RESETTING OUR BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS TO 'HAPPY' SETTING

From Science Daily:  out of this week's issue of PLoS Biology:  " Better known as the light sensor that sets the body's biological clock, melanopsin also plays an important role in vision: Via its messengers-so-called melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells, or mRGCs-it forwards information about the brightness of incoming light directly to conventional visual centers in the brain, reports an international collaboration of scientists in this week's issue of PLoS Biology."

As someone who realized that S.A.D.(Seasonal Affective Disorder) was the reason I felt I was dragging an anchor behind me all day starting in October when I (who has maybe cried once in each decade) I felt like crying.about fifteen or more years ago. Fortunately a friend with a back problem had a light box too heavy for her to lift, sold it to me and I was able to manage my fall and winters quite well after that.  This year I have not had to pull out the light box and have had a pretty cheerful Fall.  However, unlike a research project, there are too many variables in my life to figure out which one is the THE one...maybe they all are?

First, my friend had told me to cut down the tree which was shading and darkening my work area.  I resisted because my father, long since deceased, had planted it for me and I was sentimental about it.  Finally, this year, putting sentiment behind me, I had the tree cut down and now get good southern exposure in the relevant windows.  Secondly,each year I develop more floaters in my eyes so that I require extremely bright lights to read...something I do many hours of the day.  Another psychiatrist friend said he had heard that it is the blue in the light spectrum which gets to our pineal gland and works for us, steering us away from hibernation..  I have noticed ads for lamps that have blue light as the primary light in their spectrum. I've yet to try one but probably will, just to check the effect out.   Since Vitamin D3 came on the market it has been added to my daily intake.  I'm on the cusp of retiring from my professional life and that has eased my schedule and stress level.  Lastly, I really work on keeping my stress level as low as possible by prioritizing my activities and relationships to maintain as peaceful a state as possible.

Bringing my comments full circle to the first paragraph, I read only 'happy-ending' books, for the most part.  Since I have the attention span of all good people with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) I like to read long enough to finish the book I have started, with as few interruptions as life, phones, friends, chores, biological needs, etc allow.  Thus, I read under my bright lights even during the day and often to between 3 AM and even as late as 6 or 7 AM if if the book is longl and I don't have to be up by 8 AM.  Consequently, I am not ready to sleep until those hours even when I am not reading.  Noting that I have not had S.A.D. this fall, I speculating that reading under a bright OTT-LITE for many hours, working in a sunnier room on the computer, lowering my cortisol level by ridding myself of stress, my biological clock has been reset.  Too often I find I am just going to bed when friends say they are getting up to start their day.

It seems that regularity in more activity than eating fiber is the order of the day!

AT LAST! DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS SHOW THEY HAVE SUBSTANCE

The lame duck Congress does not have a long existence ahead and there is a lot they must try to get done.  They may not get anything done before the end of the year but, at least, history will show they didn't because they tried and were thwarted by the Republicans.  While Obama sincerely wants to help the unemployed, and will go on record in that position, even if the Republicans pass a Bill for it after the first of the year, nothing should allow people to forget their position for two years...destroy Obama even if it means millions will suffer as 'collateral damage'.

House Democrats rejected Obama's  snooker by the Republicans and decided, though the non-binding referendum, that they have a mandate for the good of the people, especially the middle class.  If you missed the details, click here for the BBC take on it.

The DADT (don't as, don't tell) Bill also did not pass.  Massachusetts citizens didn't realize they put a fox in the hen house when they voted Scott Brown in.as Senator.  They believed him to be a free thinker but it is not difficult to see that you get no where in the party today if you don't genuflect to McConnell and Boehner. The vote was a majority but in the present twilight zone of Washington, it fell 3 votes short of the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.  Obama expressed hope that it will be brought up again during the lame duck session.  For more detail, click here.

We are unfortunate enough to have voted legislators into Congress who are invested in maintaining their re-elections ad nauseum rather than think of the good of the majority and those in the armed forces themselves.  As long as we have Fox News and radio hosts like Limbaugh, enough people will believe the lies  and drag the country down with no guilty conscience.  Wake up, Americans!  Just as Paul Revere warned of the militia, we should listen for a similar faint sound today.

WIKILEAKS

PayPal, whose parent is eBay, says it stopped allowing people to pay for donations to Wikileaks through them from a letter from the US government.  PayPal suspended payments to Wikileaks last week, and has been followed by Visa Europe and Mastercard.  Amazon and Swiss bank PostFinance have also cut ties with Wikileaks. (see more here)

Hackers immediately attacked those whom they see as WikiLeaks enemies.  Among the attacked were MasterCard, Amazon and PayPal causing several corporate Web sites to become unavailable or slow down markedly.Apparently no individual accounts were compromised in any way. (click here for the NY Times article.)

