Slothfulness

I will try not to do this too often, but this I Can Has Cheeseburger picture was just too cute (and funny) not to post. Please check out the rest of their website for more adorable and hilarious pictures (mostly of cats)!

Burdock Root

Burdock is the most "exotic" root I have tried so far, meaning I don't know of anyone who has ever eaten it. It's the root of a thistle. You know, the normal kind that has green bulb and purple flower at the top. It's sometimes called a "Sticky Bob" in Europe...ha ha...and it was the inspiration behind George de Mestrels invention of Velcro. It's supposedly pretty good at removing toxins from your blood, and helps you go pee.

Burdock
It's a long spindly root that is about the width of a small carrot, and about 6-8" long. The skin is dark brown to almost black and rough (and mine was covered in dirt still!). Appearance wise it was pretty gross looking. The cashier, after asking what the hell they were, picked them up carefully between his thumb and fore finger and tossed them in my bag like they were a dirty diaper. Anyway. Once I got them home I scrubbed them down (which does very little for their appearance), and got to peeling them. They are white on the inside. Well, they are white for about 4.7 seconds until they react with the air and turn a dull dirty yellow color (like a potato or apple but much faster). Once again, not very appealing to look at. They are kind of fibrous, and don't smell like anything. By the time you peel them and cut off the ends there isn't a whole lot of root left. I julienned them and added some carrots and made a veggie stir fry out of them.
I don't know if it's considered cheating that my recipe involved cooking them in soy sauce. But that's what I did. After cutting everything up I mixed about a tablespoon of sugar into a little less than half a cup of soy sauce until it dissolved. Then I poured it over the burdock and carrots, added a few sesame seeds and cooked in a pan for about 20 minutes on medium heat.

Conclusion
It turned out pretty good. Mostly the it tasted like soy sauce, but when I compared it to the carrots that were mixed in, I actually liked the burdock more. It held it's "crunchiness" better than the carrots did too, although it was much uglier in appearance.
While the amount of washing, peeling, and slicing was a bit more than I usually prefer I think the biggest downfall for me was it's appearance, before and after. It just didn't look appetizing at any stage. My one word description of it would be "dirty".
The flavor was good in an underwhelming sort of way. Much milder than the carrot actually. It was like the flavor of celery in a tougher more fibrous vegetable. I did enjoy the crunchy texture it provided in my stir fry. In fact that may be one of my favorite things about it.
Over all, I'd say on the hand full of occasions a year that I make stir fry, I will probably take the time to add this to it. Texturally I think it would be a great addition. But as for making it just for a normal dinner as a side dish I think I will pass. Over all I give Burdock 2.5 out of 4 stars.

Scary Beyond All Reason

If someone were to ask me to imagine the scariest thing I can think of, this would be it. It totally creeps me out. The beady eyes, the smug expression, the way it's impersonating a Mountie....eeeesh.

It's a Miracle!

"It's a miracle!" I shouted silently to myself the other day as I exited Whole Foods. What had I done that was so miraculous? Well, not only do I own a re-usable grocery bag, but it was in my car as I headed to the store, and I finally remembered to bring it into the store with me to use at the check out!!!! Holy canoli right!?! And as an added bonus at Whole Foods they give you a 5 cent refund for each bag you bring in and use! Isn't that neato? (I donated my nickel to "Canter", a non-profit group that is working with Whole Foods to provide housing and care for retired race horses.) Gosh golly, I just felt like a million bucks. I felt like a good citizen when the cashier asked "Paper or plastic?" and I said "Oh, neither. I have my own bag right here in my purse!" I felt like I was saving the environment and helping a fellow mammal. All because of a nylon grocery bag! Hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend for me:)

As a side note, I got to wondering about what is worse to use paper or plastic bags. It turns out that they are equally bad for the environment, but in different ways. So to argue against plastic in favor of paper bags is just ignorant. For just a few interesting facts about paper bags check out this website.

Cats That Look Like....?

This must be my week for finding really random things on the internet. So if you are looking for something to waste five minutes of your time on check out Cats That look Like Hitler.com Yes that's right folks! There is a website totally dedicated to posting photos of kitty's that look like Adolf.

Around The Yard

I spent this past Saturday puttering around my back yard. I removed all the dead leaves off my plants, and re-potted a few. I swept, and dusted, and just had a really fun day taking care of all my "babies". Dennis my olive tree has actual olives growing on him! And I found a surprise in one of my hanging plants. A bird decided to build a nest in it! Oh, and I got two orchids for my kitchen window sill. Here are a few pictures.

Beer in Bad Taste?

If there ever was an appropriate use of "WTF" this is it: Limited edition bottled beer brewed by Brew Dog that sells for over 700 British pounds a bottle and comes in it's own authentic squirrel koozie. WTF!?! Their blog says that all of the furry animals were roadkill, and not pumped full of b-b's or anything before becoming a jacket for a beer bottle. I am sure the fact that it was shoveled off of a highway would make me feel better about drinking beer out of a squirrel, if I ever found myself in such a situation.
I must admit it does help me feel less bad about the fact that I find it hilarious. Can you imagine watching someone drinking out of it? It would look like they were squeezing the puke right out of the little guys, or about to bite their head off maybe...either way worthy of a serious double take. I almost feel bad for finding it so funny. What do you think? Is this beer in bad taste? For more pics and weird stuff check out the Brew Dog Blog.

