A note about Animal Testing

I've demonstrated excitement on this blog for certain experimental findings that involved treatment of animals that was slightly dubious. The monkey who is strong with the force, after all, had to have electrodes implanted in her brain. Now, the brain doesn't have any pain sensors, so my guess is that she did not experience any pain once the electrodes were in place, and my impression from reports of the experiment was that she was treated very well. Many of the people to whom I've described that project have expressed puzzlement about its usefulness--in other words, they act as though this is science for geek's sake--but the technology being developed by that particular project could help millions of people disabled by debilitating diseases, amputations, and the like. On the other hand, it seems to me grossly unnecessary to test beauty products or designer drugs on animals, who, after all, indisputably have personalities and feel pain.

Thus, I feel ambivalent about animal testing, and I'm not sure it can be categorically dismissed as cruel. I have friends and family members who have participated in research using lab animals, and in many cases they expressed nothing if not love for the animals with whom they worked in the lab. An article in this week's issue of Newsweek reports on the sentencing of groups that have committed violence against animal researchers at UCLA, and the practices of these groups--bombing and vandalizing homes of professors, publishing their home addresses in order to aid in harassment--seem frankly deplorable to me. Some of the comments in the discussion thread for the article are quite wise (and I'm not talking about the bizarre tangent to abortion and anti-abortion-rights-terror): if the government is so serious about regulating stem cell research, then why can't it regulate animal research more vigorously?

Yarn CSA!

Just found out about this yarn CSA from Chris. Amazing! But I find it hard enough to cook with all the things I get in our vegetable CSA. We've decided to stick to farmers' markets this summer, and fortunately this lady sells at the Logan Square market. Hooray!

Oh, the Audacity!

As everyone knows, I am a big fan of Obama's, at first in spite of myself and now with a fervor that has surprised me, especially in the way that his campaign (if not his followers or the press coverage of the election) is constantly overwhelming my capacity for cynicism.

Anyway, for this reason I am not embarrassed to mention that I decided to read Dreams from My Father. Besides my admiration, it bears research interest for me, and I wanted to see what the pre-campaign Obama was like (he wrote it in 1995). I am a little embarrassed, though, to admit how much I like this book. I'm not too far along, so I'm still reserving judgment, but so far I find it beautifully written and smart. I won't say more because this blog exists in part for me to compartmentalize and not talk about stuff like my work. Indeed, it exists to talk about my dog.

By all rights, Blondie should be a fan of Obama's too. But yesterday I accidentally forgot to latch the bedroom door, and Chris got home to discover a whirlwind of destroyed boots (fortunately I had been planning to give them away), slippers (also old), and this book. The good news is it's still very much in tact as far as reading it goes.


Postscript on animal rhythm: Chris said, "Of course animals have rhythm. Haven't you ever heard a bird singing?" OK, duh. But what I'm more excited about is the prospect that all around the globe animals may be engaging in activities akin to the electric slide (like these penguins). And that's what I plan to find out about soon (I'm v. busy right now).

strange potty doings in the animal kingdom

At the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, dogs go potty in a specially-made arena in the basement of the hotel. From The New York Times:


Love the hydrants!

Meanwhile, Millennium Park in Chicago is overtaken by a huge kitty that does strange things:



I don't have anything to say about this video but "oh, my goodness!"

Giving Alcohol to Minors

At 2 years and a few months, Blondie is, in dog years, a tender 16. But that doesn't stop him from partaking in the occasional sip of wine at home.


Don't know how this happened, exactly, but at some point we discovered that (a) Blondie loves wine and (b) it's hilarious to watch him drink it out of a glass. His tongue is so long! Anyway, now whenever we drink wine he stares at us with that hungry look. The green flash in his eyes here is no trick of the camera--it's his Hulk face. (For the horrified, fear not: we only let him drink the last few drops at the bottom of the glass, the ones you can never get out. Why let it go to waste?)



Ok, so he's a fan of beer too, though drinking it is considerably harder (notice the spill on my leg). Whenever we drink, he's pretty much begging. How did this happen? Is it the drinking, or is it that we only let him drink certain things? If we fed Blondie OJ from a glass, would he beg when we drank that too?


In the mean time, I've been wondering whether animals have rhythm. I'm going to try to find out and report back.

Knitpicks Jack Hoodie

I have posted previously about my friend Ryan's adorable son Dash; he's now almost 1-1/2 and cuter than ever. I FINALLY finished the sweater I began knitting for him just after he was born (which I had planned to give to Ryan at our 5-year college reunion last June--this, by the way, is why I always choose the 12-month size or larger when knitting baby garments). Hooray! (Note: only wonky knitters like me should read after the photo, but there are other photos.)


It is Knitpicks' Jack Hoodie, done with their Swish Superwash worsted. I don't know why anyone would ever knit clothes for a baby or toddler that weren't machine washable.

First of all, let me say that this is a great pattern. The sleeves are knit in the round and then joined to the body and knit up all together, so the only finishing is a little kitchener stitch (so amazing) for the underarms and sewing on the hood. And then, oh, there's the zipper. But I'll come to that shortly.

This sweater actually also knits up very quickly, even though you know it took me nearly a year to knit it. First, I ordered only the exact amount of yarn (3 skeins of the red and one skein of each other color) and I ran out of the other colors. Normally I would have ordered extra, but since I was using their pattern and their yarn (the recommended yarn, no less!) and I had the right gauge, I didn't think I would run out. And the killer is, I only needed a tiny bit more of each color, so now I have a little less than a 50 g. skein of each color. What am I going to do with all that?

Anyway, back to the pattern. The pattern is very clearly written, with two exceptions. First, it doesn't recommend which decreases to use. Fortunately, the psychedelic squares pattern taught me all about how to make symmetrical decreases for the shoulder "seams."


These are K2togs, which lean to the right. For the other side, I used SSK, which leans to the left. There are different ways to do SSK (slip, slip, knit): the best-looking one I've used is to slip both stitches as if to knit (that is, to stick the needle through the front of the stitch), then to knit both together through the back loop. But the link there has another method which is even more complicated. I like my way. I can't really tell the difference.

The second unclear part of the pattern was how to sew up the hood, and I had to redo it a few times to get it looking decent. The hood is knit as a flat piece that basically resembles a fat upside-down T, or a chimney. You start it as a wide rectangle, then bind off a bunch of stitches at the beginning and the end and keep making the chimney up the middle. Then, at least as I interpreted it, you sew the bound-off edge to the side edge (selvedge) of the chimney to make the hood. It ends up looking a little boxy, but cute.

The real stumbling block for me on this project was the zipper. I had never sewn on a zipper before. The really hard part was pinning the zipper to the sweater, since you have to keep the zipper closed, and the side edge of the knitted piece is all curled up and so hard to pin down. Too late for this project, I was reminded that I could have kept the sides from curling in by slipping the first stitch on each row. Or I could have tried this neat technique. Either of these would also create a stiffer edge, which would support the zipper better. That would have been really, really useful to remember. But, it's done!

Lastly, I love Knitpicks. They sell high-quality, natural fiber yarns at great prices, they have a lot of variety for being a big discount site, including multiple choices for machine-washable yarn. I got their "Options" interchangeable needle kit for Christmas and I absolutely love it. They did not pay me to say this. I just think they're great. I also love supporting local yarn shops (like Nina, in my neighborhood) but I'm a bit of a bargain hunter by nature, and living on a grad student income.


Uh...who's that?

Can this computer tell my dog to be good?

Wow!

Avuncular

Jackson Rece, b. 2/1/2008, 8 lbs. 3 oz.