I see on Well that measured levels of trans-fats in peoples' blood may be declining, perhaps in response to the campaigns to remove trans-fats from food products.
A study "showed that in a nationally representative sample of middle-aged Americans, levels of trans fats fell 58 percent from 2000 to 2009." That's a big percent!
I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether there's also a measurable decline in heart disease and so forth.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Pass It On
In addition to clothing swaps, I also like the idea of Freecycle--an email list that you can join where people post things they're looking to pass along, and other people who might be able to use those things can snap them up.
I got some nice little thank-you cards that way, which I promptly used. Also, I got rid of a dorm fridge from college that I figured I was never going to need again.
And then, a month later, I really wished I still had it!--nah, just kidding. I'm always afraid if I get rid of something I'll wish later that I still had it, but I have never regretted giving that fridge to someone else who, I hope, got some good use out of it.
The only thing is, it does tend to get a little unwieldy with the back-and-forth email tag trying to figure out who's going to leave what where at what time so someone can pick it up, etc.
I'm hoping someone will come get some old board games we never play, but I don't know if I should just leave them in the lobby all night, since that might be a fire hazard or something.
You know I would feel terrible if our elderly neighbors were fleeing from a fire, tripped over our unwanted "Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit" on the way though the foyer, injured themselves, and had to be taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.
I mean, if I'm going to get Evil Points, I want it to be for something more intentional, and more clever, than accidentally felling my neighbors with a board game.
I got some nice little thank-you cards that way, which I promptly used. Also, I got rid of a dorm fridge from college that I figured I was never going to need again.
And then, a month later, I really wished I still had it!--nah, just kidding. I'm always afraid if I get rid of something I'll wish later that I still had it, but I have never regretted giving that fridge to someone else who, I hope, got some good use out of it.
The only thing is, it does tend to get a little unwieldy with the back-and-forth email tag trying to figure out who's going to leave what where at what time so someone can pick it up, etc.
I'm hoping someone will come get some old board games we never play, but I don't know if I should just leave them in the lobby all night, since that might be a fire hazard or something.
You know I would feel terrible if our elderly neighbors were fleeing from a fire, tripped over our unwanted "Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit" on the way though the foyer, injured themselves, and had to be taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.
I mean, if I'm going to get Evil Points, I want it to be for something more intentional, and more clever, than accidentally felling my neighbors with a board game.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
What, This Old Rag?
Ooh, I'm invited to a Clothing Swap! Where a lot of people can bring clothes they don't wear and trade them around. Unclaimed items will go to Goodwill.
I don't actually need any more clothes right now, but I do have some I should probably get rid of, for the sake of closet space and general tidiness, so I think this is a brilliant idea.
I don't think anyone necessarily wants my old clothes, because they're very old and were never that interesting (I have been accused of many things, but possessing a keen fashion sense has never been one of them), but you never know.
I don't actually need any more clothes right now, but I do have some I should probably get rid of, for the sake of closet space and general tidiness, so I think this is a brilliant idea.
I don't think anyone necessarily wants my old clothes, because they're very old and were never that interesting (I have been accused of many things, but possessing a keen fashion sense has never been one of them), but you never know.
Monday, February 6, 2012
It's All Perfectly Clear...
This is an older piece, about something I've often noticed: the way nutrition information on food packages often refers to a 'serving size' that is...not very realistic.
Like, "16 chips," say. Because most people will carefully count the number of chips they eat from a bag, right?
I mean, I suppose most people don't actually read the nutrition information on packages, either, and people who do care about the nutrition information may also care enough to count out their tortilla chips, so I'm not sure this is really a huge problem.
But it is always amusing to glance at the back of the package and think "oh, this isn't so bad, only 20 grams of fat in a serving...of two cookies."
You have to read all the way through this sort of documentation, I suppose is the moral here.
Also check out the very bottom, where it probably tells you the percent of various key nutrients in the serving. Because if you care enough to read all the way through, you'll want to know how much vitamin C you're getting.
