Poverty

I don't know what it is like to live in poverty, and I am very thankful for that. But I do know that a lot of people DO know what it is like, and that makes me at least a little sad. GoodMagazine has posted a great article about why people who don't see or experience poverty may not be the right people to come up with solutions. I agree with the article way too much. So many people think that they know the solution to other people's problems without realizing the full extent of the problem. While sometimes the answer is to just read more, or try harder in school, usually that's not actually a viable solution to a poverty issue. The story in this article about the boy getting suspended so that he could prevent his mother from prostituting herself is so incredible, and I want to go back and see what happened to the family afterward. Did the boy get taken away from his mother? Did she woman get arrested?

While I sometimes question my stance on the Occupy movement that is so popular right now, this article brings to light the "solutions" that many people have come up with for that movement as well.

Sometimes though, the answer to the question is not just "work harder" sometimes there's something else holding you back, or something that is MORE important than finding a job, or getting good grades in school, or whatever. We may never know what all of these problems are, but we should at least try to not look at the visible problems (poverty, unemployment, etc) on its own.

Also, here is a link to the Forbes "If I were a poor black kid" article, and one to another response. I think they both definitely add to the first article!














R

Breast Cancer Awareness

I'm not going to say much, but I love the campaign that DDB created for Associacao de Luta Contra o Cancer in Mozampique! Super heroes are women too, they need to do regular monthly exams! I know it's not breast cancer awareness month any more, but I am totally changing my Facebook cover photo to the Wonder Woman one!

I'll leave you with a couple of examples that I like best, but follow the links in the Boing Boing article above to see them all!




R

Legos or Barbies?

So, it is a strange day when every single one of my blogs write about the same thing. SO I just figured I HAD to write about it. It says something when it is at least something fairly relevant to my life.

Apparently Lego is making new Legos, for girls! These Legos are curvier, girlier, and a lot more human looking than normal Legos. The part I like the most is that they are taller than the regular Lego and have a much more Barbie-like face. Either way, these articles are interesting, do we really need a Lego for girls? Can't girls just use regular Legos, and there's a store in the UK that is integrating boy toys and girl toys! I love it, even though I played with Barbies forever, I still loved to play with toy cars, and dig stuff up and build train set too. I think the gender-specific toys tend to push children into a corner instead of allowing them to develop the way they want. Who says girls have to like pink curvy Legos, maybe they just want to build things! (However, I did love Polly Pockets.. maybe these would be just as good if not WAY better)

R

Volunteering

I remember in high school when my English teacher told me that it is very important to have extracurriculars and volunteer activities on college applications. I don't know how much the small amount of these activities helped me get into college, but I hope that it is true these are helping. According to this article in Good Magazine (of course...) volunteering is becoming more and more important on college applications. But more so: dedication to a volunteer activity. So start sending students out to volunteer somewhere once a week, or a couple hours a month. Not only does that help their college applications (hopefully) it gives them more friends and helps the community more than just the occasional volunteer hour. 

R

Keep your legs closed!

 

I have only taken Plan B once. Maybe that's too much information about my life, but I had a similar experience to many of the girls in this article. It was scary, frustrating, and mostly embarrassing to have to go ask the pharmacist for it. But I can't imagine what it would be like if I had to get a prescription from a doctor to do it, and I am still grateful that Plan B is available at the pharmacy down the road. The condom broke, we were trying to be safe, and so we took precautions to protect ourselves afterward. I still felt judged by the lady at the counter next to me, but I am a strong independent woman, and I should be allowed to choose my sexual endeavors, as long as I am safe and choose wisely. However, I do feel that even today there is little education on how these pills work and when they should be used. They should NOT be a normal form of birth control, your body can really only handle so much of that, but they should NOT be hard to get access to. Anyone who needs a "morning after" pill should have access to them, otherwise we are perpetuating the problem of unsafe and unprepared sexual adventures that people are too shy to take care of. We need to provide better education to our youth about sex in all forms, but protection from STDs and from pregnancy is one place that we still (even though that's the only thing talked about in many sex ed classes) barely scrape the surface on.

R

How do you get the seeds out of these things?

I love pomegranates.  When I lived two blocks from the best grocery store in the world (well maybe that's an exaggeration, but Berkeley Bowl is pretty amazing), I ate a pomegranate a day during that season. I always sat down with my pomegranate for about a half hour while I pulled it apart and ate each seed separately.  I always kinda felt like a weird bird.  But the other day I found this video (on thekitchn), and it is revolutionary (at least for people who spend 45 minutes a day eating one piece of fruit)!  I have since eaten a few pomegranates, but it's hard to find good ones in Texas, I bought a California pomegranate yesterday and it was delicious and the seeds came out so easily it only took me about 5 minutes to eat a pomegranate ... well at least 5 minutes to get the seeds out, I still enjoyed every seed individually.

S

Everyone is donating organs now

In Wales, they have made a new system where, by default, everyone donates organs when they die.  You can opt out easily, but this will make more organs available to the community in need.  This article states that 67% or organ donors last year were not on the organ donor list, meaning most people who support organ donation are just too lazy or for some other reason have not gotten on the list (for me I know if it wasn't so easy when you apply for a driver's license I would not have done it).  This will not only make more organs more readily available, but it will also force people to think about whether or not they want to be off of the organ donor list, as opposed to the other way around.  Making the decision to not donate is too easy now.  

The need for organs has provided great motivation for research (with 3D printing and other tissue engineering techniques, which I have mentioned here before) but this is slow and has a ways to go before any of these can be implemented with larger organs.  By putting everyone on the donor list and only removing them if they ask, doctors will be able to quickly transfer organs.  The Welch government says patients' families will still be allowed to refuse the removal of their organs, but this will give a more full list of donors, as people who actually do not want to donate will remove their names. 

S 

I have to pee!

