Xul Solar - Painter of the Unimaginable

"Vuel Villa" (1936) by Xul Solar

Alejandro Xul Solar (Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari, 1887-1963) is one of the most singular representatives of the avant-garde art in Latin America.

In 1912 he went to Europe where he stayed until 1924, living in Italy and in Germany and making frequent trips to London and Paris. 

 

At his return he participated actively in the aesthetic renovation proposed by the editorial group of the Martín Fierro journal (1924-1927). 

Friend of Jorge Luis Borges, he illustrated several of his books and collaborated in various of his editorial enterprises such as the Revista Multicolor de los Sábados y Destiempo .

With a vast culture, his interests took him to the study of Astrology, Kabbalah, I Ching, Philosophy, religions and beliefs of the Ancient East, of India, and the Pre-Colombian world, besides Theosophy, Anthroposophy, among many other branches of knowledge. 

He remained busy in many other areas as well. Considering the Spanish language to be ‘several centuries out of date,’ and moreover, ‘a cacophonous language composed of words that were overly long,’ he developed Neo-Criollo (Neo-Creole), whose vocabulary was mostly drawn from Spanish and Portuguese, but which also incorporated elements of French, English, Greek and Sanskrit. He composed texts and even conversed in this invented tongue which, however, was continually changing, with each successive elaboration of it being different than the one before. The most important works in Neo-criollo are the San Signos (Holy Signs), a collection of sixty-four visionary texts based on the hexagrams of the I Ching. These texts were written at the request of Aleister Crowley, after a series of meetings between the two men in Paris in 1924. In a letter he wrote to Xul five years later, Crowley reminded him that ‘you owe me a complete set of visions for the 64 Yi symbols’ and added ‘your record as the best seer I ever tested still stands today.’ Although Xul had completed a first version of the San Signos by 1930, only a few short excerpts from them were ever published.

In the ’40s, Xul devised a second, even more ambitious language-project: Pan-lengua, a proposed universal idiom with numeralogical and astrological underpinnings, utilising an invented script and a duodecimal number-system, whose entire lexicon could be expressed on the board of Panajedrez (Pan-chess), a game meant to be played on a 13x13 board, but which, according to Xul’s friend Jorge Luis Borges, was impossible to learn, owing to frequent and confusing amendments of its rules.

Aside from language reform, Xul conceived architectural projects, proposed changes to musical notation, rebuilt musical instruments after his own idiosyncratic design and conceived the idea of a puppet theater for grown ups, among many other things.   

His need to remake and ‘improve’ extended beyond the artistic and intellectual. With ingenuity and a sense of humor, […] he proposed changes in football: Why play with one only ball, and not with three or four, and divide the field into six or twelve parallel sectors, like in rugby, and that each player wear a shirt with different letters so that words and phrases are formed?

The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, who was perhaps his closest friend, once described him as "our William Blake." Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari, who called himself Xul Solar, was indeed a visionary, painter and poet, but only now, 40 years after his death, is the full scope of his imagination being fully appreciated.

Critics and art historians often compare Xul Solar to Paul Klee whose work he saw and admired during the dozen years he spent in Europe before returning in 1924 to Argentina. Like Klee, Xul Solar often included letters, numbers and other symbols in his paintings. The color schemes the two artists adopted was often similar too, as was the underlying spirit of their work and their interest in primitive and archaic art.

"There is a lot of kinship in their formal visual language, their refusal to paint in a traditional way and in the almost childlike quality of Xul Solar's work, the way he uses schematic figures like the sun, the moon and snakes," says Dr. Ramírez  who is a curator of  Latin American  art  in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. "He absorbed German Expressionism and Paul Klee as his starting point, though what he did with them later was very different." 

Solar’s preferred medium was watercolor, although he also sometimes painted with tempera. Kandinsky and Marc’s Der Blaue Reiter almanac was a powerful early influence on his work, as was Klee. 

His œvre contains paintings of alternative universes, cities floating in the sky or on lakes, creatures that are half man and half airplane, angels, pyramids and whatever else came to him in his reveries.

 

"Drago" (1927) by Xul Solar

The artist's playfulness with language extended even to the pseudonym he adopted while living in Europe, at the suggestion of an Argentine friend and fellow painter who thought his real name too ponderous for an artist. Though based on his birth name, Xul Solar can be interpreted to mean "solar light" or "light from the south."

"Xul used to say that he painted reality, the reality of his own visions," says Jorge Natalio Povarche, director of the Xul Solar Foundation, and the artist's dealer during the later stages of his career. "Other painters were easier to read, and that is why so much of his work ended up here. There was no market for him because they didn't understand him."

Borges, though, was a frequent visitor to the apartment at 1212 Laprida Street, often arriving for breakfast and then, if conversation had taken wing, returning to his own apartment for lunch with Xul Solar in tow. In the living room of Xul Solar's apartment even now is a pinkish-purple chair that only Borges was allowed to use.

Xul Solar was a dozen years older than Borges, and introduced him to some areas of esoteric literature. But those who knew them described their relationship as one of intellectual equals.

During Xul Solar's lifetime, few of his works were sold. He did illustrations for some Borges books and for magazines that the writer edited, but earned a living mainly as a translator of books in Italian, German, English and French.

