Serendipity

Kermit the Frog has been my earworm this week.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRZ-IxZ46ng I took a couple of quizzes to determine my carbon impact, and discovered that I am not as green as I hoped.  The biggest impact I discovered is how much I fly.  Reducing from 100 to 50 hours a year knocked an entire planet off my score.  I could knock another planet off by reducing miles driven and transit usage... perhaps a compelling argument for more work from home days. https://www.earthday.org/take-action/footprint-calculator

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 bo...

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 comm...

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 reduc...

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 jus...

I love my fabric softener.  Snuggle reminds me of childhood, and feels like some outdoor scene I know only from a commercial on tv. I like folding towels. I use Snuggle Liquid and especially like the lavender scent.  I know... more chemicals.  Snuggle gets a D from the Environmental Working Group.  The entire class of Cationic Fabric Softeners does.  Cationic fabric softeners are listed as "of moderate concern", and they appear on the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC) list as Asthmagens.  It also contains some detergents that are listed on the EU Ecolabel detergents database, which are of "some" concern, and a couple of cationic fabric softeners which are of low concern... at least some of the ingredients are biodegradable?  This product also gets a D due to the lack of information provided on its label.  That is for the liquid fabric softener.  I found the Sun products corporation Safety Data Sheet for the Snug...

Week 1: Is this loafing? Habit: an hour off after work/school - first thing when I get home each evening.  I take and hour give or take... it's busy time though. Put away the stuff, find a remote control, pet the cat, make a cup of tea... they're things I don't think about much Monday (June 25): Play with the cat. I think i'm more interested in the rainbow ribbon than he is. Homework and tv... is this loafing?  Upon asking the question i put my feet flat on the carpet, take a deep breath and straighten up seated... in a minute I'm bored. Tuesday (June 26): Orthopedics midterm. Finished early and went to Agave for happy dinner. Ceviche was great. I often dine alone, people watch, read the phone... lost in thought.  Is this loafing?   Tuesday evening outside with the cat, massage session with the neighbor and some new vampire of an acquaintance drained all my energy and time over-talking on the phone. Is listening loafing?  That was such a drain.  ...

Mondays are trash day at the dome, and my usual fridge cleaning opportunity. I was motivated when I got home last week. I had gone to the grocery store over the weekend but wasn’t thinking about color at the time. I found a large stack of white: tofu, shiratake noodles and rice cakes; and an equal array of mushrooms: shiitake, woodear, enoki...brown, white and beige. The dairy section was also white: yogurt and labne, white cheddar, blue and Parmesan cheeses. There was a variety of greens: a salad mix, basil, cilantro and mint, dandelion greens and broccolini. Red was scarce: in the drawer a tomato and a pepper, red miso paste, some old salsa... could the miso count as orange instead? Odds and ends included a bag of avocados, lemons and limes, garlic and green onions, blueberries, cheddar cheese and pickled ginger. It was an odd array. I haven’t ordered a meal kit or produce box in weeks. I was craving mushroom stew when I chose the Koreans Plaza to shop that week.  The freezer was...

Hello.  I'm Heather, and I have never taken a chemistry class. I went into a nursing program post secondary and missed the usual high school requirement, then transferred to a social work program at a university that didn't require it. I almost got away with it too!  O.o The reading today included a few concepts that I was pretty confident with, but the quick quiz proved me wrong.  Differentiating chemical and physical changes wasn't immediately as apparent as I had assumed. I remember discussing this idea in class last week.  I hope not to be one of the students comes out of their first chemistry classes with a misunderstanding of what it is. I don't have a bio to present so I'll just tell you a bit about me.  I am in my 4th year at ACCHS.  I've been progressing through second year curriculum, and am *finally* in my last trimester of working full time. In my work, I manage an SAP consulting firm in San Francisco covering the roles of AR/AP, Payroll...

I spent a lot of time listening to podcasts and videos on the topics for this post and I'm afraid I only succeeded in confusing myself.  Searching for uncertainty and causality led to some fun discussions of free will, which I didn't realize was such a debated topic! I learned that Einstein was a Determinist. His position was the everything has a cause, and therefore all actions are determined by a previous event. Looking at it this way, we have little to no free will but instead are palying... But the Uncertainty Principle threw a wrench in that too.  If we can change a particle by observing it, there must be a multitude of possibilities before us.  We then must be able to exert our own choice... Determinism = everything is a series of actions and reactions dependent on the last and within its set of circumstances.  There is no free will - everything lies withhin a set range. Causality = the principal that everything has a cause. There must be a reason. I lo...

I live in a dome.  It's not geodesic - it's made of laminate wood beams and plywood, shingles and sheet rock on a foundation of steel and concrete. The dome has 8 units. Its like an orange cut in half, cut in half again and then quartered. My apartment is a cocktail squeeze.  It's a mirror image of my neighbors place. I supposed when they designed it, it was perfectly symmetrical, but in reality, our apartments are quite different.  The angle of the walls varies from unit to unit, and our fireplaces are at oddly different distances from the door. In construction it's imperfect - asymmetrical. We live in an infinite universe that is constantly changing. **** CP Violation - The symmetry between matter and antimatter is imperfect.  Asymmetring being way more matter left than antimatter?  Ok so if every particle has its anti particle where did the anti particles go? c= charge conjugation (matter into anti-matter) p = parity transformation creates a mirror i...

