Visit to Mary Knoll Seminary on Easter

I am not a Catholic, or a religious person, but I thought it would be fun to visit the Mary Knoll Seminary/Museum in Ossining, New York on Easter, to see what was going on. I didn’t intend to take part in Easter mass or anything(it was over by the time I got there), but this place also has a museum and the building itself is an architectural marvel.

It is 38 miles north of New York City, located in picturesque countryside on a large hill overlooking the Hudson river. It’s built like a giant Chinese pagoda since this particular seminary’s original focus was on training priests to be missionaries in east Asia.

Even the Biblical figures in their stained glass icons often have east Asian features.

The walls along this long corridor commemorates the many Catholic priests who died in the various wars and conflicts in east Asia in the early 20th century. It was interesting reading about all the Christian missionary activity in Pyongyang, which is now in North Korea. North Korea has one of the most atheistic and repressive governments in the world right now. All the efforts of Catholic and other Christian missionaries in North Korea have been effectively erased by the communist government. Its government is once again making threats; technically, North and South Korea are still at war, but it’s been a while since there’s been any violent flareups between the two. Let’s hope it stays that way.

A belated Happy Easter! (Unless you happen to be Eastern Orthodox).

Protecting your eyes from the sun

With the sun’s rays getting stronger and the days getting longer and warmer, the outdoors are calling out your name and telling you to come out and play. I believe that outdoor exercise is generally more beneficial than indoor, so this is a good thing.

However, one of the biggest downsides to outdoor exercise is the damaging effects of sunlight on the skin and eyes. Lack of proper eye protection can lead to permanent eye damage in the long-term, besides hindering athletic performance in the short-term. Luckily, all you need is a good pair of sunglasses to protect your eyes – with all the choices out there, choosing the right one can be difficult.

Here are some tips to help you choose the right glasses to maximize eye protection:

1) Make sure they cover up enough of your eyes. Very small circle sunglasses may look “hip” to some people, but they don’t block enough sunlight from the side or the top. Wrap-around sunglasses are your best choice, since they block sunlight from all directions.

2) Make sure they provide enough darkening for very bright sunlight. Polarized glasses may be better for reducing glare and seeing things in water when the sun is out, but they are not absolutely necessary. Brown-orange lenses are probably the best color, along with brown-red, and brown-yellow. Grayish lenses are good as well. Pure red, green, or blue lenses aren’t a good idea since they can distort your vision.

3) Make sure they provide 100% UV light protection. This is different from how dark the lenses make your vision. Even some dark lens sunglasses can provide poor UV protection while some lighter ones provide 100% UV protection. UV light can damage your eyes over time, leading to macular degeneration and other serious problems.

How can you tell if your sunglasses provide 100% UV protection? One important thing to keep in mind is that price is no guarantee of UV protection. I’ve tested very expensive sunglasses and realized they provided little UV protection(even though the labels claimed they provided 100%), while some relatively cheap ones($8 to $25 U.S dollars) provided 100% UV protection.

How could I tell? There is a relatively simple trick you can do if you have access to a UV flashlight. There are some inexpensive UV flashlights available online if you are really interested in testing your sunglasses. Or borrow one if you can(do not beam it into your eyes). Here is what you do:

Go into a dark room with the UV flashlight, the sunglasses, and with paper money and/or a credit card. Turn on the UV light and beam it on the paper money. You should notice all these mysterious symbols on the money(usually a line) or credit card(usually letters) you normally wouldn’t see in ordinary light. These are watermarks used by banks and government officials to detect counterfeit money – these lines and/or symbols are only noticeable in UV light. Don’t worry, you are not doing anything illegal!

Now take the sunglasses you wish to test, and beam the UV light through one of its lenses and onto the money or credit card.

– If you still see the symbols on the money or credit card, your glasses do not provide 100% UV protection(the lenses are letting through the UV light and revealing the symbols).

– If you do not see the symbols, your glasses have passed the test and do provide 100% UV protection – the lens blocks the UV, hence you can’t see the symbols.

I’ve done this test many many times over the years, and discovered that many expensive sunglasses belonging to friends and family(so disappointed!) do not provide 100% UV protection while some inexpensive ones did provide 100% UV protection. Granted, many expensive ones do provide 100% UV protection, and some cheap ones do not, but do not let price be your guide. And unfortunately, there is little regulation of sunglasses and labelling can be dishonest.

If the glasses fail the test, make sure you return them and get a refund as quickly as possible. If it’s at all possible, see if you can even test sunglasses at the store.

Now get out and enjoy the early spring!

Hiking at Sylvan Glen

Spring is in the air! I had a fantastic time hiking at the Sylvan Glen preserve yesterday. This interesting little preserve is in Westchester county near the Putnam county border. It’s close to Yorktown. I hiked about 4 miles with the hiking group I was with, which didn’t include any joggling since I did that earlier in the day and I didn’t want to distract anyone.

You can get fantastic views in some spots within the park, but be careful. The trails in this park can get very steep in some spots, so you need to be in good shape to make your way through.

The area near the gorge was once an important quarry. It has been abandoned for several decades, but there are still big piles of rock all over the place.

Sylvan Glen also has one of the oldest trees for miles around. This tree is several centuries old. It is probably a white oak, judging by the leaf litter around the tree. It’s been said by some arborists that oaks specialize in not specializing – hence, they grow almost everywhere. I hope this tree survives for another thousand years.

You know its spring when skunk cabbage(Symplocarpus foetidus) starts peaking through the ground. In the north-eastern U.S, it is very often the first green you will see in early spring/late winter. And yes, the plant does live up to its name.

It is an amazing plant due to its ability to produce a lot of heat. According to Craig Holdrege at the Nature Institute:

A couple of times I’ve been lucky enough to see spathes growing up through a thin layer of ice, the ice melted around the spathe in a circular form. This is an indication of skunk cabbage’s remarkable capacity to produce heat when flowering. If you catch the right time, you can put your finger into the cavity formed by the spathe and when you touch the flower head, your finger tip warms up noticeably. Biologist Roger Knutson found that skunk cabbage flowers produce warmth over a period of 12-14 days, remaining on average 20° C (36° F) above the outside air temperature, whether during the day or night. During this time they regulate their warmth, as a warm-blooded animal might!

Skunk cabbage is at best marginally edible if you boil it in 10 changes of water and leave it to dry for a few days. In other words, don’t bother. Native Americans would only eat it when nothing else was available.

If you try to eat it raw or with only a little cooking, the oxalic acid(partially responsible for the plant’s smell) crystals in the leaves will make you feel like you are having holes burned in your tongue.

What is oxalic acid? Oxalic acid is a powerful anti-nutrient that can block the absorption of calcium, iron and other important minerals. Although spinach(and some other vegetables) doesn’t have as much oxalic acid as skunk cabbage, it still has a significant amount. This is one of the reasons I don’t eat much spinach(I prefer kale and cabbage), and strongly advice others to avoid juicing spinach. Cooking spinach can reduce its oxalic acid content, but it won’t eliminate it.

The hike ended just after sunset. I had a great time with some very fun people, although we didn’t get to see much wildlife.