics approach focused on love, peace, respect, openness, and forgiveness--directly following Jesus' example, rather than following the example of Jesus' less-than-godly followers, preachers, and apologists. DJD is not Christian himself. He is widely read in the great Wisdom literature of the world and sees the good and bad in all of those. His prose makes me laugh and cry. Seriously, read this book :).

4. "How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer
This book expounds on theories of globalization, using the international soccer phenomenon as an example. Foer took an 8-month sabbatical from a reporting job and traveled to all the major soccer stadiums across the globe, meeting fans, players, owners, mob bosses, and many others along the way. The original theory of globalization that was popularized in the early nineties is that the world would become more and more homogenized as it became more interconnected, until finally we would just have one single global culture. This hasn't happened. Foer explores why this is and why, in some cases, the opposite has happened, with people going back to the old tribal rivalries and divisions. It's good so far; I will let you know how it turns out.

5. "The First Word" by Christine Kenneally
My sister Jaima called me on Sunday morning and told me I had to go out ("right now!") and get this book. She stumbled upon it at Hastings on Saturday and has been unable to put it down since. I of course obliged. I've only read the first couple chapters, but I am loving it so far. Kenneally is a linguist and she is writing about the evolution of language, or how we got all the way from grunting to Shakespeare and the OED. She is an excellent writer. I have been very interested in language ever since I read Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way." This book traces that arc even farther and wider by talking about all languages and going back to the very origins. Very exciting.

I have a couple other books still waiting in the wings, but, really--how many books can one girl handle at once? Still, I should try to get them in before I start grad school in two weeks :).

Making the Masses Useful

2009-03-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

You know those word verification thingys that everyone hates? They show up on websites where you can leave comments or on sites where you can purchase event tickets. A lot of times it’s nonsense words like inquive or jublut or sisupfix. The technical term for these things is “captcha” which is short for (and I’m not making this up) "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." They serve several purposes, but are primarily to ensure that a living, breathing human is behind the comment or purchase, not a computer or automated spamming system. With captchas, a company can’t go online and buy all the Dave Matthews Band tickets for annual shows at the Gorge and then resell them at higher prices, because the captchas slow them down. But sometimes, you’ll notice, the captchas aren’t nonsense words at all; they are real words that are just difficult to read. In those cases, it’s not a captcha, it’s a reCaptcha.

reCaptchas are the brainchild Luis von Ahn, an assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh He invented captchas in 2000, but was willing to admit that, while they served their security purpose, they also seemed a huge waste of time for most people. So in 2007, he had another great idea. He teamed up with the Open Content Alliance, an organization out of San Francisco that aims to scan all public domain printed material into one giant, free, online library. They mainly scan older books that have outlived their copyright protections. As you can imagine, it’s a bit of a grueling process to scan all the pages into the system. The process is made harder by the fact than in many old books the type is small, smeared, faded or otherwise difficult to read. If the computer can’t make sense of a word, then it is flagged to be checked individually by a staff member, which slows down the whole process. So von Ahn came up with a brilliant way to speed up the process. When a word is flagged as unreadable, it is sent out to a captcha system, to be used on the web as a verification tool. In a regular old captcha (still in use by some sites), a random nonsense word comes up on the screen for verification. With a reCaptcha, two words come up. The first is a control word that the computer already knows. The second is one it can’t decipher. Once several people have typed in the word the same way, that spelling is taken as correct and is sent back to the Open Content Alliance where it is placed back in it’s proper place within the digitized manuscript. The system’s accuracy rate of 99.1 percent is about the same as professional human transcribers. It’s a brilliant use of manpower, with each person on the web contributing a tiny amount of their time.

One of the Open Content Alliance’s latest projects was to digitize the entire catalogue of the New York Times. It is estimated that over 400 million people helped with this project, whether or not they knew they were helping. That is about 6% of the world's population!

More on reCaptchas here.

Grand Canyon

2009-02-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

My family is considering taking an epic trip to the Grand Canyon next spring. An uncle came up with the idea (thanks Jim!) and now it has taken hold. I saw the Canyon about seven years ago, but would love to go back to the area. I love the American Southwest.

So, it's pretty cool that today is the 90th anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park. It was on this day in 1919 that President Woodrow Wilson signed a law setting the canyon aside as a National Park.

How Are You Doing Today?

