Thought I'd post this NY Times article here. All along, I thought we/they had our sewer systems figured out.
An interesting point from the article:
NYC has much of the same sewer system that was built in 1849... really?!
"Reducing such overflows is a priority, city officials say. But eradicating the problem would cost billions."
-officials
ahm, yeah... but if a good sewer system built with the technology of 1849 lasts over 150 years... isn't it worth the investment?
This makes me think of the several times my co-worker's basement (in Brooklyn) flooded with sewage.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Almost baby time.....
OK, now that we are approaching the final weeks of pregnancy, I finally feel comfortable posting about our lives these days. Waiting. & waiting & waiting & waiting :) for our little baby girl (I hope the Dr was correct about the sex, or we will have one pink baby boy!) to arrive.
Being pregnant is as exciting and strange as I ever thought it would be. The early stages were uneventful for me, with little to no morning sickness, and no sign of the growing person except a belly that expanded ever so slightly until one day it decided to become a basketball. Then, the flutters started, and the movements inside made real the miracle or growth (or parasite?) or whatever you would call it inside of me. More recently, the movements have been big and quite strong, with pointy arm-like knobs that point outward from my stomach and slowly roll to the other side, or a foot-like body part that goes crashing into my ribs. I have to stop and reflect daily on the wonder that I have a person, an actual baby, inside of my belly. A person that will one day be walking around, talking, reading, learning, exploring, taking part in life, just like you and me. I still cannot believe what Nature is capable of. If there is anything that we should idolize and seek out to find the secrets of, it's Nature; she seems to have everything worked out.
We have started a separate blog for the baby, though we haven't yet started posting to that site. I couldn't help, however, posting something here, on my personal blog, because if there was anything that describes the -omics or complexity of me, it's the emotional and physical experience of pregnancy. I am curious to see if this turns into a family/baby-blog, which is not at all the intention. I'd like to keep up the randomness that seems to be most descriptive of my life. :D
Being pregnant is as exciting and strange as I ever thought it would be. The early stages were uneventful for me, with little to no morning sickness, and no sign of the growing person except a belly that expanded ever so slightly until one day it decided to become a basketball. Then, the flutters started, and the movements inside made real the miracle or growth (or parasite?) or whatever you would call it inside of me. More recently, the movements have been big and quite strong, with pointy arm-like knobs that point outward from my stomach and slowly roll to the other side, or a foot-like body part that goes crashing into my ribs. I have to stop and reflect daily on the wonder that I have a person, an actual baby, inside of my belly. A person that will one day be walking around, talking, reading, learning, exploring, taking part in life, just like you and me. I still cannot believe what Nature is capable of. If there is anything that we should idolize and seek out to find the secrets of, it's Nature; she seems to have everything worked out.
We have started a separate blog for the baby, though we haven't yet started posting to that site. I couldn't help, however, posting something here, on my personal blog, because if there was anything that describes the -omics or complexity of me, it's the emotional and physical experience of pregnancy. I am curious to see if this turns into a family/baby-blog, which is not at all the intention. I'd like to keep up the randomness that seems to be most descriptive of my life. :D
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The American diet and health care reform....
Here is, what I consider, a very good editorial in the NY Times about health care reform and the need to tackle some of the problems with the food industry and the American diet (or, as referred to in the article, "the elephant in the room in the debate over health care") Big Food vs. Big Insurance.
Juan and I were discussing this topic, and what the government could do to address the American diet, at lunch today. [Note: Ironically, we ate lunch at a bar and proceeded to have the most disgusting meal in Chambana, I think. An oily, disgusting mess. I even got 1/2 off the ticket at the end, because the manager agreed that the chili and salad looked pretty awful.] I had not read this editorial, but offered three suggestions off-hand: tax unhealthy foods, subsidize healthy foods, and educate the public on healthy lifestyle choices. I think it foremost important to bring about equilibrium in the cost of unhealthy and healthy food choices; only then will people have a real choice in the matter. Seems the author of this piece has a similar mode of thinking.
[An aside] I'm not sure about this conclusion in the article:
"A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line." My take: If insurers prevent these diseases, the average lifespan will ultimately increase. What are the cost comparisons of treating someone with obesity-related health problems for X number years or preventing the disease and insuring over an increased lifespan? Just wondering if health care providers will ever have a significant reason to help. Your thoughts?