One of the most peculiar things about him is that he had more friends who were writers than artists, and most of them were younger than he. Xul Solar appears as a character or is referred to in several novels and stories, the most notable being Borges's "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" and "A Universal History of Infamy."

 "Puerta del Este" (1935) by Xul Solar

"A man versed in every field of knowledge, curious about everything arcane, father of writings, of languages, of utopias, of mythologies, a guest in hells and heavens," was the way Borges described his friend in an essay he wrote while Xul Solar was still alive. After the artist's death he added: "Predictably, Xul Solar's utopias failed, but that failure is ours, not his. We have not known how to deserve them."

Article source here 

Images source here

A Summer Shower

Summertime by Beata Czyzowska Young
 

Welcome, rain or tempest
From yon airy powers,
We have languished for them
Many sultry hours,
And earth is sick and wan, and pines with all her flowers.

What have they been doing
In the burning June?
Riding with the genii?
Visiting the moon?
Or sleeping on the ice amid an arctic noon?

Bring they with them jewels
From the sunset lands?
What are these they scatter
With such lavish hands?
There are no brighter gems in Raolconda's sands.

Pattering on the gravel,
Dropping from the eaves,
Glancing in the grass, and
Tinkling on the leaves,
They flash the liquid pearls as flung from fairy sieves.

Meanwhile, unreluctant,
Earth like Danae lies;
Listen! is it fancy,
That beneath us sighs,
As that warm lap receives the largesse of the skies?

Jove, it is, descendeth
In those crystal rills;
And this world-wide tremor
Is a pulse that thrills
To a god's life infused through veins of velvet hills.

Wait, thou jealous sunshine,
Break not on their bliss;
Earth will blush in roses
Many a day for this,
And bend a brighter brow beneath thy burning kiss.

By Henry Timrod

Carl Gustav Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology. Jung is often considered the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is "by nature religious" and to explore it in depth. Though not the first to analyze dreams, he has become perhaps the most well known pioneer in the field of dream analysis. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician, much of his life's work was spent exploring other areas, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. 

He considered the process of individuation necessary for a person to become whole. This is a psychological process of integrating the conscious with the unconscious while still maintaining conscious autonomy. Individuation was the central concept of analytical psychology. Jungian ideas are routinely discussed in part by curriculum of introductory psychology course offerings with most major universities, and although rarely covered by higher level course work, his ideas are discussed further by the Faculty of Humanities. Many pioneering psychological concepts were originally proposed by Jung, including the Archetype, the Collective Unconscious, the Complex, and synchronicity. A popular psychometric instrument, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), has been principally developed from Jung's theories.

“Everything of which I know but which I’m not at the moment thinking, Everything of which I was once conscious but have now forgotten. Everything perceived by my senses but not noted by my conscious mind. Everything which involuntarily and without paying attention to it, I feel, think, remember, want and do. All future things that are taking shapes in me and will sometime come to consciousness. All this is the content of the unconscious.” - Carl Gustav Jung’s definition of the unconscious

The Everlasting Voices

The Voices - Gustave Moreau, 1867

O sweet everlasting Voices, be still;
Go to the guards of the heavenly fold
And bid them wander obeying your will,
Flame under flame, till Time be no more;
Have you not heard that our hearts are old,
That you call in birds, in wind on the hill,
In shaken boughs, in tide on the shore?
O sweet everlasting Voices, be still. 

By William Butler Yeats

George Washington - Master Mason

 George Washington

By William E. Parker 

Few indeed are the men revered as is Washington. More than thirty years after our Bicentennial, the 200th Anniversary of the birth of this great nation, what are our thoughts for this man who gave so much for his country and without whose leadership during a trying moment of history it is doubtful that our nation would be as it is today? It was in February of 1732 that George Washington entered this world and in December 1799, some 68 years later, that he entered the Grand Lodge Above. What can we say of this man that has not been said before, this man we call the "Father of our Country"? And yet, his place in history is so unique, so important, that a few words bear repeating on the life of this great American, the "Heartbeat of the American Revolution."

As Masons, we believe that his Masonic background was a significant part of his philosophy of life, a philosophy so important in the legacy he left to us, that which we now call our American Way of Life. His deep regard for human liberty and the dignity of man gave strength to our cause at a moment when strength was needed. Most people are aware of his English ancestry but it is of note to mention that Washington also had a proud French heritage being a descendant of one Nicholas Martiau a French Huguenot who emigrated to the United States in 1620. The high moral and industrious qualities of these freedom-seeking people have left an indelible mark upon history. "In the general darkness of the period of feudal decay," Roche writes, "the enlightenment of the Huguenots who were self-reliant burghers, businessmen and skilled craftsmen, was shown by contrast, though it was only relative. But the candle they lit in that darkness grew into a great flame; and the principles for which they were persecuted, were, in embryo, the same principles, moved from the theological confines, on which the United States of American was founded and for which both the pioneering American Revolution and its offspring, the French Revolution, was fought."

The qualities of character of these early Huguenots were passed down through succeeding generations to Washington that he, like a shining beacon, might illuminate the path amidst the darkness of despair. Strange indeed are the ironies of history that the events in 17th century France contributed to the birth of a new nation in a new land almost two centuries later. And, stranger still, that it was yet another Frenchman, and a Mason, General Lafayette, who stood side by side with Washington during the stirring days of our nation's birth and whose contributions proved so vital to the successful outcome.

