Fit Ottawa

Well I was going to do a big write-up about who you should vote for in the upcoming election but I’ve been saved the trouble. First of all, the polls indicate that the best man is winning. Second, this blogger has everything covered: darrendrmcewen.blogspot.com

Here’s my favourite bit, where he quotes one of our extreme right-wing city councillors:

“Alex Munter may be the nicest, smartest person you’re going to meet today,” says Councillor Jan Harder. “But that doesn’t mean he’ll be a good mayor.”

Now Jan, you should have stopped at just saying the “nicest” candidate might not necessarily make the best mayor but you had to add the “smartest” candidate might not make the best mayor???

This is gold! And just in case you’re thinking of voting for the “other guy,” check out this gem:

Larry O’Brien uttered a rather precarious comment during Thursday’s CFRA debate,
“A leader says ‘what’, not ‘how’”

Great, just what Ottawa needs… a pointy-haired mayor!

It’s been more than a year that we’ve all been ranting and raving about Quiznos not publicising their nutritional information. Well, along comes Yoni, an Ottawa-based nutrition blogger with a great blog (bmimdecial.blogspot.com).

He recently posted an entry pointing to Quiznos nutritional information in Australia.

I still don’t know the calorie count of my chicken carbonara sub, but a large Italian sub has 1600 calories!!! For comparison, a Burger King Double Whopper has 850 calories and an entire roasted chicken has 1579 calories. OMFG.

If you’re eating this stuff you’d better really really like it!

So… I haven’t been contributing to this blog much over the past half year or so. The reason? Well I’ve been spending my spare computer time working on a new-concept restaurant/food review site for Ottawa. Tonight I’m making it available to the general public. Check it out!

http://ottawafoodies.com

You can vote on restaurants or specific foods at specific restaurants. You can upload photos, maintain a list of favourite foods and vendors. You can also add things to a “wishlist” so you know which places you want to try. Sure, you can post reviews too.

Most importantly, this is the site that will answer questions like, “Where is the best sushi in Ottawa?” or, “Where can I buy barley malt extract?”

This Saturday past, I managed to get to the OC Transpo headquarters for their version of the Doors Open Ottawa open house and guided tour. Got there 20 minutes before closing (3:40pm) but ended up staying until almost 5pm because I hung out with a cool couple and their almost newborn baby so we got special “ok you guys can stay late” treatment.

Here are the highlights:

* They plan to have all ~950 buses equipped with GPS by September. I talked to a geeky guy in charge of the GPS technology and specifically asked him if there were plans to use GPS info to allow customers to check if their bus was on time. He said yes, they’re looking into putting live GPS-based info on the 560-1000 info line and also on the web. This means I can sit in my office at the end of the workday and see that my bus is held up in traffic and is projected to arrive at my stop in 8 minutes. When trying to forecast the arrival time, they would take into account how delayed the last buses going past my stop were as well as the present location of my bus. Very awesome! This addresses what is by far the biggest complaint of bus riders — not knowing exactly when the bus will come!

* In the control centre, they have a moving map display showing the location and speed of all buses equipped with GPS (currently about 250 of them). Buses that are early show up in red (very bad), buses that are on time show up green, buses that are late show up yellow, and buses that are out of service or waiting to take over from a breakdown show up blue.

* OC Transpo is the only bus network in North America that has 10 buses waiting on standby to take over if another bus breaks down or otherwise incapacitated. Often these buses wait at Hurdman, since there’s a Quickie mart and bathrooms there.

* During rush hour, there are 750 buses on the road, and around 5 controllers handling radio communications. All the controllers have worked as bus drivers in the past, so they have some idea of what the drivers are dealing with.

* If you call and complain about a bus going past without stopping “and it wasn’t even full” they will laugh their asses off at you because you couldn’t see the huge baby strollers that were taking up the bus below window level.

* There are cameras placed at many intersections to help monitor traffic flow. The controllers can view any of these in real time.

