On Death Row, Women Want Salad for Last Meal. It’s no secret that men and women eat differently. Turns out, they stay true to their habits to the very end.
firstly, i wonder what women in other countries / cultures want. is it the same type of thing? do women or men in the isolated jungles of the amazon also do this?
second, i wonder what i'd want! i'm tempted to list every food i love, but they'd never let me have so much... i'd definitely order a lemonade. maybe steak and mashed potatoes. well... some kind of potatoes. or maybe a grilled cheese sandwich and herbed potatoes. mac and cheese with scalloped potatoes? or ramen from santouka, or a cup o noodles, or french onion soup, or soondubu. maybe some charcuterie and a simple cheese plate, with olives. a fruit salad with berries mango and pineapple, or strawberry surfrider smoothie from jamba juice. or a small bit of french bread with tons of butter. for dessert i'd want either a fruit sorbet or rainbow sherbet. hahaha, i'm pretty set for the drink and dessert, it's everything in between i'm having trouble with. there are definitely fruits in my last meal tho. veggies... not so much.
third, alcohol is prohibited, right? that's why no one got any? that seems a little unfair. i mean, they haven't even have like, half a shot of whiskey or half a pour of gin?
what about you?
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
no bread no fish
stuff like this is just so sad: man is arrested for feeding the homeless.
i get that we have to have laws and ordinances regarding public spaces and food safety to protect us from the bad, stupid, or careless people. but this man is obviously not one of them.
as someone who makes some of the rules for an organization, i understand that any good policy needs to be practical and easy to enforce. this means that sometimes sweeping measures work better than separate rules for every situation. still, i wonder if there isn't a better way to govern...
i get that we have to have laws and ordinances regarding public spaces and food safety to protect us from the bad, stupid, or careless people. but this man is obviously not one of them.
as someone who makes some of the rules for an organization, i understand that any good policy needs to be practical and easy to enforce. this means that sometimes sweeping measures work better than separate rules for every situation. still, i wonder if there isn't a better way to govern...
Saturday, February 14, 2015
sea quotations
all taken from Donovan Hohn's book Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea & of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists and Fools Including the Author Who Went in Search of Them
Wallace Stevens - "The wilderness rose up to it, / And sprawled around, no longer wild."
Lieutenant Parry - "Success in my enterprise is by no means essential to our joy. tho' it might have added something to it; but we cannot, ought not to have everything we wish."
Herman Melville - "When seamen fall overboard, they are sometimes found, months afterwards, perpendicularly frozen into the hearts of fields of ice, as a fly is found glued in amber."
"A vessel's center of gravity is analogous to the metronome's sliding weight. You can adjust it by adding or discharging cargo or ballast water. Make the center of of gravity too low and the ship will be "stiff"; a stiff ship is stable, but like a metronome set to allegro, it will jerk violently back and forth in short, quick rolls. Makes the center of gravity too high and the ship well be "tender," rolling steeply, righting itself slowly. With every roll the crow's nest will swing way out over the water to starboard, then way out over the water to port, describing long, but-wrenching arcs." (p245)
"Preventing liability is the second most important part of the captains' job, after ensuring the safety of his crew." (p246)
Wallace Stevens - "The wilderness rose up to it, / And sprawled around, no longer wild."
Lieutenant Parry - "Success in my enterprise is by no means essential to our joy. tho' it might have added something to it; but we cannot, ought not to have everything we wish."
Herman Melville - "When seamen fall overboard, they are sometimes found, months afterwards, perpendicularly frozen into the hearts of fields of ice, as a fly is found glued in amber."
