John's Bytes | Things of Interest (at least to me...)

Flavonoids Are Found in Fruits and Vegetables

Flavonoids are an important type of micronutrient. There are a huge variety of flavonoids – over 6,000 individual compounds have been identified. What ties them together is that they all share a common chemical structure.

Scientists do not fully understand the impact or health benefits of flavonoids, but some theories are that they:

Act as an anti-oxidant
Are anti-inflammatory
Reduce risk of cardiovascular disease
Support the nervous system (From whfoods.com – “There is some preliminary evidence that the onset of certain chronic neurodegenerative diseases—including age-related dementia and Alzheimer’s disease—may be delayed when long-term intake of flavonoids has been strong.”)

Continue reading Flavonoids Are Found in Fruits and Vegetables

Choco eating broccoli

This is a fun video I made of Choco last year (June, 2014). He’s devouring a plate of broccoli like other dogs might go after meat scraps. He remains a big fan of broccoli even today.

Amy Schumer on Ellen

I randomly happened upon this video this morning and thought it was a scream. Watching Ellen laugh so hard is half the fun.

Some crops require a lot of water!

Chart above shows how much water some crops need. Almonds are famously among the most thirsty. Walnuts and avocadoes are also notably water-intensive.

Acton Freecycle

I just posted Vicky’s old air conditioner to the Acton Freecycle page. It is always interesting to see how long it takes first person to reply. This was one of the fastest ever. Couldn’t have been more than 20 seconds for 1st and then another moments later. Continue reading Acton Freecycle

Choco turns 3!

Choco had his 3rd birthday on Jun 18, 2015, 2 days before this photo was taken. He is a wonderful little guy and we are lucky to have one another.

Family timeline using Tiki-Toki

Last summer while I was up here in Boston, I spent a lot of time sorting through old family papers – Mom’s and Dad’s stuff – and was inspired to tackle a project that I’d long wanted to do: create some sort of family timeline.

Partly I wanted to do this to keep track of developments in my own life, but also to related that to things going on with other family members, too. So the idea wasn’t so much to do a family tree (which Phil has already done a lot of work on), but something more granular and biographical in terms of events and milestones in our lives. Continue reading Family timeline using Tiki-Toki

The MIND Diet Showing Promise in Preventing Alzheimer’s

I’ve been reading with great interest about this new diet called the Mind Diet based on studies done at Rush University. Could be the topic of a forthcoming website I build.

Came across this WebMD Q&A with the fellow who developed the DASH diet. He thinks the Mind diet is ‘tremendously’ exciting. I think that really speaks to the promise it has. Continue reading The MIND Diet Showing Promise in Preventing Alzheimer’s

Little Sally Pants has passed away

Sally Pants during her short stay in Fernandina Beach in 2011

Cute little Sally Pants has passed away this morning in Littleton. She took gravely ill overnight and died rather suddenly. The doctor thinks it was due to an aggressive form of cancer that strikes Aussies fairly often.

She was 9 years old.

She had a lovely and fun last day with Choco and I that included numerous play sessions, a nice walk through the woods, and some tummy rubbing around bedtime.

I spent many days with her when she was young and I had just moved to Littleton from Boston. We took many walks together. She was fond of running fast and jumping up to take sticks out of my hand in mid-stride.

She will be missed.

25th Sloan Reunion

MIT Sloan Reunion 2015 Had a great time at my 25th MIT Sloan Reunion this weekend. People came in from all over the world for the event. It was really fun to catch up with folks.