* There’s a little alcove to the side of the control room where two security controllers sit and handle the transpo cops. They also monitor two large projection screens, each one showing live surveillance camera feeds from 9 transit stations. So there are a total of 18 locations, each one cycling through its different camera views. They really do see everything. I spend up to half an hour a day at Lincoln Fields and have noticed a few cameras, but after seeing the security room I have a new appreciation for just how much Big Brother can see. If anything interesting happens (like a gathering of people for a fight or drug deal, etc) they take over the camera, point it at the subjects and zoooooom right in. I saw them do it to some guy as a demo, and his head filled the entire 8 foot-high screen. All footage is stored. Never pick your nose in a transit station! (And yes, they see people doing the nasty in the wee hours of the morning. The cameras have excellent low-light performance.)

* All transpo cops carry defibrillators in their cars (and are trained in using them).

* If you pick up one of the emergency phones in a transit station, it calls directly to this security control room.

* Adjacent to the control room is a separate area where 5 or 6 trip planning customer service people answer phones. They handle an average of 30 calls per person per hour, so they’re pretty busy. They use software that looks a lot like the online Travel Planner but isn’t web based.

It was really neat. For me, the coolest things by far were the promises about GPS functionality and seeing the security surveillance stuff. A worthwhile trip!

I’ve always had some idea that people in hot climates eat spicy food because it helps prevent spoilage. Not sure where I got this idea, but there you have it. Research topic!

It turns out that various spices do in fact have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, but the level of protection is NOT related to the HEAT of the spice. I guess this should be no surprise given the story of the university professor who shook cayenne pepper into one of his eyes at the start of a lecture to drive home his point that capsaicin causes pain but no cellular damage. At the end of the lecture, he asked students to come up and check out his eyes. The peppered eye was brighter and healthier looking than the other one, no doubt from having been cleansed by torrents of tears!

Two researchers at Cornell, Jennifer Billing and Paul Sherman, tested 43 spices and seasonings by preparing authentic meat-based recipes from 36 countries and then analyzing the foods spoilage characteristics. They found that 30 of the 43 seasonings exhibited antimicrobial properties. The most effective seasonings inhibited 100% of the bacterial species being tested. These were:

Garlic, Onion, Allspice, and Oregano.

Next on the list were several spices inhibiting more than 75% of the microbial species:

Thyme, Cinnamon, Tarragon, Cumin, Cloves, Lemon grass, Bay leaf, Capsicums (hot peppers), and Rosemary.

After analyzing 4578 recipes, they found that ALL meat recipes in tropical climates contained at least one spice, whereas one-third of those in northern climates did not. Some spices had enhanced antimicrobial properties when combined with other spices, leading to conjecture about the preservative origins of spice mixtures: curry powder, chili powder, garam masala, etc.

A food science professor at Kansas State University in Manhattan found that adding a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon to 1 litre of apple juice killed off a bunch of bacteria that could cause food poisoning, including E. coli. Salmonella bacteria were unfortunately more resistant.

Thyme appears to be one of the real health champions of the herb and spice world. The volatile oil within thyme, called Thymol, has been shown to protect cell membranes and promote the presence of healthy fats in rats during studies on aging. The benefits are greatest when thyme is introduced at a young age. Thymol also has anti-fungal properties, and it was used to preserve ancient manuscripts and paintings after floods in Florence, Italy.

Washing produce contaminated with Shigella (an organism that causes intestinal damage and diarrhea) in water containing a 1% concentration of thyme or basil essential oil, reduced the bacteria to undectable levels. This indicates that adding herbs to your salad dressings might have benefits beyond simply improving the flavor!

Many internet sources tout the antibacterial characteristics of wasabi, the famous green Japanese horseradish. It seems the pairing of wasabi with sashimi and sushi was, at least in part, to reduce the risk of food poisoning. A component of wasabi and horseradish, AIT (also called mustard oil), inhibits the growth of mold in cheese, bread, meat, and produce. AIT is currently used in Japan to help preserve kimchi.

