This year for lent I'm giving up the snooze button. My personal best(?) is 4 hours. Granted sometimes I'm overzealous about what time I think I'm going to get up so I can get stuff done in the mornings. Regardless, I'm hoping giving up the snooze button with force me to think about what time I need to be at work the next day, becaues now I use the method, 'eh, I'll get there when I get up.' And that doesn't really result in my getting to work before 10am ever. Granted my colleagues don't care and my work day is rather flexible, but getting there eariler would allow me to leave earlier meaning I can also stop being late for things like Blasorchester practice.
Along with giving up the snooze button, I'm going to try to not be late to anything. Even if I get up on the first buzz, I sometimes still sit around (usually on the computer) and end up leaving the house significantly later than I had originally planned. And I have a problem underestimating the time it will take me to get places.
Of course, I'm off to a great start considering I hit snooze twice this morning. But I didn't think of until the ride to work this morning. So now the big test will be whether or not I'm late to practice tonight.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Fahrradsicherheit
You haven't heard many bike-tales from me lately not because I'm getting the hang of finding my way around Berlin, or that I've learned how to safely maneuver around curbs and pedestrians, but because once again I got a flat tire...and it's been cold. Also, the two weeks that Monika and Dieter were on vacation, Dieter gave me his Monatskarte so I could ride the subway for free. And since it was January and therefore pretty cold, I took advantage of it. But this time instead of paying 20 euro to have some guy put in a new tube, I bought a repair kit and Miki fixed it for me.
And if fixing bike tires isn't reason enough to love him, hopefully this next bit will win your approval.
Fahrradsicherheit = bicycle safety
Before I blew out my tire again, I was biking to work from Monika and Dieter's (which is less than 4 km away; a nice break from the normal 10+) so that Miki could have the run of the city while I was at work. During this small window of time, my lights officially ceased to function. The front one had been working on and off for about a month, and the back light never worked. This was unacceptable to Miki. My lack of helmet was also unacceptable. When we were in Kaufland buying a water cooker to replace the one I melted, (that's a great story) we looked for bike lights. The lights he had in mind weren't there, but there were helmets. Despite my childish protests about it 'not being cool', Miki clearly wasn't leaving until I picked one out. The next morning he got up and made sure I went to the bike store to buy lights before I went to work (so that I would have them for the ride home). Oh, and he also reminded me to wear my helmet when I 'forgot' it on the way out. I had to borrow 5 euro from him to pay for the lights since they were more expensive than I had expected and the Fahrrad shop doesn't take Visa. When I tried to pay him back he turned it down and said "Consider it my contribution to your Fahrradsicherheit."
So Mom, I have a helmet now! I continue to wear it regularly; it's not as uncool as I originally thought.
And if fixing bike tires isn't reason enough to love him, hopefully this next bit will win your approval.
Fahrradsicherheit = bicycle safety
Before I blew out my tire again, I was biking to work from Monika and Dieter's (which is less than 4 km away; a nice break from the normal 10+) so that Miki could have the run of the city while I was at work. During this small window of time, my lights officially ceased to function. The front one had been working on and off for about a month, and the back light never worked. This was unacceptable to Miki. My lack of helmet was also unacceptable. When we were in Kaufland buying a water cooker to replace the one I melted, (that's a great story) we looked for bike lights. The lights he had in mind weren't there, but there were helmets. Despite my childish protests about it 'not being cool', Miki clearly wasn't leaving until I picked one out. The next morning he got up and made sure I went to the bike store to buy lights before I went to work (so that I would have them for the ride home). Oh, and he also reminded me to wear my helmet when I 'forgot' it on the way out. I had to borrow 5 euro from him to pay for the lights since they were more expensive than I had expected and the Fahrrad shop doesn't take Visa. When I tried to pay him back he turned it down and said "Consider it my contribution to your Fahrradsicherheit."
