Science and health fun

Alright, I’m gunna start of in this way:

First, I’m going to apologize to any and all health experts who came across my blog. Taking Wellness and fitness classes, I have discovered that some assertions about health weren’t exactly true. For instance we should not all be having eggs, bacon and orange juice for breakfast (it was an example, but I’ll still apologize)

and come on, we all know that bacon is bad for you, despite its inherent deliciousness. The point I was trying to make is that a breakfast should have some volume to it, and a bit heftier in nutrient dense calories than people are eating and thinking that it’s a good breakfast. Again, breakfast is meant to start up your metabolism, it will be hard for your body to do that if there is nothing to burn. It has to be told that it’s ok to burn through those calories, rather than being conservative with them.

Without going into a long schpeel, I’ll just state that there’s a connection between calorie intake, activity levels, and metabolic activity. Hint: if you want to kick up your metabolism, eat a good breakfast and keep your activity levels up. You don’t need to be crazy about it either – some stretching and light weight lifting should be enough to start your engines, and a scrambled egg breakfast (I add onions)with multi-grain toast will be enough to keep you going for a bit. Also, cinnamon can be a game changer, and is delicious as well. That’s it, that’s all I’m going to allow myself to say lest I need to make yet another apology. (its my biochemistry interest coming out, forgive me!~)

 

Alright. With my apology made, I’m going to just announce that my generation is Awesome.

I was literally dancing in the bathroom not 20 minutes ago because of how awesome my generation is. You wanna know what was up? The Bill Nye theme song was playing in my head.

So now, we’re going to talk about science, and of course, how one person can make an effect.

(disclaimer: Bill Nye did not actually do everything himself. There were cameramen and assistants and voice acting people and producers and stuff BUT STILL!)

No other show that I can name has effected (hold on, Im just gunna find the song on youtube real quick) Alright, so as i was saying..Bill Nye is amazing. What other show has captures kids interests so much? Oh sure, I know there are a couple other sciency shows directed towards children..but how many of those shows have an awesome theme song that makes you wanna dance, while teaching you something? Maybe not all of my generation knows much about matter- but we know that inertia is a property of it. Does jimmy neutron’s theme tell you what a neutron is? Nope…it just kinda leaves you with the feeling that it might be sciency. I grant you, Jimmy Neutron is a poor example..it’s about a brainy kid and his friends and experiments that seems to not have much science basis to them.

I’ve seen another science show once..but it involved people in costumes and was frankly childish and unmemorable. Bill Nye, on the otherhand, captures your attention just with its theme song, gives fun examples, shows cool experiments, and has spontaneous musical pieces that you will be remembering for months at the least (I still remember “sunrise-sunset”)

It also, is the only show I know of that can be gladly watched by the different ages while still being taken seriously (he didn’t need people in costumes and silly sidekick roles) 9 years olds will gather infront of the t.v, and at the same time a biology teacher can pop on an episode on the T.V. for an audience of 1-18 years old. Highschool students who can be like twice the age of the younger viewers. And we don’t even care that he’s wearing a bowtie.

Let’s take a moment to review here. Here is a guy who wears a bowtie that makes highschoolers dance and get interested in science. Indeed, we almost kinda forget that he’s even wearing it. If it was anyone else wearing that bowtie, those highschoolers would probably be judging them hard-core. Take a moment to imagine Steve Urkel doing the same thing.

Ok, that’s enough. I much prefer our normal science guy.

And since I don’t have an idea of how to make a proper transition to it….have an example video

It’s a pretty good example (except that the theme is disrupted) and as a bonus, introduces a bit of botany and bio-chemistry 🙂

um…our generation is also awesome because we actually grew up with computers, instead of having to learn about them later on. and obviously the internet (at least for our generation) came with it.

Since computers were awesome in their own right, we used them more and they became common. So, everyone that uses a computer often learns about its basic processes…and this becomes a base knowledge.