Unfortunately, virtually all the wasabi we see in the western world is fake. It is an artificially colored and flavored mixture derived from common horseradish. The good news is that horseradish seems to have the same protective effects as wasabi!

So the bottom line is… go ahead and increase your use of herbs and spices in cooking. It WILL make your food taste better and it might just prevent you from getting sick.

There is some hope that food manufacturers might be able to use spices in place of the artificial preservatives prevalent in packaged foods today. The food would be tastier and healthier — Bingo!

References:
[1] http://healthgate.partners.org/browsing/browseContent.asp?fileName=13908.xml&title=Some%20Like%20it%20Hot
[2] http://a-s.clayton.edu/hampikian/Research/Spice/WebMDAddaLittleSpicetoYourLife.html
[3] http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=77
[4] http://pira.atalink.co.uk/articles/packaging/54
[5] Billing J, Sherman PW. Antimicrobial Functions of Spices: Why Some Like It Hot. The Quarterly Review of Biology. 1998; 73(1):3-49

I’ve been using email for 16 years, and it pains me to admit that during much of that time my Inbox was out of control and important messages were hard to find. Now, after trying several approaches and hearing the best practices of others, I think I’ve finally nailed down an efficient method that works.

First, what am I looking for?

• Simplicity and low overhead. Easy is good.
• Prevent Inbox clutter.
• Quick access to important messages.
• Filter out noise.
• Keep unimportant things around… just in case I need them.

I realized that the only way to prevent Inbox clutter is to be militant about it. Any slackening of rules will cause your Inbox to fill until you’re over your head in email. With that in mind, here is my approach.

A message can be in one of five states: New, Pending, Temporary, Archived, or ChitChat.

1. New - unread or undecided

New messages are those that are brand new (unread) and those that you haven’t yet read carefully enough to find them a home. Nothing stays new — if you have a spare minute, you can always move the next new message to another state. Thou shalt not twiddle thy thumbs if thou hast new messages!

2. Pending - I need to do something

Pending messages are those that require you to perform some action. These include messages to which you plan to reply. All sources of procrastination must be marked Pending.

3. Temporary - limited lifetime

Temporary messages are those that are important and have a known lifespan. For example, vacation notices, flight itineraries, meeting announcements. The idea is that these are things you *will* need quick access to in the future, but will no longer need once some event passes.

4. Archived - filed away

Important information having an indeterminate lifespan is Archived. Feel free to divide your archive into appropriate subfolders to help you retrieve information in the future.

5. ChitChat - unimportant stuff that shouldn’t be deleted right away

All other messages go here. If you need to dredge up some inane conversation from the past you can do it here. If you lost all this stuff, it wouldn’t really bother you.

On-going maintenance tasks

• New - Read new mail and choose its destination ASAP.
• Pending - Carry out tasks at your leisure. When you finish a task, move it to one of the remaining states.
• Temporary - Once in a while, sort by date, browse the list and prune off the stuff that’s really old.
• Archived - No need to do anything.
• ChitChat - Once in a while, sort by date and prune off the stuff that’s really old.

Filters/Rules

Filters offer a great way to minimize your handling of new mail. If you subscribe to mailing lists or receive periodic notifications you should use filters to automatically route this new mail out of your inbox. When you read these new messages, they’re already where they need to be and you can choose to delete them or just leave them there.

Google Mail

Gmail is well suited to this approach due to its powerful labelling and search capabilities. I believe it to be superior to other mail clients, primarily because of its transparent handling of threads (”conversations”). Here’s how I implement each of the message states:

• New - the contents of my Inbox
• Pending - starred conversations
• Temporary - a label: “Temporary”
• Archived - all conversations outside Inbox
• ChitChat - a label: “ChitChat”

When I read a message in Gmail, I do the following:

1. Click the little star next to it if I plan to reply or need to do something.
2. Assign appropriate labels (Temporary, ChitChat, or anything subject-specific).
3. Click the “Archive” button to get it out of my Inbox

To see all pending items, click on “Starred.”

