True Activism

I thought what these two guys are doing is just Jim Dandy.

If you click on the title link, you'll be taken to Democracy Now, which showcases an interview with the Yes Men. The Yes Men are political activists who mask themselves as legitimate corporate spokespeople and make announcements that they believe these companies should be doing.

In the clip above, one of the Yes Men poses as a spokesman for Dow Chemical and apologizes to the people of Bhopal, India for the mess their subsidy, Union Carbide made years ago. He goes on to say how the people will be compensated for their disabilities and for the pollution of their homes caused by Union Carbide.

Happy 8th & 5th

As of the 22nd, my blog is 5 years old ! Yahoo! I haven't done a whole lot with it, but I'm satisfied with what I have.

In a few days, I will have been with my g/f for 8 years! Woot~

We will be visiting Chi-town to mark our anniversary and actually be taking in the city. We've been there many times for concerts, but with the exception of one visit to a museum, we haven't actually experienced it. Stops include the Shedd Aquarium, Natural History Museum, the Science Museum - really only for the Harry Potter exhibit, and many different food joints, including one that serves one her favorites - phở, a type of Vietnamese noodle soup. During the Top Chef Masters competition, we were rooting for Rick Bayless and he won! We had already planned a visit to one of his Chicago area restaurants, but now we're worried we may not get in, because I'm sure he'll be packed for a long time now! The particular restaurant we are going to doesn't take reservations, though, so we have a change, and won't mind waiting for this chef's awesome eats! Try the Frontera brand salsas - they are so awesomely tasty!

Politcal Rant

Don't read it. Unless of course....

We live in a country of the free, yet we are all chained whether or not we like to admit it; chained into complacency. The state of America is deteriorating. Close minded fools are getting their wish of "keep these immigrants away from my land and my job" as fewer and fewer internationals are coming here to start new businesses to help build our economy. They would deny these people searching for the same freedom their ancestors came here for because of fear, hate, and greed.

Hedonism and selfishness rules the American mind. We live in one of the richest countries in the world, yet we have homeless and children without health care! What of our health care system? Blocks abound! We can't afford universal health care because we just gave all of our money to the same people who put us in this predicament - the same people who are still making record profits, the same people who are swaying government law making and policy. When is our revolution going to come? When is enough going to be enough? It's going to be the common man against the elite and big business. If so many of us weren't obsessed with money, we wouldn't be where we are today. "Why should I pay for someone who doesn't want to work?" Do you honestly think there many who would take advantage of the system like that? Ask yourself! Doesn't everyone you know, even the unemployed in this cold economic climate, search for work? Yes! I don't know one person, unless they are working towards graduate school. There are few who would, I'm not naive, but not enough to truly affect everything the way these fools think.

Bah! I'm done with this!

Molar-ity - A Small Lesson in Chemistry

I don't know if this has been studied in any peer review journals, but drawing from my knowledge of science, it seems that this would work.

After you drink a soda/pop/high fructose corn syrup infused carbonated phosphoric acid beverage, whatever your chosen vernacular, swish your mouth with water a couple of times - hell, drink a full glass of water, swishing as you go.

Why, you ask? Well, my friend, read on! I'll try not to make this too complex - you have my apologies if I do. I don't know the scientific knowledge of my readership either, so if I sound condescending, than I am sorry.

Phosphoric acid, which is the main acid in most dark pops, is highly acidic; we're talking a pH of 1-2.5 - think battery acid. Yes, you may not consider it when you drink it, pop is acid - that in and of itself is hard to wrap your mind around sometimes - millions of people drink highly sugared acid as a treat.

Now, acid is present as free radical hydrogen molecules in an aqueous solution - the more hydrogens, the more acidic the solution (the chemical equation for phosphoric acid is H3PO4, although the amount of oxidation [loss of hydrogen] varies in solution, you can see that the chemical has 3 potential acid hydrogens). Molarity in a chemical solution is the concentration of molecules of a given chemical in that solution. High molarity of phosphoric acid means that there's fewer water molecules and more chemical molecules, in our case with pop, we have high concentration of phosphoric acid molecules relative to the amount of water and other constituents of saliva.

I don't have a can of pop in front of me, but I know that the main ingredient is water, so one, maybe two, of those hydrogens per phosphoric acid molecule are floating around in there. When you drink pop, however, the higher molarity of acid in pop changes the pH of your saliva, effectively turning your mouth acidic (more so). If you drink some water after you finish the pop (dentist tip: every time you sip, it takes 20 minutes for your body to bring your oral pH to equilibrium - thanks, Dr. Wintheiser), the molarity of your newly acidic mouth, I postulate, should drop dramatically, and while the pH of your mouth will still be low, your body can more easily tune the pH back to its normal level.

Unfortunately, I can't think of what to do about the sugar. Sugar is also the big enemy in tooth decay. The bacteria in your mouth use it to make acid to dissolve your enamel, leading to cavities. You may suggest drinking sugar free pop to get around it, and that's fine, but I prefer to veer away from aspartame and other man-made chemicals as much as possible.

So there you have it a somewhat quick lesson in chemistry. Hope it didn't read like a Ben Stein lecture.

Electrified

Yesterday, for the first time in years, I rocked out. I mean, really rocked out.

I organized a jam session for yesterday with a buddy from work a few weeks back. I was a bit nervous not only because I never really jammed with anyone outside of my close friends and that was years ago, but also because I'm a nerdy unconfident man. Over the years I honed my skills as a drummer, and I've been sort of writing music on guitar, but I'm much less adept at the stringed instrument than the skinned instrument. My buddy rents a house and has roomates so that further added to my nervousness - I'm very much the perfectionist and was wondering how badly I might suck or how their opinions of my skills would form.

At first, it was just my friend and I. I played a little guitar and he was on the drums. After about 5-10 minutes, we switched as my knowledge of the guitar was a little lacking. That's when the magic happened. We played a few things and one of his roomates, who also happens to play guitar stepped in, and we really went to town. I tend to get too excited and optimistic about things in general, but the whole experience was very cool. The two guys have written quite a few tunes, and I improved drum parts to all of them. The general concensus was that it was fun and we plan on doing it again. Perhaps we will form a band?