Bzzzz... wack!

One of the huge perks to my job is the vast amount of speeches taking place daily about genomics related to a lot of really interesting topics, including but not limited to mental illness, heart disease and infectious diseases. I am really thankful for this environment, where intellectual curiosity is the expectation and attending these talks is encouraged, in addition to taking the time to eat your lunch (if it's not being provided at the talk) and have a life outside of work. This is sort of a long entry, but your brain likes to read things longer than a text message ;-)

Today's lunchtime talk was by one of the scientists researching mosquitos and malaria. Mosquitoes are a common frustration at many summer gatherings, often forcing the retreat indoors or at least behind screens, but lucky for us in this part of the world, they typically don't carry malaria with them.

SO, I learned all about transmission of malaria, which literally means "bad air" in Italian, because for a long time, no one knew how it spread. Mosquitoes, specifically Anopheles gambia, bite an infected animal to feast on a blood meal that will eventually help them hatch their eggs. Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria-causing parasite, infiltrates the gut of the A.gambia along with the blood, then migrates to their salivary glands. From here, they then infect other animals after feasting on another blood meal, roughly 10-12 days later. Eradicating malaria is complicated by a myriad of factors, mostly involving the mutating genomes which contribute to resistance to drugs and insecticides we are using to cure and protect people.

Interestingly enough, there has been no observation of resistance to quinine, the natural cure for malaria found in the bark of the cinchona tree. Crazy, right? Here we are, scrambling to find targets on their genome to develop insecticides and drugs that will squelch malaria every time we see an increase due to resistance to our previous "cure-all" and there is just this thing in nature that cures malaria in its natural state.

Another interesting factoid: different species of mosquitoes like to eat their blood meals from different animals, often having a ranked preference of their commonly available options. Turns out their kind of picky eaters.

AND they are picky maters! Females like to "swarm mate", meaning they observe this cloud of male mosquitoes showing of their aerobatic skills and then swoop in on the one they want. If you want a female to mate with a specific male (to witness a certain genome in their offspring) and just put the two of them in a little mating cage, she will oftentimes entirely refuse due to lack of options. Who wants to put in all the effort of hatching eggs if the male can't even fly well?

At a recent outdoor gathering where mosquitoes descended, Courtney, Ben and I pondered why mosquitoes biting people don't spread HIV, or if they did, and we had not heard of it. Since I had this mosquito expert sitting in the same room, I descended, much like these pests, after his speech to ask this rather unrelated question.

Between his knowledge of mosquitoes and others' knowledge of viruses, and HIV specifically, it was determined that there is no way the very sensitive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could survive in the chemical environment of the gut of a mosquito after it had been ingested as part of a blood meal, nor had any of them heard of any instances of mosquitoes spreading HIV. Phew...

Knowledge dropped!

Sunshine Fun Time

Summer Solstice - #4 and #8 are how I would have celebrated if it'd been a bit more sunny here :)


Happy weekend!

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

I can finally say that I understand grocery shopping. Jane and Pat, my oh-so-fortunate previous roommates, will attest that I went through phases of buying too much food after discovering Haymarket, Peapod, and Trader Joe's. I still think all of those places or delivery services are truly awesome, in very different ways, but now I understand that I simply couldn't eat all that I was purchasing before it went bad. This lead to lots of smelly produce occupying our trash more frequently than I'd like to admit.

These days, I am kind to my pedestrian/biker self and frequent the grocery store for small, easily mobile (read: fits in my backpack) amounts of food. I tell myself it's very European and "green" of me and that it has nothing to do with my lack of a car. And yes, I'll keep telling myself that until I graduate from school.

Regardless, on Monday night, after a black bean burger experiment gone awry (and a chocolate chip cookie experiment gone quite wonderfully) I headed to Shaw's with Hannah and Rachel. We gathered some fruit, yogurt, and other staples and headed to the check out.

It's rare that I am jealous of other shoppers or the content of their carriages, but the middle-aged couple in front of me in the Express lane had two items: one PBR pounder and one Heineken pounder. How carefree! They had even less to carry than I, and they were chatting about where to go on their walk now that they had their beer.

After discussing this scene, arranging our groceries in comfortable carrying position and exiting the store, we decided this was really an excellent idea, and we were silly to not take advantage of it on such a wonderful summer night. Re-enter the store.

Turns out... it doesn't really matter how much or how little food you buy. If you're walking home from the grocery store, you should DEFINITELY get a pounder to drink out of a paper bag while playing drinking games on the way home. :-)

That's all.

Ted Take Two

I like alliteration. Although not as hilarious as Julia Sweeney, Ellen Gustafson is totally likable and easy to identify with in her talk about the global food system, hunger and obesity... especially when she admits to being pissed off while she's hungry.

Also... consider yourself mooned ;-)

Say Cheese!

There aren't any people in here, but I have been taking a lot of pictures recently, of summery scenes or doing summery things. So, here is the last week(ish) in pictures. Some of you may have already seen some of them, but hopefully they're just as enjoyable the second time 'round.

