Naomi

The robotics article is fascinating! I just posted the happiness one in my journal, as well.

I've heard that tablets of eck-id-nay-cia (I can't spell it to save my life!) also help with oncoming colds. I don't know if it really works though.

Echinacea! It does seem to help, although I sometimes think it just postpones the cold for a week or so. There's some clinical evidence for it, not just old wives' tales.

My mom used to take echinacea regularly. I don't know if she still does, but I'll bet she has done a lot of interesting research on it. I'll have to ask her.

I've heard that it loses its efficacy if you take it too often.
Also that it works best before you really feel sick.
So I only take it when I'm getting that scratchy blotchy "about to get a cold" feeling.

Your thoughts on the happiness article were interesting.. especially the story about eliminating the genes for familial and societal kin bonds. I could also relate to the comment, "While gardening this weekend, I found that I enjoyed it more and more with the passing time (discovered wasp's hive, notwithstanding). I wonder if it would truly be possible to leave this technological frippery and not miss it at all. I wonder." The time I spent growing up on an isolated island are still the most contented and happiest years of my life. Sure, I longed for more friends my age, but life overall was more fulfilling and the connection to nature stronger. Technology has brought me a certain kind of happiness, but I think there needs to be a balance in everything - although that's not always easy to achieve.

I have friends who swear by echinacea (it's a toughie!). I'll have to try it sometime.

take 1 gram of vitamin C every couple of hours and echinacea & goldenseal if you can get them. this has worked for me a few times...

I haven't heard of goldenseal! What is it?

I'm feeling much better today so maybe my all-out-war worked. I hope I've kicked it and it doesn't sneak back. :)

it's a really awful-tasting herb that they sometimes throw in with echinacea tablets. when i worked at a natural foods store in austin, the folks in the vitamin department would always shove that down your throat when you were sick. it actually did some good, i think. just try not to taste it. :p

also, i like those packets of vitamin-C powder (called "energen-C" i think) that you can get at health food stores. they come in all sorts of flavors and actually taste good. i have literally no idea about their availability in the UK, tho. if you take a couple of those in a cup of water every two hours for a day, not only will you be more alert than you've ever been in your life, you'll kick *any* cold's butt! at least that's been my experience.

KPH is really into eating what's in season as well. it's something i'd never thought too much about before, but it just makes sense that it would be best for your body to eat what's ripest during a particular season.

I'm coming down with yet another cold, so I'll have to hunt some of this goldenseal down. My mom was telling me that elderberry extract is also very good for colds, have you heard anything about that?

Seasonality is something I'm really trying to incorporate into my life. It does make a huge difference in taste and quality of the food, plus I'd much rather eat local produce instead of something that's been shipped around the world.

oooh:)

i was just talking about sounds that aren't audible to the human ear with my co-workers. i wonder if i could get away w/ a whole radio show of that stuff?

You might get complaints from people thinking you've somehow possessed them with your music. ;) I think it wold be interesting to take part in one of those experiments, it seems that only certain people feel any effect at all.

Interesting! But what the article (about belief in God) strangely doesn't say (though it is perhaps obvious) is that, if 45% of US scientists are atheists and a further 15% agnostic, those figures are very much higher than the proportions of the US population as a whole with those views.

molecules of life come in waves

that's interesting... the possibility of biological molecules showing the wave/particle duality thing... don't know that might mean, apart from the possibility that they might be able to interfere (in the technical sense) with each other. weird.

ooh, nice links...in fact, i was just reading up on infrasound yesterday! amazing theory.

Hope you get well soon - I'm also not sure about the vitamin C thing, but I once had a massage therapist who recommended to me that I take one of those big fizzy soluble vitamin C tablets per half-hour in a half a pint of water until I started feeling better, and it seemed to work for me in a few hours - could equally well be that drinking so much fluid flushed the badness out, or just placebo effect from trying something new. In any case, I'd recommend drinking as much as possible - I also often try variations on the "Jamaican cold remedy" - basically throwing everything that might possibly help the immune system into a mug of hot water (although I usually tend to miss out the rum and sensimilla from the original) - including ginger, lemon, honey and (gak) garlic cloves - yeah, doesn't half screw your breath up, but such asceticism doesn't half feel good.

