Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Monday, June 6, 2016

The Dead Can Speak


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_quantum_laws

For most European Americans, the idea that the dead can speak from beyond their actual time on Earthin other time-frames than our ownis a story told to them solely though pop culture, in cheesy Hollywood movies about evil Ouija boards or haunted houses rife with demonic possession. But, if you delve just a little deeper into better content than the kind offered on generic prime-time t.v., you'll find a lot more varied factual accounts of our relationships with our ancestors, as told in our very blood and bones.

Forensic science, in the duel branches of forensic pathology and forensic archaeology, can uncover the brutally violent truths behind the deaths and oppression writ upon our ancestors bodies (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/), ones that that were denied life in the history books and textbooks of our mutual pasts, as white America sought to exploit their often weaker economic poverty through a cultural dominance that's extremely one-sided, because cultural assimilation often goes hand-in-hand with bloody wars for land and other precious resources, which means your kind of reminiscently Asiatic eyes are a most inconvenient feature to be dealt with evenhandedly. You are that which they wanted to destroy.

And so, with the now-modern inconvenience of genetic testing and cultural databases, it doesn't really matter what an opportunistic liar or an immoral cheat says or does, because the truth will come out in your blood work, whether you like it or not (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3122205/White-NAACP-leader-pretended-black-pictured-time-scandal-broke-responds-atatcks-saying-don-t-two-sh-ts-gusy-think.html). There's no hairstyle or skin tone that a wack-job looking to exploit white America's guilt about race can play, because science has made gaming the system obsolete. If you are just 25% Native American, you can get money from the state for college, just like a person of partial African-American descent can score pricey contacts and seed money for businesses from the NAACP, making your genuine ethnicity a very lucrative thing of the past. 


With your latest genetic test in hand, your reality changes, or, as the case with me, it becomes the history of your name (as my name) as it is written on the features of most modern Americans, now as your factually-verified claim laid to rest. It simply is so. But, it's way more than ancestral land rights or fishing claims, important as those are to indigenous people. Enter into the scene every carnival barker of yore who proclaimed their psychic ability to contact the dead, looking to take advantage of that ever-grieving parent who lost a teenager too early to a drunk driver, or a car accident of any type, or perhaps a grisly murder/suicide. So many questions to ask them...are they happy? What actually happened?

Then, the mystical arts of speaking to the dead become the fodder of anyone with an open question or hard emotional case that needs solving, especially if it involves child rape and/or murder, in our bids to relieve the extreme pain of a parent lost to grief. It's hard not to imagine what avenues we would not explore for them as a culture, in an attempt to alleviate such anguish. So what if she's a crazy housewife from "Lawguyland" (that's "Long Island" for the uninitiated) with a harsh accent and a phonily exaggerated appearance who "reads" people in an audience really well through their "tells"? We want to believe. I was no stranger to the allures of a good ghost story as a kid, buying book after book about poltergeists, only to be disappointed by a complete lack of supernaturally spooky life experiences. So, where the heck are they anyway?

And then the people I loved the most in this world died, my beloved grandparents, and with them, my tether to their pasts, as our ethnic stories and personalities that we had so lovingly clung to in each other, now together again in this new land of hope, faith, and promise. I started visiting my grandfather's grave alone, just to see what I would feel. At first, it was small but beautiful experiences, like a young stag grazing alone in the cemetery's grass with new moss on his antlers, looking up at me at the exact same time I reached my grandfather's grave stone, or hearing his distinctive old New York voice so clearly that I knew I had connected with him in my mind's eye with a searingly accurate recollection.

After that, it was game on. It was no longer a process driven internally by me and my strong memories, however great they were at alleviating my profound sense of loss. No, I could hear my grandmother laughingly explain to my maiden aunt living with her that now I was splashing around like a little girl in my bathtub, and then she would say the date and time in a future that held a middle-aged me alone in an old Hudson Valley home without her actual physical presence. It was so cheerfully normal, that I knew our sound waves were actually reaching each other in a way other people could hear, too, which is a discovery that's not without a rather extensive scientific past. 

Lots of audiophiles have sworn that they connected with their loved ones through a radio tuned to a particular frequency, like a son hearing his father (now deceased) talking to his grown son in the future using the same old device, ham radio aficionados both. Lucille Ball famously told the story of her dental work transmitting radio broadcasts through her mouth on live television back in the day (http://altereddimensions.net/2014/lucille-ball-picks-up-morse-code-radio-through-dental-work-fillings)! Hollywood made a sensationalist version of it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_%28film%29) by skirting around the real physics behind radio frequencies and audio signals that bounce around the earth's atmosphere, coming back around again and again after the earth's rotation is complete. 

