Bedtime Zen Meditation

At times we become sense overloaded. Our bodies vibrate at the lower energy of the room around us instead of at a level that is healthy for us. It becomes difficult then to become aware that we are burned out and our nervous system is completely saturated with noise. This is when it is important to be mindful of our unhealthy state and commit ourselves to feeling well again. If you are able to incorporate yoga and meditation into your rejuvenation, you may want to not neglect your commitment at bedtime. Focus your evening meditation with a short reading such as this one from “Zen Buddhism selceted writings” from D.T. Suzuki.

He reasoned:”What is the use of studying Buddhism, so difficult to comprehend and too subtle to receive instructions from another? I shall be a plain homeless monk, troubled with no desire to master things too deep for thought.” He left Yisan and built a hut near the tomb of Chu (Hui-Chung), the National Master at Nan-yang. One day he was weeding and sweeping the ground, and when a piece of rock brushed away struck a bamboo, the sound produced by the percussion unexpectedly elevated his mind to a state of satori. The question proposed by Yisan became transparent; his joy was boundless, he felt as if meeting again his lost parent. Besides, he came to realize the kindness of hi senior brother monk who refused him instruction. For he now knew that this would not have happened if Yisan had been unkind enough to explain things for him.

This is indeed what kind mentors do, they allow you your space to grow. Whether we walk alone in life or we are surrounded by a pack of wolves that you refer to as family we are still individually responsible for our own enlightenment. What is absolutely inexplicable is that a banal sound as a rock hitting a bamboo should set off an energetic opening. Openness happens when we do not hope for it, fear it, crave it or disregard it. It simply is and desire tends to chase it away. What is the product of this path? A beautiful person with an open heart. Kyogen then writes:

“One stroke has made me forget all of my previous knowledge, No artificial discipline is at all needed; In every moment I uphold the ancient way, And never fall into the rut of mere quietism; Wherever I walk no traces are left, And my senses are not fettered by rules of conduct; Everywhere those who have attained to the truth, All declare this to be the highest order.”

This must be true freedom – to not be ruled by social restraints, to not feel one is harboring a “social” face. To be truly honest with yourself and others. Just as an example of someone who was guided by his own energies, my stepfather Oscar Vazquez Lopez committed himself more to others after suffering his first heart attack. And he did it in a socially cumbersome way. As gratitude to whatever powers that be for his survival he promised to never lock his front door to anyone. His gratitude extended to all he met in active prayer. We are attempting to do the same when we practice tonglen, however in the case of someone who is truly free, the practice is not a ritual but a natural act as naturally directed as breathing. May we all reach a state of true freedom. Sweet dreams.

First reaction to Nobel Peace Prize announcement

What was yours? This one was mine….

My sticky eyes unpeel from one another as I grope for my pre 7am news fix. My iphone sleeps next to me all night and in the early morning we are good friends. First work day inbreath to the day and I scroll about and hit the New York Times icon. Dear God I tell myself what is this beastly dragon of morning news – Obama wins Nobel peace prize?! For decades long effort in??? inspiring poor people – with what? There must be some mistake so I check the Wall Street Journal – certainly conservatives wouldn’t lie about this stuff…no they are saying the same thing! Someone must have given them both the wrong piece of information…Could it be true???!!!

Happy Birthday ee cummings

Here are some quotes from the famous writer that could be equally used by scientists:

– Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.

– Be of love a little more careful than of anything.

– I’m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.

– Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination.
– Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

– Private property began the instant somebody had a mind of his own.

– To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

 

 

Black Licorice blunts IQ & cocaine addiction?

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Perchance you are like me a have a deep fascination for this chewy black stuff. Perhaps you are a scientist and were born skeptical of just about every blazing thing on this blue-green planet. These days I am particularly enjoying the literature on the health effects of excessive black licorice consumption. Let’s begin:

Maternal Licorice Consumption and Detrimental Cognitive and Psychiatric Outcomes in Children

Katri Räikkönen^*, Anu-Katriina Pesonen, Kati Heinonen, Jari Lahti, Niina Komsi, Johan G. Eriksson, Jonathan R. Seckl, Anna-Liisa Järvenpää and Timo E. Strandberg

Received for publication March 30, 2009. Accepted for publication July 31, 2009.

Overexposure to glucocorticoids may link prenatal adversity with detrimental outcomes in later life. Glycyrrhiza, a natural constituent of licorice, inhibits placental 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2, the feto-placental “barrier” to higher maternal levels of cortisol. The authors studied whether prenatal exposure to glycyrrhiza in licorice exerts detrimental effects on cognitive performance (subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III as well as the Children’s Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment and the Beery Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration) and psychiatric symptoms (Child Behavior Checklist) in 321 Finnish children 8.1 years of age born in 1998 as healthy singletons at 35–42 weeks of gestation. In comparison to the group with zero–low glycyrrhiza exposure (0–249 mg/week), those with high exposure (500 mg/week) had significant decrements in verbal and visuospatial abilities and in narrative memory (range of mean differences in standard deviation units, –0.31 to –0.41; P < 0.05) and significant increases in externalizing symptoms and in attention, rule-breaking, and aggression problems (range of odds ratios, 2.15 to 3.43; P < 0.05). The effects on cognitive performance appeared dose related. Data are compatible with adverse fetal “programming” by overexposure to glucocorticoids and caution against excessive intake of licorice-containing foodstuffs during pregnancy.

This conclusion appears overly ambitious. Granted excessive glucocorticoid exposure is detrimental as it sets off stress related pathways. However it is impossible to directly conclude licorice (glycyrrhiza) consumption yields in aggression, attention and cognitive difficulties. That is a causation argument. If these Finnish researchers had taken a step back and simply stated that there was an association between licorice consumption and perversely difficult children then I could have taken a bite of that. Otherwise, it is just as likely that these stressed, candy fanatic mothers were crappy nurturers. N’est ce pas?

However there is hope for these wayward ladies……..

Injections Of Licorice Ingredient Show Promise As Treatment For Cocaine Addiction

ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2009) — An ingredient in licorice shows promise as an antidote for the toxic effects of cocaine abuse, including deadly overdoses of the highly addictive drug, researchers in Korea and Pennsylvania are reporting.

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See also:

In the new study, Meeyul Hwang, Chae Ha Yang, and colleagues note that there is currently no effective medicine for treating cocaine abuse or addiction. Recent animal studies conducted by the researchers show that a licorice ingredient called isoliquiritigenin (ISL) can block the nervous system’s production of dopamine. That neurotransmitter is involved in emotion, movement, and other brain activities.

Cocaine and other addictive drugs stimulate dopamine and help produce the pleasurable and addictive effects. Drugs that block dopamine block this response. The scientists used rats as model animals to show that rats injected with ISL just prior to cocaine-administration showed 50 percent less of the behavioral effects associated with the illicit drug.

They also showed that ISL injections protected nerve cells in the brain from cocaine-associated damage.

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Aspirin blunts cancer risk

Recently I attended Harvard University’s annual course on the role of the Tumor Microenvironment, Angiogenesis and Metastasis.  Dr Isaiah Fiedler, a renowned physician-scientist in the field discussed  his daily consumption of one baby aspirin per day to ward off CVD and metastasis – the real killer in cancer.  As you contemplate your daily baby aspirin consumption here is more mounting evidence

Cyclooxygenase-2 Polymorphisms, Aspirin Treatment, and Risk for Colorectal Adenoma Recurrence—Data from a Randomized Clinical Trial

+ Author Affiliations

1. 
   
   Departments of ¹Community and Family Medicine and ²Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire; Divisions of ³Cancer Control and Population Sciences and ⁴Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland; ⁵Laboratory of Molecular Technology, Science Applications International Corporation, Inc., Frederick, Maryland; ⁶Department of Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado; ⁷Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; ⁸Division of Gastroenterology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; ⁹Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; ¹⁰Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; and ¹¹Department of Gastroenterology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio

1. Requests for reprints:
   Elizabeth L. Barry, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Suite 300, Evergreen Center, 46 Centerra Parkway, Lebanon, NH 03756. Phone: 603-650-3475; Fax: 603-650-3473. E-mail: Elizabeth.L.Barry@Dartmouth.edu

Abstract

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the production of prostaglandins, potent mediators of inflammation. Chronic inflammation plays an important role in the development and progression of colorectal cancer. Aspirin inhibits COX-2 activity and lowers the risk for colorectal adenomas and cancer. We investigated whether common genetic variation in COX-2 influenced risk for colorectal adenoma recurrence among 979 participants in the Aspirin/Folate Polyp Prevention Study who were randomly assigned to placebo or aspirin and followed for 3 years for the occurrence of new adenomas. Of these participants, 44.2% developed at least one new adenoma during follow-up. Adjusted relative risks and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated to test the association between genetic variation at six COX-2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and adenoma occurrence and interaction with aspirin treatment. Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms were significantly associated with increased adenoma recurrence: for rs5277, homozygous carriers of the minor C allele had a 51% increased risk compared with GG homozygotes (relative risk, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.01-2.25), and for rs4648310, heterozygous carriers of the minor G allele had a 37% increased risk compared with AA homozygotes (relative risk, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.05-1.79). (There were no minor allele homozygotes.) In stratified analyses, there was suggestive evidence that rs4648319 modified the effect of aspirin. These results support the hypothesis that COX-2 plays a role in the etiology of colon cancer and may be a target for aspirin chemoprevention and warrant further investigation in other colorectal adenoma and cancer populations.(Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(10):2726–33)

My new blog — Environmental Histories

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Commemoration with a touch of botulism

Environmental Histories is a tribute to the achievements and absurdities found in the histories of medicine and public health. In 1938, artist Bernard Zakheim, a student of Diego Rivera painted a series of murals in Toland Hall at the Hooper Foundation depicting the history of medicine in California, with financial support from the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. The particular mural on this website is Zakheim’s tribute to California’s modern medical achievements at Hooper.