Holeyfin

I was hoping to spread my book reviews out a little, but I am already three titles behind, so I thought I'd rather catch up all at once and have my facts straight rather than wait and forget.
I read somewhere that dolphins, along with chimpanzees, where the smartest animals besides us. So I went searching for a book about dolphins. I ended up getting To Touch a Wild Dolphin by Rachel Smolker.
While the book was a quick read, and not poorly written, I didn't care for it much in that it was more of a memoir of the author, and less about the actual data and research I was looking for. It was a good story, and had I been just wanting "something to read" in general, I probably would have appreciated it more. The other problem I saw with the book is that much of the data and methods of collecting data appear to me to be very outdated and so I am not sure how accurate the information I learned really is.
But I thought I'd pass around a few highlights/ interesting observations the author made while studying dolphins at Monkey Mia on the west coast of Australia. I am choosing facts that I don't think have changed with more recent observations.

• Dolphins evolved from a land animal (as did whales). They most likely belong to the group of mammals referred to as ungulates (cows, camels, deer etc).
  
• Their terrestrial origin is the reason why their tails are horizontal and flip up and down vertically through the water, as opposed to fish where they flip side to side.
• Dolphins are the only mammals who breath consciously. If for some reason they are rendered unconscious they will drown.
• Dolphins don't "sleep" or go into REM, so theoretically they don't dream. They do have the ability to rest one side of their brain at a time though which is their equivalent of sleep.
• Dolphins can plan ahead, (example: dolphin wants to fight another dolphin ( for what else? a female) but is outnumbered. He will go get his "pals" and then come back).
• Dolphins can use simple tools. They employ sponges and shells to do tasks.
• Baby dolphins nurse for up to four years!
• Dolphins have names for themselves. (unique whistle calls)

If anyone knows of, or has read any good books on dolphins that would maybe focus more on their intelligence, and the methods used to discern it, please let me know! It's really fun to think about the possibilities of being able some day to communicate with dolphins the way we can communicate with chimpanzees now. Can you imagine what they could tell us about the ocean?

P.S. Holeyfin was the matriarch dolphin at Monkey Mia. She was named such because she had a hole in her dorsal fin.

The Unfortunate End of F. Magellan

I picked up a book about Ferdinand Magellan at the used bookstore a few weeks back. The title is Over the Edge of the World by L. Bergreen. It was one of those situations where I wasn't looking for it, but I read the back and thought "Hu...I really don't know anything about him other than that he was the first to sail around the world." So I bought it for $1.50.
I have to tell you it took me forever to read. I don't know why since the book isn't really that long. I guess maybe the words were small, or it might have been the fact that I often had to go back and figure out who was who, and look at the map for visual support. That's not to say it wasn't a good book though. As any avid reader of exploration adventures knows, it's often a complicated thing to read about ocean voyages, the route taken, weather, and ship wide politics. There is just no easy or simple way of describing any of it.Anyway, it was worth reading for sure. But in case you don't have time, or you just aren't that interested I thought I might sum up a few facts that you probably don't know about this 16th century explorer.

• Although Magellan sailed for King Charles of Spain, he was born in Portugal
• Magellan wanted to find the Spice Islands for Portugal, but the King denied him (because the king had secretly set up a trade colony in the Spice Islands 10 years earlier (but didn't want Spain to know) and didn't need to "find a new route")
• Magellan had five ships called the Trinidad, Victoria, San Antonio, Conception and Santiago
• Only Victoria made it home.
• From the start (before the ships left Seville) there were plans of mutiny because of the divided Spanish/Portuguese crew.
• Magellan tortured one of the captains of his ship for homosexuality (brutally tortured to cause maximum suffering) put mutineers heads on stakes around the ships as a reminder of who was boss, and even abandoned conspirators (and a priest) on desolate islands along the way.
• San Antonio abandoned the fleet off the coast of Argentina and headed back to Spain along with most of the supplies.
• While crossing the Pacific most of the crew members succumbed to scurvy, but the officers did not because they had unwittingly brought jam aboard made from an apple like fruit that contained enough vitamin C to ward off the disease. They thought it was divine intervention.
• Saint Elmo's fire (an electrical charge that would extend from the highest mast of a ship into the sky) was considered a sign from God that Magellan was doing "Gods work" and the only reason the sailors didn't mutiny on several occasions.
  
• Magellan never made it all the way around the world!?! He was killed in an unnecessary skirmish with some Philippines Islanders, and literally hacked to pieces in front of the surviving crew members.
• Out of 260 that started the voyage only 24 (I think or 21?) made it back alive, and thus were the actual first persons to sail around the globe.
• Most of Magellan's story survived because a journal by Antonio Pigafetta (a passenger from Venice, and one of the survivors) was kept the entire voyage at Magellan's request.

Can you believe the one thing I thought I knew about Magellan turned out to be untrue! He didn't sail all the way around the world. The truth is he sailed a little more than half way around the world then got hacked into fish bait. I didn't know that! Did you?

Oh Baby!

I know we as a country outsource a lot of of our call centers to India, but I was unaware that some of us have also begun outsourcing our pregnancies. It's hard to believe that people living here can have an Indian woman, whom they have never met, give birth to their child half way around the world. But apparently that is exactly what our advances in technology have recently allowed us to do.
I don't know what I think about this. I don't have a problem with surrogates. I think it's a great option for men and women who could not otherwise have kids. But there is something...not right about having a stranger (instead of a family member, or close friend) half way around the world carry your baby around in their body. I wouldn't leave my child with some random person after it was born, so why would I leave it with them beforehand? And then is the child born considered an American or Indian?
I can't really think of any overwhelming reasons why this is a bad idea, but my guts are telling me that it is. What do you think?

