Girls Rule!

I went to kickboxing class tonight. The "all levels" class was a little late today, from 7:30 to 8:30. I don't really like to have an intense workout so late because then I can't sleep, but that's how it goes sometimes.
On Monday when my BF and I went, and sparred with each other (like we have been doing since we began), I came home with bruises on both my forearms from the straps of the pads that we hold when the other person is practicing their punches and kicks, and a few bloody knuckles. They didn't hurt (my arms), and I didn't even know I'd gotten them till I saw them in the morning. But anyway tonight we met another couple and the guy asked my BF if he'd like to partner up and then I would be partners with his girlfriend.
I wasn't so stoked about that because while the girl was about my height she was about half my weight. So besides from being a teeny bit jealous of her physique, I was also fairly certain that if I punched and kicked as hard as I have been I'd probably knock her over. But I felt bad that my BF was holding back with me, and I thought maybe it would be nice for him to get to go all out with this other big guy....
I was correct in my assumptions about the girl. She was really nice, but...it was like her limbs were feathers and  it seemed like if  I even breathed hard she sort of swayed. Have you ever read where a woman is described as a "slip of a  thing"? That was this girl.
After class though I was surprised when my BF said that he never wanted to switch partners again. I hadn't been watching him, so I asked why. He informed me that I was "a hundred times tougher" that the guy (who was about 6' tall!) that he'd partnered with. That made me smile...well, I guess it was more of a smirk of satisfaction, but anyway. Ha! I knew it! I may not be super big, or a DUDE, but I am no wimp either. I am a geologist for crying out loud. Not that you necessarily have to be tough to study rocks, but well...I do think it requires a certain amount of...something.
In a way it was kind of a wasted class because neither of us got any really good practicing in, but at the same time I think we will both appreciate sparring with each other more in the future, so maybe it was worth it;)
Maybe I enjoy getting pedicures, maybe I have too many pink clothes, and maybe I bruise a little easily, but that doesn't mean that I can't take a punch or throw one. Girls rule.

The Agulhas Leakage

Image from NOAA showing Agulhas leakage.

I know I have made a ridiculous number of posts this month, but I have been doing a lot of reading/ and thinking, and have even been catching up on a few subjects that I've been meaning to write about for a while, but didn't have time to.
Anyway something interesting I read in the Book Atlantic by Simon Winchester, was about a thing called the Agulhas leakage. I had never heard of it before, and so I did some searching around on the Internet to learn more. Basically it is warm water from the Indian Ocean that is curling past the tip of South Africa, and entering the Atlantic.
But a little bit of history is needed to really understand why it is referred to as a leakage versus a current.
In the southern hemisphere between the latitudes of 30 and 60 degrees are winds called the "westerlies". (And big surprise they blow from the west!) Anyway, the strength of these winds has declined over the last 30 years and no one really knows why. Some folks think they are moving farther south and filling in where there hole in the ozone was created, but it's still pretty inconclusive at this point. The thing is that the westerlies used to keep the water from the Indian Ocean out of the Atlantic. But with the weakening of the winds, that is no longer the case, and so the warm and extra salty waters are seeping in, and slowly making their way up the west coast of Africa.
No one knows really what the effects of this will be, but since the oceans of the world are run on very strange and sensitive relationships between temperature, salinity and weather, the consequences could be anywhere from negligent to quite severe. I read the abstract of an article published in Nature that links the leakage with the change in the winds, and they say that should the Gulf Stream shut down, the Aguihas leakage could provide Great Britain with an alternative source of warmth.

