Urban Phantom

The Urban Phantom has been relocated.

The black bear that seen earlier this week in Seattle was found yesterday in Everett, WA, just 30 miles north of where is was first sited. The bear turned up in another urban area, so wildlife officials tranquilized him and transported him out of the urban area. Hopefully for him, the adolescent male was dropped off along Highway 2 in an area that is not already claimed by an older, stronger bear. In the end, I'm happy the animal did not meet the same demise that the poor creature found in the University District three years ago.

According to wildlife officials, at no point were humans at risk from the bear; they claim that the bear was more at risk from cars or from dumpster diving. Evidently, human food doesn't do much good for bears. It probably doesn't do best for humans either!

Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy

For all of you out there with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or something like it, try not to let today's consumeristic holiday bring you down. And for those of you with something to celebrate today, I would recommend tucking some of those tokens of love away for when your sweetie is least expecting it. Like on Flag Day or something.

But lest you think me a total scrooge, I did purchase a couple of doses of phenylethylamine for my true love.

Double Dipping

It's time for the Super Bowl, and you know what that means - you'll be going to a Super Bowl party. The folks over at ScienceBlogs are making a big deal about double dipping - you know, the socially scorned practice of going back into the spinach dip or salsa with a chip that you had already munched. Dr. Free-Ride, Greg Laden, OmniBrain and Tara Smith all have chimed in. Evidently there's a lot of bacteria that gets transferred in the mouth to chip to dip to chip to mouth pathway. 10,000 bacteria. That sounds like a lot. Or is it?

1) How many of those bacteria cause disease?
2) How many of them do you not have in your mouth already?
3) What's the equivalent transfer from multiple hands going into the same snack bag?

Frankly, I'd rather get someone else's mouth bacteria than their hand bacteria. Because you know what hand bacteria is the same as? That's right, folks: butt bacteria. And butt bacteria can cause real problems.

And there's one more thing. If you really want to stay healthy during the Super Bowl, don't bother with safe dipping. In this case, I advocate dip abstinence. What's in those dips? Mayo, cheese, sour cream, butter; this equals fat, fat, fat, salt salt salt. And that's before we consider the chip... Now I don't have any evidence behind this, but my hunch is that this stuff will kill you faster than the bacteria you'll pick up this afternoon.

Just say no to dips and chips. You'll avoid anxiety over bugs, and your waist will thank you.

Teetotaling Vindicated

Recently, a professional acquaintance was surprised that I choose not to drink alcohol. I have always said that I am willing to trade the health benefits from a class of red wine a day for full control over my cognition. If it's the health benefit you seek in consuming ethanol (or is that just an added benefit), it turns out that epidemiological evidence is tipping the balance in favor of my decision.

Check out this article summarizing an unnamed, unreferenced study (I hate it when the lay media does this!) about the risks of drinking as little as one drink a day. Here are some cherry-picked quotes for you:

According to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcohol consumption is the third-biggest cause of preventable death in the United States, after smoking and obesity. The CDC estimates that drinking caused nearly 93,000 deaths in 2001.

and

Alcohol reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes caused by blocked arteries by 10 to 15 percent. That's probably because alcohol increases good cholesterol and prevents blood platelets from clumping together. "On the other hand, alcohol is detrimental for more than 60 diagnoses," said Juergen Rehm, head of public health and regulatory policies at the Ontario Center for Addiction and Mental Health.

If after I track down these articles there are elements that are misrepresented here, I'll be sure to update you. In the interim, I'll raise a glass of Diet Coke to your health. It will probably be a little while longer before word comes my way of that being bad for me.

Organizing Students: Food

This one is almost a no-brainer: In order to get students to participate in a group, it is always helpful to provide food. Keep in mind that there are two types of food: free food and cheap food. Both are important.