Like, "16 chips," say. Because most people will carefully count the number of chips they eat from a bag, right?
I mean, I suppose most people don't actually read the nutrition information on packages, either, and people who do care about the nutrition information may also care enough to count out their tortilla chips, so I'm not sure this is really a huge problem.
But it is always amusing to glance at the back of the package and think "oh, this isn't so bad, only 20 grams of fat in a serving...of two cookies."
You have to read all the way through this sort of documentation, I suppose is the moral here.
Also check out the very bottom, where it probably tells you the percent of various key nutrients in the serving. Because if you care enough to read all the way through, you'll want to know how much vitamin C you're getting.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Burn It! Burn It!
This is an interesting post from Sam Harris (via the Friendly Atheist), in which he explains the many negative effects of wood fires, noting that the crackle of a fire and the scent of wood smoke are dear to many, but saying that it's hideously polluting and bad for your health to burn wood.
One is left with the impression that all of us who don't depend on it for life or health should pretty much cease and desist our wood-burning activities immediately.
Since so many people feel strongly about a nice wood fire, however, he makes an interesting comparison to the way many people feel strongly attached to religion, to the extent that trying to rationally persuade someone out of a religious belief (or a conviction that a nice bonfire or crackling hearth are good things), may be impossible.
Hmm.
Growing up in the backwoods in the 1920s as I did, we often had wood-burning stoves and campfires for heat and cooking. And I have certainly enjoyed a good bonfire as much as the next person. Roasting a marshmallow on a long stick...good clean fun, surely! Well, not clean, the marshmallows invariably get sticky and burnt, but good wholesome fun.
On the other hand, having relied on firewood for practical things in the past, I may have a less fond view of it than some, since it was just what we used and not a fun ritual or anything.
Honestly, I'm willing to forego wood fires in future, having learned that they're dreadful for your lungs.
That doesn't mean I'm more rational and ruled by cold common sense than people who are more attached to their wood fires, of course, just that my irrational attachment must be to something else.
I should try to figure out what it is...so that I can bury the secret so deeply that no one ever learns it, for surely it will be my undoing should it be discovered! I've read books before, I know how it works.
One is left with the impression that all of us who don't depend on it for life or health should pretty much cease and desist our wood-burning activities immediately.
Since so many people feel strongly about a nice wood fire, however, he makes an interesting comparison to the way many people feel strongly attached to religion, to the extent that trying to rationally persuade someone out of a religious belief (or a conviction that a nice bonfire or crackling hearth are good things), may be impossible.
Hmm.
Growing up in the backwoods in the 1920s as I did, we often had wood-burning stoves and campfires for heat and cooking. And I have certainly enjoyed a good bonfire as much as the next person. Roasting a marshmallow on a long stick...good clean fun, surely! Well, not clean, the marshmallows invariably get sticky and burnt, but good wholesome fun.
On the other hand, having relied on firewood for practical things in the past, I may have a less fond view of it than some, since it was just what we used and not a fun ritual or anything.
Honestly, I'm willing to forego wood fires in future, having learned that they're dreadful for your lungs.
That doesn't mean I'm more rational and ruled by cold common sense than people who are more attached to their wood fires, of course, just that my irrational attachment must be to something else.
I should try to figure out what it is...so that I can bury the secret so deeply that no one ever learns it, for surely it will be my undoing should it be discovered! I've read books before, I know how it works.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Unrelated Matters
The official Help Desk and web master was able to repair my broken 'L' key. I should have asked him to also paint on a new 'A,' because surely he has keyboard paint in his office somewhere.
On an unrelated matter, is it worth it to pay for copies of an issue of a journal that you wrote a column for? It's not one we get at work, so I can't just steal their copy.
I jest! I wouldn't steal from work. At least, not after I mentioned it on the internet for the world to see. Besides, I have all the pens and sticky notes I can use from loot at conferences.