Thanks for the links - wish I had time to browse them all myself, the scientists & god one made me angry, but the BBC food in season brought me back down to earth. It's something that's been on my mind a lot lately (in particular, I think, because it's something I've ignored for far too many years). Picked loads of blackberries on our holidays, so we've been in blackberry heaven for a couple of weeks, and our local shop has the most luscious figs (and muscat grapes, also in season) imaginable. Mmmm.

I'm feeling much better today. I made an extra spicy (3 heaping tablespoons of red curry paste), garlicky, and gingery malaysian laska last night and it seems to have blasted the cold right out of my head! Seriously though, I think that and all the stuff I took yesterday really did help. I was taking those fizzy vitamin c tablets as well.. it was kind of the Jamaican cold remedy paced throughout the day. Although honey and garlic together? "Gak" is right.

What made you angry about the scientists and god article? I don't necessarily agree with everything in it, but I don't know your religious stance so I'm curious.

mmm fresh blackberries! They are my favorite berry (loganberries are my second). I used to be so in tune with what was in season when we lived on the island. We would make fresh blackberry ice cream and jam in autumn. It's so wonderful getting fresh local ingredients in season, I do it whenever possible. It's also fun discovering what's seasonally available in Britain.

Well, I have to admit I scanned the scientists & god article rather than read it - but as a devout atheist (just been listening to "The Salmon of Doubt" by Douglas Adams - in one passage of the book he calls himself a "radical atheist" for the same reason that I've always [or for the last 12 years] called myself a "devout atheist" - for the avoidance of doubt and "don't you mean agnostic" questions... interesting, Adams also boasts about his pride at his initials being DNA and being born in Cambridge at around the time that Crick and Watson discovered DNA - well, I was born at the wrong place and wrong-ish time [though 1969 was about when the Internet originated, right?] but am similarly tickled by my initials being DNS)

Anyway... where was I... oh yeah, I wasn't so much angry, more depressed that such a high percentage of scientists, who really ought to know better, profess a belief in God. My point of view is essentially that of Richard Dawkins at the end of the article (although sometimes I find Dawkins a little devout even for me - but his book "The Blind Watchmaker" was what really turned me on to evolution, just as it did for DNA) - just because there are things that are beyond the scope of science to talk about, doesn't mean that we should ask a priest about them any more than we should ask a janitor or a car salesman.

I've been getting very into food in season this year - our friend who we were holidaying with bought Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's River Cottage Yearbook, which is an excellent source of seasonal recipes and tips. I've also been really excited about "food for free" ever since finding a wood full of water mint when I was in the New Forest a month ago. I'm hoping to sign up for evening classes in Mushroom and Toadstool identification this term, as I have great memories of hunting for mushrooms in Switzerland when I was eight (in fact, we got so much food from the wild in Switzerland - the wild strawberries are possibly the most delicious childhood taste that has stayed with me all my life, and the bilberries [blueberries] with which we made heitisturm were also gorgeous).

(sorry, blast from the past!)

I didn't expect that you'd be a "devout atheist" for some reason, but then I'm not sure what I expected. It sounds flaky, but I'm agnostic with more atheist leanings by the day. I don't believe in god, but I hold on to a thin thread of agnosticism because I believe there's always the possibility that everything we seem to think is truth may be wrong.

just because there are things that are beyond the scope of science to talk about, doesn't mean that we should ask a priest about them any more than we should ask a janitor or a car salesman.

I agree with this completely. I may be showing my ignorance (or age) but I believe that science can explain everything, but it hasn't evolved enough yet to explain everything. Many people seem to think science has the world sussed, but even now in physics, astronomy, etc. scientists have had to doubt and rethink what they thought they knew to be fact.

You have great geeky initials - I'm jealous! :)

I've also been really excited about "food for free" ever since finding a wood full of water mint when I was in the New Forest a month ago.