Washington the man and Washington the Mason. 

Initiated an Entered Apprentice Mason in the Lodge of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in November of 1752, he was Passed in March and Raised in August of 1753 in that same Lodge. He was proud of his membership, saying, "The object of Freemasonry is to promote the happiness of the human race," and in 1788 served as first Master of what is now known as Alexandria-Washington Lodge. It was perhaps inevitable that, after Washington's magnificent contributions to the nation during the Revolutionary period, he should be named a Virginia Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where as Presiding Officer he played a key role in the success of the Convention and ultimately became our first President in 1789. Washington thus became the first Master of a Masonic Lodge to become President, holding, for a time, both that high office and that of Worshipful Master of his Lodge, a rare distinction indeed. Washington's words upon becoming President reflect well his philosophy: "Integrity and firmness are all that I can promise." What more could a nation ask?

From the very beginning, Masonry has been closely associated with the history of our nation. And never more dramatically evidenced than in 1793 when, wearing a Masonic apron presented to him by General Lafayette and embroidered by Madame Lafayette, Washington in a Masonic ceremony laid the cornerstone of the United States Capitol at Washington, D.C. In August of 1790, in a letter to King David Lodge, Newport, Rhode Island, Washington wrote: "Being persuaded that a just application of the principles, on which the Masonic fraternity is founded, must be promotive of private virtue and public prosperity, I shall always be happy to advance the interests of the society and to be considered by them as a deserving brother." Washington had a deep sense of national union. In a response to an address of Charleston, South Carolina, Masons, he said: "The fabric of our freedom is placed on the enduring basis of public virtue, and will, I fondly hope, long continue to protect the prosperity of the architects who raised it." In Washington's famous Farewell Address on his retirement from public life, he emphasized that the responsibility for America's destiny rests directly upon its citizens, and he urged Americans to forge a nation of high principles: "Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct."

Washington served both God and man with the firmness of his convictions. During the darkest days of the Revolution and the cruel winter at Valley Forge, it was Washington who stood firm in the face of adversity and knelt for prayer in the snow to reaffirm his faith in God and seek divine assistance in the justice of his cause.

As his hope was in God, so must we, too, place our hope in God. Washington carried in his heart the ideals of liberty, justice and freedom. As Masons, we must likewise carry forward those same ideals.

Much more could be said about this great American, but I believe the facts speak for themselves far more eloquently than any tribute I might be able to offer. "First in war, first in peace and indeed first in the hearts of his countrymen."

Reprinted from Masonic Americana, 1976, pages 5-6 "Heartbeat of America..."

Longevity Electuary

I stumbled upon a wonderful blog and wish to share a link to it with my readers. Plant Whisperer who owns that blog wrote:

"There are a million and one ways to make an herbal honey, an electuary, honey syrup, and on and on. My intention with this honey paste is for deep energy, somewhat in the tradition of Chyawanprash, the complex rasayana paste in the Ayurvedic tradition of healing. I do not have access to the vast array in the original recipes - and my simple formula is quite lovely. You can play with your own variations as well.

In an 8 oz jar, add:

3 tsp Ashwagandha and or Shatawari powder

3 tsp Spirulina powder

3 tsp Slippery Elm or Mallow powder

2 tsp Siberian Ginseng (Eluthero) powder

1 tsp Cardamom powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

Cover almost full with good local, raw honey

Add 1 tsp of Rose hydrosol or Rose elixir

dried Elderberry powder optional as well!

Feel free to create your own, according to your personal herbal needs or constitution. Black pepper or ginger can be added for kaphas, extra rose or cherry for pittas, or taken in oatmeal for vatas."

This sounds wonderfully tempting! I am going to try this recipe and definitely will experiment with other ingredients. For those who are curious about the term, here is an explanation: The name Electuary derives from the Latin word electuarium or the Ancient Greekἐκλείκτον (ekleikton), which literally means "medicine which is licked away". Electuary  is a medicinal potion made of powdered herbs, spices, or other medical ingredients, mixed with sweeteners such as honey to hide the often bitter taste.

In radiant health,
Dominique

Original article: Plant Journeys: Longevity Electuary: an East-West Chyawanprash

How to Talk to a UFOlogist - If You Must

Happily abducted

By Michael Shermer

I’m a big fan of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and I think their search program constitutes the best chance we have of making contact. In fact, on a recent Saturday I was rained out of my normal 4-hour bike ride, so I read SETI scientist Seth Shostak’s new book, Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (published by National Geographic), a brilliant and fun read. Seth has a fantastic sense of humor and in his book he presents some of great one-liners to use when dealing with UFOlogists, alien abductees, and the saucerites. For example:

Regarding the time it would take to traverse the vast distances between the stars, which would be millions of years (it will take Voyager II 300,000 years to reach a nearby star), Shostak notes: “That’s a long time to be squirming in a coach seat.”

As for the lack of tangible evidence for UFOs: “Physical evidence  - a taillight or knob from an alien craft - is in short supply.”