Psychologically speaking, it’s easier to learn something if you know something at the level just below that. For instance, its alot easier to cook if you know how to make fire. If you don’t know how to make fire and you want to cook..you walk around completely clueless.

Some adults had no base knowledge, computers weren’t all that common until the early stages of our generation (i’m 22, I think we were called the Y generation or something) and the most common form of base knowledge they had was how to operate a calculator. And honestly, that’s not very useful when operating a more complex machine such as a full on computer.

Indeed, I remember a day where my dad turned on the computer…and like everyone else, was told not to turn it off with the on button…so he had difficulty finding out how to turn it off. It was kinda funny to watch.

By watching him, I learned that the computer was operated by interacting with the thing that you see. That became my base knowledge…and I WOULD say that it stuck better in my brain and was easier to build on for me than my dad…if I had had as much interest in the computer as a 8 year old than my dad did at nearly 48.

its unfortunate that i did not, but the computer was more of a home arcade for me at than point and I was FAR more interested in the woods and wildflowers and stuff around me.

If I had been interested though, I would have been a sponge for information and would have had longer to accumulate infromation, and learn how to accumulate more information. Sure, you can do this with a library..but with the internet suddenly people can communicate their ideas and bits of information. The average user could find out that computers run off of a language, and someone can actively teach them that language. They can then use that language to create a space for themselves to learn more actively, and build on any sort of base knowledge they want.

The computer is a learning machine…and my generation has become masters at manipulating those machines. I know a guy that knows like 12 languages..all computer languages.

and notice how fast our technology has been evolving these last 30 years compared to the last..say…hundred years. We have more complicated calculators, easier ways to sort information (files, file sharing, long distance communications, and ways to make machines perform more complicated tasks.

Where as before scientists had to spend more time on experiments, paper calculations and had limited ways to communicate with other scientists…we can now use cad to view ideas in 3-d models, email and video conferencing, simulations that we can input data into and calculate how that data will interact with other data…we can make anything we imagine into actual materials.

3-d printing for example.

Computers used to take up the space of a warehouse, and it could only perform the function of your basic handheld calculator. I’ll admit my generation had nothing to do with advancing it to the home desktop, we weren’t even born then. The generation before us worked on that, and it became our base knowledge.

But now, with a laptop about the size of a dinnerplate and a cool machine about the size of your typical desktop in a conveniant little nook space…a doctor in a bigger city can video conference with one in a small town, get pictures of x rays, crop to isolate a single bone, use the 3-d printer to make that bone, and then use that to take measurements for bone screws or something.

..and my generation is learning the skills to do all of that..and we’re starting to get out of college. if we weren’t lucky enough to already do it, we are hitting the workforce with our individual and at the same time collective skills.

that guy that I know who knows all those computer languages is 22 also, and can also break down and build up computers. Currently, I believe his hardest struggles include advertising and how to design his company pen. I say that these are his worst worries regarding his company because…well…frankly…he wrote a 3-d modeling program and designed a 3-d sun with moving plasma flames…from scratch.

This is what my generation is bringing to the scene, this is why i think we’re awesome…and now i’m going to give you a link to get a better idea of some more things that we be bring.

https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/technology?ref=home_featured

So…yea…I think my generation is awesome, and since we’re entering the higher level work force by graduating college, I think we’re going to start being even more amazing.

Ok ok…my long winded boasting is over…I just got a bit excited.

Now, I’ve said it over and over again…my generation is awesome…but I also have got to admit that all generations have something that make them awesome. I especially wanna mention the one before us, and the one after us.

The one before us had to do the hardest work of all – figuring out how to make these things possible just by combining little dots of metal onto a thin board of plastic. Kudos to you, and our thanks. 🙂

To the generation before us- you have many tools at your fingertips, and it will be even easier for you to learn how to use them than it was for us. With these tools and this knowledge, I encourage you to let your imaginations run free to be explored.

