Global Warming is an issue of National Security

I've been saying this for a while now, though maybe not here... but here's a great excerpt from the daily Talking Points e-mail I get from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, citing the growing concern our nation's military experts have around the security issues posed by Global Warming...

"Global warming is not just an environmental issue any more -- our national security is at stake. A team of retired military generals, including the former Army chief of staff and Bush's former chief Middle East negotiator, released a study last week on how "global climate change presents a serious national security threat that could affect Americans at home, impact U.S. military operations and heighten global tensions." "The report warned that in the next 30 to 40 years there will be wars over water, increased hunger instability from worsening disease and rising sea levels and global warming-induced refugees." But while national security is threatened, the Bush administration has continued to pay only lip service to combating the problem. Shirking his electoral promise to curb carbon dioxide emissions, greenhouse gas emissions have steadily increased during Bush's tenure, giving the United States the dubious title of being the "world's largest source of greenhouse gases.""

Superman beware! Kryptonite discovered in Serbia!

zomg! Superman's dewmed!!!

From salon.com's AP feed: http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8ON3J900.html

New Mineral Has Kryptonite Composition
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April 24,2007 LONDON -- A mineral recently discovered in Serbia has the same composition as kryptonite -- the fictional substance that robs Superman of his powers -- the British Museum said Tuesday.

While the material is not a perfect match, its chemical breakdown is strikingly similar.

A drill core of the unusual mineral was unearthed in Serbia by the mining group Rio Tinto PLC, which turned it over to mineral expert Chris Stanley at the Natural History Museum for analysis.

"Towards the end of my research I searched the Web using the mineral's chemical formula, sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, and was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor from a museum in the film 'Superman Returns,'" Stanley said.

The material is white, powdery and not radioactive -- unlike the glowing green crystals usually depicted in the Superman comics. It will be formally named Jadarite when it is described in the European Journal of Mineralogy later this year.

Approximately 30 to 40 new minerals are discovered each year, the museum said, although usually only in the form of a few grains only visible under the microscope.
--__
On the Net:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/

My dance with Vicodin

Hooboy. So I had my bike accident 2 weeks ago now, and I've been off work (on short-term disability) and on vicodin for the pain since. I was supposed to return to work this week on a 50% basis, which required me to travel to DC and San Diego. Now, vicodin is a highly addictive narcotic, apparently, and that's had me a bit worried. The last thing I want is to become a junkie. =P So in an attempt to stave off an addiction, I decided to stop taking vicodin after popping one on Sunday morning before my 5-hr flight from SF to DC.

And yeah, that only lasted ~48 hrs. I spent Monday in pain, experiencing chills and slight nausea during the day. That night I napped from 6-10pm due to exhaustion and pain. But then I couldn't fall asleep again till 5am, and lay there, a slightly twitching, nervous wreck until I finally fell asleep. I had to fly out on Tuesday morning from DC to San Diego, and a couple hours into the flight I caved in and popped a vicodin. I couldn't fall asleep because of my general discomfort, and I knew I had a day of work ahead of me. So I decided sleep would be critical for me to be successful with my rough week, and thus took the pill. Good news is I slept like a baby.

Bad news... I may have made things worse. I couldn't fall asleep on Tuesday night (or rather, slept fitfully with weird paranoia and nightmares) until I popped a vicodin. And then I slept in majorly on Weds. So Weds morning I talk to my boss about whether I should be returning to work so quickly. He's had numerous back surgeries and based on his experience he thinks I shouldn't be rushing back to work. He also tells me that it only takes 2 weeks to develop a vicodin addiction. Oh, what a coincidence... that's how long I was taking it!

So... I'm going to start pounding Advil for the next few days, and keep off the vicodin. I'm also going to schedule an appt with my doctor to see about the best way to manage the pain for the next few weeks while I continue to heal. My shoulder/collarbone still hurts, but the main pain is in my lower back (though that could be phantom... hold on and I'll tell you why). So I want to figure out what the root of the problem is and attack that. But meanwhile, I'm going to do 50% work schedule until mid-May, just to make sure I'm not pushing myself so hard I end up with permanent damage. So... wish me luck!

Here are some fun facts about Graeme on vicodin, based on vicodin's wikipedia entry.

Side effects include: decreased sex drive and constipation, both of which I’ve experienced. Yes, right as I'm having my first real relationship with Daywalker... more on him to come, I swear.

Withdrawal symptoms include: restlessness, muscle pain, bone pain, insomnia, runny nose, loss of appetite, irritability, panic, depression, chills, and sweating. All of which I’ve experienced in the last few days.