UFOlogists claim that they have tens of thousands of UFO sightings, as if this is a good thing, but Shostak notes that this actually argues against UFOs being ET, because to date not one of these tens of thousands of sightings has materialized into concrete evidence that UFOs = ETIs. It’s counter-intuitive, but more sightings equals less certainty because with so many saucers zipping around we would have captured one by now, and we haven’t.

Shostak notes that crop circles are a very poor means of communication because they represent only a few hundred bits of information, 1,679 bits in the most complex crop circle to date, which is less than a paragraph of text! If ETIs are advanced enough for interstellar space travel, why resort to using wheat fields, which are only ripe a couple of months a year, and then the crop-circle communication is quickly mowed down by angry farmers!

As for alien abductees, Shostak points out that Whitley Strieber’s book, Communion: A True Story, launched the modern alien abduction movement. And guess what Strieber does for a living? He is a SciFi/fantasy/horror writer! Actually, I knew this already because I met Strieber in the green room at Bill Maher’s ABC show, Politically Incorrect, and Whitley and I were chatting it up over coffee and granola bars in the green room before the show when I asked him what he did when he wasn’t writing about being abducted by aliens. He told me that he writes science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels. The show was over right there in the green room! What else is there to say to a guy who writes this stuff as fiction, then slaps a “nonfiction” label on the book jacket?

Image source: unfortunately abducted by aliens

 

Quote of the Day

How admirable,
to see lightning,
and not think life is fleeting.

Bashô 

You Create Your Own Reality

 

"You create your own reality" by Daniel Sprick

"By paying attention to the way you feel, and then choosing thoughts that feel the very best, you are managing your own vibration, which means you are controlling your own point of attraction - which means you are creating your own reality. It's such a wonderful thing to realize that you can create your own reality without sticking your nose in everybody else's, and that the less attention you give to everybody else's reality, the purer your vibration is going to be - and the more you are going to be pleased with what comes to you." - Abraham 

Image source here 

How to Nourish Your Brain

 

Brain food

Food for Thought or How to Use Nutrients for Cognitive Health

As we age our bodily functions deteriorate. We might not be as flexible as we have been in our forties or fifties. Our brain is aging, as well. And while wisdom is generally attributed to old age, it is old age that often brings the undesirable loss of mental acuity and in worst cases, dementia.

The deterioration of the brain may seem inevitable to some people, yet we can slow it and prevent it with proper nutrition and supplementation. Human brain is a very complex organ and it has nutritional needs that have to be met on daily basis if we want to stay mentally fit until old age. Moreover, our brain needs challenge and exercise in order not to atrophy.

Some foods have the capability to boost the cognitive function. They deliver nutrients to the brain, help produce neurotransmitters and increase the oxygen flow to the brain. Consuming them daily will help you stay mentally fit and agile till old age. Brain supportive foods are:

• complex carbohydrates
• essential fatty acids
• phospholipids
• amino acids
• vitamins and minerals

Complex carbohydrates 

Glucose delivers energy and is the most important nutrient for the brain and the nervous system. The brain consumes more glucose than any other organ in the body and needs a steady flow of it. It is vital to avoid insulin "spikes" and to keep the blood sugar at stable level. Avoid any form of sugar (saccharose) and all foods containing added sugar. Eat whole grains, fresh fruit, and vegetables to maintain optimal blood sugar levels and to secure a steady supply of glucose to the brain. Although fruits contain the simple sugar fructose, fructose is not immediately released into the blood stream as it has to be converted into glucose by the body. Moreover, fresh fruits contain fiber which slows dawn the release of sugar into the blood stream. While choosing your nutrition, watch for foods with low glycemic index (GI) and remember that combining carbohydrates with protein helps prevent insulin from spiking.

Fats

Our brain mass is about 60 per cent fat and it is absolutely necessary to feed our brains with the right fats if we want to maintain optimal brain function. Fats facilitate the circulation of neurotransmitters in the brain. Diet containing very little or no fat at all is detrimental to the brain and our mental health. The brain's fat tissue needs to be replenished constantly, and while saturated and monounsaturated fat, as well as cholesterol are synthesized by the body, essential fatty acids such as omega-3 and omega-6, must be delivered through our diet. Our diet should include saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. However, fat should comprise no more than 20 per cent of our daily caloric intake. Hydrogenated fat should be avoided and the consumption of saturated fat reduced in favor of the mono- and polyunsaturated fats. The polyunsaturated omega-3 (especially EPA and DHA) and omega-6 (GLA and AA in particular), should comprise one third of the total fat consumption. Avoid fried and processed foods and reduce the consumption of saturated fat from meat and diary. Instead, eat plenty of seeds and nuts and cold water fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel. Include cold pressed oils such as olive or hemp oil and supplement with high quality, hexane free omega-3 and omega-6 capsules.

Phospholipids 

Our brain could not function without the phospholipids phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylserine (PS). Phospholipids are the building blocks of all cell membranes. They constitute the myelin sheath of nerve cells and facilitate the communication between the brain cells. The body can make its own phospholipids, but we should also include foods such as eggs, butter milk, and organ meats in our diet.

