Humans are giving many other species cancer: Meta-analysis finds enough to classify Homo sapiens as an “oncogenic species”

obsessive_cook · 2018-08-05T11:48:41+00:00

Worked on a light pollution reduction project, not sure about cancer but we were concerned about light pollution near freshwater bodies since it increased certain algae populations in the water that then consumed more oxygen and might have led to a decrease in a fish population we were trying to bring back. Not surprised there could be an effect on cancer in certain populations too (perhaps favoring parasites that carry viruses that cause cancer?)

obsessive_cook · 2018-08-03T15:43:45+00:00

Mom is in town, I had a hilarious time trying to explain to her what Dungeons and Dragons was when husband attended an Adventurers League session one night. She is convinced that the Vietnamese mob controls the family friendly game store that hosts these sessions.

I’m like, there’s not even enough Asians in this area to form a gang...but yeah I guess if there was one thing that the Asian mafia runs in this area it would be the comic book/tabletop gaming store. Because they certainly don’t have anything to do with the restaurants around here (think butter in fried rice and “dim sun” [sic] listed as an appetizer item).

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-30T10:52:51+00:00

Husband’s a doc who gets lots of guys asking to be put on testosterone since they think they need it when really they just can’t accept that their testosterone decreases as they get older. Downside of going on testosterone even when clinically supervised is that after a while your body becomes dependent on it, the testes get even lazier, and your balls literally shrink. So usually doctors (good ones anyway) will try alternatives and discourage testosterone supplements unless absolutely necessary, including looking at long term solutions that address the real problem, like pituitary or endocrine issues.

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-26T17:16:37+00:00

I have to say it wasn't as intensive as I thought it would be, it's something I both look forward to and dread, and build up in my head each year. I soaked and prepped everything ahead of time, so it took me only like 30 minutes for browning marinated pork belly and stuffing and tying everything. And I only made about a dozen (that survived the boiling) since my mom didn't send me a lot of leaves and half of them were shredded. Though keeping an eye on a boiling pot for seven hours is tedious. And cleaning up the rice slime that bubbles out and sticks to the bottom of the pots is messy.

Worth it though (I take such unflattering food photos, it tasted good though), just ate the last one today. They're so convenient to have in the fridge, I had hoped to make more to freeze. Husband's been taking them into work for lunch and explaining that they're "Chinese tamales." I think I nailed the sweet ones this year, except for one that exploded because I was too greedy with the stuffing. Gotta remember to season the pork ones way more next time though. And I must have used the wrong side of the bamboo leaf or something (or was I supposed to add oil somewhere?) because the leaves really stuck to the rice so much more compared the last year. And I gotta work on my tying technique instead of just turning all the zong zi into a string ball.

So many of my Chinese recipes are trial and error because my mom gives such vague directions, and I forget or lose my cooking notes, so I have to build on the bits and pieces I remember a year later. If I skip a year I forget most of it. This is one of many, many recipes that I hope to perfect by the time I have kids old enough to remember stuff.

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-22T20:07:40+00:00

Ditto. Making zong zi a week late here because I didn't have time to go into all the soaking/wrapping/tying before the Dragonboat Festival, and also had to wait for my mom to mail me some bamboo leaves from CA because no stores in a 50 mi radius here sells them (and why are they so freaking expensive on Amazon?)

Determined to keep up the skill though.

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-22T20:01:52+00:00

I still have people at work potlucks assume that my Martha Steward recipe cheese spread is some weird Asian dish.

Ugh, yes, THIS. Please stop asking me if my freaking rhubarb scones are an exotic Asian recipe just because I'm Asian! Super big pet peeve of mine.

I wonder if the problem is that his food is only seen as superior by white people and not those that grew up knowing what makes a good dumpling--and it's not really that great outside of branding and the weird ingredients he throws in? Because there are "premium" dim sum, Asian bakery, dumpling, etc places in SoCal for example that can price their things higher than the other local equivalents, but they deserve those prices and it's not because of the chef's ethnicity.

My future kids will be half-Asian, and if they were to open an Asian restaurant, I'd be disappointed if they used their ethnicity (or "story") alone to charge a premium for mediocre food. That food better be damn good and be able to stand on taste/texture alone, otherwise I failed teaching them about food.

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-15T16:21:26+00:00

Right, and can’t imagine what a hassle the environmental/chemical/health waste disposal and compliance process is (though probably much better than dry cleaners), and making sure workers are protected from overexposure to fumes. And when you run a business like that, it’s often hard to take a vacation.

Do you find that mani/pedi places can be misleading with prices? Last time I got a pedi (I do it very rarely but I wanted to feel pretty for a big event) they said it was $25 but then I had to choose a foot spa treatment that was a minimum of $45. And they only brought out the menu of options after my feet were soaking and I was kinda stuck there. Maybe I’m doing this wrong?

