Bugs in your gut! This stuff always fascinates me.

Careful with those antibiotics! I like to eat yogurt after I’ve had antibiotics. Luckily not often.

Exercise helps your brain! Not the first time I’ve read this sort of thing, and mentioned it here.

Tracking cancer cells over time! As someone interested potentially in radiology, imaging techniques are cool, plus this is just neat generally.

And not science, but it’s pretty cool how Prop 8 activism has sprouted up on its own. More of this sort of thing, please.

*sigh* :/

I shudder to think of a ‘Bush is Beautiful’ or ‘McCain is Beautiful’ song… thank goodness it’s only a feverish function of my mind driving me to even imagine such a thing…

For years, the California Christian-right apparatus, long hampered by nativism and racism, had been unable to make inroads into the state’s brown, yellow and black populations–a demographic gold mine in a state that is more than 50 percent minority and growing. Prop 8 may prove to be their gold rush. From the beginning they bought up ad space in Chinese, black, Spanish and Korean media; they hosted massive rallies for ethnic Christians…

Feminism still has a way to go (duh.)

The president-elect’s bio is built around a story of pulling himself up by his bootstraps and forging a public service career. Michelle [Obama]’s bio, on the other hand, leads with the comforting news that she puts her children first — no Hillary-style meddling in politics for this first lady! It defines Michelle Obama primarily by her personal relationship to others… Of course, this tone shouldn’t be surprising. The job of the first lady is, essentially, to fulfill arch-traditional wifely expectations.

UPDATE: Although, as Sara reminded me, if this is her choice, well that’s feminism in action. To assume it isn’t is the sexist position, devaluing the work of wives and mothers everywhere. And, as it seems plenty of commenters are pointing this out, both there and at Ezra’s, my bad for jumping on the bandwagon. Still, as Echidne says in a comment, her original post was simply to point out that First Lady has no paycheck, which, really, does seem wrong.

Racial mutts go!

During Obama’s first press conference as president-elect, he answered a question about his intention to buy a dog for the family… He explained … they would have to get a hypoallergenic dog. He also said that they wanted to get a dog from a shelter, where most of the dogs are “mutts, like me.”

During the campaign, Obama’s biraciality was lost except as a marketing tool to reassure white voters. …it’s clear from Obama’s off-hand remark that being a mutt is never far from his conception of who he is.

Obama will be our first black president. But while the rapture of black voters has been given the attention it deserves, what this means to the mutts has been lost…

Finally, a sign of the slow progress of generations, FWIW.

At the same time, I think, while there is truth to the schism in progress between the white & black communities when it comes to acknowledging homosexuality, it’s a bit disgraceful to me to be scapegoating the black community, without much factual basis, for what really seems to me to be a lagging behind of the gay civil rights movement in comparison with, say, the feminist or race movements.

Homophobia is everywhere, and clinging to a bit of racism to release your anger and bitterness over this deplorable amendment is petty and sad at best. And I’m not the only one that thinks so (though I’ve said it with perhaps the least eloquence, thought or effort).

The end goal is political change for civil equality. But the battle is a cultural one, a fight to make people see they are wrong to deny said equality. Religious and cultural beliefs are the only basis for any and all objection to any progressive views on gender and relationships. You can’t hang that on any one segment of the population, especially when the numbers don’t support it.

Unless of course you really don’t want to win - because then, please, by all means, drive as hard a wedge as you want between yourselves and whatever other cohesive communities you wish to alienate.

Prop 8’s passing just proves there’s still work to be done on the cultural front. Liberals & libertarians of all colors & stripes really need to engage each other, unite and push forward on this current civil rights frontier, to recognize the right of anyone to form a legal contract with any consenting adult they want, and reap the civil benefits to which such an expression of commitment and love should entitle them.

The fight must continue ever onward, against the disfranchisement, heartache and pain felt from inequality. Inequality for which no reasonable person can construct an argument. Onward into this and the next cultural frontiers, including transgender rights, multiple civil partners, furries, you name it. There’s plenty of frontiers left wherever any inequality exists, and each one must be fought with renewed vigor.

…for now, the flashpoint in the culture wars is gay rights, and I have to say, as wonderful as yesterday might’ve been, losing Prop 8 hit me hard. That California would vote for a black president with a margin of 61-37 and then shit on gays was horrifically disappointing. We have a long way to go. The anti-Prop 8 campaign wasn’t helped by a shoddy operation that most observers who interacted with it admit was incompetent and ill-suited to wage a statewide campaign. While the Mormon Church flooded the state with ground troops for the fight, our side had no ground game. Inexcusable, but borne out of a complacency that I myself shared. No longer.

I admit, I was feeling run down yesterday, crawling across the finish line after a long marathon. Losing the Prop 8 battle has re-energized me. I’m ready for a rematch in 2010.

Perhaps the best solution, and one mentioned before, is to give all couples civil union licenses. Gay or straight, it’s irrelevant. Then leave the “marriage” thing up to individual churches. They can decide if they want to be bigots or not.

And let me also question the use of the word “couples” … any 2 or more people who want to enter into relationships recognized by the state and reap appropriate benefits should be allowed to.

kos continues:

But I doubt that happens anytime soon. So it’s more likely that we’ll get to do this all over again in 2010, fighting and arguing and spending tens of millions of dollars over whether it’s still okay, in this day and age, to discriminate against an entire class of people. If nothing else, there will be more of us, and less of them in two years:

CNN exit poll

Vote by Age

            Yes    No
18-29 (20%)  39    61
30-44 (28%)  55    45
45-64 (36%)  54    46
65+   (15%)  61    39

That’s why the Mormon Church and their bigoted allies are so desperate in this fight. Young people aren’t afraid of the gays. They’re on the losing side of history.