In the upper right hand corner is the George Williams Hooper foundation for medical research first commemorated on May 14, 1913. There are 5 conical flasks illustrated at its fore, these are utilized for the study of bacterial cultures as the foundation was until 1959 primarily a bacteriological institute. Just below these is a researcher contemplating the presence of botulism in bottled and canned foods. Botulism rarely occurred in the United States until WWI when there was a boom in commercial and home canning. However in 1919, California had an outbreak of botulism in canned olives threatening an embargo against the multimillion dollar canning industry. The human death toll was rising as victims suffered from global muscle paralysis. Karl F Meyer, a bacteriologist trained in Switzerland was hired on as Associate Professor at the Hooper foundation in 1920 and was instrumental in determining conditions to heat sterilize clostridium botulinum spores.
George Hoyt Whipple was well known for his studies of liver metabolism and the relationship of the liver to blood formation. His work, done in part at the Hooper Foundation, led to award of the Nobel Prize along with George Minot and William P. Murphy in 1934. The three investigators established that a substance in liver would cure pernicious anemia. Today pernicious anemia is not fatal as Whipple et al discovered that vitamin B12 supplementation reverses this anemia.
In 1921, Dr. Whipple left the Hooper Foundation to organize the new medical school of the University of Rochester, and his post as director was taken by Karl F. Meyer who held it for thirty-three years. Under his guidance the Hooper Foundation became recognized throughout the world as a pioneer center for research on diseases of animals transmissible to man. These accomplishments are denoted by the ungainly appearance of the emaciated man resting next to the sleeping dog.
And so through these commemorative activities it is possible once again to review and revitalize these faits accomplis by placing these in context with what we know know about uncontrolled epidemics as now with H1N1 flu, SARS and multiple other human and animal vectors of disease, man is not distinct from the anopheles that readily transmits malaria. Man is indeed part of a larger biosphere than previously thought. And here begin a recounting of these histories.

References:
Hublitz, Erika. Beginnings of the George Williams Hooper Foundation of the University of California San Francisco. In AR 91-30, G. W. Hooper Foundation and Department of Epidemiology and International Health, Archives and Special Collections, UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management, San Francisco, CA. Meyer, Karl Friedrich. Coping with Catastrophy. Eighth Annual Service Award, The Forty-Niners, Shearton-Blackstone Hotel,

Earthworm extracts are anticoagulants and cancer killers?

Earthworms have a long history in folk medicine. In ancient Burma and Laos, smallpox victims bathed in water where earthworms had been soaked. Worms were boiled in water with salt and onions and the broth given to women with postpartum weakness or difficulty nursing. In Iran, dried earthworms were prescribed to help treat jaundice, and American Cherokee Indians used earthworm poultices to draw out thorns. Earthworm ‘oil’ has been used by Suffolk fishermen to treat rheumatism. The ‘oil’ was simply a bottle of earthworms that was maintained in a dung heap until they liquefied. According to the most famous ancient Chinese materia medica, earthworms could treat hemiplegia (a condition where half of the body is paralysed), fever, and blood clots. Despite these long held folk treatments, a potent enzyme has been derived from earthworm extracts that is anti-platelet, anti-thrombotic and anti-apoptotic. One can conceive that lumbrokinase, this complex of 6 enzymes that have been extracted from lumbricus rubellas in fact has potential as a cardiovascular therapy. There is also a moderate indication that a glycoprotein extract in fact has anti tumoral activity.

In a laboratory experiment in 1994 from Seoul National University, lumbrokinase (the six enzymes) was extracted from the earthworm. LK was then immobilized onto a polyurethane surface to investigate its antithrombotic activity. Platelets adhered to the surface and then drastically decreased in number, suggesting that LK digested the fibrinogen and inhibited the ability of platelets to stick to the surface. Similar results were found with an experiment on a rabbit shunt in the laboratory; occlusion time was monitored and it was found that on shunts without LK, occlusion time was 32 and 42 minutes, respectively, but those with LK-immobilized polyurethane had an occlusion time of 140 minutes–as much as four times longer.

What about cancer? Earthworms are able to lyse and destroy foreign cells. As I mentioned at the beginning of this research review, I have been unable to provoke my earthworms into getting cancer. When earthworms are examined by electron microscopy their fabulous complexity is revealed. Researchers from Japan, Korea, China and Croatia have been studying how earthworm peptides may inhibit the growth of spontaneous tumors since the 1990’s. One “killer” glycolipoprotein extract called G-90 retards tumor growth in mice. Lombricine, from Lumbricus terrestris, was purified by Japanese researchers in 1991, and was shown to inhibit mammary tumors in mice. Daily subcutaneous injections markedly slowed the growth of tumors. Lombricine given orally as part of the diet also slowed the growth of tumors, though to a lesser degree than injection.

9/11 – Sanction of the Sublime

September 8th 2001 was the perfect day for a Boston wedding. My most absurd memory of the day was that my hyperactive sister could not find her underwear and was thus obliged to walk down the aisle wearing only Hanes Her Way under the burgundy corset I had chosen for her. We joked that she didn’t need air conditioning. My sister-in-law had become so enamored by her stylish look that it was hard to convince her to take it off (the night before the wedding). And all I could think about was how time had stood still for me the entire hour we were in church, the leaves of the tree outside the church permanently frozen as a black and white still image in memory. A mobius of history folded in on itself as the fresh faced generation embraced the sprightly 90 year olds fashionable in their spring colors. My gift to this colorful family was a lavishly expensive traditional wedding replete with dinner, dancing and a charming CD my husband and I had organized with our favorite songs and colorful stories I had written. It felt majestic to be a bride in such company. And I was grateful to become a colorful peg in the building block of two families. I knew I had charmed them all that I could be entrusted with their future happiness. I felt free. These unique memories were antecedents to awakening on that horrid morning when for a pensive moment I thought that America was under attack and our nation would never be the same. Would we ever feel safe again? I was just arising from the bosom of such sweet memories and the reality of our vulnerability had shattered my dewy picture of life into a corrupt prism. Certainly I was not alone in this feeling. To this day that primal level of comfort evades us still. Just yesterday, CBS News reported that the FBI had detracted an informant from pursuing Mohammed Atta because it was inconvenient to pursue him. The FBI has denounced this accusation adhering to their 9/11 report as reference. In response to the FBI comment I will reply with the words from the same 9/11 Congressional Report,

But in an event of this scale, touching so many issues and organizations, we are conscious of our limits. We have not interviewed every knowledgeable person or found every relevant piece of paper. New information inevitably will come to light. We present this report as a foundation for a better understanding of a landmark in the history of our nation.

This indeed is a noble reaction to the vast ocean of information that existed around the time of the 9/11 strikes against our country. This time in 2002 we still were remembering and mourning in solidarity. The most popular bumper sticker was “9/11 Never Forget”. And for the very first time in this scientist’s life I had left all sarcasm aside and my heart swelled with pride every time I saw the American flag. My hope is that we do not forget that feeling that we are one nation. Though we are not suffering from a national tragedy of this proportion in 2009, we are still the nation that held together as one in the aftermath. No, I do not find the FBI response acceptable, nor should we ever forget the event that woke so many of my generation out of their post adolescent slumber. Nor should any state agency feel anything but humility at the task of protecting this great nation of ours. That is the only thing that will keep us safe. That is the only thing that will protect our future so we can enjoy our cherished inane and sublime memories.

Username: Pain and Circumstance

Greetings Daylight Savings,
Fresh and fragrant I am this morning, with vapors of pumpkin spice latte billowing from my fingers and hitting the keyboard, I bite a long held bullet and click my way through my very first blog entry. With grandiose dreams and minimal apprehension I desperately attempt to define myself, my entries, my innermost aspursions by providing myself with a meaningful username. And the list begins, whom shall I be today, who shall I identify with, who are my artistic heroes? I begin. Frida Kahlo with her legendary biographical portraits, her radical politics and inherent actualization of native Mexico rummages around my brain. I attempt to shunt her into my scientific, conformist ways and I find to my great chagrin that Frida Kahlo’s halo is not a viable option. Punctuation ’s is NOT ALLOWED. I move on. Walt Whitman, a poetic genius who embraced cheer, plural religious observance but not strict adherence to the metaphors of a single belief system stroked my heartstrigs with his long beard. I considered briefly: Walt Whitman’s mistress. But I then remembered that he was a well known bisexual and I would probably would have to grow a beard in order to wear this name well. My last, third great hope is Mark Twain. This is an authentic interest: I read his lesser known works, I have been to his Farmington house, I have even seen his actual mantlepiece and added sidenotes to the tour guide’s comments. I feel myself to be a true fan. So here I am, availing myself to public derision, Mark Twain’s secretary. Glasses sliding down my nose, three year catapulting self toward my delicate body parts and computer, good morning standard time, let the festivities begin!