The withdrawal symptoms haven't been too bad, so I doubt I'm addicted yet. And honestly, I haven't felt any of the euphoria that vicodin's supposed to induce; I've only noticed the painkilling. I haven't once wanted to take the vicodin because it makes me feel good; only because I wanted to numb the pain. So I expect that psychologically I could sub in high doses of Advil or Tylenol and do just fine. It's likely my body won't like that, but if I made it through 48-hrs of no vicodin after 2 weeks of using it, I should be able to stop by the end of this week of minimal usage as long as I can sub in something else for the pain. Right?

It's the end of the world as we know it...

... and I feel fine!

New favorite website: http://www.armageddononline.org/ Why? Cause it's fun to speculate!

Why I don't live in the Marina!

So back in October when Leah and I were looking at places to live in the city, I steadfastly refused to live in the Marina. I wasn't interested in risking liquefaction during an earthquake and being swallowed whole by the earth beneath, as actually happened in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Of course, Leah totally made fun of me, saying that only non-Californians think about that sort of thing, and that it'd be like her being afraid of tornados if she moved to Illinois. Of course, there are never tornados in Chicago, so it's something you can avoid by living there. But whatever. =P

Anyways.... I've been watching this documentary on the Loma Prieta earthquake that hit NorCal in 1989, and it's been really fascinating. One of the things I knew is that the Marina district was created by landfill. But why? Well, in 1915, San Francisco wanted to change the world's opinion of SF from victim-of-massive-earthquake to, well, anything else. So the city hosted the Panama Pacific International Exposition, a major world event that required massive construction of both temporary and permanent buildings. Actually, one of the goals was to make SF a major Pacific port, and for whatever reason, to do this they needed to fill in the marshy Marina. So they did... and they filled it in with... wait for it... debris from the 1906 earthquake.

OMG, the irony. So 83 years later, when an earthquake hits 70 miles south of SF, the Marina is one of the hardest hit in the entire Bay Area, because it was built on landfill... landfill created from the remains of the last major earthquake to hit SF. Insanity!!!

So yeah... instead I now live in South Beach, which is also landfill. =P But we're in a high-rise which was built in 2005 or so, and it's allegedly been pile-driven down into the bedrock. So as long as I'm in my apt when the big one hits, I should be ok. =D

Google Maps: Crossing the Pond

I got this forward from my friend Sue... try it! Hi-larious!

===============================================

This is too good not to share, enjoy! This is actually not a joke, but is pretty funny.

Follow These Steps [in order of course]
1. go to www.google.com
2. click on maps
3. click on get directions
4. go from "new york" to "paris, france"
5. scroll down in the directions to number 23 and read

It's just that easy! LOL

Fucking Shitballs

Yeah, that's a new phrase I've been using a LOT lately. And I totally made it up. Let's see how far I can get it to spread!

And I just told Daywalker that, and he was like, "oh.... kudos?"

So maybe that's how all of you are feeling right now, too. If so... fuck you! Hahaha. =P

Coffee: you've won, damn you!

OK, as of 2 weeks ago, I officially gave in to one of my long-standing enemies: coffee.

For years, I fought the addiction. In college I would only drink coffee when I had to pull an all-nighter, and then I'd only need like 16 oz to keep me wired for 18 hours straight (since I never really drank pop or other caffeinated bevvies, coffee easily affected me). I was determined to be my own man... I didn't want to submit to coffee's siren lure, and be like everyone else on the planet: useless and cranky without a cuppa joe.

But... over the last few years of work, I'd slowly started to give in... a cup here to perk me up, a cup there as an excuse to socialize with co-workers. Usually, I'd order chai lattes in lieu of the demon brew, but the occasional mocha would slip in.

A year or 2 ago, I started to order cappucinos after dinner out at a nice restaurant. It seemed like a great companion to a slice of chocolate cake, or some palate-cleansing sorbet. I didn't realize that coffee's strategy had changed from the standard brute-force morning assault to this more insidious evening ploy.

But coffee was smart. With the occasional morning drink, and the ever-more-frequent daytime socialization cup, and the increasingly common after dinner cappucino treat, coffee was slowly insinuating itself into my life. A few weeks ago, it finally struck me: I've become a regular coffee drinker.

I swear I have no idea when I crossed that threshhold from casual user to regular abuser. Maybe it was when I started relying on coffee to help me stay awake at work in the mornings. Maybe it's when I read that 8 cups a day doesn't actually raise your blood pressure. Or maybe it was when I bought that grinder and french press for my house (better than a drip brewer; but I swear I bought them for guests to use!).

But once the realization hit, it was like a giant weight had lifted from my shoulders. The decades-long struggle was over... and I had lost. I feel a small sadness that I've conceded defeat... but as I sit here drinking a home-made mocha brewed in my Bosum french press, with beans I bought from Peet's... I'm really not sure I care.