The whole issue is really a can of worms.  People's right to free speech, giving money where they choose to causes they seriously believe in, and issues of jurisdiction become paramount as the world overlaps itself.  When the government is unable to pass a bill to prevent unemployment checks to those who desperately need them, it sets people to wondering about the things theyh do that are not forced to be voted on, just done in the name of security.

According to some people familiar with the State Department leaks, they seem to be rather serious in the negative affect they have on our relations with other countries, many of whom say they will not speak to Americans in the State Department because they can no longer trust that names will not be written down and who knows where they will turn up. Nevertheless, as always in situations like this with whistleblowers, it serves to make everyone aware just how fragile our secrecy and operations are in terms of keeping our laundry, dirty or otherwise, to ourselves.

IT IS TIME FOR LEGISLATORS TO UNITE TO SAVE THE COUNTRY

Obama is pushing to accept the 'compromise' deal with the Republicans though he admits the country is being held hostage.  Clearly, Obama is not happy with the compromise but says, in seemingly good conscience, he cannot let the unemployment benefits end.  There are a couple of other nice additions in the Bill but they do not compensate for the tax relief for the rich.  Read more.

Lawrence O'Donnell was one of the few political analysts who backed Obama logically and firmly.  Keith Olbermann was angry and, in my opinion, allowed his anger to overshadow some very good points he was trying to make. Click her and then on special comment to see and hear this.   My sense is that, having heard some politicians like Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont says it is a moral outrage and he will filibuster if he has to, rather than see this Bill pass as is.  While I identify more with Democrats than Republicans, it felt good to listen to Democrats stop their whining long enough to reflect righteous indignation at the way the Republicans seem not to care at all about the country.  Perhaps the President will get some open support and the country may hear the truth being spoken instead of the lies from Limbaugh, Fox News. and others.

It is time for Americans to raise their voices and demand their legislators do the right thing, properly and legally rather than leave it to the militias who are all too ready to settle it their way.

WITH DISCOVERY THERE IS HOPE

ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2010) — The Groningen professors Bauke Dijkstra and Lubbert Dijkhuizen have deciphered the structure and functional mechanism of the glucansucrase enzyme that is responsible for dental plaque sticking to teeth. This knowledge will stimulate the identification of substances that inhibit the enzyme. Just add that substance to toothpaste, or even sweets, and caries will be a thing of the past.  Read more.

Does this mean that the dentist will go out pf business like the horseless carriage?  That would be quite doubtful.  Dental caries are not the only problems to confront dentists.  A solution to this would just be a godsend to children and give them a better dental start in life.  The British will even learn that orthodontists are a necessity, not a luxury..

FIGHTING MUTUAL ENEMIES OFTEN UNITES PEOPLE

ISLAMABAD, Dec 5 (APP)- Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism for peace and stability in the region and intensifying trade and economic cooperation to achieve $ 5 billion target of bilateral trade by 2015. The agreement to this effect was reached during the wide-ranging talks between President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, who visited Kabul on the invitation of the Afghan President on December 4-5. Click here for the full article.


In 2007, The Jerusalem Post published this:  "Sworn enemies from Northern Ireland's bitter past joined forces atop a new government, an astonishing achievement that both sides pledged would consign decades of death and destruction to history. The bombastic Protestant evangelist Ian Paisley, known as "Dr. No" because of his refusal to compromise with the Catholic minority, formed an administration alongside Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness, a veteran commander in the outlawed Irish Republican Army, which long dreamed of forcing Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom."  For the full article, click here.

There is a proverb: ' The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'  Wikipedia writes more on this here.. 

The concept makes me wonder if the Republicans and Democrats will ever unite for the good of the country.  So far, the Republicans have resisted.

THE WIKILEAKS SIDESHOW

It seems that even when things are taken out of context, most people with a soap box, choose to talk about the worst and believe it as truth.  My sense of the Wikileaks is that it is similar to small children barging into their parents' bedroom and witnessing a perfectly legal, pleasurable sexual act between them.  Children fear that the moans and groans (as they know those sounds) mean that one parent is in pain or being abused by the other.  They do not have the experiential background to understand what is happening.

I would offer the same is true of people not trained to international politics and state department techniques.  They do not have any concept of what is going on and, due to our ridiculously inept media about what to dispense as news, opinions of the ignorant are spread as wise commentary on 'round tables'.and other sources.  Assange, peaking through the bedroom door, does not realize the dynamics of sharing bedroom information with naive, young children.

In an article on how television effects your child, the writer says the following:  "Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them.". If the masses disagree with me, I wonder how many are qualified or trained to do the jobs we have elected our President  who appointed Hillary Clinton as our Secretary of State to do though most pundits talk as if they could do the job better...

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE

Once again Orpheus beckoned and I listening to the call......I expected to have a wonderful inspiration during the night.....
There will be a blog...just a little late...like mid-morning?