Memories of Oscar Vazquez Lopez

These are my memoir notes of my beloved, spiritual and eccentric stepfather. We just call him Papi in my house. Many more are to come…..

Tabula rasa – The ancients come in

Los Zapaticos de Rosa
de José Martí

Hay sol bueno y mar de espuma,
Y arena fina, y Pilar
Quiere salir a estrenar
Su sombrerito de pluma.

?«¡Vaya la niña divina!»
Dice el padre y le da un beso:
?«¡Vaya mi pájaro preso
A buscarme arena fina!»

?«Yo voy con mi niña hermosa»,
Le dijo la madre buena:
«¡No te manches en la arena
Los zapaticos de rosa!»

Fueron las dos al jardín
Por la calle del laurel:
La madre cogió un clavel
Y Pilar cogió un jazmín.

Ella va de todo juego,
Con aro, y balde, y paleta:
El balde es color violeta:
El aro es color de fuego.

Vienen a verlas pasar:
Nadie quiere verlas ir:
La madre se echa a reír,
Y un viejo se echa a llorar.

El aire fresco despeina
A Pilar, que viene y va
Muy oronda: ?«¡Di, mamá!
¿Tú sabes qué cosa es reina?»

Y por si vuelven de noche
De la orilla de la mar,
Para la madre y Pilar
Manda luego el padre el coche.

Está la playa muy linda:
Todo el mundo está en la playa:
Lleva espejuelos el aya
De la francesa Florinda.

Está Alberto, el militar
Que salió en la procesión
Con tricornio y con bastón,
Echando un bote a la mar.

¡Y qué mala, Magdalena
Con tantas cintas y lazos,
A la muñeca sin brazos
Enterrándola en la arena!

Conversan allá en las sillas,
Sentadas con los señores,
Las señoras, como flores,
Debajo de las sombrillas.

Pero está con estos modos
Tan serios, muy triste el mar:
¡Lo alegre es allá, al doblar,
En la barranca de todos!

Dicen que suenan las olas
Mejor allá en la barranca,
Y que la arena es muy blanca
Donde están las niñas solas.

Pilar corre a su mamá:
?«¡Mamá, yo voy a ser buena:
Déjame ir sola a la arena:
Allá, tú me ves, allá!»

?«¡Esta niña caprichosa!
No hay tarde que no me enojes:
Anda, pero no te mojes
Los zapaticos de rosa.»

Le llega a los pies la espuma:
Gritan alegres las dos:
Y se va, diciendo adiós,
La del sombrero de pluma.

¡Se va allá, dónde ¡muy lejos!
Las aguas son más salobres,
Donde se sientan los pobres,
Donde se sientan los viejos!

Se fue la niña a jugar,
La espuma blanca bajó,
Y pasó el tiempo, y pasó
Un águila por el mar.

Y cuando el sol se ponía
Detrás de un monte dorado,
Un sombrerito callado
por las arenas venía.

Trabaja mucho, trabaja
Para andar: ¿qué es lo que tiene
Pilar que anda así, que viene
Con la cabecita baja?

Bien sabe la madre hermosa
Por qué le cuesta el andar:
?«¿Y los zapatos, Pilar,
Los zapaticos de rosa?»

?«¡Ah, loca! ¿en dónde estarán?
¡Di, dónde, Pilar!» ?«Señora»,
Dice una mujer que llora:
«¡Están conmigo: aquí están!»

?«Yo tengo una niña enferma
que llora en el cuarto oscuro.
Y la traigo al aire puro
A ver el sol, y a que duerma.

»Anoche soñó, soñó
con el cielo, y oyó un canto:
Me dio miedo, me dio espanto,
Y la traje, y se durmió.

»Con sus dos brazos menudos
Estaba como abrazando;
Y yo mirando, mirando
Sus piececitos desnudos.

»Me llegó al cuerpo la espuma,
Alcé los ojos, y vi
Esta niña frente a mí
Con su sombrero de pluma».

?«¡Se parece a los retratos
Tu niña!» dijo: «¿Es de cera?
¿Quiere jugar? ¡Si quisiera!…
¿Y por qué está sin zapatos?

»Mira: ¡la mano le abrasa,
Y tiene los pies tan fríos!
¡Oh, toma, toma los míos;
Yo tengo más en mi casa!»

«No sé bién, señora hermosa,
Lo que sucedió después:
¡Le vi a mi hijita en los pies
Los zapaticos de rosa!»

Se vio sacar los pañuelos
A una rusa y a una inglesa;
El aya de la francesa
Se quitó los espejuelos.

Abrió la madre los brazos:
Se echó Pilar en su pecho,
Y sacó el traje deshecho,
Sin adornos y sin lazos.

Todo lo quiere saber
De la enferma la señora:
¡No quiere saber que llora
De pobreza una mujer!

?«¡Sí, Pilar, dáselo! ¡y eso
También! ¡Tu manta! ¡Tu anillo!»
Y ella le dio su bolsillo:
Le dio el clavel, le dio un beso.

Vuelven calladas de noche
A su casa del jardín:
Y Pilar va en el cojín
De la derecha del coche.

Y dice una mariposa
Que vio desde su rosal
Guardados en un cristal
Los zapaticos de rosa.
(Don’t explain, describe)

“Jose Marti’s poems. Hold this book!”, my father trembled as he forced me to grasp the celebrated poem “Los Zapaticos de Rosa” within my own hands. His own hands warmly secured the poem in my sight as he paced his breath and began a rousing dramatization of the 10 page poem from perfect memory. From 120 years ago Marti’s words sprinkled my mind with seaside salt spray and the infinite tenderness of young Pilar’s gift of her cherished rose colored shoes to a povery stricken ailing girl. Pilar’s earnest gift of her most treasured possession, her rose colored shoes is that of miraculous self propagating love, the kind of love that once you step into these shoes your entire being is consumed with delight and joyful fire for all living creatures. And you become a human love battery: a presidential state of affairs where your entire identification is with the sky and eternity. This gift of love is what my father generously gave to me, my mother, my sister and every other living creature he knew of, except of course Fidel Castro because my father after all was a liberal thinking Cuban with his own agenda. In the two years that I got to know this man, Oscar Vazquez Lopez, technically my stepfather but in my heart of hearts the father who created me, changed the lives and mindset of all who had the good fortune to meet this brilliant, unassuming compassionate man with his unbelievable agenda. To change the world for the better by promoting an enlightened and scholarly people, with earnest hearts capable of penetrating all mysteries in every discipline.

“Compassion, warts and all”
Do you consider viral warts living beings? Oscar did. To him they were majestic living creatures that were owed as much nutritional consideration as your neighbor’s cat. But I suppose your neighbor’s cat does not station herself in between your middle and pointer finger and grow exponentially. In fact you probably think that warts deserve a visit to the doctor’s office to macerate in an aliquot of liquid nitrogen, just enough to make you wince in pain and just more than enough so they don’t return. But no. No no no. I made this patent suggestion to my mother’s new boyfriend and he winced at the thought. “Oh poor things they are alive, they have a right to grow too”, as Oscar embraced his digits at the discovery that his parasitic passengers could face irreversible extinction. Over time this type of conversation essentially became our own special dialect, I spoke in science and he spoke in compassion. As a celebrated poet, playwright, new age metaphysician, actor and father his words and deeds elevated compassion to an art form and I could but watch the fireworks.

“My son is born”
Negative oxygen and a femtosecond push later and my son is a spiral galaxy radiating into this world and landing onto fresh hospital linens. He inhales silently and draws a pointed pink tongue to his audience, his first act of defiance. Completely spent, I watch the nurses circle like sterile vultures and direct my husband to release him from me. Our engagement is on and my dream now is to finally meet him.

Like a fresh newspaper Alejandro is handed to me and I prepare myself to be undermined by the banality of the moment. My father, who drew me to this moment looms large in my thoughts and I wait for the secret connection to be revealed. Alejandro slowly bares himself, consciousness emerging and I expect a product of brief history, a wellspring tabula rasa to draw fresh emotions, but he reveals one glistening eye. I see the ancient mirror, murky stainless steel blue and I draw a painful inbreath, “I feel like Papi is looking at me.” The memory of my compassionate brilliant stepfather comforts me to this day. My stepfather of two years with his incandescent blue eyes is now deceased, but his memory as to how to live a life remains the fruit of his activist message.

“Together princess we can change the world”
By 2004, two years after his arrival in Puerto Rico, my stepfather had a cadre of hippie like followers who clung to his indelible charisma and message of saving the world. “Together we can change the world” was such a hallmark saying for him that one attendee at his funeral had made a banner with these words exactly.

Do you believe in God? I don’t think you have time for my answer

Regina backed into the electric hot stove and almost branded herself with a well lit burner. Some days she could not decide if she was moving forwards, backwards or in an elliptical fashion as her body could barely catch up with her head. She wanted to just do it all and pushed herself into the small cube of her imagination every day with missionary zeal. But her body hurt and she was starting to fall apart at the seams with supersonic speed. She decided that it was better to turn the oven off. Time to get to work she thought, her eyes expanded with determination, but her pupils retaliated and contracted as a protest. Dehydration and exhaustion were not going to stop this successful magazine editor. There was just too much to do.

