Papaya: Where Do You Get Your Calcium?

I had a nice tree ripened papaya for breakfast today which is great for your teeth particularly if you have eaten something too acidic the day before. It weighed 2700g and after I cut it in half lengthwise and scraped it clean with my papaya shovel it yielded around 2200g of pulp. Papaya shovels aka stainless steel Chinese spoons are the perfect tool for eating papaya, melons, or any other fruit that’s soft enough to be scooped out of it’s peel and I highly recommend them.

Today’s papaya provided around 880 calories which is less than half of what I’d need to eat on an inactive day like today however it provided more than half of the calcium I’ll need for the day. I’m not sure exactly how much calcium I need, I’ve never tested low for it in any of my blood tests, but I’m pretty sure it’s not too much more than 530mg especially when that 530mg comes from such an easily digested and absorbed source.

khake dam papayakhake dam papaya cut

P.S. Months later I made another trip to the morning market in search of breakfast and as usual I walked through to see what was available in the front, center, and back before I decided on what to eat. Early in I spotted two nice papayas which were not one of the commonly available cultivars so I made a mental note and continued on. After confirming there wasn’t anything better up ahead I went back to buy the papayas only to find that the seller had covered up his goods and left at lightening speed. I knew those papayas were still under that tarp so I asked the guy in the next stall to sell them to me and tell his friend the next day.

As he opened the tarp I saw that the papayas were gone, bummer. However as I let my head down in disappointment I noticed a garbage basket and at the top of the heap of decaying plant matter and random market garbage were the two papayas, hooooooo! So I took them both and got a free breakfast. I guess the guy figured they were already ripe and since most Thai people aren’t into ripe fruit and prefer what are often sweeter yet less tasty fruit cultivars over the often less sweet but more fragrant and tasty heirloom, nameless, and unidentifiable varieties he figured they weren’t worth holding onto and having take up prime table space.

Plantains: Why Are You Cooking Them?

Once while transporting some plantains a middle-aged lady that I often bought fruit from thought it was crazy that I was going to eat them raw. So I asked her “You’ve lived here your entire life and have been around these things for many years yet you’ve never thought to try and eat one of them ripe and raw? Nope, not once! I am writing this for people like her and people who only just heard about plantains in order to say: Yes you can eat plantains raw and they’re quite good so ignore those who say things like a plantain needs to be “cooked before serving as it is unsuitable raw”… not surprisingly this was said by a company that sells processed plantain chips, go figure.

While writing this post I remembered an email I sent to the Chiquita Banana Company regarding the information on their plantain website a few years ago so I just went to it to see if it had been updated. It hasn’t been so one of the main companies importing these bananas into the U.S. is still unaware that plantains can, and I would argue should be, eaten raw. Instead they tell people to cook their bananas and provide recipes so people can eat them with bacon, cheese, slave caught shrimp, and factory farmed chicken. I grabbed the following screen shot from their website which out of all the plantain recipes and information does not say anywhere that plantains can be eaten raw, in fact it specifically says ” Eaten cooked (not raw)”.
Leave me alone, let me ripen, and eat me raw!I haven’t had any plantains in a long time as they’re hard to come by in my area however I was fortunate enough to encounter a bunch that was in my opinion harvested way too early considering it was going to be consumed locally and didn’t need to be shipped across an ocean. However after sitting in my room for a week a few ripened to the point I could start eating them. Today is day 14 and the five that remain are fully ripe. Note that when I bought this bunch of unripe bananas I did not cut them from the stem and instead let them drain the once thick and heavy green stem like Cell drained Piccolos arm. The result is a shriveled stem and some really good bananas despite having been harvested a bit too early. Here are some photos I’ve taken over the past two weeks.

plantain bunch day 1plantain bunch ripe day 14plantain ripeness and sizeplantain ripe

Dear Working Class Republicans and All Other U.S. Voters,

Tomorrow, Tuesday March 15th, is an extremely important voting day. I’ve already explained why I feel Bernie Sanders is a far better presidential candidate than Hillary Clinton, now I’d like to make the case why working class Republican voters, particularly those who may be leaning towards Trump, should seriously consider supporting Sanders. I think that if most Trump supporters, the ones who aren’t racist and weak minded xenophobic nationalists looking for an authoritarian tough guy to lead them, got to know Bernie they’d drop Trump in a second. The Donald may think “his people” are so loyal that he could go out and “shoot someone” and not lose any votes but I think the reason why he has so many “loyal” supporters is because they’ve looked at this year’s Republican Party offerings and over the years have looked at many other Republican and Democratic politicians, and feel there’s no one that represents them and is willing to stand up and fight for their interests because most of these Republicrat politicians are too busy representing the interests of Wall Street and their other big money backers. Continue reading →

