I cannot be the only person who reads "Cinco de Mayo" and thinks of a condiment, not a holiday.

Cow -> biodiesel -> Amtrak

Amtrak's trying out cow-based biodiesel on some of its trains. Nice.

Salon article here.

Issues I have with this piece:
They're concerned about biodiesel harming rubber components in the engine. Yes. This is correct. But why not just take the safe route and replace those with synthetics? (This is what is done in older diesel cars and trucks so that they can safely use biodiesel)

Also, biodiesel not ONLY reduces carbon-dioxide emissions, but also reduces Nitrogen Oxide and Sulfur Oxide (NOx and SOx), both of which contribute to poor air quality and health problems, such as asthma.

I don't know what acylated ghrelin is, but it makes me hungry.

Last August, I posted a Time article about the science between exercise and weight loss, along with some of my own anecdotal evidence that more exercise does not necessarily mean more weight loss. Of course, I'm my own exception - I have lost weight while training for my half-Ironman. So, yeah. There's that. But that's been way more intense than your usual workout, so probably not a good example.

Anyway, just read another article along the same lines... basic idea is that weight loss occurs from eating less, but exercising is what will help one maintain that new, lower weight. That's cool. Lose weight and embrace a new lifestyle, one that includes exercise.

And, I also have science now to back me up as to why I am hungry for days after a tough workout. And also, as the author points out, another reason why life is unfair.

In it, 18 overweight men and women walked on treadmills in multiple sessions while either eating enough that day to replace the calories burned during exercise or not. Afterward, the men displayed little or no changes in their energy-regulating hormones or their appetites, much as in the other study. But the women uniformly had increased blood concentrations of acylated ghrelin and decreased concentrations of insulin after the sessions in which they had eaten less than they had burned. Their bodies were directing them to replace the lost calories. In physiological terms, the results “are consistent with the paradigm that mechanisms to maintain body fat are more effective in women,” Braun and his colleagues wrote. In practical terms, the results are scientific proof that life is unfair. Female bodies, inspired almost certainly “by a biological need to maintain energy stores for reproduction,” Braun says, fight hard to hold on to every ounce of fat. Exercise for many women (and for some men) increases the desire to eat.

Full article here

balls. balls. balls of cake.

Cake balls: The new new cupcake?
Quote of interest:
"Cake balls have a lot of things going for them -- their homey appeal, their variety, a giggle-inducing name -- and Americans are always looking for the next trendy dessert. But given the remarkable amount of sugar involved, it's unlikely that they'll ever reach the kind of widespread popularity of the cupcake (which enjoyed a considerably more responsible cake to frosting ratio)."

TJ's Sustainable Seafood Showcase Showdown

Trader Joe's (love. love. love.).

1. Has moved away from the plastic container of four apples
2. Now offers some veggies/fruits in compostable plastic trays
3. Is going to be offering sustainable seafood ONLY in 2012
4. Is huge on BYOB (bag)
5. Offers many customers with their first organic experience - so many products are offered in regular and organic - or organic only
6. Sells the best effing pumpkin butter out there
7. I heart the hell out of their bottled curry sauces
8. Fantastic prices on nut butters, including organics
9. Smoothie enabler - good prices on frozen berries
10. Wine and beer. Wine and beer.

Yeah, they're not perfect. But #3 is pretty huge. Good job, TJ's.

As the linked article points out, YOU can make this switch a lot quicker, since you don't have to deal with contracts and shit.
Check, it -
Fish guide from GOOD
My fave - Monterey Bay Seafood Watch. I have the app on my phone - it even lists fish by their sushi names!

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.

Another benefit of running...

Earlier this week, we were encouraged to drink wine (occasionally) to maintain our weight. Now we're supposed to keep on (or start!) running to have a more active sex life (at least according the the British study discussed in the linked Telegraph article):

One in ten joggers said that they have sex at least once a day and three per cent of joggers said they have sex twice a day.
Amongst non-runners one in four (25 per cent) said they had sex once a month or less.

music and feelings and broccoli

1. Mixtape recommended by one of the many food bloggers that populates my Google Reader. Mash-ups. Iz good. Download it naow.

2. Website: We Feel Fine.

How it works:

At the core of We Feel Fine is a data collection engine that automatically scours the Internet every ten minutes, harvesting human feelings from a large number of blogs. Blog data comes from a variety of online sources, including LiveJournal, MSN Spaces, MySpace, Blogger, Flickr, Technorati, Feedster, Ice Rocket, and Google.

We Feel Fine scans blog posts for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". This is an approach that was inspired by techniques used in Listening Post, a wonderful project by Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen.

Check it out. There are a few different ways to visualize the results, as well as limit it to certain populations of authors. I may throw up an "I feel" statement every so often, just so maybe it can become part of this design project.

Right now:
I feel unfocused.

3. Things with "the guy who likes weirdos" are going pretty well. I'm finding that I have to be a lot more explicit about what I want and need than maybe I'd like, but he seems to be a pretty fast learner, and open to some change. So I'm going to continue to ask (a little at a time) and see how it goes. If nothing else, I'll leave him better than I found him, right?  

4. I hurt my neck. Either at the gym this morning, or within the last hour. It hurts all along the right side. I want a massage.