Life on the Mississippi

According to the experts, Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain was one of his least popular works. But after having read most of it over the last couple days, I can honestly say I don't know why. I think it's great! I especially love the middle chapters (about 4-15) where he goes into great detail about what it took to be a steamboat pilot. It was not for the faint of heart, or for those with a weak memory. The pilots had to know every inch of the river bank as well as what lay beneath the water. I can't imagine how they remembered it all! And I enjoyed the parts where Sam (Clements) would ask questions. Like how they can tell the difference between an underwater reef, and the wind, when they both produced the same looking little ripples in the surface of the water? And the pilots would answer: "You just know." It was something that you couldn't explain, but once you figured it out you just knew. A lot of piloting was like that it seems.
I also thought the book was cool because it seems to explain where Samuel Clements acquired his literary pseudonym! Apparently "mark twain" was a measurement of depth that the sailors would call out to the pilot, as they plunged a pole or weighted rope off the sides of the boat to mark the depth of the channel. "Mark" as in  "make note of" and "twain" as in the old way to designate the number two (in this case 2 fathoms or 12 feet). So mark twain literally means "make a note of the fact that there is 12 feet if water here".
For an example from the text itself where measurements were being taken and shouted back to the pilot:
"M-a-r-k three!...M-a-r-k three!...Quarter-less three!....Half twain!...Quarter twain!... M-a-r-k twain!...Quarter-less..." And so on...
Isn't that something? Clements himself says in the book that he never had a job he enjoyed more than being a steamboat pilot, and I think taking the name Mark Twain was his own way of paying homage to that time in his life. I imagine it must have been amusing to hear all the people shout "Mark Twain!" as he passed by. It kind of makes me smile anyway.

Definition: Technocracy

Technocracy: A form of government where experts would be in control of all decision making. Scientists, engineers and technologists who have knowledge, expertise or skills would compose the governing body, instead of politicians, businessmen, and economists.

What do y'all think of that? Would it be a win or loose?

Atlantic

I finally finished reading a book I started almost two weeks ago! It usually doesn't take me this long. But I have been busy and just didn't have time. The book was excellent though, and I have been trying to squeeze in a half hour here or there almost every day to finish it.
It is the story of the Atlantic Ocean, from it's formation a hundred and some-odd million years ago, through the eras of exploration in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds, all they way up to the modern concerns about the effects of global warming and the recent discoveries at how we as humans have completely devastated many of the Atlantic's indigenous populations of fish and mammals.
It was a sweeping book, and for sure there was much more pack in there than I will ever remember, but it was worth the read even for the 50% or so I may retain for the rest of my life (ha ha..I am being optimistic!) And Winchester has such a way with words, and such an...entertaining vocabulary that it is not "textbook" like at all. Take this little paragraph for example:

Some of the historical facts were really enlightening too. For example we celebrate the discovery of the new word by Christopher Columbus, but he never set foot on North America, nor did he ever believe that he had  actually discovered a "new world" (he thought he was in some undiscovered part of what we would consider the western Pacific). And he was a cruel and terrible man. Not only did he treat his servants and slaves cruelly (which was acceptable at that time) but he abused those who worked for him and others that he had authority over. For the latter reasons he was arrested and brought back to Spain in shackles! And we celebrate a holiday commemorating this man? WTF? (It is interesting I just read an article yesterday claiming that Columbus was secretly a Jew, looking for a new land for his people....I highly doubt that, and if I were Jewish I wouldn't want anything to do with Columbus but I digress..)
I also discovered that one very interesting Lief Erikson (of Scandinavian descent) truly discovered North America (from the European standpoint, since there were Native Americans here before then), and with less brutality and bloodshed than Columbus. I kind of remember reading that somewhere before but I never actually spend any time thinking about it. I was was wondering to myself why we don't celebrate him instead, when I discovered that there actually IS a Leif Erikson Day! I am so very excited about this news! It is October 9th (Columbus Day is the 8th). (A cool side note is that Wisconsin was the first state to adopt the holiday;) SO, I think this year I will have a Lief Erickson Day party to celebrate and commemorate the first real European discoverer of the New World! Doesn't that sound like fun? Christopher Columbus can kiss my....well you get my point.