Casino Jack and the United States of Money

If you’re a U.S. citizen please watch this documentary and see just how corrupt your country is, why campaign finance reform is such a critical issue, and why it’s important to transition to publicly funded elections which is something only Bernie Sanders is talking about. As for Hillary Clinton she is waste deep in this corrupt campaign finance system and won’t even release the transcripts to her paid speeches to Wall Street. We need a political revolution to get big money out of politics and overcome this corrupt system of campaign finance and return power to the people U.S. politicians are supposed to represent. Bernie is the candidate to do it!

Casino Jack and the United States of Money

Prayer and Politics

In last nights debate when asked “To whom and for whom do you pray?” part of Hillary’s long-winded response was “I pray for the will of god to be known so that we can know it and to the best of our limited ability try to follow it and fulfill it.”. One of humanity’s biggest problems is precisely that too many people are trying to follow and fulfill god’s will. How are we going to solve such a problem and eliminate groups like ISIS and Boko Haram with the same kind of superstitious thinking? We don’t need a president who thinks like a jihadist nor do we need one that also said it was hard to imagine living under the pressure of being in the White House without being able to fall back on prayer and faith, and that she prays on a pretty regular basis during the day because she needs that strength and she needs that support.

I don’t want a president who needs that strength and support, I want one that has their own strength and relies on the support of advisers, experts, and the people; not on supernatural beings who depending on a president’s mood might give them the strength and support to drop bombs on innocent people like the children of ISIS members that Trump said he’d kill and who would inevitably die in one of Cruz’s proposed carpet bombing runs. Speaking of Cruz he just had a very good weekend beating or tying Trump in 3 of 4 states. Remember that Hillary loses to him in most of the polls. Not only do I not want to risk this I don’t even want to risk her running against Trump who polling projects her to beat but not by nearly as much as Bernie who can inspire a larger voter turnout and get votes from people across the political spectrum.

Toilet Training

It’s bad when people perpetuate customs without independently evaluating them and consciously deciding whether or not they’re worth perpetuating but it’s even worse when people abandon a good custom that they’ve always had only to replace it with something worse. No I’m not talking about how in many parts of East Asia the handshake has become a common greeting, I’m talking about toilets. In East Asia not too long ago most toilets were squat-toilets as opposed to sit-toilets however nowadays in many East Asian shopping centers you may have a hard time finding a squat-toilet because in many public places they’ve been replaced by sit-toilets which are not only unsanitary, particularly in public places, they’re also unhealthy as a sitting position is not the position humans have evolved to go #2 in.

However many locals and the occasional fruit loving foreigner are fighting back by refusing to sit. By politely lifting up the dirty toilet seat with our foot, hoping up on to the toilet to do our business, and leaving our footprints behind as evidence of our peaceful protest we are letting shopping centers know that we want squat-toilets. As for people who can’t squat we already have a solution for that, it’s called the handicapped toilet and it even comes complete with bars to help users get on and off of it. If shopping centers feel that most people would prefer to sit on a dirty toilet seat rather than squat they’re welcome to have half the toilets sitters and the other half squatters. However if they eliminate all of the squatters and think that signs like these will dissuade people from hopping on to the toilet they are wrong.

toilet instructions

It’s Not an Apple!

Sugar apple, custard apple, water apple, star apple, velvet apple… None of these fruits taste like or resemble an apple so lets stop calling them apples. There’s no need to be so primitive in our use of language that we must always combine two familiar words to name something as some things are worthy of their own names. To me these apple-ending names are as ridiculous as fuzzy apple for peaches and baby apple for cherries so here are some better names for English speakers to use and links to photos:

sugar apple = sweetsop (there’s also a soursop)
custard apple = cherimoya (related to the above two along with atemoya and a rollinia)

water apple, wax apple, rose apple, java apple = bellfruit (there are many different types and closely related fruits)

star apple = cainito (related to sapodilla, canistel, and abiu)

velvet apple = mabolo (related to persimmon and black sapote aka chocolate pudding fruit)

I’ve been fortunate enough to have tried them all however there are even more, many more, delicious and nutritious fruits that I haven’t tried and I hope they don’t go extinct due to humanities love of meat, palm oil, and burning fossil fuels all of which are responsible for the deforestation and climate change that is killing off much of the biodiversity on this planet.