Horsing Around

This was just too...weird to not post. Einstein is the smallest horse in the world...and I believe it. I have stuffed animals on my bed bigger than this little guy! I wonder if horses are going to be the "new" dog? Can you imagine? Instead of Fido needing to go for a walk it would be Flicka at the end of the leash instead. For more pics and a video click here.

P.S. I am adding him to my Christmas list:)

Beets Me

I did it! I bought a bunch of fresh beets, found a recipe and tried it!

Beetroot:
The recipe called for cutting the leaves and spindly tip of the root off, wrapping them individually in foil, and baking for about 40 minutes. Chopping off the latter made me feel like I was removing the hair/ tail thing of an Avatar, and it seemed wrong, but what can you do?
The baking part was easy, but they dripped everywhere even wrapped in foil, so I am glad I thought to put a cookie sheet under them. After they cooled I was directed to peel them and dice them. They are so messy! By the time I was done it looked like I'd murdered someone on my counter! The juice stained my hands (and the counter), but the deep red slices of beets were really beautiful. They are layered like a an onion, but you can't pull them apart. It's not often that you see such depth of color in a food. It was like looking into a stained glass window, and it had the vibrancy that a turquoise ocean has as the light makes it's way through the water...it sort of glows from the inside.
Anyway, the rest was a cinch. I was making a warm beet salad and the dressing was really good, and pretty simple. In a bowl I mixed in equal measure olive oil, balsamic and red wine vinegar, I added a few chives, some salt and pepper and that was it. I poured the mixture over the warm beets and then sprinkled it with feta cheese. It was delicious! Sooooo yummy!

Conclusion: The upside was that I really enjoyed it. Beets don't have a ton of flavor, but it's pretty distinct in that they don't taste like something else. They have a good texture, and I liked having my salad when they were still slightly warm. The downside is that for as beautiful as they are they are messy because of their color. While I must admit it was fun to sway around the kitchen moaning and pretending like I'd been stabbed with a kitchen knife as the ruby red juice dripped from between my fingers, it was a hastle to clean up. And who knows what would have happened if I'd gotten any on my clothes? And it took a while to cook them. After my experience I think they they might be more of a "special occasion" root for me meaning that if I am making a nice dinner for a special occasion I will absolutely include them. They might be a fun Halloween dinner:) But for normal everyday cooking they are a little too much work from start to finish. I know you can buy them in a can, but to me anyway, that sort of defeats the purpose. In the end I give beets 3 stars.

What Next?

I have gotten ahead of myself again! I have too many books to read and not enough time! But when I see a title I have been looking for, on Amazon, for a penny, I just can't help myself! So now the stack of reads on my nightstand is piling up and I am still expecting more in the mail, and I have thirty books on my "wish list" on Amazon!
Up on the docket after I finish my latest book will be one of the following: To Swim with Wild Dolphins, Denialism (culture/society), Next of Kin (about chimps), Letters From the Earth (M.Twain), or a biography on Johnny Unitas, ...Ahhh...what should I choose first? Any thoughts on what you want to know about next?

Ahipa/Jicama It's All the Same

Jicama Root next to my newest book I got in the mail:)

I don't know if this counts as cheating (on my first taste test no less!) but I can't find the first item on my "Roots-to-Try" list, so I got another item on the list that is supposedly very similar. The Ahipa is grown in parts of Bolivia and Argentina, so it's kind of hard to get here in the U.S. I read on line, and talked to a Guatemalan produce guy at the local grocery store, and they both said that the Ahipa is almost identical to the more common Jicama root. In fact I had a hard time getting the produce man to understand why I didn't want to just substitute it. "They are the same thing." He said. So I guess for right now I will consider them one in the same. Should anyone happen to cross paths with an Ahipa maybe buy it, try it, and let me know what you think, or you can put a stamp on it and mail it to me! Anyway here is what I discovered:

Ahipa/Jicama:
They are not expensive, and they can be pretty big. The Jicama is more round whereas it's Ahipa cousin is longer and narrower looking (a little like a carrot). They are both whitish yellow. I purchased a small one thinking that I would try a little guy first to see if I liked it. When I got home and cut it open though, it was all rotten inside, and looked very similar to when a raw potato gets those icky brown spots. I was pretty disappointed. Not that it cost a lot, but more so because I took my time picking out my Jicama, and there was nothing on the outside of the root that indicated it was bad. The fiberous skin was fully intact, and there were no "soft spots" or anything.
Anyway, I read that they are mostly eaten raw, but can be used as a substitute for water chestnuts in Asian cooking. I decided to eat it raw. I found a little piece that wasn't brown and after peeling the outer skin, took a bite.
Texturally it's like eating a raw potato. It's kind of crunchy, but not as firm as a carrot. Maybe you could argue it's like an apple. At first it doesn't taste like anything. It's got quite a bit of water in it, but it doesn't taste starchy like a potato. Because it doesn't have a strong flavor it seems like most people could eat it and not dislike it. I had to take a couple bites before I tasted anything at all. Then it took a minute for me to figure out what it reminded me of. It's very subtle but it tastes just like eating raw green beans. If you took a bite of Jicama and didn't know that it was white, you would (by it's taste) probably think it was green because of that association.

Final Conclusion: It was OK. I definitely won't pick it out if I find some in a salad I am eating, but I don't think I will go out of my way to buy/eat it. I might give it a go next time I do a stir fry though. I was really disappointed in the fact that my root was rotten and I couldn't tell. And the fact that it was flavorless kind of makes me feel like I'd rather stick with celery as my flavorless crunchy veggie to have with dip. Jicama is good with ranch dressing, but so is just about every other vegetable. The big advantage it has is it's really unique texture. It would be interesting in a pasta salad maybe. In the end I give it one and a half out of 4 stars.