I love foraging for food! We used to pick wild blackberries, strawberries, salmon berries, nettles, seaweed, mussels, limpits, clams and so on when we lived on the island. There were plenty of mushrooms, but being so isolated we never took any chances with them. I find it strange how few people in America forage, with such an abundance. It seems like a part of everyday life for many Europeans.

Max's parents often go mushroom hunting in the New Forest, they said that restaurants sometimes illegally take huge amounts of mushrooms (and sometimes deer) from there.

Well, to be honest (and I think this is something explained far better) I _am_ an agnostic and that's because, to be a devout (/radical) atheist you have to allow for the possibility of divine creation, but at the same time realise that it is just the most gob-smackingly improbable and requires such liberties with the up-until-now-perfectly-servicable laws of physics that we can safely discount that explanation of things.

I never made it to the mushroom class :-( oh well, next year...

oh haha, leave it to me to completely misunderstand your point. :)

Oops, I just noticed "(and I think this is something explained far better)" should read "(and I think this is something Douglas Adams explained far better)"

More Douglas Adams and God... I have a tape somewhere, called The Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in which Douglas Adams talks about scientists and God - he mentions that quite a lot of physicists seem to have "got" religion, especially lately, whereas among biologists almost all are atheists. He offers the explanation that theoretical physicists, who are used to dealing with incomprehensible concepts on a daily basis, have little problem throwing another seemingly illogical set of beliefs into the mix, whereas biologists work with real life in a much more down-to-earth way, and so have a much better understanding of where it's all likely to have come from.

I need to read The Salmon of Doubt, it's been on my reading list for ages. I'd be interested to hear that audiobook too, another thing for the wish list. That's really interesting about biologists vs. theoretical physicists.

Biology makes me think of my father. He is definitely religious (he's studied Buddhism for the last few years) and once about 5 years ago we were watching a documentary on heart surgery. He becomes very squeamish at anything dealing with internal biology and he said to me, "I don't like watching things like this because it ruins the mystery." Whereas I find evolution creating these amazing and complicated machines that are our bodies beautiful. I find more comfort, awe, and beauty in science than I do in the idea of a divine creator. (But then I'm preaching to the atheist choir here, aren't I? :)

Strangely enough my first introduction to biology was my father's Gray's Anatomy book, which I used to read from the age of 5.

I'll try to remember to digitise the audio book next time I see it - I have the tape player still hooked up to my computer since ripping a couple of tapes a year or more ago - really ought to do more of that.

Talk of your father and biology reminded me of some of Gael's writing - only I got it mixed up. The biological frenzy I was thinking of was this page. I thought it contained some of the sentiments in this page which is where I guess I was first aware of your existence :-) and I remember it well because I read it when Rowan was about one year old, and it made me think a lot about parenthood and feel very determined to try and be as open-minded and... everything... that Gael described. I guess I mixed it up with the rope because I get excited about things like looking for life on a rope with my kids.

I remember you mentioning the Gray's Anatomy before (in fact, I think I mailed you about my copy, from my Grandma) - didn't you end up with the book?

Buddhism... well, I profess not to know as much about it as I ought. But from what I've been indoctrinated by lecturing scientists, Zen Buddhism is quite compatible and in deed very in tune with the kind of theories of consciousness that I subscribe to. We like Buddhism :-) I've been going to meditation sessions at the local Buddhist centre on and off for the last six months, although I'm really in for the meditation rather than the Buddhism. Funnily enough, I've got the TV on in the background with the BBC2 Everyman study of whether meditation works.

I'm so glad those old pages are still up, although I get slightly emotional and somewhat melancholy re-reading them. That's interesting you could relate so well with what Gael wrote, I suppose any parent would. I think my dad and Gael-mom were/are remarkably good at keeping open-minded with me and I always felt I could trust them and go to them with anything. I was such a good girl, all I needed was the fear of my parents being disappointed in me to deter me from getting into trouble.

I think I did mention Gray's Anatomy before, when I wrote about my dad letting me choose what I wanted from his old art books. I wish I had it here with me, but hopefully I'll be able to afford to ship all my books over someday.