Let's talk about free food first. Free food gets people in the door. In weighing the cost-benefit of catching an early bus home or stopping by for a light dinner at an evening members' meeting, the free food always tips the scales in the same direction. Graduate students are notorious vultures: some of us keep close track of all of the seminars that provide food. For me, it is cardiovascular breakfast club Tuesday morning, medicine grand grounds Tuesday noon, pathology presents Wednesday afternoon and South Lake Union tapas seminar Thursday late afternoon. And those are only the seminars that pertain to my education! If your student group reliably provides pizza or subs at its evening meetings, you will develop a reputation for being a friendly place. For recruitment meetings, I like to mix it up. Pizza or sandwiches are nice, but something different will elicit positive comments and good feelings. A spread of Trader Joe's hor'd'oeuvres is popular and cheap. It's best if you put the food inside the room where you are meeting - even in the back. This keeps the vultures from flying away! Also, at public events (FOSEP holds monthly seminars), get snacks and coffee and your attendance will increase. And be sure to advertise that there will be snacks provided!

But where does money for this food come from? Securing cash for food is notoriously difficult for campus student groups - especially at public universities. At the University of Washington, the main institutional funding sources say "NO WAY!" for proposals for food. For the Husky readers, this includes the ASUW, the GPSS and the LLC. If you want money for food, you have to raise it yourself. Fundraising is a topic that I will cover at length in the near future, but for the purposes of this post you should know that when you ask for money, make sure you ask for money that can be spent on food. Or, if you ever get a donation of cash or check, be sure to deposit it into an account that can be spent on food. This can be set up through the school's budgeting system.

Free food is one way to get people to feel like your group is there for them. If it works for drug reps, furniture salesmen and job recruitment, it will probably work for your student group. The other important type of food is cheap food. This applies when funds are tight or when some of the group's leaders hold planning meetings. Chipping in $5-7 for gourmet pizza, takeout Indian food or the like provides the opportunity to create a congenial environment to get the work done. There is a reason families try to eat meals together and friends get together for dinner: breaking bread is an age old tradition that unifies individuals. On a more practical side, sometimes the best time slots for students meetings are in the dinner hour, at lunch, or even breakfast. In Seattle, getting coffee can even turn into a working meeting.
Cartoon by Adam York Gregory. Check out his other comics at The Flowfield Unity. This post brought to you by our friends at FOSEP. Other student organization tips can be found here.

Carbon Footprint: SUVs vs. Cows

I am glad to be able to link Dr. Free-Ride in today's carbon footprint entry - mostly because today is a 'get your dissertation talk ready' day. She follows up (probably unknowingly) on my entry last week about cow farts with a well thought-out post comparing the switch from an SUV to a compact car with switching from meat to veggies for protein. In reality, she is responding to an interesting but scientifically uncritical analysis of the situation recently printed in the NYTimes.

Framing Food Consumption

Kate at the World's Fair made a nice post yesterday about how we choose our food. She outlined five reasons why we eat what we do. They are money, taste, nutrition, time and source. Her post got me thinking, and I made a comment over there that I think is succint enough for cross listing here. Disclaimer: this is not the most polished of posts; I have not done much background reading on this issue.

I think there is another consideration that could be added to her list, but it probably overlaps some of the other categories, particularly nutrition and source. I call it the body as a temple consideration. The body as a temple is a reverence or awareness of self that connects what you eat with who you are. (Really though, it's just a highfalutin way of saying, "You are what you eat.") I'll get back to my use of religious language, but the concept as I envision it is subscribed to in large number by decidedly secular communities, especially among the co-op rich, collective-friendly, granola mentality of the Pacific Northwest.

Joking aside, I think that the philosophy of consumption, whether it ranges from puritanical teetotaling to vegan/organic to conscious indulgence is governed by more than just social or economic factors. Food consumption can provide a window into the self.

As far as the religious connection is concerned, I think that there is room for this topic to be framed for religious communities in a similar way that climate change/global warming has been. For example, a good number of Christians (even fundamentalists) have adopted global climate change as an important issue of creation stewardship. Some of these people might not 'believe' in evolution and cast askance looks at Science, but none-the-less have adopted many of the same strategies to forestall global warming as the most outspoken environmentalist groups. If, as I believe is a goal at the World's Fair, we are to elevate the conversation about food choice, consumption and calorie origin, it might be worth the while to identify ways to involve the body as a temple concept as a tap into the organization and energy that certain Christian movements have.

