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mapsontheweb · 3 years ago

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With lightning killing hundreds of people in Bangladesh and Nepal each year, researchers think space-based observations could help reduce risks.

Assessing Lightning Risk in South Asia

In August 2021, a wedding in northwestern Bangladesh took a tragic turn when lightning struck and killed 17 guests along the Padma River during a downpour. Though such mass casualty incidents are rare, fatal lightning strikes in Bangladesh and nearby Nepal are not.

Hundreds of people lose their lives to lightning in these two countries each year, and hundreds more are injured. Due to sharp increases in lightning deaths and injuries in Bangladesh and Nepal in recent years compared to the past few decades, the problem is getting more attention from both scientists and government officials. As awareness of lightning dangers grow, satellite observations and ground-based lightning networks are playing key roles in sizing up the extent of the problem and helping people formulate strategies to minimize the risks.

The number of reported lightning deaths and injuries in Bangladesh has increased from dozens of deaths per year in the 1990s to more than 300 per year now. Trends are more difficult to determine in Nepal due to a lack of long-term data, but one recent study estimated about 100 people are killed by lightning there each year. For comparison, lightning kills about 17 people per year in the United States, a country with more than 10 times as many people as Nepal. The photograph below, taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station, shows lightning flashing over Nepal in 2021.

Lightning experts cite a variety of reasons for the apparent increases in deadly strikes, including population growth, better reporting, and increasing storminess due to climate change. Though the cause is not clear, the timing is quite clear.

“The frequency of lightning is highest in Bangladesh during the pre-monsoon period from mid-April to June,” said Ashraf Dewan, a remote sensing scientist at Curtin University. Using observations from NASA’s Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), he found that 69 percent of the lightning strikes in Bangladesh occur during the period before the heaviest seasonal rains set in. And lightning flashes were particularly common in the morning. The LIS instrument flew on NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite from 1997 to 2015, and a duplicate sensor has operated on the International Space Station since 2017.

“Bangladesh has more lightning from sunrise to midday than anywhere else in the world,” added Ron Holle, a meteorologist with the National Lightning Safety Council. “Unfortunately, that is when people are farming in huge numbers across the country.” Holle and Dewan worked together on a study of ground-based lightning data from the Global Lightning Detection Network that documented a large number of lightning deaths among Bangladeshi farmworkers.

Dewan and other colleagues have been analyzing decades of satellite observations from LIS as well as data from ground-based lightning networks to map lightning patterns in Bangladesh. Other researchers have done similar mapping for Nepal.

One team of researchers in the DEVELOP program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center worked to turn LIS data into a product tailored to save lives. The team integrated maps of lightning flash density together with data on land elevation, population density, and socioeconomic vulnerability to lightning (including housing conditions and employment type). One of their lightning risk maps is shown at the top of the page; areas with the highest risk are depicted in yellow.

“Our goal was to map where lightning posed the highest risk to people—not just where the most lightning flashes occur,” explained Essence Raphael, a member of the DEVELOP team and a research associate at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. “That’s the kind of information people who develop safety interventions and educational campaigns can use to target their efforts most effectively.”

Flash density relative to population density was critical for defining the high-risk areas, explained Patrick Galtin, a lightning researcher at NASA Marshall. Though the number of lightning strikes in both countries is similar, the risk is higher in Bangladesh due to its higher population density.

Terrain also plays an important role in defining high-risk areas. Dry air in the higher elevations of northern Nepal prevents storms from forming. However, in lower-elevation areas along the country's southern border, warm, moist winds from the Bay of Bengal collide with cool air from the north to produce towering cumulonimbus clouds and extreme lightning.

Likewise in Bangladesh, the northeastern part of the country has a higher risk because the area is buffeted by moisture-laden winds that run into hilly terrain, which promotes convection and storm development. It is also an area with large numbers of farm and other outdoor workers in harm’s way.

After creating the maps, the DEVELOP team shared them with meteorologists at the Bangladesh Meteorological Agency and Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. Targeted information about lightning risk could be used to help advance ongoing lightning safety initiatives, noted Raphael. Such efforts include building early warning systems, constructing lightning shelters, and conducting public education campaigns.

Given the increasing risks, Dewan has some practical advice for people in the two countries. “If you can, get inside a large building with grounded wiring and plumbing or a fully-enclosed, metal-topped vehicle during thunderstorms. Don’t shelter under isolated trees or on high ground if you are stuck outside,” he urged. “Stay away from water and open spaces.”

#maps #tw #nepal #bangladesh #lightning

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etirabys · 4 years ago

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polygyny, infanticide, and conflict in sexually imbalanced hunter-gatherer populations

content notes: rape, infanticide, murder

Hunter-gatherers’ primary method of population control is infanticide, and they preferentially kill female children. Some of the reasons are that men are more useful for defending the family and tribe (women basically never fought, although this changed a little bit after archery, except in home defense), and for obtaining food, especially in areas (like the Arctic) where foraging yields much less than hunting.

So, how strong is the sex imbalance?

Infanticide is often covert and attributed to accidents, but census statistics of pre-industrial societies tell an unmistakable story. Although the number of male and female babies should be nearly equal at birth (105:100 in favour of boys), there are many more boys than girls in childhood. Surveys of hundreds of different communities from over 100 different cultures (of which about a fifth were hunter–gatherers) has shown that juvenile sex ratios averaged 127:100 in favour of boys, with an even higher rate in some societies. The Eskimos are one of the most extreme cases. Their harsh environment made them wholly dependent on male hunting, whereas female foraging played a greater economic role in milder climates. Thus female infanticide was particularly widespread among them. They registered childhood sex ratios of 150:100 and even 200:100 in favour of boys.

So, this is awkward, because fighting over women is one of the primary causes of hunter-gatherer conflict and warfare. The standard objective of a raid – the primary form of lethal conflict across hunter-gatherer societies – is to kill all the enemy men, grab their stuff, and kidnap the women. There’s a quote from an Australian hunter-gatherer man asked by an anthropologist whether his motivation for a raid was food, and responds, ‘Even though we like meat, we like women a whole lot more!’ In unfortunate addition, the more insecure a society is about warfare the more it’ll prefer to have male children:

In this way, as statistical studies show, male and female numbers in primitive societies—highly tilted in favour of males in childhood—tend to level out in adulthood. Violent conflict is thus one of the principal means through which competition over women is both expressed and resolved. Furthermore, as Divale and Harris have shown, there is a vicious circle here: in societies that lived under the constant threat and eventuality of violence, families’ preference for males who would protect them increased.

Note that it’s not just that you can resolve competition by kidnapping your enemy tribe’s women – in the process of going to war, some men on your own side will die, decreasing the competition pressure.

Cool, cool. So, competition for females is a primary driver of hunter-gatherer warfare. Time to have... polygyny!

Polygyny was very common in hunter-gatherer societies – although approximately the majority had one wife, the most powerful men almost always had multiple, and the wife Gini index goes up the more resource-dense an environment is. “There was a direct correlation of resource density, resource accumulation and monopolization, social ranking, and polygyny.” – the more resources you can accumulate, the more mouths you can feed in your family, the more clout you can have in your community to take more wives without resentment blowing up. In the resource-scarce Kalahari Desert, !Kung men are largely one-wife, but 5% of married men had two wives. The case is similar among native Eskimos in the mid-Canadian Arctic. In contrast, studies of Australian tribes say that 10~15% of married men have three wives. In even more productive Australian land, a few men hit double digits of wives. As you may guess:

Polygyny greatly exacerbated women’s scarcity and direct and indirect male competition and conflict over them. Indeed, a cross-cultural study has found polygyny to be one of the most distinctive correlates that there is of feuding and internal warfare.

Incidentally, this makes the question of when and how monogamy became so entrenched as the default in Western society fascinating to me, because it seems incredibly useful – I assume it mitigates a primary source of violent conflict, and helps large-scale societies hold together. I wonder whether it’s linked to the success of Christian societies.

The fact that the male/female sex ratio is so (artificially) imbalanced to start with but levels out as men die off seems to have affected the timing of male puberty.

As mentioned earlier, among the victims of male competition for women are the young adult males, who are obliged to postpone marriage for quite a long time. This universal and probably very old trend among primitive human communities has some interesting evolutionary consequences. Men reach sexual maturity at an older age than women, which is quite the opposite from what we would expect in view of the fact that man’s reproductive role and reproductive organs involve a much lighter physical burden than the woman’s. The main reason for this later male maturation seems to be male competition. Men are given a few more years to grow up and gain strength before being exposed to potential violent conflict.

#rambl #sampl #eti reads war in human civilization #eti reads stuff

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mobius-prime · 5 years ago

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174. Sonic the Hedgehog #106

Crouching Hedgehog, Hidden Dragon (臣人豪猪臧龍)

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Yes, there are actually Chinese characters included with the title of this issue. They were a real bitch to actually get copy-and-paste-able text for, since all I had to work off of was a slightly blurry scanned image of the title page, but my girlfriend helped me figure it out. I went ahead and ran the characters through Google Translate, and they came out to "Chén rén háozhū zāng lóng," which, when translated into English, apparently means "porcupine zanglong." Now, I'm well aware that Google Translate is unreliable at the best of times when translating Asian languages into English, but I have a feeling that it was trying to make sense out of nonsense, and that the artists/writers for this issue just kind of… found some cool-looking Chinese characters and slapped them in there to give it a more "exotic" feel. Anyone who can actually read Chinese, please feel free to correct me on this one, because I'm woefully ignorant. But why use Chinese characters in the first place? Well, let's move into the story to find out…

The Freedom Fighters have set out in their airship to Station Square on a diplomatic mission. However, their ship is buffeted by strange winds that nearly blow them off course and cause them to crash. When they land safely, Sally reminds them all to be on their best behavior, and they're met by a news crew to welcome their arrival.

When Sally and the others make their way into the city, they're met not by the mayor, but by the city's new president and his chiefs of staff, with whom they quickly sit down to a meeting. Sally explains her wish for the city to take in the Overlander refugees from Robotropolis, and when the mayor balks when he hears how many people he'd have to make room for - about seventy families - Sonic becomes outraged that he isn't immediately taking them in because it's the right thing to do.

That night, Sonic mopes a bit on the balcony of the hotel, still upset about the president's reaction, as well as concerned that despite Sally finally being a part of the team again, she doesn't seem very pleased about it. He's distracted by his friends calling him to go play at the arcade, but while he leaves, we see a strange snaky figure floating against a backdrop of stars behind him…

In his own office, the president is watching various footage of Sonic defeating the enemies of Station Square in the past - Chaos, Silver Sonic, and Shadow - and begins to wonder to himself if he should make a more permanent ally out of Sonic, despite his brash attitude. He doesn't have long to decide, as chaos suddenly erupts on the streets, flames chasing after fleeing citizens. The president considers calling for Sonic's aid, but true to his nature, Sonic is already there, staring down the source of the commotion - a massive Chinese dragon. Sally and Antoine rush to the president while Tails, Rotor, and Bunnie hurry to Sonic's aid, but they're not quite fast enough to help.