My Jicama was rotten....:(

Why'd You Do It Johnny?

(AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Johnny Jolly # 97 and one of the defensive ends in the Packers #2 defense in the league last season has been suspended by the NFL for a year. This is due to the fact that he was arrested last year in Houston with dealer quantities of codeine on him. (Codeine is what they put in cough syrup...I don't even know why you would take it recreationally-anyone?)
It makes you wonder. We, or I do anyway, think we would be happy if only we had ______. Fill in the blank. It could be money, or job security, or a family, or a long vacation, or a better body. But what if that just isn't true? Jolly had a great football career, he had a great season last year. He had plenty of money and fans, but apparently it wasn't enough. It seems so stupid to us, but somehow it made sense to him (and many other athletes in the same position). Why would he risk it all for cough syrup (or the equivalent)?
We all think if we had some great thing we would never let it go. But look at all the people who seem to have everything, and then they go and screw it up for no good reason. I am not saying I would do the same thing as they did, but how exactly would I know that I wouldn't? At any rate I hope not.
I guess people are stupid on occasion no matter what their circumstances are. And all of us want more even if the rest of the world thinks we have everything. It's human nature I guess.
Well, he will have the whole football season (maybe longer) to think about all of that. I'll tell you what, Johnny ain't so Jolly now.

Recycled Island?

I just stumbled upon this, and thought it coincidental because I have been thinking about posting a blog on the Pacific Gyre, or Great Pacific Garbage Patch (although what is so great about it I don't know). I still might post something about it at a later date, but in the mean time this is one Dutch Architectural firms idea about how to fix the problem. Without having thought much about the feasibility of it, I think it's a pretty sweet and innovative idea. It looks cool, and we all know plastic floats, so why not? I wouldn't leave it in the current location of the garbage patch because all that swirling around would make me barf. Maybe they should attach it to giant cables, one connected to San Francisco, and the other to Japan, so the island can float back and forth across the ocean. I say if you are gonna make a plastic island, you may as well attach giant cables to it. Wouldn't that be fun? I'd buy a condo there!
Or maybe we should start using plastic for space travel? Once we clear the atmosphere wouldn't a giant plastic spaceship work? Sure it won't fend off the Death Star, but last I checked Star Wars still wasn't real. Or what else could we do with a pile of plastic the size of Texas?
What do you think?

FucM

This just in: Scientists in Korea find that deletion of the FucM (ummm....any takers on pronounciation?) gene in mice turns them into lesbians. I didn't even know mice could be lesbians! I swear, I am not making this up! Lol. I love science!

...So does that mean that all "normal" females do have a FucM gene? Do they also have a protein called NLevM? Haha hah hah ha...
For more a more in depth and less "in the gutter" account read the full article (which is actually pretty interesting).

Photo taken at Petco with My iPhone4:)

iPhone 4...Million

I recently got a new phone. The super new iPhone 4! This is the first time I have ever been at the cutting edge of the technological world. And I hate to admit it but I think my new phone might just be smarter than I am. It knows if I have new email, what the weather will be like tomorrow, how my stocks are doing, and what the score is of every major spot on the planet. It has a library, and music store and can play videos. It can take photos and movies and do video conferencing. In fact the only thing I can do that it can't is open a bottle of wine! And who knows, maybe there is an app for that and I just haven't found it yet. I sometimes even forget it's a phone! It will start ringing and I think "What the...OH...that's right, it receives telephone calls too...neato".
My old phone was a Archosaur (they lived before the dinosaurs). It's coolest feature was that it flipped open, and maybe that it was called a "Razor" which sounds pretty neat. So when I first got my iPhone it was shocking. I mean I went from a phone that saved all my voicemails and delivered them about once a week (or whenever it felt like it), to a phone that works better than my PC! At first it was a little overwhelming. I was reminded of what I feel like when I go to an arcade and try to play video games. I end up just pushing a lot of buttons, getting overly excited and hoping something cool happens on the screen. Then I spend hours of my life trying to figure out how I did those cool things...
But after a couple days I began to get the hang of it. I downloaded apps, and set up my voice mail, and email and all that good stuff. I avoided the whole "antenna problem" by getting a case, and I have to say my phone works great! To date I have begun reading a book from my iBook library, I have watched Sports Center and checked my email...all from the comfort of my own toilet...ha ha ha...just kidding:) I could though if I wanted to.
It's great for looking up recipes while at the grocery store, and checking movie listings, and well...it kind of feels like having an external hard drive for my brain. Grocery lists and writing down directions? Pu-leeeze! That is so old-school!
I don't like that I am so technology dependent, but I figure if I have to be I may as well really take it for all it's worth. And that is what the iPhone 4 specializes in. It's like the iPhone 3 suddenly thought to itself "Why just do when you can over-do?" And thus a new generation in ridiculous awesomeness was born.

P.S. This post is dedicated to my brother Jonathon, who foot the bill for the up-grade from 3 to 4! Thanks Boy!!!!!

Healthy With a Chance of Meatballs

I have been on a bit of a cooking kick the last couple of weeks. I haven't made my beets yet, but yesterday I made a most delicious dinner that I must share with you all. It was amazing! And I know I didn't make it up as an original dish, but I made up my own recipe. If you think you can handle eating something really healthy and liking it, you should give this a try the first chance you get. OK, so what is this super-good-for-you-and-yummy-at-the-same-time meal? Spaghetti squash and meatballs of course!Squash has almost no fat, and is high in vitamin A, B, and C. It has a mere 42 calories per cup versus traditional spaghetti pasta which has about 220 calories!

