We're redcoats!




Greetings fellow Englishmen and women,

You have been drafted along with 450 other soldiers into the British Grenadiers, fighting for the king himself! We shall put those colonials in their place.

New Announcements:
Every soldier is now asked to bring 2 filled water balloons

Specific Army Meetup:
http://bit.ly/thebritisharmy

Time:
1:30PM Sharp

Necessary Supplies:
Red shirt (and other British items you may have lying around your estate)
2 filled water balloons
Water Gun (empty upon arrival)
Backpack
At least 3 two-liter water bottles full of water
Bandana (optional)

Weather Intelligence:
War is hell! There is a small chance of scattered rain tomorrow, but this battle is taking place regardless! You can bet our countrymen never gave up due to a little bit of precipitation.

Expect an all-out battle, we shall see you on the field.

With sincerest regards,

Thomas Gage
Lieutenant General and Commander in Chief of North American Forces
His Majesty's Vth Regulars Regiment
http://misteriosos.org


m.

Or, why groups need a structure to stay democratic. It's come up in conversation a lot lately, so I thought y'all might wish to read it.

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/hist_texts/structurelessness.html


m.

... for both of you who haven't seen it on Facebook yet:





Sources tell me this was filmed at a Minneapolis UU Church. Wheee.

m.

Many of you have close relatives who would appreciate this song. It was written by a friend; forward as you see fit.

Astonishing pictures of the destruction of the Aral sea are available at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/aral_sea.php

Make sure you click year-by-year at the bottom of the photo.

m.

I'm generally a very competent cook; I can make meringues and macaroons, lovely pie crust, well-simmered stews, and well-received spaghetti carbonara. But there is something I am just not getting about caramel sauce.

I only try to make it about twice a year, and it NEVER comes out right. The stuff turns rock-hard when I add the cream, then dissolves into a puddle - or the sugar never entirely melts, and I end up with hard sugar lumps in the middle of the forementioned puddle.

Am I simply stirring in the cream too quickly? What about the sugar lumps? What am I doing wrong? What is the one true secret I lack?


m.

I will hereby display my cultural ignorance. What *is* that stuff the guy is eating out of a styrofoam cup in this video?




A commenter on Youtube suggested that it's poutine, but I'm not entirely convinced.


m.

I got my non-fasting cholesterol results today. My cholesterol level is low, by triglycerides are low, my LDLs are low, and my HDLs are... a little low. In fact, my HDL level is low enough that I'm considered "at risk" for a heart attack according to the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association.

What should I believe? Is my low HDL an artifact of the fact that my total cholesterol is low? After all, my cholesteral/HDL ratio is considered desirable. Or is something more sinister going on?


Oh, and where should I buy a pop-music ringtone? My default ring is extremely annoying, but there are so many companies to chose from. Whatever shall I do?



m.

I heard on *the radio* this morning that the Globe just laid off seven more staffers.

When will the Boston Globe close altogether? Six months? A year?


m.

Twelve percent of Americans' whole grain food consumption consists of... popcorn.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18442504


m.

(Slight Spoilers!)





I am no longer concerned about the effect of children's literature on my brood's developing brains. As far as I can tell, very little of it sticks to kids' heads at all -- and the stuff that does stay is not what the author intended, or even considered worth noticing.

Now that B. is interested in Narnia (thanks to glimpses of violent movie-related plastic at the Toys'R'Junk), we are reading the books together, and I am discovering just how much information fell out of my eager little brain since I first encountered them. Here's what I remember from my childhood about a series of books which I adored at the time and read repeatedly:


The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: There was a faun under a lamppost.

Prince Caspian: They ate apples wrapped in bear meat -- and they were good!

Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Edmund becomes a dragon, and his arm-ring is too tight. Were there some dufflepuds?

The Silver Chair: Somebody was green, right? And kind of snaky? Is this the one where they start dissing Susan for being too grown up? I always hated that.

The Horse and His Boy: There was a horse. And a boy.

The Magician's Nephew: We figure out where the lamppost comes from, I think. I always thought the idea of growing a piece of metal was cool. Talk about organic design!

The Last Battle: They all die.



Actually, I first re-read LWW several years ago. That's when I realized I didn't remember the Very Christian part at all. Poor C.S. Lewis! He really didn't stand a chance against Unitarians.


m.

