Already an Adult Yet Still Afraid of the Dark

A young version of us won’t sleep in darkness. We’re afraid of an entity that lurks in the shadows and could attack us while we’re unaware. Children’s imagination usually crosses their reality. But this fear fades out as we mature because brows are raised to those adults who are still paralyzed in the dark. But it is not unheard of.

A 2012 survey of Go Glow found that “40% of us are scared when walking around the house with the lights off”.

Our body needs the dark to prepare itself for sleeping mode; but for people with insomnia, the dark is the problem. A study in Ryerson University Sleep & Depression Lab in Toronto asked 93 undergraduates about their sleeping patterns. Half of them admitted to be poor sleepers and has a fear of the dark. A cause for this difficulty of sleeping is anticipation of a bad occurrence, which increases their arousal while in bed.

Humans have a heightened visual acuity. Most people take up to 30 min to adapt to darkness. And from thereon, they are more sensitive to movement.

There are two types of photoreceptors in our eyes’ retina – cones and rods. Cones detect color and function best in light while rods rule at night. Rods are more sensitive than cones. They also outnumber the cones, with 120 million rods to 7 million cones. This is the reason why we have a decent resolution at night; and since rods are savvy motion sensors, we are notice the slightest movement like a bump in the cabinet’s door.

It gets even better. Evolution helped primates like humans to be aware of predators paroling at night. Humans need to cope against predators like snakes that have superior visual system. Show a picture of a snake to an eight month old baby and they’ll recognize it faster than any other objects shown. Neurological studies also found that the visual system is connected to a group of brain structures responsible for “fear”.

Fear is normal. We feel it in danger so we can fight or flight and thus, increasing our survival. And along with our response of fear, there is dark. Darkness cannot be avoided. The sun has to retire and so does the lights.

With unalterable fear and darkness, the only way to avert it is to accept it. The person should learn how to calm themselves even in the darkness. Turning the lights on at night won’t help since it only reinforces the association of fear with dark and relief with light.

Are you still afraid of the dark?

Body Wrapping: A Temporary Solution for Weight-loss

I’ve blogged about a lot of the newer fad diets and programs that people are implementing to try and reach a goal size or weight. This morning my friend Ariene asked me what I think about “body wraps.” Being unfamiliar I did a little research on this new weight loss idea, so I could understand its premise.

Like almost everything out there, it promises maximum results in a short period of time. Simplyslender.com argues that you’ll lose 6-20 inches in only an hour’s time. I’ve also talked about fitspo and thinspo and the pros and cons of those trends and what they advocate for. Body Wraps are a system of releasing toxins from the body through sweat and compression for a specified amount of time. The results are said to last for up to 1 to 2 months. Nothing is permanent if you’re not willing to make permanent changes. No amount of body wraps, is going to get you thin and KEEP you thin.

Ariene asked me “If body wraps don’t keep you thin, why would people want to do it.” The answer to me seemed simple. Some people have short term weight loss goals that they want to accomplish and need quick results, such as prom, weddings, going on a cruise, or wanting to lose some weight for bikini season. After they reached their desired outcome and the event is over, a lot of people gain the weight back (sometimes even extra weight) and are okay with it. They’ll just move on to the next fad diet for the next event they want to look good for. A lot of women are systematic fad dieters like this, and depending upon what is going on in their life, will only work to lose weight when desired, rather than maintaining and sticking with it year round to keep the results permanent.

I’ve said it before and I”ll say it again, if you want to get skinny and keep the weight off, then you need to make permanent changes into your lifestyle in order to achieve permanent results. If you’re tired of fluctuating and having a yo-yo waist line, then stop doing temporary fad diets. They are designed to make you fail. No diet is permanent, therefore results are only temporary.

If you are looking for a quick fix to solve your weight loss problems, you will never be happy with the results because you will constantly be struggling. Stick with a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and implement portion control. I don’t know a single person who does all 3 of those things, and is still overweight, but I know plenty of people who go on and off diets, and who are continuously struggling with weight in addition to a plethora of other problems. If you are serious about losing weight, get serious about your plan of attack. You earn the body you have.

Do Entertainment Companies Need to Fight Piracy?

Piracy is a puissant parasite of the entertainment business. With 146 million visits on illegal online content a day, piracy takes 22% of all global bandwidth. In music industry alone, piracy is responsible for $12.5 billion economic loss. 95% of all music downloads are illegal. 42% of all software in the world are also illegal. E-book piracy is catching up with 54% increase in demand since August 2009. Yet 70% of internet users find nothing wrong with it.