How to make it:
The sauce was simple (but to make it even easier you can just buy tomato sauce in a jar) tomato, chives, water, olive oil, garlic, dried parsley and oregano. Then I bought low fat turkey meatballs in the frozen section of the grocery store. I baked the squash for 40 min at 350 degrees in about an inch of water. (Many of the recipes I looked at today say bake for 20 min face down and 20 min face up, but I left it down the whole time and it turned out fine.) Heat the meatballs and tomato sauce in a pot, and after the squash is done and removed from the skin with a fork, you just pour sauce over it and POOF! Healthy dinner is served. (Oh, I salt and pepper the squash before I mix it with the sauce. You can use a little butter too, and garnish with Parmesan cheese.)
It's really tasty, and filling. And REALLY easy. It might be more of a fall winter dish, but it is a good replacement for a "pasta night" anytime. If you've never tried it be brave and give it a go!

The Root of the Matter

I came up with a fantastic idea yesterday! I decided to try, at least once, every edible root vegetable there is! I know, I know...it's kind of random, but here's who the whole thing started:
I was just browsing around on the Internet yesterday and got to looking and recipes. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one for sweet-potato pie, and involuntarily gagged a little. I don't like sweet potatoes....or at least I didn't the last time I tried one in 1997. Anyway eventually it let to me wondering what the difference is between a yam and a sweet potato, which led me to Wikipedia, and then a list of all known root vegetables.
Reading down the list I realized that even though I don't think I like most root veggies, I can't honestly say I know that I don't. I've not tried most of them as an adult (or in some cases ever). I scrunch my nose at the word parsnip, but I don't even know what one tastes like or looks like, much less how you prepare it or whether or not it's good for you! That inspired me to inquire into every root vegetable there is (or I can get my hands on) to learn more about them and determine definitively whether I do or don't like them. Besides it seems like a fun and healthy way to expand my knowledge of food.
The most complete list I have found has some 41 different roots, some of which will be harder than others to get. Just today I went to the store to get the first one on my list, but ended up having to skip the first three because the stores did not carry them. I was hoping to start with the exotic sounding Ahipa, or Arracacha, but have had to instead settle for beetroot. I won't get to it today, but by the end of next week I hope to have a solidly informed opinion of beets. Hopefully this experiment will broaden your horizons and maybe inspire all of you to try something new too. I hope to finish this project by the end of this fall, and I may need some help with recipes, and ideas about where to acquire certain items. So let me know if you have any thoughts.
Woo Hoo...isn't this fun? Stay tuned for more than you ever wanted to know about roots!!!

Sigmund Freud is So Last Week!

I just finished reading a book about how the brain works called Mind Wide Open by Stephen Johnson. It was really interesting. If I were writing a book review I would say it was "pretty good". The author uses himself as an example throughout and that gets a little...uninteresting, but the over all topic, and themes in the book are quite thought provoking. Like many of my other reads, I won't retell the whole story here. I will just pick one part to share.
Johnson makes a really good point in one of the later chapters about the state (or character) of the field of psychology that seemed very obvious once I read it, but not so much beforehand.
For the past hundred years everything in psychology has come directly out of the work done by Sigmund Freud, even though almost everything he proposed is outdated. We know (or hopefully at least speculate) that we don't have romantic attachments to our parents. That one is glaringly obvious. But there are hundreds of other, more subtle ideas that Freud brought to the field that are still considered current by modern psychologists today. We might roll our eyes when someone brings up the "Oedipus Complex", but we feel fairly comfortable discussing our Ego. We feel even more comfortable with the idea that we repress painful memories. We don't think we repress our bad experiences we just assume we do. This is my toppic for this blog: repression.
As it turns out neuroscience is beginning to cast doubt on our tightly grasped notions of repression. Through fMRI scans, and a host of tests, and experiments (which you can read about ad nauseum in the book) scientists can literally see what is happening in your brain (and where) while you are thinking. And it makes sense to know that different parts of the brain light up depending on the task your brain is focused on.
But how would our thinking about ourselves change if we realized that we are not secretly trying to bury painful memories? Would they seem as elusive and debilitating if we understood that we were not purposely trying to hide from those memories, but that our brain is just doing what it "normally" does?The first question we have to ask ourselves is why do we have memories in the first place? The quick answer is to protect us.

Consciousness is located in the frontal part of the brain. The closer you get to the brain stem the "older" evolutionarily speaking you get. Located just above the brain stem is your amygdala. It's where your gut feelings and instincts come from. As it turns out the amygdala stores it's own memories, separate from your conscious ones. There are a couple reasons for this. The first is that when back when the amygdala was first evolved, there was no frontal lobe to store memories, so they had to be kept somewhere. Babies store memories here before their brains fully develop. That's also why most animals have some sort of memory, but it is more instinctual and less specific than our own. The second reason is that the amygdala can recall memories much faster than your consciousness can, but the trade off is the image is much fuzzier. It's like comparing a tape recording to a digital one. The information still gets across (i.e. you can tell what song it is) but you might not be able to hear the base line or individual notes of the guitar solo clearly.
But what I am getting at is that ALL traumatic memories are stored in the amygdala, but they may or may not be stored in conscious memory. The best way I can think of to explain this is by using an example. It might be a long one, but I think it's worth reading.