First, the Bruins deserve some commendation for killing the Canucks in both of their home games this week. Someone dressed up the statues in the Public Garden last week, actually, but this was the week to celebrate with them. George and the Ducklings showed their support with some new duds, which you should check out in person if you have the chance:

Next, there was John Anthony, who looks and sings and acts a lot like Rod Stewart on just a couple very special nights every year at the Beachcomber. After a few of their very special drinks, he IS Rod:

An essential part of the recovery from said very special drinks is a delicious breakfast. Also, an essential part of summer is eating outside. I think it makes the food taste better and the company seem more lovely (though you don't need any help there, Jessica!). This little number is from Pops on Tremont St. Upon review, the picture is sort of aesthetically weird because I was too eager to eat that beautiful Brioche Pecan French Toast with Nutella and Bananas to care about lining things up nicely. 

I should have taken an "after" photo... that plate looked like it just came out of the dishwasher ;-)

Monday was absolutely gorgeous. It was very difficult to be inside all day, but when I escaped, I felt like these people playing in the fountain, another common summer scene near the Christian Science Center. 

 

Another run in with birds! This one didn't poop on me, but s/he did try to eat my cupcake. I think I would be that aggressive for a cupcake from the Buttery, too. The staff are quite familiar with their antics and encourage you to surrender your cupcake wrappers to them on the ground so they don't divebomb your table. I wanted a close up picture though, so we withstood some pretty serious attacks. This is actually Brittney's cupcake wrapper, because apparently this little one and its friends prefer vanilla to red velvet. Mental note for all of you for the next time you're baking for city sparrows. 

Finally, from under the canopy of an awesome tree in the Public Garden on Wednesday, one of the first really sweltering days of the week. Seriously, this tree is like a giant, green umbrella - perfect protection from the rain or intense sunshine and there are some benches underneath. Easily my favorite tree in the place.

Happy Summer!

June Things

Our beloved Food Pyramid is gone (gasp!), and now the USDA has published another picture of what our proportions of food should look like with their new version: "My Plate." Don't get too excited - My Plate is just as difficult to interpret as the food pyramid with mysterious words like "serving." How much is a "serving" of beef/strawberries/yogurt? You have to do some serious investigation to find out. Not only that, but the real issue is not lack of information. People know what they should and should not eat. Information does not change health behavior. Fundamental overhauls, such as increased access to and widespread affordability of fresh produce and whole grains, are what the USDA should be focusing their efforts on to improve the health outcomes of our country. If people could feed their family healthy food from a nearby market for the same price they can feed them frozen pizza from their neighborhood convenience store, we would see better nutritional choices. And that is the end of my critique of the USDA for today.

Father's Day Gift Ideas: Some typical, others fantastic - just thought I'd send along this little gem since the holiday is less than two weeks away!

To keep everyone cool the next few days, the Scooper Bowl is going on in Government Center today until Thursday. They are rocking some pretty sweet flavors, too. (Though you won't find this on your Food Plate!)

I have a spare tire on my car.

...which must be difficult, since I don't own one. 


No no, this is a quote from Kansas State Rep. Pete DeGraaf, who was encouraging women to be prepared for being raped in the same way that he is prepared for a flat tire. You can scoff; it is quite the appalling analogy. 


They were debating insurance coverage of abortion for women who become pregnant as a result of rape/incest; DeGraaf is opposed. I like to think I'm paying attention, but then when someone says something this shocking, this related to things I'm interested in and they sneak under my radar, it ...well it makes me feel negligent. So! Negligence no more.


Basically, I could go on and on about how infuriating such a statement is, as a woman and someone who believes in the government getting themselves out of the business of deciding what goes on in a body part many of them aren't even lucky enough to have, but the fundamental issue here is the underlying mentality. As long as there are people in office like Pete DeGraaf (and equally worse, people who vote for such representation), a woman's right to choose and access to accompanying necessary services (insurance coverage of abortion, properly trained physicians, etc) will always be in jeopardy. 


The idea that a woman "deserves" to be raped or "has it coming" is entirely backwards. I'm not sure when we started justifying one person violently attacking another, unprovoked, but I gotta say it just makes us look pretty dumb. We should probably stop. Blaming the attacked for just being too attractive or vulnerable or irresistible in other ways is easy. It would be far more difficult, profound and widespread to change the societal norms and expectations surrounding personal autonomy, gender roles, violence and equality.


Imagine not even debating whether abortion for pregnancy from rape/incest should be covered by insurance. I'm not sure it's happening anytime soon, so I'll keep carrying that tire, because I better be ready.


And now, stolen from another blogger interested in Ol' Pete:
DeGraaf's Web site lists his office number as 785-296-7693, his home phone as 316-777-0715 - that's at 1545 E. 119th St. Mulvane, KS - and his e-mail as pete.degraaf@house.ks.gov. You know, just in case you're one of the people who do disagree with him and think you might be able to persuade him. Democracy thrives on open discourse.