What was once wacky science fiction becomes our reality with time, backed by real hard science (http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F_Hearing_Voices_From_Space.html). Your grandparents and mine would no more have believed that you could hear voices from space anymore than my grandmother thought she would live to see the day we bought water from plastic bottles, free as it was for her in the city, the source of some of the best water on earth. It would have been unthinkable that such a vast resource as readily available clean water would be sold back to us through superficial hacks like "beverage companies", but such is the case as it is now. Why would anyone drink from harmful plastic bottles when the minerals of city water have amazing health benefits that come straight outta the tap? And my grandparents were right.

The same goes with our digital imaging advances and microscopic investigations. What was completely unbelievable a few short years ago is now our day-to-day reality. Computers and the Internet? When was the last time you went a full day without your smartphone or tablet? When was the last time you didn't have Internet access? Contemplate that, and you're already more than halfway there. The far-out astrophysicist who launched the best photographic lens we developed at the time weren't just looking for space dust out there. They were looking for the Eye of G-d and His Creation of the Universe we live in, beyond time and space, in this here-and-now for all times, because our real natural phenomenons come from the source of all life itself. Welcome to the space age, kids. It's a groovy place where we're one, even you there, that curmudgeonly old guy afraid of average machines like the common PC. This galloping mechanized horse engine now as wings to fly. See you out there! Now I can hear it.





Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Badass Dragonfly


Me and a young dragonfly, on a beautiful Spring day.

Last week I walked out of the library on a beautifully sunny, warmly seasonal day to spot one very active dragonfly flitting about the entrance. I could tell right away that it wasn't a full grown insect by the size of it, but this little guy already had moxie. I watched it fly around it for awhile before I took out my smartphone to snap a few pics, fretting that the automatic door to the library would draw it in and seal its' young fate forever, before life really began. 

Within minutes I had a lot more to worry about, because I inevitably began attracting attention, which happens every single day of my life. Often I can channel those attentions and energies into more constructive actions, but not always. 

First, some older guy passing by wanted to pick it up and move it after I pointed it out. He worried in imitation of me, upping the conversational ante a notch by saying that the youngster would immediately get crushed by a passerby. He then went one "douchebag" move further, placing his socked Birkenstock foot right next to the bug to make it fly away, supposedly making his point about its' safety by its' immobility. It hadn't moved at all in response to him, unlike the fluttery open-wing display the young bug had flashed at me when I got closer to it earlier.

But that's not all, folks. Two pale hipster chicks with matching skinny jeans, face piercings, and large tats wanted to "help" out, too! I warned one of them away by pointing out her big dog jerking about on a small leash, with the well-known fact that dogs like to chase and eat bugs. Amateurs. One of them decided to get a piece of paper from within the building for emergency bug transport, thus opening and closing the very door I was trying to keep shut once again, which I kept repeating futilely to the small crowd. 

I think she thought she was an expert on all things related to bugs by stint of the rather odd and prominently displayed tattoo on her forearm of a lady's head inside a set of spider legs. It resembled her and her friend, who looked almost the same to me, but apparently I was way wrong about that, too! Oh...that's not what I meant by "Animal Behaviorist", out-of-touch hipster. They always kinda suck.

Finally, one of my older retiree friends from yoga saved me from the gathering crowd by simply passing by. It had gotten way out of hand over this one bug, so I just walked away from the situation. 

We chatted as we walked uphill about tai chi, yoga, seasonal storms and flooding, how water always flows downhill, and realtors that take advantage of your relative ignorance by selling you a place on the cheap that floods with each passing storm because you didn't research water tables before buying the house you now own (which is really about the inanity inherent in the human condition), and then finally, I looked at her tote bag printed with Northwestern Native motifs from her cruise to Alaska, because I know about that stuff, too. She looked a bit pale and exhausted as we parted ways at the corner.

And that's called "Mid-afternoon" to me, kids. I have a feeling me and the juvenile dragonfly I left by the library are going to be just fine without a group of well-intentioned helpers. Let's just call it "instinct" for today's lesson about appropriateness.  Enjoy the weather today. It's perfection.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Eye of a Needle


Lately there's been a lot of headlines on t.v. news and entertainment media about ongoing struggles with the definitions of certain words that relate to human reproduction, which is odd to me, because we've sent men to the moon and back successfully, therefore demonstrating that as a society, we've mastered complex technological feats like astrophysics and space travel. 