It has to be mentioned that choline is a precursor to acetylcholine - the memory neurotransmitter. Posphatidylserine, the memory molecule par excellence, is needed to maintain the structural integrity of brain cells. It promotes memory and boosts the brain power. Supplementation with lecithin granules and a good PS formula will help you improve your memory and stop the decline of the brain. Studies have demonstrated that PS taken together with DHA is even more effective.

Amino acids 

Amino acids are the building components of neurotransmitters which the brain uses for the communication between cells. There are hundreds of different neurotransmitters circulating in the brain and in the body, but the most important for the mind/brain function are:

• adrenalin
• noradrenalin
• dopamine
• GABA
• serotonin
• acetylcholine

Our mood, memory, and concentration depend on the levels of these neurotransmitters and therefore, our nutrition must provide all the amino acids which body uses to produce neurotransmitters. Enrich your diet with high quality protein sources such as cold water fish, turkey, chicken, nuts, seeds, pulses, and eggs. Supplementing with essential amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine ) will help deliver everything your body needs to produce sufficient amount of neurotransmitters.

Vitamins and minerals

Vitamins and minerals are the important catalysts in all processes that include the production of neurotransmitters or the conversion of glucose into energy for the brain. Without them the brain could not function properly. The most important for the brain function and development are:

• vitamins of the B group, especially B1, B3, B5, B12, and the folic acid
• vitamin C
• calcium
• magnesium
• manganese
• zinc

Research shows that nutrition deficient in vitamins and minerals results in diminished IQ. Consume fresh fruit and vegetables daily. Eat nuts, seeds, pulses, mushrooms, and whole grains. If necessary, supplement with a high quality multivitamin and mineral supplement. 

Antioxidants

Like every other cell in the body, brain cells are subject to oxidative damage. Your diet should include foods rich in antioxidants such as dark leafy vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, berries, cherries, prunes, seeds and nuts. Avoid nicotine and stimulants, and reduce alcohol consumption. Limit the consumption of fried and processed foods, foods containing artificial sweeteners, colorants, and preservatives. Eliminate sugar from your diet. If necessary, supplement with a high quality antioxidant formula containing among others high levels of:

• vitamin C
• vitamin E
• CoQ 10
• selenium
• proanthocyanidin
• Alpha Lipoic Acid
• Beta Carotene

Herbs

Some plants and herbs have been identified as effective brain modulators enhancing cognitive health, improving memory and overall brain function:

• Bacopa monnieri
• Eleuthero root
• Ginko biloba
• Gotu kola
• Huperzia serrata, the source of Huperzine A
• Periwinkle plant Vinca minor, the source of Vinpocetine
• Rhodiola rosea
• Reishi mushrooms

These plants contain active agents that are known to promote blood circulation to the brain, relaxation and resistance to stress.

Huperzine A is an alcaloid which inhibits acetylcholinesterase - enzyme that breaks dawn the acetylcholine which is, among others, important for the memory function in the brain.

Vinpocetine helps to improve concentration and memory by enhancing cerebral metabolic function. Ginko biloba enhances the blood circulation to the brain.

Gotu kola is known to improve memory and relieve anxiety. This herb has the capacity to relax the nervous system while stimulating the brain at the same time. This double action results in enhanced concentration.

Rhodiola Rosea has the enormous potential to enhance brain function and mood. It helps to reduce stress which normally interferes with memory function. The herb is known to enhance cognitive function and learning ability. It also increases the resistance to physical and emotional stress and may help protect the brain and the nervous system from oxidative damage caused by free radicals. 

Reishi mushrooms, also known as ganoderma or the mushrooms of longevity, act in the brain as a powerful anti-oxidant. The mycelium in supplements such as has the capacity to reduce inflammation in the brain. According to recent studies, it helps to protect the brain from the damage done by Alzheimer's disease. 

Brain fitness

Like any other body part, brain needs exercise and challenge. Mental activities such as learning a new language, learning to play an instrument, solving puzzles, or reading, all promote the growth of new synapses and activate vast areas of the brain that otherwise remain "idle". Physical activity and exercise promote blood circulation to the brain and help to improve memory and concentration.

Conclusion

Your lifestyle may help you maintain your cognitive function and even improve your intelligence, or on the contrary, diminish it. Old age dementia, but also Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases are probably the most feared, but so are brain tumors. Human brain is a very complex organ. Healthy nutrition, mental stimulation, physical activity, socialization, stress control and relaxation, are the vital elements of a brain-supportive life style. Keeping this in mind and following few simple rules, will help us to retain mental agility until old age.

By Dominique Allmon


*Information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose or cure a disease. 

Nourish Your Brain by Dominique Allmon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Lack of Sleep and the Body

By Rob Stein

Washington Post Staff Writer 

With a good night's rest increasingly losing out to the Internet, e-mail, late-night cable and other distractions of modern life, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that too little or erratic sleep may be taking an unappreciated toll on Americans' health.

Beyond leaving people bleary-eyed, clutching a Starbucks cup and dozing off at afternoon meetings, failing to get enough sleep or sleeping at odd hours heightens the risk for a variety of major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity, recent studies indicate.

"We're shifting to a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week society, and as a result we're increasingly not sleeping like we used to," said Najib T. Ayas of the University of British Columbia. "We're really only now starting to understand how that is affecting health, and it appears to be significant."

