This is How A Caucus Works?

I could give several lame excuses why I didn't know (and probably still don't really know) how the Democratic caucus for choosing a presidential candidate in WA works. But, now I know; I just found out earlier this week.

For instance, I had no idea that my vote-by-mail in the primary for Barack means zilch. Window-dressing, my friends. Really. If you live in WA and you think your Democratic vote for one of the candidates means something... well, read on.

Apparently in WA if you're a Democrat, if you want to have any voice whatsoever in choosing your party's candidate, you must show up at the caucus physically. This Saturday.

At the caucus, apparently, choosing delegate numbers comes down to how many people are standing in the Obama group vs. the Clinton group when the caucus concludes (after you get a chance to tell everyone there why they should really be in your group). The number is counted, from which is alloted a proportional number of delegates to each candidate.

So, go to your caucus on Saturday, even if you voted in the (apparently meaningless) primary!

Want more info about WA caucuses and where to go if you want to spend a couple hours helping choose a new direction for our country? Visit this link.

Avatars of the Future

What if digital avatars ten years from now where so realistic, your brain was actually tricked into thinking you were one and the same? Science fiction? Nope.

Take a listen to this fascinating discussion that begins with phantom limb pain and induced out of body experiences, then ties in how your brain maps its perceptions to your physical body, and then on to how we might truly be fooled into inhabiting our digital avatars in the future. The fact that people TODAY can be fooled into believing a fake rubber hand is their own feeling limb with just a few simple tricks starts us down this road. Add VR goggles and haptic feedback , and holy cow, you could BE a tyrannosaurus rex in the smash XBOX game of the 2020's! (I'm not entirely sure this is a positive development.)

1/16/2008 -- Sandra Blakeslee from the New York Times discussed
body maps in the brain on the show Berkley Groks Science.

INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION: Sensory events are conveyed to our brains and
interpreted in specialized maps of the outside world. On this program,
Sandra Blakeslee discussed the function of these body maps in the
brain, and how they could be used ultimately for making us believe we
are various digital avatars. Here's the MP3:

http://www.archive.org/download/groks306/groks011608_vbr.mp3

P.S. Go Obama!

From the Vault: 0 Trans Fat?

My old friend Jeff Quick remembered how I used to evangelize the health risks of consuming hydrogenated oils [as reiterated here], and told me he now stayed well clear of it. Well, it's been over a decade since I began that crusade. In the last few years my voice and many others have had a positive effect--I'm not the crazy lone doomsayer any longer. Now, for instance, you'll regularly see packaging claiming the food inside contains "0 Trans Fat."

Thus Jeff's [and Charles's] question: "I see a lot of labels nowadays crowing about 0 grams of transfat, but they still have hydrogenated oils in their ingredients list. What is your opinion on this turn of events?"

I told him my guess was food manufacturers could legally get away with claiming 0 trans fat if the amount contained was under a certain threshold. Well, by pure happenstance, it looks as if I didn't lead him wrong.

According to David L. Katz, M.D, a professor at Yale author of Flavor Point Diet:

"[Under FDA rules, food manufacturers are] required to post just how much of the artery clogger (trans fatty acid) is in the food--unless there's less than .5 grams per serving, in which case they can say 'zero trans fat.' The problem is 'one serving' can be misleadingly small--seven or eight 'free' cookies could sneak in 3 or more grams of trans fat."

There it is--if you see hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list, stay clear.

From The Vault: Artificial Fats Are Killing You

Did you know that artificial fats are in much of the food that you buy? Did you know that this artificial fat, called trans fatty acid, is slowly killing you? [A lot of you probably do. So, next question... Are you doing anything about it?]

Next time you reach for the coffee creamer, the margarine, or even your favorite brand of potato chips, flip over the bag and take a look at the ingredients--if you see hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil of any type, you're eating a trans fatty acid.

What is a Trans Fatty Acid?
Imagine an oil as a string of carbon atoms that hang together like bulbs on a string of Christmas lights. Some oils are a bit more complicated, and have hydrogen atoms stuck on them. When the oil is completely filled with hydrogen atoms, the string of carbon is called a Saturated Fat. The way that the hydrogen sticks to the carbon is important. If the saturated fat is naturally occurring, the bond is called "cis." A regular saturated fat could be called a Cis Fatty Acid.

You guessed it, a Trans Fatty Acid is a lot like a regular saturated fat, except for the way that the hydrogen atoms stick to the carbon atoms. Trans fatty acids are made when food companies shoot hydrogen gas through oil. Some of the hydrogen sticks to the carbon, but in a rigid way that makes the food last longer on the shelf . When hydrogen is artificially attached to carbon like this, the bond configuration (the type of connection between the carbon and hydrogen) is called "trans." Saturated fat of this kind is called Trans Fatty Acid.

Why Is It So Bad?
Your body can't tell the difference between a normal cis fatty acid and an artificial trans fatty acid. When you eat a trans fatty acid, your body incorporates it into your cells--your cells actually become hydrogenated! The consequences include increased occurrence of heart disease, sexual dysfunction, weakened immune system, cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and obesity.

What Foods Is It In?
Margarine, non-dairy coffee creamer, some whip creams, "soft-serve" ice creams, many breads, restaurant french fries, restaurant and supermarket fried chicken, restaurant and supermarket fried food of all types (sadly, old-style lard frying was healthier because frying took less time so less oil penetrated the food, and it was cis-fatty acid), most crackers, some "health" foods... the list goes on and on and on. Hydrogenated oil (trans fatty acid) is in more than 70% of processed foods found on store shelves!