Apparently the womb of a woman is still too difficult for some folks to understand? Please allow me to clear up any big, grave misconceptions you may have about words like "life" and "kill", because here's what an actual human embryo in the eye of a needle (that we cannot see with the naked eye) looks like: 


http://c300221.r21.cf1.rackcdn.com/embryo-in-needles-eye-endless-forms-most-beautiful-1340169157_b.jpg
This is called "microscopic imaging". It's been around for awhile.

I know it seems weird to some people that I can have such mature conversations about microbiology, which is also somewhat strange to me, because my mother is a retired Microbiologist and Roman Catholic, and as such, we have no gaping divides between the arts of religion, science, technology, and the well-known (and very well-documented) aspects of mammalian reproduction. 

Of course, we are also an exceptionally well-educated clan, and I do understand that. But fears can grow in the darkest of places, sometimes attaching itself to a woman's body in utero*, in a process called "gestation" that we cannot see happening, because it happens inside our bodies without us seeing it (or being able to mentally control it), because we lack inhuman superpowers like see-through X-ray vision and telekinesis. Well, at least for now. Maybe we'll evolve into that some day! Wouldn't that be cool?!


http://i.imgur.com/6axqGqO.jpg
An embryo sitting on the tip of a needle.

Anyway, that may sound kind of disturbing for a mom to do, but think of it this way: natural bodily processes occur every single day right here on Planet Earth, in every single carbon-based life-form on the planet, be they male, female, asexual, or not. Be not afraid of it!

In fact, cell division also happens each and every day, whether we want it or not, and again, whether or not we can visibly see it happening, regardless of gender and/or sex. 

Here's a series of pictures of embryonic cell division, also captured photographically under the view of something called an Electron Microscope** (thanks to "Dr. Diane" for the science lessons;) Don't be alarmed if you don't understand the caption beneath the image below. We do, and we live to serve.


http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2009/04/28/humrep.dep107/F2.large.jpg
Mesenchymal stem cells facilitate the derivation of human embryonic stem cells from cryopreserved poor-quality embryos. For more on this technology and others (like ultra-sounds), please click here: http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/1/4/576.

23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”

*    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_utero
**  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_microscope

For more on the concept of "viability" and its' linguistic roots, please see additional definitions by clicking here: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=viable.
 

Monday, April 13, 2015

Dormant seed pods, and other cool things.


Here's a seed pod in its' "latent" phase.

I will always love all things botanical, as today I give special "thanks" to my mom for being there with me, at home in her gardens, speaking their names to me in Latin or French whenever I wanted, (because she wrote her Master's dissertation in French way back in the early 60s, as one of the few women at her university to major in science), and for my deep, abiding love of all plant life. I think Springtime is so exciting, while we wait for life that was once dormant to burst back into riotous life. I know can't wait to see the show. Here we go again!


Up close and personal with nature!
Two seed pods are better than one!
A different view reveals a nautilus shape. Cool!
Can't wait for the "big show" to start! Gotta love Springtime.

P.S. - For a special bonus round of "good clean fun", try reading the photo captions aloud to yourself in a strong "New Yawk mutha's" type of accent. 
I dare you to not laugh while you do it!


Thursday, March 26, 2015

Acts of Creation


When I was in 7th grade biology lab at Felix V. Festa Junior High in West Nyack, New York (and, yes, I really DID walk 2.6 miles as a child uphill, every day for two years in the rain, sleet, or snow, like an unpaid postal worker carrying a load of heavy school bookshttps://www.google.com/maps/dir/3+Stegmeyer+Ln,+New+City,+NY+10956/Felix+Festa+Middle+School+Campus,+Parrott+Road,+West+Nyack,+NY/@41.1217371,-74.0001876,3203m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2c29992dab085:0xbcdd2ab48bbf66e3!2m2!1d-74.0015367!2d41.1213911!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2c288479eb5b9:0xfe59e4b7c9903e94!2m2!1d-73.982099!2d41.123044), my excellent science teacher instructed us to debate Creationism vs. Evolution.

