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April 26, 2005
New twist to TV-turnoff week
This is TV-Turnoff Week, from April 25 to May 1, sponsored by the TV Turnoff Network. The idea is to promote a more active and engaged public by turning off the television and finding other things to do. I think it's a great idea and something I have wrestled with, especially since there are so many programs - and baseball! - I like to watch.
But there's a bit of a twist to this year's effort. According to an interview in Salon.com, TV-Turnoff Week is affiliated with Adbusters magazine. And Adbusters is trying a new tack this year: turning off other people's televisions. They are promoting TV-B-Gone, a little gizmo about the size of an eraser that is a big TV remote OFF button. The idea, according to Adbusters' Editor in Chief, is to take back public space by turning off all of those televisions that drone on in the background.
I've gotta say I kind of like the idea. I really do feel the encroachment of televisions in many of the places I go. Although I generally draw the line at turning off sports programs at the local bar, there is a bar on a very popular corner in town that has a ginormous television that takes up almost an entire wall (it's a group of televisions, really, that are linked together to show one big picture). And the bar has an all-glass street front, so you can't help but see this monster TV as you walk by the place. I would love to hit the OFF switch on that thing just once...
Posted by rigd0003 at 11:33 AM | Comments (1)
April 25, 2005
Cubs Fun (or is it Cubs Lament?): Dusty Dice
Found this graphic from cubsfun blog by way of The Cub Reporter. For a nice example of Dusty Dice being employed, see the third bullet point in this Cub Town post. (I know, I know -- I'm reading way too many Cubs blogs...)
See more graphics at the Cubs Fun Gallery.
Posted by rigd0003 at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)
More of Merck's murky waters
Another article about Merck pharmaceutical company and trouble over how it handled clinical trials of its painkiller, Vioxx. This one was in yesterday's New York Times: "Evidence in Vioxx Suits Shows Intervention by Merck Officials".
Two disturbing points jump out at me:
| (1) | A Merck scientist urged one of the clinical trial researchers to list the cause of death for a patient as "unknown" rather than heart-related. And the researcher seemed to be a willing participant, since he said in an e-mail communication, "If it is easier to call this an unknown cause of death, I could be persuaded to say that as well." It seems to me that "unknown" should no be acceptable as a cause of death for a patient participating in a clinical trial since it may be connected to the drug or procedure exposure. At the very least a contributing cause should be indicated and by an impartial doctor. |
| (2) | The doctor listed as first author for the published trial results, Dr. Jeffrey Lisse, didn't write the paper. Merck wrote the paper and he edited it. And it doesn't sound like he was overly questioning of the data because he accepted it at face value, telling the Times reporter, "Basically, I went with the cardiovascular data that was presented to me." |
Clinical trials are a great asset to public health and medicine. When conducted correctly, we are able to make some reasonably good assumptions like random assignment of the exposure (drug, procedure) among the groups, exchangeability of the groups--outcomes in each group is a good substitute for the outcomes of the other, etc. that make interpretation of the data more robust. I guess it never occurred to Dr. Lisse to question the assumption that the data were accurate and not deliberately skewed.
Putting obvious duplicity aside, this reminds me of a more general point. You've probably heard the line about "letting the data speak for themselves." This is totally wrong--data don't speak, we speak! We look at the data and make assumptions about what it represents, what we think it is telling us. Everyone understands that art is all about interpretation; it's about time that we realize it is similar for science, as well. And no, I don't think this will horribly muddle the waters. In fact, I think we scientists will be better able to reach consensus once we make it common practice to state our assumptions along with our data and conclusions. Then all the cards will be on the table, and we can call a spade a spade.
Posted by rigd0003 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2005
Tandem pic
Here's a picture my husband took during a break in our ride along the Cannon Valley Trail from two weeks ago (see River rides and mini-vacations). Our Cannondale pride and joy...
Posted by rigd0003 at 06:10 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2005
PhD web forum and support group
Are you experiencing blocks in your dissertation work? Want to vent your anxiety or frustration about your thesis progress? Have a question other students might be able to help you with? This web site might be for you...
A friend just told me about an on-line forum and support group for PhD students. It's called PhinisheD and it's filled with neat stuff. There are three main tools: basic forums and chat rooms for introducing yourself or posting a question or problem, goal-setting tools for making contracts with yourself and sharing goals and milestones, and resources and links provided by other students.
And it seems to be well attended. I put up a post and got a response fairly quickly. It feels good to know there are so many of us linked together in this experience.
Posted by rigd0003 at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2005
River rides and mini-vacations
I'm coming around to the idea that mini-vacations can be just as fun and restorative as long stays away from home. We enjoyed a wonderful anniversary celebration last week by staying two nights in a bed & breakfast just 40 minutes from home.
