you're going to want to click on that picture to embiggen it.

Stolen from SFist.com/

who stole it from

sfcurbed.com/

who stole it from 

generic1.tumblr.com/

PANCAN.org

Pancreatic cancer remains the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. The five-year survival rate stands at a miniscule 6%. Even more distressing is that this survival rate has not changed significantly in nearly 40 years. 


I know there are a million causes that need money. Heck, I'm sure we all know at least five friends or family members who are unemployed or underemployed. But, I do try to donate to charities anyway. Pancreatic cancer is an issue that is close to my heart. This year will mark 20 years after my dad died from pancreatic cancer. 


For more information, check out this link on the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's site. 

Horniest dinosaur ever discovered

Horniest dinosaur ever discovered – Kosmoceratops – found in Utah

The newly unearthed dinosaur Kosmoceratops, which lived in the swamps of what is now southern Utah, sported 15 horns

• Ian Sample, science correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 September 2010 17.00 BST

Fossil hunters have uncovered the remains of an ancient beast that can lay claim to the dubious title of the horniest animal ever to walk the Earth.

The creature lived 76 million years ago in the warm, wet swamps of what is now southern Utah and was remarkable in bearing 15 full-sized horns on its head.

The animal, named Kosmoceratops, had an enormous two metre-long skull, was five metres from snout to tail and weighed an estimated 2.5 tonnes.

"These animals are basically oversized rhinos with a whole lot more horns on their heads. They had huge heads relative to their body size," said Scott Sampson a researcher at the Utah Museum of Natural History.

For more on this crazy awesome dinosaur, go here.

Dude. I'm a local.

Ok, I'm not about to claim OG status, but I'm not a tourist, either.

(Not that I hate tourists. Ok, some of them... like the ones that don't follow bike traffic common courtesy on the Bridge and the one that hit my friend HW and caused her to break her elbow. The rest are welcome anytime.)

Also, woo-hoo overturning of Prop 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iceland PM weds partner as gay marriage legalized

Iceland Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir officially marries partner on the day gay marriage is legalized

By Associated Press

 

Iceland's prime minister has married her partner under a new law legalizing same-sex marriage in the country.
One of her advisers, Hrannar B. Arnarsson, said Monday Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir and writer Jonina Leosdottir were officially married Sunday, the day the law came into force.

The pair has been in a registered partnership since 2002 and had applied to have it converted into a marriage under the new law. No ceremony was held.

The law was passed without a dissenting vote in Iceland's parliament June 11.

Social Democrat Sigurdardottir, 68, became Iceland's prime minister last year, after the previous center-right government was ousted by a wave of protest triggered by the country's economic crisis.

AP: "Oil Leak Wouldn't Fill Superdome" - Who Cares?

sad

Words of wisdom for today...

1. I ran through the park today. It's great on Sundays - there's a fairly long stretch that's closed to cars. Also means it's a great spot to take kids out who are learning to ride their bikes. However, if you put a bicycle helmet on your child (and, despite the fact that I'm mostly fine and rode around helmetless until age 22, they should wear a helmet), the front should be parallel to the ground and the chinstrap should be fairly snug. After seeing so many kids with their helmets on wrong... backwards, unsnapped at the bottom, far back on their head - fully exposing their entire forehead... I'm convinced that those safety stats that say that helmets are useless should go back and look at how the helmet was worn, prior to the accident.

And yeah, I see it on adults - the helmet really far back, mostly. I kind of feel like they're just being idiots and the kids don't have a choice in the matter.

2. DO NOT do this:

1. Go for a sweaty 10 mile run 
2. Come home and juice ALL remaining fruits and vegetables in your fridge, so that you don't "waste" anything while you're on vacation for the next week
3. Chug said concoction because you're thirsty 

Because...You WILL throw up (a little) in the shower

Ok, maybe that would have worked if I didn't have a bunch of kale, two stalks of broccoli, a little spinach, two apples, one lemon, one beet, two carrots, 0.5 cucumber, half a bunch of radishes. Yeah. Totally gross. That's not to say that juicing is always gross, mind you. The beet, carrot, apple and spinach would have worked just fine. Or some kale and broccoli and other things.

Anyway... vacation awaits...taking my mom on an Alaskan cruise to see the glaciers! (Yes, it's pretty much the best birthday present EVER.)