Juan and I were discussing this topic, and what the government could do to address the American diet, at lunch today. [Note: Ironically, we ate lunch at a bar and proceeded to have the most disgusting meal in Chambana, I think. An oily, disgusting mess. I even got 1/2 off the ticket at the end, because the manager agreed that the chili and salad looked pretty awful.] I had not read this editorial, but offered three suggestions off-hand: tax unhealthy foods, subsidize healthy foods, and educate the public on healthy lifestyle choices. I think it foremost important to bring about equilibrium in the cost of unhealthy and healthy food choices; only then will people have a real choice in the matter. Seems the author of this piece has a similar mode of thinking.
[An aside] I'm not sure about this conclusion in the article:
"A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line." My take: If insurers prevent these diseases, the average lifespan will ultimately increase. What are the cost comparisons of treating someone with obesity-related health problems for X number years or preventing the disease and insuring over an increased lifespan? Just wondering if health care providers will ever have a significant reason to help. Your thoughts?
Monday, August 03, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Vitamin D
Wear your sunscreen! or at least in moderation...
A few months ago, I was reading an article in a running magazine that described an elite distance runner's run-in with skin cancer, and then subsequent vitamin D deficiency. She explained that many years ago she had spots removed from her face, and her doctor recommended that she be particularly conscious of protecting her skin from the sun. She started religiously slathering on the sunscreen. Five or ten years later, she was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency. Now, she says that she runs her warm-up sunscreen-free and then applies sunscreen for her workout.
A few days ago, in trying to determine whether sunscreen is safe for pregnancy, I was unable to find a clear answer as to whether the chemicals in sunscreen are "safe" at all.
So, I have been more an more doubtful of the recommendations by the different associations and academies as to best practices in protecting ourselves from the sun's harmful UV rays. Today, I came across this American Academy of Dermatology Issues Updated Position Statement on Vitamin D, which seems to be a retraction of previous statements. When I read this news blurb, it sounds like there is confusion on the issue and perhaps the previous recommendations have led to further health problems. I start to wonder whether the sunscreen boom was just hoopla.
A few months ago, I was reading an article in a running magazine that described an elite distance runner's run-in with skin cancer, and then subsequent vitamin D deficiency. She explained that many years ago she had spots removed from her face, and her doctor recommended that she be particularly conscious of protecting her skin from the sun. She started religiously slathering on the sunscreen. Five or ten years later, she was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency. Now, she says that she runs her warm-up sunscreen-free and then applies sunscreen for her workout.
A few days ago, in trying to determine whether sunscreen is safe for pregnancy, I was unable to find a clear answer as to whether the chemicals in sunscreen are "safe" at all.
So, I have been more an more doubtful of the recommendations by the different associations and academies as to best practices in protecting ourselves from the sun's harmful UV rays. Today, I came across this American Academy of Dermatology Issues Updated Position Statement on Vitamin D, which seems to be a retraction of previous statements. When I read this news blurb, it sounds like there is confusion on the issue and perhaps the previous recommendations have led to further health problems. I start to wonder whether the sunscreen boom was just hoopla.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Swearing Can Make You Feel Better
I haven't posted here in a long time, I know, because I haven't had much time in a long time.... Things are pretty hectic right now (S#!T! F@CK! Keep reading, and you will see why I curse.... ah, I feel better). I did see a funny news blurb today that I thought I'd post for your enjoyment. It's called Swearing Can Make You Feel Better. Without seeing the study, I'm not sure it is that convincing, but from personal experience I think I concur with the conclusion. ;)
Monday, March 16, 2009
My first trail race...
This is a story of my first trail race. I just wanted to post here, for your enjoyment, even though it doesn't really match up to the theme of this blog.
This is long, and I was going to edit it, but decided to just post it this way..... at very least, click on the links to the pictures at the end and you'll get the gist.
Last summer, Juan "got into" trail running. We've been members of the local running group, Second Wind Running Club, for a few years now. Last year, Juan decided to try going with their trail running group that meets at 7am on Sunday mornings. He loved it, and he started running regularly with the club. About a month ago, a guy we run with (an ultrarunner) mentioned to Juan that he should run Land Between the Lakes trail run. Juan signed us both up.
I've had to take some time off of running, about 3 months straight, and this race ahead was what I needed to get motivated to try to (very quickly) get back into running shape. March 13 came, and we piled into a minivan and carpooled down to KY for the run. The whole night I couldn't sleep, tossing and turning, nervous that I was ill-prepared and may not finish the run.
Race Day
The race started at 7am, so I set my alarm for 5:15am. I jumped out of bed, took a quick shower, and headed to the lobby for breakfast. It was raining. Shit. I hate running in the rain. Juan and I ate breakfast, then went back into the room and debated about what to wear. Cold and rainy. I decided to go with tights and a long sleeve shirt and the hat that came with our sign-in packets. We folded the edges of our numbers and pinned them onto our pants. Then, we waited for our running group to knock on our door.