Sunbathing in the Tropics?

Why do people repeatedly lather themselves up in toxic sunscreen that’s going to be absorbed through their skin and into their body to protect them from the intense tropical sun only to lay directly under the sun until their skin turns a brownish red and is damaged to the point it begins to age prematurely only to go out and buy toxic “anti-aging” skin creams?

I can see a person not putting any sunscreen on and laying naked or half naked in the sun if they lived in a place where the sun was weak and it was difficult to get enough however tourists from such areas please note that in the tropics you don’t have to try to get all the sun your body could possibly need especially if you don’t cover your skin with toxic sunscreen.

I try to stay out of the sun and carry an umbrella with me when I can’t because I’m not adapted to the tropical sun like the locals and don’t want my skin to age prematurely. However even with such caution and even though I consume virtually no Vitamin D in my diet when I checked my 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D level in 2015 it was at 88.88ng/ml which means I probably get too much sun.

When visiting the tropics be careful to limit your sun exposure. I don’t recommend sunscreen but I do recommend an umbrella and some long sleeves and a wide brimmed hat when you’re unable to carry an umbrella along with some common sense, e.g., try not to be exposed to the sun when it’s at full tropical fry you power and arrange your outdoor activities for morning and late afternoon so you don’t get burned.

Cliff Jumping

So you want to try jumping off a cliff or some other high place into water? I don’t recommend it unless you’ve confirmed the water depth while taking into account how it can vary with the tides, thoroughly checked for any underwater obstacles such as rocks, have a person nearby that is willing and able to assist you if necessary, and only if the jump height is less than 8 meters (26 feet) because anything higher than that is quite dangerous. In fact an uncontrolled fall from even that modest height could leave you unconscious and seriously injured. Many people who haven’t cliff jumped, including myself until fairly recently, do not understand the force at which you impact the water and how important it is to be in the proper vertical, arms in, legs together, toes pointed, eyes squeezed shut position for entry. Obviously a belly or back smacker is to be avoided but even a butt first landing could be devastating provided it’s from a good height.

 

Fruit Warning For Thailand Tourists

In Thailand many of the locals prefer to eat unripe fruit. For instance mangoes are often eaten green, hard, and tooth meltingly sour. I do cringe a little when I see locals eating unripe mangoes, jackfruit, bananas, santols, and pieces of durian that look more like raw potato than durian but what really gets me is when tourists come to Thailand and try these fruits for the first and perhaps last time but are given unripe fruit not worth eating.

If you try durian in Thailand for the first time you’ll probably buy a small plastic wrapped pack of it rather than a whole fruit so here are three tips for selecting some durian that’s worth trying. I don’t endorse buying anything on or in foam packing so if possible try and buy durian that’s packed on paper but know you probably won’t find any so you should just bring your own reusable food container and have the seller open a fresh ripe one and sell you some of that or you could just buy a whole durian which comes packaged in a biodegradable spiked shell.

1.) Color: The color of durian flesh ranges from white to red however odds are the type of durian you’ll encounter in Thailand is MonThong. When it comes to this cultivar of durian generally speaking the yellower the better however note that many cultivars of durian are supposed to be white or close to it.

2.) Softness: Don’t squeeze ripe fruits! I can’t believe how many tourists I’ve seen squeezing ripe fruit or poking dents into it and then walking away without buying it. However you can very slightly press on the plastic wrap covering the durian with your finger tip just enough to know whether or not it’s soft.

3.) Smell: If all that stands between you and a piece of fresh ripe durian is a thin layer of plastic it should give off a strong smell and make you understand why durian is banned from most hotels and public transportation. If you’re only getting a slight smell or no smell it’s probably unripe durian which isn’t worth trying.

In summary if you visit Thailand and would like to try some durian make sure it passes the three checks above and if you see some that looks like the unripe, overpriced, inedibly bad stuff below it’s best to pass and wait for a better chance to try this must try fruit. Also feel free to let the fruit seller know that you’d like to buy some durian provided it was soft and ripe so they understand that unlike many of the locals most people prefer ripe, sweet, fragrant, and in the case of durian, very soft fruit.

underripe-overpriced-inedibly-bad-thai-durianIf you want to see what durian is supposed to look like check out this post.