On average, U.S. teenagers eat less than one serving (about 3/4 of a cup) of fruits and vegetables *combined* per day according to a study released in January. If you add fried potatoes as a "vegetable," you can add another half-cup to that total. Heaven knows if the ketchup counts.

In other words, if you eat a medium-sized apple and a carrot stick, you've already exceeded the daily fruit and vegetable intake of most adolescents.

An earlier study showed that adolescents reduced their fruit and vegetable consumption by about one serving per day when they get to high school, and by another serving per day by the time they leave high school. Are today's high school students going to have completely plant-free diets?


Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Adolescents and Adults in the United States: Percentage Meeting Individualized Recommendations http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/586492

Trends in adolescent fruit and vegetable consumption, 1999-2004: project EAT.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17234489?ordinalpos=9&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum


m.

As some of you know, I'm working on a writing project with a physician who specializes in treating young women who have been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Today, he brought this article to my attention:

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/44/3/20
Researchers 'Astonished' by Anorexia Death Rates
Joan Arehart-Treichel

"Anorexia nervosa is a very dangerous illness, not just over the short term but over the long term as well...

"...The researchers studied the records of some 6,000 patients covering a 30-year period (1973 to 2003).

"Out of the cohort studied, 265 died during the 30-year follow-up. The most frequent causes of death were suicide (responsible for 32 percent of the deaths), anorexia (19 percent of the deaths), and cancer (11 percent of the deaths). The remaining 38 percent of deaths were caused by other illnesses or by homicide. The average age at death for the 265 anorexia patients who died was 34...Altogether, anorexia patients were six times more likely to have died during the 30-year follow-up period than was the general population...

"... Some good news also emerged from the study, the researchers noted, in that the death rates for patients first admitted to the hospital from 1987 to 2003 for anorexia were substantially lower than those for patients first admitted to the hospital for anorexia from 1973 to 1979. The researchers believe that this downward trend reflects improved psychiatric and other medical care for anorexia patients in recent years."


Yikes.


m.

I've been having not-quite-migraines for the past few days -- a visual aura (whereupon I pop ibuprofen to prevent the worst effects) followed by mild headache and gastric symptoms. I suspect that they've been triggered by a combination of factors (cold, bright light, eating too much citrus fruit), but I have the vague impression that most theories of migraine triggers have been disproven.

Do y'all have any opinions? This sort of thing isn't severe enough and doesn't happen often enough to justify a doctor's visit (yet).


Thank you,


m.

It couldn't happen to a nicer person!


m.

... is the title of this NY Times piece on educational interventions that actually improve minority kids' educational achievement:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/opinion/08nisbett.html?pagewanted=1&em


Teachers, what do you think?


m.

As y'all already know, I've just finished a guidebook to Boston-area parks, gardens, and other green places for Union Park Press. The working title has been "Boston Parks, Gardens, and Green Spaces," which is accurate, but not exactly slick.

My editor would like a more felicitous title. Any suggestions? Perhaps the chapter topics will inspire you.

1. Thoreau's Heirs (intro to Boston park history, geology, ecology)
2. The Emerald Necklace
3. The Sapphire Necklace (Harborwalk)
4. Fresh Water Green (Ponds and lakes)
5. Big Dig Parks (built with money or fill from the Big Dig)
6. Pocket Parks (small parks)
7. Urban Wilds (Remember disappearing Allandale Woods?)
8. Green Art (sculpture parks)
9. Gardens for Healing and Reflection
10. Green History (historic landscapes)
11. Green Buildings (green roofs and stormwater systems)
12. Eating Green (community gardens and urban farms)
13. Botanical Gardens
14. Green Inside (greenhouses and courtyards)
15. Children's Gardens
16. Speedy Green (bike paths and linear parks)
17. Grand Estates (big houses with interesting landscapes)
18. Suburban Wilderness (the Blue Hills, Stony Brook Reservation and so on)

There's also an appendix with a list of annual garden and park events, organizations that teach gardening and environmental classes, and a list of statewide open-space organizations.

Now, what would *you* call this book?

m.

May you enjoy six more weeks of birthday cheer!


m.

Sometime around 9:30 this morning, all my google searches are turning up with "This site may harm your computer" messages. I did a google search for google, and the site google.com was also listed this way.

Google
This site may harm your computer.
Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages.
Show stock quote for GOOG
www.google.com/ - Similar pages -

Would someone please explain to me what's going on?


m.