I chose to debate the scientific principle that we know to be true. So, as we sat down on opposing sides, I knew I had it in the bag, but I was shocked to see kids who were considered rather good students choosing the other side, like the head cheerleader and the teacher's pet with the really good grades. What the....wait a minute....I know this kind of situation. It's called being a "Show Pony", and it's how ass-kissing students work the academic system instead of learning from it, for grades and appearances. Good! It means I can outthink the opposition.

And I did, but thinking wasn't really the challenge for me. My main obstacle was keeping myself cool in the the heat of battle. When the spoiled, self-obsessed cheerleader, formerly of the big metal braces, thick glasses, and quick Spring Break nose job (Hi, Lauren!) shouted back to my carbon-dating rebuttal that "Scientists can do anything!", I knew it was a setup. There are days when my microbiologist mom can barely drag herself out of bed (then and now), let alone remake the world on a totally cellular level to be whatever she wants it to be like a magician pulling a hat trick, but this kid didn't seem to understand that. She didn't seem to actually KNOW anything. She was just yelling words back at me without any evidence to support her wild claims about the world we live in. A willfully protected ignorance like hers had eluded me. What was I supposed to do now?!

I colored, shocked and adrift for a moment in her fiercely childish anger at being outsmarted by me so easily, as I looked to my science teacher for help in controlling her student's temper tantrum. She stood behind the row of chairs on the Creationist side and nodded slowly at me, then gave me a silent, "cool it down" gesture. That was it. I took a deep breath, in reply: "But, why? Why would someone do that?" She sputtered, stalled, then failed the debate entirely. "Well, www-welll....I don't know!" You don't know. And she knew it, too. It was a profound victory for me that I never forgot, or that class. Thank you, "Mrs. Science Teacher", from the bottom of my heart, because this Rockland County girl was at least 2-4 years younger than all of her classmates in junior high school, as it was for me throughout my early academic life. I was only 12 years old the first time I tackled that particular fear. You'd be wise to remember that about me, readers. It will serve you well.


“I would say that all our sciences are the material that has to be mythologized. A mythology gives spiritual import - what one might call rather the psychological, inward import, of the world of nature round about us, as understood today. There's no real conflict between science and religion ... What is in conflict is the science of 2000 BC ... and the science of the 20th century AD.”
Joseph Campbell




Saturday, August 30, 2014

Predator vs. Predator


Aha, Corvus! I see you, crow.

We've had a series of absolutely beautiful mornings with bright, warm sun, cooled by light breezes. Sometimes it's the perfect way to drink coffee and take a good look around, which was exactly what I did. 
I was not disappointed by my porch musings. Across the street, a dead pine among a stand of healthy trees serves as a watchtower for most of the birds that live nearby, the short list that I observed being this: cardinals, sparrows, mourning doves, blue jays, and a few powerful predators perched at the top. At first, a duo of large crows cawed and searched for food, while a few smaller birds clustered on the branches beneath them. But a feather I found a few days earlier was the harbinger of something new to the neighborhood.

New to the neighborhood.

To my surprise, the next morning when I opened the door, I was rewarded with the sight of a small red-tailed hawk at the top spot. 
I sat down to watch him engage his environment, and he was ruling well. A dove landed then quickly took off, then the crows circled nearby from atop a healthy pine, one braving the hawk's watchful gaze to land on a lower branch, only to take off quickly to report back to its' mate. 
I could tell the hawk was extremely aware of its' surroundings. 
Every time it swivelled its' head, the patch of feathers switched from white to brown, the color of the head feathers on the side. It's young and growing fast. I spotted a feather that still had some white downy chick feathers on it after I found a larger, more adult one. 

The last morning I saw it on top of the dead pine tree, I conspicuously took out my dark smart phone camera, pointed it right at the tree from a standing position and snapped a few pics, which sealed the deal that I already knew existed between us, about who was the bigger, smarter predator in the neighborhood. I haven't seen it since.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Beautiful Mushrooms and a Gorgeous Feather


I love collecting beautiful samples during my daily walks around town, sometimes shooting a bunch of images that go together well. So, instead of an individual Instagram and/or Twitter post (which you should totally check out for different content I publish on there, too), here's a bevy of natural beauties that are out there on G-d's green earth, just like you. Enjoy the last warm breath of summer this week!


Everyday magic, in a Fairy Bonnet mushroom.(Coprinellus disseminatus)

The mark of a fearsome predator, the Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).


Thursday, August 21, 2014

Brood Cicadia: Back Again in 2014


No way! What an incredible specimen.