P.S. Rambutans should be red, not green, when you eat them. There are yellow rambutans but you’re unlikely to come across those in Thailand. However you will see people selling unripe green ones which I don’t recommend.

rambutan-unripe

 

 

Lunar, Solar, and Lunisolar Calendars

Depending on which calendar a society uses there are many different New Year’s and in some places more than one is celebrated. Calendars are generally one of three types: lunar, solar, or lunisolar. A lunar calendar is based on the revolution of the moon around the earth, a solar calendar is based on the revolution of the earth around the sun, and a lunisolar calendar is based on the moon’s revolution around the earth but includes a thirteenth month, aka leap month, every two or three years to keep it in sync with the earth’s revolution around the sun.

In lunisolar calendars like the Chinese calendar a leap month is periodically added so the months correspond with the seasons. It takes the moon around 29.5 days to revolve around the earth which means 12 lunar months is around 354 days and since it takes the earth around 365 days to revolve around the sun the months and seasons would drift apart around 11 days each year without this leap month. The New Year’s that takes place on January 1st is according to the Gregorian or Western calendar which is a solar calendar and the New Year’s that takes place today and every year on the new moon between late January and late February is according to the Chinese calendar.

Happy New Year! 新年快樂！

Sheen = new 新
Nee-en = year 年
Kwai Luh = happy 快樂

Sheen Nee-en Kwai Luh! Try it if you encounter a Chinese speaking person this week because unlike the Western New Year Chinese New Year, aka Spring Festival, is a multi-day mega holiday that doesn’t officially conclude until the 15th day which marks the first full moon of the new year and is celebrated as Lantern Festival.

Unilateral Neglect

As I was skating in an empty parking lot I saw two ladies playing badminton without a net. They were fairly close to each other and had a pretty intense volley going. When their volley finished I said “You gals are awesome… but your not because you’re only using your right arm, you should train both arms.”. They though it was funny and then went back to beating the shuttlecock back and forth with their right arms as they’ve probably done for decades and will continue to do for decades as their half-dead left arms just dangled at their side perhaps waiting for the evening when they’d probably be needed to hold a bag of ice or a heating pad over the right shoulder in order to treat the pain that often comes with a chronic repetitive strain injury.

Regardless of whether it’s badminton, footbag, sweeping floors, or wiping windows if you do it on a frequent basis you should use both sides. Left and right sides don’t have to be exactly equal in strength and coordination but you shouldn’t have one good side and one side that’s pretty much useless. Also if you are, have, or see a kid on one of those two wheel ripstiks stop them, tell them how awesome they are for being able to cruise around on it, and then tell them “Now put this foot in the front and that foot in the back.” haha. Not surprisingly I’ve never seen a kid who could do it and it’s disappointing that out of the dozen or so kids I’ve told this to over the years I’ve never seen one that was even willing to take up the challenge and work at it for more than a minute.

Noni No Thanks

Noni, also known as “vomit fruit” is without question the most disgusting whole plant food I have ever come across. In fact I can’t even think of another whole plant food that could be placed in the same leg weakening gag inducing category as noni. It really is that bad, not something you can get used to and even learn to enjoy but just plain bad. Normally when out for a walk if I come across a fruit tree with some tree-ripened freshly fallen fruit on the ground next to it I’m pretty excited but not the other night, however I did grab one and got noni juice on my hand and my knife in order to take this photo.

noni

P.S. I just returned from the supermarket and on my way to the vegetable section as nasty as noni is, and it is nasty, I passed by something much worse, smelt like rotting mammal flesh… oh wait it was rotting mammal flesh. Whoever buys that stuff is going to need a lot of heat, salt, sugar, oil, and spices to make it edible. Right now you’re probably thinking I’m sure glad I eat a vegan diet or an ethical, sustainable, and healthy near-vegan diet; or perhaps you’re thinking well I don’t eat rotten flesh or flesh from any abused animal they didn’t have to kill in order to butcher and to that I reply sure you don’t.

rotten mammal flesh

Shooting Stars and Mass Extinctions

A meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic body traveling through space. It becomes a meteor aka shooting star or falling star when it enters the Earths atmosphere, heats up, and disintegrates in a blaze of glory due to the friction it incurs as it collides with air particles. If it doesn’t completely disintegrate and a portion of it makes it to the ground it becomes a meteorite. As for asteroids they are basically giant meteoroids which are also known as minor planets or planetoids.

According to NASA: “Space rocks smaller than about 25 meters will most likely burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere and cause little or no damage. If a rocky meteoroid larger than 25 meters but smaller than one kilometer were to hit Earth, it would likely cause local damage to the impact area. We believe anything larger than one to two kilometers could have worldwide effects.” Also according to NASA there are well over 10,000 known near-Earth asteroids over the size of 30 meters with nearly 900 of them larger than one kilometer.

