Serendipity

My landlord is a unique fellow. He occupies the apartment below mine by day.  It's called the relaxation center, and it is a world to discover!  Modern amenities include a flotation tank and a far infrared sauna. He also offers a full body sound therapy experience via an early version of the "vibroacoustic liquid sound table", a waterbed the size of a massage table outfitted with speakers that send sound waves throughout. By far my favorite tool is what he calls the meditation machine - a contraption of inert gas... I missed class on Tuesday, so have been looking into Green Chemistry a bit more willy nilly.  An experience is presented in the Yale overview of Green Chemistry called "The Earth in 10 seconds"  Watch it!  It makes the destruction of the earth very visceral. 119 tons of hazardous and tax waste 2 poel dies from drinking bad water almost 4k tons of fuel consumed... in 10 secionds~! 3 children dies of rpeventable disease 4 acres of rainforest des

In clinic orientation this weekend I counted almost as many people drawn to ACCHS by plants and herbs as injuries or healthcare experiences.  I was sitting in the back of the room thinking about Alchemy. An image search on the word Alchemy brings up as many pictures of wizards and sages as tables and charts.  Magic? Science? Art?  In my brain a mix of hollywood and historic images leave the impression that alchemy lies somewhere between magic and science, and between art and industry.  Tables and charts and robes oh my! Role playing games anyone? Are we mixing potions or combining metals? yay both!! I love herbalism and metalwork.   It's furtive ground for the imagination. Our profession offers a unique opportunity to cultivate skills in physical manipulations and Chinese herbalism. Weather drawn by plants and herbs or needles and massage, every "how I got here" story I heard commented on the awesome moment when each discovered this profession offers both! Rooted in t

On cognition - bringing forth a world. Our discussion of the excerpt from  The Web of Life by Fritjof Capra  in class last week has me thinking about how microscopic organisms have interaction too. What is their perception? I have been acutely aware this week, considering that every person has a different experience. I have been very careful in communications amidst a seas of chaos. On miscommunication - it's a wonder anyone gets through anymore.      It's crunch time on the road to burning man.  Repairs require new solutions and re-fabrication.  The best laid plans end up in a redesign, redesign happens on the fly, from the inside, in the middle of the project with half the pieces already cut.  It's exhausting and exhilarating.  I love using my body and mind this way.  The shop is a microcosm of odd personalities, driven to the point of exhaustion with their chosen or assigned projects, wrestling with intense communication requirements.  Its ripe for miscommunicati

Check out the video from Full Front with Samantha Bee.  I love this response to Trump's golf course.  The class discussion on bees was eye opening. I almost forgot the colonies are collapsing, and I had no idea bees are trucked all over the country! This article goes more in depth, and suggests that a solution to the problem of colony collapse is increased urban bee keeping.  I hella heart our local honey and the colonies ticked in and around Oakland's neighborhoods.    Global Research: Death and Extinction of the Bees by Joachim Hagopian     The article was written in 2014 - 7 years after colony collapse first became a big story.  It was updated in March of 2018, and apparently not much changed.   A comment was raised in class that this is an international problem.  SOS-Bees.org has a nice collection of vides from international scientists discussing the colony collapse crisis and research into pesticide reduction and ecological farming practices, brought

I am a somewhat frequent flyer. Once or twice a month I get out of bed in the middle of the night, schlep to the airport bleary eyed, slog through the security line, deposit my goods in bins, take off my shoes and assume the position in the body scan xray machine.  The amount of radiation that I am exposed to is considered minimal - I only fly a couple of times per month. The scanner shows an awful lot. Privacy concerns have been a hot topic for years, but it didn't come up in class.  I was surprised to see these scanners on the low end of the Radiation Dosage Chart from informationisbeautiful.net - equal to eating a banana. I was also surprised to learn that there is not real standard for communicating the amount and type of radiation that we are exposed to.  How many banana's isn't as crazy as it sounds. The article "RADs on a plane - The Round Trip" noted that radiation exposure is higher in first class, and as the plane reacher higher altitudes.  It wou

A kiss on the cheek is a placebo too. Jesca Hoop - Hospital (to win your love) In our class discussion last week I heard a lot of resistance to the research presented. It's a theme that bubbles up frequently in acupuncture school.   I get it.  In research methodology class we learn to be skeptical about the motivations of researchers and publishers and the nuances in study design, the measurement of results and analytical approach. In the media we read sensational or reductionist headlines proclaiming some half baked study now has the answer, and its often intended to discredit acupuncture or herbal medicine - which we hold dear!  I feel compelled to protect traditional medicine, to practice time tested techniques and subtle manipulations that are the result of careful observation and repetition...   We who are called to study traditional medicine value it for those qualities specifically, as do many of our patients.  But many of them just think of it as natural or mo