Reading at Panera

Reading about the slave trading that went on (for almost 400 years!) was hard to get through. Not because the text was complicated, but because reading about the atrocities that were committed against innocent families actually made me feel sick. The unbearable way human beings were stored as cargo and transported across the sea, the way families were ripped apart, and...It is such a dark and shameful period in human history. Maybe it's because I live in a world that has been more or less enlightened (at least the scientific community is), but I can't even imagine how anyone could feel it was just to treat the African men, women, and children the way they did. I guess many convinced themselves it was OK because enlightened Greek philosophers spoke about "people accepting their place in society", another justification was that the people in the Bible had slaves, and God told them to obey their masters. A rather startling fact, that John Newton, who was a clergyman no less, and who wrote the all too well known song "Amazing Grace" was a slaver. It is documented that he would say his prayers above deck while "his human cargo was in abject misery below".
The section about Pirates was both interesting and disturbing all at the same time. The heyday of pirating only lasted 75 years...I thought it was much longer, but apparently it was such dangerous, awful business that it was not to last. Several well known authors wrote about the likes of Black Beard, and the flying of the Jolly Roger, which is why they are so famous and well known today but the period in real life was relatively brief compared to the legacy it left behind. Pirate captains were ruthless barbarians, and their depravity knew no limits when it came to creative punishments when one of their sailors disobeyed, or they captured a passing ship. I won't even repeat the examples here, because they are the sort of thing that will give you nightmares, but let's just say I'll think twice before dressing as a pirate again for Halloween. Yuck.
I read about some of the more famous battles fought in the Atlantic during the early 19th century (World Wars I and II). Like the Battle of Jutland, where over 250 vessels of British and German nationalities confronted one another...Can you imagine that? Seeing 250 boats all at the same time? There were many more battles involving the German U-boats.
There was so much more, but this entry is too long already, so maybe I will save them for a different day. But this was really a great and informative book!

Awesome!

So the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched today to bring supplies to the International Space Station! It is the first privately owned company launch and attempt docking with the ISS! Isn't that awesome? I am so excited for the future of space flight and exploration. I think this marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Way to go SpaceX! (And nice name for the "Dragon" spacecraft;) For the full article and video of the launch click here.

The Professor and the Madman

I am a fan of Simon Winchester. Ever since I read Krakatoa several years back I have found both his choice of subjects, and his writing style to be entertaining and enjoyable to read. The Professor and the Madman, about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was probably one of my most favorites ever. I read it two weekends ago, and was sort of mesmerized by it. I love words, probably in the same way that musicians love certain notes and melodies. And to read about them, how they are invented, how they are defined, how they change over the course of time, and finally how they were compiled,  ALL of them, into one book, was really interesting.
Interwoven into the more technical aspects of how the OED came into being are the lives of the Professor (James Murray) and the Madman (William Minor). The latter was by far more interesting having been a American and having served as a Captain in the Civil War, before accidentally murdering an innocent man on the streets of London. Minor was tormented by delusions which involved suffering nightly sexual abuses of all sorts and acts by people he was convinced lived in his floor. He was paranoid about the Irish stealing and taking his things, and very sexually fixated. (The man he murdered was, or so Minor thought, one of the men trying to steal from him in his sleep.) But besides these delusions, he was actually a very smart, well read, surgeon of all things! And so it ended up being that his knowledge and vast understanding of the English language was a huge help to the authors of the OED. It's a really bizarre story. It was like he knew he was crazy, but he could never get himself to believe it. On the one hand he could argue persuasively about the use, or uses of the word "about" with his friend James Murray the Professor, but then he actually thought there were people living the floor of his room and swore he could hear them, and that they molested him in his sleep. He could write elegant letters, read and understand books on all sorts of interesting subjects, and have as normal a conversation on daily things as you or I could, but then he was so utterly convinced of and haunted by his sexual delusions that (later in his life) actually cut off his own penis to prevent who knows what from happening while he was asleep!
It's remarkable how brilliant yet fragile the human brain can be. And truly frightening how many strange and specific ways it can go wrong.
The OED was a monumental achievement that took more than 30 years to complete. But it was worth every hour of work. To have documented and explained (and even have examples of use) of every word in the English language is an achievement almost impossible to imagine! We live in an era with internet and an answer for pretty much everything only a click or two away, but it wasn't always the case. At the time it was compiled the OED was as....monumental as the internet is today. Any word, any word you wanted to know was suddenly available, at your fingertips! How cool is that?
This was an excellent book! I would recommend it to anyone who likes a little history, a good story, and learning a thing or two about words.

Solar Eclipse Party!

My camera and I ready for the eclipse!