2009-02-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

I recently stumbled upon the How Are You Doing Project and I’m hooked. The project is brand new, just begun this month by Laura Mayer. It’s an audio art project that attempts “to recognize both the beauty in the everyday and the importance in taking the time to ask one another about our lives.” It works like this: There’s an 800 number you can call and leave messages answering the simple question, “How are you doing today?” Calls are recorded, edited (to add music and remove any identifying information left by the callers) and posted to the website. I listened to some of the posts today and it is amazing. Whether the caller is telling a long story about something they’ve been through recently, or just quickly saying they are doing fine, there is a strange but positive feeling that comes from listening to these anonymous people share little slices of their lives. As the website says, it’s “an exercise in everyday empathy.”

I really tried to get some samples to put on the blog, but it doesn't look like that's possible, so you will have to go to the website to listen. Which I really recommend.

The number is here: 1-800-737-6045. Call and let the world know how you are doing.

Literary Shenanigans

2009-02-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

I love anything that borders on the ridiculous. Powell’s Books in Portland (well known as one of the best book stores in the country) is sponsoring some stimulating new bookish tomfoolery. Introducing the fifth annual Tournament of Books, beginning this year on March 9th. This is from the website:

We used to drink more than we do now. There’s no reason for it really except that we’re older and we go to bed earlier. We have reduced our number of waking nighttime hours, and as a result we are drinking less these days.

We mention this because the Tournament of Books is one of those concepts that only could have been conceived and subsequently executed by people who used to drink a lot but now drink considerably less. In the absence of too much alcohol, it never would have occurred to us that we should take 16 of the most celebrated and highly touted novels of the year, seed them in a March Madness-type bracket, conscript them into a “Battle Royale of Literary Excellence,” and, in honor of David Sedaris’s brother, present the author of the winning book a live rooster. And if we hadn’t eventually reduced our pint consumption, we never would have found the energy, desire, and increased number of waking daytime hours to actually do it. This will be our fifth year at this and if you ask the previous champions—David Mitchell, Ali Smith, Cormac McCarthy, and Junot Díaz—we believe they would tell you the Rooster is a badge they wear proudly on their highly decorated chests, somewhere between the ones for orienteering and basketry.

No author asks to have his work pitted against the work of another, but that is what all awards do, in effect. The Nobel Prize is an Olympiad of words. The Man Booker is the Premier League Championship of Letters. Everyone knows that, behind the scenes, the National Book Award is both arbitrary and brutal, sort of like Keeping Up With the Kardashians meets Ultimate Fighting. The Tournament of Books is every bit as arbitrary, but we have simply lifted the curtain so the reader can actually see the caged octagon in which the books meet, barefoot and snarling.

The list of books in this year’s tournament are here.
Additional information and printable bracket sheets are here.

Art Most Wanted

2009-02-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

I recently came across a very interesting art/sociology project that was begun in 1994 by two Russian-born artists, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid. The artists surveyed people across America to find out what their art preferences were. Questions on the survey were along the lines of “What color do you like to see in a painting?” and “Do you prefer indoor scenes or outdoor scenes?” There were over 1000 responses. The artists then attempted to create a painting based on the preferences from the survey. Here is the result:

Americans preferred idyllic outdoor scenes with wild animals (not pets). They prefer family groups rather than individuals and they like blues and greens to be used throughout. You will notice that George Washington is present as well. This is because survey respondents overwhelmingly stated that if a famous person was including in the painting, they preferred it be a historical figure, not a contemporary.

Komar and Melamid then replicated the study in other countries around the globe. Results were generally very similar, which was a surprising finding. Here are a few of the Most Wanted paintings from other countries:

Denmark's Most Wanted

France's Most Wanted

If you are wondering about what the respondents disliked about art, Komar and Melamid created paintings to illustrate those results as well. Here are a few of the least wanted paintings:

America's Least Wanted

Denmark's Least Wanted

France's Least Wanted

The full set of paintings from the project can be viewed here.
Survey results from each country are here.

About Traveling

2009-02-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about traveling lately, in preparation for my upcoming adventure. I’ve now been on four overseas trips—not a record by any means, but most people I meet seem to think that’s a lot (people of my own generation, a little less so). Each trip is a learning experience of course, regarding the area’s customs, landscape, history, and general feeling. But I also seem to learn a little more about travel itself with each new adventure. So here are some things I’ve learned about traveling, some new rules I have come to follow.

Full disclosure: most of these were discovered in cahoots (love that word!) with my co-adventurers Jaima and Gordon.

