There was nearly a riot in the tea room last week when we ran out of real milk and only virtually water was left. A debate on the preference for fat milk versus thin milk ensued.
Being a fat milk person myself, I found this quite intriguing as semi-skimmed tends to be favoured in the UK. Here, the majority was definitely in favour of the the whole cow. But then this is a country where allegedly two thirds of men are overweight or obese.
That is something I really do not get, to be honest. That should mean two in three of the blokes in our building are porkers. And they patently are not. So if my sample is skewed, that means there are some real fat so-and-sos in statistical clumps around the place[0].
Moving on, one particular reader of this weblog has been sending interesting emails to the department. For example:
There has been some debate on some Uni discussion forums regarding the compatibility of these new cards with existing (and diverse) security systems used across campus.I'm *sure* that the cards will work in our building (and that the system will remember our individual access privileges) but was wondering if the first person to get a new card could give the green light to the rest of us :-)
For what it's worth, I got my new card on Monday (nary a queue to be seen) and so far it seems fine.
This correspondent also sent a rather interesting email that I am going to leave until after the event to which it refers has passed. Just in case, you understand. But as we're playing catchup, I'll leave you with this little gem from someone else:
Subject: If a tree falls in the forest
There is a growing pile (some 15cm thick) of uncollected papers from the printers on ****, and I suspect elsewhere in the building. This practice continues in the School unabated.It seems many in the School have not changed habits since Steve's email of 2001 and I suspect we are on track for even greater consumption of paper, toner and energy alike.
A better scenario than recycling paper, with chemical and energy costs/impact, is not to print to begin with. That is, print only what you will collect and read/use.
Being but a spring chicken in terms of service to USyd, I am left wondering about the infamous email of 2001. Was it a classic for its time? Did paper-wasting grad students hoist themselves by their own Eppendorf/dry ice bombs?
I think we should be told.
Note:
[0] Two words. "Officers" and "transit".
Comments
Regarding your skewed sampling... here in the US I can tell you that in my workplace the "truth" about it being an income related thing.
Everything that is cheap is fat. Everything that is healthy is expensive. Even in our cafeteria that is so true, and this is a hospital! I still can't get around the fact that deep fried chicken and fries (normal lunch for plenty of people... hello?!? veggies and fibers anyone???) is about $1.50 where as the healthy option(TM) is $4.50, unless you only eat salad which can be a little cheaper...
Hence, the highly educated doctors and post docs are skinny (I am an exception ;) ) and the cleaners and nurses tend to be on the heavy side...
Although, I know that there is a study showing that US students gain about 8-12 pounds the first year in college because the only eat pizza... so maybe my belief is wrong?!
I do think that can be true for you in Aussieland as well?
and about the milk, in coffee I prefer real milk - why dilute the alread weak coffe here with more water aka skinmilk? :)
[I will start to write shorter comments, promise!]
Posted by: challenge | November 4, 2006 04:16 AM
Hey, no probs - long comments is fine.
Personally I do not put milk in coffee. The standard of general coffee here in Oz is about the same as it is in the US - pretty poor. The whole country seems to be owned by Nestlé, which has something to do with it no doubt. That means instant coffee is right out, and good beans are expensive. The locally-produced stuff does not much flavour or depth.
So I'm drinking more tea at work (how British of me!) and saving my coffee fix for the stovetop at home. The tea is 'fair trade' and the coffee Italian.
Yeah, I'm a gastro-snob.
Oh, and I suspect you are right about the healthy = expensive thing. We suffer from the same thing back in the UK. Not that they pay postdocs a great deal . . .
Posted by: BK | November 4, 2006 07:20 AM
haha, I realised that(i.e. post doc salory) when I wrote the thing. Half of the post docs from abroad over here are gaining weight every year apparently :) although I blame the nonexistent "every day moving" since we take the car to everything!
The "native" americans, female post docs, are thin - very thin, whereas the men tend to be a little bulkier, but over all I must say even though the salory might not be huge I think post docs are considered in the halfgood sector coupled with education and knowledge of discrimination...
I have never paid this much for coffee, but it is fare trade AND organic! (and drinkable compared to the "I look like tea" coffee I find every where.. :) )
Posted by: challenge | November 4, 2006 10:35 AM
Part of it is because the body-mass-index definitions that are being used to compute `obesity' are, not to put too fine a point on it, insane.
I mean, I'm `obese', apparently, but I can't see any sign of it and people comment regularly that I should eat more. But the BMI says I'm obese and should therefore probably exercise more. (As if walking eight miles a day rather than using the tube isn't enough.)
(And, yes, I know it gets things wrong for the heavily-muscled, but I've got upper body dystonia, i.e., the inverse!)
Plus it appears that there is, um, not much backing for BMI, if any, in actual peer-reviewed publications.
I conclude that the BMI thing is probable claptrap and ignore it.
Posted by: Nix | November 5, 2006 12:14 PM
I prefer to drink milk because if it does'nt provide us any thing then it alo won't harm .
(Note from BK: I've deleted the commercial link from this comment, but left the rest here because spam is sometimes just *too* funny)
Posted by: david law | January 24, 2007 07:39 PM