My TEDx Talk, "The American Diet: a Historical Perspective"

On October 21st, I spoke at the Harvard Food Law Society's TEDx conference, Forum on Food Policy.  The conference kicked off with three talks on nutrition, by Drs. Walter Willett, David Ludwig and myself.  My talk is only 17 minutes long as per TED format, but it's packed with research on both quantitative and qualitative changes in the US diet over the last two centuries.  It contains surprises for almost anyone, and I can guarantee you've never learned this much about the history of the US diet in 17 minutes.  The talk was titled "The American Diet: a Historical Perspective"; you can access it by following that link.

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My favorite Google easter eggs

Teaching prep is killing me this semester, so I think it's time for cheap thrills. Here are my favorite Google easter eggs:

1) Search for "do a barrel roll"

2) Search for "tilt" (or "askew")

3) Search for "anagram"

4) Search for "recursion"

The last one is my favorite. More to come in t-minus 53 days!

did y'all watch the super bowl??  i don't think i watched one bit of the game or the commercials...i'm not going to lie, football's not really my cup of tea but i do enjoy the social aspect of it!! hope y'all have a great start to your week!

*images found here

I should be so lucky to dream this big.

So there we were, running with Iris Cooper and I asked what she had planned for her next big ultra event.

Well she said this year she was putting the Badwater 135 off till next year, so she can visit her parents in Switzerland. But she noticed a new ultra event just listed in Switzerland and she will probably do this while making the visit with her family.

The Swiss Iron Trail is a 201 Km trail race, is a new event that takes you over numerous mountains and each aid station has a cut off time you must meet to proceed. With a maximum time allowed of 56 hours.

(pictured above L-R: Monica, Iris and Veronique)

So after finishing Monica's February 20 / 40 Km Fun Run, we headed back to Casa Del Scholz for veggie chili , cold beverages and tall tails.

It was here that Monica, ever to casually said, "you know I think I may just do that Swiss Iron Trail Race".

Now how does a person take in information like: 201km and 56 hour maximum time, let alone the numerous big piles of rock called the Swiss Alps and think this is something to sign up for over a bowl of chili???

I have to do a weeks planning just to get my ass in gear to show up at her 20k fun run for wimps!

But as Bill Wheeler, Danny Murphy and I were driving home, we thought ' hey wouldn't it be neat if we went to crew for them'.

That may be all well and fine for those two, as they are speed demons and would have no problem doing any pacing requirements with either Monica or Iris, but I would be afraid they would kick the sh%t out of me if I tried to pace them as I would be holding them back.

But maybe they need someone to look after a beer cooler or something, then I am all in.