I set up filters to automatically assign labels to messages from mailing lists as follows: Match on “From:” address, Skip Inbox, Apply label.

Microsoft Outlook

Outlook doesn’t have Google Mail’s nice thread-handling, labels or fast search capability, but it does have folders, follow-up items, and a “Deleted Items” bin. Here is a good way to implement my approach in Outlook:

• New - the contents of my Inbox
• Pending - messages marked “For Follow-Up”
• Temporary - a folder: “Temporary”
• Archived - all of my subject-specific folders
• ChitChat - my “Deleted Items” trash can

When I read a message in Outlook, I do the following:

1. Click the little flag next to it if I plan to reply or need to do something. You can specify the flag’s color by right-clicking it.
2. Move it to the appropriate folder (Temporary or anything subject-specific) or delete it.

To see all pending items, click on the “For Follow Up” meta-folder.

NOTE: Messages inside “Deleted Items” that have been marked for follow-up do not appear in the “For Follow Up” metafolder.

Mozilla Thunderbird

You can organize your mail with Thunderbird in a similar way to Outlook. I’m no longer using Thunderbird since my workplace switched to Outlook (sucks to be me), but I seem to remember that Thunderbird allows creation of custom labels. That’s a good way to track your Pending messages.

Other mail clients

You can implement this approach using any email client that supports folders and/or labels. However, Gmail and Outlook are really nice because their built in support for flagging (starring?) messages allows you to combine the Pending state with Temporary and Archived. In the absence of this feature, you should create a folder called “Pending” and move those messages to Temporary or Archived (or ChitChat) once their associated task is finished.

Now go away and sort your Inbox!

I’m sharing my approach here in the hopes that it will help ease the drudgery and stress of your email workflow. Let me know if it does!

All the communication channels are abuzz these days with opinions on the satirical and/or blasphemous cartoons that were made famous by a Danish newspaper and condemned by Muslims and others. I figured I’d contribute my two cents on the topic…

First of all, anyone who thinks this is a simple issue hasn’t thought it through. That should be obvious based on the amount of discussion that’s happening. The complexity of an issue is proportional to the kerfuffle, right?

Here are some facts I’ve picked up along the way:

• Most Muslims do not support the “rent-a-crowd” rock-throwing and flag-burning demonstrations in the streets. Islam itself does not promote this type of activity. I saw some heartwarming TV footage showing a Muslim cleric standing in front of protestors waving his arms to stop them as they threw stones over his head at a Danish embassy. Most Muslims understand that the violent demonstrators only serve to validate the stereotypes in the cartoons.
• Denmark didn’t publish the cartoons. A newspaper did. Boycotting Danish products is silly.
• The most inflammatory cartoons were never published at all. They were received as hate mail by Muslim leaders and professors in Denmark and shared with the Islamic world. The rioters on the streets are not aware of this.

For the protestors in the Middle East, the riots are just a response to yet another example of the West’s bias against and disrespect for Islam. They’ve become quite annoyed over the past few generations, and that means it doesn’t take much to incite a violent reaction from some of them.

Here in the West, people poo-poo the sensitivity of Muslims and talk about how the publication of such cartoons should be permitted in the name of Free Speech.

Again, it just isn’t that simple. Even though Canada is known for freedom, we do not have Free Speech. In Canada, it is illegal to express hatred or advocate genocide against people distinguished by their colour, race, religion, or ethnic origin. You can’t publish a cartoon promoting black slavery and you can’t make fun of Jews. Most of us would agree that this is a good thing for society, even though it means we have less freedom of speech than, say, the United States or Denmark.

There is a rule in some Muslim groups that it is wrong to show an image of the Prophet Mohammed. In a country ruled by such a group, this rule would be a law. (Note that the Qur’an itself prohibits idolatry but does not explicitly prohibit depictions of Mohammed.) In Canada, you can legally publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed, but only if you don’t use it to express hatred.