1. Always know how to say “thank you” wherever you are, even if it is the only word you know. This will earn you smiles from the locals (priceless!) and brighten your day, too.

2. It’s okay to eat dinner in your room every now and then. We had some wonderful restaurant meals in Japan, but some of our favorite food memories from the trip are the dinner sets we bought at the local 7-11 and took home to the guesthouse to eat. This kind of meal is just as ‘authentic’ as something you would buy at a fancy restaurant or from street vendor. It saves money, time, and energy too.

3. Upon arriving at your far-flung destination, I have found it is well worth the money to splurge on a taxi to the hotel rather than brave the local transit system. There is plenty of time to explore your transit options later when you are rested from the flight and more alert. You will feel a lot better about the new place if you don’t spend your first full hour there lugging your suitcase up and down flights of subway stairs and then around several city blocks searching for your hotel.

4. Go to the tourist office. I know, I know. You are protesting, “but that’s so tourist-y!” It is touristy. But the people who work in the tourist office really know what they are talking about. They know the city better than you do, better than your friend does, better than the guidebook does. They can tell you the best ways to get around, the best sights to see. Plus, they will give you free city maps and transit maps. It’s one moment of touristyness (not a word) that you won’t regret.

What about you, dear mysterious readers? What are your own travel dos and don’ts?

Some Thoughts On Guantanamo

2009-01-27T08:33:00.000-08:00

Let's think about this rationally, shall we?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Guantanamo Baywatch - The Final Season

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Gotta love Jon Stewart : )

Kayaking Update

2009-01-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

I had an awesome time kayaking last night at Open Pool. I am really starting to get the hang of my roll finally. I did over twenty solid, smooth rolls and it hardly even tired me out. If you are doing the roll incorrectly, you can get tired very quickly because your body is straining so hard to get out of the water (plus, you could easily injure yourself). Gordon had me doing several in a row, no stopping in between, which helps to build muscle memory and also prepares you a little bit for the disoriented feeling of a combat roll (an unexpected tumble on the river). Also, Gordon is teaching me how to do plowing enders and lean cleans. It is really delightful to be hanging out in a warm pool in the middle of frozen winter, too. Feels like a little taste of summer each week, which we could all use right about now : ).

The Speech

2009-01-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

Yes, I loved the inaugural speech. It was everything that we needed it to be: honest, open, inspiring, respectful, brave. President Obama (I loved typing that!) reminded us that we can “choose our better histories” and make a new way for America in the world only if we are willing to return to our old ideals and principles about freedom, liberty and justice. He acknowledged that we live in a dangerous time, but reminded us that when this country’s founders wrote the Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights, they faced challenges we can scarcely imagine. Yet, they didn’t throw aside civil liberties or bend the rules for any temporary benefit; we won’t be tossing aside those ideals and rights in the name of today’s threats, either. The president boldly changed the course of our public policy in just a handful of sentences. He announced to the world that we will now be friendly, respectful and helpful instead of reactionary, brash, disrespectful, and dishonest. We will not continue to tread on weaker, poorer nations but will offer them what assistance we can, because it’s the right thing to do, it’s the moral thing to do; it’s what we say we stand for as a country and as individuals. Oh, how I hope we can live up to those words!

On domestic policy, President Obama further delivered on his campaign promises of change by speaking of sweeping changes in healthcare, energy, and retirement. To the naysayers and critics who say it can’t be done, he said, “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”

So, here we go into the next chapter of American history. President Obama likened it to putting childish things behind us. We are a young nation and are still reeling from the turmoils of our adolescence, but now it’s time to grow up. Now it’s time to be mature, to do the right thing, to make reasoned and reasonable choices and to act in a rational, dignified way. We can’t keep throwing tantrums and behaving foolishly if we want to continue to be on top. Time for a new day.

Thank you Mr. President.

Star Wars: Retold

2009-01-16T11:23:00.000-08:00

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Here's Joe Nicolosi on the making of this masterpiece:

My friend Amanda had never seen a whole Star Wars film. When I asked her if she wanted to watch the original trilogy she said that she would, but that she already knew what happens. So I took out my voice recorder and asked her to start from the top. I then created some very basic animation in Final Cut to go along with her narration.