Movie: Blood Diamond

So I saw the movie Blood Diamond on Friday night. Holy crap, was it intense. I was expecting something indie-esque and low budget, but it was a full-on hollywood blockbuster, with all the gun battles and explosions a red-blooded American could want. Except.... a lot of the gun battles were of civilians getting mowed down by psychopaths... and a lot of the explosions were of buses filled with journalists.

So yeah... it's not a happy movie. But the story it tells of Sierra Leone and the rebellion that was fueled by the irrational western lust for sparkley wedding rocks is incredibly powerful. The acting was solid, the staging and cinematography were fantastic... Amazingly, it wasn't filmed in Vancouver, but was actually filmed in Sierra Leone (and some South Africa and Mozambique). And it looks like a lot of African actors were used. Good job using local talent!

All in all it was a phenomenal movie well worth seeing. So do yourself a favor and rent it.

Clavicle Schmavicle

I broke my clavicle on Sunday. I was out biking with Kelly, trying to get into the habit of biking a couple times a week in preparation for my summer bike trip through Europe. We started from her house up in the NW part of the city (by Land's End), and decided to cross the bridge and head to the Marin Headlands Institute at Fort Chronkite. A nice ~20-mile ride, which was a good distance for me to start back in.

Well, on the way back we were headed through the 5-minute tunnel... it's a one-lane car tunnel that has bike lanes in both directions. Kelly let me go in front because I like to go fast downhill. And fast I went! I was up to ~38 mph at one point, basically pacing the cars next to me. As we emerged from the tunnel, this car in front of me started to drift a bit into my lane. I got nervous and braked, moving a bit towards the curb. Well, either I hit a patch of sand or my rear tire blew... either way I lost control of my bike... struggling to stay up, I hit the curb and somersaulted along the grassy edge into some bushes. I really don't remember details... it was all a crazy blur.

I was totally dazed, and next thing I knew there were people all around me asking if I was alright. Cars were stopped everywhere, and Kelly was rolling up shouting "that's my friend!!" I tried to make sure she saw me giving her the OK symbol with my fingers, cause I didn't want her to worry, even though I couldn't really speak and still wasn't sure what was going on. Finally, I sat up, and tried to assess the situation. I was sore all over. All the car passengers were really kind and concerned; one guy (I think the driver of the drifting car) offered me advil he had in the car. I turned him down because I was worried that I might need something more powerful, and the advil would interfere with the paramedics ability to dose me themselves.

A park ranger who'd randomly been driving by had stopped, and helped me and Kelly get to the other side of the road. He got traffic moving again, and asked if we wanted an ambulance. For a few mins I contemplated biking back to Kelly's (~8 miles, over the GG bridge), but decided it would be smarter to take the ambulance. I was seriously thinking how expensive it was all going to be... :(

So the ambulance picked me up and took me to St. Mary's, only because it's the only hospital I know of in the city (it's near Roger's on Stanyan!). The ranger drove Kelly and the bikes back to her place, and she met up with me later at St. Mary's ER. At the ER, they kept me sitting around for ~4 hrs in pain... the paramedic thought I'd done something to my rotator cuff, which was prioritized lower than a lot of the other people in there (rightly so; some were like 80+ years old and looked pretty bad). A couple hrs in, I got xrayed, and the technician caught the fracture in my clavicle, and decided that it wasn't a shoulder problem at all. She was right.... good call.

In the end, they put my right arm in a sling, gave me some vicoden and a prescription for more, and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for a follow-up on whether I'd need surgery (eep!). After 4 hours there I was getting up to leave, and as I stood up I started to black out. You know how sometimes when you sit too long, and you stand up, and you get those black speckles in your vision and you realize you need to sit back down right quick? Well, it was like a super-charged version of that. Kelly said I went visibly pale. The nurse offered to get me food; I hadn't eaten much that day, and although Kelly snuck me a banana and some cliff bar, my blood sugar must still have been dangerously low.

So the nurse hooked me up with OJ, chocolate milk, graham crackers and peanut butter. OH MY GOD that was the best food I'd ever eaten.

After the hospital, Kelly took me to Thai Stick 2001 in Pac Heights and we got like 10 different things for take-out. We headed back and gorged, and I sent out e-mails to people at work telling them I wouldn't be in. I had actually called my boss from the hospital to let him know... I didn't even tell my family I'd been hurt until Tuesday. Is that sick? I'm not sure.... seems like it should be considered messed up.

In the end I slept... though the vicoden had remarkably little effect on my awakeness. I actually stayed up late with a beautiful painter I'd met on Friday night... he took care of me during an incredibly vulnerable time for me and it was one of the most romantic and deeply touching nights I've ever had... but more on that another time. ;)