A large, new study, for example, provides the latest in a flurry of evidence suggesting that the nation's obesity epidemic is being driven, at least in part, by a corresponding decrease in the average number of hours that Americans are sleeping, possibly by disrupting hormones that regulate appetite. The analysis of a nationally representative sample of nearly 10,000 adults found that those between the ages of 32 and 49 who sleep less than seven hours a night are significantly more likely to be obese.

The study follows a series of others that have found similar associations with other illnesses, including several reports from the Harvard-run Nurses' Health Study that has linked insufficient or irregular sleep to increased risk for colon cancer, breast cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Other research groups scattered around the country have subsequently found clues that might explain the associations, indications that sleep disruption affects crucial hormones and proteins that play roles in these diseases. 

"There has been an avalanche of studies in this area. It's moving very rapidly," said Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new obesity study in the October issue of the journal Sleep. "People are starting to believe that there is an important relationship between short sleep and all sorts of health problems."

Not everyone agrees, with some experts arguing that any link between sleep patterns and health problems appears weak at best and could easily be explained by other factors.

"There are Chicken Little people running around saying that the sky is falling because people are not sleeping enough," said Daniel F. Kripke of the University of California at San Diego. "But everyone knows that people are getting healthier. Life expectancy has been increasing, and people are healthier today than they were generations ago."

Other researchers acknowledge that much more research is needed to prove that the apparent associations are real, and to fully understand how sleep disturbances may affect health. But they argue that the case is rapidly getting stronger that sleep is an important factor in many of the biggest killers.

"We have in our society this idea that you can just get by without sleep or manipulate when you sleep without any consequences," said Lawrence Epstein, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "What we're finding is that's just not true." 

While many aspects of sleep remain a mystery - including exactly why we sleep - the picture that appears to be emerging is that not sleeping enough or being awake in the wee hours runs counter to the body's internal clock, throwing a host of basic bodily functions out of sync.

"Lack of sleep disrupts every physiologic function in the body," said Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago. "We have nothing in our biology that allows us to adapt to this behavior." 

The amount of necessary sleep varies from person to person, with some breezing through their days on just a few hours' slumber and others barely functioning without a full 10 hours, experts say. But most people apparently need between about seven and nine hours, with studies indicating that an increased risk for disease starts to kick in when people get less than six or seven, experts say. 

Scientists have long known that sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy and chronic insomnia, can lead to serious health problems, and that difficulty sleeping may be a red flag for a serious illness. But the first clues that otherwise healthy people who do not get enough sleep or who shift their sleep schedules because of work, family or lifestyle may be endangering their health emerged from large epidemiological studies that found people who slept the least appeared to be significantly more likely to die.

"The strongest evidence out there right now is for the risk of overall mortality, but we also see the association for a number of specific causes," said Sanjay R. Patel of Harvard Medical School, who led one of the studies, involving more than 82,000 nurses, that found an increased risk of death among those who slept less than six hours a night. "Now we're starting to get insights into what's happening in the body when you don't get enough sleep." 

Physiologic studies suggest that a sleep deficit may put the body into a state of high alert, increasing the production of stress hormones and driving up blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. Moreover, people who are sleep-deprived have elevated levels of substances in the blood that indicate a heightened state of inflammation in the body, which has also recently emerged as a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. 

"Based on our findings, we believe that if you lose sleep that your body needs, then you produce these inflammatory markers that on a chronic basis can create low-grade inflammation and predispose you to cardiovascular events and a shorter life span," said Alexandros N. Vgontzas of Pennsylvania State University, who recently presented data at a scientific meeting indicating that naps can help counter harmful effects of sleep loss. 

Other studies have found that sleep influences the functioning of the lining inside blood vessels, which could explain why people are most prone to heart attacks and strokes during early morning hours.

"We've really only scratched the surface when it comes to understanding what's going on regarding sleep and heart disease," said Virend Somers of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "I suspect as we understand more about this relationship, we'll realize how important it really is." 

After several studies found that people who work at night appear unusually prone to breast and colon cancer, researchers investigating the possible explanation for this association found exposure to light at night reduces levels of the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is believed to protect against cancer by affecting levels of other hormones, such as estrogen. 

"Melatonin can prevent tumor cells from growing - it's cancer-protective," said Eva S. Schernhammer of Harvard Medical School, who has conducted a series of studies on volunteers in sleep laboratories. "The theory is, if you are exposed to light at night, on average you will produce less melatonin, increasing your cancer risk." 

Other researchers are exploring a possible link to other malignancies, including prostate cancer. 

"There's absolutely no reason it should be limited to breast cancer, and it wouldn't necessarily be restricted to people who work night shifts. People with disrupted sleep or people who are up late at night or get up frequently in the night could potentially have the same sort of effect," said Scott Davis of the University of Washington. 

The newest study on obesity, from Columbia University, is just the latest to find that adults who sleep the least appear to be the most likely to gain weight and to become obese. 

Other researchers have found that even mild sleep deprivation quickly disrupts normal levels of the recently discovered hormones ghrelin and leptin, which regulate appetite. That fits with the theory that humans may be genetically wired to be awake at night only when they need to be searching for food or fending off danger - circumstances when they would need to eat to have enough energy. 