In Denmark or the United States, you could publish a cartoon showing Mohammed doing pretty much anything. In 1984, an artist in Denmark painted a picture of a naked Jesus with an erect penis on the wall of a railway station. The painting was removed after public outcry, but no laws were broken and no charges were filed.

After mulling things over a bit, I noticed that there are three types of bias at work:

1. Political
2. Religious
3. Racial

I’ve ranked these in order of descending appropriateness as a target of hatred or scorn. Here in Canada, mocking political figures is a national sport. It isn’t just tolerated — it’s encouraged! There is no fear of being executed for treason when you compare the Prime Minister to a grapefruit. Slamming other religions is quite common in verbal conversation but is rare in print. Showing disrespect for other races is not tolerated verbally in most circles and is virtually non-existent in print.

The complexity of the Danish cartoon fiasco is largely due to a blurring of the distinctions between these types of bias. The existence of “Muslim countries” suggests that politics and religion are one and the same for many Muslims. The racial component is not so obvious due to the existence of many white Muslims; however, I believe that most Arab Muslims interpret an attack on their religion as an attack on their race and culture.

Notice the similarities with a “Jewish country” such as Israel. Many people argue that those who condemn Israel for its actions are antisemitic, even though many Jews do not support all of Israel’s activities.

The United States is an interesting anomaly here. Founded on guiding principles of separation of church and state, it has regressed somewhat. In 1955, the phrase “In God We Trust” was added to American currency. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said the following when adding the phrase “One nation under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance: From this day forward, millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city, every village, and every rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. American Presidents routinely refer to God in their speeches. Canadian Prime Ministers do not!

When a country embraces one religion in the upper echelons of its political structure, it chooses to blur the distinction between religion and politics. This intertwining of church and state taints interactions with other countries, especially those led by a different type of church. It also confuses patriotism with religious conservatism. Speaking out against the religion could be treason.

Blasphemy, treason and racism end up being the same thing. Thus, the Danish cartoons are offensive to many Muslims on all levels even though at first glance they appear to have a very narrow focus.

It is clear to me that Muslims have a right to be offended by these cartoons. I understand why they take them as personal attacks. It is also clear to me that people in countries (e.g. Denmark) that have free speech will frequently publish works testing the limits of their free speech. Academically, I see this as a good thing. Free speech that cannot be tested isn’t free speech at all. Morally, I take issue with it because I do not personally agree with something that disrespects a group of people.

The only sensible way to handle this whole thing is to respect borders. Obey the laws of the country in which you live. If you see something you don’t like, lobby your leaders for change. Remember that the rules of a religion are meant for those who choose to follow it. Protest peacefully. Don’t be afraid to be controversial if it makes people think but don’t do it just to piss them off. Be respectful of others.

On second thought, it really is quite simple.

References:

• http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_hat6.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy
• http://www.spiritual-answers.com/Laws/church_and_state.htm

(I’ve posted no links to the cartoons out of respect for those who are offended by them. Do a Google search if you want to see them.)

The latest buzz in the home entertainment industry is that the DVD format is dead. This in itself should come as no surprise, as all previous audio and video media have become outdated over time. They say that movies will be released for High Definition TV and our current DVDs are unable to store enough information for HDTV, meaning a new technology with greater information density is needed. That makes sense and is no big deal. Heck, they’ve already got two competing technologies lined up and ready to go (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD). My question though, is will the DVD replacement technology fix what is wrong with DVDs today?

Sure, it’s nice not to have to rewind DVDs and it’s great to be able to skip through chapters, but I want the video playback to be completely under my control and I want it to be as efficient as the way I currently access still pictures on my computer. What does this mean? Well, for starters, you’ve probably noticed that when you stick a DVD into your player, you have to wait a while, then some kind of threatening FBI or Interpol screen pops up and warns you not to copy it. Eventually, you get to the main menu. This process can take 30 seconds or more every time you put the DVD into the player! (Imagine if you had to wait 30 seconds to hear the first song on an audio CD!) Then, when you select PLAY MOVIE, you might see advertisements or trailers promoting other movies, and sometimes it isn’t possible to skip them. You have to sit through them to get to the feature film which you paid for and supposedly “own.” Each time you watch a DVD, you get quietly raped by the movie industry for a little bit of your precious time.