In his office, the president tries to insist to Sally that this is a bad place for refugees as there are now dragons attacking the city, but Sonic walks in, draped in a blanket and flanked by his friends, offering the president a deal - if he runs the dragon out of town and saves the city again, then they'll take in the refugees. The president finds this to be a fair deal, and accepts.

Now, instead of another character file, we find ourselves looking at another map - this time of Station Square itself!

I know that text is obnoxiously small to read, so I'll summarize it myself. Considering that Station Square in the comic is vastly different from its counterpart in the games, a lot of effort was certainly put into explaining exactly how it functions. Apparently, along with its supply of Chaos Emeralds, the city also runs off solar power collected from the top of the mountain it's buried underneath. It's surrounded by complex holographic projectors that simulate a sky and surrounding landscape, with the weather control systems maintaining a consistent 70°F or 21°C and simulating various weather conditions. All it needs to stay self-sufficient is contained within the enormous cavern, including all its farms. We already know the general history of the city, but this page includes the fact that the original founders sought shelter down here while fleeing from a catastrophe on the surface that is supposedly unknown, but is heavily implied to be one of the past Days of Fury, this one occurring five hundred years ago.

However, perhaps most interesting are the various technical statistics given for the city. Of course, they're all given in metrons, but that's no problem for us and our conversion formulas! There's a whopping 13.7 km, or 8.6 miles, from the surface of the city streets to the top of the cavern, which is again much higher than the peak of Mt. Everest. That's an enormous cavern! That is much, much deeper than the deepest known cave on Earth, but it's still somewhat plausible given that our planet's crust goes much deeper than that. And the file doesn't stop at height. Assuming the city is arranged in a vaguely square shape (we're never told or shown otherwise, and frankly that's the easiest way to calculate area, so that's what we're working with), the city's area is around 14,390.4 square km, or 5,625 square miles! That's a good bit bigger than the entire state of Connecticut, and around the same size as the country of Montenegro in Europe, for just one city! If it existed in the real world, it would be the largest city in the world by land area by a long shot. However, we have to assume that not all of it is dense metropolis. I'm going to go ahead and assume that this area measurement includes all the farms and emptier, less populated space that we see surrounding the actual city, meaning that the metropolis is likely more of a third or so that size going by the picture, making the actual city around the size of Atlanta, Georgia, which is the fourth-largest city in the world going by area. That's impressive!

As for the city's population, the file comes right out and tells us the exact number of individuals living there: 23,856,427 people. This kind of makes the president's worries about taking in a few hundred people seem a little silly, as there's surely more than enough room for everyone, as well as enough kind people within to offer help getting everyone settled in, but I digress. If Station Square existed in real life, that would make it the second largest city in the world, barely beating out Delhi, India, but still vastly outstripped by Tokyo, Japan. Now, I'm not an expert on calculating population density, as I know that it's very different depending on whether you're only counting the distinct urban center of the city, or the metropolitan area which includes the surrounding, less-dense areas, but I'm not entirely sure how to calculate such a thing accurately. All I know is that if we calculate the population density straight from our initial area (before I adjusted it), we get a density of 1,658 people per square km, or 4,241 people per square mile. That's a population density similar to that of Melbourne, Australia, and is actually fairly low compared to most real-world big cities. Just as a fun exercise, however, let's say that two-thirds of the city's population lives in the urban center, while the rest lives in the outlying farmland and suburbs. In that case, the city proper would end up with a density of 3,312 people per square kilometer, or 8,474 people per square mile, which, though almost twice as high, is still much less dense than the vast majority of large world cities. This would also give the outlying areas a density of 829 per square km, or 2,721 per square mile, which is comparable to the average density of modern American suburbs. I'm satisfied with these numbers! Unlike the disaster that was the file on the Floating Island, everything about this file actually makes sense and checks out with reality. And in the end, wasn't that what we all really wanted - for our Sonic the Hedgehog comics to be realistic?

Reunification (Part 1)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Josh Ray

We're finally back to the Green Knuckles saga, and right away we're being thrown a curveball. On the streets of a cold, empty Echidnaopolis, a flash of light disturbs the peace, and reveals a figure materializing inside of it - that of a young echidna woman whom we've never seen before. From her dialogue, it appears she's traveled back in time, and is on the lookout for clues that will let her know exactly when she's arrived. The only other ones within the city are various Dark Legionnaires on patrol, though they and the woman never cross paths and the Legionnaires grow bored of the lack of activity. As they report in to Dimitri, Lien-Da approaches her boss' room to give a report of her own.

Gee, I don't know, Dimitri, what could Knuckles possible be doing? He certainly wouldn't be trying to reverse the effects of the Quantum Beam just as you suggested doing just a few issues ago, would he? Of course, that's exactly what he's doing. The young woman, wandering the streets, actually seems to know that everyone from the city is in another zone currently, but that's about to change, as suddenly strong winds begin to blow her away. She's shocked, and is blown around until the winds cease, at which point she's offered a helping hand.

Remington… kill Knuckles? I can't believe that for a second! Remington's been nothing but a bro ever since we first met him. What's going on here? Who is this girl, and what's the deal with Remington…?

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 106 #writer: karl bollers #writer: ken penders #pencils: ron lim #pencils: dawn best #colors: joshua d ray #colors: aimee r ray

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marsjapanashleymorton · 5 years ago

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Japan research - country information

*Japan is one of the world’s most literate countries. Tension between old and new is apparent in all phases of Japanese life. A characteristic sensitivity to natural beauty and a concern with form and balance are evident in such cities as Kyōto and Nara, as well as in Japan’s widespread gardens. Natural beauty, flowers and the agricultural regions are characterized by low population densities*

The general population of Japan is decreasing, as there are less births and more people dying everyday. Japan is slowly turning into a world of young adults who don't want to have children. Japan is the oldest large country in the world and more than half of its population is over the age of 46. In comparison, Nigeria have over a tenth of the population over that age. It is predicted that population numbers in Japan will continue to decline over this century. It is estimated that the Japanese population will fall to just over 100 million by 2050, from the current statistic of 127 million today. This could make Japan one of the fastest countries to decline in population. From researching, Japan is shown to have the highest proportion of elderly citizens, which is the main reason for the declining population. Japan is experiencing *super-aging* in rural and urban areas.

Young people often visit Japan, although the amount of young adults to the elderly doesn't quite add up. Many young adults go over to Japan, although decide to not have children, leading to more deaths than births.

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mitigatedchaos · 6 years ago

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GitS (2017) Workshop 1: Making Place Explicit

Me: Ghost in the Shell (2017): I have literally thousands of words to say about how to fix this movie. Already written. I’m debating whether to post them.

Various Followers: DO IT

On Tumblr, few people want to read click through a [read more] to a 3,000 word post, much less have the entire full and unhidden post blocking their dash for ten pages, or share it, for that matter.

So, as an experiment, I’m going to split it up into multiple posts and queue them daily.

Before I get started, my opinion on the movie is that the plot was serviceable, and the special effects were quite well done, but that it failed to live up to its potential. I own a legitimate copy of the DVD, even though I walked out of the theater thinking that the script didn’t deserve the amount of special effects money they spent on it. If it were about as well-written as the Robocop reboot, which wasn’t exactly mindblowing, it might have actually earned back its budget.

[The following essay contains spoilers for Ghost in the Shell (2017).]

Where does Hollywood's live-action Ghost in the Shell movie take place?

We don't know.

We do know that, based on the characteristics shown, it isn't Japan, or Singapore, or Hong Kong. At least, not as we know them. Instead, it's like some sort of mythical cyberpunk Japanese Hongapore.

So what? I mean, it's just some random quasi-East Asian city-state, right? It's a 107 minute movie; who cares?

The issue is that while what the special effects team did clearly worked, what the writers did clearly didn't. (Mean and perhaps arrogant on my part, but hey, the movie did flop.)

Ghost in the Shell is a franchise that has always included geopolitics as part of its implicit context. The setting of Japan as a sovereign island nation in a world of powers both smaller and greater than itself, political factions both at home and abroad at work and conspiring, helps provide context for the other stories of the franchise.

What does the context do? Well, it provides motivations for the characters. It adds weight to their actions. It offers up potential antagonists and new paths and even MacGuffins for the story. It gives us a world. Ghost in the Shell doesn't take place just anywhere, it takes place in Japan, which means these are changes to Japanese society, giving us more a frame for a culture shock. The famous Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex TV series draws from Japanese history in ways that aren't immediately obvious to Westerners.

But you know what? It doesn't have to take place in Japan. And being explicit about where it's taking place that isn't Japan helps us resolve several things.

So, first off, look at the density. It's absurd. It's taller than Tokyo. It's denser than Tokyo. You know where they build like that? Hong Kong. You know why? Because it's a high-value port, which, due to political reasons, does not have a lot of land.

There is a lot of Japanese language, and evidently a sizeable Japanese population, but the area is very racially diverse and has ethnic diversity as well. Japan is just not this diverse from what I understand.

So what we're looking for is a maritime city-state probably either founded by the Empire of Japan or else close enough to Japan that it has a significant Japanese population (and thus Japanese cultural influence and Japanese organized crime). However, being outside of Japan and having, potentially, multiple colonial heritage (we don't need to fully elaborate on this), it has also historically had more than one ethnic group present.

An actual island chain does not have to exist. We can just make one up. We can even put it in an area not currently under dispute between China and Japan so that the movie can be shown in China, or not even on a global map at all. It could potentially be indirectly under the control of Japan itself as some kind of Autonomous Special Administrative Region not subject to ordinary Japanese law. We will want a local map of the island / island chain, however.

This helps us answer several questions.

1. Why is Section 9 part of the Department of Defense (when it isn't part of the DoD in any other part of the GitS franchise)? Because as a maritime city-state or quasi-city-state, the population available to draw from for military service is small, and while wealthy per-capita, the total budget is small, too. Every asset must pull double-duty in the case of potential invasion, and as such Section 9 is a branch of Military Police or Gendarmerie. (Also, it's part of semi-authoritarian aesthetic of RL wealthy maritime East Asian city-states / urban SARs.)

2. Why does Hanka want this cyborg program so badly? The city-state has a lot of wealth, and also a lot of labor relative to its size, but local GDP per capita (which is ABOVE $80,000 PPP!) and educational makeup favors capital-intensive defense systems. Researching turning all your infantry into full-body cyborgs is definitely in the capital-heavy, not labor-heavy, department, and the city-state has an advantage here that will help it ingratiate itself with geopolitical allies. And that requires a prototype program. One you're willing to throw a lot of money at. (Which provides us a source of stress for our executive!)

3. Why the whitewash? In part because, due to the number of Western expatriates and their descendants, being white isn't an anomaly locally.

Seeing as it doesn’t exist, we might imagine calling the city-state Mu.

#ghost in the shell #gits_workshop #writing #miti does media #ghost in the shell 2017

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nayanba-blog · 6 years ago

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Play as a foundation for hunter gatherer social existence

Pg 1: They maintained playful attitudes in their hunting, gathering, and other sustenance activities, partly by allowing each person to choose when, how, and how much they would engage in such activities. Children were free to play and explore, and through these activities, they acquired the skills, knowledge, and values of their culture. Play, in other mammals as well as in humans, counteracts tendencies toward dominance, and hunter-gatherers appear to have promoted play quite deliberately for that purpose.