Gulf Oil Spill

I've been avoiding learning too much about the Gulf oil spill, just because it is so incredibly depressing. I finally did some research for a work newsletter. Here's some info and a few sources about the basics...

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico saddens and enrages me. The oil rig explosion was responsible for 11 deaths. Now the oil spill is damaging wildlife, ecosystems, and local economies and fishing industries – with no end in sight. Participants are blaming each other for the failure. Let’s take a look at some of the key players and facts surrounding this tragedy.

Companies:

BP Oil – Leases the oil well

Transocean Ltd. – Built and operated the oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, that was leased to BP

Halliburton Co – Poured the cement at the wellhead

Cameron International Corporation – Supplied blowout preventers that allegedly failed

Brief timeline:

4/20 – Explosion and fire on the oil rig

4/22 – The oil rig sinks, oil slick is visible

4/23 – Search for 11 missing workers ends

4/25 – Coast Guard estimates that the sunken well is leaking 1,000 barrels of crude oil a day

4/28 – Controlled burn on the oil slick to remove it from the Gulf. New estimated flow of oil is 5,000 barrels per day (210,000 gallons per day)

5/5-8 – BP tries to use a use a containment chamber to cap the oil leaks. Containment dome fails.

5/6 – Oil from spill makes it to shore at New Harbor Island, LA

5/7 – Fishing ban is expanded and extended to 5/17/10, efforts made to contain spill circumference

5/17 – BP reports that they are now capturing 20% of the 210,000 GPD flow and funneling it into a tanker ship

Sources:

NOLA, NOLA, Reuters, Newsweek, NPR

ADD... Click for link & to embiggen.

some...

Some links:
http://www.patspapers.com/blog/item/what_if_everybody_flushed_at_once_Edmonton_water_gold_medal_hockey_game/
This makes me laugh.

As a kid, I was convinced that if I swallowed a piece of gum, it would stay in my stomach/intestines for seven years. I don't know where the seven came from, but this post makes me think that there's some truth to that - http://missionlocal.org/2010/03/street-science-the-gum-we-step-in/

Some news:
The relationship with the triathlete is still in progress, despite my continuous worries that I'm going to fuck it up.

My birthday happened. It was fun. I love my friends. 32 is not horrible.

Some PSAs:
One more week to get your Easter candy, folks. Those Cadbury's Mini Eggs won't be around forever (thank goodness)!

Sunscreen. It's important. I forgot to put it on this weekend and, while I love having a little color, I don't want skin cancer or wrinkles. Or this stupid bike jersey tan line.

One of these things is not like the others

One of these things is far less important than the others, but perplexing to me. So here you go... 
1. I know ya'll are smrt and kind and generous. So I don't need to ask you to donate to Haiti's earthquake relief efforts. There are about a million and a half ways to give, including the nifty text-to-donate method. I really hope that the cell phone providers aren't tacking on a fee to handle that transaction... If you haven't maxed out your donating using that method, a friend of mine who has done relief work in other disasters has recommended donating through Doctors Without Borders or Haiti are Partners In Health. 
2. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day! What an incredible leader. Again, since ya'll are McSmartersons, I don't have to add anything. So, here's a fun fact, taken from one of my favorite blogs (Seriously, this woman would be too perfect, except that she tends to end her posts with silly sexual innuendos. The fact that she's a funny writer and adds tons of cute pictures helps out too.) - Did you know that Correta Scott King and Dexter King were both vegans? That whole non-violence and compassion thing? Yeah, they brought it all the way to the kitchen. Wow. (In other vegan news, shout out to CP for her first Vegan Thursday!)
3. I like green bell peppers now. Raw green bell peppers. WTF? How did this happen?

2000-2010: Science

I'm expecting that we'll start reading a lot of top 10 lists about the past decade. (BTW, Wow. That was fast. And let's not even think about what any of us thought we would and wouldn't be doing in 2010, back in 2000.) Today, I tease you with the Smithsonian Magazine's science blog's  Top 10 Great Moments in Science. 

10. Hurricane Katrina track forecasting

9. Gene therapy

8. Solving the Poincaré Conjecture

7. “Intelligent design” struck down in a Pennsylvania court

6. Evidence of water on Mars

5. Clinical trials show hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has problems

4. Climate change research wins a Nobel Peace Prize

3. A spacecraft maps the remnants of the Big Bang

2. The discovery of “Ardi,” our ancestor

1. The sequencing of the human genome

Check out the link for more info on each of these scientific achievements.