When asked if I would support the development of a bionic person I am reminded of several movies in which the cyborg went rogue.  I am absolutely opposed to the development of a bionic human for military purposes, and have watched too much scifi to be comfortable with the its development otherwise.  AI always gets too smart and turn on humanity.   On the flip side, I am inclined to support the development of bionic parts.  I like to follow news coming out of the Transhumanist movement, the goal of which is the enhance human intellect, physical and psychological capabilities through technology.  Transhumanists are enthusiastic supported of developments in personal modification.    A list of top 10 transhumanist technologies includes cryogenics, gene therapy, virtual reality and cybernetics to name a few.  The cochlear implant and visual feedback devices that we read about are prime examples of the latter, as is the chip the vet placed in my cat...

As acupuncture students were introduced to the Huan du Nei Jing which defines qi as "life energy." As a student of TCM I have been experiencing the discovery of what acupuncture as energy medicine can be. In foundations were taught that qi flows through pathways in the body called meridians, and that disease can be the result of imbalances or blockages in this energy flow. We learn to identify the signs and symptoms of imbalances and disruptions along the meridian pathways, and to use specific points to influence the flow of qi so that we may restore balance in the body. We focus on the emotional correspondences as well as the physical manifestations. We're taught that we can use our own qi and intention to influence our patients outcomes. In these ways I experience acupuncture as an energy medicine. Kirlian photography is one imaging technique being used to try to demonstrate the presence and actions of this energetic body. Using high voltage contact print photography,...

I know a living system because it reacts, it changes and it grows.  In elementary school we learn that all living things also require water.      Last week we discussed research into states of consciousness, and the work of Matsuro Emoto was mentioned.  I was familiar with the work of Dr. Emoto, who discovered what they call structured water or energized water.  In this phenomena, crystals of water form differently based on the words used with it.  For example, a glass of water that is prayed to results in a beautiful and complex crystalline structure, while a glass of water that is cursed at results in unstructured dirty looking blobs instead of crystals.  Emoto’s work suggests that we can alter the state of vitality of water through the intention we apply to it with our words.  It also suggests that water has memory, which is also described as storing consciousness.     Another scientist who is looking at water ...

A dream came true on Saturday. I slept in.   At 11am a text message woke me.  "Dragonwell Jam at the Jack of All Trades Fair. Come fly with us!"  It was an invitation from Madamn Burnz sent to the FlyHive Aerial Crew... and I actually had the afternoon free!  Even better - my best friend agreed to come with me. We arrived in Jack London Square at 12:30pm, super hungry.  As we approached one of the food trucks a friendly couple spoke up. "Look at all this food! Ask for the chefs special."  We jumped at the chance.  The halal schwarma truck proprietor greeted us with enthusiasm and two little salads - street side amuse-bouche! We asked for the chefs special, with meat and mildly spiced. Then the chef left the truck to show us to a table. I couldn't believe our luck: dine-in restaurant service on the street.  After a short wait he started bringing food to the table: pasta salad and roasted peppers, lamb gyros and BBQ chick...

Are all vibrations good? They certainly have the potential to be.  A warning sense can be a very good thing, just as a warm and welcoming one is. Even earthquakes have their role to play in shaping things.  I love the idea that everything has a unique vibrational frequency. Weather we are aware of it or not, I think that we are often sensing subtle changes based on these vibrations... We're like human seismometers. Resonance is an important concept for me.  As I've mentioned before, I am most sensitive to audio cues. I was a musician as a young woman, and find the metaphors of harmony, frequency, vibration and resonance apply to my relationships with everything and everyone.  These words from music are the ones that I naturally choose to understand and describe interpersonal interactions especially.  It's very logical to me to think that a given system will be driven by the oscillations of another; that they naturally fall or ar forced into frequencies similar...

I went to a Christian college where there was a requirement that every student earn a minimum # of credits in religious studies.  I completed mine on a semester abroad, meeting with religious leaders in Malta, Greece, Italy, Israel and Tunisia.  That semester was about learning by exploring, engaging, interviewing and experiencing, and then writing about the region and culture of the places we visited.  These were the sites where Judaism, Christianity and Islam had their roots.  Our fearless leader was a scientist.  She kept our conversations going, but didn’t share her own opinion until the very end.  That day she declared: “God is Gravity.”   Minds. Blown. God. Force. Photons. Quarks. All. That. Is. The videos I watched this week refer to “the four fundamental forces in physics.”  From strongest to weakest, they are Strong Nuclear, Weak Nuclear, Electromagnetic and Gravitational.  Together they are responsible for holding every...

What evidence can you find for synchronicity? I like to joke that the radio is divine.  I often find that the lyrics pouring out of the stereo confirm or deny a recent thought, or trigger a memory or remind me of something I’ve been meaning to do.  These are the audible coincidences that set the course of my day, and occasionally ignite a radical trajectory change.  I personally notice synchronicities like these all over the place.  When I do, I try to express some gratitude for the spark and move on.  The skeptic in me would be embarrassed to take such a thing too seriously.  After our discussion on Tuesday, I realized that this was going to be a fun week!  As an audiophile, I naturally turned to podcasts to look for evidence of synchronicity.  This week, two of my favorites came into play.  As episode of Invisibilia was mentioned in class.  Titled “Entanglement” and dated January 29, 2015, it examined some of the concept we di...