I watched the whole eclipse yesterday! And since I had not a welders mask, or the appropriate viewing goggles, through my camera (well, on the screen) was the only way for me to see it. Thus I also thought it would be a great opportunity to see what my super awesome new camera could do. And boy-oh-boy can it do good! (Thanks again to all who got it for me for Christmas!!!!! I LOVE it!)
I was out in the front yard of my complex for about two and a half hours watching the eclipse. I went out a half hour early to get my camera, lens, and tripod set up, and then after that I just took a picture every 5-10 minutes to see what was going on. It was so beautiful and amazing! A happy coincidence of the universe, and I am so glad I was there to watch it (through my camera) unfurl:)
I had to mess with the camera settings by making the camera take photo's at the darkest setting possible, and switching the auto to A-Dep setting (I think it means aperture dependent). Anyway, that with my super huge telephoto lens, and the steadiness of my tripod (which is completely necessary for such a zoom), I got some really great shots! Well, I think so anyway. Here they are in order of appearance! Enjoy! (The last two were taken using my sunglasses as a filter;)

Just to Be Fair

The Way I See Things: 2

Car washin'.

Holy Canoli!

Sweet Satisfaction.

I have been trying to eat healthier and be more aware of what my body needs versus what my brain thinks I want. For the most part is's not a problem, I like salad and chicken and fish etc. The part I have struggled with is the carbs though. It's not so much that I necessarily crave them, but more that they have made up such a large part of my diet for so long, it's really hard to weed them out. Anyway, I have to say I have been mostly successful in cutting them out, and don't really miss them except in a few specific instances. The first is my weird  love, love, LOVE of...wait for it....peanut butter and jelly corn tortillas! I know. It sounds disgusting, and I know it's weird, but I just love them. They are my "guilty pleasure" when I am home and feeling especially carb deprived.
The other was a one time thing. About a month ago I got it in my head that I wanted a canoli. I haven't had one in ages! But they have carbs in the crust and they are loaded with sugar, and they are actually kind of hard to find where I live.

PB&J Tortilla...Yummm

Anyway last weekend while down in Pasadena...well, Los Feliz actually, I was finally able to satisfy my craving! Not only did I get a canoli, I got TWO of them! I didn't really love the chocolate half, but the white part was super yummy and I was totally satisfied! There is nothing like going to bed with a tummy full of canoli's. Ahhhh...it's so nice to give in once in a while.

Dancing with the Stars

Dance from week 2

As a Packers fan I couldn't be more proud of Donald Driver! Not only is he a great wide out, but he's proving to be a phenomenal dancer as well! Week 7 and he is still rocking it! Way to go!

The Finished Product!

I finally gave my brother his painting! It was originally done for his birthday, but I actually gave it to him at his graduation party. (The frame was his grad gift). I never got to see the whole thing put together and framed, so I asked him to send a picture of it once he unwrapped it. Over all I think it looks pretty nice! Check it out!