A dash of perfume and a contorted look at her aging face and she simply focused on the whereabouts of her high-heeled shoes. No one would notice her today, anyway, she thought to herself. A 9 am meeting with her team should cement together the final version of next month’s online blogazine on philosophy, The Philosopher’s Magazine. This month the magazine had chosen to highlight intellectual paradoxes that we choose to accept without question. She recalled the curious conversation with a Jehovah’s witness that led to this topic. Regina was dashing off to work as usual after dropping her son at the daycare when she turned onto busy Park street in downtown Manhattan. She glanced sideways to see if the traffic was clear and decided that she could make it. She half jogged to her office building just across the street from a diplomatic building frowning over with multiple flags and always congested with passerby. These individuals always made her suspicious of terrorism. Just as she turned up this street she was practically flung over by a hand thrusting a Jehovah witness pamphlet. The pause in her momentum disturbed her but moreso did the following question “Do you accept Jesus as your personal savior?” “What?, lady I am trying to get to work.” “I understand, just remember that He died for you. Regina took two steps forward and turned around to face her. “He saved me from what again?” “He saved you from eternal damnation, from death.” “Are you saying he died so that I don’t have to die?” “Yes, ma’am that is what I am saying!” Regina’s head spun in circles, she thought “He died so that I don’t have to rummage my way through the tenth circle of hell with all the other unfortunate souls who happened to come before Him. Christ, the neanderthals must feel pretty stupid they didn’t wait to incarnate a few eons later, like around 33 AD, poor bastards.” Regina then paused and spoke to the skirt clad paradox on Park Street, “Is it equally true that he lived so that I don’t have to live?” “No, No I don’t think that’s the point.”, the confused lady stammered. “If I die does that mean no one else gets to die, then?” “No, I mean that your soul is now free because He died for your sins!” “OK missy, when I die my soul will call your soul and we will see who is dead or not!” Regina left her rival and burst into her building.
She finally made it to her office, sat down and thought to herself,”Religious paradoxes are such low hanging fruit, what must be a greater source of these absurdities?” Regina stopped herself. Had she been too arrogant? Should she have kept her thoughts to herself? With a name like Regina Kingsley, well, she wore it well, though not necessarily to everyone’s liking. But did her logic truly make sense? He died so you did not die is as a contrapositive You die so he did not die, which should be equally true as the first statement, but it still makes no sense nor should it have a place in her life.
She glanced at her computer clock, 5 minutes late for her own meeting was unacceptable. She darted this time only with clippings and a notepad.

What did you say????

The mystery as to neural assembly of language is even more cryptic in my young son’s brain. This last year he was diagnosed with receptive-expressive language disorder, a learning disability. In short order this means that he does not have a pervasive developmental delay (i.e. autism), he in fact has abnormal (disordered) language development. For example he will say,”cat, window, dinosaur, there” at the dinner table wholly out of context. For the longest time I thought that he simply had a very basic speech pattern compared to his peers – all nouns with no verb usage. At other times he utters words that are unintelligible, which is terribly surprising for a young boy who can say stegosaurus and triceratops with unfailing clarity. His mouth can certainly form complex sounds yet his mind has difficulty assembling thoughts into workable sentences. It was very difficult for me to drop off and pick him up at the daycare to listen to the other children speaking in complete and ordered sentences. Simple statements by these young children would tear me up in an internal fit of jealousy and despair. Where my son would say “What’s that” over and over again with what appeared to be minimal appreciation of what he was asking, another child carefully stating “What is that for?” would highlight the internal difference in mental focus. The greatest moments of thought, clarity and speech are those that principally circle a strong desire on his part. Once we went to an Indian restaurant and he said to the waiter,” I want dinner, I want meatballs, rice and green beans.” This sentence spawned an elaborate email to my famiy as to how he now appears to be finally coming along. Dinosaurs and nature are his main interests, and he will readily say, “The bird flew over there.” These are the most encouraging signs alongside his gradual progress in speech therapy. However these last few days he is really suffering from a notable frustration and he is very clingy with myself and my husband. Last night we went to the museum of science, he calls it the dinosaur museum and we had to leave as it was closed for a black tie affair. After being there for 20-30 minutes I decided to take him home and he threw a tantrum for the ages. He was completely demoralized and angry. It was painful to witness. Sometimes it is hard for him to understand why he is not getting his way more than I think it would be if he did not have this disorder. As for myself, there is slow acceptance but a painful understanding that this bright little boy is going to face a great deal of added frustration in his life. This is the hardest bullet to accept.

Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder

315.32 Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder
Diagnostic Features

The essential feature of Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder is an impairment in both receptive and expressive language development as demonstrated by scores on standardized individually administered measures of both receptive and expressive language development that are substantially below those obtained from standardized measures of nonverbal intellectual capacity (Criterion A). When standardized instruments are not available or appropriate, the diagnosis may be based on a thorough functional assessment of the individual’s language ability. The difficulties may occur in communication involving both verbal language and sign language. The language difficulties interfere with academic or occupational achievement or with social communication (Criterion B), and the symptoms do not meet criteria for a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Criterion C). If Mental Retardation, a speech-motor or sensory deficit, or environmental deprivation is present, the language difficulties are in excess of those usually associated with these problems (Criterion D). If a speech-motor or sensory deficit or a neurological condition is present, it should be coded on Axis III.

An individual with this disorder has the difficulties associated with Expressive Language Disorder (e.g., a markedly limited vocabulary, errors in tense, difficulty recalling words or producing sentences with developmentally appropriate length or complexity, and general difficulty expressing ideas) and also has impairment in receptive language development (e.g., difficulty understanding words, sentences, or specific types of words). In mild cases, there may be difficulties only in understanding particular types of words (e.g., spatial terms) or statements (e.g., complex “if-then” sentences). In more severe cases, there may be multiple disabilities, including an inability to understand basic vocabulary or simple sentences, and deficits in various areas of auditory processing (e.g., discrimination of sounds, association of sounds and symbols, storage, recall, and sequencing). Because the development of expressive language in childhood relies on the acquisition of receptive skills, a pure receptive language disorder (analogous to a Wernicke’s aphasia in adults) is virtually never seen (although in some cases the receptive deficit may be more severe than the expressive one).

Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder may be either acquired or developmental. In the acquired type, an impairment in receptive and expressive language occurs after a period of normal development as a result of a neurological or other general medical condition (e.g., encephalitis, head trauma, irradiation). In the developmental type, there is an impairment in receptive and expressive language that is not associated with a neurological insult of known origin. This type is characterized by a slow rate of language development in which speech may begin late and advance slowly through the stages of language development.
Associated Features and Disorders

The linguistic features of the production impairment in Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder are similar to those that accompany Expressive Language Disorder. The comprehension deficit is the primary feature that differentiates this disorder from Expressive Language Disorder, and this can vary depending on the severity of the disorder and the age of the child. Impairments in language comprehension can be less obvious than those in language production because they are not as readily apparent to the observer and may appear only on formal assessment. The child may intermittently appear not to hear or to be confused or not paying attention when spoken to. The child may follow commands incorrectly, or not at all, and give tangential or inappropriate responses to questions. The child may be exceptionally quiet or, conversely, very talkative. Conversational skills (e.g., taking turns, maintaining a topic) are often quite poor or inappropriate. Deficits in various areas of sensory information processing are common, especially in temporal auditory processing (e.g., processing rate, association of sounds and symbols, sequence of sounds and memory, attention to and discrimination of sounds); these kinds of difficulties are sometimes referred to as “central auditory processing” disorders.

Difficulty in producing motor sequences smoothly and quickly is also characteristic. Phonological Disorder, Learning Disorders, and deficits in speech perception are often present and accompanied by memory impairments. Other associated disorders are Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Developmental Coordination Disorder, and Enuresis. Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder may be accompanied by EEG abnormalities, abnormal findings on neuroimaging, and other neurological signs. A form of acquired Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder that has its onset at about ages 3-9 years and is accompanied by seizures is referred to as Landau-Kleffner syndrome.
Specific Culture and Gender Features

Assessments of the development of communication abilities must take into account the individual’s cultural and language context, particularly for individuals growing up in bilingual environments. The standardized measures of language development and of nonverbal intellectual capacity must be relevant for the cultural and linguistic group. The developmental type is probably more prevalent in males than in females.
Prevalence

Prevalence estimates vary with age. It is estimated that the developmental type of Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder may occur in up to 5% of preschool children and 3% of school-age children but is probably less common than Expressive Language Disorder. Landau-Kleffner syndrome and other forms of the acquired type of the disorder are relatively uncommon.
Course

The developmental type of Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder is usually detectable before age 4 years. Severe forms of the disorder may be apparent by age 2 years. Milder forms may not be recognized until the child reaches elementary school, where deficits in comprehension become more apparent. The acquired type of Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder due to brain lesions, head trauma, or stroke may occur at any age. The acquired type due to Landau-Kleffner syndrome (acquired epileptic aphasia) usually occurs between ages 3 and 9 years. Many children with Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder eventually acquire normal language abilities, but the prognosis is worse than for those with Expressive Language Disorder. In the acquired type of Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder, the course and prognosis are related to the severity and location of brain pathology, as well as to the age of the child and the extent of language development at the time the disorder is acquired. Clinical improvement in language abilities is sometimes complete or nearly so. In other instances, there may be incomplete recovery or progressive deficit. Children with more severe forms are likely to develop Learning Disorders.
Familial Pattern

The developmental type of Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder is more common among first-degree biological relatives of those with the disorder than in the general population. There is no evidence of familial aggregation in the acquired type of the disorder.
Differential Diagnosis

See the “Differential Diagnosis” section for Expressive Language Disorder (p. 60).
Diagnostic criteria for 315.32 Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder

1. The scores obtained from a battery of standardized individually administered measures of both receptive and expressive language development are substantially below those obtained from standardized measures of nonverbal intellectual capacity. Symptoms include those for Expressive Language Disorder as well as difficulty understanding words, sentences, or specific types of words, such as spatial terms.
2. The difficulties with receptive and expressive language significantly interfere with academic or occupational achievement or with social communication.
3. Criteria are not met for a Pervasive Developmental Disorder.
4. If Mental Retardation, a speech-motor or sensory deficit, or environmental deprivation is present, the language difficulties are in excess of those usually associated with these problems.

