Body themes

Two themes related to our bodies are popping up enough to notice.  One is that our way of life seems to involve more physical sitting than is healthy.  The other is that the millions of microbes and the thousands of different species represented on and in us are certainly an important and powerful enough biological presence that we should know more about them, what they do for and against us, and how we can live better with them.

Sitting

Nutrition Action, a newsletter from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, had a message in the last couple of days to "Get Off Your Duff".  There is a TED talk on holding meetings while walking.  There was an article in the AARP Bulletin within the last couple of years called "Sitting is the New Smoking".  I respect the idea and I have found that using my computer while standing has helped me avoid back pains.  I have found that a sore back and hips are much more of a factor when I have been sitting, especially in the evening for a movie of some length.  Right now, it is not all that possible to avoid sitting while driving but there are many attempts and ideas for sitting less while doing desk work.

Body bacteria

I suffered from diverticulosis for about 30 years.  Painful episodes would occur a couple of times a year, at seemingly random times.  I had surgery to remove the lower part of my colon which was the most common site of an diversion and infection.  I haven't had any problem since but in trying to avoid any, a specialist advised that I take the 30 capsules, one a day, in the product Culturelle.  I think that was my first serious notice that the bugs in my body matter.  Then, Lynn read Martha Herbert's "The Autism Revolution", in which that scientist emphasized the possibility that various birth and early life events and medical treatments might affect people's health in numerous way by decimating or eliminating some bugs that affect what nutrients the body can get and use.  The TED talk by Jonathan Eisen, "Meet Your Microbes", articles by Carl Zimmer and the much older book, "Life on Man", relate to the emerging realization that we are covered in life forms and we might as well understand them and their interactions with us better.  Recently, I have seen several references to fecal transplants that can enable a person without some important body bug to get some from someone who has them.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Spring activities

Lot happening lately.  I was contacted by a friend through Google chat and that lead to the both of us using Google Hangout to see and hear each other on the video arrangement that Hangout enables.  It may be possible to use Firefox browser to do a Hangout but I could only make it work on Google's browser, Chrome.  

Spring has hit here with temperatures in the 70's.  So, naturally, it is time for some lawn work.  One of the first lawn actions here is moving the stalks from last year in our prairie.  But the tractor's battery is dead.  Another activity is bike riding and that means re-inflating four soft bike tires.  We rode for about half an hour with a strong wind from the south.  Nice when heading north, less so, into the wind.

I usually do my housework on Sunday morning while Lynn is at her Quaker meeting.  We have two vacuums, a light one downstairs and a more complicated one upstairs.  The upstairs one is actually more efficient but it wouldn't start this morning.  

My Civic is 10 years old but has only about 75,000 miles on it.  However, it has developed a disconcerting sound, which is a weak sway bar or something like that.  So, the mower, the vacuum and the car.  Three strikes!

But we pig farmers and sex scientists don't care about that stuff.  Reading Mary Roach's "Bonk" about scientific research on sexual intercourse, I read:

the job of a production pig is to produce more pigs, as many pigs as is pigly possible. The sows of Øeslevgaard shuttle back and forth between the "service" (insemination) barn and the open-floored nursing and weaning barns, where they sprawl flank-to-flank, a mounded porcine land mass. Anne Marie and I are standing around in the insemination barn. Here the sows are briefly confined in narrow pens separated by metal railings. It's like living inside a shopping cart. They seem to be in good spirits nonetheless. This may have to do with boar No. 433, a brown and white Duroc with testicles as big as a punching bag. Thomas has hold of No. 433' s tail, steering him from behind into a large enclosure that flanks the pens of the twenty sows in heat. No. 443 is a "teaser boar." His presence in the barn primes the sows for what's to come. It is not a quiet presence. The grunts of a sexually aroused boar are a soundtrack from a horror film: the deep, guttural, satanic noises of human speech slowed way down on tape. When I replayed my cassette, weeks later, I tried speeding it up to see if it would sound like speech. Perhaps I would decipher the secret language of pigs. It just sounded like someone retching. The boar moves along the row of sow snouts protruding through the bars, rubbing each one with his own. "This is what he does," yells Anne Marie over the grunting and the banging of metal grates. "He slobbers on them." Boar saliva has a pheromone— a chemical that primes a sow in heat for mating.