So here is my wishlist for future digital video players:

• Instant ON - the main menu should appear within 5 seconds of inserting the disc
• Standard user interface - no more wondering which option on the screen is highlighted by the cursor
• No “unskippable” segments of video - give the users a bit of respect and let us decide what we want to watch
• Fast navigation - put a pseudo-analog input device (like an iPod scroll wheel) onto the remote so we can scrub through the video with a fingertip and find exactly what we’re looking for

I’ll keep my fingers crossed and my expectations low. If even one of my wishes is realized I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Happy New Year to you all! If one of your new year’s resolutions is to lose weight then this might be interesting to you:

As if the Atkins diet wasn’t already enough! The BBC is telling us that another extreme diet will be hitting the North American bookstands in 2006.

The “Total Wellbeing Diet” was created by scientists from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and it promotes doubling protein intake (meat and fish). It differs from the Atkins diet in that it allows small amounts of carbohydrates plus fruits and vegetables. Atkins prohibits sugary fruits and high-carb vegetables such as carrots and potatoes.

The BBC article refers to an editorial in Nature magazine, which states that studies show this diet only helps a small number of people, specifically overweight women with high blood triglyceride levels caused by metabolic disorder.

Once again, let me say what should already be common knowledge: The only “magic bullet” for weight loss is a permanent lifestyle change involving a balanced diet and plenty of exercise.

“Permanent” means that the diet is sustainable in the long term and is something you would be happy doing forever. Temporary diets lead to fast weight loss and then fast weight gain (the Yo-yo Effect). They are hard on you and will likely have adverse effects on your overall physical and mental health. When you find a permanent diet that works for you, your weight will slowly move towards a number that is permanently sustainable by that diet. In other words, if you eat a good balance of foods, reduce portion sizes to a reasonable (but still satisfying) level and increase your physical activity, then your weight will move to a number that is healthiest for you — your ideal weight.

“Balanced” means conforming to the latest version of Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, relying on overall portion control rather than denying yourself your favourite foods. Any diet requiring you to completely cut out foods you like is guaranteed to fail in the long term. Either you’ll cave and binge, or you’ll go nuts because of the self-deprivation!

So here’s to a happy and healthy new year for you and yours! Open a new chapter in your life and find your permanent diet and fitness solution!

This Christmas season I’ve noticed a greater than usual interest in the wording of festive greetings. Some Christians are outraged when they hear Happy Holidays and some non-Christians are offended when they hear Merry Christmas!

People are lamenting the commercialization of Christmas and are complaining that things aren’t like they used to be. They have a point. But not as much of a point as they think. Did you know that the famous Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, was a box office flop when it was first released in 1946? In fact, it only became popular in the late 70’s, after its copyright had expired and TV stations began airing it. Only after 30 years had passed did people really believe that things were that wholesome in the 40’s! The fact is, we always romanticize the past. Things are never like they used to be…

Anyways, back to the Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays thing. If you think about it, it makes total sense for businesses and governments to remove the Christ from Christmas. They are simply acknowledging the fact that Christians do not compose 100% of society. A business does not want to alienate non-Christian customers and a government doesn’t want to piss off non-Christian taxpayers so when they say Seasons Greetings, don’t be offended. Similarly, Christians are celebrating the birth of Christ on Christmas day so when they say Merry Christmas, you should accept it in good spirit.

When Person A wishes Person B a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, that’s fine. The big problem arises when Person B reacts negatively to the good wishes from Person A. I say, get a grip asshole! If someone is kind enough to wish you a Happy anything, you should be appreciative and thankful.

That said, I wish you, dear reader, a Merry Whatever, filled with good friends, family, song and drink. …and if this one sucks, you can always try again next year!