The reason is it’s free, isn’t it?

Even with piracy, entertainment companies can still beam at their bank accounts. The global box office hit of 2011 is 7% higher than 2010 with $32.6 billion. It rose to $34.7 billion in 2012, adding 6% more. The global music sale in the same year is $16.5 billion, another increase from 2011. They remained lucrative yet eliminating piracy will definitely payout.

Piracy is not totally harmful. Oxford economist Karen Croxson claims that illegal downloads create a buzz and gives unplanned promotions for the product. Asst. Prof. Robert Hammond of North Carolina State University took an interest on studying piracy and found that leaks of albums before its actual release has a sales-boosting effect. Unauthorized access shifts unknown products to familiar brands.

The benefits of piracy are recognized. Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft Corp’s business division, prefers users to pirate Microsoft products than the competition. It’s the biggest opportunity for people to try the software and then later on buy them. Researchers at University of Texas at Austin cautioned the companies on their anti-piracy campaign as it may repulse poor consumers. The US government agrees that piracy increases brand awareness. In the long run, piracy will contribute sales.

Annihilating piracy has been a global effort, yet the demand never ceases. No matter the justification, piracy is stealing. It’s a crime against creation and innovation. Original works deserve compensation.

Have you bought a product you once pirated?

An Ode to Hip Hop

Hip Hop is becoming more and more popular. It used to be the language of the poor class for the poor class, now it is the language of the lyrical rappers, for everyone who wants to hear it. In this article I’ll let you read it, hoping you’ll start listening to it.

Jay-Z, one of the most popular modern rappers, is famous for his rapping and music, rather than for being lyrical. But in No Church in the Wild, his first four sentences are very impressive.

Tears on the Mausoleum floor,

Blood stains the Colosseum doors,

Lies on the lips of a priest,

Thanksgiving disguised as a feast.

The whole song is about power, who has power over who? The church seems to have had the most power in the past, but what is God to a non-believer? And did the church use that power in the right way? In the first two sentences, he speaks about the other side of the ability of humans to build such terrific buildings. How many people died building the Mausoleum? How many people were slaughtered in the Colosseum? A lot. After that, about the priest who should be the most righteous man, but how many times has the church used men for their own good? Some churches are huge, but why did the money not go to the poor? Thanksgiving is a feast, but it represents the genocide of the Native Americans.

Lupe Fiasco, not very well-known, always tries to encourage people from the poor class to do something with their lives, while saying the government is trying to prevent exactly this.

The Sealy has the same feeling that the floor has.

This is about the government, which tries to keep the poor poor. The Sealy, being a big bed, feels the same as the floor, so why try to be rich enough to buy it when it doesn’t make a difference? But Lupe Fiasco pronounces it so that Sealy sounds like ceiling, which means the same, the top is the same as the floor.

So no matter what you been through, no matter what you into,

No matter what you see when you look outside your window,

Brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire,

Never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher,

Raise them till your arms tired, let them know you here,

That you struggling, surviving, that you are going to persevere.

This part from The Show goes on is about standing up for yourself, not letting others get you down. Brown grass is what you see from inside a prison cell, green grass from inside a nice house, the same goes for the fence and the wire. Lifting your arms up speaks for itself. In order to really experience the way Lupe Fiasco is bringing what I would call hope, you’d have to listen the song for yourself.

Macklemore, sometimes called a pop-artist rather than a rapper, always comes up with original subjects. In Otherside he raps about problems with drugs, in Same Love about the problems people encounter being gay, and in Wings about consumerism:

We want what we can’t have, commodity makes us want it

So expensive, damn, I just got to flaunt it

Got to show em, so exclusive, this that new shit

A hundred dollars for a pair of shoes, I would never hoop in

Look at me, look at me, I’m a cool kid

I’m an individual, yeah, but I’m part of a movement

My movement told me be a consumer and I consumed it

This one isn’t very comlex, but it goes deep. He’s talking about an expensive Nike shoes, and people buy it because they think it makes them cool and it makes them different from others. But, as Macklemore says, they’re actually part of a movement, consumers like everyone else.

This is quite a long article already, so I won’t give any more examples. I might sound as if I understand all these lyrics, but most of it was too much for me too grab. Rapgenius.com is a website where all lyrics are explained very clearly and I recommend it to everyone whom I might just have given that little push towards listening to Hip Hop.