"The modern equivalence to that situation today may unfortunately be often just a few steps to the refrigerator next door," Mignot wrote in his editorial. 

In addition, studies show sleep-deprived people tend to develop problems regulating their blood sugar, which may put them at increased risk for diabetes. 

"The research in this area is really just in its infancy," Van Cauter said. "This is really just the tip of the iceberg that has just begun to emerge."

Article source here

If You Don't Understand Evolutionary Biology, Don’t Write a Book About It!

Charles Darwin

By Donald R. Prothero

The Darwin Celebrations of 2009 led to a glut of books about evolution, which took a wide variety of approaches. Most books were written by biologists, paleontologists, or historians trained in the subject; others were written by the creationists trying to counter all the Darwin publicity. Yet there are books that fall into neither of these categories. What Darwin Got Wrong by Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini (abbreviated FPP hereafter) is a wrongheaded effort by a philosopher and a cognitive scientist (neither of whom has any firsthand research experience relevant to evolutionary biology) to critique natural selection.

The confusion begins with the title. The authors state up front that they are both atheists, accept the fact that life has evolved, and do not agree with creationism or “intelligent design” - yet they used a title that is bound to boost sales by giving creationists the impression that this is a serious scientific critique of evolutionary biology. In particular, the use of Darwin’s name in the title (talking about “Darwinism” rather than modern evolutionary biology, or even 1950s-style “Neo-Darwinism”) is a classic creationist tactic. In fact, modern evolutionary biology only vaguely resembles what Darwin thought 150 years ago. So what if Darwin got a few things wrong? We’ve learned a lot in the past century and a half! What is remarkable is how much Darwin got right despite the fact that he knew nothing about genetics, and very little about the fossil record. Throughout the book, FPP resurrect some of the hoariest discredited creationist arguments (such as “natural selection is tautological”), showing that they have not only failed to acquire any relevant training in evolutionary biology, but also have not understood the standard responses to these creationist canards.

Since FPP don’t deny that life has evolved, or that all life is related by a patterns of ancestry and descent (the chief issue that bothers creationists), FPP’s entire convoluted argument is against Darwin’s main mechanism for evolution, natural selection. There are some evolutionary biologists who have argued that natural selection is not the exclusive explanation for all aspects of life’s evolution, from Stuart Kauffman’s emphasis on natural self-organizing systems, to Stephen Jay Gould’s push to recognize contingency and hierarchy in evolutionary biology. But none of these scientists questions the idea that natural selection is real, or that it has a very important role to play in the evolution of new species. FPP review many of the recent developments in evolutionary biology, from neutralism to group selection to self-organizing systems to jumping genes to evo-devo. These important scientific discoveries have certainly broadened our understanding of how evolution works, but none of the people who made these discoveries doubt that natural selection still plays an important role in the process of evolution.

In effect, what FPP are suggesting is that each time we learn more about the evolutionary process, all of what we knew before must have been wrong! There are some instances (known as “scientific revolutions”) where scientific discoveries have radically changed the foundation of a field and thrown out the entire paradigm, but none of the examples the FPP discuss are of that nature. They are simply challenges to a narrow and restrictive form of Neo-Darwinism, not to the basic premise that natural selection is a very important (if not the most important) component of evolutionary change.

Much of the book consists of beating dead horses and straw men as if biology has learned nothing since the 1950s. FPP talk about gene linkages and “free rides” of one gene upon another, about the laws of form and Fibonacci series in organisms, and about endogenous factors affecting form and development despite the fact that biologists have been working hard for many years to understand and explain these phenomena. If FPP bothered to read any of the recent literature on these subjects over the past 30 years, they would have found that these phenomena are pretty well understood. They do not force us to throw out the baby of natural selection with the bathwater of the failed ideas that evolutionary biology has rejected.

Their claim is that if we see an apparent feature of an organism, and then determine what natural selection does to organisms which possess this feature, we cannot rule out the possibility that there was some unknown, invisible characteristic of the organism that caused differential survival, rather than the obvious conclusion that it was due to natural selection on the features we can study. This is false on several counts. First of all, there are many experiments (not acknowledged by FPP) that have done careful work with controls and minimizing the variables that conclusively show natural selection to be the only reasonable explanation for the results. And secondly, what are these alleged “invisible forces” that might explain survival better than natural selection? How the heck do we evaluate them? In FPP’s view, natural selection is a fine-tuned discriminator that can tell the difference between all these arbitrary categories that philosophers with no experience in biology can imagine. In reality, natural selection is a coarse filter. Some features of an organism appear to make a difference, and others are indeed free riders. But the overwhelming evidence of 30 years’ worth of natural and laboratory experiments show that natural selection indeed works, and there is no practical reason to worry about “invisible” (and untestable) causes when a clear cause-and-effect chain has been established.