"A vessel's center of gravity is analogous to the metronome's sliding weight. You can adjust it by adding or discharging cargo or ballast water. Make the center of of gravity too low and the ship will be "stiff"; a stiff ship is stable, but like a metronome set to allegro, it will jerk violently back and forth in short, quick rolls. Makes the center of gravity too high and the ship well be "tender," rolling steeply, righting itself slowly. With every roll the crow's nest will swing way out over the water to starboard, then way out over the water to port, describing long, but-wrenching arcs." (p245)
"Preventing liability is the second most important part of the captains' job, after ensuring the safety of his crew." (p246)
Sunday, February 8, 2015
brain quotes
all from dr. norman doidge's book the brain that changes itself: stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science
"...a powerful signal has greater impact on the brain. when we want to remember something we have heard we must hear it clearly, because a memory can only be as clear as its original signal. finally, merzenich discovered that paying close attention is essential to long-term plastic change. in numerous experiments he found that lasting changes occurred only when his monkeys paid close attention. when the animals performed tasks automatically, without paying attention, they changed their brain maps, but the changes did not last. we often praise 'the ability to multitask.' while you learn when you divide your attention, divided attention doesn't lead to abiding change in your brain maps." (p68)
"on disturbing study showed that the closer children lived to the noisy airport in frankfurt, germany, the lower their intelligence was. a similar study, on children in public housing high-rises above the dan ryan expressway in chicago, found that the closer their floor was to the highway, the lower their intelligence. so merzenich began wondering about the role of a new environmental risk factor that might affect everyone but have a more damaging effect on genetically predisposed children: the continuous background noise from machines, sometimes called white noise. white noise consists of many frequencies and is very stimulating to the auditory cortex. 'infants are reared in continuously more noisy environments. there is always a din,' he says..." (p81-82)
"a major reason memory loss occurs as we age is that we have trouble registering new events in our nervous systems, because processing speed slows down, so that they accuracy, strength, and sharpness with which we perceive declines. if you can't register something clearly, you won't be able to remember it well." (p86)
"as we age, we stop seeing clearly, not just because our eyes fail but because the vision processors in the brain weaken." (p90)
"pornography's growth has been extraordinary; it accounts for 25 percent of all video rentals and is the fourth most common reason people give for going online. an msnbc.com survey of viewers in 2001 found that 80 perent felt they were spending so much time on pornographic sites that htey were putting their relationships or jobs at risk.' (p103)
"the usual view is that an addict goes back for more of his fix because he likes the pleasure it gives and doesn't like the pain of withdrawal. but addicts take drugs when there is no prospect of pleasure, when they know they have an insufficient does to make them high, and will crave more even before they begin to withdraw. wanting and liking are two different things.' (p107)
"...subjects who had done physical exercise increased their muscular strength by 30 percent, as one might expect. those who had only imagined doing exercise, for the same period, increased their muscle strength by 22 percent." (p204)
btw, this is not the most interesting book ever, but you really should read it if you're interested in how our brain works. lots of really interesting studies are mentioned. you'll be surprised at some of the crazy stuff out brains can do!
"...a powerful signal has greater impact on the brain. when we want to remember something we have heard we must hear it clearly, because a memory can only be as clear as its original signal. finally, merzenich discovered that paying close attention is essential to long-term plastic change. in numerous experiments he found that lasting changes occurred only when his monkeys paid close attention. when the animals performed tasks automatically, without paying attention, they changed their brain maps, but the changes did not last. we often praise 'the ability to multitask.' while you learn when you divide your attention, divided attention doesn't lead to abiding change in your brain maps." (p68)
"on disturbing study showed that the closer children lived to the noisy airport in frankfurt, germany, the lower their intelligence was. a similar study, on children in public housing high-rises above the dan ryan expressway in chicago, found that the closer their floor was to the highway, the lower their intelligence. so merzenich began wondering about the role of a new environmental risk factor that might affect everyone but have a more damaging effect on genetically predisposed children: the continuous background noise from machines, sometimes called white noise. white noise consists of many frequencies and is very stimulating to the auditory cortex. 'infants are reared in continuously more noisy environments. there is always a din,' he says..." (p81-82)
"a major reason memory loss occurs as we age is that we have trouble registering new events in our nervous systems, because processing speed slows down, so that they accuracy, strength, and sharpness with which we perceive declines. if you can't register something clearly, you won't be able to remember it well." (p86)
"as we age, we stop seeing clearly, not just because our eyes fail but because the vision processors in the brain weaken." (p90)
"pornography's growth has been extraordinary; it accounts for 25 percent of all video rentals and is the fourth most common reason people give for going online. an msnbc.com survey of viewers in 2001 found that 80 perent felt they were spending so much time on pornographic sites that htey were putting their relationships or jobs at risk.' (p103)
"the usual view is that an addict goes back for more of his fix because he likes the pleasure it gives and doesn't like the pain of withdrawal. but addicts take drugs when there is no prospect of pleasure, when they know they have an insufficient does to make them high, and will crave more even before they begin to withdraw. wanting and liking are two different things.' (p107)
"...subjects who had done physical exercise increased their muscular strength by 30 percent, as one might expect. those who had only imagined doing exercise, for the same period, increased their muscle strength by 22 percent." (p204)
btw, this is not the most interesting book ever, but you really should read it if you're interested in how our brain works. lots of really interesting studies are mentioned. you'll be surprised at some of the crazy stuff out brains can do!