I like Buddhism too. My biological-mom (sounds like some kind of superhero) used to take me to the local Buddhist temple in Seattle when I was a child, although the main things I remember from that was the incense and the neopolitan wafer cookies. ;)

ok, I just spent an hour listening to accents!

my scientific question is, when you converse someone with an accent, why do you start slightly imitating them? I know plenty of people this happens to. so why do I slightly imitate an english person's accent when I speak to them... andthe real question is, is the english person slightly imitating my accent? do we imitate each other in a subconcious effort to be more more understood?

I think I have managed to confuse myself. do you know what I am talking about?

I've listened to nearly every accent on the site - it's addictive! I can identify many of the huge variety of British accents now. I find it really fascinating how many there are, especially coming from the states where accents are less varied.

I know exactly what you mean.. sometimes I'm embarrassed by how easily swayed I am when it comes to my accent. Why does life-long learning and conditioning suddenly crumble when confronted with a different accent? I've thought about this before, and I think you're right that it has to do with wanting to be better understood, to conform, and be accepted. I find when living here and dealing with people on a daily basis it's much quicker and easier to adopt a slight accent instead of people giving me strange looks or misunderstanding me, so eventually it becomes a way of life.

Since dating and living together Max and I have developed somewhat of a "mid-atlantic" accent. I often get asked if I'm Irish, funnily enough, and people sometimes ask him if he's Australian - because they can't place our accents.

I've noticed that when my mum is talking to my grandparents, she partially regains her Yorkshire accent.

I remember learning about this at University in first-year Psychology, there is a term for it, I think Social Convergance or something like that. It's basically a way of trying to ingratiate yourself with somebody, to emphasise your similarities. I notice this really strongly in myself when I return to London, my London accent returns to me in spades ("know wot I mean mate").

The opposite effect also happens sometimes, when we want to emphasise our difference or uniqueness, to get noticed or sometimes to distance ourselves from another group of people, so when I visited the USA I also remember playing up the Englishness of my accent.

And another more noticeable example - my daughter spent the first three years of her life living in London, now lives in Sheffield. She has a mainly South-Yorkshire accent, albeit not a very thick one, but when she sees her old London friends she soon manages to slip in a little Estuary English. And last year we went camping with some friends from Exeter including a girl a few years older than her who she was very fond of. By the time we returned, there was a noticeable Devon twang in her voice, which still returns from time to time when she's in a certain mood.

I'm hoping she'll grow up to be a good impressionist :)

That's funny, kids do seem more impressionable when it comes to accents. I can't get over the fact that if Max and I have children that they'll probably have English accents!

That makes sense. I've found that people react to me differently due to the sound of my accent. I seemed to be more impressionable when I was younger, so my accent had more of an English lilt to it when I lived in London at age 19. People would constantly ask me if I was Irish because they knew my accent didn't sound English, but it didn't sound American either. They seemed friendlier and more receptive to me when they thought I might be Irish.

When I returned to the states last time I was constantly asked, "Do you have an accent yet?" and when I'd reply in a Northwest American accent, "No." they'd seem disappointed. I've noticed a change in the way I spell and say some words, but I haven't changed as much overall this time around. I can almost feel myself holding onto my American accent, as a way of holding onto home.

I can now differentiate between most English accents. Often when talking to people or when watching tv I'll ask Max, "Is that accent Liverpudlian, Newcastle, Hull, Oxford, etc?" and usually I'm right. I can also spot easily when someone is putting on an English accent, which is why I've never ever attempted it myself. It is painfully obvious when people put it on, no matter how good they think it is (although I think that goes for most people attempting to put on any accent).

Yes, don't every try to put on an accent and end up stranded in the middle of the Atlantic like Lloyd Grossman ;-)

Where on earth is he from anyway?

I think New England somewhere, but has been in the UK a long time and... well, you can hear the result. Let that be a warning to you! :-D

That is really scary. If I developed an accent like Lloyd's I think I'd have to resort to sign language.