Finally, I probably do not need to remind you that the body as a temple is not a new idea. Blessed food has a thousands of year history in Abrahamic traditions, and is so ubiquitous it is not given a second look in markets and pantries. Many Eastern traditions have similar prescriptions. I think this could be a very useful idea for discussions on the topic of food.

What do you think about this idea? It may not even be new as I have presented it, but if it isn't, why do you think we have not heard more about it?

Carbon Footprint: Cow Farts

Carbon dioxide is not the only culprit in global warming. There are other gasses responsible for insulating the atmosphere, and some of them could be reduced by curbing meat consumption.

You may not know that the international meat industry produces 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Sure this calculation includes CO2 released in the shipping of feed and stock, feed crop fertilization and farm machinery operation, but you probably did not know that livestock contribute to global warming in an entirely different (if more natural) way. Some of the global warming from farming comes from the methane released by cattle and the nitrous oxide in manure. It seems Ronald Reagan was right about cow farts.

About 30 percent of the methane in the atmosphere results from microbial action in animals' digestive tracts. This prompted Ronald Reagan's dismissive comment that humans couldn't be held accountable for global-warming gases (of which methane is the most potent), because the most significant source is bovine flatulence.

As contemporary critics noted, however, Reagan overlooked the fact that animal husbandry has vastly increased the number of cattle, making cow farts very much a human-influenced commodity.

Methane has a warming effect 23 times as great as that of carbon, while nitrous oxide is 296 times as great. So not only is reducing meat consumption better for the average American's health, good for watersheds and important for balancing grain for human consumption with feed for animals, it reduces the demand for flatulence-prone livestock.

Carbon Footprint: Food Miles

Today's carbon footprint column is short and sweet. Food miles is still a new concept for do-it-yourself environmentalists, so is worth another spin. Buying from markets and fruit stands makes for tastier meals, connects you to your environment, and is healthy for the local food industry. But if its the food miles you want to figure out, read these:

• A New York Times opinion piece by James McWilliams defines food miles.
  
• Benjamin Cohen at The World's Fair expands on the concept with an insightful analysis.

Have a nice weekend. I recommend you find some local sweet corn.

Pumpkin Seed Oil

What is pumpkin seed oil doing on a science blog? It turns out it has something in common with a histology stain I use all the time in lab. Eosin is a dye responsible for the pink stain you see on microscope slides. According to a recent study from Slovenia, both eosin and pumpkin seed oil are bichromatic. I've only experienced this with eosin, however. In its concentrated state, that dye is an iridescent green tinged with pink, but when it is diluted in alcohol for dipping slides into, it is a bright fuscia. And the end result is a robust pink. My experience with pumpkin seed oil is via my mother-in-law, a native Austrian and a chef by profession. Her recipes for this dark substance include tasting oil for bread and in salad dressings. I like it in small doses! According to this paper (featured in Science Daily) , liquids containing multiple perceived colors play upon the boundaries of perception of cone cells in the retina. Some cones see red, others, green and others blue, but perception occurs along a curve. Red cones 'see' a little bit of blue and green; they just specialize in red. I've never seen pumpkin seed oil as anything but black or green (that's a small cantor of it at right), but maybe that's because I only have one X chromosome. As usual, King of the Nerds has something to say about this, too. (Although his editors oversimplified a couple of his sentences!) I do agree with the Science Daily assessment of pumpkin seed oil as having

a strong characteristic nutty flavor.

Sort of like this blog.
Tip to Bora for alerting me of this important story.

Hot Dog!

Enough principled posts; it's the 4th and that means Americans are in the process of consuming 150 million hot dogs. Mmmm... delicious. Well okay, maybe not. In related news, you may already know that Takeru Kobayashi, the Lance Armstrong of competitive hot dog eating, has been dethroned by California boy Joey Chestnut. In twelve minutes, San Jose State student Chestnut racked up 66 HDBs - that's hot dogs and buns eaten - beating out Kobayahi's 63.

