Mental health and nature deficit disorder are related?

I read "Can playing in the dirt make you smarter?" and was even more convinced that a daily dose of nature is important in our mental and physical well-being. It is even more important in Singapore as we live in high-rise apartments and do not come into contact with soil and gardening is not in our list of things to do everyday or even on weekends.

Linda Buzzell, a psychotherapist, wrote about this in http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-buzzell/garden-guide-can-playing_b_591254.html

"The science supporting the mental health benefits of gardening and outdoor activities in general just gets stronger with each new study. We need to help our kids -- and ourselves -- recover from what author Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) calls "nature deficit disorder."

These studies encourage all of us to support our local communities by building a school garden at every educational institution in our area, increasing the availability of community gardens for everyone who wants a plot of soil to dig their fingers into and -- perhaps most important -- shrinking our lawns and growing some of our own food."

The original article is found at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100524143416.htm

I also wrote about this in this blog earlier, in May. It is found at http://asal-sakti.blogspot.com/2010/05/fun-filled-carefree-and-myopia-free.html

Cheers

Giant solar Flares predicted in May 2013

Hi,


In 1859, a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare swept over the Earth. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that "people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow."

Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun's solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859.

Next week, scientists will meet at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum to talk about how to monitor and predict so-called "space weather"—solar flares, interplanetary magnetic fields, etc.

They predict a marked increase in solar storms over the next few years. According to NASA scientist Richard Fisher: "The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity."

This is bad news for anyone who likes electronic things.

We're so dependent on technology hooked up to satellites, which can be disabled or destroyed by huge waves of charged particles spit out by the sun during a solar storm: GPS, cell phones—even credit card transactions use a satellite. A severe solar storm will knock out commercial satellites, blow down transformers, power lines, "leaving millions of people in northern latitudes without power."

Is your crazy behaviour due to toxoplasmosis?

Hi,





I was very shocked by an article I read in The Economist June 5th 2010.
Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite carried by cats and rats and mice. It is like Plasmodium that causes malaria in human beings. However Toxoplasma affects cats and rodents in its normal life cycle. However, if it gets into humans, it forms cysts in the brain, liver and muscles.

Its effects on the rodents is a bizarre and fatal attraction to cats! Infected rats have been shown to be attracted to the smell of cats. These rodents wander around the cat to draw attention towards them so that they will be eaten!!

In this way the parasite makes the rodent complete its life cycle.

Of course humans are not preys of cats. However when the parasites infects the brains of humans, it produces a number of strange and crazy problems.

(1)Schizophrenia is a form of severe mental problem or madness. Scientists in Johns Hopkins University proved that people who suffer from schizophrenia are 3 times more likely to be infected with toxoplasma.

(2)Scientists at Charles University in Prague proved that people involved in road accidents are 3 times more likely to be infected with toxoplasma. This is due to reduced reaction times and short attention spans of the drivers.

(3)Dopamine is a chemical molecule produced by nerve cells. It has psychotic effects. Infection with toxoplasma produces a reduction in "novelty-seeking" effect. When blood tests were conducted in different countries, the British had a infection score of only 6.6% and we all know that the Brits are calm and not easily excited (-0.8). On the other hand the French has a infection score of 45% and they are known to be outgoing and excitable.

As every science student is taught from the beginning, correlation is not causation. It could be that the symptoms are found to be more common amongst the susceptible or due to some third as yet unidentified variable.


Read more about this very ubiquitous creature at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii


Cheers

Power over others can be yours

Hi,

Body language is used every day by the police, managers, teachers, and other people in positions of authority. Those who can read body language know that:

* 55% of communication is non-verbal
* The human body can produce 700,000 different signs
* The fastest way to build a rapport with another person is to mirror their actions
* 7% of communication is verbal

'Mentalists' are people who have become experts at reading body language and use it to make appear that they are reading minds.

Fortune tellers, psychics, professional interviewers and police interrogators all use some form of mentalism.

* Cold reading: Takes cues from a person's body language, clothes, speech and ethnicity to make assumptions about a person and convince them that they know what they are thinking
* Hot reading: Requires some previous knowledge of the subject, either first-hand or through an assistant. The subject does not know that the mentalist has such previous knowledge.
* Forer effect: Psychologist Bertram R. Forer developed this technique in 1948. The mentalist makes vague statements that could apply to anyone and leads the subject to think they are tailored specifically to them.

If 55% of communication is non-verbal and 7% is verbal, what is the other 38% of communication?

Maybe that part involves bribery; doughnuts and cookies are a perfect form of communication!

It pays to know all these tricks to have power over others.

http://www.chacha.com/content/infographics/how-do-you-use-body-language-to-read-minds

Power over others can be yours, if you want that is.


Cheers

8 secrets of success

Hi,



(1) passion-we are driven by it
(2) work-nothing comes easily
(3) focusing yourself to one thing that you are doing
(4) persistence is the number one reason for success
(5) ideas-ask questions, make connections, solve problems
(6) good-get yourself good at what you are doing
(7) push yourself physically and mentally
(8) serve others something of value

Cheers

Teaching the arts and sciences

Hi,
Sciences and arts are experiences of the beauty of the environment around us.
They are interconnected, integrated and not separate as most of us teachers and students think.

Understanding + resources + will = outcome

Understanding = arts and science subjects
resources = the money, the labour and the work input
will = our vision, our aspiration, our successes
outcome = human quality of life

Mae Jamison is the first African American astronaut. Listen to her views on teaching the arts and sciences to school children.



This is what Albert Einstein said "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true arts and sciences"

Cheers

Forests are definitely worth more when alive than when dead

Hi,

“Forests are worth more dead than alive. Today we commit to change that equation,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.





This week, the Indonesia President Yudhoyono pledged to stop giving permits for the destruction of virgin forests for a period of two years. 50 countries attended the conference in Oslo, Norway.

Environmentalists are very happy. Large areas of forests are cleared every year to provide wood for timer and paper industries and also to grow palm oil trees.

REDD Plus (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) is an organisation of a group of countries which agreed to provide funding to slow down deforestation in tree-rich countries like Indonesia. Forests are important in carbon dioxide removal from the air.

US $4 billion have been collected by the USA, Australia, France, Japan, Britain and Norway to save the rainforests. Google volunteered to provide satellite imaging to watch out if the two year agreements to stop cutting down rainforests is adhered to.



Cheers