(soon we’ll have motion sensing holographic computers attached to and displayed on glass coffee table tops in every house that can use interactive CAD programs to run simulations or make music by essentially waving your hands in the light filled air)

Have some links

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics-gadgets/

http://www.gizmag.com/power-pocket-charger/27914/

and uh…while i can’t find the link…There’s a little gadget puck thing out there that’s actually a thermal generator for conveniant portable phone charging. You can essentially charge your phone by setting a cup of coffee onto this thing.

Ok, that’s it for right now. I need to get off before I make this any longer XP and besides, I have wellness and fitness homework to do. See ya~!

Leadership in Perspective

Ok before I start, just gunna write up an add-on to the last post.

–  the apples in our grocery stares come mostly from outside the country. So we’re not only forcing ourselves to waste the potential food but other countries as well.

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Now, I’m currently in college. Since I refrain from telling you where I live, you can imagine that you’re not getting my school info either.

But I wanted to show you something that my teacher for my College Success class showed us because it is so true, and I feel that it completely resonates with what I’ve been trying to say here:

Anyone can make a change.

One act of kindness can change a person’s entire outlook on things, one shared video can help encourage a handful of people to be more aware of the world around them – and to be more active in it.

And this is the exact reason I have liked working with children – touching one person directly can touch ten people indirectly.

You plant a garden. Some kids like it, one kid steals from it. their mom might catch them and simply reprimand them- or she might explain why its wrong to steal food. maybe she’ll make chicken noodle soup and have the kid tag along while she delivers the soup to the neighborhood elderly woman.

Show a kid a bunch of pictures or a short documentary about bioluminescent creatures in the deep oceans and they might explore that further. Maybe they’ll just paint their room dark blue, or maybe they’ll be known for painted underwater scenes, or maybe they’ll become a marine biologist…or maybe they’ll just be fascinated with bioluminescence by itself and become a biochemist/bio-engineer just to try and make as many glow in the dark things as they can manage to make excuses for. Who knows.

Show a video in class to show people that what they do does in fact make a big difference in people’s lives….and get inserted in a blog dedicated towards pretty much the same thing. I have 24 official followers. It’s small, but it can possibly expand to 240 individual effected by one action involving one person…and there’s at least a dozen people in my class so have fun with that math!

On that note, I have been handed my very first working fountain pen…and they appear to be addictive. There will be many actions brought on by that happening soon…but first I have to finish up this blog post, send the link, and continue on with homework.

Don’t forget to take a good look through and brush up on the purpose of this blog, especially if you’re new 🙂

Later~!

Food Questions?

Not the best title but, meh.

First of all, I urge everyone to take a little bit of time each day to notice the natural world around them. In college today, I stood in a spot and watched a dozen unaware people walk by. You know what was on the window? A tree frog.

Keep in mind, I live in Michigan. The thought of tree frogs here is a a bit odd – but cool.

I woulda pointed him out, but there was the chance of some person deciding to bother him then. Instead i write about him in this blog post.

Looking it up, it would be an Eastern Gray Treefrog (or Copes Gray) and having it up in Michigan isn’t so odd when looking at its habitat.

So yea- step outside. Look. Listen. At the very least, there should be birds to be heard. Would you have noticed these things if you had not read this blog?

(not being egotistical, just giving some food for thought. How much do you really notice on a daily basis?)

Now onto the topic of food. I get irritated in my Environmental Science class. Honestly, I love the class itself so that’s not what’s got me irritated. However, the focus of it is the envirnment which inevitably leaks into mentions of sustainability. In fact, that’s been the main focus since week 1, and we were warned that the first few weeks are based on chapter 1. Chapter 1 is just a run down of the basic food chain structure and carbon cycle, and how humans are effecting these things.

and mentioned along with talks about sustainability is mention of lack of food.

That’s what ticks me off.

Being completely honest, the world would be experiencing much less hunger if the richer countires weren’t stupid, greedy perfectionists.

America produces like 400% of the food it needs. Why, then, do we have a third world country like setting in some areas? Because the general populous is run by a stupid, greedy perfectionist government – and it leeks into our culture.

Let me introduce you to food waste, if I haven’t already.