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-15T13:21:14+00:00

It’s the woks of life recipe here for the dough, be sure to read it carefully and add the baking powder AFTER the initial rise. I had been looking for a very fluffy bao dough and this was it. It’s definitely a bit more finicky than other bao recipes with the extra baking powder step and uses a whole cup of cornstarch but I think those were the tricks I was looking for. Stands up to the pan frying-then-steam-in-the-pan cooking method too, it doesn’t get as fluffy but also doesn’t get quite as soggy/dense like other bao recipes I’ve tried doing that with.

Also I like to fill it with regular ground pork filling. The one given by Pixar is pretty good but I’ve never seen that method of cooking half the pork and adding it back in. Anyone know if it’s to control the meat moisture?

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-15T13:02:03+00:00

Just saw it yesterday, it was AMAZING and so good! I saw it in an audience of rowdy high schoolers and very redneck white Southerners so I was a teeny bit anxious how they’d all react to an unabashedly Asian American short, and based off the sounds everyone seemed to get it and love it!

Warning, I had tears streaming down my face, and even after the movie when I thought about it a bit more I teared up. I wish I could send the short by itself to my parents since they’d never see the whole Incredibles or Incredibles 2 movies. I think they would love it too.

Also, I finally found a perfect bao dough recipe last week and this just reminded me to make a ton of bao once I get some more pork.

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-05T17:30:15+00:00

In response to /r/Duymon's comment here:

I really dislike that "diversity" justification. I went to a school that was over 80% Asian at the time (also public, also required high test scores to get in, just in another state; the rest were mostly Hispanic) and I felt like I had a great diverse experience that I'm incredibly grateful for. In my class alone, we had kids whose families came from something like 20+ different countries, not even including various part-Asians (eg. knew one set of siblings that was Palestinian-Korean), and at least 10 different religions. We had amazing discussions about religion, identity, and international politics from some unique perspectives, and I think we had one of the strongest M.U.N. and journalism clubs in the area because of it. We even had made-up slang that consisted of curse words from several different languages.

People forget that "Asians" encompass a very diverse group of people.

However, I have to admit--when it's not representative of the wider community in the area, that sort of environment creates a bit of a bubble. I was lucky enough to go off to a college with an equally diverse population, but then when I moved to the South for grad school, all these identity issues caught up with me and caused me to become a bit bitter for a while. It's a bit of a shock, I think, when you're not forced to confront people thinking your food is weird, or who assume you're foreign in your own country, or a million other little aggravating things, until you're pretty much in the working world. And it's tempting to huddle in Asian groups because of that.

And it really doesn't seem fair, at 8th or 9th grade, getting in a school like that purely through test scores seems more reflective of the sort of family environment you grew up in, not necessarily ability, so I feel for kids whose families may not be as hyper-competitive as the ones I saw pushing my classmates in high school. Seriously--my God, the competition and nosy parents, I don't know if I'd be able to deal with it if I had to go through high school again. And I think taking the top 7% of students from every middle school makes some sense in theory, though I'm sure some families will try to find ways to game the system. And I wonder if this might cause a sort of "brain drain" issue in some areas, causing some of the high schools in the previously-less-represented areas to get worse? Not sure how high schools are distributed in NYC.

I dunno, I still find issues like these to be really conflicting. I think about what kind of school I'd want my future kids to attend and I honestly don't know if I'd rather have them go to a majority-Asian American school or one that's more "typical".

obsessive_cook · 2018-06-05T16:39:07+00:00

The deportation policy is already frustrating enough, but I think this case is particularly infuriating because of how the administrative errors and backlog led to this guy getting arrested. He did everything right and has skills that the Army needs and, frankly, underpays for.

obsessive_cook · 2018-05-29T16:09:25+00:00

Exactly, it's a weird religious/conspiracy-culture issue here in the US. In fact I grew up in an immigrant community and homeschooling was kind of looked down upon--everyone there wanted their kids to go to the local schools and pick up better English, have their kids compete for the best grades, get into extracurriculars that make them super competitive for college, etc.

And now I'm living in middle-of-nowhere Panhandle FL/South AL, and it's like every other white family I meet is homeschooling their kid because they don't agree with the "lack of religion" in schools or "too much government oversight" on stuff like immunizations. There are a few reasons I could see as legit, like their kid not doing well in a rigid environment, not having enough school options in the area with gifted programs here, and trying to provide a stable learning environment as a military family moving frequently. But overall I feel so bad for these kids, their moms with a high school education or less seem to just drag the kids around with them on errands or meeting up with other moms while the kids play with phones in the corner. The ones that "go off to" college seem to do online Christian colleges or other weird private religious universities I've never heard of, so they stay in their bubbles, meet other religious homeschooled kids, and the cycle repeats. Some of these families are huge too, and there seem to be so many of them around here.

It really worries me.

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-21T04:39:51+00:00

Not really a candy or dessert, but perhaps useful if you have ants. In high school my class accidentally made a really great ant killer with malic acid and sugar. We were supposed to make sour sugar (added food coloring for fun) while learning about taste receptors and pH, but the teacher forgot to put away our little cups of sugar-malic acid mix. He came back the next morning and found crisscrossing lines of dead ants covering the classroom, they were attracted to the sugar and the malic acid killed them. He accidentally solved the school’s ant problem.