I remember back in high school when they started closing all of our bathrooms. Now I can't imagine not having access to a bathroom in every building on campus (because I do pretty much know which buildings have the good bathrooms on campus at UIC now) and I shudder at the fact that they made about 200 girls use the same 3-stall bathroom. But this article brings up the same point, from another school that did basically the same thing!  They started closing the bathrooms because of smoking..not that it stopped anything because the smokers would just wait in the only bathroom that was opened. I even remember getting glared at because I used the last open stall, which happened to be their ash tray, once. I agree that something needs to be done to stop vandalism, illegal activities, and harassment in the bathrooms, but there must be a better way than forcing people to wait for the only, DIRTY, bathroom available. That obviously isn't stopping anything. 

R

Weddings

So, a lot of my friends are getting married or engaged (and by a lot I mean very few.. but a lot of my friends have friends who are getting married so that counts!) and it makes me think about life in today's world. Do women still really just want to get married? Is that the end goal for us now?  Either way, these thoughts have not only been on my mind lately because a lot of my friends are posting articles about similar things AND are thinking about how much marriage makes us question equality between men and women.  This article made me especially question the validity of an engagement ring. Everything it says in there I thought "that's so true" but had never thought it before. For example: men don't wear a ring until marriage, I guess they don't have to be "marked" and women want to be equal but still expect the man to buy the ring. I do have some friends who bought their significant other a present when they knew the engagement was coming up, as a way to balance out the fact that the other one was buying the ring, but why not start buying a ring for the man as well?! I think it sounds like a good idea, or just throw out the idea of engagement rings at all. I personally have never been a fan of rings in the first place, I think they are uncomfortable and unnecessary, but this society expects that.

However, this article brings up an even more important question of marriage anyway. Do we need to set marriage as our goal in life? I had a friend tell me that she is settling for her boyfriend who she argues with all the time because she thinks he will be a good father. Should it be our place to "settle" for anyone? I think women can wait until they are ready for marriage, and wait until they find a person they truly want to be with forever... and even that idea scares me.  Is there really any way to say that one person is the person you would want to be with forever? I just hope that someone else figures this all out before I have to deal with the idea of me getting married!

On a happier note, I do still enjoy weddings, so if my friends want to keep getting married I am OK with that!

R

School idea!

So, this article in GOOD Magazine makes a good point about helping students get college credit. Many jobs require at least a bachelors now, and many students can't afford that. But helping them get at least an associates degree could be awesome. This article says organize high school so people can finish their required classes in three years and spend the next two years (at no extra cost) getting basic college courses. The students can then graduate with an associates degree, or at least about two years worth of credit for a four year college. This would provide a great avenue for lower income students to afford college and possibly get more scholarships because they showed their dedication.

I was talking with a friend the other day about this, and probably the students who participate in this program would be the more dedicated ones anyway who could get scholarships for a four year university anyway. But this could be a good way to get some students who just want an associates and are willing to try a little harder in high school to get one for free. These students, I think, will benefit the most. It is also a great way to help students realize that going to college is achievable for anyone, if they work hard and focus on school, as well as apply for scholarships. With the "no child left behind" this could also be a great way to help support those students who do well and have partially been neglected in this program because the schools have to focus on struggling students more. It will be interesting to see how this works out. I'll keep my eyes open for more developments from Maine!

R

Fun map of the day!

So I'm not actually going to post maps every day, though I probably see enough where I could. However this is a really interesting map, and I like it. It shows public involvement and political stance for the nation as a heat map! And of course there is an article that goes along with it about how the person made this with R (a programming language) and it makes me really want to learn it!



Happy mapping!
R

A house from the dirt

This group is making homes out of dirt.  They fill long bags with dirt and stack them to make a home shape.

They remind me of the creampuff house in Austin.  This method was recommended as a way to build on other planets. We could be living under the dirt of Mars!  It has actually been used to build emergency and safety shelters after natural disasters, but they can look pretty nice.  I bet they stay cool in the summer too, it's the same as living underground.   Check out this article to see more pictures and read more about the project.

Competition

Competition is great, but this Good Magazine article makes a good point that sometimes we should just compete with ourselves. The article is titled "Americans don't need to be THE best, we need to be OUR best" and I absolutely agree. We cannot expect other nations to not continue to grow, we cannot expect other countries to always be one step behind us. But if we try our hardest and work to solve our problems now maybe we won't be one step behind THEM in the future.

The competition is no longer between us and them, it is between us and us. We need to start focusing on doing what we can do and doing it well, rather than continually comparing ourselves to other nations and discussing why they are growing faster/working harder, etc.

I think this logic goes into daily life as well. If we continually look at other people and wonder why they are doing better, perhaps we should realize that they may be just focusing more on doing their best than wondering why they aren't good enough!  Here goes my new motivation to make myself that much better, regardless of whether or not it is better in comparison to anyone else!

R

How we think about "accidents"

A picture of a crash along a bike path in Chicago. Taken from the article I mentioned in the post.

In my favorite class of the semester (and my whole graduate program so far) we discussed car accidents, and what we should call them. My professor calls them crashes, and we debated what one seems more harsh. Most people in the class agreed that crashes seemed to be more harsh, more blame implying. I agree, if we continue to call them accidents, that means we assume they are not easily preventable, but they are! This article makes a good point that we often look for "the car" involved in an incident instead of the driver. I understand that this is more because we can easily recognize a car in an incident simply because the car obscures the view of the person driving. But we should be looking for the person as well.

I agree that sometimes there are times when you cannot prevent a crash, and those we will have to accept. Every crash I've been in there have been very easily preventable issues. Many people do not think that what they are doing will cause a crash, and often it does not. Thousands of people in the nation text while driving every day, and while only a few of those incidents cause a crash, the likelihood of causing a crash goes up much higher when a driver participates in that activity. So while you may not cause a crash every time you neglect your driving duties, everyone should know that most crashes are preventable, and most of them can be stopped if we start to pay more attention.

