///////////////The Four Ages of Man - The 4 Stages of Life in Hinduism
By Subhamoy Das, About.com
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Shakespeare divided life into "seven ages". In Hinduism, human life is believed to comprise four stages. These are called "ashramas" and every man should ideally go through each of these stages:
The First Ashrama - "Brahmacharya" or the Student Stage
The Second Ashrama - "Grihastha" or the Householder Stage
The Third Ashrama - "Vanaprastha" or the Hermit Stage
The Fourth Ashrama - "Sannyasa" or the Wandering Ascetic Stage
Brahmacharya - The Celibate Student:
This is a period of formal education. It lasts until the age of 25, during which, the young male leaves home to stay with a guru and attain both spiritual and practical knowledge. During this period, he is called a brahmachari, and is prepared for his future profession, as well as for his family, and social and religious life ahead.
Grihastha - The Married Family Man:
This period begins when a man gets married, and undertakes the responsibility for earning a living and supporting his family. At this stage, Hinduism supports the pursuit of wealth (artha) as a necessity, and indulgence in sexual pleasure (kama), under certain defined social and cosmic norms. This ashrama lasts until around the age of 50. According to the Laws of Manu, when a person's skin wrinkles and his hair greys, he should go out into the forest. However, in real life, most Hindus are so much in love with this second ashrama that the Grihastha stage lasts a lifetime!
Vanaprastha - The Hermit in Retreat:
This stage of a man begins when his duty as a householder comes to an end: He has become a grandfather, his children are grown up, and have established lives of their own. At this age, he should renounce all physical, material and sexual pleasures, retire from his social and professional life, leave his home, and go to live in a forest hut, spending his time in prayers. He is allowed to take his wife along, but is supposed to maintain little contact with the family. This kind of life is indeed very harsh and cruel for an aged person. No wonder, this third ashrama is now nearly obsolete.
Sannyasa - The Wandering Recluse:
At this stage, a man is supposed to be totally devoted to God. He is a sannyasi, he has no home, no other attachment; he has renounced all desires, fears and hopes, duties and responsibilities. He is virtually merged with God, all his worldly ties are broken, and his sole concern becomes attaining moksha, or release from the circle of birth and death. (Suffice it to say, very few Hindu men can go up to this stage of becoming a complete ascetic.) When he dies, the funeral ceremonies (Pretakarma) are performed by his son and heir.
What About Women?:
Although these ashramas are predominantly designed for the male, females too have a vital role to play in each one of them. So women are not actually excluded because they are always supposed to have an active social and religious life at home. However, a woman's role is of a dependent nature since, traditionally, they need the protection of a responsible male at every stage of life.
History of Ashramas:
This system of ashramas is believed to be prevalent since the 5th century BCE in Hindu society. However, historians say that these stages of life were always viewed more as 'ideals' than as common practice. According to one scholar, even in its very beginnings, after the first ashrama, a young adult could choose which of the other ashramas he would wish to pursue for the rest of his life. Today, it is not expected that a Hindu male should go through the four stages, but it still stands as an important "pillar" of Hindu socio-religious tradition.
/////////////////JCELAND AND ITS GCKING WHALERS-BOYCOTT JCELAND IF DONT STOP WHALING
///////////////The Good Life: Where Psychology Stands On Living Well
ScienceDaily (July 25, 2009) — Unfortunately for us, there is no formula for fulfillment or guide to life satisfaction; however, humans have turned to philosophy, religion and science time and again for answers to our existential questions. We may have come a long way since Confucius and Plato, and science continues to piece together some of the answers, but what have we learned so far?
Psychologists Nansook Park and Christopher Peterson from the University of Michigan turned to their own field to ask, "What is a good life and how can we achieve and sustain it?" In their article recently published in Perspectives in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the authors explored the many ways psychology has contributed to, and continues to research, the science of living well.
So far we have learned from psychology that a good life includes experiencing more positive than negative feelings, feeling like your life has been lived well, continually using your talents and strengths, having close interpersonal relationships, being engaged at work and other activities, being a part of a social community, perceiving that life has a meaning, and feeling healthy and safe. And while these conclusions may seem like common sense, we as humans fall short on knowing just how to obtain and maintain these qualities.