Monday, February 2, 2015
parents know best?
quoted from theskimm.com:
"Did you hear about the Connecticut Supreme Court decision? Yesterday, CT’s Supremes ruled that a 17-year-old girl can be forced to undergo cancer treatment, even though she doesn’t want it. The girl was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in September, but after undergoing chemotherapy, refused to continue with treatments. Her mother accepted her decision. But child services intervened, with her doctors saying that she stood a good chance of surviving if she completed treatment. She was placed in state custody so the state could make medical decisions on her behalf. She’s been living in a children’s medical center, undergoing chemo for the last few weeks. The girl’s lawyer says this is about having the “fundamental right” to choose what happens to her body, and that she will be appealing the decision."
what do you think? i think that while i generally believe we should have say of what we do with our bodies, that she is a minor complicates things. she is 17 tho, so she's pretty close to being an adult.
i think that in this case i do agree with the state. i think that her mom *was* negligent in her care and handling of her daughter's cancer diagnosis and treatment. (article here) and, maybe unfairly, it does matter to me that cassandra has been homeschooled. for some reason i feel that were she in a traditional school she would have made a different decision. she has an 85% chance of survival, after all. this is super high!
going off on a bit of a tangent here. but recently a few people were killed when little little kids got a hold of guns: 2yo shoots mom, 3yo shoots 18month brother, 3yo shoots mom. my my mom asked how this could have happened? i said "bad parenting." and that's really what it was. my dad has always had guns around the house. but they were *never* left unattended in the open. they were locked up, hidden away, put somewhere inaccessible to me. they were also never loaded. my mom had a really good point about the wal-mart tragedy. she said that if something bad were happening, the mom should only worry about protecting her child. she should not be a hero and with her gun confront someone. this made a lot of sense to me. if alone, i might stand up to the car hijacker/bank robber/looter/crazy gunman. but if i have my child with me i am not leaving my kid alone so they can see me get killed. i'm sorry, but someone else can try to save us all because i choose to be selfish and not put my kid thru that level of trauma.
a lot of the time it's difficult to know what's best for your child. but i think in some of the cases mentioned here, what's right was obvious.
"Did you hear about the Connecticut Supreme Court decision? Yesterday, CT’s Supremes ruled that a 17-year-old girl can be forced to undergo cancer treatment, even though she doesn’t want it. The girl was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in September, but after undergoing chemotherapy, refused to continue with treatments. Her mother accepted her decision. But child services intervened, with her doctors saying that she stood a good chance of surviving if she completed treatment. She was placed in state custody so the state could make medical decisions on her behalf. She’s been living in a children’s medical center, undergoing chemo for the last few weeks. The girl’s lawyer says this is about having the “fundamental right” to choose what happens to her body, and that she will be appealing the decision."
what do you think? i think that while i generally believe we should have say of what we do with our bodies, that she is a minor complicates things. she is 17 tho, so she's pretty close to being an adult.
i think that in this case i do agree with the state. i think that her mom *was* negligent in her care and handling of her daughter's cancer diagnosis and treatment. (article here) and, maybe unfairly, it does matter to me that cassandra has been homeschooled. for some reason i feel that were she in a traditional school she would have made a different decision. she has an 85% chance of survival, after all. this is super high!
going off on a bit of a tangent here. but recently a few people were killed when little little kids got a hold of guns: 2yo shoots mom, 3yo shoots 18month brother, 3yo shoots mom. my my mom asked how this could have happened? i said "bad parenting." and that's really what it was. my dad has always had guns around the house. but they were *never* left unattended in the open. they were locked up, hidden away, put somewhere inaccessible to me. they were also never loaded. my mom had a really good point about the wal-mart tragedy. she said that if something bad were happening, the mom should only worry about protecting her child. she should not be a hero and with her gun confront someone. this made a lot of sense to me. if alone, i might stand up to the car hijacker/bank robber/looter/crazy gunman. but if i have my child with me i am not leaving my kid alone so they can see me get killed. i'm sorry, but someone else can try to save us all because i choose to be selfish and not put my kid thru that level of trauma.
a lot of the time it's difficult to know what's best for your child. but i think in some of the cases mentioned here, what's right was obvious.
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