At about 6:15, I went back to the lobby and found our group just finishing breakfast. They laughed at Juan and me for being ready so early, and said that trail runs are much more relaxed than road races and that we could arrive to the start 5 min before the run. At about 6:30, we drove over to the start, parked, and Juan and I waited for the other runners (the ones running 60K+) to check their race bags filled with goo, cookies, salt tablets, extra shirts and other items you need when running those distances.
At about 6:50, we meandered over to the start. The crowd seemed small. There were about 350 people signed up for the run, I think about 120 of which were signed up for the 14-miler. The route was 1.7 miles on paved road to the trail. The 14-milers would do one loop on the trail and head back, the marathoners would do two loops, the 60K would do 3 loops and the 50-milers would do 4 loops.
The race director made a few announcements and then said go, or maybe a gun went off, I can't remember because I was in such a daze trying to figure out where to stand. I knew that the trail was a single track, and I didn't want to start in the front and have fast runners behind me upset that a slowpoke was blocking the trail; on the other hand, I didn't want to start in the back because I knew some of these people were running 38 and 50 miles and, although they looked in tip-top shape, surely they'd be going slower than me! In the end, I was told by a fellow runner that it doesn't matter where you start because on the 1.7-mile paved road, you tend to sort into your pace group. Sure enough, a few minutes after the start, it was easy to figure out which pack to settle into.
I've never done this, and have warned many newbies against doing this... but I wore NEW socks and NEW shoes for this trail run!
When we started running, I felt my socks slide off my heels. Shoot, should I stop and fix them? I decided to keep running. No sooner did we turn onto the trail, that I felt my socks bunched up around my toes and the back of my shoe rubbing against my right heel. It stung for a while, but then I kind of got used to it. Either that, or I was too concentrated on not tripping on a root or sliding in the mud. The area in KY had a pretty big ice storm a few weeks before that damaged a lot of the trees, and made the trail very muddy.
At about mile 6, I felt the other heel start rubbing. For the next mile, I tried to decide whether or not to look down to see the damage. When I did look down, I saw blood, and not just a dot of blood, but the entire back of my foot and shoe was bloody. Lots of blood. I tried to quickly decide what to do - by now, even the uprooted trees that required side-stepping did not preoccupy me from the sting of the shoe rub. I contemplated stopping at the next aid station to get band-aids, but when the aid station came, I decided to just drink some water and keep going, thinking that the chances of the band-aid sticking to the bloody and muddy heel were slim, and the chances of the scrapes hurting even more after taking the shoes off and putting them back on were pretty high.
So, with blood on my heels, I left the aid station and started back on the trail. Then came more hills, big hills. They were pretty tough for about 2 miles, and they also kicked my butt. But soon, the split between the 14-milers and the longer distance was in sight, and more importantly, it was back to the pavement for me. I was tired, cramping, and had blood all over my shoes, heels, and ankles, but when my feet set upon that paved road, I thought "ahhhhh, now THIS is familiar running!" and I readily got into a rhythm.
I sprinted to the finish - all along, a woman at the finish line was yelling "Heidi, Heidi, you can DO it!" at me. I didn't tell her I wasn't Heidi, but just used that energy to bring me to the finish. I crossed. People were saying "good job! Congratulations!" and the lady was saying "Oh, I'm sorry, you aren't Heidi!" I was handed a bag, and told to stand by the race director for a picture, then that I should wait around for the next female to cross the finish line, so that they could take a picture with all three of the top female finishers! WHAT?! Yes, I apparently came in second! Haha. I really wish there was a video of those moments at the finish line - my utter confusion and total disbelief, and hysterical laughter.
A fellow runner, Rob, had a camera. So, here on Rob's flickr site is a picture he took of my heels after the race. When I made it to the senior center to eat some delicious chili, the members of our running group saw the blood and just HAD to get a picture.
And, also on Rob's flickr site, a picture of my photo shoot with Steve Durbin, the race director.
After this photo, Juan decided to hose off our shoes. He said he rinsed my shoes 3 times, and still the water was just completely bloody. That night, I stuffed my shoes with newspaper to dry them out. Just now, I pulled the newspaper out... and the paper is stained completely red. Any ideas on how to get this out of my shoes??
In any case, it was quite a memorable race! Juan ran fantastically! He finished 10th in 1 hr 51 min! Way to go!!!!
This is long, and I was going to edit it, but decided to just post it this way..... at very least, click on the links to the pictures at the end and you'll get the gist.