So Mom, I have a helmet now! I continue to wear it regularly; it's not as uncool as I originally thought.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Bioverfügbarkeit von PBDEs in Hausstaub
I just did a presentation at work about our project. Since I've never actually explained what it is I'm doing, now seems like a good time. I'll to make this as quick and painless as I can.
First, a translation of the title of the this post, which was also the title of my presentation: Bio availability of PBDEs in house dust.
Now a translation of that title: PBDEs = polybrominated diphenyl ethers. They look like this:
And can have anywhere from 1 - 10 Bromines on them.
In the late 1970s manufactures began using them on household things like furniture, carpet, and electronics as a fire retardant. This was all well and good until scientists noticed a dramatic increase in the number of cases of feline hyperthyroidism. (Cats with thyroid problems) They did further studies (some involving women and breast milk) and found that it is indeed these PBDEs that are the culprit.
In addition to thyroid problems, they have also been found to cause neurological developement problems in children and they are endocrine-disrupting.
In 2004 the EU (European Union) banned the production and usage as flame retardant of penta and octa PBDEs (the ones with 5 and 8 bromines on them) and the US only had one manufacturer of PBDEs so they agreed to also stop making them. However PBDE 209, which is deca PBDE is still at large.
This deca PBDE can break down into several other different types of PBDEs in the human body.
If you having a dusty home, you can breathe easy (hehe). Inhalation isn't that big of a deal. The main exposure route for people getting PBDEs into their system is hand to mouth contact. As you may have already concluded, it's worse for children since they go around licking everything and putting lots of things in their mouth.
**I don't know how paranoid some of you get, but before you go around disinfecting like a mad man, please note that most furniture and carpet today doesn't use PDBEs.**
Right now I am working with dust samples from the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST 2585). We made synthetic salivia, stomach, and intestinal juices. We've sort of created an in lab digestive system. We put 1 gram of dust through this system and see what comes out. At the end we're left with around 0.6 g of the original 1. And we've determined that somewhere from 10-40% of the PBDEs originally present in the dust are absorbed into the digestive tract. We have plenty more samples to work with and we need to continue to refine the method. But that is the basic jist of my work.
Oh, and the state of Washington has also caught on: link
First, a translation of the title of the this post, which was also the title of my presentation: Bio availability of PBDEs in house dust.
Now a translation of that title: PBDEs = polybrominated diphenyl ethers. They look like this:
And can have anywhere from 1 - 10 Bromines on them.
In the late 1970s manufactures began using them on household things like furniture, carpet, and electronics as a fire retardant. This was all well and good until scientists noticed a dramatic increase in the number of cases of feline hyperthyroidism. (Cats with thyroid problems) They did further studies (some involving women and breast milk) and found that it is indeed these PBDEs that are the culprit.
In addition to thyroid problems, they have also been found to cause neurological developement problems in children and they are endocrine-disrupting.
In 2004 the EU (European Union) banned the production and usage as flame retardant of penta and octa PBDEs (the ones with 5 and 8 bromines on them) and the US only had one manufacturer of PBDEs so they agreed to also stop making them. However PBDE 209, which is deca PBDE is still at large.
This deca PBDE can break down into several other different types of PBDEs in the human body.
If you having a dusty home, you can breathe easy (hehe). Inhalation isn't that big of a deal. The main exposure route for people getting PBDEs into their system is hand to mouth contact. As you may have already concluded, it's worse for children since they go around licking everything and putting lots of things in their mouth.
**I don't know how paranoid some of you get, but before you go around disinfecting like a mad man, please note that most furniture and carpet today doesn't use PDBEs.**
Right now I am working with dust samples from the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST 2585). We made synthetic salivia, stomach, and intestinal juices. We've sort of created an in lab digestive system. We put 1 gram of dust through this system and see what comes out. At the end we're left with around 0.6 g of the original 1. And we've determined that somewhere from 10-40% of the PBDEs originally present in the dust are absorbed into the digestive tract. We have plenty more samples to work with and we need to continue to refine the method. But that is the basic jist of my work.
Oh, and the state of Washington has also caught on: link
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