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.