A to Z challenge: Volcano Insurance
Ha! Just kidding about the volcano insurance. I'm not getting any.
I don't have very much to say today involving the letter v.
I did cook a new vegetable (asparagus) for the first time recently. It came out edible (duh, it's asparagus) but not great, so I'll have to try again.
And no little victories are coming to mind. In fact, I'm actually getting a little burnt out on a couple of things. I'm having real trouble dealing with this last chapter in my Spanish II class and am looking forward to having a long break before Spanish III. And I'm also burning out on my brother-in-law's exercise challenge and am looking forward to being able to include all exercise in my daily goals and not just exercise beyond my normal daily activities.
I'll leave you with a few links.
Tax article of the day
From the New York Times, Tax Day: Are You Receiving a Marriage Penalty or Bonus? - 'In most wealthy countries, married people file separate income tax returns, reporting their individual income, just as they would if they were single.' - I never would have guessed that. This article discusses various factors and has some pretty cool charts.
The charts show that if R and I were married (in the US), our taxes would come out about the same as they do now even though he doesn't generally make all that much more than I do because our total income is in the middle of the no-children chart. However, an important factor they omit means we'd actually have a penalty. That factor is itemizable deductions. I have most of them, so I itemize. He has basically none (but the newish sales tax deduction), so he takes the standard deduction. Together we would just take the standard deduction.
Chemistry article of the day
From Wonders & Marvels, Savor Flavor: The History of Artificial Flavoring - 'Redesigning yeast to create flavor molecules offers some potential benefits. For starters, fermentation requires none of the harsh chemicals that are often used to extract essential oils from plants or react with petrochemical precursors. Engineered yeast also offers the possibility of democratizing rare, expensive flavors, like saffron, and, Patrick Boyle points out, it can “relieve some of the supply issues that come from using really rare plants.”
'But the main attraction of this new technology for food companies is that the resulting flavors can legally be labelled as “natural”-they are produced by a yeast, after all. What’s more, because there is no yeast left in the final product, cultured flavors actually don’t contain genetically modified organisms.'
On the one hand, I don't like how this is a loophole to use GMOs for food. On the other hand, it's good to not need harsh chemicals and it's good to be able to get previously expensive things more cheaply (who can be opposed to letting human insulin, produced the same way, be widely available?). Currently my main problem with GMO's is that most of them are made by Monsanto, Dow, and other slimeball companies. This article is about other companies, which may not be slimy.
Another issue is that this article refers to 'vanillin, the main ingredient in the world’s most popular flavor.' Yet I've heard that some people are sensitive to vanillin who are not sensitive to vanilla. So I don't know why that would be.
I don't have very much to say today involving the letter v.
I did cook a new vegetable (asparagus) for the first time recently. It came out edible (duh, it's asparagus) but not great, so I'll have to try again.
And no little victories are coming to mind. In fact, I'm actually getting a little burnt out on a couple of things. I'm having real trouble dealing with this last chapter in my Spanish II class and am looking forward to having a long break before Spanish III. And I'm also burning out on my brother-in-law's exercise challenge and am looking forward to being able to include all exercise in my daily goals and not just exercise beyond my normal daily activities.
I'll leave you with a few links.
Tax article of the day
From the New York Times, Tax Day: Are You Receiving a Marriage Penalty or Bonus? - 'In most wealthy countries, married people file separate income tax returns, reporting their individual income, just as they would if they were single.' - I never would have guessed that. This article discusses various factors and has some pretty cool charts.
The charts show that if R and I were married (in the US), our taxes would come out about the same as they do now even though he doesn't generally make all that much more than I do because our total income is in the middle of the no-children chart. However, an important factor they omit means we'd actually have a penalty. That factor is itemizable deductions. I have most of them, so I itemize. He has basically none (but the newish sales tax deduction), so he takes the standard deduction. Together we would just take the standard deduction.
Chemistry article of the day
From Wonders & Marvels, Savor Flavor: The History of Artificial Flavoring - 'Redesigning yeast to create flavor molecules offers some potential benefits. For starters, fermentation requires none of the harsh chemicals that are often used to extract essential oils from plants or react with petrochemical precursors. Engineered yeast also offers the possibility of democratizing rare, expensive flavors, like saffron, and, Patrick Boyle points out, it can “relieve some of the supply issues that come from using really rare plants.”
'But the main attraction of this new technology for food companies is that the resulting flavors can legally be labelled as “natural”-they are produced by a yeast, after all. What’s more, because there is no yeast left in the final product, cultured flavors actually don’t contain genetically modified organisms.'
On the one hand, I don't like how this is a loophole to use GMOs for food. On the other hand, it's good to not need harsh chemicals and it's good to be able to get previously expensive things more cheaply (who can be opposed to letting human insulin, produced the same way, be widely available?). Currently my main problem with GMO's is that most of them are made by Monsanto, Dow, and other slimeball companies. This article is about other companies, which may not be slimy.
Another issue is that this article refers to 'vanillin, the main ingredient in the world’s most popular flavor.' Yet I've heard that some people are sensitive to vanillin who are not sensitive to vanilla. So I don't know why that would be.