5. My birthday is in two weeks. I don't really care. I'm not excited about it. I feel a little inadequate when I think about what being 32 years old used to mean to me - as in, my mom had my younger sister when she was 32. What about all the shit that I thought would have happened by now... like a house, a job where I have an office with a door, a husband, a child...It's like I need those things in order to "be an adult."
Which, is bullshit.
A. Why do I want to be an adult? and
B. Of course, there are plenty of things I've done that I never would have thought I would do... get my MBA, live in San Francisco, get rid of my car, essentially be Kirby 2.0, triathlons, own a pet, live alone.
C. 32 is not that old.
D. Really, what I want is to be happy. Whatever that means for now.

6. Looking forward to travel this year. Alaska and Peru. Plans have been kind of stalled, but I am going to make it happen.

7. Half ironman is less than two months away. I am nervous.

8. I have a head of broccoli and half a head of cauliflower in my fridge that should get cooked tonight. But I'll be getting back home pretty late. Any fantastic ideas? Also - and more importantly, how on earth do you cut either of those vegetables without getting little bits of cauliflower/broccoli all over the place? I cut up half the cauliflower last night and have cauli-crumbs on the floor, the counter... wtf? HELP!

9. I decided to write nine things because it's the ninth. Hmmm... I love Easter candy.

Wine with dinner: WIN!

Red wine drinkers gained least weight

Women who drink wine 'less likely to gain weight'

Women can enjoy a tipple and stay slim, according to a study that shows moderate drinkers gain less weight than teetotallers.

Women who drank red wine gained the least, but the results held for other wines, beers and spirits. 

...
Those who drank no alcohol gained the most weight, and there was an inverse relationship between weight gain and alcohol consumption.

PUA confirms what we all know...

I just read an article filled with funny, anecdotal evidence about the craptastic dating scene (for straight women) in San Francisco. Thought you'd be amused as well.

Oh, and my latest man safari update? I'm "dating" two guys, but am pretty sure that I want/need them to be merged into one person. Do I decide which qualities are actually more important to me? Or, just move on? For now I'm having fun with both of them for different reasons and want to get to know them better.

From SF Weekly...

Girl Game: A world-famous pickup artist tried to teach single women to attract decent guys in SF. It was harder than he thought.

For the next two weeks, it seemed the guy always wanted to sleep over at Valencia's place in Hayes Valley, which she initially didn't think was unusual. But as time passed, she started to suspect that her new love interest was intentionally keeping her out of his home.

It turned out he didn't have one. She was dating a homeless man...

"I continued to see him a couple more times," she says. "Then he dumped me."

Although Valencia has yet to meet anyone else who has been seduced and then dumped by a homeless man, the whole ordeal strikes her as "very San Francisco."

-----
"I've never seen so much dating down in my life," a woman wrote, referring to how many couples she knows that seem to include a smart, attractive woman and an average, barely tolerable guy.

...had better luck in cities like Paris and Chicago, where she says men are forward about what they want. "They'll buy you drinks and talk to you," she says. "They act like they're interested, and it's so refreshing." 
 

In San Francisco, though, women have to deal with a lot of ambiguity. "We don't even know what it is," Valencia said of some men she has encountered around the city. "Is it gay? Is it straight? Is it a friend? Is it a foe? Is it looking for a job? Is it looking for a place to crash?"

Another contributing factor to the dating doldrums: "There's no pressure to grow up here," she says. "The way I act now is pretty much the same way I acted when I was 24. It's culturally reinforced here. Nobody cares that you're in your late 30s and have roommates."

-----

...there are 60,045 single heterosexual men and 68,749 single heterosexual women in the age range we examined.

-----

[the women trying advice from a pick-up artist] "We were on our way out, but you guys look ... interesting," she said. "We just wanted to come say hello and introduce ourselves."

Though a bit weirded out, the guys offered us seats, and even asked if we'd like beers.

That was easy.

The conversation meandered from North Face apparel to Mad Men to the Carolina-Duke basketball game, and finally the men asked us what we were doing that night. We said we were part of, um, a seminar. "We're learning how to pick up men," Walters announced, seizing her opportunity. "How are we doing?"

Looking a little taken aback, the men said we'd done well, and that it was refreshing to have women come to them. But they weren't entirely impressed. "You focused a lot of your attention on him," one said, indicating his friend. "It was a little aggressive." Another awarded us a B-plus.

We left the Tipsy Pig without getting any numbers.

-----

[at the next bar]...And, finally, there were two men off in the corner. They were hot.

Soul beckoned to Stevenson and Pattee and prepped them on how to approach. They should be casual. Smile a lot. Flip hair if necessary.

They slowly made their way toward the men, stopping every few steps to whisper something about strategy. They didn't want to blow this opportunity. But when the women got within about five feet of the men, they abruptly turned and hustled back to the group.

"Gay," Pattee explained.

"How do you know?" Soul asked.

"We just know," Stevenson said. In fact, the men were practically sitting in each other's laps.

-----

"He's jammin' the clam," Stevenson joked, using the female version of "cockblock."

-----

Valencia said her mother has a theory about men. "A good guy is like a good bra," she used to say. "He should uplift and make you look beautiful. He should fit really well. He should flatter you and never poke you in the wrong place or make you uncomfortable."