The Quill & Quilt Inn is a lovely 3-story house in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, built in 1897 and run by a very sweet young couple. Our hostess saw to our every need, including safe storage of our tandem, recommending local restaurants and acquiring passes to the local bike trail. One great feature of this B & B is the day spa on the third floor. What a great idea for small business owners to pool their talents like that! The spa was booked up for our stay, but I'd love to return for a hot stone massage.
Thursday night we were the only guests -- quite a treat. After discussing our dining options, we set out for Chapati, an Indian restaurant in Northfield, a 15-minute drive through the countryside. We found the restaurant, and the whole of Northfield, to be quite a delight! Northfield really showcases what a river town can be, with the downtown area nestled along both sides of the Cannon River. We took an evening stroll along the brick river walk and over the bridges. Many restaurants and pubs have terraces and plazas right on the river. There is quite an eclectic array of shops, dance studios, and artists galleries, plus a nice energy that comes from the local college campuses (Carleton College and St. Olaf College). And I was delighted to recognize that their local public library is a Carnegie library (although it has undergone quite a bit of expansion).
Friday morning, after a nice hot breakfast in the dining room, we hit the Cannon Valley trail. This is a converted Chicago Great Western rail bed that runs along the Cannon River from Cannon Falls to Red Wing, where the Cannon meets the Mighty Mississippi. With a trail access point literally a stone's throw away from our B & B, we on our way immediately. The above-normal temperature that day made for a very nice ride. We saw lots of birds, including a bald eagle, and spied some turtles sunning themselves. But it was a little weird for it to be so warm and have the surroundings still in their brown winter stasis. Most of the trail is lined with trees, but without their leaves we were in the sun the whole day. We didn't give much thought to it until we came back and took a relaxing soak in our Jacuzzi tub (oh, so nice!). We were quite surprised to see how red we had gotten from the sun. We had ridden the length of the trail and back - 40 miles. As is typical of these rails-to-trails, the ride was quite flat and nicely paved but I was still pretty tired by the time we got back. Although I could definitely feel the benefit of all of our indoor bike training over the winter.
We rounded out our day with a walk to the local cemetery to see the Colonel William Colvill monument. Colonel Colvill was a leader of the First Minnesota Volunteers during the Civil War. (This visit was a nice tie-in to the trip to Gettysburg we'd taken two years ago.) Then we had a hearty spaghetti dinner at the local pub and walked back to the Inn. All in all, an excellent celebration and restorative mini-vacation!
Posted by rigd0003 at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2005
The small world of New York television
It strikes me as both bizarre and hilarious every time it happens. We're watching "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and his guest comes out. They talk, Jon laughs, the guest laughs, we go to commercial, and before you know it, it's time for our "Moment of Zen" and the show ends.
We switch over to "Charlie Rose" on PBS, which starts just as "The Daily Show" finishes. "Tonight," Mr. Rose announces, "I am honored to have him (her) with us again, the always thought-provoking, and my good friend..." The camera pulls back and it's the same guest, in the same clothes, sitting across from Charlie. I always expect them to be out of breath after their imagined dash over from the Daily Show studios to make the Rose interview on time.
It happened again last night. This one I predicted the moment I heard Jon Stewart give his name - it was a classic guest for both shows. I knew we'd get to witness these two disparate New York interview shows appearing together in the same sky like a rare celestial event. The guest was Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist who is a Daily Show favorite and Charlie Rose's good friend.
I really enjoy both shows. I love the mocking political comedy and news buffoonery of "the Daily Show." It's a great comedic counter-weight to so much puffed up media excess. I also love the leisurely, engaging conversational style of "Charlie Rose." It's also a great counter-weight, a counter-weight to the short, frenetic sound bites and disembodied quotes that get shot out to you like so many tracer bullets.
The programs aren't all that different, I guess. They are both news-based, include interviews with people making the news, both have their studios in New York City. But when this celestial event happens, it does seem like worlds are colliding. And I look on in delight.
Posted by rigd0003 at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2005
Cool gadget for making pizza, cakes, breads on the trail!
Our family does a lot of camping, and we're always on the lookout for cool gadgets and good vegetarian camp food. We recently stumbled upon a web site that offers both. How cool is that?
It all started when I saw a positive review of an Adventure Foods product in a recent issue of Backpacker magazine.
When I checked out their site, I was impressed with how many breakfast, cold prep, dinner, and dessert items Adventure Foods had to offer, many of which are vegetarian. Huevos rancheros, baked ziti, greek pasta salad with feta, blueberry pancakes, deep dish pizza...
Wait, pancakes? Pizza? On a camping trip?
