Ending the week on a high note

July 16, 2010 filed under: excitement, FYI, news, yes!

So. I just booked a flight to Hawaii. Remember how a few weeks ago, I told you about a possible, work-related trip to… and then I didn’t want to jinx it and didn’t tell you? Yep. Now I can. Hawaii, it is.

I am so excited!

I’ve never been to Hawaii and always wanted to go. You need to know that Hawaii is one of the dream vacation spots for every European. It doesn’t seem like a big deal for any West Coaster, who can hop on a plane and go their in 5,5 hours, but for me, coming all the way from Europe to California, and now making the final jump over to Hawaii is pretty marvelous, to say the least.

Of course, it would have been much nicer to go there for a beach (and hiking/kayaking) trip with my husband, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. And right now that is a whole week on one of the smaller islands (where we’ll do some a whole lot of work) and possibly one day and night in Honolulu/Waikiki Beach before heading back. Can you say EXCITING?!?! :)

I know, I know, I won’t have very much time, but if you have any recommendations for Waikiki Beach, please share! I can easily spend the whole day at the beach and just soak up sun and enjoy the waves, but if there is any must-see in the area, I’d like to know about it. Also, I haven’t booked a hotel yet, so any recommendations in that regard would be highly appreciated as well.

With that said, I am ready for the weekend!

The Haiti Blog Challenge. Yes, we can!

January 16, 2010 filed under: help, news

Everyone has heard about the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

As earthquakes are something I work with on a(n almost) daily basis (the scientific part of it, anyway), this one hit close to home. You know, I am in this constant dilemma that I am really fascinated by natural disasters, which are bound to happen no matter what, and at the same time really shocked and petrified by the destruction and pain that they leave behind. Obviously, our research is mainly concerned with studying the patterns of natural disasters in order to issue warnings and save lives.
Still, it’s kind of disturbing to admit that sometimes we’re “thrilled” at the office when something that we were predicting actually happens. We are a far cry from actually predicting the exact time and intensity of natural disasters; research and historic records are much too young to even begin to recognize larger patterns, and the vast number of different factors that are involved in a natural disaster adds to the “confusion”. However, we do know the areas that are most prone to be hit and can at least try to educate the public and public officials to have an emergency plan in place.

I honestly wasn’t aware that Haiti was situated on or near an “active” fault zone, but that’s not saying much, because apparently “Scientists have warned for years that the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, was at risk for a major earthquake.” But one scientist also said that “The problem with these kinds of strikes is that they can remain quiescent — dormant — for hundreds of years. So it’s hard to predict when they’ll occur.” And this is exactly the crux of the matter – people, even here in earthquake-susceptible California, are just NOT PREPARED. We shouldn’t be surprised that Haiti, a country with so many other pressing problems on the forefront, was even less prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.
Just because scientists KNOW about something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that their warnings will be met with instant action.

Kelly has started an initiative that everybody should be part of:

The Help Haiti Blog Challenge

It’s basically the idea that everybody has something to offer and that you could offer a trade: your thing for cash, to donate to charity doing relief work in Haiti. Since I am not really producing/selling anything right now (even though that might change in the future – heads up!), I’ve already donated to the Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund yesterday. I donated $20, and I’m willing to donate more, because every dollar counts. Even if you can only spare $10, or even $5.

Everybody can spare $5 – just skip one of your daily caffeine fixes at Starbucks!

Do not NOT donate, because you think it’s not going to make a difference. It will. Haiti will have a long way of recovery ahead of itself – it’s not only about getting food, water and medical supplies to the victims of the earthquake now, but it’s also about helping to rebuild Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area in the weeks and months to come. Please don’t hesitate, GET INVOLVED.

Some other people in the blogosphere, who are not offering anything, have pledged to donate money for every comment that they receive on their blogs. I’ll jump on the bandwagon and will donate one dollar to the Red Cross for every single comment left on this post between now and Monday January, 18th, 2010. I know that some of you are usually not inclined to comment, but please make an exception just this once. I would love to hear about any of the following:

How you are able to go about your daily life when there are massive world crises unfolding
How you are planning to help the people of Haiti
What news program are you following about what’s happening in the world. (May I suggest: Democracy Now).
Anything.
If you are too busy or overwhelmed, just type two words. Help Haiti.

And if you’re so inclined, here’s

How To Join the Help Haiti Blog Challenge.

What You Can DO.

Here’s how we can share, together, so we can give, together, to our people who need and deserve help in Haiti.

Sign up for the Help Haiti Blog Challenge (go here). Write about it on your blog and tag it “Help Haiti Blog Challenge“. Ask your people to join you and do the same.
Add the Help Haiti Blog Challenge badge to your blog.
Make your offer: I will donate ________ dollars to _________ on behalf of the next person who buys _________ from me. [This is optional: you can, of course, JUST DONATE.]
Make your donation and tell us how much you donated.
Tweet about it using the hashtag #haitiblogchallenge. Update your facebook status with a request to pass on the message and the call to action. Send e-mails. Everywhere you are, online, talk about the Help Haiti Blog Challenge, tag it, and call your friends, family, colleagues – your people – to action.

Kelly has also generously provided a couple of badges for you to wear on your site. And some code to use it. Just copy+paste it. It’s good to go.

Large Badge

Small Badge

Let’s gather our online people to help our real-life people.

You can do this. We can do this. And it will be bigger than anything we could have done alone.

Pass it on.

Panic much?

November 2, 2009 filed under: FYI, NaBloPoMo, news, USA

Seriously. I’ve had it with the H1N1 news already. I am really getting sick and tired of hearing about H1N1 and about “you need to get vaccinated”.

People here in the US are freaking the ‘eff’ out. When I drove to work this morning, I was listening to NPR and they were talking about the vaccine shortage and how angry people get at the health care workers who give out the vaccine. But they were also bringing up questions like what are the risks of getting or not getting vaccinated.
If you ask me, the whole H1N1 hype is just scare tactics to keep people afraid.
As far as I know, in Germany the vaccine is not even widely available to the public yet (correct me if I am wrong – sometimes the channels of communication are slow.)

Maybe I am treating this too lightly, maybe not.
I honestly think that whole scaremongering is really not helping. I personally am not planning on getting vaccinated. First of all, I am not even sure the vaccine – whose production has been fast tracked because of the fear of a pandemic – is doing it’s job and what about potential side effects? Secondly, I am not in any of the risk groups, so I would probably stand in line somewhere for hours only to be sent away unvaccinated at the end of the day.

I am also a little concerned: is this just one big scam in favor of the vaccine manufactures who have the potential to make windfall profits with little risk? The government has already awarded 2 billion dollars to the companies that make the H1N1 vaccine. The Congress has also passed a law that protects vaccine manufacturers from being sued for damages, if they had ‘no willful knowledge’ of potential side effects.
That screams “gain for the pharmaceutical industry”, does it not?

I am not trying to play down the threat of the swine flu. However, I am still not convinced that it is any more dangerous than the regular flu (which annually on average costs 40,000 people their lives in the US).

I still believe that common sense and a healthy lifestyle are the best way to prevent (or fight) a virus like the flu.

Exercise. Regularly. Period.
Eat healthy. Whole grains, vegetables, unprocessed food, a fruit a day. It’s fairly simple.
Drink more water (or tea – I can only do it with more tea!)
Avoid salt and high fructose corn syrup ( = all processed foods!).
Get enough sleep. That seems like a no-brainer, but most people function on too little sleep. That extra hour every night might just give your immune system the rest that it needs.

It also won’t hurt if your practice simple precautions like washing your hands regularly and avoiding contact with people who are sick.

How about you? Are you planning to get vaccinated?