Some say Hip Hop has changed too much. It’s not what it’s used to and should still be. I admit Hip Hop is more linked to pop music than it was, but on the other side this means more people will be listening to it. And that is important in my opinion, because the meaning of a song outweighs the sound. I may be generalising a bit too much here, but you get what I mean. And whether people like it or not, Hip Hop has become more than just a genre, it’s the language of the thinkers, for a world full of them.

The Best Speeches to Avoid Speeding Tickets

Most days you follow the limit. You know the roads like your phone number – 45 miles plus 5 allowance. You abide by it but today, the slug in front is bugging you and you sped up to overtake. Or you’re catching a store that’s closing down. Or Snoop Dogg’s on the radio and while nostalgia kicks in, you lost track. Or you’re just feeling adventurous, a change for a day. And then you hear that dreaded siren – it’s a cop on a motorcycle!

You pulled over, obeyed to show your license and then the speech. What can you do to avoid a speeding ticket?

Before you practice your act after being pulled over, the trick starts with the car. Make sure it’s well maintained. Clean it and fix all that is a noticeable damage. You wanted to communicate that you’re a law-abiding citizen and you look out for your vehicle.

Observe the road. See if there’s a highway patrol or cops on standby. Obviously, you need to show off when they’re around. Do not speed when you’re alone on the road. Stay in the pack of speeding cars to diffuse the chances – you’re just driving like anybody else. Just make sure you’re not the leader as they’re the first on target. Avoid the fast lane because cops lurk around that side and they know drivers often outlaw the limit there. Staying in the middle is the safest.

When you see a cop on the sideroad and it’s too late to slow down, wave at him. It’s more common for cops to be avoided than to be greeted. Waving will got them thinking and distracted. Is this somebody I know? If they waved back, then drive on.

Now, to the speech.

Kindly deny. Admitting it is sure fire to a fine. Never fight the cop as aggression rarely gets to anything.

Put on a dramatic face. Saying that you have to poop or something hurts is not believable when you look golden. Act with your excuse. This is more effective for women because not many can resist a sobbing lady than a weeping grown man.

Complicate your accent. If you have a foreign look, then use it to your advantage. Make your English crooked, grammar mishap and enunciation pricky. Make it painful to talk to you and he’ll dismiss you.

The Humorous Approach. Matt Hardigree of jalopnik.com can put up an excellent scenario.

Officer: Where are you going in such a hurry?
Me: Just keeping up with traffic, officer
Officer: I don’t see any traffic
Me: That’s how far behind I am, I was trying to keep up! (insert unfunny drum noise) “da dum ching”
Officer: Just slow down. (walks back to car shaking head)

If they don’t laugh just say “What are you, the joke police?”

The best way to avoid the ticket is not speeding up, but this happens. What’s your best approach?

Life Without Passport is Punishable?

A lot of Western countries have problems with illegal immigrants – people who, one way or another, made it to the other side of the border without being noticed. Or should I say without getting caught? Because those countries do all they can to keep outsiders where they ‘belong’ – out.

Stopping people at the border is not considered wrong. If you don’t have some sort of identification proving you may be here, well, then you may not. But what if those immigrants do get past? They build a new life in a new country. Should they still be sent away? Many would say yes, for one because immigrants don’t have that little yet very important paper we call passport. And second because it would be an invitation to others.

How do you send someone away? In the Netherlands, there was a guy a few years ago who didn’t pay for the bus. The ticket control then looked up his case. He, being illegal, was discovered and was sent back to the country of his origin. I don’t think there’s something wrong with this. The goal of the (ticket) control wasn’t to find out whether he was illegal or to get him out of the Netherlands. The goal was to check whether he had paid or not.

What if for example a police officer thinks someone is illegal? Is it right to walk up to that person and check whether he does have a passport or not? No, because that would be discrimination, a.k.a. suspicion based on appearance. The only way to not make it look like discrimination is checking a whole bunch of people. That would be checking a whole restaurant. But in a way that is discrimination too, why check this restaurant and not the other one?

What if you could find a way to check someone’s passport without discriminating and the person is indeed illegal. Is it right to send him out of the country? In other words, it is right to punish someone just for being somewhere? In my opinion, the world is for everyone. Assuming there is no way to check someone without discriminating, sending someone away would be double discrimination.

Talking about passports, what exactly is the difference between someone with and someone without a passport? What gives person A the right to be somewhere, while B may not?

I think punishing illegality is wrong, especially when someone’s illegality is the only thing someone ‘does’ wrong. But not punishing illegality would be welcoming whoever wants to come in. Is the moral wrongness more important than the practical function?

Will We Ran Out of Land to Bury the Dead?

