Oct 5 2022 - I am not FITBitter

 

Remember when FITBITs came on the scene?  They were written off as a fitness fad with the criticism similar to the spending too much time on your iPhone looking at social media. Smartwatch Studies have been completed.  A lot of studies. There are results of 121 scientific trials with devices which involved 16,000 people.  Overall people who wear monitors take an extra 1,200 steps each day and complete nearly 50 minutes more of exercise per week.  The daily activity increases were described as small to moderate.  That magic number of 10,000 is so easy to understand.  It brings exercise right into focus.  And lack of exercise, combined with diet, is considered to be one of the leading causes of obesity in the UK.   The article on the FITBIT in the Daily Mail said that six out of 10 adults in the UK are obese and rates in children even higher. One in seven children in England are obese by the time they start primary school. I decided that was an unusually high number, so I looked up the adult obesity rates in the world, and in 2016: U.S. obesity rate was 36.2% United Kingdom 27.8% Canada 29.4% That's still a lot of people with a lot of health conditions brought on by obesity.   Since that first introduction in 2009, there are now all kinds of smartwatches on the market.  FITBIT doesn't seem to be in the list of the top 7.  And what's the latest feature?  Crash detection when someone has been involved in a car crash and alert emergency services if the wearer is unresponsive.

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June 17 2022 - Syndemic not Pandemic

 

I wondered how the pandemic might end.  So I went looking for the words ending with "demic".   I thought the variations on "demic" might describe the probable scenarios.  For example, an interpandemic?  These occur between outbreaks of a pandemic.  An interepidemic?  Occurring  between epidemics.  Could we end with a hyperendemic?  A disease which is constantly and persistently present in a population at a high rate of incidence and/or prevalence and which equally affects all age groups of that population. Where I landed, though, is this term:  Syndemic.  The Lancet has a number of articles outlining COVID-19 not a pandemic but a syndemic,  also known as synergistic epidemic. This doesn't go so well towards a happy sort of conclusion.  "A syndemic is a situation in which two or more interrelated biological factors work together to make a disease or health crisis worse.  The term syndemic was created by medical anthropologist Merrill Singer in the early 1990s." "Syndemics are stitched together by three rules: two or more diseases cluster together in time or space; these diseases interact in meaningful ways, whether social, psychological, or biological; and harmful social conditions drive these interactions." “COVID-19 is an acute-on-chronic health emergency,”  said Richard Horton, the Lancet’s editor-in-chief. He described the coronavirus pandemic combined with high global rates of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases as a “syndemic ... Addressing COVID-19 means addressing hypertension, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, and cancer."  That article is HERE.   An historical perspective on Syndemic theory, methods and data is HERE.   What it describes is how the pandemic moves through a number of the "fault lines" that "drive the greater occurrence of COVID-19". We witness this in the anti-vaxx movement  in the U.S. and Canada:  "where those who believed they were protected from infection—by their race, class, health, or politics—rejected masks, social distancing guidelines, or vaccines (Adolph et al., 2021). In these ways, COVID-19 has become syndemic in different high- and low-income settings." So I had started off my morning by wondering if there were little waves and bigger waves.  Such an optimistic view as now I find out there are intersecting waves which are more complicated. That does start to explain how difficult this experience is for the individual, society, and countries. I consider this a very pretty picture today.  This is Randolph's front garden in May photographed with multiple exposures in-camera.  Isn't this so dreamy. Pretty Money Plant (Lunaria) flowers with all those shades of spring green.

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Oct 19 2020 - It's the Dalai Lama

 

The following words from the Dalai Lama were written on his Facebook front page on September 10th, 2012 “All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether.” While the Dalai Lama retired in 2011 from being Tibet's political leader, he is very active.  His website's recent post is on the 17th congratulating Jacinda Ardern on her New Zealand victory,  He is very engaged in continuing spirituality and ethics, even at 85 years.  He has an active webcast schedule.  Here's the webcast on  October 20, 2020 -  His Holiness the Dalai Lama will give a talk on Educating the Heart organized by EdCamp Ukraine, an educational NGO that is Emory University's official Social Emotional Ethical (SEE) Learning partner in Ukraine by video link from his residence in Dharamsala, HP, India on October 20, 2020. There will also be a question and answer session after his talk. People are requested to please follow their local social distancing rules while viewing the live webcast. See www.dalailama.com/live Will there be a 15th Dalai Lama?  He says it is up to the Tibetan people. On the 24th of September 2011, the Dalai Lama issued a statement concerning his reincarnation giving exact signs on how the next one should be chosen, the place of rebirth and that the Chinese appointed Dalai Lama should not be trusted. The process can take a long time - it took four years to find the 14th Dalai Lama.  And who knows when the current Dalai Lama might pass on?  We have been privileged to be able to participate in his life through mass media and social media - this is the most people who have benefited from his wisdom and teachings in all history.  You can find out the poll results of recognition and support for Tibet and the Dalai Lama HERE. I was out on the weekend taking pictures of sumacs and autumn leaves.  This was the most beautiful - the motion blur makes the leaves look like feathers.

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Oct 29 - Bedtime Tales

How did fairy tales get that formal name?  They are folklore stories with a specific definition of being a children's story about magical and imaginary beings and lands. Merriam Webster indicates that the adjective "fairy-tale" is characteristic or suitable to a fairy tale - marked by seemingly unreal beauty perfection, luck, or happiness. Fairy tale, the noun, is defined as a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (such as fairies, wizards, and goblins) or a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending, or a made-up story usually designed to mislead. Is Star Wars a fairy tale?  It says it is in megaessays.com. Is The Hobbit a fair tale? It too is identified as a true fairy tale. The most famous (well-known) fairy tales? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs tops the list on one site, but Cinderella on another.  What about Beauty and the Beast? I think that comes after our first place tie and others like Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Rapunzel, come after these top three. It seems to me that the easy answer for what makes fairy tales so beloved is their presentation in movies.  Our top fairy tale movie producer is Disney and we've benefited from wonderful renditions of fairy tales. And what about Fairy Tale Jokes: The little tin soldier had been in the army ever since he was a tiny baby. He was in the infantry! Rapunzel is not a fairy tale It's a hairy tale. My girlfriend wanted a marriage just like a fairy tale. Fair enough. I gave her a loaf of bread and left her in the forest. Why was Cinderella no good at playing hockey? Because she was always running away from the ball! What kind of pet did Aladdin have? A flying car-pet! Why was Cinderella such a poor football player ? She had a pumpkin for a coach ! Today we have two pictures on the same day - one with the blue sky and gold trees, and the second cloudy and all the colour gone from the trees.  That's Autumn - lots of mood swings - but not the happy fairy tale ending of spring.  That is, unless you are willing to wait a few months.

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In the Depths

Now that summer is here, it is time for road work, garden construction and other fix-it projects.   Benny's big truck with the bob cat has just pulled up in front of the house and will be digging up the driveway next door and redoing it.  The beginning of summer construction on the roads and in your yards is perhaps the 12th fact of the Summer Solstice you may not have been aware of. My interest in the depths of ponds is today's subject.  This pond, with its dark green/blue colour treatment in the water makes the whites of the Koi and the green water lily pads stand out in contrast.  They give a sense of mystery to the water's depths.