Basically, what’s happening is that the American consumers are taught to look for perfection in its foods. Most notably, I might add, in its produce. Go look at a grocery store, and find the red delicious – the icon of apple perfection. look at them closely. They all look like perfectly shaped, blood red apples. But there’s no such thing as perfection, and if you’ve ever seen a real life apple tree, you’d know that apples are not an exception.

Farmers/agriculturalists are held to a purely aesthetic standard, making it only possible to sell what is apparently perfect products. What do they do with the food that isn’t up to our high as shit standards? Do they recycle it? Do they sell it from their farms or through farmers market where people don’t care if it’s perfect? Do they donate it to soup kitchens? Nope. They just dump it.

There are piles of bananas the size of a monster truck  in the banana farms, and it will all be from one day. They weren’t perfect.

There will be entire crops of spinach not harvested and put to sale. It had grass growing amongst the crops. Don’t bother putting in a little money to have people sort it out for you and put out perfectly fine produce. No, because it wasn’t perfect to begin with. (Job opportunity lost)

And the red delicious apple is wasted, because it isn’t as red as we would like…or the wrong shape.

You want to know why produce is so expensive? Why the poor simply don’t eat better?

It’s because we are wasteful.

And in our country, our wastefulness is killing us.

I now bring in the idea of basic economics: Supply and demand.

We demand perfect food, so the supply of actual food is limited. Produce becomes a thing of the financially free or those who are incredibly stubborn and willing to lose other things they would like (like a steady supply of milk). The poor find it much easier to buy processed and fatty foods. The economy sucks so more people are poor, thus more people eat unhealthily. Number of preventable diseases go up. More nurses and doctors are required. Doctors and nurses notice a trend, and thus bring it to the attention of the general populous. More people become concerned with personal health. There becomes more demand for fresh produce, because it’s healthier. The economy still sucks, and people are still focused on perfection, food is still being dumped….and there’s still that pesky problem of an increasing human population.

Looks pretty bleak, doesn’t it?

I have a few solutions in mind.

For the general populous, learn to grow food or socialize with those who do. Honestly, you get make use of a window sill flower pot if you use it right. i would suggest something like lettuce of spinach. It will keep producing as long as you harvest it, so it’s not like you get only one harvest. This makes the most use of that limited space. Also, invest in a kitchen counter herb garden. herbs are tasty, and hold a variety of really good vitamins. (seeds cost a tiny fraction of the worth of what you can grow on your own)

Create a compost pile. I don’t care if it’s stashed in a garbage bag with holes in it. Compost piles are good places to put your left over produce (and egg shells) and it only gives back benefits. it makes soil, very nutrient rich soil. you put this soil into your garden next year, and those nutrients go into whatever you’re growing. This is a very efficient, useful, and healthy habit to get into. 🙂

Also, go to any nearby big farmers. Ask about their surrplus or waste. You might be able to get some.

Hobby farmers (or those wanting to be mostly self-suffiecient), get some pigs and go to these same farmers. I believe there is or was some sort of issue with feeding pigs scraps because of some illness or something…but honestly, if you throw all the food into a pot and cook it, it should be fine. This will cut down on food waste, cut down on feed costs, and make healthier pigs. It would be nice if we could get a few big league pig farmers doing this again, but I’m having my doubts on the matter.

To the big farmers of produce, I don’t particuarly know the rules and guidelines under which you operate – but please find some creative way to put the food you have out there.

To the government….just….stop. Those oddly shaped red delicious apples are perfectly fine. Blueberries don’t have to be gigantic and nearly tasteless. (I grew up on wild ones, sorry, but they are just better tasting) spinach doesn’t have to grow without grass to be harvested. And prices don’t have to be fricken ridiculous. Please lessen your ideals, and advocate for less focus on perfection and less watefulness. We must consider the consequences of what we’ve been doing, and change for the better. I believe it is the only way to save ourselves.

 

 

 

 

(btw, Washington DC is like the biggest waster of perfectly good food ever)