The CIA World Factbook sums 107 deaths per minute worldwide. A person in a traditional coffin will probably take six feet in length and four feet wide of land space. Since lots cannot be next to each other, they’ll take more area for the cemetery.

Burying those who already passed is expensive in terms of land allocation. The Woodlawn Cemetery in New York covers more than 400 acres of land to accommodate just 300,000 resting people. In due time, the cemeteries be filled up and the next land should be sacrificed for the dead.

Will we ran out of land?

With Earth’s 149 million km² of land surface, there’s obviously enough room for the living and the dead. But as much as we wanted to respect those who passed away, the living could use the finite space as valuable resource to actually live.

We demand living space. The average size of homes in the US is 2,438 ft², according to the survey of the National Association of Home Builders. We also need more land for the community’s social needs – schools, cathedrals, parks, factories, roads, famine and the list never ends. And since nobody would want to live in a village or plant their crops that’s been a cemetery before, the land of the dead is of little use to the living and thus, uneconomical.

The simple option to resolve the conflict of interest is cremating our loved ones. This method is increasingly popular with 40% rate in the US. Interestingly, Japan, with just 377,900 km² land area, cremates 99.85% of their dead. The Japanese graveyards are also tight in space, which is practical given their limited land area.

Cremation saves resources for the living. Urns require less space than coffins. Some families even prefer to keep the remains and place the ornamented urn inside the house. And some will opt to release the ashes back to the environment. The average cost of a traditional funeral is $6,560, while the cremation service through a funeral home is ranging from $2,000 to $4,000. The cremation process alone, should anyone decided to skip a funeral, could be as low as $700 to $1,000. This gives more money and land to utilize for the living’s benefit.

While living, people may already have planned their resting ground. They may have already bought a lot in the cemetery or have requested their family on how they wanted to be rested in peace. Earth can handle either burying or cremation, for now.

Would you like to be cremated or buried six feet under ground?

Problem: Too Much Religion and Denominations

Beside politics, religion is the most heated topic for discussion. Representative of a religion can have a strong tendency to defend his own belief, even to the point of criticizing other religions to address the dominance of his adherence. The other person will do the same, but siding his opposing devotion. The battle never ends since this is a clash of faith. You don’t have to prove it; you just have to believe it strongly as if it’s the absolute truth.

We don’t need an argument for religion to affect our interactions. There are prejudice against Muslims, Buddhists, and even atheists. There is in any religion, even to the devout Christians. It separated several couples because of families in disapproval. People are persecuted because of unmatched beliefs.

Does too much religion separate us?

Analysts argue that world religion is shrinking. But the major religions still keep a massive population of believers. Here is the tally of the top 10 organized religions by the world statistics of Adherents.com.

Christianity: 2.1 billion
Islam: 1.5 billion
Nonreligious: 1.1 billion
Hinduism: 900 million
Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
Buddhism: 376 million
primal-indigenous: 300 million
African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
Sikhism: 23 million
Juche: 19 million

There is also growing number of denominations within the above-listed religions. Buddhsim can be furthered into Theravada and Mahayana. Islam can be furthered into Sunni, Shi’a, Ahmadiyya and Sufism. Christianity can be furthered into Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Mormonism and hundreds more.

There are thousands of religions and denominations in the world. It doesn’t take an elaborate history to form one; it only needs a founder.

On January 5, 2012, a little more than a year ago, Swedish jurisdiction acknowledges Kopimism as a legitimate religion. Founded by 19-year-old philosophy student Isak Gerson, adherents believe that file sharing is a sacred act. One of their symbols appears to be a Yin-Yang balance with Ctrl-C on top of Ctrl-V. Computer users and lazy pupils recognize these as copy and paste.

Among the fastest growing religions in the 2000s was Jediism. Based on the blockbuster sci-fi movie series Star Wars, adherents practice the spiritual and philosophical implications of the movies. They believe in the “Force” and observe the “Jedi Code”.

Another religion added in the 20^th century was The Creativity Movement. It is an atheistic approach that concentrates on the white people’s seclusion. In the words of the founder Ben Klassen, “united and organized the White Race is ten times more powerful than the rest of the world put together”.

Pastor James Emery White compared the foundation of new religions to starting a business. A million people found their businesses; but 40% dies by year one, 80% by year five. New churches and denominations share the same fate. White enumerates “Lack of Ministry Gifts, Lack of Money, Wandering in No-Man’s-Land, Failure to Contextualize and Small-Church Mentality” as the reasons why most ceased.

However, once a religion firmly proved that they’re renitent, they are added to the list of world religions and denominations. With too much to choose from, certain perspectives can construe to an individual.