I am afraid of bees. No that's not true. I am terrified of bees. My conscious memory and my instinctual memory have responded to this fact in separate ways. My conscious memory recalls two or three of the worst bee stings I received over the course of my life, and taught me never to stand on fallen tree trunks (because there might be a yellow jacket hive inside). It usually takes a bit of time to conjure up the details of these events, but once I do I remember them pretty clearly. My primitive memory doesn't really feel like a memory at all but it's sort of like a blurry idea that forms almost instantaneously in my head in certain moments. I constantly find myself swatting and freaking out over anything that is smallish and flies by my head. I respond the same to a harmless little butterfly flitting past my ear as I do to a wasp. Once I see it's a butterfly I am OK (consciousness), but it takes a couple of minutes for the Adrenalin to wear off. What is happening here? Well, for all it's lack of detail the amygdala is super speedy. A fly zips past my ear and without missing a beat my hand flies up, I duck my head, and my heart starts beating faster. My amygdala has just crudely recalled a very frightening memory but stripped it down to the barest essentials. It is bascially saying "small+dark shape+ flying by head= duck and get away". It remembers just enough to protect me from a bee (which is why I constantly mistake flies and moths for bees), but not enough to differentiate between a humming bird and a yellow jacket. If the insect were flying by in super slow motion and I was able to get a good look at it before it flew past, then a butterfly wouldn't scare me. But who has that kind of time?
But getting to my point. I don't remember every time I have been stung or every close encounter I have had with stinging insects. My conscious memory is just not that good, especially when I go farther back into my childhood, before my brain was fully developed. But even as a little kid I remember being scared of bees. That is presumably because although I have no recollection at all, I was probably stung as a two year old and learned to be afraid. I am not repressing that memory though, I simply didn't record it in my consciousness (either because my amygdala did a good enough job on it's own of storing it) or it got lost among all the new memories I have formed since then. I don't need a two-year-olds conscious memory (which was just developing) because my brain can protect me just fine with the more primitive one.
There are lots of memories that for whatever reason our consciousness has decided to abandon. Usually it has to do with utility. Just think about all the happy memories you don't remember! But our amygdala is not so likely to loosen it's grip, especially on things that frighten or upset us. Each time we have a feeling, but no conscious memory of why we feel that way, we assume we are purposely trying to hide from something that we just can't deal with. But what if that's not true. What if we aren't cowards? What if our brains, being the efficient machines that they are, just decided to get rid of the memory because it already had an adequate backup in the amygdala? I don't need to have a clear memory of every time in my life I have seen a bee. Just one or two is enough, and a vague plan to duck and swat if anything happens to fly by my ear has saved me more than once. It may seem a little archaic but it works.

I don't mean to imply that trauma like child abuse is exactly the same as a phobia of bees or spiders, but knowing that we are not hiding from our feelings and our past may be of great use in empowering us to let it go. As an adult you may not clearly remember being locked in the closet when you were little, but it's not because you are afraid (or can't face) of the memory now. It's because your brain got rid of it because you don't need it. Your brain has said "Hey, we don't need those log drawn out memories. They are a waste of space. The amygdala has it all under control. It says small room+ darkness= get out fast. That's all we need to remember to protect ourselves from now on."
In conclusion (I feel like this has been a really long post) I think there is a lot we can learn from neuroscience, especially when it comes to how we perceive ourselves and how we feel about our active roll in processing the events in our lives. The idea of repression is victimizing, whereas understanding how your brain works is amazing and empowering. Freud's psychology is a thing of the past. For a hundred years his ideas of sexual motivation for all things, and repression, made the brain something to be feared, and not to be trusted. But that time has passed (thank goodness!). Listen to your brain, appreciate it's complexity, and take comfort in the fact that it works 24 hours a day to protect you.

The Colosseum at Green Bay

I am officially going to make my first pilgrimage to Lambeau Field next month! The plane tickets and hotel are already booked. But I just received word today that my Uncle Bob actually got us tickets to the pre-season game against the Colts! (The Colts are, by the way, my second favorite team, but a far away second. I think it's because I think Peyton Manning is so hilarious, but I'm not sure. And no, I am not upset that the Saints won the Super Bowl last year. They deserved it. Although I am still not sure why Sharper ever left the Pack....anyway.)
Being honest I think I would be less excited to see the "actual" Colosseum in Rome. I mean, this is legendary for a Packers fan. This is the Mecca of football! If I weren't an athiest I'd be bowing three times a day to the north east.
Anyway, what a freakin' awesome start to the season right? So I am trying to be calm but the anticipation is eating me up already. I love it! It's like the smell of a tender steak cooking on the barbecue. Ahhhhh....Green Bay, here I come!