Psychology still has a ways to go until the perfect formula for a good life is found. As Park and Peterson put it, "At present, psychology knows more about people's problems and how to solve them than it does about what it means to live well and how to encourage and maintain such a life." They suggest researchers across all disciplines of psychology come together and collaborate on their findings, perhaps pulling together a more complete picture of the human experience.
"In speaking about the psychological good life, we are fond of saying that other people matter," the authors concluded, "It appears that other people matter in science as well."
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No man would listen to you talk if he did not know that it was his turn next.
~Edgar Watson Howe~
//////////////.......Ants more rational than humans
Published: Friday, July 24, 2009 - 13:44 in Psychology & Sociology
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Stephen Pratt/Arizona State University
In a study released online on July 22 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, researchers at Arizona State University and Princeton University show that ants can accomplish a task more rationally than our – multimodal, egg-headed, tool-using, bipedal, opposing-thumbed – selves. This is not the case of humans being "stupider" than ants. Humans and animals simply often make irrational choices when faced with very challenging decisions, note the study's architects Stephen Pratt and Susan Edwards.
"This paradoxical outcome is based on apparent constraint: most individual ants know of only a single option, and the colony's collective choice self-organizes from interactions among many poorly-informed ants," says Pratt, an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
///////////////////Feeling stressed? Then try savoring the scent of lemon, mango, lavender, or other fragrant plants. Scientists in Japan are reporting the first scientific evidence that inhaling certain fragrances alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels. Their study appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.
In the new study, Akio Nakamura and colleagues note that people have inhaled the scent of certain plants since ancient times to help reduce stress, fight inflammation and depression, and induce sleep. Aromatherapy, the use of fragrant plant oils to improve mood and health, has become a popular form of alternative medicine today. And linalool is one of the most widely used substances to soothe away emotional stress. Until now, however, linalool's exact effects on the body have been a deep mystery.
The scientists exposed lab rats to stressful conditions while inhaling and not inhaling linalool. Linalool returned stress-elevated levels of neutrophils and lymphocytes — key parts of the immune system — to near-normal levels. Inhaling linalool also reduced the activity of more than 100 genes that go into overdrive in stressful situations. The findings could form the basis of new blood tests for identifying fragrances that can soothe stress, the researchers say.
/////////////////////SNACK ATTACK-AVOID COOKIES
/////////////BLOCK COOKIES ,BOTH TYPES
///////////////Compared with seasonal flu, a flu pandemic is likely to affect 25-50% of the population. In past pandemics those under the age of five and those over the age of 50 experienced the greatest severity in illness. There is likely to be increased morbidity and mortality in very young children particularly those with underlying health conditions. To date, case fatality of swine flu is between 0.1 and 0.4%.
It is also important to recognise that flu in young children may present differently to adults, with symptoms similar to those of other serious treatable illnesses such as meningitis. Care should be taken not to confuse the presentation of this and other conditions with the symptoms of flu.
It is anticipated that the number of cases is likely to increase into August 2009, with a likely a further increase in the frequency of cases and severity of presentation during the winter of 2009/10. Clearly there are implications for services beyond the need to manage and treat cases, such as staff shortages and implications for patients with long term conditions or those requiring specialty services.
//////////////////............
We Are All Africans
All non-African females are descendants of L3 line from Africa, and males have Y chromosome M-168
Nayan Chanda
Businessworld, 21 July 2009
Sweden’s well-known author Lasse Berg often begins his book talk with an attention-getter: “I am glad to see so many Africans in the room”. it invariably makes his (largely blond and Nordic) audience turn around to see where all the Africans are. Of course, Berg means everyone present. The author of Dawn over Kalahari: How Man Became Man proceeds to tell the story of how all humanity emerged out of the so-called dark continent and populated the earth.
I think of Berg’s message when I read about an African student in Delhi being harassed by catcalls referring to his dark skin — kalia, kaala, habshi — or for that matter Indians from the North-east being derided as ‘chinki’ for their Chinese look. This is not different from the discrimination faced by Indian students in Australia who have recently been victims of “curry bashing”. Such racist insults seem to be increasing, or perhaps becoming more visible as the world becomes more integrated than ever. The gap between our knowledge of who we are and how we treat each other is as vast as it is stark.