Yesterday was World AIDS Day.

I wrote this little blurb and then didn't post it yesterday. It doesn't seem particularly mind-blowing, or interesting. But, let's face it, neither is the majority of the shit I post anyway. And since most of my readers are my friends, ya'll are a smart bunch of cookies anyway, (nom nom nom I love cookies) and know that AIDS is a big fucking deal. So here you go... some stuff that you already know, but I'm telling you again anyway, because it was on my mind on World AIDS Day.

----------------

HIV+ people can live healthy, wonderful lives for a long time, given proper treatment. And this is good, very good. (The cost, and world-wide availability of this treatment is another topic entirely.) Regardless, existing drug therapies that limit the impact of the virus makes me optimistic for a true cure. That cure does not yet exist and people die from AIDS.

Get tested and be safe.

Provisional ballot - nice to know for next Election Day

I'm registered to vote as a permanent absentee. It's great to avoid waiting in line to vote in person and I get to look up information on-the-spot, if I haven't gotten to research ahead of time.

Never knew what I was supposed to do with the little tabs that I tear off of the ballot before it goes in the mail. I just got an email from the SF Department of Elections with a link to the provisional ballot status tool. If I hadn't used that tab as a grocery list, I could have checked to make sure that my ballot was counted! (Provisional ballots are counted last, so that the counters can make sure that you didn't try to vote in person and through the mail.)

Six.

1. I want someone to deliver Straus organic non fat plain yogurt, cottage cheese, bananas, chicken, celery, veggie burgers and Lara Bars to my door. Also, maybe something for dinner. (Yes, there's take out, but I don't actually want to call anyone, or wait for it. I'm looking for magic elves, or my non-existent mind reading boyfriend. Damn it, Edward Cullen, where are you?)

2. Bike ride today, because I  had the day off.

• I am blaming the shittasticness that is my riding speed and endurance on my 200 pound 3x deadlift yesterday and not on the fact that it's been about a month since I've gone on a ride.Yeah, I'm out of biking shape. But, damn, am I proud of that deadlift.
• On the second half of my ride, I encountered a kid who had a nasty wreck on the Sausalito bike path. Was going to call 911, since his head was bleeding, but enough of us assessed that he was okay - knew his name, was talking, pupils looked normal and he remembered his phone number. So I called his mom to pick him up. It looked like one of his pedal arms seemed to have fallen off his bike. OUCH!!! Poor kid. He was fine - bunch of road rash and bruises, but he also had a cut on his head and his helmet was there... but obviously didn't do the job. I see BMX kids riding around with their helmets unclipped all the fucking time. It's stupid. The helmet's not going to do anything if it's not properly secured to your head. I felt like an asshole, myself, because I stuck around for a little while, but then had to leave him with two other bikers because I didn't have lights on my bike and it was getting dark. And I don't want to tempt the irony gods quite that much.

3. In addition to elves, I'd also like a cleaning person. I am very seriously considering this one. Just 2x a month. I can't imagine it'd be that expensive, since my place is so small. It seems sooo bourgeois... but I really always come up with something better to do than wash my floors.

4. Did you know you have to floss the very back of your last tooth? Even though there's no other tooth next to it to trap anything in there, you're still supposed to run floss along it to help reduce plaque (or tartar?). I went to the dentist on Monday and came away with that fun fact. I'm pretty sure I'd gag myself if I actually had my wisdom teeth and had to floss all the way back there.

5. Oh, and hi blog stalkers! I didn't know I had so many silent readers. Hope I make you laugh sometimes.

6. I hope to see this band on Friday. Pomplamoose. Hilarious cover of Beyonce's Single Ladies. FF to around 1:55 for a little artistic license action.

Or, perhaps you're more into Michael Jackson, complete with xylophone? Oh yes.

Cuz I'm a creep.

No, I do not have an earthquake/emergency kit ready. Yes, I need to make one.

However, this article helps to ease my mind (a little). The Hayward Fault, in East Bay, is c-r-e-e-p-i-n-g along - it moved 4.5mm in the past year. Seismologists think that these small movements help ease fault stress and reduce the chance for a big earthquake. Interesting stuff.