Ugly Babies and Wolves

Have you ever wondered why there are no ugly babies? This thought occurred to me this afternoon as I walked by a lady with a stroller. Nestled between several blankets and toys was a fat little boy with crossed eyes. And you know what I thought? I thought he was about the cutest thing since Cabbage Patch kids! This is interesting because had I seen a full grown overweight man with crossed eyes the word cute probably wouldn't have been the first word on the tip of my tongue. So why are all babies (more or less) cute?
I think it is an evolutionary trait that has found itself to be useful under the circumstances. If you compare humans to say, deer or giraffes, there is a pretty huge difference. I was watching one of my Planet Earth DVD's (by the BBC) and one of the episodes showed a baby...reindeer or something running away from a wolf only a few days after it was born! Incidentally most animals reach puberty 6-12 months after birth. Now if you were to transpose that sort of capability on to human offspring, I think it would be like having your kid when it was 10 or 11. (I am not positive about this though...I don't know a heck of a lot about kids so, it could be 9 or 10?) At any rate it would have to be born at an age when it can keep up with adults, and know when to run. And it occurred to me that if you were to ask any parent if they'd be so inclined to have kids that were born practically teenagers, the answer would probably be no. So that makes sense right? We have cute little babies and we keep them and get sucked into loving them before they are old enough to be annoying and possibly develop an underbite.
That answers why we keep them, but it unearths the question of why are they born helpless in the first place? At first go this seems like a disadvantage. As it turns out babies have to be born before they are developed enough to survive on their own. Blame our gigantic brains for that. The birth canal is only so big, and a 10 year old cranium much bigger. Human babies have to be born around nine moths otherwise they'd be trapped in the uterus or mom would have to pee out of a bag for the rest of her life. One way to think of it is that we humans give birth prematurely and our newborns are really still embryos with a lot of developing to do. So in order for humans to stay interested and take care of their helpless poopy offspring until they are old enough to wipe their own asses, and pay their own taxes (and hopefully (but not too soon, and not in the back seat of a Volvo) pass along their DNA), they had to be cute. We developed a liking for cute things (because it helped our DNA survive), and babies developed the ability to be adorable (so we don't abandon them at the first tantrum). Our fascination with kittens and puppies, and "baby" hamburgers, and miniature cell phones stems from this now hardwired gene-encoded desire.
So after all of that I thought, "OK fine. I buy that we like our own offspring, but why do humans think other peoples babies are cute?" You know what I mean. You are waiting in line at the grocery and some old man starts making ridiculous faces over you shoulder at the two year old in the cart in front of you. He doesn't have to do that, but he does anyway. Why did I think that pudgy little boy was cute? I have nothing invested in him?
It took a minute but then I was reminded of something I read (and I would quote it but I can't for the life of me remember where I read it) that wolves display a similar propensity. When the Alpha (not sure if that is supposed to be capitalized or not?) becomes pregnant all the other females in the pack undergo what is called a "false pregnancy". They eat more, and get kind of fat, and lactate. They do everything a pregnant wolf would do except actually give birth. Why does this happen? Well, it turns out that the Alpha female is not only the primary hunter for the group she is also the genetic premium. She can't very well be the fiercest and strongest if she is holed up in a den feeding her pups can she? The Alpha wolf almost always gives birth, and the other females in the pack almost always feed and help raise her pups. It's a win win in the long run although it might be hard to see at first. The strongest animal is proliferating her genes, while the others in the group directly benefit from the fact by ensuring their leader will be the best of the best. More premium wolves in the pack make the pack stronger.
I don't think it works exactly the same for people, but I think with just a little imagination parallels can be drawn. Or at least it could be an explanation for why we take so much interest in other peoples kids. Much of what we do is selfish, but on some levels, broader levels if you will, we also do things that don't make a whole lot of sense to us as individuals, but make plenty of sense on a bigger social scale. An interest in other peoples kids may actually make us stronger. Wolves like people are social animals, and we do not naturally exist outside of our social group. The story ends here. Not because it should but because this is as far as I have gotten in pondering this mystery.
I asked the question of why babies are cute, and you would think the answer to be simple but it's not. As I always say " If the answer involves wolves, it ain't that easy."

What Do You Do?

A sample of what I do everyday at work:)

Pacifica CA

I took this photo a year or so ago, on my drive to work. At the time I was inspecting a landslide repair in Pacifica, Ca, and had to be there by 7:00 am everyday. I spent almost the entire summer in that fog bank. It was one of the coldest I remember. There was an hour or so around noon when the fog would roll out, but almost immediately it would make it's way back to shore. I don't know why, but I always liked this picture.

Did You Know?

Did You Know...that there are over 40,000 muscles in an elephants trunk? For comparison there are only about 75o in the entire human body.

Poly Wanna Math?

Polymath: A person who's expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas.
Examples: Leonardo DaVinci, Sir Isaac Newton, most of the really old Greek dudes.

Crabs and The Missionary Position

I finished reading a really good book called Beautiful Swimmers (I have mentioned it in a previous post) while sitting pool side in Las Vegas last weekend. And before it all disappears into the recesses of my mind I thought I'd write about it.
I don't know why but for some reason I find crustacean mating rituals really interesting. I am not sure if it's because I never really thought about it before (so it's all new to me), or if through my own anthropomorphic tendencies I think it's really romantic. But anyway I think it's really cool, and I know I say this a lot but totally amazing!

Blue crab females only mate once in their lives, and they can only do it when they have just molted. Timing is everything because within 12 hours of the molt the shell of the female is already hardened too much to allow copulation to occur. Somehow the males know when the the females are going to begin their molt, and woo them before they begin to shed. The normal rigmarole ensues with the female accepting or declining her suitor. Once she has chosen she assumes a friendly posture and the male stands up on his tippy-toes and pulls the female under him and holds her with his walking legs creating a little "cage" around her. This is called the precopulatory embrace (isn't that just the sweetest sounding thing?). The male does this not to keep the female in, but to protect her from other crabs and fish while she sheds her old shell. He stands guard while she, sheltered from predators, wiggles out of her old shell. Once she's done, the male flips her over so they are stomach to stomach, she exposes her gonophores (openings that receive sperm) and he uses his gonopods to deliver the it. This can take anywhere from 5 to 12 hours.
Then the male flips the female back around and faces her forward and he continues to cradle and protect her until her shell is fully hardened and she is no longer vulnerable. This takes about two or so days. After that they go their separate ways, and the next spring their babies are born. It may not last forever, but isn't that about the most romantic thing you've ever heard? Chivalry may be dead in humans, but I am happy to report it's alive and well in the sex lives of blue crabs.


P.S. When I wrote the title it took me a minute to realize the subject of this blog could be seriously misinterpreted from just glancing at the name. But I decided to leave it because I think it's funny even though it was by accident.