Yes! Thanks to what sounds like a Ronco infomercial gadget, the BakePacker! Now, the site talks about the "heat pipe phenomenon" and it being a "self-contained heat exchanger" which may or may not be just infomercial-speak, I don't know. But when we read that we could make all this non-camp-food food in one pot with virtually no clean up, we were intrigued enough to buy one.
What the BakePacker looks like is a thick, round metal steamer (even though the makers insist that it's not a steamer) that sits inside your cook pot. The key to the no mess cooking is that the dry ingredients, spices, and water are mixed in a plastic bag (they recommend Reynolds oven bags or Glad freezer bags) which sits on top of the metal grid. You put some water in the bottom of the pot, loosely roll up the food bag, and let it cook on a medium boil. The food "bakes" inside the bag, and you have a flat platform, so you can bake breads, pizza dough, and biscuits, but also cook fish, rice - loads of stuff.
We gave it a try today just to see how it performs before we take it on a trip with us. The BakePacker comes with a small collection of recipes, but there are many pre-mixed foods at Adventure Foods that are especially for the BakePacker or have cooking instructions for the BakePacker as well as a convention pot. We tried Adventure Foods Mac & Cheese, and it was quite good! It really turned out like baked mac & cheese, although without the crispy crust - can't have everything. But no pot to clean! The portions were very large, no wimpy servings here! Most entrees come in 2-person or 4-person sizes. Our 2-person size yielded two huge plates of mac & cheese (more than we could eat for lunch).
Of course, mac & cheese wasn't really a test of this thing's capabilities, like pizza or chocolate cake would be, but I'm just getting used to the idea that we may be able to have those things on a camping trip, so I was setting the bar at a familiar level.
Some caveats to note. The cooking time is longer than regular camp food. Foods take about 15 minutes in the BakePacker, or a little longer for breads and cakes. The Adventure Foods packaging is a bit larger and somewhat more bulky than average camp food packaging. But a lot of this is due to the larger serving sizes and the fact that the noodles (or rice, etc.) is in a separate bag than the spices, dehydrated veggies, and what not. They get mixed together with the water right before cooking. This also means you've got a bit more trash to pack out, too. But a nice touch is that the noodles come in a BakePacker-ready bag, so you don't have to transfer or bring extra cooking bags.
All-in-all, I thought the BakePacker was a success and I'm looking forward to good food on our next outing!
Posted by rigd0003 at 07:19 PM | Comments (2)
April 01, 2005
Enjoying a new St. Paul jazz venue sans smoke
The Twin Cities went smoke free in restaurants and bars yesterday! Actually, it's a bit more patchwork than that since Minneapolis and Hennepin county went smoke free indoors with no exceptions, while St. Paul and Ramsey county allow for some bars to be exempt. There's been a lot of talk about these ordinances, but as a non-smoker I really do think I'll be going out more often. It's been in the press a lot, but my favorite piece so far is the humorous "Smoker's Guide to the Twin Cities" presented by Hackey the Cigarette in this week's City Pages.
To celebrate, we went out to check out the scene at a new smoke free bar in downtown St. Paul. The French Press Jazz Café just opened in March in the Lowertown district. According to a write-up at JazzPolice.com, the owner, Kevin O'Neill, is a police officer in West St. Paul and is looking to provide another venue downtown for local musicians.
This jazz venue is a nice space with the lofty ceilings, hardwood floors, and exposed brick that makes this old warehouse district so great. The café part of it comes not only from the coffee and pastries it has to offer, but also the layout. The tables, chairs, and couch make it feel a lot like a coffee house. But make no mistake, it is primarily a bar - with a fairly good selection of wine and beer and an offering of appetizers. There is also a small lofted dining area over the bar and kitchen. The performance space is in one of the front corners by the windows, and the openness of the café allows the music to fill the space quite nicely. The atmosphere is very casual (in fact, I was a bit overdressed) and it was nice to see a mix of ages in the crowd.
I got the feeling that the French Press is still working out some kinks and wrinkles that come with a new place (like only having one wine bottle opener), but the staff were very friendly and welcoming, if not always organized. That's not a big deal to me in a bar, where I like to be left to converse and enjoy the music. The music was good, but a tad loud, and it was nice to come in on a night without a cover charge (usually $5) to check out the scene for the first time. To be honest, last night's performers, Cinco Latino, were a guitar-based jazz group, which really isn't our thing. It would be nice to go back to hear a more acoustic group or a piano-based group, which is more along where our tastes lie. As for the libation offerings, I liked that you could order 2 oz. "tastes" of wine, along with the regular glass or bottle. And they offered "flights" - 3 tastes from any of their 5 or 6 groupings, which are fun. All-in-all we liked the French Press and will be back again to check out other acts. And we really like the smoke free atmosphere! (As if you couldn't tell... )
Posted by rigd0003 at 02:10 PM | Comments (3)