Month: August 2020

Curiositys, Health, Living, Media&CultureLeave a comment

What Happens When You Don’t Shower For Five Years

Fernando Kaskais

Five years ago, I stopped showering. Posted by Soren Dreier At least, by most modern definitions of the word. I still get my hair wet occasionally, but I quit shampooing or conditioning, or using soap, except on my hands. I also gave up the other personal care products—hand sanitizers and exfoliants and antibiotic deodorants—that I had always associated with being clean. I’m not here to recommend this approach to everyone. In a lot of ways it was terrible. But it also changed my life. I’d like to say I stopped showering for some noble, virtuous reason—like because an average shower uses 17 … Continue reading What Happens When You Don’t Shower For Five Years

Animals, Eco, Literature, Media&Culture, PlanetLeave a comment

A Lyrical Glimpse Into the World of Whales

Fernando Kaskais

In “Fathoms: The World in the Whale,” Rebecca Giggs blends science and memoir in celebrating cetacean life. BY LILY MEYER LIKE A MARVEL comic, “Fathoms: The World in the Whale,” Rebecca Giggs’ discipline-straddling debut, begins with an origin story. “A few years ago,” she writes, “I helped push a beached humpback whale back out into the sea, only to witness it return and expire under its own weight on the shoreline.” Watching the poor humpback die sparks both empathy and curiosity in Giggs, an Australian writer and journalist. She starts investigating cetacean mortality, and soon finds that human environmental damage is the single greatest … Continue reading A Lyrical Glimpse Into the World of Whales

Big Pharma, Curiositys, Health, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

CAN A FOOD-SENSITIVITY TEST SOLVE ALL OF MY STOMACH TROUBLES AND DIET WOES?

Fernando Kaskais

Either way, I certainly bled for an answer by Jeff Gross  Don’t let anyone tell you different: What you consume as part of your diet and how that food affects your body is, in large part, a crap shoot.  Thirty years ago, for example, fat was the enemy. Now fat is good (within reason) and sugar is what we should all avoid. MSG was, for years, blood-pressure spiking poison and possibly carcinogenic; turns out, that was all racist fear-mongering, and MSG is a harmless flavor enhancer found in everything from the Doritos you snack on while you’re working from home to the tomatoes you put in … Continue reading CAN A FOOD-SENSITIVITY TEST SOLVE ALL OF MY STOMACH TROUBLES AND DIET WOES?

Curiositys, Health, Living, PsychologyLeave a comment

What are microaggressions? And how should you deal with them?

Fernando Kaskais

People who routinely experience microaggressions suffer from a range of negative emotions, experts say.  By Julie Compton Microaggressions are seemingly small slights that, whether intentional or not, communicate bias towards another group. For five years, Margo Gabriel, 34, worked as an administrator for a prestigious university in Boston, where she was the only Black person in her department. Often, when she wore her hair braided or out in its natural texture, white colleagues would walk up to her and touch her braids or pat her head without permission. While she felt violated, she didn’t know how to respond, so she would nervously … Continue reading What are microaggressions? And how should you deal with them?

Buddhism, Health, Japan, Philosophy, PsychologyLeave a comment

Abandoning the Grandmother

Fernando Kaskais

Ubasute, the mythical Japanese practice of leaving an older relative to die on a mountain, speaks to society’s troubling attitudes toward aging.   Interview with Edward Drott by Karen Jensen Several months ago, as people across the United States were rallying against the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns, one protestor held up a sign that read: “Sacrifice the Weak.” Some of the demonstrators were prepared, at least rhetorically, to put the economy above the lives of the elderly, who have been the most vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.  While the protestors’ graceless ire may appall us, we are not entirely immune to the unspoken rationale built into their … Continue reading Abandoning the Grandmother

Big Brother, Fascism, Globalization, Politics, PrepperLeave a comment

NORMAL HAS FAILED. BE AS WEIRD AS YOU LIKE.

Fernando Kaskais

by Caitlin Johnstone, Guest Waking Times Consumerism is unsustainable. Competition is unsustainable. Imperialism is unsustainable. Our species is standing on the brink of an extinction-level event due to ecosystemic collapse or nuclear war, and it is because of the way that we have lived on this planet up until this point. If we keep moving in this direction we will go the way of the dinosaur in the not-too distant future and take most terrestrial life with us. Maybe even all of it. The imperfect and immature nature of our newly evolved capacity for language and abstract thought, combined with our … Continue reading NORMAL HAS FAILED. BE AS WEIRD AS YOU LIKE.

Brain, Drugs, Health, Psychology, ScienceLeave a comment

STUDY: A MICRODOSE OF LSD COULD ALTER A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Fernando Kaskais

“Anyone on any of these doses could sit behind a computer and do their work.” by EMMA BETUEL IN LARGE DOSES, LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE (LSD) can repair damaged neurons in the brain, and reveal new ways of seeing the world. In small doses, microdosers chase the effects of the drug on creativity or mood, without the full psychedelic experience. However, a new study suggests that even a microdose might be able to change a powerful human sensation: pain. Microdoses of LSD increased pain tolerance and decreased ratings of painfulness and unpleasantness. Here, a microdose was defined as about 20 micrograms. Twenty-fourcollege students were asked to plunge their … Continue reading STUDY: A MICRODOSE OF LSD COULD ALTER A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Curiositys, Future, Planet, PsychologyLeave a comment

Why It Feels Like the End of the World, Even When It’s Not

Fernando Kaskais

Why do we keep viewing the world more negatively than it is? Note: This is the third blog in my series about truth and reality as they relate to problems we are experiencing as a society. by Mike Brooks Ph.D. “It’s the end of the world as we know it, but I feel fine.” —R.E.M., in the song of the same name.  To say that 2020 has been a difficult year would be an understatement. We are in a global pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, have a financial crisis and high unemployment levels, toxic tribalism, a monumental upcoming presidential election, … Continue reading Why It Feels Like the End of the World, Even When It’s Not

Living, Philosophy, PsychologyLeave a comment

What do shoes do?

Fernando Kaskais

Partly of the earth, partly of our body, the shoe sits on the edge of an ontological threshold. Where can it transport us? Randy Laist is professor of English at Goodwin University in East Hartford, Connecticut. His latest book is The Twin Towers in Film: A Cinematic History of New York’s World Trade Center (2020).Listen here Edited by Marina Benjamin Iam at the beach, enjoying that elemental pleasure – walking barefoot outside, when the texture of sand slipping through my toes and crunching against the tender flesh of my sole turns walking into a kind of communion or commingling with the physical world. … Continue reading What do shoes do?

Brain, Health, Psychology, Science1 Comment

If your naps are longer than this amount of time, you could die younger

Fernando Kaskais

by John Anderer For many among us, a nice afternoon nap is a cherished opportunity to take a break, recharge, and wake up feeling reinvigorated. Unfortunately, a new set of research just released by the European Society of Cardiology has a warning for all the habitual nap-takers out there. Keep your naps under an hour, because any longer is associated with a significantly higher risk of all-cause death and or the development of cardiovascular disease. This isn’t the first time that the relationship between napping, mortality, and cardiovascular disease has been investigated, but all of those prior projects had produced middling or inconclusive results … Continue reading If your naps are longer than this amount of time, you could die younger