Project Nim

Nim and (true) friend Bob Ingersoll

I rented the movie/documentary Project Nim from Netflix last week. For a long time now I have been interested in learning more about our primate relatives, chimps, bonobos, gorillias etc. I have posted blogs about Lucy, and Washoe, both based on books, and while I've heard of Nim, I was unfamiliar with his story, so I thought I'd check it out.
Just the fact that the title of the film, prefaces his name with "Project" should have warned me that I wasn't going to like it (the content not the cinematography). And true enough, within the first five minutes I was almost in tears. Nim was one of something like 10 babies that the mother Carolyn, had snatched away from her right after birth. She lived in a small cell, with no fresh air or toys and after every one of her babies was born they were taken from her. She knew they were going to be taken, and they had to tranquilize her and then get the baby before she smothered it, trying to protect it. It was so sad and terrible and awful to see the actual video of when they took Nim from his mother.
The film shows footage of Nim growing up, and learning to sign, and in between there are interviews with the people involved in the project. The douche-bag womanizing professor in charge, the "research" assistants that happened to be almost exclusively pretty women, his teachers, the animal handlers at the research facility where Nim eventually ended up...
The man in charge, Herb Terrace was....well I can't even say exactly what I think of him here because it would be probably be offensive to some, and very unlady-like for sure. But basically he thought of Nim as a big furry...goldfish, something that had no self-awareness or feelings at all. And so he just did whatever he felt like, with not so much as a hint of remorse for the suffering he was creating. He took Nim first from his mother, then just as abruptly took him from his foster mother, then after several years, when Nim got too big, he just up and ended the project and dumped the chimp off at the grossly under-achieving place where he had been born. A chimp who had been raised as a person, who wore clothes, and liked to play with his pet cat, and slept in a bed was suddenly thrown in a cage and treated like an animal. I cannot even begin to express how angry it makes me to think that people got away with doing things like that, without any consequences.  As far as I am concerned I think Herb Terrace should spend the rest of his life in prison for what he did. Put him in a cage and see how he likes it.
That wasn't even the end of it, nor the worst of it either. Nim, and all the other chimps at the place where he was taken were sold to a research facility where they were testing vaccines for hepatitis and other stuff. They had some video of the researchers infecting the chimps, and the tiny cages they were housed in, and I actually felt physically sickened by the sight of it. It is...I don't understand how someone could see what I was seeing and not think it was wrong. There was Nim trying to sign to them to let him out of his cage, or to play with him, or hug him, and they didn't have the sense that injecting him with an infectious and painful disease was inhumane? He was talking to them for crying out loud!
Eventually Nim, and some (but not all) of the other chimps were rescued, but it wasn't an easy life for them. They were in cages for the rest of their lives, sometimes with other chimps, sometimes by themselves, lonely and bored, never having a choice or a say in what they wanted. Nim was reunited with his foster mother after ten or so years and his response was not like that of a dog wagging his tail happily. Nim was angry at her. She had betrayed him and he remembered.
The movie was sad but insightful too, and gave a good variety of perspectives of Nim, and chimps in general. The comparisons of him to a human child, the intelligent "person" that he was, the unpredictable beast he could be. (For example he would bite his teachers and then immediately feel remorse and sign that he was sorry for hurting them.) Half of the people who were interviewed said he was essentially a person, the other half said he was just an animal. I think they were both wrong. I think he was both person and wild animal....but, and maybe this is the point that we really need to remember, aren't we all?

Wine Club!

Last night I hosted my sometimes monthly "wine club". A couple years ago a friend of mine got me a set of 24 lectures on wine, and I have (ever so slowly) been making my way through each one. Since there are at least 3 bottles of wine needed for each lecture (to compare and contrast) I thought it best that I not try to go it alone. So every month or so one of the three of us in the "club" host a dinner, and the other two bring the wine! It's very fun, not to mention educational, and I like our small group because it's a very manageable size for planning a dinner. If I had to serve 10 people I think I'd be more hesitant to host, and less inclined to be as creative as I usually am.
This month the lecture was on sparkling wine, and so I tried to prepare my meal to pair with that. Originally I had planned to make something complicated involving three kinds of grilled meat, and do a fancy dessert that included chocolates from the chocolaterie in town, but time and money got in the way of all my grandiose dreams, and so I just made do with what I had, which ended up being much simpler but really perfect for the occasion. It's like they say, sometimes less really is more.
Most of my meal was inspired by my Aunt Pepette in France who showed me how to make more or less everything I served. I changed a few things up, substituted pears for apples, had salad before dinner instead of after etc., but still it pretty much all Aunt Pepette.
So what was on the menu? A tossed mixed green salad with homemade vinaigrette and chicken skewer (and cheese plate on the side), individual Quiche Lorraine/soufflee (quiche without crust), and for dessert homemade crepes with sherry poached pears and dark chocolate! The pears were a total experiment, and so in addition to poaching them in sherry I added cinnamon and vanilla too. They came out pretty tasty I think for my first try, and were really pretty on the plate. I'm going to try to remember what I did and write a recipe for it.
 The only mess up was that I overcooked the chicken because I was trying to clean house and finish dinner at the same time. Other than that I was pleased with how everything came out. And the bubbly was, of course, delicious! All three bottles of it! I took a few photos to share...

I-5 Northbound