I think one of the first steps in this process is to start changing the way we think about "accidents" and start to take responsibility for our lives.

R

Sweet

This is not going to be a long post... just know, I only have a couple minutes because I have been behind in my life for the last few days.. even to the point of finishing my homework in the last couple minutes before it is due.

It could be because I read too many blogs, but I really want to stay in this hotel! It is a floating hotel made out of drilling rig escape pods, how awesome is that!!?

R

Maybe I'll just hang out at the bus stop

Bus stop in Denmark with a curved design and the graffiti
only adds to the conversation topic

This may seem more like a R post, but I think it's pretty cool anyway. When I visited R in Chicago, we went to a bus stop with a fancy bench and discussed how if the bus stop is boring no one notices it, why would you talk about a boring bench?  Then we talked about LA designer Julie Kim's experiment to give people a conversation starter and thus make people happier while they interact at bus stops.  She put a coffee table with flowers and a newspaper at the bus stop and filmed as people sat at the bus stop to see if they would interact more, thus added an element to public transit that she felt it was lacking.  

The train station near R's house.

This experiment allowed people to talk about the bus stop and thus interact with each other.  I wonder if some of these bus stops encourage people to talk while waiting for public transit as well.  Some of them were designed as for a competition and others seem to have been colored by children.  That also reminded me of Chicago, I'm beginning to see why R feels so at home there with all the quirky public transit.  The train station near her house was also painted with murals and hopefully encouraged interaction between riders.

I have frequently suggested that BART stations should become cultural centers, allowing them to be tourist attractions and increase ridership, especially on the weekends.  Each stop could be decorated to represent a different culture (preferably one that represented the community near the stop, similar to the stop in Chicago shown above).  I would go as far as to suggest that at times when there is not high commuter ridership sales stands could be open in the stations to sell local products.

S

Twins!

In class yesterday (my last! first day of class hopefully) we were asked to introduce ourselves and say something unusual about ourselves. I couldn't think of anything too exciting to say, so I mentioned that I am a twin. The usual barrage of jokes came up with it, as expected, and I played along until it moved onto the next person in line to introduce themselves. Then this morning I discovered that Slate Magazine is publishing on twins today! So I am going to talk about twins too!

Us out partying one night.. a little sweaty,
but it is one of the pictures that we look
the most alike in that I could find.

And the pictures are all of me and S... aww, aren't we sooo cute!

First, I want you all to think about conjoined twins, and imagine how crazy it must be to have to live your whole life without ever losing sight of a person, ever. And, in these twins' case, never escaping them even in your mind. There are also the twins that only have two legs between the two of them. Here's a video about the Hensel twins who are now old enough to have crushes but share one body... One controls the right side and the other controls the left side just so that they don't argue any more. The video talks about one of them having a crush on someone.. but the idea of a relationship with just one of them would be difficult. I admit that I always felt that people thought it was weird to date either S or me in high school because we were twins.. but can you imagine if we were conjoined?!  So, basically my life really isn't that difficult.

A little bit of a crazy picture, she doesn't actually hate me...
I don't think anyway...

As Slate starts to cover twins they make note that this is a special feature thing, mostly because recent studies have come out saying the number of twins has risen in the last twenty years. ... scary. The idea that twin incidents have gone up does not come as a surprise to me, with InVitro Fertilization (IVF) and other reproductive methods, including hormone pills, etc. more women are increasing the likelihood of twin births, and I think it is a great thing! But I do know a lot of twins who might not agree with me that it is great. S and I are best friends, and we are each others' "other half". I actually identified with this person very well as she said she was looking for a best friend who could share her unusual side with her without taking anything away from it. Her article also talks about the obsession with multiple births that has been around since multiple births have been around. Her mention of the quintuplets that were put into a circus and then abused by their parents makes me cry inside, and reminds me of the connection I felt with Jewish twins from the Holocaust when I read Children of the Flames about Dr. Mengele, a Nazi camp director who did experiments on twins that were brought in. The guilt the healthy twin would feel as the other twin was experimented on was something I know I would have felt if I were in that position, and I often tell people that the worst thing that COULD happen in my life would be S dying. Yet, I am happy to not be in the same city as her, only because we don't need anyone else when we are together.

We really do have a connection, and it goes beyond our
amazing dance skills!

Also, while I don't think that us being twins has anything to do with our parents divorce, I do think that this article is interesting. It talks about how parents of twins tend to have a higher divorce rate than those without twins. It is a slight number, but it makes me think that raising twins is different than raising other children. I always say that if I have kids, I would want twins because I don't want just one kid but I wouldn't want to do pregnancy twice. However, I also think that perhaps I wouldn't know how to raise a child who was not a twin. I have never experienced not being a twin, so maybe I couldn't relate to someone who was not a twin, and would not know how to deal with things that come up in their lives because it is so different than the way mine went.

anyway, enjoy the twin crazies, and the pictures of S and me, and just think of how crazy it is that more people are having multiple births and imagine what it would be like if all of America were a land of twins.. and then thank whoever you want to thank that it is NOT a land of twins. Because then we would all be crazy!

And I think being a twin makes me a happy person, I always
know that I have someone who will not judge me for my
dorkiness

R

Weird Habits

So, S and I never like to drink WITH our food. Usually at a restaurant I will drink 3 or 4 glasses of water before we get our food served, and then I won't touch my glass again until I'm totally done eating. I'm not sure why, but I do remember once, way back in middle school days, being told it is bad for digestion to eat and drink at the same time. For some reason in 6th grade time I was extremely easily influenced. I am scared of deer attacking me because of a story I heard then about a deer attacking someone and how their hooves are particularly good for bashing people with (aah) and so many other things. But it is weird that a story way back in my life would still affect my life so much.