Roach, Mary (2009-04-06). Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (pp. 89-90). Norton. Kindle Edition.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Fwd: 10 tech tips (you might be surprised you didn't know)

Quite a few readers of this blog mentioned enjoying John McWhorter's TED talk on texting being a new form of language.  I thought this one by David Pogue on tech tips that can make your use of technology easier.  The talk is only a bit more than 5 minutes and there may be a hint or two in what he says that helps you do what you want better or to start something.  There are many excellent TED talks but some are found through Google searching instead of the official TED site, such as Dr. Alan Wallace's helpful breathing demo and instruction for quickly relieving tension.  One of my favorites is Ernesto Sirolli.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: This week on TED.com <no-reply@ted.com>
Date: Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 10:28 AM
Subject: 10 tech tips (you might be surprised you didn't know)
To: olderkirby@gmail.com

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This week on TED.com April 27, 2013

Talk of the week David Pogue: 10 top time-saving tech tips 05:44 minutes · Filmed Feb 2013 · Posted Apr 2013 · TED2013 Tech columnist David Pogue shares 10 simple, clever tips for computer, web, smartphone and camera users. And yes, you may know a few of these already -- but there's probably at least one you don't. Watch now »

Playlist of the week Words, words, words (9 TED Talks) Verbs! Conjunctions! Dialects! 9 talks on the pwer of written and spoken language.  » Total run time 2:11:52

More from TED.com What if cars could share data with each other to calculate the safest routes for everyone? Jennifer Healey imagines a world without car accidents. Watch » What color is a mirror? How much does a video weigh? Michael Stevens, creator of the YouTube channel Vsauce, spends his day asking quirky questions like these. Watch » As machines take on more jobs, many humans find themselves out of work. Is this the end of economic growth? No, says Erik Brynjolfsson -- it's the growing pains of a radically reorganized economy. Watch » The US economy has been expanding wildly for two centuries. But now, economist Robert Gordon lays out 4 key reasons -- including debt and inequality -- that this growth may be slowing. Watch »

Happy Birthday TeD-Ed! In one year of TED-Ed, we've shared 150+ original video lessons -- and inspired more than 2,000 classroom lessons. Dive in and learn! Watch TED-Ed lessons »

Quote of the Week " Talk about [the economy] like what it is: not an existential crisis, not some battle between two fundamentally different religious views, but a math problem, a really solvable math problem." Adam Davidson Adam Davidson: What we learned from teetering on the fiscal cliff

Join the Conversation What happens after a TED or TEDx conference? Started by Genevieve Tran (16 comments) What is your definition of 'freedom'? Started by Caitlin Hagdorn (133 comments) " Huw Jarvis on John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!   Some very interesting and valid points here, but it is also worth remembering that many users (arguably the majority) are texting in English a second or foreign language as well as their first language – what do such users make of this? My recent research (Jarvis, 2012) has looked at how non-native speakers of English view texting and 52.4% of users (N=123) reported that they '… use a different type of English when social networking to that which they are taught' There was a widespread view that such Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) made English easier; a Thai Female said, '… it's very easy, don't have grammar … when I type grammar it's too complex' and an Emirati Male explained how he picks up such language: '… we practice on the internet, we learn from friend … we find it easy so we do it … it's better, it's easier it's shorter'. An Emirati Female elaborated on the ways that CMC is changing English '… by chatting they use a different language, a new one, like TYT [take your time] … and numbers like letters'. Comments such as these point to autonomous learners making intelligent decisions about the type of English language to use in an online social environment. I agree with John in that I see all this as essentially positive not negative for language pedagogy. For the full study see http://www.tesolacademic.org/msworddownloads/BritishCouncil2012.pdf"

Become a Fan on Facebook Follow us @TEDNews | @TEDTalks News, speakers, Q&As and more: TEDBlog Get the TED app for iPhone, iPad, and Android

 

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Some current reading

Mary Roach's books:

    MARY ROACH is the author of

"Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers,"

"Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife,"

"Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex,"

"Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void"

"My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places"

"Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal."