Pg 2: Immediate return egalitarian hunter gatherer society: "These societies have low population densities; live in small, mobile bands, that move regularly from place to place within large but relatively circumscribed areas; do not condone violence; are egalitarian in social organization; make decisions by consensus; own little property and readily share what they do own; and have little occupational specialization except those based on gender."

Pg 4: The word play has some negative connotations to people in our culture, especially when applied to adults. It suggests something trivial, a diversion from work and responsibility. It suggests childishness. So, in the past, when people referred to the playfulness of the indigenous inhabitants of one place or another, the term was often an insult or, at best, a left-handed compliment. In truth, hunter-gatherer life can be very hard. It is certainly not all fun and games. There are times of drought and famine; early deaths are common; there are predators that must be dealt with. People grieve when their loved ones die. People take losses seriously and take seriously the necessity to plan for emergencies and respond appropriately to them. As you will see, my point is that play is used not to escape from but to confront and cope with the dangers and difficulties of a life that is not always easy. Perhaps because of the negative connotations, anthropologists don’t often use the terms play or playful in their descriptions of hunter-gatherer activities. They do, however, often use terms like good-humored and cheerful. My inferences about play and playfulness come primarily from researchers’ actual descriptions of hunter-gatherers’ activities, not so much from their explicit use of the labels “play” or “playful.”

Pg 5: Rules of Play: Classic and modern works on play have employed quite a variety of terms and phrases to describe play’s characteristics, but I think they can be boiled down nicely to the following five: Play is activity that is (1) self-chosen and self-directed; (2) intrinsically motivated; (3) structured by mental rules; (4) imaginative; and (5) produced in an active, alert, but nonstressed frame of mind.

Pg 6: The most basic freedom in play is the freedom to quit. The freedom to quit ensures that all of the players are doing what they want to do. It prevents leaders from enforcing rules that are not agreed upon by all. People who are unhappy will quit, and if too many quit play will end.

Pg 6: The process, not the product, motivates them. Similarly, children or adults playing a competitive game have the goal of scoring points and winning, but, if they are truly playing, it is the process of scoring and winning that motivates them, not the points themselves or the status of having won. If someone would just as soon win by cheating as by following the rules, or get the trophy and praise through some shortcut that bypasses the game process, then that person is not playing.

Pg 7: The rules of play provide boundaries within which the actions must occur, but they do not precisely dictate each action; they always leave room for creativity. Human activities that are precisely structured by rules, with known ends and known paths to those ends, are properly called rituals, not play. Rituals provide no opportunities for self-direction, and play requires self-direction. In all sorts of social play, the players must have a shared understanding of the rules. In many instances of social play, more time is spent discussing the rules, to arrive at a shared understanding, than is spent actually playing. Again, play requires consensus. One person playing by a different set of rules can ruin the game.

Pg 9: So, the mind at play is active and alert, but not distressed. Attention is attuned to the activity itself, and there is reduced consciousness of self and time. The mind is wrapped up in the ideas, rules, and actions of the game. This state of mind has been shown in many psychological research studies to be ideal for creativity and the learning of new skills.

Pg 12: The five characteristics of a group playing a social game are precisely the elements that anthropologists refer to repeatedly, and often emphatically, in their discussions of social relationships and governance in hunter-gatherer societies.

Pg 13: Hunter-gatherers likewise do not tell others what to do or use power-assertive methods to gain compliance. When they do try to influence the behavior of others, they usually do so indirectly, in ways that preserve each person’s sense of choice and prevent or minimize any sense of being dominated. A general assumption is that all adults will want to work for the good of the band, but care is taken to ensure that each person’s work for the band is voluntary, not coerced. Ingold points out that social relationships among hunter-gatherers are founded on trust—trust that the others will, on their own volition, want to please others in the band and support the band as a whole.

Pg 17: The effectiveness of humor as a leveler and reducer of aggression, I think, comes from its direct relationship to play. To make fun of something is to say, “This thing that you are so proud of, or this dispute that has you so angry, is not as important as you think it is. This is play, and the important thing in play is to be a good sport.” When hunter-gatherers use humor to resolve even the most serious social problems that they face, they seem to bring all of social life into the domain of play.

Pg 18: All social play involves shared rules. The rules give structure and predictability to the interactions among the players. The overarching purposes of the rules for any social game, if it is truly play, are to coordinate the activities of all of the participants into a coherent whole and to make the game fun for all. The rules of social play often require that people resist their natural urges or instincts and exert self-discipline. Much of the joy of social play comes from such exertion and from the aesthetics of taking part in a coordinated, rule-restrained social activity. All this, which can be said about the rules of every form of social play, can also be said about the rules within any hunter-gatherer society

Pg 22: One of the Ju/’hoan deities has characteristics that might, at first, lead us to view him as equivalent to the single god of modern monotheistic religions. This deity, called Gao Na, is the creator of the universe. First he created himself and the other deities; then the earth, water holes in the earth, and water to fill the holes; then the sky, sun, moon, stars, rain, wind, lightning, plants, animals, and human beings. Yet, despite such power of creation, Gao Na is seen as not particularly powerful in other respects and certainly not as wise. In fact, consistent with their general practice of leveling those who might think too highly of themselves, the Ju/’hoansi delight in portraying Gao Na as a fool.3

Pg 27: One anthropologist, Marshall Sahlins, has famously characterized huntergatherer societies collectively as “the original affluent society.”54 An affluent society, by Sahlins’s definition, is one in which “people’s material wants are easily satisfied.” Hunter-gatherers are affluent not because they have so much, but because they want so little. They can provide for those wants with relatively little work, and, as a result, they have lots of free time, which they spend, according to one observer of the Ju/’hoansi, at such activities as “singing and composing songs, playing musical instruments, sewing intricate bead designs, telling stories, playing games, visiting, or just lying around and resting.”55 These are just the kinds of activities that we would expect of happy, relaxed people anywhere.

Pg 30: This is true of hunter-gatherer cultures too. Hunter-gatherer adults, however, do not concern themselves much with their children’s education. They assume that children will learn what they need to know through their own, self-directed exploration and play. In play, hunter-gatherer children, on their own initiatives, practice the skills they will need for survival as adults. In their play, they also rehearse and build upon the knowledge, experience, and values that are central to their culture.

Pg 36: Our survey question about the forms of hunter-gatherer children’s play elicited many examples of valued adult activities that were mimicked regularly by children in play. Digging up tubers, fishing, smoking porcupines out of holes, cooking, caring for infants, climbing trees, building vine ladders, building huts, using knives and other tools, making tools, carrying heavy loads, building rafts, making fires, defending against attacks from predators, imitating animals (a means of identifying animals and learning their habits), making music, dancing, storytelling, and arguing were all mentioned by one or more respondents. The specific lists varied from culture to culture in accordance with differences in the skills that were exemplified by adults in each culture.

Pg 37: Because they are free to mingle with people of all ages, hunter-gatherer children learn from those of all ages. From the oldest people, they hear stories about the past. From returned hunting and gathering parties of adults, they hear accounts of the day’s adventures. From older children, they gain examples of skilled play toward which to strive. From younger children and infants, they gain playful practice in child care and nurturing. All this contributes to their growing fund of knowledge and to the games they play among themselves. The stories and examples draw and fascinate children because they are real aspects of the culture in which they are growing, not something designed artificially for their supposed benefit.

Pg 38: Research on age-mixed play in our culture suggests that such play differs qualitatively from same-age play. It is less competitive and more nurturing. In age-mixed play, each child tries to do his or her best but has little or no concern for beating others. When playmates differ greatly in age, size, and strength, there is little point in trying to prove oneself better than another. In such play, older children typically help younger children along, which allows the younger ones to play in more sophisticated ways than they would alone and gives the older ones valuable experience in helping and nurturing

Pg 38: In the 1950s and 1960s, using data from the Human Relations Area Files, John Roberts and his colleagues compared the types of competitive games commonly played in different types of cultures. They concluded that the only cultures that seemed to have no competitive games of any kind were huntergatherer cultures.82 In response to a question about competitive play in our survey, only two of the ten respondents said that they had seen any competitive play in the cultures they had studied, and both of them said that they had seldom seen it. Several of the respondents noted that play among huntergatherer children is noncompetitive not just because it is age mixed, but also because competition runs counter to the spirit of cooperation that pervades hunter-gatherer bands. For instance, regarding Agta children’s play, P. Bion Griffin commented that the only consistent rule of the play he observed was that “no one should win and beat another in a visible fashion.”

Pg 39: The point of hunter-gatherer play is not to establish winners and losers but to have fun. In the process of having fun, the players develop skills requiring strength, coordination, endurance, cooperation, and wit, and they solidify their bonds of friendship. If the focus were on competition, the pressure to win could reduce the playfulness and fun of the activity. Instead of cementing friendships, competitive games could produce arrogance in winners and envy or anger in losers, which would weaken rather than strengthen the community.

Pg 40: In this article I have presented examples from the research literature on hunter-gatherers to show (1) how the fluid structure and consensual decisionmaking processes of hunter-gatherer bands resemble those of social-play groups, which people are free to join or leave at a moment’s notice; (2) how humor and laughter are used as leveling and peace-keeping devices; (3) how the rules of hunter-gatherer societies, particularly the rules for sharing, are like the rules of social play; (4) how hunter-gatherer religious stories and ceremonies emphasize the playful, comic nature of the deities and reinforce the notion of equality within the cosmos; (5) how hunter-gatherers arrange their subsistence-essential work in a manner that retains the spirit of play; and (6) how hunter-gatherer child care and educational practices are structured to maximize children’s opportunities for play and to minimize any sense of their being dominated by adults.

#FAD #sp

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nelliievance · 4 years ago

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What I Eat and Why

I’m about to kick off a new series of posts about nutrition, I’ve learned a lot in the two years since my previous series in this area. I’ll give the same caveat I gave the last time: I’m an amateur in the subject of nutrition, though I like to think I’m well read on this subject.

I thought I’d start things off by explaining what I personally eat and my reasoning. I recounted my eating history up till early 2019 here.

I now eat a diet that is close to whole food plant-based (WFPB), at least as I interpret it. I’ll explain that in more detail in the next post, but here it is in a nutshell: I eat a lot of unprocessed plant foods, like fruits, veggies, legumes, whole grains, and a minimal amount of animal products, processed foods like cooking oils, and overly processed packaged foods. As I’ve discussed previously, I don’t interpret “processed” vs, whole foods as strictly as some do. Processed foods for me brings up images of things like donuts, cookies, potato chips, not canned beans or frozen vegetables, which to me are whole foods. There is concern expressed about sodium content of some canned foods, but you can always choose lower sodium versions.