Coding note: If a speech-motor or sensory deficit or a neurological condition is present, code the condition on Axis III.

A Wonderful Work of Masterpiece

This is a poem my amazing husband wrote for me…..

As cold, and hard gloriously white marble is,
there is a Fire burning within
that longs to be released.

I can see from this block of rock
that a Vision of Beauty, and Grace
need simply be carved out, and freed.

Simply? Who am I kidding?
This is tough, Stone is unyielding.
My fingers crack, and my hands callus.

What is it that drives me to
unleash this Vision of Beauty
from the bonds of this Stone?

But, is it not born of Earth?
Earth bears with it lush Forests,
fertile Fields, fruit and glorious Blossoms.

How does one release those from cold,
hard, blindingly white Stone?

It must be Love, Patience, and
an unyielding Passion to see her, a
Vision of indescribable description.
Description that even now I am
chiseling away for gently, tenderly…

She remains without form,
indescribable, born of the Glory that
is Earth, and Fire.

It is in part a life Passion to see
her in her Natural element,
not bound in Stone.

Though my tools may break,
and need mending.
Her inner Fire could drive any
Master insane with Desire to
do her Soul the true Honor it requires.

She will Live, Love, and be soon
able to Breathe, Blossom and Flourish.
She is born of Earth and Fire.

I love that about Her

The not-so-insane Master

OK you can leave your house now

A relative of mine, let us leave her name unmentioned, has decided to remain home for the major duration of her maternity leave – 2 months – until her infant child has received her 2 month vaccinations. This is prophylaxis at its best, however I imagine quite unnecessary and not to mention extremely confining. A successful immune response to vaccination follows a typical time pattern of antibody formation. Upon primary immunization peak titers are established at 4 weeks after inoculation. Generally this is the reason why titers are taken at 4 weeks. However, just days after vaccination there are very low antibody levels (mostly IgM from plasma cells) and the response is absent of immunologic memory. Thus the child would not be able to mount an immune response any faster should she serendipitously encounter H. influenza the old fashioned way. Vaccines are not ‘magic bullets’ in this timeframe. The utility and safety of vaccines is optimal after a booster which establishes robust antibody levels within 7 days. This is indicative of established memory. If she stays home for another 2 months and waits for the booster then she can really leave the house. The big picture really is that infants de facto are going to have weaker immune responses than adults in any case.

Mumbai, India – Heartland of Compassion?

I would like to take a moment of time this Friday evening to reflect on today’s article in the New York Times regarding the state of psychiatric care the Mumbai victims have been receiving. Take note of this excerpt.

‘Hemangee Dhavale, head of the psychiatry department at the K.J Somaiya Medical College, who has treated victims of previous attacks, says the poor are often more resilient. “Their tolerance level may be higher,” Dr Dhavale said. “they undergo stress more frequently.” The families of wealthy victims, many of whom were eating in the restaurants of the five star hotels besieged in the attacks, may not have monetary concerns. But pain is pain. ….
Better-educated victims are more likely to be more traumatized because they are often more introspective, Dr. Dhavale said. “They think more”, she said. But overall, the susceptibility to sustained psychological trauma “depends on the personality more than the economic status.”
Wounds Heal, but Grief Lingers in Mumbai
by Thomas Fuller

There are two issues that I take with this article. Firstly, the head of Psychiatry, the good Dr. Dhavale notably contradicts her initial statement that the stress tolerance level of the poor is higher by ultimately stating that personality is more important than personal financial status. Apparently introspection cannot be correlated to one’s personal bank account. Additionally, both the author and the good doctor equate economics with educational status – not a terribly unreasonable association. But the ultimate inference to be derived from these misappropriated attempts at logic is the notion that the poorer think less thus they deserve less psychiatric care. Classic Hindu philosophy runs counter to this notion as the concept of the caste system is supported by the idea that the higher castes should not burden the lower with similar obligations (legal included) as their own. The rationale is that the lower castes simply are not built to withstand these burdens and thus should not. So doesn’t it run counter to these fundamental ideas that the poor need less support? And don’t you take issue with the notion that because one is poorer one thinks less? I have met many poor highly intellegent students in my day. Lastly and most importantly, if India is to support her people during this tragedy it would behoove its leaders to begin with the highest of virtues, compassion for all.

Festive Images from Nature

Even hard-nosed biologists, atheist or otherwise can remember to look up from their microscopes in December and slip into the spirit of Christmas. Olympus annually hosts a digital imaging competition with the distinct condition that entrants must use Olympus microscopes for their admissions. This year’s third place winner, Dr. Stephen Nagy used a technique called Jamin-Lebedeff interference contrast to image this red and green fossilized diatom. To see the winners and honorable mentions for the last 6 years click here. For the hard core enthusiasts out there you can use these as fun wallpapers.

Darwin’s humblest survivor – the earthworm

It is crystalline, bone shattering cold outside. It feels like liquid nitrogen cold-boiling my blood and all I want to do is sit by a warm hearth with a hot chocolate. New England winters generally lend themselves to languishing in aromatic comfort food and the pristine beauty of a frozen encapsulated universe. But right now survival is at the top of my mind, permanent survival, the kind that survives a nuclear blast or a cold war. And I think of the earthworm. If I were born an earthworm I would indulge in two self-perpetuating thoughts: I will never be alone and I will never be hungry. Earthworms are clearly built for long term survival, as hermaphrodites they can reproduce sexually or asexually gently folding self fertilized eggs into a homemade cocoon. After hatching, lumbricus terrestris has a robust digestive system capable of feasting on a multitude of food sources. More importantly, however, despite their simple brain and circulatory system, earthworms have recently been found to play a fundamental role in modulating the soil ecology supporting plant biodiversity. As described in this recent paper in PLOS One,

It is increasingly recognized that after primary seed dispersal, i.e. the displacement of seeds form the parent to the soil surface, large earthworm species feeding at the soil surface (anecic earthworm species), such as Lumbricus terrestris L. (Lumbricidae), play an important role in secondary seed dispersal, i.e. the subsequent dispersal of seeds on the soil surface and burial into the soil [12], [16]–[19]. Selective ingestion and digestion of seeds [20]–[22], horizontal and vertical (downward or upward) seed transport [16], acceleration [22], [23] or delaying of seed germination [16], [24] are the main mechanisms by which earthworms affect seedling establishment, and these processes likely are important for seedling mortality and establishment under natural conditions [19], [25].

These ideas support ineffably the concepts put forward by the Deep Ecology Platform stating principles already in line with Buddhism: 1) all life has a value in itself, independent of its usefulness to humans, 2) richness and diversity contribute to life’s well-being and have value in themselves and 3) humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy needs in a responsible way. Basic science, unwittingly is keeping pace with the deeper, more subtle observations of our times. Darwin’s prescient statement about the common earthworm serves us well even in the 21st century, “It may be doubted whether there are any other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly creatures.”

God and Religion

My response to the following post.

Jennifer – You argue that proof of God’s existence/predilection to believe in God is individual to a particular type of brain wiring. This type of statement would indicate that there should be an approach (fMRI/PET/endocrine release) to explore your thesis. Then you introduce a chicken and egg question as to the origin of the plasticity- is it genetic or environmental- and state that “Science will never be able to prove or disprove the existence of God or any higher power.” Presumably one could easily run a study using same technologies and one could deal with your chicken-egg question by simply comparing functional changes to that of non-meditators and observe them after months of prayer or meditation. Essentially your arguments and presentation of references contradict. Science can address the presence of religious/altered brain states, it is subsequently up to each individual to interpret the experience to their personal preference.
Ditto with Alfredo – Buddhists do not refer to a God in their meditations or chants, they are non-theists.

Pesce-tarian?!?!?