And of course, I love to see an article about something that I do, just so I know I'm not totally crazy!

R

Fun in the Subway

Lately there has been a big push for making life more fun or exciting. This article addresses one of those things, and I think it is amazing! How awesome would it be to ride a slide into the subway, in your suit!... Although.. when it's raining I wonder if that just turns into a waterfall, hmmm...

And in China they added punching bags in busy subway stations so that you can take out your commuting aggression!  I love these ideas, though I think the slide needs to be raised on the bottom so it's easier to get off of, and they should provide tape so you don't hurt your knuckles when punching the wall!

Let's make life more fun!

R

More Biking News

I just read this article about how biking parents are the most badass bikers out there. And you know what? I kinda agree. I just got a basket for my bike, but I only need ONE basket to carry all of my stuff, and as a parent you would need a lot more than that. But I love the idea that there are children growing up in the US that do not ride in cars everywhere, and that will grow up thinking that biking is normal, and acceptable, and GOOD! I think that more people need to teach their kids that this is normal, and acceptable. I do like the comment in the article though about how it IS normal, just not in America. I ask you, why not?! It obviously can be, we just have to be dedicated and motivated to do it. And, I think, we have to consider weather in a lot of places, in Chicago, it could be difficult to bike with a 2 year old when it is freezing out. But there is always a way!

On another note, I'm totally joining the Copenhagen Movement, I might even start biking with heels just to make it less intimidating for others, and more fun for me!

R

Girls were the first computer scientists

Well, I don't know about that, but it used to be depicted as a feminine job.  One of the computer girls described coding "just like planning dinner".  Really you can code while  your kids are napping and still be a stay at home mom while (if you were doing it now) earning the big bucks.  Maybe this is the perfect career for women.  However, in my programming classes, I was one of very few girls in a class, so don't think that other girls have caught on.  In one of my classes there were 5 of us (girls) in a class of about 150...now, this programming class was in the electrical engineering department and touted as one of the toughest classes at UC Berkeley.  I didn't feel lonely in the class, as the senior from Johns Hopkins University says she is, but I also didn't do my work at home.  We had a homework group and two of the girls from the class (including me) were in it, so we still had some girly support but we hung out with the guys too.  This article describes the fluctuations of girls in computer science over time, they were at their peak involvement in 1984.  Now the percentage of women in computer science is noticeably low, but it is on the rise again.  Besides, all the guys will realize they are doing a girly job and quit pretty soon anyway.  

S

Parenting

In class recently we had a lot of discussions about suburbia, and why people move out there. I am an urban planning student, so that is sorta expected, I mean, we at least have to cover suburbia!  And a lot of students have some really strong points, BUT I read this article in the Chicago Tribune about a woman who loves the city, and loves everything that the city provides.... and is pregnant. She and her husband can afford a two bedroom condo, and can afford to store all of their stuff that they can't keep in their condo in a storage unit, for now, but are afraid they will have to move to the suburbs when they decide to have a second child. 

My first reaction to this is, why do you even need a storage unit, just get rid of some stuff? But my second is.. I actually understand in terms of a two bedroom condo, with two kids, and a couple, it could be a pretty hectic life. I am all for city living, and mostly all against suburban living, but I'm not planning to have a huge family, and I believe that supplementing a public school education with in home expectations and work would be good enough for my child, but I understand her point. It makes me realize how much people have come to expect from the city, and the limitations of just saying "why not live in the city?"  A lot of people want to live in the city, and just think that they can't. It would be a hard, and more expensive life... but it is possible, as this woman shows, even better in some ways. She has networked with other pregnant women in her building and has found a morning pregnancy exercise class and loves the new friends she makes while pregnant in the city. But the inevitability of moving to the suburbs is something many parents are facing today with poor schools, expensive life, and too much stuff. Maybe to stop the suburbs we should be focusing on bringing the elements of the suburbs that the people need or want into the cities, instead of just deciding that these people have a problem for wanting to live in the suburbs. Their priorities are just different than mine... and we need to figure out how to help the city meet these priorities.  

Go Bill!

At least the Gates Foundation, I'm not sure how much Bill Gates actually had to do with this, but it's pretty awesome, they are working to get better, cleaner sewage systems in the "developing world". And people wonder why I would say I would marry this man.... well.. that's actually the money. But he's also doing great things in the world!

R

Interesting video

I decided I wanted to share this, but wasn't sure how, so I'm posting it on the blog! This video is really an interesting view on how we see things (Maybe S should be writing about this, she might know more about WHY this happens). But these normal pictures of people are transformed into crazy looking monsters if you stare at the cross in the middle, it's really interesting and not scary at all. Believe me, I'm one of those people who HATE those pages where they ask you to stare at something and then have something scary jump out at you, this is totally innocent, just an interesting view of the abilities of our eyes!

R

Carmageddon!

Last weekend, California closed down the 405 ("the 405" or "405" or "I-405", whatever you want to call it). It got a lot of attention and a lot of people were not happy about it, and then were. According to this article, it took 18 hours less than expected (what?! that never happens in road construction!), and hopefully it is successful. Either way, it was an amazing work of coordination to have that major of a freeway shut down for a day, even on a weekend. One of the most interesting things that came out of it was a group of bikers raced a $4 Jet Blue flight from Burbank to Long Beach and won! This flight was supposed to help "ease the crazy" on the weekend while the freeway was down, but really, if you can bike it just as fast or faster, why fly?! The Wolfpack, as the bikers called themselves, admittedly were racing the plane, so they might have been in better shape than I am, but the possibility that I could get there for almost free, at about the same rate, and feel good about myself would make me definitely want to try it out!
On another note, India is promoting traffic congestion with their new policy to give couples a car if they sterilize themselves. I realize that overpopulation is a lot of a problem there, so traffic congestion may not be their top concern, but it is an interesting way to reduce the number of children being born, and encourage mobility for the residents!
And this road in Jackson Heights has turned a road into a summer play area, closing it off to cars for a few months every year, and now is considering turning it into a permanent thing! I think this is an amazing idea. If people are willing to give up driving and parking for a few months, why not a couple more to always have a safe place for kids to run and play outside of their homes. A coworker also mentioned that it could be an issue to NOT have it open all year because children might not realize that cars are allowed at certain times of the year and could wander into the street only to be hit by a car, and then of course, their parents might be blamed (see two postings below for my angry rant on a lady who was charged when her son was hit by a car). 

