Well, Drat

This Atlantic piece (via Dangerous Intersection) strikes at a topic close to my heart: sitting.

Indeed, as Mr. Burns would say, "from the mightiest king to the lowliest peasant, who doesn't enjoy a good sit?"

Tragically, it appears that the more you sit, the more likely you are to drop dead at any moment. I sit a lot--my job is a desk job except when I'm teaching or messing around with print journals in the stacks--so my days are clearly numbered.

But surely it doesn't count if you're sitting under a baby? Because that's about all I've been doing lately.

A nice counterpoint to thoughts of sitting is this series on walking.

When not sitting under a baby full time, I do walk a fair amount on my way to and from my desk job, which probably adds somewhat to the number of my days unless I get hit by a car. This series looks at fascinating pedestrian behavior, as well as at how few people do walk, in the US, and why.

Obviously one of the big reasons why is that people live so far from things they need to get to. One of the things I miss most since we moved last month is the convenient 15-minute walk to a grocery store. I would often stroll over to do a little shopping, but that's unlikely in the new place, which is farther from groceries.

I mean, you have limited time to get stuff done, so if it's going to take an hour to walk somewhere, you're probably going to drive, even though an hour's walk would be healthier in theory (depending on how safe the route is and whether you're likely to get eaten by bears or something along the way).

I do appreciate the walking that's built into my day by my commute, though. I'm not wild about the fact that my commute is over an hour each way--that adds up to a lot of time spent neither working nor being at home--but it does mean that I get some exercise in, which is a positive.

It also means I generally get at least a little reading time each day on the train, so it's not as if it's time totally wasted.

In Babyland

It has come to our attention that a tragic post shortage has recently afflicted this blog. We have traced the problem to the recent arrival in my household of a small baby, leading to my spending basically all my time in new-babyland rather than internetland.

I have no idea what"s going on on the internet! I am too sleepy to care.

One day I will care again. Until that time, please be comforted by the knowledge that this baby is a redhead.

Another one for the Gingers!

Mmm, More Bugs

Going directly into my files for "life is gross, but whatever," and "let's all eat more bugs," here's Bug Girl with a nice post on Skepchick explaining why we shouldn't necessarily freak out about food products dyed with insect extract.

It turns out insect-derived dye (cochineal) may be more sustainable, and is certainly no more weird, than the alternative, Red Dye # 40, which is made from petroleum. Yum.

Bugs or petroleum? Honestly, they both sound so delicious that I wish there were a way to enjoy them at the same time, in some sort of super-red food that was advertised with the catchy slogan "Now with more types of dye!"

Somebody should get to work on that.

I am a vegetarian these days, so I suppose in theory I should prefer the petroleum, but I'm honestly not as concerned about consuming bug bits as I am about bits of larger animals. Call me a hypocrite if you must.

This being so, and since there are bits of bugs in a lot of processed foods (check out the post's link on coffee and chocolate for exciting details on exactly how many insect fragments are acceptable in 100 grams of chocolate!), I'm really not very concerned about this.

No, I wouldn't just pick up a bug and eat it, unless I were really hungry or getting paid a lot of money, but  if undetectable pieces of bugs are in the sweet, sweet candy I was going to eat anyway?

Whatever. It's still sweet, sweet candy. Hand it over.

Learn Something New Every Day

Ah...an important item in the field of Peep research, too long neglected by me (it's from 2003), and passed along by Catalogablog. This study focuses on the research habits of Peeps in the library, offering valuable insights such as the Peeps' tendency to employ advanced search techniques such as consultation with a librarian.

I note that Peeps do appear somewhat more likely than college students, the comparison group, to suffer injury and death on library premises. To avoid unfortunate accidents, then, one take-away message from this study is that Peeps should probably be closely watched while in the library.

But be careful who you have watching them, since some library staff may themselves pose a danger to sweet, sweet candy.

Not me, though. I'm more of a danger to chocolate than to marshmallow. Your Peeps are safe with me.

When Duty Calls, Can You Hang Up?

Oh, heck. I'm on the Local Assistance Committee for MLA'13, and I just recently got forwarded mail (yes!--the postal system works!) asking if I want to chair the Carla Funk Award Jury for 2012-13.

I've done MLA committees in the past, I totally want to be involved, but do I want to do two of them in the same year? I kind of didn't specifically volunteer for a committee this year, partly because of this LAC commitment, and also because I'm not going to be at MLA'12 to take part in the committee meetings so I miss out on the transfer of information.

But they tracked me down anyway! Can I refuse my professional association in its hour of need?

I suppose not.

Ah, well. I mean, what else am I doing these days?

Crispy Deliciousness is Good

I thank Women's Health News for the happy information that popcorn is totally awesome for you. Full of antioxidants and stuff.

I like popcorn! I should eat more of it.

Of course they say you shouldn't drown it in butter lest that make it less totally awesome for you, but come on, even if it's partially awesome with a little butter, that's still some awesome.

So crunch up, everyone.

Well, That's Something

Many of us--OK, the few of us who cherish this sort of thing--were horrified to learn that the Census Bureau was ending publication of that huge and magnificent source of information, the Statistical Abstract of the United States.

We can be a bit relieved at the news that ProQuest has announced it will be taking over production of the report beginning with the 2013 edition. No word (that I could find) on how much it will cost, although the press release notes that the online and digital versions will be available for pre-sale starting next month.

It's hard to see it as a totally awesome development, with everyone's tight library budgets, if we now have to purchase something that used to be included in the cost of our taxes, but I guess it's better to have that as an option than it is to have this resource disappear entirely.

So thanks, ProQuest. I'm glad someone's doing it.

I initially saw this on LISNews.