My Stuff is Giving Me Nightmares

My dreams aren't usually cryptic and don't take a dream dictionary to figure out. If I lost something during the day, that night I'll dream about finding it (and wake up really disappointed). I also have a lot of dreams where I'm flying but that's just because I really like the sensation of flying, I think.

Anyways last night I had this dream I was moving out of some sort of dorm-type place. I'm not sure what the situation was because there were friends from law school and my ill-fated semester at grad school, and I think some other people my mind made up. My parents were there to pick me up but I hadn't finished packing before their arrival. And they kept hurrying me and tossing my stuff around trying to get it all boxed up so we could leave, and I just remember being on the verge of freaking out because no matter how much stuff we packed, there was always more stuff, and their tossing my stuff around was just stressing me out even more. It was an odd dream, especially since my parent's haven't picked me up from anywhere like that since maybe Nerd Camp '95.

So this morning I was thinking my volume of stuff is getting to the point of giving me nightmares. Then I remembered that I had watched the latest episode of The Real World: Sydney yesterday where they all pack up and move out. (Disclaimer: I got hooked on it while hanging out with my sister over Christmas.) If you haven't seen any of this season, you HAVE to go to mtv.com and click on the one entitled "The Grilled Cheese Incident" at the very least to watch Cohutta talk to his grilled cheese sandwich.



(I tried to find a picture of the insane amount of stuff the Real Worlders had to pack up but they haven't posted any stills from the episode, so this pic will have to do.)

Walking the walk, literally

As part of this plan, we are not driving to places less than two miles, with some exceptions. Living on the Portland peninsula, this is generally not a big deal (this one of the things I really like about living here). Though not everywhere on the peninsula is easy to get to, particularly when the weather is bad. I often have to go to UPS to drop off photo orders, and I needed to go today. As the photo below shows, today was not exactly sunny.

Generally Portland is pedestrian friendly (at least the peninsula), but the spot where UPS is located is in an area of fairly new development (last time I looked on Google Earth, most of it was just an empty lot). So there are not a lot of sidewalks in the area, or getting down to it.

But I can't justify driving to UPS to drop off an 9x12 envelop, despite the weather. Of course if I were really busy with work I might drive, considering it does take much longer to walk. If it were warmer and not raining, I would bike - and that can almost be faster than driving.

I miss D.C. (sniffles)

This is only marginally relevant to this blog but I really wanted to post this picture and story courtesy of the Washington Post. These are all fake meats courtesy of Terry's Healthy Food Store in Rockville, MD. WP did a taste test of them that is somewhat funny. Unfortunately it looks like they're sold frozen so I'm guessing mail-order isn't an option. (Side note: If you right-click and "save image" from the WP website, the name of the picture is "art-fake_meat"... truly that lobster is a work of art. The "duck," however, looks like a misshapen challah.)

1=sausage, 2=duck, 3=chicken breast slices, 4=bacon (apparently), 5=lobster, 6=steak, 7=shrimp.

More on the Candidates

The journal Science has a 10-page special report, 'Science and the Next U.S. President.'

How do the candidates view science? Sometimes it's hard to tell from the campaign trail, but they have offered opinions on topics from evolution to global warming.

The candidates are addressing issues, from climate change to how the next Administration should manage science, that will affect researchers next year--and for decades to come. Differences have emerged on embryonic stem cell research, on the urgency of combating climate change, and even on the teaching of evolution.

- via The Blue Marble

There's no such thing as 'away.'

That's a quote from that SF man who's been saving all his garbage for a year. I really like it. I’ve been putting off writing about this article on MSN because (a) it’s 6 webpages long, and (b) I can’t figure out why it’s been relegated to the "Lifestyle: Men" section. Anyways the article discusses how a garbage mass twice the size of Texas is floating in a vortex in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Basically the gyre is where air and water currents flow in a circle, collecting everything into the relatively still center of the vortex. (Interesting fact: this occurs in the “horse latitudes,” so-called because winds are so weak that back in the day ships would toss their horses overboard to lighten the load.)

(yellow dots = garbage)

This article discusses how discarded plastic is working its way into our bodies and causing obesity, infertility/reproductive problems, diabetes, cancer, memory loss, and liver and thyroid problems. Basically, every speck of plastic ever made still exists because instead of biodegrading, plastic photodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces, which then works its way into and up the food chain. That’s on top of the plastics exposure we get through the containers we eat/drink out of, through the carpet (and “new car”) fumes we inhale, or through the water we drink.

Yeah, it’s pretty scary. On page 5 there’s a discussion of something I’ve never heard of before- the problem of the lax handling of nurdles, the pellet-form of plastic before it’s melted and molded into something more useful. One study estimates that escaped nurdles account for 10% of ocean plastic debris.

Another fun anecdote about ocean debris— occasionally garbage will spin out of the gyre and make its way to shore. Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been studying the movement of ocean currents using data from cargo spills, relying heavily on the great Nike spill of 1990 (when about 80,000 pairs fell off the Hansa Carrier and started washing ashore 6 months later) and another spill in 1992 of tens of thousands of bathtub toys-- blue turtles, yellow ducks, red beavers and green frogs. Anyways, skim the article-- it's long but worth it.

Follow-up: Here's something you don't read everyday-- China at the forefront of an environmental solution. Apparently come June, stores in China will no longer be allowed to give away plastic bags for free and must start charging for them. (Link)

Who Owns Me? (Mostly) Food Edition

Hint: 4 of the answers are (a). Yay!

1) Organic Valley Inc.:
(a) Organic Valley Inc.
(b) Kraft Foods
(c) an organic food cooperative
(d) Hain Celestial Group

2) Burt's Bees:
(a) Burt's Bees
(b) Clorox
(c) L'Oreal
(d) Colgate-Palmolive

3) Horizon Organic:
(a) Horizon Organic
(b) General Mills
(c) Proctor & Gamble
(d) Dean Foods

4) Silk Soymilk:
(a) Silk Soymilk
(b) Unilever
(c) Dean Foods
(d) Cargill

5) Seventh Generation:
(a) Seventh Generation
(b) Kimberley Clark
(c) Colgate-Palmolive
(d) Unilever


6) Kashi foods:
(a) Kashi Foods
(b) General Mills
(c) PepsiCo
(d) Kellogg

7) Vitasoy:
(a) Vitasoy
(b) Archer Daniel Midland
(c) Kowloon Soy Company
(d) Kraft Foods

8) 8th Continent Soymilk:
(a) 8th Continent
(b) General Mills
(c) DuPont
(d) Unilever

9) Amy's Kitchen:
(a) Amy's Kitchen
(b) Hain Celestial
(c) PepsiCo
(d) General Mills

10) Cascadian Farm:
(a) Cascadian Farm
(b) General Mills
(c) Dole
(d) Kraft

11) Muir Glen (tomato products):
(a) Muir Glen
(b) Campbell Foods
(c) General Mills
(d) Unilever

12) Nature Valley (granola):
(a) Nature Valley
(b) General Mills
(c) Hain Celestial
(d) Unilever

This Seems Awfully Political for Yogurt

I'm sitting at my desk enjoying my Stonyfield Farm O'Soy yogurt when I see this.























It reads: "In politics, the cream doesn't always rise to the top.

Some of America's most capable leaders can't get elected, [sic] because they aren't wealthy or don't have access to big money. Public funding of elections would change this. Learn how to help send our best leaders to Washington at Stonyfield.com"

And there's a logo for Americans For Campaign Reform at the bottom. I'm all for campaign finance reform but seriously are we merging politics and food now? Are my teddy grahams going to start preaching to me about the danger of activist judges?