Sunday, September 28, 2008

Best Seats in the House


Scouts
Originally uploaded by erink
I got to one of the open practices in Penguins training camp a few weeks ago. It was cool, as usual. They let all of us proletariat sit in one section of seats, the East Igloo and above, which left the rest of the seating area open for official business. I saw TV guys doing interviews at C-16, and a bunch of guys in shorts who probably were the injured players camped out in B-27 for a while.

But during the scrimmage I noticed a crowd gathering near my "home" section, C-21. A few at the right could be players or trainers, but up in the mini-box, that's clearly Ed Johnston, super-scout. And all the guys around him are wearing suits and holding papers. Scouts?

Seems the professionals know where to watch their hockey. And so do I.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

To Whom It May Concern...

Dear World,

If I ever am kidnapped by a crazy scientist who wants to harvest my pituitary gland, and during the last-minute rescue I go into cardiac arrest, and the bad guy you were holding a gun on has run away anyway, please attempt standard CPR.

Please do not call your father (who, despite being a research scientist and not a physician and also despite having spent the last 30 years in a mental institution seems to be completely up-to-date in the theory of modern defibrillation techniques) on your cell phone and ask him to help you use random lab equipment and 120v A/C current to construct a field defibrillator out of an oscilloscope and a pile of phone books.

Standard chest compressions and rescue breathing would be fine. Thank you.

That is all.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Ikea Goes Green...


Fancy Toilet
Originally uploaded by erink
...in the potty department.

My local Ikea recently remodeled, and expanded their first floor bathroom (which really needed it, because it's a long drive from Pittsburgh and those three tiny stalls weren't up to the job). Among other changes, they installed these "green" toilets. You're supposed to pull the handle up for "number one" and push it down for "number two" and it uses a different amount of water.

The handle is green - a green color, that is - because it's supposed to have some sort of anti-germ coating. So you should feel okay about touching it with your hand. Which I didn't (feel okay, that is). (I don't remember if I touched it with my hand or used the top of my foot.)

Here's a close-up of the documentation. I wonder who's got this on her resume.

Toilet Documentation

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Barnyard Cosmetology

Forget the politics, it takes real guts to get to the truth about putting lipstick on a pig.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94481288

Thursday, September 04, 2008

My Crummy Diet Vindicated!

I don't eat the best diet in the world. Too much fat, too much sugar, and not enough vegetables. But this week I got some unexpected good news.

I read Nutrition Action Healthletter, which is the monthly publication from Center for Science in the Public Interest. They've got publicity in the past for "exposing" restaurant foods that have way more calories than anyone would have guessed.

The September issue's cover story is about diabetes. It talks about obesity and inactivity, which are the most important factors that predict who will get type 2 diabetes, but it also talks about a lot of other dietary factors that seem to relate. For instance, refined sugar seems to increase the risk, and vitamin D seems to decrease the risk.

Now we get to the good part. Coffee reduces risk of diabetes. Even decaf.

In one study of 88,000 nurses, the risk of diabetes was 13 percent lower for those who drank one cup a day, 42 percent lower for those who drank two to three cups a day, and 47 percent lower for those who drank at least four cups a day than for those who drank none. Tea didn't raise or lower risk.
They think that it might be because the ridiculous amount of antioxidants in coffee protects the pancreas from damage. According to the article, coffee has more antioxidants than anything. Even broccoli.

What else is good for you? Alcohol. Drinking "in moderation" (two to four drinks per week for men) was linked to a 25% lower risk of diabetes. The risk kept going down with more drinks, up to seven (43% lower!). Though I can't imagine drinking that much would be good for your liver. And they said you're not supposed to start drinking to fix your health, because "alcohol has other risks."

But here's the best bit of all. Peanut butter. See, trans fats (vegetable oil with some of the bonds filled with hydrogen to make them more like saturated fats) raise the risk of diabetes, possibly because they increase inflammation or because they tend to lead to belly fat. Polyunsaturated fats reduce inflammation, and they might alter cell membranes and reduce insulin resistance.
Polyunsaturated fats may help explain why women who reported eating nuts or peanut butter at least five times a week had a 20 to 30 percent lower risk of diabetes than those who almost never ate those foods.
Yay! I eat peanut butter at least three times a week.... I win!