Ideeahs

This is one of the better articles I have read on the issue of technology and how it might be affecting our brains. The irony is that while I was reading it I was interrupted by the New York Times itself. Between pages 2 and 3 a request for feedback popped up and distracted me from the article on....what was it? Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html The bottom-line is that we have now learnt that our brains do not stop developing at a young age. Our grey matter continues to adapt to the stimulus it faces on a daily basis. With the ever increasing bombardment of information -- and the resulting interruptions -- a growing number seem to be concluding that our brains are indeed adapting to the influx. How? By limiting our creativity, our empathy, our memory, our concentration. As I have said before, while I was working at IBM we often had discussions about Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. We were constantly bombarded by emails, chat me...

No....I mean salt!! It is essential to our body's proper functioning. While not essential to eating, it does bring out tastes and, for certain recipes, is a requirement to the chemical reaction that occurs in cooking. Salt can also be detrimental to our health. Various cancers are associated with it as is high-blood pressure. So we can't live without it but we need to watch our intake - just like all other food stuffs and ingredients. I tend to watch what I eat. I watch ingredients, ensure that I eat balanced (well, fairly balanced) meals. I have to admit though that eating the recommended amount of fruits and veggies proves hard on many days. But, no matter how careful you are the fact is that if you eat processed foods you will eat too much salt and sugar. What I ate for lunch yesterday is an example. It was seemingly a fairly healthy meal. One can of salmon with one tablespoon of mayonnaise mixed in. Four pitted, red pepper-stuffed green olives. About eight...

Walmart is big. They have influence. Their 2009 revenues were $405 billion. They employ over two million employees. Their influence over the purchasing decisions of North Americans is large. Consequently, their corporate announcements often make the news. The positive ones around business greening have gotten good press. One that springs to mind was when they announced an initiative to reduce the amount of packaging in the goods they sell. They created a packaging scorecard for their suppliers. By sensitizing their supply chain to the issue of packaging Walmart can make a big difference. So when it decided to lower prices on soda pop in the United States it, in my opinion, used its clout in a negative way. Twenty-four cans of pop now cost $5 - though as low as $3.77 in some US markets. That is 15¢ per can. Not surprisingly pop flew off store shelves during the Memorial Day long weekend in the United States. With this action Walmart indirectly contributed to the health ...

The past week was Spring Break week for schools in Quebec - la semaine de relâche. The weather was amazing (five degrees and sunny) all week. The birds were chirping, the flies started flying. Perfect spring weather. Animals were coming out of hibernation....well most animals. Being a family that likes the outdoors we wanted to spend as much time out there as possible. So on Tuesday we headed to Oka Provincial Park (I just can't get myself to call them National Parks as they do in Quebec) for some snowshoeing. At one of the two summits there is a historical site, the Calvaire d'Oka, with three chapels built in 1742. It also has a great view looking south over the Lake of Two Mountains - still partly frozen. The sun was shining, its warmth was felt, the snow was melting, the rays reflected off the lake, we had our jackets open and we soaked in the sun. Very, very nice. Sitting up there and taking in the view my thoughts wandered to Vancouver, as they often do. I was s...

I remember being a child, playing with my airplanes and believing that I was actually piloting them to various destinations in the world. I mean really believing. I would chat with ground control, check my altimetre, greet the passengers in the cabin, push back from the gate, taxi to the runway and await departure control's clearance. I would then ascend to my given altitude and await further instructions on my way to one of the numerous designated paths across, for example, the Atlantic. This was real....and one day I would do it for real. This belief led to real excitement. I am sure that my body was flooded with all the best brain chemicals and hormones. It was healthy for me. Believing like a child, without the hindrance of real life road blocks and hurdles. Having a dream and going for it with a certain amount of naivety is not only healthy but it is what brings about some of the more game-changing events and innovations - whether to a single life or to larger groups. ...