Pork, cow and chicken have clucked and snorted at me from my dinner plate for the last 35 years. But yet, the odors of cooked meat always got me right in that nausea spot right above my belly button. Sometimes I could even see their eyes staring up at me in a state of awkward desperation. Always sympathetic to the plight of animals, for many years I dreamed of peaceful encounters with brussel sprouts, brown rice, nuts, whole grains and that peculiar Mid-Eastern concoction – hummus. Yet I went along with the convention swimmingly well until a vain blue bonnet thought occurred to me – can I lose weight as a vegan? Thus the uncontrolled experiment began. I purchased the cookbook “How it all Vegan” by Sarah Kramer and I was off like greyhound mixing up eggless egg-nog and other sweetie tofu concoctions. Needless to say I did not lose weight. I had macerated myself into a sugary water grave with no lifeboat. Honey included. Remarkably though, I was a more peaceful, calmer version of myself even after dealing with wicked hair-raising temper tantrums from my three year old. I decided to give myself a break and I tested the carnivorous lifestyle once again. But plates of bacon and steak vetted me and I was as unqualified as Sarah Palin to answer the reluctant moo. And I missed that wholesome feeling that made me feel like I was running on sanctified rocket fuel. You know that youthful snap you get in your knees when you feel your dreams are just right round the corner? So I became an ovo-lacto veg with one small concession, I would eat fish. This minor concession, or so I thought threw me out of the vegetarian category according to the Vegetarian Society. Ahh, I love being difficult! I am more precisely a pescetarian.

Groundedness

Groundedness, the experience of being connected to the earth as a living, intact self served me well today after being in a potentially awful car accident. My Sunday drive home from the meditation center was a half-block long, I had not yet assembled my mind enough to put on my seat belt after an hour and a half of meditation, the light was an early yellow and I followed right on through. I broke hard after the slow trek I took past the crosswalk, but this was not sufficient to avoid the oncoming speeding car into a crash. My car, mangled, my head abutted the rubber divider between the front and back doors and I was left stunned. The local police handed my case to the state police as it was a main roadway. My first thought was “I want to go home.” I am grateful to all the powers that be that I am intact, although my head a bit bruised. After shunning the ambulance, the police and being informed of my citation I stood there thinking only of how was I going to get to work the next day without my car. Eventually in the wait after my car was towed I waited for my husband on that street corner, car seat and purse in hand and I had my second thought, I am alone.” I then remembered some literature from Pema Chodron, “It is OK to feel alone.” And that is exactly what I told myself. My inner self, not angry, not disjointed just very subdued recognized that despite how horrible a speeding car about 50mph could have damaged my unbelted body I was really OK. Just 30 minutes earlier I came out of meditation and I confessed to the teacher, “My mind is everywhere, I am not meditating well today.” He asked, “Are you in your body? You come here to ground yourself in your body, are you breathing, did you achieve that” Yes, I thought to myself as I stood on that street corner, ” I am in my body, I am grounded and I am breathing.” This was a true accomplishment. I am going to rest now and take a break from all of this. I am grateful to be here, intact and in my body, breathing.

Milarepa: Yogi of Tibet Movie

“Life is short and the time of death is uncertain; so apply yourself to meditation. Avoid doing evil, and acquire merit, to the best of your ability, even at the cost of life itself. In short: Act so that you have no cause to be ashamed of yourselves and hold fast to this rule” Milarepa

“Never ask the gods for wisdom” my aunt always says, “your regret will be that your prayers are answered.” This thought has haunted me since my car accident last week and with this same persistent agitation I began the New Year at 4am to the see movie Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint. May wisdom sing a slow song to my cinematic third eye. Be gentle, please. Milarepa, or “cotton clad Mila” lifted himself to enlightenment in 11th century Tibet after leading a life of murder, sorcery and vengeance, thus Neten Chokling captures the first part of Milarepa’s redemptive journey. Unfortunately it leaves one wanting more, like the story of redemption, it feels that the pork is missing from the cuban sandwich. His devasting realization that he must harvest the seeds of his self-tangled karma lead him to the beginning of the ascetic way. In typical Buddhist movie fashion it leaves you alone, in silence to contemplate how Milarepa chose this path. His first act of offering is a turquoise necklace to the Buddha. This gift was given to him in love. This act made me think that he was beginning to let external things go to begin the path to the Inner Way. My husband translated this act altogether differently; he thought that the gift was an exchange of loving energy, love begets love thus propagating as an energetic vehicle. What do you think??? And how do you deal with feelings of revenge???

A Tribute to Mark Twain

A daring book peers at me from my forgotten bookshelves and I remember him, my old friend, the satiric master Mark Twain. My husband and I are such dear fans of his writing that one balmy day in mid-July 2008 we visited the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut as if we were entering a doorway to a past civilization. Although we were sodden down by a truly interesting pamper, we allowed ourselves turns in the bookstore and purchased several of his books. This excerpt from “The Innocents Abroad” stitched us up so badly we were rendered senseless. I hope it does the same for you on this cold Sunday in February.

It is in communities like this that Jesuit humbuggery flourishes. We visited a Jesuit cathedral nearly two hundred years old.and found in it a piece of the veritable cross upon which our Saviour was crucified. It was polished and hard, and in an excellent state of preservation as if the dread tragedy on Calvary had occured yesterday instead of eighteen centuries ago. But these confiding people believe in that piece of wood unhesitatingly.

In a chapel of the cathedral is an altar with facings of solid silver – at least they call it so, and I think myself it would go a couple of hundred to the ton (to speak after the fashion of the silver miners,) and before it is kept forever burning a small lamp. A devout lady who died, left money and contracted for unlimited masses for the repose of her soul, and also stipulated that this lamp should be kept lighted always, day and night. She did all this before she died, you understand. It is a very small lamp, and a very dim one, and it could not work her much damage, I think, if it went out altogether.

The great altar of the cathedral, and also three or four minor ones, are a perfect mass of gilt gimcracks and gingerbread. And they have a swarm of rusty, dusty, battered apostles standing around the filagree work, some on one leg and some with one eye out but a gamey look in the other, and some with two or three fingers gone, and some with not enough nose to blow – all of them crippled and discouraged, and fitter subjects for the hospital than the cathedral.

No Mind and No Suffering

Being a novice Buddhist has become a gradual process of undressing all my previous thoughts on pain and suffering – its causes, effects and solutions. It is the solution I am interested in, if for nothing but curiosity’s sake. And as such I have needed to make a habit of meditation and physical exercise. Having had a hard time of things lately my Buddhist readings encouraged meditation on the true quality of mind. And from this came the question, what is mind? And what is no mind? How does understanding this lead to the end of my suffering? At 3am today a spontaneous moment of enlightenment arose in me upon the meditation of the quality of no mind. This is a relevant meditation when you have to quell that conflagaration of mental circuitry that is distracting from a true sense of peace. I doted on this awhile first greeting that buzzing mind that one meets at the onset of meditation. I must admit the poor fellow was exhausted and could possibly power a small town. But then I asked, what is mind? If it is not the radio station in my head of feelings and self perpetuating thoughts, what on earth is the mind? The buzzing collapsed upon itself quelled by my focus on breathing. My breaths set sail to the radio and I realized mind is an ocean of compassion. This ocean is our basic nature that is there to nurture all beings for all time. Tapping into this source of generosity is surprisingly delightful. There is no fear, no distraction and no strong inclinations but to exist fully in the present. From this source additional generosity spontaneously arises and the body and brain serve the ocean to their great joy. And one feels aglow lighting up all corners of physical and thought space effortlessly. This is no mind. This is the experience of the cure of personal dwelling in suffering.

If Mark Twain and Thich Nhat Hanh had a chat about anger…

TNH: “People who use venting techniques like hitting a pillow or shouting are actually rehearsing anger. When someone is angry and vents their anger by hitting a pillow, they are learning a dangerous habit. They are training in aggression. Instead, a wise practicioner generates the energy of mindfulness and embraces her anger every time it manifests.”

MT: “When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.

TNH: “Many of us begin a relationship with great love, very intense love. So intense that we believe that without our partner we cannot survive. Yet if we do not practice mindfulness, it takes only one or two years for our love to be transformed into hatred. Then, in our partner’s presence we have the opposite feeling, we feel terrible. It becomes impossible to live together anymore, so divorce is the only way. Love has been transformed into hatred; our flower has become garbage.

MT: Marriage -yes, it is the supreme felicity of life, I concede it. And it is also the supreme tragedy of life. The deeper the love the surer the tragedy.

TNH: When the mother embraces her baby, her energy penetrates him and soothes him. This is exactly what you have to learn to do when anger begins to surface. You have to abandon everything that you are doing, because your most important task is to go back to yourself and take care of your baby, your anger. Nothing is more urgent than taking good care of your baby.

MT: And so you think a baby is a thing of beauty and a joy forever? Well, the idea is pleasing, but not original- every cow thinks the same of its own calf…But really…I find that the correctness of your assertion does not manifest itself in all cases. A sore-faced baby with a neglected nose cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty, and inasmuch as babyhood spans but three short years, no baby is competent to be a joy “forever”.

TNH: Please remember that your notions of happiness may be very dangerous. The Buddha said happiness can only be possible in the here and now. So go back and examine deeply your notions and ideas of happiness. You may recognize that the conditions of happiness are already there in your life are enough. Then happiness can be instantly yours.

MT: Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination. No sane person can be happy, for to him life is real, and he sees what a fearful thing it is. Only the mad can be happy, and not many of those.

Swine Flu Pandemic- is the math convincing?

Mathematicians from Indiana University and the Los Alamos National Laboratory recently found themselves in an embarrasing defense of a worst case scenario prediction for swine flu exposure. Amusingly, the parameter chosen to describe human transportation rates was the exchange of money as captured from the web site Where’s George, a web site that tracks money as it moves around the country.