Is it possible to have two non-conflicting religions? A Christian can believe in the trinity and still apply the Buddhist meditation. A Shintoist can diligently practice her vocation and also agree that there’s a “Force” within her that has a vast potential.

Can crossovers like this unite the world religions, or will it complicate it even more? If you have an answer to all these questions, what makes it right? It’s based on beliefs again.

Body Image Dichotomy: Thinspo vs Fitspo

In the realm of body image, one of the highest trending search topics are Thinspo (abbreviation for Thin Inspiration) and Fitspo (short-hand for Fitness Inspiration). The idea and popularity behind Thinspo has been increasing particularly among young women the past couple years. Books have been written regarding this relatively new and shocking craze.

Thinspo is essentially the glorification of eating disorders as a form of weight-loss and being “healthy.” The main eating disorder Thinspo enthusiasts support is “Ana” short for Anorexia. In order to encourage starvation or food resistance, Thinspo enthusiasts surround themselves with emaciated photographs of what their ideal body image will be.

Erroneous Body Image

Continuously seeing these images helps to reinforce the resistance to eat, and to continue starvation. Thinspo enthusiasts see this as a healthy goal, and their desire for “perfection” reaches unhealthy extremes. The internet has been flooded with images of “models” with bulging bones, gaunt faces, and dead eyes. Support groups for Thinspo are at an all-time high. Trying to reason with Thinspo enthusiasts seems to be a lost cause because their desire for stick-thin figures is so strong that they are willing to do anything to be “skinny”.

As Thinspo diets (or lack thereof) increase in popularity, women on the opposite spectrum of this craze have retaliated with the newer health craze “Fitspo.” Fitspo is a mixture of clean eating and exercise, basically the epitome of good health. The same process resides within this trend of circulating photos of women with rock hard abs, and women eating healthy foods to reinforce good and positive health habits.

The difference between the two trends is stark and challenges anyone who attempts to achieve skinniness and perfection. They are two extremes of different body types, both attempting to claim the title as “healthy” looking. Whether it be starvation or over-exercising can result in loss of body fat which will ultimately result in Amenorrhea in women, which is the body’s way of shutting down the reproductive system by stopping the production of estrogen until a healthier equilibrium of fat and health is achieved. The results and requirements of both Thinspo and Fitspo are at a pinnacle.

Whether you want to lose a few vanity pounds or an extreme amount of weight, doctors and health experts would agree that Thinspo is not the healthy route, and is dangerous when attempted. Eating sensibly, avoiding processed foods, and getting adequate exercise 3-5 days a week is the healthy alternative for anyone trying to lose weight and be healthier over all. Depriving your body of nourishment is not. Think smart, eat smart, and be healthy.

Yawning – What For?

Air is coming in, it’s coming in, it’s coming in. Now it’s in the highest of high stretching my fully expanded mouth. I closed my eyes, stretched my arms and exhaled air back out. Yaaaaawwnnn. Ah, that’s satisfying.

We’re told guesses on why we yawn. It is a response when the brain needs oxygen. People think that it preludes sleep. But contradictories dismissed them. We don’t yawn while we’re exercising – the time when oxygen use is expeditious. Singers yawn before taking the stage – which doesn’t sound like a drowsy person.

But yawning has an alerting effect. It keeps us wake and more responsive. And it just felt damn good.

It may cool our brain as it sends air towards our headspace. Albany researchers found that those with cold packs in their foreheads are less likely to yawn than those with warmer packs. Since our brains burns a third of our calorie intake, it’s hot enough. It needs some cooling mechanism and yawning is some sort of our ventilation.

Yaaaaaaaaawwwnnnn. That’s a long one, really passionate. Writing YAWN couple of times won’t keep my mouth closed.

Everybody yawns. A growing 11 weeks old fetus already knows how to yawn. 50% of those who’ve seen other people yawning did the same. Probability is higher when we have a closer relationship with the yawner, says University of Pisa’s Elisabetta Palagi. Even dogs yawn with their owners, says Lund University’s Elainie Madsen. Many called this an evidence of empathy.

An interesting theory thinks yawning is a threat. Since it opens the mouth and exposes the sharp teeth, it may be considered as an aggressive behavior among certain species. The alpha primates yawn more frequently than the beta population. The leader is thought to yawn first while the rest follows to keep them alert in the wild. Thus, yawn is associated with dominance.

Even more intriguing, yawning is claimed to be a sign of sexual attraction. I don’t know but perhaps these scientists are bored.

How many times did you yawn while reading this?

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