So the issues that strike me as important in a post about the new Nathan's champion include:

• The consequences derived from equating competitive eating with American freedom.
• The attention (including my own) placed on this event.
• This was televised live with color commentary on ESPN.
• The distraction this is from real problems of hunger and resource disparity in the world, and
• A medical condition called Boerhaave's syndrome

Since rare medical conditions are sometimes cool to learn about, that's what I will focus on for the rest of this entry. Also known as effort rupture of the esophagus, Boerhaave's syndrome can occur when folks vomit too much or have other underlying disease in the tube that connects your mouth to your stomach. Most commonly, esophageal rupture is caused by doctors poking too hard during endoscopy procedures. Given the intense effort displayed on the new champion's face and the immense quantity of processed meat and bread passing through his esophagus, I would bet he has a greater chance than most of rupturing that tube. From a medical resource site commonly used by doctors and med students:

The condition is associated with high morbidity and mortality and is fatal in the absence of therapy.

Treatment is surgical repair.

I am sure my sister will complain that I even turn a simple story about hot dogs into some nerdy scientific explanation. Sorry, kiddo.

Carbon Footprint: Buy Local Produce

Here's something to munch on: The average distance (in North America) that your fresh food has traveled by truck or plane to get to your table is 1,000-1,500 miles. You can imagine that more energy is being spent in such transport than in agrarian cultures elsewhere in the world or in our past. Activists have coined a new term surrounding the impact that food transport has on the environment: "food miles." Food miles depend on several factors:

• The distance transported.
• The transport mode.
• The concentration of the agricultural product.
• The relative agricultural productivity and the amount of fertilizer required in each location.

Each of these impacts the amount of carbon emitted to the atmosphere. What makes this issue a little complex is that concentrated or dehydrated foods decrease the amount of energy in shipping fuel, but the energy expended in dehydration, processing or freezing counters such efficiency gains. So what I am about to advocate is a complex issue that you should look into yourself. Here is a nice pro/con article, and here are two food carbon calculators. The second calculator is very detailed but only applies to the UK.

So what is my suggestion for you this week? Buy local produce. Not only will it probably reduce your carbon footprint, you will support diverse local agriculture, your food will be fresher, you will interact with more people, you'll have greater access to organic food, and if you consistently stick to local crop schedules, your diet will be more diverse. The other week, I took some photos of the University District farmers' market. For more, visit my flickr photo set.

Yesterday my wife and I stocked up on fruits, vegetables and kettle corn from the Lake Forest Park farmers' market. It is located in a shopping center adjacent to the Burke-Gilman bike trail, so we were able to pick up our produce without even firing up the horseless carriage. If you are in Seattle or Puget Sound, there are several markets to choose from. Find the closest one here. Some of the farmers will deliver produce weekly to you. One local company might even be advertised in the panel at right. Click on it to learn about them (and to give me a quarter!)

The things about farmers' markets that I used to worry about was cost and spoilage. It is true that you will have to eat fresh fruits from a market sooner than chain-store bought items, but my experience is that they taste a lot better, and you can prolong their shelf life by storing them in the fridge. The veggies - greens and roots - last just as long. I was pleasantly surprised that the farmers markets sometimes SAVE you money! Here is a price comparison of what we bought with our cheapest grocery store:

• $3 of raspberries at the market = $6 at Safeway
• $13 flat of strawberries = $8.50 at Safeway
• $2 of squash = $3.75 at Safeway
• $4 kettle corn at market = unavailable at Safeway
• $1 baby Walla Walla onions = $1 adult onions at Safeway
• $2 baby bok choy = $2 at Safeway
• $3 purple, red and gold potatoes = $4 for gold at Safeway
  

The these prices compare the local organic price to the Safeway conventional price. Only the delicious strawberries (picked that morning) were more expensive at the market. Boy are they tasty!