Last year, a certain type of cicadia that only breeds every 17 years or so (http://mariedoucette.blogspot.com/2013/06/nature-brood-ii.html), emerged from their dormant state to spectacular profusion, and they are enormous. This lovely specimen (pictured above), was so completely fresh and intact, some of its' front legs still moved from the fluid flowing within. Yes! That's fresh, yo.

Bug specimen next to piece of wood for size comparison.

So, I did what any self-respecting, wanna-be, 21st century da Vinci would: I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and took a picture of it, then wrapped that bitch up in a couple of pieces of paper torn out of a notebook I always carry, so I could look at it more closely at home later on in the day.

Last years' specimen, labeled and protected for future preservation.

It was even more beautiful up close, a phenomenally unique specimen. Keen observation out in the field is so essential to our type of scholarship, that an art student cannot enter the hallowed halls of RISD (The Rhode Island School of Design) without it. 


http://www.risd.edu/uploadedImages/RISD_edu/About_RISD/News/press_photo/Edna%20W.%20Lawrence%20Nature%20Lab(1).jpg
The Nature Lab, at the Rhode Island School of Design

We have a nature lab on campus that speaks to the core of who we are as a people out in the world: artists, designers, scientists, engineers, educators, leaders, and mentors. We are the builders, makers, doers, thinkers, and hardcore scholars that make the world go forward in such beautifully perfect harmony. Well, most of the time. 

One cannot be an intellectual without a foundation like this at their core, and I wouldn't want to even try it. I've been bringing home samples since I was a kid. It's more than some pretty picture, this is who I am. Happy hunting, collectors.


Thursday, August 7, 2014

Warrior in Disguise: The Shield Bug


Holy sh#t!! What is that?! It's massive, man...

At first I thought this prime specimen was a big tick that thankfully 
died it's last days on the porch, (I had a bout with bad sickness during college because of a tick bite, but more on that some other time), because of the flatness that's typically associated with the bug. 
But it had these large wings that had settled askew and out from 
the body, with colors that just didn't add up to a regular ole tick. 

I got a piece of wood from a bamboo stalk that I had I cut down with my trusty pen knife on my key chain, during another one of my walks around town on a hot, lazy afternoon that had revealed a stand of thick, hearty bamboo grown by a homeowner to obscure their backyard from a parking lot in town, and then I did when any self-respecting country person would do: I flipped that bitch over to get a closer look at it. 

Wow! I'd never seen markings like these before, and now I know why: the shield bug feeds only on certain types of trees and wood, the kind that's preferably been cured through time and the rain of many humid summers. I hope it took out some mighty foes before dying flat on it's back, like a true warrior would want. 

To learn more, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatomoidea.


Tuesday, July 1, 2014

The Vortex


Whoa! Check out those clouds, dude! Totally "Stairway to Heaven".

Lately, what with the common regularity of Doomsday predictions now fully realized and acted out daily on t.v. and in movies, we've become highly sensitized to news weather deliberately, in order to boost ratings through hooking viewers on the active creation of fear, which propels the vulnerable amongst us to tune in angst, seeking solace from those Doctors of Weather (called "Meteorologists") in some ritualistic pattern of fear followed by soothing comfort, the balm to our collective anxieties. Maybe news forecasters can wear big, peaked hats painted with stars, like some hammy old actor playing Nostradamus to the hilt, so we get the point more readily!

It's true, we did actively melt the polar ice caps due to our own selfish neglect, but that's hardly what one could classify as "new" (http://mariedoucette.blogspot.com/2014/05/as-we-know-it.html). What is new is our collective awareness of how that neglect has caused fires to rage uncontrolled, waters to overflow in streams, and tornadoes to rip through towns in increasing frequencies of violent intensity. There must be strong language to match!


More beautifully lit clouds. Gorgeous!

Enter the evil "Vortex", what was once dubbed the "Polar Vortex" in winter (to describe a fucking snowstorm, or a heavy downfall of snow once called a "blizzard", a common occurrence in the Northeastern U.S. and the Northern Hemisphere), now re-purposed for the summertime (with its pesky regularly occurring thunderstorms, also common in the Northeast) as simply, The Vortex, like some villain dressed in all-black from a mythical fairy tale fable.