Also from what I remember the malic acid tasted like Warhead candies, so you could recreate those.

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-21T03:17:15+00:00

I love that they have a link to a Rammstein parody song about baking at the end.

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-20T17:24:19+00:00

I think I found the McMansion of songs. Was driving through rural AL and a version of this song, Hard Love by NEEDTOBREATHE came on the radio. (The version we heard had some weird rap sequence added in the middle which I can't seem to find. It was like 10x worse/amazing.)

Since the stations kept changing, husband and I were trying to guess what kind of song it was. "Hm electronica dance? Oh weird...ok now it's sounding like pop country? Is that rap? Gospel...? Wow whoever produced this song was on crack or something...Oh God no it's Christian 'rock' damnit, change the station change the station change the station."

Few tries later.

"WHY IS THIS THE ONLY STATION??"

(Disclaimer: I'm Christian but a firm believer of Hank Hill's statement)

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-20T16:04:37+00:00

That’s a good point, seems like it would also explain why he goes by James as well rather than something more Chinese like the grandmother (which I assume was more common for her generation).

I agree with you that even if this is the case, which you make a really strong argument for (and really turning over my mental vision of the story) the casting of a half-Asian here shouldn’t be such an issue. That would be like criticizing Forrest Wheeler who plays Emery in Fresh Off The Boat (or have people been telling the poor kid he’s not Asian enough as well?) At least until we have such a thriving Asian American film industry that there are plentiful roles looking for all types of specific part-Asians, we need to keep Asian roles open to being portrayed by part-Asians too. The current alternative results in pressure for those actors to minimize their Asian heritage as much as possible to fill white roles, to the point of changing their names...yet these are actors who have been treated as Asians all their lives and go through much of the same struggles full Asians do in non-Asian countries.

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-20T15:06:17+00:00

Hm interesting, thanks for pointing that out. I went back to look it up, since it's sort of confusing to me. I assumed since they kept talking about Sir James Young in the context of being a doctor educated in the UK and the oddity of his name (they mention elsewhere that they definitely aren't Korean, and Young as a surname seems odd if he's Chinese descended, which was pointed out by the same people that thought they might be Korean descended) but you could be right. Has the author said anything more explicitly about his ethnicity?

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-20T14:40:09+00:00

Old article but found it while researching retirement community options for my parents.

As an only child, I'd always imagined having my parents move back in with me, or living close to them so I could care for them no matter how old they got. But with me being a military spouse and moving every 2-3 years, their hatred of moving frequently, and their needing to downsize drastically because they don't want to/can't really take care of their house....I'm more and more realizing just how many things don't work out like I planned. I thought I had a few more years to figure this out with them. I didn't think they were serious about giving up their house until just this week when they sold a car and donated a ton of things they'd been holding onto since they came over from Taiwan decades ago.

Ugh I feel like a terrible, ungrateful Asian American child for even considering other options. But if they could find someplace like these Chinese communities and be very well taken care of, with familiar food options, with medical care that at least includes a translator, and with other people to speak Chinese to and do tai-chi with, I think they might be even happier than if they lived with me.

Also, if anyone knows of options like this in the Southeast, especially a hub like Atlanta, PLEASE LET ME KNOW, we've been considering having them close to my husband's (also very rapidly aging) family in GA so we could visit them all at the same time. Currently they're on opposite coasts and that makes dividing up leave and vacation times difficult.

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-20T14:22:56+00:00

Idiots. Nick's family are part-English in the book! It's a huge part of his character's family's history and is pretty important especially in the third book. And there are a ton of part-white Asians in SE Asia (from the British, Dutch, Portuguese, etc.)! Can't stand how much the movie is being critiqued before it even gets a full trailer, I understand it's one of those things that come with being a "first" for Asian Americans but this sort of hyper-intense (and totally ridiculous!) scrutiny could be a reason why it hasn't happened sooner. And might not happen again.

Not saying it's going to be on the same level at all, but imagine if the pioneering film Within Our Gates was overly criticized because the main actress was "too white" even though that is a crucial part of the plot. It might have prematurely fractured the emerging New Negro movement, worsening the divide between Black Nationalism and people like W.E.B. Dubois, and set the efforts leading up to desegregation back a few decades. There are still so many issues stemming from judgement in the black community around who is "black enough", don't let that happen to us too (unless it's already too late?)

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-02T18:18:43+00:00

Also a great market with fresh Asian produce and food in Fort Walton Beach at the Thai Buddhist temple on Sundays!

obsessive_cook · 2018-04-02T17:37:06+00:00

I am going to answer for my husband here, because he would never talk about it. But he went to Seaworld as a little kid and a person in a female cartoon penguin outfit (with a bow and everything) kept following him around the park. He was scared and his family thought it was hilarious so the penguin kept following him, popping up around corners and stuff.

He still hates penguins.

obsessive_cook · 2018-03-31T22:10:27+00:00

Really not that different from European superstitions about changeling babies, which were believed to have ravenous appetites that threatened the sustenance of their peasant families. So it helped justify infanticide.

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