I first learned about her, her research and her humor when Lynn started reading "Stiff", about the good many people have accomplished after their death when their bodies were used for scientific research. Parts of the book were so witty Lynn simply had to read them to me.  I first read experienced commentary on the experiences of a cadaver from Richard Selzer in his "Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery".  

I am currently reading Roach's "Bonk", about what science has found out about human sexual intercourse and the difficulties early researchers had in persuading funding authorities that they had serious science in mind and not just voyeur or salacious interests.  She writes with a lighthearted hand on subjects that many people have trouble even thinking about.  She covers such things as "vaginal weight lifting" in some of her writing.

As a friend says, switching here, we are reading aloud "The Vatican Diaries: A Behind the Scences Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church."  The job of serving as the religious focus and leaders of more than a billion people on several continents speaking many different languages is daunting to say the least.

Finally, inspired by discussion with friends, I am more than halfway through "Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar", an attempt to illustrate philosophical concepts with jokes.  Many of the jokes are rather old but most are still good ones and most give me a laugh, even if a joke can not contain all the details of any major philosopher's ideas. Here is one I like and can remember but it is only a tickler, not a guffawer:

A: I got a riddle for you. What's green, hangs on the wall, and whistles?

S: I give up.

A: A herring.

S: But a herring isn't green.

A: So you can paint it green.

S: But a herring doesn't hang on the wall.

A: Put a nail through it, it hangs on the wall.

S: But a herring doesn't whistle!

A: So? It doesn't whistle.

Cathcart, Thomas; Klein, Daniel (2008-06-24). Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes (p. 12). Penguin Books. Kindle Edition.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Sleeping 1/3 of our lives

I enjoy listening to Great Courses.  Much like sharing Kindles on one account, sharing a Great Courses account to download a course onto two iPods lets both of us listen to a course in our separate cars while driving around.  We often listen to an audiobook on a trip since a good story can make a short drive or a whole day of driving zip right on by.  It may take a certain sort of mind to drive safely while listening to a voice.  I admit that there are times when I have to replay a segment because I had to really attend to the car situation.

When I saw that the Great Courses had "Secrets of Sleep Science", I knew I wanted to listen to it.  I am up to lecture 16 of 24.  I don't really follow all the biochemical details as this neurochemical is changed into that one.  Some of the detail of what happens in my brain as I sleep is way beyond my interest level.  I have learned that I don't just become a snoring stone while sleeping.  All sorts of complex operations take place in my brain while I sleep.  I am not just an inert pillow but a switchboard of operations storing energy, consolidating memories and integrating them into a more coherent set of understandable ideas, facts and impressions.

It seems that scientists are still agitated over the exact functions of sleep.  All animals seem to have some form of sleep and all tested animals begin to mis-fire if they are deprived of sleep.  It is only in the last couple of decades that it has been proved to their satisfaction that memory and learning tasks are performed better after sleep.  They have even proved that actual human insight occurs from sleep, as in realizing that a given mathematical principle existed that could be used to understand and complete an operation on numbers.

It seems that we humans tend to sleep in 90 minute cycles that contain both non-REM and REM sleep.  REM or rapid-eye movement sleep is the portion of our sleep in which we tend to have clear-cut dreams and in which we are normally paralyzed which keeps us from acting out the motions we would use in such a dream if we were awake.  Most adult sleepers have about 5 of these cycles a night.  Many older people have heard that sleep matters and find that they aren't getting solid sleep for the amount of time usually recommended.  But Prof. Craig Heller of Stanford University advises them that data shows that the least probability of mortality is associated with 6.5-7.5 hours of sleep. He does advise following smart practices to maximize one's sleep duration and quality.

Dreams have fascinated all civilizations in all ages.  The most agreed-on scientific evidence so far seems to support the idea that dreams result because of brain clean-up and consolidation, memory dumps and energy supply restoration during sleep and don't have any special meaning except for what we decide they mean. Nevertheless, Prof. Heller ends each lecture with the closing "Sweet dreams".

