Meanwhile... snow bacteria and Madison pet ordinances

Two things i have heard referenced by prospective students during recent recruiting weekends:
>Meanwhile, in Russia If you google this one, Huffpost brings up this youtube clip. i think around 6:00 might be my favorite part. (Yeah, i know, i'm super late the the party here.)

>Instant artist Statement generator. Chris didn't mention a specific site, but described one where you check a couple boxes, like this one here. There's  also a mad-libs style one, as well as general one where it picks all of the variables for you. Of course, and i double checked, there's not one for science.

Asuka sent me an email today referencing  an article entitled Cold-weather running tips for beginners. She's anything but a beginner runner, but noticed:

Bonus: If you get snow where you are, you have all the water you need; just stop and eat some of the white stuff and go on your way."

Anyway, we were both surprised that it seemed to be a serious recommendation. Snow requires something to nucleate on, and frequently uses bacteria to do so (in addition to dust/pollution; anecdotal NPR article/backstory here). The one cited, Pseudomonas syringae, is a plant pathogen and so fine in small doses for most people. (Another Psuedomonas genus member can be a serious issue for folks with cystic fibrosis.) Digging around little more, it looks like the main issue with using snow for hydration purposes lies in the fact that it can drop your core temperature pretty quickly, plus it takes a lot of snow to get any appreciable amount of water. (The advice seems sound, though i didn't kick up any journal articles regarding this.)  Hmm. Eating snow on urban winter runs? No thanks.

At dinner with Jack the other night, the topic of a large wild (err) rabbit population in urban Madison came up. One of the hypotheses was that it's because cats have to be kept inside at night, so there's no population check. i called bs (hopefully politely), but realized that i hadn't seen a lot of cats (or dogs) outdoors at night here. Looking into city ordinances, there is a "regulation of Cats and Dogs running at large" as being in violation of the city public policy code (article 23.32 here), basically, that you have to keep control of your pets, restraining them as necessary. As cats don't respect fences, that tends to mean indoors. (Article 23.34 is the one that establishes Madison as nuclear-free zone. Organization of the policies seems to be a little random.)

This past Christmas, my 15-24 year-old female cousins had movie night. The choice was Pitch Perfect, which their mothers and i struggled to understand how it had a PG-13 rating (and get off my lawn!). The movie follows a fictional college a capella group. One of the actresses had apparently watched a youtube clip featuring Lulu and the Lampshades'You're Gonna Miss Me enough to learn it, and incorporated it into the movie at the behest of the director. And that's your random trivia for the day.