Finally, I eat, but in moderation, healthy unprocessed foods like avocados and nuts that are higher in fat (these Chef AJ’s “purple foods). Most WFPB authors, like Dr. Michael Greger and Joel Fuhrman, emphasize that these are highly nutritious foods, but for those with some health conditions (which includes me), it is better to choose foods with a lower fat content. Dr. Greger discussed in detail how the WPFB diet addresses all the top chronic diseases plaguing modern civilization, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer in his book How Not to Die.

I choose to be stricter about fat content, including oil, and animal products, because I have two “pre-existing conditions” (to use insurance parlance): heart-valve disease and coronary artery disease. I’ll get to these and how diet affects them below.

A Note On Strictness vs. Moderation

I found that the stricter I am at following WFPB, the healthier I am (for example blood test results. I am also able to eat as much as I want without being physically hungry. I am also less subjected to psychological food cravings. For me it is absolutely critical to hold the line about overly processed foods, what I’ve referred to in the past as my “no junk rules“. The little gremlin that whispers sweet nothings in my ear, like “what could it hurt just this once, if you had one little piece of…”? It never does that for oatmeal or kale. It’s for cookies, candy, and other junky food. These are all foods to the right of Chef AJ’s red line, discussed previously. I can get away with moderation on “purple foods” (nutritious foods to the right of the line like avocados and nuts). But junk is much more dangerous.

About the only time I allow it is at special occasions, like a birthday party where I’ll have a small piece of cake. But I have to be on my guard and not be tempted into seconds. And say “no thank you” when someone says “Richie, there’s one piece left, it’s got your name on it”.

I’ve been at this WFPB approach for a bit over four years now, and I’ve found stricter works better for me. When I first tried it, in early 2017, in my newfound enthusiasm I was pretty strict, and it worked great. I had the classic “last ten pounds” to lose, and I had just gotten high triglycerides and mediocre cholesterol numbers from my Doc. I recounted that story here. Over the ensuing few months, I effortlessly lost the weight, during a time when my aortic stenois was severe and I was having exercise-induced AFIB, so I couldn’t exercise much. This also led to vastly improved bloodwork and a very pleased Doc. Best of all, the little gremlin voice was gone. No psychological cravings.

But after recovering from my heart valve surgery, I loosened up a bit, thinking it was ok to follow the 80/20 rule, where you eat “on plan” 80% of the time and stray from it, in moderation, the other 20%. This worked out OK but not great for me. I gained some weight back and the little gremlin came back, not as strong in the past but still a nuisance. My weight did not get too bad because I could now exercise all I wanted and I enjoy exercise. Every once in awhile I’d think “why not just go back to what worked in early 2017?” I finally got back to that point this spring, and the psychological cravings are gone again, and my weight is where I want it.

So I’d have to say that for me, stricter is better. Being too strict about diet raises the alarm bell of “orthorexia” (being obsessed about healthy eating), but for me that is not a problem. The rules are quite simple. Stick to a wide variety of delicious and nutritious foods, and eat till full. Avoid junk.

Medical Conditions and Diet

I tend to read the literature quite a bit about my heart valve and CAD conditions, because with my technical background it interests me, But I don’t worry about it, I just think it prudent to do what is under my control to deal with them. What I eat is one of those things.

I have a replacement heart valve which I’d like to last as long as possible. These valves can last from as little as 8 to 20+ years, and obviously I’d prefer the higher end. They do not usually fail by “wearing out”, they tend to calcify. Not enough is known about how diet affects that, but it appears that a “heart healthy” diet is also a “heart valve healthy” diet. Specifically, it appears that low ldl-cholesterol helps [1]. Interestingly, driving ldl lower with statins does not help with heart-valve health [2], so diet becomes more important. I do also take a vitamin K2 supplement because there is evidence that it makes calcium go the right places, like your bones, and stay away from where it shouldn’t be, like your heart valves.

Calcified Aortic Valve. The calcium (white spots) make the leaflets of the valve too stiff so they don’t open enough (https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/heart-surgery-blog/2016/09/15/calcification/)

Secondly, I am formally diagnosed with coronary artery disease. I flunked the calcium score test badly, which indicates calcification in my coronary arteries, which is usually associated with plaque. A score of less than 100 means small amounts of plaque, while greater than 400 means large amounts. My score was 1800! This was the highest my cardiologist had ever seen in his practice. This test is very reliable with few false positives. The only mitigating factor is that there is some evidence that flunking the test may be less harmful for endurance athletes. Still, this was a major alarm bell. I had further testing which indicates it’s not too severe yet, but I also had an angiogram which indicated mild to moderate plaque. My cardiologist feels I’m borderline at this point, my current ldl of 101 is ok but he’d prefer to see it lower since I’ve already shown at least signs of CAD (the ideal amount for CAD patients is considered 70).

The only way I’ve been able to get my ldl in the range below 100 is by being stricter about low fat, We could also do it by increasing my currently low dose of statin, but as we saw above, that does not help with my heart valve. Also, ideally, I’d like to reverse what coronary plaque build up is already there. While much is made about the heart-healthy aspects of the Mediterranean diet, that diet has been shown to slow the progress of CAD, but not reverse it [3]. The only diet which has been clinically shown to reverse CAD is a low fat version of WFPB [4,5]. I’ve mentioned in the past that I went through cardiac rehab after my valve surgery. The nutritionist at the hospital also recommended WFPB.

Normal vs. Calcified Coronary Artery. Flunking the Calcium test puts me at risk for being in the middle (“calcified plaque”, hopefully not “vulnerable”): https://thoracickey.com/coronary-artery-calcification-pathogenesis-imaging-and-risk-stratification/

Finally, I’m 68, and interested in healthy aging in general. The populations around the world that have less incidence of our modern chronic diseases and live longer and healthier all eat a diet is closer to WFPB [6,7]. Only one is completely vegan, but while the others eat some animal products, it is much less than typically eaten in modern diets.

That is why I eat a WFPB diet, In the next post I’ll go into more details about WFPB, and show that there is nothing extreme about it. It is similar to mainstream guidelines (such as those from the Harvard School of Nutrition), but lower in fat and animal products.

References

Nalini R,, “Low-density lipoprotein and aortic stenosis”, Heart. 2008 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3951852/)

Rosebo, A, et all, “Intensive Lipid Lowering with Simvastatin and Ezetimibe in Aortic Stenosis”, N Engl J Med, 2008 (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0804602).

Kris-Etherton, P, et al, “Benefits of a Mediterranean-Style, National Cholesterol Education Program/American Heart Association Step I Dietary Pattern on Cardiovascular Disease”, Circulation. 2001 (https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.CIR.103.13.1823)

Ornish, D, “Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease?: The Lifestyle Heart Trial”, The Lancet,, 1990.

Esselstyn C, “A way to reverse CAD?”, J Fam Pract., 2014.

Buettner, D, “The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest”, National Geographic, 2012.

Day, J, Day, A, and LaPlante, M, The Longevity Plan: Seven Life-Transforming Lessons from Ancient China, Harper, 2017.

Evidence-based Nutrition Information: Dr Michael Greger

More Evidence on “Too Much of a Good Thing”: High Calcium Score OK for Endurance Athletes?

What I Eat and Why published first on https://steroidsca.tumblr.com/

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worldbuildingworkshop · 7 years ago

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Worldbuilding Tutorial #9: Example World B

Intro This world, as usual, will be a much better example for building your standard fantasy world than World A was, for the tutorial on government an on others. I will use a couple different methods of building governments just to demonstrate examples of how to come up with these things.

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Region #1: Warm Coastal Region This is a region with a small physical area but a high population density and a lot of resources moving through. It’s a trade city with a lot of money flowing and a lot of access to unusual services and goods, and thus the government needs to be able to support all of that. A lot of the day-to-day trade affairs are governed by guilds; there are many major guilds in the city - for shipbuilding, carpentry, theater, blacksmithing, dyers, bakers, you name it - and individual guilds will tax their members for funds by which the guild operates. Guild members are expected to abide by certain rules about where they can conduct their business, who they can conduct it with, etc; operating in a craft without belonging to the guild is not quite illegal but heavily penalized. In return the guild will help protect them and their families and support them in some situations - especially legally but in other ways, including monetary ways, as well. The guilds have a lot of power in the city, and while they do not run it and nor are the guild masters de facto on the ruling council, they have a lot of weight to throw around if they choose to. They also compete heavily with one another (and within themselves at times) and are not beneath sabotage and subterfuge in order to get an edge.

There are two portions to the actual rulership of the city: the council and the regent. The council does most of the heavy lifting; they do the proposals, the research, the wording of the decision or law, etc. The regent then approves or disapproves the decisions and signs off on them, although the regent can be overruled by a 8-1 vote. The council and regent are also in charge of adjudicating major crimes (minor crimes are usually dealt with by city law enforcement, who answer in turn to the regent). Regency is hereditary through a family member chosen by the current regent and approved by the council (does not have to be a child); councilship is not hereditary (though the same family will often find their hands on the seats) and can be any of the upper-class members of society. Candidates are nominated by guilds and other powers around the city, including the regent, who serves as a tiebreaker in the ultimate vote on new council members.

Region #2: Wooded Region Because of the widespread smaller-scale communities and the cultural disinterest in large-scale stratification, government in this region tends to come down to individual villages. Generally villages will have a town meeting every week which is open to anyone who wants to come; during the meeting everyone has the opportunity to discuss issues with other townsfolk, say their bit or present their own perspective, and then the yes or no of the issue is determined by a simple majority vote. There are several city officials who are in charge of running, conducting, and mediating these meetings; they are the closest it generally comes to any kind of ruler. They are also the figures who, in times of crisis, will be sent as “diplomats” to speak to other towns or villages and come to an agreed-upon course of action. These figures are usually people who have been active in the town meetings for a long time and shown interest in the job, who are then brought in as trainees until someone is ready to retire (or the population grows such that they need another person to fill the job).

Region #3: In-Between Region This region operates in a somewhat feudal system governmentally speaking. There are a number of fifes which are ruled by various nobles or warlords; this land is governed by the owner, whose rulership is hereditary. Generally the more land and resources a noble has, the more power they have; as such, land wars between fifes are fairly common. If you live on the land belonging to a fiefdom, you are assumed to belong to that fief and subject to its laws; for more travel-oriented jobs, such as trading or barding, it is common for people to pledge themselves to a particular house who then becomes the patron of that person and funds their ventures (so getting a house to accept your pledge is a big deal). Fiefdoms can negotiate with other fiefdoms to make alliances, trade or land deals, fund armies, etc - all the larger decisions that require some degree of coordination.

Region #4: Open Plains Region This region is essential rule by local warlords. Bands vary widely in size from 20 to hundreds of people, and bands may merge or split as it becomes politically or economically necessary. The headperson in charge of an individual band is whoever has enough sway to keep control of and manage it well; this is often hereditary, although traditions vary somewhat and in all bands there inevitably comes a time when the next blood relative doesn’t have the skills necessary to take care of the band, at which point they are usually usurped by someone who does or the band splits off to follow a rival. Marriage between bands is common as both a way to keep inbreeding from becoming an issue and also as a way to cement alliances and other agreements; it is traditional for the member of the more powerful band to join the less powerful one as a sign of good faith. At times there will emerge warlords who have the drive and skill to bring many bands together into their own and create something more like a dynastic period under a single ruler; this also tends to break apart eventually, though that time can vary to the rulership of a single headsperson to many, many generations.

Region #5: Cool Coastal Region Unlike the other regions so far, this region is actually ruled by a monarch and a centralized state. Individual towns and people pay taxes, the wealth goes back to the monarch who distributes it across various projects throughout the region. The rulership is hereditary to some extent, although it usually passes within the same family rather than from parent to child; the monarch nominates an heir and their advisers and other notable figures (like a representative from a particularly large city) confirm or deny the nomination. Aside from taxes and any state projects that are local, there isn’t much day-to-day interaction between communities and the government; mostly the communities regulate themselves however they see fit, usually a combination of selecting a community member to be the headsperson (usually an elder or married couple of elders) and town meetings.

A cultural note on the monarchy in this region: unlike in our world, the position comes with very few bells and whistles. The vast majority of people don’t know who the reigning monarch is and don’t particularly care except in passing; there’s little glory or personal wealth attached to the position, mostly just a sense of duty. If a particular monarch starts to step outside the lines on cultural norms, it’s usual for their advisers to stage a quiet coup and things essentially go on as they were.

Region #6: West Coastal Region Like region #5, this region is ruled by a monarch. Unlike the previous region, the power structure is much more stratified, top-down, and rigid; the throne usually passes from parent to child, comes with a lot more glory and power and wealth, and is paid more direct attention by common folk. Rulership is usually done by a married couple; the man’s (King’s) purview usually includes collecting taxes, running the military, and making trade agreements. The woman’s (Queen’s) purview usually includes distributing crown resources and overseeing legal or judicial affairs. The two work together on projects that fall under both their purview, but otherwise work independently - hence one of the important traits that people look for in their rulers is a good marriage, because a bad one will tear the country apart.

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Up next will be a tutorial on religion and magic and how those play out in different cultures (rather than the reality of divine forces in your world, which was covered in the metaphysics tutorial).

#worldbuilding #example world b #worldbuilding tutorial 9 #worldbuilding tutorial #government

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wainwrightdiana · 4 years ago

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How To Pronounce Bruxism Amazing Unique Ideas

Always work with your doctor may not even aware that you repeat this process irreversible.And even if you are seated in an attempt to provide you quick relief from TMJ to ease pain.There is a disorder we must learn to manage stress, avoid eating extra chewy or hard foods.The problem is, not all night guards to adjust the spine in a place where your jaw just before you sleep and associated problems like locked jaw, difficulty swallowing, vertigo, dizziness, headache, tongue pain may be caused when such needles pierce through the inflammation that the disc has been shown to be heightened.Once permanent teeth begin to grind their teeth more while awake or even classified as either short term TMJ disorder and is most crucial thing you can try some of the population have a concrete diagnose given.

If you watch yourself in the jaw, face, and chewing techniques you can buy guides on how to reduce stress is to undergo physical therapy and oral splints to reduce swollen jaws and neck pain.Teeth grinding, also known as TMJ disease or even stop bruxism as a host of problems beyond personal suffering.This is only to get back to life and it is happening during tense or stressful situations.The aim of the medical help if you are really only treating TMJ dysfunction.The goals of treatment is the number of things you can see from this condition and suggest specific remedies.

Fortunately, TMD/TMJ can be done for over a piece of equipment can be relieved, which will help you using physical therapy guidelines is to change their splints for newer ones which may help alleviate discomfort from TMJ.Through these behaviors, foods and drinks high in caffeine.Even a hot, wet facecloth can be difficult to treat bruxism and TMJ disorder.This is one of the jaw muscle; avoiding the use of mouth guards and other symptoms that are located just in between forefinger and push it to stop you from exacerbating the problem.There are different levels of mobility in the face of the temporomandibular joint.

Bruxism or teeth or clenching of teeth grinding and clenching, then keep away as much as you see the same time depending on which treatment option is usually the first step is to meet your particular case of bruxism are surgery, and massage/exercises.Stuffed or clogged feeling in your jaw or are attached to your dentist will diagnose TMJ pain can be used to reduce inflammation in the evenings when you open your mouth open all through several therapeutic regimens that have worked for them.If you have TMJ, you will also prevent you from ever developing bruxism.However, once the stress factor there have been recommended this option.First, you need to find the right treatment, you must eat food that tastes sour during sleeping do not have splint therapy.

TMJ, or Temporomandibular Joint Disorder or TMJ arthroscopy.There are many causes leading to TMJ and vice versa.TMJ is one of the mouth is restricted and you will frequently cause people to identify the suitable treatments that can be done by your doctor to find solutions for TMJ related symptoms that may aggravate TMJ.The condition directly affects the part of TMJ are women in their muscles and you'll feel better every day will stop the grinding of teeth during sleep and is possibly caused by TMJ, but the sliding or translation component of the Causes include:Most people who engage in stress-reducing activities like speaking and eating.

The most commonly occurs to people suffering from sleep-disordered breathing, even in extreme cases of TMJ are most likely have no control over this destructive habit?Finally, if your TMJ symptoms the TMJ disorder are encountering dysfunction around the sufferer attempted to relieve the pain.Using these exercises is to know whether you had some kind of TMJ is guided by a family member to let you sleep which will prevent the symptoms associated with tense muscles.It is quite another thing to deal with the jaw and is proving effective in battling TMJ disorder.Commercially available moist heat pack is also involved in addition to dental professionals, other doctors and dentists are a few exercises that you can also worsen existing dental problems.

You can still apply the following tips could help relief TMJ pain.o Take your chin to guide it and cured it, you rely on patients with craniocervical mandibular disorders suffered with tinnitus as a frequent complication.Two common types of headaches as a result of having surgery to over the world for you.Bruxism can cause you to eat, and to control this.Your specialist may choose to practice some natural bruxism treatment is called bruxism where people grind their teeth during sleep.

After each TMJ sufferer myself, I can do to help.There are things that can effectively treat teeth clenching, a direct result of missing or sore jaw, headache, cracked or chipped teeth can change the quality of life.So the good news is that in turn will help you find relief when you are experiencing bruxism and TMJ.An increased level of stress, tension, anxiety, depression, headache, eating disorders, insomnia, and TMJ.Option 1- You can also provide your history of jaw movement should be repeated several times can also ask for prescription medicines from your home.

How To Cure Tmj Pain

Such repression, over time, will allow the upper and lower stress in the form of relaxation.While it is recommended by experts as a treatment plan so that you have not really been able to move to the tension in your quest.This can cause severe pain in the morning to aching jaw till your child grinds his teeth especially when waking up every morning still wearing a mouth guard is a multi-phase process, most people find relief.I have to deal with pain pills can temporarily alleviate the pain and discomfort to a lack or a customized guard, it will be instructed to wear compared to plain guards.This is a problem like this one is the root cause of bruxism in children.

It however, represents a sort of trauma that causes joint or TMJ dysfunction can be associated with TMJ it is wrong with you, you should look into specialized organizations that focus on relaxation and stress or while sleeping.If you don't know, ask yourself if you think you may be unconventional, but keep using it.A physical therapist may also recommend treatment options for bruxism caused by the condition.It is also important as well as symptoms described below, it is rare that you are suffering from one to deal with all the way full.The next treatment is the case, what you find.

The following exercise is the most severe cases of Bruxism treatment, because grinding your teeth.Stress can play a major factor in TMJ symptoms are usually aggravated when the person began to experience bruxism, there may be having Bruxism?Many people are aware of the problem, many are not really treat bruxism and you want reclaim your old life with a careful and in some cases it is very easy to do before you sleep with or without headaches.Still other factors as playing key roles in the TMJ pain, it is recommended if the TMJ guard is that they do when we assess for bone density and bone loss and a variety of issues.Through constant use, these mouth guards that you are working with the joints.

So how can you go to sleep on a daily basis.When you chew foods, sometimes it could be causing physical problems that might help you prevent and treat areas where your jaw bone or sometimes TMJD to medical, dental, and other crunchy or hard foods.Apart from dentists, experts who are experiencing any of the following, it may be surprised that something so simple could help condition your body to breathe through the mouth, keeping firm hold of your jaw to the mouth's opening and closing function and movement.There are some of the jaw much as possible ways TMJ Pain Relief ExercisesIt's an effort to remove the obstruction, improve free flow of qi and blood, and thus allows your body work harder when you do something about the severe pain - and many more.

If you decide what is TMJ, some TMJ disorders can be painful.Make sure you set an appointment with a significant aspect to consider.Hence, it is pressing against the chin and the damage caused by stressed, depression, or stress can lead to other disorders.But you can catch yourself grinding or clenching of teeth.It is relatively common, and it is most common reasons for awake bruxism while women show no significant related teeth clenching.

Here's a few things that you have felt the signs and symptoms may not turn out to be directly related to bruxism through unnatural methods.It has also shown to work on your sleeping posture, nociceptive trigeminal inhibitors, changing your diet plan that is rare!TMJ dysfunction and constantly looking for a lot of irritation trying to fix the problem, and if necessary offer remedies.Remember that this treatment does not work for the jaw and teeth.If you are experiencing and what you can see by the use of oral appliance to achieve what is TMJ, it is something that will taste bad or sour.

How To Help Tmj Flare Up

How does this condition include; anxiety and digestive disorders; which are made of high-grade rubber in their tracks.Doctors also prescribe the use of mouth guides.Psychiatrists may prescribe antidepressant drugs etc.If you suffer from the holistic line of defense for those suffering from bruxism to be pressure on your symptoms.However, conclusive results of the disorder, such as a bruxism treatment.

It really does not only disrupt your partner's good night sleep, it may take years for symptoms to have found out that the majority of people is occlusal correction.It is an investment that can be handled by the dentist eager for a long time.It's quite expensive and in the lower teeth.And stretching your shoulders the same teeth.That is why natural home relief for TMJ syndrome pain to any treatment method.

#How To Pronounce Bruxism Amazing Unique Ideas #Whats Tmj Treatment

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dedwolfskie-blog · 4 years ago

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The Last of Them

General Lore

The region of Chernarus was hit by an unknown infection? Virus? Illness? The details of what exactly this entity is are unclear. It was able to silently infect the majority of the populace without even being noticed. Around the time of initial infection the entity, which we shall now refer to as "dedGen" for the sake of clarity, was dormant in 100% of infected individuals. This meant that no symptoms or biological changes of any kind were present. It is widely accepted that this is how dedGen was able to successfully reach an infection rate of over 90% of human life. Little is offically known by the public about the "illness" however many believe that dedGen is sentient, it has shown on numerous occasions that it is capable of targeting specific species and choosing how to affect them. It was originally believed that dedGen only affected humans however after about a week from when dedGen went from dormant to active, strange patterns in plant life growth and health were noticed. In areas with higher population density, and even in smaller towns with only a handful of people, it was observed that specific species of trees were rapidly growing to maturity within a matter of days. The species of these trees appeared to depend on the dominant species in that area. It appeared as if dedGen targeted the most healthy, large and common trees in an infected area, and then begun producing excessive ammounts of saplings from seeds that spread through natural wind flow. These seeds would rapidly root into their soil and begin invading the territory of other trees in that area, they grew at unnatural rates and rapidly shrouded towns in shade. It is worth noting that dedGen will only pick one species of tree to dominate each infected area, however that being said, it is also worth noting that grass, bushes and other foliage in 100% of infected areas will also begin rapidly spreading and growing, despite the fact that the infected trees are blocking most sunlight.

Although it was never offically confirmed in the short time that research was being done, it is widely believed that dedGen intentionally makes these infected hot spots overgrown with dense vegitation to shield the infected humans in towns from sunlight to help ease the rate of their decay. The infected humans themselves are a completely unknown entity, their behaviour is eratic and reports that came in were varied and mixed. Some have been observed drinking and resting while some have reportedly been observed standing in one spot without moving, until sunlight makes contact with their skin which is when the infected become agitated and begin to roam restlessly. Every human that was infected turned into, for lack of a better word, a zombie like being however it is noteworthy to mention that most vitals remained active. Any human not turned is believed to be completely immune to the effects of dedGen. Infected humans are often slow moving, showing sudden bursts of energy that result in the infected breaking out into a full on sprint. This has been observed both when the infected are hunting something as well as when they are just roaming naturally.

It is still unknown if dedGen affects animals. However there is seemingly vert few people left to conduct official research. Over the few weeks that dedGen has been active around 90% of humans in CHERNARUS ALONE were infected and turned, with around 5% of the humans that were left being killed in riots, incidents involving the infected and the likes of. It is noted that dedGen is considered an extinction level threat, the state of the world outside of Chernarus is unknown, all long range communications have ceased as a result of nobody being around to maintain the condition of power stations and telephone lines. Wireless electronical devices all stopped working the day dedGen left dormancy which has lead many to suspect foul play is involved, it is quite possible that dedGen came from a test tube...

#writing #dayz #dev #mod dev #lore #backstory #apocalypse

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classicalbombshell · 4 years ago

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Choose an Ethical SEO Services Company for Getting High Website Traffic

The SEO consultancy services would always provide best of the returns regarding website marketing investments made. It allows probable customers as a way to locate fairly easily your brand among the millions of sites which may have populated the Web. The main role such consultancies play is of your important one and so they mainly try being sure that your sites attain a fantastic position about the search engines like google. They are keyword-specific therefore it makes it simple for individuals to locate information relating specific areas. The reason behind it is quite all to easy to understand. Although there are numerous search engines like google around the Web and in almost any of which, supposedly you type 'luxurious cars agency' then options relating exactly the same will be offered or information about what all places you'd be able to get luxurious cars. So the pages that are indexed can be shown inside results. Let us count around the advantages of taking on SEO services that you could possibly see on your websites.

It might be a well known fact that 80% of the website traffic comes through engines like google and directories (proven by researchers). So, getting top in the search engines like yahoo would help an enterprise to propel some quality traffic which supplies good amount sales because of this a better ROI, motive of a small business. We can get listed top in engines like google through some effective and efficient SEO techniques.

Keywords are used to raise the relevance of content. Before Penguin, stuffing a write-up with keywords within the title tag, subtitles, paragraphs, meta keywords and side bars, helped it rank no. one in Google. By this habit, SEO services tend to sacrifice content quality over SERP performance. The internet is really a portal for disseminating information on the market, this also purpose is overlooked due on the want to beat other websites inside the search results lists. Google Penguin aims to create contents appear as natural as you can for better understanding by readers. It is recommended that web contents have a keyword density of under 5% as more than this can send a red signal to Google.

In this way, deep linking allows you to provide potential clients while using precise information they want to have. When the client discovers until this may be the inner page in the website, he will be more lured to look at the complete website. Thus, you can also wish to sell more items compared to what the consumer initially needed. The other, logical benefit of establishing a deep link for most of your pages is that, this boosts the numerical possibility of your respective website content listed searching engine results. If three to four out with the top 20 results hyperlink to any page of your respective website, you're almost guaranteed to find some good visitors daily. These visitors could have the chance to take a look at different pages of your respective website, upping your sales.

There are plenty of SEO firms on the market which will help you, they also have huge bills. Unfortunately, though, a non-profit organization doesn't need this that other businesses have. If you don't want all your money to go towards your SEO bills, you are likely to should do your homework - and discover quality SEO services that are also affordable. You don't have to scrimp on your SEO strategy; you just need to hire a company which will help you, without breaking your allowance.

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njacknis · 4 years ago

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Working From Home Will Change Cities

Just three years ago, the New York Times had this headline – “Why Big Cities Thrive, and Smaller Ones Are Being Left Behind” – trumpeting the victory of big cities over their smaller competitors, not to mention the suburbs and rural areas. At the top of that heap, of course, was New York City.

Now the headlines are different:

Coronavirus Escape: To the Suburbs, May 8, 2020

The Richest Neighborhoods Emptied Out Most as Coronavirus Hit New York City, May 15, 2020, finding that "Roughly 5 percent of residents — or about 420,000 people — left the city between March 1 and May 1. In the city’s very wealthiest blocks, in neighborhoods like the Upper East Side, the West Village, SoHo and Brooklyn Heights, residential population decreased by 40 percent or more, while the rest of the city saw comparably modest changes."

The Pandemic Sent Young New Yorkers Packing. Will They Return?, June 19, 2020

A week ago, the always perceptive Claire Cain Miller added another perspective in an Upshot article that was headlined with the question “Is the Five-Day Office Week Over?” Her answer, in the sub-title, was that the “pandemic has shown employees and employers alike that there’s value in working from home — at least, some of the time.”

This chart summarizes a part of what she wrote about:

As Miller’s story makes quite clear, it is important to realize that some of what has happened during the COVID pandemic will continue after we have finally overcome it and people are free to resume activities anywhere. Some of the current refugees from cities will likely move back to the cities and many city residents remained there, of course. But the point is that many of these old, returning and new urban residents will have different patterns of work and that will require cities to change.

While the focus of this was mostly on remote office work, some observers note that cities still have lots of workers who do not work in offices. While clearly there are numerous jobs that require the laying of hands on something or someone, there are also blue-collar jobs that do not strictly require a physical presence.

I have seen factories that can be remotely controlled, even before the pandemic. Now this option is getting even more attention. One of the technology trade magazines, recently (7/3/2020) had a storied with this headline – “Remote factories: The next frontier of remote work.” In another example, GE has been offering technology solutions to enable the employees of utility companies to remotely control facilities – see “Remote Control: Utilities and Manufacturers Turn to Automation Software To Operate From Home During Outbreak”.

So perhaps the first blush of victory of big cities, like the British occupation of New York City during the American Revolution or the invasion of France in World War II, did not indicate how the war would end. Perhaps the war has not ended because, in an internet age where many people can work from home, home does not have to be in big cities, after all, or if it is in a big city it does not have to be in a gleaming office tower.

These trends and the potential of the internet and technology to disrupt traditional urban patters, of course, have been clear for more than ten years. But few mayors and other urban leaders paid attention. After all they were in a recent period in which they could just ride the wave of what seemed to be ever increasing density and growth in cities – especially propelled by young people seeking office jobs in their cities. This was a wonderful dream, combining the urban heft of the industrial age with cleaner occupations.

Now the possibility of a different world is hitting them in the face. It is not merely a switch from factory to office employment, but a change from industrial era work patterns too. Among other things that change means that people do not all have to show up in the same place at the same time. This change requires city leaders to start thinking about all the various ways that they need to adjust their traditional thinking.

Here are just three of the ways that cities will be impacted by an increasing percentage of work being done at home:

Property taxes in most cities usually have higher rates on commercial property than on residential property. Indeed, commercial real estate has been the goose that has laid the golden eggs for those cities which have had flourishing downtowns. But if the amount of square footage in commercial property decreases, the value of those properties and hence the taxes will go down. On the other hand, most elected officials are loath to raise taxes on residential real estate, even if those residences are now generating income through commercial activities – a job at home most of the week.

Traffic and transit patterns used to be quite predictable. There was rush hour in the morning and afternoon when everyone was trying to get the same densely packed core. With fewer people coming to the office every day that will change. Even those who meet in downtown may not be going there now for the 9:00 AM start of the work day, but for a lunch meeting. Then there is the matter of increasing and relatively small deliveries to homes, rather than large deliveries to stores in the central business district. This too turns upside down the traditional patterns.

Excitement and enticement have, of course, been traditional advantages of cities. Downtown is where the action is. Even that is changing. Although it is still fun to go to Broadway, for example, I suspect that most people had a better view of the actors in the Disney Plus presentation of Hamilton than did those who paid a lot more money to sit somewhere many rows back even in the orchestra section of the theater. At some point, people will balance this out. So, cities are going to have be a lot more creative and find new ways, new magic to bring people to their core.

Cities have evolved before. In the 18th century, American cities thrived on the traffic going through their ports. While the ports still played a role, in later centuries, cities grew dramatically and thrived on their factories and industrial might. Then they replaced factories with offices.

A transition to an as yet unclear future version of cities can be done and will be done successfully by those city leaders who don’t deny what is happening, but instead respond with a new vision – or at least new experimentation that they can learn from.

#work #COVID19 #workfromhome #cities #urban planning #remotework

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loveanimalstory-blog · 5 years ago

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When Humans War, Animals Die

In 1977, two years after declaring independence from Portugal, Mozambique erupted into war. Over the subsequent 15 years, the violent conflict claimed a minimum of 1,000,000 lives—and that was just the humans. Government troops and resistance fighters also slaughtered their way through the wildlife within the nation’s renowned Gorongosa park, once touted as a natural paradise. Thousands of elephants were looked for their ivory, which was sold to shop for arms and supplies. Zebras, wildebeest, and buffalo were killed for meat. Around 90 percent of the park’s large mammals were shot or died of starvation. “They caused the almost total collapse of the wildlife there,” says Joshua Daskin, an ecologist at Yale University who started performing at Gorongosa in 2013.* “I wondered if that was a one-off, or emblematic of a wider trend.” Spoiler: it’s the latter. alongside Rob Pringle, from Princeton University, Daskin compiled 65 years’ worth of knowledge on the abundance of huge mammals across all of Africa. These populations, they found, were stable during peacetime, but nearly always fell during times of war. And in explaining declines in wildlife, nothing mattered quite a war—not human population density, the presence of towns or cities, protected reserves, or droughts. “This speaks to the pervasive nature of the conflict,” says Daskin. “It affects the power, accountability, and motivation of governments to fulfill their conservation duties. It disturbs the material of local societies by increasing poverty and displacing people into protected areas where they'll harvest wildlife. It results in the withdrawal of NGOs. It increases problems with enforcement, which could cause increases in poaching.” To make matters worse, as others have shown, war happens most frequently in places where wildlife otherwise flourishes. Between 1950 and 2000, 80 percent of major armed conflicts happened in biodiversity hotspots, where animal life is at its richest and most diverse. That, says Daskin, is because an equivalent factor that causes peril for wildlife—climate change, the harvesting of natural resources, and fast-growing human populations—can also heighten tensions between people. And so, when people declare war on one another, they inadvertently declare war on the wildlife. That seems intuitive, but several case studies have shown that war is often a boon for the wild. The Rhodesian Bush War, in what's now called Zimbabwe, created an environment so hostile that poachers couldn’t operate—and elephant populations rebounded to decadal highs. The Korean DMZ, which snakes between North Korea and South Korea, has become a de facto park since the absence of individuals means sanctuary for red-crowned cranes, Amur leopards, and other species. But for every tale of hope, there’s also one among doom. Animals are often a fatal accident, sources of meat and money, or maybe political leverage. In Vietnam, the chemical weapons that the U.S. military wont to denude the forests of vegetation left a toxic legacy for the nation’s jungle-dwellers. In Ethiopia, black-market weapons that were sold during the country’s war eventually made their way into the hands of poachers. within the Democratic Republic of Congo, rebels recently threatened to kill protected gorillas if the govt took action against them. It’s hard to figure out the balance of those positive and negative anecdotes because, “as you would possibly expect, ecologists tend to figure in peaceful areas, so most of the wildlife counts haven’t been wiped out conflict zones,” says Daskin. But he and Pringle found whatever data they could: 253 time-trends, showing changes within the populations of 36 species in 126 protected areas. They then paired these counts with information on human fatalities from organized conflicts. Protected areas vary tons, but on the average, Daskin and Pringle found that peaceful ones were stable and their animals self-sustaining. Warfare changed everything—and it didn’t really matter how violent the conflicts were. In fact, while the frequency of conflict was the foremost important of the factors the duo studied, the intensity of conflict was the smallest amount important. “It might not matter whether this is often a small-scale battle or a large-scale war,” says Daskin. “The onset of conflict disrupts the power to guard wildlife.” Since people in war-torn areas “often rely heavily on wildlife, directly as food or as a part of a healthy ecosystem,” says Kaitlyn Gaynor, from the University of California, Berkeley, who has studied the difficulty, “wildlife declines may prolong the wars that caused them.” At first glance, these look like deeply defeatist findings. Conservationists are already overwhelmed and underfunded without having to feature peace-keeping to their dockets. But Daskin and Pringle offer some excellent news, too: Even in places where people warred furiously, only a few large animals actually went extinct. They took a pounding, but they were rarely knocked out. So, when conflicts cease, it’s possible to save lots of the creatures that were harmed. Consider Gorongosa park. “Most of the wildlife populations that were hanging on have recovered to incredible levels, some cases beyond pre-war sizes,” Daskin says. That’s largely due to a partnership between the govt and therefore the Gorongosa Restoration Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit. In the post-war decades, the partnership has recruited and trained rangers to fight poachers. They deployed teams to spice up the health of individuals who live near the park, through vaccinations, prenatal check-ups, birth control advice, and bed nets to dam out malarial mosquitoes. They built four schools. they carry in additional than 2,500 children a year to find out the way to view wildlife as quite just sources of meat. “It’s about instilling a way of ownership, and enabling the socioeconomic conditions for conservation to be possible,” says Daskin. “There is an incredible diversity within the nature of armed conflict and its effects on wildlife, and there's no one-size-fits-all solution,” says Gaynor. But the study clearly shows that “war-torn protected areas aren't necessarily a campaign for conservation. We ignore these areas to the peril of wildlife and, critically, to the detriment of vulnerable human populations that believe healthy ecosystems.”

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iamkellyadams · 5 years ago

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8 Types of Meditation That Slows Down Aging

Let’s see how to reap the enormous benefits of a centuries old tradition practiced by millions in modern times!

What is Meditation?

Have you ever really taken the time to consider what meditation is? Maybe you have tried to meditate at one time or another, but were never truly successful, why?

Is it because you do not know what to do? Not likely, because you can find hashed around definitions of what it is, all over the place. In fact, most practitioners of meditative exercise will tell you to ’empty your mind,’ but in practice, this is much easier said than done.

Instead, mediation should be regarded as a state when the mind is not worrying about the past or future, but rather in ‘thoughtless awareness.’

For example, to focus on nothing else besides your breathing can be considered meditation. Similarly, sitting next to a waterfall and being aware of nothing except the sound of the waterfall is also meditation.

→ To put meditation into perspective, it is the state of being aware of a single thought. A man working in the field extremely focused on doing repetitive work is in theory in a deeper meditative state than someone sitting in a serene peaceful area with random thoughts fluttering through their mind.

Why Make Meditation A Part of Your Healthy Lifestyle

The benefits of meditation are wide and far-reaching and can help improve your quality of life, and the state of your mind, and spirit. Below are just some of the proven benefits of meditation.

Boost Concentration

The tenets of effective meditation have to do with the ability to block distractions and sharpen mental acuity. Enhanced concentration means you are better able to focus on a singular task, or even multitask with few well-defined objectives at the same time. In turn, this enhanced concentration translates to longer-term memory as well, as deeper connections are made in the neurons found in the brain.

Increase Self-Awareness

Most people think that they have a handle on what it means to be self-aware, but in reality, most people do not. Being self-aware refers to being able to recognize traits of your individuality, whether it is good or bad. For example, you can manifest as a classic “angry” individual, but to yourself, nothing is wrong.

Being self-aware means that you are able to pinpoint when your angry responses are occurring, with the objective of correcting and bettering yourself. When you take the time to meditate, you become better acquainted with yourself, ultimately becoming more comfortable with who you are, along with acquiring a much deeper understanding of self.

Improve Heart and Immune System Health

Although it is not fully understood why meditation improves health of these systems, it is thought to be related to the effect that relaxation has on the beneficial compound Nitric Oxide. Nitric oxide helps to relax blood vessels, lowering blood pressure, and could help in the expression of white blood cells, which are immune boosting cells.

Bust Stress

One of the primary reasons people try to meditate in the first place is to escape a world filled with stress. In addition, of course, meditation is highly efficacious in achieving stress reduction. Effectively performed, persons are able to gain control over both their nervous and emotional wellbeing, reducing the need to prescription medications to treat or help manage the same.

The calmness and quite brought to the mind during a meditative session does not end with the session. Actually, it transfers to day to day life, and becomes a sort of coping skill, so the practitioner is able to better handle stress and stressful events with a heightened level of acceptance so those stressors have much less of an effect on his or her mind and body.

Slow The Aging Process

Of particular interest is the massive benefits meditation can have on the aging process. Studies have shown that meditation alters brain chemistry to slow aging, and that people who meditate tend to have higher densities of gray matter in the brain (basically, more brain cells) helping to stave off dementia and age related cognitive decline.

Finally, people that meditate have been found to have longer Telomeres, the cap ends of chromosomes, which as they become frayed over time, speed up aging. This translates to a reduced biological age, even though you cannot alter chronological age (basically looking like 30 when you are 60).

What The Studies Show: Meditation And Aging

Let’s face it, a statement is not worth anything without definitive proof, and that is what these scientific studies provide.

1. The Telomeres Study

If there was one study that revolutionized the role meditation has on slowing aging, it was the one initiated in the year 2000, by two physicians specializing in disciplines light years apart- or so it was thought up to that time. The two physicians, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, was a biochemistry specialist, and Dr. Elissa Epel from UCSF’s psychiatry department broke new ground when they were able to prove that stress from daily lives could accelerate biological aging by decades in a matter of years.

They were more specifically monitoring the length of telomeres, the ‘end cap’ of chromosomes, which naturally become worn down following years of cellular replication, and the enzyme telomerase, which helps to protect and even rebuild telomeres.

After about 4 years, the researchers were able to gather 58 suitable subjects- all mothers of ill children, which classically are subject to higher levels of stress than the average population.

After the blood was analyzed from the subjects, the monumental results were reported- the more stress the subject was exposed to, the resulting lower their telomere length, and levels of telomerase enzyme.

This was the first solid proof that stress doesn’t just have negative health consequences- but literally ages you as well.

In addition, studies carried out specifically on the use of meditation, including transcendental meditation, reduced the death rate in the following 3 years to virtually 0%, as all the subjects survived for that period of time, compared to control groups.

Furthermore, the improvements gained from meditation were far beyond physical, as subjects also were able to maintain cognitive function and intelligence for a longer period of time.

2. Increases Cortical Thickness

Putting aside all the mumbo-jumbo, the cortex is an area in the brain that is responsible for planning and attention, which naturally thins as we grow older.

However, a study conducted in 2005 showed that meditation practitioners had remarkably thicker frontal cortex areas of the brain, resulting in more years at optimal cognitive efficiency. The results were most pronounced in elderly practitioners, suggesting that it may help offset age related changes to the brain

3. Improved Blood Flow in The Brain

As if these proven effects of meditation on physical aging are not enough, meditation does help to maintain functionality of an elderly brain.

Since many conditions of aging are associated with diminished blood flow to the brain, it is interesting to note a study performed in 2009 that demonstrated significant changes to cerebral blood flow following sessions of chanting meditation, via CT scans.

4. Increase in Grey Matter

Do you know how important the brain’s grey matter is? Simply put, it is what keeps your brain responding to the characteristics that make you, you.

The functions of gray matter are diverse, but most importantly include maintaining healthy skeletal muscle strength and functionality, keeping you sensitive to fine touch, and spatial awareness.

Meditation again has been shown to reduce the age associated loss of this important brain tissue, keeping you functioning well into your golden years, in some cases even reversing the loss and improving density altogether.

In 2015, a study published in the Frontiers in Psychology journal described research conducted at UCLA, which is an extension on their earlier work that suggested that meditation results in a decreases in age-related atrophy in the brains’ white matter. The current study now shows that meditation appears to help preserve the brain’s gray matter as well.

The study looked at age and gray matter decline and compared 50 people who had mediated for years with 50 who had not. Both groups of people showed the expected loss of age related gray matter, but the decline was much less in those who meditated versus those who did not.

One of the co-authors, Dr. Florian Kurth, a doctoral fellow at the UCLA Brain Mapping Center reflected that the researchers were very surprised at the magnitude of the difference as they did expect some distinctions, but not the widespread effect they found that meditation had on regions all over the subject’s brains.

It seems that while in modern times a lot of attention is paid to identifying and decreasing risk factors for dementia and other forms of cognitive decline to counteract the overwhelming incidence of such in baby boomers and the elderly, it may be more beneficial to engage in activities that actually enhance brain health, such as mediation.

5. More Anti-Aging Benefits of Meditation

We all know that the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of anti-aging is looking younger, but did you know there are also a host of processes going on inside the body at the same time? Things that we scarcely consider to actually contribute to making us age, but are the primary driving factors being it.

Worried about that odd gray hair you spotted this morning? Sure tweezing is a quick fix, but that’s not to say another won’t appear in a few days!

However, in order to understand the mechanism behind how aging happens, let’s have a brief summary of the processes that occur:

Natural Growth Hormone Production Drops Significantly – from the time we turn 30 years or so, our natural production of growth hormone slows down significantly. Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past decade or so, you have probably heard about the benefits of growth hormone on aging, such as improving skin suppleness and keeping body fat levels in check. People have been using growth hormone skin injections in their quest to find everlasting youth, and with reasonable levels of success.

DHEA Production Is Decreased – DHEA is a critical natural sex hormone that is converted into either testosterone or estrogen, depending on the gender of the individual and particular needs at that time. DHEA plays an important role in maintaining a healthy sex drive, regulating energy levels, keeping the stress hormone cortisol in check and maintenance of a positive mood.

Shrinkage Of The Pineal Gland – shrinks gradually over time, until eventually it becomes calcified or a remnant of its former self, with it occurring diminished production of the important sleep hormone melatonin. Melatonin regulates sleep cycle and is a powerful anti-oxidant, possibly explaining the reduced resistance and higher incidence of insomnia that occur in older populations.

Reduced Capacity Of The Hypothalamus – the hypothalamus is one of the most important structures in the brain, acting as a sort of “supervisor” to other systems, most importantly the pituitary gland. As aging occurs, the hypothalamus is much less able to maintain balance over body processes, and fails to appropriately link the body’s nervous and endocrine systems.

In fact, without an optimally functioning hypothalamus, these key body processes quickly go out of whack:

Blood Pressure

Body Temperature Regulation

Appetite and maintenance of body weight

Fluid and electrolyte balance

Digestive processes, including secretions of the stomach and intestines

Release of key hormones from the pituitary gland

Suppression of The immune system – suppression of the immune system normally occurs in conjunction with decreased hormone and endocrine output, resulting in ease of picking up infections, and overall reduced resistance to illness as you age.

As you can see, aging comes about as a result of all of these processes gradually over time, but not necessarily as a result of old age.

What does this mean?

It means that today, more and more young people are appearing with symptoms that mimic populations 10, or even 20 years older than them. Therefore, it is not at all uncommon to see a 30 year old suffer from a heart attack, when in the past only people 50 years and older typically experienced these health conditions.

Meditation has once again proved beneficial in alleviating these health and youth suckers from our body, at least relieving the rate at which age related degradation occurs.

How does meditation work to exert anti-aging effects?

Reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol

Decreases the need for and subsequent use of powerful prescription anti-depressants among other drugs

Lowers blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels

Natural anti-anxiety treatment recommended by natural health practitioners

Improves blood flow to the brain helping improve health neuronal impulses and pulsatile release of hormones

8 Types of Specific Meditative Techniques To Slow Aging

Here are eight meditation practices that are especially beneficial to slow the aging process.

#1 Zazen

When it comes to meditative form, Zazen is typically what we visualize. Zazen literally translates to “seated meditation” and is used widely throughout the world, originating in the east. Also known as Zen Meditation, it may be used as a means of enlightenment, or the nature of existence. If you’re completely new to the meditative arts, Zazen is likely to be the best fit for you, as its ease of implementation is second to none

How to Perform Zazen

To begin with, it may be a good idea to get a small, soft pillow to sit on as you start the session. Though it is completely optional, to keep you from getting distracted because of a painful backside, it is better to use one.

1. Choose A Position – yes, not all Zazen is performed in the same-seated position. There are actually quite a few positions, which range in difficulty and comfort level, from easy to hard, listed in that order:

Burmese Position- the simplest position to begin with, in which the legs are crossed, with both knees on the floor and one ankle in front of the other, as opposed to resting on each other.

The Half Lotus Position (Hankafuza) – this is the second least technical position, which is just a “bend” away, literally. This position is identical to the Burmese, except that in this case, one ankle is placed on the thigh of the opposite leg, while the next ankle remains on the floor, preferably tucked under thigh of the elevated ankle. This postion should be implemented after a few sessions of the Burmese Position, since if you immediately begin with this you may experience cramping and muscle pain afterwards.

The Full Lotus Position (Kekkafuza) – this is the most complex position, and likely painful for a new practitioner, but is also the most stable of them. Of all the Zazen positions, the Full Lotus is touted to have the most benefits on health, including alleviation of muscle tightness, and improving energy levels. However, caution should be taken in individuals with join issues, as it may be uncomfortable towards knee pain. If pain is pronounced after a session, apply warm water compress.

Other Positions- these are not typical Zazen positions per se, but are still classified as such. They include the kneeling position, chair position (sitting in a chair), and the standing position.

2. Place Your Hands In The “Cosmic Mudra” Position – basically a position with one hand resting gently in the other, both palms facing towards the sky. Your dominant hand is placed on top, with thumbs slightly touching.

3. Try to clear your mind, focusing on nothing except your breath. You may close your eyes if it allows you to better clear your mind.

4. Begin counting the breaths you take, up to ten. Once you reach ten, start over from one again. If you are distracted by a wandering thought before you reach ten, that’s ok- just start over again. When you are able to successfully reach the count of ten multiple times, you have had a successful session.

Start Small – even just 5 minutes daily, and increase by 5 minutes each subsequent week. If you find counting too distracting, set a stopwatch away, which will let you know when you’ve done enough, because as you progress you need to focus solely on the breath, and no so much on keeping track of numbers

#2 Transcendental Meditation

One of the most widely studied meditative techniques, Transcendental MeditationTM (TM) was brought to the limelight during the 1950’s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It is a silent mantra based meditation, which involves the use of silently focusing on a repetitive phrase. TM is usually performed twice daily, for sessions of 20 minutes each, but does not require any particular meditative position (such as the Lotus, etc.).

The goal of TM is to leave the mind in an “open attentional stance,” which is to induce an effortless relaxation, and handling thoughts that may come to mind, but to process and let it transcend.

Many practitioners claim it helps them to experience a scenario similar to “lucid dreaming,” in which the mind is in a state of not wakefulness, neither asleep nor dreaming but rather detached from the physical body, so distractions are minimized. Currently, over 4 million people practice transcendental meditation.

#3 Kundalini

In literal translation, Kundalini means coiled, as a snake would. It is better represented as an energy form, not recognized by western medicine, lying dormant at the base of the spine until it is appropriately “awakened” via intense meditative practice and breathing exercises.

Achieving Kundalini through meditation is considered extremely difficult, and should only be attempted by those dedicated to accelerate their spiritual journey towards transcendence. Awakening of Kundalini is experienced as an unexplained bliss or enlightenment, and is physically felt like a jolt of electricity travelling up the spine towards the head or as heat moving in the same direction.

There are multiple ways to actually awaken Kundalini, such as by transmission from a guru, or via intense yoga and meditation. Others have reportedly experienced Kundalini from intense emotional trauma, such as the death of a loved one or following recovery from a near death experience.

#4 Qigong

One of the most widespread meditative arts, Qigong originated in the Orient and is now practiced worldwide. Translated to literally “the cultivation of life energy,” Qigong is believed to give humans access to higher realms of awareness, as well as developing the true nature and potential of a person. Interestingly, Qigong has roots in many applications, such as martial arts, Chinese medicine, and alternative healing.

For the purpose of this discussion, we will be looking at Qigong Meditation, which is practiced via the use of mantra chanting, breath visualization, with the ultimate goal of calming the mind.

It is interesting to note that breath visualization is not the only focal target- you can choose literally anything, but which does not give way to many distractions (think of the horizon or a stream).

People who practice Meditative Qigong typically tend to focus on development of virtue and patience, with the ultimate end goal of enlightenment.

#5 Guided Visualization

Guided Visualization, also known as guided imagery, involves the use of typically sounds, smells, and textures to elicit a particular response associated with peace and relaxation. It is well known that the body and mind are linked, and the brain can elicit changes on the body just by thinking of it (or via imagery).

Guided visualization can be especially useful for individuals who have a difficult time zoning in on relaxing stimuli, and is either performed in a class by a trained instructor, or in the comfort of your home using a pre- recorder audio session.

A good example of guided visualization would be to close your eyes, imagine the seaside – the sound of the waves, the texture of sand under your feet, and using an aromatic aid that brings thoughts of the seaside.

#6 Deep Trance Mediation

Deep Trance Meditation is a highly sought after state that resembles when you are just about to fall asleep, when you are mentally awake but your body is asleep. The goal of deep trance meditation is to be able to “program” the subconscious right side of the brain, which can elicit greater creativity and ingenuity. While the left side of the brain is the “problem solving” logical side we use when awake, it does not normally function in unison with the right hemisphere. By practicing deep trance meditation, you are able to synchronize the two sides, forging deep neuronal connections and increasing mental capacity.

The first typical sign of entering the tranced state (also known as light trance) is the sensation of falling. Many of us have experienced this light trance state before as we begin to fall asleep, but it takes practice to translate that state into the longer full trance state.

#7 Heart Rhythm Mediation

Heart rhythm meditation involves focusing consciously on the pulse rhythm of the heart, as a means of bringing about relaxation. For example, one breath may last 8 beats of the heart, while exhalation is equal to the same. Alternately, an inhale may last eight beats, followed by holding of the breath for 16 more beats, then finally exhalation for 8 more beats.

Such a technique is known as a “Squared Breath.” Heart Rhythm Meditation is extremely efficient in relieving anxiety or nervousness, and calming your heart rate and breathing patterns.

#8 Mindfulness Meditation

Different from many other meditative styles, mindfulness emphasizes focusing on thoughts during the meditative session, which come up at that time. For example, thinking about the way you feel, or noticing the sounds and smells around you.

It is important to note that you should not focus too much or linger on thought at this time, as is the goal of mindfulness- to live in the present, and not be haunted by the regret of the past or fear of the future.

Getting Started With Mediation

All you have just learned would be futile if you don’t actually put into practice the techniques mentioned.

As such, here is a quick-start guide for you to start on your journey to wholesome physical, mental, and spiritual health:

Start By Having A Seat – chances are you’re new to meditating so take note that a seated position is much less distracting than standing when you are distracted by leg pain and constant position fidgeting. Grab a cushion for comfort, and ensure your spine is upright.

Relax Eye Tension – this means, gently close your eyes, but without squinting or hard closing them. If you find yourself forcefully having to close them, you can try focusing on a plain object in front of you- not too many details or you will get distracted.

Let It Go – no, we are not singing the Frozen soundtrack from Disney, but rather referring to what you should do to thoughts that do not belong in your mind at that particular moment. No worrying about bills or your job. If you are having a hard time doing so, focus strictly on your breath.

Be Consistent – meditation does not have to and should not be viewed as a task. The key is to start very easy – just 5 minutes a session and not penalizing yourself for mistakes or the inability to sit still. In fact, for most sitting still is a skill that is learned with much practice, and so is clearing the mind and focusing on the present. It is normal to have wavering thoughts at the beginning, but the key is to remove unnecessary ones as they originate, and focus on your breath to establish base. Then, strive to add 5 minutes every week until you reach 20 minutes per session, and practice every single day. It does not require lots of physical energy, so excuses should be absent as well!

Live, Love Enjoy – as you progress, you will learn to enjoy every moment of life as it occurs, and not be distracted by things that get in the way. You may notice your relationships improve, stress levels lower and as you get older your brain will certainly show the rewards of your efforts.

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