Wouldn’t it seem more useful to actually measure a metric closer to transportation? Any metric?

Thus in this attempt to keep the media’s presentation of science honest I ask you to comment on the current statistics on the swine flu pandemic. It looks like we are just starting to reach pandemic levels, however the case does not look overwhelmingly significant from this graph .

STATISTICS

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
- Autobiography of Mark Twain

Sunday Tribute to George Carlin

As you decompress from devastating news from the Iranian battlefront or just revel in some general brain candy I highly recommend decompressing with a bite from George Carlin.

I ain’t got any split infinitives

Ain’t it funny how Mark Twain has managed to boldly remain a grammatical lightning rod in the 21st century? Note this excerpt from a January New York times article by Steve Pinker, psychology professor at Harvard and the chairman of the usage panel of The American Heritage Dictionary.

Among these fetishes is the prohibition against “split verbs,” in which an adverb comes between an infinitive marker like “to,” or an auxiliary like “will,” and the main verb of the sentence. According to this superstition, Captain Kirk made a grammatical error when he declared that the five-year mission of the starship Enterprise was “to boldly go where no man has gone before”; it should have been “to go boldly.” Likewise, Dolly Parton should not have declared that “I will always love you” but “I always will love you” or “I will love you always.”

Any speaker who has not been brainwashed by the split-verb myth can sense that these corrections go against the rhythm and logic of English phrasing. The myth originated centuries ago in a thick-witted analogy to Latin, in which it is impossible to split an infinitive because it consists of a single word, like dicere, “to say.” But in English, infinitives like “to go” and future-tense forms like “will go” are two words, not one, and there is not the slightest reason to interdict adverbs from the position between them.

Though the ungrammaticality of split verbs is an urban legend, it found its way into The Texas Law Review Manual on Style, which is the arbiter of usage for many law review journals. James Lindgren, a critic of the manual, has found that many lawyers have “internalized the bogus rule so that they actually believe that a split verb should be avoided,” adding, “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers has succeeded so well that many can no longer distinguish alien speech from native speech.

Mark Twain brought the issue of unssuccesfully weaving Latinate grammer rules in to the germanic English language in his essay, ” Bishop Lowth was a Fool” in which he notes…

Bishop Robert Lowth undoubtedly thought he was doing a great service to speakers and writers of the English language when in 1762 he published his Short Introduction to English Grammar. However, the reality is that Lowth has done a grave disservice to both users of English, and the rich and wonderful language itself. Rather than basing his grammatical rules in the usage of the best educated speakers and writers of English, he erringly and foolishly based them on the Latin grammatical system, a system wholly inappropriate and incapable of dictating usage to a language as different from Latin as Germanic-based English. The result is that many modern usages in English, particularly an alarming number of rules of normative usage and Standard Written English, are based upon those false origins. Additionally, Lowth’s defense of Latin as an “educated” role model for English has given rise to a school of prescriptive grammarians who find it their sworn duty to prescribe this Latinate usage system to those speakers who have managed to escape its inoculation in the educational institutions of English-speaking countries. Prescriptive grammarians are adamant, and their forceful prescriptions and high-brow judgments are irresponsible, and a denial of the rich cultural heritage of our language.

The issue of splitting infinitives goes beyond the question of to split wrongly or to wrongly split, it engenders a discussion about social norms and perception of one’s education status. From the moment I could speak it was drilled into my burgeoning skull that ain’t was not only grammatically correct but indicative or a less educated social class. Mark Twain battles this idea as well in his essay.

Many words of the English language have fallen out of regular usage due to senseless prescriptions, which are often based in social judgment. Such a word is ain’t. Ain’t seems to be likened to the worst of vulgarisms by both prescriptivists and other would-be educated speakers. It would appear that most of these prescriptivists feel that the word ain’t is the principal indication of its speakers ignorance and lack of education. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. While indeed irresponsible social attitudes in modern times have pushed the word out of regular usage, it nevertheless saw widespread use from both highly educated and wealthy speakers throughout its history.

Dr. Joseph Williams is Professor of English at the University of Chicago, Co-director of its Institute on Critical Thinking and Higher Order Reasoning, and member of the Modern Language Association, the Linguistics Society, and the National Council of Teachers in English. He notes that

If [ain't] is now “ungrammatical” in some upper middle class dialects in our north central states, it was as late as the turn of the century freely used by many upper middle class educated speakers in the southern part of England and is used today in the casual speech of a good many highly educated southerners and westerners. To call it totally ungrammatical is to betray one’s geographical biases. That it is now considered such is a sociological, historical accident. (277)

I stand corrected.

Religion and Science by Albert Einstein

Religion and Science

The following excerpt was published in The World as I See It (1999).

by Albert Einstein

verything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and desire are the motive forces behind all human endeavour and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present itself to us. Now what are the feelings and needs that have led men to religious thought and belief in the widest sense of the words? A little consideration will suffice to show us that the most varying emotions preside over the birth of religious thought and experience. With primitive man it is above all fear that evokes religious notions—fear of hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death. Since at this stage of existence understanding of causal connexions is usually poorly developed, the human mind creates for itself more or less analogous beings on whose wills and actions these fearful happenings depend. One’s object now is to secure the favour of these beings by carrying out actions and offering sacrifices which, according to the tradition handed down from generation to generation, propitiate them or make them well disposed towards a mortal.

I am speaking now of the religion of fear. This, though not created, is in an important degree stabilized by the formation of a special priestly caste which sets up as a mediator between the people and the beings they fear, and erects a hegemony on this basis. In many cases the leader or ruler whose position depends on other factors, or a privileged class, combines priestly functions with its secular authority in order to make the latter more secure; or the political rulers and the priestly caste make common cause in their own interests.

The social feelings are another source of the crystallization of religion. Fathers and mothers and the leaders of larger human communities are mortal and fallible. The desire for guidance, love, and support prompts men to form the social or moral conception of God. This is the God of Providence who protects, disposes, rewards, and punishes, the God who, according to the width of the believer’s outlook, loves and cherishes the life of the tribe or of the human race, or even life as such, the comforter in sorrow and unsatisfied longing, who preserves the souls of the dead. This is the social or moral conception of God.

The Jewish scriptures admirably illustrate the development from the religion of fear to moral religion, which is continued in the New Testament. The religions of all civilized peoples, especially the peoples of the Orient, are primarily moral religions. The development from a religion of fear to moral religion is a great step in a nation’s life. That primitive religions are based entirely on fear and the religions of civilized peoples purely on morality is a prejudice against which we must be on our guard. The truth is that they are all intermediate types, with this reservation, that on the higher levels of social life the religion of morality predominates.

Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. Only individuals of exceptional endowments and exceptionally high-minded communities, as a general rule, get in any real sense beyond this level. But there is a third state of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form, and which I will call cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to explain this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.

The individual feels the nothingness of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvellous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. He looks upon individual existence as a sort of prison and wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. The beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already appear in earlier stages of development—e.g., in many of the Psalms of David and in some of the Prophets. Buddhism, as we have learnt from the wonderful writings of Schopenhauer especially, contains a much stronger element of it.

The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man’s image; so that there can be no Church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with the highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as Atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.

How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are capable of it. We thus arrive at a conception of the relation of science to religion very different from the usual one. When one views the matter historically one is inclined to look upon science and religion as irreconcilable antagonists, and for a very obvious reason. The man who is thoroughly convinced of the universal operation of the law of causation cannot for a moment entertain the idea of a being who interferes in the course of events—that is, if he takes the hypothesis of causality really seriously. He has no use for the religion of fear and equally little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and punishes is inconceivable to him for the simple reason that a man’s actions are determined by necessity, external and internal, so that in God’s eyes he cannot be responsible, any more than an inanimate object is responsible for the motions it goes through. Hence science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man’s ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear and punishment and hope of reward after death.

It is therefore easy to see why the Churches have always fought science and persecuted its devotees. On the other hand, I maintain that cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest incitement to scientific research. Only those who realize the immense efforts and, above all, the devotion which pioneer work in theoretical science demands, can grasp the strength of the emotion out of which alone such work, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life, can issue. What a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and what a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the mind revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton must have had to enable them to spend years of solitary labour in disentangling the principles of celestial mechanics!

Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a sceptical world, have shown the way to those like-minded with themselves, scattered through the earth and the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man strength of this sort. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.

You will hardly and one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But it is different from the religion of the naive man. For the latter God is a being from whose care one hopes to benefit and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a feeling similar to that of a child for its father, a being to whom one stands to some extent in a personal relation, however deeply it may be tinged with awe.

But the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as the past. There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.

( Albert Einstein, The World as I See It, Secaucus, New Jersy: The Citadel Press, 1999, pp. 24-29. )

Pathetic Air France 447 joke

And now for some balderdash. Let’s summon our cognitive abilities to consume this piece of e-mail tripe. At 6am this morning I received the following e-mail in my inbox.

Hello!

Allow me to share with you these striking photos taken from inside the doomed Air France flight –please note the accompanying disclaimer –, on route from Brazil to Paris. The photos that are included were apparently taken by one of the passengers in the B373 plane of Air France, just before the fall of the plane, and were recuperated from the camera Casio 750 found among the debris. From the camera serial number the owner could be identified as Paolo Muller, a Brazilian childrens’ theatre actor for. He has left behind two daughters, Bruna and Beatriz.