I do understand the challenges behind selling something as banal as a heavy summer rainstorm, (because I'm a publishing professional, and selling something as simple as a good diet combined with regular exercise in book form must be fashioned anew with some fucked up gimmick, like the Neanderthals), and while I do understand it is hard to make that seem "new", I really don't fucking appreciate a thunderstorm artificially heightened to some weird new height as a fake movie villain (which, once again, is really weird, man, and you should totally know upfront that I'm on to you, so, enough already), because it's incredible as it is: a beautiful, and sometimes scary, act of nature.  
See it, and wonder.

After the cloud vortex, the sun sets beautifully.
Bravo! Another winning performance on Planet Earth! Shows over, folks.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Health and Wellness Today

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Ilya_Ilyich_Mechnikov_1913.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotic
I've found some really good things lately that I want to share with you. The first has been practically miraculous for someone like me who has inherited digestive flora and fauna that are less effective than most, and it comes in one handy little pill that I take every morning as part of my routine: the probiotic supplement. I watched my little brother struggle with horribly painful constipation and bloating gas as a baby boy, a trait he shares with me, my dad, and others in my direct family line, so we knew it was genetic without being told, though science does back up congenital conditions nowadays. We used to think problems like that were something you had to deal with, like a bad dinner guest: eat, drink, suffer from painful gas that isn't relieved, ever. I can't explain to you the relief one little pill full of healthy, happy bacteria has done for my digestive tract, which lacks the proper blend of enzymes and bacteria needed for the breakdown of food necessary for optimal elimination from our bodies, except that I haven't felt this good in years.
Regularity has always escaped me, and it's caused me enormous embarrassment all my life. I'm so glad to finally find relief for a problem that's been so hard to solve and elusive in a cure. It's not just the elimination of painful bloating, constipation, with loud, bubbly, gassy poor digestion, either: the amount of productive waste I see every morning in the bowl (haha! sorry) has become a normal routine that I can count on, and in life, that's a pretty rare thing. Take it, and be free of worrying about it for the rest of the day. Crossing a problem like this off your list is such a big blessing for people with digestive problems. No more painful cures that are worse than the condition, and believe me, I tried them all: coffee, cigarettes, laxatives, prunes, fiber pills....all with really pronounced, painful, and uncomfortable side effects. No more! It's over. Welcome to the happy land of advanced medicine through the introduction of beneficial bacteria! I learned about "The Cure" by accident: I was broke, starving, and getting freebie samples sent to me because I can't afford health care, yet. A sample size of Align came to me in the mail and the very next day, I was cured. I know! Huge discovery. Dr. Oz is giving away some probiotic supplements today at 3 pm. Please, partake: http://www.doctoroz.com/digestive-advantage-giveaway.

The next item of my list is free trade, organic, and non-GMO source certified coconut oil, (which I've written about briefly with cooking), because the other big problem on my genetic list is eczema, and I have one of the hardest kinds to fix: that on the hand, because we use our hands so much. My doctor also hates any cream or gel that has steroids in it (for obvious health reasons), so she only had one type of transparent, thick salve that I slathered on, which then lost efficacy with the next eczema breakout. It healed it temporarily, then it came back as bad as ever. Genetically speaking, my hands lack the proper amount of lipids needed for sealing in moisture beneath the epidermis, and there is no cure for it. Unlike the scaly, dry patches I get on my arms and the top of my legs, the hand kind is particularly nasty. Little bubbles of trapped moisture form with a dark dot in the center, and just like an infant, I scratch at them in my sleep without me being aware that I am, and like a baby, I tried sleeping with little gloves on: no such luck as a long-term treatment.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Cocos_nucifera_-_K%C3%B6hler%E2%80%93s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-187.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_oil
Once the little bubbles burst, tiny, itchy scabs form, leaving red marks that take weeks to heel, so I start the elusive hunt for a cure all over again, with expensive trips to the drugstore and a rotating cast of lotions, potions, creams, and bathing salts. I've had limited, short term success with colloidal oatmeal lotions and Epsom salt baths (salts that I also use for soaking out the aches and pains from exercise and weather in a hot tub), but recently I've tried applying coconut oil at night, and I've so far been waking up with less dry patches and an improvement in my hands. I don't know if it's a cure, but it's a worth a shot, especially since I'd rather have natural oils soaking into my skin than one that's laden with potentially toxic chemicals. Because coconut oil has such a low melting point, it immediately softens from it's solid, white state, liquefying upon contact with the skin with a slight warming in your hands, so it's very easy to apply. I repeat it often throughout the day to my neck, arms, and hands: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ways-coconut-oil-everyday-life/story?id=23521681#3. Like with any good, healthy choice you make, please consult with your doctor to get the best results.