The Rickshaw Run

2009-01-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

Though it may seem we never want for adventure here in Spokanistan, in fact...we long for adventure. So, here's the latest hair-brained plan:

The Rickshaw Run is a charity event that takes place in India about twice a year. Teams of three raise money for charity (MercyCorps, Frank Water Projects and SOS Children's Villages are the official charities) then take off in a hired rickshaw and race for about 4000 kilometers from southern India to the north. Here's how the website describes it:

The Rickshaw Run is pretty simple. With no preparation and less luggage one flies to the Indian Subcontinent and does one's damndest to force 150cc of Indian engineering over thousands of miles of questionable terrain in around two weeks.

Upon arrival we pause briefly for a game of cricket followed by tea and cakes before revving our engines and setting off. We stop only to wet our whistles on the occasional gin and tonic at specially selected refreshment points.

Sounds awesome, right? Gordon and our friend Bill are trying to put at least one team together, plus raise the necessary funds for charity (part of the entrance fee).

Here's a small taste of the action:

Totally. Awesome.

I'm A Little Bit Excited....

2009-01-08T16:49:00.001-08:00

I GOT INTO GRAD SCHOOL!!

:)

Best Science Stories of 2008

2008-12-30T10:06:00.000-08:00

Discover Magazine recently put out a “Year in Science” Issue which I have now read cover-to-cover, with jaw dropped. Of course, I heard about some of the stories as they happened, but others passed me by somehow. It is amazing what we can do these days. So, I picked out my two favorite science stories of 2008 to share.

1. Invisibility

No kidding. It was actually two years ago that a team of engineers announced they had discovered the technology for creating an invisibility cloak, but this year scientists have learned that they can create this material to conceal objects from anything that travels as a wave. That includes light, sound, and even matter (at the sub-atomic level). Also, they found a way to give the material (actually called metamaterial) a thickness and heft so it can be used out of the lab. Here’s how it works: “To cloak something, concentric rings of metamaterial are placed around the object to be concealed. Tiny structures—like loops or cylinders—within the rings divert the incoming waves around the object, preventing both reflection and absorption. The waves meet up again on the other side, appearing just as they would if nothing were there.” So, if you are seated in a concert hall and there is a pillar between you and the orchestra, that pillar could be cloaked in invisibility material and the sound waves would be tricked into going around the pillar as if it weren’t even there (as opposed to bouncing off of it). The sound from your seat would be just as good as an unobstructed seat. The coolest idea for using this new technology, though, is to deflect actual waves in the ocean away from isolated spots like drilling platforms, low-lying islands, or coastal regions vulnerable to tsunamis.

2. Making Progress Fighting AIDS

This year, scientists did further research into individuals known as “elite suppressors.” These are people who have been infected with the HIV virus but maintain a low viral load and never become ill. Previously, researchers thought that these people must be infected with a weaker strain of HIV, but recent research has shown that is not the case. A study published in August provided evidence that certain people have an immune system that is capable of controlling full-strength HIV. The study documented transmission of the virus from a patient with AIDS to his wife. Though she has the same virulent strain of HIV as her husband, the woman has maintained nearly-undetectable viral loads; she is an elite suppressor. Researchers found that some of the woman’s immune cells were particularly good at suppressing replication of the virus. Joel Blankson, the senior author of the study says, “It’s evident that the immune system can, in fact, control fully pathogenic HIV, so a vaccine should be possible. This provides preliminary evidence that one day a vaccine can be generated.”

Bonus Stories:
*A study published in Sweden showed that drummers (and anyone who is good at keeping a complex rhythm) have higher than average IQs.
*Scientists announced in August that they have found drugs that simulate the effects of exercise in the body. The drugs are in trials now and may be available in a few years.
*Geneticists have discovered that blue eyes arose because of a single genetic mutation that occurred in a single individual less than 10,000 years ago. The mutation spread very quickly throughout the European population, suggesting that the mutation originally had something to offer for survival.

Snow Cave 2008

2008-12-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

Click here to view last years' snow caves.

Bonus Footage!

2008-12-18T15:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know these are sideways. I'm not savvy enough to fix them. Watch them anyway; they are hilarious.

PS: More snow pics to follow :)

Never Waste a Good Snow Day

2008-12-18T10:58:00.001-08:00

First, we went for a ski....

Then we did this:

Yes. Yes, we did.

High Adventure!!

2008-12-15T13:05:00.001-08:00

My sister Jaima and I discovered a few years back that we are great co-adventurers. Since then we've travelled to several different countries together. Lately we've been talking about heading to Scandinavia in the spring and this past weekend we finally took the plunge and bought the tickets and booked the rooms. On April 17th, 2009 we'll be off to Copenhagen! While there, we'll also visit a couple smaller towns in Denmark and head across the Oresund Sound to visit Malmo, Sweden. I am having trouble containing my excitement!!