A Ghost Story

I have a keen interest in ghosts. I don't believe in them, but I am really intrigued by the idea of them, the stories surrounding them, and reason for their popularity within our society.

Anyway, I just came across an article that claims a small Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica has the ghost of Jim Morrison (of The Doors) haunting it's unisex restroom. Wow. That sucks for him doesn't it? I find it depressing to ponder spending my life after death trapped in the bathroom of a Mexican restaurant. I may never eat refried beans again. Also who wants to imagine Jim Morrison watching them while the pee?Now if anyone goes to that restaurant and uses the restroom they will be considered a freak. For example:

Man 1: Bro, I have to go to the bathroom.
Man 2: Jim Morrison is haunting the bathroom here man. Lets go to Starbucks instead?
Man 1: No. I'm fine.
Man 2: (Scrunches up nose in disgust) You are sick you know that?
Man 1: What?
Man 2: That's gross dude...it's really gross.

The owner of the restaurant was asked what she thought about sharing her place with the late Morrison and she said intelligently "I think if he was still alive today in body, this would be the place that would serve Jim Morrison's favorite margaritas." WOW...freaking profound, and probably exactly what Jim has been trying to communicate to us all by shaking the door handle and turning the lights on and off. Well let me say Mr. Morrison, I hear you!

P.S. Photo borrowed from original article.

The BP Dead Zone

OK. Time for me to talk about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. First let me say that it sucks. Like the rest of the US, I hate to think my next trip to Sarasota, or Pensacola could have me finding balls of tar and bloated, greasy, dead pelicans washed up along the beach. But at the same time I don't feel comfortable pointing a finger at BP and placing all the blame on them. The truth is they wouldn't be drilling in the ocean in the first place if all of us weren't buying gas for our cars and throwing a fit every time it it goes above 3.00 a gallon. Sure they should take some responsibility, but I think it's ridiculous to crucify them over an unfortunate (maybe even preventable) accident. There is nothing they can do now to take it back. I am sure they would if they could. For a really great (and much more in depth) discussion on this please read this blog by J.J.Smith.

I just read a really interesting article about the spill. Click here for the full text if you are interested. And I was struck not so much by the facts as I was by the perspective taken by the scientists about what those facts mean. They estimate that 40% of what is being extruded from the spill is methane. The article says that the "problem" with the seeping of methane into the ocean is that it creates "dead zones" where only microbes, bacteria and methane eating ice worms live. OK I get that as humans we are more sympathetic to living things with eyes, and mouths that would look good swimming around in a fish tank, but the fact of the matter is it ain't "dead" if bacteria and microbes are living there. The scientist go on to say that the millions of methane eating microbes are using up all the oxygen in the water and in effect suffocating all the other marine life. Like I said at the beginning. That sucks...but only for the fish, and only for right now. Anything that can metabolize huge quantities of methane, is probably exactly what the Gulf needs right now. How else do we propose to get rid of it all? True it's not good for the rest of the marine environment right now, but it will be to their advantage in the long run.
Another thing the article seems to have forgotten is that the microbes will not multiply forever and suck the oxygen out of the entire Gulf. They will decline and eventually die out as the amount of methane in the water decreases. (That is why there aren't "dead zones" in the ocean normally.) Then (however far into the future that is) the oxygen stores will improve as the water circulates, and other marine animals will slowly make their way back into their old habitats, and life will go on. I understand that it might not happen for quite a while, but that doesn't mean that the Gulf will be dead forever. It just needs time. Think about that huge oil spill that happened in 1979 off the coast of Mexico. Maybe the entire ecosystem hasn't rebounded yet, but it's 20 years later and fish are back, and the water is a crystal clear turquoise again. I realize that some animals may go extinct, populations of sea birds might decline, and there will be blobs of tar mixed in the sand on our favorite beaches for the rest of our lifetimes. But that's part of life. A random earthquake out in the Gulf could have produced the same "spill" and the animals would have suffered just the same as they are now.

I think we should do whatever we can to mitigate the spill because our own morality tells us we must, and because our desire to preserve our world shows us how much we value our home. That's good. But we should also try to understand that nature has her own way of dealing with disasters, and we should respect it and not freak out about it or try to change it. We are so biased and haughty, but life is not. The "dead zones" aren't dead, they are a nature's clean up crew hard at work and we should appreciate that, and be amazed by it's efficiency. Sometimes letting nature take it's course is the best thing to do. We shouldn't be so judgemental about how she goes about recovering from disaster. What do we know? We constantly seem to underestimate the power of life to survive even though the record shows again and again the success it has had in repopulating the world following all sorts of catastrophes. Nature's done it before and she'll do it again. With or without our help. The least we can do is appreciate the effort.

Spermaceti...It's Not What You Think

I was reading a really interesting article about ancient ocean predators, the giant Leviathans and Megalodons, and came across the the mysterious substance of spermaceti.
Spermaceti is a waxy substance found in large cavities within the heads of whales. It was originally thought to be actual sperm hence the name (and the origin of how sperm whales got their name also).
It was used in the past as an ingredient for cosmetics (I may never wear lipstick again) and candles.
The interesting thing to me about it is that no one knows what it's purpose is. My first thought was that it has something to do with buoyancy control, but it appears that scientist already thought of that, and it's not the best fitting hypothesis but it's still a possibility. But what else could a head of wax be good for? I can't imagine.
It must do something though. For it to have such a prominent position in the head, and to be present in such large quantities tells you something. (We just aren't sure what yet.)
If anyone figures it out please let me know:)