R

Why are people not outraged about this

I realize that maybe we aren't getting the whole story with this, and maybe there is a crosswalk just down the road or something, but a mother in Georgia has been charged with Vehicular Homicide when her 4 year old son got hit by a car while they crossed the road where there was no crosswalk! There is a bus stop, but no crosswalk, I think there should ALWAYS be a crosswalk at a bus stop, especially one that is across the road from an obvious residential area, and there should be lights, and whistles and arrows and flashy things to warn drivers around the corner (if there is a corner) that there is a possibility for people to be crossing the road right there. Ok.. maybe not to that extent, but from the pictures (see below and links) it look like there is no crosswalk, no lights, no signs, but there IS a bus stop. Google tells me to cross a road where there is no crosswalk all the time when I have to take the bus to the southwest, but I usually walk the half block to the crosswalk, even though it is a dangerous intersection, hopefully the crosswalk is at least a little more obvious than me crossing in a poorly lit road, but when families depend on the bus, and have to cross the road to get home from the bus stop there should absolutely be a crosswalk.   And that is all I have to say, I linked to three different articles that I could find about this story, but I am still shocked that I only found three, this should be a revolutionary story demanding attention from everyone. I don't want to be charged with attempted suicide every time I have to cross a road with no crosswalk to get to a bus stop when I see the bus coming!

R

Minimalism in the kitchen

So, I have been on a minimalist type of kick for a while now, and these are a couple articles that recently caught my eye. Just how much space do you really need on a table anyway?

First, let's talk about this foldable table. Now, I remember this type of thing in our tent trailer from when I was a kid, of course, in the tent trailer the table also lowered to be a bed, which was pretty sweet. But this idea is an interesting one also. Why do people not mount their kitchen tables?! If it is easy to fold down, I would consider doing this. I hate that when I come home, I end up throwing all of my stuff right where I want to eat, and then I am too lazy to move it so I end up holding my food while I eat it, sitting at the table, but not using the table. If it were folded up every day, and only taken down for meals, I wouldn't have to worry about throwing all of my stuff on it. Of course.. it could get frustrating if you didn't have a place to put all of that stuff right when you walk in the door too, so that problem would have to be solved. But really, do we need to have as much space as we take up now? If a table folded up, you could use the kitchen as a kitchen and a living room, or a dining room and a kitchen if you don't quite have enough room in your kitchen for a table while you are cooking, but once the oven is off, why not?!  I like this as a way to reduce your space footprint, but also reduce the mess I create when I come inside.  Click on the image for the full article on treehugger!

And then there is this idea. I know these are both treehugger articles, and I know I should find another blog/magazine to read, but for now, I'm just going to talk about both of these. This table is basically a sawhorse with spots for two people to eat. It is pretty fun too, though I do like to rest my elbows or arms on the table as I eat.. so I probably wouldn't like this idea as much, but it definitely sheds light on how much space a table takes up and how much we actually use!

Just a couple things for thought for the day!

R

Donating Blood

It is one of my (many) goals in life to donate blood in all 50 of the US states. I am not very far, and I'm not trying very hard, but it's a goal, and I hopefully have a long time to fulfill it. One thing that always bothered me is the questions they ask at the beginning, there are SOOOOO many, and when I first donated I wanted to just say that I haven't even had a chance to experience most of these things. At the time I was a virgin, had never left the country, and never drank alcohol, let alone done other drugs. That would wipe out about 90% of the questions they ask. But one question has always irked me, and still does every time. The question about homosexual sex. I understand the fears that originally started that question (or at least the arguments behind those fears). AIDS was definitely scary, and tests were not strong enough to detect HIV in blood until at least 3 months after HIV was contracted. But HIV is no longer only a gay disease AND our testing has improved to a 12 day period according to this GOODMagazine article (the same one linked to the picture of my arm post blood donation). So why are we still prohibiting blood donation by people who have had male on male sex, or have had sex with a man who has had sex with another man since 1976, or whatever the question is.

AIDS is scary, but discrimination is scary also, and so many straight people have unprotected sex, or sex with an unknown person and don't realize the risks they are taking. Personally I have never felt that this is an OK question to ask, and I think it needs to stop, the risk of getting HIV from a blood transfusion is so low, and would probably not increase with a change in the policy. Why not allow more people to donate when they can, instead of prohibiting a huge portion of the population from giving something they know they can give.

R

UPDATE:

I think this is a good article about how AIDS has affected New York, and the United States in General. It talks about how the HIV incidents have increased over the years, and compares the loss of people to AIDS in the US would seem if all of those people disappeared in one day.  Scary, sad, and also inspiring! We need to think about these things as an awareness alert rather than a fear inducing thing too!

Dinosaurs

In undergrad I took a class about dinosaurs. Who would have thought you could go to college and spend a semester studying dinosaurs right!? But let me tell you, it wasn't quite as glamorous as it sounds, that class (even though it was "for non majors") could have been spread over a 4 year period. There was SO MUCH INFORMATION. But everything about it was interesting, and I wish I had volunteered to go with my professor on one of his expeditions in the summer. They would hike out for miles into the desert to dig up bones, with backpacks full of toilet paper (haha) because they use it to wrap the bones up, it's one of the best papers out there because it absorbs liquids, but is thick enough to not let the liquids seep through easily.

