////////////80 % SFFR IN 3RD WRLD
//////////////LIMTUK=LF IS MR THN VK
///////////// Ashes
Posted by: "Thomas Schenk" schen016@umn.edu thomasschenk55116
Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:53 pm (PDT)
A few days ago Ace wrote: "...if you burn wood, it becomes ash, it scatters when the wind picks it up and takes it away and while we may not be able to see it any longer, it certainly does not become nothingness. "
Hmmm. We burn a piece of wood, there is light, heat, smoke, ash. The wood was once part of a tree, an oak perhaps. The oak was made of sunlight, carbon dioxide, minerals -- is there a difference between a collection of sunlight, carbon dioxide and minerals and an oak? Is not the difference the very oakiness of the oak. When the tree is burned, the oakiness is gone. There is no oakiness in the ashes, smoke, light, heat of an oak.
So if the oakiness doesn't come from sunlight, carbon dioxide and minerals, where does it come from? Does it not come from "the idea" of oak contained in the acorn? The "idea" being the genetic information of oak, the genetic knowledge of how to organize matter into oak, information about how to survive and prosper "learned" over the course of a billion or so years.
And where does the oakiness of the oak go when it burns? Nothingness would seem to be the correct answer. And where does the humanness of a human go when he or she dies? Will you find a trace of humanness in the ashes of a human? Not even with the best microscope! We too go to nothing.
But the "idea" of the oak goes on in the other oaks of the world; the "idea" of the human goes on in the other humans of the world. Until extinction, the natural idea is literally re-incarnated, re-materialized, as each individual.
Thomas
/////////////// Re: Ashes
Posted by: "jkhall53210" jkhall53210@yahoo.com jkhall53210
Mon Sep 15, 2008 5:34 pm (PDT)
On a grander scale, I'm thinking of the segment in Planet Earth that
goes into the whole ecosystems that develop in the absence of light
but in response to heat coming through cracks deep in the ocean
floor. These too become extinct when the crack closes and the heat
is gone, but appear in different forms where other cracks open. This
is the "idea" of life itself being re-incarnated. What sort of acorn
or egg contains the DNA/idea of life itself? From whence does it re-
materialize?
I am of course perfectly capable of translating when people use
unsatisfactory terms like God - which connotes a personality - and
Spirit - which connotes something breathy rather aimlessly floating
around. If it weren't for the Star Wars film series I would be okay
with the term Force - which connotes some sort of direction.
I keep coming back to the conclusion that there is a direction, not a
purpose or meaning, but a direction, and we are privileged to join,
ever so briefly, the strange journey of matter/energy as it
elaborates and disassembles over and over, in ever new but rarely
totally unfamiliar ways.
Judy
///////////////////Um, just to point out that, at least among naturalistic pantheists, it
is generally more accurate to say that we REVERE (respect) the
Universe, but we don't WORSHIP it (as it is not a supernatural being).
Dave
//////////////Dear Thomas,
Do you think that there was/is a purpose for reproduction?
Some times, it is sad to feel your hard work, struggle to survive here in
this world is in vain. You might suggest living the given life happy as ever
- but how many can?
Regards
Antony Perera
////////////////.....The Impact of Constipation on Growth in Children.
Articles
Pediatric Research. 64(3):308-311, September 2008.
CHAO, HSUN-CHIN; CHEN, SHIH-YEN; CHEN, CHIEN-CHANG; CHANG, KUEI-WEN; KONG, MAN-SHAN; LAI, MING-WEI; CHIU, CHENG-HSUN
Abstract:
The observation on the impact of constipation on nutritional and growth status in healthy children was never reported. During a 4-y period, we evaluated the consequence of constipation on growth in children. The enrolled children were aged between 1 and 15 y with constipation. Medical response of constipation to treatment was evaluated by the scoring of constipation symptoms. The correlation of therapeutic effect of constipation with growth status at 12 wk and 24 wk was statistically evaluated. About 2426 children (1284 boys, 1142 girls) with a mean age of 7.31 +/- 3.65 (range 1.1-14.9) y were enrolled. After 12-wk treatment, significant increase of z-scores of height-for-age, weight-for-age, and body mass index-for-age were all found in patients with good medical responses (1377 cases) than in those with poor medical responses (1049 cases). The 1049 patients with poor medical response received advanced medications; significant increase of z-scores of height-for-age, weight-for-age, and body mass index were also found in these patients. A marked increase of appetite was significantly correlated with better gain on height and weight after treatment. We conclude that chronic constipation may retard growth status in children, and a long-term medication for constipation in children appears beneficial to their growth status.
////////////////Moderate Quantities Of Dirt Make More Rain (September 17, 2008) -- Drought or deluge? Scientists have now discovered how aerosols affect the when, where and how much of rainfall. ... > full story
////////////////........Help For Shopaholics: New Test Determines Who's At Risk For Compulsive Buying
ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2008) — Shopaholics are the butt of many jokes, but obsessive or compulsive shopping can ruin lives.
See also:
Mind & Brain
* Consumer Behavior
* Addiction
* Stress
* Anxiety
* Psychiatry
* Alcoholism
Reference
* Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
* Neurosis
* Personality disorder
* Substance abuse
Compulsive shopping can lead to financial problems, family conflicts, stress, depression, and loss of self-esteem. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, there may be more people engaged in compulsive buying than previously thought.
Authors Nancy M. Ridgway, Monika Kukar-Kinney (both University of Richmond), and Kent B. Monroe (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Richmond) developed a new scale for measuring compulsive buying. The scale consists of just nine questions, and the authors believe it does a better job than previous measures of identifying the number of people who engage in compulsive shopping.
"The scale is designed to identify consumers who have a strong urge to buy, regularly spend a lot of money, and have difficulty resisting the impulse to buy," they explain. Previous measures depend in large part on the consequences of shopping, such as financial difficulties and family strain over money matters. But the authors explain that compulsive shoppers with higher incomes may experience fewer financial consequences yet still have compulsive tendencies.
In the course of three separate studies, the researchers found that compulsive buying was linked to materialism, reduced self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and stress. Compulsive shoppers had positive feelings associated with buying, and they also tended to hide purchases, return items, have more family arguments, and possessed more maxed-out credit cards. The researchers found that approximately 8.9 percent of the population they studied were compulsive shoppers, compared with 5 percent who were identified with the current clinical screener.
"Given the results of these studies, it is important for public policy officials to recognize that there may be a larger group of consumers suffering from problems resulting from compulsive buying than previously thought. Consumers need to be educated to recognize if compulsive buying is a problem in their lives so that they may seek help," the authors conclude.
///////////////////
No comments:
Post a Comment