To FPP, the fundamental problem is this: how do we decide which features are selected for, and which ones are “free riders” invisible to natural selection? In their approach, if most of evolution is about “free riders” that are not selected for or against, then natural selection is irrelevant. They discuss the classic 1979 paper by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin, “The Spandrels of San Marco: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme.” In that paper, Gould and Lewontin were criticizing the then-prevalent naïve form of extreme panselectionism in which every tiny aspect of an organism was presumed to be subject to natural selection in some way, even if we can’t detect it. Gould and Lewontin rightly pointed out that (like the spandrels which are functional byproducts of two arches meeting), many features of organisms are due to structural or functional constraints, and we should not assume that such features are fine-tuned by natural selection. Most evolutionary biologists have taken the Gould and Lewontin (1979) paper in the spirit in which it was intended, and there is plenty of research now into functional/ structural constraints. When I attend professional meetings, I find very little of the naïve panselectionism that I encountered in my evolution classes and textbooks of the 1970s.

Yet FPP take the Gould/Lewontin critique too far, and make the absurd claim that because some features are possibly constrained and not fine-tuned by natural selection, we cannot assume that natural selection works anywhere. What about all those studies that demonstrate tight correlations of cause and effect between a feature and the selective response that occurs when nature intervenes? According to FPP, these are not conclusive enough. Therefore, whenever we have a large data set that shows a strong correlation between say, obesity and heart disease, or increases in carbon dioxide and global warming, we cannot even begin to suggest that there might be a causal connection. If this is the angle that FPP are pushing, then they have a dispute with almost all of science, not just evolutionary biology.

If you found the previous discussion confusing and hard to follow, it is no accident. The thinking and writing of FPP are so muddled and verbose and confusing that most people (including most evolutionary biologists who reviewed it) couldn’t make much sense of the book, either. In fact, FPP raise points that amount to philosophical hair-splitting and make no real difference to practicing biologists.

There are many instances of where philosophers can contribute insights to the activities of others. But in the philosophy of science, it is much trickier. Some philosophers have built whole careers out of trying to explain what scientists should do, without any regard to the reality of what scientists actually do. Yet scientists keep on making big discoveries and changing our world, oblivious to philosophers who waste time arguing about idealized views of science. Here we see another examples of outsiders like FPP who would be well advised to spend some time doing real evolutionary biology, and becoming familiar with the recent research and debates, instead of beating dead horses (such as 1960s–1970s panselectionism) and strawmen arguments from 40 years ago.

Even more annoying is the fact that FPP don’t give evolutionary biologists much credit for understanding what they do, modifying their approaches as new fields such as evo-devo have appeared, and being careful and self-critical not to overextend their conclusions. Most biologists are very cautious about asserting cause and effect relationships between some feature and natural selection unless they have done all the necessary controls and dealt with all the variables; otherwise, their work would not pass peer review and be published. As their confusion and errors clearly demonstrate, FPP are outsiders with a distorted, mistaken view of the entire field who don’t understand the field well enough to level valid criticisms. When they have done their homework and acquired the relevant training, then the evolutionary biology community might take them seriously.

About the author:

D. Prothero is Professor of Geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He earned M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in geological sciences from Columbia University in 1982, and a B.A. in geology and biology (highest honors, Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of California, Riverside. He is currently the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 25 books and over 200 scientific papers, including five leading geology textbooks and three trade books as well as edited symposium volumes and other technical works. He is on the editorial board of Skeptic magazine, and in the past has served as an associate or technical editor for Geology, Paleobiology and Journal of Paleontology. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, the Paleontological Society, and the Linnaean Society of London, and has also received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Science Foundation. He has served as the Vice President of the Pacific Section of SEPM (Society of Sedimentary Geology), and five years as the Program Chair for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 1991, he received the Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society for the outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40. He has also been featured on several television documentaries, including episodes of Paleoworld (BBC), Prehistoric Monsters Revealed (History Channel), Entelodon and Hyaenodon (National Geographic Channel) and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts (BBC).

Quote of the Day

 

Sometimes, when things take longer than you thought they would, it's just a gentle reminder from your greater self that you have more time than you thought, and that there's a journey to enjoy. - Mike Dooley, Inspirational  speaker and coach

In Search of Lost Time

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic and essayist best known for his "À la recherche du temps perdu". This monumental work was published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. 

“People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.” 

Marcel Proust 

July 10, 1871 –  November 18, 1922 

Image source unknown but greatly appreciated

Marvelous Travel

I travel with my eyes
Watching those silently cry
Asking themselves the question why
Someone left them without saying goodbye

I travel with my thoughts
I travel with my pen
To write about children, women and men

I travel with my voice
I travel with my hope
That something new, would spring into my horoscope
Whether in Asia, America or Europe
There will always be something interesting to scope

I travel to many different places
Mix with many races
Identify tribesmen by their faces
And little girls by their laces

I travel without money
So, please listen to my testimony
The good, the bad and even the ugly
Every experience is worth life's journey

For I'll always be marveled
Whenever I travel 

By Joshua Fernandez 

Voyage to Discovery

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery guided by a private chart of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher

Image: Lockheed Vega
Image credit here

Happy 4th Of July, America!

The Star Spangled Banner

O say! can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof thro' the night, that our flag was still there.

O say! does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream.

'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner. O long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their lov'd home and war's desolation,

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n-rescued land

Praise the pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto, "In God is our Trust."

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave 

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

By Francis Scott Key sung to the tune "To Anacreon in Heaven" 

Courtesy of  the Home of Heroes website 

"If our country is worth dying for in time of war, let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace." ~ Hamilton Fish