Often these racial incidents are dismissed by the elite as acts of hoodlums or narrow-minded individuals. Surely, we all know humanity is one. Even leaving philosophical magnanimity or liberalism to one side, there is the simple biological fact that in every cell of our body we carry evidence of our common African origins. The startling 1987 discovery of our common origin by Allan Wilson and Rebecca Cann by studying mtDNA (the maternal DNA) from samples dispersed all over the world led Newsweek to run a cover story with an image of an African Adam and Eve. In the ensuing years, massive amounts of genetic research has laid to rest any doubt about our African origin. While all non-African females are descendants of L3 line from Africa, our earliest common father was one with a Y chromosome marker, M-168.
Curious about my own forebears, I sent my DNA anonymously for testing. The results were startling. The report told me I was an Indian because I had M-52 marker, which is predominantly Indian. But the report also confirmed the earliest Y-chromosome in my DNA was the same M-168 — that every male on the planet carries in his cells. My ancestors reached India some 2,000 generations ago.
The scientific evidence that we share the same African ancestry has been around for over two decades. Yet, in speaking about this to audiences across four continents, while presenting my book Bound Together I have encountered great surprise, and some scepticism. For whatever reason, this dramatic scientific confirmation of our common origin appears not to have penetrated the consciousness of even the most well-educated. Will wider dissemination of the scientific facts make any difference to the racist sentiment? Perhaps not in the short term. But that should be more the reason to start with our children, and make our genetic history an essential part of school curriculum.
Wide diffusion of the fact that 99.9 per cent of all human DNA is the same and pigmentation and other physical attributes are literally skin-deep may, over time, make us more accepting of others who look different. The understanding that our multi-hued skin, shape of our eyes and forms of our body were sculpted by a millennia of climatic conditions and natural selection might also make us less tolerant of the hoodlums and ignoramuses who indulge in racial discrimination. Teachers might start by downloading an accessible article from the July 2008 issue of Scientific American (www.scientificamerican.com), so that they can share with students the story of our African journey. They might even encourage volunteers to send their DNA for testing deep ancestry through National Genographic project (genographic.nationalgeographic.com), and share the results with the whole school.
Knowledge has not prevented racism and other malignancies that infect us, but we cannot hope to eliminate the scourge without it. Just five years ago, most people had no knowledge, let alone concern about global warming. But accumulated scientific evidence and its diffusion on a wider scale has produced greater awareness. The fact is that globalisation has increased our interdependence and exposure to others. To reduce the friction that results from the close encounter with other members of human tribe, we need to internalise what Berg tells his audience: We are all blacks.
Nayan Chanda is director of publications at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalisation and Editor of YaleGlobal Online.
////////////////////New “Great Wall” of Sand Could Protect Two Billion People
The "desertification" of the Sahara plains has the potential to displace more than two billion people in the years to come. But one architect has a plan to stop it: building a giant wall of sand.
By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on July 26 2009 Filed under General Interest | Green |
Sahara Desert. Image: iStockphoto
The Sahara Desert stretches on for 3.5 million square miles, almost as large as the entire continental United States—but, thanks to shifting sand dunes, scientists say that the desert wasteland has the potential to grow far, far bigger.
That would spell bad news for an entire third of the world’s population in adjacent areas including sub-Saharan Africa, China, and central Asian countries, which would eventually be displaced by the sand’s migration into their land, destroying farmland and other habitats.
The threat of global warming’s on everyone’s radar these days, but the sand migration, known as “desertification,” has the problem to become an even more monumental problem. According to a 2007 UN report, the issue is “the greatest environmental challenge of our times.”
“It affects about 140 countries,” architect Magnus Larsson told BBC News. If desertification causes all of these inhabitants to evacuate, it could spell disaster for the planet.
But Larsson has a plan: at this year’s TED Conference, he spoke of his vision of creating a “Great Wall” built out of sand, which would prevent the desert from spreading. To keep the wall from blowing down, it would be sealed with Bacilius pasteuri, a type of bacteria found naturally in wetlands.
“It is a microorganism which chemically produces calcite - a kind of natural cement,” said Larsson.
Such a wall would take many years to plan and build, but Larsson is hopeful that his life-saving idea will have legs.
“It’s a beginning, it’s a vision; if nothing else I would like this scheme to initiate a discussion,” he said.