So, without further ado:

Snow Patrol

2008-12-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

In honor of the HUGE GIANT RUN-FOR-YOUR-LIVES snowstorm that is predicted to hit today, I put together a little Snow Patrol mix. Enjoy!

Everything is Amazing, Nobody's Happy

2008-12-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Kent & Allison for the heads up :)

Thankfulness

2008-11-26T11:32:00.000-08:00

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.”
~Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta

I was going to write up a list of things I was thankful for, but it turned out to be too much work. It’s not just that it’s a long list, but that each item on the list has so many facets. For example, not only am I thankful for my sisters, but I am also thankful for the great relationships—friendships really—that I have with them. And I am thankful for how funny Caitlin is and how she is so social and outgoing. And how Jaima always reads the books I recommend, even after I told her at length what they were about and shared every last interesting anecdote. And how Caitlin asks for my advice sometimes just so I can feel like a smart, helpful older sister. And how Jaima knows what I mean when I describe someone as the kind of person who would write “your” when they meant “you’re”. And how one time we were out picking rocks in one of Dad’s fields and the three of us passed tedious hours by making a list of things you could make out of rocks, and when we ran out of things you could actually make out of rocks, we started making things up, like “soup,” “chipmunks,” and “paper airplanes.” And we laughed so hard.

So you see why I can’t realistically make a list of all the things I am thankful for. Not to mention, now that I think about it, I am even thankful that I have so much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

TLaJ Book Review #5

2008-11-21T11:10:00.000-08:00

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and what it says about us)
By Tom Vanderbilt

This book was recommended to me by an STA bus driver while on the way to work one morning. I requested it from the EWU Library, but had to wait about two months to get it. Then, when it finally came in, I found out I could only keep it for one week since it was in such high demand. No worries, though; the book is just as fascinating as described; I had no trouble finishing it quickly.

Here are some of my favorite tidbits:

• We should all be late-mergers. You know the situation: You are on a multi-lane highway and there is construction ahead. Signs alert you to a lane ending up ahead. You dutifully merge into the other lane, then watch in disgust as other drivers whiz by in the ending lane and merge ahead of you in line. It feels like they are cheating, but they aren’t. When everyone merges early and gets in line politely, it slows things down for everyone because drivers aren’t using the full capacity of the road (one whole lane is empty long before it ends). Those drivers who are zipping ahead and ‘cutting’ in line are actually speeding things up for everyone. Thanks to them, traffic will flow smoother through the construction zone (and safer! There are fewer collisions when drivers merge late) and you will get to your destination faster.

• It’s not just your imagination--studies have shown that people take longer to leave a parking space when someone else is waiting for the spot. Interestingly, when queried, most people claim that they move faster when someone is waiting for their parking spot, but upon observation, it turns out they actually slow down. It’s as if the space suddenly becomes more valuable because someone else wants it.

• This one is obvious to anyone who has traveled internationally: The culture of a place is reflected in the way we drive. In Japan, a country of politeness and respect, traffic is a smooth and orderly affair. In Cameroon, where there is so much corruption that laws can’t be taken seriously, people drive more erratically. This is true on a more localized basis, as well. A “Pittsburgh Left” refers to left-turning drivers darting in front of oncoming traffic very quickly, just as the light turns green (zipping across before the oncoming cars have picked up speed). A “California Roll” (aka California Stop or a Sushi Stop) refers to slowing at stop signs, but not coming completely to a stop.

• In Finland, traffic fines were found to be unfair and regressive (they take up a larger part of a poor person’s income than a rich person’s) so they changed the laws so that fines are calculated based on after-tax income. This sliding-scale system means that some wealthy speeders have had to pay upwards of $50,000 for going 43 in a 25. Sounds outrageous to most Americans, but the Finns have resisted attempts to put caps on the fines. It is widely-supported there.

• We often think of big-rig trucks as being dangerous on the road, but in actuality, truckers tend to be very safe drivers. The problem is that those of us in personal vehicles drive badly around them. In most cases, when cars and semi-trucks collide, the car (or, rather, the driver in the car) is found to be at fault. One careful study found that in 70% of cases, the driver of the car had sole responsibility in the crash.

