Thursday, July 30, 2009

It Makes A Little More Sense Now

So, I read an article which was explaining why it makes sense to cohabitate before marriage. And I now have more insight into two things, namely why people feel that you'd get to know someone better when you were living together and not married (remember, if you live together for 8 years or so, the divorce risk is now down to normal, it's no longer elevated), and why the divorce risk might be higher.

The woman explained to her boyfriend that she was going to need extra closet space, and was horrified and surprised when he explained that he was going to want half of it. This comes as a surprise? I'm not going to try to justify what he did (but honestly, she shouldn't be expecting extra closet space), but how could she move in with him without knowing this? The other big surprise, was apparently that he didn't want to share laundry with her.

If you use moving in together to replace actually talking to each other, and think that moving in with someone is a better way to get to know them than just actually getting to know them is, then of course you're going to think that moving in together is necessary, because you can't know if you'll get along with them before you live together. (Oh, and by the way - I know that trying to live in the same house, but with two different households works for some couples, but it's not a great sign). And if you observe instead of talking, and have set ideas of what each person deserves (no negotiation over closet space or laundry?) I really can't see things working well if the going gets tough. Now I'm curious about how much damage the "never get married before 25" would cause along some of these same lines.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

She said what?

So apparently the chief executive of The Sunbed Association, a European trade association of tanning bed makers and operators, has issues with the WHO's recent declaration that tanning beds definitely increase the risk of cancer. The CBC reports that she released a statement which includes that "The fact that is continuously ignored is that there is no proven link between the responsible use of sunbeds and skin cancer". I looked up the rest of the statement, and it doesn't seem to make any more sense there.

I think that what they're trying to say is that the findings of the recent study in the Lancet aren't necessarily correct, because they just named two studies that contradict them. It's not, however, what they actually said. Besides, I have a hard time believing that a numerical model which says that sunbeds don't cause a high mortality rate (the first study mentioned). The other study (which I really can't find, most of the links that pop up in Google seem to be to articles which say "well, the other study said this, but we disagree") seems to have actually been experimental. I would like to find it to see how well the Sunbed Association's definition of "responsible use" of sunbeds compares to what the study measured, but I think that right now I'm going to have to say that it's, at best, a 1-1 tie. And have a little faith in the scientific community being better able to weigh the evidence than I am, rather than in an industry that already exists mostly for questionable reasons.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Enjoying Canadian Stereotypes

Just like the Yarn Harlot does, I will take some pride in pointing out something that's going right here in Canada. The ACLU seems to be considered an anti-Christian movement in the US. I'm not sure if that's because they have crazier Christians or crazier atheists, but the Canadian Civil Liberties Association seems to be fighting for the... shall we say more unusual religious folks in this case. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/07/24/hutterite-supreme-court024.html?ref=rss

Friday, July 10, 2009

I've Done Smarter

At least I sure hope I have.

For example: after putting the plastic cutting board I used for chicken into the sink, I got a wooden one for veggies. It could have been worse though - I could have used the wooden one first and then got a fresh, plastic, one out for the chicken.

Also: 2 am (that's my excuse) I wake up, and decide to put weight on both legs equally to see if my ankle was better. It wasn't, and I've decided that I'm blaming that for the fact that it still hurts today.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Correct me if I'm wrong...

But I think it's misleading to title an article Vegetarian Diet 'Weakens Bones' when it turns out that lacto-ovo vegetarians have bone density which is basically the same as that of meat eaters.

I think that the really sad part is that I had just assumed that this was the case before I read the article. I was prepared for the possibility that the small bones that meat eaters ingest (recommended as source of calcium in my lactose-free cookbook) make a really big difference in bone density. I was, however, expecting that someone had misread the statistics and then given the article a bad name. I think I'm too cynical.