///////////////////Effects of walnut consumption on blood lipids and other cardiovascular risk factors: a meta-analysis and systematic review. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jul;90(1):56-63. Epub 2009 May 20. (Review) PMID: 19458020
Read Abstract Read Comments
Clinical Evidence Topic: Primary prevention: dyslipidaemia
DISCIPLINE RELEVANCE TO PRACTICE IS THIS NEWS?
Cardiology
Endocrine
General Internal Medicine-Primary Care(US)
General Practice(GP)/Family Practice(FP)
Save Article Email this article to a colleague Printer Friendly Version
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Consumption of nuts has been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease events and death. Walnuts in particular have a unique profile: they are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which may improve blood lipids and other cardiovascular disease risk factors. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to conduct a literature review and a meta-analysis to combine the results from several trials and to estimate the effect of walnuts on blood lipids. DESIGN: Literature databases were searched for published trials that compared a specifically walnut-enhanced diet with a control diet. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis of weighted mean differences (WMDs) of lipid outcomes.
RESULTS: Thirteen studies representing 365 participants were included in the analysis. Diets lasted 4-24 wk with walnuts providing 10-24% of total calories. When compared with control diets, diets supplemented with walnuts resulted in a significantly greater decrease in total cholesterol and in LDL-cholesterol concentrations (total cholesterol: WMD = -10.3 mg/dL, P < 0.001; LDL cholesterol: WMD = -9.2 mg/dL, P < 0.001). HDL cholesterol and triglycerides were not significantly affected by walnut diets more than with control diets (HDL cholesterol: WMD = -0.2, P = 0.8; triglycerides: WMD = -3.9, P = 0.3). Other results reported in the trials indicated that walnuts provided significant benefits for certain antioxidant capacity and inflammatory markers and had no adverse effects on body weight [body mass index (kg/m(2)): WMD = -0.4, P = 0.5; weight (kg): WMD = -0.05, P = 0.97].
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, high-walnut-enriched diets significantly decreased total and LDL cholesterol for the duration of the short-term trials. Larger and longer-term trials are needed to address the effects of walnut consumption on cardiovascular risk and body weight.
/////////////////// Effectiveness of amoxicillin/clavulanate potassium in the treatment of acute bacterial sinusitis in children. Pediatrics. 2009 Jul;124(1):9-15. (Original) PMID: 19564277
Read Abstract Read Comments
Clinical Evidence Topic: Sinusitis (acute)
DISCIPLINE RELEVANCE TO PRACTICE IS THIS NEWS?
General Practice(GP)/Family Practice(FP)
Pediatrics (General)
Respirology/Pulmonology
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The role of antibiotic therapy in managing acute bacterial sinusitis (ABS) in children is controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of high-dose amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate in the treatment of children diagnosed with ABS.
METHODS: This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Children 1 to 10 years of age with a clinical presentation compatible with ABS were eligible for participation. Patients were stratified according to age (<6 or >or=6 years) and clinical severity and randomly assigned to receive either amoxicillin (90 mg/kg) with potassium clavulanate (6.4 mg/kg) or placebo. A symptom survey was performed on days 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 20, and 30. Patients were examined on day 14. Children`s conditions were rated as cured, improved, or failed according to scoring rules.
RESULTS: Two thousand one hundred thirty-five children with respiratory complaints were screened for enrollment; 139 (6.5%) had ABS. Fifty-eight patients were enrolled, and 56 were randomly assigned. The mean age was 66 +/- 30 months. Fifty (89%) patients presented with persistent symptoms, and 6 (11%) presented with nonpersistent symptoms. In 24 (43%) children, the illness was classified as mild, whereas in the remaining 32 (57%) children it was severe. Of the 28 children who received the antibiotic, 14 (50%) were cured, 4 (14%) were improved, 4 (14%) experienced treatment failure, and 6 (21%) withdrew. Of the 28 children who received placebo, 4 (14%) were cured, 5 (18%) improved, and 19 (68%) experienced treatment failure. Children receiving the antibiotic were more likely to be cured (50% vs 14%) and less likely to have treatment failure (14% vs 68%) than children receiving the placebo.
CONCLUSIONS: ABS is a common complication of viral upper respiratory infections. Amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate results in significantly more cure
/////////////////////FLT SRRY ABT KTHYS DG WITH ENTEROCOLITIS
//////////////////..........Should we be promoting safer cigarettes?
