Sushi Cows

Apparently some creative Australians have figured how to breed bluefin tuna in conditions oddly reminiscent of Dubai:

"Using overhead lights to suggest the sun and moon, saltwater piped in from the ocean, artificial currents and temperature controls, the scientists have tried to re-create the experience of a spawning journey for the fish."

Andrew Leonard explains, "Awesome. Fish breeders rock."

Holistic approach to tuna reproduction notwithstanding, the Clean Seas company hedges:

"Oh, and, to get the reluctant female tuna to produce eggs, they were injected with hormones via spearguns."

Oh, how I hate her.

While I'm glad that Caribou Barbie no longer holds elected office, we now have the pleasure of viewing John McCain's former vice presidential candidate wearing spandex booty shorts in a national magazine (potentially disrespecting the American flag), discussing how she "knew [her] thighs were going to just throb."


Let's hope Joe Biden doesn't get any ideas.

Sigh...why does "Hockey Mama for Obama" remain relevant, even now?

AVID

Blog post from Mission Re-accomplished, a (recommended) blog written by a guy I knew in college currently serving in Iraq. Possibly one of the most amazing blog entries I've ever read. Hi-fucking-larious. Hats off to you, Mr. Lyon.

Arbitrary Victory in Iraq Day (AVID).

Also:

From Wired.com.

Holy shit.

U.S. pulls all of its combat troops out of Iraqi cities today (n.b.--over 120,000 troops remain in-country).

Eep.

Washington Post's take.
WashPost Opinion Piece.

NY Times' take.
NY Times Opinion Piece.

Economist's take.

Foreignpolicy.com

Jogging the Memory

Despite already being the unofficial mascot of Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com (see, e.g., Not having a TV, David Sedaris, microbreweries, awareness, tea, Barack Obama, coffee, Whole Foods, Liberal Arts degrees, Netflix, kitchen gadgets, irony, public radio, indie music, Arrested Development, The Colbert Report, sushi, Apple, breakfast, standing still at concerts, free healthcare, dogs, gorgeous Asian girls (2 of my wives--wait, did we ever make it official, Amelia?), study abroad (in Africa!), unpaid internships (also in Africa!), disliking high school, sea salt, resolving to learn a new language, hummus, sweaters, being offended, grammar, peculiar tattoos, and law school)--which I'm not proud of--I've now taken up jogging.

My neighbors can now look forward to seeing our favorite nice little white girl waddling through suburban Florida in bright blue New Balance shorts (no, I'm not joking), chanting, "they could not understand/that I'm a BLACK MAN/and I could never be a veteran..."

In my defense, Public Enemy is excellent workout music. I particularly recommend Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos and Fight the Power. You can steal both of these tracks from YouTube.

I taught myself to run last August in the Peace Corps because I was bored, stressed, homeless, and in need of a project, but quit in December after breaking my foot. I lost a fair amount of weight due to the regular exercise and lack of refrigeration, and feel like I looked pretty damn good around the end of November (though it's hard to improve upon perfection).

The ensuing six months between December and May were, erm, a fertile time for personal growth--which is to say, interesting but stressful. I admitted to myself that Peace Corps was not going to work out despite my best efforts, decided not to shorten my law school deferral, found a job from Botswana, had my NGO collapse around me, nearly got evicted, dropped out of the Peace Corps, backpacked South Africa solo, came home to Rockville, and moved to Florida three weeks later. Even though I approached my impending resignation systematically--establishing a backup plan, making lists, and sticking to a schedule--I took it hard, and my feelings on the overall experience remain conflicted. I've never invested so much of myself into something and had it fail quite so spectacularly.

I guess where I'm going with this is that I started running a little less than a year ago, really enjoyed it, lost some weight, stopped running, shit happened, gained it back, re-started my jogging habit, rinse and repeat. I've been doing about 25 miles a week (including 9 yesterday, which is probably why everything hurts) and am also watching my diet to expedite the process. Since this is me, the "diet and exercise" plan includes extensive notes, stacks of annotated research, 5 Excel sheets, multiple-variable graphs, and possibly a $350 handheld GPS device. So far I've lost 6 pounds, which means I'm almost 1/3 of the way there--27.3%, if we're being precise. And yes, I have a lot of free time.

Anyway, we'll see how this goes. Just when a lady thinks she can't get any whiter...

Who's a dork?

I covet.

Though really, I can't decide whether to covet either this or this (with the GPS attachment), since happiness is an investment and I would rather spend $300 on satellite-feed watchery than, say, rent.

Suffering.

I signed up for the Philly half-marathon today. Steph and I have talked about doing this for a while, but there's a difference between saying "Yeah, let's totally do it! Awesometastic fun time!" and, like, registering for the thing.

Gchat conversation with Dan:

me: this is going to hurt.

Daniel: i'd think so.