Now stop thinking about that part too much.


Either way, dinosaurs are awesome, and I think more people need to study them. This is just one crazy video of the coolest project that could ever happen. I wish it had happened to me, though some of those kids don't look too happy about it. The video is only about a minute and a half long and it TOTALLY worth your time, I promise you won't be disappointed.

R

Brains!

And not in the zombie way!

According to a study mentioned in Good Magazine (of course, because I'm addicted to it), urban brains function differently than rural brains, mostly in the activity levels of the amygdala. This is the part of the brain that shows reaction to stress and fear. Basically, city dwellers are more likely to have high activity in this region. But in the article it definitely mentions that there are so many questions brought up by this study, and not enough answered, like: does it matter if you were BORN in a rural area and LIVE in a city? and what about suburbs, which are technically the mix between urban and rural? Does the amount of time you spend in a city matter, what if your residence is technically in the city but you travel to rural areas for most of the day, or the other way around? Still it's an exciting concept that could use more study, luckily we know a lot of neurologists and bioresearchers... right?!?!

R

Words that I use way too often

At work (UTC not CNT) one day we decided that everyone should have a catch phrase. While we didn't finish the whole office, one guy got "just a few more things and I'll be done with the Connector" (the Connector is our newsletter), and I got "Amazing" (said in a sing-songy voice). I realize that I call everything amazing, or ridiculous, or crazy. And then I read this article, and realized it isn't only my problem! In the article she discusses that young people generally use these words too often and this is the best quote I could get about how often I use amazing, even though I don't actually watch Roseanne....

"The most frequent offender is "amazing." I say it in reaction to happy news, a clever joke, a preposterous idea, a fabulous outfit, an unbelievable coincidence, instead of "congratulations," basically any time I manage to get what I want. I even say it to myself, while reading Tumblrs on the internet, while watching Roseanne (in all fairness, how could you not?), while checking Weather.com."

But really, it is true, maybe it is time for me to add a few new words to my vocabulary, and reduce my use of these words. So I will try this, but maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday when I will be interacting with more people, and I will give up amazing, crazy and ridiculous.... I don't know if I will survive this ridiculous experiment!




R

Transit Posting!

It took me quite a few searches to find a picture of Modesto with Transit.

I recently posted an article on my Facebook page about transit being revamped, it was a short and sweet version of a difficult problem. Transit funding is in a terrible place right now, the highway fund can only be used for transit in a few situations, transit as it is cannot exist without subsidy, and there is a stigma that transit is only for people who "cannot afford to drive" (not to mention the scheduling issues). Similarly, the study of transit does not always apply to the on-the-ground use of transit, for example, this article claims that Modesto, CA has one of the top 10 transit systems in the nation. If any one has ever been to Modesto, they will quickly see that this cannot be the case. Growing up I frequently went to Modesto, and I don't remember seeing a single bus in the city, except the ones associated with Amtrak, because there was a station in town. Asking most people who live in Modesto, I am almost sure that you would discover a small percentage of transit users, BUT according to an academic style study of these transit systems they are the best. Yes, they have decent coverage, but at what times, and at what cost, and how long does it actually take to get from point A to point B on that system.
We need to revamp our ideas of transit in academia as well as in our lives. I love transit, and though I prefer to walk (step monsters, read this article about walking and why it is harder to push a "walking movement" than a biking or transit movement). Of course there is the last mile problem, when it is not efficient for a bus to run down a smaller street, which leaves the rider to have to walk to their destination. Public transit is not designed as a completely door-to-door transportation system, but it can often be used as efficiently as one. I live only 3 blocks from a bus stop between 6am and 7pm and yet a half mile from a bus stop any other time of the day. For me, this is not a problem, but I can see where someone who works until 2 am would not want to have to walk a half mile when they finally get off the bus at 3 am and would opt to drive. However, people are still not taking advantage of the system that is available. On my Facebook wall comments were plentiful about how it is a "lower class" system and how it isn't easy to use, but someone also said that people tend to think that transit is the "magic bullet solution" to problems that we are having in the world right now. I agree that people tend to think that transit will solve all of our problems, and that they are wrong, but I don't think it cannot play a role in helping to fix some of our problems, we just have to work on it a little bit more.
I recently attended the Regional Transportation Authority's Citizen's Advisory Board meeting where buses on the shoulder of the freeway were discussed for express services between the southwest suburbs and the city of Chicago. At this meeting they presented maps of the system showing where the shoulder was not wide enough to support this type of operation. The solution to the problem was to just have the bus merge back into slow moving traffic at those points. Luckily, someone mentioned the unrealistic notion of this working as a great system with that type of need, but a solution was still not found. People think of buses not only as transportation systems for "poor people" but they think of buses themselves as almost lower class vehicles. Few cars will yield to a bus when it has to merge into traffic, and many car drivers think of bus drivers as rude when they have to force their way into traffic just to keep moving. Similarly, transit users are annoyed with the car traffic slowing down transit use, because the bus does get stuck in traffic just as a car would.
In New Zealand and Australia, instead of letting these systems fight with each other, they have separated the two (at least in smaller cities). We often hear about pedestrian malls, where the city closes roads off in the middle of town for only pedestrian access (time square, etc) but what about transit malls? I think this solution could eventually apply to larger cities as well, but one of the biggest notions I get out of this article is that these countries do not treat buses as lower class vehicles, they actually are the elite vehicles on the road, with a special designated lane, unmistakably distinguished just for buses. And the system works there (at least the bus lane system). In America we are hardly willing to give up one side of parking on a busy road for a transit lane, and if they do many people will still park in there "just for a minute" or use the lane to pass slower vehicles.
In order for the United States transit system to work, we are going to have to start seeing it as an asset, even if we aren't using it. Drivers are going to have to appreciate that those people in the bus are not driving their own car, and therefore are helping to reduce traffic on the street, and maybe new users will begin to arise as the system is more efficient. But to begin the solution maybe we should add some transit malls in a few cities, even if they are only a mile or so, large cities could benefit by getting buses off of the major streets and into faster more efficient modes, but also, well painted bus lanes instead of crowded parking lanes could advertise for buses as they will be able to speed by traffic, using less fuel, and getting more people to their destination that much quicker.