Posted by Northern Doctor at 19/7/2009 9:09 PM BST
Take a moment to take a deep drag on a few breathtaking statistics. Across the world approximately 1.3 billion people use tobacco products and by 2030 it is estimated that 10 million people will die annually from smoking-related diseases and 70% of these deaths will be in developing countries. We’ve known about the harmful effects of smoking for over 50 years and yet over that same period 6 million Britons have died of tobacco-related disease. Is there anything else we can do to reduce this burden?
New Scientist ran an article in June: Can smoking ever be made safe? Big Tobacco is working hard to come up with safer cigarettes. They are modifying filters, manipulating tobacco blends and measuring biomarkers in a bid to produce minimise harm. But is there really a place for a harm-reduction approach to cigarettes? As a doctor all I really promote is an abstinence model. I invest little effort in encouraging smokers to smoke less in those that can’t or won’t stop.
This is in stark contrast to my approach with heroin users. I prescribe methadone but even if abstinence isn’t reached I remain confident that it is likely to be helping them. I’ll even give advice on how to inject safely or other measures to reduce harm.
It’s no secret that it’s hard to stop smoking. Bandolier did an interesting little analysis of trials which included smokers and heroin addicts. They asked: which is the most addictive? In a rather elegant twist they looked at the cessation rates in the placebo arms of all the relevant trials. Cessation rates for smokers were around 8-9% yet for opiates users were around 43%. No surprises there - smoking is extraordinarily difficult to stop. Even in those that are highly motivated 12 month cessation rates are often around 10%. Opposing a harm reduction approach might be doing a grave disservice to those that just find it too tough.
The accompanying New Scientist editorial suggests:
Abstinence cannot be the only policy, however. Pragmatists will see the sense of safer cigarettes. There is a hard core of people who cannot or will not give up, and safer cigarettes could also help in poorer parts of the world, where more and more people are taking up smoking
My first reaction is not to trust Big Tobacco. It would clearly be an understatement to say they have a self-interest. Any evidence from the tobacco industry suggesting safer cigarettes will have to be filtered with great care but perhaps we shouldn't dismiss it out of hand.
///////////////“We seem to gain wisdom more readily
through our failures than through our
successes. We always think of failure
as the antithesis of success, but it
isn't. Success often lies just the other
side of failure.”
/////////////////.........The dynamics of police-citizen encounters are fraught power exchanges,
whether it is a brutal Indian police encounter with a suspect or an
American cop being frostily polite while violating the rights of
citizens; the institution of police overwhelmingly depends on
intimidation and dominance for its authority, and the police anywhere
routinely lie on their reports. Race or "right-wingness" plays a
marginal role in this conduct.
//////////////SASIALIT=have no doubt that unspeakble cruelty is visited upon the poor and the dalits in india. we have bonded labor in many parts of the country. i don't deny any of this. and yes, racism can be compared to this but not still not to the same extent.
>
/////////////////Nursing Schools Should Warn Students About Grueling Hours, Article Says
Many newly licensed registered nurses said the reality they found on their first few years on the job was far from what they expected.
/////////////////COLLECTIVE DECISN MAKING REDUCES ERRORS
////////////////She also revives the old argument that Stephen Jay Gould had with Mr Dawkins, about how smoothly evolution progresses. Gould, a palaeontologist, observed that there are long periods of stasis in the fossil record, which is true, and inferred from this that selfish genery is therefore wrong because it predicts continual change, which is questionable. It is just as plausible that selfish genery arrives rapidly at optimal designs, and that these shift only when what is optimal alters because, say, the environment has changed.
/////////////////////Even the recently observed phenomenon of intergenerational epigenetics, which at first sight looks like the inheritance of acquired characteristics (a real Darwinian no-no), probably has less to it than meets the eye. Epigenetic changes are heritable changes to the regulation of a cell’s genes, caused by extra molecules being attached to those genes. They happen when cells specialise so as to become parts of particular body tissues. Recently, it has been shown that germ-cells, too, are subject to epigenetic change, sometimes in response to environmental stimuli. To this extent, acquired characteristics are, indeed, being transmitted across the generations. But those changes are not passed on indefinitely, like a successful genetic mutation would be. Instead, they are wiped out over a generation or two. And, in any case, gene regulation happens under the control of genes that are as selfish as any others.
FRM SLFISH GENIUS
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