And I’m not just ready for this fight, I’m eager for it.

Good. Good.

Still, I am a little excited and optimistic. He really does seem like an above average Democrat, coming at a time featuring (and raised up by, really) above average intelligence and activism in the left generally and the Democratic Party specifically, thanks, I feel, in no small part to the rise of liberal bloggers over the past six years or so. It kinda feels like Obama did what I’d hoped Dean would do in 2004, but he didn’t even make it through half the primary. Go country, you’ve changed and it’s good.

The real story, the real historic moment, it seems to me, is that, while Obama has the makings of a good President, almost anyone could have run and win right now. Because, my holy god in heaven Bush is a horrible president, and people have finally been waking up to that. No, not everyone, but enough of them. Really, worst president ever doesn’t begin to cover it.

I’m exaggerating to say anyone could have won. It’s not really true. Because, while I agree with a commenter over at Ezra’s that hope like this may be a bit premature, Ezra is at least right that it’s unique to Obama and his campaign that hope is even possible, after the utter disaster of the last eight years.

I mean, really, I didn’t realize how horrible it was until now, when I feel such unexpected relief from the idea of responsible, capable citizens getting back some control.

UPDATE:

Yeah, this is what I meant, pretty much. It’s true that there’s great significance in finally having a black president, but the news stories focusing so much on that ignores equally if not more urgent issues. And it’s sad, but hopefully motivating for progressive activists and infrastructure. The color of Obama’s skin isn’t what’s promising about him or the people who put him where he is, and the left’s work isn’t done yet.

Nevertheless, it worked, and it’s fermenting, but after a day and a half of furious bubblin, it’s slowed waaaayy down. This could be a stuck fermentation, most likely due to not properly aerating the wort before adding the yeast, since the WindRiver instructions don’t cover this. I guess they assume their “mix the wort” bit will do enough, but I feel I know better now.

I have thought of opening the fermenter and stirring it a little to add some oxygen, and then adding more yeast to try to complete the fermentation at least a bit more. This risks oxidation of some fermented compounds, which can make the beer taste off, and most people suggest just leaving it a while, bottling it, and letting it age. Part of me wants to go ahead and risk it to see if I can up the alcohol content, but I’m not sure if adding yeast will also then affect the flavor to make it more yeasty. They should settle out in aging, but now I’m talking about upping my aging time, too.

I think I should just accept that this was a “training” round of brewing and, now I have done it once, I know how I want to do the next one.

Speaking of, my next attempt, which I will hopefully begin in just over 2 weeks, will be a double chocolate stout. Gonna let it sit in the fermenter 3 weeks, then transfer it to a secondary carboy (big bottle) for further fermentation and clarification another month. This should have me bottling it just after the new year. I’ll probably drink a bit, but mostly I intend to let it sit until mid-to-late February, for a special event

Meanwhile, after I get the stout into the secondary and have my primary fermenter free again, I’ll start with my first “I thought about it” experiment, another dark ale, which should be ready to drink by mid January. Together with the first one, that should be enough for a beer party, though really they should both probably age more and I should postpone that further…

Problem: Bucket too full. (Is probly walrus’ fault somehow.) Yeast has foamed into airlock and gas pressure is having trouble escaping. Lid pushed open.

Solution: Quickly prepare bleach solution and sanitize a ladle. Use it to remove half a gallon of liquid from the bucket. Replace lid, clean & replace airlock, and hope for the best while cleaning a bit of splatter off the floor.

Not only do I really need to make sure I have less liquid next time, I should do this on a Friday or Saturday so the first day or so of fermenting doesn’t upset a Monday like this. :-/

I am absolutely amazed that within 5-6 hours the airlock was bubbling away with CO2 production. If my sanitation was good enough, that’s mostly, if not all, due to the brewer’s yeast. It’s also noisy, and since the fermenter was too full, colorful. I had to drain some wort and remove the airlock to refresh it with vodka twice. At 4 AM. Much to Alex’s chagrin.

This brew was from a “brown ale” kit containing 3.3 lbs each of amber malt extract and dark malt extract (see “Black Bear Brown Ale” here). My addition, as a first-time brewer, was 16 oz clover honey, 1 lb brown sugar, and 0.5 lb ready oats, boiled and simmered about 30 min. The oats were chunky in the wort as it was heating to boil so I used our strainer to sift out most of the grain matter.

Potential contamination points: the strainer I used to sift out the oats; the spoon I was using to stir as it wasn’t quite big enough for the pot and quantity of liquid, so could have transferred buggies from my hand; the fermenter and its lid may have gotten some contamination between sanitizing with bleach and filling with liquids … and finally, New York water may have provided some buggies of its own.

The chief surprise was that the fermenter doesn’t smell so much as make noise as the yeasties pump CO2 through the airlock. Nothing to do now but wait, and remove a bit of liquid here & there as the pressure increases. Thank goodness the drum tap seal is holding!

A careful reading of the article tells us that this title and summary are misleading. The only thing the research really tells us is that babies can tell the difference between two groups of music previously identified by the researchers as “happy” or “sad,” which means that the researches and the babies can both identify some sort of commonalities that the researchers also identified.

It’s still interesting, but it doesn’t have anything to do with “happy” or “sad,” only with the common ways adult humans categorize musical techniques and styles.