Photo: Jessica Dimmock

I am always interested in different perspectives on what it means to be human, especially when they come from sources that are vastly different than your average Joe Sixpack. So, when I cam across a video of an autistic that makes an amazingly successful attempt at explaining what it is like to have autism, and how she views her life submerged in a sea of “normal” people, I was absolutely astounded. Here is an angle that I have never heard before, so I thought I would share this experience with all of you.

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Snipped from AP.org.

Way to go America! Just in case you can’t read such large numbers, the title says 11 billion dollars in one quarter, that’s just 3 months! And don’t forget, that is NET profit, not gross. Net is after you subtract ALL expenses, and that is what you actually put in your pocket. From all of you continuing to purchase Exxon-Mobile gas, you just made them the largest net profit EVER from operating as a US based corporation. While many of my classmates can’t go to class because they can’t afford the gas, you keep rewarding Exxon for their unethical treatment of the American public.

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External Sphincter of Man,
That’s What!

I guess there may be the slightest interest in what I, [Cerebrl], am up to. You know, the guy that runs this little blog. Well, I have been busy with school. Yes, school. Well, that and being politically active, developing a website (paid project that is, yea!), working for an after (urban) school program and trying to get back into working out. At the moment, I am taking microbiology, and human physiology in a short summer semester. If you are interested, here is what I had to write about this week for physiology:

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Convenience VS. Ecology
Stop Plastic!

Plastic bags were just outlawed (first in California, where else?) from the supermarkets. Then from drugstores. Plastic bags have come to be no more, no longer used, no longer manufactured for California. Now, it’s soon for your state. Why?

Why it’s for the good of the environment, Honey! Plastic doesn’t decompose in landfills. It lasts and outlasts. California (always first) has put a “stop” law on these bags to keep them out of landfills, out of the ocean. Have you ever seen the news reports of this gigantic doughnut of plastic stuff in the ocean that’s continuously and permanently circling upon itself, goosed by ocean currents?

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I’m losing my ice.

We may see most of the symptoms, but not the patient or hidden illnesses. The symptoms are many; the most recognized one today is global warming; then there’s the strange, but not so strange, maladies in humans, animals, plants and trees caused by “contaminated” water, bad air, “contaminated” food. And radiation. And more.

It has taken a long time for some people, even those leaders, to accept climate change. It will be beyond them, and us, to accept a harsher fact. And that is, the planet is dying. Many parts of the recipe were already there, like the dwindling number of species.

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Snipped from LiveScientist.com.

Now this is pretty darn cool. I never really knew there was anything special about how sand moved about in a desert. The below article describes how sand is not only moved around by wind, but by electrical static as well. It is said that as the sand moves about the Earth because of wind, it strikes the surface of the Earth and picks up electrons, and along with it, a negative charge. The sand on the ground is then left with a positive charged.

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Snipped from NewScientist.com.

Here is something that I find very interesting. The very same thing that locked away all the carbon from our atmosphere millions of years ago is now being researched to lock it away again. Certain types of grasses (wheat and sorghum) have been found to store away extra minerals and scrape plant materials in little balls called phytoliths, also known as ‘plantstones’. These stones have been found to contain extra carbon that the plant did not use during its photosynthesis.

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Snipped from PhysOrg.com.

Short answer: maybe. It seems that physicians are not taking placebos as lightly as we once thought. The placebo effect, “a therapeutical effect based solely on the power of suggestion” that has showed up in all clinical trials and is commonly used scientifically in pharmaceutical research, is said to be used by 45% of Chicago internists when prescribing to patients.

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Snipped from SciAm.com.

As if we didn’t have enough reasons to fight against the use of coal power plants, we have, yet, another one that may be just as bad as the others! The stereotype of coal power plants being safer than nuclear power plants, at least when it comes to radiation, has been drastically broken. It seems that coal ash, also known as fly ash, “contains up to 100 times more radiation than nuclear waste.” It has to do with the uranium and thorium levels in natural coal. Unburned, the levels of these dangerous compounds are somewhat benign, but when burned, they are concentrated up to ten times their natural levels.

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Snipped from NewScientist.com.

I have to admit something. I am obsessed with spicy food. Some may say addicted. I don’t know why, but I always have been. Thai food, Mexican food, Indian food … it doesn’t matter. The hotter the better. Oh, and one more thing. I am never sick … ever. Well, except that silly little meningitis episode I got a long time ago, but that is another story. So, one could ask, “Does all the spicy food lend some assistance to my healthy state of existence?” Umm, good question.

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