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September 30, 2003 |
This article discusses why eating fat and sugar-laden foods reduces feelings of stress. It turns out such foods reduce CRF (corticotropin-releasing factor), which in turn reduces levels of the "stress hormones" such as cortisol.
Of course, this isn't a prescription for you to eat when you are feeling stressed out. But it may help explain the rising rates of obesity in our stress-filled society. Instead of eating calorie-rich foods, or waiting for scientists to produce CRF-combatting medications, we can learn to maintain a level of calmness in even the most pressing situations. In this way, we help avoid putting on weight and the host of other stress related medical problems. It is really not that hard, so I wonder why we remain so attached to our frantic, intense attitudes. Is it just we haven't heard about the ways out of our madness, or are we just not convinced that stress is a problem that must be rectified in ourselves?
12:45:24 PM 
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The brain activity of people in comas or with major communication disorders (vegetative states) is turning out to be much more normal than previously believed. In other words, people with such problems may be in fact quite conscious, or at least in a "minimally conscious state". This great New York Times article describes the research which may be redefining what we think of as states of consciousness.
The article speculates what it might be like to be minimally conscious:
"You wake up every morning but feel as if you're under a deep anesthesia. Images enter your eyes, and sounds enter your ears, but most of them reverberate through your brain without triggering any awareness. From time to time, you join the outside world at the sight of a familiar face or at the words of a loved one. Memories and meaning emerge. But as soon as that face or those words disappear, you sink back into darkness. Perhaps you can't even tell you're sinking -- perhaps your awareness leaps from one isolated moment to the next."
All this leads me to a (common) question that I sometimes think about, and may blog more about:
We normally consider ourselves fully conscious during our waking hours. But is there a whole level of consciousness that we have never experienced yet?
In some sense, are most of us, if not all of us, not minimally conscious, but equally in a fog, much less conscious than our potential? Is there an "outside world" that is all around us that we rarely "join", or if we do glimpse that world (as in peak religious experiences, perhaps), do we inevitably "sink" back to our previous level of sub-consciousness? And does what we learn from those that have recovered from a minimally conscious state suggest methods of accessing this super-consciousness?
Maybe this is something to think about when you read this interesting article.
(via Boing Boing Blog)
1:18:40 AM
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Recently, I reevaluated a host of RSS newsreaders. FeedDemon, written by Nick Bradbury, won my little competition by far. Its unique "News Bins" feature, which allows you to save and categorize feed items, should be a standard feature of all news aggregators (RSS readers). But FeedDemon has many other great features and a fantastic interface. Currently it is in beta and is free. Highly recommended.
12:16:20 AM
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September 29, 2003 |
Did you ever wonder what is that red XML icon on the bottom right of my blog and in tens of thousands of other web sites? It is the link to my "RSS Feed". Many people say RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". That means you can subscribe to my site if you use software called an RSS reader. With it, you can see when I have a new post, and in my case, the post itself, without having to go to my site to check. You will be able to see what posts you have read, and which ones you haven't. This saves you quite a bit of time, particularly if you read many feeds. Click on the above link for Lockergnome's quickstart guide to RSS.
One of the downsides for me having a feed is that I have no way of knowing how many people are using it, because I am using Radio Userland and don't have my own site with my own weblogs to analyze. The hitcount reported on the sidebar doesn't take into account RSS traffic. So if you are using the feed and love my site, please let me know via email or a comment or something so I know that the RSS feed and my site is of value to someone. :)
11:56:12 PM
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It turns out that the bigger your head, the smarter you may be when you get older, believe it or not. This Guardian Observer news link describes a study done by Southhampton University scientests that shows a sizable correlation between the size of a group old people's skulls and their performance on memory and intelligence tests. The bigger, the better.
It seems humans have developed large heads, in general, and that is why birthing is so difficult. But suppose future technology will enable us to make them even bigger, with genetic engineering. The births would have to eventually be caesarean or maybe by then gestation could occur completely outside the body. This would increase the brainpower of the populace, at least somewhat, which I think would be only good for society. Of course, by then, we may have much better ways to increase our brainpower.
4:47:47 PM
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I have a feeling that I may be getting back to blogging. But I'll believe it when I see it :) I basically took the summer off because I was busy at other things. Summers are like that. Now it is autumn again and it is getting colder out here in Calgary so I am doing less bike riding and thus have a little more free time lol. (I laughed because I've been unemployed for a while now.)
I'm not sure how this blog will turn out this season. I am thinking of changing the content. I will keep doing links and comments similar to what I was doing, since I am still interested in that stuff. However, I may do entries on what I am finding to be interesting in the area of software and general web sites that I find useful or interesting. I am also going to experiment with posting short paragraphs on things that I am thinking about or thought provoking questions. If you have any ideas or topics that I could post about, drop a comment here or email me at my spam filled address lol bjkrawchukXXX@hotmail.com (Take out the XXX string)
Hopefully these changes will make this blog a little more read than it already is, which is almost not at all, right now :)
3:37:56 PM
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