Good luck, and good health to you!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Type: Time/Travel

Titanic Sans Serif: big, clean, eye-catching, well-spaced for easy reading.

I saw the bulk of this monster special one night streaming video online, because the title caught my eye. I thought it was another gloriously bad SyFy monster movie of the week. Even better, we go back in time millions of years, when actual living monsters roamed the earth. It's got plenty of wacky humans though, if you desire that same level of human engagement typically present in the modern day scifi flick. Here's a tip: poorly dressed scientists hunting snakes in the wild. 'Nuff said. Check it out. It's gross and scary and awesome.
http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/full-episodes/titles/16708/titanoboa-monster-snake

For the armchair traveler: "Come on in and take a look."

The next excellent type sample came through the mail, in the form of a travel catalog. It's a simple but extremely effective form of visual communication; a seemingly average piece of printed information that masks an underlying intellectualism that's quite keen and very sophisticated. It's warm, inviting, and friendly, asking a timeless question to its' audience: "If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would that be?" The expectation is thus: some practice winter flight, a panic brought on by the cold and the snow, indicative of someone who is at odds with themselves and their locale. Many will see the high price tags and be satisfied with a cheaper (and easier) form of travel that's available to the armchair traveler; a wishing and hoping that's a pleasant form of dreaming not needing actualization to have a lot of value to the viewer. Still others, would-be adventurers and wealthy donating alumni surely, want "in" immediately, for their future. What kind of trekker are you? Think on it, and dream.



Friday, September 27, 2013

Nature: Mystery Fruit


Mysterious fruit tree.

I walked past this weird tree several times this summer, and it intrigued me each time. I'd never seen something like it before. The fruit kinda looked like a chestnut, but the fuzzy texture threw me. WTF?! Finally, I had to go deep, and I picked one so I could kick it. No dice, because it didn't rupture open upon contact. OK, fine. I stepped on one, and it exploded like a ripe grape. Nice! Naturally, that led me to picking one so I could dissect it for further scientific experiments. Sorry, neighbor! 

What the....?! What is that?!

Me and my mom looked at one on the kitchen table, while I expounded on my theory: it was citrus, because it had a slight orange-y scent and a dimpled rind, though the peach fuzz stumped us both. I left it out for awhile (so I could get it open after it ripened), and then I put it on a bookshelf and forgot about it, until one morning I remembered that I wanted to cut it open. So I did. Aha! We looked at its' distinct sections, which made it definitely citrus, as did the seed shape. 
But what fucking kind? We didn't know. 

Aha! Getting closer to the answer....

I went to the library and looked it up on Google by typing in the words "citrus" and "fuzzy" and there it was: the freaky looking fruit tree. See for yourself, for great mysteries revealed: http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2012/06/that_twisty_thorny_plant_with.html
Even the name is cool.


I got your nature right here: 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Art: The Study of Light


Ray of light on wall.
Art is the science of light moving over the surface of objects; refracting, reflecting, beautifully bouncing light.  
Sunset in room with blinds.
The study of vision and the observation of how light moves and changes form the core of any art and design curriculum, along with color theory, composition, and perspective.  


Sunrise through curtains.
So the next time someone at a cocktail party tries to tell you that "all art is subjective" to justify their poor taste in art, or maybe just to be a contrary know-it-all, refer them to me. I'll take them to school.  

Bus stop reflection.
What kind of art do you like?

For fellow art fans, I have a board for that: http://pinterest.com/mariedoucette/art/.

Light in play with the artist.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Cooking With (No) Gas: Eggs-periment!


#1 - Find a good specimen.

In the interest of science and fun, I endeavored to cook a egg in a  microwave to see what happened, with the not-so-secret desire that it would explode. 

#2 - Place egg in bowl of water.

My little experiment proved to be no disappointment. It popped with a satisfyingly loud "BLAM!", but I did discover that it was indeed cooked all the way through.

#3 - Set timer and let it cook.

Next time, I'll monitor it more closely with better results, because you can't be a good cook without breaking a few of eggs. 

#4 - BLAM! Satisfying explosion occurred.

Oh, and this entire experiment was inspired by the many Peeps trials, long may they live in book form and on the internet, forever and ever, as an inspiration to all. Amen.

Inspiration: The Great Peeps Experiments.