What Can I Do?
It's up to you to check out the INGREDIENTS ahead of time for hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil! Stop buying foods that contain partially hydrogenated oils. Lately, I’ve noticed that some foods come right out and say ‘No trans fats’ and ‘cold pressed oils’ in bold letters. You can find alternatives without this terrible additive. Here's the golden rule for eating right: Eat whole, unprocessed foods when possible. Try to buy foods that use cold pressed or expeller pressed oil in the ingredients (oils so labeled are unlikely to contain trace organic chemicals). Don't be afraid to consume foods high in natural fat, including animal fats (in moderation). No kidding. Good luck--be healthy!

Making the Constitution More Like The Bible

I've commented earlier on how crazy Huckabee is in wanting to make the constitution accord to god's word, as if he is on the inside track as to what that might be. It's more than just crazy; it's scary. (Actually, it is just pandering, but read on anyway . . .)

Look how badly such a policy turned out for contemporary states who've decided gods laws are good laws for human society: A student journalist in Afghanistan has been sentenced to death for downloading and distributing a report that is critical of the oppressive treatment of women in some Islamic societies.

Magic in the Forgotten Realms

John commented on my previous entry he was hoping to find some 4E nuggets here. Well, check it out, an article I wrote previewing magic in 4E Forgotten Realms just went up on D&Di Dragon.

Choosing A Candidate

The last time I touched the topic of the Democratic candidate, I expressed my preference for many of Ms. Clinton's policies over Obama's.

However, I have since become an Obama supporter. Not because I think any less of Clinton. No, it is because I have come to realize several hard realities.

One of those realities is that the conservative interests have spent the last 16 years fomenting active dislike (at best!) of Clinton. If Clinton were to become the Democratic candidate, I fear that many of the disenchanted, exhausted voters who might otherwise stay away from the polls will be revitalized, unified in their dislike for Hillary, and show up merely to vote against her. In listening to various radio programs and in polling my own extended conservative family and conservative friends, I am finding this more and more to be true.

Another reality, more positive, is that Obama seems to possesses an attraction to many people who have traditionally voted Republican. It could be they haven't had 16 years of negative media saddling their perceptions, and that their unconscious hope to see real change can find a home in a vote for Obama. I've heard Republicans say that they'd vote for Obama over anyone currently vying for the Republican nomination, but if it were Clinton, they'd go with any one of the Republicans (superstition-ridden McCain, or even crazy Huckabee!).

Hillary is a fight the right has been preparing for over the last two decades. Let's not give them that battlefront.

Economic Stimulus Plan

Here are two options for stimulating the economy as the threat of recession looms:

Jump start a whole new industry of local energy production, complete with all the jobs, salaries, and yes, taxes that pay for services, that would flow from it.

Or, give everyone $600 bucks so they can make their car payment for 2 months, or if their car's paid off, buy that new sofa they've been looking at.

Hmm, yeah, I'd like that new sofa, but the cat will probably scratch it up in 6 months anyhow. So...

I vote for investing in a new energy economy!

The Green Skeptic concurs:

With all due respect to Messrs Bush, Paulson, and...well, Bernanke too, I suppose, this economic stimulus seems more like a styptic pencil. You know, those things used to temporarily stop bleeding from shaving cuts and the like? If BPB really wanted to stop the bleeding, US leaders would accelerate investments into creating a new, clean economy.

I'm not alone in this thinking. The National Hydropower Association, Geothermal Energy Association, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and American Wind Energy Association issued a joint statement earlier this week calling for an extension of long-term renewable energy tax credits as part of the US economic stimulus package.

The current stimulus package does not extend the renewable energy incentives, which expire at the end of this year. And that is too bad. Letting these incentives expire will potentially eliminate thousands of jobs and derail billions of dollars in future investments, according to sources close to the situation. All this when we're experiencing record private investment in alternative energy.

Campaign Report

I posted the sad tale of last evening's D&D game on gleemax for those of you interested in hearing how my character, a tiefling warlock named Melech, went toe-to-toe with several black dragons.

Bridge to Terabithia

Our friends Greg and Teresa lent us several movies, one of which was Bridge to Terabithia.

We watched Bridge to Terabithia last night. I was expecting a light-hearted fantasy, something along the lines of Harry Potter.

In truth, the film was much more difficult.

I now discover this film was based on a book of the same name written in 1977 by Katherine Paterson. It is not merely escapist childish fantasy; it is something more akin to a book I was given to read in 6th grade for a school assignment, A Taste of Blackberries. Same hollow feeling at the end, worse probably, with this movie. A good movie, but hard.

Environmental Gut Check

Sometimes it's good to hear a realistic, straight-talking assessment of where the world stands. The dangers we actually face as peak oil production is reached are perhaps not something you think about a lot, or perhaps have never really thought about.

Well, Lester Brown has, and you can hear him talk about his conclusions, and the real problems we're likely to face in the next decade.

You can listen via a stream from these links (Real Media) (Windows Media) or download the MP3 here. (This audio is an interview conducted by Ira Flatow on NPR's Science Friday last week.)

I found it both alarming and hopeful.

Cracking Open Creation

To understand the fabric of reality, puny blobs of protoplasm like us must go to extreme ends. What's amazing to me is that we are willing to try. This embedded video describes our newest, most powerful tool for cracking open creation to see and understand what makes it tick. (hat tip to Bad Astronomy)