Mad Thoughts

From Clerks: Randal Graves: And I hope it feels...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:21:00 -0500

Randal Graves: And I hope it feels good.

Indecisive Video Customer: You hope *what* feels good?

Randal Graves: I hope it feels so good to be right. There’s nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?

Indecisive Video Customer: Well, this is the last time I rent here.

Randal Graves: You’ll be missed.

Indecisive Video Customer: Screw you!

Seriously though, thanks. I’m an awful proofreader.

Seeing Katy Perry’s Grammy outfit sent me straight into...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:08:16 -0500

Ms. Perry

Ultimate Crystal

Seeing Katy Perry’s Grammy outfit sent me straight into Google, trying to figure out where I had seen it in comics before. Finally found this image of Crystal from the Ultimate Universe of Marvel.

I was sort of close.

I'm the worst at Tumblr.

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:46:00 -0500

Most of my followers are lapsed accounts. I rarely pull down any solid note counts. People rarely seem interested in the things I’m interested in. I never get questions and I never get anonymous haters.

Obviously, I’m doing it all wrong.

If it wasn’t for the people following that I know in IRL, I likely wouldn’t be using this platform any more.

Being me just doesn’t seem to be working. Any tips on how to be a better Tumblr?

My mother ladies and gentleman.

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:27:07 -0500

My mother ladies and gentleman.

Pop Music

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:31:01 -0500

So much of modern pop just plainly rips off the past decade of electronic music. It bugs me because I think if you are going to be a real pop star, you need something more than aging Tiesto beats.

Photo

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:03:36 -0500

jakefogelnest: Whitney Houston’s isolated vocal track on “How...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:58:28 -0500

jakefogelnest:

Whitney Houston’s isolated vocal track on “How Will I Know.”

Tears.

I thought this was an incredibly powerful photograph. Then I...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:43:49 -0500

I thought this was an incredibly powerful photograph. Then I read the story. Now I know it’s a very incredibly powerful photograph.

Tahani, who married her husband Majed when she was 6 years old and he was 25 years old, poses for a portrait with her former classmate Ghada, also a child bride outside their mountain home in Hajjah, Yemen, June 10, 2010. Nearly half of all women in Yemen were married as children. (Stephanie Sinclair/VII Photo Agency/National Geographic Magazine)

New minibosses album came out and no one told me.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:27:09 -0500

New minibosses album came out and no one told me.

One of the most brilliant things I’ve ever heard on...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:58:56 -0500

One of the most brilliant things I’ve ever heard on television.

And sometimes you wonder how many songs in your music library...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:56:00 -0500

And sometimes you wonder how many songs in your music library contain the word “pump.”

How Eating Raw Vegetables Is Making You Crazy (Maybe)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:12:38 -0500

badbatz has much more to say about T. gondii:

When I tell people that Toxoplasma gondii is important, they look at me like I’m nuts.

This happened a lot when we first published our report, Ranking the Risks, last April, where we identified foodborne Toxoplasma as one of the most important pathogens, up there with Salmonella, Listeria, and Campylobacter. We ranked Toxoplasma in pork, beef, and lamb as being quite important, though our data attributing to specific foods is admittedly quite rough.

I have a long explanation for why I think Toxoplasma is off the food safety radar, and why it warrants greater attention. I’ve done a rather poor job explaining it twice (1, 2), and maybe one of these days I’ll do it right.

For now, I’d just like to point you to an EXCELLENT new article in the latest Atlantic, How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy, which looks like it might blow up, and which is all about the potential role of Toxoplasma gondii in schizophrenia and other brain maladies.

But if Flegr is right, the “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that’s not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, “Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year.”

This number is, of course, much higher than how we normally account for toxoplasmosis. CDC estimates that only about 650 Americans die annually. Most of these deaths are folks with very damaged or suppressed immune systems, such as those with advanced AIDS or undergoing cancer treatments. In pregnant women, infection can result in miscarriage, stillbirth, or babies born with lifelong mental and physical disabilities.

So how do you acquire this lovely parasite?

After an infected cat defecates, Flegr learned, the parasite is typically picked up from the soil by scavenging or grazing animals—notably rodents, pigs, and cattle—all of which then harbor it in their brain and other body tissues. Humans, on the other hand, are exposed not only by coming into contact with litter boxes, but also, he found, by drinking water contaminated with cat feces, eating unwashed vegetables, or, especially in Europe, by consuming raw or undercooked meat. Hence the French, according to Flegr, with their love of steak prepared saignant—literally, “bleeding”—can have infection rates as high as 55 percent. (Americans will be happy to hear that the parasite resides in far fewer of them, though a still substantial portion: 10 to 20 percent.)

Historically, direct contact with cats has been the vector that most people are aware of, if they’re aware of any at all. This is why pregnant women are told not to change kitty litter. But CDC estimates about half of toxoplasmosis cases are due to food, and the data are increasingly complicated. There have been documented outbreaks caused by contaminated drinking water and case-control studies point to a number of food-oriented routes.