Anyway, my thieving ways aside, the point is, I won't have a paper copy unless I pay for one, on account of they only send you the PDF. But it's just a review column, not an impressive research article or anything, so I'm honestly not sure how much I care.
I'd probably just stick a paper copy in a drawer somewhere and never look at it again, and it's not as if anyone I know who isn't a librarian cares about the many awesome features of the National Academies Press and their free ebooks.
On another matter unrelated to either of the above matters, there's a blog on my Google Reader that has apparently been attacked by malware, so every time I click on its link I get a terrifying red warning page advising me that my computer could be infected if I proceed.
So I naturally hurry away, but since I can't click on the blog title in Reader, I can't just unsubscribe, and I also can't mark its posts as 'read,' so it just sits there in bold telling me it has unread posts and I can do nothing!
It's kind of annoying. There used to be a way in Reader to edit feeds without displaying posts, but I can't figure it out since they've redesigned it and removed or hidden the Manage Subscriptions link.
And just now I searched Reader Help and it's been placed under Reader Settings, so that solved that problem.
See, I just needed to actually bother to try to find an answer, instead of merely noting my annoyance at the problem! Let that be a lesson to all of you.
On an unrelated matter, is it worth it to pay for copies of an issue of a journal that you wrote a column for? It's not one we get at work, so I can't just steal their copy.
I jest! I wouldn't steal from work. At least, not after I mentioned it on the internet for the world to see. Besides, I have all the pens and sticky notes I can use from loot at conferences.
Anyway, my thieving ways aside, the point is, I won't have a paper copy unless I pay for one, on account of they only send you the PDF. But it's just a review column, not an impressive research article or anything, so I'm honestly not sure how much I care.
I'd probably just stick a paper copy in a drawer somewhere and never look at it again, and it's not as if anyone I know who isn't a librarian cares about the many awesome features of the National Academies Press and their free ebooks.
On another matter unrelated to either of the above matters, there's a blog on my Google Reader that has apparently been attacked by malware, so every time I click on its link I get a terrifying red warning page advising me that my computer could be infected if I proceed.
So I naturally hurry away, but since I can't click on the blog title in Reader, I can't just unsubscribe, and I also can't mark its posts as 'read,' so it just sits there in bold telling me it has unread posts and I can do nothing!
It's kind of annoying. There used to be a way in Reader to edit feeds without displaying posts, but I can't figure it out since they've redesigned it and removed or hidden the Manage Subscriptions link.
And just now I searched Reader Help and it's been placed under Reader Settings, so that solved that problem.
See, I just needed to actually bother to try to find an answer, instead of merely noting my annoyance at the problem! Let that be a lesson to all of you.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Computer Abuse
I need some keyboard glue. Is there such a thing as keyboard glue?
I dropped a 7-piece model heart on my keyboard at work and the 'L' key came off. I can still type 'L' by pushing on the little nub under the key, but it's awkward. It would work better if I could glue the key back on.
This computer is having a hard life.
The 'A' is completely worn off on that key, the 'N' is half worn off, and there's a worn out spot on the trackpad where I put my finger to move the mouse.
It deserves everything that happens to it though. It does this thing where it drops its internet connection for no reason at all kinds of times, and it's extremely annoying.
If punching it would do any good I'd resort to violence in a second, but it's just a computer, so all I can do is reconnect the dang internet several times a day.
I dropped a 7-piece model heart on my keyboard at work and the 'L' key came off. I can still type 'L' by pushing on the little nub under the key, but it's awkward. It would work better if I could glue the key back on.
This computer is having a hard life.
The 'A' is completely worn off on that key, the 'N' is half worn off, and there's a worn out spot on the trackpad where I put my finger to move the mouse.
It deserves everything that happens to it though. It does this thing where it drops its internet connection for no reason at all kinds of times, and it's extremely annoying.
If punching it would do any good I'd resort to violence in a second, but it's just a computer, so all I can do is reconnect the dang internet several times a day.
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