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Busyness and the bottom line

Just about anything can be overdone.  That's why the ancients advised living in moderation.  A little excitement but not too much.  A pastry now and then but not too much.  Of course, good excitement can easily make us want more.  A good Danish can lead to the question Why not a Danish with every meal?  Add to that inner impulse, the exploitation by marketers and we soon find ourselves being efficiently supplied with exciting stories and a steady supply of tempting, addicting goodies.  

You may remember the phrase "bread and circuses" to describe the strategy to keep the citizens of Rome happy and amused whether it was good in the long run or not.  We have better tools and better research these days and it is easy to get trained in on steady diets of pleasure and ease.  We can accomplish the training all by ourselves, with plenty of books, television and beer.

It is possible to awake from a stupor of cheap and repetitious activities and move to a pathway of more challenge.  If we look around and we have time, money and health, we can uncover more and more possibilities for both personal fun and enrichment while steadily increasing our contribution and service to others.  For those who are retired, the set of attractions of demonstrable worth can grow to overwhelming proportions.  Even though our strength is waning and our attention span is shortening, we still uncover or are offered more and more ways we know we would enjoy spending our time.  

Those who are not retired have the same opportunities to engagement but they have the added set of calls and duties that come from trying for good job performance and strengthening the organization or business we are working for.  As everyday knowledge of good eating, good body care, good work on a marriage or partnership, good parenting, good contributions to our religious or political affiliations grow, it is easier and easier to get too busy.

 

I am considering the idea that a major contributor to the rancor and animosity we find in public forums today is our general level of busyness.  I am not accustomed to sitting in front of my fireplace with a quiet cup of tea and reading a political or religious pamphlet.  That may have been what leisured, educated people did 200 years ago but they didn't have cars, credit cards, internet and steady offers to visit here, luxuriate there and learn that.  So, if you are going to try to give me a persuasive message today, it has to be short and to the point and you know that.  Further, it might be better to skip the explanation as to why I should join your group or support your cause and just cut to the famous Bottom Line.  In fact, try to get me to use an immediate reaction, an emotional image-promoted one and not bother disturbing my slower but more powerful reasoning abilities.  You know I am not going to take the time to read step-by-step explanations of what your cause is all about so just try to shout above the din:

DO THIS!  NOW!  

Immediate Danger!  

No time to think!

Take the recommended action RIGHT NOW to save yourself and everything you love!

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Fwd: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!

My LIFE class on reading relates, of course, to books.  Books are filled with writing!  Who knew?  Writing and how we write and how we express ourselves are continually changing.  Prof. John McWhorter says some interesting things about the emerging language/activity of texting.  I have listened to this TED talk several times now and I thought you might like to see and hear it, too.  The link in the message has failed on two separate occasions on two different computers so I supply a direct one here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk.html

Here is a link to the transcript in case you want to resort it that.
https://sites.google.com/site/kirbyvariety/mcwhorter-ted-talk-on-texting

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Today's TED Talk <no-reply@ted.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 10:41 AM
Subject: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!
To: olderkirby@gmail.com

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April 22, 2013 Today's TED Talk John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!! 13:48 minutes · Filmed Feb 2013 · Posted Apr 2013 · TED2013 Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there's much more to texting -- linguistically, culturally -- than it seems, and it's all good news. Linguist John McWhorter thinks about language in relation to race, politics and our shared cultural history. Watch now » Quote of the Day " While other kids were BBM-ing their parents, I was literally waiting by the mailbox … to see how the weekend had gone." Hannah Brencher Hannah Brencher: Love letters to strangers Become a Fan on Facebook Follow us @TEDNews | @TEDTalks News, speakers, Q&As and more: TEDBlog Get the TED app for iPhone, iPad, and Android

You are receiving this email because you've subscribed to our mailing list. We also send out weekly emails, if you'd rather hear from us less frequently. Copyright © 2013 TED, All rights reserved. You're receiving the TED daily email because you subscribed to it on TED.com. Our mailing address is: TED 250 Hudson Street Room 1002 New York, NY 10013 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list   update subscription preferences   view email in browser

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

What about reading?