Last summer, Juan "got into" trail running. We've been members of the local running group, Second Wind Running Club, for a few years now. Last year, Juan decided to try going with their trail running group that meets at 7am on Sunday mornings. He loved it, and he started running regularly with the club. About a month ago, a guy we run with (an ultrarunner) mentioned to Juan that he should run Land Between the Lakes trail run. Juan signed us both up.
I've had to take some time off of running, about 3 months straight, and this race ahead was what I needed to get motivated to try to (very quickly) get back into running shape. March 13 came, and we piled into a minivan and carpooled down to KY for the run. The whole night I couldn't sleep, tossing and turning, nervous that I was ill-prepared and may not finish the run.
Race Day
The race started at 7am, so I set my alarm for 5:15am. I jumped out of bed, took a quick shower, and headed to the lobby for breakfast. It was raining. Shit. I hate running in the rain. Juan and I ate breakfast, then went back into the room and debated about what to wear. Cold and rainy. I decided to go with tights and a long sleeve shirt and the hat that came with our sign-in packets. We folded the edges of our numbers and pinned them onto our pants. Then, we waited for our running group to knock on our door.
At about 6:15, I went back to the lobby and found our group just finishing breakfast. They laughed at Juan and me for being ready so early, and said that trail runs are much more relaxed than road races and that we could arrive to the start 5 min before the run. At about 6:30, we drove over to the start, parked, and Juan and I waited for the other runners (the ones running 60K+) to check their race bags filled with goo, cookies, salt tablets, extra shirts and other items you need when running those distances.
At about 6:50, we meandered over to the start. The crowd seemed small. There were about 350 people signed up for the run, I think about 120 of which were signed up for the 14-miler. The route was 1.7 miles on paved road to the trail. The 14-milers would do one loop on the trail and head back, the marathoners would do two loops, the 60K would do 3 loops and the 50-milers would do 4 loops.
The race director made a few announcements and then said go, or maybe a gun went off, I can't remember because I was in such a daze trying to figure out where to stand. I knew that the trail was a single track, and I didn't want to start in the front and have fast runners behind me upset that a slowpoke was blocking the trail; on the other hand, I didn't want to start in the back because I knew some of these people were running 38 and 50 miles and, although they looked in tip-top shape, surely they'd be going slower than me! In the end, I was told by a fellow runner that it doesn't matter where you start because on the 1.7-mile paved road, you tend to sort into your pace group. Sure enough, a few minutes after the start, it was easy to figure out which pack to settle into.
I've never done this, and have warned many newbies against doing this... but I wore NEW socks and NEW shoes for this trail run!
When we started running, I felt my socks slide off my heels. Shoot, should I stop and fix them? I decided to keep running. No sooner did we turn onto the trail, that I felt my socks bunched up around my toes and the back of my shoe rubbing against my right heel. It stung for a while, but then I kind of got used to it. Either that, or I was too concentrated on not tripping on a root or sliding in the mud. The area in KY had a pretty big ice storm a few weeks before that damaged a lot of the trees, and made the trail very muddy.
At about mile 6, I felt the other heel start rubbing. For the next mile, I tried to decide whether or not to look down to see the damage. When I did look down, I saw blood, and not just a dot of blood, but the entire back of my foot and shoe was bloody. Lots of blood. I tried to quickly decide what to do - by now, even the uprooted trees that required side-stepping did not preoccupy me from the sting of the shoe rub. I contemplated stopping at the next aid station to get band-aids, but when the aid station came, I decided to just drink some water and keep going, thinking that the chances of the band-aid sticking to the bloody and muddy heel were slim, and the chances of the scrapes hurting even more after taking the shoes off and putting them back on were pretty high.
So, with blood on my heels, I left the aid station and started back on the trail. Then came more hills, big hills. They were pretty tough for about 2 miles, and they also kicked my butt. But soon, the split between the 14-milers and the longer distance was in sight, and more importantly, it was back to the pavement for me. I was tired, cramping, and had blood all over my shoes, heels, and ankles, but when my feet set upon that paved road, I thought "ahhhhh, now THIS is familiar running!" and I readily got into a rhythm.
I sprinted to the finish - all along, a woman at the finish line was yelling "Heidi, Heidi, you can DO it!" at me. I didn't tell her I wasn't Heidi, but just used that energy to bring me to the finish. I crossed. People were saying "good job! Congratulations!" and the lady was saying "Oh, I'm sorry, you aren't Heidi!" I was handed a bag, and told to stand by the race director for a picture, then that I should wait around for the next female to cross the finish line, so that they could take a picture with all three of the top female finishers! WHAT?! Yes, I apparently came in second! Haha. I really wish there was a video of those moments at the finish line - my utter confusion and total disbelief, and hysterical laughter.
