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Name: Claudia
User type: Default
User ID: 36
User since: September 10, 2004
User last visit: 12:24PM on August 24
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TheClaw has posted 15 links and 63 comments on Alkaline Earth since September 10, 2004.

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2009 Aug 18 06:04 (#4181.12631):
Wow! So many responses. I guess everyone likes to talk about food!

I actually had never thought about the eating local concept too much. I figured it was like the eating what's in season mentality, where you try to make up most of your diet from what's in season (local) and then splurge to get whatever else you need. That's better on the planet and your wallet. And actually, that makes me wonder...for the first time this year we started a garden: 3 tomato plants, 2 bell pepper plants, lots of chilies, basil, mint, green onions. I was surprised by how much water these plants need and since I am not really that concerned with my water bill, I probably end up wasting a lot more water. So far we've gotten a lot of cherry tomato (maybe 40), 1 big tomato, lots of chillies, and 1 bell pepper. The green onions have shown no promise and I'm afraid of picking basil because I might kill it. It seems to me that buying the veggies might be a little bit more time and cost efficient, but having your own garden is the cool thing to do nowadays. But it could just be me and my inability to grow stuff. Perhaps this is a good analogy for the buy local movement?

mrflip, I definitely think it's great that we are now spending a lot less time and money on food, but I wonder at what cost. I am sure that subjecting animals and slaughter house workers to inhumane conditions has something to do with the low cost of food. As does the quality of the food and the need to add a ton of salt and sugar to make food palatable after it's been frozen for 3 months. And I'm not sure we can yet say that the increase in obesity is acceptable considering the improvements in health we are gaining from the availability and cheapness of food. I think it's still too early to tell.

And as far as blaming the food industry for obesity, well, I guess I was ready to find someone to blame. Maybe it's more of an education and self control thing. But at the same time, it will be a lot cheaper for me to go to Taco Bell and fill up for lunch than to go to the grocery store and buy a container of yogurt, a banana, and a granola bar.

2009 Aug 12 01:15 (#4181.12621):
The biggest deal for me and why I am working on becoming a vegetarian, or at least eat a lot less meat, (and my husband is too) is animal welfare. If we eat meat we try to only eat from Whole Foods or local farmer's market or Chipotle. I kind of like supporting places like the farmer's markets because I think I stand a better chance of "convincing" people to buy humanely raised meats rather than becoming a vegetarian.

2009 Jul 15 07:22 (#4170.12603):
I agree with the "you can always add more layers, but there's only so much you can take off" mentality. But the hardest for me, was walking to work in the summer heat in tiny shorts, tiny shirt, and flip flops, and then freezing in air-conditioned RLM. I think I used to keep sweatpants and sweatshirt in my lab to change into.

2009 Jul 08 05:25 (#4170.12589):
I remember Summer 2000. That's when I moved to Austin too. That was hot!

2008 Aug 21 11:46 (#3970.11800):
I agree natedogg, Bolt is amazing. Good name too. I was disappointed he stopped trying in the last 20 m of the 100 m dash, but he left himself plenty of room for improvement.

My other favorite is Michael Phelps and his 7th gold medal photo finish (and his mom's reaction to that).

NBC Olympics is actually pretty good with the videos (easy to find what you are looking for) but you do have install a little script and I couldn't get it to work on my work laptop with Firefox (but it might be a work thing).

2008 Jul 16 02:50 (#3925.11618):
I was one of the Fink female students. I was actually a PhD track engineer that had a lab in the physics department. I never really felt like I was biased against because I was a girl. There were always the finkisms: “She’s part of my harem” and “how would you explain this to your wife”. At the same time, I was in physics in a time when there were a lot of women around me so I didn’t feel like I was alone. I was the only female in my engineering group but I was used to hanging out with the guys (and they were all great) and that didn’t bother me. I decided to get out with a masters because I failed the quals (but so did all the guys who took them with me) and because I knew I was never going to be a good researcher because I always preferred to do something else besides work in the lab. I didn’t mind putting in my 8 hours a day but I wasn’t about to give up evenings and weekends. I have a feeling that has something to do with being a female and my desire to want to have time to do more than just be a good researcher (be a good mom, wife, friend, etc.). But this also is probably why I wouldn’t be a good doctor, lawyer, anything that requires a lot of time.

In retrospect, when I quit the program, I did feel as if I let my gender down. I was one of the few women in both of the departments and I stereotypically cut out early. So I always felt as if my ex-advisors would think twice about taking on another female student.

2008 May 12 03:32 (#3839.11278):
I agree that proper training and weight lifting are essential for injury prevention. I tore my ACL during an evening game after a day full of outdoor activities. It wasn't an impact, my legs were just fatigued. And before post-surgery therapy, I rarely weight-trained. When I started coaching soccer this year, I emphasized the importance of warming-up and stretching and made sure my girls had a good warm-up. I am now an assistant coach and the head coach (male) rarely has the girls stretch or warm-up. That's a bad habit.

2008 May 09 04:24 (#3839.11264):
Because Valatan, unless you play in competitive leagues and do all the summer camps, you'll never make the high school team. Most of the girls on the soccer team in my high school were club players (require lots of time and money) and some were even ODP (junior Olympics).

I feel like a senior citizen right now. My back is very achy (I can pinpoint a soccer injury about 15 years ago that causes my back to sideline me from everyday stuff about once or twice a year). Despite that, I can't give up soccer and sports. I try to take it easier (be less competitive) and keep my core strong and stretch, but I don't want to give up being athletic. I think without the sports foundation in my youth, I would have other health problems (there are a lot of overweight people in my family). Oh yeah, and I've had ACL reconstruction.

I too agree that more effort/money should be spent on womens' sports research. Unfortunately I don't see that happening anytime soon.

2007 Nov 15 06:19 (#3621.10548):
I've heard a little bit about it. There are a couple of jobs in Austin that Andy and I were thinking of applying to in this area. It'll be a bit of a stretch for us, but it sounds like a cool job/area.

2007 Aug 01 11:22 (#3466.10094):
Our internet is super slow when it's hot during the summer. We used to have a splitter downstairs that routed the cable upstairs along the outside wall. That cable got sun most of the day and our internet never worked upstairs when it was really hot (by CA standards) during the summer (cable tv was fine downstairs). We had a couple of cable repairmen come out to check out the problem and the second guy suggested that we get a wireless router to avoid the hot cable issues. That mostly solved our problem. Sometimes when it's really hot the internet will still be fussy.

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