If you have been reading for many years, pause.  Ask yourself what you have read.  You can search various records or ask your brother or your kids what they remember you reading.  It can be fun to try to recall what was the first, or an early book, you read, all by yourself.  It may not be worthwhile trying too hard to get to the very first one, just as having read many books, it may not be worth it to agonize over which was the BEST.

You have eaten many meals.  Which was the very BEST?  Rather than spend energy on comparing candidates for the #1 position, it can be faster and as much fun, to simply sit with a pad and pen and jot down titles that come to mind from your reading history.  If you have been married for a long time, you may find that what you yourself have read has become intertwined in your memory of what your partner has read and mentioned to you.

It can be fun to locate a book that you read about a decade ago and start it again.  You may be appalled at the tripe that you liked or you may be amazed at the good taste your younger self was able to enjoy in such good writing and thinking.

The big development these days in the area of books is ebooks, although there are other sorts of changes, too. The insertion of links, live or merely spelled out, to related topics and explanations, and the insertion of ads or videos is getting more common.  I can see what I want to understand fairly quickly with English words so I am not in favor of ad insertions distracting me or videos slowly getting to the point I want to know.

Ebooks have been around for a while in one sense.  My copy of Appleworks included a word processor and I used it quite happily in 1984, nearly 30 years ago.  My little computer wasn't connected to a network or the Big Internet then so I had to print out my statement or manuscript and mail it or carry it to someone but the file existed, could be transported on a disk carried mechanically.

Before my great-grandson could read, he was pretty sharp at looking for a short time at the art work on the cover of a book or a movie cassette and judging whether he wanted to spend more time listening or watching the work.  One of the interesting things about books is the way the cover design, and the need for it, has persisted.  Kindles of the older sort can not show images very well but the newer models and iPads and iPods are careful to provide for viewing of cover art, for books or movies or music albums

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Focusing right in on pain

Sometimes, your full attention in a watchful way to pain, discomfort or fear can be a fast, inexpensive, clean way to improve things.

Pain is often an alarm, a signal that something is amiss.  I found when dealing with gut pain, that if I concentrated as completely right on the pain as I could, devoting all possible attention to it, unwaveringly, I could stop feeling the pain.

 

There are different types of pain, of course, and maybe some types do not lead to elimination by complete concentration.  I rarely read or hear of others trying to deal with pain by focusing on it.  I realize that our natural tendency is to try to escape pain, to run from it or hide from it.  Focusing attention of some other part of the body or on a movie or music can also help.  But doing so often plays into getting more license to the pain, since when we are not attending, it can try to serve the natural alarm function.

Distractions and dissociation, where I focus on a task or pretend I am far away in a wonderful or exciting adventure, can work, I suppose. I do know that when I am giving my shoulder the hanging treatment recommended by Dr. John Kirsch,  dangling by my hands for up to 30 seconds, I can definitely put up with the discomfort in my palms better if I focus my attention on a tree outside blowing in the wind.  I rarely read of using strong attention right on the pain but for me, it can work well.

The book by Levine and Phillips "Freedom from Pain" is excellent on the many things than can be done to lessen or eliminate pain.

This subject came to mind when I read Pema Chodron's short inspirational message this week.  She is the American grandmother and ex-elementary teacher who has become admired and read all over the world on applying mental and Buddhist ideas to life.  

Her message this week came from Pema Chodron - "Living Beautifully"

CONTACTING PAIN

When you contact the all-worked-up feeling of shenpa [getting hooked on a negative emotion], the basic instruction is the same as in dealing with physical pain. Whether it's a feeling of I like or I don't like, or an emotional state like loneliness, depression, or anxiety, you open yourself fully to the sensation, free of interpretation. If you've tried this approach with physical pain, you know that the result can be quite miraculous. When you give your full attention to your knee or your back or your head—whatever hurts—and drop the good/bad, right/wrong story line and simply experience the pain directly for even a short time, then your ideas about the pain, and often the pain itself, will dissolve.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety