Author: Ara

Creator and consumer who researches the link between public health and personal happiness. Educated in public health and human behavior. Masters of Public Health from the UT College of Medicine.

Are you waiting for others to reduce your pollution?

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greenhouse

Despite the disagreement about human-influenced climate change, we should accept that we are polluting our environment to some extent. So instead of waiting on others to do something about it, what we can do? We the people? We are the consumers for whom industry pollutes, after all.

Would you move closer to work to drive less? Buy fewer things to reduce manufacturing and trucking pollution? Reduce or eliminate eating cows, pigs, and other livestock to lower their fart pollution? Grow some of your food? Buy a more fuel efficient car?

How about in your career? Would you go work for Solar City? How about do some research and start your OWN Solar City?!

Imagine the collective impact we would have if each of us made one major lifestyle change to reduce our carbon footprint.

I’m all for healthy debate, and taking an impassioned stand (after getting informed), but at the end of the day, you’ve got to ask yourself, “What did I do about it?”

The hysterical left, the heartless right, and the quiet, mindful middle

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religion-vs-science

Both science and religion are led by humans, humans who are imperfect.  Although science is based on evidence-based analysis, and religion on non-testable doctrine, they are both swayed by the culture of the time period they are in. Religion was leading us more in the past, while today we lean on science and technology…wait, where’s my mobile? …Ahhh. There you are, my Precious.

The point being, when scientists discount the research results which do go against their beliefs, and keep the results which don’t, they are not being scientific anymore. Let me explain.

The basic method of science in order to prove a conclusion is to repeatedly test the result made by other scientists to try to replicate it. Over time, if the same result is repeatedly reached, and no different results come up to disprove it, then the conclusion is viewed to be proven. Albeit, temporarily proven, because as soon as any experiment gets a result different from the accepted conclusion, then the conclusion is thrown into question, and is no longer proven.

There is no science in saying, “Not all experiments have shown there is an association between the things we studied, but most of the experiments have, so we conclude that there is an association.”

This is not a scientific claim. When making such claims, these scientists have removed their white lab coats and have stepped outside of science and into the general population.

Science is not like faith: Faith cannot be disproven. Scientific conclusions can be disproven, and, in fact, that is what science is FOUNDED UPON.

Science should not be muddled with faith. And scientists should not be asked to make non-scientific conclusions, and if they do, it is our responsibility as the most informed public in the history of humanity, to recognize them as such.

Whatever the issue, if it is truly important to you, something that you are passionate about, and you want to take a strong stand on, then be curious, take the time, and discover the “why” to what you believe. The irony today is that those who may see themselves as science-minded are supporting non-scientific claims, simply because they came from scientists.

However well-intentioned the claim, it should not be accepted as science simply because it’s “the right thing to do.” It is not the place of science to make that judgment.

The authority figures in science and religion cannot be assumed to know the truth, especially when they make claims outside of the scientific method, when they bring their own bias in the data or doctrines they choose to follow to reach the conclusions they want to reach. BUT…

They will help you in your journey to the truth you seek. And It’s up to you to think for yourself to reach that truth.

Do not let the noise from the fringes sway you. Stay mindful.

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

Why probiotics are bogus

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hipster-artist

This, after researching probiotics and live culture food for nearly ten minutes on the internet, my dilettante conclusion is that the science is sketch.

A hundred trillion cells in your gut but only a hundred million in a serving of kombucha or yogurt.  And there’s supposed to be a significant impact from eating those things? Unlikely.

HOWEVER,

I will continue to create kombucha because I take pleasure in the fruity and spicy tang. And if I stopped, I would drop from Hipster level 8 to Hipster level 5, which I will not abide.

And also, with all the ANTIBIOTICS that we eat in our meat, and that is over-prescribed and pass through our bodies and into our water supply, a little BIOTIC is bound to help our digestive bacteria population, right?

 

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

The echo chamber is the ego’s home.

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baby in womb

It’s warm and comforting not mingling with the other tribe, like when we were cavemen.

The echo-caveman-chamber is constructed by our unconscious doubts about our self. Leaving it means being challenged, and even being told we are wrong. But what’s wrong with that?

The ego doesn’t like it.

This chamber is like the mother’s womb that the ego wishes it had never left. But it would never admit that.

The umbilical is the chain that keeps us there and sustains our ego, but it holds us back from getting out of our comfort zone to grow.

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

All together, our drops fill the bucket

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drop

Met a guy in IT today.

He told me some of his story.

He was in the military, and gets school paid for and a stipend

But since he makes enough money in his 9-5 and his wife works, too, and he gets a military pension, he uses his stipend to buy computers and give them to poor kids.

I left work inspired…and it’s been awhile.

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

Yeast makes bread, beer, and men

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beer hot tub

(Pin it here to read later)

The boy at the sales counter picked up the can. “What’s this?” he asked his father.
“It’s to grow yeast,” his father said, as he paid for his things.
“Yee-ust?” the boy said.
“Yeast,” his father said.
“What’s that?” the boy asked.
The question hung in the air, as the clerks bagged the beers and said nothing. I waited a few seconds, hesitating, then said, “Yeast are living things, they’re really small, so you can’t see them, but they’re all around. They float in the air, and they can be on this counter top.” I patted the countertop.
The boy looked at me with simple amazement. Then he turned to his father, for some kind of confirmation or reassurance. The father was getting his receipt but stopped and nodded.
I continued: “Do you see when your food goes bad, and it gets black, or brown? That’s yeast and other small living things like it.”
“I’ve seen green stuff,” the boy said excited.
“Yes,” I nodded, “that’s yeast growing on the food, They’re eating the food.”
“Yes,” the father said, “There’s good yeast and bad yeast.” Then he grabbed his bags. “Say thank you.” he said.
The boy wasn’t paying attention. The father prodded him, and looked at me, “say thank you”. I was surprised he was telling the boy to thank me.
“Thank you,” the boy said distracted, still thinking over the idea of these invisible things that surround him.
“Thank you,” the father looked at me earnestly. “You’re welcome,” I told them.
And the two left.
And then I thought, I think I just blew that kid’s mind.
The child’s curiosity. Why did we lose it?

Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.

The best way to overcome frustration

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pouting girl

If you are angry or in pain, separate yourself from anger and pain and watch them. Externalization is the first step to liberation. Step away and look.

The physical events will go on happening, but BY THEMSELVES THEY HAVE NO IMPORTANCE.

It is the mind alone that matters. Whatever happens, you cannot kick and scream in an airline office or in a bank. Society does not allow it. If you do not like their ways, or are not prepared to endure them, don’t fly or carry money. Walk, and if you cannot walk, don’t travel.

If you deal with society you must accept its ways, for its ways are your ways. Your needs and demands have created them. Your desires are so complex and contradictory — no wonder the society you create is also complex and contradictory.

-Nisargadatta Majaraj

The orange tide is coming. Do you smell it?

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Pumpkin spice

The spicy, fall, candle-esque scent of cozy pleasure?

It’s sweeping in, like an old friend, arms wide, giving us a big hug. But it’s not an old friend. And that hug is getting in my personal space. A space reserved for lovers, or moments of severe sadness and empathy with another.

It wears a broad, clueless, orange smile and it’s crawling all over the human landscape; Even before the natural landscape has had a chance to turn. The cinnamon and nutmeg and earthy scents have parachuted in: A marketing mobile infantry.

The comforting, warming scents of spice injected into our food and drinks, into the icings on our baked goods, swirled into our coffee, and dropped into our beer. Before the cold, before the fall of Fall, the pumpkin spice cocktail has been blasted over us, like pixie dust from a soulless crop duster, or smeared without our consent, like glitter from an aggressive stripper.

It’s culture, and not participating is not an option. Because no sooner have you flinched away from the pumpkin invasion, you are thinking of that pumpkin spice, in your pancakes, in your malty beers. and you shrug, and order your tasty treat, because it doesn’t matter what you think. Culture has embraced the pumpkin.

And so you will, too.