Maybe we should take this potentially catastrophic threat a little more seriously and use some of the money we allow our governments to spend on weapons on ways to detect and if needed divert near-Earth asteroids. We don’t need another space rock coming down and setting off the next mass extinction event as we humans have already proven that we’re perfectly capable of causing mass extinction events on our own and each of us needs to remember that when we decide what to eat, what to buy, how to travel, and how to live in general.

The Sixth Mass Extinction is Here

Iowa & New Hamshire 2016

In just a few hours the Iowa caucuses will begin and although a win there is by no means essential it’d be very nice to start the primaries with a one two punch this evening in Iowa and next week in New Hampshire. If you’re still undecided and are looking for an honest, straight talking, independent non-partisan minded candidate capable of bridging the red-blue divide and making the U.S. and the rest of the world a better place check out this Bernie Brief on climate change and campaign finance.

notmeus

Hot Dog in a Warm Shirt

Earlier this week as I walked home in the 35C/95F tropical midday heat in a sleeveless shirt, shorts, and sandals with my umbrella to protect me from the fury of the sun I passed by a little dog that was wearing a very dirty and probably very smelly shirt. I had passed by the same dog before but the owner wasn’t around however this time they were so I gave them my standard dog-clothes-tropics speech which is basically just “The weather here is hot everyday year-round. I’ve got a shaved head and I’m still hot. Could you imagine how hot that furry dog is with clothes on? Do dogs really even need to wear clothes?”.

I walked by the same place this morning and the little dog was naked! A small victory which was the result of laying out the logic, encouraging people to think, and letting them arrive at the proper conclusion on their own. I never said dogs shouldn’t wear clothes nor did I say they were idiots/wrong for putting clothes on a dog in the tropics for their own sick amusement but after I explained the situation whatever conclusion they came to led them to remove the shirt. Lets just hope they didn’t remove it only to replace it with a hoodie tomorrow or perhaps in order to shave the dog in order to make it easier to cook now that it doesn’t remind them of a human.

Rest assured the little dog won’t be shaved and eaten as they don’t eat dogs in this area however the pigs, chickens, fish and many other living breathing pain and fear sensing animals sure do have it rough. Maybe I should start putting clothes on them to see if it gets people to start treating animals in more ethical ways. If you have a dog please make sure it stays in a private enclosed area or on a leash and that it’s been spayed or neutered.

Drug Free For 15 Years

As I was going out to buy some fruits and vegetables the keeper of the place I’m renting a room at asked me if a little bag of medicine she found was mine. I replied “It’s not mine.” and as I did it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken any medicine since the turn of the century so I added “I haven’t taken any medicine in over 15 years.”. She seemed quite surprised and as I continued my backwards dash towards the exit although she didn’t say anything her eyes did get bigger and her face said “What! You haven’t taken ANY medicine in 15 years!”.

As I walked down the street and towards the market I thought about how rampant drug abuse is, legal and illegal, prescription and non-prescription so I felt I should remind everyone that having to take a drug, any drug, is not normal and shouldn’t be seen as justified until you’ve taken a serious look at your situation/symptoms and whether or not all that’s needed to get off the sleeping pills, pain killers, anti-depressants, and cholesterol, high blood pressure, and/or blood sugar lowering drugs or whatever else you’re on or are considering going on is simply some mental calm, consistent exercise, fresh produce, and quality sleep.

JAMA article/audio on prescription drug use in the U.S.

Ignorocracy or Apathocracy?

I voted today! My vote won’t be received for two weeks and it won’t be counted for another four after that however I did mail in my absentee ballot. In 2014 just over a third of the US electorate cast a vote and even more pathetic is that of 18 to 34 year-olds less than a quarter of them voted. No wonder we have a bunch of fossil fuel funded climate change deniers in the House and Senate doing everything they can to obstruct initiatives that shift the U.S. to clean energy and set a positive example for the rest of the world.

Equally pathetic is that in 2014 around 95% of those running for re-election in the House and Senate were re-elected. This either shows how awesome Congress is or how ignorant and apathetic the voters are and how big money rather than voter preference really determines who runs and gets elected. Don’t just wait until November to pull the lever for whichever of the two candidates were selected for you but vote now or in the coming weeks depending on where you live for the candidate you’d like to see on the ballot in November.