Hints from three interesting communities on how to live a healthier life. Socialize, eat more plants and less animals, have purpose in life and slow down. Listen to how communities in Italy, Japan and, yes, even the United States do it. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

A book, a movie and a meal. This entry is about how three items came together a few days ago to further convince me that the world needs to change and, happily, seems to be changing. And how each of us can make a difference. You may not care about changing the world but at least make an effort to change what you can directly control - your diet. Make this your resolution. Food Inc. - the movie - rent it. In Praise of Slowness - the book - read it. Red Cabbage Risotto - the meal - eat it. I consider that we are a lucky family. We can afford healthy foods, we have the time to cook up those foods into delicious meals and then we sit down, together, to enjoy it. Three times a day we do this. One of our favorite meals is a risotto recipe by Marcella Hazan (fantastic cook books - get some!). It is far from fast to make but is worth the two to two-and-a-half hours it takes to prepare. Shred 4 cups of red cabbage. Then chop up some pancetta and onions. Fry these two in a large kettl...

I just finished reading an article from the Canadian Press which was published Sunday. It talks about the sanitary conditions in the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto that was in the news in 2008 due to a listerioisis outbreak that killed twenty-two people. I wrote about this back in September 2008 and feel a need to restate my opinion again. One month after the Toronto plant was re-opened inspectors found slime, rust, mould, meat parts and other dirt on various bits of equipment. Some of the items were resolved a month later but not all. So now, twelve months later, I can't help but wonder what might be lurking in the corners of the plant, in the knife holders, under the work counters, etc. If public safety was at risk back in 2008 how can it be that it took twelve months for this to be picked up and reported on by the press? Anyone who cooks and spends time in a kitchen knows that it takes some effort to keep even an apartment kitchen clean. Food scraps end up stuck betwe...

My bare cheeks feel the swish of water below them.  Flush.  I try to sit still to avoid the eye's attention.  But boy is it sensitive to movement.  I barely move and, swish, another flush.  Gosh.  How can I be statue-like while doing my "business"?  The final, and expected, final movement occurs as I stand. Looking back and down at the green lettering on the back of the white porcelain seat, below the eye, I see a marking - 6 LPF.  This would make it a newer model loo as it only uses six litres per flush (LPF).  The problem is that at every visit you actually end up using a minimum of eighteen litres.  So much for efficiency. I head back to my desk, relieved to be out of the eye's gaze.  An email appears in my inbox.  It is an article from Scientific American, dated April 22, 2009 and entitled "Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization".  In it there is a section on water shortages.  Fossil aquifers that do not get replenished and are vital to agricultur...

"We have updated our packaging to help reduce its impact on the environment.  Small steps make the difference." The foil has been replaced by recyclable paper.  The cardboard packaging meets standards supporting sustainable forest management. "new look.  new approach." This sounds great doesn't it?  Another company deciding to finally change its ways and start realizing that there may actually be some profit in going green and in taking small steps to help the environment and consequently the health of our planet. FULL STOP I saw the advert for this product on page 58 of the May 7-14, 2009 Georgia Straight.  What product and which company?  Let me give you another hint.  The advert also had the words below splattered across the bottom 20% of the page.  These letters were not stylized.  They were black on white.  There was no marketing message.  They did however have an even more compelling message than the fancy words in the top 80%. "Cigarettes are highly ...

There is a story making the rounds today regarding the Government of Canada's requirement that folic acid be added to certain flours and pastas.  This requirement became law in 1998.  The theory is that by increasing the amount of folic acid that women consume the rate of neural-tube defects (like spina bifida) would decrease.  The theory proved true as the rates of these types of defects has decreased substantially. Today a study has come out stating that there may be a link between the consumption of folic acid and the rate at which pre-cancerous polyps turn in to cancers - prostate, colon and others.  As it stands this is not proven and remains a theory - but it raises multiple questions in my mind. and reminds me of a situation that my family faced many years ago. The fact is that we do not understand the human body completely.  There may be some systems within it that we understand fairly well but when you begin tackling the interdependence and interactions of the various syst...