A fellow runner, Rob, had a camera. So, here on Rob's flickr site is a picture he took of my heels after the race. When I made it to the senior center to eat some delicious chili, the members of our running group saw the blood and just HAD to get a picture.
And, also on Rob's flickr site, a picture of my photo shoot with Steve Durbin, the race director.
After this photo, Juan decided to hose off our shoes. He said he rinsed my shoes 3 times, and still the water was just completely bloody. That night, I stuffed my shoes with newspaper to dry them out. Just now, I pulled the newspaper out... and the paper is stained completely red. Any ideas on how to get this out of my shoes??
In any case, it was quite a memorable race! Juan ran fantastically! He finished 10th in 1 hr 51 min! Way to go!!!!
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews
Check out:
WIREs Systems Biology and Medicine: www.wiley.com/wires/sysbio
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) now online! www.wiley.com/wires
This WIREs series follows an innovative publication model to disseminate high-quality, interdisciplinary reviews on a broad range of topics and disciplines. Take a look!
WIREs Systems Biology and Medicine: www.wiley.com/wires/sysbio
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) now online! www.wiley.com/wires
This WIREs series follows an innovative publication model to disseminate high-quality, interdisciplinary reviews on a broad range of topics and disciplines. Take a look!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Public Access
NIH recently implemented a more stringent policy regarding public access, mandating that all research papers that result from NIH funding be placed in the public domain at most 12 months after publication (http://publicaccess.nih.gov/). Previously, I believe posting articles to the public domain was only a requirement for NIH or government employees. Why would such a mandate be necessary? -Because this is taxpayer money that is used to fund the research, and the research results should be publicly available.
The House Judiciary Committee may pass a bill that will deny federal agencies to mandate such public access: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.801: . Why? -Because the copyright of that paper has been transferred to the publishers. Could the researchers post to the public domain the first version of the manuscript, before the publisher signed the agreement that transfers copyright? Could the researchers modify their paper or summarize the results to create a slightly different version of the manuscript to post to the public domain? This would require a lot of work and a lot of time on the researchers part, as the publisher holds the copyright to all text, figures, charts, etc.
I try to see both sides of the issue. I see that the publisher needs to survive; they need profits. However, the profits usually arise before the 12 month mark, and making the manuscripts freely available may not cost much at all. I would assume that institutions that can afford the subscriptions would still be willing to pay so that the researchers could have immediate access to results. This is especially true for cutting-edge research. I don't know. On the other hand, and much more of a priority in my mind, the research that is funded by the public needs to be available to the public. It is grossly unfair to make the research results available only to those institutions that can afford the cost of the journals. This issue is amplified in an environment and economy where budgets are cut to bare-bones minimum, but even under ideal circumstances it is unfair to limit access to this information. Smaller institutions and companies might be unable to buy rights to access the manuscripts or the general public may just want to feed a curiosity; whatever the reason, we all have a right to read and learn from this research.
Perhaps a compromise between the NIH and publishers can be met, but my feeling is that a 12-month copyright may be compromise enough.
Any thoughts? I'd love to hear from you.
The House Judiciary Committee may pass a bill that will deny federal agencies to mandate such public access: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.801: . Why? -Because the copyright of that paper has been transferred to the publishers. Could the researchers post to the public domain the first version of the manuscript, before the publisher signed the agreement that transfers copyright? Could the researchers modify their paper or summarize the results to create a slightly different version of the manuscript to post to the public domain? This would require a lot of work and a lot of time on the researchers part, as the publisher holds the copyright to all text, figures, charts, etc.
I try to see both sides of the issue. I see that the publisher needs to survive; they need profits. However, the profits usually arise before the 12 month mark, and making the manuscripts freely available may not cost much at all. I would assume that institutions that can afford the subscriptions would still be willing to pay so that the researchers could have immediate access to results. This is especially true for cutting-edge research. I don't know. On the other hand, and much more of a priority in my mind, the research that is funded by the public needs to be available to the public. It is grossly unfair to make the research results available only to those institutions that can afford the cost of the journals. This issue is amplified in an environment and economy where budgets are cut to bare-bones minimum, but even under ideal circumstances it is unfair to limit access to this information. Smaller institutions and companies might be unable to buy rights to access the manuscripts or the general public may just want to feed a curiosity; whatever the reason, we all have a right to read and learn from this research.
Perhaps a compromise between the NIH and publishers can be met, but my feeling is that a 12-month copyright may be compromise enough.
Any thoughts? I'd love to hear from you.
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