In one of these photos you can observe a hole in the fuselage through which one can see the plane’s tail and the fuselage. In the other photo you can see a passenger being absorbed outside of the plane due to the air pressure.

– This information has not been confirmed.

O.K. let’s dissect this analytically –

You are a passenger in a plane sharing your last moments with other passengers (attached to oxygen masks) and it occurs to you to stop, find your camera (with your spare hand ~ not grabbing your oxygen mask) and stand up (completely feasible in a low pressure situation) and take a PHOTO! You are then fully cognizant of the importance of such a photo and safely store it away in say a suitcase before you are blatantly aspirated into the stratosphere. The authorities then find your camera (miraculously waterproofed), developed the film and released the information about the camera, the photos and the owner. If all of this sounds improbable to you it is. It is from the television show LOST. This pathetic local joke has not gone unnoticed by others.

You can see for yourself……….

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as you please.

Mark Twain

Amish Friendship Bread

Amish friendship bread is yesteryear’s equivalent to friendly e-mail spam, the chain letter. It is a sweet cinnamon quickbread which multiplies rapidly as a flour starter and matures to a chewy pound cake with the addition of baking soda, baking powder and instant vanilla pudding. My internet searches on Amish friendship bread have all resulted with people either giving starters away or blaming that accursed reproductive bread. Just in case you didn’t know – you can freeze or refrigerate the starters if you want to take a break from asexual reproduction. The recipe was handed to me – note: the Amish bread association is a misnomer as it has no real historical connection to the Amish. Also there are many starter recipes available in cookbooks you don’t have to wait until one returns to you to get a new one. Good luck!!!!

Day 1: Do nothing (this is the date on the bag)

Day 2: Mush the bag

Day 3: Mush the bag

Day 4: Mush the bag

Day 5: Mush the bag

Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk & 1 cup of sugar. Mush the bag.

Day 7: Mush the bag

Day 8: Mush the bag

Day 9: Mush the bag

Day 10: Follow these instructions:

1. Pour all the batter into a non-metal bowl.

2. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of milk

3. Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each and put into 4 -1 gallon ziploc bags. Keep a starter for yourself and give the other 3 to friends along with a copy of this recipe. Be sure to date the bags (if you don’t pass this on the first day be
sure to tell your friends to go by the date on the bag)

4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

5. To the remaining batter in the bowl, add:

3 eggs

1 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sugar

2 tsps. cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups flour

1 large box instant vanilla pudding

6. Grease 2 large loaf pans

7. In a separate bowl, mix 1/8 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 tsps. of cinnamon. Dust greased loaf pans with half of this mixture.

8. Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on the top.

9. Bake 1 hour

10. Cool until bread loosens from the side of the pan (about 10 minutes)

11. Turn out onto dish. Serve warm or cold.

If you keep a starter for yourself, you’ll be baking every 10 days. The bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create the starter, so if you give it all away you have to wait for someone to give it back.

Writing from a fresh wood

I don’t enjoy writing, not one bit. The pregnant words tend to swarm around my head as a liquid envelope only right before sleeping when the warm rush of kindness that sleep brings hands over to me. In the morning I feel betrayed, as if time had stolen my words with time. In the afternoon in the food slumber that my mind and chair induce over me I am stuck yet again, in pain to have lost that fruitful chain. The meaning of time is lost and I am just breathing in once again and then breathless. But I had a thought once, oh yes, I remember now. And then once again thoughtless, left wandering searching for my home. Perhaps there is this magical state of affairs in which the sun and moon are aligned just so (generally bedtime) when I can reach into the ephemeral word storm that chases me and dutifully husband and child have stopped requesting. This would be a great achievement. There would be no end to the love letters I would have penned, deep confessions of devotion and admiration to my grandmother or friends. I could clean my furnace and admire my capacity to burn brightly like an imploding star. Would the warmth of sunshine then brighten my day as well? Would I be able to articulate better the delicacy of my thought as a tender buttered lemon sole? The scientists at work would not care. A scientist’s verbal weapons of destruction are sharpened on the steel of sarcasm plucked carefully with the pliers of keen observation. These words are generally fundamental restatements of well worn ideas peppered with the innovation of recent data. They are a sociologic group unto themselves, peacocks of precision with no particular penchants for charm. However they are indeed naturalists, know full well that water and trails are the food of comfort for these charmless souls.

It is here where the lessons in charm should begin. But with the raw purpose of a particular intent. As you breathe in the forest or river of your thought you become no longer a knight of sarcasm, there is no need to charm a bird with your wit or your disturbing analytical ability. A bird or insect’s charm exists in the very aspect of them simply BEING themselves. They unfold individually from their cocoons and consider the garden of planet Earth their home. Here they feel free to twitter and pounce on unsuspecting worms and furl and unfurl their wings without the competition of time. Here you can dwell, homo sapiens, and bathe yourself in light and air. And supported by these common elements your natural charm emerges ready and fresh for the stage of open air. This is the freedom missing all along, that warmth that allowed you to charm and write and simply BE.

19th Century Polynesian Justice

excerpted from Mark Twain in Hawaii

In those days, if a man killed another anywhere on the island the relatives were privileged to take the murderer’s life; and then a chase for life and liberty began – the outlawed criminal flying through pathless forests and over mountain and plain, with his hopes fixed upon the protecting walls of the City of Refuge, and the avenger of blood following hotly after him! Sometimes the race was kept up to the very gates of the temple, and the panting pair sped through the long files of excited natives, who watched the contest with flashing eye and dilated nostril, encouraging the hunted refugee with sharp inspiring ejaculations, and sending up a ringing shout of exultation when the saving gates closed upon him and the cheated pursuer sank brought his feet upon the sacred ground and barred him against all harm. Where did these isolated pagans get the idea of a City of Reuge – this ancient Oriental custom?

This old sanctuary was sacred to all- even to rebels in arms and invading armies. Once within its walls, and confession made to the priest and absolution obtained, the wretch with a price upon its head could go forth without fear and without danger – he was tabu, and to harm him was death. The routed rebels in the lost battle for idolatry fled to this plae to claim sanctuary, and many were thus saved.

1889: Advice to Lady Travelers

excerpted from Lapham’s Quarterly Summer 2009

SAFE CONDUCT

Much has been said about the danger to women, especially young women, traveling alone of annoyance from impertinent or obtrusive attentions from travelers of the other sex. I can only say that in any such case which has ever come within my personal knowledge or observation, the woman has had only herself to blame. I am quite sure that no man, however audacious, will – at all events if he be sober – venture to treat with undue familiarity or rudeness a woman, however young, who distinctly shows him by her dignity of manner and conduct that any such liberty will be an insult. As a rule, women traveling alone receive far more consideration and kindness from men of all classes than under any other circumstances whatever, and the greater independence of women – which permits even young girls in these days to travel about entirely alone, unattended even by a maid- has very rarely inconvenient consequences.

Absurd News of 9/8/09

• A female Sudanese journalist, jailed for a month after being convicted of “dressing indecently” by wearing trousers, has been freed after one day.

• A couple from the US state of New York have been married during the funeral of their seven-year-old son, saying he had always wanted them to wed.

• “What a Shame!” Chinese Airline Video Pigs Remind Passengers That Swine Flu Comes From “America”

News World Afghan vote results called ‘illogical’

News World Afghan vote results called ‘illogical’ By JASON STRAZIUSO, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Last Updated: 8th September 2009, 2:27am

taken from http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2009/09/08/10783391-sun.html

KABUL — At the Afghan polling station called Haji Nehmetullah House, every one of the 725 votes cast during the country’s Aug. 20 election went to President Hamid Karzai. At another site, Haji Akhtar Mohammad House, the incumbent got each of the precisely 400 ballots cast.

Allegations of ballot box stuffing, voter intimidation and other fraud have been lodged from all corners of the country following last month’s presidential contest. An Associated Press examination of returns shows what officials said yesterday appear to be highly suspicious — and improbable — results.

Stations across Afghanistan’s south gave Karzai 200, 250 or 500 votes, according to figures compiled by the Independent Election Commission.

Observers say these neatly rounded numbers show patterns of fraud consistent with allegations that large-scale vote rigging took place in dangerous regions that observers couldn’t reach.

A senior Western diplomat alleged yesterday that a majority of the votes in three provinces — Kandahar, Paktika and Khost — are fraudulent. At the Zoor District Centre in Paktika province, Karzai got 300, 250, 200 and 200 votes at four of the centre’s six polling stations.

A Western elections expert in Kabul called such returns “illogical.” He spoke on condition he wasn’t identified.

He said many of the suspicious results came from voting stations that didn’t exist, supposedly located in remote parts of the country that Afghan tribal chiefs knew observers couldn’t reach and where security forces would not be posted. He said there were likely as many as 800 such fake polling sites.

With results from 74% of polling stations, Karzai has 48.6%, while top challenger Abdullah Abdullah has 31.7%.

The commission is expected to release its completed count today. Once it does, the separate U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission will investigate about 650 allegations of serious fraud.

The Gay Animal Kingdom

I just love Jonah Lehrer’s writing over at Seed magazine. But things get even more delicious when there is controversy over animal homosexuality being discussed in a public high school.
Please check this out!

“http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/10/the_gay_animal_kingdom.php”

photo for Commemoration with a Touch of Botulism