So let's all start using the systems we have in place. And mapping companies, like mapnificent (yes I know it's amazing and I'm jealous I wasn't working on it with them) and Google's new introduction of real-time transit updates for some cities will encourage people to use the system a lot more as well.

R

Gold in Sonora in 2011

44 pound gold nugget at Ironstone Vineyards

I grew up hearing about the California gold rush of 1849 and how there was gold all over the area where I lived.  We went on field trips to Columbia State Park to see the old mining town and to do some gold panning for fool's gold.  California definitely has an interesting history, but maybe it's not history anymore.

Apparently, because the snow fall this year was so excessive (not that I saw any while I was home, but I'll take your word for it) the feeder creeks are re-exposing their gold.  I am not a subscriber to the San Francisco Chronicle, but this article supposedly describes the new-age gold rush in Tuolumne County and the surrounding areas. Grandmama, get your gold pan and start panning the little creek behind your house!   It's worth $1500/ounce and it's just sitting in our backyards, I hope there is still some left when I go home. Maybe I can find a nugget as big as Ironstone's!

I'm sure this will bring in more tourism to the area, although I doubt there is much gold to be found.  I guess I will have to wait till Saturday to read the article to determine the extent of gold availability to see if I should stake a claim, thank you MECC for teaching me how to do just that.

S

Girls, Girls, Girls

I have been seeing a lot of postings on all of the blogs I read about girl power type of things. But the image to the right sparked my push to post a whole blog post about it, because you know what, it's true! But it isn't just rape or molestation that women have to deal with today, in a society that you would think supported female power, it's lower wages, and judging based on our looks (a lot more than guys.. or that's what they say) for example, I don't think there have been as many studies about skinnier men making more money than larger men, as there has been for women (that is just one example of an article about it) and that is just a discrepancy among women not between men and women as this article addresses. Women also have the double standard issue with sexual encounters, men are lauded for sleeping with more than 10 women in one summer, while women would be considered a slut. Because of this, a new group of women called Slutwalkers have emerged. These women stand up for our rights in the bedroom (and in many other ways) so we can continue to fight for equal rights with men. And while I am the first to admit I try my hardest to compete on the same level as men.... I think that sometimes equal treatment isn't ALWAYS right, but equal rights is a must in a legal sense.

Now, women might be a little crazy about shoes (for an interesting article about a principal who sold all of her shoes on ebay to prevent layoffs in her school click on the shoe picture to the left), or be extremely picky about clothes (I know that article was not written by a woman) but we have things going for us too, and it isn't always based in looks. Women are hard working, caring, motherly types of people in most cases, but they can also put up with a lot of pain, and are usually fiercely loyal (I know.. I'm making generalizations). But if a girl can go around a city on one day dressed "sexy" and on another day dressed "plain" and only really get free stuff on the "sexy" day, that makes you wonder just how much women are judged by their looks. I don't agree with that woman's techniques as a scientific study, for example, she ASKS for a free bus ride as "plain" her and just walks on as "sexy" her, that's not using the same techniques, but it still points out that it really is a lot more about looks for women, but that says nothing about intelligence, or ability. I love dressing up, so I don't have too much of an issue with this in some respect, but in another, I don't ever want to do my hair or wear makeup, so why should I have to to earn the respect I deserve?

Oh well, I guess we should all follow this very important advice and schedule a margarita date with a good friend.

R

Is America too big?

And no, I'm not talking about a weight issue again, I mean, our cities. In April I flew to Boston to go to the American Planning Association's National Conference (and loved it). While there I went to a talk about Detroit, and the excitement in shrinking cities. Detroit has a great opportunity to redesign their city as people are moving out and run-down houses are demolished to make room for parks, open space, or maybe more dense housing?

I am not 100% against suburbs, at least not in theory, I understand the draw to suburbs and the desire to really have your own space and have the safety and the good schools, but I don't understand why that isn't possible in a denser environment. I live in a not so dense part of the city in a neighborhood where you say good morning to the neighbor waiting for a friend to pick them up or stop to chat with someone on the way home (at least in the summer, when it's not too cold to stay outside for an extra five minutes). While this neighborhood may not be the "best" in terms of safety, it has a lot to offer and I see children playing on my way home from night class often, so there must be some kinda of expectation of safety for children in the area as well. The schools are not the best, but as more families move into neighborhoods like this, and property values continue to rise schools will improve. Parent who used to commute an hour and a half for work can now dedicate that hour to helping their children with homework, or decorating for a dance at the middle school, or playing basketball at the local park. This article about Detroit and "right sizing" makes some good points, the suburbs of Detroit keep growing, even as the city itself is shrinking (so it's not that people don't want to live in the area). If you think about it, people choosing to live just outside of the city are actually making the problems in the city worse, they are using some of the amenities the city provides without paying taxes to the city to help support it. If a majority of these people moved into Detroit, the crime would probably drop, but it takes a large group of people to reduce crime, not just one person, so no one wants to take the first step.
Buffalo, New York has a similar problem to Detroit, and if shrinking cities were not already grabbing your attention, read this article too! The sprawl is costing the city and the state and the county and all of the residents more money than that extra space is really worth.
Let's look at this from another perspective though, according to an article in Good, and article in Slate and so many other things we have all heard about lately, long commutes are terrible for us! They are causing divorce, back problems, heart problems, lung problems, emotional problems, healthy diet problems, and destroying the planet while we're at it. Many people believe New York knows what they are doing because they have a great bus system, and in a way I agree. I know most people don't want to live in the densest part of the city, either because they can't afford it or they want to be able to look out a window not into someone else's apartment, but perhaps moderately dense suburbs (like the neighborhood I live in in Chicago) are the way to go. We still have a sense of community, and there can still be great schools with active parents and safe roadways. I, personally, am all for everyone living in high rises and reducing our on-the-ground impact a lot more than even these moderately dense suburbs could do, but I know most people want their own space and don't want to hear their upstairs neighbor walking around in heels after work.
Yes, we might all have to have smaller houses, but that can actually be good for the environment (that's just a bunch of fun pictures mostly...) and can make you appreciate the things you have a lot more. I know that living in an apartment is so much cheaper for utilities than living in a house because you can steal heat and air conditioning from your neighboring apartments (literally steal the heat, not take control of their thermostats though) and therefore you can spend more money on food, or decorations or even furniture, which you would need less of now, so you can maybe afford the collections you've always wanted instead of needing to buy more furniture just to fill the space.