In one study of risk factors in six European cities, contact with cats didn’t show up at all. Rather, they found that 30-60% of infections were due to consumption of undercooked or cured meats (lamb, beef, and game), and another 6-17% due to contact with soil. Another study in France did find cat ownership to be a risk, along with poor hand hygiene, undercooked beef, undercooked lamb, and frequent consumption of raw vegetables outside the home. A recent US study identified eating rare lamb, eating or handling raw ground beef, eating “locally produced cured, dried, or smoked meat,” eating raw shellfish, drinking unpasteurized goat’s milk, and having 3 or more kittens as being important risk factors.

Then there’s this humdinger: risks associated with raw produce are likely higher when that food is grown using manure or when there are cats on the farm. So, that organic produce from your local farmer’s market? Yeah, well.

Honestly, I think those risks are still pretty low, but we don’t know for sure. I’m not saying you should freak out, but then again, I can’t really tell you not to either.

The risks associated with cats are at least well known. And it’s pretty easy to deal with:

Indoor cats pose no threat, he says, because they don’t carry the parasite. As for outdoor cats, they shed the parasite for only three weeks of their life, typically when they’re young and have just begun hunting. During that brief period, Flegr simply recommends taking care to keep kitchen counters and tables wiped clean.

And the good news is that if you like your lamb and beef on the rare side, all you have to do is freeze it first. Unlike many bacteria, which become essentially dormant when frozen, Toxoplasma gondii are killed outright.

Still, I think the question remains: how many Americans are really acquiring Toxoplasma gondii through foods, and what portion can be attributed to which foods? Um, well, er… For most foodborne pathogens, we have pretty good data from surveillance on the number of people that are infected, and a pretty good idea (though imperfect) of the most important pathways. But not for Toxo.

Despite the suspected importance of Toxoplasma gondii as a foodborne pathogen, despite increasing awareness of the pathogen’s impacts on the brain, despite poor data about just how many Americans are infected, and despite deep uncertainties about which routes of exposure are the most important, there is relatively little active research going on in laboratories and, as far as I know, absolutely no efforts currently underway in the United States to get better incidence or attribution numbers.

Call me crazy, but I think that’s a shame.

How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy - The Atlantic

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:08:45 -0500

How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy - The Atlantic:

Very interesting article on the real research that is proving that the T. gondii parasite carried by cats might be responsible for a host of mental disorders and (maybe) even traffic accidents.

Before you freak out, read this:

“Indoor cats pose no threat, he says, because they don’t carry the parasite. As for outdoor cats, they shed the parasite for only three weeks of their life, typically when they’re young and have just begun hunting. During that brief period, Flegr simply recommends taking care to keep kitchen counters and tables wiped clean. (He practices what he preaches: he and his wife have two school-age children, and two outdoor cats that have free roam of their home.) Much more important for preventing exposure, he says, is to scrub vegetables thoroughly and avoid drinking water that has not been properly purified, especially in the developing world, where infection rates can reach 95 percent in some places. Also, he advises eating meat on the well-done side—or, if that’s not to your taste, freezing it before cooking, to kill the cysts.”

Despite the hate some people have for them, I still really like...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:29:12 -0500

Despite the hate some people have for them, I still really like how our navigation and top-level landing pages turned out.

Pee Wee Herman

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:31:36 -0500

I loved him as a kid, but seeing him now? I just feel bad for Paul Ruebans. I don’t think his modern version is funny or entertaining. I just see sadness behind those eyes.

Plus, the voice is all wrong.

Don’t be dumb Warner Brothers. Also, who is jacking up...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:26:18 -0500

Don’t be dumb Warner Brothers.

Also, who is jacking up Youtube videos on Facebook? Did Facebook make them uglier or did Youtube do something?

KaBOOM! has Summer interships!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:32:00 -0500

KaBOOM! has Summer interships!:

kaboom:

Washington D.C. Internships

Alumni Program Intern - Develop a community that have been part of a KaBOOM! Build.

Community Engagement Intern - Train, support, and help. create opportunities for grassroots playground building and activism.

Outreach Intern - Find the communities where KaBOOM! will build our next playground.

San Mateo, CA or Washington D.C. Internships

Philanthropy Intern - Develop our growing network of individuals and foundations to help support KaBOOM!.

Project Management Intern - Build playgrounds!

Some tips for applying to KaBOOM!:

Be quick and smart.

No, be much quicker and smarter than that.

See how we spell KaBOOM!? All caps, with the lowercase a, and the exclamation point? Do that in any thing you submit to us.

Brush up on your Excel, Word, and Powerpoint skills.

I should have went to law school

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:18:58 -0500

I should have went to law school

Introducing Google Chrome for Android

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:45:36 -0500

Introducing Google Chrome for Android:

MUTHERFUCKER! It’s 4.0 (ICS) only.

I am genuinely excited for Amazing Spider-man. It looks like...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:00:14 -0500

I am genuinely excited for Amazing Spider-man. It looks like they are finally going to make Peter Parker funny like he is in comics, instead of someone who looks sad all the time.

HOWEVER!

Can we please leave his fucking mask on for one of these movies?