We might get a third of our produce from local farmers' markets in the summer. In a temperate climate of Seattle, the only excuse for not buying local year round is convenience. Sometimes the only time I have to shop for groceries is between 9 and 11 PM!

There you have it: Eating local is one more way to reduce your carbon footprint. This method seems to have a number of other benefits, too!

Wild Spawned v. Hatchery Raised

Did anyone catch the latest news about salmon? By way of Kansas, I learned of an interesting ruling regarding salmon fisheries. The National Marine Fisheries Service, an executive branch administered department, had been counting hatchery-raised salmon the same as wild-spawned salmon in its environmental impact calculations. The hatchery-raised fish generally boost census counts, changing the status of species like steelhead trout from 'endangered' to the less restricted 'threatened.' Clearly, it was the developers that argued for including hatchery raised fish in the counts.

A Seattle P-I article details this story quite well, and Blogfish has another analysis.

Wouldn't it be nice if environmental agencies could listen to science BEFORE a judge has to take account of the situation? On the one hand, we probably only hear about the most egregious cases, but on the other hand, you have to wonder how else is science being ignored by the current administration...

Just as clarification, this ruling does not apply to "farm-raised salmon." Blogfish nicely points out that:

Scientists are careful not to call salmon wild if they're raised by people for part of their life cycle. For a scientist, there are three main types of salmon, wild, farmed, and hatchery. But fishermen and the seafood industry call salmon wild if they're caught in the ocean, no matter how long they actually lived free.

So if you eat fish, keep buying those wild salmon.

I spotted the salmon pictured above at this weekend's Solstice Parade.

Would You Like Peanut Butter With your Spinach?

I recall my mom preparing lightly steamed spinach salad cooked with a small dollop of chunky peanut butter. I find it ironic that the two most recent reports of food-borne illness refer to ingredients from the same fond culinary memory.

But seriously, what's the deal with these outbreaks?

How is it that a peanut plant in Georgia causes illness in Washington state, spinach from California gets recalled in Massachusetts and the lucrative carrot juice market takes a hit everywhere?

A Centers for Disease Control spokesman (Robert Tauxe, chief of the CDC's Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch) recently said, "Nature's been throwing us curve balls. We've had seven major product outbreaks in the last five months, and three have been in brand-new foods — botulism in carrot juice, E. coli in spinach, and now this."

Excuse me: NATURE's been throwing us curve balls?

Each of these contaminations were in food processed at large manufacturing centers or distribution points. Perhaps if we relied less on the global industrial complex for our food and more on in-season produce and local meat, we really would be more healthy! You won't catch me in the aisles of Whole Foods quite yet, though. I have to make more than a graduate student's salary to be found there doing anything more than collecting some delicious free samples on the way to work.

In case any of you have Peter Pan or Wal-Mart 'Great Value' brand peanut butter with the numbers 2111 on the lid, you can avoid an interaction with the CDC's Diarrheal Diseases Branch by throwing that container away. If you need other reasons to avoid Wal-Mart, I could connect you with more resources on that front.

Jonesin' for Sugar

Are you concerned about your corn syrup intake? Jones Soda, the independent soda maker headquartered 3 blocks from where I work, has announced a switch on all of their production lines to cane sugar effective in a few months.

When I first heard this, I thought, "finally someone is making a healthier soda." What did I base this judgement on? Outdated science of course. Tales of the evil of corn syrup abound 'out there,' but it turns out the researcher who first said there might be a link between high fructose corn syrup and obesity says there is no evidence to support his earlier speculation. But what about that guy on Oprah from some the cardiovascular institute at some fancy hospital in New York City? He says on Winfrey's Web site that "corn syrup alters the body's ability to regulate appetite." It's nice to hear when another scientist (again the one who did the original studies) says, "I can find a doctor who will say anything. That's not research."

Jones has a 'free soda Friday' after 3:00 PM every week. Chances are I'll spring for the Splenda sweetened variety though. Cane sugar still has a bunch of calories...

Source: 2/5 Seattle Times Article.