Denser means more transit which means more fun!
 Because riding transit is fun!

I think we need to take into account the cost of sprawl, but we also need to start thinking of cities as a blessing and a benefit to our way of life, instead of eyeing our neighbors with suspicion, we should say hello, forming a feeling of community in an apartment complex or on the block can make a neighborhood that much more fun to live in. And the denser the area is the better public transit service there is and the easier it is to bike from place to place, or walk to the grocery store, because, in case you haven't heard yet, it can actually help you live longer if you do groceries every day instead of once a week!

R

You get a ticket

Apparently in New York, the police are allowed to give tickets to cyclists who are riding out of the bike lane.  I don't think it is illegal to ride out of the bike lane (I didn't look it up though, so don't count on that), I did it all the time when I was bicycle commuting so I'm glad I never got a ticket.  This guy got a $50 fine for riding out of the bike lane, in response he paid the fine and made this video.  He is a bit of a whiny biker who thinks they deserve everything because they ride their bike to work, but he makes a good point overall.  I am supportive of bicycle rights and think it is important to promote bicycle commuting so I agree with him that the ticket was ridiculous, and he made a funny video to support his case.  

He also makes a good point about ticketing people who park in the bike lane, it makes biking very dangerous, most of the time not only forcing bikers to go into the road where people are not expecting them, but you also have to worry about cars coming from side streets and driveways that may be just on the other side of the street.

Anyway, I hope they don't keep ticketing people for riding out of the bike lane, that would be very discouraging to commuters and cyclists in general.  He plays an audio clip at the end where he called in to a radio station and they claim that biking out of the bike lane is not illegal, so I guess I'm not in danger of being a criminal, at least in New York. 

S

Modern castle? I want a moat!

Here is a safe house in Poland. The owner wanted their home to have a "maximum security" look.  The window covers can open, the fence can be moved, and an entire wall lifts to expose the house to more sunlight, but it is pretty awesome and seems like it would be pretty safe.  But honestly, the reason I wouldn't be attacking that house is because of the guard cat, I hear those can be vicious.  A short post, but I thought the house was pretty awesome.  

I would definitely live in a place like this, although I would probably just leave it open most of the time.  I wonder how hard it is to open the window covers, and I assume is it all automatic, so if the power went out when it was closed you would be stuck in there!  Or worse, if it went out during a zombie apocalypse and it was open it would not help you at all!

S

Bus Buddies

Please, take note, Chicago apparently is the most romantic city.... at least on the bus. The CTA was recently named the most romantic transit system in the US according to craigslist missed connections. It seems that article needed a map, and of course google supplied me with the perfect one. Illinois is the big BUS right next to Lake Michigan, in case you didn't see it. I love craigslist missed connections, now it makes me want to read them even more for Chicago, Maybe I'll meet a random dude on the bus... oh, wait, I do that anyway!


R

For a little fun

I know, my last post was a little heavy, so I just want to post this to support everyone out there who likes to invent new words! (I think this word is valid)


And I love Popstrip!

R

Doing the right thing

When is not helping doing the right thing? Recently a New York Times journalist filmed a South African man being beaten to death for falsely being accused of theft, and the journalist did nothing to stop the mob. Every article I've seen, including the one linked on the black image to the right, seems to show the outrage of the American people at this journalists unwillingness to step in and stop the mob. I agree that if something could be done, he should have stepped in and done it. But if a mob of hundreds of people were attacking one man, and one other man tried to stop it, I guarantee they would both end up dead. So is it right to just step back and not do anything if it would risk your life? I would like to think that I'm the kind of person who would stand up to this, and beg the people to stop before it was too late, but I don't know if my fear would put a quick stop to that desire. I would hope that if it were one or two people and the journalist saw it, he would stop them, but hundreds? really? and we're mad about this? I think the article makes a good point that the journalist at least got the murder on tape, and was able to show really what is going on, but at the same time, it is written as if one man could stop hundreds, and I feel that he probably could not have done it. The point of the article is a good one though. Is a journalist in a position to stop a murder if he/she sees it taking place and CAN stop it, or should he/she step back and document the entire process? I think the journalist should (and in most cases WOULD) step in to prevent a murder, at least with my rose colored glasses that I wear all the time, I think the world is a good place.

But it really depends on where you are. On a totally different scale from murder (and please do not think I'm comparing the two) in this Dallas diner, "What Would You Do?" presents a waitress who berates a gay couple and sees what the other diners have to say about it. Many in Dallas step up. They give the statistics at the end, and show that actually, even though Texas is known for being more conservative and anti-gay even, more people in Dallas than in New York (one of the most liberal states) stepped in to tell this waitress/actress to stop treating these customers poorly. Every time I see parts of this show it makes me hope that if I were in the other customers' places I would step in and say something to stop it... let's just hope that is what this show does for people.

R