Foot gloves

Kid from my ninja training gym has a picture and quote in SFGate.com/ today. Kind of cool - I was just working out with him this morning and then (electronically) open the paper and poof! there he is again. (Oh, and I think - like pretty much every other guy at my gym - he's married, so don't go all, why don't you go for him on me.) Anyway, the Vibram FiveFingers have been getting a lot of attention lately - they're the latest in barefoot running gear, kind of like the Nike Free was a few years ago. These have even *less* sole and let your toes really do their stabilization stuff individually. I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff and may try them out for some shorter runs this winter. We'll see.

For now... Vibram's FiveFingers foot gloves runaway hit

Time's article - Exercise & Weight Loss

I've seen a couple of commentary pieces on Time's article,Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin, by John Cloud (9 August 2009). People have been touting their weight loss and increased fitness achieved by incorporating exercise into their diet plans... agreeing that the trip to the gym gives them a free pass to indulge in high calorie foods... and saying that exercise - regardless of the weight loss outcome - should be encouraged for the cardiovascular and mental fitness benefits.

Personally? Uh, yeah. Exercise isn't making me thin. I ride my bike to work every day and I exercise 5-7 days a week. Some of that is pretty long, or intense - track workouts on Tuesdays and long bike rides on the weekend come to mind first. And my weight? It's even climbing a little, now that I'm in my 30s. I do LOOK fit (and am, damnit), but I do not look, or feel, thin.

Now I'm trying to actually look thinner* - and it's challenging! I have a huge appetite. Mostly for healthy foods, but I like my desserts and drinks. As pointed out in the article,

"After we exercise, we often crave sugary calories like those in muffins or in "sports" drinks like Gatorade. A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories. If you're hot and thirsty after a 20-minute run in summer heat, it's easy to guzzle that bottle in 20 seconds, in which case the caloric expenditure and the caloric intake are probably a wash. From a weight-loss perspective, you would have been better off sitting on the sofa knitting.

Many people assume that weight is mostly a matter of willpower — that we can learn both to exercise and to avoid muffins and Gatorade. A few of us can, but evolution did not build us to do this for very long. In 2000 the journal Psychological Bulletin published a paper by psychologists Mark Muraven and Roy Baumeister in which they observed that self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza. "

Good think I'm taking up knitting. Now I just need to get a sofa ;)

Seriously. While I'm not opting for pizza again and again, as the author implies, I will eat something that's probably calorically equivalent - though whole grains, veggies, good proteins, etc.
...............
Anyway, this article is well-timed for me, as it is a good reminder that it really is all about calories IN! I've been loosely tracking my eating habits and am moving towards a more calculated approach, using the iPhone app "Lose it!". I'll be essentially counting calories - which means measuring portions (ugh). However, I'm not doing it for non-starchy fruits and veggies. Just because I'm lazy. It'd be nice to have this stuff in there for the nutritional info (vitamins, minerals, etc), but I don't really care about the 10 calories in a cup of lettuce.

Thoughts? Advice? Experiences to share?

*I want to be thinner NOW while I'm in my early 30s because I don't think that it'll get any easier as I get older. And I would like to keep the (genetically hopeless cause) cellulite at bay. And I really want to be a faster triathlete. And I want to wear skinny jeans. And I want to test the "Looking good is the best revenge" theory at an event in October. And I mean thinner like athlete-thin, not model-thin.

Buzzed Driving

I've seen these ads on a few bus shelters in SF and really appreciate the message. Drunk and buzzed are not really all that different when you're behind the wheel of a car.

Cab, bus, sober friend, sleepover party. Don't drive.

Urban Dictionary: WOTD

October 13: imaginary bluetooth
An imaginary telephone device popular with riders of public transport, those having manic episodes, paranoid schizophrenics, and just common talk to yourself out loud types.

a. Whoa, dude on the escalator is yakking away to no one and there's no bluetooth in his ear.
b. Imaginary bluetooth in action. Probably on his way to the bus.

Financial crisis background... explained with cartoons

Confused by the whole sub-prime mortgage mess (you know, one of the factors responsible for the current financial crisis)?

Like stick figure drawings?

Like poorly drawn stick figure drawings that swear?

Are actually kind of a geek?

Click here for some entertainment.

Props to EW for posting this to my school's website.