• In America, on average, someone dies in a fatal car crash every thirteen minutes. Roads are more dangerous at some times than others, however. In an average year, more people are killed on Saturday and Sunday from midnight to 3am than all those killed during those hours the rest of the week. In other words, just two nights account for the majority of deaths. The Fourth of July is, statistically, the most dangerous day of the year to be on the road. Superbowl Sunday is a big killer too, but only after the game, not before. And the traffic fatality rate is generally higher in the city with the losing team.

• In a highway or freeway, low-speed drivers are more likely to be involved in accidents than high-speed drivers. It doesn’t follow, however, that people who drive too slow are the problem and we should raise speed limits (as many have argued) or enforce minimum speed. That argument assumes that people who are going slowly are doing so because they want to and not because they need to for some reason (congested traffic, about to turn, experiencing some sort of vehicle problem, etc). Nearly half of rear-end crashes involve cars that have stopped--presumably for a good reason and not just to get in the way of people wanting to go fast.

• The “Grand Rapids Dip” is a term that refers to results from a study done in Grand Rapids, MI in the 1960s. The study found that people with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .01 to .04 actually drove more safely than those with a BAC of zero. This is because drivers who know they have had a drink or two are more aware of the possibility of impairment (and punishment), so they are drive more cautiously. Alcohol affects driver performance, but also driver behavior. Which would you rather encounter on the road? The sober driver on his cell phone speeding off to a meeting or a mildly-impaired driver watching carefully for obstacles and obeying the speed limit?

• Crash statistics have shown that more people die in car crashes in America who aren’t wearing seatbelts than those who are wearing seatbelts, even though 80% of Americans wears seatbelts all the time. It’s not just that drivers are less likely to survive a crash if they aren’t wearing a seatbelt. It is also true that the type of person who drives without buckling up is also more likely to speed and engage in aggressive driving behaviors, so their risk is multiplied.

• Feeling safe is a bad sign. If you are in a car that feels safe, on a road that feels safe, you are much more likely to engage in unsafe behavior such as speeding and driving aggressively. This is why roundabouts have turned out to be such a great thing, even though drivers don’t like them. Because we are unaccustomed to roundabouts and because they are fairly complex to navigate, we have to slow down, be alert, and drive cautiously through them (usually grumbling about how dangerous they are the whole time). In a regular, lighted intersection, we pay very little attention to what is going on; we just drive when the light turns green and hope no one else is doing it wrong. So the roundabout feels more dangerous, but is actually much safer. Likewise, when we drive in cars that feel safe (trucks, SUVs, etc), we tend to start to drive more dangerously in reaction to that feeling of safety. Studies have shown that people using studded snow tires drive faster in the snow than those without--though they have some added traction, they more than compensate for that benefit by driving less carefully.

I’ve gone on too long now, I know. There are so many other good points in the book (I didn’t even go into the stuff about why driving in super-congested Delhi is relatively safe and why driving in Montana is so dangerous!), but how about instead of me writing them out one by one, you just go out and get the book for yourself?

Time for a Chill

2008-11-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

Been awhile since I posted. It's not just post-election super-delight satiation, either. I'm afraid it's more conventional than that: I've been busy. And so has everyone else I know. I don't know if it is some kind of pre-holiday rush or what, but it seems everyone I'm around these days is running around like crazy, including my dear husband who is heading into finals week at Eastern and suffering from the usual almost-end-of-term-oh-please-god-when-will-it-end malaise.

So, we are all due for a bit of a chill-out. I say, sit down somewhere comfy, sip some chilled white wine (I know it is unseasonable, but you can't properly chill out with red wine, it's too warm & spicy), and listen to this mix tape I made just for you!

The International Response

2008-11-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

"This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten," Rama Yade, France's junior minister for human rights, told French radio. "On this morning, we all want to be American, so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes."

"This may be the beginning of a new world. It marks the end of old elites and opens the door for new approaches worldwide," an Israeli man in his mid-50s said in Tel Aviv.

"I want to congratulate you on Barack Obama's victory that really turned a new chapter in the world's history -- that an African-American man, decent and intelligent, became president of the world," one Iranian said. "This was done in America. Your nation has the credit for it."

All quotes from here.

Doesn't it feel like, in some ways, the change we've been hoping for has already arrived? It's a global paradigm shift. I don't know that I ever realized I'd live to see a day when I was not just proud, not blindly patriotic, but actually joyful about our commander-in-chief.

On the other hand, some changes are still to come. After all, my spell checker still wants me to change "Obama" to "Osama".

Halloween Party Photos

2008-11-06T07:33:00.000-08:00